Chapter Five: I Knock! The Cherry Blossom Girl

"Alright, last dish, water spinach with fermented bean curd."

Lu You placed the plate on the dining table and glanced at the time—exactly twelve o'clock, perfect. At the same time, the automatic cat feeder downstairs began to work; hearing the sound of kibble dropping, Xiao Bao vanished in an instant.

Li Yu looked at the three dishes on the table, which were a feast for the eyes and nose. The impact was even greater than seeing him chop the vegetables, and his voice trembled slightly: "You... did you order this from a private kitchen and just plate it to fool me?"

"Didn't you watch me the whole time? Do you think I have a body double?" Lu You took two pairs of chopsticks and two bowls of rice from the kitchen, placing them in front of each other. "Eat. I just tasted it; although they are only three home-cooked dishes, I think they turned out alright."

Li Yu watched as Lu You picked up a piece of beef brisket and put it in his mouth. Only after Lu You swallowed did he dare to reach for his own chopsticks.

Seeing Li Yu’s cautious demeanor, Lu You felt offended. "I give up. You’re really afraid I’ll poison you, aren't you?"

"It's the first time I'm eating your cooking; I have to be careful."

Once a piece of brisket hit his stomach—tender, flavorful, and juicy, with the unique blend of spices and beef filling his mouth—the aftertaste was rich. While it wasn't the best in the world, it was already significantly better than most restaurants outside.

"I didn't lie to you, did I?"

Li Yu felt a bit stifled. "It really is delicious." He said, then picked up another piece.

"Want some sauce for your rice?" Lu You handed him a spoon.

"Yeah."

...

Halfway through lunch, two phone notification tones rang out. The two looked at each other, understanding instantly.

The results were in.

They both stopped eating and picked up their phones to read the messages. Then, they looked up at the same time, their eyes meeting once more.

Li Yu spoke first. "No surprises, 750 points. You?"

"No surprises for me either, exactly two hundred less than you."

Out of a total of 780, one scored 750 while the other scored 550. It was simply a testament to the disparity of the world.

"Can you get into the key class at Chunhua with that score?"

"Shouldn't be a problem. Based on the scores and test difficulty from previous years, and considering this year's test wasn't easy, 750 is enough."

Lu You inexplicably thought of the girl he met while grocery shopping that morning. She seemed to be a middle school graduate too; she was bright and stunning, but her judgment was poor, and she wasn't very good at talking.

Seeing Lu You looking dazed, Li Yu waved a hand in front of him: "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are you zoning out?"

Lu You thought for a moment before saying, "Actually, it's just that I met a girl who left a deep impression on me when I was out buying groceries earlier."

"Holy crap, you actually go out to buy groceries yourself?"

"Is that really the point here?"

"Otherwise what? By the way, did you haggle when you bought the groceries? Give me a demonstration so I can try it when I go to a physical store..."

"Try it and you'll regret it."

...

After the meal, Lu You cleared the table, and the two slumped onto the sofa downstairs. Xiao Bao lay on Lu You's lap, his tail flicking back and forth.

"So full. I think I overate; I can't move."

"It's not like anyone was fighting you for it. If you couldn't finish, you could have saved it for tonight."

Li Yu rested a hand on his stomach and asked, "What should we do this afternoon? Play Apex?"

Lu You hadn't played games in his previous life, but this body’s Lu You was quite fierce at them. Even without reaching the Apex Predator rank, hitting Master with 20,000 points was no problem.

"Let's do it."

...

Lu You’s house had more than one computer. The graphics cards, CPUs, motherboards, power supplies, and cases he upgraded every year were enough to assemble several machines.

The two put on their headsets and sat back-to-back in front of the computers.

Li Yu opened the accelerator. "Which server are we playing on?"

Lu You thought for a moment and replied, "Let's go to the Japan server."

Li Yu’s eyes lit up, and he said excitedly, "Do you like Japanese girls too?"

Lu You: →_→

"You're overthinking it. You know your own skill level. I just think that Chinese people shouldn't sabotage fellow Chinese people."

"Don't worry." Li Yu rubbed his hands, saying confidently, "Today is different from the past. I'm no longer the one who only knows how to get knocked down."

"Heh."

The two connected to the accelerator and loaded the game from Steam. Lu You opened his Steam friends list, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

ID: I am Superman Qiang, the more superman the stronger.

"Do you really have to use such an outrageous ID?"

Li Yu sneered. "Deathly funny, we're two of a kind."

ID: Turkey Flavored Guoba.

Lu You covered his face. Fine, at least the Japanese players wouldn't understand it anyway.

The two selected trio matchmaking and were randomly paired with a stranger. Li Yu rubbed his hands in anticipation. "Come on, let's go! I wonder if we’ll get a Japanese girl."

Lu You couldn't listen anymore. "You're really rare. It would be best if you got paired with a Japanese soldier."

"A soldier is a soldier, so what?" Li Yu said indifferently. "If it's a soldier, I'll just be a ginseng fruit; it's no big deal."

Lu You was speechless.

Before long, all 60 players were matched, and the game began. Lu You chose Horizon. Only a Legend with such high aggression, capable of artificially creating advantageous terrain, could carry a dead weight.

Li Yu chose Seer, a recon character capable of gathering enemy information.

"Watch closely, Lu You. Look at how fierce my Seer is, inherited from the world's number one."

However, in reality:

"Oh damn! There's a rat! Save me, quick!"

Immediately after, Li Yu’s shield and health bar evaporated in an instant.

