Chapter 9: Sigh! Making Money & Capitalism

The library of the United Military-Political Academy was enormous.

Every wall was lined floor to ceiling with books, while massive clusters of lights floated overhead like suspended jellyfish.

The banners of the six faculties crossed above the halls, sunlight refracting through stained glass into dazzling, brilliant colors.

It was afternoon, and the library was quiet. Some students drank tea and ate pastries in the lounge areas, while others browsed materials in the smart-device sections.

In a booth tucked into a first-floor corner, Lin Zhiyan was extracting data needed for an assignment while cross-referencing books, her head growing heavy with fatigue.

Pages of information flickered one after another across the projection from the smart terminal connected to the books.

Meanwhile, Aiwen organized the data nonstop, yawning herself to tears.

“This should be enough,” Lin Zhiyan said, rubbing her forehead before disconnecting the books. She reopened the link between her terminal and the smart system. “I’ll copy everything onto my terminal. Go return these books first.”

She didn’t own a smart-brain device herself, so she could only make do with her terminal.

“Okay.” Aiwen nodded and stood up with several books in her arms, only to sit back down immediately. “Crap, I saw Le Mans and the others. I feel like they’re coming over to cause trouble again!”

She looked tense.

Lin Zhiyan paused, expression calm. “If he wants to cause trouble, he’ll climb mountains and cross seas to do it.”

After saying that, she was even more nervous than Aiwen.

What she feared was Le Mans not coming over.

Lin Zhiyan had been camping for Le Mans for days already, but with her overloaded schedule, part-time jobs, and the gigantic campus, she simply hadn’t managed to run into him before now.

She’d grown up in District Sixteen knowing every trick in the book when it came to scams and hustles, but the art of reeling in a rich fool was still unfamiliar territory for her.

Since she couldn’t find him, and the elective courses were fast approaching, she’d become so anxious she’d developed two giant mouth ulcers.

Luckily, she’d learned yesterday that the Faculty of Finance had postponed one of their exams until after school started, which meant a bunch of students had been cramming in the library lately. Only then had she finally gotten her chance.

Sigh. They were all students at the same school, yet people could live like they existed in completely different parallel worlds, never crossing paths at all.

Money really did create reproductive isolation.

Lin Zhiyan silently sang this lament in her heart.

“Aiwen.”

A light, lilting voice drifted from afar.

It was Le Mans.

Aiwen let out a despairing sigh and looked at Lin Zhiyan.

Lin Zhiyan wiggled her eyebrows exaggeratedly, folding her arms and copying Le Mans’ arrogant expression—that haughty look where he never quite bothered to look people in the eye properly. Aiwen burst out laughing.

“You really nailed it,” she whispered.

“I’m talking to you.”

Le Mans’ voice sounded again, much closer this time.

He had already reached their table, with Li Siheng beside him.

Strangely enough, in terms of appearance, Li Siheng undoubtedly fit the description of a “beauty” more than anyone else. Yet he always resembled a jewel covered in dust and veils. Dimmed. Beside Zephi, he couldn’t compete with Zephi’s magnificently adorned elegance. Beside Le Mans, he was overshadowed again by Le Mans’ lively arrogance.

As she thought this, Lin Zhiyan leisurely admired Le Mans’ striking features beneath his reddish-brown hair, dotted with faint freckles.

She always felt like maybe there ought to be a pair of deer antlers or ram horns hidden in that hair—something suitable for his tendency to suddenly charge at people like a lunatic.

Her gaze was so unapologetically direct that Le Mans got visibly irritated under it.

“What are you staring at?” he snapped, brows knitting together. “There aren’t words written on my face.”

“Le Mans!” Aiwen stood up with the books. “Stop bothering her.”

“Who has time to bother someone like her?” Le Mans lifted his chin, thoroughly displeased, green eyes practically rolling white. “I’m telling you to move. I like this spot. I need to study.”

He slammed a stack of books onto the table.

“Okay, you guys can sit here.” Aiwen looked surprised, then hurriedly turned to Lin Zhiyan. “Let’s go.”

Le Mans frowned, about to speak, but Li Siheng spoke first.

“No need.”

Le Mans looked at him, only to find Li Siheng expressionless as ever.

“Let’s stay together,” Li Siheng said. “We happen to share this course, and I have some questions I wanted to ask you two.”

As he said this, he looked directly at Lin Zhiyan.

