1 Chapter 1: The Day I Met Her

In the northern primary school, Grade Three, Class One...

Chen An lifted his head and stared somewhat blankly at the old-fashioned ceiling fan above him, creaking as it turned. In his previous life, when he was in primary school, there was also a fan like this above his head. Back then, he would even dream about the fan spinning rapidly and tomato sauce dripping down from it due to the relentless human exploitation, creating a nightmarish scene all over the floor.

However, now he knew that real nightmares were not such superficial things.

"Swish, swish, clunk!"

A bright and chubby kid with excitement on his nose exclaimed, "This is how you should execute the ultimate move."

"No, that's not right!" A skinny child made a somewhat familiar pose and imitated the sound effects of a tokusatsu hero during battle, "Swish, swish, swish, ah da! Only by using vocal cords and breath can you unleash the ultimate move, 'Super Invincible, I Love You!'"

"..."

He lowered his head and looked at the floor, which was almost forming a small pit due to his embarrassment. He couldn't help but sigh heavily.

Although he was now only 1.2 meters tall, his true age was much older.

Indeed, Chen An, the person sitting with this group of little rascals in the same classroom was a reincarnator. However, he didn't reincarnate into a different world; rather, it was a parallel world that closely resembled his previous Earth.

Here, there were no distressed princesses waiting for him to rescue, no external invaders for him to resist, and no wicked villains for him to defeat. In this peaceful world, all he, at the age of seven, needed to do was to attend school like any other human child, starting from primary school. It was simply...

"A hell called boredom."

Chen An propped his cheeks with both hands, his lifeless eyes watching the noisy boys and girls before him. He was a grown man, reduced to sitting at this tiny desk, attentively listening to the teacher explain addition and subtraction, and this would go on for 45 minutes!

"Isn't this a good thing? In your previous life, you always lamented that time flowed like a Formula 1 race car, racing away," a tender girl's voice sounded in his ear. It was the voice of the system he gained after his reincarnation, the Long Aotian system, also known as the Trash System.

"Hey! What do you mean by trash?" The thumb-sized fairy looked at Chen An with annoyance. "I gave you a strong and robust physique, a handsome and refined face, magical talents that would become stronger every time you ate sweet potatoes, a body destined to become a warrior king, incredible luck to find treasures even when live-streaming cliff jumps, so what else are you unsatisfied with?"

"Then bring it on," Chen An looked at the little fairy system with a sideways glance. "Unlocking those abilities only after the age of thirty? What are you trying to imply?"

"It means not to despise the poor youth," the system said matter-of-factly. "Just imagine, if you were constantly bullied since childhood, trampled upon by various rich kids, your beloved goddess likes you but due to family pressure, she can only leave you and be with someone else. You, as a trash, grow up in such an environment until the age of thirty, and then you suddenly burst with hidden potential, turning the tables on all the past grievances. Isn't that a beautiful thing?"

Rolling his eyes, Chen An slumped his head on his small desk.

The older he became after thirty, the more exciting his life was, the more unbearable time felt to him. Even though he was incredibly busy in his previous life, he wished to split time in half and use it; now, he only felt a profound sense of monotony.

At the beginning, there was indeed a sense of novelty in returning to childhood, but this novelty had almost disappeared by the first grade. He didn't know how he managed to endure until the third year. The cacophony of meaningless chatter and noise from the little kids surrounded him abruptly, then all the noise vanished, leaving the entire classroom in eerie silence.

"Here it comes again," the little fairy muttered around, "It's this mysterious silence again. Nothing happened, yet everyone suddenly stopped talking?"

"Well, no matter how talkative they are, kids pause for a moment from time to time. Just a moment ago, almost a dozen kids coincidentally paused at the same time, causing the originally noisy environment to become less noisy. This subtle change was picked up by the 'subconscious' of every child in the class, triggering the instinct of human younglings," Chen An said, resting his cheek on one hand, squinting as he observed the now restless kids.

"It's similar to how the birds in the forest suddenly fall silent. Yes, these human kids attribute the sudden decrease in volume to a sign of predators' appearance. Therefore, they subconsciously shut their mouths to avoid becoming targets of the predators."

"But where are the predators?" The perplexed little fairy flew around, observing the surroundings. "I only see the gardeners nurturing the future flower buds of the country walking this way."

"You're expecting these six or seven-year-olds to understand the concepts of 'future' and 'gardeners'? Don't be silly. In their eyes, those gardeners are nothing more than villains stealing their playtime."

"Then what about you?" The little fairy looked thoughtfully at Chen An. "As someone who can comprehend these concepts, what do you think?"

"He's just a guy who robbed me of my physical education class to make himself look good," Chen An lazily replied while watching the class teacher, who was also their Chinese teacher, entering the classroom. She was a woman in her thirties.

"I could hear your noise from several classrooms away," Teacher Chen's face had a hint of annoyance as she looked at the now quiet students. Then, she led in a long-haired girl.

"Oh no..."

Looking at the unfamiliar girl, Chen An's pupils contracted intensely. A sense of foreboding arose within him.

"I remember unlocking the ability to 'see through a person at a glance' only when I turn thirty. Why are you feeling uneasy?" The system asked in confusion.

"Are you dumb? This new classmate is only 1.2 meters tall! Just slightly shorter than me, the second tallest in the class!" Chen An took a deep breath. "This means she will be assigned to the last row of the classroom, and the last row still has vacant seats..."

"Little Lu, you'll sit with Chen An," Teacher Chen said, pointing towards him.

"Yes..."

Seeming nervous due to so many strangers, the girl hesitantly nodded, then carried her small backpack and walked towards Chen An, who was sitting in the last row by the window.

"I'm done for," Chen An couldn't help but slap himself on the face, sighing in despair.

"Done for? What's done for?" The system asked in confusion. "Isn't it just sitting with a little girl? Why do you have such a... hmm?"

Only now did the belatedly realizing system notice that several boys in Class Three were all looking at Chen An with pity in their eyes.

Sitting at the same table with an adorable girl, shouldn't that be enviable? What's with the pity?