It hasn’t been long since the computer science department’s class was dismissed, and there were only a few students who were working on an in-class assignment left in the lecture hall.
Once he arrived at the entrance, Lu Yan found out that the yellow t-shirt dude had already left.
Wanting to search for a person in such a large campus, the probability is similar to that of finding a needle in a ocean. However, he needed to clarify himself, and he also couldn’t delay this matter regarding Xiao Heng.
Lu Yan recalled those two conspicuously memorable headlines from just then, and if he delayed this matter any further, the reputation of this senior student surnamed Xiao will really be lost.
So, Lu Yan randomly chose someone from the remaining people, sat beside them unintentionally, and initiated a conversation: “You haven’t finished, too?”
The student dully typed out two lines of code and clicked to run it, but the screen remained motionless.
“That’s right,” the student scratched his head, in the middle of a mental breakdown, and replied, “Have you already handed it in?”
There were plenty of people within the class, and everyone usually just went back to their dormitories by themselves once class ended. It was quite natural to not recognize most of the people in class, so the “unfamiliar student” Lu Yan, who was currently initiating a conversation, didn’t arouse any suspicion from the student.
Moreover, the attitude of this unfamiliar student was too natural, it made it seem as though he was actually involved in the computer science department.
“Today’s lesson is indeed quite difficult,” Lu Yan nodded, “It’s hard to digest.”
Lu Yan began to formulate his conversation, and after chatting for a bit with the other, not even more than three minutes in, Lu Yan got information about the yellow t-shirt dude out of the student’s mouth.
“You’re talking about Xu Ye, right? He’s currently eating at the cafeteria, he usually likes to eat the large chicken pot from the cafeteria’s first floor. The large chicken pot from there is actually quite tasty, and he sometimes goes to the internet cafe for a while after he’s done eating. I don’t know about your side of the dormitory, but in our residence dorms, we recently had a fondness for selecting...”
The yellow t-shirt dude was indeed currently waiting for his large chicken pot in the cafeteria.
He was waiting for a while when all of a sudden his left shoulder slumped down, and an arm was nonchalantly placed on his shoulder. He was then met with an appearance that he may never wipe away from his memory for a lifetime.
Xu Ye: “…”
Lu Yan: “Hey.”
Xu Ye was really on the verge of a mental breakdown. He wanted to sprint away while hugging his head down, but his large chicken pot hasn’t been served yet, and for a moment, he was stuck in a dilemma: “Da-ge, what do you want ah?”
Lu Yan tried to explain himself while forcing down his shoulder, turning his entire body to his direction to face him: “Friend, hear me out...”
Xu Ye wanted to say, ‘Who the hell is your friend ah, I really have no interest in men,’ but Lu Yan straightforwardly reached out to cover his mouth, spitting out the rest of his unfinished sentence: “Shut up for a moment.”
“...”
The crowd surged in and out of the cafeteria.
Lu Yan summarized the situation plainly, and Xu Ye nimbly wanted to pass out: “No, this, so it’s not you? You’re only a stand-in for his classes, ah, no, substituting for his classes... Then, that stuff you said to me...”
“I truly never had those kinds of unnecessary thoughts towards you.” Lu Yan lifted his arm off of his shoulder and pointed at the counter window. “Your chicken’s ready.”
Xu Ye searched for a spot as he held his large chicken pot, and Lu Yan sat across him.
“We’re currently an underground band, and we’ve produced three albums since back then.”
“Aside from rehearsals, we also usually attend commercial performance activities.”
Although Lu Yan wasn’t always so absent-minded, being able to spout out nonsense whether it’s to ghost or human, once he had spoken up to this point, he controlled the expression on his face: “Though, it may be a bit too sudden, however, I sincerely wish to invite you to join. If you have any intentions to join, then you should consider it for a while. Have you ever joined a band before?”
Xu Ye paused his movements while grabbing onto a slice of chicken, speaking up after a while later: “I haven’t.”
“I only practice playing bass when I have time by myself. I also enjoy gaming, but I never actually thought of becoming a professional esports player.“ Xu Ye lowered his head once he finished speaking, and then raised it again to look up at Lu Yan. “Excuse me ah, but I really don’t have that kind of objective.”
Lu Yan didn’t continue speaking any further.
