Chapter 26: My Cousin’s Enemy Definitely Can’t Be a Good Person!

"Good grief, so many Taoist scriptures! Are you really planning to cultivate immortality?"

Lin Miaomiao chatted with He Chen while pacing around his room with the restlessness of someone with ADHD. She looked around without the slightest bit of formality, and when she caught sight of the stack of Taoist classics on his bookshelf, she adjusted her glasses, peered at them closely, and let out an exclamation of surprise.

"Who doesn't want to cultivate and become an immortal?" He Chen asked back with a smile.

He had borrowed these scriptures from the city library. Although his "Crane Technique" and "Turtle Breathing Technique" were gifts from the system—allowing him to master them without a teacher and see results as soon as he practiced—He Chen believed that studying Taoist classics was never a bad thing.

Beyond the fact that Taoist traditions were filled with cryptic terminology—leading to the dilemma where "a single sentence of true oral transmission is worth more than ten thousand volumes of false ones"—simply cultivating a sense of "Taoist aura" was quite beneficial in its own right.

He Chen was, after all, the kind of person who would even seek out a pine tree just to practice the Crane Technique. His philosophy was simple: start by mimicking the masters to the best of his ability. He would worry about the rest after he had put in the effort and persistence. As long as he had enough time, these accumulated studies would eventually bear fruit. Even if it was just for the sake of looking profound.

"I always feel like your style is completely out of place with the rest of us!" Lin Miaomiao reached out, picked up a scripture to flip through it, then shut it with a scoff.

"Your style is certainly quite mainstream," He Chen remarked, glancing at her as she unconsciously pulled snacks from her pocket and began to munch on them. "Anyone who didn't know better would think you were filming commercials for snacks. It’s only because it’s you; if an average person ate the way you do, they’d have turned into a ball long ago."

"Hehe, I never gain weight no matter what I eat," Lin Miaomiao said triumphantly, continuing to snack while offering some to He Chen and Ruan Liuzheng.

"Don't get too cocky," He Chen warned with good intentions. "You're still growing, you're physically active, and your constitution is a bit unique, which is why you don't look fat despite how much you eat. But if you keep up these gluttonous habits, once you hit college, your weight will balloon up before you even realize it. By then, your face will be so bloated you won't even recognize yourself, and it’ll be too late for regrets."

"Impossible!" Lin Miaomiao didn't believe him for a second. But seeing He Chen’s knowing, silent smile, the snack she had been about to pop into her mouth suddenly stopped mid-air.

"You can't actually tell fortunes, can you?" Lin Miaomiao looked at He Chen with trepidation, recalling how he had accurately deduced that Li Tiegun intended to hold Ji Yangyang and Fang Yifan back a grade based solely on their reactions—a deduction so sharp it had left Li Tiegun speechless.

"Does that really require fortune-telling?" He Chen laughed. "This is basic scientific common sense. Whether your body gains fat or not depends on your caloric intake. If you keep stuffing yourself with snacks every day and stop relying on your growth spurts and hyperactivity to burn it off, where do you think those calories go? Do they just vanish into thin air?"

Lin Miaomiao looked at the snack in her hand, then back at He Chen, falling into a state of deep distress.

He Chen didn't try to comfort her. Her distress was justified. Her looks and figure were merely at the "cute and pretty" level; if she didn't control her diet and continued to gorge on snacks, she would likely round out the moment she entered college, losing her only edge: that vibrant, youthful charm. Having seen her "grown-up" version in his past life, He Chen knew it was a classic case of drastic changes. He really should let the kids in front of the TV see the before-and-after comparison to warn them against such reckless snacking. Otherwise, they wouldn't end up as cute as her; the more common result for young children overeating was legs thicker and sturdier than an adult's.

