Chapter 266: Want to Try a Kiss?

March 1st, Sunday morning.

Before his phone alarm rang, Li Luo felt his bed shift slightly.

The next instant, he felt his face poked.

Half-asleep, he opened his eyes just a slit, squinting at the figure before him—a silhouette kneeling on his bed, leaning down to watch him.

He focused his gaze.

It was Yan Zhusheng.

She wore pajamas, blinking big eyes as she knelt beside him, her finger still poised to poke his cheek.

Seeing him awake, she waved her hand in front of his face: "Li Luo, wake up."

Li Luo sighed: "... I just signed the roommate agreement last night, and you're already breaking it on day one?"

"I followed it."

"Then how did you barge into my bedroom?"

"Today is Sunday, not a school day."

"But it's the first day of school—how isn't that a school day?"

"I didn't barge in. I knocked."

"But I didn't give you permission, did I?"

"But I said at the door—if you didn't refuse, that meant consent," Yan Zhusheng said seriously. "You didn't refuse, so you agreed. That's why I came in."

Li Luo: "... You're truly a genius."

"Li Luo, wake up," Yan Zhusheng poked his face again. "Let's go for a morning run."

"Alright. Go freshen up first. I'll change clothes."

"Oh."

After changing and washing up, the two went downstairs together.

Yan Zhusheng shoved one earbud into Li Luo's ear; they jogged around the compound for ten minutes to music, then ate breakfast at the stall downstairs.

When they returned with breakfast, Ying Chanxi was already up, watching the pair return and falling into deep thought.

"Chanxi, here's your breakfast," Yan Zhusheng placed the pan-fried dumplings, buns, and soy milk on the table, calling her to eat.

Then she went to Xu Youyu's door, knocked, entered, and woke him up.

Ying Chanxi also went to the bedroom to wake Qiao Xinyan, who had spent the night there.

"I want to run every morning from now on," Ying Chanxi looked up at Li Luo during breakfast. "My dad wants me to exercise more. Next time you wake up, remember to wake me too."

"Alright."

"You two are really full of energy," Xu Youyu sipped his hot soy milk and sighed contentedly. "Isn't sleeping in nice?"

"School's starting—can you even fix your sleep schedule, senior?"

"You're underestimating me," Xu Youyu rolled her eyes. "My adaptive circadian rhythm isn't for show. The new term's about to get busy."

"What's happening this term?" Li Luo asked idly, scrolling on his phone.

"Plenty," Xu Youyu chewed a dumpling, swallowed, then began counting on her fingers. "They'll probably schedule a placement test and the opening ceremony in the next couple days."

"For Women's Day, the literature club needs articles praising working women and our female teachers for a special issue."

"After Qingming Festival break, it'll be the Grade One Three-Ball Tournament. Even though Grades Two and Three don't compete, we behind-the-scenes staff still have to scramble."

"What's the Three-Ball Tournament?" Li Luo blinked, wondering if he'd ever heard of such a thing in his past life.

"Basketball, badminton, table tennis," Xu Youyu smiled. "Every year, Grade One students can sign up—basketball is a class team event, badminton and table tennis are individual entries. Kinda fun."

"Oh." Li Luo nodded, then turned to Yan Zhusheng. "I remember you're pretty good at badminton."

Yan Zhusheng nodded. "Yeah. You can't beat me."

Li Luo: "... Let's not bring that up again."

"Will you join badminton, Zhusheng?" Xu Youyu's eyes lit up. "Your long legs are perfect for it."

After mentioning the tournament, Xu Youyu paused, then continued: "Before Labor Day comes the midterm exam, and in May there's the Ningshan March."

"But only Grade Two can join—you'll have to wait till next year."

"Though it's not exactly a fun activity. It's exhausting."

Ying Chanxi frowned. "What's the Ningshan March?"

"Think of it as a hiking field trip," Xu Youyu rolled her eyes. "They claim it's to build endurance, so all Grade Two students must participate."

"It's just Ningshan Mountain—we'll start from school, walk half the loop around Ningshan, enter from the southern gate, then climb all the way to the summit."

"The cherry blossoms at the top are beautiful. Everyone will have a picnic up there."

"In the afternoon, we'll descend via the northern exit."

At the thought of it, Xu Youyu slumped onto the table and sighed: "Just thinking about it makes me tired."

"Sounds kinda fun," Li Luo grinned, propping his chin on his hand. "When we get split into classes next semester, maybe you, Zhusheng, and Chanxi and I will end up in the same class. Then we can all join together."

"Speaking of that," Xu Youyu blinked, suddenly remembering something, and looked at the three of them. "Have you heard? There might be changes to how this year's classes are assigned."

"Zhusheng, remember you said you wished you could pick any three electives?"

"I heard this reform might actually allow that."

Ying Chanxi nodded. "Yeah, Teacher Sun mentioned it. She told me to prepare ahead, but the exact details won't be clear for a while yet."

Li Luo clearly knew the ins and outs of this, but he couldn't tell them yet.

After considering the specifics of the new college entrance exam reform, if his goal was to get all three of them into the same class without harming their exam scores, Li Luo already had some bold ideas in mind.

