by Dragon King
“I will go to bed now,” Hao Ren said lightly. With the pillow in his hand, he walked sideways past her.
Zhao Yanzi curled her lips furiously, looking like a little tiger that was about to attack.
Hao Ren walked to the computer desk and put the pillow on the chair before crawling into the bedding at the foot of the bed.
Click! Zhao Yanzi entered the bathroom before pulled the sliding door shut.
The bedding was soft and warm; Hao Ren felt quite cozy in there after a day of walking.
In the bathroom, the shower was turned on.
Concealed behind the sliding door, the bathroom didn’t have a frosted glass door so that nothing could be seen at all.
Lying in the bedding on the floor, Hao Ren looked up at the blue ceiling decorated with stars and listened to the shower water in the bathroom. His thoughts were tangled and indistinct.
Bang! The bathroom door opened, and Zhao Yanzi in her cute pajamas walked out.
With her fragrance, soft skin, and damp black hair, she looked like a cupcake that had just come out of the oven.
Since the day was warm, she was wearing a short-sleeved top and a pair of shorts, exposing her slim limbs.
Seeing her coming out, Hao Ren didn’t want to bicker with her, so he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
Thud! Thud… Zhao Yanzi walked toward her bed and was close to where Hao Ren was sleeping.
Hao Ren regulated his breathing and pretended that he was buried in sleep.
Then, he felt a soft foot stepping hard on his belly!
“Auch!” rubbing his belly, Hao Ren’s eyes popped open.
Pretending nothing had happened, Zhao Yanzi climbed onto her pink bed and into her soft quilt.
Hao Ren decided to let it go, and he turned on his side.
After half an hour, it was quiet in the room except for the humming sound of the air conditioner.
Hao Ren had begun to doze off when he suddenly heard Zhao Yanzi getting out of the bed.
Alarmed, he opened his eyes and observed her movements cautiously.
She stood up from the bed.
Her smooth and white legs were flawless. Seeing her walking on the rug barefooted, Hao Ren found it a little… sexy?
Walking to the desk, she gulped down a glass of water. Afterward, she went back to her bed.
Seeming to have sensed Hao Ren’s eyes on her lower legs, Zhao Yanzi slowed her steps when she was about to step over Hao Ren.
An exquisite jade-like small foot lowered slowly.
“Ouch!” Hao Ren yelled again, bolting up.
“Sorry for stepping on you,” with these casual words, she climbed back into her bed.
Rubbing the crook of his left arm, Hao Ren considered confronting her. However, on the second thought, he decided not to, thinking it was futile to argue with a little girl.
Zhao Yanzi slid under her quilt, and a word floated out of her mouth, “Pervert!”
Hao Ren couldn’t bear it anymore. He turned to face her immediately and asked, “Why did you call me a pervert?!”
Zhao Yanzi snorted and rolled the quilt tightly around herself before turning to the wall, leaving the back of her head to Hao Ren.
In the cocoon-like quilt, only her head and lower legs were exposed to enjoy the cold air from the air conditioner.
It seemed to be her usual sleeping position.
Looking at the round back of her head and the slim and white lower legs extending out from the quilt, Hao Ren thought, “Your legs are not so pretty after all.”
He didn’t say it out loud since he knew her bad temper and didn’t want to see her explode with rage.
The room was quiet again except for the humming sounds of the air conditioner.
Zhao Yanzi didn’t turn off the lights. Apparently, she had a habit of sleeping with lights on. Hao Ren lay on his side and looked at the soft skin on her lower legs. It was the first time he had stayed in a girl’s room, and he couldn’t sleep.
After a while, Zhao Yanzi suddenly turned around.
Hao Ren closed his eyelid immediately and watched her movements through his squinted eyes.
She glared at Hao Ren. After a moment of consideration, she poked out her leg and wanted to kick Hao Ren in the chest.
However, Hao Ren was prepared. The moment her foot touched his chest, his hand shot out and caught it; it was slim and smooth like an eel. Hao Ren gripped her ankle and didn’t let it go.
“You…” Zhao Yanzi struggled futilely, and she flew into a rage. “Jerk!” she shouted.
