Chapter 246: We three living our lives well is more important than anything else

Does the system view security checks as arrays from the world of cultivation?

That makes sense.

Lin Li, already conditioned into the system's rhythm, didn't show much surprise at this sudden task; he immediately began thinking about how to complete it.

The rewards were quite generous, after all. Not only did it grant a complete array, but it also provided random materials, meaning he could eventually use or craft cultivation-world arrays in reality.

Arrays are great. The cultivation world has everything; there must be a way to turn Bai Bufan into a fragrant, soft little puppy.

Lin Li first turned back to confirm.

Okay, only Ding Si and Chen Yu were behind him.

Time reversal, activate!

And so, to the bewildered gaze of the security guard, Lin Li began stepping backward out of the security gate.

【Seeking and personally experiencing... (2/100; 1/4).】

As he passed back through the security gate, the number updated immediately.

Lin Li blinked, stopped retreating, and walked toward the security gate again.

Forward, backward, forward, backward—

The secret technique: Repeated Lateral Jumping!

The numbers were climbing quite fast.

Since it wasn't very crowded today and only Chen Yu and Ding Si were behind him, they found his sudden madness reasonable enough. Since he wasn't affecting anyone else, Lin Li didn't feel much psychological burden.

Because he was holding his phone, the security gate kept beeping.

This caused the staff member monitoring the luggage scanner to stand up, thinking the machine had malfunctioned.

As for the security guard waiting by the gate for Lin Li: "?"

No, he had just sent off a kind-hearted but intellectually questionable brat who was willing to share.

Why was another one here? What the hell are you doing, kid?

"What are you doing?" the guard asked, looking like he was questioning reality.

"Sister, I discovered something magical: as long as I pass through this gate, it beeps." Lin Li offered this discovery, which was enough to shock the scientific community, to buy himself more time.

Guard: "?"

It wasn't just the security gate beeping now; the guard felt his own head buzzing.

But he didn't dare mock him, fearing he might be part of a "special group."

Lin Li didn't play for long—mostly because Ding Si kicked him—so he stepped onto the small platform and let the guard scan him with the metal detector as per standard procedure.

【Seeking and personally experiencing... (19/100; 1/4).】

From a certain perspective, the task was already one-fifth complete.

It also proved that the "count" portion of the task was quite easy to complete. If the guard didn't mind, Lin Li could finish all 100 counts in two or three minutes.

19 times was enough for now; there was no need to keep grinding.

But Lin Li still frowned slightly.

Just now, the count had reached 19, but when the guard scanned him with the handheld metal detector, including the phone in his hand, it also emitted a slight beep. While this satisfied the basic conditions of the security gate, neither of the task's numbers changed.

Lin Li had hoped to use the handheld metal detector to increment the "types" count.

After all, while the principles were similar—both involving electromagnetic induction—the difference was that the security gate involved pulsed magnetic fields, while the handheld detector involved magnetic field disturbance.

Was such a potent magnetic field still not enough?

But since the "types" didn't increase and neither did the "count," it meant the system didn't recognize the handheld detector as an array.

Or perhaps it didn't qualify as an "advanced array" as emphasized in the task?

Theoretically, there was no difference in technical complexity; wasn't a mobile array even more advanced?

Unfortunately, the system held the final say on all interpretations.

Did it have to be fixed?

Lin Li shifted his gaze toward the luggage scanner nearby.

However, much as he wanted to, he suppressed the urge to crawl inside.

These scanners had curtains on both sides and used X-rays, which involved some radiation.

Lin Li wasn't worried about the radiation—it wouldn't cause any real harm—but if he crawled in, it would be an incident for the staff.

This was different from jumping back and forth under a security gate; doing this would get the guard scolded, fined, or fired. Better not cause trouble for others.

Then, Lin Li's eyes lit up.

He now understood how to complete this task.

The count didn't matter; he could easily reach 100 later, or even buy a security gate for his home to play with.

As for the "types," the X-ray scanner had already given him the answer.

Hospitals.

