Chapter 73 Movie Date

Li Hua returned after using the restroom, and as soon as he sat down, he glanced at the screen and asked curiously.

“‘Journey of the Soul’? What movie is that?”

Zeng You, from the same group, turned his head from his messy pile of books, temporarily emerging from the world of ‘Tomb Raider’ and clearing the images from his mind, saying enthusiastically.

“The class rep said it’s some kind of healing movie.”

“Healing?” Li Hua grinned, pulled out his Dragon Three from his desk drawer, and showed it off, “I’ve got this, that’s enough for me. Why do I need to watch a movie?”

Zeng You froze in his seat, hard-controlled for three seconds, looking as if he wanted to speak but couldn’t.

Damn it, the deadline is approaching.

Jiang Nian propped his head up, his palm covering the back of his neck, and tapped it twice lightly.

“Hua, you should go out now. I don’t recommend you watch this healing movie now. Save it for tomorrow.”

Zeng You nodded in agreement.

“Jiang Nian has a point, you—”

“Hold it! Whoever spoils it, I’ll pee on them!” Li Hua waved his hand, not in refusal, but indicating that no more words were needed, “Spoilers deserve to be deep-fried, OK?”

What a damn kid.

You’re given a rope to save yourself, and you put it around your neck, huh?

Zeng You and Jiang Nian exchanged a look, both seeing the shock in each other’s eyes. At the same time, they tacitly looked away and chose to keep quiet, after all—

It’s precisely because they’ve been rained on that they want to smash everyone else’s umbrellas.

Die!

As the movie started, Jiang Nian wasn’t really interested in what was on the screen. Compared to healing movies, he preferred to stare at the beautiful girl to his left for two class periods.

Eighteen years old, capable of pure love, and also pure hatred.

He just couldn’t get into healing movies.

Jiang Nian firmly believed that life was full of holes, and jerks came in all varieties. Compared to letting go, carrying hatred every day seemed to help him get back on his feet faster.

Your girlfriend cheated on you, and you said ‘never mind’. Others bullied you, and you also said ‘never mind’. Everything is ‘never mind’, damn it! You should hate, hate, hate! Punch this rotten world to pieces.

Just as he was zoning out.

Suddenly, his left arm was poked. Jiang Nian took a second to figure out if it was Zhizhi or Li Hua.

Oh, left side, I’m going to be a foolish emperor again.

Yay!

When his right arm gets poked, the little bee elbow strike will activate instantly!

“Hmm?” He turned his head to look, feigning an indifferent expression.

“Want some jelly?” She handed him a packet of suckable jelly. The screen’s light fell on her face, making it a bit blurry, but her eyes were very bright in the dark. “Want some?”

“Oh, oh, yes.” Jiang Nian remembered that there was still one packet of suckable jelly left from what he had ‘rescued’ from the bad woman’s drawer that morning; the rest had been divided by Ma Guojun and Li Hua.

Left over, never mind. Just pretend it’s gone. A bad woman can’t compare to a maiden’s scent.

Outside the classroom, footsteps were heard, along with Xi Bao’s three sneezes!

“Thanks, have you seen this movie?” Jiang Nian took the suckable jelly. He hadn’t bought any snacks, just covered the drinks for all six members of his group.

He relied on getting a little from the left and right, and placing a few snacks on his desk to make it look full.

“No, I haven’t.” She shook her head.

“What are you two talking about? Hiding it, whispering.” Li Hua handed over a few small bags of shrimp crackers, “Want some of these? I got them from Yao Beibei.”

“Yes, we’re talking about you, you little cricket?” Jiang Nian openly attacked, taking all the shrimp crackers from Li Hua’s hand, “What’s wrong, Baby, jealous?”

“Jealous my foot, I’m going to find Ma Guojun.” Li Hua couldn’t be bothered with the two of them and ran off with his iced black tea.

Half a class period into the movie, it was getting good.

Jiang Nian, having nothing else to do, also looked up and watched. He went out to the restroom once in the middle. As soon as he entered the classroom, his vision went black, and it took him two seconds to adjust before he walked to his seat.

Zhang Ningzhi was looking up, watching the movie intently. Noticing Jiang Nian had returned, she specifically turned to look at him, wanting to say something, so she asked dryly.

“Are other classrooms showing movies outside?”

“Mostly all of them are. Coming back from the hallway, I saw several class lights were off.” Jiang Nian tucked his feet under his seat, returning to his lazy demeanor.

“Got anything else to eat?” he asked.

He just loved eating Branch Branch Baby’s snacks.

“There’s popcorn.” She handed over about half a cup, golden popcorn in a small disposable water cup, “I don’t know where Beibei got it from, she shared a cup with me.”

Jiang Nian took it, picked up a kernel, and couldn’t help but exclaim.

“It’s still warm? Where did Yao Beibei get this?”

“I don’t know, she told me not to ask too many questions about adult matters.” Zhang Ningzhi seemed a little wronged, reaching into the paper cup and picking out a kernel, “It won’t be good once it gets cold.”

And so, the two of them sat with Jiang Nian holding the paper cup, positioned between them.

The faint light was absorbed by the curtains, making their seats dim. Everyone else’s attention in the class was on the screen, and the first two rows seemed to be in a blind spot of light.

The old multimedia equipment had poor sound quality, occasionally producing static.

Jiang Nian held the paper cup, sometimes watching the movie, sometimes looking at Zhizhi on his left. The light from the screen fell on her, creating a youthful beauty.

Her facial features were soft, making her seem gentle and easy to bully.

Halfway through the movie, it reached its most exciting part.

