Chapter 453: This Good News, Right?

Evening self-study ended.

Jiang Nian saw Xu Qianqian on the third floor, along with Song Xiyun, who was awkwardly greeting them.

Hm?

If he remembered correctly, yesterday seemed to have thrown a small get-together for three at Little Song's place. But the hallway was crowded and noisy, so he didn't ask further.

Once again, the three of them walked together, stepping through the dim lamplight toward the school gate.

"Xiyun's mom isn't back yet, so we have to push it back a day," Xu Qianqian said casually. "What's that look on your face for,

does it have anything to do with you?"

"Nope, pretty happy," Jiang Nian said.

That was the truth—the "ex-girlfriend" had a pretty good personality. She was only stiff around him; with Xu Shao, she wasn't like that at all.

Damn, the special treatment.

"Really?" Xu Qianqian glanced at him, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Can't tell—are you hiding some dirty tricks in your head?"

"Nope." Jiang Nian shook his head.

If I actually said it out loud, you wouldn't be happy either.

Song Xiyun kept her head down, unable to resist sneaking a glance at Jiang Nian. By sheer bad luck, her eyes met his, and she jolted as if shocked, whipping her head away.

There was clearly nothing between them, even more clear-cut than ordinary friends. They didn't interact much usually, and their conversations were normal.

But for some reason, every time they met, it always felt strangely off.

An inexplicable sense of guilt.

Still, Jiang Nian had given her the impression of being a bad person from the start. Although her view had improved a little later on, nothing he did was surprising.

After getting home.

Jiang Nian, freshly washed up, sat at his desk to do the test paper, but he just couldn't settle his mind. In the end, he tossed his pen aside, a wicked fire flaring up in his chest.

Eighteen years old—no room for all that romantic fluff.

This was the prime of youth, the age where sleeping on your stomach could dig a pit. Dealing with girls every day, he'd occasionally think lewd thoughts.

What are lewd thoughts?

It's just....

He took a moment to steady himself, but his blood was still unbearably hot. So he opened the bedroom window, and after a while of cold wind blowing in, he felt considerably better.

Jiang Nian gazed at the boundless night, staring absently at a few scattered lights in the distance.

"My whole life has been like walking on thin ice....

Buzz—his phone rang.

He'd calmed down enough by then, so he picked up the phone to look. Sent by Xu Qianqian—a photo of her arm with the sleeve rolled up.

"Look, have I gotten whiter lately?"

Jiang Nian glanced at it, originally intending only to reply with a drooling emoji. But an idea struck him instantly, and he tapped out a reply.

"No comparison. Get Song Xiyun to take one together."

After a while, Xu Qianqian sent another picture. This time it was two arms, pale and fair, pressed together.

Jiang Nian typed back, "Which one's yours? If you don't show your faces, how are we supposed to tell?"

Xu Qianqian: "?"

"Go to hell!"

Several fist emojis came flying over, and the chat ended on the spot.

Jiang Nian didn't mind. He tapped open the saved picture and zoomed in. He stared at the two girls' arms, admiring them closely for a while.

Getting a bit perverted.

After looking, he put down the phone and went back to doing problems.

The next day.

Jiang Nian fumbled through the dark to get up and wash up. The pitch-black living room was silent. The soft light from the bathroom illuminated one corner of the living room.

Click—he pushed open the bathroom door and stepped out. Just as he was about to leave, he swept a glance at the somewhat shabby living room and suddenly froze.

When did the house get this old?

Li Hua arrived absurdly early. When he went up to the classroom and looked—his world collapsed.

"Huh?"

His good buddy was sitting at his seat, head down, doing problems. He walked over and looked. Two freshly finished test papers lay on the desk, the ink still wet.

"Shit, you really are a super mega try-hard!"

The sky hadn't fully brightened yet, and a thin mist drifted through the hallway. The chilly classroom only became exceptionally noisy because of Li Hua's arrival.

"What the hell did you do! You're going to drag the class average up by a whole point. Damn you! All the good colleges are going to be taken by you!"

"Shut it, Snow Leopard!" Jiang Nian pointed at him. "How can a small bird know the ambitions of a swan? Don't you know a strong man never complains about his environment?"

Hearing this, Huang Fang couldn't help but turn and glance at him.

After automatically filtering out a certain word, she agreed with the second half of Jiang Nian's sentence—a strong person grows stronger anywhere.

"Eat shit! It's you try-hards who ruin the environment!" Li Hua pointed back at him. "Stop it!

You're committing a crime!"

The back rows instantly erupted into chaos, with sounds of roughhousing breaking out everywhere.

Huang Fang:

1

Li Hua had come early because he'd been caught handing in blank test papers. Old Liu ordered him to make up several test papers before noon.

The pride of heaven had fallen, never to rise again.

The two of them played around for a while, then quietly went back to their own tasks.

