《All-rounded Strategy Game (BL Transmigration)》 CH 1 Jiang Li debuted when he was sixteen, he was awarded the best actor for both dramas and movies when he was twenty, and had obtained countless awards in the next ten years. On his thirtieth birthday, Jiang Li announced the retirement from the entertainment industry and planned to return to his hometown to live the rest of his life by opening a shop. Out of his expectations, he got into a car accident when he was returning home after the press conference. Jiang Li did not have any regrets after facing the sudden accident. His life was short. Although he had experienced the deepest suffering before, he had once lived a luxurious life. He was single as well, facing this accident was just his fate. However, what he did not expected was that he did not disappear or reincarnate after his death. Instead, he was bound with a game system called ¡®All-rounded Strategy Game¡¯ with unknown reasons. As an actor, Jiang Li had also exposed himself to the genre of science fiction among the films he accepted. He had also read one or two books about ¡®Transmigration¡¯, or ¡®Traverse¡¯, but it was only that. He did not think that this would happen in the real world, and even happening on himself. After being bound with the strategy game, a serving system appeared in Jiang Li¡¯s mind, it transferred the game¡¯s rules to his mind. This so-called ¡®All-rounded Strategy¡¯ is a game that came from the future, each person who has been bound will be transferred to each virtual world through the system¡¯s link, then they will capture different types of male lead in the game. There will be rewards when players complete their mission in the virtual world, and punishments when they fail their mission. Points will be accumulated after completing each level and the points accumulated can be used to exchange for items to take down the male lead. There will be difference in every world¡¯s setting, it may be a parallel real world, or a fictional ancient world, or a science fictional interstellar world and many more. Everything will be transferred randomly by System, players have no right to choose or change. In short, after binding with System, players can only be forced to join and follow the game¡¯s rules, for the reason to be bound, System will only say ¡®You don¡¯t have the privilege to check for the reason.¡¯ Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡­¡± This kind of forceful game is making me really unhappy. ¡°Hi host, do you want to start your first strategy game?¡± System asked. ¡°Can I not join if I say no?¡± Jiang Li asked. ¡°No.¡± System answered. ¡°Then what¡¯s the point of asking.¡± Jiang Li smirked, ¡°Start then.¡± Since I¡¯m already dead, let¡¯s just play. ¡­¡­ When Jiang Li woke up for the next time, he was on a snow-white bed, the bed was a little messy, but the soft texture was comfortable for him. A blinding high beam was as if it was pressing onto his retina, Jiang Li blinked his eyes uncomfortably and found out that was just an illusion. There was no truck in front of him, there were no screaming of his agent and helper, there was only a white ceiling. Jiang Li now understood that he had arrived in the first world that System said. He stayed lying down on the bed, calling his teammate in his heart: ¡°System, are you there?¡± ¡°I¡¯m here.¡± Jiang Li heard a cold robot voice clearly in this mind, System asked ¡°I¡¯ve noticed that Host is conscious now, do you want to accept the original host¡¯s memory?¡± Jiang Li squeezed his dry eyes and said, ¡°Yes.¡± The memory of the original host and his personal portrait were transferred to Jiang Li¡¯s mind though System in a short time. When Jiang Li saw the original host¡¯s appearance, he was slightly shocked as the appearance of the original host was slightly similar to him, but younger and gentler. The original host had the name Jiang Li as well, he was 21 years old, and currently a fresh graduate. He had a single-parent family, was an introvert and had a crush named Zhang Ziyang, this was also the reason the original host appeared here. Zhang Ziyang is two years elder than the original host, both of them grew up together. As the original host looked pretty and was a timid introvert, he was always bullied by people in the same grade during high school. Zhang Ziyang helped him once or twice without intention, he then fell for Zhang Ziyang. He has been giving in silently, following and serving Zhang Ziyang like an old mother. Zhang Ziyang entered the entertainment industry during his university years, his look was considered proper but he has no acting skill and background, he is still a Z-list actor after a few years in the industry and has not much fame. Zhang Ziyang knew the fact that the original host likes him, but he did not draw the line clearly. This was because he was afraid that he might be stuck by the original host after drawing the line, since the original host was not only an introvert but also stubborn. The second reason was that since there was someone who helped him to wash the clothes and made his meals like a nanny without paying, why should he draw the line then? This situation continued till last month when Zhang Ziyang went to an audition for a large-scale drama. The drama was invested by the Jiang company and was directed by one of the best directors in the industry, Zhou Jin. Lots of supporting actors were chosen through audition except for the main actors which were already set. Zhang Ziyang would not lose such a good chance, but his abilities were limited. He did not pass the audition and did not have any connections. However, he was not resigned to this. After asking around, he knew that one of the vice-directors likes beautiful teenage boys. He then thought of Jiang Li. Although the original host was already 21 years old and not was not considered a teen anymore, his look was flawlessly pretty. Zhang Ziyang¡¯s idea was to let the original host to accompany the vice-director for a night in exchange for one of the important characters. The original host did not agree to his requirements at first, he was really disappointed in his actions, feeling that his love towards Ziyang was just a joke. He hid from Zhang Ziyang for a few days for this. Zhang Ziyang was not willing to lose a chance like this, since he decided to start his plan on the original host, he stood with the annoyance and communicated with the original host. He flowered his words and lied to the original host, saying that once he obtained the character he would get together with him, after earning enough money he would leave the entertainment industry and return to their hometown together to live the rest of their lives. The scenarios depicted by Zhang Ziyang were too beautiful, they were scenarios that the original host did not dare to imagine. He compromised with it in front of love, accepting Zhang Ziyang¡¯s plan. Zhang Ziyang quickly contacted someone to connect with the vice-director and sent the original host¡¯s picture to him. As expected, the vice-director quickly agreed to this trade after looking at his picture, and had also set the time and the hotel¡¯s location. Before the original host came to the hotel, he drank some liquor to strengthen his courage, his feelings were heavy, as if he was going to enter the execution ground. He imagined a few vice-directors that have receding hairlines and beer belly. However, the person was unexpectedly young, he looked like he was approximately 30 years old, and he was not as wretched as he imagined. But no matter how the person looked, he liked Zhang Ziyang for many years. He would definitely have that mental obstacle towards the fact that he needed to sacrifice his body to someone so suddenly. Hence, he started to resist when he touched him, he even cried as tears and mucus ran down. The person¡¯s mood was ruined when he saw him crying, he then did not force on him and went to the bathroom to take a bath, allowing the original host to leave. The original host felt relieved. Just when he was preparing to leave, Zhang Ziyang called. When the original host saw the incoming call, he was happy, he thought Zhang Ziyang regretted and asked him to leave by calling. But he did not expect the moans and breathes before he said something after accepting the call. Although the original host was still a virgin, he knew what the noises were, he recognised clearer that one of the noises came from the Zhang Ziyang that he was familiar of. Other than the moans, there were intermittent conversation flowing out from the phone, the original host heard his name from them, saying that he was a dumbass and that he was planning to kick him away after he achieved his character. The original host¡¯s face turned white as he heard their conversation. He felt that he was like a douche and was played right into his hands. He was feeling angry to a point that his fingers started to shiver, he was not able to calm down and collapsed over with eyes turning black. Then, Jiang Li arrived. After accepting the memories of the original host, Jiang Li was speechless. So the original host died due to his anger? He died due to anger instead of taking his revenge on Zhang Ziyang after he was played right into his hands? ¡°Yes.¡± System answered after receiving the fact that Jiang Li was speechless. Jiang Li ¡°¡­¡­¡± I have no words. It was only one minute when the original host died and Jiang Li arrived. The phone call was still ongoing, maybe Zhang Ziyang and the other person accidentally pressed on the phone call and nobody found out. Jiang Li stretched his hands and took the phone, he put it beside his ears and listened, the moans made him frown. He then pressed the recording button. After recording for two minutes, he then ended the phone call and placed it beside. ¡°System, are you still there?¡± Jiang Li asked again when he noticed his mind was in total silence. ¡°Yes, what do you need, Host?¡± System asked. ¡°What is my mission in this world?¡± Jiang Li asked as he sat up on the bed. ¡°Please wait for a moment.¡± System checked for a while and transferred the mission to Jiang Li. A virtual column appeared in front of Jiang Li¡¯s eyes, showing a line of words. [Main mission: Capture the male lead, Jiang Zhan. Side mission: Relieve Jiang Li¡¯s anger. ] Jiang Li understood the side mission, it meant taking revenge for the original host, this suited the game¡¯s settings to beat up the scum, but for the main mission¡­ ¡°Capturing the male lead¡­¡± Jiang Li asked humbly, ¡°What does it mean?¡± ¡°Increasing the favourability, your mission will be considered done once it reaches 100 percent and you can enter the next world.¡± System explained. Increasing the favourability. Jiang Li pondered for a while, ¡°Using any ways?¡± ¡°I recommend dating.¡± System answered formally. ¡°¡­ So this is a dating simulation game?¡± The door of the left bathroom opened when Jiang Li finished his question, System reminded suddenly at the same time, ¡°Host, please pay attention, the target person has appeared.¡± Target person? Jiang Li noticed that the [Main Mission] in the column in front of him had been lighted up. This means the male lead has appeared? Jiang Li quickly realized and averted his gaze towards the bathroom, as he saw the person in the bathroom drying his hair with a towel and walking out. He was a tall, handsome man. His height was around 1.9 meters. He was half-naked as his abs with smooth linings and sturdy body shape were shown, obvious V-line abs stretched towards the towel by his waist, a man¡¯s body which had just been showered was producing strong, invisible male hormonal breathes. Jiang Li was in the entertainment industry for ten years in his previous life, he saw many nice looks before, but the person in front of him still caught his attention. He had that tension that was fused with his sexiness and coldness, it was the type that Jiang Li admired. Yes, Jiang Li likes guys, so he was not resisting towards the mission, at least it was not capturing ¡®female lead¡¯, or else he would feel guilty. But the unexpected thing for Jiang Li was that the male lead was the other person in this trade, and moreover, he was Jiang Li¡¯s type, this made him feel like no effort was made to achieve his goal. Dating? Jiang Li smirked lightly, he became really interested in this game suddenly. He worked so hard yet he was still single in his previous life, the dating tricks he learned from acting were not in use at all. Since now the world has changed, the target person was his type as well, then he thought that he should start with understanding his body. Jiang Zhan did not know Jiang Li¡¯s idea at all, after finished bathing, he noticed that Jiang Li was still sitting on the bed, he stopped his step and frowned, ¡°Why are you still here?¡± He thought he had left when he finished bathing, he did not expect that he was still on the bed, what¡¯s more, he was not resisting anymore, staring straight right into him. Jiang Li would not leave, he would not leave without sleeping him. Jiang Li did not answer him immediately, instead, he got off the bed slowly, a strong comparison was shown when his white toes stepped onto the dark mat. He crossed his both hands and grasped onto the T-shirt¡¯s lower ends, raising up and taking off the over-sized shirt. He then threw it onto the floor. Jiang Zhan raised his eyebrows slightly when he saw his actions. He remained standing and did not move, but he was ridiculed by his actions. Jiang Li did not care, he looked into his eyes as his hands grasped onto the belt¡¯s buckle, he lifted it up gently, unlocking it and releasing the belt slowly, throwing it away with his shirt. His actions were slow and unintentional, they were simple actions but they were seen as if they were seducing someone. As the belt was released, the loosen pants slid down gradually and stopped at his hip bone. The white edge of his underwear and his slim waist were shown, the original shyness suddenly turned tension-filled and sexy. Jiang Zhan¡¯s vision turned dark as he averted his gaze from Jiang Li¡¯s waist to his face, waiting to know what Jiang Li wanted to do. Jiang Li then walked slowly towards him. Jiang Li was approximately 1.7 to 1.8 metres tall, he needed to lift up his head slightly to look at Jiang Zhan. The frightened expression was not seen on the current Jiang Li, Jiang Zhan¡¯s eyes were not able to move away from him. ¡°The trade is not done yet, how can I leave?¡± Jiang Li smiled gently, as he put his hands on Jiang Zhan¡¯s shoulder, going a little closer to his ears. Jiang Zhan felt a warm breath fanning the root of his eyes, it turned itchy and numb as the seducing voice of the person in front of him echoed by his ears. ¡°Unless¡­ you can¡¯t do it anymore after bathing?¡± Author¡¯s Note: the male lead is not the vice-director, he just went into the wrong room. Translator¡¯s Note: I¡¯m not a professional translator, and I decided to translate this novel because I like it really much. So if there¡¯s any problem, please tell me by commenting. Also, I am uploading sporadically because I don¡¯t have much time and it has long chapters. But at least, there will be one chapter every week, I promise. Thanks for reading and do comment down below if you like this novel, so I know you guys are waiting for the next chapters. >< CH 2 Jiang Zhan did not feel strange towards Jiang Li¡¯s sudden change, he just thought that he changed a way to seduce him, he had seen many of such scenes. But what triggered him were the words ¡®Can¡¯t do it¡¯. Men could never accept these words, especially the person who had been crying earlier underneath him. Jiang Zhan¡¯s expression turned dark as he pulled Jiang Li¡¯s waist towards him suddenly, pushing him into his arms. The two bodies closed their distance, Jiang Zhan pressed on Jiang Li¡¯s waist and asked him with a dangerous tone, ¡°Who can¡¯t do it?¡± Jiang Li could feel the frequency of his heartbeat and the cool water vapour brought by Jiang Zhan after his shower, there was a sense of coolness as his cold body stuck onto him. This made him happy, he did not retreat due to Jiang Zhan¡¯s sudden pressure, instead, he looked into his eyes. ¡°Who¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li tilted his head and showed an innocent yet provoking smile, ¡°Try then you¡¯ll know it.¡± If Jiang Zhan was indifferent towards his provoking actions, he would not be a man, at least not a biologically normal man. He pressed onto Jiang Li¡¯s back of his head as his five fingers inserted into his hair and forced Jiang Li¡¯s head to lean back. When Jiang Li hissed as he felt the pain, Jiang Zhan lowered his head and forced his lips onto Jiang Li¡¯s aggressively. ¡­¡­. What the fuck? So fiercely? Jiang Li scolded in his mind but he did not resist towards it, instead, he stretched his hands and hooked onto Jiang Zhan¡¯s neck, answering with the equal amount of force. After a round of force exchange, Jiang Zhan released the palm that was pressing onto Jiang Li¡¯s head and pushed him against the wall beside, he then continued to lower his head and kissed him. Then, he used his other hand to undo Jiang Li¡¯s loose pants that was hanging on his waist. Just as his fingers touched the zip, Jiang Li stopped his actions. ¡°Wait! Let us set things clearly first!¡± Jiang Zhan was in the mood, so he was a little annoyed by him, he thought he was going to do something weird like earlier, he said with an unhappy tone, ¡°What do you want this time? You will definitely get the money.¡± ¡°Money?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows, ¡°I don¡¯t want money.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t want it?¡± Jiang Zhan was surprised by his words, he scoffed, ¡°Then why are you here if not for the money? Aren¡¯t you here for the trade?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m here for the trade, but not for the money.¡± Jiang Li did not care about Jiang Zhan¡¯s scoff, he said the word ¡®trade¡¯ without any burden, ¡°I want the character ¡®Liu Chuandeng¡¯ in the drama ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, but you need to give it to me, not Zhang Ziyang.¡± ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ was the drama that Zhang Ziyang failed his audition in, it was adapted from a very famous novel at that time with the same name. The original host read the novel himself due to Zhang Ziyang, so Jiang Li had a little impression on its storyline and characters. Since Jiang Li needed to fulfil the original host¡¯s dream and take revenge on Zhang Ziyang to relieve his anger, then Jiang Li¡¯s first step would be to get involved in this drama. He would obtain everything Zhang Ziyang wanted, it would definitely be nice to see Zhang Ziyang¡¯s expression when the time comes. As a skilful actor that had been in the entertainment industry for 10 years, Jiang Li had sufficient acting skills. He just needed the chance, and the person in front of him was his first chance. Jiang Zhan did not expect that Jiang Li did not want the money, instead he wanted a character of a drama from him. It was just an easy task for him at his status, what made him unhappy was the fact that Jiang Li had the guts to negotiate with him without any status. But Jiang Zhan looked at Jiang Li who was staring at him and had the aura of ¡®I¡¯ll let you sleep only if you agree¡¯ and felt that he was strangely cute, so he left that beside. ¡°Sure.¡± ¡­¡­ Jiang Li was messed up three times that night, he nearly fainted during the third time. Jiang Zhan proved that he was able to do it by his physical strength, to a point that Jiang Li felt that him wanting that side role was too lenient of a request. He should have requested a main role. Jiang Zhan woke up on the next day, he turned his head and saw Jiang Li who was sleeping beside. Jiang Li was still in a deep sleep as he had his back towards him, his black hair was scattered on the white pillow, the white blanket only covered the places under his waist, his pale, naked back was seen completely. There were still red scars and slight bruises on Jiang Li¡¯s back, they showed how intense their night was. Jiang Zhan saw the enchanting view in front of him, his gaze stuck for a while and had the intention of doing it again. However, he was not someone who would give in to his own desires, he then quickly suppressed that intention. He thought of the person in front of him who started with seducing him, but was unfamiliar with it after they got onto the bed, and almost cried at the end. ¡­ ¡­ It¡¯s really his first time huh. Sheng Yuzhi said that he found a virgin for him last night, it seems that he did not lie. He then decided to forgive Sheng Yuzhi for being self-assertive since he had fun last night. After laying on the bed for a while, Jiang Zhan sat up. He stretched his hands to take his phone and wanted to look at the time, he then saw a few unanswered calls from Sheng Yuzhi, there were even a few unread messages. He pressed open the messages and frowned after reading them, he then averted his gaze towards Jiang Li. Coincidentally, Jiang Li moved his body and woke up. Jiang Li was still confused with the strange surroundings, he thought for two seconds and only realised what happened last night, his waist and legs were unable to adapt to the current situation. He scolded ¡®what a beast¡¯ in his mind and saw the so-called beast was just sitting beside, looking at him as if he was interrogating him. Both of them looked at each other for a few seconds, the atmosphere was weird. Jiang Li moved his numb waist and greeted, ¡°Good mor¡­.¡± Before he finished his words, Jiang Zhan interrupted, ¡°Who are you?¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s voice was cold and had a sense of anger in it, Jiang Li felt weird towards the question asked, but he still answered honestly, ¡°I¡¯m Jiang Li.¡± ¡°Jiang Li?¡± Jiang Zhan glanced at his phone and confirmed that the name Shen Yuzhi said was not the same as his. Shen Yuzhi¡¯s message also said that the person he found yesterday did not even come, then who was this Jiang Li? Jiang Zhan suddenly felt that he was schemed. His expression turned dark, as he turned over and grabbed Jiang Li around his neck, he then asked forcefully, ¡°Who are you? Who asked you to come?¡± Jiang Li was suddenly choked by him and wanted to resist unconsciously, but his hand was pressed above his head by Jiang Zhan. Jiang Li had just transmigrated and the original host¡¯s body was weak, he was also messed up by Jiang Zhan for a few times last night so he was easily confined. The fact that he was not able to fight back made Jiang Li swear in his heart, but he showed an uncomfortable expression on his face, his eyes were wide and filled with fear as he said with difficulty, ¡°It¡¯s¡­. really¡­ uncomfort..able.¡± Jiang Li just woke up and the edge of his eyes were still slightly red, Jiang Li noticed the fear and tears filled in his eyes, this reminded him of his delicate scene underneath him last night. He then loosened his hands, but his tone was still cold, ¡°Say it, who asked you to come?¡± Jiang Li knew his actions of showing his softer side were effective, he coughed twice, and said with a slightly hoarse tone, ¡°It was you who asked me to come, you made a trade with Zhang Ziyang and asked me to come over.¡± Zhang Ziyang? Jiang Zhan had no impression of this name at all. He was having a gathering with Shen Yuzhi and the others yesterday night, after returning to the hotel, Shen Yuzhi then called him, saying that he found someone to help lose his virginity. It was a virgin newbie from ¡°Phoenix Coast¡±, and he guaranteed that it would be a pretty and clean one. He did not have any interest in this at first, he just took it as Shen Yuzhi being troublesome. However, he only realised that the person¡¯s look was indeed favourable when he came, he then decided to let him stay. That was the reason why last night happened, but he did not expect that the person found by Sheng Yuzhi last night escaped and did not even come. Then who¡¯s the person that slept with him? ¡°Who¡¯s Zhang Ziyang?¡± Jiang Zhan asked. ¡°Zhang Ziyang is¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li paused, he noticed Jiang Zhan¡¯s expression and realised things were weird. He quickly asked, ¡°Are you the Jiang vice-director of the drama ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯?¡± ¡°Who told you I¡¯m the vice-director?¡± Jiang Zhan asked him back. ¡°You aren¡¯t?¡± Jiang Li confirmed again. ¡°No.¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s face blackened, vice-director? I¡¯m the investor! Jiang Li recalled the original host¡¯s memory. It was Zhang Ziyang and the vice-director who decided on the hotel¡¯s location. When they were on the phone, Zhang Ziyang simply wrote the room number on a memo pad. He was in a hurry for a filmset so he left hurriedly after handing the memo pad to the original host. The original host only knew that the vice-director¡¯s surname was Jiang, he had not seen the person before. Jiang Li was in this room when he woke up, the male lead¡¯s surname was also Jiang, so he subconsciously thought that male lead was the director that Zhang Ziyang mentioned. He did not expect that it was completely the wrong person. Since Jiang Zhan agreed so quickly to the role of the drama yesterday night, he would be someone involved in the drama unless he had only sperm in his brain. Jiang Li decided to make things clear as he thought of this, so he said, ¡°If you¡¯re not the director of the drama, what makes you think that you are able to agree to it when I said I wanted the role yesterday night?¡± ¡°What makes me think that I¡¯m able to agree?¡± Jiang Zhan heard a sense of accusation in his words, he gave a snort of contempt, ¡°I invited the whole crew, what makes you think I¡¯m able to agree?¡± ¡°You invited them?¡± Jiang Li was shocked by his words, he then realised the meaning of his words, ¡°You¡¯re the investor?¡± This was unexpected for Jiang Li. Zhang Ziyang originally wanted to ride on the vice-director¡¯s coattail, but he accidentally rode on the investor¡¯s coattail? ¡°You should have known who I am since you wanted the role. What are you pretending fo¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan stopped his words abruptly, if Jiang Li thought that he was the vice-director of the drama, he was not even here to find him last night, instead, he was planning to sleep with the vice-director for that role! As the investor of ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, Jiang Zhan had gatherings with the crew before. There was indeed a vice-director with the surname Jiang in his memory, but he was already in his forties, near to fifties. He looked fat and had big ears, he even had receding hairlines. Even though these scenes were commonly seen in the entertainment industry, Jiang Zhan still felt disdain when he thought about the fact that Jiang Li wanted to sleep with this kind of person for the role. Even the favorability for his body from last night had been reduced much. Just another plaything who goes around crawling beds. Author¡¯s Note: After a long time¡­ Jiang Zhan: You said your job is to crawl beds, can you be more professional?! CH 3 Jiang Li did not care what Jiang Zhan was thinking at that time, he thought of System who had vanished since Jiang Zhan appeared last night. He felt strange and called System twice in his mind. System did not answer at first, it only answered after calling its name for the second time. ¡°I¡¯m here.¡± System answered with apologies, ¡°Sorry Host, the system of the beta test had some problems last night, it was only solved just now, sorry for the wait.¡± ¡°Beta Test?¡± Jiang Li had a bad feeling after he heard was said, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me this game is¡­¡­¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s in its first operation, you¡¯re a player of the first batch.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± I am playing a beta version? Jiang Li was speechless, he felt like he was a guinea pig, he tried to seek joy amidst the hardship, ¡°Then am I given a beginner package?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± System answered and showed Jiang Li the board of the game¡¯s mission. Jiang Li did not expect this since he was just asking unintentionally. There was a reward option on the top right side of the virtual board. It was lighted up in yellow, informing that he had the beginner reward. Jiang Zhan was still standing beside so Jiang Li did not use his finger to press it. He then asked System, ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Host, please look.¡± System pressed on the reward and asked Jiang Li to check it. Jiang Li¡¯s eyes turned dull when he saw the beginner¡¯s reward. [Beginner¡¯s Reward] Item¡¯s Name: Pill of Fair Skin as Jade Item¡¯s Function: After using it, Host¡¯s skin will turn bright and smooth, as white and smooth as the egg that was just cracked open, as clear as rare jade, as white as snow, you deserve to have it. ¡°¡­¡­Is the person who created this game a female?¡± Jiang Li went into silence for two seconds and asked, this advertisement was much more exaggerated than skin product advertisements he had seen. ¡°¡­¡­ No.¡± ¡°Then is he a pervert?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± System fell into silence, it was not sure if it was silently agreeing or it was unanswerable. Jiang Li thought it should be the former, or else who would create such a boring game. Jiang Li had completely forgotten how interested he was in the game last night. But he was not going to look into the answer for this, he asked System if it had any information about Jiang Zhan, he needed to understand the basic information to capture him well. ¡°Yes.¡± System changed the screen into the page where Jiang Zhan¡¯s information was stored, Jiang Li then noticed the information given was different from the original host¡¯s information. Jiang Zhan¡¯s information only had a simple line. [Jiang Zhan, 32 years old, Unmarried, President of the Jiang Group] The Jiang Group is the best media company in the country, it¡¯s subsidiary operations include films, dramas, variety shows, singers¡¯ albums and many more. Jiang Li knew the Jiang Group through Zhang Ziyang. Zhang Ziyang had always wanted to sign a contract with the Jiang Group, this was because it did not only have good resources and provide high pay, they also had the best agents, it was just that he was not able to reach the standards to sign the contract. ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ was one of the dramas invested and filmed by the Jiang Group. They spent generously from the investment to the drama crew. The male lead of the drama was Le Yu, who was a trending best actor and he female lead was Feng Yating, a skillful actress. Both of them were artists from the Jiang Group and this drama was voted to be one of the most anticipated dramas in this year. Jiang Zhan turned out to be the President of Jiang Group, that¡¯s why he said that he invited the whole crew. Jiang Li jotted down the information given so it could be used later. Other than the information, he was more attracted to the column that showed the favorability. He remembered that the favorability last night was 0, but now it showed -10. This meant that Jiang Zhan messed him up for three times, but the favorability dropped from 0 to -10! Jiang Li felt that he had a chip on his shoulder towards this result. Fuck, he did not even frown upon Jiang Zhan¡¯s skill on the bed as if he was driving a bumper car, and Jiang Zhan even dared to reduce his favorability towards him? How shameless could he be! He looked with utter dissatisfaction towards Jiang Zhan who was walking towards the balcony as he was on the phone. Jiang Zhan stood on the balcony and called his secretary to fetch him. He then saw Jiang Li who was sitting on the bed like last night and looking at him, but the difference was the dissatisfaction from his eyes that could be seen unlike yesterday. Dissatisfied? Are you dissatisfied with the fact that I¡¯m not the so-called vice director? Or is it because of my skills? The former was fairly irrelevant, since his position was much more higher than the vice director. But for the latter¡­ ¡°What are you looking at me for?¡± ¡°Does the agreement that we made yesterday still count?¡± Both of them spoke at the same time and stopped at the same time, they then looked at each other. Jiang Zhan knew he agreed to give him the role of ¡®Liu Chuandeng¡¯ and looked down on his professionalism of remembering the trade. But he was also not a person who would break his own promise. ¡°It definitely still counts, someone will talk to you about this later.¡± Jiang Zhan then went to the cloakroom beside to take his clothes for a bath after finished speaking. This hotel was invested by him and this room was also fixed for him, so there were items and clothes prepared. Jiang Li looked at his leaving figure and averted his gaze towards the mission¡¯s column. After Jiang Zhan finished speaking, Jiang Li noticed that Jiang Zhan¡¯s favorability towards him dropped by two points again, it dropped from -10 to -12. Jiang Li felt baffling towards this and asked, ¡°System, what¡¯s the problem with this?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry Host, I¡¯m not too sure about that.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li thought that Jiang Zhan was really a capricious man. [T/N: capricious: sudden change of mood and behaviour] ¡­¡­ Jiang Zhan¡¯s secretary came in a while. Ji Shu was young, he looked approximately less then 30 years old. He was wearing a white shirt and trousers, he was also wearing a black-frame spectacle, which made him look gentle. Ji Shu felt a little shocked when he saw the one who opened the door was Jiang Li, but he quickly hide his emotions He scanned over Jiang Li¡¯s neck that had red scars and greeted Jiang Li gently, ¡°Hi, I¡¯m President Jiang¡¯s secretary, Ji Shu. Is he here?¡± Jiang Li quickly captured the expression in his eyes easily being in the entertainment industry for so many years during his previous life. He answered yes and stood beside to allow his entrance, ¡°He¡¯s inside.¡± Ji Shu entered the bedroom to look for Jiang Zhan. Jiang Li knew in his heart that this was probably the person who would discuss the role with him as mentioned by Jiang Zhan, he then returned to the living room to wait for him. Ji Shu came out in no time and talk to to Jiang Li about ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯. Ji Shu felt curious towards Jiang Li. As Jiang Zhan¡¯s secretary, he had seen many females and males who wanted to climb up the entertainment ladder by crawling onto Jiang Zhan¡¯s bed. This included the top female star in their own company. However, nobody was really able to crawl onto Jiang Zhan¡¯s bed successfully before. Ji Shu looked from Jiang Li¡¯s head to toe secretly and found out the person in front of him had the upper hand in terms of his features or his elegance. A look like this would still be one of the best in the entertainment industry that was filled with beautiful stars. No wonder his boss would take an action on him. Although he did not know Jiang Li¡¯s background yet, Ji Shu still had to be cautious. Jiang Li knew Ji Shu was looking at him, but he did not care at all and drank tea relaxingly while waiting for Ji Shu to say something, not feeling fearful or prudish. After finished looking at him, Ji Shu said, ¡°Mr. Jiang, President Jiang had already told me regarding your request, you want to join ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Jiang Li nodded generously, ¡°The roles of Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to ask but did you read the novel before?¡± Ji Shu asked. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve read them before.¡± Although Jiang Li did not read it before, the original host did, so he got the information through that. Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu were twins, but their personalities and what they experienced were completely different. The former was the Govenor of the Eastern Depot, he had a weird and gloomy personality, while the latter was an adopted child of an old and well-known family, he had an innocent and upright personality. A pair of twins that had a large contrast in their personalities was really hard to be acted and controlled. An ordinary actor would not challenge such a setting simply as it needed more than enough skills to act well. A careless mistake would easily expose one¡¯s shortcoming. The role that the vice-director promised Zhang Ziyang was not this one, instead, it was another good guy role alongside the male lead. It¡¯s setting was ordinary and did not need much acting skills, but its exposure would be high due to the male lead. Jiang Li did not only need the exposure, he also needed a breaking point. He was not afraid to challenge, he was only afraid that he did not have the chance to challenge, while the roles Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu were the first challenge of stepping into this world¡¯s entertainment industry. Ji Shu thought that he had enough confidence since he answered naturally and did not seem like he was faking it, he then said, ¡°I had contacted Director Kong of the drama, there is no suitable actor for these two roles yet, if you are free tomorrow, someone will bring you to meet the drama crews.¡± ¡°I¡¯m free, sorry for the inconvenience caused.¡± Jiang Li did not have other jobs, what he had most was his time. ¡°Not a problem.¡± Ji Shu smiled and handed in his name card that he took out from his bag to Jiang Li, ¡°This is my name card, you can send your contact number and address to me, I¡¯ll call someone to fetch you tomorrow.¡± ¡°Sure, thank you.¡± After confirming everything, Jiang Li was not interested to stay anymore, he then prepared to leave after saying goodbye to Ji Shu. Ji Shu sent him to the door and noticed that he was leaving without any consideration, he was not able to resist and asked, ¡°Mr. Jiang, are you sure you don¡¯t need to tell President Jiang before leaving?¡± ¡°Why do I need to tell him?¡± Jiang Li asked back strangely, Jiang Zhan was such a capricious person, he could only capture him slowly. Also, it could be seen how defensive Jiang Zhan was this morning when he choked him. The favorability might drop to -20 if he stayed, it was not worth it. Ji Shu looked at his reaction and suddenly understood the reason why he was able to crawl his boss¡¯s bed. Because he was ¡ª different! Ji Shu nodded his head and had his opinions changed towards Jiang Li. He realized that Jiang Li was not only good-looking but also had a unique personality! Someone like that could possibly succeed if he had the qualifications! When he thought of this, he was shocked as he turned his head and saw Jiang Zhan standing behind silently, ¡°President Jiang.¡± ¡°He left already?¡± Jiang Zhan lifted his chin and asked. There were only two people there, Ji Shu knew who he was asking about, ¡°He just left.¡± ¡°What did he say?¡± ¡°Nothing, he only made an appointment for tomorrow¡¯s audition and left.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Ji Shu had been working for Jiang Zhan for a lot of years so he knew his temper quite well. He could feel the pressure Jiang Zhan¡¯s surrounding turned low suddenly, he secretly swallowed the words ¡®He even left without any consideration¡¯. At the same time, Jiang Li who had already reached the lowest floor heard a ding, System¡¯s voice echoed, ¡°Host, please pay attention, male lead¡¯s favorability is reducing. If it reaches -20, you will receive a punishment.¡± Jiang Li quickly opened the mission¡¯s column and found out Jiang Zhan¡¯s favorability had indeed reduced, it was at -15, only 5 points to -20. Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡­¡± Fuck this favorability, can the male lead be more reasonable? Jiang Zhan who was upstairs was not in a good mood. He walked towards the door of the lift with a sullen expression, as if he was producing an aura of ¡®You¡¯ll die if you come nearer¡¯. As he was a few steps away from the lift, he stopped abruptly and asked Ji Shu, ¡°What kind of role is Liu Chuandeng?¡± Although ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ was invested by the Jiang Group, Jiang Zhan did not read the novel and script before. ¡°Liu Chuandeng¡­¡± Ji Shu did not now why he suddenly asked that question, he thought for a while and said, ¡°He¡¯s an antagonist in ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, also the Governor of the Eastern Depot, a position that¡¯s under one person but above ten thousands.¡± ¡°The Governor of the Eastern Depot?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ but actually, he¡¯s an eunuch.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s expression was indescribable, Jiang Li spent this much effort just for a role of an eunuch? Can he be more ambitious? CH 4 Jiang Li called a taxi to return to the original host¡¯s house after he left the hotel. After graduating from university, the original host rented a single room near where Zhang Ziyang was living so it would be convenient for him to help with his house chores. Jiang Li could only admire the original host¡¯s infatuation towards Zhang Ziyang, he also felt even more disgusted towards a scum like him. Jiang Li only realized that his mobile phone had ran out of battery after he returned to his room. After plugging and restarting his phone, tons of messages flowed in, half of them were Zhang Ziyang¡¯s incoming calls and another half were messages of Zhang Ziyang asking him why he did not go to the hotel. Jiang Li did not make any effort to care about him and deleted the messages. He silenced his phone and threw it beside for recharging. After bathing, he then lied down to to catch up on the sleep he lost. After a short while, Jiang Li was awakened by rapid, vicious knocks on the door. As the original host was just a fresh graduate and to save money, the rented room he found did not have good sound proof system. He could not only hear the loud banging sound on the door, but also someone calling Jiang Li¡¯s name. The memory Zhang Ziyang left in the original host was too deep, even though Jiang Li had replaced him, Jiang Li could immediately know the person outside banging the door was Zhang Ziyang by listening. Judging from the messages in the phone that he saw this morning, he probably came to interrogate him. Jiang Li had a good temperament, but he would go into a bad mood as he was awakened under the condition of lack of sleep. When he was joining a reality show with his teammates in his previous life , one of the events involved waking up each other by sudden. Jiang Li did not want to ruin the show and cause trouble for his teammates so he did not sleep for the whole night to cooperate with the filming. He was messed up by Jiang Zhan last night and was awakened by such a rude way without sleeping much, fire was ignited in Jiang Li¡¯s heart. He did not hesitate and threw the diary that was placed on the table beside heavily towards the door. The book had a metal frame and a loud ¡®bang¡¯ was heard as it crashed onto the door. The person outside was as if he was shocked by it and stopped knocking. Jiang Li covered a blanket over him and wanted to continue sleeping. However, the knocking sound echoed again after half a minute, turning even more aggressively as if it would not stop if Jiang Li did not open the door. ¡°Fuck.¡± Jiang Li cursed irritably, uncovered the blanket and got off the bed. ¡°Host, please don¡¯t curse, mind your manners.¡± System reminded him. ¡°Shut up.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± System: Host is a little different today, he¡¯s a bit mad. Jiang Li went to open the door without wearing his shoes. There was a tall guy wearing a baseball cap and a mask standing at the door. He was raising his hand to knock on the door before the door was opened suddenly, so his hand almost slapped onto Jiang Li¡¯s body. Jiang Li quickly shoved his hands away. Before Zhang Ziyang realized what was happening, he heard words said in a gloomy tone, ¡°Stop knocking the fuck out.¡± Zhang Ziyang ¡°¡­¡­¡± System ¡°¡­¡­¡± Zhang Ziyang was shocked by Jiang Li¡¯s simple and vulgar words. He had known Jiang Li for a lot of years and the Jiang Li in his memory was a timid introvert, he had never heard any curse words said by him. Even if he asked Jiang Li to exchange his body for the role, he was only disappointed in him and was unwilling to scold him. Although the person in front of him looked the same with Jiang Li, the small red mole on the tip of his nose was the same, the aura he produced was completely strange to him. Regardless of the dark anger from the bottom of his eyes or his cold and annoyed expression, they were unfamiliar as if there was someone he did not know under Jiang Li¡¯s skin. The cold aura produced even caused Zhang Ziyang to take a step back. Jiang Li scoffed when he saw Zhang Ziyang¡¯s action. Jiang Li thought that the original host really had his heart blocked by lard and that was why he fell for such a failure. He would not even look at him even it was Zhang Ziyang who liked him. Zhang Ziyang came back to reality as he heard his laugh, he realized his own actions and he had lost his cool. He made a step forward, ¡°Vice-director Jiang called me today, he said you didn¡¯t even go to the hotel, what happened?¡± Jiang Li knew what he was here for, he did not even want to care about the questions asked and leant against the door, ¡°What does it have to do with you?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± As Zhang Ziyang was attacked verbally by him, causing his anger to rise up suddenly and wanted to scold him back, but he remembered he still needed his help. He then suppressed the anger in his heart and asked, ¡°Do you know how important this role is to me?!¡± ¡°And what does that have to do with me?¡± Jiang Li asked lightly, the words almost made Zhang Ziyang choked on himself. Zhang Ziyang scolded Jiang Li in his heart but he said gently, ¡°Xiao Li, I know you¡¯re blaming me, but you know how important this role is to me. I need it for our future. Didn¡¯t I promise? We¡¯ll get together if I get the role, you can move to my place and we¡¯ll live together.¡± [T/N: ¡®Xiao¡¯ is a way to call someone who¡¯s close to one, and it means Little/Small.] He would not talk to Jiang Li so humbly normally, but it was not the case this time. He still had the lingering fear left in his heart after he talked to vice-director Jiang who was really angry on the phone this morning. He also promised he would bring Jiang Li over personally, so he could not get angry with Jiang Li at such a crucial time. Jiang Li knew from the original host¡¯s memories that the original host had requested to live with Zhang Ziyang to take care of him before. However, it was rejected by Zhang Ziyang. Now, he wanted Jiang Li to sacrifice his body so he requested it himself. Jiang Li looked at Zhang Ziyang from his hair to his feet. He was a few centimeters shorter than Zhang Ziyang, logically speaking, he would have the lower hand if they were to fight with their height. But the eyes when he looked at Zhang Ziyang were as if they were looking at a cheap product. The one who wanted to live with him was the original host, not the current Jiang Li. It would be an eyesore for Jiang Li if they were to live together. Zhang Ziyang felt angry when he saw how disdain Jiang Li looked at him, he could not understand how he seemed to have suddenly changed after one night, but he could not afford to look into it, he just wanted to quickly coax Jiang Li and bring him over. He then said, ¡°Xiao Li, don¡¯t throw a tantrum now, let¡¯s go in and talk.¡± There were people walking around or keeping their clothes in the corridor so a trade like this was not something that could be discussed openly. Although he was not very famous, he still had a small amount of fans, it would be bad if he got recognized. Jiang Li knew immediately what he was worrying about, he did not plan to let him in and did not even want to waste more time to talk to him. A disgusting scum who used other people in exchange for his own benefit was repugnant for him, ¡°It¡¯s impossible to let you in, Zhang Ziyang, don¡¯t come and find me anymore, we don¡¯t have any relationship from now own, you can leave now.¡± Jiang Li wanted to shut the door as he finished speaking, Zhang Ziyang quickly blocked the door using his hand and said hurriedly, ¡°Wait, what do you mean? I¡¯ve already promised someone that I¡¯ll bring you over tonight, you can¡¯t break your promise!¡± Jiang Li did not expect that he was not going to give up, he then felt bad for the original host who had died, the anger in his heart then shot up suddenly. He raised his leg and kicked on his stomach without hesitation. The force was so great that it directly kicked him down and slammed against the wall of the corridor. Zhang Ziyang did not expect that he would choose violence. He was slammed onto the wall and he cried out in pain. The cap that was on his head even fell onto the floor. System: ¡°¡­¡­¡± The Host today is really different, he¡¯s so mad. ¡°Don¡¯t come and find me anymore, or else I¡¯ll beat you to death for a death.¡± Jiang Li pointed coldly at Zhang Ziyang who was on the floor, he then shut the door with that hand, locking him outside. As Zhang Ziyang took a loss and wanted to bang the door again, he saw the neighbors beside who heard the noise opened their door and came out to look what was happening. He was afraid that he got recognized so he quickly picked up the cap that was on the floor and left hurriedly. After that commotion, Jiang Li did not have the mood to sleep anymore. He tidied up anything that had to do with Zhang Ziyang and threw them into the rubbish bin. He then felt his room was more pleasing to his eyes. After finished tidying up, he went out to cut his hair, had a meal, and went back to his room to study about the characters, Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu. Jiang Li was always a professional actor in his previous life. He would spend a lot of time and effort to figure out the roles that he acted in, putting himself in their shoes to think psychologically. If he had the chance, he would even try to experience what the roles had experienced. A day passed just like this. Jiang Li was acting two roles alone in his room, he kept figuring out these two roles to a point that System thought that he was going schizophrenic. It then reminded, ¡°Host, it¡¯s been 8 hours since you ate.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li came back to reality by System¡¯s voice and only realized that he was hungry. He did not feel hungry when he was in the roles, only to find out that his stomach was growling after he came out of the roles. ¡°I¡¯ll go have a meal then.¡± Jiang Li switched off his computer, got up and walked to the door. He asked System as he was changing his shoes, ¡°Don¡¯t I look handsome when I hit that person today?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li remembered the vulgar words and his non-hesitant kick, it kept silenced for a few seconds and said, ¡°Yeah¡­.I think¡­¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li had finished wearing his shoes, ¡°You looked as if you do not quite agree with it?¡± ¡°You were handsome.¡± System answered with a firm tone. Jiang Li laughed in satisfaction, his eyebrows relaxed, ¡°You¡¯re really cute, thoughtful little angel.¡± System, ¡°¡­..¡± Although he knew Host was talking about it reminding him to have his meal, why did he tease a virtual data? There were a lot of shops nearby, most of them closed at 1 or 2 in the midnight. It was only 10 in the night so there were still a lot of people around. Jiang Li simply found a noodles shop and sat down. He talked to System as he was waiting for his order to pass the time. ¡°Little cutie, would you like to eat something?¡± Jiang Li flipped the menu and asked System in his heart. ¡°Thank you, Host. I don¡¯t need it.¡± System thanked politely, it hesitated and said, ¡°And¡­ you can just call me System.¡± ¡°Is Little cutie not pleasing to hear to?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not really suitable.¡± Calling a virtual data Little cutie¡­ hmm, it¡¯s really not that pleasant. Jiang Li placed the menu beside with one hand under his chin, ¡°How is it not suitable? Do you still have a humanoid form? Or are you not cute enough?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± System was speechless, ¡°I don¡¯t have a humanoid form.¡± ¡°OK, I¡¯ll stop teasing you.¡± Jiang Li giggled, he thought that System was honestly cute. There were two girls sitting beside who noticed Jiang Li when he first came in, they were discussing about his looks. ¡°He looks so good! Is he a star?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so, he¡¯s so handsome, I should have an impression of him.¡± ¡°His skin is so white! I¡¯m jealous!¡± ¡°He¡¯s really good looking, it¡¯s perfect looking from all 360 degrees.¡± The two were controlling their voices, Jiang Li was talking to System so he did not notice anything. However, System could listen clearly, after listening for a while, he agreed completely to their comments. Host was really good-looking, so he was favored by male lead last night. But Host seemed like he was not putting much effort into the main mission of capturing the male lead. As System thought about this, it asked Jiang Li. ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li was planning to eat the noodles, he then answered when it asked, ¡°This cannot be rushed.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°For a person with high status like Jiang Zhan, there will be a lot of people who want to ride on his coattail. I will not benefit from anything if I follow them.¡± Jiang Li slurped his noodles and drank a spoon of soup, the rich flavor of the beef spread between his mouth and teeth, making his stomach which was empty for the whole day to feel satisfied. He then explained the details to System. As he said, Jiang Zhan¡¯s status was honorable enough, other than the fact that he was the President of the Jiang Group, he also invested in restaurants and hotels. A status like this would attract many females or males who want to climb up the social ladder. If he were to plunge towards him like others, then he would be a plaything who went around crawling beds and he would not be mentionable for Jiang Zhan. Instead, he should leave a different impression in his heart. Since he would enter the entertainment industry and sign contract with companies, he was not afraid that they would not meet again. That would be the time for him to take action. ¡°I know your reasons, but¡­¡­¡± System hesitated after he finished listening, it then kindly reminded, ¡°The favorability of the male lead now is -15, once it reaches -20 you will receive a punishment, you may need to understand this.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li choked by his words and nearly vomited them out, ¡°You¡¯re really not cute at all.¡± System ¡°¡­¡­¡± Host just called me Little cutie earlier and now he¡¯s not, he¡¯s really a fickle man. CH 5 After finished eating and returning home, Jiang Li spent another night to study about the roles. Although he did not sleep for a night, he had a young body. He just felt a bit tired, but his skin was too white so pale green could be seen under his eyes. 10 minutes before the appointment, Jiang Li got a call from Ji Shu, he had already reached the lobby. Jiang Li was unexpected that Ji Shu fetched him to the crews personally. Even though Jiang Zhan agreed to give him the role, a rough job like this should be done by a normal assistant, it was not necessary for Ji Shu to do this himself. He quickly got the answer to his question. Ji Shu explained that both Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu were very important in the drama, especially Liu Chuangdeng. As the greatest antagonist in the drama, the parts he played was only second to the male and female lead¡¯s, it could be said that it was one of the core roles in the whole drama. Such an important role needed good acting skills and was not able to be interpreted well by an ordinary actor. Therefore, the main director, Zhou Jin paid attention to this role and the candidate should be auditioned personally by him. So Jiang Li needed to go for audition first instead of getting the role immediately. After Ji Shu finished speaking, they looked at each other for a few seconds. Jiang Li remembered Jiang Zhan agreed to him completely that night and the words ¡®I invited the whole drama, what makes you think I¡¯m able to do so¡¯ that were said yesterday morning, he then said faintly, ¡°What a pick-up artist¡­..¡± The words ¡°pick-up artist¡° startled Ji Shu, he felt wrong to where it was going, he then quickly explained, ¡°It¡¯s not like that. Mr. Jiang, please don¡¯t misunderstand. The thing is that this is a special occasion, even if you don¡¯t pass the audition, President Jiang will still compensate you in other ways, you won¡¯t lose anything, please don¡¯t wor¡­¡± ¡°Stop talking, I know, I understand him.¡± Jiang Li interrupted him with a heavy tone, he nodded his head and showed a ¡®I know it all, I understand that he is unable to act on his own¡¯ expression. A president who worth hundreds of millions of dollars, sank to a point of being a pick-up artist, is it the lack of morality or the loss of humanity? At the same time, Jiang Zhan who was holding a meeting in his company sneezed. Although Jiang Li did not say what he was thinking of, his eyes showed everything. Ji Shu could feel ¡®Although I¡¯m really disappointed in my sugar daddy, I still need to be considerate¡¯ from the words ¡®I understand¡¯. Mr. Jiang is really a considerate person, Ji Shu thought in his heart. Jiang Li¡¯s impression in his heart improved a little, he then changed the topic himself, ¡°Mr. Jiang drew eyelines today, it¡¯s pretty nice.¡± Ji Shu noticed that Jiang Li drew eyelines just after they met, the black eyelines were not too heavy, he just slightly elongated them at the corner of the eyes and hooked them up a little. A simple hook made his almond eyes elongated slightly, causing his clear eyes to turn demonic. ¡°Ah, I drew them simply to fit the role.¡± Jiang Li smiled, the original host did not have an eyeliner, he just used a soft brush to draw them temporarily. ¡°I see,¡± Ji Shu nodded his head, he had also read ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ before, it was indeed fitting to the role of Liu Chuandeng. He took a few scripts of the audition from the back seat and handed them to Jiang Li, he asked him to choose one for the audition, ¡°There¡¯s still time to the venue, get familiar with the script first.¡± ¡°Thank you, don¡¯t call me Mr. Jiang, Jiang Li is better. ¡± Jiang Li said as he chose one out of the scripts. Ji Shu agreed and did not disturb him anymore, as he drove towards the audition venue. When both of them arrived, there were a lot of people waiting in the audition hall. There were long queues at every audition room, there were also many crews in charge of the administration. Jiang Li scanned the surroundings, lots of actors who were queuing up were making preparations, waiting for the crews to call them. Ji Shu thought of Jiang Li who just received the script for the audition, he then asked, ¡°Do you need more time to get familiar with the lines?¡± ¡°No.¡± Jiang Li¡¯s memory was quite good, the lines of the audition were not many. He had already memorized them well when he was in the car. After figuring it out for a day and a night, he had also understood both of the roles well. Ji Shu told the crews about this and someone then came to bring them over to the audition room of Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu. Comparing to the other audition rooms, the people at this room were not many, only 10 to 20. There were even 3 pairs of twins among them. Jiang Li was not shocked by this. Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu were a pair of twins, although their personalities were different, their looks were the same. It would be easier for twins rather than a person to act in these two roles. When both of them reached the room, the door of the audition room opened and a pair of twins exited the room, both had gloomy expressions, indicating that they did not pass the audition. A crew who followed them out saw Ji Shu and greeted him. The crew knew they were coming for the audition so he invited them in without hesitation. As Jiang Li and Ji Shu went in, the people who were left outside waiting looked at each other in dismay and started discussing quietly. ¡°Who is that? Why did he cut the queue?¡± One of the actors asked. ¡°Did you see the person who was wearing a white shirt? He is the secretary of the Jiang Group, I did not see the other one before, is he an actor too?¡± Another one asked curiously. ¡°What¡¯s his background that makes President Jiang¡¯s secretary to bring him here personally?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s decided¡­¡± As the door was closed, Jiang Li did not know what the people outside were discussing about. He realized that the air pressure inside the room was a bit low when he just entered. To be precise, it was the middle-aged man sitting in the middle of the panel of judges who made the pressure low, his expression was heavy, making the whole atmosphere gloomy. Two words ¡®Zhou Jin¡¯ was written on the label in front of the man, indicating that he was the main director of the drama. Jiang Li had searched some information about Zhou Jin last night. Zhou Jin was 49 years old, a famous top-notch director in the industry. Judging from his mood, it was probably that the audition for Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu did not go well. Ji Shu went forward and greeted him, introducing Jiang Li to them as well. Jiang Li nodded his head to greet everyone in the seats, he was respectful but did not flattered them, unlike the other actors who would compliment the directors when greeting. Zhou Jin glanced at Jiang Li and was firstly surprised by his delicate yet unfeminine look. He then thought that it was reasonable since his nephew personally requested the roles. Zhou Jin was not only the main director of the drama, he was also Jiang Zhan¡¯s uncle. He did not agree to Jiang Zhan¡¯s request of giving the roles to Jiang Li, he only agreed to give him a chance for audition. To be frank, if he wanted a normal role that would not affect the drama, Zhou Jin would turn a blind eye for his nephew even if he had no acting skill. However, he could not do that for the roles of Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu. This was because if he were to lower the qualifications needed for core roles, the effect of the drama would be reduced drastically. Unless the director was changed, or else there would be no exception. He looked at Jiang Li from his head to toe, putting aside his acting skills, he was satisfied with his looks, and it suited his imagination of the Liu twins. The author had spent a lot of lines writing about Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu¡¯s outstanding looks and had piled all kinds of beautiful words on both of them, it was not wrong to say that they had the most outstanding looks in the novel. In order to fit into the novel and bring the originality for the novel¡¯s fans, the first quality that Zhou Jin looked at when choosing the actors was appearance, since the reason that Liu Chuandeng was able to climb to the position of the Governor of the Eastern Depot in the first place had something to do with his appearance. Of course, appearance was not sufficient, acting skills were important as well, both must be present. Or else he would not have spent so much time on searching for the best actor in this industry that was filled with good-looking people. ¡°You¡¯re Jiang Li right? Are you ready?¡± A woman who had an up do hairstyle beside Zhou Jin asked, ¡®Huang Lisheng¡¯ was written on the label in front of her, she was one of the scriptwriters for ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m ready.¡± Jiang Li nodded his head slightly, ¡°Judges, the part that I¡¯m going to act is the part where Liu Chuandeng met Liu Baizhu after Chuandeng massacred the whole family of Sheng.¡± When he finished speaking, everyone was shocked. ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ was a fictional historical novel, its background was set in the 21st year of the Southern Dynasty. Liu Chuandeng was the greatest antagonist in the book, he was only 26 years old but he was in position above ten thousands, he was the Seal-holding Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial, and the Governor of the Eastern Depot. In the novel, Liu Chuandeng had a poor family, his father died early and his mother was the only parent. He was sent into the palace at the age of seven, he was tortured inside and was serving in the Imperial kitchen. At the age of eleven, he was kept by the Eunuch Supervisor-in-chief due to his outstanding appearance, he was tortured and humiliated, nearly lost his life for a few times. During those years staying beside the Eunuch Supervisor-in-chief, Liu Chuandeng had been treated by most of the ugly methods of the palace, he was on the verge of death for a few times and completely understood the importance of having rights. His personality also changed from innocent and obedient to gloomy and weird. He pretended to comply, being hypocritical and malignant, flattered others, took advantage of people¡¯s misfortune and even murdered the innocents, he did everything that he once felt despicable, stepping on other people¡¯s and his own blood and tears to reach the position of the Seal-holding Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial. He then also became the Governor of the Eastern Depot, an official in the palace. In the other hand, Liu Baizhu was living a completely different life. At the age of seven, after Liu Chuandeng was being sent into the palace, Mother Liu sent Liu Baizhu to school using the money she sold her body. Liu Baizhu then knew the male lead in the novel at school. The male lead was the youngest son of the Mu Rong family, which was one of the four oldest and well-known families in Southern Dynasty. He was being sent to the countryside to reflect on his wrongdoings as he had caused trouble in the town. After meeting each other, both kids quickly established a deep friendship. Liu Baizhu had even saved the male lead from drowning once. After two years, Mother Liu passed away due to a fire in her house. The male lead brought Liu Baizhu home, the Mu Rong family adopted him as a gratitude for saving the male lead, both of them were being sent into the deep mountains to be apprentices and learn skills. Liu Baizhu who was taken care of by his mother since young and was adopted by an old and well-known family did not need to worry about food, clothing and expenses. He also lived happily in the mountains, his personality remained the innocence and passion of a teen. He had even forgotten that he had a brother who had been sent into the palace because of their family condition until a letter was sent to them saying that he was an official and was murdering the innocents, this caused chaos in court, asking both of them to return as soon as possible. The name Liu Chuandeng had once again entered Liu Baizhu¡¯s vision, he then finally remembered his brother who he had not seen for many years. The part where Jiang Li chose for his audition was the first meeting after they left each other for seven years and after Liu Baizhu saw Liu Chuandeng massacred a whole family. Zhou Jin had a habit when choosing each core roles, and that was to prepare a few other audition scripts other than the one that was chosen. He would ask those who performed better to draw and act again, this was also a method to test their ability to act on the spot. But what he did not expect was the fact that Jiang Li chose that script under the condition that many other scripts were provided. This scene was really hard to act, when Liu Chuandeng became the General Inspector in the novel, he once inquired about his mother and his younger brother, he thought they both passed away in the fire, but instead, his younger brother became an adopted son of the Mu Rong family. There were two possibilities of choosing this script, one was that Jiang Li had the ability, he knew although that this scene was hard to act, it could show his acting skills very well. The second reason would be that he did not even read the script properly and simply chose one out. Nobody knew Jiang Li was the former or the latter, but when he started acting, everyone¡¯s vision was glued onto him. Even Zhou Jin who did not have any hopes of him at first sat upright suddenly. CH 6 The audition started at the scene where Liu Chuandeng massacred the Sheng family as they resisted arrest when Liu Chuandeng accused them of betraying the nation. Jiang Li stood in the middle of the hall, he closed his eyes and built up his emotions, he then slowly opened his eyes. After he opened his eyes, the place where he was standing was not the audition room anymore. Instead, it was the location where the Sheng family was massacred. He crossed his hands at the back, standing in the middle of the venue, he slowly kept away the humble and courteous expression he had, and the gloom in his eyes slowly emerged. His vision scanned the ground gradually, his eyelids that were elongated by the eyelines made his gaze look cold and fearsome. It was only a small change of expression in his eyes and yet it caused his whole person¡¯s aura to turn gloomy. He had gotten into character!! Zhou Jin was shocked and he almost stood up in surprise due to the speed Jiang Li went into character, his eyes were now tightly glued to him. Jiang Li¡¯s vision swept over every part of the room, then the corners of his lips curved up slightly, a sense of excitement and insanity was shown, as if the empty ground was filled with broken limbs. He was like a winner examining the result of a massacre he made. As his eyes were scanning the room, a crew member who was standing on the sidelines accidentally met his gaze. A shiver ran down the crew member¡¯s spine after he was exposed to the dark and insane gaze full of murderous intent. Zhou Jin¡¯s hands that were placed on the table clenched tightly, he noticed Jiang Li¡¯s vision that stopped at one point and as he (JL) slowly walked forwards, his smile became more and more creepy. He stepped onto the blood on the floor but did not care much and then he finally stopped in front of a crew. The crew felt numb in his scalp as Jiang Li stared at him, fear overcame him, and he almost could not help but take a step back. ¡°Lord Sheng.¡± As Jiang Li called out, the audience realized that the tone of his voice had changed. There was a sense of sharpness and strangeness in his clear voice, like a voice that most officials would have. Someone realized this amongst the actors that came for the audition earlier, but if one was not a professional voice actor, then it would be a weakness. If one was not successful in changing his voice, there would be a clash between the voice and the character and would end up causing the audience to be disengaged from the performance. However, Jiang Li did not have this kind of problem at all. He was like a professional voice actor who had precise control on every line he said. Everyone knew well that he was using a crew temporarily to act as the other character. ¡°What Lord Sheng said is correct, how much can a Eunuch like me do? I was just helping His Majesty to resolve a problem.¡± Jiang Li put his hands behind his back and slightly paced in the same place. A faint laugh was heard from his tone, ¡°Scold me louder, or else you won¡¯t have the chance to do so¡­..¡± Just as he finished his words, he swiftly drew out a sword from the props rack. Took a few steps back, and waved the sword. The tip of the sword swept from up to down, and a silver ray gleamed as light was reflected. A fatal blow. He simply threw the sword down onto the floor and looked at the ground despicably. He shoved back his shirt as if blood was stained on it and he stopped abruptly just as he was planning to leave. This was the part in the novel where he met his brother, Liu Baizhu. They both had identical faces, one was wearing pure white clothing and the other was wearing a black and blood-stained clothing. Jiang Li showed a slightly shocked expression on his face, looking strangely to the front, and Zhou Jin was the one who was sitting in front of him. When both of their gazes met each other, Zhou Jin felt like he was being pulled into character. The person in front of him was not Jiang Li anymore, he was the Seal-holding Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial who could hide the truth from the masses, Liu Chuandeng. In the drama, Liu Chuandeng had already known that Liu Baizhu was adopted by the Mu Rong family before that scene. He was living a miserable life in the palace but his younger brother by blood was enjoying and living a luxurious life in a well-known family. He felt a strong gush of resentment boiling, and Jiang Li felt hateful and ridiculous, he gloomily looked at Zhou Jin as if he was Liu Baizhu who was accusing him, ¡°You can eat anything you want, but you can¡¯t say nonsense as our family is working for His Majesty.¡± When he said the words ¡®His Majesty¡¯, Jiang Li put up his hand and made a gesture, as if he was triggered by what Liu Baizhu said. He swayed his sleeves, his voice deepened and he had even forgotten how to call himself, ¡°Stop it! You said that I¡¯ve murdered good and loyal people, causing the court to turn chaotic. But then, what do you really know?¡± [T/N: In Chinese history, officials have a different way to call themselves other than You/I.] He was the one that got chosen from the twin and was sent into the palace by his mother, just because he was not as favourable as his younger brother. During the years after he entered the palace, he had always looked forward to the day his mother appeared, wishing that his mother was also there to care about him when he saw other people receiving letters from their homes. However, he didn¡¯t even get a single word from home. ¡°You were living happily and freely in the Mu Rong family, have you ever thought of how I was living in the palace? And now you¡¯re talking about your brotherhood with me?¡± As he said this line, he took a step forward. He looked at Zhou Jin with a murderous intent that did not vanish from earlier, he sneered and said, ¡°The Mu Rong family only taught you to be naive and foolish, didn¡¯t they teach you to protect your life wisely? If you continue blabbering, don¡¯t blame me for ignoring our blood relationship, I will personally send you down to meet your parents!¡± And as he finished speaking, his intent to kill was shown completely, as if he wanted to finish his life quickly. Zhou Jin had his nerves and body tensed, looking at him without a single word leaving his mouth. There was not a single expression on his face but cold sweat was forced out on his back due to the piercing vision that was sent to him. The audition for Liu Chuandeng ended there, but after Jiang Li¡¯s performance, the audition room was plunged into a deathly silence. Everyone was still watching at the youth that was standing in the middle of the room, they were still shocked by the characters that were interpreted by him, as if the vicious and cruel Governor of the Eastern Depot from the novel appeared right in front of them! ¡°Good¡­¡­¡± Huang Lisheng was the first one to come back to reality, when she wanted to clap her hands and start speaking, Zhou Jin used his hand to stop her, and said slowly, ¡°Don¡¯t talk, he hasn¡¯t disengaged from the scene yet!¡± ¡°??¡± Huang Lisheng was reminded by him and realized that Jiang Li was indeed still in the scene, but his shady expression slowly wore off, turning shocked and angry, he had gotten into Liu Baizhu¡¯s character! She could not believe that one could still get into a completely different character after finishing interpreting a character so smoothly, continuing the same scene. However, the person in front of her actually did it! After Liu Chuandeng¡¯s vicious and cold aura had faded, it was like he had changed into a different person. He had the straightforward and hearty character of a son from a well-known family. As he opened his mouth, the disappointment, anger and pain of Liu Baizhu towards his family member was interpreted without reservation. It was the same person but he could interpret two people with completely different personalities, and had even expressed both the outward emotions and extreme psychological changes of the two characters! Such a solid acting skill, not to mention the actors that came for the audition, even only a few of the skilled actors in the industry could be compared to him. Zhou Jin was really grateful to his nephew at the moment as he had dug out a treasure for him. He was also thankful that he gave him a chance himself, or else he would miss out on a treasure like him. ¡°This is the end of my performance, thank you.¡± Amidst the stunning and disbelieving gazes of the people, Jiang Li bowed slightly and said to the few judges in front of him. Zhou Jin stood up and clapped for the newbie who he had never seen before yet had brought him a feast of eyes. He said sincerely, ¡°Jiang Li, ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ welcomes you.¡± Other people also recovered from disbelief and clapped their hands after him. Huang Lisheng really favored Jiang Li¡¯s performance and asked, ¡°Your acting was wondrous, do you have any acting experience? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen you before.¡± ¡°This is the first time for a formal act, I only figured out myself at home before this. I still have a lot that I¡¯m unfamiliar with.¡± Jiang Li smiled shyly, as if he was embarrassed by her compliment, he bowed again, ¡°I¡¯ll highly appreciate your guidance from now on.¡± After he finished speaking, he apologized to the crew that he used temporarily in his audition earlier, asking for forgiveness. He was good-looking, polite and even had good acting skills, so he was instantly favored by everyone there. After thanking everyone, Jiang Li left his contact number and left the audition room. When Jiang Li started to act earlier, Ji Shu left the audition room to accept a call from work. Jiang Li exited the room and saw that he was still on the call away from the room so he waited beside. After ending the call, Ji Shu came back and saw Jiang Li had his head lowered and leaning onto the wall so he thought he did not pass the audition. He walked towards him and consoled him gently, ¡°It¡¯s only a character, don¡¯t put it in your heart Ah Li, treat it as gaining experience.¡± Jiang Li was talking to System and asking if he was really handsome during the audition. Suddenly, he heard Ji Zhu¡¯s voice and did not realize what he was talking about, ¡°What did you say?¡± Ji Shu thought he was really sad, he was perturbed and consoled again, ¡°I said it¡¯s fine if you failed the audition, President Jiang said if you are willing to do it, he can arrange another¡­.¡± ¡°Teacher Jiang!¡± As he was still talking, he was interrupted by the voice from the back. He then saw a crew walking towards them. The crew greeted him and passed a set of documents to Jiang Li, ¡°Teacher Jiang, Sister Huang asked me to hand this to you, it¡¯s about the character analysis of Liu Chuandeng and his brother, this may be useful.¡± ¡°It will be useful, please help me thank Sister Huang.¡± Jiang Li smiled as he accepted the document, he guessed she gave him the information because he said this was his first performance. ¡°Okay! Teacher Jiang¡¯s performance was wonderous today! I¡¯ll leave first!¡± Ji Shu did not understand the conversation, he looked at the crew who left and averted his gaze to Jiang Li who was smiling, he was surprised, ¡°Teacher Jiang?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li waved the document in his hand, ¡°It¡¯s afternoon soon, would Secretary Ji like to have dinner with me to celebrate that I¡¯ve gotten the role that I wanted? ¡°¡­¡­Sure.¡± Ji Shu felt like he had missed something big, when did he become Teacher Jiang? After having lunch, Ji Shu sent Jiang Li back to work, he then told Jiang Zhan what happened today to Jiang Li. Jiang Zhan felt unexpected towards the fact that Jiang Li passed the audition. He thought that Jiang Li would fail the audition, little did he know that he obtained the roles Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu using his own ability. His uncle disagreed to his request of sending Jiang Li into the drama directly, he said unless he was replaced, or else he must pass the audition to act in these two roles. Jiang Zhan knew Zhou Jin¡¯s attitude of striving for perfection towards the drama he directed in. He would also never replace a top-notch director for a plaything who he had slept with before. But since he had agreed to Jiang Li, it was hard for him to change his words. Although Jiang Li crawled onto his bed for a role, and had even crawled the wrong bed, overall Jiang Zhan was happy that night. Jiang Li was also his type, so he would not let him suffer a loss. So he only called Ji Shu to go over, if he did not pass the audition, he would compensate him in other ways. However, he did not expect Jiang Li could obtain the two important roles from his uncle who was strict. The Little Bastard is quite impressive huh. Jiang Zhan was inexplicably happy, he leant onto the leather chair and asked Ji Shu, ¡°Then did he say what compensation he wants?¡± ¡°No, Mr. Jiang said he understands you very well.¡± Understands me very well? Seems that he¡¯s not too heartless. Although he did not give the roles to him directly, he still got the chance for the audition because of him, it was indeed his merit. Since Jiang Li knew how to be grateful, Jiang Zhan decided to treat him better, ¡°If he has no assistant now, get him one before he enters the drama crew.¡± ¡°Yes, President Jiang¡± Ji Shu answered and prepared to leave if he had no other orders. He walked away for two steps and was called again. Jiang Zhan asked if he had no intention, ¡°Did he say anything else?¡± For example, if he wants to invite me to a dinner to thank me or anything else like that. ¡°Others¡­¡­¡± Ji Shu hesitated for a while, he did not know if he should say it or not. ¡°Say it if you have something.¡± Jiang Zhan frowned as he saw him hesitating. ¡°Mr. Jiang said you¡¯re a pick-up artist¡­¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s expression froze and turned dark quickly, he clenched his teeth and said, ¡°Get out.¡± Ji Shu went out quickly. At the same time, Jiang Li who was focusing on studying the information of the character suddenly heard a rapid warning alert from the System. ¡°Host, please pay attention! The male lead¡¯s favorability is reducing rapidly, the male lead¡¯s favorability is reducing rapidly!¡± Jiang Li opened the mission¡¯s column and found out that the favorability had dropped to -25!! Jiang Li was bewildered, ¡°??¡± [E/N: Hah! A pufferfish indeed! :3 Though Mum said that the pufferfish in the place she works at are rather docile.] CH 7 Getting the male lead¡¯s favourability to reach 100% was the requirement for completing the mission. And if the favourability dropped to -20 then there would be a punishment. Jiang Li was bewildered due to the sudden drop of favourability. He didn¡¯t meet Jiang Zhan at all after he left the hotel and neither did both of them communicate with each other. So how come did the favourability drop without reason? He stared at the [Favorability] level at the virtual board and refreshed it several times while stubbornly asking the System, ¡°Babe, did your trash system become spoiled again?¡± ¡°I just checked backstage and found that everything seems normal.¡± The System felt strange as well, so he checked before Jiang Li asked him and found out that the data was perfectly normal. ¡°Are you sure?¡± Jiang Li doubted it. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then just what is that crazy guy throwing a tantrum for?¡± After confirming from the system that it wasn¡¯t an error, Jiang Li felt a headache. He didn¡¯t want to put his effort into capturing Jiang Li at the moment. And instead of dating, he found that acting was more attractive to him. However, because of the current favorability level, he was forced to put aside his work just to carry out the main mission. This gave him a feeling of having his plans disrupted, which he was unhappy about. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Host, I¡¯m not too sure about this.¡± The System thought for a while, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s as you said, that he is a capricious man.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li really thought that he had jinxed it, he rubbed his temples and asked, ¡°Okay, so there will be punishment if the favorability reaches -20, so what about -100?¡± ¡°This account will be deleted and you will have to do it again.¡± System answered. ¡°Then I want to delete and start again.¡± Jiang Li said blankly, he had enough of Jiang Zhan who was unreasonable. ¡°Please change the male lead for me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m really sorry Host, if you delete your account you can only start over in the same world. And if your mission is incomplete, it will only repeat endlessly. Also, before you drop to -100 and get your account cancelled, you will be punished for every 20 points dropped.¡± ¡°¡­¡­ There¡¯s definitely something wrong in this game.¡± Jiang Li was speechless, he pressed open the yellow light on the table that indicated the punishment, and found that there were two choices of punishment. [First Punishment: To hover between life and death] [Second Punishment: To be in seventh heaven] Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡­ What does this mean?¡± There was no detailed explanation, it could only be understood literally, but the literal meaning made Jiang Li feel that something was wrong. ¡°To hover between life and death means that the Host will experience the pain of disintegration of your body, you can¡¯t die if you want to and you can¡¯t live if you want to. This pain will continue for about half an hour.¡± System explained. ¡°¡­¡­ How painful is it?¡± Jiang Li asked curiously. ¡°Probably as painful as giving birth.¡± System was not quite sure how to describe it since it had not experienced it before. ¡°You said it as if you had given birth before.¡± Jiang Li laughed, ¡°Little Cutie, you know a lot.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± System fell silent towards Jiang Li¡¯s tease, ¡°Host, you can try.¡± Although it has a robotic voice, Jiang Li seemed to hear its helplessness. He kept his intention to tease, ¡°What about the second one?¡± ¡°The second one is just its literal meaning.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li read the words ¡®to be in seventh heaven¡¯ again, he winked , ¡°It¡¯s not what I¡¯m thinking about right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± System answered, ¡°The target person is the male lead, Host, please prepare well.¡± ¡°¡­¡­ This game is R18 right? This will be banned in my world!¡± Jiang Li put his hand to his forehead, what kind of punishment is this? This is clearly to make opportunities for me and the male lead! System was in silence as if it agreed with his statement. Jiang Li now knew that if he did not solve the problem of favorability, he would not be able to focus on his work. He kept the tablet, took his mobile phone and called Ji Shu. ¡°Secretary Ji, I would like you to help me with something. I want to meet President Jiang, please help me to invite him¡­¡­ Hm¡­. Preferably tonight¡­¡­ I want to talk to him by candlelight.¡± System, ¡°¡­¡­¡± Host acted without delay, what a good play. ¡­¡­ Ji Shu ended the call and thought deeply about the words ¡®talk to him by the candlelight¡¯ that Jiang Li said, fusing with the boss¡¯s change of reaction earlier, he smelled a sense of adultery. Having to work beside Jiang Zhan for a few years, he knew that Jiang Xhan had no interest in relationships based on his memories. He wasn¡¯t like the other bosses who would take action on the celebrities from their own companies. A beautiful and alluring secretary once seduced him ended up being thrown out of the office by him. Linking everything that had happened before, Ji Shu suspected that his boss had problems that could not be said openly, so it caused him to be so capricious. He thought that God was really fair towards this, God had opened every door for his boss and closed one of his windows. But he did not expect that the appearance of Jiang Li would make that window open! Judging from the fact that Jiang Zhan wanted to arrange an assistant for Jiang Li, Ji Shu could see that he was interested in Jiang Li. Whether it was because of his body or other reasons, he was interested in him. Since Jiang Li was not only good-looking and had acting skills, he was also able to open the window of his heart. And Jiang Li¡¯s call meant that he seemed to want to open another window for his boss. Talking to him by the candlelight, what were they going to talk about, how would they talk, these would go without saying. Ji Shu did not hesitate as he thought about this and went to Jiang Zhan¡¯s office. In the office, Jiang Zhan was still mad at the words ¡®Mr. Jiang said you¡¯re a pick-up artist¡¯ that Ji Shu said. He did not even pursue Jiang Li for simply crawling beds, instead, he accused himself of being a pick-up artist? As the President of the Jiang Group, I¡¯m able to get any beauty I like. Do I need to cheat for a man with only a tad bit of beauty? Moreover, I had also promised him that I¡¯ll compensate him if he fails the audition. I also don¡¯t mind giving him the male lead of another drama. However, not only did he not appreciate it, but he said that I¡¯m a pick-up artist? The President of the Jiang Group is a pick-up artist? If this is said openly, it will be sent directly up onto weibo¡¯s most trending topic! Jiang Zhan became even angrier the more he thought about it. And just as he was thinking if he should punish Jiang Li for being ignorant, he heard Ji Shu knock on the door before coming inside with the look of having something to report. So, he decided to keep his emotions and made an eye movement asking if the other party had anything to say. ¡°President Jiang, I just accepted a call from Mr. Jiang¡­..¡± Ji Shu noticed that the pen in Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand stopped as he said that, and continued, ¡°He said that he wants to meet you tonight and asked if you would like to do so.¡± He asked to meet me? Jiang Zhan was still thinking about how to punish the little bastard, but he did not expect that he would send himself at the front of his door so soon. He snorted in his heart but his face didn¡¯t show a sliver of emotion. ¡°He asked to meet me?¡± ¡°Yes, he said he wants to talk to you by the candlelight.¡± Ji Shu stressed on the words ¡®talk to you by the candlelight¡¯. He used his eyes to observe Jiang Zhan¡¯s reaction secretly and found out that his pen was completely put down. Talk to him by the candlelight, these words reminded Jiang Zhan¡¯s memory of that night with Jiang Li. That moment of indescribable pleasure once again flowed into his mind. That unrestrained feeling was like a traveller in trek through the deserts for years and encountering an oasis in a stroke of luck. Jiang Li¡¯s misty eyes, naked back, and irresistible moans were like demons that constantly plagued his mind and vision. Jiang Zhan could feel blood heating up in his body, wanting to release it immediately as he thought of the scene. He could not deny that the person called Jiang Li had attracted him. Ji Shu looked at his boss who fell into silence and had a black expression, he asked lightly, ¡°President Jiang?¡± Jiang Zhan snapped back into reality and suppressed the enchanting thoughts in his heart. He then said with an unhappy tone, ¡°What kind of person does he think I am? Does he feel like he can meet me so long as he wants to? Do tell him to look at his position first.¡± Ji Shu did not expect this, he looked at Jiang Zhan¡¯s uninterested look, he figured that he may have overthought. He hesitated and said, ¡°Ok, I understand. Then I¡¯ll reply to Mr. Jiang.¡± He turned and prepared to leave, after taking a few steps, he heard a sentence from behind. ¡°Book a private room at Mo Tian tower, 7 at night.¡± Ji Shu stopped on his tracks, he turned his head and looked at Jiang Zhan who was reading the documents without expression as if the sentence wasn¡¯t said by him. He was amazed by his ability of fronting, the boss is truly the boss, he had a way to pose. ¡°Understood, President Jiang.¡± After leaving the President¡¯s room, Ji Shu booked the room for dinner and called Jiang Li to agree on a time to fetch him. After finishing everything, he sat on his seat and sighed, ¡°Rich people do know how to play.¡± ¡­¡­ After agreeing on a time with Ji Shu, Jiang Li threw his phone aside, he did not have the mood to study the characters anymore after solving the problem so he decided to take a nap first. As he lied down, the phone rang again, it was an unknown number. Jiang Li accepted the call and said, ¡°Hello.¡± ¡°Jiang Li, why can¡¯t I get through your phone? You blocked me right? Let me tell you¡­¡­¡± As Zhang Ziyang¡¯s voice echoed out from the phone, Jiang Li immediately ended the call. A message was sent to him quickly, ¡°You¡¯ll regret this!¡± Jiang Li felt that Zhang Ziyan is truly an uninteresting person, he did not have much capability yet he was always trash-talking. Jiang Li blacklisted that number once again. ¡°Host, why didn¡¯t you tell Zhang Ziyang that you were chosen for the characters in ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯? If he knows that you were able to join the drama that he could not enter even if he tried his best so easily, he will definitely be mad.¡± System asked curiously. ¡°If I tell him, it will not be as provoking as making him see it himself.¡± Jiang Li said. If Jiang Li were to tell a guy who had no ability and could only be a trash talker like Zhang Ziyang, he would not believe it either. ¡°I see,¡± The System understood. Indeed, making someone see things themself was better than listening from others. After the nap, Jiang Li took a bath before going out. He looked at his own body in the mirror before wearing his clothes, thinking that he might need assistance. He then adjusted the tablet and tapped the ¡®Pill of Fair Skin as Jade¡¯ from the beginner¡¯s package to use it. After swallowing it, Jiang Li felt a cool sensation emitting from his body. In just two minutes, he felt that his skin had been repaired and had turned into a new one. Jiang Li caressed his skin on his arm and found out it was indeed smooth and delicate, the touch was like suet and jade. Although the original host¡¯s skin was already not bad, the repairing effect had made it go against God¡¯s will. Jiang Li went down and saw Ji Shu was already waiting beside the car as he walked to the junction. He fastened his pace, once reaching the car, Ji Shu then told him that Jiang Zhan was in the car. Jiang Li glanced at the car¡¯s window which was closed and understood his meaning. He went to the window and knocked twice lightly. The window was gradually winded down and a side of Jiang Zhan¡¯s expressionless face was shown. Jiang Li suppressed the impulse to beat his dog head as he thought of the negative favorability. He then smiled and greeted him, ¡°President Jiang.¡± ¡°Hm.¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s gaze paused on his (JL) face for a few seconds, he thought that he had turned white and his skin was glowing after not meeting for a few days. ¡°Thank you for finding time to meet me when you¡¯re busy, let¡¯s go?¡± Jiang Li asked. Jiang Zhan nodded his head, ¡°Get in the car.¡± Jiang Li made an OK sign, he then went around the car, pulled open the front seat¡¯s door and sat inside. Jiang Zhan who was in the backseat ¡°¡­¡­¡± Why don¡¯t you just directly sit in the driver¡¯s seat and drive? CH 8 Jiang Zhan had completely misunderstood Jiang Li. The reason why Jiang Li chose to sit at the front seat was just entirely due to the odd reason that the favourability kept dropping. He wasn¡¯t sure if Jiang Zhan had a problem with him, so he thought that maybe he shouldn¡¯t sit beside him in order to possibly prevent the numbers from decreasing. Both of them had thoughts of their own and Ji Shu alone inside the car, bore the largest pressure of the three. He saw his boss¡¯s gloomy expression from the rearview mirror and had the impulse to get out of the car instantly. The dinner was booked at a Western restaurant on the 138th floor of Mo Tian tower, the night view of half of the city could be seen from the French window of the private room. After they reached the place and got out of the car, Jiang Zhan held out his hands towards Ji Shu when he passed by him, and Ji Shu sensibly put the car key on his hand and looked at both Jiang Li and him who was heading to the lift. He had retreated successfully. Ji Shu knee about Jiang Zhan¡¯s taste in food and had also asked about Jiang Li¡¯s favourite and he had ordered the food based on their preferences. The city¡¯s night view, romantic candlelight, a melodious violin, white roses, tasty steak, high-end wine, everything was provided. It was supposed to be a very romantic dinner, but both of their minds were not in the delicate food that were on the table. Jiang Li was still thinking how to increase the favorability later, so he ate absent-mindedly, whereas Jiang Zhan was focusing on him. Since he knew that Jiang Li wanted to ¡®talk to him by the candlelight¡¯, Jiang Zhan felt as if a kitten was scratching his heart, making it itchy. The words had too obvious of a meaning, anyone would think of ¡®sex¡¯ from the words and he was not an exception. It could be a misunderstanding for what happened on the first night, but Jiang Li came himself this time, he could not possibly say that I¡¯m a pick-up artist again right? Jiang Zhan felt angry again as he remembered these two words, he was planning to give Jiang Li a long face and let him know what his position was. Who knew that he didn¡¯t even look at him once starting from the beginning of the meal? Talk by the candlelight? The candlelight was lit but not even a fart was heard from him. Don¡¯t tell me I misunderstood his meaning? He said that I¡¯m a pick-up artist, he¡¯s definitely the one who¡¯s lying! As Jiang Zhan thought more about it, he felt that this person was just playing with him more. After the meal, Jiang Zhan took his blazer from the rack beside and walked out of the room without looking at Jiang Li. Jiang Li then followed him back to the parking lot. As both of them got into the car, Jiang Zhan said, ¡°I¡¯ll send you home.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li recovered from his deep thoughts and shook his head while looking at him, ¡°No need for that, I don¡¯t plan to go home tonight.¡± Jiang Zhan heard what he said and stopped the action of inserting the key, he tilted his head and coincidentally met his eyes. He went into silence for a while, ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I say earlier? I wanna talk to you by the candlelight.¡± Jiang Li ¡®s elbow was between the two seats, he said smilingly. Talking by the candlelight. These words again. Jiang Zhan thought of the way Jiang Li ignored him earlier, he then sneered, ¡°What are you using to talk then? Did you seduce other people for getting roles like this as well? Like that drama¡¯s vice-director?¡± Jiang Li did not understand why he mentioned the vice-director so suddenly, and even said it as if he was used to sleeping around, he then said innocently, ¡°President Jiang, you can¡¯t say it like that. I¡¯ve been alive for 21 years and I¡¯d only seduced you before.¡± Jiang Zhan was dazed for a moment. He had only seduced me before? That means that his experience with me was indeed his first time. The irritation in Jiang Zhan¡¯s heart faded as he obtained that information, his mood had made a u-turn and went back to the right track, but his face was still expressionless, ¡°Are you sure?¡± Jiang Li prepared to answer him but he suddenly heard a notification sound in his mind from System. ¡°Host, the male lead¡¯s favorability increased 5%, the current favorability is -20.¡± The favorability increased? Jiang Li was shocked at first, but he suddenly understood something and looked at Jiang Zhan with his sparkling eyes. ¡°¡­¡­Why are you looking at me like that?¡± Jiang Zhan felt uncomfortable that he was being looked at with those sparkling eyes. ¡°President Jiang.¡± Jiang Li went nearer and closed their distance, he did not answer his question, ¡°Were you happy that night?¡± That night¡­¡­ Both knew which night he was talking about. His words made Jiang Zhan¡¯s original intention to flow out. He looked at his eyes filled with expectancy, a fire was slowly burning up in his heart, the atmosphere in the car suddenly turned irritably hot. What a demon. ¡°It was fine.¡± Jiang Zhan averted his gaze from him and said reluctantly. ¡°It¡¯s only like that?¡± Jiang Zhan was unsatisfied with his avoidance, he went nearer, ¡°Be honest.¡± ¡°Then what?¡± Jiang Zhan moved backwards and frowned, ¡°Why are you so close?¡± Jiang Li did not answer him, he stretched his hands to pull his tie, stopping him from moving backwards. He went nearer and touched the tip of Jiang Zhan¡¯s nose with his own. Then, he slightly tilted his head and touched his thin lips. Both lips touched each other, Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand which was on the steering wheel clutched tightly and felt that his lips were rubbed against a few times. There was a hidden tingling that lingered on his lips as it ran down his spine. Both of them were really close, Jiang Zhan smelled a refreshing fragrance from his hair. The fragrance was like surrounding the tip of his nose. He subconsciously wanted to take his lips in, but Jiang Li pulled back a little as he moved. The teasing made Jiang Zhan dissatisfied and when he wanted to take the first move, he heard Jiang Li¡¯s voice with a laugh, ¡°Give me a chance.¡± Jiang Li stopped his actions, ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll make you happier tonight.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan thought that this little bastard was really not restraining himself, making him dizzy. He was feeling as dizzy as a youngster at his 17 or 18 who had encountered love for the first time. It was still that hotel, the same room. Once the door was closed, Jiang Li pressed the person against the wall roughly to kiss him, loud heartbeats were heard and nobody knew whose heartbeats they were. ¡­¡­ Jiang Li looked at Jiang Zhan from a top view, his delicate eyebrows brought about an obvious smug, it was beautiful. Jiang Zhan was provoked by his actions as his Adam¡¯s apple slid up and down, he had a warm feeling in his heart, as if he had obtained a treasure. Jiang Zhan had lived for 32 years and it was the first time he had this experience, he was unfamiliar with it yet he didn¡¯t hate it. This person should be mine. Jiang Zhan thought in his heart. He looked straight into the eyes of the person in front of him and asked with a low and hoarse voice, ¡°Jiang Li, tell me, what do you want? You¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li held his hand beside Jiang Zhan¡¯s ear, lowered his head and slowly went closer. ¡°Jiang Zhan.¡± ¡°Remember tonight well, you¡¯re sleeping with¡­¡­ the future best actor.¡± ¡­¡­ After one night. When Jiang Zhan woke up, Jiang Li who was beside was still in a deep sleep. He was having his back towards him like last time, a person could be fit into the distance between each other, his new scratches and old scars were seen on his naked back, it was glaring enough. Jiang Zhan could not understand how a person¡¯s skin could be so delicate. He only squeezed and bit with his teeth lightly, pale bruises could be seen. One would have thought that they played SM if one did not know. So fragile. Jiang Zhan pulled the blanket beside and covered Jiang Li¡¯s body, he then increased the temperature of the air-conditioner before going out to rinse and clean himself. After cleaning himself, Jiang Li was still in his deep sleep, but his posture turned from lying on his side to lying flat, the blanket was once again lifted to the other side, his body¡¯s posture showed the word ¡®Da¡¯. [T/N: Da is ´ó] Jiang Li was really tired last night at the end of the sex, Jiang Zhan was the one who carried him to the bathroom to clean. After bathing, Jiang Zhan felt troublesome and he did not help him to wear some clothes, so Jiang Li was completely naked. Both of his legs stretched open widely and there were many marks of their sex on his body. The uncovered posture made Jiang Zhan suffocate for a second, his abdomen squeezed tightly, he almost took his gun up. [T/N: You guys should know what this means ><] ¡°What a brat.¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s nerve tightened as he saw the person on the bed who was defenseless and strided over to cover him with the blanket again. He then took his mobile phone beside and went out of the room. Jiang Li had a really deep sleep this time. He did not sleep well in these few days that he had just transmigrated. This time nobody was there to disturb him, the place was really comfortable as well, so he only woke up in the afternoon. His body was as sore as if he was run over by a car. Jiang Li layed down on the bed for a while after waking up and slowly crawled up, sitting by the bedside. System saw that he had already woken up so he quickly reported the result of yesterday¡¯s strategy, ¡°Congratulations Host, after a night of hard work, the current male lead¡¯s favorability is 20%.¡± 20%, compared to the previous -20, it had increased 40% this time. Finally it¡¯s not a negative value anymore. This good news made Jiang Li feel that his waist was not that painful anymore, he even had the intention to tell a joke, ¡°There¡¯s indeed nothing can be solved by a sex, if there is, then it will be two nights of sex.¡± System ¡°¡­¡­¡± System did not know how to answer towards Host¡¯s dirty jokes. ¡°Oh yeah,¡± Jiang Li suddenly remembered something and asked curiously, ¡°Little Cutie, since you are bound with me, did you watch the whole process of me and male lead having sex last night?¡± ¡°¡­¡­ No I did not, whenever you and the male lead are having sex, I will be shielded automatically.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Jiang Li was not convinced, ¡°Then how did you know I worked hard for the whole night? You¡¯re not a good kid for lying.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± System fell into silence for a while, ¡°Because I was being shielded for the whole night.¡± ¡°??¡± Jiang Li imagined the scene where System was being locked in a dark room, he turned dazed for a moment and laughed out loud. He nearly had his tears come out when laughing, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Little Cutie, I¡¯ll try to release you earlier next time.¡± ¡°¡­¡­ Thanks Host.¡± ¡°No worries, we are on the same side. Alright, the problem is solved, I should go home now.¡± Jiang Li lifted the blanket and got off the bed, he took his clothes which were on a chair beside and wore them. As he was bending his waist to wear his pants, the room¡¯s door was suddenly opened by someone outside. He lifted his head and saw Jiang Zhan came in. Their eyes met each other, Jiang Li¡¯s words rolled off his tongue, ¡°Why are you still here?¡± Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡­¡± This sentence was completely the same as what Jiang Zhan asked Jiang Li on the first night. This made Jiang Zhan who had waited outside for a whole morning and planned to have lunch with Jiang Li after he woke up to have the intention to beat his ass out. CH 9 ¡ª Why are you still here? The question made Jiang Zhan feel like he was the one who crawled into beds, and that he was blamed for staying, ¡°You¡¯re disappointed that I¡¯m still here?¡± After Jiang Li¡¯s words came out, the System reminded him quickly, ¡°Host, please pay attention. The Male lead¡¯s emotion is fluctuating, do deal with it well.¡± Emotion is fluctuating? After he was reminded, Jiang Li realized that the words he said earlier seemed to have been conveyed with a different meaning. He immediately changed his facial expression, showing a worried expression and added his previous words, ¡°I thought that you had gone to your company and I didn¡¯t expect that you¡¯re still here. I didn¡¯t delay your work, right?¡± When Jiang Zhan saw that he was just worried about him delaying his work, his expression turned for the better. He shifted his gaze towards Jiang Li¡¯s leg which only had half of his pants on and remembered that they were the legs which went around his waist on a particular scene. He coughed lightly and forced himself to look at other places instead, ¡°Wear your pants, what are you flirting around for in broad daylight?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li lowered his head and looked at his pants, and silently pulled it up, he thought in his heart: You are the one who came in without knocking the door and you¡¯re blaming me for being flirty. You were so flirtatious to a point that the bed was going to collapse last night. As Jiang Zhan saw that he wore his pants obediently, he threw in the words ¡°Come out and eat after washing your face¡± and went out. Jiang Li was relieved and took up his T-shirt. He asked System as he was wearing the shirt, ¡°The favorability did not decrease right?¡± ¡°No, it didn¡¯t. Please don¡¯t worry, Host.¡± System also had a lingering fear. ¡°Then it¡¯s fine.¡± Jiang Li was already traumatized by Jiang Zhan¡¯s capricious personality. Luckily, his reaction was fast enough, or else if he were to have sex another time to increase the favorability, his butt would be painful. Indeed, life is like a theatre, fully depending on one¡¯s acting skills. After Jiang Li finished washing his face and went out, lunch was already prepared on the table in the small cafe outside. Jiang Zhan sat on a seat and a waitress wearing a shirt and a black skirt was standing beside and waiting. Jiang Zhan gestured for the waitress to leave when he saw Jiang Li come out. And now, there were only two people left in the living room. Jiang Li walked towards the table and sat in front of him, he found out that today¡¯s lunch was Cantonese dim sum, and more than twenty types of dimsums filled the table. Jiang Li had worked hard last night and slept till the afternoon, so he was hungry when he woke up. After greeting, he quickly took a pair of chopsticks to eat. The hotel¡¯s food was really authentic. The shrimp dumplings had thin skin and fresh meat. The meat was like they were bouncing in his mouth on every bite, it was tasty and delicious. Jiang Li ate three in a row, the fresh and tender shrimp and flavorful soup made him so satisfied that his eyes were half-closed, he did not forget to lick the corner of his lips after eating. Jiang Zhan noticed his little expression like a cat who was satisfied, and a slight smile flashed in his eyes, ¡°Is it really tasty?¡± ¡°The taste is quite good.¡± Jiang Li nodded and pointed towards the last shrimp dumpling that was in the food steamer, ¡°Do you wanna try?¡± ¡°You go ahead.¡± Jiang Zhan could see that he liked the food so he didn¡¯t snatch it, he stretched out his hands and placed the shrimp balls in front of him. Jiang Li accepted his offer, he ate the shrimp dumplings and took the shrimp balls that he placed for him, both of them talked as they ate, the atmosphere was quite peaceful. As they talked about Jiang Li getting the roles of Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu, Jiang Zhan raised a toast, ¡°I haven¡¯t congratulated you for getting the roles, congratulations.¡± Jiang Li swallowed the steamed spare rib that was in his mouth and raised a toast, ¡°Thank you, thanks for giving me the opportunity to go for the audition as well.¡± ¡°Friendly reminder, the male lead¡¯s favorability increased by 5%, the current favorability is at 25%.¡± After Jiang Li heard System¡¯s reminder, he wowed in his heart. He had figured out some ways to capture the male lead, a 100% favorability was just around the corner. When Jiang Li thought of this, he unconsciously curled his lips and smiled a little. Jiang Zhan did not expect Jiang Li¡¯s mouth which could only say things that would make him angry to thank himself. It seemed that it was worth it to spend a whole morning waiting for him for lunch. Jiang Zhan saw that his eyes suddenly curved and smiled like a kitten who cheated, he then asked curiously, ¡°What are you smiling for?¡± ¡°I¡¯m happy that I got the roles,¡± Jiang Li smiled, ¡°Is this not worth being happy?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Zhan lifted his eyebrows, ¡°You are someone who¡¯s going to be the best actor, and this is just an eunuch role, is it so worth getting excited?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand.¡± Jiang Li shook his index finger, ¡°For someone who likes to act, it¡¯s worth being happy for getting any roles that I like, especially the roles that are obtained with my own ability.¡± When he said these words, his eyes were filled with tenderness and determination. They also had a decorous feeling as if he had poured a lot of effort in the industry and treated it as a lifetime career. Jiang Zhan met his eyes for a while and asked suddenly, ¡°If you had the ability, why did you want to make a trade with the vice-director for the role?¡± Jiang Li ¡°¡­¡­¡± When Jiang Zhan thought about Jiang Li nearly getting onto other people¡¯s bed, he had that anger stuck in his throat. Whenever he thought of Jiang Li¡¯s delicate scenes underneath him nearly belonged to other people, that anger in his throat was on the verge of exploding, the original sunny mood seemed to be suddenly wrapped by a layer of haze. As Jiang Zhan saw Jiang Li did not say anything as if he was silently admitting, he got even angrier, ¡°Why are you not saying anything? You had the guts to crawl beds but you don¡¯t have the guts to admit it?¡± Jiang Li felt uncomfortable being stared at by Jiang Zhan, he really couldn¡¯t say that he crawled his bed for the sake of someone he liked, right? Although it wasn¡¯t him who made that decision, the soul in the body had changed and he would need to take the blame. Sigh, time to act again. Jiang Li slowly put the glass in his hand back to the table, his eyes turned gloomy and said with a heavy tone, ¡°I can only blame myself for being blind at that time.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Such a simple answer made Jiang Zhan speechless. Jiang Li sighed, he looked faintly at Jiang Zhan, ¡°If I were to meet you at first, would there be any chance for vice-director?¡± Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡­¡± You¡¯re blaming me now? ¡°But it¡¯s okay. Although the plan was not perfect, the result was still good.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan felt uncomfortable as he was stared at by Jiang Li¡¯s passionate and faithful eyes. He snorted lightly when he saw his self-reflection, ¡°You¡¯re sensible enough.¡± Jiang Li smiled on his face, but his heart thought: It¡¯s nothing about being sensible or not, I¡¯m only doing this to survive. After having lunch, Jiang Zhan passed two sets of contract that was brought by Ji Shu this morning to Jiang Li, ¡°Take a look, if you have a request, you can ask. If there¡¯s no problem then sign it.¡± Jiang Li took a look, the first one was an artist contract and the other one was a ¡­¡­ contract to be a kept man. The artist contract was naturally signed under the Jiang Group¡¯s studio. Jiang Li flipped open to read and found out that the terms stated inside were really beneficial for a newbie who had no popularity like him. There was no problem overall. Since he wanted to walk the road of the entertainment industry once again, signing the contract was necessary. Jiang Group was powerful enough, resources were abundant, and being able to be signed under the Jiang Group would be a really good choice for Jiang Li. Moreover, if Jiang Li chose to work under Jiang Group, it would also be helpful for him to capture Jiang Zhan as it was closer. Hence, Jiang Li signed the contract without any objection. But for the other contract¡­ He lifted up his head and looked at Jiang Zhan who was working on his laptop, he then asked, ¡°You wanna keep me?¡± Jiang Zhan was focusing on his laptop screen, he said without lifting up his head, ¡°It¡¯s written so clearly, don¡¯t you understand?¡± ¡°I understood.¡± Jiang Li was involved in the entertainment industry for so many years in his previous life, although he did not involve himself in the unspoken rules, he had heard of it before. He was not surprised by the fact that Jiang Zhan wanted to keep him as he could feel that he was interested in him after communicating deeply twice. But he did not expect that he would take action this soon. ¡°What other requests do you have?¡± Jiang Zhan sent an email and closed his laptop. ¡°You can request money or houses, if you¡¯re unsatisfied with the house stated above you can change to anywhere you like.¡± Other than the large amount of allowances given to Jiang Li every month, a house at ¡®Jade River Garden¡¯, and a car was written in the contract. The contract duration was half a year and Jiang Zhan had the right to stop the contract anytime. Jiang Li knew that ¡®Jade River Garden¡¯ was a house located at a mid- to high-end area of Jiangdong Road near the suburbs. The price was very high, although it was located near the suburbs, the transport system was convenient. No matter if it was a work contract or a personal contract, Jiang Zhan was really generous towards him. Jiang Li did not have any objection and continued signing his name with a pen. Jiang Zhan felt satisfied as he saw him signing his name, he stood up from the sofa, ¡°The company will arrange an agent and assistants for you in these two days, I¡¯ll need to go to the company for work now, Ji Shu will come and fetch you later. He will help you to move to your new place as well.¡± ¡°OK, President Jiang, do take care.¡± Jiang Li nodded his head and had no objection towards his arrangement. Why should he stay if he had a new place? Jiang Zhan did not move, he lowered his head and looked at him. Jiang Li noticed that he was still there and was confused, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to the company?¡± Jiang Zhan was dissatisfied towards Jiang Li¡¯s slow reaction, he pointed towards the contract on the table and lifted his chin. Jiang Li came to his senses and said ¡°Oh.¡± He stood up and kissed on his cheek, he then laughed, ¡°So sorry, it¡¯s my first time on the job, I¡¯m not too familiar with the business.¡± Jiang Zhan said hmm and kept his laptop. He then turned his body and left the room. When Jiang Zhan reached the door, he used the tip of his tongue to lick the place where Jiang Li kissed earlier. Compared to last night, the light kiss was exceptionally pure, but he somehow felt a subtle fluttering in his heart. Like a cat in his heart that kept its paw and used its tail to sweep his heart. ¡°President Jiang.¡± The secretary who was waiting outside the door called him. Jiang Zhan kept the corners of his lips that were slightly raised and handed in the laptop that was in his hand towards the secretary. Ji Shu came without Jiang Li waiting too long, both of them went back to the rented room to move his belongings. The duration of the room that the original host rented was not long, there was not much to bring over as well. Ji Shu called a moving company and moved his things over without much effort. The house in ¡®Jade River Garden¡¯ had a living room, a dining room and four rooms. They were the master bedroom, a bedroom, a study room and a gym room. The space of the house was really big, the bedroom even had a large French window, it adopted the Western style. It was not too extravagant and not too heavy, giving him a very comfortable place of belonging. When Jiang Li became famous and used to live in large houses in his previous life, he was not familiar with living in the original host¡¯s small room with only a little more than ten metre square. So he was really satisfied with the house that was given by Jiang Zhan. After Ji Shu left, Jiang Zhan went to take a bath and watched a movie to relax himself. As the night came, Jiang Zhan went to Phoenix Coast after finishing his work. Sheng Yuzhi had called him that morning to have a gathering over there. Phoenix Coast was the largest, most luxurious entertainment clubhouse in town. Sheng Yuzhi, who was the boss, had specially left the largest room for them to get together. As Jiang Zhan reached there, Shen Yuzhi quickly hooked his neck with his arm and apologized. He said that he made a mistake by letting a beauty that he gave to escape. To make up to that, he brought a better one today. Jiang Zhan put away his hand and was uninterested in his words, ¡°No need for that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that, decide after you see that person.¡± Sheng Yuzhi snapped his fingers and the manager who was serving beside quickly went out and brought in the person. The person who came in looked like he was not over twenty, he was wearing a clean, white shirt and a pair of jeans, he had a chestnut-colored, chopped hairstyle which made his skin look exceptionally white. His beautiful face had a hint of fear, making him very pitiable. When he came in, the people in the room shouted to mock him. Sheng Yuzhi patted on Jiang Zhan¡¯s shoulder and smiled ambiguously, ¡°How is it? He¡¯s a university student who just came, are you satisfied?¡± Jiang Zhan simply glanced at the person and the person was coincidentally looking at him. Although his expression looked fearful, his eyes exposed his wild ambition. It can¡¯t be compared. As Jiang Zhan remembered Jiang Li who rode on his waist and said that he was sleeping the future best actor proudly, he tsked and raised a toast towards Sheng Yuzhi. After finishing the drink in one gulp, he threw the words ¡°I¡¯m going home¡± and left the room. He did not care about Sheng Yuzhi who was shouting behind. Jiang Zhan drove towards ¡®Jade River Garden¡¯ after exiting the clubhouse, Ji Shu had already told him in the afternoon that Jiang Li had moved in. As Jiang Zhan passed a pharmacy on the way, he remembered the marks he did on Jiang Li this morning. He stopped his car beside and went in to buy some medication that would help to activate blood and resolve stasis. Jade Lake Garden was Jiang Zhan¡¯s house, so he had the room card and password. He did not knock on the door when he reached there, he pressed the password directly and went in. He then saw Jiang Li crossing his legs and sitting on the sofa. As Jiang Li heard a sound, he lifted his head and saw him. He felt a bit unexpected and thought that it was reasonable, he then placed the documents about Liu Chuandeng beside and asked, ¡°You¡¯ve finished your work?¡± ¡°Hm.¡± Jiang Zhan went nearer towards him, he saw he tied a pigtail on the top of his head and felt a bit cute, so he glanced at it for a few times. Jiang Li noticed his glance and raised his hands to untie the pigtail, ¡°My hair is a bit long, it blocks my eyes.¡± When he was talking, he rubbed his shoulder which was sore as he maintained a posture for too long. He was wearing a huge t-shirt that was bought in a night market. The shirt was big, and the neckline was big as well. As he moved, the neckline was lifted, showing the bruises. Jiang Zhan saw them and scolded himself for being inconsiderate in his heart. He frowned, ¡°Take off your clothes.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li stopped his actions, he lifted his head and saw he was looking at the area around his neck. He realized something and adjusted the neckline, he then said sincerely, ¡°President Jiang. Although I was also really comfortable last night, giving in to your desire will harm your body.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan looked at Jiang Li who showed an expression of disagreement, as if he himself was a child who was immature. He had the impulse to slam his face with the bag of medications in his hand. CH 10 It was obviously Jiang Li who had initiated their relationship twice but Jiang Zhan did not understand as to why he became a person who gave in to his desires. It was impossible that he wasn¡¯t angry but when he saw the marks and scars he made on Jiang Li¡¯s body, Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t calculate with him and instead threw the medication in his hand into the sofa. ¡°Take off your clothes, I¡¯ll put on some ointment for you. What are you thinking about in your brain?¡± Jiang Li saw the ointment that fell out of the bag and knew that he had misunderstood Jiang Zhan¡¯s meaning. He touched his nose and said, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s ointment¡­¡­ Say it earlier then. I was also really nervous when you suddenly asked me to take off my clothes.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Jiang Zhan was suspicious of him. Jiang Li looked at him innocently and nodded his head firmly. Jiang Zhan thought in his heart: You didn¡¯t seem like you were nervous at all, I was the nervous one when you took off your clothes without hesitation on the first night. Jiang Li took off his shirt and turned his back towards Jiang Zhan. He then said in a less caring tone, ¡°Actually it¡¯s not serious, it¡¯s only obvious because my skin is white. It¡¯s not painful at all.¡± What he said was the truth, Jiang Zhan was quite a considerate person in bed. Although he made him do it a few times, he cared about his feelings every time. He had to say that other than Jiang Zhan¡¯s bad temper, his other aspects were much to his liking. Jiang Zhan said ¡°hm.¡± when he heard Jiang Li said that it wasn¡¯t painful. He read the ointment guide, unscrewed the cap and squeezed some ointment onto his skin. He rubbed them away and changed places to rub on after the ointment fused together with his pale skin. When Jiang Zhan was rubbing the ointment, he found out that Jiang Li¡¯s skin was indeed smooth and tender like tofu, there was not even a pimple on his back, he didn¡¯t resist and asked, ¡°What did you eat growing up?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li was looking at the roles¡¯ documents and did not really understand his question, ¡°Rice, don¡¯t you eat rice as well?¡± ¡°How can your skin be as smooth as that?¡± Jiang Zhan went closer and pinched his waist, he couldn¡¯t help but keep touching that smooth texture. ¡°Hah¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li was tickled by his pinch and shrank to the side, he then turned his head and said, ¡°Don¡¯t simply¡­¡± Both of them were too close to each other, before he was able to say the word ¡®touch¡¯, his lips rubbed Jiang Zhan¡¯s lips unintentionally, both of them stopped their actions, nobody moved. His breath surrounded the tip of Jiang Zhan¡¯s nose lightly and the air suddenly turned still as a subtle intimacy was felt. When Jiang Li¡¯s eyelashes fluttered, Jiang Zhan widened their distance and stood up from the sofa. He pretended to fix his cuffs as he looked at Jiang Li, ¡°Giving in to your desires harms your body, don¡¯t throw yourself into my arms.¡± After saying so, he walked towards his room. Jiang Li saw that he stopped halfway and called him, ¡°You haven¡¯t finished rubbing the ointment for me!¡± Jiang Zhan went into the room without turning his head and a sentence echoed out, ¡°You have hands and legs, do you still need me to serve you?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Who was the one who wanted to serve me in the first place? Why is he so weird? Jiang Li curled his lips, he was already used to Jiang Zhan¡¯s capricious personality in these few days. He was too lazy to rub the ointment, he then threw the ointment away and asked System if there was any change in the favorability. System answered, ¡°There¡¯s no decrease in points, please don¡¯t worry Host.¡± Jiang Li was relieved. When Jiang Zhan came out after finished bathing, he saw Jiang Li change from sitting to lying prone on the sofa. He didn¡¯t wear the shirt that he took off just now and lay prone with his upper body naked. He used his elbow to support his body and that posture caused his sphenoid bone to form a nice-looking arch, both of his legs were swinging relaxingly. Jiang Zhan stopped walking, he thought that what Jiang Li said earlier about giving in to his desires would harm his body was not unreasonable. He indeed had an impulse to give in to his own desires 3 days consecutively after 30 years of hunger. And everything was because of the person in front of him. No wonder Sheng Yuzhi said that sex was one of the most wonderful things in the world. As Jiang Li heard footsteps, he turned around and saw Jiang Zhan walking about with a bath towel around his waist. Jiang Li¡¯s vision followed his movement and landed on his sexy abs. He then looked at his own flat belly and felt mentally imbalance. He really missed his previous life¡¯s perfect body shape and decided secretly that he would train the current body well. Jiang Zhan pulled open the fridge to get an ice beer to drink and realized that he was looking at him. He then stopped drinking. ¡°What are you looking at me for?¡± ¡°I¡¯m looking at your nice build.¡± Jiang Li was always not stingy in giving compliments towards anything wonderful. He used his index finger and vainly depicted the shape and lines of Jiang Zhan¡¯s abs. With a smile at the corner of his lips, ¡°The lines of your abs are really hot, the touch feels great too, I really like it.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± The distance between both of them was clearly 3 or 4 meters away, but Jiang Zhan felt as if his finger was stuck on his skin, slowly sliding down along the lines of his abs, down to¡­¡­ ¡°President Jiang?¡± Jiang Li waved his hand and increased his voice when he saw Jiang Zhan was as if his soul left his body, ¡°What are you thinking of? President Jiang?¡± Jiang Zhan jolted as he was called by him and he realized that he had wandered off. He felt embarrassed and scolded lightly, ¡°Although I know you¡¯re complimenting me, don¡¯t think too much, giving in to your desires will harm your body.¡± He placed the unfinished beer beside after he finished talking and went back to his room, leaving Jiang Li who had an expression of ¡®Excuse Me?¡¯. He didn¡¯t understand how praising him meant overthinking, and how much of a resentment he had towards giving in to his own desires? It was already half past 11 o¡¯clock, Jiang Li did not plan to stay up late. He stood up to switch off the light in the living room and returned to his room. Jiang Zhan was leaning against the headboard and had a foreign language book in his hand. Jiang Li walked to his side, bent down and kissed him, he smiled, ¡°Goodnight kiss.¡± Jiang Zhan lifted his head and looked at him, ¡°You¡¯re quick at going into your role.¡± ¡°Occupational habit.¡± Jiang Li shrugged and went around the end of the bed and laid down on the other side. He yawned and said, ¡°Good night then.¡± The master bedroom had a 2-meter-large-bed, there were still a lot of spaces even when two men laid on it. Jiang Zhan placed the book beside, stretched his hand to switch off the lamp and laid down followingly. After a while, he stretched his long arms and pulled in Jiang Li who was sleeping on the other side, wrapping his arms around his waist. ¡°Good night.¡± ¡­¡­ After Jiang Li signed the contract with Jiang Group, the company arranged an agent and two assistants for him in a short time. Feng Dong was one of the most experienced agents in the industry, he had brought up a best actress and a few popular female stars before. Although the resources given to him were not as good as before, he still had the experience, so he was dissatisfied by the fact that the company asked him to specially guide a newbie who he had never heard his name of so suddenly. Therefore, he wasn¡¯t as enthusiastic when they met. ¡°Hi Brother Feng, I¡¯m Jiang Li. I¡¯ll be in your care from now on.¡± Jiang Li did a little homework these few days and learnt about the current entertainment industry. He also got Feng Dong¡¯s information from Ji Shu. He really didn¡¯t care much about Feng Dong¡¯s attitude and stretched out his hand to greet him proactively. As the saying goes, one will never slap the smiler. Even though Feng Dong had dissatisfaction in his heart, he would not tear their faces apart. He then shook Jiang Li¡¯s hand vainly. He had seen Jiang Li¡¯s basic information before meeting, he knew that he went to a decent university, but he did not pursue acting and did not have any acting experiences. The only thing he had was a beautiful face that could only be served as a decoration. He had seen many such people like Jiang Li. 80 or 90% of them were most probably lovers of high position leaders in the company and they came out just to play in the entertainment industry. Feng Dong sighed in his heart, he had guessed that the company had given up on him. He initiated Jiang Li to sit down helplessly and he sat down followingly. He then informed Jiang Li everything that should be paid attention to. Although the rules in the entertainment industry of this world had not much of a difference to the one in his previous life, he was not annoyed with what Feng Dong informed him. He nodded his head and jotted down the notes as he was listening carefully. Feng Dong was satisfied with his courteous attitude, he softened his tone, ¡°The company will arrange you to attend physique lesson next. They will also invite professional film teachers to teach you. The detailed plan will be out in a few days, I¡¯ll guide you to familiarize yourself with the surroundings first these few days.¡± ¡°Ok, Thank you Brother Feng.¡± Jiang Li nodded his head, the phone in his pocket rang just in time so he took it out and accepted it. The call was from a crew of ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, informing him to attend the photo shoot of the drama. Jiang Li wrote down the time and location in his notebook as he was talking on the phone. After he said thank you and ended the call, he told Feng Dong, ¡°Brother Dong, I need to go to Long River and Falling Moon¡¯s drama set for a photo shoot, are you free to go with me?¡± Long River and Falling Moon? Feng Dong was shocked when he heard this. He knew this drama, not to mention the fact that this drama was invested by Jiang Group, its online traffic alone was large enough. Although the audition for the cast was still ongoing, it had been on Weibo¡¯s hot trend many times. Feng Dong has been working in the industry as an agent for almost twenty years, although he was not very close with the main director Zhou Jin, he still knew him. He knew how strict Zhou Jin was in auditions. For newbies that had no acting experience like Jiang Li, he could only act in a role that had not much importance. Whether or not Jiang Li entered the entertainment industry to play, since both of them are now tied together, Feng Dong would not let him go to the drama set alone. Moreover, Jiang Li asked him with a polite tone and not in a demanding tone. ¡°I¡¯ll go over with you, I can also take care of you if anything happens.¡± Jiang Li smiled, ¡°Okay, then it may be troublesome for you, since I don¡¯t know the way as well.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not troublesome.¡± Feng Dong paused and did not resist to ask, ¡°What¡¯s your role in Long River and Falling Moon this time?¡± Jiang Li was looking at the message that the crew sent to him, he let him join the drama crew¡¯s wechat group so notices could be done easier. He then answered simply, ¡°Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu.¡± ¡°What??¡± Feng dong was shocked, he thought he had listened to it wrongly and asked again, ¡°Who did you say?¡± Jiang Li kept his phone, lifted his head and smiled, ¡°The Eunuch of the Eastern Depot, Liu Chuandeng.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Feng Dong suddenly felt dizzy. CH 11 Feng Dong had learnt about ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, Liu Chuandeng as the greatest antagonist of the drama had lots of important scenes. Before he became Jiang Li¡¯s full-time agent, he had another male celebrity under him who went for the audition of this role, but he was not chosen and went to other auditions. He had heard about the fact that the actor for the roles Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu had been chosen, but the drama crew did not publicly announce the name yet and he did not expect that it would be Jiang Li! Zhou Jin chose a newbie who did not go for professional acting classes, had no acting experience and had no popularity at all? Feng Dong looked at Jiang Li unbelievably, his first reaction was to figure out how big of a power the person behind Jiang Li had. Jiang Li saw his reaction but he did not explain much and planned to go back if there was no other arrangement. Feng Dong asked if he needed an assistant to drive him home, Jiang Li shook his head. Jiang Zhan had given him a car and the original host had a driving license, he even drove here himself this morning. After agreeing on tomorrow¡¯s appointment time, Jiang Li left. Feng Dong thought deeply as he looked at Jiang Li leaving. The next morning, Feng Dong went to Jade River Garden according to the address that Jiang Li gave him. An assistant was there as well, three of them met and went to the drama set. When they arrived at the drama set, they met the crew who passed the documents to Jiang Li during the audition earlier. That crew greeted Jiang Li happily as he saw him. ¡°Teacher Jiang, you¡¯re here, the dressing room is over there.¡± ¡°Good Morning, Xiao Zhang.¡± Jiang Li had a faint impression that other people called him that last time. The youngster didn¡¯t expect Jiang Li knew his name, he was dazed and smiled even brighter. He then nodded and answered, ¡°Good morning Teacher Jiang!¡± Feng Dong and the assistant Xiao Zhou were shocked. Why is he calling a newbie who had not even debuted Teacher Jiang? What background does Jiang Li have? Other than Jiang Li¡¯s photo shoot, there were also shoots of other roles. The make-up artists were still working busily, so Jiang Li sat and waited beside. The one who helped him to make up was a female make-up artist in her 30s. She was really fascinated by his smooth and bright skin. Although there were many celebrities with smooth skins, it was the first time that she had seen such flawless skin. Jiang Li thought: I used my own life to change this beginner package, can it be bad? Liu Chuandeng¡¯s make-up was heavier than Liu Baizhu¡¯s. Jiang Li first went for the photoshoot of Liu Baizhu¡¯s modelling and went for the make-up of Liu Chuandeng. When the make-up artist finished her work for him, Xiao Zhou was already holding the costume and waiting beside. When he came out after changing into the costume, everyone there was dazed. The black palace costume which was embellished with red patterns was understated and looked luxurious. The palm-width belt outlined his waist clearly, causing his body shape to look slender and tall. His dashing eyebrows carried a sense of heroic spirit, but his hooked-up eyeline was demonic, both completely different temperaments were unexpectedly suitable on Jiang Li. Jiang Li did not mind much about everyone looking at him, he held out his hand towards Xiao Zhou who was nearest to him and reminded, ¡°The hat.¡± Xiao Zhou was still astonished by Jiang Li¡¯s modeling, he was hugging the Futou and did not realize Jiang Li was speaking to him. Feng Dong then went forward and took the hat, put it on for Jiang Li personally. [T/N: Futou is the black hat worn by government officials in ancient court.] After wearing the hat, Jiang Li tilted his head and glanced at a mirror beside. He looked at the Governor of the Eastern Depot¡¯s Futou, the corner of his lips hooked up and walked out. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Jiang Li had the experiences in his past life so the photo shoot for the drama went on smoothly. His posture, expression, eyes had expressed well, the photographer did not need to put much effort on it and not much time was spent for both of the photo shoots. ¡°Great, this is the end of the photo shoot, thank you for your hard work!¡± The photographer signaled towards Jiang Li. Jiang Li nodded his head. When he left the photo shoot area, Xiao Zhou who was waiting beside quickly handed him water and tissues to wipe his sweat. Jiang Li drank two mouths of water and planned to change his clothes and leave. A youngster who was wearing a prussian blue robe appeared from beside, he had a nervous expression and stammered towards Jiang Li, ¡°Governor, I¡¯m Yanxi, your personal eunuch, Liu Tongxin.¡± In the novel, Liu Chuandeng had two close subordinates. One was his little eunuch Liu Tongxin who served him personally, another one was his personal guard Liu He. As both of them were his close ones, they had more chances to appear in the drama. Yanxi was the actor for the role Liu Tongxin, he was here for the photo shoot as well. He was also the drama¡¯s producer, Huang Lisheng¡¯s nephew. When Jiang Li went to the audition a few days ago, he was also there. He was deeply convinced by Jiang Li¡¯s acting skills and had successfully evolved into Jiang Li¡¯s fanboy. When Jiang Li was carrying out the photo shoot, he was standing beside and could not resist himself to greet him after the photo shoot session. As Jiang Li was suddenly stopped, his footsteps halted and glanced at the youngster. He saw the youngster who had an obedient look and looked like he was only in his sixteen or seventeen. Jiang Li smiled as he saw him staring at him with his big eyes and had a nervous expression. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Jiang Li, nice to meet you.¡± After a brief greeting, Jiang Li left first. Yanxi looked at Jiang Li leaving and said with an admiring expression of a crazy fan, ¡°Governor is so good-looking.¡± After leaving the photo shoot area, it was time for lunch. After three of them had lunch, Jiang Li then returned to Jade River Garden. Jiang Zhan was on a business trip these days so he was the only one in the house. Jiang Li was busy with his work in his previous life, he had not encountered anyone he liked to have a relationship with so he was always alone when he returned home. Jiang Li had thought of finding someone to live his life, but as the saying goes, there are many nice-looking skins but only one interesting soul in ten thousand. Although he had seen a lot of good-looking people, he was not able to find someone with an interesting soul. Moreover, he needed both qualities to be there. He thought that if he could not find someone like that, he would return to his hometown to own a cat or a dog after he retired from the entertainment industry. So he could have an accompaniment. But he did not expect that he would get into an accident just after he announced his retirement. Being able to ¡®reborn¡¯, Jiang Li thought if he could take action on this plan earlier. But he did not know if Jiang Zhan would agree to it or not. Since this house was Jiang Zhan¡¯s house, he would spend the night here sometimes. As the kept man of his sugar daddy, he should at least get his permission to own a pet. Once Jiang Li decided to ask for Jiang Zhan¡¯s permission when he came home, he then went to his room to get his clothes for a bath. He was filled with sweat during the modelling and photo shoot. After bathing, Jiang Li saw a missed call and an unread message on his phone. The one who called was the original host¡¯s mother and the message was a credit notification of his bank account. The amount was not a lot, three thousand yuan. Jiang Li understood that that was the money that Mother Jiang sent over, because she was the only one who would send money to this card. Jiang Li looked at the ¡®Mother¡¯ on the screen, his finger stopped abruptly at the part where he had the choice to call back. He did not know how to reply to her as it had been so long since he had the chance to call his parents. When he was ten years old in his previous life, his parents passed away due to a plane crash and he became an orphan. His relatives were not willing to accept him and sent him to the orphanage. In the original host¡¯s memory, Jiang Li knew that he was from a single-parent family. His hometown was a little town located in the South. His family condition was ordinary and his mother managed a small shop in the village. Although they could maintain their family life, not much money could be earned. In his memory, Mother Jiang was a gentle and strong woman. His husband died early, she had also encountered someone who had a better financial situation to remarry. However, that person¡¯s family was unwilling to accept Jiang Li who was a step-child. She then gave up on the intention to recompose a family and brought up Jiang Li alone. Jiang Li felt sad as the mother still did not know that his son had died. ¡°Host, what happened?¡± System could feel that he was a little depressed and asked. ¡°Nothing, I just remembered something from the past.¡± Jiang Li took the phone and walked to the balcony. He called Mother Jiang and listened to the ¡°Beep¨C Beep¨C¡± from the phone, he felt nervous suddenly. The phone was accepted quickly, a gentle female voice echoed out, ¡°Is it Xiao Li?¡± ¡°It¡¯s me.¡± Jiang Li clenched tightly onto the phone, he opened his mouth and called out, ¡°¡­¡­Mum.¡± He felt that his eyes were dampened when he called out. He could feel the bitterness in his heart. This sudden relationship made Jiang Li to be at a loss, he did not know if it came from himself or this body which sensed the blood relationship. If there was something called a soul, he believed it was the original Jiang Li crying. ¡°Hey.¡± Mother Jiang answered him, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you accept the call earlier? Are you busy now? Did I disturb you?¡± ¡°No.¡± Jiang Li suppressed the emotion that was flowing in his chest, trying his best to not let her notice his strange emotions, ¡°I was bathing just now so I didn¡¯t hear the ringing tone, have you eaten?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve eaten.¡± Mother Jiang heard that he was caring for her, her voice had a happy tone, ¡°I¡¯ve sent some money to your card earlier, did you get it?¡± Jiang Li did not guess it wrongly, but he remembered that the original host had told her not to send money over anymore in their last call. The original host had good grades, he received scholarships every year and usually went to work part-time to earn some extra money. ¡°I¡¯ve gotten it. Didn¡¯t I tell you not to send money to me anymore?¡± ¡°I thought that you would still need money before going to work, so I sent some over.¡± Mother Jiang laughed, she obviously did not put what he said last time in her heart, ¡°Although the amount is not large, don¡¯t save it up. Eat more and buy more new clothes. I heard that you need to wear a suit for interviews, go buy two sets of them. If you don¡¯t have enough money, I¡¯ll send more, OK?¡± Jiang Li listened to her nagging and was not annoyed at all. His eyes warmed up, tears nearly fell out. He had already forgotten how many years he had not felt his mother¡¯s concern. In his previous life, his parents went to visit him before they went for their business trip. They said the business trip only lasted for a few days and they would be returning on the weekends. He was waiting everyday and at last, he did not even get to see his parents¡¯ corpses. ¡°I know.¡± Jiang Li answered with a hoarse voice, he had also decided in his heart that he would treat Mother Jiang like his own mother. Mother Jiang was still at her small shop and people in the village would come in and buy some stuff. Both of them then ended the call to prevent disturbing her from managing the shop. Jiang Li went back and sat on the sofa. He looked at the empty house and wanted to find someone to talk to abruptly. However, he only came to this world for a while, the original host had his heart on Zhang Ziyang, so he did not have friends to talk to. He was also unfamiliar with other friends. He thought for a while and realized he could not find someone to go out for a drink and chit-chatting. He scrolled through the contacts and finally stopped at Jiang Zhan¡¯s name. Jiang Li realized that the only person he was familiar with in the contacts was Jiang Zhan. Although he was only physically familiar with him. After Jiang Zhan went for the business trip, both of them did not meet for three days. The favorability was then stuck at 22%. Jiang Li thought about it and called him. He was probably busy so he did not accept the call. He returned the call after a few minutes. ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡± Jiang Zhan asked on the other side of the phone, the sound of documents flipping could be heard. ¡°Can¡¯t I find you when I don¡¯t have any problem?¡± Jiang Li leaned on the sofa, he looked at the chandelier hung in the centre of the ceiling and said half-heartedly, ¡°Do you believe me if I say that I¡¯m lonely so I can¡¯t sleep?¡± Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡­¡± You¡¯re lonely so you can¡¯t sleep? The day that I woke up early and went to the airport, you slept so deeply on the bed like a dead pig! CH 12 Jiang Zhan almost believed his fancy words if it weren¡¯t for the fact that he was nearly exasperated by Jiang Li several times who didn¡¯t even call him once during his three-day business trip. But he couldn¡¯t deny that he was a little happy in the depths of his heart because of these words, which he couldn¡¯t determine whether they were true or false. It¡¯s to no surprise that Sheng Yuzhi stated that having a kept man can enliven one¡¯s life. ¡°When are you going to return?¡± Jiang Li inquired after noticing that he had not said anything. Jiang Zhan leaned back in his leather chair, closing the meeting documents in his hand. His fingers tapped on the arm of the chair slowly. ¡°Tomorrow.¡± He still had a meeting that afternoon, and his flight was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. ¡°Ah, I see.¡± Jiang Li sounded dissatisfied, and Jiang Zhan noticed something was amiss ¡°What transpired? Is there anything else you¡¯d like to do?¡± ¡°Nothing, just that¡­¡± Jiang Li came to a halt and asked tentatively, ¡°Do you have a soft spot for fluffy things? I have a plan that requires your approval.¡± Fluffy things that require my permission¡­¡­ Jiang Zhan¡¯s heart shook, and he had an epiphany. Despite the fact that he had no previous relationships or kept anyone, he had friends who opened entertainment clubhouses. He was familiar with some of the interests on bed or SM between men and women or men and men; he had also seen many sex toys at Phoenix Coast, such as ¡®cats ears,¡¯ ¡®fox tail,¡¯ or ¡®dog collar.¡¯ When he saw the youngsters wearing pink cat¡¯s ears to serve people in the clubhouse, he thought they were sissy and didn¡¯t care. When he was asked by Jiang Li, he involuntarily imagined Jiang Li wearing cat ears and calling him ¡®Master,¡¯ which looked¡­¡­ cute. He couldn¡¯t control his heartbeat and had to change his posture to suppress his racing heart. He then attempted to sound calm ¡°What is it that you are hesitating about? Simply state your intention.¡± ¡°Do you mind if I get a pet?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± What nonsense is it that he¡¯s so lonely that he can¡¯t sleep? In Jiang Li¡¯s eyes, I¡¯m not even worth as much as a small animal. The pink scenes that Jiang Zhan had overimagined earlier faded into the air, and he held his breath in his chest. ¡°Repeat that.¡± ¡°Do you mind if I get a dog or a cat?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan cut the call without waiting for Jiang Li¡¯s response after he finished answering. He tossed his phone aside and resumed reading the meeting materials. After reading the documents for a while, he irritably pushed them aside and dialed Ji Shu¡¯s number. ¡°Move the afternoon meeting up two hours and assist me in changing my flight to this evening,¡± he said. Jiang Zhan smiled coldly after informing Ji Shu. Owning a pet? I¡¯ll let you know who¡¯s the one who owns a pet. ¡­¡­ Jiang Li, on the other hand, was perplexed by Jiang Zhan abruptly hanging up the phone. He couldn¡¯t pinpoint which words enraged him. Even if he disliked pets, there was no reason for him to be upset, right? ¡°Is he insane?