Chapter 535: How Can I Repay You?

August 30, morning.

Zhao Rongjun left his grandparents' house, casually taking two large bags of fruit from his grandmother's hands.

After saying goodbye to his grandparents, Zhao Rongjun headed toward Bihai Lanting, waited briefly at a crossroads, and met Qiao Xinyan arriving from the other side.

"What fruit is it today?" Qiao Xinyan glanced at the bags in Zhao Rongjun's hands, then lifted her own, "My mom bought oranges and grapes."

"Grandma bought some pears and pomegranates," Zhao Rongjun said.

The two walked side by side naturally; Zhao Rongjun instinctively reached out and took the fruit bags from Qiao Xinyan's hands.

They hurried to the breakfast shop outside Bihai Lanting, walked in, and Zhao Rongjun went to find a seat while Qiao Xinyan ran off to buy breakfast.

They didn't need to say what they wanted—Zhao Rongjun found a seat, set down the fruit and backpack, and soon after, Qiao Xinyan came over with the receipt.

When the server called out their receipt number, Zhao Rongjun stood up to fetch the tray, and Qiao Xinyan followed beside him, picking up their utensils.

"I heard from Chanxi that Li Luo's 'Little Joy' has been filming for a long time, and they'll even come to our school to shoot scenes when school starts," Qiao Xinyan said, chatting casually with Zhao Rongjun as she ate.

Zhao Rongjun nodded, poured her a small dish of vinegar, then said, "Li Luo said if anyone has time, we can all go be extra actors for the crew."

"Are you going to join?" Qiao Xinyan asked with a smile.

Zhao Rongjun shook his head vigorously: "I definitely can't. You should try it."

"I'm not really interested either," Qiao Xinyan shook her head, then laughed, "But Yinghuan will probably be very interested."

They chatted and ate, and when they were nearly done, they reached for the napkins on the table.

Coincidentally, they both reached out at the same time and collided right above the napkin box.

The next second, they both snatched their hands back as if shocked.

Zhao Rongjun's face flushed with embarrassment; he scratched his cheek.

Qiao Xinyan's cheeks turned slightly red, but she recovered quickly, pretending nothing happened, pulled out a few napkins, and handed two to Zhao Rongjun.

They acted as if nothing had happened, wiped their mouths, slung their backpacks over their shoulders, picked up the fruit, and continued walking into Bihai Lanting.

Just then, Xu Yinghuan arrived at the community gate in her family's car, spotted them, excitedly got out early, ran up behind them, and slapped both their shoulders with two quick taps, squeezing herself right between them.

"Hehe, good morning!" Xu Yinghuan slung her arms over Qiao Xinyan's and Zhao Rongjun's shoulders, glanced at the bags in Zhao Rongjun's hands, "What fruit today?"

Zhao Rongjun gave an honest answer, and Xu Yinghuan's eyes lit up with anticipation.

The three walked side by side into the community, soon reaching Apartment 1502, knocked on the door, and Ying Chanxi opened it.

The six-person study group assembled on time.

Li Luo took the fruit they brought without hesitation, carried it to the kitchen, washed and chopped some, and put the rest in the fridge for afternoon snacking.

For Li Luo, whether he studied now or not made little difference to his final Gaokao result.

His level, combined with the effect of the Memory Palace, guaranteed a basic minimum score regardless of review.

Now, diligently reviewing Chinese, math, and English was less about academic seriousness and more a small private amusement between him and Ying Chanxi.

The two were already ranked first and second in the entire Fuyi High School.

The only question was when Li Luo would finally surpass Ying Chanxi once.

At their level, studying was no longer especially dull.

Especially for Li Luo, Chinese and English involved mostly memorization, so he didn't need to exert himself much.

Thus, most of Li Luo's review energy went into taming math—the slightly arrogant little peacock.

Half the score gap between him and Ying Chanxi in every exam came from math.

This wasn't something you could fully master just by memorizing formulas through the Memory Palace.

Especially the final questions of certain problem types—often, the solution strategy mattered more than the formula.

According to Ying Chanxi, she sometimes didn't even memorize variations of basic formulas.

