by Dragon King
“Not bad! Let’s do another newer song. ‘Rooftop’!” Xie Yujia swayed her hands and said happily.
Hao Ren tried to refuse but sang the song perfectly and expressed the gloominess in the song well.
“Geez! You are so good at singing! Stop pretending you are bad already!” Xie Yujia winked at Hao Ren.
Hao Ren found it weird as well. How did he voice become so full and broad? Was it because he cultivated the Spirit Concentration Scroll?
After they finished singing another duet of “You Are a Song in My Heart” and were about to pick another song, the waiter pushed open the door and came in suddenly.
“Excuse me, sir. The time of your room is up!” he said.
Hao Ren and Xie Yujia felt like they didn’t sing enough, but they still had classes that day, so it was impossible to continue singing. They looked at each other, smiled, and put down the microphones. Then, they grabbed their stuff and checked out at the front desk.
Xie Yujia wanted to pay when they were checking out, but Hao Ren stopped her. Even though he was accompanying Xie Yujia, how could he make a girl pay for him?
After they walked out of the KTV, Xie Yujia insisted on treating Hao Ren to breakfast, and Hao Ren could only accept. They headed to Dexin Restaurant and ate two nutritious breakfast meals. Then, Hao Ren rode the bicycle and took Xie Yujia back to school through the west entrance; they were headed to the dorm area in the south.
The morning at school was as silent as a park. The air was refreshing, and the environment was beautiful.
Xie Yujia sat in the back seat of the bicycle, and both of her hands held on to Hao Ren’s shirt as her body swayed in the direction of the wind. She thought for a while and placed her head on Hao Ren’s back.
“It’s cold in the morning. Do you want my jacket?” Hao Ren asked as he rode the bicycle.
“It’s fine,” Xie Yujia felt the warmth on Hao Ren’s back through his shirt and whispered.
“I’m quite happy today,” she suddenly said after being silent for a while.
“What’s that?” Hao Ren didn’t hear her as he was concentrating on riding the bicycle.
“Singing was enjoyable today, and so was last night,” Xie Yujia raised her voice and said. The chilly morning breeze blew into her hair and face and sent her words into space.
“Oh… I am glad you enjoyed it!” Hao Ren was busy riding the bicycle and answered casually.
“This idiot…” Xie Yujia thought in her mind.
“One, two! One, two!”
Suddenly, organized shouts came from somewhere nearby.
“Hao Ren! Change route and go around!” Xie Yujia, who was sitting in the back, suddenly tugged on Hao Ren’s shirt and hurried him.
“Huh, what?” facing the wind and riding the bicycle, Hao Ren once again didn’t hear her well.
At the same time, the Captain of the basketball team, Xie Wanjun, who was wearing a dry-fit sports t-shirt and leading the whole sweaty basketball team ran towards them.
It was Hao Ren’s first time seeing the face of the Captain of the basketball team, so he couldn’t help but slow down. The two-meter-tall giant Captain was leading the jog at a moderate speed and turned his head at the same time to look at Hao Ren, who was riding the bike, and Xie Yujia, who sat in the back seat.
Xie Yujia felt conflicted as she looked at her older brother.
It was six o’clock in the morning. Other than the basketball team, who were doing their morning run, not a lot of students would be awake at this time.
Hao Ren and Xie Yujia came from the west entrance of the school. What did the west entrance mean? Restaurants and small hotels could be seen any around Hongji Square.
Would it be going out to eat and just coming back at this time?
Xie Yujia lowered her head and didn’t know what to do. Her older brother, Xie Wanjun, merely led the six to seven basketball players, yelled, and ran passed their bicycle emotionlessly.
Xie Yujia knew her older brother well enough, and his poker face was often his scariest expression.
While Xie Yujia was nervous about this, Hao Ren turned his head and looked at the basketball team that moved like a tall wall. He noticed that those six basketball players who got kicked out were not in the morning training.
“This Captain of the basketball team, Xie Wanjun, lost six team members because of the school’s punishment. He probably hates me… but it seems like he doesn’t know me yet?”
