"Thank you, I really needed this!"
Lin Yu accepted the precious gift and casually placed the shopping bag inside the door.
Seeing that Tang Manman had come all this way, Lin Yu felt he couldn’t let her leave empty-handed. Might as well grab...
a meal together!
Just to express his modest gratitude!
After slipping back into his room to throw on a jacket and tidy up a bit, Lin Yu took Tang Manman downstairs.
Since their destination was nearby, he decided against riding his motorcycle and instead walked with her.
Inside the restaurant, after ordering a few dishes, the two began chatting idly.
Remembering the recent second mock exam, Lin Yu casually asked,
"So, how’d you find the second mock?"
"Was it hard?"
At this point, Lin Yu suddenly grew wary, narrowing his eyes at Tang Manman and warning,
"Don’t you dare pull that act again—complaining about how hard it was, only to casually leap up a rank and snag first place in the whole school!"
Tang Manman couldn’t help but laugh at his words, then shook her head.
"Not this time."
"I already know my results."
Lin Yu perked up, urging,
"What’d you get?"
"Come on, spill!"
Tang Manman paused, then raised both delicate hands—one forming the number three, the other seven.
"Thirty-seventh?"
Lin Yu nearly gasped, but quickly sensed something off.
Tang Manman had ranked second in the entire school during the first mock exam!
Even if she’d slacked off lately, there was no way she’d drop this low.
Realizing this, Lin Yu studied her expression closely.
Happiness, pride, and a hint of barely contained triumph—nothing about her demeanor suggested a decline.
A more plausible idea struck him, and he ventured cautiously,
"City-wide thirty-seventh?"
Tang Manman shook her head, her smile not fading but deepening, her eyes crinkling with delight.
"Province-wide thirty-seventh?"
Lin Yu blurted out, this time unable to control his volume.
Tang Manman nodded cheerfully, lowering one hand while the other formed a six, then a one.
"Province rank: thirty-seventh."
"City rank: sixth."
"And school rank: first."
"Holy crap!"
Lin Yu exclaimed, then remembered Tang Manman’s dream university and asked,
"With these scores…"
"You’re basically a lock for A University, right?"
Tang Manman nodded.
"But my teacher suggested I consider other options."
"They said I could aim for even better schools with these results."
"If I insist on A University, I’ve already secured a spot through early admission."
"What about you?"
Tang Manman gazed at Lin Yu, her soft eyes glimmering with nervousness and unease.
"Which university are you planning for?"
"Secret!"
Lin Yu replied mysteriously.
No way was he spoiling the surprise—his plan to attend a college near wherever she ended up.
Admitting that now would sound way too much like simping!
"Never mind me," he deflected.
"What’s your plan?"
"Shoot for a top-tier school?"
"Or stick with A University?"
He needed to confirm her decision. The last thing he wanted was to enroll near A University only for her to change her mind.
Tang Manman’s eyes flickered with uncertainty. She shook her head lightly.
"I don’t know."
Lost in thought, she slowly looked up at Lin Yu and asked,
"Lin Yu, what do you think I should do?"
"Why ask me?"
Lin Yu frowned, speaking earnestly.
"This is a life-changing decision. You should discuss it with your mom and little sister."
"Of course," he added,
"what matters most is what you want."
Hearing this, Tang Manman silently studied him, her gaze carrying an inscrutable mix of melancholy and tenderness.
Minutes passed before she lowered her head, murmuring almost inaudibly,
"I want to go to the same university as you..."
"What?"
"You want what?"
The restaurant was packed and noisy during lunch hour. Lin Yu hadn’t caught her words.
Tang Manman lifted her head, shooting him a resentful look—equal parts pouty and aggrieved.
"Huh?"
Lin Yu pressed, baffled.
Tang Manman gave him a long stare, then sighed and muttered gloomily,
"Never mind."
"Alright then."
"Let’s eat."
Their food arrived quickly. As they ate, the conversation lightened, and by the end of the meal, Lin Yu offered to drive Tang Manman home.
Early May in H City, daytime temperatures had already soared past 20°C.
People’s outfits weren’t exactly skimpy, but they were far from heavy.
As a young guy with plenty of body heat, Lin Yu wore just a thin T-shirt and a basic jacket.
As for Tang Manman...
Lin Yu wasn’t sure what layers she had on, but it couldn’t be much.
Because during the entire ride, Lin Yu dedicated 10% of his focus to the road—and the remaining 990% to the inexplicably soft pressure against his back.
At that moment, he sent silent gratitude to the designer of his motorcycle.
Genius.
The seat was positioned farther from the handlebars, sloped slightly upward at the rear.
This meant anyone riding pillion had to lean forward, nearly hugging the driver.
Tang Manman, far from shy, acted downright bold.
She rested snugly against Lin Yu’s back, arms loosely circling his waist, her cheek pressed to his shoulder, eyes closed, lips curled in a secret smile.
Lin Yu? Pure bliss.
Breathing in her floral scent, he grinned so wide his cheeks ached.
Every bump in the road sent a jolt of warmth through him, his imagination running wild—so much so that he briefly fantasized about detouring to a very different kind of destination.
But a tiny voice of reason snuffed out the thought.
Are you insane?
We’ve got a month left till the college entrance exams!
You’d risk that now?
Just. Wait.
Cool-headed once more, Lin Yu dropped Tang Manman at her doorstep and sped home.
Given her scores, her notes were probably as valuable as a martial arts master’s secret manual.
Reviewing them might give his own grades the boost they needed.
Go for it!
For a future where we’re even closer!
The pure romance ahead—
I’m coming for you!
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...
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
