MRSG Chapter 15

When Zhou Mu heard You Qi say that while staring at him, he inexplicably felt his ears heat up—just like that day when You Qi mentioned not being able to bite him.

“Mm-hmm, sweet, right?” Zhou Mu quickly withdrew his hand. “Too bad I only took a little bit…”

You Qi was still savoring the taste, but his hand moved before his mind caught up, firmly grabbing Zhou Mu’s hand before he could tuck it into his pocket. It was swift, accurate, and forceful, as he pulled Zhou Mu forward.

“Eh?” A hint of confusion flashed across Zhou Mu’s face. Liking physical closeness with him wasn’t strange—everyone liked it, and he didn’t mind it either. But somehow, this hand-holding felt a little different. They’d had much more intimate contact before, yet this… felt off.

What was it exactly…?

Zhou Mu had read in Ancient Beast Studies that the You Qi species were wind-riding beasts. The wind was like an extension of their touch, or even their thoughts. And right now, even though You Qi was simply holding his hand, Zhou Mu felt that the surrounding wind had changed.

The usually light and airy breeze became… ‘sticky.’ It billowed around Zhou Mu’s clothes, swirling gently around him. The way it brushed against his cheeks was soft, like ripples on water—or more accurately, like someone’s warmth wrapped around him. It made Zhou Mu’s face heat up all the way to his neck.

It was just the wind, right? Such a strange wind.

You Qi remained composed and asked, “What’s wrong?”

His eyes and expression grew even calmer, his hunter instincts on full display.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Mu decided that while the wind felt odd, it was also rather comfortable—like being gently stroked after a satisfying meal. Since it didn’t seem dangerous, he replied slowly, “Oh, nothing.”

You Qi kept holding Zhou Mu’s hand all the way back to the dormitory.

Zhou Mu only snapped out of his post-meal daze when they arrived and finally remembered what he had wanted to say.

Out of nowhere, he continued the conversation, “It’s okay if you didn’t eat enough today. I can make snacks too. Next time, I’ll save you some—make sure you eat properly. My parents always tell me to eat only until I’m seventy percent full, and I argue with them about it. I heard you don’t have a great relationship with your mom, so you need to take care of yourself even more…”

That was something Chun Shijiu had mentioned before. And it made sense.

For beastkind, ferocious species encouraged their offspring to be independent as early as possible. The stronger the hunter, the more self-sufficient they had to be—or rather, the less affectionate their families tended to be.

Especially ancient beast species. They often saw their own cubs as threats, tossing them out the moment they were of age.

But in this modern era, beastkind had integrated with contemporary civilization. Some older generations hadn’t fully adapted, leading to contradictions in the upbringing of younger beastkind.

To put it in a crude way, these beastkind often had poor socialization training…

Unaware that he had just been mentally reduced to a dog, You Qi fell silent for a moment. Then, recalling the rich sweetness from earlier, he said, “Alright. Then you remind me.”

“No problem.” Zhou Mu readily agreed. “I already said—I can take care of you in every aspect of your studies and daily life.”

You Qi: “…”

“What are you guys talking about?”

Chun Shijiu suddenly appeared, hanging upside down from the door, casually throwing in a comment.

Zhou Mu almost raised his hand to hit him. Thankfully, after years of living in human cities, he only blurted out, “Holy shit!”

“What the hell, don’t sneak up on us like that! Can’t you see we’re having a heartfelt conversation?” Zhou Mu accused, eyes wary.

“Ooh, then I came at the right time.” Chun Shijiu grinned mischievously. “I love eavesdropping on people’s private matters. So, have you opened up your heart yet?”

Zhou Mu: “…Shameless!”

You Qi raised his hand and smacked Chun Shijiu down, giving him a warning glare.

“Hey, no need to be so aggressive,” Chun Shijiu raised his hands in surrender and took two steps back. “I was already here before you guys arrived, practicing sensory isolation in noisy environments.”

What kind of nonsense excuse was that? Zhou Mu didn’t buy it for a second.

Seeing Zhou Mu’s skeptical expression, Chun Shijiu thought, You’re such a serious liar yourself, yet you have the nerve to act all suspicious of new deception tactics?

Chun Shijiu snorted. “Anyway, the University Games are confirmed to be hosted by Hualing. I’m signing up for the Mind Discipline event.”

Zhou Mu: “…”

Wait, demon universities have sports competitions? What even is a ‘Mind Discipline’ event—just a contest to see who can endure the longest?

But considering it was Chun Shijiu, it didn’t seem like he had much of an advantage there…

However, his words suddenly sparked an idea in Zhou Mu. “Are there only medals? What about prize money?”

“Of course, there’s prize money—there are sponsors.” Chun Shijiu gave him a sly grin. “You’re not thinking of signing up, are you? With your skills, you’d probably only qualify as a competition prop.”

“Pah!” Zhou Mu grabbed You Qi and bolted.

Later, during a meeting in Teacher Luo’s office, Zhou Mu couldn’t resist bringing it up.

