15 Chapter 15: Jian Qi'er Millennium Countdown (One More)_1

Li Xinyue looked at Liu Qianqian's expression and suddenly frowned, saying, "Qian Qian, your smile seems... a bit bitter."

"Ah... really?" Liu Qianqian laughed and said.

Li Xinyue's frown deepened, and after a few seconds, as if she suddenly thought of something, she exclaimed with shock on her face, "Qian Qian! You couldn't be secretly enjoying rejecting him, could you!"

"What are you talking about!" Liu Qianqian immediately panicked, her gaze darting away as she said, "How could I possibly do such a boring thing."

"Playing hard to get, huh! Are you doing this to let him know you're not that easy to win over...?"

Liu Qianqian, very annoyed, said, "Stop it, stop it, where are you even going with this!"

Teacher Huang on the podium looked at Liu Qianqian, who was sitting right in front of him, and turned to stone at a visibly rapid pace, feeling even the best students in class had no respect for him...

In an instant, he felt more certain and yet more disheartened—this was definitely the worst class he had ever taught! No contest!

...

"You better make it clear, is this marriage thing real or not!"

Just as they reached the classroom door, Li and Jing immediately pressed Fang Ren for an answer.

"I'm not sick, why would I lie to you guys?" Fang Ren said with a frown.

"Holy shit, it's only fourteen days until May 20, and you're moving this fast?"

"Hey hey hey, tell us, where did you meet this great beauty?"

Fang Ren shrugged helplessly and said, "You might not believe it if I tell you, but it's all because of a blind date, ridiculously cliché."

"Just spill it."

Fang Ren continued, "You guys know about my Uncle Han, the only elder I have in my family, that too not related by blood. That great beauty you two keep talking about, the one from my blind date, do you know what her relation is to Uncle Han?"

"Keep going! No questions, just tell us."

"She's Uncle Han's biological daughter, his own flesh and blood!"

"Ha!?"

Li and Jing were suddenly stunned.

"Holy fuck, there's actually such good luck?"

"No way! I need to go find an uncle too!"

"Quit messing around, who knows how things will turn out," Fang Ren said.

"Hey, what happened to her leg?" Jing Haichuan asked.

"I asked you guys to help me find medicinal ingredients because I want to treat her leg," Fang Ren said.

"Why bother making your own pills? Wouldn't it be easier to find a more skilled alchemist and just buy their elixirs?"

"Do you think I'm stupid? If there were really an elixir in the world that could treat her leg, why the hell would I bother making my own?"

"Damn, you've never ranked higher than the third from the last in your theory exams, and now you suddenly want to do alchemy? That's too far-fetched..."

"How will I know if I don't try?" Fang Ren said.

"Sigh, forget it, I'll think of a way to help you with the medicinal ingredients. I should be able to get them for you within a couple of days," Jing Haichuan said with a pained expression.

"For real?"

"Dammit, I'm known as the number one safety kid in the whole city; when have I ever not kept my word?"

"Don't be too disappointed if it doesn't work out. Maybe someday in the future, there'll be a medicine that can treat her," Li Xingwang also said.

...

This afternoon there was still a lab class that required partners to team up and perform an experiment freely. The requirement was to create a new type of spirit-gathering pill that didn't focus on effectiveness but met the standards for color, shape, aura, and taste.

In the past, when there were such experiments, Fang Ren would usually team up with Liu Qianqian. There was no helping it; given their current awkward relationship, it would be better not to pair up.

Liu Qianqian was with Li Xinyue, and Jing Haichuan with Li Xingwang, which left him in a bit of a bind. With no other choice, he had to randomly find a group. They were all classmates, after all, not expecting much from a simple experiment—as long as they could complete it together.

"Fang, Fang, Fang classmate... um, let's be in the same group, shall we?"

Just as Fang Ren was looking around to see if there were any other students without partners, a voice from behind reached his ears.

He turned around to see a girl wearing old-fashioned glasses, looking down with her hands nervously clutching her skirt, her figure somewhat overly slender, stuttering as she spoke to him.

The girl's name was Jian Qi'er, who also frequently skipped classes and arrived late. She was extremely shy, which coupled with her tardiness, meant she didn't have many friends in class and was hardly noticeable.

There weren't many people in school Fang Ren admired, but Jian Qi'er was among the few.

He could always count on being the third from the bottom in theory exams, and he thought he was odd enough, but Jian Qi'er outdid him by far.

Despite his attempts to keep a low profile in exams, answering all the major questions wrong and randomly guessing multiple-choice questions, he could never score lower than her.

The last place in the class always belonged to Jian Qi'er, and to this day, no one had been able to take it from her.

"Alright, I'll come over to your side."

Fang Ren then picked up the medicinal materials from his desk and moved to sit next to Jian Qi'er.

