Chapter 27

Li Luo spent some time packing up Ying Chanxi's computer.

When he stepped out of the study, he found Ying Chanxi still packing.

"Do you really have this much luggage?" Li Luo walked into Ying Chanxi's bedroom and glanced at the floor.

Two large suitcases.

Three equally large cardboard boxes.

They completely blocked the walkway beside the bed, leaving Li Luo stunned.

"It's not that much, is it?" Ying Chanxi sat cross-legged on the bed, blinking innocently as she shoved folded clothes into the cardboard boxes. "I only brought a few clothes."

"You call this a few?" Li Luo stared in disbelief. "How are you going to wear all these? Don't you wear your uniform every day after school starts?"

"Don't you wear clothes on weekends?" Ying Chanxi glared at him.

"Still, you don't need this much!" Li Luo was speechless. "I only brought two sets of pajamas and three sets of summer shorts and T-shirts—that's it."

He hadn't even wanted to bring pajamas—he often just slept in his T-shirts anyway, didn't bother distinguishing between sleepwear and regular clothes.

It was Lin Xiuhong who insisted on stuffing them into his suitcase, so he had no choice.

Even then, his suitcase wasn't even full.

But now, looking at Ying Chanxi's luggage, just her clothes filled two suitcases and three big cardboard boxes.

Li Luo had no idea where she got so many clothes.

"That's just because you live like a slob," Ying Chanxi snorted. "Girls need to wear pretty clothes to feel good."

Even though she wore her uniform every day at school, on weekends she still wore clothes she liked to keep her mood up.

Li Luo had never noticed this before—neither before his rebirth nor after.

Only now, while packing, did he realize how bottomless a girl's wardrobe really was.

Where did she even get all these clothes?

And this giant stuffed animal!

Li Luo looked at the panda doll, half his height, lying on the windowsill desk, already wrapped in transparent plastic film.

"You're really bringing this?" Li Luo couldn't help asking. "Isn't this the one you got when you graduated elementary school? Why are you still keeping it?"

"Mind your own business!" Ying Chanxi snorted, then quietly slid the small blanket Li Luo had given her as a child from beside her pillow under her butt, planning to slip it into the box later.

As Ying Chanxi continued packing, Li Luo's phone rang.

He answered, thinking it was his uncle, but it was Zhao Rongjun.

"Hey, Li Luo, where are you?"

"I'm at home."

"Then why didn't you open the door when I knocked?"

"Oh, right—I'm next door." Li Luo wandered out of Ying Chanxi's bedroom, opened the door, and saw Zhao Rongjun's figure. "You're here."

"I'm here," Zhao Rongjun nodded, then asked curiously, "Is Ying Chanxi going to the court too?"

"Playing ball isn't urgent," Li Luo coughed twice. "I've got a more demanding task for you."

Zhao Rongjun instantly grew wary, stepping back half a step, his hand already gripping the stair railing.

But Li Luo was quicker—he grinned, grabbed Zhao Rongjun's arm, and clung to him like a long-lost brother.

"Remember that day after the promotion banquet? My dad said we bought an apartment near Fuyi High, and I'm supposed to move in before school starts."

"So?" Zhao Rongjun already guessed, narrowing his eyes.

"Since you're here, Ying Chanxi and I are almost done packing," Li Luo said brazenly. "My uncle's driving over soon—help us carry the luggage downstairs."

Zhao Rongjun's face darkened. "Then why did you call me yesterday to play ball?"

"It's my mom's fault—she only told me about the move today," Li Luo shamelessly threw his teammate under the bus. "Perfect timing, right?"

"After we move everything, we'll ride together to the new place and get familiar with the place."

"Then we'll go check out Fuyi High's basketball court."

"Can we get in on weekends?" Zhao Rongjun asked.

"You're wearing your uniform," Li Luo glanced at Zhao Rongjun's outfit, thinking how much fabric boys saved—even on weekends they wore uniforms.

"You don't even have a uniform."

"I have my admission letter," Li Luo puffed out his chest. "Isn't it fine for a new student to visit the school early?"

Hearing Li Luo say that, Zhao Rongjun reluctantly agreed: "Fine."

"Best bro!" Li Luo slapped Zhao Rongjun's shoulder, thoroughly satisfied with this free labor.

Pulling Zhao Rongjun along, Li Luo first carried his own suitcase to the door, then the computer from the study next door.

Then the two of them helped Ying Chanxi carry out her packed suitcases and cardboard boxes.

By the time Ying Chanxi finally finished packing, Li Luo received a call from his uncle.

"Hey! Xiao Luo, I'm parked downstairs—I'm coming up now."

"Got it, Uncle. We're all packed," Li Luo replied, hung up, then called his mom.

"Hello?"

"Mom, we're about to leave."

"Alright," Lin Xiuhong said on the other end. "I'll come down and join you."

Just as Li Luo finished speaking to his mom, footsteps echoed from downstairs.

A mature, handsome figure appeared in the stairwell.

Uncle Lin Xiufeng looked up, spotted Li Luo, raised an eyebrow, and grinned. He strode up to the fourth floor, grabbed Li Luo's head, and ruffled his hair hard. "Look at you! Got into Fuyi High!"

"Not much," Li Luo demurred. "Just okay."

Lin Xiufeng was only thirty-two, slender, with shoulder-length messy hair styled in the current bullet cut, wearing military-style pants and a simple white T-shirt.

He looked extremely young; anyone who saw him would assume he was still a twenty-five- or twenty-six-year-old boy.

Li Luo's uncle was nine years older than Lin Xiuhong, making him a late-life child of his maternal grandparents.

