Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Wang Qian and Li Kun left the pet shop together. The dusk in early winter was quite chilly, with the sun going down around the horizon.

  Li Kun put his hands close to his mouth to warm them with his warm breath, then tucked them back into his pockets. He looked at the setting sun in the west, tilted his head and said to Wang Qian, “Tricks! Master is definitely playing tricks!”


  As his best friend, Wang Qian read his mind easily and he agreed, “Getting a cold is Master’s pretense. His enemies will assume he’s weak right now and try to attack him, but Master will beat them up easily!”


  They looked at each other, smiled, and admired their cleverness.

  “Come on, we should go back to school, there are classes after dinner,” complained Wang Qian. “I mean, we are prestigious immortality cultivators, and going to class is not cool at all…”


  “Right… That’s why people say it’s a painstaking course to cultivate immortality. Master must be using this task to test our willpowers.”


  They walked slowly towards Binhai University while imagining their bright futures of when they had become immortals and mastered all kinds of great abilities. Binhai University was not far from the Amazing Fate Pet Shop, so they decided to walk back to school to save some bus fares—which usually cost 1 RMB, but heating was provided on the buses during winter, so the fares had increased to 2 RMB per person. If they could save 4 RMB every day, they would become very rich one day!

  Wang Qian and Li Kun were indeed gradually influenced by Zhang Zian, especially in the aspect of being stingy…


  They didn’t care about the strange looks cast by the passersby, but kept talking loudly about the path towards immortality. They wondered if there was only one arduous path towards success or if there were various shortcuts.

  Just then, a group of pupils wearing backpacks walked towards them.

  There were seven pupils in total, four boys and three girls. Apparently, they were divided into two subgroups, boys and girls, and there were about two meters between them with a hostile atmosphere.

  Among the four boys, one little boy talked in the loudest voice and was the most eye-catching one. He kept kicking the small rocks and empty cans down the street. If there was nothing to be kicked, he would stomp on the fallen leaves. Several times, the small rocks he kicked almost hit the passersby and the vehicles on the street.

  The other three boys were obviously his sidekicks, who kept praising his behaviors.

  Some pedestrians were really angry about such dangerous behaviors. But seeing that the perpetrators were some naughty brats, they knew it was fruitless to criticize them, so they just shook their heads and walked away. Nowadays, kids were spoiled by their parents, and if things didn’t go their way, they would just scream and cry. What if their parents were nearby and saw their children crying? They would think the adults were bullying the kids!

  The tolerance and avoidance of the adults made Yi Le became more flagrant. He grimaced towards the girls and yelled, “Cai Xiaoqin, where’s the pet shop you talked about? How long until we get there? I need to go home to play the Arena of Valor, I have no time to wander around with you. Just admit you have lied, there’s nothing to be ashamed of! I will forgive you because I am generous, and you are beautiful.’”


  Little Celery was in the center of the three girls. She stuck out her head, frowned and pointed forwards, “I didn’t lie. We are almost there—the pets in that pet shop really can speak!”


  “Hmph! I don’t believe you! ‘If you want to be a villain, you should prepare for your tragic ending.’” Yi Le pouted and made signals towards other three little boys. They started booing Little Celery and said some awful things about her, calling her a liar and a snitch who reported her classmates to the teachers while pretending to be a good student.

  Little Celery was on the brink of crying because of the grievances she was suffering. The other two girls were close to her, but they didn’t believe what Little Celery said either.

  Yi Le observed that no one was on Little Celery’s side and then he continued, “‘Sadness isn’t the reason for crying, stupidity is.’ As long as you tell the teacher that you don’t want to play the show of pet shop in a wonderland but want to be a Cosplay character in the Arena of Valor, I will stop calling you juvenile. Perhaps if I’m happy, I will give you the chance to play Daji.”


  The other three boys agreed, “You’ll regret it when it’s too late.”


  “I’m not crying, and I’m not Daji.” Little Celery struggled to hold back her tears. She heard that Daji was a bad woman and she argued with the boys.

  “You are Daji!”


  “You look just like Daji! Guys, look at her two little braids, don’t they look just like Daji’s fox ears?”


  “Yes! Totally!”


  Little Celery couldn’t win this fight alone against four boys. She touched her braids in grievance and wasn’t able to speak another word.

  Another girl stood up for Little Celery, “Stop bullying her!”


  “Bullying? No.” Yi Le stared at her fiercely, “What about when she reported us? Wasn’t she bullying us? Sometimes, if you want to survive, you have to combat poison with poison. From my perspective, I am the good guy.”


  The girl was too scared to speak anymore.

  Another girl inquired Little Celery with confusion, “Little Celery, why are these boys talking so strangely?”


  Little Celery also shook her head in confusion, “I don’t know. I think they have been talking like this since they mentioned cosplaying the Arena of Valor at the school founding anniversary, and there were a lot of words that I didn’t understand…”


  The two girls pulled Little Celery further away from the boys, lowered their heads and said embarrassingly, “Little Celery, please don’t blame us. They look so fierce, and we are too scared to provoke them…”


  “Yes, and Yi Le’s mother is very fierce, too. Last time, when my mother came back from the parent-teacher conference, she told me that I should stay away from Yi Le because his mother would do anything to protect her son, no matter who was right or wrong…” said another girl in her mother’s tone.

  Little Celery tightly bit her lips. She felt terrible that her friends didn’t help her out… But she was a strong kid, and her mother had been telling her to unite her classmates. So, she held their hands and smiled, “It’s okay, because I didn’t tell lies. And soon you will see that what I said is true.”


  …


  When this group of pupils walked past them, Wang Qian elbowed Li Kun and said, “Look at these pupils who already have teenage syndromes. They are even quoting the lines from the Arena of Valor. ”


  Li Kun agreed with him and deplored them, “So young, yet so stupid. It’s necessary to prevent kids from getting addicted to games! Someone must limit their times in playing games! Otherwise, this country is doomed.”


  “Too late! In my opinion, these kids are hopeless!” signed Wang Qian

  “By the way…” Li Kun turned around and looked at them, “The pet shop that they mentioned, could it be the pet shop of our Master?”


  Wang Qian also stopped. Their Master’s pet shop was the only one around this neighborhood…


  “You just reminded me, the little girl that walked in the center, I think I have met her in Master’s pet shop before. It seems like she has been bullied,” he said.

  Li Kun thought for a moment and said, “Yep. Wait a moment. I need to text Master so that he can prepare for this.”