His usual early-morning routine of washing up done, Lin Ye changed into his Sobu High uniform.
Breakfast was simple: a sandwich bought from the convenience store the night before, heated in the microwave for two minutes, paired with a glass of milk—that was Lin Ye's breakfast.
"Woof woof woof…"
John barked a couple of times, reminding Lin Ye to prepare his breakfast too.
'Clatter clatter…'
"Dog food, eat your fill,"
"Woof woof woof…"
John lowered his head and started eating too. Though he wasn't entirely satisfied with the dog food, compared to having nothing, he still figured it wasn't bad—besides, generally speaking, there'd be a big feast in the evening. He looked forward to tonight's big feast, and the after-dinner walk outside.
'Crunch crunch…'
John savored it blissfully.
Before leaving, Lin Ye fiercely rubbed the dog's head. John shook his head, expressing his strong displeasure with that side of things.
"I'm off, John. Guard the house well."
"Woof."
He barked once, a little impatiently.
In an apartment like this, he really didn't think there was any need to guard anything.
No one ever came at all.
That wasn't quite right either—there were still pretty women who came here, and some who even stayed the night.
John recalled several of those human females.
'Thud…'
A dull sound.
The apartment door closed, and Lin Ye headed for the train station.
The morning sun rising, a fresh breeze blowing,
walking along the street toward the gate of Sobu High,
Lin Ye enjoyed the ease and comfort of this moment.
Ahead in his field of vision, high school girls in Sobu High uniforms gathered in twos and threes, laughing and chatting, brimming with youth and vitality.
Being one of them always made a person feel young again, made their mindset feel many years younger too.
"Senpai,"
'Pat…' His shoulder was tapped by a girl.
Quickly, a playful girl with shoulder-length hair darted out and entered Lin Ye's field of vision.
"Good morning!"
"Morning, Isshiki,"
"Running into you here today—Senpai and I really are fated, hehehe,"
Isshiki Iroha was as familiar and forward as ever, without the slightest sense of unfamiliarity or distance.
Girls like Isshiki often had a natural advantage in social situations—though they'd likewise be rejected by certain unsuitable people.
Between people, differences always exist.
"If you didn't deliberately loiter nearby for a long time waiting for me, then I'll admit our meeting today counts as fate."
As his words fell, Isshiki Iroha laughed out loud and spoke, leaning her body in, her hands instinctively looping around Lin Ye's left arm. "How can you say that about me? When a girl really is waiting, Senpai, as a boy, shouldn't just expose it outright—girls still need to save face."
She wanted to save face.
Lin Ye didn't believe it.
"If you really cared about your face, would you still be clinging to my arm right now?"
Lin Ye pointed at the students in the distance. By now, quite a few students had already cast their gazes toward him and Isshiki—at this age, people always had an extremely high interest in gossip about young romance.
"What does it matter? Senpai and I have a normal relationship. Me doing this is just a show of the friendliness of our past friendship, hehehe,"
She showed not the slightest sign of letting go—on the contrary, she hugged even tighter.
For a moment, Lin Ye felt the soft sensation of a certain part of the girl.
This girl really had no reservations at all.
"In the eyes of most Sobu High students, I'm dating Miura Yumiko,"
"But Senpai, you aren't, are you?"
This was the truth.
"So it's fine! I don't mind—or does Senpai mind? Doesn't Senpai want to be misunderstood by other students?"
Isshiki Iroha blinked her big eyes, radiating an expression of curiosity and confusion—but in Lin Ye's eyes, all of it was Isshiki Iroha putting on an act.
"You—I'm worried you'll be isolated and ostracized,"
Isshiki Iroha froze. This was something she truly hadn't considered—no, what she hadn't considered was that Lin Ye was thinking on her behalf.
The possibility of being isolated—she, Isshiki Iroha, had considered it; it was just that she'd judged this risk to be one she could bear and resolve, which was why she'd made this intimate gesture on the way to school.
"Ohh, I'm so touched, Senpai, I'm so touched!"
Isshiki Iroha let out a whimpering sound, her whole body practically wishing it could press against Lin Ye.
"Senpai caring about me this much—I, I seem to… have no other option besides giving myself to you."
Lin Ye rolled his eyes irritably. "No."
