The first joint meeting between S-Class and A-Class was arranged for three o’clock in the afternoon.

According to the production team’s original plan, this meeting was supposed to be warm, elegant, and full of youthful tension.

The twelve guests would enter the academy’s central reception hall one after another. They would greet each other under the cameras, exchange first impressions, perhaps reveal a little curiosity or subtle rivalry, and then the director would guide them into a simple ice-breaking segment.

Very normal.

Very safe.

Very suitable for the first official filming material.

Of course, after the director’s morning experience in the S-Class building, he no longer trusted the word “safe.”

He had already handed the activity plan to Mu Xiyu for correction.

Mu Xiyu had returned it twenty minutes later.

The corrected version was clean, precise, and terrifyingly practical.

Three activity items had been deleted.

Two had been marked as “inefficient.”

One had been labelled: May trigger avoidable Alpha dominance response under competitive conditions. Recommend removing unless medical staff are present.

The director had held the revised plan in silence for a long time.

Then he accepted it.

After all, dignity was temporary.

Avoiding a broadcast accident was eternal.

At three o’clock, the cameras in the central reception hall opened.

Unlike the S-Class building, the central reception hall was clearly designed for public display.

The ceiling was high and bright. Sunlight passed through the crystal dome and fell across the polished white floor. Academy banners hung between tall silver pillars. At the far end of the hall, the imperial crest and Imperial Academy’s school emblem were displayed side by side, giving the entire scene a solemn but youthful beauty.

The production team had placed twelve seats in a semicircle.

Six black-gold chairs on the left.

Six silver-white chairs on the right.

The difference was too obvious.

The director had originally worried that this arrangement might intensify class contrast, but the academy liaison teacher had told him gently that the chairs were simply matched to the students’ access cards.

“Isn’t that still contrast?” the director had asked.

The liaison teacher had replied, “Imperial Academy does not pretend differences do not exist. It teaches students what to do after recognising them.”

The director had gone silent.

The livestream room opened ten minutes before the guests entered.

The audience poured in at a speed that made the technical team break into a cold sweat.

【First official joint meeting!】

【I have snacks. I have drinks. I have three terminals open.】

【Who will arrive first?】

【A-Class, probably. S-Class does not look like the type to care about camera timing.】

【I want to see whether Ji Ran can talk to them.】

【I want to see Crown Prince and Mu Xiyu in the same frame again.】

【I still can’t forget “That is an observation. Is there a question?”】

【Student Mu is not cold. He is a query system.】

【Don’t whitewash too early. Being blunt can still hurt people.】

【True, but it depends on intention.】

【The show has not even started properly and people are already arguing. Excellent.】

At exactly three o’clock, the silver-white door on the right opened first.

The A-Class students entered.

Compared with the S-Class morning material that felt like accidentally opening the door to six national-level restricted projects, A-Class appeared much closer to what a variety show audience expected.

Polished.

Young.

Attractive.

Hardworking.

Camera-ready.

The first person to walk in was Ji Ran.

He wore Imperial Academy’s A-Class uniform neatly. The silver trim at his cuffs was clean but not ostentatious. His face was not the most dazzling among the twelve guests, but it had a comfortable warmth. His smile was natural, his posture modest, and when he saw the cameras, he did not look overly nervous or overly eager.

He looked like someone ordinary viewers could immediately understand.

A commoner student who had entered Imperial Academy through effort.

A Beta who had no pheromone advantage.

A person who knew how to listen, how to smile, how to stand at the right distance, and how to make others feel that speaking to him would not be tiring.

The bullet comments reacted well.

【Ji Ran looks comfortable.】

【Finally, someone who seems like he won’t correct my thesis in public.】

【Commoner background and A-Class? Impressive.】

【He has a very approachable feeling.】

Behind him came Ruan Qingyao.

If Ji Ran was warm spring water, then Ruan Qingyao was a vase of snow-white lilies placed under palace lights.

She was an Omega from a prestigious noble family, and everything about her carried the discipline of old etiquette: the angle of her chin, the straightness of her back, the measured pace of her steps, even the slight pause before she smiled at the camera.

Elegant.

Proud.

Beautiful.

Not soft enough to be harmless, but not sharp enough to be disliked at first glance.

Her gaze swept across the hall, pausing briefly on the black-gold chairs opposite them.

Then she lowered her eyes and sat down.