He couldn’t just imitate Dao Ba and start engaging in scamming and trickery: Do you ever perceive that you cannot find your true objective during class? Don’t you realize that your true self is vanishing? Buried deep in your heart, there’s an aspiration hidden within, is there not?
Xiongdi, come with me.
There was no need to drag the conversation any longer. Lu Yan handed a business card over to Xu Ye: “No worries. If you change your mind, just call me.”
Xu Ye received the business card, realizing that it was filled to the brim with written words: Delivering songwriting/providing musical scores/personal requests.
It’s one awesome album! Plenty of effort inputted.
Professional band, relatively affordable, if you can’t afford it then you can endure, but the experience is what’s truly affordable!
“……”
“It’s upside down,” Lu Yan said, “Flip to the other side.”
Xu Ye flipped the card over, and on it was plainly written: Lead singer of the band Vent, Lu Yan.
Missing a bassist.
Being a stand-in for class is even more tiring compared to being a little cabbage buried in the soil1.
[1]: Original: 替课工作也黄得像地里的小白菜。Not sure exactly what this means, I did some research but had no results, so I assume it’s means tiring…. Ps: if anyone understand the meaning plz explain…. (⌐■_■)
Lu Yan felt that he himself might be going through something similar to the legendary Mercury retrograde.
[2]: Some astronomy terms here. According to the resources I found online: Every three or four months you can see the visual effect of mercury moving backwards. This astronomical phenomenon is called Mercury retrograde, and Mercury retrograde also leads to poor fortune.
However, the weather remained quite nice, and the vivid sun lasted until five to six o’clock.
Lu Yan took a returning trip on the public bus, leaning uncomfortably against the bus window while dozing off.
The scenery outside flew by swiftly along with the dimming sunshine. Xiacheng District looked as though it had been covered by a layer of shadow.
This nap sure was an uncomfortable one.
Once he had gotten off the bus and returned home, he massaged his neck while ripping off a page from the calendar hanging on the wall, realizing that it had only been six days since the first of May, Labor’s Day.
Huang Xu was to arrive at the station tonight. Once they arrived there, they sent over a photo in their group chat of four. There was a poster on the entrance of the train station, with “Welcome to Qingcheng” written on it. They also sent over a voice message: Don’t worry, Jiang Yaoming and I have already arrived ah.
Lu Yan grasped the ripped-off calendar page in the palm of his hand, crumpling it into a paper ball as he glanced at the brand new calendar page behind him, and said to himself: It’s a start from the beginning.
The road headed towards the future is long.
What does this bit even count as?
He threw away the ripped page and decided to steam some noodles. While waiting for the water to boil, he propped himself up against the window and opened up the C University forums, finding out that the three trending articles on the homepage were already gone.
It has been replaced by a clarification article.
Lu Yan thought about it for a while, then he opened up his WeChat interface again, returning the two hundred yuan that he received yesterday back to the young master.
[Lu Yan]: [Transfer]
[Lu Yan]: I won’t receive the check.
Xiao Heng’s reply came in quite late.
Half an hour later, he transferred back the check, adding two additional characters.
[Xiao Heng]: No need.
Being a stand-in who conducted his principles with a moral bottom line, Lu Yan was very persistent on this matter of refunding. He made him gain quite the reputation overnight by pushing him up the university forum, how could he have the face to even receive this stand-in salary.
The two continued insisting back and forth, transferring and refunding. This extremely naive behavior was repeated thrice.
[Lu Yan]: Receive it.
[Xiao Heng]: I said there’s no need.
[Lu Yan]: You receive it.
[Xiao Heng]: Why are you so troublesome?
[Lu Yan]: [Transfer]
[Xiao Heng]: F*ck.
After persisting back and forth a few more times, Lu Yan was about to transfer the check back again when a red exclamation mark popped straight up in the chat.
[Don’t bother me turned on friend verification, you are not his (her) friend.]
“…..” This young master was truly cruel.
Perhaps he really was irritated.
Lu Yan randomly clicked on the “Send Friend Verification” and once it was successfully accepted, he didn’t bring up the matter of transferring the check.
As he continued to wait for the water to boil, it was Xiao Heng who took the initiative to message him this time, sending him a photo containing a screenshot of a chat record. The profile name of the other party was a person called Muddle-headed Elderly Hu.
