Chapter 6.3 — The Person He Likes Is Me
Almost exactly the same handwriting ……
Although the signature only has three words, at a glance, Lin Yu Tang can recognize this was Shen Xi’s handwriting. Even if not Shen Xi’s handwriting, it cannot be He Zhi Zhou’s handwriting.
He started tutoring Shen Xi since junior high school, so he was very familiar with her handwriting. She enjoyed dressing up and liked beautiful things, so her handwriting also reflected this, the characters tending toward the slender side. Furthermore, she had poor writing habits; nearly every character she wrote tend to slant down to the right. Each time, he would need to poke her in the arm with a pen before she would correct them back straight.
“Is this signature signed personally by He Zhi Zhou?” Lin Yu Tang, his heart caught anxiously in his throat, asked the female dormitory staff who was on duty.
The female dormitory staff who was on duty glanced at Lin Yu Tang first, and then with her spectacles for presbyopia looked again and said: “Yes ah, He Zhi Zhou from dorm room 921. The last time when he signed in, he even gave me an orange, so courteous.”
Lin Yu Tang stopped talking. His fingers touched a page of the sign-in list and his fingertips felt slightly hot. One moment, Shen Xi’s face suddenly appeared in his mind. The next, it was He Zhi Zhou’s present face. One by one, faces with different appearance came thick and fast, finally fitting together.
His thought was absurd, but he can’t help thinking like this!
Lin Yu Tang returned to the dorm room. Monkey and Brawny were busy playing game. Beside the desk, was the leftover of their takeaway food. He looked around and asked: “Where is He Zhi Zhou?”
Suddenly Monkey turned his attention from the game, blinked and said: “Third, don’t be impulsive ah.”
Lin Yu Tang realized Monkey misunderstood him, so he explained: “I am looking for him over something.”
Brawny also turned his attention from the game. He did not believe Lin Yu Tang’s words because Brawny saw something amiss from his complexion. Today, the Leader and Beautiful Maiden Shen made a public display of affection the whole day. Third must be choked with resentment the whole day, it’d be a wonder if he did not burst out?
“The Leader might have gone jogging, didn’t he jog every day recently?” Monkey said like this. In fact, he knew the Leader and Beautiful Maiden Shen were in the library. In order to preserve the harmony in the dormitory, he randomly told a lie.
Lin Yu Tang turned and left. He had searched S University’s sports field once, before sitting down on the stone step. He was holding the mobile phone, but he did not dare to make a call.
He knew Shen Xi since childhood, so he thought he understood her. But he never walked into her heart to take a look, as to how much he really understood her. He was used to Shen Xi forever being as simple as a piece of white paper by his side. Including the so-called dating and break up, he can treat them as her child’s play.
If she likes him, he will accompany her to play. If she doesn’t like him, he will continue to be her brother. Such change in affection will not have any burden, there will also not be any awkwardness.
Initially, he thought everything had been handled well …
Lin Yu Tang rubbed his forehead. The phone in his pocket ringing, it was a call from the female dormitory staff.
“Lin Yu Tang, we’ve approved your request for the transfer of dormitory …… we take very good care of our top students …..”
Lin Yu Tang looked at the night sky filled with stars, and said: “Teacher Qin, I don’t want to change anymore.”
“WTH, Lin Yu Tang, are you playing me? What do you treat the dormitory admin department as?! You change when you want to change and don’t change when you don’t want to change?” Teacher Qin from the dormitory department instantly burst out. “I have already called and informed your roommates.”
In the library’s male toilet, Shen Xi looked to the left and right. Suddenly she wanted to try peeing standing up. Speaking of which, she has acted as a man for so long, but have never peed while standing up. Later, after the change back, will it leave any regrets?
Shen Xi looked to the left and right. Seeing that no one had come in, she faced the urinal while her hands fumbled around below. Right as she was about to let loose her spray, the school cleaning lady came in. Because she was nervous, everything just came straight out.
“Splosh, splosh, splosh, splosh, splosh…….”
The unprepared Shen Xi sprayed randomly. And so, the more anxious she grew, the more inaccurate her spraying became.
The cleaning lady passed through, “disregarding the impropriety” principle, lowered her head and mopped two laps of the floor. In the end, she still cannot stand it, stopped what she was doing and said: “Student, you have to aim at the middle ah!”
Both of Shen Xi’s hands were shaking, how to aim at the middle. She said to the cleaning lady: “Auntie, you keep busy, don’t need to bother about me.”
Really a case of the emperor is not worried, but his eunuchs are worried to death! The cleaning lady really felt that she cannot sit idly by, so she used S city local slang (Cantonese) to say: “When you were young, did you play water gun?”
Water gun? Shen Xi suddenly became enlightened. She took a deep breath and aimed accurately. She grinned, her first life experience, “Its torrent plunges straight down three thousand feet. As if the Cloudy River of the sky falling from the Ninth Heaven. (From View of a Waterfall at Mount Lushan, a poem by a famous poet called )” After finishing, she took out a paper towel from her pocket to wipe clean.
The cleaning lady was stunned: “Student, you ……”
Shen Xi threw the paper into the waste basket and said to the cleaning lady without turning around: “Thank you.”
The cleaning lady silently turned around. Immediately after Shen Xi left, she muttered: “What is the use of looking so handsome ah? Don’t even know how to pee. Moreover a person obsesses with cleanliness.”
Shen Xi returned to the self-study classroom. He Zhi Zhou had already completed all the assignments for these past few days. He pushed the stack of assignments to the front of Shen Xi: “Take them back and hand them over.”
Shen Xi said with a smiling face: “Big brother He, you are so awesome.”
He Zhi Zhou gave a cold smile, he did not look the least bit happy at being praised. Then, he looked up and read out: “Islet in the River?”
