Don't be So Proud

Chapter 3.2 — Like a Pear Blossom Bathed in Springtime Rain

Monkey looked like he wanted to say something and then hesitated.

Shen Xi clenched her fists together. She really did not expect Lin Yu Tang to hide a secret which she did not know. But how could there be none, just that she was in the dark all these while.

Speaking of which, she was not considered to be his officially recognized girlfriend yet.

Monkey still has not spoken about what happened, but Shen Xi discovered her palms were already sweating. She stood up and poured herself a glass of water. On the other hand, Monkey felt a little apprehensive, fearing ‘someone’ (He Zhi Zhou) will steal immediately after hearing this.

Shen Xi sat in front of Monkey again. Holding a glass, she sipped a small amount of water at a time. She looked calm and collected as if just listening to a gossip.

Monkey whetted their appetite. But he could not withstand Brawny’s persistent persuasion and blurted out everything he knew about ‘that incident’: Anyway that incident happened a few months ago. He and Lin Yu Tang went together to the bank to conduct banking transactions. He saw Lin Yu Tang was transferring some money. The amount transferred was definitely a huge sum of money for a university student. In addition, he inadvertently saw the name of the receiver, a woman’s name. He asked Lin Yu Tang with a smile: “Third, you can’t be keeping a mistress outside?”

“……”

“What did Third say?” Brawny opened his eyes wide and his chin was about to drop to the ground with a ‘bang’.

Monkey recalled the scenario at that time, spread out his hand and said: “Nothing.”

“What do you mean by nothing?” Brawny did not understand.

“Exactly nothing la.” Monkey said again, “Third’s response was exactly like this.”

“How much?” Brawny continued to ask, focusing on the main point.

Monkey counted with his fingers: “Around this number.”

“No way, where did Third get so much money?” Brawny did not believe him.

“He probably saved them from childhood until now.” Shen Xi said calmly in response to Brawny’s expression of doubt.

She knew Lin Yu Tang has the habit of saving pocket-money, lunar new year lucky money and all kind of scholarships from childhood. Adding the big and small amounts together will sum up to more than what Monkey gestured just now. Once when she and Lin Yu Tang celebrated the birthday of a friend, they chatted about the high house prices in S city and whether young people can rely on their own to buy a house before marriage. Lin Yu Tang’s opinion was: “It is certainly more meaningful to strive hard to buy a house before marriage.”

During that birthday party, Lin Yu Tang drank a lot and was a little drunk when coming back. He told her at the quiet bus terminal: “Xi Xi, I’ve already saved for the down payment to buy a house. I’ll sign with a good company after graduation, so the loan repayment will not be a problem.”

In contrast to Lin Yu Tang, she has never planned anything since childhood. Everything was well-planned by her father and mother; Lin Yu Tang and her family’s financial situation should not need to worry about the issue of buying a house before marriage. Just that hearing Lin Yu Tang mentioned that he had already saved for the down payment money, her whole being was filled with a thing called “happiness”.

He has been planning a future that included her, so of course she was happy.

But now …… Shen Xi really wanted to cry. Even though Lin Yu Tang had never said he will marry her, she felt Lin Yu Tang was using the money he planned to buy a house before marriage on another woman.

“What is the name of that woman?” Brawny was still a little unconvinced, “So much money, could it be that he had given them to a close relative or so on?”

“I’ve already said it is for a friend.” Monkey scratched his head, really cannot remember the name. He thought for a while, “I remember it is Ling something ……”

“Ling Ling?” Brawny made a wild guess.

Monkey continued to think: “Ling what ……”

All along, Shen Xi also has her head down and kept quiet. Only her delicate long eyelashes trembled slightly, concealing her red eyes. After a while, she blurted out the name of that girl: “Ling Chao Xi, right?”

The pen Monkey was spinning around his fingers fell directly to the floor. He was very surprised until almost stood up: “Correct, she is Ling Chao Xi. But Leader how do you know!?”

“Because …… I saw her name on a friend’s list before.” Shen Xi made up a random excuse. Then she stood up and walked out of the dormitory.

