Volume Two: The Thousand-Faced Youth, False Yet True Chapter Eighty-Nine: A Newcomer to the Club

Form One: Waltz.

Huo Ye’s wooden sword clashed with Ke Zhen’s staff. Huo Ye hadn’t infused the fragile blade with any power; if he had, it would have shattered instantly. And he wasn’t even using a proper two-handed sword technique. In one hand he held the wooden blade, and in the other he held a savory pancake wrap.

Yes, a savory pancake wrap.

Huo Ye was honestly impressed by Ke Zhen’s imagination. Just how unhinged did a person’s thought process have to be to come up with the idea of making him fight while eating? Ke Zhen’s explanation for this training method was that since Huo Ye still hadn’t learned to use sub-level stem cells to rapidly convert enormous amounts of food into the energy his body needed, then he should burn his stamina while eating, forcing his digestive system to turn food into energy as quickly and efficiently as possible. Ideally, it should leave behind no residue at all. In other words, he was not to produce that filthy yet indispensable byproduct of metabolism.

Huo Ye bit viciously into the pancake wrap and said, “I say, next time could you prepare fried chicken or something? I prefer fried food.”

“If you eat that kind of unhealthy junk, aren’t you afraid of getting cancer?”

“Right back at you. You’ve been drinking yourself stupid for years. Watch out for fatty liver, cirrhosis, and liver cancer coming for you first.”

“Ha ha.”

“Hmph.”

With the pancake wrap clamped in his teeth, Huo Ye picked up another wooden sword. He was going to get serious now.

At around three in the afternoon, Ke Zhen appeared in the Constellations club office looking black and blue all over. Jiang Feng laughed without mercy. “Old Ke, what happened to you? Did you get beaten up because you owe loan sharks?”

“Get lost,” Ke Zhen said irritably. “That kid did this to me. I really didn’t expect that without using powers, he could still be this fierce. Hey, don’t just look at the bruises on my face. He got it worse than I did.” Ke Zhen pointed at Huo Ye.

Huo Ye, who had been reviewing documents, heard this and lifted a hand to touch his own smooth, flawless face. When he smiled, two dimples appeared. He said smugly, “Worse than me? Worse how? Is my face greener than yours? Are my eye sockets bluer than yours?”

“You healed on the spot! In terms of injuries, you took more damage than I did!”

“Exactly. You’re bruised like a turtle, and I can recover instantly. Compared with that, what do I have to feel sorry about?”

Uh… that made weirdly good sense.

“Hey, what file are you looking at? With the club in its current state, what could possibly need handling?” Ke Zhen asked, forcibly changing the subject.

Huo Ye did not continue mocking him. Instead, he said, “This is a list Jiang Feng helped me gather of promising first-year students at the academy, along with detailed dossiers on each of them. Our club has only just been founded, and we still don’t have enough people. We need fresh blood. But most of the strong students from second to fourth year have already joined the Seven Major Clubs. The rest are the kind who like freedom and don’t want to be tied down by a club, so we may not be able to recruit them either. So our best hope is to use the start of the school year to make those clueless freshmen realize that there’s a rising new club here called Constellations. It has vitality, ideals, and opportunities, and it’s worth their effort.”

Ke Zhen smiled. “Ha, that’s a great idea! You’re way better than your old man was back then. When he founded his club, he did it purely to spite the president of Wind Chime Valley at the time, planning to beat them into submission in the club war. He had no discipline at all when it came to running the place. I was the one cleaning up his mess. Now I can just settle down and be my teaching advisor in peace.”

Huo Ye was reading intently and merely gave an absent-minded “Mm” in response.

Seeing how focused Huo Ye was, Remi asked, “Big brother, have you got your eye on someone?”

Remi understood Huo Ye very well. A moment ago, he had still been reading documents and chatting with them at the same time, but now he had gone completely serious. He must have found someone who caught his attention, and that person had to have some real talent.

