Mature Fantasy Power Invasion

Chapter 25

*Sip...* *Stare~*

Inside the Yuanyue Academy cafeteria, at a dinner table tucked in a quiet corner, Yan Huan quietly sipped his apple juice.

Across from him, You'an Lina fixated on the paper carton in his hand, watching intently as it slowly deflated.

Arms crossed and lips pouted, she looked unmistakably sulky.

*Stare~*

Yaqiao Mu, who was munching on vegetables, glanced at Yan Huan beside him, then at You'an Lina across the table. He couldn't help but ask,

"What's with her today? Why does she look so weird?"

Aishili, seated across from him, chuckled without even lifting her head and replied,

"What else could it be? She bombed the exam."

*Stare~*

You'an Lina’s resentful gaze immediately swept toward Yaqiao Mu, making him slow his chewing instinctively.

"It was just a start-of-term exam, and it doesn’t even count toward our GPA. The discipline director even said it was just to help us refocus."

Buckling under her intense stare, Yaqiao Mu tried to console her,

"Hey, the last place got 66 points—that’s practically human. You scored over six times that! Isn’t that amazing?"

"It’s not because I bombed the exam!"

You'an Lina sniffled and lightly slapped the table, looking utterly wronged, her expression screaming, 'I’ll settle the score with all of you!'

"It’s clearly all your fault, isn’t it?! What did we all say in the group chat over winter break?!"

Her sharp gaze landed first on Yan Huan.

"President! You go first!"

Yan Huan stayed calm and smiled as he said,

"You'an Lina, you know me. I usually have to juggle part-time jobs, right? I even picked up an extra one over winter break. Didn’t you come to my store for milk tea? When would I have had time to review?"

You'an Lina pouted and turned to look at Yinggong Tong beside her.

Wiping her pink lips elegantly, Yinggong Tong replied,

"You know me too. I adopted a Maine Coon over the break—Meiyue. Didn’t you come over to pet her? She’s in poor health, so I spent the whole break taking care of her. I didn’t review at all."

(*) Maine Coon: A large breed of domestic cat known for its long fur and friendly demeanor.

Yinggong Tong, being a quick thinker, had already been led astray by Yan Huan’s tone.

You'an Lina pouted again and looked at Yaqiao Mu.

Without hesitation, accountant Yaqiao Mu raised his hand and answered,

"Secretary, you know me too. I’m just a complete otaku. I spent all day grinding resources in mobile games and blowing money to draw waifus. Every time you asked me to play, I was online. I didn’t even open a book!"

(*) Otaku: A Japanese term for someone with obsessive interests, often related to anime or video games.

(*) Waifu: A fictional female character from anime or games, idealized as a romantic partner.

Finally, You'an Lina’s gaze fell on Aishili beside her.

But Aishili met her with an even scarier expression and said flatly,

"Are you serious? I was the one who said in the group chat there’d be a start-of-term exam and that we should review. They all said they were too busy to study, and you didn’t respond—but in private, you were always hanging out with them..."

"Waaaahhh ahhh, I get it now. All of you are so talented! I’m the only dumb one! The only lazy one… waaaahhh..."

She wailed and tried to throw herself into Aishili’s arms, but Aishili raised a hand and deflected her—sending her bouncing into Yinggong Tong’s embrace.

*Dong!*

The chest she landed on was flat, offering no cushion, and she hit her head with a painful thud.

"Oww!"

Then You'an Lina burst into even louder sobs,

"Nooo! Waaaah! I don’t want to be the student council mascot! I want to be a study master too! President, Yinggong, Yaqiao—help me!!"

Yinggong Tong gently patted her back, letting her nuzzle in her arms.

Meanwhile, veins popped on Aishili’s forehead as she forced a smile and said,

"So you’re asking everyone but me for help, huh? That’s kinda rude, you know..."

Yaqiao Mu thought for a moment and turned to You'an Lina.

"President mentioned this morning that we’re restarting the study groups and making underperforming students join. He and I agreed to lead it. You'an Lina, want to join?"

Upon hearing this, Yinggong Tong paused for a moment, her arms subtly tightening around You'an Lina.

Outwardly, she tilted her head curiously and asked,

"President already discussed it with Yaqiao? You don’t need my help?"

'What’s that supposed to mean?'

'Doesn’t that mean she’ll be studying with that Spencer girl?'