Lin Li could perfectly well go to a hospital for a legitimate, safe X-ray. Furthermore, machines like CT scanners—in terms of cost and size—far exceeded this security gate. They were also detection-oriented, and detecting diseases rather than metal seemed more in line with the system's perception of "evil or filthy objects."

From any angle, they should satisfy the "detection array" requirement.

Unless the system limited it to metal detection, or his deduction about the "types" was flawed.

As long as the direction was correct, X-rays counted as one type. Then, ultrasound machines involving ultrasonic waves and MRI machines involving nuclear magnetic resonance could fill the remaining two slots.

Nansang County Hospital was a Grade 3, Class B facility and had an MRI machine, though it was a lower-field strength model. At least it existed.

However, unlike ultrasound or CT, getting a doctor to write a requisition for a healthy person might be a bit troublesome.

He'd see if he could use the excuse of a physical check-up for peace of mind to get a scan.

That would be reasonable, legal, and safe.

The plan was clear. He could book an appointment tonight; tomorrow was too rushed, so he'd try next weekend.

If that failed, he'd try to research the system's correct definition of an array.

For now, Lin Li could do something more important.

"Bufan, take a sip of water." Lin Li reached out toward Bai Bufan.

He had almost forgotten to mock his buddy. As for the 100-count task, there was no need to continue right now; it wasn't urgent at all.

Bai Bufan: "?"

"Do you really have to rub salt in my wounds?"

"I'm rubbing cumin."

"Get lost."

Shortly after, Chen Yu and Ding Si passed through security, retrieved their bags, and joined the two.

"Our boarding gates should be the same, right? 3A and 4A?" Lin Li asked.

The four tickets weren't bought together; Lin Li and Bai Bufan bought two, and Chen Yu and Ding Si bought two.

After all, there were no four-person seats on high-speed trains.

Lin Li actually didn't mind sitting with Ding Si and Chen Yu while Bai Bufan sat alone.

Bai Bufan minded.

"Any train will definitely have the same boarding gate," Chen Yu nodded, then checked her phone: "We're in Car 04, you guys?"

"02." Because they were bought at different times, the cars were different.

"By the way, Bufan, want to try first-class on the way back and see the prestigious Car 01?" Lin Li asked.

"1000% no! The only person who can stop you is me!" Bai Bufan retorted coldly.

It was a line from *Kamen Rider Zero-One*, fitting for the occasion.

Lin Li gave a cold smile: "I'll cover the price difference."

Bai Bufan gave a fawning smile: "First-class isn't worthy of my status; I want to sit in business class."

Very Bai Bufan, but Lin Li refused, because love that arrives late is cheaper than grass.

The four discussed what to eat in Pingjiang while waiting in the lounge, finally leaving it to online-scouting expert Ding Si. Once boarding began, they scanned their IDs and headed to the departure level.

Since this wasn't the starting station, the train hadn't arrived yet.

"What kind of status or position is this, making me wait for a high-speed train?" Bai Bufan, whose ability was small but whose temper was large, complained after seeing the train hadn't arrived.

"Then do you want to jump down and hide, and when the train comes, stick your leg out to trip it and teach it a lesson?" Lin Li pointed at the tracks and suggested sincerely.

"I want to see that," Ding Si's eyes lit up upon hearing this.

Lin Li looked at Chen Yu, who had no choice but to nod as well.

Bai Bufan: "..."

You guys...

"Forget it, I'm afraid I'll break the train into pieces. We're sitting on a Fuxing-class, it's quite precious; it'd be a hassle to repair, and I can't afford to pay for it," Bai Bufan waved his hand.

"Pull the other one. I've calculated it: the Hexie-class is 130 yuan per jin, and the Fuxing-class is only 200-300 yuan per jin. The shoes on your feet could buy two jin of Fuxing-class; don't think it's anything valuable."

Lin Li didn't have such reverence, laying out the data directly.

Bai Bufan: "..."

Who the hell buys high-speed trains by the jin!

He was almost tempted to buy two jin of train to take home as a souvenir.

Giving gifts for the New Year—opening with "I bought you two jin of Fuxing-class"—would be so prestigious.

