"Auntie, I'm here to bring Wuyong the test papers our class handed out."
"He's in his room, go on in!" His mother turned around and called toward the bedroom. "Useless thing, Tongtong brought you the test papers!"
A short while later, a beautiful young girl appeared at the door of Zhang Wuyong's room.
She wore a white school uniform, had an oval face, and shoulder-length hair.
She was none other than Zhao Yutong, Zhang Wuyong's childhood sweetheart.
The moment she saw him, Zhao Yutong's expression darkened. Just moments earlier, she had been politely greeting his mother in the living room. Now she flung the folded stack of papers in her hand directly at Zhang Wuyong's head.
Or at least, that was how it looked.
Zhang Wuyong quickly tilted his head to the side, and with a dull thud, the wad of test papers slammed into the headboard behind him.
"These are the practice papers your class has been doing these past few days. Your class monitor asked me to bring them to you," Zhao Yutong said coldly, keeping a straight face as she turned to leave.
Zhang Wuyong quickly apologized. "I'm sorry, it was my fault last time. I shouldn't have said those things about them."
Zhao Yutong paused and glanced back at him, her expression softening slightly. Then she turned fully and slowly walked to his bedside.
"How's your leg? Is it any better?" she asked.
"Much better." Zhang Wuyong picked up the crumpled stack of papers and unfolded them. "Why are they so wrinkled?"
"Because I don't want to help you at all," Zhao Yutong muttered. "Who told you to tell those people I'm ugly, that I've got a bad face, and that I have nothing going for me except my grades?"
Zhao Yutong was certainly not unattractive.
Far from it—she was actually very pretty.
Her house was right across from Zhang Wuyong's; the two had grown up together. Compared to him, however, her grades had always been far superior. In the last monthly exam, she had scored 645 points, a mark that would place her near the top of the experimental class at No. 1 High School.
Back in junior high, Zhao Yutong had not been as pretty as she was now. She had been short and skinny like a little stick, introverted, and not very eye-catching. By the time she reached high school, she had blossomed into a beautiful young woman.
During the high school entrance examination, she had come down with a fever and did not perform at her best, failing to get into the prestigious No. 1 High School. Even so, at No. 2 High School, her grades were exceptional. She was always ranked first, highly valued by the teachers, and quietly admired by many boys.
As a result, her confidence had only grown.
A girl changes a great deal as she grows up, and in her case, the difference was especially striking.
There was some lingering resentment between them.
Zhao Yutong was in the elite class—the top class of the grade—and could even be considered the class beauty. As time passed, she grew more beautiful and continued to hold first place in the grade, her name always at the top of the results list.
Meanwhile, Zhang Wuyong was in Class Two, right next door to her class.
A few days earlier, some classmates had teased them because they often walked home together after school. In order to dispel those rumors, Zhang Wuyong had spouted some nonsense—and Zhao Yutong, who happened to be right behind him, had heard every word.
"I just wanted them to know we're not boyfriend and girlfriend," Zhang Wuyong said earnestly. "I didn't want them to misunderstand."
If you were in the wrong, then you should be punished. An apology was the least he could offer.
"Right, right, I'm not good-looking, I'm introverted, and all I know how to do is study. We're not a good match at all. Isn't that what you said?" Zhao Yutong repeated his words from that day.
Zhang Wuyong looked up at her.
His childhood sweetheart's face darkened again; she truly seemed angry.
"I'm leaving," she said, turning to go when he did not respond.
"Wait!" Zhang Wuyong quickly glanced at the system's quest bar.
"After you eat, can you come over and tutor me?" He opened the test papers, forcing himself to look sincere. "I've missed class for the past few days, and I can't understand any of the questions."
Zhao Yutong turned back, suspicion written across her face. "Even when you attend class, does it really mean you understand anything?"
Her words almost made him cry.
"If you don't want to teach me, that's fine," he said miserably, "but can you not stab me like that while you're at it?"
"I never said I wouldn't teach you. I'll come over after I eat and shower," she replied.
"Thanks," he said quietly.
From the living room, her voice floated out: "Auntie, I'm heading back for now!"
His mother answered at once, "Alright, alright, thank you for your help!"
After Zhao Yutong left, Zhang Wuyong continued to examine the system interface. In the lower right corner, a small "10" had appeared.
But there was no explanation for what those points were for.
"What are these points used for?" he asked. "System? System?"
He called out several times, but there was no response.
It seemed there was no intelligent assistant he could converse with at will.
Forget it. Once he accumulated enough points, they would surely be useful someday.
