320 A gulf and a natural divide (1/2)

When Ren Xiaosu was asleep, Xiaoyu suddenly pulled Yan Liuyuan aside and asked, ”Why didn't you tell your brother what happened at school?”

”Big Sister Xiaoyu, keep your voice down.” Yan Liuyuan said as he dragged her out, ”I can't tell him.”

”Why can't you tell him? You should let your big brother teach those little bastards a lesson. What gives them the right to call you and Dalong names and ransack your belongings?” Xiaoyu said furiously.

Yan Liuyuan whispered, ”If they need to be taught a lesson, I can do it myself. But it wasn't easy for my brother to decide to come here for Big Sister Xiaojin's sake, so how can I trouble him at a time like this?”

After Yan Liuyuan started attending school, his classmates immediately figured out he was a refugee. That was because he had a different understanding of how daily lives went.

Yang Xiaojin had selected the best school in Stronghold 88 for Yan Liuyuan to attend. The students there were not ordinary people, and many of the students' parents were extremely well-connected. So they already knew about these refugees enrolling into the school.

At the beginning, the students bluntly called Yan Liuyuan a refugee. Later on, as the others started joining in on the name calling, someone even called him and Wang Dalong riff-raff. After all, there was only a syllable[1] of difference between the two.

The teacher forced Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong to sit in the last row and even deliberately left the seats next to them empty.

But from the beginning to the end, Yan Liuyuan did not show any retaliation. Ren Xiaosu had already done a lot for Yan Liuyuan, so it was not a big deal to make some sacrifices for Ren Xiaosu.

Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu brought Yan Liuyuan out to shop for clothes. Since they had been invited and there were also instructions for them to be dressed formally, he wouldn't be deliberately contradictory.

For this reason, Wang Fugui specially handed all the money he had recently exchanged to Ren Xiaosu. Although he did not know where Ren Xiaosu had gotten his gold from, Old Wang knew Ren Xiaosu still had a lot left in his possession. And it was much more than he could imagine.

Xiaoyu even reminded Ren Xiaosu repeatedly to not be thrifty and to make sure they dressed nicely.

But when they arrived at a well-known tailor shop in the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu realized they did not have any formal clothes here.

”Bossman,” Ren Xiaosu called the owner over, ”do you have any formal wear? We'd like to try them on.”

An old man came out with a measuring tape dangling around his neck and two sleeves hanging off his arm. ”You wish to buy formal wear?”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. ”Do you have anything suitable for us?”

The old man examined Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan and then said, ”I'm sorry, but I can't sell you any suits.”

”Wait a minute.” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ”Why not? I have the money!”

”It's not really about money.” The old man explained patiently, ”The stronghold regulations state that only people in public office can buy formal wear. Moreover, the suits have to be custom-made here at our shop. Both of you must have an event to attend tonight, right? A custom-made suit will take more than 20 days to be ready. Even if you order one now, you won't be able to wear it tonight.”

The old man sounded very polite and did not portray himself in a high and mighty way. However, the objective facts he stated made Ren Xiaosu feel very helpless.

At first, he thought the Yang Consortium wanted to flex their financial might by inviting him and Yan Liuyuan to the function. They might have thought that as a refugee, he couldn't afford a suit. But it wasn't until now that he realized the Yang Consortium was just trying to flex their status.

Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan out of the shop. He went to look at the route information at the streetcar station to find out if any streetcars went to the Yang Consortium's manor.

However, he couldn't find a streetcar that stopped at the Yang Consortium's manor even after looking at the information board for a long time.

Ren Xiaosu asked a pedestrian next to him, ”Hi, do you know which streetcar goes to the Bronze Ram Manor?”

That pedestrian was slightly taken aback. ”The Bronze Ram Manor? You guys are going there? Why are you two going there?”