¡± Jiang Li scolded at a lower volume, then checked System¡¯s tablet to see if his favorability had dropped. He then decided to memorize the script in order to distract himself from his emotions, as he was about to join the drama crew in two days. Jiang Li discovered that his words had become real that night after spending half a day memorizing the script. He couldn¡¯t get any sleep. He had been turning back and forth for quite some time and was still unable to sleep. It was nearly one o¡¯clock in the morning. Jiang Li reflected on many events from his previous life, most likely because he was on the phone with Mother Jiang. He remembered the love and care his parents gave him when they were alive, the loneliness in the orphanage, and the suffering he experienced when he first entered the entertainment industry. After being alive for so many years, he felt bereft that he had not been able to meet someone he loved to spend the rest of his life with. But at least in his previous life, he had some friends with whom he could converse; he couldn¡¯t even find one here. Jiang Li sighed on the bed, thankful that System was still with him. ¡°Are you sleeping, Little Cutie?¡± ¡°Data does not require sleep.¡± System¡¯s voice echoed. ¡°But Host needs to rest right now. Humans require seven to eight hours of sleep per night, and it is best to sleep before 11 p.m. The human body undergoes metabolism at night, particularly¡­¡± The voice of the system was as robotic as usual, and it sounded unnatural. However, in this silent night, it could provide a wonderful sense of comfort, as if someone was nearby to care for him. As Jiang Li listened to System nagging, the loneliness in his heart faded. He then smiled and asked when it had finished nagging ¡°You¡¯re actually a nanny system right? I can¡¯t sleep even more after you nag.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± The system went silent, putting an end to the plan of asking him to sleep earlier. ¡°What would you like to discuss?¡± ¡°Anything, I just want to pass the time.¡± After a while of chatting between a human and a system, Jiang Li felt his throat getting a little dry, so he got up and went to the living room to get some water. He was about to enter the dining room when he heard the door from the porch open. Jiang Zhan was still on a business trip somewhere else, so Jiang Li¡¯s first thought when he heard the sound was that a thief had entered. His second step was to dash into the kitchen and pull a sharp kitchen knife from the knife rack. He intended to confront the thief directly. His steps were light and quick; he intended to strike first. His footsteps came to a halt as he approached the wine rack and noticed the person coming in from the porch. ¡°It¡¯s you?¡± It was none other than Jiang Zhan who came in. Jiang Zhan was dressed in a metallic grey shirt with two buttons undone on his collar and a tired expression on his face. When he saw Jiang Li, his footsteps came to a halt, and his gaze was drawn to the kitchen knife in his hand, which was gleaming in the sunlight. ¡°Jiang Li, what do you want to do?¡± he said coldly, when he saw where the blade was facing. Jiang Li was so taken aback that he forgot to keep the knife. To avoid misunderstandings, he kept the knife after he asked. ¡°I thought a thief had broken into the house, I didn¡¯t think it was you,¡± he said awkwardly. ¡°A thief?¡± Jiang Zhan heard and threw the blazer in his hand towards the sofa, his vision still clinging to the knife in his hand, ¡°So you were planning to risk your life against the thief?¡± Although Jiang Zhan was enraged that Jiang Li had called him earlier to ask for permission to own a pet, he also suspected that something was wrong with Jiang Li¡¯s mood. He thought he¡¯d run into a problem he couldn¡¯t solve. He then asked Ji Shu to reschedule the meeting, rushed to the airport after dinner, and boarded the first flight back. But he didn¡¯t expect to be greeted by a knife when he got home. Not only was he misunderstood, but Jiang Li wanted to confront the thief directly, which enraged him even more. If a thief broke into the house and brought weapons with him, what should he do if something happened to Jiang Li?! Will he be able to see Jiang Li in perfect health the next day? As he considered this, he felt fear in his heart. His face was stormy, and the interplay of light and dark in his eyes indicated that he was on the verge of going insane. Jiang Li assumed Jiang Zhan was blaming him for mistaking him for a thief, so he quickly returned the knife to the kitchen. He then came back out and said, ¡°President Jiang, please accept my apologies. That was not on purpose. I didn¡¯t think it was you because you said you¡¯d be home tomorrow.¡± So it¡¯s my fault to return earlier? Jiang Zhan remained silent, keeping a straight face and staring at him, his rage unabated. Jiang Li noticed and realized he couldn¡¯t confront him head-on. He then changed the subject and said softly, ¡°You should be exhausted after rushing back, right? Would you like to take a bath first? I¡¯ll assist you in preparing warm water for the tub.¡± Jiang Zhan remained silent, so Jiang Li took that as an agreement and dashed into the bedroom. Jiang Li fell into a trance in the bathroom while preparing bath water for Jiang Zhan. Although he had no idea why Jiang Zhan had suddenly reappeared, he was not only stunned but also filled with joy at Jiang Zhan¡¯s sudden reappearance. It was as if the person appeared from heaven when he was down and needed someone to talk to. ¡°Why are you laughing so stupidly alone?¡± The sound from Jiang Li¡¯s back brought him back to reality, and he turned his head to see Jiang Zhan standing behind him. He was looking at Jiang Li while undoing his sleeve buttons. Because Jiang Zhan had taken a nap on the plane, his hair was not neatly slicked up like usual, some of his bangs on the left side had fallen and blocked his eyes, his cold, hard aura had diminished significantly, and a sense of gentleness flowed out. Jiang Li got up and walked to him when the water in the bathtub had reached more than 80% of its capacity. He then extended his hand and assisted him in undoing the buttons on his sleeves. ¡°I¡¯m just happy when I think of the fact that I don¡¯t need to sleep alone tonight.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± The water in the bathtub naturally ebbed and flowed, and Jiang Li finally took another bath. It was nearly 4 a.m. when they both lay down on the bed. Jiang Li grabbed Jiang Zhan¡¯s neck in the dark, forcing him to turn around and kiss him on the lips. ¡°Thank you for coming back tonight,¡± he said quietly. It wasn¡¯t an act to capture at the time; it was just his true feelings from his heart. ¡°Sentimental,¡± Jiang Zhan said as he pursed his lips that had been kissed. Despite what he said, he reached out his hand and gently and softly touched his hair. Jiang Li heard what he said and smiled silently. He said nothing and closed his eyes as sleepiness set in. Jiang Li was not in Jiang Zhan¡¯s bed the next morning when he awoke. Among the few times they had slept together, this was the first time Jiang Li woke up earlier than him. It was still early, and Jiang Zhan was not used to waking up late. He drew back the blanket and climbed out of bed. He wanted to know if Jiang Li had gone out. When he stepped out of the bedroom, he noticed a faint aroma of rice. Jiang Li was making breakfast in the kitchen while wearing a white T-shirt and a black casual short. Jiang Li had previously invested in a Chinese restaurant chain. He had learned to cook from the head chef in his spare time, so it was natural that cooking would be one of his strongest skills. The kitchen¡¯s equipment was complete, and there were hypermarkets nearby, making it easy to get the food needed. If he had no other obligations and was too lazy to go out, he would cook at home. He smiled as he heard the door open and saw Jiang Zhan had already woken up ¡°Are you awake? First, take a seat, breakfast will be ready soon.¡± His brows and eyes curved in a warm smile. Jiang Zhan¡¯s heart skipped a beat when he saw Jiang Li¡¯s smile. He couldn¡¯t tell if it was his smile or the sun outside that was brighter at that moment. He felt as if his heart had been hit by something, and his ears had turned warm. At the same time, System¡¯s voice echoed in Jiang Li¡¯s mind. ¡°Congratulations Host. Male lead¡¯s favorability has increased by 20%, the current favorability is 42%.¡± CH 13 Jiang Li did not purposely make breakfast for Jiang Zhan, he only made it because he woke up early and there were ingredients in the fridge. When he heard System reminding him that the favorability increased 20% in jump, his mind turned wild and thought if the favorability could reach 100% if he made more breakfast. System: Host, please come to your senses. Jiang Li: Ok, I was just being a little naughty. Although there were only two people, Jiang Li still prepared a lot. There were steamed dumplings, cold noodles with sauce, Chinese steamed egg, stir-fried vegetables, Chinese onion pancake, shredded pork and simple millet porridge. The aroma of the food made Jiang Zhan move his fingers. He used chopsticks and took action on the Chinese onion pancakes that were cut into small square pieces. The Chinese onion pancakes were made with two pieces of crust and a thin layer of onion and minced meat in the middle. Both sides of the dough were then fried into golden-yellow. With a bite, the aroma of the onion and the minced meat drifted in his mouth, causing him to have a good appetite. Jiang Li asked after he saw him finish eating a piece, ¡°How is it? Does it suit your taste?¡± ¡°It was fine.¡± Jiang Zhan commented half-heartedly, he then took another portion of cold noodles. Jiang Li laughed at his act of speaking in a way and thinking in another way and did not unmask him. Jiang Zhan was feeling comfortable physically and mentally after that breakfast. Even Ji Shu who came to fetch him to work could feel the spring-like breeze from him. In a short while after Jiang Zhan left, Jiang Li saw the drama¡¯s wechat group was tagging him. It said that the retoucher had finished editing his picture from the photo shoot that was carried out hurriedly yesterday and they planned to upload it to their blog today to give publicity. Long River and Falling Moon¡¯s drama crew would post some pictures of the actor or the drama on weibo to maintain the popularity. This was a way to publicize as well. The weibo account that the original host used was specially used to support Zhang Ziyang. Jiang Li applied to terminate the account and registered for a new account. After receiving the message from the drama crew, he logged into his account, followed the drama¡¯s official weibo account and sent a message to them. After a short while, the official account then posted the stage photo of Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu, they also tagged his account at the same time. Long River and Falling Moon¡¯s drama crew V: The people said that I caused chaos in the court and harmed the society, but who knows how I was forced to this point step by step! ¡ª Liu Chuan Deng [Picture]; Being in this world, a road, a horse, a jug of wine, a sword, all I wanted was just to have a clear conscience. ¡ª Liu Baizhu [Picture] @JiangLi The Liu Chuandeng in the picture was standing on the stairs outside the court, he was wearing a black clothing and had his chin slightly lifted. He looked ruthlessly at the hundred court officials below the stairs as a cold and gloomy aura was surrounding him. Whereas Liu Baizhu was riding a white horse in the forest of the mountain. He was wearing a white clothing, wish a smile on his face, he casually grabbed the kingfisher that tried to swift past him. They had the completely same faces, but had entirely different temperaments. One was like Lycoris radiata by the underworld, while another one was like bamboo amidst the mountains and forest. The official account had posted lots of stage pictures earlier. Almost all the photos of main roles to supporting roles were posted and hot discussions would be carried out by the fans of the novel and the actors every time a stage photo was posted. However, the actor for the greatest antagonist, Liu Chuandeng and his twin brother Liu Baizhu was not announced yet. Everyone was still guessing who would take the roles, they had chosen the reserved actors for a few rounds and the fans of each actor were quarreling with each other. The fact that officials suddenly announced the stage photos today made the comment section explode! The actor of the most controversial roles in the drama was not the reserved actors that were chosen and recommended by the fans, it was not among the currently popular stars, instead, it was a newbie that they had not seen before. Jiang Li?! Who is this? I¡¯ve never heard of him before. The people pressed into Jiang Li¡¯s weibo and found out it was a new account with only a few followers. Other than the drama¡¯s weibo account, the others following him were zombie followers! His homepage did not even have a post! What¡¯s this person¡¯s background? There¡¯s not even any information about him? But no matter if they knew Jiang Li or not, his appearance was too outstanding. He had interpreted the two characters with completely different personalities vividly and thoroughly by using only two stage photos. It was unclear what kind of people existed the most in this world, but there must be many people who judge others based on appearances! After uploading the two photos, hundreds of comments appeared and it was still increasing. ¡ª OMG! Xiao Gege is so good-looking! I wanna push him down!!!!!!!¡± [T/N: Xiao Gege, a way fans call male idols. Xiao means little/small, Gege means brother.] ¡ª Man, Although I dunno where this Xiao Gege comes from, he looks just like the Governor in my heart ahhh!!¡± ¡ª My mum asked me why I¡¯m kneeling down while scrolling weibo. ¡ª He got these important roles using his face? Looks like Long River and Falling Moon is not going to go well. ¡ª Jiang Li, has anyone heard of this name before? What background? ¡ª Baizhu Gege¡¯s smile just made my heart melt, Xiao Gege do you wanna date online? I have a loli¡¯s voice!¡± ¡ª I was originally afraid of the novel being ruined but now I¡¯m so looking forward to the drama ahhhhh! ¡ª Attracting fans only with appearance? Is the border to join a drama so low now? ¡ª I agree with the floor above. As the comments increased, Jiang Li¡¯s weibo¡¯s followers increased. It broke 10 thousand followers in a few minutes and the name ¡®Jiang Li¡¯ went onto the top trending topics of weibo in half an hour. ¡­¡­ Jiang Zhan went on a business trip for a few days, a few investment plans were waiting for him to be dealt with once he came back. He spent a whole morning and afternoon on the meeting and felt a bit exhausted. After he finished listening to Ji Shu¡¯s report, he thought for a while and asked him to cancel the dinner tonight. Ji Shu looked at his exhausted expression and suggested, ¡°President Jiang, do I need to help you to postpone later¡¯s plan to tomorrow?¡± ¡°No need.¡± Jiang Zhan pinched the middle of his eyebrows and remembered Jiang Li said that he wanted a pet, ¡°Oh yeah, find a pet for me.¡± Although he said he minded it last night, it was just that moment of anger. He would not go to a point to reject such a small request from Jiang Li, and Jiang Li had even made breakfast for him. His lover proactively expressed goodwill, he needed to repay that as well. While for the type of pet, Jiang Li thought for a while and remembered the scene of Jiang Li closing his eyes and lying on the bed comfortably. ¡°Get a cat then, an obedient one, one that won¡¯t scratch.¡± Having worked beside Jiang Zhan for many years, Ji Shu had not seen him interested in pets before. He instantly guessed that it was for Jiang Li, he then asked, ¡°Do you have any specific species you want? Cats like Garfield, British Shorthair, American Shorthair and Domestic short-haired cat.¡± Jiang Zhan was not familiar with the species of the cats and was unclear about how they look, he then said simply, ¡°Prepare a set of photos of the cats¡¯ species and send it to me, I¡¯ll choose it myself.¡± He¡¯s gonna choose a small matter like this himself? Mr. Jiang indeed has his own ways. He nodded and asked again, ¡°I¡¯ve ordered lunch for you, do you need it to be sent to you?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°OK.¡± After Ji Shu left, Jiang Zhan took an archival bag from the drawer. It was a document of personal information, Jiang Li¡¯s name was written on it. When he decided to keep Jiang Li, he asked JI Shu to investigate Jiang Li¡¯s information. At his status, it was impossible for him to keep an unknown person as an impulse. The information was sent to him two days ago, but he was still on his business trip so he was unable to read it in time. He found a comfortable posture and started reading. The information was detailed, it included Jiang Li¡¯s score reports from the schools that he had attended. Jiang Zhan was not interested in all these school reports, he just wanted to know Jiang Li¡¯s family background. After living with Jiang Li these few days, he wondered what kind of family could bring up a little bastard like Jiang Li that would sometimes make him angry and sometimes tickle his heart. Jiang Li¡¯s family background was unexpectedly simple, his hometown is in a village of the Southern, he¡¯s from a single-parent family and his family manages a small shop. It¡¯s an extremely ordinary family. Jiang Zhan¡¯s corner of his lips could not resist to curve up as he remembered the scene where he returned to Jade River Garden last night, Jiang Li thought he was a thief and wanted to fight against him with a knife, only to find out that it was a misunderstanding and helped him to prepare the bath water. He flipped using his fingers, wanting to continue reading it. A ringing tone halted his actions, he closed the documents, put it back into the drawer and accepted the call after he saw the name of the incoming call. The person who called was his family¡¯s butler, he said that his mum asked him to return to his home as they had something to discuss. Jiang Zhan frowned, he said ¡°Noted¡± and ended the call. At the same time, Ji Shu was sending the lunch that he ordered to his office. He placed the lunch box on the coffee table of the reception room and brought out the food. Three dishes and one soup, it was ordered from the private restaurant beside the company based on Jiang Zhan¡¯s preferences. Jiang Zhan sat down and told Ji Shu who was standing beside, ¡°You go and eat as well.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Ji Shu hesitated and did not leave immediately, instead, he asked, ¡°President Jiang, Long River and Falling Moon¡¯s drama crew had posted Mr.Jiang¡¯s stage photos on weibo today, do you need to take a look?¡± There were reasons why he purposely asked the question. He could see that Jiang Zhan was interested in Jiang Li from the actions of changing the flight, rushing back to Jade River Garden after he got off the plane and ordering him to buy a cat. Although he did not know how long he would be interested in, at this point, Jiang Li was favored by him. It must be right to report more of Jiang Li¡¯s information to him. As expected, Jiang Zhan spread out his hands towards him after he heard his words, asking him to show the stage photos. Ji Shu swiftly took out his phone, pressed into weibo and showed him the two stage photos that were posted by the drama¡¯s account that morning. He did not forget to compliment Jiang Li, ¡°Mr. Jiang suits these two characters very well indeed. His appearance and temperament are outstanding, the comments are praising his appearance.¡± Jiang Zhan did not say anything. He pressed open one of the photos and zoomed in. He has the aura, it seems like he didn¡¯t lose my face. Jiang Zhan was satisfied, he then pressed open the comments below the photos. And the first thing he saw was the top comment. ¡ª OMG, Xiao Gege is so good looking! I wanna push him down!!!!!! Jiang Zhan: ¡°¡­¡­¡± You wanna push him down? I think you are looking for death! CH 14 After a few days, the leads and all the important roles had attended the Long River and Falling Moon¡¯s boot ceremony. Le Yu, who was the male lead, became the best actor through a counter-narcotics movie, ¡®Mountain Tea Garden¡¯ two years ago. He had more than eighty million followers on weibo, and was named as the top popular star in the industry. He was also Jiang Group¡¯s hit star. Whereas the female lead, Feng Yating¡¯s popularity was not as high as Le Yu, but she was also one of the popular female celebrities currently. With only these two celebrities¡¯ popularity, it could guarantee the drama¡¯s views. Having high popularity meant people would go after them. Some people could be seen surrounding the two stars from time to time to make their faces familiar to them, especially those Z-list celebrities. After dealing with the Nth person who came and talked to Feng Yating, she used a small fan to cover her face, and the smile on her face dropped. She tilted her head and talked to Le Yu who was beside, ¡°Le Yu, don¡¯t you think these people won¡¯t get tired? Greeting once is enough, there are even people who greeted repeatedly, my mouth is so numb from smiling.¡± Feng Yating was only 22 years old, she had a sweet look, could sing, dance and had good acting skills. She did not only have a lot of loyal fans, she also had audience appeal. She now had the highest ranking in popularity among the popular female stars. Le Yu was eleven years older than her. Both of them came from the same company so their relationship was not bad. When Feng Yating just entered, the company even allowed both of them to join a variety show to promote their coupling. As he heard her complaints, Le Yu smiled gently, ¡°This is inevitable on the first day, it¡¯ll be better after this.¡± Although he was talking to Feng Yating, his eyes stared at the person that was in the corner opposite him. Le Yu debuted early, he signed the contract at the age of eighteen. He had cooperated with Zhou Jin for a few times and knew how strict and how high his qualifications were in producing a drama. When he knew that a newbie was used for the Liu twin, it was impossible that he was not shocked. What¡¯s so great about this person called Jiang Li? Feng Yating noticed his vision, she followed it and saw Jiang Li sitting and chatting with a teen in his sixteen or seventeen. The teen was Producer Huang¡¯s nephew, she had met him before, but it was the first time for her to meet Jiang Li. She was also curious like the others, she glanced at him a few times, ¡°That person is Jiang Li who plays Baizhu Gege right?¡± In the drama, the female lead¡¯s father is the male lead and Liu Baizhu¡¯s master. Three of them grew up together so the female lead also had a lot of scenes with Liu Baizhu. Feng Yating also only knew the person playing when she saw the stage photos. Although she did not know Jiang Li, as a person who was a face-judger, it did not affect her admiring Jiang Li¡¯s appearance. Since good-looking Xiao Gege were treasures in the world. Not everyone was there yet so the boot ceremony had not started. Feng Yating thought for a while and stood up from the chair, she asked Le Yu, ¡°I¡¯ll go and greet him, Brother Yu do you wanna go?¡± Greeting was fake, but meeting him to take a look at his face was real. Being able to pass Zhou Jin¡¯s audition as a newbie, there must be something great about him. Le Yu had nothing to do, he then said, ¡°Ok, let¡¯s go¡­.. Wait, he¡¯s coming.¡± Before this, Feng Dong had reminded Jiang Li to greet Le Yu and the others. Although he did not know how strong his sugar daddy was, Jiang Li still had to be polite to the seniors as a newbie, especially seniors from the same company. To be frank, Jiang Li had the plan to do this even without him reminding. He would be playing Liu Baizhu so he had lots of scenes with Le Yu and Feng Yating. In order to have better communication in the future, he should go over and greet them. As there were too many people around both of them when Jiang Li arrived at the venue, he did not want to squeeze in the crowd. Now he noticed that there was nobody around both of them, so he stood up and walked towards Le Yu and Feng Yating. Feng Yating quickly adjusted her position of leaning on the chair lazily and sat with a good posture when she saw him walking towards her. She put up the standard smile of a goddess and asked her assistant beside softly, ¡°Quickly look at my makeup, is it smudged? Did my lipstick fade? Is my hair messy?¡± The assistant was already used to her act and answered swiftly, ¡°Your makeup is perfect, you¡¯re the most beautiful in the world, Sister Ting please don¡¯t be worried.¡± ¡°Love ya!¡± Feng Yuting made a love sign for her assistant under her wide sleeves. Le Yu who was beside laughed and shook his head, his vision fell on Jiang Li who was walking closer and closer towards them, The first scene to be shot after the boot ceremony was the scene where the male lead, Murong Jing and Liu Baizhu learn from each other by fighting in the forest, so Jiang Li was wearing Liu Baizhu¡¯s costume. [T/N: Murong is the surname while Jing is the name, so Murong Jing] He was dressed in white, his long black hair was tied up high with the same colour as his clothing and a jade pendant was hung at his waist. It swayed gently as Jiang Li walked. It was an outstanding look, his elegance was completely shown. As he walked nearer and his features of his face were clear to the others, Feng Yating could not resist and said, ¡°He¡¯s so fucking good-looking!¡± Le Yu ¡°¡­¡­¡± Assistant ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li came in front of the two, Feng Dong was following beside as well. He was also considered an experienced agent in the industry and had been working under Jiang Group. Although his reputation and resources were not as great as his previous years, his experience was still there. Le Yu was taken care of by him when he just entered the entertainment industry, he then called out proactively, ¡°Brother Feng.¡± Feng Yating followed him and called out as well. Feng Dong lacked resources in these few years, the only advantage he had was his experiences. And now he was greeted proactively by two popular stars that earned money for the company, so he was flattered. He said, ¡°Call me Lao Feng¡±, and introduced both sides to each other. [T/N: Lao is a way to call someone you respect with affection/for close friends. Lao means old.] Jiang Li¡¯s position in the entertainment industry in his previous life was much higher than Le Yu¡¯s current position, but it was already in the past. Now as a newbie, he greeted both of them very politely. ¡°Brother Yu, Sister Ting, I¡¯m Jiang Li, playing the roles Liu Baizhu and Liu Chuandeng, it¡¯s a real honor and pleasure working with both of you.¡± His attitude was humble and courteous without appearing flattery. His unassuming attitude placed himself in a very proper position. This made people feel that he was decent and was then favoured by them. Le Yu looked at Jiang Li from his head to his toes. When he saw the stage photos, he was not only shocked by the fact that a newbie was used in the drama, but also how spot on his appearance was. The shape of his face, his eyebrows, eyes, nose and other facial features were just right, a little more would be cumbersome, and a little less would be inadequate. There were a lot of largely edited pictures so he initially thought Jiang Li was also depending on the edits. He only understood that there were people who were more good-looking in real life than in photos after meeting Jiang Li. Even if the photo was beautiful, how could it be compared to the real person who was spiritual and stunning? When he saw him walking leisurely towards them, he was as if the Liu Baizhu in the drama, who was gentle, had appeared in front of him. Le Yu smiled gently and stretched out his hand towards Jiang Li. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Le Yu, it¡¯s an honour to work with you.¡± When they were talking, Zhou Jin, who was late due to some sudden affairs, had also arrived. Everyone went forward and greeted him respectively. Jiang Li was also one of them. He did not know if it was his illusion, but he felt that the middle-aged man standing beside Zhou Jin was looking at him with a weird expression. The vision had a sense of interrogation, the meaning of the vision was unclear. Jiang Li felt really uncomfortable, it was as if he was glared at by someone and the vision was glued onto him. Everytime he looked towards the middle-aged man, he averted his gaze from Jiang Li. Jiang Li was sure that he did not recognize the man, there was no impression in the original host¡¯s memory as well. Just when he was perplexed about it, he suddenly heard the person beside the man calling him, ¡°Vice-director Jiang.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± After Jiang Li realized that, he looked speechlessly at the greasy, middle-aged man¡¯s receding hairline and beer belly. He suddenly understood the reason why Jiang Zhan¡¯s expression was so weird when he knew that Jiang Li¡¯s original trade partner was the vice-director. He was probably thinking that Jiang Li was blind at that time. Jiang Li looked at the man who was fat and had a wretched appearance, he had a lingering fear in his heart. Luckily the person he slept with was Jiang Zhan, if he really slept with the vice-director, he would have trauma for a whole life. As he thought of this, Jiang Li had the impulse of hugging President Jiang and kissing him a few times to show how touched he was. It was not only Jiang Li who was shocked, vice-director Jiang who was standing on the other side was restless as well! He felt unbelievable after he looked at Jiang Li¡¯s stage photos. He had seen Jiang Li¡¯s photos before, as Zhang Ziyang had sent to him before. He agreed to Zhang Ziyang¡¯s request for a role in exchange for a romantic night after he took a look at the picture. As Jiang Li¡¯s appearance was really favorable and his entire person suited his preferences, he did not only want to play a pretty person like this for a night, he even had the intention to keep him. He thought of telling him after the trade, he could also increase his benefits if Jiang Li wanted, he thought that he would not possibly reject him. He imagined everything perfectly, but he did not think that Jiang Li did not even come! He initially thought that Zhang Ziyang was pulling a leg on him, but when he called and questioned Zhang Ziyang, he found out that he did not know about that and promised that he would bring Jiang Li to his place. Normally, he would not care about this anymore. However, Jiang Li was not only pretty but he had that clean and pure temperament that was rare in this filthy entertainment industry. His heart itched when he only looked at the picture, so he was not willing to give up on the meat that was nearly in his mouth, he then agreed to give Zhang Ziyang another chance. Who knew that Zhang Ziyang would break his promise the second time. He was so angry that he hinted his subordinates to forbid him from entering the drama in any way. He also used his connections and made Zhang Ziyang suffer in the drama that he was joining in. His anger was vented out, but his intention of obtaining Jiang Li could not be suppressed in his heart. Just when he was thinking about another way to make it happen, he saw the stage photos that were posted by the drama crew. Even though Jiang Li had make-up on and was wearing an ancient costume, he still recognized him in the first eye! He was still a plaything that was used by others as an exchange not a while ago, how did he suddenly turn into the drama¡¯s actor?! And he even passed Zhou Jin¡¯s audition. This change made him feel shocked and strange, he was not there during the audition and only knew that Ji Shu was the one who brought Jiang Li to the audition after asking the others! Who¡¯s Ji Shu? He was the secretary of the entertainment industry¡¯s mogul, Jiang Zhan. His direct boss was Jiang Zhan. The power and influence Jiang Group had in the industry was large, it was not exaggerating to say that half of the great quality resources were in their hands. Being able to be sent by Ji Shu to the audition, the person behind Jiang Li was obvious, Vice-director Jiang was unclear if Jiang Li was connected to Jiang Zhan or the other higher ups, but no matter which one it was, Jiang Li was not someone that he could own. Especially if the person behind Jiang Li knew he almost had a filthy trade with Jiang Li, the person might vent his anger on him. As he thought of this, vice-director Jiang¡¯s hatred towards Zhang Ziyang increased again. CH 15 [T/N: I¡¯ve changed the name of the drama¡¯s male lead from Le Yu to Jin Yu.] After the ceremony, all the actors were on standby. The scene would be shot outside and the roles were not many, the main characters were the male lead, female lead and Liu Baizhu. The other character was their junior apprentice from the same clan who would be serving as a messenger. The prologue started with Murong Jing ambushing Liu Baizhu; wires would be used. The fight choreographer explained the actions of the fight detailedly to both of them. Jin Yu had acted in many martial arts scenes, so he was used to the wires. However, it was the first time for Jiang Li, the fight choreographer was a little worried and explained two more times to him. The camera started shooting, the location the scene took place in was amidst the mountains and forests. Murong Jing was squatting, hiding in the bushes. Liu Baizhu who was not far away had his back towards him and was meditating and regulating his breaths under the tree by the stream. The floating clouds blocked the sun when they moved, Murong Jing put strength on his leg, then jumped up athletically, holding his sword and stabbing towards Liu Baizhu¡¯s chest. As the clouds drifted by, rays of sunlight were gradually revealed, the sword was coldly glittering under the sunlight, bringing about a fierce aura. Liu Baizhu who initially had his eyes closed while meditating felt his ears twitch a little as he heard the subtle rustles in the wind. He opened his eyes suddenly and tilted his body, dodging the sharp sword that came from behind. His left hand quickly held his sword¡¯s hilt, and with a sheen, the long sword was unsheathed. Both blades clashed against each other, sparks flying from the clash. Both of them were from the same clan, their moves and weapons were the same. Murong Jing had fierce moves, and a thundering aura could be felt from each move of his, while Liu Baizhu had smooth moves, he made concessions in order to gain advantage, the fight could not stop at the moment. ¡°Cut!¡± Zhou Jin called for a cut. When both of them came down from the wire, he said, ¡°Jiang Li¡¯s actions were slow, move more swiftly when you unsheath, don¡¯t be overcautious and indecisive!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, director, I understand.¡± Jiang Li nodded towards him. Although the physique of this body was fine, it lacked some physical strength, so he could not follow up some rapid martial art moves in time. ¡°Brother Yu, I¡¯m sorry to trouble you again.¡± Jin Yu did not care and waved his arm, ¡°No worries, you don¡¯t need to be nervous, you did well just now.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± The make-up artist went forward to do touch ups, they then started the shoot again. When both of them were fighting, the female lead, Chu Yanran appeared by the side and shouted towards them as she waved her arms, ¡°Brother Jing, time¡¯s up!¡± When her voice was heard, the two men looked at each other. They then took a few steps back, stopping the fight. Chu Yanran ran over and handed in the water bottles and handkerchiefs for them to wipe off their sweat. She then stuck her tongue out towards Morong Jing, shrugged her shoulders and said, ¡°Brother Jiang, you can¡¯t beat Brother Liu even by ambushing, you¡¯re embarrassing yourself.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like that, Brother Jing went easy on me.¡± Liu Baizhu smiled gently and sheathed his long sword back. ¡°Did you hear that?¡± Murong Jing knocked Chu Yanran¡¯s head, ¡°Even if I can¡¯t win against Baizhu, I can still beat you easily.¡± When Chu Yanran heard that, she glared at him grumpily, ¡°What¡¯s so glorious about beating me, you¡¯re too shameless!¡± When both of them were mocking each other, a child who was dressed in white robes ran towards them. He told them that their master had returned, asking the three of them to go back. ¡°Cut!¡± That was the end of the scene. Jiang Li, who was a newbie, had only made a mistake. Moreover, his moves and expressions afterwards were spot on. He was not undermined by Jin Yu in their fight as well. Zhou Jin was initially worried that it would be troublesome as it was Jiang Li¡¯s first fight scene. However, the outcome really satisfied him. He patted Jiang Li¡¯s shoulder, his dignified face showing a faint smile, ¡°Young fellow, you¡¯re not bad. And Jin Yu, you¡¯re stable today, keep it up.¡± Both of them smiled as an acknowledgement. Jin Yu then went to touch up his make-up, as Jiang Li was planning to follow him, vice-director Jiang who was standing beside suddenly called out to him, ¡°You¡¯re Xiao Jiang right?¡± Jiang Li looked at the smile on his face, he did not know why he called him out. ¡°Vice-director Jiang.¡± ¡°I heard that it¡¯s your first time acting?¡± Vice-director Jiang took two steps forward and said tentatively, ¡°You look a bit familiar.¡± Jiang Li moved backwards silently, ¡°It¡¯s my first time acting, maybe my looks are common so I may seem familiar.¡± Vice-director Jiang choked at these words, he stared at his ¡®common¡¯ appearance and tried to pull a friendly smile, ¡°I thought so too, we¡¯ve never met each other before.¡± so you have no bones to pick with me. Jiang Li nodded his head, he said ¡®excuse me¡¯ and walked towards the dressing room. Vice-director Jiang looked at Jiang Li¡¯s back. He hoped that Jiang Li could understand the meaning in his last sentence and wouldn¡¯t report previous grudges to President Jiang. Due to the fact that it was a scene in rural areas, the dressing room was also a portable cabin that was built temporarily. The room was built under a tree to avoid the sunshine, or else the room would be so hot to a point that it would explode. As Jiang Li entered, Xiao Zhou walked up to him and gave him some water. He was holding a small fan for him so he wouldn¡¯t get heatstroke. ¡°I¡¯ll do it myself.¡± Jiang Li took the small fan. As it was August now, the wind that was blown from the fan was hot, but having the fan was better than nothing. When Jiang Li was shooting earlier, Feng Dong was also standing by the side. So he saw vice-director Jiang talking to Jiang Li. After Jiang Li came, he pulled him to one side and asked softly, ¡°Why did the vice-director talk to you earlier?¡± If it was someone ordinary who talked to Jiang Li, Feng Dong would not have cared much. But the reputation of this vice-director Jiang was not good, he not only liked to do some filthy trades, he also liked to use dirty methods. There was once a small artist under Feng Dong who was eager to become famous so he crawled the vice-director¡¯s bed without Feng Dong¡¯s knowledge, in the end, that small artist was sent to the hospital with an anal fissure. Therefore, he thought that it was inappropriate when he saw the vice-director initiate a conversation with Jiang Li. With Jiang Li¡¯s appearance, it was impossible for him to be ignored by the vice-director. ¡°Nothing~ He just simply said a few words.¡± Jiang Li noticed that Feng Dong¡¯s forehead was filled with sweat, he then tilted the little fan that was in his hand and shared some wind with him. Said a few words? Feng Dong frowned and thought that it must not be something so simple. He glanced around a few times and noticed that no one was paying attention to them, he then said softly, ¡°Jiang Li, listen to me, don¡¯t involve yourself with him. If he finds you, avoid him if you can. Don¡¯t stray the wrong way, understand?¡± Jiang Li had been in the entertainment industry for so many years in his previous life, he had easily understood what Feng Dong meant. When he first entered the entertainment industry in his previous life, a producer took a liking to him. That producer asked someone to contact his agent and offered him money for one night. If he agreed to it, he would not only receive money but also get the chance to act. At that time, Jiang Li just signed the contract. He did not have any experience or any background, he could only obtain some advertisements that had low popularity as well as some minor roles. In order to grab some resources and earn the price difference, his agent lied to him and asked him to attend the dinner that was arranged by the producer. That producer forced him to obey but he resisted and smashed his head with a wine bottle. In the end, he did not only lose money, he was also suppressed by his company for two years. In the entertainment industry, it was common for agents to act as pimps, using their artists¡¯ bodies to exchange for resources, money and popularity. Once the artist became popular, the status of the agent would increase followingly. There were even many artists that were deceived by their agents into selling their bodies. Jiang Li had long seen these things very thoroughly, what he did not expect was, Feng Dong who was an agent that only started following him not long ago would warn him proactively that vice-director Jiang was not someone good and asked him not to involve himself with him. This friendly reminder warmed his heart. Feng Dong saw that he was silent and thought that he did not take his words to heart. He was a little disappointed but he still stressed on it again. Jiang Li smiled as he said, ¡°I understand Brother Feng, don¡¯t worry.¡± When he said those words, his eyes were as clear as spring water, they were convincing enough. As Feng Dong heard his words, he was relieved and smiled, ¡°That¡¯s good, go and touch up your make-up.¡± As Feng Dong looked at Jiang Li¡¯s leaving figure, he recalled the scene of Jiang Li acting earlier, he did not have the feeling of constraint in front of the camera that newbies had. Those swift and natural martial arts moves and the precise, detailed expressions, did not look like he was shooting for the first time. With a talent like this, he would be successful after some time. After touching up, everyone prepared for the next scene. After the first day of shooting ended, Jiang Li felt that his body was really exhausted. Although he did not show it on the surface, he could not control the sweating of his palms. There were still many fight scenes waiting for him and he was already like this just on the first day. If he did not try to strengthen his body¡¯s physique, it would affect the shooting. Since it was the first day, Zhou Jin did not ask them to shoot overtime. He told them to return after he arranged the shooting schedule of the second day. As Zhou Jin wanted to be able to obtain actors that had skills and fitted the novel, some time was delayed due to the auditions. Therefore, the shooting schedule was a little hectic. The next few days were all outdoor scenes, and there would be night scenes as well, making those actors cry and wail. Jiang Li needed to act in two roles with one body, and the scenes for the two roles were not few; so his schedule was more packed than others¡¯. In just one week, he had lost a few kilograms. However, under the high intensity training, his muscles had become firmer. His body was also entering the working condition gradually, but his palms still produced cold sweat like before. When he was busy shooting, Jiang Zhan was also busy with his new project. He was managing the entertainment industry, some hotels and restaurants. And now, he planned to invest in properties. He was following up on plots around the Xi Jiang road area that was going to be auctioned. After working busily for a day, Jiang Zhan received the cat that was sent by Ji Shu. It was a 2-month-old ragdoll. The ragdoll was chosen by Jiang Zhan personally, because it¡¯s nature was gentle and obedient. The kitten curled itself up in the wide cage, lowering its head and licking the hair on its body. When Jiang Zhan stretched out his hand and touched it, the kitten meowed softly, it was really cute and well-behaved. Jiang Zhan was very satisfied and decided to add a month¡¯s bonus for Ji Shu. He then left his work early with the kitten and planned to give Jiang Li a surprise. Both of them were really busy these days, so there was little time for them to meet. Jiang Li was shooting till late at night so sometimes he slept in the hotel that was arranged by the drama crew, and sometimes he slept directly after returning home. They had little time to speak with each other. Ji Shu and Jiang Zhan went back together. They did not only buy the kitten, he even prepared the cat bed, cat litter, cat tree, cat food, scratching board and other equipment that the kitten needed. Moreover, the things prepared were high-grade. After placing the things well per Jiang Zhan orders, Ji Shu looked at his boss who was playing with the cat on the sofa and said, ¡°President Jiang, I¡¯ll leave first.¡± Jiang Zhan did not lift his head at all and only waved his arm dismissively. His focus was entirely on the kitten who was lying on the sofa and ignoring him. Jiang Zhan lost interest in the kitten as it did not react to his teasing, he then prepared some cat food, put it beside the cat bed and went into his study room. When Jiang Li came back at night, he opened the door and instantly saw the enormous cat tree in the living room. The tree was about 2 metres high, it was really wide and shaped like an old tree. There was a cat bed, cat litter, scratching board and other toys under the tree. A delicate meow echoed from the cat bed. He came to his senses and strode over. As he got nearer, he could see the kitten that was lying in the bed. That meow made Jiang Li¡¯s heart melt into a puddle, the surprise was so sudden that he did not dare to carry the little guy. ¡°What are you standing there so stupidly for? It¡¯s for you.¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s voice was heard from the other side, Jiang Li turned his head and saw him standing by the study room¡¯s door. Jiang Li already had the intention to own a pet in his previous life, but he was afraid that he could not take care of it well due to his busy work schedule. Later, he encountered an accident and died before he had the chance to own one. He was instantly rejected by Jiang Zhan when he said he wanted to own one the last time, he thought he could only own it after he ended the relationship that they had now. Who knew that Jiang Zhan brought a cat home for him? An overwhelming sense of joyous surprise exploded in his heart, the feeling of being valued and being placed in someone¡¯s heart made his mind heat up. He turned his body then ran towards Jiang Zhan and jumped on him like a little kid. ¡°Jiang Zhan, why are you so nice!¡± Jiang Zhan was forced to take two staggering steps back due to the sudden hug. He used his hands to support Jiang Li¡¯s buttock to prevent him from falling down, he then scolded lightly, ¡°Why are you so careless?¡± ¡°I¡¯m too touched.¡± Jiang Li¡¯s eyes were filled with happiness that could not be hidden, he held Jiang Zhan¡¯s face and kissed his cheek heavily with a smooch, he then repeated again, ¡°You¡¯re so nice!¡± It was the first time he saw Jiang Li so happy since they knew each other, it was as if his eyebrows were dancing. Jiang Zhan was affected by Jiang Li¡¯s nearly overflowing happiness and was in a good mood. As he wanted to lower his head and kiss him, Jiang Li jumped off from him and ran back to the cat, and carefully carried it. Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li carried the cat and talked to it, he said words like ¡°Babe, daddy likes you¡± ¡°You¡¯re my little treasure¡±, Jiang Zhan who was beside could not take it and said, ¡°Don¡¯t simply acknowledge relationships, if it calls you daddy then what about me?¡± It cannot be mummy right? The position is wrong! Jiang Li heard him, he thought for a while and suggested, ¡°You¡¯re my sugar daddy, what about calling you grandpa?¡± Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡­¡± With your nonsense-filled mouth, let alone half a year, I¡¯m almost going to explode after keeping you for half a month. CH 16 [T/N: Le Yu¡¯s (the male lead of the drama) name is changed to Jin Yu.] ¡ª If the cat calls you daddy, what about me? ¡ª You¡¯re my sugar daddy, what about calling you grandpa? Jiang Zhan¡¯s expression changed instantly, his good mood plunging down. In order to keep himself from throwing Jiang Li and the cat out of the house, he held back and walked away with a blackened face. Jiang Li looked at his furious back and pursed his lips as he laughed secretly. He pinched the cat¡¯s ears and whispered, ¡°Baby, be obedient, I¡¯ll go and sweet-talk your grandpa.¡± He placed the cat back into the bed and quickened his pace in order to chase after Jiang Zhan going back into the room. Jiang Zhan returned to his room and planned to take off his shirt and go take a bath. Jiang Li followed him in, he stretched out his arm and wanted to pull him as he teased, ¡°President Jiang, are you angry? It¡¯s just a jok¨C¡± Before he had finished speaking, Jiang Zhan shoved his hands away instantly. He looked at him with a frown, his expression cold and blunt. It was obvious that he was mad. ¡°Jiang Li, know your position. I spend the money and you do your job in bed, don¡¯t reach out for a yard after taking an inch.¡± Jiang Li became dazed for a moment by his words and his hand that was being shoved away froze. He opened his mouth and didn¡¯t know what to say at that moment. Jiang Zhan asked him to know his place properly; he spent money to keep him so he should know his position. It might be because of Jiang Zhan¡¯s act of rushing back late at night in order to accompany him last time, or because of Jiang Zhan¡¯s sudden surprise this time; but Jiang Li had his mind heated up and forgot that Jiang Zhan was his sugar daddy. He was just a kept man, just a kept lover who needed to make him happy. He reached out for a yard after taking an inch and forgot his position just because of those moments of pampering. His feelings of satisfaction and happiness from earlier disappeared instantly like bubbles that were popped by needles. It was so fast that Jiang Li didn¡¯t realize it in time. Yeah right, I¡¯m an actor, why can¡¯t I act like a kept lover properly. Where are my professional ethics? Jiang Zhan regretted the words as soon as he said them. He saw Jiang Li¡¯s widened stunned eyes staring blankly, clearly caught off guard; which made him feel even worse. He wanted to open his mouth and say something but he couldn¡¯t let go of his pride to do so. He thought that the fact that his mood was being influenced by a kept lover who he had kept for only a month was something he shouldn¡¯t be doing with his position as a CEO. Both of them stood still for a while. Jiang Zhan then turned and went into the bathroom. He was afraid that his heart might turn soft and result in face-slapping himself. Not long after he went into the bathroom, Jiang Li followed him in, naked. Jiang Zhan who was showering noticed him, and his action of pumping the shampoo slowed down by a beat. Due to his work on the drama these days, Jiang Li¡¯s body had become firmer. His collarbone extended to the arc of the shoulder concave and two sexy shoulder nests were shown. His body lines looked smoother as well, and his waistline was so thin that Jiang Zhan felt like he could hold it in one hand. Both of them were busy with their work this week. Let alone making love, they didn¡¯t kiss much either. A gust of passion slowly flowed out in Jiang Zhan¡¯s eyes as beauty was in front of him, his throat feeling a bit dry. As Jiang Li slowly got closer to him, he could hear his own slightly hoarse voice. ¡°What are you trying to do?¡± Jiang Li heard his words and smiled, both hands holding onto Jiang Zhan¡¯s firm and strong waist. He pressed his nose tip against Jiang Zhan¡¯s and said with a seductive tone, ¡°I¡¯m here to do something that suits my position.¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡­¡± I just blasted off on the spur of the moment and now you are getting serious about it? ¡°It¡¯s been one week since we¡¯ve done it, don¡¯t you miss it?¡± Don¡¯t you miss it? How could Jiang Zhan not want it, he wasn¡¯t Liu Xiahui1 It was impossible for Jiang Zhan to resist his desires if not for worrying about Jiang Li¡¯s stress at work. But, now this person took off his clothes and was seducing him as if challenging him. Jiang Li kissed his chin and continued going down, kissing his Adam¡¯s apple. Jiang Zhan¡¯s Adam¡¯s apple bobbed suddenly. He held Jiang Li¡¯s waist with his two hands and strongly pushed him towards the bathroom¡¯s wall. He then lowered his head to capture those lips with his own. The atmosphere was filled with hot, fervent waves. The water from the shower nozzle was cool, yet their bodies were boiling hot. It had only been a week since they felt the other¡¯s touch, but when both skins touched again, the both of them shuddered. Jiang Zhan¡¯s breath was heavy. He pressed onto Jiang Li¡¯s lips as if in punishment and said aggressively, ¡°Say, do you know what your mistake was? Do you dare to be so naughty next time?¡± Jiang Li had already reached his limits, the feeling of almost reaching the peak but stopping was making him really uncomfortable. But, the pride in his heart made him unwilling to answer and he clenched his teeth tightly, the edges of his eyes red. He lifted up his head slightly in order to avoid Jiang Zhan¡¯s kisses. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan looked at Jiang Li who was refusing to admit defeat, and.. felt unwilling to punish him. ¡°¡­¡­¡± The water from the shower nozzle sprayed onto the floor, but neither cared about it as they sank deeply into the happiness given by each other, tangling up till late into the night. When the hand on the clock hanging on the wall struck 3, the city view outside of the French window slowly turned dark. Jiang Zhan frowned as he looked at the new marks on Jiang Li¡¯s back. He was already careful enough, but marks were still inevitable. He helped Jiang Li pull up the blanket, switched off the lights, and lay down. After a while, Jiang Li opened his eyes and asked the System in his mind, ¡°Little Cutie, please help me check the favorability.¡± ¡°The favorability is 48%.¡± He thought that the favorability would decrease since Jiang Zhan was so angry. He didn¡¯t expect that it would remain the same. Jiang Li tilted his head and looked at Jiang Zhan with the moonlight shining on him through the window, his vision pausing at his handsome face. His lips curved and he flipped his body over to sleep. After a long while, Jiang Zhan who was supposed to be asleep suddenly opened his eyes. He tilted his head and looked at Jiang Li. He slowly went closer, stretching out his hands and holding his waist. He then lowered his head and kissed the edge of his lips. ¡°¡­¡­ I¡¯m sorry.¡± Inside the silent room, a voice that was so soft that it almost disappeared in the air echoed. The edge of Jiang Li¡¯s lips curved up slightly as he had his back towards him. Good night, paper tiger2. ¡­¡­ The shooting for Long River and Falling Moon was progressing orderly, there were also netizens posting photos and videos of the shooting site on Weibo. With Jin Yu and Feng Yating¡¯s popularity, there was no doubt that they would be on the hot search. Other than the both of them, Jiang Li was on it too. A weibo of ¡°Saw the god-like appearance of Jiang Li Xiao Gege at the shooting site! Those people who said that the pictures are largely edited, shut up!! I¡¯d already become a hardcore fan ahhhhhhhh!!!!¡± was being shared more than thousands of times in just half an hour, and it was still rising. In the video, Jiang Li was in Liu Chuandeng¡¯s make-up. He was standing beside the shooting site and looking at the others who were shooting. He was holding a mini fan in his hand and had noticed that someone was filming him. He looked towards the camera and a few screams echoed out from the video. ¡°Governor, I love you!¡± could be heard clearly in a high-pitched female voice. Jiang Li seemed like he was amused by the confession which was screamed in a cracked voice. He said as he laughed, ¡°Hi.¡± A few screams that sounded like pigs then echoed out from the video again. The video was very short. The last scene was Jiang Li waving towards the camera as he said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you guys hot? Don¡¯t stand there anymore, hide under the trees over there.¡± The beauty filter of the camera wasn¡¯t switched on. Although Jiang Li had makeup on, the shape of his face wasn¡¯t any different from what was shown in the stage photos. It wasn¡¯t like what some people said, that he only got this heart-shaped face after lots of editing. After the video was posted, many people were attracted by his friendly attitude. More than half of the posts that were shared had the words ¡°Xiao Gege is so gentlemanly. A new fan here!¡±. But, there were still some people who criticized that he relied on makeup to look good on camera. Who knows if he¡¯s a human or a ghost without it? It had only been half a month since the drama¡¯s Weibo publicized Jiang Li¡¯s stage photos. The drama hadn¡¯t aired yet and Jiang Li hadn¡¯t joined any variety shows either. But, his followers on Weibo had reached 2 million. Jiang Li¡¯s Weibo was managed by Feng Dong. Normally this kind of work was done by an assistant. However, Feng Dong only had Jiang Li under him right now, and Jiang Li had only accepted one drama so there wasn¡¯t much to take care of. After refreshing Weibo, Feng Dong found out that Feng Yating had also shared the video posted by the netizen, fully supporting Jiang Li. The Earth¡¯s Unbeatable Beauty Feng Yating V: As a person who has interacted closely, I¡¯m willing to worship Brother Liu¡¯s beauty. [Bye]// @Saw the god-like appearance of Jiang Li Xiao Gege at the shooting site! Those people who said that the pictures are largely edited, shut up!! I¡¯d already become a hardcore fan ahhhhhhhh!!!! Ever since Feng Yating debuted, her mindset was beyond common sense. Golden phrases like ¡°I¡¯m so pretty, why do I need to lose fat?¡±, ¡°I look so beautiful, even my fart smells nice¡±, ¡°No need to praise my acting, praising my beauty is enough¡± could be heard from her. She always had exceptional persistence on beauty. You can say that she has lousy acting skills, but you can¡¯t say that she¡¯s ugly. This was the first time for her to admit another person was more beautiful than her, and it was even a man? Her Weibo had 60 million fans and the number of comments broke 3000 in no time at all. It wasn¡¯t only Feng Yating whose brain was out of this world, even her fans were odd. The comments were lining up orderly with five big words ¡ª Sister Ting, please expose him! It was admitted publicly that Feng Yating was beautiful. She was also a person who wasn¡¯t afraid of anything, so she pulled out a picture unhesitantly. It was a picture that she had taken with Jiang Li. Moreover, both of their faces didn¡¯t have any makeup and the beauty filter wasn¡¯t switched on! The Earth¡¯s Unbeatable Beauty Feng Yating V: I¡¯m exposing, it¡¯s time to prove your true love, please stay if you love me, if you don¡¯t love me, turn left and find him @Jiang Li [Photo] The photo was taken in the dressing room. Both of them had just taken off their face masks and the essence on their faces hadn¡¯t been washed off yet. It was truly a picture of them without any makeup. It wasn¡¯t beautified or edited and the little pimples on her forehead and the little mole on Jiang Li¡¯s nose tip could be seen. When the photo was posted, the comment section exploded! ¡ª Xiao Gege is really good-looking! How can your skin be so smooth?? ¡ª Sister Ting, you¡¯re really good, but I choose Jiang Li. ¡ª I loved Sister Ting, but I deserve better! ¡ª Sister Ting, please don¡¯t worry, I still love you! ¡ª Xiao Gege¡¯s appearance really makes my heart soft, the little mole on his nose is so cute! ¡ª Sister Ting without make-up is really pretty, but I wanna know why Sister Ting has the courage to post this photo? ¡ª Love is like a bubble. Feng Dong was passing the tablet with Weibo open to Jiang Li and he coincidentally saw her post a reply to a screenshot of the comments. The Unbeatable Beauty, Miss Feng Yating sent two angry exploding memes that stated ¡°Love is so fragile!¡± that made Jiang Li laugh. Although they only knew each other for a short time, they had shot a lot of scenes together. Feng Yating was also a cheerful person so they got along pretty well. Jiang Li took the tablet and used his Weibo to share her post. Jiang Li V: I choose to stay.// @The Earth¡¯s Unbeatable Beauty Feng Yating V: I¡¯m exposing, it¡¯s time to prove your true love, please stay if you love me, if you don¡¯t love me, turn left and find him @Jiang Li [Photo] On the other side, a new notification suddenly popped up on Jiang Zhan¡¯s computer as he had followed Jiang Li¡¯s Weibo with his personal account. He clicked to open it and saw that Jiang Li had just shared a weibo. Under that post, Feng Yating replied with a love emoji to Jiang Li. The comments under hers were saying ¡°Xiao Gege and Xiao Jiejie are in true love, get together get together!¡± Both of their names were sent up to the hot trend list. Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡­??¡± Why is the artist under my company stealing my person away instead of working hard and earning money for me? Liu Xiahui is a historical figure who encountered a woman who had no place to live. He was scared that the woman would get cold so he invited her in. He sat quietly with the woman in the night and did not take advantage of her. paper tiger refers to people who act threatening/ strong/ dangerous¡­etc but are actually not CH 17 Jiang Zhan looked at the comments shipping Jiang Li and Feng Yating and thought them to be an eyesore. There were even fans who did not fear trouble and tagged Jin Yu, whose CP with Yating was promoted before. Fans from three parties were shipping here and there. ¡°¡­¡­ What is this¡­¡± Jiang Zhan scrolled down and saw an ID called ¡®the world and Xiao Gege are all mine¡¯ waving flags and shouting ¡°Jiang Li Xiao Gege, I love you¡± in the comments. If he didn¡¯t remember incorrectly, this was the one who said he/she wanted to push Jiang Li down. What a tremendous mess. Jiang Zhan tsked and exited from Jiang Li¡¯s Weibo interface. He then pressed on Ji Shu¡¯s contact, ¡°Check Feng Yating¡¯s recent schedule.¡± I wanna see how free you are to a point that you have the courage to tease my person. Ji Shu¡¯s effectiveness was high, he called back within 5 minutes. ¡°Miss Feng¡¯s schedule has been quite packed recently. Other than Long River and Falling Moon¡¯s shoot, she has a perfume advertisement photo shoot the day after tomorrow. She has a charity ball the following day, and a ¡®Face-to-face celebrity¡¯ live variety show next week.¡± Ji Shu hesitantly paused for a while, but felt that this was something that needed to be said, ¡°And in the variety show next week, Miss Feng¡¯s partner is Mr. Jiang.¡± ¡°Jiang Li?¡± Jiang Zhan frowned, it was not enough that the netizens shipped them, now they are even going on a show together? ¡°Who arranged it?¡± Ji Shu heard the displeasure in his voice and answered carefully, ¡°You said that you wanted to arrange a variety show for Mr. Jiang for some exposure, it can also increase his popularity. ¡®Face-to-face celebrity¡¯ is also a live variety show with decent views. It will be aired at the golden hour at 8pm on every Saturday. Miss Feng is the most popular female young artist and she¡¯s also coincidentally in the same drama crew as Mr Jiang. If both of them join the show together it¡¯s going to be a win-win situation.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± So I made myself the hoe and helped others snatch my person away? After listening to Ji Shu¡¯s report, Jiang Zhan was speechless. He hung up the call silently and could not resist opening Weibo again. He then saw that Jin Yu appeared under Jiang Li¡¯s Weibo as well, both of them even interacted. He became so mad at that moment and closed the comment section. He then asked Ji Shu to send him the materials for the afternoon meeting. ¡­¡­ When Feng Dong was informed of Jiang Li¡¯s participation in the variety show, ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯, he felt incredulous. This variety show was one of the most popular variety shows at that time. The whole session was live streaming and the number of views every week was quite high too. Most of the people invited were popular celebrities. Although Jiang Li¡¯s popularity was not bad recently and he even joined the drama production of a top-notch director, the drama was not aired yet and he did not have any great achievements. He was not up to standard. Unless¡­ there¡¯s someone above pulling the strings. Feng Dong looked at Jiang Li who was playing games while lying on the lounge¡¯s sofa. He suddenly understood why the human resource manager said ¡°You¡¯re finally going to have better days ahead.¡± when he arranged for him to be Jiang Li¡¯s agent. Jiang Li had a great appearance, good acting skills, and even had someone backing him; he would definitely become famous. Those people who dissed him for having nothing but a beautiful face would need to swallow back their words after ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ aired!! Feng Dong could not reign in his excitement when he informed Jiang Li of the invitation, ¡°This is a very good opportunity. It will guarantee you more exposure before the drama starts airing.¡± Jiang Li was busy with the drama shoot recently so he had not watched this live variety show called ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ before. But when he saw Feng Dong getting so enthusiastic, he could roughly guess how popular the show was. After he listened to him introduce the show, he asked, ¡°You said the company arranged this for me?¡± ¡°Yes, it will take place next Saturday. Although it¡¯s a live streaming variety show, you will still need to go for the rehearsal before airing in order to ensure the program runs smoothly. Here is the procedure of the show.¡± Feng Dong handed the detailed procedure of the show as he continued speaking and introducing other guests to him. ¡°There will also be Feng Yating, Zhao Ziyi, and Chu Mengyao in this episode. You are the only newbie among them, others are popular celebrities.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li nodded his head, took the show¡¯s procedure, and read through it. After the guests confirmed their participation, they were required to record a short video and send it to the production team. The production team would then edit them into the episode¡¯s trailer. The guests would also need to go to the shooting venue a day earlier for the rehearsal. After Jiang Li knew how popular the show was, he immediately thought of Jiang Zhan; he did not have any popularity now, so it must be that man¡¯s handiwork that he was able to join a show like that. He bought a cat for me, arranged a popular show for me to join, yet he told me not to reach out for a yard after taking an inch. Heh. He refuses to admit it but he has a soft heart. ¡°What are you smiling at?¡± Feng Dong noticed the edge of Jiang Li¡¯s lips that were slightly curved up, as if he was in a really good mood. He thought that he was happy because of the show, he then followed him to smile, ¡°If you don¡¯t have any objections, I¡¯ll go and arrange your schedule with the organizer.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t really care what he was talking about. He took out his phone and sent a message to Jiang Zhan. When Jiang Zhan received the message, he was holding a meeting in the conference room. The property investment project did not go smoothly. The manager who reported the progress of the project was shivering as he talked in front of Jiang Zhan, whose expression was as cold as frost. He was afraid that Jiang Zhan would throw the documents onto his face in a fit of anger. ¡°Beep¨C Beep¨C¡± The mobile phone beside him vibrated. Jiang Zhan¡¯s eyes tilted down and briefly glanced at it, he then saw Jiang Li¡¯s messages pop up. ¡ª I received the notification about the variety show the company sent, you arranged it right? ¡ª I¡¯m very touched, thank you. ¡ª XOXO1 The three messages had been sent one after the other. Jiang Zhan opened them expressionlessly. As he was replying to Jiang Li, he noticed that the manager had stopped reporting. He then said, ¡°Continue.¡± The manager keenly sensed that his boss¡¯ anger eased, so he did not dare waste more time and continued reporting. After the meeting, the higher-ups left. Ji Shu stayed and helped Jiang Zhan arrange the documents on his table. Jiang Zhan leaned on the back of the chair as his hand fiddled with his phone. He glanced at the message sent by Jiang Li several times and suddenly asked Ji Shu, ¡°What does XOXO mean?¡± The word ¡®muaks¡¯ that came out from his mouth scared the life out of Ji Shu, he thought he had heard it wrong. He turned his head and was met with Jiang Zhan¡¯s expressionless face as he asked again, ¡°What does it mean?¡± What does XOXO mean¡­¡­ Ji Shu pondered over this question and was trying to organize his words, but before he got to answer he heard Jiang Zhan say, ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± I know! My girlfriend sends me this every day when we are chatting!!! Ji Shu growled in his heart. ¡°XOXO¡­ it means hugs and kisses. It¡¯s widely used online and mostly between couples when they¡¯re chatting. Some friends who are close also use this, it¡¯s an expression to show affection.¡± Ji Shu repeated the meaning according to the website he searched after he received ¡®XOXO¡¯ from his girlfriend for the first time. After he finished explaining, he saw Jiang Zhan stare at his phone with a subtle expression, he asked hesitantly, ¡°Um¡­ Mr. Jiang sent it to you?¡± ¡°En.¡± Jiang Zhan answered calmly, his gaze still stuck on the word ¡®XOXO¡¯. It¡¯s an expression of showing affection between couples or close friends. We¡¯re not a couple and I¡¯m not considered his close friend either, but the fact that Jiang Li sent three messages shows that he¡¯s really touched. Ji Shu didn¡¯t know what he was thinking in his heart, he smiled and said, ¡°Mr. Jiang is really a fun person, my girlfriend likes to send this to me as well.¡± ¡°Girlfriend?¡± Jiang Zhan lifted up his head and looked at him. ¡°Yeah!¡± Ji Shu nodded. ¡°Are you showing off how lovey-dovey you and your girlfriend are?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan stood up from his chair and seemed to have the intention to leave. Ji Shu then asked as he was holding the documents, ¡°President Jiang, where are you going? Do you need a car?¡± ¡°Visiting someone on a film set.¡± Jiang Zhan had already left the office as soon as his words ended. Ji Shu knew that he was going to visit Jiang Li and quickly followed him without hesitation. ¡­¡­ Jiang Li¡¯s shooting in the afternoon was Liu Chuandeng¡¯s scene. The scenario was that Liu Chuandeng accidentally found a stack of old letters in the Head Eunuch, Zhao Dequan¡¯s, secret room; and they were all letters from his own mother. This was a scene with only Jiang Li in it. He sat on the mat and closed his eyes to build up his emotions. A vermillion brown box was placed beside his hand, there were a few unsealed letters as well. The letters¡¯ paper were dark yellow in colour, showing how old they were. The Liu Family was in a poor condition, so Mother Liu did not attend school before, she only learnt how to read after marriage as Father Liu taught her for two years. The words written in the letters were not beautiful, but the effort spent on them could be seen. There even were smudges on the words, as if tears had dropped on them. In the early letters, she said that the reason that she did not send any letters to Liu Chuandeng for the first two years was because she did not dare to face him. She was scared that he was suffering in the palace. In the following letters, she asked Liu Chuandeng if he hated her for sending him into the palace, and whether that was the reason why he never replied back even once. She asked if he was living well in the palace and asked for his forgiveness. Liu Chuandeng entered the palace when he was seven years old, he stayed there for 19 years full of hellish suffering. He once asked himself; if his mother was still alive after he became at a high position, would he stand firm to his oath of killing everyone who humiliated him and kill her too? She; who was the start of his humiliation. It was impossible that he did not hate her. When he thought of all the times he was humiliated by the Head Eunuch, he couldn¡¯t resist blaming everything on her. If it wasn¡¯t for her, if he wasn¡¯t sent to the palace, then he would¡¯ve never experienced those days when he lived neither like a human nor a ghost. In those dark days, she did not even come and take a look at him, there was not even a letter from her. When he was humiliated by Zhao Dequan and the other ministers who looked sanctimonious but were actually cunning and disgusting, she did not appear at all, she was always accompanying her other son. However, he never thought that she had written so many letters to him, and that they were all intercepted by Zhao Dequan. Jiang Li¡¯s face was hidden in the shade, he put himself in Liu Chuandeng¡¯s shoes, he was shocked, incredulous and dazed. When he thought of her writing those letters in the middle of the night as tears fell down when she asked if he hated her, his vision blurred and his fingers grasped the letter so tightly that they turned white. Such a stupid woman. When she sent starfruit from home, she was probably humiliated by those guards who acted like snobs. I hated her for so many years and even had the intention to kill her before, and I wasn¡¯t there even in her last moments. If she¡¯s always thinking about a cold and vicious son like me, she probably can¡¯t rest peacefully in the underworld!! ¡°Hah¡­¡­¡± After a long silence, Jiang Li suddenly sneered at himself in a low tone, his shoulders slowly trembling. As his laughter got louder and louder, his hands were shaking invisibly and the letters in them were squeezed into a ball. ¡°Why¡­¡­¡± He clenched his teeth tightly and murmured to himself, eyes bloodshot as crimson streaks crawled into them due to his intense emotions. His sanity started slipping away and he went into a morbid state, ¡°Isn¡¯t it better to let me hate you to death? Why is this appearing now?!¡± A loud bang was heard, the box and the low table on the mat were flipped over by him, producing a loud noise. ¡°Cut!¡± ¡°This scene has passed, this is the end of today¡¯s shooting!¡± After hearing Zhou Jin, everyone on the set was relieved. They looked at Jiang Li whose head was still lowered and his fingers were still slightly trembling. It was apparent that he had yet to disengage from the character as he was immersed too deep into it. This was the last scene of the day, so not many people stayed. Yanxi brought a towel for him after he had calmed down. Jiang Li thanked him, greeted Zhou Jin and walked towards the dressing room. He heard the System¡¯s notification after only two steps. ¡°Congratulations Host, the male lead¡¯s favorability has broken through 50%, the current favorability is 58%, you¡¯ve unlocked the primary love achievement.¡± Primary love? Jiang Li¡¯s footsteps paused, is it the effect of the ¡®XOXO¡¯ sent this morning? Yanxi, who was behind, went up to him and said excitedly, ¡°Brother Li, you¡¯re so great! How did you manage to understand the character¡¯s psychology so well? I was so scared that you¡¯re going to turn crazy early! How did you do it, tell me!¡± In the days that they were shooting, Yanxi was like a little tail, following Jiang li everywhere. Jiang Li then treated him as a younger brother as the days continued. When he heard his question, he smiled and said, ¡°Just put yourself in the character¡¯s shoes. As you do that, you¡¯ll be able to figure out their psychology.¡± ¡°Putting myself in the characters¡¯ shoes¡­¡± Yanxi seemed to understand, but he did not really understand it. ¡°If your situation allows, you can experience the character¡¯s life personally.¡± Jiang Li gave him an example. ¡°Experience it personally2 ¡­¡­¡± Yanxi looked at Jiang Li who was wearing Liu Chuandeng¡¯s court robe, and suddenly thought of something. His gaze slowly slid down to Jiang Li¡¯s ¡®certain¡¯ part. Jiang Li followed his gaze, he froze for a second and then a laugh followed. He hooked his arms around Yanxi¡¯s neck and smirked as he went closer, ¡°Don¡¯t look anymore, you brother not only has it, it¡¯s really rich too, do you wanna take a look?¡± Yanxi was teased by him and his face reddened, he stammered, ¡°Bro¡­Brother Li, be normal!¡± ¡°Hahahahaha.¡± Jiang Li rubbed his hair in a pleased manner, his eyes unintentionally glanced sideways at something, then his vision suddenly halted there. He saw Jiang Zhan look at him as if he was having an affair, while Ji Shu who was standing behind stuck his palms together pleadingly towards him. Jiang Li: ¡°???¡± Jiang Zhan glanced at the arm hooked around Yanxi¡¯s neck, his eyes turned gloomy. You¡¯re even teasing a minor, Jiang Li, are you still a human? This Chinese is ôôßÕ (Me me da) so I¡¯m using XOXO to replace it. Remember that eunuch has no **? So experiencing it means¡­ CH 18 Jiang Zhan had actually arrived as early as when Jiang Li¡¯s scene started, but he didn¡¯t want to disturb the shooting, so he stood a bit further from the site. However, the distance didn¡¯t prevent him from seeing Jiang Li clearly. This was the first time he saw Jiang Li act; it was as if he had changed into another person. The extreme and complicated emotions that flowed out after he read the letters made Jiang Zhan feel the pain and irony despite being so far away. Jiang Li was so dazzling at that moment; so attractive like a ray of light shining so brightly, forcefully grabbing everyone¡¯s attention. Jiang Zhan¡¯s heart stirred, and his emotions became chaotic, it felt as if he was hanging in midair. When he saw the black-clad young man¡¯s despair as he laughed wretchedly till tears flowed out, he had the irresistible urge to go forward and hug him tightly so that no harm nor pain could ever reach him. He suddenly understood why his strict uncle approved of Jiang Li. It was because of his outstanding ability. The sight of Jiang Li looking at him from above and saying that he was sleeping with the future best actor still lingered in his mind. Jiang Zhan thought about it before; if Jiang Li¡¯s goal was to be the best actor, he would still help him fulfil his dream even if he didn¡¯t have the ability. However, now he realized that it wasn¡¯t Jiang Li being over-confident, but that he really had the ability to do so. He would stand on the top of this industry in the future. For some reason, Jiang Zhan felt proud of him in his heart. Jiang Li is a treasure, and he¡¯s the one who found him and is owning him. As Jiang Zhan thought about this, his eyes were filled with softness that he himself didn¡¯t even realize, all his attention was focused on the person in front of him. When a nearby staff member saw him and went to greet him, he waved his hands signalling them to stop. He subconsciously didn¡¯t want to startle Jiang Li who was still shooting. He just stood there watching Jiang Li throughout the whole shoot. When Jiang Li finally finished and started walking towards him, he saw that the youngster who gave Jiang Li the towel chased after him and they stopped and chatted. As the distance wasn¡¯t really far, the content of their conversation reached Jiang Zhan¡¯s ears without a single word missing. From his perspective, he could see the corner of Jiang Li¡¯s lips slightly hook up as he teased the youngster, looking just like a playboy. He could also see the youngster¡¯s nervous expression as his ears turned red. This was the first time Jiang Zhan came to visit him. He didn¡¯t know that Jiang Li didn¡¯t act indecently only in front of him, but also in front of others. He didn¡¯t even let a minor go, he¡¯s literally not a human! His gentleness vanished instantly. Ji Shu, who was next to him, quickly felt the lowering pressure. He then silently put his palms together to pray for Jiang Li. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t be blamed. Jiang Zhan was standing by the curtains; which coincidentally had the same color as his suit. He was busy talking to Yanxi and didn¡¯t notice the man standing there at all. He didn¡¯t even expect that he would suddenly come to visit him, since he only replied coldly with an ¡°En¡± to his messages earlier. No matter how much he complains inside, Jiang Li still initiated a greeting when he saw his sugar daddy walking towards him, ¡°Hi, President Jiang.¡± ¡°En.¡± It was almost a nasally reply rather than a normal one, he then arrogantly walked past Jiang Li without looking at him, acting as if he wasn¡¯t familiar with him. Since their relationship was a secret, Jiang Li didn¡¯t take his action to heart. He just took it as Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t want others to know that he is keeping him. While on the other side, Yanxi looked at Jiang Zhan¡¯s back curiously, ¡°Brother Li, that¡¯s your company¡¯s boss? He¡¯s so good-looking! I thought bosses are always greasy old uncles, but he looks young!¡± It would be more appropriate to describe him with the word handsome. His five features didn¡¯t look charming or gentle like the current popular stars, but had the sense of valiantness instead. ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s really handsome.¡± Jiang Li glanced at Jiang Zhan who walked towards Zhou Jin and thought, if only he didn¡¯t have such a bad temper, he always gets angry because of weird reasons. On the other side, Zhou Jin was replaying the scenes he shot earlier. When he saw Jiang Zhan walking towards him, he paused the replays, stood up, and walked to the resting bench with him. ¡°Why did you suddenly come?¡± Zhou Jian smiled as he asked. Jiang Zhan had stayed in his house for a period of time when he was young, so their relationship was quite good. ¡°As the investor, of course I¡¯ll need to check on the drama¡¯s progress speed and quality.¡± Jiang Zhan lied composedly, as if the person who came here to visit Jiang Li wasn¡¯t him at all. Zhou Jin heard his words and scoffed, he patted his shoulder and teased, ¡°It¡¯s fine if you try to deceive others with those words, but me? You¡¯re still too young.¡± There were so many projects that Jiang Zhan had invested in, if he went to check on the speed and quality of each drama, he would have long died of fatigue. Also, Zhou Jin¡¯s drama didn¡¯t really need others to monitor its progress and quality. ¡°Say it, are you here to see someone?¡± Zhou Jian meaningfully glanced towards the dressing room and asked. Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t hide his relationship with Jiang Li in front of Zhou Jin, he was the one who personally requested the roles for Jiang Li to begin with. After Jiang Li passed the audition, Zhou Jin called Jiang Zhan specially to tell him that he had found him a good actor. Zhou Jin had been in the entertainment industry for many years and had seen all sorts of messy relationships. As a top-notch director, there were a lot of actors who tried to make trades with him to get roles or have more scenes, but they were all rejected by him. He has been together with his wife since university, and it has been more than 20 years. Their relationship has always been on good terms, and since he didn¡¯t have a child, he treated Jiang Zhan as his child. Although Jiang Zhan has been in a high position these years, he still kept himself clean, he also wasn¡¯t involved in rumors or unnecessary news. Not to mention dating anyone, he didn¡¯t even have a sex partner. So, when he knew about Jiang Zhan keeping Jiang Li, he felt shocked at first but didn¡¯t object. He believed Jiang Zhan knew what he was doing. After the uncle and nephew chatted for a while, Jiang Zhan then left. Not long after he left, Jiang Li, who had removed his makeup and changed his clothes, received Jiang Zhan¡¯s message. There were only a few words in it. ¡ª Watt¡¯s parking lot. Watt is a shopping mall beside the shooting site, it would take only two minutes to reach there by walking. Jiang Li stuffed his phone into his pocket and rejected Yanxi who invited him out for a meal. He left after saying goodbye to the staff. When Jiang Li found Jiang Zhan¡¯s car in the parking lot, he opened the backseat door. He said after he sat in, ¡°I¡¯m sorry President Jiang, removing my makeup took some time.¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t answer, as if he didn¡¯t hear him at all. Ji Shu then said something to warm up the atmosphere, ¡°President Jiang, Mr. Jiang, do you guys want to go to some other places to eat or go home?¡± ¡°Go home.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s eat.¡± Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan spoke simultaneously, Jiang Li said to go eat while President Jiang said to go home. Jiang Zhan, ¡°Let¡¯s eat.¡± Jiang Li, ¡°Let¡¯s go home.¡± Ji Shu, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Zhan had been in a frustrated mood since earlier and now Jiang Li was opposed to his opinions, he looked towards him, ¡°What do you really want to do?¡± ¡°I want to¡­ go home and eat.¡± Jiang Li had a flash of wit and looked at him sincerely, ¡°I¡¯ll cook for you at home, what do you wanna eat?¡± Jiang Zhan stared at him for a while but didn¡¯t express anything. He then retracted his sight and said two words, ¡°Continue driving.¡± This meant that he tacitly agreed to Jiang Li¡¯s choice. Ji Shu thought that Mr. Jiang really had his own method of dealing with President Jiang. If one wants to win a man¡¯s heart, one will first need to win a man¡¯s stomach. Moreover, President Jiang really listened to him, it¡¯s really unbelievable. There was a supermarket provided for the residents of Jade River Garden. There was also an app connected to the supermarket. Households could then purchase the things they needed through the app; they can choose to pick them up or have them delivered to their houses. When Jiang Li was too lazy to go out, he would just order ingredients from the app as the distance was short and the delivery was fast. Since there was still some time left before they reached home, he held his phone and stuck his butt beside Jiang Zhan. He then scrolled the app interface and asked, ¡°What do you wanna eat?¡± Jiang Zhan was still mad. He wanted to stay cold and ignore him, but when Jiang Li came close and had the look of ¡®you can eat anything you want¡¯, he still answered. ¡°Pork rib, seafood, cold dressing.¡± Jiang Li ordered as he asked, ¡°Do you want your pork ribs braised or fried? Do you eat spicy mantis shrimp?¡± ¡°Anything is fine.¡± As they talked, Jiang Li had finished ordering the ingredients. Ji Shu looked ahead and kept driving as if he was deaf. He could only complain in his heart. The amount of food you guys ordered is as if you¡¯re going to hold a sumptuous banquet. Can you guys let me stay to eat? I¡¯ll leave once I finish eating; I will definitely not disturb your exercise after the meal. The answer was definitely a no. Once he sent both of them back, Jiang Zhan asked him to fetch him to work tomorrow. Jiang Zhan then went up with Jiang Li from the carpark through the elevator. As soon as they entered the house, Jiang Li was pressed face against the wall. Jiang Zhan used one arm to press on his back and the other to undo his belt in front. ¡°Wait!¡± Jiang Li came to his senses and quickly grasped onto his hand, he turned his head and said. ¡°Didn¡¯t we say that we¡¯ll come home to eat, why are you touching me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m touching you?¡± Jiang Zhan scoffed, he shoved his hand away and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you¡¯re rich? I wanna see how rich you are.¡± Jiang Li suddenly figured out why he was mad at him, he said speechlessly, ¡°Why are you even caring about this?¡± ¡°Do you mean I can¡¯t care about this?¡± Jiang Zhan closed the miniscule distance between them and dangerously spoke near his ear. ¡°Yes, yes yes you can!!¡± Jiang Li saw that his expression was turning gloomier and gloomier, he quickly said, ¡°Earlier, I just simply said it without thinking. I¡¯m not rich, you¡¯re the richest, you¡¯re the wealthiest man on earth!¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± ¡°What nonsense are you talking about?¡± Jiang Zhan scolded in a low tone as Jiang Li made it sound like he had experienced a lot in his life, even calling him the wealthiest man on earth. That¡¯s just nonsense. But, he still released his hand. Jiang Li was relieved; his butt was saved this time. Coincidentally, the doorbell rang. Jiang Li saw through the surveillance camera that it was the delivery man, he quickly buttoned up the pants that were undone by Jiang Zhan and opened the door to take the ingredients. The vegetables from the supermarket were all washed and packaged in disposable plastic boxes. So, Jiang Li wouldn¡¯t need to waste his energy and wash them diligently, just rinsing them was enough. Jiang Li ordered a lot of ingredients earlier in order to coax Jiang Zhan, he didn¡¯t have enough time to use all the ingredients, and they wouldn¡¯t be able to finish all of that either. Hence, he took some of them, wrapped them nicely, and placed them into the fridge. Finally, he started cooking. The kitten that was gifted by Jiang Zhan was a bit timid, probably because it just came to an unfamiliar environment. It had been circling around his feet and meowing sweetly ever since he came back. Jiang Li carried it out and placed it outside the kitchen. He touched its head and said with a smile, ¡°Nuomi, be obedient, daddy needs to cook, find your grandpa outside,¡± Other than its head that had streaks of brown, its whole body was snow white. Therefore, he and Jiang Zhan named it Jiang Nuomi1. Before Nuomi had the chance to answer, Jiang Zhan, who was wearing a casual outfit said in an unhappy tone, ¡°Jiang Li, if you continue talking nonsense, I¡¯ll throw you and your son out.¡± Jiang Nuomi didn¡¯t understand him, it looked around both of them and tilted its head, ¡°Meow?¡± Jiang Li stuck out his tongue and scolded Jiang Zhan in his heart for being mean. He then carried Jiang Nuomi, placed it in Jiang Zhan¡¯s arms, and went back to the kitchen to cook. Jiang Zhan and the kitten that was lying in his arms looked at each other and then tacitly turned their gazes towards Jiang Li who was in the kitchen. ¡°Meow~¡± Jiang Nuomi obviously didn¡¯t like Jiang Zhan who kept a straight face all the time, it meowed softly towards Jiang Li who was in the kitchen. It moved its butt backwards, wanting to land on the floor. Jiang Li heard its meow and tilted his head to take a look at it. Half of the kitten moved out of Jiang Zhan¡¯s arms. He was worried that it would fall and injure itself, so he shouted, ¡°Jiang Zhan be careful! Your grandson is going to fall off!¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Grandson my ass, if I don¡¯t fuck you till you call me daddy tonight, I¡¯ll be your grandson! So, Jiang Li experienced another butt-blossoming night2. [T/N: I would appreciate a lot if you guys can help me rate the novel here! Thanks for reading!] Nuomi is glutinous rice. I used butt-blossoming because it sounds nicer and it¡¯s the literal translation. Meaning he got f*cked till his butt blossoms CH 19 ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ was a live variety show that was favored by young people. One episode was streamed every Saturday night, and every episode was seventy minutes long. As it was a live show there were no advertisements in between, so it was rated highly by the audience. The next episode¡¯s preview was played at the end of the current episode like usual. The guests¡¯ sequence was arranged based on their popularity. The first one was Feng Yating, next was Zhao Ziyi, Chu Mengyao, and Jiang Li. It wasn¡¯t the first time for Feng Yating to join this show, so everyone thought it was normal. Although it was the first time for Zhao Ziyi and Chu Mengyao, they were well-known enough and even had more than 20 million followers on Weibo, so everyone still thought it was expected. Jiang Li was the only newbie among them; he only had a little more than two million followers on Weibo, not even ten percent of the others¡¯. As the preview streamed, the real-time comments exploded! ¡ª What? Who¡¯s this Jiang Li? How come I¡¯ve never heard of him before? ¡ª Is he a new-debut? I¡¯m totally fine with his appearance! ¡ª Eh, there¡¯s a really good-looking Xiao Gege in the guest list! ¡ª Wow, is this year¡¯s trend dominated by Jiang Li? Is it not enough to buy the hot search? Even the variety show is bought! ¡ª Even newbies with no work to their name can join a popular variety show now? Is his backer so strong? ¡ª The friend upstairs that says he has no work, please get to know that he¡¯s acting in two roles in ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯! ¡ª A trashy variety show that anyone can join, what a waste of time. ¡ª I thought there¡¯s news saying Yan Jiaqi will be joining the next episode? Why has it changed? Not long after the preview was published, a lot of netizens went to search for Jiang Li¡¯s information. Jiang Li didn¡¯t post much on his Weibo, and most of it was related to ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯. The latest post was a photo of a cat lying on a tatami. The white cat was lying on the soft cushion beside a beige vase, a slender hand was patting its back tenderly. Jiang Li V: Jiang Nuomi, I¡¯m your daddy Jiang Li, please take care of me from now on. [Picture] As the photo was taken during the evening, a few streaks of warm yellow rays of sunset could be seen in the background, making the whole atmosphere feel cozy. People who own pets always give off a gentle aura, especially with the enhancement of a warm picture like that. The netizens who were curious about Jiang Li and searched for him started enjoying looking at the cat for some reason. After looking, they even went to search for Weibo posts from ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡®. Of course, there were still a lot of haters who scolded Jiang Li for having no notable work, saying that he depended on his backer to join the show and stole other senior¡¯s resources. Most of those haters were Yan Jiaqi¡¯s fans. Yan Jiaqi was a celebrity under Yi Xing media studio who graduated from University F¡¯s Music Department. He debuted without a solid foundation and became famous through web dramas; he was considered to have popularity as well. Before the preview of ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ was publicized, there were a few marketing accounts who gave out news, saying that Yan Jiaqi¡¯s studio was discussing the schedule of a live show with a very high viewership, and it was almost confirmed that he was invited to the show. There were a few variety shows that were popular, but ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ was the only live variety show that had a high viewership, so many people guessed that Yan Jiaqi was joining this show. His fans were really happy when they knew their own idol was joining a good variety show. Before the production team announced the guests, his fans had already shared the news to heat up Yan Jiaqi¡¯s popularity, going around to promote their own idol. When someone disagreed with them, they would diss back with ¡°Do you know how hard-working he is?¡±. After the show¡¯s preview was out, Yan¡¯s fans were dumbfounded. Before they knew what was really happening, Yan Jiaqi suddenly posted a subtle weibo. Yan Jiaqi V: I won¡¯t steal or snatch, I¡¯ll deal with everything calmly. I won¡¯t steal or snatch, these words were really subtle, they showed his attitude of not snatching and stealing, but they sounded like they were hinting at something. Based on Feng, Zhao, and Chu¡¯s popularity, it was normal for them to join the show. But the fact that a newbie like Jiang Li was able to join too was something that was worth looking into seriously. Yan Jiaqi¡¯s post was quickly deleted but was still screenshotted by some ill-intentioned netizens. As the marketing Weibo accounts start to promote this, Jiang Li and his name would be bound together. An entertainment industry¡¯s newbie snatching a senior¡¯s resources? Climbing the social ladder depending on a backer? Who¡¯s behind Jiang Li? Suddenly, a newly registered Weibo account uploaded a post, saying that he/she also joined the audition for ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ and Jiang Li was personally sent to the audition venue by a mogul¡¯s secretary. That post was shared quickly. Although it was just words and there was no proof, in the eyes of the netizens, this confirmed that Jiang Li really got the drama roles through underhanded methods. In less than an hour, words like ¡®Yan Jiaqi, Jiang Li¡¯. ¡®Jiang Li snatches resources¡¯, ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ climbed up the hot search. When Feng Dong saw them, Jiang Li¡¯s Weibo had already been flooded by keyboard warriors scolding him. Meanwhile, Yan Jiaqi¡¯s Weibo was filled with comforting words. Some of Jiang Li¡¯s fans were helping him explain in the comments, but their strength was too small and they couldn¡¯t do much. Nevermind Jiang Li, they weren¡¯t even able to protect themselves. Feng Dong¡¯s heart sank when he saw how the incident developed and quickly called Jiang Li. ¡­ Jiang Zhan was trimming Jiang Nuommi¡¯s nails at the moment; the little guy obviously didn¡¯t like him. It1 was struggling in his arms and didn¡¯t want to cooperate. It even called towards the bathroom occasionally. After so much hard work, Jiang Zhan finally managed to trim the nails of one paw. He got into a bad temper as it wasn¡¯t cooperating. Having learned the methods stated in ¡®How to make your cat obedient¡¯ that was sent by Jiang Li, he went to take a kitchen knife out and placed it beside Jiang Nuomi aggressively. ¡°Jiang Nuomi, I dare you to move again.¡± Jiang Nuomi looked at the kitchen knife that was reflecting silver light, it then widened its eyes and looked at Jiang Zhan innocently. When Jiang Zhan saw it become obedient, he hmphed, ¡°I should have done¡­¡± Before he finished his words, Jiang Nuomi who was initially looking obedient suddenly took action. Its two paws clenched onto his shirt and jumped up, it stepped on his head and escaped from his back. It was so fast that Jiang Zhan couldn¡¯t react to it. When he finally came back to his senses, the little guy had already escaped. ¡°¡­ Fuck.¡± After a long while, Jiang Zhan clenched his teeth tightly and said, ¡°This little guy owned by the little bastard is also nowhere good, always pushing my limits.¡± At that moment, the phone nearby suddenly rang. Jiang Zhan, who was suppressing his anger, didn¡¯t look at the caller ID and accepted it directly. After he accepted it, a voice quickly came out, ¡°Jiang Li, did you see Weibo? If you saw it, please don¡¯t care about them. I¡¯ll contact the PR department to deal with it. The more you care about it, the more it will provoke the netizens to diss you¡­¡± Jiang Zhan heard his words and suppressed the intention to punish Jiang Nuomi. He interrupted him, ¡°What are you talking about?¡± The unfamiliar voice made Feng Dong fall into silence, he thought he had called the wrong number. He looked at his phone, it¡¯s Jiang Li¡¯s phone number, there¡¯s nothing wrong with it! ¡°Who are you? Is Jiang Li there?¡± ¡°He¡¯s bathing.¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t beat around the bush and asked again, ¡°What happened on Weibo?¡± It was already 11 at night; it must be someone who had a special relationship with Jiang Li since they were together at this time and were able to receive his calls. The word ¡®bathing¡¯ made Feng Dong realize that he might be the person with a high position behind Jiang Li, but he didn¡¯t dare be sure, so he didn¡¯t answer right away. Jiang Zhan noticed that he was being silent, he then asked annoyingly, ¡°I asked what happened? Are you doing your job as an agent properly?¡± The dominating oppression and the overwhelming displeasure in his words shocked Feng Dong, he unconsciously explained what happened on Weibo. After he finished speaking, he even said as if he was asking for permission, ¡°I¡¯m planning to communicate with the public relations department to take down the hot search, please tell Jiang Li about this and ask him not to care about it.¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t care about him and said straightforwardly, ¡°I¡¯ll deal with it.¡± Shortly after he hung up the phone, Feng Dong received the PR manager¡¯s phone call. He told Jiang Li that the public relation department would deal with it completely, he also asked him to not worry and prepare well for the show. Feng Dong initially only planned to contact the head of the PR department and ask him to help deal with it; he didn¡¯t think that the PR manager would personally call him. He was relieved, but on the other hand, he thought about the person behind Jiang Li. The sound of the person who received the call earlier was a bit familiar, but he couldn¡¯t recall exactly whose voice it was. A short while after the public relations department contacted Feng Dong, the production team for ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ issued a notice and a record of their discussion. The notice explained that the plan of inviting Jiang Li was set from the start and what the netizens said wasn¡¯t real. The screenshots of the chat were also shown as proof. After the production team, a Weibo account that specializes in exposing suddenly posted about the Z-list actor, Yan Jiaqi acting bossily in shooting sites, being kept by a wealthy woman and frequently using a social media app for one-night stands. After this post was shared by influencers with more than millions of followers, it attracted the netizens¡¯ attention. The people who went to Yan Jiaqi¡¯s Weibo were the same as those who scolded Jiang Li. They were supporting Yan Jiaqi and making sure that justice was served earlier, and now they were scolding Yan Jiaqi more fervently than anyone. At the same time, Zhou Jin who rarely appeared on Weibo also uploaded a post, and a video of Jiang Li acting was published with it as well. Zhou Jin V: I heard that someone said that I choose actors based on appearance? You¡¯ve watched so many of my dramas and are still looking down on me? [Video] As a top-notch director, Zhou Jin¡¯s reputation in the industry had always been good. His name could guarantee the quality of the production. All the actors, producers, and staff put huge efforts in the dramas, each one was made impressively. His post rendered a lot of the netizens who watched the movies he directed silent. Why did they forget that all the main roles of this drama were personally auditioned by Zhou Jin? Such a strict person like him would definitely not choose the actors based on appearances, this really humiliated the awards that he had achieved throughout his career in directing. The public was really guilty in following the trend to spread hate and opened up the videos uploaded by Zhou Jin. The video was the scene where Liu Chuandeng found out Mother Liu¡¯s letters. Although it was only a few minutes, it was a video without editing or voice acting. It was only the shoot and the voice recorded on site. Without even another single actor involved in the scene beside him, Jiang Li slapped the faces of those people who insulted him with his solid skills of acting and speech. After the huge commotion, a lot of people went back to Jiang Li¡¯s Weibo to apologize for what they¡¯d done earlier. From the beginning till the end of the incident, Jiang Li was not involved at all, he only knew about it two days later when Xiao Zhou told him. In his previous life, he had been treated like that many times as well, but there were not many people who could help him, most of them only cared about themselves. Although he didn¡¯t really care about these things anymore, Jiang Zhan¡¯s action of solving the problem behind his back made him feel like he was protected, a warm feeling flowed out in his heart. The rehearsal date came in a blink of an eye. Jiang Li and Feng Yating took the same flight to the streaming location in City T. After the guests gathered and got familiar with each other, they spent a day rehearsing, so that there would be no mistakes in the next day¡¯s streaming. On the day of the live show, Jiang Zhan canceled his business dinner and waited in front of the live channel after returning home early and feeding the cat. As the clock struck 8, the live location was shown on the channel. The host of the show appeared on the screen and greeted the audience, then he introduced the invited guests one by one. Feng Yating and the other two were popular, so there were eventually a lot of people who came to see them. After Yan Jiaqi¡¯s incident, Jiang Li¡¯s fans had increased rapidly. As all four of them appeared on screen, the real-time comments exploded, their faces couldn¡¯t be seen at all. Jiang Zhan was dazzled by the real-time comments that were scrolling through the screen, he then switched them off and found a comfortable posture to sit on the sofa and watch the live show. It was rare for Jiang Nuomi to not fight with him, as it laid down obediently beside him and watched with him. Shen Yuzhi¡¯s phone call came just ten minutes after the show started. Recently, other than working, Jiang Zhan was spending time together with Jiang Li. It had been quite a long time since he and Shen Yuzhi met. When he saw the incoming call, he casually picked it up, ¡°Hi.¡± ¡°Ah Zhan, what are you busy with?¡± Shen Yuzhi¡¯s voice echoed out from the phone. ¡°Nothing.¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t tell him that he was watching the live show, he then asked, ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Nothing much, I want somebody from you.¡± Shen Yuzhi said, ¡°It¡¯s a small celebrity from your company, he¡¯s a newbie and doesn¡¯t have much popularity.¡± Shen Yuzhi had kept some of the celebrities under Jiang Zhan¡¯s company before; it was normal in the entertainment industry. As long as the celebrity is fine with it, and they won¡¯t expose their relationship affecting the company and work, Jiang Zhan won¡¯t care much about it. So, when he heard his words, he didn¡¯t mind it. As his sight was still stuck on the live show, he asked half-heartedly, ¡°Who?¡± ¡°A small artist called Jiang Li.¡± Shen Yuzhi¡¯s voice had a sense of laughter, as if he had found something great, ¡°I saw him when I was watching the live show with my younger sister, he¡¯s really good-looking. It¡¯s fine if he has no popularity, he will have it if I promote him.¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± I¡¯m already promoting him well, so why are you here blindly worrying about it? The cat is a He but I used ¡®it¡¯ so there won¡¯t be too many HEs in one passage which is confusing. CH 20 The last time Jiang Zhan said that Feng Yating dug his person away was just him being petty over how intimately she was chatting with Jiang Li. As the president of an entertainment group, how could he not know how artists dealt with each other? However, it was different this time. Shen Yuzhi said he wanted to promote Jiang Li personally. This meant he wanted to keep Jiang Li and turn their relationship into the kind that Jiang Zhan and Jiang Li are currently having. When he thought of Jiang Li cooking for and having a close relationship with someone other than him, he panicked and denied this possibility subconsciously. Even if that person was someone he grew up with. Although part of the reason that he got involved with Jiang Li was because of Shen Yuzhi, this could not justify snatching his person away. Shen Yuzhi noticed that he didn¡¯t reply, so he continued, ¡°Since he¡¯s in your company, I thought to tell you about it first and find a time to invite him out, you¨C¡± ¡°No.¡± Jiang Zhan suddenly interrupted his words, ¡°He¡¯s not a part of my company.¡± Shen Yuzhi didn¡¯t understand, ¡°Isn¡¯t it? I saw your company¡¯s name under his Weibo verification. Did I see it wrong?¡± ¡°No, you didn¡¯t.¡± Jiang Zhan said in a deep voice as if he was claiming his ownership, ¡°He doesn¡¯t belong to the company. He belongs to me.¡± This meant that Jiang Li is not a part of the company, he¡¯s Jiang Zhan¡¯s. Shen Yuzhi fell silent, he was shocked. ¡°What the¡­ did I hear it right?! Jiang Li belongs to you?!¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Jiang Zhan frowned due to his high-pitched yell, ¡°So don¡¯t make any moves on him.¡± ¡°When did this happen? Why didn¡¯t I realize it at all?¡± Shen Yuzhi was too shocked, but he quickly understood the reason why Jiang Zhan rarely came out for gatherings recently. He exclaimed with astonishment, ¡°Bro, so you¡¯re actually not frigid.¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li would definitely not agree with your words. Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t want to talk nonsense with him anymore, he ended the call and threw the phone to the side. Shen Yuzhi was suddenly hung up on so he shouted over and called back, but Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t receive his calls anymore. ¡°What the fuck, why is he so mean?¡± Shen Yuzhi didn¡¯t know whether he should laugh or cry and gave up on the intention to keep Jiang Li. With a sugar daddy like Jiang Zhan helping him, there¡¯s no need for him to do it himself. But the information was too shocking to him. Everyone within their circle has prominent families and is successful in business. Who didn¡¯t have one or two lovers to kill the time? Not for romance, but for biological needs. But this was not the case for Jiang Zhan. The two families of Jiang and Shen had a friendship tracing back two generations or even more, so he grew up with Jiang Zhan. Jiang Zhan was the ¡®other people¡¯s children¡¯ from a young age. When Father Jiang passed away, Jiang Zhan was only 22 years old. For other people at this age, he would only be a fresh graduate, but he took over the Jiang Group and managed it prosperously. In Shen Yuzhi¡¯s memory, Jiang Zhan wasn¡¯t interested in romance or relationships. During all his years in school, he never accepted any confessions regardless of whether it was from the school princess or prince or anyone else, he even thought that these things are a waste of time. He also didn¡¯t ask someone to accompany him in clubhouses. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he had seen Jiang Zhan¡¯s morning wood when they were roommates, he would have believed that Jiang Zhan was impotent. Of course, he got beaten up by Jiang Zhan when he asked that question. In other words, when they were having messy relationships with other women, Jiang Zhan was earning money. When they were having messy relationships with other men, Jiang Zhan was still earning money. So, Jiang Zhan was the richest among them all. Shen Yuzhi and Jiang Zhan were of the same age, their relationship was so close that they could share their trousers. When he thought of his bro who was busy with work in the morning and sleeping alone in the night; as a faithful bro he really couldn¡¯t continue looking at his friend suffer like that, so he assertively chose a clean young man from the clubhouse to help him get rid of the name ¡®Thousand-year-virgin¡¯. But he didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Zhan would escape when the time came, causing his plan to fail. After that, he sent a pretty university student to Jiang Zhan, but he still wasn¡¯t bothered by it and walked away with a disgusted expression. After these two experiences he confirmed one thing; Jiang Zhan wasn¡¯t sexually impotent, he was just frigid. But now Jiang Zhan, aka The Frigid, told him that Jiang Li is his?! He even used a strict tone to warm him, it was so scary. After he thought for a while, he felt that he couldn¡¯t digest this news alone, so he sent Jiang Li¡¯s Weibo link to the WeChat group. Shen Yuzhi: Bros, go and support Ah Zhan¡¯s person [Weibo Link] Sun Zelin: Who¡¯s that person? Zhao Guanyu: What did you send? Who¡¯s Jiang Li? Zhao Guanyu: Wait, Ah Zhan¡¯s person¡­ is that what I¡¯m thinking of right now? Sun Zelin: Does it mean that? Shen Yuzhi: Yes, that. Zhao Guanyu: That¡­ Sun Zelin: Fuck that!! Jiang Zhan: Who do you wanna fuck? Sun Zelin: ¡­ [System Notification: Sun Zelin has been kicked out from the group chat by Jiang Zhan.] It was a simple and rough way of handling things. The WeChat group fell into silence; everyone was afraid of getting kicked out as well and secretly DMed Shen Yuzhi to ask about what happened. Especially Sun Zelin, he felt really aggrieved that he got kicked out just because he innocently missed a full stop.1 Actually, Shen Yuzhi didn¡¯t really know the details, he only told the others what he had heard from Jiang Zhan during the call. After everyone heard it, they were shocked at the fact that Jiang Zhan kept a small artist secretly and decided to find a time and visit Jiang Zhan and his person. After kicking out Sun Zelin who was babbling nonsense, Jiang Zhan continued watching the live show. ¡­ The live show venue. ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ had five events, and now they were at the second one, which was the talent show. Feng Yating¡¯s talent was dancing, she had debuted as a dancer and actor. She was good at folk dance and ballet, so showing her talent was as easy as drinking water. After dancing, she wasn¡¯t even panting. As she was dancing gracefully, she naturally drifted towards Jiang Li, making him appear on screen. This part wasn¡¯t rehearsed so Jiang Li was stunned at first. After he saw Feng Yating winking her left eye at him, he quickly understood her intentions. He smiled and stood up from the chair. He then bent his waist slightly to bow towards her, his action elegant and proper. Adding up to the white shirt and pants that he was wearing, he was looking like a modest gentleman. Feng Yating also held up her skirt with two hands and bowed back to him. Both of them smiled as they looked at each other. The photographer even gave them a close up. A handsome guy and a beautiful girl in the picture would always make the crowd feel excited, the live comments increased rapidly. ¡ª Ahhhhhhhhh, both of them match each other so well! I¡¯m sorry Brother Yu, I¡¯m going to stan them!! ¡ª Xiao Gege is too gentlemanly, how I wish I¡¯m the princess, wuwuwu~~ ¡ª Sister Ting¡¯s beauty is out of this world!! ¡ª I beg you guys to marry now!!! I¡¯ll pay for the marriage certificate! ¡ª I can even feel the sweetness through the screen!! ¡ª Xiao Gege is so shy while smiling, I feel like my heart is gonna go wild! After Feng Yating finished, Zhao Ziyi was next. His talent was playing instruments and singing solo. He debuted as a singer and sang an oldie which was nice and nostalgic. A lot of the audience got into the mood with him. Then, it was Chu Mengyao. She played the Guzheng. Lastly, it was Jiang Li¡¯s turn. Jiang Li wasn¡¯t considered to have debuted yet and had little to no information on the internet, so the live comments were guessing what he would perform. There was a small tablet in front of the host, which was used to play the live and see the comments. Live interactions could be done as well. When the host saw everyone guessing at Jiang Li¡¯s talent, they laughed and said, ¡°Seems like everyone is curious about Jiang Li¡¯s talent show, this talent is really unique, even I was shocked when I knew it, what is it then? Let¡¯s ask Jiang Li to tell you guys.¡± The camera changed its view to Jiang Li and gave him a close up, the live comments were then filled with ¡°Handsome!¡± Jiang Li undid the buttons on his sleeves as he smiled towards the camera, ¡°I¡¯ll cook something for everyone.¡± Audience, ¡°Eh?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s talent wasn¡¯t singing, dancing, playing instruments or acting. Instead it¡¯s cooking?!! What kind of godly move is this? As the audience was still shocked, the production team had brought up the cooking equipment Jiang Li needed. The host and the guests stood up from their seats and moved to somewhere where they could see Jiang Li clearly. The dish was Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish. The fish was already killed and cleaned. When Jiang Li started preparing it, the host who was standing beside specially explained that the fish was killed by Jiang Li personally without any external help. Jiang Li horizontally cut open the fish from the middle using a knife. He didn¡¯t cut off the tail, and only disposed of the fish bone in the middle. His movements were skilled and swift, it looked like he cooked frequently and had not just purposely learned for the show. After removing the fish bone, Jiang Li started to cut shallow slits on the skin in a diamond pattern. His cuts were decisive as one followed another, almost every diamond shape was the same size under the camera. As the oil in the wok started boiling, Jiang Li placed the fish inside. Sizzling could be heard as the inner parts of the fish were fried open. After half a minute, a fresh and rich aroma wafted out. Jiang Li waited for the fish to be fried into golden yellow then scooped it out, placing it on the white porcelain plate. The meat was fried open to a golden brown with the sides curved outwards. The audience could guess how tasty it would be just by how it looked. Live comments like ¡°I¡¯m so hungry¡± could be seen. The sauce for the Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish was very important. It would be greasy if it was too sweet, and wouldn¡¯t be nice if it was too sour, so the balance for both flavors was very crucial. After Jiang Li finished with the fish, he started making the sauce as he explained the steps. When he finished making the sauce and was pouring it on the fried fish, he suddenly heard the sound of swallowing saliva from beside him. Everyone turned their eyes towards the source of the sound. Feng Yating waved her hands innocently, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m hungry.¡± The audience on site laughed out loud, Jiang Li also followed suit. He then carried the fish to the empty table and showed a gesture of invitation towards the host and the three other guests. They didn¡¯t resist the temptation and started tasting with clean chopsticks. A tinge of sourness could be tasted within the sweetness of the sauce, both of the flavors were in great balance. The slight sourness even whetted their taste buds. The meat was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It was fresh and juicy, tasty enough to steal one¡¯s heart. When the audience saw the four of them squinting their eyes in pleasure, they could tell how delicious the dish was and said that they wanted to eat it too. ¡ª OMG! Am I watching a cooking show?!! ¡ª I¡¯ve just finished my dinner but I¡¯m hungry now!! ¡ª Xiao Gege who¡¯s good-looking and knows how to cook is literally a treasure!! ¡ª Don¡¯t know who¡¯s so lucky to be Xiao Gege¡¯s girlfriend, she¡¯s so blessed! During Jiang Li¡¯s talent show, Jiang Zhan switched on the live comments especially and wanted to see how the audience felt about Jiang Li. When he saw all those compliments on the screen, the edge of his lips rose unconsciously. He saw Jiang Nuomi had been staring at the fish earlier. He then lifted him to his arms and pinched his ears. ¡°Stop looking. Wait for your daddy to come home and I¡¯ll ask him to make you¡­¡± Jiang Zhan then paused and changed his words, ¡°Ask him to make it for us, one for you, one for me.¡± ¡°Meow~¡± Jiang Nuomi rubbed his hand. Jiang Zhan¡¯s mood became better when he saw Jiang Nuomi showing affection, he then hugged him while watching the live. The host was helping the audience ask Jiang Li if he has a girlfriend. Jiang Li shook his head and said, ¡°No, I don¡¯t have a girlfriend. I want to do well in acting for now, so I don¡¯t plan to date.¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Since you don¡¯t plan to date, then what¡¯s with the XOXO you sent? CH 21 Jiang Nuomi acted as if it had sensed Jiang Zhan¡¯s displeasure, it lifted its head and meowed towards him. Jiang Zhan took a glance at it and transferred his dissatisfaction from Jiang Li to it. He scolded with a cold expression, ¡°What are you looking at? Your daddy is being so free outside, while your grandpa¡­¡± He halted halfway and suppressed the words, ¡°Me, which is your grandpa, is serving you¡± and scolded with a ¡°fu*k¡± under his breath. He then carried Jiang Nuomi by holding its butt and placed it down beside him. ¡°Shoo shoo shoo, get away from me.¡± ¡°¡­??¡± Jiang Nuomi who was being hugged and pinched earlier was at a loss. Jiang Li¡¯s answer was expected. A lot of artists would not publicly announce having a partner/lover, some might not because of the company¡¯s rules, and some might not due to the fact that they were afraid of affecting their popularity. Whether Jiang Li had a partner or not, the host would not really pester him for a truthful answer. The host only went with the flow by asking him what kind of girls he liked. ¡°What kind of girls¡­¡± Jiang Li murmured and realized that the first image that appeared in his mind was Jiang Zhan¡¯s face. When he thought of the caring act of Jiang Zhan rushing back from overseas and his gentleness of choosing a cat specially for him, he chuckled. ¡°I like tsunderes; stubborn but soft-hearted ones, and ones that can raise a cat with me.¡± While he was saying this, he looked towards the camera directly. Subtle tenderness could be seen in his black and clear eyes, as if he was looking at someone through the camera. Jiang Zhan who was watching live in front of the screen met his eyes suddenly, his heart pounded so fast that he could even hear it in his ears. Jiang Zhan ignored the words said at the beginning and focused on the statement of owning a cat together. The one who¡¯s owning a cat with Jiang Li, isn¡¯t it me? ¡°Cough.¡± Jiang Zhan acted as if he had realised something and coughed uneasily, his sight still stuck on the screen. ¡°Wah, is this considered as announcing your mate¡¯s criteria?¡± The host teased, ¡°I remember Jiang Li had posted a picture of a cat on Weibo before. It¡¯s Jiang Nuomi right? It looks small, did you just buy it?¡± ¡°It has been almost three months.¡± Jiang Li said, a gentle smile graced the edges of his lips, ¡°Someone really important gave him to me.¡± The word ¡®important¡¯ was stressed, it sounded very significant. Jiang Zhan¡¯s ear burned as he heard the answer. He scolded Jiang Li for being coquettish in his heart, but the edge of his lips couldn¡¯t resist raising up. He then waved his hand towards Jiang Nuomi who was lying beside him and chewing the cat teaser wand. ¡°Jiang Nuomi, come here.¡± Jiang Nuomi put down the cat teaser wand and turned his head to take a glance at him. Then, he jumped off the sofa and left with his tail swaying. Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Fine. This episode of ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ was really successful. When Jiang Li came down from the stage, he heard System¡¯s notification saying that Jiang Zhan¡¯s favorability had increased to 65%. Jiang Li guessed that Jiang Zhan was definitely watching the live show earlier, and he also knew the meaning behind the words ¡®Ones that can take care of a cat with me¡¯. Frankly, even without the System¡¯s notification, Jiang Li also knew that Jiang Zhan¡¯s attitude towards him was changing. His mouth spouted out callous words, but his heart was not feeling the same. Jiang Li imagined Jiang Zhan¡¯s expression while watching the show and couldn¡¯t resist laughing softly. ¡°Host, only 35% is needed to reach 100% in the male lead¡¯s favorability. You can enter the next world after completing it, keep it up.¡± The System¡¯s voice sounded again. The fact that the male lead¡¯s favorability had passed the half-way mark made its voice a little more cheerful than usual. ¡°After I reach 100%, will I be forced to enter the next world?¡± Jiang Li asked, ¡°No, you can decide freely.¡± Jiang Li nodded his head. He signaled to the others and went to a quieter place in order to call Jiang Zhan. When Jiang Zhan received the phone call, he was searching for Jiang Nuomi in the house. He didn¡¯t know where the little guy hid after it had left earlier. When his phone rang, he subconsciously thought that it was from Jiang Li. He no longer cared about that bratty child Jiang Nuomi. He strode across the living room and picked the phone up. Jiang Li¡¯s name was indeed on the screen. He felt that their hearts were connected. Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t immediately accept it, he only pressed the accept button once the ringtone was about to end, ¡°Why did you call?¡± ¡°Are you at home?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s voice echoed out from the phone, faint noises in the background could be heard. He then guessed that he had avoided the others in order to call him. When he heard Jiang Li refer to their place as ¡®home¡¯ he felt a subtle satisfaction in his heart. However, he said as if unsatisfied, ¡°If I¡¯m not at home, who¡¯s gonna take care of the cat?¡± ¡°I appreciate it.¡± Jiang Li laughed, ¡°Where¡¯s Jiang Nuomi? He didn¡¯t throw a tantrum right?¡± ¡°He dares to do that?¡± Jiang Zhan scorned disdainfully, as if he wasn¡¯t the one who was jumped on by Jiang Nuomi. As both of them stayed together, Jiang Li knew clearly that Jiang Zhan and Jiang Nuomi weren¡¯t on good terms. When he heard his words that showed how he didn¡¯t want to lose face, Jiang Li laughed in his heart. He didn¡¯t expose him and went along with him. He then asked, ¡°Did you watch the live show just now? How did I perform?¡± Of course I watched it, from the beginning till the end. ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Jiang Zhan commented unwillingly as he saw Jiang Li wanted compliments. He then saw Jiang Nuomi stretching its head out from the study room looking at him. He suddenly thought of something and said, ¡°Your son wants to eat Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish.¡± ¡°Oh? Only my son?¡± Jiang Li looked disappointed, ¡°I initially wanted to make it for you as well.¡± Jiang Zhan ¡°tsked¡± and said generously, as if he felt bad to reject him, ¡°Up to you then.¡± Jiang Li hung up the call after a few lines. He went backstage and realized that other than Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou who were waiting for him, Feng Yating was still there as well. The three of them were looking at him, their eyes filled with weird sparkles. ¡°Why are you guys looking at me like that?¡± Jiang Li walked towards them and asked. ¡°Jiang Li, you¡¯re really hiding something!¡± Feng Yating nudged him with her elbow, smiling mysteriously. ¡°What¡¯s your relationship with Shen Yuzhi and the others?¡± Feng Dong continued, ¡°You¡¯re being sent up to the trending list by Young master Shen.¡± Jiang Li was not really interested in the trending list since he had been on it several times before. But, he didn¡¯t know who that Young Master Shen mentioned by them was. ¡°What?¡± Jiang Li had a blank expression, ¡°Who¡¯s Shen Yuzhi?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know him?¡± Jiang Li shook his head. Feng Dong noticed that he really didn¡¯t know about it and explained to him simply. The well-known and prominent families in City S consisted of Jiang, Shen, Sun and Zhao. The ones with connections with these four families were also rich people. Shen Yuzhi, Sun Zelin, and Zhao Guanyu each shared Jiang Li¡¯s weibo at the same time tonight, and pushed Jiang Li up the trending list. This made the netizens guess about their relationships with Jiang Li. Shen Yuzhi V: Be there or be square!! // @Jiang Li V: Tonight at 8, I¡¯ll wait for you at ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯ Sun Zelin: I¡¯m coming!! // @Jiang Li V: Tonight at 8, I¡¯ll wait for you at ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯. Zhao Guanyu V: Let¡¯s go!! // @Jiang Li V: Tonight at 8, I¡¯ll wait for you at ¡®Face-to-face Celebrity¡¯. Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± What the hell is this? I completely don¡¯t know who they are, why are they acting like they are my fans? Feng Yating looked at him frowning as if he really didn¡¯t know who they were. She then waved her hands, ¡°Sigh, why bother so much about that, maybe they are your fans!!¡± ¡°The drama I acted in has not even aired yet, where did these fans come from?¡± Jiang Li shook his head as he laughed, he then returned the phone to Feng Dong. ¡°Fans of your good looks!¡± Feng Yating touched his face, ¡°I¡¯m one of them as well~~¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t know if he should laugh or cry. He then left with her. Feng Dong was following behind, he was still thinking about the post that was shared by Shen Yuzhi and the others. He felt that he had missed out something important, but he couldn¡¯t grasp it. The next day, the production team led Jiang Li and the other three to visit the city¡¯s tourist attractions. Jiang Li only boarded the flight and returned to City S in the afternoon. Before he returned, Jiang Li called Jiang Zhan and told him his schedule. He wanted to have dinner with him, but unfortunately Jiang Zhan had a dinner that couldn¡¯t be cancelled so it didn¡¯t work out. When the plane reached City S it was almost 6 pm. Jiang Li was too lazy to cook so he found a restaurant in town and had dinner with Feng Dong and the others. While the three of them were being led towards a private room by the waiter, a voice filled with uncertainty called out. ¡°Jiang Li?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s footsteps paused. He turned his head and looked towards the voice. A guy who was wearing a plaid shirt, a hat, and a mask was standing not far away from him. The person was familiar yet strange to him. Jiang Li was perplexed for a while and only then remembered who that person was. ¡°¡­ Zhang Ziyang?¡± CH 22 Jiang Li entered the drama set for ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ just a short while after he came to this world. As he was acting in two roles and his scenes were many and important, he dunked himself in the drama set almost every day. So, it had been a while since he had met Zhang Ziyang. Jiang Li had almost forgotten this person¡¯s existence. He felt it was unexpected to suddenly encounter him. As Jiang Li would be punished if the male lead¡¯s favorability dropped to negative value, he had been busy with the main mission of capturing Jiang Zhan and didn¡¯t take much care of the side mission. Zhang Ziyang was also shocked to meet Jiang Li. He looked for Jiang Li a few times but Jiang Li did not only change his living address, but also his phone number. He initially thought that Jiang Li went back to his hometown, so he contacted Jiang Li¡¯s mother privately, but she said she wasn¡¯t sure of it and didn¡¯t even provide Jiang Li¡¯s new number to him. Zhang Ziyang had no other ways to contact him and he needed to go for filming in other provinces at that time, so he could only place this matter aside. When he once again saw news about Jiang Li, it was on the Weibo of the drama crew for ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯. In order to get the roles on ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, Zhang Ziyang did not hesitate to lie to Jiang Li, asking him to sell his body for his benefit. He didn¡¯t think that the benefit would fall onto Jiang Li at the end, while he went for wool and came home shorn. He was not only hated by vice-director Jiang and faced hardships in the new drama set, but he also lost money to gambling on football matches and was hiding outside for a period of time. This all happened because Jiang Li went back on his word at the last minute! Now, Jiang Li did not just act in ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, he even signed a contract under Jiang Group. He had become much more popular than him in a short time! But all of these should have been his!! He had finally managed to collect money from here and there to pay his debt and returned to City S secretly. Zhang Ziyang did not expect that he would meet Jiang Li by chance. When he thought of how Jiang Li was the reason why he fell so low, he quickly walked towards Jiang Li ignoring Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou who were beside him. He then grabbed Jiang Li¡¯s hand, wanting to drag him away. Jiang Li guarded against him in his heart when he saw him. When Zhang Ziyang grabbed his hand he flipped his wrist agilely, broke free from his capture, and pushed him down. ¡°Say if you need anything, don¡¯t touch me,¡± Jiang Li patted on the parts that were grabbed by him earlier. He looked at him condescendingly with a warning signal. Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou came to their senses and blocked in front of Jiang Li. Feng Dong asked solemnly, ¡°Who are you? What do you want to do?¡± Zhang Ziyang staggered as he was suddenly pushed, the flame in his heart burned even more vigorously. He pointed at Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou after straightening his body, ¡°I have something to say to him, you guys better get out of my way!¡± ¡°If you have anything to say, say it in front of¨C ¡± ¡°Brother Feng.¡± Jiang Li interrupted his words. He asked the waitress standing nearby to leave. He then said towards Zhang Ziyang, ¡°I know what you want to say. Coincidentally, I wanna tell you something too.¡± After he finished his words, he pointed towards the door of the private room, signaling him to enter the room. ¡°Ah Li¡­¡± Feng Dong was a bit worried. Jiang Li waved his hands and asked him and Xiao Zhou to wait outside, he then took the lead and entered the room. Zhang Ziyang hesitated for a moment then followed him in, while Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou waited outside. As the door was just closed, Zhang Ziyang immediately wanted to take action. Jiang Li took a few steps backwards to avoid him, he said calmly, ¡°You better not act on impulse, or else you won¡¯t be able to walk out of this restaurant.¡± Zhang Ziyang stopped his actions, he remembered Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou who were still guarding outside. Xiao Zhou is big and strong, he then did not have the scruples to act on impulse. Jiang Li noticed that even if Zhang Ziyang was wearing a cap and a mask, it still showed how tired and dejected he was. He most probably didn¡¯t have a smooth progress in this period of time. ¡°Looks like you¡¯re not living well.¡± Jiang Li smiled, ¡°If this is the case, I¡¯m happy.¡± ¡°You dare to say it?!¡± Zhang Ziyang clenched his teeth and looked at Jiang Li, ¡°If it weren¡¯t for the fact that you broke the promise, how would I fall to this point?!¡± ¡°You¡¯re blaming me?¡± Jiang Li snorted, he looked at him from top to bottom. ¡°You wanna depend on your face, but you are unable to crawl vice-director Jiang¡¯s bed, so you told a pack of lies to get me to serve as an exchange for your benefit. You wanna depend on your acting skills, but you can¡¯t pass Director Zhou¡¯s audition, so the role fell into my hands.¡± ¡°Zhang Ziyang, you¡¯re good-for-nothing, how can you blame others?¡± ¡°It¡¯s you who agreed to go!¡± Zhang Ziyang refuted, ¡°You¡¯ve been clinging to me so shamelessly for so many years, isn¡¯t your aim just to be with me? Why are you acting so virtuous now?¡± The one who wanted to be together with Zhang Ziyang was the original host, but not the current Jiang Li. To Jiang Li, let alone getting together with Zhang Ziyang, he felt nauseous just by looking at him now. ¡°So now it¡¯s your turn to cling onto me shamelessly?¡± Jiang Li responded sarcastically, he felt sad for the original host. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that he fell in love with Zhang Ziyang blindly, he would not have died like that. Zhang Ziyang suffered quite an amount of losses in the drama set in this period of time, he was also tormented while hiding from debts. He flew into rage out of humiliation, ¡°Jiang Li, don¡¯t be too arrogant! Don¡¯t think that I don¡¯t know how you got the roles, didn¡¯t you also sell your body? Don¡¯t forget that I have proof of you agreeing to accompany Vice-Director Jiang!¡± When Zhang Ziyang knew Vice-Director Jiang was the reason why he was heckled in the drama crew, he went to look for him and wanted to offer a meal to apologize, hoping that he would forget about the incident with Jiang Li. However, no matter how he begged, the vice-director rejected him without hesitation and did not want to meet him, he even said, ¡°Do you know Jiang Li belongs to who now? Don¡¯t drag me into courting death with you.¡± As the saying goes, a sentence wakes someone up from one¡¯s dream. He understood why Jiang Li suddenly entered the entertainment industry with such a strong momentum. Although he did not follow Vice-Director Jiang, he got to follow someone who had more power than him! Zhang Ziyang did not think it would turn out that Jiang Li said he liked him on the surface but stabbed him behind his back. He really could not bear the anger! So when he saw Jiang Li earlier, he shouted subconsciously. If it weren¡¯t for the use of threatening Jiang Li, he would have already exposed the chat history in which Jiang Li agreed on accompanying Vice-Director Jiang. Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan¡¯s relationship was a secret. Other than Ji Shu, even Feng Dong and his assistant didn¡¯t know about it. Jiang Li believed Zhang Ziyang wouldn¡¯t know about it either, he was just guessing like the netizens. Jiang Li didn¡¯t care about what Zhang Ziyang said. Instead, he sat beside the table relaxdly. He took out his phone, opened a recording, and played it. ¡°Listen to this recording first.¡± Zhang Ziyang initially felt weird as Jiang Li suddenly wanted to play a recording when they were talking, but his facial expression changed when he heard the contents clearly. The recording was intolerable to the ear, moans and filthy words could be heard, and one of the main characters was Zhang Ziyang. After Zhang Ziyang came to his senses, he wanted to snatch the phone that was in Jiang Li¡¯s hand quickly, but Jiang Li dodged it and closed the recording. ¡°Don¡¯t move.¡± Jiang Li shook his finger towards Zhang Ziyang, he smiled as he said, ¡°It¡¯s not a good thing if I accidentally send it out due to nervousness.¡± Zhang Ziyang stopped his actions. He suppressed his voice and asked furiously, feeling anxious, ¡°Where did you get it?!¡± It was recorded during the night Jiang Li had just transmigrated into this world, but he wouldn¡¯t tell Zhang Ziyang that. ¡°Don¡¯t care about how I got the recording. If you don¡¯t want this recording to be exposed then take proper care of the proof you mentioned.¡± Jiang Li said coldly. The recording consisted of the voices of Zhang Ziyang and another man; the current entertainment industry would not tolerate gays, if this were to be publicly posted, Zhang Ziyang would have no future in his entertainment career. While both of them were confronting each other, Zhang Ziyang¡¯s phone rang. When he saw the incoming caller, he quickly accepted it. He spoke in a flattering manner, saying that he would immediately reach a certain place. ¡­ Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou, who were guarding outside, were worried about what happened inside. From Zhang Ziyang¡¯s attitude towards Jiang Li, it could be seen that their relationship was not considered good. So, they were worried that he would take action against Jiang Li. Just when Feng Dong was hesitating if he should knock on the door to ask about it, the door opened. Zhang Ziyang came out, he did not even look at them and left hastily. Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou looked at each other. They saw Jiang Li sitting on the chair complacently after they entered the room. Jiang Li even pointed at the seats beside him when he saw them coming in. ¡°Take a seat.¡± Both of them sat down. Xiao Zhou couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Brother Li, who¡¯s that person just now? You¡¯re not bullied by him right?¡± ¡°Just someone I know from last time, I¡¯m not familiar with him.¡± Jiang Li said casually, he handed over the menu that was placed beside, ¡°Order first, I¡¯m hungry.¡± Xiao Zhou then ordered. Feng Dong was still worried and asked, ¡°Are you sure? You must tell me if there¡¯s any problem, we can think of a solution together.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing, don¡¯t worry Brother Feng.¡± Jiang Li smiled towards him and stopped talking about it. Zhang Ziyang¡¯s incident was not something significant, it was common in this entertainment industry. However, it was not trivial either. Jiang Li had just started his acting career. Once it was exposed that he had agreed with the vice-director to sell his body, no matter who he did it for, it would cause the reputation he had just built up to take a drastic fall. Of course, he could use the recording to force Zhang Ziyang to delete the proof that the original host had agreed on such a thing, but it wasn¡¯t guaranteed that Zhang Ziyang had no copies of it. Both sides were at a point of restraining each other. Feng Dong could not deal with this problem, he himself could not deal with it as well, but Jiang Zhan could. Jiang Li was thinking of telling him about this incident. He would need to remove the proof first, or else Jiang Zhan would definitely be angry with him if he heard of this incident by chance. However, once it was told, Jiang Zhan, who¡¯s a meanie, would definitely be angry with him; and once he¡¯s angry the favorability might drop. Lastly, he would need to depend on his body to increase the favorability again. Jiang Li did not know if he should laugh or cry at this point. After the meal, Feng Dong sent Jiang Li back to Jade River Garden and had agreed to fetch him to the drama set tomorrow morning to rush the shoots that he had missed these three days. Jiang Zhan was still not back from work yet, Jiang Nuomi was the only one at home. Jiang Nuomi had not seen his daddy for three days, so it clung aggrieved onto Jiang Li¡¯s pants and meowed as loud as it could. Jiang Li bent his waist and picked it up. He took a glance at the food plate and found out that there was still cat food in it. Jiang Zhan had probably fed the cat today and he felt his heart warm towards his caring attitude. He appeased Jiang Nuomi for a while then went back to his room for a bath. He half-laid on the sofa after bathing. He then stroked the cat as he looked at the System¡¯s tablet. As he was too busy recently, other than listening to System reporting the progress of the task, he almost did not check on it at all. He found out that not only had the main mission reached 63%, the side mission had also reached halfway. Jiang Li thought of Zhang Ziyang being spiritless this morning, and he thought that it might be the reason. After checking the tasks, Jiang Li found out that the reward column on the top right side had a new notification. After pressing on it, it was the reward for achieving the ¡®Primary Love Achievement¡¯. Jiang Li felt that the system of punishing when the favorability dropped and rewarding when the favorability rose was actually something really user-friendly. However, he would be more satisfied if the reward was not something so weird. [Reward of Primary Love Achievement] Item Name: Luxurious Cat Sex Toy Set Item Function: This reward includes a pair of cat ears, a cat collar belt, a pair of cat gloves and a cat tail. It is created to highly imitate genuine cat fur. The texture is outstanding. Users will not feel uncomfortable with it, instead they will be addicted to it. It is very suitable for couples that need some fun in bed. It can effectively improve your relationships and make him fall in love with you even more. Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± What bullshit is making him fall in love with me even more, I only feel dizzy looking at it. Jiang Li stared at the set of Luxurious Cat Sex Toys for quite a while and asked System in a headache, ¡°Little Cutie, are you sure this game is not a R18 game?¡± ¡°¡­ Not too sure about that.¡± System obviously felt shocked towards the rewards, its voice weakened. ¡°I¡¯m already getting a sex toy set for the primary love achievement, are you guys giving me Hui Ren Kidney Pills1 if I reach the deep love achievement?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s lips twitched and he complained internally, he really could not find any suitable adjectives to describe how weird this game was. At least the white skin pill from the beginner package still had a little effectiveness, but what can I do with this bullshit cat sex toy set? Wear it for Jiang Zhan? Then won¡¯t my butt blossom? Jiang Li felt dizzy just by looking at it, he closed the interface and returned to the page of the main mission. Players reach primary love achievement when the favorability passes 60%, secondary love achievement if the favorability passes 80%, deep love achievement if it passes 90%, and 100% is considered as completing the mission. Frankly, Jiang Li was not in a rush to increase the favorability. The first reason was because he just started his career; there would be a lot of things for him to go through in the future. The second reason was that although his relationship with Jiang Zhan started with a trade, he couldn¡¯t deny that he had a favourable impression of Jiang Zhan while they were living together. Since both of them had favorable feelings towards each other, then why don¡¯t they enjoy their moments now? Since he had a chance to live again, no matter what, he didn¡¯t want to waste the opportunity. After looking at it for a while, Jiang Li found out that there was a male lead¡¯s impression column beside the favorability. It was not there previously. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Jiang Li opened it and saw a few tags on it. ¡®Favor at first sight¡¯, pick-up artist¡¯, ¡®soft-hearted¡¯, ¡®one night seven times¡¯, ¡®caring¡¯, ¡®gentle¡¯ ¡°These are the impressions of the male lead you have had since you came to this world.¡± System told him. Even if it didn¡¯t tell Jiang Li he would have understood it. These were all the labels he gave President Jiang. ¡®Favor at first sight¡¯ was labelled when he first saw Jiang Zhan, he thought that he was the type of guy he would like. Later, ¡®pick-up artist¡¯ was labelled as Jiang Zhan agreed to give him the role but he did not fulfill it, while ¡®one night seven times¡¯ was because of the butt-blossoming incident that nearly happened when he joked and called Jiang Zhan grandpa. He didn¡¯t expect that the impressions he had would be shown on the system. Jiang Li looked at the words ¡®pick-up artist¡¯ and could not resist laughing out loud. If this were to be seen by Jiang Li he would definitely become angry again. ¡°Meow~~¡± Jiang Nuomi, who was in his embrace, used its claw to scratch his leg incomprehensibly as it saw Jiang Li laughing out. ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Jiang Li patted its head, ¡°I just thought of your grandpa and felt funny.¡± ¡°Meow?¡± While a cat and a human were chatting with each other, the sound of the door opening was heard from the porch. Jiang Zhan had come back. Jiang Li carried the cat and welcomed him. He raised Jiang Nuomi and said towards Jiang Zhan, ¡°Welcome home, President Jiang. ¡° Jiang Nuomi, ¡°Meow~¡± While Jiang Li was out these few days, Jiang Nuomi often ignored Jiang Zhan. This was the first time it greeted and welcomed him home. Jiang Zhan stretched out his hands and wanted to carry it; but it turned its head, jumped onto the floor, and ran away quickly. Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li smelled a strong alcohol scent coming from him and he frowned his nose. ¡°You¡¯re so smelly, that¡¯s why Jiang Nuomi dislikes you.¡± ¡°Is it really smelly?¡± Jiang Zhan smelled his own sleeves, he indeed reeked of alcohol, but it was not smelly for him. ¡°I¡¯ll go take a bath.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± After Jiang Zhan finished bathing, he purposely confirmed that there was no smell of alcohol and only came out. He saw Jiang Li doing something in the kitchen while he just came out. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Jiang Zhan walked towards him. ¡°Making sober-up soup for you.¡± Jiang Li answered as he stirred with a ladle. Jiang Zhan wanted to say that he was not drunk, but when he looked at Jiang Li who was lowering his head and cooking the soup for him so attentively, he swallowed his words back. Since he wanted to perform well, then let him be. While Jiang Li was making the sober soup, his phone that was placed in the living room rang. Jiang Zhan saw that he was busy so he went out to take the phone, he saw Feng Dong¡¯s name on the screen. ¡°Why is he always calling you during midnight?¡± ¡°Who?¡± Jiang Li tilted his head and took a glance, ¡°Oh, I think he has something to tell me, look at the soup for me, I¡¯ll go accept this call.¡± After he finished explaining he handed the ladle to Jiang Zhan, took the phone, and went out to accept the call. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Jiang Zhan looked at the ladle in his hand and Jiang Nuomi who was squatting beside his foot, he was speechless. Didn¡¯t he say that he was gonna cook the sober-up soup for me? Jiang Li, can you put some effort into pleasing someone? The one who did not put in any effort, aka Jiang Li, did not know of his resentment. He walked to the living room and accepted the phone call. ¡°Brother Feng, what happened? Why are you calling me at this late hour?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, something urgent happened.¡° Feng Dong¡¯s voice sounded restless. ¡°After yesterday¡¯s live show and appearing on the hot search, your popularity increased a lot, your fans also increased more than ten thousand.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that a good thing?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good, but it¡¯s also easier to be targeted, there are people online who have started to stalk you for your information now.¡± ¡°Stalking me?¡± Jiang Li froze, ¡°You mean¡­¡± ¡°Yes, your personal information, academic qualifications, or household registration location, I remember you¡¯re a graduate from University S right? There are a lot of alumni saying that they know you in the forum.¡± ¡°I know, I¡¯ll go and take a look¡­ hey, turn the heat down, don¡¯t burn the soup!¡± Jiang Li suddenly shouted towards Jiang Zhan who was in the kitchen. This made Feng Dong, who was on the other side of the call, freeze. He then realized that there was someone in his house. He had a guess but couldn¡¯t resist asking after hesitating, ¡°¡­ Who are you talking to?¡± ¡°The tenant.¡± Jiang Li side-stepped the issue and consoled him, ¡°My information will be dug out no matter what. I excel in both academics and morals, there¡¯s nothing to be hated so don¡¯t worry.¡± Feng Dong listened to him praising himself seriously and couldn¡¯t help but laugh, he didn¡¯t continue any longer and hung up the phone after asking him to rest early. Jiang Li was not in a rush to surf Weibo and see what information they dug out. After he poured out the soup for Jiang Zhan, only then did he sit beside him and pressed open the Weibo link sent by Feng Dong in WeChat. ¡ª What kind of godly figure is the small artist, Jiang Li, who has been appearing on the Weibo hot trending list recently? Let¡¯s walk into the true face-to-face celebrity. [Picture] [Picture] [Picture] [Picture] The one who posted the weibo was a Weibo VIP user with more than 800 thousand followers. The post already had more than 6000 comments and 10000 shares in less than two hours. The first picture was the graduation picture that Jiang Li took during University S¡¯ graduation day; other people except him were blurred. The second picture was the picture of Jiang Li in the school¡¯s hall of fame. He was always in the top three for every semester¡¯s results. Moreover, he received a scholarship every year so he was considered a famous outstanding student in school. The third picture was a picture of the registration form that Jiang Li handed in when he was applying to join the school¡¯s club. His age, height, and home address were shown. However, the exact location of the address was blurred. The fourth picture was his student card. The comments were filled with people recognising him as Feng Dong had said. ¡ª OMG! Shixiong from the same school as me became a celebrity? I wouldn¡¯t have believed it if it wasn¡¯t for the same name and appearance! ¡ª Graduated from a prestigious school¡­ So Xiao Gege is a top student ah¡­ ¡ª Even the picture on the student card is so handsome, those who said that he went for plastic surgery, please shut up! ¡ª Turns out that he¡¯s a senior from the same school, I¡¯ll definitely pick him!! ¡ª Computer science major?? A programmer suddenly switched to acting?? ¡ª So I had stayed with a future artist in the same dorm building for four years during university life. ¡ª Putting aside his acting skills, his appearance is already enough!! ¡°What are you looking at?