“Start the search!” An Xue Ming turned around and pointed, his confidence returned.
“Wait!” Ling Han called.
“What is it? Do you have something on your conscience? Finally afraid now?” An Xue Ming smiled coldly.
Ling Han pushed the door open, and called out, “Hu Niu!”
“Xiu,” a tiny figure pounced forward and leaped into Ling Han’s arms. It was Hu Niu. The little girl lacked patience, so Ling Han had told her to play by herself in the room while he went to pay a visit to Mo Gao.
For Hu Niu, who had a very strong sense of territory, these people who had intruded her territory were simply challenging her to battle. The little girl would not care whether she would be able to defeat them or not. She would definitely pounce on these intruders, her little claws out and little mouth open to take a bite of these trespassers.
“All right, go ahead!” Ling Han said with a smile.
An Xue Ming could not help but cast a suspicious look at Hu Niu. He was worried that Hu Niu had hidden the “stolen goods” on her body, but when he thought further about it, there was no opportunity for Ling Han to communicate with Hu Niu. He didn’t even know what the stolen goods were, so there should not be any possibility of this happening.
“Search!” He said to the other members of the Discipline Committee.
“Understood!” The others replied, and like a wave, they poured into the courtyard.
Ling Han waited outside with Hu Niu in his arms. The Third Imperial Prince, the crimson-haired beauty, Mo Gao, Feng Luo, and Wei He Le too waited outside. They were not members of the Discipline Committee, so of course they could not simply barge into the living quarters of a student.
The sound of trunks and boxes being overturned was heard from within. Ling Han simply carried a chair out of the courtyard, and sat down, Hu Niu still in his embrace. When the crimson-haired beauty saw this, she too carried a chair out of the courtyard, and invited the Third Imperial Prince to take a seat.
Feng Luo would of course not be willing to simply stand—if you are all seated and I’m still standing, then wouldn’t that mean that I would look like your servant?
“Halt!” He had just raised his foot, and his advance was stopped by Ling Han’s shout, “I do not allow dogs to enter into my courtyard!”
“Wha, what!” Feng Luo instantly jumped up, “You dare to call me a dog?”
“You’ve already been stepped on by me quite a few times, yet why do you still not understand your own status?” Ling Han shook his head, and sighed. “Having been entangled too many times with a minor character like you would not be to my taste! There’s nothing interesting in stepping on you, but if it was your brother, then there might still be a bit of a sense of achievement in that.”
This was not him trying to exaggerate. When he had still been a powerful warrior of Heaven Tier, anyone who was qualified to be stepped on by him would have to at least be a powerful warrior in Deity Transformation Tier.
“Ling, Han!” Feng Luo spat out his name in two breaths, his eyes so filled with fury that it looked like they were about to spit out flames. He pointed at Ling Han and said, “You can be as stubborn as you like now, but later, you will definitely die!”
A smile turned up the corners of his lips, and Ling Han said, “I’m also bored of looking at this face of yours, it’s best if you get lost from Hu Yang Academy!”
“We’ve found it!” Right at this moment, a gasp of shock was heard from within the courtyard, and a few moments later, An Xue Ming and the others marched out. The one in the lead was An Xue Ming, and he was holding a badge while a cold smile appeared on his face.
“Ling Han, what else do you have to say now?” An Xue Ming held the badge forwards.
“This is not mine,” Ling Han said nonchalantly, after casting a look at the item.
“Of course it isn’t!” Feng Luo interrupted, “This is a gift from the Third Imperial Prince to my brother. I suddenly discovered it was missing a few days ago, so it was indeed you who has stolen it!”
Ling Han erupted in laughter, and said, “Let me say that your intelligence is a bit low! You have to know, I have only arrived at the Imperial City the day before yesterday! Even if you want to frame me, you would still have to get your facts straight!”
Feng Luo stared blankly at this. He had never imagined that Ling Han had just arrived at the Imperial City and would already coincidentally bump into him on the first night he was at the Imperial City. He quickly argued and said, “I must’ve remembered wrongly. I should have discovered it missing yesterday or the day before yesterday.”
