Chapter Twelve

Zhou Mu showed a tiny sliver of schadenfreude behind You Qi.

If it were a Baile Snake, being a bit stupid would be forgivable — a snake yao's vital spot isn't at the seven-inch mark but the head, so everyone aims for the head in a fight, and after enough head trauma, naturally you go dumb.

Besides, Baile Snakes are called that because they come out to sing every spring, their voices like string and wind instruments; the whole race carries a 'keep playing, keep dancing' festive vibe.

Zhou Mu even darkly thought: if our Human Race caught one of these snakes, they'd be forced to play Fight the Landlord BGM.

Graduate-student Chun Shijiu didn't know he'd already been scripted through one round of IQ and stereotype by Zhou Mu. He was furious — especially since You Qi's mockery seemed to mock many things at once.

But losing your cool at a moment like this means you've already lost, so Chun Shijiu tried to control his expression... never mind, he couldn't.

Chun Shijiu burst out: "You're not stupid? How did you not notice the little 'terracotta warrior' climbing the stairs so nimbly — does that look like someone buried for over two thousand years? A lousy dog bite, and it still hasn't fully healed after so long? Probably because riding the Fierce Beast You Qi as a mount felt too good to give up. 'Terracotta warrior,' watch out your flesh gets used as fuel costs!"

Chun Shijiu had originally been heading downstairs to pay the electricity bill. Before leaving, he tossed off coolly: "You're not stupid. You're really smart."

Say it and run — that's the win.

Zhou Mu: "..."

Having been exposed, Zhou Mu was a bit annoyed, and shouted at Chun Shijiu's retreating back: "Everyone has their own difficulties, don't you get it?!"

After saying this, Zhou Mu slowly raised his head. You Qi was looking at him too.

"Injury healed?" You Qi said.

You Qi's eyes weren't blind — of course he'd seen Zhou Mu's light-footed dash up the stairs just now. He just chose to help Zhou Mu mock Chun Shijiu first.

"Healed. Been a while." Zhou Mu said guiltily. "Sorry, but being a cripple means you don't have to walk after eating."

Though guilty, he didn't dodge, even shuffling one more step toward You Qi and putting on a pitiful look.

You Qi said nothing and walked forward, hands in pockets, mood unreadable.

After confirming Zhou Mu's leg was fine, You Qi genuinely had no temper left — after all, Chun Shijiu didn't know he'd even taken the initiative to scoop up the post-meal bouncing Zhou Mu.

When Zhou Mu mentioned his difficulties, he almost laughed — he'd long seen that Zhou Mu was a bit spoiled, lazy and loose.

As for the expressionless walk forward now...

Just wanted to see his reaction.

Zhou Mu caught up in a few steps: "You can't just hear half of it. Didn't you hear me tell Chun Shijiu earlier I wanted to give you a gift? If it weren't for finding out what you like, why would I have tricked Chun Shijiu!"

You Qi: "..."

You Qi couldn't hold it anymore. He reached out with his left hand and smacked the back of Zhou Mu's head, cursing: "Little liar." He lowered his head, hand still pressed on Zhou Mu's skull: "So do you know what I like yet?"

"Don't know — Chun Shijiu didn't exactly give useful intel — but I just thought of what to get you." Zhou Mu proudly tugged at You Qi's robe. "I notice you always wear the school robe. My family often orders suits from a Human Race tailor, Lao Cai Feng — his craft is excellent. I'll order you a set, change things up. How about it?"

You Qi's mood improved further. Hands back in pockets, he said lightly: "Anything's fine."

Zhou Mu: "Haha, then it's settled!"

The tailor Zhou Mu mentioned was Human Race, naturally not present here — he'd have to send You Qi's measurements over.

Back in Room 1203, Zhou Mu told You Qi: "Take off your clothes."

You Qi: "?"

Zhou Mu said: "Custom tailoring needs measurements. Take off your outer clothes — one look and I'll know." Though he didn't have a measuring tape on hand, Zhou Mu was confident in his eye, basically never wrong.

You Qi was a bit skeptical.

Zhou Mu blurted out: "Really, I'm a measuring-tape spirit."

You Qi couldn't take it anymore and briskly began undoing his school robe. Zhou Mu happily circled him, sizing him up.

