Chapter 43 – Your Expression Is So Amusing, Junior

The next day.

As the night symbolizing the last bit of peace ended, the Academy District finally began its formal operations.

Early in the morning, the doors of the Office Building opened to welcome teams of students.

Many students seemed eager to earn contribution points, arriving at the Office Building first thing in the morning and entering the Mission Hall to select tasks.

Su Ming and his five companions had also agreed to wake up early and take on missions together, aiming to earn enough contribution points as soon as possible to avoid the risk of expulsion.

Thus, when the clock struck six, Su Ming’s phone alarm rang, waking him up.

Smack!

Su Ming stretched a hand out from under the covers and slapped his phone roughly, expressing just how heavy his morning grumpiness was.

Nevertheless, Su Ming obediently crawled out of bed, drowsily tidied his hair, and staggered into the bathroom. After about twenty minutes of washing up, he finally felt somewhat refreshed.

By the time Su Ming had dressed, gathered his things, and stepped out of his room, the door to another room opened as well.

“Senior Su Ming…?”

Jiang Wanyu emerged from her room, looking dazed. She seemed to have finished her morning routine but still appeared rather lethargic.

“Morning.”

Su Ming offered a casual greeting to his junior.

“Morning.” Jiang Wanyu yawned delicately and replied groggily, “Where’s Zijin? And the others?”

“No idea.” Su Ming shrugged. “Probably still asleep, right?”

At the very least, Lei Hao and Ye Bai were likely still sleeping.

Especially Ye Bai—this guy was usually a bit lazy and had even worse morning grumpiness than Su Ming. Right now, he was probably locked in a battle of wits with his alarm clock.

Lei Hao, on the other hand, was quite good at waking up early. After all, he insisted on morning exercises every day. But before his designated wake-up time, he slept so deeply it was as if he could hire a few pallbearers to carry his coffin—completely dead to the world. If not for his thunderous snoring, he might have been mistaken for a corpse and hauled away multiple times. A single alarm clock wasn’t going to rouse him easily.

So, waiting for these two to emerge would definitely take some time.

“Alright.”

Jiang Wanyu nodded drowsily.

Last night, she and Yao Beibei had chatted until very late, so she was a bit sleep-deprived.

Thanks to that, Yao Beibei was probably still asleep too.

As for An Zijin, Jiang Wanyu knew very well that she was also part of the “difficult to wake up” club. One of her favorite pastimes was enjoying a good, long sleep. If she had to wake up too early, she’d likely be so disoriented she couldn’t even find her way to the bathroom.

Because of this, Yao Beibei and Jiang Wanyu had teased An Zijin more than once, saying her cuteness came from all the sleep she got—her beauty sleep was more thorough than anyone else’s.

In summary, among the six of them, Su Ming and Jiang Wanyu were the quickest to rise.

“Let’s wait half an hour for them.” Su Ming glanced at the time on his phone and said nonchalantly, “If they’re still not up by then, we’ll just kick the doors open and yank their blankets off.”

So aggressive?

Jiang Wanyu’s yawn paused for a moment.

But soon, she looked at Su Ming with renewed vigilance.

“Senior, don’t even think about barging into Zijin’s room!”

Jiang Wanyu spread her arms, blocking An Zijin’s door with a guarded expression.

“…That’s your first reaction?”

Su Ming’s lips twitched as he stared at Jiang Wanyu with an extremely odd expression.

Jiang Wanyu didn’t relax her guard.

“Who told you my Zijin is so adorable?” she declared matter-of-factly. “With such a cute girl living under this roof, not just men—even women would be tempted to barge into her room!”

“Is that so?” Su Ming narrowed his eyes slightly. “Then, do you want to barge into Little Jin’s room right now?”

“I don’t need to!” Jiang Wanyu lifted her chin proudly. “I’m Zijin’s roommate already—I don’t have to barge in; I can just walk right in!”

…So you’re still going in anyway?

Su Ming stared at the triumphant Jiang Wanyu with dead-fish eyes, then suddenly grinned as if struck by a thought.

“I won’t go in.”

Su Ming spoke to Jiang Wanyu with a kindly expression.

“Really?”

Jiang Wanyu blinked in surprise, her wariness easing slightly.

It wasn’t for any particular reason—just that Su Ming’s expression at that moment was genuinely warm and friendly.

However…

“Did you forget?” The kindness on Su Ming’s face transformed into teasing in the next second as he said, “Little Jin and I have shared a bed countless times and bathed together more times than I can count. Why would I need to barge into her room on purpose?”

Boom!—It was as if an invisible thunderbolt had struck Jiang Wanyu’s head, freezing her in place.

“You, you, you, you…!”

Jiang Wanyu trembled, pointing a shaking finger at Su Ming, looking utterly furious.

“Ahahahaha!” Su Ming laughed heartily. “Your expression is so funny, junior.”

