Ch 30: Flowers

after a while of explaining and answering their questions, they both joined the line and each of them stood besides each of Zhuqing who was at the other end of the the line.

"hey baby girl, good morning." Altair said as he winked at her with a smile. which made Zhuqing blush a little.

"hi Zhuqing, did you have a good rest last night?" Eve asked as he stood between her and Ning Rongrong.

"mhm, good morning Al. and yes Eve, thank you for asking." she said with a small smile, knowing that someone cares about her.

I mean c'mon, her own sister wanted her dead and her parents not only didn't stop her, but even encouraged her!

and besides, you know how cats are. get along with them, and they will bring out their hidden side in front of you.

"I will give you a new pillow and blankets, the ones here are slightly old. I don't want you to sleep uncomfortably." Eve said with his never changing loving eyes.

"mhm." that's all she said, but her smile showed how happy she was. you may call it unrealistic that she gets all these reactions from just these small stuff.

but in fact, her reactions are still calm with the life that she lived in. she has been basically starving for affection and care, why do you think she came here to find Dai Mubai.

because she thought that since they are on the same boat, he can care for her. but all she got was disappointment in her supposed partner that was arranged to her by her family.

"ahem ahem. alright, I will repeat my words from before you two arrived. I, Flender, dean of the Shrek school, welcome you all on behalf of the school.

later on, ever one of you will hand in a hundred gold coins to Mr Li.

now that that is said and done, we will start the class. for assisting type soul master, it's dangerous once you're unprotected in the battlefield.

therefore, you must learn how to flee. Oscar. Ning Rongrong. twenty rounds... starting now. forget about your lunch if you can't finish before that."

he said and Ning Rongrong responded :"yes!"

"Oscar leads the way." he said, but Oscar's response was a lot less enthusiastic than Ning Rongrong's :"yes. let's go."

he said and they started running. "Mubai."

"yes."

"tell the newcomers about the school rules."

"alright dean."

Flender looked at the students and said :"your first lesson will start at night." and the class was dismissed.

"you, come with me alone." he told Tang San and then started walking, and Tang San followed.

{Ivan's POV}

"hey Zhuqing, let's go to the city and eat something there. since I don't think that the school food is that good... Xiao Wu, you can also come with us if you want to."

I said to Zhuqing and then looked at Xiao Wu and said. "alright." she responded with a smile and then Xiao Wu said with excitement :"alright! then what are we waiting for? let's go!"

we all chuckled at her excitement and then walked towards the city. luckily for us, the city wasn't that busy.

but every guy that saw us, would give a death glare of jealousy to Al. haha, well he is surrounded by beauties, who wouldn't get jealous.

but women were different, some of them blush when they saw Al, and some of them would give him hungry looks.

while walking, I saw a shop selling beautiful flowers. so I told them to stop and went to buy some.

"excuse me miss, can you gather a bunch of these flowers separately for me? these Amaryllis and carnations and gladiolus together. these bouvardia and freesia and lilac. and these roses and asters and tulips."

"here you go pretty girl, I bet that who ever receives these flowers will become extremely happy that such a beautiful girl gave them!" the flower lady said with a smile.

"haha, thank you. I hope so too. here you go, the money for the flowers." I said and she replied with a thank you and I returned to our group.

"here guys, these flowers each have meanings. these are for you Xiao Wu. lilac means youthful innocence, baovardia means enthusiasm, and freesia means innocence. I hope you like them."

I said with a smile as I handed the flowers that were delicately tied together to her. she had a beaming smile and said :"thank you Eve! I will definitely take care of them!"

"mhm, happy to hear that. and these are for you Zhuqing. Amaryllis means splendid beauty, carnations mean pride and beauty, and gladiolus means strength of character.

I thought that these really suite you, so I bought them for you." I said with a slight blush, but I still kept my smile.

she blushed too, and when she took the flowers from my hand, she said :"thank you. this is the first time that someone has given me flowers. I will definitely treasure them."

I could feel the happiness in her voice as she smiled and said. Xiao Wu thought that this is a good opportunity to tease both of us, so she said with a teasing tone:

"aww, what about me Eve. your giving all the flowers with good meanings to Zhuqing, that's kind of biased, isn't it?"

I looked at her with an amused look and fought back with my own teasing :"well, I just thought that you would be more happy if San'ge gave you those kind of flowers."

she quickly blushed and said :"y-you... hmph, I will ignore you if you continue to always tease me like this." she said as she did her signature stomping, which we all laughed at.

"and Altair, here you go. roses as everyone knows, means love, that Ali has always had for himself. aster means patience, as we both had to endure it a lot. and tulips mean a declaration of love."

