Li Zhiyi seemed very uncomfortable with the stares, awkwardly clutching the hem of her skirt with both hands, her eyes searching the shop in a panic.
She didn't breathe a sigh of relief until she saw Chen Zhi by the window, and quickly walked over.
Chen Zhi looked her up and down, tapping his chopsticks lightly against the edge of his bowl.
"Yo."
His voice carried a hint of teasing.
"Which family's fairy just descended to earth? Why dress so beautifully just to come out for a simple meal?"
Li Zhiyi had just sat down. Hearing this, a blush instantly flew across her cheeks.
She lowered her head, twisting her fingers together, her voice as soft as a mosquito.
"I-I didn't."
"Didn't what?"
Chen Zhi rested his chin on one hand, staring at her. "Your school uniform got dirty?"
Li Zhiyi quickly glanced up at him, then rapidly lowered her head again, softly humming an "Mm."
"W-when I went home just now, Grandma said my uniform was dirty, so she washed it."
Whose grandma would suddenly get the urge to wash a school uniform exactly an hour before evening self-study?
Chen Zhi also caught a faint scent of shampoo.
Obviously, she had specially washed her hair before coming out.
For this far-from-romantic meal of pork trotter rice, this silly girl had made every preparation she possibly could.
"Alright, we'll just say your uniform got dirty."
Chen Zhi pushed the bowl of pork trotter rice with extra meat in front of her.
"Eat up, I ordered this especially for you. Eat more and put on some weight."
Li Zhiyi looked at the mountain-like pile of meat, feeling a bit troubled.
"It's too much... I won't be able to finish it."
"You have to eat it even if you can't finish it."
Chen Zhi transferred the greens from his bowl into hers, and took a piece of fatty meat from her bowl.
"Look at you, you're as skinny as a bean sprout. If you get blown away by the wind later, I'll have to go up to the sky to catch you."
Li Zhiyi burst into a giggle.
She picked up her chopsticks and ate in small bites.
Her table manners were very refined, her cheeks puffing out with every chew.
Chen Zhi was a completely different picture.
He ate like a whirlwind, polishing off more than half of his food in no time at all.
As he ate, he kept glancing at the time on his phone.
6:35 PM.
He didn't have much time left.
Li Zhiyi noticed his movements, and her eating speed involuntarily quickened a bit.
"Are... are you in a rush?"
She swallowed her mouthful of rice and asked carefully.
"It's nothing, take your time eating, don't choke."
Despite what Chen Zhi said, the tip of his foot had already begun to tap unconsciously.
Li Zhiyi was a sensitive girl.
She noticed Chen Zhi's anxiety.
So she stopped talking and buried her head in eating, her originally refined movements becoming somewhat rushed.
Even when she choked so hard her eyes rolled back and she had to gulp down a large mouthful of soup, she didn't stop her chopsticks.
Five minutes later.
Li Zhiyi put down her chopsticks. She had actually managed to force down that entire massive bowl of rice.
"I... I'm full."
She pulled out a tissue to wipe her mouth, her small face flushed red.
Chen Zhi paused for a moment, and then a wave of warmth surged through his heart.
This silly girl.
"Alright, let's go then."
Chen Zhi stood up and went to the front counter to pay.
Walking out of the shop, the evening breeze blew past, dispersing much of the sweltering heat.
"I need to head back and grab something."
Chen Zhi straddled his electric scooter, showing no intention of inviting Li Zhiyi to get on.
Because he had to go pick up Lin Wanwan next. If he let Li Zhiyi sit on the back seat, that little jealous jar would definitely blow her top if she caught the scent.
Li Zhiyi was very sensible and didn't ask any further questions.
"Then... I'll head back to the classroom first."
She stood under the streetlight, her green skirt fluttering gently in the wind.
"Go ahead, be careful on the way."
Chen Zhi waved at her, then twisted the throttle, and the electric scooter dashed into the night once again.
Watching Chen Zhi's departing back, Li Zhiyi gently pursed her lips.
She looked down at her carefully selected skirt, then patted her somewhat stuffed tummy.
...
Meanwhile.
Chen Zhi was pushing his electric scooter so hard the wheels were about to smoke.
6:50 PM.
He appeared downstairs at Lin Wanwan's place exactly on time.
Not a minute off.
Lin Wanwan was already waiting downstairs with her backpack on.
Seeing Chen Zhi sweating profusely, she frowned suspiciously.
"Where did you go? Why weren't you at home?"
Lin Wanwan leaned in and sniffed him.
"Why do you smell like pork trotter rice?"
Chen Zhi's heart skipped a beat.
He had been careless.
He had been so focused on rushing over that he forgot to air out the smell.
But his expression didn't change in the slightest. He even pushed Lin Wanwan's head away with a hint of disgust.
"Nonsense. I just went to the back street to buy some pork trotter rice to take home for dinner, and I came to pick you up before I even had time to change."
"Really?"
Lin Wanwan narrowed her eyes, alarm bells ringing in her head.
"Yes, really. I went to buy food and stopped by the stationery store to buy some pen refills."
Chen Zhi lied without batting an eye, casually pulling out a box of pen refills he had bought on a whim from a street stall earlier, and waved it in front of Lin Wanwan's eyes.
"Here."
Lin Wanwan stared at the box of refills for two seconds, and the alarm was lifted.
"Hmph, I guess you're telling the truth."
She hopped onto the back seat, familiarly wrapping her arms around Chen Zhi's waist and pressing her face against his back.
"Hurry up, hurry up, we're going to be late!"
"Hold on tight!"
Chen Zhi started the electric scooter again.
They sped like lightning the entire way.
Finally, one minute before the evening self-study bell rang, they rushed into the school's bicycle shed.
Chen Zhi parked the scooter and let out a long breath.
The amount of exercise he got tonight was more exhausting than running a 5K.
"I'm heading up first!"
Lin Wanwan checked the time and hurried toward the second floor.
Chen Zhi locked his scooter and strolled leisurely toward the teaching building.
Just as he reached the first-floor lobby, the phone in his pocket vibrated.
He took it out and looked.
It was a message from Pei Ningxue.
[Logging on?]
Immediately following it was a team invitation link for Honor of Kings.
Chen Zhi looked at the screen, his mouth twitching twice.
He had just finished bringing Lin Wanwan to school.
And had just eaten a meal with Li Zhiyi.
Now Miss Pei was sending him an invitation to game.
Even a donkey on a production team wouldn't be worked this hard.
Chen Zhi sighed.
A deep sense of exhaustion welled up in his heart.
Why did he feel so tired?
Is this the price of being a normie?
If God gave him another chance.
He would definitely choose...
Chen Zhi's finger uncontrollably tapped on that link.
The game loading screen instantly popped up.
The familiar sound effect echoed in the empty lobby.
"Timi~"
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?!
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)
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
