Sakura's Miracle

"Let me show you something..."

"Wait!"

Long Aotian was cut off by Sakura before he could finish. She came to his side, brow furrowed, and sniffed at him.

Strange. He felt inexplicably sweaty, as if he'd been suddenly caught off guard, even though he hadn't done anything wrong.

"You smell like another woman."

"Huh?"

Hearing this, Long Aotian replayed his entire day in his mind.

"Don't overthink it. Watch this video."

Long Aotian turned to kiss those soft, pink lips. After a long moment, he pulled away slowly and took out his phone.

Simple and brutal. He hadn't done anything to feel guilty about anyway.

"But..."

"No 'buts,' or I'll seal your lips. Watch the video."

Interrupted by Long Aotian once again, she opened the video on the screen.

The footage showed Kushida Kikyo trampling on flowers and plants while cursing him.

"Is this Kushida Kikyo? Why is she cursing you?"

Sakura sat before the screen, the content of the video she had just finished watching acting like a cold front, quietly invading her previously calm state of mind.

Her brows were tightly locked. Those eyes, usually shimmering with rational light, were now shrouded in a thin layer of anger. Her gaze revealed an undeniable firmness and dissatisfaction, and her hands were unconsciously clenched into fists.

"There, there, don't be angry. I threatened her with a video from last time, which is why she's so furious."

Long Aotian quickly intervened, sensing that she might otherwise rush out to pick a fight with Kushida the next second.

"Ah! Oh, I see."

After calming down, Sakura slowly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, her gaze had returned to its usual clarity and firmness.

"I'll be damned." This scene left Long Aotian stunned. Since when did she become like this?

Once Sakura regained her composure, her delicate little hand pulled a key from her pocket: "By the way, Aotian, here is this key for you."

"Your room key?"

"No, this is Ayanokoji's key."

Sakura shook her head, quickly explaining further for fear that Long Aotian might misunderstand.

"You said Sudo's expulsion was your doing, and then you said that in this world, big fish eat little fish, so I figured you might continue to target others in Class D." Sakura took Long Aotian's hand and continued: "Sudo should have been expelled when he failed his exams, but Horikita Suzune protected him. Later, at the celebration party, I noticed Kushida Kikyo asking Ayanokoji if it was his doing."

"Ayanokoji claimed it was Horikita Suzune's doing, but Kushida Kikyo's expression suddenly turned gloomy. I felt this incident wasn't simple, because Kushida Kikyo wouldn't ask that for no reason, so I felt Ayanokoji was suspicious."

"Later, I contacted Ike anonymously, offering a reward of 50,000 points to have him get Ayanokoji's key, make a copy, and leave it in a certain place. I then went to retrieve it quietly. I thought you might find it useful."

Note: In the anime, Ike once obtained Ayanokoji's key to hold a meeting in his room; it was mentioned at the time that the building manager had a spare room key.

"Did I do something wrong?"

After speaking, Sakura looked at Long Aotian with a nervous expression. This was the first time she had done something like this, and she didn't know if she had made a mistake or if it would displease him.

Long Aotian's eyes suddenly widened, his lips slightly parted to form a perfect "O," completely subverting his usual image of being calm, collected, and in control.

Holy... holy crap. He had originally planned to use Ike and Yamauchi's trust in the school text message tasks to eventually get them to copy Ayanokoji's key, but he hadn't expected it to be solved so easily.

If this world didn't lack soul-possession cultivation tropes, Long Aotian would have truly thought she had been replaced by someone else.

Watching Sakura's nervous expression, Long Aotian stroked her delicate hand and said quickly: "No... you didn't do anything wrong. It's quite useful to me. I should actually be praising you. It's just that this kind of thing is easy to expose. Did you check for surveillance where you had him leave the key, and did you avoid cameras on the way there?"

"Really? I avoided the cameras. You always avoid cameras whenever you do things, so I thought I should do the same."

Hearing that he would praise her, Sakura's gaze softened. Her previously furrowed brows gradually smoothed out, as if an invisible force were calming the ripples in her heart. The corners of her mouth lifted inadvertently, first revealing a subtle smile, which then gradually expanded until it transformed into a bright and radiant grin.

"This..." Long Aotian watched Sakura's increasingly silly smile, wondering why she was acting so exceptionally capable today.

He then proceeded to tell her about keeping her distance from Kushida Kikyo.

At this moment, a boy with short dark brown hair took out his phone and snapped a picture of a patch of trampled flowers and plants he had just finished cleaning up. After taking the photo, he sent it via text message.

"Hehehe, I'm so lucky today. First, I got 50,000 points for copying a key, and then I was randomly selected by the school to clean the garden for another 10,000 points."

"I should go find Yamauchi; I've been away for a while, but judging by his expression earlier, he probably has things to do too. I'll send a text first."

Ike chuckled to himself, seeing no issue with any of this and simply marveling at his own luck.

For him, having spent the last few months eating nothing but vegetable sets and being unable to buy game consoles or anything else, this was a godsend.

Yamauchi's situation was much the same; he had just finished his task and sent the photo over.

"I wonder why Ike was in such a rush to leave earlier, and why he was smiling so happily. You'd think he won a million."

"But that's fine, I have my own things to take care of. I'm really lucky to be selected by the school for these simple tasks that pay 10,000 points. Once I'm done, I'll go find Ike."

Not long after, the two arrived at the entrance of a restaurant to meet up.

"Yamauchi, why are you so happy?"

Ike looked at Yamauchi before him, wondering if he wasn't the only one who had been chosen, and asked with suspicion.

"Is... is it that obvious? I just went to the restroom, hahahaha."

Yamauchi's eyes darted around, and he replied with an awkward, grinning smile.

"Oh, let's go eat. My treat, hahahaha."

Ike didn't think much of it; after all, he was the lucky one, so how could there be anyone else?

Ding~

Receiving the text message, Long Aotian immediately transferred 20,000 points.

Regardless, it was still useful; taking Ayanokoji's key was merely one move in the game.

"What are you looking at, Aotian?"

Sakura watched Long Aotian staring at his phone with an inexplicable villainous smile and asked, puzzled.

"It's nothing, just that Ike and Yamauchi from your class are quite interesting."

He had originally thought it would take a long time for these two to take the bait, but he hadn't expected them to fall for it so quickly.

ps: Thanks to Yuan Jie who loves eating oyster mushroom meatball soup for the gift of love.

Yesterday, between grinding orders and reading novels, one shattered my mentality and the other left me bewildered, so I was in an exceptionally bad mood and didn't update. Sorry, sorry.