Chapter 178 It's Better to Be Lucky Than Good

The final two basketball games of the first day perfectly illustrated what it meant to be lucky rather than good.

Changjun's victory over Hengzhong wasn't as crushing as expected, with the final point difference only in the twenties.

This meant that even against Changjun, the Hengzhong women's basketball team didn't perform too badly; they were still quite excellent, showing considerable competitiveness.

The Fourth High and Eleventh High teams, on the other hand, were a complete train wreck.

Their level was nowhere near Hengzhong's.

If the draw had been different, with Changjun and Hengzhong facing the other two teams, those two schools might still have been the ones scoring points for Xia Hai High.

In the battle of the weak, Eleventh High was slightly better.

It was like Silver 1 versus Silver 4, a fairly easy win.

After all, one was at the peak of Silver, while the other was a lucky Bronze.

The ranks were strict.

In the end, the leaderboard underwent a dramatic change:

Changjun: 310 (+40)

Eleventh High: 240 (+40)

Fourth High: 210 (+0)

Hengzhong: 200 (+0)

The Northern Expedition was a complete success.

From being an easy target, dead last by a wide margin, they had now become a clear second place.

However, they were still a full 70 points behind first place.

Even if Changjun played casually on the second day, as long as they remained in second or third place, their championship would be pretty much guaranteed.

What's more, the second day mainly tested academic ability and the final talent show, and Changjun, as a top twenty school in the country, naturally had nothing to fear.

It could only be said that Eleventh High, which was weak in academic ability, was fortunate to be in second place today, with a slight advantage. Otherwise, by the second day, at the home ground of the top-tier schools, there would be no good opportunity to chase points.

To be precise, even with this forty-point lead, Eleventh High would still most likely end up at the bottom.

After all, there weren't many people in this school who could be relied upon in terms of academics.

Even a holy son like Little Sun might have a dozen or so counterparts at other schools.

Of course, that was something for the leaders to worry about.

The students would only feel that as long as they weren't too embarrassing, so that the other three schools wouldn't look down on them, that would be enough.

By nine o'clock in the evening, it was basically time to return to the dorms and rest.

Then, Tang Jian, Chen Yuan, Zhou Yu, and the others started to follow up on their earlier plans.

Eleventh High and Changjun were in the same dormitory area.

The three of them sat on the benches in the dormitory area, heads down, playing on their phones.

Then, they forcibly squeezed Zhang Chao in the middle, preventing him from running away.

"You promised us you'd find a female academic from Changjun to be your girlfriend. Don't let your brothers down," Zhou Yu said, head down.

"Who promised you that? Don't mess around..." Zhang Chao tried to leave.

Then Tang Jian also held down his arm, reminding him, "It's a rare opportunity, don't waste it. There are Xiang girls everywhere here."

"Ask Chen Yuan how good Xiang girls are," Zhou Yu added fuel to the fire. (Xiang refers to Hunan province.)

"They're really good. The one I'm dating right now is great."

Chen Yuan, who was chatting with Xia Xinyu while also indulging these guys' nonsense, also actively provided emotional value, chiming in.

"What's the point of you guys using Xia Xinyu as an example..." Zhang Chao didn't want to go hunting for Xiang girls, so he directly retorted, "Let's not hit on them. It wouldn't be good if people thought everyone from Eleventh High was a sleazy creep."

"Aren't they?" Tang Jian asked rhetorically.

"The guys at our Eleventh High are indeed lame," Zhou Yu said.

"Definitely, definitely," Chen Yuan nodded.

"Then teach me first, show me how it's done," Zhang Chao cleverly countered.

Then, Chen Yuan and Zhou Yu, these two heretics, looked at Tang Jian.

"Alright, I'll demonstrate how a real master hits on girls."

Tang Jian actually wasn't fazed at all and stood up directly.

Then, he walked over to two Changjun girls and started chatting with them...

His bravery stunned the remaining three.

He wasn't just a keyboard warrior; he was a real playboy.

After a while, Tang Jian came back.

And the two girls also approached with smiles, taking the initiative to greet everyone, "Hello, everyone."

He didn't even make them feel disgusted.

Looking at their smiles, they were a little sweet and cute.

No wonder Tang Shen couldn't be conquered by Qiu Meng; this kid really had the capital to choose.

"Y-you, hello," Zhang Chao also greeted with a polite smile.

As soon as he spoke, the two girls looked at each other, as if discussing something.

Then, one of them took the initiative to say with a smile, "You're a very nice person, and you look very upright."

"Ah..." Zhang Chao didn't understand why, but he still responded politely, "Thank you."

"Yes, you need to be more confident," the other girl also encouraged with a smile.

Huh? What was this?