"Ah!"
Isshiki Iroha exclaimed in shock. "You won't even take a beautiful junior throwing herself at you?"
"Not interested. I'm not the slightest bit interested."
"How can you be like this,"
"I, Lin Ye, am not a man controlled by his lower half. You think this little bit of charm of yours can fool me? Keep dreaming!"
"Ohh ohh ohh… I'm so mad,"
Isshiki Iroha was so angry she gritted her teeth. "I'm not being nice to Senpai anymore."
"That suits me just fine,"
Isshiki Iroha grew even angrier.
"If you think I'll let go, Senpai, keep dreaming!"
But as Lin Ye's hand rapped down on Isshiki Iroha's forehead, the girl let go in pain and clutched her head,
"Ow."
She looked aggrieved. Lin Ye's rap really did hurt—even though the damage was minimal, it was surprisingly painful.
"Hmph."
Lin Ye snorted.
He'd long since grown used to this junior's forwardness. At first he'd still spoken up to remind her many times, telling her to mind her words and actions, but she never changed.
Isshiki Iroha kept up her aggrieved appearance. Her gaze swept around quickly, then suddenly shrank back.
She'd discovered that about ten meters behind her and Lin Ye,
there were two high school girls.
That blond high school girl with the curvaceous figure was none other than Miura Yumiko, the one whom most Sobu High students believed to be Lin Ye's girlfriend.
No wonder—no wonder so many people up ahead had such strange looks in their eyes. They must have spotted Miura Yumiko and were anticipating something happening!
Something like Miura Yumiko furiously charging up, prying her and Lin Ye apart, and then unleashing a barrage of violence and warnings at her.
Those students were definitely anticipating that scene—it was just that what they hadn't expected was that Miura Yumiko watched from start to finish, yet never once came up to teach her a lesson.
And the woman standing beside Miura Yumiko was even more famous.
Yukino Yukinoshita, the President of the Service Club.
Right now, the cold gaze of that girl with long black hair and navy-blue eyes—just one look made Isshiki Iroha feel an unprecedented chill, as though her body were about to freeze.
So scary. It wasn't even the first time Senpai had seen her being this intimate with Senpai—why was her gaze so terrifying this morning, making Isshiki even sense danger.
"Phew…"
Isshiki Iroha took a deep breath and exhaled. Today the two of them walking almost shoulder to shoulder on the road shocked her even more.
You had to understand that Miura Yumiko and Yukinoshita-senpai—those two had never gotten along; there was no friendship between them to speak of, and barely any social interaction.
But today, they were walking shoulder to shoulder together.
The appearance of this scene meant there must definitely be something that had made both of them forget the very fact that they were walking shoulder to shoulder.
It had to be because of her intimately looping her arm through Senpai's.
Soon,
Isshiki Iroha felt the gazes of the two senpais shooting straight at her, and her heart trembled in that moment.
So scary.
Too scary.
Women, when they got angry, really were too scary.
Isshiki Iroha immediately turned around to face away, and involuntarily moved a little closer to Lin Ye—only this way could she feel a bit more warmth.
'Tap tap tap…'
The footsteps continued.
Every step Isshiki Iroha took was under pressure; she could only steel herself and keep following Lin Ye's pace toward the gate of Sobu High.
She'd made up her mind: in the future, she'd tone it down a bit. With both senpais bearing down on her, the pressure really was a bit much.
A short while later,
Isshiki Iroha and Lin Ye entered the school gate.
Not far off, a tall female teacher with long black hair in a white coat was watching the students walking by, occasionally calling out reminders about proper appearance.
Shizuka Hiratsuka's gaze quickly fell upon Lin Ye and Isshiki Iroha.
This pairing wasn't all that strange, but when she saw the pairing of Yukino Yukinoshita and Miura Yumiko about ten meters behind, she instantly revealed an astonished expression.
What's the situation?
Why are these two coming to school together?
Even if it were pure coincidence, there's no way they'd come to school walking shoulder to shoulder!
Separate, one ahead and one behind—that would be the most normal thing.
And besides,
Shizuka Hiratsuka looked at Lin Ye and Miura Yumiko—didn't these two start dating last week?
A newly dating couple should be coming and going to school together, so why was it Isshiki Iroha accompanying Lin Ye's side this time, coming to school together?