However, her shout sounded weak when her ankle in Hao Ren’s firm grip.
Hao Ren saw her face flush red and thought, “Well, you tried to sneak-attack me. Now, I just won’t let go. What can you do?”
The more she struggled with her leg, the cuter she looked.
“Jerk! Let go!” seeing Hao Ren had no intention of letting go, she decided to act as the victim and yelled, “Mom! He is bullying me! Help!”
While she yelled and struggled, she shook the bed and made it creak.
Zhao Hongyu, who was drawing designs in the attic, heard the commotion in Zhao Yanzi’s room. She shook her head in exasperation and continued working.
“Rape! Rape!” flustered and utterly frustrated, Zhao Yanzi yelled more blatant accusations.
In the bedroom next to hers, Zhao Guang picked up the earplugs from the bedside table and plugged up his ears. He turned and resumed sleeping.
They didn’t quiet down until two o’clock in the morning.
When Zhao Hongyu opened the door and called them to breakfast the second day, she found Hao Ren sleeping on his back with rows of bite-marks on his arm. Zhao Yanzi was also sound asleep with the quilt tugged tightly around her body. Her lower legs, sticking out of her quilt, were covered in long white socks.
Zhao Hongyu couldn’t help grinning at this scene and decided not to arrange them to sleep in the same room again in the future.
89 Meeting on a Narrow Path
After breakfast, Zhao Guang drove Zhao Yanzi to school, and Zhao Hongyu drove her Ferrari to her office.
Hao Ren declined their friendly offers and decided to take the bus to school. For one, his school was not on the way, and he didn’t want Zhao Guang to detour; secondly, the Ferrari would attract too much attention, so he didn’t want to get a ride from Zhao Hongyu, either.
On the bus, he rolled up his sleeves and studied the bite marks on his arm. He recalled the look on Zhao Yanzi’s face when she finally freed her feet, jumped onto him, and showed her teeth while biting him frantically. Hao Ren found it aggravating and hilarious at the same time.
When Bus 767 stopped in front of the main entrance of the university, Hao Ren got off and headed towards the southern dormitory.
At this exact hour, most students who had morning classes were crawling out of bed. As a result, the entire dorm building was filled with clanking noises made by the clashing of toothbrushes and mugs.
As he was on his way to the Dorm Building No. 7 and just when he was about to turn at a corner, he heard Ma Lina and Liu Yan’s voices. Ma Lina and Liu Yan were in the same class as Hao Ren. In their conversation, Hao Ren seemed to hear them mentioning Xie Yujia.
He looked around and found Ma Lina and Liu Yan on the other side of the road. They were walking towards the south gate while talking amongst themselves; they did not notice Hao Ren.
Judging from the look of it, they planned to have an early breakfast, so they could get to class early and grab the seats they wanted.
After obtaining a breakthrough to the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll, Hao Ren’s hearing had become sharper than ever. As he focused, he was able to hear their conversation.
“Xie Yujia has been close with Hao Ren lately. I bet that is because she thinks he’s from an affluent family,” Liu Yan asserted as she walked alongside Ma Lina.
“That’s nonsense. Xie Yujia is my roommate, and I know all about her. I don’t think she is that kind
of person. We used to stay up all night and chat. Even back then, she had often said that Hao Ren is a decent guy,” Ma Lina clarified.
“Oh, so Xie Yujia has always had a crush on Hao Ren?” Liu Yan became interested.
Ma Lina shook her head and replied, “Not really. She was only saying that he is a good guy. I don’t think she meant anything else besides that.”
“Tsk, doesn’t that prove what I just said?” Liu Yan curled her lips and continued, “She didn’t like him before, but now, she knows that Hao Ren’s family is rich, so she became close to him.”
“Again, I don’t think Xie Yujia is that kind of person,” Ma Lina continued to defend Xie Yujia, “Besides, didn’t Wang Jia and the others conclude that Hao Ren is only from an ordinary family after their investigation? The fancy cars that came to pick him up were all sent by the family of the pretty little girl whom he is tutoring. Wang Jia was the most excited when the Benz and the Lincoln showed up to pick up Hao Ren, and she kept saying that she was going to pursue him. Yet, after she found out that the cars did not belong to Hao Ren’s family, she cooled down instantly, didn’t she?”
