Staying on the Rooftop Today

No way, could it really be what I think? Zhou You, you rascal, isn't this going way too far? Doing that in broad daylight at noon? We're all students here—students are supposed to study hard! Is this something a student should be doing?! "Wait, what if Zhou You really went up to the rooftop to fight someone?" Wei Hang refused to give up and wanted to check the rooftop for himself. It wasn't impossible. He had heard that Wang Chong, the rich kid from Class Six who had a crush on Su Tingxue, had gathered a few people to corner Zhou You, only to get beaten up by Zhou You instead. Once Zhou You and the others disappeared from sight, Wei Hang walked up beneath the ladder. The ladder leading to the rooftop was extremely crude, consisting merely of a few U-shaped rebar rungs anchored into the wall. Furthermore, they were positioned very high; the lowest rung was a full two meters off the ground. Wei Hang could reach the lowest rung by stretching his arm, but he was too heavy, his arms lacked strength, and after several futile attempts to haul himself up, he had no choice but to give up in frustration. "Should I start working out?" "Whatever. I'll just wait at the entrance beneath the ladder. If someone else comes down, it'll prove Zhou You really went up there for a fight." As the president of the school newspaper club, although he often chased shadows and took the slightest rumor as fact, he still had a side that sought empirical truth. Wei Hang waited by the ladder entrance for quite a while, right until the bell for class was about to ring, yet not a single other person came down. This meant that on the rooftop just now, there had only been three people: Zhou You, Chu Xiaoyao, and Su Tingxue! "Zhou You, you rascal, you sure know how to play!" Wei Hang gritted his teeth in envy. *** "What did they go up to the rooftop for?" Lian Yi flipped through her English textbook absentmindedly, her mind nowhere near the lesson. After lunch, she had noticed that the entire membership of the Carefree Sect hadn't returned to the classroom; instead, they had climbed up to the rooftop. Following them up would have been too conspicuous, and if she used her divine sense, it would easily be detected by Chu Xiaoyao's Dao-protector. With no other choice, Lian Yi could only wait in the classroom to see if she could pick up any clues once they returned. "There were faint fluctuations of spiritual power up there. Were they in a spell duel with someone, or testing out spells?" Unfortunately, when the Carefree Sect trio returned, they didn't discuss anything about the rooftop. Instead, Wei Hang's gossip reached Lian Yi's ears. "Piecing it together with Wei Hang's news... Zhou You took Chu Xiaoyao and Su Tingxue to the rooftop at noon for dual cultivation?!" "What was that female ghost Nuomi doing? Standing by watching, or sneaking a few sips of yang qi?" "Is your Carefree Sect even a proper sect?" Lian Yi felt that her previous assessment of the Carefree Sect needed to be completely overturned. Could this be a sect that practiced Joyful Chan or something similar?! "No wonder Zhou You has no interest in me. Turns out he's living such a good life." If she wanted to seduce Zhou You again, wouldn't the price she'd have to pay be a bit too steep? *** After school, Zhou You climbed out of his window and leaped onto the rooftop. Duan Yuxian was still practicing her sword, which filled him with admiration. Her slender figure danced beneath the moonlight, ethereal and nimble like an immortal, balancing power and elegance in a way that captivated anyone watching. "You're home from school, Fellow Daoist Zhou." Duan Yuxian danced for a short while longer before noticing Zhou You. She sheathed her sword and bowed with a touch of embarrassment. "How did today's battle turn out?" Duan Yuxian hadn't accompanied Zhou You to No. 2 High out of concern that she might run into Su Tingxue. As for Zhou You's spell duel, with Su Tingxue present, nothing could go wrong. "Thanks to the moves you taught me, Fellow Daoist Duan. I used all of them and won." Zhou You wasn't merely flattering her; he was speaking the truth. Without Duan Yuxian's guidance, relying solely on his soul leaving the body lacked offensive sharpness and required force-generation techniques to compensate. "I'm glad I could be of help." Learning that Zhou You had won, Duan Yuxian was quite pleased. Her instruction over the past two days hadn't been in vain. *Is this what Master felt like when teaching me?