—
28-year-old Fang Wei worked as a Class Advisor at the University of Nantong.
Earning a meager salary and managing several classes, he was squeezed from above by elite advisors he could never hope to surpass and pestered from below by a group of hungry university brats.
‘Damn, this is exhausting!’
Looking back at his winding, messy life, the happiest time was actually before the age of 18.
Because of his parents’ upbringing, he had been quite brave since he was a child.
Back in elementary school, his father’s cousin’s daughter, Jiang Youyou—who was basically his childhood sweetheart—was often bullied by children their age because of her introverted nature.
At those times, little Fang Wei would call his best friend, Si Chen, who was always eager to see the world burn, and throw a punch right into some kid’s face.
“You made my little follower cry! Who are we going to copy homework from now?”
They would beat them senseless.
Not only would he hit the boys, but he would also take Jiang Youyou’s hand, run into her classroom during the morning self-study session, and dump a bucket of slop over some little girl’s head.
Under the stunned gaze of the homeroom teacher, he would shout triumphantly, “Anyway, I didn’t like what was happening! If a useless teacher like you won’t stop the bullying, I will! Besides, kids are just playing around. You’re an adult; you wouldn’t actually hit me, right? If you have a problem, go talk to my dad!”
That incident didn’t cause any major waves, and the follower who let him copy homework successfully evolved into the follower who helped him do his homework.
A win!
After that day, the favorability progress bar between the two of them skyrocketed.
Conversely, Fang Wei’s family, which had been relatively well-off, began to spiral into rock bottom.
After entering middle school, his mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Although his father still appeared carefree and full of smiles, Fang Wei could tell that the old man had clearly aged a lot.
He patted Fang Wei on the shoulder and said that he had hidden a great treasure in his youth that led to the road of happiness.
Now, the father had to go and retrieve that money bit by bit.
The job of taking care of Mom was handed over to the “little man,” Fang Wei.
‘If you’re going to make money, just say it. Why do you have to be so dramatic?’
Fang Wei had always been speechless toward his father.
In the days that followed, he walked to and from school with Jiang Youyou and visited the hospital to see his mother, whose complexion grew worse by the day.
His mother cut off her ponytail and lectured him less and less.
Most of the time, she would hold Jiang Youyou’s hand and list all of Fang Wei’s little flaws, telling the girl to take care of this little bastard in the future.
Fang Wei would hide behind them and grin, but in reality, his tears would often fall uncontrollably once he left the ward.
His father rarely returned.
The hospital bills went unpaid day after day.
The nurses urged them to pay quickly or move out of the room.
The pressure of life grew heavier.
Though the world was vast, this family was being squeezed until they couldn’t breathe.
Finally, after enduring for 6 months, the backbone of the family completely snapped.
The father, who had been talking about finding treasure, died in a car accident while delivering food.
The driver fled the scene and was never caught.
The family’s sole psychological pillar collapsed instantly, followed immediately by another tragedy.
Not even 2 weeks after moving back home, while Fang Wei was out racking his brain to find a job, his mother started a fire.
It wasn’t clear if her condition had worsened or if the psychological pressure of long-term treatment was too much, but that fire burned everything, including that woman.
—And Jiang Youyou, who had been kindly taking care of his mother and was napping in the living room at the time.
Sometimes, one has to marvel at how life’s tragedies always come in quick succession.
Jiang Youyou was rescued by Fang Wei, who rushed into the fire, but a scar was left on the left side of her face.
Before, he had been desperate for money to help treat his mother; now, it was out of guilt, wanting Jiang Youyou to have a better treatment environment.
At 15, he needed money, money, money…
The good news was that just as the boy was about to be suffocated by poverty, the Kaxiu organization reached out to him.
Put on a mask, become a Base Combatant, shout “Yee!!!” and rush forward to die, and he could earn a handsome salary every month.
Relying on this job, Fang Wei finally managed to support what was left of his small family.
