After class, Sun Mengmeng took the initiative to ask for Lin Tianchen's contact information, and the two added each other as friends. Afterwards, Lin Tianchen was led away from the classroom by Gu Yanzi, who sternly warned him not to casually flirt with female students at school in the future, lest it create a bad influence on her and Su Shanshan.
Gu Yanzi spoke with a self-righteous air, though she herself had no idea why she was saying such things—it almost seemed as though she was trying to convince herself.
With a half-smile, Lin Tianchen remarked, "Our esteemed campus belle Gu, you aren't jealous, are you?"
"Don't talk nonsense! I—how could I possibly be jealous? You're overthinking it." With that, Gu Yanzi felt her face burn up. She quickly hurried ahead of Lin Tianchen to avoid letting him discover her awkward state.
Lin Tianchen quickly caught up and walked side by side with her, saying in a gentle voice, "Of course not. Tell me, in this entire school, who could possibly overshadow Miss Gu? In my heart, you are the most beautiful."
The campus belle didn't reply and simply kept walking forward, though the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
***
During the second period, the Finance Department had a class, and Su Shanshan dragged Lin Tianchen along to attend, while Gu Yanzi and Sun Mengmeng arranged to go shopping.
***
Halfway through the class, after listening to the teacher for a bit, Lin Tianchen realized that he had already read and mastered this portion of the material. Bored, he took out his phone and opened the stock trading app. He saw that the Dongfang Energy shares he had placed an order for yesterday had been successfully bought. They opened flat this morning at the opening price, and had already risen by 5%. Judging by the momentum, the surge was quite fierce, and no negative news had appeared in the fundamentals.
He then closed his phone and began to cultivate. As his mind sank into his Dantian, the circulation of true Qi in his meridians grew increasingly powerful. Feeling his cultivation slowly growing was truly a wonderful sensation; as long as he could break through to the next realm, he believed that any martial artist in the Grandmaster Realm would not be able to withstand a single blow from him.
However, wanting to advance to the Yuheng Realm required refining a Breakthrough Pill to shatter the shackles of the realm. The main ingredient for this pill was Nine-Sun Grass, which grew in places with flourishing Yang energy. He had heard that this herb had once appeared on the summit of Dongyue Mountain, the Jade Emperor Peak. It happened to be a good time to explore Dongyue Mountain while on an outing; finding it would be best of all.
***
As the second class ended and noon approached, Su Shanshan contacted Gu Yanzi. Since none of them had classes in the afternoon, they decided to go to the pedestrian street for lunch, stroll around, and pick up a set of mountaineering equipment to prepare for the May Day activities.
When they arrived at the agreed meeting spot, they found that Sun Mengmeng had tagged along as well. Upon seeing Lin Tianchen, her eyes seemed to light up, and she took the initiative to greet him. After the four of them exchanged greetings, they took a vote: the minority yielded to the majority, and by a 3-to-1 margin, the three girls decided they wanted to eat river snail rice noodles.
After the meal, Su Shanshan bought a set of mountaineering equipment for herself and Lin Tianchen respectively. From then on, Lin Tianchen was completely reduced to the three girls' errand boy and cargo porter. Before long, his body was hung all over with shopping bags of all sizes, so that seen from afar, only his head was visible.
When Lin Tianchen raised a stern protest, the three girls declared that this shopping trip had been a complete success and invited Sun Mengmeng to come back and stay the night with them.
Back at home, Lin Tianchen acted as the head chef, taking charge of dinner. The three girls went up to the second floor together to shower. There were two spare rooms on the second floor, and Sun Mengmeng chose the one close to the staircase.
Lin Tianchen was cooking in the kitchen when a sudden wave of jasmine fragrance washed over him. This wasn't the scent worn by Su Shanshan or Gu Yanzi, so it undoubtedly belonged to Sun Mengmeng.
He turned around and sure enough saw Sun Mengmeng walking into the kitchen, wearing silk pajamas with her hair still damp, which added a touch of allure to her appearance.
