The Diren was sent to a specialized shelter. The subsequent treatment, data disclosure, and final disposition were no longer Ye Yang’s concern. After he submitted the mission, the payment was quickly deposited into his account.
“Great, another payment made. At this rate, I’ll soon be able to pay off the housing fees for the dormitory at headquarters!”
Unfortunately, this cheerful mood lasted only a very short while. Remembering the apartment he currently lived in, which generated new debt every single day, and that he couldn’t even cancel the lease, Ye Yang felt like sighing again.
“I hope the Mission Assignment Center assigns me higher-level missions soon.”
—
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Ye Yang went to Li Chanyi’s house again. This time, he comfortably stayed for a full three days, getting a taste of the eat-sleep, sleep-eat routine, and almost didn’t want to go home.
Li Chanyi was also a bit reluctant to see him go. “When you’re here, my dad doesn’t scold me even when I play games until midnight. Why don’t you just live at my place from now on?”
But Ye Yang still had Little Crow on his mind. Oh, and Shen Ming too, wondering how he was sleeping.
He returned to the apartment on the fourth day of the new year. There was still no sign of life from Shen Ming’s place. Ye Yang opened the door, stuffed some New Year’s goods into the fridge, and left a note.
Back in his own home, Little Crow was nowhere to be seen. Ye Yang checked – the food he had left out before leaving still had plenty left. He nodded to himself. At least it hadn’t gone hungry.
Then his gaze shifted to the area under the side table next to the sofa, and suddenly froze.
If he remembered correctly, that spot was originally empty. But now, there were many strange things there, along with Little Crow’s scent.
“Cookie wrappers, coins, what’s this? Peacock feathers? And broken glass, scraps of fabric… Ugh, a bit smelly! What is all this?” Ye Yang wrinkled his nose in disgust.
“And what’s this underneath—” As he pushed aside the trash, Ye Yang’s eyes suddenly widened. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was a necklace with a not-too-large diamond pendant.
He couldn’t help but crouch down and hold his head. “! What am I supposed to do now?!” Wasn’t he about to fall into debt again? Anything but that!!
“Tap, tap, tap –” A tapping sound suddenly came from the windowsill. Ye Yang’s guilty conscience made him jump, nearly scrambling under the coffee table. Only when he saw it was Little Crow did he quickly stand up and open the window.
Little Crow landed arrogantly on the coffee table and dropped the object he was carrying in his beak.
One look, and Ye Yang immediately pressed a hand to his temple, his headache growing intense. “Banknotes too?!”
He grabbed Little Crow and pointed at the items he had just unearthed, interrogating him. “Where did all this come from? Did you steal it or snatch it?”
Little Crow shook his head proudly. Ye Yang: “…So, both stealing and snatching?!”
Little Crow paced confidently and even urged Ye Yang to get him some fresh food.
Ye Yang felt a minor breakdown. “What exactly are you so proud of! You can’t do this anymore!”
After only a few seconds of thought, Ye Yang immediately bundled up the banknotes, coins, and necklace, and rushed out the door.
Little Crow was almost knocked flying by the gust of wind from his movement. Dizzy and disoriented, he barely managed to fly through the door before it closed, landing on top of Ye Yang’s head.
It was the New Year, so getting a taxi wasn’t easy. Ye Yang walked quickly against the cold wind, eventually breaking into a jog.
Little Crow had long since descended from his head and burrowed into his pocket.
Ten minutes later, Ye Yang finally arrived at the police station.
“Hello, Officer. A bird brought these things to my place. I didn’t know where to put them, so I brought them here.”
Little Crow was very displeased. He popped his head out of the pocket, chattering indignantly, as if to say, how could you give away the things I worked so hard to steal and snatch?
The two officers on duty – one took the items, the other had Ye Yang fill out a form. They both laughed when they saw Little Crow and asked Ye Yang, “Is this your bird?”
Ye Yang said loudly, “No, I don’t own him!”
The younger officer nearly burst out laughing. “Why so agitated? It’s fine even if you do own him. We’re not going to do anything to you.”
Ye Yang’s expression was serious as he emphasized again, “I really don’t own him.” This was a matter of principle!
On the way home, Ye Yang pinched Little Crow’s beak and lectured him sternly, finally adding viciously, “If you do this again, I won’t care if your injury is healed or not – I’ll just kick you out!”
Little Crow was unperturbed. He sat contentedly in Ye Yang’s warm palm, comfortably squinting his eyes, clearly letting it go in one ear and out the other.
Ye Yang was furious. “I’m serious! When that time comes, I’ll take down even the small window, and I’ll tear down your nest too!”
Little Crow: “?” Are you for real?
—
Although the winter break from university was long, by March, it was almost time to go back.
After completing another small mission, Ye Yang’s return to school was finally approaching.
Before heading back, Ye Yang received the study materials from Lu Xun. He flipped through them and was full of question marks. Wasn’t this just a compilation of non-human knowledge, human compulsory education content, plus Chinese history from ancient times to the present?
What was so hard about this?
Could it be that the YCG exam had particularly obscure questions?
He couldn’t figure it out, so he stopped thinking about it. After all, he still had some time before graduation.
He stored the digital materials in a cloud drive, tucked the physical materials properly in a drawer under his desk, and set the matter aside.
…
First day back at school for the new semester. It should have been an ordinary day, but something happened that made Ye Yang extremely embarrassed.
