Ziye felt an inexplicable chill emanating from Tang Wen, and she quickly looked toward Blan, seeking a lifeline in the social currents. To her dismay, Blan acted as if he hadn't heard anything and returned to his cello.

How annoying, deserting a teammate!

Ziye silently gave Blan a failing grade in her mind.

Her only solace was that after spending a night together, she was no longer quite so afraid of Tang Wen. Facing his cat-and-mouse gaze, she mustered her courage and asked, "Will you tell me?"

Tang Wen smirked: "No."

The resort offered exceptional living conditions, particularly its relaxing atmosphere—hot springs, music, and various recreational facilities for them to enjoy at their leisure. The trio stayed at the resort until Sunday, then returned together to Kelaï's research institute.

The duel was over. Ziye no longer had to endure grueling daily practice, but she still had to make up for a month of missed lessons. Upon arriving at Kelaï's, she politely declined Blan's offer to drive her back, opting to pilot her own shuttle to the school.

Once there, she suddenly remembered she still had a shuttle parked at Lings...

Ziye shrugged, reasoning contentedly that the institute had an inexhaustible supply of shuttles; one more or one less made no real difference.

At that moment, she was completely unaware that some unpleasant events had transpired at Lings during the two days of her "disappearance."

Her public duel with Meijing had been witnessed not only by the people of Lings but also by many faculty and students from Kaja. Among them were several sharp-eyed individuals who instantly recognized the issue with Meijing.

When Meijing first made his move, the system had not been fully adjusted. If Meijing was a genius in that area, it was not entirely impossible that he had managed to sort out the system in such a short time.

Therefore, while some people questioned his system problem, they kept silent without proof. However, Meijing made a mistake: after the duel concluded, he forgot to delete the system, which the school authorities subsequently discovered.

If the school had found out, it would have remained an internal Lings matter at most. But someone had posted a clip of Meijing using the wrist blade online, accompanied by a Lings model specification sheet. The headline, splashed in bold red, read: When did the Lings Model Get Equipped with a Wrist Blade?

Although the headline mentioned a wrist blade, the content directly pointed fingers at the Lings administration: If even a minor duel cannot be fair and just, what honor does Lings retain?

Furthermore, the Mecha Forum had analyzed every detail of the Lings Model and even provided detailed annotations of the fight between the two, explicitly pointing out Meijing's cheating behavior. Suddenly, the cheating scandal in the Lings duel became common knowledge.

Lings, ranked among the top hundred prestigious schools, had always attracted intense scrutiny and fiercely guarded its reputation, never allowing negative news to tarnish its name. For such an incident to erupt, causing widespread controversy, the topic had already escalated over two days into a discussion about the decline of Lings—believed to be the first step toward its self-destruction...

In response to this event, the Lings University official Crisis Management Team reacted with maximum speed, holding a press conference to apologize to the public and downplaying the duel as merely a new round of test trials based on the original confrontation.

The annual Lings Model upgrade was imminent, and the wrist blade was being considered as a new accessory, something they simply wanted to test for qualification. Both duel participants knew about this.

To prevent Ziye from exposing this narrative, they had emailed Tang Wen overnight and sent another message via SuperCom. Receiving no reply from Tang Wen, they tacitly assumed his agreement.

Privately, the Crisis Management Team swiftly located the mastermind, Du Shuangyu, and notified his father.

Father Du was furious, his lungs nearly bursting. He made an immediate decision, instructing the Crisis Management Team to suppress the matter and assuring them he would provide a satisfactory resolution.

That day, Father Du revoked Meijing's reserve status and initiated a series of cooperative actions to distance Meijing from Du Shuangyu, successfully extracting his son from the fallout.

Du Shuangyu, meanwhile, was still throwing antique objects around his room.

His original plan was to have Meijing defeat Ziye in the duel, utterly crushing her, and then he himself would defeat Meijing, thereby establishing himself as the undisputed strongest.

But man proposes, heaven disposes. Meijing's duel not only failed to knock Ziye down but instead propelled her skyward, leaving Meijing disgraced.

Father Du, unable to tolerate seeing his favorite treasures smashed, personally confined him. He berated him: "Look at yourself! How old are you? Don't you know what you should and shouldn't do?! Do you know there are elements in the Kaja military who have looked unfavorably upon our family for a long time? If they seized this opportunity to strike, what would you do! Can you bear that responsibility!"

Du Shuangyu stubbornly turned his face away and declared, word by word: "I! Am! Unwilling!"

Father Du was so enraged that he slapped him across the face with a sharp smack.

The atmosphere instantly froze.

Du Shuangyu was stunned by the blow.

Father Du had struck with considerable force; Ziye's delicate skin instantly showed four bright red finger marks on his face. He stared at his father in disbelief: "You... you actually hit me?"

Father Du roared: "I raised you, I bore you—why shouldn't I hit you?"