Bai Bufan had once pondered whether he should bring a box of yogurt or Wangzai milk when meeting his future father-in-law. Now it seemed there was a better choice.

"And as for you, Bai Bufan, no need to be self-deprecating. Your parts are also quite valuable. On the black market, fresh corneas are 30,000, a heart is 100,000+, a liver is 100,000+, lungs are 100,000+, kidneys are 50,000-60,000..." Lin Li counted on his fingers, listing them like a connoisseur.

Bai Bufan smiled with relief.

It was no wonder the corpse Bao Wei had for his ghost marriage had no organs.

This bastard Lin Li had been eyeing them for a long time, the prices were already researched, everything was ready—all that was missing was for his brother to die.

"How did a pile of precious organs form a loser like me?" Bai Bufan sighed, feeling lost.

"Hmm." Lin Li nodded.

"..."

"..."

"You're being stingy with words now? Just a 'hmm'?" Bai Bufan turned his head and glared fiercely at Lin Li.

"Otherwise what? Was there anything in that sentence worth mocking or refuting?" Lin Li asked, puzzled. "Aren't those organs just a starry sky when scattered, and a pile of dung when gathered?"

Bai Bufan: "..."

Bai Bufan felt he was also cheap for asking that question.

"Thanks for the company. We part ways here. I don't know which falling leaf will drift into the memories of our fleeting years next time we meet, but I will miss the four of you." Lin Li looked sadly at Ding Si and Chen Yu.

Ding Si, Chen Yu: "..."

Silence point one: the train had just arrived.

Silence point two: when Lin Li said this, he was looking at their legs.

So he was missing the four of them.

Lin Li's eyes darted back and forth quite obviously, looking left and right, sharing the attention equally.

Because of this, when Ding Si raised her leg to kick him, Lin Li achieved a 100% miss rate.

"See you in half an hour, you pervert."

The two pairs separated, and Lin Li and Bai Bufan headed to Car 04.

With a smile from the attendant, Lin Li boarded the train.

The system didn't "ding" this time.

He had finally ridden a "mecha" of this level, and with the class monitor no less—the system wouldn't pop a task?

Or did he have to be in the same car as the class monitor for it to grace him with one?

They had no luggage, so they bypassed the luggage area at the entrance and headed to their seats.

As soon as they walked in, they heard loud, externalized TikTok music.

That's the vibe.

"Lin Li, do you know what the modern version of *The Farmer and the Snake* is?" Bai Bufan turned back and whispered.

"What?"

"Lending a power bank to someone whose phone is dead, only for them to start playing TikTok out loud."

"Reasonable." Lin Li nodded, then said regretfully: "Too bad I didn't bring headphones."

"I brought some, I can lend them to you later." Bai Bufan patted his pocket.

"Are they wired?"

"Who uses wired ones these days? They're Bluetooth, obviously." Bai Bufan said, surprised. "Then they're useless; they can't solve the current problem." Lin Li shook his head regretfully.

"Wait, what were you originally planning to do to solve it?" Bai Bufan paused, then narrowed his eyes.

Upon hearing this, Lin Li made a gesture of tightening a rope, then mimed strangling his own neck.

His gaze was fixed on the middle-aged people playing the music.

Bai Bufan: "..."

A very hardcore solution.

If he strangled everyone playing music, the car would indeed be quiet.

"Good thing you didn't bring them."

Because the tickets were bought last night, the 3+2 layout meant the DF seats were basically full, and the two were in AB.

A quick trivia: high-speed trains don't have an 'E' seat because of international convention—AF are window seats, CD are aisle seats, BE are middle seats. Since high-speed trains aren't wide enough for 3+3, they skipped 'E'.

The hardest day for Yasuo.

They found their seats, but discovered that two people were already sitting in the BC spots.

Both Lin Li and Bai Bufan were first-time riders. After checking several times to make sure they weren't in the wrong seats, Lin Li reached out and tapped the guy in the B seat:

"Sorry to bother you, buddy, are you in the wrong seats?"

