Chapter 356

Afternoon.

Before biology class, Jiang Nian mentioned the class representative selection to Qing Bao and, as agreed, recommended Yu Zhiyi.

Qing Bao had no objections and nodded.

"She's quite suitable."

After saying that, Qing Bao gave Jiang Nian another suspicious glance.

"Did you take a bribe?"

"No, how could that be?" Jiang Nian waved his hand. "I swear on heaven, I recommended her purely out of fairness."

"Fine." Qing Bao didn't believe him.

Jiang Nian returned to the classroom and kept refreshing the system task panel. His gaze lingered on the latest task, and he frowned slightly.

How could he separate Xiao Song from her two inseparable girlfriends all day?

But the verification skill's three-day cooldown hadn't expired yet, so he could only wait for now—tomorrow was Wednesday.

Just as he had no idea what to do, he suddenly heard Ceng You chatting with Wu Jun Gu in the front row.

"I got a scam call yesterday saying my son was hit by a car and in the hospital," Ceng You grinned. "They told me to send money to save him."

"That's insane?" Wu Jun Gu said, then added, "Did you send the money?"

Ceng You: "."

Jiang Nian laughed too—what a ridiculous chat partner.

But this gave him an idea: since he couldn't get anywhere with Song Xiuyun, why not ask her mother for help?

A hospital checkup wouldn't hurt her daughter, and it was free.

So Jiang Nian sent a message to Zhao Jie.

"Lend me your daughter."

Since class was about to start, he put his phone away and glanced cautiously at Zhang Ningzhi.

Seeing she was still writing homework, he relaxed.

"Why are you staring at me?"

Suddenly, Zhang Ningzhi spoke up, turning her head to fix Jiang Nian with a piercing gaze, her bright eyes full of alertness.

What, Black Cat Detective?

"No, I was just… looking around," Jiang Nian brushed it off.

Last afternoon self-study session.

Yu Zhiyi was called to the office by Qing Bao, and Cai Xiaoqing was in a meeting. The classroom was noisy, with many students chatting.

Xie Zhihao was fully absorbed in playing a mini-game on his smartwatch.

Yang Qiming wandered around the classroom and kindly warned him.

"You'd better hide your game when you play—it'll be confiscated if the teacher sees it, and you won't get it back until finals."

Hearing this, Xie Zhihao proudly replied.

"What's to worry? It's a watch, not a phone. Besides, which school rule says you can't play on a watch?"

Yang Qiming shrugged. "Do as you like."

After Yang Qiming left, Xie Zhihao sneered inwardly, even more smug—did he not know what a top student's privilege was?

Even if the homeroom teacher saw him playing, he'd give him a pass out of respect for his grades.

Or just ignore him entirely, pretend he didn't see.

"Bro Yang, you can't reason with a fool who's headed for ruin," Huang Cailang watched it all. "Let him play—he'll settle down once it's confiscated."

Front row.

Li Hua flipped through his Biology Five-Three workbook and found a riddle. After thinking for a moment, he asked excitedly.

"Nian, how do you divide four cups of water among five leaders?"

"I know," Zhang Ningzhi spoke up. "Put them in the middle and let them take their own—someone won't need water."

Huang Fang turned around. "Pour them into one big bottle, then divide into five cups."

Jiang Nian looked up, thought for a moment, then said:

"Urinate one cup, then let them draw randomly. Luck is part of leadership—those with bad luck aren't fit to lead."

The group was instantly stunned—people usually don't say things they've never done.

"That's disgusting!" Li Hua shuddered. "F**k, I won't dare steal your Eastern Tree Leaves to drink again."

Zhang Ningzhi looked confused. "Why?"

Huang Fang had never drunk such expensive drinks—even if she could afford them, she wouldn't spend money on tea water—and turned away automatically.

"Because he's drunk it," Jiang Nian changed the subject, casually pulling out his phone and checking—Zhao Jie had indeed replied.

"Where are we going? 😏"

Classic woman emoji—just that smirk conveyed every unspoken word.

Jiang Nian typed back: "Hospital."

Instantly, the other side reacted—typing indicator appeared.

"Aren't you friends? Then why…?"

Fine, fine, fine—going to the hospital means she's pregnant, right?

No wonder you got divorced.

Ji Ni Tai Mei only goes to the hospital when she's pregnant—otherwise she toughs out illness, right?

"I have a free health checkup opportunity," Jiang Nian replied. "Your daughter isn't well—let her take tomorrow off."

