This bout of nonsense which was, in truth, a veiled hint at the map of Yan, ended with the system’s victory all the same.
Jian Yue was listlessly flipping through his textbook when he noticed that Mu Yansheng, sitting right beside him, hadn’t brought anything at all.
Coming to the front row with nothing? Just wait to fail at finals.
The young man thought this speechlessly to himself, only to see the professor up front lecturing on the PPT slides, casually glancing in their direction.
Oh no. His secondhand embarrassment was about to kick in.
Considering that Mu Yansheng was the type who seemed aloof but actually quite honest, appeared somewhat lacking in verbal skills, and didn’t seem all that bright, Jian Yue chose mercy. As the professor looked over, he nudged his book toward Mu Yansheng’s side.
Two people sharing a book was at least better than one person staring blankly at an empty desk.
Sure enough, the professor had no intention of sparring with Mu Yansheng, and soon looked away.
Jian Yue let out a breath of relief, only to hear the silly kid beside him open his mouth and ask: “What are you doing?”
Truly oblivious. You come sit in the front row to sleep, even if the professor wanted to turn a blind eye, it would still stick in his throat. So just take the out I’m giving you.
Thinking this, Jian Yue leaned in slightly and whispered a reminder: “Don’t be so blatant about it. If you’re going to sit in the front row, then actually pay attention.”
If someone like me, who doesn’t even need to worry about graduating, was studying this hard for one reason or another, how could I let a native of this world like you coast through life so easily?
But Mu Yansheng, the one being reminded, simply stared fixedly at the young man’s face leaning close, treating the reminder as mere pillow talk, savoring the warm breath brushing against his neck.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Seeing that the other showed no reaction whatsoever, just staring at him in silence, Jian Yue couldn’t hold back and questioned him in a lowered voice.
“Mm.”
What a talent for talking nonsense with a straight face, one look at that expression and you could tell he was zoning out. Jian Yue simply gave up on the conversation and looked away.
But the book still lay between the two of them, forcing the young man to scoot a little closer to the person beside him.
The morning classes finally ended.
Jian Yue glanced at his schedule and realized with dismay that he still had a major course to attend in the afternoon.
The thought that after class he’d still have to rush off to work a whole evening shift at the bubble tea shop made him feel so miserable he wanted to go on strike.
So he spent the whole way bickering with the system in his head, perfectly ignoring the three roommates hurrying along behind him.
The trio, trailing one step behind the young man, instead struck up a conversation among themselves.
“Jian Yue really is too easygoing, isn’t he?” Shen Yu said, looking pointedly at Mu Yansheng. “Anyone else who got treated like that would surely just find it annoying.”
Mu Yansheng gave a scoff and didn’t take the bait.
Li Cheng, walking alongside, was even less diplomatic, offering his assessment in a flat tone: “Embarrassing.”
Whether it was because of Mu Yansheng’s twisted attitude, or his refusal to get out of bed early that morning, or the stolen clothes, though nothing was said outright, the two of them saw his odd behavior perfectly clearly.
Yet the subject of their teasing remained emotionally unmoved. Instead, with a sort of wicked smile in his voice, he sized up the two of them and chose to speak up on the spot.
“What are you yelling about, someone who got rejected in public? Everyone knows your nasty little schemes.”
With that, he turned his head and glanced meaningfully toward Li Chengsheng. “And you’re no good either. You really think I can’t hear what goes on at night?”
In the past, when facing the young man, Mu Yansheng had always been clumsy and petty, prone to sulking to express his emotions. But once out of the young man’s line of sight, he seemed far sharper.
Anyone would have to sigh, “He really has two faces.”
Behind, the three continued their covert squabbling, while up ahead, the young man ran into yet another rotten romantic entanglement, utterly miserable.
Starting over. Seeing on the street the very person he had once dreamed of killing gave off a strange sense of redemption, as if among the masses of humanity, fate had brought them together.
