Zhao Yan's expression was solemn as she opened her mouth and said, "Lin Dong, speaking of which, the person I can not see through the most is you."

"I can't say that you're cold because the students and teachers all say that you're easy to get along with. However, you only have a deep friendship with Luo Fei, and only know a little about the others."

​​

"This includes Ding Ling, Ziqing and me, am I right?"

Lin Dong grinned and did not oppose what Zhao Yan said.

This was the truth.

It was already quite good that he did not put on a high and mighty attitude, and still maintained relationship with them.

"Not only that, Lin Dong, your standards are extremely high. Compared to you, Ziqing is far inferior. She doesn't want to stay on the mining planet, and wants to advance to a higher class. However, you seem to be very confident that you're able to do so, and have never doubted yourself."

"There is a huge difference. You seem to have left us all behind."

Lin Dong stopped smiling as he rubbed his nose and did not make a sound.

With his personal support system, he had indeed never doubted himself. With such a huge advantage, if he was still unable to advance to a higher class, he might as well kill himself.

All he needed was an opportunity to jump out of this mining planet and advance to a higher class.

Zhao Yan and the rest might need a lifetime of hard work and luck to complete it. However, all Lin Dong needed was time.

Lin Dong was not surprised that Zhao Yan knew.

After all, Lin Dong's mental age was rather old and he could not pretend to be a 10-year-old student.

However, in this current era, he could at most be considered precocious and confident. There was nothing abnormal about him.

It was normal for children from Welfare Institutions to be precocious.

Lin Dong did not explain anything. Instead, he directly changed the topic and said, "We must have dream. Since you keep us all here, why don't you give us some useful comments."

"Don't say that it's just a spur of the moment. Are you trying to lecture me?"

Luo Fei, Li Ziqing and Ding Ling were silent. However, from the looks of it, they all agreed with Lin Dong's words.

Zhao Yan's eyes moved.

She had left the 4 of them behind. Her words could be described as honest, in order to dispel the doubts in their hearts and create a suitable environment for their conversation.

Lin Dong could save quite a bit of time by bringing the topic to the main topic.

However, this was a change that exceeded her expectations. Although the change was in a positive direction, it still caused Zhao Yan's heart to waver.

Zhao Yan seriously looked at Lin Dong. If this man helped her for a reason, then her plan would have at least a 15% chance of success.

Unfortunately, she could not use her beauty to make Lin Dong work for free. All she could do was to offer some benefits to impress him.

After a few thoughts flashed across Zhao Yan's mind, she opened her mouth and said, "The open trade agreement is a path for us to climb up. However, this path can't accommodate a lot of people."

"According to what I know, the open trade agreement allows the citizens of Baron Darkmoon's territory to apply for the secondary education academy in Baron Soro's territory."

"However, the scope and scale of the candidates are clearly defined."

Zhao Yan's words caused the few of them to be stunned.

They were not aware that there were actually additional restrictions in the open trade agreement.

However, Lin Dong had a flash of inspiration. He somewhat understood what happened.

The interior of the Ardent Fire Empire was the same as the majority of countries. On the surface, there seemed to be no problems, but in reality, there were many contradictions.

1 of the main contradictions was the conflict between the local nobles and the royal authority.

The Ardent Fire Empire wanted to take back the direct jurisdiction of the local areas and achieve the centralization of power in the kingdom. They wanted to exploit the rights of the local nobles, so the local nobles naturally would not agree.

Baron Darkmoon and Baron Soro belonged to different sides.

Baron Darkmoon belonged to the direct line of descent of the king and was personally conferred by the king. Baron Soro, on the other hand, was a subordinate of Count Tianfang. The 2 of them had a fundamental conflict and it was impossible for the them to get along peacefully.

Moreover, since the establishment of the 2 sides, wars had not started, but small fights had never ceased.

Just the mining planet that Lin Dong was staying on would not only bring various mining resources to Baron Darkmoon, but would also affect the ore market within Baron Soro's territory and cause economic losses.

The relationship between them was neutral.

The reason why they were able to sign an open trade agreement was because of the forces behind it. It was not because the barons on both sides were willing to do so.

In response to this, both sides added additional clauses in the agreement. They were playing tricks, but it did not seem obvious that they were disobeying orders.

For example, the education clause that Zhao Yan was thinking about. Baron Soro's allowed Baron Darkmoon's people to apply for the secondary education academy.

However, Baron Darkmoon was worried about a large-scale loss of talents in their territory, so they restricted the number of people to join the academy.

Baron Soro was also worried that Baron Darkmoon would use this opportunity to spy on their advanced technology and gather intelligence. Hence, they would also restrict the number of people joining the academy.

Both sides were trying to restrict their rivals. Thus, it would be much more difficult for Lin Dong and the rest to climb their way up to a higher class.

Zhao Yan quickly revealed some information that she had obtained from her own sources.

Firstly, children and relatives of administrative officials working for Baron Darkmoon were not allowed to apply for the academy.

Which meant, Ding Ling was not eligible to join the academy.

No matter what she said, with her family background, she would also have to bear the rest of the responsibilities when she obtained the resources from her family.

They would just reject Ding Ling. They would not care about her family background

Secondly, after the applicants passed, they would need to sign a contract. After studying, they would have to work for Baron Soro for 30 years. During that time, they would not be allowed to return to Baron Darkmoon.

There were only that many spots in total. Half of the spots had already been decided by the various forces in Baron Darkmoon's territory.

The open trade agreement was still being discussed. Nothing had not been decided yet.

The remaining half would be for the commoner class to compete. Once they could not find any connections or bribe the bigwigs, they would definitely not get a spot.

No matter how harsh the conditions were, it was also a good opportunity for the commoner class.

Li Ziqing and Luo Fei frowned and remained silent.

Luo Fei was the only son in the family. He had gone out to study for 3 years and worked for 30 years. If he still could not get anything out of it for these few years, it would mean that he would have to leave his parents for almost 40 years. His parents were not in good health. Thus, if something happened to them during this period, Luo Fei would not be able to make it in time.

Luo Fei heart was wavering as he looked down at his feet.

Li Ziqing was thinking about how much she would have to pay to achieve her goal.

Her family had a medium-sized company on the mining planet, and her father had a lot of connections on the planet.

However, there was not only 1 mining planet in Baron Darkmoon's territory, so her family could not do much as well, right?

There was no specific standard for how much effort they had to put in to get it, and her father might not necessarily waste time on Li Ziqing.

On the other hand, since Zhao Yan could give out so much information, she might have a better chance.

However, the fact that she had deliberately organized this gathering also meant that she did not have enough confidence. At the very least, she was unable to guarantee that she would be able to obtain a spot.

Only Lin Dong had an indifferent expression. His friends' expressions were awful.