Now, the only ones left in the room were her and Lan Xiang's bag. Wait, there was also the teacher's laptop.
And on that note, the teacher barged into the classroom looking worried.
"Ah, there it is! Thank God... Oh my..."
As he got ahold of his precious laptop, he saw Ren Weiwei sitting on her desk. "Student Ren? What are you still doing here?"
"Teach? Ah, I'm waiting for Lan Xiang. Speaking of, do you know where he is?" Ren Weiwei took the opportunity to ask.
"I believe he is at the training grounds. He asked me for permission to go there after all."
"Ah, thank you, teach."
The teacher left, leaving Ren Weiwei all alone once more. Getting impatient, she stood up.
A voice inside her head said, "You've waited for 3 months, what's hard with waiting a few more minutes?"
Another spoke, "Take the initiative, Weiwei! Come on!"
Resolving in her mind, Ren Weiwei grabbed Lan Xiang's bag and her own and headed for the training grounds.
.....
In the training grounds.
Not may students used the training grounds, since this school was a prestigious one, and most of the students had training grounds in their own residences. As such, Lan Xiang had one section of the grounds all to himself.
Wooden rods that spun, as well as strawmen, were littered all around, giving Lan Xiang a chance to train his new combat technique.
As he breathed in and out, he threw a punch towards one of the strawmen. It waddled around but it ultimately did not fall over.
"Fuuuuu. Again!"
Crack.
"Again!"
Woosh!
"Again!"
"Again!"
"Again!"
.....
Ren Weiwei arrived at the training grounds. She never visited this part of the school since her family had their own training grounds. It was her first time seeing it.
"There he is, Xiang..."
Hiding behind a wall, Ren Weiwei peeked at Lan Xiang. He was topless, his whole body full of sweat. It was more chiseled than she expected.
"Okay, fuu. What should I say?"
While pondering, Lin Fan barged into the training grounds, not noticing Ren Weiwei on the side.
"There you are, Trash Xiang! Hahaha, I finally found you!"
Lan Xiang wiped off his sweat and glanced at Lin Fan. "Uh... what do you want?"
"You! Dare to steal my girl?" Lin Fan cracked his knuckles.
"What?" Lan Xiang was confused. Was this guy loose in the head or something?
He ducked, avoiding Lin Fan's sudden punch. "What the hell is your problem?"
Lin Fan laughed. "Ha, I didn't expect you to be lucky enough to dodge my attack! But this next one, don't expect that you can do it again!"
He spun his body, his leg extended. The kick arrived squarely on Lan Xiang's arm, which he used to block it.
Lin Fan was confused. His thoughts were in disarray. "This guy is tougher than I thought. His arm, uh, hurts to kick..."
Lan Xiang found Lin Fan annoying. "Listen, I don't know which girl you're talking about, but I assure you, I don't keep in contact with anyone in this school, much less stealing girls."
Since Lin Fan realized he couldn't brute force his way through this, he decided to listen.
"Eh? Then, do you know Ren Weiwei?"
"...My classmate, why?"
"She says she's waiting for you in the classroom."
"Ah, really?" Lan Xiang was full of expectation.
Seeing his reaction, Lin Fan got mad. "You said you don't talk to anyone, why're you so happy when I said that?!"
"Woah, calm down. She's my only friend in this school." Lan Xiang more or less deduced what was happening.
"Ha? Your friend? ...Only a friend?"
"Yeah, we're only friends." Lan Xiang wanted Lin Fan to leave already. "You can pursue her as much as you like... Well, of course, you need to know when to stop, but I won't be the one dictating that."
Lin Fan nodded his head. "Tras- I mean, Lan Xiang, you're much more reasonable that I thought."
Lan Xiang rolled his eyes. Who said I wasn't? You're the ones putting this label on me.
"Well then, goodbye." Lin Fan left with happy spirits.
"Hm, I guess that guy isn't completely irredeemable." Lan Xiang also changed his evaluation of Lin Fan. "Other than starting fights without talking and claiming girls like they're already his, he can be a good guy... Whatever, I won't talk to him again."
Much later, Ren Weiwei finally decided on what to say to Lan Xiang. She walked in the training grounds.
"Xiang!"
"...Weiwei?"
Lan Xiang stared at Ren Weiwei with a longing gaze.
"Welcome back! You've recovered from your, uh, coma? Well, I mean, obviously, you're already here, but, you know, just asking for politeness, and, uh..."
Ren Weiwei's confidence burst like a balloon. She'd already forgotten what she wanted to say.
In return, Lan Xiang grinned at her, before laughing out loud. "Hahaha!"
Ren Weiwei was startled. "What are you laughing at?"
"Well, I'm kind of relieved, honestly." Lan Xiang gently smiled. "I thought you completely changed in the course of 3 months. Turns out, you're still the shy person I know."
"...Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"I don't really know... I mean, it's better for you to be more confident! So, technically speaking, it's a bad thing..."
Lan Xiang and Ren Weiwei spent half an hour catching up before parting ways. A heavy burden was lifted on both their shoulders.
On his way home, Lan Xiang dropped by Fanzhu Street, hoping to get lucky once more and find another jackpot. Unfortunately, he didn't find any techniques this time.
He even went into dark alleyways and asked the shopkeepers on the stalls where the old men were. They... called the police?
Well, Lan Xiang rushed home after that.
He cultivated the entire night once more, hoping that he would surpass this bottleneck.
"Hai, if it was Xie Jian practicing this technique, she would've already reached Level 18 by now... It's because of my trashy talent!"