After getting thoroughly dealt with, Chu Hao Yu returned only to hear some exhilarating good news. He planted his hands on his hips and burst out laughing. “Xiu Jie and Ke Bu are out!” Ke Bu closed his eyes, thought for two seconds, then opened them again. “We haven’t reached Chapter 10 yet. I’ve only said it once, and Xiu Jie has said it twice. How does that mean we’re out? Aren’t we supposed to pick the two people who say the banned words the most? Someone else might end up saying them even more.”
“Trying to be clever, huh? We’ll see about that.”
This time, no matter what happened, Ke Bu absolutely did not want to lose. More than the prospect of being fed to the dogs, he simply couldn’t stand the thought of calling out someone else’s name at a time like that. At times like that, his mouth and his body belonged entirely to Zhi Li.
As Zhang Luo recorded their current scores, he said, “I just thought of a great idea. To make sure Ke Bu and Xiu Jie get punished, why don’t all of us go to an internet café, pull a few all-nighters playing games, and use nothing but gaming jargon to muddle our way through to Chapter 10?”
“Why don’t you jump off a building instead? Then you won’t have to muddle through anything.” Ke Bu folded his arms and glanced at Zhi Li. After going around in circles like this, do I still have to work on him after all?
“Zhi Li, I want to ask you something.”
“Mm.”
“Which part of my body do you like using the most?” The moment Ke Bu asked, everyone else reacted strongly.
“Have you no shame? You can actually ask something that shameless?”
“Even I’m blushing just hearing it. ‘Which part do you like using the most?’ Seriously?”
Gong Zhu turned the question back on Ke Bu. “What if Lord Zhi Li answers that he likes using your ‘mouth’?”
“So you’re the dirtiest one here!”
“Did I say any banned words?”
“Innuendo should count too, right?” Ke Bu looked toward Su You Yan, their judge. Chu Hao Yu shook his head repeatedly. “Of course it doesn’t count. If innuendo counted, we wouldn’t even be allowed to say banana or cucumber.”
At what point had my life gone wrong badly enough for me to meet these people—and somehow stay friends with them for this long? They were filthier than sludge.
That night, after returning to the dorm and getting ready for bed, Ke Bu was about to close the door when it bounced back open. Zhi Li first glanced at Chu Hao Yu, who was tossing and turning miserably on his bed, then looked at Ke Bu. “Did you forget what I said at noon?”
“I also told you at noon why I was refusing, didn’t I?”
“You’re refusing me?”
“What’s wrong with refusing you?”
“Nothing.”
“Th-Then I’m going to sleep.”
“Mm.”
Ke Bu turned off the light, took off his jacket, and climbed beneath his blanket. Yet he never heard the door close. He lifted his eyes and discovered Zhi Li still standing beside the bed, looking down at him. Ke Bu threw back the blanket. “How am I supposed to sleep with you standing there like that?!”
“What?”
“I said—”
“What?”
“How are we supposed to sleep with you standing there like that?!” Chu Hao Yu added. Zhi Li’s upper body began to turn, but before his gaze could even reach Chu Hao Yu, Chu Hao Yu started wildly swatting at the air. “Damn mosquitoes! Disturbing my sleep, huh? Just wait until I get my hands on you. Huh? Zhi Li, when did you get here? You’re way too quiet. I didn’t notice you at all.” You really couldn’t blame Chu Hao Yu for being spineless. When Zhi Li actually hit someone, it seriously hurt.
“You two just sleep.”
“O-Okay.” Both of them simultaneously pulled their blankets over themselves. Bored out of his mind, Zhi Li switched the light on, then off again. He casually picked up whatever happened to be nearby, looked at it, then tossed it aside. Finally, he called Su You Yan. “Go to the music room and find a digital piano. I suddenly feel like composing something tonight.”
Unable to endure any more, Ke Bu sat bolt upright. “You don’t even know how to play the piano! What are you composing?! Fine, fine, I get it. I’ll go over there, okay?” He raked both hands through his hair, then dragged Zhi Li back to Zhi Li’s dorm room. Zhi Li’s roommate Zhang Luo had always been dissatisfied with the school’s internet speed and practically lived off campus, so his bed hadn’t been used in ages. Ke Bu frowned as soon as he saw it. “This doghouse isn’t fit for human habitation anymore. It’s covered in dust. And dorm beds are way too small. If the two of us squeeze onto one bed, we’ll catch a cold.”
“No need to be polite with me. You can sleep on the floor.”
“I’m so lucky to have such a considerate boyfriend.”
“Mm. I think you’re very lucky too.”
“You do know there are plenty of recorded cases of people actually dying from anger, right?”
