Chapter 212: I Had No Choice Before

Xia Yu wanted the right to access You Xue’s body at night.

He had prepared to offer his own body in exchange if the girl was unwilling. However, to his surprise, You Xue agreed rather readily.

It was a good thing not having to pay a price. Xia Yu withdrew the benefits he had originally intended to give You Xue.

At this moment, he finally understood how the game felt about taking back rewards.

You Xue yawned, the brief alertness brought on by the Sprite slowly fading away.

“Put your stuff down. Let’s go eat first,” Xia Yu said after glancing at the time. It was only six o’clock—still early.

Dragging her feet, You Xue approached the sofa, forcefully tossing the bag on her back onto it, then turned around and returned to Xia Yu.

Xia Yu had just opened the door and hadn’t even stepped out when he suddenly felt weight on his back. He turned around and saw the girl hugging him from behind, her eyes closed again.

Was she really that exhausted just from walking around the mountain a couple of times with her body?

“Wake up. Go take a shower and then sleep in your room,” Xia Yu pinched You Xue’s face to wake her up.

With her eyes half-closed, the girl entered the bathroom.

As she passed through the doorway, she even bumped into it.

Luckily, nothing happened during the shower. Xia Yu watched as she came out wearing pajamas and collapsed onto the bed.

Grabbing the hair dryer, Xia Yu dried her wet hair and tucked her in before leaving her room.

Thinking for a moment, he went to the kitchen and placed a piece of bread on the girl’s nightstand.

Then, taking another piece of bread back to his room, Xia Yu ate while searching for study materials.

His LV4 Test-Oriented Education skill allowed him to determine the scope of exams, answer accurately, and solve problems. However, the knowledge required for the exams still needed to be memorized by himself.

It was just like how Xia Yu, who had the music skill, still had to learn the melodies himself.

He opened the Chinese textbook and read for ten minutes before feeling sleepy. He closed the cover, thinking that reading Chinese at night wasn’t quite suitable.

He switched to math.

However, he lasted even less time with math.

Five minutes later, Xia Yu closed the book.

Today had already been exhausting. He would start working hard tomorrow.

Putting the book aside, Xia Yu took out his phone.

The Qingming holiday ended today, and tomorrow was the start of the school term.

Xia Yu, who had already taken an extended leave from school, technically didn’t need to attend class anymore, but studying alone at home lacked the right atmosphere.

Humans are social creatures. When everyone around is studying, one feels more motivated. But when alone, it’s easy to slack off.

That’s why writers are among the most likely to procrastinate—they’ve turned it into a chronic habit. While there are many other psychological reasons behind this, being alone at home plays a significant role.

After making up his mind, Xia Yu browsed some forums on his phone for a while, chatted briefly with Xu Youxiang, and then went to sleep.

The next morning, he woke up at seven, startling You Xue.

She thought Xia Yu had just gone to the bathroom, but instead, he began washing up.

“Brother, what’s wrong with you?” the girl asked, concerned.

“School starts. I need to go to class,” Xia Yu replied.

“But didn’t you already get the recommendation from Huada and take a leave of absence?”

“I love studying.”

“You’ve never studied seriously before!”

Putting down his toothbrush, Xia Yu looked at You Xue and sighed, “Before, I had no choice. Now, I just want to be a top student.”

Still suspicious, You Xue returned to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for both of them.

After finishing breakfast and slinging his backpack over his shoulder, Xia Yu headed to school.

“Oh my God,” Gui Zixiao was shocked. “Xia Yu, how come you’re back? And so early!”

Sitting at his desk, Xia Yu replied, “I gave it some thought. A high school life without the Gaokao is incomplete. Even though I already have the Huada recommendation, I still want to come back and prepare for the Gaokao, just to take the test once.”

Xia Yu’s reasoning was perfect, and Gui Zixiao was convinced.

Sitting at his seat, Xia Yu took out a book, hesitated, then put it aside and picked up an exercise book instead.

Compared to reading books that offered no immediate feedback, doing exercises that gave a sense of accomplishment with each problem solved made it easier to persist.

Because he had decided early on to take the recommendation path, Xia Yu hadn’t bought many exercise books. The few he had were distributed by the school.

He would need to make time to buy some more—maybe start with a few from the famous Five Three series.

Opening the pristine exercise book, Xia Yu began working through problems.