"Oh, yes, yes, brother, can we swap? I want to sit with my girlfriend; my seat is over there." The guy nodded, pointing at the girl next to him, then at a spot not far away.

Lin Li understood upon hearing this.

He stared at the girl in the C seat for a good while, then shook his head at the guy: "No swap. I also want to sit with your girlfriend."

This was real black silk, not leather pants or leggings; worth sitting next to.

Guy: "?"

The guy's girlfriend, hearing this, pretended to glance at Lin Li casually.

Then her eyes lit up.

She then said considerately to her boyfriend: "Forget it, they're two people sitting in these seats, they definitely won't want to swap for one. You should just go back to your seat."

Bai Bufan, observing all this from behind: "?"

Can you even do that?

Buddy, your girlfriend seems to be looking for a new relationship.

But it's not a big problem; as long as these two trust each other, then all three are safe.

The slightly green-tinted man returned to his seat.

The two entered and sat down, Lin Li by the window, Bai Bufan in the middle.

Bai Bufan could feel the resentful gaze from the woman on his right.

Damn it, why are you looking at me? Look at Lin Li! I don't want to sit here either, I had no choice!

Bai Bufan could only keep his head down, eyes, nose, and heart all focused on the black silk.

Thanks, Lin Li.

Setting aside the loud music, the high-speed train experience was quite good.

Lin Li enjoyed the scenery outside the window for half an hour, while Bai Bufan was stared at resentfully for half an hour—though he stared back, of course.

The train broadcast began announcing their arrival in Pingjiang City.

Neither Lin Li nor Bai Bufan knew that it would take several more minutes to arrive after this announcement, but standing up early to wait at the door wouldn't hurt.

The girl in the C seat didn't seem to be getting off at this station. Seeing Lin Li and Bai Bufan actually leaving, she widened her eyes and finally couldn't help but whisper to Lin Li:

"Handsome, can I have your WeChat?"

Lin Li frowned upon hearing this: "If I give it to you, what will I use?"

Woman: "?"

By the time her brain could process that, Lin Li and Bai Bufan were already far away.

What the hell?

What was that?

"There are more and more shameless people in this world. A WeChat ID is worth at least several dozen yuan, and they just reach out and ask for it from a stranger?"

At the door, Lin Li was still cursing at Bai Bufan.

Bai Bufan just smiled at his buddy, who was keeping his "male virtue" and pretending not to understand.

Then he smiled less and less.

"Damn it, shut up, Lin Li. So annoying."

Lin Li: "?"

Bai Bufan gritted his teeth. When would a "Feifei" ask him for his WeChat so he could experience that feeling?

They arrived and reunited with Chen Yu and Ding Si.

"How was your first high-speed train experience?" Chen Yu asked with a smile.

"Human hearts are not what they used to be." Recalling the woman from earlier, Lin Li shook his head.

Chen Yu: "?"

After learning the origin, the two girls only found it funny.

Chen Yu laughed more happily than Ding Si.

Pingjiang Station was a city-level station and quite large; it took them a good while to walk out.

The lunch spot was already decided, so Ding Si hailed a taxi directly.

"Qu Wanchiu's sacrifice was worth it; at least it's just right for the four of us to take a taxi." Lin Li gave a sinister, dark chuckle, deciding to start the "bad-mouthing others behind their backs" segment:

"Let's just hang out as the four of us from now on. I've actually been annoyed by Qu Wanchiu for a long time."

When he saw Ding Si smiling as she took out her phone, Lin Li knew this little woman was going to snitch.

"Ding Si: @Qu Wanchiu, Lin Li just said he's been annoyed by you for a long time."

"Bai Bufan: I testify, not a word changed."

"Qu Wanchiu: What kind of stray cat or dog dares to be annoyed by me?"

"Lin Li: Bro, everyone, I just created a super awesome group chat for the four of us, all the big shots will be there, but, hey, guess who didn't get an invite?"

"Qu Wanchiu: We built a four-person group without you back in October, haha."

"Ding Si: Don't say it out loud @Qu Wanchiu."

"Qu Wanchiu retracted a message."

