Jiang Xiao posted a photo on his Weibo page, which was taken when he first arrived in Chang’an City, in a small street beside the university.
In the photo, Xia Yan was holding onto Han Jiangxue’s arm with one hand and a bunch of barbecued skewers with the other.
Various vendors were lined up on both sides of the street and small lamps were lit up in front of each stall.
The vendor nearest to the camera was selling some grilled squid. Under the faint smog of smoke, some squids were sizzling while being grilled on the hotplate with oil. The smell of smoke was particularly intense.
Jiang Xiao posted the photo at 11 pm, together with the caption: “Which one should I pick? Or um… I’d better choose the sizzling grilled squid!”
There were mainly three types of comments below the photo.
The first group of commenters was still the fans of Han Jiangxue. However, they’d gradually begun to shift their attention to Xia Yan, no longer satisfied with just Goddess Xue.
“There are two goddesses right in front of you, but you chose grilled squid?”
“Wow. Brother-in-law, Sister Xue looks so good from behind. I really want to hug her.”
“An aloof girl like her who’s put on a pedestal actually appeared. She’s just like a fairy who descended on earth.”
The second group was, of course, the ones berating Jiang Xiao.
“You must be a dog! You actually had the guts to upload something so toxic in the middle of the night!”
“Idiot, you caused me to order food again. I wanted to try and bear with it.”
“What wrong have I done? Why show me this?”
The third group was naturally the fans who paid attention to Jiang Xiao’s competition.
“Oh, little toxic healer. I didn’t pay attention to you for a few days and you’ve gone out of Beijiang and started being frivolous in the entire nation?”
“Remember that your nickname is the King of Toxic Healers, don’t embarrass Beijiang!”
“It’s going to be the opening ceremony of the competition tomorrow. Yet, you’re still eating street food? What if you end up getting diarrhea?”
“The person above, he’s a healer…”
“He is a healer, but he’s a toxic healer. What if he ends up getting poisoned by himself when he’s healing himself?”
“…”
Although others had gotten the wrong idea, Jiang Xiao did not explain that the photo that he uploaded was taken a few days ago. At this moment, it was already the morning and he was lying on the bed scrolling through his Weibo page, occasionally responding to the concerns of his friends from high school.
“It’s time to get up, Xiaopi. We can’t be late today,” Li Weiyi said as he turned around to look at Jiang Xiao while straightening the quilt after washing up.
“Oh.” Jiang Xiao was lying sluggishly like dead fish as if he had lost his dreams.
He was lying sluggishly on the bed, feeling rather exhausted by the tedious procedures of reporting, signing up, and registering, which were even more tiring than the competition.
He might as well go straight to the National League.
However, Jiang Xiao and his team had met many young talents in the past few days from all states of the nations and had relatively distinctive characteristics.
Every person is indeed a reflection of the environment they live in.
Jiang Xiao heard various accents and saw numerous faces.
The main reason he posted that photo on Weibo was a pretty girl who was neither too tall nor short, who kept staring at Han Jiangxue and Xia Yan during the registration the day before. That was not all. She had also managed her facial expressions well.
Others were perhaps just envious of Han Jiangxue and Xia Yan, but that girl was extremely jealous. Filled with disdain, she gibed. “Your legs are so long, did you get prosthetics?”
Jiang Xiao mainly wanted to anger the jealous girl. Hence, he chose a photo where their legs looked particularly long to upload on Weibo.
Everyone had different physical builds.
Height and appearance were beyond control. Hence, there was no hierarchy based on them.
However, people tended to draw distinctions between people of different heights and appearances.
A beautiful appearance could only allow one to enjoy momentary benefits while an ugly soul would make one stay lowly and despised for life.
Jiang Xiao could feel that the girl was filled with jealousy, and he reckoned that she should have been paying attention to his team for a long time.
There was also food in the photo of the leggy girls…
Jiang Xiao thought to himself that he might as well go all out since he was going to post the photos anyway. Hence, he decided to upload the photos at midnight. At the same time, he also paid attention to his fans.
Are you hungry?
