Returning to university, starting with confessing to his ex-wife, his counselor.

Liang Chao was unaware that his long-awaited date had taken an unexpected turn.

But while eating, his eyelids twitched violently, and he always felt that his death was imminent.

"Are you eating? Don't you have an appetite?"

At noon, near Sichuan University's Wangjiang Campus, next to the Guojin Kehua Middle Road branch, there was a Qianjiang braised meat restaurant.

While shoveling rice into his mouth, Xiao Jiayu stole glances at Liang Chao. Seeing that the latter refused to eat the food he had picked up, he became angry and threw down his chopsticks.

"I'm not eating anymore!!"

"?"

Liang Chao tilted his head, glanced at her blankly, and then his face lit up with ecstasy.

"You should have said so earlier!"

Pig's trotter transfer technique!

Seeing the braised pig's trotter from the short man's bowl fall into his own, Liang Chao grinned.

Eyelid twitching might be an illusion, but braised pig's trotters never lie!

"Give it back! Give it back! This is mine!"

Xiao Jiayu, standing nearby, panicked when she saw that this person had taken away her favorite pig's trotter.

She stretched out her chopsticks to grab it, but then she saw that the man was being obsequious, first spitting at the pig's trotter a few times, and then starting to wolf it down.

"Ptooey, ptooey~ You've got drool on you, you can't eat it now! Hehe~"

Seeing this, Xiao Jiayu suddenly became awkward.

She had just taken a few small bites of the pig's trotter, but someone hadn't seen it.

Well, maybe they saw it, which is why...

The young girl's cheeks flushed slightly. She slipped her hand into her skirt pocket, gripped her ID card, and thought to herself, "You're smug now, but tonight I'll..."

Yes, she hasn't given up yet. Although she realized in the car just now that someone hadn't "changed their mind," she, Xiaoyu... wants more!

"Liang Chao, after we finish our business, where should we go to have fun?" Xiao Jiayu's heart was pounding, but he suppressed his nervousness and asked calmly.

"Go back to the dorm and sleep." Liang Chao ate his rice without looking up.

"Oh." Xiao Jiayu said "Oh," picked up his chopsticks, put a slice of beef in the person's bowl, and said with his head down.

"Do I really have to... go back to the dorm to sleep?"

"Slurp~ Of course, I sleep in all the beds in the dorm... uh..."

Liang Chao casually agreed, and his chopsticks were already on the piece of beef when, for some reason, his hand suddenly stopped in mid-air.

"I don't eat beef!"

Suddenly, he put the beef back into Xiao Jiayu's bowl, quickly lowered his head, and began to frantically shovel rice into his mouth.

"You!!" Xiao Jiayu was speechless, his face turning into a pufferfish-like expression of anger. After staring at the person for a while, he changed his expression again.

"It's okay, I'll eat! I'll eat the beef!"

She sat demurely, a sweet smile on her face, like a sweet girl.

Seeing this, Liang Chao not only didn't laugh, but felt even more uneasy.

Danger!! Danger!!

Throughout lunch, Liang Chao ate with extreme caution, constantly watching his short, best friend's mouth.

As soon as the latter shows any sign of "firing a shot," he will immediately retaliate in self-defense—manually muting his teammate.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Jiayu did not activate his skill during the hour and a half he waited for the IFC teller counter staff to start work.

In a nearby coffee shop, Liang Chao tilted his head and looked at Xiao Jiayu beside him, his eyes filled with confusion.

At this moment, the little girl seemed a bit carsick, her eyes closed, her head resting on his shoulder, her pretty brows slightly furrowed, just like... a daughter sleeping on her father's shoulder?

[Am I overthinking it?]

Thinking of this, Liang Chao's expression softened slightly.

So she carefully moved her short best friend's head onto her lap, hoping to make her more comfortable.

Xiao Jiayu's eyelids twitched as if she was about to open them, but then she closed them again. Resting her head on her "male best friend's" lap, her brows relaxed slightly.

Liang Chao noticed, smiled, and said nothing.

As long as Xiao Jiayu doesn't do anything to damage the "best friend relationship," he can actually be a warm-hearted guy!

The café was quiet and deserted at midday.

A short, pretty girl was lying on the lap of a tall boy.

The girl's face was fair and rosy, and her long eyelashes, like the soft down of a phoenix moth, trembled slightly, making her even more endearing the more you looked at her.

Looking at his "sleeping" "daughter" on his lap, Liang Chao smiled faintly, thinking to himself, "This is so good, everyone can live!"

Suddenly, the "daughter" on my lap seemed to be uncomfortable and stirred.

This movement stretched the shirt collar open, and Liang Chao glanced at it, then couldn't take his eyes off it.

