Inside the classroom, Qi Ningze sat in his chair. Looking up meant staring at the back of the student’s head in front of him; looking down meant facing textbooks that read like obscure ancient scripts; and in his ears, the teacher’s voice droned on like a hypnotic lullaby.
“System… why can’t I understand a single thing?” After startling awake once again, Qi Ningze embarrassed-ly covered his face.
He cautiously glanced around, and upon seeing everyone else studying diligently, a deeper wave of shame washed over him.
Without waiting for the System to reply, Qi Ningze opened his textbook once more, flipping through the pages in sync with the teacher’s lecture. “No way, I still have to study hard.”
Yet moments later, Qi Ningze nodded off again like a chick pecking at grain, slipping back into dreamland.
When Qi Ningze opened his eyes next, the students in the classroom were already packing up their things to head home.
Qi Ningze: “System, why is it so late already? I distinctly remember I was studying just a second ago.”
The System replied indifferently: [Your foolish persona is at work. Content unrelated to the main plot automatically skips by default.]
So that’s how it is. This mechanism is pretty smart.
Stepping out of the classroom, Qi Ningze instinctively walked toward Yang Le’an’s classroom.
He still needed to raise Yang Le’an’s goodwill score, and he wondered what Yang Le’an was up to.
Most of the students in Yang Le’an’s classroom had already left, leaving only Yang Le’an intently writing his homework. The summer twilight bathed his handsome, sunny face, while the rhythmic scratching of his pen tip against paper radiated a pure, youthful aura.
Qi Ningze instinctively held his breath, terrified of disturbing Yang Le’an’s studies.
Yang Le’an is so impressive. Unlike himself, who studied straight into a nap.
A distance away, Ke Feng stood in the shadows, silently watching Qi Ningze. His dark, deep eyes were laced with an icy chill, and blue veins bulged on his right hand.
He wanted to know whether Qi Ningze was actually gay. If he was, Ke Feng wouldn’t mind teaching him another lesson until Qi Ningze vanished from this school for good.
“Have you been waiting long? Sorry, I was just finishing up my homework.” The moment Yang Le’an stepped out of the classroom, he spotted Qi Ningze, who had been waiting for him for a while.
Qi Ningze shook his head. He hadn’t waited long at all; besides, Yang Le’an looked genuinely attractive when focused.
He was gradually beginning to understand why so many people in the novel liked Yang Le’an.
Yang Le’an let out a somewhat embarrassed laugh and looked down at Qi Ningze. His sharp, striking eyes seemed to hold a captivating magic, and his slow, deliberate tone carried a hint of temptation: “I have to go do my part-time shift at the barbecue shop later. Are you going to wait for me?”
In the System’s database, any task-taker assigned to a cannon fodder role would have blushed furiously at this point and replied, “Of course, I’ll just wait for you.”
Whenever the protagonists dropped a subtle flirtatious signal, those fools would lose their heads completely and willingly surrender everything they had.
Qi Ningze froze for a second. Facing Yang Le’an’s unspoken request, he felt embarrassed to utter any words of refusal, yet he still had to go work at the restaurant today.
After some thought, Qi Ningze ended up shaking his head. A guilty flush crept over his white, mutton-fat-jade skin. Lowering his head, he soft-spokenly declined, “I’m so sorry, I have to go work at the restaurant today, so I can’t stay with you the whole time.”
Fearing that a direct refusal was impolite, Qi Ningze quickly added, “Once I finish my shift, I’ll come find you right away!”
A brief moment of bewilderment flashed across Yang Le’an’s face. He hadn’t expected to be rejected by Qi Ningze, especially since the youth didn’t look like someone who would turn people down so cleanly.
Once he snapped back to reality, he offered a gentle smile. “Alright then, I’ll head over to the barbecue shop first. If you finish over there later, head back and wait for me at home.”
Qi Ningze nodded, then followed the path in his memory toward the restaurant.
Watching the two part ways, the boulder hanging in Ke Feng’s chest suddenly dropped, and his firm belief that Qi Ningze was gay began to waver once more.
“Whatever. Let’s see how you behave from now on.” Ke Feng let out a deep sigh, as the frighteningly dark aura around him gradually dispersed.
Upon arriving at the restaurant for his shift, Qi Ningze was immediately called over by the manager.
She stared at Qi Ningze for a long time before asking thoughtfully, “Did you look like this when you came in for your interview before?”
“Yes, I’ve always looked like this.” Qi Ningze’s heart pounded wildly as an invisible pressure weighed down on him.
She… wouldn’t be noticing something wrong, would she? The stuff sold by the System shouldn’t be that low-quality, right?
The manager pursed her lips, a conflicted expression flickering in her eyes. In the end, she said with disappointment, “Forget it, forget it. Go back to work.”
Why did it feel as though he had become a completely different person after just a few days? Could her memory be playing tricks on her? She clearly remembered him looking breathtakingly beautiful so stunning that words couldn’t describe it.
Qi Ningze let out a sigh of relief, his clear eyes lighting up as if harbouring a sea of stars. “Then I’ll get to work now.”
Though he had the persona of a foolish cannon fodder, serving tables was straightforward and simple enough, so Qi Ningze’s shift went relatively smoothly.
The shop wasn’t too busy today, so Qi Ningze got off work a little earlier than usual. Still, by the time he wrapped up his tasks, it was already past ten at night.
Stepping out of the shop entrance, Qi Ningze looked up at the sky. The pitch-black night had swallowed all light, leaving only the streetlamps standing lonely along the road.
Quickening his pace, Qi Ningze muttered silently to himself, “Hooray, finally done! Time to go find Yang Le’an.”
Following the address Yang Le’an had given him earlier, Qi Ningze successfully located his workplace.
Yang Le’an stood amidst the crowd with a warm smile on his face, his dark eyes like a calm, tranquil lake, while his slender, fair hands deftly grilled the skewers.
Occasionally, he would look up to chat with a few young girls, saying something that made them burst into blossom-like laughter.
Qi Ningze secretly marveled in his heart, As expected of the protagonist shou, he really is so popular!
He wondered if completing a few more cannon fodder missions would allow him to upgrade to a male supporting character so he could show off a little charm of his own too.
Qi Ningze stepped forward and greeted Yang Le’an: “I’m here! Is there anything I can help you with?”
Yang Le’an looked up. Qi Ningze’s eyes were as clear as ever, carrying an unsophisticated, innocent purity.
Pretty, simple, and clean. It was truly strange, how could a child like this come out of an orphanage?
“Thanks, but no need. You can just take a seat to the side.” The corners of Yang Le’an’s mouth curled up with a warm demeanor. He seemed to radiate a captivating glow, making him look exceptionally handsome and causing the girls nearby to let out enamored squeals.
Qi Ningze lowered his head in disappointment, the outer corners of his eyes drooping slightly. He looked utterly adorable, like a little rabbit.
Yang Le’an let out a soft chuckle and coaxed him like a child: “If it gets busier later, I’ll have to trouble you to give me a hand.”