Chapter 212

In the first half-hour before evening self-study, the classroom was brightly lit.

Jiang Nian had just received fifty thousand yuan and was as delighted as if it were the New Year.

This brief evening period, undisturbed by anyone, was perfect for using the memory fragment of Zhang Ningzhi given by the system.

Since this thing came from the system, its authenticity wasn't guaranteed.

Of course, he didn't fully believe it—he treated it entirely like watching a movie, or playing a simulation game, just to gather useful clues for himself.

After all, he was only eighteen; first, he'd never done those things, and second, his fate line had already changed, so what was the point? Might as well just enjoy the show.

Things he'd never done shouldn't be his responsibility.

Wouldn't that be bullying an honest person?

Wronged beyond measure, snow flies in June with no one to hear my plea—please, Master Qingtang, quickly take up my cause.

As soon as he stepped into court, the gavel cracked sharply, and questioning began.

"Who stands before the court?"

The reply came: "One burdened with ten thousand wrongs."

The magistrate was stunned, hastily descending from the main hall to meet him.

"You're the one with ten thousand wrongs?"

Jiang Nian smiled shyly. "I occasionally play Three Kingdoms Kill."

The magistrate sucked in a sharp breath and signaled his attendants.

"Kill him and feed him to the dogs."

This was Jiang Nian's true state of wrongful suffering—in one sentence.

Just charge ahead first.

Jiang Nian reached out and tapped the mission panel, which displayed: 【Using Zhang Ningzhi Memory Fragment.】

From his previous two experiences watching the system's memories, he knew that time in the real world didn't fully stop during viewing.

The next second, like entering a cinema, the lights instantly went out, and darkness swallowed his vision.

Before the image appeared, sound surged in from all directions like a tide.

"Who are you chatting with?"

"Just look for yourself."

A faint light appeared; the two seemed to be by the roadside.

The viewpoint shook slightly, then stabilized as "I" held out the phone toward her.

Zhang Ningzhi wore a white dress and tilted her head up slightly.

"No, I won't look."

Judging by appearance alone, she appeared to be under twenty-eight years old.

At this point, they hadn't broken up; the scene suggested they were in the heat of romance.

The girl's youthful innocence had faded; she had fully matured. Her figure was slender and balanced, with curves in all the right places—a true beauty.

"Alright, then don't look."

The viewpoint shifted slightly; he saw Zhang Ningzhi sneak a furtive glance at his phone.

Her eyes, like purple grapes, round and wide, were adorably sneaky.

Jiang Nian couldn't help but sigh, and used the front camera to snap a photo of her spying right then and there.

When he showed it to her, Zhang Ningzhi gasped.

"Ah! Delete it!"

The scene shifted; now they were inside a room.

Faint coughing could be heard—likely from illness.

Soon after, a phone call came in.

The footage accelerated; the sounds grew noisy, and about an hour passed within the scene.

Zhang Ningzhi arrived, carrying her cute crossbody bag.

The dialogue was unclear.

She bent down, pressed her forehead to check her temperature, then rolled up her sleeves and went to the kitchen to cook porridge.

After giving herself medicine, she sat beside the bed chatting.

Slowly, the first-person perspective shifted to third-person.

For the first time, Jiang Nian saw himself in the system's memory fragment—a familiar face, bearded and gaunt, the room filled with printouts.

"Himself" fell asleep, and Zhang Ningzhi grew quiet.

She propped her chin on her hand, sitting on the chair beside the bed, silently staring at his face for a long time.

After some time, she slowly rose, tidied the room, and quietly went downstairs to hail a taxi home.

The footage accelerated again—gaming, playing, watching movies—the images were blurry, like a damaged, incomplete video with no substantial content.

Then darkness fell again, followed by sudden brightness.

It was late at night, outside a luxury residential complex; looking up, lights shimmered faintly.

A figure appeared at the complex gate, approaching—it was Zhang Ningzhi.

Her eyes were red, as if she'd just been scolded by her parents; her face was streaked with tears, head bowed low, utterly forlorn, eyelids swollen from crying.

When asked, she shook her head and stubbornly replied.

"I cried like this on purpose—this European-style inner double eyelid look is trendy right now, looks great in photos."

Then the two really did take many photos outside the empty complex, and Zhang Ningzhi picked out the prettiest one to ask him.

"Who's prettier—me, or your college girlfriend?"

Jiang Nian could barely hold it together—this one sentence packed more information than replaying those two scenes hundreds of times. Holy shit, so the guy even had a girlfriend in college?

The scene didn't pause; he let out two dry laughs on his own.

"You're good-looking."

"Hmph, that's more like it." Zhang Ningzhi's happiness was visibly blooming.

She ran off to a distant streetlamp and snapped a couple of photos, seemingly to prove that she really did love her swollen, puffy inner eyelids that looked like a little deer's eyes.

She angled herself under the streetlamp, snapping away, then bounced and skipped back. Zhang Ningzhi tilted her head up to look at him, eyes wide and eager, and asked.

"Jiang Nian, let's take a photo together, okay? We've been together this long and never even properly taken a couple's photo…"

The scene came to an abrupt halt, the viewpoint drifting away bit by bit like a candle flame in the wind.

Drifting farther and farther, until completely swallowed by darkness, white light slowly blooming.

Jiang Nian opened his eyes—he was still in the classroom.

He glanced at the watch tucked in Li Hua's desk, and only one minute had passed. After watching so many memories, his heart had already gone as cold as the old popsicles from the school shop.

