Uncle Li always handled matters with meticulous rigor. The very next day, he drafted a “Game Survey Questionnaire,” had over a thousand copies printed, and hired a few part-time students to conduct research across major universities.
In his heart, he sighed with emotion: the young master was rarely so attentive to someone. It seemed the relationship between the young master and Shen Jiali would soon blossom and bear fruit. That way, by the time he became too old to walk, he could rest easy knowing the young master had someone truly sincere accompanying him by his side.
Early the next morning, Shen Jiali received a text message from the chief director of the admissions promotional video, notifying him to arrive promptly at the school’s arts center by 10:00 AM for blocking and rehearsal.
Upon seeing the word “rehearsal,” Shen Jiali wilted.
There would be the official shoot after the rehearsal, right?
However, the principal had proposed a reform to student incentive policies, stating that anything involving prize money meant distributing the money first before doing the work.
Therefore, following the text message came a notification of a 1,000-yuan transfer received.
Weeping internally, Shen Jiali sat up, changed his clothes, and headed toward the school with a face full of exhaustion.
Knowing his physical stamina was limited—his limit was fifty meters, and he had to sit by the roadside to catch his breath after every few steps—he set off for school two hours early.
By July, the sun overhead blazed like a raging fire. Just walking out along the shaded path leading to the main avenue left Shen Jiali with a thin layer of sweat, but the sweat was cold, and when a breeze blew, it made him shiver all over with cold.
By the time he reached the school, all the remaining color had drained from his face. He was as white as a sheet of paper, and even his eyelashes seemed to have lost their color, shielding his listless, pale pupils—looking very much like he might faint on the spot at any second.
The senior female director had bought cold drinks out of her own pocket for everyone to beat the heat. When she saw Shen Jiali, she was thoroughly startled by his bloodless face.
“Are you alright? I see your condition doesn’t look too good. Why don’t you go back and rest today and come back tomorrow?” the senior asked with concern.
Shen Jiali shook his head, his voice as weak as gossamer: “I’m fine, it’s an old issue. Tomorrow will be the same.”
While he naturally felt annoyed by endless rehearsals and blocking, he also understood that getting paid to work was the rule. Thinking of his future luxurious grand tomb, what hurdle could possibly be too difficult to overcome?
The shooting locations were selected across several colleges housing the school’s flagship majors, spaced several hundred meters apart. There were also landmark structures located behind the school, such as the Ode Pavilion and White Deer Bistro. Walking the entire route yielded a straight-line distance of over a thousand meters alone.
After chugging two bottles of health tonic drinks, Shen Jiali forced himself to perk up and run through the rehearsal once. By the end of it, his entire body felt as though it had been washed in water, and his shirt was damply soaked, faintly revealing the pinkish skin underneath.
The students couldn’t help stealing a few extra glances, inwardly lamenting: turns out their values really did follow good looks. Suddenly, they felt Shen Jiali wasn’t all that annoying after all; in fact, he was quite cute. Not only cute, but dragging such a sickly body around without ever complaining of fatigue—he also seemed quite hardworking.
After the rehearsal, the senior director couldn’t stop praising: “Not bad, just stick to what we did a moment ago. The actor has no problems; the camera crew just needs to pay a bit more attention…”
“Alright, let’s shoot the official footage now. Everyone take your positions, let’s start from the School of Politics and Law again.”
Shen Jiali slowly stood up. The stone-brick ground beneath his feet felt like a water-soaked sponge; every step down felt as though he were about to sink straight to the center of the earth.
The blazing sun overhead raged wantonly. Under the harsh light, he appeared even more translucent to the point of being nearly transparent, as if a gust of wind could blow him away.
One hour later.
Two thousand meters—a full two thousand meters.
Shen Jiali sat on the curb, hugging his legs, resting his powerless cheeks on his knees.
Did he even walk two thousand meters in total throughout the entirety of last year? Unbelievable; today he walked an entire year’s worth of distance in a single day.
His heart felt taut, his chest felt plugged with a massive lump of cotton, and his breathing grew slow, heavy, and sluggish, even skipping a few beats.
