Chapter 46 First Encounter

Liu Xingquan always remembered the first time he met Yan Zhen.
At that time, his father took him to a large villa. Liu Xingquan knew that this was the home of the boss his father worked for. Before he left, his father repeatedly told him to be good, obedient, and polite.
Yan's residence is located in a high-end villa residential area, under the shade of the fragrant osmanthus trees. His father respectfully led him into the corridor. Mrs. Yan, An Yuan, was an extremely kind and amiable woman, and Liu Xingquan fell in love with her at first sight.
He was sitting on the sofa in a reserved manner, and he did not hear a word of what his father and An Yuan said. He secretly looked at the exquisite furnishings around him, which were completely different from the spacious and bright interior of his small home. The marble floor was shimmering with bright sunlight, and there was a soft and thick carpet under his seat. This warm and comfortable feeling made his originally nervous mood become relaxed.
Then he saw Yan Zhen.
A boy was leaning on the railing on the second floor, looking at him. He had thick, slightly curly black hair and equally dark eyes. He was staring at him, with no expression on his face.
"Xiao Zhen, come down quickly, Uncle Liu has brought his son to play with you. You two will be friends from now on."
The boy walked down the stairs. He looked like a porcelain doll, with dark eyes twinkling against his white skin. He was unlike any other child Liu Xingquan had ever seen. Most children would pretend to be well-behaved or overly lively and outgoing in front of guests. He just looked at him, with an appraising look.
Later he followed Yan Zhen to his room. There was a pile of scattered toy parts on the floor.
"Can you spell this?" Yan Zhen asked him.
Liu Xingquan scanned the parts on the ground. It looked like they were going to build a bridge. There was a toy box on the ground, with words written on it that Liu Xingquan couldn't understand. He had never played with such imported toys before.
Not wanting to show weakness, he nodded. So he sat down, picked up the parts and started to assemble. Yan Zhen gave him a blueprint and assigned some parts to him. Each of them started from one end of the bridge.
The room was quiet. They worked silently for an entire afternoon. Although Liu Xingquan had never worked with this type of building toy before, he was able to build it quite well based on the blueprint and his tenacious spirit of exploration. Finally, he finished his part.
Yan Zhen also finished it.
However, their bridge could not be joined. Logically , they had each completed half and used all the parts, so it should have been able to join seamlessly, but the positions of the bayonet joints were so different that it was impossible to connect them.
"You spelled it wrong." Yan Zhen spoke first.
“I put it together according to the blueprint.”
"It doesn't work. You must have spelled it wrong." Yan Zhen said with certainty. He spoke as if it was a matter of course and could not be refuted. His attitude aroused Liu Xingquan's natural resistance, and he said, "I didn't."
"You just spelled it wrong." Yan Zhen squatted down to look at Liu Xingquan's half of the bridge. He pushed it, and the bridge tilted to one side, collapsing after hitting the floor.
Liu Xingquan looked at his collapsed bridge. The result of his afternoon's work was now broken into pieces. He didn't think about anything at the time, nor did he look at Yan Zhen's face.
"You too." Liu Xingquan stretched out his hand and pushed hard, and the other half of Yan Zhen's bridge also collapsed.
The room was silent for a moment. The two children looked at the scattered toy parts on the floor in silence, their whole afternoon's hard work going to waste.
Yan Zhen said: "What are you doing!"
Liu Xingquan was regretting. He remembered his father's repeated instructions to him, to be a good boy, to be good friends with Master Yan, and not to make him unhappy. But his current behavior was just courting death.
His heart was pounding. Maybe Master Yan would chase him away soon. Maybe Master Yan would yell at him. Maybe his father would give him a good beating when he got home. He didn't know whether he was afraid of Master Yan's anger or was more afraid of disappointing his father.
His heart was filled with panic and fear, but Liu Xingquan did not show it on his face. He tried his best not to let the tears of fear well up in his eyes, and said in a steady tone: "Now you can spell my part to check if I spelled it wrong."
