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nTranslator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

n“Mo Wen, is that really you?”

nAfter Qin Xiaoyou had looked clearly and verified that it was indeed her high school classmate Mo Wen, she lightly let out a breath. She tilted her head a little awkwardly. No matter what, she was still once Mo Wen’s class monitor. Letting him see this weak side of her made her a little uncomfortable.

n“Qin Xiaoyou, you really gave me a fright.”

nMo Wen smiled slightly. Qin Xiaoyou had always been a strong girl in his eyes. He did not know what had happened that would cause a girl like her to hide and cry secretly.

nSaying that, Mo Wen sat down by Qin Xiaoyou’s side. His actions were so natural just like old times.

nQin Xiaoyou wiped the tear stains off her face and hugged her legs. She buried her small head in between her knees and stayed silent for a moment, not saying anything.

n“Who bullied our dear class monitor? She is definitely tired of living. If our ninth grade class finds out about it, we will kill her off for sure.”

nMo Wen laughed out with absolute decency and casually picked up a pebble from the ground to throw into the lake. The water sprayed out and several circular ripples formed.

nQin Xiaoyou let out a giggle in that instant. Her mood had seemingly gotten better ever since bumping into Mo Wen.

n“Brown-noser!”

nMo Wen smiled. He was not bootlicking at all. As the leading high school’s campus beauty, there was no knowing just how many protectors she had, both in the open and behind the scenes. If others knew that Qin Xiaoyou had been bullied, it would cause a rather large ripple and many people would not mind taking the chance to display their abilities.

n“Mo Wen, are you really not studying anymore?”

nQin Xiaoyou looked at Mo Wen a little sadly. The news of Mo Wen’s situation had long been passed around the school. Ever since he had been rejected from Hua Xia University, he had given up on schooling. According to the rumors, he had started to work on construction sites.

nMo Wen smiled but did not say a word. Many people from school knew about his situation. But he did not know how to explain that he was able to enter Hua Xia University through Professor Pan.

n“That Cheng Hao is really too hateful, the b*stard!”

nQin Xiaoyou plucked a blade of grass viciously from the ground as she indignantly scoffed in anger.

nThat Cheng Hao was the person who had taken Mo Wen’s place in Hua Xia University. As for why the entire school knew of Mo Wen’s situation, it was Cheng Hao who had spread the news. He had even bragged in front of Mo Wen complacently, making it such that everyone in the leading high school knew of it.

n“Very hateful indeed.”

nMo Wen smiled slightly. Previously, his hate for Cheng Hao was harsh because he had ruined his dream. Ten years of suffering and it all amounted to nothing. Who would not hate? However, he could not change anything with regards to this. Just as Professor Pan had said, society was just like that. Instead of vainly hoping to change society, it was better to change oneself instead. If his results had been as good as Qin Xiaoyou’s, who could have taken his place?

n“You, on the other hand, are not angry!”

nQin Xiaoyou rolled her eyes at Mo Wen and silently buried her face into her knees. Mo Wen’s reaction had made her heart ache. Perhaps he had gotten used to it, or desensitized towards it such that he no longer held so much hate, because a normal family’s child could not possibly live everyday with hatred towards society, as they still had many other difficulties in their lives for them to face.

nThey were all the children of normal families. They were able to understand their peers. Heartaches and grievances had to be buried within their hearts since there was no place for them to vent. Even if they were not strong, they had to at least pretend to be.

n“Let’s not talk about me anymore. What about you; why are you hiding in the forest in the middle of the night crying your heart out?”

nMo Wen looked at Qin Xiaoyou. With her strong personality, she would seldom cry. It was probably because she had encountered a situation that she could not solve.

n“When did I cry?”

nQin Xiaoyou’s face reddened as she uncomfortably tilted her head away.

n“You mean it was a little dog crying just now?” Mo Wen put on a mock surprised expression.

n“You are the little dog!”

nMo Wen just scolded her and Qin Xiaoyou was already so affected. Where could one find such a bad person?

n“I did not say it was you, just the one who was secretly crying just now,” Mo Wen said seemingly smiling yet suppressing it.

n“You…”

nQin Xiaoyou forcefully turned her head to the other side and put on an expression, like she did not care about him. After not meeting for a period of time, Mo Wen had gotten badly influenced.

