Chapter 008

Having spent the whole day out, Ji Chen was a little tired. He didn’t stay in bed long before falling asleep.

He slept soundly for the first half of the night, but as the night went on, strange dreams began to invade his mind.

In one such dream, he found himself face to face with Meng Li. She playfully teased him, her lips pouting as she leaned in close. Before he could react, she pulled him into a gentle embrace, her voice soft yet filled with a teasing tone as she whispered, “Chen gege, come here, Third Master loves you…”

Ji Chen was terrified and disgusted in his dream, desperately shouting, resisting, and struggling, but he couldn’t escape Meng Li’s clutches.

Just as her bloody red lips were about to touch him, he suddenly woke up with a start.

Lying in bed, Ji Chen opened his eyes, gasping for breath as if he had just survived a near-death experience.

After catching his breath, the memory of what Meng Li had been about to do to him in the dream made his stomach churn, and he felt a wave of nausea rising up in his throat.

He quickly threw off the blanket, got out of bed, and hurried to the bathroom in the yard. Leaning over the sink, he prepared to vomit.

Zheng Hang must have gotten up at some point because he followed Ji Chen to the bathroom, standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. With a slightly congested voice, he asked, “Brother Chen, what’s wrong? You sick?”

Ji Chen straightened up, giving Zheng Hang a sharp glance. “Get lost, you idiot!”

Zheng Hang chuckled and missed Ji Chen’s remark as he went inside to use the restroom.

Ji Chen stood by the sink for a while, trying to calm himself. Once Zheng Hang was done, he spoke, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, “Damn it, I can’t take it anymore. Tomorrow, you go and arrange a one-on-one with Meng Li at Chaoyang Park. I need to practice with him.”

The mention of a fight immediately snapped Zheng Hang to attention.

He flushed the toilet, washed his hands, and looked at Ji Chen, “One-on-one?”

Ji Chen’s gaze darkened, “Yeah. I have to deal with him myself.”

Zheng Hang yawned, slapping Ji Chen on the shoulder as he left the bathroom, “Alright, I’ll set it up for you tomorrow.”

…

In the best meditation room of Shuiyue Temple, Meng Li tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep until the late hours of the night. Just as she started to feel sleepy, an itch seemed to crawl all over her nerves, and she suddenly sneezed violently.

The sneeze was so forceful that the drowsiness she had worked so hard to accumulate was instantly blown away.

Meng Li opened her eyes wide, fully awake now. She took two deep sniffs, wiped her nose, and silently thought to herself, Who’s the pineapple-headed fool cursing me in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?

She blinked in the dark, pulling the blanket a little tighter around herself.

Her nose still itched a little, but she didn’t sneeze again.

After leaving the Shichahai ice rink in the evening, she and Zhuo Xi casually found a small tavern in an alley to have dinner. Afterward, they hung around a bit, and then she ended up at Shuiyue Temple to kill time for the night.

The Shuiyue Temple had long been closed due to the “Four Olds” movement, but now it had become a common place for Meng Li and her gang to hang out overnight.

The seal on the door remained untouched, and the group of them climbed over the wall to get in.

Meng Li wasn’t very skilled at climbing walls, but fortunately, the body she had inherited was strong enough, and with the help of Zhuo Xi and the others, she managed to get over. Afterward, when it came time to sleep, she was even less accustomed.

The bedding in the meditation room was cold and stiff, with conditions that were hard to bear.

The original Meng Li, had grown used to not caring, but she couldn’t handle it at all. She tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Before she transmigrated, she had been her parents’ precious treasure, spoiled and pampered. After crossing over, due to the limitations of the era, her living conditions had deteriorated significantly. Add to that the harsh treatment from Gu Huijuan, and she had often felt wronged and uncomfortable.

Originally, she had wanted to avoid returning to the Cheng family because she couldn’t stand the sour faces of Gu Huijuan and Cheng Chunliang. After all, the original Meng Li had lived this kind of rough life outside.

But she hadn’t expected that she would completely be unable to tolerate the conditions out here.

Compared to her life before she transmigrated, the Cheng family’s conditions, though poor, were still better than what she had now. They were an urban family.

The bed was hard and small, and the room wasn’t big either, but the blanket was soft, and everything was clean and tidy.

Meng Li hugged the stiff blanket, thinking that she couldn’t stand the accommodations out here and simply couldn’t sleep. She decided that in the future, she would return to the Cheng family’s house to sleep instead. She could go back a little later to avoid meeting Gu Huijuan and Cheng Chunliang.

