Holding a bucket of popcorn, Lin Yu entered the movie theater and found his seat according to the number on his ticket. When he saw the two people sitting next to his seat, he froze for a moment, unsure of what to say.
Could this be any more of a coincidence?
Xia Yueshan also noticed Lin Yu and, naturally, the girl behind him. He was the first to snap out of his shock, quickly standing up and moving past his sister, switching from the seat on Xia Muzhu’s left to the one on her right.
By the time Lin Yu regained his composure, what was supposed to be two adjacent seats had turned into two single seats separated by Xia Yueshan and Xia Muzhu.
A vein throbbed on Lin Yu’s forehead.
He lightly kicked Xia Yueshan’s shoe and shot him a look that clearly said, "Get lost."
Xia Yueshan, however, slumped lazily in his seat, putting on a shameless act.
He wasn’t budging.
What are you gonna do about it?
Lin Yu gritted his teeth in frustration, but with so many people around, he couldn’t exactly give Xia Yueshan a "loving education" right then and there. He had no choice but to sit down next to Xia Yueshan and hand one of the two popcorn buckets to Tang Manman, gesturing for her to take the other seat.
Tang Manman looked a little unhappy but, being the understanding person she was, she complied. Before leaving, she even handed Lin Yu a bottle of cola.
And so, the two of them sat separated by Xia Muzhu and Xia Yueshan, the atmosphere growing oddly tense.
After a round of commercials, the movie finally began.
Lin Yu decided not to bother with Xia Yueshan’s childish antics and generously placed the popcorn bucket between them, letting him share.
Xia Yueshan, however, had no gratitude for the gesture. He shoveled handfuls of popcorn into his mouth while occasionally shooting Lin Yu a glare—utterly shameless.
Lin Yu ignored him, peering past the not-so-tall boy to check on Xia Muzhu and Tang Manman, worried that something unpleasant might happen between them…
Wait.
Logically speaking,
there was no way they’d get along, right?
Fortunately, both of them were gentle souls. Even if their relationship wasn’t exactly harmonious, they could at least maintain surface-level politeness.
Tang Manman, in particular, played her part well, placing her own popcorn bucket between them for sharing.
Seeing that nothing had escalated, Lin Yu let out a small sigh of relief.
Thank goodness it was these two considerate and kind-hearted people sitting together.
If it had been two hotheads like Qing Mo, he wouldn’t even dare imagine the chaos.
With his mind at ease, Lin Yu leaned back in his seat and started competing with Xia Yueshan for popcorn.
Maybe it was the unique recipe, or maybe it was just psychological, but Lin Yu always thought movie theater popcorn tasted way better than the stuff outside.
At the very least, it smelled amazing!
After a while of snacking, Xia Yueshan’s mouth grew dry, and he shamelessly reached out, demanding Lin Yu’s cola.
Lin Yu glared at him. Despite his annoyance at Xia Yueshan’s earlier behavior outside the theater, he still handed over the drink.
Just then, his phone buzzed in his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw a message from Tang Manman.
SugarCube: Refund the coupon!
Lin Yu knew she was upset about not being able to sit next to him, hence the protest. Suppressing a laugh, he typed back:
DragonOverlord: "No refunds."
DragonOverlord: "You already used the complimentary claw machine service. No takebacks."
SugarCube: O(≧口≦)O (Angry)
SugarCube: Then this movie doesn’t count!
SugarCube: You have to take me to another one later!
DragonOverlord: We’ll talk about it later.
Lin Yu employed the classic stall tactic.
SugarCube: No "later"! O(≧口≦)O (Angry)
Buzz~
Another message came through.
Seeing the sender ID—Xia ProudEarth—Lin Yu turned to Xia Yueshan beside him, wanting to say something but not knowing how to phrase it.
Well… he wasn’t wrong.
Even though they were sitting close, it was better not to talk in the theater and ruin others’ experience.
With that in mind, Lin Yu lowered his head and started texting with Xia Yueshan, who was less than twenty centimeters away.
Xia ProudEarth: Is she your girlfriend?
DragonOverlord: Not yet.
DragonOverlord: But soon.
Xia ProudEarth: ?
Xia ProudEarth: Then what about my sister?
Xia ProudEarth: You know she likes you.
DragonOverlord: ...
DragonOverlord: Your sister and I aren’t a good match. Stop stirring the pot—your top priority right now is getting into high school. Stay out of this.
Xia ProudEarth: ?
Xia ProudEarth: I’m only in seventh grade. Why am I worrying about high school already?
DragonOverlord: Seventh grade is no excuse to slack off. You’ve only got about 800 days until the high school entrance exam. Get studying.
Xia ProudEarth: ...
Xia ProudEarth: I wanna punch you.
After some back-and-forth banter, Xia Yueshan eventually got absorbed in Kung Fu Panda 4, leaving Lin Yu relieved to no longer have to deal with him.
Distractedly making it through the movie, Lin Yu didn’t even bother saying goodbye to Xia Muzhu afterward. He quickly sent Tang Manman a "Let’s bolt" message and whisked her out of the theater.
Once outside, Tang Manman wanted to retrieve the plushies they’d left at the front desk, but Lin Yu stopped her.
"Let’s leave them there for now. We’ll grab them after we finish shopping," he reasoned.
"Carrying them around now would just be a hassle."
Tang Manman thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
Leading her away from the theater, Lin Yu was about to head to the supermarket on the basement level to stock up on New Year’s snacks when a sudden, spine-chilling sensation crept over him.
Turning toward the source of the cold aura, he came face-to-face with a familiar, icy beauty.
Lin Yu couldn’t help but sigh.
Really?
You just had to show up the second I thought of you?
Qing Mo!
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!
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?!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