Yan Zhen looked at him. For a while, there was only surprise on his face, and then he smiled: "You too."
Later they exchanged their parts and put them together again. This time the bridge fit together perfectly, and their bridge was officially completed.
After that, he believed that there was a real friendship between them.
 
In elementary school, Liu Xingquan was the same as he is now, with excellent grades, obedient and well-behaved, and was the teacher's favorite. Liu Xingquan could feel the respect of his classmates, perhaps because the teacher valued him, or because of his excellent grades. Yan Zhen was often surrounded by some classmates. He was very popular among his classmates, and many people wanted to make friends with Yan Zhen. But the person who could go home with Yan Zhen after school was always Liu Xingquan. This made Liu Xingquan very sure of his friendship with Yan Zhen.
When I was in elementary school, there was a very popular card game. When you bought a pack of Miller's puffed snacks, you would get a random card with different attributes. When you collected 26 cards, you could play against others.
At that time, almost all the boys and girls in the class participated in the card collection and battle. Yan Zhen was no exception. He had already put together a set of cards. Liu Xingquan keenly realized that this kind of game requires money to support. Later, Yan Zhen took a stack of cards and wanted to give it to him, but he politely refused because he was not interested in this card game.
During that period, the most talked about topics among the students were rare cards and card tactics. Many rare cards might not be found even if you bought 100 packs of puffed food. Students who drew rare cards would proudly show them off to the whole class. Of course, even if you had powerful rare cards, you might not necessarily win a game. Reasonable tactics were the key to winning.
That semester, the card player who always won became the most popular star in the class. His name was Cui Mingzhi. They were in the same class in elementary school. Cui Mingzhi was a strong competitor of Liu Xingquan. In the grading system defined by the teacher, grades were everything. Cui Mingzhi always made Liu Xingquan feel uneasy. Cui Mingzhi never seemed to focus on studying, but he always ranked among the top in every exam. He was the kind of genius student who could do well in exams even without working hard.
Liu Xingquan knew how much effort he put into studying. His first place was the result of his hard work. But Cui Mingzhi never seemed to need that effort. He studied happily, played games happily, and always won.
After Cui Mingzhi drew a rare card again, he reassembled his deck. When this deck was complete, he won all the way, defeating seven or eight card masters in the class in a row. The classmates praised Cui Mingzhi more and more. To be honest, this made Liu Xingquan a little jealous.
Then, Choi Ming-chi challenged Yeon Jin.
Strictly speaking, Yan Zhen is not an avid fan of Melo cards. He just collected a few sets of cards out of interest and occasionally played with a few classmates. But Yan Zhen's cards are very complete, and he rarely loses. In Cui Mingzhi's eyes, he is also a strong opponent.
So, in front of many classmates, Yan Zhen and Cui Mingzhi started fighting.
At that time, Liu Xingquan was sitting in front of Yan Zhen. He turned sideways and joined the audience.
This battle was quite exciting. Cui Mingzhi's deck changed its tactics and no longer used the fast attack he was good at. Instead, he played a medium-speed attack to consume the battlefield cards played by Yan Zhen. Yan Zhen changed to a defensive tactic, leisurely using high-health minion cards to delay time, and constantly adding health to disrupt the opponent's rhythm. For a while, the two sides fought very fiercely.
There are only three cards left at the end, and it's time to play a card and decide life or death.
Cui Mingzhi's nose was covered with sweat. Liu Xingquan could feel his nervousness. Yan Zhen was the tenth person he challenged. If he won, Cui Mingzhi would have won ten consecutive games without losing . The students watching whispered to each other, quietly guessing who would win.
Yan Zhen put his hand on one of the group damage cards, and Liu Xingquan saw it clearly. But in the next second, Yan Zhen changed another card. Then Cui Mingzhi breathed a sigh of relief , and he put on a group attribute card, KOing Yan Zhen in one round.