After listening to their conversation, Hao Ren was able to have a glimpse of how he was seen in the girls’ eyes.
“That’s true,” Liu Yan nodded, “Knowing the kind of girl Wang Jia is and how she made no moves after she found out about Hao Ren’s real background, there is no reason for Xie Yujia to be oblivious to the fact that Hao Ren is from an ordinary family.”
“Right, and I think Xie Yujia is a good person. The only thing is that she studies too hard and takes things too seriously, but she is definitely not the superficial type like Wang Jia…”
As they were talking, they had walked away. Even with Hao Ren’s keen hearing, he could not make out what they were saying anymore.
“Xie Yujia is seen as superficial by some girls all because she has been close to me lately. Ay, people sure will talk…” Hao Ren thought quietly.
Looking at the time, Hao Ren realized that Xie Yujia might come out of the girls’ dormitory and ride her bike to class at any moment. Hence, he sped up and entered his dorm building at once; he was afraid to run into Xie Yujia here and now.
At this time, Zhao Jiayi and the other two were causing a commotion as they were freshening up by the sink in the public washroom; Hao Ren could hear their jeering from the staircase.
“These guys…” Hao Ren went into their dorm room, grabbed his toothbrush and mug, and got into the washroom.
“Holy sh*t! You just came in!? We were hoping we could play cards together with you yesterday!” Hao Ren’s appearance caused them to make an even bigger uproar.
“Be honest, what did you do this weekend? Since your face is glowing, I bet you were with some pretty girls!” with a towel on his shoulder, Zhou Liren walked over and wrapped his arm around Hao Ren’s neck.
Watching the noisy bunch fooling around, Hao Ren’s mood was instantly lightened.
“If I told you guys that I went for a tour of the Dragon Palace on the weekend, I don’t think you would believe me,” Hao Ren thought to himself.
After the four finished freshening up, they gathered their books and started walking down the stairs side by side.
When they got out of the dorm building, they found Xie Yujia, who was in a relaxed plaid shirt, waiting outside.
In her hands, there was an immaculately clean jacket; the one Hao Ren lent her on Friday.
“Thanks for the jacket on Friday. I’ve washed and dried it for you,” she candidly stated as she walked up and handed the jacket to Hao Ren.
“Uh, oh!” standing next to Hao Ren, Zhou Liren began jeering untactfully and had his mouth covered by Zhao Jiayi’s hand immediately.
However, it was enough for Xie Yujia to feel embarrassed. Blushed, she hopped onto her bike and paddled away.
“Xie Yujia is actually quite cute,” Cao Ronghua concluded as they watched Xie Yujia disappeared into afar.
Hao Ren was speechless as he held his jacket in hand. In truth, he had long forgotten about lending his jacket to Xie Yujia.
“Looks like you might have a chance, go for it!” Zhao Jiayi said as he subtly elbowed Hao Ren.
“She was just here to return a jacket, is it really worth making a big fuss about!?” Hao Ren gave the others a hard stare and crisply put the jacket on. “Come on, let’s go get food in the cafeteria!” he said.
“Ren, since you seem to be having amazing luck with the ladies, breakfast should be on you!” Zhou Liren shouted as he ran after Hao Ren.
“You bastard! All you ever think about is food! Fine, I will pay!” Hao Ren responded loudly.
After they finished eating, they went straight to class. At ten o’clock, their morning class ended, and they had two hours in between until their next class which was to start at 12.
The group was indecisive about how to spend their time. They were torn between going to the Internet Cafe or going back to the dorm to play cards. Since their lunchtime also needed to be taken into consideration, they found the two hours to be less than sufficient to travel back and forth.
“Apparently, the Rock Climbing Club is very popular among girls, and they are all wearing attractive sportswear. The Rock Climbing Club is recruiting today; I bet there will be a lot of beautiful girls joining, why don’t we go take a look?” Zhou Liren suggested on a whim.
“Rock climbing? Isn’t that Huang Xujie’s turf?” Zhao Jiayi said.
