Chapter 134: Listening to Huaming’s Cold Jokes!

Chapter 134: Listening to Hua Ming’s Cold Jokes!

Overnight, Tang Chong became the campus sensation—no, it was actually Hua Ming.

Those students who recognized Tang Chong naturally knew he was standing in for Hua Ming to sing. Yet, among the crowd watching the show that evening, only about two hundred were from the Psychology Department.

In other words, most of the students mistook Tang Chong for “Hua Ming.”

The Freshman Welcome Gala was the school’s most beloved large-scale event. Besides the main school leaders and department heads seated upfront, nearly ten thousand students came to watch.

No one could forget those scenes. Or rather, those two scenes.

There was a girl named Qiu Yihan who stood on stage, crying uncontrollably while apologizing. She sang “Crystal” for a boy and waited for him to come up, refusing to leave the stage—

“He’s not coming up.”

That plaintive voice moved countless audience members to tears.

This was the first climax of the entire evening.

Then, when a boy called “Hua Ming” took the stage to sing “I Am a Wolf from the North,” the persistent little girl appeared again. She ran so fast and suddenly that her high-heeled shoes flew off—

This time, the whole Ming Auditorium erupted into wild applause.

That was the second climax of the evening.

The whole event had only those two peaks.

It wasn’t that other voices weren’t beautiful, or that the comedic sketches weren’t brilliant, nor that the girls in tank tops and shorts dancing hip-hop weren’t sexy and explosive—it was simply that compared to the two climaxes brought by Qiu Yihan, the rest weren’t climaxes at all.

Qiu Yihan’s performance seeped into one’s bones with sorrow and emotion, while the other acts were merely pleasing to the ears and eyes—entirely different levels.

After the gala, the lives of Tang Chong and Hua Ming changed drastically.

Hua Ming munched on some peanuts of unknown origin and drank beer brought by some unknown benefactor, eloquently recounting the heroic and pivotal role he played in this grand campus affair.

“You all know, right? Originally, the class nominated me for the department, the department submitted me to the school, and because my singing was top-notch, the school selected me. But in the end, why was it our Number Two who went up on stage? If I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t guess no matter how hard you tried.”

Indeed, if Hua Ming hadn’t said it, no one would have guessed that he had food poisoning from spoiled seafood and couldn’t go on stage—a scandal he would never admit aloud.

Thus, the gossip fire among the crowd blazed fiercely.

“Yeah, yeah. I thought it was strange too. It should have been you on stage—how did Tang Chong end up going instead?”

“Hua Ming, tell us! What really happened? How did Tang Chong and that Qiu Yihan start? How long have they known each other? I’ve never heard of them before. I heard Qiu Yihan is the freshman belle of the International Trade Department—after tonight, her popularity should rival Su Shan’s, right? People say Su Shan is beautiful, but none of us have seen her. I’ve seen Qiu Yihan—though she was on stage and I was far away in the audience. But by a man’s sixth sense, I know she must be a great beauty—”

-------

Hua Ming reached for the peanuts but found the bag empty. Glancing at the empty pouch, he said, “Forget it. No snacks in my mouth, no fun talking. I’ll tell the story tomorrow, tomorrow. Everyone go home and sleep.”

Then, the ravenous crowd eagerly started offering their treasures.

“Hua Ming, I’ve got two bags of sunflower seeds in my dorm. Wait here, I’ll get them for you.”

“I think I have a bag of pistachios in my room. If you don’t mind, you can nibble on some.”

“Beer goes best with spicy chicken feet—hold on, I’ll buy some now. Want a couple of marinated eggs too?”

“Get some more beer,” Hua Ming called after their retreating backs.

Once the table was piled with snacks and Hua Ming had something to chew on, he resumed his story:

“To tell this story, we have to start from our freshman orientation. On my first day at school, I met Qiu Yihan—Tang Chong looks like a total loser, you think he could know a beauty like her?”

“I remember it was a bright sunny afternoon. I was carrying my rabbit, Little Cutie, to the supermarket—oh, by the way, can someone feed Little Cutie some water? Don’t want it to get thirsty. Where was I? Right, I was carrying Little Cutie to the supermarket, and countless girls glanced at me along the way. Honestly, I’m used to this kind of scene.”

