Show Off and Run

"Professor Qin, I have a different opinion."

The moment he said this, the classroom fell silent for an instant.

Everyone turned their eyes toward Qin Ze. Zhang Mingyu raised an eyebrow and looked over.

Under everyone's gaze, a song he had heard last night suddenly echoed through Qin Ze's mind, a song from the Points Shop. One lyric went like this: "The quieter you are in the crowd,

the more you are ignored.

You have to stir up some trouble,

like suddenly breaking into song..."

Did everyone see him as a clown desperately seeking attention?

Qin Ze smiled faintly, shook off Zhao Baliao, whose face had drastically changed as he desperately tried to hold him back, and calmly walked toward the podium. Reaching the large blackboard made up of four smaller ones, he erased all of Old Man's writing. Then, beneath everyone's—including Old Man's—stunned gazes, he seized a piece of chalk and began writing furiously. His handwriting was messy, but it flowed smoothly. He wrote in Chinese, and someone who enjoyed stirring things up began reading along: "During the centuries when the gold standard governed economies, the financial strength of every country remained steady and even. There were no wild rises and falls, no overnight fortunes, and certainly no possibility of soaring to the top in a single step. For many restless people, it was undoubtedly an age of despair and hardship... The arrival of the era of fiat currency gave more people opportunities to change their lives and created the possibility of unlimited growth in global wealth. Humanity's way of life was bound to change completely, and life was bound to be filled with opportunities... But," Qin Ze paused here, turned his head to glance at Zhang Mingyu, contempt curling at the corner of his lips, then continued writing: "Deflation and inflation periodically visit the lives of people around the world like a woman's period. You might become rich overnight, but you might also lose your entire fortune overnight. Yesterday, you could buy a car; today, you can only buy a loaf of bread. If God opened His eyes in the midst of His busy schedule and took one look at the world, He would surely admire the wisdom of the American government—no, of governments across the world!"

Qin Ze turned around and addressed the more than two hundred students in a resounding voice. "This excerpt praises while actually criticizing. It is satire aimed at the American government and governments around the world. The author is mocking fiat currency as the most ridiculous and shameless lie in the history of human money. Of course, just as Chinese is profound and nuanced, 'real sister' and 'real sister' are not the same thing, and 'falling for your younger sister' and 'falling for your younger sister' are not the same thing either. If your foundation in Russian isn't deep enough, then you really can't see the irony beneath the author's words."

Zhang Mingyu's face instantly darkened.

'Real sister' and 'real sister' were not the same thing...

Professor Qin's mouth twitched.

Just then, the dismissal bell rang. Qin Ze did not dare look at Old Dad's expression. With a flick of his finger, he somehow sent the chalk into the chalk box as if by dumb luck. He clapped his hands and said calmly, "I've written out the translation for the excerpt. Just copy it down. Don't thank me. Please call me Lei Feng."

Being able to read Russian and being able to translate Russian were two entirely different things.

Amid the dead silence filling the room, he walked out of the classroom to the sound of the bell.

Beautiful!

I'd give myself full marks for that show-off move!

A swordsman who killed one man every ten steps and left no trace for a thousand miles might look carefree, but in truth, he feared retaliation or government soldiers arriving to arrest him. This was called knowing when to stop while ahead—show off, then run. After Qin Ze leisurely walked out of the classroom, he immediately quickened his pace. At the same time, the system's flat voice sounded in his mind: "Main Mission: Show Off in Public, complete! Rewarding host with two hundred points."

Qin Ze lowered his head and naturally opened the mission interface. Unlike Qin Baobao's mission, this one did not disappear after completion. It was still there: "Main Mission: Show Off in Public (1/15)"

"This is a chained mission!?" Qin Ze understood.

"Based on the host's inner desires, you yearn to amaze people in public, draw the crowd's attention, receive girls' cheers, and shock those of the same sex. Therefore, this is a chained mission."

"Then I'm screwed. Desires like these are endless. I'll never finish them in my lifetime."

The system did not respond.

"Qin Ze!" someone called from behind.

The three guys from Dorm 303 rushed out of the classroom and caught up with him. Qin Ze stopped where he was.

Li Liang said, "God, please accept my knees."

Liu Ziqiang said, "How do you know Russian? None of us knew."

Qin Ze had no particular strengths in this life, except that he was good at talking nonsense and bluffing. Without changing expression, he said, "It's not like you don't know who my dad is."

The three immediately understood. Not many people in class knew about Professor Qin and Qin Ze being father and son, but Qin Ze had not hidden it from his roommates. After all, it was not exactly a secret, though it was not something worth loudly advertising either. These days, if you randomly grabbed a student from the student union, they might be related to some school leader or teacher.

Professor Qin was a miraculous man proficient in Russian, English, and Japanese. It was only natural that his son knew some Russian as well.

Zhao Baliao slapped Qin Ze on the shoulder with his huge fan-like hand, nearly knocking him to the ground. "I don't bow to walls, but I bow to you."

Li Liang said animatedly, "You should've seen Zhang Mingyu's face. He looked at you like you'd murdered his father."

"That slap to the face was way too painful, especially that line about 'your foundation in Russian isn't deep enough...' Now I understand. It's the quiet dogs that bite." Liu Ziqiang said gloomily.

