NOVEL NEXT Chapter 90 - Scheming
When Princess Mary walked over earlier, although Lan Ruonan was the first to step forward and greet Princess Mary, her attitude towards Princess Mary wasn’t very respectful, and she showed clear disdain for the girl with the surname Bai.
Just now, when Mai Dongzi was confronting Princess Mary and the Bai-surnamed girl, Lan Ruonan, who had previously seemed to smile insincerely at her, didn’t speak but positioned herself behind Mai Dongzi, which subtly indicated her support.
That’s why Mai Dongzi turned to ask Lan Ruonan.
However, upon seeing Lan Ruonan’s strange expression and the other two boys looking at her with surprise, Mai Dongzi realized there was something unusual.
Mai Dongzi then remembered that when she had previously faced these three, she had been acting with an innocent and naive demeanor. No wonder they were so surprised; it was understandable given her outward appearance.
Seeing Mai Dongzi ask her a question, Lan Ruonan’s dislike and subtle disdain for her vanished. Instead, she spoke with a hint of excitement, saying, “Oh, that’s Bai Zhizhi, a sophomore in our Command Department. Junior, you’re so bold; Bai Zhizhi’s expression was truly something.”
Lan Ruonan continued with increasing enthusiasm, “You don’t know, that woman always bullies others relying on Princess Mary’s influence. Many girls in our Command Department feel genuinely oppressed. It’s a pity we can’t beat her; otherwise, we’d challenge her frequently.”
So, Lan Ruonan’s change in attitude was due to the fact that the enemy of her enemy is her friend. Moreover, Lan Ruonan implied that she wanted Mai Dongzi to frequently challenge and beat Bai Zhizhi under the guise of competition.
Mai Dongzi was not a belligerent person. Her harsh response to Princess Mary and Bai Zhizhi earlier was out of immediate retaliation, so she was unlikely to heed Lan Ruonan’s provocative suggestions.
So, Mai Dongzi smiled and said nothing. Lan Ruonan, being smart, noticed that her provocation had likely been seen through by Mai Dongzi, so she changed the topic and started talking about other things.
Regarding the argument between her and Princess Mary at the Command Department’s entrance, Mai Dongzi wasn’t sure if Instructor Fang and the others were aware of it.
Anyway, when she entered the Command Department’s administrative office, both Instructor Fang and the Command Department’s chief instructor, Joe Hill, were very friendly towards her.
They enthusiastically expressed their hope that she would major in the Command Department and listed various preferential conditions and benefits.
However, upon realizing that Mai Dongzi was a determined person and that the people from the Art Department had already cleverly persuaded her to complete the registration process, the two instructors reluctantly stopped their recruitment efforts and shifted the discussion to other conditions.
For example, they hoped she could spend more time studying in the Command Department, and during the major student competitions, she could join the Command Department’s team events, among other requests.
Since Mai Dongzi had just started school and was still unfamiliar with everything, she naturally couldn’t agree to all of these demands immediately.
While Mai Dongzi was handling the two instructors, Princess Mary, fuming with anger, arrived in front of her own dormitory.
Princess Mary had been unhappy all day because of her father’s noticeably different attitude towards Prince Arthur compared to his attitude towards her and her siblings.
Then, in the harbor waiting hall, she overheard many people discussing how various popular instructors had put aside their prestige to compete for a first-year student, and she was forced to listen repeatedly to how this student was so talented, causing her envy and frustration.
For Princess Mary, she had been repeatedly forced to hear about Mai Dongzi recently and was already very frustrated.
Then, as luck would have it, she encountered Mai Dongzi right at the entrance of the Command Department. To make matters worse, she saw that the usually aloof top student of the second-year Command Department, Yueguangxi, was actually chatting and laughing with Mai Dongzi. Princess Mary, feeling heated, couldn’t help but make a sarcastic comment.
Princess Mary did not expect Mai Dongzi to have such a strong temper and ended up feeling more aggrieved.
Even though she was still angry, Princess Mary knew it was her own fault for being rude and speaking out of turn. Mai Dongzi hadn’t even directly confronted her, so even if she wanted to complain, she would have no grounds to do so.
Moreover, thinking that Mai Dongzi had actually countered her and that she had spoken so dismissively about Atom Xi, made Princess Mary even more frustrated.
If her father knew that she had not only provoked Mai Dongzi but also spoken so contemptuously about Atom Xi, he would certainly be even more displeased with her. After all, her father had explicitly said that Atom Xi had done a great service to the elder brother and that Mai Dongzi’s discovery on Shui Lan Star was a significant achievement.
If her father found out about this, he would certainly think that she was targeting her elder brother. Not only would her father show displeasure, but her mother might also be blamed by her father for her inappropriate behavior.
To avoid further mistakes, Princess Mary decided to hold back her frustration for now.
“Princess, that fake daughter was so rude to you. You can’t just let her get away with it,” Bai Zhizhi said indignantly.
Princess Mary suddenly stopped in her tracks, turned to look at Bai Zhizhi, and asked, “So, do you have any good ideas?”
Seeing the sternness in Princess Mary’s eyes, Bai Zhizhi quickly restrained her emotions and said helplessly, “I really want to teach her a lesson, but it seems that this fake daughter is not easy to deal with. I haven’t come up with a good plan yet.”
Princess Mary felt that Bai Zhizhi’s attitude now didn’t seem to be about using her to vent her frustration, and the sternness in her eyes had disappeared.
Normally, she had Bai Zhizhi use her influence to trouble those girls because these matters were trivial and she didn’t like those girls.
But with this Mei Dongzi, who had her elder brother backing her, if Bai Zhizhi dared to incite her to do something to Mei Dongzi, it would be like using her as a weapon. Princess Mary could tell that Bai Zhizhi had other motives hidden beneath her actions.
Princess Mary said with a slight snort, “Then go back and come up with a plan that’s neither too harsh nor too lenient—something that will embarrass her without breaking school rules.”
Bai Zhizhi looked troubled but eventually agreed.
After Mei Dongzi left the Command Department, she ran into students from the Combat Department. However, these students weren’t there to recruit her; they were accompanying Ren Guang.
Ren Guang had come ashore a few minutes earlier than Princess Mary and the others. After he got ready, he sent a message to Mei Dongzi, inviting her to dinner.
Mei Dongzi, intending to get along well with Ren Guang, agreed.
“These three are all from my combat team, and they want to meet you, Eleventh sister. I can’t shake them off,” Ren Guang said with some helplessness.
“Hello, Junior Sister Xi,” Ren Guang’s companions completely ignored his words and stepped forward to greet and introduce themselves to Mei Dongzi.
Among the three boys, Mei Dongzi recognized two of them; Mira had mentioned them to Lucy before.
From Mei Dongzi’s perspective, although these three boys appeared a bit unstable, they were actually quite decent and showed great respect to their leader, Ren Guang. She dropped her innocent act and talked to them naturally.