Chapter 79: Your dorm’s blown up

Lu Zhixin said, “Xu Tingsheng, don’t act dumb...this scarf’s for you, I knitted it.”

Life was always full of surprises. For example, a flower like Lu Zhixin who had already been treated as a school-level beauty of the university’s foreign language faculty as soon as she had matriculated was currently actually carrying a scarf which she had knitted herself and standing in front of Xu Tingsheng...it felt a little inconceivable. Also, exactly what could this be based on?

In truth, if it was the Xu Tingsheng of his previous life, he might find Lu Zhixin stunning at first sight, but there would definitely not have been any contact between them afterwards. This was because he would have lacked even the basic courage to approach her.

This was rather a natural thing. In this world, there are two things that prevent people from approaching those who appear too perfect in their eyes. One is a sense of inferiority, while the other is pride.

99 percent of the people in this world with an inferiority complex also possess incomparably great pride at the same time. Coming together, these two inhibit the self that is afraid of getting hurt.

In his previous life, due to his family background and the setbacks that he had faced, Xu Tingsheng had been such a person.

In this life, Xu Tingsheng had changed greatly. Therefore, he had been completely uninhibited before Lu Zhixin. However, he had really never thought to pluck a school flower like her.

This accident tells us that unknowingly is a way to pick up chicks, and is really the most powerful technique as well.

Because when you really like a person too much, her position in your eyes would correspondingly be very high. You would feel inferior, not daring to approach her. You would think random thoughts and be at a total loss...You might normally be humorous and good with words, or reliable and magnanimous, or...all of these would mean but a fart before her. Wrong, even a fart wouldn’t be left behind, because you wouldn’t even dare to let it out.

Such is the bitterness of love in this world. I do not love the person who loves me, the person whom I love doesn’t love me...why? Why are you always a total failure in front of the person you like, yet can just unintentionally attract someone whom you don’t like in a state of unknowingness?

Because in front of them, you are confident, natural, poised, unflustered, the you at your very best.

You would not worry about how embarrassing it would be if you were too warm and enthusiastic and got rejected by her as a result, because you would not have had any designs on her in the first place. You would not hesitate over whether you are sitting too close to or far away from her, whether or not you should invite her to a meal...because you would not have had any designs on her in the first place.

Therefore, in picking up chicks, the first thing you must do is: tactically look down on her. However pretty or whatever kind of chick it is, she’s still just only a chick.

By the same logic, girls will always feel: He seems to like me. But why is he always keeping a distance from me? When the two of us are having the occasional chat, why does he always pretend to be busy and have something to do just after a few lines have been exchanged? While it is clearly mealtime, why does he not say that we might as well just eat together?...

Therefore, the conclusion you get is: He doesn’t seem to like me that much.

That’s wrong. It’s actually because he likes you too much.

This set of principles was said by Xu Tingsheng to his roommates in the riverside residence that night. His roommates would be squeezing within his three little rooms for the night, because there was no way for them to return to their dorm room tonight, no way for them to stay there.

“Old Wai, you bastard. The good name of our Room 602 has been completely spoilt by you,” Tan Yao rebuked Old Wai, the other roommates all expressing their agreement.

Xu Tingsheng was the only exception, “Old Wai, thank you for your brave sacrifice. Thank you for saving my life.”

Back then, in front of the dorm, as the beautiful and enchanting flower of the university's foreign language institute had extended the scarf to Xu Tingsheng, the surroundings had been filled with the shattered hearts and killer stares of countless young guys.

Under the gazes of so many, to receive or not to receive?

Xu Tingsheng hesitated for a moment before asking Lu Zhixin, “There's a song which has recently been very popular on the internet. Have you heard of it?”

Lu Zhixin didn't know how it had suddenly come to this as she replied, “What about it? I usually only listen to English songs, making use of this to work on my listening comprehension skills as well...The song you're talking about-what about it?”

Xu Tingsheng scratched his head, saying, “It's like this. There's a pretty famous online band in our school, called Rebirth or something like that. Have you heard of them?”

“Yeah, I've heard my roommates mention them before.”

“They've recently released a new song, called...It's called 'You knit a woolen sweater for a freaking fool’.”

“Called... what?” Xu Tingsheng had spoken indistinctly, such that Lu Zhixin had not caught his words.

Xu Tingsheng sighed before enunciating slowly and clearly, “You knit a woolen sweater for a freaking fool.”

Her demeanor usually indifferent to the point of being a little cold, this school-level beauty looked at the bitter-faced Xu Tingsheng and considered for a moment. Then, like an air blower with bad airflow, she pressed her lips together and puffed up her cheeks, “Kuku...Kuku…”

Unable to hold it in, this school-level beauty burst into laughter without any regard for her image at all.

