Driven closer by the summer heat waves, vacation was fast approaching. On June 22, Ke Bu was overwhelmed with preparations for his final exams. He walked out of the library with books swinging from his hand and slowly headed back to the classroom. The people continually passing him caught his attention. Why were all these girls wearing apple-green belts? This was an awfully serious case of everyone showing up in the same outfit. The moment he stepped into the classroom, he saw that most of the girls in his class were wearing them too. He had never heard of any Belt Festival. Gong Zhu rested his cheeks in both hands and gazed at the leaves outside. “How wonderful. Even the air is filled with the scent of love today.”
Not good. The top-tier shou’s lovesick tendencies were acting up again. Spoiling the mood, Ke Bu sniffed forcefully. “So love smells like sweat.” Gong Zhu rolled his eyes. “What exactly is your body made of? You don’t have a single romantic cell.”
“My body is obviously built differently from yours. Mine has a male structure.”
The arrival of Ying Xiu Jie and Zhou Xin He interrupted their conversation. Even Zhou Xin He was wearing a belt. As if he had finally encountered a kindred spirit, Gong Zhu stepped forward and tightly clasped Zhou Xin He’s hands. “Comrade, I’ve finally found someone who understands what’s going on.”
Puzzled, Ying Xiu Jie tugged at Zhou Xin He’s belt. “What’s this for? Training your abdominal muscles?”
“Another country bumpkin. Haven’t you heard of it? The love legend of Sheng Jie Academy.” The moment Gong Zhu said this, Ke Bu’s head began to ache. Legends caused no end of trouble. Unfortunately, once Gong Zhu started on the subject, he could no longer stop and began recounting it at length.
The legend went as follows:
From the moment she entered the university, she found it unbearably repulsive. Men, men—everywhere were creatures called men. She disliked men, considering them a combination of everything evil and filthy. Whenever she walked past, boys would turn their heads and size her up from bottom to top, making her brows tighten involuntarily. Earphones plugged her ears, and music isolated her from the world. Even when carrying her suitcase up a flight of stairs, she did not bother lifting it, merely dragging it behind her and allowing it to strike every step with an irritating thud. Quite a few boys approached voluntarily, wanting to help the exceptionally beautiful girl, but she looked at none of them and continued walking up the stairs.
At that moment, a hand caught hold of her suitcase. Long fingers seized it without allowing any argument. Her face filled with displeasure. She pulled out her earphones and raised her head. The boy wore a black-and-white baseball cap. Even though the brim concealed his eyes, she could still tell that a handsome face was hidden in the shadows. “What are you doing? I don’t need you to carry it.”
He said nothing, the corners of his mouth completely unmoving, and threw the suitcase down the stairs. It tumbled continuously before finally coming to a stop. She could not believe her eyes. This man had thrown her suitcase?
“I hate noise.” His tone did not change in the slightest as he continued walking forward. She jumped down the steps, picked up her suitcase, raised it, and hurled it at his back. “I hate you too.”
It struck his back, making him shift forward slightly. He looked at the suitcase on the ground, picked it up, and threw it down again. The suitcase continued its tragic fate, rolling even farther than before. Her beautiful eyes widened. This man—he had actually, actually thrown her suitcase twice. By the time she chased after it and tried to find him again, he had already disappeared. Her hatred of boys continued rising.
Two months after entering the university, she had gained an unusual degree of support from the female students and gathered her own friends and loyal followers. At the time, Sheng Jie Academy lacked proper administration, its university rules were incomplete, and the campus was chaotic, filled with all kinds of people. In an era when boys were valued over girls and female students were at a disadvantage, she quickly became their representative and the first woman in Sheng Jie Academy to establish her own power base.
One day, she finally found time to buy a new suitcase. Carrying it, she noticed many girls surrounding a boy as they approached. She frowned in disgust. At the moment they passed each other, she stopped, tilted her head, turned around, and examined the man’s back. Very quickly, she lifted her suitcase and hurled it at him, striking him squarely in the back of the head. Cries of alarm came from the other girls. Although she had not clearly seen the man’s appearance that day, strangely, the moment he passed her, she knew it was him. There was no explanation. She simply knew.
