After leaving the cafeteria, Xia Wenbin kept checking the data changes of his System Points. After all, since he had gone through the trouble of showing off, it would be a huge waste not to rake in a massive amount of points.
Hearing Lin Yanran calling him from behind, he turned around with a curious look and asked:
"Oh, Campus Belle Lin, is there anything else you need?"
Though he quite liked being with Lin Yanran—after all, she was both pretty and cute, and could help him farm points at double speed—they had only just met. He figured it was best to keep a certain distance; otherwise, if he acted too attentive, he would really be harboring ulterior motives just as Chen Haoxuan had claimed.
Seeing that Xia Wenbin didn't bother to answer her and merely slowed his pace, Lin Yanran had no choice but to catch up and walk side by side with him. Then, in an angry yet slightly aggrieved tone, she said:
"Back in the cafeteria, you were calling me Yanran every other word, so how come there's no one around now and you're suddenly calling me Campus Belle Lin? I knew it, everything you did just now was just to deliberately tick off Chen Haoxuan, right?"
Xia Wenbin was instantly stumped by her question.
If he said right, he was afraid Lin Yanran would think he was using her; if he said wrong, it would make him look too frivolous!
So he decisively opened the System first to check Lin Yanran's profile:
Name: Lin Yanran
...
Appearance: 92
Favorability: 48
No way! Xia Wenbin couldn't believe his eyes—Lin Yanran's favorability had actually gone up by another 10 points.
It had now reached 48 points, leaving just a 2-point gap to the 50-point milestone. He had no idea when her favorability had gone up again.
With no other choice, Xia Wenbin had to ask the System.
"System prompt: During the confrontation between the host and Chen Haoxuan, because you said the money was for your future wife, Lin Yanran believed you were making an indirect confession. Coupled with the fact that you instantly transferred 100 million, it only deepened her belief, causing her favorability to increase by 10 points."
Xia Wenbin hadn't expected that the System, which usually gave concise and direct answers, would actually explain things to him in such detail today. He almost thought the System had secretly upgraded itself.
Seeing that Xia Wenbin just kept walking without paying her any attention, Lin Yanran instantly felt anger flare up in her chest. She reached out, wanting to pinch his waist a few times to vent her frustration.
Having just exited the System, Xia Wenbin suddenly felt a pair of soft, delicate hands touching his waist. Out of reflex, he reached out and grabbed them.
Suddenly having her small hand gripped by Xia Wenbin, Lin Yanran felt the embarrassment and nervousness of a student caught cheating on an exam. Looking at Xia Wenbin with a pitiful expression, she stammered:
"What do you think you're doing? I'm telling you, this is a school, you can't just go around doing whatever you want, and we only just met..."
Xia Wenbin was practically amused by the Campus Belle, whose speech was somewhat incoherent. He was only reacting out of conditioned self-defense!
He hadn't even asked what Lin Yanran was trying to do. A girl thinking about pinching the soft flesh on a man's waist every single day—was she sure she was a proper Campus Belle?
"What could I be doing? It's you who wanted to pinch me again, I only grabbed you out of self-defense. But I'm in a good mood today, so I won't hold it against you. Thanks for treating me to dinner! To show our gratitude, let's have a friendly hug!"
With that, Xia Wenbin decisively activated the special skill granted by the System: Loving Embrace. He opened his arms wide in front of Lin Yanran, then waited with full confidence for her to throw herself into his arms.
Lin Yanran was practically fuming at Xia Wenbin's words. On second thought, though, it really *was* true that she had been wanting to pinch him all along. She didn't even know where she had picked up the habit; perhaps she had seen her mom pinching her dad like that often!
However, Xia Wenbin suddenly reaching out and saying he wanted a hug caught her off guard and startled her.
Even though the other party claimed it was meant to express gratitude, why couldn't they just shake hands? Why did it have to be a hug? It was obviously an excuse to take advantage of her!
Besides, she was a dignified Campus Belle—would a girl initiative-take and hug someone? Of course not!
Hmph, she wasn't even that close with him, and he had deliberately pissed her off to boot, so she wasn't going to pay him any mind! Let's see how awkward he looks with his hands left hanging out like that.
Although that was what she thought in her mind, and she looked very determined, her body was "very honest" as she proactively went in for the embrace—and a tight, zero-distance one at that.
By the time Lin Yanran snapped out of it and stood frozen in place, Xia Wenbin had already let go, turned around, and bolted.
