After Lin Yu finished speaking,
Tang Yimian showed no surprise at all.
Instead, she nodded repeatedly with a smile:
"Maomao can come with us, no problem."
"She actually approached me to discuss it privately before returning to her room earlier."
"What a thoughtful and polite girl—so adorable!"
Lin Yu: "???"
Maomao had sought her out privately after learning they’d be traveling with her senior?
So her emotional intelligence was always on point… except when dealing with him?
At least it saved Lin Yu the trouble of explaining.
"Senior, Maomao and I will be waiting for you at the gate on time."
"I’ve prepared everything on the checklist you sent me."
"For this three-hour trip to the West Suburb Zoo, I’ll cooperate fully."
"Don’t hesitate to ask if there’s anything I can do."
Tang Yimian clenched her fists excitedly in front of her chest:
"Thank you, Junior Lin Yu! I hope you’ll enjoy it too. I’ll go pack my bag now!"
……
8:45 AM.
The trio arrived punctually at the entrance of Pingchuan Tenth Primary School.
At that moment,
by the door of a 55-seater bus,
a girl in a blue-and-white tracksuit was directing the arriving students to board and find their seats according to their numbered tags.
During the taxi ride, Lin Yu and Tang Yimian had "talked" the entire way.
Of course,
it mostly consisted of her endlessly detailing the specifics of today’s summer camp outing.
But thanks to Tang Yimian’s meticulous explanations,
Lin Yu, an outsider, now had a thorough grasp of the situation.
The participants were students from two of Tang Yimian’s third- and fourth-grade classes who had voluntarily signed up.
With 45 children in total, one bus was enough.
For two experienced teachers, managing a bus full of kids wouldn’t be too difficult.
The problem was, Tang Yimian was a young teacher.
And her partner was a rookie who had just graduated a month ago.
No wonder Tang Yimian was so nervous.
After getting out of the taxi, Tang Yimian handed Lin Yu and Maomao red vests printed with "Tenth Primary School."
Lin Yu’s fit perfectly.
As for Maomao’s…
Lin Yu: "Pfft!"
Maomao looked down at the vest that barely reached above her knees: "…"
Paired with her striking hair color,
she looked like some aloof delinquent girl… crouching on the ground!
Too ridiculous!
Tang Yimian frowned apologetically:
"Sorry, Maomao. Since I only found out you were coming last minute, I didn’t have a vest prepared for you. This is the only spare we have. Mine is the yellow one for teachers, so I can’t swap with you. I’m really sorry…"
And so it began—
Elder Tang’s endless stream of apologies!
Lin Yu quickly pulled Maomao forward and said,
"It’s fine! She looks adorable, doesn’t she?"
"Besides, it’s Maomao’s fault for suddenly insisting on joining."
Maomao immediately bowed formally:
"I should be the one apologizing, Sister Tang. I’ve caused you trouble."
Tang Yimian waved her hands frantically, straightening Maomao up:
"No, no! You’re my younger sister—no need to apologize. Taking care of you is my responsibility…"
Just then,
the sporty teacher who had been organizing the students approached them.
She wore a neat high ponytail and had a sharp, slender face.
Her most distinctive feature was a tiny beauty mark above her left eye.
The sporty teacher stopped in front of them and… smiled.
Just smiled.
Maomao: "…"
Lin Yu: "…"
That’s it?
No words?
She looked like she was about to greet them,
but then just stood there silently!
Lin Yu’s instincts screamed—
This woman… is trouble.
To break the awkwardness, Lin Yu introduced himself first:
"Hello, teacher. I’m Lin Yu, and this is my friend Maomao."
"On the way here, Senior kept referring to you as ‘Xinran.’ May I know your full name?"
The sporty teacher shook his hand with a smile:
"My surname is Fan (first tone). Fan Xinran."
Lin Yu: "???"
Instantly,
his brain went into overdrive.
Fan? As in "flip"? Or "sail"?
Was this some obscure surname?
Or…
"Teacher, do you mean ‘Fan’ with a first tone, or is your surname ‘Fan’?"
Lin Yu tested carefully.
Tang Yimian opened her mouth to explain, but the sporty teacher added:
"Fan as in ‘fan xian.’"
Lin Yu: "…"
Now he was sure—it was her accent!
Fan… Xian…
"Oh!!"
"Fang as in ‘direction’? Fang Xinran, Teacher Fang?"
Lin Yu had an epiphany.
Fang Xinran finally nodded:
"Zhen shi (That’s correct)."
Lin Yu: "…"
He had no idea where this accent came from.
Her enunciation was crisp, yet her pronunciation was so off.
"Jie, I just realized on the way here that I left my hat in the dorm."
Tang Yimian gently took off her cap and placed it on Fang Xinran’s head:
"It’s fine. This is just a summer outing—no need to be too formal. Wear mine."
Fang Xinran didn’t refuse. After adjusting the cap, she glanced at Lin Yu.
Lin Yu chimed in:
"Forgetting things happens to everyone. I do it all the time."
Immediately,
Fang Xinran said in an eerily calm tone:
"Among Alzheimer’s patients… five percent are young people."
Maomao: "!!!"
Lin Yu: "!!!"
Fang Xinran: "Luckily, I’m not one of them."
Maomao: "…"
Lin Yu: "???"
Wait… sis?
Are you for real right now?
That one sentence nearly sent Lin Yu into an existential crisis.
For a second, he thought he’d accidentally touched on a sensitive topic.
Before he could recover,
Fang Xinran suddenly slumped, as if all energy had drained from her:
"That joke… was very… very lame, wasn’t it…"
Her expression wasn’t acting—
The sheer dejection radiating from her was palpable.
It was like her entire being had dimmed.
"Haha, witty! A dry sense of humor—took me a second to get it."
Lin Yu hurriedly played along to avoid further awkwardness.
"Really?!"
"Lin Yu, you actually found my joke funny?"
Fang Xinran did a complete 180, lighting up instantly.
Lin Yu: "Of course… I did!"
He really should’ve studied exorcism.
His ability to "revive" people’s spirits was top-tier.
Tang Yimian seized the opportunity:
"Should we board the bus first? We should do a headcount."
"The ride will take about half an hour—we can chat more on the way."
Lin Yu suddenly felt his ears were in for a rough time…
Between a chatterbox senior and a deadpan jokester,
this bus ride was going to be a long one.
……
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
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?!
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
