Don't be So Proud

Chapter 3.4 — Like a Pear Blossom Bathed in Springtime Rain 1

He Zhi Zhou actually used a sanitary napkin to hit her!

Shen Xi massaged her nose and shouted; “He Zhi Zhou!” Before she finished venting her anger, He Zhi Zhou’s serious and gloomy voice can be heard from the other side of the bed: “If you really dare to let Lin Yu Tang kiss you, I would rather slash my wrists like a warrior to maintain my reputation.”

Slash his wrists like a warrior to maintain his reputation …… Okay, just for the sake of this display of backbone that he was showing, she also wanted to maintain ‘He Zhi Zhou’s’ reputation. Shen Xi turned her face to look at He Zhi Zhou who was lying on the bed: So strange! She was obviously looking at ‘herself’, but a sense of reserved quietness seemed to rise up in her heart.

Shen Xi thought of Lin Yu Tang who was also a typical man of few words. If He Zhi Zhou was considered reserved quiet, then Lin Yu Tang was peaceful quiet. Shen Xi was thinking about a question, she felt that surely Lin Yu Tang must like her a little. This feeling of fondness had existed longer than time itself, but because it had been too long, time had also drawn it out until it felt faint. Both of them were too familiar with each other, so they had forgotten what should heartbeat feel like.

“Big brother He ……” Shen Xi called He Zhi Zhou.

He Zhi Zhou: “What’s the matter?”

Shen Xi: “Good night.”

He Zhi Zhou: “…… Good night.”

The first rays of the morning sunshine darted into the room through the beige curtains, shining little by little at the two beds in the middle of the bedroom. He Zhi Zhou woke up very early in the morning. Today, his body was not feeling as uncomfortable as it was yesterday. After washing the face and rinsing the mouth, he came out from the bathroom. Shen Xi was still sleeping soundly, holding the pillow and quilt, the sleeping posture was not a pretty sight.

After yesterday’s experience, He Zhi Zhou can completely understand the principle that human endurance is a bottomless pit. After so many groundbreaking incidents happened, he still has the mood to make himself a cup of ginger tea now —— to nurture the body.

He should give himself a round of applause!

Shen Xi woke up after smelling the ginger-scented tea. She massaged her eyes and said to He Zhi Zhou: “Please also make me a cup.”

He Zhi Zhou made another cup.

Shen Xi put on her slippers, got up, washed her face and rinsed the mouth. She called room service to deliver a sumptuous breakfast. After eating breakfast, He Zhi Zhou switched on the computer and continued to stimulate the entire course of events in Qingdao on the computer.

There were model and data, looked very much like the real thing.

Shen Xi cannot help much on this, but she can go and buy He Zhi Zhou a change of clothes and some daily essentials. All in all, it was a very harmonious morning. But before she left, she saw two ‘pimples’ on He Zhi Zhou’s face.

“Aiya.” She asked He Zhi Zhou, “Didn’t you use any skin care products lately?”

Skin care? She thought so ideally! He Zhi Zhou remembered the bottles and jars in the female dormitory and casually replied: “Don’t know how to use ……”

Shen Xi held He Zhi Zhou’s hand and let him touch her chin: “You feel with your hand.”

He Zhi Zhou looked at Shen Xi, wanting to pull back his hand.

Shen Xi held on to it, refusing to let go. Although she was angry, her tone can be considered gentle: “Do you think I was born to know how to shave? Don’t you need to learn with everything in life? Since I can learn how to shave, how about you putting some skin care products on the face?”

He Zhi Zhou: “……”

Shen Xi felt very aggrieved and left in anger. When she came back, she was carrying a set of female style sportswear. In order to seek revenge on He Zhi Zhou, she deliberately chose a sexy and cute outfit which exposed the shoulders.

After He Zhi Zhou changed into the new clothes and came out, he tried to cover up his shoulders and asked Shen Xi: “Is there something wrong with the clothes?”

Shen Xi finished off all of He Zhi Zhou’s leftover, wiped her mouth and said: “Nothing is wrong. After all, I can be considered as one of the school beauty. All the female students eagerly copy my clothing style, so even when wearing sportswear, I also need to have my personal style.”

He Zhi Zhou sneered.

Shen Xi won an inch but wanted a foot (Chinese idiom meaning not satisfied with small gains). Suddenly she took out a bottle of multi-purpose beauty essence from her bag, handed it to He Zhi Zhou and said in a fawning voice: “Big brother He …… can you please put some on the face in the future? You don’t know that a girl’s skin is the most important ……”

He Zhi Zhou glanced at Shen Xi, then took the bottle of beauty essence with an irritating expression. He tried to negotiate: “I can put them on, but I used to exercise every day. It is okay that I’ve not been exercising lately, but you’ve been eating so much. I am also worried about my body getting out of shape ……”

Sure enough, He Zhi Zhou was also vain! Shen Xi shrugged her shoulders: “No problem, I also like to exercise such as yoga, jumping rope, pole dancing …… which one do you like?”

Pole dancing, had she gone crazy?

“Ten thousand metres short run every day, plus 100 push-ups.” He Zhi Zhou made his request.

