They ordered several stir-fried dishes at the “housefly” restaurant tucked away in the backstreet of the school. Zhai Yao didn’t expect Shen Heng to actually show up later, and one could tell that his friendship with Luo Le was pretty strong.
As soon as the four of them sat down, an unspoken four words floated above their heads—“definitely not good people.”
Especially Luo Le, with a skull chain dangling on his ripped jeans, feeling as though he could pull out a spiked club from his waistband at any moment.
In stark contrast, Shen Heng, to whom Luo Le had handed a cigarette, sported a pristine white shirt and glasses perched on his nose, giving off a refined and well-mannered appearance. At a distance, one might even mistake him for a good student being harassed by delinquents.
But those who understood knew that Shen Heng was the most sinister among them. At the very least, although Zhai Yao was vicious, he had always relied solely on his fists. Shen Heng, on the other hand, was different; he targeted vital points and specialized in causing internal injuries.
After finishing their meal, they made their way to a nearby illegal internet café.
Initially, Shen Heng had no intention of entering; he disliked places like this, where the air circulation was poor, and the computers had been handled by numerous people. But he couldn’t bear the sweltering outdoor heat, coupled with the power outage at the school, the internet café at least offered some relief with its air conditioning.
The three of them booked three computers, sitting side by side. As for Shen Heng, he didn’t play; instead, he leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed to rest.
Across from them sat two male students, one of whom, a chubby fellow, had been secretly observing Zhai Yao and the group since their entrance. Upon catching Zhai Yao’s glance, he quickly pretended to be engrossed in his screen.
Zhai Yao was quite well-known among high schoolers, especially those who frequented illegal internet cafés like this one. And now, with Shen Heng sitting by his side, who was just as formidable, they resembled a pair of peerless weapons—Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. Therefore, Zhai Yao was accustomed to such scrutinizing gazes. He proceeded to turn on the computer and opened a game on his own.
After a triumphant match, the opponent immediately got triggered, spewing out furious trash-talking in the public chat.
Zhai Yao’s style of playing games belonged to the lizard type—not talkative but held grudges, focusing on targeting and killing trash-talkers, intimidating his opponents to the point where they were too afraid to even leave their safe base.
After the game, he even casually gave the opponent a thumbs up.
“That was brutal, bro!” Xie Ziming laughed.
“You guys match up first.” Feeling parched, Zhai Yao removed his headphones, grabbed a mineral water bottle, and took a few sips. When he turned his head, he noticed that Shen Heng had already awoken at some point and was staring at him briefly before shifting his gaze to the mineral water bottle in his hand.
Zhai Yao frowned. “Buy your own if you’re thirsty.”
Shen Heng maintained a momentary silence before saying, “That bottle is mine.”
“?” Zhai Yao looked and realized that it was indeed as he had said!
His own bottle was on the left side, but he had just grabbed the one on the right.
“Why’d you put your bottle on my table?” He pulled up the corner of his shirt hem and roughly wiped his mouth with it, then got up, went to the counter, and bought another bottle for Shen Heng.
“Thank you.” Shen Heng took it, opened and took a sip, and then said lightly, “Don’t drink the wrong one next time.”
“.” Truly asking for a hell of a beating.
If one were to be frank, the equipment in this internet café was quite lousy. If it weren’t hidden enough, it would have probably closed down long ago.
Let’s not talk about just how ancient and laggy the computers were; even the headphones were of poor quality. If Zhai Yao had sat there without wearing anything, he could even have heard what people around him were playing.
For example, right at that moment, the tall and skinny guy next to the chubby one was watching something. The sounds emanating from his headphones were of exceptionally recognizable movements that evoked blushing and raised heartbeats. Every pimple on his excited face was glowing.
Later, he felt that watching alone wasn’t enough, so he dragged the chubby guy next to him.
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.
The two of them leaned their heads together, watching with extremely lecherous grins, occasionally exchanging a few words.
Zhai Yao cast a glance at Xie Ziming and Luo Le beside him; they had already begun a new match. The others were also seated far away, with almost all of them wearing headphones, paying no heed in his direction.
Finally, Zhai Yao returned his gaze to Shen Heng—
Amidst a series of clear “dame” sounds, he somehow produced the book “How the Steel Was Tempered” from who knows where, leaning back in his chair and quietly flipping through it, as if in his own world of serene tranquillity.
Sensing Zhai Yao’s gaze, Shen Heng lifted his eyelids.
