My Online Friend Can't Be This Cute

Don't Play Holy Slash: Jokes aside, Pigeon, this file is strictly forbidden from being shared in any form.

A Seductress: Hey, group bullying.

Baibai: Mm-hmm.

Human-Dragon Unity: Since you put it that way, Pigeon, I'll gratefully download it.

Human-Dragon Unity: If we ever get the chance to meet, I'll treat you to a meal.

Flaked Out: Though I don't think I'll ever get the chance to eat that meal, I'll remember it.

Human-Dragon Unity: Of course, I also remember the favor the president did me by lending me books.

Human-Dragon Unity: If I get the chance, I'll treat the president to a meal too.

Don't Play Holy Slash: Forget treating me to a meal. It's not like I'm short on one meal from you.

Don't Play Holy Slash: You should focus on the National College Entrance Examination. What if I need some corporate drones to work for me in the future?

Human-Dragon Unity: Corporate drones who work nine to five with weekends off, spend eighty percent of their time slacking, get every holiday off, and don't have to make up workdays after schedule adjustments?

Human-Dragon Unity: Then I don't think that would be so bad.

Human-Dragon Unity: President, all it takes is one offer letter, and from then on, I'll be yours!

A Seductress: You think a good thing like that would fall to you? President, look at me. I'm more educated than he is.

Human-Dragon Unity: What if? I haven't even taken the exam yet. What if I end up more educated than you?

A Seductress: Heh heh, then I'll write you an IOU too.

A Seductress: Forget surpassing me. If you can get into a university on the same tier as mine, I'll treat you to a meal.

A Seductress: I'm not short on money. Pick wherever you want, okay?

Human-Dragon Unity: A genuine empty promise.

A Seductress: I learned it from you.

Don't Play Holy Slash: Get lost, get lost. I don't want corporate drones like you with no ambition at all.

Human-Dragon Unity: What's ambition? Can you eat it?

A Seductress: Sigh, capitalism.

Flaked Out: Sigh, corporate drones.

Human-Dragon Unity: Sigh, surplus value.

Don't Play Holy Slash: Keeping a little notebook.jpg

Don't Play Holy Slash: Next campaign, the character backgrounds submitted by everyone above must be no fewer than five thousand words. No diary-style writing either, or they'll be rejected.

A Seductress: Coo, kill me.

Human-Dragon Unity: Coo, kill me.

Flaked Out: How is that a character background? That's a thesis.

Baibai: I happen to have something to do during the next campaign, so I won't be joining. I'll come back for the one after that.

Don't Play Holy Slash: All right, all right, let's stop joking around.

Don't Play Holy Slash: Xiao Yi and Pigeon should be going into the Black Room soon too.

Flaked Out: Sigh, bullying.

Human-Dragon Unity: Sigh, power.

Don't Play Holy Slash: You two, good luck on the National College Entrance Examination. See you after the exams.

Baibai: Good luck, Xiao Yi. And Pigeon too.

A Seductress: Baibai, that difference in treatment is obvious to the naked eye. You two senior-year examinees, good luck.

Flaked Out: Mm-hm, I'll type with my feet.

Human-Dragon Unity: We will win.

In the blink of an eye, evening arrived. For some reason, he felt especially sleepy today.

Maybe he had caught a cold. He would go to the infirmary for some medicine tomorrow. Tonight, he should turn in early.

He wasn't someone who couldn't tell what mattered most. Forcing himself to endure it now would only affect the upcoming exam.

But a cold really wasn't a big deal. Unlike anime characters, people weren't that fragile—catching a slight cold didn't mean they had to lie helplessly in bed waiting for a cute girl to take care of them.

...Come to think of it, if he obediently lay in bed after catching a cold, would a cute girl come take care of him?

Thus, after evening self-study ended, he unusually did not stay in the classroom to keep studying, instead heading straight back to the dormitory.

He had no idea how long he had been lying there when he groggily opened his eyes. The dorm lights were still on—it seemed it wasn't lights-out yet.

He closed his eyes, wanting to fall asleep again, but then he heard the lively shouts of his roommates outside.

"What happened?"

"Old Mo, stop sleeping. Come out and watch the drama."

Watch the drama? Mo Xiangwen immediately became a little more awake. He climbed out of bed and followed them into the dormitory corridor.

There, he saw a teacher from another class and a grade-level administrator confronting a student from who knew which class in the small square below the dormitory.

Well, "confronting" might have been a strange way to put it, but that was the impression their posture and distance gave him.

"What's going on?" Mo Xiangwen asked someone beside him.

"What else could it be? It's the regular show these days."

"What are you talking about? I don't understand."

"Anyway, a student is crying and insisting on going home. The teacher and grade-level administrator are trying to talk him down."

"They won't let him go back?"

"It's not that they won't let him, but the teachers and administrators are scared too. It's late at night now, so they can't just let someone leave the school."

"Yeah. When I came upstairs just now and passed by there, I even heard the teacher promise to approve leave for him tomorrow morning," another person nearby chimed in.

