Old Chu, you're not pulling your weight.

Then again, you actually get rewards for just enjoying some gossip?

Feels like the System isn't very strict.

Of course, Su Bai liked a lax system. If the system were strict, how could he slack off and reap the benefits?

But then again, this gossip was truly juicy.

Who would have thought that Xue Tao would encounter a romantic bloodbath, even though the two women causing this love triangle were at a level where Su Bai wouldn't even bother looking at them if they threw themselves at him...

It wasn't that they were ugly.

To be fair, Huang Ran and Liu Yuanyuan were already considered pretty girls in a college environment.

For the vast majority of students, having a girlfriend like that was, at least on the surface, quite a face-saving thing.

This also explained why, when Xue Tao and Liu Yuanyuan first started dating, he valued it so much and showed her off everywhere.

He really had to show off.

However, even then, Su Bai never envied Xue Tao. After all, it was visible to the naked eye that Liu Yuanyuan was not an easy person to deal with.

In relationships, looks are just the threshold; personality is the core factor that determines the actual experience.

Dating someone with a bad personality is truly agonizing.

You're better off staying single.

Take Xue Tao, for example. He had now entered the phase of wearing a mask of pain. Obviously, this "love triangle" wasn't something he could enjoy; instead, it left him completely overwhelmed.

He was never good at dealing with women to begin with, let alone shrewd ones who were leagues above him.

Add to that a senior student who clearly had ill intentions and wanted to steal his girlfriend, and Xue Tao was left at a complete loss.

He stood there looking a bit dumbfounded.

In his head, Xue Tao was already starting to regret it.

If he had known, he never would have teamed up with Liu Yuanyuan and that senior!

He had made the decision last night out of youthful arrogance, somewhat intending to clash head-on with the senior. Moreover, he wanted to take the opportunity to clearly break up with Liu Yuanyuan.

But this atmosphere... it felt like a place not meant for human survival.

The thought of a two-day, one-night hiking and camping trip made Xue Tao's scalp tingle with dread.

He couldn't help but cast a pleading look toward Su Bai... Oh wait, where was Brother Bai?

Su Bai had immediately activated his divine evasion and slipped away.

He ran over to Old Chu's side to see what was going on there.

After all, if he could get a Mind +5 attribute point reward just from enjoying the drama of Xue Tao's weird little group, surely the Shanghai big shot wouldn't disappoint him either.

Chu Mingzhe's chosen team members were also a couple.

Their hiking backpacks were covered in various little keychains... oh, in anime community slang, they were called merch.

Su Bai glanced over them and felt they were all from popular major IPs.

The two were quite outgoing and tried to strike up a conversation with Chu Mingzhe and the goth girl, but the results weren't very significant.

Needless to say, the goth girl had social anxiety.

Chu Mingzhe wasn't much better. This guy was the secretly passionate type but very shy around strangers. When school first started, he loved to act aloof in the dorm, and it was only after repeatedly bickering with Xue Tao that he finally let himself go.

In the end, until Xia arrived at the meeting point almost exactly on time, Chu Mingzhe still hadn't provided Su Bai with any attribute point rewards.

Damn Shanghai big shot, he really isn't even worth a hair of a local. Bad review!

Hahaha, as expected, my bro Tao is the one who delivers the real entertainment.

What are you looking at so intently?

Xia Lin leaned in next to Su Bai and asked curiously.

Xia Lin's long hair was tied back in a neat ponytail. She wore a standard windbreaker and hiking pants. From a purely sartorial perspective, she seemed no different from anyone else present, yet she stood out strikingly.

Her upright posture and beautiful face drew plenty of attention from the surroundings.

Some people knew who she was, or who Su Bai was, so they just took a couple of glances and left it at that.

Those who didn't know them couldn't help but stare a bit longer. Seeing her docile posture standing next to Su Bai, especially the faint dark circles under her eyes from a lack of proper rest, revealing a soft weariness, it left much to the imagination. People couldn't help but guess what had happened between her and Su Bai last night.

My god, are those two celebrities here for a variety show? They're both so tall, and their looks are unreal.

They're probably rich kids. Sigh, it's nice to have money. That girl, just the shoes on her feet are enough to buy my entire set of gear.

What can you do? Us poor folks have our own cost-effective ways to play...

Feeling the gossiping gazes, Xia Lin looked at Su Bai's handsome side profile. Suddenly recalling the gentle touch of his fingers running through her wet hair last night, the tips of her ears couldn't help but grow slightly warm.

This was also why she had dawdled in the hotel by herself for a while before coming; she purely needed to adjust her physical condition and calm her mind.

She really loved being with Su Bai, but it was indeed a bit too draining on her energy. A guy like Su Bai really wasn't someone an ordinary girl could handle.

In order to maintain her authority as a counselor and to shake off her shyness, Xia Lin went over to check on Xue Tao and Chu Mingzhe.

These two were students in her class, after all, and they were even the types with a high chance of failing courses who needed special attention. You could say their debuff stacks were full.

The person in charge of the event did a roll call, confirmed everyone was present, and announced their departure.

Although two buses had arrived, they were actually mainly for carrying luggage. Camping gear was plentiful and bulky, and besides, some people were driving their own cars.

There was a status game to this as well. Those who dared to drive their own cars definitely had good ones. People with ordinary luxury cars simply took the bus together. Looking around, the vehicles following the buses were all expensive off-roaders and high-end SUVs.

Not bad, very successful person vibes.

The vice president drove an AITO M9 and took Liu Yuanyuan up with him.

Xue Tao watched them go, gritting his teeth somewhat.

Damn it, if he had known, he would have brought his Cayenne!

A second-hand Cayenne was still a Cayenne. In terms of prestige, it could at least tie with an M9.

The reason he ultimately didn't choose to drive was because of his driving skills... Driving up a mountain wouldn't just be an issue of losing face; it would likely be a safety hazard.

His life was more important.

Thinking about this made Xue Tao feel even more depressed.

Huang Ran comforted him, Xue Tao, your girlfriend really has no sense of boundaries, getting into a senior's car for this kind of event.

Sigh, to tell you the truth, today I was planning to find a suitable time to have a good talk with her. This relationship exists in name only now.

Xue Tao smoothed his hair, looking sorrowful.

Huang Ran's mouth twitched. Wait, bro, you already planned to break up?

She felt this was reasonable, but she needed to carefully plan how to handle it. Otherwise, it would be easy to become the morally condemned party. If Liu Yuanyuan painted her as the other woman, it would be bad.

Meanwhile, inside the AITO M9, the senior was excitedly introducing the car's features, sounding just like a car dealership salesman.