Chapter 140: Let's See Where You're Going First

Jiang Nian existed entirely as a free agent, turned and looked.

Sure enough, a cute little girl was lying on the desk. Cheeks fair and tender, big eyes glistening, hair tied into a little bun.

Ha, so this is what Baby Zhizhi used to look like?

The little girl shook her head, lips pouting.

"I'm not happy. I can't figure out the math problems."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian walked over curiously, leaned in for a look. He immediately pointed and began to mock.

"Haha, you don't even know this?"

The scene shifted—seemed to be a classroom.

Jiang Nian stood in the classroom aisle, flanked by rows of tiny primary schoolers. A fresh-out-of-college woman was writing on the blackboard, drawing out her tone.

"Peanuts fruit underground, fall to the ground, so it's called 'Fallen Peanuts.'"

Oh, the scene has changed.

Primary school Chinese—let me see if Baby Zhizhi previewed the lesson.

Jiang Nian leaned over and saw Zhang Ningzhi's textbook covered in dense notes. Not only were the paragraphs marked, but pinyin was written for every character she didn't recognize.

What are the double vertical lines after the paragraph for? It's been too long since I was in fifth grade.

"Hehe, she even—" Jiang Nian saw her writing word compounds: admire, look up to. He was about to mock her hard, then suddenly realized he couldn't come up with any others either.

Silence. A little defensive crack.

I'm a gaokao candidate!

The scene didn't last long before changing again—the dwell time seemed to be slowly increasing. The jumps were quite abrupt too, and limited to studying.

The thin mist cleared, revealing a desk.

Jiang Nian looked along Zhang Ningzhi's line of sight. On the desk was a love letter.

A cosmic star envelope—the classic love letter skin. BYD middle schoolers won't even spring for a pricier one. If it were me, I'd definitely buy a literary-style envelope.

He was curious what Baby Zhi would do, but saw her open it.

Hmm? The love letter had no name on it.

【If you agree, after school under the big tree on the playground.】

The middle school version of Zhang Ningzhi frowned slightly, lay on the desk with her pen, tracing the handwriting. She wrote a certain someone's name at the top of the envelope—clearly knowing who had slipped her the letter.

Then, with tape, she carefully altered her own name into another woman's name.

Finally, she stood up, carefully took the envelope and tucked it into the math lecture notes on the podium.

After a while, a fairly good-looking female teacher walked in. She flipped open the lecture notes, her expression stiffening for a moment, then her face darkened.

Jiang Nian broke into a sweat. Baby Zhizhi really is a little clever-clogs.

The scene shifted—on to high school.

This time the dwell was longer. Jiang Nian started off standing and watching Zhang Ningzhi solve problems. She worked through several big questions, yet time didn't flow.

So he simply found a stool and sat down, at first staring at her face.

After watching for a while he got a bit bored, then looked around—nothing but white mist.

Since this was system-disclosed memory, probably to save bandwidth, there wasn't much to see.

Within his field of vision, only Zhang Ningzhi sat at the desk doing problems. Tirelessly solving questions, occasionally making cute little gestures.

After waiting another stretch, the scene still hadn't changed.

With nothing to do, Jiang Nian could only join Zhang Ningzhi's problem-solving. English—done in a second. Biology—didn't bother. Math, though—he had to work at it properly.

Jiang Nian never thought the day would come when he'd be this bored, doing math problems in a dream.

Perhaps thanks to his recent grind of practice problems, several questions that had Zhang Ningzhi frowning—he actually figured out the approach first, then watched her check the answers.

"This should be first-year-of-high-school Baby Zhizhi, right?"

As the problems got harder, Jiang Nian's old affliction was acting up. He rubbed his head.

"Gao Er, definitely Gao Er!"

He waited and waited, but just couldn't wake up.

Jiang Nian reasonably suspected the English class had already ended? He'd been sleeping at his desk—did Qian Bao have zero reaction? Or had class not started yet?

With nothing to do, he went back to watching Zhang Ningzhi solve problems.

He didn't know how long passed before the white mist around him began to thicken. Jiang Nian glanced over, stood up and dusted his hands—he knew this blasted dream was about to end.

Damn, they said it was to view Zhang Ningzhi's memories.

Trapping me here doing problems!

Thought I'd get to see some bathing scenes—nope, just 16+ math, biology, and chemistry problems. What the hell, no wonder the system is so generous giving fifty thousand yuan.

Understand a female high schooler through doing problems, right!

He woke up slowly, Jiang Nian groggy, and the first thing he said looking up was, "Has class started?"

"Not yet."

"Good, false alarm."

"You slept through a whole class—what false alarm?!" Li Hua stared at him. "I suspect you're Qian Bao's love child. How does she not manage you at all!"

"First period's already done?" Jiang Nian let out an "ah."

"Yeah, you just slept through a whole class." Zhang Ningzhi had just lifted her head from the desk, her brief rest over. "The English teacher kept hovering around us."

"Then why didn't you wake me?" Jiang Nian rubbed his temple, thinking he really had to be more careful next time.

What if there was another memory reward like this, and he went home to sleep? If he slept halfway through and someone found him, shook him and he couldn't wake—what a scare that'd be.

"I don't know, like she didn't see you." Zhang Ningzhi shook her head.

