The smile on her lips froze, and Li Qingxue said with a half-smile, "But why does it feel more like a little rabbit to me?"
Hearing this, coupled with Li Qingxue's ambiguous expression, Long Aotian seemed to realize something. "You know what? It really does."
With that, he bit into it, and the air fell silent for a moment.
Li Qingxue looked at Long Aotian expectantly, waiting for his evaluation.
Long Aotian increased the pressure of his bite, then finally laughed, "Such a cute rabbit—it's such a pity to eat it."
As he spoke, he took the rabbit-shaped cookie out of his mouth.
Li Qingxue didn't think much of it, feeling only a little embarrassed and awkward.
While Li Qingxue was distracted, Long Aotian glanced at the cookie in his hand and then smashed it against a small stone shard nearby.
The stone shard cracked immediately, but the cookie in his hand remained completely intact. "Damn!"
He took a deep breath, calmly put it in his pocket, and thought to himself that something strange must have gotten mixed into the cookie jar.
With that, Long Aotian lost his appetite. If he accidentally chipped a tooth, it wouldn't be worth it.
After finishing the remaining fruits and drinks, Long Aotian lay on the grass and said comfortably, "Alright, we're even now."
"Mhm," Li Qingxue replied, resting her chin on her hand. Although she hadn't eaten much, seeing Long Aotian enjoy himself so much had lifted her spirits.
Just then, familiar voices came from not far away.
Li Qingxue couldn't help but look up.
On the path above, she saw two figures—one thin and one fat—talking.
"Quan, don't you trust me? I was just drunk last night and forgot. Do you really think your brother Liangchen is that kind of person?"
Ye Liangchen looked at Gao Quan seriously and said, "You know I'm not that kind of person."
Gao Quan's face was bitter. "Brother Liangchen, I know you're not that kind of person, but last night, let's just split the bill, okay? I need to pay someone back."
"Come on, Quan, saying that is really being too formal. Would your brother Liangchen ever let you pay when he invites you out?"
Hearing this, Gao Quan nodded repeatedly. "Then, Brother Liangchen..."
"Don't bring it up again. I'll give you the money, don't worry. When your brother Liangchen says he'll take you to new heights, he means it," Ye Liangchen said earnestly, patting Gao Quan's shoulder heavily.
"But Brother Liangchen..."
"No buts. Don't you trust your brother Liangchen?"
"It's just a hundred bucks. We need to think bigger, understand?"
"I can tell you straight up, that hundred bucks you're giving me today, I'll repay it a thousand, no, ten thousand times over in the future. That's the kind of person your brother Liangchen is."
Though Ye Liangchen spoke confidently, deep down, he was seething with resentment.
If it weren't for that bastard Long Aotian scamming him out of three hundred bucks, he wouldn't have lost face in front of Gao Quan like this.
And Gao Quan, too—he hadn't answered his calls yesterday, which should have been a clear enough hint that he didn't have money. Yet, here he was today, chasing him down for it. Ugh...
"How shameless, how disgusting!" Li Qingxue couldn't help but mutter under her breath when she saw this.
It was just too brazen, speaking so grandly while Gao Quan was genuinely in debt for over a hundred bucks.
"That's your old friend, right? Honestly, your taste in friends isn't great," Li Qingxue said, having seen and heard everything. Long Aotian, naturally, had also seen and heard it all.
Long Aotian didn't have any strong feelings about Ye Liangchen. Even though there had been some unpleasantness at school before, Long Aotian hadn't taken it to heart.
But since Hu Yuying disliked him, Long Aotian had somehow started to dislike him too.
"Yeah, I didn't expect you to remember him," Li Qingxue said, feeling a little embarrassed.
Truthfully, her taste in friends was usually pretty good—otherwise, she wouldn't have made so many friends. But Ye Liangchen's behavior over the past six months had been... questionable, to say the least.
"Of course I remember. I scammed him out of 299 bucks not long ago when I was selling clothes."
Mentioning this, Long Aotian couldn't help but recall the moment he handed the money to Hu Yuying, her eyes curving into crescents and her bright smile.
Unconsciously, a smile spread across his face too.
"You used to sell clothes?" Li Qingxue was skeptical.
"There's nothing I haven't done!"
Li Qingxue pouted. "But you're so mean. Though I am surprised he actually had 299 bucks to give."
You're surprised? Even the little girl was surprised at the time, Long Aotian thought to himself.
With that thought, Long Aotian's smile widened. "It's getting late. Time to go."
"Mhm," Li Qingxue replied, standing up and starting to pack her things.
"Take care on your ride back," Long Aotian said, waving as he walked away.
"Okay, bye," Li Qingxue said softly, watching Long Aotian's retreating figure.
Then, remembering something, she quietly took out her phone and snapped a photo of Long Aotian's back as he waved.
The setting sun cast its warm orange glow across the horizon, bathing the earth in light. The young man's silhouette was full of vigor and defiance.
Looking at the photo on her phone, Li Qingxue smiled contentedly, then turned and rode off into the warm orange-lit road.
When Long Aotian reached the residential building, he didn't stop. He passed the market without pausing and eventually slowed his pace as he entered a familiar alley.
Standing in front of the door, he took a deep breath, then exhaled heavily.
He knocked on the door.
No response.
Peeking through the crack in the door, Long Aotian could see the tricycle inside, but the goods that had been piled on it were gone.
"Out, huh?"
Long Aotian withdrew his gaze and sat down on a stone slab by the doorstep.
After a while, as the sky darkened further, Long Aotian stood up and walked east through the alley.
He remembered this path—Hu Yuying had taken him this way before, and they had crossed a railway track along the way.
Climbing onto the railway platform, Long Aotian walked toward the exit on the other side.
He didn't stop, unsure of where he should go, so he decided to wander for a bit.
Maybe he'd run into the little girl by chance.
As night fell, the city lights began to shine, transforming the dark world into a kaleidoscope of colors.
It was noisy, but full of life.
"The city inspectors are coming!"
Someone shouted.
Long Aotian turned to look.
He saw the street vendors scattering in all directions.
Some rode tricycles, others electric bikes, and some... were dragging burlap sacks, panting as they ran...
[It's getting cold, so stay warm. Anyone else feeling the chill in their nose? Haha...]
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
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.”
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