“Then...what's to be done then?” Gasping for breath with the scarf still in her hand, the school-level beauty wiped the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes as she asked Xu Tingsheng.

What was to be done? How was Xu Tingsheng to know what was to be done?

If this went on, it was going to turn awkward soon…

Luckily, someone broke Xu Tingsheng's current predicament for him. A ruckus began on the 5th, 6th and 7th floors of the dormitory building Xu Tingsheng resided in. The people from the rooms there began running around shirtless as they clutched their noses.

Momentarily, all attention was drawn to that side.

As Xu Tingsheng raised his head and gazed upwards, a half-naked figure shouted to him from above, “Xu Tingsheng, it's your room! Your room's freaking blown up! And Old Wai's still lying on his bed.”

Xu Tingsheng had not heard any explosion, but it seemed so serious from the way that guy was saying it…

“My room...seems to be in trouble. I’ve got to go up and see what's happened,” Xu Tingsheng said to Lu Zhixin.

Lu Zhixin had also heard the words just shouted from upstairs. While the matter at hand was certainly important, it surely wasn't as important and pressing as Xu Tingsheng's room having exploded.

Therefore, she hurriedly nodded, “Okay, hurry up and go.”

As Xu Tingsheng ran upstairs, many people said to him along the way, “Hurry up and go look. Old Wai's so pitiful.”

Something having happened with Old Wai, the first thing that Xu Tingsheng could be certain of was that he had been exhausted lately. He had often been busy to the point of working through the night and into the mornings, becoming so hungry that he just had to get some supper. Usually, it was also not guaranteed that his roommates and Li Linlin could send food to him for every meal.

Due to this, Xu Tingsheng had specifically bought him an electric cooker, making it convenient for him to heat up food or cook some instant noodles with a couple of sausages or something.

Today, his roommates had all been elsewhere, no one having brought him food. Having been too focused in his work, Old Wai had forgotten and forgone his daily meals. After a long day of intense effort, he finally completed the trial model of the platform.

Then, he had finally discovered himself to be hungry.

Old Wai had put some instant noodles in the cooker. Then, he had thought to reward himself for the completion of his project, the culmination of all his hard work. Therefore, he had begun flipping through all the remaining stocks of all his roommates, adding many things into the pot. He had added a few sausages, a few pieces of ham, some dried meat, some fermented bean curd that had already been finished with only a little bit of soup remaining, some tofu, and also some stockfish…

Finally, he had found half a packet of durian chips in Li Xingming’s cupboard. Without much thought, he had put it in as well. That was durian, really. Whether it was delicious or not was another matter; that flavour…

After having done all of this, Old Wai had gotten onto his bed, lying down as he waited for the meal to be ready. Then, he had fallen asleep…

The cooker did not explode, but its insides had been totally burnt. Accompanied by the emission of white smoke had been an inconceivable smell. A burning smell, the smell of durian, the smell of smelly tofu, a fishy smell, coupled with various other kinds of strange, inexplicable smells, suffused the air…

Room 603’s occupants had nearly vomited at the smell. Someone who didn’t fear death had run over to look for the source. Entering Room 602, he had then opened the electric cooker for a look…

The first thing he had said upon returning to his room was, “Damn...Old Wai seems like he was cooking faeces to eat. In the end, he even overcooked and charred it…”

Another guy had replied, “These people from Room 602 are really too vicious! Leaving a heavily injured person like Old Wai hungry to this extent…”

Xu Tingsheng relied on his incomparably firm will to return to the entrance of his dorm room. In truth, with that smell, the place was already empty.

The people inside had already long since collectively fled, now waving towards him and shouting from the other end of the corridor as they huddled down together with Old Wai, the culprit, “The switches! The electricity’s still running! When you still have the guts to, quickly get in and close them. We really can’t anymore.”

Xu Tingsheng pushed the door and entered the room that was densely suffused with thick smoke. It made for an otherworldly scene, resembling an immortal realm. The smell, however, was no different from a soil lavatory.

Seeing the scene within the cooker and having truly smelled enough of it, Xu Tingsheng turned off the electricity and directly threw the cooker off the balcony. The polluted waters of the river outside the dormitory walls would wash away the evidence, wash away the ‘repulsiveness’...

Forcibly resisting the urge to vomit, Xu Tingsheng rejoined his roommates and asked them, “Can you guys still be sleeping there today?”

They all shook their heads in unison.

“Let’s go then. We can only go to the room I have rented outside and squeeze in for a night...Right, when the punishment comes, I’ll take it.”