"Is it a relative connection!" Li Hua started getting jealous again. "Not fair—she lectures me like a grandson, but with you it's like a love child!"

Ma Guojun had been eavesdropping all along and couldn't help laughing across the aisle.

"Hehehe, Li Hua, then you're Jiang Nian's son!"

"Get lost! Get lost! Get lost!"

The bell rang, and Jiang Nian rubbed his temples.

He'd slept through an entire class, yet still felt utterly exhausted. Thinking about the math class at noon, he weighed his options carefully and used one Immunity to Fatigue, finally regaining his energy.

During math class, he felt his thinking seemed a bit clearer.

After noon dismissal, Huang Cailang quietly followed Lin Dong through the stream of boarding students heading back to their dorms and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Dongge."

"Cailang?" Lin Dong turned around, smiling. "Steamed bun? What's up?"

He was in a good mood today—after switching dorms, he felt refreshed. He'd mostly figured out that Yang Qiming's behavior on the rooftop that night might've just been a misunderstanding.

But he'd already switched. It wasn't that his previous roommate was bad—it was just that his new one was better behaved.

Before the switch, his only concern had been Wu Jun Gu, who'd just transferred to boarding. He'd had some tension with Wu over Yu Zhiyi, but now that he'd switched, it was truly refreshing.

He could get firsthand gossip about cuckolds, firsthand breakup news. Every time he saw Wu Jun Gu's gloomy face, Lin Dong's spirits soared.

Next, Lin Dong planned to use a fake account he bought to Gou Gou Da Yu Zhiyi. He couldn't land her in real life—surely he could online?

The Hall of Heroes of Online Love would finally welcome its greatest monument.

Huang Cailang caught up with Lin Dong and licked his lips.

"There's something I want to ask."

Lin Dong noticed his subtle gesture and shifted his eyes.

"What is it? Tell me first."

"It's about Yang Qiming. I just want to know…" Huang Cailang hesitated, mumbling for a long while before finally saying, "Why does he keep buying you food?"

At this, Lin Dong's expression visibly stiffened.

He thought: You really know how to talk.

Picking the worst possible moment.

But now that he'd switched dorms, he had no worries left—and his mindset had changed. He only froze for a second, then calmly explained:

"Nothing much. Recently, Qiming's cousin's girlfriend broke up with him. He's trying to win her back, so he keeps buying her breakfast and late-night snacks, but—"

"She won't take them?" Huang Cailang played along.

"Right. So Qiming's cousin gives them to me." Lin Dong tried to keep his voice steady, then realized something, "Cailang, are you thinking—"

Huang Cailang felt embarrassed and scratched his head.

"Bro, those dumplings that night were delicious."

Hearing this, Lin Dong nearly vomited.

In the end, it was all Jiang Nian's fault for sending those messages. If he hadn't switched dorms fast enough, his whole life would've been ruined by that guy—he was just too damn cruel.

"That's not very nice. He's heartbroken, and you're just taking advantage?"

Hearing this, Huang Cailang quickly grabbed Lin Dong's hand, but Lin Dong gently shook it off.

"Bro, I'll treat you to lunch today."

In the past, Lin Dong would've refused. He had principles, and his family wasn't short on money—he had no need for such petty schemes.

But now, because of Yang Qiming's strange behavior, he'd switched dorms, moved back and forth until he was exhausted.

Yang Qiming was pitiable, sure—but didn't he bear some blame himself?

Lin Dong secretly figured Yang Qiming's puppy-like behavior wouldn't last long. He might as well give him a small taste of revenge—he was a rich puppy, after all.

Thinking this, Lin Dong stopped in the crowd and cleared his throat.

"Cailang, look at my Hukou—doesn't it look like it could grip a bottle of Pepsi?"

At noon, leaves rustled.

Chen Yunyun lay on the afternoon-sunlit corridor, her head propped on her arms, chatting with Jiang Nian.

"Jiang Nian, besides Zhennan, where else have you been?"

"Does going abroad count?"

"Really?" Chen Yunyun instantly perked up. "I've always wanted to travel abroad. Where did you go? Japan or Korea?"

Jiang Nian looked at her for two seconds, then couldn't help laughing.

"Mondstadt."

Mondstadt was one of the seven nations in a two-word game.

"Die!" Chen Yunyun blushed and slapped him. "I'm serious! Where else have you been? I've always wanted to leave Zhennan and see the outside world."

"Just get into a good college then. With your grades—you can go anywhere." Jiang Nian glanced at her; she'd already outperformed ninety-nine percent of Zhennan.

A rich girl from a small town, over six hundred points—put in a little more effort and she'd fly away. If lucky enough, she might even settle down and marry in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou.

Zhennan, a small county town, couldn't hold onto people—at least not someone like Chen Yunyun.

"Go to college? I don't even know where to apply. If only my score were higher…" Chen Yunyun lowered her voice, feigning casualness. "Where do you want to go to college?"

"Me?" Jiang Nian frowned.

Given his current grades and the two hundred thousand in his bank account, where to go no longer seemed a question—as long as he had enough money.

Just head for the big city—it didn't matter where.

"I can't even remember how many cities China has. I'll decide when it's time to apply—first, let's see where you're going."

Classic. First check what your classmates are picking.