“Because you’re an idiot~” Bai Youwei smiled at her.

Fu Miaoxue’s eyebrows shot up. “Say that again!”

“I could say it a hundred more times and you’d still be an idiot. You can’t even figure out why you can’t pry someone loose — what is that if not being an idiot?” Bai Youwei mocked her without mercy. “Getting through Battle 1 — call it you and Du Lai getting lucky.”

“How would I not know?! It was obviously you sabotaging things!” Fu Miaoxue fumed. “You deliberately worked against me, didn’t you?! You wanted to see me make a fool of myself! You scheming, vicious woman! Devil!”

Bai Youwei accepted every word, nodding in agreement. “Yes, yes — I’m vicious, I’m a devil. As for you? You’re a fool and a blockhead.”

Fu Miaoxue was so enraged she slammed her hand on the desk and shot to her feet, pointing at Bai Youwei. “Hey! Bai Youwei, don’t think I wouldn’t dare do something to you!”

Everyone in the hallway outside turned to look, but not a single person dared step in.

Two Kings having a public showdown…

“What would you do to me?” Bai Youwei tilted her head, looking at Fu Miaoxue with amusement. “Kill me? Or try to poach my people again? Fu Miaoxue, you can’t even poach someone properly — I’m genuinely worried you won’t be able to gather enough people for the next battle. Next month you’ll need to clear Battle 5, won’t you? How’s your team count coming along?”

Fu Miaoxue bit her lower lip, expression indignant — but said nothing.

Battle 1 only required one or more participants with no upper limit, but Battle 5 required the King plus subjects to field a total of five. Right now, besides herself and Du Lai, there were still three empty slots. While she could recruit from within headquarters, finding the right people was, in reality, incredibly difficult.

Bai Youwei smiled brightly at her. “So~ let this vicious devil teach you something — if you want to bring people on board, offering promises of benefits alone doesn’t work. You need to make the members of your team feel safe and like they belong…”

Fu Miaoxue let out a dismissive sniff. “Pretty words are easy to say. I’ve already offered the best conditions possible — isn’t that enough of a sense of security?”

“Give up on Little Xin — he’s not going anywhere,” Bai Youwei said. “You might have a shot with others.”

Fu Miaoxue was unconvinced. “Why not him?”

Bai Youwei said, “I keep him busy doing things, which makes him feel indispensable to the team. The sense of value and security that comes from that is far more reliable than any items you could promise.”

“Hmph! You’re just spouting twisted logic!” Fu Miaoxue was convinced Bai Youwei was just using this as an excuse to mock her.

Outside the classroom, Du Lai suddenly came running over and beckoned to Fu Miaoxue from the doorway.

Fu Miaoxue abandoned Bai Youwei and walked over in a huff. “What is it? Whatever it is, couldn’t you say it in here — can’t you see I’m in the middle of —”

Du Lai said a few words in her ear.

Fu Miaoxue went quiet at once, a flicker of something like tension crossing her face. “He really came?” she asked Du Lai.

Du Lai nodded.

The two exchanged no more words and immediately left at a hurried pace.

Bai Youwei watched their retreating figures with suspicion, wondering what was going on — and then low murmuring drifted in from outside, along with hushed footsteps.

People in the hallway spontaneously stepped aside, making way for a newly arrived visitor —

Then Bai Youwei saw Chu Huaijin, walking alongside that man in white gloves, passing by the classroom doorway.

Bai Youwei froze.

…White Gloves? How did he get here?

Was that why Du Lai and Fu Miaoxue had reacted that way — because of White Gloves? Did they have some kind of history with him?

Bai Youwei grew curious and wheeled herself out to observe.

Chu Huaijin was introducing White Gloves to the facilities and services of headquarters.

White Gloves had arrived, which meant this building now had one more King.

For Chu Huaijin, this was naturally a good thing — his entire goal was to provide as much support as possible to the Kings, and one King was no different from another. Ultimately, it was all for the sake of world peace.

But for the other Kings already in this building, the arrival of White Gloves was decidedly not good news…

—