That night was also a difficult one to get through.

On the last day of the trip, everyone got up much later than before. Perhaps they had already had their fill over the previous two days, because the group had now lost interest in the amusement park. Lao Mei suggested that they go shopping on the final day, which was unanimously approved by everyone else—but once they actually got to the streets, they had no idea what to do.

For people like them, wandering around aimlessly was probably even more painful than attending classes.

It wasn’t until noon that they finally settled on the last entertainment plan for the day—do whatever you want, and after that, gather in the afternoon and head home.

As for what the others went off to do afterward, no one really knew. In any case, Jiang Zixuan took Shu Yuxin to a cinema to watch a movie, an idea inspired by what Wei Zhanpeng had done the night before.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any particularly interesting movies showing recently. Jiang Zixuan casually picked one with more special effects, but after watching it all the way through, Shu Yuxin barely had any impression of it—she had fallen asleep before the movie even reached the halfway point.

Jiang Zixuan couldn’t understand why she, who had woken up the latest, was still constantly sleepy, and Shu Yuxin had no intention of explaining it to him.

Scaring herself so badly that she couldn’t sleep for half the night, and then finally falling asleep only to be woken up twice by nightmares—no matter how you looked at it, that was just too embarrassing to admit.

The meeting time was four in the afternoon. When the people who had been running around outside returned one by one, they all looked like they had a pretty good time. It was the third day of the National Day holiday, and although there were still plenty of people on the city roads, it was noticeably less crowded than on the first day. At least today’s traffic wasn’t as jammed as before, and the trip home wasn’t nearly as suffocating.

Even though they had only been out for three days, when Shu Yuxin returned to the rented apartment, she felt as if an eternity had passed. Perhaps this was just how it was for a homebody—going out was always the most memorable experience and made time feel the longest, just like how a coward would always have the deepest impression of things like haunted houses.

As soon as Shu Yuxin entered the apartment, she rushed over and collapsed onto the sofa. Stretching lazily, she sighed, “Ah… I’m really exhausted…”

Then she yawned again.

Jiang Zixuan walked over and asked, “Didn’t sleep well last night?”

“A bit.”

“Did you and Peng Xiaoxiao do something exciting last night?”

“…I’d love to do something exciting with her,” Shu Yuxin waved her hand dismissively. “Wake up. Yuri is unrealistic for me.”

Jiang Zixuan went over to turn on the TV, then came back and sat beside her. “Heh, if you’re sleepy, just rest early tonight.”

“I’m not sleepy right now.” Shu Yuxin struggled to get up from the sofa. “Ah… are you hungry?”

“I’m okay. Are you?”

“It’s almost dark. If you’re hungry, I’ll go downstairs and buy groceries to cook dinner. Or do you want to just have some late-night food?” Shu Yuxin glanced at him.

Jiang Zixuan fiddled with the remote, changing channels. “Then go buy groceries now.”

“What do you want to eat?” Shu Yuxin asked as she climbed off the sofa and picked up her phone.

“Anything.”

“Oh.” Shu Yuxin responded and left the apartment.

Jiang Zixuan stayed on the sofa, mindlessly flipping through channels for a while before getting up to turn on the PlayStation.

Just as the console finished booting up, there was a knock at the door.

He glanced toward the door, set the controller aside, and got up to open it.

Standing outside was Yan Zhikai.

“What’s up?”

“I’ve got something to talk about,” Yan Zhikai gestured inside with his chin. “Can I come in?”

Jiang Zixuan stepped aside to let him through.

After entering, Yan Zhikai first looked around the living room, then asked, “Where’s Shu Yuxin?”

“She just went out to buy something.” Jiang Zixuan closed the door and followed him into the living room.

Yan Zhikai showed no sense of being a guest at all. After getting his answer, he walked straight to the sofa and sat down, picking up the controller lying there. “Damn, you’ve got a lot of games. Quite a few I’ve been planning to buy… Are these discs?”

“Yeah, all discs.”

“Nice. Then when you get tired of them and shelve them, let me borrow some to play?”

Jiang Zixuan sat down beside him. “Sure, just come borrow them when the time comes… Don’t you have these in the activity room?”

“Even if we do, we’d only provide the console. There’s no way we’d buy a full set of game discs too, right? At least I don’t have that kind of spare cash.” Yan Zhikai shrugged.

Jiang Zixuan nodded, then asked, “You said you had something to talk about. What is it?”

“That… no rush. Let’s wait until Shu Yuxin gets back and talk together. It doesn’t really concern her, but she can join in for the fun.” As he spoke, Yan Zhikai started up a game.

“Alright. Where’s Zhang Houlin? Doesn’t he live with you?”

“He went back already—booked a ticket for tonight.” Yan Zhikai didn’t seem to care much.

Jiang Zixuan looked at him. “You’re not going back?”

“No one’s home anyway. Going back would be boring. At least here I can find people to hang out with.” After saying that, Yan Zhikai suddenly asked, “What did she go out to buy? Shu Yuxin, I mean.”

Jiang Zixuan hesitated for a moment before answering, “Groceries.”

