The meal lasted until five in the afternoon.
Because of the 31 percent college student discount, Shen Nian only spent a little over seven hundred to treat six people to a meal, which wasn't too much at about a hundred per person.
At the very least, for the current Shen Nian, this seven hundred bucks didn't carry much weight.
Either way, he ate happily.
Everyone chatted as they ate, talking about their current situations and future plans. Whatever they couldn't finish was packed up by Shen Nian and Xia Yanchun to serve as a midnight snack later.
After dinner, Xia Yanchun and Li Shiyan went to buy lottery tickets, and Shen Nian tagged along with them. Chen Dong and Chen Qiuyu went outside the mall to wait for their ride. Ma Mingfan and Liang Jing planned to stroll around a bit more, so they said goodbye to Shen Nian and headed to the lower floors of the mall.
"Are you full?"
Ma Mingfan stood beside Liang Jing, afraid that she had been too shy to eat to her heart's content. If she was still hungry, they could go buy some snacks or milk tea later.
Liang Jing looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, it was delicious. By the way, do you know how much this meal cost?"
"I don't know. The bill was settled on a tablet, and I didn't look when Shen Nian was paying."
"The service was so good, it felt like it would be really expensive..."
Shen Nian and Ma Mingfan were good friends, but he couldn't really be called friends with Liang Jing. At best, they were classmates of three years who rarely talked. For today's gathering, Shen Nian had invited Ma Mingfan, and she had just tagged along for the free food. She felt quite embarrassed about eating so much of his food.
"Remember to treat Shen Nian to a meal next time too."
"Yeah, if we get the chance in the future, we should treat Shen Nian and the class monitor to a meal," Ma Mingfan smiled.
"Mhm."
Liang Jing was in a beautiful mood. When they arrived at the first floor of the mall and passed by a clothing store, she went in to browse for a while.
The inner section of the store also had sexy women's lingerie hanging up. Ma Mingfan originally wanted to follow her in, but upon catching a glimpse of the underwear, he lost his nerve and stood outside the store playing on his phone.
The joy of shopping lies in the strolling itself. Girls don't necessarily have to buy things when they shop; often, they just go in for a look and then leave, and Liang Jing was no exception.
"Let's go, stop looking at your phone."
"Coming... By the way, don't we need to catch the bus? It's already five-thirty."
Liang Jing paused her steps and twirled a strand of hair by her cheek. "I still have to take a long bus ride back. It will be completely dark by the time I get home."
She wasn't lying to Ma Mingfan.
Although she shared the same route home as Ma Mingfan and they could buy tickets together, Ma Mingfan lived in the city while she lived in a rural town. It was quite remote. Not only did she have to transfer to a long-distance bus halfway, but she also had to trouble her family to drive out and pick her up once she reached the town. If she rushed to the passenger station now, it would probably be close to ten o'clock by the time she got home.
"Going home is that troublesome for you? I just need to take one bus ride."
"I'm really sorry my home is so remote!" Liang Jing clasped her hands together.
"Then..." Ma Mingfan's Adam's apple bobbed. "Anyway, we're going the same way, h-how about you come to my house first... and then... take the bus back tomorrow. Uh, haha, just joking."
"..."
Liang Jing pursed her lips, her bangs slightly covering her wide eyes, and her cheeks almost instantly flushed with color.
She was invited by a boy to be a guest at his house!
So dizzy.
"Otherwise, the only option is to book a hotel and wait for tomorrow..." Ma Mingfan added.
It seemed these were the only two solutions! Could she really just sleep under a bridge with a cotton quilt?
"Um, are your parents... easy to get along with?"
"...They are both quite friendly." Ma Mingfan's heart raced.
After struggling with it for a long time, Liang Jing still didn't dare to agree to spend the night at Ma Mingfan's house. "Let's just stay at a hotel..."
"That works too."
"Will you keep me company?"
Liang Jing's big eyes blinked rapidly, not quite daring to meet Ma Mingfan's gaze. Her voice was very, very low; if Ma Mingfan had stood any further away, he wouldn't have heard a thing.
Ma Mingfan's mind was also a mess. Such a simple sentence actually took him a few seconds to process.
"Is that okay...?"
"Yeah... Don't overthink it, we're booking two rooms, and then we'll go back together tomorrow!"
"I know! I wasn't overthinking it!"
"Let's go, I'm thirsty. Let's see if there's any green tea..." Liang Jing couldn't handle it anymore and quickly walked away.
Ma Mingfan quickly followed. They left the mall together, as only the outside of the mall had those milk tea shops, and only the vending machines by the road had the sugar-free or low-sugar green tea that Liang Jing really liked.
Of course, Ma Mingfan didn't like that, so he bought a bottle of Assam milk tea.
After gulping down some milk tea, Ma Mingfan's mood settled down quite a bit, but then he started feeling depressed again.
He had almost stuttered when speaking just now. He still wasn't strong enough. He needed to go back and challenge himself to watch Pursuing Dreams in Showbiz with a straight face.
Liang Jing neatly tied her long hair into a high ponytail. The ends of her hair swayed gently as she walked, looking clean and refreshing. As it swayed back and forth in front of Ma Mingfan, his newly calmed mood began to stir again.
He couldn't resist reaching out to play with it a little. Noticing that Liang Jing only glanced at him sideways, he grew bolder and started playing with it more.
Then, feeling that he was being a bit creepy, he quickly withdrew his hand.
"Since we're not going back tonight, let's rest a bit and then go stroll around the Garden Expo Park over there. I've been studying here for so long and still haven't visited it!" Ma Mingfan cleared his throat.
"Sure, let's get shared bikes!"
"Okay."
"Then let's sit for a while..."
Liang Jing casually sat down on an ergonomic bench dedicated for resting outside a shop, slowly relaxing.
Ma Mingfan sat beside her and finished the rest of his milk tea. As he relaxed, his hand accidentally brushed against hers. Liang Jing merely pulled her hand back slightly and secretly glanced at Ma Mingfan.
"..."
"..."
Perhaps the tacit permission when he played with her hair earlier had inflated his courage. Ma Mingfan took a deep breath to embolden himself, moved his hand toward Liang Jing, and gently pressed it over two or three of her fingers.
Amidst the noisy mall, Liang Jing could clearly hear her own heartbeat, thumping so hard it felt like it would jump out.
Wait!
Pressing on the fingers is enough, don't push your luck!!
Even when Ma Mingfan boldly held her hand, Liang Jing only felt a storm raging in her heart.
She couldn't speak...
...
Shen Nian stroked his chin, watching Li Shiyan operate the claw machine, smoothly picking up a ragdoll cat plushie with the grace of flowing water, and fell into deep thought.
How should one evaluate this person who scratched three lottery tickets, missed the first two, won a thousand on the third, and caught two plushies in seven attempts at the claw machine?
Sigh, she truly is a bloodsucker.
Is there really any capital in this world that can siphon blood from Li Shiyan?
The strictest mother of capitalists.
On the other hand, looking at Haji-chun.
She had already fed over forty bucks into the claw machines, generously building up the pity timer for others with the heart of a bodhisattva.
If she had just stuck to one machine, she might have triggered the guaranteed win by now. But this girl insisted on trying one machine here and another machine there.
Forget it, Haji-chun looked very cute when she was angry, so he decided not to scold her.
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.”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
