Go play your Three Kingdoms Kill.

Winter days darkened the fastest. As soon as the sky turned dark, beams of light shot out from the sports field.

Standing by the window, Shen Nian could see them clearly. The colorful lights were exceptionally eye-catching. When he opened the window, it wasn't just the cold wind that seeped in, but also the music playing from the loudspeakers during the sound check.

"Get ready to head down and watch the New Year's Gala! I'll hand out your phones now, and the class monitor will distribute the snacks."

Su Kexi stood at the podium, taking the phones out of a box one by one, letting the students who had handed them in come up in twos and threes to retrieve them.

Whenever there was a gala or event like this, the class would always have the entertainment committee member or the class monitor use the class funds to buy candies, potato chips, and other snacks from the convenience store outside to distribute to everyone. This time was no exception.

Two candies and a bag of puffed wheat snacks, the kind that cost three and a half yuan a bag.

However, the portions were quite small.

This was also why Li Shiyan had dragged Xia Yanchun to the convenience store.

Shen Nian still had some snacks in his bag that he bought on the way when he came out with Xia Yanchun. He had only bought a little, as he already had quite a stash in his backpack.

The gala didn't have assigned seating. Students brought their own chairs down, and as long as the overall arrangement wasn't chaotic, they could sit wherever they wanted.

Even if there were separate rows for boys and girls, little couples who wanted to sit together still had their ways. They would have others take up all the seats, pretend they arrived late and couldn't find a spot, and then sit together at the very back.

Xia Yanchun sat in the middle section, while Shen Nian sat in the back. Su Kexi, along with some teachers and school leaders, would be patrolling and watching from the back. Even if they weren't actively catching couples, Shen Nian didn't want to be so blatant.

Even if he was willing, Chunbao wouldn't be. She was thin-skinned and easily embarrassed. If they really sat together, she would probably pretend it was a coincidence, casually chat for a bit, and then they would just do their own things.

It was worth mentioning that the New Year's Gala didn't restrict students' freedom of movement. If you wanted to watch, you watched; if not, you could play on your phone. If you didn't even want to play on your phone, you could just find an excuse to leave the group. It was essentially a holiday where you just couldn't leave the school or return to the dorms.

Ma Mingfan sat right behind Shen Nian and poked his head out. "Shen Nian, let's skip the performances and play Naruto. Download it again and play with me."

"I'm playing San Guo Sha, do you want to join?" Shen Nian smiled.

"How about this, you download Naruto again, and I'll go leave a negative review for San Guo Sha."

"Get lost, go spam your head-pat emotes."

"Has your Will of Fire truly disappeared?" Ma Mingfan asked with a serious face.

"I sold it to top up in San Guo Sha, or it turned into a Devil Fruit. Which version do you want to hear?"

"Sigh..."

Ma Mingfan let out a heavy sigh.

If he had known this would happen, he wouldn't have kept spamming the head-pat emote when he went one-on-one against Shen Nian during the sports meet.

He had personally buried Shen Nian's Will of Fire. At this point, what more could he say?

...

Just kidding, he wasn't repenting at all.

Does a Will of Fire that gets defeated so easily even deserve to be called the Will of Fire? Go play your San Guo Sha.

He was already playing in the arena.

"Ma Mingfan." Liang Jing popped out of nowhere, waving her phone which already had Minecraft open. "Wanna play?"

"Wait until I play a few rounds of Naruto. I haven't played for a whole week."

"Oh." Liang Jing bent down and squatted beside Ma Mingfan, watching for a while. She truly couldn't understand what was so appealing about a game where two little figures ran around on a screen throwing skills at each other.

Unable to grasp the appeal, Liang Jing took two Alpenliebe candies out of her pocket, the ones bought with the class funds.

"Did you finish the puffed wheat snacks they just handed out? I don't really like sweet things. Can I trade these two candies for your bag?"

"Hold on, hold on, I'm playing."

"Then I'll wait beside you."

Shen Nian glanced back. Hmm, he didn't quite know how to describe it.

He couldn't tell if Ma Mingfan was too embarrassed to casually talk to girls and was therefore pretending not to care and acting nonchalant, or if he was genuinely taking his Naruto game that seriously, or perhaps it was a bit of both.

Back when he played Naruto, he had loved it just as much and was just as invested, so invested that he completely forgot about Xia Yanchun's existence.

Even during their freshman and sophomore years when their relationship hadn't improved yet, Xia Yanchun would occasionally come to his house to look for Shen Yue. Every time, she would drop by to see him, and when she saw him playing Naruto, she would also stand by his side and watch for a while like this.