He was very upright and should be more confident.

Then, one of the girls said generously, "Yes, although I don't understand why girls at Eleventh High ostracize you for being bad at CS (Counter-Strike), and don't want to talk to you, we don't have that custom here in Jinan. Don't you have depression? If you really want to find a girl to chat with, you can add my QQ..."

"Thank you."

With a friendly smile on his face, Zhang Chao replied, "I'm already very happy to be able to talk to you today. My depression is much better."

"So you're okay now?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Sorry to bother you two."

"Then we're leaving."

"Okay, goodbye."

After smiling and sending off these two kind girls, Zhang Chao directly grabbed Tang Jian by the back of the collar and forcefully smacked his butt. "I'm bad at CS? I'm ostracized by girls? I have depression? Why did you bring me up when you hit on them!"

"But you are bad at CS," Zhou Yu said.

"But those two girls are really nice," Chen Yuan said.

"They really have the heart of a bodhisattva," Zhou Yu's impression of Xiang girls improved even more.

"In any case, the task of hitting on girls from other schools during the study tour is complete."

Tang Jian then pulled out a small notebook from somewhere and drew a checkmark on it with a pen.

"? Are you here to check in and complete tasks?" Zhou Yu asked in surprise.

"Tang Bureau probably has some kind of system panel, where he gets rewards for completing tasks," Chen Yuan said.

"Then what other plans do you have?" Zhang Chao asked curiously.

Then, Tang Jian handed him the notebook.

Then, the three of them gathered around to look at Tang Jian's plan.

Then they saw something like "At least ten beauties with a score of 7 or higher √," "At least one contact with a girl √," "Take the initiative to be hit on by a girl √" and so on...

"All the things on the plan are related to girls." Seeing this, Chen Yuan couldn't help but sigh, "How lame do you have to be to do something like this!"

"Guys with their minds full of girls are all like this. I have to remind Jiaojiao to be wary in the future," Zhou Yu said.

"How did you manage to make 'at least one contact with a girl'? Touching someone secretly is illegal," Zhang Chao said.

To this, Tang Jian explained, "I participated in the 30-person 31-leg race today. There were girls on both sides, so I exceeded the quota."

"Damn, you animal." Zhou Yu was truly impressed. He didn't expect the devil to be right beside him. "People were thinking about bringing glory to the school, but all you were thinking about was this dirty stuff!"

"Of course, I also had the subjective desire to bring glory to the school, but it's not my fault that I ran slowly and was eliminated," Tang Jian defended.

"Then what about 'take the initiative to be hit on by a girl'?" Zhang Chao asked curiously.

"Yes, are you that popular?" Zhou Yu didn't quite believe it.

Then, Tang Jian said, "I deliberately left my phone on the seat, and then the girl next to me called out to me."

"What a great way to get hit on." Chen Yuan clapped in admiration. "If it were me, I would have put it up for recycling on Zhuanzhuan."

"So, what's the purpose of you listing so many plans related to girls?"

Zhang Chao didn't understand at all, because Tang Jian was not only a pervert himself, but also liked to force others onto the hot seat.

For example, forcing him to hunt for girls.

"What do you guys think?" Tang Jian put the notebook into his pocket and looked at the three of them, asking.

"I feel like you've gone to such an extent that you must really want to have a girlfriend. You've reached a point of madness," Zhou Yu said.

Then, Chen Yuan retorted, "If he'd reached that point, he wouldn't be picky. But he didn't agree when Qiu Meng was chasing him like that. It doesn't seem like he's 'really hungry'."

"That's true. Qiu Meng is quite cute, looks good, and is enthusiastic... she's just a little too outgoing. If he really wanted to be in a relationship, there's no reason to reject her," Zhou Yu nodded, saying.

"So, what exactly is the purpose of you doing this?" Zhang Chao also looked curious.

Although everyone was usually on good terms with Tang Jian, and he was the resident clown who could bring a lot of fun to everyone, everyone was more or less unable to see through this person.

It always felt like he was holding something back.

After all, a person with terrible grades who actively participated in various campus activities was very mysterious.

"Okay, I'll show you, but don't tell anyone else."

After thinking for a moment, Tang Jian opened a certain app on his phone and handed it to Chen Yuan.

"Why only give it to him?" Zhou Yu asked, puzzled.

"He looks the most abstract, so he should have a stronger ability to accept it," Tang Jian said.

"Thank you, thank you."

Chen Yuan nodded seriously, and then watched the screen with the others.

The opening scene was a comic character's corpse lying in a pool of blood.

Immediately afterwards, there were screaming students.

Then, the school was surrounded by police tape, and police cars arrived.

And you are a music teacher who has just come to this school.