Good that you are. Be thankful that I didn’t upload nine photos at once. We had mutton skewers, grilled sausages, egg crepes, chili noodles, sour plum juice, grilled squid wheat noodles, and mutton buns…
…
In the hall yesterday, Yuan Qinghua’s team was, of course, in the limelight, and Jiang Xiao had also met Gong Yuge and Deng Siyang walking in front of the team.
Gong Yuge’s injury had already healed and he had an interesting expression.
He seemed to have a problem with his own position. He was completely treating the awe and respect that others had for Yuan Qinghua as his own.
It was the epitome of assuming someone else’s power.
200 teams consisted of 800 contestants. Some of the teams even brought some reserve members. It would be bizarre for there to be no tension during the gathering of the nation’s elite students.
They were all young, vigorous, and angst youths who were easily triggered. Who would succumb or fear their peers?
However, there was no conflict yesterday because… a group of strong and burly soldiers was standing in line in the hall. Hence, no one really dared to stir trouble.
Except for the star students like the famous Yuan Qinghua and Han Jiangxue, the others did not attract much attention.
However, Jiang Xiao happened to notice a phenomenon. The team from Beijing seemed to have planned to stay together.
The team from Beijing did not show any animosity and instead, talked and laughed harmoniously.
!!!
Are you guys trying to respond to the nation’s calling and promote a good social outlook?
This is a competition, alright?
It’s a competition where ranking comes first and friendship comes third, okay!?!
What comes second?
This group of alliance troops of course…
When Jiang Xiao discovered all of that, he felt an urge to curse his heart out. He thought, Beijing has the largest number of participating teams that are of absolutely high quality. How can the teams from the capital be incompetent?
Yet, you decided to form a strong alliance?
Logically speaking, shouldn’t you guys be laden with conflicts?
Shouldn’t you be competitors? How is it possible to be so friendly with each other?
This is a team-based game, but you want to ally? Have you got any shame?
This should be a violation of the rules, shouldn’t it?
Jiang Xiao immediately wanted to imitate the Avengers. The first thing he did was to get close to the team from his hometown, Xindan Creek High School No. 11.
In the end, Wu Haoyang said, “Menacing beasts usually travel alone. Only cattle and sheep go in herds.”
Jiang Xiao remained silent.
He still remembered the look on Wu Haoyang’s face at that time. He had an intense gaze in his eyes, and there was no longer any battle intent. He looked at the Beijing team in the distance and clipped. “I’m a menacing beast. They’re sheep.”
Jiang Xiao answered feebly, “Why don’t you withdraw from your team too? Just be completely menacing.”
Later on, Wu Haoyang ignored Jiang Xiao.
At that time, Jiang Xiao reached out and stabbed Wu Haoyang’s waist. “Menacing beast? Say something, won’t you?”
Wu Haoyang exclaimed, “Touch my waist again and I’ll come after you!”
Jiang Xiao dared not bother Wu Haoyang again afterward…
…
“Young Master, get up. Hurry and wash up. It’s already 6:30 am. The rules of the competition are going to be announced at 9 am, and we’ll have to enter the arena! Hurry and get up!” Li Weiyi urged as he lifted Jiang Xiao’s duvet.
Jiang Xiao shuddered and turned over, falling onto the ground… Young Master? How did that come about?
With a helpless expression, Li Weiyi said, “I’ve clearly already been admitted to the university and yet, I still have to coax you to get up and go for the competition. I clearly don’t have to fight for my life in the Ancient Imperial Mausoleum.”
“Oh, oh, I get it. Brother Li, I was wrong, please speak properly!” Jiang Xiao lied on the bed and sent his last reply to Weibo.
At 4:30 am, Han Jiangxue left a comment on Jiang Xiao’s latest post on Weibo. Clearly, she had woken up early probably because the competition would kick off today. Hence, she was probably too troubled to sleep well.
Han Jiangxue’s reply was also rather simple: “@Jiang Xiaopi-mischievous-or-not, press on.”
Under Li Weiyi’s urge, Jiang Xiao replied to the comment and scurried into the bathroom.
Jiang Xiaopi-mischievous-or-not: @Man-Wearing-A-Straw-Hat, I have plenty of healing abilities. Do you want any? (.・ω・.)ノ♡