Sword Among Us

Panda Novel

“Whew!”

The moment Chen Kaixin took off the VR helmet, he rubbed his slightly tired eyes and got down from the top bunk. He went to the corridor and sucked in fresh air from outside. The burden in his heart was finally released.

In the last couple days, to protect the brocade box he obtained from the thirteen staff-using monks, he had personally brought the box into the temple and hid in it. Then, he shifted places to Punishment Mount. Later on, with a huge amount of money on him, he fought against countless martial artists. It could be said that he had used up all his mental strength to deal with the many players coming after him.

He hadn’t had a lot of time to sleep and rest throughout it all. Only when he fell out of the Rich Rank after arriving in Luoyang did he finally feel as if the world had become quiet.

The sun rose from the east!

The piercing sunlight shone on his face, and it burned him, but he found the warmth very comfortable.

It was time for university students to sit through afternoon lectures, and the Three Lonely Wolves were not in the dorm. There were very few human voices in the boy’s dorm. The building was incredibly quiet.

Chen Kaixin rested for a moment before he dressed himself, closed the room door behind him, and headed to the cafeteria.

Ring…

Many of the students in the University of South China loved riding bicycles. The pleasant sound of a bicycle rose continuously behind him. Chen Kaixin had his fingers hooked around the loops of his pants while he walked at a leisurely pace down the university road that he had missed for more than a year in his previous life. Just like usual, he admired the scenery of his university while looking very carefree and comfortable.

However, in the eyes of the girl who caught up to him, this nerd who had always been very exceptional in his studies seemed to have become very different from before regardless of his back, side profile, his gaze, or his actions. There were hints of someone who had experienced many things in his actions along with an air of maturity. He did not fit the image of a student.

“Hey!”

A mountain bike caught up from behind Chen Kaixin and stopped in front of him. When the tyres scratched against the ground, they let out a unique and piercing sound. It was only at that moment that Chen Kaixin realized that the bells had been ringing for him all along.

He turned around in shock, and with slight surprise, he met the girl’s puzzled gaze. Could it be that he would actually encounter a romantic prospect early in the morning, as the rumors in the university had promised?

However, the moment the girl’s pure and charming face entered his sight, Chen Kaixin was completely stunned to his feet. He felt as if he had been struck by a petrification spell. His face even turned slightly pale under the sun.

“You are… Chen Kaixin?”

The girl did not get down from her bicycle. Her delicate body appeared curvaceous and charming under her black and tight-fitting tracksuit, which was very eye-catching.

There was uncertainty in the girl’s gaze

Happy did not say anything. He took control of his surging emotions and rapid breathing before he moved his gaze away from the girl’s familiar face. He sucked in a few deep breaths and turned his head away.

“I don’t seem to know you.”

Based on his memories from his previous life, their encounter right then should be the first time they met each other.

Boys loved running into girls unexpectedly in the university, and they would find their emotions surge at the thought. Hormones would be secreted in their system, and their adrenaline would increase dramatically.

It could not be denied that the girl was very beautiful! The tight-fitting tracksuit made her look healthy, energetic, beautiful, and ethereal. She was the type of girl that boys normally liked.

However, the wound from his previous life made Chen Kaixin unable to feel the emotions he felt in his previous life, and his answer was a little stiff.

The girl was momentarily taken aback.

She instinctively categorized Happy’s strange reaction to that of a nerd who was at a loss as to what to do and who resisted the nature in his heart. She smiled faintly and teased him, “We’re the only ones on the road to the university, you know? By the way, are you Chen Kaixin?”

Chen Kaixin still said nothing.

By then, he had already recovered a little from the shock and pain of meeting Xu Yao again. When he remembered how she had left him without hesitation, a hint of self-deprecation showed up on his face, and he could not help but snort and nod.

“I’m indeed Chen Kaixin. Who told you that?”

His tone did not sound like the tone a boy should have after he ran into a beautiful girl for the first time! He actually sounded like a rascal.

He definitely did not fit the image Xu Yao had in her mind.

The girl was stunned speechless for a moment. She felt that there was something strange and baffling in Chen Kaixin’s eyes.

However, she still felt it somewhat unacceptable that she would end up in this situation even though it was her first time taking the initiative to strike up a conversation with someone.

“I’d like to get to know you. My name is Xu Yao.” She came down from her bicycle and came to stand in front of him. “I’m a member of the university’s disciplinary committee. I came to investigate the matter of you taking an extended holiday.”

“Investigate?” Happy frowned slightly. “Disciplinary committee? What do you want to investigate? My lecturers and tutors have all approved of my holiday.”

