Chapter 324 Xu: He wouldn’t use himself as a casting material, would he?

After evening self-study, when school was dismissed, Jiang Nian had just stepped out of the classroom, preparing to go home, when the System panel suddenly popped up.

“At thirty-eight, you flew to the city where Song Xiyun resided. It was also the city where your university was located, Nanshi.

Upon reuniting, she wore a mask, and her tone was indifferent. You noticed that she would uncontrollably cough every now and then, which didn’t seem like a flu.

Years of consistent corporate slave life made you quickly realize that Song Xiyun showed no signs of long-term employment; her spirit was languid.

Her clothes were clean, but they were old styles from several years ago.

Task: Complete a pleasant date with Song Xiyun. Reward: Skill: Verification (refreshes once every three days).”

Before Jiang Nian reached the third floor, he had already finished reading all the information on the panel, deep in thought.

The System was becoming increasingly humanized, putting himself in the perspective of a thirty-eight-year-old Intermediate.

Before and after the date with Song Xiyun, the System revealed all the information. It seemed afraid the host wouldn’t notice certain details, so it gave frantic hints.

As an observer, Jiang Nian looked across the long river of time, spanning twenty years, to gaze at that future reunion.

He saw less and obtained less complete information.

He could probably only infer from the reason for ‘his’ breakup with Song Xiyun in college and Song Xiyun’s state during the date.

Sick?

A chronic illness that required a lot of money, and twenty years later, the illness was already uncontrollable.

They met as soon as they reconnected, so her marital status should be single. Her economic situation was not good; she was too sick to work and maintain a balanced income and expenditure.

Part-time work, part-time illness, a medicine pot.

Furthermore, Nanshi had no universities directly under the State Council, and neither of their grades were good enough. They only attended a second-tier university, and after graduation, they were still poor students.

Money.

It all came back to the crucial issue: no money.

However, these were just his guesses. The specifics would have to wait until he obtained the memory fragments, which should be in the next task reward.

Reaching the third floor, Jiang Nian and Xu Qianqian met, and tacitly walked down the stairs. Song Xiyun was nowhere to be seen; she had probably left early.

He didn’t really take the dating task to heart.

A simple meal in the cafeteria or outside would count as a date. The difficulty lay in Little Song and Young Miss Xu being inseparable.

He needed to find a suitable reason to complete the task.

Also, the rewarded skill: Verification.

There was no description at all. Based on the principle that the fewer the words, the more awesome the skill, and with a three-day cooldown after one use, it must be incredibly powerful.

One use, three-day cooldown. He almost misread it as three days of use, one cooldown.

What kind of Intermediate weapon!

Although the skill reward hadn’t arrived yet, Jiang Nian could reasonably guess that this should be a highly applicable conceptual skill.

Perhaps it belonged to a type of minor superpower, conceptual… but like 【Precision】, it wasn’t that Heaven-Defying.

For example, even without game understanding, he could rely on Precision to join the LPL league and become the most promising player of the year.

Or simply get into Harbin Institute of Technology to manually build aircraft carriers.

Of course, whether Harbin Institute of Technology would accept him, a low-scoring student, was another matter. It was precise, but not entirely precise.

For instance, when repeatedly performing high-precision work, he would occasionally make mistakes.

In short, Jiang Nian was very interested in this non-absolute conceptual Verification ability. His first reaction was to speculate on the System’s motives.

His second reaction was… could it verify lies?

Conan would definitely love this skill. First, deduce based on evidence, then find someone to verify, and the murderer would be found.

Out of the school gate, on the way home, Jiang Nian was mostly silent, which made Xu Qianqian curious. She couldn’t help but turn and look at him several times.

Finally, she couldn’t resist asking, “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing, I’m thinking if I really score 610, where should I start licking from,” Jiang Nian said with a calm expression, uttering extremely off-putting words.

Hearing this, Xu Qianqian got goosebumps all over.

“Are you in heat?”

“Heh, don’t say that, don’t say that,” Jiang Nian said thoughtfully, “Xu Qianqian, what animals go into heat in winter?”

