Villainous Singer (2)
Song Xu Yi didn’t know if it was just her imagination, but she felt that there was something suspicious behind Song Yi’s actions. However, now was not the time to investigate that matter.
Whenever Song Xu Yi thought of those poor Ruo Shui people toiling underground, without any social welfare, working tirelessly, and yet struggling to make ends meet, she felt the weight of responsibility on her shoulders.
The original owner of the body had done well and had developed machinery in the future that could help the Ruo Shui people with mining. Although those machines had significant limitations and were not yet widely promoted by the end of the storyline, they still provided some relief from the arduous work for the pitiful Ruo Shui people.
Now that Song Xu Yi had taken over the original owner’s body, she felt obliged to do everything the original owner could do. Otherwise, even if she completed the mission, she wouldn’t feel at ease.
One of the main reasons why the original owner was adopted by Song Yi was her extraordinarily strong learning ability. The original owner’s absorption of knowledge was so formidable that Song Xu Yi felt the pressure and was unsure if she could reach the same level as the original owner in the future.
But Song Xu Yi always believed in the principle of hard work making up for deficiencies. She was willing to put in a thousand times and a hundred times more effort to achieve what the future original owner could do.
Immediately, by the dim light in the small cabin, Song Xu Yi started devouring the books.
These books came from Ruo Shui, things like books from other planets with more advanced civilizations had long been discarded.
It was evident that these books were carefully selected by Song Yi: they contained the millennia-old heritage and customs of Ruo Shui, records of the dynasties and cultural changes of Ruo Shui… and more were the technological records that Ruo Shui possessed today.
These technologies seemed outdated and conservative, but they also had their ingenuity.
But these books also allowed Song Xu Yi to gradually adapt to the planet’s writing and narrative style.
With the idea of absorbing knowledge bit by bit, Song Xu Yi immediately buried herself in reading…
After the invasion of the high-end civilization planets, in order to save time for the Ruo Shui people to mine, the high-end planets started providing them with cheap nutritional supplements. Meanwhile, the various local ingredients that Ruo Shui originally possessed were treated as exotic curiosities and sent to the dining tables of the high-end civilization planets. Despite the hard work of cultivating these ingredients, the Ruo Shui people ended up losing all rights to enjoy them.
Song Xu Yi also understood the reason why the cabin was so bumpy. At this moment, she was in the lowest level of the interstellar spaceship. The spaceship was divided into four levels, with the top level accommodating the wealthy travelers from neighboring and other high-end civilization planets, enjoying excellent seismic resistance. The middle two levels were for passengers with lower economic status, offering a relatively comfortable environment. The bottom level was for the Ruo Shui people and interstellar refugees who couldn’t afford better accommodations.
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The bottom level housed various races, including even the insect-like cannibalistic species and fugitives.
The original owner, a young girl, had been staying in the cabin for the past few days, relying on nutritional supplements to fend off hunger. She was too afraid to step out of the cabin, confined in such a small space, which made her feel incredibly stifled.
Song Xu Yi inherited the habits of the original owner during this period, spending her days devouring books and drinking nutritional supplements when hungry. Despite the occasional chaotic sounds of fighting and angry shouts outside, and people forcefully banging on the cabin door from time to time, Song Xu Yi remained inside the cabin, never stepping outside.
Time passed quickly, and soon a month had gone by. The spaceship finally arrived at the Proxima Centauri.
Coming to pick up Song Xu Yi was a tall and slim girl named Luo Xi.
As a high-end civilization planet, the Proxima Centauri was extremely arrogant. Despite being the aggressors invading Ruo Shui, they hypocritically claimed to be helping the Ruo Shui people progress and no longer suffer from imperial persecution. Since they released such lofty statements, they naturally needed to do some superficial actions to prove themselves. They formulated a project in which every two years, the Proxima Centauri would recruit a certain number of children from Ruo Shui to study on their planet.
They called it “helping Ruo Shui foster future technology and development talents,” but in reality, this project was filled with bias and arrogance. The upper echelons of Proxima Centauri promoted this project because they believed that these children, after experiencing the sophistication and superiority of Proxima Centauri, would abandon their homeland and never choose to return to Ruo Shui.
Regardless of Proxima Centauri’s intentions, this was a rare opportunity for the people of Ruo Shui.
In the first year of the project’s launch, Ruo Shui carefully selected many children to go to Proxima Centauri. Song Xu Yi was now part of the third batch of children sent to Proxima Centauri, and Luo Xi, who came to pick her up, was from the second batch.
“Thank you for waiting. Thanks for coming to pick me up.”
Compared to the overweight and unusually large-headed Proxima Centauri people, Luo Xi’s Ruo Shui characteristics were evident, especially with the same style of glasses as Song Xu Yi. Song Xu Yi could recognize her among the crowd almost instantly, so she approached Luo Xi, holding her suitcase in front of her.
