The silence in the Dean's office was heavy, broken only by the rhythmic slurp of Chen Feng finishing his sixth strawberry milk. To anyone else, the scene was a chaotic nightmare: the Student Council President was accusing him of emotional grand larceny, a high schooler was clutching his laundry like a holy relic, and the Principal looked ready to sign his death warrant.
"So," a voice as sharp as a diamond-edged blade cut through the air. "Is this the 'Applied Sciences' seminar, or did I accidentally walk into the set of a low-budget harem drama?"
Su Meiling stood in the doorway, her arms crossed, her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. Behind her, Lin Xuerui loomed like an oncoming blizzard, her presence alone dropping the room's temperature by five degrees.
"Meiling! Xuerui!" Chen Feng greeted them with a forced grin, raising a hand. "I was just... mentoring. You know, molding the clay of the future. It's a very hands-on process."
"Mentoring?" Meiling marched in, tapping a finger on a stack of 'Magic Assistant' resumes. "Half the girls in this school think you're a wizard, and the other half think you're a romantic lead. My father didn't put you in this school to build a fan club, Chen Feng."
"He saved my life!" Lin Xia chirped, jumping to his defense while brandishing the silk tie. "And he's teaching us about... aesthetic foundations!"
"Xia, go to class," Xuerui commanded, her voice quiet but absolute. The younger Lin pouted but scurried out, sensing that the 'Ice Queen' was at her freezing point.
Mu Ronghuan, however, didn't move. She stood her ground, her noble pride shielding her from Xuerui's frost. "He's a Flower-Stealing Master, Ms. Lin. He's using his 'magic' to charm the student body while my family's estate is plagued by a curse he won't explain!"
"A curse?" Meiling's professional mask slipped. She looked at Chen Feng. "Is this true? Is Director Zhao behind this?"
Chen Feng's playful expression finally settled into something more focused. He picked up the gilded envelope from Principal Ye's desk. "Zhao is a small man with a big grudge. He's hired Master Tie, a 'Mountain-Crushing' specialist. This guy isn't just a fighter; his martial arts are based on seismic resonance. He hits a point on the ground, and the vibration travels like a shockwave."
He tossed the photo of the old man under the waterfall onto the coffee table.
"The school sits on an ancient burial mound," Chen Feng explained, his tone casual but his eyes sharp. "I pinned it down with the 'Magic Show,' but Tie is coming to Sports Day to crack that pin. He's going to turn the athletic field into a giant tuning fork. When he strikes it, the earth will open, and the 'misfortune' affecting the Mu family will swallow every student on that track."
The room went cold—not from Xuerui's aura, but from the realization of the stakes.
"So, what do we do?" Meiling asked, her voice trembling slightly. "Call the police? Cancel the event?"
"No. We play along," Chen Feng said, standing up and stretching. "If Master Tie wants to create a destructive vibration, we need a Harmonizing Array. We need something that absorbs energy and smooths it back into the earth. And since the school's 'Applied Science' is currently obsessed with my magic..."
He looked at the four powerful women in the room: the Fire (Meiling), the Frost (Xuerui), the Prestige (Ronghuan), and the Order (Principal Ye).
"You four are the only ones with the 'Qi foundations' to lead the student body. I'm going to teach you a routine. It will look like Rhythmic Gymnastics to the audience. But in reality, it's a Luo-Shu Grid Formation. Your movements, combined with silver-threaded ribbons, will act as lightning rods for the seismic waves Tie sends out."
"You want us... to perform? Together?" Xuerui looked at the ribbon on the desk as if it were a venomous snake.
"Think of it as a corporate merger," Chen Feng grinned. "Only with more glitter and better posture."
As Meiling and Xuerui began a heated argument about who would be the "lead" in the formation, Chen Feng signaled Mu Ronghuan to follow him to the window.
"While they're arguing over ribbons, I need you," he whispered. "You've noticed the black dust on the track? That's Obsidian Heart-Sand. It's a catalyst for the curse. I need you to lead a group of trusted girls to sweep it up tonight. Replace it with industrial-strength iridescent glitter. It disrupts the dark frequency and makes the 'Mountain-Crushing' impact look like a harmless confetti bomb."
Ronghuan looked at him, her eyes wide.
"You're giving me the mission?"
"You're the President," Chen Feng said, patting her shoulder. "Protect your 'flowers,' Ronghuan. Show me you're more than just a title."
Ronghuan's face flushed—this time with something other than anger. She nodded sharply and hurried out to coordinate the "Glitter Operation."
The meeting broke up with a flurry of logistics and low-level bickering. As the door closed, a delivery boy arrived with the daily crate of "Loser's Milk" from the humiliated suitors, Wei and Yan.
Chen Feng grabbed a bottle, but as his fingers touched the glass, he felt a greasy, cold sensation. He held the pink liquid up to the sunlight. A single drop of black oil was swirling at the bottom, dancing like a trapped soul.
"Zhao, you're so unoriginal," Chen Feng sighed. He didn't throw it away. Instead, he walked over to a drooping, half-dead fern in the corner of the office and poured the tainted milk into the soil.
The plant shivered, turned a pitch-black color, and then suddenly sprouted a single, jagged red flower that smelled of rot.
"Well," Chen Feng muttered, adjusting his sunglasses. "At least someone's blooming. Now, I have to go teach a Principal how to twirl a ribbon without poking an eye out. This life is exhausting."