Chapter 26: One Day, the Dragon Finds the Water

Xu Heng finally realized what was going on.

So Ying Ziyun had overheard his phone conversation with Liu Yiyan; no wonder the girl's mood had been swinging up and down like a roller coaster today.

"That is my younger sister."

It wasn't convenient to explain Liu Yiyan's identity, so Xu Heng pulled out the "younger sister" card as a shield.

"It's my first time seeing someone call their husband's younger sister that." Ying Ziyun didn't look back, keeping her ponytail facing Xu Heng, her voice muffled.

Good grief, you even heard the content of my chat with Liu Yiyan!

Xu Heng's mouth twitched, and he laughed: "You heard wrong. She said 'older brother' in the Tong City dialect. As a Tong City native, can you not even understand that?"

This explanation was too far-fetched; not even a ghost would believe it.

However, Xu Heng's performance at least proved that he still had her in his heart, which made Ying Ziyun feel much better, though her tongue remained stubborn.

"You already have a girlfriend, so why are you still bothering with me?"

Xu Heng gazed at Ying Ziyun's thin yet beautiful back.

From a certain perspective, this girl had occupied the most important four years of his life. Later, when he willingly lived a mediocre, self-abandoning life for the rest of his days, it was more or less influenced by Ying Ziyun's departure.

Over a decade of dust had piled up on the memories of the past in his mind, making Xu Heng think he had forgotten Ying Ziyun, but after his rebirth, they were wiped clean bit by bit.

Even though he was no longer that Xu Heng, he couldn't say he had completely let go.

He said slowly: "We went to the same high school, came from the same small city, and were boyfriend and girlfriend for a year. I even know how many moles you have on your body; shouldn't I be concerned about you?"

"You... you..."

Ying Ziyun didn't understand the meaning behind his words at first, but she reacted quickly.

But how could he say something about them having had that kind of relationship in public!

"Xu Heng, you scoundrel!"

Girls with good literary cultivation are so gentle even when scolding others. Xu Heng scratched his ear, unfazed, and followed closely behind Ying Ziyun's pace.

Then, the two didn't speak again along the way, maintaining silence.

Xu Heng walked her to the entrance of the women's dormitory building and watched her leave before picking up his phone to report his safety to his parents.

Zhao Gaoyang had spent his entire summer vacation feeling fulfilled.

After carpooling home last time, Fan Xi's attitude toward him had improved significantly.

For example, previously when he asked Fan Xi on QQ, "Are you there?" or "Are you busy?", Fan Xi would only reply instantly with "Yes" or "Busy."

Zhao Gaoyang knew this was actually a polite refusal.

But now it was different; sometimes when he sent a message, Fan Xi would only reply after a while.

"Just taking a shower, didn't see it. What's up?"

"Nothing much, just that a new cinema opened in the county seat recently. Want to go see a movie together tomorrow? 【Grin】【Grin】"

"Oh, forget it. Movies are too expensive; I won't go. I'll save you some money."

Hearing this, Zhao Gaoyang was almost moved to tears.

What a good girl; to help him save money, she wouldn't even go see a movie.

At that moment, Zhao Gaoyang had already picked out names for their future children.

"Don't worry, it's just a little money. I earned over a thousand 【Money】 tutoring people this summer."

Fan Xi didn't reply afterward, and Zhao Gaoyang felt that she was likely also too moved by him to speak.

After all, how many girls wouldn't be moved by someone working a part-time job over the summer just to spend money on them? Zhao Gaoyang fantasized to himself.

Speaking of earning money, he had recently become obsessed with a book called *Rebirth: The Peerless Male God*. In it, the protagonist builds a massive harem, and various tricks for showing off, slapping faces, and picking up girls appear one after another, which he found incredibly beneficial.

But the protagonist in *The Peerless Male God* said that only those with money are the bosses.

Because of this, Zhao Gaoyang understood the principle that one cannot pick up girls without capital, and he started looking for ways to make money.

During the summer, he tried moving bricks and doing farm work for others, but he couldn't keep it up.

Doing manual labor in the heat was too bitter, so in the end, a relative introduced him to a family in the county seat to work as a tutor.

Twenty yuan an hour, two hours a day, four times a week; he could earn over six hundred yuan a month.

You have to know, his monthly college living expenses were only four hundred yuan, so over six hundred yuan was an astronomical figure to him.

Once he had money, he wanted to live it up, and naturally, dating Fan Xi was the top priority.

