My father is the main character, but the female leads want to kill me.

"Senior, what's wrong with you?"

101. To meet the conditions

Of course, Wen Qianyi did not voice her thoughts.

She waited until Mu Shishuang left with the hot water before pulling Lin Ran to a corner of the kitchen, looking up at Lin Ran, and asking in a low voice, "Senior, why did you suddenly let Shishuang go to work at the academy with you?"

"It's not that I'm suggesting Shishuang go to work..."

Lin Ran glanced at the doorway and explained in a low voice, "She came to me last night and said that she had been staying in this courtyard for too long and wanted me to take her out for some fresh air. She was also quite curious about what I usually do, so I simply took her for a stroll around the academy."

"Shi Shuang...it seems she really hasn't left this courtyard much..."

Wen Qianyi frowned slightly. It wasn't that she was particularly against Mu Shishuang going out, but it would be inconvenient for Lin Ran to take care of her if she went with Lin Ran.

“How about… let Shi Shuang come with me to the alchemy department? I’ve just finished refining all the pills I needed to, and it’s time for me to teach and answer students’ questions. Let her audit the classes, okay?” Wen Qianyi said softly.

"Hmm, won't this bother you?"

Lin Ran's eyes lit up. He grasped Wen Qianyi's slender hand and looked at her with reverence.

Wen Qianyi wore a gentle smile, casually brushing her hair behind her ear with her left hand, and said coquettishly, "Of course I won't bother you. On the contrary, I'm worried that having Shi Shuang with you will affect your work."

In fact, Wen Qianyi had her own ulterior motives for doing this; she had noticed some strange behavior from Mu Shishuang.

Although Mu Shishuang is not as crazy as she was at first, and it seems that her wild and crazy spirit has been tamed, old habits die hard. She was afraid that her senior would fall into a trap and be hurt again, so she made such a request.

"Then you can take it!"

Lin Ran breathed a sigh of relief. With Qianyi's help, he should be able to save some trouble. Every time he was with Mu Shishuang, she always managed to make him furious.

After breakfast, Mu Shishuang, who had already tidied up, was thinking of going to find Lin Ran when Wen Qianyi appeared beside her without her noticing.

Wen Qianyi looked at Mu Shishuang with a smile and said, "Senior, I have to go to the outer courtyard to handle some matters today, so it's not convenient for you to come along, Shishuang. Senior entrusted me to take you out for a look around, so how about I take you for a stroll around the inner courtyard today?"

"it is good!"

Mu Shishuang hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

She vaguely sensed Wen Qianyi's scrutiny of her; perhaps her little actions had been discovered?

No, probably not. But if the person isn't Lin Ran, what's the point of her trip? She's just trying to meet the conditions that will put Lin Ran at ease...

……

Because Fu Yuemei and the others need time to recover from their injuries, Lin Ran will not be able to train those children for a while. He can only go to the outer academy to participate in the inner academy selection competition to see if there are any good talents.

However, Qiu Qingzi invited him along to meet Yue Lei, the vice dean of Songling Academy, who had come to visit. Upon hearing the name of this old acquaintance, Lin Ran was also taken aback and subconsciously asked, "What's this guy doing here?"

"What can you do?!"

In the foreign language office, Qiu Qingzi, who casually put her legs on the desk, said with a look of disgust, "That guy just came to give us a heads-up beforehand. When the two sides team up, it'll all be the same as before!"

Qiu Qingzi had no good temper with Yue Lei; he was a cunning and wicked man.

Despite the cooperation between Songling Academy and Linghua Academy, Songling Academy often suffers the least loss and gains the most, while Linghua Academy is simply a victim of injustice.

"That's true, that kid is really bad!"

Lin Ran nodded and said.

He rubbed his chin, recalling the secret realm of the Mirror Moon Saint Emperor. Thanks to the cooperation of several parties, their Songling Academy did not suffer any major casualties. This kid, when he banded together, could be considered a grandmaster-level figure.

