Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

Inside the private room, everyone froze in their tracks.

Their gazes darted laboriously over Bai Li and the other two, before finally looking down at themselves.

The difference becomes immediately apparent upon closer inspection.

The cruel hand of time seems to have only stabbed this group of people.

Xia Qing, once the class beauty, now has crow's feet around her eyes.

The former physical education class representative has developed a potbelly.

Many students have receding hairlines, and the greasy feeling that comes from being ground down by life is impossible to hide.

Looking at the entrance.

Bai Li stood with one hand in his pocket, his posture as upright as a cedar tree. His face showed no signs of age, but rather exuded a noble and aloof air that made people afraid to look directly at him.

Zhang Qian, standing beside him, wore a dark green velvet dress that breathtakingly accentuated her figure.

Under the warm light, her blue hair didn't look cheap at all; instead, she resembled an elven queen straight out of Norse mythology, breathtakingly beautiful and aloof.

As for Li Mengmeng, she is also a porcelain doll with exquisite beauty down to the last hair, and the words "I am very expensive" are written all over her body.

"This...this is Bai Li?"

Someone swallowed first, breaking the silence.

Sitting in the main seat, Zhao Gang felt extremely uncomfortable. He realized that his time as a student had not been in vain, and now he was far inferior to Li Shuai.

When Zhang Yan saw Zhang Qian's outfit, she was so jealous that her eyes almost turned red.

She glanced down at her leopard-print mini-skirt. Just moments ago she thought she was a nightclub queen, but now she looked like a country bumpkin who had just arrived in the city.

Bai Li ignored the stares from the group and walked straight to an empty seat.

There were three seats together there.

He sat down in the middle quite naturally, and Zhang Qian obediently sat on his left.

Li Mengmeng reacted quickly, turning her hips to sit down in the seat on her right.

"Hey! Wait a minute!"

Xia Qing rushed over, grabbed the back of the chair, and said to Li Mengmeng with a forced smile:

"Mengmeng, did you forget what I just said? I see there's an empty seat next to that chubby girl over there, why don't you sit there?"

As she spoke, she tried to push Li Mengmeng out.

Li Mengmeng was pushed and swayed, her little mouth pouting, like a little kitten being bullied by a bully.

"Go sit over there." Bai Li didn't even look up, picked up the teapot on the table, and poured Zhang Qian a glass of water.

"Pfft—" Li Mengmeng couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Xia Qing was so angry that she was trembling all over, but she was afraid that it would make Bai Li like her even less, so she didn't dare to say another word. In the end, she could only slink away and sit down next to the fat girl.

"Holy crap! Brother Li! You're really back?!" Wang Wei rushed over and punched Bai Li on the shoulder.

The fat man's eyes were squeezed into slits with laughter, and the flesh on his face was trembling.

"Wow, you're something else! I didn't even recognize you when you came in! Did you get plastic surgery? How can you be so handsome!"

Bai Li looked at Wang Wei, the coldness in her eyes dissipating, revealing a sincere smile:

"You've grown a bit more. But you, you've gotten so thin!"

"Uh... haha, I've been on a diet lately." Wang Wei's expression was a little awkward, but he quickly put on a smile again and asked:

"Brother Li, which one is your sister-in-law?"

His gaze darted back and forth between Zhang Qian and Li Mengmeng.

A cool and aloof mature woman, and a baby-faced loli – this combination is practically every man's ultimate dream.

Bai Li reached out and naturally put his arm around Zhang Qian's shoulder, his fingers lightly touching the shoulder of her velvet dress:

"Let me introduce you, this is my girlfriend, Zhang Qian."

Zhang Qian's body stiffened, and then a warm current flowed through her entire body.

Brother... in front of so many old classmates, he admitted that she was his woman.

Her cheeks, which had been flushed with nervousness, instantly turned a beautiful blush.

She looked up, still somewhat shy, but the timidity in her eyes had mostly disappeared, and nodded to Wang Wei:

"Hello, I'm Zhang Qian."

"Wow!!" Wang Wei slapped his thigh and gave a thumbs up: "Hello, sister-in-law! Your aura is absolutely amazing! When you walked in just now, I thought some big star had wandered onto the wrong set!"

He glanced at Zhang Qian's blue hair again; if it were anyone else, it would just be considered unconventional.

But seeing this outfit and this face, Wang Wei sincerely exclaimed in admiration:

"Seriously, that blue hair paired with that dress is absolutely stunning! She looks like an elf, not at all tacky, but rather incredibly sophisticated!"

Zhang Qian was so flattered that she felt a little flustered and instinctively snuggled closer to Bai Li, but her heart was filled with sweetness.

The students around them started whispering among themselves.

"What has Bai Li been doing these past few years? He seems to be from a completely different dimension than us."

Hearing the surrounding chatter, Zhao Gang, sitting in the main seat, grew increasingly dark-faced.

He's been completely overshadowed, how can he stand that?

He spent eight thousand yuan to book this private room!

"Hmph, what's the use of being handsome?" Zhao Gang scoffed sarcastically. "These days, can your face be used as a credit card? Can it feed you?"

Zhang Yan, who was standing next to her, immediately understood and knew she had to help find a way to get justice.

Moreover, looking at Zhang Qian's increasingly refined face, the jealousy in her heart was like a venomous snake biting.

"Exactly." Zhang Yan fiddled with her fake Gucci bag with the big logo, rolled her eyes, and said in a shrill voice:

"Some people may appear glamorous on the surface, but who knows how much suffering they might have endured behind the scenes."

"This outfit must cost tens of thousands, right? Bai Li, you didn't spend your entire year's salary just to put on a show, did you?"

She gave Zhang Qian a meaningful look, a malicious smile playing on her lips:

"Oh my, Zhang Qian, I remember you used to be quite simple and unpretentious. How come you've learned all this fancy stuff now?"

"No matter how expensive the clothes are, they are still just cloth. If a person's foundation is not good, even if he wears a dragon robe, he won't look like a prince."