The Useless Beauty Who Went Viral Across the Stars - Chapter 4

Under the dim sky, those golden pupils looked exceptionally eye-catching… and exceptionally striking.

Lin Qiansheng hid half his body beneath a black umbrella, his spiritual power perfectly concealed.

Without the support of his spiritual power, his vision grew blurry. Even so, he could still feel that the owner of those golden pupils was casting a gaze of extreme oppression directly at him.

Yet he did not avoid the gaze of the pupil’s owner. Instead, he raised his head and smiled slightly, neither humble nor overbearing, carrying himself with natural grace, showing no abnormalities whatsoever.

That bone-chilling killing intent vanished into thin air, so fast that Wang Xin almost thought it was an illusion. Wang Xin was stunned for a moment before sensing something was wrong, and hurriedly turned back, staring fixedly at the two figures who had suddenly appeared.

Among the two, an elderly man with neatly combed silver hair and wearing a tailcoat was holding a black umbrella upright for the young man with a cold aura beside him.

The man looked to be only twenty-five or twenty-six. A well-tailored black military uniform adorned with golden tassels outlined his slender, straight figure. A gentle breeze lifted the black fringe on the man’s forehead, revealing a pair of deep pupils.

Wang Xin’s pupils dilated: “Lu… Admiral?”

Lu Xincheng, the empire’s Admiral, was also a legendary household name across their empire.

He entered the army at sixteen, and in less than a year of piloting a mecha, he single-handedly defeated an enemy fleet’s attack during a surprise raid by interstellar pirates, making a name for himself in a single battle!

Afterward, he took a hardline approach to integrate the empire’s three armed services, assumed the post of Army Admiral, and became the actual person in power within the military. His prestige and status in the empire were unquestionable.

The family behind Wang Xin also held a certain amount of power within the empire, yet within the vast intelligence network controlled by his family, Lu Xincheng’s background was completely blank.

Minor rumors claimed that Lu Xincheng’s origin was related to the royal family. If the news were true, it explained why no background could be found. Of course, even if the news were false, the power held by his family was completely insignificant in front of Lu Xincheng.

His family had always entertained the idea of making contact with Lu Xincheng, but Lu Xincheng’s whereabouts were mysterious; he spent year-round periods lingering on the front lines and rarely appeared in the Imperial Capital, leaving them with no opportunity. Until recently, rumors circulated that Lu Xincheng might attend the funeral of the Star Sea Academy’s Vice Dean. The family elders, having received the news immediately, ordered him to attend the funeral no matter what.

And this was precisely his true purpose today.

He just hadn’t expected to actually run into him today…!! If he could truly establish a good relationship, his status within the family might rise significantly!

Unable to suppress his inner excitement, Wang Xin aggressively shoved Lin Qiansheng aside and plastered himself in front of the man with a plastered smile: “I’ve long heard of Admiral Lu’s great name. I wonder if you have any impression of Wang Junyong?”

The young man was already fragile by nature, and being shoved aside like this caused the pale skin under his sleeve to turn directly red, bringing a burning sensation of pain at the slightest movement.

However, at this moment, not only was Lin Qiansheng not angry, he was actually somewhat pleased, hoping only that Wang Xin would draw the man’s gaze away from him.

Yet the man’s attention did shift, but only partially. He did not look away, continuing to gaze at Lin Qiansheng.

Under this gaze, Lin Qiansheng maintained his outward calm. Beneath that calm surface, however, the knuckles holding the umbrella handle turned slightly white from excessive force.

Lu Xincheng silently stared at the silver-haired youth. With his identity and status, he had seen no shortage of handsome men and women, but the very first moment he walked over, his gaze was captured by the youth’s exceptionally striking appearance.

And… although it was completely different from the ordinary, plain young man buried deep within his memories, for a fleeting second, he felt a familiar aura from the youth.

Yet it was only for a second. When he released his spiritual power to probe, he only sensed a very faint and unfamiliar spiritual fluctuation from the youth, completely different from that person.

