CH 31

editor: Storm

Returning to the dormitory, Lin Dongyang pulled out his chair and sat down. He touched his chin and thought about life. Maybe the situation had touched a nerve causing him to stretch out his hand and take out an English book from a row of textbooks, defiantly flipping through two pages. However, his expression became more and more distorted! 

The books seemed to be hot. Lin Dongyang hurriedly stuffed the English book back into the row of textbooks, then he turned on his laptop. He clicked on the media player and opened an anime to calm his fears.

The chattering roommates came back. Their loud voices could be heard even before they entered the door. Fatty Han put the textbook in his hand and the lunch box he had brought on Lin Dongyang’s table, and asked, “How was it, Yang-zi? Did you have a good chat?”

Lin Dongyang opened the lunch box and found his favourite tomato with scrambled eggs in it. He was very satisfied. “Nothing to talk about. By the way, Zhu Wenbo, come here and teach me English ah.”

The four people in the dormitory were miserable with English, except for Zhu Wenbo who had some knowledge. Now that he thinks about it, Lin Dongyang didn’t even know how he managed to pass the final exam without failing. 

In the end, it was because of Austin’s unusual actions. Until now, Qiao Yichen hadn’t told him what the meaning of that sentence was. If it wasn’t for the fact he couldn’t understand what he was hearing and gave a confused ‘yeah’ answer, maybe he wouldn’t have had to deal with this kind of messy thing of being chased by a man! It was really hard.

Hearing him saying this suddenly, Zhu Wenbo’s face was full of black question marks. “You know the midterm exam is coming soon, so you want to sharpen your weapon ah?”

Lin Dongyang was stunned. “Ah? Midterm exam? When?”

Zhu Wenbo: “It’s already April. Don’t you remember that we have to take a midterm exam at the end of April every year?”

Lin Dongyang clicked on the calendar on his laptop and checked the date before he realized how fast time had passed. In the blink of an eye, it was April 20th. “So fast, I never remember the day of the week. But I really haven’t worked hard for the exam.”

Fatty Han stepped forward and touched Lin Dongyang’s forehead. “Do you have a fever? Or what’s wrong with your tendons? You actually asked to learn English when you don’t even pay attention in English class?! Did your foreign friend brainwash you just now?”

Lin Dongyang slapped away his very meaty hand, “Didn’t you hear Zhu Wenbo say that the exam is coming? Who failed in English last semester? You say, who?”

Fatty Han angrily sat back in his seat, shrinking his round head and saying, “Didn’t I pass the make-up exam?” 

Nanhai University’s make-up exam time was scheduled at the beginning of the following semester within the first two weeks. In order not to re-take, Fatty Han worked hard during the winter holidays, and finally narrowly passed.

Li Wei was eating his lunch box leisurely. He didn’t take Lin Dongyang’s English study to heart at all, because it wouldn’t last long. Don’t believe it? Wait and see. Li Wei dared to pat his chest and swear to God. Lin Dongyang had said this no less than five times before. Which time after the exam had he not lamented over his English skills for a long time and made a serious statement: I must review English!

And then… There was no ‘and then’. Nothing would happen until the next exam came around.

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Zhu Wenbo: “Wang Dan’s English is better than mine, she has passed the sixth level. I barely managed to get past the fourth level.”

Hearing this name, Lin Dongyang searched his mind for a while before an extremely plain figure emerged. “The one who doesn’t talk much?”

Zhu Wenbo: “En, quite gentle and quiet.” 

Lin Dongyang made a noise of understanding. His only impression of Wang Dan was that she was: anti-social and quiet, with eyes like Zhu Wenbo, and that she was a real Xueba.

The topic ended here. Lin Dongyang was eating rice with tomato and scrambled eggs, staring at the screen of his laptop to watch a randomly found anime that he hadn’t seen yet. Fatty Han saw that the dormitory was suddenly quiet and only the sound of ‘Ura-ura’, Japanese that they didn’t understand, was coming from Lin Dongyang’s speaker.

“What anime are you watching? Older children, let’s watch ah.”

“I won’t watch it. I’m afraid of creating a psychological shadow.” Li Wei shook his head first and refused. 

“Coward!”

Lin Dongyang watched the anime for a while and found that the plot didn’t suit his taste. Hearing Fatty Han’s suggestion, he took over the conversation. “Are you sure? Come, come, come, you find it.”

As soon as Fatty Han saw that his proposal was approved, he immediately opened his laptop and began to search for it. Then he clicked play and reached out to call Li Wei and Zhu Wenbo. “Come here, let’s watch together. Close the curtains for the atmosphere.”

Zhu Wenbo came over with a small stool. Seeing that they were all gathered together, Li Wei also came over, after thinking for a long time. However, his chair was placed far away. Thankfully he wasn’t nearsighted, otherwise if he watched a horror movie from this distance, all he would have been able to see was blurred special effects. 

Fatty Han, who was sitting in front watching the horror movie, pulled his lunch box to the side. Zhu Wenbo sat next to him, pushing his glasses up the bridge of the nose from time to time. Lin Dongyang sat behind Fatty Han, so as not to block Li Wei’s line of sight.

The four people gathered together as quiet as chickens to enhance the atmosphere. Lin Dongyang had seen this horror movie before. He knew where there would be a scary unusual jumpscare that frightens people to death, so he had the foresight to selectively avert his gaze and just listen to the expected frightening sound.