'What if they develop romantic chemistry?'

'Is this study group turning into a matchmaking event?!'

Yinggong Tong had already mentally excluded everyone else and was growing increasingly alarmed.

Yan Huan offered a faint smile and explained,

"Ah, it’s just that this is a bit of a hassle… Yaqiao and I really need that internship at Gold Lion Group this summer. The company’s pretty famous, after all."

(*) Gold Lion Group: A fictional prestigious company in the story.

Actually, the main reason was that Spencer’s modifier was quite unique. Back then, his thoughts had been strangely influenced, and he wasn’t sure if Yinggong Tong would be affected the same way.

(*) Modifier: Likely refers to a supernatural or sci-fi element unique to the story’s world, possibly ability-related.

He didn’t know what kind of role she’d play under her modifier—there were many possible outcomes.

For Yinggong’s safety, and to make things easier for himself, Yan Huan had decided not to involve her.

"Yinggong doesn’t need this anyway, so why bother—"

"It’s fine~"

Yinggong Tong smiled, causing You'an Lina to look up in a daze.

She could suddenly feel the warmth in Yinggong Tong’s embrace drop dramatically.

"It just so happens I’ve come up with a whole series of methods to help underperforming classmates improve. Maybe we could give them a try."

Yinggong Tong slightly parted her pink lips and said this with an inner thought of, 'Kill that Spencer.'

"Two full sets of exam papers for every subject each day, ten pages of math workbook problems, ten exam essays, ten reading comprehension passages, Social Studies memorization and random checks, and then—"

Whether Spencer would suffer remained to be seen, but at that moment, You'an Lina visibly paled and began to tremble in fear within Yinggong Tong’s arms.

"No… nooo!! I don’t want to be a study master anymore! I want to be the mascot, waaaah..."

She quickly escaped Yinggong Tong’s hug and dove into Aishili’s arms—this time, Aishili didn’t block her.

Aishili sighed and pinched her ear, saying,

"Yinggong was teasing you. Like we’d actually go that far?"

"Hehe..."

Yinggong Tong covered her mouth with a soft laugh, though her expression remained serious.

Yan Huan rested his cheek on one hand as he watched the pitiful You'an Lina, offering her some comfort.

"You'an Lina, there’s no need to get so worked up over one test. It’s just a start-of-term exam—it doesn’t determine anything. You should know, you’ve always been the only one who thought of yourself as the student council mascot."

"President."

You'an Lina gazed at Yan Huan with teary-eyed emotion, but Aishili, holding her, poured cold water on the moment.

"You’re not the only one. I’ve always thought that too~"

"Aishili!"

Meanwhile, on Yinggong Tong’s side—

Yan Huan slowly cleaned up his nearly empty tray and asked,

"Alright, we’re done eating. I’m heading back to class for a nap. What about you guys?"

Aishili and Yaqiao Mu were planning to visit the shopping street outside campus to run some errands, while Yinggong Tong decided to return to the student council office.

You'an Lina had completely forgotten about her earlier despair over grades and was excitedly planning to hang out with some senior girls from third year.

After returning their trays to the collection area, the group parted ways at the cafeteria entrance, leaving only Yan Huan and Yinggong Tong walking toward the first-year teaching building.

Yan Huan let out a lazy yawn as the breeze blew by, causing his bangs to fall and slightly cover his eyes.

Beside him, Yinggong Tong walked gracefully, as if catching a breeze laced with Yan Huan’s scent, the pink-tinted ends of her long sideburns fluttering.

Though petite, she didn’t appear weak next to the 184cm-tall Yan Huan—it was that unique aura she carried.

Spring had arrived, and youth was in full bloom—boy and girl, walking side by side.

Always such a perfect match.

"President."

Just as Yan Huan was yawning with his eyes closed, Yinggong Tong suddenly spoke.

"What is it, Yinggong?"

"About what I said earlier—about joining the study group—I don’t think President ever gave me an answer?"

Earlier, You'an Lina had interrupted their conversation, and then lunch ended, so the topic was never revisited.

Until now.

Yan Huan blinked and gave a helpless smile.

The real problem was that Spencer’s modifier was too dangerous—and it was closely tied to Yinggong.

Yinggong had no resistance to it. What if her mind was twisted by the effect?

After all, they’d known each other for half a year and were good friends. There was no way he could let her get hurt.