She'd just derive them on the spot when needed, choosing as required, without rote memorization.

After all, she was a veteran who'd competed in the National Math Olympiad; Li Luo still lagged a bit in this regard.

Whether he could narrow the gap with Ying Chanxi on a daily basis depended entirely on the difficulty of the math paper.

If the paper was easier, he could reduce the gap a little.

But if a few questions were absurdly hard, he'd have almost no chance to catch up—his only hope would be an extraordinary performance on the Chinese essay.

His current review focused entirely on hammering math problems, and whenever he had questions, he asked Ying Chanxi.

As the saying goes, the disciple surpasses the master—there'd be a chance someday to beat Ying Chanxi once.

…

The morning study session passed quickly.

Lin Xiuhong and Cui Suling prepared lunch for the kids, discussing aloud where they'd play mahjong in the afternoon.

After lunch, it was Li Luo's turn to wash dishes; he persuaded Zhao Rongjun to join him in the kitchen, glanced at his best friend, and whispered with a grin, "I feel like Qiao Xinyan's been looking at you differently lately."

"W-what do you mean?" Zhao Rongjun's mind instantly flashed back to the moment that morning when his hand had brushed Qiao Xinyan's soft one while reaching for napkins; his tongue suddenly stumbled.

"Why are you so nervous?" Li Luo eyed him skeptically. "Is there really something going on?"

"Don't talk nonsense," Zhao Rongjun denied outright, shaking his head rapidly. "The final elective exam is coming up—don't mess with my Dao heart."

"Hmph." Li Luo chuckled. "You tell me not to mess with your Dao heart? That means your heart's already got its own thoughts, doesn't it?"

"Just wash the dishes," Zhao Rongjun muttered, scrubbing the bowls and chopsticks, abruptly changing the subject. "We've got more studying this afternoon."

Li Luo clicked his tongue, dropped the subject, and after washing the dishes, chopped some more fruit and brought it out to the study desk.

Around three in the afternoon, his phone vibrated twice; he picked it up and saw a message from Song Yu. 【Song Yu】: Senior, I just got to the bubble tea shop and ordered 27 cups—I'm heading over to deliver them to Xiaoya and the others now!

【Song Yu】: Thanks for the discount coupon—it saved me a lot of money.

【Li Luo】: You're welcome.

Looking at the WeChat chat history, Li Luo sighed softly, thinking this love-struck brother had still bought the bubble tea.

But no matter the outcome, at least the bubble tea money stayed within the family.

Li Luo thought this, rose from his seat, greeted the others, went to the door to put on his shoes, and said he was going to check out Qianjiang University.

By the time Li Luo arrived at the west gate of Qianjiang University from Bihai Lanting, he stood in front of Lin Xiu Feng's milk tea shop.

Just as he was about to step inside, he ran straight into Song Yu coming out.

"Huh? Senior, what are you doing here?" Song Yu first looked surprised, then asked with confusion.

"Came to see you," Li Luo said, walking up to him, opening the lid of the foam box Lin Xiu Feng had given him, pulling out a milk tea, and grinning.

No mistake in one word, one sentence, one detail!

"Also grab one for Youyu—she's at the Political Work Group this afternoon, not on the field, so I took it for her and will deliver it later."

Song Yu watched Li Luo take one milk tea and carefully reseal the foam box, and couldn't help sighing, "I still have so much to learn from you, Senior."

"Cough… go ahead, I won't waste your time," Li Luo noticed Lin Xiu Feng's puzzled gaze from inside the shop and quickly shooed Song Yu away.

After watching Song Yu carry the foam box into the west gate, Li Luo stepped into the milk tea shop and greeted Lin Xiu Feng and Jian Chun at the counter.

"That guy you just saw—do you know him?" Lin Xiu Feng asked curiously.

"That guy? I brought him here for you," Li Luo chuckled. "He's a little fish Youyu's college roommate keeps in her pond."

"What does that mean?" Jian Chun beside him asked, confused.

"Simply put—he's a backup," Li Luo said succinctly.

