It was nearly noon when Shen Nian finally emerged from the subway station.
After a long ride, even he felt a bit numb.
Originally, he had planned to go straight to school, but he decided to drop by his house first to ride his electric scooter to campus.
After eating lunch off-campus and grabbing a milk tea along with some braised skewers to go, Shen Nian unhurriedly made his way into the school.
The old security guard at the gate was fast asleep with his head tilted back. Shen Nian wondered if his salary would be docked if a supervisor saw him.
Returning to the classroom, Shen Nian gently pushed the door open. Xia Yanchun was resting her head on a small pillow, sprawled across her desk. A stack of books hid her face, making it impossible for Shen Nian to see her expression.
Hearing the noise, Xia Yanchun stealthily lifted her little head and blinked her dark, round almond eyes at him.
"You're not asleep yet."
Shen Nian chuckled. Apart from the sleeping security guard, he hadn't seen a single soul on his way up. It felt as if they were the only two people left in the entire school.
"I was just about to fall asleep," Xia Yanchun replied, her voice soft and sweet.
"Didn't I say I'd be back at noon?"
"Even if you're back, I still need to sleep. What good food did you buy?"
"Just some skewers and fruit tea. It has less ice, so you should be able to drink it, right?"
"Yeah, that works."
Since Xia Yanchun's desk was occupied by her little pillow, Shen Nian had no choice but to lay out the food on Li Shiyan's desk. He then walked up to the podium to cancel out the leave slip his teacher had written for him.
"Did the teachers mention anything important over the past two days?"
"Nope."
Shen Nian rummaged through his drawer. It was quite rare that he hadn't accumulated a single extra test paper after a two-day absence.
With exams approaching, even the teachers weren't very keen on lecturing. Independent review was the priority, with teachers simply sitting at the podium to answer any questions students might have.
After all, everything that needed to be taught had already been covered.
The knowledge required for the three years of high school had all been learned by their sophomore year. The senior year was meant for reviewing and gaining new insights from old material, and they had already gone through the review process twice.
At this critical juncture, students' scores were basically set in stone. Those who hadn't changed since the 100-day countdown pledge wouldn't change in these final dozen days either.
Shen Nian pulled out Li Shiyan's chair and plopped down. One of his arms casually slipped over Xia Yanchun's shoulder, gently caressing the girl's softness through her school uniform.
Staring at Xia Yanchun's side profile, Shen Nian felt exceptionally satisfied.
Just looking at her was highly enjoyable.
Xia Yanchun was eating a fishball. She casually glanced over at Shen Nian and offered him the remaining one. "Do you want to eat too?"
Shen Nian ate it in one bite, the savory flavor of the fishball filling his mouth.
He had bought quite a lot. Over thirty yuan worth of braised food was too much for Xia Yanchun to finish, but he could easily polish it all off by himself.
"Chunbao," Shen Nian called out softly. The two chairs were close together. Shen Nian gently hugged Xia Yanchun, sniffing her sweet scent. Even on such a hot day, the girl smelled as fresh as if she had just stepped out of the shower.
"Mmm... you're too close!"
"I missed you."
"Didn't we already video call?"
"I still missed you." Shen Nian pecked her rosy cheek and smiled playfully. "Three days apart feels like three autumns."
"I know this one. One dog year equals five human years."
"Insult me all you want, I won't get mad."
"Ugh..."
Shen Nian's entire body was warm. Even without him pressing so close, Xia Yanchun could feel the body heat radiating from him. It was like this in the summer, and even more so in the winter; just standing there, he was like a human heater.
Heaven knew why his heat dissipation was so exaggerated.
Xia Yanchun didn't know what to say. She let him hold her and snuggle close, occasionally letting him rub his lips against her cheek in a way that was almost, but not quite, a kiss.
She just let him be.
Having replenished enough of his nemesis energy, Shen Nian let out a satisfied breath. "So good. I'm done."
"What a weird way to phrase that..."
"What's weird about it?"
"Keep playing dumb. No one can out-fake you!"
"Hehe, Chunbao is a little dirty-minded girl."
"You're the dirty one!" Xia Yanchun burrowed into his embrace, making a comfortable little hum as she leaned against him. "I'm going to sleep now."
"You should probably sleep on the desk. Leaning like this for too long isn't good for your back."
"I'll just lean for a little while."
Her hair was playful; some strands tickled Shen Nian's neck, while others slipped inside his collar. Shen Nian's large hand quietly pressed down on the top of Xia Yanchun's head. When he let go, those stubborn strands of hair bounced right back up.
Cute.
After lounging for a little while, Xia Yanchun finally got serious and lay her head on the desk to sleep.
If she didn't take a nap, she'd be dead tired in the afternoon. Sleeping poorly made her even more exhausted—something she had deeply experienced over the past two days.
Shen Nian took the unfinished braised skewers out to sit in the corridor. He enjoyed the cool breeze while he ate, and in no time, only the bamboo sticks were left.
That was hasty. I should have saved some for Chen Dong and Ma Mingfan.
Relaxing lazily in the warm breeze, the sun slanted slightly, shining onto the tips of his shoes.
The bell rang, and Shen Nian returned to the classroom.
"Ohayo, junior," Shen Nian raised a hand toward the still-drowsy Xia Yanchun.
Having just been woken by the bell, Xia Yanchun lacked the energy to deal with him and simply sat in her seat, staring blankly.
Then, she had her cheeks pinched by Shen Nian for two solid minutes.
"Stop messing with me." Xia Yanchun huffed, swatting away Shen Nian's increasingly audacious hands before using a wet wipe to clean her face.
"You're so cute," Shen Nian whispered in her ear.
"I already knew that, I don't need you to tell me."
"Damn, so self-aware. As expected of our school's legendary sweet-style beautiful girl."
"Being a beautiful girl brings me a lot of trouble too, you know."
Xia Yanchun proudly puffed out her chest, stood up, and left the classroom, seemingly heading to the restroom.
As classmates gradually filed into the classroom, it naturally became impossible for Shen Nian to continue flirting with Xia Yanchun.
During class, they had to obey the school rules and motto. Right now, he and Xia Yanchun were strictly classmates.
Well, maybe superiors and subordinates too. After all, Xia Yanchun was the class monitor, and he had to respectfully address her as Madam Class Monitor.
As for just now, that wasn't during class time.
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
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.
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
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!
