Chapter 1: One, Men Must Endure Loneliness

One, Men Must Endure Loneliness

Although it was already autumn, the weather remained very hot.

Luzhou Train Station.

Qin Yuan, a small-town exam-taker, pulled his heavy suitcase and walked outward with the tide of people.

"Time really passes quickly! In a flash, many years have gone by."

Qin Yuan sighed in his heart.

Qin Yuan was not from this world.

To be precise, Qin Yuan was a reborn person, reborn into the past.

Uh, saying "the past" is a bit inaccurate.

This world is completely different from the previous one; Earth and the Otherworld have countless spatial rifts.

Thinking of the spatial rifts, Qin Yuan frowned slightly.

There was one question that had always lingered in his heart.

Who created the spatial rifts?

And what was the purpose?

Could it be that one day in the future, the heavens would collapse and the earth would crack, and heaven and earth would be turned upside down?

Feeling a sudden heat on his body, Qin Yuan looked up; he had unknowingly already exited the cool train station.

Dense array patterns appeared on the ground, created during the Great War era to defend against attacks from Otherworldly beings.

Whether by physical body or spiritual sense, touching them would activate the array patterns.

Like ordinary people, Qin Yuan followed the signs, keeping his distance from the array patterns, and carefully walked outward.

……

At this moment, parked on the roadside diagonally opposite the train station was an ordinary sedan.

Two figures stood in front of the car.

One was a middle-aged man, tall, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, full of masculine charm; standing beside him was a girl who was very beautiful—not the traditional kind of beauty, but the kind of beauty belonging to a flirt, with a figure that was simply perfect.

Plus, wearing athletic shorts that revealed snow-white long legs, and a white tight-fitting top that completely outlined her delicate and full curves.

The girl poked her head out to look around, appearing extremely impatient.

The middle-aged man laughed heartily: "Don't be anxious; you'll see Ah Yuan very soon."

"Who's anxious?"

The girl blushed and retorted as if her backside were on fire.

The smile on the middle-aged man's face grew even brighter.

In the next moment, his gaze turned toward a spot.

There stood a young man of about eighteen.

It was Qin Yuan, who had just exited the train station.

Qin Yuan's appearance made the two of them pause in surprise.

His hair was long and messy, like a chicken coop; he had dark circles under his eyes, with eye gunk still in them; his clothes were wrinkled and hadn't been washed for who knows how many days; a body odor of sweat could be smelled from far away.

Seeing Shen Shen Yaoqiao standing beside his godfather who had come to pick him up, Qin Yuan felt secretly pleased in his heart.

If Shen Shen Yaoqiao sees me looking this sloppy, her good impression of me must surely decrease.

Shen Shen Yaoqiao was Qin Yuan's childhood sweetheart, three years older than Qin Yuan.

She was as beautiful as a flower, with a figure so good it was deadly, and wherever she went, she attracted everyone's attention.

To develop secretly while no one was paying attention, he must keep a certain distance from Shen Shen Yaoqiao.

In the next moment, Shen Shen Yaoqiao rushed toward Qin Yuan like a young swallow diving into a forest.

She really was both "Yao" and "Qiao."

As a young man with abundant male hormones, Qin Yuan's gaze instinctively lingered for a moment before quickly shifting away.

Arriving before Qin Yuan, Shen Shen Yaoqiao suddenly stopped her steps, stared at Qin Yuan for two seconds, then burst out laughing, "How did you make yourself look like this?"

After speaking, she playfully poked Qin Yuan's chicken-coop hair with her hand.

Seeing not a trace of disgust in Shen Shen Yaoqiao's eyes, Qin Yuan opened his mouth, and the breath he had been holding for a long time escaped.

Only then did Shen Shen Yaoqiao step back.

However, her face still showed no expression of disgust.

Instead, her eyes held a hint of pity.

Qin Yuan thought to himself, "It seems the path of making Shen Shen Yaoqiao disgusted with me won't work."

In a man's life, he will meet many women.

Some require emotional value.

Some require money.

Some require physical beauty.

Some have no big demands.

Shen Shen Yaoqiao belongs to the last category.

And she is also the most difficult kind; she wants nothing, or perhaps she wants everything.

"Qiaoqiao, look at Ah Yuan, then look at you; you dress up like a blooming flower all day long, not looking like someone who cultivates at all. I think it won't be long before Ah Yuan surpasses you."

