Chapter 26 part 1
Hearing Xiao Shan claim to be a straight man, Chu Xiao let out a cold laugh.
Rong Nian, on the side, was very unhappy. “What do you mean Lu Qiujin is different from us? You make it sound like I’m not a straight man.”
“No, actually, I’m indeed not a straight man, because I won’t fall in love with a human at all.”
Xiao Shan: “? You’re planning to sleep with Shizhen, and you have the nerve to say you won’t fall in love with humans?”
Rong Nian argued righteously, “Sleeping together is because Luo Shizhen said he would sleep holding a pet like me.”
Yes, he used a bit of rhetorical flourish, changing Luo Shizhen’s “sleeping holding a dog” to “sleeping holding him.”
When Rong Nian studied human knowledge, he paid special attention to pet-related topics. Although he had once been treated as a pet abroad and nearly bit the “master” to death before being auctioned off.
He once deeply hated those humans who kept pets.
But now, Rong Nian’s thoughts had shifted. He felt that being a pet shouldn’t be a problem; it mainly depended on whether the “master” was good or not.
Rong Nian’s previous “master” liked fierce beasts. That seventy-year-old man built a large marine viewing tank at home and kept Rong Nian in it. Every day, he would have people feed him large carnivorous fish to watch the small Siren fight these large fish.
He also required Rong Nian to leap out of the water when summoned. If Rong Nian disobeyed, the water would be electrified.
Therefore, when he bit through the “master’s” carotid artery, Rong Nian felt only intense excitement and vindication.
But Luo Shizhen, this “master,” seemed very different. He had no demands of his pet and even consciously wanted to take care of it.
Most importantly, the scent on him was very pleasant. Staying beside him wasn’t uncomfortable at all.
Rong Nian thought Xiao Shanโs mind was truly filthy.
He was a Siren; how could he like a human?
Although he liked smelling Luo Shizhen’s scent, liked licking Luo Shizhen’s hand, wanted to lick his face, and wanted to drag Luo Shizhen into his underwater nest… this cross-species liking couldn’t possibly happen to him.
With a clear conscience, Rong Nian spoke with extra righteousness:
“We’re just hugging to sleep, not mating. What’s the problem with a pet sleeping with its master? Don’t cats and dogs sleep next to their owners?”
Xiao Shan paused.
That seemed true. There was no rule saying you had to like someone to sleep together.
Huh, thinking about it, doesn’t that mean I can sleep with my lackey too?
Some brothers seemed to sleep together often as well.
Chu Xiao watched quietly as these two talked to themselves, too lazy to even sneer.
He closed his eyes, quietly recovering his stamina.
He had to recover quickly. As long as they passed the training, the confinement room would open early.
This wasn’t the first time Chu Xiao had been separated from Luo Shizhen, but this time, even though the two biggest threats were in confinement with him, he felt a faint sense of foreboding.
In these few days, surely Shizhen wouldn’t attract any more “straight men,” right?
Luo Shizhen was very busy.
In fact, because Tactical Training classes were held daily, Cultural classes were only one hour long. Sui An and Lin Qi were training all the students to the brink of death.
He couldn’t possibly be bullied.
Because Sui An truly trained everyone like they were Huskies. By the end, the students had no energy left for finding fault or causing trouble; they only wanted to rush back to the dorms to rest.
Lu Qiujin, indeed due to “Xiao Shan’s request,” began to get slightly closer to Luo Shizhen.
After all, they were in the same dorm. With Rong Nian and Xiao Shan in confinement, the huge dorm was left with just the two of them at night.
But Lu Qiujin couldn’t smoothly build a good relationship with Luo Shizhen as he had wished.
Because Luo Shizhen was too busy.
He was a new student and had many lessons to catch up on. Although Xiao Shan was in confinement, Luo Shizhen would enter the training room and train by himself according to the methods his Big Brother had taught him.
Heaven knows where he got so much energy. Trained like a dead dog during the day, he still “made up classes” and trained himself at night.