Yan Zhen lost. The classmates around him cheered for Cui Mingzhi's winning streak and asked him to treat everyone. Cui Mingzhi smiled and patted his chest and said he would treat everyone to a bottle of Coke.
On the way home from school, Liu Xingquan asked Yan Zhen why he changed the license plate.
"Because I think the battlefield cards are safer."
"No, I think even I would play a group damage card to clear the field." Liu Xingquan said, "You lost to Cui Mingzhi on purpose."
“…”
"Why do you want to lose on purpose?"
Yan Zhen smiled: "There's nothing wrong with letting Choi Mingzhi win."
"I do not understand."
Yan Zhen's black jade eyes flickered slightly: "All the students are waiting for his tenth consecutive victory." He shook the Coke in his hand, "We finally got to drink Coke, isn't that great?"
“…”
In the following days, Cui Mingzhi used his deck to beat five or six students from other classes, and then students from higher grades. His reputation of being undefeated spread throughout the school. A few days later, Cui Mingzhi came to school with a Band-Aid on his face. During the break, he was always unhappy and did not play cards with anyone.
The news about Choi Ming-chi soon spread throughout the class. A senior student took a fancy to Choi Ming-chi's deck and made an appointment with him to play a game. The other party's tone was very arrogant, and Choi Ming-chi, who was enraged, rashly accepted his challenge.
Unexpectedly, the opponent's deck contained several extremely powerful rare cards, catching Choi Ming-chi off guard. With the help of several unexpectedly powerful rare cards, the senior student defeated Choi Ming-chi and stole his deck.
The classmates were furious about this, but the senior student was a well-known troublemaker in the school. He had a pair of extremely difficult parents, and whenever he did something, his parents would rush to the school and make a scene. The teachers would avoid him when they saw him, and the students were also very afraid of him.
At that time, Liu Xingquan learned about Cui Mingzhi's family situation. Cui Mingzhi's mother was a stepmother, and his father cared little about him. His game cards were stolen, and his father would not go to the school to ask for an explanation for such a small thing that affected his studies.
This matter will just pass by amid the discussion among classmates.
What Liu Xingquan didn't expect was that Yan Zhen went straight to challenge the senior student.
After school, when Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan arrived at the agreed school pavilion, the senior students were already sitting there waiting for them. He was tall and strong, with arrogant and rude manners, and was the standard scary gangster in the students' minds. Liu Xingquan felt the irritable and fearful emotions among his classmates. He was the type of student who should be avoided in school.
But Yan Zhen did not retreat. He took out his cards and started fighting with him.
Their fight was more intense than the one with Choi Mingzhi. Yan Zhen pursed his lips and quickly played cards one by one. This was the first time Liu Xingquan saw Yan Zhen use such a fierce fast attack, and there was a spark in his dark eyes. He played every card without hesitation. Liu Xingquan was very sure that Yan Zhen was counting the cards before playing each card, weighing the subtle changes in the situation after each card.
In his experience of witnessing Yan Zhen playing cards, this was the first time he saw Yan Zhen so serious and so angry. At that moment he was so sharp and powerful. In the end, he won three games in a row with a series of great kills.
There is no need to fight anymore.
The senior student's face turned from red to white and then to gray, and even his eyes were a little red. He pushed the cards away angrily and cursed several times. Liu Xingquan thought he would get angry and hit him. But he didn't. He muttered a few words and threw out the set of cards that originally belonged to Cui Mingzhi from his schoolbag.
The most fortunate thing for him was that there were no other spectators.
At that moment, Liu Xingquan felt that Yan Zhen was like the hero in the animation, Lothar, who was smart and brave, and was not afraid of any bastards. He seemed to be shining all over, firm and fearless.
He would not care about winning or losing for the sake of his friend's face, and would dare to challenge the object that everyone feared for the sake of his friend. No one in our class dared to do this, except him, my friend Yan Zhen. Yan Zhen was the best student in this class.
And I, I am proud to have a friend like him.
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