Chapter 418: What Card, Online Gacha Pulls

"I'm dying laughing, Class Four was eliminated from the very start."

"Their class has internal conflicts, they've barely gotten any results in group competitions."

Evening study session, the classroom lights were blindingly bright.

Amid the chaotic sounds of reciting, Jiang Nian watched Li Hua and the others pretending to hold their books, brazenly discussing loudly. The scene was a mess, everyone's attention was on the competition.

"Does your hand hurt?" Zhang Ningzhi poked him, asking softly, "Several of them... got pulled muscles."

"It's alright, I don't have much of a team spirit."

Jiang Nian talked differently to different people. But his hand really wasn't injured, he'd just exerted some force.

The boys in class were in varying states of misery, some had rubbed their hands raw from tug-of-war until they bled and blistered.

Some had used too much force and felt nothing during the tug-of-war. After winning, when they dispersed, they discovered their arm muscles were strained.

Li Hua felt uncomfortable hearing this—no team spirit? Who was he being sarcastic about?

"Speaking of which, I used too much force during tug-of-war." Li Hua rolled his arm, "My muscles seem like, ow, a bit strained."

Jiang Nian critiqued sharply, "Southern Liang."

He originally wanted to say, Jiang Nian got the advantage and still played the goody! You fucking just stood right between Yao Bei Bei and Yu Zhiyi like a sandwich filling.

But on second thought, saying that would make him seem like someone with ulterior motives too.

So he stopped, forcibly changing the subject.

"Speaking of which, why didn't our class get any prizes even after winning? Just one shoddy trophy, the school is way too perfunctory."

However, Jiang Nian didn't follow the topic Li Hua offered, instead gently patting his shoulder and saying, "Can your heart take it?"

"Eat shit!" Li Hua completely lost it, pointing at Jiang Nian, "You're fucking truly the lowest of the low!"

"What?" Jiang Nian played dumb, smiling at him.

Say it, have the guts to say it.

Come on.

Li Hua's face flushed red, but he didn't dare blow up at Jiang Nian.

"Can't be bothered talking to you."

"Hehe." Jiang Nian immediately found it funny, pointing at him, "Fierce in appearance but faint in heart, full of schemes but lacking resolve."

"Eat shit!"

Zhang Ningzhi couldn't understand the boys' conversation, she only felt that the group leader seemed to suddenly go quiet and start studying.

"Hmm?"

Two evening study periods passed, Jiang Nian put away a finished math test paper and began pondering the serious matters outside of studying.

Where to earn a thousand yuan?

The class monitor is too enthusiastic, that's a good thing. But I just don't know if the class monitor's dad is equally enthusiastic towards me. The year-end is approaching, Uncle should be coming back soon.

And I, clearly, am a child who keeps eating the banana, what bad thoughts could Banana Wolf possibly have

??

If nothing else works, smash Li Hua's phone. Then get a broken phone, fix it up a bit, sell it to Li Hua for a thousand yuan. "Scumbag."

A voice came from beside him, startling Jiang Nian.

He turned his head and found Yao Bei Bei sitting in Li Hua's seat at some unknown point. She pulled a few pieces of paper from the desk drawer and turned to say.

"This afternoon, I heard everything."

"Your mom!"

"Feeling guilty?" Yao Bei Bei wore a mysterious smile, staring at Jiang Nian, "You don't want Baby Zhizhi to know either, do you?"

"Oh." Jiang Nian thought Yao Bei Bei had been acting strange lately, she couldn't be... that, could she, "You might as well be more explicit."

"?"

Yao Bei Bei was stunned, she didn't expect Jiang Nian to be so cooperative.

She had a little trouble recently and wanted to hear Jiang Dog's opinion. But she didn't trust him, afraid the dog thing would turn around and leak it.

For a moment she didn't know what to say, so she got up and left.

"I'll tell you on QQ."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian didn't take it to heart either.

He worked wholeheartedly for the class, with a clear conscience as his main principle, so what if he told Baby Zhizhi?

The tug-of-war was already won, all that was left was winning the moon.

He turned to look at the empty seats around him, and took the opportunity to stand up. Preparing to go downstairs to buy a late-night snack.

In the corridor, several boys gathered together.