Luo Shizhen’s day was very disciplined. He woke up at 6:30 AM every day, washed and ate, went to the classroom to preview the day’s lessons, attended Cultural Class, then Tactical Training.
During the lunch break, he had tutoring with Chen He’an. After school in the evening, he carved out two hours for self-training and review. By the time Luo Shizhen finished everything, it was almost 10:00 PM.
He would take a shower, make his bed, soak his feet, and it would be exactly 10:30 PM.
Lu Qiujin wanted to talk to him, but Luo Shizhen closed his eyes and was asleep.
Living in the same dorm, there was almost no chance for interaction. Sometimes when Luo Shizhen was memorizing materials, Lu Qiujin would find an excuse to interrupt and start a topic.
The first time, Luo Shizhen would speak to him pleasantly.
The second time, Luo Shizhen would quickly finish speaking and continue memorizing.
By the third time, Luo Shizhen simply took his books into his study and didn’t come out.
Lu Qiujin: “…”
He observed for two days before realizing that Luo Shizhen attached great importance to his academic career. After formally entering the school and discovering he was behind, he became incredibly crisis-conscious.
This Purifier simply wished he could use every second to learn.
If you told him, “Don’t work so hard, rest a bit before studying.”
Luo Shizhen would say, “Our teacher says the clumsy bird flies early. I’m slow-witted, so I have to work harder. Please don’t talk to me; once you talk to me, I forget where I was memorizing.”
Lu Qiujin: “…”
He had intended to take the route of meticulous care, but Luo Shizhen considered him a hindrance to his studies. Wanting to change methods, he couldn’t find a time for them to interact longer.
Finally catching Luo Shizhen waking up early one morning with time to spareโneither memorizing nor training, just waiting for classโLuo Shizhen took out his phone and started “writing letters” to Chu Xiao and Xiao Shan in confinement.
He had always found Chu Xiao and Xiao Shan rushing to the confinement room to beat up Rong Nian incomprehensible.
But as a friend, knowing that Awakeners had bad tempers, Luo Shizhen just assumed they had an episode and hoped they were doing well in confinement.
Lu Qiujin pretended to pass by and peeked once. The content was extremely simple:
ใChu Xiao, are you okay? Has your body fully recovered? is it stuffy in the confinement room? Rehabilitate well and come out soon. I’ve prepared study notes for you, so you won’t fall behind when you get out.ใ
ใBig Brother, are you okay? Can you train in the confinement room? I’ve been training for at least an hour every day using the method you taught me. I feel my strength and speed have clearly improved. I also asked Teacher Lin for the recordings of the last two days’ Tactical Training classes. You won’t fall behind when you come out.ใ
Lu Qiujin was momentarily at a loss for words.
He could only remind him, “Phones aren’t allowed in confinement.”
“I know. But Mr. Chen said he could help me deliver letters.”
Luo Shizhen finished writing seriously on his phone, then went straight to the printer equipped in the dorm and started printing.
Lu Qiujin: “I thought you would handwrite it.”
After all, handwriting showed sincerity, didn’t it?
Luo Shizhen looked at him strangely. “With a printer, why would I handwrite? Handwriting is so tiring.”
That look made it seem like Lu Qiujin was the inflexible one.
Lu Qiujin had a good temper.
After all, he needed to use Luo Shizhen to purify his own pollution. Lu Qiujin could certainly tolerate such minor issues.
What he couldn’t tolerate was how Luo Shizhen had so many things to do every day. Despite living in the same dorm, Lu Qiujin had no way to approach him.
Luo Shizhen was unaware of Lu Qiujin’s frustration. He actually felt he got along quite well with Lu Qiujin.
The study and training rooms were closed at night. He only studied until ten, not disturbing Lu Qiujin at all.
Lu Qiujin was a decent roommate tooโdidn’t snore at night, had a stable schedule. The only problem was he talked too much, always wanting to chat while Luo Shizhen was studying.
But that didn’t matter. Luo Shizhen had experienced chatty roommates before, like Zhang Chuan, who not only loved to talk but insisted on sleeping together.
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