Amo Must Work Hard: 【Ahem, by the way, brothers, may I ask if things are still harmonious in that department lately?】
Xiao Ye: 【Brother, how many months are you? How do you still have the mood to think about that? These days I throw up whatever I eat, I’ve slimmed down a whole size, and I can’t get it up at all (lighting-cigarette.jpg)】
Brother Tong Everything Is Big: 【Don’t even say it, the □□ of the old days is gone and won’t come back. These days brother carries a big belly, lies in bed remembering the past and weeping in vain…】
Yuxiang Shredded Pork: 【Your pregnancy and my pregnancy don’t seem to be the same (scratching-head.jpg)】
Amo Must Work Hard: 【How so, Brother Yu? If something’s different, share it with the brothers.】
Yuxiang Shredded Pork brewed his wording for a while and soon replied:
【How to put this, emmmm I think it varies from person to person. I only found out I was pregnant a couple of days ago. Apart from the first three months when the weather was too hot and my girlfriend and I didn’t clap much for love, every month after that there were seven or eight times, no different from before the pregnancy.】
Amo Must Work Hard: 【!! What, seven or eight times a month? Brother, you’re not bragging, are you? My balls have shrunk a whole size, damn it! Yours actually haven’t gotten smaller??】
Everyone: 【…】
A silence like death.
“Amo Must Work Hard” recalled a group message.
Amo Must Work Hard pretended nothing had happened and casually sent a cat sticker in an attempt to fudge it over, but the next second the group started flooding madly.
【Hahahahahahahaha】
Amo Must Work Hard: …Damn it!
Duan Heyu let out a long breath. Wonderful, wonderful, he wasn’t the only one whose balls had gotten smaller.
A crowd of men chattered on without end. Jiang Zhi only glanced over and marveled at the speed of the flood. People talk about three women making an opera [1]three women making an opera (san ge nuren yi tai xi, 三个女人一台戏) Idiom, a few women together make endless drama jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3234073_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3234073_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, about long-tongued wives, but clearly men had more drama and looser mouths.
With Duan Heyu’s mood improved, his handling of the matter was like a different person’s from before. He no longer clung to her about going to the dinner together, and without even lifting his head he simply told her to come back early and left it at that.
Jiang Zhi felt lighter all over. He really was easy to coax.
At seven thirty in the evening, she changed her clothes and went out, and by eight she was already having a blast at the KTV with the roommates she hadn’t seen in a long time.
Haishi was a big city. Every year countless fresh, tender little leeks [2]fresh, tender little leeks (jiucai, 韭菜) Metaphor, ordinary people harvested over and over for profit jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3234073_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3234073_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); poured in, one crop cut and replaced by the next, never short of hardworking, lovable little leeks.
In the whole six-person dorm room, apart from Jiang Zhi being a Haishi local, everyone else came from the four seas and five lakes, yet all of them chose without hesitation to stay and build a life here.
It was just that although they were in the same city, they basically never saw each other.
“Sorry, I’m late.”
The deafening private room was opened a crack. A pair of long, pale hands with clearly defined knuckles rested on the door handle, and as the light and shadow fell, a tall, straight figure entered everyone’s view.
The music paused with a click, and the roommates looked at each other.
Lin Han got up quickly to greet him. Even in the dim light the joy and faint shyness at the corners of her eyes and brows were hard to hide.
“You came at just the right time, not late at all, we’ve only just started.”
The instant they saw clearly who had come, apart from the two people concerned, all the other roommates including Jiang Zhi went round-eyed with surprise.
The man in front of them seemed to have dropped from the sky, appearing out of nowhere.
His face was cold, the contours of his features sharp as ice and snow. He had been born with a pair of beautiful peach-blossom eyes, yet no outward emotion could be seen in them, as indifferent as a winter plum blossom growing high up.
—Xu Yancan.
Jiang Zhi’s mood turned somewhat complicated for a moment… Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives [3]Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives (shuo Cao Cao Cao Cao dao, 说曹操曹操到) Idiom, speak of the devil jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3234073_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3234073_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Lin Han took Xu Yancan’s arm intimately, her smile bright, and looked at the others as she introduced him. “Let me formally introduce him to you. This is my boyfriend, Xu Yancan.”