No one knew whether it was the grade-level administrator or the teacher who said something, but the student confronting them finally lost control again.

"Let me go home! Now!"

"I can't take it anymore! I don't want to study either! Can't I just not take the National College Entrance Examination?"

The boy's tearful shout was utterly hoarse, carrying across several surrounding dormitory buildings and drawing a huge crowd of onlookers.

Mo Xiangwen turned to look around. The entire corridor was packed with people, all watching the show below with rapt attention.

Yet despite looking as though they were merely enjoying the spectacle, their expressions suggested they were already used to it.

"This happens a lot these days?"

"I wouldn't say a lot, but it's happened several times. Both boys and girls. I heard there are more cases on the girls' side, though we haven't seen those ourselves."

"But the girls' dorms aren't far from ours. Whenever they shout loudly enough, everyone can hear it."

Everyone discussed it at once, completely unaware that their homeroom teacher had arrived behind them.

Beep—

The homeroom teacher blew a short whistle. Its enormous volume snapped the gawking students back to their senses, and they hurriedly slipped back into their rooms.

"Go on, go on. What's so interesting to watch? Hurry up and get back to rest!"

Just One Last Step.

"Mo Xiangwen, Mo Xiangwen, wake up."

While deeply asleep, he heard someone knocking on the head of his bed and calling his name.

He groggily opened his eyes to see his homeroom teacher and Cai Yibin.

Just as he tried to sit up, he felt dizzy, with a faint ache in his chest as well.

Seeing his condition, the homeroom teacher asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"

"Yeah, I think I have a fever."

Mo Xiangwen touched his forehead. Though he could not feel anything, he had plenty of experience with being sick.

When every part of his body that he could feel was uncomfortable, what else could it be but a fever?

"When I saw you absent from class today, I thought I'd come take a look in the dormitory." The homeroom teacher sighed. "I didn't expect I'd really guessed right."

He said weakly, "I'm sorry, Teacher. I'd like to take leave and go home to see a doctor later."

You could choose to tough out a cold, but you couldn't force yourself through a fever.

Of course, seeing a doctor was safer no matter what. Plenty of people had gotten into trouble from trying to tough out a cold.

"Take leave, then. Did you think you could force yourself to hold on like this until the National College Entrance Examination?"

"How are you doing? Can you get home by yourself?"

Mo Xiangwen moved his body slightly and found that though he was terribly weak and sore all over, walking should not be a problem.

"I think so."

"Don't give me 'I think so.' If you can't, call your parents and have them come."

...Was he going to trouble his parents again? He had clearly promised himself he would not make them worry.

Mo Xiangwen's muddled mind took a long while before he managed to force out the words, "No need."

The adult world was all about constantly using the skill called "toughing it out." He had already promised not to make them worry again. How could he face them looking like this?

"...Fine, then. Cai Yibin, take him to the office to write a leave slip."

"Okay, got it."

In truth, even without Cai Yibin accompanying him, he could walk to the office and write the leave slip himself. Still, having someone to talk to helped him perk up a little.

After finishing the leave slip and coming out, Cai Yibin patted his shoulder before heading back to the classroom first.

In June, bright sunshine was often not a good thing.

If someone stayed under the sun for even a little too long, they could easily get sunburned or suffer heatstroke.

Yet as the scorching sunlight fell on him, he actually found it rather warm—though it also made his head feel even foggier.

"Young man, a senior-year student, and you're taking leave?"

"Yeah, I'm not feeling well."

The security guard uncle asked his usual question. After confirming there was nothing wrong with the leave slip, he let him through.

"Then go see a doctor properly. Your health is the foundation of everything. Keep it up, young man."

Mo Xiangwen barely forced out a smile and nodded.

As soon as he walked out of the school gates, he was about to hail a taxi when he unexpectedly saw two familiar figures.

Even with his mind functioning so poorly, he knew that the homeroom teacher must have worried and notified his parents in advance—no wonder the process of signing that leave slip had been so slow.

They seemed to have been watching the school gate all along. The moment they saw him emerge, the two figures immediately walked toward him.

Before he could speak, a broad palm pressed against his forehead.

"He has a fever. I'll take him to the hospital." Mo Chenfeng touched his forehead, felt the burning heat against his palm, and could not help sighing.

"Sigh, you child, how could you..." Zhou Xiuqin wanted to say something, but seeing his thin, pale face, she swallowed her words. "I'll come too."

The three of them went to the hospital together. Even on a workday, the hospital's crowds never seemed to thin.

The doctor on duty quickly took his temperature, glanced at the thermometer, and said, "Thirty-nine degrees. That counts as a high fever. Take some fever medicine and get plenty of rest."

"Doctor, I want an IV drip."

"What IV drip? We generally don't give IV drips. In your condition, some fever medicine, rest, and nutritional supplements will be enough."

"An IV drip will make me recover faster, Doctor. I'm taking the National College Entrance Examination."

The doctor, who had been about to refute him, paused and sighed. "Even with an IV drip, you still need to rest properly."