The girl opened her mouth and said, "Meet me in the small garden after lunch, I'll be waiting for you there."
Watching her departing figure, a thoughtful glimmer flashed in Zhang Yu's eyes.
A moment later, after eating his fill, he too left the cafeteria and headed to the small garden at the back of the school.
This was a tranquil spot behind the dormitory building, and at a time when most students were heading to the teaching building, it was nearly deserted.
Bai Zhenzhen stood in front of a flowerbed, and upon hearing Zhang Yu's footsteps, she turned around and quickly walked up to him.
"Dad!"
With a thud, she knelt on the ground and hugged Zhang Yu's leg, saying, "There were too many people in the cafeteria just now, I was too embarrassed to say."
"Could you lend me some money? My small loan has been overdue for almost a month! I'm begging you on my knees..."
Witnessing this scene, Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, "What kind of lousy school is this, where both the first and tenth in the grade are taking loans to show off?"
Zhang Yu then recalled that he and Bai Zhenzhen didn't know each other due to some academic circle, but rather because she was his upline and had once promoted small loans to him.
Allow me to reintroduce, Zhang Yu's classmate Bai Zhenzhen, who was his 'brother in arms' in sharing intel on various lending platforms and had a solid friendship in borrowing money together.
Thinking about how her poker face in the cafeteria was actually her mulling over how to borrow money from him, Zhang Yu could only shake his head helplessly: "Let go first, I don't have any money to lend you!"
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head and said, "You're only tenth in the grade, how much could you spend? Your loans must be much less than mine, right?"
She said, somewhat stiffly yet shyly, "As long as you help me pay off the debt, you can do whatever you want."
Zhang Yu's eyes lit up upon hearing this, looking at the originally cold Bai Zhenzhen who now seemed blooming like a peach, he found her exceptionally charming.
He eyed Bai Zhenzhen up and down, asking, "Really, anything at all?"
Bai Zhenzhen bit her lip lightly and nodded, "Mm."
Zhang Yu: "Then can I use you as collateral?"
Bai Zhenzhen released his leg and glared at Zhang Yu: "Yu Zi, are you really out of money?"
Zhang Yu took out his phone to show his balance and overdue information.
Bai Zhenzhen stood up, dusted off her pants full of dirt, and looked at Zhang Yu incredulously: "You owe seven hundred thousand? Even after graduating from university, you might have to work a long time to pay it off."
"You're only in your first year of high school and spending money like this?"
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head continuously upon saying this: "Zhang Yu, what exactly did you spend the money on?"
Zhang Yu rubbed his head and said, "I forgot... let me think for a moment."
Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu in confusion: "You didn't invest in something, did you? Were you scammed?"
As Zhang Yu tried to recall, he also became uncertain: "I think... not?"
Bai Zhenzhen's expression suddenly turned serious, the more she thought about it, the more suspicious she became about Zhang Yu's seventy thousand expense: "Let me see your phone."
Zhang Yu understood that she was concerned for him, after all, investing, scams, gambling, sudden death, and deviation in practice ranked as the top five causes of death in Songyang City, with deviation in practice coming in fifth.
He too was starting to feel puzzled about his original self, and immediately took out his phone: "I also want to review how the money was spent, so let's look at the records together."
Their eyes scanned over the phone screen, witnessing Zhang Yu's original self's expenses item by item.
And as Zhang Yu saw these, many related details of memory kept flooding back into his mind.
Danding Pharmacy -280.00
Danding Pharmacy -250.00
Time and Patience Chamber -120.00
Zhang Yu said as he looked, "This was me buying elixirs at the pharmacy, and then renting a quiet room for breathing exercises..."
In addition to general courses like Chinese, math, physics, and history, Songyang High School's curriculum included Immortal Path related courses.
Immortal Path, the journey of cultivating from human to immortal, was the most important and highly weighted subject in high school, crucial for getting into top universities.
Breathing exercises were the most basic Immortal Technique skill, absorbing spiritual energy from the atmosphere to accumulate a cultivator's internal mana.
Only with enough mana can one drive more powerful combat abilities and ascend to higher realms; mana is said to be the foundation of all Immortal Techniques.
For example, the required mana to break through from Qi Refining Realm to Foundation Establishment Realm is 60 points, with a maximum manageable mana in Qi Refining Realm of 100 points.
In the standardized systems built by the Ten Major Sects, everything is as standardized and digitized as possible, including mana, with the school's current mana testing accurate down to one decimal place.
Bai Zhenzhen nodded slightly and continued scrolling.
Shuixiu Catering Service Co., Ltd -532.00
Zhang Yu said, "This was for nutritional supplements at the cafeteria, which was quite costly."
In Immortal cultivation, the strength of the physical body is equally crucial, and consuming a large quantity of food rich in spiritual energy and Immortal elements is part of a cultivator's daily routine, known as food supplements.
Dragon Soaring Education Service Co., Ltd -1500.00
Dragon Soaring Education Service Co., Ltd -3000.00
Zhang Yu recalled and said, "Hmm... this was the previous tutoring fee and the cost for renting a Spirit Root."
Spirit Root is a special talent possessed by a few geniuses, significantly boosting a cultivator's efficiency and combat power.
As one of Immortal Path's most renowned thresholds, even Zhang Yu and his mother heard about the legends of Spirit Roots back in middle school, to the extent that Zhang Yu used renting a Spirit Root as an excuse for his mother to send money while paying for tutoring and loans.