Chapter 81: Little Note

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Little Note

Logically speaking, as a superpower with a surplus of electricity—one that even supplied the power needs of several neighboring countries—power outages usually only happened during natural disasters like typhoons.

Why was there a sudden blackout without any warning or reason?

"It’s probably a circuit issue somewhere," Chen Jingle mused.

He waited for ten minutes, but the power still hadn’t returned. Not wanting to just sit around—mostly because the house was getting unbearably hot without electricity—he decided to go for a walk.

"I’ll just go to the library," he thought. Since he was going to read anyway, it didn’t matter what he read, and it would be a good way to give his brain a break.

He headed downstairs, opened the front gate, hopped onto his electric scooter, and set off!

Hearing the commotion, someone in a nearby building immediately pricked up their ears.

"He left? Perfect!"

Li Ahmei had been infuriated by that little brat next door at noon and was determined to teach him a lesson. She had originally planned to make her move in the middle of the night, but to her surprise, there was a power outage this evening.

Talk about a godsend.

"This way, that little brat’s security cameras will be completely useless," she thought.

She bagged up the filthy contents of her bathroom trash can and quietly opened her front gate. However, the moment she stepped outside, something felt wrong. She had stepped on something soft and mushy.

Wait, why did it smell so terrible?! She looked down.

It was cat poop! So much cat poop!

When did this happen? It definitely wasn’t there when she closed the gate an hour ago!

GAG.

"Whose disgusting cat came and took a dump at my doorstep?!" she shrieked.

The old woman’s curses pierced the night sky of the village, prompting neighbors to peek out. Once they heard what she was saying, they nearly burst out laughing.

Sympathy? Nonexistent! Knowing what happened only made them laugh harder.

No normal person could like such a difficult neighbor; they were all eager to see her make a fool of herself. The news wouldn’t even need to wait until morning—it would likely spread through the entire village tonight.

Meanwhile, Chen Jingle rode his electric scooter out of the neighborhood, only to realize that the blackout seemed isolated to his area.

The downtown area across the main road was completely unaffected.

"Is this the urban-rural divide?" he wondered aloud. "It’s literally just across the street, but the difference is night and day."

He navigated his scooter through the streets until he arrived at the municipal library. This was the old library building. A new one was under construction and supposedly nearing completion, but no one knew exactly when it would open to the public.

Rumors of its completion had been circulating since last year, yet here they were in the second half of this year, and the project still wasn’t finished. At this rate, it might not even be done by the end of the year. Or perhaps, even when it was finished, it wouldn’t open to the public—just like the stadiums built for the provincial sports games.

Hilarious.

While the old library was a bit small, it remained quite popular. Having weathered years of history, it held a significant place in the hearts of many citizens. It was packed on weekends, and still saw plenty of foot traffic on weekdays. The building was divided into two floors. The first floor was retail space for the Xinhua Bookstore, while the second floor was the actual reading area.

Walking through the doors, Chen Jingle noticed stacks of supplemental textbooks piled next to the first-floor checkout counter. He briefly considered buying a set of practice workbooks for Chen Qiyun. On second thought, he decided against it. He needed to wait until she had a solid grasp of the basics.

"It’s not the time for mindless drilling yet," he reasoned.

The second floor was filled with evening readers, but the atmosphere remained peaceful and quiet. It was probably due to the time of day; bratty kids usually weren’t around at this hour. People simply grabbed a book and found a place to sit. If there were no empty seats, they just sat on the floor or stood. There was no clacking of keyboards, no eating, and no couples engaging in public displays of affection.

It was almost overly normal. Even on the first floor, everyone spoke in hushed tones. Most high schoolers were at their evening self-study sessions right now, while some middle schoolers had the night off, and evening study sessions didn’t even exist for elementary students. As a result, the library housed people of almost every age group except high schoolers. There were elementary school kids reading romance novels, middle schoolers reading anthologies, and adults perusing early childhood enlightenment books.

Chen Jingle couldn’t help but scratch his head; the scene before him felt a bit surreal.

Still, what people chose to read was their own business. The municipal library was a place for reading, and as long as they were reading books, the genre didn’t matter. Browsing through the aisles, he eventually settled on a copy of *One Hundred Thousand Whys*.

This series was incredibly famous, with nearly two hundred million copies in circulation. He had desperately wanted a set as a kid, but it had been too expensive for him to afford. Reading it now brought up a sense of nostalgia. As a popular science book, *One Hundred Thousand Whys* was undeniably a massive success. It introduced countless teenagers to foundational scientific knowledge and guided them toward the sciences. Even if only one out of ten thousand readers went on to work in scientific research after graduation, it could be considered a monumental contribution.

The edition Chen Jingle held was definitely different from the one he had read growing up, though he wasn’t sure exactly how much it had changed. It had been so long that he had practically forgotten the contents anyway.

"I’ll just skim through it," he thought.

As for whether it was inappropriate for an adult like him to read a children’s book... Again, the library was a place for reading. As long as it was a book, the genre didn’t matter. Besides, deep down, wasn’t everyone still a kid at heart?

A short while later.

He was just getting into the book when the sudden clicking of shoe heels against the floor echoed nearby.

Several readers on the second floor looked up in annoyance. His train of thought interrupted, Chen Jingle frowned and raised his head, only to see two girls walking toward the end of the aisle. They were dressed in JK uniform skirts and chunky platform loafers. However, they didn’t look like they were there to read; they seemed to be there strictly for social media clout. One posed in front of the bookshelf, pretending to read, while the other relentlessly snapped photos of her with a smartphone. They took turns playing model and photographer.