"Tianchen, let me help you prep!" she said, immediately stepping up to help wash the vegetables.
"Alright," Lin Tianchen replied.
Sun Mengmeng worked side by side with him, shoulder to shoulder, preparing the meal. A faint blush lingered on the side of her face, making her look exceptionally cute.
***
When Gu Yanzi and Su Shanshan came downstairs, the dishes were already laid out on the dining table.
Looking at the table full of sumptuous food, the three girls' appetites were greatly stimulated. They praised Lin Tianchen's culinary skills endlessly, and as they looked at him, their eyes flashed with an inexplicable light.
***
After eating and drinking their fill, the three girls took charge of cleaning up, while Lin Tianchen returned to his room. He took a quick shower, then lay down on his bed and opened the stock trading app. He saw that the stock had hit a strong daily limit-up at 1:30 PM. With this, the opening battle in the stock market had ended in victory.
Lin Tianchen was just about to begin cultivating when he heard someone knock on the door. Opening it, he saw Gu Yanzi standing gracefully outside. With a pair of mesmerizing cartoonish eyes, she looked at him and said, "Tianchen, the lamp in my room is having some trouble. Can you come help me take a look?"
Lin Tianchen followed her upstairs. Looking at Gu Yanzi's graceful figure and stunning back, he felt a tickling sensation in his nose. Good thing he didn't get a nosebleed—this lethality was simply off the charts.
Lin Tianchen checked her bedside lamp, and indeed a minor problem was causing it not to light up; he fixed it in no time. When he turned around, he happened to bump right into Gu Yanzi, who was standing right behind him. The two of them fell onto the bed together, looking into each other's eyes, frozen in place for a moment. Just then, a voice came from outside: "Yanzi, is Tianchen in there with you?"
Startled, the two of them quickly stood up and hurriedly straightened their clothes. Gu Yanzi opened the door to see Su Shanshan. "Shanshan, what did you need Tianchen for? He just helped me fix my lamp." The blush on her face hadn't faded yet.
"Oh, I also wanted to ask Tianchen to help me take a look. The light in my room isn't turning on either," Su Shanshan said, her tone somehow giving them both the guilty feeling of being caught in the act.
"Right on time, Tianchen just finished fixing mine. Tianchen, go ahead," Gu Yanzi said, stepping aside from the doorway.
Lin Tianchen went out and casually pulled the door shut behind him. At that moment, Gu Yanzi threw herself face-first onto the bed, covering her face with both hands, feeling her face so hot it could probably boil water. She felt as though she had been caught red-handed in bed.
***
Inside Su Shanshan's room:
Lin Tianchen checked it out—it was also a bedside lamp issue, and the point of failure was exactly the same. The quality of these lamps was just too terrible! How could the problem be identical? Could it be that the two of them had planned this together to test a veteran cadre? He had better be careful from here on out.
After a dazzling flurry of operations, Lin Tianchen fixed the lamp in no time and prepared to slip away unnoticed. Suddenly, he was stopped by Su Shanshan. "What are you running off in such a rush for? Confess honestly, what were you and Yanzi doing in her room just now? Speak up! If you don't tell the truth, watch how I deal with you." She made a scissoring gesture with her fingers.
Lin Tianchen thought to himself: Could it be that she has feelings for me and is jealous? He decided to tease her. "You really want the truth?"
"Duh, of course I want the truth. Hurry up and speak!"
Lin Tianchen suddenly closed in on Su Shanshan. Su Shanshan quickly widened the distance, retreating toward the edge of the bed. Lin Tianchen followed, and as she retreated further, the edge of the bed tripped her up, and she tumbled backward onto the mattress.
Su Shanshan scolded, "Lin Tianchen, what are you trying to do? Don't mess around! Yanzi is still at home—what if someone sees us?"
She hadn't the slightest inkling that her own words were prone to misunderstanding.