The instant Xiao Wu saw Lin Chuan, her heart skipped a beat.
Without any warning.
Beat after beat, it pounded, and she could not suppress it.
She could even hear her own heartbeat clearly.
She had not been in human society for long.
She had met few people and even fewer children, let alone a child as handsome as Lin Chuan, someone she could not tear her eyes away from.
To be honest, that single glance stirred a few traces of an attraction she could not quite describe.
Especially the feeling Lin Chuan gave her. He looked so cold, his expression so distant, yet somehow he made her feel comfortable and at ease.
Lin Chuan stepped inside, sweeping his gaze over everyone before him with a smile on his face.
His features were already exquisite.
That smile made him even better-looking.
He asked:
"Excuse me, is this Dorm Seven?"
As he asked, he checked Xiao Wu's affection level.
Normally, most people's affection levels started at 0.
Of course, that 0 only meant that the two parties had never met.
Now, after Xiao Wu had merely glanced at him, her affection level actually began rising, climbing straight to 40.
The moment it reached 40, the system's voice sounded in Lin Chuan's mind.
[Goddess Xiao Wu detected. Affection level has risen to 40. Gained 6,000 points.]
Hearing that an affection level of 40 could actually earn him 6,000 points, Lin Chuan was immediately a little startled.
After all, back then, neither the Ice Empress nor the Snow Empress had yielded this many points when their affection levels rose.
But why did Xiao Wu give so many?
Lin Chuan thought it over carefully and soon came up with a possibility.
Presumably, it had something to do with how important a character was to the plot.
If a character played a crucial role in the original novel and was also good-looking, then the points gained should be correspondingly high.
That was probably how it worked.
Still, although he had certainly received a lot of points, so many that it was somewhat unexpected, Lin Chuan could not help feeling a little helpless.
She truly lived up to being a ten-thousand-year-old hooligan rabbit.
With just one glance, her affection level had shot all the way from 0 to 40, without even a buffer.
Of course, part of that might also have been because he was simply too handsome.
(Not even one ten-thousandth as handsome as the readers.)
Just then, Wang Sheng, the former boss of Dorm Seven, stepped forward.
His gaze landed on Lin Chuan. He sized him up first, then quickly reined in the sharpness in his eyes, his tone carrying a measure of caution:
"That's right, this is Dorm Seven. Well, judging by your bearing, young sir, could you be one of us too?"
It was perfectly normal for him to act so cautiously.
After all, just looking at Lin Chuan now, that bearing of his was certainly not something an ordinary family could cultivate.
It was a depth built upon the confidence of real gold and silver and the composure of someone who knew nothing of worldly suffering.
He was nothing like those pretty boys who relied on their faces to make a living. One was in the heavens, the others down on the ground.
The moment those words left his mouth.
Curiosity appeared in the eyes of both Xiao Wu, who stood to the side, and all the other students around them.
Everyone could not help feeling a little puzzled.
This boy was exceptionally good-looking, radiating a cold aloofness that kept strangers at bay, as though he did not belong in this dilapidated Dorm Seven at all.
Someone like him could not possibly be one of them, could he?
After all, who did not know what sort of place Dorm Seven was?
Which of its residents was not a work-study student struggling just to keep fed and clothed?
The vast majority were commoners' children gritting their teeth to survive in this enormous academy.
With Lin Chuan looking as though his ten fingers had never touched dishwater, they would not believe, even if beaten to death, that he was a poor student who needed to work his way through school to make ends meet.
Hearing that, Lin Chuan smiled and replied:
"You haven't mistaken me. I really am a member of Dorm Seven."
The instant his words fell, the already delicate atmosphere abruptly froze.
Everyone's expression changed at once, their faces filled with disbelief.
How could a boy exuding such nobility and aloofness possibly belong to their Dorm Seven?
The two clearly could not have been further apart, even with eight bamboo poles laid end to end.
This had to be fake, right?
Or was he actually some young master from a powerful clan, so bored that he had come to this impoverished backwater to experience life at the bottom?
They simply could not come up with any possibility besides that.
Whatever the case, if they failed to cling to this powerful thigh today, they would be losing out terribly.
For a time, thoughts of their own little schemes sprouted wildly in everyone's hearts, yet all their minds were remarkably aligned.
But just as the atmosphere gradually shifted toward a strange sort of fawning, Lin Chuan abruptly forced the conversation in another direction.
Deliberately putting a puzzled look on his face, he asked:
"But... what was going on just now? A whole group of you ganging up to surround one little girl? What, does our Dorm Seven have some unwritten rule that outsiders don't know about?"
At those words, Wang Sheng's heart lurched. Afraid Lin Chuan might misunderstand, he hurriedly took half a step forward and rushed to steer the conversation back:
"Don't misunderstand. I'm the former boss of Dorm Seven. That little girl we were gathered around is called Xiao Wu. She just knocked me down, so she's the new boss now. Everyone was congratulating Sister Xiao Wu."
After saying that, he sighed again and said helplessly:
"The rule in our Dorm Seven has always been to choose the boss with our fists. Here at Nuoding Academy, people serve dishes according to who's eating. Work-study students have always been the mud beneath everyone else's feet."
"If we don't have someone tough stepping up to hold the line, even the last shred of dignity we have left living here will be stripped away and ground to pieces."
Lin Chuan's gaze lingered on Wang Sheng for a moment, and genuine surprise rose in his heart.
Judging by those words alone, this boy was straightforward and had a sense of responsibility in his bones, willing to stand up for those around him. His character really was not bad.
Unfortunately, according to the original plot, Wang Sheng ended up running into either Little Scumbag or the hooligan rabbit.
But none of that mattered now.
The reason was simple.
He, Lin Chuan, had arrived.
With his arrival, many things that were originally going to happen would have to change.
At that thought, Lin Chuan nodded, smiling as he spoke at an unhurried pace:
"In that case, I'll take a turn being the boss of Dorm Seven."
With that, he turned his gaze toward Xiao Wu and asked with a smile:
"You're the boss here now, right? According to the rules you've set, if I beat you, shouldn't I be the one taking the new boss's seat?"
At those words, Wang Sheng froze briefly, a little surprise rising in his heart.
He really had not expected the other boy to be exactly like Sister Xiao Wu, wanting to become the boss the moment he arrived at Dorm Seven, before he had even warmed a bench.
That temperament, that way of doing things-he was practically cast from the same mold as Sister Xiao Wu.
Still...
Wang Sheng reconsidered. It did not seem like such a bad idea.
After all, judging by his bearing, his manner, and his composure, he was most likely some family's young master who had come to experience life because he had nothing better to do.
Having a young master like that become the boss of Dorm Seven would certainly be a good thing.
Young masters cared about face, liked to put on a grand show, and were especially protective of their own. As long as he accepted them as his underlings, he would surely have to look out for them.
When that time came, those bastards would have to ask whether this young master agreed before they tried bullying anyone again.
They would no longer have to live on tenterhooks every day as they did now, swallowing their anger even when bullied.
At that thought, the little surprise in Wang Sheng's heart slowly turned into anticipation instead.