Lin Dong saw Jiang Nian walking toward the stairs and asked casually.

"Where to?"

"Cafeteria raid." Jiang Nian waved his hand.

"No, the bell's about to ring soon." Lin Dong was confused, "If you go now, won't it be a bit too late?

3

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing regarding the bell."

Jiang Nian originally wanted to bring Li Hua and Fatty, but unfortunately didn't see them in the corridor. He didn't pay much attention and went to find food alone.

The cafeteria was still brightly lit, but the food was almost sold out.

The auntie selling meatballs saw a male student come in at the cafeteria entrance and habitually shouted in Mandarin with a local accent.

"Half price, half price at checkout."

"Sister, I'm pretty good-looking, can I get forty percent off?" Jiang Nian grinned and leaned in to peek at the big rice cooker.

"That won't do." The auntie laughed like a flower in bloom. "I can't do the math on a sixty percent discount."

"Then ninety percent off — that's easy to calculate." Jiang Nian ordered more than twenty yuan's worth of meatballs and tofu, one item after another. "That's all."

The auntie agonized for a moment. "Just give me five yuan."

Hehe, eighty percent off.

In fact, self-study period had already started, and the cafeteria was nearly empty. If she wouldn't sell to Jiang Nian, she'd have to eat it herself.

He bought out all the fish balls, and now sat leisurely in the cafeteria, starting to

eat.

Buzz — his phone buzzed.

Cai: "Where are you?"

"In the office asking questions, what's up?" Jiang Nian typed one-handed. "The fish balls in the office taste pretty good, you should try them next time."

Cai:

(

"Finish eating and come back quick, we might get caught."

"Aight."

Cai Xiaoqing: "Did you see Xie Zhihao?"

The guy from the lower class?

Jiang Nian didn't think much of it and replied with one word.

"No."

From the direction of the school store, a few people suddenly came in.

"The cafeteria's almost closed, right? Wonder if they still have fish balls." Xie Zhihao came out from the school store. "Probably not," Xu Shuang said.

She had originally been in the office with her brother, secretly cooking, and had listened to a class on the key difficult points of physics, before being dragged off by Xu Yuanshan to buy food.

Who knew Xie Zhihao was also there, and at the school store he was scrambling to pay.

Xu Yuanshan, thick-skinned and clueless, thought Xie Zhihao admired him. The silly kid was naturally delighted, beaming with pride and feeling very important.

Xu Shuang watched, heartsick, and stopped him.

"Sis, there should be some." Xu Yuanshan walked ahead in high spirits, broke into a quick jog. "I'll go check for you."

In the cafeteria corridor, only Xie Zhihao and Xu Shuang remained.

He suddenly sensed his chance had come; his heart thumped violently a few times. After steadying his breathing with great effort, he said in a hoarse voice,

"The moonlight is beautiful tonight."

Pfft!!

A burst of uncontrollable laughter came from a corner of the cafeteria, followed by violent coughing.

"Damn, this chili..."

Xu Shuang felt a bit awkward, turned to look, and saw it was someone she knew. Thinking it wouldn't be right to ignore him, she walked over.

She walked up to Jiang Nian, just about to say hello.

Suddenly, Xu Yuanshan's voice came through.

"Sis, the last of the fish balls were all bought up by that guy!"

Hearing this, Jiang Nian glanced up at Xu Shuang. He instinctively pulled his late-night snack closer to his chest, looking at her with a puzzled face.

"Something you need?"

At this, Xu Shuang was completely frozen with awkwardness.

"I'm not here to steal your fish balls, just saying hi."

"Alright then." Jiang Nian nodded.

Xu Shuang stood there speechless, turned and rejoined her brother. She couldn't help but give him a smack, muttering something under her breath.

The three of them sat down, eating and chatting as they went.

But it was obvious Xu Shuang no longer looked at Xie Zhihao at all. The latter wasn't discouraged either; instead, he actively chatted with the silly brother. "That Dark Night Rose Jin Ka is way too rare, I spent six or seven hundred and didn't pull anything, unlucky as hell."

Xu Yuanshan complained on the other side, "Should've just gone to the seafood market for a second-hand one, but the markup's too high — two or three thousand yuan."

