Chapter 30: Flirting with the Little Junior
Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Flirting with the Little Junior
"Are the regular seats sold out?"
If that was the case, Zhang Yan could actually understand. After all, when he used to frequent internet cafes in his younger days, he would often pay a little extra for a private room if the main hall was full.
"Not exactly. We don’t have the exact numbers yet since the guys are still inside snatching seats, but based on past data, there are usually four or five unreserved spots left in the hall."
Zhang Yan had just been sighing over how hard it was for these guys to earn some honest money—waking up at the crack of dawn and lining up for hours just to make ten or twenty bucks. Now, however, he couldn’t help but realize that there were plenty of people with money to spare. They were willing to pay a ten-buck premium every time just for a slightly better environment.
"Then get me a seat in the hall."
"You got it. Bro, scan the code and join the group first. Once the guys inside secure the spots, they’ll assign them in order. When you get a specific seat, just pay the guy who snagged it directly."
That was quite professional. Zhang Wang scanned the code and joined the group chat named "Provincial Library Study Group 1."
The group announcement was a friendly reminder for first-time visitors to the Provincial Library:
[The library has Wi-Fi. You may bring a water bottle to drink from, but no food is allowed. Please bring your ID to enter the reading area, and be absolutely quiet.]
Soon, the people who had secured seats began calling out to their paying customers in order. If someone didn’t respond within five minutes, they would move on to the next person.
Seat-Snatching Flash: [@Zhang Yan - Hall Regular Seat, you there? Second floor hall, Zone F, Seat 12. If that works, come find me.]
Zhang Yan: [@Seat-Snatching Flash, got it. I’m on my way.]
Seat-Snatching Flash: [@Zhang Yan - Hall Regular Seat, OK. I’m wearing black-rimmed glasses and a white shirt, very easy to spot. Friendly reminder: check out your books before you come over. Once you get up and leave, your seat might not be there when you get back.]
Zhang Yan: [@Seat-Snatching Flash, thanks. Understood.]
The Provincial Library was massive, with four floors above ground and a basement, and it was teeming with people. Along the way, he did spot a few empty seats, but they were all occupied by a piece of clothing or a cup of water. So, if you were really just looking for a place to sit—and if you were shameless enough—you could probably just commandeer one.
After checking out his book, Zhang Yan arrived at the designated spot and quickly found "Seat-Snatching Flash." He looked like a student, likely doing this part-time for extra cash.
BEEP!
After scanning the code to pay, the guy packed up his bag and left briskly. Before leaving, however, he cast an extra glance at the book in Zhang Yan’s hands.
He wondered, "What kind of decent person wakes up early, goes to the library, and pays for a seat just to read this kind of book?"
Zhang Yan noticed the guy’s stare and felt a flush of embarrassment. He quickly sat down and flipped the book open so that no one else would see the cover. After adjusting his mindset, Zhang Yan drank his daily dose of Concentration Potion. "Domain Expansion - Concentration Aura!"
One hour later.
Zhang Yan closed the book and let out a deep breath.
When he poured his entire mind into it, reading earnestly rather than just out of morbid curiosity, he gained a profound understanding of the complexity and ugliness of human nature, as well as the feudalism and corruption of society at the time, as depicted in the book.
[Mission Progress: 20%]
Having reached his goal, Zhang Yan rubbed his throbbing temples. The experiment was once again a success. He could clearly feel that his efficiency had increased by more than just a notch. At around the forty-minute mark, he had completely finished the remaining third of the book. However, the system hadn’t deemed him to have reached "Comprehension" at that point, so he had to flip back and reflect on the earlier Chapters until he finally met the standard.
He pulled out his phone, intending to relax for a bit.
In the "Provincial Library Study Group 1" he had just joined, many people were still active. It turned out that a lot of the scalpers who had snagged seats hadn’t left; instead, they continued searching for more seats to sell to latecomers.
Zhang Fan - Divine Throne: [@Group Owner Old Niu, didn’t you say that beauty comes here often and always buys the Divine Throne? Why didn’t I see her today?]
Group Owner Old Niu: [I just said she comes often, not every day. Just bad luck on your part.]
Zhang Fan - Divine Throne: [@Group Owner Old Niu, this is a scam! Geneva, refund my money!]
Scrolling through the chat history, Zhang Yan discovered that the "Divine Throne" referred to two adjacent couple’s seats with the best environment and view out the window. A reportedly gorgeous girl had been frequently buying one of them recently, which was why the Divine Throne had been completely sold out these past few days.
(For certain reasons, the seat-scalping groups were separated by gender: Group 1 was all men, and Group 2 was all women.)
Zhang Yan watched the farce unfold in the group chat, utterly speechless. He thought, "Are you guys here to study or to ogle girls? Talk about getting your priorities backward!"
Zhang Yan: [@Group Owner Old Niu, I’ll reserve a spot on tomorrow’s Divine Throne. I’ll offer fifty. Let me know if anyone tries to outbid me.]
Group Owner Old Niu: [@Zhang Yan - Hall Regular Seat, you got it, boss!]
Ignoring the rows of messages saying "Boss is so generous, transfer me five bucks to prove it!", Zhang Yan closed the group chat.
Checking his other contacts, he saw that the lazy little kitten, Chi Xinyue, had actually woken up quite early today and had already left him a few messages:
[Good Morning Kitten.gif]
[Senior, are you free today? I’d like to treat you to a movie to make up for leaving so suddenly last time~]
In male-female dynamics, girls usually waited for the guy to initiate a date. Yesterday, Zhang Yan had actually considered asking Chi Xinyue out again. However, after reviewing the lessons he learned from Cheng Lu, he took the painful experience to heart and decided that, from now on, he would be the one holding the initiative in intimate relationships.
After all, whoever caught feelings first lost the upper hand.
As a result, he had remained completely unmoved by Chi Xinyue’s various hints yesterday. Sure enough, she couldn’t hold back anymore today and took the initiative to ask him out.
Zhang Yan hadn’t yet read those relationship books like *Intimate Relationship* or *Art of Ambiguity*; these were all epiphanies he had reached by reflecting on his own past. They were all tricks Cheng Lu had once used on him.
They say experience is the best teacher. Having been a hopeless romantic once before, Zhang Yan had finally learned a thing or two.
Zhang Yan: [Let’s do tonight. I’m a bit busy with some things today.]
In reality, Zhang Yan was incredibly free every single day, so naturally, he didn’t have any other important matters to attend to. On the one hand, this was to build up her anticipation; on the other hand, setting it for a later time made it easier to maneuver certain things.
Completely oblivious to the big bad wolf’s intentions, the junior girl replied cheerfully: [Okay, Senior! I’ll check what movies are playing tonight. What genre do you like?]
Zhang Yan: [As long as I’m watching it with you, any genre is fine.]
The junior girl didn’t reply for a long time. It was hard to tell if she cringed at Zhang Yan’s cheesy pickup line or if it had genuinely swept her off her feet.
After quite a while, she sent over a screenshot of the booked tickets. Starting at 20:15, it was a romantic comedy called *Welcome to My Side*, which had just premiered today.
[Senior, I hope whatever you’re busy with goes smoothly. See you tonight~]
Since the junior girl seemed unaffected by his previous teasing and acted as if nothing had happened, Zhang Yan couldn’t quite gauge the effectiveness of the line he had blurted out on a whim.