The two of them walked for a long time in school.
Brother Xiong's voice was hoarse. He had been unable to control his excitement.
Chen Pingan handed him a bottle of water that he just bought after passing by the convenience store. They had been traveling around the school for a long time and had gotten lost.
There were no buildings around them. All they could see was the stone-paved street and the maple trees on both sides. There were only a few students passing by, and it looked like the two of them were headed in the direction of the staff dormitory.
Chen Pingan looked around and was about to ask Brother Xiong beside him when he noticed something. There was a familiar figure on the left.
He had seen this figure from the back countless times.
Chen Pingan's feet seemed to have been nailed to the ground. He stopped in his tracks and stared at the back of the figure who was sweeping the floor.
He did not dare to go forward to confirm.
Suddenly, that figure stiffened, as if he sensed someone's gaze, turning to look at him.
It was Dali from the neighborhood.
"Hello, Teacher Xiong. Eh? Young man, you're here too?"
When Dali saw Chen Pingan, he was very surprised.
"Uncle Li, do you know Pingan?"
Brother Xiong looked at Uncle Li and Chen Pingan. He was confused as to why the two of them knew each other.
"Oh, we live in the same neighborhood. The young man's name is Pingan. What a lucky name!"
Da Li walked forward with his broom and greeted them.
"Hello, are you here because of…"
Chen Pingan saw the old man in this school and his heart jumped. Was he being targeted by some powerful person?
Otherwise, why did he keep seeing the old men from the neighborhood? It was strange!
"I'm a cleaner here. I've been sweeping the land here for most of my life. Mr. Xiong often sees me. I'm quite familiar with him."
Dali held the broom and smiled.
"That's right. I didn't expect Uncle Li to live in the same neighborhood as Pingan. You guys will see each other frequently in the future."
Brother Xiong was very friendly and could get along well with most of the school staff. Regardless of whether it was the students or the staff, they all liked Brother Xiong.
Dali said in surprise, "Young man, are you a teacher in this school?"
"Just a substitute teacher. I'm not an official teacher."
Chen Pingan was embarrassed.
As expected, he was too nervous just now. When he saw the uncle of the neighborhood, he subconsciously thought that the other party was the neighborhood expert. And if not, he thought that Dali was probably a spy sent by the expert to watch him.
But on second thought, Chen Pingan realized that there was no reason for the neighborhood expert to be watching him. After all, if the other party wanted to, he could easily kill Chen Pingan.
When he heard the old man say that he had been in school for many years, all of Chen Pingan's worries disappeared and he no longer suspected Dali to be the expert.
Experts had always been proud. As someone so powerful, why would the expert be willing to become a cleaner when he could be offered countless high-paying jobs.
"A substitute teacher is still a teacher. There's no need to define it so clearly. Not bad, it looks like you are starting to show some promise."
Dali didn't know what the young man was thinking. Instead, he kept praising him. "Don't work too hard. It's not easy to be a teacher. After all, it can get pretty busy. If you ever get tired, remember to take a break."
"Don't forget to cultivate in your free time. If you don't have classes on weekends, you can also read those books you bought previously."
Although he had a grandson, every time Dali saw Chen Pingan, he would always feel like he was a family member. Hence, Dali gave him a few reminders.
"I'll remember. Thank you. It looks like we'll be seeing each other a lot in the future."
The old man's words were like a warm current flowing into Chen Pingan, enveloping his entire body.
"You can ask me if you have any questions about cultivation… Actually, I don't think I'm the best person to ask. After all, there's a lot of teachers that are more capable…"
Before the old man could finish his sentence, he heard the young man's objection.
"That's not true, you're very helpful too. I benefited a lot after taking your advice and buying all those books…"
Chen Pingan gave the old man a sincere smile. The old man had helped him a lot and he also learned a lot from the books. Ultimately, it even helped him smoothly break through to the early stage of the Qi Refinement Stage.
"It's good that I was able to help. You guys can get back to what you were doing. I still have some places that I need to clean."