For a fleeting moment, Zhai Yao even suspected he just had auditory hallucinations.
Yet in that instant, another high-pitched “yamete” erupted from the opposite side, prompting Zhai Yao’s lips to twitch. “Can you not hear it?”
“I can,” Shen Heng replied, still maintaining a demeanour of nonchalance and calmness, flipping through the pages of the book again. “Just wait.”
Zhai Yao didn’t know what Shen Heng was asking him to wait for. The pimple-faced guy opposite them, probably eager to show off his experience in that certain aspect to the chubby guy, began discussing the girls in their class right after they finished talking about the AV ero on the screen, often using derogatory language.
“About that committee member in our class, she may appear innocent, but in reality, she’s quite risqué!”
“Really?!” The chubby guys also got excited and asked in a hushed voice, “How did you know?”
The pimple-faced guy said while shaking his leg, “Just yesterday in class, she caught me looking at her and deliberately lowered her neckline. Say, wasn’t that just her trying to seduce me?”
Zhai Yao deeply loathed this kind of behaviour. When he was young, he overheard a guy talking behind Zhai Bing, commenting on her walking posture as provocative. Zhai Yao then picked up a wall brick and smashed it directly at the guy’s head, reportedly causing him to receive seven stitches in the hospital.
Just as he was about to act on his preaching about being a decent person towards the individual across from him, Shen Heng finally finished a chapter beside him.
He removed his glasses, wiped them clean, put them back on, folded the corner of the page, and gently closed the book.
The next moment, he grabbed the mineral water bottle from the table and threw it directly at the pimple-faced guy opposite them without even sparing a glance.
The mineral water bottle traced a graceful arc, landing a precise blow on the pimple-faced guy’s head.
The pimple-faced guy, who was chatting excitedly, got startled and jumped up with an “ah,” inadvertently tugging on the headphone wire and unplugging it from the computer.
The high-pitched sounds of the AV ero immediately flooded the internet café.
“Who the f*ck was that?!” The pimple-faced guy hurriedly shut down the computer, his hands fumbling, and accidentally clicked on full screen.
The commotion caught the attention of those around, and as they turned to look, a chorus of whistles erupted instantaneously in his direction.
The pimple-faced guy couldn’t bear to lose face, his face alternating between red and pale.
He glared fiercely at Zhai Yao and confronted, “Was it you who threw it?!”
“No,” Zhai Yao replied stoically, nodding towards Shen Heng. “Him.”
The pimple-faced guy squinted, observing the person Zhai Yao pointed at. The accused person looked polite and well-mannered, like someone who had accidentally wandered into the wrong place on his way to his extracurricular class. He found it hard to believe.
“Hey, the one wearing glasses,” the pimple-faced guy shouted gruffly. “Was it you?”
Shen Heng didn’t respond. He twisted open another mineral water bottle and finished it with little concern. Only then did he remark calmly, “How about you experience it again?”
The pimple-faced guy didn’t quite understand his meaning at first and casually asked without much thought, “Experience wha–”
Before he could finish his sentence, another mineral water bottle flew towards him, striking him squarely in the face.
“Ah, f*ck——!!”
Shen Heng: “How is it, was it me?”
Zhai Yao: “.” Despicable, indeed.
The pimple-faced guy completely lost his temper, cursing loudly and charging towards Shen Heng with bared teeth and claws.
Zhai Yao silently shifted his chair aside, giving him ample space for full play.
The chubby guy rushed forward and quickly grabbed the pimple-faced guy, sweating profusely as he pleaded, “Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go… You can’t win against him in a fight!”
The pimple-faced guy was the typical type of people who judged others by appearances. Seeing that the opposite party didn’t look like they could fight, he became even more arrogant. Through gritted teeth, he raged, “I f*cking want to see who dares to lend him their damned guts!”
As soon as he finished speaking, two figures suddenly appeared in front of him, one of them even had a skull tied around his waist, looking fierce and menacing like a fiend.
The pimple-faced guy was immediately terrified. He had previously assumed that the person wearing glasses only had a thin, weak companion by their side, and their relationship didn’t seem particularly great either. He never expected there would be more!
The chubby guy quickly stepped forward to defuse the situation, accurately locating Shen Heng. Blinking his narrowed eyes, he pleaded, “Well, you see, we didn’t provoke you. This is also a public place, so why don’t we just let it go?”
