Chapter 240 The Incomplete Collection of Three Kingdoms Cards

Mr. Jie still used the same old routine: interrogation and warning.

He verbally claimed not to care, but then threatened to call the police, to have his friends trace IP addresses, and vowed to unearth the person behind this ‘clown’.

Jiang Nian looked at his phone and couldn’t help but laugh. Who would he find to investigate?

The police?

Honestly, putting aside whether Squirtle could find connections or not…

Even if he did, so what? This alternate account’s real-name verification didn’t belong to Le Zhi.

Unless he hired a Conan to decipher clues all the way, finally tracing it to Young Master Le Zhi at the police station, only to find that a flood had washed away the temple of his own father.

Laughable.

Jiang Nian scrolled to the end of the chat history on his phone and replied with a single sentence.

“I’m back.”

“Ding ding ding! Super Millionaire Quiz begins, do you choose truth or dare?”

Afterward, he opened Zhou Yuting’s chat page.

Compared to Yu Tongjie, Zhou Yuting had no power to rely on, but she was relatively calmer. She sent several long messages, four or five hundred characters each, which were incredibly lengthy.

She babbled on about a lot, but the core was five words.

Others did it too.

Jiang Nian found it a bit hard to bear. Zhou Yuting’s level of absurdity, compared to Squirtle, could be said to have their own merits.

Squirtle: I’ll find someone to catch you.

Zhou Yuting: Others did it too, why are you only picking on me!

It made him laugh every time he saw it.

Jiang Nian forwarded the same lines he sent to Yu Tongjie to Zhou Yuting. It wasn’t that he couldn’t tailor a message; it was just unnecessary, as the opponent’s rank was too low.

He would hit them with something big before the Six-City Joint Exam.

By then, Le Zhi would have completed his scores, primarily by entering the fray himself. He would infiltrate the answer group for a month, collect evidence, and proactively report to dismantle the criminal group.

What? Le Zhi did it too.

But the scores were real; he could genuinely achieve them on the tests.

It was clearly Young Master Le Zhi’s talent and effort.

So, how it would ultimately be handled depended entirely on Le Zhi’s effort. If he slacked off, there wouldn’t be much difference whether he reported or not; he would still be socially ruined.

Actually, this was also a bit of a feeler, to see if the two would still log into their alternate accounts.

What if they deleted their accounts and ran away?

Then there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t possibly take Le Zhi down with them, could he?

These alternate accounts were all given by Le Zhi, which was equivalent to handing the self-destruct button to Jiang Nian. Men understand; a backup hidden energy source must never be easily shown to others.

My buddy puts himself in my pocket, and I kick my buddy into a ditch.

If he really did that, Le Zhi would remember it for a lifetime, and before he drew his last breath at seventy or eighty, he would still say to his children by the bedside.

“He, that bastard, betrayed me. The wound, it will never heal.”

Right or wrong, Jiang Nian couldn’t be bothered.

He wasn’t Superman; he was one-hundred-thousandth of an Ah Zu.

His moral cultivation was close to the floor of Class Three. He didn’t know who the floor was, but it definitely existed.

In short, this whole thing was about letting those who wished to be hooked, and peripheral harassment.

The bell rang. This was the last evening self-study session, with the third and fourth periods combined.

In a blink of an eye, an hour passed.

Jiang Nian looked up from the stack of test papers again. Only twenty minutes were left before school ended for the night. He stopped writing and took a short break.

He rested his head on his hand, remembering that he was going to freeload at a wedding tomorrow noon. He pondered how to handle it tomorrow, and couldn’t help but space out a little.

Li Hua stole Ma Guojun’s glasses cloth and was carefully folding his blanket into a tofu block.

In the front row, Zeng You tore open a packet of Qin Zui Shao (Kissing Burn snack).

Ma Guojun was playing with a used correction tape, putting it on the desk and walking it like a dog. That thing rewound in reverse, and with a gentle pull, the little correction tape made a rather playful sound.

Wu Jun Gu was reading Vista Magazine, a publication not very popular at Zhennan School.

This stuff was a bit too high-end; people in his class weren’t very interested in looking at the world. They just wanted to read strange folk stories and have some vulgar fun.

He was indifferent to his ex-girlfriend being elected as the psychological committee member. Ever since they broke up, they had been like strangers.

In fact, Wu Jun Gu only wanted to laugh internally.

Can someone with a twisted mind be a psychological committee member? She herself had a lot of negative emotions; how could she possibly help others eliminate theirs? She would explode sooner or later.

Speaking of which, if he and she hadn’t broken up, he should be going to the wedding with her tomorrow. But now, he could only make do and go with his otaku roommate.

He calmly and elegantly turned the page.

He thought to himself that the whole world was full of idiots.

There were fifteen minutes left until evening self-study ended.

The entire classroom was bustling, and the back row was even more like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each displaying their Divine Ability.

Huang Cailang, across from Zhou Yuting in the middle, spoke to Yang Qiming in the same row.

“Brother, are you eating breakfast tomorrow?”

Yang Qiming’s eyelid twitched. He probably guessed Huang Cailang’s intention. Eating at the wedding tomorrow, he would likely have to enter and exit by leaning on the wall.

Young Master Yang was a dignified man; his living expenses were more than enough after the breakup, so he didn’t need to do such a thing.

And honestly, wedding food was just so-so.

But could he say that?

Of course not, it would hurt Huang Cailang’s self-esteem too much. As the saying goes, whether glorious or down-and-out, I’m always there; you and I have never failed; good brothers should advance and retreat together!

Thinking this, Yang Qiming smiled.

“I’m not eating.”

