"You jumped to first overall. Over Senior Bai. Over Senior Xie." He said. "Senior Xie has held second place in this academy for over a year. She worked for that position." He paused. "And you walk in as a first-year, one expedition, and take first like it’s nothing."
"The ranking system calculated it," Lin Yi said. "I didn’t set the weights."
"That’s not the point." The student’s tone was sharpening. Behind him, the other three had the body language of people who had co prepared for escalation and were waiting for the signal that it had been authorized. "The point is that Senior Xie extended you an invitation. Twice. Personally. She doesn’t do that." He paused for emphasis. "And you turned her down both tis like it ant nothing."
"I gave her a reason both tis," Lin Yi said.
"A reason." The student repeated it with the specific inflection of soone who found the idea that a reason was sufficient to be itself objectionable. "She’s the leader of the first-ranked sect in this academy. She ca to your room herself. And your reason was that you didn’t feel like joining." His voice had risen slightly. "That’s not a reason. That’s arrogance."
"My reason was that the party leveling chanics don’t function across the level gap," Lin Yi said. "I explained that to her. She understood it. The disagreent, if there is one, is with you, not with her."
"She understood it because she’s too generous with people who don’t deserve it," the student said. The composure was gone now. The thing underneath it was sothing between wounded loyalty and personal offense dressed up as principle. "You should apologize to her."
Lin Yi looked at him.
"For turning down an invitation," Lin Yi said.
"For disrespecting—"
"An invitation is a question," Lin Yi said. "I answered it." He looked at the student steadily. "Senior Xie and I have spoken twice. Both conversations were direct and respectful. She understood my reasoning. She said the invitation remained open." He paused. "If you’re here because she sent you, that’s one thing. If you’re here because you decided on her behalf that she was insulted when she told you explicitly that she wasn’t, that’s sothing else."
The student’s jaw tightened. "We’re here because—"
"Did she send you?" Lin Yi asked.
Silence.
"Did she send you?" he said again. The sa tone. Not louder.
The silence was different this ti. It had a quality to it that the other three mbers seed to register, because two of them shifted their posture in small ways that suggested they were recalibrating sothing.
"No," one of the three behind him said, quietly. Not to Lin Yi. To the student in front. "She didn’t. You said she’d be fine with it."
The student in front didn’t look back at him. "It’s fine," he said. "Senior Xie would want—"
"Senior Xie would want what?" A voice from down the corridor.
Everyone in the doorway turned.
Xie Yanran was walking toward them from the direction of the upper stairwell.
She then looked at the group assembled outside Lin Yi’s door. She looked at the student at the front. Her expression did not change in any dramatic way. It beca more precise.
"What are you doing," she said.
"Senior Xie," the student said. "We were—"
"I heard what you were doing," she said. She stopped several feet away and looked at him directly. "I heard it from the stairwell." She looked at each of the three behind him in sequence. Then back to the one in front. "I told you yesterday that I had a conversation with Lin Yi and that it went fine. I told you explicitly that there was no issue." She paused. "What part of that was unclear?"
"He ranked first overall," the student said. "Over you. After turning down—"
"He ranked first because his expedition output rited it," she said. "The ranking system is not a personal event. Soone being first doesn’t harm ." She looked at him with the expression of a person who is genuinely disappointed rather than performatively so. "And whether or not he joins our sect has nothing to do with respect or disrespect. It’s his decision." She paused. "Is that clear?"
The student said nothing. His expression had passed through several things and had arrived at sothing that combined embarrassnt and residual stubbornness in a ratio that was not comfortable for him.
"Go," she said.
They went. The student at the front last, and without looking at Lin Yi as he turned, which required visible effort and communicated everything the silence was intended to conceal.
Xie Yanran watched them walk down the corridor until they turned the corner. Then she looked at Lin Yi.
"I apologize," she said. "That wasn’t sanctioned and it won’t happen again."
"I know it wasn’t sanctioned," Lin Yi said.
"You asked them directly," she said. "I heard that too. That was the correct thing to do."
"It was the fastest way to establish the actual situation," Lin Yi said.
She looked at him for a mont. "You ranked first," she said. "Across the entire academy. First-year, first expedition."
"Yes."
"How does that feel?"
Lin Yi thought about it the way he thought about most questions when soone was asking sincerely.
"Like a starting point," he said.
She looked at him for a long mont. Then she nodded, once.
"A starting point," she said.
"Right." She turned to leave. "Congratulations, Lin Yi," she said, over her shoulder. "On the ranking."
She walked away down the corridor.
Lin Yi watched her go. Then he went back into his room and closed the door and returned to his formation theory notes.
...
Wang Hao knocked eleven minutes later.
"I just heard there was a confrontation outside your room," he said, from the doorway, with the energy of soone who had been inford of events and could not stand to wait for the full account. "What happened? Are you okay? Did anyone say anything stupid? Did you face-slap soone? I need to know everything."
"They asked to apologize to Xie Yanran for turning down her sect invitation," Lin Yi said.
Wang Hao stared at him. "They asked you to apologize."
"Yes."
"For turning down an invitation she gave you voluntarily."
"Yes."
"And?"
"She arrived before it went further and sent them away herself."
Wang Hao was quiet for a mont. Then he said, "She arrived to defend you from her own sect mbers."
Wang Hao looked at him with the expression that had been appearing more frequently lately, the one where he clearly had a comnt that he was deciding whether to voice. He voiced it.
"Brother Lin," he said. "I say this with complete respect for your intelligence in most areas." He paused. "But sotis you are remarkably unbothered by things that other people find very significant."
"Such as?" Lin Yi said.
"Such as the leader of the top-ranked sect in the academy personally coming to your door to defend you from her own mbers and saying she apologizes." Wang Hao looked at him. "Most people would consider that aningful."
"It was the appropriate response to an inappropriate situation," Lin Yi said. "She handled it correctly."
Wang Hao opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "Right," he said. "Yes. She handled it correctly." He leaned against the doorfra. "Are you coming to dinner or not."
"Yes," Lin Yi said. He saved his notes and stood up. "Let’s go."
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