Ren Feiyu insisted that Lin Wu shouldn’t call Li Junchi and Xia Yang. He claimed to be fine and didn’t want to disrupt their plans, mentioning that one of them would be working and the other would be “killing people,” and he didn’t want to spoil their weekend.
Understanding Ren Feiyu’s reluctance to inconvenience others, especially close friends, Lin Wu agreed to his suggestion. Despite Ren Feiyu’s eyes being slightly red from the pool water, he seemed otherwise okay, so Lin Wu respected his wish.
Over the next hour, Lin Wu stayed in the observation room, keeping Ren Feiyu company to pass the time. Surprisingly, Wang Ye also chose to stay.
Separated by hospital beds, the two groups of students kept to themselves, creating an unspoken division in the room.
With a long day ahead, smartphones became the go-to entertainment. Lin Wu and Ren Feiyu engaged in online games, initially keeping their voices low to avoid disturbing others. However, as the excitement grew, occasional cheers slipped out, though they tried to keep it discreet.
The neighboring bed remained consistently quiet, almost forgotten by Lin Wu, who occasionally overlooked the presence of the two others.
During a halftime break from the games, Lin Wu felt thirsty and stood up to get some water. Passing by the bed next door, he curiously glanced at what Jiang Tan and Wang Ye were doing on their phones, wondering about their engrossing yet quiet activities.
To his surprise, Lin Wu discovered that Jiang Tan was playing a mobile jigsaw puzzle. It depicted a snow mountain landscape, with 34 pieces already assembled, but the remaining space was still cluttered with scattered fragments. Even a brief glance made Lin Wu’s eyes feel strained. However, Jiang Tan’s calm and content expression as he looked out the window remained undisturbed.
Lost in thought, Lin Wu finished getting water and remembered to check on Wang Ye.
He was facing away, deeply engrossed in his game, completely shutting out the world around him.
Lin Wu slowed his pace, and his gaze fell on Wang Ye’s phone screen.
A group of small animals was lively shuttling between several dining tables, coming in, sitting down, eating, leaving, and then new animals flooding in. Each table was covered with cute checkered tablecloths, and the animal customers included kittens, puppies, foxes, wolves…
The game screen seemed strangely familiar to Lin Wu. When he sat back down next to Ren Feiyu, he finally remembered. It was the game that Class Monitor Deng Chacha had enthusiastically recommended in the group chat a while ago – WeChat Mini Program game, Animal Restaurant.
For the rest of the time, Lin Wu focused on playing online games with Ren Feiyu, making an effort to forget the bizarre world behind him, a combination of “crazy puzzles” and “cute pet management.”
Finally, the school doctor came and informed them that the observation time was over, and they could leave.
Relieved, the two groups of students got up almost simultaneously, heading out. Jiang Tan and Wang Ye were closer to the door, walking ahead, while Lin Wu and Ren Feiyu followed behind.
However, just as they reached the door, Wang Ye suddenly stopped without any warning and turned around.
Lin Wu was startled and quickly stopped to avoid colliding with him.
The two locked eyes.
Similar to the foggy day, but this time, the distance felt much closer.
Close enough that Lin Wu had a feeling of being stared at by a fierce beast, and his whole body tensed.
Then he heard Wang Ye ask, “Were you the one climbing the wall that day?”
… What had to come would always come. Lin Wu even felt a sense of relief as if a sword that had been hanging over his head had finally fallen.
Just admit it, what else could he do? It wasn’t a big deal, and besides, it was the school hospital; he didn’t believe Wang Ye would do anything reckless.
“Huh?” Brave in thought but more honest in body, Lin Wu entered the high point of his acting career at the age of nineteen and a half, demonstrating textbook-like confusion. “What are you talking about?”
Wang Ye carefully examined this guy for the first time and found him increasingly resembling someone, “That day in the fog, wasn’t it you?”
Lin Wu blinked in confusion, pushing bewilderment and innocence into his soul, “Me?”
Wang Ye frowned. If he didn’t understand even after being so clear, then he might have really mistaken someone else.
“It’s okay,” Wang Ye decided to give up since it wasn’t essential. He turned around to continue leaving with Jiang Tan. However, when he glanced up, darn it, they had already walked about two hundred meters away.
With Wang Ye’s sprinting forward and Lin Wu intentionally slowing down, the two groups of students lost sight of each other just as they left the hospital.
It was 2:00 PM, the peak of the scorching sun.
The intense sunlight made it hard to keep eyes open. The slight coolness left by the hospital air conditioning on Lin Wu’s body was instantly replaced by the scorching heat wave as soon as he stepped outside.
Along with that, he suddenly became fully awake.
Damn, when facing Wang Ye just now, he acted so cowardly, almost as if Ren Feiyu possessed him. This wasn’t just unscientific; more importantly, it was embarrassing!
Lin Wu glanced at Ren Feiyu sneakily.
Ren, who was walking beside him, was shielding his eyes from the sun, muttering complaints about the lack of shade from the school’s trees. He began reminiscing about the pristine forests of the Greater Khingan Mountains that he had visited before.
Fortunately, his own cowardice hadn’t been noticed… but what was the point if he felt embarrassed himself?
“Dà Yǔ,” Lin Wu decided to seek advice from his “senior.”
“Hmm?” Ren Feiyu turned his head.
Lin Wu casually chatted, “When you usually act cowardly, how do you adjust yourself afterward?”
Ren Feiyu looked puzzled, “Adjust what?”