"I get what you’re hinting at, but it’s just..."

"President’s been yawning a lot these past two days, huh."

Before he could finish speaking, Yinggong Tong interrupted him, continuing beside him.

Yan Huan was slightly startled. He turned his head to look at her, only to find she had already raised her head and was gazing at him.

"The President is usually very busy—juggling studies, student council duties, and a part-time job after class. Now, with the study group added in, you must be really tired."

Yinggong Tong looked at Yan Huan with sincere eyes.

"So even if it's just a little, I want to help share the burden. After all, I’m also the Vice President of the student council."

The words "after all" lingered slightly, as if she had silently reconsidered them in her heart.

.

Although Yan Huan’s fatigue wasn’t due to physical exhaustion—he seemed to have endless stamina, likely thanks to his abundant innate yang energy—still...

Hearing Yinggong Tong say that felt unexpectedly comforting.

He didn’t yawn again. Instead, he smiled and politely declined.

"If I ever need help, I’ve never been shy about asking you, Yinggong. But I’ll pass this time—next time for sure."

.

Yinggong Tong pursed her lips. Since the conversation had come this far, she could only nod and let it go.

'Maybe I’ll say it later.'

As they walked, they arrived at the bottom of the teaching building—time to part ways.

"President, good afternoon."

"Good afternoon, Yinggong."

Yan Huan headed to Class A on the first floor, while Yinggong Tong went upstairs via the stairwell.

The teaching building was quiet at noon. Their classroom was completely empty, while the shopping street outside campus was probably more lively.

He planned to tidy up his books, grab his backpack, find a quiet spot for a nap and some self-study, and then play Mahjong. It was Tuesday—he was supposed to attend the Hands-on Practice Class with Ye Shiyu for his elective. He had chosen that class to increase their chances of meeting and to keep an eye on her and the modifier.

But this morning, the Hands-on Practice Class teacher had sent an email saying that volunteers could take a school bus to town to buy supplies. If you weren’t going, see you Thursday.

Yan Huan had already bought his materials before the semester started, so he was free for the afternoon.

'Mahjong, here I come.'

Cheerfully planning his afternoon, Yan Huan hummed a tune and stepped out of the classroom—only to encounter a familiar floral scent.

'No way.'

He had just reached the door and paused, but the moment he peeked out, he saw a cool and elegant girl standing in the corridor.

She wore a white one-piece dress. Her long black hair flowed like a waterfall. Her stunningly beautiful, expressionless face softened slightly when she saw Yan Huan emerge.

No need to guess—it was Ye Shiyu.

She held a cloth bundle in her arms, as if it contained something.

.

Yan Huan was a little stunned.

He felt like an office worker on a Friday, ready to clock out and enjoy the weekend—

Just about to punch out when the boss appeared and said there was a meeting.

That kind of mood.

Thank goodness for Perfect Expression Control—it kept Yan Huan looking like the ever-smiling youth.

"Shiyu-sis!"

He smiled and greeted her as she walked up, still expressionless.

"......"

"Why did you come to the first-year division, Shiyu-sis? Is something wrong?"

Ye Shiyu looked at him and nodded.

.

Just as his smile began to falter, she suddenly opened the cloth bundle and took out a small black lunchbox.

No need to check—her name was written on the lunchbox.

Ye Shiyu gently opened it, revealing neatly arranged cookies inside.

Yan Huan was briefly stunned by the sight. He looked up at her and asked,

"Did Aunt Chen prepare these for me?"

.

Ye Shiyu tilted her head, hesitated a moment, and replied,

"...I made them."

Yan Huan raised an eyebrow, about to respond, when Ye Shiyu spoke again.

"I have something I’d like your help with."

The words came out suddenly, as if pushed by some hidden emotion.

She lowered her head and pulled a laptop from the cloth bag in her arms, saying,

"Since last night, the computer's been super laggy. I don’t know why—everything takes forever to open, and random ads keep popping up. I’m not familiar with Linmen and don’t know where to fix it... and I don’t really want to bother Mom, so..."

"I see."

'Laggy? Apps won’t open? Pop-up ads?'

'Might be a disk issue, or...'

With that thought, Yan Huan asked,

"Shiyu-sis, did you bring the power adapter?"

"Yeah."

Yan Huan glanced at the time, then said,

"I know a bit about computers. I’ll take a look first—if I can fix it, you won’t need to go to a repair shop."

