After the man left, Cheng Min lay on the bed to rest for a while. Seeing that time was running out, he dragged his somewhat weak body out of the room. Despite being very careful, any slight movement still caused discomfort, as if it was swollen.
The bell on his ankle continued to ring tirelessly, and Cheng Min felt annoyed, for the first time considering taking it off. But in the end, he gave up, as he had been wearing it since childhood and was already used to it.
Trying to act as usual and not let the human servants notice anything wrong, Cheng Min held onto the stair railing, gritting his teeth as he slowly descended the stairs. Fortunately, no one noticed anything amiss.
Since his mother’s passing, it was just Cheng Min and his father left in the Cheng family. Their relationship wasn’t particularly good, even somewhat cold. At this time, his father had already finished breakfast and left. In the large dining room, only Cheng Min was left, if you ignored the human servants standing in the corner.
Breakfast was sumptuous, mostly consisting of Cheng Min’s favorite foods, but today he had no appetite. Sitting in his usual seat, he absentmindedly poked at the small tomatoes on his plate with a fork.
On the holographic screen in front of him, the latest news was being broadcast live.
“On the afternoon of June 13th, several lowly humans from the Lower City injured a manager and hijacked a small spaceship to quickly flee the scene… All residents are advised to remain vigilant to avoid unnecessary casualties.”
Raising his hand to turn off the holographic screen, Cheng Min glanced at the small tomatoes on his plate that had been poked beyond recognition and snorted coldly, “Humans, no matter how many years pass, never change. They always naively think they can change everything.”
After speaking, he looked up and glanced at the human servants standing in the corner, finally fixing his gaze on a very thin figure.
“You,” he pointed at the human servant, “come here.”
The servant looked around, realizing Cheng Min was calling him, and quickly ran over, kneeling in front of the beautiful noble elf.
“Young Master,” he called softly, head lowered.
“Look up,” Cheng Min kicked him lightly.
Hearing this, the servant obediently raised his head, revealing an extremely beautiful face. Cheng Min was momentarily stunned but quickly recovered.
This was a house-born servant who had grown up in the manor. After that damned servant left, this person replaced him as Cheng Min’s little follower, responsible for taking care of him and bearing the young master’s anger.
Later, he seemed to have angered Cheng Min and was punished.
“Why did I punish you before?” Cheng Min rarely spoke to the servants, “You should remember, right?”
“Because…” the boy stammered, “stole… stole something.”
Hearing this, Cheng Min seemed to recall something. It seemed he had stolen a bottle of worthless perfume, which Cheng Min happened to discover.
So much time had passed that Cheng Min was no longer angry and wouldn’t hold onto such a trivial matter, “Oh, seems like it.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the boy’s head drooped even lower, his body visibly trembling, showing how terrifying Cheng Min was in their eyes.
“Alright,” Cheng Min picked up his plate, dumped the small tomatoes on the ground, tidied his clothes, and walked out, “Finish the food.”
The man who had been waiting on the side quickly followed.
Cheng Min was twenty years old. Although he had his own private elf tutor, he still needed to attend school for some basic courses. To make it convenient for Cheng Min, his father had specially granted him permission to freely use the Cheng family’s private tunnel, saving unnecessary time.
After driving for several dozen minutes, a small white spaceship slowly emerged from the tunnel, avoiding the crowd and landing on a patch of grass.
Cheng Min picked up his backpack and, as soon as he got off the spaceship, met up with his group of friends who were waiting for him. They were all descendants of noble elves, with family status not as high as Cheng Min’s, so naturally, he became the leader of this group of elves.
Cheng Min walked over, and one of them, with a keen eye, took his backpack and smiled flatteringly, “Cheng Min, how was your weekend?”
Cheng Min nodded, keeping it brief, “It was okay.”
“Have you heard about the class we’re having this morning?” another brown-haired boy leaned over to Cheng Min, smiling as he asked.
“No,” Cheng Min took a few steps back, frowning, not particularly interested, and casually asked, “What class?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” the brown-haired boy smiled, habitually reaching out to pat Cheng Min’s shoulder.
“Don’t touch,” Cheng Min dodged his hand, giving him a glance, “I don’t like it.”
The brown-haired boy awkwardly withdrew his hand, giving an embarrassed smile, “Sorry, I got carried away.”
Cheng Min ignored him, turned around, and walked inside first. Soon, he heard a rush of footsteps behind him, getting closer and closer.
Novens was a noble academy, only admitting noble elf students and a few poor elf students. However, nobles were used to living in luxury, and some would openly bring their human servants to school.
The school turned a blind eye to this, not interfering. Therefore, you could always see some human servants in the school, both male and female, wearing various outfits with gray wristbands issued by the school.
