Chapter 6: Women Only Slow Down the Speed of Drawing the Sword

Tan Lei is quite talkative nowadays; perhaps because Cao Sheng was her high school classmate and is now a university peer, she treats him with great closeness. Although they never spoke during high school, meeting by chance at the train station today, she chats with him as if he were an old friend.

She first asks Cao Sheng how his New Year went and whether he had a reunion with high school classmates.

Cao Sheng shook his head and said no.

She then enthusiastically talked about this New Year, mentioning a gathering she had with two female high school classmates, where they ate hot pot, and discussed the current situations of certain classmates.

They chatted until the staff at the train station ticket window began their shift.

Seeing other passengers in the waiting hall rush forward to buy tickets, she and Cao Sheng went to queue together.

While queuing, she deliberately stood in front of Cao Sheng.

Standing behind her, Cao Sheng looked at her Bai Xi neck and the fine hairs on her neck at close range, and his mind inevitably began to wander.

A thought flashed through his mind: Should I try to pursue her?

This thought flashed through his mind for just an instant before he suppressed it.

It wasn't that he had no interest in Tan Lei.

To be honest, he was interested in every beauty.

But the current him wanted to focus on his career and making money.

He had long passed the stage where his mind was full of women.

He knew clearly that as long as one had money, one would have a connection with anyone; without money, even if one were together now, it would be hard to hold on.

Therefore, at present, anyone or anything that would affect his sword-drawing speed, he would stay away from.

It was also for this reason that, even though he had some thoughts about Tan Lei in his heart, he did not want to take any action for the time being.

He only wanted to publish his recently written new book online as soon as possible, then find a way to make some money to improve his life.

It was just...

Tan Lei was really enthusiastic.

She stood in front of Cao Sheng in the queue; when it was her turn to buy a ticket, she actually turned back to ask Cao Sheng for his student ID, saying she wanted to buy a ticket for him as well.

And buying a ticket with a student ID allows for half price.

Cao Sheng did not think much of it, took out his student ID and twenty yuan, and handed them to her, thinking she just wanted to help him handle the ticket-buying procedure.

Unexpectedly, she smiled, took only his student ID, and did not accept the money he handed over.

She wants to pay for my ticket?

Cao Sheng was very surprised.

But he did not struggle with her, nor did he rush to pay.

He waited until she finished buying the ticket, saw the two train tickets she held in her hand, then left the queue with her and returned to sit in their previous seats.

"I will pay for my own ticket!"

Cao Sheng handed the twenty yuan bill in his hand back to her.

Although he had had the thought of living off a soft rice diet on the way to the county town today, Tan Lei did not look like a particularly wealthy second-generation rich kid, and most importantly, he still had psychological barriers against living off a soft rice diet.

"No need! I'm treating you!"

Tan Lei looked at the money in his hand with an amused expression, raised her hand to push his hand back, and casually handed him a train ticket. "If you feel embarrassed, then wait until we arrive at school, and you treat me to a meal! Come to think of it, we have been classmates for so long, yet we haven't even eaten a meal together until now! How about today?"

Cao Sheng looked at her smiling eyes, unable to tell if she was using this method to ask him out for a meal.

But what she said did make sense; they were high school classmates and university peers, yet they had never eaten a meal alone together until now, which was somewhat hard to justify.

He nodded. "Good! This is my honor."

Tan Lei smiled gracefully.

The two chatted for a while longer, and the train they were waiting for rumbled into the station.

They immediately stood up and went forward to queue for ticket inspection.

This was a green-painted train.

The kind that stops at every small station along the route.

Its normal operating speed was not fast either.

Riding this kind of train is exhausting; although the distance is only a little over one hundred kilometers, it forces you to sit for four or five hours, and sometimes it is even delayed.

After boarding, Tan Lei unceremoniously asked Cao Sheng to help her lift her suitcase onto the luggage rack.

After taking their seats, she enthusiastically offered Cao Sheng melon seeds and peanuts.

Their seats were adjacent; she sat by the window, Cao Sheng sat beside her, and next to Cao Sheng was a middle-aged man.

Three people squeezed together; there was no way to sit with even a little distance between them.

Cao Sheng's hip bone was pressed against Tan Lei's hip bone; he could even feel the shape of her hip bone, yet Tan Lei did not mind and continued to chat and laugh with him.

She looked as if she were in a very good mood.

But even the most topics eventually run out; after an hour or two, the carriage gradually quieted down, and many people leaned against their seats with eyes closed, dozing off to rest.

Tan Lei was the same.

Cao Sheng squinted at the slowly passing scenery outside the window, feeling some emotions; he had not ridden this kind of green-painted train for over twenty years.

He had not ridden the train on this route since graduating from university.

The scenery along the route that he had once grown tired of, seeing it again today, felt so familiar.

"What are you thinking about?"

A soft question from Tan Lei suddenly came from beside him.

Cao Sheng came to his senses, turned his face slightly to look at her, and only then realized that she, who had been resting with her eyes closed, had opened them at some point and was now looking at him curiously.

He smiled slightly and answered in a low voice, "Nothing, just zoning out."

Tan Lei smiled.

She blinked, tilted her body slightly toward Cao Sheng, leaned her mouth close to his ear, and asked in a low voice, "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

Cao Sheng let out a helpless chuckle.

He thought: Since you asked like that, how could I possibly say no?

"What?" he asked.

Tan Lei: "Hmm, among so many girls in our class back then, who was your favorite?"

Hearing this question, a sweet smiling face involuntarily flashed through Cao Sheng's mind.

It was a girl he had secretly loved during his high school years.

But how could he possibly tell Tan Lei a secret buried deep in his heart?

So, looking at Tan Lei with a smile in his eyes, he whispered in return: "Guess?"

Tan Lei held his gaze for several seconds, shook her head, straightened her posture, and sighed softly: "I can't guess! But it seems it definitely wasn't me, sigh! Do you know? Several girls in our dormitory discussed you privately before."

Cao Sheng: "Discussed what about me?"

Tan Lei looked at him and remarked: "You're handsome! As far as I know, several girls in our class liked you back then; didn't you know?"

Cao Sheng: "..."

Cao Sheng did not answer this question; he just smiled faintly.

Actually, he knew.

Back when he was in high school, someone had slipped a love letter into his Chinese textbook, and he had accidentally noticed several girls secretly looking at him from time to time.

This was also the reason why, when he first traveled back a few years ago and looked at his own face in the mirror, he sighed in his heart that it was a look capable of making Misses chase after him.

Starting from middle school, he had received more than one love letter.

But time is a pig-slaying knife; in the original timeline, when his youth was gone, even when he actively pursued women, his success rate was not high.

And this was also one of the main reasons he did not want to date for now, but only wanted to build his career and make money.

The truth was, he had long understood that youth and handsomeness would vanish in the blink of an eye; if he could not get his career on its feet before his youth and handsomeness disappeared, his life would still repeat the same mistakes.