Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Returning

Gu Qing Shan checks himself, confirming the spirit energy inside his Dantian really did increase a little.

The military bow in his hand also seemed a bit lighter, this is just a feeling resulted from his increased body strength.

Gu Qing Shan satisfying nodded, glancing at the hourglass on his UI.

The sands have ran out.

After that, a line of text appeared in the middle of the UI.

“Player Gu Qing Shan have stayed at the other world for 24 hours, returning to Reality soon”

“All equipments have been stored inside your inventory bag, available for usage once taken out”

“Returning”

A slight feeling of dizziness.

Gu Qing Shan opens his eyes to find under his feet a soft and expensive fur carpet, himself facing a beautiful young lady.

The whole party hall looks extremely lavish, just like a place where the rich and powerful would socialize.

The only thing not fitting the area, mixed with the beautiful light ballroom music, are the noisy sounds of cheering and encouragement.

“Go out! Go out!” (TN: as in on a date)

“Accept already”

“Come on dude, quickly!”

The voices keep on going.

Someone from behind tapped Gu Qing Shan on his shoulder and spoke: “Qing Shan, I’m here for you man, just speak your heart out!”

Gu Qing Shan slightly turned to look back.

It was Zhang Ye, his best friend from high school.

Gu Qing Shan turns to look around, his eyes finally stops on the girl in front of him.

She really did look beautiful in any clothes, even if she doesn’t wear any jewelry, only donning a pure white long dress, she can still be picked out with eyesight amidst a crowd of other girls.

Su Xue Er, Goddess of Noble Private High School of Chang Ning county.

A precious gem of the Su family – one of the 9 Great Nobles families.

Gu Qing Shan closes his eyes, then open them again.

The girl is still there.

He really did come back to the past.

Back to this moment that he would remember for the rest of his life.

“Su Xue Er, Gu Qing Shan have something to say to you!”

“That’s right, he carefully picked his words for so long, finally having the guts to say it”

“Gu Qing Shan, speak your mind, we’re all here as witness for you”

Among the crowd, the people are still cheering loudly nonstop.

Seeing Gu Qing Shan keeping silent and not speaking, Su Xue Er finally spoke first.

“Gu Qing Shan, so what did you want to tell me?”

When the school goddess spoke, everyone finally quieted down.

Everyone wanted to see, will Gu Qing Shan really do as the rumors say and confess this feelings right on this graduation prom night.

Gu Qing Shan push down the turmoils in this heart, smiles and stands back up speaking: “Su Xue Er, I sincerely hope that you will accept my one request”

“That is?” inside the girls crystal clear eyes, there is a bit of complicated mixed feelings.

Gu Qing Shan spoke with complete seriousness on his face: “Can you accept my request, to visit my barbecue stall tomorrow night, and try out some of my handmade grilled meat?”

Su Xue Er is speechless.

The cheering crowd is shocked dead silent.

“Barbecue? Just grilled meat? Nothing else?” Su Xue Er ask again to make sure she didn’t heard wrong.

“Of course, my expertise are only two things, mech piloting you’ve already seen, there’s only my cooking skills left” Gu Qing Shan shrugs, “So do you want to try out my cooking?”

Su Xue Er opens her clear eyes wide, asks again: “But your friend, Zhang Ye told me, you wanted to –“

Gu Qing Shan stopped her worlds: “I didn’t tell him anything”

“Is that so? So all this really wasn’t your idea after all” Su Xue Er face shows relief, as well as a small smile.

Right then, a male student from amongst the crowd stepped out, hurriedly asks: “Qing Shan, didn’t you tell me, that you wanted to confess to Su Xue Er today?”

The crowd becomes noisy again.

Gu Qing Shan turns around, coldly looks at the person

This male student is the same person who tapped his shoulder from before.

His best friend, Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye and Gu Qing Shan, both came from poor origins, both relied on their academic excellence to get into this top-level high school.

In these three years of high school, the two of them formed a close bond.

Gu Qing Shan originally thought, this would be his good friend, close enough to be family.

But he didn’t know, on this very graduation prom night, Zhang Ye planned and dosed him with a strange medicine, tricking him into drinking it.

The results was that during the time he planned to confess to Su Xue Er, the medicine acted up, forcing him in front of everyone here to attempt some low-life conducts to Su Xue Er.

Finally it took Su Xue Er’s personal guards, as well as a few student officers to hold Gu Qing Shan in place and stop him.

This event shocked the whole school.

Originally Gu Qing Shan had very good academic records, he also got his own talents, and a decent personality, so he was able to catch Su Xue Er’s eyes, the two of them becoming not-so-bad friends.

But after this, Su Xue Er completely gave up on him, slapped him in front of everybody, cried and left.

After that was the Su family’s rage, saying they wanted Gu Qing Shan to die for his sins, the school didn’t even hesitate to immediately expel Gu Qing Shan, not even giving him the chance to take the university entrance exams.

Finally it took Su Xue Er painstakingly begging him for three days and nights just for the Su family head to spare his life.

For your information, the Su family head is the Lord that directly control all of Chang Ning county, and there are only a total of 9 Lords in the whole Confederate.

