Tao Xiaotao was thoroughly satisfied with this meal—it was a rare occasion where she ate her fill.
She gnawed the chicken leg clean, leaving not a speck of meat on the bone, and her bowl was spotless, with even the soup gulped down in one go.
It was surprising how such a petite frame could pack away so much food.
Though she still fell short compared to the humanoid Kirby, Bai Yuyou, Tao Xiaotao’s appetite was easily among the top in the circle of people Tang Keke and Ye Shuang knew.
Ye Shuang also noticed that this girl, perhaps due to prolonged malnutrition, looked as thin as a bean sprout and lacked energy.
[Character: Tao Xiaotao
A poverty-stricken girl with three younger sisters and one younger brother.]
"Why did you come all the way here to study, Xiaotao?" Ye Shuang asked casually after glancing at the information, trying to get a sense of her background.
"Me?" Tao Xiaotao snapped out of her daze and answered earnestly,
"I heard Yinshan Academy waives tuition for first-choice applicants... and the scholarships are generous. They also help arrange jobs after graduation, so I came."
Ye Shuang smiled. "Yinshan Academy does offer job placements, but they’re mostly in Haizhu City or neighboring areas. Aren’t you planning to return to Henan?"
Tao Xiaotao lowered her head. "There aren’t many job opportunities in my village... Most young people leave to work elsewhere. I..."
She looked up, her voice firm. "I love studying. I want to go to school."
Beside her, Tang Keke blinked. "Loving to study is a good thing!"
"Yeah, but..." Tao Xiaotao hesitated, then gave an awkward smile and didn’t continue.
Tang Keke seemed about to ask more, but Ye Shuang shot her a look, and she obediently returned to her meal.
Ye Shuang glanced again—
[Character: Tao Xiaotao
Excelled academically since childhood. In middle and high school, her parents pressured her to drop out, work, and marry. With a teacher’s help and a promise to send money home monthly, she managed to continue pursuing her dream of higher education.]
Ye Shuang slowly averted his gaze, sensing the weight behind those words.
"Xiaotao, let’s exchange WeChat IDs," Tang Keke suggested after lunch. "It’ll be easier to stay in touch."
"I... I..." Tao Xiaotao clenched her battered phone in her pocket and bowed her head. "I didn’t bring my phone. Can I give you my number instead?"
"Huh?" Tang Keke paused, suddenly wondering if Tao Xiaotao couldn’t even afford a phone. She quickly recovered with a smile.
"Sure, sure! A phone number works too. Texting is fine—Yuyou and I text all the time, right?"
Bai Yuyou blinked her beautiful eyes and nodded without a word.
"Okay!" Tao Xiaotao finally smiled, relieved. She had assumed everyone only used WeChat.
After Tang Keke noted down the number, Bai Yuyou gently tapped Tao Xiaotao’s arm.
"Huh?"
Tao Xiaotao looked down to see a note Bai Yuyou had handed her—
[ (●•̀ω•́)✧ Look, here’s my number~ ]
"Thank you!" Tao Xiaotao was charmed by the adorable text. This seemingly aloof girl wasn’t so hard to approach after all.
In fact, she seemed really kind.
But she’s so pale and pretty, like a princess from a fairy tale... Tao Xiaotao glanced at her own small, yellowish hands and instinctively hid them.
Bai Yuyou, however, reached out and lightly held her hand.
"Your hands are strong. Impressive."
Tao Xiaotao froze, then realized Bai Yuyou was complimenting her. Flustered, she pulled her hand back with a sheepish grin.
Ye Shuang watched quietly, his gaze lingering on Bai Yuyou.
This girl, once shrouded in darkness, was now using her own light to brighten someone else’s world.
Resting his chin on his hand, Ye Shuang smiled faintly, feeling both touched and proud.
I hope they become good friends.
One of the best things about school was how people from completely different backgrounds could form deep friendships—something rare to find in the adult world.
"Speaking of which, the school’s a bit short-handed lately," Ye Shuang remarked suddenly.
"Short-handed?" Tao Xiaotao asked.
"Yeah, I think the library’s hiring student assistants. Pays around 2,000 a month." He turned to Tang Keke and Bai Yuyou.
"Any of you interested? It’s good experience, and the hours aren’t long."
The two shook their heads in unison, catching his drift. "We’ve got other stuff going on. No time."
Ye Shuang then looked at Tao Xiaotao. "Xiaotao, how about you?"
"Me?!" She barely contained her excitement. "Yes! Yes!"
Realizing she’d overreacted, she rubbed her hands together and laughed awkwardly.
Ye Shuang simply smiled warmly. "After lunch, come with me to the library. I’ll get you set up."
"Okay!"
After lunch, Ye Shuang led the three girls toward the library—
Yinshan Academy had four libraries: one large and three small. The biggest spanned 40,000 square meters, perched on an island in the middle of a scenic lake, connected by a stone bridge. It was an imposing sight.
"Wait, this is the library? I thought it was the principal’s mansion!" Tang Keke marveled.
"Keke, dummy," Bai Yuyou said flatly.
"Waaah! Brother, Yuyou just called me a dummy!"
"Alright, alright."
Inside, a staff member greeted Ye Shuang. "Mr. Ye, here to borrow books?"
"Not today." Ye Shuang pulled Tao Xiaotao forward.
"You mentioned needing extra help?"
"Extra help?" The man paused, then grinned in realization. "Right, right! We’re understaffed. And you are?"
"Tao Xiaotao."
"Follow me."
Tao Xiaotao glanced back at Ye Shuang.
"Go ahead. He’ll fill you in. Just make it back to class before afternoon break," Ye Shuang assured her.
"Got it!" With that, she followed the staff member inside.
Watching her leave, Tang Keke turned to Ye Shuang. "Brother, with so many staff here, are they really understaffed?"
Ye Shuang pressed a finger to his lips, his deep eyes twinkling.
"Shh. Secret."
......
With Tao Xiaotao’s matter settled, it was time to return to the infirmary.
Since it was Friday, tomorrow marked the day of his promise with An Shiyu.
Back at his desk, the couch beside him remained empty—no sign of that fish-like girl.
"Final wish list, huh... What about our hiking plan?" He shook his head with a wry smile.
A breeze drifted through the window. One person, one desk, one curtain—utterly quiet.
The usual hustle and bustle was gone.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