Actually, everyone was given a sufficient amount of medicinal materials, but they formed teams for the purpose of exchanging ideas to minimize detail errors, and also because two sets of materials meant two chances.

"Um, I, I'm not very good at these things, please be patient with me." Jian Qi'er saw him sitting beside her, her face blushing slightly as she lowered her head and spoke.

"No worries, I at least know a bit."

Fang Ren didn't look at her much, he just took the small furnace from the side, placed it between them, and used a lighter to ignite the fuel at the bottom. Then, he began to pour water into the small furnace.

Seeing this, Jian Qi'er immediately said, "Can, can I help with anything?"

"Oh, just help me control the fire," said Fang Ren as he began putting several medicinal ingredients into the small furnace.

Teacher Huang on the podium was inspecting the situation of each group in the classroom. When he came to the group of Fang Ren and Jian Qi'er, he froze.

The perennial third-last and the perennial last teaming up? Expecting these two to do alchemy? What a joke!

Seeing him standing there stupefied, Fang Ren had a feeling he might explode in anger, so he quickly pretended to be serious and continued with the experiment.

Clack clack—

Teacher Huang's teaching rod tapped on the desk, his face changing from a dumbstruck expression to one of anger mixed with resignation: "Are you two trying to reach the heavens? Eh? Aren't you going to blow up my classroom if you pair up? Couldn't you find some classmates with good grades to team up with?"

"Teacher, that..."

"Stop!" Teacher Huang looked at Jian Qi'er with a mix of disappointment and exasperation. He earnestly said, "Jian Qi'er, oh Jian Qi'er, Fang Ren has nothing but beauties in his head. It's fine if he teams up carelessly because he's bad at studying, but why don't you try to improve? What's this, a feeble alliance conspiring to set a new record low score?"

Jian Qi'er's face was flushed with panic as she bent her head and earnestly said, "Re, report, Teacher, we're not planning to go to the heavens, we… we'll definitely try not to blow up the classroom!"

"It's over! There's no hope! This is the worst class I've ever taught!"

Teacher Huang slapped his face with his hand, his expression despairing as he walked back towards the podium.

Fang Ren was also a complete mess. This Jian Qi'er really was more of an oddball than he was, uttering the most dominant phrase in the meekest tone.

Blowing up the classroom... The dream of many a young rogue.

After tossing the medicinal materials inside, Fang Ren didn't bother with the furnace anymore, instead taking a small stone and a steel needle out from his own body and fiddling with them on the desk.

Next to him, Jian Qi'er sat earnestly at her seat, her brows furrowed and her eyes firmly fixed on the flames of the furnace, taking seriously the task Fang Ren had given her, occasionally adjusting the glasses on her face.

"It should be successful soon."

Fang Ren used the steel needle to forcefully pry out something ring-shaped from inside the small stone, which looked very much like a ring.

After removing the small ring, Fang Ren took out another small stone from his pocket and kept rubbing the ring on the surface of the other stone.

Although he was very talented in alchemy, he also had his own insights about some Cultivation tools, such as this small ring, which he planned to turn into a Space Ring.

It might just look like an ordinary small stone, but he had been researching it for two years, soaking it in various substances, and fusing different materials together. Finally, today, he achieved the effect he had been hoping for, being able to make one of the small items into a ring.

With this final step, after grinding the ring against the repelling small stone, he should be able to get a ring with a special small space.

However, he couldn't be sure about the outcome yet, as the activation of a Space Ring required True Qi to sense it, which meant it could only be used by Cultivators, and he, a regular person, couldn't use it at all.

If the Space Ring really did work, then he could log on to the online account and publish his theory again.

This was a Space Ring! Since the opening of the Cultivation Era 210 years ago, no one had ever managed to create such a thing.

Just as Fang Ren was finishing the last touches on his ring, content and ready to put it away, suddenly Jian Qi'er beside him got excited, "Fang, Fang classmate, will it, will it really explode?"

Fang Ren turned back to realize that, too absorbed in his ring, he had forgotten about the medicinal materials in the small furnace. Now, the whole small furnace was shaking violently.

"Holy crap!"

Mumbling a swear, Fang Ren immediately put his ring on the desk and added a few more medicinal materials into the furnace without adding any more water.

"Is, is everything okay?" asked Jian Qi'er.

"Don't worry, it won't explode yet," Fang Ren said, sweating.

"That's a relief."

After hearing that, Jian Qi'er breathed a sigh of relief, her small hands incessantly patting her little chest.

"What's this?"

Jian Qi'er's gaze landed on the ring-shaped stone on the desk, and she asked with a look of curiosity.

Fang Ren smiled and casually said, "Just made a Space Ring."

Telling her shouldn't matter. A medical student, and the third-last in the class creating a Space Ring? Who would believe that?

But... he forgot, Jian Qi'er was an odd one…