Chapter 327: Beyond Expectation, Within Reason

The wooden box's surface was somewhat faded, and the antique-style lock was a little rusted.

She held the box and gently blew the dust off its surface.

"Cough, cough, cough!!!"

"TV dramas are a menace—got dust in my eye!"

After a brief flurry of chaos, Lü Xuan set the vintage little wooden box down on the floor. She stared at it for a while, her gaze tinged with nostalgia.

She thought for a moment, left the room, and came back with a hammer and a screwdriver in her hand.

With a crisp click in the room, the lock fell open at once.

Her original idea had been to seal away her youthful memories, and the key had long since been thrown into the river to feed the fish. Looking back now, it was foolishly cute.

But being foolish had its own perks.

The human brain instinctively clears its memory on a regular basis. A diary, on the other hand, is a manual auxiliary brain—recording scattered memories by hand.

That was all thanks to her old habit of keeping a diary, just like Old Jiang.

Lü Xuan rummaged through the box, picking and choosing, and pulled one out from among several thick diaries. After flipping it open, the first line was....

"Hello there, me-from-several-years-later, all grown up."

"The me right now must be very happy, right?

1

In an instant, Lü Xuan felt her defenses crack a little. A faint sense of déjà vu, as if her childhood self were peeking at her from outside the door.

Happiness, after all, isn't that easy to come by.

She shook her head, refusing to dwell on all that messy, tangled nonsense.

Soon, Lü Xuan successfully found what she was looking for in the diary. Gossip someone had casually mentioned, recorded by her as a trivial matter.

"Heard from someone that a fight broke out near the abandoned mall. Apparently it was over someone stealing his girlfriend—they were going at it hard."

"At least a hundred people had gathered, every one of them holding a 【shape】."

Seeing this, Lü Xuan could barely hold it together.

Her younger self had a bit of an abstract talent too—why on earth censor a diary meant for her own eyes?

More importantly, 'a hundred people' was clearly an exaggerated rumor. Probably only a handful, with most just there to watch the show.

She kept reading, skipping past a sudden aside.

"Heard they fought all the way into the police station, and a bunch of woooo-woooo came. After that they wouldn't let anyone watch anymore, arrested the whole lot."

"Honestly, I kind of envied that girl—after all, someone was willing to fight for her.

With a soft snap, Lü Xuan closed the diary.

She rubbed her brow, secretly thinking her old way of thinking still needed some improvement—how could she have thought that kind of thing was cool?

Over the next half hour or so, she spent almost all of it flipping through the other diaries.

Until a fairly plausible thread surfaced in her mind, at which point she got up, gathered her clothes, and went into the suite's bathroom to wash up.

Whoosh—right around that time was when the Li family left Zhennan, wasn't it.

No, to be precise, only a branch family had left. Giving up their business and the influence they'd spent years cultivating.

Just like that, they moved to the coast, and now, by a twist of fate, had flourished once more.

The Li family wasn't the only unlucky household—others had been targeted too. To the point that some fell, some fled.

But for some unknown reason, Li Qingrong had been left behind.

Even a broken ship still has three thousand nails—her normal school life wasn't really affected. Maybe someone bullied her, and then... a fight broke out.

Thanks to her family background, Lü Xuan was fairly sensitive to outside information. Picking things up by osmosis, she'd come to understand quite a bit.

And precisely because of that, by the time she reached what should have been a wild adolescence,

she had seen too much, heard too much, and thought too much—and so grew ever more silent.

Outwardly reserved, yet inwardly restless.

When she came out of the shower, a thin veil of mist clung to her.

Click—she shut the bathroom door. After putting each diary back in its place, she stared at the wooden box for a while.

After some thought, she ultimately didn't put the box back where it had been.

After turning off the lights.

Lü Xuan lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. The moment she closed her eyes, the image of Jiang Nian glancing back rose in her mind.

His gaze was deep, heavy.

It wasn't exactly love at first sight—just curiosity about this person's past. And the things that had happened, wanting to know a little....

Like catching a TV drama you can't stop bingeing, with a vague sense of having stumbled onto some ship.