Li Wei pushed his chair back and ran away, swearing as he ran. “F*ck! Fast-forward! I don’t dare to go to the toilet at night, there’s a mirror in the toilet!”

“If you fast-forward, it will become a meaningless horror movie.” Fatty Han said this, but his hands were really clicking hard on the fast-forward button in order to skip the horror segment. He also couldn’t resist shuffling his body back. He didn’t dare to lie down in front of the laptop screen any longer. 

Lin Dongyang reached out to push against Fatty Han’s broad back and said, “You wanted to watch a horror movie, you foolish JB, what are you moving around for? Squishing my lunch.” He didn’t move, wickedly blocking Fatty Han’s way and not allowing him to move his chair backwards so that Fatty Han, who proposed to watch the horror movie, would have a good experience.

Seeing another jumpscare coming up, Lin Dongyang silently lowered his head to avoid the sight. Coincidentally, in this dimly lit, tense atmosphere, his mobile phone suddenly ding-ed.

A burst of screams and shrieks was heard from inside the 403 dormitory!

Looking at his extremely disappointing roommates, Lin Dongyang scolded, “You’re like this and you still want to watch horror movies?! Go and watch the Teletubbies!” 

He tossed the empty lunch box into the trash and pulled his chair back to his study table. On his mobile phone was a WeChat message sent by An Qi.

[Senior, cute.jpg]

Since they had added each other as friends, Lin Dongyang had never sent a message to An Qi on WeChat. He was a little curious what An Qi was looking for him for, so he replied.

An Qi: [Hehe, I’m used to seeing senior running to our dorm at lunchtime.] 

Lin Dongyang: [I have something to do today]

He had met Austin unexpectedly today, so after talking with him for a while, Lin Dongyang went straight back to his dormitory. Thinking of this man whom he had just met at the dinner party yesterday, who he didn’t know at all, but turned around and tried to get off with him, he asked An Qi: [Which country is Austin from ah?]

An Qi: [UK, living in England. How does senior know about Austin, have you met him?]

Lin Dongyang: [I met him yesterday and we exchanged a few words] 

An Qi: [It’s better for senior to keep a distance from him.]

Looking at the message on his mobile phone, Lin Dongyang couldn’t help but slander Austin: His outstanding reputation is so famous ah. Even An Qi said so, it looks like he’s really unreliable.

[There was no close contact, it’s just that my English is poor, and I didn’t understand what he said at that time] Lin Dongyang explained symbolically. Who knew that An Qi would send over a warm-hearted offer of his services. Lin Dongyang almost cried.

[I’m good at English! I can tutor senior for free! Don’t worry, I’ve already passed the sixth level!] 

Lin Dongyang sent a ‘washing Godfather’s feet’ meme, with a sentence [I’m afraid I’ll make you cry in anger]

[I won’t, I won’t. If I can’t do it, there’s still Yichen. His spoken English is more fluent than mine, I’m not boasting! English is easy to learn.]

Seeing the words ‘easy to learn’, Lin Dongyang subconsciously blurted out: Nonsense! Easy to learn my a*s!

He could clearly measure how good his English was. Even though An Qi was kind enough to offer to help him, he was too embarrassed by his poor English, so he politely refused: [I’ll study with my roommate first, and then I’ll ask you if I really can’t understand.] 

An Qi: [I’ll be extremely willing oh. Then, senior will come to the dormitory to play more often in the future. Yichen doesn’t pay attention to me when he plays games during the day.]

Lin Dongyang sent a small OK expression. After the conversation, he looked at the last sentence sent by An Qi and fell into a war between Man and Heaven: game? Did Qiao Yichen see what I left in the declaration of true love column! At that time, I wrote it because I was so angry. Now, I regret it, and I have to download the game to delete it.

In the 513 dormitory. An Qi took off Qiao Yichen’s headset and asked, “Has Austin returned home?”

Because his headset had been taken off the sound effects of the game could no longer be heard. Qiao Yichen reached out and put it on his right ear while still listening to An Qi in his left ear, “Not yet.” 

An Qi: “Senior asked me about Austin.”

Qiao Yichen, who was still fighting just now, suddenly stopped his action. He took off his headset completely and hung it around his neck. “What did he ask?”

An Qi tapped his fingers against the pattern printed on the headset and replied, while seemingly lost in thought. “He didn’t ask anything, but I was just curious how senior knew about Austin. I’m afraid that guy is restless. You know he always picks on the one he’s interested in.”

Qiao Yichen was very clear about this. He was watching, and heard what Austin had softly said at that time. So, he repeatedly reminded Lin Dongyang to stay away from the guy, but Lin Dongyang just didn’t listen to his advice. He had naively eaten his meal while talking and even laughing with Austin! 

Thinking about this, Qiao Yichen was a little annoyed. Although there was some concern in his eyes, his mouth said, “Don’t worry about him,” before putting his headset back on and continuing to play the game.

Lin Dongyang, who said he wanted to learn English well, strove to improve everyday. So, he put up a banner he had written in black marker above his study desk that clearly encouraged diligence. It said: good good study day day up!

Lin Dongyang nodded in satisfaction. Zhu Wenbo had a face full of black lines. He always felt like there was no way to rescue this fake English. He gave a reminder, “That’s not how it’s translated, my bro…”