Around 7:30 p.m., Zhao Yutong came over again. She had changed into pale yellow pajamas with a kitten pattern. Her hair was still damp, and as she sat down beside him, a faint milky fragrance drifted from her freshly bathed skin.
After tutoring him for a while, she frowned. "Even for your class, this is already the second round of review, right? This is all second-year high school material, and you haven't learned any of it?"
They sat at a square table in his room, his long cane leaning against the side.
Moving closer to the corner of the table, Zhao Yutong patiently went over the problem again. She did not expect him to be able to solve it; she just wanted him to at least understand it.
"If I start doing extra lessons every day now, is it already too late?" Zhang Wuyong asked.
"In that case, we'd have to start catching up from junior high," she replied. "Did you not study at all during your two years of high school?"
After thinking about it for a moment, he said quietly, "Actually, I've been seriously studying this whole time."
Zhao Yutong looked up at him, very surprised.
The realization hit him like a ten-thousand-ton blow.
What was even more disheartening than those who played all day and got terrible grades was that he studied every day—yet his grades were even worse than those who wasted their time.
Lowering her head, Zhao Yutong gently rolled the pink-and-white ballpoint pen between her slender fingers. "If you hadn't fought those people for me back in second-year junior high…"
"Don't say that." Zhang Wuyong cut her off firmly. "It had nothing to do with you. I just couldn't stand watching them bully people. Anyone would have done the same. Besides, it was my own fault for not wanting to study properly back then."
He paused for a moment, then tapped his pen against the test paper he could not understand at all.
"If you hadn't spent so much time tutoring me every day in the two months before the high school entrance exam, you would have gotten into No. 1 High School too…"
"That has nothing to do with you," Zhao Yutong said in a low voice. "I was sick during the exam and not in good condition. Besides, there's nothing wrong with No. 2 High School."
Silence fell between them.
Stealing a glance at the system, he noticed that a small progress bar had appeared beside Quest Two. At this moment, the bar had stopped midway.
"Teach me again," he said, looking at the beautiful girl who had grown up with him yet now felt so distant.
"Alright," Zhao Yutong replied softly, doing her best to explain the problem once more.
He watched as she patiently tutored him, waiting for the progress bar to fill.
At last, a notification appeared.
He did not claim the reward immediately. Instead, he first closed the system interface.
He looked at Zhao Yutong again. Her neck was slender and fair, her hair spilling from her ears over her shoulders, framing an exquisite, flawless face. The round neckline of her pajamas revealed a delicate collarbone, from which the gentle curve of her figure flowed downward.
The scrawny little girl he once protected had finally grown up.
Outside the window, the sky was dark, but countless lights shone from the distant high-rise buildings. The room was quiet, the warm white light making the surrounding walls appear soft and milky.
"Useless," Zhao Yutong murmured, her head lowered, her voice barely audible. "Are we really that incompatible?"
Zhang Wuyong abruptly tore his gaze away from her and looked down at the test paper, his mind completely blank.
Zhao Yutong put away her pen and notebook, then stood up and walked out.
"Tongtong, you're leaving already?" his mother's voice drifted in from the living room.
"Yes, I still have homework to do. Auntie, I'll head back now," Zhao Yutong replied.
"Alright, alright, I'll see you out!"
"There's no need, I can do it myself."
With that, Zhao Yutong left.
Zhang Wuyong raised his head and glanced toward the living room. Then he picked up the cane by his side, tucked it under his arm, and limped back to the bed.
The college entrance examination would take place in just a few months.
With Tongtong's grades, getting into a 985 or 211 university was practically guaranteed. When the time came, she would go off to a big city and begin a brand new life.
As for him, he would most likely inherit the family business and guard that small shop at a lonely intersection, where business peaked every night after dark. While others enjoyed love or lust in pairs, he would sit alone behind the counter, using the products he sold to guard the final line of defense before new life was born.
In a few years, she might meet someone she truly loved and marry him.
By then, all of her friends and colleagues would be people from a completely different world.
Given their childhood friendship, she would definitely invite him.
At her wedding banquet, he might crack jokes to those graduates of top universities, joking that he "only" had billions in assets. Maybe that would be enough to make them laugh themselves to death.
A smile tugged at his lips…but it was a bitter one.
He lay back down and set his cane aside.
Zhang Wuyong, Zhang Wuyong… is this really how you want to end up?
He opened the system interface.
"Heavenly Demon Bliss Technique"… claim.
The "Heavenly Demon Bliss Technique" on the interface turned into a beam of light that shot into the space between his brows and burst open in his mind.
He had obtained the Heavenly Demon Bliss Technique.