Chapter 25: Companions in the Same Group
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Ling Lan couldn’t suppress her curiosity. “How did you find out?” The results were supposed to be confidential, only known by the examiners. Also, those examiners had been enlisted from various military regions, and so knew how to keep their mouths shut.
With some embarrassment, Qi Long replied, “Actually, when I went in for my test, the two examiners were talking about you, saying that you were a rare genius with unparalleled strength. I figured that if even the examiners said so, your strength must be ginormous!”
Fine, looks like the examiners got carried away in their excitement and accidentally revealed some hints. But this gregarious fellow was also surprisingly observant, having managed to grab hold of the most important information immediately.
“Oh right! What’s your name? I’m Qi Long, he’s Han Jijyun. We grew up together, and he’s the bestest of my best friends.” Qi Long had no sense of the typical first-time reservations when meeting strangers; he had jumped straight into an enthusiastic introduction of the little boy standing beside the plump little girl. His expression as he spoke seemed as if he were showing off, causing Ling Lan to throw a curious glance at this boy who Qi Long seemed proud to know.
The little boy seemed very serious, giving no outward reaction to Qi Long’s enthusiasm other than to slightly nod at Ling Lan, although his eyes held an unmistakable trace of appraisal. Of course, this was due to his young age — if he had been just a bit older, he might have been able to do so more subtly.
However, his assessing gaze did not make Ling Lan uncomfortable, because Ling Lan knew that he meant no harm by it, and that he was only trying to decide if Ling Lan was someone worthy of being befriended by his good friend Qi Long. Thus, Ling Lan was instead touched by this act of concern, proof of the deep friendship between the two boys.
Looking at the beaming Qi Long standing at her side, Ling Lan recalled the novels she had read in the past. So it was true that every happy-go-lucky boy would have a cautious and thoughtful bro by his side — even now, she could see the strong bromance between the two little boys … God was indeed fair and kind, and would protect those who were pure of heart.
As her impression of Qi Long and Han Jijyun rose, Ling Lan’s demeanour softened considerably. She greeted Han Jijyun amicably, “Hello, I’m Ling Lan, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Ling Lan, she is Jijyun’s younger cousin Han Xuya. She always likes to hang out with us, don’t take her words too seriously.” Qi Long did not wait for Jijyun to respond, interrupting to introduce the plump little girl.
Qi Long did not notice that his words had irritated the plump little girl so much that she was gnashing her teeth, while Han Jijyun threw a somewhat apologetic look at Ling Lan. Looks like he was used to playing the mediator for his best friend and his cousin sister.
Ling Lan smiled but did not respond in any way to Qi Long’s words. This somewhat placated the angry little girl, who felt that that Ling Lan at least knew his place, and as such didn’t find him as annoying as before. The emotions of girls were truly a fickle thing, regardless of their age.
And so the group of children conversed like they were little adults, but they hadn’t conversed for long before they heard one of the other children yell out, “The exam is starting!”
It turned out that the examiner for this test had appeared on the field, and the staff members had begun separating the children into smaller groups.
The way they grouped the children was simple — according to their registration number, every ten numbers became one group. Ling Lan looked at her number, 7253, and then turned to look at the numbers of the children in Qi Long’s group, and was immediately struck dumb. Dammit, wasn’t this too coincidental?! Their numbers turned out to be right behind hers — 7254, 7255, 7256 …
Ignoring Qi Long’s excitement, Han Jijyun’s surprise, and Han Xuya’s mild discomfort, Ling Lan could do nothing but look up at the sky, the corners of her mouth twitching. Was this the rumoured Laws of Dimension Travel? Would anyone fated to connect with her be naturally drawn to gather around her? Just like how Qi Long had just bulldozed his way into her life?
Besides the four of them, the six other people who belonged in their group had also gathered around them. This was only natural as their group had the most people to begin with, so the others who were scattered had automatically come to join up with the largest party.
The newcomers consisted of five boys and one girl, and one of the boys looked very similar to the girl, so they were probably twins.
Although there were hardly any ugly people left at this time, the twins were still extremely good-looking by current standards. They were like porcelain dolls, with clear skins glowing with health — the boy looked dignified and confident, while the girl looked shy and adorable. Two almost identical faces with two distinctly different dispositions — Ling Lan couldn’t help but steal a few extra looks.
Ling Lan’s gaze was perhaps a bit too intent, for the twins seemed to sense it and looked over. The princess-like girl smiled at Ling Lan bashfully, which Ling Lan returned on reflex. When the boy saw this, he glared at Ling Lan, as if warning her not to even think about flirting with his sister.
Ling Lan rubbed at her nose, speechless. Fine, so she had been labelled as a little lecher with just one smile. Still, wasn’t this little boy’s guard a little too high at this age? Wasn’t it a little too early to even worry about defending his sister’s honour from lechers?
Qi Long noticed the boy’s glares, and glared back fiercely in return as he tried to comfort Ling Lan, “Ling Lan, don’t mind it. Luo Lang’s just like that, his sister is the centre of his universe.”
Looks like Qi Long was also familiar with the twins, or else he wouldn’t have been able to call out the boy’s name so easily.
Ling Lan said helplessly, “Oh, so he has a sister complex! A sis-con!”
“Sis-con?!” Qi Long paused for a moment, bemused, before bursting out into laughter. “Ling Lan, you’re just too talented. How did you manage to describe it so perfectly? Sis-con … why didn’t I think of that?”
Qi Long’s exaggerated reaction surprised Ling Lan. The term ‘sis-con’ had been so popular back in Ling Lan’s original world that it had almost become a cliché, so almost everyone knew it. Who knew that it didn’t exist in this generation …?
A thought rose up in Ling Lan’s mind. Could it be that, over the years, due to several catastrophes and major disasters, there had been some heavy losses in culture? In that case, the books and other reading materials Little Four had saved might truly be an invaluable pot of gold …
Qi Long’s unusual reaction piqued the interest of the other children, who quickly asked him what was going on. Soon, the term ‘sis-con’ spread like wildfire among the kids, until everyone in the group except the twins had learned about it, and were giggling behind their hands.
Though they tried to hide it, their laughter was still obvious enough that Luo Lang, the male twin, couldn’t pretend not to see it. His face grew darker and darker, until finally, he could bear it no longer and went right up to Ling Lan to ask, “Hey, what bad things did you say about us?”
Ling Lan, face full of angelic innocence, pointed at herself and said, “Me? Say bad things about you? Why would I do that?” She wasn’t even laughing with the others — if he was looking for someone to blame, shouldn’t he look for Qi Long? Without his big mouth, how would the other children have found out and started laughing at Luo Lang?
“Then why are they laughing at me?” accused Luo Lang angrily. He had seen very clearly that the whole thing had started with Ling Lan. It was Ling Lan’s words that caused Qi Long and the others to start laughing at them.
Ling Lan really didn’t know what to do with this accusation. “… Do you have paranoia syndrome?”
“Paranoia syndrome …” Pfft, stifled laughter once again broke out from behind her. From the moment Luo Lang started talking to Ling Lan, the other children had been paying attention to them, and as expected, they once again heard something really interesting. They discovered that this weak-looking little fellow before them was a great wordsmith, using strange terms they had never heard of before but which fit perfectly with the situation, causing them to laugh uncontrollably. Heavens, he was really too talented.
Qi Long was laughing the hardest, while even Han Jijyun couldn’t help but smile like the kid he was, breaking up his usual serious façade.
This new bout of laughter made Luo Lang even angrier. He pointed at them all, so angry that he couldn’t even speak — Ling Lan heartlessly wondered if he would get angry enough to faint.
