Chapter Forty-Nine
The morning sun poured through the window into the classroom, casting its light on Gu Ran's upright figure.
As the exam bell rang, his heart unconsciously skipped a beat, as if a battle without gunpowder was about to begin.
Having studied so hard for so long, with his English already crushing the high school level, and possessing the bug-like cheat of a photographic memory, he really wanted to see what his current strength was like.
Although he was eager to try, he still didn't let his guard down; instead, he was fully focused.
The invigilator began to distribute the test papers.
He gripped his pen tightly, concentrating his mind and gathering his focus.
After receiving the paper, he quickly scanned the questions to get a general idea of the entire content.
The first subject was Chinese. He flipped to the back of the paper and looked at the ancient poetry fill-in-the-blanks first.
Formulating the answers in his mind, he swiftly began to write them down as soon as the bell signaling the start of the exam rang.
......
Meanwhile, in Exam Room One.
Ye Zhenzhen was equally focused and calm. Sitting upright, she looked at the questions on the test paper and silently read the passages.
She didn't do the fill-in-the-blanks first. Her habit was to work from beginning to end, having a clear plan for the time spent on each section.
Through long-term training, she could basically control her answering time, making slight adjustments based on the difficulty of the question types, but overall, it wouldn't deviate much.
As time ticked by, Gu Ran wrote rapidly, filling in his answers on the answer sheet.
Whenever he encountered a question he wasn't sure about, he would mark it and skip to the next one.
Just as he finished writing the essay, the exam ending bell rang.
The entire exam felt like rushing to catch a train. Exhausted, Gu Ran threw down his pen, leaned back lazily on his chair, and shook his sore wrist.
He silently sighed to himself; not practicing answering speed for a long time really didn't work out. He barely finished in time.
Lately, he had been studying math and comprehensive science with Ye Zhenzhen. He always thought that since Chinese was his mother tongue, there would definitely be no problem, but it almost taught him a harsh lesson.
After the answer sheets were collected, he took his test paper and walked out of the exam room.
The biggest difference between mock exams and the actual college entrance examination was that you could take the test paper with you.
Because it would be discussed in class after the exams were over.
Letting out a long breath, he wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead, feeling that he had worked extremely hard and planning to eat something good to replenish his energy.
Listening to the sounds of people comparing answers and discussing questions around him, he headed straight for Exam Room One with a clear goal.
Seat number one belonged to the eye-catching, aloof young girl.
After the answer sheets were collected, Ye Zhenzhen didn't leave. Instead, she sat quietly in her seat, waiting for his arrival.
As soon as she saw him, a smile unconsciously appeared on the girl's usually indifferent face.
Her brows curved up, and her clear, cool eyes were full of amusement.
"How did you do?"
Gu Ran curled his lips, rubbing his sore and swollen palm, and complained, "Don't mention it, I'm exhausted. I almost didn't finish the essay."
Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen raised her eyebrows in amusement, unable to help but remember when she had asked this guy if he needed tutoring in Chinese.
Yet he had patted his chest confidently and said no need, and the result was this level?
She, on the other hand, had even checked everything over once after finishing her essay!
A hint of teasing flashed in her eyes. Ye Zhenzhen chuckled and asked, "How about it? Are you still going to say you can score five hundred?"
"Don't look down on people. Let me tell you, for this exam, five hundred is the baseline!"
Gu Ran reached out and flicked the girl's head, causing her to become slightly embarrassed and annoyed.
Slapping away his mischievous hand, she stretched out her foot and lightly kicked his calf.
"Bah! No respect for your elders, stop bragging!"
"Who's bragging? If you don't believe me, just wait and see!"
"Blegh, I don't believe it."
Bickering with each other as they left the exam room, Gu Ran forgot to go look for Ye Jinliang, his mind full of plans to take the sheltered girl to try out a private home-style restaurant.
"Where are we going?"
Looking at the somewhat unfamiliar roads around them, Ye Zhenzhen blinked curiously and asked.
Twisting and turning, they were just diving into small alleys.
"Going to sell you."