So...so white!!

Liang Chao was stunned. He never expected that his short best friend would have such a large chest...

No, what if it's a scam?

His expression turned serious, and he slowly extended his right index finger, thinking to himself, "Sister, this is wrong. We can't be too vain!"

What? You're saying this is true? I don't believe it!

Whether it's true or false, my best friend will know as soon as she presses the button!

The finger slowly approached the snow-white area, and Liang Chao stared without blinking, his Adam's apple bobbing involuntarily.

Just as he was about to succeed, Xiao Jiayu opened his eyes and sat up.

"Mmm~ How long have I been asleep!" The girl stretched and pretended to have just woken up.

"..."

Liang Chao withdrew his finger, stared with dead fish eyes, and said expressionlessly.

"One day and one night."

After speaking, he put his hands in his pockets, his face dark, his back hunched, and left in a disheveled state.

Seeing this, Xiao Jiayu quickly jogged to catch up.

"Liang Dynasty! Liang Dynasty!"

"explain."

Why aren't you smiling? Don't you like to smile?

"..."

"Hey, Tony Leung, why are you walking with your back hunched over? Are you feeling unwell?"

"!!!"

Xiao Jiayu grinned, sometimes hanging behind the boy, sometimes hopping in front of him, like a "troublesome" lark.

Fortunately, awkward moments are always short-lived!

Liang Chao silently recited the Heart-Cleansing Mantra in his heart, and finally, with astonishing perseverance, he straightened his back!

Seeing that no one was making a fool of themselves, Xiao Jiayu immediately lost interest and stopped talking.

Three minutes later.

As soon as the two pushed open the glass door of Guojin Securities' business department, a murky airflow mixed with the smells of air conditioning, strong tea, sweat, and heavy smoke rushed in.

"It's gone up!" "Oh no!"

"Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have bought this!"

The lobby was as noisy as a bustling marketplace.

The red and green numbers on the LED screen jumped wildly, and below, a crowd of stock investors thronged, their shouts, sighs, and slaps of thighs blending together, making everyone's ears ring.

Xiao Jiayu felt uncomfortable from the smell of smoke and couldn't help but cover her nose.

"Liang Chao, are you really going to invest in stocks? Maybe... you should just give up!" She tugged at Liang Chao's sleeve, then pointed to the stock market investors standing to the side, pounding their chests and blushing, and said with some concern.

Liang Chao patted her hand, about to say a few words of comfort.

Suddenly, a ding sounded, and a piece of text appeared abruptly in sight.

Ding--

————The following content is not part of the main text and will be deleted tomorrow————

Here's the original conversation I had with the editor a few days ago.

I:

Sigh, I don't know what to say. During the trial period of this book, at its best, it reached 30th place on the urban new book chart.

However, the current intelligent traffic push is exactly the same as during the trial period, receiving more than a hundred traffic per day.

My previous book, "Just Entered College, Surrounded by Ex-wives," never made it into the top 50 of the urban novel charts, but it did receive intelligent recommendations, with about 1000 views per day for about a week.

Personally, I feel this book is much better written than the last one, but... I feel like I've forgotten how to write. I've cut so many books, and I've troubled you with getting them approved every time. I really feel so sorry for you!

Editor: This book's grades are even worse now. Is it possible that it's a problem with your own writing? It's gone from over 100 to 70.

Me: The plot didn't fall apart, and there weren't any major flaws. The readers didn't say anything; look at the comments.

Editor's note: Saying nothing and silently walking away is the most terrifying thing.

Me: This is probably going to be unpublishable after 200,000 words, so... is it even worth continuing?

Editor: Let's research something new.

------

The drop started around chapters 35 and 36, right around the time the book reached 100,000 words and was automatically pushed to new readers. It could be that readers were resting the book, or it could be that I messed up the writing and didn't realize it myself.

As a result, my book is almost entirely unrecommended by the intelligent recommendation system, and it may not even be able to be listed on the shelves.

Well, I looked at the new urban novel charts, and basically all the ones ahead of me were related to the "cutting line" and entertainment, the kind of novels that naturally generate buzz and traffic.

There are at most one or two books that write pure romance novels.

This makes me wonder if I was on the wrong track from the start, or if my writing is really that bad!

For the past couple of days, I've been thinking, why don't I just cut it out? The editor told me to cut it out anyway!

But after thinking about it, I still couldn't bear to part with it!

I've been struggling to write for two days straight, and all my drafts are gone! To keep updating during the Spring Festival, I need to save up some drafts, but I probably won't be able to write 6,000 words a day anymore.

I'll do my best to keep the book alive, but if that doesn't work... it'll have to go to the factory!

In short, thank you to everyone still reading! or2!