Zhou Xuan jogged over and kicked Zhao Wuya on the butt.
"Damn it, who dared... Oh, landlord, what are you doing here?" Zhao Wuya was ready to explode after the kick, but seeing it was Zhou Xuan, his anger vanished, replaced by a cheerful grin.
"I was about to ask you the same thing. Why aren’t you at the Old Painting Pavilion doing fortune-telling? What are you doing at the medical college?"
"I... I... Sometimes I have to do some fieldwork," Zhao Wuya stuttered, hurrying to finish reading the girl student’s palm.
After the girl walked away, Zhou Xuan pointed at her retreating figure and asked, "This is what you call fieldwork?"
"This place is the Dragon’s Rising Land of Mingjiang Prefecture, full of Dragon Qi. I’m here to gather Dragon Qi and cultivate incense offerings—not to flirt with girls. Besides, this is my first time here."
"Mr. Zhao, how come you haven’t come by in the past two days? My classmates have been waiting for you forever,"
another female student greeted Zhao Wuya.
"Busy, busy," Zhao Wuya said, waving and grinning obsequiously at the girl. After the girl left, he turned to Zhou Xuan and added, "Alright, fine. I came by once earlier. This is my second time."
Zhou Xuan squinted until his eyes nearly formed into slits, gritting his teeth as he said, "Ya Zi, fine, I’ll pretend to believe you."
"Hehe, I wasn’t lying. This really is the Dragon’s Rising Land of Mingjiang Prefecture."
Zhao Wuya continued, "Mingjiang Prefecture has the Ancestor Dragon. The Ancestor Dragon bestows blessings of Dragon Qi, and the Bone Elder Association is the top Tangkou in Mingjiang, receiving the most blessings. And Hui Feng Medical College, being their number one industry, naturally has the densest Dragon Qi."
"The Dragon Qi you’re talking about—white, right?" Zhou Xuan asked, noticing how Zhao Wuya’s attention was drifting toward the outdoor pool nearby as he spoke.
"White, definitely white... Uh, no! I, Zhao Wuya, have lived my life with Qing Feng-like integrity, upright and unyielding. I would never ogle women!"
Zhou Xuan gave Zhao Wuya a solid flick on the forehead. "Even while lying, you couldn’t resist checking out girls!"
"I wasn’t looking! I wasn’t looking! Just don’t go telling my Grand Master about this," Zhao Wuya howled while clutching his head, but then he noticed Zhou Xuan had suddenly frozen.
"Landlord? Landlord?"
Zhao Wuya called out twice, but Zhou Xuan didn’t respond. He reached out and waved his hand repeatedly in front of Zhou Xuan’s eyes.
"Oh, so he’s on a Day Trip."
Seeing that Zhou Xuan remained unresponsive, Zhao Wuya stayed put, wiping the Compass in his hand. After fiddling with it for a while and noticing Zhou Xuan was still in his trance, he got bored and turned back to the pool to watch the female swimmers.
Another hit landed on the back of Zhao Wuya’s head.
"Ya Zi! I left for a Day Trip while you were checking out girls, and when I came back, you’re still checking them out. Your eyes never rest—you’ll grow a sty sooner or later."
"I just started looking...!"
Zhao Wuya felt wronged, as if he were one of those unlucky students from Zhou Xuan’s past life. They’d focus on their homework most of the time, but the moment the TV was just turned on out of boredom—bam, their parents walked in.
"Landlord, what you saw—was it real?"
By now, Zhao Wuya and Zhou Xuan were walking together toward an odd research facility, talking about what Zhou Xuan experienced during his Day Trip.
"Of course it was real. I saw a colossal dragon head swimming through Hui Feng Medical College. That’s why I went on a Day Trip to chase after it, but after entering, the dragon head disappeared."
"How big was the dragon head?"
"About the size of an entire teaching building," Zhou Xuan said.
"Sounds kind of unbelievable. A dragon head that massive would qualify as a Big Dragon. Yet my fragrant compass didn’t pick up anything at all."
Zhao Wuya glanced at his fragrant compass, which remained completely still...