Chapter Thirty-Eight: L

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Lend Me Your Perfume!

Since they still had military training in the afternoon, Tang Zhong and his friends didn’t drink much at lunch. When they returned to their dormitory, they found a group of people gathered outside Room 307, chattering excitedly as if something thrilling had happened.

“Hey, make way, make way!” Hua Ming’s burly frame was perfect for forging a path. Charging ahead, he shouted, “Brothers, you’re blocking the door. We can’t get inside!”

“They’re back, they’re back!” someone called out excitedly.

“Which one is Tang Zhong?”

“The one with glasses. Wow, he’s my idol—he took on six guys by himself, and they were all from the school basketball team. That’s awesome!”

Tang Zhong’s forehead creased with several black lines. Had the news already spread? All he had done was get into a fight with a few people. Of course, those people weren’t ordinary—they were some of the campus’s notorious troublemakers. What made it even more sensational was the rumor that he had thrown each of them into the Ink-Washing Pool. Since the founding of the university, nothing like this had ever happened.

“Second Brother, they’re all here to see you,” Liang Tao said with a laugh. At lunch, he’d toasted Tang Zhong three times and apologized for his rashness on their first day. Tang Zhong accepted his apology and drank with him, and from then on, their friendship began to blossom. For Liang Tao, becoming Tang Zhong’s friend was far luckier than being his rival. In just two days, Tang Zhong had revealed abilities that quietly astonished everyone.

“A dragon lurking in the depths,” Liang Tao thought to himself. So now, calling him Second Brother, he did so willingly.

“If we put Tang Zhong in a cage and charged five yuan a look, do you think we’d ever have to ask our parents for living expenses again?” Hua Ming muttered.

“Alright, everyone, disperse,” Tang Zhong said with a smile. “As you can see, I’m not some heartthrob, so you can all relax.”

Most of the onlookers were male students from the same building. Upon hearing about the midday incident, they’d quickly found out where the protagonist lived and came to wait for their return. Hearing Tang Zhong’s words now, they all laughed good-naturedly.

“Good job! You stood up for us freshmen.”

“Brother, do you know martial arts? Teach us, will you?”

“Yeah, from now on we’re sticking with you—”

Bang! Once the door was shut, the room finally quieted down.

Hua Ming immediately went to take care of his pet rabbit, Little Darling, saying, “Second Brother, not bad! Those guys really admire you—I’m afraid you’re about to steal my title as 307’s Most Charming Man. I’ll just be 307’s Handsomest Guy from now on.”

Liang Tao protested, “If you’re the handsomest, where does that leave me?”

“Tied,” Hua Ming grinned. “We’re both tied.”

Knock knock—

There was a rapping at the door.

Liang Tao, worried it was more admirers, called out, “Who is it?”

“It’s me, Lu Yifei,” came the reply.

“Lu Yifei? Our class monitor?” Hua Ming turned and asked.

“Seems like it,” Liang Tao replied, glancing at Tang Zhong. “Should we let him in?”

“Invite him in,” Tang Zhong said.

So Liang Tao opened the door with a cheerful, “To what do we owe the honor, Monitor?”

“I’m here to pay my respects to the hero,” Lu Yifei said with a smile. He was short, wore glasses, and his smile revealed two dimples—a very gentle, clean-cut young man who made an excellent impression.

“They exaggerated,” Tang Zhong replied modestly. “Those guys had just played basketball and were tired. We four brothers just took advantage of the moment.”

Tang Zhong, not wanting the fame of “one against six,” made sure to include Hua Ming and Liang Tao as his shields.

“To dare take on the school team—still takes guts,” Lu Yifei said. “I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m in Room 304. If you have time, come visit. If you smoke, I have some special Xifeng cigarettes from home—quite good.”

“Thank you,” Tang Zhong replied with a smile.

“Well, I’ll let you rest and won’t disturb you further.” With a wave, Lu Yifei left.

“What was that about?” Liang Tao asked, puzzled.

“Don’t know, do you?” Hua Ming grinned. “He wants to be class monitor.”

“But he already is class monitor, isn’t he?” Tang Zhong was confused.

