Chapter 72: Stirring Hearts
Click.
Leon pushed open the double doors beside them and raised an eyebrow. “Only the four of us stay here.”
Wen Rong realized belatedly that the “friends” the Senior mentioned were Shi Ye, Zhou Xie, and Li Ao. His brain momentarily stalled.
Senior Leon’s relationship with Shi Ye didn’t surprise him; Shi Ye had been visiting Leon’s dorm since the start of the semester. But to think that Zhou Xie and Senior Leon were childhood friends who grew up together!
The System’s voice traveled across time and space to whisper in his ear, and Wen Rong finally remembered—they were the “F4.” Once the protagonist appeared, they would join forces.
So, the reason Shi Ye had looked so grim on the way back from the exhibition hall was because…
Wen Rong quietly shifted his eyes, glancing in Shi Ye’s direction. Shi Ye was too tall, so he only caught a glimpse of his chin before his gaze collided with Zhou Xie, who was standing behind Shi Ye.
It was strange. They both wore black-rimmed glasses. When Wen Rong wore them, he was supposed to look ugly, but on Zhou Xie’s face, they inexplicably gave off a sinister vibe.
Wen Rong withdrew his gaze, finally understanding why the Senior wanted him to make peace with Zhou Xie.
The Senior treated him very well, but was also childhood friends with Zhou Xie. Being caught in the middle must be difficult.
“Come in.”
Wen Rong followed Leon through the door.
It was a hotel suite. Upon entering, there was a long, semi-transparent screen. Behind it lay a spacious and airy living room with a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows connected to a balcony, offering a panoramic view of the sea.
Walking into the living room, there was a massive dining table on the left, but no kitchen—only a wall-to-wall wine cabinet and two smart refrigerators.
On the right, a spiral staircase wound upwards. Leon led him upstairs. The hallway had a row of doors along one wall; the second one from the end was Leon’s destination.
Wen Rong hesitated about entering. After all, going into someone else’s bedroom seemed impolite, and he hadn’t changed his shoes. It would be rude to dirty the floor.
But Leon asked, “Will you feel uncomfortable staying outside?”
Wen Rong hurriedly went in.
The fifty-square-meter room was similar to an ordinary person’s bedroom, except the wall facing the bed was covered by a massive shelf filled with books and CDs.
In front of the floor-to-ceiling window, a projector screen had been lowered.
Wen Rong guessed this was where the Senior studied and watched movies. Naturally drawn to books, he couldn’t help but lean in closer to look.
“They’re all banned books.”
Wen Rong paused. “Banned books?”
“Books minors aren’t allowed to view, and some uncut versions of classics.” Leon paused, then added, “Nothing too special, mainly sex scenes.”
Sex scenes!
Wen Rong hurriedly retracted his gaze, feeling as if he’d been pricked by a needle, his whole body uncomfortable.
“It’s inappropriate to keep this kind of thing in the dorm, so I hide them here.”
“Mm-hm,” Wen Rong mumbled incoherently.
“There are also some discs.”
Wen Rong recalled the video the Senior had sent him before and froze again. “Does Senior watch them often?”
Leon watched him silently for a moment, smiling, then turned to pull a set of pajamas from the wardrobe.
Without answering, he grabbed the hem of his T-shirt with both hands and pulled it off. His movements were deliberately slow; one could almost see the muscles on his back shifting sluggishly due to tension. However, when he put on the pajama top and turned around, he found Wen Rong looking calmly out the window, as if politely averting his gaze to avoid suspicion.
Leon thought for a moment and said, “Adults choose more private places to vent their desires. This is my secret base, which is why you see all these films here.”
He added, “Actually, I don’t come here that often.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Not interested?” Leon feigned disappointment. “I thought you might be interested. Shi Ye used to love coming here to borrow CDs.”
“Um…”
Although Wen Rong was often called an idiot by the seniors in the Journalism Club, he had made progress recently. He vaguely understood that the Senior was sharing a big secret with him—one that couldn’t be shared with ordinary friends.
Perhaps in the Senior’s eyes, they were super close friends.
Wen Rong felt happy about this and decided to follow suit. “I have a secret to tell you too.”
“Hmm? What secret?”
“…” Learned too fast, didn’t prepare a script.
Wen Rong racked his brain, but aside from the System, he didn’t seem to have any secrets.
And he certainly couldn’t tell anyone about the System.
“Is it hard to say?”
Wen Rong tried hard to think again, then said, “Actually, I don’t want to make up with Zhou Xie. I still have a big move prepared to deal with him.”
“A big move?” Leon couldn’t hold it back; he turned his face away and laughed.