You Qi stripped his upper body down to a single tank top, which wrapped his smoothly muscled frame. He kicked off his shoes, stood barefoot in the middle of the dorm, handed the removed clothes to Zhou Mu. His slightly long bangs swept across the metal Mouth Cage, veiling his deep dark eyes. His hand was already on his trousers...

Zhou Mu stared at him: "Wow."

You Qi: "..."

Zhou Mu's gaze didn't restrain itself — it even trended more brazen.

You Qi couldn't continue undressing. The tips of his ears, rarely, flushed blood-red, and his hands stilled.

Zhou Mu clapped: "Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful."

This time it was deliberate — Zhou Mu had never seen a Fierce Beast that could still get embarrassed.

The next second, the silent You Qi moved. The hunter, exploding into action in an instant, pinned Zhou Mu down in a blink, lowered his head to glare threateningly. The tips of sharp canines faintly showed at his lips — truly bristling with killing intent...

But the red at his ear tips was still obvious, not faded, inevitably cutting the menace by a few degrees.

"You can't bite me~" Zhou Mu said this without a trace of fear — a teasing, playful boast.

Probably because he'd seen through that You Qi wouldn't get angry at his flirtatious jokes — he even dared to tease his Mouth Cage.

You Qi saw Zhou Mu's apricot-shaped eyes, from the sudden "attack," had grown physiologically moist. The thin eyelids showed a faint pink, making his gaze even clearer. His lips parted innocently. Every detail seemed magnified in You Qi's pupils — he clearly recalled the soft warmth of Zhou Mu's cheek against him when held in his arms. His Adam's apple moved slightly.

Zhou Mu said slyly, "If you want to bite me, I'll bite you back."

As he said it, he demonstratively bit You Qi's shoulder lightly, leaving a faint tooth mark.

You Qi only felt his heart's contraction and dilation rhythm suddenly speed up!

This might have been You Qi's first time being bitten by someone in his life, yet an unsatisfiable feeling rose in his heart. The Fuwén on the Mouth Cage didn't light up, so it wasn't appetite — but You Qi was indeed restless now, wanting to break through the Restriction of the Mouth Cage—

He lowered himself. The cold metal brushed Zhou Mu's cheek — so close, yet a hair's breadth couldn't be crossed. His Adam's apple bobbed again with his swallow. "...You're right. I can't bite you."

At this distance, Zhou Mu could sense You Qi's body tensing, his blood flow changing.

The word was also "bite," but the faint regret seemed to carry another meaning. What was this?

Zhou Mu was usually very sharp and accustomed to "greed," "coveting," and the emotions that came with them — but You Qi's was different. Zhou Mu was still sorting it out when You Qi had already pulled him up to sit.

After pulling Zhou Mu up, You Qi squatted on the ground, hands braced on his knees hanging down, like some large canid. Head lowered, muffled: "Wait while I borrow a measuring tape. I'll measure myself."

Zhou Mu blinked, a few beats slow: "Oh, you're going out..."

...

The dorm manager of Building 5 was a ghost cultivator, convenient for night shifts. In all his time working here, this was the first time You Qi had come knocking. Politely: "Teacher, do you have a measuring tape? I'd like to borrow one."

You Qi was actually always quite civil with elders. Though the dorm manager didn't know what he needed the measuring tape for, he rummaged through the toolbox and found one to give him.

You Qi added: "Teacher, the vending machine outside seems to have lost power. Could you check it?"

This wasn't really the dorm manager's job, but he found it hard to say so under You Qi's gaze. He floated out to look for a while — it was clearly powered — so he just gave the machine two firm smacks, and it actually recovered.

"Ha, fixed." The dorm manager dusted his hands.

Then he saw You Qi — who rarely even showed up at the Canteen — buying juice, chips, bread, nuts... flavors from every race, nearly emptying the vending machine, and carrying a huge bag back upstairs.

The dorm manager couldn't help shaking his head — this was the consequence of forcing someone to eat vegetarian. A grown man binge-eating snacks, with quite a varied palate. Hmm, but this intel could be shared with others, added to the Campus Fierce Beast Notes (Unofficial Edition).

Meanwhile, Zhou Mu was contacting the tailor on WeChat, discussing price first.

He planned to take a bit from his little treasury to pay the deposit — once the contract was signed he'd have money anyway — and custom-made garments like this took at least one to three months to receive.

But overall he still needed to maximize income and minimize spending. Zhou Mu asked the tailor for a discount: [Give me a break on price, or throw in a few extra shirts.]

