This humble Taoist priest wants to take the college entrance exam.

Chapter 79 Zhizhi Patted You
People really can't stay cooped up in a room all the time.

After taking a walk along the river together, Li Wanyin experienced the rare relaxation and joy of a holiday. Without the pressure of finding a job or the urgency of going to work the next day, she looked radiant.

The two people and the cat returned home at 10:30 p.m.

Li Wanyin went back to her room to change back into her home shorts and T-shirt that she had been wearing as pajamas. Before Chen Shi'an could take a shower, she washed her feet, face, and brushed her teeth.

Water droplets clung to my sister's beautiful face, making her look as clean as a lotus emerging from the water.

"Shi'an, I'm going to sleep now?"

"Hmm, Sister Wanyin, you're sleeping so early today, are you very tired?"

"Haha, I'm not tired, just sleepy. I need to take a nap to wrap things up."

Her words were abstract, but Chen Shi'an could roughly understand what kind of drowsiness she was experiencing. Perhaps it was the kind of drowsiness that comes naturally after a satisfying meal.

"By the way, let's go hiking on Shuiche Mountain tomorrow. Shi'an, what time do you plan to leave?"

"No rush, Sister Wanyin, just sleep soundly. We can go after you wake up."

"Hmm... okay then, goodnight~"

"Get some rest."

Li Wanyin closed the door and went back to her room.

Chen Shi'an also took his change of clothes to take a shower.

After taking a shower and hanging up the clothes, Chen Shi'an turned off the lights in the house and went back to his room with the cat.

Picking up his charging phone, Chen Shi'an opened WeChat, which had somehow been disconnected from the background.

A series of WeChat messages popped up.

More than forty of these messages were new friend requests.

Because it was the weekend, many students had their phones back. When they saw Daoye join the WeChat group, they quickly sent him friend requests.

There were both male and female students; some had their names noted in the verification messages, while others did not.

Chen Shi's security department approved it; for those without notes, he simply asked, "[Who are you?]"
He was added as a friend by classmates such as Vice Class Monitor Qiu Yufu, the girl in front of him Zheng Yining and Xie Mengxuan, as well as many male and female classmates he had never spoken to.

Chen Shi'an's WeChat Moments suddenly became much more diverse, with posts sharing game screenshots, where he went that night, photos of himself holding a cup of milk tea, and pictures of his cats and dogs at home...

Besides campus life, Chen Shi'an witnessed the extracurricular lives of other students for the first time.

It seems quite interesting.

He wasn't bored at all. He chatted idly with the classmate he had just added while browsing their WeChat Moments. In fact, he had always enjoyed observing people, finding the lives of ordinary people more interesting than many books.

The lives of his classmates were mostly things he had never experienced in the mountains.

While scrolling through my WeChat Moments, I suddenly came across two newly posted posts.

One of them was posted by Sister Wanyin, who just said she was going to sleep.

Little Echo: [Photo]
There was no text accompanying the post, just a photo.

The photo is the one Chen Shi'an just took of her by the river.

It's clear that Li Wanyin really likes this photo, because she even changed her WeChat profile picture to it.

Chen Shi'an sent her a thumbs-up emoji comment and then liked her post, indicating that he had caught her awake.

The other one was posted by Wen Zhixia after she got home from school.

Zhizhi: [Photo]
Caption: Happy birthday, Mom! May you be happy every day! May you stay young and beautiful forever! Love you, Mom!

Chen Shi'an opened the photo to view it in full screen.

The photo shows a living room with the lights off. A woman who looks about 50-60% like Wen Zhixia is wearing a birthday hat. She is adorably clasping her hands together and closing her eyes, seemingly making a wish. In front of her is a large cake, and the candles on the cake cast a warm glow on her face.

And, next to her, Wen Zhixia, wearing a blue and white school uniform, tilted her head and made a V sign next to her face (＾－＾) on her cheek.

It's a very heartwarming photo. I wonder if the person who took the photo was Xiaozhi's dad. The dad didn't appear in the photo, but there's a big hand outstretched next to the camera making a peace sign.

Perhaps it is this happy little family that nurtured Xiaozhi's enthusiastic and lively personality. Chen Shi'an had never met her parents, but he could roughly imagine what these two elders must have been like. The father was probably the pillar of the family and a person of responsibility, and the mother was probably emotionally stable and thrifty. Both of them should be very open-minded and have a youthful mindset.

Happy families are all alike. Such a judgment may not be entirely accurate, but given Chen Shi'an's ability to judge people and his understanding of Xiao Zhi's personality, it's probably pretty close to the mark.

Exiting the full-screen view of the photo, Chen Shi'an typed a comment on the post: [Wishing Auntie, may you be surrounded by pine and crane, protected and blessed with good health; may orchids and magnolias surround your home, bringing you lasting happiness.]
After commenting, he also liked the post on his WeChat Moments.

As if finally catching him popping up, a WeChat message from Zhizhi floated onto the phone screen.

Zhizhi: [Have you finished eating? [Minion's Arrogance]]
Chen Shi'an thought the "Minion Arrogance" system emoticon looked more like a pouting expression of someone who was slightly sulking.

What's wrong? It's one thing for the class monitor to be sulking for no reason, but Little Zhi, are you sulking for no reason too?

I'm innocent!
Chen Shi'an felt that he should be the one who was angry. These two mortal enemies showed no consideration for the predicament of the young Taoist priest caught in the middle!

Chen Shi'an: [I finished eating "Minion Arrogance" a long time ago]
System notification - Zhizhi patted you
Then Chen Shi'an patted her on the head while poking her profile picture.

