Chapter 402: Small Talk

"Back in the Talent Academy, those silly male classmates were truly a headache, so full of teenage angst, so incredibly stupid." Chen Banxia also recalled those years, then immediately glanced at Qingqing beside her and asked curiously, "Was Chen Shu stupid back then?"

"Don't you understand him?"

"Emmm..."

Chen Banxia pondered for a moment, shaking her head repeatedly:

"Hard to say."

Sometimes she felt her younger brother was very mature, able to take good care of Qingqing and Xiaoxiao, and even take good care of her; other times she felt her younger brother was stupid to death, as if it wouldn't be strange no matter what he did, and he could always have his reasons.

A brother's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea.

Can't be sure, can't be sure.

Ning Qing glanced at the three figures clinging to the window and peering inside—one tall, one short, and one cat—and pursed her lips:

"Average, I suppose."

"What do you mean by average?"

"There were times he was stupid, but it was still tolerable."

"Oh..."

Chen Banxia dragged out the long tail of her voice, nodding, feeling that under her careful education, her younger brother had indeed not gone astray.

Ning Qing eyed that figure, but her heart couldn't help but recall a certain summer, when under his leadership, the whole class inexplicably started a craze for catching flies—

Because the classroom was close to the restroom, as soon as it got hot, there were many flies. She didn't know what kind of sickness had gotten into his brain, but he wanted to catch flies. After catching one, he would even happily run in front of her to show off, opening his hand to show her. Of course, she ignored him, but he was not discouraged at all and ran to show off in front of other classmates.

Who could have imagined? This kind of showing off was actually effective.

Other male classmates saw it and were greatly shocked, then launched a fly-catching competition that lasted the entire summer.

Catching them after class, catching them during class.

At first, they could only catch flies that were resting somewhere, slowly approaching, suddenly exerting force, and also having to predict their flight direction. Later, through mutual exchange, everyone's technique grew explosively, and even flies in flight were caught one by one with precision.

After catching them, they would put them in pencil holders or some bottle, and every day they had to compare who caught more.

Thinking about it now, she feels uncomfortable.

Ning Qing even feels some regret—

Was she supposed to be gentler back then or what? She clearly already thought he was a complete idiot, so why didn't she beat him up?

If it were now, she would definitely beat him.

"..."

Ning Qing detached herself from the memory and pressed her lips together tightly.

The water isn't full yet, so she won't tell Chen Banxia; if the water were full, she wouldn't mind letting Chen Shu suffer a social death once.

She only heard the two people and one cat by the window whispering.

"I used to sit there, and your sister sat there, right in front of me. I often bullied her."

"How did you bully her?"

"Pulling her hair, punching her, kicking her with my feet; she didn't dare to cross me at all. If she ever made me unhappy, I would punch her to death during class."

"Woof?"

One dared to say it, one dared to believe it.

The only one who was clear-headed was actually a cat.

"Nostalgic."

In Chen Shu's mind, the image of Qingqing wearing her school uniform back then emerged.

The Talent Academy also had school uniforms, but only first and second graders were required to wear them. Third and fourth graders only needed to wear them on Mondays for flag-raising and morning meetings. But even on Mondays, many people didn't wear school uniforms, and the punishments were painless, so Chen Shu often didn't wear one.

Ning Qing didn't want the trouble, so she wore it every time.

What left the deepest impression was the summer school uniform.

The Seventh Talent Academy's summer female school uniform was a white, blue-collared polo shirt with shorts of the same color as the collar. The style was simple but exceptionally pure. Qingqing's figure had developed quite well; she was delicate and lovely, with a pair of long legs that always made him unable to look away.

"Sigh..."

Time passes and never returns.

Chen Shu reluctantly withdrew his gaze. When he turned around, he happened to meet Qingqing's gaze, and the two looked at each other.

Looking closely, the current Qingqing's facial features were no different from back then, but looking at her as a whole, her temperament had changed somewhat. She had matured; the youthful greenness that radiated cold air back then had turned into calm indifference, and when looking at him, there was an added touch of softness.

"What are you nostalgic about?"

Ning Qing asked him in a low voice.

"Did I ever tell you before? You looked really good in your school uniform."

"..."

Ning Qing lowered her eyelids:

"You have."

"Oh my~~"

Chen Banxia covered her ears with both hands, her brows tightly furrowed, making a sound of resistance. She just wanted to come back to see her alma mater, why did she have to suffer this?

By comparison, Xiaoxiao and Taozi were much more composed. The girl and the cat were still clinging to the window, as if they hadn't heard the conversation beside them at all. One was staring at the famous quotes hanging on the wall and reciting them softly, while the other was pricking up its ears to listen.

