A Failed Life

As one could foresee, for the next week, Shen Nian and Xia Yanchun traveled around to various places.

Over the course of nearly two weeks, they visited the Golden Beach, climbed the Tianshan Mountains, strolled around the breathtaking West Lake, ate some not-so-tasty vinegar fish, and saw the famous misty rains of Jiangnan...

During these two weeks, Xia Yanchun was happy every day. She bought plenty of trinkets and souvenirs to bring back to Shen Yue and Li Shiyan. Shen Nian didn't buy much; instead, he just ate his way through their surroundings. His main philosophy was simple and unpretentious: as long as his stomach was happy, he was happy.

Of course, this also meant Xia Yanchun frequently called him a glutton.

That was just how Xia Yanchun was; if she didn't throw a couple of friendly insults his way, she wouldn't feel right.

Shen Nian would also bicker back from time to time. He vowed that one day he would call her Haji-chun in every corner of the country, achieving the grand goal of a nationwide roast.

During their travel days, Shen Nian only livestreamed three times. Because he hadn't streamed much, his fans started getting restless, jokingly sweeping his tomb in the comments of his social media posts every day. When he finally posted an update about climbing the Tianshan Mountains, some people even planned to ambush him in person.

Fortunately, he posted it a day late. By the time his fans wanted to ambush him, he was already over at West Lake.

His social media account was approaching 1.3 million followers, and across two platforms, his total follower count had surpassed 3 million. On the platform with more fans, he mostly posted stream recordings, and only one of his three recent livestreams was broadcasted there.

The main reason was that the vibe there wasn't great. Despite the large follower count, he didn't really like the live chat atmosphere. He was doing serious educational streams, yet people were asking to see his leg hair or wanting him to dance. Wasn't that ridiculous?

Look at my leg hair? How much are you paying?

While Shen Nian's career continued to flourish, Xia Yanchun's account was also doing quite well. With the initial traffic Shen Nian drove to her and a few livestreams of her own, she had already built up her own dedicated fanbase.

After all, the audience for advanced questions and the audience for basic questions were two entirely different groups.

Xia Yanchun never expected that building an account would be so easy, and the biggest contributor to her success was Shen Nian.

Shen Nian had become so incredibly capable. Despite being younger than her, he already had the means to support himself. It felt like he had grown into an independent adult who could hold his own.

Their relationship was getting closer, but the objective gap between them was widening. Xia Yanchun knew this clearly. Whenever she thought about it, she would quietly swear to herself that once she got to college, she would study even harder. She would bring out a drive even stronger than what she used to become the top scorer, and carve out her own little world in her major.

It was a heavy responsibility and a long road ahead.

It wasn't that she wanted to surpass Shen Nian; she simply wanted to be more driven and ambitious.

Even if Shen Nian left her far behind, she would only feel down for a little while. Slacking off was simply not in the nature of the hardworking Xia Yanchun.

...

By the time they returned to Cinan, it was already late July.

After a whole day of riding in a car, even Shen Nian felt a bit groggy. It wasn't until he got off at the entrance of the town and took a breath of the local air that he slowly regained his energy.

Shen Nian stretched his arms, rolled his shoulders, and took a deep breath. Woohoo, the air back home is still the sweetest.

Xia Yanchun, who had just gotten out of the car, spotted a stray dog lifting its leg to pee not far away. She looked at the dog, then at Shen Nian, blinked, and didn't say a word.

Since both of their parents were busy, Shen Nian and Xia Yanchun had to catch an unlicensed cab home. Thankfully, it was only a few kilometers away.

Shen Nian had bought plenty of food in the city: egg tarts, cupcakes, sushi, a fried chicken combo... He planned to eat these as his main meal. As for dinner, he just made some scrambled eggs with scallions and reheated some leftovers in the kitchen, figuring his parents could make do with that.

After eating dinner by himself, he waited for Chen Minyue and Shen Shi to get home. Shen Nian chatted with them in the kitchen, shared some photos from the trip, and then went upstairs to take a shower and wash off the summer heat.

Calculating the time, not only was his birthday coming up, but the university admission results were about to be released, followed by the actual acceptance letters... Besides all that, getting his driver's license needed to be put on the agenda.

There were two driving school registration offices right in town. One of them had a rudimentary practice course in a remote corner of the town. All the required testing elements—hills, curves, parking spots, parallel parking—were crammed into that small practice lot. When Shen Nian used to run around playing in the past, he often saw people practicing there.

The other driving school required you to go into the city to practice and didn't provide shuttle services. Although it was a bit cheaper, Shen Nian opted for the first one for the sake of convenience.

At night, the town was unusually peaceful. While catching the breeze on the balcony, he could hear the rustling of the longan tree in front of the house being blown by the wind.

He could see Xia Yanchun sitting on the first floor, chatting comfortably with the adults who had come over to socialize. Shen Nian could hear clearly that these parents were pestering Xia Yanchun for study methods, hoping to make their own unstudious kids a bit more successful.

Good thing Shen Nian didn't go down, otherwise he would be the one getting interrogated.

Shen Nian.

Shen Shi's voice came from outside the bedroom door, and Shen Nian quickly went to open it.

What's up, Dad?

Let me talk to you about something. Shen Shi naturally sat down at the desk, crossed his legs, and showed his phone to Shen Nian.

Oh my, the Dongchedi app.

Dad picked out a few cars for you. You can take a look yourself too. Anything under 300,000 yuan. Pick one out, and once you get your license and become a skilled driver, I'll buy it for you in full.

Damn, Dad, you're that generous?

Shen Shi's face darkened. What do you mean generous? Show some respect. Just because you got the top score in the exams means you can be disrespectful?

Looks like my get-out-of-jail-free card has expired, Shen Nian concluded.

What are you muttering about? I shared the links with you. Take a look yourself, and bookmark the ones you think are good, got it?

Got it, got it. Shen Nian gave an OK gesture.

When it came to buying a car, probably very few guys could resist, and Shen Nian was no exception.

In a little while, your boy is going to be a car owner too.

Eighteen years old, has a car but no house, personal savings approaching seven figures, and the girl next door is a super cute rival-turned-girlfriend. Life is just too much of a failure.

Shen Nian leisurely browsed through the cars for a while. For someone who knew absolutely nothing about cars, making a choice was quite difficult. After spending some time on it, it was as if he hadn't looked at all.

There was no rush to pick a car anyway; getting a driver's license would take at least a month.

If you can't decide from looking, we can just go to the 4S dealership when the time comes.

Yeah, we'll talk about it then. Shen Nian scratched his head. Dad, how about we add a little more money and buy something more expensive?

Sure, just pick something out first. Adding a little more is fine, just don't keep adding until you buy a Lamborghini.

I'm not Grandpa Bull, Shen Nian grinned.

Shen Shi didn't understand the reference, waved his hand, and went downstairs to find his massage chair.

The massage chair was his new love. Now, whenever he had free time, he would sit on it. His life was getting more and more comfortable.