The next day, he got a small half-day off.
With the exams over, the teachers needed to grade papers and handle class placement matters, so they got half a day off. But they still had to return for evening self-study,
Senior year was just that efficient.
Though going back to school was tiring, the good news was that the class promotion slots would be finalized that evening.
Just thinking about it pleased him so much that he spent the entire morning scrolling on his phone in bed,
After liking the last pretty girl's post, Lin Mo suddenly jolted awake.
How could he be so lazy?!
He'd almost continued his summer vacation bad habits. Even with a cheat, he needed to study more, or figure out how to make money using it.
His savings (his parents' inheritance, may they rest in peace) were running low. He remembered that when he was two, tiny him had watched a truck send his parents off. He seemed to have cried nonstop back then, but the memory was hazy now, and he felt nothing.
Later, he had lived in an orphanage until he was almost ten, when he was told there was a house and some money. From then on, he stopped living at the orphanage and moved into the house, though he remained registered there.
The inheritance had only been handed over by the relevant authorities when he turned sixteen. Thinking that one shouldn't be ungrateful, he donated half to the orphanage and kept half for himself.
After two or three years of sporadic spending, he hadn't expected the money to run out before college.
If he couldn't earn money, he'd have to sell the house and live at Bai Limeng's place.
If he didn't sell the house, he'd have to sell his ass to her.
Then he'd really be screwed.
Lin Mo collected his thoughts for a moment. He imagined he was a beggar holding a bowl, tossed a coin inside, then took the coin back out.
"Refresh!"
"."
Nothing miraculous happened. No coin refreshed in the empty bowl.
After some contemplation, he opened his phone, transferred fifty cents to Bai Limeng, then aimed at his WeChat wallet.
"Refresh!"
He didn't wait for his wallet balance to refresh, but he did receive Bai Limeng's question mark.
Her WeChat avatar was rather cute—a white kitten tilting its head. But this was a sad little story. The cat in the avatar was one she had raised before. Two or three years ago, it had ascended to Cat Star. Every year, the girl would visit its grave.
[Meng Meng Miao]: ?
[Mo]: Belly rub fee.
[Meng Meng Miao]: [The other party has transferred 520.5 yuan to you]
[Meng Meng Miao]: Here's money. Come over and rub this young lady's feet.
Lin Mo naturally didn't accept it. Between friends, buying gifts was fine no matter how expensive, as long as there wasn't a price tag. But directly sending money was a different matter entirely.
Especially when it was Bai Limeng.
So, he simply sent a picture of a Milk Dragon riding a Hajimi.
[Mo]: Too stinky. Not rubbing.
Then he turned on Do Not Disturb and resumed his research.
[Refresh] had no effect on digital things, nor did it work on bug exploits. For example, drinks or food could only be refreshed once, not infinitely. Old scars didn't work either, nor did freshly pricked wounds.
But bodily functions could be refreshed infinitely. After dozens of consecutive push-ups, one refresh made him not tired at all—though it left him ravenously hungry.
Then what if... it was an improper exercise?
Hmm... Weird. He had reasonable grounds to suspect the system was leading him astray, and he had evidence.
After half a day of research, Lin Mo concluded that turning trash into treasure was a solid plan. Collecting scrap and old phones? Or helping people repair appliances?
Not impossible.
After busying himself with this, Lin Mo drank a carton of brain-boosting milk, studied efficiently for a while, and the time approached noon.
Usually, he would go to Bai Limeng's place to mooch a meal. It wasn't that the food was good—he just wanted to save money by mooching off the takeout she ordered.
But the thought of her trying to fatten him up into a Liangzi left him deeply worried, so he decided to just eat instant noodles at home.
Studying after so long—with a cheat, learning became like a fish in water. So he hadn't hated studying after all. This thing called learning really did depend on talent. In one afternoon, he deeply understood and memorized all the classical Chinese poetry he'd fallen behind on.
He wondered how Li Zhihan felt after drinking the milk.
He felt like drinking the stuff was like turning on a blocker; he was so focused that even seeing Bai Limeng's sexy selfies seemed uninteresting.
Wait, why had she sent a picture without pants?
Lin Mo stared at his phone, his hand slipped, and he accidentally sent a Dragon meme reading "So trash you pick your toes."
"Knock, knock, knock~"
A knock sounded at the door, and before long, a high-ponytailed girl in a pure white school uniform barged sprightly into his room.
When you were familiar enough with someone, a knock was just a warning that she was coming—not a request to open the door.
A bit presumptuous, but when a beautiful girl did it, it became flirtatious.
Bai Limeng was the exception.
But when Lin Mo saw the girl's bare feet and a pair of long, pale legs... he nearly nutted.
"Wait... where are your pants?"
In summers past, Bai Limeng had indeed enjoyed running around without panties. But after graduating middle school, both of them had developed some defensive awareness of the opposite sex.
Now, returning to the dynamic they had a few years ago, the feeling was completely different.
"I'm wearing panties." Bai Limeng looked very upset. "What gives you the right to say my feet stink? I'm here to prove you wrong!"
"You..."
"Afraid you'd deny it and play dead, so I just took them all off. Anyway, this young lady smells good everywhere."
"Mm."
Whether it tastes good—bleh—whether it stinks or not, wouldn't I know? You always mix the laundry together. They're practically marinated.
"I'm talking to you." Bai Limeng's pretty face flushed slightly as she lifted her foot and kicked him. "I sent you a photo. What do you mean by replying with foot-picking?"