【Ruan Qingyao is so pretty.】

【Noble Omega atmosphere!】

【She looks a bit proud, but it suits her.】

【Wasn’t she part of the same childhood circle as S-Class?】

【I heard she and Mu Xiyu don’t get along.】

【Don’t start rumours before the show even begins.】

Bai Suling entered third.

Her uniform was also neat, but unlike the others, she wore no additional accessories. Her black hair was tied simply behind her head. Her skin was slightly darker from long-term fieldwork, and her eyes were calm in a way that did not come from etiquette training, but from having learned early that panic never solved practical problems.

She was a scholarship student from a poor planet.

Environmental restoration major.

In A-Class, she was not the most socially dazzling student, but her grades in practical governance and ecological repair were among the highest.

When she sat down, she placed her notebook on her lap and glanced once at the camera, not nervously, but as if estimating what kind of observation record this would become.

【Bai Suling! I checked her profile. She’s amazing.】

【Poor planet scholarship student entering Imperial Academy is genuinely hard.】

【She looks very steady.】

【I like her already.】

Xu Cheng entered next.

He was an Alpha from a respected military family. Tall, broad-shouldered, with the clean posture of someone trained since childhood. His uniform looked as if it had been measured with a ruler. His expression was straightforward, neither too warm nor too cold.

He nodded to the cameras once.

Then he sat down.

No performance.

No unnecessary gesture.

A soldier’s child through and through.

【Xu Cheng is handsome in a very disciplinary-inspection way.】

【Military Alpha. Reliable.】

【He looks like he wakes up at five to run.】

【He probably wakes up at four.】

Tang Miao followed.

As an Omega from a media and entertainment family, he understood cameras far better than the others. He knew which angle softened his face, which smile looked natural without seeming rehearsed, and how to adjust his sleeve while appearing casual.

His beauty was lighter than Ruan Qingyao’s.

More approachable.

More deliberate.

When he saw the camera on the left, he smiled at it instinctively, then seemed to realise this was not an entertainment-company stage and quickly restrained himself.

【Tang Miao definitely knows camera angles.】

【He smiled directly at us!】

【Media family genes are real.】

【Image-conscious, but not annoying.】

The last A-Class student was Han Yue.

He entered carrying a cup of ordinary-looking academy coffee.

At least, it would have been ordinary if the cup sleeve had not been made from temperature-controlled imported leather and embossed with the logo of the Han merchant family’s private shipping brand.

Han Yue walked in with a relaxed expression.

“Sorry,” he said to the others, “the ordinary student cafeteria had a queue.”

Bai Suling looked at his cup sleeve.

Xu Cheng looked at his limited-edition shoes.

Tang Miao looked at the diamond dust on his cuff buttons.

Ruan Qingyao did not look, because noble etiquette prevented her from exposing people too directly in public.

Ji Ran smiled as if he had not noticed.

The bullet comments had no such restraint.

【Ordinary student cafeteria? Brother, your coffee sleeve costs more than my terminal.】

【Han Yue’s definition of ordinary is already broken.】

【Wealthy merchant family pretending to be common people. Very natural.】

【I think he genuinely believes he is low-key.】

【This is going to be funny.】

The A-Class students sat down together.

Six young people.

Different backgrounds.

Different temperaments.

But under the camera, they presented a clean and excellent image.

They greeted the director politely.

They answered simple questions smoothly.

They knew how to smile, how to pause, how to give others room to speak.

Even Xu Cheng, who was not talkative, gave concise answers that sounded honest rather than cold.

The director finally felt some of his confidence return.

This was what a variety show should look like.

Young guests.

Good visuals.

Clear personalities.

Potential conflict.

Manageable conversation.

Then the black-gold door on the left opened.

The S-Class students arrived.

The atmosphere changed immediately.

It was not that they deliberately made an entrance.

In fact, their entrance was almost too casual.

He Lianzhou came in first, still talking through a private earpiece.

“No, don’t send the luxury sleeping cabin to Planet R-42. Send the medical insulation units first. The sleeping cabin can go tomorrow. Yes, I know it was custom-made. People can sleep later. Medicine cannot wait.”

He paused, listened for two seconds, then said lazily, “If my father asks, tell him I was improving the family image.”

Luo Jingshen walked behind him, coldly adding, “Your family image cannot bear any more improvement.”

He Lianzhou turned around. “You’re just jealous that logistics has emotional value.”

“Logistics has measurable value. Your emotions are noise.”