* "Fellow Daoist Duan, are you coming down today?" Duan Yuxian felt it was necessary to maintain some distance from Zhou You. Otherwise, if Su Tingxue found out she was staying on his rooftop, there was no telling how Su Tingxue would react. Conveniently, today was quite cool, so there was no need for air conditioning. Duan Yuxian felt that the heavens were on her side. "No, I'll stay on the rooftop today." Once Zhou You left, Duan Yuxian stopped practicing her sword. She zipped up her guitar bag, lay down inside the tent with her legs crossed, and happily enjoyed the cool breeze while playing mobile games—far more comfortable than life in the True Martial Great Hall. Over the past two days, she had been eating food Zhou You secretly brought her, some from school and some from his refrigerator. During the day, she had even taken a shower at his place, which felt wonderfully refreshing. "The only drawback is having no money." Duan Yuxian pondered whether she should find a job. Mooching meals off Zhou You all the time felt inappropriate, and she still owed him a thousand yuan. Carrying that debt weighed on her conscience, and she needed to find a way to pay him back. *Rumble—* A streak of lightning tore through the dark night sky. Dark clouds smothered the heavens, dimming the stars, followed immediately by rolling thunder. A torrential downpour descended without warning. Duan Yuxian could even see pillar-like cascades of rain in the distance, steadily sweeping toward her location. Seeing this, she hurriedly scrambled back into the tent, pulled the zipper shut, and secured her little nest. *Whoosh—* The rain poured down like the heavens had collapsed. From time to time, lightning pierced through the sky and earth, illuminating the tent in flashes of light and shadow, drowning out all other sounds. "The tent's quality isn't bad." Duan Yuxian inspected the tent, worried about leaks, but fortunately the tent Zhou You had provided held up well. However, water found another way in. "Oh no!" The rain fell too fast, overwhelming the rooftop drains. Puddles rapidly accumulated, and water began seeping in through the lower zipper seams of the tent. Left with no other choice, Duan Yuxian quickly rolled up her bedding, grabbed it, and dashed out of the tent, expanding a barrier of spiritual power. The barrier couldn't hold out for long; she had to find somewhere to take shelter. Clutching her bedding, Duan Yuxian deftly leaped toward Zhou You's bedroom window. *Clang—* She collided head-on with Zhou You, who was just about to climb out. The two of them tumbled backward together out of control. Duan Yuxian landed on top of him. She tried to brace herself with both hands against the floor, but forgot that one arm was clutching the quilt, and a single hand couldn't support her weight. *Thud—* Zhou You slammed onto the floor. Fortunately, his body was sturdy, so an impact like this didn't bother him in the slightest. Seeing how heavily it was raining outside, he had intended to climb out and check if Duan Yuxian needed help—after all, the tent hadn't been used in four years, and something might have gone wrong with it. He had just grabbed hold of the windowsill when Duan Yuxian leaped inside, and the two crashed into each other. Zhou You felt a soft warmth against his body, accompanied by a girl's delicate fragrance drifting into his nose. He quickly helped Duan Yuxian up. "Fellow Daoist Duan, it's been a long... ten minutes since we last met?" Duan Yuxian's cheeks blushed faintly, and she was too embarrassed to meet his eyes. How utterly humiliating! In her rush to escape the rain, she hadn't paid any attention to what was happening in his bedroom, only to end up knocking him over. "Youyou, what was that noise?" Mother Zhou's loud voice called out after hearing the commotion, accompanied by the sound of approaching footsteps. With Duan Yuxian present, Zhou You didn't dare tell the truth and hurriedly shouted back, "Nothing! I accidentally knocked over a chair!" Yet Mother Zhou's approaching footsteps showed no sign of stopping. Duan Yuxian panicked, not knowing what to do, and it was already too late to jump back out the window. The bedroom door opened. "What fell over?" Mother Zhou asked. Through the door, she hadn't heard clearly. Only Zhou You was in the bedroom, with a chair tipped over on the floor and the window wide open. Zhou You set the fallen chair upright and said with a helpless look, "I saw how hard it was raining and wanted to open the window to look outside, but I got up too fast and bumped into the chair." Mother Zhou gave Zhou You a suspicious look, sensing that the sound earlier hadn't quite sounded like a chair falling. Yet she couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary. "Are you all right?" "I'm fine." "Remember to close the window. The rain blows in easily." "Will do." Duan Yuxian was hiding inside the wardrobe, hugging her quilt to shield herself. Her heart was pounding wildly, the fierce thumping loud in her ears. The fastest her heart had ever beaten before was after finishing a rigorous sword form, but even that hadn't raced as hard as it was right now.