"......"
"It's a little too salty." Over breakfast, Ye Shuang took a bite of the rice noodles in his bowl and couldn't help but mutter. It was just plain rice noodles tossed in soy sauce, with a fried egg and some leafy greens mixed in, but the soy sauce had been poured a little too heavily, making the whole dish taste rather strong.
Even so, it had been ages since he'd gotten to eat something like this. Ye Shuang shoveled the rice noodles into his mouth at lightning speed, leaving Chen Qin sitting right beside him staring in complete astonishment. Was he that hungry? She clearly remembered that Ye used to complain nonstop about how terrible this exact kind of rice noodles was.
Could it be that he didn't get enough to eat at Fu Yao's place last night?
Once they finished breakfast, Ye Shuang and Chen Qin headed out for school.
"Hey, you guys finally showed up?" Right at the community gate, Fugui, Chen Hai and Fu Yao had already been waiting there for ages. They'd woken up even earlier than Ye Shuang and the others. Chen Hai was supposed to have come along with Chen Qin, but he hated staying over at Ye Shuang's place—what with Ye's Father and Ye's Mother, the grown-ups hovering around. After he insisted over and over again, he ended up going back to his own place the night before, where he could laze around and do whatever he wanted.
Chen Qin was the opposite. She loved spending time with Ye's Mother (at least on paper), so she slept over at Ye Shuang's place most of the time. That was why there were even clothes and underwear of hers tucked away in Ye Shuang's closet.
Ye Shuang only knew all those little details from the notes and the plot he'd read in the novel, which was exactly why he'd felt so caught off guard when he found out Chen Qin had stayed over at his place the night before.
Once all five of them had grouped up, Ye Shuang glanced around. Fu Yao was still standing quietly next to Fugui like a little wallflower, just as he remembered. That was just her personality—soft, quiet, never one to speak out of turn, and she'd give a shy little smile the second your eyes met hers.
Ye Shuang looked away, and the group started making their way to school, while his mind kept wandering.
What exactly was the thing Fugui had broken that belonged to Fu Yao? Would that incident even still happen now, thanks to the butterfly effect?
He couldn't possibly get stuck in this timeline forever, right? If he did, he'd have to make sure to save You You once they got to high school too.
"I swiped a ton of snacks from my house," Chen Hai said, munching nonstop the whole walk to school. He rummaged through his backpack and pulled out all sorts of stuff, from chocolate to spicy gluten sticks, and everyone passed the snacks around as they chatted about all kinds of gossip going on at school.
But when you got down to it, middle school gossip never strayed far from the same old stuff—so-and-so has a crush on so-and-so, so-and-so's secretly pining for someone else.
Come to think of it, romance really was a universal topic for every age group. You could chat about it from when you were eight years old all the way up to when you were eighty.
......
Back in the classroom, Ye Shuang followed the memory he had from the previous afternoon, walked straight to his seat and sat down. He had no idea if it was pure luck or what, but his left side was right next to Chen Qin, and the window seat on his right belonged to Fu Yao.
He was stuck right in the middle.
A little while later, morning self-study started. Ye Shuang never thought he'd ever have to sit through morning self-study again in his life. Chen Qin was chattering nonstop beside him, but soon two more girls came over, and the three of them got so caught up gossiping that they headed off together to the restroom.
Yep, girls really did love going to the bathroom in groups.
That left only Ye Shuang and Fu Yao sitting in their seats. When Ye Shuang turned his head, he caught Fu Yao peeking at him, and she immediately snapped her head away.
Ye Shuang smiled a little to himself and turned back to face front, but from the corner of his eye, he noticed Fu Yao stealing another glance his way.
He turned his head again, and Fu Yao whipped her head back around so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash. Then she even hunched over and buried her head down on her desk like a little ostrich, looking so cute it made his chest feel soft.
She really was so easy to fluster.
"What's up, Fu Yao? Do you have something you want to tell me?" Ye Shuang asked softly, noticing how flustered she was.
"Actually... um, last night I... messed up..." Fu Yao stammered, twisting her fingers together and not daring to meet his eyes at all.
But right at that moment, Fugui and the others came trundling back into the classroom. "Hey, you wanna head to the school convenience store? Buy me that fifty-cent pickled pepper chicken feet, yeah?"
Ye Shuang really wanted to hear what Fu Yao was trying to say, but now that Fugui and the others had interrupted her, Fu Yao had clammed up completely. There was nothing he could do about it, so he stood up. "I'll be right back, okay? You can tell me later." He gave her a warm little smile.
Fu Yao froze for a second, then ducked her head and mumbled a tiny little "mm-hmm".
Ye Shuang then left the classroom with Fugui and the others, while Fu Yao reached into her desk drawer, fingers closing around the thing she'd hidden there. She frowned a little to herself, deep in thought.
For some reason, Ye has been acting so weird these past two days.
It feels like he's paying way more attention to me now?
Fu Yao couldn't put her finger on why, but the thought made her feel so happy.
Ye Shuang got back to the classroom right before morning self-study officially started, when everyone was filing back to their seats. No sooner had he sat down than the homeroom teacher walked in. She was their Chinese language teacher, and she announced that they would start the morning by randomly calling on students to recite texts.
"Yesterday I assigned you to memorize 'The Turtle's Longevity'," she said. "We're going to test your recitations now."
The whole class burst into a noisy murmur, but one sharp glance from the teacher quickly silenced everyone.
"Alright, what's the date today?" The teacher crossed her arms. "It's the 24th. So... student number 25, stand up. Who's number 25?"
A whole bunch of students heaved a sigh of relief, and all eyes turned towards Ye Shuang.
"Huh? Me?" Ye Shuang blinked in surprise. Was he student number 25?
Oh right, yeah, he was.
He stood up, and the Chinese teacher smiled at him. "Perfect, let's have Ye Shuang set a good example for everyone."
Ye Shuang: "......"
Wait a second, he actually didn't remember the poem at all!
Reciting an ancient poem was never hard for him, but it had been so many years since he'd last read this one!
The teacher noticed that Ye Shuang wasn't saying anything, and looked a little confused. In her eyes, Ye Shuang was a top-tier model student. Even Chen Qin was looking at him, puzzled—she clearly remembered Ye Shuang reciting this exact poem to her perfectly, without a single stutter, the morning before. Did he suddenly get amnesia?
Over on the other side, Fu Yao quietly flipped her Chinese textbook open to the page with the poem, trying to help him out.
Ye Shuang caught a glimpse of the open page in Fu Yao's book, cleared his throat, and started reciting. "The sacred turtle may live long, but its days on earth are numbered..."
Luckily, his short-term memory was pretty sharp, and he finished the whole poem without a single stumble.
As soon as he said the last line, the teacher nodded, looking very pleased. "Great job, Ye Shuang. You get to pick the next person to recite."
Wait, I get to pick the next one?
Ye Shuang's eyes immediately drifted to Chen Qin sitting right next to him. Chen Qin's face went pale, and she shook her head so hard it looked like it might roll off her shoulders, her whole body screaming no.
"Uh... I'll pick a random student number," Ye Shuang said, seeing how much she was panicking. "I'm 25... so number 52."
For some reason, the second Ye Shuang called out that number, Chen Qin glared daggers at him, stood up with her fists clenched, and hissed under her breath, "You're such a jerk, Ye! You did that on purpose!"
Huh?
Was that you too on the 52?
Ye Shuang froze for a second. He really didn't do it on purpose, okay?
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
