Chapter 8
"Useless? Didn't expect you to have some cultivation. Then I can only call upon the old man! Demons and monsters, quickly leave, demons and monsters, quickly leave——"
Facing Bai Bufan's craziness, Lin Li glanced at him without speaking.
But sometimes silence speaks louder than words.
Bai Bufan understood the meaning of that look—where did this idiot come from, don't say you know me.
Doing this in the cafeteria was indeed a bit embarrassing. Feeling the surrounding gazes looking at a mentally disabled child, Bai Bufan awkwardly sat down, then asked with interest:
"So what's really wrong with you? Did you receive some kind of shock? Could it be that Chen Yuying said if you get into the top 100 of your grade, you can confess to her? Or did relatives at home mock you for being useless, so you made a three-week pact to make them look at you with new eyes?"
Chen Yuying was Class 4's class monitor. In the class, she already had the best natural looks among the girls, and she knew how to dress up, so in terms of appearance she was unrivaled in Class 4.
—Nansang didn't allow makeup. "Dressing up" meant knowing how to style your hair appropriately, coordinating with small accessories like hair clips, bracelets, and necklaces, and making minor adjustments to loose school uniforms.
Lin Li had a good impression of her, but it was based on appreciation of beauty—to put it bluntly, it could even be understood as lust, the kind of good feeling he had for all pretty girls.
As for liking or even loving to that degree, that absolutely didn't exist.
Of course, if Chen Yuying confessed to him, Lin Li felt he would happily accept—although this was just fantasy, most teenage boys had this kind of small daydream.
As for why Bai Bufan brought this up, it was purely because Lin Li had brought breakfast for Chen Yuying a few times. In this situation, even when friends knew the real story, they would deliberately tease.
"Bufan, your primary task right now is to uninstall Qidian Reading. What a good kid, how did your brain get stupid from reading novels?" Skipping over Chen Yuying and sipping some soup, Lin Li said with some regret.
"Hehe~" Bai Bufan scratched his head, then understood: "So you just purely suddenly want to study hard? Like when I planned to quit that habit?"
"You can understand it that way. I feel guilty for not studying hard, so I want to work hard. But please, please don't compare it to your attempt at quitting." Lin Li warned very formally.
Back then, Bai Bufan had tried to quit for a week. In those seven days:
Day 1 of quitting.
Day 1 of quitting.
Day 2 of quitting.
Day 1 of quitting.
Day 2 of quitting.
Day 3 of quitting.
Day -2 of quitting.
As for why he owed two days on the seventh day, it was because that day he went to the monastery for revenge practice, doing it so frequently that one day was stronger than three days.
"Hehe, don't speak too early either." Bai Bufan responded. "I don't think you can persist for very long."
"...Maybe not." Lin Li didn't refute Bai Bufan because after thinking about it, after completing this task, he would probably find it hard to continue such high-intensity focused studying. No need to boast.
Moreover, Lin Li discovered something about the system he had to complain about.
The five morning classes were Chinese, English, Physics, General Technology, and Math.
Among them, no matter how earnestly Lin Li studied during English class, the progress bar didn't budge at all.
This low-intelligence system didn't recognize English as a subject. But if you had to understand it, it wasn't incomprehensible—after all, in the cultivation world, English would probably be a useless foreign language.
You: "How are you?"
Great Being: "What gibberish are you speaking? Not speaking human language, die!"
This system even had its own personal preferences.
However, Lin Li's English grades were mediocre, and his oral English was a complete mess, so he strongly agreed with the system on this.
Remember, the first word in the English college entrance exam 3500-word dictionary is "abandon"—give up.
But after his memory improved, his English grades would naturally rise too. Once you had vocabulary in English and could understand it, it was actually quite simple.
Additionally, Lin Li had tested that when teachers finished class and he engaged in earnest focused preview and review sessions, it couldn't affect the progress bar either.
Could only say this system was still rigidly traditional to the extreme. If it said there must be the prerequisite condition of sect masters teaching, then this had to be satisfied to be recognized.
It seemed he couldn't avoid entering personally.
After the meal, Lin Li went to the convenience store to buy some snacks, mainly because when focusing, people would quickly feel tired and needed to supplement some nutrients.
He'd definitely need to keep these on hand for the next few days.
...
When the evening study hall dismissal bell rang, Lin Li rushed out of the classroom just like yesterday.
"Lin Li definitely has someone else outside behind my back." Bai Bufan looked at Lin Li's retreating figure and sighed meaningfully.
"Think positively—maybe it's not a person, but a Komodo dragon." Bai Bufan's roommate Zhou Baowei came to comfort him.
"As long as it's not a girl, that's fine." Bai Bufan said.
"Are you really gay? Damn, you're still wearing white socks! Don't sit on my bed anymore!" Zhou Baowei covered his butt and backed away.
"Idiot, I'm really worried about Lin Li finding girls outside," Bai Bufan scratched his hair, somewhat dejected. "If my brother lives well, that would hurt me more than killing me! I'm willing to trade my being single for half a lifetime for Lin Li being single for a whole lifetime."
"Ultimate one-for-one trade, I acknowledge your brotherhood." Zhou Baowei gave a thumbs up. "Good thing I'm not close with you."
"Who do you think I'm using my remaining half-lifetime to trade for a lifetime of singleness?" Bai Bufan looked up at Zhou Baowei.
"..."
Zhou Baowei: "Your mom—"
...
Lin Li didn't know he had already been cursed.
He had already ridden his bike to the location of Task 2's chicken farm.
However, he didn't rashly go in. Instead, he rode to the opposite side, then took out his phone and pretended to make a call, walking back and forth on the opposite side.
Actually, he was observing enemy intelligence.
This kind of chicken farm should have some vigilance. If he stared at this shop without concealment from outside, he might unknowingly get marked.
Going in would definitely get more information, but Lin Li wasn't planning to do that.
Easy to alert the enemy, and group buying apps showed exploration costs starting at 99 yuan minimum.
Student IDs couldn't get discounts—infuriating, shaking with cold anger.
He couldn't just go in, ask a bunch of questions, then leave directly. That would easily leave trouble for when he really entered personally.
Lin Li made this "phone call" for about half an hour.
During this half hour, only one group of customers went in. They should have been there for legitimate services—because there was also a girl among them.
It wasn't completely fruitless. At least he gained one piece of information: this shop wouldn't check IDs.
The customers didn't proactively show them, and the front desk didn't mention it at all.
Come to think of it, a place that secretly raised chickens, how could it possibly care about these things?
Even legitimate places weren't strict about age restrictions for this.
Moreover, Xiling Town wasn't a big place to begin with.
Even most internet cafes here wouldn't strictly verify ID cards against faces one-to-one.
As long as you had an adult's ID card, you could open a computer—but you couldn't go too far, like using grandparents' ID cards. Internet cafes really couldn't turn a blind eye to that.
A 69-year-old granny playing online battlefield games at an internet cafe late at night—if they encountered an inspection, the boss would have trouble explaining.
Although he only got this one piece of news today, it was still some gain, and it was definitely good news for Lin Li, helpful for his personal entry.
After only observing for half an hour, Lin Li continued riding home.
If he wasted more time, the difficulty of completing tomorrow's early rising task would increase geometrically.
Early to bed and early to rise—great! Late to bed and early to rise—death!
Fortunately, there was English class tomorrow. Sorry, English teacher.
(End of Chapter)