Zhou Wang shrugged, "Why would you care about that? Whether you do well or poorly in exams doesn’t stop you from inheriting your family’s hotpot restaurant, right?"
"How did you know my parents plan to open a hotpot restaurant?"
Yang Hao looked surprised, "I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that to you, right?"
Only then did Zhou Wang remember that Yang Hao’s parents were still running a barbecue chain, not yet transitioned to the hotpot industry.
"Just a guess."
Zhou Wang waved, "Suit yourself, I’m leaving first."
"Hey, Brother Dog, wait for me..."
Yang Hao eventually caught up, and the two of them left the school together. On the way, Zhou Wang encountered a middle-aged woman with long hair.
"Hello, Principal Li!"
Zhou Wang greeted her naturally.
The woman was stunned, glanced at Zhou Wang again, and then smiled and nodded.
After the woman left, Yang Hao couldn’t help but tease from the side, "Brother Dog, you called her by the wrong title. She’s the Discipline Director; you should have called her Director Li..."
"Then why do you think she didn’t correct me?"
Zhou Wang smiled faintly, looking back at Li Xiwen’s figure. He hadn’t expected, five years ago, Li Xiwen had quite a charm, even could be considered beautiful.
The later Li Xiwen that Zhou Wang interacted with had already toned down her radiance, her hair had become shorter, appearing deliberately unappealing... Observing today’s events through the lens of later experiences, Zhou Wang realized that everything had traces to follow.
"Brother Dog, it feels like you’re acting weird today. I’m not understanding what you’re saying..."
Ignoring Yang Hao’s complaints, Zhou Wang reached the school gate, reminiscing about the scenes he saw in the [Event Overview], extending his hand to Yang Hao.
"What?"
Yang Hao asked, perplexed.
"I’m in urgent need, lend me all your money."
Zhou Wang only had twenty bucks on him, so he had to rely on Yang Hao, the rich guy.
"Okay."
Yang Hao opened his backpack, giving Zhou Wang the more than a thousand bucks he had, and then asked, "Is this enough? If not, I have a few thousand left in my card, which is the unused red envelope money..."
"We’ll see, I might call you."
Zhou Wang remembered something and extended his hand, "Give me your Ghost Fire motorcycle keys too."
"Uh, Brother Dog, borrowing money is fine, but can you leave the motorcycle for me... You know I live in the Metallurgical District, and it’s hard to get a ride there. If you take the motorcycle, what will I do?"
"Metallurgical District?"
Zhou Wang was stunned, then asked confirmatively, "The Metallurgical District by Big Flower Bridge?"
"Yeah, I’ve always lived there..."
"Then let’s go, take me there."
"Uh, Brother Dog, you want to go to my place?"
"Stop wasting time, let’s go!"
...
Yang Hao’s "Ghost Fire" was that kind of shit-green, which Zhou Wang used to disdain, but now knowing Yang Hao lived in the Metallurgical District, Zhou Wang reluctantly hopped on for a ride.
[Event Overview] didn’t have many scenes, but matching past memories, the only location belonging to Jing City he could confirm was Jing City’s landmark spot, Big Flower Bridge.
Big Flower Bridge is an elevated railway bridge right on the outskirts of Jing City’s downtown. Technically, while on the outskirts, it’s only about five or six kilometers from Jing City First Middle School, which is in the city center.
In such third-tier cities on the provincial edge, this is already a considerable distance.
"You want to get off here, are you sure?"
Arriving near Big Flower Bridge, Yang Hao looked around suspiciously. Below the Big Flower Bridge, besides a roundabout, the area was desolate.
Beyond Big Flower Bridge lies the remains of Jing City’s former heavy industry enterprises. Aside from a few newly developed mid-high-end communities, there are large areas of abandoned factory buildings that could be described as barren.
"Brother Dog, if you want to hit an internet café, I know one, but you have to go a little further..."
"Don’t worry about me, contact me later."
Zhou Wang didn’t bother with Yang Hao, just waved him off, and after sending Yang Hao away, he identified the route, then climbed up a small path nearby onto the low hill above the bridge.
This railway was still in use, but with the introduction of high-speed rail lines, it’s currently used for freight transport, so there aren’t many trains passing.
Arriving at the rail entrance, Zhou Wang looked up, his breath involuntarily caught.
She was really here.
In the evening summer breeze, a girl dressed in a floral dress was slowly walking along the railway tracks.
Her head was slightly raised; from Zhou Wang’s perspective, he could only see her profile. Her high nose and gentle lip line formed a beautiful silhouette, her skin as white as if glowing, radiating a gem-like sheen under the sunset.
... In terms of features alone, among all the girls Zhou Wang knew, only the senior could match her.
The seventeen-year-old Ding Yi before him, aside from having exquisite features, possessed an additional natural and lively glow.
Her appearance was probably the ultimate fantasy of "Moonlight" for boys.
Ding!
[Host engaging with the target character, round countdown officially begins]
[Complete specific events, round will end prematurely]
As Zhou Wang stared dazedly at Ding Yi in the near distance and pondered over what the system meant by "specific events," a low "woooo" sound suddenly echoed from afar.
At the end of the path, the bend in the woods revealed a long freight train speeding towards them.
The driver of the train may have spotted the figure on the railway, the train let out a sharp whistle.
Seeing Ding Yi standing still across the tracks without reacting, Zhou Wang was shocked, surely this "instance" version of Ding Yi isn’t planning to commit suicide?
The distance between them was tens of meters, Zhou Wang could only shout while running towards her.
Hearing the shout, Ding Yi turned to look at Zhou Wang with a slightly dazed expression but still didn’t move.
Seeing the train approaching, Zhou Wang had no choice but to dodge to the side.
The train rumbled past, blocking Zhou Wang’s view. Minutes later, when the entire train had passed, Zhou Wang saw Ding Yi still holding her books and standing there, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
Only then did Zhou Wang go over, looking her up and down, and asked, "Are you alright?"
Ding Yi didn’t respond, she just took a slight step back and asked with some surprise, "Who are you?"
"Uh..."
Only then did Zhou Wang remember that from Ding Yi’s perspective, they hadn’t met yet. He hesitated, then said, "I live nearby, came here for a walk..."
"Oh, are you here to memorize books too?"
At this moment, Ding Yi noticed Zhou Wang’s school uniform.
"Memorize books?"
Only then did Zhou Wang see that Ding Yi was holding several books, all senior year review books.
He immediately nodded along, "Yes, do you also like to read here?"
"Yes, it helps me feel good."
Ding Yi nodded, smiled at Zhou Wang, and proactively reached out her hand, "Hello, I’m Ding Yi, studying at the nearby Sanyuan Middle School."
"Zhou Wang."
Zhou Wang shook hands with her, curious, "You’ve always attended high school in Jing City... uh, I mean, your accent doesn’t quite sound local."
In Zhou Wang’s original memories, he genuinely didn’t know this, or else he wouldn’t have been puzzled at the system-generated event location being in Jing City.
"Wow, you could tell just from that?"
Ding Yi laughed, "I’m indeed not from Jing City... um, I’m from the North. I came here just a month ago, sort of studying temporarily here."
"But aren’t you about to take the college entrance exam? Why come here now? The conditions up north should be better, right?"
"Something happened in my family, I came with my parents..."
Ding Yi’s expression suddenly became somewhat melancholic.
Zhou Wang found this "instance" version of Ding Yi seemed quite naive.