As if the fantasies of youth had found their real-life counterparts in the people around her, as if fate itself had been cast upon them.

A fierce, full-body goosebump-raising excitement, along with an irrepressible curiosity, all tangled together, drove Lü Xuan on.

To keep drawing closer to the story she'd pieced together, wanting to know more... more information. That process of guessing through the unknown, heart pounding with tension, left her intoxicated.

Eyes open, she stared at the ceiling in a daze, murmuring to herself.

"Tomorrow I have to go take a look at Class 3 of the Science Olympiad."

Late at night.

Jiang Nian pried open Ye Yanqing's eyes, taking a careful look at the last big problem on the math test.

After solving the two sub-questions, he let out a sigh of relief. One glance at the third question and his spirit deflated. He tossed down his pen and slumped back in his chair.

Crack—he rolled his neck and let out a long breath.

Time has to be carved out.

A room alone, deep into the night. Normally, all it'd take is one piece of software to heat things up—but what if it's a test paper instead?

Hard as a rock — that was the heart.

He had a blanket draped over him, but his toes inevitably went stiff. Logically speaking, it was time to upgrade the gear, but on second thought—

He wasn't going to stay up late anymore, so why bother buying something to warm his feet?

Thinking this, he still opened his phone to place an order. He happened to glance at a WeChat message — a photo from Xu Qianqian.

"My feet aren't cold, 【photo】, bought a foot-warming gadget, jealous?"

The photo was clearly taken from under the covers — you could see below her pajama pants. And a pair of pretty feet, pressing down on a foot-warming gadget.

In the middle of the night, she sent him something that made him hard.

The heart, that is.

He typed back, "Won't it give you athlete's foot?"

Half a minute passed with no reply. Jiang Nian guessed Xu Qianqian had probably fallen asleep, so he turned over and went to bed too.

The next morning.

Jiang Nian woke up and instinctively reached for his phone, squinting his eyes groggily.

Besides a few routine messages, he also saw Xu Qianqian's reply — a fairly brief one.

"I'll stomp your face in!"

He read it and couldn't muster any anger at all, so he typed and asked,

"When you stomp, can you wear thinner socks?"

Xu Qianqian replied instantly.

"I'll stomp you in shoes!"

Jiang Nian got up to wash up while typing a question.

"That might hurt a bit, you know. (dragon meme)"

Xu Qianqian: "(fist)!"

"Fists full of love? Your feelings for me run that deep?" Jiang Nian had packed his things and was about to grab his bag and head out for school.

"It's a punch for you!" After replying, Xu Qianqian added a "conversation over" sticker. "Alright, I'm starting to study now."

At that moment, Jiang Nian was also on his way to school.

The morning chill hit him, and he couldn't help but quicken his pace.

In the classroom.

The moment Jiang Nian stepped into the classroom, Ye Yanqing's gaze swept across and spotted two rare guests. Yang Qiming and Huang Cailang, the two buddies, were eating breakfast at their seats.

One serving of three-treasure noodles each — pork head, pork liver, and chicken small intestine, topped with scallions — pure meat three-treasure noodles.

Good thing Jiang Nian had eaten his fill on the way, otherwise walking into the classroom on an empty stomach and smelling that aroma would've wrecked him — starving to the point of passing out.

"Smells amazing, where'd you guys buy that?" Yin Qidong leaned over, asking curiously, "How much? I'll grab one tomorrow too."

"Six bucks, the new breakfast shop by the west gate," Huang Cailang said cheerfully. "It's crowded there, you gotta go early."

Yin Qidong swallowed. "Too bad I already ate this morning, no time to go line up for one now."

Yang Qiming couldn't help feeling a bit smug at that.

"If you go now there should still be a chance — I always make a point of waking up early."

"Bro, let me have a bite." Yin Qidong dropped the act.

"Hey, WTF, you—!"

Jiang Nian pulled his gaze away from those guys, thinking to himself that the new shop by the west gate... he'd try it tomorrow — that aroma had something to it.

"You've been waking up really early these past few days?" Huang Fang said.

"Yeah, super sleepy." Jiang Nian wasn't lying.