Honestly, he didn't feel much.

Apart from sighing that Baby Zhizhi was truly adorable, the biggest shock was undoubtedly—his bro had a girlfriend in college too? Wait, no, why didn't the earlier missions mention this at all?

But it didn't matter, it was just a simulation anyway.

He didn't understand why the system said he had a girlfriend in college, and so he did.

As if the system had custom-designed his life, destined to be frustrated and down-and-out.

The choice was in his own hands—closing his eyes and he'd still get into a first-tier university.

Who the hell would miserably date while stuck at a second-tier school? Once he got into a good university, he'd take off.

One month ago, he set out from the parallel class and began his sprint to move up.

The once-unreachable Olympiad threw him an olive branch, and he breezed through.

That vibrant, all-things-competing state of being was still fresh before his eyes.

No matter how you put it, he already had close to three hundred thousand yuan in his pocket—the advantage was his.

Ten minutes before evening self-study, Zhang Ningzhi arrived, fashionably late.

The moment she entered the classroom, she spotted a few chocolates sitting on her seat.

Her apple cheeks lifted involuntarily; even though she'd known in advance, seeing them still brought a little thrill.

"For me?"

"Yeah, unless it's for Li Hua?" Jiang Nian shot her a glance.

"The group leader can eat dirt for all I care—he bet someone last time he could eat a whole jin of dirt." Zhang Ningzhi roasted him mercilessly, already used to attacking Li Hua.

Or rather, in the Sixth Group, attacking Li Hua was politically correct.

There were simply too many angles to attack him; Zhang Ningzhi was just blending in.

"Chishi chishi!!" Li Hua clutched his head, face full of disbelief. "Fine, fine, fine, so this is how you treat me? I'm going to the windowsill to do a standing long jump right now."

Jiang Nian was used to it, grinning all over his face.

"Hua, why don't you ask if there's any for you?"

Hearing that, Li Hua turned his head hopefully and asked.

"Is there?"

"Nope."

"Tsk tsk tsk, can't take a joke at all, can you, baby?" Jiang Nian laughed, pretending to dig into his pocket. "Why don't you ask if I'm lying to you?"

"So are you lying to me?"

"Not lying." Jiang Nian pulled out his phone from his pocket.

"Ahhh!!! Chishi chishi!" Li Hua couldn't take this inhuman persecution anymore, clutched his head and fled, grabbing his books to swap seats with Yao Bei Bei.

The moment Yao Bei Bei arrived, she didn't sit down.

"Switch with me, I want to sit with Zhizhi."

Jiang Nian was a bit speechless, but still got up and switched seats. Sitting in Li Hua's spot, he was close to the aisle and also infinitely close to the big fatty Ma Guojun.

Evening reading began, Ma Guojun turned his head and glanced at him, unable to hold back a laugh.

"Li Hua switched seats again?"

"Yeah, probably busted his ass and ran to the back because he couldn't face people." Jiang Nian smeared Li Hua without restraint. "Look at that dead-fish act of his, hanging out with Nantong every day."

Ma Guojun laughed too, pushing up his glasses.

Evening reading began.

This seat's only upside was being close to the aisle for easy in-and-out; the downside was that the straight-line distance to Dong Wensong had shrunk, so during evening reading he could hear Grand Tutor Dong's imperial broadcasts.

"Masaka (what?), you guys haven't even bought any goodsu (merch)? Then what's the point of calling yourselves otaku? At most you're just anime fans."

As phrases like "honto ni" and "nani kore" came drifting over, Jiang Nian fell silent.

Damn, a blessing earned over a thousand lifetimes.

He turned to look at Ma Guojun—the big fatty's mouth was twitching rapidly. Completely unfazed by Grand Tutor Dong's imperial broadcast, clearly a seasoned veteran mama-hunter.

Evening reading ended, and Grand Tutor Dong had met a desk-mate who could play off his lines.

"I actually really loathe some yama (bootleg stuff), it really makes one—"

Yu Zhiyi was reviewing the last mock exam's score sheet, habitually stalking the familiar faces around her.

She suddenly noticed something bizarre—Jiang Nian's English scores were terrifyingly stable, like they'd set up permanent residence in the 140 range.

She wanted to study Jiang Nian's score-boosting method for English, and before evening self-study she'd even gone to the academic affairs office to look up his previous English scores.

She discovered that after Jiang Nian suddenly jumped to the 140s before switching classes, he'd never dropped back down.

She also asked the English class rep, and found out this guy hadn't done his English homework in a month.

In a score of 140, not a single drop of sweat—it's all pure talent cutting straight through to success.

That's absolutely ridiculous.

Thinking this way, Yu Zhiyi suddenly felt the pressure piling up. She had gotten exactly 0 experience out of Jiang Nian, and was feeling irritated, when suddenly she heard the snorting, oinking sounds of a pig coming from the front of the second group.

Along with words like "Wadaxi" and the like—huh? I'm the one who shipped it.

Yu Zhiyi glanced toward the front of the classroom, thinking to herself that Dong Wensong was spreading pig plague again. Normally she'd just put up with it, but today she was so irritated she could explode.

Thinking of this, she nudged Yang Qiming in front of her.

"Ming-ge, up ahead."

Yang Qiming had been pretty down lately, but unless a man is practically on his deathbed, he still has no resistance to a generous gift—he took a deep breath and said it straight out.

"Fake-ass soldier, get out of Class 3—hey, what the hell are you doing!"

(End of chapter)