The sky slowly brightened.

More and more people entered the classroom, and soon it grew noisy.

"Oh, Li Hua, you're here this early?"

"How can sparrows understand the ambition of swans? When autumn comes..." Li Hua blurted out, "The village south of Nantong bullies me for my old weakness..."

"What the hell is this mess!" Ma Guojun was speechless, "Village? And Nantong?"

Jiang Nian, amid his busyness, lifted his head and said.

"Pathetic Li Hua."

Zhang Ningzhi arrived with remarkable punctuality, almost stepping right on time.

"Hello."

"Hello!"

"Is the big star here?"

"Ah, how annoying you are!" Zhang Ningzhi puffed up, punched him, "Say it again!"

"Winter just freezes your hands," Zhang Ningzhi tilted her chin up at him.

"Damn, this pun is terrible."

Jiang Nian stopped laughing—he'd just been hit by his own boomerang. But next time, he hoped the thing hitting his face would be something else.

Morning reading began with recitation.

After fifteen minutes, the voices grew sparse; after twenty minutes, it became a low, mumbling buzz.

"By the way, that day Li Hua met Old Liu. Seeing her full of vigor, he figured her other skills must be excellent too, so he seized the chance to test her."

"That's how the later tale came about: Old Liu's First Trial of Cloud and Rain."

"Red stone! Red stone!" Li Hua covered his ears, unable to bear this, "Can you please stop making pornographic nonsense? It's insane."

"Nope, we really like listening," Ceng You grinned, "I don't even read it anymore, but this is way more fun."

Wu Jungu also smiled—he had low visibility in class.

Over the past few months, he'd been coming and going with Ceng You. Though it wasn't his original intention, he'd now grown accustomed to boarding life.

He'd go back to his aunt's house on weekends for a meal, to ease their stiff relationship.

Everything was getting better, except...

He stole a glance at Yu Zhiyi as he turned his head. She was chatting with the students in front and behind her, and his heart stirred not at all.

He'd climbed up this far—he could never go back.

Jiang Nian opened his skill panel and pulled up the skill 【Good News】 he'd unlocked from the last quest, studying it closely.

Tomorrow was Sunday—a day off; these two days were perfect for it.

He couldn't help feeling curious, thinking to himself.

"Let's see what good news you've got."

After activation, a line of text appeared spontaneously in Jiang Nian's mind.

【Good News: Behind the daily vegetable market (precise location): Fifty centimeters below lies a small yellow fish, buried in a ditch five years ago.】

After the market was abandoned, it has remained buried ever since.】

After reading it, Jiang Nian couldn't help raising an eyebrow.

After the market was abandoned, it remained buried until now.

"Damn, this is a good news?"

First mission, and I'm digging? How sharp is this system's head?

Fine, fine—I'll follow this system. One day I'll sit at the same table as Wu Xie. Such a precise location? Fine, it's a good news.

It's buried, not deeply buried; ancestral relics don't need to be handed in.

Good, good, good—following the system, someday I'll sit at the same table as Wu Xie. Such a precise location is indeed good news.

Then I can only...

Jiang Nian's cousin is a jewelry designer who works at a company in the city. During gold trade-ins, she collected four million yuan worth of gold.

Over half of it had no receipts; when asked, she'd say it was ancestral.

Would you really confiscate the gold from someone who brought in their grandmother's gold?

All I can say is, it's hilarious.

But this stuff? Just burn it with a blowtorch, get someone to make it into a bracelet—no one could ever trace it.

Of course, Jiang Nian wouldn't do that.

But this thing, just burn it with a blowtorch. Have someone make it into a bracelet—it can't be traced at all.

He'd find time at noon to buy tools, then, when night fell and few people were around, dig up the gold in the evening and use the money to join the market economy.

If gold stays buried in the ground, how can the economy improve! (Shit!)

After Chinese morning reading ended.

Yu Zhiyi stood up from her seat to use the restroom—she'd been irritable this morning; she couldn't find her socks in the dorm.

Damn, does the dorm have rats?

After relieving herself, she washed her hands and sneakily checked the mirror. Seeing her own reflection was pleasing, she finally smiled.

As she walked to the door of Class Three, suddenly someone behind her asked:

After she finished urinating, she washed her hands and secretly glanced in the mirror. Seeing her reflection pleasing to the eye, she finally smiled.

Walking to the door of Class Three, he suddenly heard someone ask behind him.

"Whose socks fell off?"

At that moment, Yu Zhiyi froze solid. She turned her head mechanically, staring at the corridor behind her—a pink sock…

It was hers.

In an instant, Yu Zhiyi's mind went blank.

Where had the sock fallen from?

She remembered her habit: at night, she took off her socks along with her pants. Clearly, the sock was inside the pants.

In winter, with thick thermal leggings on, she never noticed.