“Senior brothers and sisters, which event in the upcoming Hualing University Games has the highest prize money? Have you guys participated before? I did a quick search, and it seems similar to human competitions. I’m thinking of signing up, but I’m not sure for what—Mind Discipline, track and field, swimming, sword flight…”

“Hold on, it’s not the same at all.” Teacher Luo looked disgusted. “Mind Discipline is just meditation contests. The competition duration isn’t limited to the event schedule. There was a tournament thirty years ago where the finalists were two softshell turtles—they’re still competing to this day. Only people with way too much free time sign up for Mind Discipline.”

Zhou Mu thought back to Chun Shijiu’s smug expression and was instantly speechless.

“And another thing,” Teacher Luo continued, “demon race track and field, and water events may have the same names as human competitions, but the actual events are nothing alike. Not really suitable for you.”

Teacher Luo nudged Yan Xingke with his chin.

Yan Xingke transformed to show his shortened tail and said, “Yeah, it was intense. And it’s not just students from Hualing—representative teams from all major demon universities will be top-tier competitors. There’s no such thing as sportsmanship in this. You know what a second-place runner does if they want to overtake first place?”

Zhou Mu hesitated. “Don’t tell me…”

Yan Xingke grinned. “That’s right—knock the first-place guy out cold!”

Zhou Mu relaxed. Oh, just knocking them out.

Yan Xingke was still reminiscing. “Hualing has hosted this before—three years ago, to be precise. Back then, I had to bring a shield just to watch the matches. It was pure chaos. Even with all that preparation, I still got accidentally injured by a competitor—lost part of my tail. With demon endurance, some events last for days on end… Anyway, you, as a human, had better not participate!”

“I’m not fully human,” Zhou Mu corrected. “I just heard the prize money is good and wanted to give it a shot. If I don’t win, it’s about the experience.”

“Doesn’t matter, I support you either way,” Luo Guanzhong said lazily. “I take in ghost cultivators too—it’s just a matter of tweaking some records.” As he spoke, he picked up a form listing basic details of his disciples. Next to Zhou Mu’s name, it read: Age: 20.

Luo Guanzhong casually took a pencil and changed 20 to died at 20. Just one character different.

“See? The beauty of the Chinese language.”

Zhou Mu: “…”

Since there was still time before the games, Zhou Mu decided to investigate the events first.

After the meeting, he headed to Chuanfang Tower to find You Qi.

He didn’t have much else to do today aside from the meeting, so he used some flour he brought from home to bake puff pastries in a senior’s cauldron. Thinking about how much You Qi liked the golden butter crisps, he figured he’d enjoy these too, so he saved some to bring along.

After all, he did say he’d help You Qi get back into eating regularly.

When he arrived at Chuanfang Tower, it wasn’t just You Qi—Teacher Cao and his other disciples, You Qi’s senior brothers, were all there too.

Though they had been You Qi’s brothers-in-training for a while, they actually seemed more at ease around Zhou Mu, greeting him with smiles. After all, in their hearts, he was probably the person who understood their struggles best.

Before Zhou Mu showed up, they were the ones in the most danger of being eaten by You Qi!

Zhou Mu was familiar with the place and greeted everyone naturally. Since so many people were around, he couldn’t just say the pastries were only for You Qi. Instead, he pulled them out of his bag and said, “Hello, Teacher Cao! I brought some afternoon snacks for everyone.”

Zhou Mu’s pastry skills weren’t inferior to those of a master chef. Baked at high temperatures, the dough expanded, its layers pushing against each other. The gluten structure crisped up into a flaky texture, and the golden surface gleamed with a buttery sheen. Just looking at them was enough to make people imagine their crispiness…

As soon as he set them down, the room filled with murmurs of excitement, and saliva practically started flowing.

Zhou Mu was really working hard to avoid being eaten—he even brought food! Too bad for him, though. Everyone here knew that You Qi rarely ate. Guess that meant more pastries for them! Hahaha!

Zhou Mu went to the lab to find a knife—who knows what herbs it had been used for before—but after cleaning it, he used it to slice the cylindrical pastries into even portions. His knife skills were so precise that each piece had less than a one-gram difference in weight.

You Qi stared at him, unblinking.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen Zhou Mu’s knife skills before, and this was just cutting some sweets…

The others noticed You Qi’s reaction and started feeling a little nervous. Wait, you don’t want to eat them yourself, but you’re unhappy about us eating them?

Zhou Mu felt a little self-conscious under the stare. Unlike the others, he wasn’t timid and muttered under his breath, “What’s so interesting about this? My knife skills are great; I just made sure they’re equal…”

You Qi murmured, “Why?”

Zhou Mu paused. “Why what?”

Right in front of everyone, You Qi rested his chin on Zhou Mu’s head, staring at the still-warm pastries in the container. His voice carried a faint trace of grievance, so subtle it would make even their teacher doubt their hearing. “…Why are they all equal?”

Zhou Mu suddenly felt the warmth on his head seep into his body, his cheeks heating up slightly. Then he realized—oh.

“Oh!” Zhou Mu raised his knife and sliced off two-thirds of the pastries, placing them in front of You Qi. The rest he divided equally among the others.

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Fierce Beast Socialization Training: Touch desensitization ✅ Social interaction ✅ Avoiding food-guarding behavior ✅