Chapter 2: Activating the Rich Tycoon System

Jiang Muye smiled as he gazed at Xia Xiran with eyes full of adoration.

Her stunningly beautiful face was right there, so close.

Xia Xiran coolly glanced at the DR Ring Jiang Muye held up in midair and said, "Well, you can get out of the way now. You're holding up my run."

The smile on Jiang Muye's face went stiff.

He felt a biting cold wind sweep past.

Xia Xiran indifferently put on her earphones, brushed past his shoulder, and started running around the track.

Shock filled the surroundings.

"What's going on? The Campus Belle said no?"

"Jiang Muye is so great, why would she reject him!"

Even Xia Xiran's best friends couldn't bear to watch.

Jiang Muye was so devoted, yet Xia Xiran hurt him again and again.

But they were Xia Xiran's best friends, after all, so they hurried off to chase after Xia Xiran.

The students who had been watching the show, seeing Jiang Muye's proposal fail, were instantly gloating.

Proposing to Xia Xiran could never have succeeded in the first place.

Xia Xiran was a top student and the Campus Belle—how many guys liked her? She was still so young, so why would she give up the whole pond for one fish?

Jiang Muye's brows knitted tightly.

His heart felt like it was being torn apart.

The first time he proposed, he was too thin-skinned to even work up the nerve.

Propose? Too hard.

No experience.

He was so young and clumsy that even his proposal lines came out stumbling.

After 99 proposals, Jiang Muye's experience points were maxed out.

And yet he still faced failure.

Every repeat of that heartache was pure torment.

【Ding dong—Congratulations, Host, on completing the 99 proposals mission. You have now successfully bound the No-Soft Rice System. Men must stand on their own two feet and strive to become tycoons.】

A system voice resounded through Jiang Muye's world.

The Jiang Muye everyone had pitied now raised his eyes, and a glint surfaced in them.

The mission was complete, so his counterattack began today.

Only after entering university did Jiang Muye discover that the fiancée arranged for him as a child was actually Xia Xiran, the girl he'd liked for so long.

At this moment, he also bound the "Refuse Soft Rice" system.

The condition to activate the system: 99 proposals.

It had nothing to do with whether the system activated or not—he simply wanted to marry Xia Xiran, so he had resolutely gone through with the proposals.

Jiang Muye had figured that if one proposal failed, ten would surely succeed. But after 99 proposals, Xia Xiran was still deeply moved yet firmly refused.

"BOOM—"

Thunder already rumbled in the sky, and dark clouds filled the heavens.

Raindrops the size of beans fell from the sky. Everyone else had already fled with their heads covered, getting soaked to the bone.

At this moment, Xia Xiran, who had been night-running with her best friends, saw the rain and immediately ran with them to take shelter under the awning of a nearby building.

As Xia Xiran wiped the rain from her face with a tissue, Yuanyuan beside her gasped, "Why hasn't Jiang Muye left yet?"

Xia Xiran's heart trembled, and she immediately looked over.

She saw a lonely figure still standing on the rubber track.

Raindrops had already landed on his black hair and were gradually soaking into his white shirt, leaving it drenched.

But he kept his eyes lowered, not saying a word, and made no move to run.

Xia Xiran's lips quivered—she was clearly getting anxious.

How could he be so dumb as to not find somewhere to hide from the rain?

Just as she was about to run over, the Girl with Glasses beside her grabbed her.

"Xiran, you're not going to go to him, are you?"

Xia Xiran's eyes were full of worry. "Well, I can't just let him stand there like an idiot in the rain."

"But if you go over there, isn't that the same as accepting his proposal? Don't be silly. You can't give up bread for love. You're a model student, and you're fighting for the graduate school recommendation to get into Peking University. If you become a wife and mother, are you just going to give up your studies? Didn't you say you still want to be a postdoc!" the Girl with Glasses said sternly.

Xia Xiran bit down hard on her lip.

Her feelings were a complicated mess right now.

"But I don't think there's anything wrong with being a wife and mother. At least you get to be with the person you like. Xiran, do you like Jiang Muye?" Yuanyuan asked.

"I… I don't know." Xia Xiran was flustered, and her cheeks suddenly flushed red. "I've never been in love."

Xia Xiran had been a good girl her whole life, her head full of getting high scores and being a model student so that others would keep liking her.

As for how to like someone…

Xia Xiran didn't understand it at all.

"When you like someone, your face goes red and your heart races, and you wish you could see him every single day. When he's unhappy, you feel awful too, and when he's happy, you can't help but want to smile. Do you feel that way?"

Yuanyuan's reminder sent Xia Xiran straight into her memories.

Every time she saw Jiang Muye, she involuntarily blushed.

When they were close, she didn't dare touch him.

But when she couldn't see him, she'd start thinking about him every night.

Now, seeing Jiang Muye's bleak and lonely figure, her heart ached again.

So… had she fallen for Jiang Muye?

"I like him—I'm going to go to him!" Realizing this, Xia Xiran lit up with joy.

She was quickly doused with cold water by the Girl with Glasses. "Liking someone and living your life with someone are two different things. If you start dating now and it affects your studies, ruins your future, aren't you afraid you'll regret it?"

Xia Xiran, who had been about to rush toward Jiang Muye, stopped in her tracks.

She was under enormous pressure.

Love or studies—which mattered more?

If she chose love and gave up her studies.

Would there come a day when she regretted it?

Xia Xiran bit her lower lip. After a few uneasy seconds, she unconsciously walked over to her best friends and said with difficulty, "Let's go back to the dorm."

Yuanyuan was astonished. "You're not going to him?"

"The graduate recommendation spots are about to be decided. I don't want anything to go wrong at this critical moment," Xia Xiran said, taking a deep breath.

Apart from the Girl with Glasses, everyone else felt some regret.

It'd be a shame to end your youth without a passionate romance.

Besides, Jiang Muye was handsome, tall, and deeply devoted to Xia Xiran. Was the graduate recommendation really that great? Could it compare to love?

But once Xia Xiran had made up her mind, no one could change it.

Regretful as they were, they could only follow Xia Xiran back to the dorm.

Suddenly, Yuanyuan's startled cry rang out.

"Isn't that the Cold Campus Belle? She's actually…"

Hearing this, Xia Xiran quickly looked in the direction Yuanyuan was pointing.

Beneath the rolling dark clouds and the pouring rain, the downpour grew heavier, and water dripped from Jiang Muye's soaked hair.

His body was cold, and his heart was colder still.

Just as the rain had blurred his vision, something seemed to be held over his head, and all he could hear was the sound of raindrops striking an umbrella.

"Don't stand in the rain, you'll catch a cold." A gentle, melodious voice sounded.

Jiang Muye's heart trembled, and he immediately raised his eyes.

Under the night sky, a slender figure stood right before him.

She had deep brown hair that reached her waist, and it looked like it was in excellent condition.

But what was even more beautiful than her hair was that peerless face.

Her beauty was simply breathtaking. Her skin was whiter than ivory, and her fan-like lashes covered eyes of a clear, pure light blue—one blink was enough to set anyone's heart stirring.

She wore a white JK shirt, slightly open at the collar, her swan-like neck slender and her collarbones delicate and lovely. A black velvet ribbon was tied around her neck, and alluring lines of cleavage extended straight down into the depths of her shirt, faintly visible.

And beneath her plaid skirt, her waistline was slender and enchanting, and a pair of straight, long, snow-white legs looked supple and lustrous, her leg shape beautiful to the extreme.