"Qu Wanchiu: We didn't build a four-person group without you, I remembered wrong @Lin Li."

"Why do you guys still hang out with such an idiot?" Lin Li pointed at Qu Wanchiu's message and said to the other three. "She sold you out for isolating me in an instant."

No response.

Lin Li realized with a start that he really might have been isolated.

Maybe they really did build a group behind his back. Sad.

But there was no time to be sad; the taxi arrived, and Bai Bufan took the lead and sat in the front passenger seat.

Ding Si took the lead and entered the back seat first. When Lin Li tried to follow into the back seat, he was dragged out by Chen Yu and told to sit on the outside.

"Chicken legs are truly delicious. I suggest biologists deeply study the crossbreeding of chickens and centipedes to create centipede-chickens!"

It was already noon, so the taxi's destination was the lunch spot, not the shooting club.

Bai Bufan couldn't stop praising the shop choice for today, eating with gusto.

"What did you say? What kind of chicken?"

"Don't drag me into your lovesickness."

Bai Bufan shifted his position slightly.

"Little Ding Ding's most reliable choice yet."

"I basically pick ones above the baseline, okay? The occasional flip is just because I was tricked by the internet!" Ding Si retorted.

"This place is delicious. Should we eat here tonight too?" Lin Li asked.

"Sure." Chen Yu nodded.

"These spicy wings are also great. We all ate them, you're not eating?"

Getting a response, Lin Li smiled and pointed at the remaining red chicken wings on the plate, asking Bai Bufan.

"Too spicy, I can't eat them. You eat my two." Bai Bufan shook his head. There were eight wings in a plate, two for each person, but they were named "spicy wings." Bai Bufan didn't want to get diarrhea while out playing.

Learning from the lesson of his own shit, learning from the lesson of Bao Wei.

"But you haven't eaten a single one, how do you know they're spicy?" Lin Li was still trying to persuade him.

"I can tell the flavor just by smelling it."

Seeing Lin Li still intended to persuade him, Bai Bufan held up a hand and lowered his voice: "Stop trying to persuade me to be gay."

"What the hell? What does that have to do with being gay?" Lin Li frowned.

"Persuading someone to eat spicy food and persuading someone to be gay are essentially the same thing."

Bai Bufan explained.

Lin Li: "..."

Very well, Bai Bufan had indeed killed Lin Li's desire to persuade him.

Bai Bufan was quite skilled at persuading others.

Reasonable.

"I'm going to the bathroom." Lin Li stood up and said to the three, leaving the spicy wings for later.

"Wait for me, I'm going too." The tag-along Bai Bufan, who was still gnawing on a chicken leg, looked up.

Lin Li didn't even look at him.

So by the time Bai Bufan reached the restaurant bathroom, Lin Li had already washed his hands and was coming out.

As Bai Bufan passed Lin Li, Lin Li happened to be shaking his hands.

"Damn it, you shook water into my mouth." Bai Bufan, who had been sprayed in the face, cursed.

"What water? That was pee." Lin Li said with a smile.

"Asshole."

Bai Bufan cursed and went into the bathroom.

A small step forward, a big step for civilization. He aimed at the deodorizing ball in the urinal, opened the gate, released the water, and fired accurately.

Afterward, he shook it off like rinsing tripe—seven up, eight down.

Done.

Bai Bufan headed to the sink.

He turned on the faucet.

The faucet made a dry, raspy sound, but no water came out.

Bai Bufan tapped the faucet, but got the same result. It seemed the water was off.

The restaurant lost points for this.

Whatever, the bathroom had no water, and he hadn't peed on his hands, so he'd just wipe them with paper.

So Bai Bufan reached for the paper on the wall.

His hand suddenly stopped in mid-air.

Bai Bufan licked the corner of his mouth, then his tongue stopped too.

His eyeballs began to move slowly but persistently downward, and a look of terror began to overflow.

Wait.

Wait, tat.

Wait, tat!!!!

If the bathroom had no water, then what was on Lin Li's hands just now!?

(End of chapter)

(End of chapter)