"An..."
Su Xiaojiu was about to wave to An Chen when she noticed a strange, yet somewhat familiar, girl walking beside him.
Su Xiaojiu instinctively became more vigilant.
"Who is she?"
"She's my classmate and my deskmate, Ye Xinning," An Chen introduced calmly.
Then, he turned to Ye Xinning, extended his hand, and introduced Su Xiaojiu.
"This is Su Xiaojiu; she uses her mother's surname. She's been staying with me for the past few days and might be staying for a while longer..."
"Hello."
Ye Xinning waved, a greeting of sorts, but Su Xiaojiu hid behind An Chen.
"Is she the girl who sits next to you?"
"Yes."
An Chen nodded.
"Which school does she go to? She should be in high school too, right?" Ye Xinning walked over, looked at Su Xiaojiu behind An Chen, and asked suspiciously.
"Her?" An Chen glanced at the silly Su Xiaojiu and chuckled softly.
"She didn't get into high school and went straight to a factory. You know, a factory girl? Later, she found it too hard, so she became unemployed."
Apparently, Su Xiaojiu didn't understand what 'factory girl' meant, but she did understand what 'unemployed' meant.
She was about to retort but suddenly grew a brain and realized An Chen must have his reasons for saying that. So, she suppressed her urge to speak and obediently stood behind An Chen like a vase.
"So that's how it is."
"Oh, I haven't told you yet. We're going to freeload for lunch today, following her," An Chen said with a smile, pointing at Ye Xinning, to Su Xiaojiu.
"Freeload?" Su Xiaojiu's eyes widened. "Is there no money at home?"
"It's not like we have no money, so we have to freeload!"
An Chen initially thought Ye Xinning meant to take them home for a meal, but Ye Xinning led them to a restaurant across from the school.
"Don't you need to mind your grandfather?" An Chen asked, puzzled.
"He can manage lunch. He specifically told me not to worry about him."
This shop served fast food; a fragrant rice bowl could be had for a dozen yuan.
However, for An Chen and Ye Xinning previously, eating a meal in such a place was considered a 'treat.' They had even run into each other at this very restaurant before.
The rice bowls were served quickly. An Chen and Ye Xinning ate rather elegantly, while Su Xiaojiu, holding chopsticks and a spoon, lowered her head and just ate, ignoring Ye Xinning's shocked gaze. In a short while, she had devoured an entire bowl of rice.
"Delicious."
Looking up, Su Xiaojiu realized that An Chen and Ye Xinning had barely touched their food.
"C-can I have another serving?"
"You can..."
"Thank you!"
Su Xiaojiu seemed very happy to get Ye Xinning's permission.
"This fellow..."
An Chen pinched his temples, a headache brewing.
What Su Xiaojiu seemed to love doing most was eating and drinking, and once she started eating, she couldn't stop.
The key was that she still looked quite slender, not at all like someone who could eat so much.
Her ability to eat so much was because she was a Cultivator, but Ye Xinning didn't know that. If she continued to display her astonishing appetite like this, she would surely scare Ye Xinning to death.
"She's treating us to a meal, not letting you eat her out of house and home!" An Chen said in a low, biting tone.
"If she can eat, let her eat more. It's fine," Ye Xinning quickly said.
"We're not short on this bit of money."
An Chen knew she wasn't short on money now. The Qingxin Grass Leaf she took to Sun Zhijun's shop that day could fetch at least twenty thousand yuan, so Ye Xinning had some money for a while.
He was just reminding Su Xiaojiu to eat less.
If Su Xiaojiu truly ate her fill, she wouldn't be satisfied even after three or four bowls.
At that point, Ye Xinning would definitely become suspicious.
Su Xiaojiu also understood An Chen's meaning. She slowed down when eating the second bowl of rice, but her speed was still quite fast. In the end, she even had to wait for An Chen and Ye Xinning to eat for a little while.
The atmosphere at the dining table was also a bit strange.
