Silence spread under the shade of the trees by the riverside; in the air, there remained only the noise of the distant traffic flow and the light sound of river water patting the shore.
Lin Feng's Adam's apple rolled a bit. Just as he was preparing to say a little something more to consolidate that speech of "awe-inspiring righteousness" just now, Shen Linyin suddenly stood up.
She did not look at Lin Feng, nor did she reveal that kind of meaningful look that made his scalp go numb again. She only lowered her head, tidied up her skirt hem a bit, her voice calm to the point of being somewhat abnormal:
"You are right, Lin Feng."
After finishing this headless and brainless sentence, she gently waved her hand: "It's too late, I'm going back to the dormitory first. Goodnight."
Then, she turned around and walked away. Her pace was brisk, her back view determined, leaving Lin Feng drying on the bench alone.
Lin Feng: "...?"
Just left like this?
No splashing and rolling, no refuting, and no expressing gratefulness with tears and mucus that she had been taught a lesson. This kind of reaction was completely not within his predictions! That sentence "You are right" referred to exactly which part? Did it refer to "we need to keep a distance," or did it refer to "cannot treat you as a spare tire"?
A kind of intense ominous premonition surged up in his heart. Lin Feng, with a trembling hand, clicked open the system panel.
At that moment, his eyeballs almost stared out.
[Target: Shen Linyin] [Favorability Settlement in progress...][Favorability Correction: +1, +1, +1...] [Current Favorability: 51 (Confused)]
"Fuck?!"
Lin Feng could not hold it back, exploding with a curse word toward the river surface.
51 points?! Just broke the 50 mark like this? Moreover, what the hell is this (Confused) state?
This favorability had been stuck at 45, 46 for a very long time. How did his wave of operation today, which could be called textbook-level "drawing a clear line," conversely become a booster?
"System, come out and explain a bit!" Lin Feng called frantically in his mind, "I was clearly rejecting her! I was pushing her outward! Why did this favorability not drop but rise? This is not following the Basic Law too much!"
The system still maintained that high and cold appearance of a dead pig not afraid of boiling water, with only cold text prompts flashing:
[Eternal Padlock (Silver) is continuously in effect. The Host's any character flashing points will be magnified, any offensive behavior will be beautified. Please Host continue to maintain the upright persona.]
Upright my hammer!
Lin Feng covered his face painfully. He could be considered to have seen through it; this broken lock was just a logic black hole. The more scummy he acted, the more Shen Linyin felt he had true temperament; the more he acted like a gentleman, the more Shen Linyin felt he was reliable and charming.
"Old Ren..." Lin Feng gazed at the starlight gradually brightening at the horizon, his heart filled with guilt toward his brother, "I really tried my best. But this hat, it seems to be your girlfriend insisting on buckling it onto your head..."
...
In the following days, the band's rehearsals and performances proceeded step by step.
On the surface, everything seemed to be developing in a good direction. Shen Linyin indeed, as she promised, no longer mentioned those absurd suggestions about asking him to "fill the vacancy," and even in public occasions deliberately maintained a kind of polite social distance, seeming to have really listened to Lin Feng's theory regarding "sense of boundaries."
But Lin Feng felt the fine hairs on his back standing even straighter.
Because the look in Shen Linyin's eyes when looking at him had changed.
It was no longer that kind of unscrupulous roasting and confiding, but a kind of... hidden smile carrying inquiry, curiosity, and even a trace of imperceptible "I have seen through you." Whenever Ren Yichen was heartlessly and lunglessly singing and dancing in the front, Shen Linyin, sitting in the back playing drums, would look past the bassist and cast that kind of meaningful gaze.
That kind of gaze made Lin Feng's scalp go numb. That thick-lined fool Ren Yichen knew nothing about this, and even happily felt his girlfriend was becoming more and more sensible. Only Lin Feng, looking at that favorability rating deadly stuck at [51 (Confused)], prayed every day to absolutely not trigger some damn "special event" again.
In order to avoid this suffocating atmosphere, Lin Feng invested more time into the night's cultivation of the "Vocal Dao."
The art building late at night was empty of people, only from a certain rehearsal room came "Hehe" sounds similar to an asthma attack from time to time.
"Inhale——diaphragm sink——hold it——squeeze the vocal cords like a dying whale..."
Lin Feng's facial features were twisted, veins popping out on his neck, emitting a sound ugly enough to make a horror movie voice actor lose their job.
However, during this recent period of painful cultivation time, there was an extra audience member.
Xu Zhixia sat cross-legged on the floor opposite him, embracing her expensive guitar in her bosom, looking at Lin Feng "having an attack" with a face full of seriousness.
Ever since the misunderstanding was resolved (or rather deepened) last time, this ditz seemed to treat Lin Feng as a person on the same path. Not only did she not mock Lin Feng's ugly practice method, but she conversely felt this was a kind of peerless secret manual that only a "top-level enduring type genius" would understand.
Thus, a weird scene occurred.
Lin Feng: "He——Uh——"
Xu Zhixia (inhaling deeply, imitating): "He——Uh——"
A pair of a decent man and beautiful woman who originally should be there talking about love or competing in instrument skills, at this moment were like two leaking bellows, face to face comparing whose voice was uglier, whose expression was more hideous.
Lin Feng stopped, gasping for rough breath while drinking a mouthful of "Coke," looking at Xu Zhixia across from him whose face was held back until completely red but still had to desperately support maintaining the high and cold persona. He couldn't help but ask the system:
"System, what on earth is this woman thinking? Why did her favorability rise again?"
Just a moment ago, the numerical value above Xu Zhixia's head jumped a bit.
[Xu Zhixia Favorability: 17 -> 24 (Junior Brother)]
"What the hell is Junior Brother?" Lin Feng's mouth corner twitched, "When did I bow and enter her sect?"
[Ding! Detected that the Host has found a "Breath Control Training" practice partner.]
"Eh, could this be some Dual Cultivation technique? Is there a bonus if two people practice together?"
[System Answer: There is no bonus. This behavior is only the other party's unilateral self-moving.]
[Note: This target believes that the Host's behavior of disregarding image and starting practice from the most basic and painful breathing method is a manifestation of "returning to the uncarved block and going back to the true". She views you as a partner moving forward together on the "Dao of Posturing," and has unilaterally decided to take you along to improve.] [Simply put, she has brain-supplemented too much.]
Lin Feng looked at Xu Zhixia across from him who was seriously adjusting her breathing with determined eyes, and silently nodded his head.
"Confirmed."
This girl's guitar level was traded for with her IQ, that's a real hammer.