Heavenly Jewel Change

Chapter 45 Gaining Status in the Academy (2)

In that instant, many gazes focused on them, many of them being lustful or lascivious gazes focused on Shangguan Bing’er. The majority of the academy was after all attended by noble students, of whom some were of large powerful families. Looking at Shangguan Bing’er, of such beauty and poise, who was a commoner student to boot, how could they not be attracted and be interested. After all, to them, they had nothing to worry about commoners. Even if they forcefully snatched her away, she would not have any background nor would anyone dare to defend her. Of course, all of them totally ignored Zhou Weiqing who was beside her.

Zhou Weiqing could naturally feel the gazes on Shangguan Bing’er, and couldn’t help feel a sense of pride rise in his heart, as he thought scornfully to himself. Hmph, you all can look, but not touch!

Zhou Weiqing was very clear that since the moment he and Shangguan Bing’er stepped into the academy, it was destined that he wouldn’t to keep himself away from trouble. With Shangguan Bing’er around, even if he didn’t go around looking for trouble, trouble would definitely look for him. He had never mentioned this to Shangguan Bing'er, instead just preparing himself for it in his heart. That had also been the reason why he had rushed to Store all his various attribute Skills, as he had sorely felt a need to power up. With the conflicts between noble and commoner students, added to Shangguan Bing'er’s beauty likely attracting trouble, it was without a doubt that their lives would not be peaceful ones. However, Zhou Weiqing’s thinking was simple. If anyone dares touch my wife, I will beat him up. As soon as all of them are beaten up badly, they will learn and soon we will have peace.

Of course, he wasn’t just being careless or reckless. First of all, he had much confidence in his personal combat prowess. To find someone who could match him amongst the other students would be rather unlikely. The fight with Ming Hua yesterday had only increased his confidence. After all, with her cultivation level, her rare attribute, battle experience and Consolidated Equipment Set, Zhou Weiqing could not believe that there were many who could be more powerful than her in the entire academy. Furthermore, he had not shown his true strength in the battle yesterday… His real profession was after all still an archer, not a close combat warrior!

The next consideration was that this was after all still an academy, a school! As long as he was still a student in the academy, an academy with the name of the Imperial Family, no noble would dare to stir up a huge commotion with mass amounts of people to cause trouble in school. This was after all the capital city of Fei Li Empire, right under the noses of the Imperial Family, and the Emperor himself. As a result, he would likely only be facing mostly students, or perhaps at most few bodyguards.

Zhou Weiqing found the first year commoner students’ seats, which was situated near the front, and they headed there to take their seats. In their batch of students, there weren’t many female students. During their talk yesterday, Zhou Weiqing had learnt from Shangguan Bing'er that their entire commoner student freshmen cohort only had 6 female students in total! On the male side, there were 23 of them, a rather large contrast. That totalled to 29 freshmen students, which would make up their entire class. This opening ceremony was also a way for them to complete the division of classes and for the students to meet their classmates.

“Zhou Weiqing.” They had just seated down when Zhou Weiqing heard someone call out his name. As he turned towards the voice, he saw several bald heads, the one in front being Zang Lang. He looked very normal, with no sign of the injury he had sustained during their fight.

“Yes?” Zhou Weiqing replied passively, not moving from his seat and just lifting a brow questioningly.

Zang Lang said in a solemn tone: “Today is the first day of school, and there are no classes after the opening ceremony. I need to speak to you after that, okay?”

Seeing Zang Lang approach Zhou Weiqing immediately attracted the attention of many of the surrounding commoner students. After all, the commoner students were barely a tenth of the entire academy population, numbering less than two hundred in total. Zang Lang was definitely one of the most well known amongst all the commoner students. With the word spreading about the previous day’s fight, coupled with Zang Lang now approaching Zhou Weiqing, attention was immediately drawn to Zhou Weiqing who had previously been rather nondescript.

Zhou Weiqing agreed, then turned back without another look to Zang Lang, who did not say anything further and returned back to his own seat with his lackeys.

“Damn, who is that freshmen? He dares to diss Zang Lang?”

“Shhh… What do you know?! I heard that Zang Lang fought and lost to a commoner freshman student the other day, and was even injured! My guess is it’s that fellow. Don’t judge a book by its cover, he might look unassuming, but he is definitely a dangerous one. Rumour has it that he is a 3-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master who is even more powerful than Zang Lang!”

“Yeah, we better keep quiet about it, anyway it has nothing to do with us.”

Zhou Weiqing’s hearing was pretty good, and he could hear the soft voices of the nearby commoner students gossiping about them. Right at that moment, he felt a soft, warm little hand slip into his own, and he turned to see Shangguan Bing'er smiling at him.

This was the girl that he had sworn to protect all his life! Zhou Weiqing patted her hands softly, motioning to her not to worry, but then refused to let go of her hands. Shangguan Bing'er struggled a little before giving up, her face tinged red.

“You are Zhou Weiqing?” Right at that moment, another voice rang out. This time, even Zhou Weiqing was rather surprised. He had been expecting trouble, but his guess that it would be someone looking to approach Shangguan Bing'er. He did not expect that the person to be approached first would be himself. Could it be that I’m even more attractive than Bing'er? Hmm, it’s true that I have grown more suave lately! As he thought to himself, he felt in a good mood as he turned his head around.