Ten thousand metres can be considered as short run? All of a sudden, Shen Xi retreated. After quite a while, she asked: “Can change push-up to sit-up?”

He Zhi Zhou actually smiled: “Okay.”

Shen Xi has always been a trustworthy person. Once she promised to do something, she will certainly have it done. Just like, when she was a child, she said in front of the grownup that she wanted to marry Tang Tang. Since then, she has not set eyes on other man.

Of course, He Zhi Zhou was an exception.

Therefore after dinner and doing some digestion exercise, Shen Xi started to run in S University’s sports field. At seven something at night, the semi-bright and semi-conceal stars filled up the dark blue night sky. Shen Xi ran three rounds in one go. Gradually, there were a few girls accompanying her to run.

On the other side, Lin Yu Tang who had kept his temper in check for several days, went to look for Shen Xi. The outcome was Dou Dou told him that Shen Xi had gone to the library.

In his impression, Shen Xi was someone who will never set foot in a library in a million years. Lin Yu Tang arrived at the normal school’s library and hesitated for a moment. Under the big camphor tree, he dialed Shen Xi’s phone number.

Shen Xi did not hang up on him this time.

Ten minutes later, ‘Shen Xi’ came out from the library.

The reason why He Zhi Zhou answered Lin Yu Tang’s phone call, and even came out from the library —— the reason was, if he continued giving Lin Yu Tang the cold shoulder, there was an eighty percent chance that Lin Yu Tang and Shen Xi will have a problem. He was not an especially nice person, but when he thought of the persistence and tenacity that Shen Xi possessed when it came to liking a person, he did not have the heart.

He would rather demolish a temple than destroy a marriage, he would treat it as doing a good deed. If spirits really exist, then make their power felt. Let Shen Xi and him return to their rightful bodies earlier.

He Zhi Zhou came down from the library for his date with Lin Yu Tang.

Actually, it cannot be considered a date. Both of them just strolled two circles around the campus. Then sat for a while on the Lover’s Hill. In the end, Lin Yu Tang even bought him an ice-cream.

……

“Okay, I am going up.” He Zhi Zhou said to Lin Yu Tang.

Lin Yu Tang nodded, cannot see any expression on his face. Then he turned and left.

After Lin Yu Tang had gone, He Zhi Zhou quickly threw the melting ice-cream into the rubbish bin. Only then, he returned to the female dormitory. It was the summer, and the female dormitory was not even the slightest bit more reserved than the male dormitory: small shoulder strap, mini shorts, and boob tube top made with flimsy materials …… He Zhi Zhou looked straight ahead all the way back to female dormitory 636.

In the dormitory room, Xia Wei Ye was walking around, wearing a skirt with shoulder-straps. He Zhi Zhou was able to ignore them, but when he was about to sit down, Dou Dou barged into the room.

He Zhi Zhou turned his head and saw Dou Dou complaining ‘so hot so hot’ while putting her hand into her top. In the blink of an eye, she has already pulled out her bra.

He Zhi Zhou blinked and stared in disbelief.

After Dou Dou was ‘liberated’, she felt rather comfortable. She rolled her eyes and made another surprise attack. She quickly stretched her hand to ‘Shen Xi’ bosom and squeezed, then said: “Hey Ah Xi, let uncle touch touch.”

WTF! What was this!

He Zhi Zhou froze. He looked down at the lewd hand covering his ‘bosom’. The veins on his forehead were about to pop out. He pursed his lips and his eyes roiled with dark clouds. After a while, he said word by word: “Dou Yi, let go!”

Shen Xi ran a full two hours, and finally finished running ten thousand metres in the sports field. In the end, she was so tired until needing the help of two S University’s female students to bring her back to dormitory building number 9.

“Thank you, both of you are really beautiful on the inside and outside.” Shen Xi spoke her thanks feebly.

The girls blushed and said: “We are Lei Feng (a model of altruism and dedication to the Party by propaganda)!”

Shen Xi gave them the glad eyes, making the female Lei Feng even more shy.

Shen Xi was really tired to the point of dropping. After returning to the dormitory room, she took a bath and immediately climbed into bed to take a rest.

In the dormitory room, Brawny was still undecided whether to return the merchandise. Besides shyness, he discovered the “sister Lin” which he bought was leaking air.

Shen Xi glanced sympathetically at Brawny, then asked him: “Zhou Chen, how are things between you and Zhang Ran?”

Suddenly Brawny fell silent. After a while, he said: “She will be taking CET-6 exam soon, so very busy.”

From a woman’s perspective, Zhang Ran’s words ‘very busy’ were definitely an excuse. Shen Xi gave Brawny another sympathetic look and said to him: “Zhou Chen, you actually look rather masculine, but you’ve a problem with your dressing style. Not only it doesn’t bring out your strengths. Instead it highlights your shortcomings.”

“Really?” Brawny asked. He thought of the Leader’s elegant and noble British style dress up recently and reckoned he really has the skill …… thinking of this, he tried to kiss up to him by saying: “Leader, please give me some guidance!”

