He Ruizhe held the basketball in his arms and said with a chuckle, “Get real, stop grossing us out.”
“Don’t you know? Xie Ran is my brother’s roommate.”
“Talking trash about Xie Ran in front of my brother, you are just trying to sow discord between their roommate relationship.”
Tan Hao suddenly remembered. He had completely forgotten that Jiang Xu had chosen to stay in the dorm this semester because the laboratory was too busy.
No wonder he knew Xie Ran. It turned out they were roommates.
“Xie Ran is holding a bag of water.” Tan Hao shifted his gaze to the water in Xie Ran’s hands and asked curiously, “Did he come here to deliver water for you?”
Then he showed an incredulous expression and spoke again, “Your relationship is this good?”
“A-Xu, I thought you didn’t like socializing.”
Tan Hao hadn’t forgotten that Jiang Xu was the type of person who hated trouble the most.
If his parents hadn’t been family friends with the Jiang family, he and Jiang Xu probably wouldn’t have even become friends.
Jiang Xu had always liked being alone. His personality wasn’t reclusive. He simply disliked a bunch of people staying together and doing meaningless things, like smoking, drinking, and playing video games.
Even though he knew a group of friends, he was often by himself.
As long as Jiang Xu was willing, integrating into a new group was as easy as pie, but he was simply too lazy to get to know anyone.
He figured that in Jiang Xu’s mind, ordinary friends weren’t even as important as the chemical equipment in the lab.
To him, it was all ineffective socialization.
This resulted in him not having many close friends around him after entering university, only childhood playmates he had known since they were little.
Hearing this, Jiang Xu thought of Wang Wenjing, who had been arm-in-arm and acting intimately with Xie Ran, and said indifferently, “No.”
He wasn’t here to deliver water to him.
He was here to deliver water to someone else.
Seemingly thinking of something, he took out his phone, swiped across the screen rapidly, and put the phone away a minute later.
“Not delivering water to you then,” Tan Hao said while rubbing his chin. “Then your relationship isn’t that great.”
Jiang Xu raised his head to look at Tan Hao unblinkingly, his gaze making the latter wonder which sentence he had gotten wrong.
He blinked in confusion to hide his awkwardness, feeling inexplicably terrified.
The other person said calmly, “It has nothing to do with you.”
With that, he took his camera and walked toward where Xie Ran was sitting.
He Ruizhe shouted, “Brother, where are you going?”
Unfortunately, Jiang Xu didn’t answer.
Tan Hao clicked his tongue, completely dumbfounded, “Is he mad? What did I say to make him mad?”
He Ruizhe gloated, “Probably because your mouth is filthy.”
If an emoji could pop up above Tan Hao’s head, it would slowly form a question mark, specifically, a Black man question mark.
He hadn’t said anything wrong, though.
Truly bizarre.
On the other side, in the spectator stands.
Xie Ran had just found a seat and sat down when a figure suddenly appeared before him. Raising his head subconsciously, he saw that Jiang Xu had appeared in front of him out of nowhere, holding a camera.
He took the initiative to speak, “You haven’t gone to change into your basketball uniform yet?”
Jiang Xu said, “I am about to.”
Dropping his gaze, he suddenly lifted it again, “Can you do me a favor?”
Xie Ran asked, “What favor?”
With that, he joked with a cheeky smile, “As long as it is not asking me to do anything that violates morality or sells my body, if Brother Jiang Xu asks, I guarantee I will get the job done.”
Jiang Xu’s dark eyes were like a pool of still water, rippling for a moment upon hearing those words before gradually returning to calm. He handed the camera he was holding to Xie Ran and said, “Can you hold this for me?”
“It is not very convenient to change clothes and get on the court later.”
Logically speaking, there were locker rooms and storage cabinets in the lounge.
Most people changing inside would put their clothes and valuables in the lockers and lock them up.
Xie Ran didn’t suspect a thing, suppressing the excitement in his heart.
This was the camera lens he had been longing for!
“Okay,” he nodded eagerly and took the precious camera, then asked as if remembering something, “Then when you are on the court, can I use your camera to take pictures of you?”
Naturally, Jiang Xu wouldn’t refuse, “Yes.”
Xie Ran grew even more excited, “Great.”
If his primary hobby was fine arts, then his second hobby was photography, capturing various plants, the ecological environment of the world, and living creatures to feel the so-called meaning of existence.
Jiang Xu said, “Then I will go change my clothes first.”
Xie Ran waved his hand, “Go ahead.”
Jiang Xu lowered his head slightly and turned to walk toward the locker room at the back of the stadium, his back as sturdy and upright as a pine and bamboo.
Even walking just a couple of steps was enough to make people’s hearts flutter.
