Chapter 267: The Human Heart Is Too Cold, I my lord

Li Lanying sat on a high stool at the bar-style kitchen, drinking, her foot arch curved, swaying back and forth.

"I have a job too, I'm just back to rest for a while."

"Got suspended for sexual harassment?" Li Qingrong's tone was flat, each sentence piercing precisely at her sister's major artery.

"Not at all, I'm an elegant woman." Li Lanying sipped her drink, then couldn't help adding, "In the past, I really wouldn't have dared come back."

Li Qingrong turned to look at her, and the room fell silent.

Long silence.

Li Lanying broke the silence again, smiling.

"You're waiting for news, aren't you?"

"No."

"Oh~, I see." Li Lanying grinned.

Li Qingrong returned to her room, sat in front of the computer, and played a game—a simulation about building a camp. The graphics were excellent, the effects lifelike.

If the class knew their monitor played games, how many jaws would drop.

Similar to Minecraft, you start with one axe.

After playing a while, in-game time became night. The camp glowed with a bonfire, crickets chirped all around, before her lay darkness and forest.

Li Qingrong stared at the bonfire on screen, slightly lost in thought.

Ding dong.

Her phone buzzed with a WeChat notification; she turned to look at it, quietly resting on the desk. After waiting a few seconds, she reached out and lit up the screen.

Li Lanying: "Come out and play with me. (Wink)"

Seeing it, Li Qingrong lowered her eyes for several seconds, slid her finger across the screen a few times, blocked and then deleted Li Lanying.

A groundhog's scream came from outside the door, but she didn't care.

She just kept opening and closing WeChat repeatedly, not sure what she was looking for.

Jiang Nian woke again at five p. m., his body limp as a pile of mud.

The healing skill can replace one sleep, forcibly cooling fatigue—but it doesn't give the pleasure of waking up, so he still slept when idle.

After all, living is for pleasure, because others live that way too.

Since it was Sunday, no dinner was served at five.

Jiang Nian weighed the pros and cons, then went outside to eat, wiped his mouth, and rushed to the classroom.

He hadn't done a single assignment, still waiting to copy.

On the way, he replied to messages from Zhang Ningzhi and Chen Yunyun with a unified response.

"Slept all afternoon."

He reached the fourth floor, entered the classroom, checked the time: five fifty.

Only twenty minutes until evening self-study, and more than half the class had already arrived.

Under the bright lights, it was as noisy as a marketplace.

Two boys entered through the back door and paused instinctively.

"Holy shit, where the hell did you two go?"

As everyone knew, the back row had always been the guys' usual hangout.

The Alu Ba spot was spacious enough to fit three or four people gathering.

Sometimes boys liked chatting more than girls.

Besides Jiaodale, even because of some boring remark, they'd spend half an hour arguing "your wife, your wife," turning into a parrot.

Not to mention Li Hua, the social butterfly, sitting in the back row.

"Nothing much, studied a bit at the internet cafe." Li Hua climbed up from his desk, yawned, "Watched four hours of online lectures, so tired."

"Bullshit, you actually dare say that?" The other boy couldn't hold back, "You went to an internet cafe to watch online lectures? You think you're fooling ghosts?"

"I told you and you don't believe me—I really studied at the internet cafe." Li Hua, as usual, spun his tale with the two boys, punctuated by bursts of laughter.

Boys loved guys who could casually and seriously bullshit anywhere, with convincing abstract acting.

As they chatted, time slipped away.

Zhang Ningzhi wore a windproof jacket; the night air had grown chilly.

She sat by the back door, writing her homework. Occasionally she glanced at Jiang Nian copying beside her, then suddenly blurted out:

"I'm going to report you for copying homework."

Jiang Nian froze at the words.

"I'm copying your homework—why would you report me?"

"Oh." Zhang Ningzhi realized the tactic wouldn't work, and felt defeated.

Then a hand reached over from the next seat.

"Give me a sip."

Zhang Ningzhi, having just lost the upper hand, didn't want to give, so she refused outright.

"No."

