The cafeteria is filled with the voices of hundreds of students talking to each other. And of course, the table Pu Li Ming is sitting at is no different.
Aside from his friends, there were also two of their classmates sitting with them. Classmate He and Classmate Bai were the other few of the students their age that they knew more than passingly.
Pu Li Ming sat on the farthest left on their side of the table, with Shang Wenduo to his right, and Feng Phan beside him. Across from them were their two classmates.
“By the way, I don’t think I saw you at the conference, Feng Phan.” Classmate He said, gesturing to the man in question with her empty spoon.
“Ahh, I work on Saturdays. I could’ve caught up if I had the time, but it got swamped coincidentally. So yes, I couldn’t make it in the end.” Feng Phan answered, laying his utensils neatly on his plate after he finished eating.
“Bummer, you completely missed the God of Engineering as one of the speakers!” Classmate Bai told him, the glass of juice in his hand precariously sloshing about as he waved his arm.
Pu Li Ming’s ears immediately perked up hearing the source of a lot of his dazing these days.
Noticing his reaction, Shang Wenduo smirked and leaned on the table with his elbow, “And you totally missed Pu Li Ming displaying an extreme level of obliviousness—”
“Hey!” Came the token protest of said cream-haired man.
“—when he told me he doesn’t have one bit of an idea who Mr Zhou Fi Hai even is.” Shang Wenduo finished with a smug grin.
With a raised eyebrow, Feng Phan turns to Pu Li Ming, “Really?”
Pu Li Ming huffs, “I don’t like listening to gossip okay.”
“Nah, I know for sure you just blank out when someone talks to you about something you aren’t interested in or that doesn’t relate to you specifically.” Classmate Bai says.
“…no, I don’t.”
“Oh yeah? Then what was the topic of our conversation before Classmate He asked Feng Phan about where he was on Saturday?” Classmate Bai asked.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“…”
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“I hate it when those two are together.” Classmate He said to the other two with a deadpan look.
“Then why do you two come hang out with us anyways?” Feng Phan asked.
“Need a break from handling him myself.” Classmate He answered, rolling her eyes.
“I heard that, you know!” Classmate Bai protested.
“So who is Zhou Fi Hai?” Pu Li Ming asked, cutting in before the table would devolve into more squabbling.
Classmate Bai grins and leans closer to them, all of their heads tilt further towards him as they lend their ears.
“I’ve heard that when Zhou Fi Hai came to the University to take the entrance exam, nobody batted an eye at him. That was until they noticed that he was always the first to flip a page. That’s when their eyes started unconsciously drifting towards him.” He said conspiratingly, “And when he was the first to finish, everyone looked at him as he walked towards the proctor and handed in his paper.”
“My older sister’s advisor at that time was the proctor,” Classmate He piped up, their eyes turning to her as she spoke, “And she told me that her advisor took a glance at his paper at that time and got shocked and when the more she looked, the more correct answers he had written there.”
“Is he really that smart?” Pu Li Ming says in disbelief.
“They say he’s a genius at Engineering.” Feng Phan answered, “From what I saw in his last year here at University, they aren’t lying.”
“Li Ming, you’d think Feng Phan himself is a genius with how good he is at Uni and being the top of our batch. But Zhou Fi Hai?” Shang Wenduo tilted his head and his eyes flashed, “They called him a prodigy.”
All the while they’re talking to him, their eyes boring into him, he feels eyes on the back of his head too. Shivers crawl down his spine, raising the tiny hairs on his skin.
“HEY!”
They all gave a startled shout when a senior grabbed their attention.
“Are you guys talking about Zhou Fi Hai?” The senior said, his eyes practically sparkling.
“Great…” Shang Wenduo muttered, “Not Senior Yang, of all people.” He comments which earns him a light elbow to the side from Feng Phan.
“Hello, Senior Yang.” Classmate He greeted him with a small bow of heard, prompting the rest of the table to follow afterward.
“Hello, hello! Now enough with the pleasantries and tell me—” he squeezed into the seat right beside Classmate Bai who gave him a side-eye. (A/N: Bombastic side-eye. Criminal offensive side-eye.)
“—were you guys gossiping about the one and only, Zhou Fi Hai?” He grinned widely.
Shang Wenduo narrows his eyes, “No—”
But Pu Li Ming had already opened his mouth and answered, “Yes.” Prompting Shang Wenduo to look at him in betrayal.
“Ah, of course, of course.” The Senior nods sagely, “He is subject to many of our younger classmen’s conversations. But it isn’t that surprising considering how well-known and amazing he is.”
The only reaction he gets is a deadpan from Shang Wenduo.
“Now, I actually came into the University the same year Zhou Fi Hai did. I ended up getting held back a few years, but this just goes to show how great Zhou Pi Hai did in his academics.” Senior Yang told them.
“Or maybe it just shows how dumb—” Shang Wenduo’s mutter is cut off with another elbow to the side.
“They used to say that Zhou Fi Hai was practically a prince. He doesn’t look like it especially because he never dresses extravagantly, but we know that he’s loaded. His equipment for classes is always high quality and extra expensive. And he himself drives either a classy car or a racing motorbike, all glammed up.”
“No one really knows who his parents are or what they actually do though. No one ever came during events at the school when everyone else’s parents came by, even during his graduation. And Zhou Fi Hai himself never talks about his family either. Though they say he may be the sole heir of a grand business. His parents could’ve been too busy running their mega-corporation to come to the University all those events or something of the sort.”
“And whoever those parents are? Should be important people.” Senior Yang says, looking around to see if anyone’s listening in before leaning to the middle, “I’ve heard from some classmen that during Zhou Fi Hai’s time here, they caught sight of large men with black suits and black sunglasses following after him. But whenever they do a doubletake, the men in black go poof!” He makes a small explosion gesture with a hand, “…disappeared.” He finishes with a dramatic handwave.
Pu Li Ming blinks, trying to process the information that was practically spoonfed to him.
“How sure are you that these are all true though?” Classmate Bai said.
With a wiggle of his eyebrows, Senior Yang replied “Like I said, I came to the University the same time he did.”
“But you got held back a few years, didn’t you? Why?”
“I transferred to Engineering from another course.” Senior Yang answered.
Shang Wenduo slams a hand on the table and points at him, “Aha! So you weren’t actually here to see and hear all that from those years back!”
Senior Yang frowns, “I heard it from friends in Engineering at that time!”
“Admit it,” Shang Wenduo settles back into his chair with a smirk and crosses his arms, “You just like gossiping even when they aren’t necessarily true at all.”
“No— I swear—”
But by that point, Pu Li Ming had already huffed and completely blank out.
Well, all that information may as well be useless.
Does Li Ming dissociates?