Chapter 323 A thin camel is still bigger than a horse

ject meeting in Beijing, your dad was appointed as the deputy組長of the whole project," 謝雨嘉, who often cared about the technology section of newspapers, whispered to郝仁.Having to learn about his father's...Chapter 323: A thin camel is still bigger than a horse

The four characters exploded in Hao Ren's mind.

To cut off relations meant that he was no longer the consort of the Dragon Palace of the East Sea, nor the fiancé of Zhao Ranzi. He wouldn't even be able to visit Zhao Ranzi's home anymore!

The Dragon Palace of the East Sea distancing itself from him would mean that destroying the Dragon Palace of the West Sea was Hao Ren's doing, and had nothing to do with the Dragon Palace of the East Sea...

"Dad!"

After being stunned for a few seconds, Zhao Ranzi finally reacted and shouted.

"What does cutting off relations mean I don't agree! I absolutely disagree!" She blushed and shouted again.

Hao Ren stared at Zhao Ranzi in disbelief. He hadn't expected her to react this way.

He had thought that Zhao Ranzi would be very happy with such a decision.

Zhao Ranzi puffed out her cheeks, pushed herself up from the dining table with both hands, and stood up abruptly. "Dad! What do those elders matter Just because they say cut off relations, must we obey them When Hao Ren was contributing to our Dragon Palace of the East Sea, they didn't say anything, but as soon as he caused trouble once, they rush to kick him out. Is this how our Dragon Palace of the East Sea behaves"

She clenched her chopsticks tightly, and her chest heaved with excitement. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Who proposed cutting off relations Tonight I'll burn down his house!"

Seeing that Zhao Guang's expression was unperturbed, Zhao Ranzi looked at Zhao Hongyu. "Mom! You always said that what is most important for our dragon clan is righteousness! Hao Ren has never wronged me; why should we treat him this way"

Clearly, the phrase "cut off relations" had suddenly triggered her most violent and sensitive nerves.

She pounded on the table, roared for a while, then noticed that Hao Ren, Zhao Hongyu, and Zhao Guang still wore calm expressions. She turned red, glanced at Zhao Guang's face secretly, and deflated like a punctured balloon before sinking back into her seat.

"I think Zi Zi is right. Hao Ren has never wronged Zi Zi, nor the Dragon Palace of the East Sea in any way. If we handle this matter by simply cutting off relations with Hao Ren, it wouldn't be appropriate." Zhao Hongyu spoke up.

She was siding with Hao Ren—or rather, with Zhao Ranzi—even though the current situation was very troublesome. She opposed treating Hao Ren as a sacrifice in this incident.

Zhao Ranzi, sitting back down in her seat, glanced at Dou Ren beside her and gritted her teeth before lowering her head. Her face flushed again.

For the sake of this detested Dou Ren, she had dared to shout at Zhao Guang. She hadn't even been able to speak loudly in front of Zhao Guang before, let alone shout at him.

"Let's discuss this matter further." Zhao Guang didn't immediately express an opinion; instead, he picked up his chopsticks and said, "Let's eat."

Zhao Hongyu was somewhat helpless. She pursed her lips and then picked up her own chopsticks.

Zhao Guang holds the fate of millions of aquatic creatures in the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace. His decisions will impact the development of the palace for decades or even hundreds of years to come, so many things cannot be decided by him alone.

Even if he wants to protect Hao Ren with all his might, he also needs to persuade the elders inside the dragon palace; otherwise, without their support, it could lead to internal strife. The Eastern Sea Dragon Palace is not just a family of three, and Zhao Guang must consider the million cultivators under his jurisdiction as well as the aquatic creatures within several thousand miles.

The vegetable rice had grown cold and lost its flavor.

None of the four spoke; only the sound of cutlery clinking could be heard.

Finally, when dinner was over, Zhao Hongyu waved at them. "Ren, go up to help Zi with her tutoring."

"Yes." Dou Ren stood up and stacked their bowls together.

Zhao Yanzi pursed her lips in silence as she walked towards the stairs.

As Zhao Hongyu cleared away the dishes, she glanced at Zhao Guang. Clearly, there were still matters to be discussed between them.

Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi entered her room silently one after another.

Closing the door, Zhao Yanzi walked over to her desk, opened her backpack, and pulled out her homework.

Hao Ren also took out his tutoring materials, brought a chair over, and sat by her side.

"Listen," Zhao Yanzi suddenly turned around to look at Hao Ren and said, "no matter what they say, you don't have to listen."

Hao Ren smiled.

"Why are you smiling!" Zhao Yanzi immediately became angry. "If they cut ties with you, I'll cut ties with them too!"

“Where will you live then” Hao Ren asked her.

“Live” Live with you!” Zhao Yanzi hesitated for a moment before saying.

After all, she knew that Hao Ren's grandmother loved her very much and that Hao Ren’s parents also liked her. If she had nowhere else to go, she would stay at Hao Ren's grandmother’s place.

She found it strange herself; if this were in the past, she would have been glad for the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace to cut ties with Hao Ren. However, today, her reaction was completely different—she felt indignant and firmly stood by Hao Ren's side.

Was it because "Hao Ren is my... fiancé"

Zhao Yanzi herself was a bit confused as well.

At present, she had no mood to do her homework. Her mind was in disarray; everything seemed unreliable all of a sudden. She couldn't understand why Zhao Guang wasn’t protecting Hao Ren and why Zhao Hongyu’s attitude was so ambiguous.

I don't understand why her parents, who usually protect and pamper her, are now standing against her.

Anyway, she won't agree to severing ties with Hao Ren first!

In her heart, out of spite, the thought sprang up: If Hao Ren doesn’t become the prince consort of Donghai, I will be his wife!

