Lin Ran hadn’t expected Su Shijie to actually move in. But he knew Su Shijie well enough to realize that Shen Qingyuan was only part of the reason. The main reason was that Su Shijie wanted to hide from his unpredictable “girlfriend.”

That evening, while Lin Ran was gaming, Su Shijie sneaked off to take a phone call. Then he came grinning into the bedroom to discuss something with Lin Ran.

“A-Ran, come with me somewhere tomorrow!” Su Shijie wore a peculiar grin. Lin Ran knew that grin well—it always appeared whenever Su Shijie started imagining all the things he and Shen Qingyuan might do together.

Lin Ran glanced at Su Shijie, then turned back to his game and asked casually, “Going to help out at school?”

Lin Ran’s words left Su Shijie dumbfounded. He sat up and studied Lin Ran thoughtfully. “How’d you know? Hey, what are you hiding from me? Senior Ye Qingqian just called and asked me to bring you along to help out at school tomorrow. They’re planning to clear out the unused No. 3 classroom building. I wasn’t going to go at first, but then she told me Shen Qingyuan would be there, and specifically told me to bring you along too. So I’m wondering—are you sure there’s nothing going on between you and Ye Qingqian?”

But Lin Ran acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he controlled his character in a fight against an opponent.

Lin Ran was playing a Chinese-published side-scrolling fighting game. He’d liked it ever since his previous life. The game, called Brave Continent, had been the only light in the dark days of his youth back then. So after his rebirth, Lin Ran had continued adventuring across that continent.

Su Shijie was completely speechless. He honestly felt that Lin Ran had changed a lot since losing weight. No—now that he thought about it, Lin Ran had changed ever since summer vacation began. A lot of the time, Su Shijie felt that Lin Ran didn’t seem like a high schooler who was constantly bullied. He seemed more like an adult who’d been battered by life. The incident that stuck with Su Shijie most happened not long after summer vacation started. There’d been a car accident near Jiahe Garden Community. He wouldn’t go into the details, but someone had been dragged beneath the wheels of a heavy truck. A living person had been crushed into pulp. It was horrifying enough just to hear about, let alone see—and Lin Ran had witnessed it with his own eyes. He’d even described it to Su Shijie in a perfectly calm voice. Good grief, how strong did your nerves have to be to stay that calm?

Su Shijie had wondered if Lin Ran might have some kind of psychological disorder, but after spending time with him, he hadn’t noticed anything strange. Aside from being completely uninterested in women as a species, Lin Ran was just like any other guy.

While Su Shijie was lost in thought, Lin Ran spoke up. “She called me at noon. I blocked her, then she used another number to text me and ask me to help out at school tomorrow. I ignored her.”

Lin Ran said it lightly, as if it were no big deal. His attention remained on the game.

Su Shijie stared at Lin Ran in disbelief. What? Had he heard that right? Lin Ran had not only hung up on Ye Qingqian—he’d blocked her too? Holy crap, that was wild. What kind of person would actually do that?

Not believing him, Su Shijie grabbed Lin Ran’s phone. He unlocked it and went straight to the call history to check. Then he nearly lost his mind. This guy had really blocked Ye Qingqian.

At that moment, Su Shijie had no idea what to call Lin Ran. A brave soul? A reckless idiot? Someone with a death wish? One thought filled his mind: What kind of person does that?

Ye Qingqian was the most popular goddess at No. 5 High School. Forget getting a call from her—if an ordinary guy was lucky enough to get her number, he’d treasure it like gold and keep it close at hand. But this iron monk had the nerve to ignore her when she called, then block her.

Su Shijie seriously suspected that something unspeakable had happened between Lin Ran and Ye Qingqian.

“If you’re only going for Shen Qingyuan, there’s no need. Whatever the school needs, they’ll ask the Student Council first. Even if they don’t have enough people, they won’t turn to first-years like us. Don’t assume it’s a good thing just because she asked you for help. The prettier a girl is, the more complicated her thoughts can be,” Lin Ran said flatly. After finishing the match, he took his character back to the inventory to sort through his items, then stopped by the auction house to buy a few things.

According to the timeline, a week after he started his second year of high school, the game would get a major update. A material called “Firefly Stone” would become the update’s hot commodity, its price soaring from 100 gold coins per piece to 10,000. Firefly Stone wasn’t the only material that would skyrocket after the update, of course, but none of the others would rise that much. Lin Ran remembered that after that update, one merchant had made a killing—200,000 yuan—off Firefly Stone. Enough for a pretty nice car. Lin Ran didn’t have the capital to be a merchant, but he could still make a little profit.

“You say that like you know so much about women. I can’t speak for everything, but as your big brother, with all my experience in the nightlife scene, I reckon the prettier a girl is, the simpler she is. It’s the ones who aren’t much to look at but think they’re drop-dead gorgeous who have all the complicated thoughts. Besides, even if she does have an agenda, I’m happy as long as I get to work alongside Shen Qingyuan!” Su Shijie said, stroking his chin like a seasoned expert.

Lin Ran shook his head and said nothing more. With Su Shijie’s personality, his chances of winning Shen Qingyuan over were pretty slim. Lin Ran might not know much about girls, but he could tell that Shen Qingyuan wasn’t the kind of girl who’d go with you just because you said a few sweet things and gave her a couple of gifts.

“I don’t care. Even if you won’t come with me tomorrow, I’ll drag you there myself. And as your friend, I won’t hide this from you: I really want to know what’s going on between you and Ye Qingqian. I’ve never seen her care this much about a guy before!” Su Shijie said.

Lin Ran really didn’t have anything to say. Su Shijie was just reading too much into it. Lin Ran didn’t like interacting with girls, but at No. 5 High School, it was impossible not to hear people talk about Ye Qingqian. The most common things people said were that she was beautiful, kind, gentle with others, and never looked down on anyone. She treated everyone the same. Some said it was because Ye Qingqian had received a good upbringing from childhood. Others said she was a heavenly maiden who’d descended to save the world.

Even Lin Ran, despite his dislike of girls, had to admit that Ye Qingqian seemed like a pretty good person on the surface. She never held back her beautiful smile from anyone.

After sorting out his things in the game, Lin Ran said goodbye to the people in his guild and logged off. He shut down the computer, took off his clothes, and climbed into bed. He’d made up his mind: no matter what Su Shijie said, he wasn’t going. He didn’t want to waste his vacation on something that didn’t matter.