Go on, live it up. Who could outlive you?

Jiang Nian's eyelid twitched, and he whipped his head around to look at her.

"What are you looking at me for?" Xu Qianqian frowned. "Gone stupid? The light's red and you're still not moving. Or did that get to you? It's okay. You'll get used to it next time."

With a strange look on his face, he simply drew out an "Oh," making Xu Qianqian itch to grind her teeth.

Oh, oh, oh-oh my ass!

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One more oh and I'll kick you! My size thirty-six shoe, right on your size forty-two face!

The little scooter started moving again, and Jiang Nian asked a curious question.

"If you're unhappy, why did you still come out to see a movie with me?"

"I don't like hanging out with idiots, but if it's you, my friend..." Xu Qianqian fiddled with her phone in the back seat. "Even if you're a moron, I'll still hang out with you."

Jiang Nian sneered. What a bratty little tsundere.

Beep, beep.

The electric scooter stopped downstairs, and the two of them headed up the stairs. A crisp snap of the fingers switched on the orange sound-activated stairwell light, casting their shadows against the wall.

Before they parted to go inside, Jiang Nian suddenly said something to her.

"Your cheek's pretty soft."

Xu Qianqian froze mid-unlock, as though someone had paused the frame. Her pupils contracted to pinpoints, and almost instantly, her whole body burned and her heart pounded.

When she turned around, the door opposite hers was already shut.

Xu Qianqian lingered by the shoe cabinet at the entrance for quite a while before she returned to normal. The living room was empty, and the light in her father's bedroom was already off. She was long used to it.

Her mother had been gone for years, and their home remained cold and quiet.

Most of the time, she was home alone. Her packed high school schedule made her devote all her energy to studying, and little by little, she had stopped feeling lonely.

The last time she had dreamed about her mother was probably a year ago.

After returning from New Year's Eve dinner at Jiang Nian's home, she had stood alone on the dim balcony. Dressed in thin clothes, she watched the bright lights and happy families in the neighboring building, standing there for an entire hour.

Sure enough, she came down with a fever late that night.

In her groggy haze, she felt a hand touch her forehead. Her mother sat beside the bed, holding her hand with a gentle expression, asking why she hadn't taken any medicine.

She wanted to speak but couldn't, and all she could do was cry. She only wanted to tell her mother that she hadn't been doing well all these years. Not a single year had been good.

Then she woke up, still without having said a word.

Time had washed everything away, and these days, she rarely thought of her mother. When she occasionally did, it was about happy things. She thought that was a good sign. A person couldn't keep crying forever.

In the bathroom, she took a hot shower.

After washing up, Xu Qianqian opened a test paper and studied it for a while. Only after doing seven or eight problems did she gradually feel sleepy. She got up to use the bathroom, returned and pulled her bedroom door shut, then switched off the light with a click.

Lying in bed, Xu Qianqian closed her eyes, ready to drift off to sleep.

An hour later.

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In the pitch-black room, Xu Qianqian abruptly sat up in bed.

"No, seriously! Is he out of his mind?!"

"Aaaah!!!!" Xu Qianqian rolled around on the bed, clutching her quilt and practically grinding her teeth to pieces. "Jiang Nian!! I'm going to kill you tomorrow! Drop dead!"

Suddenly, she stopped rolling and went stiff on the bed, holding her quilt, her eyes open as she recalled what had happened.

Her mind had gone completely blank then. He had pressed his face against hers and used the angle to kiss the spot by her dimple.

Although he had pulled away after a hundredth of a second, and the jaded staff member hadn't paid any attention, still...

Lunatics!! They're all lunatics!!

Before, linking arms was enough to get twenty-five percent off the tickets! Who told you to upgrade the promotion?! Who cares about that extra ten percent off!! I'll kill you all!

She had been out of her mind too, somehow agreeing as if possessed.

Much later, Xu Qianqian lay sprawled on the bed, limbs splayed. She stared at the pitch-black ceiling, her chest rising and falling steadily, but she still couldn't calm down.

Wrapped in her quilt, she turned onto her side and suddenly felt a little tingly. Was that what a boy's breath felt like? A little warm, and a little... strange. Hard to describe.

It wasn't as though they had never kissed each other on the cheek when they were close as children. It was just that they had been on bad terms for years.

It was a good thing it had only been her cheek, or she really wouldn't have known how to face Jiang Nian.

"But why did it have to be Jiang Nian?!"

She punched her pink plush toy again and again. "Jiang Nian's such an asshole! He'd split even an earthworm by the roadside in half! Why!! Him!"

With a total of fifty-seven thousand in his bank account, Jiang Nian was in excellent spirits after his net worth had jumped by thirty thousand. He even got up early.

If fate had an ordeal in store for him, he hoped it would be a Porsche.

Humming as he went downstairs to buy breakfast, Jiang Nian made a point of leaving two portions outside Xu Qianqian's door. Thanks to his darling Qianqian, he had scored thirty thousand. It was practically money for the taking.

As for the system, Jiang Nian really hadn't given it much thought.

Live it up. Who could outlive me? Being young and rich is the way to happiness. Who'd risk their life once they had money? Rely on the system to reach the pinnacle of life?

Give me a break. To him, the system was just a game that paid out cash. Who knew whether tomorrow or an accident would come first? Every second of comfort was a second worth enjoying.

Before suffering "Old Jiang's" hardships, he would enjoy "Old Jiang's" blessings.

For the thirty-eight-year-old Jiang Nian, a thirty-thousand reward might only have been enough to resolve his immediate financial predicament. But for the eighteen-year-old Jiang Nian, he couldn't spend it all. He simply couldn't.

Bitterness first didn't guarantee sweetness later, but sweetness first was sweetness for real. Smart people enjoyed the world first.

That morning, he trained legs at the gym. Zhao wasn't there.

That afternoon, he stayed home.

The next day, he could barely get up. His legs were sore as hell.

After a day or two to calm down, Xu Qianqian seemed no different from usual. Standing in his doorway, she gave him a curious glance, her face displaying the look one gave a weakling.

"Huh, that's all you've got? Can you even handle it, Jiang Nian?"

"What do you know? Stop making snide remarks." Jiang Nian stood up carefully and said solemnly, "I'm investing in my future. Skip leg day and you'll end up impotent."

Leaning against his bedroom doorway, Xu Qianqian seemed to think of something. After making sure no one else was home, she gave a mysterious smile.

"You know, training legs too much makes you want to..."

Jiang Nian's expression changed drastically. "Are you spying on me?"

"Pfft, as if I care." Xu Qianqian turned away and headed home to work on test papers. Before leaving, she looked back. "Just reminding a certain someone that we have evening study tonight."

That evening.

At Zhen Nan Middle School, a scattering of students returned for evening study.

A small number of students missed the first evening study session after the three-day break, either by requesting leave or simply skipping. Jiang Nian wasn't among them.

In the brightly lit Olympiad Class Three classroom, during the break after the first evening study period.

He looked up and scanned the room.

About a dozen students in the class hadn't arrived. Some were stuck in traffic on buses from the surrounding towns, some had taken sick leave, and others hadn't returned from their trips yet.

Boarding students made up a little over half the class, and the two groups mingled well. Overall, though, day students still had more to talk about with other day students.

The classroom bustled during the break, everyone chatting.

Zhang Ningzhi, sitting in front of him, kept turning around and looking at Jiang Nian expectantly.

He had seen on QQ Space that Zhang Ningzhi had traveled to Dali for National Day. There had only been a handful of likes. Presumably, not many friends could see the post, and he happened to be among them.

After thinking it over, Jiang Nian decided to pay attention to her for a little while.

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