Soon after, Zhao Jie replied.

"You replied so seriously, it's making me feel weird. Sneaky laugh."

Sneaky laugh your mom!

Still misunderstanding, huh!

He thought for a moment, then said outright.

"I'm laying it all out—I want to meet your daughter at the hospital tomorrow. Keep it secret. Meet me at the school gate at nine."

Sister Zhao: "No problem. OK."

Jiang Nian: "."

It proved that as long as you find the right person, even without a detailed plan, you can still get a complicated task done.

After school, Jiang Nian habitually leaned on his desk solving problems.

Besides the overall ranking, the school's scores and class and grade rankings for the Six-City Joint Exam had already been released.

He ranked eighth in his class and hovered at the edge of the top hundred in the entire grade. If a city-wide ranking were added, he'd look even worse.

More importantly, schools like No. 1 High School of this city had their own affiliated schools and completely looked down on county-level high schools.

For example, some schools held a Nine-Province Joint Exam every year for their Gao San students.

Ask a student from Zhennan.

Nine-Province Joint Exam? What the hell is that?

Explain it to me—wasn't the highest level just provincial joint exams?

A rank within the top ten thousand in the province roughly gets you into a decent 211.

Jiang Nian's score meant he was already standing on the 211 line. But his choices wouldn't be many—he couldn't pick freely.

Nan Province only had one provincial 211—what's there to pick?

The goal of securing a 211 had already been achieved, but Jiang Nian didn't want to stop there. After all, one more point meant knocking out a thousand others.

Two more points unlock the title "Blood-Hand Butcher."

In the classroom, most people had gone to eat. The rest were either sleeping face-down or doing homework.

Only Dong Wensong, that weirdo, was still speaking in a mix of Japanese and Chinese.

Bored, Jiang Nian casually pulled up the system panel.

He habitually checked the task panel for the reward—he was too envious of the prize, since it was real, tangible money.

Thirty thousand in savings hadn't made him regard money as trash.

On the contrary, he felt the allure of money. If he couldn't make big money, making small money gave him the same satisfaction as farming.

Chinese people can't resist farming games.

While flipping through the tasks, a red dot in the lower-right corner suddenly caught his attention. At some point, a new option had appeared.

Jiang Nian clicked it and found several memory fragments.

He carefully reviewed them all and realized these were memory fragments from past task rewards—all marked as "viewed." "Oh, just a item," Jiang Nian muttered, and before closing it, he habitually clicked each one.

The instinct of a free-to-play gamer: good habits ensure long-term freebies. Sometimes, surprises hide among trash.

The first two fragments remained gray.

Until the last one—the earliest one—from Xu Qianqian's previous task, a bonus video.

Jiang Nian remembered it vividly.

It was his second time seeing his "ex-wife" appear—the first was during system loading, the second was in this video.

Beside a bridge, under orange streetlights, fine rain drifted down.

A woman holding a transparent umbrella wore a tight skirt, her arms fair and slender, her bossy wavy hair cascading over her shoulders, her figure alluring.

But that was all there was to it.

That time, he hadn't gained much useful information. He'd assumed it was just a bonus video, never expecting it could still be used.

Please... collect... 6191 Book 1!

The memory fragment glowed entirely blue, emitting a faint light, standing out sharply against the gray item slot.

Entering it, he was still twenty-eight.

In another timeline's future, "Jiang Nian" had broken up with Zhang Ningzhi. He looked depressed, as if preparing for an arranged marriage.

Upon entering the "memory," Xu Qianqian hurled a bag at him.

Shit—second time around.

What a bitch.

Since Jiang Nian had seen this video before, he felt nothing special—he was mainly looking for differences.

After all, every other memory fragment stayed dark, yet this one lit up.

There must be something new.

Xu Qianqian was furious, kicking and punching him several times. She was really worked up—this woman truly loved to hit.

Can't beat the twenty-eight-year-old you? Can't beat the one under eighteen?

Wait—I'll spit all over you when I get home tonight.

Jiang Nian thought this, then focused his gaze elsewhere—the corners he'd ignored before: the floor, the walls.

Coincidentally, this version of the video had no sound. That actually helped Jiang Nian—he could completely ignore Xu Qianqian.

On the floor lay an unknown tablet, its red breathing light flickering. Second time around—he cared more about whether he could uncover something new.

He stared at the tablet on the floor and used his will to command his body to move.