Jian Chun: "..."

"So you tricked him into buying milk tea to give to someone?" Lin Xiu Feng looked speechless. "Isn't that a bit cruel?"

"I didn't trick him," Li Luo immediately denied. "He just heard I gave someone milk tea once, so he wanted to do the same—to impress his crush."

"Then why did you give him a discount coupon?" Lin Xiu Feng clicked his tongue. "I could've made a few more yuan."

"Uncle, you don't get it," Li Luo waved a finger. "I was just about to tell you this."

"How so?"

"It's the start of the semester, and all the freshmen are in military training," Li Luo said. "You could send people to the field to hand out flyers with free group-buy discount coupons—might work wonders."

"Really?" Lin Xiu Feng was skeptical.

"Milk tea shops live on marketing," Li Luo said. "If you don't strike first and seize the freshmen's minds, how will you compete with the milk tea shops on the other side of Ningshan Avenue? They're right on the path between the dorms and the south gate."

Lin Xiu Feng had grown increasingly impressed by his nephew, so he immediately nodded in agreement.

Jian Chun said outright, "I'll handle the flyers—there's a print shop right below my dorm."

"You two do your best, I'm off," Li Luo said, waved goodbye, and left.

If Jian Chun hadn't been there, Li Luo would've interrogated his uncle the same way he'd grilled Zhao Rongjun.

But since the real person was right beside him, Li Luo dropped his little scheme, took the milk tea he'd taken from Song Yu, walked through the west gate, and headed toward an administrative building beside the west field.

He wandered through the building until the second floor, found Xu Youyu's office, knocked, and walked in.

The students inside looked up, saw Li Luo enter like he belonged, noticed he wasn't wearing military training uniform, and assumed he was some senior—so they paid no mind.

Li Luo showed no hesitation, walked straight to Xu Youyu's desk, and handed her the milk tea.

"Huh?" Xu Youyu turned, surprised—when she saw Li Luo, her eyes lit up. "What are you doing here?"

"Brought you milk tea," Li Luo tilted his chin, not mentioning it was bought by Song Yu.

Xu Youyu happily took it, inserted the straw, sipped slowly, and lifted it to offer him a couple of sips.

After drinking half, she glanced around and saw other students sneaking glances—she immediately stood, grabbed Li Luo's hand, and pulled him out.

"Can you just leave the office like that?" Li Luo followed her out, puzzled.

"The Political Work Group is easy—I just write copy. Today's work's already done," Xu Youyu grinned, dragging him to the stairwell at the end of the hall, checked no one was nearby, then rushed into his arms.

"Tired today?" Li Luo wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning against the wall.

"Exhausted this morning!" Xu Youyu complained in his arms. "Thank goodness it's only half a day—if it were full-day like yesterday, I'd be completely broken."

"That's fine," Li Luo chuckled. "Half-day training is still decent exercise. If you can stick with it, maybe keep exercising daily after training ends?"

"No way," Xu Youyu pouted. "After training, I'll rest a few days, then launch my new book—I need to pour all my energy into it, can't let training mess with my state."

"How's the opening going?" Li Luo asked.

"I've talked a few times with Qianzhou, drafted a few openings—you gave suggestions before, so I'll tweak them a bit more," Xu Youyu sighed, then perked up. "But the plot structure and framework are mostly set—big direction's solid."

"After training ends, you can come home for a bit—I'll help you brainstorm," Li Luo leaned down and kissed her forehead softly. "When you're ready to launch, tell me—I'll write a special chapter to promote it for you."

"Really?" Xu Youyu rolled her eyes, looked up at him with a grin, then bit her lip, her gaze flickering with playful hesitation. "But a Platinum Master's chapter promotion is precious—how should I repay you?"

"That's easy," Li Luo smirked, lifted her chin with his hand, spun her around, pinned her against the wall, and leaned in to kiss her.

The next second, Xu Youyu's arms wrapped around Li Luo's neck.

The two lingered in the stairwell for a long while.

When Xu Youyu returned to the office, the remaining half of the milk tea had turned lukewarm.

(End of Chapter)