They knew very well how they had treated Yu Weiwei in the past.
It was just that, despite feeling guilty about their actions, it was difficult for them to approach him and apologize.
After all, most of them were privileged children who had grown up surrounded by praise, attention, and people constantly telling them how outstanding they were. They were far too proud to easily admit that they had been wrong, especially when doing so meant admitting that they had once bullied someone who was now far more outstanding than them.
It was a rather humiliating realization.
So, instead of apologizing right away, they could only watch Yu Weiwei from a distance, their gazes filled with complicated emotions, debating whether to approach.
Yu Weiwei tried his best to ignore all those gazes.
He really did.
Unfortunately, his social anxiety wouldn't let him.
The longer those stares continued, the more uncomfortable he became. Even though no one approached him or said anything, he could still feel their eyes following him wherever he went.
By the time the school day finally ended, Yu Weiwei felt as though he had spent the entire day being observed by hundreds of pairs of eyes.
The moment school finally ended, Yu Weiwei teleported out of the classroom.
He would have teleported directly home, but he still had to report to one of his teachers first.
With a helpless sigh, Yu Weiwei could only suppress his desperate desire to escape and head toward the teacher's office.
When he arrived and pushed open the door, the old teacher immediately looked up.
"You are here. How are you feeling now?" the old teacher asked, concern evident in his eyes.
The moment Yu Weiwei saw him, all the walls he had carefully built around himself seemed to crumble.
He smiled like a spoiled child who had finally returned to the presence of someone he deeply trusted and loved. However, beneath that smile, complicated emotions flashed through his eyes.
"Teacher..."
Yu Weiwei's voice choked.
He clearly had no intention of crying.
Unfortunately, his tears had other plans.
The tears suddenly flooded out like a dam that had finally broken.
Why?
It had already been hundreds of years, yet the emotions he had locked away inside his heart were still there. Not only had they failed to disappear with time, but they had somehow grown even stronger.
"I... waaaaah... hiccup..."
Yu Weiwei tried to explain that he didn't mean to cry, but his emotions had already taken control.
"Oh, Weiwei. It's alright to cry. Just let it out."
The old teacher immediately walked over and pulled him into his arms.
"I'm so sorry. I should have defended you. If not that, I should at least have visited you during these past few months."
His expression was filled with distress and heartache as he gently held Yu Weiwei.
No one knew how painful it had been for him to watch his student, who was practically like a son to him, go through so much suffering.
"No... hiccup... I should have come... instead... waaaaah!"
Yu Weiwei hugged him tightly as he finally poured out the emotions he had been suppressing for so long.
He had tried to convince himself that he was fine.
He had tried to move forward.
He had tried to bury everything that had happened deep inside his heart.
But the moment he saw someone who had once cared for him so deeply, all those carefully locked-away emotions came rushing back.
Yu Weiwei would never forget his godfather's miserable death while trying to save him.
The guilt and fear had made him lose the courage to face his godfather.
He had clearly come here intending to say the harshest words he could think of before leaving and completely cutting contact with him.
But when he finally stood in front of him, he couldn't bear to do it.
He simply couldn't.
As they say, a parent knows their child so well that even a slight change in expression can tell them whether their child is about to fart.
And Zayn knew Yu Weiwei even better than that.
The moment he saw Yu Weiwei crying, he understood.
His Weiwei wasn't the same person he had been before that day at the Truth Seer.
If not for the fact that he still possessed the same eyes, the same naivety, and the same little habits, Zayn would have thought that the person standing before him was someone else entirely.
His Weiwei must have experienced things far darker than he could ever imagine.
Otherwise, how could such a naive and innocent child have those eyes?
Yu Weiwei could fool almost anyone.
But he couldn't fool him.
Zayn could see the world-weary emotions hidden beneath his innocent appearance. He could see the depression that occasionally surfaced in his eyes and the moments when Yu Weiwei seemed to detach himself from everything around him.
And the fact that he was crying this hard meant that Yu Weiwei had held onto those emotions for far too long.
They had accumulated little by little, buried beneath layers of silence and forced smiles, until the moment he finally saw someone he trusted.
Then everything exploded.
Zayn lowered his eyes.
His gaze was filled with sadness, heartache, and tenderness as he silently watched the crying Yu Weiwei.
He didn't try to stop him.
He simply held him.
A long time passed.
Eventually, Yu Weiwei's crying gradually weakened until exhaustion finally overtook him.
He fell asleep in Zayn's arms, though occasional little sobs could still be heard even in his sleep.
Zayn carefully carried Yu Weiwei into the private room inside his office and gently laid him on the bed.
After adjusting the blanket around him, he stared at the sleeping figure for a few seconds before quietly walking out.
He closed the door behind him.
The moment the door locked, the entire atmosphere of the office changed.
The seemingly ordinary teacher's office suddenly transformed.
The walls slid apart, revealing an underground laboratory hidden beneath the room.
Expensive instruments filled the enormous space, each one looking so advanced that even the empire would have difficulty gathering so many of them in one place.
Zayn walked toward another door.
As he walked, he reached up and pulled the bandage from his neck.
The moment the bandage came off, his entire appearance began to change.
His bent back straightened.
His body seemed to grow taller, his posture becoming completely different from the old teacher's frail appearance.
His grey hair gradually turned black.
His black irises changed into a deep crimson.
And the face that had previously looked like that of an ordinary old teacher was replaced by an extraordinarily handsome man.
His handsomeness was devilish, but it was completely different from Xu Nianye's.
If Xu Nianye was the kind of devil who could seduce one's soul with a single glance, Zayn was the kind who could make someone instinctively feel fear while still being unable to tear their eyes away from him.
His entire aura had changed.
The gentle and concerned old teacher was gone.
In his place was a predator leisurely touring his own territory.
If Caspian were here, he would have immediately recognized him.
He was his elder brother.
The prince who was currently lying inside a stasis pod.
The First Prince.
The prince who had been trained from childhood to become the next emperor.
Unlike Caspian, who had been forced into the position because his elder brother had fallen into a coma, or Evander, whose heart was firmly set on the battlefield, Alaric had been raised from the very beginning with the expectation that he would inherit the throne.
The First Prince, Alaric Grants, walked deeper into the laboratory and eventually stopped in front of an incomplete mecha.
He sat down before it and tapped his fingers lightly against the table.
His crimson eyes remained fixed on the incomplete machine in front of him.
After a long silence, he finally muttered,
"Lin Zhe... do you think I succeeded?"
His voice was low.
There was a strange complexity hidden within those simple words.
Why was Yu Weiwei unaware of Alaric or Zayn's true identity?
It was because ever since Alaric had fallen into a coma twenty-three years ago, his image had been completely wiped from the Starnet.
All records of his appearance had disappeared from public circulation.
And Yu Weiwei had never had any opportunity to know what the First Prince looked like.
Besides, Alaric didn't particularly resemble Caspian or Evander.
The only obvious similarities between the three brothers were their black hair and the crimson eyes that he shared with Caspian.
Alaric had inherited his appearance from his maternal uncle, unlike Caspian and Evander, who looked more like their father while possessing a few features from their mother.
Because of that, even if Yu Weiwei had somehow encountered Alaric's true appearance, he probably wouldn't have immediately connected him to Caspian and Evander.
Time slowly passed.
Two hours later, a groan suddenly came from the private room.