Chapter 111: Two Unexpected Guests
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
As the bell rang, Su Han, who was dressed in a s.h.i.+rt and a short skirt, walked into the cla.s.sroom. The highlight of her appearance today was her wedge sandals which were decorated with colorful flowers. They accentuated her tall and willowy figure casually and won the admirations of both girls and guys.
Although Su Han rarely showed her face on campus, Hao Ren knew some girls in the school were studying Su Han’s style and had copied some of the elements. Among them, the most popular girl in the school, Lin Li, was the most successful copycat.
In the eyes of the guys, Su Han herself was even more beautiful than her clothes. They liked to savor each of her glances and steps.
The two-hour cla.s.s seemed to pa.s.s in the blink of an eye. Before they knew it, she was out of the cla.s.sroom.
Zhou Liren rubbed his hands together and leaned his face toward Hao Ren. “Dear Ren! Since you are close with Su Han, why not ask her out for dinner? I can’t bear it anymore. She was so beautiful today when I watched her at such a close range!”
“Dinner…” Zhou Liren reminded Hao Ren.
“Do you know any good restaurants around here?” Hao Ren asked him.
“Of course! Aroma Pavilion is a new restaurant on the second floor of the Hongji Square. It features spicy dishes, and the environment is great. Though it only has VIP compartments and is a bit pricey.”
“Got it.” Hao Ren nodded, wondering if he should invite Su Han to dinner sometime. After all, she did him many favors, and he hasn’t had a chance to show his grat.i.tude.
“Are you going to invite Su Han to dinner?” Zhao Jiayi joined the conversation.
Hao Ren waved his hand and said, “Don’t listen to Zhou Liren. I’m just curious.”
Su Han was immortal, and treating her to a mortal meal would be beneath her. However, if he gave her a Dharma treasure as a gift, it would look like bribery. Hao Ren weighed his options while walking out of the cla.s.sroom.
“We have no cla.s.s this afternoon. I’m heading to the stadium to practice!” Zhao Jiayi said as he tossed his books to Zhou Liren,
“d.a.m.n! You are crazy about basketball!” Zhou Liren yelled after Zhao Jiayi who had already dashed away.
Hao Ren felt resigned, too. He had not expected Zhao Jiayi to work so hard after entering the Basketball Team.
After returning to the dorm, some students took a nap while others began to play cards. Hao Ren took out his cell phone and sent a text message to Su Han after a moment of consideration.
“I’d like to invite you to dinner tonight to celebrate my breakthrough to the third level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll and to show my grat.i.tude for your tutoring. What do you think of Aroma Pavilion at the Hongji Square? It features spicy dishes. I wonder if they are to your taste.”
With a palpitating heart, Hao Ren sent the message but didn’t expect Su Han to reply; at least he showed his grat.i.tude with this message.
Beep! To his surprise, Su Hun answered the message a couple of minutes later.
His heart beat faster when he saw Su Han’s name on his screen. He opened the message and looked at her reply.
“Ok. When?”
Boom! Hao Ren felt as if a lightning bolt struck his brain.
He scrambled to send a reply, “How about six o’clock tonight? We can meet at Aroma Pavilion.”
“Ok,” Su Han replied in her message.
Hao Ren heaved a sigh of relief. Tossing the phone aside, he collapsed in his bed.
A thought occurred to him, and he picked up his cell phone and sent a message to Zhao Yanzi.
“I’ll have dinner with Su Han tonight. Will you join us?”
“No! I have loads of homework today!” Zhao Yanzi replied immediately, though not too politely.
“She replied so soon. She must be playing with her cell phone in cla.s.s…” Hao Ren thought after tossing his phone aside.
Sending Zhao Yanzi a message to tell her about his dinner with a female; it felt like he was really in a relations.h.i.+p. Hao Ren smiled self-mockingly, wondering when he had become such a ‘family man’.
Soon, his thoughts turned to the moment when his gaze met Xie Yujia’s; she had looked at him quite weird. He touched his face and wondered if he had indeed changed a lot after the breakthrough of the Spirit Concentration Scroll.
“To think of it… It felt so good after breaking through the third level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll!”
He tried to circulate the Nature Essence in his body and released it at the curtain on the sliding door to the balcony.
Swoos.h.!.+ The curtain swayed as if someone was pulling at it.
Hao Ren was exhilarated, but he knew it was a crude way to use the Nature Essence, and it contained little force. Only after cultivating a more advanced technique would he truly master the use of Nature Essence.
Red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue and purple. Hao Ren remembered the dizzy feeling he got when he first visited the Profound Cultivation Palace. Now, he wondered what grade of techniques he was fit to cultivate.
He would be thrilled if he could get the Green-Grade techniques…
“Ren! What are you chuckling about? Get down and play cards!” Zhou Liren stood at the door of the dorm and asked Hao Ren.
