[Continuously wake up before the Hour of the Rabbit for one week and seriously practice the Eight-Stage Body Forging Technique, accumulating at least half an hour before the Hour of the Dragon. (4/7)]
Lin Li, feeling refreshed all over, stretched lazily. For the first time, he was this energetic at this hour.
Moreover, the practice progress was faster than expected. Five Spirit Stones might be enough to support him through the second chapter's process, making his body more adapted to spiritual energy.
Speaking of the changes spiritual energy brought to his body, Lin Li felt like all his organs were becoming healthier.
His mild rhinitis, which used to cause some nasal congestion, was now completely clear.
Spiritual energy was truly magical, easily achieving what physical training couldn't.
He was even more excited about the future.
"Grandpa Zhou, I'm leaving." Lin Li waved goodbye as usual.
"Hmph!"
Watching Lin Li leave, although Zhou Youwei could comfort himself with the reason that he'd protected other residents of the complex, he still felt somewhat uncomfortable.
Especially when this child Lin Li didn't hide his smugness at all, deliberately showing off in front of him.
As for how Zhou Youwei could tell, it was too simple—because Lin Li hadn't properly exercised at all today.
Who practices martial arts while smiling, and after more than an hour, doesn't break a single drop of sweat?
Although Zhou Youwei didn't know exactly what techniques Lin Li had been practicing before, he could understand and feel that those movements were meaningful.
Sometimes after Lin Li left, he'd curiously imitate a few moves himself and could feel these techniques had martial arts foundations, and the methods seemed quite profound with their own unique logic.
If there wasn't already an irreconcilable conflict between them, if they weren't already enemies, Zhou Youwei might have been curious enough to ask what martial arts this actually was.
And today?
Lin Li was over there like he was doing a yangko dance or wiggling his butt, with a weird smile and expression on his face.
If it weren't for him being so infuriating, Zhou Youwei would believe it if Lin Li said he'd gotten high before coming down.
The most, most, most insulting thing was that Lin Li would occasionally suddenly change his body direction and start pointing his butt at him, very deliberately. If this wasn't mockery, Zhou Youwei would dare eat yesterday's dog shit!
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—don't bully the elderly poor! Today's humiliation, I will surely repay!" Zhou Youwei growled lowly at the already distant Lin Li.
After a while, he chuckled, "Shouting that out actually feels pretty good. No wonder my dear grandson likes shouting those lines usually. I'll go steal one of his novels to read later."
"Oh my~~"
Hearing the sound, Zhou Youwei suddenly turned his head.
Then he saw Zhang Fang crouching in the bushes, in exactly the same position as his yesterday. After being stunned for a moment, he spoke somewhat mechanically, "Old Zhang, why are you crouching here?"
Are you also taking a dump here?
Wait, why did he say "also"?
Zhang Fang raised the shovel and black bag in her hands, "To avoid misunderstandings like last time happening again. Since property management won't handle it, and I have nothing better to do anyway, I came to deal with those cats' and dogs' droppings."
Then she rubbed her waist, "I really have to admit I'm getting old. My waist gets like this just from crouching. You're still impressive, Old Zhou—at such an advanced age, you're still so vigorous."
"When did you get here?" Zhou Youwei asked seriously.
"About thirty years ago."
Zhou Youwei: "..."
"But Old Zhou, thirty years is too much. We elderly are indeed a bit poor, and no matter how vigorous you are, you can't say for sure. We can't wait until 'speak no ill of the dead,' right? How about we make it three years instead?" Zhang Fang said, then asked curiously, "By the way, whose humiliation do you want to repay? Did you lose at cards last night?"
"No, no, I'm going back now." Zhou Youwei stood up. Today wasn't suitable for exercise.
"Going to read your dear grandson's novels, Old Zhou?" Zhang Fang asked even more curiously.
Zhou Youwei walked away very quickly.
He didn't have breathing problems today, but somehow felt even more uncomfortable than the past few days.
...