Although it had been three months since he last touched this material, Xia Yu still had some residual knowledge in his mind. A quick glance was enough for him to recall the concepts.

As he worked, Xia Yu found that he could immediately grasp the mindset of the question setters and quickly identify the key points in solving the problems.

He felt like he could even create questions himself.

Was this the power of the Test-Oriented Education skill?

Pen in hand, Xia Yu worked quickly.

When class time arrived, the subject teachers were all surprised to see Xia Yu back. At this point, Gui Zixiao played his role well, explaining Xia Yu’s intentions to the teachers.

Teachers naturally favored students who studied diligently and succeeded through their own efforts. They strongly approved of Xia Yu’s fabricated reasoning and didn’t interfere with his focused problem-solving, even if the materials he was studying weren’t related to their subjects.

Xia Yu kept solving problems until noon, then put down his pen, went to the cafeteria for lunch, and logged into Yin Shulan’s body.

The time from the previously used experience cards hadn’t expired, so he could use the accumulated cards from these past few days.

Experience cards couldn’t be used in large quantities at once, or the sudden influx of knowledge would cause dizziness.

Also, using too many at once would be wasteful. After all, the required study time wouldn’t be shortened by using experience cards.

Opening his eyes, he arrived at a remote mountain town.

At this moment, Yin Shulan was dropping off Yin Ling after lunch and heading back to school.

The sudden change in body control caused a problem in motorcycle handling, making it sway sideways. Fortunately, Xia Yu had LV4 Agility.

Yin Ling only thought it was a sudden bump, and Xia Yu quickly regained control of the motorcycle.

After dropping Yin Ling off at school, Xia Yu pondered something.

Yin Shulan picked up Yin Ling every day, commuting between the town and the village. It was quite inconvenient. Should he buy a house in the town?

In the town, it would also be more convenient to purchase experimental supplies.

He discussed it with Yin Shulan, who had no objections.

Thus, Xia Yu contacted a real estate agent.

There weren’t many new houses recently built in the town, and Xia Yu specifically wanted one with a yard.

At the agent’s office, Xia Yu quickly found a suitable option—a small villa located at the edge of the town. The town was small, and the distance from the edge to the center was just a one or two-minute motorcycle ride.

The asking price was 300,000 yuan.

Using telepathy, Xia Yu sensed the agent’s benevolence value. Compared to You Xue’s benevolence value of 100, the agent currently had 70.

That number was a bit high—meaning he must be making a good profit.

So Xia Yu immediately knocked off 50,000 yuan, bringing it down to 250,000.

The agent’s benevolence value was still at 50.

He cut another 50,000 yuan, bringing it to 200,000. Xia Yu sensed the agent’s benevolence value had dropped to 10, so he stopped.

After all, the agent needed to make some profit.

Although reluctant, the agent didn’t immediately agree but instead frowned and complained for a while, trying to raise the price. Xia Yu ignored him completely.

The agent then tried to threaten, hinting that he wouldn’t sell unless the price was raised, but Xia Yu remained unmoved.

After exhausting himself talking, the agent gave up, and the two signed the agreement.

The agent, who had witnessed everything, looked at Xia Yu in astonishment. This old lady was too impressive—her bargaining was precise and ruthless.

In the end, despite the agent’s threats, he was worried whether the transaction could continue, but “Old Lady Yu” remained calm and collected, ultimately winning.

Xia Yu hadn’t expected that telepathy could also be used for bargaining. However, this only worked with strangers. For people he knew, the benevolence value was fixed and didn’t fluctuate as strongly as with strangers.

After withdrawing the money from the bank, the three went to the government office to complete the registration.

Once everything was finalized, Xia Yu exchanged a few polite words with the agent and the villa’s previous owner before preparing to leave. At that moment, a voice called him back:

“Mom!”

The one who called him was Yin Shulan’s eldest son, Yin Changgui.

Yin Changgui worked here. When Yin Shuyu entered, he had already noticed, but he wanted to see what his mother was up to, so he didn’t approach immediately.

Just now, he had asked a colleague and was shocked to learn that his mother—who had been financially drained by his sister’s illness—had spent 200,000 yuan buying a house!

What the hell? Yin Wan’s illness had cost him 5,000 yuan! She had money to buy a house but not to repay her son’s debt?