Ling Han was filled with admiration, and said, “There is indeed something wrong with your brain, you don’t even remember when you have lost it! Additionally, this team leader of the Discipline Committee, you are indeed quite skilled. In such a short period of time, you managed to narrow down all your suspicion to me?”
“Heng, you’re now caught red-handed. Whatever you say now is merely you trying to escape the just punishment!” An Xue Ming knew very well that the longer they spoke, the more gaps there would be revealed in their accusations. He only had to firmly hold onto the “truth” that Ling Han was a thief, and that would be enough.
“There’s a problem…” Ling Han said with a smile, “I would like to ask, why would I steal this thing?”
“Ha! Ha!” Feng Luo obviously knew that Ling Han would ask this, so he laughed and immediately replied, “This is a token of the Third Imperial Prince, and anyone who has it in their possession would be considered a friend of the Third Imperial Prince. This is something that everyone in the Imperial City desire to possess!”
These words were indeed quite clever. These words firmly made Ling Han’s crime solid, and also flattered the Third Imperial Prince at the same time.
“Ling Han, what else do you have to say now?” An Xue Ming said, smiling coldly.
Ling Han said calmly, “I don’t have anything else to say, but I have something that I would like to show to the Third Imperial Prince.”
“Oh, and what might that be?” The Third Imperial Prince asked very cooperatively.
“Here, this is what I wanted to show you,” Ling Han took out his own violet badge.
What!?
Everyone’s eyes were immediately fixed on that tiny badge. Even if the majority of them had only heard about the rumors, but no matter how they looked at it, it seemed as if these two badges were exactly the same.
“You, you actually stole another badge!” Feng Luo stuttered. He was really telling the truth. He really only had one badge in his possession.
‘F*ck!’
Some of them had already come to realize the truth of the matter, and they turned to look at Feng Luo as if they were looking at an idiot.
From the beginning to the end, Ling Han had behaved much too calmly. They had thought that he had been so reckless because he was arrogant, but now when they thought about it again, his behavior was obviously him having a card up his sleeve.
“Oh, this was the gift that I had presented to Brother Ling yesterday.” The Third Imperial Prince smiled as well. An intelligent person like himself would of course know what to do to cooperate with Ling Han’s plans. There was absolutely no need to communicate anything to him beforehand.
Damn! Damn! Damn!
Everyone in the area felt an irrepressible urge to begin cursing. Are the two of you taking us for monkeys to be played with?
Ling Han weighed the token in his hand, and said, “I really never thought that Your Highness would be so generous. I heard that the holder of this thing would be able to eat for free in any restaurant of the Imperial City?”
The Third Imperial Prince could not help a twitch from appearing about his mouth. Could it be that this was the only thing Ling Han liked about his token? He, the one and only Third Imperial Prince, was only worth so much? If Ling Han was anyone else, he would have been furious. But when he had returned to visit Fu Yuan Sheng later, he managed to sense from Fu Yuan Sheng’s tone that this Grandmaster Alchemist was filled with utter respect for Ling Han.
Who was Fu Yuan Sheng? He was definitely counted among the most powerful people of Rain Country, and furthermore, he was definitely ranked within the first few.
He was only an Imperial Prince now, but even if he inherited the throne in future, he would never dare to attempt anything against Fu Yuan Sheng. A person that even Fu Yuan Sheng respected… if he dared to be careless or disregard him, then wasn’t that practically forcing Fu Yuan Sheng to treat him as his foe?
He was not the only son of the Rain Emperor with grand ambitions. How fierce was the competition for the throne? It’d be fine if he could not obtain Fu Yuan Sheng’s support, but if an action of his actually forced the latter to join the camp of his rival, that would be too stupid of him.
“Haha, I can be considered as half the host in this place, so of course, I need to be responsible for the meals of my guests,” he said with a laugh, and diffused this awkward topic easily.
Ling Han smiled widely, and said, “I hope the Third Imperial Prince would not regret this in future.”
“How could that be possible!” The Third Imperial Prince shook his head resolutely.
…He could never imagine how ugly his expression would be when he went to settle his tab the following month.