Before long, the rest of the group members trickled into the classroom. Stripes of sunlight also crept bit by bit into the room.

"Morning."

"Morning!" Zhang Ningzhi was full of energy. She took off the scarf around her neck. "So, um, have you eaten breakfast?"

"What do you mean?" Jiang Nian raised an eyebrow. "You've got food?"

"No, I was just asking." As Zhang Ningzhi spoke, she pulled out a cream-filled sandwich right in front of him.

"Share some with me." Jiang Nian said it straight.

Hearing that, Zhang Ningzhi put on a "bad girl" smile.

"You... really want it that badly?"

Jiang Nian was dumbfounded, thinking, Damn. "Bad girl" is a girl's innate skill, right? It just unlocks automatically at a certain age?

"Actually I don't really want it that badly."

You're really putting on an act, Baby Zhizhi.

"Oh, but this bread is actually really good." Zhang Ningzhi pressed her lips together. "Someone recommended it to me, said it melts in your mouth."

"Let me have a bite, please." Jiang Nian instantly surrendered.

Today's goal was to successfully eat the bread — failing to do so would be today's total defeat!

"Hehe, since you've put it that way, then I can't refuse." Zhang Ningzhi split the bread in two and gave him the bigger half.

"This is your breakfast?" Jiang Nian asked.

"I can't eat that much, I've been dieting lately." Zhang Ningzhi waved her hand. "Anyway, I specifically bought an extra..."

Her voice trailed off toward the end, almost inaudible.

After morning reading.

Two consecutive language arts periods — anyone in the class who didn't pay attention in language class got exactly what they wanted. Already sleepy from waking up early, they slept straight through for two hours.

So what if it's the homeroom teacher's class? Sleep anyway!

During the long break between classes, sunlight stabbed through the window into the classroom.

The broadcast was playing noisy morning-exercise music, and Jiang Nian had no intention of getting up. Morning exercises were a pure waste of life—better to just skip and ask for leave.

He'd say... last night he had too much going on and his legs went weak, so he couldn't run.

Most guys wouldn't dare use that excuse, afraid that if they kept using it, it might actually come true. The moment you looked up, people would start calling you "Little Head Bro."

One person calling you Little Head Bro, another calling you Lu Yun Bro,

After a long time, you'd slowly get used to the nickname. Until the college entrance exam, when you absent-mindedly filled in the name blank with...

Lu Yun!

No, wait—what well-behaved kid is named Lu Yun?!

Jiang Nian wasn't afraid—he'd taken championships in two events at the sports meet. Long-distance running, no less! The prestige of long-distance was off the charts.

Using some bizarre excuse to ask for leave would only get it approved in an instant—Chameleon Martin, today's new identity is decided to be you!

At that moment, a girl's silhouette drifted past the doorway.

Lv Xuan took advantage of the gap between exercise sets, sneaking from the fifth floor down to the fourth-floor corridor. She made her way through the science building, her heart uneasy as she arrived at the door of Class Three.

She only glanced inside and immediately spotted Jiang Nian hunched over his desk, working on problems.

Naturally, she also saw Li Qingrong sitting in the seat behind Jiang Nian. Her bearing leaned toward cool detachment, making her seem unapproachably lofty.

But when she raised her head and her gaze fell on Jiang Nian, a hint of liveliness seemed to flicker in her eyes, making her look far more vivid.

Lv Xuan happened to catch that very moment, and her heart skipped several beats.

At the same time, the intelligence database updated once more.

So their relationship was already this good now—she just didn't know if things were really as she'd predicted.

Lv Xuan stood at the classroom door for a while, but when she turned her head, she found Jiang Nian had already left, while Li Qingrong had walked out of the classroom with some other girls.

This left her stunned, and puzzled for a long time.

Not dating?

They're not even together?

Oh, got it—avoiding suspicion, right?

Lv Xuan followed Li Qingrong for a stretch, but never saw Jiang Nian show up. He seemed to still be in the classroom, with no intention of coming down at all.

She suddenly realized—maybe the two really weren't dating.

Wait, has that guy ever gone without women?

He can hold back even this?