The first class of the first day was a homeroom meeting. The counselor needed to go over this semester’s arrangements with the students.
The counselor was about to arrive any minute, but Ye Yang suddenly realized he had forgotten to bring something important – the class uniforms. And not just one – a third of the class’s uniforms.
In the middle of winter break, the class monitor had suddenly announced in the group chat that there would be a choir competition and a sports meet next semester, and suggested everyone buy class uniforms.
Dongzhou University’s indoor vocal ensemble was very famous, having gained some renown nationwide. As a result, the choir competition had become a signature event at Dongzhou University, much more important than the sports meet. It had been held for ten years now, and every college took it very seriously.
At first, not many people responded. But the class monitor posted some pictures, and admittedly, he had pretty good taste in choosing class uniforms. Soon, the girls were sold. Most of the remaining boys in the class didn’t really care either way. So they ended up ordering one set of class uniforms.
After the uniforms were made, there was no one at the school to sign for delivery. The class monitor said Ye Yang and two other classmates lived closest to the school, so he asked if they could have the deliveries sent to their homes and bring the uniforms to school after break.
Over twenty sets of clothes – that was nothing for Ye Yang, especially since it was split three ways, making it even less of a burden.
Ye Yang naturally agreed. He never expected that so many things would happen over winter break. He’d been in a neighboring city dealing with mission follow-ups just two days before school started, and absentmindedly forgot all about it.
It wasn’t a huge deal, but the other two classmates had brought their shares, and were even already handing out the uniforms.
The girl who always sat in front of Ye Yang said, “I told you not to be such a pushover, doing whatever people ask. The class monitor lives closer than you, doesn’t he? And he has a car. He’s the most convenient one.”
The girl next to her chimed in, “Exactly, exactly. He’s just jealous that all your grades are better than his. He’s done this kind of thing before, made you do so many things even though you’re not on the class committee.”
“His arrangement actually made sense… I am stronger…” Ye Yang mumbled. “I’ll just explain it to everyone in a minute. They’ll understand, right? I can just bring them tomorrow.”
“What are we going to do? It’s too late to go back and get them now, isn’t it?” Li Chanyi was even more anxious than Ye Yang. “The class monitor already has it out for you. He’s definitely going to make a big deal out of this!”
As they spoke, the class monitor looked over, seeming to sense something was wrong.
He sauntered over to Ye Yang, his tone feigning concern but actually dripping with sarcasm. “What’s wrong, Ye? Why aren’t you handing out the class uniforms? It’s not like you broke them or lost them, right?”
Ye Yang was about to apologize when he suddenly felt the light on his other side blocked. He turned his head. “Teacher Shen?!”
Shen Ming had walked in at some point, holding the bag of class uniforms that Ye Yang had left at home.
Li Chanyi quickly took them and handed them to the class monitor. “Here are the uniforms. Thanks for handing them out, Class Monitor.”
The class monitor choked on his words. Before he could even open his mouth, he was shoved a bag of clothes. Looking down, he saw the two cutest girls in the class staring at him. He couldn’t refuse and nearly suffocated from frustration. He could only walk away with the clothes, leaving behind the silhouette of a puffed-up figure.
The short-haired and long-haired girls had been exchanging glances for a while. Now that the annoying presence was gone, they immediately leaned forward. “Hehe, thank you, Teacher Shen! What brings you here?”
Predictably, Shen Ming simply nodded politely, completely ignoring their question. He only looked at Ye Yang.
Ye Yang was more shocked than anyone.
“T-Teacher Shen? You’re awake?” He had left that morning to find the apartment across the way still quiet, the aura stable. How could he have just woken up so suddenly?
And how did he know Ye Yang had forgotten something?
Shen Ming finally spoke. He nodded and said, “Mm, I’m awake. Thanks for the food.”
With that, he turned and left. If he lingered any longer, he’d be late for his own class.
The classroom suddenly fell very quiet. A few seconds later, Li Chanyi firmly wrapped her arm around Ye Yang’s neck, squinting her eyes with a mischievous look. “Well, well. I didn’t realize you two progressed so quickly over the break?”
Ye Yang hadn’t caught on. “Progressed with what?”
The short-haired girl in the front row had already leaned so far forward she nearly stretched out into the aisle. “Ye Ye, what exactly is your relationship with Teacher Shen?”
Who would have thought? The first time they’d seen Teacher Shen act a little differently toward Ye Yang, they’d secretly started shipping them. And then just now, Ye Ye said what? ‘Awake’? What did that mean? Were they sleeping together?!
And Teacher Shen’s response was also very suggestive. Could it really not be cohabitation?
Ye Yang was clueless. “Didn’t you all know? We’re neighbors.”
Li Chanyi clicked her tongue and acted as the spokesperson for the two girls. “Just neighbors? I think you two look more like a couple.”
The short-haired girl secretly gave her a thumbs up and stared intently at Ye Yang’s reaction.
Unfortunately, Ye Yang’s reaction was completely unexpected. He showed no panic at being exposed, no shyness, no blushing. Instead, after thinking for a moment, he answered seriously: “You’ve misunderstood. Teacher Shen and I are something like teacher and friend. He’s helped me a lot, and I’m very grateful to him. Sometimes I invite him over to my place for a meal.”
This dead-serious answer only made the three of them even more excited.
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