Chapter 82
The winter wind had grown harsher and harsher, and the New Year was fast approaching. After a truly brutal exam month, their batch of freshmen had finally reached break and could at last rest properly.
Under Qi Wang’s supervision, Lin Huaixi had still managed to keep a decent routine, but Liu Zhengnian and the others had pulled an all-nighter right before their final exam. They were completely out of it. When Lin Huaixi came to find them, they could only stare straight at him with blank eyes. Lin Huaixi was so alarmed he thought they had gone mad.
“Wake up. Didn’t we agree that after exams we’d go eat hotpot?” Lin Huaixi asked. “Do you want to go to a restaurant, or eat in the dorm?”
Exam month had been far too miserable. Liu Zhengnian had been unable to hold on, so he had resorted to the tactic of “living off painted cakes,” sustaining himself by fantasizing about post-exam happiness to soothe his wounded spirit.
The moment Liu Zhengnian heard the words hotpot, his mouth started watering on its own, and he instantly came back to life. “Great, let’s eat in the dorm. It’ll be freer that way.”
Lin Huaixi nodded. “Okay. Qi Wang and I will go buy the stuff and be back before dinner.”
Throwing an arm around Zhang Yunqiu’s shoulders, Liu Zhengnian thumped his chest and promised, “Don’t worry. We’ll wait in the dorm and get everything ready.”
Lin Huaixi hesitated for a few seconds, then could not help reminding them, “Qi Wang hasn’t been back to the dorm in a long time. Hide the socks you haven’t washed, and remember to air the room out.”
Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu froze, then laughed awkwardly, still trying hard to save face. “What are you talking about? We’re very clean. We would never do that.”
Lin Huaixi curved his lips but did not expose them. He only patted them on the shoulder.
They split up. Lin Huaixi found Qi Wang after his exams were over, and the two of them went to the supermarket together before returning to the dorm carrying large bags of food.
The moment they pushed open the door, the entire dorm looked spotless. The air was fresh, as if no one had ever lived there.
Lin Huaixi was briefly stunned, and his gaze turned uncertainly toward Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu.
He knew these two roommates far too well. The tidier it looked, the more it proved they had not actually cleaned properly—or rather, that they had been unable to clean at all and had simply crammed everything into the wardrobe.
Qi Wang had mild cleanliness issues. In Lin Huaixi’s mind, this had always been a major matter. After exchanging a look with Liu Zhengnian, the two instantly reached a silent understanding.
Liu Zhengnian walked up to help them carry things. Lin Huaixi, meanwhile, drifted over to the wardrobe and gave it a cautious shove. The moment he felt the enormous resistance behind the door, he broke out in a cold sweat for them.
That had been way too close—just a little more and they would not have managed to stuff it all in.
Liu Zhengnian noticed the problem too and promptly hung a lock on it. Lin Huaixi was full of admiration for his quick thinking and gave him a thumbs-up.
Qi Wang finished setting everything out, only to realize no one had come over. He looked at Lin Huaixi and the others in confusion.
Lin Huaixi and Liu Zhengnian had been caught red-handed. So startled they stood at attention on the spot, it took them two or three seconds before they plastered smiles on their faces and walked over, chatting and laughing with a suspicious level of forced enthusiasm.
Qi Wang understood Lin Huaixi far too well. He did not expose the clumsy act, only smiled.
Lin Huaixi and Qi Wang had both moved out, and with exam month in between, they had not sat down to eat together in quite a while. Yet their relationship had not grown distant in the slightest. This was chiefly reflected in the way they fought over the meat.
Not a single one of them bothered with fake politeness. All of them stared at the meat slices in the pot with green-eyed intensity, like hungry weasels possessed by something.
No one even knew who moved their chopsticks first. Hands blurred into afterimages. Three seconds later, all the meat in the pot was gone.
Lin Huaixi: “…”
Holding his bowl, he froze in place, staring blankly at the empty pot in utter disbelief.
With their mouths stuffed full of meat, Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu looked at Lin Huaixi’s dumbfounded expression and laughed mercilessly.
In the very next second, however, Qi Wang placed meat into Lin Huaixi’s bowl—more than Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu’s portions combined.
Liu Zhengnian: ???
Zhang Yunqiu: ???
Qi Wang had actually fought them for the meat, and gotten that much too. Brother, your whole character setting has collapsed!
Qi Wang’s expression remained calm, as if he had done nothing out of the ordinary. He even smiled very gently.