Xie Zhihao wasn't interested in these cards, but to suck up to Xu Yuanshan, he'd normally spent quite a bit of money buying cards too.

"Yeah, if I pulled one I'd definitely give it to you."

"Really?" Xu Yuanshan's face lit up; he was already fantasizing about the showing-off daily life of owning a Dark Night Rose Jin Ka.

He'd have to bring it to class, and casually show off.

Suddenly, a figure appeared standing in front of Xu Yuanshan.

"I've got the Dark Night Rose Jin Ka you were just talking about. If I sold it to you cheap for a thousand yuan, would you want it?"

Hearing this, Xu Yuanshan froze.

"A card scalper?"

"Just a side gig — you just say whether you want it or not." Jiang Nian simply sat down across from the silly brother, and glanced at Xu Shuang.

He speared a fish ball and swallowed it in one bite.

Xu Shuang: "...

This guy, so shameless.

"How do you guarantee the card is real?" Xu Yuanshan's face was full of wariness — clearly not the type to be both stupid and rich. "What if you scam me?"

"I'm a Role Model of Inspiration, why the hell would I scam you?" Jiang Nian was speechless.

"Hey, watch your mouth." Xie Zhihao frowned, visibly displeased. "There are girls here, don't get crude."

"Oh, sorry about that." Jiang Nian glanced at Xie Zhihao. "Damn, I'm used to talking like that with those idiots."

"You know how it is, our class is full of weirdos."

Xie Zhihao: ".

Xu Shuang:

Xu Yuanshan didn't care about that, though. Silly kid had a brain, just not much of one—his eyes held nothing but longing for the Dark Night Rose Jin Ka.

Suddenly, Xie Zhihao blurted out a line.

"But what if?"

Jiang Nian slapped three meal cards down on the table with a few sharp taps.

"That adds up to two thousand right here."

"Fine, leave them with me as collateral." Xu Yuanshan said, reaching for the cards, feeling a little more confident now.

"Hey hey, didn't say I was giving them to you." Jiang Nian pocketed them. "If you take my meal cards, what am I supposed to eat this month?"

Xu Yuanshan: ".... Then why'd you take them out?"

"Just letting you see—these are all cards the school gave me." Jiang Nian tucked the cards into his pocket. "I'm this awesome, why would I care about your thousand yuan?"

Xu Yuanshan, half-dazed, nodded.

"Fair enough."

Xu Shuang pinched her brow:

Xie Zhihao was a bit speechless too, thinking Xu Yuanshan was usually pretty sharp. How did he become pig-stupid the moment he was around Jiang Nian?

"Um, be a little more careful."

Xu Shuang didn't say anything—nothing to say about her brother's hobby.

Too lazy to bother, she simply lowered her head and played on her phone.

"Then... when are you bringing the card?" Xu Yuanshan was already tempted, but wanted to confirm once more.

Jiang Nian did the math—the winning cooldown still had two and a half days left.

"I've got a channel, I get the sealed originals straight from the store. Come with me to the school gate, open the bag yourself, the Jin Ka's right inside."

Xu Yuanshan listened, stunned. He'd long known the card scene was full of tricks.

Didn't expect—damn, it was this shady?

But at the same time, he couldn't help but admire Jiang Nian's ability to show off. And he believed about seventy or eighty percent of what he'd said.

After all, sealed originals.

Whether they're real or not, he'd know the moment he touched one.

"Alright, tomorrow?" Xu Yuanshan nodded, trying not to look too eager. "I'm not in a rush."

"Sunday noon, after school."

"Huh?" Xu Yuanshan's composure crumbled instantly, blurting out, "Why so long? Can't we do tomorrow?"

Obviously—manual proxy draws.

【Winning】 hasn't finished cooling down yet, how am I supposed to draw for you!

"You have to pre-order, get stock from somewhere else." Jiang Nian said. "Internal operations like this take at least two days."

Xie Zhihao couldn't take it anymore and spoke up.

"How would we even know....

"Ugh, stop being so wishy-washy." Jiang Nian stood up right away. "I'll put it up on the seafood market, you buy it from there." Hearing this, Xu Yuanshan immediately panicked and stood up.