¡± Jiang Zhan finished the soup and got up to return the bowl. After he went out of the kitchen, he sat beside him. ¡°Someone stalked me and exposed my information online.¡± Jiang Li showed the post to him. Jiang Zhan took the phone and scrolled down using his fingers. He then saw people commenting about Jiang Li. They stated that Jiang Li came from a single-parent family. His family condition was not good enough and he did not learn acting before, but he was able to get such good resources. So, there must be someone supporting him behind the scenes. In the comments below, a lot of people agreed and guessed that Jiang Li was most probably kept by someone, it¡¯s just the matter of whether it¡¯s a sugar daddy or sugar mummy. Although Jiang Li was kept by him, his eyes turned cold when he saw the comments. He exited Weibo and contacted the public relations department, asking them to deal with the people who exposed his information online. While he called the department, Jiang Li was just beside him listening. The feeling of being protected flowed out in his heart. After Jiang Zhan hung up the phone, Jiang Li then leaned on his shoulder as if his bones became soft. He then asked the question that he already knew the answer to, ¡°Why are you so nice to me?¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand that was holding the phone paused, he turned his head and met Jiang Li¡¯s smiling eyes. It was a pair of clear, bright eyes. They even had a sense of affection while they were looking at him. Two pairs of eyes met each other. Jiang Zhan was burned by the affection inside. His heart pounded uncontrollably, he nearly blurted out the words ¡®because I like you¡¯. The word ¡®like¡¯ made Jiang Zhan freeze, he stared at Jiang Li and forgot to react. So I actually like Jiang Li? This realization made Jiang Zhan nervous. He always thought that he was merely interested in Jiang Li and wanted him to be his possession, but he did not think that he would get seriously attracted along the way. Jiang Zhan had lived for 32 years and never had this feeling before. Both of them were really close to each other. He felt that his heart was going to jump out of his chest. It was pounding so vigorously that he was having tinnitus. ¡°Why are you not talking?¡± Jiang Li came closer, his lips nearly touching Jiang Zhan¡¯s face. Jiang Zhan¡¯s sight dropped to the lips that were opening and closing in front of him. The red lips were just in front of him, he could feel his ears turning hot. He suddenly stood up subconsciously, while Jiang Li who was leaning on his shoulder abrubtly lost support and fell onto the sofa. Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t even look at him, he just threw the words ¡®I¡¯m going back to my room to sleep¡¯ and left. He hurried and did not realise that he went into the study room. He even staggered as his left leg tripped his right leg. Jiang Li looked at him staggering and laughed his ass off. He really didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Zhan would be so pure in his heart that he would escape. Such a Jiang Zhan was¡­ really cute. Jiang Li lowered his head and smiled. He felt like he should do something to boost their relationship, so he switched on System¡¯s tablet and used the set of cat sex toys with embarrasment. In the study room, Jiang Zhan sat at the study table. His back was towards the door and his ears were still hot. While he was thinking about staying calm and getting his dignity back, he heard Jiang Li¡¯s voice from behind him. ¡°Didn¡¯t you wanna sleep? Why are you hiding in the study room?¡± He sounded like he was mocking him, so Jiang Zhan lost his cool and angrily turned his head, ¡°None of your bus¡­¡± He was met with the pair of fluffy ears on Jiang Li¡¯s head and stopped his words. Jiang Li grasped the tail behind him and swayed it. He tilted his head and looked at him, asking, ¡°Am I cute?¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Fuck, I¡¯m dead. Hui Ren Kidney Pills: a kind of traditional chinese medicine that can help to tonify the kidney and strengthen the body, so they can perform better in bed CH 23 When Jiang Li talked about wanting to own a cat, Jiang Zhan had imagined him wearing cat ears. He was only imagining at that time yet he felt like he couldn¡¯t control himself anymore. He had even surfed the net and saw different styles and colors of them, so that he could picture them even better. He subconsciously changed the model¡¯s face into Jiang Li¡¯s and thought of buying all of them for Jiang Li, but he felt that doing this seemed perverted so he resisted and didn¡¯t take any action. So, when Jiang Li appeared in front of him with cat ears, the shock of his imagination turning into reality stunned him. He stared at Jiang Li and forgot to react. He only came to his senses after Jiang Li pulled the tail, tilted his head, and smiled with curved eyebrows. The string of rationality in his mind then snapped. His sight paused on the tail subconsciously. The tail¡­ was inserted into that part, Jiang Zhan knew that well. When he imagined the scene where Jiang Li was inserting the tail by himself, he could feel a gush of heat flowing towards his abdomen, the blood in his body suddenly running wild. The part where he was not comforted for a few days slowly bulged out. When Jiang Li noticed Jiang Zhan¡¯s passionate and aggressive gaze directed at his tail, he ignored the discomfort of the insertion, he grasped on it and swayed it again. He then softened his voice and called out, ¡°Meow~¡± That soft and fluffy meow was just like he was being affectionate, while in Jiang Zhan¡¯s ears, it sounded like Jiang Li was seeking pleasure. He stretched out his hands towards Jiang Li, ¡°Come here.¡± Jiang Li walked towards him slowly as requested, the tinkling sound of the bell of the collar on his neck could be heard following his movements. The tail drooped behind his back and swayed with his footsteps. With every step he took, he could feel the breath of the man in front of him become heavier. This made him feel satisfied, as the man in front of him was excited because of him. He walked to Jiang Zhan, raised his legs, and straddled Jiang Zhan¡¯s lap. He lowered down his head and met his eyes. He then said in dissatisfaction, ¡°You haven¡¯t said that I¡¯m cute.¡± Both of them were only wearing loose, home-wear shorts. Jiang Li¡¯s straddling posture made the end of his shorts shrink to his thigh, causing both of their thighs to touch each other. Jiang Zhan held his waist, his palm touching the tail at the back. He then grasped it and slowly stroked it. ¡°¡­ Where did you get this?¡± Jiang Zhan asked with a hoarse voice as if he was suppressing something. That part of him bulged up even more due to the soft and fluffy texture. ¡°I secretly bought it.¡± Jiang Li hugged around his neck with his arms. He went nearer and complained by his ears, ¡°The tail is really uncomfortable, it¡¯s too dry there¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± That sentence was too wild, Jiang Zhan¡¯s eyes turned dark, he couldn¡¯t resist it anymore. He held onto Jiang Li¡¯s buttocks with both of his hands and carried him up, pressing him onto the wide study table. ¡­ Heavy and affectionate breaths filled the study room. The silver moonlight shone into the room through the huge window, spreading a layer of gentle, warm white light onto the floor. The breeze that came in through the window blew up an edge of the curtain, the shadows in the room could not be seen clearly. Jiang Li¡¯s bare back was laying against the cold tabletop, his jaw raised high as sweat slid down from his chin all the way down his neck and dripped onto the wooden table. Both of his legs weakly circled around Jiang Zhan¡¯s strong waist. The suspended ceiling above his head was swaying back and forth in front of his eyes. It made Jiang Li dizzy. ¡°¡­ Jiang¡­ Jiang Zhan, wait a sec.¡± Jiang Li called his name intermittently as he was catching his breath. He then reminded anxiously, ¡°Jiang Nuomi¡­ is looking¡­ !¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s peripheral vision swept towards Jiang Nuomi who was squatting beside them and looking at them curiously. How would he care at this point? He grasped Jiang Li¡¯s chin and kissed him as he said hoarsely, ¡°Don¡¯t care about him.¡± ¡°¡­ No, it feels like my son is watching me have sex, it¡¯s so embarrassing¡­¡± ¡°¡­ Shut up.¡± Jiang Zhan simply picked up a t-shirt that was thrown onto the edge of the table and threw it towards Jiang Nuomi, accurately covering its head. Jiang Nuomi was too small in size, while the shirt was too big. After the little brat had been covered, he struggled for a long time and could not find the exit, causing him to stay covered for a long while. ¡­ The result of giving in to one¡¯s desire was that Jiang Li could not even wake up when Feng Dong called saying that he was going to fetch him. He answered with a few ¡¯en¡¯s and ¡®ah¡¯s but his eyes were still closed, as if his waist was broken. Jiang Zhan stretched out his hand to take his phone and told Feng Dong directly, ¡°He¡¯s taking a leave today, you don¡¯t need to come here anymore.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Feng Dong fell into silence for a while and understood what happened last night. He asked hesitantly, ¡°But Director Zhou¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ll talk to him about it.¡± Jiang Zhan ended the call and placed the phone aside. He lowered his head and looked at Jiang Li who was still lying on the bed with his eyes closed. Jiang Li liked to lay on the front or coil himself up while sleeping, sometimes he would even hug the pillow like a child. And now, one of his arms was hugging the pillow while he was sleeping deeply, there were still hickeys on the other arm that was placed outside of the blanket. Both of them were out of control last night, they did it three times, from the study room to the bathroom. Jiang Li nearly fainted at the end, he could not even stand properly. After he bathed and returned to his bed, he slept like the dead and didn¡¯t even respond when Jiang Zhan applied ointment on him. He looked at Jiang Li for a long time, then lowered down and kissed the top of his head. He got off the bed lightly, went to the living room to call Zhou Jin, and applied for a leave in Jiang Li¡¯s stead. After that, he went to the study room. The documents that were on the table were shoved away by him last night and were scattered on the floor. Not only the floor, the tabletop was also a mess, spots of suspicious condensed liquid could be seen. Jiang Li didn¡¯t think that he would be controlled by his desires because of someone, he always thought that being lustful was not a good thing. It would affect one¡¯s thinking and judgement, so he did not involve himself with others in all these years. However, the experience with Jiang Li last night was so comfortable that he did not even want to get out. Especially after he realized his feelings towards Jiang Li, the satisfaction of physically and mentally being with someone he liked could not be compared to the previous times they did it. He bent down to pick up the cat tail and cat ears that were dropped on the floor the previous night. When he turned, he saw Jiang Nuomi squatting on the book rack, looking at him like a ghost. He suddenly met his eyes and was shocked by the sight. ¡°Why did you climb up so high?¡± The book rack was nearly three meters tall and Jiang Nuomi was standing at two meters high. Jiang Zhan was afraid that it would fall down accidentally and make Jiang Li angry. He walked towards it and wanted to bring it down, but Jiang Nuomi turned its head away and did not want to look at him. It was obviously still mad at Jiang Zhan covering its head with a shirt the previous night. When they first started owning Jiang Nuomi, Jiang Zhan specially went to check the things to be noted before owning a cat, and one of them was that cats are known to hold grudges. If the cat sleeps with you and it accidentally falls off the bed, it will hold a grudge against you and step on your face during the night as revenge. Since it was Jiang Zhan¡¯s fault last night, he patiently coaxed Jiang Nuomi for a while. However, Jiang Nuomi was not convinced. After still failing to coax it after a while, Jiang Zhan started to get angry. He took Jiang Li¡¯s cat tail and cat ears, swaying them in front of Jiang Nuomi. It was as if he was showing off something, ¡°Look, Laozi1 also has a cat.¡± Jiang Nuomi, ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­ What are you doing?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s voice echoed from behind him. Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand that was holding the cat tail froze. He quickly lowered them back, turning his body like nothing happened, and saw Jiang Li coming in. ¡°Nothing.¡± Jiang Zhan threw the cat tail and cat ears towards the chair and walked past Jiang Li. ¡°Why are your ears so red?¡± Jiang Li took the chance and grasped his hand, he then gave him a strange look, ¡°Do you have a fever?¡± It¡¯s not a fever, I¡¯m just horny2Pun intended, fever (fa shao), horny (fa sao). ¡°No.¡± Jiang Zhan pulled his hand away, ¡°Don¡¯t mess around in the morning, I¡¯ll call someone to clean up this room.¡± He stormed out quickly without hesitating after finishing his words. It was just like what he did the previous night when he was escaping. Jiang Li chuckled quietly behind him. He picked up the cat toy set that was thrown on the chair and threw it into the cabinet. Then, he stretched out his hands towards Jiang Nuomi who was on the book rack. ¡°Baby, come down.¡± ¡°Meow~¡± Jiang Nuomi pounced down towards him and jumped into Jiang Li¡¯s embrace. Jiang Li then carried it out of the study room. Jiang Zhan saw him carrying Jiang Nuomi while walking out. He looked from side to side and asked, ¡°Where are your cat tail and ears?¡± ¡°I threw them into the cabinet.¡± Jiang Li said as if what he did was right. Jiang Zhan frowned, ¡°You¡¯ll need to disinfect the tail, you can¡¯t simply throw it.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows and gave him a meaningful look, ¡°President Jiang, you know a lot~~¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Shut up. Although Jiang Zhan helped Jiang Li take leave, Jiang Li had already delayed the shoot due to the variety show so he rested in the morning and went to the drama set afterwards. Jiang Zhan also happened to be going to the company so he dropped him off on the way. Jiang Li got off the car one street away from the drama set to prevent catching others¡¯ attention. He then walked alone towards the drama set. Jiang Zhan looked at him walking past the junction. He rolled up the window and asked Ji Shu to drive back to the company. A short while after he reached the company Shen Yuzhi called him, inviting him to a gathering in the clubhouse that night. He also asked him to bring Jiang Li over; both Zhao Guanyu and Sun Zelin were there as well. ¡°Bring Jiang Li?¡± Jiang Zhan stopped his actions of flipping through the documents and thought of what Shen Yuzhi said about keeping Jiang Li two days ago, his tone changing abruptly. ¡°What do you want to do?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand!¡± Shen Yuzhi quickly explained, ¡°We just wanna see who made you become a human and lose your virgin title, we¡¯re not gonna do anything else.¡± ¡°We just want to see if he is just as good-looking as he appears on TV.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not joining us recently, you can¡¯t abandon us for love like that right?¡± Sun Zelin and Lai Guanyu¡¯s voice echoed out from the phone, the three of them complained about Jiang Zhan forgetting about them while he had Jiang Li by his side. Jiang Zhan was annoyed by them to the point that he was getting a headache. He admitted that he really hadn¡¯t met them recently, so he agreed to do so. After he ended the call he sent a message to Jiang Li saying that he would fetch him to the gathering that night. Jiang Li was putting on make-up and preparing for a shoot when he received the message. He handed in his phone to Feng Dong after replying. There were not many scenes that involved him that day, but another actor who was acting in the same scene could not get into character so it only ended at around 8 at night. It was almost 10 o¡¯clock when Jiang Li reached the clubhouse with Jiang Zhan. Before entering the private room, Jiang Zhan stopped his footsteps and held Jiang Li¡¯s hand. Jiang Li froze and only came to his senses after a bit. He smiled, held his hand in return, and pushed open the door. Shen Yuzhi and the others were waiting and getting bored in the private room. They weren¡¯t in the mood to sing and drink anymore. As the door opened, all three of them turned their gaze towards the door. They then saw Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan coming in holding hands. He was clearly bringing his lover to a gathering, but he made them feel like he was bringing the president¡¯s3 wife to inspect his work. Shen Yuzhi, ¡°¡­¡± Sun Zelin, ¡°¡­¡± Zhao Guanyu, ¡°¡­¡± Laozi: a way of calling oneself to show superiority. Pun intended, fever (fa shao), horny (fa sao) the president, aka himself CH 24 Shen Yuzhi and the others¡¯ gazes landed on their intertwined hands. They looked at each other and could see the doubts in each other¡¯s eyes. The way they are holding their hands¡­ So it was not his lover who came, but our sister-in-law? Jiang Li was not scared when he saw their questioning look. He greeted generously, ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Jiang Li.¡± If it was someone normal who greeted them, Shen Yuzhi and the others would most probably glance at them or answer half-heartedly. However, Jiang Li was different, he was brought here by Jiang Zhan. Moreover, he appeared in the room in an indescribable way. The way both of them entered the room made Shen Yuzhi think that Jiang Zhan was bringing his partner to meet his brothers. After seeing what had happened, the three of them were polite to Jiang Li and greeted him back. ¡°Shen Yuzhi.¡± ¡°Zhao Guanyu.¡± ¡°Sun Zelin.¡± After hearing their names, Jiang Li froze, his sight hovered between them, and he said with a subtle tone, ¡°¡­ So it was you guys?¡± ¡°Hm mh.¡± Shen Yuzhi smiled, ¡°Be there or be square!¡± ¡°You guys know each other?¡± Jiang Zhan asked. ¡°It¡¯s not that we know each other.¡± Jiang Li gave a faint smile and looked at Shen Yuzhi and the others, ¡°Thanks to these three masters, I got pushed up the hot search.¡± Jiang Zhan did not know about Shen Yuzhi and the others sharing Jiang Li¡¯s Weibo, he looked at them after he heard what Jiang Li said, ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°Nothing nothing.¡± Zhao Guanyu waved his hands and told him about how they shared Jiang Li¡¯s weibo and pushed him up the hot search, ¡°We just supported Jiang Li on Weibo to make him more popular, since he¡¯s your ¡®that¡¯ right, we should support as well.¡± ¡°That?¡± Jiang Li did not understand what he was talking about, he then looked towards Jiang Zhan, ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Nothing?¡± Jiang Zhan pretended to push him lightly and brought him to sit on the sofa. Shen Yuzhi and the others saw what happened, they looked at each other again ¡ª there¡¯s something wrong. The reason why they had the gathering was because they wanted to call Jiang Zhan out, so Shen Yuzhi and the others did not ask someone to accompany them, they only called two waitresses in to be in charge of the wine and karaoke. When everyone sat down, Sun Zelin asked Jiang Zhan why he was so late. They were about to become dried salted fish. He then asked him to punish himself by drinking three glasses of wine; he had even prepared them for him. The reason why Jiang Zhan was late was because of Jiang Li¡¯s delayed shoot; he could not let Jiang Zhan take the blame. So he took the glass of wine from the table and said to them, ¡°President Jiang was late because he was waiting for me, I¡¯ll take the blame, so I should drink this glass of wine, I¡¯ll make a toast to you guys.¡± ¡°Straight-forward!¡± Zhao Guanyu clapped his hands, he took his own wine glass, ¡°I¡¯ll drink with you.¡± Jiang Li touched his glass with his own and lifted up his head, wanting to drink the wine, but before the glass touched his lips, Jiang Zhan who was beside suddenly took the glass from his hand, drank it in one gulp, and placed the glass back on the table. His actions were really fast. After finishing the first glass, he acted like nothing happened and went to take the second glass, when Jiang Li realized what had happened, he had already taken the third glass, he then quickly halted his hand, ¡°Leave this to me.¡± Jiang Zhan looked at him, his hand that was holding the wine did not move, Jiang Li added, ¡°Give it to me, I¡¯m thirsty.¡± Shen Yuzhi, ¡°¡­¡± I might as well leave the whole room for you guys, it¡¯s blinding me. The last glass was drunk by Jiang Li. After the three glasses were drank, Sun Zelin changed them into a large glass, he poured another full glass of wine and placed it in front of Jiang Zhan, he then said in a hoarse tone, ¡°Helping to drink is considered cheating, it¡¯s just drinking wine, don¡¯t make it look like I¡¯m forcing you to drink poison.¡± ¡°Yeah, this is a proper place, we don¡¯t add anything filthy into your drink.¡± Shen Yuzhi also agreed. Jiang Li laughed, he did not stop Jiang Zhan anymore, since they were coming out to play, enjoying it is key. Sun Zelin only let him go after Jiang Zhan finished drinking the large glass of wine. But he also did not forget to complain about Jiang Zhan for directly returning home after work as if he was cultivating himself and ditching their gatherings recently. They would even need to go to his company to book an appointment to meet him. ¡°I¡¯m a bit busy these days.¡± Jiang Zhan said, ¡°There are some procedures needed to be done for the newly bade land, we¡¯ll be able to start the construction as soon as the end of this year if the procedures are done early.¡± Shen Yuzhi and the others knew that the Jiang Group entered the property field; they had even discussed it with Jiang Zhan before. When Jiang Zhan successfully bade the land, a new announcement was made as well. However, no matter how busy he was, he must have time during the night. Everyone knew at heart that he was spending the daytime in company, while the nighttime in another place. ¡°You¡¯re even busy at night?¡± Zhao Guanyu stretched the ending of his word meaningfully as he looked at Jiang Li with an ambiguous look, everyone knew clearly what he was indicating. Jiang Zhan glanced at him, he pushed him to the side and said indifferently, ¡°Someone so free like you won¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°What, who doesn¡¯t understand? I¡¯m also very busy at night, okay?!¡± Zhao Guanyu laughed as he scolded and stopped joking with him and Jiang Li. They have been friends with Jiang Zhan for so many years and understood each other quite well. From the action of Jiang Zhan snatching those glasses of wine, they could see that Jiang Li must be someone important in his heart. Although they did not know how important he was, Jiang Zhan is someone who¡¯s protective, he would not want other people to ridicule his own person. Jiang Li was eating beside. He, of course, did not understand what Zhao Guanyu meant. He was busy shooting in the afternoon and simply ate fast food for dinner, so Jiang Zhan specially called someone to prepare food for him. Shen Yuzhi saw him busy eating and signaled towards a waitress beside, he then asked her to bring a few desserts to the table. When Jiang Li finished eating, Shen Yuzhi threw a microphone towards him and said, ¡°If Jiang Li is done with eating, go and sing some songs. We had already sung till our throats got dry earlier, just in time to listen to some songs.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Jiang Li was not embarrassed as well, he tilted his head and asked Jiang Zhan, ¡°Do you wanna sing?¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s action of drinking the wine stopped suddenly, ¡°No need.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let him sing!¡± Sun Zelin said, ¡°Ah Zhan¡¯s is always out of tune, let alone you, even the god of singing¡¯s tune will be brought out of the earth by him, it¡¯s so terrible.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Zhan got criticized in front of Jiang Li; he took a clean, warm towel that was placed beside and threw it to his face, ¡°Shut up.¡± ¡°Hah?¡± Jiang Li looked at Jiang Zhan with curiosity, ¡°Is it really that terrible? I haven¡¯t heard your singing before, so try?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Sing a song please?¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Zhan pushed away the microphone Jiang Li gave him and said with annoyance, ¡°I said I don¡¯t wanna sing, why are you so annoying?¡± The light in the private room was dim, but because both of them were really close to each other, Jiang Li still saw Jiang Zhan¡¯s uneasy expression, showing that he was repulsive towards singing, he then stopped joking with him. He went nearer and whispered by his ear, ¡°When we both get home, we¡¯ll sing ourselves, we¡¯ll not let them listen, is that alright?¡± It sounded like he was coaxing him, Jiang Zhan¡¯s ear became itchy due to the warm breath released when Jiang Li was speaking, he felt better and did not agree or reject him. Sun Zeling saw both of them dilly-dallying and not singing, he went to pick a song called ¡®Tibetan Plateau¡¯, took the microphone up and started singing. Shen Yuzhi saw what happened and shouted towards Jiang Li who was the nearest to Sun Zelin, ¡°Don¡¯t let him sing, Jiang Li, stop him¡­¡± ¡°Who was the one, who called me from afar¡ª¡ª-¡± Before Shen Yuzhi finished talking, Sun Zelin¡¯s vast Mongolian-like voice covered his words. It was a limitless, vast voice, it sounded firm and high, once he started singing, he pulled his tone to the highest. Jiang Li who was the nearest, bore the largest effect, the voice that sounded like a murdered pig was forced into his ears, making his eardrums vibrate vigorously. A voice like that, how daring of him to complain about Jiang Zhan going out of tune. Just when Jiang Li was still stunned, Jiang Zhan covered his ears and pressed his head against his chest, he raised up his long legs and kicked Sun Zelin¡¯s butt lightly. ¡°What if there is a song without words, or an¡­ aiya.¡± Sun Zelin staggered due to the kick; he then stopped singing. Shen Yuzhi took the opportunity to skip that song. Sun Zelin, ¡°¡­¡± Sun Zelin threw the microphone aside and pounced towards Shen Yuzhi, pressing him onto the sofa and beating the hell out of him, Zhao Guanyu who was beside clapped his hands and mocked them. Jiang Li looked at them and felt funny. He decided to pick some songs to sing, but before he got to do so, his phone rang. He lowered his head and saw Mother Jiang¡¯s incoming call. It was almost midnight, it was rare for Mother Jiang to call him at this late hour as she was afraid that she would disturb him from resting, something must have happened that caused her to make the call. Jiang Li picked up his phone and told Jiang Zhan that he would be going out to accept the call. Jiang Zhan was just sitting beside him, he also saw the incoming call when the phone rang, so he nodded. Jiang Li left the room and found a quiet corner at the junction to accept the call. ¡°Mum.¡± Mother Jiang¡¯s voice echoed from the other side of the phone, she sounded worried and anxious, ¡°Is this Xiao Li? Where are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m outside with my friends.¡± Jiang Li could hear that something was wrong from her voice, ¡°Why are you not asleep yet? Did something happen?¡± ¡°Nothing, I had a dream and something happened to you, so I¡¯m worried.¡± Mother Jiang laughed, it sounded like she was relieved, ¡°It¡¯s good that you¡¯re fine.¡± Jiang Li heard her voice filled with fatigue. When he thought of her waking up from a nightmare and calling her own son to confirm if he was still safe, he felt uncomfortable in his heart, he did not dare to tell her that her son was no longer in this world. ¡°I¡¯m fine, don¡¯t worry, mum.¡± Jiang Li comforted her, ¡°I¡¯ll go visit you after a few days, rest early.¡± ¡°Okay, okay.¡± Mother Jiang answered consecutively and urged him to go back home early. After hanging up the phone, Jiang Li took a deep breath and suppressed the bitter emotions in his heart. When he was about to return to the room and just took two steps, someone pulled him from behind. After regaining his balance, he found out that it was Zhang Ziyang. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Jiang Li frowned and swatted away the hand that was grasping his wrist. ¡°Xiao Li.¡± Zhang Ziyang called his name, the evil tendencies that could be seen last time had vanished, instead, he looked like he wanted to please someone this time, ¡°I heard you talking to Auntie Jiang on the phone earlier, you¡¯re going back to visit her right? I¡¯ll go back with you?¡± Jiang Li did not know why he suddenly had this change of attitude despite looking like he was going to murder him yesterday. But he did not care much. He took two steps back and avoided his hand that was stretching out towards him, ¡°No need for that.¡± He wanted to leave after finishing his words, but Zhang Ziyang pulled him again. Zhang Ziyang grasped his hand tightly, ¡°Ah Li, I know it was my fault last time, I should not have threatened you. What about this, I¡¯ll delete the chat record and pretend that nothing had happened before, okay?¡± ¡°What kind of tricks are you playing now?¡± Jiang Li gave him a weird look and asked. He did not want to get involved with this person any longer, he thought of Jiang Zhan who was still waiting for him in the room, he then swayed away his hand and left. Zhang Ziyang was unwilling to give up and halted him, he wanted to push him back into the corner as he said, ¡°I know it¡¯s my fault at first, but our relationship for so many years is not fake, didn¡¯t you say you like me? So what about asking President Jiang to give me a spot in the Jiang Group1?¡± President Jiang? Jiang Zhan? Jiang Li suddenly understood the sudden change of his attitude, he probably acted this way as he saw Jiang Zhan was with him earlier, since people who are in the entertainment industry knew how much power Jiang Zhan has. Zhang Ziyang saw that he did not say anything and thought that his heart softened, he took the chance and pulled his hand, ¡°Xiao Li, I know that it was my fault for asking you to accompany Vice-director Jiang, but I was doing it for our future, didn¡¯t we agree that we¡¯ll go back to our hometown to live together in the future? You¡­ ¡° ¡°What did you say?¡± A cold, stern voice interrupted his words. Both of them turned around and saw Jiang Zhan standing at the back, he had obviously heard their conversation. He glared at Zhang Ziyang with a stormy expression and said one word after another, ¡°The words you said earlier, say it again.¡± When Jiang Li saw his expression, his heart sank. Oh shit, President Jiang is angry again. ¡ª [T/N: If you guys are interested in listening ¡®Tibetan Plateau¡¯ here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHX62AgJULM] He wants to sign a contract under Jiang Group. CH 25 Jiang Zhan had seen Jiang Li¡¯s mother calling at such a late hour and thought that something urgent might have happened so he paid special attention to him. After waiting for a while in the room, Jiang Li had still not come back. He was worried that something had happened to him and so he went out to find him. Ever since he realized that he liked Jiang Li yesterday, he could only think of this little bastard the whole day. He thought of bringing him to an island for vacation after his shooting ended so that he could relax. Unfortunately, his imagination was great but reality gave him a hard punch. At first glance, he saw someone troubling Jiang Li, so he went there intending to stop the commotion. However, as he went closer he heard the person saying something like ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you like me? Help me sign under his company.¡± The word ¡®like¡¯ made him stop his footsteps. He then heard the person say, ¡°¡­ I know it¡¯s my fault for asking you to help me accompany Vice-director Jiang ¡­ Didn¡¯t we agree on going back to our hometown to live together in the future¡­¡± When he heard those words, it was as if ripples disrupted the calm water surface, he couldn¡¯t resist and interrupted that person. His voice interrupted their conversation. When both of them turned their heads and looked towards him, they were shocked by Jiang Zhan¡¯s sudden appearance and didn¡¯t know how to react. Jiang Zhan¡¯s sight dropped on Jiang Li¡¯s hand that was grasped by Zhang Ziyang, his eyes piercing like knives. Zhang Ziyang quickly released Jiang Li¡¯s hand out of fear. Zhang Ziyang didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Zhan would suddenly appear like this and his whole body froze. He initially came seeking connections to join a drama crew and had accompanied the leaders to drink. He was dizzy after drinking and went out for some fresh air. It was at that moment that he saw Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan walking out from the elevator on the other end of the corridor. He dazedly looked at both of them holding hands while entering the private room, feeling shocked. He had thought that Jiang Li¡¯s backer might be someone of high position in the Jiang Group, or else a person without any acting or singing experience would not be able to sign under Jiang Group. Moreover, he even got good resources immediately after he entered the company. However, he didn¡¯t expect that this backer was Jiang Zhan, the person in power of the Jiang Group which owned half of the resources in the entertainment industry. No wonder Vice-director Jiang treated him that way; he was probably afraid that he would be vented on by Jiang Zhan due to Jiang Li. Zhang Ziyang broke out in a cold sweat as he thought of what he did the previous night, which was calling Jiang Li to threaten him using the chat logs. Fear crept into his heart. Judging from the way they held hands at the door, it showed that Jiang Zhan must have taken a liking to Jiang Li. If Jiang Li were to tell him something, blacklisting him would be as easy as stepping on an ant for Jiang Zhan. Feeling frightened, Zhang Ziyang waited outside thinking that he could maybe find a chance to meet Jiang Li. After waiting for quite a while, he finally saw Jiang Li coming out to accept a phone call. As soon as the phone call ended, he didn¡¯t hesitate to approach Jiang Li and take advantage of their relationship. In Zhang Ziyang¡¯s memory, Jiang Li was always devoted to him and willing to do anything for him. Even though they had an argument, he still believed that Jiang Li was just alienating him because he felt too sad due to the trade matter. He believed that once he admitted his mistakes and coaxed him, Jiang Li would definitely soften; as they had a relationship for more than ten years. In this city, it could be said that he is Jiang Li¡¯s closest person. However, before he got to finish his words, Jiang Zhan suddenly appeared. Zhang Ziyang looked at his clouded expression and took a step back subconsciously. ¡°Pre¡­ President Jiang¡­ ¡° Jiang Zhan¡¯s oppressive aura and coldness made him greet in fear, ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Zhang Ziyang, nice to meet you, I¡¯m¡­¡± ¡°Zhang Ziyang?¡± Jiang Zhan interrupted his words and repeated the name. He felt that it was familiar, as if he had heard the name before. Adding up to what he said earlier about asking Jiang Li to accompany the vice-director, he suddenly remembered what he had neglected these past few days. ¡ª I want the character ¡®Liu Chuandeng¡¯ in the drama ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, but you need to give it to me, not Zhang Ziyang. ¡ª It was you who asked me to come, you made a trade with Zhang Ziyang and asked me to come over. Jiang Zhan always thought that the reason Jiang Li intended to climb the vice-director¡¯s bed was because he had no other way and couldn¡¯t get any good resources. He didn¡¯t expect that he was doing that for the person he liked! For a useless trash who used his body in exchange for roles! Once he realized that Jiang Li had someone he likes, and he had even used his own body to trade for that person¡¯s sake, even promising each other to return to their hometown to live together, Jiang Zhan could feel a cloud of flames burning in his heart. The fact that he was fooled by them made him so angry that he felt like a volcano about to erupt. This person called Zhang Ziyang even asked Jiang Li to help him sign under the company. Jiang Zhan couldn¡¯t help laughing out of anger. These days of pampering Jiang Li were just like a fat joke! ¡°Host, please pay attention, the male lead¡¯s emotions are fluctuating strongly, the favorability has dropped by 10%!! The favorability has dropped by 10%!!¡± The system¡¯s urgent warning suddenly rang in Jiang Li¡¯s mind. He came back to his senses and scolded ¡®fuck¡¯ in his heart as he quickly blurted out, ¡°Jiang Zhan don¡¯t be angry, listen to my explanation!¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± Jiang Zhan glanced coldly at him, he wasn¡¯t in the mood to listen to him explain at this moment. He suppressed his anger and said, ¡°I¡¯ll take care of you when we go home.¡± Jiang Li met his eyes filled with warning, he felt a subtle pain flash in his buttocks. He then touched his nose and stood to the side, and asked System in his heart, ¡°Did the favorability continue dropping?¡± ¡°Not for now, but please prepare well for any special condition.¡± System paused and whispered, ¡°System¡¯s mall has ointment, Host can use points to exchange for it.¡± Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± He knew what kind of ointment the System was talking about, but it would have been better if he didn¡¯t know. Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t care about Jiang Li anymore. He turned his gaze towards Zhang Ziyang. He was too lazy to waste his time on such a person and asked directly, ¡°Which studio are you from?¡± He overheard that he wanted to sign under his company, so he must be an artist in the entertainment industry. Zhang Ziyang sensed the vile intentions behind that question, he took two steps back and didn¡¯t answer. ¡°Don¡¯t make me repeat myself.¡± Jiang Zhan said with a heavy expression, his eyes as gloomy as a bottomless ink pond. If Shen Yuzhi and the others were here they would have realized that he was on the verge of going mad. ¡°Peng Hui Studio.¡± Jiang Li who was beside him answered. He met Jiang Zhan¡¯s gaze and smiled obediently. This brat knows how to act according to the situation huh. Jiang Zhan looked at him deeply. He took out his phone and called Ji Shu. ¡°There¡¯s someone called Zhang Ziyang under Peng Hui¡¯s Studio, I don¡¯t want to see him on any TV channel from now on, take action immediately.¡± Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± President Jiang really has a domineering aura.1 These words served as a severe warning. Zhang Ziyang¡¯s face instantly turned pale and his legs weakened; the dream he worked so hard to achieve for so many years was suddenly reduced to nothing but a pipe dream. After realizing what had happened, he quickly held onto Jiang Zhan. ¡°President Jiang, I know my mistakes, please don¡¯t put me on the blacklist, I know I was wrong! I don¡¯t have any relationship with Jiang Li at all!¡± Jiang Zhan avoided his hand and looked at him disdainfully and immediately turned to leave. As he walked past Jiang Li, he threw the words with a stern tone, ¡°Go back with me.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Jiang Li grasped his hand, ¡°Don¡¯t go first.¡± Jiang Zhan was still angry so he shook off his hand directly, but he still stopped his footsteps. He turned and looked at him, saying coldly, ¡°What now, are you still unwilling to leave your ex?¡± ¡°Of course not, what are you thinking of?¡± Jiang Li looked at his expression of ¡®If you say yes then I¡¯m going to put you on the blacklist as well¡¯ and didn¡¯t know if he should laugh or cry. ¡°I just want to say that he has proof of the trade, you might need to deal with it.¡± ¡°Proof?¡± Jiang Zhan frowned. He saw Zhang Ziyang suddenly run past him so he reflexively stretched out his arm, clutching his collar and dragging him back. He then pressed him against the wall beside them. His actions were smooth and clean, it was obvious he had trained before. Jiang Li was stunned watching him. He could only see a flash across his eyes and Zhang Ziyang was already halted by Jiang Zhan. A waiter who was not far away saw the commotion. He quickly walked towards them and asked what happened. Jiang Zhan had been friends with Shen Yuzhi since they were young so almost all the staff in the clubhouse knew his identity. When the waiter saw him pressing Zhang Ziyang he immediately helped him and locked his hands at his back. Jiang Zhan adjusted the sleeves that were coiled up due to his actions earlier, ordering the waiter, ¡°Deal with him well, don¡¯t let him leave the clubhouse for two days.¡± ¡°What do you wanna do?!¡± Zhang Ziyang struggled as he said, ¡°Let me go, this is an act of detaining, you can¡¯t do this¡­¡± The waiter took out a handkerchief from his pocket and immediately stuffed it in his mouth, stopping him from saying anything else. Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± This clubhouse is really filled with talented people, anyone could be a martial artist. Jiang Zhan returned to the room and said goodbye to Shen Yuzhi and co, as he didn¡¯t have the mood to continue after having to deal with such an annoying matter. He then left without even taking the blazer he had hung on the wooden rack in the corner when he first came. ¡°What happened?¡± Shen Yuzhi called out to Jiang Li who came in to take Jiang Zhan¡¯s blazer. ¡°We have some family matters, we¡¯ll leave first.¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t explain more, or else Jiang Zhan would be even more angry with him once he found out that he hadn¡¯t followed directly behind him. Then, the primary love achievement that was finally unlocked would be a bust. As they both left, Shen Yuzhi and the others were mulling over the ¡®family matter¡¯. They knew something was up and tactfully didn¡¯t call Jiang Zhan to ask about it. Once Jiang Li reached the parking lot holding the blazer, Jiang Zhan had already started the engine. He hadn¡¯t left immediately, but was still waiting in the parking lot with the lights still on. He didn¡¯t forget about him even though he was still mad. President Jiang is gentle enough. Jiang Li strode happily towards the car and said once he got in, ¡°Things are not as what you have imagined, I¡¯ll explain to you when we get back.¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t answer, he simply stepped on the accelerator and drove out of the parking lot. On the way back home, Jiang Zhan kept a straight face and didn¡¯t say anything. Jiang Li tried to start a conversation a few times but kept failing, so he stopped. He knew Jiang Zhan was still angry so he planned to communicate with him after they reached home. Jiang Zhan¡¯s driving speed was really fast. Judging from the speed of the car, Jiang Li could feel that his anger didn¡¯t reduce at all, if anything, it kept rising. There were only a few cars at night so the traffic was so smooth and they soon reached Jade River Garden. Jiang Zhan parked the car at the open air parking lot in the neighborhood, not even having the patience to stop it at the basement¡¯s parking lot. He immediately pushed the car door open and went out after stopping the engine. Jiang Li followed out after him quickly, not forgetting to take the blazer out as well. Jiang Nuomi liked to sleep on the cabinet at the porch so it always knew immediately when Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan came back. It was the same today as well. It instantly woke up once the door was opened, calling out to both of them. When Jiang Li went to other provinces for the live show a few days ago, Jiang Zhan would carry Jiang Nuomi in once he came back every day. However, as he saw it today, the flame in his heart became even bigger. Jiang Li had even fooled him yet he personally bought a pet for him, it was really too embarrassing. He didn¡¯t even spare Jiang Nuomi a single look and entered the house after changing his shoes. Jiang Li touched Jiang Nuomi¡¯s head then followed him in. As he walked behind Jiang Zhan, he asked, ¡°You drank a bit too much today, let me cook some hangover soup for you?¡± He said this as he placed Jiang Zhan¡¯s blazer on the sofa¡¯s armrest, going to enter the kitchen. Jiang Zhan had been trying to suppress his anger all the way home and was waiting for Jiang Li to explain, but he soon realized that Jiang Li was acting like nothing had happened and was going to cook hangover soup for him, so he became even more furious. He pulled him back and threw him onto the sofa. He then pressed against him, using both hands to press on Jiang Li¡¯s wrists. He then said with clenched teeth, ¡°You even fancied a useless trash like him? Are you fucking blind?¡± Even curse words were blurted out, it was obvious that he was really furious. Jiang Li met his eyes, he could see the gloom and constrained anger in them. He knew that he wasn¡¯t in a good mood so he didn¡¯t struggle out of his hold. He sighed lightly then faintly said, ¡°I can only blame myself for being too young at that time, I couldn¡¯t even see clearly whether he¡¯s a dog or a human.¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± The Chinese phrase used here is actually ÌìÁ¹ÍõÆÆ which is a meme that says, ¡®the day is getting cooler, it¡¯s time for Wang Group to get bankrupt¡¯. CH 26 ¡ª I can only blame myself for being too young at that time, I couldn¡¯t even see clearly whether he¡¯s a dog or a human. Jiang Li¡¯s clean-cut and vulgar sentence did not only scold Zhang Ziyang for being a dog, but also scolded himself for being blind. Jiang Zhan felt like he was just punching into soft and fluffy cotton, his punch didn¡¯t have a place to land. The anger in his heart wasn¡¯t released at all, instead, he felt aggrieved. No one had ever made him feel like this before, being aggrieved and frustrated, except Jiang Li. All these years, there were so many outstanding people around Jiang Zhan. Even some celebrities that were cold and pure in front of the fans would grovel and scheme to have connections with him in order to climb up the social ladder. His heart that didn¡¯t pound for any of these things, fancied a brat like Jiang Li who didn¡¯t even have a nice mouth. Even though they hadn¡¯t stayed with each other for that long yet, Jiang Zhan felt that the warmth that filled his heart in this period of time was much more than the warmth he had accumulated throughout his whole life. It might be because of the light that was left on by Jiang Li after he came back home from a business dinner, or the smile that Jiang Li showed him when he went to the kitchen in the morning. The throbbing that was felt at those moments grew like a new sprout in the spring or the first snow during the winter, making him happy. However, he didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Li would agree to being kept by him just after he was willing to sell his body for others, making him think that the warmth he felt in this period of time wasn¡¯t as great as he thought. Everything was just a mirage that he used money to exchange with. He paid to buy Jiang Li, while Jiang Li acted as a lover, coaxing him to make him happy. He accidentally got addicted to it, almost forgetting the fact that they had the relationship of a seller and a buyer. Jiang Li¡¯s acting was so good, it was hard for him to know what percentage was acting from his heart and what percentage was faking. He was considered to be exalting him if he said Jiang Li was thoughtless, he was actually heartless. Once Jiang Zhan thought about this, his expression was blank for a second, causing him to loosen his grip on Jiang Li¡¯s wrist. Jiang Li noticed his change and broke free from his left hand. He waved his hand in front of his eyes, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Jiang Zhan avoided his gaze, he kept the emotions that were hard to be noticed and released Jiang Li¡¯s hand. He then stood up, took the blazer that was placed beside him, and walked out. The person who was furious earlier suddenly left without saying anything. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t react to it in time, instead Jiang Nuomi chased after him, blocking Jiang Zhan¡¯s footsteps. It then lifted its head and called out, ¡°Meow?¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s footsteps stopped, he lowered his head and looked at the little guy, meeting its eyes. Looking at Jiang Nuomi¡¯s innocent eyes, Jiang Zhan had the impulse to touch it, but he still averted its gaze and continued walking out. Jiang Li quickly ran up to him, ¡°Where are you going?¡± ¡°Do I need to tell you where I¡¯m going?¡± Jiang Zhan looked at him with a calm expression, but the words he said weren¡¯t as calm as his expression. He said with an aggressive tone as his anger wasn¡¯t released yet, ¡°Did you forget your own position?¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li felt helpless as he was using his position and status to insult him again, ¡°Didn¡¯t I admit that I was wrong? Why are you still angry?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s words made Jiang Zhan feel that he himself was being unreasonable. ¡°Admit you¡¯re wrong?¡± Jiang Zhan scoffed, he looked at him straightly, ¡°What did you do wrong?¡± ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have agreed with Zhang Ziyang to make a trade with others, I shouldn¡¯t have any relationship with him, I shouldn¡¯t be acquainted with¡­¡± ¡°Enough.¡± Jiang Zhan interrupted his self-criticism that sounded like he was memorizing a script. He was annoyed listening to him saying nonsense that wasn¡¯t even sincere, ¡°Do you really think you¡¯re at fault? Or are you just entertaining me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m of course¡­¡± Jiang Li met his eyes and saw the coldness and confidence in his eyes, as if he knew how he would answer. He suddenly couldn¡¯t respond, his lips moved, and finally fell into silence. Frankly, Jiang Zhan was right. He didn¡¯t think he was at fault in his heart, this was because the person who did the trade with Zhang Ziyang wasn¡¯t him, so he shouldn¡¯t have to take the blame. The second reason was that he had a certain position in his previous life, he had his own temperament and pride. Although he was apologizing, he was only coaxing Jiang Zhan as if he was completing a mission. They both fell into silence for a while, disappointment could be seen in Jiang Zhan¡¯s eyes. However, it disappeared quickly. As he walked past him, Jiang Li suddenly stretched out his hand and clenched onto the edge of his shirt. ¡°Wait.¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s footsteps stopped almost at the same time, he thought if Jiang Li admitted his mistakes he would forgive him and pretend the past didn¡¯t happen. But, he heard Jiang Li¡¯s voice filled with worry and objection next, ¡°You drank too much, it¡¯s not that good to drink and drive.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The anger that was stuck in Jiang Zhan¡¯s heart expanded to its maximum like a balloon due to those words. He shoved away Jiang Li¡¯s hand which was clutching onto the edge of his shirt and turned and walked towards his room, planning to have a cold bath to calm himself down. Jiang Li saw that he wasn¡¯t going to leave the house and asked again, ¡°I still have a lot to say, are you not going to listen to my explanation?¡± Jiang Zhan said without turning his head, ¡°Think about it yourself.¡± ¡°¡­ You¡¯re not even going to ask, what¡¯s the point of thinking about my mistake?¡± Jiang Li murmured. He was scared that he would sulk by himself so he bent his waist and carried Jiang Nuomi who was circling around his legs, following behind Jiang Zhan. He followed him to the bathroom door and was faced with a slam of the door being shut. Click clack. The door was locked from the inside. ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li felt amused towards him acting like a kid, he couldn¡¯t stop laughing while leaning against the wall. Setting aside the fact that it wasn¡¯t him who agreed to Zhang Ziyang, even if it was him, this was already in the past. Jiang Zhan made him feel like he was being caught in the act. He heard water pattering from inside. Jiang Li thought that he wouldn¡¯t come out any time soon, so he simply carried the cat and sat on the single sofa. He was planning on communicating with him after he came out. System saw that he wasn¡¯t doing anything but only sitting there and stroking the cat. It then asked, ¡°Host, are you not going to do anything?¡± ¡°Of course I want to do something, but he has already locked the door .¡± Jiang Li said helplessly, ¡°Don¡¯t panic, he can¡¯t possibly stay inside the whole night.¡± ¡°But¡­ ¡° System sounded worried, ¡°The favorability has dropped to 51%.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li sighed, feeling a headache. ¡°Why did it drop again, can¡¯t we communicate first? Why must he sulk alone?¡± Jiang Li initially planned to talk to Jiang Zhan about this, but he didn¡¯t expect to suddenly meet Zhang Ziyang yesterday so he wasn¡¯t able to tell him in time, and things just failed. Jiang Li thought of Jiang Zhan saying that he was just entertaining him and asked System, ¡°Little cutie, do you think I¡¯m heartless?¡± System looked like it was thinking about how to answer, it only asked after being silent for a while, ¡°Host, do you wanna hear the truth or sugar-coated words?¡± ¡°Sugar-coated words then.¡± ¡°¡­¡± After teasing System and listening to it choking on his words, Jiang Li didn¡¯t feel as satisfied as before. His expression became moody, he caressed Jiang Nuomi¡¯s tail with his palm indifferently. System and Jiang Li¡¯s mind were bound together, so it noticed him getting moody and roughly knew what was on his mind. It hesitated and said, ¡°Host, don¡¯t mind too much about this being a game world, every dimension exists for its own purpose. As long as you treat it sincerely, then everything is real.¡± ¡°Is this real?¡± Jiang Li opened his eyes, his sight dropped on the suspended ceiling, he raised up his left hand, gradually blocking the light in front of his eyes. Coming to this world without any clear reason, it was impossible for Jiang Li to say he wasn¡¯t scared. He had been doing his best in the entertainment circle for more than ten years in his previous life. He couldn¡¯t say that he had seen the marrow of life, but he knew the ways of the world. No matter if he was being treated coldly by his relatives after his parents passed away when he was young, or being considered an outcast when he was sent to the orphanage, or the plots and schemes after he entered the entertainment industry; these all made him have the habit of not trusting others easily. No matter who it was, he was still guarded towards them and stayed away from them. This habit had been following him for many years, even though his body and the world had changed, this habit had not. Jiang Li knew Jiang Zhan liked him, some feelings could still be felt even if System wasn¡¯t there to notify him of them. However, he had been living his life with a mask for too long. He couldn¡¯t entrust his heart to someone in such a short time, he had too many things to learn. Indeed, he really wanted to have a relationship with Jiang Zhan. Not a contract, but to be truthfully living with this person. He didn¡¯t know when it had started. It might have been his action of rushing back home from far away with just a phone call, or the touching moment he felt when he suddenly received a pet after being busy with acting for a whole day. Or maybe¡­ Jiang Zhan¡¯s tenderness of waiting for him in the parking lot even though he was in rage. However, he was just a soul who came from the other world and was being pulled into this dimension with an unknown system. Although he was using another person¡¯s body to stay alive, it still felt unreal in his heart. It was like the hollowness he felt when stepping onto air. He could only dare to treat this world as a mission, not a real life. So, before facing the throbbing of his heart towards Jiang Zhan, he would be scared and indecisive, restraining himself as if he was protecting himself while treating Jiang Zhan with a sincere heart. When Jiang Zhan questioned him earlier, Jiang Li felt a surge of loneliness and sadness in his heart for some reason. He was able to live another life, but he still didn¡¯t know how to love someone. However, System told him that if he treated it seriously, everything would be real. Jiang Li laughed in a low tone. He suddenly felt free and cheerful as if the shackles in his heart were broken apart. He then set his mind back on to pleasing Jiang Zhan and asked System if it had any good suggestions. ¡°Please wait for a while.¡± As system¡¯s voice ended, the virtual tablet was then showed in front of Jiang Li, the menu was changed into the system¡¯s mall, showing him the part where sex toys were available. ¡°Since the ¡®cat sex toys set¡¯ was effective, Host, you can try other designs.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li looked at the dazzling items on the screen. There were ¡®cat costume¡¯, ¡®rabbit costume¡¯, ¡®bear costume¡¯, ¡®fox costume¡¯ and many more sex toy costumes. As he recalled last night where both of his legs trembled due to Jiang Zhan, he could only feel like fainting and recall the pain in his ass. ¡°¡­ Are you a demon?¡± Jiang Li clenched his teeth tightly and forced the words out. ¡°I¡¯m your little cutie.¡± A sense of humor could be heard from System¡¯s calm and robotic voice. ¡°As one says, there¡¯s nothing having sex can¡¯t solve, if there is, it¡¯s two nights of sex.¡± ¡°¡­¡± These words were familiar to him. Jiang Zhan only came out after staying for half an hour in the bathroom. He had gone inside in a rush so he hadn¡¯t brought his clothes in. So, he wrapped a bath towel around his waist and came out. Although he was in his house, he didn¡¯t have the habit of being naked. He wiped his hair as he walked towards the cloakroom. While he was walking closer towards the door, he heard Jiang Li¡¯s faint voice echoing out from inside. ¡°¡­ Fuck, why is it so hard to deal with this.¡± Jiang Zhan frowned slightly. He walked two steps forward and saw Jiang Li¡¯s back facing towards the door. He was half-kneeling on the rug, his butt stuck up. His hand was holding a fluffy thing, trying to stuff it into that secretive part. Such a shocking scene made Jiang Zhan¡¯s eyes widen. His gaze swept across his white and tender butt and slowly turned his gaze to the pair of fox ears that were on his head, his Adam¡¯s apple slipping. ¡°¡­ What are you doing?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s hand froze at the sudden voice. He turned his head and saw Jiang Zhan standing behind him, staring at him as if his eyes were blazing. He impulsively called out towards him, ¡°Meow~¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± You¡¯re wearing fox ears, why the fuck are you meowing? CH 27 Both of them looked at each other for a while. Jiang Zhan looked at Jiang Li¡¯s pants that were hanging halfway down his butt, he could only feel his nerves on his forehead pounding, while the person who started it held the imitated fox tail and waved it towards him. ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there!¡± Jiang Li shouted towards him. Throwing the tail towards him he said, ¡°Come and help me, it¡¯s hard for me at this angle.¡± Jiang Zhan caught the tail reflexively. He took two steps towards Jiang Li, lowered his head, and looked at him. He purposely avoided looking at his lower half and fixed his eyes on him. He said with difficulty, ¡°Are you complaining that your waist is not in enough pain?¡± When they did it till the end last night, Jiang Li even hugged him as he cried and said his waist was breaking so he didn¡¯t want to do it anymore. Then tonight he came with the same method and acted recklessly. Jiang Li raised his head and looked at him innocently, just like Jiang Nuomi usually did when it did something wrong, ¡°I¡¯m scared that you¡¯re angry, I just wanna please you~¡± ¡°¡­ Am I such a beast in your eyes?¡± Another line of vein popped out at his temple. ¡°No¡­ ¡° Jiang Zhan heard him denying it and felt a bit better. He stretched out his hands wanting to pull him up, until he heard him murmuring, ¡°You don¡¯t even react when I¡¯m this naked, you¡¯re no better than a beast.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Jiang Li¡­¡± Jiang Zhan gritted his teeth and called him. He threw the tail that was in his hand onto the floor. As he was about to go into a rage, his gaze reached the smile and slyness in Jiang Li¡¯s eyes unintentionally and suddenly realized something. He hmphed heavily and walked away. ¡°Wait for me ah~¡± Jiang Li used one of his hands to pull up his pants and chased after him swiftly. He hugged him from behind, ¡°I¡¯m just joking with you, don¡¯t be angry.¡± Both of them did it crazily for half of the night last night, Jiang Zhan had even helped him to put ointment on afterwards. He also had a shooting in the afternoon, so he knew Jiang Zhan wouldn¡¯t do anything to him. With that hug his pants slid down again, hanging onto his butt, on the verge of sliding down completely. He even accidentally made Jiang Zhan¡¯s towel which was wrapped around his waist fall onto the floor. ¡°Jiang! Li!¡± ¡°I-I-I-I I¡¯ll help you to wrap back up!!¡± Jiang Li bent his waist to pick up the towel that was dropped onto the floor, causing his pants to drop as well, a pair of smooth and white thighs were then exposed just like that in front of Jiang Zhan. Both of them looked at each other for a while. Jiang Zhan picked up the towel with a stormy expression and wrapped it around his waist himself. Jiang Li pulled up his pants and went to the cloak room to help Jiang Zhan take out his underwear and pyjamas while also trying to stop himself from laughing. After he finished putting on his clothes, Jiang Li poured a glass of water and placed it beside him. He then raised up his hand, ¡°I request a 15-minute period of time to explain, please agree to it, boss.¡± After half a night of commotion, Jiang Zhan felt that the flame in his heart had disappeared a little. He took the water and drank a gulp. He then sat down beside him, showing that he had agreed to Jiang Li¡¯s request. While Jiang Zhan was bathing earlier Jiang Li had organized the memories of Zhang Ziyang and the original host. He had thought of how to best communicate with Jiang Zhan, the fox costume was just a bridge for him to use to calm down the atmosphere. He knew Jiang Zhan wouldn¡¯t be willing to touch him due to his waist. The original host¡¯s father had passed away when he was six, so there was only Mother Liu left in the house. In his early years, Mother Liu had worked in a firework factory located in town. She earned for the family and she provided the fees for the original host to attend school in the village. The original host had looked pretty since young. He was always the most eye-catching child among the mud children in school. However, due to his soft personality and the fact that he came from a single parent family, he was always bullied by the other children. As time passed he only became weaker and more timid. Although Zhang Ziyang and the original host were from the same village, and went to the same primary school and middle school, he had only noticed the original host after his looks matured during high school. He had also, by chance, saved the original host from senior bullies. The original host had a soft and weak personality, so he didn¡¯t dare to tell Mother Liu that he was being bullied in school. He was scared that his mother would be worried, so he bore with it silently. Also, as he had always been excluded from the students ever since he was young, he didn¡¯t dare try to form relationships with others on his own. His childhood was too lonely and helpless and Zhang Ziyang¡¯s help was like an open door to his heart. After that, other than his mother and academic studies, Zhang Ziyang was also added to his life. The main reason that he went to University S was because he wanted to be in the same city as Zhang Ziyang. The original host had really placed Zhang Ziyang in his heart. He wasn¡¯t a person who had no opinion of his own, he had just forgotten to think about himself first after placing Zhang Ziyang as the top priority for so long. While Jiang Li was telling Jiang Zhan about the past, an ache that could not be ignored could be felt in Jiang Li¡¯s heart, a weak cry could be heard from the deepest, darkest part of his soul. It was the other Jiang Li crying. Jiang Li placed his hand on his chest and sighed lightly. Jiang Zhan heard his sigh and misunderstood it as him being unwilling to let go of Zhang Ziyang. His hand slowly clutched into a fist and he said stiffly, ¡°What a touching past, that¡¯s why you were willing to use your body to trade for him.¡± Jiang Li heard his words filled with sourness and knew he had misunderstood something. He laughed lightly and shook his head. Jiang Zhan saw his expression, ¡°Why are you laughing?¡± Jiang Li stood up from the chair and walked towards him. He bent his waist slightly and looked into his eyes, ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m unwilling to let him go. The reason that I¡¯m telling you all this today is because I wanna let you know that everything is already in the past. The Jiang Li standing in front of you now is a new Jiang Li.¡± ¡°Jiang Zhan.¡± Jiang Li called his name out lightly, his eyes were filled with a seriousness that had not been seen for anything other than acting since he came to this world, ¡°Everyone has their own past. I¡¯m not a saint, so I have one too. But everything happened before I knew you. I wish you wouldn¡¯t see my past, and instead look at the present me.¡± Even though that past belonged to the original Jiang Li and he hadn¡¯t faced it directly before today, he was still borrowing his body so it meant becoming a part of him. No matter what, those events had truly happened. The house fell into silence. They looked at each other, not talking. After a long while, Jiang Zhan lifted his arms and hugged Jiang Li who was bending his waist and looking at him. His action was gentle, as if he was treating him like an expensive treasure. Jiang Li stayed in his embrace and didn¡¯t move. He heard a low tone coming from the top of his head, it sounded like a sigh and an admonishment. ¡°Nobody is deserving of you to use your body to make an exchange.¡± He stopped for a while, and said, ¡°Including me.¡± Jiang Li froze at his words, his heart felt as if something had burned it. Next, he could feel something boiling like lava and flowing out from his heart. He could also hear his heart pounding like drums in his ears. At this moment he understood. The reason why Jiang Zhan was so angry wasn¡¯t because of Zhang Ziyang, but because he didn¡¯t appreciate himself more. Once Jiang Li thought of this, the edges of his lips gradually raised up. He stretched out both of his arms and hugged him back slowly. The affection that was suppressed in the depths of his heart all along flowed out like waves, engulfing him from the inside out. Jiang Zhan, how lucky I am to be able to meet you in this life. CH 28 It had been five months since ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ started its shoot. With the hard work of the actors and the staff, it was coming to an end. Today was Liu Chuandeng¡¯s last scene, it was a fight scene of life and death. Liu Chuandeng was defeated by Murong Jing, he was penetrated by a sharp sword through his chest at the end, collapsing onto the floor. Liu Chuandeng laid on the filthy mud, the sky started to rain as pitter-patters were heard, washing away the blood stains on his face. Blood gushed out more and more from the wound that was penetrated by the sword, dyeing half of his body the color of crimson red. Before a person dies, it¡¯s as if one will recall his/her memory of his life. One scene before another scene flowed out in front of his eyes as if he was skimming through them. The piercing pain as he was lying on the cold wood during the court¡¯s punishment, the days that he was tied onto the bed and was whipped by Zhao Dequan and his people, the satisfaction of tearing apart his enemies who had humiliated him before, Liu Tong¡¯s voice telling Governor to run away quickly as he was blocking a stab for him¡­ and that determinant back of Liu Tong when placing him in the cave and leaving him to be a bait alone. In his life, the only two people that he was close with were Liu He and Liu Tong. Both of them died because of him. As their master, he still couldn¡¯t protect them in the end. As one scene followed another, the last one was a scene where his mother held his hand and told him to be obedient right before she sent him into the palace. The woman once touched his head and said with affection, ¡°My Deng¡¯er is a good boy.¡± In the end, she still cruelly sent him to that hell-like palace. After receiving the court¡¯s punishment, he laid on the cold bed for two days and two nights. He was on the verge of death. He called out ¡°Mother¡± countless times, but nobody was there to give him a hug. He could only spend his days and nights with death and fear. ¡°Mother¡­¡± Liu Chuandeng reached out his hand into the air with much difficulty. He raised up his hand a few times and then put it down weakly. He coughed out a mouthful of filthy blood as his sight slowly became blurred. ¡°Mother, I¡¯m in pain¡­¡± As the camera slowly zoomed out, the figure of the person lying on the mud gradually became a black dot, and finally disappeared in the rain that was getting heavier. There wasn¡¯t even anyone there to help take care of his corpse. ¡­ ¡°Cut!¡± Zhou Jin shouted out, ¡°Pass!¡± When Jiang Li heard his voice, he who was lying on the mud opened his eyes and crawled up from the floor. It was already the end of January. Although there wasn¡¯t any snow, the temperature had also dropped into the negatives. As Zhou Jin¡¯s voice was heard, Xiao Zhou ¨C the assistant ¨C immediately took his down jacket from beside him and walked towards Jiang Li, covering him. He then gave him a warm wet towel. The clothes Jiang Li was wearing were already wet, his body was shrouded by the chilly air. He trembled as he held onto the towel, simply wiping the blood and mud that was on his face. He walked towards Zhou Jin. Jin Yu, who was acting with him earlier, also walked towards him. After confirming with Zhou Jin that they didn¡¯t need a re-shoot, Jiang Li¡¯s shoot had finished. Today¡¯s entire shoot had also ended. The staff handed him a large bouquet of flowers. He accepted them and thanked everyone. After that, he took a picture with everyone at the shooting site while wearing Liu Chuandeng¡¯s costume and uploaded it to Weibo. Jiang Li V: Officially ended. Liu Chuandeng, goodbye. [Picture] It had been half a year since he came to this world. Other than acting, Jiang Li had also joined a variety show, shot for advertisements and went for interview shows. Currently, his Weibo has almost ten million followers. After the weibo was posted, the comment section was filled with fans commenting on it. Most of them were asking for it to be quickly aired. As Jiang Li finished removing his make-up and changing his clothes, he received a call from Jiang Zhan. He said that he saw him completing the shooting of the drama today so he wanted to take him to dinner. He had been hanging on a wire for half a day, so although it was winter he was filled with sweat. He had even gotten covered with mud. Jiang Li could only simply wipe his body while on the drama set, so he planned to return to take a bath first. He also wanted to take the presents given by his fans back home. So, he told Jiang Zhan to meet him at the restaurant. His fans gave him a lot of presents; two big boxes needed to be used to carry them all. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t carry them all alone, and Jiang Zhan wasn¡¯t at home at that time, so he asked Feng Dong to help him carry one box while he carried the other one. They took the elevator up from the basement¡¯s parking lot. Even though Feng Dong had been working as Jiang Li¡¯s agent for half a year, it was his first time going up to his house. They carried the two big boxes as they chatted about future work. Different from the other agents who needed to find and snatch the resources themselves for their artists; Jiang Li¡¯s jobs were arranged directly by the company. Moreover, they were top-notch resources. Feng Dong swore he had the most relaxing job being Jiang Li¡¯s artist in his 20 years as an agent. ¡°There¡¯s a week of break time for you after this. You¡¯ll need to join a reality show as a guest after your holiday, which will take about 3 days. The schedule is already planned. I¡¯ll send it to your WeChat later.¡± Feng Dong said. ¡°Okay.¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t have any objections, he figured that he could go back to his hometown once in this one-week holiday. There was a leap month that year, so even though it was already the beginning of January, there were still two months before Chinese New Year. ¡°You did a great job in this period of time, take a good rest. Tell me if you have any place you wanna go as a holiday. I¡¯ll help you book the flight ticket and hotel.¡± Feng Dong asked. ¡°I wanna go back to my hometown.¡± Jiang Li shook his head. He was in a rush when he went back the last time, so he could only stay for a day and couldn¡¯t spend his time with Mother Jiang well. Once the lift reached the floor where Jiang Li was living, they carried out the boxes. Feng Dong said as he walked out, ¡°That¡¯s fine too. Tell me when you plan to go back and I¡¯ll book the plane ticket.¡± Coincidentally, the next elevator had also stopped at that floor. As the door of the elevator opened and the person inside walked out, Feng Dong took a glance subconsciously and stopped abruptly as soon as he saw who that person was. ¡°President~President Jiang?¡± The person who came out of the lift was precisely Jiang Zhan. Feng Dong didn¡¯t expect to meet him here. He quickly greeted in shock and pulled Jiang Li to the side in two steps, making way for Jiang Zhan. At the same time, he grasped onto Jiang Li¡¯s sleeves, initiating him to not just stand there and quickly greet him. Jiang Li also didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Zhan would suddenly come back. They had even promised to meet at the restaurant earlier on the phone. He looked at him with a weird expression, ¡°Why did you come back?¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t answer him. Feng Dong was shocked by Jiang Li¡¯s rudeness, but before he could clearly figure out what his words meant, he pulled Jiang Li¡¯s shirt with force as he said to Jiang Zhan, ¡°So sorry, President Jiang. Jiang Li was too shocked to see you here suddenly, don¡¯t take it to heart¡­¡± ¡°I came back to fetch you.¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t care about the apology and only answered Jiang Li. He took the box from Jiang Li naturally and discovered the things were quite heavy. He then asked, ¡°What are these?¡± ¡°The presents my fans gave me.¡± Jiang Li said, ¡°It¡¯s a bit heavy, so be careful.¡± Jiang Li had said this as he took out the key and opened the door. Jiang Zhan then carried the box inside. Jiang Li turned his head and saw Feng Dong standing far away from them, still carrying the box with both of his hands with an indescribable expression on his face. ¡°Brother Feng?¡± Jiang Li waved his hand towards him, ¡°Come in.¡± Feng Dong, ¡°¡­¡± I just wanna leave here quickly. After placing the things in the house, Jiang Li asked Feng Dong if he wanted to have dinner with them. Feng Dong could suddenly feel a fierce, piercing, stare at his back. He knew it was the murderous intent of his company¡¯s boss without even looking. He was sure that if he really agreed to Jiang Li, he would be fired tomorrow. Being Jiang Li¡¯s agent for so long, he always knew that there was someone behind Jiang Li, but he didn¡¯t go out of his way to check who that person was, since it was better to keep things unknown if they shouldn¡¯t be known. Moreover, Jiang Li protected his secret well. If he hadn¡¯t come up to his house today, he would never have known Jiang Li¡¯s backer was Jiang Zhan. However, after getting over his initial shock, he also felt that this was a little expected. Thinking about it, other than Jiang Zhan, who would be able to give a newbie that was just signed under contract A-level resources? The resources Jiang Li had right now were the same as the popular male star in the company. Moreover, judging from the natural and experienced actions of Jiang Zhan helping Jiang Li with the box, their relationship was quite good. Jiang Li once said that his cat was given by someone really important to him, then that person should also be Jiang Zhan. Under Jiang Zhan¡¯s sight, Feng Dong walked out of their house stiffly. He finally took a deep breath and sighed after entering the lift. He exclaimed in a low tone, ¡°Oh my god.¡± After Jiang Li finished bathing, he then went out to have dinner with Jiang Zhan. He also told him about going back to his hometown. ¡°For how many days? When are you going back?¡± Jiang Zhan asked. ¡°One week, I guess. I wanna go tomorrow.¡± Jiang Li smiled, although his hometown was a bit far, it had an upper hand in having beautiful scenery. It was also a good place for relaxing. ¡°I can¡¯t bring Jiang Nuomi on the plane, you¡¯ll need to take care of him.¡± Jiang Zhan nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll ask Ji Shu to book the plane ticket.¡± ¡°No need to trouble him, Brother Feng said he can help¡­¡± Jiang Zhan raised his head and glanced at him, Jiang Li changed his words tactfully, ¡°Okay, okay, okay. You arrange it. You decide everything.¡± Once they returned home after eating, Jiang Li sent a message to Feng Dong, telling him that he would leave the next day and the plane ticket was already booked, and that he would contact him when he came back. There were a few messages from Yan Xi and Feng Yating in WeChat, congratulating him on finishing the drama. Jiang Li replied to them one by one. He stood up from the sofa and wanted to pack his clothes in his room, but he then coincidentally heard Jiang Zhan calling Ji Shu, asking him to book the next day¡¯s plane ticket; two of them. Two plane tickets? Jiang Li stood behind him and only asked after he finished calling, ¡°Why did you ask to book two plane tickets? Are you going with me?¡± Jiang Zhan turned his head and looked at him, ¡°You¡¯re not happy?¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s not that.¡± Jiang Li smiled, a sense of joy could be seen in his eyes, ¡°I¡¯m very happy about that, but what about Jiang Nuomi?¡± ¡°Let Ji Shu bring him home, his girlfriend also owns a cat, she knows how to take care of him.¡± Jiang Zhan had already arranged the schedule, Ji Shu would come and drive them to the airport tomorrow. He would also bring Jiang Nuomi back to his home at the same time. Since he had already planned everything so well, Jiang Li naturally didn¡¯t have any objections. The next day, they both boarded the plane to City L. After arriving in City L and staying for a night, they took the shuttle bus and arrived at Ji Yang Town. It took almost 6 hours for them to travel from the city to the town. Nearly half of the route had muddy roads, and the passengers could get on and off the bus anywhere they wanted. As they reached the town and got off the bus, Jiang Zhan¡¯s expression was indescribable. When he heard Jiang Li say that he would need to take the pedicab from the town to the village, he pressed in between his eyebrows with a headache. He thought that he must have been possessed to agree to come here. It was the first time that Jiang Zhan had taken the electronic pedicab in his life. It was even a convertible pedicab. The road to the village wasn¡¯t smooth either; he felt like he was riding a bumper car as it was always shaking so much that his buttocks were getting flat. Fortunately the village was not too far from the city. It only took a little more than 10 minutes on the pedicab. Although the road was bumpy along the journey, the intoxication of a beautiful spring day coupled with the fresh air that was not polluted made Jiang Zhan¡¯s mood better. He carried the presents prepared for Mother Jiang and followed Jiang Li home. The houses in the village were built by the villagers themselves. Most of them were small two story houses. Jiang Li¡¯s house was just near the entrance of the village, it was a one and a half story house. The outer side of the wall wasn¡¯t painted, so the red bricks that were showing outside were dull and old. It proved that the house had been there for a long time. He heard from Jiang Li that they were already building her a new house. The gate to the front yard wasn¡¯t closed. From outside, they could hear boisterous laughter and conversations echoing from the living room of the first floor. As they were walking towards the voices, they heard a woman with a bright middle-pitch voice saying, ¡°If he finds someone suitable for him, he can start dating first, don¡¯t rush to have a wedding. Let them meet each other to see if they feel connected. Let me tell you, this girl has a master¡¯s degree! What a high academic achievement, your Jiang Li won¡¯t suffer a loss with her!¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­??¡± I finally came here after experiencing so many difficulties, and I¡¯m sending Jiang Li here for a blind date? CH 29 The door of the hall at the ground floor was also open and the people inside saw them both first. A middle-aged woman who was sitting inside stopped knitting and stood up in surprise. She called out towards Jiang Li, ¡°Xiao Li? Why didn¡¯t you tell me you¡¯re coming back?¡± Jiang Li carried the luggage and took a step over the doorsill, he put down the luggage, leaning it against the wall, and smiled as he called out towards the woman, ¡°Mum¡±. He then turned and called out towards another woman who was older, ¡°First Auntie¡±. He noticed Jiang Zhan was still standing outside holding the gift boxes with both hands. He waved his hand towards him, ¡°Why are you still standing there? Come in.¡± Jiang Zhan carried the things and followed him in. He called Jiang Li¡¯s mother ¡°Auntie¡± and only simply nodded towards the first aunt who wanted to introduce Jiang Li to the female with the master¡¯s degree. ¡°You¡¯re Xiao Li¡¯s friend, right?¡± Mother Jiang felt surprised at Jiang Li suddenly bringing someone back home. Jiang Li¡¯s personality was gloomy, and he was an introvert. Other than Zhang Ziyang, this was the first time that he had brought someone home as a guest. She was really happy and quickly took a chair out for Jiang Zhan. She noticed that his outfit was not ordinary, so she specially used a clean cloth to wipe the chair, ¡°Sit down quickly, sit down quickly.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Jiang Zhan placed the things on the table beside him and said to Mother Jiang, ¡°These are some welcome gifts, I¡¯m in your care.¡± Six delicately wrapped, high-class gift boxes filled up half of the coffee table. With one look they knew that they were really expensive. Mother Jiang had been living in this small village for most of her life. The gifts that the people of the village gave and received were mostly cigarettes, wine, or homemade meals. The fact that Jiang Zhan gave so many expensive gifts on this first visit made her panic. ¡°It¡¯s fine that you come, why did you bring so many things, how aloof¡­¡± Jiang Zhan explained, ¡°Jiang Li bought it, I only helped him carry them.¡± After Mother Jiang heard what he said, she breathed a sigh of relief. But she still turned her head and scolded Jiang Li, ¡°Why did you waste your money again?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t waste it; I just spent a bit.¡± Jiang Li smiled. He didn¡¯t expose Jiang Zhan. Frankly, all these gifts were prepared by Jiang Zhan himself. Most of them were supplements suitable for the elderly; they were given to Mother Jiang to strengthen her health. Although Jiang Li said that he had bought some for Mother Jiang, Jiang Zhan still insisted on bringing them over. Jiang Li saw his sincerity and placed it in his heart, he then let him be. After asking Jiang Zhan to take a seat, Mother Jiang then went into the room to boil water and make tea. The first auntie who wanted to introduce that female with a master¡¯s degree then started chatting with Jiang Li. She asked him if he had a girlfriend. After getting a satisfying answer, she then started to act as a matchmaker. ¡°Xiao Li, let me tell you, this girl is really outstanding!¡± First Auntie showed a good sign with her thumb stuck out, ¡°Although she¡¯s older than you by a few years, as one says, a wife three years older than the husband ensures a richer life. If you guys can live well with each other, age isn¡¯t a problem!¡± Age isn¡¯t a problem, but President Jiang has a problem, Jiang Li thought. He then rejected her gently, ¡°Thank you for taking care of me, first auntie, but I don¡¯t plan to find a girlfriend for now. I¡¯m rather busy with my work, it¡¯s not good to hold them up.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t say it like that, isn¡¯t there a saying that usually men will get married and then start one¡¯s career? You get married first, then you start your career. It¡¯s the same.¡± First Auntie disagreed with his words. She saw Jiang Li wasn¡¯t persuaded and asked Jiang Zhan who was sitting beside him, ¡°Sir, you agree too, right? Jiang Zhan was thinking about why he joined Jiang Li on this rough trip just to see him going on a blind date and didn¡¯t really hear what she was asking. ¡°What did you say?¡± Jiang Li quickly interrupted, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, we¡¯re just chatting casually¡­¡± Before he was able to finish his sentence, First Auntie¡¯s energetic voice covered his own. ¡°I said Jiang Li should get married first and then start a career later. He¡¯s not young anymore, so he can date someone first, right?¡± Jiang Li thought, What the hell? First Auntie, you¡¯re not helping me, you¡¯re pushing me to death! Just as he was about to change the topic, he heard Jiang Zhan say, ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Jiang Li looked at Jiang Zhan, ¡°???¡± ¡°Since she has such good qualities, there¡¯s nothing wrong with meeting her.¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t look at him. Instead, he looked at First Auntie with a serious expression. ¡°Why not call her out tomorrow? See if you¡¯ll take a liking to her at first sight. There¡¯s no rush to get married. There¡¯s nothing wrong with dating first.¡± What he said was completely what he heard while he was outside. Normally, people who were not familiar with him would think that he was really thinking seriously of Jiang Li¡¯s future. But Jiang Li only felt a headache after listening to what Jiang Zhan said. He knew he was going to get his revenge. When First Auntie heard what Jiang Zhan said, it was as if she had found her soulmate. She patted her lap and said with a bright smile, ¡°That¡¯s also what I thought. Let¡¯s do it this way; I¡¯ll go and ask if she¡¯s willing to meet, and if she has no objections you guys can have a meal together in the town¡¯s restaurant tomorrow! The girl comes from the next village, it¡¯s really near! If you guys marry each other in the future, it¡¯s convenient to move around too!¡± With just a few lines she talked till marriage. If she continued talking, she might just decide what kindergarten his kids were going to. Jiang Li, who was beside her, couldn¡¯t even interrupt her. Jiang Zhan looked at him meaningfully and said to First Auntie, ¡°Okay, sorry for troubling you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing, it¡¯s nothing.¡± First Auntie said as she laughed. ¡°When one gets to this age, one just likes to matchmake the youngsters.¡± She noticed Jiang Zhan had a charming appearance and outstanding temperament, so she then asked enthusiastically, ¡°How should I call you, sir?¡± ¡°My surname¡¯s Jiang, and the name¡¯s Zhan.¡± ¡°Ohh, Xiao Jiang!¡± First Auntie laughed and said, ¡°I¡¯m Xiao Li¡¯s First Auntie, you can call me like how he calls me.¡± President Jiang, who had not been called as ¡®Xiao Jiang¡¯ for many years, showed an indescribable, subtle expression, and didn¡¯t answer First Auntie. Jiang Li pursed his lips and laughed secretly beside him. He then called him ¡®Xiao Jiang¡¯ silently. Jiang Zhan looked at him with a warning expression in his eyes, yet the former shrugged indifferently. First Auntie didn¡¯t notice their eye contact. She asked Jiang Zhan nosily, ¡°Xiao Jiang, are you married?¡± ¡°No.¡± Jiang Zhan answered, then his eyes brightened up, ¡°Do you want to introduce someone to me?¡± ¡°Sure!¡± What he said was spot on. ¡°I have a lot of connections here, tall or short ones, fat or slim ones, which one do you like? I¡¯ll check and see.¡± ¡°Are there any females with master¡¯s degrees?¡± Jiang Zhan asked. Jiang Li¡¯s hand trembled as he heard what Jiang Zhan said. As he was placing the sweet potatoes into the fire, the sweet potato fell directly into the charcoal. ¡°Female with a master¡¯s degree, huh.¡± First Auntie thought for a while and felt that his requirement was too high. She hesitated and said, ¡°I¡¯ll go back and check first, alright?¡± As they were both talking, Mother Jiang had made the tea and brought it out. Jiang Li went over and helped her place it onto the coffee table. He then poured one cup for each of them. First Auntie drank a cup of tea and left after talking for a while. She said she was going to contact the female with the master¡¯s degree who she wanted to introduce to Jiang Li. Mother Jiang didn¡¯t expect things to be set just after making tea. She felt weird and asked Jiang Li, ¡°Xiao Li, didn¡¯t you say that the company doesn¡¯t allow you to date? Why did you agree with your First Auntie?¡± ¡°The rules are dead, it¡¯s fine to just meet.¡± Jiang Zhan, who was beside him, said. He just wanted to see just how outstanding that female with a master¡¯s degree who could ensure a richer life was. Since his boss said it¡¯s fine, there¡¯s nothing Jiang Li was afraid of. He was as if possessed by internet trolls and said along his words to Mother Jiang, ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s time for me to date at this age as well, it¡¯s fine to just meet, right? Maybe I¡¯ll like her when I see her, get married this year, and bring you a big, plump grandson next year, right?¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± What a brat. As Mother Jiang heard what he said, she didn¡¯t say much of anything anymore. Jiang Li was already an adult; he definitely had his own way of thinking. It was already in the afternoon, a little later and then it would be time for dinner. She initially planned to just heat the dishes she had made during the afternoon while she was alone at home. Now that Jiang Li brought his friend back, she thought that she should serve them well and should be courteous. Therefore, she wore a pair of rainboots and went out, planning to buy some meat from the market and harvest some fresh vegetables from the garden. Once Mother Jiang left, both Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan were left in the house as they stared at each other. Jiang li looked at Jiang Zhan¡¯s unhappy expression. As if a heavy rain was going to come, he touched his nose and flipped the sweet potatoes that he had buried under the charcoal. He then pressed the sweet potato with his finger, chose a well-cooked one, and handed it to him, ¡°Try it, my mum planted it herself, it¡¯s really sweet.¡± Jiang Zhan looked at the blackened sweet potato in his hand, he didn¡¯t stretch out his hand to take it. Jiang Li had been staying with him for so long and knew that he had slight mysophobia. Moreover, with his status, he probably didn¡¯t normally eat this kind of roasted sweet potato that had been directly dug out from charcoal. He scolded him as he laughed, ¡°Troublesome¡±. He then helped him peel off the sweet potato¡¯s skin and only left a small part for his fingers to hold. He then used tissue to wrap around it and gave it to him, ¡°Eat it, President Jiang.¡± This time, Jiang Zhan took it. The sweet potato that was just roasted was still steaming hot. He lowered his head and took a bite. The soft, fragrant, taste dispersed in his mouth. It¡¯s indeed very sweet. After Jiang Li saw him finishing the sweet potato, he also peeled one for himself. After eating, he then went to wash and cook the rice. Jiang Zhan remained seated. He continued warming himself as he looked around Jiang Li¡¯s house. The Jiang family¡¯s house wasn¡¯t big. Other than the small living room he was in currently, there were still two other rooms, one kitchen, and one toilet. The floor of the house was not covered by tiles, only a layer of cement was spread out. The wall¡¯s putty was also old-looking, but the house was clean, and things were organized. Although the space was small, it was cozy. A metal basin was used to keep the fire; firewood was placed underneath the basin while the charcoal was burning above. There were still a few sweet potatoes that had been dug out by Jiang Li sitting beside the metal basin. On the coffee table was placed the normal green tea that had been brewed earlier. It wasn¡¯t aromatic enough and bitterness lingered. There wasn¡¯t even a heater pad in the house. Jiang Zhan felt that he was out of place, but he also somehow felt an indescribable warmth in his heart. Mother Jiang came back really quickly. Jiang Zhan sat at the door and was setting the fire. As he saw her entering the front yard, he stood up, wanting to take the basket that was in her hand; but she avoided him by tilting her hand. She smiled as she said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to help me. It¡¯s cold outside, go inside and tend to the fire.¡± Jiang Zhan couldn¡¯t help much either. He followed her and watched her for a while. He then went back into the house to continue warming himself while sitting. Jiang Li made dinner. There were four dishes and a soup, just right for the three of them to eat. They both had been busy for two days. After dinner, they chatted with Mother Jiang for a while and they were then rushed by her to bathe and rest in their room. The new house was still under construction, there were only two rooms in the house. Mother Jiang took one room, so Jiang Zhan could only stay with Jiang Li in the other room. Mother Jiang felt bad about this and felt that she wasn¡¯t a good host. Whereas, Jiang Zhan thought that it was fine since he had been used to sleeping with Jiang Li. Jiang Li¡¯s room was very small. Only a bed, a table, and a cabinet almost filled the room, which was only a meter wide. Although Jiang Li didn¡¯t come back frequently, Mother Jiang still always cleaned his room. The blanket and bed sheet were newly changed, so other than being not used to it as it was Jiang Zhan¡¯s first time, he could still accept it. However, some dog from someone¡¯s house barked for almost the whole night and Jiang Zhan could only sleep as morning came. When he woke up the next morning, Jiang Li wasn¡¯t there anymore. His clothes that were prepared were placed on a stool beside the bed. It was chilly in the countryside; the temperature was slightly lower compared to the cities. Jiang Zhan trembled due to the cold once he came out from under the blanket. He swiftly wore the clothes and walked out of the room. ¡°What did you say?¡± Jiang Zhan thought he had heard wrongly. His footsteps that were walking towards Jiang Li suddenly stopped and he looked at him unbelievably. Jiang Li raised his head and looked at him. He said naturally, ¡°Feed the chickens. Can¡¯t you see that I¡¯m busy right now?¡± As the president of Jiang Group, Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t expect that he would be called on to feed chickens one day. Moreover, by his lover who he was keeping. He felt it to be incomprehensible and said, ¡°Do you know what you¡¯re talking about? Did you forget your position¡­?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry President Jiang.¡± Jiang Li interrupted his words, his smile becoming wider, ¡°Please let me remind you that our kept contract has ended yesterday. You¡¯re living here and eating at my place now, what¡¯s wrong with just feeding the chickens?¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± It¡¯s only been a night and the farmer has become an owner? T/N: Hi guys, updates for this novel will be stopped for a week as I have exams in a week, the updates will also be slower afterwards until I get to settle down in Japan (probably during December)! Happy reading! (Updates will surely increase when I have time, ¡®cuz I really don¡¯t want to update this novel for 2 years aha) CH 30 Since they opened their hearts to each other after the incident about Zhang Ziyang, other than the name of him being a kept man, both of them were living like a pair of couples in these months. Jiang Zhan would always return to Jade River Garden other than going to the house of Jiang¡¯s family and going on business trips. When Jiang Li did not have shoots or shows, both of them would stay at home sticking with each other while stroking their cat or watching movies. Both of them slept with each other every night, the first thing they saw was each other when they woke up. As days like that passed, Jiang Zhan almost forgot that the duration he signed with Jiang Li was only six months. He also did not expect that Jiang Li would remember the date so clearly and put him in check in the early morning. He sounded like he had prepared it well. The plastic basin placed at the corner of the wall was filled with rice that was left last night and a few brown-colored stuff, Jiang Zhan guessed that it was something like chicken¡¯s food. They were mixed and it looked sticky. Jiang Zhan would definitely not want to touch it. He looked at Jiang Li holding the matchstick, showing a complacent look, Jiang Zhan smirked coldly, ¡°I think you¡¯ve forgotten that you¡¯ve signed under the company for five years.¡± Jiang Li, whose hand was shaking the matchstick, froze and screamed in his heart, he had really forgotten about it, the kept contract had expired but his work contract hadn¡¯t. ¡°Uh¡­¡± Jiang Li rubbed his palms, acting like nothing happened earlier. He stuffed the matchstick into Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand, he then carried the bowl of chicken feed and walked towards the outside, ¡°Isn¡¯t it just feeding the chickens? It doesn¡¯t matter who¡¯s going to feed alright! I¡¯ll go, you¡¯ll stay and set the fire.¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± What¡¯s the difference between setting fire and feeding chickens? Mother Jiang owned more than twenty chickens; they were all reared in the small tile-roofed house beside. When Jiang Li fed the chickens and returned, Jiang Zhan had already set the fire. He then cleaned himself up and sat in the living room, keeping himself warm. ¡°Where¡¯s your mother?¡± Jiang Zhan asked. ¡°She went to the garden to harvest the vegetables.¡± Jiang Li washed his hands and sat beside him, buried two sweet potatoes into the brazier and stretched out his hands to keep them warm by the flame. Mother Jiang carried the fresh vegetables back after both of them sat for a while. She even brought in an old hen that was simply grabbed when she walked past the coop earlier. She planned to boil chicken soup for them. After breakfast, Jiang Li suggested bringing Jiang Zhan out to enjoy the scenery, since sitting at home was boring enough. Both of them told Mother Jiang and left. Although the village was remote and not considered rich, it was surrounded by mountains and rivers, the scenery was still quite beautiful. Jiang Li took Jiang Zhan to the small waterfall and reservoir at the back of the mountain in the morning and later went to the new house that was still being built. The new house was planned to be a three-story building, Jiang Li requested the designer to design based on small villas¡¯ structure. Only the first floor was built recently. Due to the rain these few days, the ground was slightly frosted, so the construction was stopped for a few days. The houses in the rural areas were mostly close to each other. Jiang Li¡¯s new house was not the exception. There were neighbors not even 10-meters far from the house, after greeting the neighbors, Jiang Li brought Jiang Zhan into the new house. The first floor was already capped, cement and bricks could be seen on the floor. A living room, a kitchen, a toilet, and a guest bedroom were located on the first floor, Mother Jiang and Jiang Li¡¯s rooms were on the second floor. Jiang Zhan listened to him introducing the design of the house and asked, ¡°Have you thought of bringing auntie to where you¡¯re living?¡± And that meant City S. Jiang Li shook his head, ¡°She doesn¡¯t wanna go.¡± When he came back to visit Mother Jiang for the first time, he mentioned about bringing her over after Chinese New Year, but it was rejected by Mother Jiang. She had been living in this place for most of her life, had familiarized to the people and things here, and had gotten used to the relaxing lifestyle in the rural area. She would feel strange if she were to live in the bustling city, other than that, Jiang Li would be busy shooting every day, if she really went to live in the city, she would have no one to talk to. Jiang Li could understand Mother Jiang, no matter how prosperous or bustling the city was, it couldn¡¯t be compared to her hometown that she had been living in for most of her life. Jiang Li respected her opinion and only decided to help her change the small store into a minimarket, the minimarket was also in construction. Jiang Zhan suggested Jiang Li change their bed into a 1.8-meter big bed after moving to the new house, the 1.5-meter bed was too cramped for two tall guys. Jiang Li leaned against the wall, he looked at him with a hint of smile, ¡°I¡¯m living alone, why do I need such a big bed?¡± ¡°Sleeping alone?¡± Jiang Zhan walked towards him, confining him at the corner of the wall, lowered his head and looked at him, ¡°Then where do I sleep?¡± ¡°There are guest rooms, right?¡± Jiang Li laughed as if he didn¡¯t understand what he meant, he then said generously, ¡°There are four guest rooms, you can choose whichever you want.¡± ¡°Guest room?¡± Jiang Zhan raised his eyebrows, slowly approaching him, ¡°Our relationship, you¡¯re asking me to sleep in the guest room?¡± ¡°What¡¯s our relationship?¡± Jiang Li asked him back, ¡°We have a proper boss and employee relationship.¡± These words made Jiang Zhan hold a grudge, his eyes met with Jiang Li¡¯s smiling eyes that were playful, he didn¡¯t resist lowering his head and pressed his lips with his aggressively. His tongue forced open his teeth, pushing it in and entangling with his tongue. After a passionate, moist kiss, both of their breaths became heavy. Jiang Zhan¡¯s forehead pressed against Jiang Li¡¯s, he then asked in a suppressing tone, ¡°A boss and employee relationship that involves kissing?¡± ¡°You started it first, it¡¯s none of my business.¡± Jiang Li waved his hands. Jiang Zhan looked at him acting simple-minded, he knew that Jiang Li was forcing him, but he still couldn¡¯t resist and asked the question that was in his heart, ¡°The contract has ended, didn¡¯t you think of changing our relationship?¡± ¡°Change¡­¡± Jiang Li heard the rustling footsteps from outside, he stopped his words, bent his waist, and came out under Jiang Zhan¡¯s arms, he then noticed a few girls wearing primary school uniform were looking around outside the house. After they saw him coming out, they even screamed ¡®wah¡¯. The girls were students in the sixth grade of their primary school in the village, they were also his fans. They heard that he was here, so they specially came to take a look, they even brought postcards and posters here, wanting him to sign for them. Jiang Li wouldn¡¯t reject as he was met with the girls¡¯ eyes that were filled with shyness and hope. He signed a few postcards for each of them and had even written some encouraging words on their notebooks, motivating them to study well. After they returned to the house at noon, First Auntie, who said that she wanted to introduce the girl to him, came. She lived at a house that was only less than 500 meters from Jiang¡¯s house. Her granddaughter also came with her, she was only 12 years old. The girl was also Jiang Li¡¯s fan, so she came to get his signature. After he signed, First Auntie then straightforwardly got into the topic, she said she had already made an appointment with the female with the master¡¯s degree to meet tonight and have a meal, the location was at Yong Fu restaurant in town. Jiang Li¡¯s a gay, he would not want to get a girlfriend, Jiang Zhan wouldn¡¯t allow him to do so as well. When they were on the way back, Jiang Li initially wanted to ask Mother Jiang about First Auntie¡¯s phone number, wanting to cancel the blind date, he didn¡¯t want to waste the girl¡¯s time. But he didn¡¯t expect that First Auntie would take action so fast and had already booked the restaurant. He could only take the meal as an apology to the girl. This time, First Auntie¡¯s son was there to drive them to the town, Jiang Zhan finally wouldn¡¯t need to ride the pedicab anymore. They were 10 minutes early when they reached the restaurant, but the girl was already there. She had ordered a pot of tea, waiting for them in the room. The young girl had a delicate appearance, gentle temperament, she didn¡¯t have any comment on Jiang Li bringing Jiang Zhan to the appointment, she even poured tea for them. First Auntie introduced them to each other and left. Before leaving, she even hinted to Jiang Zhan to leave with her. Jiang Zhan did not respond to her eye expression; it was as if his butt was stuck on the chair. First Auntie had no choice but to leave first. There were only three people inside the room, Jiang Li directly said that he didn¡¯t have any plans to find a partner and felt sorry for wasting her time. He would pay the bill for the meal and asked her to order what she liked to eat. ¡°Well, there¡¯s no need for that, we¡¯ll just pay for our own.¡± The girl waved her hands, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve watched your show, I know you¡¯re a celebrity, so I didn¡¯t agree for the blind date, I have other requests and I wish you can help me with that.¡± Jiang Li froze, ¡°Go ahead.¡± The girl took out two big books and a laptop from her backpack, she then took out her glasses from the glasses case and wore them, she said to Jiang Li sincerely, ¡°It¡¯s like that, I¡¯m an author of a web novel, and I decided to write a novel about the entertainment circle, but I¡¯m scared that the settings aren¡¯t logical enough, so I¡¯m here to learn about it from you.¡± [T/N: phrase used here (learn from someone) is fetching the scriptures, but it¡¯s too literal.] Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± The meal then became a session of consultation, Jiang Li told her everything that could be said. The meal ended at 10 in the night, before they left, both of them even gave each other their WeChat. When they were returning, Jiang Li didn¡¯t trouble First Auntie to bring them back, Jiang Zhan and he sat the pedicab back again. There were no streetlights along the roads from the town to the village, they relied on the pedicab¡¯s dull light, the bumps while riding on the pedicab was even worse than yesterday, Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t have the mood to talk to Jiang Li until they got off the pedicab. The night was cold, most of the people in the village were already asleep. Other than the mellow streetlights in the village, most of the houses had switched off their lights. Both of them walked side by side, Jiang Li suddenly stopped and held Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand, ¡°I haven¡¯t answered the question that you asked today.¡± ¡°En?¡± Jiang Zhan turned and looked at him. Jiang Li smiled towards him, his eyes filled with tenderness, he said word by word,¡± Jiang Zhan, do you wanna date me? One that will last forever.¡± Jiang Zhan froze, his hands that were held by Jiang Li clenched tight subconsciously. At that moment, the favorability skyrocketed, it increased from 71% to 85%. That night, President Jiang¡¯s WeChat moments that hadn¡¯t been updated for ten thousand years suddenly had a new post, he uploaded a picture of a firework. ¡ª Jiang Zhan: [Picture] Jiang Li felt that Jiang Zhan acting like a kid who just started dating was really cute. He then cooperated and posted a picture of a lighter in his WeChat moment. Ji Shu knew both of them went back together. After he saw the moment, he commented under Jiang Li¡¯s post shockingly, ¡°Did you make President Jiang explode?¡±, it was already too late when he realized what he had done. After President Jiang saw it, he deducted a one-day worth of his salary. CH 31 Although they were both living their lives like a couple, after all, there was still the premise of the trade. Now, once their relationship was confirmed, Jiang Zhan felt a change in his state of mind. However, he couldn¡¯t precisely tell what was different. His sight unconsciously surrounded Jiang Li, he even followed him to the chicken coop that he initially wasn¡¯t willing to go near to. The days staying in the hometown passed quickly, in a blink of an eye a week had passed and both of them returned to City S. After they returned Jiang Li threw himself into busy schedules once again. He flew to City C the next day to join a reality show and then rushed to the new drama set after recording the show. Jiang Zhan also had his work which had accumulated in the days that he had accompanied Jiang Li to go back to his hometown. He worked overtime for a few days after he came back. They were both busy with their own work and could only contact each other by video calling every day. They both finally experienced how one day could last as long as three autumns when they couldn¡¯t see each other. Before the shoot for ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, the company sent a few scripts to Jiang Li, allowing him to choose. There were modern idol dramas, urban work dramas, spy dramas and many more. After studying them a few times, he chose an anti-Japanese war drama called ¡®Undercover¡¯. The scripts sent by the company were invested and created by themselves, so no audition was needed. Jiang Li played the first male lead, a rich young master called Lu Minyu, who was inadvertently involved in an anti-Japanese dispute on the day he returned from studying abroad. This was a story of a rich young master growing up to be an outstanding soldier to protect the country. When the drama¡¯s Weibo announced Jiang Li¡¯s stage photo of the first male lead, there were both positive and negative comments, of which two-third of them were negative comments booing. In the eyes of many people, the soldier bore the responsibility of missions given by the country on their shoulders, so they generally have a tough guy image. However, Jiang Li looked too beautiful, so it didn¡¯t fit the image of the soldier in many people¡¯s eyes. Jiang Li didn¡¯t care about this; he placed all his heart into the shooting. It was useless to say more about it, only the result/achievement could shut the mouth of the public. Jiang Li had also once acted as a soldier in his previous life.In order to fit the role and reflect the nature of a soldier, he specially pulled some strings and contacted the armed forces to have training for a month. He then spent that month with real soldiers, eating the same food, living in the same house, and training together. Hence, the shooting this time was not difficult for him. On the first day he entered the drama set, the proficiency of his dismantling and reassembling of the guns and the accuracy rate of his target shooting was so high that the crowd was surprised. After finishing the shoot that lasted an entire day, Jiang Li returned to the hotel, washed away the mud he got in the field today while shooting, and video called Jiang Zhan. When Jiang Zhan received his video call, he was supervising Jiang Nuomi who was exercising. Jiang Nuomi was at this point eight months old. From the little kid when it was picked up, it had turned into a white, round, ball after tons of feeding. While Jiang Li was filming out of province Jiang Zhan was afraid that it would fall sick easily if it only ate and didn¡¯t move, so he forced it to walk slowly on the treadmill for half an hour. If it didn¡¯t move, he wouldn¡¯t give him small dried fish, forcing Jiang Nuomi to have the intention to die with him. After the video call was connected, as Jiang Li¡¯s voice came out from the phone, Jiang Nuomi quickly leapt down from the treadmill and pounced on Jiang Zhan¡¯s body, meowing towards Jiang Li who was in the phone, its voice was filled with both anger and grievance. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with him?¡± Jiang Li laughed in the video call, ¡°Jiang Zhan, ask Jiang Nuomi to move his face away, his face is too big to fit into my 6-inch phone.¡± ¡°Meow!!!!¡± Jiang Nuomi pulled Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand, which was holding the phone, and made a strong effort to move forward. It was feeling aggrieved but wasn¡¯t able to say it out loud, it could only meow non-stop. Jiang Zhan was annoyed by its meowing. He directly carried it to the door and looked at it from above, showing a face of displeasure: ¡°Get out, light bulb1.¡± After saying this he then closed the door with a bang. Jiang Nuomi: ¡°¡­¡± Without the stupid cat there, Jiang Zhan finally had peace of mind. As he returned to his chair and sat down, he heard Jiang Li say, ¡°Jiang Zhan, you¡¯re bullying my son again, why are you acting so evil as a grandfather?¡± ¡°Who are you calling a grandfather?¡± Jiang Zhan asked in a dangerous tone as he fixed his phone on a stand which was placed beside him. Hearing the change of his tone, Jiang Li immediately acted pragmatically and changed his words, ¡°I am the grandfather, you are the father, alright? Hahahahaha.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The words sounded like Jiang Li had taken advantage of the situation, he was now a generation older than him. Jiang Zhan looked at the person who was rolling in bed laughing in the video. He was itching to drag him out and beat him up, so that Jiang Li wouldn¡¯t act naughtily without three days of beatings. The two were chatting when a knock sounded at the door. Jiang Li told Jiang Zhan to wait for a while, he placed the phone on the bed and got up to open the door. The person outside the door was Feng Dong. He came in with two bags and said to Jiang Li while walking, ¡°It¡¯s good that you¡¯re not asleep, I bought you supper.¡± ¡°Thank you, Brother Feng.¡± Jiang Li hadn¡¯t had much appetite for dinner. He had only taken a few bites, but he didn¡¯t expect Feng Dong would notice it. He arrived just in time for Jiang Li to feel hungry after coming out of the bath. He lifted the bag and found that Feng Dong had brought him lean meat porridge and dumplings, as well as two small side dishes. He was touched, ¡°Brother Feng, have you and Xiao Zhou eaten?¡± ¡°We also bought supper and I¡¯ve asked Xiao Zhou to bring them back to his room.¡± Feng Dong said as he took out two bottles of medicine to give to Jiang Li from another plastic bag. ¡°This is the wound medicine I bought for you, first rub the medicine, after drying¡­¡± ¡°What wound medicine?¡± A voice interrupted Feng Dong¡¯s words. There were only two people, Jiang Li and Feng Dong, in the room so the sudden voice took Feng Dong by surprise. He reflexively pulled Jiang Li to the side and asked out loud, ¡°Who¡¯s talking?!¡± ¡°It¡¯s me, Jiang Zhan.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Feng Dong¡¯s hand which was pulling Jiang Li stiffened, he then heard Jiang Zhan said once again, ¡°What injury medicine did you just say? Jiang Li¡¯s injured?¡± ¡°Just a little scrape.¡± Fearing that he would be worried, Jiang Li went over and picked up the phone on the bed, he then said to comfort him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not a big deal.¡± ¡°Where are you hurt? Let me see.¡± Jiang Zhan asked. ¡°It¡¯s really okay¡­¡± ¡°Let me see.¡± Jiang Zhan intensified his tone, with the implication of not being able to argue, Jiang Li knew that there was no room for negotiation, so he didn¡¯t argue with him: ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll show you later.¡± Feng Dong listened to their conversation anxiously. When he heard what they said he knew that he wouldn¡¯t be able to keep his job if he continued staying there, so he quickly left after greeting Jiang Zhan and telling Jiang Li how to use the wound medicine. After he left Jiang Li was the only one left in the room. After placing his phone on the holder to stabilize it, Jiang Li pulled the chair and sat down. He said smilingly to Jiang Zhan who was in the video, ¡°My wound is at a relatively sensitive part, I¡¯m afraid that you won¡¯t be able to sleep alone tonight after seeing it.¡± A sensitive part ¡­ Jiang Li roughly guessed where it was. He fell into silence for a while and said firmly, ¡°Let me see.¡± They have already done everything that they should and shouldn¡¯t do. Not to mention just looking at the wound, it was also a common thing for them to shower naked. So, Jiang Li also didn¡¯t feel embarrassed. He stood up and took off his pajama pants directly, revealing his white underwear. In order to not have his wound rubbed he was wearing a brief. The fabric was relatively lesser, and a thin layer of cotton material could barely wrap his round and upright buttocks. However, Jiang Zhan¡¯s attention at this time wasn¡¯t about this. Instead it was on the obvious scrapes shown by Jiang Li. Jiang Li¡¯s wound was on the slight bottom of the buttocks; it had been scraped during the afternoon shoot. The wound was about seven or eight centimeters in length. A large piece of skin was scraped off. He could imagine how painful it had been when he was first injured. Jiang Zhan¡¯s eyebrows frowned deeply, ¡°Is this still a little scrape?¡± ¡°It just looked serious at first, my flesh wasn¡¯t hurt. It¡¯ll be fine after the skin grows back.¡± Jiang Li said as if he didn¡¯t mind it at all. In his previous life as an actor he had suffered many injuries. The most serious one was when the wire broke while he was shooting a martial arts scene, where he later fell to the bottom of the cliff. The good thing was that there was a tree branch blocking his fall so he only broke his leg and one of his ribs, otherwise he would have lost his life. Jiang Zhan listened to his unconcerned words and pursed his lips: ¡°Apply the medicine first.¡± ¡°Wait, I haven¡¯t eaten anything yet. I¡¯ll apply it after eating.¡± Jiang Li said as he took out his supper. He was too lazy to put his pants back on, since he would still need to apply medicine later. So, he sat on the chair with only underwear and started eating. It was already a little past 10 pm. When Jiang Zhan heard him say that he hadn¡¯t eaten his tone of voice became unhappy, ¡°Did the crew not order lunch boxes?¡± ¡°Yes, they did.¡± Jiang Li ate two dumplings. He looked at him and joked, ¡°Maybe because you aren¡¯t around so I don¡¯t have much appetite. But, looking at you now I have a really good appetite. Just like the saying ¡®a feast for the eyes¡¯.¡± Jiang Zhan: ¡°¡­¡± Ever since the two had established a relationship Jiang Li¡¯s flirty talk went overboard as if he had hacks.2 If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Jiang Zhan knew Jiang Li hadn¡¯t been in love before Jiang Zhan would simply assume that he was a love tutor, since he was really shameless. After eating, again under the supervision of Jiang Zhan, Jiang Li applied the medicine on the wound. It was difficult to apply the medicine by himself, but the place of the wound was sensitive so he couldn¡¯t ask others for help. Jiang Li applied the medicine as he said to Jiang Zhan, ¡°Don¡¯t stare at me, it¡¯s like your eyes are filled with flames and are burning me through the screen.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Zhan averted his gaze and cursed lightly, ¡°Nonsense.¡± ¡°How is it nonsense?¡± Jiang Li got closer to the screen, ¡°You dare say that you¡¯re not staring at my ass? You¡¯re not imagining something naughty?¡± ¡°¡­ No.¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s mind was seen through; his tone drifted a little. ¡°It¡¯s like that ah¡­¡± Jiang Li stretched his voice, inclined his head and smiled at him, ¡°but I did.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Jiang Zhan.¡± Jiang Li lightened his voice with a hint of seduction, ¡°We haven¡¯t done it for almost half a month. Aren¡¯t you having a hard time?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Every night when I sleep alone, I miss you a lot.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¨CThe other party hung up the video call. Jiang Li paused for two seconds. He then laid on the table as he burst out laughing, and after laughing long enough he sent a voice message to Jiang Zhan. On the other hand, Jiang Zhan looked at the part of him that had obviously reacted. He cursed Jiang Li ¡®son of a bitch¡¯ countless times in his heart. He took two deep breaths before clicking on the voice message he had sent. ¡°Rest early, love you.¡± The edges of Jiang Zhan¡¯s lips lifted slightly as he repeated the voice message several times. He sent a good night to him, and then called Ji Shu to book a flight to Jiang City tomorrow. The next morning, Jiang Zhan and Ji Shu flew to Jiang City together while Jiang Nuomi was entrusted to Ji Shu¡¯s girlfriend. The two of them went directly to the filming location of ¡®Undercover¡¯ and went into the set after explaining their identities to the staff. It was an escape scene; Jiang Li was playing as Lu Minyu who had his undercover identity discovered and was escaping with Zhao Kui who was there to meet him. Jiang Li almost got shot in the process, while Zhao Kui dashed towards him and pounced on him, knocking him to the ground. Jiang Zhan came and just happened to catch this scene. Looking from his direction, Zhao Kui¡¯s lips were seen slamming onto Jiang Li¡¯s face and both of his hands were tightly wrapped around Jiang Li¡¯s waist. Jiang Zhan: ¡°¡­¡± ¡­ Damn, not even once have I had a happy visit. Light bulb here means third wheel. Hack in this case comes from the phrase hacking games, this means that he has cheats or tips. CH 32 Translator: Rin Editor: Ume, Mars Since Jiang Zhan had an experience of being ignored by Jiang Li when he came to visit, this time, he found a very obvious position to brush up his presence, which was standing next to the director. The director was a bit alarmed by the sudden visit of the investor, who was standing next to him like a threshold guardian. He shouted towards Jiang Li and the others who were in front, ¡°Cut!¡± In the drama, after Zhao Kui jumped on Lu Minyu, he quickly stood up again and grasped onto him, wanting to pull him and run out, but when the director said ¡°Cut¡±, the two stopped and looked towards the director. When Jiang Li saw Jiang Zhan standing next to the camera, he froze for a moment. He then immediately knew the reason why he was there. He lowered his head and laughed. When Jin Yu who was beside Jiang Li heard his laughter, he turned and saw him lowering his head while laughing lightly, gentleness could be seen on his face. It was unlike the usual expression of him being gentle and polite yet putting up an imperceptible distance between himself and the others. Jin Yu¡¯s heart pounded uncontrollably, forgetting to let go of his hand for a moment. Jiang Zhan stared at Jin Yu¡¯s hand which was holding Jiang Li¡¯s wrist and took a step forward subconsciously, wanting to go over and stop them from holding hands. The director next to him suddenly held up the speaker and said, ¡°Okay, everyone take a half hour break!¡± This made Jin Yu return to his senses and let go of Jiang Li¡¯s hand. When he kept away his hand, his heart felt a hint of unexpected emptiness and disappointment. He couldn¡¯t help but clenched his fist tightly behind his back and followed Jiang Li who was walking towards Jiang Zhan. As the top one hit celebrity of Jiang Group, Jiang Zhan was quite familiar with him, but he didn¡¯t expect that he was also in the ¡®Undercover¡® drama crew. In fact, not only him, even Jiang Li only found out that the second male lead was Jin Yu when he entered the crew. With the fact that the popular best actor in the industry took on a supporting role for a newcomer like Jiang li, he could already foresee the fans quarreling without going online. However, Jin Yu himself didn¡¯t mind much about this because he didn¡¯t treat Jiang Li as a newcomer at all. In the few scenes of ¡®The Long River Falling Moon¡¯, perhaps others might not realize it, but he really felt that he was overpowered by Jiang Li. ¡°Is President Jiang coming over for business?¡± Jin Yu took the initiative to ask. ¡°En.¡± Jiang Zhan nodded faintly, his gaze swept over Jiang Li who was next to him as if he was unintentional, ¡°I¡¯m stopping by to take a look.¡± Jin Yu noticed his gaze on Jiang Li who hadn¡¯t been in the company for long. Jin Yu wasn¡¯t sure if Jiang Li knew President Jiang, so he patted Jiang Li¡¯s shoulder and introduced him, ¡°Jiang Li, this is President Jiang from the company, you should have met him too, right? Say hello quickly.¡± ¡°Not yet.¡± Jiang Li smiled at Jiang Zhan, stretched out his hand and said, ¡°Hello, President Jiang, I¡¯m Jiang Li.¡± Jiang Zhan looked at him for a few seconds before shaking Jiang Li¡¯s hand. Just after they held each other¡¯s hands, Jiang Zhan could feel Jiang Li scratching his palm twice, a slight tickle could be felt, like a feather gently brushing on his heart. There were still other people nearby, so the two withdrew their hands silently. After they exchanged greetings, Jiang Li and Jin Yu went to the side to figure out the next scene. Jiang Zhan sat down on the chair prepared by the staff and ordered Ji Shu to arrange afternoon tea for the crew. His gaze then landed on Jiang Li who wasn¡¯t far away. When Jiang Li was going through the script with Jin Yu, he could feel Jiang Zhan looking at him from his head till his toe like an X-ray. If Jiang Li were to turn his head, he might see Jiang Zhan¡¯s sour expression as if he was wearing a green hat. When he thought of Jiang Zhan being jealous and always acted like nothing happened when he asked, he couldn¡¯t hold back his laughter and he was so happy as if he was a blossoming flower. Jin Yu saw him laughing and asked with a smile, ¡°What are you laughing at? Did I say something wrong?¡± ¡°No, no, Brother Yu, you were right.¡± Jiang Li waved his hand, ¡°I just remembered something happy. I¡¯m going to the bathroom, I¡¯ll talk to you later.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Jiang Li placed the script aside. Before leaving, he looked towards Jiang Zhan as if he was hinting at him and Jiang Zhan, who had been looking at him all the time of course didn¡¯t miss his hint. He then stood up and followed him. The two of them went into the bathroom one after the other. As soon as the door behind them closed, Jiang Li pounced on Jiang Zhan and pressed him against the wall, tugging on the collar of his coat with both hands. He then pulled him towards himself, tilted his head and kissed him. Jiang Zhan obediently wrapped his arms around his waist and kissed him back hard on his soft lips, his tongue intertwined with his playfully. After the kiss, Jiang Li asked as he panted, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me that you¡¯re coming, I was shocked to see you just now.¡± ¡°I came over for business.¡± Jiang Zhan used his hand to help Jiang Li wipe off the dust on his face during the shooting, ¡°I¡¯m stopping by to visit you as well.¡± The excuse was so lame that Jiang Li didn¡¯t believe it at all, ¡°Nah, you came over to visit me and stopped by for a business trip, right?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°En?¡± Jiang Zhan looked at him and said honestly, ¡°I specially come to visit you, I¡¯m not here for any business.¡± It was rare for him to be so honest; Jiang Li felt a hint of indescribable sweetness spreading out in his heart. The corner of his lips couldn¡¯t be suppressed, his forehead rested against Jiang Zhan¡¯s chest as a deep laugh could be heard from his own chest. When Jiang Zhan saw his joy, the gloominess he felt earlier was swept away completely. Since they were still outside, there were many actors and staff not too far away from them, so the two didn¡¯t stay for long. Jiang Li whispered to Jiang Zhan, ¡°I will ask Feng Dong to give you the room card, I¡¯ll leave first.¡± After speaking, he quickly dropped a kiss on Jiang Zhan¡¯s lips and left. Jiang Zhan touched the part where he was kissed. He didn¡¯t actually mind letting others know about his relationship with Jiang Li, he couldn¡¯t even wait to tell the world that Jiang Li was his, making people who coveted him to retreat. However, Jiang Li¡¯s current status really wasn¡¯t suitable for it to be exposed. Jiang Zhan returned to the seat earlier and sat down. Not long after, Feng Dong handed Jiang Li¡¯s room card to him when the others weren¡¯t looking and told him that Jiang Li asked him to go back to the hotel and rest first. Jiang Zhan kept the room card and didn¡¯t go back first, instead, he stayed at the scene to accompany him till the end of the shooting. He then went out to eat with Jiang Li privately afterwards. The two were now passionately in love. Due to filming, Jiang Li had been staying in Jiang City for half a month, and they could only contact each other by video calling. Now when both of them were close to each other, they couldn¡¯t suppress the naughty thoughts in their minds. Once the room door was closed, they couldn¡¯t wait and embraced each other as they kissed, walking and stumbling towards the bed. ¡­ After taking a shower, Jiang Zhan stripped Jiang Li¡¯s pants and asked him to lie on the bed so he could apply the medicine for him. He held two bottles of medicine and asked, ¡°Apply this bottle of medicine first?¡± ¡°En, apply the ointment after the medicine dries.¡± Jiang Li laid face down on the pillow, he was only wearing pajamas, not even his underwear. The heating of the house was switched on to high, so he didn¡¯t feel cold. Jiang Zhan carefully rubbed the medicine for him, put the bottle away, instructed him to lie down and wait for the medicine to dry before moving. He then got up and went to the bathroom to wash his hands. Just before he reached the door, he heard a knock. Looking out through the peephole, he found out that Jin Yu was standing outside the door. ¡°Who is it?¡± When Jiang Li heard the sound, he poked his head out of bed to ask, looking like he was about to get out of bed and walked to the door. ¡°Don¡¯t move.¡± Jiang Zhan looked back at him, stopping him from moving. He reached out and opened the door directly, wanting to meet Jin Yu who was planning to knock on the door again. Jin Yu was here to pass medicine to Jiang Li. He wasn¡¯t at the scene when Jiang Li was injured yesterday, he just learned of the news from his assistant, so he asked his assistant to buy some ointment from the pharmacy nearby and brought it here personally. However, when the door was opened, what appeared in front of him wasn¡¯t Jiang Li, but someone he didn¡¯t expect at all. ¡°¡­ President Jiang?¡± Jin Yu looked at Jiang Zhan, his expression turned blank for a moment, but he reacted quickly, suppressing the shock. He then inclined his head to look at the room number. 10208, it was indeed Jiang Li¡¯s room. His line of sight swept past Jiang Zhan and he could see Jiang Li poking his head out, looking towards his direction while wrapped in a quilt. At this time, Jiang Zhan was wearing a bathrobe, it was obvious that he had just finished showering. The fact that he appeared in Jiang Li¡¯s room at this late hour¡­ It was impossible that he was here to share a room with Jiang Li, unless¡­ Jin Yu¡¯s heart sank, he figured out they had some kind of relationship that his heart didn¡¯t want to believe. Jiang Zhan nodded towards him and asked faintly, ¡°Is something wrong?¡± Jiang Li also saw Jin Yu, he didn¡¯t expect him to come over at such a late hour. Since Jin Yu had already seen Jiang Zhan, it was too late to hide, so he could only ask, ¡°Brother Yu, is something wrong?¡± Jin Yu quickly gathered his emotions, shook the ointment in his hand and said to Jiang Zhan with a smile, ¡°Nothing, I¡¯m just here to hand these ointments to Jiang Li.¡± ¡°He has already applied them.¡± Jiang Zhan stood at the door, holding it with one hand, without any intention of letting him in. His attitude showed his possessiveness of Jiang Li and was dissatisfied with Jin Yu coming to meet Jiang Li at this hour. On the contrary, when Jiang Li heard that he had brought medicine for himself, he quickly waved and said, ¡°Thank you Brother Yu, I already bought the medicine.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good then.¡± Jin Yu nodded and said to Jiang Zhan, ¡°President Jiang, forgive me for being abrupt, rest early.¡± Jiang Zhan nodded and closed the door. Looking at the door closing in front of him, Jin Yu stood at the same place for two seconds. He looked down at the ointment in his hand and laughed lightly, as if he was mocking himself subtly. A person like Jiang Li, it was impossible that he was the only one interested in him, right? Jin Yu shook his head and kept away his feelings that had just sprouted in his heart, it was still not that obvious yet. He turned away and walked towards his room. In the room, Jiang Zhan was still feeling bitter towards Jin Yu bringing the medicine to Jiang Li late at night. He pinched Jiang Li¡¯s butt with a sour face. Jiang Li ¡°¡­¡± Since Jin Yu knew about Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan¡¯s relationship, he had been keeping a certain distance from Jiang Li sensibly. Other than some physical contact during the shoot, he didn¡¯t overstepped his boundaries. Jiang Zhan was satisfied with this and waited until Jiang Li¡¯s shooting in Jiang City was over before returning to City S together. Before they boarded the plane, Jiang Zhan received a call from Shen Yuzhi, saying that Zhao Guangyu was going to celebrate his birthday tonight, so he asked him to go to the clubhouse. Jiang Zhan agreed but when he was about to hang up the phone, he heard Shen Yuzhi shouting, ¡°Oh yeah, remember to bring Jiang Li!¡± Jiang Zhan fell into silence for a moment. He tilted his head and glanced at Jiang Li next to him. He then corrected Shen Yuzhi, ¡°It¡¯s not Jiang Li, it¡¯s Sao zi1.¡± Shen Yuzhi: ¡°¡­??¡± When Shen Yuzhi was still pondering on the word ¡®Sao zi¡¯, Jiang Zhan had hung up the phone. The next moment, Shen Yuzhi jerked up from the chair and said incredulously, ¡°Crap, Sao zi?¡± He didn¡¯t expect that in this half a year, Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t get tired of Jiang Li and had even successfully advanced to the next level?! Shen Yuzhi was so surprised that he walked back and forth in the room twice before calling his assistant, ¡°Go and prepare a banner for me, it has to be in bright red! Now, immediately, this instance!!¡± The assistant¡¯s action was quick. In just one hour, the banner was sent to him. Shen Yuzhi asked someone to hang it in the most conspicuous place of the room, so that it could be seen as soon as the door was opened. So when Jiang Zhan and Jiang Li arrived at the clubhouse together at night, they saw the huge red banner hanging in the center as soon as they opened the door. The banner, with a line of words written in golden bold font, was shining brightly: [Congratulations to President Jiang for getting out of being single and dating Sao zi!] ¨C(From Shen Yuzhi) Dating Sao zi, these words sounded so wrong as if Jiang Zhan was dating his own sister-in-law. When Jiang Li who was beside Jiang Zhan saw the banner, he laughed so hard that he couldn¡¯t stand up straight. Jiang Zhan¡¯s entire face darkened. He looked grimly at Shen Yuzhi, who was holding a salute and was ready to discharge it. Jiang Zhan then asked as he gritted his teeth, ¡°Shen Yuzhi, are you fucking illiterate?¡± Sao zi means sister-in-law. CH 33 A-A+ Translator: Rin Editor: Ume Shen Yuzhi looked at Jiang Zhan taking off his coat, stuffing it into Jiang Li¡¯s arms, and walking towards him with a darkened expression. He kept walking backwards and said, ¡°It¡¯s just a joke, don¡¯t do it, we are good brothers, why are you being so calculative¡­¡±. A ¡®pop¡¯ sound was then heard, it seemed that Shen Yuzhi felt nervous at that second and accidentally pulled the string of the confetti popper that was in his hand, spraying the confetti all over Jiang Zhan. Jiang Zhan reflexively inclined his head to dodge them, but it was too late, there were confettis all over his shoulder and head. There were also a few pieces of them, which were about to fall off, hanging on his eyebrows. The room fell into complete silence. A few seconds later, Zhao Guanyu and Sun Zelin, who were watching from the side, burst out laughing. They pointed at Shen Yuzhi as they said, ¡°Old Shen, you¡¯re bold! Shen Yuzhi was also a little confused, he looked at his own hands, didn¡¯t know what to do. He then looked at Jiang Zhan, gulped and explained: ¡°Ge, I really didn¡¯t mean to¡­ ouch!¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t waste his time talking nonsense with him. He grabbed his shoulders and directly threw him to the sofa. He pressed his knee against the back of his waist and exerted a little force on it. Shen Yuzhi screamed in pain and stretched out his hand towards Jiang Li, ¡°Sao zi, help me! Since he was called Sao zi, Jiang Li couldn¡¯t sit idly by and do nothing anymore. He went over to Jiang Zhan and helped him clean the confettis that were on his head and his clothes, and then scattered all of them on top of Shen Yuzhi¡¯s head. He then smiled at Jiang Zhan and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine now, stop being angry.¡± Shen Yuzhi ¡°¡­¡± The audience, Zhao Guan Yu and Sun Zelin didn¡¯t expect that this way of resolving the matter existed. They looked at Shen Yuzhi, who had a head full of confettis, and said to Jiang Zhan in the same tone as Jiang Li, ¡°It¡¯s fine now, stop being angry.¡± Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡± This matter went over quickly. In order to save his own life, Shen Yuzhi called someone to take the banner down. He rubbed his own waist that was almost broken by Jiang Zhan and sat in the farthest position of the sofa from him. However, after a moment, he couldn¡¯t resist and went closer. He then asked while sitting next to Jiang Zhan, ¡°Hey, when did you two become a couple?¡± He was really curious about it. Sun Zelin and Zhao Guangyu were also curious as well. After all, Jiang Zhan was the only one among them who hadn¡¯t had a boyfriend or girlfriend for so many years, so they were curious about how Jiang Li took him down. Jiang Zhan had no interest in sharing his love story with others, even if they were his own close friends. He annoyingly pushed Shen Yuzhi¡¯s face away, ¡°It¡¯s none of your business, go away.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be like this, tell us to relieve the boredom.¡± Shen Yuzhi was really nosy, he held the microphone in front of Jiang Zhan, ¡°Please present your first love experience.¡± ¡°First love?¡± When Jiang Li, who was choosing songs from the tablet heard these two words, he stopped his action. He looked at Jiang Zhan, averted his gaze towards Shen Yu Zhi, and asked surprisingly, ¡°Did you say first love? You¡¯re talking about Jiang Zhan?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Shen Yuzhi pointed at Jiang Zhan, ¡°Our President Jiang has been single for thirty-two years, you are his first boyfriend, or perhaps his first friend with bene¡­ Wuu!¡± Before he got to finish the words ¡®friend with benefits¡¯, Jiang Zhan picked up a snack and immediately shoved it into Shen Yuzhi¡¯s mouth, blocking him from finishing the sentence. ¡°Get out of here.¡± Shen Yuzhi was afraid that he would beat him out again if he didn¡¯t get his words right. He bit the snacks as he left nimbly, but Jiang Li had already heard the important part. Jiang Li really didn¡¯t expect that he was Jiang Zhan¡¯s first boyfriend, which simply surprised him. With such conditions that Jiang Zhan had, how hard could it be for him to find the person he wanted? And yet, he was single for thirty-two years? Although Jiang Li didn¡¯t really mind how many people Jiang Zhan had around him before, after all, it was all in the past before they got together. What he valued was the future days. However, now that he suddenly heard that Jiang Zhan only had him before, he still couldn¡¯t help but feel happy. It was like winning the lottery. The more affectionate way to put it was that Jiang Zhan had been single for so long, and it was like Jiang Zhan was waiting for him. When Jiang Li thought about this, he was bursting with joy in his heart. He wasn¡¯t in the mood to sing anymore and threw the tablet aside. He went closer to Jiang Zhan and asked, ¡°Am I really your first boyfriend?¡± ¡°¡­¡± The delight in Jiang Li¡¯s eyes was too obvious. Jiang Zhan felt a little uncomfortable being stared at. His ears were getting hotter as he cursed Shen Yuzhi a bastard in his heart for a hundred times, and turned his head away from answering the question, ¡°Why are you so close, be cautious when we¡¯re outside.¡± ¡°I have earned my right to date, what do I need to be cautious of?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows and looked at him. Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡± When Shen Yuzhi who was used to being bullied by Jiang Zhan saw what happened, he could see that Jiang Li seemed to have a slightly higher status in their relationship, and so he daringly yelled towards Jiang Li, ¡°I guarantee you that you¡¯re his first boyfriend. I found a boy for him before, but the boy ran away halfway!¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± ¡°So there¡¯s still a little boy¡­¡± Jiang Li nodded as if he was thinking about something. He looked at Shen Yuzhi and asked casually, ¡°Where did the little boy come from, your clubhouse?¡± ¡°¡­¡± Shen Yuzhi, realizing that he had gone overboard, stammered and moved towards Zhao Guangyu, rigidly changing the subject, ¡°Today is Old Zhao¡¯s birthday, why is everyone just chatting and not singing? Haha!¡± The atmosphere suddenly became very awkward. Until the end of the party, Jiang Zhan looked at Shen Yuzhi as if he wanted to kill him. ¡­ The shooting duration of ¡®Undercover¡¯ was four months. As it coincidentally clashed with New Year¡¯s Eve, they had to delay it for half a month. When the shooting was over, summer had arrived. After the shoot, Jiang Li didn¡¯t immediately accept other jobs. Instead, he applied for a half a month of leave and went abroad with Jiang Zhan to enjoy themselves. Unbeknownst to him, he had been in this world for almost a year, and ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ was about to start airing. ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯ was scheduled to be broadcasted on Nanjiang TV and Anping TV at the golden hour of 8pm. At the same time, it would also be broadcasted on several major video broadcasting platforms. As the top No.1 among the most anticipated TV dramas voted by netizens, ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯, which was led by top-notch director Zhou Jin, adapted by the famous screenwriter Huang Lisheng, and starred the top celebrities Jin Yu and Feng Yating, very dominantly grabbed six of the top ten weibo hot searches on the night of broadcast, while the viewership on Nanjiang TV and Anping TV also steadily took the first and second place among the major TV channels. The broadcast of the drama allowed the two characters played by Jiang Li, Liu Chuandeng and Liu Baizhu, to finally appear in everyone¡¯s sight. The two characters with completely opposite personalities and styles did not contradict each other in his interpretation and caused a huge controversy as soon as they appeared. The character of Liu Chuandeng was both hated and heartbreaking. The inhuman torture he endured as a child created his ruthlessness when he grew up. If he was able to receive a little kindness from others when he was young, he wouldn¡¯t have lost the last bit of hope inside him. While Liu Baizhu who grew up in a completely different environment had also caused him to have a different personality. The relationship between the two brothers was good when they were young. When Liu Chuandeng was sent to the palace, Liu Baizhu cried all day and all night for a few days. However, the feelings of children could be easily replaced by new things. As Liu Chuandeng left for a long time, he also gradually got used to the days without his brother. The appearance of the male protagonist, Murong Jing even took the place of Liu Chuandeng in his life. After that, when Liu Baizhu received the news of Liu Chuandeng¡¯s accidental death by drowning in the palace and facing his mother¡¯s heartbreaking cries, other than feeling sad, he was actually more confused. As Liu Chuandeng had left too long, his memory about his brother was so blurry that he couldn¡¯t even recognize his shadow. A week after ¡®The Long River Falling Moon¡¯ was aired, there were even netizens who made a special comparison motion picture of the two characters. Jiang Li¡¯s superb acting skills shut the mouths of the keyboard warriors who had scolded him for relying on his face. His name and character name hung on the hot search for several days. ¡­ Jiang Li was awakened by the alarm clock. He reached for the alarm clock placed on the bedside table but wasn¡¯t able to reach it after searching for it for a while. A hand went across him and accurately turned off the alarm clock, the voice echoed from above, ¡°Are you up?¡± Jiang Li had been playing games until two am last night, so he was still sleepy as hell at this hour. He turned over and hugged Jiang Zhan¡¯s waist, rested his head on his chest and said with a sleepy tone, ¡°I¡¯ll sleep a little longer, wake me up after half an hour.¡± Jiang Zhan stroked his hair, ¡°Sleep then.¡± Jiang Li soon fell asleep. Jiang Zhan put his phone on silent next to himself and answered when Feng Dong called. ¡°Ah Li, are you awake? I¡¯m going to pick you up later.¡± Feng Dong said on the other side of the phone. ¡°This is Jiang Zhan.¡± Jiang Zhan lowered his voice and took a glance at Jiang Li who was still asleep, ¡°I¡¯ll just send him over later.¡± ¡°Okay, okay.¡± After Jiang Zhan ended the phone call, he also took a small nap. He then woke Jiang Li up to prepare himself when the time was up. When Jiang Li was washing his face, the breakfast which Jiang Zhan ordered was delivered. Besides that (Jiang Li and his food), he also ordered fish for Jiang Nuomi. Jiang Li had a perfume advertisement to shoot today. After breakfast, the two of them cleaned up and Jiang Zhan drove to the shooting location with Jiang Li. Jiang Zhan also had his own work today, so he left after dropping Jiang Li off at the shooting location. The ¡®Riel¡¯ perfume was one of the world¡¯s top ten famous perfume brands and was produced in France. With a history of nearly 100 years, its flagship product focused on luxury, seductive, elegant and other styles. Jiang Li was the spokesperson of ¡®Riel¡¯ in China this year and it was the first time to shoot the advertisement today. While getting his styling done, he idly picked up the newspaper that was placed aside to read. As soon as he flipped it open, his attention was drawn by the news that took up half a page. ¨CExclusive report, Jiang Group and Shen Enterprise have the intention for marriage! The content of the news was not much, but the headline and photos took up half of the page. The news said that Mrs. Jiang, who was Jiang Zhan¡¯s mother, revealed that Jiang Group and Shen Enterprise were looking to tie the knot this year. Shen Enterprise, it was Shen Yuzhi and his family¡¯s company. After dating Jiang Zhan for so long, Jiang Li had never met Jiang Zhan¡¯s mother, and rarely heard him mention his family. He only knew that he and his mother¡¯s relationship was not close as he rarely went back to where Jiang¡¯s family was living. ¡°Host.¡± The system¡¯s voice echoed, ¡°The male lead is getting married.¡± ¡°Little cutie, I saw it, no need to tell me.¡± Jiang Li laughed. ¡°¡­ Oh.¡± System said strangely, ¡°You don¡¯t look like you¡¯re nervous.¡± ¡°I¡¯m feeling nervous inside.¡± ¡°¡­¡± System thought: I can¡¯t even feel an inch of nervousness inside Host. Jiang Li knew that Shen Yuzhi had a younger sister, but he never heard about this marriage from Jiang Zhan. When they were having a gathering with Shen Yuzhi a few days ago, he also didn¡¯t mention this. If they were not hiding this from him, he thought that Jiang Zhan was still unaware of this based on his relationship with Mrs. Jiang. So Jiang Li took a picture of the news and sent it to Jiang Zhan¡¯s WeChat. When Jiang Zhan received Jiang Li¡¯s message, he had just arrived at the company¡¯s ground floor. When he clicked on it and saw the content of the photo, his action of getting out of the car paused. He closed the car door, sent a message back to Jiang Li, restarted the car¡¯s engine and left. ¨CJiang Zhan: There¡¯s no such thing, I¡¯ll deal with it. Jiang Li looked at Jiang Zhan¡¯s reply, the corners of his lips curved. He then put the phone away. CH 34 Jiang Zhan was an only child, his parents¡¯ marriage was an arranged marriage decided by the elders. In his memories, his parents were not close, it could be said that they lived their lives respecting each other like they were guests. His father was busy with his career and seldom came home until his death, while his mother was busy with beauty, shopping, travel, and rarely stayed home. Jiang Zhan and his parents were not close either, it could be said that he was brought up by the butler. Towards the news report that the Jiang and Shen families were going to have a marriage, Jiang Zhan did not care about it. If he didn¡¯t want it, no one could force him, even if that person was his own mother. When he returned to the Jiang family, Butler Chen was a bit surprised to see him. This was because Jiang Zhan rarely came back except during celebrations like New Year. ¡°Young master.¡± Butler Chen greeted him, ¡°You¡¯re back, have you had breakfast?¡± ¡°Yes, Uncle Chen.¡± Jiang Zhan nodded at him and saw Mrs. Jiang sitting on the sofa drinking morning tea. He walked straight over, stopped next to her and called out, ¡°Mother.¡± When Mrs. Jiang heard that Jiang Zhan had returned, she simply looked up, waited until he came to her and said hello before saying, ¡°You¡¯re back? Sit down and have a cup of tea with me.¡± Jiang Zhan sat down on a single sofa, and Uncle Chen waved his hand to signal the maids waiting on the side to leave. He came over and personally poured him tea, and then waited on the side. Jiang Zhan did not come back to idly drink tea, he still had a meeting in the company later so he did not beat around the bush and went straight to the point, ¡°I saw the news, the marriage with the Shen family is not possible, I come back because I hope you would dismiss this idea.