“He’s just the temporary monitor appointed by the advisor. Our psychology department’s freshmen are divided into three classes, but right now all the boys are mixed together for training. After military training, we’ll be split into classes, and each class will elect its own monitor. In university, class officers are pretty popular—they organize activities and get picked for school awards. Plus, the experience helps when job hunting after graduation. At schools like Renmin or Peking University, where politics runs deep, student union presidents often end up in government, and their career progression is much faster—” Hua Ming explained.

“To be appointed temporary monitor right at the start means he either has connections or people skills. And since the temporary monitor usually becomes the official monitor—over ninety percent of the time—there’s no helping it. Everyone knows him, he’s the one relaying notices and running errands, so naturally, everyone votes for him.”

“What’s this got to do with Second Brother?” Liang Tao asked. Though his father was a government official, he couldn’t see through these little intrigues as well as Hua Ming.

“Because he’s feeling threatened,” Hua Ming said, glancing at Tang Zhong. “Second Brother makes him nervous.”

“But I don’t want to be class monitor,” Tang Zhong replied. With all the fuss over today’s fight, Bai Su would probably want a word with him. He had no interest in being monitor—he’d rather return to being the warden at Henshan Prison.

“The problem is, he doesn’t know that,” Hua Ming said.

Tang Zhong just smiled and lay down to nap.

———

Once the initial excitement faded, everyone began to complain. Drills by day, drills by night: attention, at ease, left turn, right turn, military boxing—at first, everyone had looked forward to handling a gun, but soon they were disappointed. This year, there would be no live-fire training.

This crushed any remaining hope for military training, and yet only a few days had passed—the Long March had barely begun, and there was a long road ahead.

The instructors understood students’ minds well. As the afternoon training was about to end, Instructor Li Tieshu announced, “Tonight at eight, gather at the main field.”

A chorus of groans erupted.

“No training tonight. Just singing and dancing,” Li Tieshu chuckled. “Duets—boys and girls.”

The boys howled like wolves.

“You can request leave. If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to,” Li Tieshu said, his honest face breaking into a rather mischievous grin.

“No leave! We’re not missing it!” the boys all declared.

“Dismissed,” Li Tieshu waved.

After dinner, as soon as they returned to the dorm, Hua Ming and Liang Tao began fighting over who would shower first. They played rock-paper-scissors, and when Liang Tao’s scissors beat Hua Ming’s cloth, he marched into the bathroom victorious. Hua Ming, carrying his rabbit Little Darling, paced the dorm muttering, “Little Darling, dear Little Darling—what am I supposed to do with you? How can I bring you along?”

Li Yu sat at Tang Zhong’s MacBook playing games, while Tang Zhong lay on his bed reading a magazine. Hearing Hua Ming’s muttering, Tang Zhong asked, “What are you trying to do with it?”

Hua Ming dragged over a chair and plopped down in front of Tang Zhong. “Which part of me do you think is most attractive?”

“Do you want the truth or a lie?”

“The truth.”

Tang Zhong pointed at the rabbit in his hand. “That.”

“Exactly!” Hua Ming slapped his thigh. “Great minds think alike! If I don’t bring Little Darling along tonight, will any of the girls even notice me?”

“……”

“But what excuse can I use to bring my rabbit? If the instructor sees it, won’t he skin me alive?”

Tang Zhong was completely defeated. “You’re on your own with that.”

He shooed Hua Ming away to deal with his own headache.

When Liang Tao finished his shower, he dried his hair, shaved, and applied all sorts of products to his face. After changing into fresh clothes, he took out a bottle of DIOR perfume from his little case and liberally sprayed it under his arms.

“Do you have body odor?” Tang Zhong asked.

“No,” Liang Tao replied. “But it might get hot tonight and I don’t want to smell bad. Besides, girls like men who are clean, fresh, and smell good.”

“Isn’t that a bit much?” Tang Zhong asked.

“It’s absolutely necessary,” Liang Tao said, adopting an experienced tone. “Think about it—our department has so many wolves and so little meat, just twenty-something girls, and who knows how many boys will be chasing each one? It’s not that I have to win someone over tonight, but as a man—if all the girls are snatched away and we’re left sitting there, watching others have fun, where’s our pride?”

Tang Zhong got up, opened his wardrobe to find fresh clothes for a shower, and said, “Lend me your perfume later.”