Muddle-headed elderly Hu: Xiao Heng ah.
Muddle-headed elderly Hu: Take a trip to my office today.
Muddle-headed elderly Hu: I viewed your in-class assignment, it was extremely touching, I never actually thought that your appreciation towards me is like the torrential waves of the river….
Then Xiao Heng sent over another message: What kind of stuff did you write?
What else could he have written.
Hundreds and thousands of displays, but never display flattery3.
[3]: Original: 千穿万穿，马屁不穿. I’ve try translating it several ways. This is a Chinese folk saying, which is quite difficult to translate. According to my research: In ancient Chinese feudal society, flattery is commonplace, so Mongols use to like pleasing and curry favor from the horse owner by patting the horse’s butts and giving compliments.
Lu Yan touched his nose. He had essentially rainbow farted out a thousand words describing Professor Hu’s demeanor, taking out the content of the lesson itself, just shamelessly farting out rainbows everywhere.
Lu Yan replied: I wrote a flattery song in order to express my admiration to the inventor of mankind’s souls.
[Xiao Heng]: ……
[Xiao Heng]: Refund cash.
Earlier, he even blocked his friend just so he couldn’t receive the two hundred yuan. However, now, once the two words ‘Refund cash’ appeared, this kind of attitude showed too much. Although it was quite unreasonable, Lu Yan couldn’t help but want to crack out a smile.
He once again transferred over the two hundred.
He then realized that Xiao Heng was only throwing a tantrum, he never actually intended to accept it.
[Xiao Heng]: What else have you done.
[Lu Yan]: Nothing else.
Lu Yan was afraid that Xiao Heng might find him suspicious, so he replied once again to personally assure him: Truly, there’s nothing else.
Xiao Heng didn’t immediately reply to this message, perhaps there was a half hour gap in-between before the phone screen lit up as Lu Yan was scrubbing and rinsing dishes. Due to the screen being locked, a column box popped up, and the content were still quite recognizable even within the column box:
[Xiao Heng]: I, myself, have had numerous years of experience as a part-timer.
[Xiao Heng]: Prioritising my customer’s needs in mind, promising contentment in you.
Adding an aloof grin in the end: [Grin]
“……”
This was the job declaration that he sent to Xiao Heng previously.
Combining this grinning emoji and the sneer on his face yesterday after he said the word “guitarist,” Lu Yan felt as if he’d just received contempt.
Switching off the faucet, he was placing the dishes back when he recalled a certain event as he stared at the dish that he was holding in his hand.
He still hasn’t returned the dish that he borrowed from his next-door neighbor in 601.
These past few days, he discovered bits of information regarding the lady from 601 from some residential neighbors. The entire building now knew of the news about an unfamiliar woman stirring up a big fuss and banging on the door.
Although the residents within the building stayed quiet on the surface, there was a great deal of discussions, gossip, and rumors that went on behind the back.
The currently widespread rumor was that she worked in a spa.
Once nighttime falls, you can randomly find spa boutiques anywhere on the street. The boutique had a peculiarly tinted azure glass film, and gazing into it, you can see a female technician sitting on the sofa, or perhaps standing at the entrance wearing a short skirt.
Lu Yan pondered for a moment.
He didn’t like getting tangled in others’ businesses. But once or twice, there were times where he owed the other immensely.
So, in the end, he unlocked his phone screen and typed out a string of words: Oh, right, 601 usually returns during noon, you can show up at noon if you wish to find her, or I can notify her, too.
Xiao Heng didn’t deny the offer this time.
Lu Yan thought that perhaps because of the many misunderstandings that occur each time they bump into each other, they wouldn’t be as unfamiliar as before. After all, they’ve even shared the same name once.
[Xiao Heng]: Alright.
[Xiao Heng]: I understand.
Once Xiao Heng finished replying, his head gazed down at the little head curling up on his lap that had just finished drinking milk. The infant was having a sweet slumber, the lashes comparable to that of a fan, making small sounds between each breath that made the lashes tremble slightly.
Within this desolate mansion, devoid of human presence.
He frowned slightly, wanting to push the child away, but in the end, he didn’t act on it, settling with placing his hands on the child’s head and patting it a few times.
Translator: Piggybank 🐽
Editor(s): Rae and Muku