To her surprise, he found out! Shen Xi sensed something wrong, so she quickly explained: “It is to deal with my dear father, but you don’t have a weibo account. Therefore I’ve to register one to follow him, but my dad immediately added it to the blacklist, thinking that this is an alternate account. Therefore I have been working hard on this account recently.” After saying that, Shen Xi immediately shared the fruits of her labour, “Big brother He, see you already have more than five thousand fans, and will be a big V (meaning celebrity/influential microblogger) soon.”
Big V …
When He Zhi Zhou looked through “Islet in the River’s” weibo, he prepared a long list to reprimand her, such as this weibo message, “Today, the auntie in the cafeteria gave me one more spoonful of vegetable, so thankful!” Then followed by a row of love symbols. He did not understand, any meaning in posting such weibo message? Was it meaningful?
The crucial point was there was also another person acting silly together with Shen Xi, continuously asking Shen Xi which canteen, which auntie ……
He Zhi Zhou did not want to get angry again. He returned the mobile phone to Shen Xi, stood up and said: “Let’s go!”
Shen Xi quickly packed her things and quietly followed He Zhi Zhou from behind. He Zhi Zhou took two steps, then turned around, wanting to take the books from Shen Xi. He knew how heavy these professional books can be.
Shen Xi refused to hand them over: “Big brother He, I am a man now, so how can I let you carry them?”
Oh man……….
He Zhi Zhou put his hand back into his pocket and continued to walk ahead.
Holding her books, Shen Xi caught up with He Zhi Zhou, and together they walked out of the library. The street lamps of the quiet campus stretched out their shadows. He Zhi Zhou was still simmering angrily, and after walking a few steps, he snapped at Shen Xi, “Has anyone every told you, that you really just invite people to beat you up?”
Shen Xi nodded and replied honestly: “Yes.”
Only then, He Zhi Zhou’s anger subsided a little bit and he continued to say mercilessly: “You deserve it!”
Shen Xi laughed twice and ran to the front of He Zhi Zhou. Then she turned around and walked backwards. While walking, she said: “When I first attended primary school, two troublemakers in the class came to me and told me not to go home after school.”
“Then?” In order to keep pace with Shen Xi, He Zhi Zhou walked slowly. His posture was very straight and his left hand in his pocket, with the aura of a queen.
Shen Xi recalled how loser-like she had been in primary school, the eyes full of smiling expression. She did not mind sharing a few of her embarrassing moments with He Zhi Zhou, so she said: “Then I really did not dare to go home after school. I waited for a long time in the classroom but also did not see them come to look for me. Therefore I went to ask them, whether they want to beat me up. If they still don’t beat me up, then I will go home …… ”
“Oh.” He Zhi Zhou laughed in simple, monosyllabic tone.
Shen Xi felt proud that she was able to provoke laughter from the aloof He Zhi Zhou, the smile on her face showed that she was immensely pleased with herself.
He Zhi Zhou’s tone of voice sounded relax “Then you got beaten?”
“No way!” Shen Xi winked at He Zhi Zhou, “Actually, they wanted to give a love letter to me. I misunderstood their intention.”
The corners of He Zhi Zhou’s mouth curved upward, then drooped down: “You received a love letter quite young.”
“Yes ah.” Shen Xi sighed, “but how many words did I know in my first year of primary school? Thus I let Tang Tang read me the love letter.”
He Zhi Zhou: “……”
Once again, Lin Yu Tang was mentioned in their conversation. Although it was inadvertently mentioned, this clearly reminded him: The three words, Lin Yu Tang was an important part of Shen Xi’s memories of growing up. These neither fleeting nor deep memories can have the power to have a real impact on people.
Shen Xi’s thinking continued to diverge. She thought He Zhi Zhou was certainly not a typical good student in his school days, so she was a little curious and asked: “Big brother He, have you fought before?”
“Yes.” He Zhi Zhou replied without intention to conceal. A past event in exchange for another past event. Suddenly he wanted to let Shen Xi know more about his past, including those good or bad one.
“During my third year in junior middle school, I once led the whole class of school boys to fight with the senior high school boys. The location was at the People’s Square, in front of the National Development and Reform Commission building in Shanghai city.
Shen Xi gave a ‘wow’ sound, then asked: “How did you pick the spot?”
The corners of He Zhi Zhou’s mouth were turned upwards: “At that time, the troublemaker’s dad worked in the National Development and Reform Commission, we wanted to beat him up in front of his father.”
“Ruthless!” Shen Xi praised and nodded. The night breeze was blowing gently at her face and her t-shirt was billowing. Suddenly a possible image of a young and impetuous looking He Zhi Zhou appeared in her brain. He was probably the handsome looking kind, cynical, causing troubles everywhere, a model student loved as well as hated by the teachers.
It was not like her school did not have this kind of male student before, but all these qualities were reflected thoroughly in He Zhi Zhou …..
Shen Xi was really curious, as to why He Zhi Zhou has such a wild and flamboyant past. Because in comparison to his current quiet demeanor, it was not matching. What made his frivolousness, became so calm and restrained.
“Big brother He, have you experienced puppy love before?” Shen Xi asked with a teasing expression.
“Puppy love, what age is considered puppy love? Six years old?” He Zhi Zhao asked Shen Xi.
All of a sudden, He Zhi Zhou covered Shen Xi’s mouth with his hand.
He Zhi Zhou walked at a moderate speed. A good while later, he stood with his back to the light and said: “No, I’ve not been in a relationship before I went to university.”
Suddenly Shen Xi was stunned. After a while, she asked: “How about after you’ve gone to university?”
He Zhi Zhou turned his head and glanced at her: “Aren’t we in a relationship now?”
Shen Xi’s pretty face, suddenly turned red.