A small, panicked sound came from the girls' restroom.
Xiao Heqing pressed the flush button and looked at her wet sleeve. In her rush, she had accidentally splashed some *you-know-what* on it. She hurried to the sink, hoping to wash it clean with water.
Right then, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. A little boy walking past the sinks saw her sniffing her sleeve as she washed it. After a moment of dumbfounded silence, he asked curiously, "What are you doing? Did you just pee on your wrist?!"
Caught in the act, Xiao Heqing flushed red. She kept her head down, refusing to speak, and frantically scrubbed faster.
The boy suddenly let out an arrogant laugh and started shouting at the top of his lungs, "Come look! Everyone, come look! This girl peed on her clothes! She's washing them right now!"
His shouts immediately drew a crowd of curious children. Terrified, He Qing burst into tears. With blurry, tear-filled eyes, she didn't even dare to turn around.
Inside the classroom, Lin Zhengran heard the commotion. At the exact same time, the system's voice chimed in.
[You had just parted ways with He Fairy when you heard the sounds of battle in the distance. It appears the fairy is being bullied by evildoers. If you save her, she will likely reward you with a treasure. However, choosing not to save her is also a valid option. After all, Cultivation is fraught with danger, and every decision requires careful consideration.]
Lin Zhengran walked out of the classroom and saw He Qing surrounded by a crowd, hiding and wiping away her grievances in tears. Without hesitation, he strode over and pushed his way to the center of the crowd. "Who was yelling just now?! Is there something wrong with your brain? Step forward!"
The moment everyone saw it was Lin Zhengran, they all clamped their mouths shut. He was notoriously the worst kid in kindergarten. He never played with the other children, ignored everyone, and always spoke with a fierce tone. Everyone was terrified of him. However, because he was handsome, quite a few little girls secretly thought he had a cool personality.
Now, faced with his furious shout, no one dared to make a peep. Xiao Heqing stood there, pitifully wiping away her tears while staring blankly at Lin Zhengran.
He marched right up to her. "What are you crying for? If someone talks trash about you, can't you scold them back?! Is crying all you know how to do?!"
Xiao Heqing had a weak, timid personality. She didn't like to speak, let alone argue with people. As a result, quite a few kids regularly picked on her and treated her as a joke. Since she was his childhood friend who occasionally came over to his house for dinner, Lin Zhengran would sometimes step up and defend her.
"SOB SOB."
"Stop crying! If you keep crying, I'm going to leave you alone!"
Xiao Heqing immediately stifled her wails. She stood there with red, wet eyes, sniffling softly.
"Who bullied you?" Lin Zhengran asked. "Point them out to me yourself."
Xiao Heqing kept her head down, refusing to speak.
Lin Zhengran's face darkened with exasperation as he pinched her cheek. "Are you going to say it or not?!"
He wasn't actually pinching hard, but Xiao Heqing still whimpered pitifully before finally glancing at the culprit. Lin Zhengran turned to look and saw the little boy trembling, his face entirely drained of color.
Lin Zhengran's eyes went wide with fury. "So you're the one who bullied He Qing?! I told you to step forward earlier, why didn't you! Come on, I'm dragging you to the teacher right now! And if the teacher doesn't do anything, we're going outside to fight!"
He marched toward the boy as he spoke, but before he could even finish, the boy burst into tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he sobbed quietly. "I didn't mean to."
Lin Zhengran grabbed him by the collar. He thought, "Little kids really are easy to intimidate."
"Who can hear you when you whisper like that?!" Lin Zhengran barked. "Weren't you screaming just fine a second ago?! Shout it again! Say 'I'm sorry, He Qing'!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, He Qing! Please forgive me!" Terrified by Lin Zhengran's ferocious demeanor, the little boy began to BAWL uncontrollably.
Seeing that his intimidation tactics had worked, Lin Zhengran turned and walked away from the crowd without looking back.
Xiao Heqing stared at his retreating back. With her face flushed red from crying, she hurriedly followed after him. As she chased him, she heard the chatter of the crowd. The onlooking girls were whispering among themselves, "Lin Zhengran is so cool..." "Yeah, he has such a great personality."
Xiao Heqing pursed her lips and stuck closely behind Lin Zhengran.