Lin Zhiyan smiled faintly and moved a pile of books aside. “Sure. After the freshman banquet, we haven’t really talked again. I’ve actually been pretty curious about how your ‘project’ has been going.”

Li Siheng sat down beside her.

Le Mans raised a brow and sat next to Aiwen.

The atmosphere instantly became rather delicate.

“I’ll attend the classes I’m supposed to attend,” Li Siheng said after a pause. “And if you need it, what I said that night still stands. You can come to me anytime.”

Le Mans arched a brow, his green eyes full of suspicion. “I didn’t realize you’d suddenly become such a saint.”

Li Siheng spoke mildly. “Yesterday I received the schedules for the electives. I realized she and I selected many of the same courses, but the required books for those classes are quite expensive. And since your relationship doesn’t seem as hostile as before, I thought that offering help might not offend you as much.”

Wow.

This guy really stirred up trouble at zero-frame startup speed.

On one hand, he was telling her: It’s only because Le Mans used to be too nasty that I couldn’t treat you kindly before.

On the other hand, he was hinting to Le Mans: She desperately needs money right now.

Looks like he really cared about losing first place after all.

Lin Zhiyan thought to herself.

Unexpectedly, Le Mans’ first reaction was confusion.

“She’s poor,” he said. “Did you really need a course schedule to figure that out?”

Li Siheng’s brows twitched slightly.

There was clearly subtext there—but unfortunately, the idiot didn’t catch it.

Lin Zhiyan found it genuinely funny.

After thinking for a moment, she decided to follow Li Siheng’s lead.

“So how exactly are you planning to help me?” she asked. “Transfer me money? Cash or card? Are you helping me right now?”

Li Siheng’s brows twitched again, clearly not expecting her to play along. Aiwen looked shocked, but even more shocked was Le Mans. His green eyes narrowed strangely.

“I didn’t expect someone who pretended to be so noble she wouldn’t even accept taxi fare to suddenly be willing to take money now,” he said. “Looks like those textbook fees really are expensive.”

“Taxi fare?” Li Siheng looked toward him.

But Le Mans kept staring at Lin Zhiyan, visibly dissatisfied. He felt that if she’d been willing to accept money, then a few days ago she shouldn’t have made him waste time personally driving her home.

“I refused your taxi money because I had nothing I could give you in return.” Lin Zhiyan looked at Li Siheng and smiled.

“But if I accept Li Siheng’s money, I can repay him. My papers, my grades, my assignments, first place rankings—whatever. I can even erase my own name entirely. Just like what you and Zephi wanted that night, right?”

Aiwen’s eyes widened. “That’s why they approached you that night?”

Le Mans’ lips parted slightly as he looked at Li Siheng.

After a few seconds, Li Siheng said quietly, “No. That was Zephi’s request, not mine.”

“That’s wonderful, then. How kind-hearted of you.” Lin Zhiyan smiled. “Maybe we could become friends. Maybe after we grow closer, you’ll run into some crisis only I can solve. Maybe once I see your difficulties, I’ll throw myself into helping you.”

She turned toward Le Mans.

“Looks like I really don’t have anything I can offer him in return, though. So I’ll have no choice but to refuse his money too. And now, I’m going to continue pretending to be noble and leave instead of sitting here listening to you two perform a comedy routine together. Goodbye.”

She picked up her books and walked away.

Le Mans called after her, but she didn’t even turn back. Instead, he turned toward Li Siheng.

“You people never discussed this with me.”

“I didn’t have those intentions, and she refused anyway. There wasn’t any point mentioning it,” Li Siheng replied, eyes lowered.

“Oh, really? A few days ago you were acting like Zephi screwed you over because of her, but now suddenly the story is all about Zephi being too cruel to you, while I’m just some idiot who heard rumors and went around bullying a commoner?”

Le Mans’ tone grew sharp, brows raised high.

“So you really did lose to her fair and square. It wasn’t the Cabinet faction pulling strings behind the scenes after all. Useless.”

There were many political factions inside the United Military-Political Academy, but the two main camps were the royalist faction and the cabinet faction.

The royalists supported restoring power to the royal family, returning to the old structure where the military answered only to royalty and corporate conglomerates could enter the royal council chamber through noble titles granted by the crown.

The cabinet faction, meanwhile, advocated reclaiming military authority, imposing heavy taxes on conglomerates, and weakening the influence of the royal family.

