Chapter 358 New Items Discovered

It was afternoon.

Before biology class, Jiang Nian mentioned the class representative selection to Qing Bao, and, as agreed, recommended Yu Zhiyi.

Qing Bao didn’t have much of an opinion; she nodded.

“She’s quite suitable.”

After speaking, Qing Bao looked at Jiang Nian again, a hint of suspicion in her eyes.

“Did you take a bribe?”

“No, how could I?” Jiang Nian waved his hand, “I swear to heaven, it’s purely from the perspective of fair recommendation.”

“Alright,” Qing Bao naturally didn’t believe him.

Jiang Nian returned to the classroom, opening the System task panel and refreshing it repeatedly. His gaze lingered on the latest task, and he frowned slightly.

The two best friends were inseparable all day; how could he possibly lure Xiao Song away?

However, the three-day cooldown for the Verification skill hadn’t passed yet, so he could only wait for now, and tomorrow was already Wednesday.

Just as he was at a loss, he suddenly heard Zeng You in the front row chatting with Wu Jungu.

“Yesterday I received a scam call saying my son was hit by a car and was in the hospital,” Zeng You said with a chuckle, “They told me to send money for his rescue.”

“That’s outrageous?” Wu Jungu said, then added, “So, did you send the money?”

Zeng You: “…”

Jiang Nian also laughed; what kind of human-machine chat partner was that?

However, this also inspired him: since he couldn’t approach Song Xiyun directly, why not ask her mother for help?

Going to the hospital for a check-up wouldn’t harm her daughter, and it was free.

Just like that, Jiang Nian sent a message to Sister Zhao.

“Borrowing your daughter for a bit.”

Since class was about to start, he immediately put away his phone and cautiously glanced at Zhang Ningzhi.

Seeing that she was still doing her homework, he finally relaxed.

“Why are you looking at me?”

Suddenly, Zhang Ningzhi spoke. She turned her head and stared at the somewhat strange Jiang Nian, her bright, watery eyes shining.

What kind of Black Cat Detective was this?

“No, I just… was looking around,” Jiang Nian quickly brushed her off with a few words.

The last period of the afternoon was a self-study session.

Yu Zhiyi was called to the office by Qing Bao, and Cai Xiaoqing had also gone to a meeting. The class was a mess, with many people chatting and talking.

Xie Zhihao was engrossed in playing a small game on his smartwatch.

Yang Qiming, who was patrolling the classroom, saw this and kindly reminded him.

“You’d better hide it when you play games, otherwise, if a teacher sees it, it’ll be confiscated and you won’t get it back until the end of the semester.”

Hearing this, Xie Zhihao said proudly,

“What’s there to be afraid of? This is a watch, not a phone. Besides, which school rule says you can’t play with a watch?”

Yang Qiming shrugged, “Suit yourself.”

Seeing Yang Qiming leave, Xie Zhihao sneered inwardly and became even more smug, thinking, *Do you know what good student privilege is?*

Even if the homeroom teacher saw him playing with his watch, out of consideration for his grades, she would at least give him one chance.

She might even ignore it completely, pretending not to see it.

“Brother Yang, good advice is wasted on the doomed,” Huang Cailang witnessed the whole thing. “Let him play; he’ll learn his lesson when it gets confiscated.”

In the front row.

Li Hua found a riddle in his biology textbook and, after pondering it for a while, excitedly asked,

“Nian, how do you divide four cups of water among five leaders?”

“I know this one,” Zhang Ningzhi said. “Put them in the middle and let them take it themselves; someone won’t need water.”

Huang Fang turned her head, “Pour them into a large bottle, then divide it into five cups.”

Jiang Nian looked up, thought for a moment, and said,

“Pee in one cup, then let them draw randomly. Luck is also part of leadership; those with bad luck don’t deserve to be leaders.”

The others were immediately stunned; people generally don’t say things they haven’t done.

“You’re too disgusting,” Li Hua instantly shivered. “BYD, I won’t dare to steal your Oriental Leaf to drink next time.”

Zhang Ningzhi was bewildered, “Why?”

Huang Fang had never drunk such an expensive beverage; even if she could afford it, she wouldn’t spend money on tea, so she automatically turned away.

“Because he’s drunk it,” Jiang Nian changed the subject, casually pulling out his phone to check it. Sister Zhao had indeed replied.

“Where are you going to play? (smirk)”

A typical female emoji; a smirk was enough to convey all the unspoken words.

Jiang Nian typed back, “Hospital.”

There was an immediate reaction from the other side, showing ‘typing…’

“Aren’t you two friends? How can you…”

Good, good, good, going to the hospital means getting pregnant, right?

No wonder you’re divorced.