The scar on Jiang Youyou’s face could not be completely removed, so she had to cover it with long hair.
She was already an introverted child, and with this added psychological trauma, she would lose control and break down just by looking in the mirror.
Fang Wei took care of her for 6 years.
They got into the same high school and the same university.
On weekdays, he was responsible for hiding his “part-time job” from Jiang Youyou while she handled the housework.
After starting university, although she would occasionally fall into emotional lows and breakdowns, the girl had learned to wipe her own tears and was finally starting to get better.
Until the day of university graduation.
‘Damn it, Si Chen, you son of a bitch!’
His childhood friend must have had a screw loose.
That little brat had also gotten into the same university as them and had been hanging around Fang Wei for a long time.
Although Si Chen had taken him to internet cafes since they were young and helped him beat up Thugs who looked for trouble—the two were as close as brothers—you… you can’t wear a wedding dress and confess to me in front of the whole school on graduation day!
The iron-clad bro Fang Wei had known for so many years held flowers that day and wooed him like a girl.
He knew she was a woman, and she knew he knew, but wasn’t it better for neither of them to poke holes in it?
Why did she have to push so hard, making him choose between his brother and his girlfriend?
Fang Wei chose neither.
It wasn’t that he fled in a panic; it was that Jiang Youyou, after seeing that scene, chose to withdraw of her own accord.
She packed her bags, left the savings intended for their marriage, and left without saying a word.
Fang Wei completely fell out with Si Chen.
Forget a girlfriend; they couldn’t even be brothers anymore.
He told her to get lost!
Yes, the first half of his life was this kind of cliché, dog-blood script that authors love.
He lost his lover, and his brotherly bond shattered.
To numb himself, he could only plunge into making money, though he didn’t even know why he needed it anymore—only that he did.
He lived in a daze until he was 24, becoming a Class Advisor at the University of Nantong.
Those two memories, which had once occupied half of his life, never appeared again.
That year, he didn’t know what he was living for, nor did he know the meaning of going on.
He thought about just letting himself be killed by a Magical Girl in the next operation so he could finally rest.
Holding such thoughts, however, during a mission to surround and suppress a Magical Girl, the local Kaijin were too capable and actually managed to seriously wound her.
Fang Wei broke away from his organization’s squad and followed the blood trail all the way to the end of an alley.
A girl lay there quietly, clutching her arm.
It was his student—Xia Yuanhua.
“Teacher, hasn’t the matter with the student loan been handled yet?”
Memory was pulled back to the present as the bathroom door pushed open.
24-year-old Xia Yuanhua was wrapped in only a bath towel, her hair dripping wet.
Yes, after that incident, he and Xia Yuanhua gradually came together.
With his own student.
And right under the nose of Xia Yuanhua’s father—his own old leader—the two of them carried on a secret teacher-student relationship.
These were the most thrilling 4 years of Fang Wei’s 28-year career.
After graduation, Xia Yuanhua didn’t choose to pursue a master’s or doctorate.
The teacher and student, with only a 4-year age gap, stuck together.
They braved the risk of having their legs broken and went to her father’s house to reveal their relationship.
Unexpectedly, the father-in-law was quite annoyed at first, but he quickly dropped a question about when they were going to have children.
Well, since you put it that way…
“It’ll be done soon. Hiss, why does this student even need a student loan? His phone is better than my father-in-law’s.”
Fang Wei expressed his disdain for current university students.
Xia Yuanhua giggled softly, hugged him from behind, and gently massaged his temples.
“Alright, alright, they surely have their reasons. We don’t need to worry about so much.”
Her smile was tranquil.
“Dad said you still have a lot of room for promotion. Once we get married, we’ll go and pay a New Year’s visit to Dad’s old classmates together.”
“Uh, cough, won’t people say I’m living off your family…”
A soft sensation came from the back of his head, making Fang Wei’s face turn red.