Hao Ren rode to the south entrance and thought.
Xie Yujia, who was sitting in the back seat, could only think of one phrase in her mind, “Oh cr*p!”
74 Assistance from Outside?
Hao Ren rode the bicycle and returned to the southern dorm. He dropped off Xie Yujia at the female Dorm Building No.3 and then walked back to male Dorm Building No.7.
The dorm gate had just opened at this time, and Hao Ren sneaked into the dorm when the manager wasn’t paying attention.
He went up to the third floor, entered the dorm room, and saw Zhao Jiayi and the two other guys still sleeping. There were a bunch of tiny wooden sticks from the meat skewers and a few empty beer bottles on the floor.
“These guys…” Hao Ren walked in quietly, grabbed his towel and toothbrush, and was about to wash up.
However, his arm bumped into a cup and made some noises which woke up Zhao Jiayi, who was asleep in one of the lower berths.
“You’re back, Ren?” Zhao Jiayi yelled.
“Uh, yeah,” Hao Ren could only admit.
Hearing their conversation, Zhou Liren and Cao Ronghua woke up as well. They looked at Hao Ren, who was holding the towel and toothbrush sneakily, and asked immediately, “What did you do last night?”
“I…uh…,” Hao Ren held his toothbrush and gestured as he stuttered; he couldn’t say anything.
Zhou Liren, who was initially sleepy, suddenly got energetic. “Don’t tell me you and the Class President… progressed so fast?” he asked.
“Cut the cr*p! The dorm gate was already locked when I came back yesterday, so I went to the Internet Cafe for the whole night,” Hao Ren thought about it and said.
“Xie Yujia went as well?” Cao Ronghua asked.
“She… I don’t know. After we ate yesterday, she went back herself. I strolled around for a bit, and it was already too late to come back.”
“Hehe. don’t hide it if there’s progress…,” Zhou Liren sat up in the upper berth and made a funny face at Hao Ren.
“Get lost!” Hao Ren waved at him and took his toiletries with him as he walked out of the bedroom.
Cao Ronghua, who slept on the lower berth under Zhou Liren didn’t believe Zhou Liren’s speculations. “The great beauty, the Class President, hooked up with Hao Ren this fast?” he thought.
However, many things that happened recently made him believe that Hao Ren had many miraculous characteristics.
“Hao Ren’s peach blossom fortune is too good!” Zhao Jiayi sighed and said emotionally as he saw Hao Ren rushing out.
The three of them also got up, got prepared, and went to class with Hao Ren.
When they walked by the cafeteria, they bumped into Xie Yujia, who rode past them on her bicycle.
Xie Yujia would normally greet her classmates, but she rode her bicycle and passed them in a hurry.
Zhou Liren hit Hao Ren deliberately as he looked at Xie Yujia’s thin yet hourglass figure.
“Don’t talk nonsense when we get to class,” Hao Ren warned him.
“I know…” Zhou Liren smiled even more nastily.
The four of them stepped into the classroom and found that many people were discussing the scientific lectures that took place yesterday. Hao Ren looked at Xie Yujia’s direction and saw that she was talking to the girls in the class as if nothing had changed.
“Why didn’t you come back yesterday, Ren? I wanted to play cards with your dorm!” Huang Jianfeng saw Hao Ren walking in and yelled loudly.
Hearing the shouting, the girls sitting in the
front turned their heads.
“He went to listen to the lecture with the Class President yesterday. Why could he come back and play cards with you?” a few guys who knew what had happened said.
“Stop talking, stop talking…,” Hao Ren who was sitting in the back row tried to quiet them down.
The class soon began. Hao Ren, who thought everything would be over by now, discovered that the whispers started to spread around the classroom.
In a moment, Zhou Liren received a message, turned around to bump Hao Ren’s arm, and asked in surprise, “Hey! You actually spent the night with the Class President? I was only joking with you!”
“Where did this information come from?” Hao Ren asked him.
“The girls in the front row. They said that Xie Yujia didn’t return to the dorm last night. Besides, she wasn’t there when the dorm manager came for room inspection, and her name is now written on the non-returned list on the small chalkboard outside Dorm Building No.3!”
