Chapter 14: Preparation and New Job

The stationery shop at the school gate always sells all kinds of things that students need.

The stationery shop at the gate of Songyang High School is no different.

Besides all kinds of stationery, the huge display cabinet behind the boss looks like a pharmacy, filled with all kinds of medicines high school students need, from tranquilizers, stimulants to focus agents.

Zhang Yu leaned on the counter with both hands and asked, "Boss, do you have Nerve Filler?"

The boss, who was scrolling on his phone, said without looking up, "Do you want the expensive one or the cheaper one?"

Zhang Yu: "I'm a student, can you sell me the expensive one cheaper?"

The boss finally looked up and gave Zhang Yu a sidelong glance.

Zhang Yu said nonchalantly, "I'm tenth in the grade in Class 1 of Senior One, a big name on campus. If I use your medicine and it works well, my classmates will definitely follow me and buy from you."

The boss twitched the corner of his mouth, took out a box of medicine from the cabinet, and placed it in front of Zhang Yu: "Ziyun Company's Nerve Filler, guaranteed to make you only need to sleep 20 minutes a day. 500 a box, I'll sell it to you for 480 this time."

Zhang Yu picked up the medicine box and looked at it: "No freebies?"

The boss frowned, then took out a few painkillers and said, "Here, this is on me."

Zhang Yu chuckled, stuffed the painkillers into his pants pocket, and said, "Thanks boss, then can I not buy the Nerve Filler?"

Seeing the boss's darkening face, Zhang Yu scanned the payment code beside him: "Just kidding, I'm scanning it now."

As Zhang Yu picked up the Nerve Filler from the counter, he felt a pang of heartache.

This box of Nerve Filler would only last a week, but it cost him a full 480. At that moment, his account balance instantly dropped to just over 1,700.

But Zhang Yu believed it was all worth it.

After all, since he had decided to participate in the Technique Competition, Zhang Yu intended to give it his all. He wouldn't sleep for the next week, focusing entirely on cultivating the Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method.

"Heh, my goal is not just the top ten in the grade."

On the other side, Zhao Tianxing followed into the stationery shop. Watching Zhang Yu buy medicine and leave, he thought to himself, "Is it really Nerve Filler?"

He followed Zhang Yu out of the stationery shop and walked along the street until, at a corner, he suddenly found Zhang Yu standing there waiting for him.

"Y-you... hello, Zhang Yu," Zhao Tianxing said awkwardly. "What a coincidence, you take this road too?"

Zhang Yu looked at him and asked, "Why are you following me?"

Zhao Tianxing scratched his head and pretended to be clueless: "Following you? I take this road after school too."

Zhang Yu said impatiently, "Please take a look at yourself."

"Over two meters tall, three hundred pounds, I spotted you as soon as I left the cafeteria."

"What exactly do you want?"

Naturally, Zhao Tianxing couldn't tell him that the PE teacher Wang Hai had asked him to get close to Zhang Yu and find out where Zhang Yu got his supplies.

So Zhao Tianxing scratched his head again and said a little sheepishly, "Zhang Yu, I think you're really outstanding. I want to follow you and learn from you more."

Looking at the shy expression of this sixteen-year-old, over-300-pound big boy, Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Seriously... your social skills are still at the elementary school level, aren't they?"

Zhang Yu thought for a moment and said, "Alright, as long as you treat me to fried chicken, you can follow me as you wish from now on."

Feeling waves of chills from within his body and the constantly urging countdown in his mind, Zhang Yu knew he couldn't linger any longer.

So he helplessly walked forward while waving his hand: "Let's talk as we walk."

Zhao Tianxing followed behind Zhang Yu, his face full of hesitation: "You want to eat fried chicken? That's a big taboo for body refinement. Teacher Wang told us not to eat it. Can we change to chicken breast?"

"Don't worry, I'm not asking you to eat it. Just treat me to it." Thinking of the taste of fried chicken, Zhang Yu couldn't help wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth.

Ever since coming to this world, he had been eating poor-man's healthy meals three times a day in the high school cafeteria. Zhang Yu hadn't eaten food like fried chicken in a long time.

And day after day of hard training had been piling up stress in his heart. He had no time to relax, and didn't dare spend an extra cent.

Now, thinking that he would soon be able to eat fried chicken, Zhang Yu felt much lighter in his heart, and the pressure seemed to have eased a bit.

Zhao Tianxing followed him all the way, taking the subway and getting off, watching as he arrived at a fried chicken shop. He asked curiously, "Coming all this way to this shop—it must be because this shop is especially delicious, right?"

Zhang Yu: "Because it's on the way."

Unfortunately, as soon as Zhang Yu stepped into the fried chicken shop to stay, he heard that damn countdown in his mind start ticking again.

He could only turn to Zhao and say, "Buy me a fried chicken combo, I'll wait for you here."

Watching Zhang Yu sit down on the spot and begin meditating, Zhao Tianxing scratched his head, somewhat puzzled about what was going on.

A moment later, seeing Zhang Yu on the road happily gnawing on a fried chicken drumstick, Zhao Tianxing felt increasingly strange.

"He's so disciplined that he even uses waiting time for breathing exercises, yet he wants to eat fried chicken... What a weird person."

And as he followed Zhang Yu next, Zhao Tianxing was even more surprised to find that he wasn't heading to a cram school or buying medicine, but instead came to a square to wait for a temporary job.

Zhao Tianxing: "You're going to work a part-time job?"