He kind of missed the time of being the Number One Baddie. Tonight, he would give Xia Yanchun a smack just to reminisce.

"If you want puffed wheat snacks, you can have my bag." Shen Nian smiled and handed over his own bag. He had never really chatted with Liang Jing before, so interacting a bit now wasn't a bad idea.

Liang Jing was a little taken aback. "Then I'll give you these two candies."

"No need, I have plenty here. You can trade with Ma Mingfan."

"Oh..."

How baffling.

But Shen Nian was actually quite a nice guy, even giving her a bag of puffed wheat. No wonder no one ever criticized Shen Nian during the girls' dorm gossip and roast sessions.

"Thank you." She nodded politely.

"I don't really like eating this anyway."

After saying that, Shen Nian turned around, with nothing more to add.

It was true that he didn't really like eating puffed wheat. The stuff stuck to his teeth, was high in calories, and he didn't even like the taste much. He had originally planned to give it to the little loli girl to earn some favor points, but since it was convenient, he just gave it to Liang Jing instead.

The New Year's Gala consisted entirely of performances by freshmen and sophomores. Some classes that were particularly good at pulling stunts chose songs like The Great Northeast is My Hometown and did the Qinghai Shake, keeping everyone thoroughly entertained.

Second High School was considered relatively liberal, allowing foreign language songs and popular internet music. He had heard that some schools didn't even allow foreign language songs, and all performances had to follow mainstream patriotic themes. If Second High School had been like that, Shen Nian really would have had to download Naruto again.

"Hey, has your childhood friend's leg gotten any better after so long?" Shen Nian gave Chen Dong, who was sitting in front of him, a slap on the back.

"Damn it, why did you hit so hard?"

"I just accidentally used too much force." Shen Nian looked at him with a lopsided expression. Hasn't everyone accidentally used too much force before?

He had once accidentally left a handprint on Chen Dong's back. Kids, do you really think I did it on purpose?

Chen Dong's mouth twitched, and he returned the favor with a slap of his own, making Shen Nian wince and rub his shoulder with an ouch.

"It was an accident, bro."

"Since you called me bro, what else is there to say? I'll just endure it."

Shen Nian had Agility +3, so dodging that slap would have been easy, but he hadn't cared much. Baring his teeth, he said, "Hurry up and tell me about you and your little childhood friend."

"You tell me about you and the class monitor first."

The two high school boys whispered to each other, acting like thieves.

"What? I don't have anything going on."

"Oh, come on. Others might not know, but I sit right in front of you. Who in their right mind would constantly come over to sit in the empty seat next to you if there was nothing going on?"

"Chen Qiuyu."

"..."

Holy crap, that's actually true. During their sophomore year and for a while before that, Chen Qiuyu was frequently seen sitting in the seat next to Shen Nian to study.

"That's completely different. One came to you for math tutoring, and the other is romantic tension. How can you lump them together?"

What kind of romantic tension was it? Did he really think everyone else was blind? Even Ma Mingfan had noticed it.

Shen Nian scratched his head. "There's really nothing. Hurry up and tell me about yours."

"...Mine doesn't have anything going on either. Whenever I have time, I take her out to hang out and push her wheelchair. Oh right, it seems she's not planning on repeating the school year after all."

"Why?"

"Because she's homeschooling. If she really does poorly on the exams, then she'll consider repeating a year."

"Haha, true, true."

Boys have their fair share of gossip too. Since they couldn't rant about politics or history, they had to settle for chatting about each other's secrets.

The evening gala had been going on for an hour, yet they weren't even halfway through the program. There were still speeches from the teachers and school leaders, as well as the closing ceremony later...

Shen Nian alternated between watching the performances and chatting with Chen Dong. He didn't refocus his attention until two girls walked to the back one after another, shared a laugh with Su Kexi, and ran outside.

Chunbao and the little loli had already gone to take photos, so it was time for him, Chunbao's appointed photographer, to set off as well.

However, Shen Nian still waited for a few minutes before getting up and heading to the back.

"Teacher, I need to use the restroom," Shen Nian flashed a grin.

Su Kexi shot him a glance. "Are you really going to the restroom?"

"You bet, teacher."

"I don't have the energy to call your bluff. Go on, but don't wander off."

"The restroom is only so big."

Shen Nian stuffed his hands in his pockets and made his escape.

But he couldn't find Xia Yanchun and Li Shiyan. Just as he was about to text Xia Yanchun, her message popped up first.

[Xia Yanchun]: When are you going to find an excuse to come out? Shiyan and I are near the school gate.

[Xia Yanchun]: Poke

[Shen Nian]: Be right there.