Chapter 296: If Someone Absolutely Insists

"Forget it, none of this matters anymore." Zhou Yuting sighed.

"Doesn't it?" Jiang Nian cut her off.

"What do you mean?" Zhou Yuting froze for a beat.

"Nothing, I just wanted to give you a heads-up before we talk." Jiang Nian's eyelids lowered slightly. "We're not on good terms, so don't say anything pointless."

Zhou Yuting faltered at his words, but quickly adjusted her emotions.

"Fine."

After about two seconds of silence, she, standing in the shadows, spoke again.

"Are you the clown?"

"Are you fucking sick? You came looking for me just to curse me out?" Jiang Nian's face was thoroughly annoyed. "You that bored, looking to get roasted?"

"No, I'm not talking about you." Zhou Yuting got a little flustered. "I mean there's a QQ, forget it, if it's you then there's no need to explain."

Jiang Nian's expression didn't change. "Bitch, no explanation and you want me to guess?"

With that, he turned around and started to leave.

"Wait." Zhou Yuting called for a pause.

But Jiang Nian still walked away without looking back. Originally he didn't have to come out. But why did he? Because the end of the month was almost here.

I did it, so what.

Someone in this group has to report it — who will that little cutie be?

Of course, Jiang Nian wasn't only targeting Zhou Yuting alone.

There was also Liu Feipeng and his friends — all of them are idiots.

Mountains don't turn but water does, in this little place of Zhennan. The two of them had a grudge and would inevitably run into each other sooner or later. When the time came, he'd go straight at Liu Feipeng, that big bastard.

In a dark corner, Zhou Yuting watched Jiang Nian's retreating back.

Her heart seemed to keep sinking.

It's him!

Even if the "clown" wasn't him, it was still connected to him or Le Zhi.

The moment she thought of Le Zhi's father's profession, Zhou Yuting was completely dumbfounded. Could Le Zhi have actually gone undercover? Hadn't she just walked right into the line of fire?

Over there, Jiang Nian returned to the classroom.

Li Hua immediately scooted over, asking curiously.

"What did she want with you?"

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi, who was doing problems, also stopped her pen.

"Oh, nothing, an old classmate asking about something." Jiang Nian told the truth, but only half of it. "Just a small thing, what's up?"

"Nothing, I was thinking about what to wear for the coming-of-age ceremony." Li Hua rubbed his chin. "Nian, you got any badass suggestions?"

Zhang Ningzhi heard their topic jump away from Zhou Yuting, and couldn't be bothered to listen — she went back to her homework.

As for what to wear to the coming-of-age ceremony, she definitely wouldn't discuss it with Jiang Nian, that utterly unserious super pervert.

She had already arranged with Yao Beibei — once the clothes bought online arrived tomorrow, they'd wear bestie outfits together. The last year of high school, friendship was super important too.

Actually, Li Hua meant the same thing.

He wanted to wear some gaygay outfits with Jiang Nian and Ma Guojun — at least Fruity Robo Squad costumes, not something plain and boring.

"Badass suggestions, huh?" Jiang Nian thought for a moment, then proposed, "How about... don't wear anything?"

"Eat shit, I want badass suggestions, not exposure!" Li Hua flushed a little, turned to glance at Ma Guojun. "What say you, Lao Ma?"

Ma Guojun pushed his glasses up with his middle finger. "Wear women's clothes."

"You're fucking twisted too, you wear it yourself." Li Hua thought to himself how come he was the only one stressed about this. "Seriously, we can't just wear anything random, right?"

"Why not?" Jiang Nian countered.

"I don't wanna hear it, take it back." Li Hua pointed at Jiang Nian. "Youth, geigei, you only get one coming-of-age ceremony in your life."

However, Jiang Nian propped his head on his hand, a pair of dead-fish eyes unmoved.

"So?"

"Shouldn't we go wild once?" Li Hua asked.

"Go wild." Ma Guojun nodded.

"Right, I said don't wear anything, you disagreed." Jiang Nian pointed again at the big fatty across the aisle. "Ma Guojun said women's clothes, you also disagreed."

"Damn, are you guys even human!" Li Hua clutched his head in despair.

"The coming-of-age ceremony is the day after tomorrow, what are you guys planning to wear?" Lin Dong asked within the group.

"Bestie outfits, I guess." Chen Yunyun chose the most conservative strategy.

Of course, she also knew some of the most upvoted strategies.

She just couldn't bring them out in public — she could only open the game in a private space, locking in Cai Wenji to play support.

She didn't really like playing Zhang Fei, because the character model wasn't cute.

But if someone insisted, she'd give it one chance.

"Why is everyone dressing the same? Then Ah Cheng and I will wear the same too." Lin Dong thought for a moment, and also chose the most conservative strategy.

"Our group can all wear the same." Wang Yuhe said.

"Nah, there's no time." Lin Dong pointed out the most crucial point. "There's only one day left before the coming-of-age ceremony, it's too rushed."

"Fine." Wang Yuhe pouted.

Sun Zhicheng's heart had completely pulled itself out of the online world — "The Ah Cheng Who Returned From Online Chat" wanted to show off in the real world.

His face put on a look of indifference, but in reality, he'd been eavesdropping since Lin Dong and Chen Yunyun started talking.

