Chapter 953: Chapter 16 Bullying Ningning

Yan Yu finished dinner and suddenly noticed that Lin Ning beside him seemed somewhat downcast.

He remembered when he first met her in the school cafeteria, this girl with long straight dark hair who had an ice-cold indifferent face that said “strangers keep out.” Compared to her vivid expression of slight grievance now, it was quite amusing.

“What’s wrong, Ningning?” Yan Yu turned his bowl upside down, “You see, I’ve eaten everything you made all clean.”

“I’m not upset about that,” Lin Ning pouted.

“Then what is it?” asked Yan Yu.

“It’s just…” Lin Ning fell silent for a moment, then murmured, “I don’t want to make you think that I’m troublesome or that I get angry easily.”

Gosh, what a naggy woman! Good thing she’s not my wife, otherwise I’d have my hands full after marriage.

“Not at all, why would I find Ningning troublesome?” Yan Yu quickly responded earnestly, “As the team leader, caring about each team member’s mental state is my duty! Even if it wasn’t Lin Ning this time, if someone else had an issue, I would of course intervene, as I need to be fair to everyone.”

For some reason, this set of arguments, which had never failed with Ningning, didn’t work this time–because Lin Ning’s expression visibly became more sullen.

“I…” She barely opened her mouth, thinking what could she even say?

Say that I don’t want you to be fair right now, I just want you to pay more attention to me? Say that what I really care about is that you’ve slept with Sister Zhao, Ruoxi, Yun Jin, and I was almost the last one to cross your mind?

Say that I have always been plagued by a sense of inferiority, despite being a Sword Immortal personally trained by you and having spent the most time with you, I still can’t get ahead in the order of Dual Cultivation within the team. Is it because my power is too weak, therefore you don’t bother to look at me closely?

Lin Ning had a load of things she wanted to say, but just couldn’t utter a word. Because she was more afraid that revealing such heavy feelings might make the team leader see her as a very troublesome woman.

And all these words just accumulated in her heart, gradually forming a black hole that swallowed all of her positive emotions.

“It’s nothing.” Lin Ning forced a smile, slowly shook her head and said, “Just worried about Crossing Tribulation, feeling a bit nervous, that’s all.”

She was lying.

“Oh,” Yan Yu didn’t think too much about it. After all, it made sense for a Problem Solver to care about an exam, and Crossing Tribulation was clearly the most important test for a Cultivator, “You really don’t need to worry. Your True Yuan is much more abundant than mine, and you’ll have more resources for your tribulation, ensuring more chances of success than me.”

“Mmhmm.” Lin Ning was silent for a long time before suddenly saying, “But I don’t have your impressive skills and awareness.”

“Crossing Tribulation doesn’t need any skills or awareness.” Yan Yu casually remarked, “As long as the True Yuan is abundant and the resources are sufficient, even randomly casting Spells and Flying Swords can get you through.”

This statement made Lin Ning feel even more choked up. So am I the kind of mediocre person that can only rely on True Yuan and resources to succeed in tribulation? Am I really not skilled or aware enough to overcome the heavenly tribulation?

She muttered under her breath and stood up, saying:

“I’ll go wash the dishes.”

Seeing that something was off with her expression, thinking it was the psychological pressure of the imminent tribulation, Yan Yu tentatively asked:

“How about we… postpose our Dual Cultivation session? If you’re not ready yet, it’s okay to wait.”

Lin Ning nearly stumbled: I’m already the second to last, and now you want to delay it further, planning to put me behind Ling Yun?

“No.” She said strenuously, her voice suddenly loud, “I don’t want to be last!”

“Uh.” Yan Yu, not knowing why she suddenly shouted, could only laugh it off, “No worries, you’re still next. I guess I’ll be ready by tomorrow, how about tomorrow night I come to your room?”

“Okay.” Lin Ning turned her back to him, dropped an “Okay,” then hurriedly fled the scene.

Back in her room, she locked the door from the inside, and again started sulking quietly, but didn’t dare to cry out loud. Because Yan Yu’s room was very close to hers, separated only by Sister Zhao’s room.

“Gosh, I really can’t stand to watch this anymore.” Jing Zhongxian’s voice rang out again, “How can you be so fussy!”

“You try.” Lin Ning choked up, “If you were the fourth one chosen by the team leader, would you be happy?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll give you a suggestion.” Jing Zhongxian proposed, “Why don’t you go sleep with him tonight? That way, you’ll be the first among those who ‘took the initiative to sleep with him’! I am really a genius!”

“Crazy.” Lin Ning was annoyed yet amused, “What would that make me! Try to be a little dignified, please!”

“You are too dignified, too reserved, too face-conscious, that’s why you ended up in this situation,” Jing Zhongxian sharply criticized, “Others go full throttle, and you’re still at ‘not because I like you, just want fair treatment’, no wonder he feels less favorable towards you compared to others.”

“I don’t care anymore.” Lin Ning hugged her legs, her mood dropping as she said, “Let’s just leave it, it’s not unbearable. After the Dual Cultivation, let’s pretend nothing happened. If he doesn’t confirm our relationship, I’ll just take it as… as if it was a bump from a bicycle seat.”

“Can a bicycle seat turn you into a top-grade golden core?” Jing Zhongxian feigned ignorance.