Chapter 357: The Bird and the Fish

The leaf drifted up and down like a little boat, finally landing on the floor between Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo.

Its silent touch was the only sound to be heard in the room.

“What are you talking about?!” Jiang Ran exclaimed.

“Y-y-you! Senior, don’t tell me the ‘pure love’ you mentioned was…”

Chi Xiaoguo’s face flushed red in an instant as she realized they had been talking completely past each other.

“A-a-a-anyway! I may have a lot of romance experience, but I have zero experience with breaking up! I never watch those angsty novels and TV dramas that just make your stomach churn!”

“B-but then again… It’s true, it’s true, breaking up is a pretty common thing, hahaha…”

She scratched her head, laughing awkwardly.

“They say it’s better to rip the Band-Aid off. If a relationship has problems and you’re not right for each other anymore, it’s definitely better to make a clean break.”

“I’m sorry, Senior. I didn’t realize you had that kind of past. I didn’t mean to open up old wounds.”

“It’s not that serious, not at all.”

Jiang Ran waved his hand dismissively.

“I just have something very important I need to do. Let’s just say you can’t have the best of both worlds. I can’t walk two parallel paths at the same time.”

Chi Xiaoguo nodded, only half-understanding.

“That’s true. The past is the past; it’s best to look forward. By the way, Senior, that photo… are you still planning on giving it back to her?”

“Definitely not.”

Jiang Ran chuckled softly.

“Since we’ve already broken up, you owe it to the other person to make it a clean break, regardless of who was right or wrong. Dragging things out with some self-indulgent, sentimental gesture would be completely irresponsible.”

“Like you said, it’s best to part on good terms. She’s a girl with a strong personality. I hope she finds a career she loves and lives the life she wants. That’s all I could ask for.”

“Wow, Senior, you’re so detached about it!”

Chi Xiaoguo, whose romance experience was extensive on paper but zero in reality, was a little shocked.

‘That’s not how it goes in novels and TV shows!’

‘It seems… it seems only jerks are this detached, right?’

‘Sigh, this whole love thing is so complicated.’

Chi Xiaoguo felt her life experience—that is, her *reading* experience—was still too lacking. ‘Looks like I’ll have to read more romance novels when I get back,’ she thought. ‘Maybe I should even branch out and study some of that gut-wrenching, angsty stuff.’

“Being detached is better for everyone involved.”

Jiang Ran shrugged.

“After all, we were from two different worlds to begin with.”

Suddenly, he recalled the day they broke up. Nan Xiuxiu had been standing outside the campus wall, shouting at him.

“I will! I’ll get into East Sea University!”

He also remembered when he’d left the school for good, Nan Xiuxiu standing on the roof of a three-story building, looking down like a queen as she shot an arrow straight through his suitcase.

‘That naively fearless Nan Xiuxiu… she must have been brimming with confidence back then, absolutely determined to win, right?’

‘She must have thought that if Jiang Ran could test into East Sea University, so could she.’

‘To even think that just goes to show how little Nan Xiuxiu knows about the higher education system in Dragon Country.’

‘Before the national college entrance exams, there are certainly plenty of shortcuts one can take to get into a top-tier university.’

‘But after the exams, and especially after being admitted to a vocational college and studying there for two years…’

‘There’s no way to transfer into a bachelor’s program at East Sea University.’

‘Okay, that’s not entirely accurate.’

‘Unless, like me, you could present a massive breakthrough in solving Goldbach’s Conjecture to the director of the Longke Institute. Then they’d certainly make a special exception, fast-tracking an approval to transfer into a bachelor’s or even a master’s program.’

‘But Nan Xiuxiu can’t travel through time, so how could she possibly manage that?’

‘Or, she could participate in the Qiu Tongcheng Mathematics Competition and win the Qiu Tongcheng Award by placing in the top ten. That award is incredibly prestigious and recognized worldwide. With it, she could naturally get a letter of recommendation from Academician Qiu Tongcheng himself and get into a better university.’

‘But for Nan Xiuxiu, who hates studying and has terrible grades, is that even possible? For her, that would be even harder than building a Time Machine from scratch!’

‘There is one other way, I suppose. Nan Xiuxiu could just call Lilith on her phone, like Zhou Xiong once did to make his classmates’ dreams come true. I’m sure Lilith could help Nan Xiuxiu take care of a “small matter” like this. After all… she’s the omnipotent Lilith.’

‘The problem is, if Nan Xiuxiu had access to Lilith, she’d most likely also have Identity Coins and a spot in the Genius Playground… Would she really need to go to all this trouble just to win me over?’

‘She could just make one phone call and have Lilith trap me inside the East Sea College of International Trade and Economics, unable to even step past the gates. She could even order Lilith to make me fall hopelessly in love with her. Why go through all the trouble of this “chase-the-husband-to-East-Sea” drama?’

By now, it was already October 2025.

Four months had passed since he and Nan Xiuxiu broke up.

‘By now, Nan Xiuxiu must have calmed down, accepted reality, and given up on her impulsive vow to get into East Sea University.’

‘Nan Xiuxiu can’t get into East Sea University. It’s simply impossible.’

This was something Jiang Ran had known from the very beginning.

Nan Xiuxiu might have found it hard to accept this harsh reality at first, but time wears everything down. Sooner or later, she would have to accept it, whether she wanted to or not.

Because…

This wasn’t the Virtual World, and she wasn’t Resident #001, Cheng Mengxue.

‘She isn’t the center of the universe, and the world doesn’t revolve around her.’

“It’s about time.”

Jiang Ran glanced at the time.

“Fang Ze said he was going to take a nap in the dorm and told us to get him for dinner. I’ll head back to the dorm to wake him up. How about we meet at the cafeteria in a little while?”

“No problem!”

Chi Xiaoguo giggled.