Chapter 52: 52. The New Neighbor

“Classmate, do you know Liu Dezhu from the class next door?”

This sentence took only 0.001 seconds to penetrate Nan Gengchen’s heart.

Two such beautiful female classmates, it took Nan Gengchen just an instant to feel he was in love.

Then, there was no more after that.

It was as though Cupid originally intended to shoot him with an arrow, but he watched as the other changed the arrow of love for an RPG rocket.

It was too sudden.

Nan Gengchen was silent for a long time and then suddenly said, “I don’t know him… but I can get to know him.”

Wang Yun smiled, said nothing more, and focused on organizing her desk.

The two girls didn’t bring much to school, just some stationery and textbooks for language, math, and foreign language classes, and nothing else.

Qing Chen found that he didn’t recognize the labels on their clothing.

Although his range of knowledge was wide, his poverty meant he naturally left out luxury brands when it came to storing knowledge.

How poor were he and Nan Gengchen?

Let me put it this way, their friendship could even be used to prove their moral standards.

They were both forced to detach from low-level tastes.

After one class, Qing Chen was very clear that Wang Yun and Bai Waner were probably Time Travelers too, and their reason for transferring schools was actually aimed at Liu Dezhu.

In 45 minutes, Wang Yun couldn’t help but look at her arm 6 times, Bai Waner 5 times, both at the countdown spot.

It’s worth mentioning that Nan Gengchen looked at his 21 times.

After class, Wang Yun and Bai Waner walked out of the classroom, and in the corridor, there were already two boys waiting there.

These were two boys Qing Chen had never seen in school before, one tall and clean, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with the air of a cultured scoundrel from the movies.

The other was demurely wearing black-framed glasses.

The four of them stood in the corridor, whispering about something, drawing the sidelong glances of countless classmates in the corridor.

In the floor that Qing Chen’s class is on, there are a total of six classes, 452 students.

But these four people standing there seemed to be the focus of the entire floor, forcing everyone’s gaze to turn to them, creating a feeling of being shamed by their presence.

The boy with gold-rimmed glasses seemed to be the leader of the four, as he spent the most time speaking calmly while the others listened.

At that moment, Nan Gengchen hurried back to the classroom and, in a lowered voice, said, “These four transfer students are together, I asked the class next door, and those two boys transferred to their second year class four.”

“Hmm,” Qing Chen said, “Anything else?”

“The one with the gold-rimmed glasses is named Hu Xiaoniu, someone saw him driving the other three here this morning,” Nan Gengchen said, “The other boy is named Zhang Tianzhen.”

“Driving?” Qing Chen was stunned.

For boys as hard-up as them, who had seen a classmate drive to school before? Isn’t that something only found in soap operas?

However, Qing Chen suddenly felt that Liu Dezhu had really become a target now, and perhaps in the future, many more would come because of the three words “Uncle Li Dong.”

And Liu Dezhu would slowly become the center of a maelstrom, continually attracting new Time Travelers.

All day long, Wang Yun and Bai Waner barely spoke to any classmates, and between classes, they would go outside the classroom to chat with Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen.

They hardly gave the school’s students any chance to interact with them.

Throughout the day, the two girls spoke a few words to Nan Gengchen, such as asking for the teacher’s name, the progress of the teaching, and some information about the school’s facilities and customs.

As for Qing Chen, they didn’t speak a word to him.

Qing Chen could tell that these two girls performed better in their studies than one might expect.

Bai Waner took out a 2021 TOEFL real test book directly from her bag during English class, which Qing Chen had worked on before.

Meanwhile, Wang Yun was tackling physics competition problems and barely paid attention to other classes. These Olympiad problems Qing Chen had never seen before, they were definitely proprietary teaching materials from some educational institution.

Moreover, when Qing Chen passed by the hallway on his way to the bathroom once, he distinctly heard the four of them speaking English.

This must have been a deliberate choice to prevent their classmates from understanding.

Qing Chen couldn’t eavesdrop, but he still picked up on some keywords: Time Traveler, travel, how to get from City 7 to City 18.

In the afternoon, when it was time for the evening self-study session, Qing Chen whispered to Nan Gengchen, “I’m leaving early. Text me on WeChat if there’s anything at school.”

Wang Yun and Bai Waner watched Qing Chen leave the classroom, and one of them asked Nan Gengchen, “Is he skipping class?”

“Yes,” Nan Gengchen replied sorrowfully.

“Isn’t he a good student, why is he skipping class?” Bai Waner wondered.

“That’s the privilege of being a good student, I guess. To this day, no teacher has ever spoken to him about it,” Nan Gengchen said.

No sooner had he spoken than he saw Wang Yun and Bai Waner also stand up, pack their things, and skip class without looking back.

Nan Gengchen sat alone, desolately, in the last row.

As Nan Gengchen watched the sunset outside the classroom, he suddenly felt a touch of melancholy…

…

Qing Chen walked home. He was going to change into clothes he hadn’t worn in a long time… and then go to an underground shop that illegally bought gold to sell the gold he had exploited from Lu Guangyi.

The Breathing Technique was too taxing on his energy, so he had to sustain his diet.

However, he wasn’t sure if gold from the Inner World would test differently from gold in the Outer World.

Although he had tested the densities using the suspension method yesterday, and they were the same on both sides, he was still a bit uneasy.

The so-called gold suspension test involved suspending the gold in water to determine its volume, and then calculating its density based on the weight. The method was very simple.

The density of gold at room temperature is 19.23 grams per cubic centimeter.

If the density is nearly the same, it is genuine gold.

Qing Chen, having prepared everything, slung his backpack over his shoulders and pushed open the door, only to run into Wang Yun, Bai Waner, Hu Xiaoniu, and Zhang Tianzhen.

He realized then that his new neighbors were indeed them.

Wang Yun and Bai Waner lived on the second floor, opposite Jiang Xue.

Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen, on the other hand, were directly opposite him.

The others had indeed come for Liu Dezhu, but forming a connection with Jiang Xue too was a good opportunity.

This was the sole reason they chose to live in this dilapidated building.

Wang Yun froze for a moment when she saw Qing Chen and then smiled, “I didn’t expect you to live here too.”

Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, Hu Xiaoniu smiled and asked Wang Yun, “And who is this?”

“This is our classmate from Grade 11 Class 3,” Wang Yun explained, “the teachers say he’s one of the top students in our grade.”

Hu Xiaoniu turned to Qing Chen, “Hello, Hu Xiaoniu. Please take care of me.”

“Hmm,” Qing Chen nodded calmly, “Please take care of me too.”

After saying that, he quickly disappeared into the twilight, with no intention of further interaction with them.