System notification - You patted Zhizhi and said, "I was wrong."

Chen Shi'an was completely baffled. This patting app could be used like this? It didn't teach him how to do it when he searched it on Baidu!

When Wen Zhixia saw the sudden pop-up message on the other end of the phone, she was also stunned. She had set up the patting feature a long time ago, but she didn't expect him to activate it at just the right time.

The girl's slight gloom vanished instantly, and she couldn't help but chuckle to herself, clutching the blanket.

You stinky Taoist priest! You idiot!

Actually, she wasn't angry. Like Lin Mengqiu, she only realized later that she had been inexplicably sulking that afternoon, feeling a mix of bitterness, resentment, and a tightness in her chest. Looking back now, she knew Chen Shi'an, as a friend, hadn't done anything wrong. She should have just pretended not to see him and Lin Mengqiu that afternoon. But for some reason, when she saw them walking together, she couldn't help but walk towards them…

Reason prevails now. Who cares what he and his stinking class monitor do! They're friends, who's guilty, who cares...

Since that stinky Taoist priest isn't guilty at all, then she isn't guilty either, hmph!

Oh, Lin Mengqiu, are you feeling guilty?

Ha! You little punk!

I figured it out with just a quick test! Sure enough, you're...yes...to Chen Shi'an.

The girl lying on the bed suddenly sat up!
No, no, no...

In the dim light, her beautiful big eyes were wide open, her expression shifting, seemingly somewhat solemn.

But after pondering for a long time, she still couldn't figure it out. Her seriousness gradually faded, replaced by a blank expression. She slowly lay down and curled up in the quilt.

I turned on my phone, and the screen showed a message that Chen Shi'an had just sent.

Chen Shi'an: [How did you set up this app? Where do you do it?]
Zhizhi: [...]
Look at him! Look at him! She spent the whole night pondering her girlish feelings, while he was only concerned with figuring out how to do it. Is that something important?!
Zhizhi: [Figure it out yourself]
Chen Shian: [Did you help deliver the gift to Auntie?]
Zhizhi: [Yes, I brought it. My mom really likes that wood carving of plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums.]
Zhizhi: [She still doesn't believe you carved it yourself, saying she's never seen such a detailed carving! I argued with her for ages! Aren't you going to thank me?]
Chen Shi'an: [Thank you, Xiao Zhi! [bowing]]
Zhizhi: [You're welcome [smile]]
Wen Zhixia was speechless and amused. Sometimes it was really hard to associate these replies, which sounded like those from middle-aged or elderly people, with the eighteen-year-old on the other side of the screen.

In fact, she didn't go into details. That evening, when she gave her mother the wood carving that Chen Shi'an had given her, her parents were quite suspicious of Chen Shi'an's identity as a "friend".

Even her mother lowered her voice and asked her if she was secretly dating... which made the girl so embarrassed that her face was on fire and her head was practically steaming!

I had to say things like "I'm completely innocent," "I'm just a friend," and "I only care about studying, how could I think about those things?" before my parents finally believed me.

She certainly wouldn't tell Chen Shi'an about such a minor incident.

Of course, this isn't out of guilt...it never happened!

Wen Zhixia turned over, hugged the pillow to her chest, and continued to reply to him:
Zhizhi: [My mom said thank you, that you're very thoughtful, and that you'd like to come over for dinner sometime. My dad also said he wants to see your carving skills in person. He said your plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums are really well done, and even the master craftsmen at our factory can't compare to your skills.]
Chen Shi'an: [Your family owns a factory? What kind of factory do you run?]
Zhizhi: [Make some solid wood furniture or something]
Zhizhi: [By the way, do you usually use wood for carving? What kind of wood do you need? I'll go to the factory and get some for you.]
Chen Shi'an: [Are you going to steal it?]
Zhizhi: [Nonsense! What kind of theft is this if it's my own stuff!]
Chen Shi'an: [【Panda head with a wicked smile】]
Zhizhi: [【Panda Head got beaten up and his face is bruised and swollen】]
Chen Shi'an: [Let's talk about it if you need it. I don't care about the type of wood I use for carving; it's just a hobby. Carving is also a process of self-cultivation. If you want to learn, I can teach you.]
Zhizhi: [Okay]
Chen Shi'an: [I'm going to sleep now]
Zhizhi: [Go to sleep, go to sleep]
Just as Chen Shi'an was about to turn off the screen and go to sleep, she sent another message.

It's a voice message.

Zhizhi: "Goodnight."

You could tell it was a voice message she sent in a low voice from under the covers; the voice was soft and quiet.

Chen Shi'an replied with a sleepy Minion emoji, then turned off the screen, closed his eyes, and fell asleep about ten seconds later.

……

In another room, Li Wanyin, who had said she was going to sleep early, was still awake.

The girls in the group were all curious about who took the photo for Li Wanyin's new profile picture.

[Three years! A whole three years! This is the first time I've seen you change your profile picture!]
[Oh yeah, Wanyin's been secretly dating someone behind her friends' backs, hasn't she? @Xiaohuiyin]
[No way!]
[Then who took that photo you posted? Don't tell us it was a passerby, we don't believe a passerby could take such a good picture.]
[Right, you guys think it's really well-shot, right?]
[Don't change the subject!! Answer me!!]
[I'm not actually dating anyone, my roommate took this photo for me.]
[Male or female?]
[Didn't I tell you guys last time about that younger brother who practices Baduanjin?]
[......]
[Oh no, sis, I'm suddenly starting to believe it, what should I do?]
[Surprise inspection! A surprise inspection is mandatory!]
[? ]
(End of this chapter)