Zhang Yu patted his stomach, found a clean spot on the ground, sat down comfortably, and waved his hand. "One fried chicken doesn't come with conversation. I'm going to cultivate while waiting for work. Do whatever you want."

Watching Zhang Yu start breathing exercises right there on the ground, Zhao Tianxing was stunned again. "Breathing exercises?" He glanced at the sewage not far away, listened to the noisy music coming from the barbershop across the street, looked at the clearly intimidating job seekers around him, and couldn't help asking again, "Here?"

But Zhang Yu had already begun wholeheartedly cultivating the Circular Breathing Method, and this time he ignored him.

Zhao Tianxing crouched beside Zhang Yu, observed carefully for a while, and realized that he was indeed performing breathing exercises. More doubts welled up in his heart: "What's the point of breathing exercises here...?"

"Just to practice while waiting for work?"

After waiting a while and finding that Zhang Yu showed no sign of getting up, just as Zhao Tianxing was thinking about leaving, his phone vibrated.

Reading the inquiry message from Wang Hai, Zhao Tianxing replied that he was getting close to Zhang Yu. After hesitating for a long time, he finally sat down beside him and also began his own breathing exercises.

Half an hour later, Zhao Tianxing couldn't help opening his eyes and found Zhang Yu still breathing.

An hour later, Zhao Tianxing couldn't help standing up, took a walk, stretched, and turned his head to see Zhang Yu still breathing.

After more than two hours, Zhao Tianxing had long stopped breathing exercises and started practicing the Thirty-Six Forms of Body Strengthening one move at a time.

And in his occasional observations, Zhang Yu remained completely motionless from start to finish. Not to mention small movements like scratching his head or butt, he didn't even lift an eyelid, and the rhythm of his breathing didn't change at all.

Zhao Tianxing couldn't help sighing inwardly: "Such high concentration. No wonder he can maintain zero distraction rate for days."

!.

"But here, without a spiritual root, without a high-spirit-machine environment, and without taking any medicine... the efficiency of breathing exercises is so low. Is it really meaningful?"

Under Zhang Yu's focused cultivation, the progress of the Circular Breathing Method increased again, reaching Level 4 (12/80).

Just then, another van drove into the square. Hearing that they were looking for security guards, Zhang Yu withdrew his attention again and continued cultivating.

As a high school freshman like him, he had no competitive edge over the old-timers around him in security work.

But soon he heard the recruiter's requirements: young, good physique, clean and neat appearance, and not too low in looks.

Zhang Yu's eyes snapped open. With the stride of a dragon and the walk of a tiger, he headed toward the van, raised his hand confidently, and said, "What do you think of me?"

The driver on the van's eyes suddenly lit up. He walked toward Zhang Yu and said, "Good, good, good, you're hired."

Zhang Yu chuckled and was about to shake his hand, but found the driver passed him by, grabbing Zhao Tianxing's hand instead and praising, "Great physique, and such a delicate face."

"This chest!"

"This waist!"

"This back!"

The driver patted Zhao Tianxing's body while admiring, "Perfect proportions! Though his absolute strength isn't great yet, the foundational framework has been built flawlessly, like a rough jade exuding infinite possibilities."

"To achieve this level, without persistent hard training, extremely disciplined lifestyle habits, guidance from a famous master, and near-limitless medicine and acupuncture, it's absolutely impossible."

"You're the one, kid. I'll give you eight hundred an hour. Come with me."

At this moment, Zhang Yu beside him was shocked.

He hadn't expected that his lean, defined physique, his handsome and cool face, and his aura as a visitor from another world would lose to a muscle monster like Zhao Tianxing.

"Boss, take a look at me. I can do it too."

The driver glanced at Zhang Yu and shook his head. "Skinny guys need not apply."

"For security work, you'd lack a sense of safety. When blocking flying swords, you'd block half as many as others."

Zhao Tianxing opened his mouth to refuse, "Actually, I'm not here to..."

Zhang Yu quickly interrupted him, "Boss, we're sworn brothers. We vowed that whether it's a one-person job or a group job, we'll do it together."

The driver frowned, glanced at Zhang Yu, then at Zhao Tianxing beside him, and finally asked Zhang Yu, "I'll pay you 400 per hour, for four hours total. You in or not?"

Zhang Yu nodded eagerly and said, "In! In! In!"

Zhao Tianxing was dragged by Zhang Yu toward the van.

Zhao Tianxing said to Zhang Yu with an awkward expression, "I didn't come here to work, and if I get back too late, my mom will worry. I'd better go talk to the boss and explain..."

Zhang Yu quickly said, "Didn't you have something you wanted to talk to me about? Come work with me, and you can talk about whatever you want."

After thinking about the task Wang Hai had assigned, Zhao Tianxing reluctantly said, "I need to call my mom first."

The van drove the two of them all the way toward the city center, and along the way the driver introduced their job for the trip.

"Ms. Li Xuelian is holding an art exhibition in the Cloud Hall on the 999th floor. Security-wise, there's actually no problem."

"However, Ms. Li isn't satisfied with the appearance of the internal security guards, worried it might affect the viewing experience, so she's asked us to find some handsome young guys."

"When you two get there, change into the security uniforms and follow all orders from the security team leader."

"And remember especially: absolutely, absolutely, absolutely do not offend Ms. Li."

Zhang Yu asked curiously, "This Ms. Li must be really rich, right?"

"Hmph, rich?" The driver snorted and said proudly, "She's more than just rich. Ms. Li is the daughter of a Golden Core True Person!"