"mhm, thanks Eve. I don't need to express my opinion, considering that you know them more than me. I mean you are the emotions of us."

I just gave him a nod and a smile. but Xiao Wu interrupted again by saying with teasing :"I didn't know that Ali'ge was a narcissist."

"it's not narcissistic if it's a fact. I mean c'mon, have you seen a more beautiful person than Ali? no you haven't, cause no one like that exists."

I said with pride in my voice, which she just hmphed at and pursed her lips while pouting.

"alright, let's go buy somethings to eat. I'm starving since I haven't eaten anything. let's go to that stall, the food there seems to be good." Al rubbed his eight pack and said while pointing at some place.

and so we made our way to the stall. the food was meat skewers, different kinds. so we bought a bunch and ate them while passing the time by walking around.

"huh? hey, isn't that Ning Rongrong? what is she doing around here? isn't she supposed to be running?"

Xiao Wu's words pulled the attention of all of us. she was in front of a store with some snacks of her own in hand.

she went inside without noticing us and Al said :"is she skipping the task?"

Ivan :"sigh, forget about it. we aren't that close yet for it to be our business. let's just spend more time outside and then go back to school.

we have been out for a while now, San'ge must have finished his conversation with the dean some time ago."

Altair :"alright. but since it's already noon, let's eat lunch and then go to school. we should also buy San'ge's share and bring it to him."

and so we went to a restaurant and after ordering we sat outside and waited and after eating, we returned to the school and brought San'ge's share of food as well.

after arriving school, we went straight to the place where the class starts and saw Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun or fatty and San'ge were already there.

"oh hey guys, I heard from Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun that you all went to the city to stroll and pass the time. so did you have fun?"

"haha you bet! we went to the city and ate a bunch of snacks and ate lunch there! oh and we bought you a share too and brought it to you.

and Eve also bought all of us flowers, and he said that all of them have their own meanings! he bought three kinds of flowers for each of us!

mine are these, lilac means youthful innocence, baovardia means enthusiasm, and freesia means innocence! am I right Eve?"

she explained like a child with excitement and then asked me, which I nodded with a smile and said :"that's correct. they all suit you a lot."

she giggled at my comment and San'ge smiled at his non blood related {is that how I'm supposed to say it?} younger siblings' conversation.

and then Zhuqing said :"Xiao Wu, let's take the flowers to our dorms and place them in a vase so as to not have them wilt."

"mhm, you're right. let's go." Xiao Wu said with a nod and started walking together. the small date brought them closer to each other.

you know how it works, women get closer by shopping together. and if you want to pull men closer, either start a conversation about games or women such as boobs and ass!

I looked slightly up at Al and said :"give them to me, I will take them to our room. you stay here and wait." he nodded and gave the flowers to me and I went with the girls.

when we got back, Flender was already there and was standing in front of the line of students. just when we reached the line and stood there and greeted the dean, Oscar and Ning Rongrong also arrived.

Oscar was panting a little, but Ning Rongrong wasn't tired at all. and the reason for that is known to the girls, Al and me.

"Oscar, have you both finished running 20 rounds?" Flender looked at them and asked.

Oscar said while still panting :"dean, I have done it." but it seemed that Flender wasn't satisfied with his response and said:

"I asked about both of you. not only you." Oscar hesitated for a second and then said :"yes, we've done it."

"haha good. come over." he said with a laugh and when Oscar reached him, he put his hand on his shoulder and said:

"since you make such a good teammate, what about you run another 20 rounds? I've sealed your soul power. go." Oscar just sighed and didn't protest and started running again.

but his punishment was light, he just had to run around the platform which wasn't big nor was it small.

"you have to pay for cheating, no matter what the reason is. don't you think so, Rongrong? tell me... if you have completed your morning task?"

"no, the distance was too long. I was hungry. I couldn't hang on." she lied while looked away.

Flender starting walking slowly while saying :"so, you went into the city to eat and walk around. you just got back and found Oscar, right?"

"you were spying on me?" she said as she looked at him.

Flender stopped and put his hands behind him and said :"as a dean, I'm responsible for every student. Oscar is forgivable to lie because he was afraid that you might be punished.

and you... disobeyed your task, leaving without permission, yet you allowed your senior to cover it. if any of your mistakes happened in the battlefield, you would be punished by the military law, which is death."

he finished his sentence while standing a few steps in front of her. "this is not a battlefield, it's just a school." she's got a point, I will give her that.

"right. but this is my Shrek School. you have two options now, either you pack your things and leave, or prove to me that you'll never repeat mistakes."