This was very problematic.
With Miura Yumiko's fiery temperament, she actually hadn't gone up to teach Isshiki Iroha a lesson—this too left Shizuka Hiratsuka utterly bewildered.
Walking together with her own boyfriend like that, and the girlfriend, Miura Yumiko, could still endure it—she found it hard to imagine.
"Young people these days, sigh,"
A sigh. Shizuka Hiratsuka shook her head. She was understanding young people these days less and less.
"Sensei,"
At this moment, Lin Ye had already walked over and just happened to catch Shizuka Hiratsuka's sigh.
"What is it?"
"Sighing often can sigh your own happiness away."
As his words fell, Shizuka Hiratsuka fell silent. The gaze she turned toward Lin Ye was suffused with a faint trace of helplessness.
"You brat, you'd better mind your own business!"
This brat's relationships were far, far more complicated than hers.
He used to be a perfectly normal, ordinary male high school student—how had he suddenly soared into the sky these past two months, as if a stroke of romantic luck had arrived?
Could it be because she'd sent Lin Ye into the Service Club?
Putting a male like Lin Ye into the Service Club full of cute girls, bringing him enough romantic fortune?
Thinking this way, Shizuka Hiratsuka grew envious too. She was the Service Club's advisor—how come she hadn't gotten a share of that romantic luck!
She, Shizuka Hiratsuka, also wanted to find a love that belonged to her; she also wanted to get married soon!
If this went on any longer, she'd really be turning thirty.
So distressing she wanted to cry.
Shizuka Hiratsuka silently grieved over her own life's great matter.
Looking at Shizuka Hiratsuka's expression of solitary sorrow, Lin Ye could only lament that he'd been born several years too late.
Beautiful, great figure, wealthy family—the only flaw was her somewhat fiery temperament, but she was still a rather high-quality marriage prospect. What a pity…
Now, her age was also just a tiny bit on the older side.
Lin Ye guessed that Hiratsuka-sensei probably hadn't considered marriage and romance at all when she was young; now that she was older and starting to consider it, she found she couldn't compete at all against those young little sisters.
Men, after all, always preferred the young ones.
Even twenty years from now, Lin Ye would say that he'd forever prefer young and beautiful girls.
Isshiki Iroha said goodbye to Lin Ye and left.
Lin Ye walked alone toward the classroom.
Not long after he'd taken his seat, Yukino Yukinoshita came walking straight toward him. Her navy-blue expression quietly fixed on Lin Ye for a few seconds, and seeing Lin Ye reveal a slightly awkward smile, she finally withdrew her gaze.
Finally, before taking her seat, she let out a soft hmph at a volume only the two of them could hear.
How rare,
Yukinoshita directly expressed her own emotions.
In Lin Ye's view, this meant the girl was jealous, unhappy.
A good thing.
'Buzz buzz buzz…'
Since they were in the classroom, to avoid drawing more attention and gossip, Lin Ye used his phone to send a message.
—Are you unhappy?
—No.
The words were simple, but even through the screen one could feel that trace of displeasure coming from the girl.
—It's Isshiki's fault. I refused her, but she clung to me.
—Weren't you holding her quite comfortably?
This girl really was observant.
—I was waiting the whole time for you to come over and chase her off.
Yukino Yukinoshita didn't reply.
Lin Ye didn't know whether the girl didn't know how to reply, or whether she didn't want to.
Could it be that Yukino really had thought about it, but just didn't dare to step up?
—Yukino, you wouldn't actually have thought about doing that, would you!?
Still he got no reply, except that Lin Ye clearly sensed Yukino's subtle subconscious reaction after she'd read this message.
This girl really had thought about it after all—she just hadn't done it for certain reasons.
What a pity.
Probably Yukino still didn't want to expose the current relationship between the two of them.
Perhaps Yukino had wanted Miura Yumiko to step up and do this, except that Miura Yumiko, knowing she didn't have that standing, never went up in the end.
After realizing this, Lin Ye faintly connected the reason why Yukino and Miura Yumiko had come to school together.
A few minutes later,
the class bell rang.
Lin Ye didn't send any more messages to Yukinoshita either. During class, Yukinoshita basically wouldn't reply to messages.