He wanted to maintain his gentlemanly facade, but Xia Yuanhua held him in her arms like a baby.
“It doesn’t matter. If it’s Teacher, it doesn’t matter how long you live off us.”
‘What is going on? It feels like I’m being coddled like a baby by my own student.’
But then again, ever since he met Xia Yuanhua, she had always been this gentle and virtuous.
Compared to being taken care of by him, she preferred taking care of him.
She would hold him when he was tired and comfort him when he couldn’t go on.
Her most frequent phrase was, “It’s okay to cry. You can cry in Mommy’s arms for as long as you want.”
It was no wonder he fell in love with her.
The boy who had crawled through the mud for so many years had finally found his safe haven.
They were officially getting engaged next month.
**[Degen…]**
‘Hm?’ The moment he looked up, Fang Wei seemed to see something.
**[Degen… Value…]**
He rubbed his eyes.
**[Degen Value: 100%]**
**[Hypnosis: Failed]**
“Be a good boy, Teacher. If you’re tired, take a good rest. Just leave everything to Mommy.”
Xia Yuanhua let go, and the man, whose eyes were as dull as a doll’s, nearly fell over.
She quickly supported him, using **[Reconstruction]** magic to make this corpse—which had been dead for who knows how long—move again.
On that rainy night 4 years ago when she was attacked by Kaijin, she had been cornered in the alley and had shot the first combatant who found her.
Lifting the mask, she saw the face of the Class Advisor who always looked after her and comforted her.
Even though she knew his usual attention toward her was ordered by her father, she actually… liked this man quite a bit.
‘Then live again… It doesn’t matter if the body rots or the functions stop. I can use my magic to “resurrect” him.’
‘It’s okay. Mommy will stay by your side forever and take care of you… Oh.’
“???”
“???”
“??!!!”
‘WTF?’
‘What the hell was that?!’
‘Why did I become a doll, a zombie, or a puppet like in the movie Dead Silence?!’
Waking up from the nightmare, Fang Wei, who was so scared he nearly rolled off the bed, grabbed the person next to him and let out a woodchuck-like scream!
**[This System aims to help the Host hypnotize all Magical Girls. The hypnosis result has been predicted.]**
‘Mian Zi, shut up!’
Fang Wei’s brain was in a state of complete chaos.
The experience in the dream had been too real; he couldn’t recover for a while.
‘What the hell is a hypnosis result? Answer me, look into my eyes!’
**[This System aims to help the Host hypnotize all Magical Girls. This was the result of a failed hypnosis. Please use it for reference.]**
‘I’ll reference your barrage!’
‘Let me ask you, it’s one thing to dig out my childhood experiences and childhood sweetheart, but why did Lao Chen become my childhood best friend? And why the hell would he wear a wedding dress to confess to me?’
‘When did he become a woman? Why didn’t I know?’
‘Are we in some giant Pineapple Bun light novel?’
‘Moreover, he’s essentially a Reincarnator. He doesn’t have the experience of these middle ten years, he never went to university, and he certainly didn’t make Jiang Youyou leave in sadness.’
‘This stuff has nothing to do with reality! What am I supposed to use as a reference?’
‘Are you telling me that if the hypnosis fails, I’ll be made into a “Mommy’s doll”?’
‘That’s too terrifying, brother.’
‘It’s scarier and more horrifying than a billion serial killers!’
*Huff… huff…*
Taking several deep breaths, his terror gradually transformed into the relief of a survivor.
Glancing at Xia Yuanhua, who had already woken up in his arms, the Older Sister had returned to her 24-year-old appearance.
Awakened from her sleep, she looked worried, wondering what nightmare had scared little Fang Wei like this.
**[Degen Value: 53%]**
He looked again. **[Degen Value: 53%]**.
Fang Wei roared at the sky.
Thank goodness it was just a dream.
No, the Magical Girls in reality must never become like that!