"Stop," An Suling called out coldly to Alex.
Alex stopped and looked at her, puzzled.
"Come here," An Suling commanded him, her expression blank.
"Suling..." Freya pleaded with her eyes, but An Suling ignored her.
Seeing from Freya's face that it wasn't a serious matter and that his identity definitely hadn't been exposed, Alex wasn't worried and walked straight up to An Suling.
Up close, her features were revealed in vivid detail. Her skin was smooth and fair, without a single fine hair on her face. She was as perfect as an exquisite doll, not looking like a killer at all, but rather like a pampered noblewoman.
Noticing him examining her face, An Suling furrowed her brows slightly before smoothing them out again. She pointed to a large pile of things next to her legs, twitched the corner of her mouth, and said, "These are all the extracurricular workbooks from freshman to senior year, plus various test papers for every subject. I had people search the entire city to find them and bought every single kind. You have the college entrance exam in two years, so I'll give them to you!"
Alex's mouth twitched. What the hell...
But seeing Freya's hopeful expression, Alex knew she didn't want him to clash with An Suling, and now wasn't the time to fall out, so he endured it and offered a stiff smile. "Thank you, Auntie. You're so kind, Auntie."
He emphasized the word "Auntie."
An Suling wasn't even angry; she actually looked a bit pleased, slightly curling her lips and nodding. "Mm, take these things and go to school. Remember not to be late."
Her tone was incredibly gentle, like a cat that had successfully toyed with a mouse and was now elegantly licking its paws.
Alex sighed, accepted reality, gathered the half-meter-high stack of workbooks and test papers into his arms, and left the house under Freya's apologetic gaze.
"Xiao Ke, wait, why did you buy so many workbooks?"
Kiara saw him from afar and ran over happily, but her expression turned to surprise once she saw what he was holding.
Alex said helplessly, "An auntie gave them to me. It's such a hassle."
Kiara blinked and said with extreme seriousness, "If I filmed you right now and added the caption 'Look how happy he's smiling,' it would definitely get a lot of likes."
Hope shone in her eyes, though she seemed a bit embarrassed to say it out loud.
Alex saw through her thoughts instantly. Short videos were quite popular in this world, and almost every young person had the Tremble app installed on their phone, using it to record daily life and gain followers in their spare time.
Kiara was clearly a short-video enthusiast. Inspiration had struck, and she was eager to try it out on him.
Alex didn't mind. "If you want to film me, go ahead, but just don't show my face."
Kiara was delighted. Fearing he might change his mind, she quickly took out her phone and promised, "I'll Photoshop a pig's head onto your face so no one will know what you look like."
Alex rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.
The two of them started filming the short video by the side of the road. No acting was needed; Alex played himself, holding the giant stack of exercises with a depressed look, while Kiara filmed him with her phone, narrating in a cute voice. Within a few minutes, it was filmed and posted.
She also made Alex follow her. Alex had no choice but to download Tremble. After following Kiara, he saw her latest post.
The caption was: My neighbor's kid. His auntie gave him a pile of workbooks and test papers today. Everyone, look how happy he is.
The protagonist in the video had a crying, two-dimensional pig's head over his own, giving a very funny and comical effect.
Alex looked at Kiara's previous videos. She didn't post often, and never showed her face. Most were travel videos, with a few about her shopping trips.
After filming, they didn't worry about it anymore and walked to school together. On the way, Kiara asked Alex, "Xiao Ke, what do you plan to do with these workbooks?"
Alex originally wanted to say he'd throw them away, but then he thought, since he planned to change everyone's impression of him, throwing away study materials was obviously not appropriate.
He could only say solemnly, "Of course, I'll finish all the exercises. I can't let Auntie's good intentions go to waste."
Kiara smiled with relief. Now she finally believed that Alex had truly turned over a new leaf. She said softly, "I see some are for senior year and some for freshman year; it's actually not that much. You only need to do the sophomore exercises. If you don't understand anything, you can ask me."
She spoke earnestly. Since Alex had the motivation to improve, she naturally wouldn't ignore him. After thinking for a moment, Kiara added, "Xiao Ke, why don't you come to my house this weekend? I'll teach you how to do the problems."
Chen Luoqiu opened her eyes and found herself lying on her familiar little bed. She was still in the old house she had lived in for over a dozen years. A hint of regret flashed through her heart.
In her dream, she didn't have to worry about anything; she could do whatever she wanted without thinking about reality. She was free and carefree. Unfortunately, it was just a dream.
Recalling the content of last night's dream, Chen Luoqiu's cheeks heated up. She couldn't help but sigh; it was truly an absurd dream.
In the dream, she had actually turned into two people. At the final moment, she, under the alias Chen Yuqian, had even wanted to offer the other version of herself to Chen Longtao. If this hadn't been a dream, she would have thought she was crazy.
Then, recalling the various intimate details with Chen Longtao, Chen Luoqiu felt surprised and a bit ashamed. She hadn't expected her dream self to be so wanton and ridiculous.
However, she felt no guilt; after all, it was just a dream. Chen Luoqiu had taken biology class and knew that having erotic dreams wasn't anything shameful for an adolescent.
Actually, aside from that, having two versions of herself in the dream was quite interesting to Chen Luoqiu. After waking up, she didn't find it as strange or eerie as she did in the dream. To her waking self, both were her; she had both Chen Yuqian's memories and Chen Ruyun's memories—it was a novel experience.
Suddenly, Chen Luoqiu froze. This time, just like last time, she could recall all the details of the dream upon waking. It didn't feel much like a dream, which made her feel that something was off, yet she felt inexplicably expectant.
"I'll probably have this kind of dream again next time," Chen Luoqiu thought to herself.
"Luoqiu."
While taking care of business in the bathroom, Chen Luoqiu heard a "thud," followed by her mother calling her name.
She didn't care about anything else and rushed out of the bathroom, running into the room to see her mother struggling to hold onto the bed. It looked like she had fallen while trying to get out of bed.
Chen Luoqiu hurried over to support Yu Youwei, checking her carefully to ensure she wasn't hurt before breathing a sigh of relief.
Yu Youwei said, "These legs are getting more and more disobedient."
Chen Luoqiu's face darkened, but she forced a smile. "I learned some massage techniques from an old Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner. I'll give you a massage in a bit, Mom; it should make you feel more comfortable."
Yu Youwei frowned. "It's not that person from last time, is it? That person isn't a good guy; he was clearly after you, and his medical skills are a scam. I chased him away before I even let him into the room. Why would you go back to him?"
Chen Luoqiu said, "It's not him; it's a different female practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I don't know her. She insisted on following me home last time, bragging about how amazing she was, and she even brought a bunch of certificates and didn't charge any money, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to try."
Yu Youwei sighed and didn't say anything else to her daughter. If she weren't so useless, her daughter wouldn't have to think about begging others for help.
"Mom, don't think too much. You'll definitely get better. Let me help you to the bathroom."
She carefully helped her mother into the bathroom.
After getting her settled and helping her back up, she suddenly heard her mother say in a strange tone, "Luoqiu, you've been dreaming again, haven't you?"
Chen Luoqiu looked in the direction of her mother's gaze and was shocked. What she saw was the underwear she had just changed out of—it was soiled!
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