Uncomfortable…
The scene before his eyes suddenly turned into television static. The senior director’s opening and closing mouth kept moving, but not a single sound came out, and his head was entirely stuffed with a buzzing sound.
Shen Jiali instinctively reached into his pocket to find his heart medication, but after fumbling around for half a day, he realized he was in a fictional book world and didn’t have that stuff on him at all.
Over on the senior director’s side, she was thanking every staff member for their hard work, telling them the edited final cut would be sent to the group chat at the earliest opportunity, and everyone would go out for a gathering after passing the school review.
Right at that moment, she heard a “bang” sound.
Looking over in that direction, she saw Shen Jiali had already collapsed to the ground.
The second before losing consciousness, Shen Jiali heard a chorus of overlapping gasps.
He couldn’t help but feel overjoyed—
It’s coming! Peacefully closing eyes.jpg
Yet he couldn’t help feeling a sense of sorrow.
With his current savings, could he buy a single stone brick in the “Garden of Life’s Latter Half”?
A bit unwilling…
The senior director was scared out of her wits by the sight. She hurriedly called over a few strong-willed male students to help lift him, shouting for a long time, but Shen Jiali seemed to have completely lost consciousness, remaining peacefully unmoving despite a thousand calls and ten thousand cries.
“Send him to the school clinic first, and contact his family.”
Once the person was delivered to the clinic, the senior director fished his phone out of his pocket. Lighting up the screen, she discovered there was no passcode lock and hurriedly flipped through the phonebook—
Huh? Asshole No. 1?
Asshole No. 2?
When the senior director flipped to the final entry in the phonebook, Asshole No. 129, she was dumbfounded.
So which number asshole should she call?
Moreover, it was a talent in itself how Shen Jiali had managed to match real faces to those notes.
Fortunately, the phone rang at that moment; it was Asshole No. 22.
After answering, Uncle Li’s ever-loyal voice came through: “Mr. Shen, I didn’t see you when I woke up early this morning. Where are you right now?”
“Excuse me, are you student Shen Jiali’s family member? I’m his senior. He had an accident and is currently at the school clinic. Are you available to come over?”
Upon hearing this, Uncle Li was horrified!
Hanging up the phone, he headed downstairs. Facing Nan Liujing, who was still enjoying a wonderful, leisurely time admiring the lush landscaping in front of the floor-to-ceiling window:
“Young Master, Mr. Shen seems to have had an accident. His classmate says he has fainted and is currently at the school clinic. Would you like to go with me to take a look?”
Nan Liujing’s fingers turning the book pages paused slightly, then he lowered his eyes once more, his dark, lustrous eyelashes shielding his cold pupils: “What does that have to do with me?”
The original text also contained this plot: the original host suffered from malnutrition due to long-term abuse by the villain, fainting and being sent to the hospital. The butler called wanting the villain to visit the original host, and the original host dropped a cold-blooded line: “Dead or not? Call me back to handle the funeral arrangements once he’s dead.”
Although reality deviated slightly from the original text, it was still broadly similar.
Uncle Li awkwardly twitched the corners of his mouth: “You are his legal spouse, it’s only right…”
“Since when is there so much ‘only right’? Did you make the rules?” Nan Liujing coldly interrupted him, his gaze remaining fixed between the lines without any emotional fluctuation.
Uncle Li sighed, a hint of disappointment in his tone: “Then you rest well, I’m heading to the school clinic.”
The young master was sometimes really strange. Clearly, he was still inquiring about Shen Jiali’s preferences last night, yet now he acted like an indifferent stranger. Which of the young master’s emotions was even real?
Nan Liujing didn’t respond to him again, turning the book pages with an expression as stagnant as an ancient well.
After the sound of the front door opening and closing, lacking Uncle Li’s nagging, the world returned to absolute peace.
Nan Liujing continued turning the pages, but he hadn’t taken in a single word of what this section was about.
For a long time, he slowly raised his eyes to look at the tightly closed front door, his fingers absentmindedly stroking the book cover.
