This news article detailed the incident that happened yesterday at the Rui Zhu Hotel, emphatically highlighting that the protagonist was a 17-year-old student from Qingcheng Affiliated Middle School, constantly praising him as a martial arts prodigy.
What made Xue Jing frown slightly was that the report explicitly mentioned his name without any concealment.
"Who knows which busybody went and blurted out your age, name, school, and even the fact that you are a disciple of our Hidden Dragon Dojo."
Chen Fuguang retrieved his phone, flipping through it with his fingers on the screen.
"— Fortunately, they don't have your photo, or maybe they do, but they seemed to care somewhat about portrait rights and didn't publish it."
"Little junior brother, you've become famous now,"
Chen Fuguang said with a smile.
"It's a bit troublesome," Xue Jing sighed.
Soon, trouble came.
The phone vibrated, ringing with the default tone, and Xue Jing glanced at the displayed number.
It was his sister, Xue Wan, calling.
Seeing this, Chen Fuguang mentioned he still had commissions to attend to and left.
Xue Jing returned to the training room and pressed the answer button.
"Hello, hello, hello~ woof, woof, woof?"
The familiar sound of a healthy dog barking came through the earpiece.
Xue Jing said with a laugh:
"What's up, sis?"
"Hmm? Is there anything you need to confess? Spit it out quickly," Xue Wan stated.
Xue Jing responded in surprise, "Huh? How did you find out that I ate all the spicy strips under your bed?"
There was a moment of stunned silence on the other end of the phone.
"How dare you touch my spicy strips, I'll come home in a taxi overnight and chop off your dog head!"
Xue Jing: "Wake up, you are the dog."
Xue Wan: "What are you talking about, woof."
"Enough with the nonsense, you almost had me dizzy there. Tell me quickly, what's this news about, hmm?"
Xue Jing said, "What else could it be? Just someone with the same name as mine. You know I've always disliked toying with knives and guns, probably couldn't even beat a Tyrannosaurus rex, obviously martial arts is not my thing..."
"Oh—," Xue Wan drew out her words, her tone filled with amusement.
"I didn't specify which piece of news, why are you explaining so much?"
Xue Jing chuckled: "You caught me there, alright, I confess, I am the martial arts prodigy."
Xue Wan exclaimed, "So you've actually been practicing martial arts? You really killed a monster?"
Xue Jing countered, "What else?"
There really wasn't anything worth hiding about practicing martial arts from his family, the only issue was that this kind of life-or-death struggle with monsters reported in the news might make them worry.
Xue Jing could only try to lighten the tone as much as possible.
"I see..."
On the other side of the phone, Xue Wan seemed to ponder something for a moment before continuing:
"Alright then, as long as I know that the person in the news is you. Little brother, now that you're famous, just don't get carried away,"
"And don't get too many girlfriends, five or six is enough, any more and you won't be able to handle them…"
Xue Jing spoke exasperatedly: "What are you talking about."
Xue Wan giggled and hung up the phone.
Xue Jing shook his head, put on his nebulizer inhaler, and started his medication.
But before long, his phone rang again.
This time it was an unknown number, and upon picking up, Xue Jing heard a voice he was quite familiar with.
"Hello, Xue Jing."
"Mr. Du?" Xue Jing asked in confusion.
The homeroom and Chinese language teacher of Qingcheng Affiliated Middle School's senior third-year Elite Class, Du Shiwei.
"Xue Jing, I just wanted to ask about the person in the news today..."
Xue Jing sighed and said, "It's me."
Du Shiwei chuckled satisfactorily, "I thought so, I was saying there isn't a second Xue Jing in Qingcheng Affiliated, surely it must be my student!"
He seemed to be speaking to people around him, a chorus of voices faintly echoed in agreement.
"That's all, I just wanted to check. I don't oppose you practicing martial arts, acquiring some extra skills during your spare time is good too, but make sure not to neglect your grades..."
Mr. Du's occupational habit kicked in, and he couldn't help but start lecturing after just a few words. Xue Jing could only respond with "Yes, yes, yes".