Xu Qianqian pursed her lips and corrected him, “That’s called a beast.”

“While I know you’re not talking about me, I have a friend who isn’t feeling well,” Jiang Nian pointed at her, a husky warning.

“How do you know I’m not talking about you?” Xu Qianqian retorted.

Under the streetlights, Jiang Nian stopped.

“You know, there are many people in this world with the same name.”

“The ID number is…”

“Are you going to hunt me down, Young Miss Xu?” Jiang Nian turned to look at Xu Qianqian. The girl’s profile was fair, and her skin was moist and smooth.

Slurp, slurp.

He really wanted to lick it.

However, Jiang Nian’s appreciation was purely for beauty, and he had no off-putting thoughts like opening a supermarket.

He focused on respecting their friendship.

“Why do you look at me so strangely?” Xu Qianqian frowned, eyeing him suspiciously, thinking, what kind of Little Chunan is this?

Ha, is that all?

Just a few more glances and he can’t resist? The power of puberty is indeed formidable, huh?

But then again, he heard that some boys during puberty would do some ‘handicraft’ towards their fantasy objects.

Jiang Nian wouldn’t… If it wasn’t her, then who would it be?

Zhou Yuting?

“Nothing, I just get a little unnatural in front of overly beautiful girls,” Jiang Nian plagiarized a gentle male lead’s famous line from an anime.

“Of course it’s a romance anime, could it be anything else?”

“Could it be Pokémon?”

“It can’t be Lucky Star, can it?”

“Damn, what the hell is Aki* Sora?”

Jiang Nian guessed that the other party would be triumphant, so he simply flattered her. Maybe if Xu Qianqian was in a good mood, he could get something for free.

It could only be said that the two were too familiar, so familiar that they were embarrassed to have an early romance.

Even Old Jiang and Li Hongmei didn’t really favor the two. Xu Qianqian was too outstanding, and her aspirations were very high.

In contrast, Jiang Nian was getting worse and worse, and there was a thick barrier between them.

Before Jiang Nian was promoted to the next class, Li Hongmei had never thought otherwise. It was only recently, seeing them go home together every day, that she started to have some thoughts.

Runtu… no, Jiang Nian looked at Xu Qianqian.

Sure enough, he saw a hint of smugness on her face, and couldn’t help but think, is that all? Just a few praises and she’s floating?

But he still had serious business to ask, so he continued, “What are your plans for tomorrow noon?”

Hearing this, Xu Qianqian was a little confused. “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Nian twisted, “I want to go on a date with you. Of course… I wouldn’t mind if you brought Song Xiyun.”

“Who’s dating you, you off-putting guy!” Xu Qianqian’s face showed an expression of disdain. She snorted and said with the gaze of a small fry, “I don’t have time to play with you at noon. Xiyun was chosen to attend some meeting for evening self-study, so I have to accompany her to catch up on homework.”

Jiang Nian’s eyes immediately lit up, but he still feigned a disappointed expression and said, “Alright.”

The two ducked into an alley and walked through the narrow lane.

Although Xu Qianqian didn’t say it, she was somewhat pleased with Jiang Nian’s reaction in her heart, feeling a little bit of satisfaction.

She pursed her lips, flattening the curve of her mouth.

So he really wants to date me, huh?

Let’s see your performance then.

Downstairs, Jiang Nian stopped and turned back, curiously looking at the slowly walking Xu Qianqian.

“Boss Xu, what are you doing?”

“Thinking about how to smash your dog head!” Xu Qianqian quickened her pace, passing in front of him, bringing with her a waft of fragrance.

He was certain that Xu Qianqian didn’t use perfume.

A blend of not-too-strong, not-too-faint girlish scent. Fast forward to ‘Brother, you smell so good.’

Xu Qianqian walked ahead and went up the stairs first. The sound-activated light in the stairwell immediately lit up, and she instantly turned back to accuse him, “What are you doing? You wouldn’t have improper thoughts about me, would you?”

“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare,” Jiang Nian thought to himself, setting aside the difference between genders, wouldn’t showering separately waste more water?