Faced with this suicide death, unlike the other shocked students and teachers, you feel some inexplicable fear in addition to the shock...

Because this girl is in one of the classes you teach.

Just yesterday after school, you saw her in the school's music room.

At dusk, she was sitting alone at a table by the window, playing the guitar.

You were responsible for closing the music room door.

And at this time, the girl turned her head and smiled at you...

You have no idea about the cause of her death.

But yesterday, something she said, combined with the current event, made you suddenly realize that you had a chance to stop all of this...

...

"What the heck is this?"

Playing this story game, Zhou Yu looked surprised. "How come this school looks so much like our school? It even has my name in it. What are you doing?"

"Did you make this?"

Because it ended halfway through, Chen Yuan asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's an attempt," Tang Jian said. "There are quite a few parts that are tributes."

"Did you draw all these illustrations?" Chen Yuan asked.

"AI generated them."

"What about the music?"

"I made this myself. After all, AI-generated images don't have copyright issues, but other people's music does," Tang Jian said.

"Damn, bro, you're so awesome?" Zhou Yu was shocked. "Am I the only pure trash here?"

Tang Jian nodded. "Yes."

"What the hell are you saying!"

Zhou Yu only allowed himself to make fun of himself. He would definitely get anxious if others said that about him.

"Then why didn't you finish it?" Zhang Chao asked.

"I can't think of any plot at all, so I can only dig a hole and leave some suspense. In fact, I have no idea how it will develop later," Tang Jian said very frankly.

"So, you're setting up these plans for yourself because you want some creative inspiration to make the game easier?"

Chen Yuan then realized that this guy Tang Jian was really hiding something.

He was different from those ordinary bad students. At this age, even if they didn't study, they would still have something they wanted to do.

And he was really doing it.

The galgame (Japanese dating sim) he just made was really interesting.

If the plot was complete, and it was put on Steam, it was estimated that some people would really be willing to buy it.

But that's right, Tang Jian was usually the kind of person who was very abstract, played a lot of games, and was very into anime, so it wasn't surprising that he could secretly do something like this.

"So, after thinking about it, I decided to make a pure love dating game," Tang Jian said.

"Why don't you find a writer to complete the previous one and continue making it? It's very interesting," Zhang Chao encouraged.

"According to the national conditions, the probability of this passing censorship is not small. In the end, it may be a waste of time, so I simply gave up," Tang Jian said truthfully.

"Then wouldn't dating Qiu Meng be very helpful since you need dating material?" Chen Yuan asked.

Tang Jian's mouth twitched, and he said, "I want to make a plot-oriented game, not a pornographic game."

"That's true. Meng Shen can indeed lead players astray." (Meng Shen translates to "Cute God")

The Qiu Meng storyline that Chen Yuan could think of was all unbroadcastable.

"In that case..." Zhou Yu suddenly said with great anticipation, "Then make a game based on the story of me and Jiaojiao..."

"I refuse."

Tang Jian raised his hand and directly denied, "Since it's my game, I have to satisfy my personal preferences first."

The debut work must be a love letter written to himself.

"I thought about asking you lovers to take some inspiration. Of course, I'm more interested in the story of Chen Yuan and Xia Xinyu. I always feel that your love story might be very interesting if it's made into a game... but that's for when I want to make easy money," Tang Jian added.

After he finished speaking, everyone felt very subtle.

Among them, Zhang Chao praised without hesitation, "Honestly, I have a different impression of you."

"I didn't expect I was so awesome, right?"

"That's not it. But knowing that you scored less than 500 on the test because you wanted to make a game, I suddenly don't think you're so trash."

"..."

"Take that sentence back!" Before Tang Jian could say anything, Zhou Yu was about to break down.

"So, you really don't like Qiu Meng?" Chen Yuan asked very concerned.

After all, Qiu Meng was also his good friend, and the two of them had a very good relationship.

If possible, he still wanted to see his good friend be happy.

"Well..." Tang Jian thought for a while and said, "I'm quite happy that she likes me, after all, it's the first time I've been chased by a girl. But feelings like love can't be forced."

"I didn't expect you to look lame, but you're not casual about feelings at all," Chen Yuan was also a little surprised.

Tang Bureau was actually a pure love.

"What about 47? Isn't that just for show?" Zhou Yu asked.

Hearing this, Tang Jian covered his chest and said with a slightly painful expression, "That's real."

"...You have a thing for dark-skinned girls." Chen Yuan couldn't see through this person again.

"Doesn't that mean you can't make your debut work if you can't find a girlfriend?" Zhou Yu asked curiously.

"You could say that," Tang Jian said.

The first work must be made by himself.

"That's a pity. The history of Chinese galgame games is missing a genius creator."

