NOVEL NEXT Chapter 85 - Freshmen
From her appearance alone, Instructor Lan of the Art Department was a graceful and beautiful middle-aged woman.
However, she made Mai Dongzi deeply realize that even in the interstellar era, men still had to adhere to the principle of “good men don’t fight with women.” When it comes to verbal skills, women, if they are determined, can easily outmatch men.
Especially since Mai Dongzi was a female student and Instructor Lan was a female instructor, Lan could gracefully lead Mai Dongzi away, making any extended reach of the Command Department instructor useless.
After leaving Instructor Fang, Instructor Lan resumed her previous elegance and smiled at Mai Dongzi, saying, “I imagine you must be very interested in Sound Therapy. Our department head has heard the piece you played and said you have a remarkable talent in this area. With your talent and cultivation, you’ll definitely excel in it.”
“I hope to become the second General Jiang Yihai,” Mai Dongzi said.
General Jiang Yihai was a renowned female general from the 7th century of the Stellar Era. Although her mental abilities were only at level eight, her sound-based attacks made her enemies tremble with fear.
In the history of the Blue-Black Empire, she is the only one known for her sound-based attacks. Mai Dongzi found only this one person in her search on the star network and decided to set her goal on becoming like her, which made her seem very ambitious.
“Our department head, Professor Wen, is actually a descendant of General Jiang Yihai,” Instructor Lan said with a smile.
Mai Dongzi’s eyes widened, realizing that she might have the chance to learn General Jiang’s unique skills.
With this small incident, the atmosphere between Mai Dongzi and Instructor Lan improved, making the instructors from the Command Department who came over a bit envious.
At this moment, the half-hour mark had arrived, and the announcement in the waiting hall instructed the new students to proceed to the dock.
Instructor Lan patted Mai Dongzi on the shoulder, wished her good luck, and then returned to her original position.
From her demeanor, it was clear that she had no concerns about Mai Dongzi swimming to the university island.
After all, in terms of cultivation, Instructor Lan was not even higher than Mai Dongzi, let alone the majority of new students who were at level four of cultivation.
The sight of thousands of people jumping into the sea like falling dumplings was quite spectacular. Fortunately, the harbor was large enough, and there was no need to rush. After all, their swimming time started from the moment they entered the water, not from who reached the island first.
Under these circumstances, Mai Dongzi naturally didn’t rush and simply followed the flow of people towards the dock.
Earlier, because several instructors wanted her to switch departments, all the new students in the waiting hall had noticed Mai Dongzi.
Now, as Mai Dongzi walked out of the dock among the new students, she could feel the curious and gossiping gazes directed at her, with faint discussions about the fake daughter. It seemed she had really become a celebrity.
At this moment, Mai Dongzi spotted Erica.
Erica was accompanied by two companions who were clearly new students. The three of them had grim faces, as if they had been scammed out of several million.
Not only had Mai Dongzi never interacted directly with Erica, but even Lucy had not. Lucy had a poor impression of Erica, and Mai Dongzi’s was even worse.
Mai Dongzi’s arrival had completely dismantled Zhao Fanni’s scheme that had been in place for seventeen years, delivering a heavy blow to her face and putting Erica, the genuine daughter, in an awkward position.
All the new students knew about Maidongzi, the fake daughter, but they didn’t recognize Erica, the real daughter. Otherwise, the scene would have been quite a battlefield!
In this scenario, whether it was the genuine or fake daughter who felt awkward, the roles seemed reversed—where the genuine one was awkward and the fake one was not.
If the distance weren’t so far, Mai Dongzi wouldn’t have minded drawing more attention; otherwise, she might have greeted Erica to let everyone know who the real daughter was.
Although she still hadn’t received any information from the security team, it was clear that they hadn’t managed to intercept the unidentified cloud-piercing ship.
Even without evidence, Mai Dongzi knew that the hijacking incident she encountered on the road today was definitely related to Zhao Fanni.
Therefore, Mai Dongzi didn’t mind making Erica uncomfortable. She wasn’t a saint, and since she hadn’t yet had the chance to take revenge on Zhao Fanni, making her daughter’s life difficult was a satisfying way to vent.
Perhaps Mai Dongzi’s gaze was too imposing; Erica, feeling the pressure, looked up and her expression changed when she realized it was Mai Dongzi looking at her.
A faint smile curved at the corners of Mai Dongzi’s lips, which made Erica’s expression darken even more.
This caused Mai Dongzi’s light smile to turn into one of amusement. If Erica had been unaware of the true and false daughter situation or if she had a genuinely pure nature, her reaction to Maidongzi should have been either one of shame or avoidance.
But instead, Erica’s face was tense, and there was a subtle anger in her gaze toward Mai Dongzi.
What did this signify? It meant that regardless of whether Erica knew about the true and false daughter issue before, she had now chosen to side with her parents and view Mai Dongzi as an enemy.
At this point, Erica’s two companions also noticed something off about her. Following her gaze towards Mai Dongzi, they looked at Mai Dongzi with curiosity. Mai Dongzi gave the two of them a faint glance before turning and walking away.
Erica was fine, but her two companions were visibly unsettled. While Mai Dongzi appeared to merely glance at them, she was actually using her mental power.
The two were only Level 4 practitioners, and Mai Dongzi’s Level 6 mental power was enough to pressure them into submission.
However, due to the no-fighting rule at Imperial Capital University, and even though this was not directly on campus, it was still considered part of the university’s territory. Therefore, Mai Dongzi withdrew her mental power immediately.
While the two of them felt the pressure and were deeply shaken, the others did not sense anything unusual. This was enough to make them feel anxious.
As they would all be freshmen at Imperial Capital University…
Mai Dongzi remembered that although the university forbade physical fights among students, there were rules allowing students to challenge each other and compete on designated arenas. She thought that occasionally taking out some frustration on a “punching bag” might be quite refreshing.
Mai Dongzi reached the dock, where three girls awkwardly approached her. The one in front said, “Hello, Mai Dongzi. We’re all freshmen in the Art Department.”
The three pretty girls smiled at her with curiosity and friendliness, so Mai Dongzi responded with a smile of her own.
“Do your best and show those Battle and Abilities Department people that our Art Department isn’t just a bunch of pushovers,” said another girl, clenching her fist.
Among the three, only the first girl who spoke was a Level 3 practitioner; the other two were Level 2 practitioners.
As a less mainstream department at Imperial Capital University, it was common for the Art Department to be looked down upon by students from more popular departments.
However, as humans, people generally have a fighting spirit even over small matters. It’s likely that when these three girls heard that Mai Dongzi, the strongest new student, would stay in the Art Department, they wanted to show their own determination.
Mai Dongzi smiled at the three girls and said, “I’ll make sure to get the job done!”