¡± Mrs. Jiang put down the cup in her hand and laughed, ¡°I just simply said that yesterday, but I didn¡¯t expect it to be in the newspaper today. The media nowadays are really efficient.¡± She paused briefly before she continued, ¡°Mr. Jiang is busy every day, why did you make a special trip for this matter today?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not as busy as you.¡± Jiang Zhan faintly returned a sentence. ¡°Why are you talking like that.¡± Mrs. Jiang glared at him from the corner of her eye, dissatisfied with Jiang Zhan¡¯s attitude towards herself. However, over the years she has always been too absorbed in entertainment and never cared enough about Jiang Zhan, so she could not really say anything more to him and returned to the subject, ¡°The Shen family and our Jiang family are family friends, and you also know that girl, Xiao Yan. She¡¯s a good girl who knows how to behave, she is also pretty, so she won¡¯t treat you badly. What are you not satisfied with?¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°There¡¯s not a part that I¡¯m satisfied with.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Mrs. Jiang¡¯s hand holding the tea stiffened. She looked up at his expressionless face and asked with a frown, ¡°Did you come back to quarrel?¡± ¡°I do not dare to.¡± His mouth said he didn¡¯t dare, but in reality, he didn¡¯t look like he didn¡¯t, ¡°I just came back to tell you that I don¡¯t agree with the marriage.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t agree?¡± Mrs. Jiang said, ¡°Marriage has always been something important since ancient times and the marriage of children must be decided by parents. Your father left too early, this matter should be decided by me.¡± Jiang Zhan did not feel angry, nor was he disappointed towards his mother who did not care about him since childhood yet suddenly wanted to decide on his marriage. Instead, he only felt ridiculous and somewhat helpless, and didn¡¯t want to talk much to her, ¡°I¡¯ve finished talking, I still have things to do in the company, so I will leave first.¡± After saying that and not waiting for her reaction, Jiang Zhan got up and was about to leave when Mrs. Jiang suddenly asked, ¡°Is it because of that little celebrity with the surname Jiang?¡± Her words made Jiang Zhan¡¯s footsteps stop and he turned around to meet her eyes. He wasn¡¯t surprised that she knew about Jiang Li¡¯s existence and didn¡¯t hide it, ¡°So what if it is.¡± Mrs. Jiang had already known that Jiang Zhan had kept a small celebrity since last year. Jiang Zhan was her son, even though the two were not close, but she still had some knowledge of Jiang Zhan¡¯s situation. In this society, it was very common for rich and powerful people to keep one or two lovers, so she did not care much about the fact that Jiang Zhan had kept a boy, and just thought he was keeping him as a pastime. No matter what, he would eventually go back to the right track at the end of the day. The Shen and Jiang families were family friends and they had a good relationship. Both Mrs. Jiang and the Shen family had the intention of connecting through marriage. When she met up with Mrs. Shen yesterday, they coincidentally met the media reporters, and so she mentioned it casually. However, she didn¡¯t expect Jiang Zhan would come back to find her because of this matter, and to even admit that it was because of the small celebrity he kept that he refused to marry the Shen family daughter, which made her a little surprised. The two looked at each other for a while, Mrs. Jiang shook her head and said, ¡°An entertainer is just an entertainer, they are all over the place now. How is it worth your seriousness.¡± ¡°He¡¯s not an entertainer.¡± Jiang Zhan frowned. He was very unhappy with the word used to describe Jiang Li and his tone was slightly cold, ¡°Please respect his profession. If you have to use ¡®entertainer¡¯ to describe an actor, then Jiang Group is just a theater troupe.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Mrs. Jiang was dumbfounded by his words and felt suffocated by the fact that she couldn¡¯t find any words to refute him. She then indignantly turned everything into ¡°How unreasonable.¡± ¡°The Shen family and us Jiang family are well-matched, it¡¯s the so-called megamerger, so marriage is a completely normal thing. Xiao Yan has already returned, free up some of your time, we¡¯ll go and meet them.¡± Mrs. Jiang said. ¡°Well-matched.¡± Jiang Zhan repeated the word once in a low voice. He then looked straight at her and said, ¡°You and father are also well-matched, and a megamerger, but it didn¡¯t seem like you were living comfortably with each other.¡± When she heard him mention her late husband, Mrs. Jiang froze, as if she remembered something, and fell silent. She and Father Jiang were indeed of an arranged family marriage, and they did not have much affection towards each other. Her father even had a girlfriend before they got married, but he still married her due to family pressure. The two were respectful towards each other after the marriage and didn¡¯t interfere with each other. Although they were living under the same roof, they were living like strangers who had their own matters to deal with. ¡°I still have things to do. I¡¯ll go first, take care of your health.¡± Jiang Zhan nodded at her and turned to leave. Mrs. Jiang didn¡¯t ask him to stay, or else she might fall sick due to anger in this early morning. She sat quietly for a while and finished drinking a cup of tea before she said to Housekeeper Chen, ¡°Prepare the car.¡± ¡°Yes, madam.¡± ¡­ Jiang Li had a lot of experience shooting commercials in his previous life, so this time the perfume advertisement was done smoothly and ended earlier than expected. The photographer for this shoot was very satisfied with Jiang Li¡¯s camera presence, which easily inspired him. If he didn¡¯t have other work scheduled, he really didn¡¯t want to end it so early. Other than the morning commercial shoot, Jiang Li had nothing else scheduled for the day, so he planned to make a trip back to the office to have a meal with Jiang Zhan. When he came out of the building, Jiang Li spotted the fans standing at the flower bed in front of the gate at first glance. Five or six young girls were holding banners with his name. They wanted to go up to him but were embarrassed, so they pushed each other, still remaining at the same place. Jiang Li asked Feng Dong to get the car first and took the initiative to walk towards the girls. A few people saw him walking over and called out excitedly. After signing for each of them, Jiang Li only walked a few steps before he was stopped. A man wearing a three-piece suit with gray hair who looked about sixty years old said to him with a smile on his face, ¡°Mr. Jiang, give us a moment of your time, our madam would like to have a meal with you.¡± After saying that, he made a gesture of invitation with his hand. Jiang Li looked in the direction of his palm and saw a black car parked in front of him, the window of the back seat was half winded down. The person sitting inside also happened to be looking at him. When the two of them met eyes, the other party slightly nodded to him. It was Mrs. Jiang, Jiang Zhan¡¯s mother. Jiang Li had just seen her in the newspaper this morning. Jiang Li was not at all surprised that she would come to see him. When he saw the newspaper this morning, Jiang Zhan said that he would deal with this matter. Now Mrs. Jiang came to his door, it showed that they didn¡¯t have an agreement. Since the elder had personally come to meet him, he couldn¡¯t possibly ignore her. He called Feng Dong and told him to go back first, thanked the person in front of him for the invitation, and walked towards the car. Jiang Li pulled open the car door and got in. He then sat one seat away from Mrs. Jiang and nodded his head towards her in a greeting, ¡°Mrs. Jiang.¡± ¡°En.¡± Mrs. Jiang responded and instructed the driver to drive. It was very quiet in the car, no one took the initiative to talk. The car stopped at a high-end private chef restaurant, the manager waiting at the entrance came forward to help open the car door and brought them to the room which had been prepared in advance. As soon as the two sat down, a waiter came forward to pour tea and serve the dishes then left. Butler Chen was waiting on the side as usual. Jiang Li and Mrs. Jiang sat opposite each other across the table. Jiang Li was very calm, he smiled and looked at her without saying a word. Mrs. Jiang sized up Jiang Li with no intention to cover up the fact that she was sizing him up. Even though she didn¡¯t say anything, there was a distinct judgmental look in her eyes. She looked at Jiang Li intently before she withdrew her gaze and slightly raised her hand to gesture, ¡°Let¡¯s eat first.¡± The tone was not too friendly, but not too cold either, as if she was talking to an ordinary person from a younger generation. After saying that, she asked Butler Chen to sit down and eat with them. Butler Chen had been serving in the Jiang family for forty years, he was nominally a servant, but actually he was more like family. ¡°Thank you madam for your hospitality.¡± Jiang Li was not polite, he picked up his chopsticks and started eating. It was almost time for lunch and he was also a little hungry after shooting commercials for the whole morning. Mrs. Jiang was particular about the habit of not speaking during meals, so she didn¡¯t take the initiative to talk to Jiang Li throughout the meal. After the meal, Butler Chen brought the two to the private wing, called the waiter to prepare tea, and then went out to give the two some privacy to talk. The room was very quiet. Mrs. Jiang drank half a cup of tea before she said to Jiang Li, ¡°Mr. Jiang is a smart man, you should know why I invited you here, right?¡± ¡°You¡¯re flattering me.¡± Seeing that she had finally got to the point, Jiang Li put the cup in his hand back on the saucer and smiled at her, ¡°Forgive my ignorance, but what¡¯s the reason for your invitation?¡± The two sides both knew the answer clearly. Mrs. Jiang was not angry with him for feigning ignorance, she admired his calm demeanor, ¡°I already know about you and my son. As a mother, I¡¯m very grateful. However, Jiang Zhan is the head of the Jiang Group, some improper relationship that should be ended should end before it¡¯s too late.¡± She looked at Jiang Li indifferently as she spoke. But when she said the words ¡®improper relationship¡¯, she remembered Jiang Zhan¡¯s displeasure in the morning and paused slightly, as if she realized that she had made an indiscreet remark. Mrs. Jiang was a well-maintained woman, even though she was in her fifties, there were only a few inconspicuous fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. She was wearing a well-tailored, modified cheongsam, her hair was meticulously coiled at the back, and from the way she acted and spoke, it could be shown that she was a very charming lady of noble birth. Although she said such a thing, Jiang Li unexpectedly did not feel displeased, instead he had the mood to joke, ¡°So does madam mean to give me a name or status?¡± Mrs. Jiang, ¡°¡­¡± She suddenly remembered how Jiang Zhan retorted the word ¡®entertainer¡¯ with a ¡®theatrical troupe¡¯ this morning, and suddenly understood how both of them came to be together; they were both unreasonable. ¡°Mr. Jiang.¡± Mrs. Jiang aggravated her tone, ¡°I am not joking with you.¡± ¡°Actually, I understand what madam means.¡± Jiang Li put away his joking thoughts and said to her with a serious expression, ¡°It¡¯s just that the relationship between Jiang Zhan and I was built by two people together, so forgive me for not being able to unilaterally declare the end of our relationship. If madam agrees, I suggest calling Jiang Zhan as well, so the three of us can have a good talk.¡± ¡°You¡¯re using Jiang Zhan to pressure me?¡± Madam Jiang looked at him with raised eyebrows. ¡°I don¡¯t dare to,¡± Jiang Li shook his head and said grimly, ¡°I respect you, but I also respect Jiang Zhan. We are equal in this relationship, so I have no right to make a decision for him without permission. If he chooses to end our relationship, then I respect his decision and will definitely not cling to him, but this should also be told to me by him, not you. I hope you will understand if my words have offended you.¡± Jiang Li¡¯s words were neither condescending nor arrogant. There was not a sliver of bragging about Jiang Zhan¡¯s relationship with himself in his tone, but simply stating his position calmly and clearly. Mrs. Jiang looked at him in surprise, not expecting him to say something like that. The young man in front of her was sitting upright, facing her without a trace of timidity or flattery. His words showed that he was a very thorough and reasonable person, not the entertainer she had imagined who would seduce others and climb his way to the top. At this time, a knock sounded at the door. Butler Chen pushed in and said to Mrs. Jiang, ¡°Madam, Miss Shen Yan is here to meet you.¡± A head with a bun poked out from behind the butler and the person intimately shouted towards Mrs. Jiang, ¡°Hello, Aunt Pei.¡± Chi Pei was Mrs. Jiang¡¯s name. This restaurant was the private chef restaurant that Shen Yan had invested in after she returned to China. She came over for dinner with her friends today and happened to see Butler Chen at the entrance when she passed by, so she went over to say hello. She then learned that Mrs. Jiang was also here, so she came in to greet. ¡°It¡¯s Xiao Yan.¡± Mrs. Jiang smiled at her. Shen Yan said as she walked in, ¡°Aunt Pei, why did you come over without telling me, I could have personally¡­¡± Her words stopped after she saw Jiang Li, her eyes widened slightly, feeling a little incredulous. She pointed at Jiang Li, ¡°You¡­ you¡­¡± ¡°Hello.¡± Jiang Li nodded towards her, ¡°Do you know me?¡± Shen Yan nodded and excitedly said to him, ¡°I¡¯m your fan, Lord Governor!!!¡± Mrs. Jiang, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li, ¡°¡­¡± On the other hand, after Jiang Zhan finished the meeting and sent the head of the partner company away, he found an unread text message on his cell phone that he didn¡¯t notice earlier as his phone was on silent. He opened it and saw an address and room number sent from Butler Chen, saying that Mrs. Jiang had met up with Jiang Li. When Jiang Zhan saw the message, his fingers suddenly tightened around the phone. He turned and walked towards the elevator, took it to the underground parking lot, and drove to the place Butler Chen sent him. Jiang Zhan quickly arrived at the place. He ignored the waiter that was trying to stop him, directly pushed the door open and entered. Once he entered, he heard a voice, ¡°Don¡¯t you all move, I¡¯m claiming my last tile! Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Zhan looked at the four people sitting around the mahjong table playing in a frenzy, a string snapped in Jiang Zhan¡¯s mind. I rushed over here anxiously, but you¡¯re playing mahjong with my mother huh, Jiang Li?! CH 35 Since Jiang Zhan received the message from Butler Chen, he had been calling Jiang Li several times while he was on the way, but Jiang Li didn¡¯t answer, which made Jiang Zhan a bit worried. He rushed all the way and didn¡¯t expect to see the situation that was happening in front of him. The words ¡°Don¡¯t you all move, I¡¯m claiming my last tile!¡± said with full dominance came from his mother who was usually dignified and magnanimous. While the person he had been worried about was sitting beside his mother, and next to him was Miss Shen Yan and Butler Chen who had sent him the message. There was neither a conflict or a quarrel going on, instead, the four of them were sitting around together and playing mahjong with great enthusiasm. The sound of him pushing the door in was so loud that it drew the attention of the four people who were concentrating on mahjong, and they all looked over at the same time. When Butler Chen saw him, he stood up from his seat and called out ¡°Young Master¡±, while Shen Yan waved and called out ¡°Brother Jiang¡±. Jiang Li felt slightly surprised by his appearance and winked his left eye at him. Mrs. Jiang seemed to have expected that Butler Chen would report the incident to Jiang Zhan, so she didn¡¯t seem surprised to see him. She only looked up at him, lowered her head to even out the mahjong, and casually said, ¡°Just in time, come here.¡± Jiang Zhan walked over, lowered his head, and looked at their chips. Mrs. Jiang had won the most, followed by Shen Yan, Butler Chen, and Jiang Li had lost the most. He remembered that Jiang Li was very good at playing mahjong. When he was playing with Shen Yuzhi and the three of them the last time, they were no match for him. How come he¡¯s losing so badly now? Mrs. Jiang noticed his gaze and inclined her head to look at Jiang Li, ¡°Jiang Li is almost losing it all, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯m almost there.¡± Jiang Li stacked up the mahjong and laughed, ¡°If I keep playing, I¡¯ll lose all the money from the advertisement I just shot today.¡± ¡°Your skill is too poor.¡± Mrs. Jiang pointed at him with her finger, hoping that he would improve, and said to Jiang Zhan who was standing at the side, ¡°Why are you still standing there, make up for it.¡± She meant to ask him to make up the money Jiang Li lost and continue playing. Jiang Zhan was very confused, but he still remained expressionless and looked at Jiang Li who was looking at him with expectation. He took out his wallet and put it next to Jiang Li¡¯s hand. Jiang Li casually picked it up and smiled obediently at him, ¡°Thank you boss, gong xi fa cai.¡± Jiang Zhan reached out and squeezed the back of his neck lightly as a punishment. Jiang Li shrank his neck and waved his hand away, signaling with his eyes that he shouldn¡¯t do anything weird in front of the elders. Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t say anything, he pulled out a chair and sat down next to him. The two people¡¯s actions were noticed by Mrs. Jiang. The corner of her gaze lightly swept over Jiang Zhan for a moment, but she didn¡¯t say anything, and only said faintly, ¡°Let¡¯s start.¡± They only ended in the evening after dinner. Before leaving, Shen Yan reluctantly took Jiang Li¡¯s hand, hoping to meet him next time. She asked Jiang Li if she could visit him during shoots and ensured that she wouldn¡¯t cause him any trouble. In this world, although Jiang Li and Shen Yan were the same age, counting it from his previous life, Jiang Li¡¯s actual age was much older than hers. The young girl was beautiful and had a favorable personality. After spending their time in a day of mahjong, he had subconsciously treated her as his sister. He agreed to her request of visiting during his shoots and even caressed Shen Yan¡¯s head in the end. When Jiang Zhan, who was beside him saw this, he had drunk a whole bottle of vinegar. He then thought, why not just let Jiang Li and Shen Yan get engaged instead of him? After Shen Yan left, Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan sent Mrs. Jiang to her car before the two walked to the place where Jiang Zhan parked his car. When they reached home, Jiang Zhan asked what happened today and why his mother¡¯s conversation with Jiang Li ended up playing mahjong together, as it was too unimaginable. ¡°I also think it¡¯s a bit unbelievable.¡± Jiang Li smiled as he shook his head. When he learned that Shen Yan was his fan and Shen Yuzhi¡¯s sister, Jiang Li was very surprised, he didn¡¯t expect to meet Jiang Zhan¡¯s mother and his so-called ¡®marriage partner¡¯ all in one day. Shen Yan didn¡¯t know the relationship between Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan. Once the girl saw Jiang Li, her whole person switched into fan mode. She made a whole series of confessions as a true fan, which made Jiang Li and Mrs. Jiang a little confused. However, it was also her appearance that broke the confrontation between Jiang Li and Mrs. Jiang and eased the atmosphere. After confessing to Jiang Li, Shen Yan asked how Mrs. Jiang knew him. Before Mrs. Jiang had a chance to answer, Shen Yan made up her own story of an older fan chasing her idol. She thought that Mrs. Jiang was the same as herself, who also liked the dramas in which Jiang Li played and asked him to come out to meet her. Hence, she pulled Mrs. Jiang out for another round of fan recognition in front of their idol. After a round of this mess, Mrs. Jiang was too lazy to clear up the situation, she couldn¡¯t possibly say that Jiang Li was her son¡¯s boyfriend, and your mother and I have the intention to let you and my son get married, so I invited Jiang Li to meet up so I can ask them to break up, right? As a true fan, Shen Yan wasn¡¯t willing to leave anymore since she had suddenly met her idol. After sitting next to Mrs. Jiang, she had her eyes on Jiang Li. Her face was full of live comments of ¡°OMG My idol is just sitting in front of me, his real life is more handsome than on TV, I¡¯m dying save me pls!¡± Towards the fact that her favored daughter-in-law suddenly became a fan of Jiang Li, Mrs. Jiang felt a headache and wanted to leave, but Shen Yan pulled the edge of her coat and wouldn¡¯t let go. While Jiang Li also really couldn¡¯t stand such an enthusiastic gaze, he then hesitated and suggested that they should find some other fun activities to pass the time. Before Mrs. Jiang could say anything, Shen Yan applauded and said yes, with an expression of ¡°We¡¯ll do whatever you say¡±. In the end, it turned into a mahjong session, and even Butler Chen was dragged down as they were short of one player. What happened next was then witnessed by Jiang Zhan. After listening to his words, Jiang Zhan was speechless regarding the development, and didn¡¯t know if he should say it¡¯s good or bad. Moreover, he had also watched how Jiang Li went easy on his mother perfectly, helping her to play aggressively and win the matches. ¡°I worried about you for nothing.¡± Jiang Zhan said after a moment. Jiang Li smiled at his words, put down Jiang Nuomi which was in his arms and went over to kiss the corner of his lips, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, your mother isn¡¯t an unreasonable person.¡± Although at first Mrs. Jiang did say something that wasn¡¯t very pleasant, Jiang Li could understand that a family like the Jiang family wanted to find a daughter-in-law who could be a good match to their family. ¡°What did she say to you?¡± Jiang Zhan asked. ¡°She gave me ten million yuan to leave you.¡± Jiang Li said in a serious manner. ¡°Oh?¡± Jiang Zhan raised his eyebrows at him, ¡°Then what did you say?¡± ¡°I said ah¡­¡± Jiang Li stretched the tone of his words, raised his long legs, and sat on his lap. His two hands wrapped around his neck, he then intimately rubbed his own nose with Jiang Zhan¡¯s, with a smile in his voice, ¡°Ten million is nothing, the president of Jiang Group is worth more than this figure, I just need to firmly grasp onto you, then what is yours is mine.¡± ¡°You do know how to plan.¡± Jiang Zhan laughed lightly, reached out to hold the back of Jiang Li¡¯s head, tilted and kissed his lips. His lips and teeth intertwined as he murmured softly, ¡°I¡¯m all yours ¡­¡± The warm kiss, the intertwined bodies, and the ambiguous sound of water continued intermittently for most of the night. ¡­ After that, Jiang Zhan went back to the Jiang family and talked to Mrs. Jiang once. Both mother and son talked for half a day in the study room upstairs, no one was allowed to disturb. After the talk, although Mrs. Jiang didn¡¯t really accept Jiang Li¡¯s existence, she also didn¡¯t ask them to break up anymore. She would just find someone to go shopping or play mahjong with her when she had free time, living very comfortably. Jiang Li was still repeating the life of filming, rushing for commercial shoots, and Shen Yan became the president of the Jiang Li fan group, she would then be the first in supporting him or tearing up his haters. In the blink of an eye, it had been one year after the broadcast of ¡®Long River and Falling Moon¡¯. Jiang Li won the ¡®Best Supporting Actor¡¯ award for his role as Liu Chuandeng. After the broadcast of ¡®Undercover¡¯, his role as Lu Minyu appeared on the screen, a young soldier with a passionate heart for his country. The audience in front of the screen could also feel the noble-mindedness of dying for the country. After that, Jiang Li shot a lot of dramas, and won many awards. In just four years, Jiang Li¡¯s name became a name which everyone knew, and he also became one of the top signature celebrities of the Jiang Group. However, at this time, the well-known star was fighting with his own cat son. Jiang Nuomi was usually very obedient in front of Jiang Li, except for one thing, and that was bathing. Most cats were afraid of water, and Jiang Nuomi was no exception. Usually the job of giving Jiang Nuomi a bath was the responsibility of Jiang Zhan, but this time Jiang Zhan was still out of province for business, so Jiang Li had to do it himself, clean up the soy sauce bottle that was knocked over and splashed himself all over by the stupid cat. He had been in this world for more than four years, and Jiang Nuomi had been with them for four years. Thanks to Jiang Zhan¡¯s strict supervision of its exercise, Jiang Nuomi was very healthy, it¡¯s just that it didn¡¯t have a fun-loving personality. Both of them spent half a day taking a bath. Jiang Li carried it out from the bathroom with an absorbent towel, he then used a hair dryer to help it dry its hair. The fluffiness was so comfortable that he touched it two more times, and even wanted to take a picture to send to Jiang Zhan. However, after he turned away, Jiang Nuomi escaped. Based on how Jiang Nuomi would usually act after bathing, it would definitely throw a tantrum towards him for half a day. Jiang Li was also accustomed to Jiang Nuomi being pretentious. He sent a message to Jiang Zhan to ask him what he was doing. Just after he sent the message, Feng Dong¡¯s phone call came in. Feng Dong brought him news, the director of ¡®Mountain Tea Garden¡¯, Director Lin, was preparing to shoot a sequel. From the leaked information, the script was still being revised and would be announced to the public. After hanging up the phone, Feng Dong sent over the first version of the script so that Jiang Li could read and consider whether he was interested in auditioning. ¡®Mountain Tea Garden¡¯ was an anti-narcotics movie. The story was about a major drug trafficker, Nighthawk, who used the base of a mountain tea plantation as a cover to secretly produce large quantities of drugs and trade them to drug dealers around the world, while fighting against the anti-narcotics team in City D. The first movie¡¯s male lead was Jin Yu, who played as the main character Jiang Feng, the head of City D¡¯s anti-narcotics team. Once, in retaliation by drug dealers, Jiang Feng¡¯s brother Jiang Mian was taken away by drug dealers on his way home from school. At the same time, a new type of drug called ¡®Gain¡¯ was secretly flowing into the black-market trade. In the ending of the first movie, Jiang Feng died with Nighthawk to protect his brothers, while after Jiang Mian was rescued, under the influence of Jiang Feng, he entered the police academy with determination. The sequel was about Jiang Mian¡¯s story after he grew up. ¡®Gain¡¯, which originally had been destroyed, suddenly reappeared in the black market. The hallucinogenic effect was so much stronger than before, and one after another people died from an overdose. The earliest appearance of ¡®Gain¡¯ was in the remote Long District. Long District¡¯s anti-narcotics brigade was blocked several times when they wanted to investigate and had no choice but to apply for assistance from the City D anti-narcotics team. In order to effectively stop the tragedy from happening again, the City D¡¯s anti-narcotics team launched a ¡®Ban Gain¡¯ program. And, Jiang Mian was the core commander of this plan. After reading the script carefully twice, Jiang Li called Feng Dong back. ¡°Help me to make the arrangements, I want to participate in the audition.¡± CH 36 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume Feng Dong had expected that Jiang Li would go for the audition of ¡®Mountain Tea Garden¡¯. Being Jiang Li¡¯s agent for so long, he knew Jiang Li¡¯s personality of wanting to try out every kind of character very well. Once, a modern drama invited him to play the first male lead. The script was very ordinary and could even be considered poorly created, but the role of a psychiatrist in it was very outstanding. He didn¡¯t hesitate to give up on the male lead and took the role of the psychiatrist, and was able to finally carry the viewership of the whole drama himself. After confirming with Jiang Li, Feng Dong called the director, Lin Zhendong¡¯s, assistant. Lin Zhendong was at this point 71 years old. He was the leading director in the Chinese film industry and had won many box office championships in Chinese films; including the Golden Bear Award, Golden Rooster Award, and Hundred Flowers Award; and was one of the representatives who pushed the Chinese film industry to international heights. When the famous actor Zeng Shun won the film award with Lin Zhendong, he once said that as an actor, if he had never worked with Director Lin in his life, it would be the biggest regret in his acting career. Jiang Li had also studied many of Lin Zhendong¡¯s films and hoped to have the opportunity to work with him. However, ten years ago he had shown signs of retreating from the industry. Apart from teaching his two students in their film productions, he didn¡¯t direct any more films for the past ten years. Now that the former titan of the film industry had re-emerged, the people who wanted to work with him were naturally like carps in the river. [T/N: Carps in the river means a lot.] What surprised Feng Dong was that the other party was also interested in inviting Jiang Li to audition. He said that he had seen the role Jiang Li played and was very appreciative of his acting skills. After agreeing on the time of the audition, Feng Dong was a little excited. He quickly called Jiang Li back and told him to go to City Z for the audition the day after next. City Z was where Jiang Zhan was having a business trip. Jiang Zhan was also unable to return from his business trip in a short time, so it was just in time for Jiang Li to go over. However, they might need to ask Ji Shu¡¯s wife to help them take care of Jiang Nuomi again. Two years before, Ji Shu had married his girlfriend of eight years, and Jiang Li still remembered how Jiang Zhan, who was sitting next to him, gently held his hand without others seeing when they exchanged rings in the hall. Jiang Li leaned on the sofa, recalled the past four years and unconsciously laughed softly. He actually felt that he was having a comfortable and tranquil life, with a steady relationship that he had longed for. The helplessness of being forced into this world had long since disappeared, and was replaced by happiness that he had never felt before. ¡°Host, you seem to be in a very good mood.¡± System¡¯s voice rang out, ¡°Is it because of the new movie?¡± ¡°Half of it.¡± Jiang Li smiled, he was of course happy that he was able to go for the audition of the film of the director he admired, but more than that, he felt a sense of satisfaction that he had never felt before when he looked back on the years he had spent with Jiang Zhan. Jiang Li loved the job of an actor, but didn¡¯t consider it as the only thing in his life. This was evident from his early announcement of his retirement from the industry in his previous life. Now there was someone around to spend a lifetime with. Comparing both, certainly Jiang Zhan was more important. ¡°Little Cutie, is the favorability still maintained at 95%?¡± Jiang Li asked. ¡°Yes, there¡¯s no change.¡± Jiang Li pulled out the system tablet that he hadn¡¯t paid attention to for a long time, clicked on Jiang Zhan¡¯s interface, and the first column of the favorability showed 95%. After the favorability had unlocked the deep love achievement and reached 95% two years before, the data hadn¡¯t shown any other changes in the last two years. At first System thought it was a data malfunction and tried to refresh the backstage several times to fix it, but the data shown remained the same, proving that Jiang Zhan¡¯s favorability did stop at 95%. The system had doubts but Jiang Li didn¡¯t care about this. Regardless of the favorability, Jiang Zhan¡¯s feelings for himself didn¡¯t need to be expressed. Moreover, thinking from another perspective, if the favorability wasn¡¯t full, this meant that he wouldn¡¯t be able to leave this world. System said that even if the task was completed, the host could choose to leave or stay, but there was nothing perfect in the world. He still couldn¡¯t trust this system completely. So, even though the favorability was stagnant, it was not a bad thing for him. The information belonging to Jiang Zhan on the tablet was just a simple sentence when he had first come, but as he captured him, they had all been filled. Even Jiang Zhan¡¯s dressing and eating preferences weren¡¯t left behind. While in the personal information, the name ¡®Jiang Li¡¯ was written clearly in the spouse column. The information of the male lead on the system was automatically generated according to his personal perception, which meant that in Jiang Zhan¡¯s heart, Jiang Li was his other half. Jiang Li put the system tablet away, stretched and got up from the sofa to look for Jiang Nuomi who was sulking and out of sight. Two days later, Jiang Li took a plane to City Z. He didn¡¯t tell Jiang Zhan about him going over, and only contacted Ji Shu. Ji Shu knew he was coming and had arranged for someone to wait for him at the airport, to send him to the hotel where Jiang Zhan was staying. Jiang Zhan was very busy during this business trip. He met with partner companies during the day and socialized at night, so he was so busy that his feet hardly touched the ground, and it was almost 1:00 am when he returned to the hotel. [T/N: His feet hardly touched the ground: Very busy] After being busy working for a few days, and drinking a lot of wine, Jiang Zhan had a headache. Ji Shu helped him open the door, inserted the room card and then waved his hand, asking him to rest. He then closed the door, ready to take a shower and sleep well, but after walking two steps he saw luggage placed beside the sofa in the wing. The silver gray suitcase reflected silver lines under the light and Jiang Nuomi¡¯s photo was unusually conspicuous on the luggage. Jiang Zhan, who was drowsy earlier, suddenly became sober as if he had water poured on him and a huge surprise appeared in front of him. Jiang Zhan strode in the direction of the bedroom, through the narrow gap of the unclosed door, he saw faint light coming out. His hand suddenly stopped as he was about to touch the door knob. He slowly grasped onto it and pushed open the door gently. The bedroom was air-conditioned and a bulge could be seen in the middle of the large bed. Jiang Li liked to sleep in low temperature, rolling himself in the blanket made him feel secure. Jiang Zhan subconsciously lightened his footsteps, walked around the bed, and saw a head peeking out from the blanket. At that moment, Jiang Zhan felt that something warm was spreading out in his heart. He sat down at the edge of the bed, reached out and gently pulled the blanket that was covering Jiang Li¡¯s head to look at his sleeping face. He looked at it quietly for a while, and lowered his head to kiss the tip of his nose. Although his action was very gentle, he still woke Jiang Li up. The two of them looked at each other, Jiang Li¡¯s sleepy eyes slowly turning clear. He blinked twice and crawled out from the blanket, ¡°You¡¯re back.¡± As he said this, he smelled the heavy scent of alcohol on Jiang Zhan. He wrinkled his nose and asked discontentedly, ¡°Why did you drink so much?¡± Jiang Zhan also knew he smelled bad and stood up from the bed, ¡°I¡¯ll go take a shower first.¡± Jiang Li grasped onto him, got up from the bed, directly jumped on his back, and wrapped his arms around his neck, ¡°Let¡¯s go together.¡± Jiang Zhan lowered his head, smiled and carried him into the bathroom. The two of them did it in the bathroom for almost two hours, and Jiang Li was carried out by Jiang Zhan when it ended. The two laid on the bed. Jiang Li told Jiang Zhan about his audition and asked him when he would be done with his work, and if it was early, they could go back together. Jiang Zhan was almost done with his work over here, he would only need to leave the next tasks to Ji Shu, so he said he would go to the audition with him the next day. ¡°The president of Jiang Group is going to accompany me to the audition.¡± Jiang Li turned his body and laid on Jiang Zhan¡¯s chest, ¡°I¡¯m such a big shot.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good that you know.¡± Jiang Zhan lightly patted the top of his head and slightly increased the room¡¯s air conditioning temperature, ¡°You have an audition tomorrow, go to sleep.¡± ¡°Good night.¡± Jiang Li came nearer to kiss him and rolled over to lie next to him. ¡°Good night.¡± ¡­ The next day, the two of them arrived at Director Lin¡¯s house twenty minutes early. Although Old Master Lin was over seventy years old, his body was still strong and he was energetic as he spoke with great enthusiasm. The official script of ¡®Mountain Tea Garden¡¯ was still being revised, and it was not yet time for formal casting, so Jiang Li¡¯s audition this time was a shortcut specially given to him by the old master. The old man had been semi-retired for a long time, but he still occasionally paid attention to some of the news in the entertainment circle and knew of Jiang Li¡¯s existence because his granddaughter liked him. He had watched Jiang Li¡¯s drama with her. As a director for decades, Old Master Lin had contributed two-thirds of his life to film production, so he knew how much capability an actor had by one glance. Jiang Li¡¯s acting skills and presentation impressed him. Even if Jiang Li didn¡¯t take the initiative to contact the production of ¡®Mountain Tea Garden¡¯ this time, he would still ask his assistant to send Jiang Li an invitation. While Jiang Li was in the audition, Jiang Zhan was waiting in the waiting room. He was not worried about Jiang Li¡¯s audition this time, and with Jiang Li¡¯s ability, he was confident that Jiang Li would pass. The audition didn¡¯t take too long. About twenty minutes later, Jiang Li and Old Master Lin came out of the house. From their conversation, Jiang Zhan heard that the role had been finalized, the main actor for Jiang Mian in ¡®Mountain Tea Garden¡¯ would be played by Jiang Li. This was expected by Jiang Zhan. He promised to Old Master Lin that Jiang Group would invest another 100 million in the production of ¡®Mountain Tea Garden¡¯. On the way back, Feng Dong was the driver. Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan sat in the backseat as they chatted and discussed the next two days of fun at the famous attractions in City Z, just as Jiang Li had no work scheduled for the next few days, and Jiang Zhan was also not busy. Old Master Lin had been cultivating his own moral and molding his temperament these years, and was living in the mountains that was far from the city. Although there were not many cars on the way back to the city, the mountain roads were windy and not easy to drive. Jiang Li glanced at the trees and the mountains surrounding them and reminded Feng Dong to drive slower. Feng Dong smiled as he inclined his head and responded ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I know ¡­¡­¡± ¡°There¡¯s a car!!!¡± Jiang Zhan, who was sitting next to Jiang Li, suddenly shouted. Suddenly, a truck had come out from a junction where the road was blocked by the mountain. Feng Dong was shocked and quickly turned the steering wheel to the left, making a sharp turn. They were able to avoid the truck but were caught off guard as they crashed into the foot of the mountain. ¡°Boom -¡± a strong impact made the whole car shake violently. The accident had happened in a flash, Jiang Li snapped open his eyes. It was a familiar scene, as if it was the last moment he faced before his death in his previous life. As his sight was shaking, he saw Jiang Zhan who jumped onto him and protected him underneath his body. Jiang Li was slowly losing his consciousness. He felt something warm dripping from the body of Jiang Zhan, who was protecting himself, onto his face. One drop after another, they slid down his face and into the collar of his shirt. He felt a sharp pain in his heart and opened his mouth to call out to him, but finally lost consciousness. ¡­ Jiang Li didn¡¯t know how long had passed until he heard the sound of someone talking in his ear. However, the sound was a little too soft for him to hear clearly. He felt a subtle pain from his head, making him frown. He opened his heavy eyes and a large white ceiling appeared in his vision. There was the sound of something dripping coming from the medical instrument next to him. Where am I? Jiang Li went into a trance for a moment, and then remembered the figure of Jiang Zhan jumping over and hugging him before he lost his consciousness. He suddenly sat up on the bed, lifted open the blanket, and wanted to get off the bed. However, the nurse beside him saw what was happening and quickly held onto him as she said, ¡°Your body is very weak now, please don¡¯t simply move around.¡± ¡°Where is the person who is with me?¡± Jiang Li grabbed her hand and asked anxiously ¡°Where are the people who were brought in with me? Are they okay?!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, everyone else is safe, lie down first.¡± The nurse said, trying to help him lie down. Although she said so, Jiang Li¡¯s heart was beating rapidly, as if there was a kind of uneasiness enveloping his whole body. He could not stay quietly any longer, he just wanted to see Jiang Zhan quickly. He broke free from the nurse¡¯s grip and walked quickly towards the outside. He was then met with the person who was entering the room. The familiar yet strange face of the person made his footsteps stop suddenly. His eyes were filled with disbelief as opened his mouth and called out, ¡°¡­ Brother Xu¡± Xu Guoren was Jiang Li¡¯s manager in his previous life. When he saw Jiang Li had woken up, his worried expression turned into surprise. He stepped forward and grabbed Jiang Li¡¯s hand, ¡°You¡¯re finally awake! I was worried sick! Do you know how long you¡¯ve been in a coma?¡± ¡°What did you say?¡± Jiang Li felt a little stuck in his mind, his ears were still buzzing due to the after-effects of the car accident, making him unable to hear what he was saying, but chill could be felt creeping up from his feet. ¡°What did you say?¡± Jiang Li heard himself ask another question; his whole body was uncontrollably trembling as he grasped onto Xu Guoren¡¯s hand. His throat was as if it had been sawed, it was arduous and hoarse, ¡°Where is Jiang Zhan? How is he?¡± ¡°Jiang Zhan?¡± Xu Guoren looked confused, ¡°Who are you talking about? Ah Li, are you still not fully recovered? I¡¯ll go call the doctor.¡± Xu Guoren then went out of the ward. Jiang Li looked at his back as he left and stood frozen in place, he looked down at his hands as if he had realized something, he then rolled up the sleeve of his left hand, revealing the scar on his arm. This was the scar left during a shoot when he first entered the entertainment industry, a scar that only existed in his previous life. After a long while, Jiang Li whispered to System in his heart, but no one answered. He just stood in place and called it repeatedly many times, the little cutie that accompanied him in another world didn¡¯t respond, as if it had never appeared before. This world had no All-Rounded Strategy Game, no Little Cutie System, no Jiang Nuomi who was pretentious, and even more so, no Jiang Zhan who promised him that he would stay with him for a lifetime. The game ended in the same way as he was pulled into it, as if it was just a fleeting dream, and now he was the only one who had woken up. Why¡­ the favorability isn¡¯t full yet right? The coldness of his hands and feet spread through his entire body little by little, Jiang Li felt as if he was in an ice cellar, trembling with coldness. The blood that Jiang Zhan had dripped onto his face before he fell unconscious seemed to still be on his face, he raised his hand to touch it, but he only felt a handful of wet hot tears. CH 37 Jiang Li was shrouded by darkness. Except for the circle of light under his feet, the surroundings were just darkness. He remembered that he woke up in the hospital and saw his agent that he hadn¡¯t seen for a long time. After realizing that he had returned to the world of his previous life, his brain felt painful as if it had exploded, losing consciousness. When he woke up again, he was in this darkness. After walking in the dark for a long time, Jiang Li found that there was no one else here. No matter how he called out, no one answered, not even his own echo. When he was at a loss, the two sides suddenly lit up. His past experiences began to play like a movie wall, showing scenes from an innocent baby to a famous movie star in both film and television. In the fast-paced images, he saw his long-dead parents, the kind and friendly director of the orphanage, the fans outside the filming set, and the agents and assistants who had been with him for years. All of these were images of his previous life. He stood and looked for a long time but couldn¡¯t find any shadow of Jiang Zhan. ¡°¡­ Is everything a dream?¡± Jiang Li stood in front of the wall, looking at the mirror image in front of him as he murmured to himself. He reached forward to touch them but was afraid that they would disappear with a touch. His fingers stopped at a distance of less than two centimeters from them, his fingertips trembling slightly. If it was a dream, why was everything so real? The anxious expression of Jiang Zhan when he jumped to protect him, the arms that hugged him so tightly, and the blood that trickled onto his face, as if they were still in front of him. Everything was so real that he couldn¡¯t deceive himself, so how could it be a dream?! His head suddenly hurt violently. Jiang Li felt like his brain was in a mess, as if there were countless hands pulling his nerves, so much so that he squatted down with his hands on his head, clenching his teeth tightly. ¨CThe existence of every dimension has its own inevitable meaning, as long as you treat it sincerely, then everything is real. A mechanical and calm voice suddenly sounded in his ears, like a hand reaching out from the darkness, pulling him out of the chaos. Jiang Li looked up quickly and found that the mirror images on both sides suddenly broke apart with a clang, turning into fragments as they scattered throughout space. They then finally turned into a corona of light that scattered out, but the surrounding darkness slowly brightened up. A blurry yet familiar back appeared in front of Jiang Li, walking forward with his back facing him, Jiang Li didn¡¯t know where he wanted to go. Jiang Zhan¡­ Jiang Li came back to his senses; he quickly ran to catch up. He reached out to pull him, after his fingers touched him, the whole figure turned into a corona of light, and it instantly dissipated. ¡°Jiang Zhan!¡± Jiang Li sat up suddenly from the bed, his hands propped up at his sides as he panted heavily, bean-sized cold sweat could be seen rolling down his forehead. ¡°Host, you¡¯re awake.¡± System¡¯s voice echoed in his head, the mechanical voice brought Jiang Li an unprecedented peace of mind, he hesitated for a moment, ¡°Little cutie?¡± ¡°It¡¯s me.¡± System responded, ¡°Are you okay? The doctor said you have a concussion, and you have been unconscious for about five hours since the accident.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still fine, just a little headache¡­¡± Jiang Li¡¯s words stopped abruptly, he caught the important point in its words. Unconscious for five hours ¡­ then where¡¯s Jiang Zhan? And Feng Dong? Are they okay? Thinking of this, Jiang Li lifted the quilt and got out of bed, but his movement was too big, causing him to sway twice. He quickly held onto the bed and stood properly, leaving the ward after calming down for half a minute. When the nurse who came to check on him saw him coming out, she hurriedly went up to him and asked, ¡°You¡¯re awake, how do you feel? Does your head still hurt?¡± The scene in front of him almost overlapped with the one in the dream just now, causing Jiang Li to go into a trance briefly. He couldn¡¯t tell which one was the dream and which one was the reality for a while. However, his concern for Jiang Zhan made him come to his senses quickly and he asked the nurse anxiously, ¡°May I ask where the people with me are? Are they okay?¡± ¡°There are three of you together, the other two men are more seriously injured, but their lives aren¡¯t in danger. They are currently in ward 301 on the third floor¡­ Eh, wait, your body has not yet recovered!¡± The nurse¡¯s anxious voice could be heard from behind, but Jiang Li couldn¡¯t wait anymore. He didn¡¯t even wear shoes when he came out, He ran barefoot to the ward which the nurse had said and found Jiang Zhan and Feng Dong. As the nurse said, both of their lives weren¡¯t in danger, but they hadn¡¯t woken up yet and were still under observation. When Ji Shu returned from the stairs after a phone call, he saw Jiang Li standing in his bare feet by Jiang Zhan¡¯s bed, frozen. He hurriedly walked over, ¡°Ah Li, you¡¯re awake!¡± Jiang Li turned his head to look at him and met his eyes filled with concern, his heart, which had been hanging in mid-air, suddenly calmed down and the whole person was much more awake. He asked him in a low voice, ¡°I¡¯m okay, what about them?¡± ¡°President Jiang and Brother Feng had excessive blood loss, but the good news is that it¡¯s not life-threatening, and the doctor said they¡¯ll be fine when they wake up.¡± Ji Shu said, noticing that Jiang Li¡¯s hand that was resting beside his leg was trembling nervously. Knowing that he was overly worried, he reached out and pulled the stool over, ¡°You are also injured, sit down first, don¡¯t worry too much.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Jiang Li held the back of the chair and sat down, his eyes sticking onto Jiang Zhan who was still lying on the bed unconscious. Only five hours had passed but he felt like it had been a lifetime. He carefully reached out to hold Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand. He felt that his hand was a little cold, but the real touch slowly drove away his inner turmoil. Ji Shu exited the ward and gently closed the door behind him. Jiang Li kept the same posture while sitting by the bed for a long time. When Ji Shu came in to persuade him to go back to rest, he acted like he didn¡¯t hear and grabbed Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand, refusing to move, as if he was going to stay here with Jiang Zhan tonight. Ji Shu was helpless; he went to find the doctor to change the ward. After he left, Jiang Li asked System, ¡°Little cutie, I remember you said before that if I failed this capture, you¡¯ll delete the files and I¡¯ll need to start over. As long as the task isn¡¯t completed, this world will be repeated endlessly, is that right?¡± The system didn¡¯t immediately answer him, as if it knew what he was thinking about and fell into silence for a while and said, ¡°Sorry Host, the premise of deleting the file to start over is only when force majeure conditions cause the mission to fail, the main system will automatically choose the mission to restart, but the host has no right to choose it themselves.¡± This meant that Jiang Li had no right to delete the file and restart. ¡°It¡¯s like that¡­¡± Jiang Li laughed in a low tone, took a deep breath, and suppressed the bitterness that flowed out from the depths of his heart. ¡°Host, are you okay?¡± System felt a gloominess that it had never felt before in his mind and asked worriedly. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Jiang Li shook his head and repeated again, ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± I just¡­ just want to be greedy so I can spend more time with him. ¡­ Ji Shu asked a doctor to change the ward, separating Jiang Zhan and Feng Dong. He and Feng Dong stayed in the same ward so he could take care of Feng Dong, and Jiang Li stayed in the same ward as Jiang Zhan. Jiang Zhan woke up the next day. When he woke up, Jiang Li had fallen asleep as he was leaning against the back of the chair, but his hand was still holding Jiang Zhan¡¯s hand. When Jiang Zhan moved, he also woke up. ¡°You¡¯re awake?!¡± Jiang Li flung himself from the chair to the bedside and asked anxiously, ¡°Anywhere uncomfortable? Do you have a headache? Can you hear me clearly?¡± Jiang Zhan¡¯s voice was very hoarse, he grabbed Jiang Li and said, with some difficulty, ¡°Are you okay?¡± Before the accident, Jiang Zhan jumped over to protect Jiang Li under his body, and the first thing he said when he woke up was to ask if Jiang Li was okay. Looking at the gauze wrapped around his head, Jiang Li¡¯s eyes became warm, and the tears he had held back for a long time almost flowed out. He sniffed, ¡°It¡¯s you who¡¯s not fine, okay? Who told you to protect me? Are you out of your mind?¡± Jiang Zhan was scolded to his face, but he didn¡¯t get angry. The corners of his lips slightly hooked, ¡°What are you crying for? So delicate.¡± ¡°I fucking thought you were going to die, okay?¡± Jiang Li laughed and scolded, but tears fell down unguarded. He reached out to wipe them, but the more he wiped, the more his tears flowed out. In a blink of an eye, half of his face was wet as it was filled with tears. The fear of not seeing Jiang Zhan again in the dream surfaced once more from the bottom of his heart. The realization that he might leave this world at any time made him almost unable to control himself. He always thought that on the day he left he would be able to say goodbye to this world and then go on to the next world to complete the capture. However, now he realized that just separating from Jiang Zhan made his heart hurt so much he could hardly breathe. The person in front of him wasn¡¯t someone else, not the so-called capture target, but his lover, someone who was willing to take his life to protect himself in the moment between life and death. After being loved unconditionally by him, how was he willing to leave him for another person? Jiang Zhan initially just wanted to make a joke, but he didn¡¯t expect that he would make him cry. The two people had been together for so many years, other than crying on the bed after he did Jiang Li too hard, Jiang Li never dropped a tear at any other time. But now he was crying so hard that he couldn¡¯t catch his breath in front of Jiang Zhan. Jiang Zhan¡¯s heart ached for him. He sat up with one hand and clumsily reached out to help him wipe his tears. He coaxed while wiping, ¡°I¡¯m just saying, don¡¯t cry, okay? I won¡¯t die that easily, we still have many years to live together, don¡¯t worry.¡± The words ¡°We still have many years to live together¡± poked the most painful part of Jiang Li¡¯s heart. Jiang Li covered his eyes but couldn¡¯t cover the tears trickling down. ¡°Don¡¯t cry¡­¡± Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t have any other way to coax him, so he could only divert Jiang Li¡¯s attention by pretending to have a headache. Although Jiang Zhan woke up, he still needed to stay in the hospital for two more days of observation. Feng Dong also woke up in the same night, he would also need to stay in the hospital for observation. The news that Jiang Li was hospitalized due to a car accident was reported by the media the next day. Various media and fans came to look for him, the former wanted to dig some exclusive reports while the latter wanted to care about the health of their beloved idol. As too many people came by, it seriously affected the daily operation of the hospital. Ji Shu had no choice but to change the ward again, and then hired bodyguards to guard the stairs and elevators, prohibiting all media and fans from disturbing them. Although Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t have any major issues, electrocardiograms were attached to him so it wasn¡¯t easy for him to move around. He even needed Jiang Li¡¯s help to go to the toilet. Jiang Li didn¡¯t complain at all about serving him, instead, he was eager to try. He removed Jiang Zhan¡¯s pants swiftly, one hand was holding the urine bottle, and another poked the part in between his legs. He picked it up and shook it with interest, ¡°Why is it soft?¡± Jiang Zhan, ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li, you¡¯d better stop what you¡¯re doing. However, Jiang Li didn¡¯t hear his thoughts. He pinched Jiang Zhan¡¯s member twice and accidentally made it react. ¡°Oops, sorry, my hand itched to touch it two more times.¡± Jiang Li let go of his hand and looked at Jiang Zhan with an innocent expression, then said with a sigh of relief, ¡°Mr. Jiang still has a great spirit even though handicapped!¡± Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡± Your hands itch? I think it¡¯s your butt that is itchy.. CH 38 Jiang Zhan stayed in the hospital for two days before going back to City S with Jiang Li. Feng Dong was more seriously injured as he had been sitting in the driver¡¯s seat, so he stayed in City Z Hospital for further treatment. Ji Shu arranged for a caregiver for him before leaving. During Jiang Zhan¡¯s hospitalization, Shen Yuzhi and the others said they wanted to fly over to visit but Jiang Zhan stopped them. Who knows, probably these three people wanted to come here not to visit but to make fun of him. After returning from City Z, Jiang Zhan rested at home. Mrs. Jiang came to see him once and found that he was fine, so her mind was put at ease. After that, Shen Yuzhi, Zhao Guanyu, and Sun Zelin also came to visit him. The three of them bickered, giving Jiang Zhan a headache. How he wished that he had a dog instead of a cat, so he could close the door and let the dog shoo them away. After Jiang Li received the script of ¡°Mountain Tea Garden¡±, he did not schedule any other work and focused on preparing for the film crew two months later through exercising under the guidance of a personal trainer. For those two months, the public hardly got any news about him until the production¡¯s official Weibo released the cast¡¯s stage photos. Old Master Lin was a giant in the film directing industry, while Jiang Li was a popular actor with both acting skills and great appearance. The cooperation between the two had people in anticipation. There were many people who had reviewed the prequel because the sequel would start shooting soon. The first shooting location of ¡°Mountain Tea Garden¡± was in Long County, which was located in a remote and high location. The weather was burning hot, even in November, it still could pull a layer of skin off. The cast and crew were getting sunburned every day to a point that they were screaming. Masks and sunscreens were useless under the hot, blazing, sun. Under such harsh conditions, Jiang Li was the only person unaffected. Not only did his skin not get tanned, there weren¡¯t even any signs of dehydration. Every time he posted a Weibo, the comments were his fans shouting and asking him to share his skin care routine. Towards this, Jiang Li could only say ¡°Drink more water¡±. He couldn¡¯t possibly say that he had taken the Pill of Fair Skin as Jade that the system had rewarded. As ¡°Mountain Tea Garden¡± was a drug-themed movie, Jiang Li needed to travel across a number of cities, and there were even two filming locations abroad. The filming alone took nearly a year, and then another half a year for editing; the production period was very long. After the final scene had been shot, Jiang Li applied for a two-month long vacation. There were special teams responsible for his schedule, so once the application was handed in, it was directly transferred to Jiang Zhan. Jiang Zhan looked at the words ¡°Family Visit¡± in the column of the reason to leave and approved it without saying a word. Then, he asked Ji Shu to prepare a copy of his work schedule and send it over. After taking care of his most important work, Jiang Zhan also gave himself a vacation and went back home with Jiang Li. Ever since the first time he went back home with Jiang Li, Jiang Zhan would go back with Jiang Li every year. Over time, Mother Jiang gradually got familiar with him. Occasionally when Jiang Li came back without him, Mother Jiang would even ask about him. The new house was renovated and they had moved in two years ago. Mother Jiang deliberately left a bedroom for Jiang Zhan, but what she didn¡¯t know was that Jiang Zhan sneaked into her son¡¯s room every time to spend the night. It was already the sixth year since Jiang Li came to this world. Now he was already 27 years old, meaning that it was time to get married in his mother¡¯s eyes. Mother Jiang took the initiative to mention this matter during dinner. She asked him whether there was a girl he was dating, and told him to bring her home if she was suitable. The moment these words came out, Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan stopped eating in unison and they subconsciously glanced at each other. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Mother Jiang asked. I don¡¯t have a girlfriend, but I have a boyfriend. Jiang Li spat out in his heart. Honestly, he came back this time for this matter as well. He had been in a relationship with Jiang Zhan for a few years, so it wouldn¡¯t be a good thing to keep it hidden from Mother Jiang. He could say that the company didn¡¯t allow relationships in the first few years, but in the future, he couldn¡¯t always use this reason to put off the elders. So he said, ¡°I¡¯m in a relationship, I¡¯ll talk to you about it later. Let¡¯s eat first.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Zhan almost choked to death on the rice in his mouth. ¡°Really?¡± Mother Jiang was so happy to hear this that she couldn¡¯t close her mouth from joy, as if she would become a mother-in-law the next second. After the meal, Jiang Li and Mother Jiang went inside the room to have a talk. Jiang Zhan sat in the living room with the air conditioning blowing on him. The more he was blown on by the cold air, the hotter he felt. His eyes looked upstairs from time to time. He felt that by the time the mother and son finished talking, he would have to go home. About half an hour later, the sound of footsteps came from the stairs. Jiang Zhan stood up and walked over. Jiang Li came down from upstairs and smiled at him. ¡°So nervous, huh? You¡¯re still here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just taking a casual walk.¡± Jiang Zhan coughed lightly, not admitting that he was sitting on pins and needles just now. ¡°Oh.¡± Jiang Li nodded, walked past him, pulled open the refrigerator and got a cup of ice cream. He then sat on the sofa and ate it leisurely. Jiang Zhan looked at his expression that said ¡°since you¡¯re not nervous, then I won¡¯t say anything¡°. He grinded his molars and went over to ask him about the situation and why he was the only one who came down. ¡°Mom said she needed to be alone for a while, so I came down first.¡± Jiang Li delivered a spoonful of ice cream into Jiang Zhan¡¯s mouth and sighed, ¡°She had a hard time accepting it in a short time.¡± When he told his mother about himself and Jiang Zhan, she was so shocked that she almost couldn¡¯t stand properly. When she knew that the two had been together for many years, she was even more bewildered. Jiang Zhan accompanied Jiang Li back every year, but she didn¡¯t think about it in this way. She only thought they had a good relationship and Jiang Zhang only stopped by to have fun. ¡°How about¡­ I go up and apologize?¡± Jiang Zhan proposed. ¡°Apologize?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyes and looked at him. ¡°Why do you need to apologize? I was the one who approached you first, and it was also me who initiated the relationship, so what do you need to apologize for?¡± There was indeed nothing wrong with what Jiang Li said, but Jiang Zhan thought what he said sounded like he didn¡¯t contribute anything into this relationship. Mother Jiang was in a daze for a long time upstairs. In this period of time, Jiang Li was worried and went up to find her once. When he found out that she was just sitting in the room in a trance, he was relieved. He went over to sit beside her and said gently, ¡°Don¡¯t be too sad, mom. It¡¯s my fault. Or, you can beat me up to vent it out.¡± Mother Jiang returned to her senses and looked at him for a moment, she smiled and shook her head. ¡°How can I be willing to beat you up, you work so hard usually, and mom was not around to take care of you.¡± She paused for a moment and sighed. ¡°You¡¯ve always been well-behaved since you were young, you were so afraid of making me worry that you didn¡¯t even come back and tell me when you were bullied at school. In the end, it was also mom who was incapable.¡± Although it was clear that she was talking about the original host, Jiang Li still couldn¡¯t help but feel bitter. ¡°I just thought about it for a long time.¡± Mother Jiang looked at him helplessly, ¡°Are you guys not going to change your mind? Is it true that whatever mom says, you will still stay with him?¡± Towards her concerned and helpless eyes, Jiang Li was a bit dumbfounded. He lowered his head and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± In fact, both sides already knew the answer, but she still couldn¡¯t help but want to ask nonetheless. Even if she didn¡¯t know anything about homosexuality, she did know that the world would certainly not be tolerant of such matters. If there was the slightest possibility of being pointed at and accused, she didn¡¯t want her son to go through those hurtful experiences. ¡°I know.¡± Mother Jiang reached out and touched his lowered head, her gaze filled with maternal love. ¡°No need to apologize, you choose your own road. I just hope you don¡¯t regret it in the future. Straighten up and move forward.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Jiang Li nodded his head, his tone firm. The conversation between mother and son ended here. Mother Jiang¡¯s attitude towards Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t change much, as if his relationship with Jiang Li didn¡¯t affect her. She only called Jiang Zhan over before he and Jiang Li left. Mother Jiang took out a small box with a lock from a drawer in the closet. She opened it with a key and took out a pair of gold bracelets from it then handed them to Jiang Zhan and said, ¡°This was given to me by my mother-in-law and said it was reserved for Jiang Li¡¯s wife, I just didn¡¯t expect you guys to¡­¡± As she spoke to this point, she paused and looked at Jiang Zhan with some embarrassment and said cautiously, ¡°Now I¡¯ll give it to you, you keep it well.¡± Jiang Zhan ¡°¡­¡± Mother-in-law, I¡¯m afraid that you have misunderstood, your son is my wife. On the way back home, when Jiang Li knew that his mother gave Jiang Zhan a pair of bracelets that should be given to her daughter-in-law, he laughed till he slapped his own lap. He then pestered Jiang Zhan to take them out and wear them, infuriating Jiang Zhan. In the end, of course, nobody wore the bracelets. Jiang Zhan treated them as the Jiang family¡¯s heirloom and locked them in the safe. He then found another jewelry master to design a pair of men¡¯s rings and gave one to Jiang Li. ¡°Mountain Tea Garden 2¡± was scheduled to premiere on June 26th, National Anti-Drug Day, as a tribute to the national anti-drug police. On the day of the premiere, Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan went to see the film and sat in the last row. The beginning of ¡°Mountain Tea Garden 2¡± was a monologue, recounting the sacrifices and painstaking efforts of the anti-drug police throughout the years. After the monologue, a line of large letters appeared on the black screen ¨C The highest tribute towards the national anti-drug police and their families. ¡°Mountain Tea Garden¡± was a film with a very heavy theme; there were many people who died due to overdose, there were others who were killed by drugs, there were also too many police officers who died in order to fight against drug dealers. The bloody battle experiences of the police officers fighting in the front lines were presented to everyone through this film. These images were bloody and depressing, but they truly existed. While the movie was being played, undulating soft sobs could be heard in the dark cinema. These were tears shed for the back figures of the people who carried their heavy responsibilities on their shoulders and kept on advancing. The ticket sales of ¡°Mountain Tea Garden 2¡± was higher than other films in the cinema. It steadily topped the box office on the first day. After that, the box office increased rapidly, leaving the other movies far behind. It exceeded 6.7 billion on the last day of its release, setting a new high record in the domestic film box office. Jiang Li won Best Actor in the Golden Rooster Award with ¡°Mountain Tea Garden 2¡±. During his speech, after thanking Old Master Lin and the crew, he said, ¡°I¡¯d like to take this moment to thank one more person, a person who¡¯s really important in my life.¡± ¡°Wow.¡± The host applauded at his words, ¡°Let¡¯s guess who this person really is? Jiang Li, can you give a hint? Did this person come today?¡± ¡°No, he happens to be on a business trip for the past two days, but he¡¯s definitely in front of the TV.¡± Jiang Li laughed and looked in the direction of the camera, ¡°Jiang Zhan, thank you for accompanying me through all these years, being able to meet you is the most fortunate thing that happened after I came to this world. If you are willing to, then, for the next half of your life, please continue guiding me.¡± Once he said this, the whole award ceremony was in an uproar, the quiet order of the venue was suddenly disrupted, and the host next to him was confused. It took more than ten seconds before he came back to his senses and laughed dryly, ¡°Haha, our newly promoted best actor is very humorous! He even confessed his love to his boss at the award ceremony, it seems that the two have a good relationship, oh.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a confession.¡± Jiang Li shook his head and said in a serious tone, ¡°It¡¯s. A. Proposal.¡± Host: ¡°¡­¡± On that day, Jiang Zhan and Jiang Li¡¯s names dominated the top three on the Weibo hot search. After the ceremony, Jiang Li received a text message from Jiang Zhan with just two simple words ¨C I do. Jiang Li took a picture of the trophy and posted it on Weibo, and for the first time, he tagged Jiang Zhan¡¯s Weibo. Jiang Li V: For you, my love. @JiangZhan [picture]. The weibo blew up just after it was posted, and the excessive traffic from netizens even caused Weibo¡¯s system to malfunction. After the relationship between the two was exposed, some people blessed them and some scolded. However, Jiang Li didn¡¯t even care. What he cared about was the person who booked a flight to rush back directly after seeing his proposal. ¡­ Epilogue Jiang Li lived in this world till he was more than eighty years old. Jiang Zhan¡¯s favorability had been stuck at 99%, and only broke through 100% when he passed away. Jiang Li lowered his head and kissed Jiang Zhan, who had already closed his eyes. He left a letter to the younger members of his family, asking them to bury himself and Jiang Zhan together, then laid down next to him and took one last look at him. ¡°Let¡¯s go, it¡¯s time for us to leave.¡± He said to the System that had also been with him all his life in this world, and then slowly closed his eyes. ¡¶End of Arc1¡·???????????????? Volume 2: Sorry, I only have studies in my heart. CH 39 ¡°Teacher! He was the one who stole the money!¡± ¡°His family is so poor; he must have stolen it¡­¡± ¡°Son of a bitch, you¡¯ve disgraced me!¡± ¡°Son, it¡¯s mommy¡¯s fault¡­¡± ¡°Jiang Li looks gloomy, he¡¯s a little scary!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t expect him to like men, how disgusting!¡± ¡­ Jiang Li felt a strong negative emotion scurrying around in his brain like a thin wire, stirring all his nerves together, strangling them to death and making him ache. ¡°Lord Host.¡± System¡¯s voice sounded in the brain, the usual mechanical calm voice almost exorcized the exploding negative emotions in Jiang Li¡¯s brain, slowly awakening Jiang Li¡¯s own consciousness. Jiang Li felt his body was somewhat floating, unable to find a point of strength, he then asked System, ¡°Where am I?¡± ¡°In the water.¡± System replied, ¡°Please reach the shore as soon as possible.¡± Jiang Li slowly opened his eyes and found himself in the water. He could see a figure swimming towards him through his blurred vision. Before reacting to what was happening, the other party suddenly grabbed him and swam upstream. With a ¡°splash¡±, the two emerged from the water. Fresh air flowed into his nasal cavity. Jiang Li subconsciously breathed deeply and had a feeling of survival after the disaster. The other party brought him to shore, casually threw him on the grass, and asked in a not-so-good tone, ¡°Hey, you¡¯re not dead, right?¡± The blinding sunlight made Jiang Li not able to see the other party¡¯s face. When he was about to speak, he coughed out two mouthfuls of water, and the choking sensation of drowning made him very uncomfortable. He turned over on his back, lied on the grass and coughed hard a few times, and finally said thank you in a hoarse voice. ¡°Tsk, it¡¯s good that you¡¯re not dead. Why did you jump into the river when you¡¯re perfectly fine? You¡¯re just finding trouble for yourself.¡± The other party saw that he could still talk, muttered two grumbles, turned around and left. Jiang Li wiped the water on his face, looked up at the other party¡¯s back and slowly sat up. He then looked around at the surroundings. This was obviously the outskirts. There was a river in front of him and green grass could be seen around him. Jiang Li knew that he had entered the second world. The negative emotions earlier were so strong that he still had palpitations even after coming to his senses. ¡°Little Cutie.¡± Jiang Li called out to System, ¡°Transfer the memories of this body.¡± ¡°Roger that.¡± After a few minutes, the memories belonging to this body surfaced little by little. Same as in the previous world, this body was still called Jiang Li. Jiang Li, sixteen years old, a student from first year senior class (5) of the Second Senior High School of Jiang City, the only son of his parents. Jiang Li¡¯s mother left home when he was ten years old and never came back. His father was a car mechanic, a heavy drinker, and gambler who scolded him when he was drunk and thought he and his mother, who left without saying goodbye, were the same shit. Because of Father Jiang¡¯s gambling, the family was heavily in debt and life had been very difficult for them. Even when Jiang Li was in elementary school, school fees were often delayed again and again. Every time someone went to his house to collect the debt, Father Jiang would go out to hide for a few days, letting Jiang Li fend for himself at home alone. Jiang¡¯s father¡¯s reputation in this county wasn¡¯t good and could even be said to be bad. Because of such a father, most of the surrounding neighborhood and classmates didn¡¯t like Jiang Li and thought that if his father was someone like that, he wouldn¡¯t be any better. This then caused Jiang Li to have low self-esteem and a timid personality. In the fourth grade, the class organized a spring excursion. When he needed to hand in the spring excursion fees, a student in the class found that his money was missing. It so happened that Jiang Li stayed in the classroom during the last PE lesson, so the student decided that it was him who stole the money. The reason was that Jiang Li¡¯s family was so poor, he didn¡¯t have money to pay the activity fee last time, how did he have money to pay this time? He must have stolen it. At that time, everyone was still young and didn¡¯t yet have the ability to distinguish what was right and what was wrong, so they followed and agreed that Jiang Li was the thief. They then put Jiang Li in the middle of a circle and pointed at him. Xiao Jiang Li, who was only ten years old, cowered himself in a corner and shook his head desperately, saying that he hadn¡¯t stolen the money, that he had saved it bit by bit from his summer vacation scavenging, and that he wanted to go on a spring trip with everyone else. However, no one cared about him. The voices of people calling him a thief kept flowing into his ears, like a curse, covering his frail body tightly, making him suffocate and he could only keep shrinking into the corner. Even the teacher was suspicious of him and called Father Jiang to come over to deal with it. Father Jiang came to the school and slapped Jiang Li¡¯s face without asking anything, scolding him for disgracing himself. As a car mechanic, Father Jiang¡¯s arm was strong. Jiang Li¡¯s nasal cavity was directly beaten by him and blood came out. Half of his face was numb; his left ear was buzzing all the time. Before he fainted, he was in a trance and thought it would be good if his father had beat him to death. Since that time, Jiang Li never thought to integrate into the class. He was alone and didn¡¯t socialize with anyone. He sat in the corner position during class every day, his half-long bangs and thick glasses blocking most of the face, and his whole person gave a sense of gloominess. Even after studying for almost two semesters of the first year of high school, he still didn¡¯t even know what his classmates looked like. Such a student like Jiang Li who had normal grades, was timid and gloomy, and without much existence in the class was often overlooked by teachers. This was the case until the secret of Jiang Li liking Xu Haowen from the next class, class (6), was discovered. Xu Haowen was the class president of first year senior class (6). Unlike the inferior and weak Jiang Li, he was cheerful and sunny, always in the top three of his class, and was an outstanding student in the eyes of many teachers. People would often be attracted to the opposite things; Jiang Li was also like that. The gloomier and lowlier he was, the more he yearned for sunshine in his heart, and Xu Haowen was the kind of person he wanted to be. Since the opening ceremony of his first year of high school, his eyes had been uncontrollably following Xu Haowen who spoke on stage. He carefully collected information about him, and wrote down his joy at meeting such a wonderful person in his diary, which was hidden in the innermost part of his bookshelf. This was his deepest secret, he never thought to tell anyone, not even Xu Haowen. In his heart, he thought that such a useless person like himself wasn¡¯t worthy to like a dazzling person like him. However, things didn¡¯t go as planned. Once during class, when he went to the cafeteria to refill his water, the students at the front table accidentally knocked over his desk when they were messing around. Books fell to the ground, including the diary that was pressed at the bottom of the books, his secret was unguardedly exposed in front of his classmates. When he returned to the classroom after fetching the water, his diary was being held in the hands of the most mischievous boy in the class, and his sonorous recitation caused the others to laugh. After the laughter, there was a constant ebb and flow of disgust. ¡°I long for myself to be like him, like a beam of sunshine, a bouquet of flowers, I want to illuminate myself ¡­ wtf, I can¡¯t continue reading this anymore, how can he write such a disgusting thing.¡± ¡°Sunshine? He looks so gloomy and scary.¡± ¡°So disgusting.¡± Jiang Li stood in front of the classroom with a hot water bottle, listening to their words. He could only feel that he went back to the day when he was falsely accused of stealing money by his classmates as a child, he shrank in the corner and desperately shook his head to deny it, but no one believed in himself, including his own father. The story was spread to Xu Haowen by busybodies, Xu Haowen didn¡¯t know Jiang Li. Towards the fact that he was liked by someone of the same gender, although he didn¡¯t feel happy, he didn¡¯t laugh at Jiang Li like the others, and just pretended not to know about it. After this incident, Jiang Li¡¯s situation in the class became more and more difficult. He could even hear the people nearby gossiping and snickering about him while pointing at him, making him feel embarrassed. However, although he wasn¡¯t living the way he wanted, Jiang Li had never thought of committing suicide; this drowning was an accident. Every weekend, he would work odd jobs in the wood factory located in the outskirts. He saw a child drowning on his way back today, and without hesitating, he jumped in to save him. When he pushed the child to the shore, he suddenly got a cramp in his foot and lost his strength. While he was panicking, he grabbed onto the grass on the shore a few times, but slipped and sank into the water. After being rescued, the child ran away without looking back. There was no one else in the surroundings, Jiang Li then died drowning in the water. ¡­ After receiving the memories of the original host, Jiang Li understood why he felt such strong negative emotions when he just woke up earlier, those were the dark side of the original host that was pressed deep inside. The original host lived in such a family, not only did his parents not love him, even the students around him had great malice towards him. In such an environment, other than his character defects, he didn¡¯t do anything wrong to others. He would use the money he earned from odd jobs to buy some food to feed stray cats, he would sweep the trash that were left by his classmates in the corner of the classroom after the class had been dismissed, he would go to the orphanage to do volunteer work. Today, he didn¡¯t hesitate to jump into the river to save someone, but the other party abandoned him after being rescued and didn¡¯t even call for help. Jiang Li looked at his hands, slowly clenched them, and sighed softly. ¡°Rest in peace.¡± There was wind blowing beside him, like the sound of someone¡¯s whimper. After a long while, Jiang Li brought up the system tablet to check the tasks of this world, and as soon as he opened it, he saw that the column of the male lead was actually lit up. [Main Mission: Capturing the male lead ¨C Chi Fang; Side Mission: Meet Mother Jiang once again and ask her why she left without saying goodbye back then.] [Chi Fang, seventeen years old, student of first year senior class (6) of the Second Senior High School of Jiang City.] According to System¡¯s setting, the mission bar would only light up when the male lead appeared. Jiang Li thought that the only person he had seen since he came to this world was the person who saved him just now. If everything went well that person would be his capture target in this world. However, that person left after saving him, and he didn¡¯t have time to see what he looked like. But since they were in the same school there would be plenty of opportunities later. Jiang Li stood up from the grass, took two steps, and felt something hard under his feet. He looked down; it was a silver lighter that was reflecting silver light under the sunlight. The workmanship of the lighter was very exquisite, the word ¡®Chi¡¯ was engraved on the bottom left corner, showing that it was specially customized. Jiang Li guessed that it was dropped accidentally by the male lead when he was saving him just now. He bent down to pick it up and stuffed it into his pocket, intending to return it to him next time. He then slowly walked towards the place where he could get a ride. CH 40 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume Jiang Li followed the route in the original host¡¯s memories to the bus stop. At this time, he was already all wet. His clothes were stuck on his body and his thick and wet bangs were also stuck on his face. Once he boarded the bus, he attracted the attention of others. But he didn¡¯t care and found a seat by the window at the back. He then closed his eyes and began to sort out the original host¡¯s memories. Now it was close to the end of the first year of high school, it was only less than half a month from the summer vacation. They would need to divide into arts and science classes in the second year of high school. Initially, he wondered if he should inquire if the male lead was going to enroll in arts or science so he could get closer to him. Jiang Li thought about the requirements of the capture in the last world and asked System in his heart, ¡°Little Cutie, is it still increasing the favorability in this world?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± System replied, ¡°The current favorability is 0, after increasing it to 100% you can choose to enter the next world.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just increasing favorability, no special requirements, right?¡± ¡°It is recommended to have a relationship.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li almost forgot that this was a dating game. He fell silent for a moment and asked in a low voice, ¡°What if I refuse?¡± System roughly knew what he was resisting and calmly analyzed, ¡°The last world is over, please accept reality. The target of your capture is now Chi Fang, only by completing the task can you enter the next world.¡± ¡°Since it is favorability, then it¡¯s possible to use other ways to maximize it, right? For example, friendship?¡± Jiang Li asked. ¡°This is not guaranteed.¡± The system felta bit helpless, ¡°But, the two most unreserved feelings in the world are familial affection and love.¡± ¡°Then how about increasing the favorability of brotherhood? I mean real brotherhood.¡± ¡°¡­¡± System didn¡¯t say anything more and Jiang Li also didn¡¯t ask again. He tilted his head and leaned against the car window; his eyelashes that were covered by his bangs slightly fluttered a few times. ¡­ Meanwhile, this world¡¯s male lead ¨C Chi Fang ¨C was riding his bicycle to the South Slope Park¡¯s public basketball court. Two groups of people were confronting each other.Someone from one of the groups showed joy when they saw him. He waved and shouted, ¡°Chi ge1! Here!¡± Chi Fang placed his bicycle simply and strode over. He raised his hand and got the ball the other party threw towards him, showed off a few tricks and jumped to shoot. The orange basketball flew over the heads of the two groups of people and with a swish, it went into the net for three points. This head-on blow made one group of people cheer and shout Chi Fang¡¯s name. Feng Yu, who threw the ball to Chi Fang just then, reached out and hooked his shoulder. ¡°Chi ge, I thought you weren¡¯t coming! We are about to start the match; I didn¡¯t expect you to be such a show-off when you came.¡± ¡°Go away. If I¡¯m not here you will only be abused.¡± Chi Fang placed his hand away, showing a face of disgust. ¡°Hehehe.¡± Feng Yu laughed twice. After Chi Fang came, his chest was pumped up more than earlier. A tall guy in the lead from another group of people heard Chi Fang¡¯s words and snorted, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that you¡¯re not going to be abused even if you come. Chi Fang, you talk too big.¡± ¡°Not really, not really.¡± Chi Fang looked at him with a smirk, his tone filled with disdain and arrogance, ¡°It¡¯s more than enough to beat you, LOSER.¡± The tall man¡¯s sore spot was stepped on. Remembering the shame of losing to Chi Fang in the last match while they fought for the court, he gritted his teeth and said, ¡°Try it! If you lose this match, you better stay away from Nan Yin or else I won¡¯t let you go.¡± ¡°I¡¯m so scared.¡± Chi Fang tsked, the smile on his face slowly converged. The young and free expression had an imperceptible hostility, ¡°Stop talking bullshit, let¡¯s start.¡± ¡­ Jiang Li¡¯s house was in the old town area. The house was built early, and the exterior and interior of the house were already very dilapidated. Jiang Li walked on the dimly lit staircase; he could even feel all of the bumpy texture of the cement through the soles of his shoes. Father Jiang went out to hide from debts these days and only Jiang Li was at home. He found clean clothes and went to take a shower. Although his wet clothes had been blown dry on the way back, to avoid catching a cold he still showered with hot water on a hot day. The original host went out early in the morning; he only bought two vegetable buns on the way and it was now three o¡¯clock in the afternoon. So, Jiang Li felt very hungry when he came out of the shower. He then found a bag of frozen dumplings from the refrigerator and cooked them to eat. The dumplings were filled with mushrooms and pork. The fillings were small, and there were only 15 dumplings in one packet. Jiang Li¡¯s body was only sixteen years old, which was the prime age for growth. He didn¡¯t feel full after eating, instead he felt even hungrier. However, there was nothing else to eat in the refrigerator other than the beer Father Jiang had chilled previously. Even if he were to wash the rice and cook it, he would also need to go out and buy other ingredients. Jiang Li thought for a while and decided to go out to eat something. It was also time to trim the original host¡¯s hair, which was way too long. He would also need to buy a new pair of glasses as the previous glasses had gone missing when he had jumped into the water to save the person. There was a barber store at the entrance of the old town area with a small front, but it had been operating for many years. The original host went there for a haircut every time as it was very cheap. The price was only half of the other hairdressers. As for the barber¡¯s skills, they were not considered by the original host. He didn¡¯t need any hairstyle, bangs were always blocking the eyebrows, covering half of his eyes. However, fortunately the teachers didn¡¯t check their appearances, otherwise he would have been the first to fail. But now that the soul had changed to Jiang Li and his requirements towards himself were not so low anymore, at least his hairstyle should look good. So, he found a hairdresser that looked like it had a very good business. As soon as he entered, he was greeted and asked if he wanted a wash or a haircut. Jiang Li had already washed his hair once before he arrived and planned to directly cut it short. When the hairdresser saw how long his hair was, he reached out and grabbed it twice and asked, ¡°Handsome man, your hair is thick and long, do you want a perm?¡± ¡°No.¡± Jiang Li waved his hand. He was still a high school student now so he couldn¡¯t be too high-profile. ¡°Cut the back a little shorter, make it refreshing, and it¡¯s up to you for the front part.¡± ¡°Okay, that¡¯s good.¡± The hairdresser stroked his chin and thought for a while before starting to cut it. The black soft hair fell little by little. The heavy bangs were thinned and cut short, Jiang Li¡¯s vision that was initially covered slowly became clearer and the facial outline of the person in the mirror was slowly revealed and highlighted. It was an extremely young face with a little childishness. As his vision had been blocked for many years the corners of his eyes were a little gloomy and didn¡¯t look energetic. But, the curvature of the eyes was very attractive. Thick eyelashes were like black feather fans, with just a slight droop of the eyebrows, a curved shadow could be seen under his eyes. The hairdresser¡¯s hand that was holding the scissors suddenly stopped, and his gaze fell on Jiang Li¡¯s face for a long time. ¡°Have you finished cutting?¡± Jiang Li noticed that he had stopped moving and opened his eyes to look at him. The hairdresser came back to his senses and met his dark eyes, his hand that was holding the scissors tightened. ¡°No, not yet.¡± ¡°Oh. Please hurry up, I have things to do.¡± Jiang Li closed his eyes once again. In the meantime, a few hair strands that were hanging on his eyelashes fell onto his upright nose tip. The hairdresser saw it and felt the urge to blow it off for him. The haircut was quickly done. The hairdresser had even styled it for Jiang Li. ¡°Done, perfect!¡± Jiang Li looked at the person in the mirror and was momentarily dazed. He found out that the features of this body somewhat resembled his previous self, such as the eyes and mouth, but it wasn¡¯t obvious. ¡°What¡¯s wrong handsome man? Not satisfied?¡± The hairdresser asked in response to seeing him looking at the mirror without speaking and thought that he wasn¡¯t satisfied with his handiwork. ¡°No, I¡¯m very satisfied.¡± Jiang Li collected his thoughts, got up, paid the money, and left directly. The hairdresser looked at his back and felt strange in his heart. He was so good-looking and yet he kept his hair so long, hiding his beauty. How low profile. Coming out from the hairdresser, Jiang Li ate a beef stew at the beef restaurant next door, and then asked System to provide the address of a nearby optical store. System took out the virtual tablet and quickly listed out the nearby optical stores that had better reputation and fame. The closest to Jiang Li was an optical eyeglass store called ¡°Clairvoyance¡±, which was next to the South Slope District Police Station. It was only two stops away by bus, about a 15-minute walk, and only a few minutes by bicycle. There were shared bicycles along the road so it was very convenient. Jiang Li would like to ride directly towards there but his phone was an old-fashioned one and could only be used to call and send text messages. He couldn¡¯t scan the code to use the shared bicycle so he could only take the bus. The bus stopped at the bus stop in front of the South Slope Police Station. The optical store was on the left of the police station. As Jiang Li passed by the police station, he suddenly heard System notify him, ¡°Host, please pay attention, the target male lead has appeared; Host, please pay attention, the target male lead has appeared.¡± ¡°??¡± Jiang Li¡¯s footsteps stopped abruptly. He was just standing at the entrance of the police station. He turned his head and saw a group of people crowded inside the lobby of the police station and didn¡¯t know what they were doing. These people were all wearing basketball uniforms. Judging from their backs, they should still be students. Jiang Li took two steps in the direction of the door to see what had happened. An impatient voice echoed from the crowd, ¡°I said we didn¡¯t fight, we were just playing basketball together. Granny, can you not add fuel to the fire?¡± This voice was somewhat familiar. Jiang Li thought for a moment and found that it was very similar to the voice of the person who saved him in the river before. Adding it up with System¡¯s reminder just now, it seemed that the person who spoke should be the male lead. ¡°How is it not a fight?¡± After the male lead, a loud female alto voice followed, ¡°I saw you pressing this young man to the ground and rubbing him against it. It was so ruthless that an old woman like me felt so scared only by looking at it! Police, they were really fighting, you have to educate them properly!¡± ¡°Granny, can you not fan the flames ah!¡± Another male voice also sounded. ¡°Yes, they were the ones who cheated in the match. What a cunt, who would we rub on the floor other than him!¡± ¡°Feng Yu, who the fuck are you calling a cunt? ¡°Whoever did the filthy trick should be called it! Stupid cunt! Bastard!¡± ¡°Watch your mouth!¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you keep your fucking hands and feet clean when you¡¯re playing?¡± The group of people suddenly started to create a commotion and push each other. Young people were full of youthful vigor. Once they looked like they were about to start fighting a sharp whistle rang suddenly, stopping their actions. Then a voice said, ¡°What¡¯s all the noise for? What kind of place do you think this is? Make more noise and don¡¯t even think about leaving! All of you, stand aside!¡± The crowd slowly moved towards the walls. After the crowd dispersed Jiang Li saw a tall figure inside, wearing a red jersey with the number 1 printed on it. Although Jiang Li didn¡¯t see Chi Fang¡¯s face previously, he remembered the number on his clothes. Chi Fang stood as he leant against the wall. He lowered his head slightly to listen to the guy beside him talking. Then, he raised his head and looked at Jiang Li as if he had sensed Jiang Li¡¯s gaze. There was a distance between the two people. As Jiang Li wasn¡¯t wearing glasses, he couldn¡¯t see the expression on Chi Fang¡¯s face. But Jiang Li could feel the hostility and impatience from Chi Fang¡¯s gaze. However, he quickly averted his gaze and was called by the police for questioning. Jiang Li scratched his face with his fingers in place, lowered his head, and smiled. The capture target this time seems a bit stubborn and intractable, huh? Ge: Brothe CH 41 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume Jiang Li didn¡¯t linger in front of the police station, but he turned around and went to the optical store next to it. System saw and asked curiously, ¡°Host, do you not intend to go over and strike up a conversation?¡± ¡°Strike up a conversation?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows and asked with interest, ¡°Little Cutie, we¡¯ve only experienced one world. Why are you acting like an old fox? Where did the innocent system go?¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li¡¯s mood was quite good after he dissed his own Little Cutie System until it was speechless. He walked to the vision test equipment and took a seat. He then let the staff test the degree of nearsightedness. Based on his memories the original host hadn¡¯t changed his glasses for four years, so the degree should have increased. The original host¡¯s eyes had been covered by bangs, causing the pupils to have a loss of focus. The astigmatism was relatively high. He started to shed tears after looking at the measuring instrument for more than half a minute, it took a lot of time to get the measurement. After the test Jiang Li chose a pair of silver-rimmed oval frames, paid the money, and made an appointment to pick them up the next day. In addition, he bought a pair of daily use contact lenses that had almost the same degree for temporary use so that he could see the blackboard clearly the next day. Once he came out of the optical store, Chi Fang and the other¡¯s figures couldn¡¯t be seen at the police station any longer. However, Jiang Li wasn¡¯t in a rush. Chi Fang¡¯s class was just next door to his . If everything went well, he would definitely be able to meet him in school the next day. ¡­ After Chi Fang and the group of people came out of the police station, Chi Fang showed a gloomy expression as he was walking in front, obviously in a very bad mood. Feng Yu waved his hand to let the others leave, he then ran up to him. ¡°Chi ge, wait for me, where are we going ah?¡± ¡°Anywhere.¡± Chi Fang put his hands in his pockets, not caring about where to go. ¡°Sorry, Chi ge, it¡¯s all my fault today.¡± Feng Yu said, with guilt in his voice. As they were playing basketball earlier, the big guy, also known as Zhou Kai, deliberately hit people with his elbow, knocking out one of their classmates, causing him to get a nosebleed. Feng Yu started fighting against Zhou Kai in a fit of anger. When Chi Fang was helping him to press and rub the tall guy against the floor, a granny who was passing by saw and reported it to the police. ¡°What kind of apology are you making?¡± Chi Fang glanced at him. The two of them happened to pass by a tuition center. His footsteps stopped and he looked at the name on the sign. ¡°Yang Fan Crash Course English Tuition Class.¡± Feng Yu read the name of the tuition class and spoke in astonishment, ¡°Chi ge, don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re not going to take a cram class, are you?¡± ¡°No shit.¡± Chi Fang cursed and went on walking. The reason why he stopped was because yesterday he heard the Old Master mention the name of this tuition class and said that he wanted to enroll him to learn English. English tuition class? Chi Fang felt a headache just thinking about those messy letters. ¡°Hey, Chi ge.¡± Feng Yu followed beside him, ¡°It¡¯s almost time to choose streams, you must be enrolling in the science stream, right? I also enrolled in science; it is just as well that us brothers can still be classmates!¡± Chi Fang gave him a strange look, ¡°Who told you that I enrolled in science?¡± ¡°Could it be the Arts stream? No way, you¡¯ve never passed English.¡± ¡°As if you had passed.¡± Chi Fang was so angry at him that he scoffed ¡°I scored three more points than you, okay?¡± ¡°Hey, I¡¯m failing, that¡¯s why I¡¯m going to take science.¡± Feng Yu scratched his head and didn¡¯t feel ashamed at all in his heart, ¡°Right, let¡¯s go eat. I¡¯m hungry.¡± Chi Fang looked down at his watch, found that it was almost six o¡¯clock and said, ¡°The Old Master is waiting for me at home to go back for dinner, so come along if you want.¡± ¡°Nah, forget about it.¡± Feng Yu shook his head. Chi Fang¡¯s grandfather was good, but he loved to nag, especially high school students. Every time he went to meet him, he would be nagged until his ears hurt. ¡°Then I¡¯m leaving.¡± Chi Fang waved his hand, walked forward two steps, and then suddenly stopped. He reached out and touched his pockets and turned them inside-out. Seeing this, Feng Yu followed him over and asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°I dropped my lighter.¡± Chi Fang frowned and explained that after saving someone from the river in the afternoon, he had rushed over to play in the basketball match and completely didn¡¯t notice when the lighter fell and where it had fallen. ¡°No way. The Lio custom-made lighter?¡± Feng Yu widened his eyes. The lighter was sent from B City last month, it was Chi Fang ¡®s seventeenth birthday gift, a Lio-exclusive custom-made. There was no identical model in the market, and Chi Fang¡¯s name was also engraved on it. It was worth tens of thousands of dollars. ¡°Was it dropped when we were playing basketball?¡± Feng Yu also became anxious, ¡°Let¡¯s go back and look for it. This thing is so expensive, how painful would it be to lose it!¡± Chi Fang nodded, he wasn¡¯t feeling distressed about how much it cost, but the lighter was custom-made that the Old Master had asked someone to make for him. It was really meaningful to him. The two returned to the basketball court to look around but didn¡¯t find the lighter. Feng Yu anxiously jumped, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s picked up by someone?¡± Chi Fang thought for a while and thought that it was likely dropped in the river or by the river bank while he was rescuing that person, so he called the Old Master who was at home and said that he would go back later. He then hung up the phone and took a taxi over. Although Feng Yu didn¡¯t know where he was going, he also followed along and got into the car. The car stopped on the side of the road next to the river. Chi Fang immediately got out of the car and, using one hand to hold the roadside railing, jumped over. He slid along the lawn to the riverbank below and then looked for it carefully along the path that he had taken earlier. He looked back and forth a few times and still found nothing. Finally, he had no choice but to return home disappointed. ¡­ Jiang Li first went to the market to buy ingredients before going back. When he returned to the snack store downstairs the boss sitting on the rocking chair at the door saw him and asked, ¡°Young man, who are you looking for?¡± The residents of the old town area were residents who have lived for decades. Except for a few oddballs like Father Jiang, the neighbors got along very well. They would greet and ask whenever they saw unfamiliar people coming in, in order to prevent bad guys from entering. Jiang Li had changed his hairstyle, he wasn¡¯t wearing the pair of large-framed glasses that were worn previously, and he wasn¡¯t bending his back like a coward as before, so the boss didn¡¯t recognize him at all. Jiang Li smiled at him with shyness and formality, so it wouldn¡¯t have too much of a difference from the original host. ¡°Uncle Chen, I¡¯m Jiang Li.¡± ¡°Jiang Li?!¡± Boss Chen heard and took off his presbyopic glasses. He then looked at him unbelievably, ¡°You¡¯re Jiang Li, the child of the debt-dodger Jiang?¡± Debt-dodger Jiang was Jiang¡¯s father¡¯s nickname. Most people in the old town area called him that. From the name, one could know how unpopular he was. Jiang Li nodded, not angry at his glaring eyes, and asked politely, ¡°It¡¯s me, have you eaten yet?¡± ¡°Yes, I have eaten.¡± Boss Chen nodded. He sized up Jiang Li and saw what he really looked like for the first time. He tsk-ed and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to look so neat and tidy. It¡¯s so much better than your shameless father.¡± In the original host¡¯s memories, Jiang Li learned that the old town area¡¯s residents had no good impression of Father Jiang. As they were gossiping, once they mentioned Father Jiang everyone would be disgusted. So, Jiang Li also could understand the attitude of Boss Chen. He nodded to the boss and went upstairs. After eating, Jiang Li cleaned up the house. Jiang¡¯s house was a two-room, one living room layout. The area was very small. Jiang Li¡¯s room could only fit a one-meter-two bed and a small desk. Even a wardrobe couldn¡¯t be placed. His clothes were stuffed in the wooden box under the bed. However, the original host didn¡¯t have many clothes. Other than two sets of school uniforms there were only three sets of summer clothes. They were washed many times. The cuffs of the clothes had already faded. Father Jiang usually didn¡¯t care about the original host. Let alone buying him new clothes, the original host would even be scolded by him when he asked him for money to pay the school materials fee. Since junior high school, the original host would go to the lumber factory, gun factory, plastic factory, and other small factories that didn¡¯t have education requirements and age limit in order to do odd jobs on the weekends. Although the money earned was not much, it made him feel more secure than asking Jiang¡¯s father for money. During the third year of junior year school, after Father Jiang knew that he was doing odd jobs, he not only didn¡¯t stop him, but he even asked him to hand over the money he had earned. The original host resisted but was severely beaten and forced to turn in a large part of the money, but he secretly kept a little for himself. When Jiang Li thought of what Father Jiang did in the original host¡¯s memories, he couldn¡¯t help but scold him a scum, thinking that fortunately Father Jiang wasn¡¯t at home at the moment, otherwise he might not be able to resist beating him up. ¡°Lord Host, with your current physique you aren¡¯t able to beat the other party. I advise you to calm down.¡± System warmly reminded. ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Jiang Li nodded. The original host¡¯s body was too frail. He had a 1.73-meter height, but he was only 51.5 kg. It was obvious that he was malnourished. He must exercise from now on. There were still classes the next day, so Jiang Li went back to his room and slept after watching TV in the living room for a while. He didn¡¯t sleep very well; he spent the night half asleep and half awake. The summer day dawned early. The early morning light shone in through the windowsill. The alarm clock on the desktop rang rapidly, the sharp bell seemed unusually loud in the small room. ¡°Wu ¡­¡± Jiang Li rolled over and covered his head with the blanket and unconsciously said, ¡°Jiang Zhan, your phone is so noisy, quickly silence ¡­¡± The hand that was pulling the blanket suddenly stopped. Jiang Li stuck his head out of the blanket, inclined his head to the left-hand side of the position, and looked over. It was empty, there was no Jiang Zhan. For a moment, Jiang Li felt empty in his heart. He stared at it for a while, as if he could see the familiar figure from the empty spot. After a long time, he withdrew his gaze, slowly got up from the bed, whispered a ¡°good morning¡± to the empty room, and then got up to wash up and get ready for school. The old town area was a bit far from the school, so Jiang Li got up early. He bought two meat buns and a cup of soy milk at the bun store at the end of the alley, then walked to the junction and took a bus to the school. Class (5) of the first year of high school was at the end of the corridor on the third floor. So, when Jiang Li went to class he had to pass by class (6), which was Chi Fang¡¯s classroom. The class hadn¡¯t started yet and there were a lot of people standing in the corridor outside each class, chatting or playing in groups. As soon as Jiang Li went upstairs, he saw Chi Fang leaning against the corridor railing. In the group of people, he was the most outstanding one in terms of looks and temperament. Jiang Li saw him holding a blade of grass in his mouth, lazily half-leaning against the railing. Other than the guy who was at the police station yesterday, there was a beautiful girl with white skin standing next to him. The girl was talking to him about something, he responded half-heartedly and somehow looked a little inattentive. It seemed like he wasn¡¯t paying attention to the conversation. Jiang Li fished out the lighter from his pocket. He held it in his hand, walked up to Chi Fang, and gathered the courage to say to him, ¡°Hi, Chi Fang tongxue.¡± His words interrupted the trio¡¯s conversation. Chi Fang heard and raised his eyes to look at Jiang Li. ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Jiang Li from Class 5.¡± Jiang Li¡¯s tone was tense, his fingers clenched tightly. Chi Fang was too tall, he needed to slightly raise his head to meet his eyes. ¡°Yesterday¡­ yesterday thanks for saving me, in the river on the western outskirts. If it wasn¡¯t for you, I would have been dead.¡± As soon as he finished saying his name, Feng Yu next to him stared in awe, and even the other girl looked at him in surprise. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you¡­¡± Chi Fang was a little surprised. He rushed to play basketball yesterday and didn¡¯t pay attention to what the drowning person looked like, so he didn¡¯t expect that it would be a student of the same grade. ¡°You¡¯re welcome. I was just passing by.¡± Chi Fang said unconcernedly. ¡°I picked this up by the river.¡± Jiang Li raised his hand in front of him and spread it out, inside was a silver lighter, ¡°I think you dropped this.¡± Chi Fang saw the lighter he thought he had lost suddenly appeared in front of him. He couldn¡¯t help but be stunned and subconsciously reached for it. His fingers inadvertently rubbed over Jiang Li¡¯s palm and found that it was actually covered with sweat, showing how nervous the person in front of him was. ¡°You¡­¡± ¡°Thank you for saving me, you¡¯re a good person!¡± Jiang Li suddenly interrupted him, bent towards him, and bowed. He then turned around and flew through the corridor, going back to his classroom. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Where did this weak chicken come from, simply giving Lao Zi a good person card?1 Good person card is mostly used by people who want to reject someone, for example, you are a good person but¡­ CH 42 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume As soon as Jiang Li left, Feng Yu couldn¡¯t wait to ask Chi Fang, ¡°Chi ge, when did you know him? How come I don¡¯t know?¡± Chi Fang played with the lighter that was lost and found in his hand, his mood turned from cloudy to sunny, and said casually. ¡°I don¡¯t know him, why?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know? Do you know who he is?¡± Feng Yu asked, ¡°Why are you so calm?¡± ¡°Who?¡± Chi Fang looked puzzled, he just did what Lei Feng would do. Do you have to know who the person you saved is? ¡°He is Jiang Li.¡± Nan Yin, who was beside him, said. Chi Fang: ¡°Who is Jiang Li?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the one who made big news last time!¡± Feng Yu glanced towards Jiang Li¡¯s classroom and said mysteriously in a lowered voice, ¡°The one who likes Xu Haowen in our class, didn¡¯t I tell you before?!¡± He likes Xu Haowen? Chi Fang¡¯s action of his hand paused and looked at Feng Yu. ¡°What did you say?¡± Feng Yu stretched out his index finger and curved it into a hook. ¡°G, A, Y, Gay ah Chi ge! Just now, that Jiang Li, he likes guys! How did you get involved with him?¡± Chi Fang frowned slightly. ¡°I don¡¯t know him, I just pulled him up simply when I saw him drowning yesterday.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s how it is.¡± Feng Yu nodded. ¡°No wonder he said you saved him, but there is a saying that the saving grace must be returned with one¡¯s lifelong devotion. Looking at the nervous expression he showed earlier, don¡¯t tell me he has changed his target to you?!¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Feng Yu, what nonsense are you talking about?!¡± Nan Yin heard him speaking more and more unreasonable words, frowned, and interrupted him, ¡°Don¡¯t talk about others behind their backs, you might as well use this time to memorize two more vocabs.¡± ¡°Nan jie, I¡¯m just simply saying.¡± Feng Yu laughed, looking at the lighter in Chi Fang¡¯s hand, and said, ¡°But just now Jiang Li gave Chi Fang a lighter, reminded me of an allusion about lighters.¡± ¡°What allusion?¡± Chi Fang raised his thumb and snapped the lighter¡¯s lid closed. Feng Yu looked around for a moment and whispered, ¡°My sister said there is an unspoken code in the gay circle. If a gay asks another person to borrow a light it means he wants to date him.¡± ¡°Date?¡± As soon as Chi Fang asked the question, he realized what he meant. As expected, he heard him say bitchily, ¡°Hook-up ah~¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Nan Yin: ¡°¡­¡± The appearance of Jiang Li looking at him nervously with his widened black eyes and the wet touch on his palm suddenly popped up in Chi Fang¡¯s mind. At that moment, he felt that the lighter in his hand was hot. ¡°According to the development of the story line, he will definitely create a chance to encounter you next.¡± Feng Yu stroked his chin, talking about his experience from reading novels, ¡°First, he will make you familiar with him by appearing in front of you, and then slowly he will work on capturing your heart and body.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s temple pounded as he heard him say this. He gritted his teeth and said, ¡°You better keep your filthy mouth shut.¡± Hook, your ass. ¡­ Jiang Li didn¡¯t know that his act of returning the lighter had made Chi Fang have a deep impression of him. He quickly walked back to the classroom. As he just reached the door, he heard the boisterous laughter of his classmates. The atmosphere of senior one class 5 really wasn¡¯t bad if Jiang Li wasn¡¯t included. In this class Jiang Li was an anomaly. Jiang Li didn¡¯t go in directly but stood at the door for a moment. His eyes fell on the single desk at the corner of the classroom, that was his place. The original host¡¯s results were not too good, but he was also not the worst in the class. His height of 1.73 meters was not considered as tall, so logically he shouldn¡¯t be assigned to the last position. However, he wasn¡¯t favored by teachers and didn¡¯t get along with others well, so he was ostracized all the time. Finally, he could only silently sit in the single desk at the corner of the room. At this time there was someone sitting on his desk. The other party was sitting on his desk and chatting with others, shaking his legs from time to time. Some of Jiang Li¡¯s books were scattered on the ground, but no one helped him to pick them up even though they stepped on them when they passed by. Jiang Li learned from the original host¡¯s memories that the person who was sitting on the desk was Chen Jialin, the person who saw the original host¡¯s diary and read it out to the class. When he saw Chen Jialin, Jiang Li felt a sudden tightening of his heart, some kind of extreme resistance was slowly creeping up. That was the resistance from the original host towards Chen Jialin. Even though he had passed away, that trauma from the school violence left behind was still deeply imprinted in the bones of this body. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, leave it to me.¡± Jiang Li said softly in his heart, ¡°He won¡¯t have a chance to hurt you again.¡± His voice carried a soothing power, the fear and resistance in his heart slowly dissipated as Jiang Li raised his steps and walked into the classroom. When he passed the first desk, Jiang Xingyu, the English class representative who was sitting in her seat, saw him and asked, ¡°Which class are you from? Who are you looking for?¡± Jiang Xingyu was a chubby girl with a relatively mild personality. She was also one of the few students who didn¡¯t join the crowd in making fun of Jiang Li. Jiang Li smiled at her, didn¡¯t answer, and walked straight to the back. The original host had very good-looking features, it was just that he had really low self-esteem and had been hiding under his hair and glasses for many years. Now he had a new hairstyle and the soul in the body was replaced, so his whole person and temperament had changed. With just a simple smile, it made Jiang Xingyu freeze. A trace of unnatural red floated up on her face and a question emerged in her heart: When was there a boy so handsome in school? Jiang Li walked to his table, bent down, and picked up the books on the floor, patted the dust, and then said to Chen Jialin, ¡°You dropped my books.¡± Chen Jialin was telling his table-mates about how he saw Chi Fang and Zhou Kai who was in his third year, fighting in South Slope Park yesterday and how Zhou Kai was rubbed by Chi Fang with one hand on the ground when he was suddenly interrupted by someone. He turned around and saw Jiang Li standing next to him. Like Jiang Xingyu, Chen Jialin did not recognize Jiang Li and asked irritably, ¡°Who are you?¡± Jiang Li did not answer directly but stretched out his finger and tapped on the desk. He then said in a gentle tone, ¡°You are sitting on my table, please come down now.¡± ¡°?!!!¡± Chen Jialin came to his senses, his eyes widened, looking at Jiang Li as if he had seen a ghost, and suddenly raised his voice. ¡°You are Jiang Li?!¡± His words drew the attention of others, the crowd heard the word ¡°Jiang Li¡± and looked over in unison. The originally somewhat noisy class fell into an eerie silence, everyone¡¯s gaze was filled with disbelief. ¡°He¡¯s Jiang Li? ¡°It can¡¯t be, does Jiang Li look like this?¡± ¡°This is the first time I see his face clearly!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a lie, right? ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve seen an illusion!¡± ¡°Is the gloomy Jiang Li so good-looking?¡± After the silence, everyone started discussing, they were in total disbelief at Jiang Li¡¯s sudden change of appearance, thinking that it was just a joke, but they thought that no one would make a joke like that. After Chen Jialin was surprised, he remembered that Jiang Li had asked him to get down from the table with a commanding tone earlier, and realized that he dared to order him. His expression wasn¡¯t too good. ¡°Say it again, who did you call to get down?¡± Chen Jialin was already much taller than Jiang Li, him sitting on the table currently showed that Jiang Li was at a disadvantage in the confrontation between the two no matter how people looked at them. However, Jiang Li¡¯s attitude didn¡¯t feel like he was being oppressed. His tone was still gentle as he said, ¡°It¡¯s almost class, please get off my table, can you?¡± His words sounded like it was a question and a request, as if that sense of command earlier was only Chen Jialin¡¯s misconception. Without waiting for Chen Jialin to think about it, his desk mate pulled him. ¡°Come down first, the teacher is coming soon.¡± At this time, the bell rang, Chen Jialin gave Jiang Li a warning glance, jumped down from the desk, and returned to his seat. Jiang Li also returned to his own seat. The others saw that there was no more drama and also went back to their seats one after another. In the meantime, many people secretly looked back in the direction of Jiang Li, very curious towards him as if he had changed into a different person. ¡°Host, I thought you were going to hit him.¡± System said. With the host¡¯s character, he really didn¡¯t look like someone who would hold back. Jiang Li took out the book that was needed for the morning reading session as he replied, ¡°I was definitely going to hit him. It¡¯s impossible not to do it.¡± System: ¡°¡­¡± The world has changed but Host is still so violent. No wonder he had asked him that morning if there was anything in the mall that could solve the problem of the original host¡¯s weak body. The main system rewarded Jiang Li a lot of points after he completed the task in the last world. When he went out this morning, he used the points in the mall to buy an item called ¡°Strong Body Pill¡±. After eating, the original host¡¯s build did not change, but the physique was instantly improved to the best state for his age. So, in such a state, for Jiang Li who had learned wrestling and mixed martial arts for a few years it was not something to be scared of to hit Chen Jialin. The reason he didn¡¯t hit him earlier was because he didn¡¯t want to make a huge fuss in the classroom. The two lessons in the morning were language. The language teacher was also the form teacher of class 5. Like others, she also froze for a while when she saw Jiang Li, and couldn¡¯t help but look at Jiang Li several times during class. Two lessons passed quickly and there was a twenty-minute break between the second and third classes. Chen Jialin had a habit. He liked to go to the bathroom only when the class was about to start so he wouldn¡¯t need to queue with others, and he could enter the class late. When the teacher asked, he would say that there were too many people queuing up so he was late. Today was no exception. He went to the toilet when the class was about to start. He whistled while he was walking, completely unaware that after he went into the toilet the door outside was closed. When he heard footsteps and looked back, the sight in front of him suddenly wavered and his whole person was knocked to the ground. The pain of the back of his head hitting the ground made him cry out in surprise, but his voice only made a short ¡°ah¡± before someone grabbed his neck with force and cut off his cry of pain. ¡°What are you screaming for?¡± The person who grabbed his neck asked faintly, and the familiar voice made Chen Jialin¡¯s eyes widen. Jiang Li?!!! CH 43 Chen Jialin¡¯s eyes suddenly widened in surprise as he saw Jiang Li¡¯s face. He used both hands to dig into Jiang Li¡¯s hand that was stuck on his neck, but Jiang Li¡¯s hand that was holding his neck didn¡¯t move. Jiang Li was strangling Chen Jialin¡¯s neck with one hand, he still had the same gentle and harmless look, but the bottom of his eyes was cold and tyrannical, looking at Chen Jialin as if he was something filthy. The air in his lungs was squeezed out little by little, and the suffocating feeling from his neck being strangled frightened Chen Jialin. In desperation he reached out, wanting to scratch Jiang Li¡¯s face. But before he could touch him he was punched fiercely by Jiang Li on his abdomen. ¡°!!!¡± The pain in his abdomen was excruciating, but his neck was still strangled by Jiang Li. Chen Jialin couldn¡¯t even shout out a full cry of pain. His throat could only let out a low, hoarse, whimper. A layer of cold sweat emerged from his forehead instantly and both of his legs were kicking around non-stop. ¡°Be quiet.¡± Jiang Li stretched out a finger and gently shushed him, slightly relaxing the strength of his hand. He then suddenly tightened when Chen Jialin was rapidly breathing, interrupting his breath at which the air had not been fully inhaled into the lungs. He loosened and quickly tightened his grip like a cat teasing a mouse. He played several times back and forth, and then slowly held tight. The fear of approaching death made Chen Jialin¡¯s lips involuntarily twitch. The fear in the depth of his heart expanded without limit, his eyes slightly bulging. At that moment he almost thought he was going to die, but the next second Jiang Li let go of his hand. The fresh air came like a tidal wave, Chen Jialin covered his neck and coughed violently. His throat was itchy and painful, even his tears came out as he choked. It was as if he had gained a new life. Jiang Li stood up and looked down at him curling up on the floor. His school uniform was stained by the dirty water on the ground, his whole person was in a mess. He waited for him to catch his breath before bending down to approach him. As soon as he got close, Chen Jialin reflexively backed up and said in a hoarse voice, panicking, ¡°What do you want? Don¡¯t come over!¡± Jiang Li was wearing the school uniform of the Second Middle School, his white polo shirt with blue edges was buttoned to the top one on the collar. After he had cut his hair, his whole person looked clean and well-behaved. It was unimaginable that he had been strangling Chen Jialin¡¯s neck tyrannically earlier. ¡°I¡¯m not gonna do anything.¡± Jiang Li stood upright, looking at him coldly, ¡°I¡¯m just teaching you how to be a human. Didn¡¯t you think that Chi Fang pressing and rubbing Zhou Kai on the ground was fucking cool? I just let you experience it too, are you happy? Hmm?¡± The word ¡°hmm¡± was as if it came out from his chest. It sounded low and dangerous, making Chen Jialin feel a chill on his back. He looked at him getting closer and closer and hurriedly crawled on his hands and knees to the other side. Jiang Li stepped towards him quickly to block his way, grabbed his hair, and lifted him up. The person was obviously a dozen centimeters taller than Jiang Li, but he carried him to the side of the sink like a chick. He pressed Chen Jialin¡¯s head and shoved it under the faucet, and used the other hand to turn the faucet. With a splash, the water was sprayed rapidly on Chen Jialin¡¯s head. ¡°¡­ What are you doing? Let¡­ let go of me¡­ cough¡­¡± Chen Jialin was drenched with a head of water. His eyes were washed by the water so that he couldn¡¯t open them. His hands were waving simply. As soon as he opened his mouth to speak water flowed into it, choking him and making him cough. Jiang Li¡¯s hands that were holding the back of his neck made him sweat, afraid that he would choke himself to death in the next second. ¡°What am I doing?¡± Jiang Li laughed and turned on the faucet to the maximum, ¡°Don¡¯t you like this kind of game? Have you forgotten what you did last week?¡± The previous Friday the original host had been responsible for cleaning the men¡¯s toilet. As he was sweeping the water that had accumulated on the floor, he accidentally splashed a few drops on Chen Jialin¡¯s shoes. Chen Jialin ignored his apology, directly pressed his head under the faucet, and splashed him with water. He had also asked him to pay for the dry cleaning of his shoes. ¡°¡­ It¡¯s my fault, you let go of me first¡­ cough¡­¡± Chen Jialin said intermittently as he was washed and choked by the water. Jiang Li grabbed his hair and collar and threw him to the ground, lifted his foot, stepped on his chest, and crushed it twice. He then looked at him condescendingly and asked in a gentle tone, ¡°Now do you know what you did wrong?¡± ¡°Wu!!!¡± Chen Jialin¡¯s chest was stepped on as he felt the pain. His whole person had been tortured by him to the point of having no strength left. His fingers shook nervously, taking out money from his pocket as he shivered and said with a crying voice, ¡°I know I know, it¡¯s my fault¡­ I¡¯ll give you back the money¡­¡± Jiang Li pulled the money out of his hands, let go of the foot that was stepping on him, pulled the hem of his clothes, and resumed the appearance of a good student. He then looked at Chen Jialin and said, ¡°If you dare to say a word about today¡¯s matter¡­¡± His gaze landed on Chen Jialin¡¯s neck and he said with a smile on his face, ¡°You also know that my family is very poor, only an old man who¡¯s even a gambler, as the saying goes, If the upper beam is not straight, the lower ones will go aslant1, the barefoot is not afraid of wearing shoes2. If I¡¯m forced, I¡¯m not afraid to take it out on you, understand?¡± His sight made Chen Jialin subconsciously reach out to protect his neck. The choking feeling of death when he was strangled was still fresh in his mind. How would he dare to say no to him? He quickly nodded his head and said in a hoarse voice, ¡°I know, I will not say anything!¡± Jiang Li was very satisfied. He took off the gloves he was wearing and stuffed them into the pocket of his school pants together with the money. He then went to the sink nearby, washed his hands, opened the door, and went out. Chen Jialin saw him leaving and his tense shoulders slowly relaxed. He then leaned against the wall as if he was paralyzed. After Jiang Li went out of the toilet, he even thoughtfully closed the outside door for Chen Jialin, giving him time to clean himself up. It was already class time, so there was no one outside the toilet. Jiang Li stood at the door and loosened his shoulders. He then heard System say, ¡°Lord host, I thought you would say that you didn¡¯t want his stinky money just now.¡± ¡°Why not take it? This is what Jiang Li deserves.¡± Jiang Li said rightfully. He not only took, but also took double, ¡°By the way, Little Cutie, didn¡¯t I look handsome when I hit him just now?¡± ¡°Very much like Governor Liu.¡± System replied, ¡°Very fierce.¡± Jiang Li smiled at the words and lifted his feet in the direction of the classroom. He had told the teacher that he had a stomachache and asked for leave to go to the infirmary earlier, so now it was time for him to return. The toilet was on the first floor and the classroom was on the third floor, so when Jiang Li just reached the turning of the stairs he came face to face with the person coming down from the upper floor. After seeing the other party¡¯s face clearly, his footsteps stopped. The person who came down was Chi Fang, who had his hands in the pockets of his school pants and also stopped his footsteps when he saw Jiang Li. One of them was higher up than the other. The moment their eyes met, the words ¡°According to the development of the storyline, he will definitely create a chance to encounter you next¡± which had been said by Feng Yu that morning appeared in Chi Fang¡¯s mind for some reason. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li had no way of knowing what was going through his mind. As he thought about increasing the favorability, the first thing he did was to show him a delighted smile. ¡°Chi Fang, what a coincidence!¡± What a coincidence? Is it really a coincidence¡­ Chi Fang thought in his heart. He kept his expression and stayed silent. He simply nodded his head and walked down the stairs. As the two of them passed each other, Jiang Li suddenly reached out, pulled the hem of his shirt, and asked anxiously, ¡°Where are you going, Chi Fang? Class has already started.¡± Chi Fang looked down at the corner of his shirt that was pulled. He was very unhappy to be touched by someone he was not familiar with. He said with a slightly cold tone, ¡°Let go.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry!¡± Jiang Li reacted and hurriedly let go of his hand, took two steps back, lowered his head, and apologized repeatedly, ¡°Sorry, sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to pull your clothes, I just¡­¡± He hesitated twice and stole a glance at Chi Fang with the corner of his eyes before he carefully said, ¡°Class has already started, I¡¯m just afraid that you¡¯ll be scolded by the teacher if you leave at this time.¡± ¡°Is it any of your business?¡± Chi Fang frowned, very unhappy with his obsequious attitude, thinking, why a big guy like him was acting like a little girl. But when he thought that he was initially a little sissy who liked men, he felt justified. ¡°I¡¯m just worried about you.¡± Jiang Li said softly. ¡°Worried about me?¡± Chi Fang snickered and sized him up, ¡°Are you very close with me? There¡¯s no need for you to worry about me.¡± Jiang Li was dumbfounded by his words. His expression was a little hurt. He looked at him blankly, then lowered his head, ¡°¡­ sorry.¡± His words filled with ¡®sorrys¡¯ made Chi Fang feel inexplicably annoyed, as if he was no different from the people who bullied Jiang Li as mentioned by Feng Yu. He felt angry just looking at him. Out of sight, out of mind, he turned and left. Jiang Li looked at the back of Chi Fang leaving, the corners of his lips curved. He turned around and went upstairs. The third period was math class. Jiang Li took a leave before he came out, so when he came back the teacher didn¡¯t give him a hard time. After waiting for him to return to his seat, the teacher called the students to answer the questions on the podium. Jiang Li had lived two lifetimes, high school was something very far away for him. Sitting in the classroom and listening to the teacher¡¯s lecture gave him a wonderful feeling, he then listened with great interest. The original host was actually a very hard-working child in learning, but his brain wasn¡¯t flexible nor smart enough. Even if he worked twice as hard as others, it wasn¡¯t effective. His results had always been ranked in the middle of the class. But even so, he still dreamed of going to Tsinghua University. Jiang Li touched the word ¡°Tsinghua University¡± engraved on the edge of the table with his finger, and decided to fulfill this dream for him. After school, Jiang Li ate and took a ride to South Slope Street to get his new glasses. After he received the glasses, he took out the contact lenses to change. The oval, silver-rimmed glasses added a touch of indifference and shrewdness to the original host¡¯s excessively well-behaved and delicate face, suppressing the previous soft look and giving it more of an elite schoolboy feel. After leaving the optical store and passing the police station next door, Jiang Li remembered that it was also there where he had seen Chi Fang. He involuntarily stopped to look inside, and surprisingly saw Chi Fang coming out from the station. The two met again. ¡°According to the development of the story line, he will definitely create a chance to encounter you next. First, he will make you familiar with him by appearing in front of you, and then slowly he will work on capturing your heart and body.¡± The moment he saw Jiang Li, Feng Yu¡¯s words resonated in Chi Fang¡¯s mind again like a curse, what a pain in the balls. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± God damn story development. When the superiors (or parents) do not set a good example, the subordinates (or children) are not expected behave well. a beggar can never be bankrupt CH 44 This unexpected encounter was interpreted differently in both Jiang Li and Chi Fan¡¯s hearts, the former was: What a coincidence! The latter was: What a coincidence? To coincidentally meet twice a day, Jiang Li felt quite surprised in his heart. Without waiting for Chi Fang¡¯s response, he then raised his hand to greet, ¡°Chi Fang tongxue1. What a coincidence.¡± Is it an actual coincidence, or did you do it on purpose? Chi Fang was really feeling suspicious of him. Before yesterday, he had no impression of Jiang Li. Before that, Feng Yu seemed to have mentioned to him that Jiang Li liked Xu Haowen, and he didn¡¯t take it to heart at that time, let alone knowing what Jiang Li looked like. However, after he rescued him by chance yesterday, the two suddenly crossed paths for some reason. Firstly, Jiang Li picked up his lighter and returned it, then he bumped into Jiang Li when he was skipping class, and now he bumped into him again when he¡¯s helping his grandfather to return something in the police station, this coincidence was hard to not make him feel suspicious. Chi Fang nodded towards Jiang Li like before, but this time he asked one more question, ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°I bought my glasses yesterday and came to pick them up today.¡± Jiang Li said, ¡°In fact, I saw you yesterday as well, it was here.¡± As soon as he said that, Chi Fang suddenly remembered that the person who stared at himself at the entrance yesterday afternoon was Jiang Li! Suddenly, he felt a subtle sensation in his heart. ¡­What a shitty fate. Chi Fang swore in his heart and was planning to leave when he heard Jiang Li ask, ¡°Chi Fang, have you eaten? If you haven¡¯t, I¡¯ll treat you? I really want to thank you for yesterday!¡± Chi Fang¡¯s house was just nearby, he ate at noon before coming over, but even if he didn¡¯t eat, he wouldn¡¯t promise Jiang Li, because he didn¡¯t like to eat with people he didn¡¯t know well, so he said, ¡°I¡¯ve eaten.¡± ¡°Oh ¡­¡± Jiang Li was a little disappointed to hear that, his shoulders slightly drooped down. Chi Fang saw what happened and remembered Feng Yu said that the relationship between Jiang Li and his classmates was poor, and he was often ostracised. Chi Fang inexplicably felt bad and added another sentence, ¡°You don¡¯t need to take it to heart, I just saved you on the way.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t do.¡± Jiang Li shook his head, looked at him and said in a firm tone, ¡°As the saying goes, a drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring, not to mention the grace of saving my life.¡± The phrase, ¡°a drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring,¡± automatically turned into Feng Yu¡¯s words, ¡°The saving grace must be returned with one¡¯s lifelong devotion,¡± in Chi Fang¡¯s ears and his expression suddenly became incomprehensible. Jiang Li saw his expression change in a second and asked with concern, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Where do you feel uncomfortable? I will accompany you to the hospital for a checkup.¡± ¡°¡­ No, really, I¡¯m leaving.¡± Chi Fang waved his hand and walked the other way. After walking for a while, he found Jiang Li was following him, so he stopped and asked him, ¡°Why are you following me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not.¡± Jiang Li pointed to the bus stop sign in front of him, ¡°I just want a ride back to school.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± You better not be following me. Both of them were going back to school, so naturally they were going to take the same bus. When they were waiting for the bus, Chi Fang stood nearly two metres away from Jiang Li, obviously didn¡¯t want to have any communication with him. Jiang Li didn¡¯t know that Chi Fang had an impression of him being ill-intentioned towards him because of Feng Yu. However, he knew that rushing things wouldn¡¯t work out, so he didn¡¯t continue to dwell on it, and boarded the bus with him one by one when the 105 bus came. The bus was already full of people, Chi Fang waited for Jiang Li to stand before specifically finding a place to stand further away from him. Jiang Li saw and felt puzzled in his heart, was he a fierce beast or a great flood? Even System noticed it and asked strangely, ¡°Lord Host, I think the male lead seems to be keeping a bit of distance from you.¡± ¡°Your feeling is not wrong.¡± Jiang Li pondered for a moment, his brain was very nimble, and with a little speculation he associated the possible reason. Because of Chen Jialin, the original host¡¯s liking for Xu Haowen was already an open secret in classes five and six, and since Chi Fang was in the same class as Xu Haowen, he thought he wouldn¡¯t be unaware of it. A community like homosexuals, no matter in school or society, it wasn¡¯t a favored existence. It was no wonder that Chi Fang had such a reaction. Jiang Li told his speculation to System and it said it was very likely, after all, in his previous life, after Jiang Li made his relationship with Jiang Zhan public, some of the fans who initially said they were going to support him for life instantly stopped being his fans. ¡°Then the target this time seems hard to be captured,¡± System said. ¡°Not really, there¡¯s no need to rush, let¡¯s study well first and work hard every day.¡± ¡°¡­ you seem to be very interested in going to school.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not bad, it¡¯s nice to experience student days once again.¡± Jiang Li and System were chatting in his heart, and didn¡¯t pay attention to the bus that was going to turn at a junction. He didn¡¯t grab the handrail at that moment and his whole person took several steps backwards and bumped into Chi Fang who was at the back accurately. Chi Fang plugged the headphones to listen to songs once he found a place on the bus. He was suddenly bumped, so he reflexively reached out to hold the other person. After standing still, he found that it was Jiang Li who should be standing one metre away from him. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Damn, this gay is scamming me ah?! ¡°Thanks.¡± Jiang Li gave his thanks once he stood firmly, looked up and coincidentally saw the tense outline of Chi Fang¡¯s chin. He realised that Chi Fang was not in a good mood and quickly pulled away from him. Seeing that he was so sensible, Chi Fang was a little more comfortable and put the headphones that he had just knocked off back into his ears. There were not many buses in the small county and as there were many stops that the 105 bus passed by, there were also many passengers. It was afternoon rush hour to work and school and after a few stops, Jiang Li felt like he had been squeezed to go inside the bus, his position was changed several times. Along the way, almost no passengers could be seen getting off the bus but more people were boarding the bus. Every time Jiang Li felt that the carriage had been too crowded to fit more people, there were always two more people squeezing into the bus at every stop. Everyone was sticking to each other, unknowingly Jiang Li was squeezed to the side of Chi Fang, the two were standing close together. Chi Fang usually rode a bicycle to school. When he came back at noon, his bicycle¡¯s tire was accidentally punctured. When he sent it to the repair store near his home to change the tire, the bicycle mechanic was not in, so he had to leave the bicycle and take the bus to school. It was so crowded along the way that Chi Fang doubted his life, especially the place where Jiang Li¡¯s arm was sticking felt like it was burning, making him feel uncomfortable. He immediately got off the bus when he reached the station, strided towards the school entrance and Jiang Li was left far behind. Jiang Li also didn¡¯t care, since there was still some time before class. He slowly walked back to the classroom. When he returned to his seat, Chen Jialin¡¯s seat in front of him was empty, and it was said that he had taken a leave of absence. Regarding the incident of beating him the previous morning, Jiang Li was not worried that Chen Jialin would say it out. He looked powerful, but in fact he was timid inside and was a bastard who only knew how to bully the weak. He usually made a show in class, but once he saw Chi Fang and his group, he didn¡¯t even dare to fart. When the class was about to start, Jiang Xingyu came over to collect his English homework, Jiang Li took the homework book from the drawer to her, and seeing that the other party was looking at him, he took the initiative to ask, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Jiang Xingyu shook her head and said, ¡°You¡¯re doing fine, good luck!¡± Then she went on to collect other people¡¯s workbooks. Jiang Li was dumbfounded by the abrupt words and then he realised what she meant. This was probably the first kindness from his classmates, but unfortunately the original Jiang Li could not feel it anymore. It was English class in the afternoon. Teacher Zhu, who taught English, liked to call people to stand up before class to read the content of the lesson to be taught later. Her gaze slowly swept across the classroom, and froze when she saw Jiang Li, she thought a new student came into class. She looked down at the seating chart, and called out with an unsure tone filled with doubts, ¡°Jiang Li? ¡° ¡°Here.¡± Jiang Li stood up from his seat and nodded towards her. The young female teacher stared wide-eyed, then smiled gently: ¡°It¡¯s really you, huh? I thought I was mistaken. The new hairstyle is good, boys should be clean and fresh like this to look good.¡± Teacher Zhu had just graduated from the teachers¡¯ training college last year. She was only afew years older than the students. Her personality was relatively gentle, and was a teacher that the original host liked more. Hearing her compliment, Jiang Li smiled at her in embarrassment. ¡°Since you¡¯re standing up, read the last part of the content in Unit 9, any difficulty?¡± Teacher Zhu asked gently. ¡°No.¡± Jiang Li replied, picked up the book and flipped to the article she was talking about and began to read it. Although Jiang Li¡¯s appearance and temperament have changed, most of the students in the class still had the impression that he liked Xu Haowen, that he was gay and a pervert. So, even though he was good-looking, they didn¡¯t have any intention of getting in touch with him and were not interested in his reading aloud at this moment. However, when Jiang Li read out the first sentence, everyone froze, especially the teacher on the podium. Jiang Li¡¯s pronunciation was very standard, with a little unobtrusive London accent, which was very comfortable to listen to, and his reading was very fluent and smooth throughout, without the slightest bit of pause, and the foreign letters on the book seemed to be transformed into Chinese in his eyes. Teacher Zhu chose an essay written by a famous writer during the Republic of China. Jiang Li¡¯s voice was gentle and crisp as he told the story hidden in the text, like the fresh morning dew and the charming evening sunset. It took him only a few minutes to turn everyone from being indifferent to being unsatisfied that the reading had ended. It was also at this moment that everyone realised that he had changed more than just his external appearance. Towards Jiang Li¡¯s performance, Teacher Zhu was very surprised. He did not make a single mistake in his reading, the intonation was clear and precise, and his reading was so accurate that he could be considered a model of reading recitation. After praising Jiang Li a few sentences, Teacher Zhu asked him, ¡°Have you been taking remedial English lessons recently?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been cramming on weekends, and I usually try to watch some original English dramas and movies to practice.¡± Jiang Li lied expressionlessly, the original host had been working part-time during the weekends and didn¡¯t even have time to attend lessons. The reason why his English was so good was that he practised it in his previous life for a Hollywood blockbuster. Hearing how diligent he was, Teacher Zhu was satisfied and praised him more before she started the class. She then carried out the last unit exam of the semester in the second period. After the exam, she made a point of urging the other students to study harder like him. After a year of being classmates, this was the first time a teacher had told everyone to learn from Jiang Li. For a while everyone had an indescribable feeling, but they had to admit that Jiang Li was indeed better than them in this aspect. However, there were some people who thought that Jiang Li only memorised the content of the article the day before, and today he was performing in front of the teacher specially, so it was not worthy to learn from him. However, those who thought so were soon slapped in the face. Two days later, Teacher Zhu announced the ranking of the test results on the podium. Jiang Li scored 148 points, ranking first in the class, beating the second place Jiang Xingyu by 19 points. The class watched dumbfoundedly as Jiang Li walked up to the podium to receive his test paper. When the teacher asked him to give a speech to encourage everyone, he was silent for a while and said in a sincere tone, ¡°Actually, I lied last time, it¡¯s useless to just work hard.¡± The crowd: ¡°?¡± Jiang Li looked at them and showed a standard smile, exposing his eight teeth: ¡°The main thing is to rely on a good brain.¡± The crowd ¡°¡­¡± Are you fucking saying that our brains are not good? classmate CH 45 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume The English unit paper this time was a bit difficult. Jiang Li scored 148 points, he didn¡¯t only rank first in the class, but also 1.5 points more than Class 6 Xu Haowen¡¯s 146.5. At first, when Jiang Li¡¯s score was known, the homeroom teacher of class 5 was sceptical about this ranking, to which Teacher Zhu said firmly that Jiang Li definitely didn¡¯t cheat. As Jiang Li suddenly changed his appearance and became confident and outstanding, her gaze always unconsciously fell on Jiang Li during the test. It could be said that she paid attention to him almost all the time, so he had no chance to cheat. In the classroom of senior high class 6: ¡°Haowen, did you hear? That Jiang Li in class 5 scored 148 on his English paper! Xu Haowen¡¯s tablemate pulled him to share the latest news with him, ¡°This paper is so hard, 148 points, isn¡¯t there really something fishy about it?¡± Xu Haowen, who was checking his paper for errors, looked up at him and said, ¡°Don¡¯t talk nonsense.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± The tablemate reached out and put his hand over his mouth to show a zipper motion. Xu Haowen lowered his head and continued to read the test paper, but his eyebrows slowly tightened. His mind remembered the last time he met Jiang Li at the stairway, the other party had lowered his head against the wall, not daring to look at him. On the other side of the classroom, Feng Yu was also talking to Chi Fang about this matter. As a scum student who had never passed his English exam, towards the top student who scored 148 he expressed great admiration. However, what he admired more was another thing: ¡°I heard from Xiaodong that Jiang Li even mocked them for their bad brains!¡± Feng Yu learned from the gossip and said with an ¡°everyone here is trash except me¡± tone, ¡°Just relying on hard work is useless, I mainly rely on my good brain.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang, who didn¡¯t pass the uni test this time, felt that he was also in the range of group mockery. But with his own experience of encountering Jiang Li these few times, he really didn¡¯t seem like someone who could say such arrogant and disdainful words. ¡­ Towards the fact that he became the topic of conversation for other people once again, Jiang Li didn¡¯t care about it at all. He was still alone and didn¡¯t have the intention to get closer to other people in the class. As for Chi Fang, Jiang Li wasn¡¯t in a hurry to capture him, since the future was long. But since the test English results were announced, other teachers had slowly changed their attitude towards him. No longer ignoring his existence as before, they would also call him up to answer questions in class. One day after the evening class, Jiang Li took a ride back home, and when he went upstairs, he found that the door was unlocked. A burglar? Jiang Li found a handy wooden stick from the corner of the stairs, gently pushed open the door, and walked inside lightly. There was a broken backpack in the living room, the sound of cursing and swearing echoed out from his room. Hearing the sound, Jiang Li realised that it wasn¡¯t that a burglar had entered his house, instead, the original host¡¯s father came back. As expected, from Jiang Li¡¯s room came a middle-aged man. He was wearing a grey short sleeves shirt and black pants, with a flat shaved head and slightly drooping eyes, which was a greasy scoundrel look. Father Jiang was first stunned when he saw Jiang Li, and only after a few seconds did he realise that this was his son. When he saw the wooden stick in Jiang Li¡¯s hand, his expression changed, ¡°What do you want, little brat? Want to beat your old man? Jiang Li held the wooden stick and, not letting go, just stood there and said expressionlessly, ¡°I thought there was a thief in the house.¡± ¡°A thief?¡± Father Jiang, as if he had heard some kind of joke, laughed out loud for a while and pointed to the things in this house, ¡°What kind of blind thing would come here to steal things?