The scene before his eyes overlapped and grew dark. The smell of blood drifted into the tip of his nose, and his throat felt stuck, unable to draw breath. Just as Lin Qiansheng was about to reach his limit, Lu Xincheng finally withdrew his gaze, turning it indifferently toward Wang Xin—or more precisely, toward the sword brooch pinned to Wang Xin’s chest, entwined with briar roses.

Connecting this with the name Wang Xin had just mentioned, Lu Xincheng slightly narrowed his double pupils: “…People from the Judiciary Court?”

Seeing this, Wang Xin quietly breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said with a smile, “My father is indeed a member of the Judiciary Court.”

As soon as those words fell, a judgmental gaze landed on him. Those icy, golden-(gilded) pupils seemed capable of piercing through the treacherous fog and discerning everything.

Invisible oppression filled the surrounding air, and cold sweat continuously dripped from his forehead. Wang Xin didn’t even dare to make eye contact with the man.

It wasn’t until an unknown moment that the oppressive weight lessened. Wang Xin gritted his teeth, still not daring to move a muscle, until the hem of a pair of trousers entered his field of vision. Only then did he raise his head in a panic; by this time, Lu Xincheng had already left, leaving behind only the silver-haired elder holding the black umbrella, who smiled faintly at him: “Young Master Wang, the General is busy. If you have anything else to say, please discuss it another time.”

Hearing that, it was clearly an excuse, but even as an excuse, there was nothing he could do about it. The corner of Wang Xin’s eye twitched, and he managed to squeeze out a faint smile.

Yet he was still somewhat unwilling, and before the elder left, he couldn’t help asking, “Wait a minute…”

“Young Master Wang.” However, the elder did not give Wang Xin a chance to speak, interrupting him firmly with a smile: “Those who know times are wise are heroes; the General hates people who endlessly pester him the most.”

“On this point, I think you might want to learn a thing or two from Mr. Lin beside you.”

Wang Xin’s pupils constricted slightly, evidently not expecting the elder to utter such words.

Lin Qiansheng? Want him to learn from that good-for-nothing trash who was useless except for his face? Are you kidding me?!

The elder took in Wang Xin’s emotional shift clearly and shook his head nonchalantly. As the Admiral’s adjutant, he was naturally well-versed in all kinds of intelligence large and small across the empire, so he instantly recognized the identities of Wang Xin and the youth beside him.

Especially that young man.

Mecha research and maintenance data were massive, and memory alone was insufficient to handle them fully; one had to rely on their own spiritual power.

People capable of serving as teachers, even without explicit demands, had spiritual power and physical fitness at least above the level of ordinary people.

Yet Lin Qiansheng, despite having F-grade spiritual power, was able to perfectly memorize the locations of any parts in mecha maintenance and point out problems with a single glance.

For a disability-level spiritual power, this was practically impossible to achieve.

Although in the broader environment, the grades of spiritual power and physical fitness were closely tied to social status, their General valued talent above all else.

Compared to Wang Xin, who could only enter the mecha academy through family connections, the quiet and capable Lin Qiansheng gave the elder a much better impression.

Having finished speaking, the elder left at a leisurely pace.

Watching the elder’s retreating figure, Wang Xin clenched his fists. He took a few deep breaths to suppress the unwillingness in his heart, turned around, and discovered that Lin Qiansheng was nowhere to be found.

“Where did he go?!” The pent-up breath Wang Xin had been holding could no longer be contained, and disregarding etiquette, he roared out.

“Young Master, Lin Qiansheng has already left,” a hurried subordinate answered with trembling steps.

Thinking of Lin Qiansheng’s response and the elder’s words just now, the veins on Wang Xin’s forehead bulged, his expression savage.

Once tomorrow’s evaluation report came out, even if Lin Qiansheng knelt down and begged him, he would never give Lin Qiansheng a chance to stay at the school!

Kicking away his subordinate beside him with one foot, Wang Xin wore a dark expression and left in anger.

The rain was still drizzling down, and the sky had grown completely dark. No one noticed that someone had approached the coffin.

Lu Xincheng stood before the coffin. On the coffin covered in white flowers, a blue hyacinth stood out exceptionally clearly.