“I know.” Xu Yao heard pride and animosity that she had never experienced before when facing men who were at the same age as her in Chen Kaixin’s tone. This made her, who had always been confident, to feel defeated after suffering a setback from trying to communicate with Happy.

“Don’t worry, the disciplinary committee only wants to know what sort of studies you have been conducting in the dorm or whether you have been using the time to do something else.”

When she said this, Xu Yao stopped for a moment, and her expression changed slightly under Chen Kaixin’s gaze, which had gradually become sharper. “You know as well that there have been plenty of people in the university who have been playing the VR game, World of Martial Arts. You are an excellent student that the university has trained by pouring a lot of its resources into you. We do not wish for you to be involved in this trend to the point that the game affects your studies and your results fall because of it.”

“This is my business alone. Besides, I’ve already completed all the assignments for this semester. The lecturers and tutors are not worried about me at all. To me, that is enough. You are part of the student council, but you are still students. If you have so much time on your hands, why don’t you worry a little more about your own results?”

His scornful and mocking words made Xu Yao’s expression turn livid. “You—”

“Also, even if I’m playing the game, it has nothing to do with the student council or the disciplinary committee. Don’t think that I don’t know about you lot playing the game as well. The time you spend in the game is not that shorter than mine.” Chen Kaixin did not even look at Xu Yao.

Even though he came to an understanding that going back to the past was a very good opportunity for revenge and had wanted to have things progress as they did in his previous life so that he could verify and destroy the bastard couple’s schemes, when he truly came face-to-face with this girl, he could not control the anger boiling in his heart. He could not be entirely calm and relaxed, allowing the woman to act like a pure girl while standing in front of him.

He could not!

“You—”

Xu Yao’s eyebrows shot up. Anger boiled in her heart because of Chen Kaixin’s harsh and impolite words.

When she saw him turn around without hesitation, she put her bicycle by the side, placed one hand on her hip, and with the other hand pointed at Happy. Yet despite gasping with rage, she did not know what she should do. She felt that their conversation was incredibly baffling.

The whole event was captured by a few boys who were playing soccer on the field on the other side of the road.

“Well, isn’t he a hard nut to crack?”

The boys looked at each other at a loss. They had witnessed the entire scene that hadn’t followed their expectations.

They had thought that the two knew each other, so they did not expect that things would progress in such a surprising and strange manner.

Xu Yao was known as the Great Beauty of the disciplinary committee, but she was given the cold shoulder by Nerd Chen, the popular student of the computer engineering department. He actually cast her aside and ignored her.

What was going on?!

“Hmph.”

Xu Yao was also a popular student in the university, and she had her own pride. When she was treated so coldly by someone, she let out a loud huff, went straight to her bicycle, got on it, stepped on the pedal, and rushed after the person.

Chen Kaixin had already entered the cafeteria by then. While holding a plate of food, he found a table at a corner and sat down.

Right when he put down his food…

Bang!

Xu Yao’s pretty face seemed to be screaming the words “I’m really angry”.

She sat down across Chen Kaixin with a cold glare in her eyes.

“Are you even a man?! Do you need to be so angry when I come to interview you as part of the disciplinary committee? You’re so weird!”

Fortunately, there were not many people in the cafeteria, or else this would definitely turn into a scandal around Chen Kaixin once more.

Clang! Clang!

Happy used his fork to stab his rice, having lost his appetite.

He looked up at Xu Yao’s face, which had looked very pure and pretty when he first got to know her. Not long ago, he had loved this girl dearly and used the back of his hand to caress her smooth and delicate skin, but right then, he felt as if he was facing…

He sucked in a deep breath and tried his best to suppress his raging emotions.

“One, whether I am a man or not has nothing to do with you. Two, when I eat, I don’t want anyone by my side watching me. Three, I don’t have the habit of being interviewed, especially by the disciplinary committee. Four, if you don’t want to leave, I will.”

His words were short, concise, straightforward, and presented in a clear and logical manner. Coupled with Chen Kaixin’s calm and firm tone, he did not sound as if he was not in his right mind or that he was insane.

“You…” Xu Yao found herself unable to say anything.

Also, for some reason, Happy’s eyes, which were very familiar and seemed to have something hidden in them, made her feel perplexed and slightly worried, though she could not put those emotions into words.

For the first time in her life, Xu Yao felt incredibly powerless and hurt in the face of a man who treated her so coldly.

“Alright, I might have chosen the wrong day to talk to you, so I won’t bother you anymore. My phone number is on this paper. When you have time, set an hour and place…”

Perhaps because her pride was hurt by Happy’s cold attitude or perhaps because of something else, Xu Yao did not say anything else. She only tore off a piece of paper and wrote down her phone number before she got up and left the cafeteria.