The classroom was noisy and bustling in the early morning.
Chen Zhi stuffed his backpack into his desk. Just as he pulled out his chair and sat down, he noticed a gaze from his right, staring right at him.
He turned his head.
Pei Ningxue was resting her chin on one hand, staring at him intently.
Gone was her usual aloofness; instead, there was a hint of curiosity in her eyes.
Chen Zhi subconsciously touched his cheek. His fingertips brushed against his skin, but he didn't feel any stray grains of rice or toothpaste foam.
"What's wrong?"
He opened his English textbook and asked in confusion, "Is there something on my face?"
Pei Ningxue lightly tapped the tip of her pen on the desk, making a crisp "tap" sound.
"You know how to cook?"
Chen Zhi froze for a moment.
Why was this young lady's focus so strange?
He smiled shyly and held out his thumb and index finger, making a gesture that Korean men would find hard to accept. "Just a tiny bit. Won't kill anyone."
Then, he realized something was wrong.
"How do you know I can cook?"
Chen Zhi looked at her suspiciously. "Did you install a security camera in my house?"
Pei Ningxue didn't say anything. She just pulled her phone out from her desk.
She unlocked it, tapped the screen, and then pushed the phone in front of Chen Zhi.
The screen showed the WeChat Moments interface.
A photo took up most of the view.
Under a warm yellow light, there was a steaming bowl of plain noodles. The fried egg had crispy, golden-brown edges with a runny yolk, garnished with bright green chopped scallions.
The composition was extremely meticulous.
Not only did it capture the appetizing color of the food, but it also very "cleverly" included the boy in the background taking off his apron.
Although it only showed half of a side profile and a slender hand, anyone who knew him could recognize at a glance that it was Chen Zhi.
The caption was simple: [So delicious, hehe~]
The poster's avatar was a cute, silly rabbit.
Lin Wanwan.
Chen Zhi stared at the screen for three seconds.
Since when did this girl get so good at taking pictures?
The lighting and the angle made that simple bowl of noodles look like a main course at a three-star Michelin restaurant.
"Posted last night at ten,"
Pei Ningxue took her phone back, her tone flat. "It does look pretty good."
Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow and pulled his own phone out of his pocket.
That didn't make sense.
He had scrolled through his Moments before going to bed last night and hadn't seen this post at all.
He skillfully opened WeChat, tapped on Discover, and entered Moments.
Swiped down.
Refreshed.
Refreshed again.
The loading circle spun and then finished.
The latest update was an emo post from Li Jiahao late at night, saying "Loneliness is a man's medal," accompanied by a selfie that he would want to kill himself over three years from now.
Further down was an article shared by their homeroom teacher, Wang Qian, titled "Shocking! The Top Ten Dangers of Staying Up Late."
Refusing to believe it, Chen Zhi tapped directly into Lin Wanwan's personal profile.
The album loaded.
Her most recent update was from three days ago.
It was a picture of the sunset on the way home from school, captioned, "Today's sunset looks like strawberry-flavored cotton candy."
Below it was Chen Zhi's comment from that time: "Looks like braised pork to me."
Still not giving up, Chen Zhi refreshed it two more times.
The circle spun, but nothing changed.
"Damn."
Chen Zhi slammed his phone face-down on the desk, laughing out of sheer annoyance. "This damn girl, since when did she learn to block me?"
No wonder she kept giggling at her phone while eating noodles last night, and wouldn't say a word when he asked what was so funny.
"Chen Zhi."
"I wonder when I'll be lucky enough to taste the noodles you make."
Chen Zhi shoved his phone into his pocket and stood up.
"I'm going to the restroom."
With that, he walked out of the classroom with a dark expression.
Morning reading hadn't started yet, and the hallway was full of students fooling around.
Lin Wanwan was leaning against the hallway railing, chattering away about gossip with her best friend Chen Xinyu, holding a half-finished bag of milk in her hand.
Seeing Chen Zhi storming over aggressively, Lin Wanwan clearly froze for a second.
Before she could even open her mouth to say hello.
Chen Zhi just reached out his hand, palm up.
"Give me your phone."
Lin Wanwan subconsciously tightened her grip on the hand hidden behind her back and blinked her big eyes, playing dumb. "What for? I need to memorize vocabulary."