When Lin Li arrived at the classroom, Bai Bufan was in his classic unofficial history storytelling session:
"According to unofficial history, when Liu Xuande entrusted his son to Zhuge Kongming at White Emperor City, he had ambushed a full three hundred axe-wielding soldiers. Liu Xuande already had a plan in mind—if Zhuge Kongming showed even the slightest intention of abandoning Liu Shan to start his own business, he would immediately throw down his cup as a signal! Three hundred axe-wielders would rush in swinging their weapons until Liu Shan was chopped into mincemeat!"
"This unofficial history is also... hey, it's chopping Liu Shan? That doesn't seem particularly wild!"
"This isn't wild enough? Then let's have something wilder. Do you know why Cao Mengde preserved the black history of his humble wine-serving to Liu Xuande?"
"Why?"
"According to unofficial history, when Liu Xuande dropped his chopsticks, he also touched Cao Mengde's jade feet. Mengde immediately went 'eep' and his whole body went soft. What happened next..."
"You're eep-ing at your dam! What the hell is this eep-eep literature!"
"Ding! I just heard 'yin'—are you talking about stagnant water? Is stagnant water also yin?"
Bai Bufan really loved the Three Kingdoms.
It's just that his love went in a rather crooked direction.
Lin Li liked it too. Among the Four Great Classical Novels, his favorite was Romance of the Three Kingdoms. As a child, he'd read the 120-chapter novel version several times—it was indeed excellent.
Shu Han had Shu Han's romance, Great Wei had Great Wei's spirit, and Jiangdong had Jiangdong's scoundrels.
—Though geographically speaking, Lin Li could also be considered a descendant of those scoundrels.
Because he loved the Three Kingdoms, love extended to related things, so Lin Li also gave positive reviews to the Three Kingdoms card game.
"Children, come get your food."
Lin Li began hanging his backpack on the chair back, then turned to look at the writing on the blackboard about homework to be collected later.
"There's still one portion here. Did someone not take theirs, or is it yours?" Bai Bufan was eating soup with steamed bread today. Biting his bread and looking at the breakfast still on Lin Li's desk, he asked curiously.
"Oh, that's Chen Yuying's. You can help me give it to her." Lin Li said after glancing at it. Chen Yuying had mentioned it briefly during lunch yesterday.
"Why should I deliver it? Are you using me as your Viagra for added excitement? Am I part of your play too? I'm not going. You go yourself." Bai Bufan rolled his eyes.
"They say 'crude words, honest principles,' but your words are too crude. I actually think of you as something to be used." Lin Li said with a smile while placing homework books one by one on the desk surface.
"You're the last person who should call my words crude!"
Lin Li picked up the breakfast and came to Chen Yuying, who was sitting in the third row near the main door, then placed it on her desk, "Here, your breakfast."
The surrounding people's gazes naturally focused on Lin Li.
It wasn't that these people all liked Chen Yuying—purely because there was movement nearby, so they had to look.
Half the people withdrew their gaze after one look because they weren't interested.
The other half, after discovering it was Chen Yuying and Lin Li (who usually didn't appear in the front rows), continued watching, expecting some gossip that could add some fun to their boring high school life.
The old Lin Li would actually have felt awkward under such gazes, but perhaps thanks to the system, Lin Li suddenly became indifferent to these things and now seemed very natural instead.
It couldn't be that his skin had gotten thicker.
"Okay, thank you. Here's the money." Chen Yuying nodded and took it, then pulled out a ten-yuan bill from her drawer.
"Okay, I'll give you five in change..."
[In this completely unfamiliar world, Chen Yuying, the first person to make contact with you, finally couldn't hold back and had a monetary transaction with you. She was very satisfied with your service, and your relationship has progressed further.
To establish yourself in this strange and crisis-filled world, you need to know more information. So why not start with her, the person you're most familiar with in this world?]
[Mission Triggered!]
[Mission Five: Have more interactions with Chen Yuying, try to learn more information about this world from her, and gain preliminary understanding of this world.]
[Rewards: Physical Enhancement: Mecha Synchronization Index +10; Random Limb/Organ Enhancement Opportunity *1; System Currency *50.]
[Random Limb/Organ Enhancement Opportunity: After use, a random limb or organ gains certain ability enhancement, with high probability of additional mutation abilities. (When receiving this reward, you may choose whether protruding organs enter this random reward pool.)]
(End of Chapter)
Yangko dance - Traditional Chinese folk dance