"Then I'll turn myself in with your homework as a witness." Jiang Nian wore an expression of total confidence, extending his hand further.

"Hand it over—you don't want to get reported, do you?"

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi froze for a moment, then exploded with rage.

"You!! Do you even have a conscience?!"

Having a conscience gets you sweet love; lacking conscience gets you even more!

She meant the drink.

In the end, Zhang Ningzhi still succumbed to someone's tyranny. Forced by the reporter dog's bottomless limits, she could only meekly hand over a drink.

"Hmph! Drink yourself to death!"

Jiang Nian beamed and sucked hard on the straw.

"It's the New Year!"

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi puffed out her cheeks, infuriated by the guy below her. After scribbling homework for a while, she couldn't help asking again.

"Are we having a weekly test tonight?"

"Probably."

Ding-ding-ding—time for evening self-study.

Tao Ran stepped onto the podium, the class representative for Furries radiating righteous energy.

"Boarding students, collect your phones."

It was time again for the routine phone collection. Tao Ran carried a bag and walked around, starting from the first row, collecting phones from every boarding student one by one.

When he reached Li Hua's group, only Wu Jun Gu handed over a smartphone—but it was a backup one.

"Where's Huang Fang?"

"Didn't bring it."

"Ceng You? You can't possibly not have brought yours?"

"I brought it—wait, let me find it." Ceng You fished out a broken old-school phone from his desk drawer, tied it with a rubber band, and tossed it to Tao Ran.

In the aisle, Tao Ran's eyelid twitched.

"You—"

But he didn't press it; as long as it was handed in, that was enough.

After collecting around, he noticed Lin Dong's submitted phone was also absurd—the keypad on the flip phone was worn out, yet he swore it could still turn on.

Tao Ran originally didn't want to verify, but Lin Dong insisted on proving his innocence, so the whole class got to hear the China Telecom 3G ink-wash startup sound.

"That's all? Any more phones not turned in?"

Wu Jun Gu watched Tao Ran leave with the phones, then turned to glance at his desk-mate Ceng You, who leaned against the wall.

"We're having a weekly test soon—still reading?"

At this, Ceng You looked up, expression utterly fearless.

"What's to fear? We're in the second-to-last row—perfectly safe."

"What about during the weekly test?"

"I sit by the window—I'll read from inside the desk drawer. Totally safe." Ceng You flicked his hair and buried himself back in his studies.

Old Liu tiptoed to the classroom door, trying to hide his figure.

He'd idly checked the phones handed in at the office, only to see a pile of junk phones—and flew into a rage.

Are these people really treating their own teacher like this?

Gao San students playing with phones will only hurt themselves—and now they're playing mind games!

He was furious, determined to crack down on this corrupt trend.

Old Liu's plan was simple: the class was still in self-study, the Chinese weekly test hadn't started yet, and everyone was utterly relaxed.

Suddenly turn off the lights—anyone with light on their face gets arrested!

He silently counted three numbers: three, two, one!

Click!

The classroom plunged into darkness, and the class burst into an "Ooh!"—like drought-stricken land hit by rain, they all thought it was a power outage and cheered.

The next second, the lights came back on.

The class saw Old Liu standing grim-faced by the door, his expression utterly grim.

"Yang Qiming! Yao Beibei! Dong Wensong! Ceng You!!"

"Hand over your phones!!"

As soon as he spoke, the classroom fell utterly silent.

Those called out turned pale, their bodies frozen as if under a paralysis spell.

Old Liu walked over one by one, hardly needing effort. The three handed over their phones with bitter faces—only Ceng You remained calm and composed.

"Hand it over!"

Ceng You looked up and spoke.

"Teacher, I already turned in my phone."

Old Liu lost his composure—he told the students in the back to turn off the lights, then stared at the glow on Ceng You's face.

"Still lying? Your glow is the brightest!"

He yanked away the book Ceng You used to block his view, revealing underneath a toy flashlight.

Ceng You looked up, calmly meeting Old Liu's gaze.

"Teacher, is it illegal to play with a flashlight during evening self-study?"