Chapter 48

The afternoon sun was perfect, and upstairs, his sister was gone.

All the classes on the fourth floor were in session; the corridor felt empty. At the entrance of every classroom stood a set of desks and chairs—commonly known as the special seats for evening self-study tutoring.

These were usually reserved for students with excellent grades but severe subject imbalances, for extra tutoring during evening self-study.

Jiang Nian held his breath, straightened his back, and walked past the doorways of other classrooms. He tried his best to seem unremarkable, avoiding the scrutiny of students from other classes.

Uh... this feels a bit too sneaky.

Classroom A403 was silent; seven or eight classmates were scattered about. Desks piled high with books, they glanced up at him, then lowered their heads to keep solving problems.

Jiang Nian didn't spot anyone he knew, returned to his seat, and settled in to solve math problems.

He hadn't yet examined the system task in detail, nor thought much about it. Work was work, study was study—he clearly understood their relative weights.

First, System Task One had no time limit, and it couldn't run away on its own. Second, as long as he didn't get married, in a certain sense, he had already achieved a crude, fundamental reversal of fortune.

Finally, the so-called reversal of fortune by his thirty-eight-year-old self in another timeline was essentially using the system to correct a life that had taken a long detour.

No matter how much he dieted, reconnected with his unfulfilled childhood sweetheart or ex-girlfriend, or kept trying to fix and reclaim what was lost—what had already happened could only be mitigated, never undone.

Jiang Nian had never experienced any of those things; he didn't need the system. Simply doing nothing was already enough to outpace his thirty-eight-year-old self in another timeline.

The system, to him, was merely frosting on the cake.

As always, he treated the system like a fan-made mini-game. For him, it was just a small management game that occasionally dropped gold coins and rewards.

Studying was different. Xu Qianqian was right: what's past cannot be recalled, but what's future can still be pursued.

Memory Bread had filled in his foundational knowledge; to maintain his grades by month's end and to get into a better university next summer, he still needed to rely on his own efforts.

Without brains, money will vanish sooner or later.

He was eighteen, at an age where everything seemed possible. He didn't have to choose between earning money through system tasks and studying—he could have both.

He could hold both earning and studying in one hand, savoring the fragrance of knowledge and the power of money simultaneously.

Buzzzz.

The phone alarm rang at 11:50; Jiang Nian immediately put down his pen and stood up to leave.

What nonsense—no matter how fragrant knowledge is, it won't fill your stomach. The Gaokao isn't decided in a moment, and fake effort is useless. Sleep when you need to sleep, eat when you need to eat.

Besides, he truly loved the cafeteria ladies—he ran to see them. And the underclassmen loved them even more; if you didn't run, you wouldn't get any food.

As soon as class ended, he'd sprint—his legs were longer than his life. Love could wait; being single was fine, but being hungry wasn't. Getting food two minutes earlier could even move up your family lineage ranking.

Physical education, a rare and endangered course for Gao San, was scheduled in the fourth period of the morning—completely free time. Losing priority for meals would be outright sacrilege.

Just as he stepped out, he bumped straight into the class monitor, Li Qingrong.

Their eyes met for an instant; Jiang Nian felt an awkwardness, then quickly looked away and greeted her.

"Monitor, you're… going home?"

Jiang Nian knew Li Qingrong's family was rich; she usually didn't eat in the cafeteria. This detail came from Yao Beibei, who seemed oddly fixated on Li Qingrong.

He had no interest in learning about Li Qingrong—he just wanted to eat.

"To the cafeteria," Li Qingrong said, her gaze calm and voice unhurried. "I haven't finished the problems. I won't go home for lunch."

"Oh, okay." Jiang Nian's mind was already on the cafeteria; hearing the word "cafeteria" made him hungry. "Same here. Monitor, you'd better hurry, or there won't be any food left."

He was just being kind—he wasn't usually this considerate. Today was special: 11:52, still eight full minutes until lunch dismissal.

From the fourth-floor classroom to the cafeteria, walking took six minutes, running took two. Altogether, Jiang Nian could even afford six minutes to do a good deed.

In truth, he was just being polite.

Unexpectedly, Li Qingrong nodded and said one thing.

"Alright."

Jiang Nian thought, I'm really a damn good person, then descended the stairs. After a few steps, he felt something was off—he turned back and saw Li Qingrong walking behind him.

"Monitor, aren't you going back to the classroom?"

"No, I'm not," Li Qingrong nodded. "I ran out of tissues. I was going back to get some, but after what you said, it makes sense."

???

Jiang Nian wondered if the monitor had a cowlick, but it didn't matter anymore.

At this point, eating was the priority.

The two walked down the stairs, one behind the other; once outside the teaching building, they walked side by side. With dismissal near, the basketball court's PE classes had mostly dispersed.

Day students went home; those eating headed to the cafeteria. Boarders returned to dorms—girls rushed to wash their hair, boys headed to the cafeteria near the north gate of the dormitory building.

For Jiang Nian, a day student, the dormitory cluster near the north gate was an entirely new map—a forbidden zone of the sect, accessible only to a few day students who entered through the north gate.

Ultimately, it was because the north gate connected directly to the town's southern county bus station.

Outside, the street was pitch-black, roads cracked and broken—repair shops, late-night barbecue stalls, old rental apartments—starkly contrasting the bustling front gate of the school.

The alleyways were dark and tangled, with wires crisscrossing the sky like a miniature India's charm.

Boom!

A pale yellow basketball soared high, tracing a perfect arc before landing squarely in the hoop—the court erupted in cheers.

Only eight or nine boys remained, drenched in sweat; Li Hua sprinted around the half-court, thrilled by his three-pointer.

He turned his head and saw the scene—his jaw nearly dropped.

"Jiang Nian! Monitor!"

"Are you crazy? You really want Jiang Nian to be monitor?" someone teased. "But our monitor is a bit too rigid—if it were Jiang Nian..."

"No, you're fucking kidding—look for yourself!" Li Hua cried, tears streaming.

The three-pointer was great—but I won't shoot another one!

On the nearly empty playground, Jiang Nian and Li Qingrong walked side by side. From afar, they looked like a couple—yet Li Qingrong showed no sign of discomfort.

Her expression remained calm, as if they were simply walking the same path.

Then again, who else but the monitor would act like this?

"Holy shit! How is Jiang Nian walking together with the class monitor?" another buzz-cut boy said. "He... didn't he go up to do the problem? Gou Gou Da-ing the class monitor?"

"Don't get so worked up, you guys are acting like NPCs every day." the tall PE committee member waved his hand. "Maybe they're just walking the same stretch of road — didn't you see the class monitor's face is pretty expressionless?"

The few of them were all speechless at once — bro, are you really reading that closely?

The next second Li Hua once again went holy shit, his finger trembling as he said, "She smiled, damn it, how can she smile at Jiang Nian! A virgin! A damn virgin!"