See? A dead weight is a dead weight. Even playing an intel character, he still gets ambushed. Lu You was already mentally prepared and wasn't surprised.

"Hold your shield, crawl out slowly, and let me handle it."

He gave the order calmly, then led the random teammate to start a fight against the odds. A minute later, thanks to the random teammate’s suppression fire and Lu You’s brilliant maneuvering, they successfully wiped the squad.

Just as Lu You was reviving Li Yu, a sweet voice came through the headset: "Nice! Hontoni Sugoi!"

"Holy crap! A Japanese girl!"

"What are you getting so excited about?" Lu You poured cold water on him. "She was talking about me; you were just the atmosphere guy lying on the floor."

Li Yu refused to accept it and retorted, "You wouldn't have been able to start this game without me."

"Whoa? Are you actually proud of that?"

...

At Tang Wan's dining table, the family of three was enjoying their meal. Suddenly, a phone rang. The three stopped what they were doing and collectively looked at the phone.

Tang Wan put the tripe she had just picked up into her mouth to prevent it from "running away" before unlocking her phone to check the message.

"How is it? Is it the grade notification?" Zhao Huijuan was a bit nervous. Although she was confident in her daughter's grades, she still felt uneasy without seeing the actual results.

"Yeah, it's the grade notification text."

"What's the score? Everything okay?"

"There was a bit of a surprise."

"What do you mean? You didn't bomb the test, did you?" Zhao Huijuan's heart tightened.

"No, it was unexpectedly good—762. Even I find it hard to believe." Tang Wan looked at her score, her heart fluttering.

"Just say it was good, you scared me." Zhao Huijuan patted her chest, calming her emotions.

Tang Jing, hearing his sister's score, felt happy for her and picked up a piece of tripe from the hotpot, putting it in her bowl. "This year, it's finally paid off. Here, brother rewards you with a piece of tripe."

Seeing the extra tripe in her bowl, Tang Wan's expression immediately crumpled, and she turned to Zhao Huijuan. "Mom, your son is so gross. I don't want to eat it."

Tang Jing froze.

...

After dinner, in the living room, Zhao Huijuan brought out washed green grapes from the balcony and placed them on the coffee table. She sat next to her daughter and asked, "Have you thought about which high school you want to go to?"

Tang Wan leaned against her mother, feeling a bit lost. "I haven't really thought about it. Before, I only thought about getting a good score so I could choose any school I wanted. But now that I really have to choose, I don't know which one to pick."

Zhao Huijuan looked at her son and tentatively suggested, "How about you go to City High, just like your brother? It's a prestigious old school, and their college entrance exam results have been quite good in the last two years."

Before Tang Wan could respond, Tang Jing shook his head and said, "It's best not to choose City High. Don't look at their recent results; that's just the sunset glow. Some of the good teachers have been poached by Chunhua with high salaries. Except for a few remaining veterans, the rest are newcomers, and their teaching ability is far inferior to before."

Hearing his assessment, Zhao Huijuan asked, "Then what about Chunhua? Do you know anything about it?"

Tang Jing pondered for a while before saying, "I learned about it a few days ago. Chunhua has invested a large amount of capital in the last two years, and I visited it when I was in my second year of high school. I can only say that in terms of school environment and teaching facilities, City High cannot compare to Chunhua at all."

"Although Chunhua's college entrance results this year can't compare to City High's, that's mostly because the top students from our batch three years ago chose City High, so their student intake was better than Chunhua's. Within two years at most, Chunhua will completely surpass City High at the top level."

Tang Wan became interested and asked, "How good is the environment? Give me an example."

"Hmm... let's put it this way: the landscaping is like a 5A scenic spot, the cafeteria is like an outside buffet restaurant, the restrooms have marble decor, and the classrooms are relatively simple but very spacious and bright."

"Really? Is it that good?" Tang Wan couldn't believe it.

"Chunhua is a private school. Its recruitment targets two groups: one is top-tier students, and the other is the exceptionally wealthy. The school's fundamental purpose is the latter group—or more accurately, their parents."

"Then won't the tuition be very expensive? If it's too expensive, I won't consider it."

"That won't be the case. Generally, the tuition for students admitted through standard applications is about one-third higher than public schools, and those with excellent grades are basically exempt from tuition. Rumor has it that the money earned from one rich kid is more than the tuition collected from a whole class of normal students."

"Then why not just make it a school for the nobility? Why recruit publicly, spend money to poach teachers, and I bet few of the kids who 'buy' their way in are actually studying seriously."

"Good teachers plus good students equal good results. With good results plus some hype, they can attract more wealthy people. Get it now?"

At this point, Zhao Huijuan interrupted again. "Won't those who buy their way in affect the studies of other students? I see those rich kids in TV dramas, and none of them are decent. I'm afraid Wanwan will be led astray."

Thinking of her daughter's appearance, she became even more uneasy.

In the villa, the two boys playing games shivered simultaneously. Both felt it was inexplicable, but neither noticed anything wrong.

Tang Jing said speechlessly, "Mom, TV dramas are just for entertainment; they're all acted out, don't take them too seriously. Don't look down on the rich kids too much, but don't underestimate them either. Besides, there aren't that many truly wealthy kids. If you spread them across twenty classes in a grade, having three or four per class is probably pushing it."

Zhao Huijuan was still worried and said to Tang Wan, "Let's wait until Chunhua calls to find out more, okay, Wanwan?"

"Okay, I'll listen to you guys."