Jini Taimei only endures illness and only goes to the hospital when she’s pregnant, right?

“I have a free health check-up opportunity,” Jiang Nian replied. “Your daughter isn’t sick; just let her take a day off tomorrow, okay?”

A moment later, Sister Zhao replied,

“You’re replying so seriously, it’s making me a little unaccustomed to it. (smirk)”

Smirk your mom!

Still misunderstanding, right?

He thought for a moment, then said bluntly,

“I’ll be frank; I want to go on a date with your daughter at the hospital tomorrow. Remember to keep it a secret for me; meet at the school gate at nine.”

Sister Zhao: “No problem! (OK)”

Jiang Nian: “…”

It proved that as long as you found the right person, even without a detailed plan, a complicated matter could be resolved.

After school, Jiang Nian habitually stayed at his desk to do problems.

Apart from the overall ranking, the internal school results, as well as the class and grade rankings for the Six Cities Joint Exam, had already been released.

He was ranked eighth in his class, hovering around the top hundred in the entire grade. If a city-wide ranking were added, it might be even less impressive.

More importantly, schools like City No. 1 Middle School each had their own sister schools and simply looked down on county middle schools.

For example, some schools’ third-year high school students held a nine-province joint exam every year.

If you asked students from Zhennan,

Nine-province joint exam? What the heck is that?

Explain it to me; isn’t the highest only a provincial joint exam?

A ranking of 10,000 within the province for the college entrance exam would likely get you into a decent 211 university.

Jiang Nian’s score meant he was already on the 211 line. However, his choices wouldn’t be extensive; he couldn’t just pick and choose.

There was only one provincial 211 in Nan Province; what was there to pick?

The goal of securing a 211 spot had been achieved, but Jiang Nian didn’t want to stop there. After all, one extra point could eliminate a thousand people.

Two extra points would unlock the “Bloody-Handed Butcher” title.

In the classroom, most people had gone to eat. The remaining few were either sleeping at their desks or doing homework.

Only Dong Wensong, that dog-rare person, was still mixing Japanese and Chinese in his speech.

Jiang Nian, bored, casually brought up the System panel.

He habitually clicked into the task panel to look at the rewards; he was too covetous of 【Winning the Lottery】, after all… it was real money.

His three hundred thousand in savings hadn’t made him view money as dirt.

Quite the opposite, he had felt the charm of money. While he couldn’t make big money, making small money gave him a sense of satisfaction, like farming.

Chinese people couldn’t resist farming games.

As he was scrolling through the tasks, a red dot in the bottom right corner suddenly caught his attention. At some point, an extra option had appeared.

Jiang Nian clicked it and found several memory fragments.

He carefully looked through them and found that these were all memory fragments from past task rewards, all marked as ‘browsed’.

“Oh, items,” Jiang Nian murmured, habitually clicking each one before closing.

The instinct of a free-to-play gamer; good habits lead to long-term freebies. Sometimes, surprises are hidden among scrap metal.

Two consecutive fragments were grayed out.

Until the very last one, which was also the earliest fragment. It came from a bonus video in one of Xu Qianqian’s past tasks.

Jiang Nian remembered it clearly.

It was the second time he had seen his “ex-wife” appear; the first was during the System loading, and the second was in this video.

By the bridge, under the orange streetlights, a fine rain was falling.

The woman, holding a transparent umbrella, wore a hip-hugging skirt, her arms fair and slender, her mature wavy long hair draped over her shoulders, her figure alluring.

However, that was all there was to it.

That time, he hadn’t gotten much useful information. He had thought it was just a bonus video, but he hadn’t expected it could still be used.

Please… collect _ (69shu.bar!)

The memory fragment was entirely blue, emitting a faint glow, making it particularly stand out in the gray item bar.

Clicking into it, it was still twenty-eight years old.

The “Jiang Nian” from another future timeline had broken up with Zhang Ningzhi. He appeared dejected, seemingly preparing for a blind date and marriage.

Upon entering the “memory,” he was met with a bag thrown by Xu Qianqian.

Damn! Encore.

What a bad woman.

Since Jiang Nian was watching this segment of the video for the second time, he didn’t feel anything particularly special; his main goal was to find differences.

After all, none of the other memory fragments were lit up, but this one was.

There had to be something new.

Xu Qianqian seemed exceptionally angry, kicking him several times. She was truly agitated; this woman really liked to use her hands.

Can’t beat twenty-eight-year-old you, but can’t I deal with you, who’s not even eighteen?

Just wait, I’ll get you all covered in spit when I get back tonight.

Thinking this, Jiang Nian began to focus on other areas. Corners he hadn’t paid attention to before, the floor, the walls.

Coincidentally, this version of the video had no sound. This actually made it convenient for Jiang Nian, completely blocking out Xu Qianqian.

