Watching Xue Tao standing there with that look of helpless rage on his face.
Chu Mingzhe sidled over to join the spectacle: "What's up? Had a fight with your girlfriend?"
Xue Tao proceeded to give an exaggerated account of how Liu Yuanyuan had used smooth talk to coax him into buying her a designer bag.
Wrapping up his rant, he declared indignantly: "Most college girls these days stick to brands like Zara or CK—that's more than enough. Maybe a Coach at most for 'affordable luxury.' Anything over a thousand is rare, let alone LV! LV my ass!"
"Damn right!" Wang Haoran chimed in.
Liu Yuanyuan had really lost her damn mind, asking a local guy to buy her LV. Do locals even have that kind of money? Hell no.
Sure, Xue Tao was the proud owner of a Magotan 330, but when it came to liquid cash, the "Shanghai Elite" still had him beat.
Chu Mingzhe weighed in: "Honestly, LV’s entry-level bags are tacky as hell—way too common. Carrying one makes you look like you’re in that line of work. Zero taste. The actually nice designs? Way too expensive."
"Damn, Shanghai Elite, I can’t believe we finally agree on something!" Xue Tao slapped his thigh like he’d found a kindred spirit.
He immediately zoomed in on the bag’s photo and shoved his phone in Chu Mingzhe’s face.
But to Xue Tao’s surprise, the Shanghai Elite didn’t double down on the support.
Instead, Chu Mingzhe adjusted his glasses and scrutinized the image with laser focus.
His eyes gleamed.
Voice trembling, he murmured: "T-this is… the LOUIS VUITTON x Murakami collaboration Speedy Bandoulière 25!"
"The hell?" Xue Tao blinked. "What kind of gibberish was that?"
"This bag is a limited-edition grail. You can’t just walk into a store and buy it—you either wait for resellers or get lucky with a store manager who happens to have one." Chu Mingzhe adopted his usual know-it-all tone. "Local boy, do you have any idea what its recent resale price is?"
"Bro, calm down. How expensive could a damn bag be? It’s just a purse." Xue Tao scoffed.
"Hah! You clearly have no idea how deep rich wives’ pockets go." Chu Mingzhe wagged a finger. "Last month, this bag sold for 157,800 yuan. Might’ve gone up since then—conservatively, 160K minimum now."
"Say WHAT?!"
"160K."
Holy. Shit.
Xue Tao’s worldview had just been shattered.
Sure, his relatives occasionally splurged on luxury items for clout—a bag costing a few thousand, even ten grand, was within his comprehension.
But this? A gaudy little handbag for 160K? That was next-level insanity.
"Are these rich bastards just printing money or what?" Xue Tao groaned.
"My guess? Zhou Jialu’s boyfriend is a top-tier rich kid from Jiangcheng. Even by Shanghai standards, he’s loaded." Chu Mingzhe analyzed, not missing a chance to jab, "I mean, the bag he gifted her costs more than your car."
"Bullshit! My Magotan 330 TSI Premium has an MSRP of 179,900 yuan—how is that cheaper than a bag?!"
Xue Tao’s voice cracked, face reddening like he’d been personally attacked.
Which, well, he kinda had.
Technically, the MSRP was 179,900 yuan, but with the recent slump in car prices thanks to domestic EVs, his parents had haggled hard during the summer purchase.
After some back-and-forth, they’d knocked 35,000 yuan off, landing at a final price of 144,900 yuan.
And well…
Yeah. Zhou Jialu’s LV bag was more expensive.
If you factored in taxes and insurance, sure, the Magotan barely scraped past.
But what did that even prove?
The brutal truth remained:
Zhou Jialu’s boyfriend operated on a whole different financial plane than Xue Tao.
"Ugh. Compared to that guy, I’m just another broke loser. What’s the difference between me and Wang Haoran?"
Wang Haoran: "…" (sweating emoji)
Chu Mingzhe smirked triumphantly. "Just as I thought. Zhou Jialu’s the type with sky-high material demands—your average rich guy wouldn’t cut it. Good thing I never liked her anyway."
"Like it matters whether you like her. She’d never glance your way." Xue Tao rolled his eyes.
"…Shut it!" Chu Mingzhe snapped. "That’s not the point. The point is—Chen Yusheng would never be that shallow."
"Sure, sure."
Xue Tao couldn’t be bothered to argue. It was clear—Old Chu was too far gone in his simpery. No saving him.
At least he had the sense to leverage his strengths. Within a month of school starting, he’d already "secured" the cute Liu Yuanyuan…
The thought made him gloomy again.
While bantering with his roommates, he’d been blowing up Liu Yuanyuan’s phone with apologies.
No response.
She was pissed.
Making up would require… concessions.
Was he really about to buy her an LV?
But girls were like that—if their close friends got something, they’d demand parity.
So damn annoying!
With no solution in sight, Xue Tao grumpily booted up his PC for a round of League.
Fortunately, his misery didn’t last long.
Because Chu Mingzhe soon faced his own disaster.
Around 10 PM.
A special notification chimed from Chu Mingzhe’s phone.
After a brief exchange, he tossed his phone aside, sat cross-legged on his bed, and blankly stared at the dorm’s white wall.
When Wang Haoran passed by to use the bathroom, Chu Mingzhe suddenly called out.
"Brother Haoran."
"Yeah?"
"If… Chen Yusheng came back to campus right now in a luxury car, what would that mean?"
"…Huh?"
Wang Haoran froze.
Xue Tao perked up instantly: "LMAO, what else could it mean? She’s dating someone. Just like Zhou Jialu."
"NOOOOOO!!!"
Chu Mingzhe clutched his head, howling in agony. "That’s not it, that’s not it… Look, context matters! It depends on how luxury the car actually is."
"Uh, how so?" Wang Haoran frowned.
"If it’s just an entry-level luxury sedan like a 3 Series, A4, or C-Class, she probably just took a premium rideshare."
"Jesus, Shanghai Elite, the copium is strong with you." Xue Tao cackled. "You actually believe that?"
Chu Mingzhe said coldly, "It’s not about what I believe. It’s about my faith in Chen Yusheng’s noble, untainted character."
"…" Xue Tao had no words. Buddy, you’re beyond saving.
Noble, untainted character? Were they back in high school lit class?
Wake up—college started a month ago!
Wang Haoran kept a straight face, silently enjoying the drama.
How did their dorm, Room 510, end up blessed with both Xue Tao and Chu Mingzhe—the ultimate pair of clowns?
Truly, they were doomed.
If the girls' dormitory Room 321 in Building 2, where Senior Zhou Jialu lives, is considered the "goddess dorm,"
then our boys' dormitory Room 510 in Building 7 is absolutely the "legendary dorm."
Does your dorm have such legendary figures? I’m genuinely curious! Truly, legends among men!
"Knock, knock, knock!"
Suddenly, someone rapped on the dorm door.
Wang Haoran went to open it, and standing there was a woman in sportswear with a well-proportioned figure.
It was their counselor, Xia Lin.
"Good evening, Ms. Xia."
"Good evening, everyone," Xia Lin replied with effortless grace, smiling. "I just finished a run on the track, and since I was near the boys' dorm, I thought I’d drop by… Where’s Su Bai? Is he not here?"
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?!
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!
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.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