"Fine, fine..." Du Shuangyu turned and rushed toward the door. Seeing his intent, Father Du commanded from inside the room, "Lock the main door! Do not let Shuangyu step out even half a step!"

Du Shuangyu raced downstairs only to watch the massive door close right in front of him. Enraged, he kicked it, but the door was constructed of extremely heavy metal alloy. Not only did he fail to kick it open, but the impact sent a sharp ache up his leg.

He punched the door in frustration, "Even you have to bully me?"

Father Du descended from upstairs, his face grim. "Bully you? Nonsense! Do you know that these past few days, I've been asking your grandfather to send people to speak with Tang Wen, trying to get you accepted as his disciple? We finally made some headway, and you ruined it all yourself! Who do you blame!"

Du Shuangyu's face was still burning, and he retorted petulantly, "I don't need Tang Wen now! I don't care about him!"

"You know nothing!" Father Du was too angry to speak clearly. "If you don't sort yourself out, you're forbidden to leave from now on!" With that, he swept out of the room.

About five or six minutes later, Father Du boarded a shuttle and departed from the rooftop.

Du Shuangyu sat by the door, contemplating silently for a while, deciding he could not surrender like this. He thought for a moment, returned to his room, and pulled out a power device hidden under the bed. He plugged it into the socket and pushed the power output to its maximum.

In a domestic circuit, excessive power automatically triggers a system shutdown.

After the power system shut down, Du Shuangyu used physical force to pry open the window and climbed out.

Cruising through the space station in his maglev car, he noticed that every virtual screen he passed was displaying the promotional film Ziye had shot. It turned out that after the cheating in the duel was exposed, Lings had immediately pulled down all related videos and put up the promotional film to set the record straight.

The more Du Shuangyu watched, the angrier he became. If he had been carrying a weapon, he would have shot the virtual screens down without hesitation. The more successful Ziye became, the more unbearable it was for him; it had almost become an obsession—he had to bring her down!

Meijing’s reputation was ruined and clearly unusable now.

He considered the situation and thought of a highly suitable candidate: Gemini!

For Gemini to join the Lings military, she needed Du Clan's approval—a point he could easily use to threaten her. Second, Gemini was a good friend of Ziye.

What would it feel like if Ziye were stabbed in the back by Gemini?

Du Shuangyu thought about it with near-excitement and impatiently found Gemini’s SuperCom, summoning her under the guise of military business.

To ensure secrecy, Du Shuangyu chose the highest-security location in the space station: the Lings Sky Pavilion for their meeting.

Facing Gemini's suspicious gaze, Du Shuangyu suppressed the anger he felt toward Ziye and adopted a serious tone. "Actually, I asked you out to tell you that your recent performance has been merely satisfactory. It will be difficult for you to pass the military assessment."

Gemini maintained her composure: "Thank you for letting me know." She then deliberately fell silent.

Du Shuangyu had expected her to ask for more, but since she remained quiet, he had to speak first: "I have an assessment. If you can pass it, you can bypass the military assessment directly. Are you willing to accept?"

Gemini's face remained impassive: "Please elaborate."

Du Shuangyu squinted slightly, studying her expression, but Gemini was naturally stoic, and he couldn't discern anything no matter how hard he looked. He feigned a sigh: "I know you are Ziye's friend. This assessment might put you in a difficult position."

Gemini stood up abruptly and saluted: "No matter what the assessment is, I will do my best to complete it!"

Du Shuangyu finally regained a shred of self-satisfaction. "Good, it's settled then. I will notify you as soon as there is anything."

Gemini seemed slightly surprised: "What do I need to do?"

Du Shuangyu looked at her, carefully choosing his words: "This assessment is long-term; it requires careful, gradual planning. Just wait for my notification."

Gemini paused thoughtfully: "Understood."

Du Shuangyu left, satisfied.

He had been furious just moments ago, but now he was smiling broadly.

However, he still lacked a foolproof strategy for how exactly to bring Ziye down.

Once he figured it out, hmph...

Gemini watched his retreating back with a slight smirk: "Trying to use me against Ziye? Heh." She hesitated briefly, wondering if she should inform the Captain.

Ziye was someone An Junlie had specifically instructed to be protected.

If anyone posed a threat to Ziye, both ethically and logically, she ought to notify An Junlie. However, after some thought, she decided against alerting the enemy prematurely; it wouldn't be too late once she knew his concrete plan of action.

Ziye returned to her apartment and opened her optical computer. It held nearly a dozen emails, including messages from Lingyin and greetings from Aixbent and Li Chunyu.

"Ziye, look quickly! Someone posted your duel video online. That damned Meijing actually cheated! I'm going to flame him to death!"

"Ziye, you let that guy off too easily; you didn't even say anything. Hey, where have you been? Give us a sign!"

"What about the victory celebration we planned? Are you sneaking off?"

"..."RS