"No wait, I want it!"

Jiang Nian stopped, turned and glanced at him.

"Add me on QQ."

With a little beep, the deal was done.

Jiang Nian didn't linger—turned, grabbed the disposable food container, and left in quick strides.

Clang—he tossed it into the trash can by the door as he went.

Outside the cafeteria, the moonlight was bright and clear.

"Wait."

Xu Shuang chased after him, quick little steps. After calling out to Jiang Nian, she was a little out of breath, standing rather close.

"Something?" Jiang Nian's eyes lowered.

She looked up, sincere.

"My brother's pretty simple. He really likes that card. The thousand yuan doesn't matter—I just hope he gets a real one."

"Mm, I'll get it from an official store, you can verify it however you want." Jiang Nian nodded. "If there's nothing else, I'll head off."

"Why'd you only just get back?"

Li Hua looked up, sniffed.

"Meatballs, tofu, and a girl's scent."

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi lifted her head from the desk. She turned to look at Li Hua, then at Jiang Nian, her gaze slightly odd.

Clearly, she was

interested in the "girl's scent."

Jiang Nian cursed inwardly—damn Li Hua and his dog nose. The fragrance was obviously Xu Shuang's, but he really hadn't done anything.

"Impressive, Hua—smelling women like a connoisseur."

"What's your relationship with the cafeteria auntie? Not against forbidden love, but not encouraging it either."

Upon hearing that, Li Hua panicked.

"Red Stone!"

Zhang Ningzhi gave Jiang Nian a suspicious look, but slowly turned her head away.

Hmph, a tomcat on the prowl.

Jiang Nian couldn't care less and calmly kept flipping through the test paper.

In a blink, two class periods passed and school was nearly out. The classroom was restless — some discussed the problems, some seized the chance to chat.

"Going online this weekend?" Li Hua asked.

"Dunno, ask Jiang Nian." Ma Guojun said, "You never see him out on weekends either, all mysterious and secretive."

"Watching stuff at home." Jiang Nian, shameless as ever, lay on the desk doing problems. "Sometimes when the delivery arrives, I can't reply to messages."

Ma Guojun froze on the spot, glanced at Zhang Ningzhi beside him and the class monitor behind him, and couldn't get a word out.

"You're really...

"

"Pervert!" Li Hua suddenly did a complete personality flip, turning into a comedy actor. "Is that something a student should be doing?"

One can only say, that was a very gentlemanly remark.

"Oh." Jiang Nian rubbed his face, letting it go in one ear and out the other. "Still better than acting proper on the surface and secretly jumping straight to the last page behind the scenes."

Li Hua: "...

Zhang Ningzhi listened to Jiang Nian's words, her face burning hot, and couldn't help but shoot him a warning glance.

She just felt that this guy was lecherous.

In the back row, Li Qingrong propped her head on her hand, looking at the problems.

She was also a bit absent-minded, her gaze faintly puzzled. Her eyes rested on the test paper's surface, yet she didn't ask Jiang Nian in front of everyone.

"Ding-dong! Students, class is over...

After school.

Jiang Nian slung his bag over his shoulder, habitually exchanging greetings with the people around him. Then he nimbly walked out of the classroom, slipped into the corridor, and pulled out his phone.

Only, there were no new messages.

Yao Bei Bei had said she had something to find him about, but hadn't sent him a message until now. He figured she'd only bring it up by evening.

Jiang Nian wasn't really planning to help — he was just curious what it was. If it seemed suitable, he'd flip the script and blackmail her with a "you don't want others to know..." campus-style threat.

Yao Bei Bei was quite a piece of work herself, nasty in her own right. Jiang Nian had taken losses at her hands before, and occasionally got his revenge back.

No matter how you put it, she was still a ticking time bomb.

Third floor.

Jiang Nian and Xu Qianqian exchanged a glance, and each headed downstairs on their own. They met up again at the bottom of the Gao San building.

"Hey, what you said that day...

??

"Do you know buying cards is trendy lately?" Xu Qianqian cut in. "Like, a bunch of people in our class already bought some."

Jiang Nian's head was full of question marks.

Xu Qianqian's way of forcibly changing the subject was even more forced than that thing in the stairwell that day.