“Groceries?” Yan Zhikai was taken aback. “Whoa, you guys cook?”

“Yeah. Cooking ourselves is more comfortable than eating out, and it’s cheaper too.” Jiang Zixuan smiled casually.

Yan Zhikai sighed. “I’m jealous. The two of us look like we’re about to start a knife fight every time we pick up a kitchen knife.”

“You can learn,” Jiang Zixuan said.

Yan Zhikai shook his head. “Where would we find the time? This semester’s basically packed with classes. Busy as hell.”

“Hah, freshman year is still relatively easy.”

“By the way, you’re in landscape architecture, right?” Yan Zhikai suddenly asked.

“Yeah.”

“Heh, then you won’t be relaxed for long.” Yan Zhikai let out a meaningful chuckle.

Jiang Zixuan simply smiled in response, offering no comment.

Claiming you were fully prepared for the busy life of college without having experienced it was obviously false, but he had survived the brutal schedule of high school, so he figured college wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

In any case, Jiang Zixuan’s mindset was pretty relaxed.

Not long after, Shu Yuxin returned and opened the door. As soon as she came in, she complained, “The supermarket ran out of chicken breast and didn’t restock in time, so… huh?”

Yan Zhikai raised the hand holding the controller and waved at her. “Hi, good evening.”

“Yan Zhikai?” Shu Yuxin looked at Jiang Zixuan, her eyes full of questions.

“He came over for something,” Jiang Zixuan explained.

Shu Yuxin pressed her lips together, then went into the kitchen without saying a word.

“By the way, you guys don’t mind if I freeload a dinner, right?” Yan Zhikai patted his stomach. “I haven’t eaten yet either.”

Jiang Zixuan glanced toward the kitchen. “You’ll have to ask Shu Yuxin.”

“I don’t mind. Just cook a bit more rice.” Shu Yuxin’s voice came from the kitchen. “It’s just that it might not suit your taste.”

“That’s no problem. As long as it doesn’t kill me, I’ll eat it. I’m not picky,” Yan Zhikai said.

“…Okay.”

Jiang Zixuan watched the TV screen for a moment, then asked, “So what did you come for? Yuxin’s back now.”

“Oh, it’s about the activity room,” Yan Zhikai said, still focused on the game. “The batch of VR equipment we ordered earlier arrived. We happen to have time these days, so if you’re free, come help with the installation. There aren’t many people left on campus right now—every extra pair of hands helps.”

At the mention of this, Shu Yuxin became interested. “VR? Doesn’t the activity room already have VR?”

“That’s different. This new batch can play SAO. It’s not the usual VR where you just wear goggles and hold controllers.” Yan Zhikai curled his lips into his distinctive grin.

“SAO?” Sword Art Online?

Yan Zhikai nodded. “Yeah, it’s the immersive VR game set that Phantom Dream released half a year ago. You’ve heard of it, right? I didn’t manage to get the first batch when it came out, but I snagged a few sets from the second batch.”

Shu Yuxin thought for a moment.

Phantom Dream was a company specializing in virtual reality equipment. Because its main focus was immersive VR—a field no one had successfully cracked before—it had become quite well-known. Half a year ago, the first batch of immersive VR devices was released, and they sold out almost instantly when pre-orders opened.

The most eye-catching aspect of such devices was naturally entertainment, and Phantom Dream made full use of that. In just half a year, they had developed a complete entertainment platform based on the device, including online shopping, games, films, and other applications commonly found on computers. Although the VR equipment wasn’t perfect yet and didn’t offer many features, the sheer novelty of it brought massive attention to both the product and the company behind it.

For an ordinary small-time streamer like Shu Yuxin, it was something she could only fantasize about. Due to the device’s poor compatibility, it didn’t even support cross-platform livestreaming, so she still had no idea what using such high-end gear actually felt like. And yet now Yan Zhikai was telling her they had bought several sets of this VR equipment—she was instantly stunned.

So stunned, in fact, that she added too much salt to the dish.

Watching the white salt quickly dissolve in the pan, she fell into silence.

Looks like there would be one less dish tonight.

“Oh, yeah, I know about that,” Jiang Zixuan said. “That VR set is pretty expensive, right? And you bought several?”

“I fronted some of the money. The official price is fine—it’s only expensive because a bunch of idiots are scalping it,” Yan Zhikai snorted. “Anyway, for high-end stuff like this, it’s unlikely to depreciate much in the short term. Even if we sell it after a few years of use, we’ll still get a lot of the money back.”

Hearing this, Shu Yuxin couldn’t help asking, “You’re going to sell it later? Not leave it for future club members?”

“We’ll leave it if they pay me for it. The equipment in the activity room right now was bought from the previous club president anyway—we’re not running a charity.”

Shu Yuxin nodded slightly, thoughtful.

Jiang Zixuan smiled. “Alright, just let me know when you need help. I should be around for the whole National Day holiday.”

“Good.” Yan Zhikai handed him the controller. “Wanna play DOA? Let’s do a couple rounds.”

“…I’ll pass. I don’t know how to play that game.”

“Tch, that’s boring.”