Time passed minute by minute, second by second.
Finally,
the clock's hands pointed to nine o'clock.
The time point when the superpower refreshed each week.
As for last week's superpower, Hypnosis, what Lin Ye was most curious about now was what the drawback of the Hypnosis superpower was.
Having used it for a week, he still hadn't discovered any obvious sign of a drawback.
Soon, the answer would be revealed.
[Your superpower from last week, Hypnosis, the experience has ended.]
[Drawback revealed.]
[The drawback is: After the Hypnosis superpower experience ends, the opposite-sex hypnotized subject will remember the events that occurred during the period of hypnosis.]
Lin Ye slowly typed out two question marks.
Remember the events that occurred during the hypnosis.
In other words, the memories he'd hypnotized girls into forgetting would also come back, right!?
Shocking!
Lin Ye's gaze immediately shot toward Yukino Yukinoshita to his front left.
As a hypnotized subject, a part of Yukino Yukinoshita's memory had been affected, and now that part of her memory was about to recover.
And besides Yukino Yukinoshita, there was another girl whose memory had, under the effect of his Hypnosis superpower, directly forgotten the events of that morning—and now those would come back to her too.
In that instant, Lin Ye's pressure surged.
He wanted to run.
At the very least he had to leave now, otherwise he'd have to face the immense pressure brought by the two girls head-on.
At this moment,
a new notification refreshed.
[Your superpower for this week has been updated.]
[Superpower—Body Swap.]
[But the drawback is ■■■■■]
Body Swap?
What could this superpower be used for?
At first, Lin Ye didn't think of any occasion or scope where it could be used.
Compared to that, he'd already noticed that the girl seated in the front-left position had her body trembling slightly and stiffening.
After a few seconds passed, her stiffened body slowly relaxed, and her body turned slightly to the side, her eyes casting an icy gaze over.
It was a suffocating, icy gaze, like killing intent.
Yukino Yukinoshita, at this very moment, had already recovered and recalled that part of her memory that had been interfered with.
It's over.
Lin Ye decided to flee and lie low first; once the girl calmed down, they could have a good talk.
"Swish!"
"What is it, Student Lin?"
On the podium, the middle-aged male teacher asked after seeing Lin Ye raise his hand.
"I—I'm feeling a bit unwell, I need, I need to go to the infirmary."
"You may,"
And at this moment,
Yukino Yukinoshita raised her hand too. "Sensei, I'm feeling a bit unwell as well,"
"Uh!"
The middle-aged male teacher was startled. In all these years, it was the first time he'd seen Yukino Yukinoshita, such a good student, leave school partway through because she felt unwell.
"Go on, then. It works out—the two of you can look after each other."
Lin Ye was ten thousand times unwilling.
This Yukino must have been worried he'd flee, so she'd broken her long-standing way of doing things and directly claimed to be unwell just to follow him.
Yukino Yukinoshita rose and came to Lin Ye's side. "Let's go, Student Lin,"
Her cold, clear words couldn't conceal a trace of anger.
She was truly angry this time.
Anyone would be angry.
Lin Ye silently followed.
And the whole International Class of students subconsciously watched the two of them leave the classroom.
Although they didn't think there was any problem with going to the infirmary because of feeling unwell, their subconscious instinct sensed there was a problem—there must be some hidden, unspeakable secret they didn't know about.
Otherwise, how could it be so coincidental that the two of them happened to feel unwell at the same time, and go to the infirmary together?
The many students let their imaginations run wild.
A few of them even thought of the scene from earlier that day—
Yukino Yukinoshita walking together with Lin Ye's girlfriend Miura Yumiko, seemingly chatting about something.
Could it be, could it be…
The many associations spread out once again.
With youthful, energetic boys and girls around, curiosity and gossip about romance was always unavoidable.
Along the way,
the two were silent.
Walking down the corridor of the academic building, neither of them spoke a word—only the footsteps kept sounding continuously.
Lin Ye watched the girl with long black hair beside him out of the corner of his eye.
Once they reached the infirmary, if the school doctor weren't present, he'd probably have to face the raging storm coming from Yukino Yukinoshita.
Phew.
Things had come to this.
He could only face it.
Lin Ye silently prepared himself mentally.
...
...
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