“What are you afraid of, Zhao Jiayi? Isn’t your family so powerful that even the players on the basketball team had to offer you compensation and apologies!? Let’s go take a look, Huang Xujie won’t dare to do anything to us,” Zhou Liren insisted.
Zhao Jiayi rolled his eyes at Zhou Liren’s remark. After he thought about it, he agreed, “Alright, let’s go check it out. Hopefully, it will be worth spending an hour there, so we can go for lunch by the time we come back. Ren, let’s go together!”
“Yeah, let’s go!” Hao Ren nodded.
“We are just going to take a look. Even if Huang Xujie is there in person, I don’t think he’ll cause a scene!” Hao Ren thought.
“Let’s not get Yu Rong and the others, just us four!” Zhou Liren said suggestively as if the more people he went with, the fewer glances he could steal from the pretty girls.
As they finally settled on a decision, the four grabbed their belongings and hurried towards the Sports Stadium.
When they arrived at the outdoor public square outside of the Sports Stadium, they found that there were already over 100 people swarming the area.
Moreover, Yu Rong and the others were also in the crowd. They were standing on tiptoes and craning their necks forward.
“Damn, they came to see pretty girls without telling us!” Zhou Liren exclaimed as he was irked by the sight of Yu Rong and the others.
Zhou Liren’s unabashed manner had made Hao Ren feel a loss for words.
Brushing Hao Ren with his elbow while curling his lips, Zhao Jiayi signaled Hao Ren to pay attention to the other side of the crowd.
As Hao Ren looked over to the hinted direction, He saw Xie Yujia, Ma Lina, and a few other girls in the crowd.
At this time, Cao Ronghua pointed in a different direction while poking Hao Ren.
Hao Ren turned and found that the strong-built giant-like Xie Wanjun was also among the crowd. His height, which was over two meters, had made him stand out like a towering monument in the flood of people.
Hao Ren felt a hint of contempt toward Xie Wanjun, who was usually extremely occupied, for showing up here. Hao Ren knew he was right about the fact that the basketball team and the Rock Climbing Club were birds of the same flock.
Now, Xie Yujia was glancing over at Hao Ren as she had also noticed his presence. Yet, when she saw that Hao Ren was staring straight at her older brother, her heart sank a little.
Seeing that more and more students had finished class and were rushing to join the crowd from all directions, Huang Xujie spoke throu
gh a bullhorn while standing next to the rock climbing wall, “Today is the recruitment day for the Rock Climbing Club. Our club is the biggest club at East Ocean University and currently consists of over 300 male members and 200 female members. Those who have joined our club are all sports lovers. The Rock Climbing Club not only provides indoor and outdoor training at the Sports Stadium but also sometimes organizes trips to the wild. In addition, the equipment that you purchase from us is guaranteed to be priced lower than those you will find in the sports shops out there…”
His voice was sonorous, and his tone was mild and gentle. Moreover, he was good-looking and confident. If one only knew him on the surface, they would surely take him as a polite, friendly, and poised senior student.
However, Hao Ren knew very well how proud and arrogant Huang Xujie was and how he lost his temper when he lost the race to Hao Ren.
Even though many uninformed junior students were tempted by the list of benefits the Rock Climbing Club had promised, none had hastily gone over to sign up.
“Haha, there is no rush. We will first showcase our Rock Climbing Club today,” Huang Xujie handed the bullhorn over to a skinny, dark-skinned male student next to him while giving him a look.
That guy held up the bullhorn and continued, “I am Lu Bo, the Assistant Captain of the Rock Climbing Club. Now, I will demonstrate to you some of the techniques required for rock climbing.”
Next, while holding the bullhorn, he began explaining and putting on the different types of gear needed for the climb. After, he moved to the bottom of the rock climbing wall and put down the bullhorn. He then raised the volume of his voice and used his limbs to demonstrate the proper climbing positions.
Many of the students who had no experience with rock climbing became intrigued and were paying attention closely.
However, Zhou Liren was becoming impatient, “Where are the pretty girls…” he murmured.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Suddenly, Huang Xujie clapped his hands.
Following his clapping, four beautiful girls who were wearing athletic gears came out from behind the rock climbing wall. Instantly, their elegant figures and charming faces had stunned and dazzled all the male students.