The four went down the academic building and were about to head to the cafeteria together when Qin Ze's phone buzzed. He took it out and saw a text: "Wait for me on the second floor of the cafeteria."

The contact name was: "Old Man"

Without changing expression, Qin Ze slipped the phone back into his pocket. When they reached the cafeteria entrance, he waved to his roommates. "My dad asked me to eat with him. You guys go ahead. We'll meet at the cafeteria entrance later and Duo Queue together."

The second floor was the teachers' cafeteria. There were clearly far fewer people than on the first floor. It was not too deserted, but neither was it crowded. The environment was decent, and more importantly, the food was in a completely different league. Old Man was a rather old-fashioned and serious person. He would not bring his son here for better food every few days or make special exceptions. In the past, Qin Ze had always shamelessly tagged along to mooch a meal.

Qin Ze chose a seat by the window and waited silently.

Ten minutes later, Old Man, looking every bit the distinguished gentleman, slowly came up to the second floor. His gaze swept around the room before he headed to the serving window, smiling and greeting teachers he knew along the way.

A moment later, he sat across from Qin Ze with the food. There were two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, a soup, and two bowls of rice. The portions were generous, and the presentation was far more refined than the students' mass-cooked meals.

Old Man had no particular rules when eating, nor did he care about not talking during meals. He simply chewed slowly, which made him seem especially elegant. However, neither of his children had inherited even the slightest bit of that virtue. At home, Qin Ze and Qin Baobao usually held their bowls while sprawled on the sofa, eating as they watched TV. Sometimes they even fought over food. If that happened in front of Old Man at home, he would flip the table.

"When did you learn Russian?" the old man asked as if casually, holding his bowl, taking a bite, and chewing it carefully.

Here it comes!

Qin Ze lowered his head and shoveled rice into his mouth, his mind racing. The next second, he had his excuse ready. "I've been studying it for over half a year. Whenever I have time, I go to the Foreign Languages Department to sit in on classes. When I don't have classes, I watch videos at home and practice pronunciation. Russian is actually pretty interesting. I like it more than English. I figured that after graduating, this lousy undergraduate diploma of ours won't amount to much, so I should start preparing a path for myself early. It never hurts to have more skills."

What he really wanted to say was, A hundred-point exchange, and I understood it instantly!

This mission had been: "Translate this Russian passage, suppress Zhang Mingyu's arrogance, and achieve the effect of shocking the entire class!"

There had been no mission item, so he could only spend points to exchange for "Russian Mastery." Fortunately, he had previously looked into the Points Shop in detail, quickly found the language category, and exchanged for intermediate Russian Mastery. Since the mission reward was two hundred points, after deducting the exchange cost, he had only earned a hundred points.

"It's a good thing that you have such awareness... What kind of way is that to speak?" Old Man had initially looked pleased, but then suddenly realized there was something off about his son's words. He was a professor employed by the very school that issued those lousy diplomas.

Qin Ze pretended not to hear.

"How has your sister been lately?"

"She's been fine. She goes to and from work on time every day. After dinner, she watches some TV and plays on the computer for a while, then absolutely goes to bed before eleven. On weekends, we go out for a walk, drink coffee, and occasionally eat hotpot." Qin Ze added silently, Then we play games to rank up.

Qin Ze needed to report on his sister's situation to Old Man from time to time. Although his sister was outstanding in terms of intelligence, she was far too careless in life. Even at twenty-five, she still could not put their parents at ease. Qin Ze was different. He was undoubtedly a failure in terms of intelligence, but he had been a good child since he was young—steady and mature—and their parents had always been at ease about him.

"You two haven't been home for a month. Your mom misses you both. Come back for a meal this weekend." The old man nodded to show that he understood.

"Mom isn't arranging another blind date for her, is she?" Qin Ze probed.

Old Mom was very anxious about Qin Baobao's marriage, especially since the neighbors of decades had all seen their sons marry and their daughters marry off, while Qin Baobao had not even brought a boyfriend home. Since her daughter was not stepping up, Old Mom had no choice but to take matters seriously. She searched far and wide for a wealthy eligible man for her daughter, even bought an SLR Camera specifically to take photos of Qin Baobao, and arranged blind dates every few days. Qin Baobao had grown sick of it and went home less and less often. The last time she had gone home was last month.

Qin Ze thought, Old Mom, if you put this much thought into me, your son might already have a kid by now.

"She should be dating someone by now," the old man said.

"No rush, no rush. I don't even have a girlfriend yet." Qin Ze said sourly.

"She's already twenty-five. How can there be no rush? Can you compare yourself to her? A man establishes himself at thirty; it wouldn't be too late for you to start a family then. But how many years of youth does a woman have? Once a woman passes thirty, she goes downhill like a river in flood, and there's no stopping it. When that time comes, if you want to marry into a good family, who would still want you?"

He made it sound like she was thirty-five. She was only twenty-five, okay? Qin Ze curled his lip, unconvinced.

"Does she have a boyfriend?"

Qin Ze thought about it and felt that she probably did. Yesterday, I saw her wearing sexy underwear... But he did not dare say that aloud, afraid Old Man would slap him to death.