Shen Xi left the male dormitory with very red eyes. When she was in the dormitory, she controlled herself as there were other people around, until she came to a small grove downstairs of the dormitory, when the tears dropped incessantly. She started to cry ‘boo hoo’.

From time to time, there were people walking past the grove. Shen Xi glanced right and left, immediately used her hand to cover her mouth to stop crying when she saw someone was passing by. After that person has left, she will release her hand and continue to cry, to let go and overcome her bad mood.

Until she received a phone call from He Zhi Zhou.

Her voice was choked with sobs, letting He Zhi Zhou immediately heard something was wrong. He nervously asked: “Where are you crying?”

“Grove …… boo hoo …… don’t worry ……. no one can see ……” Shen Xi was holding the mobile phone and saying to He Zhi Zhou. However when she just finished saying that, a couple was walking past nearby. Their voices were loud enough to be heard by He Zhi Zhou.

Shen Xi quickly controlled her crying and gasped for air.

He Zhi Zhou blurted out some swear words.

Shen Xi burst into tears again. Since it was bad already, it could not be worse, so she intended to cry until she was satisfied.

He Zhi Zhou can only resort to soft tactic: “Shen Xi, I’m not scolding you ……”

Only then Shen Xi stopped crying, realizing she was rather narrow-minded. She took out a tissue, wiped her tears and snot away intermittently and asked He Zhi Zhou: “Why did you call me?”

He Zhi Zhou’s serious and deep voice can be heard over the phone: “Your father just called, but I hung up. Do you want me to send him a text message?”

Shen Xi was still gasping for air when she said to He Zhi Zhou: “You tell him directly, I’m studying ……”

He Zhi Zhou agreed and hung up the phone. Actually, he wanted to ask Shen Xi why was she crying, but if he thought about it, he will get the clue. What will cause her distress? Her only distress was probably whether “Tang Tang loves her or not,” “Why Tang Tang does not love her”……

He Zhi Zhou followed Shen Xi’s instruction and sent father Shen a “I’m studying” text message. Soon after, father Shen replied with the text message: “Come on Xi Xi! Xi Xi is the best!”

He Zhi Zhou looked at the text message, a slight smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

Shen Xi loitered one round in S University campus before returning to dormitory 921. Relying on ‘He Zhi Zhou’ high popularity, there were people greeting her all the way. Of which two girls who were carrying some fruits, passed by her and stopped to ask her whether she wanted some.

The two girls seemed to have mustered up the courage, to dare to come over to strike up a conversation. Shen Xi did not have the heart to reject them, so she reached out and picked the largest fruit from the fruit bag. Then she said ‘sweetly’ to them: “Thank you.”

The two girls ran away excitedly.

Shen Xi felt that she had done a good deed, so her mood was a little better. Holding the pear, she returned unhurriedly to the male dormitory.

Lin Yu Tang had already come back, has just taken a bath and was holding a towel with both hands to wipe the hair. Shen Xi was angry, aimed at Lin Yu Tang’s back and hit him with the ‘Buddha’s Palm’ (a fictional wuxia martial arts based on a very old HK film that, in the story, was the most powerful). Lin Yu Tang was caught unprepared so he staggered a few steps forward. Then he turned his head angrily: “He Zhi Zhou, are you sick!”

Shen Xi looked sideways at Lin Yu Tang, took a bite of the pear and said: “Yes ah, rabies, so come and bite me la!”

Suddenly a war erupted in the dormitory. Brawny and Monkey who were happily watching a film, quickly dashed over and each held onto one person. Monkey held onto Lin Yu Tang: “Third, why did you get angry?”

Brawny was holding onto Shen Xi’s waist and saying earnestly: “Leader, calm down and talk it out. If you’re unhappy with something, take it out on me!”

Shen Xi curled her lips and said innocently: “I wanted to greet Third, but accidentally used too much force, so he thought I hit him ……”

Monkey: “……”

Brawny: “……”

Lin Yu Tang: “……” Some people pretending to be innocent after already getting an advantage.

Shen Xi handed the pear she had nibbled to Lin Yu Tang and made the first move to call a truce: “Do you want to eat pear?”

Lin Yu Tang turned his head.