"Let's go, let's go meet them. Teaming up is fine, but they'll have to pay a price!"

Qiu Qingzi put down her long legs that were propped up on the table and walked away aggressively.

Seeing this, Lin Ran followed.

In the reception room of the outer courtyard, Yue Lei paced back and forth, his expression very serious, as if he was thinking about something.

Upon hearing the door open, Yue Lei hurriedly turned around. When he saw Qiu Qingzi and Lin Ran, the flesh on his large face bulged together, and he forced out a not-so-attractive smile, fawningly greeting them.

"Ah, it's actually Vice Dean Qiu and Vice Dean Lin who have come together! I'm overjoyed!"

As soon as Lin Ran entered, he saw Yue Lei squeezing in and was so startled that he leaned back. Looking at Yue Lei's fawning expression, he said, "Yue Lei, has anyone ever told you that your smile is really scary!"

Upon hearing Lin Ran's words, Yue Lei's expression froze, as if he had been frozen in place.

On the other hand, Qiu Qingzi was completely uninhibited, covering her mouth and letting out a silvery laugh.

Yue Lei finally realized that the other party was trying to give him a hard time today.

Yue Lei had also come to ask for a favor today. He chuckled a few times and changed the subject, saying, "Gentlemen, I have come to Linghua Academy today specifically to talk to you about the upcoming Continental Academy Competition!"

"Yue Lei, sit down first!"

Lin Ran patted Yue Lei on the shoulder and invited him to sit down. He and Qiu Qingzi sat opposite Yue Lei. Lin Ran chatted about this and that for a while, but Yue Lei managed to steer the conversation back to the Continental Academy Competition.

"The situation in this Continental Academy Competition is extremely serious, as I believe you two are aware of. Canglong Academy has contacted our academy privately, and I'm sure they've contacted you as well."

"They want the five major academies to unite, but we two, being the weaker ones, also need to band together so that the Azure Dragon Academy won't dare to underestimate us. So, you two..."

Yue Lei's words came out like beans, popping out one after another. His words were long, but the whole thing boiled down to just a few words: "Let's work together."

Yue Lei finished speaking, picked up the hot tea poured by the maid, and looked at Lin Ran and Qiu Qingzi with anticipation, hoping that Linghua Academy could join forces with their Songling Academy this time.

Qiu Qingzi glanced at Lin Ran, and seeing that Lin Ran didn't say anything, she kicked Lin Ran on the table.

Having received the signal, Lin Ran turned around and glanced at Qiu Qingzi, who was looking down. He cursed her inwardly, calling her a "cunning vixen." He wiped his face, his expression somewhat grave, and looked at Yue Lei, saying in a deep voice, "Yue Lei, I feel there are currently many obstacles to this cooperation. Why do I say that…?"

Then, Lin Ran talked for a long time, leaving Yue Lei and Qiu Qingzi a little confused. They felt as if Lin Ran had said a lot, but also as if she hadn't said anything at all.

But Yue Lei was an experienced veteran. After thinking it over, he realized that Lin Ran and the others wanted some benefits. For the sake of the children from Songling Academy who were going to participate in the competition, Yue Lei was willing to make a painful sacrifice, but he was also wondering if he could take less.

Thus began an invisible war between the two sides over how much to cut.

In the end, Comrade Yue Lei was defeated. He promised to deliver the supplies in a few days and then left in a sorry state.

Of course, Qiu Qingzi and Lin Ran still performed their etiquette very well, and even personally saw Vice Dean Yue Lei off.

Watching Yue Lei's hasty escape, the two exchanged a glance, couldn't help but smile, and tacitly reached out to give each other a sharp high five, saying in unison:

"Happy cooperation!"

……

Yue Lei's supplies were quickly delivered to Linghua City. Qiu Qingzi generously gave them all to Lin Ran to train the children. Lin Ran naturally made the most of these supplies, but it would require the teachers and students of the alchemy department to work together to refine medicine.