Feeling uncomfortable all over, Meng Li wrapped herself up and turned over again.

In the middle of the night, the room was completely dark, both inside and outside.

There was nothing else she could do but lie there, lost in thought.

Meng Li quietly pondered the future, thinking that in just a few days, the New Year would come. After the winter vacation ended, it would be time to go back to school.

Meng Li decided that in the next six months, she would avoid Ji Chen as much as possible and focus on her studies after the new semester began. Although she wouldn’t be able to take the college entrance examination this year, it was set to be restored in a couple of years. Since she had studied hard for the college entrance examination in her previous life, she wasn’t about to give up on it now that she had transmigrated.

She knew that Gu Huijuan and the people in the Cheng family looked down on her, and she couldn’t let them continue to underestimate her. She had no other way out but to go to university.

With her resolve firm, Meng Li planned to keep up with her studies, reinforcing everything she had learned. When the college entrance examination was restored, she would take the exam and go to university.

As for the future, Meng Li began to think ahead to six months from now. According to the memories of her previous life, she would be graduating and turning 18, but there were only two paths she could take.

In this era, it was extremely difficult to stay in the city after graduation. The only viable options were either joining the army or going to the countryside to participate in rural development.

She considered her situation—her biological father was still undergoing reeducation, and she doubted she would pass the political background check for military service. So, joining the army was unlikely. It seemed she would have no choice but to follow the arrangement and head to the countryside for work.

The days in the city were rough and hard to bear, and when Meng Li thought about life in the countryside…

Meng Li silently pressed her lips together, feeling that life was truly difficult.

Just as Meng Li was getting emotional, thinking how chilly and lonely the night had become, Zhuo Xi, who was sleeping next to her, suddenly spoke up, “Can’t sleep?”

His voice was hoarse and raspy, unusually clear in the stillness of the night.

Meng Li was startled and quickly replied, “Mm, it’s a bit cold.”

Zhuo Xi asked again, “Should I warm you up?”

Meng Li: “!!!”

She silently wrapped the blanket around herself again. “No need!”

They were sleeping on a large shared bed, with Meng Li at the very edge and Zhuo Xi next to her.

Zhuo Xi’s voice was low and gentle. “What are you thinking about?”

Meng Li lay still, not moving, and the words that almost escaped her lips were swallowed back down.

She wanted to say that she missed her parents, but she knew that such words didn’t quite fit coming from her.

Meng Li truly missed her parents, but knowing that she couldn’t return to them, she purposely avoided thinking too much about it.

If she thought about it too much, she would end up crying, and even the blanket and pillow wouldn’t be enough to hold back her tears.

After a moment of silence, she finally said, “I want to sleep.”

Zhuo Xi didn’t think much of it and simply replied, “Go to sleep then.”

In the remaining hours of the night, Meng Li still couldn’t fall asleep.

As the sky began to lighten in the early morning, she got out of bed.

Taking advantage of the fact that Zhuo Xi and the others were still deeply asleep, she quietly put on her cotton jacket and outer coat.

Because she was afraid of the cold, Meng Li dressed in layers—three layers inside and three outside. She wore a thick sweater and a heavy cotton jacket.

Also, due to the layers, her chest was compressed, and no one could tell she was a woman, even if they wrestled with her.

After getting dressed, she quietly put on her shoes and headed for the bathroom.

She was startled when she went—she had gotten her period!

This was not something that could be delayed. Meng Li quickly put on her pants and went back to the meditation room to shake Zhuo Xi, who was still sound asleep.

Zhuo Xi was shaken awake, his face full of confusion. “Hmm?”

Meng Li spoke softly, not wanting to wake the others. “I want to go home.”

Zhuo Xi began to wake up fully, sitting up and pulling on his clothes, his voice heavy with sleep. “Let’s go.”

Meng Li felt a bit embarrassed. “Sorry to trouble you.”

Zhuo Xi, still quite sleepy, yawned. “The Third Master is so polite, making me feel like I’m the boss here…”

As he spoke, it seemed like something occurred to him. He suddenly looked up at Meng Li.

Meng Li felt uneasy under his gaze and couldn’t find the words to speak.

Seeing that Meng Li seemed a little dazed, Zhuo Xi lowered his head to finish buttoning his clothes, not saying anything further.