Xu Feifei and Shao Xiaojuan were stunned. They stiffly turned their heads and looked at each other, and each saw in the other’s pupils her own dumbstruck, dog-dazed foolish look.
The two of them screamed at the same time—
Holy crap, holy crap, are all my roommates this amazing?
One was about to marry into a wealthy family and climb to the peak of life, and the other had taken down the flower on the high mountain [4]the flower on the high mountain (gaoling zhi hua, 高岭之花) Metaphor, someone admired but out of reach jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3234073_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3234073_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); that everyone loved but couldn’t have and shrank back from!
So in one dorm room they were the only ordinary people, were they?
Xu Feifei and Shao Xiaojuan were struck so hard they beat their chests and stamped their feet and held their heads and wept. They were all in one dorm room, so why were the two of them single from the womb until graduation, woo woo woo woo woo!
Was this appropriate, huh?
Was it appropriate?
Jiang Zhi: “…” scratching-head.jpg
Lin Han: “…” dry-laugh.jpg
The interrogation began. “Quick, honestly confess the process of the crime!”
Propped up in the middle of her roommates, Lin Han sneaked a glance at her boyfriend, a blush rising on her fair face, and helplessly gave a rough account in a small, fine voice.
The script she had drawn was actually love at first sight.
Xu Feifei and Shao Xiaojuan couldn’t stop exclaiming. Xu Yancan was a year below them, a third-year student, and had entered Haishi University as the national number one in the college entrance exam.
Although Haishi University was also a prestigious university, its gold content was still a bit less than the two world top-ten schools in Jingshi. With his nearly perfect entrance exam score that year, getting into either of those two famous schools would have been more than enough.
But what nobody expected was that while the famous schools in Jingshi were breaking their heads to fight for him, he resolutely chose Haishi University. This caused no small sensation and made the front page of the local tabloid.
The paper’s original intention was to ride the entrance exam heat for a shot at sales. Who would have thought that because Xu Yancan wasn’t only a super study god but also had extraordinary looks, one cold, abstinent student ID photo would be enshrined outright.
In just one day sales broke records and hit a new high. Learning the paper had sold out and receiving one reprint notice after another, the newspaper’s boss was mad with joy.
He immediately banged the table and decided to keep working the big hot topic of Xu Yancan the next day.
But the next day, never mind new content, all the various reports about Xu Yancan online disappeared completely overnight.
As if the earlier excitement had been nothing but an illusion.
The melon-eating crowds that learned of this were instantly like dogs smelling a meat bun [5]like dogs smelling a meat bun (gou wen roubao, 狗闻肉包) Metaphor, swarming instantly toward something juicy jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3234073_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3234073_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. While wondering just who Xu Yancan was, they couldn’t help imagining all sorts of messy things and swore not to stop until they dug out the funny business in it. Unfortunately it all ended in failure.
But according to rumor, some students from local wealthy families had dug out his identity, yet all of them held back over something, and nobody jumped out to release the melon.
This made the name Xu Yancan especially mysterious among this cohort of students, and everyone spontaneously plated him with a glittering golden big-shot filter.
And yet this legendary study-god big shot of extraordinary origins had been taken down this easily by their own roommate.
In this situation, Xu Feifei and Shao Xiaojuan’s eyes as they looked at their two roommates were full to the brim with admiration and reverence!
Each grabbed one hand, and as they stroked them they chanted, “Wealth come, wealth come, wealth come from all four directions and eight sides.”
A man you can do without, money you must have.
Mascots Jiang Zhi and Lin Han: “…”
Having got their fix of stroking the mascots, Xu Feifei and Shao Xiaojuan completely let themselves fly at the KTV, turning into mic hogs who monopolized the whole session. Toward the end, the whole group had drunk quite a lot.
The beer wasn’t strong, and apart from her face being a bit red, Jiang Zhi had no other discomfort.
But when Duan Heyu learned Jiang Zhi had been drinking, he ordered her over and over to wait right where she was, because he was going to come pick her up himself.
Xu Feifei and Shao Xiaojuan’s dorm was nearby, so the two of them decided to walk back together. Lin Han’s stomach suddenly felt a bit off, and she ran to the bathroom.