He rubbed the back of his head and turned around. Just as she had guessed, his face was very handsome—though he was even more handsome than she had imagined.
“You’re surprisingly hard to kill,” she said. She really had intended to kill him!!!
“With just you?” Coldness mixed with arrogance in his voice. It ignited her anger, sending a rush of fury straight to her head. What she hated most in this life were people who looked down on women and believed women were inferior to men. That was why she desperately proved herself. There was no man in this world who could surpass her.
“Pretty boy, don’t underestimate women.” She rolled her neck, producing a crisp crack.
“I don’t hit women.” After saying this, he had no intention of staying.
“Then treat me like a man.” She gathered her long hair, pulled a pair of scissors from her shoulder bag, and cut off her smooth black locks. The strands fluttered down in the wind. Her actions finally made him stop. He merely stood there and stared at her. She unbuttoned and removed her shirt, then wrapped a strip of white cloth around her chest. Her beautiful collarbones and alluring shoulders were completely exposed, clashing strangely with her unevenly cut short hair.
She saw him standing there, watching her with a pair of profound eyes, his pupils reflecting her appearance. She crooked a finger at him. “Come here~~”
A pair of hands suddenly appeared behind her and pulled her back. “Hurry, the chancellor is coming.”
“That little dwarf has terrible timing.” She picked up her clothes and left with the other person. When she returned to the classroom, several girls cried out in surprise and hurriedly helped straighten her hair and clothes.
One of the girls beside her said, “You can’t touch that person.”
“Why?”
“You don’t know? He’s the son of a member of the university board.”
“So what?”
“Don’t forget your agreement with your parents. If you can’t complete your studies, you have to go back for an arranged marriage. Didn’t your father already predict you’d never manage to graduate? He found you a man from a family of equal status long ago.”
She smiled, wicked charm filling her expression. “He wants to marry me? I’ll stab him dead the moment we enter the bridal chamber.”
“Then you’ll still be a widow.”
That night, she was the last person to leave the classroom and saw him sitting on her suitcase. She walked over and pulled it out from beneath him. “Thanks.” The moment the word left her mouth, she raised the suitcase and struck him with it. He frowned. “You really hold grudges.”
“You realized that too late. Why are you here?” Her voice revealed extreme displeasure.
He leaned against the wall and studied her with interest. “To compensate you for cutting your hair.” She was somewhat surprised. Although she had pretended not to care, she had regretted her impulsiveness afterward. How had he noticed her dejection?
She quickly sneered. “How do you intend to compensate me?”
He extended his fingers and unexpectedly caught hold of her short hair. He leaned closer, then closer still, breathing in the scent of her hair. Afterward, his lips brushed her ear. “I’ll stay beside you until it grows long again. How does that sound?”
For some inexplicable reason, her face began burning. “Who cares?”
He said nothing more and turned to leave. She picked up the suitcase and threw it at him again. He raised one hand, easily blocking it with his arm. “You’d better correct that habit of throwing things.”
“I could say the same to you.” He had been the one who threw away her suitcase when they first met.
From then on, he fulfilled his promise and stayed by her side. No matter what she did, he usually did nothing but read. Strangely, once he began appearing beside her, not only did fewer people come looking for trouble, but even those who had once pursued her fervently almost completely disappeared. Time passed around them, and something inside her grew together with her hair.
The scorching summer arrived, and her hair grew as long as it had once been. His promise had reached its end. On the first day, the second day, and the third day, he stopped appearing. It made something inside her ache. He could enter her life whenever he pleased and disappear just as casually.
After successfully winning the election to become the following year’s student council president, she sat in the stairwell, placed a cigarette between her lips, and lit it. A boy passed nearby. The moment he saw her, he tried to avoid her as quickly as possible. She grabbed him. “What are you running for? Didn’t you once say you were madly in love with me?” Evidently, her narcissism had existed for more than a day or two.