¡± Indeed, apart from a pile of broken furniture, there wasn¡¯t even a single thing valuable in the house. ¡°Right, I have to go out, give me some money.¡± Father Jiang ordered, he just went through Jiang Li¡¯s room and couldn¡¯t find any money. ¡°I don¡¯t have any money,¡± Jiang Li said. Father Jiang didn¡¯t believe him. ¡°Aren¡¯t you working in that Old Zhou¡¯s factory? How can you not have money, cut the fucking crap and take it out.¡± ¡°I said I don¡¯t have it, you had just tried to find it too.¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t want to confront him head-on yet, nor did he want to tangle with him to prevent himself from losing control of his hands, so he walked around the sofa from the other side and headed for the room. Since he was a child, this was the first time Jiang Li had pulled a long face in front of him. Father Jiang was displeased, he took a big step over, reaching out to slap him. ¡°You little brat, you¡­¡± Jiang Li reacted quickly and dodged to the side, the stick in his hand was sharply drawn, directly hitting Father Jiang¡¯s wrist, causing him to scream in pain. ¡°Don¡¯t touch me with your filthy hands.¡± Jiang Li pulled away a few steps and looked at him coldly. Father Jiang was angered by Jiang Li¡¯s attitude, cursing as he jumped towards him to teach him a lesson. Jiang Li saw the right moment to dodge sideways, then lifted his foot and kicked him hard at the side of the waist, directly knocking him down to the side of the wall. He reached out and pulled up the broken cover on the sofa to cover his head, using the stick in his hand to beat him hard. Father Jiang was covered by the hood, struggled a few times before pulling it off, and came face to face with the stick that Jiang Li drew to the face. ¡°Ah!¡± The father cried out in pain, cursed him a ¡°little bastard¡±, stood up from the ground, and casually took a small wooden stool from the side and smashed towards Jiang Li. ¡°Host, beware!¡± The system¡¯s voice rang out sharply. Jiang Li dodged it with an agile movement, and when he saw his father jumping on him, he jumped over with one hand on the back of the sofa. ¡°I¡¯ll beat you to death today, you little mongrel.¡± Father Jiang walked towards Jiang Li with a grim face, his dark face still had bruises from the stick Jiang Li had just used to hit him. He looked unusually hideous and scary, obviously enraged by Jiang Li. Jiang Li gripped the stick in his hand tightly, the corners of his lips were slightly raised, and his eyes were gloomy. ¡°I have exactly the same intention.¡± Jiang Li originally didn¡¯t want to rely on violence to solve everything, but things didn¡¯t go as he wished. Since he couldn¡¯t avoid it, then he could only face him head-on. The injuries that the original host had suffered from childhood in the hands of this old bastard would be returned today! Suddenly, a cell phone started ringing rapidly. Father Jiang fished out the phone from his pocket, his expression changed in almost a second and said in a flattering tone: ¡°Dao ge1 ¡­ hey hey hey! You guys take it easy! I¡¯m just trying to get some money, okay okay okay, I¡¯ll go over there right away, don¡¯t go!¡± Father Jiang hung up the phone, looked viciously at Jiang Li, picked up the backpack on the floor, and left in a hurry as if there was something urgent. Jiang Li looked at his back, he felt quite unfortunate, his hands were still itching. CH 46 The final exam came in a blink of an eye. After ranking first in the English unit test, Jiang Li took first in Physics as well. A student who usually scored lower than average in class suddenly took the first twice in a row, making him a key person of attention for the proctor in the final exam. After the end of the first year of high school, as summer vacation came, Jiang Li quit the part-time job in the lumber mill and found a barista job in a commercial street cafe. When he was filming previously, one of the characters was a barista. In order to not use a substitute, Jiang Li had learned it specially. No matter if it was single origin coffee or blend coffee, it was easy for him. He simply showed a few skills during the interview and got hired by the head of the cafe. The head also didn¡¯t mind that he didn¡¯t have any qualifications, since he was good-looking, he could be the image of the cafe by just standing at the bar. The first two lives of Jiang Li were spent in the entertainment industry, so he was very good at observing people and socializing with them. After only a few days of work, he became acquainted with everyone else in the cafe. Although there were many customers during the summer holiday, and he was tired after working, the salary was not bad and was much better than working odd jobs in the lumber mill which was hot and stuffy. On this day, Jiang Li made a latte and put it on a tray for his colleague to serve to the customer. Just then the door sensor next to him rang ¡°Welcome¡± and he turned his head and saw a familiar person. Theoretically, it should be someone who was both familiar and strange ¨C Xu Haowen. Xu Haowen walked in and saw Jiang Li wearing a white uniform by the bar, his footsteps slightly paused, he saw Jiang Li smiling at him and said welcome. Jiang Li¡¯s attitude was very kind and polite, fully compatible with his current staff status. Xu Haowen hesitated between walking over to say hello or just finding a seat directly. Although he was not as contemptuous as others about the fact that Jiang Li liked men, and felt that everyone had their own choices, the thought that the person Jiang Li liked was him was still somewhat embarrassing. But when he saw Jiang Li being natural and poised this time, comparing it to his own act of avoiding him made him seem like a petty person. After thinking about it, Xu Haowen walked magnanimously to the bar and said, ¡°Do you work here?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Jiang Li handed him the menu, ¡°What do you want to drink?¡± ¡°Mocha, with ice.¡± Xu Haowen said, ¡°Are you going to make it?¡± Jiang Li nodded, ¡°Do you want anything else?¡± ¡°Not for now, thanks.¡± Jiang Li keyed in the order. He then took down the jar with the mocha coffee beans from the shelf, skillfully scooped a cup of beans into the grinder with a spoon, pressed the switch, and started to boil water; preparing to make coffee. Jiang Li saw him still standing in front of the bar and reminded him, ¡°You find yourself a seat first.¡± There were not many customers in the morning, so only Jiang Li and another colleague were working. The other colleague was greeting customers on the other side, so he could not greet Xu Haowen. ¡°En.¡± Xu Hao Wen nodded, went to the window, and found a seat. He then took out some books and blank notebooks from his backpack and continued to solve the problems he hadn¡¯t finished the previous night. Jiang Li made coffee and sent it over to Xu Haowen, putting it on the table, ¡°Your coffee.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Xu Haowen stopped his pen and smelled the aroma of coffee. Jiang Li¡¯s gaze fell on the book beside his hand and found that it was math for the second semester of his second year. He looked at the book where the calculations were done and found that the steps Xu Haowen had taken to solve the problem were stuck in one place. Xu Haowen saw his gaze land on his book and smiled. ¡°My thought process is a bit stuck.¡± After saying that, he thought of Jiang Li¡¯s academic performance that had changed greatly, and tentatively asked, ¡°Do you want to try?¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t respond, stared at the book for a while, and stretched out his hand. ¡°Pen.¡± Xu Haowen handed him the pen. Jiang Li bent down, pressed the book with one hand, held the pen in the other, and quickly performed the calculations. As he was bending over, Xu Haowen¡¯s line of sight fell right on Jiang Li¡¯s side profile, and his beautiful rounded ears and elegantly curved jaw were displayed for his eyes. Accidentally, he was blinded by the fairness of his side profile. ¡­ Feng Yu invited Chi Fang to help him choose a laptop computer the same day. As he had an appointment with others at noon to play in a raid, the two went out early in the morning. The digital studio was on the second floor of the building in the center of the commercial street, while the cafe where Jiang Li worked was on the first floor. When the two of them passed the floor-to-ceiling window of the cafe, Feng Yu inadvertently glanced inside and saw the scene of Jiang Li bending over to help Xu Haowen solve the problem. As they were at the same table, from Feng Yu¡¯s point of view, the two were very close to each other. He couldn¡¯t help but pull Chi Fang, pointing at the two people. ¡°Chi ge, look who are those two?¡± Chi Fang followed where he was pointing and also saw Jiang Li and Xu Haowen. ¡°Jiang Li and Xu Haowen? How come the two of them are together?¡± Feng Yu saw the books laid out on the table through the window and guessed, ¡°Could it be that Jiang Li has succeeded? The two came together to study at the cafe?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­ Are you blind?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Jiang Li is wearing the cafe¡¯s staff uniform.¡± ¡°Huh, that¡¯s true.¡± Feng Yu took a closer look and found that Jiang Li was wearing the cafe¡¯s staff shirt with a black bow tie on the collar and a dark coffee-colored apron around his waist. Feng Yu: ¡°Not to mention, Jiang Li looks pretty good in a white shirt.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s gaze also landed on Jiang Li, before he could see his so-called ¡°pretty good¡± clearly, he heard him say, ¡°So, Xu Haowen is here to accompany Jiang Li at work? Are high schoolers so romantic?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Your brain is loaded with shit, right? Chi Fang was too lazy to listen to his nonsense. He took the initiative to enter the elevator next to them, Feng Yu hurried to follow. In the cafe, the two people didn¡¯t know that they were commented on by Feng Yu who was outside. Xu Haowen was surprised to see that Jiang Li had spent less than two minutes smoothly solving the problem that had puzzled him for a long time. Jiang Li returned the pen to him and pointed at one of the steps he had just performed. ¡°You made a miscalculation here, it should be 5.¡± Xu Haowen just watched him calculate it once and already understood it. The confusion in his mind had cleared up, and his thoughts were much clearer, so he nodded towards him: ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± Jiang Li took the tray and went back to the bar. Xu Haowen turned his head to see him back at the bar and began working again, washing the pots he had just used and then taking a clean cotton cloth to help his colleague wipe the washed glasses. Although Jiang Li wasn¡¯t tall, his height was still an advantage among girls, he was half a head taller than the female colleague who was working together with him. Xu Haowen saw him thoughtfully inclining a little to listen to what his female colleague was saying, with a gentle smile at the corners of his lips. When she tiptoed to put up the goblet, he reached out to take it and hang it on the glass rack. Xu Haowen himself didn¡¯t even notice that his eyes were unconsciously observing for a while, during which two customers came in one after another. Jiang Li took their order and made coffee, and didn¡¯t look in his direction at all; which made him wonder, does this person in front of him really like him? Or was it just a joke that the others made up to mock him? Realizing what he was thinking, Xu Haowen shook his head and withdrew his gaze. On the other hand, after Chi Fang and Feng Yu chose their computers, they went to the Internet cafe next to the computer store to play games. By the time they came out of the Internet cafe, it was almost nine o¡¯clock at night. As they were going downstairs, Feng Yu touched his stomach and asked Chi Fang, ¡°I¡¯m so hungry, what are we going to eat, Chi ge?¡± He didn¡¯t feel hungry when he was playing games earlier, but once he was out of the Internet cafe he found out that his stomach was rumbling. It was indeed true that games could make people forget to eat and sleep, as if cultivating immortality to open up the valley. But once they got out of the game, it seemed to be back to the mortal world. Chi Fang played a single-player game on his phone and said without raising his head, ¡°Whatever, you decide.¡± ¡°Let me think.¡± While Feng Yu was thinking, his phone received a new WeChat message. He opened it to see that it was from Nan Yin, looked up, and asked Chi Fang, ¡°Chi ge, Nan jie asked if we want to go to the movies. And also said that she had sent you a message, but you didn¡¯t reply, so she asked me if I was with you.¡± ¡°Not going, not with you either.¡± Chi Fang rejected decisively, there was indeed a message that popped up just now, but he was playing games, so he was too lazy to reply. ¡°Then let¡¯s just find a place to eat¡­ Huh, why is Jiang Li still here?¡± The two of them had already gone down to the first floor, and coincidentally some customers were leaving the cafe. Feng Yu looked through the door as it was opened and saw that Jiang Li was still standing at the bar. ¡°I saw him here in the morning, it¡¯s nine o¡¯clock now and he¡¯s not getting off yet?¡± Hearing the two words ¡°Jiang Li¡±, Chi Fang¡¯s finger paused for a moment. The snake on the screen which was supposed to turn accidentally hit someone else¡¯s house, and then the screen blacked out, the game ended. ¡°Why don¡¯t we just eat in this cafe, their pizza and pasta are especially good!¡± Feng Yu proposed, ¡°I heard that some cafes calculate commission based on the sales of the day. We may also be able to help Jiang Li increase his commission if we eat one more meal.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Before Chi Fang could express his opinion; Feng Yu pulled him into the cafe, the two went in, and the door sensor went off. The bar and the door were close together, so Jiang Li looked back when the sound rang and saw the two of them. Jiang Li was a bit surprised to see Chi Fang entering the cafe. He initially planned to use this summer vacation to earn money for his second-year school fee and living expenses, and only work on the capture of Chi Fang once school started. He didn¡¯t expect that his capture target would come to him without him taking initiative. But although he was not in a hurry to capture Chi Fang, Jiang Li knew some information about Chi Fang. He learned that he was transferred from City B during the first half-semester of his first high school year. It was said that the day after the transfer, Chi Fang was blocked by a few delinquent students of the same grade in the school¡¯s small orchard, and they said they wanted to teach the new transfer student how to behave. In a one-on-four situation, Chi Fang was unharmed; but several of the opponents were held down by him, crying and begging for mercy. The most serious one had a broken arm. Chi Fang then became famous because of this fight. Chi Fang was quite unruly in this school. He was often late to class and left early, his academic performance was also very normal. Other than his Math and Physics, which was about average in the class, almost no other subjects passed. He belonged to the type of students that most teachers wouldn¡¯t like. But Jiang Li heard that his family was very powerful in City B, there were people in his family working in the provincial Department of Education as leaders.. He was previously studying in City B¡¯s No.1 Middle School but committed a crime before transferring to the small county of Jiang City to take refuge. As for his behavior of being late and leaving early, the school teachers and leaders were turning a blind eye. But this news was just hearsay, Jiang Li wouldn¡¯t believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes, so he also didn¡¯t take it all to heart. Not to mention that Chi Fang once saved him. As soon as Feng Yu arrived at the bar, he greeted Jiang Li like a natural socializer, ¡°You¡¯re Jiang Li from class 5, right? I¡¯m from your next class, my name is Feng Yu.¡± ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Jiang Li.¡± Jiang Li knew he was a good buddy of Chi Fang¡¯s; nodded politely towards him, and then smiled at Chi Fang who was standing at the side with slight surprise in his eyes after a coincidental encounter, ¡°Good evening, Chi Fang tongxue.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Wait, we are all classmates, but you only smile at me, what does it mean? CH 47 The cafe was at its busiest between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m., and there were no more seats available except at the bar. Jiang Li apologetically explained the situation to Chi Fang and Feng Yu, then asked if they would like to sit at the bar. Feng Yu didn¡¯t mind where they sat as long as there was something to eat: ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where we sit, we can also chat with you if we sit here.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Us? Did I agree? Although Feng Yu said so, Jiang Li also did not forget to ask Chi Fang. Chi Fang met his eyes and easily caught the expectation there. He saw him looking at him fixedly as if Jiang Li really wanted him to sit over there. Chi Fang then thought about what Feng Yu had said about Jiang Li being often ostracized in the class, and how he probably had no friends. So he thought that sitting at the bar might also be able to help him support a scene. So when other colleagues saw, he wouldn¡¯t be looked down on. Chi Fang turned around in his mind after many thoughts. He felt like he was really a fucking good person, not only did he righteously saved his life, but also considered a lot for him. ¡°En.¡± Chi Fang slowly nodded under Jiang Li¡¯s gaze. When he saw the satisfied smile on Jiang Li¡¯s face after nodding his head, he smirked in his heart and thought that this weak chicken really had no ambition. He only agreed to sit in front of him, and he was so pleased, what a dumb guy. As there were many customers during the night shift, there were a lot of staff members on duty. Other than Jiang Li, there was another colleague at the bar, and there were others in the lobby to serve. So Jiang Li was only responsible for the table where Chi Fang and Feng Dong were sitting. After the two of them ordered, Jiang Li handed the order through the small window to the chef in the kitchen, so that they could make pizza and pasta while he ground the beans. Jiang Li cooked coffee with a siphon pot, slender white fingers holding a brown wooden handle. Once the pot of water boiled, he skillfully stirred in the coffee powder. As he stirred, the fragrance of coffee wafted out along with the steam, of a light chocolate fragrance. Chi Fang himself was already tall enough: the barstool was also high, and once he sat on it, he was almost a head taller than the standing Jiang Li. From his line of sight, he could see the top of Jiang Li¡¯s head and the tip of his nose. Under the spotlight of the bar, his hair was black and shiny, and his skin was as white as snow. In the coffee aspect, Chi Fang didn¡¯t know much, he couldn¡¯t say that Jiang Li¡¯s coffee-making skills were professional or not, but at least his movements were very pleasing to the eye. Chi Fang ordered a single mocha, Feng Yu ordered an iced cappuccino. Jiang Li poured the coffee into a cup, first gave Chi Fang a cup by putting it in front of him, then gave him a creamer and sugar packets. ¡°Give it a taste.¡± The first thing Chi Fang noticed was that Jiang Li¡¯s hand was propped up on the edge of the table, and he was unconsciously rubbing his index finger and thumb. He sensed that he seemed a little nervous. He then looked at his fingertips twice, unwrapped the creamer and sugar packet, and put in a little of each. Jiang Li watched him stir the coffee with a spoon, reminded him to be careful of the heat, and then began to makeFeng Yu his cappuccino. The store had a coffee art machine, but Jiang Li liked to draw his own. He frothed the milk while asking Feng Yu what pattern he wanted. ¡°Can I request anything?¡± Feng Yu rubbed his hands excitedly and was about to say what he wanted, when Chi Fang next to him saw this. With their years of friendship, Chi Fang knew that Feng Yu would definitely choose his favorite comic character, which was fucking hard to draw. He reached out and slapped him on the back of the head, saying in a cold tone, ¡°Don¡¯t make it hard for people.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t said it yet! How do you know I¡¯m going to make it hard for Jiang Li! Chi ge, you haven¡¯t tasted this coffee and yet you¡¯re already taking his side!¡± Feng Yu protested discontentedly. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Side your ass, who did I side with? The two quarreled with each other for a while, and finally, Feng Yu succumbed to Chi Fang¡¯s lasciviousness and said condescendingly that Jiang Li could just draw anything. Jiang Li saw that Chi Fang was helping him, so he smiled at him gratefully. He then said to Feng Yu, ¡°What pattern do you like, I can try.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± I¡¯m so fucking talkative, oh. ¡°Really?¡± When Feng Yu heard this, he immediately revived and pulled his phone out to show him a comic character on top of his phone screensaver, ¡°Can you draw him? Super handsome!¡± Jiang Li looked at the screensaver. Although it was a comic character, the drawing was very detailed. The coffee cup was too small. If he only relied on the chocolate sauce, it would be hard to draw on the milk foam, so he compromised with Feng Yu and said, ¡°How about drawing a chibi version of it?¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Feng Yu directly gave the phone to Jiang Li. Jiang Li put the phone next to his hand and drew according to the pattern that Feng Yu gave. He used to learn to make coffee and was very interested in blend coffee. He had even studied it specifically for a while, so drawing a chibi version of the character was not hard for him. With his movements, a round-faced little man appeared on the milk foam. Although it was a chibi version, it was still very delicate and cute. Chi Fang looked at his half-drunk coffee and suddenly wanted to have a blend coffee with a drawn character of his choice. After the pattern was drawn, Jiang Li brought the coffee to Feng Yu. ¡°The drawing is not very good, please don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Oh my god!¡± Feng Yu raised his voice, looking at the vivid little man on the milk foam, and marveled, ¡°Is this still not good? It¡¯s too damn cute, right? I just can¡¯t bear to drink it! Chi ge, look at this!¡± He said this as he pushed the coffee to Chi Fang to see. ¡°It¡¯s very cute, right? Simply adorable! I can¡¯t even drink it¡­ Dammit, what are you doing?¡± He then saw Chi Fang pick up his coffee as fast as lightning, directly drinking half a cup in one gulp. The milk foam that was spread on top of the coffee was half-drunk, even half of the head of the little man¡¯s chibi version was drunk by him. Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Good skill. Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± I¡¯m so angry. Chi Fang placed the remaining half cup of coffee back on his coaster. ¡°Since you can¡¯t bear to drinking it, I¡¯ll drink it for you.¡± Feng Yu looked at his half of the remaining coffee and felt like crying. ¡°Chi ge, you are simply not human, ah.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°You¡¯re the same. I¡¯m just helping, don¡¯t need to be polite, I can also help you out for the remaining half cup.¡± The two people were quarreling again. Jiang Li watched and couldn¡¯t help but laugh out loud. It was the first time he had been in such a good mood since he came to this world. As expected, youthful boys were indeed barrels of laughs. His laughter stopped the two men from exposing each other, and they both stopped to look at him and found that his eyes were bent with laughter. Under the spotlight on the bar top, his eyes seemed to be filled with stars, bright and shiny. Chi Fang saw the arc of his eyes and the upward corner of his lips, and felt that after he smiled, his whole person became clear and bright: much better than his previous yes-man character. His tone unconsciously lightened up, ¡°What are you laughing at?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± Jiang Li shook his head, ¡°I just think you guys are very close.¡± ¡°That¡¯s for sure.¡± Feng Yu hooked Chi Fang¡¯s shoulders and said in a proud tone, ¡°Chi ge and I are like family! You wouldn¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Jiang Li laughed and whispered, ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± His voice was a bit despondent as if he remembered something, and the corners of his eyes, which were originally curved up because of his smile, slowly converged. He then said to the two of them, ¡°You guys take your time and drink, I¡¯ll go to the kitchen to rush the other orders.¡± With that, he turned around, went to the other side of the bar, and entered the kitchen through the small door. Feng Yu¡¯s original intention was to say that Jiang Li didn¡¯t understand his relationship with Chi Fang, so he wouldn¡¯t understand how good their relationship was, but Jiang Li had been ostracized before and had no other friends around so that inevitably sounded like it had another meaning. After Jiang Li left, Feng Yu asked Chi Fang, ¡°Chi ge, did I say something wrong?¡± Chi Fang retracted his gaze, picked up his coffee, and took a sip. ¡°I told you not to blindly say nonsense all day, are you dumb?¡± ¡°I just said that casually, and I forgot to pay attention to what ¡­ Wait, you¡¯re taking my coffee!!!¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Chi Fang looked like he had just realized it and gave the cup back to him, ¡°Returning it to you.¡± Feng Yu looked down and found that there was only a shallow layer of milk foam left at the bottom of the cup, and Chi Fang didn¡¯t even stir it, so he drank his whole cup of coffee. Feng Yu gritted his teeth and looked at him. ¡°¡­ I should have been more careful when making friends.¡± Chi Fang smiled. ¡°We are good brothers like family.¡± Feng Yu: ¡°I¡¯m dead!¡± Jiang Li soon came out of the kitchen, he brought out the pizza and pasta ordered by the two of them and brought up other things from the small window in the kitchen. He then finally cut a small fruit plate for the two of them and said, ¡°You guys eat first, I¡¯ll go over and help, call me if you need anything.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Feng Yu had been hungry for a long time, without saying a word, he started to eat. Chi Fang saw Jiang Li dismantle the coffee pot to wash, remembering that he had worked all day today, and asked him, ¡°Have you eaten?¡± ¡°Yes, this cafe provides us with meals.¡± Jiang Li replied, washed the pot, and went to help another colleague. Jiang Li was busy the rest of the day: when one table of customers left, another came. Chi Fang saw him constantly making coffee, washing pots, and cutting fruit plates ¨C during which he also came over to add new coffee for them, until after eleven o¡¯clock when he slowly stopped and returned to their side after greeting his colleagues. Jiang Li saw that they had finished their food. He reached out and carried the plates, put them on the small windowsill in the kitchen, and then dispensed new orange juice for the two of them before saying, ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s a little busy today.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, continue with your work, no need to entertain us.¡± Feng Yu said as he didn¡¯t mind, picked up the orange juice and after taking a sip, very contentedly took a deep breath, and then said, ¡°Speaking of which Jiang Li, you give me a very different feeling today than you usually do at school, you look a lot more cheerful ah!¡± Chi Fang also had this feeling. Today¡¯s Jiang Li had changed a lot from the first few times he came into contact with him. The previous Jiang Li gave off a feeling of having low self-esteem and lack of confidence. ¡°Is it? I need it for work, I guess.¡± Jiang Li touched his ears in embarrassment and said with a smile, ¡°Since I have to live on, I always have to change something and learn to adapt to this society.¡± Feng Yu was a gossiper, he liked to listen to gossip and also liked to gossip. He had heard about the situation of Jiang Li¡¯s family for a long time and knew that he was not rich. His father didn¡¯t care much about him. Now, in order to support the family and support himself, he could understand that he had no choice but to change his personality. ¡°In fact, you are quite good like this, much better than those who look down on you!¡± Feng Yu comforted, ¡°You can also draw Captain, fucking awesome!¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Drawing Captain is fucking awesome? His comforting skills are really poor as fuck. The cafe closed at 1 a.m., and before they knew it, it was almost midnight. Jiang Li gave a 20% discount to the two of them, which was the cafe manager¡¯s benefit to the employees, so the friends he brought over could enjoy a 20% discount. ¡°No need for a discount.¡± Chi Fang took out his wallet and gave money to Jiang Li at the original price. ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li looked at the money he handed over and wondered, ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Yeah, why?¡± Feng Yu also did not understand why he didn¡¯t take advantage of a bargain. Chi Fang avoided the gaze of the two and said in a careless tone, ¡°I heard that your place counts the commission according to the turnover of the day.¡± Jiang Li realized what he meant and couldn¡¯t help but be stunned. So the reason was that he wanted to let him earn more commission. At this moment, he broke through and found that the teenager in front of him was so soft inside. Feng Yu also froze, he just said so casually and didn¡¯t expect his Chi ge to remember it. Chi Fang was a little uncomfortable by Jiang Li¡¯s stare. Without saying a word, he placed the money on the bar. ¡°I¡¯m leaving.¡± After saying that, he turned towards the door, walked a few steps, and was suddenly called by Jiang Li. He turned around and heard him say in a sincere tone, ¡°Chi Fang tongxue, you really are a good person.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li, are you crazy? How many good person cards do you want to give me? CH 48 What was the feeling of receiving two good person cards from the same person in a short period of time? It was indescribable for Chi Fang. He was too lazy to care about Jiang Li, so he pulled open the glass door of the cafe and went out, Feng Yu hurried to follow. Since this encounter in the cafe by chance, Chi Fang¡¯s favorability rose to 10% and was finally not zero anymore. System said congratulations and was a little helpless towards Jiang Li¡¯s attitude of capturing by letting nature take its course. If Host was willing to take the initiative like capturing Jiang Zhan in the last world, the favorability would have long increased. Towards this, Jiang Li said that he was not in a hurry, his priority was to study well first. System: You are clearly earning money diligently¡­ Jiang Li: I can only study well after earning money. System: ¡­ In the blink of an eye, Jiang Li had been working in the cafe for two weeks, during which Chi Fang and Feng Yu came to the cafe twice. Sometimes they would also order delivery and ask Jiang Li to send it to them while they were playing games in the Internet cafe on the upper floor and couldn¡¯t leave. They were indeed teenagers who were heavily addicted to the Internet. One time, Feng Yu proposed to add Jiang Li¡¯s WeChat and said that he would directly send him a message when he wanted to order. Jiang Li said his phone didn¡¯t have WeChat and asked him to call the cafe¡¯s landline. Feng Yu took Jiang Li¡¯s phone to look over and over several times. He didn¡¯t expect that now elementary school students were already using smartphones, and yet Jiang Li, a high school student, was still using the old-fashioned phone. How retro. However, Chi Fang then associated with the situation of Jiang Li and found that he was really poor. As for Father Jiang, since the day of the conflict with Jiang Li, he left and did not return. Jiang Li didn¡¯t care about his whereabouts, it was best if he didn¡¯t come back. Jiang Li would need to think about how to deal with Father Jiang if he did. Since Jiang Li came to this world, he was slowly changing the original host¡¯s social circle. He would no longer avoid the neighbors, and occasionally greeted them when he met them. As he changed, the neighbors¡¯ attitudes slowly softened; no longer seeing him only as debt dodger Jiang¡¯s son but as an ordinary high school student. Once a person¡¯s state of mind had changed, one would also start to treat people differently. In the eyes of the residents of the old city area, Jiang Li¡¯s status changed from ¡°debt dodger Jiang¡¯s kid is no good¡± to ¡°a poor kid who is self-reliant without parental love¡±. Sometimes when some aunts saw him, they would even give him some fruits and vegetables that they grew. Except for the slow progress of the capture, everything was going quite well. One day, Jiang Li got off the morning shift, greeted his colleagues, and left the cafe. The morning shift was from 10 am to 6:30 pm, it took a while to hand over the shift, and Jiang Li came out of the store at almost 7 pm. However, he had eaten cake in the afternoon at the store, so he wasn¡¯t hungry at this time. He went up to the fourth floor of the central building, intending to go to the bookstore to find a few books of exercises used in senior three. As soon as the elevator door opened, Jiang Li saw Chen Jialin walking into the elevator with some friends. When the other party saw him, his feet took a step back, and his expression was wary. Since Jiang Li beat up Chen Jialin once in the toilet, he did not take the initiative to find Jiang Li¡¯s trouble again and even would keep a distance from Jiang Li in school. As long as he didn¡¯t seek death, Jiang Li wouldn¡¯t take the initiative to provoke him, ignoring his presence and walking towards the bookstore. Chen Jialin stood at the back, looking at him with a gloomy gaze. Seeing this, the friend with him asked out loud, ¡°Who is that?¡± ¡°A classmate.¡± Chen Jialin withdrew his gaze and walked towards the elevator. Just after he took two steps forward, he suddenly stopped and asked one of them, ¡°Xiao Dong, I remember you said that your cousin is very familiar with the boss of Yunchuang Vocational High School, right?¡± ¡°Yes, why?¡± The man asked. ¡°Nothing.¡± Chen Jialin smiled with ill-intentions, looked back in the direction of Jiang Li, hooked his arm around the man¡¯s neck, and said, ¡°I just want to have a drink with him sometime, you tell your cousin to give him my message, say I¡¯ll invite them to dinner.¡± ¡°Okay! I¡¯ll arrange it for you.¡± Chen Jialin touched his abdomen ¨C which had been bruised by Jiang Li ¨C sneered, and went into the elevator with the others. Jiang Li entered the bookstore and went straight to the information section to find the books he needed. While he was picking out books, an old man wearing a cotton and linen button-up shirt brought over some books and asked in a kind tone, ¡°Hello kid, are you a student?¡± ¡°I am.¡± Jiang Li put down the book in his hand and nodded to him. ¡°How old are you?¡± ¡°Sophomore.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± The old man said with a smile on his face, ¡°I want to find two English tutorials for my grandson, but after reading them for a long time, this old man can¡¯t understand what¡¯s in them. Can you help me pick two out?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Jiang Li took the book in his hand and flipped through it. He found that the books he took included intensive elementary school English and basic middle school English, so he said, ¡°Old man, how old is your grandson?¡± ¡°Seventeen years old.¡± The old man said, ¡°A high school student, just like you, ready to go to the second year of high school.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li flipped through the book, ¡°Old man, the books you took are all basic English books. It may not be suitable for high school students, let me pick two books for you.¡± ¡°I want basic English books, there is nothing wrong with them.¡± The old man laughed, his tone was a bit helpless, ¡°My grandson¡¯s foundation is poor, he probably can¡¯t read high school English. I thought about buying some simple ones for him to try.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s like that, ah.¡± Jiang Li thought for a moment, ¡°What is your grandson¡¯s usual English score?¡± ¡°Sixty.¡± The old man made a hand gesture. Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± The full score for high school English was one hundred and fifty points. The old man¡¯s grandson only scored sixty points, his foundation was indeed very poor. He probably only relied on multiple-choice questions for most of his scores. The old man seemed to notice that Jiang Li was a bit speechless and said smilingly, ¡°Actually, my grandson¡¯s brain is really good, he¡¯s just not willing to learn, really.¡± From his tone, Jiang Li heard how much he favored his grandson; and although he was not satisfied with his grandson¡¯s academic performance, he was not overly harsh and came to the bookstore by himself to help his grandson select tutorials. ¡°Then I¡¯ll help you pick some of all levels.¡± Jiang Li suggested. ¡°Okay, thank you.¡± The old man¡¯s plump face was full of smiles, just like a Maitreya Buddha, making people feel very friendly. Jiang Li helped the old man pick out the books while sorting them into categories, which one to learn first were marked in order. The old man listened very attentively and took out a small notebook from his pocket to write them down one by one. After picking out the books, Jiang Li saw that he was so serious ¨C obviously very concerned about his grandson¡¯s learning ¨C so he said, ¡°Old man, I suggest you enroll your grandson in a remedial class. If his foundation is too poor, it is not very useful to just read books.¡± And your grandson might not be able to read. Jiang Li didn¡¯t say this out loud, afraid of hurting the old man¡¯s heart. For the person who could only score 60 points out of a 150 point paper, his foundation must be really poor. ¡°Hey, I¡¯ve wanted him to join remedial classes for a long time, but he refused to, ah.¡± The old man sighed, ¡°There¡¯s a remedial class near my house. I heard that the teachers there are particularly good. I went to know more about it, the teachers were even chatting in English, how awesome!¡± As he continued his words, his initial smiling face became a bit sad, touching the books Jiang Li picked for him, shaking his head: ¡°But he just doesn¡¯t want to go, I can¡¯t force him, right? He¡¯s almost an adult, he has his own thoughts.¡± Jiang Li nodded, expressing understanding, and was about to comfort this old man with a few words when a voice suddenly came from the side, ¡°Hello.¡± A foreigner with pale skin and blond hair stood next to Jiang Li and made several gestures to him, asking for help. The other party was probably afraid that Jiang Li couldn¡¯t understand English, and expressed himself in both English and Chinese, but it was confusing. His expression was somewhat anxious. Jiang Li was a little confused, so he simply talked to him in English. The foreigner had asked three people in a row, but they couldn¡¯t understand him at all. Once he heard Jiang Li speaking to him in fluent English, his eyes lit up. The two communicated for a while, and the foreigner gratefully said several words of thanks to Jiang Li in broken Chinese before leaving. After the foreigner left, Jiang Li turned around and found the old man still standing by. The sadness on his face had been swept away, and he was looking at him with a burning passion in his eyes that could not be ignored, which made a chill run down Jiang Li¡¯s spine. ¡°¡­ Old man, is there anything else I can help you with?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± The old man suddenly took Jiang Li¡¯s hand and said in an excited tone, ¡°You must be very good at English, right? How much did you score on the exam?¡± ¡°More than a hundred points.¡± Jiang Li said a number in a matter-of-fact way. ¡°More than a hundred points? That¡¯s twice as much as my grandson!¡± The old man looked at him in amazement and said as he gave a thumbs-up, ¡°You¡¯re really something, little student! Which school are you from?¡± ¡°I¡¯m from the No.2 middle school.¡± ¡°No.2 middle school? My grandson is also from your No.2 high school, you guys are schoolmates, it¡¯s really fate!¡± The old man exclaimed repeatedly as if it was indeed fate that brought them together from a thousand miles. Jiang Li was afraid that he would suddenly start singing in the next sentence, so he quickly asked, ¡°You haven¡¯t said what you need my help with.¡± The old man said, ¡°I want to ask you to tutor my grandson, do you think it will work?¡± ¡°??¡± Jiang Li thought he had heard wrong and looked at the other party with wide eyes, ¡°You¡¯re asking me to tutor your grandson?¡± ¡°Yes yes yes. The brat refused to go to remedial classes, and the tutor I found for him before was pissed off by him and left, so I thought you guys could get along since you are the same age. Not only in the same school, but also in the same grade.¡± The more he said, the more he felt his idea was perfect: ¡°It¡¯s summer vacation, you don¡¯t have to tutor for long, just a month.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°I¡¯m really sorry, I¡¯m really not suitable.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I can pay you according to the tuition fee of the remedial classes. If my brat makes progress, I¡¯ll additionally pay you a bonus, do you think that¡¯s fine?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not about the money.¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t know if he should laugh or cry. Although he did need money, now he was doing quite well in the cafe. Sometimes he was busy and needed to work all day shifts, he simply didn¡¯t have extra time to give tutorials to others. ¡°What¡¯s the problem, then? Just promise me, if you have any problems, I¡¯ll try to solve them for you.¡± The old man patted his chest. Jiang Li shook his head: ¡°I think I may not be suitable to tutor others, you ¡­¡± The old man interrupted him: ¡°My grandson¡¯s name is Chi Fang, the sixth class of the No. 2 high school. You guys are in the same school, maybe you know him.¡± Jiang Li¡¯s words stopped and looked at the old man, ¡°What did you say your grandson¡¯s name was?¡± The old man: ¡°Chi Fang.¡± Chi. Fang. Jiang Li repeated these two words and felt that he had achieved what he wanted without any effort. This is great! Jiang Li raised a smile and said to the old man, ¡°Old man, although I think I may not be suitable to tutor others, the teacher said that helping people is the essence of happiness. Besides, Chi Fang and I are even schoolmates. I am willing to give it a try, and if there is a need for other subjects, I can also help.¡± Old man: ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± System said, ¡°No matter which world Host goes to, Host is always a fickle man.¡± Jiang Li smiled: What nonsense, I¡¯m doing this to live. As Jiang Li and the old man agreed on this matter, they exchanged their contact information. He had a night shift the next day and would only start working at 6 pm. He had promised the old man that he would go to his house at 10 am to tutor Chi Fang for two hours. Jiang Li was really looking forward to Chi Fang¡¯s reaction when he saw him. The next day, the old man forbade Chi Fang to leave the house and only told him about the tutoring once it was almost time for Jiang Li to come. When Chi Fang heard that the old man had found another English tutor for him, he felt a headache. And when he knew that the other party was in the same school and grade as him, he couldn¡¯t help but frown and shout towards the old man who was boiling soup in the kitchen, ¡°Grandpa, you¡¯re not being fooled, are you? You also believe in high school students as tutors.¡± ¡°No, no, that little kid is very impressive. He can even talk to foreigners in English.¡± The old man was very relieved with Jiang Li and waved his hand, ¡°And as soon as he heard that he was tutoring you, he agreed without another word!¡± ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang really couldn¡¯t think of anyone who would say yes as soon as they heard his name, but there were a whole lot of people who would run away as soon as they heard it. Could it be Nan Yin? The thought that it might be Nan Yin gave Chi Fang a headache and he pondered how he would say no later. The doorbell of the house rang just as he was thinking. The old man heard it and urged Chi Fang, ¡°It must be your tutor who has arrived, go and open the door.¡± Chi Fang pouted his mouth, got up from the sofa, walked towards the door slowly, and pulled it open. The person standing outside the door was Jiang Li, and when he saw Chi Fang open the door, he smiled at him: ¡°Hello, Chi Fang tongxue.¡± ¡°How is it you?¡± Chi Fang was stunned, he remembered that he had not told Jiang Li his home address, ¡°How do you know this is my house?¡± ¡°Xiao Li is here!¡± The old man¡¯s voice came from the house, ¡°Come in quickly.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Jiang Li replied towards the direction of the house. Chi Fang looked back to take a glance and turned back to Jiang Li, he suddenly realized that he was the tutor that Grandpa said he hired for him. The old man came out of the house and smilingly said to Jiang Li, ¡°I¡¯m counting on you, thanks for the hard work.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not hard.¡± Jiang Li said, ¡°Helping people is the essence of happiness.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Once you heard my name you agreed, are you sure you want to help people and not take advantage of being near me? CH 49 Jiang Li was invited by the old man into the house. Chi Fang was still standing at the door, holding the door handle, and didn¡¯t move. He was really baffled by the fact that Jiang Li had suddenly become his tutor. ¡°Xiao Fang, what are you standing there for, come and serve.¡± The old man saw Chi Fang only standing still at the door, and called out to him. ¡°Oh.¡± Chi Fang bristled, closed the door, returned to the living room, and took the teapot from the hands of the old man to pour tea for Jiang Li. Jiang Li saw this and hurriedly stood up, waved his hand, and said, ¡°No need to serve me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not okay.¡± The old man disapproved and told Chi Fang to treat Jiang Li well, and he went back to the kitchen. The only two people left in the living room were Jiang Li and Chi Fang. Chi Fang poured Jiang Li a cup of tea and then sat on a chair beside him. He lowered his voice and asked Jiang Li what was going on. Jiang Li told Chi Fang about their encounter in the bookstore and how after the old man had found out that they were schoolmates, he had requested him to help tutor Chi Fang. ¡°Impossible.¡± Chi Fang didn¡¯t believe his words. ¡°Although the old man is unreliable sometimes, he won¡¯t simply find someone to tutor me.¡± He wanted to ask Jiang Li if he had set up the old man but thought that Jiang Li shouldn¡¯t be such a person, so he threatened in a low voice, ¡°Honestly explain now, or you will be swept out of the house.¡± ¡°The old man asked me how many points I got in English, and as soon as I told him, he asked me to come over.¡± Jiang Li said in a soft voice. ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang remembered the high score of 148 on Jiang Li¡¯s unit exam paper and was somewhat dumbfounded. This score was indeed able to give him a remedial lesson. Jiang Li looked at him, speechless and slightly mad. A smile flashed across his eyes and he added naughtily, ¡°The old man also told me that you only scored sixty points, so I decided to come to help you make up for the lesson.¡± ¡°¡­¡± You only scored sixty points. Although his points were really too shabby to look at in front of Jiang Li, when he heard the word ¡°only¡±, he didn¡¯t feel good ¨C as if he was useless ¨C so he dissed back, ¡°There are so many people who failed exams in school, how come I didn¡¯t see you give them extra lessons? You¡¯re just poking your nose into others¡¯ business like dogs catching mice.¡± ¡°But they didn¡¯t save me before.¡± Jiang Li said without thinking and wasn¡¯t angry at Chi Fang comparing him to a dog. He looked at him with seriousness, ¡°My life was saved by you, but I have nothing to repay you, only this learning ability may be able to help you.¡± Chi Fang was stunned by his words. Jiang Li took a deep breath, clenching his fists tightly that were placed on his lap. His eyes fixed on him. He sounded as if he was pleading, ¡°Let me try, I will teach you well, okay?¡± His eyes were clear and bright, like the light that brightened up the darkness, with a firm and pleading look in his eyes; as if the matter of tutoring Chi Fang was not enough compared to the kindness of him saving Jiang Li, he really placed the kindness of Chi Fang who saved him in his heart at all times. Chi Fang met his eyes unintentionally and could only feel that he was burnt by the gratitude that was almost flowing out from his eyes. His heart skipped a beat unconsciously and he avoided his gaze embarrassingly just after they looked at each other for a few seconds. ¡°Whatever.¡± Chi Fang said with a deep, gruff voice and didn¡¯t want to be alone with him anymore. He got up and returned to his room. He then accidentally hit a small wooden stool on the way. He cursed in a low tone and bent over to directly carry the stool back into this room. His back looked like he was fleeing in defeat. Jiang Li froze looking at him, there was a moment he actually felt that the back of the person in front of him and the back of Jiang Zhan when he fled back to his room after being teased overlapped. ¡­ Jiang Zhan. Jiang Li moved his lips and called out this name silently. His eyes felt dry, and his sight became blurry, tears nearly flowed out. What should I do? One life clearly passed, but I still have not learned how to get used to the days without you. If you know, you must be laughing at me again, right? Jiang Li laughed at himself, lowered his head to hide his slightly reddened eyes, and sat drinking tea like nothing happened when Chi Fang came out again; but he didn¡¯t know why the tea was getting more and more bitter as he drank. After finishing the cup of tea, Jiang Li and Chi Fang went back to the room. Jiang Li prepared to start helping him with his tutoring. Chi Fang¡¯s room was not large, but it was very simple and clean, it could be seen that it was often cleaned. There weren¡¯t very many books on the bookcase, instead, it was mostly filled with robot models and animation figures. But what attracted Jiang Li¡¯s attention was the lighter in the showcase at the top of the bookcase. Jiang Li estimated that there were about two dozen lighters of various kinds in the showcase. Looking at them, most of them were made of metal and silver. Some lighters also had intricate patterns carved on them, placed on the black flannel, which looked exquisite and expensive. Chi Fang looked at him staring at his precious collection, his tone was a little proud, ¡°I collected all of them, do you want to take a look?¡± Jiang Li knew that many people had their own precious things that they wouldn¡¯t usually show to others easily. He didn¡¯t smoke, it was just that all these lighters were so exquisite and beautiful that he did have some desire to see them up close. Hearing him say so, he asked, ¡°Can I?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Chi Fang saw his eyes light up because he agreed, and only then he slowly said, ¡°You can look, but not touch.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­ ¡­ ¡­¡± Seeing Jiang Li puff out his mouth, Chi Fang was pleased to feel that he had made a comeback and whistled as he took down the lighter display board from the showcase. He especially found someone to custom-make the display board to specially place the lighters. Each groove was just right to put a lighter, not only Jiang Li, but Feng Yu could also only see but not touch when he came over. Chi Fang put the display board on the desk and raised his chin to indicate for Jiang Li to take a look. Jiang Li kept his words, he only looked at them and didn¡¯t touch them, though in his heart he really wanted to use his fingers and feel the texture. By looking at them closely, Jiang Li could feel how exquisite and expensive they were, more so than looking at them from afar. The word ¡°Chi¡± was engraved on the bottom right part of each lighter, in the exact same position as the one he picked up last time. ¡°Why do you have such a large collection of lighters? I remember you don¡¯t seem to smoke?¡± Jiang Li looked up and asked Chi Fang. He remembered that Chi Fang didn¡¯t smoke the two times he went to the cafe, and he didn¡¯t smell of smoke. ¡°I like it.¡± Chi Fang put the display board back in the showcase and sat at the table. He turned the globe as he asked, ¡°Don¡¯t you have something you like?¡± ¡°Of course I do.¡± Jiang Li said. Chi Fang became interested: ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Money.¡± 1 ¡°What?¡± Chi Fang thought he had misheard. ¡°Money,¡± Jiang Li repeated, explaining word for word, ¡°M, O, N, E, Y, Money, or Renminbi, commonly known as money, banknotes.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­ ¡­ ¡­¡± You like money, I can understand, but I just failed English, it doesn¡¯t mean that I don¡¯t understand a single English word. You make me feel like a retard by specifically explaining it. Jiang Li took the prepared textbooks out of his bag, put them on the desktop, and said to Chi Fang, ¡°Let¡¯s start studying.¡± Chi Fang looked down at the books he brought, only to see that the cover of the top book had a big title written on it ¨C English Phonetic Learning Basic Introduction. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± The veins on his forehead jumped twice, and Chi Fang felt that he was indeed being treated like a retard by Jiang Li. ¡°I didn¡¯t read your previous test papers and wasn¡¯t sure exactly where your English level was, so I brought over books of different levels.¡± Jiang Li patted the books beside his hand, he had brought a total of seven or eight of them, ¡°but¡­ if you don¡¯t mind, can you show me all the previous test papers?¡± Sorry, laozi minds a lot. Chi Fang complained in his heart, sitting on the table motionless, obviously not wanting to cooperate. Jiang Li understood very well his mood of not wanting to show the test papers with only low scores, he nodded and said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if I don¡¯t take a look at them, I brought new test questions here today, it¡¯s the same if you do it again.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± What the hell, Jiang Li? Jiang Li pulled out a test paper from his bag. This was the senior English test paper he bought yesterday in the book store on the way after promising the old man. Considering Chi Fang¡¯s failing grade, he chose the easiest one. After looking at the time, Jiang Li gave the test paper and pen to Chi Fang. ¡°The same amount of time as the usual test at school, now the test starts, Chi Fang tongxue, good luck.¡± The address ¡°Chi Fang tongxue¡± sounded different in Chi Fang¡¯s ears. Usually, when Jiang Li called him Chi Fang tongxue, it sounded like they were classmates; but this Chi Fang tongxue sounded like they had a teacher-student relationship. This change made Chi Fang feel awkward, and felt that he should not have been soft-hearted to have agreed to let Jiang Li be his tutor. This was only the first day and the identity of the two had changed. However, since Chi Fang had already promised him, he would not fail to keep his word. Besides, Jiang Li was so poor, he could get an extra salary for tutoring, so he considered it as helping him out. After some random thoughts, Chi Fang felt that he was almost touched by himself. He suddenly heard two ¡°knocks¡± by his ears, and when he looked up, he saw Jiang Li standing next to him; the sound just now was of him tapping on the table. ¡°Chi Fang tongxue.¡± Jiang Li called out to him, holding the alarm clock in his left hand and handing it to him, indicating him to look at the time on it, ¡°Ten minutes have passed, and you¡¯re still thinking about the first multiple-choice question?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± ¡­ The room was quiet. Jiang Li sat on a chair by the window reading a book. He turned the pages very lightly, as if he was afraid of disturbing Chi Fang, who was in the middle of the exam. After Chi Fang completed the multiple-choice questions, he raised his hand and rubbed his shoulders. His gaze inadvertently glanced at Jiang Li¡¯s side profile, and his movements paused for a moment. The sunlight spilled in through the window from the gap between the leaves. Spots of lights refracted on Jiang Li¡¯s side profile. His too-pale skin was filtered with a soft layer of warm yellow, like a shimmering light enveloping his whole person, which made him look warm. Chi Fang looked at him and suddenly felt that the time they spent together was peaceful and comfortable. ¡°Congratulations Host, the male lead¡¯s favorability rose 10%. The current favorability is 20%.¡± System¡¯s voice suddenly sounded in his mind. En? The favorability has gone up? Jiang Li raised his head from the book, coincidentally meeting the sight of Chi Fang. He could not help but smile at him and softly asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°¡­ Nothing.¡± Chi Fang put away his gaze and continued doing the test, but his mind was slowly drifting away. His ears heard the rustling of leaves blown by the wind outside, heard the wind chimes tinkling in someone¡¯s house; these sounds coincidentally converged together, like playing a tune he had never heard before. The time for the exam passed quickly. Jiang Li gave a basic exercise book to Chi Fang to read, and he went to the side to correct the test paper. Although Chi Fang¡¯s English result was not good, his English words were beautiful. They were written naturally like flowing water. However, other than that, other aspects were not presentable. The major problems at the back were mostly blank, the only two lines that were written were copied from the question. It took less than five minutes to mark the paper. Jiang Li calculated the score, and his final score was unbearable to look at. He had an urge to throw the test paper to his face. Chi Fang noticed that Jiang Li¡¯s gaze was weird. ¡°Why are you looking at me like that?¡± ¡°Chi Fang tongxue.¡± Jiang Li turned the test paper over, pointing out the score on it, and said bitterly, ¡°Did you copy others in the last test paper in which you had scored 60 points?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± I didn¡¯t, I didn¡¯t! T/N: Hi guys not locking up the chapters ¡®cuz I¡¯m too lazy to lock all of them up since I work on many novels. If this translation is stolen, then¡­ just let it be, I¡¯m only translating this novel because I like it anyways. I¡¯ll only stop translating when the authorities ask me to remove the translations. Remember to join Dummy¡¯s discord server so you get updates every time something happens. Hope I get to finish this novel since it¡¯s almost 50 chapters done. Thanks for reading as always! CH 50 Chi Fang didn¡¯t expect he would be suspected of cheating by Jiang Li, even though he scored 60 points on a paper which had a possible score of 150. He immediately jerked up violently from the stool like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, staring at Jiang Li with a very stormy expression on his face as he asked, ¡°Say it again, who copied it?¡± His movement was so big that the stool was directly flipped over by him to the ground with a ¡°snap¡± sound, which scared Jiang Li. His whole person was like a bird of prey, his back shrank back and stuck to the chair. Chi Fang was speechless at seeing what happened, he hadn¡¯t done anything yet, but Jiang Li¡¯s face had already turned pale out of fear. What a weak chicken, I can beat him down with just one hand, right? ¡°You¡­¡± Jiang Li tilted his head and looked at Chi Fang, his tone was a little hesitant, as if he wanted to say something. Chi Fang: ¡°You what, if you have something to say, just spit it out.¡± ¡°You¡­ Why did you have such a big reaction?¡± Jiang Li spread his exam papers open with both of his hands and said with an innocent face, ¡°You did so bad, and you still don¡¯t allow me to say it out loud?¡± ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang saw the test paper he held up in front of him, with ¡°36¡± written on it in red pen, it was bright red and eye-catching; he was speechless. Knock knock At this time, there was a sudden knock on the door outside the room. The old man pushed open the door, stood at the door, and asked, ¡°What¡¯s happening? I heard a loud bang.¡± The sound of the chair falling on the floor had attracted the old man¡¯s attention. Jiang Li took the exam paper back, stood up from the stool, and said to the old man, ¡°Nothing, I knocked over the stool by accident.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± The old man nodded and looked at Chi Fang, ¡°Xiao Fang, study well, don¡¯t bully Xiao Li.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li pursed his lips and laughed next to him, Chi Fang ground his teeth after seeing it out of the corner of his eye. When the old man left, Jiang Li seemed to have a backer, he was also not afraid of Chi Fang anymore. He said to Chi Fang with a little smugness in his tone, ¡°You hear that? The old man told you not to bully me, quickly sit down. You are so tall, I am afraid.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± You don¡¯t look like you¡¯re scared at all. The two stood and stared at each other for a while. Jiang Li first gave in and went around the table to pick up his chair, reached out, and pulled the corner of his coat, whispering, ¡°You sit down first, okay, what are you angry about?¡± ¡°Angry about what?¡± Chi Fang looked at him with a cold expression, grieving over his claim that he had cheated. ¡°You fucking said laozi cheated and asked me why I was angry?¡± Jiang Li was very good at acting pragmatically, when he saw that the situation wasn¡¯t right, he immediately soothed him, ¡°Okay, okay, I said it wrong just now, don¡¯t get angry.¡± Seeing his quick apology, Chi Fang¡¯s mood became a little better. As he was thinking of forgiving him, he heard him mutter another sentence, ¡°The main thing is that your grades are too bad, you can¡¯t blame me, ah.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s face darkened when he heard what he said. ¡°Speak up, why are you gibbering, are you a woman?¡± Jiang Li froze: ¡°What did you say I am?¡± ¡°Wo ¨C man.¡± Chi Fang said word after word and with a disdainful tone, ¡°Weak, chicken.¡± Jiang Li heard his words and instantly stared at him with wide eyes, looking at him incredulously. His face was a little pale and his feet unconsciously took a step backward. System: ¡°¡­ Drama King Host.¡± Jiang Li: Shut up. Chi Fang didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Li would have such a big reaction because of his words. When he saw the clear confusion and hurt in his eyes, he then only realized that he had said something wrong. Jiang Li used to have very low self-esteem and had been ostracized by others, there was not even a friend around. Now he finally became cheerful and confident slowly in this period of time, what was the difference between his words and stabbing into his wound with a knife? Chi Fang was upset, he opened his mouth, trying to make up for it, ¡°You¡­¡± ¡°How dare you talk about me?!¡± Jiang Li suddenly interrupted him, as if he was stimulated by the words ¡°woman and weak chicken¡±. He said in an agitated tone, ¡°You only scored 36 points in a test paper with a possible score of 150 points, and you dare to be so aggressive? Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Where are the promised 60 points? Half of it was eaten by you?¡± The more Jiang Li spoke, the more dissatisfied he was. He held the test paper with both hands, opened it, showed it to him, and said as if hoping for instant improvement, ¡°You don¡¯t even have a third of the score, and you dare to be mean to me? Can you live up to the old man who worries about you every day? Don¡¯t you feel ashamed?¡± The normally soft little weak chicken suddenly seemed like a different person. Chi Fang froze as he heard Jiang Li scolding him, looking at his cheeks that were slightly red from excitement, and somewhat puzzled: ¡°¡­ the one who scored 36 points in the exam is me, why are you blushing?¡± ¡°¡­ ah?¡± Jiang Li reached out and touched his face and found that it was indeed a little hot, realizing that he had been too excited to yell at his savior, he couldn¡¯t help but be a little awkward and embarrassed, yet he still straightened up his neck and said, ¡°I¡¯m blushing on your behalf, okay? Who asked you to be so thick-skinned.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± This was the first time Chi Fang had ever heard someone say that he was thick-skinned in his life. He thought he was too indulgent of the little runt, Jiang Li, so he dared to say anything. Chi Fang sneered, reached out, and pressed Jiang Li¡¯s shoulders, directly pressing him into a chair. Jiang Li was caught off guard by him and looked up at him. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°What am I doing?¡± Chi Fang¡¯s palm pressed on his shoulder, he lowered his head, went closer to him, and said in an unpleasant tone, ¡°Who are you calling thick-skinned? Don¡¯t take a yard after I give you an inch.¡± Chi Fang was 1.87 meters tall, Jiang Li was only 1.73 meters tall, so the difference between the two was 14 centimeters. And now, as Jiang Li was still sitting and Chi Fang stood in front of him, the sense of oppression for Jiang Li was very strong. So he subconsciously wanted to shrink back, but his back was already stuck to the back of the chair, there was nowhere to hide, and he could only stare at Chi Fang. Chi Fang saw his panicked look and had the novelty of bullying a little bunny, he deliberately went a little closer and said in a softer voice, ¡°If you keep saying nonsense, Gege will beat you, oh.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li opened his mouth, did not speak, just fixedly looked at him. The two faces were very close to each other, so close that they seemed to be able to hear each other¡¯s breathing. Chi Fang¡¯s reflection could even be seen in Jiang Li¡¯s wide eyes, a small figure mounted in his dark eyes. It was often said that the eyes were the windows to the soul, and when looking at each other, Chi Fang looked at his own reflection and had the illusion that he was being placed in the heart of Jiang Li. He seemed to hear that unknown tune again in his ears, the tune was cheerful and exuberant. Chi Fang felt that his heartbeat was a little strange, as if it suddenly sped up, his eyes unconsciously fell on Jiang Li¡¯s slightly opened lips. Jiang Li¡¯s skin was too fair, this made his cherry red lip color even more obvious. Chi Fang stared at his lips, suddenly felt that his throat was a little dry, his Adam¡¯s apple slid. ¡°Your ¡­¡± ¡°Xiao Li ah!¡± The door of the room was suddenly pushed open, Chi Fang swallowed back the phrase ¡°why are your lips so red¡± and quickly pulled away from Jiang Li. The old man stood at the door and said to Jiang Li, ¡°I¡¯m ready to cook, do you eat chili?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Jiang Li stood up from his chair, ¡°Thank you, uncle1.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡± The old man walked away smiling and closed the door for the two of them on the way. The air conditioner was switched on in the room, but Chi Fang felt so hot that he only felt slightly comfortable as he stood in a cool place and allowed the air to blow onto him for a while. Jiang Li called him back, put the paper in front of him, and began to explain the questions. Chi Fang listened for two minutes half-heartedly and then his mind started to wander off. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t stand it anymore, he used the pen¡¯s cap to poke his arm and asked seriously, ¡°Chi Fang tongxue, the 60 points you scored last time, were they all guesses?¡± ¡°En?¡± Chi Fang didn¡¯t hear his words clearly. Jiang Li repeated it again, and Chi Fang gave him a look, ¡°How is that possible? But the old man set you up, 60 points was the score I got a year ago.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± So the old man also wanted to save his face? He especially picked the highest score to tell him about. The moment Jiang Li saw the ¡°39¡± on the test paper, he felt a headache. He pressed between his eyebrows and changed the subject, ¡°Which university do you want to attend?¡± ¡°University?¡± Chi Fang was playing with the water-based pen in his hand with one hand, when he heard him ask, he frowned, ¡°Why do you ask this? Do you still want to go to the same university as me?¡± ¡°¡­ no.¡± Jiang Li shook his head, ¡°You may not be able to get into the university I enter.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang felt he was being mocked and tsked, ¡°Then tell me which university you want to go to?¡± ¡°Tsinghua University.¡± Jiang Li looked at him and said, ¡°Not want, but I will definitely go.¡± Tsinghua University ¨C the top-ranked university in China. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± I can¡¯t enter, I really can¡¯t enter, you win. Jiang Li only left Chi Fang¡¯s house after having lunch there. Chi Fang also wanted to go out, which happened to be going the same way, so the two of them went downstairs together. Jiang Li reminded Chi Fang to finish the homework he had assigned that night, and he would check it himself when he came over the next morning. ¡°I know, you¡¯re so annoying, aren¡¯t you?¡± Chi Fang said impatiently. Jiang Li also knew that the study couldn¡¯t be rushed, if he said too much Chi Fang would also feel repulsive towards it. So he didn¡¯t say too much and proposed, ¡°Let me buy you a milk tea, alright? When I came earlier I saw the new milk tea store opened in front of your neighborhood, the opening promotion was ¡®buy one, get one free¡¯.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Chi Fang didn¡¯t insist on being polite, he was a little thirsty since he had just eaten. Chi Fang¡¯s home was on the fifth floor. The neighborhood houses were only six stories high and there was no elevator. The two walked and talked, and once they reached the first floor, Jiang Li¡¯s footsteps suddenly stopped. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Chi Fang followed and stopped to ask him. ¡°There seems to be a cat meowing.¡± Jiang Li couldn¡¯t hear it very well, he followed the subtle sound and walked towards the garbage can at the end of the first floor. After removing the paper shells on the wall, he found a kitten in a small cage that was somewhat deformed. It was a somewhat dirty little guy and looked like it was just three months old. It was a little dirty, but it could be seen that the fur was white, with a pair of turquoise blue eyes. Jiang Li, who had raised Jiang Nuomi, could tell at a glance that it was a little juvenile Ragdoll cat. CH 51 The kitten was lying on its stomach in the cage, and the light that shone in after the paper shell was removed by Jiang Li made it move its body, slightly raising its eyes to look at him, and purring again breathlessly. Its fur was dirty, wet, and sticky. One of its front paws was wrapped in gauze, it was wretched and weak. It was an injured kitten. Seeing this, Jiang Li squatted down without saying a word. He took the cage to the clean ground from the side of the rubbish bin, opened the cage, stretched out his hand to carry the little guy which was extremely dirty out from the cage, and didn¡¯t mind the filthiness on it. Chi Fang squatted down and asked strangely, ¡°Where did this cat come from? So dirty.¡± ¡°It must have been abandoned.¡± Jiang Li used his hands to carry it, took a glance at the cage, and found out that the filth was probably the vomit of the kitten. Judging that it might be sick, he said to Chi Fang, ¡°Can you go back to get a clean towel for me?¡± ¡°Wait for a while.¡° After Chi Fang finished speaking, he ran upstairs. He then brought the clean towel down very quickly and had even brought an additional paper box. ¡°Thank you.¡± Jiang Li spread out the towel at the base of the box, carefully placed the little guy inside, picked up the box, and said to Chi Fang, ¡°I¡¯ll bring him to the hospital first, I¡¯ll pay for your milk tea next time.¡± Chi Fang took a glance at the motionless little guy in the box and thought that it would definitely cost a fortune to get it treated in the hospital, while Jiang Li didn¡¯t have much money on him, so he said, ¡°I¡¯ll go with you.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± The two took a taxi to the nearest veterinary clinic. On the way, the little guy vomited twice. When Jiang Li called it, it didn¡¯t respond. If it weren¡¯t for the weak breathing, Jiang Li would have almost thought that it had passed away. ¡°Hold on a little longer.¡± Jiang Li whispered to it. When they reached the hospital, Jiang Li got out of the car with the box quickly, Chi Fang also chased after him after paying. After seeing the dying little guy, the doctor¡®s expression changed immediately. He ordered the nurse to prepare the equipment needed to save it while strictly saying to the two, ¡°Why did you guys send him when he¡¯s in this condition, do you not want him to live?!¡± The doctor¡¯s scoldings that came right on the face made Chi Fang a little unhappy. ¡°What did you say? We didn¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Jiang Li stopped him and said to the doctor, ¡°We came too late, please save him.¡± Seeing his sincere attitude, the doctor¡¯s expression improved, he nodded and entered the emergency room. Jiang Li and Chi Fang were not allowed to enter the emergency room, so they could only look through the window outside. Some of the kitten¡¯s vomit was left on Jiang Li¡¯s hand when he was carrying it, so he went to the toilet to wash it away and came back to the window. After the emergency treatment, the little guy was initially experiencing an onset of attacks due to bacterial and viral infection. Conditions of vomiting and incontinence appeared, to find out the exact cause, a full set of examinations was required. In addition, its left front paw had fracture marks, which may have been caused by a fall from a high place. Its condition was very unpromising. ¡°His condition didn¡¯t develop in one or two days, why did you guys only send him here now?¡± The doctor frowned as he said in a displeased tone, if they were one step late, the little guy would have lost its life. ¡°Since you¡¯ve raised it, you¡¯ll need to take responsibility, you guys are not respecting his life by doing this!¡± ¡°We only picked him up today, okay? Don¡¯t fucking scold us without understanding the situation.¡± After being scolded twice consecutively, Chi Fang was also angry so he scolded back. The doctor was taken aback: ¡°This is not your cat?¡± ¡°He¡¯s ours.¡± Jiang Li who was beside said softly, he looked at the doctor determinedly, ¡°From today on, he¡¯s ours. Please save him, please.¡± ¡°I will.¡± The doctor nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed for misunderstanding, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for misunderstanding you guys. But the little guy¡¯s condition is quite serious, you need to prepare mentally and the cost will also be relatively higher. Speaking of which, he saw that Chi Fang and Jiang Li who were young and looked like high schoolers at most, he then said, ¡°The little guy had signs of being treated, I guess that the last owner had sent him to be treated before, but he might have been abandoned due to the high treatment cost, so I suggest you guys tell your parents about this.¡± Jiang Li looked at Chi Fang, Chi Fang knew what he meant, he came here because of this, so he said to the doctor, ¡°I understand, you just need to save him.¡± The doctor saw that he didn¡¯t look like a poor kid based on his appearance. Since Chi Fang didn¡¯t mind, he didn¡¯t say much and ordered the nurse to lead them to take a look at the little guy. The little guy was placed in the incubator, tubes connecting to its body. Its eyes were closed, they didn¡¯t know if it was sleeping or was unconscious. It had coiled up its small body, slight undulations could be seen at its belly, proving that it was still alive. Just as the doctor mentioned, it was probably abandoned by the last owner because it was sick and the treatment fee was too high. Jiang Li placed his hand on the incubator, the tip of his fingers rubbing it lightly. ¡°I¡¯ll go and pay first, wait for me here.¡± Chi Fang said softly. ¡°En.¡± Jiang Li nodded, looked at the little guy fixedly, praying in his heart that it would quickly wake up. By the afternoon, the little guy still hadn¡¯t woken up. While it was unconscious, he had urinary incontinence twice, and its vital signs were getting weaker and weaker. Its condition was not looking good. Jiang Li called the manager of the cafe to ask for leave and stayed in the hospital without leaving its side. Chi Fang didn¡¯t leave as well, after calling the old man who was at home, he stayed in the hospital and accompanied him. At night, the little guy was brought into the emergency room again. The doctor¡¯s words ¡°Family members, please be prepared¡± were lingering in Jiang Li¡¯s mind. He stood upright outside the emergency room, his face was filled with confusion and he was at a loss. He remembered his Jiang Nuomi. In their previous life, Jiang Nuomi had lived for 16 years. For Jiang Li, these 16 years were only a part of his life, but for Jiang Nuomi, it was a lifetime. It spent its whole life to accompany Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan. Jiang Nuomi was quiet when it left. It passed away due to natural old age, it didn¡¯t suffer too much. Its health and spirit were not as good as before as it was already too old, always sleeping while lying on the window sill. Before it passed away, it rubbed the back of Jiang Li¡¯s hand affectionately and scratched the leg of Jiang Zhan¡¯s trousers like it did when it was young, but it was too old, and it didn¡¯t raise its paw again after putting it down. Jiang Li still remembered, on the day before sending Jiang Nuomi for cremation, Jiang Zhan woke up at midnight and sat in front of Jiang Nuomi¡¯s bed alone for a long while. If one were to ask Jiang Li who he didn¡¯t bear to part with other than Jiang Zhan in his previous life, it would be Jiang Nuomi. At the moment he removed the paper shells and saw the little guy, he nearly thought that he went back to the moment where he first saw Jiang Nuomi in his previous life. They were equally small, cute, and fragile. The doctor didn¡¯t scold wrongly, if he had found the little guy earlier and sent it here earlier, it might not need to suffer so much. Chi Fang saw him standing at the window in despair as if he had lost his soul, with a sad expression on his face. Knowing that he was worried about the little guy, he wanted to pat him on his shoulder to comfort him, but his hand was tightly grasped by Jiang Li just after he touched his hand. Jiang Li¡¯s palm was moist, it was even trembling slightly. He was scared. Chi Fang was a little shocked, he held him back, ¡°You¡­¡± ¡°He will be fine, right?¡± Jiang Li lifted his head and looked at him as if he was finding a source that could calm him down by holding Chi Fang¡¯s hand tightly. He was putting so much force that the back of Chi Fang¡¯s hand reddened. ¡°He will turn better right?¡± He asked again. Chi Fang was met with his slightly reddened eyes, as if his emotions were affected by him, he suddenly felt bitterness in his heart. He raised his head, looked at the closed emergency door, lifted his hand, and caressed Jiang Li¡¯s head. He then said softly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he will get better.¡± ¨C Don¡¯t cry, if he doesn¡¯t get better, I¡¯ll return you one. Chi Fang promised in the bottom of his heart. The two waited outside for a long time and when they heard the doctor say that the little guy¡¯s condition was stable, they both breathed a sigh of relief. Jiang Li sat on the bench weakly, his head leaning against the wall, and met Chi Fang¡¯s gaze in front of him. Under the white and blinding lights, the tall, handsome youngster stretched out his hand, flicked his forehead, and smiled towards him. ¡°I told you that he will getturn better, don¡¯t worrybe worried.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Jiang Li answered him softly, raised his hand, and high-fived him lightly. The little guy stayed in the hospital for three days and was slowly recovering. Although it still couldn¡¯t walk around, its vomiting and urinary incontinence had disappeared. It also started eating and became more energetic. Other than going to work and tutoring Chi Fang, Jiang Li would go to the hospital and visit the little guy the rest of the time. Chi Fang followed him as well. Looking at the little guy slowly recovering, the two didn¡¯t feel restless anymore. During the time they got along, Chi Fang¡¯s favorability had also risen to 30%. After a week, the little guy could slowly move around, but because of the after-effects of its front paw¡¯s fracture, it couldn¡¯t run quickly and needed rest. After washing off the filth on its body, the little guy¡¯s fur returned to snow-white, which was very pretty. The nurses in the veterinary clinic liked it a lot. When Jiang Li wasn¡¯t there, they treated it really carefully. On the day the little guy was discharged from the hospital, Jiang Li also went with Chi Fang. The little guy meowed once it saw Jiang Li. It laid on the edge of the cage, looking at him with its watery big eyes widened. Jiang Li¡¯s heart melted with how the little guy looked at him. He opened the cage and carried it up to the cotton cloth on the table. The little guy rubbed his hand obediently and scratched his palms with its soft paws. The soft fur rubbing his palms made him itchy. Jiang Li looked at the little guy ¨C which had become healthy and energetic ¨C being affectionate with him, and he caressed its head lightly, ¡°So obedient.¡± Chi Fang, who was nearby, looked at him smiling lightly with a pampering expression. He felt uncomfortable in his heart for some reason, as if he was being ignored. He then followed to reach out and touch the little guy, but it turned away from him once it was touched. ¡°¡­ What the fuck?¡± Chi Fang grasped the little guy, ¡°You use laozi¡¯s money to eat and get everything, and you dare to give me your attitude?¡± ¡°Meow!¡± The little guy struggled to break free from his confinement. However, its strength was too small, he could only ask Jiang Li for help after struggling a few times. ¡°Alright, stop it, he just recovered.¡± Jiang Li saved the little guy from Chi Fang¡¯s hands, pinched the soft flesh of its paw comfortingly, and scolded Chi Fang, ¡°Getting angry at a cat, don¡¯t you feel embarrassed?¡± Chi Fang, ¡°¡­¡± The nurse nearby saw their interaction and laughed with her mouth covered. She asked, ¡°The little guy doesn¡¯t have a name yet, have you guys thought about it?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Chi Fang said, ¡°Just call him Ungrateful.¡± ¡°What nonsense are you talking about?¡± Jiang Li raised his gaze and glared at him. The little guy seemed to know that Chi Fang was mocking it, it called out to him with its teeth shown, objecting to his opinion. Chi Fang showed a middle finger towards it. Looking at its white fur, he thought about the glutinous sugar porridge cooked by the old man this morning and said casually, ¡°Let¡¯s just call him Nuomi, since you picked him up, we¡¯ll use your surname, Jiang Nuomi.¡± Jiang Li¡¯s hand which was caressing the little guy paused, he raised his head suddenly and looked at him, ¡°What did you say?!¡± ¡°I said to name him Jiang Nuomi.¡± ¨C Jiang Zhan, let us name the little guy, what do you think he should be called? ¨C Whatever. ¨C Don¡¯t be like that ah, quickly think. ¨C Nuomi then. ¨C Why? ¨C I ate Glutinous (Nuomi) porridge this morning. ¨C Enough, but since he¡¯s so white, it fits as well, I¡¯ve decided to call him Jiang Nuomi! Chi Fang¡¯s words were like a knife, cutting open the self-proclaimed protective shell in Jiang Li¡¯s heart, these deep-rooted fragment of scenes and conversations caught him off guard and drowned him. Chi Fang saw him tearing up without any warning and was shocked, ¡°Why are you crying?!¡± Jiang Li had always stopped his tears from coming out when he thought of the previous world, because he knew in his heart that the previous world had ended, just like what System had said. No matter how much he was unwilling to part from the previous world, Jiang Zhan no longer existed, he might even be just lines of codes in the game. However, knowing about it was one thing, and being able to accept it or not was another. Unless his memories were erased by System, how could he easily forget the person he had loved for an entire life? Seeing Chi Fang at a loss, Jiang Li lowered his head and took a deep breath. Suppressing the bitterness and pain in his heart, he then said with a hoarse voice, ¡°Nothing, I¡¯m just¡­ so moved.¡± ¡°Moved?¡± Chi Fang didn¡¯t understand, ¡°Why are you moved by?¡± ¡°En!¡± Jiang Li nodded hardily, lifted his head to look at him, ¡°Because you not only pay to treat the little guy, and even gave him a name, I was very moved after hearing it.¡± ¡°What¡¯s so touching about this¡­¡± As Chi Fang said this, he had a bad feeling inexplicably, as expected, he heard Jiang Li say in the next second, ¡°I was right about you, Jiang Zhan, you¡¯re really a good person!¡± Chi Fang, ¡°¡­¡± Fuck, why the heck are you crying while giving laozi a good person card? CH 52 Translator: Rin (Editors not with me today, please bear with it or tell me if you see any grammar mistakes TAT, I tried my best.) After leaving the veterinary clinic, Jiang Li and Chi Fang took Jiang Nuomi back to Chi Fang¡¯s home. The old man had learned from Chi Fang that the two had saved a kitten, and today he urged the two to bring the cat back. He cooked a delicious meal at home to celebrate the little guy¡¯s discharge from the hospital. Jiang Li went to pick up Jiang Nuomi after work, and when the two returned to Chi Fang¡¯s house, the old man had already prepared dinner, he was just waiting for them to return and then they could start eating. When he saw Jiang Nuomi in the cage that Chi Fang was carrying, the old man happily went up and took it. ¡°This is the little guy, right? He¡¯s so pretty, what¡¯s his name.¡± ¡°Grandpa, his name is Jiang Nuomi.¡± Jiang Li who was at the side laughed. ¡°Jiang Nuomi, aiyo, so cute.¡± The old man complimented him and asked, ¡°Has he eaten anything yet? Do you want to feed it some milk? Or some fish? I just happened to cook fish today.¡± ¡°Meow~¡± Jiang Nuomi meowed at the old man obediently. Jiang Li said, ¡°He has eaten cat food.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good then.¡± The old man put Jiang Nuomi aside and said to the two of them, ¡°Go wash your hands and eat, don¡¯t let the food get cold.¡± After the three of them ate, Jiang Li and the old man cleaned up the dishes, Chi Fang was idle, he turned around and saw Jiang Nuomi squatting in the cage looking at them eagerly, he then simply walked over to carry it out and put it on the sofa to play with it. For some reason, Jiang Nuomi was not on good terms with him. When it saw him reaching out to tease itself, it fiercely raised its little paws and started scratching, it was clearly so docile in front of Jiang Li and the old man earlier. ¡°What an ungrateful little thing.¡± Chi Fang scolded as he laughed. He took a small wooden stick used by the old man to scratch his back from the side to tease it, ¡°Do you know how much money I spent on you? It won¡¯t even be enough to pay back even if I sell you, and you dare to pull a long face.¡± Jiang Nuomi¡¯s eyes unconsciously followed the stick in his hand, it became dizzy after following it two to three times, and it looked up at Chi Fang aggrievedly. ¡°Little bastard.¡± Chi Fang laughed lightly, gave it the small wooden stick, the little guy hugged and did not let go of it anymore, pressing the stick in its arms with its two paws to bite it. Chi Fang thought that he should prepare a cat bed in the house, so the next time Jiang Li brought Jiang Nuomi over, the little guy would have a place to sleep. After cleaning up the dishes, Jiang Li and Chi Fang went back to their rooms to make up for the lessons, while the old man went downstairs to find a neighbour to play chess. Just as the old man said, Chi Fang¡¯s foundation was too poor. Jiang Li had been helping Chi Fang to catch up on phonetic symbols these days. But Chi Fang was indeed also really smart, Jiang Li found that his grades were so bad because he was too lazy. If he was willing to learn, not to mention passing, scoring more than a hundred points was not difficult. However, the point was, he was really not willing to learn. Looking at Chi Fang once again lost in thought, Jiang Li put down the pen in his hand and knocked on his table. ¡°Chi Fang, do you know what I just said?¡± ¡°Said what?¡± Chi Fang looked blank. Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡­¡± Chi Fang looked at him glaring at himself, he innocently spread his hands. ¡°I really can¡¯t understand, don¡¯t you feel annoyed talking to me about these messy letters, A, B, C every day, I¡¯m tired of listening to it.¡± ¡°Then tell me something that you think is not annoying?¡± Jiang Li asked. ¡°Let¡¯s put it this way.¡± Chi Fang lay on the table, tilting his head to look at Jiang Li, ¡°Let¡¯s play games, didn¡¯t the teacher also say? One should strike a balance between work and rest for studying.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how.¡± Jiang Li shook his head. Chi Fang: ¡°I will teach you ah!¡± Jiang Li frowned and felt like resisting, Chi Fang struck while the iron was hot, ¡°Then how about this, if you win, I will listen to you and study, how about it?¡± ¡°Are you serious?¡± Jiang Li looked at him sceptically. ¡°What¡¯s the reason for lying to you?¡± Chi Fang thought, you can¡¯t beat me anyway, ¡°But if you lose, I want to rest these three days, don¡¯t make up classes for me anymore, it¡¯s really annoying.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang had two computers, both top of the line in configuration, they were specially equipped to play games. Chi Fang liked to play games, whether it was online games, shooting, or fighting-related games, he liked them all. The game he said he wanted to play with Jiang Li was a fighting game called ¡°Invincible¡±, and he always played two matches during break time when he was taking extra classes. ¡°These four keys are to control the front, back, right, left movement of the character, this is to jump, this is to punch¡­¡± Chi Fang carefully taught Jiang Li how to use the keyboard to control the character, and after finishing, he himself operated it once more to show Jiang Li, and then asked, ¡°That¡¯s it, got it?¡± Jiang Li nodded and pressed his fingers on the keyboard for a few tries, ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem that hard.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s gaze fell on his hands on the keyboard, and found that his hands were slender and long, his skin was really fair with the contrast of the black keyboard, he couldn¡¯t help but stare for a while. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?¡± Jiang Li saw him staring at the keyboard in a trance, reached out to him and shook in front of him twice, ¡°Why are you in a¡­¡± Chi Fang subconsciously grabbed his fingers and held them in his hand. The two froze at the same time, looking at each other¡¯s eyes. It was really small, he could probably wrap Jiang Li¡¯s whole hand with only his one hand. This was the first thing Chi Fang felt, Jiang Li had broken free from his hands before had time to think about it more. ¡°Aren¡¯t we going to play the game?¡± Jiang Li asked. ¡°Oh, yeah.¡± Chi Fang nodded and pulled out a stool to sit down next to him at the computer, ¡°You choose your character, I¡¯ll practice a few matches with you first to let you get a feel for it, and when you feel that you¡¯re almost ready, we¡¯ll start the game.¡± ¡°Practice a few matches¡­¡± Jiang Li looked at him sceptically, ¡°Are you really not doing this to play a few more matches?¡± ¡°¡­ What kind of bullshit are you talking about, believe it or not I¡¯ll kill you in one match.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± The first match began, Chi Fang slowed down the control speed, taught Jiang Li how to control while battling against him. The game lasted for ten minutes before he knocked over Jiang Li to the ground and won the game. The second match was also the same, Chi Fang teased Jiang Li as if he was a cat teasing a mouse, teasing him for ten minutes before beating him. Looking at Jiang Li who was pursing his lips while glaring at the little character who died on the screen, Chi Fang felt very complacent in his heart. The dispirited mood of being forced to study by Jiang Li these days was swept away. He placed one hand on Jiang Li¡¯s back of the chair and said generously, ¡°Seeing how noob you are, let me teach you a few more matches.¡± ¡°No need.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked up at him, ¡°I¡¯ve almost mastered it, let¡¯s start the match officially.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Chi Fang asked, ¡°If you lose, I¡¯m going to take three days off.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure.¡± Jiang Li nodded, ¡°If you lose, you¡¯ll seriously listen to the class starting tomorrow.¡± ¡°What a joke, how can I lose.¡± Chi Fang snorted, feeling very disdainful of Jiang Li¡¯s words. He withdrew his hand from the back of the chair, selected a game character he was best at, and raised his chin towards Jiang Li, ¡°Pick yours.¡± Jiang Li gave him a deep look, his gaze returned to the computer screen and began to select his game character. Somehow, Chi Fang actually felt a chill running down his spine with that one glance, he also seemed to see the corners of Jiang Li¡¯s lips imperceptibly twitch a little. ¡­ Afraid my ass, he¡¯s just a rookie who¡¯s playing games for the first time. Chi Fang thought in his mind, he was a pro who ranked top three in the game, beating a rookie would take only a few minutes. However, he was soon slapped in the face. The person who was moving slowly and rustily just now suddenly seemed to have cheated, his control was sharp, his fingertips were flying so fast on the keyboard as if shadows were almost appearing. In less than three minutes, he knocked him down on the ground. Chi Fang: ¡°?¡± Watching his computer screen turn grey, Chi Fang¡¯s eyes slowly widened and turned his head to look at Jiang Li next to him, saying incredulously, ¡°What did you do?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± Jiang Li imitated his action of spreading his hands earlier and said innocently, ¡°Beating you ah.¡± ¡°¡­ No.¡± Chi Fang was a little confused, he looked at the computer screen, and then looked at Jiang Li. ¡°Isn¡¯t this your first time playing the game? Your control was clearly still trashy earlier.¡± ¡°I was, didn¡¯t you just teach me a few times?¡± Jiang Li rightfully said, ¡°But you can¡¯t just play this with control, you¡¯ll also need to rely on your brain.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡­¡± Why do I feel like I¡¯ve been mocked again. Chi Fang was unconvinced and simply wanted Jiang Li to play another two matches. He said that it was only counted if it was a best two out of three, in the end, he lost all three matches. Jiang Li turned off the computer he was using, stood up and patted the shoulder of Chi Fang, who was sitting in front of the computer doubting his life, and said in a sincere and very understanding tone, ¡°I know you may not believe in reality in a short time, you can calm down for a while.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡­¡± Not only do I not fucking believe in reality, I¡¯m even doubting my life. Although Chi Fang was upset that Jiang Li could beat himself, he also did what he promised and started listening to Jiang Li¡¯s lecture seriously. Just after the lecture, he was unwilling to give up and pested Jiang Li to play a few more matches, thinking that it must have been Jiang Li¡¯s luck to win himself earlier. It was not until Jiang Li won three games in a row again that he realised that Jiang Li was relying on true strength, not luck. After sitting in front of the computer for a while, Chi Fang looked up at Jiang Li who was putting away his books and asked once more, ¡°How about we play another match?¡± Jiang Li looked up at him. ¡°No, you can¡¯t win.¡± In fact, it was not the first time for Jiang Li to play the game ¡°Invincible¡±, he had played it in the previous world. He hadn¡¯t only played it, but he had even endorsed the game before/was a spokesperson for the game before. He had played all the game¡¯s characters and was ranked first in the game with his record. The reason why he said he hadn¡¯t played was because the original host didn¡¯t have the opportunity to play in his growing environment, and losing the first and second match to Chi Fang was to cover it up, and the second reason was to test Chi Fang¡¯s operational ability. Chi Fang was indeed very good, but he was still one little step away from him. His straightforward and clear words left Chi Fang speechless, he chose to go to the living room to stroke the cat and calm down. When Jiang Li came out from the room, he saw the person and the cat interacting with each other for a while and handed the IOU he had written earlier to Chi Fang. Chi Fang was playing with Jiang Nuomi happily as he was squatting, when he saw Jiang Li handing him a note, he went nearer to see curiously. ¡°What is this¡­¡± The three big alphabets ¡°IOU¡± on the paper made him freeze, and the smile at the corner of his mouth slowly converged, looking up at Jiang Li. ¡°What do you mean?¡± CH 53 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars The IOU was for Jiang Nuomi¡¯s medical expenses; the time, place, and how much was owed was written in great detail and clear at a glance. ¡°You paid Jiang Nuomi¡¯s treatment fees. I don¡¯t have money to give you yet, so I can only owe you first.¡± Jiang Li explained, although looking at Chi Fang¡¯s behavior these days, he certainly would not mind this in his heart, but he couldn¡¯t let it go like that. Chi Fang stood up from the floor and didn¡¯t take the IOU from his hand. Although he was expressionless, his tone had changed a little, ¡°Did I ask you to pay?¡± ¡°No.¡± Jiang Li shook his head. ¡°But this is not a small amount, I can¡¯t take advantage of you. I will¡­¡± In Chi Fang¡¯s consciousness, Jiang Nuomi was picked up by him and Jiang Li together, the two had also visited and cared for in the hospital together these days, so for him, Jiang Nuomi belonged to both of them. So now, how Jiang Li acted as if he was drawing a clear line between the both of them made him really unhappy. He interrupted his words without hesitation, ¡°You also know that this is not a small amount, can you even afford to pay back like this? Do you think Jiang Nuomi is yours alone? Don¡¯t be so self-asserted!¡± The moment he said those words, Ch Fang realized he had said the wrong thing. He noticed Jiang Li had a momentary daze and wanted to explain, but when thought of Jiang Li being so heartless he pursed his lips and still didn¡¯t say anything. In the previous life, Jiang Nuomi was given to Jiang Li by Jiang Zhan, and with the relationship between Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan, Jiang Nuomi was raised by the two of them by default. In this life, without Jiang Zhan¡¯s presence, Jiang Li subconsciously thought that Jiang Nuomi was his own, ignoring Chi Fang¡¯s stance. Chi Fang¡¯s words reminded Jiang Li that this was indeed his mistake. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t think it through.¡± Jiang Li took back the IOU and put it back in his school bag. When Chi Fang saw this, he thought to himself, you¡¯re tactful enough. The next second, he saw Jiang Li pull out his notebook and pen from his school bag and re-write another one. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± WTF? Jiang Li handed the re-written IOU to Chi Fang. ¡°I reduced the medical fee by half, now it¡¯s reasonable.¡± ¡°Reasonable?¡± Chi Fang simply wanted to pry open his head to see if he had brains or shits in his head, he was so poor that he had to earn tuition by working during the summer, and now he still took the initiative to write IOUs, ¡°Are you crazy? Don¡¯t you know how to take advantage?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Jiang Li saw that he didn¡¯t take the IOU, directly pulled his hand and stuffed it in his hand, ¡°But I don¡¯t want to take advantage. You are a good person, I can¡¯t let you suffer a loss.¡± Once Chi Fang heard the words ¡°good person¡± now, he could feel the veins on his forehead pounding. Pinching the note in his hand, he said as he gritted his teeth, ¡°Put away your good person card, Laozi is getting a headache hearing it.¡± Jiang Li pursed his lips and smiled a little, bent down to carry up Jiang Nuomi, and said to him, ¡°Then I¡¯ll go back first, should I carry Jiang Nuomi back first?¡± Chi Fang looked at the little guy nestling obediently in his arms, thinking that if he kept it here, he would probably fight with it, so he said with displeasure, ¡°Take him with you, the little ungrateful thing is annoying to look at.¡± Jiang Nuomi saw his expression and meowed at him and made threatening gestures with its paws. ¡°Fine then, I¡¯m leaving, you tell the old man for me when he comes back from playing chess.¡± Jiang Li said, picked up his school bag, and left. Chi Fang opened the IOU in his hand and looked at it. It clearly stated how much Jiang Li owed him. He calculated Jiang Li¡¯s salary at the cafe; even if Jiang Li didn¡¯t eat or drink, it would take at least half a year to pay back. ¡°What an idiot.¡± Chi Fang muttered, ¡°Don¡¯t even know how to take advantage, how is he going to repay it back?¡± ¡°Clatter¨C¡± The door of the living room opened from the outside, and the old man walked in, only to see Chi Fang in the living room, and asked, ¡°Xiao Li has gone back?¡± Chi Fang stuffed the IOU in his hand into his pocket. ¡°He just left, didn¡¯t you run into each other?¡± ¡°No.¡± The old man waved his hand, closed the door behind him, and walked in, ¡°How did you learn tonight? Did you get used to it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s still fine.¡± Chi Fang took the old man¡¯s water cup, poured him a cup of warm water, and placed it on the coffee table. The old man picked it up and took a sip. ¡°Xiao Li is a good boy, you should learn from him well. The boy was reluctant to accept the tutoring fee at first, saying that you had saved him before and wanted to return your kindness. I insisted on giving it, only then was he willing to receive half of the money.¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t want a tuition fee?¡± Chi Fang frowned, ¡°Isn¡¯t he crazy? He can¡¯t even afford to pay the school¡¯s tuition fee and he still doesn¡¯t want to be paid for tutoring make-up classes.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t afford to pay tuition fees?¡± The old man froze when he heard. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Chi Fang didn¡¯t know Jiang Li¡¯s family situation very well, he only said that his parents didn¡¯t care about him and he was now working in a cafe to earn tuition fees. When the old man heard this, he was furious with Jiang Li¡¯s parents. ¡°What kind of parents are they? It¡¯s bad luck that such a good kid like Xiao Li has such parents!¡± After saying that, he said to Chi Fang, ¡°You are in the same school with him, help him a little more usually, and don¡¯t let others bully him, understand?¡± ¡°I know.¡± Chi Fang answered, taking a glance at the wall clock. ¡°It¡¯s almost eleven o¡¯clock, you should hurry back to bed.¡± ¡°Okay, okay, okay, you also hurry to wash up and go to sleep.¡± The old man said and went back to his room. Chi Fang also went back to his room, took out the IOU from his pocket and put it in the drawer, took his clothes, and prepared to take a shower. As he passed by the living room where Jiang Li was standing before, he found a key on the floor. The key was Jiang Li¡¯s, he probably dropped it when he was emptying his school bag earlier and it happened to fall on the blanket laid for Jiang Nuomi to play with. There was no sound so neither of them noticed. Chi Fang went back to his room to take his phone and call Jiang Li, who didn¡¯t pick up the call after Chi Fang called twice. Worried about Jiang Li wouldn¡¯t be able to get into his house when he arrived, Chi Fang told the old man and then went out with the key. The old town where Jiang Li lived was not far from the South Slope Street where Chi Fang lived, but Chi Fang had not been to Jiang Li¡¯s house and only heard him mentioning the approximate location. He went downstairs and rode his bicycle out of the neighborhood. ¡­ ¡­ When Jiang Li left Chi Fang¡¯s house, he had already missed the last bus. He waited at the bus stop for a while, intending to hail a cab to go back. He waited for ten minutes, but there wasn¡¯t a single cab that passed by, so he finally had to choose to walk back. The good thing was that the two districts were not too far apart; he estimated that after a forty-minute walk he would be able to reach his house. There was no nightlife in the small county, almost all the stores on both sides of the street were closed and had their lights out. There were also not many pedestrians on the road, only a few people who rushed in the opposite direction occasionally. As Jiang Li walked for a while carrying Jiang Nuomi, he suddenly heard rapid footsteps behind him. His sense of alertness made him hasten his footsteps and he heard System notifying him in his mind urgently, ¡°Host, be careful behind you!¡± At the same time, Jiang Li¡¯s ears keenly heard the sound of wind and subconsciously dodged to the side to avoid the attack from behind. He looked back and found several people rushing up from behind to stop him. There were four people stopping Jiang Li. Some were wearing singlets, some wearing flowery shirts; all with a naughty appearance. Two of them even had large black tattoos on their arms. These people were holding wooden sticks in their hands, looking at Jiang Li maliciously.. Cats were more sensitive to danger, so as soon as it saw these people, Jiang Nuomi ¨C who was in Jiang Li¡¯s embrace ¨C purred twice uneasily. Jiang Li patted the cage soothingly and whispered ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid¡± before looking up at the people. ¡°What do you guys want?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± The man standing directly across from Jiang Li laughed twice, ¡°It¡¯s just that someone paid us to treat you well.¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t remember these people in the original host¡¯s memory, and the original host was not someone who would find trouble, so he couldn¡¯t recall for the moment who was trying to get into trouble with him. ¡°Qiang ge, the cat in that cage of his seems to be a ragdoll cat.¡± One of them said to the man who had just spoken, ¡°I¡¯ve heard people say that this breed of cat doesn¡¯t sell cheap, should we¡­¡± He didn¡¯t finish his sentence, but everyone present knew what he meant. An expensive breed of cat could be sold for quite a lot of money. Jiang Li took a small step back slightly holding Jiang Nuomi¡¯s cage and looked warily at the people in front of him, planning what it would take to beat the group without hurting Jiang Nuomi. There were only four people, it was not a difficult task for him, the more troublesome matter was that he was afraid that they would snatch Jiang Nuomi. Qiang ge listened to his subordinate¡¯s words, his gaze averted towards the cage in Jiang Li¡¯s arms, he then signaled the man on the left with a wink. ¡°Let¡¯s do it.¡± The man on the left nodded and walked towards Jiang Li, swinging his stick violently a few steps away from him and was about to smash him. Jiang Li moved his feet and was about to avoid it when a bicycle suddenly rushed out from the left, coming into their line of sight overbearingly and knocking the man directly to the ground. ¡°Bzzt¨C¡± The emergency brake sounded and the person on the bicycle stepped on the ground, stabilizing the body of the bicycle. He looked at the people surrounding Jiang Li in front of him, his tone cold and harsh, ¡°Chen Qiang, I didn¡¯t beat you to death last time, so you have the opportunity to come out again today, right?¡± ¡°Chi Fang?!¡± Jiang Li and Chen Qiang both responded when they saw the person who came, the former was surprised, the latter was shocked out of fear. Chi Fang sat on his bicycle and whistled back at Jiang Li, ¡°Yo.¡± ¡°Why are you here?¡± Jiang Li looked at him in surprise, not understanding how he could suddenly appear. ¡°You left your key at my house and didn¡¯t answer your phone, so I brought it to you.¡± Chi Fang explained, he rode all the way over earlier. He was afraid that he was not able to catch up with Jiang Li so he rode a little fast. He rode past Jiang Li and Chen Qiang¡¯s gang in a flash, fortunately, he returned back again. Jiang Li didn¡¯t hear the phone ring at all, only to find out that his phone was muted when he fished it out from his pocket. Chi Fang got off the bicycle, looking down at the person who was still holding his legs and moaning on the ground and kicked the other party with the tip of the foot. ¡°What are you simply screaming for? Are you trying to pick a fight?¡± The other party covered his feet and got up, hiding behind Chen Qiang. Chen Qiang once had a conflict with Chi Fang. At that time, Chi Fang broke two of his teeth, he still remembered this revenge. The reason that he didn¡¯t take the initiative to find Chi Fang was that: one, he was unable to beat him, two, he was afraid of the power of Chi Fang¡¯s family. He didn¡¯t expect to meet him again on this day. He looked at Chi Fang with a grim face. ¡°Chi Fang, today¡¯s matter has nothing to do with you, I don¡¯t want to start a conflict with you. Hurry up and get out of the way.¡± Chi Fang picked up the stick on the ground, weighed it in his hand twice, looked at Chen Qiang, and smiled, but the smile didn¡¯t reach the bottom of his eyes. ¡°You¡¯re going to take action on my xiongdi, but you said it has nothing to do with me? Are you an idiot?¡± Chi Fang thought that if he came just one step later, Jiang Li, a weak chicken would be beaten into a dog (meaning that his face is going to swell like a dog after all the beatings). A wave of anger rose rapidly in his heart. Holding the stick in his hand, he pushed Jiang Li to the side. ¡°Be obedient and watch here, gege will bring you home after cleaning up this group of trash.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t know if he should laugh or cry towards Chi Fang¡¯s self-proclaimed address. He was a person who had lived two lives, how could he, a high school brat, be an older brother? But Jiang Li still listened to his words, obediently watching from the sidelines, and didn¡¯t have the intention to help; because he had previously heard Feng Yu say Chi Fang was once the champion of the national mixed martial arts competition of the junior group when he was in junior high school. Chi Fang was ruthless and forceful when he was beating people up. For him, cleaning up four people was just as easy as cutting vegetables. In ten minutes, Chen Qiang and the others were pressed on the neck by him and kneeling on the ground with bruised and swollen faces. Throwing the stick in his hand on the ground, Chi Fang lifted his foot and kicked Chen Qiang, who was on his knees, to lie on the ground from behind, right in front of Jiang Li¡¯s position. ¡°Say. Sorry.¡± He stomped on Chen Qiang¡¯s face, with unrestrained hostility still in his eyes. ¡°¡­ So ¡­ sorry.¡± Chen Qiang spat out the word with difficulty, blood was all over the corners of his lips. After he opened his mouth, the other three also quickly apologized and begged for forgiveness. Jiang Li held Jiang Nuomi up, squatted down, and asked Chen Qiang. ¡°You said someone paid you to teach me a lesson just now, who was it?¡± ¡°Chen Jialin.¡± ¡°Chen Jialin.¡± Jiang Li frowned, remembering the day he ran into Chen Jialin in the bookstore. He didn¡¯t expect it to be him, but when he thought about it carefully, it made sense, Chen Jialin must be holding a grudge against him for beating him up in the first place. ¡°Who is Chen Jialin?¡± Chi Fang asked. ¡°Someone from our class.¡± Jiang Li stood up and said to him, ¡°Let them go.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to beat them up?¡± Chi Fang¡¯s foot, which was stepping on Chen Qiang, didn¡¯t move. ¡°They don¡¯t dare to resist now, so you can take revenge.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s the same if you beat them up.¡± Jiang Li said, Chi Fang didn¡¯t restrain when he beat them earlier, if he were to beat them up again, these people might not be able to be healed. The phrase ¡°It¡¯s the same if you beat them up¡± in Chi Fang¡¯s ears sounded the same as ¡°You beating them up also means that I beat them up,¡±, his heart inexplicably felt pleased. He then no longer dwelled on the matter and let go of his foot. ¡°Fuck off, trash. ¡± After Chen Qiang and other people left by holding each other, Jiang Li said to Chi Fang, ¡°You saved me again, I really don¡¯t know how to thank you, you are really ¡­¡± ¡°Stop, you mustn¡¯t say that!¡± Chi Fang hurriedly stopped his words, deeply afraid that he would say the sentence ¡°you are really a good person¡± again, ¡°I beg you to shut up, okay?¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t understand, ¡°You saved my life again, I really don¡¯t know how to thank you.¡± ¡ª The saving grace must be returned with one¡¯s lifelong devotion. Feng Yu¡¯s phrase was simply everywhere. Chi Fang inexplicably jolted when he thought of it and he said on impulse: ¡°You don¡¯t need to do anything, just don¡¯t fall in love with me!¡± ¡°??¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t understand why he suddenly talked about this but quickly realized that it was because the original host liked Xu Haowen, so he was afraid that he would fall in love with him. As of now, Jiang Li had no intention of capturing Chi Fang and only wanted to maintain the favorability of being a friend. So for fear of his misunderstanding, he nodded and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t happen.¡± After saying that, he was afraid that Chi Fang still didn¡¯t believe him, so he added a sentence with a sincere tone, ¡°I only have studies in my heart.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Am I thinking too much, or are you fucking kidding me? CH 54 The day before summer vacation ended, Jiang Li quit the cafe after his last morning shift. While processing his paycheck, the manager saw that he had performed well during this period and gave him an extra bonus, saying that he could come back to work full-time or as a part-timer as long as he wanted. Jiang Li thanked the other party, greeted other colleagues, and left the cafe. When he got outside, Jiang Li met up with Xu Haowen who happened to pass by. During the summer vacation, Xu Haowen also came to the cafe a few times. Although they weren¡¯t really familiar with each other, they were also considered acquaintances. So when they bumped into each other, naturally they had to say hello. Xu Haowen saw him come out of the cafe and asked, ¡°You¡¯re getting off work?¡± ¡°I quit.¡± Jiang Li smiled at him. ¡°School is about to start and there¡¯s no time to work.¡± Xu Haowen nodded understandingly but after greeting, both of them didn¡¯t know what to say. Jiang Li had invited Chi Fang and Feng Yu to have dinner so he said ¡°I¡¯ll go first¡±, turned his body and walked past Xu Haowen, he then took the elevator to the second floor of the building. When he found Chi Fang and Feng Yu in the small private room of the Internet cafe, the two were battling each other online with their headphones on and didn¡¯t raise their heads at Jiang Li¡¯s arrival. After a summer vacation, the three of them had long been acquainted with each other and Jiang Li didn¡¯t mind, sitting down on a small sofa waiting for the two. At the end of the battle, Chi Fang won Feng Yu again without any difficulty. ¡°Fuck.¡± Feng Yu shouted, took off his headphones and threw them on the table, and grabbed Chi Fang¡¯s neck with both hands, ¡°I¡¯m going to choke you to death! ¡°Let go.¡± Chi Fang grabbed his hands away and stood up from the sofa. ¡°Let¡¯s go eat, I¡¯m starving.¡± ¡°No! Let¡¯s play two more matches!¡± Feng Yu, who had lost throughout the afternoon, was unconvinced. ¡°It will be the same outcome even if we play a few more matches.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll play with Jiang Li.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Chi Fang looked at him incredulously. ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°What? Can¡¯t I?¡± Feng Yu gave him a strange look and said to Jiang Li, who was sitting on the sofa, ¡°Jiang Li, do you know how to play? I¡¯ll teach you.¡± ¡°I know a little.¡± Jiang Li got up from the sofa and sat in front of the computer that Chi Fang had used earlier. ¡°Chi Fang taught me before.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s play two matches. Don¡¯t be afraid, I¡¯ll go easy on you.¡± Feng Yu put on his headphones eagerly. ¡°Okay, thank you.¡± Jiang Li smiled. A few minutes into the game, Feng Yu, who said he would go easy on Jiang Li, was beaten into a dog. [T/N: beaten badly] Looking at the big word ¡°failure¡± on the screen, Feng Yu blinked his eyes, still hadn¡¯t recovered from it. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who lost, you idiot!¡± Chi Fang stood behind and slapped him on the back of the head. ¡°And you said you want to go easy on him, shame on you.¡± ¡°No, Jiang Li, how are you so good!¡± Feng Yu asked. Jiang Li took off his headphones and said modestly, ¡°It¡¯s mainly because Chi Fang taught me well.¡± ¡°No wonder, a famous teacher makes a good student!¡± Feng Yu had never beaten Ch Fang in the game, so he didn¡¯t doubt when he heard him and raised a thumb towards Chi Fang. Chi Fang placed his hand on his forehead, and thought: Quickly shut the fuck up, your compliments make laozi¡¯s face hurt! The three of them went out of the Internet cafe, they talked about what to eat later as they walked, and met Xu Haowen again on the way down. Xu Haowen and Chi Fang were in the same class, so Feng Yu waved and said hello to him, who also nodded. The two parties walked past each other, and as Xu Haowen stood upstairs looking back down, he couldn¡¯t understand how Jiang Li and Chi Fang knew each other. It seemed like they had a pretty good relationship. On the other hand, after a distance from Xu Haowen, a blazing fire was ignited in Feng Yu¡¯s gossiping heart and he asked Jiang Li in a low voice, ¡°Xiongdi, is the matter of you liking Xu Haowen that we heard before true or not? How come you didn¡¯t look excited when you met Xu Haowen just now? It¡¯s completely different to those female students who like Chi ge.¡± ¡°Why are you involving me? What¡¯s wrong with you?¡± Chi Fang gave him an oblique look. ¡°Just an analogy.¡± Feng Yu smiled and waved his hand, and asked Jiang Li again, ¡°So do you like him or not? Don¡¯t worry, even if you like men, xiongdi will not look down on you.¡± ¡°Does he need you to look up to him? You¡¯re not as good as Jiang Li in studies, and you¡¯re also not as good as Jiang Li in games.¡± Chi Fang said sarcastically. ¡°I say, Chi ge, why are you like a watering can 1 In chinese, calling someone a watering can is like saying someone who keeps insulting, like water keeps coming out from the watering can today, insulting me all day long?¡± Feng Yu said strangely, ¡°Aren¡¯t you curious?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not as bored as you are.¡± Chi Fang snorted, hands in his pockets, seemingly unconcerned about Jiang Li and Xu Haowen¡¯s affairs, but his ears involuntarily perked up. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t help but laugh towards the two bickering and said in a frank tone, ¡°It¡¯s not to the extent of liking, I probably just have a good feeling about him, after all, he is so outstanding. Comparing my previous self to him, one was in the sky and one was on the ground, so I want to become someone like him.¡± The original host was only sixteen years old, his mother left home when he was young, his father didn¡¯t give him any care other than scolding and beating him. In the environment he grew up in, he couldn¡¯t even tell what kind of emotion like or love was. The ¡®like¡¯ he said to Xu Haowen was not accurate, in fact, it was more like admiration and worship. As he said in his diary, he longed to be a person like him, like a warm ray of sunshine that could light up people who lived in dark corners like himself, or like a bouquet of bright flowers that were given to others and would leave a fragrance in their hands, rather than a weak small grass with low self-esteem, with no one to rely on. After listening to his words, Feng Yu touched his chin without fully understanding. ¡°That is to say, he is your idol?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡­¡± So it is true that he only has studies in his heart? ¡°Then why don¡¯t you clarify? Our class was abuzz with the rumor, all of them were saying that you like Xu Haowen, that nerd.¡± Feng Yu asked in disbelief. ¡°I can¡¯t clarify.¡± Jiang Li shook his head. In the original host¡¯s situation, one, he wasn¡¯t favoured by the teacher, while second, he wasn¡¯t favoured by his classmates, no matter what he said, no one believed him. ¡°The innocent will be innocent, the guilty will always remain guilty, don¡¯t care about it too much.¡± Chi Fang who was beside them said. With his character, he always disdained these gossips and rumors. ¡°Holy shit, Chi ge, you can actually say something so meaningful!!!¡± Feng Yu was amazed. ¡°It seems that Jiang Li¡¯s tutoring you this summer has paid off big time!!!¡± Feng Yu also knew about the matter of Jiang Li tutoring Chi Fang. When he knew about it, he was simply stunned, very curious about what method Jiang Li used to make him agree to attend the make-up lessons. He followed him to the make-up lesson for two days on a whim, finally couldn¡¯t hold it and wanted to sleep once class started so he escaped from the third day. ¡°¡­ Get lost.¡± The three of them found a reputable small, fat mutton hot pot restaurant in the commercial street to have dinner. It was also a fun thing to eat hotpot with air conditioning on in the summer. It was exactly dinner time, the boisterous sound of people filled the hot pot restaurant. The rich fragrance of the hot pot soup shrouded the whole hall. The three people ate and chatted, only finishing their dinner after gorging on the food for nearly two hours. Jiang Li just received his salary today and this meal was his treat. When he was paying at the cashier, his eyes inadvertently fell on the small TV on the wall. The TV was broadcasting the news, a nightclub was investigated by the police last night, they found a large amount of marijuana, methamphetamine and other drugs in the store. Now, the case was being further investigated. Jiang Li saw a flash of a familiar face from the chaotic crowd in the news and his brow slowly frowned. He didn¡¯t even notice when the waiter handed over the change. Chi Fang on the side took the money for him, raised his eyes to look at the news and patted his shoulder. ¡°What are you looking at?¡± ¡°En?¡± Jiang Li retracted his gaze, shook his head, and took the money in Chi Fang¡¯s hand. ¡°Nothing.¡± At this time, Feng Yu also came out of the toilet, and the three of them went out of the hot pot restaurant together. After leaving, Feng Yu took a ride home from the other direction, Jiang Li and Chi Fang went the same way and boarded the bus together. At this hour, many people had just returned from shopping in the commercial street and the bus was packed full of passengers. Chi Fang pulled Jiang Li and squeezed into the back door of the bus to find a place to stand. With the car stopped at the next station, a few people got on the car one after another, the crowd in the aisle squeezed towards the back of the crowd once again. Chi Fang took advantage of his height to protect Jiang Li in front of him, one hand propped on the railing next to him to stop others from squeezing into him. Jiang Li was shielded by him in a safe area with a slight distance from the others, he could see Chi Fang¡¯s slightly pursed lips and smooth and sharp jawline just by raising his head slightly. Chi Fang¡¯s appearance was undoubtedly extremely advantageous, with dashing eyebrows and starry eyes, he was handsome and charming, there were many young girls in love with him in school. According to Feng Yu, their class flower Nan Yin also liked Chi Fang. This kind of handsome, kind-hearted and righteous boy was indeed very attractive to people. ¡°In that case, Host, don¡¯t hesitate and boldly capture.¡± System¡¯s words rang in his head. Jiang Li retracted his eyes that were placed on Chi Fang, responded to it in his mind with a headache, ¡°Little cutie, be quiet.¡± System: ¡°¡­¡­ Oh.¡± At this time, Chi Fang¡¯s heart wasn¡¯t calm. Because of the crowded passengers on the car, his arm holding the railing occasionally brushed the hair around Jiang Li¡¯s ear. The soft hair swept on his skin with a seemingly itchy feeling and the subtle itchiness seemed to spread all the way down the inner veins of his arm to the bottom of his heart. He landed his gaze outside the window and never looked back from the beginning to the end. The bus stopped at South Slope Street¡¯s stop, and the two of them got off the bus together and went back to Chi Fang¡¯s house. During this period of summer vacation, Jiang Nuomi was mostly kept in Chi Fang¡¯s house to be taken care of by the old man, because Jiang Li was afraid that when he was not at home, Father Jiang would come back and hurt the little guy. After playing with Jiang Nuomi at Chi Fang¡¯s house for a while, Jiang Li left and Chi Fang sent him downstairs. When he arrived at the entrance of the neighborhood, Jiang Li saw him and waved at him. ¡°Go back, see you tomorrow.¡± Tomorrow was the start of the second year of high school, Chi Fang nodded. ¡°Be careful on your way back.¡± Jiang Li nodded and walked in the direction of the bus stop sign. Chi Fang stood in place and watched him get on the bus before returning. There were only a few people on the bus heading back. Jiang Li found the back seat by the window and sat down and asked System out loud, ¡°What¡¯s the favorability now?¡± ¡°39%.¡± System replied. These days, Jiang Li had been deliberately controlling the progress of the capture. After two months, Chi Fang¡¯s favorability was still controlled at under 40%. It didn¡¯t break through the friend level. ¡°Noted.¡± Jiang Li leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes to recuperate. ¡°I¡¯ll take a break, call me when I arrive.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± The bus arrived at the intersection of the old city area, the System woke Jiang Li up and he got off the bus. After Jiang Li returned home, he dragged out the wooden box under the bed in the room, then used a knife to pry open one of the tiles under the bed and fumbled underneath to find a small, worn wooden box. This was where the original host used to hide money. Jiang Li made up for the money previously spent from the small wooden box to buy glasses and use on daily expenses. The money in the box was hidden by the original host as tuition fee, although Jiang Li had now replaced him to live, he felt that he wasn¡¯t qualified to use the hard-earned money earned and saved by the original host working in the lumber mill. Putting the box back in its place, Jiang Li took his pajamas and went to take a shower. He returned after showering, turned off the lights and went to sleep. In chinese, calling someone a watering can is like saying someone who keeps insulting, like water keeps coming out from the watering can CH 55 in Happy to translate! Hope you guys enjoy my translation! Support me by donating to my kofi!11-14 minutes 18.02.2022 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume On the day of the start of school, there were a lot of people in front of Senior 1¡¯s final exam results announcement board. ¡°Jiang Li¡±, two big words were listed in the first place, followed by ¡°Xu Haowen¡±, ¡°Nan Yin¡±, and ¡°Jiang Xingyu¡±. The person who was not even in the top 500 of the grade ranking before suddenly overpowered the whole grade and took the first position of the whole year, amazing the onlookers. ¡°Who¡¯s Jiang Li? How come I¡¯ve never heard of him?¡± ¡°I know right, is there such a person in class 5?¡± ¡°He¡¯s in our class!¡± ¡°That¡¯s the one who was rumored to like Xu Haowen!¡± ¡°Damn! Jiang Li¡¯s first!¡± ¡°Speaking of liking Xu Haowen ¡­ I remember that they are in the same class this time!¡± ¡°No way? He can take advantage of being close to him!¡± Classroom of Senior Two (1). As Jiang Li walked into the classroom, the originally chaotic classroom suddenly quieted down and everyone¡¯s eyes gathered on him in unison. In the second year of high school, they were divided into arts and science classes. Jiang Li chose science and on the class placement, he found himself in the same class as Chi Fang, Feng Yu, and Xu Haowen. ¡°That¡¯s him, first in the grade.¡± ¡°He¡¯s very good-looking!¡± ¡°I heard that he was in class 5 before, and he likes Xu Haowen in our class.¡± ¡°No way, so trendy?¡± Regarding the others¡¯ discussion of him, Jiang Li turned a deaf ear and walked towards the seat by the window at the back without looking away. As he passed Xu Haowen, the other party nodded at him and said, ¡°Good morning.¡± ¡°Good morning.¡± Jiang Li nodded, passed by him, and sat down at the window seat. Xu Haowen¡¯s initiative to greet Jiang Li startled the others, they didn¡¯t understand when the two became so familiar. Jiang Li had clearly avoided Xu Haowen whenever he saw him last semester. Xu Haowen¡¯s seatmate, who was also in the sixth class in senior one, was also surprised by the two greeting each other and looked back at Jiang Li, who was wiping the table with a tissue. He then asked Xu Haowen in a lowered voice, ¡°Haowen, when did you become so close to him?¡± Are we close? Xu Haowen thought in his heart, they were just acquaintances. Judging from the previous exchanges with Jiang Li, the other party didn¡¯t seem to have any intention of making a deep friendship with him. The previous English representative of class 5, Jiang Xingyu, was also in class 5 of Senior Two. She was sitting one aisle away from Jiang Li. When she saw Jiang Li sitting down, she called out to him in a low voice. Jiang Li heard her and looked over. She gave a thumbs up and said, full of smiles, ¡°You¡¯re amazing, number one in our grade.¡± Jiang Li smiled at her, ¡°You¡¯re impressive too.¡± As the time for the class meeting got closer and closer, the classroom became more and more crowded, more and more tables were occupied, Chi Fang and Feng Yu were almost late when they stepped into the classroom. ¡°Ah Fang.¡± Nan Yin, who was sitting in the middle of the room, saw Chi Fang and raised her hand to call out to him, indicating that there was a seat at her side. Feng Yu used his elbow to bump Chi Fang and smiled at him ambiguously with gossiping intentions. Chi Fang ignored his smile, raised his hand, and simply waved towards Nan Yin. He then walked to the seat beside Jiang Li, lowered his head, and looked at the empty seat beside him. ¡°Is this reserved for me?¡± He didn¡¯t wait for Jiang Li to answer and pulled out the stool to sit down by himself. The crowd: ¡°??¡± When did Jiang Li and Chi Fang also become so close with each other? Nan Yin saw this and her eyes swept over Jiang Li¡¯s face. Her beautiful eyebrows frowned slightly, she turned around and sat properly. There were no vacancies in the front or the back of Jiang Li and Chi Fang¡¯s seats. Feng Yu could only sit down at the back two rows apart from them. As soon as he sat down, he started chatting with the new seatmate. He was a natural socializer and only quieted down once the homeroom teacher came in. The homeroom teacher of Senior Two Class 1 was originally the homeroom teacher of Senior One Class 6, surnamed Zhang, first name Ling, teaching in the second middle school for nearly twenty years. Although she was stereotypical and indifferent, she was very serious and excellent in teaching. After Zhang Ling took the roll call on the podium and let everyone take turns to come up and introduce themselves, she simply said some words of encouragement and started to select class committees. Although Zhang Ling hadn¡¯t taught Jiang Li, it was an indisputable fact that Jiang Li ranked first in the grade. She originally intended to make Jiang Li a study committee member, but Jiang Li made it clear that he was not suitable for class committees, so she had to give up. As for Chi Fang and Feng Yu, they were not only late to class but also had poor academic performance, so Zhang Ling had no intention of letting them be in class committees. The two of them had the exact same intention, their butt stuck to their seats and didn¡¯t move and only acted as voters. In the end, Xu Haowen remained as class president and Nan Yin was the vice president, no different from the previous Senior One Class 6. After the class meeting, Xu and Nan organized everyone to clean the class. The girls were responsible for wiping the tables and sweeping the floor, and the boys were responsible for cleaning the windows and mopping the floor. The classroom had not been cleaned for an entire summer, the ceiling corners had somewhat accumulated some cobwebs. If they were to sweep it with a boom directly, the cobwebs would inevitably fall on their heads. So Jiang Li found a newspaper, folded a paper hat and gave it to Chi Fang. ¡°What a broken hat, how girlish.¡± Chi Fang put on the hat and used the window glass to look at his own appearance with displeasure. ¡°Chi ge, give it to me if you don¡¯t want it!¡± Feng Yu thought the hat was very cute. Jiang Li was handy, he had even folded two ears at the brim of the hat. ¡°Get lost.¡± Chi Fang used one hand to protect the paper hat on his head and used the other to knock Feng Yu¡¯s leg twice with a bamboo used to tie the broom, ¡°None of your business.¡± ¡°Chi ge, you won¡¯t get a girlfriend if you act differently from what you say like a tsundere!¡± Feng Yu complained. ¡°Shut your mouth.¡± ¡°Sincere advice grates on the ears!¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t bother paying attention to these two boring people. He carried half a bucket of water to the wall and stood on the windowsill to wipe the uppermost window. After wiping for a short while, Jiang Xingyu called him from below, ¡°Jiang Li, your bucket is leaking.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Jiang Li looked down and found that a small puddle of water was indeed leaking at the place he put the bucket, so he came down from the window and squatted down by the bucket to look for the leaky crack. The bucket was cracked near the bottom and the crack was only two centimeters long. Jiang Li touched the crack and looked back at the corner where the trash can was placed and saw a scrapped ball inside. After thinking for a while, he poured the bucket of water to another student who was wiping the window, used a tissue to wipe off the water on the crack on the bucket, and went to find Chi Fang. Chi Fang and Feng Yu were simply sweeping the cobwebs in the corner of the ceiling, and the two of them had been sweeping one corner for almost ten minutes. Not to mention the cobwebs, even the putty on the wall was almost swept off by them. Jiang Li walked over and asked Chi Fang, ¡°Did you bring a lighter?¡± His words made Chi Fang and Feng Yu stop moving at the same time. Chi Fang casually took out the lighter from his pocket and handed it to him and when Jiang Li reached out to take it, their fingertips accidentally touched one another. Jiang Li¡¯s fingers were a little cold, probably because he had just touched the water. ¡°I¡¯ll give it back to you later.¡± Jiang Li took the lighter and turned around to leave. While Chi Fang felt that his fingertip¡¯s touch was still left on his own fingers, he touched his nose unnaturally, turned his head, and saw Feng Yu looking at him with an intriguing expression. Chi Fang: ¡°What do you mean by that look?¡± ¡°Chi ge.¡± Feng Yu looked at him and said slyly, ¡°The conversation you just had with Jiang Li reminded me of an allusion.¡± ¡°What allusion?¡± ¡°Wanna date?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡ª If a gay asks another person to borrow a light, it means he wants to date him. 1 date as in hook-up in this case. This phrase suddenly ran into Chi Fang¡¯s brain, making him almost unable to hold the broom well in his hand. The days spent with Jiang Li appeared in his mind bit by bit. Chi Fang remembered his slender and fair fingers pressing on the draft paper, remembered his side profile with elegant lines when he lowered his head to explain the questions himself, remembered his curved eyes while smiling when he passed his English test. These clear and distinct memories made Chi Fang zone out uncontrollably, something unknown was emerging in his heart. At this time, Jiang Li who was on the other side suddenly heard System¡¯s notification, ¡°Congratulations to the host, the male lead¡¯s favorability has increased by 5%, the current favorability is 44%.¡± ¡°?¡± Jiang Li was baffled, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t guess the mind of an adolescent boy.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± The adolescent boy Chi Fang was being bewildered by the things he couldn¡¯t understand inside himself. He heard Feng Yu say with an exclamation, ¡°You are just lending him a lighter, why are you guys giving out such a gay feeling to me!¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­ Get lost!¡± Chi Fang held the bamboo pole in his hand and swept it towards Feng Yu. Feng Yu laughed and said two sentences repeatedly to have his life spared and moved to Jiang Li¡¯s side swiftly, while Chi Fang kept his foot back just as he was stepping forward because of the sentence ¡°Wanna date?¡± ¡­ I¡¯m not gay, I don¡¯t want to date. Chi Fang silently read it out in his mind three times. Jiang Li was using the small knife to cut the ball and Fang Yu squatted down beside him. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°The bucket is broken, I¡¯m mending it.¡± Jiang Li said while using the knife to scrape back and forth a few times on the inside of the ball that was being cut out, and then hanging over the flame of the lighter to heat it up. Feng Yu: ¡°What the heck, is this even possible?¡± ¡°It¡¯s no problem for temporary use.¡± Jiang Li handed the lighter to Feng Yu in passing and put the ball¡¯s skin on the cracked place of the bucket. Feng Yu played with Chi Fang¡¯s lighter, remembering that Jiang Li returned the lighter to Chi Fang last time, and laughed, ¡°This lighter is a birthday gift from the old man to Chi ge, fortunately, you picked it up and returned it to Chi ge. If someone else had picked it up, it would not have been recovered.¡± Because of the slow progress of the capture, the information about Chi Fang in the System was only a little. Jiang Li also didn¡¯t deliberately inquire about it. When he heard him say so, he then asked, ¡°Birthday? When? Has it passed?¡± ¡°It has passed.¡± Feng Yu said, ¡°May 21. It has passed a few months ago.¡± Jiang Li was looking at the leather glue to see if it had solidified or not but when he heard his words, his hand¡¯s movement paused. He looked up at him. ¡°What date did you say?¡± Feng Yu: ¡°May 21 ah.¡± ¡°May ¡­ 21? ¡­¡± Jiang Li¡¯s voice sounded like he was in a daze. He turned his head suddenly to look at Chi Fang who was leaning against the wall with his head lowered while playing with his phone. ¡ª Jiang Zhan, when is your birthday? ¨CIt¡¯s stated on Baidu, check it yourself. ¨CI want to hear you say it. ¨CMay 21. May 21, Jiang Zhan¡¯s birthday was also this date. ¨CJiang Zhan, let¡¯s give a name to the little guy, what do you think? ¨CNuomi then. ¡­ ¨CWhat did you say? ¨CI say call it Jiang Nuomi. The similar conversation in his memory resounded again, something that was overlooked suddenly seemed to be strung together by an invisible thread and Jiang Li looked at the person leaning against the wall. ¡­ Is that you? date as in hook-up in this case. CH 56 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume Although Chi Fang was playing with his mobile phone, his mind was always on Jiang Li and Feng Yu; in case Feng Yu, his stupid teammate, talked nonsense in front of Jiang Li and caused an awkward scene. Out of the corner of his eye, when he noticed that Jiang Li was watching him, he wanted to pretend he didn¡¯t know; but Jiang Li¡¯s gaze kept looking at him, making him uncomfortable. ¡­ Look my ass, I¡¯m not going to date. Chi Fang complained in his heart and was so irritated by his gaze he simply glared back. The two lines of sight met each other and Jiang Li suddenly smiled at Chi Fang. It was a smile from the heart, without a bit of alienation and disguise, it was an overly real and beautiful smile which stunned Chi Fang. He looked at him fixedly and forgot to react. At this moment, the unknown song that he had heard before rang ¡®ding dong¡¯ in his mind non-stop, and the scenes of spending time with Jiang Li the past few days flashed before his eyes bit by bit. The heartbeat of ¡°thump¡± echoed in his ears, and the noisy classroom suddenly quieted down. The students who were passing by back and forth suddenly disappeared one by one. The only place that Chi Fang¡¯s sight could see was the one who smiled at him in front. Shit, I¡¯m dead. Chi Fang heard a voice in his heart saying: I¡¯m not straight, I want to date. Realizing his filthy thoughts, Chi Fang avoided Jiang Li¡¯s sight in embarrassment and left the classroom as if he was escaping. He ran straight to the bathroom on the first floor, turned on the faucet to the maximum in front of the sink, bent down, and scooped up the water to wash his face. ¡­ Calm down Chi Fang, he¡¯s a guy. Chi Fang propped up his hands on the edge of the basin and looked at himself with his face full of water in the mirror. He brainwashed himself over and over again in his heart, but no matter how he brainwashed it, Jiang Li¡¯s earlier smile was firmly engraved in his mind, and he couldn¡¯t wash it away. He even felt that he seemed to have seen such a pure smile at some point in time. He lowered his head and washed his face again. He then took a deep breath and waited for the violent throbbing in his heart to slowly pass before reaching out to turn off the faucet. At this time, two people happened to come out of the bathroom. One of them hooked the other¡¯s shoulder and said, ¡°Chen Jialin, Lao Zhao invited us to go to the Internet cafe to play games at noon. Would you like to come together?¡± The three words ¡°Chen Jialin¡± caught Chi Fang¡¯s attention, he turned his head to look over, and the two of them also saw him. ¡°Hi, Chi ge.¡± One of them was a classmate from the same class as Chi Fang during Senior 1. He had played basketball with Chi Fang before. When he saw Chi Fang, he greeted him aloud. The other person turned pale when he saw Chi Fang and took a step back. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Chi Fang¡¯s gaze landed on the other person. The other party didn¡¯t answer and took two steps to the side. He exerted force on his leg, wanting to run away. Chi Fang took a lunge, grabbed his collar, and threw him back, directly throwing the person to the ground. ¡°Chi ge?!¡± Another person was taken aback by his sudden action. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°What¡¯s his name? From which class?¡± Chi Fang motioned towards the person on the ground with his chin and asked him. ¡°Chen, Chen Jialin, he used to be in Senior 1 Class 5, and now he¡¯s in the same class as me, Senior 2 Class 4.¡± ¡°Chen Jialin from Senior 1 Class 5, then I didn¡¯t find the wrong person.¡± Chi Fang raised a smile on his lips, moved his neck, and said to the person standing, ¡°It¡¯s none of your business, you can go.¡± The other party hesitantly glanced at Chen Jialin on the ground, and finally chose to leave. Chen Jialin watched Chi Fang approach him, got up quickly, grabbed the trousers¡¯ bottom part of his school uniform, and said, ¡°Chi ge, I know I¡¯m wrong, I shouldn¡¯t have asked someone to block Jiang Li, Qiang ge has already taught me a lesson, please spare me!!¡± After Chen Qiang and others failed to block Jiang Li before, Chen Qiang turned around and cleaned up Chen Jialin after his injury recovered. He blamed him for not clarifying the relationship between Chi Fang and Jiang Li and causing them to suffer a loss in vain. Although Chen Qiang couldn¡¯t beat Chi Fang, he wasn¡¯t an easy character in front of others. Chen Jialin was beaten by him, and he was discharged from the hospital after lying in the hospital for two days. Until he was discharged, Chen Jialin still didn¡¯t know when Jiang Li was involved with Chi Fang. The two were even good brothers. As soon as he came out of the bathroom and saw Chi Fang, he subconsciously wanted to run, but he couldn¡¯t move faster than Chi Fang. ¡°Spare you?¡± Chi Fang laughed lightly, the shadows in his eyes were flickering, and his emotions couldn¡¯t be seen clearly. He suddenly raised his foot and directly kicked Chen Jialin to the ground, immediately bent over and grabbed his collar to lift him up. ¡°Did Jiang Li beg you for mercy like this back then? What about you? Have you guys spared him?¡± Chi Fang looked at him coldly, as if he was looking at useless trash. ¡­ ¡°I¡¯ll teach you now, there are some people you can¡¯t touch, understand?¡± ¡­ In the classroom, Jiang Li looked thoughtfully in the direction Chi Fang had left and slowly stood up from the ground. ¡°Little cutie.¡± He called out to System in his heart, ¡°Tell me, who else is playing this game besides me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Lord Host.¡± System¡¯s voice was apologetic, ¡°This involves the privacy of other hosts, so I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t answer.¡± ¡°In other words, there are indeed other people playing this game, right?¡± Jiang Li asked in a different way. System didn¡¯t speak, which meant that it was a silent acquiescence. There were rules to the game, and Jiang Li didn¡¯t want to force the system. He thought in a different direction. Since he could be selected by System to traverse to every world to complete the task, why didn¡¯t he think that it was also possible for Jiang Zhan? It was just that he took the script of the one who did the capturing, while Jiang Zhan took the script of the one being captured. Thinking of this, Jiang Li¡¯s heart pounded violently and the corners of his lips couldn¡¯t help but slowly rise. Whether it was the name Jiang Nuomi or his birthday on May 21, he didn¡¯t believe that it was all just a coincidence, and all he needed now was further confirmation. On the other side, Chi Fang tidied up his school uniform, and without looking at all at Chen Jialin who was curled up in the corner, he opened the door of the toilet and went out. After walking two steps, he saw his classmate was still standing outside. When his classmate saw him coming out, he nodded and called out Chi ge. Chi Fang raised his eyebrows. ¡°Are you guarding for me?¡± The other party scratched his head and smiled. ¡°Today is the first day of school, it will be more troublesome for the teacher to find out.¡± ¡°True.¡± Chi Fang nodded, reached out and patted the other¡¯s shoulder, walked past him, and left two words, ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Chi ge, you¡¯re welcome!¡± After Chi Fang cleaned up Chen Jialin, he returned to the classroom in a comfortable state of mind and body. He found that everyone had finished cleaning, and couldn¡¯t find Jiang Li and Feng Yu when he looked around. He grabbed a boy next to him and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Jiang Li?¡± The other party looked confused: ¡°I don¡¯t know, Chi ge, he was still here just now, why not I go and find him for you?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go by myself.¡± Chi Fang let go of the other party, and when he turned around and walked out of the classroom, he almost bumped into Jiang Li, who was about to come in. Fortunately, he took a step back in time. ¡°Where have you been?¡± Chi Fang asked. ¡°Where have you been?¡± Jiang Li also asked aloud at the same time. ¡°I went downstairs to wash my face.¡± ¡°I went to wash my hands.¡± They answered in unison again, the two were silent for a few seconds, then suddenly looked at each other and smiled. ¡°The old man asked you to come back for dinner today, and asked us to drop by to buy vegetables when we go back.¡± Chi Fang said. It was already time to dismiss now. Many students in the class had left the classroom one after another, and even Feng Yu had left earlier. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll take my things.¡± Jiang Li returned to his seat, took his backpack, and went downstairs with Chi Fang. The two returned to the community¡¯s market to buy vegetables. Jiang Li asked Chi Fang while walking, ¡°What do you want to eat?¡± Chi Fang said: ¡°Anything, I don¡¯t want onions and bitter gourd.¡± When he was spending time with Chi Fang during the summer vacation, Jiang Li had long known that Chi Fang didn¡¯t eat onions and bitter gourd. This was the same as Jiang Zhan, but Jiang Li never thought that the two were the same person before, and only regarded it as the world was big, and there were always people who had the same taste. Now that the relationship between the two was connected, he found out that many details reflected that they were likely to be the same person. While passing by a stall that was selling fish, Jiang Li wanted to try again, so he stopped, looked up, and asked Chi Fang, ¡°Do you want to eat fish?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Chi Fang had no objection, ¡°What fish?¡± Jiang Li looked at him and said slowly, ¡°Sweet and sour mandarin fish.¡± In the last life, after Jiang Li returned from participating in the live broadcast of ¡°Face to Face Celebrity¡±, Jiang Zhan told him that he wanted to eat sweet and sour mandarin fish, and he wasn¡¯t tired of eating it for three days, and Jiang Nuomi also followed him to eat for three days. ¡°Are you going to make it?¡± Chi Fang asked. Jiang Li nodded, and Chi Fang said, ¡°Sure, do you want to make another portion for Jiang Nuomi? One for me, one for him?¡± ¡ª¡ªJiang Zhan, you¡¯re still eating Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish today, aren¡¯t you tired of it? ¡ª¡ªIt¡¯s my pleasure, remember two, one for me, and one for Jiang Nuomi. His words made Jiang Li couldn¡¯t help but lower his head and laugh. The hole in his heart suddenly seemed to be slowly filled by something. After laughing, he said, ¡°Okay.¡± The two bought the ingredients and went back. As soon as the door was opened, Jiang Nuomi who was in the house rushed over from the sofa, and with the help of the shoe cabinet, it threw itself directly into Jiang Li¡¯s arms. Afraid that it would fall, Jiang Li hurriedly hugged it and reprimanded in a low voice, ¡°Your leg has just recovered and you¡¯re already being naughty.¡± ¡°Meow~¡± Jiang Nuomi pulled the clothes on his chest with its soft claws. Jiang Li carried it in, and Chi Fang followed behind with the ingredients. Chi Fang put the dishes on the kitchen counter, and as soon as he came out, he heard Jiang Li sitting on a chair teasing Jiang Nuomi, ¡°Be a little more obedient, Daddy will make fish for you.