After Su Xiaoqi chose "Yes," a white light enveloped his body.
After a slight wave of dizziness, Su Xiaoqi noticed that the scenery around him had changed. Not far in front of him stood a beautiful girl in black leather clothes and pants.
Zhu Zhuqing looked at Su Xiaoqi—his short black hair, and in real life, he looked even more handsome than his avatar in the chat group. The only strange thing was his odd outfit.
Su Xiaoqi was also observing Zhu Zhuqing. Her long black hair flowed over her shoulders, her fair skin was flawless, and most striking of all was her curvaceous figure, which didn't match her age at all.
"Hello Zhu Zhuqing, I'm Su Xiaoqi."
Su Xiaoqi stepped forward with a smile and greeted her.
Su Xiaoqi was 1.81 meters tall. Zhu Zhuqing was about half a head shorter, so he estimated she was around 1.70 meters. He remembered in the original novel, five years later, her height was around 1.78 meters—so it made sense for her current age.
Zhu Zhuqing nodded slightly and said calmly, "Hello, I'm Zhu Zhuqing."
After greeting each other, they both fell silent. Zhu Zhuqing was quiet due to her personality, while Su Xiaoqi was nervous. Despite being talkative in the group chat, things were different face-to-face.
More importantly, Zhu Zhuqing was the first beautiful girl he'd ever talked to in person.
Back in school, he'd never seen someone this beautiful. Most weekends he just stayed in the dorm, and even when he saw pretty girls outside, they were always "enhanced" by makeup or filters.
"Um... when are you going to register?"
Su Xiaoqi forced himself to speak, fearing the silence would only make things more awkward.
"Right now is fine," Zhu Zhuqing replied in the same calm tone.
Su Xiaoqi said, "Then let's go. First, let's stop by somewhere to exchange for some gold soul coins—I need some money for something important later."
But Zhu Zhuqing didn't move. She just looked at Su Xiaoqi.
"I want to bribe Flender to let me into Shrek Academy too. That way, maybe you can earn more points."
"Of course, I won't give it all to him. Some of it is for you. You know how ridiculous Shrek Academy's requirements are. Plus, I'll need your help buying a few things later, and I'm afraid you might not have enough money."
Su Xiaoqi blurted everything out at once. Zhu Zhuqing's presence was putting too much pressure on him.
Zhu Zhuqing said, "You seem very different from how you were in the group chat. Are you nervous?"
Su Xiaoqi gave an embarrassed laugh. "To be honest, a little. My old school had almost no girls, and definitely not someone as pretty as you. So I'm not really used to this."
Zhu Zhuqing smiled faintly. "I see. At first, I thought you'd be like Gintoki, good at dealing with girls. I guess I was wrong."
"Let's go—exchange money first, then check if the items you needed at the blacksmith are ready."
"Uh—"
Su Xiaoqi froze for a second, then quickly caught up to Zhu Zhuqing.
Zhu Zhuqing was staying at a regular hotel in Soto City. When the two of them went to check out together, the receptionist gave them a strange look.
But once they were on the street, they drew even more attention.
Zhu Zhuqing was already very eye-catching, and now with Su Xiaoqi dressed in "weird clothes" walking beside her, the pair became the center of everyone's gaze.
Zhu Zhuqing was used to this and kept walking without a second thought, but Su Xiaoqi felt uncomfortable. For a moment, he thought maybe his old world—with no other humans—wasn't so bad after all.
The few gold bars Su Xiaoqi brought exchanged for a total of 3,000 gold soul coins. He didn't know if he got a bad deal, but even if he did, he didn't care—it wasn't his gold anyway.
All the coins were stored in Zhu Zhuqing's soul tool. Su Xiaoqi originally wanted to get one for himself, but they required soul power to use, so he had to give up on that idea.
They stopped by the blacksmith's, who told them the custom items would be ready the next day.
On the way to Shrek Academy, Su Xiaoqi and Zhu Zhuqing discussed how they'd alter the storyline. They agreed: other than joining Shrek Academy, everything else would be flipped. As for how to actually do that—that part would be up to Su Xiaoqi.
"Su Xiaoqi, wait a moment."
One kilometer from Shrek Academy, Zhu Zhuqing suddenly stopped and called out to him. Then, to his surprise, she wrapped her arm around his.
"From now on, call me Zhuqing, and I'll call you Xiaoqi. Let's go."
She did this deliberately for Dai Mubai to see. Since she was determined to walk a new path and had the mission to change the plot, she figured she might as well go all in.
Go?
Go where?
Su Xiaoqi's brain basically shut down. This was the first time in his life a girl had linked arms with him. And this wasn't in their script at all.
Even though Zhu Zhuqing's face showed no expression, her heart was pounding. This was the first time she had gotten this close to a guy, too.
"Zhu Zhuqing, wait a sec."
Su Xiaoqi finally came to his senses and stopped her. He had a good idea of her intentions now.
"You don't have to go this far. It might have a negative impact on you."
In the Douluo Continent, a girl's reputation was everything. No matter how wild Dai Mubai was, he was a man, the third prince of the Star Luo Empire. People wouldn't dare say much.
But Zhu Zhuqing was different. If her relationship with Dai Mubai became public, she'd face a ton of criticism.
"I've never cared what others think of me. If I can't even handle something like this, then my future would be extremely limited."
Zhu Zhuqing looked at Su Xiaoqi with determination in her eyes.
"I understand. Then let's go—Zhuqing."
Since Zhu Zhuqing had made up her mind, if Su Xiaoqi chickened out now, he wouldn't be a real man. He was going to follow through and stir things up at Shrek Academy with her.
But before that…
"Zhuqing, could you loosen up a bit? I'm really not used to this."
Zhu Zhuqing smiled faintly, tightened her grip on his arm, and said, "That wouldn't feel real now, would it—Xiaoqi?"