Huang Cailang scratched his face, ultimately not saying, “Then brother, can I have your breakfast?”

“Then no one is eating.” Yang Qiming said indifferently, nodding.

“Alright.”

How hungry could one get by not eating breakfast?

After school.

A group of students in the class stood up with a whoosh, preparing to leave. Yang Qiming instinctively called out to Huang Cailang.

“Let’s go, get some late-night snack.”

Huang Cailang refused, “Brother, I’m not hungry.”

Yang Qiming couldn’t hold back. You little Heaven-Defying kid, you insist on saving your hunger for a big meal tomorrow noon, don’t you!

Alright, alright.

He originally wanted to say he would treat, but the words hesitated on his tongue. Would it make him overthink? What if Cailang felt he was looking down on him?

Forget it, let’s advance and retreat together.

How hungry could one get by not eating a late-night snack? A good night’s sleep would fix it! After waking up tomorrow and attending classes, it would be noon in the blink of an eye.

The night was deep, at the school gate.

Jiang Nian ambled along, turning into the street with Xu Qianqian. There were barely any cars late at night, and people went to bed relatively early, with only the dim yellow streetlights remaining.

“I ate at a new place at the main school gate this afternoon, guess what?”

“Delicious?” Xu Qianqian asked.

“The first bite made me want to die, the second bite made me want to stab the owner.” Jiang Nian swayed under the streetlight, backpack on, hands in his pockets.

“Then why did you eat a second bite?” Xu Qianqian was confused, not understanding what boys were thinking. “Couldn’t you spit it out after the first bite?”

“Spit it on the owner’s face?” Jiang Nian asked.

“Are you stupid? He’d beat you up.” Xu Qianqian offered a good idea, “Just stand up and spit in circles, on the wall.”

“If it’s summer, spit it into the air conditioner’s vent. If I were eating in that restaurant, I definitely wouldn’t be able to eat another bite.”

Hearing this, Jiang Nian gave a thumbs up.

“That’s why I say, it has to be a venomous woman.”

“Get lost!” Xu Qianqian pushed him, huffing, “I’m helping you analyze, and you’re still criticizing me, you despicable and shameless person.”

“I did actually spit it out at the time, into the bowl.” Jiang Nian said, “But I can’t be blamed; it was too awful, and there was a table of people watching me.”

“I was a bit embarrassed, so I asked the owner if he had an antidote.”

Xu Qianqian: “…”

“No, I can’t help but ask, why are the local people’s moral qualities not high?” Jiang Nian said with heartfelt grief, “I don’t understand why they don’t make it tastier.”

Xu Qianqian glanced at Jiang Nian, remaining silent.

“Leaving aside your loss, your moral quality is only slightly better than the owner’s.”

Jiang Nian walked backward in front of Xu Qianqian, spreading his hands.

“Anyway, I don’t recommend you eat there.”

Xu Qianqian scoffed, but still made a mental note.

Although she wasn’t short on money, no one’s money grew on trees. Spending money to eat a mouthful of pig feed was completely unnecessary; if worse came to worst, she could just eat red stones.

However, pig feed wasn’t that expensive; even comparing it was somewhat insulting to pig feed.

It felt like spreading malicious rumors about pig feed.

Before going upstairs to her home, Xu Qianqian suddenly called out to him.

“Oh, right, here’s something for you.”

“What?” Jiang Nian turned his head.

In the stairwell, Xu Qianqian skillfully stomped her foot, and the sound-activated light promptly turned on.

She rummaged through her backpack for a moment, pulling out something wrapped in a napkin. Under Jiang Nian’s puzzled gaze, the napkin slowly unfolded.

It was a card from a Three Kingdoms Magician instant noodle snack, a general hero card.

“For you.”

“Holy cow? Where did you get it?” Jiang Nian took the card, examining it repeatedly under the stairwell light for a long time. “Ma Chao with the shining effect, I couldn’t complete the set when I was little.”

“It was a snack rewarded by the teacher; I gave the noodles to someone else.” Xu Qianqian tilted her head, “I remember you used to buy these all the time, so I took the card.”

“Those distributors sold them by region; the rare cards were different in each place.” Jiang Nian held it dearly, a smile never leaving his face.

“Hey, didn’t I complete it today?”

This set wasn’t actually that hard to complete; you could just find a group on Tieba and order it. But if you bought the whole set, the joy of getting it would be largely gone.

The greatest joy of collecting stamps was the process, the surprise of the draw. Not completing the set and then throwing it into a drawer to gather dust, without even the motivation to show it off.

As the saying goes, always use it, always new, old friend.

“Now I have to thank you, even though I didn’t open the pack myself.” Jiang Nian mumbled, “But you took it, so it’s like I took it.”

Hearing this, Xu Qianqian raised an eyebrow.

“How do you plan to thank me?”

“Oh oh, anything, of course.” Jiang Nian started to squirm again, “But I don’t have anything good, so how about…”

Xu Qianqian froze for a moment, then turned and went upstairs.

“How can you repay kindness with enmity!”

Jiang Nian sighed, shaking his head.

“Why don’t you understand my humor?”

Going upstairs and returning home, he quickly took a shower.

After drying his hair and returning to his room, he sat in his chair, staring at the card on the table, lost in thought.

Back in elementary school, he often collected and traded cards with his friends. His mouth would bleed from eating, yet he insisted on munching instant noodles once a day.

At that time, a friend who went to Australia to become an ‘Aussie lord’ had the most cards. He always had to play marbles with him to trick him out of his cards.

“Speaking of which, I wonder if Tree Lord has started his silver party yet.”