"Let's go."

Chen Shu went around behind Qingqing and pushed her to walk out. After walking a few steps, he suddenly blurted out, "Carry me on your back," and jumped onto her back in one go, his legs tightly clamping her waist, his hands wrapped around her neck, looking like he had made up his mind not to come down.

Chen Banxia stopped in her tracks, her expression blank.

The little girl held Taozi and walked past her calmly, also walking past her sister who was carrying her brother-in-law, and walked down the stairs on her own.

Both the girl and the cat looked straight ahead.

Half a month passed in a flash.

Chen Jiaoshou was still sitting on the sofa, holding his Mobile Phone, watching it intently.

Chen Shu couldn't help but walk over, reach out to ruffle his hair, and then look down at the content on his Mobile Phone: "Is Chen Jiaoshou listening to those bloggers brainwashing you again? Which stock market dealer are you planning to bail out in the future?"

Chen Banxia chimed in from the side, egging him on: "So disrespectful, Chen Jiaoshou, if I were you, I would definitely kick him out of the house!"

Chen Jiaoshou was very calm; he just reached out to brush Chen Shu's hand away and said indifferently: "I received a piece of inside information that there might be a global anti-terrorism campaign in the second half of the year, and this will be the largest anti-terrorism operation in history."

"And so?"

"It's bullish for the military industry!"

"How so?"

"Such a large-scale global anti-terrorism campaign is certainly not targeting ordinary militants, and it is also a good opportunity to test new types of weapons. By then, new weapons from various countries will appear one after another, and perhaps a small arms race will unfold." Chen Jiaoshou was full of confidence.

"Hehehe..."

Chen Shu twitched the corner of his mouth: "I also received a piece of inside information."

"Speak!"

"Although this anti-terrorism campaign is a global coalition, in order to reduce the commotion and minimize the impact on ordinary citizens, they will not deploy large-scale armies, but will instead adopt the form of recruiting High-Tier ancient cultivators to fight against them."

"?"

Chen Jiaoshou's brows immediately furrowed: "Where did you get this news? Is it reliable?"

"My roommate, the youngest generation of the imperial grandson, Meng Ziyang."

"..."

Chen Jiaoshou's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, and he fell into deep thought—

High-Tier ancient cultivators, which sector would that be bullish for?

"Sigh..."

Seeing this, Chen Shu couldn't help but sigh.

This person was beyond saving.

He then couldn't be bothered to pay him any mind and went straight back to his room.

He opened his computer.

The defensive version of the Tracer Technique had already been modified, and its performance in all aspects had been balanced; regardless of whether it was easy to use, at least it was functional. The interception performance and intelligence were much stronger than before, and it would no longer have the loophole where it would intercept the first attack and leave itself open to subsequent ones. However, over the past few days, Chen Shu would occasionally have new ideas pop up. Sometimes he wasn't even thinking about it, but just by coming into contact with related things, ideas about it would inadvertently pop into his head or flash by, so Chen Shu still made some modifications to it from time to time.

The changes were large and small, a hammer here and a patch there; having modified it until now, it was starting to look a bit messy again.

As for how it would actually perform, he would have to test it to know.

He figured that after returning to Yujing, he would test it once and then consolidate and organize it, and the performance would be better than before.

After modifying it once more, he closed the computer.

"Poof..."

Chen Shu then sat on the chair, closed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and took out "Reverse Rune Research," forcing himself to start studying it.

The Reverse Rune Principle is a very profound and irregular field of knowledge; it is completely different from normal Rune principle knowledge, as if they were two separate systems. Due to its weak regularity, research and development are also very difficult, and currently, the research on this by countries around the world is very limited.

The Spirit Sect is considered to have the deepest research into it, and the Lieyang Series Spell is the culmination of the Reverse Rune Principle.

On one hand, Chen Shu wanted to deepen his understanding of the Lieyang Series Spell to better master it and even make modifications to it; on the other hand, he also wanted to see if he could find a topic for his graduation thesis from it.

The night grew deeper, and the moon outside was dim and yellow.

The thick, hard, yellowing paper made a rustling sound every time it was turned, which, in this quiet and still night, was undoubtedly a quiet and beautiful musical note.

On the last day in Bai City, a group of people went to play by the Jinghai below the ancient city.

In his memory, this place used to be a ring road around the sea, and the road was not easy to travel on, but now it has been changed into a two-way bicycle lane, paved with asphalt, and the road hugs the Jinghai, so it has attracted many tourists to play here.

The four of them rented a four-seater bicycle and rode slowly along the greenway, basking in the sun, feeling the sea breeze, and enjoying a pleasant holiday.