After all, in this year's reform, English and the three electives could be taken early starting in Grade Two, and the electives used a scaled scoring system.

There were plenty of loopholes to exploit.

In the first year of the reform, most students—and even teachers—still hadn't figured out how the new college entrance exam system worked.

If they could make good use of this opportunity, Li Luo's expectation was that their final two years of high school would become considerably easier.

After breakfast, the five of them packed up, rested for a while in the living room, and chatted idly.

Since today was the Sunday opening day, and registration had to be completed before 9 a. m., they weren't in a hurry.

Only when it was nearly eight o'clock did they slung their backpacks over their shoulders, set out together, and walked toward the main gate of Fuyi High School.

On registration day, the road outside the school gate was unusually congested.

The four girls walked side by side ahead, forming a striking scene.

Li Luo did not walk beside them; instead, he followed behind, avoiding the constant stares from passersby.

Besides, a wall of four or five people walking side by side was annoying—Li Luo had always hated encountering groups of girls holding hands on the stairs during lunchtime runs to the cafeteria.

Yet now, on this morning commute, the four girls walking together drew no shortage of attention.

Even if unintentional, it was hard to control one's gaze when faced with such beauty.

Especially after a semester's buildup, Xu Youyu, the president of the Gao Er student council, was already widely known among the first-year students.

Ying Chanxi, the grade's top scholar who appeared almost every week to speak at the flag-raising ceremony, was also deeply familiar to everyone—her name always topped the exam results board.

Yan Zhusheng, the lead singer of the rock club, had made dazzling appearances at multiple school events, becoming an unforgettable white moonlight in countless hearts.

Qiao Xinyan, though not matching the other three, was still of a sweet and adorable type.

And now, these four walking together into the school gate naturally drew immense attention.

But once inside the teaching building, Xu Youyu waved goodbye first and headed toward the Gao Er teaching wing.

Li Luo accompanied the two girls up the stairs, saw off Ying Chanxi and Qiao Xinyan at the third-floor corner, then entered Classroom Eight with Yan Zhusheng.

Just like at the start of last semester, Kong Jun sat lazily in front of the podium; seeing them, he pointed to the sign-in sheet on the desk and told them to check off their names.

But unlike last semester's quiet atmosphere,

the classroom was now quite lively.

Kong Jun paid no mind to the noise, smiling as he watched them chat at their desks, occasionally interjecting a few remarks.

After signing in, Li Luo walked toward his usual seat in the back corner; classmates who saw him greeted him one after another.

When he reached the back row, Li Luo glanced at Zhu Yufei, who was deep in thought, and couldn't help laughing as he patted his shoulder: "You've got some guts—daring to check your phone right here in front of Old Kong?"

"Holy shit! Shh…" Zhu Yufei jumped, quickly shoving his phone into his desk drawer, glaring at Li Luo with annoyance: "Monitor, you're gonna scare people to death."

"I thought you were fearless."

"You don't get it," Zhu Yufei said mysteriously. "I've been nurturing that novel for over two months, and only this past few days did I finally start reading it."

"Then yesterday I just reached the latest chapter—the male lead and a female lead are about to film a kiss scene in the drama!"

"But this damn author deliberately broke off the chapter and held me back for several more, and still hasn't written the actual kiss!"

Here, had Kong Jun not been on the podium, Zhu Yufei would've already been cursing: "This bastard really knows how to drag it out—does he run an aquarium at home?"

"I just read this morning's update—right when they were about to kiss, he cut it off! I was so pissed I rushed straight to the comments section."

"Turns out everyone was cursing too; after reading for a while, I finally felt better."

Hearing this, Li Luo felt a bit embarrassed, not knowing what to say.

This kind of intimate plot between the leads needs repeated tension to be truly engaging.

Every movement must tug at the reader's heart.

Only after sufficient buildup and preparation does the breakthrough come, releasing a sense of satisfaction.

Usually, the more readers curse at this point, the better you're doing—the subscriptions skyrocket.

But this kind of thing is hard to explain to readers—it'll just get you cursed, since the author's perspective and the reader's perspective are two different things.

If Li Luo were reading a similar novel himself, he'd probably be cursing just like Zhu Yufei.

So Li Luo couldn't really defend himself—he'd done it on purpose.

"What did Zhu Yufei say?" Yan Zhusheng asked curiously. "About Dongdong's kiss scene? I think I already read that."

"Shh…" Li Luo quickly cut her off. "Don't talk nonsense in class."

Yan Zhusheng blinked, nodded, then leaned close to Li Luo's ear and whispered softly: "Dongdong kissed, Jiang Mingyue kissed—next up, is it Mo Qinghan's turn?"

"Mo Qinghan was the first one to kiss, okay?"

"But you wrote it as a sneaky kiss," Yan Zhusheng said seriously. "The other two were kissed while fully awake, so Mo Qinghan needs another one."

"But the other two only kissed because of filming."

"Mo Qinghan can kiss because of singing," Yan Zhusheng thought for a moment, then nodded firmly. "For example, when I sing love songs, my emotion isn't enough—if I could kiss someone, it would help a lot. Li Luo, if you can't write it, should I let you experience it firsthand?"

"... You're weirdly nice."