The Reincarnated OP Protagonist Is Now A 3rd Grade Student (Patreon)

Chapter 17: The Impulse to Escape the Ordinary

At the entrance of Fengyuan Mall...

"Huh?!"

The little fairy looked at Chen An in astonishment as he suddenly backed down, "At this critical moment, you still want to finish your homework?!"

"No, you see, if I can't submit my homework on time, I'll definitely be made to stand in the corridor tomorrow."

Chen An said seriously, "Imagine this: when you're supposed to be in class, you're standing in the corridor enduring the strange gazes of others. You can only lower your head in embarrassment and bear this awkwardness, and you don't even understand what 'awkward' means!"

"I don't remember the assignments the teacher gave, to the extent that you wouldn't be able to finish them within two hours."

The little fairy said helplessly, "Why the sudden change of heart? Weren't you tirelessly trying to stop Lu Li? Now she's right in front of you, the final battle is about to begin, and yet... you're scared?"

After a moment of silence, Chen An sighed and then took off the red scarf around his neck. He turned to the system, "Hey, seriously think about it. She's not an ordinary elementary school student, she's carrying two suitcases of TNT! Isn't it natural for me to be scared? I'm just a seven-year-old kid."

"But... What about Lu Li?"

The little fairy hesitated and asked.

"What about her? We should call the police."

Chen An rubbed his nose and started to look around to see if there were any approachable adults nearby. "Think about it carefully. Lu Li doesn't necessarily need to be stopped by me. Professionals can handle it too. Yeah! Let's call Li Kui and Tan Jing, the professionals!"

Saying that, he locked onto a conspicuous red car, walked briskly over, and knocked on the car window. He planned to borrow a phone to resolve the current situation.

The car window slowly rolled down, revealing a woman with long black hair, wearing a silver necklace and pitch-black sunglasses. Before he could ask for the phone, she burst into laughter.

"Kid, have you ever thought that maybe the only person capable of calming this whole situation down... is you?"

The woman that appeared before him was unfamiliar to Chen An, but there was a strong sense of familiarity. There's a thing called 'aura' that women have, and he often saw it in the top Hollywood actresses.

"Uh... Aunt, do you know me? Do you know Lu Li?"

Chen An looked at this mysterious woman with confusion and took a cautious step back, not wanting to be pulled into the car and possibly be eliminated by someone who could be Lu Li's accomplice.

"Call me sister. Moreover, I'm what you might call Lu Li's 'very close' person. I know everything about her, including her plan to blow up all the cram schools and that she's your desk mate."

Hidden behind the sunglasses, her expression was unreadable, and the mysterious woman chuckled, "I also know that you're thinking of calling the police to resolve this situation. I know even more that it's not the right thing to do. Only you can bring an end to all of this."

Chen An tilted his head slightly, a series of question marks forming in his young mind.

Who is she? Why does she know so much? Why does she say that only he can end this? Any normally intelligent adult would understand that this matter is way beyond what a child can handle, right?

Many questions flooded his mind, but Chen An fell silent...

The system unreasonably shoved an adult's soul into a child's body for seven long years. Bored and frustrated with the mundane classes and the little friends who could only say "aba aba," he had endured it all for seven years.

He had always longed to break free from such a routine.

The situation now was that if no one stopped Lu Li, then she, with her intellect-diminishing aura, was very likely to send all the cram schools into the sky and turn a bunch of innocent pedestrians into stars. The only person who knew this truth and had the ability to stop Lu Li was him, his desk mate.

This extraordinary, non-routine thrill made him carry a sense of mission to stop her, even if his opponent possessed a terrifying intellect-diminishing ability and was carrying two suitcases of TNT, even if...

He might mess up and be defeated by an elementary school student?

Only when he stood in front of the mall did he realize how crazy this was. The rationality of an adult suppressed the impulses in his chest, restoring his sanity.

"I haven't done anything wrong; this is the right thing to do! I'm only seven years old. No matter how you look at it, leaving it to adults to handle is the right choice."

As if to completely suppress his inner urge, Chen An emphasized to the unfamiliar woman before him.

"Then what? What happens next?"

The woman neither confirmed nor denied, "Everything will return to calm? She'll go back to school and continue being your desk mate? She'll learn her lesson and realize she's wrong? She'll stop her extreme behavior?"

"Uh..."

"Only you can do it, only you know what she wants, and only you understand what she lacks. Others might be able to 'stop' her, but only you can 'save' her."

Looking at the serious expression of the mysterious woman and hearing her words, Chen An said helplessly, "Big sister... Do you think I'm a kid you can easily fool, so you're using this kind of cartoonish tone to talk?"

The woman looked at Chen An, who was not taking the bait, and her mouth twitched, "Tsk, you're so rational. It serves you right for always having that 'I'm better than you' face on."

"In any case, I'm not really familiar with Lu Li. Even if we count the whole week, I haven't known her for long enough. I can't take this kind of risk for her. I'm calling the police, right now."

After speaking, Chen An ignored the mysterious woman and began looking for other adults who might lend him a phone. However...

"But what if I told you that the so-called TNT bombs won't explode at all?"

Chen An turned back helplessly and twitched his lips, "Do I really have a face that's easy to fool? The Hua Long Cram School was sent skyward by her in front of me!"

"It wasn't Lu Li who blew up the cram school, but the cram school owner who was trying to commit insurance fraud."

The woman shook her head, "Lu Li merely hid the bomb in the cram school with a step-by-step approach, but she didn't detonate it. No, I should say she didn't even know how to detonate it. However, the bomb was discovered by the owner, who maliciously detonated the gas canister and then received substantial compensation from the insurance company."

"Uh... logically, that possibility does exist."

Chen An hesitated and looked at the woman, "But the problem is, how do I know if this isn't a story you made up? Do you have any evidence?"

"I don't think I need evidence to prove myself."

The woman shook her head, "Just think about it, which teacher would teach an elementary school student to remotely control and detonate a bomb? She has no idea how to detonate it!"

"Um... that's quite persuasive evidence."

Chen An placed his hand over his chest. The heartbeat he had suppressed with rationality was starting to resurface.

"She's not evil; she just went down the wrong path. Help her find her way back to the right one."

The woman extended her hand from the car window, holding two cards that reflected the sunlight glaringly.

"Believe me, little brother. While saving her, you'll also be truly saving yourself from the hell called boredom."