Lin Huaixi looked at the meat in his bowl, then at Zhang Yunqiu and the others. Dipping it generously in sauce, he deliberately waved it around in front of them before taking a huge exaggerated bite.
Zhang Yunqiu / Liu Zhengnian: “…” We really give up.
“Huaixi, don’t go too far. If you’ve got guts, then next round don’t cheat—fight us for it yourself!”
Lin Huaixi raised his brows and widened his eyes.
When it came to food, he had never lost to anyone.
“Who’s the one cheating here? You two moved your chopsticks before I could even react. Otherwise, with my speed, how could I possibly have failed to grab any?”
“Then let’s do it again.”
“Fine, let’s do it. Who’s scared of who?”
“I definitely won’t lose!”
“The loser’s a puppy. Woof woof woof woof!”
The three of them bickered childishly, each one looking more foolishly earnest than the last. If an actual grade-schooler had been present, even they would probably have looked down on them.
The dorm grew quiet. The three of them held their breath and stared fixedly at the meat in the pot, waiting only for the moment it was done so they could strike first.
Lin Huaixi was highly skilled in such matters. The instant he saw the meat rolling in the boiling soup, he moved like lightning. Liu Zhengnian was a beat too slow, but he adapted quickly and changed tactics, focusing instead on blocking Lin Huaixi.
Their chopsticks clashed crisply in midair, tangling in fierce combat, and Zhang Yunqiu joined the fight as well.
Right in the middle of the most heated moment, a pair of chopsticks reached in from the side and calmly took away the meat.
All three turned at once.
Qi Wang moved with elegance, without a trace of the starving urgency the others had. His eyes were lowered slightly, his features clean and handsome, so serene that one could almost feel the quiet beauty of time itself from him.
He placed the meat into Lin Huaixi’s bowl and said with a smile, “Eat it quickly. If it cooks any longer, it’ll get tough.”
Lin Huaixi paused, then blankly withdrew his chopsticks. The other two stopped fighting as well and each took their own share of meat.
The meat tasted sourer and sourer, as though they were chewing on life itself. Liu Zhengnian was not upset that Lin Huaixi had help; he just felt painfully unbalanced.
“If only I had a childhood friend too. He’d help me pick up meat, care about me, and cherish me like a wife…”
Liu Zhengnian accidentally said the wrong thing. His expression froze. He shut his eyes hard and assumed Lin Huaixi and Zhang Yunqiu would seize the chance to mock him—but instead what he heard was Lin Huaixi choking.
Lin Huaixi had been choked by his food. He coughed so hard he could not stop, tears welling up in his eyes as he lay weakly across the table.
Liu Zhengnian looked both worried and baffled. “Are you okay? How can someone choke this badly just from eating?”
Lin Huaixi slowly lifted his head and looked at them with a deeply complicated expression.
“Well… a lot has happened lately, and I forgot to tell you.”
“Tell us what?” At this moment, Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu, these two hopelessly straight men, still had no clue about the seriousness of the situation.
Lin Huaixi glanced at Qi Wang. There was no nervousness or awkwardness on his face at all now, only sweetness. “That thing you said before… you were right.”
Liu Zhengnian looked totally lost. “Which thing?”
Lin Huaixi had no choice but to repeat it. “That one. The one about Qi Wang treating me like a wi-wife…”
He was forced to say it aloud, and his skin was so thin that with every word his face flushed a little redder.
The room was overflowing with pink, lovey-dovey energy, and Lin Huaixi’s words and reaction should have explained everything. But Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu were wooden blocks.
Zhang Yunqiu even said, “We’re not blind, of course we can tell. Honestly, I’d really love to have a childhood friend like Qi Wang too.”
Lin Huaixi: “…”
He completely lost it. No longer bothering with subtlety, he said flatly, “I mean the two of us are actually together.”
Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu wore blank expressions and spoke in unison, “Of course. You two are childhood friends. We’ve always known that.”
“…”
Lin Huaixi’s expression twisted, the muscles in his face nearly stiffening into a block.
He truly surrendered. Did these straight guys have even a single brain cell for this sort of thing?
Lin Huaixi was so overwhelmed he was practically projecting his inner monologue into the room. Qi Wang, hearing it all, could not help laughing.
Lin Huaixi turned to look at him expressionlessly.
Sensing the danger in that stare, Qi Wang barely managed to hold back the laughter and decided to help him out.
Under Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu’s stunned gazes, he gently took Lin Huaixi’s hand. His voice was soft, but it hit like thunder exploding on level ground right beside their ears.
“We’re together now.”
