Chapter 10
It was really hard to ignore the figure that had been standing beside him for a long time.
Gu Ran closed his study guide, raised his head in some confusion, and glanced at the figure.
Li Sinan, this was the English teacher's name. He had a very deep impression of her.
He remembered that during his high school days in his previous life, the only class he didn't sleep in was English class.
Although he didn't sleep, he wasn't paying attention to the lecture either.
Instead, he would rest his chin in his hand and admire the beautiful figure on the podium.
In this era, a small northern county town would always be half a beat behind the trend of the times.
For Li Sinan, a student who had just graduated from a big city, her sense of style was already streets ahead of the women in this small county town.
For example, the black silk stockings she often wore in the summer. Although there would definitely be parents secretly calling her a seductive tramp, Gu Ran begged to differ. She was clearly a merciful goddess saving the suffering masses.
If you don't look at straight black silk stockings, what else is there to look at?
Look at those short and thick elephant legs?
Gu Ran shook his head and sniffed the air in front of him. It carried wafts of fragrant perfume. To the conservative and backward girls of the county town, this was an absolute dimensional strike.
Thinking of this, he looked up at Li Sinan and couldn't help but feel a little pity.
She was a young teacher who had just arrived at First High. She graduated from a prestigious university just to come back and build her hometown, but unexpectedly, after teaching only one batch of students, she was forced to resign and move to another city to develop her career.
He heard that someone had failed the college entrance examination, and the parents believed it was because she had seduced the student, so they reported her to the Education Bureau.
Just like the parents in later generations who would report video games, they didn't reflect on their own failure in educating their children first, but instead blamed their surroundings.
"Student Gu, are you studying math?"
A pleasant and melodious voice rang in his ears. Gu Ran was slightly taken aback, and then he responded with a faint smile, looking like a warm, boy-next-door.
Seeing Gu Ran's smile at this moment, Li Sinan was also momentarily dazed. She realized that she knew very little about this student who always slept in class.
Her understanding of Gu Ran had all come from the mouths of other teachers.
A teenage genius, gave up on himself, eccentric personality, second-generation official, very good-looking...
But after coming into close contact with him, she had an intuition that the big boy in front of her was different from what she had imagined.
"Did you... write this?"
Li Sinan stretched out a fair finger, pointing at a piece of white paper on the corner of the desk, and asked softly.
Following her slender, scallion-white finger, he saw that it was a few lines of code he had casually written during his lunch break.
"I just wrote it for fun. What's wrong, teacher?"
"Um... is this code?"
"Oh... you know?!"
Hearing this, Gu Ran's eyes visibly lit up. He truly didn't expect that the young English teacher in front of him could actually understand the code he wrote.
"Hehe~ I know a little bit. I didn't expect you to know this too." Li Sinan pinched her fingers together, gesturing a tiny amount, and whispered with a smile.
Looking at her lively and radiant smile, Gu Ran couldn't help but smile along.
A face with a bit of baby fat, coupled with large, expressive eyes—a standard loli face, yet her figure exuded the unique charm of a mature woman. It was simply a foul.
However, at this moment, his eyes were full of the joy of finding a kindred spirit, without the slightest bit of any other thoughts.
Although Li Sinan said she only knew a little bit, Gu Ran didn't believe it at all.
It should be known that to save trouble, his code was all abbreviated, using the Python he frequently used in his later life, and even the basic syntax wasn't obvious.
In this era when Java was the commonly used programming language, being able to understand this proved at least that Li Sinan's foundational skills were very solid.
For a moment, an idea popped into his mind.
Since he knew she would resign after the summer vacation, should he pull her in to work for him?
After all, after the college entrance examination, it would be his busiest time. Writing code alone while also managing art and voice acting would obviously be too much for him to handle.
But it was just a thought. After all, she could still be an honorable teacher if she moved to another place. Why would she have the time to play games with him?
Li Sinan didn't know about Gu Ran's thoughts of poaching her. She glanced again at the math study guide on his desk and couldn't help but narrow her eyes into crescents as she smiled.
"Student Gu, math is very important, but don't neglect English either. This is an English class, after all."
She gave him a soft, smiling reminder, then turned and walked elsewhere to check on the other students' learning progress.
......
......
When the afternoon classes ended, Gu Ran slowly put away his textbooks and let out a long breath.
Why did studying feel more tiring than writing code? Was he destined to be a code monkey in this life too?
An innate holy body for coding?
Shaking his head speechlessly, he packed up his desk. He didn't put on his backpack because he didn't plan to study anymore after going home.
Together with Ye Jinliang, who had also suffered through the day, the two walked out of the teaching building side by side.
The path was completely unimpeded, and the teachers they met didn't bother them. They were the only two in First High who could enjoy such a privilege.
"Fatty, how was your studying today?"
Gu Ran looked at the setting sun in the sky, feeling exceptionally relaxed and happy, so he patted Ye Jinliang's shoulder and asked.
The latter, looking as if he had overdone his handiwork, followed behind him with weak footsteps and said feebly, "I don't think I can make it. I'm completely numb."
Hearing this, Gu Ran couldn't help but laugh. He reached back and lifted the backpack on Ye Jinliang's back. "You're numb and you're still carrying a backpack. What? Are you going to go home and study secretly to out-grind me?"
Out-grind?
Although he didn't understand what Gu Ran meant by that term, Ye Jinliang understood the general idea behind it. He immediately blushed with anxiety and hurriedly tried to explain.
He wasn't trying to study secretly; it was just that his mind had wandered for too long during the day, and he needed to go home and make up for it. Otherwise, he was afraid of being left too far behind by Gu Ran and not being able to get into a university in the same city as him.
Listening to his hasty explanation, Gu Ran grinned and threw an arm around his neck. "Alright, I was just kidding. Why are you so anxious?"
"Bah, how can you ruin an innocent man's reputation out of thin air like this!"
The little Fatty felt that the concept of "secretly grinding" was an insult to him, and immediately retorted righteously.
Just as the two were joking and fooling around, a pleasant and melodious voice drifted over.
"Student Gu, heading home so early?"
Gu Ran turned his head and saw that the speaker was Li Sinan.
At this moment, she was wearing a knitted cotton hat and wrapped in a white down jacket, walking briskly toward the school gate.
"Yeah, where are you going, Teacher Li?"
She always called him Student Gu, so this time he also addressed Li Sinan by her surname.
"Um... the food in the school cafeteria is too awful, so I'm going out for dinner."
As she spoke, she playfully stuck out her tongue, her face beaming with a youthful and radiant smile.
This girl, who had just stepped out of the ivory tower of university and plunged straight into a high school, obviously hadn't experienced the great dyeing vat of society and still maintained her pure, innocent heart.
Gu Ran also smiled easily at this. For some reason, he felt a sense of familiarity and warmth whenever he saw Li Sinan.
"Then Teacher Li should eat more, otherwise you'll get thin from hunger."
"Hmph, but eating too much will make me fat."
Li Sinan waved her little fist, revealing her cute little fangs as she spoke.
Outside the classroom, she was even more lively.
She looked young, while Gu Ran appeared a bit mature. Despite their six-year age gap, the two of them chatted away joyfully, completely forgetting that there was someone else right beside them.
Ye Jinliang quietly trailed behind them, like a lonely invisible man...
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
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.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