Yawning, Gu Ran said lazily.
"Get out, so unserious!"
Ye Zhenzhen said, slapping his arm, her beautiful eyes rolling as she gave him a side-eye.
"Aunt Ye isn't going home at noon, and Lao Gu has to work a shift at his unit, so we'll eat before heading back."
Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen nodded slowly. Looking at the small alley they had entered, she couldn't help but ask, "So... where are we going?"
"Today I'm going to treat a country bumpkin like you to some fine dining!"
Ye Zhenzhen: "???"
Her delicate fists clenched slightly, she gritted her teeth, and stretched out her small foot to kick him.
If this guy didn't make her mad for a single day, his surname wouldn't be Gu, right?
"Where are we going exactly?"
She asked in annoyance, her cheeks tinted with a blush, apparently out of anger.
"Have you heard of private home-style cuisine?"
Seeing the girl's annoyed look, Gu Ran didn't seem nervous at all.
Because he knew Ye Zhenzhen well, he knew she was gentle to the bone and couldn't possibly really be angry with him.
Unless... he committed the treasonous act of trying to bully his older sister.
"Private cuisine?"
Ye Zhenzhen blinked curiously, feeling that it sounded very high-class.
Being able to fleece this cheapskate for a meal unconsciously put her in a better mood.
Anyway, she didn't bring any money today, so there was no way this guy could scam her into paying.
Following slightly joyfully behind him, the two eventually arrived at the entrance of a dingy hole-in-the-wall joint.
Looking at the yellowed, dilapidated signboard, Ye Zhenzhen's mouth twitched. She pointed at the sign in bewilderment and asked, "This is the private cuisine restaurant you were talking about?"
"Yeah, private cuisine. It's written on the menu!"
Pulling the girl into the restaurant and finding a familiar seat to sit down, Gu Ran familiarly picked up the menu and handed it over.
Taking the paper menu, a few words were glaringly printed on it.
Private Cuisine Restaurant!
Ye Zhenzhen's mouth couldn't help but twitch, and she weakly massaged her forehead.
What was she expecting?
It wasn't like she hadn't seen how stingy this guy was. Hoping for him to bleed his wallet would have to wait for the next life.
"You order, I don't really know how."
Glancing at the menu a few times, she pushed it back. After all, seeing how familiar this guy was with the place, it was obvious he came here often.
Gu Ran didn't stand on ceremony either. He took the menu and, following his usual routine, ordered a few of their specialty dishes, then waited.
Scanning the environment inside the room, he smiled at the girl and said, "Don't let the size of this place fool you. I come here all the time; the food is really good, and it's clean too."
Come here all the time?
Ye Zhenzhen frowned, subconsciously asking in a sour tone, "Which older sister does big brother usually bring here on a normal day?"
Just as she finished speaking, as if she had thought of something else, she covered her mouth in surprise and said, "Ah! Big brother brought me here today. Won't that older sister be angry if she finds out?"
Gu Ran: "..."
Looking at the girl who seemed possessed by a drama queen, he helplessly reached out and pinched the bridge of his nose, saying, "I usually come here with Ye..."
Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly stopped.
No wonder he always felt like something was missing; he had forgotten about Little Fatty!
Just as his mouth twitched in embarrassment, Ye Jinliang's figure appeared at the door.
The latter also immediately noticed him.
Seeing the brother he had been searching all over for currently bringing a goddess to their secret base, he instantly entered a state of utter bewilderment.
Just two clueless fruits falling from the tree of utter bewilderment!
"Yo, man, you look familiar. Wanna pull up a chair and share the table?"
Ye Jinliang: "..."
He walked over in silence, his heart brimming with tragic indignation, wondering why he didn't have a cute girl keeping him company for a meal.
Sitting across from Gu Ran, Ye Zhenzhen noticed his presence as well. Seeing him approach, she quickly stood up and slid over to sit right next to Gu Ran.
Ye Jinliang: "???"
Wait, did he really look that annoying?
Enough to send the aloof beauty scurrying away in a flash?
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
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.
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.”
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."