"Ugh, you guys are so boring!" Terrified into temporarily abandoning her snacks, Lin Miaomiao suddenly felt the whole world had become dull. She wandered from He Chen’s room to Ruan Liuzheng’s, only to find one reading scriptures and the other buried in test papers. Seeing them so focused, she complained, "School officially starts tomorrow, the hellish third year of high school begins, shouldn't we be relaxing today?"

"This is how I relax," He Chen said, his eyes never leaving his book.

"Actually, the third year started a long time ago," Ruan Liuzheng said. She wasn't as calm as He Chen and found Lin Miaomiao’s presence a bit noisy. She pushed up her thick-rimmed glasses and offered a subtle hint.

Living next door to someone who treated Taoist scriptures as a hobby at such a young age, she knew she had to be the pillar of her own family. She had to work hard to make money, unlike the carefree and oblivious Lin Miaomiao.

Lin Miaomiao didn't catch the hint to leave. After lingering a while longer and seeing that both were busy and ignoring her, she muttered to herself and left. She went downstairs to find her "disciple," only to discover that even the top student was busy studying. Finally grasping Ruan Liuzheng’s meaning, she let out a mournful wail, went home, collapsed on her bed, and pulled out her phone to vent to her best friend, Deng Xiaoqi.

Time spent in idleness passes quickly. Between He Chen reading a few scrolls of scripture and Ruan Liuzheng finishing a few practice sets, the day vanished in the blink of an eye.

Night fell. After dinner, Ruan Lu took Ruan Liuzheng out for some shopping. Knowing He Chen disliked such occasions, she asked if he needed anything. After he shook his head, she was hurried away by an impatient Ruan Liuzheng. He Chen didn't give it another thought.

However, the next morning, he realized exactly what Ruan Liuzheng had been shopping for. After finishing his daily practice and loading her onto the back of his bicycle to head to school, He Chen asked casually, "So, you've started practicing yoga?"

"How did you know?" Ruan Liuzheng’s hand, which had been gripping his shirt, tightened abruptly. She then whispered, "You pervert! Were you peeking?"

"Do I need to peek?" He Chen replied, deadpan. "Your new yoga outfit is hanging on the balcony drying."

"Then you’re still a pervert for peeking... and how do you know it’s mine and not Mom’s?" she asked, confused.

"I have sharp eyes," He Chen said with a laugh. "Besides, could your yoga outfit possibly be the same as Aunt Ruan’s?"

"..." Ruan Liuzheng turned bright red, at a loss for words, instinctively reaching up to cover her chest. She didn't know just how sharp He Chen’s eyes were, but she had to admit he seemed to have a point.

The rest of the ride was silent. When they reached the school gate, they saw Li Tiegun standing there with several teachers, his sharp gaze fixed on the students streaming in, occasionally checking his watch. When he saw He Chen carrying Ruan Liuzheng, he stared at them so intensely that Ruan Liuzheng felt embarrassed and jumped off the back of the bike to walk the rest of the way. Li Tiegun gave her a nod of acknowledgment.

He Chen didn't stop, cycling into the school grounds himself. After locking his bike in the shed, he saw Li Tiegun demonstrating his authority at the gate, blocking all late students and lecturing them loudly in front of their parents—truly a formidable sight.

Fang Yifan was walking alongside a boy with glasses, still grumbling, "Lucky I jumped out of the car and ran when we hit traffic, or Li Tiegun would have caught me red-handed." When he saw He Chen, his face darkened instantly, and he glared at him.

"Cousin, what's wrong?" the boy with glasses asked, feeling uneasy as his cousin, who had been chattering non-stop about the school, suddenly went silent and wore such an expression.

"Lei'er, remember this: stay away from that jerk. He’s my enemy!" Fang Yifan pointed at He Chen, who was walking away without paying him any mind, and said fiercely.

"I'll remember," Lin Lei'er, who had just been brought to the city by his aunt, nodded obediently. He watched He Chen’s retreating figure and etched it into his memory. In his eyes, his cousin was the best brother in the world, so his brother's enemy couldn't possibly be a good person.