On the other side, He Ruizhe touched his chin thoughtfully, “Haozi, have you noticed? My brother seems a bit off.”
Tan Hao gave a muffled hum, “What is off about him?”
“I am not messing with you anymore, I am going to change clothes too.”
He Ruizhe wasn’t a chemistry student. This basketball game had nothing to do with him, so he shrugged in indication, “Go ahead.”
“I will cheer for you from the spectator stands.”
Jiang Xu walked while taking out his phone, switching to his secondary account, and saw that Ranran hadn’t replied to his message.
His expression remained indifferent, as if unaffected.
Just as he reached the entrance of the lounge, from his angle he happened to see the Sichuan University students changing clothes, chatting away cheerfully:
“A-Jing, did your girlfriend go traveling? Who is going to deliver water to you later then?”
“Hahaha, yeah! It is always Yuwei delivering water to you, but this time she is finally missing. Let me see how you show off your affection now.”
“Heh heh,” Wang Wenjing said smugly, “I have Xie Ran.”
“I.”
“You really are a smooth talker! Making Xie Ran deliver water to you.”
“With Yuwei not around, Xie Ran is stepping in instead. You guys really are fair-weather friends.”
“How can you let our Deity Xie deliver water to you?”
The brothers bantered and joked around, all of them envious that Wang Wenjing had such good fortune to know a department-flower-level figure like Xie Ran, who was amazing at every game and had an easygoing personality.
Wang Wenjing had known since he was little that Xie Ran was popular wherever he went, especially the people in his class who envied his childhood-friend relationship with Xie Ran, allowing him to enjoy the feeling of being carried in games at any time.
Even in the dorm, they would constantly tell him to call Xie Ran to play games together.
You should know that to people who loved gaming, Xie Ran was basically a dropped-in human cheat code with a win rate as high as ninety-eight percent.
Not only did he have a good bro, but he also had a girlfriend.
It was truly enough to provoke the wrath of both gods and men.
Those guys were still teasing Wang Wenjing, little knowing that someone was standing at the entrance eavesdropping.
When Tan Hao came over, he saw Jiang Xu standing by the door without going in.
Curious, he asked, “What is wrong, A-Xu? Are the Sichuan University guys still inside changing?”
Jiang Xu frowned slightly.
As if he had run into something that displeased him.
Tan Hao was puzzled. Was it because he saw a bunch of guys changing clothes, coupled with their unfamiliar relationship, that he hadn’t gone in?
Yet looking at Jiang Xu’s expression, it didn’t quite look like that.
Pondering for two seconds, he asked, “Not going in?”
Jiang Xu didn’t waste any more time and stepped into the lounge.
Hearing footsteps inside, the chatter stopped.
Seeing Jiang Xu and Tan Hao, the guys greeted them politely.
As a social butterfly, Tan Hao stepped forward to fist-bump each of them in turn.
As for Jiang Xu, he responded in silence.
Everyone was well aware of his personality, cold and tight-lipped, so they just called out Brother Xu and went back to their own business.
Wang Wenjing was no exception.
Even though he had walked around the playground with Jiang Xu not too long ago.
That was only because Xie Ran was there.
The current Jiang Xu wore a cold, unapproachable expression, acting completely as if he didn’t know him and failing to even offer a greeting.
No, wait, they didn’t really know each other to begin with.
In his heart, Wang Wenjing became even more convinced that Jiang Xu wanted to pluck the flower that he and Yuwei had painstakingly nurtured and raised.
“You guys better not go easy on us later,” Tan Hao stripped off his top briskly, revealing six-pack abs, and pulled a basketball uniform out of the locker to slip on. “Let me see the strength of you guys from Sichuan University’s physical education department.”
The Sichuan University student wearing the No. 12 jersey smiled and said, “Professionals can’t beat amateurs; didn’t we lose to you guys’ once last time?”
“Yeah, Brother Hao, don’t be modest.”
“Brother Xu can take on ten by himself; we can’t match that kind of swagger.”
“When was that?” Wang Wenjing asked with curiosity. “Did you guys play a match off-campus before?”
The student in the No. 12 jersey nodded and said, “Yeah, when we were at Chunhe Road, we just happened to run into each other and played a bit.”
Seemingly remembering something, he patted Wang Wenjing’s arm and said, “I remember you didn’t seem to be there last time.”
“It was just playing a few matches then that led to us scheduling this basketball match.”
Wang Wenjing nodded, “No wonder.”
“Last time I was at home playing games with Xie Ran, when would I have had time to come out and play basketball with you guys?”
Hearing this sentence, Jiang Xu, who was about to head toward the changing room’s small cubicle, paused his footsteps for a moment before calmly walking inside.
Tan Hao didn’t notice these minor details and kept shooting the breeze with the Sichuan University guys over there.