"Library socialites?" Chen Jingle thought, feeling a bit weirded out.

Then again, maybe he was being too judgmental. Taking nice photos at the library to post on their Friends Circle was actually a pretty normal thing to do. It would just be better if their shoes weren’t so loud. After a moment’s thought, he slightly turned his body to face away from them, wanting to avoid accidentally photobombing their shots.

Little did he know, this movement immediately caught the girls’ attention.

The slightly more petite girl, who was currently taking photos, felt her eyes light up. She had actually noticed the guy standing nearby earlier and thought he looked quite handsome, but she had been too focused on snapping pictures of her best friend to get a good look. Judging by his physique, clear skin, and overall aura, there was no doubt he was a total hottie.

Seeing him turn away, she boldly winked and gestured toward him with her lips.

Her taller friend looked confused and whispered, "What’s wrong?"

"A hot guy!" the petite girl mouthed repeatedly, not daring to make a sound.

The tall girl got the message. She quickly turned her head, and her eyes sparkled. The truth was, it wasn’t just men who liked looking at beautiful women; women loved looking at handsome men, too—often staring even more and with more wandering eyes. After all, a man who gives up lust gets a glowing complexion, while a woman who deprives herself of eye candy just ends up looking pale and haggard.

Having just showered, Chen Jingle exuded a crisp, clean aura, carrying the faint jasmine scent of his shampoo. Just standing there, his silhouette alone made him look like he belonged to an entirely different world than everyone else around him. He was an absolute breath of fresh air.

Shortly after.

The two girls exchanged a knowing glance and decisively shifted their position. Using the bookshelves as cover, they detoured through another aisle and stealthily maneuvered to Chen Jingle’s side. Unsurprisingly, the moment they caught a clear view of his profile, their hearts skipped a beat.

Oh my god, they never expected a trip out today to yield such a massive reward!

That side profile!

That jawline!

That undeniable aura!

They stared unblinking. Her heart racing, the petite girl subtly raised her phone. While secretly taking a photo was a bit unethical, everyone appreciates beauty. If she got caught, she could always just delete it. But if she didn’t get caught, she would post it on TikTok with hashtags like #6FootTallHottie and #EyeCandy, to see if the internet could find him.

These days, truly handsome men were far rarer than beautiful women. After all, thanks to makeup, eighty percent of girls could rank in the top twenty percent of looks, but only five percent of guys organically ranked in the top five percent. Let alone a guy who looked this naturally gorgeous. Any girl who didn’t fall for him was probably a lesbian!

Ah, it was true what they said—a man focused on his tasks is at his most handsome, even if the book he was hyper-focused on was *One Hundred Thousand Whys*.

The taller girl was much bolder. She took the initiative and walked right up to him.

"Excuse me, could we get to know each other? Do you mind if I add you on WeChat?"

Hearing her, Chen Jingle frowned and looked up again. Facing the eager and slightly bashful girl in front of him, he shook his head. "Sorry, I don’t think it’s very convenient."

To be honest, she looked decent, but he really couldn’t appreciate this kind of heavy influencer makeup. It was just too thick and gaudy. She paled in comparison to Teacher Li.

Wait, why was he suddenly thinking of Teacher Li? That was weird...

"Oh..."

The girl’s smile instantly froze. Crushed, she could almost hear the sound of her own heart breaking. It was so rare to find a guy she genuinely liked, yet she got rejected just asking for his contact info.

Ahhhh... So embarrassing!

But then again, it made sense. With looks like his, it was perfectly normal for him to have a girlfriend. It would be weirder if he didn’t.

The petite girl was just as smitten but much more timid. She could only watch helplessly as her friend approached him for his number and got shot down. She felt a bit disappointed, yet oddly relieved.

Seeing the taller girl walk back with a pout, she asked cautiously, "Should we leave?"

The tall girl glanced back at Chen Jingle and stammered in a hushed voice, "Well, we’re already here... why don’t we read for a bit?"

Hearing this made her petite friend want to roll her eyes. *Is it reading you really want to do? I won’t even bother calling you out on it.*

Fine, she wanted to stare at him too.

So, the two positioned themselves by the bookshelf, each grabbing a random book to flip open. They continually peeked at Chen Jingle diagonally across from them, angling themselves so they would be the first thing he saw if he looked up. Being so distracted, neither of them absorbed a single word. They kept shifting their postures and changing angles.

Chen Jingle, highly sensitive to noise, eventually had enough. Left with no other choice, he closed his book and turned to head downstairs.

The two girls were left staring at each other.

"Did he... just leave?"

However, just a moment later, Chen Jingle returned. He slipped a neatly folded slip of paper into the pages of the tall girl’s book, and without waiting for her reaction, turned and left.

The girl froze.

W-what was this? Could it be... had he changed his mind? Was romance finally blossoming for her?!

In that split second, she had already envisioned holding the handsome guy’s large hand, strolling together across campus while drawing envious stares from other students and inspiring bitter jealousy in her roommates...

Who knew if her roommates would be jealous, but her petite best friend standing next to her certainly was.

"Is it his WeChat ID?" she hurriedly leaned in to ask.

But when the two opened the folded note full of eager hope, they saw the words written on it:

"Ladies, your high heels are clacking far too loudly against the floor. Be mindful next time!"

The smiles on both girls’ faces instantly solidified. After exchanging glances, they practically ground their teeth in unison.

Jerk!!