The first visit didn't last long. It was just a standard greeting, and, aside from the whiskey part, everything went smoothly.
Be that as it may, when Hu Xiaoniu and others got back to their condo, the four of them sat on the sofa quietly and didn't say anything for a while.
Since every one of them knew very well that behind the friendly energy they encountered there was still faked politeness.
In Jiang Xue's eyes, they were guests, not friends.
If they were still guests, they wouldn't be able to ask for help from her in City 18.
Here, Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen were relatively calm and sensible. From transferring schools to moving from City 7 to City 18, both were proposed by them.
Hu Xiaoniu looked at everyone and said, "Maybe, we are wrong. Wrong from the very beginning."
Everyone looked at him.
Hu Xiaoniu pointed at their sofa and said, "We came all the way from Hai City and still chose to have our leather sofas shipped here, but just look at what they have there, a simple canvas couch. I'm not talking about how much money we have, but about our pride. We must ditch that behind."
Zhang Tianzhen took off his glasses and said, "I agree with Xiaoniu."
"Also, we don't have much to be proud of anyway," said Hu Xiaoniu, "Did you notice the mechanical limbs that Jiang Xue had? It was the most delicate pair of hands I've seen, probably ones that only the corporations could get. What I'm saying is while we’re in the Outer World, we are the rich ones, but in the Inner World, Jiang Xue is the rich one."
Hu Xiaoniu continued, "If we don't drop the pride we have in our hearts, there's no way we'll become friends with Qing Chen, Jiang Xue, and Liu Dezhu."
"But we are better than them," said Bai Waner. But after seeing that Hu Xiaoniu was being serious, she changed her tone and said, "… Fine, what do we do now?"
"First thing tomorrow, we'll go get our school uniforms, and no more watches in school," said Hu Xiaoniu, "From now on, we must integrate with our classmates. I want you to realize that we’re here to seek help, and that's nothing to be proud of."
Wang Yun muttered, "But their school uniform is so ugly. Can't we just wear our own clothes? We brought so much."
"No." Hu Xiaoniu was very determined.
Seeing his attitude, the two girls quieted down.
…
Countdown: 4 Days.
As he was getting ready for school the next morning, Qing Chen noticed that his abs were gradually showing when looking into the mirror.
The lines were faint and still far from what bodybuilders look like.
But he had only started training five days ago.
He finally realized the breathing technique's wonders.
The teen stood in front of the mirror.
With the weird pattern of breathing, Qing Chen's cheeks gradually showed fire patterns.
Two days ago, he bought more than thirty pounds of beef, and now it was all gone.
He was like a food black hole, sucking up everything near him. The breathing technique burnt up the energy in his body at an astonishing rate and was reforming his body.
With the fire patterns fading away, Qing Chen finally understood why Li Shutong said that a person with the breathing technique could use three months to accomplish what others would take five years.
It was like magic.
Walking into the classroom, Qing Chen was quite shocked.
He saw that Bai Waner and Wang Yun both had school uniforms on. With their new clean looks, they looked more like average students instead of top students from Hai City.
Nan Gengchen, who was sitting right beside them, couldn't help glancing at them from time to time.
Sitting down, Wang Yun smiled, "Hey, the teacher said you are the best in the class. I have a problem here that I don't understand, can you please explain it to me?"
Qing Chen looked at it and saw that it was a double function problem, but it was a rather harder one with several tricks to it.
But the problem was that he knew very well the two girls were top students, and there was no way that this question would trouble any of them.
He thought about it and said, "I still need to read the textbook chapters for this class. Why don't you ask Nan Gengchen?"
He already read the chapters, but he just didn't want to waste his energy on these phony relationship-building methods.
Sensing his passive-aggressive attitude, Wang Yun didn't feel too good, but thinking that Nan Gengchen was Qing Chen's friend, she figured that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get close to Nan Gengchen first.
Hu Xiaoniu told them that they need to give up their pride and make more friends.
Realizing this, Wang Yun pulled over a chair and sat next to Nan Gengchen. "Gengchen, can you please explain this problem to me?"
"Sure!" Nan Gengchen was very enthusiastic.
Wang Yun looked at him hopefully, but after staring at the problem for a while, Nan Gengchen shook his head and said, "I don't know it either…"
Wang Yun: "…"
Qing Chen almost burst out laughing. Although Nan Gengchen wasn't a bad student, his grades were at best mediocre.
Wang Yun's first attempt ended as a failure.
She returned to her seat discouragingly to think about countermeasures, and Bai Wan'er whispered, "Our goal is to be friends with them. Since he can't do the difficult questions, then just pick a simple one to ask him. The first step is the most important."
Wang Yun’s eyes lit up. That was a good idea.
She chose the simplest question in the exercise book and moved her chair to sit next to Nan Gengchen, "Can you explain this one to me?"
This time, Nan Gengchen got excited. He knew how to do this one!
In the end, Qing Chen saw that Nan Gengchen took an entire ten minutes to explain the easiest problem, and by the time he finished, the first class had already started.
Wang Yun returned to her seat feeling tired. She knew how to do the problem all along, but she had forced herself to listen and pretend to be learning. This could prove quite tiring.
But she knew that all the sacrifice would be worth it if they could be friends with these two.
After the first class, Wang Yun gathered with the rest of her group and shared the current situation: Although Qing Chen was hard to deal with, Nan Gengchen seemed to be an easy target who was not very smart.
As she returned, she suddenly heard Qing Chen asking Nan Gengchen, "What do you think about the transfer student? Is she easy to talk to?"
"Yeah, she's easy to talk to." Nan Gengchen paused for a second and said to Qing Chen, "But I don't think these two are very good at math. They can't even figure such an easy problem out by themselves."
Wang Yun, "???"
She almost fainted hearing this!
…
