Chapter 63: Rebuking Others Was Never My Intention, But My Resentment Refuses to Rest!

"Thanks for yesterday!"

Hechen was the first to express his gratitude.

When he shouted "Ball!" yesterday, the person who threw it to him was none of other than his classmate and captain of the school basketball team, Lin Xiaoran.

"Don't mention it!" Lin Xiaoran smiled. "Actually, we should be the ones thanking you. You really opened our eyes! What do you say, care to join the basketball team and bring infinite glory to the Chunfeng High School basketball team?"

"Me joining? I'll pass." Hechen politely declined.

"Why?" Although Lin Xiaoran had a hunch, hearing Hechen actually refuse still left him extremely surprised and puzzled.

The school basketball team wasn't something just anyone could enter.

Not to mention he had personally extended the invitation as the team captain.

"I don't like standing out," Hechen explained.

"..." Lin Xiaoran's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Everyone else wore equally bizarre expressions.

Were their ears playing tricks on them?

Hechen actually said he didn't like standing out?

Ever since the end of summer vacation and the start of the senior year, when was a single day that Hechen didn't stand out? Often multiple times a day, each time more impressive than the last.

And he called that not liking to stand out?

Then what on earth did liking to stand out look like?

Or rather, what kind of situation did Hechen consider as standing out?

"I've learned something today." Lin Xiaoran felt like Hechen was just putting on airs, and sarcastically remarked that he had learned a new way to flex.

"I'm being completely sincere." Hechen's expression was calm, and his gaze was earnest.

He genuinely didn't want to stand out.

After all, he was a time-traveler with a system, and his very first superpower—one he hoped to keep and refine into his core Daoist magical power—was Crane Calculation and Turtle Longevity.

He had already initially stepped onto the grand path of Daoist immortal cultivation.

In the future, leaving aside eternal life, achieving earthly immortality and remaining youthful was entirely possible.

Under such circumstances, standing out and leaving behind too many visual records for countless people to watch, scrutinize, and constantly analyze was definitely not what he wanted.

Of course, he wouldn't suffer in silence and live cowardly just out of fear of being exposed decades later.

If he did that, wouldn't his time-travel and system have gone to waste?

Therefore, his mindset was: don't actively try to stand out, and minimize his presence whenever possible. But if someone really dared to act arrogant, play games, show off in front of him, or pick a fight, he would hit back without the slightest hesitation.

Hitting back wasn't his wish, but a suppressed heart is hard to calm!

"Are you serious?" Lin Xiaoran stared at Hechen for a moment. Sensing that Hechen truly felt this way from the bottom of his heart, he could only retract his hand in bewilderment.

As a sports-track student and the captain of the school basketball team, he possessed a strong sense of pride. He was always willing to proactively invite anyone who was good at basketball.

However, if the other party was unwilling, he wouldn't force it either.

Otherwise, wouldn't that imply that he, the basketball captain, lacked the confidence to lead a good team?

In the elite sprint class.

Amidst Xia Xue's gossipy gaze, Ruan Liuzheng called Qiao Yingzi outside to ask her about the telescope.

"I have no idea." Qiao Yingzi froze, her face flushing red and then turning pale.

The red was naturally because her dad's actions had brought about an interrogation from Hechen's younger sister, which felt a bit like an unconventional mutual introduction to the parents.

The pale was because she was smart enough to instantly guess her dad's intentions. Much like how her mother had set up a planetarium at home for her, her dad simply wanted to trap her and Hechen in their respective homes to prevent them from meeting at the planetarium.

If her mom had done this, she would have found it completely normal.

However, she had clearly explained things to her dad, and he had even said he trusted her and would support her, yet he turned around and pulled a stunt that showed complete distrust.

Even though she knew it was normal for her dad to act this way from the perspective of an overprotective father, she was still extremely displeased.

She had thought that between her parents, at least one would understand and support her, but who would have thought it was all just her fantasy.