Xu Qianqian didn’t know that someone’s thoughts were even more off-putting, enough to get a thousand comments on Xiaohongshu.

“This young lady is in a good mood today, so I won’t argue with you.”

Damn it, Empress Qianqian is quite off-putting too.

Jiang Nian didn’t know how to refute, so he simply acquiesced. Anyway, many lice don’t itch; he did indeed have wild thoughts.

“Alright, I’m going back.”

With two thuds, the two doors closed one after another.

Xu Qianqian put down her schoolbag and walked to her room to get a change of clothes, thinking, Jiang Nian wouldn’t use her as material while showering, would he?

It didn’t matter, the price of beauty.

Making mistakes is wrong, but if the object of his mistake was herself, then again, it could be appropriately pardoned.

Xu Qianqian pursed her lips in front of the mirror, then skillfully put on her shower cap. She tapped her phone, and “Clear Day” began to play in the bathroom.

The little yellow flowers of the story… rustle, rustle.

Jiang Nian washed his hair under the showerhead, barely opening his eyes. He stretched out his wet hand and precisely blind-pointed on the shelf.

The song, paused by water droplets, continued to play.

“On this windy day, I tried holding your hand…”

In the steamy bathroom, he looked up. He couldn’t help but be in a daze, as if he had never properly held Xu Qianqian’s hand.

Even if there had been a few occasional touches, they could only be counted as grasping hands.

“Once upon a time, someone loved you for a long time… I really want to ask again, will you wait or leave?”

Jiang Nian sighed softly, took a quick shower. After drying his hair, he plunged back into the battle of doing problems.

A man should fight!

What’s the point of acting like a delicate girl? There has never been any savior; it all depends on oneself.

The next day, Jiang Nian woke up at his usual time, yawning as he went to school.

Outside, it was freezing cold, and the sky was dimly lit. Lights were on along the road, and breakfast shops emitted large plumes of white steam.

The moment the piping hot buns and soy milk touched his hands, Jiang Nian came alive.

Isn’t this what early mornings are for?

That was a pure Zhennan Dao flavor.

He suddenly thought of that poor girl, Zhou Haifei, who probably hadn’t even had pure soy milk. Every day, she would just get hot water and swallow brown sugar steamed buns at her seat.

What if there was no hot water?

Jiang Nian didn’t dare to imagine, in this cold winter…

If only he could let her drink soy milk every day, or eat buns.

It wouldn’t cost him much; just a little bit from his fingertips would be enough.

This thought was purely out of his simple values. But it didn’t mean he would abruptly step forward and put psychological pressure on her.

Chinese people hate to see others go hungry the most.

You say you’re not happy, what’s it to me?

You say you don’t want lots and lots of money, but lots and lots of love, red stone then.

But if you say you’re hungry every day, or eat very little and very poorly, that’s truly unbearable to watch.

I don’t have much money… but I really don’t mind sharing this bite with you.

After all, whose ancestors didn’t have a few people starve to death?

Direct keyword extraction: tree bark, grass roots, eating husks, finding wild vegetables, starving beyond endurance, becoming a memory of an era.

Although Zhou Haifei ate the poorly made brown sugar steamed buns from the cafeteria just to save money and fill her stomach,

If there was a suitable opportunity to help Zhou Haifei have an extra cup of soy milk for breakfast, Jiang Nian would still be willing to do it without expecting anything in return.

The problem was there wasn’t one, so he wouldn’t bother with it for now.

After entering the classroom, Jiang Nian got hot water and casually asked Huang Fang, “Did you get hot water?”

Huang Fang looked up, slightly bewildered. “No.”

Empress Fangfang was actually quite independent and self-reliant, but with the mutual help of the sixth group, she never lacked fruit or drinks.

“Then give it to me; I’ll fill them all at once,” Jiang Nian said, reaching out.

“No, you can’t carry three thermoses by yourself,” Huang Fang said, standing up. “I’ll go with you.”

“Alright, let me piggyback on your card,” Jiang Nian said.

Hearing this, Huang Fang paused, then smiled. “Alright.”