Jiang Nian was also drawn in, and the hand holding the paper cup dropped. The classroom’s lighting flickered with the screen, and the dim light swept back and forth across them.

Their faces were youthful, innocent and naive.

When he came to his senses, he turned to find Zhang Ningzhi still staring at the screen. Her eyes didn’t blink, she was completely focused, and her face even made subtle expressions in sync with the movie.

Possessed, he wanted to be a jerk again.

Jiang Nian poked Zhang Ningzhi’s arm. Once she turned back in confusion, he said.

“This spot seems no different from a movie theater date? VIP seating.”

Zhang Ningzhi indeed reacted, her pupils widening little by little, her mouth slightly agape. Almost instantly, she turned her head away, her face burning hot.

Jiang Nian laughed heartily, carefree.

“Just kidding—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a ‘ding’ sound, and the task panel popped up.

【Task: Complete a pleasant date with Zhang Ningzhi. Reward: Fishing Mastery (Skill) (Completed)】

The words he was about to say were stuck in his throat.

This works too?

At the end of Zhennan Main Street, at the Tianlong BBQ stall.

The smoky fumes were blown into the sky by the fan, and twelve people filled one table. The circle, originally led by Liu Feipeng, now had a new person at the head.

Yu Tongjie sat there playing on his phone, scrolling through the constantly refreshing messages in the class group chat.

Due to the sports meeting, boarding students’ phones had been returned to them in the afternoon. At this time, the group was full of chat records, and photos of the movie screening were flying around.

He suddenly regretted it; if he hadn’t taken leave to come out, it would have been better. At least he could have watched the movie with Li Qingrong. The atmosphere of watching movies in class was a rare opportunity.

Moreover, their seats were close this time. Next time they changed seats, they might not even be one row apart, perhaps even in different groups.

If only he had known!

He should have known not to come out and drink with these losers. Jiang Nian, that idiot, wouldn’t be stealing his base, would he?

He shouldn’t, right?

Zhou Yuting, Liu Feipeng, and the others exchanged glances. The original intention of this gathering was to get to know Young Master Yu. Drink some wine, brag a little, and become familiar.

If Yu Tongjie were a bookworm, they wouldn’t have chosen a BBQ stall. The thing is, they heard Yu Tongjie was open to these things and didn’t mind KTV either.

Logically, the atmosphere should have been quite joyful.

But he had been frowning from the beginning, leaving them all puzzled.

Zhou Yuting didn’t have feelings for Yu Tongjie, but she wanted him to have feelings for her. Even playing a boss battle requires leveling up; she enjoyed the sense of superiority that came with fishing.

The bigger the fish in the pond, the stronger the sense of superiority.

Of course, she was very smart and wouldn’t show these thoughts. She wouldn’t display pride normally, only bringing it out on specific occasions.

Currently, there were two sizable fish in her pond: Le Zhi and Liu Feipeng. Last month, Jiang Nian, one fish, accidentally got away, and he even slapped her a few times with his tail.

Thinking of it still made her gnash her teeth in hatred.

That one sentence, “Baby, I’m not angry, I’m moving up a class,” caused immense psychological damage to her young heart, and she would grumble about it every night before falling asleep.

Jiang Nian! He truly deserves to die!

Now she had pretty much moved on. The exam at the end of October was her last chance to move up a class. However, there was usually little movement, so the opportunity was slim.

It was already confirmed that the Olympiad Class ‘natives’ wouldn’t be demoted; it was just a quality check for those moving up. This time, it was based on comprehensive scores, meaning the average of two exams.

Based on the usual performance of students moving up, a performance score mechanism was added. A comprehensive evaluation was done, and finally, unstable students were eliminated and replaced with a few stable-achieving ones.

She had found out that a student moving up to Class One had a mental breakdown and was basically destined to drop out. Jiang Nian’s Class Three basically had no chance.

Tears soaked the blank test paper, vowing to get into the Olympiad Class!

Zhou Yuting had been studying frantically for two weeks and was confident she would stand out. Even on the way there, she made time to memorize vocabulary and do practice problems on her phone.

Work-life balance, work-life balance.

Zhou Yuting and Liu Feipeng exchanged glances. She spoke first, in a high-pitched voice.

“Young Master Yu, is the food not to your liking? Would you like—”

“No need.” Yu Tongjie waved his hand, his brow still furrowed, “Don’t call me ‘Young Master’ or anything like that, it makes me sound like a Young Master. I’m just an ordinary person.”

Don’t use titles in private, understand?

Zhou Yuting froze, “Okay, Yu… Brother.”

Liu Feipeng coughed, adopting a calm, adult-like demeanor, and chuckled as he chimed in.

“Come on, I’ll go first. Congratulations, Brother, on moving up to the Olympiad Class. I’m late, so I’ll punish myself with three drinks. Please don’t mind, Brother Yu.”

“Awesome! Brother Peng, awesome!”

“Three drinks, huh? I’ll also toast Brother Yu, your little brother—”

“Hmm, alright.” Yu Tongjie scratched the back of his head, thinking, ‘Is this guy an idiot? How can he be more pretentious than me?’ “It’s fine, one drink is enough.”

Looking at the steaming smoke and fire, he felt increasingly annoyed. Zhou Yuting was so pretty, why did she hang out with all these losers? Were there no normal people?

After some drinking, the atmosphere at the table finally broke the ice, and they naturally continued talking about the topic of moving up a class.

Le Zhi hadn’t spoken the whole time. He hadn’t wanted to come, nor did he want to get to know Yu Tongjie. He sat in the middle without much reaction until he heard someone mention Jiang Nian’s name.

More to come.

PS: Character cards have been completed.