“Can’t join you. I need some sleep!” Hao Ren turned to the wall. Now that all his acupoints were unblocked, he felt extremely good as if he was an ancient martial arts master who had just reached the Connate Realm.
“Ren, are you really going out with Xie Yujia? I found the glances between you two quite suspicious,” Zhou Liren asked again.
Upon hearing the question, Cao Ronghua’s interest was piqued, and he also waited for the answer.
“No. You’re imagining things. She is just my basketball coach,” Hao Ren answered lazily.
Hao Ren had been feeling uncertain, but he was now quite sure about his relations.h.i.+p with Xie Yujia.
The more time you spend with someone, the more you would know about his or her thoughts. Xie Yujia was good to everyone in the cla.s.s, but she had never been intimate with any of the guys. After spending some time with her, Hao Ren found her to be a sincere and straightforward girl. When she wiped his mouth this morning, she was just doing a favor for a good friend. There was nothing else in that gesture.
“A girl who loves sports and has a simple mind. Maybe I have become one of her good friends without knowing it. She is an innocent and kind girl. A worthy friend.”
But it would be difficult to push the boundary of good friends; Hao Ren had a feeling that Xie Yujia had someone in her heart. He was on good terms with her, but he was not the one in her heart.
“That someone is certainly not Huang Xujie. Who is he? Some das.h.i.+ng guy she met in high school?”
Hao Ren stopped these meaningless speculations. He picked up his cell phone and thought of texting Zhao Yanzi. However, he decided against it for the fear of distracting her from her cla.s.s.
Bored, Hao Ren went to sleep and didn’t wake up until the evening.
Seeing the time drawing near six o’clock, Hao Ren put on his socks and shoes before jumping down from his upper berth. Ignoring the card players in the dorm, he hurried to the Hongji Square.
The moment he entered Aroma Pavilion, his cell phone received Su Han’s text, “Mount Hua.”
“She has sensed my arrival.” Hao Ren looked up and found the compartment with the label of “Mount Hua”. He pushed the door open and went in.
The compartment was decorated and had a vintage feel, and Su Han was already inside waiting for him. With her hair coiled in a bun and a red traditional Chinese dress on her, she looked like a beauty that had just walked out from an ancient painting, entirely different from the fas.h.i.+onable instructor in the morning. Although Hao Ren had braced himself for her beauty, he was stunned while still standing at the door.
She nodded toward the seat across her, and Hao Ren walked over and sat down uneasily. After all, it was the first time he had a meal with Su Han.
“The dinner is on me to celebrate your breakthrough.” Su Han turned to look at the waitress in the room. “You may serve now.”
The waitress looked at Su Han, apparently stunned by her beauty. She froze for a moment before backing out of the room.
Looking away from Su Han’s stunningly beautiful face, Hao Ren glanced around the compartment. Red wooden grille windows, black artificial rock tile floor, artificial antique furniture, and lanterns that were hanging in the corners… All these gave off the feel of an ancient town.
After a while, Hao Ren turned his gaze back and suggested, “The dinner is on me.”
Su Han didn’t argue. Instead, she asked, “Have you been close with Xie Yujia recently?”
Xie Yujia was an excellent student and one of the few girls in the cla.s.s. Su Han naturally knew her.
“I’m preparing for a basketball match next week. She is my basketball coach.”
“Ok.” Su Han didn’t pursue the topic. Instead, she asked him another question, “The last time you visited the Dragon Palace, you released two sisters from the Cold Palace, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. Is it a big deal?” Hao Ren asked. He had almost forgotten about it, and now he was a bit nervous since Su Han, the Inspector, mentioned it.
“Premier Xia of East Ocean sent a message to the Above Realm but received no reply. So, he released them,” Su Han said.
“Ok.” Hao Ren nodded, thinking of the pretty faces of the sisters.
“Do you realize what you have done?” Su Han continued to ask.
“What have I done?” Hao Ren was confused.
“They were released from the Cold Palace. Since Dragon Palace is not their home and they can’t return to the Above Realm, where do you think they will go?” Su Han asked.
Hao Ren was even more confused. “Where will they go?”
Su Han sighed in exasperation. “To you.”
“To… me?” Hao Ren almost dropped the cup in his hand.
Su Han glanced at him and said, “Lu Qing is handling it. He has arranged for them to live temporarily at his place. So, in the future, you must think twice before making any decisions.”
“But we can’t lock them up forever. According to Premier Xia, they didn’t commit any serious crimes,” Hao Ren argued.
“Sometimes, good intentions bring bad results,” Su Han lectured.
“It seems that Su Han is not here to have dinner with me. She just wants to question me in a different place.” Hao Ren mused to himself sulkily.
“Do you know what realms they are in?” Su Han asked him abruptly.