“‘Can I pet your rabbit?’ Yes, that was the first sentence she said to me. I turned around and saw a beauty standing right behind me. A beauty? I’ve never been short of beauties in my life. I glanced at her and said no. My Little Cutie is shy.”

“Wow—”

Everyone burst out laughing. Some said Hua Ming’s calmness in the face of beauty was heroic; others said his playing hard to get was a sophisticated move; some insisted he was just making it all up and bragging.

“Attention, attention,” Hua Ming rapped the table with his beer bottle. “Here’s the key part. At that moment, our Number Two appeared. He walked over and said, ‘Hua Ming, the girl wants to see the rabbit. Just let her; it won’t lose a single hair.’ While saying that, he was slyly winking at me. I knew this guy was smitten.”

“I, the honorable Wuque Gongzi, value ‘brotherhood’ above all. When a brother’s in trouble, how could I not help? So, I handed the rabbit over to Number Two, saying, ‘You watch her for a bit, I’ll go buy something’—in truth, Little Cutie was the matchmaker between us two. This story is simple: a rabbit sparked a romance.”

“Off-topic, off-topic,” someone interjected. “We want to know why Tang Chong went on stage instead of you?”

“Are you an idiot?” Hua Ming gave him a disdainful glance and sneered, “I already said, as Wuque Gongzi, I live by ‘brotherhood.’ I knew those two lovebirds had a little quarrel, so I deliberately told Number Two I had a stomach ache and asked him to cover for me on stage. Of course, Qiu Yihan approached me during rehearsal to ask for help—after that, you all know the rest. If I had gone on stage, no doubt I’d have been one of the campus’s Top Ten Singers.”

Wuque Gongzi waved his hand disdainfully, adopting the demeanor of a master who treats fame as fleeting smoke, and said, “But I don’t care about that. Finding a charming little wife for our Number Two—isn’t that better than some Top Ten Singer?”

“--------”

When Tang Chong returned to the dorm, he found it packed with people all waiting for the soon-to-be campus celebrity to come back.

Hua Ming sat by the window, surrounded tightly by a group, speaking eloquently:

“Honestly, there’s no difference between the campus belle and the department belle, or between the department belle and the class belle—at least, that’s how I see it. I used to want to conquer the campus belle, but after conquering a few, I realized it’s just a matter of a man’s sense of achievement. Now, I prefer to play small flirty games with simple, modest girls and have sincere relationships—of course, breakups are also done sincerely, so I can truly experience the bittersweet taste of love. Life is a journey of cultivation—”

Tang Chong knocked on the door and said, “For that sentence, we have to drink a bottle.”

Pushing through the crowd, he grabbed a beer from the table to clink with Hua Ming.

“Tang Chong’s back.”

“Tang Chong, did you escort the little beauty home?”

“We thought you wouldn’t come back tonight.”

Hua Ming chuckled, clinking bottles with Tang Chong, quietly saying, “Number Two, I’m just tricking you for some drinks. Don’t get mad.”

“Why would I?” Tang Chong wrapped an arm around his neck and said, “I should be thanking you. Come on, bottoms up.”

The two brothers polished off the beer. Hua Ming asked, “Why did you come back so soon?”

“Finished, so I came back,” Tang Chong replied with a smile.

Everyone laughed, saying Tang Chong’s stamina was weak since he finished so quickly.

Tang Chong smiled at their laughter, pulled his wallet from his pocket, and said, “I made such a big splash tonight. I have to treat everyone. I don’t know how much is in my wallet—whoever takes it, buy all the drinks. Let’s have a big feast.”

“Woo—”

The crowd shouted, rushing to grab the wallet, while others hugged Tang Chong, showering him with kisses and touches.

Under Liang Tao’s organization, a few burly guys went to the supermarket and brought back several cases of beer. Then, everyone grabbed a bottle and started drinking.

Drinking beer, chatting, telling dirty jokes, singing loudly, chasing and playing around, laughing until rolling on the floor, arguing heatedly over which girl had bigger breasts or longer legs—this was youth’s life and spirit.

Tang Chong sat in the middle, sober despite the drinks, already intoxicated in heart.

When Tang Chong woke up, it was still early. Rain pattered fiercely against the window, and the dorm was still pitch black. A thin figure sat at the head of his bed.

Startled, he instinctively raised his hands in defense and asked, “Who’s there?”