CHAPTER 745: CHAPTER 578: THE GREAT SWORD

Under the desk lamp.

Jiang Nian was still diligently writing his test papers. Hearing Xu Qianqian’s knocking on the door, he shouted without turning his head.

"Changing clothes, stop knocking."

Suddenly, the knocking stopped.

"Pfft, pervert."

Immediately, footsteps faded away.

"Pair with a pervert?" Jiang Nian continued writing, muttering to himself, "Then what about honest people like me?"

Suppression by capital, unfair fate. Forgetting the front, middle, and back, anyway, uphold the Han Dynasty!

After finishing a question, Jiang Nian pushed open the door and went out.

"Mom, where’s Qianqian?"

"She went back," Li Hongmei replied.

"Oh, then I..." Jiang Nian was about to leave but turned back to test the waters, "Mom, I’m not coming back to sleep today."

Ms. Li turned her head, giving Jiang Nian a glance.

"You try?"

"Then forget it, I was just scolding people who don’t come home to sleep," Jiang Nian said, "What’s there to do at an internet cafe!"

Li Hongmei: "..."

Sometimes she wondered if, when giving birth to Jiang Nian, they had taken the wrong baby at the hospital, wondering who this person inherited.

Suddenly, she added.

"If you’re going out with Qianqian, you can not come home."

Jiang Nian: "???"

Is this right?

"Mom, aren’t you afraid I’ll get beaten to death by Uncle Xu?" Jiang Nian was surprised, "We’re not kids anymore, boys and girls shouldn’t get too close."

"Got it, useless son," Li Hongmei left him with a sentence, threw down a cloth and turned to go back to her room.

"???" Jiang Nian couldn’t help but slowly type out a few question marks, "Useless son? Who are you talking about?"

Could it be, there’s also... a Crown Prince?

"Dad!" he shouted, "Mom said there’s a useless son, do we have an illegitimate child?"

With a slam, the door was angrily opened by Ms. Li.

"Get out!"

"Oh." Jiang Nian slipped away with his tail between his legs.

....

Across the door.

Jiang Nian changed into slippers and walked boldly to the sofa. Finding a comfortable position, he slowly lay down.

"What do you want?"

"What were you hiding in your room for?" Xu Qianqian glanced at him, "Did I just disturb you?"

"No, my mom’s happy to see you," Jiang Nian said, "She doesn’t think you disturb, nor does she find you annoying."

Xu Qianqian: "..."

Jiang Nian turned his head to look at Song Xiyun.

"Empress Li just likes little girls, I suspect when I was born, if I wasn’t handsome, I might have been snipped."

As he spoke, he made a scissoring gesture.

Song Xiyun quickly turned her head, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.

She admired Jiang Nian’s ability to go off on a tangent, every time successfully steering the topic and bringing others into his rhythm.

"Hehe." Xu Qianqian went into the room and came out again, tossing a bag to him, "Here you go, have fun with it."

Jiang Nian opened it to find an ugly doll.

"You actually got it?"

"Of course, I, Mr. Xu, keep my word." She cleared her throat, "I suggest you send me a little essay of thanks before bed."

"A few hundred words?"

"Eight hundred."

"That’s a little essay?" Jiang Nian was dumbfounded.

"Oh, just send whatever you want," Xu Qianqian didn’t bother to argue with him, "Let’s talk business, are you going to watch a movie?"

"Now?"

"Yeah, the New Year’s release," Xu Qianqian said, "If you don’t have time, then Xiyun and I will go."

Jiang Nian lowered his eyes, pondering for a moment.

"Who’s paying?"

"Me." Song Xiyun quietly said, timidly raising her hand, "I bought discounted tickets, seats are scattered."

Jiang Nian said, "Scattered is scattered, scattered is like stars all over the sky."

"What if they’re gathered?"

"Don’t ask him, nothing good comes out of a dog’s mouth," Xu Qianqian pulled her and headed out, "Let’s go first."

With a bang, the door closed.

In the quiet living room, only Jiang Nian was left. He pulled out his phone, scrolled for a while, and leaned against the sofa saying.

"Gathered is a family."

After a while, he got up and went out to put on his shoes. He appeared downstairs just before Xu Qianqian sent a message.

"Let’s go."

As the route was quite short and there was plenty of time.

The three of them did not ride or drive but chose to walk directly. Their shoes crunched on the gravel road, making rustling sounds.

Xu Qianqian found it interesting, so she deliberately scraped the soles of her shoes.

"Did you hear anything?"

"A fool," he said.

"You’re the fool!"

"Let’s go, let’s go, if we’re any later, we won’t make it," Song Xiyun laughed, pulling Xu Qianqian away and dragging her onward.

"Want to buy snacks?"

"Huh? Last time eating..... the sound was a bit loud."

"Then forget it."

The moon hung on the treetops, new couplets were pasted on the doorways of small alleys. Red lanterns were hung at some entranceways.

From afar at night, they looked like the eyes of a giant beast.

The three entered a small cinema on the side of the mall, noisily collected their tickets, and then quieted down at the entrance of the screening room.

The New Year’s release movie was actually a Zhou Xingchi comedy.

"What a strange name, the beginning seems mediocre." Xu Qianqian sent a message in their small group, the light from the screen illuminating her face.

There were many people watching movies before the new year, mostly families of three coming in groups.

Their discounted tickets were also in marginal spots.

"Indeed, I didn’t get it either," Song Xiyun replied, "Let’s wait and see, there might be surprises later."

In the small group, Jiang Nian sent one.