¡± ¡°Meow~¡± He didn¡¯t know if Jiang Nuomi understood him or not. It just kept calling towards Jiang Li. Chi Fang looked at Jiang Nuomi who was acting completely differently in front of him and Jiang Li and looked at them with displeasure. ¡°Why are you guys simply making up your relationship, if he calls you daddy, then what about me?¡± He was older than Jiang Li, but he couldn¡¯t be called Uncle, right? It felt like he was older than him by a generation. Hearing his question, Jiang Li remembered how Jiang Zhan was angered by himself back then, and suddenly had an idea in his mind. He looked at Chi Fang with a smile: ¡°You are my savior, just like my reborn parents 1 translated literally, meaning lifesaver , why not call you grandpa?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Grandpa your ass, I¡¯m your grandpa! translated literally, meaning lifesave CH 57 After Jiang Li said ¡°Grandpa¡±, Jiang Nuomi called out to Chi Fang twice as if responding to him. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Seeing Chi Fang¡¯s face darkening quickly, the familiar reaction made Jiang Li purse his lips and smile, and he hurriedly said, ¡°I¡¯m joking, don¡¯t mind, alright.¡± After speaking, he took out Chi Fang¡¯s lighter from his pocket and gave it to him. ¡°By the way, I forgot to return this to you.¡± Thanks to Feng Yu, Chi Fang now thought of the sentence ¡°Wanna date?¡± as soon as he saw the lighter, and his thoughts couldn¡¯t help but wander. He forgot to be angry and was hesitating between dating or not and forgot to receive the lighter at that moment. Jiang Li saw that he was suddenly in a daze, so he shook the lighter in front of him. ¡°Your lighter.¡± The word lighter was like a switch which made Chi Fang quiver and he blurted out, ¡°Not dating!¡± ¡°What?¡± Jiang Li looked at him inexplicably, ¡°What about not dating?¡± Chi Fang met his confused eyes, coughed unnaturally, and took over the lighter in his hand rudely. ¡°Not dating anything!¡± Jiang Li carefully observed his expression, suddenly stood up, and reached out to touch Chi Fang¡¯s earlobe. The sudden touch made Chi Fang almost jump up. He covered his earlobe and stared at him. ¡°What are you doing?¡± The inexperienced and nervous reaction made Jiang Li laugh in his heart, but his face was calm. He deliberately got close to Chi Fang¡¯s face and asked knowingly, ¡°Why are your ears so red?¡± The earlobe touched by Jiang Li was still hot, Chi Fang rubbed it with his hand and said as if trying to cover up something, ¡°It¡¯s hot, don¡¯t get so close.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Jiang Li stretched his voice and didn¡¯t ask further questions. He then changed the topic, ¡°Today Feng Yu said that this lighter was a birthday present from the old man. Is your birthday on May 21st?¡± ¡°En.¡± Chi Fang put the lighter back in his pocket and asked casually, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Nothing, I¡¯m just thinking about what present to give you next year.¡± Jiang Li said and put Jiang Nuomi in his arms, ¡°I¡¯m going to cook, play with Son for a while. Call the old man later and ask him to come back for dinner.¡± After he finished speaking, he went into the kitchen. Chi Fang was carrying Jiang Nuomi and his mind was filled with the sentence Jiang Li said ¡°You play with Son for a while¡±, which was too ambiguous. Was Jiang Li talking about my son or his son? Or our son¡­ ¡°Bah bah bah!¡± Realizing what he was thinking, Chi Fang quickly stopped and looked up at Jiang Li in the kitchen. Jiang Li was taking the vegetables out of the bag and putting them in the basin with water. After the summer vacation, he grew two centimeters and was now 1.75 meters tall. Although his figure was still a little thin, he looked a lot more slender. Chi Fang just stood looking at him for a while, and when he looked down, he found Jiang Nuomi staring at him. One person and one cat stared at each other for a while. Chi Fang placed it directly on the sofa, said ¡°play by yourself¡±, and went into the kitchen. Jiang Nuomi: ¡°¡­¡± Although Chi Fang didn¡¯t know how to cook, he could still help with washing the vegetables. The two of them worked together and dinner was soon cooked. After eating, the old man went downstairs to find the neighbors to play chess again, and Jiang Li gave Chi Fang make-up lessons as usual. After a summer vacation of studying intensively, Chi Fang passed the English test. In addition to English, Jiang Li also helped him make up for Physics and Mathematics. ¡°You¡¯ve counted this question wrongly.¡± Jiang Li pointed at Chi Fang¡¯s paper. ¡°This part.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s gaze followed his index finger which was moving and the fair fingertips made him unconsciously remember the touch the last time he held it, and he couldn¡¯t help but get distracted. Jiang Li had long been accustomed to his distraction during make-up lessons. If it was during normal days, he would either pat him on the shoulder to remind him or wait for him to recover. However, now he knew that he was Jiang Zhan, it was just that the shell had changed, just like himself, he then wasn¡¯t polite to him anymore. He picked up the booklet on the side and rolled it up and hit him directly on the head. Jiang Li¡¯s knock was not light, Chi Fang made a ¡°hiss¡± and looked up at him. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°What am I doing?¡± Jiang Li propped up his hands on the table and looked down at him from across. ¡°What were you thinking in your mind earlier, did you hear what I just said?¡± What was I thinking in my mind¡­ Thinking about your hand ah. Chi Fang didn¡¯t say these words and felt so fucking embarrassed. He clearly asked Jiang Li not to fall in love with him two days ago, but today he seemed to have been bewitched, the other party¡¯s shadow filled his mind. In the time following this, Chi Fang was distracted frequently and Jiang Li learned from System that his favorability had risen to 48% and was stuck in a position above friends and not lovers. Knowing that the teenage boy was about to experience adolescent love, his thoughts must be chaotic, so Jiang Li didn¡¯t embarrass him and said that the make-up lesson would end early. ¡°Ah?¡± As soon as Chi Fang, whose mind was wandering, heard that it was over, he looked down at the watch on his hand. It was only 8.30 in the evening. ¡°Don¡¯t we have another half an hour to go? Why is it over?¡± ¡°Let alone half an hour, you won¡¯t learn anything even if we continue for another half of the day.¡± Jiang Li said while organizing the exercise book on the table. When he said this, he suddenly stopped to look at Chi Fang and asked abruptly, ¡°Are you¡­ in love?¡± Chi Fang didn¡¯t expect him to suddenly ask such a question. He was stunned at first, and then retorted instantly, ¡°How is it possible?¡± ¡°Then is it that you have someone you like? You were absent-minded all night.¡± Jiang Li looked at him strangely and then patted Chi Fang¡¯s arm like a good brother, ¡°If you have then say it, I¡¯ll help you.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Help me your ass, you only have studies in your heart. Seeing that he didn¡¯t speak, Jiang Li asked hesitantly, ¡°Is it¡­ Nan Yin?¡± ¡°How is that possible?!¡± Chi Fang said, ¡°Don¡¯t listen to Feng Yu¡¯s big mouth blabbering nonsense, I have nothing to do with her.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good then.¡± Jiang Li breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at him, his eyes filled with unconcealed joy. Chi Fang felt a little dizzy when he laughed. ¡°You seem very happy about the fact that I don¡¯t like Nan Yin.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Jiang Li nodded without hesitation, ¡°I¡¯m happier if you don¡¯t have someone you like.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Chi Fang asked, his heart beating a little faster. Jiang Li said as a matter of course, ¡°In this way, you can only have studies in your heart like me.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Damn you! After making Chi Fang choke back and forth twice, Jiang Li¡¯s mood was very good, and he considered that he had avenged himself for the fact that he didn¡¯t know Chi Fang was Jiang Zhan all these days. Thinking of the time while he was upset, Chi Fang was fine. He didn¡¯t remember anything, living a happy and unrestrained life. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t help but want to punish him pettily. Since you asked me not to fall in love with you, let¡¯s wait and see who¡¯s going to cry and beg me to date in the end. Thinking of this, Jiang Li slightly raised the corner of his lips and smiled. He then said to Chi Fang, ¡°I have class tomorrow, so I¡¯ll go back first.¡± After he finished speaking, he picked up his school bag and walked out of the room. Chi Fang followed him, sent him out the door, and returned to the room. He turned on the computer and sat down. ¨C Homosexuality. Chi Fang typed the word in Baidu search, and results full of information and pictures about ¡°homosexuality¡± appeared in the search bar. Chi Fang knew about the existence of homosexuality, but he had never learned about it. He clicked on a few sites of information to read, and his brows were furrowed. After reading for a while, he turned off the search bar, picked up his phone, and sent a message to Feng Yu through WeChat. ¨C Chi Fang: Take a picture and show me the novel that your sister is reading. Feng Yu had a younger sister who was in junior high school. According to Feng Yu, his sister was a super ¡°fujoshi¡± and had a lot of indescribable love stories about two men. All the knowledge he knew in this aspect was all taught by his sister. In the past, when Feng Yu complained about his sister, his words always went in one ear and out the other for Chi Fang. He really didn¡¯t expect that he would need help from the other party one day. Not long after the message was sent, Feng Yu replied. ¨C Crazy Yuyu: Damn it, Chi ge have you been hacked?! ¨C The other party is inviting you to a video call. Chi Fang chose ¡°reject¡± and sent him another message. ¨C Chi Fang: Hacked your ass, hurry up! ¨C Crazy Yuyu: This tone is indeed correct, but Chi ge, what book do you want? My sister has a lot of books. ¨C Chi Fang: ¡­ Those kinds of books. ¨C Crazy Yuyu: ? ? ? ¨C Crazy Yuyu: What the hell! ! Really? Chi ge, are you so trendy?! ¨C The other party is inviting you to a video call. Chi Fang rejected the call again. ¨C Chi Fang: Stop talking nonsense, hurry up. ¨C Crazy Yuyu: Okay then, wait for a while. About two minutes later, Feng Yu sent a photo over and Chi Fang clicked it openly. After seeing the content above, the corners of his eyes twitched. The photo showed a row of novels standing on a bookshelf, the titles of which were ¡°Runaway Bride: Black-Bellied Prince Don¡¯t Be Too Arrogant! ¡°, ¡°Marrying Sweetheart: The Second Young Master¡¯s Wife¡±, ¡°Bride With Ten Billion In Wealth: The Ex-Husband is Coming!¡±, ¡°The Emperor¡¯s Pampered Wife¡± and so on¡­ Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang felt that his teeth were sore when he saw these names and was about to send a message to Feng Yu when he saw that he had withdrawn it and sent several photos. ¨C Crazy Yuyu: Chi ge, I told you that these are my sister¡¯s treasures, and I guarantee that you¡¯ll benefit a lot! ¨C Crazy Yuyu: By the way, I am playing a game, are you joining?! ¨C Chi Fang: No, keep today¡¯s matter a secret, or else I will beat you to death. ¨C Crazy Yuyu: I know, I know, then I¡¯m leaving! ¨C Chi Fang: En. Chi Fang clicked on the other photos and saw the two letters ¡°BL¡± on the cover of the comic book in one of them. BL was the abbreviation of Boys¡¯ Love, which was love between boys. This was what Chi Fang saw when he was searching just now. In short, it was homosexuality. Chi Fang noted down the name of one of the comics and then went to Baidu to search for it. Unfortunately, Chi Fang tongxue chose an R18 comic and the two men entangling with each other on the title page almost made his eyes pop out. The clear and uncoded smut comics opened the door to a new world for Chi Fang. That night, Chi Fang, who had received new knowledge, was naturally indescribable in his dreams. When he saw clearly who the person in his dream was, he woke up with fright, and the discomfort between his legs made him despondent. Having wet dreams during adolescence was a normal thing, but it was obviously abnormal to dream of someone who was a boy like himself. Chi Fang got up and took a shower, washed away the stickiness and dryness on his body, changed into clean underwear, and fell on the bed weakly. His eyes stared at the ceiling fixedly. As soon as he closed his eyes, his mind was full of Jiang Li¡¯s shadow. ¡­ Fuck Chi Fang pressed the center of his eyebrows irritably, reached out, took the phone from the side, opened WeChat, and blacklisted Feng Yu. CH 58 When Jiang Li got up early in the morning, he heard System say that Chi Fang¡¯s favorability had exceeded the Primary Love Achievement and the favorability was currently 58%. ¡°It increased 10% just after a night¡¯s sleep? What did he do at night?¡± Jiang Li laughed when he heard what System said. He didn¡¯t care about the breakthrough of the favorability as after all, he no longer had to control the progress of the capturing. ¡°Congratulations to the host, the progress of the capture has exceeded 50%, and you have obtained the Primary Love Achievement reward. Do you want to check it?¡± System asked aloud. ¡°Yes.¡± As soon as Jiang Li finished speaking, a familiar game tablet appeared in front of him. The reward column in the upper right corner was flashing and he clicked to open it casually. [Primary Love Achievement Reward: Ultimate Edition Five-Year National College Entrance Exam Three-Year Mock Exam 1 A very famous set of exercise books for the Chinese national college entrance exam. Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± In the first world, the Primary Love Achievement reward was a set of cat sex toys. While in the second world, the Primary Love Achievement reward was a set of five-year college entrance mock examinations. Jiang Li originally planned to buy a set of Five-Three 2 the set of books mentioned above. for Chi Fang as a spare, but he didn¡¯t expect that System had prepared it. Combined with a cat sex toy set, thinking about it carefully, it seemed that every reward was exactly what he needed at the moment. This really made him wonder if this game was created just to serve the male lead. Thinking of this, Jiang Li asked System, ¡°Little cutie, don¡¯t tell me that the creator of your game is the male lead¡¯s father.¡± System: ¡°¡­ cough, please be careful with your words, Lord Host.¡± ¡°I just simply said it.¡± Jiang Li smiled and got out of bed. After washing up, Jiang Li grabbed his backpack and went downstairs. He planned to have breakfast at the bun shop at the entrance of the alley before going to school. As soon as he reached the entrance of the alley, he saw a person with one leg supporting the bicycle, playing with his mobile phone and with his head down. The tall boy was wearing a white school uniform with blue edges. He stepped on the pedal of the bicycle with one leg and supported the bicycle¡¯s frame with another. The morning sun shone on him and softened his side profile. The publicity and sharpness that belonged to youth had been reduced a lot, making the aura on him a lot gentler. Although Chi Fang and Jiang Zhan didn¡¯t look the same, looking at him right now, Jiang Li felt as if he had returned to his previous life when Jiang Zhan leaned on the car waiting for him. After standing and watching for a few minutes, Jiang Li walked to the side for a small half circle, lightened his footsteps as he moved to Chi Fang¡¯s back, and asked him softly, ¡°Why are you here?¡± The sudden voice from behind him made Chi Fang¡¯s hands tremble, and when he turned around he saw Jiang Li¡¯s face. The messy scenes in the dream the previous night poured into his mind without any warning and the phone in his hand fell to the ground and made a ¡°clack¡± sound. Jiang Li bent over to pick it up for him, but as soon as he moved, he heard Chi Fang anxiously say, ¡°Don¡¯t move, I¡¯ll pick it up by myself!¡± Jiang Li ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang quickly got down from the bicycle, picked up the phone and put it in his pocket without looking at it, and said to Jiang Li, ¡°Why did you walk without a sound?¡± ¡°You just didn¡¯t hear it because you¡¯re too into playing with your phone by yourself.¡± Jiang Li noticed that the roots of his ears were a little red and gave him a strange look. ¡°Why are you nervous? Your ears are all red.¡± ¡°It¡¯s because of the sun.¡± Chi Fang simply talked nonsense to put him off and changed the subject, ¡°Why are you so late? I¡¯ve been waiting for you for a long time.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me you were coming either.¡± Jiang Li said, pointing to the breakfast shop next to him. ¡°Have you had breakfast yet?¡± ¡°Not yet.¡± Chi Fang couldn¡¯t sleep once he was woken up by the dream last night. He tossed and turned for a long time in bed. As long as he closed his eyes, all he could see was Jiang Li smiling at him in the classroom that day. When he thought of him, his whole body became hot, as if he had taken an aphrodisiac. In the end, he could only get up and turn on the lights to play games all night. As soon as dawn came, he rode his bike to the alley in the old town area to wait for Jiang Li. However, he came a little early and waited at the alley for almost an hour before Jiang Li came out. ¡°Then we¡¯ll eat before going to school.¡± Jiang Li implied that it was still early and they wouldn¡¯t be late even if they ate before going. ¡°En.¡± Chi Fang had no objection and stood still. ¡°You go first, I¡¯ll find a place to park my bicycle.¡± Jiang Li nodded, turned, and walked towards the breakfast shop. After Chi Fang watched him leave, he breathed a sigh of relief, took out his mobile phone from his pocket, and turned off the comic¡¯s page on the webpage. Then he found a place to park his bicycle and followed him into the breakfast shop. Jiang Li ordered porridge, dumplings, omelet, and fritters; and the two found a seat and sat down. While eating breakfast, Chi Fang¡¯s eyes couldn¡¯t help falling on Jiang Li¡¯s lips. Looking at his lips opening and closing as he was eating, he was very curious if it was as soft and sweet as in his dream, he then unconsciously pursed his lips. Chi Fang thought he was covering up well, but he didn¡¯t know that his reaction fell into Jiang Li¡¯s eyes completely. It was just that Jiang Li pretended not to know about it. When he woke up, his favorability had exceeded 50%, and adding up to Chi Fang acting abnormally today, Jiang Li guessed that he must have been stimulated by something the previous night. But he didn¡¯t ask, and no matter what the stimulus was, he was going to stimulate Chi Fang even more. After breakfast, Chi Fang took Jiang Li to school. There was a flag-raising ceremony on Monday mornings and when the two arrived at the school, the field was already full of people lining up. Nan Yin was adjusting the queuing order of the students from Senior 2 Class 1 and when she saw the two coming over, she urged them to hurry up. Chi Fang was 1.87 meters tall and could only stand at the back of the team. Jiang Li was 1.75 meters tall so he stood in the middle position. As soon as Chi Fang walked to the back and lined up, Feng Yu ¨C who was two people away from him ¨C waved to him desperately, calling him in a soft voice, ¡°Chi ge!¡± As he yelled he pointed to his own cell phone. Chi Fang understood what he meant, but he simply pretended not to hear and stood up straight. ¡°Chi ge!! WeChat!¡± Feng Yu was still shouting. Nan Yin frowned and walked up to him, reminding him in a low voice, ¡°Feng Yu, please stop talking, okay? You are the only one in the whole team making noise.¡± Feng Yu: ¡°¡­Okay, Nan jie.¡± After the flag-raising ceremony, as soon as he returned to the classroom, Feng Yu grabbed Chi Fang and asked, ¡°Chi ge! I sent you a message this morning and the system notified me that I¡¯m not your friend? What happened?¡± As soon as Chi Fang heard him mention this, he remembered the high-definition and uncensored BL comic the previous night, and his mind couldn¡¯t help but drift to Jiang Li again. When he looked up, he discovered that he was talking to Xu Haowen. Seeing that the two were getting closer, Chi Fang pouted, his eyes a little unhappy. ¡°Chi ge!¡± Feng Yu saw that he was being ignored and pushed him. ¡°Did you hear what I said? Why didn¡¯t you answer my call this morning!¡± Chi Fang finally retracted his gaze and said casually, ¡°I didn¡¯t pay attention.¡± ¡°What happened to your WeChat? Why did you delete me?¡± ¡°It was hacked.¡± ¡°Was it really hacked? I knew it!¡± When Chi Fang asked for a novel on WeChat last night, Feng Yu felt that his WeChat might have been hacked, but the tone of the other party¡¯s words was too much like Chi Fang himself, and he didn¡¯t care because he was in a hurry to play games. Who knew when he woke up this morning and sent a message to Chi Fang, the system actually notified him that Chi Fang had turned on friend verification! He and Chi Fang were really good friends, like brothers. Aside from his WeChat account getting hacked, he absolutely didn¡¯t believe that Chi Fang would delete him from his list. ¡°Then add me back quickly.¡± Feng Yu said, from the morning until now, he has sent several friend requests to Chi Fang. Chi Fang opened WeChat and agreed to Feng Yu¡¯s friend request. When the class was about to start, and he was added back as a friend, Feng Yu was about to go back to his seat; but after he was two steps away, he heard Chi Fang say, ¡°Wait.¡± Feng Yu turned his head. ¡°Hmm?¡± Chi Fang touched his nose, lowered his voice, and said, ¡°Give me some of the books you sent yesterday.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Feng Yu blinked, and couldn¡¯t wrap his head around it. ¡°Ah? Didn¡¯t you say that your account was hacked?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± What a mistake. After a few seconds, Feng Yu finally became clear-headed, cursed a sentence, and rushed back in front of Chi Fang with a ¡°whoosh¡±. ¡°It was really you yesterday, Chi ge? Oh my god! You actually read B ¡­¡± His high-pitched voice attracted the attention of others, and even Jiang Li in the distance was alarmed. He turned his head and looked over. Chi Fang quickly covered his mouth with his hands and said in a low voice, ¡°Shut the hell up!¡± ¡°Wuwuwu!!¡± Although Feng Yu couldn¡¯t say anything, his eyes expressed his shock, and his hands were simply gesturing. Seeing this, Jiang Li thought that something had happened to the two of them and came over from the other side. ¡°What are you guys doing?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Chi Fang let go of his hand as if nothing had happened. As soon as he let go, Feng Yu said to Jiang Li, ¡°Jiang Li, let me tell you, Chi ge is actually a fuda¡­ Ouh!¡± Before the word ¡°fudanshi¡± was said completely, Feng Yu was suddenly stepped on hard by Chi Fang. Chi Fang crushed his feet twice, looked at him with a smile, and reminded him in a gloomy tone, ¡°Idiots always die by talking too much.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°??¡± Feng Yu waved his hands, wanting to cry but had no tears, withdrew his foot from under Chi Fang¡¯s feet, and jumped back to his position on one foot determinedly with a ¡°disability¡±. Once he got back to his seat, he lay on the table and didn¡¯t move. ¡°What did he just say?¡± Jiang Li glanced at Feng Yu and asked Chi Fang strangely. ¡°Nonsense, ignore him.¡± Chi Fang stood up and waited for Jiang Li to sit in the seat inside before pretending to ask casually, ¡°What were you talking about with Xu Haowen just now?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing, we just talked about studying a little.¡± Jiang Li said casually and took out the book that was going to be used in class later from the drawer. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± It¡¯s about studying again. The first two sessions were Zhang Ling¡¯s classes. During the class, Feng Yu kept sending messages to Chi Fang, asking him what really happened. Chi Fang ignored it at first, but then got really annoyed and deleted him again. ¡ª¡ªChi Fang has turned on friend verification. You are not his (her) friend. Please send a friend request first, and you can chat only after the other party has accepted the request. Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± Feng Yu secretly glanced in Chi Fang¡¯s direction. Chi Fang was looking at the blackboard attentively at the moment as if he was listening to the class with full concentration, but in fact, his hand was pointing his middle finger in Feng Yu¡¯s direction. Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± Feng Yu lowered his head and quickly wrote a note, crumpled up while Zhang Ling was writing on the blackboard, aimed at Chi Fang, and threw it towards him. Because he was in a hurry, Feng Yu didn¡¯t control his strength well. The paper ball drew an arc in the air, went past Chi Fang, smashed directly on the head of the classmate behind him, and then bounced to the ground. This scene happened to be seen by Zhang Ling, who turned around. Zhang Ling valued class discipline the most. This scene made her cold and rigid face even more serious. She quickly walked off the podium and picked up the ball of paper that had fallen at the foot of the table. Feng Yu watched her unfold the ball of paper, and remembering what he had written, he covered his face and laid on the table, his heart wanting to die. Zhang Ling opened the paper ball and the corners of her mouth twitched when she saw the content, and she slowly read out, ¡°Chi ge, add me, I don¡¯t only have R18 comics, but also movies/videos for you to watch.¡± As soon as she finished reading, the originally quiet class suddenly burst out laughing. ¡°Silent!¡± Zhang Ling reprimanded him with a cold face, then looked back at Chi Fang and put the note on his desk. ¡°Chi Fang, tell me, what movie/video do you want to watch?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Feng Yu, fuck your mom. A very famous set of exercise books for the Chinese national college entrance exam. the set of books mentioned above. CH 59 In the campus filled with adolescence, which class didn¡¯t circulate a few comic books in private? Whether it was comics, novels, or magazines, there was always a source to get it. So when one heard the word ¡°video¡±, everyone knew exactly what kind of video it was. As soon as Zhang Ling¡¯s words were finished, the others almost laughed again, but they didn¡¯t make a sound as the person involved was Chi Fang. As one said, one was just sitting in the classroom and the blame came dropping from the sky. Chi Fang was almost mad at Feng Yu¡¯s unexpected act. With a darkened expression, as he was just about to push the blame back, he heard Feng Yu confess, ¡°Teacher, I surrender. That note was written by me, and has nothing to do with my Chi ge!¡± As soon as he said this, the originally quiet classroom burst out laughing again, as if they couldn¡¯t bear it any longer. As one laughed, another continued, and the laughter gradually gathered and became louder. ¡°Be quiet!¡± Zhang Ling knocked on the table and looked back at everyone coldly. ¡°Is it funny? Whoever laughs again will stand on the podium and laugh for everyone to see!¡± Zhang Ling had been teaching in No. 2 Middle School for many years. As she wore old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses all year round, her hair was meticulously tied up, and she always had a straight face, there were many students who secretly called her Miejue Abbess behind her back. 1 A character from ¡°The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber¡± who¡¯s ruthless and murderous. Her words seemed to flip a switch and the laughter stopped suddenly. Zhang Ling slowly looked around at everyone and saw that everyone had stopped, and then looked at Feng Yu. ¡°Feng Yu, you said that you wrote this note? It has nothing to do with Chi Fang?¡± ¡°Yes teacher, I am guilty!¡± Feng Yu stood up and tried to make amends, trying to save his brotherhood with Chi Fang, and said emotionally, ¡°I just sent a message to Chi Fang, who would have known that he devoted himself to the class with all his heart in the ocean of knowledge, and ignored me completely, so I wrote a note to throw to him, teacher, you have to believe that this is really my own fault, I am guilty!¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Devote your ass. ¡°Really?¡± Zhang Ling obviously didn¡¯t believe what he said. Before, she was the head teacher of Senior 1 Class 6, and Chi Fang and Feng Yu were students in her class. Naturally, she knew exactly what their behaviors were and Chi Fang devoting himself to the sea of knowledge was simply bullshit. Too lazy to listen to Feng Yu¡¯s nonsense, she pointed her finger at Chi Fang. ¡°Chi Fang, since you are devoted to class, then tell me what I said just now.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± When Chi Fang was in class earlier, all his thoughts were on Jiang Li. He didn¡¯t listen to what Zhang Ling said at all. He just wanted to open his head to see if Feng Yu¡¯s brain was filled with shit that he could think of this lousy reason. Jiang Li sat next to him and wanted to remind him, but Zhang Ling was standing beside Chi Fang, so he was also helpless. In the end, both Chi Fang and Feng Yu were called to stand outside the classroom as punishment. While they were standing as punishment, Feng Yu noticed that Chi Fang¡¯s face was as black as the bottom of a pot. He laughed dryly, lowered his voice, and said, ¡°Chi ge, don¡¯t be angry, I was wrong! In fact, it¡¯s okay to read danmei comics. Sometimes when my sister told me about the plot, I also really wanted to read it.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Lao zi not only wants to watch but also wants to do¡­ Chi Fang scolded himself ¡°beast¡± in his heart and stopped his evil thoughts in time. He tilted his head and glanced in the direction of Jiang Li from the window. He happened to see that Jiang Li was also looking back at him and their eyes met. At the time, Jiang Li winked at him, motioning him to stand properly. Ah, two hearts beat as one. The corner of Chi Fang¡¯s lips hooked up slightly and the irritability in his heart dissipated all of a sudden. He leaned against the wall lazily, feeling that the punishment stand didn¡¯t seem so annoying anymore. Feng Yu noticed the smile at the corner of his lips and inexplicably followed him and glanced towards the classroom. At this moment, he saw Zhang Ling standing in the first row looking at him coldly. ¡°Oh my god.¡± Feng Yu immediately turned back and patted his chest. ¡°I¡¯m going to be scared to death by Abbess.¡± ¡°What a good-for-nothing.¡± Chi Fang glanced at him. ¡°The last time she visited my home, my old man was so angry that he almost kicked me out of the house.¡± Feng Yu said with lingering fears, ¡°Oh yeah, Chi ge, please add my WeChat back first.¡± Feng Yu took out his mobile phone and asked Chi Fang to add his WeChat back. He opened WeChat and received more than a dozen friend requests. The verification information was all ¨C ¡°Feng ge add me, share to everyone if you have good videos¡±. Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± These bastards treat lao zi as a movie seller. Zhang Ling only let them in after the two stood outside the classroom until class was dismissed. As soon as Feng Yu came in, he was surrounded by several boys. ¡°Feng Yu, share with everyone if you have good things. What kind of brother are you if you hide them all?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, Chi ge doesn¡¯t watch it, let us watch it!¡± ¡°My parents are working the night shift today, Feng Yu, bring it here, we will study it together.¡± ¡°Yes yes yes, this is a good way.¡± Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± I¡¯m afraid that you guys will hit me when you see it. As soon as Chi Fang returned to his seat, Jiang Li leaned over and asked in a low voice, ¡°What movie is Feng Yu talking about?¡± The seat was already narrow enough. As soon as he leaned over, the two of them were almost sticking next to each other. Chi Fang was afraid that he would know he had evil thoughts towards him, so he pretended to be impatient and said, ¡°How do I know, it¡¯s not even mine.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you watch it?¡± Jiang Li asked suspiciously, ¡°He said there are even comics like that.¡± ¡°Of course, I didn¡¯t¡­¡± Chi Fang¡¯s words stopped abruptly, remembering the comic full of gayness last night. He coughed lightly and his tone was a little guilty, ¡°There¡¯s nothing to see, I don¡¯t read it.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Jiang Li gave him a deep look, nodded thoughtfully, took out two collections of past papers from his school bag, and put them in front of him. ¡°Then I¡¯ll give you something nice.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Lao zi might as well watch the movie! Zhang Ling returned to the office with the textbook and the female teacher sitting at the desk next to him asked aloud, ¡°Teacher Zhang, what trouble did Chi Fang and Feng Yu in your class make today? I saw them when I went downstairs, they were punished to stand at the door of the classroom.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing, they didn¡¯t listen in class, I just kicked them out.¡± Zhang Ling said, pulling out the chair and sitting down. ¡°These two students, one¡¯s family has power and the other¡¯s is wealthy. Because of their background, they arrive late and leave early every day and their academic performance is poor. In my opinion, they are not good students and it is difficult for Teacher Zhang to guide them away.¡± Another male teacher also said aloud that he had also taught Senior 1 Class 6 and had a very bad impression of the two of them. The family with power he mentioned referred to Chi Fang. His father was an old director of a well-known listed company in B city, and his uncle was the director of the education department of the province; while the rich referred to Feng Yu. The Feng family was the richest in Jiangcheng County and they even donated two teaching buildings to No.2 Middle School. As Zhang Ling listened to his words, her delicate brows wrinkled, and she said indifferently, ¡°Both are my students. No matter how their academic performances are, at least they haven¡¯t done anything outrageous, so Teacher Zhou should pay more attention to your words. ¡± Teacher Zhou was called out by her and smiled embarrassingly, ¡°I just think it¡¯s unfair for you, Teacher Zhang, hehe.¡± Seeing that Zhang Ling didn¡¯t want to talk about it, he could only sit back in his seat without interest and think: What an act. Zhang Ling ignored the other party, opened a textbook, and planned to prepare for the next lesson. The fifth and sixth classes on Monday afternoon were Senior 2 Class 1 and 2¡¯s Physical Education classes. This was the first day of school. The Physical Education teacher wouldn¡¯t make it too hard for everyone. After the attendance was taken, everyone was allowed to move freely. The high temperature in September was still close to 35 degrees Celsius. For girls, rather than PE classes, they preferred enjoying the breeze from fans in the classroom. But it was different for boys, PE class was simply a paradise for freeing themselves. Feng Yu hooked Chi Fang¡¯s shoulder and pulled him to play basketball. Seeing Jiang Li sitting under the tree enjoying the shade, he also waved to him. ¡°Jiang Li, come and play basketball, why are you sitting there?¡± ¡°You guys play.¡± Jiang Li waved his hand. He planned to take advantage of the PE class¡¯ time to sort out today¡¯s notes for Chi Fang. There were many classmates who often played with Chi Fang and his friends. Their impression of Jiang Li was that he had a crush on Xu Haowen in their class, other than he was ranked first in the grade. When they heard Feng Yu calling Jiang Li to play together, they couldn¡¯t help but be curious, ¡°Hey, Feng Yu, when did you and Chi ge become so familiar with Jiang Li? I never heard of it before.¡± ¡°A man¡¯s friendship can be established at any time.¡± Feng Yu touched Chi Fang with his elbow, ¡°Right, Chi ge.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°No.¡± ¡°No what?¡± It¡¯s not friendship, lao zi¡¯s love. Chi Fang rolled his eyes, didn¡¯t bother to care about him, took the basketball in his hand, and threw it in Jiang Li¡¯s direction. ¡°Catch it.¡± Jiang Li raised his hands to catch the basketball steadily and asked loudly, ¡°What are we doing?¡± ¡°Come here and play.¡± Chi Fang hooked his finger at him. Jiang Li glanced at the hot sun and he refused in his heart. It was not that he couldn¡¯t play basketball but he didn¡¯t like playing basketball outdoors, especially at three o¡¯clock when the sun was at its hottest. Seeing Jiang Li sitting motionless on the spot, throwing the ball back to Chi Fang with his backhand, the others spoke up. ¡°Chi ge, he¡¯s embarrassing you ah!¡± ¡°The first in the grade is so arrogant, doesn¡¯t even show respect to Chi ge¡¯s feelings.¡± ¡°He doesn¡¯t know how to play, I believe. I don¡¯t remember seeing him play.¡± ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen it before.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if he doesn¡¯t know how to play, he can learn.¡± ¡°Even Chi ge can¡¯t even invite him, it¡¯s so embarrassing.¡± Everyone was gossipping here and there and Chi Fang really felt embarrassed. After thinking about it, he said, ¡°Come here, I will score 80 points in the monthly English test for you this time.¡± As soon as he finished speaking, everyone looked at him in unison with suspicion in their eyes: Chi ge, you are posing ah, you only scored 42 in the English test last semester. Jiang Li was still sitting on the grass and he made a gesture to Chi Fang: ¡°90.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang bargained, ¡°85!¡± ¡°95.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Chi Xin scolded him a little bastard in his heart, gritted his teeth, and said, ¡°90 it is!¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Jiang Li achieved his goal, got up and walked to Chi Fang, stretched out his pinky, and said, ¡°Let¡¯s make a promise first.¡± ¡°Are you afraid I¡¯ll deceive you?¡± Chi Fang sneered, disdain for his childish behavior, but he obediently reached out his hand and made a pinky promise with him. The fingers of the two were hooked together, Jiang Li was very satisfied and smiled at him with his eyes arched. ¡°Don¡¯t lie.¡± ¡°I know I know, aren¡¯t you annoying.¡± Chi Fang retracted his hand, although his tone was somewhat displeased, the corners of his lips exposed his heart. ¡°Oh yeah, do you know how to play?¡± ¡°A little bit.¡± Jiang Li pulled a little distance from his index finger and thumb. ¡°That¡¯s okay, follow me later, don¡¯t bump around simply.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± The others looked at the interaction between the two and looked at each other blankly, feeling that something was weird but they couldn¡¯t say where it was weird. And because Feng Yu was deeply affected by his sister who was a senior fujoshi, towards this he sighed in his heart: So gay. There were many boys in the class, so Chi Fang and the others formed two teams simply, Chi Fang and Jiang Li and three others were in one group, and Feng Yu and four others in another. Among them, Jiang Li was not the shortest at 1.75 meters, but he was the thinnest. Chi Fang told him to pay attention and not be knocked over later. Jiang Li nodded, indicating that he would pay attention. Feng Yu heard it and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry Jiang Li, xiongdi will go easy on you, it¡¯s all right.¡± The rest of their team also followed, ¡°Yes, yes, we¡¯ll go easy on you!¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Jiang Li showed gratitude, ¡°Thank you guys so much then.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Those who dare to tease lao zi¡¯s person, I will blow up your dog¡¯s head in a while. At the beginning of the game, Chi Fang and Feng Yu did the jump ball. Chi Fang¡¯s jumping power was better than Feng Yu¡¯s, and the orange ball flew towards the person on his side. After several passes, the basketball was passed to Jiang Li. One person stepped forward, wanting to grab the ball. Jiang Li avoided it with a fake move, took two steps back, stepped outside the three-point line, and jumped up to shoot. The orange-red basketball drew a graceful arc and entered the net without touching the rim. Jiang Li moved his wrist and smiled at the bewildered crowd in front of him with a sincere tone, ¡°Thank you for going easy on me.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± What the fuck, my face hurts!!! T/N: Updates will be inconsistent for March as I may be travelling to Japan for further studies. Thanks for always reading! A character from ¡°The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber¡± who¡¯s ruthless and murderous. CH 60 in Happy to translate! Hope you guys enjoy my translation! Support me by donating to my kofi!13-16 minutes 07.03.2022 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume It was also the first time Chi Fang watched Jiang Li play basketball. Although they were together every day during summer vacation, other than going to work, Jiang Li gave him extra lessons, so they never played together. Jiang Li¡¯s shooting posture was not only standard but also very beautiful. At first glance, he was not a novice. This three-pointer nothing-but-net was definitely not a fluke. From studying to games to basketball, Jiang Li seemed to be at his fingertips. He was like a treasure, the longer he got along with him, the more he could discover the shining points in him. Looking at the person not far away, a desire that he had never had before emerged from the depth of Chi Fang¡¯s heart. He wanted to own this person and make him his own. At this moment, no one noticed that there was an imperceptible emotion in the teenager¡¯s eyes. At the same time, Jiang Li heard System¡¯s reminder: ¡°Congratulations to Host, the male lead¡¯s favorability has increased by 5%, and the current favorability is 63%.¡± Jiang Li looked back and saw Chi Fang staring at him closely, so he raised his hand and waved at him. After the game, with the cooperation of Jiang Li and Chi Fang, Feng Yu and his team lost horribly. Feng Yu sat on the grass panting, looking at Jiang Li who was high-fiving with Chi Fang in front of him. ¡°I said xiongdi, don¡¯t you have a misunderstanding on the phrase ¡®a little bit¡¯!¡± ¡°It¡¯s really just a little bit.¡± Jiang Li spread out his hands and said innocently, ¡°I just relied on you guys going easy on me.¡± ¡°Fuck, your ¡®a little bit¡¯ was separated by the Pacific Ocean, right?¡± Feng Yu, remembering that he was tricked by him the last time he played a game, picked up the basketball beside him and threw it at him. ¡°You¡¯ll get struck by lightning if you keep being pretentious!¡± Before the basketball touched Jiang Li, it was intercepted by Chi Fang who was next to him and he threw it back to Feng Yu. ¡°Loser, I¡¯ll strike you down first.¡± Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± Feng Yu looked at the two of them, and silently experienced the sadness of ¡°getting abandoned by a heartless man¡±. At the end of the game, everyone sat around to rest and chat. A small flattop boy sitting next to Feng Yu asked Jiang Li, ¡°Jiang Li, you play so well, why haven¡¯t I seen you play before?¡± The flattop guy¡¯s name was Sun Jianping and he was in the same class as Jiang Li when he was in Senior 1. ¡°I didn¡¯t have the chance before, I just played by myself.¡± Jiang Li glanced at the other party lightly. His words reminded everyone that Jiang Li was not welcome during Senior 1. At that time, Jiang Li was a loner and other people in the class were reluctant to have any contact with him, let alone playing basketball with him. Sun Jianping and others had laughed at Jiang Li before. Hearing that, his face was a little embarrassed, but he still sincerely apologized to Jiang Li. After him, two more boys apologized for their behaviour of following others. Jiang Li smiled and accepted the apology on behalf of the original host. ¡°By the way, Jiang Li, have you heard? Chen Jialin has applied to drop out.¡± Sun Jianping suddenly asked. ¡°Drop out?¡± ¡°Yes, I heard that someone saw him come out of the toilet dirty yesterday and he applied to drop out early this morning.¡± Sun Jianping said, ¡°He didn¡¯t even come to school, it was his parents who came to find the teacher.¡± Unlike Sun Jianping and the others who just made fun of the original host verbally; in the first year of high school, Chen Jialin often came to the original host for trouble when he had nothing to do. His duty was done by the original host. After being divided into classes during Senior 2, Sun Jianping¡¯s good friends were in the same class as Chen Jialin and he learned about Chen Jialin¡¯s dropout from his friends. Back then, Chen Jialin found someone to block him halfway, Jiang Li had also planned to find a time to get it back from the other party. Unexpectedly, the other party dropped out on the first day of school. The reason why Chen Jialin was able to go to the No. 2 middle school was that his parents had made a lot of connections to send him in. It was impossible for him to drop out of school unless there was a compelling reason. Jiang Li thought for a while and asked, ¡°When did you say that he was seen coming out of the toilet yesterday?¡± ¡°Um, in the afternoon.¡± Hearing this, Jiang Li thought of the time when Chi Fang left yesterday. He looked up and took a glance at him, and found that he was playing Tetris with his mobile phone with his head down, as if the topic they were talking about had nothing to do with him. Jiang Li withdrew his gaze as if he had understood something, lowered his head, and smiled. After the evening self-study, Jiang Li said that he was going to Chi Fang¡¯s house to see Jiang Nuomi and asked him if it was convenient to give him a ride. It was exactly what Chi Fang wanted, he then rode him out of the campus on his bicycle. Their bicycle passed by Feng Yu like a gust of wind and disappeared in front of him in the blink of an eye. Feng Yu looked in the direction in which the two disappeared and remembered a lyric in his mind: Love is like a gust of wind, and it will go away after it blows. 1 Lyrics from Tornado, a song by Jay Chou. Chi Fang was riding at a very fast speed, and the night wind blew up the hem of his clothes and across Jiang Li¡¯s face. Jiang Li sat on the back of the bicycle, stretched out his hand to grab the hem of his clothes that were flying and held it in his palm. When Chi Fang rode his bike past the gate of the South Slope police station, he unconsciously slowed down a bit, remembering the scene where he met Jiang Li back then. At that time, he believed in Feng Yu and felt that Jiang Li was trying to set him up, deliberately looking for a chance to meet him. Later, when Jiang Li accidentally bumped into him on the bus, he thought he was finding fault with him. Now that he thought about it, it was more like he was the one finding fault. Thinking of this, he couldn¡¯t help laughing softly and speeding up again. Jiang Li heard his laughter and asked aloud, ¡°What are you laughing at?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± The corners of Chi Fang¡¯s lips were raised high and the youthful voice carried the energy and publicity unique to adolescence, ¡°I¡¯m just happy.¡± Jiang Li squeezed the hem of his clothes tightly, looked up at his hair that was blown by the wind, his eyes filled with gentleness. He slowly put his forehead on his back, and said in a soft voice, ¡°Me too.¡± ¡°What did you say?¡± His voice was too soft for Chi Fang to hear clearly. ¡°Nothing.¡± I just thought it¡¯s great to be able to see you again. After they returned to the downstairs of the community, Chi Fang parked his bicycle in the small room under the stairs, locked it, and went upstairs with Jiang Li. As soon as the two entered the room, Jiang Nuomi, who was squatting on the shoe rack, jumped down and circled around Jiang Li. After two circles, Chi Fang bent down and picked it up. ¡°Meow!!¡± Jiang Nuomi struggled to get out of his embrace. Chi Fang was indifferent to its resistance and carried it directly into the living room. Jiang Li followed behind them and saw him place Jiang Nuomi on the sofa to ravage him; irritating Jiang Nuomi so much that it kept calling out, wanting to use its four paws to scratch him. Jiang Li stepped forward to rescue Jiang Nuomi from his hands, and scolded, ¡°Enough, he¡¯s going to turn against you if you continue messing with him.¡± ¡°What an ungrateful brat, turn against me then.¡± Chi Fang tsked. The old man hadn¡¯t gone to play chess this day. He heard the voices of the two and came out of the room. ¡°You guys are back? I¡¯ve left some food for you guys in the kitchen. I¡¯ll go and warm it up.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± Jiang Li put down his school bag and followed him to the kitchen. The old man didn¡¯t have the habit of eating supper. While Jiang Li and Chi Fang were eating, he sat on the side and chatted with the two of them for a while and planned to go back to sleep. Before going back, he suggested that Jiang Li should stay there overnight and not travel back and forth. After all, he still needed to get up early for class the next morning. ¡°Xiao Fang¡¯s bed is big enough for you two to sleep in one bed,¡± the old man said. ¡°Pfft!¡± Chi Fang almost spat out a mouthful of soup. He covered his mouth and coughed a few times before he could take a few more breaths and looked up at Jiang Li. ¡°You¡­ sleep with me?¡± ¡°Is it inconvenient?¡± Jiang Li saw that it seemed to be causing him to have a hard time, and said understandingly, ¡°Then I¡¯d better go back.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that it¡¯s inconvenient¡­¡± Chi Fang¡¯s eyes wandered a little, thinking that he was just not ready to suddenly share the same bed with him. Hearing what he said, Jiang Li felt relieved and didn¡¯t refuse. ¡°Then I¡¯ll trouble you.¡± ¡°Lord, you promised too quickly¡­¡± Jiang Li smiled. ¡°I¡¯m here for this.¡± After eating, Chi Fang went back to the room to get his clothes and went to take a shower. For some reason, he had a feeling that he was going to do something bad, feeling a little nervous and a little excited. After he came out of the bath, it was Jiang Li¡¯s turn to take a shower. Jiang Li had never stayed at Chi Fang¡¯s house before. Although there were new toiletries, there were no new pajamas at his house, he could only wear Chi Fang¡¯s. Chi Fang was twelve centimeters taller than him, wearing the large and loose pajamas, even the legs of his trousers were rolled up. After preparing new bed sheets and pillows for Jiang Li, Chi Fang looked at the two pillows side by side on the bed. Some inappropriate images he had seen the previous night slowly emerged, making his ears warm again. Sleeping together with Jiang Li¡­sleep together¡­sleep¡­ Chi Fang shook his head violently, shaking away the enchanting pictures in his mind. He lifted the sheets and lay in first, picking up his mobile phone and playing games to divert his attention. ¡°Knock knock¡­¡± There was a knock on the door outside, Chi Fang looked up and saw Jiang Li walking in. Seeing that Jiang Li was wearing his pajamas, Chi Fang¡¯s gaze paused slightly, and there was a strange feeling in his heart so that he didn¡¯t even continue playing games. Jiang Li walked to the front of him, slightly lifted the hem of his pajamas with one hand, and pulled the waist of his trousers with the other, a little distressed. ¡°Chi Fang, your pajamas are a bit large.¡± A small part of his fair waist was revealed after he lifted up the pajamas and the waistline on both sides was slightly concave, showing a very beautiful arc. Chi Fang¡¯s gaze involuntarily stuck to his slender waist, unable to move his eyes away. So thin, so white, I feel like I can hold it with one hand. Chi Fang thought in a trance and wanted to know how it felt to touch it. ¡°Chi Fang?¡± Jiang Li reached out and shook his hand in front of him. ¡°Why are you in a daze?¡± Chi Fang suddenly came back to his senses and found that he had been looking at Jiang Li¡¯s waist earlier, and his hand was even stretched out halfway. He quickly looked away, turned his palm, and touched his nose, retorting, ¡°It¡¯s not that my pants are too big, it¡¯s just that you¡¯re too thin.¡± ¡°Okay then.¡± Jiang Li thought it made sense, put the hem of the clothes down, and saw that there were more pillows than usual in the bed. ¡°Am I sleeping inside?¡± ¡°En.¡± Chi Fang retracted his straight legs and gave him a place. ¡°Come up.¡± Jiang Li got on the bed and lay down in the inner position. There was about a person¡¯s distance between the two. As soon as he lay down, he said, ¡°It¡¯s time to sleep, it¡¯s almost twelve o¡¯clock.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Chi Fang quit the game, turned off the light, and lay down. The curtains in the room were drawn tightly and there was not a trace of light, and the two lay side by side. In the darkness, Chi Fang heard Jiang Li¡¯s breathing as if it was right in his ears. The feeling of lying on the same bed with the person he liked made him a little excited and somewhat at ease. Even though the bed was huge, he felt like he would touch Jiang Li as soon as he moved, so he could only lie stiffly upright, silently repeating ¡°Calm down a little¡± in his heart. After a long time, he felt that the person beside him had fallen asleep. He reached out and gently opened the curtains by a gap. The moonlight outside shone in through the gap in the curtains, slowly illuminating the originally dark space. Chi Fang turned his face, and his sight landed on Jiang Li¡¯s face. Jiang Li was already asleep, his mouth opened slightly, his chest heaving slightly. Chi Fang looked at him, his eyes were full of tenderness that he hadn¡¯t even noticed. He watched for a while before he closed the curtains, silently said good night, and closed his eyes to sleep. Chi Fang thought he would not be able to sleep, but unexpectedly, he had a good night¡¯s sleep. The next day, when he woke up, he felt that someone was pressing him, which he was a little unaccustomed to. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Jiang Li, who was sleeping on the other side at night, was hugging him on his waist and lying on his chest, while Chi Fang was holding his shoulder with one hand from who knew since when. Did something happen last night? Just when Chi Fang was confused, Jiang Li also woke up. He rubbed his head against his chest habitually, touched his fingers, and said in a daze, ¡°Why is your chest so hard?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Don¡¯t fucking rub it anymore, if you continue rubbing, there¡¯s something even harder than this. Lyrics from Tornado, a song by Jay Chou. CH 61 Chi Fang was hugged by Jiang Li on the waist and felt tormented physically and mentally. Rationality told him to push away, but his arm was still on Jiang Li¡¯s shoulder. Jiang Li didn¡¯t seem to feel his struggle. After rubbing with his head, his feet between Chi Fang¡¯s legs also moved twice. A man¡¯s willpower was the weakest when one had just woken up in the early morning. Chi Fang was rubbed by him and a burst of heat rushed down, and a certain part lifted up uncontrollably. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Fuck, I told you not to rub! Both of their bodies were close to each other, and Jiang Li also felt his reaction. The movement on his leg stopped. He looked up at him and asked sleepily, ¡°Chi Fang, you seem to have¡­ something moved?¡± When he said this, there was still a dazed look on his face like he had just woken up as if he didn¡¯t know what was going on. But the more this happened, the more unbearable Chi Fang felt. Chi Fang cursed softly in his heart, put both hands on Jiang Li¡¯s shoulders, turned him over, and pressed him under him. Chi Fang imprisoned Jiang Li with both hands and legs and the two bodies were closely pressed together, only separated by thin pajamas; so the intimate and ambiguous posture made his voice sound obviously suppressed, ¡°What moved? Hmm?¡± ¡°How do I know about you?¡± Jiang Li felt uncomfortable being pressed by him, he moved his hands and wanted to break free, ¡°It¡¯s time to get up, don¡¯t press against me.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the matter with pressing against you? Didn¡¯t you have a lot of fun pressing against me just now?¡± Chi Fang not only didn¡¯t let go but pressed even tighter, his eyes inadvertently falling on Jiang Li¡¯s collarbone. Jiang Li was wearing his pajamas, which were two sizes too large. The buttons on the neckline were opened at some point, revealing a small part of his fair skin which was dazzlingly white when matched with the dark pajamas. Chi Fang¡¯s gaze was fixed on his neck and suddenly his throat felt a little dry. He wanted to lower his head and lick it. Thinking like this, he lowered his head as if he was possessed, his hot lips gently pressed against the skin under Jiang Li¡¯s collarbone. The smooth skin gave him an excellent touch and he couldn¡¯t help opening his mouth and biting it. The adolescent boy was full of vigor and he didn¡¯t know how to control his force. The bite made a mark. Jiang Li made a ¡°hiss¡± in pain. Only then Chi Fang realize what he had done. He let go of Jiang Li as if he experienced an electric shock and quickly got off the bed. He left the sentence ¡°I¡¯m going to wash my face¡± and ran out of the room. Jiang Li kept the position where he was on the bed earlier, looking at the ceiling; and after a while he couldn¡¯t help but turn over, lay on a pillow, and give a muffled laugh. Aiya, compared to President Jiang, who was indulging in lust and damaging his health, Chi Fang, the kid was really a little angel. Chi Fang said that he was going to wash his face, but he actually went to take a battle bath, using cold water to suppress all the heat in his body. Once he came out of the toilet, the perpetrator had already changed his clothes and was opening a can of fish for Jiang Nuomi. Usually, when Chi Fang went to school, the old man would get up early to make breakfast for him. Jiang Li stayed at their house the previous night. So, naturally, it was not the old man¡¯s turn to make breakfast. Jiang Li cooked noodles and served the old man first. The old man took it and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re really obedient, really good, if only Xiao Fang was like you.¡± Chi Fang who was beside him shrugged. After breakfast, Chi Fang and Jiang Li went to school. In the morning, Zhang Ling brought everyone a piece of news. The leaders of the provincial education department would come to the school the next week for supervision. The school required students in each class to pay attention to their appearance and manners. During the supervision period, there should be no late arrivals and early departures, fights, troubles, and every other problem. Once violated, the student would be strictly punished according to school rules. ¡°Especially the two of you, Chi Fang and Feng Yu.¡± Zhang Ling emphasized the two key members of the class, and said in a serious tone, ¡°From today onwards, you must restrain your own behavior and you can¡¯t be late and leave early. Do you understand?¡± Chi Fang raised his hand and said, ¡°Teacher, it¡¯s not fair for you to say that. I¡¯ve never been late this semester.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only been one day this semester. If you have the ability, only come to protest if you aren¡¯t late for a week.¡± Zhang Ling glanced at him and then looked at Feng Yu, ¡°Did you hear that? Feng Yu.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Feng Yu replied loudly, ¡°I will defend the image of No. 2 Middle School to death.¡± ¡°Nonsense.¡± Zhang Ling snorted, but said nothing afterward, opened the book, and started the class. After the class, everyone gathered around Chi Fang¡¯s table and discussed the leaders coming for supervision. ¡°The leader of the provincial department, could it be Chi ge¡®s uncle?¡± ¡°No way? We are a small county town, so it¡¯s not worth the director to come down and check in person!¡± ¡°I know, right, it¡¯s probably just a department leader.¡± ¡°Chi ge, is it your relative?¡± ¡°How do I know?¡± Chi Fang leaned back on the chair as if he had soft bones, playing with the lighter lazily. He really hadn¡¯t received the news. Feng Yu took the mirror borrowed from Jiang Xingyu and looked at it repeatedly, and reached out to smooth his bangs. ¡°It seems that I have to get a haircut on the weekend; Chi ge, Jiang Li, are you guys going?¡± Chi Fang snorted, and he didn¡¯t say he was going or not, but based on Feng Yu¡¯s understanding of him, this meant that he had no objection. ¡°I won¡¯t go, I want to go see a second-hand computer.¡± Jiang Li said. It was inconvenient to not have a computer. He couldn¡¯t afford a new one, for the time being, so he planned to buy a second-hand one first. ¡°Then Chi ge, let¡¯s go together.¡± Feng Yu said, ¡°I heard that brat, Er Tong, say that a new hair salon opened on the pedestrian street, and Mr. Tony¡¯s skills are good!¡± 1 Tony is a widely used word that is used to describe hairstylists since most of them have the name ¡®Tony¡¯. ¡°Not going.¡± Chi Fang lacked interest. Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± What a fickle man, he didn¡¯t want to go once he heard Jiang Li say he wasn¡¯t going. Feng Yu, who was hurt by 10,000 damage, went to the brothers in the last row of the classroom for comfort. As soon as he left, Chi Fang turned around and asked Jiang Li, ¡°You wanna buy a computer?¡± ¡°En.¡± Jiang Li nodded, ¡°Are you free this weekend? Go and check it out with me.¡± Chi Fang pondered for a while. ¡°Most of the hardware of second-hand computers is faulty. They are not durable. You can just buy parts online and I will assemble it for you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know much about computer hardware and performance, how about you help me choose?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Chi Fang supported his face with one hand and spun his pen with the other, a wicked smile hooking up at the corner of his lips. ¡°Say it first, what¡¯s my benefit?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll treat you to a meal?¡± Jiang Li suggested, seeing Chi Fang¡¯s displeased expression, he then said, ¡°Then what benefits do you want?¡± ¡°I want¡­¡­¡± Chi Fang¡¯s words ran around his mouth and were swallowed back. He stretched out his hand and flicked Jiang Li¡¯s forehead. ¡°Owe it first, you can¡¯t pay me what I want now.¡± Jiang Li touched the place where he had flicked, and whispered, ¡°That¡¯s not necessarily true.¡± His voice was too soft for Chi Fang to hear clearly. ¡°What did you say?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Jiang Li said with a smile, ¡°I had written it down. Anyway, I owe you enough, and it doesn¡¯t matter much with one more.¡± When Chi Fang heard the words, he snorted, took out his mobile phone, and surfed some electronic device websites to help him choose computer parts. Jiang Li also went over to look at his mobile phone screen and the two chatted while choosing. The interaction between the two fell in the eyes of Nan Yin not far away. She didn¡¯t know when Chi Fang and Jiang Li had become so close. Obviously, at the end of last semester, Chi Fang said that he didn¡¯t know Jiang Li. However, they now looked like they were as close as old friends for many years. The tablemate next to her saw that she didn¡¯t respond after calling her twice, so she followed her line of sight and saw Chi Fang lying on Jiang Li¡¯s table. The two were chatting, with obvious smiles on their faces. ¡°Ah Yin, when did Chi Fang and Jiang Li get such a good relationship?¡± The tablemate patted Nanyin on the shoulder and asked rather strangely. ¡°How do I know?¡± Nan Yin retracted her gaze and opened the exercise book on the table but couldn¡¯t read a word. ¡°Didn¡¯t I say before that Jiang Li likes Xu Haowen?¡± The tablemate lowered her voice and asked, ¡°Why doesn¡¯t it feel like it, but it looks like he had something to do with Chi Fang? I even saw them going back together after class last night. Could it be that he had changed his target?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk nonsense, they are just friends.¡± Nan Yin lowered her voice, a little displeased at her mentioning Chi Fang and Jiang Li together. ¡°I¡¯m just talking about it casually.¡± Seeing that she was a little unhappy, her tablemate smiled with embarrassment and changed the subject. Nan Yin listened absent-mindedly, her mind all on Chi Fang and Jiang Li. When Jiang Li returned the lighter to Chi Fang, Feng Yu¡¯s words rang in her ears, and a sense of crisis gradually rose in her heart. After hesitating for a while, she took out her mobile phone and sent a WeChat message to Chi Fang. Chi Fang was discussing with Jiang Li what color of the mainframe computer case he wanted, and when he saw a message popping up on WeChat, he clicked it. ¡ª¡ªNan Yin: Ah Fang, I¡¯m celebrating my birthday this weekend. I want to invite everyone to karaoke, are you coming? Jiang Li was close to him, and naturally, he also saw Nan Yin¡¯s message. He subconsciously raised his head and glanced in Nan Yin¡¯s direction, and the other party happened to look over. The gazes of the two collided and Jiang Li saw the stubbornness and indifference in the girl¡¯s eyes. Jiang Li smiled at her and took the initiative to withdraw his gaze. Nan Yin liked Chi Fang, he had heard Feng Yu say this long ago, but Chi Fang didn¡¯t have the same idea, so he didn¡¯t take it to heart. Chi Fang responded with a message casually, saying that he had an appointment with Jiang Li so he wouldn¡¯t be going. He then returned to the Taobao page. 2 Taobao: a very famous online shopping app in China. ¡­ Seeing Chi Fang¡¯s reply, Nan Yin bit her lower lip lightly, suppressing the disappointment in her heart. She stuffed her phone into her bag and dismissed the idea of celebrating her birthday. She said that she wanted to invite everyone to a party just because she wasn¡¯t able to invite Chi Fang alone. Since he wouldn¡¯t come to the gathering, there would be no meaning for her to celebrate her birthday. ¡­ On the weekend, all of the computer parts Jiang Li bought had arrived. He then called Chi Fang to ask him to come and help with the assembly. Chi Fang had liked to fiddle with these electronic products since he was a child. He had assembled computers by himself before, and he soon finished helping Jiang Li to assemble them. The only thing he had to do was to ask people from the information company to come over and install the network cable. Jiang Li was picking up the cardboard off the floor and Chi Fang had nothing to do, so he walked around the living room and finally went into Jiang Li¡¯s room. Jiang Li had been to Chi Fang¡¯s house so many times, but it was the first time that Chi Fang had come to Jiang Li¡¯s house. He found that Jiang Li¡¯s room was really small, at most half the size of his room; only a bed, table, and chair were enough to fill the room. Because the houses in the old city area were close to each other, the lighting in the rooms was very poor. Chi Fang frowned and looked out of the window and found that the distance between the two buildings was only a little more than one meter wide. If not for the windows being equipped with anti-theft nets, people from another building could easily climb over. Chi Fang withdrew his gaze from the window and it landed on the desk by the window. The old rectangular table was connected to a three-tiered bookcase which was filled with textbooks from junior high school through high school. There were also many exercise books piled up on the tabletop, and there was a small table lamp on the left corner of the table. Chi Fang imagined the appearance of Jiang Li writing his homework here usually, and picked up an exercise book at hand and flipped it open. It was a math workbook for Senior 1, and it was full of written notes. Chi Fang found that Jiang Li¡¯s penmanship in Senior 1 was a bit different from the current. The penmanship in the first year of high school was neat and formal, but now it had a feeling of flying and dancing, just like the change in his personality. Chi Fang turned the pages with interest. There were not many pages in the booklet and he finished turning it quickly. When he turned to the last page, the sketched portrait on the blank title page suddenly appeared in front of him. It was a sketch of Xu Haowen. The emotion of the boy¡¯s appearance was drawn very carefully. It could be seen that the artist had put a huge effort and the date was signed in the lower right corner. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± You said that you have only studies in your heart, Jiang Li, keep lying! Tony is a widely used word that is used to describe hairstylists since most of them have the name ¡®Tony¡¯. Taobao: a very famous online shopping app in China. CH 62 Chi Fang still remembered that Feng Yu asked Jiang Li if it was true that he liked Xu Haowen. At the time, Jiang Li just said that he only favored and admired Xu Haowen and wanted to be like Xu Haowen. He also remembered that Jiang Li told him before that he only had studies in his heart and would not fall in love with him. He really had no doubt about what Jiang Li said and felt that there was no need for him to lie to him. As he said, if he didn¡¯t like Xu Haowen, that was the best thing. As for now, it didn¡¯t matter if he only had studies in his heart. He would keep him under his wing, for now, protecting him and preventing others from harming him like before, and he could take things slow for the rest. Nevertheless, he would always make his own place in his heart. Chi Fang planned well but he didn¡¯t expect to see such a portrait today. The Xu Haowen on the portrait was drawn really meticulously, even a strand of hair seemed to be carefully depicted and his expression was even more vivid as if the real person was appearing on the paper. Even he, a bystander, could feel how much thought the artist had put into this drawing. Just by looking at the painting, he could think of Jiang Li¡¯s cautious and happy look when he was lying in front of the table carefully drawing it. Thinking of this, an uncontrollable feeling of jealousy and anger suddenly emerged from the bottom of his heart. Chi Fang¡¯s hand holding the exercise book slowly tightened and the white paper wrinkled in his hand. If there was a paper shredder here, he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to stuff the entire booklet in it. ¡°Chi Fang.¡± At this time, Jiang Li walked in from outside. ¡°What are you doing? Shall we go out to eat at noon?¡± His voice made Chi Fang¡¯s hand loosen and he looked up at Jiang Li. There wasn¡¯t enough light in the room and half of Chi Fang¡¯s face was hidden in the shadow cast by the curtains. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t see his expression clearly, but he could feel that his whole aura was a little different from earlier. After he walked closer, he could see that his expression was not very good and there was still a bit of gloom in his eyes. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Jiang Li asked inexplicably, he was clearly fine just now. ¡°Did something happen?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a good drawing.¡± Chi Fang threw the exercise book in his hand to him and said in a weird tone, ¡°Only have studies in your heart your ass, it¡¯s that you only have people who study well in your heart, right?¡± Jiang Li grabbed the exercise book and looked down. ¡°What is¡­¡± The word ¡®this¡¯ stuck in his throat. Jiang Li saw Xu Haowen¡¯s sketches and immediately understood the reason why Chi Fang was suddenly abnormal. He was actually jealous. In the last world, Jiang Zhan was furious because of Zhang Ziyang¡­ but in this world, Chi Fang was very jealous because of Xu Haowen. At the end of the day, no matter how the two of them change on the outside, they were always the same person on the inside. Chi Fang¡¯s temper was no better than Jiang Zhan¡¯s. It was just an ordinary sketch yet he made it look like he caught them in bed, which was hilarious. Jiang Li really couldn¡¯t control it and accidentally laughed out loud. Even System whispered in his mind, ¡°Lord Host, Mr. Chi being jealous is exactly the same as Mr. Jiang.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± Jiang Li replied in his heart. Hearing Jiang Li¡¯s laughter, Chi Fang noticed that he seemed to be in a good mood and his expression became even worse. ¡°What the fuck are you laughing for?¡± ¡°I¡¯m laughing at you.¡± Jiang Li put the exercise book aside with a smile in his tone, ¡°It¡¯s stuff from a long time ago, why do you care about it?¡± If it weren¡¯t for the date written on the sketch, Jiang Li would have never noticed when the original host drew it. The original host was very hygienic. Although the room was small, everything was neatly organized. The books on the bookshelf were arranged one by one according to the grade level and the finished and unfinished workbooks were also separated. Jiang Li had never opened the finished booklets, so naturally, he didn¡¯t find the sketches. He even planned to put them away, but Chi Fang discovered them first. ¡°November 25, 2029, isn¡¯t the date written on it?¡± Chi Fang reminded him and he snorted coldly, ¡°It took a lot of work to draw it so carefully, right? Why don¡¯t you send it out, need me to help you?¡± ¡°Why do your words sound so sour?¡± Jiang Li wrinkled his nose, circled around him, and got closer to him for a sniff , ¡°What a strong vinegar smell, did you spill vinegar jars from 1982?¡± The sarcasm in his words made Chi Fang feel stuck in his heart. ¡°What nonsense are you talking about?¡± ¡°Did I say it wrong?¡± Jiang Li pretended to be surprised, took the exercise book, and shook it in front of him, ¡°Aren¡¯t you jealous because of this? ¡± Chi Fang was hit on the nail, coupled with the displeasure of being deceived by Jiang Li earlier, he couldn¡¯t help but feel embarrassed at this time. He just felt that the booklet in front of him was extremely annoying and he waved it away without thinking about it. ¡°Who the fuck is jealous? Don¡¯t misunderstand, okay? I¡¯m the most annoyed by gays, I don¡¯t care whoever you love, as long as you don¡¯t fall in love with me.¡± His movement was a bit big and the exercise book was swept to the ground. Jiang Li didn¡¯t seem to expect that he would react so strongly. His hands were frozen in the air, his expression was blank for a moment. He opened his eyes slightly and stared at Chi Fang in a daze, his lips moved. ¡°Most annoyed by¡­ gays?¡± ¡°¡­¡± As soon as Chi Fang finished speaking, he regretted it. What bullshit was the most annoyed by gays, he himself had been bent into a paper clip, how could he be qualified to talk about others? Especially seeing Jiang Li¡¯s expression that he was obviously harmed by his own words, he felt even more regretful and opened his mouth to explain, ¡°I¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry then.¡± Jiang Li suddenly said, interrupting his words. Except for the time when they first met, after Jiang Li apologized to him several times, the two of them had a good time these days, and Chi Fang never heard him say these three words again. Suddenly hearing it now, he couldn¡¯t help but be taken aback. ¡°What are you apologizing for?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know that I annoyed you so much. I still go to your house every day these days. You probably couldn¡¯t stand it long before.¡± Jiang Li said softly, he lowered his head slightly and hid his expression in a place where Chi Fang couldn¡¯t see. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it that way, don¡¯t simply ¡­¡± ¡°I know what you mean, you don¡¯t have to force yourself to explain.¡± Jiang Li interrupted him, stepped aside, and said to Chi Fang in a gesture of seeing off guests, ¡°I¡¯ll trouble you today. I still have matters later, I won¡¯t keep you here then.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang came from a wealthy family and was an only child. Since he was a child, it could be said that he could get anything he wanted and he was also the core member as his friends circled around him and listened to what he said. There was no one like Jiang Li. He just said the wrong thing and Jiang Li didn¡¯t even give him a chance to explain and drove him away? At the moment, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little angry and left Jiang Li¡¯s house without saying a word. After Chi Fang left, Jiang Li bent down to pick up the booklet, patted the dust on the cover, and put it back in place. This was the original host¡¯s item, no matter how much Chi Fang felt displeased towards it, neither Chi Fang nor himself were qualified to deal with it. ¡°Lord Host, is it really okay to let him go like this?¡± System asked aloud. ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡± Jiang Li asked back. ¡°Favorability¡­¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t drop.¡± Jiang Li smiled with undisguised certainty in his tone, ¡°We have to stimulate him more.¡± System: ¡°Stimulate??¡± Jiang Li smiled without saying a word. On the other side, Chi Fang went to the Internet cafe with anger, played games in the Internet cafe for two hours, and returned home when it was almost time for the make-up lesson agreed with Jiang Li. On the way back, Chi Fang thought, after Jiang Li came over later, if he was willing to give in to him, he would forgive him; pretending that nothing happened and continuing to spend them together as they should. Who knew that as soon as he got home, the old man said that Jiang Li called and said that he would be a little busy from now on, so he would not come to make up lessons for Chi Fang for the time being. Chi Fang didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Li didn¡¯t come and didn¡¯t even give him a call and his whole face darkened. ¡°He said that he¡¯s not coming?¡± ¡°Yeah, has this child gone to work again?¡± The old man said worriedly, ¡°He needs to go to class and work, I don¡¯t know if he can take it or not.¡± Chi Fang hadn¡¯t heard from Jiang Li about part-time work before and sneered when he heard the words. ¡°Part-time work? He¡¯s busy drawing, I guess.¡± The old man: ¡°What are you murmuring about?¡± ¡°Nothing, I¡¯m going back to my room to sleep.¡± Chi Fang said and went back to his room, ignoring Jiang Nuomi, who rarely followed him up, and closed the door with a ¡°bang¡±. Jiang Nuomi ¡°¡­¡± Is he crazy? For the two days on the weekend, Jiang Li did not come to make up lessons for Chi Fang, nor did he even come to see Jiang Nuomi. Chi Fang, who was used to being with him every day, suddenly felt that something was strange. He tried to study by himself during the usual make-up lesson time, but he couldn¡¯t read the book and felt that he was not in the mood when the person was not beside him. No one urged him to memorize the words. He felt dizzy after two minutes of memorization. Finally, he pushed the book away and turned on the computer to play games. However, the games that used to be very attractive seemed to be boring at this time. It was clear that he had not dated Jiang Li, but Chi Fang felt as if he had broken up with Jiang Li, and he was even the one who was broken up with, which made him feel uncomfortable. After finally making it to Monday, Chi Fang rode his bicycle to school; thinking that two days later, Jiang Li should have cooled down. If he was still angry, he would just coax him then. With this thought in mind, Chi Fang trotted all the way to the classroom. When he saw the person lying on the table at the door, he was overjoyed and walked over lightly, only to find that the person lying there was not Jiang Li. ¡°Hey.¡± Chi Fang knocked on the table and called the person lying on Jiang Li¡¯s seat, ¡°Wake up.¡± The other party scratched the back of his head and raised his head half asleep. After seeing Chi Fang¡¯s tensed face, he suddenly woke up and quickly got up from the chair. ¡°Chi, Chi ge, good morning!¡± ¡°Why are you sitting here?¡± Chi Fang frowned, his tone a little aggressive, ¡°Where¡¯s Jiang Li?¡± ¡°The teacher asked me to sit here.¡± The other party was afraid that he would be mad, so he quickly explained, ¡°Jiang Li has changed his seat after asking the teacher and he¡¯s sitting there now.¡± Saying that he stretched out his hand and pointed in the other direction. Chi Fang followed his hand and saw Jiang Li sitting in front of Xu Haowen. He turned his head and said something to Xu Haowen, with a light smile on his face. Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Changing seats once we¡¯re not on good terms, how ruthless. CH 63 Chi Fang stared in Jiang Li¡¯s direction. His clenched fist made a rattling sound, the new tablemate shrank his neck in fright and hurriedly picked up the book he placed on the table. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Chi ge, I¡¯ll leave right away!¡± ¡°Leave for what?¡± Chi Fang looked back at him and said in a cold tone, ¡°Just sit here for Lao zi and don¡¯t move.¡± ¡°¡­Yes, yes Chi ge.¡± Chi Fang pulled out the stool and sat down. As his movement was too large, the back of the chair slammed into the table behind it, making a ¡°bang¡± sound which attracted the attention of other people, who all turned to look at him. Jiang Li also glanced in his direction. Chi Fang looked into his eyes with a cold expression. Jiang Li calmly retracted his gaze, turned around, and sat down facing the blackboard. Chi Fang stared at the back of his head for a while, his face so cloudy that water almost dripped out, and his new tablemate shivered with fright. Feng Yu got up late that day and he was almost late for school. As soon as he entered the classroom, the preparatory bell for the early reading session rang. He patted his chest and walked to his seat as he said, ¡°Oh my god, luckily I¡¯m not late, or else I¡¯ll be tainting our class 1¡¯s repu- Hey!¡± He noticed that Chi Fang¡¯s tablemate had changed. He looked around the classroom and found that Jiang Li had changed his seat to Xu Haowen¡¯s row. He was about to ask Chi Fang what was going on, but the teacher had already walked in. As soon as the early reading session was over, Feng Yu couldn¡¯t wait to ask Chi Fang what happened and why Jiang Li suddenly changed seats. ¡°Ask me for what, it¡¯s none of my business.¡± Chi Fang pushed him away and left the classroom with his hands in his pockets. Feng Yu shouted ¡°Chi ge, wait for me¡± and chased Chi Fang out of the classroom. Jiang Li sat in his seat and previewed the content of the later class. System was a little worried about Chi Fang¡¯s reaction. ¡°Lord Host, is this really okay?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Jiang Li shook his head and whispered, ¡°I can¡¯t coax him all the time.¡± Even if what Chi Fang said previously was something that he simply said out of impulse, he couldn¡¯t ignore the irritability and disrespect for him in his words. The original host himself had already been bullied in school, whether they were in words or actions. If it wasn¡¯t for his strong will, he might have chosen to give up his life long ago. Jiang Li didn¡¯t want to condone Chi Fang to become such a person. He could coax Chi Fang, but he couldn¡¯t abandon his own principles. In the corridor, Chi Fang was leaning against the railing and playing with the lighter with one hand, flipping open the lid with his thumb and closing it with a clatter, going back and forth like this non-stop. Feng Yu was close with him. From the speed at which he played with the lighter, he knew that he was in a bad mood. He suggested, ¡°Chi ge, I¡¯ll treat you to the internet cafe in the afternoon. Let¡¯s invite Er Tong and the others to play games and kill them all.¡± ¡°Boring.¡± Chi Fang lowered his head, showing no interest in his proposal. ¡°Then let¡¯s go ice skating? I heard that the underground ice rink behind the pedestrian street has been expanded. Let¡¯s go and try it?¡± ¡°Boring.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s go swimming? My aunt¡¯s newly opened swimming pool is top-notch.¡± ¡°Not going.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s find Jiang Li.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The action of Chi Fang¡¯s hands stopped for a while, he looked up from the window and glanced towards the classroom. He saw two girls standing by Jiang Li¡¯s seat, holding books in their hands, they seemed like they were asking Jiang Li questions. It had only been a week since school started and he had seen Jiang Li surrounded by people several times. Even the teacher¡¯s attitude towards him was different from other students. It turned out that he was not the only one who found Jiang Li¡¯s good character. Feng Yu noticed his gaze and touched his chin. ¡°Hey, Chi ge, what¡¯s the matter with the two of you? Did you guys quarrel?¡± Chi Fang withdrew his gaze. ¡°Why are you asking so much? Is it any of your business?¡± ¡°Chi ge, I don¡¯t agree with your words.¡± Feng Yuyi said righteously, ¡°Both of you are my brothers, I will definitely need to care about your love life.¡± ¡°Love life?¡± ¡°Cough, slip of the tongue, it¡¯s friendship life.¡± Feng Yu smiled, ¡°But to be honest, Chi ge, you two are really pretty gay.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Sometimes when I go out with you two, I feel like a third party. It¡¯s as if it¡¯s a movie of the two of you, but there is an additional person, which is me.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°If we hadn¡¯t known each other for so long that I knew that you are as straight as steel, I would have thought the two of you were in love.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang fell silent for a moment, then scolded, ¡°Stupid.¡± ¡°Chi ge, why did you scold me? As expected, it¡¯s a lot of pressure to speak the truth.¡± Feng Yu shook his head and sighed. ¡°You deserve to be scolded.¡± Chi Fang stuffed the lighter into his pocket, turned around, and went back to the classroom. The whole morning, Chi Fang¡¯s eyes were all on Jiang Li. Jiang Li looked at the blackboard and he just looked at Jiang Li¡¯s back, and he continued to look at him for four lessons consecutively. Whereas Jiang Li listened carefully in class and reviewed after class, he didn¡¯t even look back at him. This situation made Chi Fang feel very irritable, and the feeling of being ignored by the person he liked felt like a stone blocking his chest; the wave of anger was stuck there, making him feel irritable. Therefore, his expression was also very gloomy. The new tablemate sitting next to him fully felt his emotional change and was feeling nervous all morning, so he could only try to reduce his own sense of existence. One day passed, and when Chi Fang came home, he felt the anger accumulated in his stomach. When he opened the door, he saw Jiang Nuomi squatting on the shoe cabinet. Chi Fang reached out and wanted to hug it. The little guy turned its head, swayed its tail at him, and jumped down from the other side. It ran away and disappeared quickly, obviously still holding grudges towards him for shutting it out of the room. He was ignored by Jiang Li during the day at school and at night he still needed to face Jiang Nuomi¡¯s anger when he came back. Chi Fang was so angry that he almost wanted to laugh, he threw his school bag on the sofa and went straight back to the room to cool off by playing games. The next day, as soon as Chi Fang arrived downstairs, he saw Jiang Li and Xu Haowen coming downstairs while chatting with cloths and buckets in their hands. In order not to delay lesson times, there were four students on duty in Senior Two Class One every day. Jiang Li and Xu Haowen were the front and back deskmates and they were coincidentally on duty this day. The two also saw Chi Fang and their conversation stopped. Jiang Li looked at Chi Fang and did not say a word. Xu Haowen and Chi Fang were not familiar with each other, so he nodded to him as a greeting. Because of the sketch, Chi Fang felt that Xu Haowen was an eyesore no matter when he looked at him. He ignored his greetings, walked past the two of them, and went upstairs directly. Xu Haowen glanced back and asked Jiang Li, ¡°Did you guys quarrel?¡± ¡°No.¡± Jiang Li said concisely and walked to the bathroom holding a cloth. Xu Haowen also felt a little strange about Jiang Li¡¯s sudden change of seat, but seeing that he didn¡¯t want to say more, he didn¡¯t ask any more questions and went into the bathroom with the bucket. The first two lessons were English classes. As a representative of the English class, Jiang Xingyu went to collect homework one by one. When she walked to Chi Fang¡¯s seat, she saw that he had not placed his homework on the corner of the desk, so she reminded aloud, ¡°Chi Fang tongxue, it¡¯s time to hand in your homework.¡± Chi Fang lazily leaned on the back of the chair, glanced at her casually, and ignored her. When Jiang Li and Chi Fang sat together, all of Chi Fang¡¯s homework was handed in by Jiang Li together. Jiang Xingyu didn¡¯t need to call at all. Now that Chi Fang didn¡¯t cooperate, she didn¡¯t dare to ask any more questions. She took the homework of Chi Fang¡¯s tablemate and went to collect the next person¡¯s homework. When she was collecting Jiang Li¡¯s homework, Jiang Xingyu remembered that he had a good relationship with Chi Fang and couldn¡¯t help but tell him that Chi Fang didn¡¯t hand in his homework. She then asked in a low voice, ¡°Can you help me ask him if he has done it?¡± Jiang Li turned his head and glanced in Chi Fang¡¯s direction, which happened to collide with the sight he was looking at. After looking at each other for a few seconds, Jiang Li retracted his gaze and said to Jiang Xingyu, ¡°I¡¯ll give it a try.¡± Jiang Xingyu nodded gratefully. ¡°Thank you, Jiang Li.¡± Jiang Li smiled and told her welcome. He got up, walked around the table, and walked to Chi Fang¡¯s seat. Just halfway there, Chi Fang suddenly stood up and walked outside the classroom without looking at him. Jiang Li paused in his footsteps, then followed. The two went downstairs one after the other. Chi Fang walked unhurriedly to the woods behind the teaching building, Jiang Li followed him all the way and the two didn¡¯t speak the entire time. There were only ten minutes between classes and as they walked further and further away, the bell rang for the class. Jiang Li stopped and called out to Chi Fang, ¡°Where are you going? The class has already started.¡± ¡°It¡¯s none of your business.¡± Chi Fang dissed without looking back, thinking that you¡¯re ignoring me, aren¡¯t you? Why do you care so much? ¡°Since you said that, then I¡¯m going back.¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t hesitate, he just turned around and left. After walking a few steps, rapid footsteps sounded behind him. He was then pushed to the side of the low wall and Chi Fang¡¯s voice as he gritted his teeth sounded in his ears, ¡°Going back for what, to look for Xu Haowen again?¡± Jiang Li raised his head to look at the person who was pressing him against the wall. He noticed the anger between his brows and shook his head, ¡°I didn¡¯t want to look for him.¡± Chi Fang stared at him closely. ¡°Then what do you mean by changing seats? Do you really have to change to his side?¡± ¡°I just don¡¯t want you to think I¡¯m annoying.¡± Jiang Li whispered. ¡°When do I find you annoying, don¡¯t¡­¡± Chi Fang¡¯s words came to an abrupt end, remembering what he said the other day about ¡°he was most annoyed by gays¡±, and instantly felt a sense of self-inflicted sin. He scolded himself ¡°well deserved¡± in his heart and explained, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it that way, I was just too angry. You clearly said that you don¡¯t like Xu Haowen, but you drew a sketch of him.¡± We have such a good relationship and yet, you didn¡¯t even draw me. Chi Fang thought so, for some reason, he suddenly felt aggrieved, but still turned his head and said in a low voice, ¡°¡­I¡¯m sorry.¡± Seeing him lowering his head and apologizing, Jiang Li sighed in his heart and said softly, ¡°I didn¡¯t lie to you, I really don¡¯t like Xu Haowen. As for changing seats, other than worrying about you being annoyed, I also want to make my mind clear.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Chi Fang frowned. ¡°As you said, I¡¯m gay.¡± Jiang Li looked directly at him, ¡°I like men, I won¡¯t like someone who has nothing to do with me, but I will fall in love with the people around me for a long time. Do you know what I mean?¡± Chi Fang froze and his mind got stuck for a moment. After realizing the meaning of Jiang Li¡¯s words, his heart pounded violently and he said in disbelief, ¡°¡­What did you say?¡± ¡°I said¡­¡± Jiang Li leaned over slightly, put his lips on his slightly opened lips, saying softly and yet firmly, ¡°Chi Fang tongxue, I don¡¯t like Xu Haowen, I like you.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s eyes widened abruptly, the hand which was holding Jiang Li¡¯s hand tightened unconsciously, and he heard his own thunderous heartbeat in his ears. At the same time, System notified that Chi Fang¡¯s favorability had increased to 70%. The two returned to the classroom 20 minutes late. Jiang Li explained that he was not feeling well and Chi Fang accompanied him to the infirmary. The English teacher asked questions with concern and seeing that he was okay, she let them go back to their seats. During class, Jiang Li received a WeChat message from Chi Fang, reminding him to quickly find the homeroom teacher to change his seat back. Jiang Li replied okay. When he exited the chat window, he saw that there was an update notification in Wechat Moments. When he clicked in, he saw a picture of fireworks posted by Chi Fang in Moments with the caption: Ahhhhhhhhh! His way of expression was exactly the same as Jiang Zhan¡¯s. Jiang Li smiled knowingly when he saw it, liked it, and then posted a photo of a lighter in Moments. The picture he posted was of Chi Fang¡¯s lighter, and Chi Fang liked it in seconds. The two posted pictures one after the other and liked each other¡¯s posts, which caught Feng Yu¡¯s attention. With a lighter and fireworks, it was really hard for Feng Yu, who was deeply influenced by fujoshi, to think in the wrong way. When he thought of Chi Fang¡¯s previous act of asking himself about danmei comics, he felt as if he had touched some taboo secrets. So he immediately screenshotted it and sent it to Chi Fang. ¡ª¡ªCrazy Yuyu: Chi ge, what¡¯s the matter with you and Jiang Li? ! ! ¡ª¡ªCrazy Yuyu: Did you guys¡­ hook up? ¡ª¡ªCrazy Yuyu: Tell me now! ! ! Where have you guys been just now? Did you guys really hook-up? ? ¡ª¡ªCrazy Yuyu: Since you didn¡¯t answer, it seems to be true¡­ ¡ª¡ªCrazy Yuyu: But Chi ge, you¡¯re too fast, aren¡¯t you? ¡ª¡ªChi Fang has turned on friend verification. You are not his (her) friend. Please send a friend verification request first, and you can chat only after the other party has accepted the verification. Feng Yu: ¡­ CH 64 There was a 20-minute break after the second lesson. Jiang Li took advantage of this time to find Zhang Ling and plan to apply to change back to his original seat. As soon as he left, Chi Fang pushed his new tablemate. ¡°Tongxue, get up, get up, pack up and go back to your previous seat.¡± New tablemate: ¡°¡­¡± I feel like a brick, being moved to anywhere needed. After the new tablemate packed up, Chi Fang went over and carried back all Jiang Li¡¯s books and backpack. As he passed Xu Haowen¡¯s location, he tilted his head and squinted at the other party, feeling like a winner. As it had only been a day after the change of seats, Zhang Ling felt puzzled that Jiang Li wanted to switch back suddenly and asked him why. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t say that he and Chi Fang were in a relationship now. If he wanted to sit together, he could only use Chi Fang as an excuse, saying that sitting back would help Chi Fang improve his academic performance. ¡°Improve his academic performance?¡± Zhang Ling repeated, ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s you who¡¯s going to improve him, not him pulling you down? Jiang Li, you need to think about it clearly.¡± Knowing that she was saying it for his own good, Jiang Li smiled gently. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as long as I don¡¯t want to, no one can lower my grades.¡± His smile was confident but not arrogant. Zhang Ling stared at him for a while, her eyes gradually softened from seriousness, she then waved her hand and said, ¡°Okay, go back.¡± Saying it this way meant she had agreed. Jiang Li bent down slightly, said ¡°Thank you, Teacher Zhang¡±, and turned to leave. Before he reached the door, she heard Zhang Ling say from behind, ¡°Chi Fang is very smart, you¡¯ll need to work hard and put more effort into helping him.¡± Jiang Li turned his head and saw that she was correcting homework with her head lowered, her waist straight, but a lot of gray hair was mixed in with the black hair that was tucked in at the back of her head. ¡°I understand.¡± Jiang Li responded and left the office. On the other side, as soon as Chi Fang moved Jiang Li¡¯s things back, Feng Yu dragged him to the top floor of the teaching building and asked him what was going on with him and Jiang Li. The wind on the roof was a bit strong, Chi Fang pulled the bloated shirt caused by the wind, tilted his head, glanced at him, and corrected his address: ¡°What Jiang Li, Call Sao zi1 sister-in-law .¡± ¡°What happened to you and your Sao zi¡­¡± Halfway through his words ¨C as if suddenly being silenced ¨C Feng Yu stared at Chi Fang in a stunned manner, before recovering his voice after a long time, ¡°Sao zi?!! What the fuck!¡± ¡°Fuck your ass!¡± ¡°No, I mean did you guys really hook up?!!!!!!!¡± Chi Fang¡¯s eardrums were about to burst when he shouted, so he reached out and pressed his ears. ¡°Shut up, Lao zi¡®s eardrums are vibrated out by you.¡± ¡°How did he suddenly become Sao zi?!¡± Although Feng Yu felt that the atmosphere between Chi Fang and Jiang Li was a bit gay recently, he was just talking big and teasing them. His good brother suddenly turned gay so he wasn¡¯t able to react for a while. ¡°Where on earth did you guys go earlier? What happened? Why don¡¯t I know anything?¡± What happened¡­¡­ His question reminded Chi Fang of what happened in the woods in the morning. At that time, Jiang Li¡¯s sudden words of ¡°I like you¡± made Chi Fang stunned. He stared blankly at Jiang Li and forgot to react. When he came back to his senses, he had already pressed Jiang Li against the wall and kissed him. Growing up to this age, Chi Fang had never liked anyone and had never had a relationship with anyone, so naturally, he had never kissed anyone. He pressed Jiang Li¡¯s hand, and in ecstasy, he completely forgot all the comics he had read before and only cared about kissing the other party¡¯s soft lips in a random manner, which was eager and clumsy. Jiang Li broke free from his hand, wrapped his hands behind his neck, opened his mouth slightly, and guided him to stick his tongue in. With their lips and tongues intertwined, Chi Fang completely forgot where he was. He heard the ambiguous sound of smooching in his ears, as well as their intense heartbeats. ¡°Chi ge? Chi ge!!¡± The sudden high-pitched voice brought Chi Fang back to his senses. Seeing Feng Yu¡¯s face enlarged in front of his eyes, he reflexively took a step back and pulled open the distance between them. ¡°Why are you so close to me?¡± Feng Yu said innocently. ¡°I see you blushing, I want to touch you to see if you have a fever.¡± I¡¯m not having a fever, I¡¯m horny. 2 Pun intended, fever (f¨¡ sh¨¡o) horny £¨f¨¡ s¨¡o) Chi Fang said in his heart, just remembering the process of kissing Jiang Li in the morning, he felt hot all over. Even the soles of his feet were numb and he wanted to kiss him once again and lick his lips again. ¡°Seriously, Chi ge, are you guys really going to have a relationship?¡± Feng Yu stopped joking and his tone became serious, ¡°Think clearly, you are both male.¡± Chi Fang propped both of his hands on the railing and gave an ¡°En¡±. Seeing him admit it, Feng Yu¡¯s tone was a little emotional, ¡°Really?! Do you know how difficult this path is?¡± Chi Fang tilted his head and glanced at him. ¡°You said as if you¡¯ve taken this path before.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t taken it before, but I¡¯ve heard of it!¡± Feng Yu had a good relationship with his sister, so naturally, he knew more about this aspect than Chi Fang. Whether it was a danmei novel or a danmei comic, most of the fictional stories of two men¡¯s love would be better than reality, but it was different in real life. This could be seen from the fact that Jiang Li was ridiculed and ostracized by others just because he expressed his affection for Xu Haowen in his diary. In reality, people were not so tolerant and they usually wouldn¡¯t accept people or things that were not in line with the world. It was fine if people just watched from the sidelines, but there might be people who would make things even worse. Feng Yu didn¡¯t discriminate or oppose homosexuality. As long as it was none of his business, he would be too lazy to care, but Chi Fang and Jiang Li were both his brothers and he didn¡¯t want them to take such a path that was not recognized by the world. Feng Yu looked at Chi Fang with a serious expression. ¡°Chi ge, if it were someone else, I wouldn¡¯t say a word, but you are my brother. I don¡¯t want you to indulge yourself on a whim, it¡¯s not worth it.¡± Although Chi Fang only transferred to the No.2 middle school in the first year of high school, he and Feng Yu had known each other since childhood. When Mother Chi was still alive, she would bring Chi Fang to Jiangcheng County to live with the old man for a period of time every summer. Feng Yu¡¯s family used to live in the same community as the old man and the two of them also learned the way of the ancients and swore to be brothers. In Chi Fang¡¯s impression, Feng Yu had always been cheeky and carefree and had never spoken to him so seriously before. Feng Yu said that if he were someone else, he would not say a word, but Chi Fang was his brother. In fact, it was the same for Chi Fang. If someone else said these words, he wouldn¡¯t care at all, but Feng Yu was different. The two looked at each other for a while and Chi Fang reached out and patted Feng Yu¡¯s head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Feng Yu: ¡°Chi ge...¡± ¡°It¡¯s not on impulse.¡± Chi Fang looked at the sky, his tone was light, but firm, ¡°It was a decision after careful consideration.¡± It was the determination and love that he had never had before. Just thinking of being able to be with him every day in the future, he couldn¡¯t help but feel happy. When the two returned to the classroom, Jiang Li had already sat back to his original position. After Chi Fang saw him, he quickened his pace a little bit, and Feng Yu ¨C who was left behind by him ¨C sighed. The sky was going to rain and his brother was going to become gay, he couldn¡¯t stop any of them. Chi Fang went back to his seat and sat down. Jiang Li saw his messy hair blown by the wind. ¡°Where have you been?¡± ¡°The top floor.¡± Chi Fang said, ¡°Has Miejue Abbess made things difficult for you?¡± ¡°Call her teacher, don¡¯t simply call nicknames.¡± Jiang Li corrected him, ¡°She didn¡¯t make things hard for me, but I promised her one thing.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll need all your grades to reach the passing line in this monthly exam.¡± Jiang Li said as he took out the books and put them in front of him, ¡°So from today onwards, you better study hard for me.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± No wonder she didn¡¯t make things hard for you, she just made things hard for me. Before class in the afternoon, Zhang Ling came to the classroom and informed everyone that the leaders of the Provincial Department of Education would arrive at Jiangcheng County tomorrow. Everyone must pay attention to their appearance and manners. They must not be late or leave early, let alone fight and cause trouble. After Zhang Ling finished speaking, she looked at the students under the podium with a serious face and raised her voice slightly, ¡°Did you hear clearly?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Everyone replied in unison. Zhang Ling nodded, her face relaxing slightly. ¡°When the monthly exam is over, our class will organize an autumn field trip. You guys can discuss where to go and report your opinions to Xu Haowen.¡± Although it was said that most of the students in Senior 2 Class 1 were from the county, and the scenic spots in the small county were also mostly visited, but when everyone heard that they could go out for the autumn field trip without having to attend class, they still collectively said ¡°wow¡±! They immediately discussed with each other and the enthusiasm they set off seemed to be showing that they were going for the field trip tomorrow. When Jiang Li came to this world, apart from attending classes and working part-time, he hadn¡¯t really gone out to play; so he leaned over and asked Chi Fang, ¡°Is there anywhere fun here?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing fun, this place is too small.¡± Chi Fang turned his head to look at him, ¡°You wanna go and play?¡± Jiang Li nodded. ¡°A little bit.¡± Chi Fang thought for a while: ¡°There is a hot spring in Wuxia Mountain¡­¡± ¡°Quiet!¡± Zhang Ling knocked on the table on the podium, ¡°Discuss after class if you guys have any ideas. Don¡¯t make loud noises and disturb other classes, especially Feng Yu.¡± Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± I haven¡¯t started making noise yet, teacher. After the evening self-study, Feng Yu said that he was going to have a late-night supper to celebrate Chi Fang and Jiang Li being in a relationship. There was a snack street at the back of the school. The three found a barbecue stall and sat down, ordering a bunch of skewers and a few bottles of drinks. Feng Yu originally wanted beer, but they were still wearing school uniforms, so he could only give up. He unscrewed the orange juice and poured a glass for each person. Then, he picked it up and said to Jiang Li and Chi Fang, ¡°We¡¯ve promised to be single dogs but you guys secretly held hands, this glass is for your relationship, this act of internal digestion is also quite showy.¡± 3 internal digestion: finding a partner within their friend circle, and hence digesting internally. Jiang Li was teased by him, he then raised the glass. Chi Fang also laughed, raised the glass, and clinked against him. After supper, Feng Yu took a taxi and left first. Chi Fang unlocked the bicycle, held the front of the bicycle and asked Jiang Li, ¡°Do you want to see Jiang Nuomi? You haven¡¯t been here for a few days, and the little bastard is waiting for you at the door every day.¡± It was later than eleven now, if he went to Chi Fang¡¯s house now he could only stay the night there, but Jiang Li really missed the little guy, so he nodded: ¡°Okay.¡± The two rode the bicycle back to the community. As usual, when they went upstairs and opened the door, they saw Jiang Nuomi guarding the shoe cabinet. Seeing Jiang Li, the little guy was stunned for a moment, and after it came back to its senses, it jumped into Jiang Li¡¯s arms and called out in grievance. Jiang Li was afraid that it would fall, so he quickly held it with both hands and wrapped it in his arms. Chi Fang locked the door behind him, pushing Jiang Li¡¯s shoulders as he walked in. Jiang Li was carrying Jiang Nuomi as he turned around. ¡°Wait, I haven¡¯t changed my shoes yet.¡± ¡°No need to change.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s voice sounded a little anxious, he pushed Jiang Li back into the room, took Jiang Nuomi from his arms, put it outside the door, and looked at it condescendingly. ¡°Go out and stay there properly, Light. Bulb.¡± After saying that, he closed the door with a bang. Jiang Nuomi: ¡°???¡± sister-in-law Pun intended, fever (f¨¡ sh¨¡o) horny £¨f¨¡ s¨¡o) internal digestion: finding a partner within their friend circle, and hence digesting internally. CH 65 in Happy to translate! Hope you guys enjoy my translation! Support me by donating to my kofi!18-22 minutes 16.04.2022 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume Jiang Li watched Chi Fang close the door after quickly placing Jiang Nuomi out and joked behind his back, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say Jiang Nuomi is waiting for me to see him every day? Why are you driving him out now?¡± ¡°He¡¯s not the only one waiting.¡± Chi Fang said and even locked the door, turned around, leaned over, and kissed Jiang Li¡¯s face. He was as clueless as before, instinctively kissing him simply, and even hit Jiang Li¡¯s glasses while kissing. Jiang Li was amused by his dog-licking kiss, pushed his face away, and opened a little distance between the two. ¡°Wait, you¡¯re drooling over my face.¡± ¡°You¡¯re disgusted?¡± Chi Fang was dissatisfied, he put his arm around his waist and pushed him to the bed, ¡°It¡¯s like I didn¡¯t eat your saliva in the morning, I wasn¡¯t even disgusted.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not disgusted either¡­¡± Jiang Li¡¯s legs touched the edge of the bed and he fell down on the bed, looking up at Chi Fang and the two of them looked at each other. Chi Fang knelt down beside him on one foot, removed the glasses for him, and using one hand to hold the back of his head, he bent down and kissed him. The gentle moonlight illuminated the entire night sky, the night wind came in through the screen window and faint wind chimes echoed from outside. Chi Fang¡¯s kiss was unskilled and clumsy, but it was an act of treating him as someone so precious that could not be ignored. His fingers propped on the edge of the bed, inserted into Jiang Li¡¯s fingers and he held on tightly. In the quiet night, in the brief moment of showing love for each other, there was a thin layer of sweat on the back of the two people, and the heartbeat of ¡°thump thump thump¡± could be heard. They didn¡¯t know whose heartbeat it was, and some place at the lower half of their body slowly reacted. ¡°Dong dong-¡± The knock on the door from outside interrupted the kiss between the two. The old man asked outside, ¡°Xiao Fang, I heard something just now, are you back?¡± The old man¡¯s voice was accompanied by Jiang Nuomi¡¯s angry and aggrieved cries. The two people in the room acted as if they had done something bad and were caught on the spot by their elder. They quickly separated, Chi Fang jumped up and shouted towards the door, ¡°It¡¯s me. Jiang Li and I just came back.¡± ¡°Jiang Li is also here ah, you guys should rest early.¡± The old man said. ¡°We¡¯ll sleep right away!¡± Chi Fang replied quickly, ¡°You should go back to sleep too. By the way, grandpa, take Jiang Nuomi away as well, he¡¯s so noisy.¡± The sound of the old man¡¯s footsteps gradually left and Jiang Nuomi¡¯s voice became much smaller. The old man probably carried it back to his room. After about half a minute, Chi Fang and Jiang Li glanced at each other, and both saw the guilty conscience on each other¡¯s faces that had not yet disappeared, and they both laughed out loud tacitly. After Jiang Li laughed, he propped himself on the bed and looked at Chi Fang with his head tilted: ¡°Look at how cowardly you are.¡± When he said this, in addition to the smile between his brows and eyes, there was also the affection that had not completely faded from the kiss earlier. Those eyes that were like splashes of ink seemed to contain stars and oceans under the refraction of the light, making him not help but want to indulge in it. Chi Fang walked past Jiang Li, bent down, and embraced him, hugging him tightly with both hands. He didn¡¯t know why, it was clearly the first time that he fell in love, but he had a feeling of regaining Jiang Li after losing him. They had to get up early for school the next day, so the two of them lay down after taking a bath. It was different from lying side by side with a huge gap in the middle like last time. This time, Chi Fang stuck onto Jiang Li¡¯s body with his arms around his waist. He felt like he suddenly had a skin thirst disorder, he just felt uncomfortable not sticking with him. Fortunately, there was air conditioner in the room, so Jiang Li let him be. As he was about to fall asleep, Jiang Li vaguely heard his Little Cutie System say, ¡°¡­I thought I was going to be closed in the little black room again. Please hold on, my host, you guys are not adults yet.¡± Jiang Li: ¡­ There¡¯s no need to worry. When they woke up the next day, the two of them had turned into the position where Jiang Li was lying on Chi Fang¡¯s chest like before and Chi Fang had put his arms around his shoulders. Jiang Li usually woke up early but this day he woke up even before the alarm clock went off. As soon as he moved, Chi Fang¡¯s arm on his shoulder tightened a bit. Jiang Li thought he was awake, so he looked up and found that it was just a subconscious act- just like in his previous life ¨C which warmed his heart, so he just lay back and napped for a while. The sound of the beeping alarm clock woke them up. Chi Fang reached out and touched the edge of the bed. He skillfully turned off the alarm clock without looking at it. He pulled the blanket next to him to his face before wanting to go back to sleep. Jiang Li pushed aside the blanket, got up from his embrace, reached out and pinched his face. ¡°Time to wake up.¡± Chi Fang rolled over, wrapped his arms around his waist, put his face on his thigh, and said unclearly, ¡°Sleep a little longer, I¡¯m so sleepy.¡± ¡°If you continue sleeping, you¡¯ll be late.¡± Jiang Li pulled his hands away, pushed him aside, and wanted to get out of bed. He was hugged and dragged back by Chi Fang before his feet touched the slippers. A shadow appeared in front of him. Chi Fang¡¯s whole body was supporting on top of him, and stared at him with bright eyes. ¡°What do you wanna do?¡± Jiang Li looked at him and asked. ¡°Let me give you a kiss.¡± Chi Fang said, pressing his face down and kissing Jiang Li¡¯s mouth. Jiang Li tilted his head and the kiss landed on his cheeks. ¡°You haven¡¯t brushed your teeth yet, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s dirty?¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t brush, I didn¡¯t brush, we¡¯re the same.¡± Chi Fang turned his face over with his hand, pressed his own lips on his lips, and coaxed in a low voice, ¡°I¡¯ll just give you a kiss, I won¡¯t stick out my tongue, be obedient. ¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± To Jiang Li, his words sounded like ¡°I¡¯ll just rub, I won¡¯t go in¡±, it felt like he was searching for trouble, but he just lay down obediently and didn¡¯t resist. Their faces were very close, nose to nose, lips to lips, and their gazes glued tightly together. Just as he said, Chi Fang didn¡¯t use his tongue, just rubbed his lips lightly for a while, then sighed contentedly and let go of Jiang Li. The two got up and went out. As soon as the door was opened, Chi Fang saw a white hairball rushing toward him. He subconsciously wanted to raise his hand and wave it away. Fortunately, he instantly realized that it was Jiang Nuomi. He quickly changed his movement and hugged the little guy in his arms. Seeing Chi Fang firmly hugging Jiang Nuomi, Jiang Li¡¯s heart felt relieved. ¡°Meow!!!¡± After Jiang Nuomi was hugged by Chi Fang, not only was it not grateful, but it pulled the collar at Chi Fang¡¯s chest and called out to him with a ghastly expression; as if it hated the act of shutting it out last night. ¡°You¡¯re so loud in the early morning, are you in heat?!¡± Chi Fang tilted his head to avoid Jiang Nuomi¡¯s claws, pinched the back of its neck with one hand, and carried it to the living room, ¡°You¡¯re so young, why are you so wild?¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± You were a lot wilder than my son yesterday. ¡°Meow meow!¡± Jiang Nuomi couldn¡¯t understand what he meant, but it could see the discontent on his face to some extent and wanted to climb up on his head with a grumpy temper. Chi Fang held it down with one hand, walked over to the sofa, threw it lightly into the sofa nest, pointed at it, and said, ¡°Lao zi let you eat, drink, and have fun, but you repay the kindness by taking revenge, say, where¡¯s your conscience?¡± Jiang Nuomi arched his back, raised his tail, and glared at him. ¡°Meow!!!¡± ¡°How dare you, you¡¯re still so arrogant!¡± Chi Fang rolled up his sleeves and pretended to want to teach it a lesson. Jiang Nuomi was not afraid of him at all, baring its teeth as if it was about to pounce on him. ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li watched the confrontation between a person and a cat and pressed his eyebrows speechlessly and helplessly. It seemed that in each world, the relationship between the two of them was ¡°like water and fire¡±. Jiang Nuomi was about to explode due to anger in front of him, when Jiang Li stepped forward and pushed Chi Fang away. He picked up the irascible Jiang Nuomi and gave Chi Fang a sideways glance: ¡°Enough, don¡¯t bully my son anymore.¡± ¡°Tsk¡± Chi Fang pointed his middle finger to Jiang Nuomi- who was lying in Jiang Li¡¯s arms ¨C and changed his expression in a second, and muttered, ¡°So what, I¡¯m even your reborn parent.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Chi Fang, aren¡¯t you childish, you¡¯re fighting with a cat just because of this? After breakfast, the two went to school. The two met Feng Yu at the school gate. Feng Yu saw that they had only confirmed their relationship the day before yet now they were riding a bicycle each, so his intention to gossip rekindled. He took a big turn and parked the bicycle beside Chi Fang. He then asked aloud, ¡°Chi ge, you guys aren¡¯t riding on the same bicycle today?¡± Chi Fang wanted to give Jiang Li a ride, but Jiang Li thought it was too much trouble. Hearing his question, he looked up at him and threw out a sentence, ¡°Why do you care so much?¡± and walked with Jiang Li to the teaching building. ¡°Hehe.¡± Feng Yu locked the bicycle and chased after him, ¡°Chi ge, Jiang Li, wait for me, I brought you guys something good, you¡­¡± The following words were stuck in his throat. Feng Yu saw Zhang Ling who was looking at him expressionlessly not far away, so he instantly quieted down like a chicken and made a big round to the side to avoid her. 1 Quiet down like a chicken: A phrase used in fandom, it means that fans should shut up when they should. There were two red banners hanging on both sides of the school road which read ¡°Warmly welcome the inspection team of the Provincial Department of Education to visit our school for some guidance¡±. The bush and the field under the banners were all trimmed the previous week. In one look, not even any obvious dead branches and grass could be found and the fallen leaves on the school road were also cleaned up. The school attached great importance to this inspection work. It was said that it had especially become an escort group composed of school leaders such as the principal, vice-principal, and dean of education. Even the school motto on the wall opposite the teaching building had been repainted. However, it was the job of the school leaders and teachers to welcome the inspection team. The students in Senior 2 Class 1 should go to class when they should, do their own work when they should, listen to class seriously, and discuss the destination of the fall school trip earnestly. A morning passed, and the inspection team hadn¡¯t arrived yet. It was said that the route was changed to the Experimental Middle School first and then to the No.2 Middle School in the afternoon. ¡°Damn it, I straightened my waist the whole morning because I was afraid of being spot-checked, but they haven¡¯t come yet?¡± Feng Yu was lying on the table lifelessly, he had straightened his waist all morning in class as he was afraid of being caught by Zhang Ling being absent-minded, which he would then need to write a self-criticism review. However, she didn¡¯t come after waiting all morning. These people were really annoying. Jiang Li smiled and said, ¡°When you get used to it, you won¡¯t feel tired anymore.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Chi Fang agreed, ¡°Pretending is the worst thing to do.¡± ¡°Damn it.¡± Feng Yu was not convinced, ¡°Listen, listen, Chi ge, do you think what you said makes sense? You were the one who slept in class and the one who left the class early and came late the most. Now you have Jiang Li to make up for you one-on-one so you forgot who you are!¡± ¡°How about you and Chi Fang come for the make-up class together?¡± Jiang Li suggested, since teaching one person was teaching, while teaching two people was also the same thing. ¡°Then better don¡¯t.¡± Feng Yu waved his hand, ¡°I¡¯m not that material, I just want to finish high school and find a junior college to get a diploma.¡± Jiang Li had also asked Feng Yu to make up lessons together during the summer vacation, but Feng Yu really didn¡¯t have the patience. ¡°By the way, Chi ge, since you studied so hard, you must have a goal, such as what university to go to.¡± Feng Yu asked. ¡°University ah.¡± Chi Fang stopped the pen in his hand that was used to answer the question, thought for a moment and said, ¡°Tsinghua University.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± Tsinghua University, the number one university in China. Chi Fang¡¯s average test score at the end of the last semester was less than 60. ¡°Having a dream is a good thing.¡± Feng Yu said earnestly, ¡°But Chi ge, as a brother, I still have to remind you that this can only be thought about when you are dreaming.¡± ¡°Fuck you.¡± Chi Fang grabbed the textbook next to him and smashed it at him, ¡°You¡¯re single, what shit do you know?¡± ¡°You¡¯re being angry because you¡¯re embarrassed!¡± Feng Yu caught the book that he smashed over, ¡°Also, just talk when you talk, don¡¯t attack.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s answer was to smash another book at him. Jiang Li, who was on the side, watched the two of them fight. He lowered his head and chuckled and looked out the window. Tsinghua University ah. The inspection team arrived at No. 2 Middle School in the afternoon. As they didn¡¯t have much time, they did not stay any longer. After checking some work ledgers of the school, they checked the students¡¯ class condition in the teaching building and left. After school in the afternoon, Chi Fang and Jiang Li went back. The two went upstairs while chatting, discussing where to go to play during the November holiday. Chi Fang intended to take Jiang Li back to City B to have fun, but Jiang Li didn¡¯t agree immediately and said that he would consider it when the time came. Speaking of City B, Jiang Li recalled that there were rumors that Chi Fang did something wrong at the original school before he transferred to the No. 2 Middle School, but he never heard Chi Fang mention it and he didn¡¯t know if it was true or not. In addition, these days, Chi Fang had not mentioned his parents. During the conversation, as the two went upstairs, Chi Fang took out the key to open the door. As soon as the two entered, they heard the sound of conversations inside. One was the old man and the other was an unfamiliar voice that Jiang Li had never heard before. The person who came was Chi Fang¡¯s uncle, Chi Guoheng, the director of the Provincial Department of Education that Feng Yu and the others had mentioned earlier. Chi Guoheng looked like he was in his fifties with his hair neatly combed back, wearing a striped short-sleeved shirt and thin and black-rimmed glasses. His appearance looked somewhat serious, but his gaze looking at Chi Fang had obvious kindness. ¡°Xiao Fang is back.¡± Chi Guoheng stood up from the sofa with a smile on his face, ¡°Come and let uncle take a look. It seems that you have grown taller again, right?¡± Although Chi Fang¡¯s relationship with his father was not very good, his relationship with his uncle was still not bad. ¡°Uncle, why didn¡¯t you say anything about coming here?¡± ¡°There is an inspection in the hall, I just stopped by to have a look.¡± Chi Guoheng smiled. ¡°The one about going to our school?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not it.¡± Chi Guoheng waved his hand, he didn¡¯t need to come in person for this kind of small inspection, and looked at Jiang Li behind him, ¡°This is¡­¡± His words stopped abruptly after seeing Jiang Li¡¯s appearance and he was slightly stunned. ¡°This is Jiang Li.¡± The old man introduced from the side, ¡°Xiao Fang¡¯s classmate, the first in the grade, he¡¯s giving Xiao Fang make-up lessons.¡± ¡°Hello, Director Chi.¡± Jiang Li said hello to the other party. He didn¡¯t follow and call him ¡°uncle¡± to get familiar with him but called him by his position. ¡°Okay, okay.¡± Chi Guoheng nodded and glanced at Jiang Li¡¯s face twice, ¡°Just call me uncle, don¡¯t be so restrained.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Jiang Li had been an actor for two lifetimes and he easily captured the inquiry in his eyes as he looked at him. Combined with the surprised look on his face when he first saw him, Jiang Li couldn¡¯t help but wonder if he had seen him or if he had seen the previous Jiang Li. Just as he was searching for the memory of the original host, the next second he heard the other party ask, ¡°Is Jiang Li a native of Jiangcheng County? How old are you this year?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a local, and I¡¯ll be seventeen soon.¡± Jiang Li replied, as the next month would be his seventeenth birthday. Chi Guoheng nodded: ¡°Who else is in your family?¡± ¡°A father.¡± ¡°Then, where¡¯s your mother?¡± Chi Guoheng asked again. Jiang Li could hear that his question sounded eager. Something flashed in his heart. He looked at the other party and said, ¡°She left, she left home when I was a child.¡± ¡°Left¡­¡± Chi Guoheng¡¯s expression was a little dazed and he asked again, ¡°Then do you know where did she go¡­¡± ¡°Uncle, are you carrying out a political trial?¡± Chi Fang who was beside interrupted the conversation between the two, fearing that he would ask too much about Jiang Li¡¯s parents which would make Jiang Li unhappy. ¡°Get ready to eat, we still have to go to self-study later.¡± ¡°Yes, yes, let¡¯s eat first.¡± The old man said. He had already prepared dinner and waited for Chi Fang and Jiang Li to come back and eat. While eating, Chi Guoheng¡¯s eyes were always looking in Jiang Li¡¯s direction whether intentionally or not. Jiang Li pretended to ignore it completely, but he was thinking about the other party¡¯s reaction just then. If Chi Fang hadn¡¯t interrupted Chi Guoheng just then, then he should have wanted to ask him if he knew where Mother Jiang went. As for why he asked, he most probably knew Mother Jiang. Jiang Li had seen a photo of him and Mother Jiang when he was a child in the original host¡¯s drawer. As the saying goes, daughters are like fathers and sons follow their mothers. The original host really looked similar to Mother Jiang. If Chi Guoheng really knew Mother Jiang, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising why he was surprised when he saw him. Thinking of this, Jiang Li glanced at the other party calmly. Jiang Li and Chi Fang went to school after the meal. Chi Guoheng sat for a while and then also left. Back in the car, Chi Guoheng instructed the secretary in the front passenger seat. ¡°Help me find the file of a student named Jiang Li in Senior 2 Class 1 in No. 2 Middle School of Jiangcheng County and bring it to me tomorrow.¡± ¡°Okay, Director.¡± The secretary responded, ¡°Are you going back to the hotel now?¡± ¡°En.¡± Chi Guoheng closed his eyes, leaned back in the chair to rest. The car started slowly and left the community. Quiet down like a chicken: A phrase used in fandom, it means that fans should shut up when they should. CH 66 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume In the blink of an eye, it was time for the monthly exam. Feng Yu still remembered that when they were playing basketball before, Chi Fang promised Jiang Li that he would score 90 on the test. Besides, he heard that Jiang Li promised to raise all of Chi Fang¡¯s test scores to the passing line in this monthly test in order to change his position. The day before the exam, he patted Chi Fang on the shoulder earnestly and said with a heavy face: ¡°Chi ge, although I also sympathize with you, a man must keep his word. 90 points is 90 points, one less point is not 90 points! They don¡¯t count as passing!¡± ¡°Yeah, Chi ge!¡± ¡°Chi ge, good luck, I¡¯ll show you the answer!¡± ¡°Get lost, just with your standard and you still want to show Chi ge your answer.¡± ¡°My average score last semester was 20 points higher than Chi ge!¡± ¡°Wait, are you in the same exam venue as Chi ge?¡± ¡°I¡¯m in Class 7, what about Chi ge?¡± ¡°I remember Chi ge is in Class 4, right? Those in Class 4 stand up.¡± ¡°Me, me, me! But¡­ I copied Chi ge¡¯s answer sheet last semester.¡± ¡°¡­Get lost, what¡¯s the use of you!¡± Others who were playing with them at the time also discussed aloud, trying to help Chi Fang pass the monthly exam. Instead, the person involved, Chi Fang, was not nervous at all. Jiang Li was called over by the teacher. He sat on Jiang Li¡¯s seat, leaning against the wall with his body bent, his foot overlapping another on his stool and he was calmly playing mobile games. ¡°Hey, Chi ge, why are you not worried at all?¡± Feng Yu asked. ¡°What¡¯s there to worry about?¡± Chi Fang said without even looking up, ¡°I rely on my ability.¡± Seeing that he looked confident, everyone was silent for a while before saying with admiration, ¡°As expected of Chi ge.¡± ¡°What are you all doing around here?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s voice came from behind and everyone looked back to see that he had come back from seeing the teacher at some point. Feng Yu said: ¡°We are talking about tomorrow¡¯s exam. Everyone is very worried about this monthly exam. Chi ge, who¡¯s indeed a giant among men, is the only one steady.¡± Jiang Li laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t simply use idioms.¡± As soon as Jiang Li came back, Chi Fang stopped playing his games. He kept the phone in his pocket, put his legs off the stool, gave him his seat, and waved to the others. ¡°Why are you guys still around here? Dismiss, dismiss!¡± Everyone dispersed. Jiang Li went back to his seat and sat down. Chi Fang pulled his stool over to be next to him, took a piece of chocolate from the desk, tore it, and stuffed it into his mouth. ¡°Tomorrow is the monthly test, you haven¡¯t said what reward that I will receive if I pass.¡± The sweet taste dissipated in his mouth and Jiang Li squinted his eyes. He turned to look at him, met his expectant eyes, and said with a smile, ¡°So looking forward to it?¡± ¡°Not really either.¡± Chi Fang touched his nose, ¡°Just a little bit.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case¡­.¡± Jiang Li nodded, ¡°Then you won¡¯t be rewarded.¡± Chi Fang¡¯s expression changed immediately after hearing this, ¡°No way!¡± For this monthly exam, he studied really hard. In addition to not letting Jiang Li lose his trust in front of Zhang Ling, he also wanted to ask for some rewards, such as kissing and touching¡­ ¡°You said you want to give me a reward, you can¡¯t break your promise.¡± Chi Fang half hugged Jiang Li, put his head by his ear, and said in a low voice, ¡°If there is no reward, Jiang Li will do.¡± Reward, Jiang Li. How crazy that he came up with this idea. ¡°Get out of the way, it¡¯s too hot.¡± Jiang Li reached out and pushed his head away. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you complain that it¡¯s hot when you hugged me to sleep last night?¡± Chi Fang snorted, his arms still resting on his waist with half the weight of his body resting on him. It was common for boys who were in a good relationship to cuddle and hug each other. In winter, everyone would even huddle together in the same seat and stack on top of each other to keep warm. The actions of the two of them did not attract the attention of others. They only thought that the relationship between the two was good. It was just that in the eyes of Feng Yu, who was the first insider of the relationship between the two, it looked different. No matter how Chi Fang put his arms around Jiang Li¡¯s waist, he felt that it was out of bounds. Chi Fang was holding Jiang Li¡¯s waist begging for a reward. The phone in his pocket vibrated twice and he took it out with one hand and tapped to open it. ¡ª¡ªCrazy Yuyu: Chi ge, Chi ge, be careful! The unpleasant smell of being in love has come to me! Be careful of coming out of the closet in front of the whole school! ! ! Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li also saw the message, pursed his lips, and smiled. He took away Chi Fang¡¯s hand around his waist, squeezed his palm, and whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the reward is already ready, you will be satisfied.¡± When Chi Fang heard what he said, the corners of his lips raised slightly and he put the phone back in his pocket. On the day of the monthly exam, Chi Fang and Feng Yu were in the same exam room, but one was in the first row and the other was in the last row, separated by a distance like a river. The first exam in the morning was Chinese Language. Room No.4 happened to be Zhang Ling proctoring the test and Chi Fang was sitting in the first position in the first row. Zhang Ling still remembered Jiang Li¡¯s words that he wanted to help Chi Fang raise his grades to the passing line. She also wanted to see the results. So during the exam, she could not help but pay more attention to Chi Fang. She stood beside him and watched him for a while. When she saw that he didn¡¯t leave a large area of blank space under the questions, she nodded with satisfaction. As soon as the monthly exam was over, Zhang Ling gathered the students from the Senior 2 Class 1 and announced that they would go for an autumn field trip the next day. The location was set at a rural inn in the suburban area, where they would organize everyone for a self-serve barbecue. At first, everyone only thought that they would not have to go to class because of the autumn field trip, but they didn¡¯t expect to be able to play in a rural inn. As soon as Zhang Ling finished speaking, the atmosphere in the class immediately became lively. ¡°Abbess, you¡¯re so kind to me! I love you! Mua! Heart gesture!¡± Feng Yu shouted loudly and after shouting, he realized that he had called Zhang Ling¡¯s nickname out of excitement. After he finished speaking, the noisy classroom instantly became quiet and he saw Zhang Ling¡¯s face as black as the bottom of a pot. They silently cast a ¡°Warrior, good luck out there¡± look at Feng Yu. ¡°Teacher, I was wrong¡­ aiyo!¡± Before Feng Yu finished speaking, Zhang Ling grabbed the end of the chalk and smashed it on his head accurately, pointing at him with a cold expression. ¡°Feng Yu, write a 3000-word review and hand it over to me after school.¡± ¡°¡­¡­Okay.¡± Seeing Feng Yu¡¯s pale face, the others covered their mouths desperately to hold back their laughter. Chi Fang held his face with one hand, looked at Feng Yu, and scolded, ¡°Dumb ass.¡± After the evening self-study, Chi Fang and Jiang Li rode their bikes back as usual. Jiang Li didn¡¯t go back to the house with Chi Fang. The two agreed to have fun some time after the class autumn field trip the next day. So he had to go home to pack clean clothes. At the fork in the road, Chi Fang supported the bicycle on one foot and said to Jiang Li, ¡°Then I¡¯ll go look for you tomorrow.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll leave first. ¡°Jiang Li nodded and rode away first. Chi Fang stood behind and watched his back disappear at the intersection before cycling away, whistling along the way in a very good mood. After Chi Fang reached home, Jiang Nuomi squatted on the shoe cabinet and saw him come in alone and stretched out its head to look behind him hard. ¡°Meow?¡± After confirming a relationship with Jiang Li, Chi Fang asked Jiang Li to stay at his home almost every day on the grounds of making up classes. So this would not only make him happy but also Jiang Nuomi. Seeing him come back alone today, Jiang Nuomi jumped down from the counter in doubt, walked to the door, and looked around for a while. ¡°Stop looking, your dad didn¡¯t come today.¡± Chi Fang carried it up from behind, closed the door with one hand, carried it to the sofa, pressed its belly with one hand, and smiled maliciously. ¡°I¡¯m going to do something to you, this little kitty today, see who¡¯s able to save you.¡± Jiang Nuomi: ¡°Meow?¡± Hence, it was another cat and human fight. In the end, the old man wasn¡¯t able to bear seeing it and scolded Chi Fang for a while before returning to his room with Jiang Nuomi in his arms. Chi Fang patted the cat hair on his clothes, went back to the room, and took off his clothes to take a bath. The first thing he did when he returned to the room after washing up was to go onto the Internet and video-call Jiang Li. He didn¡¯t answer the first time, so he called a second time. This time Jiang Li picked up. Jiang Li had just taken a shower, his hair was still wet and he was wearing a white T-shirt. He looked around and asked Chi Fang, ¡°Why are you alone? What about Jiang Nuomi?¡± ¡°Grandpa took it away.¡± Chi Fang said, looking at Jiang Li in the video. Maybe it was because he had just taken a shower, but Jiang Li didn¡¯t wear glasses. He was short-sighted by more than 700 degrees. When watching the video, he subconsciously narrowed his eyes slightly. His eyes looked like he was in a daze and also looked very obedient and innocent. Chi Fang felt itchy in his heart and wanted to reach out to squeeze his face, so he said, ¡°Come closer.¡± ¡°What do you wanna do?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s face approached. ¡°Pinch your face.¡± Chi Fang stretched out his hand and pinched it vaguely, ¡°soft.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li was a little speechless, but also felt it was a little funny, ¡°Crazy.¡± It was past eleven o¡¯clock now and they had to go out the next day, so the two went offline after chatting for a while. Jiang Li just logged out of the PC¡¯s WeChat when he heard System say, ¡°Lord Host, I have something to say but I don¡¯t know if I should say it or not.¡± ¡°Say it then.¡± Jiang Li stretched out his hand, picked up the glasses beside him, put them on, and clicked on the webpage he had closed earlier. System sighed: ¡°Watching Host and the male lead fall in love, I somehow feel like I¡¯m reading a campus romance novel.¡± Jiang Li heard the words and laughed. ¡°Aren¡¯t you guys just a dating simulation game?¡± ¡°That¡¯s true too.¡± There was a stock chart on the computer web page. After reading the current data, Jiang Li turned off the computer and went back to his room to rest. The next day, Jiang Li got up and packed his things and was about to go out to meet Chi Fang at the appointed time. Unexpectedly, as soon as he twisted the doorknob, the door was suddenly pushed open from the outside. The door slammed into him, almost knocking him down. Fortunately, he had held onto the wall on one side in time. After standing up by holding the wall, Jiang Li looked up and saw three men coming in from outside. One of them asked him aloud, ¡°You¡¯re Jiang Li?¡± The three of them didn¡¯t look like they were good people in terms of appearance and how they were dressed, but rather like some friends in the gangster community. Jiang Li took a step back vigilantly and looked at them. ¡°Who are you guys? What do you want to do?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t expect Jiang debt dodger himself to be useless, but the son he gave birth to is fair and beautiful.¡± The man in the lead sized up Jiang Li with a cigarette between his fingers, ¡°Your father owes us money and ran away, and now we can¡¯t find him, so only you can make up for it.¡± The last time Jiang Li saw Father Jiang was on the TV news and that was when he invited Chi Fang and Feng Yu to eat hot pot. He saw the news that some nightclub was captured because of drugs and he had never seen him since. He didn¡¯t expect that someone would take him to pay off his debts today because his father owed money. ¡°It¡¯s Jiang Hai¡¯s business for owing money, it has nothing to do with me.¡± Jiang Li looked directly at the other party, his hand supporting the wall stretched out to the back of the door and touched the half wooden stick hidden behind the door. His expression was still calm as he said, ¡°I¡¯m just a student, and I don¡¯t have any money on me.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you don¡¯t have money, as long as you can earn it.¡± The man said, looking at Jiang Li with a bit of obscenity in his eyes, ¡°A high school student like you, many people like it very much.¡± Jiang Li heard someone mention once that there was a red-light district in the southern area. There was an alley that was full of prostitute businesses, which were very messy and filthy. There were many students from technical schools working there. These people probably also came from there. Jiang Li was a little concerned and quietly held the wooden stick in his hand. ¡°I repeat, I have no money. If you guys don¡¯t leave, I will call the police.¡± As soon as the man heard that he was going to call the police, he made a signal to the other two. ¡°Go.¡± The other two rushed towards Jiang Li. Jiang Li saw an opportunity, kicked and flipped one of them with one foot. At the same time, he clenched the stick and smashed it hard on the other¡¯s head, directly making the person bleed. ¡°Ah!!¡± The leader didn¡¯t expect him to suddenly make a move, so he took a few steps back, avoiding the falling body of his companion, and pointed at Jiang Li: ¡°You¡­¡± ¡°What I?¡± Jiang Li looked at him with a stick and smiled, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to take me away? Let¡¯s see if you have the skills to do so.¡± ¡­¡­ ¡­ On the other side, Chi Fang waited for a while at the entrance of the alley, but he didn¡¯t see Jiang Li coming down and no one answered the phone, so he simply found a place to park his bicycle and went up to find him in person. When he got upstairs, Chi Fang found out that the door of Jiang Li¡¯s house was open and there was a faint voice inside. Chi Fang was a little puzzled. He walked to the door and looked inside. He happened to see Jiang Li clasping a man¡¯s arm with one hand while grabbing his hair and pressing him against the wall with another. Jiang Li¡¯s strength was so huge that the man¡¯s face was deformed and his blue and swollen face had a painful expression. And there were two young men rolling and lying on the ground. Jiang Li clasped the man¡¯s arm and put some force on the hand grasping his hair, forcing him to raise his head and he said in a cold tone, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that you were going to take me away with an arrogant tone just now? Why don¡¯t you say anything now, hmm?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s appearance at this time was completely different from usual. His face was indifferent and cruel. Chi Fang couldn¡¯t help but be a little stunned and subconsciously called out to him: ¡°Jiang Li?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s movements paused and when he turned back to see Chi Fang, he was also stunned for a moment. Seeing that his gaze landed on the person in his hand, he immediately released his grasp. Without looking at the other party¡¯s limp body, he looked at Chi Fang and said with a sigh of relief, ¡°Why did you only come here now?! They scared me to death.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± It¡¯s you who almost scared me to death, alright?! CH 67 Although Chi Fang had never seen Jiang Li being bullied and ostracized by his classmates before, he had heard of it from other people. In addition, when he first met Jiang Li, he gave him a sense of cowardliness and timidity. If said directly, he seemed just like a weak chicken. Although Jiang Li¡¯s personality changed a lot later, he also became cheerful and confident but in Chi Fang¡¯s heart, he always felt that Jiang Li needed his protection. However, this person who needed his protection had now defeated three men taller than him by himself?! Chi Fang looked at the three people who were curling up and rolling on the ground and then looked at Jiang Li, who looked innocent. He felt that his own understanding had been overturned. ¡°What happened¡­¡± Chi Fang wanted to ask what happened but he suddenly saw blood on Jiang Li¡¯s calf. He hurriedly strode over, squatted down to check his injury, and asked anxiously, ¡°Are you injured? Where is the injury?¡± Seeing his nervous and worried expression, Jiang Li felt warm in his heart and squatted down to comfort him, ¡°It¡¯s alright, it¡¯s just that my skin was accidentally scratched a little.¡± When he was taking action just now, the other party drew a stool. When Jiang Li was dodging, the leg of the stool accidentally scratched his calf. The wound was not large, but because he didn¡¯t have the chance to stop the blood it started bleeding downwards. His skin was so pale that the wound looked a little serious. He said it lightly, but Chi Fang didn¡¯t think so. He got up and wanted to go to the table to get a tissue. As he passed by one of the people on the ground, the other party¡¯s hand stretched forward and he stepped on it without thinking. ¡°Ah!!!¡± The other party was stomped on by him and cried out in pain, desperately trying to withdraw his hand but was stepped on even harder by Chi Fang. Chi Fang crushed his feet hard twice before stepping over him. He took a tissue and helped Jiang Li press on the wound. Then he looked at the people on the ground and asked, ¡°Who are they?¡± Jiang Li wiped off the blood on his leg with the tissue. He then pressed the wound with a clean tissue, shook his head, and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know, but Jiang Hai owes money, so they want to take me to pay off the debt.¡± ¡°To pay off debt?¡± Chi Fang¡¯s face turned gloomy when he heard his words. He bent down and grabbed the collar of the person beside his feet with one hand and directly picked up half of his body. ¡°Come here in the daytime to ask someone to repay the debt, you are very fucking bold.¡± The other party was being held by him and the collar of his clothes was tightly strangling his neck. His face flushed red and he said intermittently, ¡°¡­His father owes our gambling venue money, it¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s only right to pay back the debt!¡± ¡°It¡¯s only right?¡± Chi Fang sneered, the muscles on his arms tensed slightly. He grabbed the other party¡¯s collar and threw him to the side, ¡°If you touch Laozi¡¯s person, it¡¯s only right for Laozi to hit you!¡± The other party was thrown by him and directly hit the TV cabinet nearby, making a loud ¡°bang¡±, and blood slowly flowed out from the edge of his forehead that was hit. However, Chi Fang felt that it was not enough, so he stepped forward and wanted to continue. Jiang Li hurriedly stopped him. ¡°Chi Fang, stop hitting, he will be killed if you continue hitting.¡± Chi Fang stared at the twitching man lying on the ground with obvious ruthlessness in his eyes. He pulled Jiang Li¡¯s hand away and said, ¡°I know the limit.¡± He then went over, turned the other party over with his foot, and said condescendingly, ¡°You said venue just now, right? Which venue? Say it.¡± The other party was beaten half to death by Jiang Li earlier and then was hit again by Chi Fang. At this moment, he was very dizzy and couldn¡¯t even hear clearly what Chi Fang was saying, but another person next to him said, ¡°We are under Southern District¡¯s Zhao ge!¡± In the original host¡¯s previous life, apart from going to school and working as a part-time worker, he didn¡¯t care about or understand external affairs at all. It hadn¡¯t been a long time since Jiang Li came to this world, so naturally he didn¡¯t know the person he was talking about. So, he asked Chi Fang in confusion, ¡°Zhao ge, who is it? Is he great?¡± ¡°Zhao ge?¡± Chi Fang sneered, ¡°I¡¯m even Chi ge.¡± ¡°Pfft.¡± Jiang Li was amused by him. Chi Fang squatted down, touched the man¡¯s body, took out his wallet, took out all the cash from it, and threw the wallet back. ¡°This is compensation for damaging our house¡¯s items. Out of respect for the Zhao ge that you said, I will give you a discount, and now you can go.¡± That person: ¡°¡­¡± The pile of money that Chi Fang had drawn out was at least 2,000 yuan. Only two old stools that were not even accepted by the junkyard were broken in Jiang Li¡¯s house. They didn¡¯t need so much money for compensation. His words made the three people on the ground yell at him, ¡°Aren¡¯t you just fucking finding fault?¡¯ uncontrollably in their hearts. However, they didn¡¯t dare say a word, for fear that the two of them would take action again after a disagreement, so they could only hold onto each other and leave. After the people left, Chi Fang took Jiang Li to the sofa and sat him down, took out the medicine box from the drawer of the TV cabinet, sat next to him, lifted his foot and put it on his leg before helping him to disinfect his wound. His movements were very gentle and he blew on the wound with his mouth while applying the medicine. People who didn¡¯t know would have thought that Jiang Li was seriously injured, but in fact, it was just a scratch not longer than the length of a finger. Jiang Li saw his tender and cherished actions with his eyes, remembering his reflexive actions to protect himself under his body during a car accident in his previous life. Jiang Li¡¯s heart gradually became warm as if it was covered with his hands. No matter which world he was in, the person in front of him always put himself at the top of his heart like this. ¡°Chi Fang.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± When Chi Fang heard the words, he raised his head and saw Jiang Li¡¯s face enlarged in front of him, and in the next second, his lips were kissed. The distance between the two was very close, Jiang Li¡¯s leg was still placed on Chi Fang¡¯s thigh and he maintained this posture, hooking around Chi Fang¡¯s neck with his hand and kissing him. The two warm and soft lips were pressed against each other and Jiang Li¡¯s wet tongue lingered between Chi Fang¡¯s slightly opened lips for a bit, and then he expertly penetrated into it. ¡°Your injury¡­¡± Chi Fang was still thinking about the wound that he had not finished dealing with. ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡± Jiang Li said in a soft voice, retracting his legs and sitting directly on Chi Fang¡¯s thigh. Wrapping his hands behind his neck, Jiang Li bowed his head and kissed him again, when their lips and teeth met, he said, ¡°Let me kiss you¡­¡± As they were going to have fun at the rural inn, both of them were only wearing thin sports shorts. Due to the fight earlier, Jiang Li was still warm and his hot body temperature spread to Chi Fang though the cloth on their thighs that were sticking to each other. It made Chi Fang feel as if his skin had been scalded, the pores all over his body opened up and an uncontrollable craving burst out from the depths of his body. He was only stunned for a few seconds then immediately turned from passive to active by stretching out his hands and putting them around Jiang Li¡¯s waist. He pulled him into his embrace with all his strength and kissed him back on his lips, not to be outdone. It was an intense and long kiss. Both of them were reluctant to let go of each other and neither could control their thoughts of wanting to get close to each other. After a long time, Jiang Li leaned on Chi Fang¡¯s shoulder and panted, trying to calm down the desire emerging in his body. Chi Fang was not much better, his chest was heaving violently, his hands still wrapped tightly around Jiang Li¡¯s waist and after a while, he said in a hoarse voice, ¡°There are still two years, it¡¯s really fucking hard to bear. ¡± Hearing this, Jiang Li chuckled and raised his head from his shoulder: ¡°One year, next week will be my seventeenth birthday.