Chapter Fifty-Seven

“Cousin, I really don't know how to deal with that guy right now.”

“Isn't that simple? Just capture that woman, lure the guy over, and then humiliate him right in front of her. Make him lose all face. Let's see if she still likes him after that.”

“You truly are different, cousin. That’s killing two birds with one stone.”

“I’m also investigating a guy lately—he made a fool out of me on the plane.”

“Cousin, once you find him, let me help you teach him a lesson.”

“All right, Abi, focus on your own matters for now.”

…

Feng Yisheng had no idea someone was plotting against him. As for himself, just last night, he had already broken through to the second level of Qi Refinement.

One could say that his cultivation was proceeding at an astonishing speed, but since he wasn’t in the cultivation world, there was nothing to compare to, so he couldn’t tell if he was progressing quickly or not.

“Ah, only after reaching the tenth level of Qi Refinement can I start building my foundation. It’s been two weeks, and it took me eighteen days to reach the second level. Back in the cave, it took eight days at most to reach the first level of Qi Refinement, then another eighteen days for the second. At this rate, the third level will take nearly a month. And the further I go, the slower it’ll be. Maybe I won’t reach Foundation Establishment until after the college entrance exams, when I’m about to start university.”

Feng Yisheng pondered how long it would take him to reach Nascent Soul stage at this rate. Would it even be possible within ten years?

…

April arrived swiftly, and Nanshui Foreign Language School scheduled a monthly exam before the Qingming Festival.

April 2nd.

Feng Yisheng checked the school’s exam schedule.

April 3rd
Chinese: 9:00–11:00
Mathematics: 14:30–16:30

April 4th
Foreign Language: 9:00–11:00
Politics & History: 14:30–17:00

…

April 3rd.

Although Feng Yisheng had missed a week of classes in mid-March, he made up for it by studying hard afterward. In doing so, he discovered he seemed to possess a photographic memory.

In reality, cultivators are just ordinary people, but once they can sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they become extraordinary in all aspects.

Still, everything would have to wait until after the exams to see how his abilities measured up.

There were over a thousand students in the second year at Nanshui Foreign Language School, and Feng Yisheng had always ranked among the top three hundred. He was curious to see how he would do this time.

At Nanshui Foreign Language School, ranking in the top three hundred almost guaranteed admission to a top university, so he was looking forward to the results.

…

Following the exam admission ticket, Feng Yisheng entered the classroom.

Hey!

He didn’t notice at first, but Zhuang Bi was in the same exam room as him.

……

……

December 25th, 2017, Changnan City, Xijiang Province.

It was Christmas Day, the day Jesus was born.

But for many young people in China, whether Jesus was born on this day didn’t concern them. What mattered was whether their confession of love succeeded, or if their relationships advanced.

Yun Yuan wandered aimlessly through the streets. Because it was Christmas, shopping malls were filled with couples chatting and laughing, making Yun Yuan feel utterly out of place.

Yun Yuan was someone whose intelligence and emotional intelligence were inversely proportional. Born on January 1st, 1990, right at the tail end of the 80s generation, he was about to turn twenty-eight in six days.

But that wasn’t the main point. The crucial detail was that at twenty-eight, he was still a virgin. Not only would this be ridiculed in the sexually open societies of Western Europe and North America, but even in fast-developing China, where many people’s values remained traditional, a twenty-eight-year-old virgin man would be mocked by many.

In a country teeming with countless dating apps, for a man nearing twenty-eight to still be a virgin, there could only be two reasons: either he was too ugly, or he had no money.

But ugliness wasn’t an issue for Yun Yuan. Standing at 190 centimeters, even compared to Westerners he was tall, let alone in China where the average male height was only 170 centimeters—he stood out like a crane among chickens.

Years of fitness had given Yun Yuan a muscular, well-toned body—he was practically a living mannequin. Even during his university days, he refused several high-paying offers from modeling agencies.

The reason: he didn’t want to be in the spotlight, and more practically, he didn’t need the money.

So, neither reason applied to him.

Since the start of high school, he had been the school heartthrob, receiving at least twenty love letters a day. At first, Yun Yuan replied to every letter, always expressing his wish to focus solely on his studies and not think about anything else.

This only made him more popular, earning him a reputation as a caring, warm-hearted guy among countless girls. The letters increased from twenty to at least thirty per day.

One amusing reason behind his popularity was that Yun Yuan had beautiful, flowing handwriting. Combined with his warm personality, he became one of two schoolboy idols among the city’s high school girls in 2007—the other being Zhou Jielun, the pop singer who was sweeping the mainland.

In 2007, China was still a relatively conservative society. Yun Yuan never boasted about the love letters he received, so aside from some close friends and classmates, even the teachers only knew he was popular, but not the details.

But what no one knew was that after the summer break following his first year of high school, at the start of his second year, Yun Yuan suddenly changed from the warm-hearted idol to a cold, aloof figure, always keeping others at a distance.

He became indifferent to greetings from younger and older female students alike, leaving countless people wondering what had happened to him.

Time flew by, and two years later, everyone moved on, forgetting this little episode. But for the next five years, Yun Yuan remained the high school idol in the hearts of many girls, on par with Zhou Jielun.

In fact, during the second semester of his first year of high school, Yun Yuan experienced something that left an indelible mark on him—his first love and first kiss were both taken away during that time. It took him a long time to move past the shadow of that relationship, which remains his only romantic experience to this day.

…

Twelve years ago.

At a private high school in Changnan City, Xijiang Province, China.

Yuwen Private High School was the best private high school in all of Xijiang Province, accepting only 600 out of the province’s 500,000 junior high graduates each year—a selection ratio of one in a thousand.

However, outstanding grades alone weren’t enough to gain admission. The real barrier was the sky-high tuition: $50,000 per year.