Ye Chuan looked toward his bedroom door and saw Luo Xi poking her head in first before smiling, opening the door, and walking in.
"Chuan-Chuan, what do you want to eat tonight?"
"What's left in the fridge?" Ye Chuan asked.
"Nothing left. Will you come with me to buy groceries?" Luo Xi said with a beaming smile. "Okay?"
Ye Chuan didn't really have any objections. Although he was thinking about the Tian Xiaotian situation, since he had been forcibly ejected from the dungeon instance, there was no way for him to go back in.
Now that things had come to this, he could only wait and see if the next refresh of the Key of the Bizarre would allow him to enter the Bizarre World again.
Following Luo Xi out of his room, he saw only his father and mother sitting in the living room. Seeing the two of them walk out, his parents smiled and spoke up.
"Where are you two going?"
"Auntie, we're going to buy some groceries." Luo Xi held onto Ye Chuan's arm. "He's been cooped up in his room this whole time, heehee, so I'm taking Chuan-Chuan out to shop."
"A walk is good." Ye Chuan's mother looked at him. "You always make Xi-Xi come find you. You need to be more proactive; don't make the girl come looking for you all the time."
"Oh," Ye Chuan responded lazily, and was subsequently led out of the house by Luo Xi, who was clinging to his arm.
Stepping out the door, Ye Chuan looked up at the blue sky and found the weather to be quite nice.
Today was another peaceful day.
"It's actually pretty nice without the monsters and rifts," Ye Chuan said.
"What monsters? Rifts? From a game?" Luo Xi asked curiously from beside him.
"Hmm...?" Ye Chuan thought for a moment. Right, what was he saying?
What monsters? What rifts?
Did he play games so much that they got to his head?
"Chuan-Chuan, let's go to the market over at Nankeng. The vegetables there are still very fresh in the afternoon, and the prices are reasonable." Luo Xi hugged Ye Chuan's arm and leaned her face a little closer.
"After that, keep me company while I get a milk tea, okay?"
"What, your treat?"
"I'll treat if I have to. I know you don't have any money." Luo Xi wrinkled her nose playfully. "My treat!"
"Who says I don't have money." Just as Ye Chuan finished speaking, he hesitated for a few seconds. "Eh..."
Why was there such a strange sense of dissonance?
Ye Chuan couldn't quite put his finger on where this incongruous feeling was coming from.
"..."
Just as Ye Chuan was lost in deep thought, Luo Xi waved her tender white hand in front of his face. She stepped in front of him, bent down slightly, and brought her face very close to his.
"Chuan-Chuan, what's wrong? Something on your mind?"
His train of thought interrupted, Ye Chuan shook his head. However, Luo Xi pressed her forehead against his. A faint fragrance drifted from the tip of her nose. After confirming that Ye Chuan didn't have a fever, Luo Xi held up a finger.
"If you're not feeling well, you have to tell me, okay?"
"Mhm." Ye Chuan hummed in agreement.
For the rest of the afternoon, Ye Chuan was practically dragged along by Luo Xi. His health wasn't great; he had been sickly since childhood, and his personality was gloomy, preferring to stay home and play video games.
Aside from that, he would occasionally play some dating sims or grind in gacha games.
In stark contrast was his childhood friend, Luo Xi. She was sunny and lively, the absolute definition of a cheerful character—her dazzling aura was so intense it almost scorched his very soul.
Inside the vegetable market, seeing Luo Xi chatting and giggling with the stall owner and eventually haggling the price down significantly, Ye Chuan couldn't help but marvel at the girl's power.
"Here, Chuan-Chuan, you hold this." Luo Xi stuffed the vegetables into Ye Chuan's hands and pulled him forward again.
Walking one after the other, looking just like a young couple, they attracted the gaze of those around them.
"Did we buy too little?" After one round, Ye Chuan saw that the quantity of ingredients wasn't large, so he asked, "Qian Shuang and the others can eat a lot."
Walking in front, Luo Xi stopped in her tracks and turned around. "Chuan-Chuan, what are you talking about? Who is Qian Shuang?"
Ye Chuan: "..."
"Is it another character from those dating sims?" Luo Xi seemed a bit unhappy, puffing out one of her cheeks slightly.
"Or is it some netizen you met somewhere?"
Ye Chuan froze for a moment, a hesitant look appearing on his face. "..."
Right, what was he saying?
"Confess, now!" Luo Xi put her hands on her hips and looked up at him, practically radiating jealousy.
"I... uh..." Ye Chuan could only speak apologetically. "Maybe I'm not fully awake... I'm a bit out of it..."
"I can tell. You're definitely sleep-addled." Luo Xi sighed. "As punishment, you have to treat me to milk tea later."
"Alright."
"Let's go, let's go. Let's go buy milk tea. A shop called Magic Pearl Elixirs opened recently, and it looks like a lot of people are lining up." Luo Xi immediately broke into a smile, pulling Ye Chuan along as she trotted ahead with small steps, her ponytail bouncing slightly.
"Go, go, go~"
"Uh, slow down."
After buying the ingredients and drinking a cup of milk tea, Ye Chuan looked at Luo Xi beside him, then looked up at the sky again.
"The weather is really nice..."
Just as Ye Chuan was musing, he felt a sudden pinch at his waist. Luo Xi leaned in closer. "Chuan-Chuan, what are you thinking about?"
"Nothing, just feeling that the weather is nice," Ye Chuan said.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, he took out his phone—a battered old Blue Mi phone. At that moment, messages popped up in a group chat on his messaging app.
Sea Overlord: Damn, I'm so bored this holiday I'm losing my mind. Come out and party!
Fish Tofu: Well said. Let the teacher give you make-up lessons.
Fish Tofu: @Mad Young Master·Shuang, come out and play.
Qinqin: Let's set a time to hang out then.
I Am A Fish: I'll go if someone treats.
...
Ye Chuan looked at the messages in the class group. "It's so lively even during the break."
Why were other people able to live such fulfilled, social lives?
Ye Chuan sighed.
As a shut-in, it seemed the only person by his side was Luo Xi, and that was only because they were childhood friends.
"Chuan-Chuan, why are you sighing?" Luo Xi stood on her tiptoes to peek at Ye Chuan's phone but found nothing interesting on it.
"Nothing. Let's go home."
"Oh~ Run back?"
"No way!"
"Chuan-Chuan, your physical stamina is so weak~"
...
Dinner time.
"Come, Xi-Xi, eat more vegetables. It would be a pity to waste such delicious food."
"Thanks, Auntie~"
"When you have time, drag Ye Chuan out for a walk. Don't let him stay cooped up at home all day; his brain is going to rot." Ye Chuan's mother didn't forget to lecture Ye Chuan.
"Just like a big couch potato."
"Oh." Ye Chuan responded lazily.
Sitting to the side, Luo Xi covered her mouth and snickered, but she didn't forget to place some food in Ye Chuan's bowl. "Here, eat more veggies."
"Uh."
Ye Chuan looked at the rice in front of him. Just as he was about to move his chopsticks, his movements suddenly paused. "Something's wrong..."
"Hm?" Seeing Ye Chuan not moving his chopsticks, Luo Xi asked curiously, "Even if you don't like it, you have to eat it all, okay?"
"How can you not eat vegetables? You order takeout all day long." His father chimed in as well. "Look at how healthy Xi-Xi is. You're as thin as a bamboo pole."
Ye Chuan: "..."
"Wrong."
"What's wrong?"
"Wrong..." Ye Chuan murmured. He lifted his head to look at his father and mother seated before him.
"Aren't you two... already dead?"
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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)
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
