Since they happened to run into his girlfriend at the cafeteria entrance, sharing a table was inevitable.
The goal, of course, was to flaunt their relationship.
Some say public displays of affection lead to quick breakups.
But Xue Tao didn’t think so. Wasn’t the whole point of having a girlfriend in college to bask in the envy of single guys and relish the attention?
Xue Tao shamelessly sidled up to Liu Yuanyuan, trying to hold her hand, only for her to recoil in disgust.
"Yuanyuan…"
"Stop being so handsy. We’ve only been together for a few days. Do you actually like me, or are you just trying to take advantage?"
"Of course I like you, Liu Yuanyuan! I even threw you that grand confession at Hongyun Imperial Banquet—a Michelin-starred place! Just the private room fee cost thousands, and that was only because my uncle pulled some strings for the discount. Most people can’t even get a reservation without connections. Being a local has its perks…"
Xue Tao seized every opportunity to brag.
Beside them, Chu Mingzhe wore a look of disdain.
Liu Yuanyuan maintained a polite smile while internally cursing.
Seriously, dude, who asked?
Booking a Michelin-starred room and making it about "connections"? Isn’t it just about having money?
She’d seen plenty of posts about it on Xiaohongshu and knew exactly how it worked. But to indulge Xue Tao’s ego, she smiled sweetly and said,
"Xue Tao, you know so much. I had no idea about any of this."
"Right? Haha, I’ll teach you all kinds of things you don’t know yet."
Xue Tao winked suggestively.
Meanwhile, Wang Haoran booted up Honkai: Star Rail, multitasking between queuing for food and grinding in-game—a true gamer immortal.
Chen Yusheng kept a straight face while secretly texting Su Bai.
[Rainstop: Your roommate is so annoying.]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: A little, but honestly, it’s more entertaining than annoying. Don’t you think this pair of… uh, rivals is kinda rare?]
[Rainstop: True! [DongXuelian_CallingYouRare]]
[Rainstop: Can we just ignore them and eat somewhere else together?]
[Rainstop unsent a message.]
Oops, got a little carried away… Chen Yusheng glanced around guiltily, her ears turning pink.
Eating with Su Bai right in front of his roommates would definitely spark all kinds of rumors.
Not that she’d mind…
But she was still shy about it.
So she settled for texting Su Bai under the table.
To keep Liu Yuanyuan from fawning over Su Bai, Xue Tao dragged her to the far end of the long table, away from him.
Wang Haoran, the ultimate NPC, just plopped down anywhere to eat and grind his game.
That left three: Chu Mingzhe, Su Bai, and Chen Yusheng.
Logically, Chu Mingzhe wanted to sit across from or next to Chen Yusheng, but he was too shy and ended up diagonally across instead.
So Su Bai and Chen Yusheng ended up face-to-face.
But since Chen Yusheng was too embarrassed, they resorted to typing under the table.
[CrispyWhiteGoose: [SweatingEmoji][SweatingEmoji]]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Feels like we’re secret agents or something. So abstract.]
[Rainstop: I have social anxiety.]
[Rainstop: [PeekingCat]]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Social anxiety’s normal. Geniuses usually have it. I don’t, so I’m bad at studying.]
[Rainstop: ..]
[Rainstop: That’s backwards logic.]
[Rainstop: Besides, we got into the same school. How are you ‘bad at studying’?]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Ugh, I just lucked out. You’re the real deal—already working on projects in high school. I’ll probably just coast through and graduate, while you’re destined for greatness.]
[Rainstop: Meh.]
[Rainstop: Doesn’t matter. You’re rich anyway.]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Who told you that?]
[Rainstop: You use expensive tech and drop 10K+ on gaming buddies. You’re definitely loaded.]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Fair point.]
[Rainstop: Must be nice. No need to struggle just to get by.]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: [WhiteGoose_BlankStare]]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Sounds like you’re tight on cash.]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Tell you what—if you need money, I’ll just book you for more gaming sessions.]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: League of Legends or whatever else you play.]
[Rainstop: I don’t need pity.]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Not pity! I genuinely enjoy playing with you. I’m paying for the vibes.]
[Rainstop: Oh.]
Across the table, Chen Yusheng’s expression wavered.
She stole a glance at Su Bai and was instantly disarmed by his wholesome, sunny-boy aura.
Yeah, he definitely doesn’t have ulterior motives.
And he’s seriously rich!
As a pretty girl, Chen Yusheng had met plenty of guys who flaunted wealth to impress her.
She could always see through them.
Her family called her socially clueless, but she wasn’t dumb—she was sharp.
A little logic went a long way.
Su Bai was the real deal.
He spent freely on hobbies but lived low-key, never showing off to classmates.
The kind of guy who had life figured out.
It was a bit embarrassing, but Chen Yusheng really needed the money Su Bai offered!
Without realizing it, she’d started developing a faint, inexplicable fondness for him.
Mostly because talking to Su Bai felt so easy. He already knew her side gig as a gaming buddy, and their interests aligned perfectly. She could be completely unfiltered around him.
Before Su Bai, Chen Yusheng had never had a true friend.
Not one.
As the two texted like undercover agents, Chu Mingzhe, sitting diagonally across from Chen Yusheng, fidgeted nervously, barely touching his rice plate.
Suddenly, he shot to his feet.
"Chen Yusheng!"
"?"
She looked up from her phone, puzzled.
"…Never mind."
Chu Mingzhe sat back down.
Still too scared. A whole meal’s worth of rehearsed lines wasted.
Su Bai stifled a laugh. Buddy, you’re just wrestling with the air here.
Where’s that Shanghai swagger?
[Rainstop: Su Bai, your roommates are all so weird…]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Only those two. Wang Haoran’s pretty normal.]
[Rainstop: Who’s Wang Haoran?]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: The mobile gamer.]
[Rainstop: He’s really into mobile games?]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: I let him play my account in exchange for grinding.]
[Rainstop: Oh. Your account must be stacked, huh?]
[CrispyWhiteGoose: Dropped 50K on the current banner.]
【Rainstop: So you mean next time you’ll top up another 50k?】
【Rainstop: [Cat shocked emoji]】
【Rainstop: I really don’t get you rich folks…】
Chen Yusheng gave Su Bai a meaningful glance.
After hesitating for a long time, she finally mustered the courage to send the message.
【Rainstop: To be honest, I’m really in need of money right now.】
【Rainstop: So please, don’t hold back—use me however you like!】
【Rainstop withdrew a message】
Of course, once the other person has already seen it, withdrawing a message becomes utterly pointless.
If anything, it only amplifies the embarrassment.
Chen Yusheng’s beautiful, dark eyes darted around nervously. Her elegant neck, reminiscent of a swan’s, was now flushed a deep red.
Seems like her neck is pretty sensitive. Kissing her there during… ahem… would probably work wonders.
—Su Bai’s mind inexplicably conjured up this shameless thought.
He swallowed hard, feeling his own face heat up.
Oh, dirty thoughts, you’re really dirty!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
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!
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?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