Dali smiled and said goodbye to the two of them. He carried his broom and shuttled to a corner of the school.
"Goodbye!"
Chen Pingan looked at the old man's disappearing figure and felt extremely relaxed. Fortunately, the people he met at school were all ordinary cultivators and not that mysterious expert.
"It's all my fault for being too sensitive."
After all, cultivating was very difficult and ordinary people did not have a strong comprehension ability or talent. According to Brother Xiong, it would take at least 70 years to break through to the Body Integration Stage.
And it would take even longer to break through to the Tribulation Stage.
"How can there be so many impressive experts? The neighborhood expert was just an exception. Perhaps the expert had just been attracted by the rich Spirit Qi in the neighborhood."
Chen Pingan smiled bitterly. It seemed that he had falsely believed that there were a lot of experts in this world and was probably just affected by Brother Xiong.
Just as he was deep in thought..
"This is the staff dormitory. Let's go up and take a look."
Brother Xiong took out a bunch of keys from his bag and waved it in front of Chen Pingan.
Chen Pingan came back to his senses. Unknowingly, they had reached the staff dormitory area. There were four buildings in total, each of them 20 stories high.
Brother Xiong led him to one of the buildings. He inserted his card and successfully entered the door. After passing through the small courtyard in the middle, they arrived at the stairway.
"Your dorm room is on the 19th floor. Room 303. It's a standard single room."
As Chen Pingan glanced over, Brother Xiong smiled and teased, "Don't look at me like that. We all get single rooms. Did you expect to live in a suite?"
"Do you know any other good places? How about this… I'll let you come over every once in a while after I make it big and move into a suite."
Chen Pingan rolled his eyes and said, "That's not what I wanted to say."
"Not that? What else could it be?"
Brother Xiong arrived in front of Room 303 with ease and found a corresponding key among a bunch of keys. With a click, the door opened.
"You live here too?"
Chen Pingan felt that this guy was too familiar with the floor. It was as if he had walked through it countless times.
"No, I live in the building next to yours. I'm just familiar with this place. You'll know when you go in."
Brother Xiong had a wicked smile on his face as he turned his body to let Chen Pingan enter. Brother Xiong didn't go in and chose to stay by the door.
"You look like you're up to something."
Chen Pingan frowned as he walked into the house. The moment he entered, he was dumbfounded.
He couldn't find any windows in the room.
The sun was shining brightly in the afternoon, but the house was frighteningly dark without any light.
Suddenly…
Slap.
The lights in the house were turned on by Brother Xiong and lit up immediately. However, Chen Pingan could not smile at all.
He turned his head stiffly and pointed at the room. "You sure you're not kidding? Are you sure this is my room?"
"I once lived here for half a year. Luckily, the teacher next door moved away, allowing me to escape from my misery." Brother Xiong replied with a bitter smile.
After saying that, he pounced on Chen Pingan and tried to give him a comforting hug.
Chen Pingan dodged quickly. He looked at the standard single room in front of him and felt suffocated.
There was everything here, including a refrigerator, cupboard, washing machine, and all the essentials.
The only thing the room lacked was light!
There was no balcony in this room and the window was facing a wall. There was no light at all.
The sun was clearly shining outside, but Chen Pingan felt as if it was already late at night. No matter how many lights he switched on, he felt that it was still incomparable to the real sunlight.
"Are there no other rooms? I saw many buildings nearby."
Chen Pingan looked indignant and wondered if he would get depressed if he lived here.
"It's all fully booked. Pingan, make do with it for a while. You can move over when there's an empty room."
"If not, you can stay in the neighborhood for now. You can move when there's another empty room."
Brother Xiong had a helpless look in his eyes. He had lived here before, so he knew better than anyone how depressing this single room was.
As soon as these words were spoken, to his surprise, Chen Pingan immediately agreed.
"I'll live here."
"I'm not going anywhere."
Chen Pingan chose this place over the neighborhood decisively. He would rather die than go back to the neighborhood.
At most, it would only be a little depressing here. However, if things went wrong in the neighborhood, his life would be endangered.