Chapter 12: Deliberately Wearing Pantyhose for Him to See?

"There must be some element of luck in this, right? Eh?"

The inspector clutched a screen, replaying the Solar Knight’s final strike that had lured the mechanical hellhound to leap off the cliff. He watched it on a loop, slowed down to one-fifth speed, savoring every detail.

The locals were already accustomed to the Solar Knight’s style, but the inspector was an outsider. After watching it many times, he was still struck by the sheer brilliance of it. It was flashy—truly, undeniably flashy.

But then again, the kid couldn't resurrect, so where did he get such confidence? Good grief, the Solar Knight’s positioning was incredibly bold. Judging by his aura, he was indeed a zero-tier mortal, yet every move he made seemed honed by countless repetitions. Before him, grotesque monsters were mere toys.

It was strange.

"Luck is a part of strength too, sir," the policewoman said, appearing to be in high spirits. "Our Maple Sugar City Police Department is just lucky that we happened to stumble upon a hidden powerhouse like the Solar Knight."

"I suppose that’s true."

"Clocking out now. We’re going to grab some late-night snacks; would you like to join us, sir?"

"No, no. I still have to report back to the Clock Tower. Sigh... they probably won’t be very happy that this containment zone was cleared ahead of schedule. They had their heroes all ready for a grand entrance, only to have the glory snatched away by outsourced security. It’s hard to swallow."

"Oh."

The inspector rubbed his stomach. In truth, he really wanted to join the police crew for a hot midnight snack—it would have been good for the stomach issues he’d developed from years of drifting from place to place. However, the life of an inspector was like that of a humble, middle-aged man caught between a mother-in-law and a wife; when they were busy bickering and throwing tantrums, they didn't care if you had an ulcer.

Forget it. Better to keep working overtime. He wasn't the Solar Knight; he didn't have the luxury of acting with such cool, unbridled freedom. Life had to go on.

...

Two hours earlier.

Jiang Qianqian had finished her facial mask, pretending to go to sleep when she was actually wide awake. Of course, she couldn't easily let go of the matter concerning Ye Sheng. But if she acted relentless and kept nagging Li Xingming about it, wouldn't Ah Ming find her annoying?

Only a vulgar woman would exert endless possessiveness over the one she loved. Many so-called "childhood sweethearts" who ended up losing were exactly like that—stupid, oblivious to their own flaws, and unable to overcome human weaknesses.

Jiang Qianqian, on the other hand, saw everything clearly.

She was no ordinary childhood sweetheart; she was one who knew how to stay patient. Only now, lying in her own guest room in the apartment, did Jiang Qianqian begin to gather the information she cared about but hadn't yet obtained.

First, the various school group chats.

Jiang Qianqian lurked in many of Maple Sugar City No. 1 High School’s gossip groups, or used alternate accounts to chat with others. Gossip was enjoyable in itself, but more importantly, it allowed her to keep tabs on everything happening at school. Only by knowing everything could she guard against potential home-wreckers and be the perfect supportive partner for Li Xingming.

Li Xingming often relied on Jiang Qianqian to help manage school chores, such as volunteer service credits, club sign-ins, and online ideological education check-ins. Truth be told, these tasks weren't difficult, but Li Xingming was lazy. Jiang Qianqian had subtly taken them over, which would lead Li Xingming to develop a fixed mindset—once he got used to being the one who didn't have to lift a finger, maybe he wouldn't be able to leave her in the future. *Hehe.*

Jiang Qianqian knew her combat aptitude was a weakness, so she had to be even better at handling the logistics for Ah Ming.

She browsed through a few groups and happened to see people discussing the public lecture from earlier that day. Scanning through the chat logs, she used her "quantum speed-reading" technique.

Filtering out the exaggerated descriptions from the silly members, the memes, the keyboard warriors, the gaming arguments, and the collection of suggestive images... she quickly pieced together the truth.

It seemed that during the Q&A session after Ye Sheng’s speech, everyone had been stumped. Just as Maple Sugar City No. 1 High School was about to lose face, Li Xingming had woken up like a star descending from the heavens. He stood up and said something that seemed nonsensical, yet unexpectedly earned Ye Sheng’s approval.

In short, he saved the day.

*Hiss...*

It was likely those words that gave Ye Sheng the inspiration for her paper, which was why she had come to their home and offered Li Xingming a second-author credit.

Hm, the logic was sound.

But the question remained: what exactly did Li Xingming say?

Jiang Qianqian spent half an hour scouring the gossip groups but still couldn't figure out the content of his speech. She asked a few close friends in their senior year, but they just babbled on enthusiastically, unable to explain it clearly. Finally, she found the video of Li Xingming’s speech on the Dean of Students’ "Note" video account.

The caption read: *“So proud of our school’s excellent student! [Thumbs up][Thumbs up][Thumbs up]”*

The video quality was incredibly blurry, the audio was abysmal, and it was set to a noisy, trending background track...

Jiang Qianqian braced herself and watched, eventually understanding.

“...Knee-high socks should be swept into the dustbin of history; pantyhose are the one true god!”

She replayed that part repeatedly. The flickering light of her phone screen cast a subtle shadow over her face.

When she had been gathering information earlier, she saw photos taken by the student union news department at the auditorium. Ye Sheng had been wearing her National Academy of Sciences Affiliated High School uniform. Yet, when she arrived at her house, she had changed into a stylish trench coat, a cashmere sweater, and thick, black pantyhose.

*Oh my, so Ah Ming says he likes pantyhose, and you just decide to wear them for him, is that it?*

After their dinner conversation, Jiang Qianqian had already labeled Ye Sheng as "pure," but now she had to place a suspicious question mark over that assessment.

Jiang Qianqian let out a cold hum and opened the Tieba forums.

*National Academy of Sciences Affiliated High School Board, Ye Sheng Board, Anti-Ye Sheng Board, Capital Elite Board, Sleeping Under the Bridges of the Capital Board, National Academy of Sciences Affiliated High School Insider Board...*

Keyword search: *Activate!*

Since she was free tonight and couldn't sleep anyway, she might as well take this opportunity to thoroughly investigate Ye Sheng’s background.

*Background check, kid!*

This girl seemed to be a celebrity in the capital’s inner circles. If nothing else, she was already a Tier 2 transcendent before even graduating high school. That was undeniably impressive—much better than those entertainment starlets who did nothing but buy trending searches all day. If Ye Sheng didn't have this bizarre entanglement with Li Xingming, Jiang Qianqian might even have become a fan.

As everyone knew, once you started scrolling through Tieba, you couldn't stop.

Jiang Qianqian scrolled and scrolled, losing track of time, until she was suddenly startled by a faint, abnormal noise.

*Zzzzz...*

*Ah, it must be Ah Ming sliding down the drainage pipe outside the window to sneak out and do his side job again.*

Jiang Qianqian was well aware of this situation.

Back in the second year of middle school, she had heard Li Xingming sneaking out of the house for the first time in the middle of the night. She had agonized until dawn, only feeling relieved when she heard him return. Later, Li Xingming somehow obtained supplements to boost physical development—high-end products produced after transcendent research was integrated into the pharmaceutical field. Jiang Qianqian guessed that when Ah Ming went out at night, he was doing side jobs, and likely high-end ones related to the supernatural, otherwise he wouldn't be able to afford such things.

As time went on, similar things happened often, and Jiang Qianqian had grown used to it.