Under constitutional monarchy, the royal family’s power was supposed to have diminished.

But the reality was different.

After the world war caused by the global AI rebellion, the world established the United Technology Restriction Organization, collectively signing treaties to regulate and monitor advanced technologies worldwide.

The organization stipulated that heads of government had to submit requests for technological approvals at each conference before such technologies could be implemented.

At the time, the royal family had signed those agreements as the nation’s official heads of government.

Later, the country reformed its political system—but despite that, the royal family remained the only Ringstar representatives officially recognized by the organization as qualified attendees.

As a result, the cabinet government still viewed the royal family’s influence with deep wariness.

As a royalist supporter, Le Mans’ first instinct was naturally to suspect interference from the cabinet faction.

But now he discovered Li Siheng really had just lost fairly—and had even manipulated him into acting as a weapon in the process. Furious, flames practically burned in his green eyes as he stood up and stormed out.

He’d already decided that when he got home, he was going to chop down a few trees in the garden to vent his anger.

But the moment he exited the library, he spotted Lin Zhiyan.

She stood near the entrance, looking down at her terminal as though waiting for someone.

Le Mans walked up beside her and grumbled, “Even if you cling to Aiwen every day, she’s not going to spend money on you. The moment I find out she’s secretly supporting a poor parasite like you, I’m reporting it immediately!”

“So because I won’t accept your money, I’m not allowed to accept Li Siheng’s money or Aiwen’s money either?” Lin Zhiyan could tell there wasn’t any real seriousness in his words. She laughed softly. “That’s pretty overbearing.”

Unexpectedly, Le Mans almost laughed too, but forced himself not to.

“Why are you grinning at me?” he said. “Weren’t you just saying Li Siheng and I were putting on a double act to pressure you?”

“I did think that at first,” Lin Zhiyan said seriously. Then she added, “But—”

Le Mans immediately asked, “But what?”

Lin Zhiyan replied, “But I got a little curious about how the cat’s doing, so I decided not to pretend to be noble this time and waited here for you.”

“You were waiting for me?” Le Mans asked. A few seconds later he quickly added, “Who cares who you were waiting for? Anyway, Alexander’s doing great. I’ve been feeding him fresh meat every day, and his fur’s gotten much shinier.”

After a pause, he added, “I didn’t know anything about that kind of deal he mentioned. I don’t care about it either. So go ahead and keep acting noble if you want!”

Lin Zhiyan nodded. “Okay.”

Then she turned and started walking away.

Seeing her leave again, Le Mans suddenly felt dissatisfied for reasons he couldn’t explain.

“Where are you going?” he called out. “I already said I didn’t know anything about it. Believe me or not, whatever!”

Lin Zhiyan turned back. “I believe you.”

After thinking for a moment, she added, “If you had known, maybe you would’ve just slapped me in the face with money directly.”

“…No matter how much I look down on poor people, I don’t have that kind of fetish.” Le Mans snorted coldly before stepping closer to her. “Right now I only have one question for you.”

There was real seriousness in his eyes.

“Why did you have that deck of cards?”

Before, he’d assumed she had backing from the cabinet faction, and the cards were evidence.

But Li Siheng and Zephi trying to recruit her proved she genuinely had that level of ability. Yet she was obviously poor—so where had those cards come from? And why hadn’t she sold them to support herself?

Why was that deck of cards such a big deal anyway?

Still, this was difficult to explain. She couldn’t exactly drag Jiang Yi into the matter. And clearly, this question mattered deeply to Le Mans.

His green eyes were intent, like a snail cautiously extending its antennae toward her.

Apparently, he was hoping for a good answer.

Lin Zhiyan thought for a moment, lowered her eyes, and said softly:

“There’s more than one Li Siheng at this school.”

Le Mans’ green eyes trembled.

Several seconds later, he said, “Then your magic trick was aimed at exactly the right person. Too bad you didn’t throw it directly in their face.”

Lin Zhiyan’s lips curved slightly.

“Alright then, young master. Stop following me around. This poor person has to go earn money.”

“Stop right there. I didn’t say you could leave.” Le Mans lifted a hand and pressed it onto her shoulder. “Come work for me. I’ll pay you.”

Lin Zhiyan raised a brow. “What?”

Le Mans released her shoulder and walked ahead of her.

“If you want money, then follow me!”