Then, he stared at Hao Ren in shock and asked, “Did you actually… do that with her last night?”
“No way!” Hao Ren knocked Zhou Liren’s forehead.
He looked at Xie Yujia, who was sitting in the front row organizing her notes; it seemed like she wasn’t bothered by the surrounding discussions. Suddenly, he felt that he should have dealt with last night’s situation in a better way.
Girls saw reputation as a significant matter, especially girls like Xie Yujia…
“Go listen to the scientific lectures together, go eat together, and don’t return together… anyone would misunderstand…….” he thought.
Yu Rong was still discussing this matter, and Hao Ren suddenly turned his head and said, “Stop! If anyone still talks about this, I won’t be friends with him anymore!”
Seeing the good-tempered Hao Ren suddenly getting mad, Yu Rong and others stopped talking right away and looked at him in confusion.
Ever since the incident of Hao Ren beating up half of the basketball team, the guys from his class and in Dorm Building No.7 had more respect for him.
Even though some of the guys in the class liked Xie Yujia and were jealous of Hao Ren, who dared to gossip under the powerful force of Hao Ren?
Besides, Hao Ren’s buddy Zhao Jiayi wasn’t an easy guy to deal with either. Not only did he have many friends at the school, but he also got the members of the basketball team to pay for his medical expenses after the injuries; that made the other students think that he had a powerful background.
Hao Ren heard that all the conversations stopped, and he readjusted his focus and looked at Xie Yujia in the front row. He noticed that her ears were red, and it seemed like she was affected by the conversations around her after all.
“It’s better if I keep some distance from her for a period of time…” Hao Ren thought.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Hao Ren’s cell phone on the desk vibrated a little.
He picked up his cell phone and saw a text message from an unknown number.
He opened up the message and saw a few words, “What is China’s Capital for coal production?”
“Who is this?” Hao Ren didn’t react well since he was in a bad mood. Normally, he would delete this type of boring text messages right away, but he replied on purpose this time, “China’s coals are black!”
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
A few seconds, he received another text message.
“I’ll choke you to death! Tell me now what are the coals?”
Sensing the tone of the message, Hao Ren instantly knew who sent it.
“The kids now days are so high-tech. Zhao Yanzi is already cheating using text messages?” he thought.
Hao Ren replied, “Fushun. Do the rest yourself. I won’t answer you anymore.”
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
In a short time, he received another message, “How many basins are there in Xinjiang?”
“This little brat…” Hao Ren didn’t want to reply, but he thought of the anger he would have to endure later and gave in. He sent a message back, “Tarim Basin and Dzungarian Basin. I am not answering anymore!”
“There should be another one!” another text message was sent back.
Hao Ren thought for a few seconds and replied, “Qaidam Basin! I’m not replying to your texts!”
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
A few minutes later, his cell phone vibrated again.
“Is there an end to this…” Hao Ren took out his cell phone, and it was Zhao Yanzi’s message again, “So stupid! Qaidam Basin is from Qinghai! I almost did it wrong!”
“You blame me for a question you couldn’t do? You deserve to do it wrong! Go take your exam!” Hao Ren replied.
“What exam?! I just finished! I’m eating lunch now!” Zhao Yanzi replied again immediately.
It’s the first time Hao Ren texted Zhao Yanzi in class. He suddenly felt like she was kind of cute despite her rudeness.
“How many more exams do you have?” Hao Ren thought about it and sent a text message to express his concern.
Well, this little girl was his “fiancée” after all. On top of that, Zhao Yanzi’s parents had helped Hao Ren so many times before. He couldn’t really ignore her.
“There are two more exams in the afternoon. Physics and Chemistry. I’ll be relying on you!” a happy message was sent to his cell phone.
“I was wondering why she was suddenly so nice to me. It turns out that she wants me to help her cheat…” Hao Ren finally realized the reason and replied, “Help yourself, and you’ll be well-fed and well-clothed!”
Zhao Yanzi didn’t reply to this message; she was probably mad.