Hearing Bai Limeng's words, Lin Mo couldn't help but scan the girl's toes. White with a faint blush, like exquisitely carved soft agate.
These feet were lovely. These jade feet needed picking.
Swallowing hard, he silently cursed those damn foot fetishists for poisoning his mind.
"Literal meaning."
Bai Limeng arched an eyebrow. "Hurry up. This young lady can't swallow this insult."
He didn't know if girls had some obsession with proving to the opposite sex that they didn't stink. But Lin Mo wasn't losing out either.
"If you smoke me out, you're taking responsibility."
"Tch, so chatty. Come here."
"."
"Chatty!"
At school,
Lin Mo clutched his jaw, baring his teeth. Bai Limeng simply couldn't take a joke. She insisted he had opened his mouth and delivered a Rising Dragon Kick to his jaw.
That vicious woman had done it on purpose. Yesterday was food temptation; today was seduction.
Fine, seduce him if she wanted. But then she had to leave him hanging. Fine, fine. Playing with his mind like this, playing hard to get.
Lin Mo decided that next time she played this game, he'd just go up and bite her. Wouldn't Bai Limeng explode then?
Fortunately, though his jaw met with disaster, his grades came out in time. Lin Mo asked at the grade office and learned he had promoted.
He didn't want to spend another second in his old trash class. It was chaotic and foul, and even the homeroom teacher was a permanent fixture on Little Red Book.
After a quick pack-up, the class academic commissioner happened to be posting the grade sheet. Lin Mo left without a word under the shocked gazes of the crowd, backpack on his shoulders.
Bidding farewell to the past.
But he forgot his roots—he didn't say it to the idiots.
He had heard there were quite a few good-looking girls in the key class. He wondered if there would be others who triggered black material. The known ones were Li Zhihan and Xu Lingxi.
The key class was on the fourth floor, closest to the office, convenient for top students to communicate with teachers.
Now Lin Mo would enjoy this privilege too.
Lin Mo went to the school shop and bought some drinks, planning to give them as meeting gifts to any new classmates he got along with.
After buying them, he was halfway up the stairs when he remembered he needed to move a desk and chair first, so he had to go back downstairs to the Moral Education Office.
He had just turned when he suddenly heard delicate gasping from the stairwell.
The voice-activated light flickered on.
"It's a bit heavy... Let's rest." It was a very pleasant female voice.
Looking again, a girl with a hair bun had "refreshed" in the stairwell.
The light happened to trace the superior curves of her features—a beauty stunning at first glance and a pleasure to behold thereafter.
Most importantly, her smile was infectious, sweet enough to tingle the heart.
When smiling became a habit, even when she wasn't actually smiling, those slightly parted, cat-like pink lips and crescent-shaped eyes made her seem as if she were smiling.
High schoolers were unexpectedly pure. They only dared to chastely harbor secret crushes on one person. This girl would likely steal the three-year white moonlight of who knew how many boys.
If Lin Mo hadn't sealed his heart and locked away love after a failed confession, he probably would have fallen once again.
Now he only thought about black material and punishing his vicious childhood friend.
At this moment, her small, frail hands were dragging a chair and desk. Lin Mo was stunned to see this.
Was she promoting classes too? Why was she also rushing to ascend like him?
So she was a fellow Daoist. That made things easy.
Tsk, the scenery of the key class's inner sect was indeed different. To encounter such a character even during ascension.
Pretty or not was beside the point. Since they were classmates, he had to build some rapport.
"Are you promoting classes too? Need help?"
"Huh?" Shen Qingning stared at him for a good while. "Mm, which class are you promoting to?"
"Class Two."
The girl smiled at his words.
"Oh, that's perfect then. I'm also Class Two. My name is Shen Qingning, and you?"
"Lin Mo."
Lin Mo quite naturally took the desk and chair from her hands, conveniently giving the girl a [Refresh].
Immediately, he heard Shen Qingning let out a long "Eeeeh~"
"What's wrong?" Lin Mo knew perfectly well, but he still asked. If someone had such a big reaction and you didn't play along, it would be awkward.
"Nothing. So weird. I suddenly feel so light."
"Promoting classes definitely feels great." Lin Mo wished he could show off in front of Bai Limeng right away. "Ah, just a touch of wind and frost."
Shen Qingning froze slightly, suddenly suppressing her smile as if holding something in.
Until Lin Mo carried the desk and chair to the fourth floor, the girl pattered behind him, encountering students walking out of the classroom.
"Hello, Class Monitor~"
"Mhm, evening self-study is almost here. Hurry in and study." Shen Qingning smiled.
Lin Mo was stunned, looking at her woodenly.
Shen Qingning's eyes seemed to speak. She raised a delicate eyebrow.
"Sorry~ But I didn't lie to you either. I'm also from Class Two. I was originally helping a class-promoting student move desks and chairs. I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly~"
So she wasn't a fellow Daoist ascending together.
He had just entered the sect and met the inner sect's senior sister.
[Life Black Material System]
[You have met Shen Qingning for the first time. Partial black material unlocked.]
[Ten years later, Shen Qingning will actively approach you to take revenge on Li Zhihan.]
The system suddenly popped up, stunning Lin Mo once again.
At the same time, in his peripheral vision, Key Class Two was in utter chaos. He could faintly hear cursing from people watching a ball game on the all-in-one computer.
Wait, fuck—he hadn't entered a righteous sect, but a demonic one. This was the demonic sect's senior sister.