She was dumbfounded, too terrified to move, afraid the other sock might drop out of her pant leg—so she stood aside, pretending to admire the view.

"Whose sock is this?"

Someone asked again. When no one answered, they shouted at the top of their lungs.

"Who dropped a sock! Pink one!"

By the railing, Yu Zhiyi finished enduring her humiliation. She planned to wait until the class bell rang, then slip the sock out when the hallway was empty.

"What are you doing here?" Jiang Nian shook water off his hands, glanced at the distant mountains, "Thick fog's rising—definitely going to be sunny."

Yu Zhiyi's face changed. She cursed inwardly.

Why did he show up?

"Hmm… yeah."

"Whose sock dropped?" Jiang Nian glanced at the ground, then raised his voice again, "Whose sock dropped?"

Hearing this, Yu Zhiyi found it unbearable.

Stop saying it. Stop saying it.

Just go away!

"Ding dong! Students,

Class time is here…"

Yu Zhiyi stood in place, then turned to find Jiang Nian hadn't left. She was speechless, thinking: What's wrong with this guy?

"You… why aren't you going back to class?"

Jiang Nian glanced at her. "Oh, I was wondering if you'd pick up that sock."

"Ahhh!!!" Yu Zhiyi's face turned bright red, steam practically rising from her head. She gritted her teeth, "Jiang Nian, are you even human?!"

"Hehe." Jiang Nian snickered, strolling away lazily.

Endure it in silence!

Yu Zhiyi clenched her fist, glanced up at the fourth-floor corridor. Seeing no teacher, she quickly crouched and fished a sock out from her pant leg.

When she looked up, Jiang Nian was putting his phone away at the back door of the classroom.

Smiling smugly.

Boom—Yu Zhiyi exploded completely.

Bastard!

Teacher Liu swapped classes: the first two periods were moved to the third and fourth. The whole class cheered instantly.

Because the last period had lax attendance checks—they could watch videos again!

Perfect!

During morning run, she ran into Chen Yunyun.

"Hey, new hairstyle?"

Chen Yunyun had tied her hair into a bun, the black hair tie looking nice. He had no culture, so all he said was: "Wocao."

She spun around in front of Jiang Nian and asked.

"Mm-hmm, pretty?"

"Looks good."

Jiang Nian turned his head and met Wang Yuhe's gaze—like a sewer rat spying on him. Instantly, he switched expressions, sneering:

"Noob!"

"Who are you calling?"

"Don't know. Whoever answers, that's who."

Classic argument routine—neither could convince the other.

Lin Dong heard this, stole a glance at Jiang Nian, and shook his head. At his age, one shouldn't be this childish.

He was currently recruiting Hu Nianzhong as a member of the sales team.

No choice—no one else was available.

The business empire was on the brink. Better to recruit a classmate than a stranger. At least they'd be reliable and handle things fairly.

After all, the saying goes: never go into business with brothers.

Wang Yu was not the only one watching Ping'an Night—Tao Ran was also watching Ping'an Night's… virtual cat-ear girl game's recharge event.

"One more pull. Change fate."

After morning run ended, they returned to the classroom.

After a Chinese lesson, the third-period class was indeed video time. The whole class cheered—then Teacher Liu shut them down.

"Keep it low-key. Keep it low-key."

"Uh… Tao Ran, come turn on the multimedia."

The class pulled

the curtains, closed the door, and watched a documentary. The classroom buzzed, harmonizing with the multimedia's sound.

Zhang Ningzhi glanced at the calendar on the last page of her notebook, her gaze lingering for a long time on the line: "Next Tuesday, Ping'an Night."

She didn't plan to buy apples; she wanted to buy a palm-sized green apple cake.

To give to...

Pata—Jiang Nian suddenly put down his pen and grabbed Zhang Ningzhi's left hand, blurting out something inexplicable.

"You're a magical girl too, and so am I—let's protect peace together."

After saying that, he let go with a snap.

He turned his head again, picked up the pen, and resumed his homework with meticulous focus—no warning, perfectly smooth.

Zhang Ningzhi: "???"

What the hell?

Li Hua heard their conversation and squirmed awkwardly in her seat.

"So we're all magical girls?"

Zhang Ningzhi: "???"

So scary—what kind of group did I even join?

She looked down at her left hand, which had been held, then at Jiang Nian, bent over his homework, and pressed her lips together.

"Oh."

After school.

Jiang Nian slipped out of school alone, bought a small shovel at a camping store, then bought a plastic bag and left quietly.

The shovel was hard to carry, so he hid it in a greenery strip instead.

The afternoon passed in a flash.

Jiang Nian greeted the class monitor, said he had something to do, gave no details, and slipped away stealthily.

He walked to the familiar greenery strip and pulled out the shovel.

Just as he was about to head toward the abandoned market near school, a familiar voice came from behind.

"Jiang Nian! What are you doing here?"