Although he wanted to keep Chen Yunyun as his target, he didn't want to show it. He thought to himself that after going through a trial, he was different now.

He was more witty, his mindset healthier, and far less prone to sudden irritation.

So he deliberately ignored Chen Yunyun and said in a low voice,

"We could rent a set of formal wear, right?"

"That is one way, but whatever we can think of, others can too." Lin Dong rejected it without even thinking.

"With only one day, it's hard to find a suitable group outfit. Either dirty or ugly. Since the girls have already picked their clothes, let's just wear them separately."

Sun Zhicheng secretly felt it was a pity—he'd realized it too late.

If he hadn't gotten caught up in online chatting from the start, wouldn't the group outfit already be settled by now? Then they could leave behind a group photo in the last year of high school?

Miss this chance, and maybe all that's left is the graduation photo where they wear the same clothes.

The class uniform was even uglier beyond words.

"Then you guys pick it yourselves. I heard some boys in class plan to rent suits." Wang Yuhe turned her head and said, "Also that kind of Japanese-style boys' high school uniform."

"Conan?" Chen Yunyun's first thought was that.

Lin Dong: ""

Sun Zhicheng: ""

Meanwhile.

Li Hua asked around the class and found the guys were anything but traditional. Someone rented a Scottish kilt, the kind Xiao Shenyang wears.

Some others rented little suit jackets, a few dozen yuan a day.

He saw the photos—nothing classy at all.

Pheasant would probably like wearing it.

Yang Qiming and Huang Cailang, those two freaks, rented a set of tokusatsu costumes—Great Monster General and Little Monster Corporal.

Damn, I'm genuinely jealous.

Li Hua really wanted to do a set of Fruity Robo costumes with Jiang Nian and Ma Guojun. But the thing is those aren't people, they're fruits, so the outfits are pretty abstract.

What the hell, not a single decent outfit.

But the freakiest of all has to be Dong Taitai—he's planning to cosplay an anime hero. Seriously, damn, just thinking there's such an outrageous freak in class—

Li Hua got a sudden chill.

The fourth period, an extra-long evening self-study.

Li Hua came back from outside the classroom, having just used a five-minute bathroom break. He asked around a few neighboring classes for intel on the coming-of-age ceremony.

The competition classes in Gao San were all pretty wild—anything goes for outfits.

Some planned to wear security guard uniforms, some planned to do programmer plaid shirts. Others had construction-site safety suits and hard hats—straight-up performance art.

Gotta say, prospective college students with specific target schools and majors are really something.

Of course, none of them dressed like that alone. Whether it's art or eye-catching outfits, it's always a group of bros doing it together.

One person is embarrassing, two is bizarre, three is sick, four is unhinged, five is glory.

So Li Hua was getting a bit anxious.

He had just sat down, scratching his head for a while. He patted the big guy hunched over his seat doing problems, then patted the head-down boy Jiang Nian and said,

"Wait, are you guys really planning to just wear school uniforms and call it a day?"

"Didn't say that. Got any good suggestions?" Jiang Nian looked up blankly.

"Let's hear yours." Ma Guojun also had the look of a guy who refused to use his brain.

"Damn it, you bunch of lazyasses!" Li Hua was getting worked up—he admitted he was the first to panic. "I'm thinking, how about we get some little suits."

Ma Guojun said faintly, "They don't have my size."

Li Hua rubbed his face, his eyes turning red.

Fat-fat-fat is the sun.

Damn Ma Guojun, how did you get so fat!

At this critical moment, Jiang Nian offered a new idea.

"Just get a trench coat and we're done, right?"

Hearing that, Li Hua's eyes immediately lit up.

"You know what, a trench coat actually works. Tomorrow at noon I'll go ask and see if I can rent three."

The discussion came to a pause.

Actually, Zhang Nianzhi still quite hoped to see Jiang Nian in a suit. Hearing the group leader's suggestion get rejected just now, she felt a tiny bit of regret inside.

A trench coat is fine, she couldn't imagine what it would look like.

Judging by the group leader's reaction, the boys seemed to really like trench coats.

Though she completely didn't get it.

Evening self-study let out, the hallway was packed.

Jiang Nian still left early as usual, but just as he got down to the third floor, he noticed none of the competition class 4 had come out yet. Looking closer, their homeroom teacher was talking again.

Seriously, why not earlier, why not later—had to be right at dismissal time.

byd think their lifespan is too long or what?

After waiting ten minutes, when the people upstairs had almost all left, class 4 finally let out.

Xu Qianqian was in the middle of the crowd, carrying her backpack as she slowly walked out. She habitually glanced outward, and the moment she saw Jiang Nian, she tilted her head.

"Let's go, what are you standing there for?"

"No, I mean what's up with your homeroom teacher?" Jiang Nian met up with Xu Qianqian and couldn't help complaining, "Deliberately torturing you guys?"

"Oh, said we've been losing too many points lately." Xu Qianqian went down the stairs, her eyes glancing up the stairwell, "Our homeroom teacher said—"

She lowered her voice, deliberately waiting until they got down to the second floor before continuing.

"She said the boarding boys in our class never get up early, dock points everywhere, like holes in the wall. Then the boys in the class got into an argument with her, and in the end it got completely out of hand."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian broke out in a cold sweat on the spot.

Class Four's docked points naturally weren't all his responsibility, but he had contributed a little bit of effort.