He picked up the phone on the desk and called Uncle Li. His voice still lacked a shred of warmth: “Go straight to the company after coming back from the hospital; I left a file there. And by the way, stop by the mall to buy tonight’s ingredients.”
“Also, you don’t need to tell me about Shen Jiali’s condition; I have no interest in knowing.”
The scenery outside the car window gradually receded, growing smaller and smaller until it vanished completely.
The driver secretly glanced at Nan Liujing in the rearview mirror, seeing him quietly gazing out the window as if preoccupied with something.
Curious, the driver asked: “President Nan, why are you suddenly heading to JinHai University? Isn’t today your day off?”
Nan Liujing said indifferently: “The school leaders talked to me before, hoping the company could undertake the construction of the new college. I’m going to take a look at the situation.”
The driver was puzzled.
He seemed to remember there indeed being such a matter, but Nan Liujing had clearly rejected it at the time. Although JinHai University held extremely high social status and developers would scramble to build buildings there even without a single cent of funding, Nan Liujing was an unadulterated businessman who cared nothing for petty profits, so the matter had fizzled out back then.
Why change his mind so suddenly?
Curious as he was, the driver didn’t dare ask more.
Upon reaching the destination, the school leadership team was already waiting enthusiastically at the entrance, even temporarily hanging a banner at the school gate:
[Warmly welcome Mr. Nan Liujing, Executive CEO of Huanhai Group, to visit our school.]
As soon as they entered the school gate, the leaders surrounded him on all sides, introducing the school’s founding history and humanities. Nan Liujing listened attentively on the surface, but his eyes behind his sunglasses kept sizing up the surrounding architecture.
He didn’t retract his gaze until he saw the red cross on the white building.
Entering the leadership office, the leaders served tea and water with warm solicitude. Nan Liujing glanced at his watch and spoke after the leaders finished talking:
“All leaders have tight schedules with official business as well. Since that’s the case, let’s get straight to the point and discuss undertaking the construction of the new college.”
As a result, the leaders found themselves in an awkward spot.
“Originally, reporting the establishment of the new college to the Department of Education was approved, but the student parents are more difficult to deal with than the last. They’re terrified their children won’t get the absolute best resources, so they vehemently oppose the new college. Moreover, several among the parents are untouchable, so this building project probably has to be shelved for now.”
Leaders were politicians who always left themselves three parts leeway when speaking, but the so-called “shelved for now” basically meant it was a dead end.
“A matter that has already been stamped and finalized doesn’t need plans changed just because of a mob of mediocre people. You can give me the list of untouchable parents; I will talk to them,” Nan Liujing said decisively, leaving no room for argument.
Upon hearing this, the leaders’ eyes glowed with joy.
Could any untouchable possibly be more untouchable than the mega-chaebol Huanhai Electronics?
Originally, the leaders had raging toothaches and heartburn over this matter to the point where they couldn’t even eat, but Nan Liujing’s breezy sentence acted like a heart-caluming pill, instantly maxing out their spirit meters.
They wanted to discuss it in detail, but Nan Liujing dropped another line: “I will come to your esteemed school another day to discuss the specific plan in detail. I have some matters today and won’t disturb the leaders further. See you around.”
Knowing this man was a very busy person, the leaders quickly stood up to see him off.
Nan Liujing’s “no need to see me off” made them dare not step forward presumptuously.
The driver was waiting downstairs. He originally thought such a major event would take at least half a day of talks, but Nan Liujing came out just over ten minutes later.
Just as he was about to get into the car, Nan Liujing said to the driver: “No need to take me, go back first.”
Looking at the man sitting in the wheelchair, the driver naturally didn’t dare leave him behind alone.
Until Nan Liujing saw him hesitating and said: “You know it, I don’t need employees without execution skills.”
Still afraid of bearing responsibility, the driver gave repeated instructions and begged Nan Liujing to call him the moment he got home, then finally got into the car with three backward glances for every step he took.
After the car drove out of sight, Nan Liujing stayed alone for a moment, then raised his eyes to look at the red cross obscured by tall buildings, and placed his hands on the wheelchair’s auxiliary rims.