The middle-aged man, walking over behind them, made no attempt to hide his expression of admiration for Qin Yuan.

In the path of cultivation, the most important thing is to have a mind free of distractions; Qin Yuan's appearance clearly showed a mind free of distractions, wholly devoted to cultivation.

Qin Yuan: "……"

You can interpret it that way?

"This is Teacher Shen Shen Zhilu, Shen-laoshi. From now on, he'll be your teacher."

Shen Shen Yaoqiao introduced him with a joking smile.

"Teacher Shen."

Qin Yuan called out very solemnly.

"We're not at the academy, call me Dad."

Shen Shen Zhilu said with a beaming smile.

The Qin and Shen families were old family friends.

Shen Shen Yaoqiao's grandfather and Qin Yuan's grandfather were from the same hometown. To change the fate of generations of mule drivers, they went off together to seek their fortunes in another world.

Unfortunately, the two of them were ambitious beyond their station — not only did they fail to achieve anything great, they both kicked the bucket in a strange land.

By the generation of Shen Shen Yaoqiao's father and Qin Yuan's father, they truly shone — one became the idol of the younger generation, the other became the vomit-doll of the younger generation.

The fate of the vomit-doll hardly needs spelling out.

Long ago, Qin Yuan had taken Shen Shen Zhilu as his godfather.

Shen Shen Zhilu felt "godfather" wasn't close enough, and always demanded Qin Yuan call him Dad.

"Dad."

Qin Yuan put a great deal of feeling into that one word.

Shen Shen Zhilu really had treated him well.

Over the years, he had never stopped looking after him.

Qin Yuan's coming to Luzhou Academy was also partly because Shen Shen Zhilu had insisted on it again and again.

Suddenly, Qin Yuan thought of another reason to keep his distance from Shen Shen Yaoqiao.

In a certain sense, Shen Shen Yaoqiao was his older sister — how could a man have improper thoughts about his sister?

Hahahaha, I'm a goddamn genius.

"Put the luggage in the trunk and get in the car."

"A new-energy vehicle."

Only now did Qin Yuan notice the new-energy car Shen-dad was driving.

These past few years, this kind of car had been getting more and more popular.

"Originally I was going to buy the hottest foreign model, but I heard you'd have to retake the driving test, so I didn't."

Shen Shen Zhilu explained.

"It's not about retaking the test — the car dealers just want to educate the consumers."

Shen Shen Yaoqiao said, annoyed.

"Car dealers dare to educate consumers now?"

"Knife sellers dare, writers dare — why shouldn't car sellers?"

"Writers?"

A question mark seemed to float onto Shen Shen Zhilu's forehead.

"Web-novel authors — before they hit it big, you're their grandpa; after they blow up, you're the grandson."

"What a load of nonsense."

Shen Shen Zhilu, who never read web novels, said with a laugh as he got into the car parked to one side.

He pressed the button to open the trunk.

Qin Yuan put the luggage in, got in the car, and sat right against the edge.

The last to get in, Shen Shen Yaoqiao, slid right up next to Qin Yuan.

Suddenly, a bulging backpack came between the two of them.

Qin Yuan gave Shen Shen Yaoqiao a warm, polite smile.

In other words: please don't come over, thank you.

Shen Shen Yaoqiao froze, then her rosy little mouth puckered up, and she quietly reached out and pinched Qin Yuan's thigh hard.

Qin Yuan didn't react at all.

As if she'd pinched someone else.

Plop — the bag got knocked off, and Shen Shen Yaoqiao was just about to lift herself over and lean against him.

Qin Yuan picked the bag up and put it back.

This time it wasn't a polite smile — he gave Shen Shen Yaoqiao a very stern glare.

Shen Shen Yaoqiao pulled back the hand that had been about to remove the bag again, angrily scooted her bottom all the way to the other side, and stared out the car window.

Watching Qin Yuan's and Shen Shen Yaoqiao's little moves in the rearview mirror, Shen Shen Zhilu was even more pleased with Qin Yuan.

Only those who can resist the temptation of beauty and endure loneliness can go further.

He had once taught a male student — top-tier talent, a brilliant future ahead of him — who got hooked on playing the player, his life turned into a mess, and in the end he got NTR'd to death.