So only Jiang Zhi and Xu Yancan were left in the private room.
The music had long been turned off and the multicolored lights had switched to soft warm lighting. Jiang Zhi could finally see the furnishings and the people in the room clearly.
Nobody dared press the iceberg big shot to drink. He had been ice-cold and motionless the whole time, more like a mascot than she and Lin Han.
Jiang Zhi wasn’t close to him and had nothing to talk about, so she waited while immersively scrolling her phone.
Little did she know a pair of cool amber eyes was silently gazing at her without looking aside.
After a while, a cold tone like jade lightly striking jade lodged in her ear. Jiang Zhi looked up blankly and asked, not quite certain, “Did you just call me?”
“Mm.”
Xu Yancan nodded lightly and leaned his upper body slightly forward, asking as if curious, “Senior, you’re getting married?”
“Yes.”
Jiang Zhi answered concisely.
She had thought the topic would end there, but strangely enough, a person she couldn’t exchange two sentences with in a whole year started a question-and-answer conversation with her in the private room.
“Why did Senior decide to get married?”
“The feelings were there, and marriage is what happens when the water arrives and the channel forms [6]when the water arrives and the channel forms (shui dao qu cheng, 水到渠成) Idiom, it happens of itself once conditions are ripe jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3234073_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3234073_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.”
“Oh.” Xu Yancan’s tone was cold and faint, his eyelids half lowered as he pondered who knew what, and then he suddenly threw out an unexpected question. “So you love him a lot?”
The question left Jiang Zhi stunned, and she sat there blankly for a full two seconds. There was no question she liked Duan Heyu, but as for love… not necessarily.
Of course Jiang Zhi definitely wouldn’t say such a true thought to someone she wasn’t close to, so she simply looked left and right and talked about something else to fob him off.
She didn’t understand why Xu Yancan would take an interest in her private affairs. There actually wasn’t much friendship between them.
Jiang Zhi glanced at the time on her screen and got up to leave first.
Xu Yancan didn’t react.
Then, just as she was about to pull open the door of the private room, an unusual sound bored into her ear.
The faint sound of an indrawn breath was especially clear in the quiet space. Jiang Zhi’s ear tips moved slightly and she glanced back.
But she saw Xu Yancan with his brows drawn together, his face abnormally pale. The straight figure of a few seconds ago was gone, his upper body bent into a bow, one hand pressed tightly to his lower belly.
Jiang Zhi’s brow twitched and she trotted over. “What’s wrong? Do you need me to call an ambulance for you?”
It couldn’t be appendicitis acting up, could it?
Xu Yancan was silent for a moment, then his thin lips parted, his voice mixed with panting. “No need, thank you.”
At a glance, Jiang Zhi could clearly see the veins standing out on the back of his hand and the thin film of sweat seeping from his forehead. He was obviously enduring pain, and she didn’t dare leave at all.
Never mind that he was her roommate’s boyfriend, even if he were just an ordinary passerby, having come across him she wouldn’t sit and watch and do nothing.
“I’ll go get Lin Han, hold on a bit.”
“Wait.”
Xu Yancan abruptly looked up and called her back, another kind of emotion hidden under his composed, cold mask. “There’s no need to call her.”
For a moment Jiang Zhi couldn’t be sure what he meant. He clearly felt unwell but wouldn’t let his girlfriend know and wouldn’t call an ambulance. Could it be some hidden illness he couldn’t let anyone know about?
“Fine, then I can at least call a server, right?”
If the school’s precious egg had something happen to him here, everyone present today would have more than they could swallow to carry home.
Without waiting for his answer, Jiang Zhi ran off fast, tap tap tap, and had already reached the door.
Xu Yancan actually straightened up with a swish, knocking over the glass on the table. The glass fell to the floor and shattered into pieces with a crash.
Jiang Zhi’s heart thudded.
The instant she turned back she saw an unbelievable sight.
The crotch of Xu Yancan’s white casual trousers had at some point soaked through red, and the moment he stood up, red liquid ran straight down the inside of his thigh.
“…”
“…”
Jiang Zhi opened her mouth blankly. “You… got your period?”
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