Inside the arena, Rongrong took the simple flower and asked, "Why was everyone given a blue flower?"
Master glanced at the flower in everyone's hand and explained, "The flower is the most common flower in the Empire; it represents love. The audience is to give their flowers to the academy they are supporting."
Hongjun, who is behind Rongrong, then sneezes from smelling his flower, causing Rongrong's flower to be blown out of her hand and lost.
On the stage, Salas is chosen to draw the names of the teams that will be participating against each other in the first rounds.
He does so in an ostentatious way, and Shrek ends up going against the second team of the Imperial Academy for their first round.
In their waiting room, Shrek is minorly annoyed with having to face Imperial Academy first, and Flender decides to give them a goal: defeat them in one minute.
The teams are then called on stage, with Imperial Academy getting a grand announcement and posing, much to Flender's annoyance, who complains about sponsors.
Xiao Yi, Rongrong, Oscar, Zhuqing, and Hongjun are not participating in the round.
While Ma Hongjun and Oscar joined the audience and cheered for their teammates, causing many around them to criticize them.
Over 20,000 flowers are then thrown on the Imperial Academy's side, showing the crowd's support of them while Shrek has 0. The leader of the Imperial Academy then makes a big show of jumping on the stage.
'I should stroll around and deal with my matters; there is no need for me to participate in the children's games.'
Xiao Yi thought to himself, and then, looking at the Shrek and Heaven Dou second teams fighting, he turned around and left the audience area.
Just walking outside the Shrek waiting area, his footsteps halted, looking at the three familiar figures standing in front of him.
"Xiao boy, follow me; I want to say something to you." Meng Shu spoke directly with a solemn expression on his face; Chao Tianxiang and Meng Yiran also glanced at him silently.
Xiao Yi startled hearing his words and then glanced at the three of them with a thoughtful look on his face.
'Interesting, he wants to settle it,' Xiao Yi thought intriguingly, and then he nodded, looking at the Meng Shu, and followed them toward their waiting room.
After a while,
Inside the private room,
Meng Shu sighed, looking at the calm expression on Xiao Yi's face.
'I have to admit this little guy is really courageous.'
He thought and then walked forward, clenching his fist along with the staff handle toward Xiao Yi, and spoke,
"Friend Xiao Yi, I apologize for attacking you that day. I want you to forget the grudge between us. That day something unfortunate happened twice, which affected my judgment and annoyed me."
Meng Yiran and Chen Tianxiang were surprised; they didn't expect Meng Shu to salute toward Xiao Yi, but they didn't say anything, just looking at Xiao Yi and waiting for his reaction.
Xiao Yi startled, seeing him apologizing while saluting, and then fell silent, looking at Meng Shu calmly.
Meng Shu raised his brow, seeing the silent expression on Xiao Yi's face.
'It seems this little guy is also stubborn; if it weren't for my granddaughter, I wouldn't apologize to a little kid like him, hmph.'
A thought flashed through Meng Shu's mind, and he snorted in his heart, and he then sighed, raised his hand, released a soul bone from his ring, which appeared in his palm, and passed it toward Xiao Yi and spoke,
"This is the left leg bone, which I kept for my granddaughter originally; now you can take it as a compensation. Also, I am willing to do anything for you once the prerequisite is that it must be according to my capacity."
Xiao Yi raised his brow, looking at the soul bone in his hand, and then glanced at Meng Shu's solemn and sincere face.
He then glanced at Meng Yiran, who was silent from the beginning, not caring about the soul bone.
Xiao Yi nodded and sighed, grabbing the soul bone from the Meng Shu hand and speaking solemnly,
"I originally wanted to kill you, but your apology saved your life."
After speaking, he ignored them, turned around, and walked away, leaving the private room decisively.
"Rude guy, he is still acting arrogantly. Grandpa, you shouldn't have apologized."
Meng Yiran spoke, feeling annoyed by Xiao Yi's reaction, her brows furrowed tightly, looking at his back.
Meng Shu shook his head, sighed in relief, and replied, "Yiran, remember, don't take any grudge lightly, whether it's small or large, because grudges can transform into disaster at any moment. Either remove the grudge or remove the enemy, but do it at any cost."
Then he patted the shoulder of Meng Yiran; in return, she nodded and replied understandingly,
"Grandpa, I understand,"
On the other hand,
Xiao Yi returned to the waiting room of Shrek Academy, looking at Tang San and the others who returned.
"Congratulations on your one-minute victory,"
Xiao Yi congratulated them, looking at them; everyone nodded in return with a smiling expression.
"Brother Xiao, where were you?" Ma Hongjun then asked, looking at him thoughtfully,
Xiao Yi glanced at him and replied, "I went out to deal with something important."
Ma Hongjun and others nodded and then didn't care; soon they started talking about the next competition match, and then Ning Rongrong proposed to introduce them to her father.
After nodding, everyone walked outside the waiting room toward the VIP hall, including Xiao Yi.
...