"Wild boars can’t eat...."

Xu Qianqian suddenly clenched her fist with a click. She turned her head sharply in the cinema, looking at Jiang Nian’s seat.

Too far to hit the dog.

She bit her lower lip and typed on her phone’s keyboard.

"Wanna die, huh! @Jiang"

The group chat for the three of them had their nicknames changed to single characters. Originally, there wasn’t such a rule, but Jiang Nian’s name was too disgusting.

Like something, a phlegm that can’t be chewed apart.

Too much of an eyesore, forced to rename. Later, they discovered he always had some rotten antics, so they simply enforced the nickname.

Jiang: "(Scratching head) What’s up?"

"Still pretending!"

Song: "(Awkward) Stop arguing, let’s watch the movie."

Jiang: "The two of us standing, that’s Brother Gongming."

[Song changed name to Yun]

Yun: "..."

The movie plot was getting better, and the chat was less active. It wasn’t until the end that three messages popped up.

"Leaving?"

"Leaving!"

"Leaving."

Before the lights came on in the theater, the three of them sneakily slipped away, not caring if there were any post-credits scenes.

There were too many people, not suitable for escaping.

"The movie was okay, a bit verbose at the beginning," Xu Qianqian commented, "not watching this one next time."

Song Xiyun said, "Average."

"Might become a classic," Jiang Nian said, "after all, it’s a Zhou Xingchi movie, let’s wait and see."

The three of them walked home under the moonlight, occasionally hearing firecrackers. The New Year atmosphere was getting stronger, with joy everywhere.

"So many people are setting off firecrackers," Xu Qianqian said.

"Lunar New Year, a time for offerings," Jiang Nian interjected, "In a couple of days, it’s New Year’s Eve, remember to come over for the New Year’s dinner."

"Having it at night?" Song Xiyun asked, "In our hometown, it seems like we have a big meal on the morning of the first day."

In the southern Hakka region, customs differ from place to place, even in other parts of Zhen Nan, they refer to it as early New Year.

Jiang Nian said, "Just come, the more the merrier."

....

Late night, An Town.

Yu Zhiyi, after seeing off the three stooges in the afternoon, quickly took a bath and slept until ten at night.

Bored, she munched on bread while browsing the group chat.

Naturally, she saw the chat records.

"Long legs?"

Saying that, she put down the bread and instinctively stood up. She walked to the mirror, looking at her long legs.

"My legs aren’t short either."

After watching for a while, she found her pants too bothersome. So she turned on the air conditioning and took off her pants.

Admiring her fair slender legs for a while, she suddenly snapped out of it.

What am I doing?

Yu Zhiyi blinked and hurriedly put her pants back on. She thought to herself she must be crazy, something’s wrong with her.

In her embarrassment and anger, she felt she needed someone to vent to.

"Jiang Nian, I realized you’re really messed up. So many people during the day, and you publicly said I was racy!"

After a while, Jiang Nian replied with a few question marks.

"What??? Not at all."

"You have a really long reaction time, bringing up stuff from the day just when you’re about to sleep at night."

"Who cares, you said it anyway!" Yu Zhiyi held onto this point, fiercely criticizing.

Jiang Nian: "I said ’reservedly flirty,’ not ’racy.’"

"You!!!"

"Alright, I need to work on my test paper," Jiang Nian interrupted, "If you have any matters, present them; if not, withdraw."

Yu Zhiyi: "Forget it, I’m going to try on my dress."

"That dress on you looks like curtains," Jiang Nian laughed, "Return it, kid."

"A dog’s mouth can’t spit ivory!"

Yu Zhiyi thought to herself, she still had stockings. Secretly putting them on herself, she played around a bit, but soon lost interest.

In the end, she collapsed onto the bed alone.

She looked at the ceiling light, warm beads of sweat forming on her nose, her gaze becoming a bit unfocused.

What am I doing?

Jiang Nian didn’t know what she was doing, anyway, he was working on his test paper. He somewhat missed the classroom, where he could work quietly.

After writing for a while, his phone rang again.

"What the heck is Yu Zhiyi doing?" he grabbed his phone, ready to block this annoying person Yu Zhiyi.

Looking down, he saw it was a message from the low-score kid.

"Happy New Year, senior! (Salute)"

"Oh oh, haha, Happy New Year," Jiang Nian had to stress again, "I’m working on my test paper, you know."

Lin Yuxi: "Oh oh."

Jiang Nian breathed a sigh of relief, thinking finally he could have some peace for a while.

"Okay."

"Happy New Year to the test paper."

"?"

Fortunately, Lin Yuxi chatted for a bit and then stopped bothering him. So the night passed without further incident and smoothly reached the morning.

Jiang Nian freshened up and completed a test paper at his desk.

Before heading out, he checked his phone again.

The class monitor sent him a message, "Saw a gift, thought you might like it, [picture]."

"What is it?"

He focused his eyes and saw it was a replica sword without a sharpened blade. For just a second, he couldn’t take his eyes off of it.

"I really like it."

"It’s a craft from my sister’s friend," Li Qingrong said, "If you like it, find time to come get it."

Seeing this, Jiang Nian couldn’t help feeling conflicted.

Nobody can refuse a treasure sword, but today he really had no time. He couldn’t just swing by and leave immediately after getting it.

He had to at least have some tea and sit for a while.

Jiang Nian pondered for a moment and decided to be honest, "I have some things to do today, need to take someone to Lin Dong’s to help."

"Can I pick it up tonight?"

Li Qingrong: "Okay."