Hao Ren didn’t want to argue with her, so he put down his cell phone and looked out the window; it was raining outside.
“Two exams mean that she’ll finish school around two o’clock. I don’t have class at that time, so I guess I’ll pick her up from school…”
75 The Gathering of the Riches
“Ren, you really got a girlfriend?” Cao Ronghua asked when he saw Hao Ren texting continuously.
“No, it’s just a friend,” Hao Ren put away his cell phone as he said.
Zhao Jiayi, on the other hand, looked over at Xie Yujia who was in the front row. He noticed that she was keeping notes carefully and her phone screen never lit up on her desk. He knew that it wasn’t her who Hao Ren had been texting.
“If it isn’t her, maybe Hao Ren is talking to another girl? He didn’t come back last night… so it wasn’t Xie Yujia whom he spent the night with? The four of us always hang around at school, and we know who Hao Ren talks to… Who else could Hao Ren get in touch with?”
Zhao Jiayi was a bit confused as he noticed a secretive smile on the edge of Hao Ren’s lips when he checked his message. He knew it must have been a girl.
“Or…” Zhao Jiayi did not think of Hao Ren’s tutoring job at night; Instead, his thoughts headed in a completely different direction: Su Han.
“Would Hao Ren be that bold? People have been gossiping about him chasing after Su Han, but they were only gossips. No one would actually believe that Su Han would become Hao Ren’s girlfriend…”
Ding, ding, ding… the bell cut off Zhao Jiayi’s thoughts.
“Come on, let’s go eat!” Zhou Liren shouted.
It was raining outside, and none of them brought an umbrella. But “guys don’t need umbrellas” was a catchphrase they used. Therefore, the four of them lined up nicely and ran towards the cafeteria.
Yixin Cafeteria, which was between Academic Building E and Administrative Building F, was a great cafeteria with delicious dishes at a cheap price. Because of these factors, it was always packed during lunchtime. The lineup would take forever for the latecomers.
When the four of them sprang into the cafeteria, the lineup was already long.
“Hey…” Zhou Liren nudged Hao Ren and pointed at the door of the cafeteria with his chin.
Xie Yujia was swinging the rainwater off her body as she walked in the c
afeteria. Half of her body was soaked; she probably didn’t bring an umbrella with her today because she didn’t expect there to be rain. The white shirt became a little transparent after being soaked in the rain, and her skin could partly be seen through her shirt.
“Class President!” Hao Ren waved at her.
Xie Yujia looked at Hao Ren and nodded. She walked over as she squeezed the water out of her hair.
“So sneaky…” Zhou Liren said lightly.
He thought Hao Ren called her here because he wanted to see her body under the wet transparent shirt from a closer distance. However, Hao Ren immediately took his dark-colored jacket off and put it around Xie Yujia after she had walked over.
Xie Yujia was stunned when the jacket landed on her. She was suddenly touched by the move again.
Having seen all that, Zhao Jiayi thought to himself, “Ren has his tricks with girls!”
“Your shirt is wet, and everyone can see through it,” Hao Ren explained.
Xie Yujia nodded in appreciation.
She thought since she already got wet, it would make sense to go back to change and grab the umbrella after lunch. Who knew…
After taking off the jacket, Hao Ren was only left with a thin white tank top. His almost naked body, as well as the wetness, made him seem weird amongst the crowd.
The good thing was that the weather wasn’t too cold. Although it was raining, the temperature wasn’t low. Even though it was a little inappropriate for Hao Ren to stand in the cafeteria like this, he wouldn’t catch a cold.
“Class President, you can stand in front of me,” Zhao Jiayi said to her affably as he secretly admired Hao Ren’s brilliant tricks.
“It’s ok. I shouldn’t cut the line. I’m here with Ma Lina, so I’ll just go get in line with her over there,” she said as she walked towards Malina who was not far from them.
She suddenly turned back after a few steps. “Thank you, Hao Ren. I’ll return your jacket on Monday!” she said.
Hao Ren waved generously. “It’s ok; you can take it. It’s just a bit dirty because I haven’t washed it for a few days,” he replied.