It was a pity that every time he invited Fan Xi out, she refused. The first two times were fine—she said she had things to do at home or was going to a friend's house—but later, she just stopped replying.

Zhao Gaoyang felt a spark of joy.

Damn, isn't this exactly what was taught in *The Peerless Male God*!

Girls not wanting to go out alone with the male lead is just due to shyness. This kind of thing is easy to solve: just call a few brothers and their girlfriends. Once there are many people, the girl can't refuse.

Zhao Gaoyang treated *The Peerless Male God* entirely as a Guide to Picking Up Girls. Whenever he chatted with Fan Xi, he would look for the corresponding way the heroine spoke and her expressions in the book to deduce Fan Xi's mood.

This time, he drew inspiration from the performance of the "poor school beauty Fang Xiaoyu" in *The Peerless Male God*, inferring that Fan Xi was too shy to be alone with him, so he began to plan how to call more brothers to act as his wingmen.

However, this kind of thing was quite troublesome. He didn't have many friends in high school, and after entering college, his relationship with his classmates was just so-so. The ones he could hang out with were just his three roommates and two CS enthusiasts from the computer department downstairs.

This meant that if he wanted to ask Fan Xi out, he would have to wait until after returning to school.

But then he thought, good things take time, and waiting a bit might better reflect his sincerity. Thus, he returned to school a few days early, contacted Cheng Huaiyu and Sheng Bo who hadn't returned yet, and then had Cheng Huaiyu contact his girlfriend, telling her to call a few more girls from her dorm for a mixer, boasting that he, Young Master Zhao, would pay for the entire bill.

Cheng Huaiyu was greatly shocked upon hearing this, exclaiming and asking if the kid had struck it rich, being so generous.

Their dorm knew exactly what Zhao Gaoyang's family background was: a rural family from a small county in southern Henan Province, the kind of impoverished student who wouldn't even use his own shampoo.

Today he was actually willing to treat a whole bunch of them to a meal? It was simply like the Ultraman theme song—a miracle reappearing.

Zhao Gaoyang sneered and said, "That's right, buddy, I've got big money in my hands now, so of course I have to treat my brothers to a good meal."

He enjoyed the feeling of being praised and flattered by a rich guy from Modu like Cheng Huaiyu, and his words became arrogant. Mimicking the way the protagonist in *The Peerless Male God* spoke, he bluntly said they would pick a high-star hotel in Jinling, and he wouldn't bother with anything less.

Cheng Huaiyu said fine, he would arrange the girls for his brother; the girls in Yueyue's dorm were all top-tier beauties, and he could pick whichever one he liked when the time came.

As for Sheng Bo, he agreed as soon as he heard there was a free meal to be had.

Having settled this group, Zhao Gaoyang finally remembered the only acquaintance in his QQ friends list he hadn't contacted: Xu Heng.

To be honest, he had wanted to invite Xu Heng, as Xu Heng was the mentor who had corrected his misguided approach to dating (or so he believed).

But on the other hand, the relationship between Xu Heng and Fan Xi at the end of last semester did look somewhat ambiguous, and he was afraid that inviting Xu Heng would steal his thunder.

Just as he was hesitating, *Peerless Male God* updated with today's ten chapters.

The protagonist's small company is being suppressed by the company of the "wealthy school beauty Zhang Manyin," one of the female leads, whose family wants to force him to leave their daughter and then offer her as a "commodity" to the second young master of the Lin Family, one of the Four Great Families.

The ancient and mysterious Lin Family makes its debut, revealing the tip of the iceberg as they send corporate spies to steal the protagonist's company's proprietary technology, making the protagonist's company's situation even worse.

Just when the company's general manager, a busty and mature female lead, is about to give up, the protagonist strikes back in a rage; as funds from a foreign conglomerate pour into the small company, he exposes the ugly character of the Lin Family's second young master and the criminal history of the Zhang family's early days in the underworld.

When the protagonist crushes the Zhang family and stands beneath the Lin Group's headquarters building, pointing at the nose of the Lin Family's second young master and declaring the domineering line, "One day when the dragon gets water, I will make the Yangtze River flow backward," it also signals that the plot has officially entered the Four Great Families arc.

Too awesome.

After finishing the latest chapters of *Peerless Male God*, Zhao Gaoyang's adrenaline surged wildly; his face flushed red, and he sent the message he had already edited in the chat box directly to Xu Heng.

"You there?"