Unfortunately, it did nothing.

He thought for a moment, then had a sudden idea. He silently murmured, "Xu Qianqian yelled so much—she must be thirsty."

Splash—the "Jiang Nian" in the memory stood up and actually went to get water.

Jiang Nian watched this absurd scene and couldn't help but chuckle. What kind of idiotic AI logic? Xu Qianqian had already slammed the door and left.

But this was fine—it made it easier for him to explore the room.

After pouring the water, the AI perspective stopped moving again.

Jiang Nian silently issued another command in his mind: "The tablet on the floor is out of power—it must be charged."

After three seconds, the AI began to move.

It walked to the tablet, bent down to pick it up, and placed it on the table to charge.

The tablet powered on automatically, landing on a news interface.

The headline bore an extremely familiar name. Before her name was a string of text, and after it were characters he couldn't understand.

Jiang Nian murmured in amazement—he never expected the monitor to have joined a research institute after graduation.

Then again, such a brilliant mind not serving the nation would be a waste.

"Basic Science"—Jiang Nian stalled. In this new era, illiteracy meant having a little culture but not enough.

Just as he was pondering how to issue a new command to see what award Li Qingrong had won—perhaps he could help her avoid some dead ends later—

After all, basic science meant searching for hope amid failure.

Before he could issue the command, the scene before him shifted again. He had assumed it was the rainy-night bridge—

But it wasn't the familiar rainy-night bridge. It was a new scene.

A wedding!

"At thirty, you got married."

When he saw those words appear, Jiang Nian realized he'd unlocked a new scene—and couldn't help but feel delighted.

Yes! Hidden easter egg!

At the wedding, guests filled the hall.

Ding-ding-ding, after several rounds of movement, the AI perspective gradually drifted away from the crowd and sat down in a secluded stairwell.

It sighed—but it wasn't Jiang Nian who sighed.

Then Jiang Nian saw the AI perspective pull out a cigarette. Click—it lit up. Then it pulled out its phone and swiped away a message.

After swiping through its phone, it opened a short-video app.

Suddenly, Jiang Nian froze, thinking his eyes had failed. The AI perspective remained silent, letting the cigarette burn out.

"The youngest XXX at China's XXX Research Institute, Li Qingrong."

He stared at the news article several times before confirming he hadn't misread. Seeing the words "suicide," he was stunned.

The text and images kept scrolling, stating that Li Qingrong was reclusive—and the video cut off abruptly.

After a stretch of darkness, Jiang Nian withdrew from the memory fragment.

One new item appeared in his inventory: Li Qingrong's suicide note.

For a moment, Jiang Nian didn't know what to say.

Should he be relieved this hadn't happened—or terrified? He should never have clicked it. This item was a total waste.

He'd have been better off not taking it.

In the classroom.

Jiang Nian stood up and walked out of the classroom, letting the wind blow across the hallway for several minutes. Only then did he calm his emotions and prepare to open the item.

He clicked on Li Qingrong's suicide note—but it showed "Unable to open."

Jiang Nian: "F***."

He thought hard but got nowhere—it was all stuff from the future anyway.

In ten or more years, anything could happen.

In the system's simulated timeline, he and the monitor probably had no connection—so the reason remained utterly unknown.

Jiang Nian shook his head and turned to go downstairs for dinner.

On the way, he comforted himself: knowing the future in advance was still a good thing. No matter how big the problem, there was always a solution.

Before evening self-study.

Li Hua sneaked out under the pretense of taking out the trash to eat, but had barely returned to the classroom when two boys in the front row stopped him.

"You're done for."

"Oh no, Li Hua—you're done for."

Hearing this, Li Hua's face changed. He swallowed hard.

"What happened?"

"The teacher told you to stand outside the classroom," Jiang Nian chimed in gleefully. "You used taking out the trash as an excuse to go eat, didn't you?"

A few minutes later, Teacher Liu arrived at the classroom and saw Li Hua standing outside. He frowned and asked:

"Why are you standing outside?"

Li Hua: "No, I—Teacher, you—"

He instantly realized what had happened. Jiang Nian, you bastard!

Inside the classroom, Jiang Nian grinned.

As he turned his gaze away, he glanced at the monitor in the back row. Li Qingrong seemed to sense it—just then, she lifted her head.

Their eyes met. Li Qingrong looked at him with a hint of inquiry.

"What's wrong?"

Jiang Nian shook his head. "Nothing."

(End of Chapter)