An Chen and Ye Xinning both remained silent. Seeing An Chen not speaking, Su Xiaojiu also kept quiet, and the three of them ate in silence.
In front of Su Xiaojiu, An Chen wasn't particularly quiet, but in reality, both An Chen and Ye Xinning maintained an image of being taciturn to outsiders and perceived each other that way, so they both silently maintained their personas.
Even after finishing their meal, Ye Xinning only spoke briefly with An Chen before leading them towards her home.
Ye Xinning initially wanted to walk between Su Xiaojiu and An Chen, but if three people walked abreast on the sidewalk, oncoming people wouldn't be able to pass. So, she could only walk in front to lead the way.
This also made it impossible to talk to An Chen.
"I feel like your deskmate is a bit strange," Su Xiaojiu whispered to An Chen from behind.
"Other than being a Cultivator, what's strange about her?"
"It just feels strange, her appearance, her demeanor, everything. I'm quite good at judging people!"
"Then what kind of person do you say she is? Good? Bad?"
"She shouldn't be a bad person... This strangeness is that I feel her demeanor doesn't match her age. She's a bit too mature and profound. Even though she's the same age as me, it's like looking at an older sister... You know what I mean, right?"
An Chen smiled bitterly.
Children of the poor learn early. People like him and Ye Xinning had no choice but to mature earlier, or they would quickly be torn to shreds by society.
"Then am I also a strange person?"
Only then did Su Xiaojiu realize that An Chen and Ye Xinning were similar. An Chen also had this strange demeanor about him, but because they had spent a bit more time together and were more familiar, she hadn't noticed.
"No, no, you're a good person, not a bad person!"
An Chen was noncommittal.
The two followed Ye Xinning back to her home. The apartment she rented was not far from the school, on Yong'an Road, even closer to An Chen's home, a five-minute walk away.
She rented a second-floor unit; the ground-floor units were cheaper.
She took out the key, opened the door, and led them inside.
"Grandpa, I've brought my classmates home!"
An Chen looked into the room. An elderly man with white hair and a long beard walked out, bent at the waist, and greeted them with a smile.
An Chen didn't notice anything at first glance, but Su Xiaojiu suddenly exclaimed:
"Mahjong Immortal! You're Mahjong Immortal Hong Shan! How are you in this world!"
The old man immediately straightened up, his eyes wide, and he also exclaimed:
"Aren't you Su De's youngest daughter? How are you here?!"
The two fellow villagers from Kyushu Continent stared at each other, wide-eyed.
An Chen and Ye Xinning exchanged glances, then involuntarily moved aside.
A thought involuntarily arose in both their minds.
"Has it... been exposed?"
.........
Hey! Gouzi is out!
Gouzi wants to say a few words here _(:з」∠)_
Recently, many readers have indeed pointed out issues with the plot pacing, noting that the development is somewhat slow, and the protagonist's Realm advancement is too slow.
Gouzi has indeed realized this Ծ ‸ Ծ
To add more details and characters, Gouzi did write a bit more content that wasn't that important.
However, Gouzi also has a few points to explain (or argue).
That is, Gouzi is only a part-time writer, and when writing this book, I actually can't guarantee a very stable writing time. I can only reduce the update word count, and the word count per chapter is relatively low. Therefore, it seems like there are many chapters, but perhaps our two chapters are similar to someone else's one chapter.
Gouzi apologizes for this ヘ(_ _ヘ)
Regarding the Realm issue, some people might have noticed that the Realm divisions in this book are not particularly numerous. There are only five major Realms, which cannot be directly compared to other novels with eight or nine, or even more than ten, Realm systems.
Please view this rationally ԅ(¯ㅂ¯ԅ)
Finally, Gouzi's plan for this book was originally quite long, and there is still a lot of plot to come, so the early transition seems a bit slow.
To compensate everyone, Gouzi has decided that next month, which is September, for the entire month, we will change from two updates a day to three updates a day. I only ask that everyone give the novel a five-star review with text ~
Gouzi's leaving ~ (￣▽￣～)~