From then on, Gu Qing Shan had to suffer all manners of jeers and cold shoulders, not a single person looking his way.

The Technology Invention and Research company that originally hired him before graduation, immediately fired him.

He tried everywhere to get into a school, but no school even dared to accept him, when looking for a job, he did not find even a menial labor job, finally almost starving to death in the slums.

And all of that, was thank to his “best friend”, Zhang Ye.

Gu Qing Shan wallowed and despair and embarrassment, struggling every day to live, only when the other world and Reality connected, did he finally have the chance to change his fate.

But for the rest of his life, countless times waking up in the middle of the night, Gu Qing Shan always remembered the events of this day, always grinding his teeth to the point of breaking them.

Gu Qing Shan have had time to think carefully.

Su Xue Er is the eldest daughter of one of the 9 Great Nobles families, him as a poor scholarship student, having her had the good will to become his friend is already thinking of him very highly.

Before not yet having any real power, he shouldn’t have delusioned himself with making their relationship going any further.

Doing things that way will only make Su Xue Er embarrassed, and will only put Gu Qing Shan himself in a dangerous situation.

He can only laugh at himself for being too young, having too many unrealistic dreams, as well as having the fraud Zhang Ye next to him, whispering sweet lies of “Su Xue Er actually also like you” as truth.

Which led to the confession scene on prom night.

Fortunately, this time he returned, Gu Qing Shan will not be stepping on fallen tracks.

In front of everyone, Gu Qing Shan looks at Zhang Ye, whispering loudly: “You thought wrong, my true love is Xie Shuang Yan”

The whole crowd burst into laughter, even Su Xue Er couldn’t help but broke into a smile, holding in her laughter.

Xie Shuang Yan is the lead singer of the most popular girl idol group in the world.

Whether it is the Saint Orlank Empire to the North, or the vast lands of Fu Xi Republic, even the Freedom Federation of the South, countless people men or women, old or young alike are all fans of Xie Shuang Yan.

There are simply too many people in this world that love Xie Shuang Yan, Gu Qing Shan using her as an excuse like this, not even Su Xue Er will believe him.

Within the crowd, there are even a few of her male fans shouting out: “Gu Qing Shan, so turns out you want to join our Xie Shuang Yan fan club huh!”

Zhang Ye’s face constantly shifts, his heart sank straight to the bottom.

He didn’t think Gu Qing Shan would be so crafty, casually brushing off the issue like that.

No, today he absolutely cannot fail, a chance like this, likely will never come again in his lifetime.

Gu Qing Shan is his last chance to move up in the world.

Zhang Ye bites his teeth and step forward, whispering into Gu Qing Shan’s ear: “Gu Qing Shan, your peaceful days are over”

Then, using force, he slaps Gu Qing Shan on the shoulder

A small pain.

That came from a small needle Zhang Ye was keeping in his palm.

Gu Qing Shan doesn’t resist, only staring at him all the way until he’s finished with everything.

“Why?” Gu Qing Shan calmly asks

“Why what?” Zhang Ye face relaxes like he just put a weight off his shoulders.

The dosage on the needle is much stronger than before, only a minute later, Gu Qing Shan won’t be able to keep his body instinct in check anymore.

“Why do you have to do this to me? I remember we were friends” Gu Qing Shan asks again.

Zhang Ye can’t help but lower his gaze, mumbling lowly: “Don’t blame me, poor people on this world, can only live better lives when they grasp their chance”

Then, he suddenly apply force, pushing Gu Qing Shan towards Su Xue Er.

Gu Qing Shan’s body temperature keeps rising, his breath becoming shorter and deeper, staggering towards where Su Xue Er is.

The medicine starts to act up.

Gu Qing Shan feels his whole body becoming cold.

He suddenly remembered, Su Xue Er once casually talked to him about Zhang Ye

“Qing Shan ge, Zhang Ye and your eyes for judging people aren’t the same” (TN: “ge” means big brother, but can also be used as an affectionate way to refer to a male friend by both male and female)

Gu Qing Shan shakes his head internally.

The more trust there was, the more disappointed he is right now.

Let’s stop here.

Gu Qing Shan mind slightly move, the spirit energy in his Dantian flows like a river, easily restraining the medicine effect, his heightened body temperature also slowly cools down.

As a cultivator, how could normal poison possibly harm him?

Gu Qing Shan eyes regain their shine, lightly calls out: “Aunty Su, please come out”

Immediately, a mature and captivating woman, as well as a gray-haired elderly man appeared out of nowhere.

These two are Su Xue Er’s bodyguards.

Su Xue Er is the eldest daughter of Su family, as well as the only daughter of this generation’s main line, always loved by the whole of Su family, having two bodyguards always silently protecting her like this is completely normal

“What are you up to?”

The mature woman sharply glares at Gu Qing Shan

She is by Su Xue Er’s side every day, so of course she know this young brat.

Originally she felt that this kid’s head is bright, personality is also not too bad, but didn’t think that he would suddenly make a confession scene like that.

This kind of reckless behaviour would put immense pressure on Su Xue Er, so as a bodyguard she’s very disappointed in Gu Qing Shan.

Not to mention, since she was secretly protecting Su Xue Er, being called out to the open like this makes her even more annoyed.