There was an unknown tablet on the floor, its red breathing light blinking. Encore, he was more concerned with whether he could discover new things.

He stared at the tablet on the floor, mentally commanding his body to move.

Unfortunately, it was useless.

After some thought, he had an idea. He silently thought, “Xu Qianqian has cursed so much, she must be thirsty.”

Splash, “Jiang Nian” stood up from the floor and actually went to pour water.

Jiang Nian looked at this absurd scene and couldn’t help but be amused. What kind of stupid AI logic was this? Xu Qianqian had already slammed the door and left.

But this was good; it made it easier for him to explore the room.

After pouring the water, the AI’s perspective stopped moving again.

Jiang Nian then silently issued another command in his mind, “The tablet on the floor is out of battery; it needs to be charged.”

Three seconds later, the AI started to move.

It walked to the tablet, bent down to pick it up, and then placed it on the table to charge.

The tablet turned on, displaying a news interface.

In the large headline, there was an extremely familiar name. Before her name was a string of titles, and after it was something he couldn’t understand.

Jiang Nian sighed, not expecting the class monitor to have joined a research institute after graduation.

But then again, with such a brilliant mind, it would be a shame not to serve the country.

“Basic science,” Jiang Nian stammered. A modern illiterate was like this, having some culture but not much.

Just as he was pondering a new command to see what award Li Qingrong had won, perhaps he could help her avoid some detours in the future.

After all, so-called basic science was about sifting through failures for hope of success.

Before he could issue the command, the scene before him changed again. He had initially thought it was the familiar rainy night bridge scene, however…

It wasn’t the familiar rainy night bridge, but a new scene.

A wedding!

【At thirty, you got married.】

When he saw this line of text appear, Jiang Nian realized he must have unlocked a new scene and was overjoyed.

Yay, a hidden easter egg!

At the wedding, guests were like clouds.

Ding ding ding, after several turns. The AI’s perspective gradually moved away from the crowd and sat down in a secluded stairwell.

A sigh escaped, but it wasn’t Jiang Nian’s.

Then Jiang Nian saw the AI’s perspective pull out a cigarette. It lit it with a click, then pulled out its phone and swiped away messages.

After scrolling through the phone, it opened a short video app.

Suddenly, Jiang Nian froze, thinking his eyes had gone bad. The AI’s perspective also remained silent, letting the cigarette burn itself out.

【The youngest xxx at the domestic xxx research institute, Li Qingrong.】

He stared at that news article several times before confirming he hadn’t misread it. Seeing the words “suicide,” he was a little stunned.

The text and images were still scrolling, stating that Li Qingrong had a reclusive personality. The video abruptly ended there.

After a period of darkness, Jiang Nian exited the memory fragment.

An item had appeared in his inventory: 【Li Qingrong’s Suicide Note】.

For a moment, Jiang Nian didn’t know what to say.

Should he be glad that none of this had happened, or was he scared? He should have known not to click it; taking this item was a huge loss.

It would have been better not to take it.

In the classroom.

Jiang Nian got up and walked out of the classroom, standing in the corridor for a few minutes to clear his head. Only then did his emotions calm down, and he prepared to open the item to take a look.

Clicking 【Li Qingrong’s Suicide Note】, it showed that it couldn’t be opened.

Jiang Nian: “…Damn it.”

He thought for a long time but had no clue, after all, it was a future event.

In over a decade, anything could happen.

In the timeline simulated by the System, he and the class monitor should have had no interaction, so the reason was even more unknown.

Jiang Nian shook his head and turned to go downstairs for dinner.

On the way, he comforted himself that foreknowledge was always a good thing. No matter how big the problem, there was always a solution.

Before evening self-study.

Li Hua stealthily used the excuse of taking out the trash to go eat. As soon as he returned to the classroom, he was called out by the two boys in the first row.

“You’re done for.”

“Oh-ho, Li Hua, you’re done for.”

Hearing this, Li Hua’s expression changed, and he swallowed hard.

“What did I do?”

“The teacher told you to stand outside the classroom,” Jiang Nian added gleefully, “You used taking out the trash as an excuse to go eat, didn’t you?”

A few minutes later, Old Liu came to the classroom and, seeing Li Hua standing at the door, asked with a stern Face,

“What are you doing standing outside?”

Li Hua: “No, I… Teacher, you…”

He instantly realized something. Damn you, Jiang Nian!

In the classroom, Jiang Nian chuckled.

As he withdrew his gaze, he glanced at the class monitor in the back row. Li Qingrong seemed to sense it and happened to look up as well.

Their eyes met, and Li Qingrong had a questioning look.

“What’s wrong?”

Jiang Nian shook his head, “Nothing.”