"You're talking about your mom..."

Zhang Chao was very envious of his classmates who had their own persistent and passionate things, so he put his hand on Tang Jian's shoulder. "You're still quite good-looking, with a bit of a pretty boy vibe, plus you have a humorous personality, so you'll definitely be able to find love."

"I beg you to be normal."

"There are still opportunities for study tours these few days. Let's help Chaozi and Tang Jian find girlfriends," Zhou Yu said.

"No, why are you dragging me into this? I don't want to find one." Zhang Chao felt that this group of people was really crazy.

He seriously suspected that they wanted him to be in a relationship too, and then use his weakness to make him use his power as class monitor to seek personal gain for them.

"I'm a little hungry. Let's go back to the dorm and eat hot pot," Tang Jian said.

"Okay." Chen Yuan agreed, and then said, "There are vegetables in the study tour base. Let's go steal some more vegetables."

"Okay, let's go." Zhou Yu immediately agreed.

The two of them just did as they said and set off directly.

"These two have really made the base their own home." Tang Jian couldn't help but complain.

Then, he and Zhang Chao returned to the dorm.

Halfway there, Zhang Chao received a call from Lao Mo, asking him to do a dorm check.

"Then I'm going to do a dorm check," Zhang Chao said.

"Remember to bend the law for personal gain," Tang Jian reminded.

"...I know."

Just like that, Zhang Chao left too.

Then Tang Jian returned to the dormitory alone.

Honestly, he was a little regretful.

Although he was on the best terms with these people in the class, except for Zhang Chao, the remaining two had girlfriends, and they were all gossips. There was even a mom sitting next to Chen Yuan...

Alas, sooner or later everyone would know.

Should he just kill these three in the dorm tonight?

This was the best way to stop the bleeding.

Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a girl singing.

Turning his head, he saw a Changjun girl under the street lamp, holding a mobile phone, reading the lyrics while singing softly.

She was probably preparing for the audition for the performance tomorrow night.

But why was she singing such an unpopular song?

Moreover, it seemed to be that kind of "wen" song... (Wen: literary, artistic)

Hearing this, he thought of some bad history.

His deskmate in junior high school was a fujoshi (a female fan of yaoi), who forced him to watch a lot of yaoi that she thought were "masterpieces."

Of course, in return, she also had to watch the anime that he recommended.

Then, he also held her head and forced her to watch Akira and Baccano! and other works.

It could only be said that they were tormenting each other.

But hearing this song here was quite surprising.

That rich sense of chuunibyou (middle school syndrome), the deep, intricate yaoi elements, pulled him back to that time...

"And in the end, you quietly suffer,"

"Lucifer,"

"Keep from my word..."

When she sang here, the girl stopped and muttered with a headache, "It would be great if there was an accompaniment, but this song is too unpopular, and I can't find one anywhere on the internet..."

There was no way, so she had to sing it again a cappella.

Just then, she suddenly heard the sound of a piano coming from behind.

Moreover, it was exactly the accompaniment to her song...

So, she turned her head very curiously.

Then, she saw a boy playing the accompaniment on a mobile phone piano with one hand...

When he saw her, the boy also stopped abruptly.

"Have you heard this song before?" The girl was very surprised, and looked at Tang Jian with anticipation.

Well, he had been forced to listen to it...

But he thought it sounded pretty good, so he didn't pay too much attention to it, and just remembered it. Now it was still in his "favorites" in his music app.

So, how should he answer...

Tang Jian paused and said, "A classmate in junior high school made me listen to it, so I remembered it."

"And you can play the piano?" The girl asked in surprise.

"There just happened to be one at home, so I learned a little..." Tang Jian explained.

"That's so amazing. I didn't expect to be able to meet someone who likes such an unpopular hobby."

The girl felt that this feeling was too wonderful, and ignored the fact that she didn't know this Eleventh High boy at all, and then chatted very enthusiastically, "Speaking of which, have you read that book *Ten God Right Wing*?"

"Yeah, I've read it," Tang Jian said.

"How was it? It's very good, right! It really killed me!" The girl suddenly revealed her true feelings, without any pretense.

"I think it's pretty good..."

Tang Jian had been in the internet world for so many years, and one thing he had learned was—don't denigrate other people's hobbies.

Even if he only thought it was okay.

"Right, right!"

The girl was very happy, and was about to say something when she suddenly thought of a problem: "But, isn't this a yaoi?"

"..."

Seeing that he was about to be misunderstood as a pervert who watched yaoi, Tang Jian explained with a flash of inspiration, "I'm a 'nandong'." (Nandong: A derogatory term for male otaku, sometimes used humorously)

(End of Chapter)