“So it is just a misunderstanding.” Monkey promptly patted Lin Yu Tang on the shoulder, “The weather is dry, so let’s eat the watermelon which Leader just bought back in the evening.”

Lin Yu Tang did not eat the watermelon, but also did not speak anymore. He shook off Monkey’s hand and went to the laundry room to wash his clothes.

Thus a dormitory crisis was settled like this. Monkey and Brawny continued to happily watch the ‘romance action movie’. Shen Xi walked over, took a few glances and did not leave. While watching, she produced “Aiya” “Wow” “Damn” and similar sounds, seriously affecting Monkey and Brawny’s viewing pleasure.

Brawny turned his head: “Leader, are you doing this deliberately?”

Shen Xi apologized: “Sorry, I don’t often watch this kind of movie, so a little overly excited ……”

Brawny understood and nodded. Indeed, Leader He rarely watched this kind of movie.

After Lin Yu Tang came back from doing his laundry, Monkey invited him to come and watch together. Out of courtesy, Lin Yu Tang came over and took a few glances, then turned back.

It was quite a while before bedtime, so Shen Xi played games on her mobile phone. With a seek advice mentality, Monkey came over to observe the Leader playing game. Then seeing him playing , he cannot help feeling a bit strange: “Leader, why are you playing this game?”

Shen Xi put her long legs on a chair and answered Monkey’s question: “Going back to basics and take pleasure in the simple things in life.”

In the past few days, the people in dormitory 921 were a little dissatisfied with ‘He Zhi Zhou’. On the next day, after class was finished for the day, Brawny said to Monkey: “I want to isolate Leader He because he has been too much recently!”

Monkey nodded in agreement: “How about you isolate him first?”

Brawny shook his head: “I am an ordinary person, so I don’t dare ah!”

Monkey heaved a sigh: “Then you think I dare? My family runs a business which relies on relationships ……”

Both sighed incessantly when they were on their way from the canteen to the dormitory. After walking halfway, Brawny recalled the express delivery will arrive today and wanted Monkey to accompany him to get it. Brawny bought a ‘good thing’, which he only told Monkey. When they arrived at the mail room, they discovered that the delivery had been taken by someone.

It was Shen Xi who helped to sign for the acceptance of the delivery. The men’s clothes she bought from Taobao had arrived. When she was signing for acceptance, she saw Brawny’s stuff, so she helped to bring them back together.

Brawny’s stuff was particularly big, so Shen Xi exerted a lot of energy to move it back to the dormitory. Because her hand was a little itchy, she opened the box ……

More than ten minutes later, Brawny and Monkey came back. Shen Xi was sitting on the floor, blowing air into the inflatable doll. It was a little big, so she blew until the cheeks bright red.

The image was too irritating, resulting in Brawny almost vomiting blood. Trying to cover up, he stammered: “Whose stuff is this ……”

Shen Xi looked up: “Don’t tell me …… not your girlfriend?”

Brawny went crazy!

The next evening, Brawny deflated the doll that Shen Xi had blown up with great difficulty. While folding it, he said: “Actually, I just …… bought it to have a look. As a man, of course I am a little curious.”

Shen Xi squatted on the floor and looked at Brawny: “Why do you want to return the merchandise? I’ve never returned the things I bought, unless the shop sent me a brick. It is not easy for people to do business.”

Brawny stuffed the doll back into the box with grief and indignation. He simply gave an excuse: “Quality is bad.”

More reason for Shen Xi not to support Brawny to return the merchandise: “You’ve not even used it, so how do you know the quality is bad?”

Brawny went crazy again.

Shen Xi was grinning from ear to ear. Suddenly, she received a text message from He Zhi Zhou, with only one sentence ——”I’ve come.”

He Zhi Zhou has come? Shen Xi immediately dashed out of the dormitory building. However she looked left and right, yet cannot find He Zhi Zhou. She gave He Zhi Zhou a call: “You’ve come, but where are you?”

He Zhi Zhou picked up the phone but did not speak. After a while, only then he said: “It is my …… your menstrual has come.”

11 of 65 Chapters segments

0 of 2 epilogues

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