When Li Luo was born, Lin Xiu Feng was barely over seventeen, so Li Luo had been raised playing with his uncle since childhood, and the two were very close.

But as Lin Xiu Feng grew older, his family began pressuring him to marry.

Annoyed, he once ran away to work in another province, returning only once every half-year or so.

It wasn't until after he turned thirty that his grandparents gave up on nagging him, and it was Lin Xiuhong, his older sister, who finally called him back.

Now Lin Xiu Feng works as a truck driver for a relative's company, driving big trucks every day.

He missed the promotion banquet because he was delivering goods to a neighboring city.

But because of their family ties, they never gave him overly exhausting tasks, and his work hours were mostly relaxed.

For example, today, with no cargo to deliver, he drove a small van from the company to help his nephew move luggage.

In Li Luo's memory, his uncle remained single until well into his fifties, driving his maternal grandparents to despair.

But he truly treated Li Luo as a beloved younger relative, often dragging him out to drink and grill skewers, joking that when he died, all his belongings would go to Li Luo.

When Lin Xiuhong fell seriously ill, her brother went to great lengths to raise money for her treatment, leaving himself with barely a penny to his name—all to help his sister.

So now, seeing his uncle again, still so young and handsome, Li Luo's eyes involuntarily welled up, then he forced the tears back.

At that moment, Ying Chanxi and Zhao Rongjun also politely greeted him.

Lin Xiu Feng let out two hearty laughs and waved at the two kids: "Xixi knows me well—she used to chase after little Luo every day when she was little, and now she's so beautiful."

"And little Jun, you used to play basketball with him all the time, right? I taught you both how to play."

In his youth, Lin Xiu Feng spent several years traveling outside the province, and his naturally outgoing personality quickly bonded him with the younger group.

The four of them chatted casually as they carried the luggage downstairs and loaded it into Lin Xiu Feng's van.

Ying Chanxi, being small in strength, carried only her own and Li Luo's backpacks; the other three made two or three trips up and down to finish moving the rest.

Soon after, Lin Xiuhong arrived from the breakfast shop, ready to join them.

"Did you pack everything? Did you forget anything?" Lin Xiuhong sat in the front passenger seat and asked Li Luo and Ying Chanxi.

"We've got everything. If we forgot something, we can come back for it later," Li Luo called out to Zhao Rongjun to get in, then climbed into the back seat himself.

Ying Chanxi entered last, closed the door, and Lin Xiu Feng started the car, accelerating out of Jincheng Community toward Bihai Lanting.

……

Yuhang No. 1 Affiliated Middle School.

Its full name is Qianjiang University Yuhang City Affiliated No. 1 Middle School.

It backs onto Yinjiang River, next to the main campus of Qianjiang University.

In earlier years, the school was exclusively for the children of Qianjiang University faculty and staff.

With economic development and the expansion of compulsory education, the school gradually shed its original affiliated status, leveraging its high-quality teaching resources to rise among Yuhang City's high schools.

Last year's college entrance exam results placed the school third in Yuhang City, just behind Yuhang No. 2 Middle School and Xuejun Middle School.

The number of students admitted to Tsinghua and Peking University broke double digits for the first time, reaching eleven.

Eighty-one students were admitted to Qianjiang University.

Thirty-five students were admitted to other 985 universities outside the province.

The teaching achievements were highly impressive.

The house Li Guohong's family bought lies directly across from the school, in Bihai Lanting Community, Building 12, Unit 1, Apartment 1502.

At noon.

Xu Youyu, a student from Class One, Grade Two at Yuhang No. 1 Affiliated Middle School, changed into a white shirt and jeans, went downstairs for lunch, then slipped back to the rented apartment.

The apartment was about 150 square meters, with a large living room and balcony directly opposite the entrance.

To the right was a separate piano room, previously used by Li Luo's third uncle's cousin for practice.

After they stopped living here, the piano wasn't moved, so it remained, and was now directly given to Li Luo's family.

To the left of the entrance was the kitchen, followed by a narrow corridor.

Four doors lined the corridor: two bedrooms, one study, and one bathroom.

The study had been converted into a bedroom, but remained relatively spacious.

Xu Youyu rented this study, set up a large desk, and installed her own computer.

At the end of the corridor was the master bedroom, which included a private attached bathroom.

Xu Youyu changed into slippers upon entering, then returned to her room and shut the door.

She sat at her desk, rested her chest on the tabletop, sighed comfortably, then turned on her computer and opened Qidian Chinese Website, browsing the new book rankings.

Seeing her novel Literary Era ranked thirty-first, Xu Youyu let out a faint sigh.

She then logged into her QQ and saw the message sent by her editor that morning.

【Qianzhou】: Are you asleep early? We're notifying you—the book will go live next Friday. Remember to stockpile drafts.

Next Friday is August 22nd… Xu Youyu glanced at the date; school hadn't started yet, still half a month away, so she should try to stockpile more drafts.

After all, with Grade Two starting, her studies would get busier; she couldn't let writing Online Novels interfere with her education.

Thinking this, Xu Youyu replied to her editor.

【SleepEarlyWillGrowTaller】: Received.

【Qianzhou】: Among my current batch, only you and Chongran stand out, and both of you write about entertainment culture.

【Qianzhou】: I'll ask Chongran if you two can cross-promote each other's chapters.

¤C〇

【Qianzhou】: Or you two could just add each other on QQ—you're the same age, you should get along well.

Chongran… isn't that the author of I Am Really Not a Star, which also made it onto Sanjiang alongside hers?

Wait... Xu Youyu paused, momentarily stunned.

What does "same-age peer" mean?!