Lin Yanran had no idea what had just come over her. It was like she was under a spell; she had inexplicably thrown herself right into Xia Wenbin's arms, even though she was clearly "resisting"!
"Hey, wait up! Your money is still with me! Do you really not want it anymore?" Lin Yanran shouted hurriedly as she watched him walk further and further away.
"Keep it! I already said it's a gift for you! From now on, I plan to rely on you to be kept as a trophy boyfriend, so remember to keep treating me to dinner tomorrow!"
With that, Xia Wenbin walked away without looking back, waving one hand back and forth over his head as he went, as if saying: Goodbye, Campus Belle.
Seeing that Xia Wenbin had taken advantage of her and then run off, Lin Yanran stamped her feet in anger.
Yet, thinking about how she no longer had any excuse to proactively seek him out again, she could only huff and head back to her dorm.
…………
On the way back to the dorm, everything was as usual. It seemed the news of him slapping Chen Haoxuan in the face hadn't become common knowledge yet, with only a few individuals occasionally stopping to spare Xia Wenbin a couple of extra glances.
"Ding! Bound Target Lin Yanran's favorability has reached 50 points. Congratulations to the host for having the first female target reach 50 favorability. Please keep up the good work, host!"
The System's sudden prompt genuinely startled Xia Wenbin.
Wait, no way! Lin Yanran's favorability actually reached 50 points? Could it be because of that "Loving Embrace" just now?
A single hug went up by 2 points? Not bad, not bad! I remember the System saying that reaching 50 favorability means the other person is starting to fall for you a little bit.
Doesn't that mean Lin Yanran has actually fallen for him? But didn't they just meet today? Could this be the legendary love at first sight? Isn't this developing a bit too fast?!
Too many things had happened today, so Xia Wenbin stopped overthinking it.
Anyway, since he had taken sick leave today, he didn't need to go to evening self-study. So upon returning to the dorm, he greeted his bros, took a shower, and lay down on his bed to rest.
And truth be told, Xia Wenbin was genuinely sleepy. Perhaps he was just too exhausted from the day or too stuffed from eating so much, but he fell asleep not long after lying down.
When he woke up again, his dorm mates had already returned from self-study.
Having probably caught wind of some rumors, the guys began questioning him left and right the moment they walked in. Xia Wenbin didn't hide much and gave them a general rundown of what happened in the cafeteria today.
He only skipped the part about giving the Campus Belle sanitary pads and the origin of his money, simply claiming it was his personal secret.
The three of them didn't have any overly dramatic reactions; they were just somewhat envious that he managed to have a meal with the Campus Belle while feeling proud that their dorm had produced a mega-tycoon.
They all complained that Xia Wenbin had hidden it too well—living in the same dorm, none of them had noticed he was only pretending to be poor all this time—and insisted that he treat them to a grand feast next time to make up for it.
To such minor demands, Xia Wenbin naturally agreed casually, even offering to upgrade the lot of them with a few sets of top-tier computer rigs, which thrilled his dorm mates to no end.
In the dead of night.
Xia Wenbin lay on his bed alone, staring blankly at the System data. The System prompts had finally stopped flooding the screen.
He tallied up the points he had brought in today, and he had actually cleared 9,430 points. Of course, aside from his own major score in the cafeteria, almost everything else was farmed with Lin Yanran's help.
Through a full day of collection, Xia Wenbin had gradually figured out the categorization of Emotion Points:
Some Emotion Points are continuous, such as: liking, disgust, hatred...
While other Emotion Points have a limited number of occurrences, such as: surprise, jealousy, envy, happiness, sorrow, sadness, pity... These types of Emotion Points generally stop generating after one or two instances.
And the reason Lin Yanran was able to yield so many Emotion Points was simply because countless guys in the school adored her, and countless girls envied her.
Looking at the 9,430 points before him, Xia Wenbin began to hesitate on how to use them. Should he convert them into cash, or boost his attribute points, or go to the mall to exchange them for something?
In the end, Xia Wenbin decided to keep 5,000 points in reserve first. With the remaining 4,430 points, he planned to convert 430 points into 43 attribute points, adding them to his physique and spirit.
Physique: 49
Spirit: 35
After allocating the attribute points, Xia Wenbin instantly felt his whole body surging with strength, and his mind felt much clearer and more lucid.
With 4,000 points still remaining, Xia Wenbin began browsing the mall. After searching around for a bit, he finally decided to redeem 2,000 points for the supernatural ability: Invisibility, 1,500 points for the ability: Mind Reading, and 500 points for skill mastery: Martial Arts Mastery.