“Don’t talk to me, you bad senior!”

Jiang Wanyu trembled with rage, her drowsiness completely gone.

Although Jiang Wanyu knew full well that the things Su Ming mentioned had likely happened when they were children, a mix of envy and anger still made her slender body feel as if it might split apart.

Just then, An Zijin’s door opened.

“Ugh… so noisy…”

There stood An Zijin, wearing an incredibly cute set of pajamas, hugging a somewhat worn stuffed toy. Her hair was slightly messy, yet it gave off an unbearably adorable vibe.

The little girl, acting like a big child, hugged her stuffed toy with one hand and rubbed her eyes with the other—so cute it was almost criminal.

“Zijin~~”

The moment she saw this, Jiang Wanyu clasped her hands together, hearts appearing in her eyes.

Even Su Ming felt his heart melt. For a split second, he didn’t want this little sister to call him “brother” anymore—he wanted her to call him “daddy” instead…

Who wouldn’t want such an adorable little snuggle-bug!?

Damn it!

“Brother Su Ming…?”

Just as Su Ming’s heart was gradually descending into depravity, An Zijin seemed to finally notice his presence. Like Jiang Wanyu earlier, she called out to him in a daze.

But this time, before Su Ming could respond, An Zijin broke into a silly grin.

“Hehe… found Brother Su Ming…”

Completely lost in sleepiness, An Zijin slowly shuffled over to Su Ming, actually nuzzling into his embrace and leaning against him.

“Zijin! Jiang Wanyu shrieked.

Unfortunately, An Zijin only had eyes for Su Ming.

“Brother Su Ming… like you… mwah! (*╯3╰)”

An Zijin nuzzled against Su Ming’s chest, then actually puckered her little lips and aimed for Su Ming’s stunned mouth.

Witnessing this, Jiang Wanyu exploded.

“Stop right there! (〝▼皿▼) Contestant Jiang Wanyu charged forward.

Thus, a chaotic commotion erupted in the hall, waking up the others in their rooms one by one.

By the time Lei Hao, Ye Bai, and even Yao Beibei were startled and rushed out of their rooms into the hall, what they saw was Jiang Wanyu tugging hard on An Zijin, An Zijin clinging tightly to Su Ming, and Su Ming struggling desperately to break free and escape—ultimately forming a human train crashing around the hall.

“(?◇?)?”

Lei Hao and Ye Bai wore completely baffled expressions.

“(｀?ω?′)——￣へ￣——(╬￣皿￣)nnYao Beibei blinked, then looked confused, before her face fell. Without a word, she too rushed forward and grabbed An Zijin.

Early in the morning, Su Ming’s team was already full of laughter and chaos.

This… might be a good omen, right?

……

“Hmph! ╭(╯^╰)╮”

At the entrance of the Dormitory Building, Jiang Wanyu strode out, still looking thoroughly displeased.

“What did I do…”

An Zijin had fully woken up by now. After learning what she had almost done, she remained in a state somewhere between shyness and delight.

“Bad senior.”

Yao Beibei, holding onto one of An Zijin’s arms, unhesitatingly bestowed a new nickname upon Su Ming, just as Jiang Wanyu had earlier.

“I’m innocent!”

Su Ming insisted.

But Lei Hao and Ye Bai flanked him, each grabbing one of his arms.

“Every criminal says that.”

“Especially death row inmates.”

Lei Hao and Ye Bai drawled, effectively sentencing Su Ming on the spot.

Ye Bai, in particular, encapsulated his entire mental state with the word “death penalty.”

Su Ming had no strength left to argue.

The three of them bickered and bantered as they made their way to the Mission Hall in the Office Building, blending into the noisy crowd.

Aside from minor differences in layout, this Mission Hall was largely similar to the Academy’s Mission Hall.

Apart from rows of seats and tables, there were only service counters, office staff, and several bulletin boards much larger than those at the Academy.

On these boards, details of various missions were displayed, waiting for students to accept them.

Students gathered here, carefully examining the missions and chattering among themselves. Some lingered hesitantly, while others directly noted down mission numbers and headed to the counters to have the office staff register them as accepted.

Otherwise, aside from certain unlimited-repeat missions, students might end up in conflict over accepting the same task.

It’s worth noting that the mission system here was the same as the Academy’s, categorizing mission difficulty into six levels: S, A, B, C, D, and E.

Among these, the highest difficulty S-Rank Missions and high difficulty A-Rank Missions were not posted publicly.

Missions of this caliber were significant, with wide-reaching impact and high danger. Many were even confidential missions that couldn’t be disclosed, so the Academy naturally wouldn’t post them casually.

Therefore, only B, C, D, and E-rank missions were available here.

“What difficulty should we take?”

Su Ming posed the question.

Everyone fell into thoughtful silence.

(End of Chapter)