“Heartless panther.”

“Bankrupt lion.”

The two sat down without changing expression.

The A-Class students: “…”

The bullet comments immediately became lively.

【They started fighting before sitting down.】

【S-Class friendship seems very expensive.】

【Bankrupt lion HAHAHA.】

【He Lianzhou could bankrupt a small planet by being helpful.】

Wen Shuo entered next, holding an ancient paper book sealed in a transparent protective case. He was still reading as he walked, and the academy staff beside him looked terrified that he might trip.

He did not.

Without raising his head, he found his seat accurately.

Then he said mildly, “The director’s chair placement is historically ceremonial rather than pedagogically neutral.”

The director, who had been standing nearby, pretended not to hear.

Qi Nian followed him.

The silver fox Omega looked awake, but only barely. He held his teddy bear in one arm. Its black bead eyes scanned the room once, then announced:

“New environment recorded. Emotional noise level: moderate. Physical threat level: low. Social threat level: pending.”

Tang Miao’s smile twitched.

Han Yue whispered, “Did the bear just evaluate us?”

Bai Suling whispered back, “Yes.”

Xu Cheng looked at the teddy bear with the solemnity of someone evaluating a medical device in a combat zone.

Then came Mu Xiyu.

The hall seemed to quiet naturally when he entered.

Not because he demanded attention.

But because some people were beautiful in a way that made noise feel unnecessary.

Mu Xiyu wore the same black-gold S-Class uniform as the others. His white hair fell cleanly over his shoulder, and his pale eyes were calm, focused, and slightly distant. He carried no decorative accessories. Only a thin silver data ring circled his wrist, projecting several lines of miniature mecha-core readings that he glanced at every few steps.

His face was even more striking under natural light than in the pre-show clips.

Cold, yes.

But not the cold of disdain.

More like a snowy machine room at dawn: clean, precise, silent, and expensive.

Beside him walked Yin Canglan.

The Crown Prince’s presence completed the imbalance.

Black imperial dragon Alpha.

Tall, elegant, smiling faintly.

He walked half a step behind Mu Xiyu, a position so subtle that ordinary viewers might not immediately understand it. But the noble students in the room understood.

So did the military students.

So did Ji Ran.

Yin Canglan was not placing Mu Xiyu behind him for protection.

He was walking beside him with indulgence, allowing Mu Xiyu to move at his own pace, while making sure no one interrupted the invisible line of his attention.

It was too natural.

Too familiar.

Too unlike a political engagement performed for cameras.

The bullet comments noticed slower than the people in the room, but they noticed.

【They came together!】

【The Crown Prince is really next to Mu Xiyu again.】

【Why does His Highness keep looking at the floor ahead of Mu Xiyu?】

【Maybe checking whether he’ll trip?】

【Mu Xiyu is looking at data while walking. Someone really should check.】

【The Crown Prince looks like he has done this for ten years.】

【Childhood engagement suddenly has weight.】

The S-Class students sat down.

Compared with A-Class, who sat properly with bright expressions and careful posture, S-Class looked like six mismatched disasters temporarily gathered by an imperial order.

He Lianzhou’s terminal was still flashing with interstellar routes.

Wen Shuo’s book looked older than three dynasties.

Qi Nian’s teddy bear remained alert.

Luo Jingshen was already checking an investment report.

Mu Xiyu was still reading his miniature data projection.

Yin Canglan alone looked perfectly suitable for public broadcast, but unfortunately, his first action after sitting down was to place a small cup of water beside Mu Xiyu’s hand.

Mu Xiyu drank it without looking.

The audience: “…”

The comments instantly changed direction.

【Again.】

【Again!】

【He drank it so naturally!】

【Is this hydration or dog food?】

【Why does the Crown Prince carry water like an assistant?】

【Assistant? Be careful. That is His Highness.】

【His Highness: Crown Prince outside, Mu Xiyu’s water manager inside.】

The director coughed lightly.

“Welcome, everyone. Today is the first official meeting between our S-Class and A-Class guests. Before filming begins, please introduce yourselves briefly.”

He looked at the A-Class side first, grateful that at least half of the guests understood ordinary procedure.

Ji Ran stood up first.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Ji Ran, third-year A-Class, administrative systems and public coordination track. I’m a Beta from an ordinary family. Being able to enter Imperial Academy and participate in this programme with so many outstanding seniors and classmates is a great honour.”