n“Your house isn’t in Beijing, right? Why would you run to a forested park in Beijing in the middle of the night?” If he did not remember incorrectly, Qin Xiaoyou’s house was in the south of the capital, Pu Hui District, which was really far from where they were now.

nHaving known Qin Xiaoyou for three years, Mo Wen naturally knew her personality. She was strong on the outside but soft in the inside, and liked to use a hard, outer shell as a façade. Normally, she would keep everything in her heart when she met with difficulties and would seldom confide in anyone.

nHence, to find out what happened to Qin Xiaoyou, one had to coax continuously such that she would unknowingly spill the details.

nQin Xiaoyou rolled her eyes and ignored Mo Wen’s questioning.

n“What has it got to do with you?”

nMo Wen touched his nose. Coaxing was not his strong point. Moreover, Qin Xiaoyou obviously did not want to tell him. Even though he really wanted to help the girl whom he had secretly liked for three years, he felt that he did not know how to go about doing so.

nHe knew that since Qin Xiaoyou did not want to share, she wouldn’t. Thus, he did not say any more and simply accompanied Qin Xiaoyou to sit by the lake in silence.

nAfter a while, Qin Xiaoyou finally said something gingerly.

n“Mo Wen, I’m not going back today. What about you?”

nJust as Mo Wen had thought, Qin Xiaoyou’s house was indeed quite far away. Even taking the train would take two hours. Now that it was already the middle of the night, she would not be able to go back.

n“I’ll accompany you then.”

nMo Wen smiled. Qin Xiaoyou could not go back. Meanwhile, he had no house to go back to.

n“Thank you!”

nQin Xiaoyou raised her head to look at Mo Wen before falling silent again.

nAfter staying silent for a moment, Qin Xiaoyou changed the subject once again. However, she started to talk about things that had happened back in high school. The first time she went to high school, the first time meeting Mo Wen, the first time breaking the rules… the two had seemingly endless topics to talk about. Bits and pieces of their three years of memories; there were always some that were hard to forget.

n…

n“There’s a chair over there. Go over and lie down for a while. If not, it will be morning already.”

nIt was already late into the night and the two were a little tired. Mo Wen took the initiative and gave up the long bench that he was previously lying on to Qin Xiaoyou. If they did not sleep for a bit, they would not have any energy the next day.

n“What about you?”

nQin Xiaoyou asked this a little hesitantly. She scanned their surroundings and found that other than this long bench, there were no other ones available around them, so where would Mo Wen sleep?

n“I can just sleep over there.”

nMo Wen used his chin to indicate the grass patch behind the long bench. He did not mind where he slept. The grass patches in summer were especially dry which made for a rather good bed.

nQin Xiaoyou thought for a bit before nodding her head.

n“Alright then.”

nUpon thinking that Mo Wen was just behind her, Qin Xiaoyou was exceptionally comforted and quickly fell asleep.

nMo Wen looked at Qin Xiaoyou on the long bench who had fallen into a deep sleep and laughed bitterly. Meeting Qin Xiaoyou in such an environment and the two of them sleeping in the park out in the open? He could only exclaim that life was fraught with the unexpected.

nMo Wen did not sleep. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the grass patch with his palms facing the sky. His eyes were in tune with his breath just as his breath was in tune with his heart. He began to do the most basic of meditations. The method of training Inner Qi began with meditation, heart and soul in tune with the core, producing the feeling of the energy, before circulating the energy in smaller circles, then in larger circles, and even to the point that it covers the entire body; it was a little milestone reached.

nThe achievement of his Inner Qi in that lifetime was pretty high. Even though it was incomparable to those top Kung Fu masters, it had already transcended to first-class standard. When the Inner Qi engulfed his whole body, the usual knives and swords would not even hurt him.

nThus, without requiring too much time, Mo Wen’s core had the feeling of the Inner Qi. A wave of heat was produced in his navel before rising up along his blood passages. It slowly circulated in a small round. As his blood passages did not have sufficient training, the first small circulation was especially slow and basically took about two hours before it was complete.

nWhen Mo Wen opened his eyes, the sky was getting brighter and there was only half an hour before the sky was completely bright.

n“My training is too slow!”

nMo Wen furrowed his eyebrows. Just causing a small circulation had required two hours. If he continued training like that, he was afraid that even five or six years would not be enough. However, training of Internal Qi was innately something that took very long and was usually trained from a young age. Only then, would there be some progress upon reaching adulthood.

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