This was for easy management and to prevent incidents of human servants escaping.
Originally, Cheng Min would also bring his human servant to accompany him to school, using them as a clown to make a fool of themselves when he was in a bad mood, to cheer him up.
But ever since that damned lowlife escaped, there hadn’t been a good time. Cheng Min couldn’t find a satisfactory servant, so he simply gave up on the idea.
As he approached the hall, a group was gathered in a circle, and from within came faint cries of distress. It was obvious they had found a new way to torment the human servants.
Cheng Min wasn’t interested and just wanted to quickly pass by.
As he got closer to the noble elves, through the gaps, Cheng Min saw a pitiful human servant lying on the ground, surrounded by elves holding belts, continuously striking his back.
He kept dodging, but never managed to avoid the blows, the belt hitting his back again and again.
Cheng Min frowned.
Lu Bingxun was a human servant of the Cheng family, having grown up with him. Even if Cheng Min didn’t like him, he could honestly say he was just a bit temperamental and hard to please.
Other than that, he wouldn’t cause Lu Bingxun any physical harm.
Compared to other noble elves, he was relatively better.
Just as he was thinking this, someone noticed him and turned around in surprise, “Cheng Min!”
The surrounding elves stopped and looked over. Cheng Min was quite famous in this school, but now, he wished he was invisible.
“Do you want to try?” one of the elves who was hitting the servant smiled, handing over the belt with barbs on it, “It’s quite fun.”
Cheng Min shook his head, declining, “No, I don’t have that kind of hobby.” He paused, “Stop it, he can’t take it anymore.”
There weren’t many classes in the morning, just one around nine o’clock. Cheng Min left his group of followers and was led to the lounge to chat and drink tea with a few other family heirs.
Novens was a small social circle for elf nobles, used to connect and win over other elves. As the future heir of the Cheng family, to avoid being ostracized by the heirs of the other three noble families, Cheng Min had to temporarily put away his young master temper and patiently accompany them.
They talked a lot, never stopping.
The most discussed topics were their human servants and the social dance to be held next month, providing an opportunity for the nobles of the academy to get acquainted with nobles from other academies.
Held once a year, only elves born into nobility could attend the social banquet. Cheng Min didn’t want to participate and usually refused every time.
This time, without even thinking, he naturally wouldn’t make an exception.
“Cheng Min,” one of the female elves turned to him, “you never attend every year. Are you really not considering it this time? I heard even those guys are coming.”
Cheng Min knew who she was referring to, the conservative and old-fashioned imperial elves.
“No,” Cheng Min lifted his eyelids, took a sip of tea, “not interested.”
The clock struck nine, signaling it was time for class. Cheng Min stood up, bidding farewell to the others.
Entering the classroom, he immediately saw his group of followers sitting at the back. Cheng Min walked straight to the back and sat in an empty seat.
The course was still obscure and difficult to understand. Cheng Min propped his chin up, and soon felt drowsy, the elf teacher’s words becoming a blur in his ears.
He yawned and lay down on the desk.
“Arm… burning… soul mark… contract…”
These words entered his ears, and Cheng Min suddenly woke up, sitting up and looking forward.
On the holographic screen, there was a basic image of a soul contract and pictures of the physical reactions when encountering a soul mate.
Cheng Min rolled up his sleeve, looked at his arm, then glanced at the image on the screen, feeling a sense of absurdity.
He actually had a soul mate, and it was an unknown man.
“Mr. Mo,” Cheng Min gave a faint smile, asking, “I don’t quite understand something. If one of the soul mates falls in love with someone else, how is it resolved? Can the contract be broken?”
“No,” he shook his head, telling Cheng Min, “Soul mates fall in love with each other due to the mark, and the soul mark cannot be removed. It will last forever.”
Not even death could break the contract.
In the evening, Cheng Min returned to the manor with a heavy heart. After instructing the butler to bring a plate of fruit, he sat alone on the small sofa on the balcony, eating grapes while waiting for the man’s arrival.
At night, the man arrived as expected, walking straight to Cheng Min and taking the grape he had just put in his mouth, popping it into his own.
“Disgusting,” Cheng Min rinsed his mouth in disdain, picked up another grape from the plate, and put it in his mouth, only for it to be snatched away by the man again.
“Are you a dog?” Cheng Min looked at him coldly, “Why do you like picking things from others’ mouths so much?”
“Don’t you know best whether I am or not?” The man pulled Cheng Min into his arms, giving him a slap on the butt.
Cheng Min knew he couldn’t resist, so he turned his head, looking outside, letting the man kiss his lips, cheek, and the bite mark on his neck.
Seeing Cheng Min give up resisting, the man’s actions became more excessive, his warm breath falling on Cheng Min’s neck.
The hand in his pocket clenched tighter.