Chapter Twenty
Approaching the classroom, Gu Ran remembered a question that had been bothering him for a long time. He turned his head and asked softly.
"By the way, we're in the same grade, so why are you a year older than me?"
Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen paused for a moment, then gently covered her mouth and began to laugh.
And he always put on an act like he didn't care about anything all day.
Well, he just gave himself away. He still had things he was curious about, and he couldn't hold back from asking.
She blinked her pretty eyes and said softly, "Guess."
Gu Ran pondered for a moment, then leaned in closer and asked softly, somewhat tentatively, "So... were you really held back a year?"
Ye Zhenzhen: "???"
What kind of thought process was that?!
Is that an answer a carbon-based lifeform could come up with!
In an instant, Ye Zhenzhen was rendered somewhat speechless by him. She rolled her eyes at him in annoyance, turned around, and walked into the classroom.
Seeing her swaying figure, Gu Ran curled his lips.
She's mad, she's mad!
So what if the top student in the grade had been held back? What was there to be embarrassed about? Did he even say anything bad?
A little girl is just a little girl, so thin-skinned!
He shook his head and was about to turn and leave, but suddenly Ye Jinliang's voice rang out behind him.
"Tsk tsk, truly an untouchable flower on a high peak; even her back is so beautiful.
But didn't we agree to only admire her from a distance? How come you're playing around with her yourself?"
Gu Ran: "???"
...
Walking into the classroom, Ye Zhenzhen once again resumed her calm and unruffled demeanor.
With graceful steps, as if flowers bloomed beneath her feet, she elegantly walked back to her seat, her face full of a cold and aloof expression.
One couldn't tell at all that just a few minutes ago, a shy expression had appeared on this very face.
Sitting down gently, she looked at her desk mate who was busy doing practice questions. She gently tugged her arm and asked in a low voice, "Susu, do you know if there's a boy named Gu Ran in our grade?"
Hearing this, Pei Susu paused, tilted her head, and looked at her desk mate strangely.
Her usually icy-cold face had a bit more shyness today. Her fair face was slightly flushed, and her cold eyes unconsciously avoided her scrutinizing gaze.
As proud as Ye Zhenzhen was, she would actually avoid her gaze?
Something was wrong, extremely wrong!
"A boy?"
She narrowed her eyes, an eerie light flashing in her almond-shaped eyes as the raging fire of gossip ignited.
"Yeah, a boy..."
Ye Zhenzhen's answer was a bit unnatural, not knowing what to do to ease the awkwardness.
She had no choice but to reach out and gently tuck her already neat hair behind her ear.
This scene fell into Pei Susu's eyes, making it look even more like she was trying to hide something.
She twitched her nose, as if sniffing out evidence of a crime, which made Ye Zhenzhen uncontrollably blush red to the tips of her ears.
"Oh, what are you doing."
Pushing away the head that was sniffing around her, Ye Zhenzhen took a few deep breaths and glared at her with a mix of shyness and annoyance.
"Are you a dog?!"
Pei Susu pulled her head back with a look of disdain; she hadn't smelled anything strange.
"Tell me, why are you asking about him?"
Tearing open a piece of candy and tossing it into her mouth, she spun her pen and propped up her head, looking at her as if interrogating a prisoner.
"Nothing, just asking. Aren't you known as the First High Know-It-All? Is there a boy you don't know about?"
Ye Zhenzhen tucked her hair behind her ear again, sat up straight, and resumed her usual appearance as the untouchable flower.
Seeing this, Pei Susu clicked her tongue. She had known this girl since middle school, and the number of times she had seen her blush could be counted on one hand.
Following that, she became even more curious about that boy named Gu Ran.
However, she seemed... to really have no impression of a boy named Gu Ran.
"Is your Gu Ran in our grade?"
"What do you mean 'my'!"
As if her tail had been stepped on, Ye Zhenzhen's eyebrows instantly shot up, and she couldn't help but raise her voice a few decibels.
As if a secret had been exposed, her intense reaction only aroused a certain someone's suspicion even more.
"No way, such a big reaction, could he really be yours?
Tsk tsk tsk, alright Ye Zhenzhen. I couldn't tell, but with the college entrance exam right around the corner, you're actually lovesick."
"Ah, you're asking for it! You're the one who's lovesick!"
Ye Zhenzhen felt she should have checked the almanac before leaving the house today. How long had she been at school, and she was already being bullied one after another.
She panted for breath, her developing chest rising and falling with her breathing, attracting her desk mate's attention.
Pei Susu quietly leaned in, staring intently at her chest, and then asked softly out of curiosity, "Seriously, Zhenzhen, you seem to have gotten bigger again. Could it be the masterpiece of your Gu Ran?"
Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen's face turned green with anger. She pushed away the face that had leaned in front of her and said crossly, "Pei Susu! That's because I'm mad at you!!!"
Seeing that a certain someone was about to go crazy, Pei Susu quickly shrank her neck and started to get serious.
"Gu Ran... hmm, about this Gu Ran..."
Ye Zhenzhen gritted her teeth, her cold eyes shooting fierce glares. "Do you know or not?"
"I don't know."
As soon as she finished speaking, Pei Susu shook her head and replied crisply.
Ye Zhenzhen: "..."
She once again felt a breath stuck in her chest, unable to go up or down.
Her chest heaved slightly. She took a few deep breaths, gradually calming her mood.
"And you still call yourself the Know-It-All. Just shut up and study!"
Seeing Ye Zhenzhen's somewhat disdainful gaze, deeply questioning her professional skills, Pei Susu naturally couldn't tolerate it.
"Bullshit. It must be because your Gu Ran isn't good-looking. Let me tell you, I know all the handsome boys in our grade. The ones I don't know are all ugly."
"Heh..."
Ye Zhenzhen sneered, clearly not believing her.
Setting everything else aside, Gu Ran's looks were at least among the best she had ever seen. Was this what she called knowing them all?
"He... looks okay. He's the one who came to the classroom door to call me yesterday morning."
Making herself praise Gu Ran, even if he couldn't hear it, made Ye Zhenzhen feel a bit ashamed. She tucked her hair behind her ear again to cover it up, speaking in a deliberately flat tone.
Pei Susu blinked and suddenly remembered. She grabbed her arm and asked excitedly, "That cute puppy-dog handsome guy from yesterday?!"
Seeing her excited look, Ye Zhenzhen nodded calmly, but felt a sense of joy at him being acknowledged in her heart.
Strange, Gu Ran was praised for being good-looking, so what was she happy about?
Was it the joy of a family member being affirmed?
Yes, it must be!
"Oh my god, that handsome guy is actually in our grade, and I only found out in our senior year. Dereliction of duty, an absolute dereliction of duty!"
Pei Susu was a bit annoyed, scratching her head in frustration as she carefully pondered the name Gu Ran in her mind.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit her, and she remembered the name.
No wonder it felt familiar. So it was the former school bully from Class 13.
However, thinking of that cute puppy-dog handsome guy from yesterday, she didn't quite dare to match him with the Gu Ran in her impression.
"Does your Gu Ran... have a father who is a bureau chief?" she asked tentatively.
Ye Zhenzhen: "???"
How did everyone know? Then why did she, as Gu Ran's stepsister, only figure out Uncle Gu's position last night after secretly guessing from the restaurant owner's conversation?
She nodded blankly. Seeing this, Pei Susu let out a sigh. "Girl, take my advice and just give up. That's not a man we mere mortals can handle..."
Ye Zhenzhen: "???"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
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!
