Speaking of Chi Ruiqiu, he truly is an excellent person, genuinely cold on the outside but warm within. Just because of a word from the teacher, he took extra care of Shuangshuang.

His care for Shuangshuang wasn’t overstepping; it was really just the attitude of a brother to a sister, with affection and assistance, but no ambiguity.

When Shuangshuang confessed, Chi Ruiqiu was surprised but immediately clarified things, cutting off any potential misunderstanding Shuangshuang might have had about their relationship.

You could say Chi Ruiqiu is a boy with both intelligence and emotional intelligence, treating people well but with boundaries, an exceptionally good boy.

If she were a normal girl, she wouldn’t have reached the twisted state of Shuangshuang in the previous life, but Shuangshuang was influenced by the Heart Demon Seed, and she saw Chi Ruiqiu as a light in her life.

That’s why in the past life, Shuangshuang was obsessively clinging to Chi Ruiqiu, like a drowning person clutching a floating piece of wood; such a twisted mentality can’t be judged by common sense.

In essence, Shuangshuang felt guilty towards Chi Ruiqiu. Though Chi Ruiqiu was good to Shuangshuang, the result was being imprisoned and tortured, eventually forced to die with her, even though he owed Shuangshuang nothing.

In this life, faced with Chi Ruiqiu, Shuangshuang still sensed the dark thoughts in her mind, feeling ashamed to face him.

Initially, Shuangshuang planned to stay far away from Chi Ruiqiu this life, and she thought if the imprisoned Chi Ruiqiu from the past knew, he’d rather never have met her.

Unfortunately, fate plays tricks, and Shuangshuang accidentally became entangled with Chi Ruiqiu, later saving his brother Chi Rui Ming, and became thoroughly intertwined with Chi Ruiqiu.

With countless thoughts whirling in her mind, Shuangshuang smiled serenely on the surface, "Why aren’t you scared away by my attitude?"

"Because I saved your brother, you don’t have to be like this. I’ve said before, I’m studying Genetic Repair, treating and saving people is my duty. Even if it’s not your brother, I’d save him too."

Saying this, Shuangshuang herself felt startled, but it was the question she most wanted answered in her heart.

Whenever she faced Chi Ruiqiu, she wasn’t very warm, except for the half month they spent together during childhood, but even then she mostly tricked him into calling her sister, without much care for him.

Especially during this time, she really had no warm feelings toward Chi Ruiqiu, yet Chi Ruiqiu’s warmth towards her didn’t diminish, which Shuangshuang found quite unbelievable.

Shuangshuang didn’t know that Chi Ruiqiu had imagined her to be a poor soul who couldn’t make friends, and his embracing and accommodating attitude insisted on being friends with her.

Now, hearing Shuangshuang’s question, he awkwardly touched his nose and, pretending to be relaxed, said, "Probably because I find you pleasing to the eye, so I want to be friends. Don’t overthink it, I just want to be friends, not develop feelings beyond friendship."

Chi Ruiqiu, in expressing his desire to be friends with Shuangshuang, didn’t forget to clarify himself to avoid her misunderstanding that he was pursuing her, which wouldn’t be good.

Shuangshuang sighed helplessly. She felt indebted to Chi Ruiqiu emotionally, so she couldn’t harden herself, only enduring the disturbances of the Heart Demon Seed, and letting Chi Ruiqiu approach her.

Seeing Chi Ruiqiu busying himself to distance their relationship, she suppressed the sudden surge of anger and dark thoughts upon hearing his words.

"Don’t worry! I’m not interested in people like you. By the way, why did you come looking for me? Don’t tell me you really just came out of boredom to waste time with me."

"Oh, I almost forgot the main reason. Of course, I came for the matter of tomorrow’s live exercise. I have insider info that the first task in the live exercise will likely be wilderness survival.

If the task really is wilderness survival, then teams can collaborate to get through difficulties together.

I was thinking, after we form teams, can we merge your team with mine to pass the stage?"

"Your idea isn’t bad, but how can you be sure we’ll find each other at that time?

I recall during live exercises we are randomly placed at the assessment site, not together.

And this time the assessment doesn’t allow any equipment, even personal terminals are sealed away, how do you plan to contact me?"

Chi Ruiqiu patted his chest and smiled rather flamboyantly at Shuangshuang, saying, "You don’t need to worry about that, I have my ways to find you."

Since Chi Ruiqiu said he has a way to find her, Shuangshuang didn’t ask further. If he can find her then good, if not, it’s equally fine.

"Right, while talking business, let’s talk private matters. When I was coming here, I looked down from the Cosmic Ship’s window and found this planet astonishingly beautiful, truly deserving its title as a tourist planet.

I thought since it’s still early, and since we’re here without much to do, why not take a tour together, making it a worthwhile visit."

Shuangshuang thought about it and agreed that it’s nothing bad to go out for fun once: "Alright, since you’ve invited me so graciously, I won’t refuse."

Both being impatient, once they decided to go out, they immediately called hotel staff to unlock the Hover Car’s permission and sent one over.

Shuangshuang didn’t plan to change outfits; though dressed in ancient attire, in the interstellar era, due to the diversity in races and habits, dressing styles varied greatly, wearing ancient clothes was quite normal.

Moreover, the clothes were custom-made by Gu Yue according to Shuangshuang’s measurements, costly, not something everyone would spend credit points on.

............

The school gave students three whole days to prepare, and by the third day, all the students were gathered together, heading to the place where all schools assembled.

The place had many large halls, each with a banner representing a school at the front door, signifying the hall belonged to that school.

These halls were constructed in a circular shape, with a vast open square in the center, spacious enough to comfortably accommodate a million people.

Shuangshuang, along with the leading teacher this time, entered her school’s hall, which had auditorium-like seating arranged in a circle, with a huge podium in the center.

Once Shuangshuang and others settled in their seats, Wei An, with a tail stirring a water globe, stepped onto the podium, glanced at the students, and then spoke.

"Today is the first day of the live exercise, and the most crucial one, because you will be randomly selected by the System to find a vital partner for the exercise.

Your partners come from different schools, totally unfamiliar to you, but in the future, you’ll need to jointly complete many tasks that require mutual trust.

Perhaps you might feel challenged, but let me tell you, on the battlefield, in rapidly changing scenarios, such situations are inevitable.

So this live exercise also tests how quickly you can build a good, trusting relationship with unfamiliar partners."