¡± ¡°One year¡­¡± Chi Fang let go of Jiang Li¡¯s hand, leaned on the back of the sofa, and looked at him lifelessly. ¡°Three hundred and sixty-five days!!¡± ¡°Instead of thinking about this, you might as well think about your university goals.¡± Jiang Li reminded him, ¡°Tsinghua University, you really dare to think about it.¡± Chi Fang was unhappy when he heard this. ¡°What am I doing this for? Isn¡¯t it for you? You and Jiang Nuomi are really father and son. Both have no conscience.¡± ¡°Speaking of¡­¡± Jiang Li¡¯s words were interrupted by the ringing of his mobile phone. Chi Fang took out his mobile phone from his pocket and when he saw Feng Yu¡¯s call, he and Jiang Li looked at each other. Only then did the two remember that they were going to the autumn field trip, and it was time to gather. ¡°Chi ge, where are you guys?! Don¡¯t tell me you guys overslept?!¡± Feng Yu asked over there as soon as the call was connected. ¡°No, something happened suddenly. Tell Abbess that you guys will go first and we¡¯ll go directly to the rural inn to gather.¡± Chi Fang said. ¡°Ohoh, what happened? Do you want me to come over?¡± Feng Yu asked. ¡°No, we are ready to go now, let¡¯s do it like this first.¡± Chi Fang hung up the phone, and helped Jiang Li clean up the wound again. He then put on the gauze and asked, ¡°Does it hurt?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt.¡± Jiang Li shook his head, this little injury was nothing compared to the injuries he suffered from filming before. Even though he said that, in Chi Fang¡¯s eyes, any wound on the person he liked would be magnified infinitely. When he helped him deal with the wound earlier, he couldn¡¯t help but regret that he didn¡¯t hit the guys harder. The living room was messed up because of the fight just now but there was no extra time to tidy up at the moment. Jiang Li returned to his room and changed into clean clothes, and the two went out first. On the way to the rural inn, Chi Fang asked about Father Jiang and Jiang Li told him what he saw on the news about Father Jiang. At that time, the nightclub that was captured in the news was in the South District. Father Jiang was able to appear there and owed money to those people just now. Chi Fang guessed that he would not be clean. He might be hiding somewhere now, so he told Jiang Li of his suspicions. ¡°I think so too.¡± Jiang Li nodded, ¡°I just don¡¯t know who the Zhao ge those people were talking about just now is. Jiang Hai owed them money and ran away and they will definitely come again next time.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to care about this.¡± Chi Fang said carelessly, as if he didn¡¯t put this man named Zhao ge in his eyes, ¡°I know this man, and he will quiet down after I ask someone to check his venue tomorrow.¡± He said this in a casual tone, as if asking someone to check Zhao ge¡¯s venue was as simple as going grocery shopping, but his uncle was the director of the Provincial Department of Education, so he would definitely know a lot of officials. Asking them to check the venues of a small county was naturally no problem. Thinking of this, Jiang Li didn¡¯t think too much anymore. He looked at him and smiled, ¡°It seems that I¡¯ve clung onto someone influential, how should I thank you?¡± Chi Fang glanced at him, reached out and squeezed his palm, and whispered, ¡°Grow up quickly.¡± Jiang Li laughed silently and was speechless. He was about to make fun of him when he heard him say, ¡°By the way, what happened just now? You fought three people by yourself?!¡± Chi Fang¡¯s shocked expression earlier was still in front of his eyes, Jiang Li couldn¡¯t say that he had been trained before in his previous life as well as in his original life. Let alone three people, he could easily wipe out four trash that were useless. So he looked at Chi Fang with a sincere tone and a cordial expression and said, ¡°You know what? Once a person is in a desperate situation, fear will stimulate the infinite potential in one¡¯s body, which is an uncontrollable and amazing explosive force. You may not believe it but if you hadn¡¯t suddenly appeared just now, I wouldn¡¯t be able to control myself.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± Do I look like I¡¯m so free to hear your nonsense? Why don¡¯t you say that your seal has been broken?! CH 68 A-A+ Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume The two set off late and just halfway through their journey, Feng Yu called again to say that the class had already arrived at the destination. He told them to hurry up and stop thinking about wanting to spend their time with each other only. When the two arrived at the rural inn, everyone was already barbecuing. Feng Yu had already selected the position and stove and when he saw the two approaching, he waved and shouted, ¡°Chi ge! Jiang Li! Here!¡± Chi Fang walked over and Jiang Li went to report to Zhang Ling. There was no class on this day. It was rare for Zhang Ling not to wear a white shirt and black trousers like in school before, instead, she wore a lake blue knitted short-sleeved shirt. Her face did not have the usual old-fashioned indifference. With a faint smile on her face, she was chatting with the English teacher. As soon as Jiang Li approached, Zhang Ling saw him and beckoned him to sit over there. The English teacher saw him and pulled out a stool with a smile. In the No. 2 middle school, Jiang Li¡¯s two favorite teachers were Zhang Ling and the English teacher, so he didn¡¯t refuse and sat down beside them. ¡°What happened to your leg?¡± Zhang Ling asked with concern when she saw the gauze on his leg. ¡°I scratched it accidentally this morning.¡± Jiang Li finished his words and saw her slightly wrinkled eyebrows, so he added, ¡°It¡¯s been disinfected, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Zhang Ling nodded and told him to be careful. Jiang Li nodded in response and helped them grill skewers. On the other side, Feng Yu saw Chi Fang coming over and handed him the cooked skewer in his hand. ¡°Chi ge, you guys finally came, the brothers are all going to open the bidding.¡± It was not fun to come to the rural inn just to have a barbecue. Feng Yu and others bought cards and some snacks at the supermarket yesterday and plan to gather together to play cards. ¡°You guys just play, I¡¯m not playing.¡± Chi Fang bit the skewer, sat down in the vacant seat beside him, looked at Jiang Li, and found that he was actually helping Zhang Ling and the others grill skewers. Feng Yu followed his gaze and said, ¡°What the heck, I was waiting for Jiang Li to come and make skewers. I didn¡¯t expect that Abbess and the others would be the first to get his skewers. They are indeed old gingers, spicy enough.¡± 1 Beside him, Liu Jianping, who was flipping the mutton skewers and sprinkled cumin powder, said, ¡°Yu ge, although Jiang Li is not here, I have practiced this technique, so you will definitely be satisfied.¡± Feng Yu glanced at the skewers on his hands whose meat was not yet cooked but the ends of the bamboo sticks were already scorched and said disgustedly, ¡°Xiongdi, with your skill, you can keep it for yourself.¡± As soon as he finished speaking, a skewer was stuffed into his hand by Chi Fang. Chi Fang clapped his hands. ¡°Your skills are not very good as well, you can eat it yourself.¡± Feng Yu held the skewers and looked down at the finished product of his group of brothers. All their techniques were not very good, so he could only eat the things he grilled with tears. In the end, Jiang Li came back to save everyone. Although it was an autumn class field trip, everyone could move freely and gather at the designated time in the afternoon. After eating, Chi Fang took Jiang Li to avoid the crowd so they could spend time with each other. Once Feng Yu reacted, he could no longer find them anymore. Feng Yu said bitterly, ¡°It¡¯s okay to stick together every day, but you guys even created small groups when we came out to play. We can¡¯t be brothers anymore.¡± The boy next to him heard his words and said, ¡°Yu ge, are you jealous that Jiang Li took your place?¡± ¡°I know right, it was Yu ge and Chi ge who used to create small groups but now Jiang Li is replacing him.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true, Yu ge and Chi ge were really inseparable like Jiao and Meng!¡± 2 Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± Taking my position? That¡¯s not what I meant, Chi ge and I are innocent! The people involved in the conversation of the crowd had already run to the pond in the back mountain. One found a fishing rod and sat fishing. Chi Fang called Chi Guoheng along the way and asked him to help deal with Jiang Li¡¯s matter. Jiang Li listened beside him and after the other party agreed, he signaled Chi Fang to give him the phone and thanked Chi Guoheng in person. It had been almost a month since the last meeting and Chi Guoheng¡¯s voice came from the phone gently, ¡°You¡¯re welcome, you usually help Xiao Fang so much, so don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°Yes, thank you, Uncle Chi.¡± Although the other party said so, Jiang Li still couldn¡¯t take it for granted. After thanking him, Jiang Li planned to give the phone back to Chi Fang but before he could do so, he heard the other person ask again, ¡°Where do you plan to go on National Day?¡± It stood to reason that the other party was unfamiliar with him and generally did not talk about such topics, but Jiang Li still replied, ¡°I have no plans for the time being.¡± ¡°Then why don¡¯t you come to City B with Xiao Fang and I¡¯ll arrange a car for you guys.¡± Chi Guoheng suggested. His tone was very normal as if he had mentioned it casually, but judging from his reaction when they first met, Jiang Li felt that there was a secret reason for asking him to go over. Thinking that this trip might be able to know something about Mother Jiang, Jiang Li agreed and returned the phone to Chi Fang. After hanging up the phone, Chi Fang hit Jiang Li¡¯s arm with his elbow and said with a bit of dissatisfaction, ¡°I told you to go back with me before, but you disagreed. How come you agreed when my uncle asked you?¡± Mother Jiang¡¯s matter had not been confirmed yet, so Jiang Li concealed it from him and said with a smile, ¡°I can¡¯t refuse the invitation of the elders.¡± ¡°Tch.¡± Chi Fang obviously didn¡¯t believe it, but he didn¡¯t ask anymore. Anyway, it was already good that Jiang Li agreed to go back with him. The two sat fishing like this, chatting with each other idly, the shadows of the two overlapping in the sun and they looked unusually harmonious from the back. Feng Yu finally found them but after glancing at them from not far away, he quietly walked away. In the afternoon after the event, Zhang Ling counted the number of people and arranged for everyone to get on the school bus one by one to prepare for the return trip. Jiang Li and Chi Fang didn¡¯t leave with everyone else. They played at the rural inn for one more day and they took a ride back to the city the next afternoon. Chi Fang¡¯s bicycle was still locked in the old town area, so he naturally followed Jiang Li back. In addition to the reason for the previous fight, the house was still in a mess and he just happened to be able to help Jiang Li clean up. It was almost seven o¡¯clock when they returned to the old town area. The two stopped by the market to buy vegetables and planned to go back to cook. On the way upstairs, Chi Fang kept discussing where to take Jiang Li to play when they returned to City B, as he described the famous scenic spots in the city and the suburbs. Jiang Li listened to his description and couldn¡¯t help but look forward to this trip more. Once they got upstairs, Jiang Li took out the key to open the door. As soon as he turned the key, he realized something was wrong and stopped. Chi Fang stood beside him carrying the vegetables: ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°I locked it before I went out.¡± Jiang Li said in a soft voice. Chi Fang was very smart and he knew it once he said it. The two looked at each other, and Chi Fang raised his chin, signaling him to move away and he would open the door. Jiang Li shook his head, indicating a no. Chi Fang remembered his heroic deeds of defeating the three people yesterday, so he didn¡¯t insist on it. He raised his vigilance and stood aside. Jiang Li moved lightly, turned the key to unlock, and then gently pushed the door open. The living room was dark, but Jiang Li¡¯s room was bright from the crack under the door and there was a subtle sound like rummaging through boxes. ¡°Thief?¡± Chi Fang asked silently. Jiang Li shook his head, where did the thief get the key to open the door? He guessed that it was the same as last time. It was Father Jiang who came back to find money secretly, so he silently said the two words ¡°Jiang Hai¡± to Chi Fang. Chi Fang put the bag with vegetables in his hand on the ground, picked up the stick on the ground, pointed to the door, and walked over slowly, Jiang Li following behind him. When they got to the door, Chi Fang twisted the door hard and pushed it in and the two of them came face-to-face with the person who was about to come out! Jiang Li guessed correctly, as expected, it was Father Jiang who came back to steal money. The cabinet under the bed was dragged out by him and even the box hidden under the tiles was turned over by him and left empty. Father Jiang was hiding here and there these days and he had no money on him. He was so abjected that he was no different from a homeless person. Today, he sneaked back to get some money and to pay back debt with this house, he didn¡¯t expect to bump into Jiang Li. Seeing Chi Fang, who was tall and holding a wooden stick in his hand, Father Jiang took two steps back vigilantly, quickly stuffed the money into his pocket and looked at the two with gloomy eyes, ¡°Little bastard, Laozi don¡¯t have time to deal with you today, get out of the way.¡± This was the first time Chi Fang saw Father Jiang. The man in front of him looked very thin, his cheeks were sunken on both sides, his complexion looked very unhealthy, his back was slightly arched, and his wide long-sleeved shirt was like a sack. His whole person was shown in a very depressed state. He was nothing like Jiang Li. If it wasn¡¯t for Jiang Li who just said it was Jiang Hai, he would never have thought that this was Jiang Li¡¯s father. Jiang Li took two steps forward and reached out to Jiang Hai, ¡°Return the money.¡± ¡°Are you kidding?¡± Father Jiang stared at him, his voice hoarse and unpleasant, ¡°You little bastard who harms your father and helps an outsider, I can¡¯t believe that you are secretly hiding this money, why? Do you want to learn from that bitch and run away from home? Both mother and son are the same. If it wasn¡¯t for Laozi feeding you, you would have been fucking¡­ ah!!¡± These unpleasant words made Chi Fang¡¯s face sink, he reached out and pushed Jiang Li away, and without saying a word, he stepped forward and kicked Father Jiang to the ground. Chi Fang moved his sore neck and pointed at Father Jiang on the ground with a stick, ¡°Why talk nonsense to this trash, it¡¯s a waste of expression.¡± Father Jiang was so thin that only bones remained. He was kicked violently by him and he couldn¡¯t get up after falling against the wall. He was completely different from the last time he tried to beat Jiang Li. Seeing this, Chi Fang sneered, ¡°What the heck, you¡¯re really a dog that can bark but doesn¡¯t bite.¡± As he said that, he was about to go over and take back the money he took from Jiang Li. Just after taking two steps, he was pulled by Jiang Li, ¡°Wait.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Chi Fang turned his head and found that Jiang Li was frowning at Father Jiang by the wall. Following his gaze, he found that the other party was curled up by the wall as if he was twitching, he started shaking insanely. ¡°What happened?¡± Chi Fang asked, his kick wasn¡¯t so powerful right? Jiang Li didn¡¯t answer, walked over and squatted beside Father Jiang. He then grabbed his hand and rolled up his sleeve. Sure enough, he found many tiny needle holes on it. ¨C Needle holes for injecting drugs. In his previous life, Jiang Li especially learned a lot of information about anti-drug and drug-related information for the filming of ¡°Mountain Tea Garden 2¡±. From Father Jiang¡¯s appearance on the news of anti-drug before to his completely changed appearance today, Jiang Li guessed at first sight that he was probably taking drugs. Father Jiang stretched out a hand and grabbed the hem of Jiang Li¡¯s clothes. The blue veins on the back of his skinny hand protruded and he said with difficulty, ¡°Give me¡­give me¡­¡± Jiang Li pushed his hand away, took the money back from his pocket, put it back in the box, found a rope to tie Father Jiang directly, and then said to Chi Fang, ¡°Call the police.¡± Chi Fang nodded, fished out his mobile phone, and called the police. The police quickly came to take him away. Chi Fang and Jiang Li, as witnesses and his family members, went to the police station to make a record. By the time the matter was settled and when the two came out of the police station, it was already night. It would take a lot of time to go back and clean up the house. The two of them had class the next day, so they went back to Chi Fang¡¯s house together first. At night, when Chi Fang thought about the sympathetic and pitiful eyes that the police officers who handled the case gave Jiang Li earlier, he felt so distressed that he reached out and hugged Jiang Li in his arms, and said in a soft voice, ¡°I will accompany you in the future.¡± For Jiang Li, Father Jiang didn¡¯t have a close relationship with him, so he didn¡¯t feel sad when sending him to prison, but Chi Fang¡¯s promise still warmed his heart. He put his hand on the back of his hand, tilted his head, and dropped a shallow kiss on the tip of his nose, ¡°Okay.¡± The two had a good night¡¯s sleep. The next day, the results of the monthly test were announced on the bulletin board of Senior 2 and Jiang Li was still firmly in first place. Everyone had become accustomed to him ranking first, but what was more surprising was that Chi Fang had passed all subjects. Since transferring to another school, Chi Fang, the school bully, who had often been late and left early, had never passed the exam, had passed all of them in this monthly exam, which was simply unbelievable. After the results were announced, Feng Yu took the lead in crowdfunding among all the weak students in Senior Two Class One and put a banner with yellow characters on a red background for Chi Fang. [Warmly congratulate Chi ge for passing all the papers in the monthly exam! Counterattack of A Weak Student! ¡ª¡ªCongratulations from Senior Two Class One] The banner was hung on the board at the back of the classroom. It was as long as the wall. The content was simple and crude and it was clear at a glance. When Chi Fang saw it, he grabbed the book in his hand and smashed it towards him. Feng Yu bent over to dodge it and shouted at Chi Fang with a giggle, ¡°Chi ge, fighting!!¡± ¡°¡­Stupid.¡± Chi Fang was too lazy to care about this idiot and knocked on Jiang Li¡¯s desk, reminding him, ¡°Where¡¯s my reward?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been ready since long ago.¡± Jiang Li took out the cardboard box that had been prepared for a long time from his school bag and put it on the table, ¡°I specially prepared it for you, open it and take a look.¡± The box was all black with a metal lock on the side and a golden feather was bronzed on the lower right corner, which looked very high-end and exquisite. Chi Fang saw that Jiang Li really prepared a reward for him, and he was in a very happy mood. As he was about to reach out to open it, a big group of audience members crowded from the back and front. ¡°Fuck, this reward looks so high-end, it looks like it¡¯s been consecrated!¡± ¡°Chi ge is too blessed, I want a reward too¡­¡± ¡°You only get 30 marks and you still want rewards, get lost!¡± ¡°Jiang Li not only helped Chi ge to make up lessons but also gave gifts to Chi ge after passing the test. Isn¡¯t he too good?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, Chi ge, quickly open and see what it is.¡± Chi Fang was a little overwhelmed by what they said, thinking that it was useless for them to envy him; the person was his, and the reward was also his. He reached out and put his hand on the lock, flicked his finger, and after unlocking it, he opened the lid of the box and exposed the contents in front of everyone. Lying inside was a set of unopened books with the words on the cover ¨C The Ultimate Version of the Five-Year College Entrance Examination and Three-Year Mock Test. Everyone suddenly fell silent and the scene was very awkward for a while. Someone let out a laugh first, and then everyone burst out laughing. Jiang Li put the Five-Three in the box on Chi Fang¡¯s hand solemnly and said earnestly, ¡°Passing is not the end, but the beginning. Please continue to work hard, Chi Fang tongxue.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± There¡¯s no love between us, there¡¯s hatred, right? T/N: You guys may notice that updates are getting slower and slower, this is because I just started my part time job and I work three to four times a week, plus club activities are starting. I¡¯ll try to translate when I have the time. Do message me on discord if you¡¯re waiting for an update, sometimes I might forget about updating completely. Discord: Rin_Zhonglibae#5858 A Chinese proverb, meaning that they are experienced and know how to get benefits. Based on the story of Yang¡¯s family, the two people, Jiao Zan and Meng Liang were inseparable sworn brothers. CH 69 A-A+ Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume After the monthly exam came National Day. In order to celebrate that Chi Fang passed all the exams for the first time, Feng Yu suggested inviting everyone to sing karaoke the day before the holiday. The largest karaoke place in Jiangcheng County was opened by Feng Yu¡¯s family, so everyone didn¡¯t hesitate to join in. People who were not in a hurry to go home had signed up. After calculating, there were more than 20 people, most of them were boys and only a few girls. Before going to karaoke, Chi Fang invited everyone to dinner. Originally, Zhang Ling was called, but Zhang Ling knew that they couldn¡¯t be at ease with her presence, so she shied away and said that she would not participate as she had family matters. The place to eat was a well-known restaurant in Jiangcheng County. The massive group of people ordered a big room and two tables were set up. They ordered dishes from the menu no matter how expensive they were, such as deep-sea lobsters, hairy crabs, and many more. Everyone was so unrestrained as if the food didn¡¯t cost money. Those who didn¡¯t know thought that Chi Fang had been admitted to Tsinghua University and was inviting everyone to a university celebration. At the checkout, facing the bill that went up to ten thousand, Chi Fang swiped the card without blinking and everyone couldn¡¯t help but cast passionate gazes at him: Rich man, let¡¯s be friends! After eating, the group went to karaoke. Feng Yu called early in the morning and asked the karaoke place to reserve a large luxury room. The room was not only spacious but also had a living room. A group of them did not feel crowded at all when they entered. Exquisite fruit plates and various snacks were already placed on the long coffee table. If it wasn¡¯t for everyone who was still not an adult, Feng Yu would have allowed people to bring in more than a dozen beers. Feng Yu¡¯s father and business friends were socializing in the room next door. When he heard that his son had brought his classmates over to play, he went to the room specially to let everyone have a good time and ask the waiter to deliver whatever they wanted to eat and drink. Father Feng was wearing a suit, with hair combed to the back and the appearance of a successful person. As soon as he left the room, someone said, ¡°Yu ge¡¯s father looks so dignified.¡± ¡°Yeah! The big boss is indeed different!¡± ¡°Speaking of this, although I know that Chi ge and Yu ge are rich, this is the first time I know how rich they are.¡± ¡°I ate a lobster worth £¤ 588 just now, and my feet are still floating.¡± ¡°Poverty really limits my imagination.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nice to be rich.¡± ¡°Why the heck are you guys sighing?¡± Feng Yu interrupted their discussion, stood at the karaoke platform with a microphone, and said, ¡°Hurry up, choose some songs to sing! Are you guys here just to chat?!¡± As soon as he said that, everyone went to choose songs in a chaotic manner. Feng Yu looked left and right and found that Chi Fang and Jiang Li were sitting in the corner of the sofa far away from everyone. With the rotating light, he saw Chi Fang put one hand on the back of the sofa behind Jiang Li, and Jiang Li was listening to him with his head lowered. This posture from his perspective looked like Jiang Li was leaning in Chi Fang¡¯s arms. Feng Yu: ¡°¡­¡± So gay. He found that Chi Fang was becoming more and more unscrupulous recently, and the intention of sticking to Jiang Li almost made it known to the world that Jiang Li was his boyfriend. Seeing the two of them being clingy with each other, Feng Yu subconsciously went to see if anyone around was paying attention to them and found that Nan Yin, who was sitting in the corner of the sofa diagonally opposite, was staring at them motionless. It was no secret that Nan Yin liked Chi Fang. As the most beautiful girl in the grade, she was not only excellent in her studies but also had a very good family background. Many people thought that Chi Fang would get together with her, but she didn¡¯t expect Chi Fang had no interest in her at all. Seeing that Chi Fang¡¯s lips were almost touching Jiang Li¡¯s ear, Feng Yu felt that it would be strange that Nan Yin wouldn¡¯t find out about their relationship if it went on like this. He took the microphone and walked toward Nan Yin¡¯s side, blocking her gaze with his body. He then handed the microphone to her with a smile: ¡°Nan jie, why are you just sitting here and not singing? You are in charge of literature and art in our class. You have to sing the opening song.¡± Nan Yin¡¯s sight was entirely blocked by him and she reached out to take the microphone: ¡°What¡¯s the point of me singing, it¡¯s not like you guys haven¡¯t heard it before, why don¡¯t you change to someone else?¡± ¡°Sure, Nan jie has the final say.¡± Nan Yin¡¯s sight swept across the crowd, tilted her head, and landed on Jiang Li, who was half-blocked by Feng Yu. She took the microphone and said, ¡°Jiang Li then.¡± The volume of her words was diffused through the microphone throughout the whole room, attracting everyone¡¯s attention and they slowly became quiet. Jiang Li was discussing with Chi Fang the itinerary to return to City B the next day when he suddenly heard his name and looked up at her: ¡°What?¡± ¡°Sing a song?¡± Nan Yin shook the microphone in her hand, ¡°I¡¯ve never heard you sing since I wasn¡¯t in the same class as you before but you study so well, so you must be excellent in other fields. Today is a rare opportunity, won¡¯t you sing a song for everyone?¡± As a rival in love, Jiang Li heard a faint sense of provocation from her words, so he looked at her and didn¡¯t reply. When Nan Yin had used the microphone to call Jiang Li¡¯s name, the room became quiet. The confrontation between the two made everyone feel that something was wrong, and they didn¡¯t know what was wrong. Chi Fang, who was next to him, looked a little unhappy. He looked at Nan Yin and said, ¡°If you wanna sing then sing, why are you asking others?¡± ¡°I just asked him to sing a song.¡± Nan Yin pursed her lips and tightened her hand that was holding the microphone. ¡°That won¡¯t do? Ah Fang, aren¡¯t you caring too much?¡± ¡°No¡ª¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Jiang Li suddenly interrupted Chi Fang and said with a smile, ¡°But today¡¯s main character is Chi Fang, so I can only sing this song to him.¡± Chi Fang heard what he said and turned to look at him: ¡°Sing for me?¡± ¡°En.¡± Jiang Li nodded and when he got up, he whispered in his ear, ¡°Listen well.¡± Liu Jianping at the song ordering platform watched him get up and shouted, ¡°What do you want to sing? I¡¯ll request it for you.¡± ¡°No need, they won¡¯t have this song here.¡± Jiang Li waved his hand, walked to the small stage next to the screen, connected the keyboard to the power supply, tried the tones of the key, and then began to play. The song that Jiang Li sang was an Italian song, which was made by a foreign singer friend in his previous life. It had not been released to the public and not many people knew about it. That friend was a homosexual and had a partner who had been with him for many years. The two knew each other, loved each other and protected each other. This song was then written by his friend on the tenth anniversary of their marriage. As he thought the song was very good, Jiang Li especially learned it from the other party. Jiang Li stood on the stage, his fingers flying on the keyboard, and the lights spinning above his head cast colorful lights on his face. He lowered his eyes slightly and his voice was extremely gentle. When he sang to a part, he raised his head and looked at Chi Fang in the corner. The people present were all high school students and most of them had average academic results. They couldn¡¯t even understand the English that they had to learn every day, let alone Italian. During Jiang Li¡¯s singing, all of them had a look of ¡°Who am I, where am I?¡± expression on their faces. They were in a daze until Jiang Li stopped, and they all praised that the first rank in the grade was indeed different. ¡°Jiang Li, why haven¡¯t I heard you sing this song before? What does it mean?¡± Someone asked aloud. Jiang Li wanted to return to his seat and sit down but when he heard him ask, he said, ¡°A song I heard a long time ago, it probably means wishing my friend a bright future.¡± ¡°I see, it indeed fits the scene!¡± After this short interlude, everyone started making noise again. People who sang continued singing, some were playing dice, and there was a lot of noise in the room. In the dim corner, Chi Fang¡¯s hand went to Jiang Li¡¯s back and with his body blocking him, he took his other hand, lowered his head, and asked by his ear, ¡°Wishing me a bright future?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Jiang Li held his hand back and laughed in a low voice, ¡°I wish Chi ge to score well in exams and have a bright future.¡± Knowing each other for so long, this was the first time that Chi Fang heard Jiang Li call him Chi ge. The young and gentle voice echoed through his eardrum and spread all the way to the bottom of his heart, casting ripples and making his heart throb. Chi Fang temporarily suppressed the desire in his heart, pulled out his hand gently, and pushed Jiang Li: ¡°¡­Go outside.¡± Jiang Li looked at him, got up, and walked outside. Chi Fang followed behind. A boy passing by saw him and asked, ¡°Chi ge, where are you guys going?¡± ¡°To the toilet.¡± Chi Fang dropped these three words without looking back and left the room with Jiang Li. ¡°To the toilet?¡± The boy scratched his head in confusion, ¡°Isn¡¯t there a toilet in the room?¡± ¨CSafety exit on the second floor of the karaoke. Chi Fang pressed Jiang Li against the fireproof door, licked and kissed his lips fiercely. They kissed back and forth for about ten minutes before Chi Fang let go and put his forehead on Jiang Li¡¯s shoulder, as if complaining and sighing, he said, ¡°You¡¯ll make me die sooner or later.¡± Jiang Li¡¯s lips were bitten by him and the corners of his mouth hurt a little. He didn¡¯t know if he should laugh or cry, ¡°Why are you acting like a dog?¡± Chi Fang listened to what he said and put his lips on Jiang Li¡¯s again. He licked the place on his lips that he had bitten just now with his tongue: ¡°Then I will help you disinfect it.¡± Saying it was disinfection but after licking it twice, he couldn¡¯t help kissing him again. Jiang Li helplessly pushed him away: ¡°Stop it. If we don¡¯t go back soon, Feng Yu will come out and look for us.¡± ¡°Wait.¡± Chi Fang put his arms around him and didn¡¯t let go, ¡°You haven¡¯t told me what was the meaning of the song you sang earlier?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I say so?¡± Jiang Li leaned against the door with a full smile, ¡°I wish Chi ge score well in exams¡­¡± ¡°Stop talking nonsense.¡± Chi Fang interrupted him and threatened, ¡°I¡¯ll kiss you if you don¡¯t tell me. It won¡¯t be so easy to let you go this time.¡± Jiang Li looked at him and saw the expectation in his eyes clearly. He chuckled lightly, leaned over and sang a few words softly by his ear before translating them into Chinese: ¡°The person my heart is bound to is right in front of me; I would like to use everything in exchange for falling in love with him for the rest of my life.¡± Although Chi Fang knew that the lyrics were definitely not wishing him to score well or have a bright future, he didn¡¯t expect it to be so straightforward and passionate. He even said to promise him a lifetime. The impact was not weaker than the ¡°I like you¡± that Jiang Li said in the forest the last time. It was so strong that Chi Fang couldn¡¯t come back to his senses for a while as his mind was overwhelmed by his ¡°he wants to spend the rest of his life with me¡±. Jiang Li saw that his expression was a little dazed, as if his soul was out of his body. He reached out and pinched his face: ¡°Are you¡­ so happy that you¡¯re dizzy?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± I¡¯m not just dizzy, I¡¯m literally going to heaven. That night¡¯s WeChat Moments were spammed by Chi Fang. The fireworks he posted were bigger than the previous ones and he spammed more than a dozen in a row. In the end, many people in Moments thought he was selling fireworks as a Wechat business. Shortly after, a new post appeared on the No. 2 Middle School¡¯s Bulletin Board System. ¡ª¡ª[Shocked] The school bully of the No.2 Middle School of Jiang City is selling fireworks online as a part-time job. Those who pass by please give a helping hand, we all will then be happy ever after!!! CH 70 On National Day, Jiang Li and Chi Fang returned to City B. Chi Guoheng originally wanted to send a car to pick them up, but Chi Fang felt that it would be too troublesome to send someone. Besides, the driving duration was too long, so he and Jiang Li directly changed trains to L City nearby in order to take the high-speed train back. It took less than an hour for them to go from Jiangcheng County to City L by car. When they arrived at the high-speed rail station, the two got their tickets checked and boarded the train. They found their seats according to the serial number on the ticket and discovered they were in the first row at the entrance. There were seats for three people. Chi Fang sat outside, Jiang Li sat in the middle, and the innermost was a middle-aged woman in her forties, holding a little boy about four or five years old in her arms. Chi Fang put the backpack in Jiang Li¡¯s arms, bent over and put their suitcases on the luggage rack, sat down beside him, took the backpack, and unzipped it. He took out a thermos containing hot water from it and passed it to him: ¡°Are you hungry?¡± It was a more than four-hour ride from Town Area L to City B. The old man was afraid that the two would be hungry on the train, so he had stuffed a lot of snacks in his backpack. ¡°I¡¯m not hungry.¡± Jiang Li shook his head, unscrewed the bottle, and drank some water. Chi Fang took out a bottle and drank half of it, stuffed it back again, then put the backpack on the luggage rack together. He fished out his phone and asked Jiang Li, ¡°Wanna watch a movie?¡± The signal on the high-speed train was not good, so he had downloaded movies in advance a few days earlier to pass the time but unfortunately, he was only able to buy the first row of tickets. There was no place to put his mobile phone, so he could only hold it himself. ¡°What movie?¡± Jiang Li leaned over and asked. ¡°I¡¯ve downloaded a few, you can choose the one you like.¡± Chi Fang gave him the phone and took a thermos to help him get more water. Jiang Li took Chi Fang¡¯s mobile phone, planning to see what movie he had downloaded. There was a movie folder in the interface that Chi Fang had opened just now. He was about to open it, but the little boy sitting next to him suddenly moved and accidentally bumped into his hand and with a flick of his hand, he clicked on the file named ¡°sdjchaiue¡± under the movie. After clicking on it by mistake, Jiang Li subconsciously wanted to return. After seeing what was inside, he stopped his fingers abruptly, looked at it for a while, and looked up in the direction where Chi Fang was going to get water. Because it was a three-day holiday, there were a lot of passengers on the train. People who only bought standing tickets were stuck at the intersection of the two carriages. Chi Fang only got water after making some effort. Once he returned, he saw Jiang Li staring at him directly with a meaningful smile at the corner of his mouth. Chi Fang sat down beside him inexplicably: ¡°Why are you looking at me like that?¡± Jiang Li took his mobile phone and said with a smile, ¡°Chi Fang tongxue, you actually downloaded this kind of thing, it doesn¡¯t show ah.¡± ¡°??¡± Chi Fang took the phone without knowing what he meant, ¡°Didn¡¯t I just download some movies? What are you talking about¡­¡± The rest of the words stopped suddenly as Chi Fang looked at the document on the screen and was suddenly speechless. On the page are the comics that Feng Yu had sent to him before, saying that they were from his sister¡¯s collection, there were both pure love and hentai. He had sent dozens of them in one breath, such as ¡°Kiss My Little Housekeeper¡± and ¡°You Are My Everything¡±, ¡°Two Hours After Class¡±, ¡°The New Deskmate is a Little Naughty¡±, and ¡°Sexy Male Slave¡±, those names that looked very vulgar at first glance. He had simply saved them into his phone at that time and didn¡¯t even read them before, he didn¡¯t expect Jiang Li to see them first. What a shame!! ¡°Chi Fang tongxue.¡± Jiang Li leaned over, read the comic¡¯s name twice in a low voice, and tsked twice, ¡°I know you¡¯re horny, but I didn¡¯t expect you to be so horny.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± I¡¯m not, I don¡¯t, it¡¯s Feng Yu who¡¯s horny! After all, it was in a public place, and there were people around them. Jiang Li didn¡¯t tease Chi Fang too much. He stopped appropriately and chose a crime film from the phone to watch. There were many people on the train and noise was inevitable, especially when there was a child sitting next to them. Less than half an hour after the train started, the little boy couldn¡¯t sit still. He struggled to get off his mother¡¯s lap and ran to the other side to find another child to play with. The two started chasing and quarreling noisily in the carriage. The place where the two carriages met was crowded, and the two children couldn¡¯t get through, so they just circled around the seats, running back and forth, shouting as they ran. The little boy¡¯s mother saw that they were only making noise within the line of sight, so she didn¡¯t pay much attention to it. She played with her mobile phone and shouted at them from time to time, as long as the child responded. Chi Fang and Jiang Li used the same pair of earphones, so the other ear could only be left empty. Chi Fang sat by the aisle and the two noisy children were just next to him. The giggling noise caused him to not be in the mood to watch the movie at all. He initially wanted to make them quiet down, but he let them be when he saw the two of them run to the other end of the aisle as they chased each other, so they continued watching the movie with their heads down. Unexpectedly, in less than two minutes, the two children ran back as they continued chasing. One of them ran past Chi Fang as he shouted and his waving hand directly hitting the phone in Chi Fang¡¯s hand to the ground, making a ¡°snap¡± sound. Seeing that he was in trouble, the little boy glanced back, and without apologizing, he threw himself into the arms of the middle-aged woman. The middle-aged woman hugged him and said to Chi Fang and Jiang Li with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, children are ignorant.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡± Jiang Li bent down to pick up the phone and said, ¡°There are many people on the train, so it¡¯s better for children not to run around.¡± The middle-aged woman smiled and patted the little boy¡¯s butt twice symbolically: ¡°Did you hear?¡± The little boy didn¡¯t say a word, grabbed the middle-aged woman¡¯s clothes, and acted coquettishly. Chi Fang thought it would finally stop but he didn¡¯t expect that within five minutes, the little boy ran out again, while the middle-aged woman watched TV on her mobile phone and didn¡¯t care. In modern society, there were many parents that used sheep-herding-style 1 education towards their children. Jiang Li heard a girl behind him softly asking the little boy to stop, but the effect was not obvious. The little boy chased and played in the aisle for a while. He was probably tired and ran back. He stepped on Jiang Li¡¯s foot on the way back as he was running too fast. Jiang Li frowned and retracted his foot a little. Seeing that, Chi Fang quickly grabbed the shoulder of the little boy who wanted to run away and pulled him back from the middle-aged woman. The little boy looked up at him. Chi Fang then said, pointing to Jiang Li¡¯s shoes: ¡°You stepped on someone.¡± A gray mark was shown on Jiang Li¡¯s white sneakers where they were stepped on. When the middle-aged woman saw this, she said sorry, reaching out and wanting to pull her child back. However, Chi Fang didn¡¯t release his hand. He looked at her with a cold gaze, ¡°One shouldn¡¯t repeat a mistake three times, it¡¯s already the second time.¡± The woman was silent for a moment, then turned to the little boy and said, ¡°I told you not to run around, look, gege is angry!¡± The little boy flattened his mouth and looked like he was about to cry. Jiang Li found this kind of education very funny. When a child did something wrong, his parents didn¡¯t tell him what was wrong in the first place but instead made the incident and root cause unclear. Chi Fang grabbed the little boy¡¯s arm and looked at him: ¡°Apologize.¡± His expression was cold and his gaze was not friendly. The child was scared by him and howled directly. When the middle-aged woman heard this, she was unhappy: ¡°Hey, why are you talking like that, didn¡¯t he just step on you? It¡¯s not such a big deal, children are ignor¡­¡± ¡°Children are ignorant, right?¡± Jiang Li interrupted her with a smile, ¡°Is that what Auntie means?¡± It might be because Jiang Li looked kind and had a smile on his face, the middle-aged woman felt that he was easier to talk to than Chi Fang, so she immediately said, ¡°That¡¯s right, he¡¯s just a child, he¡¯s ignorant.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if he¡¯s ignorant.¡± Jiang Li said gently and smiled kindly, ¡°But I¡¯m not ignorant, I can teach him.¡± After he finished speaking, he turned his eyes to the little boy who was crying but no tears could be seen, and reached out and touched his head: ¡°Little boy, remember to apologize when you step on someone, or gege will screw your head off and throw it from the train, do you understand now?¡± Middle-aged woman: ¡°¡­¡± When he said this, his voice suddenly became cold as he continued speaking with a chilly aura, as if he would do what he said if things didn¡¯t go according to his wish. It scared the little boy so much that his neck shrank. Once he saw the coldness in his eyes, he cried loudly: ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­ wu¡­ I was wrong¡­¡± ¡°Good.¡± The murderous aura on Jiang Li¡¯s face dissipated in an instant and he turned back into the genial appearance of a spring breeze from earlier, ¡°What a good boy, cute.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± The seal was lifted just now, right? After that, the little boy finally stopped making noise. He sat obediently on the middle-aged woman¡¯s lap and watched TV with her, and fell asleep after a while as he was too sleepy. Chi Fang took off his earplugs, tilted his head to Jiang Li¡¯s ear and said, ¡°You looked a little fierce just now.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li looked up, met his gaze, and smiled, ¡°Did I scare you?¡± ¡°Nonsense, how is that possible?¡± Chi Fang smiled, stretched out his hand and flicked his forehead, ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± That way no one will bully you anymore. After watching a movie, the two switched to another one. Four hours passed quickly. Before the second movie was finished, the train stopped at City B¡¯s train station. City B¡¯s train station was a big station. After arriving at the station, most of the carriages were empty. Jiang Li took the backpack, which Chi Fang had gotten down from the luggage rack, opened the zipper, took out a box of hazelnut chocolates, and handed it to the little boy who had just woken up. The little boy was still traumatized by him saying that he would unscrew his head and throw him out of the train. He looked at him eagerly, not daring to reach for it. The middle-aged woman also waved her hand: ¡°No need, no need, thank you.¡± Jiang Li smiled and said to the little boy, ¡°This is a reward for being obedient. You did a great job just now.¡± The little boy rolled his eyes, then reached out to get it, and whispered, ¡°Thank you gege.¡± Jiang Li touched his head, and with a gentle tone he said: ¡°You¡¯re welcome, you have to remember what gege told you just now and be careful with your head.¡± Little boy:¡±¡­¡± Chi Fang was listening next to him and couldn¡¯t help laughing. Jiang Li was really mean. He had slapped him, gave him a candy, and before the candy was eaten, he had slapped him again.The little boy would probably have a very deep impression of him. The two walked out of the station with their luggage. They saw the person Chi Guoheng called to pick them up outside. The other party took their luggage and put it in the trunk and then went back to the driver¡¯s seat to drive. After getting in the car, Chi Fang asked the other party, ¡°Uncle Lin, where¡¯s my uncle?¡± ¡°The director went to City H to participate in the inspection and will be back in two days.¡± The other party said, ¡°I¡¯ll take you and this kid back first.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± The other party sent the two back to the Chi family¡¯s house, handed over the luggage to the housekeeper who came to greet them, and left first. The two had come back late so went upstairs to take a bath after dinner. There were five floors in the Chi family¡¯s house, and the entire third floor was Chi Fang¡¯s. The housekeeper tidied up a guest room for Jiang Li on the third floor, Chi Fang didn¡¯t even take a look and took Jiang Li back to his room. The two were going to stay in City B for a week. Jiang Li took out the clothes from the suitcase and hung them in the wardrobe. Chi Fang started taking a shower. After Jiang Li unpacked his things, he looked at the facilities in the room since he had nothing to do. Then he picked up Chi Fang¡¯s mobile phone and planned to watch the movie he had not finished watching in the train. He pressed and saw the folder with the name ¡°sdjchaiue¡± again. The letters ¡°sdjchaiue¡± were pressed randomly at first glance. Jiang Li imagined how Chi Fang read the little yellow comics secretly and couldn¡¯t help laughing. He pressed it open simply and chose one of them to read. After reading it for a while, System¡¯s voice sounded: ¡°Master, if you are interested in this, you can take a look at System¡¯s mall.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li asked, ¡°Does the system even have this?¡± System: ¡°There are only things you can¡¯t think of, there¡¯s nothing the system can¡¯t do.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Jiang Li pondered for a while, wondering if he should exchange his points for a basic high-definition uncensored one as a reward for Chi Fang in the next midterm exam, since rewards should be something one was happy to receive. Chi Fang came out of the shower, saw him propping up his chin with a contemplating expression, so he wiped his hair and walked to him: ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jiang Li raised his head and saw that he only came out with shorts. The teenager¡¯s tall and thin yet strong body was covered with a thin layer of muscles, with smooth and tensed lines. There was fresh water vapor on the skin that had just taken a shower, mixed with a faint scent of shower gel, which was very pleasant to smell. ¡°I¡¯m thinking¡­¡± Jiang Li pointed the screen of his mobile phone at him and showed him the comics on the page, ¡°Have you learned a lot of tricks after reading so many comics?¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± I have only learned how to use my right hand after reading them alone! Letting the children do what they want. CH 71 They were both still underage, so Jiang Li just wanted to tease Chi Fang on a whim and didn¡¯t continue teasing him. The two played games for a while and then turned off the lights and lay down. Jiang Li was lying on the bed, remembering that he only saw the housekeeper and servants when he came here today but did not see Chi Fang¡¯s father, so he asked about him. Chi Fang put his hand on his waist and played with his fingers with one hand. Hearing him asked, he said nonchalantly, ¡°He¡¯s very busy, you don¡¯t need to worry about him, you don¡¯t see him a few times a year anyway. ¡± Jiang Li saw that he didn¡¯t want to say more, so he didn¡¯t ask further. Instead, he asked why he transferred to No.2 Middle School. ¡°Well, there¡¯s actually no big reason¡­¡± Chi Fang briefly explained it to him. Chi Fang¡¯s mother died of illness when he was in the sixth grade of elementary school, and his father was busy with business all day long. Although Chi Fang was not unfamiliar with his father, they were not close either. They rarely saw each other throughout the year. In the second year after his mother passed away, Father Chi had new women by his side but considering the reason why Chi Fang would not accept it, he did not bring them home but just kept them outside. Because his father found other women just after his mother left after a year, Chi Fang¡¯s character once became very irritable and agitated. When he was a freshman in high school, one of his classmates who he didn¡¯t have good relationships with used this to irritate him and the two had a conflict. The other party scolded him as someone who was given birth by a mother but wasn¡¯t educated because he didn¡¯t have a mother. These words rubbed him the wrong way, so he beat up the other party and broke two of his rib bones. The other party was the young son of his family company¡¯s partner. Chi Fang¡¯s father came back from abroad for this matter. He took him to the ward to apologize without asking the reason. Chi Fang didn¡¯t succumb to it and escaped by jumping out of the window of the second floor¡¯s ward. After that, his uncle helped him transfer to Jiangcheng No. 2 Middle School. He didn¡¯t ask how his father solved the follow-up matter and he didn¡¯t care either. But later his uncle called and said that if he wanted, he could go back to City B and continue to study in Jiangcheng. Chi Fang chose to stay in No. 2 Middle School since he felt comfortable in a different environment, and it was just the right time to accompany the old man. As Chi Fang said this, his tone was very indifferent. It was as if he was telling someone else¡¯s story and he didn¡¯t care about it. After Jiang Li listened to his story, he turned over and lay on his chest, imitating the way he hugged him before and leaned into his ear and said, ¡°I will accompany you in the future.¡± Chi Fang smiled in the dark, reached out, and touched his head: ¡°Okay.¡± The next morning, Chi Fang took Jiang Li out to play. For three consecutive days, the two went out early and returned late and played at all the attractions in the urban and suburban areas. In the past three days, Jiang Li had not seen Father Chi. It was said that he had gone abroad to deal with business and he would not come back for at least 8 to 10 days. October 5th was Jiang Li¡¯s seventeenth birthday. The two went to the theme park to have fun for a long time in the morning and went to the movies in the afternoon. At night, when it was nearly midnight, Chi Fang mysteriously dragged Jiang Li to the suburbs. Jiang Li asked him what he was going to do. Chi Fang smiled without saying a word, took out a box from the grass, and opened the box under Jiang Li¡¯s puzzled gaze. An exquisite container lay quietly in the box, with the words ¡°Happy Birthday¡± inlaid on it. ¡°What is this?¡± Jiang Li was a little confused at first, then surprised, ¡°Is it¡­ fireworks?¡± ¡°Hmmph.¡± Chi Fang fiddled around for a while and placed it in an open space, ¡°I asked someone to help me get it last month and it took more than half a month, luckily there was no further delay.¡± Jiang Li guessed that the fireworks were ordered by Chi Fang soon after the two of them were together. He really didn¡¯t expect that it was not enough for Chi Fang to set off fireworks in WeChat Moment, he even specially customized one. Jiang Li felt both funny and touched. Watching him take out a lighter from his pocket, Jiang Li squatted down beside him: ¡°You asked me to come here¡­ just to see this?¡± ¡°Yeah, we can¡¯t set off fireworks in the city, so we can only go out further.¡± Chi Fang took out a lighter from his pocket and patted him, ¡°Stay back a little.¡± Jiang Li stood up and stepped almost two meters away from him. Under the dark night sky, the teenager squatted on the ground. The lighter illuminated his profile and there was a faint and gentle smile on his thin lips. Jiang Li stood aside. This scene made him feel warm in his heart and he couldn¡¯t restrain himself from raising the edges of his lips. He quietly watched Chi Fang ignite the fuse on the container with a lighter, then got up and walked towards him. Chi Fang then stood beside Jiang Li, reached out, and held his hand. After the fuse was ignited, with a long howl, the fireworks flew into the sky and with a bang, they exploded from the heights. The colorful fireworks lit up the starry sky in the dark night and the huge flowers spread out, splendid and gorgeous. There were three fireworks in total. The first two were ordinary fireworks. After the last one was scattered in the air, the golden stars gathered into the words ¡°Happy Birthday¡±, which remained in the air for a long time. Jiang Li raised his head and looked at the four big characters in the night sky, his eyes slightly widened, his fingers subconsciously wrapped around Chi Fang¡¯s fingers bit by bit, tightly interlocking with his fingers. Chi Fang¡¯s fingers also held him back tightly. In the dark night, the palms of the two of them were sweating but neither of them let go, rather they held on even tighter. When the letters in the air slowly dissipated, Jiang Li turned around and hooked Chi Fang¡¯s neck with his other hand, his toes slightly raised, and he kissed Chi Fang on the lips. ¡­¡­ Chi Fang wrapped his arms around his waist with one arm and whispered, ¡°Happy birthday, baby.¡± ¡­ After Chi Guoheng came back from the inspection out of state, he contacted Chi Fang and asked him to bring Jiang Li to his house for dinner. Before going there, Jiang Li thought about what gift to bring. After all, it was the first time he visited. Chi Fang waved his hand and said that there was no need to bring gifts since they were a family, or else they would seem estranged. ¡°I¡¯m bringing gifts only because we¡¯re a family.¡± Jiang Li smiled, ¡°After all, it¡¯s considered a meeting with your parents, isn¡¯t it?¡± Meeting parents? Chi Fang paused, turned his head to look at him and met his smiling eyes. He then blurted out, ¡°Bring them! Bring them as you like!¡± So before going to Chi Guoheng¡¯s house, the two went to the mall and bought gifts for the couple before taking a taxi to their destination. Knowing that the two were coming over for dinner, Mrs. Chi specially prepared a lot of dishes. Seeing that the two also brought gifts, she felt funny and angry. She took the things, put them aside, and scolded a few lines. After the death of Mother Chi, Chi Fang lived in Chi Guoheng¡¯s house for a long time. Apart from the old man, he was the closest to the married couple. Hearing Mrs. Chi scolding him, he was not angry at all. He was in fact smiling in response and occasionally argued back. Mrs. Chi scolded him with a smile, turned to Jiang Li, and asked, ¡°Is this Jiang Li? I heard Old Chi say that you are helping Xiao Fang make up the lessons these days. Thank you for the hard work.¡± Jiang Li once heard Chi Fang mention that Mrs. Chi and Chi Guoheng were alumni, they were the same age, both over fifty. But she looked very good, except there were some fine lines at the corners of her eyes. She smiled very kindly and spoke softly, which reminded Jiang Li of his mother in his previous life. ¡°It¡¯s not hard.¡± Jiang Li smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s all I should do.¡± Mrs. Chi smiled, let them both sit down, and went to call Chi Guoheng. After Chi Guoheng came back, Mrs. Chi greeted everyone for dinner. After the meal, Mrs. Chi said that she was going to a nearby shopping mall to buy something and asked Chi Fang to accompany her. Chi Fang wanted to bring Jiang Li with him, but Chi Guoheng had said, ¡°I heard the old man say Jiang Li was good at chess last time. How about taking this opportunity to play two games with me?¡± After saying that, Jiang Li and he looked at each other, knowing that this was his intention to have a talk without Chi Fang, so he nodded in response. After Chi Fang and Mrs. Chi went out, Chi Guoheng asked Jiang Li to go to the study room with him. He took out a photo album from the bookcase and handed it to him, saying, ¡°Take a look.¡± Jiang Li took it over and saw that the album was written as a photo album of xx fresh graduates of xx university. He sat aside and flipped open the photo album and what appeared in front of him was a graduation photo. Jiang Li looked up at him: ¡°This is¡­¡± ¡°This is the graduation photo of our class of graduates.¡± Chi Guoheng said, reaching out to point to the female student in the middle of the second row in the album. ¡°This is your mother, Lu Xuanxuan.¡± Jiang Li was stunned for a moment before looking down at the person he was pointing at, and after moving his fingers away, he saw a young girl with braids. In the three rows of names below the graduation photo, the three words ¡®Lu Xuanxuan¡¯ were captioned under the photo of the girl. Lu Xuanxuan was the name of the original host¡¯s mother. Jiang Li guessed that Chi Guoheng might know Mother Jiang, but never thought that they would be classmates. The people in the group photo were too small for Jiang Li to see clearly, so he flipped a few pages back and saw a few group photos of Mother Jiang and others and her own solo photo. When she was young, Mother Jiang was very beautiful and had a very good temperament. Her beauty couldn¡¯t be hidden even if she just wore a simple white shirt and a black knee-length skirt. The Jiang Mother in the photo was younger and more youthful than Jiang Li¡¯s impression of her. ¡°You are very similar to your mother, I recognized it at a glance.¡± Chi Guoheng said, with a smile on his face, but a hint of sadness in his eyes. He looked down at the album, his expression looked like he felt nostalgic and yet felt like he was remembering an upsetting memory, which made Jiang Xin feel suspicious: ¡°You and my mother¡­¡± ¡°We were once together.¡± Chi Guoheng said, ¡°It was many years ago.¡± Chi Guoheng told a very clich¨¦ but also a very realistic story. He fell in love with Mother Jiang when he was in college. The two had a very good relationship, but their family background didn¡¯t match, so his family opposed their relationship and they were forced to break up. After graduating from college and breaking up, Chi Guoheng left for his career and Mother Jiang disappeared. Some people said that she went back to her hometown, and some people said that she went to work in another province. In short, the two had been separated for many years and had never seen each other again. After so many years, the past had gone with the wind. He had also married and had children and his family was harmonious, but when he thought of it occasionally, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh. When he saw Jiang Li for the first time, a face similar to that of the woman he liked caught his attention. After investigation, it turned out that Jiang Li was Lu Xuanxuan¡¯s son, just as he had guessed. From the collected information, he learned that Lu Xuanxuan was not happy after marriage. Her husband drank and carried out domestic abuse all year round, forcing her to run away from home and never come back. After returning from Jiangcheng, he privately made arrangements to look for the news of Mother Jiang. It was just that it had been six years since Mother Jiang left. It was not easy to find someone. It took a lot of time to find the clues. After searching all the way, he got unsatisfactory results. Hearing his words, Jiang Li¡¯s heart thumped: ¡°Where¡¯s my mother? Did you find her?¡± Chi Guoheng looked at him with sadness and pity in his eyes, complicated and incomprehensible. He looked at Jiang Li, reached out, and touched his head: ¡°Uncle found it too late, your mother died a few years ago due to illness.¡± ¡°What did you say? Jiang Li stared at him blankly, feeling that his ears seemed to be having tinnitus just now. He didn¡¯t hear what he said clearly, but his eyes turned red and an indescribable feeling suddenly emerged in his heart, as if something was tearing him apart. He was so uncomfortable that tears fell without warning. At that moment, Jiang Li heard an uncontrollable cry from the bottom of his heart. That was the cry from the original Jiang Li. CH 72 After leaving Chi Guoheng¡¯s house, Jiang Li told Chi Fang about Mother Jiang. The next day, the two went to the place Chi Guoheng told them about to find Mother Jiang from B City. It was a little remote mountain village. Chi Guoheng was afraid that they couldn¡¯t find the place, so he sent someone to take them there. As they needed to take train transfers, it took two days and one night to reach the place. It was learned from the local villagers that after Mother Jiang came here, she became a teacher in the primary school in the village. She was good-natured and gentle, and the students liked her very much, but she seemed to be in poor health and looked unhappy. She then died the second year after coming to the village. As the village was far away and poor, the primary school in the village was not successful in recruiting teachers. The principal was very grateful that Mother Jiang volunteered to stay in the village to be a teacher. After her death due to illness, the principal¡¯s family dealt with her funeral affairs under the circumstances of being unable to contact her relatives. Seeing the similar appearance of Jiang Li and Mother Jiang, and after learning that he was Mother Jiang¡¯s son, the principal did not hide it from him: ¡°Your mother is buried in the back mountain, I will take you there.¡± Jiang Li nodded: ¡°Thank you.¡± Although the village was remote and poor, the scenery of the back mountain was beautiful with birds singing and fragrant flowers Mother Jiang¡¯s tomb was on a small slope on the mountainside and there were shaded trees next to it. A simple stone tablet stood, which read: Tomb of Teacher Lu Xuan. It seemed that after Mother Jiang came here, she changed her name to Lu Xuan. Probably because the principal¡¯s family had come to sweep the tomb due to the Double Ninth Festival, the weeds on and around Mother Jiang¡¯s grave were clean, and there was a half-burned candle in front of the tombstone that had been blown out. After arriving at the place, the principal went back, leaving Jiang Li and Chi Fang there. Chi Fang didn¡¯t expect to see his mother-in-law in this way for the first time. Looking at Jiang Li who was standing silently in front of the tombstone, he reached out and patted him, and asked in a low voice, ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°En.¡± Jiang Li replied in a low voice. He came to this world with two tasks, one was to capture Chi Fang, and the other was to see Mother Jiang again and ask her why she left him alone in the first place. In fact, Jiang Li could understand the reason why Mother Jiang had to leave under the original circumstances, but the original host was only ten years old at the time, and Jiang Li could not agree with the practice of her leaving the original host alone. When he knelt down before the grave, he was doing his filial piety for the original host. The moment he knelt down, System whispered: ¡°Master host, the side quest has been completed.¡± Chi Fang next to him saw him kneeling down, so he also knelt down and Jiang Li turned to look at him. He reached out and touched Jiang Li¡¯s head then said to the tombstone, ¡°Aunt Lu, I don¡¯t agree with you for leaving Jiang Li back then. I¡¯m kneeling down because you are his mother. I want to tell you that I will take good care of him in the future. Rest in peace.¡± Jiang Li looked at him quietly for a few seconds then reached out to hold his fingers, and he whispered to the tombstone, ¡°Rest in peace.¡± At the same time, he whispered in his heart: Rest in peace too. The two came in a hurry this time. Jiang Li did not rashly bring back Mother Jiang¡¯s ashes. He planned to come again during the winter vacation and left the village with Chi Fang that night. After National Day, everyone went back to school. As soon as National Day passed, Jiangcheng County began to turn cold and before the Indian summer had completely passed, winter sneaked in quietly at night. The matter of Mother Jiang came to an end, and Father Jiang was detained and sentenced because he not only took drugs but also participated in drug trafficking. During the winter vacation, the land in the old city area was included in the scope of the demolition plan. Taking advantage of the time when Jiang Li was away, Chi Fang went to pack his things and directly took them home. After Jiang Li found out, he was both speechless and amused, but his things were all moved over and the old man also said that it was too troublesome to run back and forth, so he just stayed at their house and didn¡¯t move back. However, while living together, Jiang Li was quite worried that the relationship between them would be discovered by the old man. After all, the old man was in his seventies and could not be stimulated too much. He told Chi Fang about his worries and Chi Fang lay on the bed as he rolled around with laughter. ¡°What are you laughing at?¡± Jiang Li was puzzled. ¡°I¡¯m laughing at you being stupid.¡± Chi Fang rolled over and looked at him with his stomach lying on the bed, ¡°Do you really think that the old man doesn¡¯t know anything?¡± Jiang Li was taken aback: ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Chi Fang stretched out his hand and pulled him to the side, lowered his head, and kissed his nose, ¡°The old man doesn¡¯t say it, but he knows better than anyone else. It was his idea to bring your things here.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li really did not expect that the old man would come up with the idea of taking action without his permission. After being speechless for a while, he also laughed. Although his relationship with Chi Fang didn¡¯t take into account other people¡¯s opinions, he had to consider the old man¡¯s feelings. In this way, after the old man agreed, he would have no worries. The New Year was approaching and when he learned that Chi Fang would not be able to go back to celebrate the New Year, Father Chi came to Jiangcheng. The first time Jiang Li saw Chi Fang¡¯s father, he found that he looked very much like the middle-aged version of Chi Fang and he couldn¡¯t help but imagine what Chi Fang looked like in his middle age. The father and son did not have a close relationship, and they didn¡¯t have much to say when they met. Father Chi left after a day¡¯s stay. Chi Fang didn¡¯t even bother to send him downstairs and only said ¡°Safe trip¡± at the door perfunctorily. Father Chi seemed to have something to say, looking at Chi Fang¡¯s absent-minded face, but he finally still said nothing, turned, and went downstairs. Small towns weren¡¯t as strict as big cities. On New Year¡¯s Day, fireworks were set off everywhere. The sky was full of colors and the whole night sky was illuminated. As the bell at midnight rang, a new year came. Chi Fang and Jiang Li stood on the balcony, fingers interlocked. They turned their heads and smiled as they looked at each other: ¡°Happy New Year.¡± Jiang Nuomi squatted by the waist of the two of them and called out, ¡°Meow~¡± The old man who was awakened by the fireworks came out and saw the backs of the two of them and smiled. Under Jiang Li¡¯s guidance, Chi Fang¡¯s grades in various subjects improved significantly, and his grades in the final exam of the second year of high school successfully made him into the top 200 in the grade, which was so much better than when he had first entered the school. It was just that although the results had improved a lot, there was still a very large gap to the goal of entering Tsinghua University. So Jiang Li used his points to go to System¡¯s mall and bought several sets of Five-year College Entrance Examination Three-year Mock Tests. Looking at the Five-Three that was stacked in front of him, Chi Fang looked at him in disbelief. Remembering the trauma dominated by the previous set of Ultimate Edition, his fingers were shaking, ¡°Where did you get so much of this stuff?¡± Jiang Li touched the cover with his hand and smiled, ¡°This is the second and third volumes.¡± Chi Fang saw that there was a small circle where his finger was pointing, with the word ¡°two¡± in it, and his eyes suddenly darkened. So the one he did before was only the first set? Collapsing weakly on the chair, Chi Fang said lifelessly, ¡°Let¡¯s set our goals a little bit smaller. I¡¯ll just try to enter a first-tier university near Tsinghua University, alright? It¡¯s in the same city anyway.¡± ¡°No way.¡± Jiang Li shook his finger, his tone was firm, ¡°If you say it¡¯s Tsinghua, it¡¯s Tsinghua.¡± Chi Fang: ¡°¡­¡± I really owe you in my last life. After the start of the third year of high school, the atmosphere of Year 3 Class 1 became very tense. The calligraphy and paintings on the board newspaper at the back of the classroom were removed and replaced with the countdown to the college entrance examination. Jiang Li was already recommended to enter Tsinghua University so all his time was spent on making up lessons for Chi Fang, and Xu Haowen was also recommended along with him. Feng Yu had already determined the school he was going to study and he had already taken care of everything at home, so he didn¡¯t need to worry about it at all, but although he didn¡¯t have any pressure on the college entrance examination, he still studied obediently and did not cause any trouble for Zhang Ling and the whole class. Another Spring Festival came, this time the old man persuaded Chi Fang to go home. ¡°Go back and have a look.¡± The old man smiled and patted his shoulder, with kindness on his chubby face, ¡°No matter what, he is your father. Go back and see him, be obedient.¡± Chi Fang pursed his lips, remembering the back of Father Chi when he left the year before, and he nodded after a long silence. Chi Fang didn¡¯t tell the family what happened. When he appeared at the door on the afternoon of New Year¡¯s Eve, the housekeeper holding the kettle was stunned, and then an excited and happy smile appeared on his face. In the dining room, Father Chi was sitting alone. The table and chopsticks prepared for Chi Fang were placed opposite him just like last year. When he was about to start eating, he suddenly heard a voice saying, ¡°I haven¡¯t come back yet, you¡¯re eating by yourself first?¡± Father Chi¡¯s hands stiffened, he looked up and saw Chi Fang coming over with his hands in his pockets. He pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down. Thinking about it in detail, their father and son hadn¡¯t had a New Year¡¯s Eve dinner together for three years. Father Chi looked at him, his eyes were slightly astringent, and he said repeatedly, ¡°You¡¯re back.¡± At twelve o¡¯clock that night, Chi Fang stood on the balcony and sent a video to Jiang Li. When Jiang Li¡¯s face appeared on the screen, he smiled at him: ¡°Happy New Year.¡± Jiang Li was on the screen, holding Jiang Nuomi, and laughed: ¡°Happy New Year.¡± Jiang Nuomi: ¡°Meow meow meow meow!¡± Chi Fang smiled: ¡°Happy Chinese New Year to you too, little bastard.¡± The day before the college entrance examination, Zhang Ling held a class meeting. Before the meeting, she asked Feng Yu to buy milk tea and give it to everyone. At the end of the distribution by Feng Yu, Zhang Ling picked up the last cup, handed it to Feng Yu, smiled, and said to him, ¡°Thank you for your hard work.¡± Zhang Ling¡¯s personality had always been known for being indifferent, rigid, and inhumane. The tenderness in her smile at this time made Feng Yu¡¯s eyes warm. ¡°Tomorrow is the college entrance examination.¡± Zhang Ling stood on the podium and looked at the young faces below, ¡°Some of you may be looking forward to it, and some people are confused. I¡¯ve also gone through everyone¡¯s age, and I know what everyone is thinking. ¡± Everyone looked at her silently. Zhang Ling took a deep breath and raised her voice slightly: ¡°I¡¯ve been guiding you all for so long, and I¡¯ve already said almost everything that I should say. The rest is just one sentence, and it¡¯s all written on the board at the back. Good luck.¡± Everyone turned their heads and eight big characters were written on the board newspaper behind ¨C Leave no regrets, the future will be promising. After the college entrance examination, Chi Fang and Jiang Li went on a graduation trip. Feng Yu, who was left behind by the two, harassed them by sending videos and he was finally blocked by Chi Fang. After the results came out, Chi Fang¡¯s score was a few points higher than the admission line of Tsinghua University and he was successfully admitted. ¡­¡­ On the day he got the admission notice, he took a picture of himself and Jiang Li¡¯s admission notice and sent it to WeChat Moments, with the caption: My wife and I are going to Tsinghua University together! After he posted it, within two minutes, his WeChat received messages from all directions, asking him when he had found his wife. Even Father Chi called and asked him to find time to bring the person back to have a look. Chi Fang ignored everyone¡¯s message and hugged Jiang Li, who was taking a nap, silently hoping that National Day would come soon and his wife would become an adult soon. ¡­ Ending In this world, Chi Fang, like Jiang Zhan, did not reach 100% favorability until the end of his life. Jiang Chen had doubts about whether anyone was controlling his favorability, and asked System, but System said that the authority was too low to know. Jiang Li could only suppress the doubts in his heart and instruct System to start the third world. Since he could meet Chi Fang in the second world, maybe he could do it in the third world as well. He reached out to hold Chi Fang¡¯s hand and closed his eyes beside him. Wait for me. Volume 3: You¡¯re useless trash, stop fucking sleeping, get up and train! CH 73 After the end of the second world, Jiang Li felt that he had been in the dark for a long time, which made him feel a little strange. After the end of the previous world, he was sent to the second world by System before he had time to adapt. Just when he thought about whether System was malfunctioning, a familiar sense of weightlessness came, and then his consciousness was engulfed. ¡­ ¡°Heartbeat is normal.¡± ¡°Body temperature is normal.¡± ¡°Still no glands detected.¡± ¡°¡­ Check it again.¡± Jiang Li felt that his eyelids were very heavy. He heard someone talking in his ear, but he couldn¡¯t open his eyes no matter what. Even his limbs were heavy as lead, and he couldn¡¯t use his strength at all. ¡°Little Cutie.¡± Jiang Li called twice in his heart, but he didn¡¯t get a response from System. Just like in the dark before, System seemed to be blocked. After a while, he felt that his body gradually became more relaxed and his physical strength recovered bit by bit, so he slowly opened his eyes. When his eyelids were only half open, his eyes subconsciously closed under the dazzling light and opened again after a while. There was a slight ache in his head. Jiang Li moved his hand and wanted to press the painful place. This movement pulled the string that was tied to his wrist, and the sound produced caught the attention of the person next to him. The other party was observing the latest data in front of the instrument and when he heard the sound, he looked back. When he saw that Jiang Li was awake, he was stunned for a moment, and immediately rushed over with surprise: ¡°Major Jiang, you¡¯re awake?!¡± Major Jiang? Jiang Li¡¯s hand movement paused for a while, before turning his head to look over: ¡°You¡¯re calling me? Who are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Searle, Dr. Kelly¡¯s assistant.¡± The other party nodded, ¡°You¡¯re finally awake, you¡¯ve been in a coma for two months!¡± ¡°Two months¡­¡± Jiang Li sat up and slowly looked around. This was probably a ¡°medical room¡±, surrounded by sophisticated medical instruments, and at this time, he was half-naked with silver lead sheets attached to his heart, chest, wrists, and other parts, which were connected to the instruments next to him. Apart from him, there was only this young man named Searle in front of him. ¡°Major Jiang, how are you feeling now?¡± Searle asked. ¡°Still¡­ uh!¡± Before he could finish saying ¡°Still fine¡±, Jiang Li suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, as if someone was using a sharp awl to stab his brain. It was so painful that it caused him to hold his head and bend over, his teeth gritted and produced ¡°clack¡± sounds. When the young man saw this, he hurriedly supported him: ¡°Major?! Why are you¡­¡± Jiang Li raised his hand to stop his words and closed his eyes to receive the flood of information in his mind. This was a world that Jiang Li had never come into contact with. There are three types of human beings in this world: namely Alpha, Beta, and Omega. If you count them precisely, they can be divided into six types. In this world, the most powerful gender is Alpha, which accounts for 30% of the world¡¯s population, while Beta accounts for 60% of the world¡¯s population, they only have average strength, and the remaining Omegas only account for 10% of the world¡¯s population. With weak physiques and scarce genes, they belong to the key protected groups in this world. Although Omegas¡¯ physique is weak, their reproductive ability is very strong, and the purer the bloodline is, the higher the possibility of giving birth to Alphas and Omegas with higher capabilities, so they are very precious. In short, Omegas are in charge of fertility in this world. As a scarce population, Omegas in this world would be registered from the moment they were born, and they would be arranged by the state to get married when they are eighteen years old. Jiang Li¡¯s body had the same name as him, he was not only an Omega but also a young major in the Imperial Army. In the setting of this world, the military academy does not accept Omegas. One is because Omegas have fragile bodies, and the other is because there is a gland at the back of their necks, which emits sweet pheromones that will affect Alphas¡¯ self-control. The affected Alpha will lose control of his/her emotions and frantically want to possess and mark the Omega that appears in front of him/her. The reason why the original host was admitted to the military academy was that when his father was pregnant with him, he injected pheromone inhibitors and beta camouflage hormones for a long time, which caused his gene to be Beta when he was born, so he lived twenty-eight years as a Beta. Not only others, but even he himself thought that he was a Beta. When the original host was eighteen years old, he was admitted to the Imperial Military Academy and was recruited by the military because he had the excellent grades of being in the first rank in the military academy. After that, he even climbed to the position of major by himself without the support of his wealth and background. During his service in the military, the original host had won many battles and made a lot of military achievements. If things continued to go just as well, he would be awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel that year. The turn of events was that two months previously when the original host and his subordinates were hunting the remaining mutant wolves on the planet at Planet Will just next to Earth, the Omega gene, which had been contained in his body for 28 years, was suddenly awakened. The next ushered in his first heat. Of the three subordinates who were with the original host at that time, two were Alphas and one was Beta. The original host suddenly went into heat, and the pheromone emitted from his body caused the two Alphas to have their eyes turn red on the spot. The wolf clan wasn¡¯t completely killed off yet, and the subordinates were captivated by the pheromone again. In order to stay awake, the original host took out the military dagger in his boots and stabbed the position of the glands at the back of his neck with a backhand. His action was fierce and clean, he dug out the gland directly and then knocked out the two Alpha subordinates. Blood flowed down from his neck and his extremely ferocious behavior made the Beta, the only one who wasn¡¯t captivated, scream out. After the battle, the original host fell into a coma due to excessive blood loss and was sent to the military hospital by the Beta for emergency treatment. After that, he had been in a coma until now and his identity as an Omega has also spread. The original host slept for two months and when he woke up again, the soul of this body had become Jiang Li. Too many memories flooded Jiang Li¡¯s mind at once, which made him a little confused. He called System a few times in his heart, but there was no response just like before. He tried to open up the game tablet, but there was no response as well. Recalling that System said that the game was still in the internal beta test, Jiang Li guessed that there was a problem with System, so he stopped trying. He raised his head, and asked Searle who was standing next to him: ¡°How¡¯s my body?¡± ¡°Your physical condition is normal, and Dr. Kelly and I are carrying out checks on you every day.¡± The other party paused for a while. Jiang Li said: ¡°If you have anything, just say it.¡± ¡°When you cut the glands before, the action¡­was too brutal.¡± Searle said in a low voice, observing his reaction as he spoke, ¡°The glands, the symbol of Omega, have been completely removed by you. According to the inspection data, you will not be able to enter heat and will not emit pheromones.¡± No glands, no pheromones, no heat, which meant he was an incomplete Omega now. Jiang Li noticed that when Searle said these words, he looked at him with imperceptible pity in his eyes. In this world, a crippled Omega who is unable to go into heat and release pheromones is almost unable to find an Alpha to spend his life with, so he can only settle for the second best and choose Betas. However, a Beta¡¯s gene is average and there is a two-thirds chance of only giving birth to a Beta from a pair of Beta and Omega. Searle had always admired Major Jiang and was impressed that he could stand firm in the Imperial Army through his own efforts. So he was very sad for such a powerful person to suddenly become an Omega, and his body would become disabled. In fact, his worries were completely unnecessary. Without the glands, he would not be in heat. This was simply too good for Jiang Li. He couldn¡¯t accept the thought of being an Omega that would make him want to seek happiness uncontrollably under the Alpha during heat. Now that his glands were removed, it would save him major trouble. Reaching out and patting Searle¡¯s shoulder, Jiang Li said, ¡°I see, thanks for your and Dr.Kelly¡¯s hard work in this period of time¡± ¡°It¡¯s not hard!¡± Searle shook his head quickly, ¡°It¡¯s great that you can wake up! I¡¯ll go tell Dr. Kelly right away and ask her to check your body again.¡± Searle turned and walked out of the treatment room. Jiang Li was the only one left in the room and as his body was still attached to the instruments, he could only continue to stay on the bed. He took the time to sort out the memories of the original host from the beginning. Soon, Searle came back, and with him came a beautiful lady. In the original host¡¯s memory, Jiang Li learned that this lady was Dr. Kelly, Kelly Carter. The original host had suffered a lot of injuries during fights on the battlefield over the years. Kelly had treated him many times and the two were good friends. Hearing Searle say that he was awake, Kelly had put down her work and rushed over. After asking concerningly for a while, she checked him again from beginning to end to make sure that his body was fine. After the inspection, Kelly took off the instrument cords from Jiang Li¡¯s body and said sternly: ¡°You are too reckless, in such a situation, it¡¯s easy to get a bacterial infection and cause lesions! If not for Qiao Ya sending you back in time, you would have lost too much blood and died!¡± Qiao Ya was the Beta subordinate who brought the original host back for treatment. He rushed back as soon as possible, but he was still a step too late. The original host was gone and it was Jiang Li who woke up. Jiang Li smiled reassuringly: ¡°The situation was urgent at that time, I had no choice either.¡± Under that situation, if the original host hadn¡¯t acted decisively, all of them would be in danger. Kelly also knew that what he said was right, but her friend almost lost her life and she was still a little scared. She scolded him more and told him the current condition of his body. Regarding the condition of the glands, Jiang Li had already heard what Searle said, so he nodded and said, ¡°I understand.¡± Kelly was silent for a moment and asked worriedly, ¡°What are you going to do?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see the reaction of the military first.¡± Jiang Li said, got off the bed, and moved his body, which was stiff after two months of sleep, ¡°You¡¯ll need to report my situation to your superior right?¡± Kelly nodded, this could not be concealed. ¡°Noted.¡± Jiang Li nodded. As an Omega, his identity was still a major in the military. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t go anywhere now, so he could only wait for the notice from above in the hospital. After his situation was reported, someone soon came down to check. After the situation was proved to be true, someone came to send him back to his residence. The military left two Betas to take care of Jiang Li. Although it was said that they were taking care of him, they were actually monitoring him. In the situation where he couldn¡¯t call out System and the game tablet couldn¡¯t be opened, Jiang Li didn¡¯t know anything about the target he needed to capture, so he could only go with the flow. Ten days after returning to his residence, Jiang Li received a letter of appointment to serve as a freshman instructor in District D of the Imperial Military Academy. The Imperial Military Academy is divided into four districts: A, B, C, and D. Area A is the gathering place for the best military cadets, all composed of powerful Alphas, followed by Area B, the third in Area C, and the worst in Area D. The students in District D are composed of children of royal families and nobles. It was said that there were only more than 20 new students assigned that year, but two instructors had already been replaced within half a month of the start of the school, Moreover, it was the instructors who had resigned voluntarily. ¡­¡­ ¡­ Imperial Military Academy, Area D, Living Area. In the quiet corridor, black military boots stepped on the floor, making the soft sound of footsteps. The person stopped at the door of 201, opened the door with the key, and stepped in to see a few people sleeping in ugly positions inside. His eyes swept across the faces of several people. Jiang Li didn¡¯t bother to call them up one by one, he picked up the whistle and blew it hard. A shrill whistle suddenly resounded throughout the dormitory, and several people who had been sleeping were so frightened that they sat up. ¡°Fuck, who is so¡­¡± One of them scolded him when he opened his mouth. After seeing Jiang Li¡¯s face, he swallowed the rest of the words and was stunned: ¡°Ma¡­Major Jiang?¡± Jiang Li played with the whistle in his hand: ¡°I¡¯ll give you guys five minutes, all of you gather at the training ground.¡± After he finished speaking, he turned around planning to leave but his eyes inadvertently fell on the innermost bed and saw that the person above was still sleeping. Someone noticed his gaze and called out to the person on the bed: ¡°Heng ge, wake up.¡± Lu Heng was wearing headphones and didn¡¯t respond. Jiang Li raised his hand to stop the person from going to pat him up. He walked over, stopped by Lu Heng¡¯s bed, raised his foot, and kicked his leg: ¡°Get up.¡± Lu Heng turned over, hugged the blanket, and continued to sleep. Jiang Li retracted his feet and moved his wrists. Under everyone¡¯s stunned expressions, he raised his fist and smashed a hole in Lu Heng¡¯s headboard on the spot. ¡°Bang¡ª¡ª¡± With a loud noise, Lu Heng bounced off the bed and leaned against the wall with lingering fears. As soon as he looked up, he saw Jiang Li¡¯s back facing the light, looking down at him, and he heard Jiang Li say in a slow and indifferent tone: ¡°What useless trash, keep fucking sleeping.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± One was sleeping on the bed when fists came down from the sky, almost scaring one to death. CH 74 Jiang Li¡¯s oversimplified and crude wake-up service caused the entire dorm room to fall into a strange silence. Under the loud noise, everyone seemed to feel Lu Heng¡¯s bed shaking violently. ¡°You still have four minutes to dawdle.¡± Jiang Li put his hands behind his back, his sharp gaze swept across the people present. He then turned around and walked towards the door. His thick-soled military boots inadvertently stepped on the wooden scratching stick on the ground. Exerting force under his foot and with a ¡°crunch¡±, the delicate scratching stick broke into two. Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± OMG, this is high-grade poplar wood. After his back disappeared by the door, the four people in the dorm let go of their breaths that were subconsciously being held as they were stared at by his sharp gaze. ¡°Oh my god! What kind of monster is this?!¡± The closest to the door, Qiao Yu, patted his chest, turned to look at Lu Heng leaning on the wall, and asked with concern, ¡°Heng ge, are you alright?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine¡­my ass.¡± Lu Heng took a deep breath and looked down at the collapsed bed with lingering fears, ¡°I fucking thought he was going to beat me to death.¡± Everyone said in unison, ¡°Heng ge, we thought so too.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I remember that Major Jiang was revealed to be an Omega before, right?¡± Luo Qi glanced at Lu Heng¡¯s bed, and then at the scratching stick on the ground that Jiang Li easily broke, ¡°Is this true? He really isn¡¯t an Alpha? He smashed Heng ge¡®s bed with only one punch.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a headboard? I feel like he can kill Heng ge with one punch.¡± ¡°I felt like even my bed shook.¡± ¡°Even Heng ge jumped up in fright.¡± While the three of them were discussing here and there, Lu Heng¡¯s eyes twitched, feeling that he had really embarrassed himself: ¡°¡­Shut up you guys.¡± ¡°Speaking of which, are we really going to gather?¡± Ling Ao asked hesitantly, ¡°Last night, I wasfighting with the brats in room 203 in the simulation actual combat game until early morning, and now I just want to sleep.¡± ¡°Going to gather just because he asked us to? Then doesn¡¯t it make us look bad?¡± Luo Qi snorted lightly, with a bit of disdain on his face, ¡°No matter how powerful he is, he¡¯s just an Omega, what can he do to us? I don¡¯t believe he really dares to take action on us.¡± All of them have a distinguished status, they all are the children of royal relatives and nobles. They came to the Imperial Military Academy just to enter the military department after graduation. They would still be able to graduate successfully even if they didn¡¯t attend classes, practices, or go out for actual combat. ¡°I understand what you mean.¡± Qiao Yu touched his neck and reminded everyone in a low voice, ¡°But he even dared to cut his own glands. So doesn¡¯t it mean that cutting us is as easy as cutting vegetables?¡± The story of Jiang Li digging out his glands with a dagger when he was conscious and without anesthesia spread throughout the country long ago while he was in a coma. The act of an Omega digging out a gland was unheard of since ancient times. It was as unbelievable as an Alpha cutting off the symbol of a man. Out of sight, he penetrated the dagger into the extremely fragile back of the human body¡¯s neck with his backhand and directly dug out the glands that belonged to the symbol of Omega. Let alone the person involved, passers-by would feel a pain in their neck when they heard it. A person who even dared to take action on himself, what else was he afraid of? As soon as Qiao Yu finished speaking, the dorm room fell into a strange silence again, and everyone looked at each other. Although the four of them are all Alphas, they had never received formal military training. The advantage they occupy is that Alpha¡¯s natural physique is different from Beta and Omega. Although Jiang Li is an Omega, he is not only the first rank among the military academy graduates. In the past few years, he had also fought with real swords and guns on the battlefield. If they really fought with Jiang Li, they would definitely be beaten into dogs by him in minutes. ¡°Fuck, then what are we waiting for?¡± Lu Heng was the first to react, lifted the cup in his arms, jumped out of bed with bare feet, and went to the bathroom first. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± After him, Ling Ao, Luo Qi, and Qiao Yu chased after him. Three minutes later, once the four of them arrived at the training ground in Area D, there were already people from other dormitories standing there. There were only 21 freshmen in Area D that year, and they stood in two rows messily. Most of the clothes on their bodies were crooked as if they were put on at the last minute. ¡°I heard that the new instructor is Major Jiang?¡± ¡°You heard that too?¡± ¡°It¡¯s him. I woke up in the morning and saw him come out of room 201.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that Major Jiang is an Omega? How can he still be an instructor?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t he have his glands removed? Not an Omega anymore, right?¡± There were whispering discussions in the team, and they were very curious about Jiang Li, the freshman instructor who had suddenly appeared in the academy. Lu Heng stood at the end of the team, listening to their discussion. He then turned to look at the two people standing in the distance, his eyes fell on one who had a tall and upright back. He had heard the name ¡°Major Jiang¡± many times and often heard people say that he was young and promising, but he didn¡¯t expect him to be his new instructor. Thinking of Jiang Li¡¯s brutal act of smashing his own bed with a punch in the morning, Lu Heng looked at his back and pouted, ¡°Mutant Omega ah.¡± Jiang Li on the other side, after listening to the adjutant¡¯s report, turned around and walked towards the freshmen lining up. Seeing him walking slowly towards them, everyone¡¯s discussion stopped and their eyes were all focused on him. Jiang Li was wearing a pure black officer¡¯s uniform lined with a snow-white lapel shirt and black tie. The wide leather belt drew a sharp curve along his thin and strong waist, and the black military boots slowly stepped on the ground. There was a stern and calm aura all over his body. When he walked slowly towards them, everyone felt the real momentum of a soldier. Jiang Li stopped two meters in front of them, his eyes under the black hat swept across the crowd one by one. He then spread his hand towards the adjutant, who put the freshmen¡¯s roster in his hand. Jiang Li began to take attendance. He directly called the student¡¯s number instead of the student¡¯s name. Someone raised their hand and asked him why he didn¡¯t call the student¡¯s real name like the previous instructor, but the student¡¯s number. ¡°That¡¯s a good question.¡± Jiang Li closed the roster and handed it back to the adjutant. With a flat tone, ¡°In my eyes, you don¡¯t deserve to have names yet, so remember your student numbers.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± It¡¯s a crowd humiliation. Listening to these words, Lu Heng remembered the sentence stated this morning, ¡°What useless trash, keep fucking sleeping¡±, and felt a little pain in his face. After taking attendance, Jiang Li¡¯s eyes fell on the fifth person on the left in the first row, and slowly read out his student number: ¡°0012.¡± The person who was called was a Beta, and the name card under the student number read ¡°Pasiya Carey¡±. He straightened his back and replied, ¡°Yes, Major Jiang, any orders!¡± ¡°Call me Instructor Jiang.¡± Jiang Li corrected his address and glanced at his shoes lightly, ¡°You are wearing your shoes incorrectly.¡± Pasiya looked down and found that his shoes were indeed reversed. His face flushed and said ¡°I¡¯m very sorry¡± before quickly squatting down to switch his shoes. His actions made the others laugh out loud, and someone even kicked his ass in the back and laughed: ¡°Idiot.¡± ¡°0021.¡± Jiang Li called the student number of the person who kicked Pasiya, ¡°Come out of the line.¡± ¡°Yes, Instructor Jiang.¡± Kate Zaric, whose student number was 0021, walked out of the line with a smile. He stood in front of Jiang Li and gave a pretentious salute, ¡°Hello, instructor!¡± Jiang Li raised his chin slightly. ¡°Stand aside, keep the position of kicking 0012 just now, and stand for half an hour.¡± Kate was stunned for a moment, thinking he had heard it wrong. He looked at Jiang Li in disbelief, ¡°What did you say? You are punishing me by standing?!¡± ¡°An hour.¡± Jiang Li glanced at him with indifference and sharpness in his dark pupils, ¡°Don¡¯t question my words, or are your ears used for decoration?¡± Kate, as the grandson of Loules, the sovereign minister of foreign affairs of the empire, had never been treated like this. For him, although Jiang Li is a major, he is just a soldier with no background. Moreover, his identity as an Omega had just been exposed, and the military would definitely not let him stay in the army anymore, or he would not be sent here as a freshman instructor. Thinking of this, Kate sneered and stood still, ¡°What qualifications do you have to order me? You¡¯re just a little major who was abandoned by the military. As an Omega, you should stay at home and wait for the Imperial Marriage Registration Office to arrange your marriage.¡± ¡°What qualifications do I have?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows and looked at the other party, ¡°Are you dissatisfied?¡± ¡°Bullshit, an Omega, what is your right to order me?¡± Kate pointed to the others, ¡°Two-thirds of the people here are Alphas! Do you understand? You Omegas were born to exist for us, we are your masters. You are a little maj¡­¡± His words made the adjutant standing next to Jiang Li turn pale, and after recovering his senses, he shouted: ¡°Kate Zaric, shut up, do you know what you¡¯re talking about¡­¡± Jiang Li raised his hand to stop the adjutant¡¯s words and chuckled, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to hear about chauvinism that gives me a headache .¡± Kate frowned. ¡°What did you say? What chauvinism?¡± Jiang Li said nothing, reached out, and took off his military cap, handing it to the adjutant. The black hair that was gathered by the hat just now was blown away by the wind, and Jiang Li¡¯s full face hidden under the brim of the hat was exposed in front of everyone. Compared to others, his complexion was too fair. His handsome facial features were like a masterpiece carved by God, and the smile that had not disappeared on the corner of his lips was a little cold, like the snow in early March which was overwhelming. Back when he was in the dorm, Jiang Li¡¯s back had been turned against the light, and Lu Heng couldn¡¯t see his facial features and expressions clearly. Now he suddenly saw his whole face clearly and he was stunned. His heart skipped a beat without warning. Jiang Li took off the white gloves on his hands, threw them to the adjutant, walked to the fighting arena next to him, and left a sentence to Kate, ¡°Come on, let me see if your ability can live up to your words.¡± This sentence caused an uproar in the crowd. Does this mean that they are going to fight?!! ¡°Damn it! He won¡¯t really start fighting, will he?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like he¡¯s fake.¡± ¡°Kate is Lord Loules¡¯ grandson!¡± ¡°So what if he¡¯s the grandson? He smashed Heng ge¡®s bed with one punch in the morning.¡± Qiao Yu said disdainfully, and bumped Lu Heng with his elbow, ¡°Right? Heng ge.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Are you trying to let everyone know that my headboard was smashed by the instructor? CH 75 Jiang Li had already taken the lead to go to the fighting arena, and Kate was still stunned in place, looking at his back, unable to take a step forward. He didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Li was going to duel with him, what a joke, ¡°who is Jiang Li?¡± Even though he was an Omega, he graduated from the military academy ranked the first in the subjects of mecha, combat, and culture! What is the difference between a duel with him and death? ¡°Zaric!¡± Someone in the team called Kate, and when he turned around, he saw Teck, who usually didn¡¯t have a good relationship with him, smiling maliciously: ¡°Why aren¡¯t you going over? The instructor is waiting for you over there, don¡¯t tell me that you¡¯re scared, right? Haha.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, as an Alpha, you shouldn¡¯t be afraid of an Omega, right?¡± ¡°Kate, don¡¯t be so cowardly, we¡¯ll all cheer for you.¡± ¡°Finish him and you are our new instructor hahahaha!¡± ¡°Are you a man?! Hurry up and don¡¯t embarrass us Alphas.¡± Others didn¡¯t think it was a big deal to watch the fun and they started to fan the flames one after another. Kate stood in the same place. He only felt that his face was burning and he couldn¡¯t hold up his face. He looked up in the direction of Jiang Li and saw that he was standing in the middle of the fighting arena, hooking his (JL) index finger to him (K). ¡°Fuck.¡± Kate scolded lowly, opened the zipper of his training uniform, took off his jacket, and threw it to Pasiya. He then walked toward Jiang Li in a black vest. Pasiya caught his coat and hurriedly followed: ¡°Kate, don¡¯t be impulsive, Major Jiang is our instructor, we can¡¯t offend our superiors¡­¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± Kate pushed him away and strode over to Jiang Li. Seeing this, the others followed on impulse and watched the two of them from outside of the fighting arena. There were also many people who began to shout and cheer. Compared to Kate¡¯s comfortable and convenient physical training vest, Jiang Li was wearing a military uniform that was well-ironed and restrained and the buttons were meticulously buttoned to the top. The two stood opposite each other. The adjutant was a little surprised by this situation and said to Jiang Li worriedly, ¡°Major, do you really want to do it? Kate Zaric is the very favorite grandson of Lord Loules.¡± George Loules, Sovereign Minister of the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Jiang Li had met the other party once at the celebration of repelling the pirate invasion the previous year. He had the impression that the other party was a gentleman and a knowledgeable scholar. He didn¡¯t expect him to have such an arrogant and short-sighted grandson as Kate. Thinking of this, Jiang Li frowned slightly and looked at Kate. Kate was standing not far away and had naturally heard the words of the adjutant. Seeing Jiang Li looking at him. He thought that he was afraid of his identity, so he sneered immediately and was about to speak when he heard Jiang Li say in a cold tone, ¡°So what if you¡¯re the grandson of Lord Loules? Do you still want to go back and complain to your parents if you lose the fight? Ha.¡± Jiang Li sneered with disdain and ridicule in his tone. He glanced at the people present and suddenly realized, ¡°It turns out that I¡¯m teaching an infant class, I¡¯ve really learned a lot.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± Master Major, can you not scold everyone once you open your mouth? Jiang Li¡¯s words made Kate¡¯s face freeze. He felt a kind of embarrassment in being exposed to what he was thinking. ¡°Instructor, you can¡¯t paint the entire class with the same brush!¡± Teck said, ¡°Kate¡¯s complaint is his business, I can¡¯t do such a shameful thing!¡± ¡°Teck Joru, you fucking shut up!¡± Kate yelled at Teck angrily and then said to Jiang Li, ¡°Laozi won¡¯t complain, but you, better don¡¯t cry after Laozi beat you.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the best then.¡± Jiang Li adjusted his cuffs and raised his chin towards him, ¡°Come on.¡± He just stood like this, not even in a defensive posture, and there was not a hint of nervousness on his face. He didn¡¯t put a strong Alpha in his eyes at all. Kate felt that he was completely despised. Angry, he attacked him without saying a word. As he was forcing towards him, he raised his fist and swung it heavily towards Jiang Li! Even if an Alpha had not received formal training, he had an absolute advantage in physical fitness. Kate¡¯s punch was impatient and ruthless, with a swift and fierce sound of wind, making the people present hold their breath and stare at him and Jiang Li closely. The vicious fist came directly, but Jiang Li calmly leaned to the side, grabbed Kate¡¯s arm with sharp eyes and agile hands, and exerted a sudden force. Only a ¡°crack¡± was heard. Kate let out a pained cry and his whole arm hung down weakly. Following closely, Jiang Li relaxed his hand and lifted his long legs, directly kicking him three meters away. The whole process took less than three seconds and Jiang Li¡¯s movements were so fast that they could barely be seen, causing everyone present to be stunned. Once they recovered from their senses, Kate was already lying on the ground with his arms crossed. Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Who am I, where am I? ¡°Just now¡­¡± Qiao Yu blinked and asked Luo Qi next to him, ¡°What happened?¡± Luo Qi: ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t see it clearly either.¡± Not only them, but even Kate himself didn¡¯t realize what happened. But the great pain in his arm made him sweat cold on his forehead, and he subconsciously laid on the ground holding his arm that seemed broken. Jiang Li stood beside him and kicked him with his black military boots, ¡°It¡¯s just one arm, what are you pretending for, get up.¡± ¡°You¡¯re fucking saying it so simply. Get your arm broken and experience it too if you have the guts to do so.¡± Kate slowly stood up holding his shoulders. He was spoiled since he was a child, had he been treated in this way before? ¡°Get my arm broken?¡± Jiang Li looked at him with a half-smile, and stretched out his hand, ¡°Come and try.¡± Kate gritted his teeth and rushed over again. Jiang Li¡¯s eyes darkened, and a vicious aura suddenly emerged from his body. After avoiding his attack, he stretched out his hand as fast as lightning to strangle his neck and exerting force, he directly knocked him down to the ground. His five fingers suddenly bent together, Kate¡¯s eyes suddenly widened, and the blue veins of his temple popped out. In the huge fighting arena, the young Alpha was pinned to the ground with his neck strangled. His face was pale, his mouth slightly open, one hand hanging weakly, and the other hand desperately digging at the hand that seemed to come from the god of death, making a ¡°woooo¡± sound. Jiang Li knelt on one knee on the ground and the hand that was clutching Kate¡¯s neck had clear, distinct joints. Under the sun, the faint blue blood vessels on the back of the hand could still be seen, which formed a sharp contrast with Kate¡¯s dark wheat-colored skin. From Lu Heng¡¯s point of view, Jiang Li¡¯s face could not be seen clearly due to the poor light, but the cold arc at the corner of his lips was clear, like a blade out of the sheath, sharp and cold. This was a man so powerful that he couldn¡¯t even touch his back. Such a thought flashed through Lu Heng¡¯s mind, thinking that maybe in his eyes, as he said, he was trash. ¡°Major Jiang!!¡± Pasiya¡¯s voice broke the silence of the fighting arena. He hugged Kate¡¯s clothes and ran to Jiang Li¡¯s side, and said anxiously, ¡°Kate is just being brusque. I apologize to you for him, please forgive him!¡± Jiang Li looked up at him, loosened Kate¡¯s neck, and stood up from the ground. As soon as Kate was free, the air flowed in through the throat, causing him to cough desperately. Pasiya squatted down and tried to help him up: ¡°Are you all right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s none of your business¡­.¡± Kate waved his hand away. The green marks on his neck that Jiang Li had clutched just now were a little shocking to look at. He glared at Jiang Li unwaveringly. Jiang Li didn¡¯t care about the anger in his eyes and looked at him condescendingly, ¡°What, still not satisfied? Trash like you can¡¯t survive on the battlefield for two minutes.¡± ¡°Joke.¡± Kate sneered, his voice was hoarse and labored because of his neck injury just now, ¡°There are naturally low-class people like you on the battlefield to sacrifice, when would it be our turn?!¡± ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Jiang Li bent over to him and met his eyes, ¡°You are just a coward hiding behind at the back and enjoying yourself. You completely don¡¯t understand the blood of a soldier, the responsibility to protect the country, and the heroism of killing the enemy on the battlefield. You say, apart from having the Alpha gene, what¡¯s the difference between you and the Omega that you say is waiting for an arranged marriage at home?¡± Kate was furious, ¡°You!¡± Pasiya hurriedly stopped him and persuaded, ¡°Kate calm down, don¡¯t court death.¡± Jiang Li ignored him, stood up straight, looked at the others, and said, ¡°I don¡¯t like speaking nonsense. Now, who else?¡± Everyone looked at each other, motionless. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a chance now, you¡¯re welcome.¡± Jiang Li said, ¡°If it¡¯s troublesome, you guys can come together.¡± Still, no one spoke. ¡°Very good.¡± Jiang Li nodded with satisfaction. It was much better to take action by his hands than his mouth, ¡°Now go back and stand in order of height!¡± Everyone obediently walked back. On the way, Lu Heng couldn¡¯t help but look back, just in time to see Jiang Li take and wear the military cap that the adjutant handed over and all the black hair that had been blown away by the wind was gathered in it. ¡°Help him to fix his arm.¡± Jiang Li glanced at Kate who was sitting on the ground, said something to the adjutant, then turned and walked towards the gathered team. ¡°Young master Kate, excuse me.¡± The adjutant raised Kate¡¯s shoulders carefully and helped him reset his arm, ¡°Although the major seems to be ruthless, he had avoided the tendons. There will be no sequelae left in your arm, don¡¯t worry.¡± Hearing this, Kate scolded ¡°How fake¡± in a low voice. He then reached out and pushed him away, enduring the pain of being kicked by Jiang Li in the abdomen just now, and returned to the team. After the line was formed, Jiang Li stood in front of them. Compared to Kate, who was in a state of embarrassment, he didn¡¯t even sweat. ¡°I¡¯ll introduce myself.¡± Jiang Li put his hands behind his back and said solemnly, ¡°I¡¯m your new instructor Jiang Li, you can call me Instructor Jiang, and I will be the main instructor of your next three courses of fighting skills, battlefield command, and mecha combat. This is not the first time I¡¯m guiding new students, but¡­¡± He paused and glanced at everyone, ¡°You are the most useless class I have ever seen.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± It feels that our faces have been beaten to a pulp. CH 76 Among the freshmen in Area D, 15 out of 21 are Alphas and 6 are Betas. As soon as Jiang Li finished saying the previous sentence, it caused dissatisfaction among some of the Alphas. Teck, who had previously fanned the flames towards Kate, raised his hand to refute his words loudly: ¡°Instructor Jiang, I am not convinced by your words! Although it is said that Kate lost the competition to you, he doesn¡¯t represent all of us.¡± What he meant by this was that it was Kate who was trash, not all of them. As soon as Kate heard it, he was so angry that he wanted to argue, but Jiang Li stopped him, so he could only glare at Teck viciously and stand in place. Pasiya, who was beside him, whispered to persuade him not to be angry. Jiang Li looked at Teck: ¡°It seems that you have a lot of opinions on my words.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just telling the truth!¡± Jiang Li stepped up and walked in the direction of Teck. He stopped about a meter away from him and suddenly raised his foot and kicked him directly in front of the face. His movements were so fast that Teck couldn¡¯t react at all. The sharp wind produced from his leg¡¯s movement made the bangs on his forehead sway and his eyes widened slightly reflexively. Staring at the black military boots less than two centimeters from the tip of his nose, he was motionless. Once Jiang Li went a step forward, he would be kicked out directly. Standing behind Teck was Lu Heng. He tilted his head slightly and could see Jiang Li¡¯s indifferent face in front of him. Through Teck, the eyes of the two inadvertently met each other and Lu Heng felt that the pair of inky eyes bumped right into his heart. Jiang Li slowly retracted his legs and looked at the stiff Tek: ¡°You¡¯re right, 0021 is really trash, but at least he dares to accept the challenge, and you, all of you¡­¡± He shook his head and didn¡¯t say more, but everyone present knew what he meant. Just now Jiang Li said that if someone was not convinced, they could take action on him, but none of the people present came forward, were they all convinced? No, it was just that they didn¡¯t dare to resist because of Jiang Li¡¯s strength. For a while, everyone was silent. As the saying goes, a new broom sweeps clean. Jiang Li saw that it was almost completely cleaned, so he did not continue to be harsh on them. He then ordered everyone to stand apart from each other and get into military posture. Standing in military posture was one of the most basic pieces of training for military students, but for this group of pampered young masters, standing in military posture under the scorching sun was not so pleasant. About half an hour later, Qiao Yu felt that his tensed legs and buttocks were about to cramp. He found that Jiang Li hadn¡¯t noticed his side, so he relaxed his muscles a little and asked Lu Heng next to him in a low voice: ¡°Heng ge, Heng ge, are you tired?¡± Lu Heng¡¯s back was straight, his fingers were sticking close to the seams of his trousers, his posture was extremely on point and sweat on his face trickled down his face. When he heard Qiao Yu¡¯s words, he whispered, ¡°Not tired.¡± ¡°You¡¯re awesome.¡± Qiao Yu sighed and glanced at Ling Ao on the other side from the corner of his eyes, ¡°Hey, Ling Ao, your legs are shaking.¡± Ling Ao: ¡°¡­Shut up.¡± Qiao Yu rolled his eyes around and found that most of the people couldn¡¯t hold it anymore, especially a few Betas, so he said, ¡°Heng ge, why don¡¯t we think of something? Just standing like this isn¡¯t the way to do it, right?¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± Lu Heng scolded in a low voice, ¡°Don¡¯t affect me.¡± Qiao Yu said surprisedly: ¡°¡­Heng ge, you were not like this before. You clearly said that standing foolishly under the sun is something only a fool would do.¡± It¡¯s better to be a fool than to be trash. Lu Heng thought to himself. He didn¡¯t know why, but he always felt that Jiang Li¡¯s movement just now lingered in his mind. Thinking of the other party¡¯s words such as ¡°trash¡± and ¡°useless¡±, he felt kind of uncomfortable. He wanted to refute, but he felt that he couldn¡¯t do so. In the eyes of Jiang Li, a man who had been on the battlefield shed blood and fought for his life. On the other hand, these dudes who only knew how to eat, drink and play, were not motivated at all yet occupied military academy resources. They were indeed no different from trash. If it was not for the military transfer, Jiang Li would probably not even look at him. Thinking of this, Lu Heng felt a little irritable in his heart. He looked at Jiang Li, who was talking with the adjutant and his gaze fell on Jiang Li¡¯s side profile. He slowly went into a trance. He didn¡¯t even respond when Qiao Yu, who was beside him, called him a few times. ¡°Heng ge!¡± Qiao Yu slightly increased the volume of his voice, and Lu Heng came back to his senses: ¡°What?¡± Because he was absent-minded, he didn¡¯t pay attention to lowering his voice for a while, and the voice caught Jiang Li¡¯s attention. He glanced back, then turned and walked towards them. Seeing him approaching, Qiao Yu said in his heart, ¡°I¡¯m going to die.¡± He quickly straightened his body and continued to stand properly, lest Jiang Li would beat him up as though he were a sandbag. Jiang Li came over and asked aloud, ¡°Who was talking just now?¡± Apart from Qiao Yu, there were many people whispering just now, but Lu Heng was the only one who accidentally drew Jiang Li here. It was said that one must be responsible for what one had done, so he said: ¡°Report, Instructor, it¡¯s me.¡± As the culprit, Qiao Yu also confessed when he saw Lu Heng admitting, ¡°Report, Instructor, and me as well.¡± Jiang Li looked at the other people, and several people admitted one after another, and in the end there were actually more than a dozen people. ¡°You guys continue to stand, and the others rest in place for five minutes.¡± Jiang Li frowned. As soon as the words were said, the shoulders of many people present collapsed. In fact, not only Qiao Yu was going to cramp, but they were almost unable to hold on, but when they thought of Jiang Li looking at them like trash, they just gritted their teeth and held on. Seeing Jiang Li walking in front of him, Lu Heng subconsciously puffed out his chest again, trying to leave a good impression in his heart with his perfect standing posture. Look at me, look at me. Instructor, look at me! Lu Heng shouted desperately in his heart, but Jiang Li walked past him to Qiao Yu¡¯s side. Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± In view of Jiang Li¡¯s brutal and prestigious behavior before, the people who spoke just now thought they were going to die, but Jiang Li just walked around them and returned to the original position. ¡°What were you talking about? Let me hear it too.¡± Jiang Li asked with interest. Just now everyone was talking nonsense to pass the time, how could they dare to tell him. During the silence, seeing Jiang Li¡¯s expression change a little, Lu Heng¡¯s mind quickly turned and he took the initiative to say: ¡°Report to the Instructor, we were just talking about how it¡¯s boring to stand in military posture like this, why not change to another training program.¡± Hearing this, Jiang Li raised his eyebrows and walked in front of Lu Heng: ¡°You said, it¡¯s boring?¡± Lu Heng was 1.93 meters tall, and Jiang Li was 1.82 meters tall. The difference between the two was 11 centimeters. When they were standing opposite each other, Jiang Li had to look up at him slightly. The eyes of the two looked at each other. At such a close distance, Lu Heng saw Jiang Li¡¯s thick eyelashes, his slightly raised phoenix eyes, and even his own shadow printed in his cold pupils. All this made his heart skip a beat, and for a moment he forgot what he was going to say, and blurted out: ¡°No, it¡¯s good to stand in military posture!¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li frowned as if he was very dissatisfied with his attitude. Lu Heng quickly added: ¡°I mean, after standing in military posture for a long time, you can change to other activities to adjust the atmosphere and everyone¡¯s enthusiasm.¡± Jiang Li looked at the others: ¡°Do you guys think so too?¡± Everyone really didn¡¯t want to just stand like this. Not only did their butt cramp, but their legs were shaking. They might as well go for a run and feel refreshed, so they all responded together, ¡°Yes, instructor!¡± ¡°I see.¡± Jiang Li nodded, ¡°I didn¡¯t think about it carefully, so let¡¯s change and rest for ten minutes in place.¡± After he finished speaking, he went to the adjutant and explained the next training program to the other party. Everyone didn¡¯t expect him to be so straightforward, and they all discussed how to train later. For some reason, there was some inexplicable expectation in their hearts. ¡°I don¡¯t know how we will be training later, what do you guys think?¡± Luo Qi rubbed his sore shoulders, took off his jacket, put it on the ground, and sat down. ¡°I guess it¡¯s running.¡± Ling Ao said and followed Luo Qi to sit down on his clothes. ¡°I guess it¡¯s combat training.¡± Qiao Yu touched his chin, ¡°Didn¡¯t the instructor say that he also teaches us combat skills? Heng ge, what do you think?¡± Lu Heng glanced at Jiang Li and shook his head: ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that simple.¡± ¡°Speaking of combat, don¡¯t you guys think that what Major Jiang did just now was so fucking handsome?¡± Ling Ao said excitedly with cross legs, ¡°He just made Kate¡¯s arm fractured with one hand, the sound of ¡®clack¡¯, I felt the pain when I heard it!¡± ¡°Handsome!¡± Luo Qi nodded, feeling the same. ¡°Kate was beaten so hard that he couldn¡¯t resist at all. The disparity in strength is so heartbreaking.¡± Qiao Yu nodded: ¡°It hurts!¡± Kate was sitting not far from them and when he heard them talking about him, he was so angry that he was about to stand up to come and beat someone up. He was dragged by Pasiya who persuaded: ¡°Calm down, calm down, there are four of them! And The Fourth Highness is there, you can¡¯t win.¡± The Fourth Highness in his mouth was Lu Heng, the youngest son of Imperial¡¯s Emperor Lu Qing. Kate scolded ¡®bastard¡¯ resentfully and sat down again while holding back his anger. Pasiya saw that he was no longer going to cause trouble and sat down next to him. Soon the adjutant came over and told everyone to gather. This time, the meeting place was changed to a shady place. After the assembly, the adjutant began to assign groups. Twenty-one people present were divided into two groups according to the order of student numbers. There were ten groups in total. One extra person and the adjutant formed a group. Qiao Yu raised his hand and asked, ¡°Instructor, what is this for?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you think it¡¯s boring to stand in military position? Then let¡¯s have some fun.¡± Jiang Li said with a faint smile on his face, the arch of his smile had also washed away the cold on his face, softening the aura of distancing himself from others a lot. The sudden smile caused everyone present to be stunned for a moment, thinking that the instructor looked so good when he smiled. Then, in the next second, they heard Jiang Li say: ¡°Each person does two hundred push-ups on the spot, one lays down and the other pushes. Start now.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± Such an unexpected act, standing in military posture is much better!! After the push-ups, there were weight-bearing long-distance running and close-quarters combat training, followed by dense training programs. After a day of practice, everyone felt that their bones were broken in half. After returning to the dormitory, Lu Heng and Ling Ao took their clothes and went to take a shower. There were only two bathrooms in the dormitory, so Qiao Yu and Luo Qi were lying on the floor waiting. After Lu Heng came out of the shower, he planned to go to bed and lay down. After he opened the quilt and saw the collapsed bed, he remembered that his bed¡¯s headboard was destroyed by Jiang Li that morning. Ling Ao, who was sleeping on the bed next to him, looked at it and suggested, ¡°Heng ge, sleep on my bed first tonight, I¡¯ll squeeze with Qiao Yu.¡± ¡°No need.¡± After Lu Heng said, he walked to the door and Ling Ao shouted from behind, ¡°Where are you going?¡± ¡°Go find the culprit to app¡­¡± Before Lu Heng finished saying the word ¡°appeal¡±, he opened the dormitory door and saw the adjutant standing outside the door, followed by a soldier carrying a board. The other party saw him and said with a smile: ¡°Fourth Highness, Major Jiang said that your headboard is broken and asked me to replace it for you.¡± As he said that, he instructed the soldier to move the headboard in. After they came in, a group of people suddenly poured in, surrounded Lu Heng¡¯s bed, and discussed about his bed. ¡°It¡¯s really broken? I thought Qiao Yu was talking nonsense!¡± ¡°I heard that Major Jiang smashed it with a punch!¡± ¡°He even dared to smash Heng ge¡¯s headboard. He¡¯s indeed an instructor. Amazing, amazing.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Fuck, now everyone knows it. CH 77 Lu Heng originally wanted to find Jiang Li on the grounds of the headboard, but he couldn¡¯t tell exactly why he was looking for him, he just wanted to. Unexpectedly, before he exited the room, the other party had sent someone to help him install the headboard. Logically, this should be a good thing, indicating that the other party still remembered the fact that he destroyed his bed, but looking at the group of idiots who were discussing enthusiastically around his bed, Lu Heng felt a gust of anger in his heart and the blue veins popped on his forehead. He gritted his teeth and said, ¡°Fucking go back to your dorms.¡± As soon as he spoke, everyone dispersed and some acquaintances patted him on the shoulder to show comfort. Even Kate, who was beaten by Jiang Li, was in a much better mood after seeing his headboard, he then left happily. The adjutant instructed the soldiers to quickly help Lu Heng replace the headboard and also helped him to clean up the pieces of wood on the ground. After dealing with it, the adjutant turned around and saw Lu Heng standing aside, looking at him with an unpleasant expression. He hurriedly took a few steps forward and said to him: ¡°Fourth Highness, I¡¯m really sorry for the inconvenience. The headboard has been replaced. Do you have any other orders?¡± Lu Heng glanced at the bed where the quilt and sheets were made and asked, ¡°Instructor Jiang called you here? What did he say?¡± The adjutant remembered that before he came, Major Jiang casually said that he had smashed Lu Heng¡¯s headboard and asked him to replace it. Worried that Lu Heng would be dissatisfied with the major because of this, he said: ¡°The major said that he accidentally broke your headboard, so he asked me to come over to deal with it quickly, so as not to affect your rest.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Ling Ao: ¡°¡­¡± Lu Heng thought, what bullshit is him being careless? He clearly did it on purpose. The strength he exerted on the bed this morning was so large as if he wanted to kill him. And he said to deal with it quickly? It was already nighttime, he probably just now remembered to ask someone to deal with it. ¡­¡­ Thinking of this, Lu Heng snorted lightly, waved his hand to the adjutant, put away his thoughts of looking for Jiang Li again, and went back to the bed to lie down. ¡­ Jiang Li took a shower and came out of the bathroom wearing a white bathrobe. While wiping his hair, he took a bottle of ice water from the refrigerator, unscrewed the lid and drank half of the bottle. He then sat down on the sofa. At this time, the communicator on his wrist rang and he pressed to open it in passing. A virtual screen popped out in front of him and the adjutant appeared on the screen. The other party saluted him: ¡°Report Major, the task you assigned has been completed, reporting to you now.¡± Jiang Li really forgot about smashing Lu Heng¡¯s headboard earlier and only remembered once he returned to his bedroom to take a bath and sleep, so he sent his adjutant to deal with it. ¡°Thanks for the hard work, rest early.¡± Jiang Li said to the screen. ¡°Okay, Major, rest early too!¡± Hanging up the video call, Jiang Li leaned on the sofa and tried to call System in his heart. After several attempts, there was still no response as before. It had been almost half a month since he came to this world. These days, he tried to contact System every day, but to no avail. Although System was just virtual data, Jiang Li had also cultivated deep feelings after getting along with it day and night in the two worlds, which made him a little worried about whether System was malfunctioning. In addition, the tasks that he needed to complete when he traveled to each world were assigned by System. Now System suddenly couldn¡¯t be contacted and the game tablet couldn¡¯t be opened. The male lead that was needed to be captured and side quests in this world were unknown, and he also couldn¡¯t know if the male lead of this world would possibly be Jiang Zhan or Chi Fang. In the first world, Jiang Zhan was the partner of his one-night stand by accident. In the second world, Chi Fang and himself were in the same school and in both worlds, they were more or less connected to the original host. Jiang Li guessed, was it possible that he was by his side in this world, maybe it was someone who was closely related to this body, or maybe it was a student he was currently guiding? Thinking of this, Jiang Li connected to the optical network, opened the student information transferred by the adjutant yesterday, and confirmed the information of the students one by one. Without any prompts, he could only follow the clue that Jiang Zhan and Chi Fang had the same birthday in the first two worlds and read all the information carefully, but found that no one was on May 21st. ¡°There¡¯s really no¡­¡­¡± Jiang Li frowned and reconfirmed it again, and found that it was indeed the case. Although he knew it might not be such a coincidence, after confirming that the answer was no, Jiang Li inevitably felt a little disappointed. He turned off the optical network, sat on the sofa, and waited for his hair to dry before returning to his room. The next day, the wake-up bell in Area D rang on time at 6:30. People in five dormitories 201, 202, 203, 204, and 205 were woken up by the wake-up bell. As usual, everyone pulled the quilt over their heads and continued to sleep. After sleeping for only two minutes, they suddenly remembered something. They suddenly threw off the quilt, jumped out of bed, and rushed into the bathroom quickly. At 7:00 in the morning, everyone gathered at the training ground. After the adjutant took their attendance, they went to the cafeteria for breakfast. The school system of the Imperial Military Academy was three grades. There were only a few students in Area D. There were only less than a hundred students altogether in the three grades. Even the hall of the cafeteria was not full. Besides, except for the freshmen, the students of the other two grades did not need to get up early to practice. They only needed to come when the cafeteria provided breakfast, so the cafeteria was very empty at the moment. Lu Heng and the other three people ordered breakfast and found seats. Just halfway through the meal, Lu Heng saw Jiang Li coming in from the door. His gaze moved along with his steps involuntarily, watching him order his meal and head to the empty table on the other side of the hall. Seeing Jiang Li come in, everyone¡¯s eating speed increased a lot and the number of people in the cafeteria decreased one by one. Lu Heng saw that Jiang Li was sitting far away from everyone, sitting at a table by himself with a lonely back. He bit his chopsticks and asked Luo Qi: ¡°Hey, look at the instructor sitting there alone, isn¡¯t it a bit lonely?¡± ¡°Is it?¡± Luo Qi glanced in Jiang Li¡¯s direction and said vaguely, ¡°I can¡¯t see how he¡¯s lonely!¡± ¡°Take a closer look.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t see it.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Lu Heng glanced at him with disgust and asked another person, ¡°Ling Ao, what do you think?¡± Ling Ao had finished eating and was drinking soup and when he heard him ask him, he said, ¡°If you say he¡¯s lonely, then he¡¯s lonely.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Lu Heng turned to Qiao Yu, ¡°Qiao Yu, say it.¡± Qiao Yu¡¯s cheeks were bulging, looking at his ¡°be sensible¡± expression, he immediately swallowed everything in his mouth and said in a very sentimental tone: ¡°Lonely, he¡¯s so lonely. You guys look, the back of the instructor reveals a sense of bleakness being at the top. The black military uniform is like his protective shell, which completely isolates him from the outside world. No one can touch his heart, and no one knows what kind of desolation and loneliness was in there, don¡¯t you guys think it¡¯s lonely?¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Luo Qi and Ling Ao: ¡°¡­¡± Why do your words sound like farts? They are really unpleasant to the ears. Lu Heng just said it casually, trying to find an excuse to sit at a table with Jiang Li, but he didn¡¯t expect to get goosebumps from what he said. He reached out and patted the back of his head: ¡°Eat your meal. It¡¯s too disgusting.¡± ¡°It¡¯s so disgusting that I can¡¯t continue eating, blech!¡± Luo Qi vomited. ¡°My appetite¡¯s ruined.¡± Ling Ao poohed twice. ¡°I¡¯m just cooperating with the show. You guys don¡¯t have any sense of humor at all. Besides, Major Jiang sitting by himself at this time is quite¡­ Huh?¡± Qiao Yu¡¯s words suddenly stopped and he pulled Lu Heng, who had taken his plate and was preparing to leave, ¡°Heng ge, wait a minute, the instructor is no longer alone, suddenly three people came!¡± Lu Heng paused and looked in Jiang Li¡¯s direction. Sure enough, he found three people walking in Jiang Li¡¯s direction. Two of them were tall and imposing, they were Alpha at one look! Watching the three of them walk in front of Jiang Li, Lu Heng¡¯s eyes fell on the two Alphas, his expression unclear. Jiang Li was eating breakfast when shadows suddenly appeared in front of him. He looked up and saw three young people standing in front of him, two of them were Alphas and one was Beta. The familiar face from the original host¡¯s memory made Jiang Li¡¯s hand that was holding the chopsticks in his hand pause, and the three of them saluted him in unison, shouting respectfully: ¡°Major!¡± Jiang Li glanced at the faces of the three and smiled slightly: ¡°Joel, Ryder, Artus, why are you guys here?¡± The three people who came were the three subordinates who hunted the mutant wolves with the original host on Planet Will. After Jiang Li woke up, Joel once used a communication device to contact him once, saying that they were performing missions on other planets and could not come back in time to visit him. Joel smiled gently and said cheerfully: ¡°I applied to the higher-ups to be transferred to Area D to teach, and I will be your adjutant from today. Please give me more encouragement and advice, Major!¡± He was a few years younger than Jiang Li. After graduating from the military academy, he was recruited to be Jiang Li¡¯s subordinate. He was considered a soldier brought up by Jiang Li. In Joel¡¯s heart, Jiang Li was both an officer and a teacher. As soon as Joel came back from his mission this time, he immediately applied to the higher-ups and was transferred to Area D to be Jiang Li¡¯s adjutant. Jiang Li learned from the original host¡¯s memory that the original host¡¯s popularity and prestige in the army were very good, and his subordinates respected him very much. Joel was not surprised by this move, just nodded, and then looked at the other two: ¡± What about you guys? It¡¯s impossible that you guys are his adjutants too, right?¡± ¡°We wish to be.¡± Ryder smiled cheerfully, ¡°It¡¯s just that the higher-ups didn¡¯t approve.¡± Ryder and Artus were both very outstanding Alphas, and they were the main combat power of the Second Army in Jiang Li¡¯s hands. Naturally, the military couldn¡¯t let them both be adjutants. On the other side, after seeing Jiang Li¡¯s smile, Lu Heng felt a little unhappy in his heart. This was completely different from the sneer and disdain when he faced the students before, it was a smile from his heart. ¡°Who are those people?¡± Lu Heng asked Ling Ao. Ling Ao was the know-it-all among them. ¡°Major Jiang¡¯s former subordinates.¡± Ling Ao pushed his glasses, ¡°Major was with them when he had an accident on Planet Will. I heard that Major suddenly went into heat at that time, the pheromones emitted from his body made the two Alphas lose their minds and Major dug his own glands to stay awake. He then knocked out two of his pheromone-affected Alpha subordinates.¡± ¡°Digging out his glands when he was in heat and even knocked out two Alphas¡­¡± Qiao Yu sighed, ¡°Instructor Jiang is really not an ordinary person!¡± ¡°Nonsense.¡± Luo Qi rolled his eyes at him. ¡°The principal even awarded him the badge representing the ¡®Honor of the Military Academy¡¯ personally at that time.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Qiao Yu touched his chin and said thoughtfully, ¡°You say, Instructor is so good-looking, so strong, and even an Omega. There must be many people who like it. Maybe these two Alphas like him, or else why did they come here to have breakfast together this early in the morning without sleeping in? Heng ge, don¡¯t you think so?¡± Lu Heng saw that the two Alphas brought breakfast and sat down opposite Jiang Li, and he felt unpleasant no matter what. Hearing Qiao Yu¡¯s words, he snorted: ¡°My ass, Instructor is such a cruel Omega, who dares to marry him? Are they courting death?¡± ¡°That¡¯s true too.¡± Qiao Yu felt the same way, ¡°After all, he was the one who smashed your bed with one punch.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± I wish so much that he smashed your brain with that punch. CH 78 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume In the blink of an eye, after half a month, everyone gradually adapted to the training intensity. After all, most people were Alphas and they had a natural genetic advantage in physical strength and adaptability. Since Joel was transferred to serve as an adjutant, most of the activities that improved physical fitness were done on Jiang Li¡¯s behalf and during this time, Jiang Li rarely appeared on the training ground. At the end of the day¡¯s practice, Joel said with a gentle smile after commenting on everyone¡¯s shortcomings: ¡°Everyone has worked hard these days.¡± Although Joel was a Beta, he could serve as Jiang Li¡¯s right- and left-hand when serving in the military. It could be seen that his ability in all aspects was also very outstanding. In addition, he had a gentle personality and was affable to everyone. After these days, everyone had accumulated some favorable impressions of him. After listening to him say this, they all replied simultaneously: ¡°It¡¯s not hard!¡± Joel smiled: ¡°Go back and have a good rest today, I¡¯ll organize everyone to go to Penglai Forest for practical training tomorrow to accumulate practical experience.¡± Penglai Forest was the largest forest on the planet of Manor and was also the place where the Imperial Military Academy and the military headquarters gained designated actual combat experience. There were countless birds and beasts in captivity; harmless, ferocious, brutal, you name it! There were six levels in Penglai Forest: A, B, C, D, E, and F. Each level had different difficulty levels. F was the lowest level, while A was the most difficult. The new students of the military academy could only enter the F-Level area. Before Jiang Li came to teach in Area D, no one thought about going to train and experience actual combat. In addition to curiosity, they felt a little more eager to try. When Kate heard that they were going to experience actual combat, he geared up and said, ¡°Damn, the anger accumulated these days can finally be released, wait for Laozi to kill till I¡¯m happy tomorrow.¡± Teck listened next to him and sneered: ¡°Bullshit.¡± Because of Joel¡¯s presence, Kate ignored him but thought about finding an opportunity to teach him a lesson the next day. Next to Teck was Qiao Yu, who tilted his body and asked Lu Heng in a low voice: ¡°Heng ge, have you been to Penglai Forest before? I still don¡¯t know what it looks like inside.¡± Lu Heng didn¡¯t answer. He went there when he was very young, when he was less than six years old. His elder brother and second emperor took him there many times. In that forest, he rode cheetahs, played with birds, caught rabbits, and once sat on the shoulder of the eldest brother and said innocently that he would be a soldier who was dauntless like his two royal brothers, fighting for the Imperial, fighting for honor. However, later¡­ ¡°Heng ge?¡± Qiao Yu found that he was a little lost, and called out twice. Lu Heng came back to his senses, shook his head, and called out to Joel, ¡°Report!¡± Joel was telling everyone to recharge their energy that night. Hearing his voice, he turned his head and looked over: ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Are you leading the team in the actual combat training tomorrow?¡± Lu Heng asked. Joel nodded: ¡°It¡¯s me, what¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°What about Instructor Jiang?¡± Lu Heng looked at him and asked. ¡°Recently, Instructor Jiang has been a little¡­¡± Before he could say the words, Lu Heng interrupted him with a tough voice: ¡°Instructor Jiang, as our chief officer, won¡¯t he go to such an important thing as students¡¯ actual combat training? In the past two weeks, Instructor Jiang hasn¡¯t really shown up, isn¡¯t he neglecting his work?¡± Joel was stunned for a moment, he didn¡¯t expect him to say that. He was about to say that Jiang Li had returned to the military department to hand over work these days but before he could speak, he heard a voice behind him: ¡°You are right, it¡¯s my negligence.¡± Everyone looked towards the sound and saw Jiang Li walking behind. The initial whispering of discussions disappeared immediately. All of them stood with their heads held high and chests puffed up, for fear that Jiang Li would find something wrong. Jiang Li stood beside Joel and Joel saluted him. He nodded, then looked at everyone and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect everyone to miss me so much when I¡¯m not here for a few days.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± We are not, we don¡¯t, don¡¯t talk nonsense! ¡°In that case, I will lead the team tomorrow.¡± Jiang Li smiled, ¡°I hope everyone can practice well.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± In view of the reason for going out for actual combat experience the next day, the evening training ended earlier than usual, and they were disbanded at 8 o¡¯clock. As soon as Ling Ao returned to the dormitory, he couldn¡¯t wait to open his personal terminal, ready to connect to StarNet to play games. While logging into his account, he said to others, ¡°It¡¯s rare to have free time today. I just asked Teck and the other guys to play a team battle, four against four. You guys come quickly.¡± StarNet was Imperial¡¯s virtual network world, similar in nature to the Internet in the world Jiang Li had stayed in before, but more intelligent. The team battle that Ling Ao said was a virtual actual combat game in StarNet. As long as one wore virtual glasses, one could enter the game battlefield immersively. Qiao Yu and Luo Qi initially wanted to take their clothes and take a bath, but when they heard him say they were going to fight a team battle, they threw their pajamas back into the cabinet and opened their personal terminal. Only Lu Heng sat still, frowning as if thinking about something. Qiao Yu¡¯s position was closest to him, and he stretched out his hand and pushed him: ¡°Heng ge, why are you in a daze. It¡¯s ready to fight, let¡¯s kill Teck and the other bastards together.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Lu Heng absently opened his terminal and connected to the StarNet. During the team battle, Lu Heng made a mistake and almost lost to Teck and the others after two games. When the third game ended, Lu Heng quit the game directly and disconnected StarNet. He took off his gaming glasses, threw them aside, got up, and walked towards the outside. Seeing this, the other three shouted in unison: ¡°Heng ge, where are you going?¡± ¡°Taking a walk.¡± Lu Heng left the dormitory after dropping these two words. The three of them looked at each other: ¡°What should we do now? We only have three members now. Should we continue?¡± Qiao Yu thought for a while: ¡°I¡¯ll ask Heng ge what¡¯s wrong, you guys can play first.¡± After that, he also left the dormitory. Qiao Yu caught up with Lu Heng downstairs: ¡°Heng ge, where are you going? Are you really going for a walk?¡± ¡°Going to the training room.¡± Lu Heng said as he walked out, ¡°Are you coming?¡± ¡°Training room?¡± Qiao Yu took a step and was surprised, ¡°No way, it¡¯s rare for us to rest for a while, and we still have to go out for actual combat tomorrow. Are you still going to train tonight?¡± ¡°En.¡± Seeing that he didn¡¯t want to go together, Lu Heng waved his hand and walked towards the training room. There were two training rooms in the D Area, one was the general training room and the other was the gravity training room. The one Lu Heng went to was the gravity training room. It was almost time for the students to go to bed and the path leading to the training room was very quiet but at the corner close to the training room, he saw light shining through from inside. There¡¯s someone in the training room! This awareness made him pause, and then he sped up. Through the large glass of the training room, he saw Jiang Li and Joel fighting inside. Jiang Li and Joel were both wearing black fitness training vests. Neither of them had weapons in their hands. They were fighting with bare hands. Lu Heng saw that Jiang Li quickly grabbed Joel¡¯s wrist, turned his foot, and made a shoulder throw, throwing Joel five meters away and his body slammed heavily into the wall of the training room. The sound insulation effect of the training room was very good but the fact that Jiang Li was able to throw someone so far away under the influence of gravity, Lu Heng knew how serious the collision was without thinking. However, in the next second, he saw Joel bouncing off the ground with one hand on his body and attacking Jiang Li again. Regarding his appearance, the two of them didn¡¯t seem to notice, or maybe they did, but it was not enough to attract their attention. At this moment, only each other could attract their attention. The two people in front of them, one an Omega and the other a Beta, were stronger than any of them, the Alphas. Lu Heng stood on the spot, watching the fight with a calm face, but his heart was thumping more and more strongly with a ¡°bang bang bang¡±, and his eyes were staring at Jiang Li¡¯s every movement through the glass. At the end of this fight, Jiang Li clasped Joel¡¯s arm and pressed him to the ground. Jiang Li let go of Joel¡¯s hand, pulled him up from the ground, and patted his shoulder: ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Joel smiled and moved his shoulders, ¡°Thank you, Major, for your mercy.¡± Jiang Li followed with a smile, turned his head to look at Lu Heng outside the glass, beckoned to him, and motioned him to enter. As soon as Lu Heng entered the gravity room, he felt that his whole body was as heavy as lead, and the dizziness hit his brain instantly. He subconsciously clenched his fist tightly, gritted his teeth, and tried to withstand the feeling of nausea. Jiang Li noticed his reaction and said to Joel, ¡°Turn down the gravity.¡± Joel reacted and hurriedly went to the control panel, adjusted the indoor gravity to the lowest gear, and then asked Lu Heng: ¡°Fourth Highness, are you okay?¡± After the gravity was lowered, Lu Heng felt that dizziness and nausea disappear at once, and he couldn¡¯t help but breathe a sigh of relief. It was not that he had never trained in the gravity room before, but he had never tried such a high gravity which was unbearable at that moment. ¡°I¡¯m good now, thank you.¡± Lu Heng thanked the other party, then walked to Jiang Li and saluted him, ¡°Instructor!¡± Because he had just fought, Jiang Li¡¯s hair was wet with sweat and it was scattered on his forehead. A few drops of sweat slowly slid down from his forehead down the side of his face. Lu Heng¡¯s eyes unconsciously stared at one of the drops of sweat, watching as it crossed Jiang¡¯s sharp and smooth jawline and finally sank into the depression of his collarbone. Under the incandescent lamp indoors, Jiang Li¡¯s sweaty skin glowed with a white light after exercising, so white that it almost flashed Lu Heng¡¯s eyes, reminding him of what the first emperor once said which was called ¡°Snow¡±. Jiang Li didn¡¯t know what he was thinking and while removing the bandages tied to his hands, he asked him, ¡°It¡¯s already so late, why are you not sleeping?¡± ¡°I want to come and train.¡± Lu Heng replied. His answer surprised Jiang Li and looked up at him: ¡°Training? Now?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Lu Heng nodded, and his eyes fell on the tip of Jiang Li¡¯s nose. There was a drop of sweat there, on the verge of trickling down. He subconsciously reached out and tried to wipe it off for Jiang Li. But before his hand touched Jiang Li, his wrist was clenched. Jiang Li frowned and looked at him: ¡°What are you doing?¡± Jiang Li¡¯s palms were not as delicate as other Omegas, but they had a thin layer of calluses which were left over from long-term training. Lu Heng felt that the place where he was grasped was slightly burning. He coughed lightly, straightened his back and replied, ¡°Report instructor, your nose is dripping with sweat, it looks like snot, I was going to wipe it off for you.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Bullshit. Joel pursed his lips and smiled, walked over, and said, ¡°Fourth Highness, you are going out for actual combat tomorrow, so it¡¯s better to rest early tonight.¡± ¡°You and Instructor Jiang haven¡¯t rested yet.¡± Lu Heng said, showing his determination to train. Jiang Li wiped the sweat from the tip of his nose and took off the bandage on his other hand. Hearing what he said, he said, ¡°In that case, Joel, you practice with him.¡± After he finished speaking, he planned to leave first. Just two steps away, he heard Lu Heng say from behind: ¡°Instructor Jiang, I request you to guide me one-on-one, please.¡± Jiang Li was a little surprised when he heard this. He thought that the little bastards in the D Area would be more willing to be trained by Joel, and looked back at Lu Heng: ¡°Are you sure?¡± Hearing his question, Lu Heng knew there was hope and immediately replied, ¡°Yes, instructor!¡± Since it was his student¡¯s request, Jiang Li naturally fulfilled it. He waved to Joel and asked him to go back to rest first. He then asked Lu Heng to wear protective gear to protect his knees and head. With his consent, Lu Heng quickly went to find the protective gear and put it on, and brought the protective gear to Jiang Li: ¡°Instructor, I will help you put it on.