Lu Xincheng lowered his head. In his hand, he was holding a bouquet of blue flowers. Gazing at that splash of deep blue, he recalled how, a long time ago when meeting a professor, the elderly man had half-jokingly said that if he passed away, he hoped hyacinths would appear at his funeral.

Not many people knew that hyacinths were the professor’s favorite flowers. Besides, even if they knew, people generally followed customs and offered white flowers at a funeral.

The man’s expression was cold. For some reason, the silver-haired youth’s face flashed across his mind…

Placing the blue hyacinth in his hand beside the other flower, he stepped backward and merged into the darkness.

Taking advantage of the moment when Lu Xincheng was distracted by Wang Xin, Lin Qiansheng smiled politely at the elder, then walked away without mercy.

If others knew that someone encountered the empire’s legend and walked away without even saying hello, they would practically have to clean out their ears, suspecting they had heard a joke. That was Lu Xincheng, the idol of the entire empire, whom countless people dreamed of catching a glimpse of!

It wasn’t until he boarded the maglev train leaving the Imperial Capital and made sure Lu Xincheng could no longer perceive this side that Lin Qiansheng released his spiritual power once more.

He hadn’t expected to run into that person at the funeral.

“Tch, what terrible luck.” On the train, someone sitting beside him shouted irritably.

Just now, because he lacked the assistance of spiritual power, Lin Qiansheng hadn’t recognized the person next to him. Hearing the voice, he turned his head. A black-haired boy wearing a white hoodie and wired earphones, eyes closed in rest, was sitting to his left.

Looking at the boy’s appearance, Lin Qiansheng very rarely felt an emotion known as a headache.

“Lu Jing?”

The boy slowly lifted his eyelids. On his fair face was a pair of pretty, deep green cat-like eyes. Hearing his name, Lu Jing gave an impatient ‘tch’ and glared coldly at Lin Qiansheng.

He seemed extremely displeased to see Lin Qiansheng here.

Lu Jing was a student in his class and had always held some opinions against him. If he had a choice, Lin Qiansheng wouldn’t want to bump into the other party here either.

After all, Lu Jing was also the youngest and most favored Fifth Prince of the imperial family, though this identity was known to only a tiny fraction of people within the academy.

And he happened to be one of that tiny fraction.

Compared to Wang Xin, Lu Jing was clearly much more troublesome.

Today truly felt like a bad day to go out.

Lu Jing slanted his eyes at him and said with snide sarcasm, “I say, Teacher, the evaluation results come out tomorrow, aren’t you scared?”

Perhaps because his emotional fluctuations earlier had been too intense, a sudden, abrupt pain flared up in his chest. Lin Qiansheng frowned slightly, yet still maintained a gentle surface: “Not scared. I’ll leave it to fate.”

Lu Jing looked at Lin Qiansheng’s frail, shattered-bone appearance and grew even more annoyed.

Actually, back at school, Lin Qiansheng’s teaching quality wasn’t bad at all; one could even say it was top-tier. Almost all students in the Maintenance Department changed their perspective on Lin Qiansheng after attending his practical training classes.

But he was different—he simply found Lin Qiansheng displeasing.

Being sick every day like he was about to die the next moment, staying home to rest instead of teaching classes!

The voices of the two drew the attention of others on the train. Quite a few people froze slightly upon seeing Lin Qiansheng’s appearance. Some girls even had their eyes light up, pulling out their terminals wanting to take pictures. However, halfway through the action, Lu Jing sneered with a weird smile and looked over coldly: “What are you snapping photos of? This person is a teacher at the mecha academy.”

Mecha academy teachers enjoyed certain privileges; unless granted personal permission, the law strictly prohibited secret photography and uploading it online.

Hearing the boy’s words, most people hurriedly withdrew their gazes, and the girls regretfully put away their terminals, though curious eyes still darted back and forth between the two from time to time.

Having solved the minor trouble, the originally irritated mood finally calmed down a bit. But when Lu Jing turned his head and saw Lin Qiansheng sitting quietly as if everything had nothing to do with him, his anger flared up again.

Did he even know how striking that face of his was? What if some malicious person uploaded it online and caused trouble??

