Rules Are Dead

"Come on, come on, everyone grab a shovel or a hoe. Our entire branch college will set off together later," the counselor said, holding a megaphone.

In the early morning at Yinshan College, a few clouds drifted across the azure sky. The hiking event kicked off on this Tree Planting Day. At this moment, the sports field was packed with a massive, dense crowd of people. Students from almost every college had to go on a hike to plant trees, totaling tens of thousands of people.

However, to avoid disrupting traffic, almost every college had a different destination, and most chose routes with fewer people.

"Yuyou, here you go!" Tang Keke held a large shovel. These were the tools distributed to them; every student got one.

"It's heavy." Bai Yuyou gripped the wooden handle, finding it quite weighty. Moreover, this shovel seemed to have been used for several years, bearing a thick layer of patina—clearly an old object.

Bai Yuyou held the shovel with both hands, finding it relatively comfortable to use.

"Hehehe, it's alright." Tang Keke looked around and soon spotted Taozi and the others.

Taozi was looking left and right, seemingly searching for something. The girl's figure looked exceptionally petite among the crowd of boys. She seemed to be looking for Bai Yuyou and the rest.

"Taozi, over here!" Seeing her, Tang Keke reached out her hand and hopped in place.

"Coming." Taozi noticed the bouncing slime in the distance. She walked over with a hoe resting on her shoulder, even wearing a straw hat and oversleeves, looking entirely like a peasant girl.

"That hoe of yours looks really heavy. Don't they have a smaller one?" Tang Keke asked, noticing the hoe didn't quite match Taozi's size.

"It's fine, I've been using this since I was very little." Taozi smiled and touched her straw hat. "When I used to do farm work, I didn't even have a straw hat and oversleeves. It's much more comfortable now."

"Are you really good at farm work, Taozi? Isn't it exhausting?"

"Yeah... I'd get up at four to work, then feed the pigs, make breakfast for my... parents and younger siblings before heading off to school," Taozi briefly described.

"Are all the kids in your village like that?" Tang Keke found it a bit hard to imagine.

"Not everyone goes to school. Many kids in our village don't study. When they get a bit older, they go out to work and earn money, and they hardly ever come back, even for the New Year," Taozi said.

"So our village has fewer and fewer people. It's almost deserted."

Pausing for a moment, Taozi smiled and said, "Having seen the prosperity and convenience of the big city, it really does make you want to stay. But housing prices are very expensive, and it's too difficult for outsiders to put down roots."

"I feel like I'm listening to the older generation talk about their childhood," Tang Keke said.

Taozi: OvO...

Is that so?

"Where is An Shiyu?" Taozi asked at this moment.

"I don't know." Tang Keke hadn't seen that girl all morning either, though it didn't seem like a particularly strange thing.

After all, that girl spawned randomly. Sometimes she could pop out from the most unimaginable places.

"She's probably slacking off somewhere."

Once they were mostly ready, the group set off, walking one after another. There were student council members nearby maintaining the formation to prevent anyone from wandering off. It was said that every year on Tree Planting Day, some students would try to take a taxi back during the return trip, but if caught by the college, they would basically get a scolding.

They walked at a brisk pace. Along the way, everyone chatted, laughed, and shared snacks, but Bai Yuyou's gaze seemed to be searching for something.

"Ye Shuang isn't here," Bai Yuyou said. After all, she had been looking for Ye Shuang's location from the very beginning.

"My brother and the teachers' group don't seem to be on this side, but our destination is the same. We'll be able to see him once we get there," Tang Keke said.

"Mhm."

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the procession, Ye Shuang was also wearing a casual set of sportswear, walking with a hoe in hand.

The staff members departed slightly later than the students.

"A hiking event, a round trip of twenty kilometers. In a way, that's pretty impressive." Ye Shuang looked around. Because the procession was so long, he didn't know where Bai Yuyou and the others' group was, but the destination was the same; Ye Shuang had confirmed it beforehand.

"It's just twenty kilometers," a voice came from beside him. At this moment, the two fishes were standing on his left and right, eating McDonald's ice cream cones they held in their hands.

"Where did you two get the ice cream?"

"Oh, we bought them when we passed by a dessert station just now. Do you want some?" An Shiyi said, offering the ice cream she had licked into a semicircle.

"No, thank you." Ye Shuang looked at the sticky ice cream, feeling a bit helpless. "Also, leaving the team without permission to buy ice cream should be against the rules, right?"

"Rules are dead, but people are alive," An Shiyu showed dotted eyes. "As expected of a middle-aged man, you are exceptionally rigid."

"I don't think that phrase really applies to ice cream, does it?" Ye Shuang retorted.

"Am I already a middle-aged man before I'm even thirty?"

"Tsk." An Shiyu looked away. "Why do you care so much? You're not a teacher."

"True." Ye Shuang smiled, but he also wondered why these two fishes weren't with their class group. "You two should be with Yuyou and the others."

"Crunch, crunch..." An Shiyi had already started gnawing on the crispy cone. Hearing Ye Shuang say that, she spread her hands. "Is there a possibility that we all started from the school infirmary, which is why we are together?"

"So why were you in the school infirmary early in the morning?"

"..." The two fishes exchanged a glance.

Then they said some things to each other that Ye Shuang couldn't understand.

After walking for another half hour, An Shiyu was already tired. She pulled out a pair of headphones from who knows where and started listening to music; the cat-ear headphones were even glowing.

However, this didn't violate the rules.

As for An Shiyi on the other side, she was already wearing a VR headset, munching on snacks, and watching a show.

"Aren't you... afraid of falling over like that?" Ye Shuang couldn't help but ask, looking at the device on An Shiyi's head and the cartoon big-eye icons on the visor.

"No, it's not like I can't see the road ahead," An Shiyi said casually. It was just that there were many more windows in front of her eyes.

But in the next second, as if An Shiyi had thought of something, her foot suddenly tripped, and then she directly grabbed Ye Shuang's arm with one hand. "Oh my, I fell down. It seems I need someone to hold me up to walk!"

"..." Isn't your deadpan reading a bit too fake?

Right at this moment, An Shiyu took a look and also reached out, grabbing Ye Shuang's other arm.