At the end, Mr. Du seemed to remember something and said:
"Oh, the school sports meet is starting in a few days, you haven't forgotten, have you?"
It was only when Mr. Du mentioned it that Xue Jing remembered he had agreed to participate in the running events at the sports meet.
He had actually forgotten about it.
"I've got it all remembered. Don't worry, teacher, I'll be there," Xue Jing said with a smile.
"Hmm, that's good," Mr. Du said, satisfied.
Xue Jing ended the call, but before long, his phone rang again.
This time, it was Li Ge calling.
For some reason, even though Xue Jing went to school for classes every few days, he felt like he hadn't seen Li Ge in a long time.
"Hey hey hey, Lord Jing, have you seen the news…"
Xue Jing: "Indeed, it's me."
...
That morning, Xue Jing answered four or five calls until he finally had some peace after talking to his mother, Nan Jiayu.
He rubbed his temples, slightly annoyed.
"I rather not find out who leaked my name to the media."
While using his nebulizer inhaler, Xue Jing picked up his phone and started browsing.
His news from last night about killing a monster was a minor hot search, recommended to everyone whose IP was located in Qingcheng.
He casually clicked on the hot search and saw that, besides the news reports, there was also an interview video.
After clicking the video, it showed a man with his shirt off, revealing a muscular torso. Both his and Xingtian's eyes were pixelated, and the voice was altered.
"That guy named Xue Jing is a direct disciple newly taken in by the Hidden Dragon Dojo. How formidable is the Hidden Dragon Dojo? It's not far behind our Tiger Soul Dojo."
"He and I were both hired for security this time. I even exchanged blows with him. As for the outcome? It was nearly a fifty-fifty split; I'd consider it a narrow defeat."
"That monster was a bad match for me, it completely countered me, so we split the tasks. He was responsible for smashing that beast, and I was in charge of protecting the people... Not protecting well? No way, that thing was so fierce, only a few people died, we were actually lucky… "
After watching the video, Xue Jing was speechless.
This was clearly Tiger Soul Dojo's Li Zhaoquan, that bastard...
"Little Junior Brother, Little Junior Brother!"
Suddenly, a lively young girl's voice came from outside the training room.
Before long, footsteps approached, and Zhu Shanying pushed the door open and walked in.
"There's a commission specifically asking for you, and it pays really well."
The young girl said with a smile on her face.
Xue Jing raised an eyebrow, "What kind of commission?"
"Sparring!"
...
Meanwhile, in a hidden basement in the South City district,
Next to a huge sky-blue insect nest, Jiao Hongyuan looked at the news on his phone and frowned:
"'Number One' was actually killed by a seventeen-year-old high school student?"
"To have such a genius in Qingcheng, comparable to Chengxuan? At seventeen, Chengxuan would probably have a hard time defeating 'Number One'."
Standing next to him, Duan Kaiping said flatteringly, "That's different; when Little Senior Brother was seventeen, he had only been practicing martial arts for a short while. The person in the news must have been secretly trained by the Hidden Dragon Dojo for a long time, aiming to make a shocking debut."
Jiao Hongyuan nodded.
"Forget it, it doesn't matter. Although it didn't meet the expected effect, at least a few people died, which is like sounding a warning bell to the Governing Council."
Jiao Hongyuan put away his phone and casually asked:
"How is 'Number Nine' doing?"
Duan Kaiping swallowed hard, his eyes showing fear: "It ate Number Seven last night... It has only been born for ten days, but its growth rate is too fast."
Jiao Hongyuan nodded with satisfaction, "Number Nine seems to already be the most cost-effective perfect specimen so far. Going forward, all our feeding production should temporarily be based on Number Nine."
"Find a time to let Number Nine make an appearance too... The high school student in the news is from Qingcheng Affiliated Middle School, right?"
"That school is the best high school in Qingcheng. If something happens there... perhaps it could significantly increase the support rate for that 'bill'..."
...
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