Seeing that Qiao Yingzi genuinely seemed to know nothing about the matter, Ruan Liuzheng felt slightly relieved, but she still felt deeply uneasy, sizing Qiao Yingzi up with a suspicious and scrutinizing gaze.

After all, not only was this gift extremely expensive, but the crucial point was that Hechen had actually accepted it.

Mind you, Hechen wasn't someone shallow, and he had always politely declined gifts.

Otherwise, based solely on his face alone, relying on others to feed him and shower him with gifts would have allowed him to live a worry-free life and perhaps even do much better.

Yet he had always rejected gifts and food offerings from others.

The sole exception was her mother.

A year ago, when his father passed away, he moved into her home at her mother's invitation.

For one summer—no, after pondering it for a long time, more accurately, halfway through the summer vacation—he suddenly underwent a drastic transformation. He became much more capable, but his personality also became much more outgoing.

Not only had he become aggressive, but he had actually started accepting gifts.

And accepting two at once, no less.

The sharp-tongued girl far away in Shanghai who supposedly looked like her and might have some connection to her didn't count; she could barely be considered family, and the books she sent were trivial things not worth mentioning.

However, Qiao Yingzi's father had sent a telescope worth over ten thousand yuan, and Hechen had actually accepted it. That implied something rather unusual.

Although Qiao Yingzi was deeply unhappy, she couldn't vent her frustration on her dad right away. Buckling under Ruan Liuzheng's 'sister-in-law'-like gaze, she couldn't take it anymore. Fortunately, the break between classes finally ended, allowing her to escape back to her classroom.

After school, Qiao Yingzi immediately contacted her dad to voice her displeasure and question him, which sent Qiao Weidong into a panic. He rushed over in person to explain and offer lengthy reassurances, insisting he had no such intentions and was merely expressing gratitude for Hechen helping his daughter, which also helped him better understand the immense pressure his daughter was under.

Then he informed her that his apartment in Shuxiang Yayuan was undergoing a hasty renovation and would soon become her private space fortress. Whenever the pressure got too high, she could just step out of the house and walk a couple of minutes to get there; it would be filled with space elements, and she could relax however she liked.

Only then did Qiao Yingzi's frown turn back into a smile.

Idle time passes easily.

In the blink of an eye, three weeks flew by.

For the vast majority of students, the upcoming National Day holiday was the most anticipated event.

However, for Fang Yifan's family, the stretch from the start of school to the National Day holiday meant that September had transitioned into October, and the one-month sentence of the head of the household, Fang Yuan, was about to expire, allowing him to return to his loyal Fang household.

Tong Wenjie was overjoyed.

Yet whenever she pondered the reason for her excitement, she would always think of Hechen's handsome face and his sharp, poisonous tongue, which diluted more than half of the joy of a small reunion feeling like a newlywed couple.

She was unwilling to admit that he was right.

Yet her body's reaction was utterly honest, which made things rather awkward, didn't it?

Fang Yifan didn't harbor such complex emotions.

Though he was also happy that his old man was about to be released, it didn't have a massive impact on him, and his mood remained relatively stable.

Even so, he wore a constant frown.

Because over these past three weeks, he was certain that his childhood sweetheart and best buddy, Qiao Yingzi, had a change of heart!

And it was very likely because of Hechen, the guy who continually went against him and even slapped him in the face.

This was driving him nuts.

Therefore, even the impending return of his dad couldn't bring a smile to his face.

It wasn't like he hadn't tried to change things.

However, things weren't like before; they no longer lived in the same residential complex quite close to each other. Now they were in different classes, and with evening self-study added into the mix, studying from morning till night, they simply had no time to interact.

When the weekend finally arrived, he tried to ask Qiao Yingzi and Huang Zhitao out, only to be repeatedly rejected under the excuse that Aunt Song Qian ran a tight ship, guarding her like a fortress and refusing to let her out at all.

Just like that, three weeks slipped away in the blink of an eye.

Watching both his best buddy and his goddess drift further and further away from him, how could he possibly burst into laughter?