Shen Heng remained leaning against the backrest of the chair, not bothering to even stand up.
Seeing his lack of response, the chubby guy tried to lead the pimple-faced guy away quickly. However, he was blocked by Luo Le and Xie Ziming, who stood side by side in the aisle, guarding like door gods.
The chubby guy’s sweat flowed even faster, but suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration and turned his head, shifting his focus onto Zhai Yao.
“Yao-ge, we were in the same kindergarten class! During the Children’s Day performance, you played the little princess, and I played your friend, the little flower pig. Have you forgotten?!”
“Pfft.” Caught off guard by the sudden attempt to establish a connection, Xie Ziming couldn’t hold back a laugh, almost bursting into full-on laughter.
Meanwhile, Shen Heng quietly removed his glasses, lowered his gaze, and slowly wiped the lenses with a velvet cloth.
“Little princess…”
He murmured.
Zhai Yao’s expression visibly darkened as he shot Shen Heng a murderous glare. “I dare you to try mulling over those thoughts again?”
Shen Heng pursed his lips and didn’t say anything anymore.
The chubby guy initially thought of playing the emotional card, but unintentionally angered Zhai Yao further. As he pondered how to mediate the situation, the pimple-faced guy interjected untimely, “What the hell did I do to you guys to deserve having a bottle thrown at me?!”
Luo Le and Xie Ziming, who had been gaming all along, actually weren’t entirely aware of what was happening. Upon hearing what was said, they turned their attention to Shen Heng and Zhai Yao.
Zhai Yao indifferently remarked, “The mouth is for speaking, not for spewing bullsh*t.” He paused momentarily before adding, “This isn’t your house’s toilet, either.”
“What did I even say!” The pimple-faced guy attempted to deflect blame and argue back.
Zhai Yao clicked his tongue. “Are you sure you want me to refresh your memory?”
Despite feeling a chill down his spine, the pimple-faced guy still summoned whatever damned guts he had left and warned, “I’m warning you guys, our school, 2nd High School, isn’t far from here. Dare to touch me and see what happens!”
Omigosh!
The chubby guy stomped his foot furiously, wishing he could grab the pimple-faced guy’s tongue. He thought to himself: How could he reveal our school? Next time, I’m not hanging out with this idiot again!
As expected, his words were met with disdainful laughter echoing from all directions, followed by the emergence of six or seven individuals from the shadows.
They were all from 9th High School. They hadn’t noticed Shen Heng’s arrival earlier because they were focused on their gaming, and now they stood awaiting his orders.
“How should we handle this, Heng-ge?” Someone asked eagerly from several rows of computers away.
Glancing at the wall clock, Shen Heng realized it was about time to return to school. He stood up and exchanged a glance with Luo Le.
Xie Ziming and Luo Le shared a glance, then stepped aside, clearing a path for the pimple-faced guy and the chubby guy.
The other 9th High School students present were initially waiting for an opportunity to stretch and loosen their muscles, but seeing that Shen Heng didn’t pursue the matter, they could only give up. They each slumped back and went about their own business, doing whatever they needed to do.
The chubby guy quickly and tactfully pushed the pimple-faced guy. “Let’s go, let’s go!”
Just as they were about to hasten their pace to flee, the door of the internet café suddenly swung open with a loud “whoosh.”
“Let’s see who dares to run away!”
The chubby guy and the pimple-faced guy looked over and were nearly frightened to their knees.
Chubby guy: “Oh crap, it’s the director!”
Instinctively, the pimple-faced guy pulled his shirt up to cover his head.
Zhai Yao and the others also turned towards the backlight, gazing outward. A man, resembling a teapot in stature, stood firmly in the centre of the entryway, as if rooted to the ground, with an unwavering presence, appearing as though he were reaching up to touch the sky itself.
Someone breathed a sigh of relief; fortunately, it wasn’t their Director Liu.
…
From Yunz:
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Jbwwfcafg: P’w uefrrlcu—vlv Lfcu-uf qfgtjqr atgbk atf ybaaif atja Tjbsjb ybeuta obg tlw, jcv atfc xffq atf bcf Tjbsjb tjv vgecx ogbw?
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Badass mode activated 😎
Woot? 😳 and here I thought Heng2 hasn’t developed any romantic feelings toward Yao2 yet.. they both are too gangster-like 🙈
So…keeping the drunk bottle for indirect kiss…*cough*
Heng-ge, you might have to revise your comment about not liking guys