"Okay."

"Then let’s go to our classroom. It’s basically empty right now."

"Mm."

Yan Huan led Ye Shiyu into the empty classroom. He went to his seat, set down the laptop, plugged in the adapter, and powered it on.

Actually, it wasn’t powering on because the laptop had only been on standby.

It seemed Ye Shiyu believed her laptop could self-heal—if you left it alone overnight, it would magically fix itself by morning.

But that didn’t work—this morning, it was still laggy.

As Yan Huan sat and moved his finger across the touchpad, Ye Shiyu sat beside him, hands on her thighs, watching him with fluttering lashes.

"Shiyu-sis, have you done anything recently on the computer?"

"...No."

"Downloaded anything?"

"No."

'Alright, totally clueless. Better check it myself.'

"Password, Shiyu-sis."

"Mom’s and my birthdays. 06270903."

Yan Huan glanced at her, typed in the password, and the screen displayed a wallpaper of a life-sized doll in ornate clothing.

As he moved the mouse using the touchpad, he immediately noticed it was unusually sluggish.

It felt like teleporting—extremely hard to control.

A quick glance at the desktop and system tray showed no suspicious software. No junk like Bird Wallpaper—it was very clean.

"Doesn’t look like there’s any rogue software."

"Mm."

Ye Shiyu nodded.

"There’s plenty of disk space too. C drive, D drive..."

"Mm."

She nodded again.

.

Hearing that, Yan Huan turned to look at her. She stared back blankly.

For every comment or observation he made, she just nodded in response.

It really felt like one of those girls who knew nothing about computers or games, just sitting beside you and nodding at everything you do.

He was secretly pleased.

Just secretly pleased.

'But if it’s not the software or storage—what exactly is wrong with this laptop?'

Yan Huan thought for a moment, then opened Task Manager and checked the performance tab for CPU and disk usage.

He didn’t expect it—the CPU usage was at 100%!

And there weren’t even any apps open.

Switching to the Processes tab, he saw the system process was the one hogging all the CPU.

A system process using that much CPU for so long was definitely abnormal—especially if it caused ads.

'This must be a downloader virus, right?'

Yan Huan raised an eyebrow and said to Ye Shiyu,

"It must be a virus, Shiyu-sis. Just download some antivirus software online and run a scan. It's no big deal."

"Mm-hmm."

'Yan Huan is really good at this kind of thing too,' Ye Shiyu thought, her eyes drifting to the cookies in her arms.

These cookies were a thank-you gift—for asking him to fix her laptop this time.

But the previous guilt-driven gift still hadn’t been taken care of.

Yesterday, she had clearly planned to ask him what he liked, but in the end, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to say it.

Now, it was just the two of them, and the atmosphere felt right—it was a perfect chance to ask.

She opened her mouth and lifted her gaze, the words already forming on her lips.

"Yan—"

But just as she looked up, she saw Yan Huan move the mouse toward the browser icon.

Yet the same icon was already pinned below, indicating that the browser was still open.

Suddenly, she remembered—this morning, she had tried to visit that strange website again.

She had managed to get in, but the page had been extremely laggy.

Just then, Aunt Chen had come to rush her off to school, so she minimized the window, closed the laptop, and packed it into her backpack, planning to let Yan Huan take a look later.

After a full morning of classes, she had completely forgotten—she’d left the browser open while the computer was in sleep mode.

And now, Yan Huan was about to click on the browser?!

"Shiyu-sis, I’ll just download an antivirus program and run a scan. This’ll be sorted out in no time."

Inside—

'Inside, there’s… something he absolutely must not see!!'

Beside her, Ye Shiyu's face grew visibly pale. Her phone slipped from her hand, glowing with a sinister purple light.

Her lips trembled slightly. And then, suddenly, she called out Yan Huan’s name—

But not just his name. She used the name only a mother would use.

"Xiaohuan."

(*) Note: "Xiaohuan" is a diminutive form of Yan Huan’s name, often used affectionately by close family or elders.

"Huh? Shiyu-sis, wha—"

Hearing the name, Yan Huan turned his head in surprise.

But what met his eyes was a deep, all-too-familiar purple vortex—her glowing phone screen.

[Effect: Individual Hypnosis]

[Duration: 15 minutes]

[Countdown, Start]

Yan Huan: "????"

(End of this chapter)