Seeing that Song Xu Yi didn’t seem particularly impressed by Proxima Centauri’s advanced civilization, a hint of amusement appeared in Luo Xi’s eyes, and her impression of Song Xu Yi improved significantly.
“It didn’t take long.”
“I didn’t expect you to be so little!” Luo Xi glanced up and down at Song Xu Yi, then picked up her suitcase and led her forward. As they walked, she introduced, “All of us Ruo Shui children are sent to the Colin Academy. Although there’s a translator, it’s Proxima Centauri’s rule. We must first learn their language and then their customs before we can choose the subjects we’re interested in for further studies…”
“But,” Luo Xi’s smile paused on her face as she looked at Song Xu Yi and hesitated before continuing, “you’ve just arrived, and I won’t dwell on the unhappy things. You’ll understand later.”
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“There are fewer than a hundred of us Ruo Shui students here, so we should support each other. Today, with the five of you joining, we’ve prepared a grand welcome party for everyone.”
With that, Luo Xi led Song Xu Yi onto the flying bus.
The ticket seller on the flying bus was a robot.
This robot looked exceptionally beautiful, indistinguishable from a real person, and even resembled the Ruo Shui people. When the two got on the bus, the robot was performing some kind of animal act to entertain the Proxima Centauri people inside the carriage, making everyone burst into laughter. Casually glancing at the two, the robot exaggeratedly widened its eyes and chattered something.
As the robot spoke, the Proxima Centauri people on the bus turned to look, whispering in a language that Song Xu Yi didn’t understand. Although she didn’t comprehend what they were saying, she felt uncomfortable instinctively, observing their overly large pupils and the way they scrutinized them as if they were commodities.
On the other hand, Luo Xi seemed to understand what those people were saying, and her expression turned unpleasant. She didn’t explain their words to Song Xu Yi but acted as a protector, standing in front of Song Xu Yi, blocking her from those intrusive gazes, even though she wasn’t much taller than Song Xu Yi.
Song Xu Yi’s heart warmed, gaining a new understanding of the inherent sense of vigilance and mutual assistance among the Ruo Shui people.
If at first, she had only intended to inherit the unfinished business of the original owner out of conscience, then at this moment, Song Xu Yi truly felt like she had become a Ruo Shui person. From the depths of her heart, she wanted to do something for this troubled and oppressed planet.
Since the recruitment of these Ruo Shui children was merely for the sake of face-saving, the schools arranged for them by Proxima Centauri were naturally not up to par. Colin Academy was located in a remote and rural area, and the flying bus reached its final stop before arriving at the academy.
Throughout the journey, people on the bus got on and off, but the constant unchanged aspect was the malevolent and prying gazes projected onto the two.
Despite Song Xu Yi’s repeated suggestions for Luo Xi to sit down, Luo Xi remained standing, trying to act as a human wall separating Song Xu Yi from the hostile outside world, until they finally arrived at Colin Academy.
Colin Academy is an eight-year institution.
Proxima Centauri adheres to an elite system, where most people start school at the age of six, and after studying for eight years, they graduate. Only a few individuals are able to continue their education further.
Due to the extremely low birth rate, Proxima Centauri people usually get married at around fifteen or sixteen years old, which means they reach marriageable age right after graduating.
Colin Academy has prepared a building as a dormitory specifically for these Ruo Shui children.
Before coming here, Song Xu Yi had prepared herself, expecting to face extremely harsh living conditions. However, to her surprise, the dormitory provided by Colin Academy for the Ruo Shui children didn’t look bad at all. It even appeared more luxurious from the outside than the dormitories of native Proxima Centauri people. Moreover, the conditions inside the dormitory were quite good, with various facilities available. The nutritional supplements were also abundant, and Song Xu Yi even found a small box of fruits in her welcome gift box.
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Even though these fruits originally came from Ruo Shui, they were considered highly advantageous compared to the residents who had not seen fruits in the past ten years in Ruo Shui.
Luo Xi kept her eyes on Song Xu Yi’s expression, as if she wanted to say something or perhaps felt that Song Xu Yi was too young and didn’t speak up. However, when Luo Xi noticed Song Xu Yi’s calm demeanor while facing the welcome gift box, the trace of worry in Luo Xi’s eyes instantly dissipated.
After Song Xu Yi settled her luggage and freshened up, the sky darkened, and the welcome party began shortly.
Song Xu Yi and the other four children went to the first-floor hall together, where many people were already standing. Various nutritional supplements and drinks were laid out. Song Xu Yi noticed that many people were no longer wearing Ruo Shui’s glasses, and the attendees were not only from Ruo Shui but also from neighboring countries.
However, Song Xu Yi’s attention was quickly drawn to a person at the entrance –
A languid-looking girl stood at the door, and although Song Xu Yi thought she had seen a lot, she had never seen such a beautiful girl before!