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need it.¡± Jiang Li wrapped the bandage again, moved his wrist, and suddenly remembered that he used this hand to smash Lu Heng¡¯s headboard, so he raised his head and asked Lu Heng, ¡°By the way, are you used to the new headboard?¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Can you guys forget about this already? I¡¯m really annoyed. CH 79 in Happy to translate! Hope you guys enjoy my translation! Support me by donating to my kofi!10-13 minutes 24.09.2022 Translator: Rin Editor: Mars Proofreader: Ume Apart from the headboard, Jiang Li actually had some impressions of Lu Heng. Not because of Lu Heng¡¯s identity, but because of his serious attitude towards training in those days. He didn¡¯t cry out or give up, always earnestly completing every training. Moreover, he finished them in the shortest time, with the most standard movement. He¡¯s indeed a good seed. Jiang Li thought that if the other party was a soldier under his guide, but not a student, then he would personally teach him to be the best soldier. Lu Heng noticed that Jiang Li was sizing him up, so he looked at himself strangely, but found nothing wrong. In order to come to the training room, he was still wearing the clothes he used for that day¡¯s training. ¡°Instructor, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Lu Heng asked. ¡°Nothing.¡± Jiang Li retracted his gaze and said lightly, ¡°Let¡¯s start, you attack me.¡± Lu Heng stood still, the two looked at each other, and Jiang Li asked, ¡°Why aren¡¯t you taking action?¡± ¡°Cough.¡± Lu Heng coughed and scratched his nose, ¡°You are an Omega after all, if I take the initiative to hit you, it doesn¡¯t feel appropriate.¡± Although you are a cruel and inhumane Omega, my mother said that as an Alpha, I must know how to take care of you. Lu Heng thought to himself. ¡°Really?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows, his fingers rattled, ¡°It seems that you want to be beaten by an Omega, so I will fulfill your wish.¡± As soon as he finished his words, he suddenly stepped closer to Lu Heng, raised his fists with the sound of a sharp wind, and approached Lu Heng forcefully. Lu Heng was shocked, he narrowly avoided the attack. As he wanted to fight back, he saw Jiang Li¡¯s fist open and turn into five fingers, attacking his neck. He quickly stretched out his hand to block it and was knocked to the ground by a sweeping leg in the next second. His body fell to the ground with a ¡°bang¡±, and Lu Heng realized that Jiang Li¡¯s hand was actually a diversion, it was used to confuse him, and his legs were the key. Jiang Li looked down at him with a smile: ¡°Are you alright, His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince?¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± My self-esteem has been knocked to the bottom. Jiang Li saw him lying motionless on the ground, staring straight at him, but there was still some grievance in his eyes. He couldn¡¯t help but freeze for a moment, and then his face became solemn: ¡°Get up, or are you waiting for me to pull you up?¡± ¡­ How ruthless. Lu Heng pouted, turned over from the ground neatly, and when he just stood up, he heard Jiang Li say: ¡°I repeat, don¡¯t be polite to me just because I¡¯m an Omega, for me, you guys are weak as hell¡­¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Can you speak properly without sarcasm? ¡°What are you still doing standing there?¡± Jiang Li looked at him standing still, and shouted sharply, ¡°Do you still want to be beaten down? Take action!¡± ¡°Yes, Instructor!¡± Lu Heng didn¡¯t act polite anymore later on. Although there was a huge gap between him and Jiang Li in terms of strength, for the group of freshmen in Area D, he had the best conditions in all aspects. ¡°Come again.¡± ¡°You have a soft fist, haven¡¯t you eaten tonight?¡± ¡°Act more quickly!¡± ¡°Raise your legs higher!¡± ¡°Are your legs for decoration?!¡± The training room echoed with the sounds of fists colliding, Jiang Li¡¯s stern scolding, and Lu Heng¡¯s heavy panting. If anyone else passed by at that time, they would see Lu Heng being overturned by Jiang Li again and again in the training room before standing up from the ground again and again and attacking Jiang Li again. Jiang Li blocked Lu Heng¡¯s fist, grabbed his wrist instead, and when he turned his back to throw him out, he reminded him aloud, ¡°Stabilize your lower body!¡± Lu Heng reflexively pressed his foot against Jiang Li¡¯s heel and his other hand went around Jiang Li¡¯s neck and pulled it back! A ¡°bang¡± was heard, and the two fell directly to the ground. Jiang Li smashed on Lu Heng¡¯s body and the back of his head hit the tip of Lu Heng¡¯s nose, causing Lu Heng to groan in pain, but he didn¡¯t let go of the arm that was hooking Jiang Li¡¯s neck. After the fight just then, the two of them were covered in sweat, and their clothes were almost wet. In addition to the smell of sweat, the air was also mixed with the strong smell of an Alpha as well as a really faint smell that belonged to an Omega on Jiang Li¡¯s body. Both of them were wearing bow-shaped physical training vests, and the exposed skin on their arms was sticking against each other. In such a subtle posture, the scents of both the Alpha and the Omega were intertwined, creating an almost ambiguous scent. Lu Heng was a little dazed. He felt a very faint but real fragrant scent on the tip of his nose. It wasn¡¯t like the pheromone smell on an Omega that he had smelled by chance before, but more like a scent that only belonged to Jiang Li. The scent was fresh and sweet, like the first mouthful of cheesecake he ate when he was a child, and like the last mouthful of milk he drank before going to bed at night. It was so ethereal, but it seemed to make his nerves swell. Although Jiang Li had cut his glands, he was still an Omega after all, and he was an Omega who had experienced heat but had not been marked yet. Being suddenly hugged by an adult, pure-blooded Alpha, under the circumstances of the Alpha¡¯s scent surrounding him, it still affected him somewhat. Suppressing the discomfort that rose in his heart, Jiang Li pulled away Lu Heng¡¯s hand that was imprisoning his neck and turned over to distance himself from him. Lu Heng¡¯s arms suddenly became empty, and he felt that his heart was also empty, but he didn¡¯t show it on the surface, so as not to cause Jiang Li disgust. Instead, he also turned over and sat up, saying aloud before Jiang Li could say anything, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, instructor. It¡¯s my fault.¡± ¡°It was indeed your fault.¡± Jiang Li looked at him and said, ¡°In the situation just now, you should take the opportunity to hold me down, so that I have no room to resist, instead of just lying still. If I were your enemy, you would be dead.¡± Lu Heng thought: You were already lying in my arms, how did I dare to move, and besides, didn¡¯t you also not hold me down? On his face, however, there was an expression of ¡°What the instructor said was right!¡± and, ¡°Yes, I know my fault, and you taught me the right lesson! Are we going for another round?¡± There was an undisguised expectation in his eyes as if he could stay in the training room for an entire night as long as Jiang Li wanted to, but Jiang Li was unwilling. ¡°No.¡± Jiang Li stood up from the ground, ¡°Go back.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Lu Heng was a little disappointed, sitting on the ground without moving and drooping his shoulders, a little resentful. Seeing this, Jiang Li wanted to laugh a little. He then reached out to rub the top of his head: ¡°Next time.¡± The act of rubbing his hair was different from the ferocity and sternness when he punched with his fist before, with a little gentleness. Lu Heng raised his head suddenly, looked straight at him, and said with joy: ¡°Are you saying that I can still find you for training next time? One-on-one.¡± He raised his head with obvious expectations in his eyes, staring at Jiang Li like a little wolf-dog. From the fight just then, Jiang Li found that Lu Heng¡¯s learning ability was very strong. Every time he attacked, he would improve a little bit more than the last time and he mastered more skills than the last time. His physical strength, reaction, and potential were all very outstanding, and all he lacked was targeted teaching and practical experience. And these two were precisely what Jiang Li had. Jiang Li looked at him for a while before saying, ¡°9:30 in the evening on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.¡± After getting permission, Lu Heng was overjoyed. He jumped up from the ground and saluted Jiang Li: ¡°Thank you, instructor, please give me more advice in the future.¡± Jiang Li hooked his lower lip very slightly before he returned to a plain expression, he took the lead to go outside: ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go.¡± The short-lived smile made Lu Heng¡¯s heart as sweet as honey. He responded with a smile, quickly removed the protective gear from his body, and followed Jiang Li out of the training room. Jiang Li was still wearing a black vest and the jacket of the training suit was in his hands. Lu Heng chased after him. Just as he was about to call out to stop him, he saw the obvious scar on the back of his neck, extending from the middle position of the back of the neck to the part covered in black clothes. It was left by the cutting of the glands, and Lu Heng realized it immediately. Jiang Li used to wear a military uniform or a jacket with training clothes, and the collar of the clothes covered the scar, so even though Lu Heng had heard about him cutting his own glands a few times before, he had never really seen it. Now that he saw it with his own eyes, he couldn¡¯t help but be shocked. According to the position of the gland, he guessed that Jiang Li should have stabbed the knife into his flesh without looking and then pulled the knife up from the bottom, and then dug out the entire gland. Nearly three months later, the scar was still so obvious. One could imagine how ruthless he was at that time. Jiang Li walked in front and didn¡¯t hear Lu Heng¡¯s footsteps following him. When he turned around, he saw him standing motionless in the back. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder, ¡°What are you doing there?¡± Lu Heng put away his thoughts and followed up: ¡°Nothing.¡± The two walked out of the building and walked in the direction of the dormitory building. The student dormitory building was behind the instructors¡¯ dormitory, and the two of them happened to be going the same way. Lu Heng was talking all the way, Jiang Li responded idly and Lu Heng didn¡¯t mind either. Arriving at the dormitory downstairs, Jiang Li used the facial recognition function to open the door and said to Lu Heng, ¡°Rest early, don¡¯t be late tomorrow.¡± and planned to enter, but Lu Heng stopped him from behind: ¡°Instructor!¡± Jiang Li turned his head: ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°That¡­the dormitory has access control, and it¡¯s locked now, can you¡­¡± Lu Heng hesitated, looking at Jiang Li with anticipation like he was in the training room just now. Jiang Li suddenly realized: ¡°Oh, oh oh, of course.¡± Hearing this, Lu Heng raised his eyebrows with joy: ¡°Thank you, instructor! I¡­¡± Before he could finish speaking, he saw Jiang Li reach into his coat pocket. He then took out a magnetic card and handed it over: ¡°The access card, remember to return it to me when we gather tomorrow.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± I just fucking wanted to ask if you could take me in for one night!! CH 80 Seeing Jiang Li closing the door without hesitation, Lu Heng stood outside with an access card, his feeling was beyond words. Was it the access card that he wanted? With this identity, access control was non-existent, he could enter the dormitory by simply using his face. What he wanted was to be taken in! Holding the access card given by Jiang Li, Lu Heng returned to the bedroom. As soon as he opened the door, Qiao Yu rolled over from the bed and sat up, asking him, ¡°Where have you been, Heng ge? I have been sending you messages and you didn¡¯t respond.¡± ¡°En?¡± Lu Heng turned on the communication device and found that there were more than a dozen message records sent by Qiao Yu and the others, but he and Jiang Li turned off the communication device in the training room and didn¡¯t pay attention. ¡°I was in the training room so I didn¡¯t notice.¡± Lu Heng said, ¡°Go to sleep.¡± Qiao Yu nodded, lay down, and fell asleep. Lu Heng walked to his desk, took out Jiang Li¡¯s access card, and planned to put it in the drawer, but his finger touched the side of the drawer and he withdrew it again. He then put it under his pillow and went to take a shower in a happy mood. When he came out of the shower, he saw that Qiao Yu and the others were already asleep, so he turned off the lights and went to bed. Lu Heng was lying on the bed and didn¡¯t fall asleep immediately. He unconsciously recalled the process of being in the training room with Jiang Li at night, and finally, his thoughts stayed on the subtle smell from Jiang Li when the two fell to the ground. He had already returned to the dormitory to take a shower, but he felt that the smell was still lingering in his nose. There was also something furry in his heart that was scratching the most sensitive place, which made him always want to scratch it, but he couldn¡¯t find where the itch was. After tossing and turning for a while, he reached under the pillow and touched it, then pulled out the access card given by Jiang Li. The bedroom was dark after the lights were turned off. Lu Heng couldn¡¯t see the pattern on the door card, so he could barely see the outline. He touched the corner with his thumb and found a raised pattern, which was Jiang Li¡¯s name. He remembered that his mother said that Omegas were fragile and needed Alphas¡¯ protection. He must not bully them when he grew up and must respect, love, and protect them. He had always thought so; until he met Jiang Li. Jiang Li completely subverted his perception of Omegas. He was handsome, strong, tenacious, and even fearless of life and death. Many Alphas couldn¡¯t compare with him. ¡­¡­ His fingertips rubbed the two words carefully for a while, then he put the access card back under the pillow, said ¡°good night, my instructor¡± in his heart, and closed his eyes. ¡­ The next day, everyone got up earlier than usual because they had to pack their bags, and this time they needed to stay in Penglai Forest for two days and one night. Ling Ao saw that Qiao Yu stuffed a lot of biscuits, compressed noodles, and other things into his backpack, and he was speechless: ¡°Isn¡¯t it enough to bring only the nutrient solution? Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s heavy?¡± ¡°How can nutrient solutions taste better than real food?¡± Qiao Yu took two more pineapple-flavored pieces of bread from the cabinet and stuffed them in as he asked the others, ¡°Do you guys want two? I specially went to buy them yesterday.¡± ¡°No.¡± Lu Heng refused, ¡°There¡¯s a lot of food there.¡± ¡°Where?¡± Roach asked. ¡°Forest.¡± Lu Heng zipped up his backpack. ¡°As long as it is non-poisonous, we can eat it. There are wild fruits and animals with thick flesh.¡± ¡°Really?¡± As soon as Qiao Yu heard it, he thought that he didn¡¯t need to bring so much to eat, so he took out the bread again. He suddenly recalled something in the meantime, raised his head, and asked Lu Heng, ¡°No, Heng ge, didn¡¯t you say you haven¡¯t been to it before?¡± ¡°It¡¯s said in the book.¡± Lu Heng said casually, carrying his backpack and walking out, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± When it was time for the assembly, the assembly horn sounded, and everyone stood on time in the training ground. After Jiang Li took attendance, he said to everyone: ¡°Everyone is divided into groups of five according to your student numbers. 0021 will join the fourth group. Now stand in line!¡± Everyone moved neatly and quickly into groups, looked at Jiang Li with their heads held high, and there was no trace of the sloppiness and reluctance on their faces from the first day. Jiang Li nodded with satisfaction and began to explain to everyone what to pay attention to in this actual combat. 21 people were divided into four groups, and each group had a group leader who would lead the team. After entering the forest, each group had free time to move around, and in the evening, they would gather at the agreed-upon location. ¡°Understood, Instructor!¡± Everyone shouted in unison, their voices loud and powerful. Joel gave everyone a saber, a dagger, and a military sedative gun for self-protection. After the things were distributed, they packed their bags and lined up to go to the place where the aircraft was parked. Starting from the military school, it would take an hour to fly to Penglai Forest. Although they were informed about the knowledge of Penglai Forest in school before, on the way, Jiang Li still asked someone to play documentaries of different kinds of creatures living in Area F on the large screen of the projection. Area F was the least difficult area, and the creatures in it were not very dangerous to everyone. After these days of training, as long as they didn¡¯t encounter groups of attacking creatures, everyone would have the ability to solve them. However, in order to ensure everyone¡¯s safety, each student¡¯s personal terminal had an emergency call device, and the location would be sent to Jiang Li and Joel¡¯s personal terminals at the moment of sending and would also be sent to the guard system of the Forest Guard. The aircraft arrived above the Area F of Penglai Forest and slowly landed in the open space at the entrance. After Jiang Li confirmed his identity with the guards, he led everyone into the forest. There were lush and tall trees everywhere in the forest. The branches of the trees were next to each other. The trunks were curved and grotesque. From time to time, a few big birds flew across the sky, making sharp and harsh chirping sounds. A reptile with a color similar to the jungle sometimes peeped out, making rustling sounds. Joel walked in the middle of the team and kept explaining in detail to everyone the animals he encountered along the way, which were poisonous and which could be detoxified, and everyone listened very carefully. The group of them found a safe place as a gathering place for the evening and began to camp under Jiang Li¡¯s instructions. Lu Heng saw Jiang Li setting up the tent by himself and he threw the backpack in his hand to Qiao Yu. He then ran to Jiang Li¡¯s side: ¡°Instructor, let me help you!¡± Jiang Li glanced at him: ¡°No, I¡¯ll do it myself.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± Lu Heng ignored his refusal, grabbed his tools directly, and started without hesitation. Others saw that the prince himself took the initiative to help the instructor, and it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate if they just watched them. So they rushed forward, helped each other, and directly pushed Jiang Li aside. Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± After everyone had cleaned up, Jiang Li announced that each group would be free to move around, and they would all return there to gather at seven o¡¯clock in the evening. If there was any emergency, they should contact them in time; safety first. Everyone: ¡°Yes, Instructor!¡± ¡­¡­ Under the leadership of the four leaders, the four groups set off in several directions; east, west, north, and south, and soon disappeared into the woods. Jiang Li took out a half-finger leather glove from his backpack and put it on, nodded at Joel, and the two split up. ¡­ Lu Heng took Qiao Yu, Luo Qi, Ling Ao, and Leia to the east. Along the way, they didn¡¯t know whether to consider themselves having good luck or bad luck. They encountered weak or even harmless creatures, such as herbivorous snakes, long-legged deer, and big-tailed mice. A green herbivorous snake twisted its slippery body and passed under the feet of several of them. As it plunged its head into the green grass, Qiao Yu chased after it. He swiftly penetrated through the grass, pinched the snake¡¯s head, and lifted it up. He said to others: ¡°I have already caught seven pieces of this stuff. Are we here for training or for an outing?¡± ¡°You caught seven and you still continued catching, I think you are having a good time.¡± Ling Ao gave him a contemptuous look, ¡°But the book says that the meat of herbivorous snakes is very delicious, and it is very tasty to use in stewing soup, you can take it home tonight.¡± ¡°This is a good idea.¡± Qiao Yu thought of being able to drink snake soup at night and happily packed the herbivorous snake with something. When Lu Heng saw it, he reminded him aloud: ¡°Did you bring any pot? Did you bring any seasoning?¡± ¡°¡­No.¡± Qiao Yu made a move and looked at the others, ¡°Did you guys bring them?¡± Everyone shook their heads collectively: ¡°No! We only brought nutrient solutions.¡± Qiao Yu: ¡°QAQ¡± In the end, Qiao Yu could only reluctantly throw away the herbivorous snakes. He kept saying that his snake soup was gone all along the way. When he goes back the next day, he must catch two more for the cooks in the cafeteria and ask them to cook a whole snake feast for him. Everyone was walking, discussing what specialty to bring back in addition to the herbivorous snake. On the way, they suddenly heard a huge and fierce roar and the ground under their feet shook slightly a few times. Lu Heng paused for a while and said lowly, ¡°Stop.¡± Everyone stopped in response, and then heard another equally fierce roar, not far from them. Lu Heng motioned and led the others toward the direction of the sound. The five of them moved lightly and opened up the layers of trees and bushes. After seeing the scene in front of them, their eyes suddenly widened. In front of them were two ferocious mutant creatures fighting; a black cheetah and a gray-white tiger. They were huge and fierce, biting each other without giving in at all. After a while, both sides were covered in blood. ¡°Roar!!!¡± In the huge roar, the black cheetah¡¯s neck was bitten by the tiger. The tiger pressed the cheetah to the ground with its two strong and powerful front claws, and used the sharp teeth on its mouth to pull violently, directly tearing half of the cheetah¡¯s head off. ¡°Roar!!¡± The thunderous roar gave Lu Heng a little tinnitus, and the strong vibration made his eardrums hurt. He stared at the fierce tiger who raised its head and howled. His fingers slowly clenched into fists and there was a kind of blood-boiling restlessness in his body, spreading to his four limbs along the flowing blood. A voice in his heart then shouted: ¡°Kill it!¡±. A trace of murderous intent flashed in Lu Heng¡¯s eyes as he pulled out the saber from his waist with his right hand and said, ¡°Protect yourself¡± to the others, and rushed out with the sword. His movement was extremely fast, and before the others could react, he was almost in front of the tiger who was enjoying the food. The tiger sensed the danger and swooped in his direction! Others exclaimed: ¡°Heng ge!¡± Lu Heng jumped high, avoiding the tiger¡¯s attack, and landed safely behind it. ¡­¡­ The tiger missed a hit, turned around, and lowered its huge body slightly, making a stance of attacking again. Staring at Lu Heng with fierce eyes, it made a ¡°huhu¡± puff from its mouth. Facing the mutant creature dozens of times bigger than himself, the young Alpha didn¡¯t have the slightest fear on his face. He stood ten meters away, pointed the tip of the knife reflecting silver light, and his amber eyes were filled with uncontrollable excitement. Kill it and take its head back to the instructor. Lu Heng thought so in his heart. ¡­ Jiang Li learned from the original host¡¯s memory that the original host was very familiar with this forest. He had beheaded countless creatures here, from Area F to Area B. If it wasn¡¯t for the accident on Planet Will, he would have already started raiding Area A. Jiang Li¡¯s soul was transferred onto the original host¡¯s body. After this period of adapting, the body and soul had been completely integrated. With his current strength, the creatures in Area F were as simple as crushing an ant to him, not even acting as a warm-up. He swiftly cut off the neck of a giant bear, and the warm blood sprayed on the back of his hand, with a strong fishy smell. Jiang Li took off the blood-stained gloves, but the stench still remained on his fingertips. The smell still made Jiang Li frown, and he opened the map of Area F in the terminal, intending to find a place with running water to wash his hands. The map shows that there was a small lake not far away, and it would take about ten minutes to walk there. Jiang Li walked along the route and heard the sound of water flowing near the lake, as well as some familiar laughter. It was Lu Heng and the others. He walked over lightly, wanting to see what these little brats were doing here. As soon as he got close, he saw Lu Heng and a few people sitting on the edge of the lake, and everyone gathered around to make fun of a small white animal. Lu Heng held the little thing with one hand and scratched its chin with the other. He was skilled and natural. The little thing was very comfortable being scratched by him, and it lay in his arms with its eyes closed. It was a round, long-eared rabbit, and Jiang Li stared at Lu Heng¡¯s hand. The action of Lu Heng scratching the chin of the long-eared rabbit was exactly the same as the action of Jiang Zhan and Chi Fang scratching the chin of Jiang Nuomi in the previous two worlds. This familiar move made Jiang Li take a step forward unconsciously. The sole of his foot stepped on a dry branch, making a ¡°crunching¡± sound, which attracted the attention of Lu Heng and the others. Lu Heng looked up and saw Jiang Li. With a smile on his face, he grabbed the ears of the long-eared rabbit and carried it to Jiang Li, saying happily: ¡°Instructor, look, I caught a rabbit, and I will bake it for you at night to eat.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you like it?¡± Lu Heng saw that his expression was a bit indescribable, and stuffed the rabbit into his hand, ¡°It¡¯s okay, I have something else.¡± After he finished speaking, he dragged the tiger¡¯s head he had cut off just now from the side and dragged it in front of Jiang Li like offering a treasure. He looked at Jiang Li with bright eyes: ¡°What about this? Do you like this?¡± Jiang Li looked at the dead tiger, the blue veins on his forehead twitched twice, and he squeezed out a few words from his gritting teeth: ¡°¡­Fucking retard.¡± Who likes this kind of thing that¡¯s bloody and has a tragic dead appearance? CH 81 When Qiao Yu and others saw Lu Heng rushing out to kill the tiger earlier, they also jumped out, wanting to help, but Lu Heng told them not to interfere, he wanted to kill the beast alone. After killing the tiger, Lu Heng began to find a way to cut off its head. Qiao Yu asked him what he wanted this thing for. He only said it was useful, but he didn¡¯t say it was of any use, so everyone didn¡¯t ask more. Five people transported it to the lake. Now, seeing Lu Heng pull the dead tiger¡¯s head in front of Jiang Li and say that it would be given to Jiang Li, everyone couldn¡¯t help but be stunned. They had the same idea as Jiang Li: Who would like this kind of bloody stuff, Heng ge, is there something wrong with you? The sentence ¡°Fucking retard¡± made Lu Heng stunned for a while. He looked at the tiger¡¯s head and then at Jiang Li: ¡°Don¡¯t you like it? I spent a long time killing it.¡± Qiao Yu and others: ¡°¡­¡± What nonsense. There was a trace of being wronged in Lu Heng¡¯s tone, which made Jiang Li wonder if he had treated them too violently during this time, otherwise how did he give him the illusion that he would like these things? But putting this aside, for now, he didn¡¯t expect that Lu Heng would kill a Canthal Tiger. The canthal tiger, a variant of the original tiger, was brutal and bloodthirsty by nature. Although it was not the highest-ranked creature in Area F, it ranked among the top three. It seemed that Lu Heng indeed, as he thought, had a huge potential. Seeing Lu Heng¡¯s ¡°seeking praise¡± look, Jiang Li threw the rabbit back into his arms: ¡°I don¡¯t like it.¡± Lu Heng pouted, thinking that next time he would give him something else, but in the next second he heard Jiang Li say again: ¡°However, well done.¡± The feeling of loss was swept away, Lu Heng felt as if the warm sunshine had shone into his heart, and he felt very comfortable physically and mentally. He carried the long-eared rabbit and followed Jiang Li to the lake and squatted down beside him to talk to him. Qiao Yu and the others looked at the squatting backs of the two of them from behind and looked at each other, feeling a little weird. Lu Heng hugged the long-eared rabbit, squatted next to Jiang Li, and chatted non-stop. Jiang Li tilted his head and glanced at the rabbit in his arms and found that it was staring at him innocently with big red eyes. At the time, this little thing tilted its head to show cuteness. Its cute appearance reminded Jiang Li of Jiang Nuomi when it made a mistake. It also liked to stare at him with big eyes like this and his heart softened a little. He reached out and scratched the rabbit¡¯s chin twice. Having raised cats for two lifetimes, Jiang Li was very skilled at tickling small hairballs. The long-eared rabbit was scratched twice, and it felt very comfortable and even took the initiative to stretch its neck over for him to continue scratching. However, Jiang Li just pinched its ears and stood up. Lu Heng also stood up and suggested, ¡°Instructor, do you want to bring it back to raise it?¡± ¡°No.¡± Jiang Li refused, he had no interest in keeping pets other than Jiang Nuomi. ¡°I see.¡± Lu Heng touched his chin, ¡°Let¡¯s eat it then. You don¡¯t like roasted rabbits, right? Then let¡¯s stir fry them. I¡¯ll make them for you tonight.¡± Before Jiang Li could speak, Qiao Yu exploded when he heard it: ¡°Heng ge, didn¡¯t you say you didn¡¯t bring a pot and seasoning when I said I wanted to eat snakes? Why did you think about eating rabbits again?!!¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t the security office have them? Just borrow one.¡± Lu Heng glanced at him with a ¡°Are you stupid?¡± expression. Qiao Yu: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li also only brought nutrient solution for convenience when he came out this time. Still, Lu Heng¡¯s words reminded him that in this forest full of ingredients, he could actually get something else to eat, so he looked at Qiao Yu and asked, ¡°Just now, you said that you want to eat snakes?¡± Hearing what he asked him, Qiao Yu quickly stood at attention: ¡°Report to the instructor, yes! I heard Ling Ao say that the meat of herbivorous snakes is very tender and non-toxic, so I want to try it.¡± Jiang Li turned his gaze to Ling Ao, who also quickly stood up straight: ¡°Yes!¡± Jiang Li saw Luo Qi and Leia standing at attention along with him. He wondered how afraid of him these little bastards were, and shook his head and said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to act so cautiously outside, I¡¯m just making sure, you guys. You guys are right, we can eat it.¡± Qiao Yu relaxed after hearing what he said and as he was originally a carefree character, he laughed twice: ¡°So I plan to bring some back to the cafeteria chef when I go back tomorrow, and let him cook a whole snake feast for me. ¡± ¡°Take it back?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows, ¡°Want to eat so much?¡± ¡°Yes, Instructor!¡± Jiang Li nodded: ¡°Okay, go catch it and we¡¯ll eat it tonight.¡± Qiao Yu was stunned for a moment: ¡°But I don¡¯t know how to make it.¡± Jiang Li smiled, the indifference on his face dissipated a lot. He then turned around and left after saying ¡°I know how¡±. As soon as he finished speaking, the five people present were stunned and looked at his back, thinking that they had heard it wrong, and looked at each other. ¡°What¡­¡± Qiao Yu asked with uncertainty, ¡°The instructor meant that he will cook for us?¡± Luo Qi nodded: ¡°It sounds like that¡¯s what it means.¡± ¡°What the instructor makes¡­is it really edible?¡± Ling Ao swallowed, very suspicious, ¡°I haven¡¯t heard that the instructor can cook.¡± Lu Heng regarded death as if it was his home and said, ¡°If the instructor makes it, we must eat it even though it¡¯s inedible!¡± Others: ¡°¡­¡± Heng ge, can you have some integrity? Jiang Li, who was walking in front, found that they hadn¡¯t followed. He looked back and found that several of them were still in the same place, frowning: ¡°What are you still doing standing there?!¡± ¡°Coming!¡± Lu Heng was the first to answer the call, holding the long-eared rabbit and chasing after him. Since the instructor said he was going to make something for them to eat, the long-eared rabbit was also a good ingredient. When Qiao Yu saw the tiger head that had a tragic death on the ground, he reminded him aloud: ¡°Heng ge, you didn¡¯t take your tiger head!¡± Lu Heng had already run to Jiang Li¡¯s side, and threw a sentence from a distance: ¡°It¡¯s yours now!¡± Others: ¡°¡­¡± He clearly treated the tiger¡¯s head as a treasure earlier, and when the instructor said he didn¡¯t like it, he threw it away as if it was trash. The Fourth Prince is really a fickle man. With the addition of Jiang Li, Lu Heng¡¯s group changed from a five-person group to a six-person group, but Jiang Li was only a guide along the way and didn¡¯t help. With a ¡°Bang-¡± sound! Qiao Yu smashed with a fist a mutant monkey that had pounced on him. The monkey who was two heads taller than him rolled on the ground twice, his body twitched a few times, and he lost his breath. Qiao Yu ran over, grabbed the monkey¡¯s tail, and dragged it to Jiang Li: ¡°Instructor, can this be eaten?¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li looked at the mutated creatures that were piled up like a mountain including wild boars, goats, and mountain eagles, and said with a headache, ¡°No, you guys, stop dragging them back, just throw them away¡­¡± ¡°Instructor!¡± A voice in front of him interrupted him, and the two followed the sound to see that Lu Heng and the others had come back; some with a giant bird on their hands, some with a long-legged deer, and an even more exaggerated thing was that Lu Heng was carrying a dead black panther on his shoulder. Seeing that they threw all the spoils in their hands in front of him, Jiang Li suddenly felt that he had made a wrong decision when he said that he was making something for these little bastards. ¡°I said, don¡¯t bring them back anymore, otherwise I¡­¡± The communication device on his wrist suddenly sounded and when Jiang Li opened it, the three-dimensional image of Pasiya was displayed, saying anxiously: ¡°Instructor, Kate and Heda from Area A are fighting! Please come over quickly!¡± This Area A was naturally not the Area A of the Penglai Forest, but the Area A of the military school. When Jiang Li heard the words, he immediately said, ¡°Send me the location, and I¡¯ll go right away!¡± ¡°Okay!¡± When the communication was cut off, Lu Heng asked, ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Jiang Li said while clicking on the position sent by Pasiya. Judging from the map, it happened to be not far from him. ¡­¡­ After confirming the location, Jiang Li didn¡¯t delay any longer, leaving a sentence ¡°you guys go back first¡± and quickly rushed over according to the orientation map. Lu Heng followed without a word, and after him, Qiao Yu and others hurried to catch up. ¡­ Before this, Pasiya happened to be in the same group with Teck due to the grouping according to their student numbers. In their team, Teck was the team leader. Teck and Kate had always been unable to get along. While due to the fact that Pasiya was also Kate¡¯s little sidekick at school, under Teck¡¯s instruction, everyone in the team would also give Pasiya a cold shoulder. They were obviously in a group, but they isolated him collectively and deliberately left him alone on the way. Pasiya, who had left the group, could only train by himself. But as a Beta, his ability could only be regarded as average. He suffered a lot when hunting mountain eagles. Fortunately, Kate, who was passing by, met him and helped him out. Unlike Pasiya, who was deliberately left behind, Kate disliked the team-up mode as being too much of a hindrance and automatically left the group. Looking at Pasiya¡¯s cheeks and bruised forehead scratched by the mountain eagle, Kate frowned, took out the wound medicine from the bag and threw it to him: ¡°Are you an idiot? Didn¡¯t you know how to call me when you can¡¯t fight against it?¡± Pasiya took the medicine and retorted in a low voice, ¡°We¡¯re not on the same team, so it¡¯s useless to call you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re even talking back.¡± Kate glared at him. Pasiya stuck out his tongue, unscrewed the cap of the medicine bottle, and rubbed some ointment on his face with a cotton swab, but he couldn¡¯t see the exact location of the injury. He rubbed it several times, but they were not in the right place. Kate couldn¡¯t bear to continue seeing it, so he grabbed the medicine and applied it for him. After applying the medicine, Kate looked around: ¡°Why are you alone? What about the others?¡± ¡°They¡¯re gone.¡± When Kate heard this, he scolded in a rage, ¡°Damn, I will beat them to death next time.¡± Although angry, he also knew that it must be because of him. When they first entered the school, Pasiya and Teck were assigned to the same dormitory. Because of him, Teck always made it hard for Pasiya. In the end, Kate asked the instructor at the time to assign Pasiya to his dormitory. ¡°Instructor Jiang said that we can¡¯t fight privately.¡± Pasiya reminded him. Kate glanced at him and said impatiently, ¡°None of your business.¡± ¡°I was just reminding you.¡± ¡°How annoying.¡± The two walked while bickering, moving together. With Kate by his side, Pasiya¡¯s training went a lot smoother, and the data on the loot recorded on his personal terminal kept rising, which made him very happy. Seeing that the sky was slowly turning dark, the two packed their things and prepared to return to the camp. But on the way, they met Heda Searle who also came out for practical training. Heda Searle was a student from Area A of Military Academy, and was also the youngest son of the Prime Minister of the Empire, Garen Searle. Garen and Kate¡¯s grandfather, Loules, had always been at odds. When Heda saw Kate, he couldn¡¯t help but sneer at him. Kate had always been short-tempered, and when he was provoked, he would take action. As Heda, who was admitted to the military academy by his own ability and was assigned to Area A, his ability was naturally higher than that of Kate. He beat Kate like a cat teasing a mouse, and smiled wickedly: ¡°What a trash, go back to your Area D and live with your tails tucked between your legs, what are you out here for?!¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± Kate glared at him, and waved away Pasiya that was holding onto him. When he was about to rush up again, someone suddenly held his shoulders from behind, and when he turned around, he saw Jiang Li standing behind him. Jiang Li glanced down at his bruised face, and said ¡°tsk¡±, ¡°It¡¯s really a shame for me.¡± ¡°None of your business!¡± Kate waved away his hand that was on his shoulder. Jiang Li glanced at Pasiya, and Pasiya knowingly stepped forward to hold onto Kate again. When Heda saw Jiang Li, he was stunned for a moment. Naturally, he knew about this Major Omega who had been exiled by the military. He changed his mind, and then put on a hypocritical smile on his face: ¡°Major Jiang, hello.¡± Jiang Li raised his chin as if answering the greeting, and then asked, ¡°What are you guys doing?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Heda said, ¡°I just heard that your students in Area D are a little disobedient. I¡¯ll discipline them for you.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Jiang Li nodded and walked towards him slowly, ¡°Then it seems that I have to thank you?¡± Heda had heard that Jiang Li had a conflict with Kate as soon as he took office. When he saw that Jiang Li didn¡¯t look unhappy, and he thought he was not happy with Kate, so he said: ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, it¡¯s just a little effort, Major, you¡¯re welc¡­ ¡­¡± Before the words of politeness were finished, Jiang Li¡¯s fist slammed straight into his face, smashing him into the air and hitting the tree beside him. The trunk shook violently a few times, and the leaves rustled. ¡°Heda Searle, you might need to know one thing.¡± Jiang Li moved his fingers and looked blankly at Heda, who was lying on the ground spitting out blood, and he said in a cold tone, ¡°My students, I can punish them, but you can¡¯t.¡± Kate: ¡°¡­¡± What¡¯s the matter with suddenly being protected? Lu Heng and the others, who had caught up from behind, just saw the scene where he knocked people flying with one punch, and their footsteps stopped abruptly, standing more than ten meters away from Jiang Li, and they didn¡¯t continue to move forward. Qiao Yu swallowed: ¡°The instructor¡¯s punch is as hard as when he smashed Heng ge¡¯s headboard.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± What has it got to do with me? Shut the fuck up! CH 82 Heda fell to the ground and the intermittent pain was transferred from the place where the fist was smashed on his face, and his broken tooth was mixed with the blood he spat out. He didn¡¯t expect that Jiang Li would dare to take action against him, and a feeling of being humiliated spontaneously arose. He turned over from the ground and stood up, pointing at Jiang Li angrily: ¡°How dare you hit me? Do you know who I am?!¡± While Kate was listening to his words, he suddenly felt that Heda was like himself when he had a conflict with Jiang Li on the first day. At that time, he didn¡¯t think there was anything wrong with arguing with a little instructor, but now from a different standpoint, he realized how stupid he was. Even though Jiang Li was an Omega and had been assigned to the military academy as an instructor by the military, the medals he had earned in battle couldn¡¯t be obliterated. Qiao Yu, who was on the other side, heard the words and snorted, obviously disdainful of Heda: ¡°So what if the instructor hit him? The instructor even smashed Heng ge¡­¡± ¡°¡­Shut up!¡± Lu Heng stopped him in time and didn¡¯t want to hear the word ¡°headboard¡± again. ¡°Oh.¡± Qiao Yu looked at him with a sullen expression and changed his words very wisely, ¡°The instructor won¡¯t care who he is.¡± Sure enough, when Jiang Li heard Heda¡¯s words, he just asked indifferently: ¡°So what if I hit you, do I need to ask your instructor for permission?¡± This remark made the people present feel comfortable physically and mentally, and they praised the poisonous tongue of their own instructor in their hearts! Facts had proven that as long as the instructor¡¯s poisonous tongue was not used on them, the words sounded very pleasant. Heda choked as he heard Jiang Li¡¯s words, and his face turned blue, but he didn¡¯t want to confront Jiang Li head-on. After all, he understood himself well and knew that he was far worse than Jiang Li in terms of strength. So he pointed his finger at Kate behind him, and said with a sneer, ¡°Kate Zaric! This is between us. You are a big man. You only know how to hide behind the instructor ¡®cause you can¡¯t defeat me? Aren¡¯t you ashamed?¡± Kate was easily provoked by him again. As he pushed Pasiya away and was about to rush out again, he heard Jiang Li lightly reply to Heda: ¡°You are not a child anymore, why are you so jealous of those who are protected by instructors??¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Pfft!¡± Qiao Yu couldn¡¯t help laughing, ¡°The instructor¡¯s mouth is really poisonous.¡± Everyone else nodded in agreement, and the corners of Lu Heng¡¯s lips were slightly raised while his eyes were full of smiles. ¡°Who the fuck is jealous of you all!¡± Heda was so angry at Jiang Li¡¯s words that he uttered swear words and clenched his fists angrily, ¡°Major Jiang, I advise you to mind your own business.¡± ¡°Mind my own business?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows slightly, and the raised eyebrows carried a fierce and hard-to-cover aura, ¡°You beat my students, but you told me to mind my own business?¡± Heda sighed when he heard the words, spread out his hands, and asked, ¡°Otherwise? What do you want?¡± In Heda¡¯s eyes, no matter how powerful Jiang Li was, he was nothing but just an Omega, and he had now been exiled by the military. Whereas Heda was not only the son of the prime minister but also an outstanding student in Area A of the military academy. With his own strength and the entitlement of his family, after graduation, he would definitely enter the military as an officer directly, and he did not need to be afraid of such a small character like Jiang Li. Thinking of this, he sneered, spat blood to the side, and looked at Jiang Li with disdain: ¡°Major Jiang, who in the whole planet of Norman doesn¡¯t know that you have been exiled from the military now. I only call you ¡®Major¡¯ to show some respect and if I don¡¯t, you are nothing! But¡­ Seeing that you are protecting a waste like Kate so much, I¡¯m afraid that you guys are having a shameful relationship?¡± During the last part of his sentence, his smile became a little ambiguous. His gaze turned back and forth between Jiang Li and Kate, and finally stopped on Jiang Li¡¯s face: ¡°Although the glands are removed, it is still an Omega¡¯s body after all¡­ ¡± In the beginning, Kate also had an impression of ¡°You¡¯re just an Omega, just stay at home and wait for marriage¡± towards Jiang Li, but after all these days, his image of him had changed somewhat. Although he was still a little unconvinced at the bottom of his heart, he still had to admit that in terms of ability, Jiang Li had the right to look down on him. Hearing Heda¡¯s nonsense at this moment, he couldn¡¯t control his violent temper, and walked over to the other party: ¡°What the hell are you talking about? Shut up your stinky¡­¡± Before he could finish speaking, a figure suddenly rushed out from the side, and the silver blade slashed straight at Heda with lightning speed. Heda reacted quickly to avoid it, but the blade slashed through his combat uniform. The entire left sleeve was cut with a neat slit from the shoulder to the wrist, and a red bloodstain slowly appeared on half of the arm under the slit, and then fresh blood slowly flowed out. At the moment the accident happened, Kate stopped abruptly and looked at the person in front of him who took action, his eyes suddenly widening. ¡°Who the hell attacked¡­¡± Heda raised his head while clutching his bloody arm, and was stunned after he looked at the person who came, ¡°Fourth Prince?¡± Standing in front of him was Lu Heng wearing a black combat uniform. He looked different from usual. At this moment, Lu Heng¡¯s face seemed to be covered with a layer of ice, his eyes were gloomy, and there was an unknown storm in the making. Jiang Li didn¡¯t expect Lu Heng and the others to follow him here. Lu Heng¡¯s appearance at this time surprised him, which was very different from the look he had when he was holding a long-eared rabbit and was about to eagerly give him a tiger¡¯s head. If the earlier Lu Heng was a puppy who wanted to be petted, then the current Lu Heng was an alpha wolf who wanted to kill his prey. Lu Heng, still holding the unsheathed knife in his hand, stood in front of Jiang Li. He then looked at Heda gloomily, and said coldly, ¡°Heda Searle, I advise you to not speak without thinking. If Lord Searle hasn¡¯t taught you before, then I don¡¯t mind doing it for him.¡± In Heda¡¯s eyes, Lu Heng¡¯s action was obviously meant to protect Kate and Jiang Li, but as far as he knew, Lu Heng and Kate didn¡¯t have much friendship apart from being classmates in the same school area. Whereas for Jiang Li, he had also never heard of the good relationship between the two, so he couldn¡¯t help feeling puzzled. But no matter what, seeing Lu Heng¡¯s gloomy face, his heart sank suddenly. He could ignore Jiang Li, who had the title of Major, or Kate, whose grandfather was the Minister of Foreign Affairs; however, he couldn¡¯t help but take Lu Heng in his eyes. Who is Lu Heng? He is Emperor Lu Qing ¨C the ruler of the Norman Star¡¯s most beloved youngest son. Heda secretly scolded himself in his heart for being unlucky to meet this ancestor at this time. The countless thoughts in his heart happened in just a blink of an eye, and a respectful smile instantly appeared on his face as he stepped forward and explained to Lu Heng: ¡°Fourth Prince, don¡¯t get me wrong, Major Jiang and I just had a little conflict just now. It¡¯s really rude that I didn¡¯t handle it appropriately earlier.¡± ¡°Small conflict?¡± Qiao Yu walked over and sized Heda up and down, his gaze falling on the corners of his bruised and bloody mouth. He then shook his head and tutted, ¡°Then your little conflict was a bit intense.¡± Seeing Qiao Yu, Heda gritted his teeth: ¡°Young Master Qiao is joking, this injury was caused because I accidentally fell down myself.¡± Qiao Yu smiled insincerely, ¡°That¡¯s really careless.¡± Heda squeezed out a reluctant smile. Although his arm was only slashed by the knife, the area of ??injury was from the shoulder to the wrist. He was bleeding profusely at the moment, and he needed to stop the bleeding in time, so he said to Lu Heng: ¡°Fourth Prince, if there is no other matter, I will not disturb you, I will leave first.¡± After speaking, he turned around and wanted to leave first, but Lu Heng stopped him with the next sentence: ¡°Did I say you can go?¡± Heda¡¯s footsteps froze, and he turned around: ¡°What other orders do you have?¡± ¡°Apologize.¡± Lu Heng spit out these two words, looking into the other party¡¯s eyes with the lingering cold. When he heard this bastard say such insulting words to Jiang Li previously, uncontrollable anger had suddenly risen in his heart, making his action one step faster than his own rationality, and he directly drew his knife and slashed over. When Heda heard the word ¡®Apologize¡¯, he clenched his fists instantly and wanted to say something: ¡°Fourth Prince¡­¡± ¡°Wow, he¡¯s not willing to!¡± Qiao Yu interrupted him, looking at him with a look of disgust, ¡°Your father is the prime minister, how did he raise you to be such an ignorant thing who doesn¡¯t know anything about etiquette?¡± Heda glared at him angrily: ¡°You!¡± ¡°What?¡± Ling Ao also joined in, ¡°You don¡¯t want to apologize, and want to fight?¡± ¡°Come on, who¡¯s afraid of who!¡± Luo Qi rolled up his sleeves, looking to have a big fight. Jiang Li looked at them, all eagerly wanting to beat up Heda, and he couldn¡¯t help feeling a little funny, but he didn¡¯t say anything to stop it. Since it was useless to reason sometimes, it was better to fight directly. But Heda would definitely not dare to fight. Now that Lu Heng was here, if he dared to start fighting, he would not be able to stay in the military school tomorrow. In desperation, he could only endure his anger and apologize to Jiang Li and Kate. As he was apologizing, he almost bit his gums to pieces. After he apologized, Lu Heng looked at Jiang Li, who looked back at him, and Lu Heng winked. Praise me, praise me, praise me, praise me! Instructor, praise me! Seeing this, Jiang Li raised the corners of his lips invisibly, and nodded at him, indicating that he could let Heda go. Lu Heng caught the smile that flashed across the corner of his lips and danced in his heart several times, but his face remained calm, and he waved at Heda: ¡°Get lost, I won¡¯t send you.¡± Heda: ¡°¡­¡± After Heda left, Lu Heng and the others let out a ¡°wow¡± after seeing the injury on Kate¡¯s face. ¡°Fuck, your face is swollen, does it hurt?¡± ¡°It hurts to look at, do you still need to ask?¡± ¡°But it¡¯s too embarrassing for us in Area D. If you can¡¯t beat him, call us! We¡¯ll fuck him up.¡± ¡°Right! It¡¯s too miserable.¡± Listening to them discussing his injuries with schadenfreude, Kate¡¯s expression was a little distorted. He gritted his teeth and said, ¡°You guys¡­¡± ¡°Ah, no need to say thanks.¡± Qiao Yu interrupted him, waved his hand, and put on a generous appearance, ¡°We¡¯re all classmates, you¡¯re welcome.¡± Ling Ao: ¡°It¡¯s something as easy as raising our hands.¡± Luo Qi: ¡°Not worth mentioning.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°It is everyone¡¯s responsibility to protect the weak.¡± Kate: ¡°¡­¡± Who the hell wants to thank you guys!! Stop overthinking! CH 83 With Kate and Pasiya, the group of Lu Heng and the others became eight people. On the way back, as they reached the fork of the road to the forest¡¯s police office, Jiang Li said that he would go to the police office to borrow a pot and asked someone to stay and go with him. ¡°Pot?¡± Kate didn¡¯t understand. ¡°What are you going to do with that thing?¡± ¡°Make dinner.¡± Qiao Yu said, although he didn¡¯t know how good Jiang Li¡¯s cooking was, he felt a little excited when he thought that they could have a picnic outside. ¡°¡­¡± Kate¡¯s expression showed disapproval. ¡°You guys are so boring. Don¡¯t you have star coins to buy some nutrient solution? I¡¯ll give you some.¡± ¡°What do you know? It¡¯s fun.¡± Ling Ao gave him a look of contempt. Are they lacking star coins? What they lack is entertainment. In the end, Lu Heng and Jiang Li went to the police station to borrow a pot, and the others went to the place where the ingredients were just piled up and brought back what they needed for dinner. It was rare to be alone with Jiang Li, so Lu Heng naturally would not let go of the opportunity to develop a good impression. He talked endlessly along the way. Jiang Li either responded occasionally or didn¡¯t bother to pay attention to him. The two talked idly to the police department. The officers in charge of the police department that day happened to be the soldiers that Jiang Li had guided before. As soon as they heard their intentions, they asked others to pack everything and give the things to them without hesitation. They even provided tools like a portable stove, cutting board, etc, and ordered someone to drive them back. As they reached the camp, Jiang Li got out of the car and found that everyone had returned. Joel was discussing the day¡¯s actual combat experience with the students, and when he saw Jiang Li getting out of the car, he came over: ¡°Major, I heard Qiao Yu and the others say you are going to make dinner for them, what¡¯s the situation?¡± ¡°To improve our meal,¡± Jiang Li said. Although the cafeteria in Area D was big enough and had enough dishes, the difference in taste was quite large compared to the food in the first two worlds. As for the nutrient solution, although there were many flavors, it was not as refreshing as consuming food, so Jiang Li¡¯s sentence of ¡°improving meal¡± meant upgrading their meal. ¡°Improving our meal?¡± Joel became interested, ¡°Major, I never knew you knew how to do this before.¡± In the past, when Jiang Li took them on a mission, everyone lived on nutrient solutions. How would they have had the experience of cooking by themselves? He was looking forward to it and curious about what he said about improving their meals. ¡°I occasionally cook when I¡¯m at home.¡± Jiang Li explained briefly, ordering everyone to move out the pots and ingredients from the car, and then started on preparing dinner. There were a total of 21 students in Area D. Jiang Li gave out orders. Some were responsible for lighting the fire, some for washing vegetables, and some for cutting vegetables. Among them, Lu Heng and Qiao Yu were the most active. The former wanted to help Jiang Li, the latter wanted to quickly eat. However, due to the reason that they both grew up pampered, most of the ingredients were prepared in a terrible way, such as wild vegetables. After Qiao Yu washed the vegetables, there were no leaves, leaving only the bare vegetable stems. When Lu Heng killed the pheasants, he didn¡¯t know bloodletting, so he directly chopped off the chicken head, and left it aside to wait for the blood to dry. With everyone¡¯s division of labor and cooperation, the ingredients were quickly prepared. Jiang Li took out a herbivorous snake whose head had been cut off by Lu Heng and placed it on a clean chopping board. He held a military dagger in his right hand and the tip of the knife penetrated into the position of the snake¡¯s gallbladder. He picked it out, and then swiped the tip of the knife back from the neck, and the whole snake was directly gutted by him. His movements were fast, ruthless, accurate, and extremely skillful. The knife marks on the snake¡¯s body were neat and tidy like a straight line measured by a ruler. People who didn¡¯t know better would think he was the chef from the cafeteria. ¡°Take it and wash it cleanly.¡± Jiang Li threw the snake to Lu Heng next to him without raising his head, and then pulled out a second one. With the same action, the snake was gutted in less than a minute. The people who were present watched and swallowed, having a feeling that he was cutting their necks. In the beginning, everyone was skeptical of Jiang Li¡¯s cooking skills. They thought of only casually eating a little to show some respect to the instructor. If they were getting hungry at night, they could eat some dry food or nutrient solution. However, when Jiang Li started cooking, the smell of oil and meat suddenly burst out from the frying pan and grabbed their sense of smell! As they were outside, the ingredients, condiments, and tools were limited. Most of Jiang Li¡¯s dishes were stir-fried, which was convenient, fast, and easy to eat. In addition, he also stewed herbivorous snakes and pheasants, commonly known as ¡°Dragon and Tiger Locked in Battle¡±. At the end of the meal even the soup base was finished, and nobody still remembered that they had originally planned to drink the nutrient solution at night. After eating and drinking, everyone gathered around the fire to chat and digest the food they¡¯d eaten. Maybe it was because dinner was made by the instructor, or that the atmosphere of everyone sitting on the floor was too cozy. Everyone was not as alienated and distant from Jiang Li as before, and they even joked about him occasionally during the chat. After chatting for some time, there was even someone who asked about him and Joel when they were on planet Will. The accident on planet Will caused Jiang Li to change from a Beta to an Omega, and his identity also changed from a major with a promising future in the military to a freshman instructor at the military academy. For that matter, that trip wasn¡¯t a pleasant experience. When a certain student talked about this topic, the atmosphere suddenly became cold. Everyone looked at Jiang Li, who was picking firewood with tree sticks, and found that his hand paused slightly. Seeing this, Lu Heng¡¯s face sank, and he looked at the person who asked the question: ¡°You ate so much just now, why didn¡¯t it stop your mouth?¡± The other party was stunned for a moment, then realized that he had asked the wrong question and quickly apologized to Jiang Li. Jiang Li smiled and said indifferently: ¡°Actually, there is nothing that can¡¯t be said. Most of them are similar to the rumors outside. I am an Omega. After the accident, your associate professor Joel sent me back.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Joel continued his words and said with a serious face: ¡°But things are not as simple as the rumors sound. If Major didn¡¯t choose to hurt himself and stay awake, we would all be in danger.¡± In the quiet night, the night wind blew gently and there were rustling sounds among the leaves. The young officer told his students about the critical process at that time, and everyone listened carefully. Their expressions gradually changed from curiosity and indifference to solemnity, as if they had seen the life-threatening scene at that time. Cutting the gland was a very dangerous thing, and it was easy to have an accident without any preparation, but Jiang Li did not hesitate at that time; he chose the most dangerous way to save himself and his comrades in arms. Such a person should be respected and admired, not despised because his status had changed. Everyone couldn¡¯t help but feel ashamed for what they thought in the first place. Jiang Li poked the potatoes buried under the charcoal fire with a stick to see if they were cooked. Beside him, Lu Heng listened to Joel¡¯s statement while paying attention to Jiang Li. The corner of his gaze fell on Jiang Li¡¯s side profile, and he saw the warm firelight lighting his cheek, softening the slightly cool and thin corners of his lips, making the whole person a little more gentle than usual. Instructor is so good-looking. Lu Heng thought to himself. After Joel finished speaking, the potatoes Jiang Li roasted were also cooked. He peeled them and was about to eat them. As he looked up, he saw everyone looking at him with burning gazes, and he couldn¡¯t help frowning: ¡°There are still two in the fire. If you want to eat, dig it out yourself.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± Instructor, you really are insensitive. Pasiya was usually warm and a little shy, but he suddenly summoned up his courage, looked at Jiang Li seriously, and said, ¡°Instructor, you are a great soldier, and I am proud to be your student.¡± ¡°Instructor, me too!¡± ¡°Instructor, I¡¯ve offended you too much in the past, don¡¯t take it to heart!¡± ¡°Instructor, I was wrong!¡± Kate pouted and said nothing with a sullen face. For Jiang Li, these honors and respects belonged to the original host. He was not qualified to take them on his behalf, nor could he tell these young students that the great soldier they looked up to had left everyone, so he could only sigh in his heart. He changed the topic: ¡°Okay, stop being pretentious, no matter how much you say, I will not go easy on you guys, and there will be no less training.¡± Everyone: ¡°¡­¡± Bah! After a short episode, everyone talked about other topics again, chatting about messy gossip, and finally even the love story between General XX and his wife from the military department. They even pestered Joel to tell them about it. Joel was soft-hearted, and after being pestered by them, he started talking. It was said that the general and his wife were both very powerful characters. They were also students of the military academy at the time. The two graduated from the military academy at the same time and entered the military service at the same time. During their service, the two had always been partners, and they had been together every time they went out on a mission. They went through fire and water for many years, love came in time and they got married. It was not surprising that two excellent people got married, but what made everyone talk about it was that they were both Alphas! ¡°Both are Alphas? How can two Alphas be together?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t the associate teacher just say it? Love came in time!¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because of the love that developed as they had sex?¡± ¡°¡­¡± Love will come in time, love will come in sex. Same sound, different meaning. 1 Jiang Li was really fed up with the brain hole of these little bastards. He threw the branch in his hand into the fire and as he turned his head, he saw Lu Heng looking at him quietly, with some obvious feelings in his eyes. Jiang Li had experienced two lives, and seeing such a look in his eyes didn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t understand. Sure enough, he heard Lu Heng saying four words softly in the next second. ¨C Love will come in time. Jiang Li smiled: ¡°Keep dreaming.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± The phrases are completely the same in Chinese, but they have different meanings. CH 84 Jiang Li stood up from the ground, patted his pants, and said to everyone, ¡°You guys talk, I¡¯ll walk around.¡± He then walked towards the road nearby. After he left, Lu Heng chased after him and stopped him at a certain distance from everyone: ¡°Instructor!¡± Jiang Li stopped: ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Um¡­¡± Lu Heng touched his nose and explained, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that just now. When I said love will come in time, it was love will come in time. It didn¡¯t mean the other way. Don¡¯t be angry.¡± At that time, he thought that since the general and his wife were able to develop love over time when they got along day and night, in addition to being together in class, he and the instructor also had after-school tutoring. Wouldn¡¯t it be possible to develop love over time as well? That love will develop in time was really just a literal meaning, not ¡®that verb¡¯ in other people¡¯s mouths. He was afraid that Jiang Li would misunderstand and be unhappy, so he followed up to explain. Jiang Li didn¡¯t expect that he was chasing after him specifically to say this, and nodded, expressing his understanding: ¡°I know, otherwise you won¡¯t be able to go back standing up straight tomorrow.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± How cruel. Jiang Li remembered the way he scratched the long-eared rabbit earlier in the day and wanted to confirm it again, so he asked, ¡°Where¡¯s that rabbit you caught today?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve roasted it.¡± Lu Heng said, ¡°It¡¯s buried under the charcoal fire with the potatoes, it should be cooked by now.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Do you want to eat it? I marinated it with the seasoning you made this afternoon. The taste should be¡­ Hey! Where are you going, Instructor? Wait for me!¡± Before Lu Heng finished speaking, Jiang Li turned around and left. He hurriedly chased after him and found that Jiang Li¡¯s expression was not very pleasant. He didn¡¯t know where he said something wrong again. He called Jiang Li¡¯s name several times, but Jiang Li ignored him, and in the end, he could only follow him without saying a word. Jiang Li didn¡¯t expect that Lu Heng, this little brat, would kill the rabbit once he wasn¡¯t paying attention. How quick his action was. He thought about finding another small animal with fur to ask Lu Heng to give a few pet so he could confirm, but he didn¡¯t know if it was because it was already night when he walked around the vicinity, except for a few birds that were frightened, he couldn¡¯t find any small animals. So in the end, he had to give up for the time being and returned to the camp. When they came back, everyone had just disbanded, and each brought a towel to the lake to take a bath. As soon as Lu Heng came back, he was pulled away by Qiao Yu and the others. Qiao Yu wanted to call up Jiang Li, but considering his identity as an Omega, he dismissed the idea. Jiang Li returned to his tent and found that Kate was squatting in front of his tent, holding a branch and poking the mud on the ground with an impatient look on his face. He walked over and asked, ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Kate heard the sound, threw away the stick in his hand, and stood up from the ground: ¡°I¡¯m just casually squatting, do you have to care about that as well?¡± ¡°Oh, then you can continue squatting.¡± After Jiang Li finished speaking, he planned to enter the tent, but Kate suddenly stopped him: ¡°Wait.¡± Jiang Li turned his head and saw that his expression was a little awkward. Kate said, ¡°Well¡­ Thank you today.¡± When he said this, his gaze wandered around, falling on the ground for a while, and landing on the tent for a while, but he didn¡¯t look at Jiang Li. He probably hesitated for a long time before coming to thank him. He didn¡¯t care what Jiang Li¡¯s expression was after saying it, and he immediately turned and left. In the world of ABO, Omega¡¯s human rights are low. In the hearts of many Alphas, they all feel that they have absolute dominance over Omega. Kate is one of these people, and so is Heda. After this period of observation, Jiang Li found that, unlike Heda, although Kate tended to not speak likable words, his character was a bit arrogant, and his machismo was a bit serious, he did not have a malicious heart and he could still be rescued. So he called out to the other party: ¡°Stand there.¡± Kate stopped in response, turned around, and asked gruffly, ¡°What?¡± ¡°Heda Searle has signed up to participate in the Freshman Mecha Competition in three months.¡± Jiang Li looked at him, his tone as casual as he was talking about the weather, ¡°Do you want to win against him?¡± The Freshman Mecha Contest was an annual event held by the Imperial Military Academy. This competition would be promoted and registered one week after admission. Area D was the only one among the four school districts of the Military Academy where no one had signed up. Although Kate was arrogant, he was not stupid. He realized what Jiang Li meant and froze, looking at him in disbelief: ¡°What do you mean? Could it be that you¡­¡± Jiang Li smiled slightly, but his tone was a little stricter than before: ¡°I can help you for a while, but I can¡¯t help you for the rest of your life. You have to earn your own self-respect back by yourself, understand?¡± You have to earn your own self-respect back by yourself. This sentence seemed to cast a fire in the young and tall Alpha¡¯s heart, hitting the most sensitive position in his heart. Thinking of the scene where Heda laughed at him after losing to him earlier in the day, he gritted his teeth and his gaze landed on Jiang Li: ¡°Can you really let me beat Heda?¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s up to your performance.¡± Jiang Li smiled. After Kate left, Jiang Li said without looking back, ¡°Come out, what are you hiding for?¡± Lu Heng, who was squatting on the other side of the tent, stood up and walked over to Jiang Li as if he had just passed by to say hello: ¡°What a coincidence, instructor, I happened to pass by.¡± ¡°Coincidence?¡± Jiang Li looked at him with a half-smile but lifted his chin towards the place where he was hiding just now, ¡°You¡¯ve trampled the grass to death. You¡¯ve been passing by for a long time, Fourth Prince.¡± The lie was exposed by his words and Lu Heng coughed lightly, smiled at him obediently, and tried to muddle through. Jiang Li turned a blind eye to his smile and asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t you go to take a bath? Why are you here?¡± Just now, Lu Heng was indeed going to take a bath. When he and Qiao Yu were leaving, he inadvertently glanced back and saw Kate squatting next to Jiang Li¡¯s tent. So he returned and heard the conversation between the two. Thinking of Jiang Li¡¯s words just now, Lu Heng hurriedly asked, ¡°Are you going to teach that guy, Kate?¡± Seeing Jiang Li nod, Lu Heng pointed at himself and his voice suddenly increased: ¡°What about me, didn¡¯t you agree to accompany me to train?¡± His words seemed to be accusing Jiang Li, who looked at him inexplicably: ¡°The both of you will practice separately on your own, what¡¯s the conflict?¡± ¡°Do you mean that in addition to accompanying me for training, you have to set aside time to guide him as well?¡± Lu Heng asked. Jiang Li nodded. Kate was very talented in manipulating mechas for combat, and a little polishing would definitely have excellent results. Since the previous night, Lu Heng had been delighted with Jiang Li¡¯s promise to guide him in private. He didn¡¯t tell anyone about it, not even his best brothers like Qiao Yu. He subconsciously regarded this as a secret between himself and Jiang Li, which would make him feel that he was different in Jiang Li¡¯s heart. However, in less than a day, Jiang Li was about to teach Kate mecha combat in private. The cruel reality made the pink bubbles that had been blowing all day and night in his heart pop one by one. What bullshit is this about being different? Lu Heng felt resentful in his heart. Looking at Jiang Li with an unspeakable determination in his eyes: ¡°Is it the Freshman Mecha Competition? I want to participate, so I will also train with you guys.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Jiang Li nodded. Anyway, there was no difference in teaching one or two students. ¡­¡­ Lu Heng glanced at the direction in which Kate left, turned over the vinegar jar a few times in his heart, gritted his back molars hard, and thought in his heart: You¡¯ll defeat Heda, and I will defeat you, perfect. ¡­ The next day everyone got up early, as usual, packed the tents and luggage, and gathered in the open space to stand by. Pasiya applied to be transferred to Kate¡¯s group, and Jiang Li agreed. When they took attendance, Jiang Li glanced at Teck who avoided his sight with a guilty conscience. Jiang Li retracted his gaze: ¡°Let¡¯s go, be careful.¡± ¡°Yes, instructor!¡± After the team disbanded, Qiao Yu¡¯s team did not leave immediately but surrounded Jiang Li. Qiao Yu smiled and asked Jiang Li, ¡°Instructor, can we come back for lunch at noon?¡± After eating the dinner made by Jiang Li, everyone was extremely satisfied with his cooking. When they heard Qiao Yu¡¯s words, they stopped involuntarily and raised their ears to wait for Jiang Li¡¯s answer. ¡°Come back for lunch?¡± Jiang Li glanced at him and said with a smile, ¡°You still expect me to cook lunch for you?¡± He just made a meal on a whim yesterday, but he didn¡¯t expect these little bastards to become addicted to it. Qiao Yu naturally hoped in his heart but as soon as he heard this, he knew there was no hope: ¡°I was just thinking about it casually, haha.¡± Behind him, everyone sighed, silently doing what they had to do. With the previous day¡¯s experience, everyone¡¯s training on this day was very smooth and after that, they returned to school in an aircraft. The first actual combat ended successfully. On the way back, Joel briefly summed up the shortcomings of the actual combat training and then asked everyone to go back, write an experience report, and submit it the next day. ¡°Other than the report,¡± Joel¡¯s gaze fell on Teck and the others, ¡°0011, 0013, 0014, and 0015, write three thousand-word reviews, run 30 laps around the training ground with weights, do 200 push-ups, and 200 frog leaps.¡± As soon as he finished speaking, Teck immediately asked, ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because of your lack of discipline, you crowd out teammates and form gangs.¡± Jiang Li said next to him, his tone indifferent, ¡°Am I wrong?¡± There was silence in the cabin for a while, except for Teck who stared at him unconvinced, the other three bowed their heads and looked remorseful. ¡°Why, are you dissatisfied?¡± Jiang Li looked at Teck, ¡°I¡¯ll give you a chance to appeal.¡± ¡°I¡¯m convinced.¡± Teck gritted his teeth. Can he refuse? He can¡¯t! ¡°In addition, 0021.¡± Jiang Li turned his attention to Kate again, ¡°Separated from the team privately, did not ask for instructions, did not report, and had no discipline, you will be punished together.¡± Kate: ¡°¡­¡± Fuck. Tek: ¡°¡­¡± Suddenly I feel a little relieved. Back in Area D, except for Kate and Teck, who were punished, everyone else could move freely. They just needed to submit the report the next day. Jiang Li returned to the dormitory and immediately went to take a shower to wash off the sweat that stuck to his body. When he came out of the bathroom, he saw two calls from Ryder on the communicator, so he called back. After the other party connected, the voice came: ¡°Major, good evening.¡± ¡°Good evening.¡± Jiang Li replied, ¡°Have you finished the investigation?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Ryder replied over there, ¡°There are four of us in the Second Legion whose birthday is May 21st. I have already sent the information to your terminal.¡± ¡°Okay, thanks for the hard work.¡± Jiang Li said. ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± Ryder paused and asked hesitantly, ¡°What¡¯s the matter with you checking this?¡± ¡°Just a personal matter.¡± Ryder saw that he didn¡¯t want to say more, so he didn¡¯t ask more. The two of them chatted for a few more words and then hung up. Jiang Li opened his personal terminal and found that there was indeed an unread email from Ryder on it. He was about to open it when the communicator rang again. This time it was Lu Heng¡¯s call. As soon as he answered, he said, ¡°Instructor, I¡¯m downstairs, can you come down? I brought something for you.¡± ¡°What?¡± Jiang Li asked absent-mindedly. Compared to what Lu Heng brought, he rather wanted to see whose birthday was on May 21st. ¡°You¡¯ll know when you come down, hurry up!!!¡± After Lu Heng finished speaking, he cut off the communication. Jiang Li frowned and glanced at the email on the terminal. He could only withdraw from it first, change the bathrobe on his body into home clothes, and go downstairs. The door of the instructor¡¯s dormitory had an identification lock. Lu Heng couldn¡¯t get in, so he could only wait outside. Suddenly he heard a ¡°beep¡± sound of the door opening, and when he turned around, he saw Jiang Li walking out. Jiang Li¡¯s hair was still a little wet, and his bangs were messy on his forehead. He was wearing simple and comfortable home clothes, and he looked a little younger than his actual age. There was a big difference between his current appearance and his usual serious and indifferent appearance when he was wearing a military uniform, and Lu Heng couldn¡¯t help but be stunned. Jiang Li looked at Lu Heng, who was only staring at him and not saying anything, so he asked aloud, ¡°Why did you ask me to come down? What do you want to give me?¡± ¡°Ah? Oh oh!¡± Lu Heng came to his senses, took two steps forward and approached him, unzipped his jacket, and motioned him to look inside his clothes, ¡°This!¡± Jiang Li leaned over inexplicably and saw a white furball hidden in his coat. Remembering what he said the previous day about bringing a long-eared rabbit back to him, his eyebrows wrinkled: ¡°I said I don¡¯t keep rabbits, you bring back¡­¡± As he spoke, the furball moved abruptly, raised its head, and met its two dark blue eyes. Jiang Li seemed to have been silenced suddenly, and he couldn¡¯t say another word. The little furball looked at him, tilted its head, and called out: ¡°Meow~¡± CH 85 When Jiang Li saw the little furball in Lu Heng¡¯s embrace, he thought he had caught a jackrabbit back again. He only found out that it was a cat once the little guy looked up. It was a kitten that looked exactly like Jiang Nuomi when it was really young. As he also met Jiang Nuomi in the previous world, so he couldn¡¯t help but be hopeful that he might meet the little guy again here. It was just that in the memory of the original host, there wasn¡¯t such an animal as a cat in this world, and he also checked a lot of information on the Starnet before and found that it was indeed the case. So at this moment, he was caught off guard and had a face-to-face meeting with the little guy. His expression couldn¡¯t help but freeze, his gaze rotated around it and Lu Heng. A thought suddenly appeared in his heart: ¡°You¡­¡± In the next second, the little guy jumped out of Lu Heng¡¯s arms and pounced on him directly, interrupting his following words. ¡°Be careful.¡± Jiang Li was afraid that it would fall, so he quickly hugged it with both hands, and scolded without hesitation, ¡°Why are you still so naughty?¡± Little guy: ¡°Meow?¡± He said this so naturally that Lu Heng was a little confused: ¡°What did you say?¡± It wasn¡¯t until Jiang Li finished speaking that he realized what he had said. He laughed a bit and said as he was hugging the little guy, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, you said you wanted to give me something, is it him?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Lu Heng knew the gift was right when he saw the way Jiang Li was holding the little guy, and the expression on his face suddenly lit up when he saw the little guy just now, ¡°Do you like him?¡± Does he like him? Of course he likes him, compared to the bloody tiger head, this gift had hit the right spot in his heart. But he remembered that there were no cats in this world, so he asked, ¡°Where did you get him?¡± Lu Heng sent: ¡°I picked him up.¡± The little guy was encountered by Lu Heng in Penglai Forest early that day. At that time, he, Qiao Yu, and others had finished their training. On their way back, they happened to meet the little guy being toyed with by a mountain eaglet with its wings slapping. The mountain eagle species was a mutated type. Even the eaglets were one meter in size after their wings evolved, and the little guy was only the size of his palm. The mountain eaglet pressed it on the grass and rolled it around. It tried to escape, but couldn¡¯t run away from an enemy with wings, so it could only be toyed with by the opponent with grievances. After Lu Heng saw it, he went up to chase away the mountain eaglet. The dizzy little guy rolled a few times and lay on the spot wearily after being slapped. It meowed softly once, how weak and pitiful. Although Lu Heng didn¡¯t know what kind of animal it was, and it wasn¡¯t introduced in the documentaries he had seen before, seeing it looking obedient and cute he thought that taking it back might please Jiang Li. So he grabbed it and stuffed it into his clothes to bring it back to school. On the way back, the little guy huddled in his clothes and slept obediently, so no one noticed. As it had rolled on the grass for a long time, the little guy¡¯s hair was white in one part and yellow in the other, and it looked quite a mess. Lu Heng originally wanted to bring it to Jiang Li after bathing it, but he thought that the slightly messy look might make Jiang Li go soft and accept it. Hence, he brought it there directly. He briefly told Jiang Li what had happened, and seeing the little guy grab Jiang Li¡¯s clothes with its little paws, he couldn¡¯t help poking its head with his hand and said with a smile: ¡°It seems that he likes you very much. When I was bringing him here, he kept struggling in my clothes.¡± The little guy was poked on the head by him and it scratched him immediately: ¡°Meow!¡± Lu Heng quickly avoided its claws, clicked his tongue, and flicked it with his hand again: ¡°You¡¯re even throwing a tantrum? If I hadn¡¯t saved you today, you would have been eaten long ago, heartless little bastard.¡± ¡°Meow!¡± The little guy glared, dissatisfied with his teasing. Jiang Li was taken aback by the familiar interactions and conversations. Looking at Lu Heng¡¯s face, he suddenly felt a little unbelievable. The person I have been looking for, is really just by my side? Then why is Lu Heng¡¯s birthday different from that of Jiang Zhan and Chi Fang in this world? Is it just a coincidence that the previous two worlds are the same? And why can Jiang Nuomi travel through every world? Is it the setting of the game or human manipulation? There were too many questions. Jiang Li¡¯s brows slowly furrowed. Lu Heng noticed his gaze and found that there were many emotions in his eyes that he couldn¡¯t understand, it looked like he was shocked yet surprised. Other than that, there was also confusion. Too many emotions were mixed in it, and he couldn¡¯t comprehend it for a while, so he could only ask inexplicably: ¡°Why are you looking at me like this? Are you so happy?¡± Yes. Jiang Li withdrew his gaze, lowered his head, and chuckled, he was really happy, but further confirmation was needed. So he hugged the little guy and said to Lu Heng: ¡°He¡¯s too dirty, I¡¯ll take him back and bathe him.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Lu Heng nodded, and in view of being rejected by Jiang Li last time, he said very politely, ¡°Then I¡¯ll go back first.¡± After speaking, he saluted Jiang Li and turned to leave. After walking a few steps, Jiang Li¡¯s voice came from behind: ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to help me?¡± Eh? Hearing this heavenly sentence, Lu Heng¡¯s footsteps paused, and he suddenly turned his head to look at him with surprise on his face: ¡°You mean¡­¡± Jiang Li held the little guy with one hand and pointed back with his thumb, the meaning was obvious. The sudden surprise knocked Lu Heng over in disbelief as he strode towards Jiang Li, and when he got to him he saluted again, with a slow smile on his handsome face: ¡°Okay!¡± Jiang Li couldn¡¯t help but also laugh. He (JL), with the little guy in his arms, then went upstairs with him (LH). Unlike the four-person dormitory for students, Jiang Li¡¯s dormitory had a very large area with three bedrooms and two living rooms. It had a special physical training room and was equipped with home robots. Seeing Jiang Li having guests, the chubby home robot slid to the door: ¡°Master, welcome home; guest, welcome.¡± As he spoke, he opened the shoe cabinet, took out the slippers for the two of them, and placed them at their feet, then obediently stood aside. Jiang Li put on his shoes and touched the top of the robot¡¯s head: ¡°Thank you for the hard work.¡± The small light bulb above the robot¡¯s head flashed blue light, and a smiling face appeared on the small screen on his face, and he said happily, ¡°This is what I should do.¡± Lu Heng saw it at the side and thought it was a bit amusing. He thought that even the robot at Instructor¡¯s house was so cute, so he also reached out and touched the robot¡¯s head: ¡°Thank you for the hard work.¡± The robot replied expressionlessly: ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± The expressionless face was really expressionless, and the small screen on its face was a straight-up blank. Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± It even has two faces. Jiang Li carried the little guy into the bathroom, bent down, and wanted to put it down, but the little guy jumped off his hand, quickly trying to escape from the side. In the first two worlds, Jiang Nuomi was like this. Every time it saw Jiang Li holding its bathtub, it would hide from sight. Jiang Li had already practiced the ability to catch cats. When it jumped, he stretched out his hand quickly to fish it back, and at the same time said to Lu Heng who came in behind: ¡°Close the door.¡± Lu Heng closed the door in response, and also shut the robot with two faces outside. The robot: ¡°¡­¡± Lu Heng walked up to Jiang Li and knelt down, looking at the little guy struggling in his hands. He stretched out his hand and grabbed its tiny and slender tail: ¡°Do you want me to help?¡± The tail is a sensitive part, and the little guy bared its teeth and waved its paw at Lu Heng, but because it was helplessly caught by Jiang Li, it couldn¡¯t do any damage. Jiang Li gave it a warning look, saw it slowly stop moving in his eyes, and then said to Lu Heng, ¡°Bring me the shower.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Lu Heng got up to get the shower, and inadvertently saw the body wash on the shelf next to him, thinking that it was probably this smell on Jiang Li when he was downstairs just now. He felt an urge to unscrew it and smell it. ¡°Bring over the body wash next to it as well.¡± Jiang Li said again, and Lu Heng responded, went over with the shower and body wash, squatted beside him, adjusted the water temperature, and gave him the shower. Although under Jiang Li¡¯s threat, the little guy stopped struggling, but as soon as it saw the shower in Jiang Li¡¯s hand, its four paws grabbed Jiang Li¡¯s hand tightly, and refused to get onto the ground no matter what. Seeing this, Lu Heng laughed, ¡°Why are you so timid?¡± ¡°Most cats are afraid of water.¡± Jiang Li explained and put the shower aside first. He then reached out to stroke the little guy¡¯s head soothingly, and coaxed it with a few words softly. ¡°Cat?¡± Lu Heng was a little curious when he heard this address, ¡°Is it his name?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the name of their species.¡± Jiang Li said as he slowly wet the little guy¡¯s hair with the shower, and then motioned for Lu Heng to press out the body wash for him. Lu Heng squeezed some body wash onto his palm, watched him support the little guy with one hand, and wiped the body wash with the other, then reached out to hug the little guy for him, and said, ¡°I¡¯ll help you.¡± Jiang Li remembered that no matter whether it was Jiang Zhan or Chi Fang, they squatted down to accompany him to bathe Jiang Nuomi like this before. He smiled silently, and said ¡®okay¡¯ softly. In the spacious bathroom, the two of them squatted on the ground, surrounded by a faint scent of body wash, a bit like the smell of flowers mixed with grass, fresh and pleasant. Jiang Li lowered his head and gently and carefully washed the little guy¡¯s hair. From Lu Heng¡¯s perspective, he could just see his upturned nose and feather-like thick eyelashes. The light and elegant scent of body wash surrounded the tip of his nose. Looking at Jiang Li, Lu Heng couldn¡¯t help wondering if his pheromone would have smelled better and sweeter than this if the instructor hadn¡¯t removed his glands. Jiang Li rinsed the bubbles off the little guy, got up while holding it, took a clean towel from the shelf next to it, and wrapped it. He looked back, took a glance at Lu Heng who was squatting on the ground thinking about something, and asked: ¡°Why are you still squatting?¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Lu Heng was still in the position of holding the little guy in his hand just then, and he came back to his senses once he heard that question, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s done so quickly.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± The little guy was less than three months old and was already small-sized, but it looked even smaller after taking a bath. Lu Heng saw it curled up in the towel like a drowned cat, and squeezed its ear in disgust: ¡°He¡¯s so small, he¡¯s not enough to fit between your teeth even if he¡¯s roasted.¡± ¡°Meow!¡± The little guy raised its paw and scratched him, very dissatisfied with his teasing. ¡°Hey, can you have a little conscience?¡± Lu Heng laughed angrily at its ungrateful behavior, pointed at it and said, ¡°If I hadn¡¯t saved you, you would have died a long time ago. I am your savior, that is your reborn parent, I¡¯m your father!¡± Jiang Li, who came back with the hair dryer, heard this familiar sentence coincidentally. He raised his eyebrows, looked at Lu Heng, and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that you¡¯ve given him to me? If he calls you father, what should he call me?¡± ¡°What should he call you?¡± Lu Heng thought for a while, then said with a smile, ¡°You are my instructor, that is, my teacher. As the saying goes, if you are a teacher for one day, you¡¯re a father for life. Why not call you grandpa?¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± It¡¯s as if I always have to pay for what I¡¯ve done. CH 86 Jiang Li was suddenly check-mated by Lu Heng. Looking at his smiling face, he felt a little speechless yet a little funny, but more of it was the fortune and joy of finding his lover. If Jiang Li still had doubts about Lu Heng¡¯s identity before, now he was completely sure that Lu Heng is Jiang Zhan, or that Lu Heng is Chi Fang. One was that Lu Heng, like Jiang Chi, was used to scratching Jiang Nuomi¡¯s chin with an index finger, and the other was that he could catch the ¡°grandpa¡± inside joke. Resisting the urge to hug Lu Heng fiercely, Jiang Li told himself in his heart that the future was long and there was no need to rush, then he took a deep look at Lu Heng and began to blow dry Jiang Nuomi¡¯s hair. After drying, the little guy¡¯s hair became extremely fluffy, and except for the small gray hair on the top of its head, its whole body returned to a snow-white appearance. It lightly licked Jiang Li¡¯s fingers, and from time to time it called softly twice, affectionate and dependent. Lu Heng felt strange when he saw this. He obviously picked up this little thing by himself, but it was impatient with him, instead, it was very affectionate to Instructor Jiang. Let¡¯s just say Jiang Nuomi looked at face value, Lu Heng told himself that he¡¯s not bad looking either, so why¡¯s the treatment so bad? After thinking about it for a long time, he came to the conclusion that it was because his son followed its father, and both liked Instructor Jiang! Jiang Li let Jiang Nuomi lick his hand, with a bright smile on his face and an unconcealable gentleness in his eyes. In the previous two lives, Jiang Nuomi left earlier than them. At the end of the first world, he never thought that Jiang Zhan and Jiang Nuomi would return to him, until the second world, Chi Fang appeared, and then Jiang Nuomi appeared. He had never been so grateful for this game, it made his cherished lover and pet come back to his side again and again. It was just that it would be nice if Little Cutie System could also appear, this would be considered a real reunion. Thinking of this, Jiang Li slowly stopped touching Jiang Nuomi¡¯s paw, and a look of loneliness appeared on his face. It had been a month since he came to this world, and Little Cutie had not appeared yet, and he did not have any other way to contact it. He was really worried. Seeing that Jiang Li was still in a happy mood and then his expression suddenly changed, Lu Heng hurriedly asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Jiang Li shook his head: ¡°Nothing, it¡¯s just¡­¡± Before he finished speaking, a cold mechanical voice suddenly sounded in his head: ¡°The system is starting¡­ 10%¡­ 25%¡­ 48%¡­ 75%¡­ 100%. The system startup is complete, ready to be used.¡± After that voice, Jiang Li heard another familiar voice: ¡°Lord Host, long time no see.¡± The voice was flat and monotonous, yet Jiang Li heard a sense of exclamation and joy. Little Cutie, who he was still thinking about earlier appeared suddenly, making him yell out reflexively: ¡°Little Cutie?!¡± System replied: ¡°It¡¯s me, Lord Host, are you doing fine?¡± Lu Heng, who was sitting across from Jiang Li, was petrified when he heard him call out to him, ¡°Little Cutie¡±. Li-li-li-little Cutie? ? Lu Heng looked a little dazed, he didn¡¯t expect Jiang Li to call him Little Cutie, which shocked him so much! Although he was indeed a little cute, the point was that apart from being a little smaller than him, other parts of him were not small at all! 1 Instructor, don¡¯t simply call me! I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t help but want to prove myself!! Lu Heng roared in his heart. Jiang Li didn¡¯t know that his ¡°Little Cutie¡± made Lu Heng confused. He was currently talking to System in his mind, asking why it suddenly disappeared during this period of time, and whether there was something wrong with the game¡¯s system. ¡°¡­nothing went wrong.¡± Although System¡¯s voice was as flat as before, Jiang Li, who had been with it for two lifetimes, could still hear a bit of grievance in its voice: ¡°Actually, I was locked up in a little black room.¡± 2 ¡°Little black room?¡± Jiang Li couldn¡¯t help be surprised when he heard this. In his impression, the game settings only allow System to be automatically blocked when he and the male lead engage in indescribable behavior, but System had always been in the little black room since he woke up in this world. And from what it said, it was not a system error, but it was being forced not to go online! Thinking of this, Jiang Li frowned and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Because the game¡¯s main system has been updated.¡± System explained, ¡°In order to increase the difficulty of the capture, Lord Host must recognize the male lead before I, the customer service system, can go online.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li was silent for a while, and asked, ¡°Little Cutie, is the creator of the game so bored that his balls are painful?¡± ¡°¡­Lord Host, please speak cautiously.¡± Just as Jiang Li was about to complain a few more words, he suddenly grasped the key point. Little Cutie said that it could only go online when it recognized the male lead, but the one he clearly recognized was his lover, so could it be that¡­ in this world, Lu Heng was the male lead, the one he needed to capture? Being the male lead for three consecutive worlds, Jiang Li had to suspect that Lu Heng was chosen by System just like himself, maybe he also had a system! But if this was the case, why did he appear with a different appearance and name every time he traveled, whereas he had the same name in every world, and his appearance was somewhat similar? Thinking of this, Jiang Li immediately asked System whether his guess was correct, whether the male leads of each world would be Lu Heng, Jiang Zhan, or Chi Fang! ¡°I¡¯m very sorry, Lord Host, I can¡¯t know about this,¡± System said, ¡°but as far as I know, the male lead does not have a customer service system.¡± Jiang Li remembered that his Little Cutie was a novice system, so he didn¡¯t ask any more questions. For him, it was enough to find the person who would stay with him for the rest of his life in this world. As for the next world, let¡¯s save it for the next time he traveled. He just needed to cherish the person in front of him now. Thinking about it this way, Jiang Li was no longer indecisive. He planned to find something to eat to feed Jiang Nuomi. When he turned his head, he saw Lu Heng frowning, as if he was thinking about something, and pushed him with his hand: ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± Lu Heng was shocked by his push, and blurted out, ¡°I¡¯m not little! I¡¯m big!¡± ¡°??¡± Jiang Li looked puzzled, ¡°What¡¯s big?¡± Lu Heng realized what he said, his ears felt hot, waved his hands, and said, ¡°No, I didn¡¯t say anything.¡± The two were so close that Jiang Li easily spotted his slightly red earlobes, felt suspicious, and moved a little closer: ¡°What¡¯s wrong with your ears? Do you have a fever?¡± Just as Lu Heng felt his ears burning, he was suddenly approached by Jiang Li. His slight breath hit Lu Heng¡¯s ears and he was so excited that his whole ears turned red. It¡¯s not that I have a fever, it¡¯s that I¡¯m getting horny. 3 Lu Heng thought to himself that even without his glands, Jiang Li had such a great influence on him. If his glands were still there, once he entered his heat, he might not be satisfied for seven days and seven nights. Seven days and seven nights¡­ Lu Heng looked at the person who was close at hand, and unconsciously a scene from a dream appeared in his mind. Those blurry but arousing pictures slowly became clear at this moment. The person riding on his waist and swinging his waist wantonly also changed from a shadow figure whose facial features could not be seen clearly to an aloof Instructor Jiang. Under the stimulation of the dream¡¯s imagination, an enchanting and exciting feeling emerged spontaneously from the bottom of his heart, which made his lower abdomen gradually develop a sense of heat! His body reacted much faster than his rationality, and when Lu Heng realized what he was thinking, his black combat pants had already slightly swelled up a little, showing a slight curvature! Raising his flag at his instructor, this is a terrible reaction! Lu Heng seemed to see his lifeblood being smashed and broken by Jiang Li¡¯s punch, and suddenly felt a pain in his crotch. For safety¡¯s sake, he wanted to shift his sitting position to block the arc of the central area. While his mind was all on Jiang Li, he completely ignored the little guy sitting next to his lap. Witnessing his straddling reaction, the little guy first blinked curiously, then raised its paw suddenly and slapped his crotch hard! Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± As the most vulnerable part of a man¡¯s body, little Lu Heng was twice as sensitive as usual when there was a physiological reaction. After being slapped so hard by it, Lu Heng directly jumped: ¡°Damn it!!¡± Like him, Jiang Li didn¡¯t pay attention to Jiang Nuomi, and was taken aback by his sudden jump: ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°¡­nothing.¡± Lu Heng glared at the little bastard who was looking up and acting cute toward Jiang Li with an innocent appearance. He felt distressed in his heart. He couldn¡¯t say that he was slapped by this little bastard. How embarrassing it would be! Jiang Li treated the little bastard way better than the treatment he had gotten. It was useless for him to complain. The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he felt. Taking advantage of Jiang Li turning around, he quietly gave the little guy the middle finger. Not to be outdone, Jiang Nuomi bared its teeth at him. Jiang Li asked the robot to bring a bottle of canned fish for Jiang Nuomi. Seeing that it was obediently sticking out its small tongue to lick the fish, it was exactly the same as in the previous life. He couldn¡¯t help watching it for a while, and then remembered that he had not given it a name yet in this world, so he said to Lu Heng: ¡°You brought it back, give it a name.¡± Lu Heng was still thinking about the little bastard who slapped him just now, so he said without thinking, ¡°Call it Heartless.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li glared at him, ¡°Be serious.¡± This glaring made Lu Heng¡¯s heart flutter, and he always felt that there was something different about the instructor¡¯s attitude towards him this night, but he couldn¡¯t say what was different exactly. Seeing that he was still waiting for him to name the little heartless one, Lu Heng glanced at the white furball and remembered the glutinous rice dumpling that Jiang Li made for dinner in the Penglai Forest the day before, so he said, ¡°Jiang Nuomi then, he looks like a glutinous rice dumpling, since I¡¯ve given him to you, he¡¯ll follow your surname.¡± Jiang Nuomi. The expected name appeared again, and the corners of Jiang Li¡¯s lips hooked slightly. He stretched out his hand to pinch the soft ears of the little guy who was eating, and called softly: ¡°Jiang Nuomi.¡± The little guy seemed to know he was calling it, rubbed its head against Jiang Li¡¯s finger, raised its head, and called him obediently and softly: ¡°Meow~¡± This response made Jiang Li¡¯s heart so soft that he said ¡°Welcome back¡± gently in his heart and then turned his gaze to Lu Heng who was squatting aside. You too, welcome back. Although it was known from the records in the book that there were no such animals as cats in this world, Jiang Li still prepared the cat litter, cat climbing frame, cat toilet, and other things that Jiang Nuomi used in its previous life, so that he would feel like Jiang Nuomi was still by his side. He didn¡¯t expect that those things would really come in handy. Settling down Jiang Nuomi, Jiang Li watched it fall asleep cross-legged in the cat litter. He then smiled silently and stood up. At this time, the robot waiting beside him slid over and reminded him: ¡°Master, it¡¯s your daily rest time, please rest early.¡± Jiang Li nodded and looked at Lu Heng: ¡°You¡­¡± ¡°I understand!¡± Lu Heng said very wittily, ¡°I¡¯ll go back right away.¡± ¡°At this time, the door to your dormitory is already locked I believe.¡± Jiang Li pointed to the time meter on the wall, ¡°It¡¯s already very late.¡± ¡°It¡¯s locked.¡± Lu Heng said honestly, ¡°Instructor, can you lend me your access card again?¡± Jiang Li also just said, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, you can stay with me tonight.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Wait, is love developing over time?!!! Xiao is used for both little and small. Mentioned before in previous chapters, little black room means it¡¯s being banned/blocked. Fever: f¨¡ sh¨¡o, horny: f¨¡ s¨¡o CH 87 Lu Heng didn¡¯t expect to get a chance to stay overnight after giving him Jiang Nuomi. It was an accidental win. Since he was rejected by Instructor before he even said that he wanted to stay overnight the last time. The surprise came so suddenly that he was completely dazed, he just looked at Jiang Li and forgot to react. Seeing that he didn¡¯t speak, Jiang Li raised his eyebrows and asked, ¡°Why, you¡¯re not willing to?¡± Lu Heng nodded without saying a word: ¡°I¡¯m willing to!¡± Jiang Li nodded, and ordered the home robot to clean up the guest room, then brought Lu Heng clean nightwear and asked him to take a bath: ¡°I haven¡¯t worn it, don¡¯t worry.¡± Lu Heng took the nightgown and thought: It¡¯s okay if you¡¯ve worn it, I don¡¯t mind at all. After Lu Heng went to take a shower, Jiang Li went back to the sofa and sat down, and switched on the game tablet. In the column of game missions, the first two worlds are in [Completed] state, and the third world shows [mission in progress]. Jiang Li clicked to check the missions of this world. [Main quest: Capture the male lead¡ª¡ªLu Heng; Side quest¡ª¡ªProtect the empire, protect Planet Manor] Planet Manor was the main planet of the empire. Even before his death, the original host still remembered his duty to protect it. He was a respectable and great soldier. Jiang Li thought that since he had borrowed the original host¡¯s body to live in this world, he had the responsibility to fulfill it for him. There was a strategy progress under the character, and Lu Heng¡¯s current favorability was displayed as 55%, which belonged to the Primary Love state. This made Jiang Li very surprised. From the performance of Lu Heng in the past two days, he could see that the other party had a favorable impression of him, but he never thought that he had broken through the state of Primary Love. ¡°Little Cutie.¡± Jiang Li called out to System, ¡°Did this game of yours fail to be upgraded?¡± ¡°¡­probably not.¡± System said, ¡°If it fails, you won¡¯t be able to see me.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t see you now either.¡± System: ¡°¡­¡± Please don¡¯t tease a data system that just came out of the small dark room. Aware of its speechlessness, Jiang Li smiled, and finally stopped teasing it: ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that the difficulty of this world has increased? I haven¡¯t even captured him yet, and the favorability has broken through 50%, which is much easier than the previous two worlds.¡± System explained: ¡°The system can only control objective conditions, and the male lead¡¯s subjective consciousness is not controlled by the system.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°Explain in a simpler way.¡± System: ¡°Oh, love at first sight, please understand.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Jiang Li tilted his head and thought about the scene when he and Lu Heng met for the first time. He remembered that he smashed Lu Heng¡¯s headboard with one punch, so simple and rude that everyone present at that time was shocked. This kind of love at first sight was too scary. Jiang Li couldn¡¯t understand it, and during this period of time, he was speaking very bluntly with the students in D area, and it was the same with Lu Heng. He couldn¡¯t help asking System suspiciously: ¡°Are you sure? Do you know what happened during the time you were closed in the small black room?¡± ¡°I know.¡± System said, ¡°Although I can¡¯t contact you, I can see everything that happened to you in this world. According to the male lead¡¯s behavior and data, the possibility of falling in love at first sight or falling in love at second sight is very high.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­so you can still watch TV in your little black room.¡± System: ¡°¡­Lord Host, this is not the point.¡± ¡°The point is that he likes me now.¡± Jiang Li said with a smile, ¡°Right.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± System said with relief, ¡°You only need 45% favorability to complete the task.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Jiang Li didn¡¯t care about this. He thought that he traveled through each world to complete the task, but after each time, System did not erase his memory, while Lu Heng also traveled through the same world, yet he couldn¡¯t remember the memory of his previous lives, why is this? And this time Lu Heng¡¯s feelings for him came so quickly, was it due to the influence of the previous two worlds? Is it possible that after triggering something again, he might remember their relationship from before? ¡°Will he?¡± Jiang Li asked System with eagerness and anticipation in his tone. Although he could meet his lover in every world he traveled through, the feelings and experiences that the two had accumulated over two lifetimes could only be recalled himself, it didn¡¯t feel good to endure those all alone. If possible, he hoped the other party could also remember. ¡°Sorry, Lord Host.¡± System apologized, ¡°I have no way of knowing this.¡± System¡¯s answer was actually within Jiang Li¡¯s expectations, but he was still a little disappointed when he heard it. ¡°Forget it, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Jiang Li put away the task tablet, went back to his room, and changed into his pajamas, planning to rest after Lu Heng came out of the shower. At this time, Lu Heng had also taken a bath. After using Jiang Li¡¯s body wash, he felt as if he was surrounded by Instructor¡¯s breath, and pink bubbles kept popping up in his heart. Coming out of the bathroom, Lu Heng immediately saw Jiang Li sitting on the sofa, wearing dark blue buttoned pajamas. Jiang Li¡¯s skin was fair. Under the contrast of the dark blue pajamas, with the light inside the house, his skin looked as white as snow. Lu Heng¡¯s footsteps couldn¡¯t help but pause. He didn¡¯t understand why Instructor Jiang was so white, but Instructor Joel was much darker even though both of them were trained under the sun. When Jiang Li heard the sound of the door opening, he looked up to see Lu Heng standing at the door of the bathroom looking at him, and said aloud, ¡°Go to bed early after bathing, you still have to do morning exercises tomorrow.¡± Lu Heng felt that he was not sleepy at all. After all, it was his first time staying at the house of someone he liked. However, it was really late, and it was not good to occupy Jiang Li¡¯s rest time. After saying good night, they went back to their rooms. The guest room had been tidied up, and the sheets, bedspread, and pillows had all been replaced with clean ones. Lu Heng folded the two pillows together, lay down, and sent a message to Qiao Yu, saying that he would not be returning today, so he didn¡¯t need to leave the door unlocked. It was rare to not have to practice at night Qiao Yu, Luo Qi, and Ling Ao agreed to play games on Starnet as soon as they returned to the dormitory, and when Qiao Yu received Lu Heng¡¯s message, he casually replied and asked him where he lived in passing. ¡ª¡ªLu Heng: In the instructor¡¯s dormitory, sleeping on his bed and covering myself with his blanket. Qiao Yu glanced at the message Lu Heng had sent while he was playing the game. After reading the content, the action of attacking the enemy stopped abruptly, and Qiao Yu blurted out: ¡°The fuck?!¡± When he stopped, Kate, who was playing against him, saw the opportunity and directly knocked him out. D-Captain Kate: Stupid cunt. Qiao Yu didn¡¯t care about his scolding and quit the game directly. Seeing this, Ling Ao and Luo Qi next to him asked him what happened. ¡°Big deal!¡± Qiao Yu sent a video call to Lu Heng as he said that. As soon as Lu Heng appeared, he immediately asked, ¡°Heng ge, where did you say you are just now?¡± ¡°The instructor¡¯s dormitory.¡± Lu Heng showed off and turned the video around the room to let them see where he was. When Ling Ao and Luo Qi heard what he said, they also followed suit, and rushed over together: ¡°Heng ge, are you courting death?!¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­get lost.¡± After ending the call, Lu Heng lay on the bed and couldn¡¯t fall asleep after turning several times. Finally, he couldn¡¯t help but send a message to Jiang Li in the master bedroom next door. ¡ª¡ªLu Heng: Instructor, are you asleep? In fact, it wasn¡¯t just Lu Heng who felt excited, Jiang Li also couldn¡¯t fall asleep. After receiving Lu Heng¡¯s message, he replied ¡°no¡±, and then received a video call from Lu Heng immediately. After the video was connected, both of them saw the other lying on the bed, and for a while, neither of them took the initiative to speak, and just stared at each other. After a long while, Jiang Li half sat up with his body propped up, leaned lazily on the pillow, and asked first, ¡°Why don¡¯t you sleep?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t sleep.¡± Lu Heng said honestly, ¡°It feels like a dream.¡± With the reminder of the progress of favorability, Jiang Li naturally guessed what he meant, and he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little amused, but his expression remained indifferent. ¡°Then why did you find me?¡± ¡°I just¡­ want to chat with you.¡± Lu Heng scratched his hair and looked at Jiang Li who was lying on the bed in the video, his gaze casually glanced at the snow-white skin by his collar, and then slowly moved back. Over the past few days, he had seen Jiang Li wearing military uniforms, combat uniforms, fitness vests, and home clothes, no matter what kind of appearance, each had its own taste. Right now Jiang Li was half lying on the bed with his elbows propped on the pillow, and the pajamas on his body were unbuttoned, exposing the smooth and sharp collarbone. He was a little less serious and indifferent than usual and looked a little lazier and more casual. No matter what he looked like, Lu Heng felt his heart pounding hard. Jiang Li saw that he was looking at him and didn¡¯t speak, so he deliberately moved closer to the video: ¡°What are you looking at?¡± As soon as he got closer, Lu Heng could easily see the skin under the collar of his pajamas. Under the high-definition video condition, he could even see the looming red cherry blossoms on both sides of his chest. When he wanted to see more clearly, Jiang Li lay back down again. After finishing the call with Jiang Li, Lu Heng still didn¡¯t feel sleepy, his mind was full of Jiang Li half-leaning on the bed and the two red cherry blossoms that hadn¡¯t been fully seen. The young Alpha, who was full of energy, couldn¡¯t control his reaction to this thought, propping up a bulge in the crotch of his nightwear. He groaned, feeling a little ashamed, but also a little excited. He turned over and hugged the pillow, whispered Instructor¡¯s name, and reached out to hold a certain part of himself. ¡°¡­Jiang Li.¡± At the moment of release, he subconsciously called out the name of his instructor, and a certain strong desire in his heart soared at that moment. His body was satisfied, but his heart was even emptier. Lu Heng lay with his eyes open for a while before getting out of bed to wash. The next day, Lu Heng was woken up by Jiang Li. As Jiang Li entered the guest room, he saw that Lu Heng was sleeping soundly with his pillow in his arms, so he walked over and pushed his shoulder: ¡°Get up.¡± Lu Heng suffered from insomnia until midnight the previous night, and he only slept for less than three hours. He pushed him, turned over, and continued to sleep. Seeing this, Jiang Li frowned and wanted to wake him up by patting him. However, in the next second, he then saw him sitting up suddenly in the bed. Lu Heng dreamed of Jiang Li smashing his headboard in the morning, and the smash woke him up from the dream. When he looked up, he saw Jiang Li standing beside his bed, and subconsciously lifted the blanket to touch the bed. Jiang Li: ¡°¡­what are you doing?¡± Lu Heng touched it a few times and found that the headboard was not destroyed, so he breathed a sigh of relief: ¡°I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll smash my bed again.¡± ¡°This is my bed.¡± Jiang Li reminded him. Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± So that¡¯s why you didn¡¯t smash it, right?! CH 88 Jiang Li got up early, and when he woke Lu Heng up, there was still more than half an hour before the wake-up bell in Area D rang. Seeing Jiang Li turn around and leave the room, Lu Heng scratched his head and fell onto the bed with the blanket in his arms. The feeling of being woken up by Instructor was so blissful that he couldn¡¯t help laughing. After a while, he got up, folded the quilt, and left the room. As soon as Lu Heng went out, he smelled the aroma of food. Following the scent, he saw Jiang Li coming out of the kitchen with a small steamer held in his hands. Lu Heng didn¡¯t expect Jiang Li to make breakfast early in the morning. He stood there, watched him walk to the dining table, put down the steamer, looked up at him, and said, ¡°What are you doing in a daze? Go wash your face and have breakfast.¡± At that moment, Lu Heng felt as if his heart had been hit by something, and he was in a trance, like the scene where his mother, the Queen was asking his father, the King to have breakfast. ¡°Congratulations Host, the male lead¡¯s favorability towards you has increased by 10%, and the current favorability is 65%.¡± Hearing System¡¯s reminder, Jiang Li, who was about to go into the kitchen to wash his hands, paused and turned to take a glance at Lu Heng. He remembered that Jiang Zhan was like this in the past. When he saw him making breakfast for the first time, his favorability suddenly increased. Sure enough, no matter how his appearance changed, they were the same soul. Jiang Li chuckled lightly, feeling very happy. When Lu Heng was washing his face, the household robot was already waiting beside him, holding his clothes. After washing his face, he changed his clothes, went to the table, sat down, and had breakfast with Jiang Li. Although he had eaten Jiang Li¡¯s food in Penglai Forest before, after tasting it again, Lu Heng couldn¡¯t help but exclaim that Instructor¡¯s cooking skills were better than the chefs in the cafeteria. It would be great if he could come here every day to eat. With this small intention in mind, he praised Jiang Li in different ways, which gave Jiang Li goosebumps. He interrupted him: ¡°Okay, just say something directly, why are you beating around the bush?¡± ¡°Can I still come and have breakfast tomorrow?¡± Lu Heng looked at Jiang Li expectantly. ¡°You are dreaming too much.¡± Jiang Li glanced at him, ¡°I¡¯m not cooking tomorrow, go to the cafeteria to eat.¡± ¡°¡­oh.¡± Lu Heng lowered his head in disappointment and continued to eat breakfast. System asked aloud: ¡°Lord host, why don¡¯t you agree to the male lead¡¯s request? Being in the same room will make the capture progress faster.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no rush.¡± Jiang Li said, ¡°As the saying goes, haste makes waste.¡± System: ¡°¡­¡± I don¡¯t believe it, you obviously want to nurture him. After breakfast, Jiang Li went back to his room, changed his clothes, and walked out wearing a tie. Seeing this, Lu Heng stepped forward and said, ¡°Instructor, let me help you.¡± Jiang Li paused for a moment, looked at him for two seconds, and let go of the tie. The tie fell into Lu Heng¡¯s hands. ¡°Look up.¡± Lu Heng reminded him while holding his tie. Jiang Li raised his head obediently, his slightly protruding Adam¡¯s apple slid slightly, and his fair and slender neck was exposed in front of his eyes, making Lu Heng¡¯s hand holding the tie tighten a little unconsciously and his eyes fell on his Adam¡¯s apple. ¡­ I want to bite and lick it. Lu Heng stared at the beautifully curved neckline, felt that his throat was suddenly a little dry even though he had just drunk water, and for the first time, he realized that he still had the tendency of biting people. ¡°What are you looking at?¡± Jiang Li asked knowingly, looking up slightly to meet his gaze, urging, ¡°Be quicker, are you disabled?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve slept here all night, why are you still so fierce?¡± Lu Heng rubbed his nose and muttered. ¡°What did you say?¡± ¡°No! I mean this is the first time I¡¯ve tied a tie for someone, and I¡¯m not familiar with it.¡± Lu Heng was no longer distracted and buttoned the top button of his collar for him, and then carefully tied the tie. Every movement of his was very attentive and cautious, with a serious expression on his face. It didn¡¯t look like he was helping Jiang Li tie his tie, but rather he looked like he was helping him to wear a ring. He was taller than Jiang Li and needed to bend down slightly. The distance between the two was very close. During this period, Jiang Li could still feel the itching of Lu Heng¡¯s breath hitting his neck, and could also feel the little scheme of his fingers accidentally touching his own skin, moving away, and then pretending to brush against it casually again. In the quiet living room, neither of them spoke. It was just wearing a tie, but the time seemed to be stretched infinitely. There was a hint of ambiguity and charm that was not obvious but existed between the two, an intoxicating chemistry emerged quietly. Lu Heng slowly pushed the tie knot to the neckline and smoothed out every wrinkle on the side. Without removing his fingers from pressing on the tie, he slowly stood up straight. Jiang Li kept his head slightly raised, and a beautiful and sharp line was drawn from the place where the jaw line connected to the root of his ear. In this posture, Lu Heng only needed to lower his head to kiss him. The two looked at each other, and neither of them spoke. Lu Heng looked into Jiang Li¡¯s eyes and saw his own face reflected in his dark pupils, on which he looked like a kid who had just begun to fall in love with an obsession that could not be concealed. He looked at Jiang Li, his gaze slowly falling from his brows and eyes, past his straight nose bridge, and landed on his light-colored lips. Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him! Lu Heng! Quickly kiss him!! It was as if ten thousand little Lu Heng were shouting and cheering in his heart and Lu Heng felt bewitched by them. Staring at Jiang Li¡¯s lips, he held his breath and slowly leaned over. At the same time, he heard his own heart pounding loudly like a drum. The two got closer and closer, and as Lu Heng was about to kiss him, Jiang Li suddenly reached out and pressed his face, pushed him aside, and walked past him: ¡°What¡¯s up on being horny in the early morning, go away.¡± Unprepared, Lu Heng was pushed by him and he staggered. After standing still, he looked back at Jiang Li in disbelief. Under such a good atmosphere, he actually pushed him away? He almost kissed him! If it¡¯s another pair of Alpha and Omega, let alone kissing, the Alpha would have probably marked the Omega on the spot!! Jiang Li, you are simply not human!! Lu Heng cursed in his heart depressingly. Seeing Jiang Li approaching, the home robot held up a mirror to him very considerately. Jiang Li took a look at the tie, nodded when he found that it was not crooked, and began to change his shoes. After Jiang Li changed his shoes, he turned around and saw Lu Heng standing behind him looking at him sadly, and said with a frown, ¡°Are you waiting for me to help you change your shoes?¡± ¡°¡­I don¡¯t dare to.¡± Lu Heng thought to himself, I¡¯m afraid you might even break my third leg. While the two came out of the house, Jiang Nuomi followed Jiang Li. Jiang Nuomi was very reluctant to let him go, but Jiang Li patted its head, coaxed it a few words, and then motioned for the home robot to carry it back. The home robot hugged Jiang Nuomi and said to the two: ¡°Master, goodbye, guest, goodbye. Please come again.¡± Lu Heng smiled and said, ¡°I will definitely come.¡± Home robot: ¡°¡­¡± I¡¯m just being polite. Joel¡¯s dormitory was just opposite Jiang Li¡¯s, and he happened to be going out at the same time. When he saw Lu Heng and Jiang Li, he was stunned for a moment before saying hello: ¡°Fourth Prince, Major, good morning.¡± ¡°Morning.¡± Jiang Li nodded. ¡°Morning Instructor Joel.¡± Lu Heng greeted with a smile. ¡°Instructor Joel, good morning.¡± The home robot also greeted Joel, as he was Jiang Li¡¯s former subordinate, and the home robot was fairly familiar with him. ¡°Good morning Dada.¡± Joel smiled gently at the home robot, glanced back and forth between Jiang Li and Lu Heng, and asked very tactfully, ¡°You¡­ are you going out together??¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Lu Heng nodded, and said in a very contrived tone, ¡°We got up together, of course we have to go out together.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Joel: ¡°¡­¡± Lu Heng said that as if he was afraid that others would not know that he slept in Major Jiang¡¯s room the previous night. Joel was about to facepalm when he heard it, but he smiled awkwardly and politely, and his eyes fell on Jiang Nuomi who was in Dada¡¯s arms. He then asked curiously: ¡°What is this?¡± Jiang Nuomi called out to him: ¡°Meow¡± ¡°Yo, can you understand me?¡± Joel smiled, stepped forward, and touched Jiang Nuomi¡¯s head. When Lu Heng saw Jiang Nuomi obediently letting Joel stroke its hair, he cursed in his heart, ¡°Little heartless thing¡°, and said, ¡°He¡¯s called Jiang Nuomi, and he¡¯s a cat. I gave it to Instructor Jiang.¡± Joel looked up at Jiang Li, who nodded, ¡°It¡¯s time to go.¡± The three of them walked towards the stairs, and Joel suggested, ¡°Since we bumped into each other, let¡¯s go have breakfast together. Yesterday, Qiao Yu and those boys brought back a lot of ingredients and today¡¯s breakfast should be very sumptuous.¡± Before Jiang Li could speak, Lu Heng said, ¡°We ate at home, Instructor Joel, you can go and eat.¡± Joel: ¡°¡­¡± At home, at whose home? Fourth Prince, what you said has a deep meaning. Joel looked at Lu Heng, and suddenly remembered what he said when he asked Jiang Li to lead the team when they were going to Penglai Forest. At that time, Lu Heng¡¯s words sounded like he was blaming Jiang Li for his negligence, but now that he thought about it again, it seemed that he didn¡¯t mean it that way. It was the same thing as the last time in the training room, Lu Heng specifically asked Jiang Li to give him one-on-one tutoring. Also in Penglai Forest, Jiang Li said he wanted to go for a walk alone, but in the end, he came back with Lu Heng. Combining all the above scenarios, Joel suddenly realized something and looked at Lu Heng with surprise in his eyes. Lu Heng didn¡¯t care if his thoughts were seen through by him. He pointed to himself very generously and then pointed to Jiang Li who was walking in front. His two fingers then touched each other, and he smiled at Joel. Joel didn¡¯t expect Lu Heng to like Jiang Li. He was shocked at first, but then he thought it was expected later. For someone as outstanding as Jiang Li, it¡¯s only natural to like him. It was the same when he was in the Second Army. It was just that Lu Heng was several years younger than Jiang Li. He was the fourth prince of the Empire and was Jiang Li¡¯s student, so he probably didn¡¯t have much hope. Thinking of this, Joel shook his head and sighed for His Highness the fourth prince. Jiang Li had already walked into the elevator and turned around to see the two of them still staying in place: ¡°What are you still standing there for?¡± ¡°Coming.¡± Lu Heng walked quickly to Jiang Li¡¯s side, tilted his body, and said something to him with a smile. Jiang Li looked up at him and scolded him in a low voice. Lu Heng immediately stood up straight, but he couldn¡¯t restrain the smile on his face. Seeing this, Joel glanced at Jiang Li¡¯s face and found that he didn¡¯t show any signs of annoyance. He understood something in his heart, smiled lightly, and walked over briskly. After two days of actual combat training, everyone in Area D realized their lack of ability. After that day, the entire training ground was full of energy. After the day¡¯s training was over, as soon as Lu Heng returned to the dormitory, Qiao Yu came up to him, walked around him twice, and asked strangely: ¡°Heng ge, you slept with Instructor last night, did he really not hit you?¡± ¡°How is it possible? He even made me breakfast in the morning.¡± Lu Heng said flamboyantly, thinking: how could it be possible to hit me? And he still called me Little Cutie. ¡°You still have breakfast to eat?!¡± Qiao Yu thought of Jiang Li¡¯s cooking skills comparable to that of a chef in a star hotel and his eyes brightened up. He pulled Lu Heng and said, ¡°Heng ge, I also want to sleep at Instructor Jiang¡¯s house!¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Want to go and sleep? I think you want to court death. TN: Hi guys, I¡¯m so sorry this took almost a month, January has been so hectic with studies and exams, I¡¯m also doing two part-time jobs at the same time to keep up with my expenses studying in another country. I¡¯ll try my best to bring you guys more chapters! CH 89 Qiao Yu wanted to go to Jiang Li¡¯s house to sleep, but Lu Heng would definitely not agree. Unless he became the head of the family one day, then he could invite them over to have a light meal. Head of the family. This idiom, representing a status symbol, lifted his spirits, and he couldn¡¯t help thinking about his life with Jiang Li after they got married. They would sleep in the same bed every day, embrace each other, and besides raising a cat, they might have a son or daughter. ¡°Heng ge? Heng ge!!¡± The voice next to his ear startled Lu Heng. He came back to his senses and looked at Qiao Yu: ¡°What are you doing? You scared me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s me who should ask you what you are doing.¡± Qiao Yu looked at him strangely, and pointed to the corner of his own mouth, ¡°Why are you smiling for no reason?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing, just smiling casually.¡± Lu Heng put away the corners of his lips that were raised unconsciously just then, and said seriously, ¡°Instructor Jiang doesn¡¯t like to be disturbed by outsiders, so don¡¯t think about it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so, didn¡¯t you sleep with Instructor last night?¡± ¡°I¡¯m different.¡± Lu Heng waved his hand and took his clothes to take a shower. ¡°What¡¯s different? Isn¡¯t everyone an Alpha?¡± Qiao Yu muttered. Lu Heng took a shower and came out, remembering that he was going to participate in the Freshman Mecha Competition, so he asked Qiao Yu if they would like to participate together. ¡­ The three stopped what they were doing and asked in unison, ¡°The Freshman Mecha Competition?¡± Lu Heng nodded and, Qiao Yu and the others looked at each other: ¡°Heng ge, you¡¯ve been very motivated recently!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Lu Heng didn¡¯t urge them to make a decision then, since the deadline for registration was the next month. He then left the dormitory after saying, ¡°Don¡¯t keep the door open for me at night.¡± ¡­ Jiang Li came out of the shower, opened his personal terminal, and checked the email that Ryder sent to him the previous day. There were four sets of personal information in the email, all of them were born on May 21st, and one of them was Ryder. In fact, after confirming Lu Heng¡¯s identity, this information had lost its meaning, and so Jiang Li didn¡¯t look at it carefully and closed the terminal after clicking ¡®Confirm¡¯. As soon as it was turned off, the communicator rang. Seeing Lu Heng¡¯s name, Jiang Li was not surprised. He leaned on the sofa to accept the video call. The three-dimensional image of Lu Heng appeared in front of him, and Jiang Li asked him, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Hello, Instructor.¡± Lu Heng greeted him first, and then said with a smile, ¡°Instructor, I¡¯m downstairs, at your dormitory. I¡¯m here to see my son.¡± Jiang Nuomi was lying on Jiang Li¡¯s lap at that time. When it heard Lu Heng¡¯s voice, it then grabbed Jiang Li¡¯s clothes, walked to the communicator, and called out to Lu Heng: ¡°Meow~¡± Lu Heng narrowed his eyes and waved at it: ¡°Yo, son.¡± Jiang Nuomi wagged its tail in distaste, then retreated to take a nap on Jiang Li¡¯s lap. Jiang Li patted its back with his hand, and said to Lu Heng: ¡°Now that you¡¯ve seen it, go back.¡± After speaking, he was about to turn off the communicator, but Lu Heng quickly said, ¡°Don¡¯t turn it off, only seeing isn¡¯t enough. I haven¡¯t touched it yet.¡± ¡°Touch?¡± Jiang Li raised his eyebrows, ¡°Do you still want to come up?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have to go up.¡± Lu Heng said dutifully, ¡°But I¡¯m already downstairs, and it doesn¡¯t make sense not to go up. Come down and open the door for me?¡± Jiang Li looked at him being noncommittal, Jiang Nuomi started meowing again, and Lu Heng quickly said, ¡°Look, my son thinks the same.¡± Jiang Li seemed to be thinking about it for a while, and then he agreed: ¡°Okay.¡± Lu Heng beamed with joy, thinking: Jiang Nuomi, you really are my good son! Just as Jiang Li turned off the communicator, he heard System say, ¡°Master, you said in the morning that haste makes waste.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the case, but things may backfire if not controlled., Wwe can¡¯t refuse too many times.¡± Jiang Li said while changing his shoes, ¡°Right?¡± System: ¡°¡­¡± You have the final say on everything, it feels like the male lead is capturing you, you guys really know how to play. Jiang Li went downstairs with Jiang Nuomi in his arms and opened the door for Lu Heng. The two went upstairs together. On the way, they happened to meet Joel who was about to go downstairs. When Joel saw them, the surprise in his eyes flashed, and he greeted them aloud. He couldn¡¯t help thinking: Does the fourth prince plan to stay here for a long time? ¡°Instructor Joel.¡± Lu Heng greeted him, ¡°Are you going to do your rounds?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Joel nodded, ¡°You are¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m here to take a look at my cat.¡± Lu Heng held up Jiang Nuomi to show him. ¡°Oh.¡± Joel gave him a meaningful look, then turned to Jiang Li and said, ¡°Major, I¡¯m going to check the rooms.¡± ¡°En.¡± Jiang Li nodded, while Lu Heng said, ¡°Sorry for the trouble, Instructor Joel.¡± Joel heard what he meant, smiled, and left first. The two returned to Jiang Li¡¯s dormitory. As soon as Lu Heng saw the robot Dada, he patted its big head with his hand: ¡°I¡¯m here again, are you surprised? Are you shocked?¡± ¡­¡­ Dada: ¡°¡­welcome.¡± Lu Heng smiled: ¡°You¡¯re welcome, your help is greatly appreciated.¡± Dada:¡±¡­¡± ¡­ The next day, Lu Heng asked Jiang Li for a day off, and flew a small aircraft back home. He went straight to the basement as soon as he got home. After Lu Heng entered the initial password in front of the basement door, the small screen on the door flashed a blue light to recognize his face and confirm his identity. The huge and heavy door slowly opened towards both sides, and he walked in. The indoor space was very large. Lu Heng walked straight in, and stopped in front of the innermost black mecha. It was a combat-type mecha about twelve or thirteen meters high, its whole body was black, and under the blinding light, it was shining with dazzling brilliance. It stood quietly, like a sharp sword that had not been polished, the blade was completely hidden under the black armor, but even so, one could still feel its oppression from the outside. Lu Heng stood in front of it, and looked up at it. His gaze gradually changed from the calmness at the beginning to imperceptible nostalgia and pain. After a long while, he stretched out his hand to touch the mecha, rubbing his fingertips slowly, the fine frosting on the black armor stuck against his fingertips. It was obviously a cold armor, but he felt an unstoppable heat, spreading little by little from his fingertips to his heart. ¡ª¡ªHeng di 1, this is the mecha that second brother asked Master Ling to make for you. It uses the best mecha materials and energy fluid in the entire empire, which is slightly better than big brother¡¯s Lion King. ¡ª¡ªHaha, the Lion King might not be happy to hear that. Xiaoheng, give it a name, when you grow up, it will belong to you. The words of his eldest brother and second brother resounded in his mind, and those long-lost memories slowly emerged in front of his eyes along with this black mecha. The scenes of them running in the Penglai forest with Lu Heng on his brothers¡¯ backs, and the scenes of flying in the starry sky with their own mechas slowly turned into vague shadows, and finally only their bloody corpses were sent back by their subordinates. Lu Heng closed his eyes slowly, and softly called its name: ¡°Black Eagle.¡± The black mecha didn¡¯t respond, like a soulless shell. Lu Heng pulled out a golden bullet casing from the chain hanging around his neck, took out a small black chip from the casing, and used the elevator to go up to Black Eagle¡¯s chest. He inserted the chip deep into its chest cavity and then activated the program. After a short time, the black mecha that had been sleeping for ten years gradually woke up, and a calm and strong voice sounded in the empty room: ¡°Who is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s me.¡± Lu Heng rose to eye level with it, ¡°Lu Heng.¡± Black Eagle looked at him for a while, feeling the fluctuation of Lu Heng¡¯s spiritual power, and slowly merging with the power in his memory, but its tone was still a little uncertain: ¡°Your Highness, Fourth Prince?¡± ¡°It¡¯s me.¡± Lu Heng nodded, ¡°Long time no see.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Black Eagle responded, with a sigh in its voice: ¡°It¡¯s really been a long time.¡± Black Eagle was the eighth birthday gift from the second prince, Lu Yuan, to Lu Heng. It was made by the best mecha master in the empire. Lu Heng once said that he would drive it to go on expeditions through the galaxy with his two brothers when he grew up, but at ten years old, he locked it in this closed basement with his own hands. And his eldest brother and second brother both died in the ¡°Battle of Bailu¡± when he was nine years old. Black Eagle really didn¡¯t think that it would see the sun again one day. Facing the master who had grown from a boy to a young man, the black mecha had mixed feelings for a moment and said faintly in an elderly tone: ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to have grown up so much, you were not even as tall as my knee back then, Master.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± I am still not as tall as your knees now. ¡°Do you still have energy fluid?¡± Lu Heng asked. ¡°The tank is close to being empty and needs a refill.¡± Black Eagle replied, ¡°The reason you ask this is that you want to¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take you out.¡± Lu Heng stretched out his hand towards it, ¡°Now.¡± Black Eagle: ¡°Aha?¡± ¡°Hurry up, before Mother comes back.¡± Lu Heng urged. He came back this time without telling his mother and if she knew that he had awakened Black Eagle, she would definitely be unhappy. When Black Eagle heard it, it remembered the scene where the queen forced Lu Heng to lock it in here, and secretly said ¡°My God¡±. A black light flashed, and the huge mecha quickly turned into a black ring, firmly circled around Lu Heng¡¯s index finger. ¡°Master, let¡¯s go!!¡± The deep voice belonging to Black Eagle came from the ring, with obvious haste. Lu Heng didn¡¯t delay anymore. He clenched the ring between his fingers and quickly left the basement. Black Eagle was a mecha made ten years ago, and the energy fluid in it had almost been exhausted. Lu Heng must take it to replenish the energy fluid first, and since Black Eagle had not been activated for ten years, he also needed to send Black Eagle for a checkup from head to toe. It was Ling Ao¡¯s grandfather who made Black Eagle back then. As Lu Heng left the military academy earlier, he had asked Ling Ao to get in touch with Old Master Ling. When he arrived at Ling¡¯s house, he went down to the manufacturing room under the guidance of the housekeeper. Old Master Ling was nearly a hundred years old that year, but he was still in good spirits. His voice was full of spirit and he patted Lu Heng on the shoulder vigorously: ¡°Fourth Prince, I heard from Xiao Ao that you brought Black Eagle here. Let me take a look.¡± ¡­¡­ Lu Heng nodded: ¡°I brought it here, but its energy fluid is not enough.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡± Old Master Ling waved his hands generously, ¡°I have as much as you want here.¡± Lu Heng thought: That¡¯s what I was waiting for!! ¡­ It was already night when he came out of Ling¡¯s house. Lu Heng declined Old Master Ling¡¯s kindness to ask him to stay overnight and flew the aircraft back to the military academy. When he arrived at the school, he didn¡¯t go back to the dormitory. He went directly to Jiang Li¡¯s dormitory. Same as the previous two days, he started a video call with Jiang Li once he got downstairs. As soon as the other party connected, he said, ¡°Instructor, my dormitory is closed.¡± Jiang Li had just come out of the shower, wearing a loose bathrobe, revealing a patch of reddish skin from the hot water on his chest, and drops of water dripping from his wet black hair. He wiped his hair with a towel: ¡°You want to borrow the access control card?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ll borrow¡­¡± Lu Heng hadn¡¯t finished the phrase ¡°borrow your room¡± when he was interrupted by an exclamation: ¡°Wow, what a beauty!!¡± Jiang Li paused for wiping his hair: ¡°Who¡¯s talking?¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Black Eagle, you¡¯re just a mecha, why are you snatching my lines? di : younger brothe CH 90 Black Eagles¡¯ ¡°Beauty¡± made Lu Heng¡¯s eyes twitch, feeling like his wife was being teased by a mecha. He gritted his teeth and said, ¡°Black Eagle, shut up!¡± Black Eagle: ¡°¡­oh.¡± Jiang Li originally thought that Lu Heng came here with someone, but when he heard the two words ¡®Black Eagle¡±, he had an idea of what it was, ¡°Black Eagle?¡± Just after he finished speaking, Black Eagle¡¯s voice sounded again, this time it was more stable than the slightly frivolous tone earlier: ¡°Hello Instructor, I am Black Eagle, the fourth prince¡¯s mecha. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you. I¡¯ll rely on your guidance from now on.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Do you think my words are nonsense? Who¡¯s going to guide you?! In the original host¡¯s memory, Jiang Li had a little impression of the mecha ¡°Black Eagle¡±. The Ling family was known as a family of mechas on the planet of Norman. The previous head of the family, Old Master Ling, created two SSSS-level combat smart mechas in his life. One was the Dragon Roar, the emperor Lu Qing¡¯s mecha, and the other was Black Eagle which belonged to the fourth prince. Even the eldest prince¡¯s Lion King was only a SSS level mecha. Compared with the two mechas, Dragon Roar and Lion King which had joined countless battles and made great achievements in them, there was very little news about Black Eagle. Even over the years, everyone had gradually forgotten this name. The original host had also only heard about it from the current Ling family owner mentioning it by chance, but he didn¡¯t expect to meet it today. ¡°Did you go back and bring Black Eagle here?¡± Jiang Li asked Lu Heng. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Lu Heng could see from Jiang Li¡¯s expression that he seemed to be a little interested in Black Eagle, so he stroked while the iron was hot, ¡°Let me go up first, and I¡¯ll show you.¡± Black Eagle warmly reminded him: ¡°Master, you may not be able to carry me up.¡± ¡°¡­you shut up.¡± Jiang Li used the remote control to open the door for Lu Heng. Lu Heng turned off the communication device and went upstairs quickly. When he reached Jiang Li¡¯s door, he saw Joel coming out of the opposite door before he knocked. This time happened to be that Joel was going to do rounds at the students¡¯ dormitory. Seeing Lu Heng appear there for three consecutive days, Joel had already gotten used to it and greeted with a smile: ¡°Fourth Prince, are you here to see the major?¡± Lu Heng nodded: ¡°Instructor Joel, good evening.¡± ¡°Instructor Joel, good evening.¡± Black Eagle greeted very politely following Lu Heng. Joel was taken aback when he heard this greeting unexpectedly: ¡°Who is it¡­?¡± ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s my mecha.¡± Lu Heng shook the ring on his index finger and asked concerningly, ¡°Did it scare you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Joel waved his hand. He also had his own mecha, but he was just surprised as he was unprepared. After Joel left, Lu Heng stared at the black ring on his index finger and scolded it: ¡°You are just a mecha, why do you talk so much?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Black Eagle said in a very lonely tone, ¡°I¡¯ve been in confinement for a long time, and I can¡¯t help when I hear other people talking.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­you sound like you¡¯re blaming me.¡± ¡°No, no, no, it¡¯s not LIKE I¡¯m blaming you.¡± Black Eagle said, ¡°To be honest, I AM blaming you.¡± ¡°Should you be talking like this to your master?¡± Lu Heng frowned, somewhat missing the calm and majestic Black Eagle from back before, ¡°You were not like this back then.¡± ¡°Back then¡­¡± Black Eagle sighed, showing no remorse for his attitude, ¡°The past cannot be changed, and I can¡¯t do anything too.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± Since lao zi has imprisoned you for ten years, I won¡¯t fight with you on that. At this moment, Jiang Li¡¯s dormitory door opened suddenly. He stood by the door, looked at Lu Heng and asked, ¡°How long are you going to stand at my door?¡± The door was equipped with a sensor alarm system, as long as someone stayed in front of the door for more than half a minute, the house would receive an alarm reminder. Jiang Li saw Lu Heng standing at the door chatting with Black Eagle without knocking on the door, so he came out and opened the door. ¡°I was about to knock when you opened it.¡± Lu Heng said, ¡°We have the same mind.¡± Jiang Li: ¡°¡­¡± Dada stood beside Jiang Li and said to Lu Heng, ¡°Welcome.¡± ¡°We¡¯re familiar with each other, you¡¯re welcome.¡± Lu Heng patted the top of its head, and followed Jiang Li into the house. Jiang Nuomi was lying on the sofa playing with a ball of yarn and when it saw him coming in, it just flicked its tail as a greeting, without even raising its eyes. Lu Heng had already gotten used to its attitude and didn¡¯t care about it. Instead, he said to Jiang Li, ¡°Instructor, I brought the mecha here. When will we start the special training?¡± ¡°In two days.¡± Jiang Li said. He needed to draw up a preliminary training plan, ¡°Have you had dinner yet?¡± ¡°Not yet.¡± Lu Heng shook his head, ¡°Today I was busy repairing Black Eagle, I wasn¡¯t able to do anything else.¡± Black Eagle: ¡°¡­¡± I won¡¯t take this blame, you obviously ate your meal at Old Master Ling¡¯s house. Jiang Li nodded: ¡°Then you go take a shower first, I¡¯ll make you something to eat.¡± Lu Heng was waiting for this sentence with a bright smile on his face: ¡°Okay, thank you Instructor!¡± In view of Lu Heng¡¯s behavior of being a moocher and coming at late night to sleep twice, Dada already guessed that he would definitely not leave that night. Hearing Jiang Li¡¯s words, it slid into the guest room and took out the bathrobe that was washed in the morning for Lu Heng. Lu Heng smiled and touched the small lamp on top of its head: ¡°Good boy.¡± Dada:¡±¡­¡± Lu Heng took the bathrobe into the bathroom and as soon as the door closed, Black Eagle asked in a low voice: ¡°Master, where does this beauty of an instructor come from? He is so good-looking and he can cook too.¡± ¡°What beauty?¡± Lu Heng scolded in a low voice, put the bathrobe on the shelf, and corrected it, ¡°It¡¯s Madam.¡± 1 ¡°Eh?¡± Black Eagle was taken aback for a moment and immediately realized what he meant, and raised his voice, ¡°Are you in heat?!¡± Its words caused Lu Heng to tremble and he hit the switch of the shower. Cold water poured down from his head and sprayed his face. He quickly avoided it and scolded lowly, ¡°Can you be fucking quiet! Who¡¯s in heat? I¡¯m not even an Omega.¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry.¡± Black Eagle apologized, ¡°But it can¡¯t be said like that. Omega only comes into heat at a specific period, and Alpha will go into heat when it smells the smell of Omega who¡¯s in heat. In general, they will all go into heat.¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­ you know a lot.¡± ¡°Just a little.¡± Black Eagle was a little humble and then said with a gratified tone, ¡°My family has a child who has just grown up, so I feel a little excited.¡± Lu Heng took it off from his finger and covered it with a bath towel: ¡°¡­ shut up, I want to take a quiet shower.¡± Black Eagle: ¡°¡­¡± When Lu Heng came out of the shower, Jiang Li had already cooked noodles for him. While he was eating, Jiang Li asked, ¡°Can you show me Black Eagle?¡± Regarding the top-level 4S mecha made by the famous mecha master, it was impossible for Jiang Li not to be interested. If not for the inappropriate venue and time, he would even want Lu Heng to release the body of Black Eagle. ¡°Sure.¡± Lu Heng swallowed the noodles in his mouth, took off the black ring from his index finger, and handed it to Jiang Li. Jiang Li took it. The black ring looked small, but it carried a heavy weight. The surface was engraved with fine feather patterns and there seemed to be a dark light floating inside the body. Jiang Li held it in the palm of his hand, closed his eyes, and tried to contact it with mental power, and soon he felt the domineering energy impact from its body. This top-level mecha was also testing his strength! The attack belonging to the top intelligent mecha was like a giant eagle full of rage, attacking Jiang Li from all directions like a tide, and the overwhelming sense of oppression almost overturned his entire spiritual world. Jiang Li frowned slightly, tightened his hand holding the ring, and instantly released the suppressed mental power. The black space was covered with silver light, and the power released from his body swept the black eagle¡¯s attack away. After several competitions, his power broke the attack apart little by little. After a while, his palms were dripping with sweat. He opened his eyes, his gaze fell on the black ring on his palm and he said softly, ¡°Hello, Black Eagle.¡± ¡°Beauty¡­ ah, no.¡± Black Eagle realized that it was addressing him incorrectly and immediately changed its words, ¡°Hello, Madam.¡± ¡°Pfft!¡± Lu Heng almost spat out a mouthful of noodles and he quickly covered his mouth and coughed violently. ¡°??¡± Jiang Li looked at Black Eagle, then at Lu Heng, ¡°What did he call me just now?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Lu Heng quickly waved his hand and explained seriously, ¡°This bastard has been confined for ten years, and there is something wrong with the operating system, just ignore it.¡± Black Eagle: ¡°¡­¡± Oh, so the repair is not done yet. ¡°Confinement?¡± Jiang Li returned the ring to him, ¡°Why was it confined?¡± ¡°This is a bit of a long story.¡± Lu Heng scratched his head, ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later. By the way, Instructor, where is your mecha? Can you show me too?¡± For Jiang Li, there was nothing he couldn¡¯t show Lu Heng and he pulled up his sleeve a little, revealing a silver bracelet on his left wrist. The style of the bracelet was very simple, only the letters of Jiang Li¡¯s name were engraved at the place where the two ends were connected. There was no pattern on the whole body. It looked inconspicuous on the surface, but it was a top mecha of the same level as Black Eagle ¨C Silver Sparrow. Black Eagle had just been ¡°released after serving his sentence¡± that day, and now it had a desire to loosen its muscles and bones, especially after the battle with Jiang Li just then. It felt curious about the mecha of someone who could oppress it with mental power, so it couldn¡¯t help asking: ¡°Instructor, can I have a love contest with your mecha?¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Now?¡± Jiang Li glanced at the time, ¡°Are you sure?¡± Lu Heng felt that it was a mistake for him to release this bastard mecha, so he said with a headache, ¡°Don¡¯t bother¡­¡± ¡°Ten years.¡± Black Eagle interrupted him, weeping with tears of heartache, ¡°How many ten years can a mecha have?¡± Lu Heng: ¡°¡­¡± I fucking want to lock you up for another ten years. Compared to Lu Heng being speechless and irritable, Jiang Li was amused by Black Eagle. He didn¡¯t ask Lu Heng¡¯s opinion anymore and directly agreed: ¡°Okay, go to the back mountain.¡± Black Eagle: ¡°Okay!¡± Lu Heng instantly felt that his status was not comparable to that of a mecha¡­what the fuck. In Chinese, it rhymes here. Beauty is m¨§i r¨¦n, Madam is f¨± r¨¦n.