Especially when that leg already marked for chopping took a step forward and blocked his path.
“What is it?”
The few people blocking Jian Yue’s way all looked very familiar, and when he questioned them, their expressions flickered for an instant.
It made Jian Yue think that after last night’s incident, these people might have turned over a new leaf, at least a little. But the moment they opened their mouths, it was the same old flavor: “Last night was our fault, so we’re taking you out for lunch. How about it?”
Hearing this, Jian Yue’s gaze turned subtle, his eyes darkening. The instant a smile rose unbidden to his lips, he couldn’t help recalling how these guys always came to make trouble while he was working, and a surge of malice welled up inside him:
“By ‘last night,’ do you mean the way you guys come every single day, timing it for when I’m about to get off work, just to stamp a footprint on the floor I just mopped?”
So, if you have something to say, just say it, why bring up “last night”? Why phrase it so ambiguously?
He was so annoyed that even the protagonist’s stubborn, aloof persona was about to crack, his foot itching to kick these guys right in the family jewels.
Which is exactly why stupid people with no self-awareness should have their right to speak revoked. But if he beat these guys half to death on the spot…
Hm?
In that case, he probably wouldn’t be able to stay here anymore. And wouldn’t the system then naturally agree to his request to leave?
Hearing its host’s suddenly enlightened inner thoughts, the system immediately shot back: [No. Don’t even think about it.]
But before Jian Yue could eagerly test the waters with a kick, someone gripped his shoulders and gently pulled him back.
The three of them took his place on the front lines, ready to have a “word” with those people.
Those guys were strange ones, upon seeing these three appear behind him, they immediately went silent. Clearly they’d been deliberately picking on him, someone with no backing.
Jian Yue was nearly laughed out of anger.
But Shen Yu was quite the talker.
He calmly pushed Jian Yue behind him, then asked those people in a gentle voice why they had come looking to pick a fight with the young man.
His tone was even laced with a smile seemingly puzzled, yet directly pointing out the blind spot no one had noticed:
“Going out of your way to someone’s workplace, and as customers no less, to discuss private matters… I really don’t understand. What exactly is going through your heads, that you keep going to find him over and over?”
Beside him, another witness to last night’s scene, one of the parties involved, answered Shen Yu’s question on their behalf: “They came to act like thugs.”
And so, the two relatively civilized individuals quietly exited the stage, while Mu Yansheng, who usually spoke harshly only to his own people, unleashed nearly one hundred percent of his power.
This gave Jian Yue a clear lesson in what it meant to be “a slap for your own people, but Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms for outsiders.”
With three great scholars arguing on his behalf, those few men panicked completely.
At first, they claimed they’d only wanted to apologize and asked that things not be blown out of proportion. But once they lost their composure, they started babbling about how they’d wanted to pursue her, that everything had been the actions of lovesick men expressing their affection.
But anyone with eyes could see that, from the very first words out of their mouths, there had been no sincere intention of courting anyone.
So the crowd mocked them with the contempt of the fifty paces laughing at the hundred, ridiculing their mentality of looking down on the woman while wanting to pursue her with their spines straight, unwilling to suffer a loss on any front.
It was a hilarious joke, so hilarious that Jian Yue was certain he wouldn’t be seeing these clowns, who had provided today’s dose of comedy, in any public setting for quite some time.
But where they worked at night, away from prying eyes, was another matter entirely.
Tsk tsk tsk… When that time came, he’d lure them to the back kitchen and quietly show off his fists and feet.
Perhaps because this whole farce had left the system watching in considerable silence.
This time, the system didn’t block Jian Yue’s desire to unleash his might.
Instead, it quietly began filling out an injury report form for the natives of the mission world in advance, ready to submit it to the Quick Transmigration Bureau for review at the earliest possible moment, and using its art of embellished phrasing to get the injuries pre-approved as “minor” before the bureau actually received the photographic evidence.