“The psychological gap,” Lin Wu said. “Don’t you ever feel extremely regretful and wish you could turn back time to ensure you won’t act cowardly again?”
Ren Feiyu: “No.”
Lin Wu: “…”
Ren Feiyu suddenly stopped, standing in place as if he just realized something. He looked at his buddy with a wounded expression, “Lin Wu, do you dislike me?”
Lin Wu was shocked and quickly denied three times, “No, how could that be? I haven’t…”
Ren Feiyu shook his head wildly, already in a state of “I won’t listen, I won’t listen, I don’t want to listen” sadness, “I knew one day you guys would look down on me, think I’m too cowardly. My parents say that too, that I’m far inferior to other kids from other families…”
Lin Wu: “You listen to them talk nonsense! Uh… I mean, what your parents said, that’s not nonsense, it’s… yes, it’s motivational encouragement!”
Ren Feiyu: “No, they just don’t like me…”
Lin Wu: “We like you! You’re the favorite in our dormitory, an SSR type. Others want to draw you, but they can’t. If they want to snatch you from us, they have to fight us!”
Ren Feiyu: “…Really?”
Lin Wu: “Absolutely true.”
Under the scorching sun, summer flowers bloomed beautifully.
Lin Wu felt like his body had been hollowed out.
Why did he have to bring up this Pandora’s box-like topic… blame it on Wang Ye!
At night, in the sultry air, there was finally a hint of coolness.
Li Junchi and Xia Yang returned from outside, the 333 line-up was intact, and Ren Feiyu, who had been holding grievances all day, could finally begin to pour out everything.
“Really, I’m not lying to you. He really turned around and hugged me like a water ghost!” Ren Feiyu sat on his bed, recounting the incident while forcefully hugging himself. He played both roles perfectly, recreating the “crime scene.” “I was really scared at that time. He was really strong and terrifying!”
“You tell the story properly, don’t exaggerate it artistically,” Xia Yang said, sitting cross-legged on his own bed, supporting his chin. His expression was like listening to a ghost story.
“I really didn’t exaggerate,” Ren Feiyu said, “Otherwise, ask Jiang Tan!”
Xia Yang was puzzled, “Who?”
“The guy from the Mechanical Institute,” Lin Wu turned around by the window, helping to explain, “He’s the one who pulled Da Yu and that guy out of the water together.”
Li Junchi sat at his desk, soaking his feet and contemplating, “Listening to Da Yu, it does sound mysterious, but what I encountered today is even more bizarre, so I believe it.”
Now Xia Yang was really curious, leaning over the edge of the bed and asking, “Did you encounter something again?”
Li Junchi sighed deeply, finding it almost unbearable to recall.
“Today, I was helping a graduate student who was proposing to do the perimeter sweep. Everything was going smoothly until the girl took her position, and he knelt down. Those two lunatics actually showed up for real…”
Lin Wu: “The two infatuated junior brothers?”
Li Junchi: “Infatuated my ass, just two lunatics. They immediately said, ‘I object!’ when they approached! Brother, at least carefully observe the scene, was there anything to object to in the process! They had gongs and drums, a big red silk, and even a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony. The man didn’t even give the girl a diamond ring; it was a dragon and phoenix pattern auspicious golden bracelet!”
Lin Wu, Ren Feiyu: “…”
Xia Yang: “I don’t care about those two now, just tell me about the golden bracelet quickly.”
“Don’t be silly,” Li Junchi continued the main storyline, “I realized I had to intervene from a distance. After all, I was hired to do this, so I rushed over from quite a distance. It wasn’t until I got there that I found, no wonder he’s a graduate student, he’s calm and cautious. At least three or four people ran with me, all arranged by him just in case.”
Ren Feiyu: “With more people, you shouldn’t be at a disadvantage.”
“The problem is here!” Li Junchi recalled, feeling it was unbelievable, “Those two were average in height and build, just average in everything. I’m the thinnest one here; the others are all robust. But those two easily knocked us down and effortlessly broke through the encirclement.”
Lin Wu: “Did they practice?”
“Don’t know, but their strength was incredible. I was thrown off several times, and closing my eyes, I thought I was wrestling with two bears. It’s a hot day, and I’m still aching all over now.”
“Brother, don’t stop there,” Xia Yang got excited, “What happened next?”
Li Junchi: “Later, the friends and relatives of both the man and the woman were furious, rushed in, and subdued the troublemakers.”
Xia Yang nodded, “You can say it’s like letting the enemy sink into the vast sea of people’s war.”
After expressing his emotions, he noticed that Lin Wu had turned his head back to the window, continuing to gaze at the moon.
Xia Yang looked outside too.
The night sky was clear today, and the stars were particularly visible, especially the moon, pure and bright as if washed by summer rain.
But even if it was beautiful, there was no need to lean on the window sill and stare at it all night.
Even the lively discussion they just had, Lin Wu only frequently turned his head to participate, his viewing position unchanged.
Now that the conversation was over, the dormitory returned to a bit of quiet.
Only then did Xia Yang realize that when Lin Wu looked up at the moon, he seemed to be… humming a song?
Quietly crawling to the end of the bed near the window, Xia Yang perked up his ears to listen attentively.
“Kabinski Chaykovsky, truck driver, taxi driver, tractor driver~~ Ivanov Bapnov Babanov, he’s a coward, Lori Losov~~”
Xia Yang: “…”
If you haven’t heard this song before, who can understand these scorching lyrics!