Seeing Zhao Yanzi's expression change like TV channels, Hao Ren tapped her. "Hey, hey, let’s start our tutoring."

"You still"

"Severing ties is one thing, and tutoring is another. Soon, you will be having your final exams, right" Hao Ren said.

Upon hearing about the final exams, Zhao Yanzi froze.

That's right, the final exams, which she also found daunting. Back then, she had sworn to surpass Xie Yujia’s outstanding performance at Lingzhao High School.

"Today, we'll focus on tutoring math. I’ve prepared six large geometry questions and six algebraic problems for you. Just finish them," Hao Ren took out two sheets of paper from his bag and placed them in front of Zhao Yanzi.

He seemed like a wooden person who didn't consider her mood at all, only thinking about giving her more problems to solve.

Zhao Yanzi glared angrily at Hao Ren. Suddenly, she thought that if she severed ties with him for real, it wouldn’t be so bad.

However, this idea was just a pout of dissatisfaction; she bent over her desk, took out a ballpoint pen from the pencil holder, and flipped through a blank sheet of scratch paper to start working on the problems.

Seeing Zhao Yanzi quietly solving problems, Hao Ren began to seriously ponder his situation.

The incident of destroying half of Xi Hai Longgong was certainly going to cause a stir. Xi Hai Longgong wouldn’t dare do anything to Zhen Ciming but would definitely take the opportunity to shift the conflict onto Donghai Longgong.

Back then, when they demolished Xi Hai Longgong’s gate and destroyed its palace, he felt like all past grievances were released at once, retaliating against Xi Hai Longgong for their suppression of Donghai Longgong. He had only been concerned with satisfaction back then and hadn’t thought much.

In reality, if Old Zeng had emerged from the rear mountain area back then, Hao Ren and Zhen Ciming could have quickly fled, leaving Xi Hai Longgong without a chance to catch them in the act. If Donghai Longgong denied it all, there might still be room for negotiation.

But at that time, Zhen Ciming had been full of arrogance and stayed put instead of fleeing. He even gave Old Zeng a good beating, which inevitably made Xi Hai Longgong furious, preparing to drag Donghai Longgong down with them.

When the fox is dying, its tail still looks like a tiger; when dogs are cornered, they will climb over walls. Xi Hai Longgong targeting Donghai Longgong was a normal strategy. Hao Ren felt he hadn’t considered things thoroughly enough in this matter and had put Donghai Longgong in an unrighteous position.

"Hey!" Zhao Yanzi nudged Hao Ren with her elbow, "I've finished them all!"

Hao Ren was lost in thought while propping his arm up, unaware that more than an hour had passed. During this time, Zhao Yanzi had just completed all the problems.

"I'll take a look," Duren pulled over the test papers and started grading them one by one.

'Correct, correct, correct,' Duren was just about to feel pleased when he noticed the questions that followed. 'Incorrect, incorrect, incorrect.'

Out of the total questions, Zhao Yanzhu only answered four correctly. On a hundred-point scale, Zhao Yanzhu's score would be 27 points, which barely passes if doubled.

The moment she saw all the big red crosses on her test paper, Zhao Yanzhu’s face fell and she pouted, "I wasn't in a good mood when I did this."

However, such an excuse didn’t sound convincing even to herself. She only got four out of twenty questions correct and these weren’t particularly difficult questions either; it was hard to justify her poor performance.

Hao Ren didn't blame Zhao Yanzhu for the low score. He spread out the test paper and said, "I won’t analyze the first three you got right. As for this fourth question, with the angles in the triangle summing up to 180 degrees, connect [ ]. To solve proof questions like this one, it’s important to first determine the relationships between these angles." Hao Ren neither mocked her nor teased her but patiently explained each question to her.

Zhao Yanzhu was somewhat surprised. She pouted again and looked at Hao Ren with wide eyes as she listened intently to his explanations.

Holding a pencil, Hao Ren solved every problem in front of Zhao Yanzhu one by one. While tutoring Zhao Yanzhu, he never once thought that he was her future fiancé or considered any matters related to the Dragon Palace.

However, Zhao Yanzhu wasn’t as focused as Hao Ren was; she glanced at the test paper and occasionally looked up at Hao Ren with a serious expression on his face.

In reality, although Hao Ren couldn't be described as very handsome, the way he immersed himself in something made him look rather charming to Zhao Yanzhu.

It was just like when Hao Ren practiced cultivation calmly or furrowed his brows while examining designs at Zhao Hongyu’s studio.

Hao Ren was in the midst of explaining a question, but then he noticed Zhao Yanzhu staring at him. He turned around and said, "Hmm"

Feeling guilty, she quickly looked away; her heart raced uncontrollably.

"Next is this question," Hao Ren wrote rapidly while continuing to explain, "Similar to the previous one, first combine both sides of the equation using addition and then use diagonal multiplication. Simplify the formula..."

“I know! I’m not that dumb! It’s just that I made a mistake,” Zhao Yanzhu smacked Hao Ren’s shoulder hard.

"Therefore, your result is 27," Hao Ren put down his pencil and rubbed his shoulders.

"But I do know this!" Zhao Yanzhu couldn’t help but emphasize it again.

"Knowing the solution doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes," Hao Ren smiled, then opened a small door leading to the balcony. “It’s getting late, let’s go."

Hao Ren didn't want to talk with Zhao Yanzhu's parents in the living room again, so he simply rode on Little White and flew off into the sky.

Zhao Yanzhu ran towards the balcony and saw Hao Ren riding on Little White through a red barrier that resembled a shooting star as he left.ng her lips up in a sweet smile."Master is biased. You give the First Consort a gift but don't give us one." The Lu sisters came over and said.Hao Ren picked up two fingers and tapped each of them on...