“My pleasure.” Shen Xi slowly sat up in bed, cleared her throat and methodically pointed out to Brawny the dressing techniques. At the same time, she also talked about some of the ways on how to attract a woman’s attention, also known in short as “The 13 Rules of Showing-Off for Male University Students”.

Brawny filled with utter worshipful reverence, burning with ardent excitement! After a while, Shen Xi has Monkey as another listener.

Male dormitory 921 was about to enter the era of the metrosexual man.

When Shen Xi was chatting excitedly, Lin Yu Tang came back. She was still angry with him, so she immediately got under the blanket, since she did not want to talk anymore.

Monkey and Brawny naturally interpreted it as the Leader was tired, so quietly let him sleep first.

Shen Xi has mixed feelings and covered herself with the quilt. Then she silently turned around to look at Lin Yu Tang. Looking at him finished bathing, washing his clothes and seriously doing his homework on the computer ……

“Third, how is it between you and Beautiful Maiden Shen?” Monkey asked out of concern before going to bed.

“We’re all right, very good.” Lin Yu Tang replied Monkey.

Actually, Lin Yu Tang’s mood was really bad today. Even though Shen Xi picked up his call tonight, also accompanied him to walk around town and finally ate supper together.

He knew Shen Xi for so long, he can feel that she was being perfunctory.

From childhood to adulthood, Shen Xi has been following and running after him. When they were together, it was always Shen Xi who talked more. Suddenly, the role was reversed. He did not know how to deal with his relationship with Shen Xi anymore.

Suddenly, Lin Yu Tang’s mobile phone rang. He was lying on the bed and answered the call: “What’s the matter? Chao Xi …… ”

“I cannot call you if there is nothing important.” The girl’s voice over the phone line was cheerful with a trace of playfulness.

Lin Yu Tang laughed twice.

After a while, Ling Chao Xi started to speak about the purpose of her call: She will be coming to S University this weekend to participate in the debating competition for university students. She is the third debater in the school team, so she will be coming to S University this weekend …… After finished talking about this matter, she asked Lin Yu Tang: “That …… do you’ve time this weekend? Can you come and watch the competition?”

Lin Yu Tang said: “…… have time.”

Shen Xi gripped the dark blue bed sheet, feeling anger charged around violently in the heart, extremely rampant. Lin Yu Tang slept on the bunk below her and the entire dormitory was also quiet. Hence she can hear the whole conversation between Lin Yu Tang and Ling Chao Xi.

She heard Lin Yu Tang happily agreed, his pleasant sounding laugh and their interesting chat …… they talked about their mutual classmates in senior high school. They talked and laughed until Brawny switched off the light, only then they stopped.

Shen Xi rubbed her eyes. She discovered the back of her hand was already all wet because she has been crying.

Lin Yu Tang and Ling Chao Xi were high school classmates. Both sat at the same desk for a year and a half. They helped each other, with Lin Yu Tang tutoring Ling Chao Xi on physics ……

Actually, she knew far more than a little …… The more Shen Xi thought about it, the more sad she felt and wanted to cry. Ultimately, she bit the quilt and quietly choked back sobs.

Boo hoo hoo boo hoo hoo ……

Lights went out in dormitory 921. Suddenly the muffled sounds of crying echoed in the room. The suppressed sound of male crying abruptly reached the ear of each roommate.

Although Brawny was tall and strong, he was lacking in courage. Momentarily, he thought it was something unclean and quickly climbed noisily into bed. Then smoothing his hand over his pounding heart, he whispered to Monkey: “Monkey, did you hear anything? ”

Monkey started to tense up: “I heard.”

Monkey asked Lin Yu Tang: “Third, how about you? Did you hear?”

Lin Yu Tang opened his eyes and looked at the bunk above him. How can he not hear? He can hear most clearly.

“Boo hoo hoo, boo hoo hoo ……” the sound of crying again.

Boo hoo hoo, Shen Xi bit the back of the hand until the skin is broken which also cannot stop herself from crying. Tears kept flooding out incessantly, her chest, filled with hurt and grief, heaving ……

WTF, who was crying?! A ghost or a man?

Monkey and Brawny kept quiet, hesitated for a long time and looked at Leader He who slept on the bunk above Lin Yu Tang.

Shen Xi was embarrassed so she buried her face in the quilt.

After a while, Monkey ‘courageously’ asked: “Leader, are you crying?”

“Wa——”

Shen Xi who was wrapped under the quilt cannot control herself anymore. Because Monkey expressed his concern, she completely burst into tears.

Damn it, was he really the Leader?!!

Monkey got down from his bed. Brawny climbed noisily out of bed. Wearing an underpants, he ran over to switch on the light.

Less than 10 seconds, the three of them stood together in front of He Zhi Zhou’s bed. You looked at me, I looked at you. You pushed me, I pushed you. Finally, Monkey lifted up the quilt with shaking hand. Then three pairs of eyes simultaneously looked at the bawling man under the quilt.

Looking ‘like a pear blossom bathed in springtime rain’ ………… [1]

[1] 梨花一枝春带雨:. The 100th line of a popular poem called ‘The Song of Everlasting Regret’. The poem depicts the tragedy between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei during the Anshi Rebellion. It describes a woman crying in an alluring way.