"Cut the crap."
Chen Zhi took a step closer, casting his shadow over her. "I'm counting to three."
"One."
Lin Wanwan bit down on her straw, her cheeks puffed out, her eyes darting around.
"Two."
Chen Zhi made a move as if to reach into her school uniform pocket.
"Here, here, here! Just take it!"
Lin Wanwan was ticklish and terrified he would start grabbing at her in public, so she hurriedly pulled her pink phone out of her pocket and slapped it into Chen Zhi's hand.
"Why are you being so fierce?"
Chen Zhi ignored her complaining.
He swiped the screen.
The lock screen passcode interface popped up.
Lin Wanwan crossed her arms, looking smug. "I just changed the password last night, you can't..."
Before she could finish her sentence.
Chen Zhi's fingers danced quickly across the screen.
[030520].
With a "click," the soft sound of the phone unlocking played.
The screen opened.
Lin Wanwan's smug expression froze, and she almost bit her straw in half.
"How did you know it was that?!"
Because it was a combination of both their birthdays.
Chen Zhi didn't even look up, scoffing. "With your tiny brain capacity, if it's not your birthday, it's your dog's birthday. What else could you possibly come up with?"
Lin Wanwan snapped back to reality and lunged to grab it.
Using his height advantage, Chen Zhi held the phone high in the air.
He held off Lin Wanwan's lunging head with his left hand while his right hand skillfully swiped across the screen.
Lin Wanwan completely panicked now.
Like a startled kitten with its fur standing on end, she clawed and swatted at Chen Zhi's arm. "Give it back! You're not allowed to look! Chen Zhi, you jerk!"
Relying on his superior strength, Chen Zhi pinned her against the wall.
He opened WeChat.
Went straight to Moments.
Just as he thought.
The very first post was that bowl of plain noodles.
Posted at 10 PM last night.
Likes: 1.
Comments: 0.
Given Lin Wanwan's popularity, even a post saying "The weather is so nice today" would get dozens of likes. How could a food post get completely ignored?
Unless...
Chen Zhi tapped the top right corner of the post.
Details.
Visibility.
A line of small text clearly jumped into view.
[Partially visible to: Pei Ningxue]
Out of her entire Moments feed and hundreds of friends.
This meticulously edited post with its ambiguous caption was meant for exactly one person to see.
Chen Zhi was stunned.
The hand holding the phone froze in mid-air.
Chen Zhi slowly lowered his head and looked at Lin Wanwan, whom he had pinned to the side.
The little girl had already given up struggling.
Her entire face was bright red, and even the tips of her ears were tinted pink.
But her eyes remained stubbornly wide open, glaring fiercely at Chen Zhi.
There was no shame of being caught; instead, there was a sense of righteous provocation.
"Have you seen enough?"
Lin Wanwan bit her lower lip, her aura not losing an inch. "If you've seen enough, give me my phone back."
Chen Zhi handed the phone to her.
"Lin Wanwan."
"What?"
Chen Zhi crossed his arms, a hint of teasing in his tone. "I didn't expect you to be so scheming."
Lin Wanwan snatched the phone back, quickly locked the screen, and shoved it back into her pocket.
Her movements were smooth and fluid.
"None of your business."
She stiffened her neck and raised her voice a notch, seemingly trying to use volume to cover up her inner panic. "I'll show it to whoever I want. Do you own WeChat or something?"
"Alright, alright, whatever makes you happy."
Chen Zhi smiled.
He leaned in a little closer, fixing his gaze on Lin Wanwan's evasive eyes.
"By the way, next time you post something visible to only one person, remember to blur out my face."
Chen Zhi pointed to his own face. "This face of mine is very expensive. I'll have to charge you next time."
Lin Wanwan's face turned even redder.
"Get lost!"
She snatched up the "3500 English Vocabulary" book lying next to her. A muffled voice came from behind the pages, "I have to memorize my vocabulary! Abandon! Abandon!"
Chen Zhi watched the girl who had shrunk herself down like a timid quail.
The morning sunlight spilled across the corridor, shining on the exposed nape of her neck.
The fine peach fuzz was clearly visible in the gentle halo of light.
Flushed an endearing shade of red.
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.
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
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?!
