The Starting Point of a Rivalry

At noon, Xia Yanchun, who had spent half the day at Shen Nian's house, had to go home and change her clothes.

Because Li Shiyan had just sent her a screenshot of her location, showing she was already very close to the town entrance. She would arrive in town in another twenty minutes.

It was earlier than they had agreed upon, which surprised Xia Yanchun a little, though it didn't really matter.

"Shiyan will be here soon," Xia Yanchun reminded him.

Shen Nian leaned against the back of his chair, legs crossed, completely unbothered. "If she's coming, she's coming."

"Could you pay a little attention to your image? Your hair is a mess."

"Uh, alright, I'll go fix it."

"That's more like it."

Xia Yanchun quickly ran home and changed her clothes. They had to go to the supermarket later to buy ingredients for the picnic anyway, so she had to change regardless.

After waiting for a short while, a Didi rideshare parked not far from her house. Xia Yanchun instinctively stood on her tiptoes to look and, sure enough, spotted a petite figure.

Li Shiyan hadn't brought much luggage, just a single bag containing a set of base layers. She was only here to hang out for a few days, so barring any accidents, she definitely wouldn't need to wash her outerwear.

"Over here, over here!" Not knowing if she could be heard, Xia Yanchun waved her hand from the doorway.

"Coming!"

Li Shiyan looked left and right, then skipped over with her bag on her back.

Shen Nian stood on his balcony, idly watching the two girls meet and greet each other.

Must be nice. If that were Ma Mingfan skipping over to see him, he would have sent a slipper flying right at his face.

Xia Yanchun brought Li Shiyan into her house, and Shen Nian couldn't even be bothered to go down and say hi.

A little past two o'clock, Xia Yanchun sent him a QQ message.

[Xia Yanchun]: Come down, let's go check out our old school. We can buy skewers for the picnic on the way back.

[Shen Nian]: OK

Shen Nian tidied his hair a bit and headed out.

He turned left out the door and arrived at Haji Chun's house. Haji Chun and Haji Loli Girl were already waiting on the first floor.

Li Shiyan was bundled up in thick clothes and wore a fluffy hat. Her eyes met Shen Nian's for only a split second before she hastily looked away.

She knew Shen Nian lived right next door, so seeing him was no surprise at all.

Hehe, living right next to each other, Shen Nian and Xiao Chun weren't just simple 'hometown folks'. Xiao Chun was Shen Nian's girl-next-door, and Shen Nian was Xiao Chun's boy-next-door. Moreover, in the city, they lived across from each other. There was no way such a coincidence existed in the world; their families must be incredibly close!

It sounded like the perfect ship!

Just thinking about this, her imagination was running wild, already drafting a thirty-thousand-word fanfic in her head. Things like arranged childhood marriages, making lifelong vows when they were little, playing house as mommy and daddy...

"Hello...?" Despite her wild imagination, in reality, she only dared to whisper a greeting.

"?"

Shen Nian stroked his chin. Classmates using "hello" to greet each other? That was quite something.

Even if he thought about it for the next twenty years, he wouldn't be able to figure out why the loli girl suddenly popped out with a formal "hello."

"You're this." Shen Nian gave her a thumbs up.

"What?" Li Shiyan blinked, completely confused.

So you could get a thumbs up from Shen Nian just by saying hello?

Xia Yanchun took all of this in.

Inexplicably, it gave off the vibe of a newly hired junior employee meeting the big boss. How weird.

How did classmates end up with this kind of superior-subordinate dynamic?

"Let's go, let's go."

Xia Yanchun locked her front door, pushed Li Shiyan by the shoulders, and ran ahead, chattering away. She was already treating Shen Nian like thin air.

They had stuck together every day during the winter break; today, she would temporarily spend time with her bestie!

"Are we going to stroll around your middle school first?"

Li Shiyan glanced back. Shen Nian was several meters behind them, which instantly put her at ease.

Whenever Shen Nian was around, she adhered to the principle of "the less said, the fewer mistakes," to avoid giving him any opportunity to kick her around like a cotton ball.

Xia Yanchun nodded. "Yeah. Let me tell you, our middle school has completely changed. Sure enough, your alma mater always renovates the moment you leave..."

"Mine too!"

The two girls resonated deeply with each other.

Shen Nian followed behind, feeling quite like a little sidekick.

Heh, so the novelty has worn off, huh? You Haji Chun, the moment the loli girl arrives, you don't even spare a glance for your bro.

And it's already been an hour since we last cuddled.

My feelings were wasted after all. So sad. Can the handsome bros send a couple of cosplay pics of 170cm, 36D sexy older sisters to comfort me? No fishnets, please.

The middle school wasn't far from home. Upon arriving at the gate, Li Shiyan immediately peeked inside. It felt quite small, nowhere near as big as the middle school she had attended.

However, it was normal for a town's middle school to have poorer conditions. It was exactly because of these poor conditions that Xiao Chun and Shen Nian's achievements seemed so impressive.

"Can we go in?" Shen Nian caught up with them and asked from the side.

"The teacher said we could. I'll go ask."

Xia Yanchun ran over to the security guard uncle, mumbled something, and gave her homeroom teacher's name. Only then did the security guard nod and bring out a registration book, asking Xia Yanchun to leave her name and phone number. This was a necessary procedure for outsiders entering the school.

Xia Yanchun signed in, followed by Shen Nian, and finally Li Shiyan.

Li Shiyan was quite timid. While signing, she was constantly afraid the security guard would suddenly ask if she was a student of this school. It wasn't until she entered the campus that she realized how ridiculous her worry was—as if a security guard could recognize every single student.

Right inside the school gate was a long row of royal palms, which looked quite magnificent.

"Our school even has a pigpen over by the garbage dump. They actually raise pigs in there. Our teacher told us that during holidays, they would slaughter them to give the students extra meat."

"They actually raise pigs inside the school?!"

"Yeah! Shen Nian and I used to have that area as our assigned cleaning zone. It was so stinky. They should still be there now; I'll take you to see them later!"

Shen Nian couldn't help but interject, "She came all this way, and you're taking her to see pigs? It reeks of pig shit."

Xia Yanchun huffed, "You don't know shit."

"Six hundred and sixty-six."

Shen Nian smiled in resignation.

Hm?

[Side Quest: The Starting Point

Reward: 10,000 Gold Coins, Survival Skill: Breeding Mastery (Completed)]

The system's quest completion notification popped up abruptly. His phone buzzed, and Shen Nian took it out to look. It was the ten thousand gold coins from the completed quest, which equated to ten thousand in cash.

Actually, Shen Nian had somewhat anticipated this. When Teacher Huang suggested they could go back to the school to take a look, he had already guessed whether the system's so-called "starting point" referred to their middle school.

Well, in some ways, middle school was indeed the starting point for him and Xia Yanchun.

Before the age of twelve, he was Xia Yanchun's good little brother, never daring to disobey his big sister's orders.

After the age of twelve, he became Xia Yanchun's emperor, always wanting to slap Haji Chun into the air.

Could it be considered the starting point of their rivalry?

Or perhaps the age when first love began to bloom...

"Wow, the new building is so big... Our old teaching buildings used to be so run-down, and they still used those wooden-framed windows that opened outwards. Why is there even a library now? Back in our day, we couldn't even see a newspaper or magazine..." Xia Yanchun sighed with emotion as she walked.

The so-called alma mater really did renovate the moment you left.

As Xia Yanchun complained about their past learning environment, Li Shiyan listened and felt she could write two odes to a humble abode.