[You have chosen to save the fairy, and she is immensely grateful to you. Furthermore, after witnessing your extraordinary skills in the battle just now, the fairy has developed a desire to venture through this treacherous Jianghu by your side. For you, choosing whether to travel alone or with a companion in the future is a momentous decision.]
Lin Zhengran thought, "Choose? Choose my ass! How am I supposed to venture through the world as a five-year-old? Does this mean I don't have to come to class tomorrow?!"
The next two periods were free playtime. The students of Class Three were all fooling around in the kindergarten courtyard.
Lin Zhengran sat next to the slide. Xiao Heqing stood beside him with her head bowed. She didn't speak, didn't dare to sit, and didn't leave—acting exactly like a child who had just done something wrong.
Lin Zhengran felt helpless. He hadn't been a particularly fierce person in his past life either, but He Qing's personality was just too foolishly naive. She didn't know how to fight back when bullied and could barely squeeze out a single word after half a day. It made it incredibly difficult to speak to her nicely.
"Why are you standing right in front of me? You're blocking my sunlight."
Xiao Heqing let out a soft "Oh" and nervously shuffled two steps to the side.
"Now you're standing next to me and blocking my breeze," Lin Zhengran said.
"Ah?" Xiao Heqing panicked. "Then... then where should I stand...?"
"Can't you just sit down?!"
"But... but everywhere else besides right next to you is covered in dirt."
"Then sit in the dirt."
"Okay." He Qing actually prepared to sit in the dirt.
"Okay, my foot! Sit next to me!"
Startled, Xiao Heqing flinched, but seeing that he had given his permission, she carefully sat down beside him. With her little legs pressed together and her small hands clasped tight, she hesitated for a moment before speaking timidly. "Th... thank you for saving me just now. How should I repay you?"
"Do you have any more snacks?"
Xiao Heqing shook her head vigorously. "I really don't have any left on me, but I have more at home... I have some candies in my bedroom." She used her hands to demonstrate the size of the box, which was about the size of her two small hands put together. "About this many. It's completely full, probably several thousand of them."
Lin Zhengran thought, "She really has no concept of numbers, does she? Is it a spatial storage box or something?!"
"You'll give them all to me?"
Xiao Heqing nodded eagerly. "Okay, I'll give them all to you. Do you want anything else...?"
[The fairy's reward is extraordinarily generous. To think she actually promised you an entire box of Sect Elixirs! Furthermore, judging from her tone, it seems she possesses another supremely important treasure. Do you intend to claim it for yourself, or will you let it go for now?]
Hearing the system prompt, Lin Zhengran grew curious. "What else do you have?"
Xiao Heqing answered somewhat reluctantly, "I also have a giant chocolate bar at home. My dad bought it for me on my birthday. I carefully hide it under my wardrobe because I can't bear to eat it."
Seeing her expression, Lin Zhengran asked if he could just take a look at it. Xiao Heqing nodded. She promised she could bring it over tonight for him to see.
Not long after, the kindergarten dismissal bell rang. The pretty teacher organized the children of Class Three to line up and walk out of the school gates in an orderly fashion.
"Don't run off on your own, everyone! Line up nicely and you'll get to go home soon!"
Lin Zhengran stood at the back of the line, looking out past the school gates at his mom and dad waving at him.
Over the past month since his transmigration, Lin Zhengran had gained a basic understanding of his new life.
His dad was named Lin Kai, nicknamed Lin Yingjun. He had a mature, steady appearance and worked as a civil servant in their small town. He was quite popular among the locals and held a lot of authority at home.
His mom, Lin Xiaoli, was an employee at a nail salon. She was sweet, naive, and a bit silly, but her salary was actually higher than his dad's. She was the one who had given his dad the nickname "Yingjun" after watching a cartoon.
Their family didn't have a lot of savings, but all three of them were perfectly healthy, ate well, and had great appetites. The year before last, they even bought a cheap, hundred-thousand-yuan car to get around.
Even though this was the result of a failed transmigration, Lin Zhengran had only one thought. "The notorious web novel orphanage curse has finally been broken! With this picture-perfect family and my future exploitation of the system's bugs, isn't a happy life frantically waving at me right now?!"