A busy street, a gentle sun.
With white hair and white eyebrows, he looked like a snowflake that had drifted in from somewhere else, not belonging to this world. His eyes were a deep black, filled with starlight, as he watched a playful girl not far away. She was staring wide-eyed, waiting for shaved ice to emerge from the machine.
Or rather, she was a Probationary Goddess.
On his wrist was a decorative elastic hair tie. He didn’t mind learning human behaviors in this regard; he could indeed see a faint, lively silhouette within that small hair tie.
He leaned against the railing. The wooden rail occasionally creaked from his gentle swaying, causing the vibrant flowers and plants nearby to sway along with him. Love was indeed a form of happiness, especially for those who had been lonely for a long time—it was like sweet dew after a long drought.
The timing was just right.
Heavy footsteps echoed in his ears. He turned his head lazily, then froze slightly. He saw a boy with a gloomy expression walking toward him.
He recognized that boy.
“Wait—”
Before he could finish, a solid punch slammed into his face. There was no holding back, as if the punch were thrown with the intent to kill.
The wooden railing was shattered clean through. The white-haired boy lay on the ground with a slight frown. He hadn’t completely collapsed because his collar was still held by the boy who had just punched him. Before he could recover, another punch enlarged in his field of vision.
When the fist was finally lifted, his once high nose bridge seemed to have collapsed slightly, and a trail of blood flowed down. The commotion seemed to attract other passersby, gathering like ants finding food. Cries of surprise rose as they faintly began to surround the two.
Xu Nian only spared a cold glance at his surroundings, then looked at the white-haired boy whose collar he was clutching.
Then, as if feeling helpless, the white-haired boy reached out and gave a casual wipe. The crowd that had gathered suddenly acted as if they couldn’t see anything, scratching their heads and dispersing.
Unfortunately, such a trick only worked on humans.
The Probationary Goddess, who had returned with two cups of shaved ice, saw her senior being pinned to the ground and beaten the moment she came back. She leaned in with a mischievous grin. “I never thought there’d be a day where you’d be bullied like this. Hehe, this is fun—I’m going to take a picture of you.”
Xu Nian heard the somewhat familiar voice and looked at the guy still in his grasp, roughly guessing the girl’s identity. He raised his fist, threw one last punch, and then let go. Naturally, every punch had been at full strength, driven by a desire to kill as he vented his frustrations.
“Alright.” Xu Nian rubbed his right hand and stood up. “Talk. Why are you here?”
The white-haired boy on the ground steadied himself, stood up, wiped away the injuries on his face, and restored the broken railing behind him.
“You’re the first person to ask me why I’m here or what I’m planning to do while treating me as a human.”
“I must know if you’ve come with a mission, and I must know if that mission involves anyone close to me.” Xu Nian rarely had emotional outbursts; experience tended to smooth out all protruding edges.
“I am no longer a probationary god, and I won’t have any more missions,” he simply said. “Your hatred for me is a bit too thick. I recall that I didn’t treat you too harshly.”
“Selecting me as a mission target was the ultimate harsh treatment.”
The Probationary Goddess realized that this wasn’t a sudden accident but a reunion of old friends. She held the two cups of shaved ice and hid to the side. Shaved ice in autumn wasn’t common; she had searched for half a day to find this shop.
“Wasn’t my mission very effective?” The white-haired boy spread his hands. “You understand very well now what the word ‘hate’ means.”
“Yeah, you used an entire tattered life to teach me how to write that word.” Xu Nian glanced at the Probationary Goddess. “One for hate, and one for love? Your arrangement is quite logical.”
“Don’t be so harsh. Didn’t I give you compensation?” The white-haired boy patted the dust off his clothes. “A second chance at life. You don’t have a so-called mission of hate now. Aren’t things going well?”
“Have you ever heard that comparison in a person’s heart doesn’t make one situation seem better? It only makes the other seem worse.” Xu Nian’s tone remained icy. “In any case, what you do is none of my business. Just don’t put your damn missions on Yang Shuli, and I won’t care about anything. I’m too lazy to settle our past accounts.”
He said he was too lazy to settle accounts, but those three punches just now hadn’t held back an ounce of strength.
“I won’t give out missions. Besides, both of you are currently within her mission. Even if I wanted to do something, I couldn’t interfere.”
The white-haired man pointed at the Probationary Goddess, who was squatting nearby and eating shaved ice. Xu Nian glanced at her. It was just like his mission back then—even if he had wanted to tear the guy in front of him into 10,000 pieces, he couldn’t change the fact that the mission had to be executed. Furthermore, these so-called missions were predetermined from the start. Even the probationary god executing the mission couldn’t change them.
After completing his mission, he had received the greatest compensation the white-haired boy—who was still a probationary god then—could offer: a second life. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to accumulate enough wealth before the college entrance exam. It would also have been impossible for him to possess such calculating depth and social wisdom at this age.
He was somewhat satisfied with the compensation, but his hatred could not be extinguished through the execution of the mission.
‘Forget it,’ he thought as he looked at the Probationary Goddess protecting her two cups of shaved ice. ‘I don’t hit women.’
Even if he did, it wouldn’t help. What needed to be done for the mission would still be done. And this was just about falling in love, unlike the previous mission. This sort of thing was something he could manage.
“Back to the original question. If you’re not here to issue a mission, then what are you doing here?”
At this moment, Xu Nian felt a long-lost urge to smoke—as if seeing this white-haired man’s annoying face triggered habits from his past life. As if the white-haired man saw what he was doing, he pulled a cigarette out of thin air and handed it to him. With his other hand, he flicked a spark into existence, seemingly intending to light it for Xu Nian.
“I quit.” He pushed away the cigarette that the god was about to light.
“Fine.” The white-haired man didn’t ask further. “I’m here for a date.”
“Hmm?”
Seeing that Xu Nian didn’t believe him, the white-haired man gave a casual wave. A thin iron chain appeared in his hand, and the other end was attached to a collar around the Probationary Goddess’s neck.
Then, he gave it a hard tug. “You seemed very happy while I was being beaten just now, didn’t you?”
“Please… please punish me…”
Xu Nian froze on the spot.