Sunday, two in the afternoon.
“Why the long face?”
Lin Mo patted Fang Jun on the shoulder.
“Nothing, I’m not down. Just not in the best mood, that’s all.”
The two of them were at the convenience store eating ice cream, waiting for An Yuexin.
They had agreed to head out for some gaming later.
Also, to cheer up Fang Jun’s wounded heart a little.
Even though An Yuexin hadn’t shown up yet, Lin Mo didn’t bring up what had happened between Fang Jun and Cai Junhuang that night.
He just quietly kept him company.
Before long, An Yuexin arrived, and the three of them went off to link up in the game.
Fang Jun, nursing his broken heart, ended up playing out of his mind every round, as if the emotional jolt had unlocked some hidden potential, pushing his skills far beyond his usual Diamond rank.
Lin Mo couldn’t help teasing him: “No women on the mind, your blade’s divine.”
“You bet. I’m the god of gods now.”
True enough, winning did manage to dull the pain just a bit.
Just as they were about to start the next round, a voice came from behind them.
“Hey! Fang Jun! What are you doing here?”
Fang Jun had just taken a sip of cola, and he froze like someone had hit a pressure point, nearly spitting the drink out.
He swallowed—a difficult swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing twice—and then, painfully slowly, turned around inch by inch.
Lin Mo figured that turn alone took at least five seconds.
A tall, slender girl stood behind them, holding a bottle of water, hands on her hips, staring straight at Fang Jun.
Lin Mo and An Yuexin turned their heads too.
An Yuexin reacted fastest, not even lifting his butt off the seat as he chimed in: “Hey! Luo Ruiyu? What are you doing here?”
He stretched his foot under the table and gave Fang Jun a light but firm kick on the shin.
The kick jolted Fang Jun back to reality.
Watching all this unfold, Lin Mo quickly ran through his mind.
Luo Ruiyu.
That name rang no bells.
In his past life, from high school to graduation, Fang Jun’s circle had been pretty small, and he’d never once mentioned a girl named Luo Ruiyu, let alone run into her around Guangba.
So who was she? What was her deal, to make Fang Jun freeze just at the sound of her voice?
Interesting.
By now, Fang Jun had composed himself. His expression was back under control, and he looked at Luo Ruiyu as casually as he could.
“How come you’re back? I thought you graduated and went back to your hometown for school.”
His tone was flat, but Lin Mo noticed the way his fingers tightened around the cola bottle.
Luo Ruiyu wore a ponytail, her forehead bare—broad and bright.
Her skin was dark, but it was a nice, attractive shade of brown, giving her a sharp, sporty vibe. With her height and features, she looked like the kind of girl who’d lead the first leg of a school relay race.
“Don’t even ask,” Luo Ruiyu said, twisting open her water bottle and taking a drink. She pulled a chair over and plopped down uninvited.
“Something happened over there. Couldn’t stay, so I had to transfer back. My parents figured I should try to get into Guangba. I had an interview today, but it’s not time yet, so I came to the internet café to kill some time and watch a show.”
“Interview?” Fang Jun frowned. “You need an interview to transfer schools?”
“You know Guangba,” Luo Ruiyu shrugged.
“My grades are okay, but the curriculum’s different from where I was, and the exam focus isn’t the same. My mom said since I’m back, I shouldn’t settle. If I can get into Guangba, that’s the way to go.”
An Yuexin glanced at Lin Mo, realizing he hadn’t made introductions yet, and quickly added,
“This is Luo Ruiyu, Bro Fang’s and my middle school classmate. She’s—”
He stopped mid-sentence, eyes flickering. He shot a quick glance at Fang Jun, then looked away, letting out a dry laugh as he swallowed the rest of what he was going to say.
Lin Mo noticed but said nothing. He just gave Luo Ruiyu a nod by way of greeting.
Inwardly, he speculated that Luo Ruiyu probably hadn’t gotten into Guangba after all—after all, he’d never once seen her there in his entire past life.
Just then, Fang Jun spoke up again: “What time’s your interview?”
“Three-thirty.”
“We’re free this afternoon,” Fang Jun said, pausing. He didn’t look at Luo Ruiyu, his eyes fixed on the computer screen. “How about we take you there? You’re not familiar with the area.”
An Yuexin’s mouth twitched on the side, and he pretended to look at his phone.
Luo Ruiyu froze, her lips parting. Her first instinct was clearly to refuse.
But then she hesitated for a few seconds, tapping her fingers against the water bottle.
“Well… alright. Having you guys guide me would make things easier. I came alone today…”
At that, An Yuexin quickly jumped in, “Let’s all go together. If Master Mo’s around, you might have a real shot.”
“Master Mo?” Luo Ruiyu looked puzzled.
An Yuexin pointed at Lin Mo.
“Yeah, let me introduce you. Master Mo, Lin Mo—he’s our school’s top student, a prodigy. Taking you in won’t boost your interview score or anything, but if Master Mo’s there, as long as your written work clears the bar, the interview should be a lock.”
Lin Mo blinked, looking like none of this was his business.
An Yuexin nudged Fang Jun, silently urging him to explain.
Fang Jun sighed. “Well, here’s the thing. Luo Ruiyu had great grades—over six hundred points, enough to get into Guangba.”
At that, Luo Ruiyu picked up the thread. “But I used to have my household registration elsewhere, not in Yangcheng. To study here, I’d have had to pay sponsorship fees, so I went back to my hometown for school.”
“Oh, then why are you here now?” An Yuexin cut in.
“Because I transferred my registration out, and something happened back home. I didn’t want to stay and study there, so I came back.”
There’s a story there.
Lin Mo stayed silent, just nodding.
It was obvious Luo Ruiyu had little choice in the matter.
Judging by An Yuexin and Fang Jun’s expressions, this girl was decent enough.
Maybe helping her out wasn’t a bad idea.
Finally, Lin Mo asked directly, “So you’re sure you want to study at Guangba?”
Luo Ruiyu answered without hesitation. “Of course. Not to mention anything else, Guangba is close to home—I live just behind Fang Jun’s building.”
Fang Jun added, “Right. When you and your brother are playing downstairs, I can see everything clearly from my place.”
Luo Ruiyu immediately pointed a finger at him. “I knew it! You’ve been secretly watching me!”
“Secretly watching? You guys talk so loud. I was just doing homework on the balcony, bored out of my mind, and happened to see you.”
Such an eager excuse.
It felt way too suspicious.
The best cure for a broken heart was to quickly find a new love to cover the old wound.
Lin Mo pondered.
Junior high classmates. A transfer interview. Fang Jun overreacting. An Yuexin cutting himself off mid-sentence.
A person who hadn’t appeared in his previous life was now showing up in this one.
This was getting interesting.
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?!
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.
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
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!