Someone knocked on the door. Since Zhi Li made no move to answer it, Ke Bu had no choice but to open it himself. It was You Yan, with Extra A and Extra B behind her carrying a lightweight digital piano. As for the fact that the Chancellor’s daughter could apparently stroll freely in and out of the boys’ dormitory, Ke Bu intended to file a complaint with the relevant authorities.
Elio’s Notes: 路人甲/乙 literally means “Passerby A/B.” In Chinese fiction, these are generic labels for anonymous background characters—the equivalent of calling them “Extra A” and “Extra B.”
“You actually brought one over? He was joking.”
“Who said I was joking?”
Ke Bu’s objections were completely ignored as the digital piano was carried into the dorm. All they had to do was connect a few cables and plug it in. Su You Yan pressed one of the keys, confirmed that it made a sound, then left. Ke Bu gave up. “If you’re not going to sleep, I’m claiming the bed first.” He climbed onto Zhi Li’s bed and lay directly in the middle. His behavior failed to provoke any reaction from Zhi Li, who was busy examining the digital piano. Ke Bu stared fixedly at him, desperately hoping Zhi Li wouldn’t suddenly become interested in it. Zhi Li had no artistic talent, much less musical talent. Even if he somehow managed to play beautiful piano music, Ke Bu had no desire to listen to it in the middle of the night.
Zhi Li sat down in front of the digital piano, and somehow there was not the slightest sense of incongruity. Everything seemed as though it had been created specifically to complement him. Maybe he was a genius. Maybe he was someone capable of anything. Maybe even if he had never played the piano before, music would simply emerge naturally the moment his fingers touched the keys. Then Zhi Li started playing and shattered every single one of Ke Bu’s maybes. It was absolutely awful! Someone touching a piano for the first time could play better than this! Zhi Li really was a person of ridiculous extremes. There were things he did so well that they were unbelievable, and other things he did so badly that they were equally unbelievable.
Covering his ears, Ke Bu stopped him. “Quit playing.”
Complaints immediately rang out from the hallway as well. “Who the hell is that?! Are you going to let anyone sleep tonight?!”
Surrounded by furious shouting, Zhi Li remained completely unmoved, immersed in his own world of noise. Ke Bu jumped straight from the bed onto Zhi Li’s back and wrapped his entire body tightly around him. “As your boyfriend, I’d like to give you one piece of life advice: don’t have too much confidence in yourself.”
“I don’t play well?”
“You seriously can’t hear it yourself?”
“It sounds pleasant to me.”
“You can’t be blindly confident!” Ke Bu suspected that in Zhi Li’s world, the word “inferiority” didn’t even exist. Standing barefoot on the edge of the stool, Ke Bu said, “Forget that for now. Bring me my shoes.” The moment Ke Bu let go, Zhi Li stood up. He looked at the bed, then at Ke Bu. “You gave up your spot on the bed.” With that, he pulled back the blanket, lay down, and said, “Good night.”
“Hey! Hey! Zhi Li! What the hell is this?!” Ke Bu immediately regretted his moment of carelessness. Jumping from the bed to the stool had been easy, but getting back was harder. If he pushed off too forcefully, the stool might slide away. Wait, why am I being such a clean freak? It isn’t even my own bed. Ke Bu stepped onto the floor barefoot and climbed under the blanket. “Scoot over. Scoot over. Give me some room.”
“But this is my bed.”
“Who was the one who made me come here?!”
“Then who’s turning off the light?”
“I’m the guest. Obviously you are.”
“The person sleeping on the outside turns off the light. It’s a law of nature.”
“What kind of law of nature is that?!” Zhi Li’s nape, his shoulders, his back—even through his clothes, there was something irresistibly attractive about them. Ke Bu rested his forehead against him. “Let’s just sleep with the light on. I don’t want to move away right now.”
“It’s too bright.”
“You’re so troublesome.” Ke Bu reluctantly got up. Just as he was about to reach the door and switch off the light, the room suddenly went dark. It was dormitory lights-out. How could I have forgotten that?! Ke Bu threw himself back onto the bed and landed on top of Zhi Li through the blanket. “You only stopped playing the piano and got ready for bed because you knew the power was about to be cut, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Well played.”
“What?”
Early the next morning, Ke Bu rubbed his eyes and started to stretch, only for his hand to hit the wall. Strange. He distinctly remembered falling asleep on the outside of the bed last night. When had he ended up on the inside? He turned his head and looked at Zhi Li, who was now sleeping on the outside. Nearly half of Zhi Li’s body was hanging off the edge of the bed, and it was honestly impressive that he hadn’t fallen off sometime during the night. Ke Bu grabbed the blanket that had been tucked securely around him and threw the whole thing onto Zhi Li. “Don’t think a little clever trick like that is enough to move me!”
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