Fortunately, the alchemy department now has Ye Wanxi, a newly promoted fifth-level alchemist, as an external helper. As long as it's not a sixth-level pill, they can refine it with more than enough effort, and the quality is much higher than Xin Zhiqing's.

With the support of batches of pills, the ten children also experienced varying degrees of strength growth. Among them, Fu Yuemei, with the help of a fifth-grade Spirit Gathering Pill, successfully condensed a Spirit Pill and entered the Spirit Pill Realm. Moreover, she had studied the Flower Sect's inheritance and had Lin Chong sparring with her every night, so Fu Yuemei's combat power increased by a significant margin.

Moreover, the training during this period also made the ten children accept Lin Ran, and under Lin Ran's unintentional indoctrination of their ideas.

The more these children felt that Linghua Academy was their own home, the more some of them even thought about staying at the academy to teach students and cultivate more and better talents for the academy.

Of course, that's all in the future...

……

Recently, Wen Qianyi received another batch of alchemy tasks. After Lin Ran accompanied Wen Qianyi in dual cultivation to adjust her condition, Qianyi entered a secluded state for alchemy cultivation again.

And this task involving Mu Shishuang returned to his hands. Lin Ran originally thought it would be a headache, but Mu Shishuang was unexpectedly obedient, so obedient that she became almost invisible.

When he trained Fu Yuemei and others, he never made a sound. His teacup always contained tea, and the towel he used to wipe his sweat was always cold and clean.

It was obvious that Mu Shishuang was responsible for this. She was such a dutiful maid, which made him wonder what Mu Shishuang was up to.

One evening, Lin Ran went to Mu Shishuang's door. Seeing the dim yellow light in the room, he gently knocked and called out, "Shishuang, it's me, Lin Ran. May I come in?"

There was no immediate response, but he could hear some commotion inside, like someone was tidying up something. He waited patiently...

A moment later, the door suddenly opened, and Mu Shishuang's delicate, porcelain-doll-like face, bathed in moonlight, came into Lin Ran's view.

Unfortunately, while she looks quite beautiful, her eyes are like stagnant water. They don't have the cool and indifferent demeanor of Shangguan Mengqing; instead, they seem more like a state of confusion, aimlessness, and drifting along aimlessly.

"Sorry, I was packing my things!"

Mu Shishuang apologized, then stepped aside and said, "Come in!"

Lin Ran walked into the room and looked around. The room was clean and somewhat empty, but the flowers hanging on the walls and the flowers already placed there prevented the room from being too monotonous.

Mu Shishuang closed the door, walked to the table, and skillfully poured tea for Lin Ran, even filling the teacup to exactly two-thirds full.

Lin Ran sat down with an air of authority, frowned at Mu Shishuang standing to the side, and said, "What are you standing there for? Sit down, I want to talk to you!"

Mu Shishuang looked up at Lin Ran, then obediently sat down.

Lin Ran: "..."

You only listen when I speak bluntly, right? He suspected that Mu Shishuang had developed some strange personality traits because of him during this time.

……

102. Stand up straight!

"You've been acting strange lately, like a maid every day, it's really a bit..."

Lin Ran couldn't think of any words to describe it for a moment. His feelings for Mu Shishuang had always been complicated, but he still felt a little awkward treating Mu Shishuang as a maid.

"You...don't like it?"

A hint of confusion flashed in Mu Shi's eyes as she asked, somewhat puzzled.

"You didn't have to go to this extent... What I hope is that you can..."

Lin Ran paused, hoping that Mu Shishuang could return to her former self, but could she really do that?

"What do you hope for..."

Mu Shishuang's voice became more urgent; she wanted to know the answer.

"I hope you can let go of your hatred for me..." Lin Ran said.

"But I've already let it go!"

Mu Shishuang's voice was slightly higher than usual.