Tailor: [[Pity] Can't do it, little boss. I'm not making money here, it's all hard-earned fees.]

Zhou Mu flew into a rage: [Nonsense, I'm not listening. I have to get some kind of deal out of this!!]

Tailor: [...Then what do you want?]

Zhou Mu: [[Curse][Curse] The leftover fabric scraps — make me some vests, ties, that sort of thing!]

After some haggling, the tailor was forced to agree to throw in extra handwork, whatever could be made, and even an unwanted measuring tape and scissors were demanded by Zhou Mu.

Only then was Zhou Mu satisfied. Now all that was left was to send the measurements over.

Still a good roommate — knowing his leg was healed, willing to bring him food.

Mindful of his roommate's kindness, and of the snacks he'd ordered, Zhou Mu ran to the dorm door, opened it to wait for You Qi, and chatted with the Door-Protecting Grass on the side: "Has Chun Shijiu come back yet? If you see him, curse him out a few extra times for me."

The Door-Protecting Grass said eagerly: "Don't worry, I'm watching."

Before long he saw You Qi coming up with a big bag, and Zhou Mu stepped forward two meters in a show of friendliness.

At this moment Chun Shijiu, having paid the electricity bill, also appeared at the end of the corridor. Zhou Mu looked at him unhappily.

Chun Shijiu also looked them over with ill intent — let's see what just happened here? His gaze quickly fell on You Qi's hand — what was in that bag? Snacks?

These were obviously not things You Qi would eat.

Chun Shijiu couldn't help looking at You Qi. He didn't understand...

You Qi, being watched, showed no expression on his face — impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Then Zhou Mu indeed took the big bag of snacks, proving they were all bought for him. "Thanks, let me carry it."

Zhou Mu had only taken two steps before You Qi scooped him up along with the snacks and held him, saying lightly: "I'll do it. It's a bit heavy."

Chun Shijiu: "...???"

Door-Protecting Grass: "XXXX look XX what are you looking at, stupid X, never seen a Campus Civility Star helping a classmate?"

Chun Shijiu: "............"

...You Qi had never even been awarded that thing, had he?!

.

The next morning there were no classes either. Zhou Mu slept until ten before getting up. You Qi seemed to have gone to class. He got up to brush his teeth and opened the cabinet, which was neatly stocked with rows of snacks.

Zhou Mu grabbed a trash bag, leaned against the cabinet, eating while tossing the wrappers in. Hmm, many of the flavors sold at Hualing couldn't be found in Human Race cities — he hadn't tried them all since enrolling.

Some were good, some average, some merely edible...

"Ding"

A WeChat notification sounded.

Zhou Mu swiped open the page one-handed and saw it was another barrage of voice messages from Tianqi Leader — sixty seconds, sixty seconds — the pressure was intense. Why could an elementary schooler chat so much?

He tapped one open casually.

Tianqi: "Xiao Mu, I've successfully defeated my rivals and been elected class monitor of Class 3, Year 1. Special announcement to everyone."

Tianqi: "But there's something that really disappoints me. I proposed to the homeroom teacher — since I'm elected class monitor, let's all have a meal together at the Canteen to celebrate, my treat. But the teacher refused me, and laughed. Sigh, I don't get it."

Zhou Mu wiped the crumbs from his fingers: "Why? It's just a meal, and the Canteen's cooking is so good."

"Exactly, exactly," Tianqi's childlike voice rose even higher, carrying the bitterness of being misunderstood. "I just wanted to hold a Tail-Burning Banquet at the Canteen!"

Zhou Mu didn't understand: "What Tail-Burning Banquet? Eating grilled fish?"

He was a bit embarrassed — this elementary schooler knew it but he didn't. Was it some Yao Clan custom?

Tianqi screenshotted an explanation for him:

In ancient times, when scholars became officials or were promoted, they would host relatives, friends, and colleagues to celebrate together. Legend has it that when a carp leaps the Dragon Gate, heavenly fire burns off its tail — hence the banquet's name, "Tail-Burning Banquet."

...No wonder the homeroom teacher not only refused but laughed.

Tianqi: "I just want to celebrate my own life's big event, what's wrong with that! The homeroom teacher actually said I was exaggerating, and even my mom said I could wait until I become a student council officer to hold it. Xiao Mu, tell me, does that make sense!"

Zhou Mu said with earnest gravity: "First tell me, how many dishes does a Tail-Burning Banquet have?"