Right then, the train arrived at the station. Lu Jing gnashed his teeth, stood up abruptly, and pulled off the hood of his white hoodie, revealing a fair, slightly baby-faced, cute and innocent face.

Yet despite looking innocent, just before getting off the train, he put his hands on his hips and lashed out with a sharp tongue: “Wait until the results come out tomorrow, and just wait to get kicked out! Get lost back home to treat your illness properly, and stop hurting my eyes at school every day!”

With a loud bang, the train doors closed, cutting off Lu Jing’s voice outside.

In an instant, he became the center of attention of the crowd.

With various strange gazes cast from all directions, the youth who genuinely only wanted to keep a low profile maintained an expressionless face and chose to ignore them.

The main reason he chose to become a teacher at the mecha academy was precisely because he didn’t have to worry about photos spreading widely on the internet. Let them look if they wanted; it wouldn’t chunk off any meat anyway.

Though a small interlude had occurred, the rest of the journey went without further accidents. By the time the train reached its final stop, it was already evening. Lin Qiansheng pushed open his front door; the living room with its cold lighting and minimalist decor was completely empty. His attending physician wasn’t home, making the house feel somewhat desolate.

Having exhausted too much spiritual power, after eating a meal in fatigue and seeing the clock hit ten, Lin Qiansheng chose to go to sleep.

Unlike the youth’s desolate home, tonight the Star Sea Mecha Academy forum was exceptionally lively.

Because at midnight tonight, the official website of the Star Sea Mecha Academy would announce the results of this year’s teacher evaluations.

Inside the Star Sea Academy boys’ dormitory, Zhang Zhou sat anxiously at his desk, waiting for the teacher evaluation grades to drop.

Ever since class ended, he had felt increasingly uneasy.

Previously when he ranted furiously against Lin Qiansheng on the school forum, he always assumed the people cursing him out were just lookism-obsessed girls. It wasn’t until he specifically investigated this afternoon that he discovered the people cursing him were actually mostly students from the Maintenance Department.

It seemed that the students in the Maintenance Department all had a good impression of Lin Qiansheng, and rumor had it that Lin Qiansheng’s teaching standard was even higher than some teachers with spiritual power above B-grade.

Coupled with the powerful spiritual power he perceived in the auditorium during the day, Zhang Zhou felt more and more that something was amiss. He casually brought it up in his online chat group, and to his surprise, someone replied saying: Maybe your teacher is just acting weak, but is actually super strong in spiritual power!

Ha? He refused to believe it. Could that piece of trash really be some hidden hermit master?

The two factions held their ground, neither willing to yield. In the end, someone suggested a brilliant idea—let’s look at the results of this teacher evaluation!

Although spiritual power fluctuations could occur, they would at most fluctuate by one grade. With Lin Qiansheng’s F-grade spiritual power, even with fluctuations, he definitely couldn’t pass the evaluation. But if he could pass, then it would be a completely different story—perhaps he really was some hidden big shot!

If the online friends won, Zhang Zhou would have to go specifically to apologize to Lin Qiansheng; if Zhang Zhou won, gifts were getting smashed right then and there!

Egged on by a bunch of friends in the group, Zhang Zhou acted on a hot-headed impulse and agreed.

Barely half an hour after agreeing, he instantly regretted it.

Although he didn’t believe it, what if… what if he really passed? Did he actually have to go apologize to the Lin Qiansheng he looked down upon the most??

Thus, Zhang Zhou was extremely conflicted.

On one hand, he hoped the results would drop; on the other hand, he worried about losing the bet.

Lin Qiansheng was already a “celebrity” in the school, and the number of students, teachers, and even off-campus individuals paying attention to this matter was by no means small. Even Lu Jing, who kept saying the outcome was certain, sneakily climbed out of bed at eleven-thirty.

Among those waiting, some were worried, while others were simply ready to watch the drama unfold and enjoy the show. Second by second, time ticked away. Amidst the anxious waiting of thousands upon thousands of people across the school, with a crisp click, the clock hand turned to twelve, and the evaluation results were published right on time.

Not long after, the school forum exploded.

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