The boy smiled ingratiatingly. “Pursuing you already required a great deal of courage, but afterward…” He paused before continuing, “Who in this university has the ability to compete with him?” After saying that, he fled in a flash. She sat back down on the stairs and continued smoking.
“I don’t remember agreeing that you could pull and tug at other men.” He appeared around the corner, his voice cold. His sudden appearance made the cigarette slip from between her fingers. She immediately recovered her indifferent expression. “I don’t remember you having the right to interfere.”
He walked forward, lowered his head, and examined her small face before bending down and kissing her. She shoved him away forcefully. “Bastard, what are you doing?” Her heartbeat shouted deafeningly inside her chest.
“I’m only telling you one thing. You’re mine.”
“Since when was I yours?”
“Tomorrow.”
“What does that mean?” She could not make sense of it.
“Go back and prepare yourself. I’ve already visited your parents. Tomorrow, you’re marrying me.” His tone was not a question. He was merely stating what would happen.
The news came quickly, but she accepted it even faster. “Is that so? You want to marry me? Beat me first, then we’ll talk.”
….
This was extremely different from the love legends they usually heard. It was practically the love story of two devils. Ke Bu felt that this legend combined with certain realities in an extraordinarily eerie way. Unable to restrain himself, he asked, “What happened in the end?”
“What do you mean, what happened? On June 22, the two of them casually got married. Apparently, someone later saw her wearing an apple-green belt. When they asked her about it, she said it was an added effect brought about by happiness. Many people therefore believed that wearing an apple-green belt would help them find a happy romantic match. The story has one final little episode.”
….
When are you going to quit smoking?” He glanced sideways at her. She propped her long legs on the table and replied, “I’ll quit when I’m pregnant.”
“Go back and prepare yourself. Tomorrow, you’ll start getting pregnant.”
From then on, the family lived a peaceful, harmonious, and happy life.
….
After listening for so long, the final sentence was the most obviously fake part. “Aren’t those two far too casual about major matters like marriage and children?!!!” Ke Bu could not help exclaiming. Then he asked, “Don’t you know the names of the people in this legend?”
Gong Zhu shook his head. Legends were all passed down through one friend after another. A classmate beside them said, “I think I heard my older sister mention that the woman’s surname was Lan and the man’s surname was Zhi.”
Everyone’s stunned gazes fell upon Zhi Li. There was no mistake. There absolutely could not be any mistake. He was the new species casually produced by those two devils!!
“Zhi Li, does any of this sound familiar?”
Zhi Li thought for a moment. “I’ve never met those two people. I also don’t remember knowing anyone with either of those surnames.”
“You no longer want to acknowledge your biological relationship with them?!!!”
Ke Bu sighed inwardly. He really did not want to spoil the girls’ excitement, but the people in that love legend had ultimately divorced. Although Ke Bu had never asked for the reason behind their divorce, there was an even more serious issue: Zhi Li’s father had actually managed to defeat Lan Yin in a fight!!
Unable to contain his excitement, Gong Zhu called Lan Yin. An icy voice came from the other end. “Which idiot is this?”
“Lan Yin, it’s me, Gong Zhu. I only wanted to ask whether that apple-green belt really has the power to bring love.”
“What nonsense is that?”
“The thing you wrapped around your waist after getting married.”
“What kind of ridiculous mess are you talking about? I only remember that after giving birth to Zhi Li, my stomach was a little loose, so I wore an apple-green abdominal binder.”
Ke Bu snatched the phone. “Who wears an abdominal binder on the outside?!! Wait, you gave birth to Zhi Li while you were still in university? Couldn’t the two of you study properly while you were in university?!!”
“Who do you think you’re speaking to?”
“Forgive me, Your Highness. Please pardon this servant’s excitement.”
The call was disconnected from the other end…
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