Huo Ye nodded, then scanned one of the files with his crystal terminal and projected it onto the large conference screen. By now, everyone in Constellations was present except Shangguan Yudie.

Since Wind Chamber Liuli had nothing to do, she was sprawled on the table asleep. Jiang Feng, sitting beside her, was filled with endless emotion. Was she possessed by the god of sleep? She slept all day long. He reached out and shook her awake. “Hey, Liuli, wake up. The meeting’s starting.”

Wind Chamber Liuli didn’t even change position. She simply raised a hand and brought down the handle of her umbrella.

After a dull thud, she rubbed her drowsy eyes and looked at Jiang Feng, who was clutching his head. “Huh? What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me? You really have no idea?” Jiang Feng asked with wounded indignation. She was getting used to hitting him now! Could they still be friends after this?

“Ahem.” Huo Ye coughed lightly and pointed at the screen. “You two done flirting?”

“Club president, that was a little much,” Wind Chamber Liuli said plaintively.

Jiang Feng said nothing. He just gave an awkward laugh, then looked up at the profile Huo Ye had projected onto the big screen.

He froze.

“This… Boss, why did you pick her of all people?” Jiang Feng asked in surprise.

Huo Ye frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Feng looked a little guilty. “She’s the one who sent your name out—no, sold you out. She wrote that post, and now I’ve heard she’s even formed a fan club for you. She’s the president.”

Huo Ye drew in a sharp breath and pointed at the photo of the cute girl with twin ponytails. “This one?”

“Yeah, this one!” Jiang Feng confirmed.

“Then pass. Next.” Huo Ye said it without the slightest hesitation.

The whole table fell silent.

What do you mean, next? That logic didn’t quite hold together.

Alice was the first to speak. “Brother, didn’t you say you wanted people with real ability? You haven’t even told us how strong she is, so why are you rejecting her already?”

Huo Ye gave an awkward cough and even avoided meeting Alice’s eyes. “Strength is only one of the things we need to consider. What we’re selecting is a partner. We can’t choose based on strength alone. We also have to think about the relationship afterward and things like that…”

Before Huo Ye could finish, Alice’s face lit up with sudden understanding. She teased, “Ohhh, I get it. You’re afraid of recruiting a fangirl, and then she’ll cling to you every day asking for autographs and photos and stuff.”

“Shut up.”

The moment Huo Ye said those two words, everyone understood that Alice had hit the mark. So that’s what kind of person Huo Ye was—afraid of fangirls pestering him. Hahaha!

“Hahaha! Boss, that’s so lame. At the very least you’re the idol of countless girls in the academy, and you— I’ll shut up.” Jiang Feng was just about to continue with some fearless speech when he met Huo Ye’s murderous glare. The last scraps of his instinct for self-preservation told him that he absolutely could not go on, or he might lose his life.

But just then, Wind Chamber Liuli suddenly raised her hand and said, “Club president, there’s something I think you should know.”

Huo Ye immediately felt a bad premonition rise in his heart, but he still forced himself to remain calm. “What is it? Go on.”

“Well…” Wind Chamber Liuli organized her thoughts, then said in her signature soft, airy voice, “This morning I had no classes, so I came to the club to sleep and keep an eye on the door. Then this super cute junior girl came by and said she wanted to join Constellations. But I don’t really know how we’re supposed to screen applicants, so I told her to come back this afternoon. If the timing’s right, the appointment should be in about half an hour.”

Huo Ye narrowed his eyes and thought for two seconds. Clever as ever, he had already seen through the kind of chaotic fate that felt like a familiar trap. He asked, “So what you’re telling me is that the super cute junior in your mouth is the one on the big screen.”

“Mm-hm, that’s right!”

“Huo Ye…” he exploded, profanity bursting out before he could stop it. Having one hidden fangirl at home was already more than enough trouble. Was the club really going to add one in broad daylight too? Give him a break.

What he didn’t know was that the one at home was currently trapped between the hope of a successful real-life meetup and the terror of a disastrous face-to-face reveal.