This time, the person who had called out to him was standing in the passageway beside their seats. There were three of them in total, all dressed in the noble student outfits. The one who had spoken was standing in front, looking to be about 20 years of age, with a rather average look. However, it seemed his eyes were a little greenish, and his face rather pale, his figure skinny as a pole. If Zhou Weiqing had to describe him, it would be that of a fellow who had lost himself in drink and women, even more so than the Drunk Rogue Luo Ke Di! The two behind him were obviously more well built, but they obviously treated the one in front as a leader.

“Yes, I am Zhou Weiqing.” He replied with a faint smile. A graceful, polished smile and such poise that made the surrounding onlookers think - Who is really the noble here?

“Zhou Weiqing, come quickly. You, little brat, are indeed lucky. I hear that you managed to defeat Zang Lang the other day, not bad, not bad. Our big bro likes you. Come with us.”

Although this fellow was talking to Zhou Weiqing, his gaze was affixed upon Shangguan Bing'er, his adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he gulped obviously several times. He did not even attempt to hide his searing gaze.

“Oh? May I know, who is your big bro, your boss?” Zhou Weiqing did not lose his suave gentleman smile, and he said calmly without any change in his expression.

The man said impatiently: “Stop asking so many questions. You’ll know when you meet him. And let go of your dirty hands, such a beauty like that, how can someone like you hold her hands?! Now hurry up and go, I will lower myself to sit at your commoner area today.”

This time, even Shangguan Bing'er’s face changed to an ugly expression. Although she was really unwilling to cause trouble, especially with her innate kindhearted nature, she had after all been on the battlefield and killed before. To be looked at with such an obvious leer by a pervert, moreover, a pervert who wasn’t Zhou Weiqing, how could her mood be good?

Zhou Weiqing’s face changed suddenly, a look as if comprehension had suddenly dawned upon him. He said: “Ohh, I got it. Your boss’ surname is ‘Wang’ right?”

The senior started, confused. “No, that’s not right. My boss’ surname is Ye.”

Zhou Weiqing shook his head resolutely and said: “No, no, I’m very sure your boss’ name is Wang, and he is the eighth son right? And you are something ball-shaped that rolled out from below him.”

The senior was totally confused by Zhou Weiqing’s strange words, but for those commoner students sitting around them, the first one to react was the tall, large Ma Qun, who burst out laughing. The senior said warily: “Little brat, are you crazy? What the hell are you talking about?”

Zhou Weiqing said with a straight face: “This senior here, haven’t you heard of an animal called Wang Ba?[1. Basically, from the previous sentence, he was making a pun and scolding them at the same time. Surname of ‘王/Wang’ and eighth son (八) spell 王八 which also means tortoise. 王八 or 王八蛋 (literally tortoise egg) is also commonly used as an insult which has nothing to do with tortoises. In english it would be something like ‘son of a b*tch!’]” At that, everyone around finally understood that he was insulting the, and sounds of laughter rang out around.

Alas, this senior seemed rather slow, and did not comprehend… saying: “Yes, I have heard of it!”

Zhou Weiqing continued with a straight face: “Indeed, and what I said just now was the story of a tortoise and his egg laying story.”

At that point, the two lackeys behind the senior could not contain themselves any longer. The one of the left quickly said: “He called the boss Wang Ba!” The one of the right also chimed in: “Wang Ba… something ball-shaped that rolled out from below him…. isn’t that Wang Ba Dan (Tortoise egg)? He is scolding you!”

“What!? How dare you insult me?” The senior turned angrily to the other two and shouted: “What are you two waiting for? Drag him out! How dare he insult our boss as Wang Ba?! And to insult me as well, hmph, our boss will not let him go so easily.”

However, the two large seniors behind him did not move, the one on the left muttering to him: “Brother Lou, that little brat is an upper level Shi Stage Heavenly Jewel Master, with 3 Sets of Heavenly Jewels! We can’t beat him! Big Boss only asked you to come here to invite him over to have a talk.”

“Talk your head! He has already insulted our boss, what else is there to talk about. Little brat, just you wait. You’re dead meat! Those of you under the Ye Family, stand out now!” The last sentence was yelled out towards the rest of the commoner student seniors.

The over hundred commoner students stayed quiet, many showing angry looks on their face, but no one made a sound. Zang Lang sat there, his face muscles twitching obviously, but he did not look at them.

“I, Your Father, asked you to come out, are you all looking to die? Do you think our Ye Family is supporting you all for nothing? To pay for your Consolidated Equipment and Storing Skills for nothing? Get out here right now… or you know the consequences.” The senior yelled out arrogantly.

At that time, it was mostly students in the assembly hall. Although there were a few teachers around, as soon as they saw it was Ye Lou causing the commotion, they pretended not to see anything. After a while, about a dozen or so of the commoner seniors got up from their seats and walked towards them.

All of a sudden, Zhou Weiqing heard Kou Rui’s voice in his ear. He was sitting at the row behind Zhou Weiqing. “Boss, yesterday I was inquiring about the nobles, and found out that they are ranked to 3, 6 and 9 ranking. In this entire academy, the Ye Family has the greatest influence, and the head of the Ye Family is the prime minister of the Fei Li Empire, and he also has the noble title of duke! Their entire family has a massive influence in the entire Empire, let alone the academy. They have many family members currently in the Academy.”