Wen Rong felt a bit embarrassed. “Senior, is it hard for you being caught in the middle?”
He added, “But I have to do this.”
“Have to?”
“I discovered that the people who hold power don’t allow ordinary students to apply for school resources. Ordinary students can only bow and scrape, perhaps even abandoning their morals to cater to them. But even then, they still look down on ordinary students, using a bone to trick and toy with them.”
Leon had intended to introduce Wen Rong to the adult world, but hadn’t expected Wen Rong to enter an overly healthy version of it instead.
Forget it. He didn’t even react to me taking off my clothes. What more can I expect?
Leon lowered his head, smiling helplessly, and followed Wen Rong’s train of thought. “So you plan to do these things for the ordinary students?”
“I’m just doing it for the seniors in the Journalism Club.”
“Just for them?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Why?”
“Because they are my good friends.”
The annoyance that had surrounded Leon before going to the research base surged up again. Wen Rong seemed to treat the three from the Journalism Club exceptionally well. In his heart, Leon couldn’t compare to them.
Leon didn’t know where things had gone wrong.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door, temporarily halting the topic.
Shi Ye came to ask what to eat for dinner. His eyes kept darting into the room, then back to Leon, his eyelids lifting. “You changed clothes?”
Leon nodded ambiguously and turned to ask Wen Rong, “What do you want to eat tonight?”
Wen Rong was still stuck in the mood of sharing his grand ambitions with Leon. He said with full vigor, “I can’t cook very well, but I can help you guys wash vegetables.”
Shi Ye raised a brow. “Do any of us look like we can cook?”
After speaking, he looked away awkwardly, softening his tone. “I’ll have the hotel bring food up. Just say what you want.”
“I…”
During his hesitation, Leon said, “If you don’t know what you want, you can say what you don’t eat. The hotel chef will handle the rest.”
Shi Ye clenched his hands in his pockets. In this brief exchange, he felt outmatched by Leon’s thoughtfulness.
But thinking of how Leon had left him outside to stare awkwardly at Zhou Xie and Li Ao while staying alone with Wen Rong in a room full of pornographic films, he couldn’t help but ask bluntly, “When are you guys actually coming out?”
“Oh, oh.”
Wen Rong took it as a reproach and hurriedly walked toward the door, but Leon reached out and blocked him. “I still have something to say to you alone.”
Wen Rong: “Huh?”
Shi Ye frowned.
Leon kept smiling. “You go arrange dinner first. By the time you get back, Wen Rong and I will be pretty much done.”
He looked at Wen Rong again. “I have a few words I want to say to you in private.”
“Okay.” Wen Rong retreated back into the room.
Shi Ye lowered his head, staring at the four feet standing together, and couldn’t help but grumble internally.
Why is he on such good terms with Leon?
Click.
The door closed ruthlessly, contrary to Shi Ye’s wishes.
The empty corridor, the solitary him. He felt a nasty sense of abandonment.
Inside the room.
“Senior, Shi Ye has been in a bad mood since we left the exhibition hall,” Wen Rong volunteered before Leon could speak.
“You can tell?”
“I took a course on micro-expressions, and I’m very familiar with what Shi Ye looks like when he’s angry.”
“Very familiar with Shi Ye?”
“Because he’s always angry.” Wen Rong thought for a moment. “Is he jealous?”
Leon’s smile faded slightly. “You can tell he’s jealous?”
“Mm-hm.”
“If you can tell he’s jealous, why can’t you tell that I…”
The rest of the sentence couldn’t be spoken; he bit it back on the tip of his tongue, waiting for Wen Rong to catch on.
“You too, Senior?!” Wen Rong’s eyes went round. “Can’t the three of us be together?”
“No,” Leon rejected without thinking.
“Huh?” Wen Rong was stunned.
So, we can’t all three be closer friends at the same time?
He lowered his head sadly. “Then you should be good friends with Shi Ye. After all, you grew up together.”
Leon was silent for a few seconds, his smile completely vanishing. “What did you mean just now? Say it again, clearly.”
Wen Rong explained obediently, “Aren’t you and Shi Ye childhood friends? You took me to the exhibition hall but didn’t take him. He must be unhappy, right? That’s why his mood has been weird—because his best friend was stolen.”
Leon: “…………”
Wen Rong: “?”
Leon grit his teeth, sucking in a breath of cold air. “You…”
Wen Rong: “?”
Leon pursed his lips and raised a hand to rub his brow. “Hss—let me tell you a story.”
“Huh?” Wen Rong tilted his head in confusion.
“A couple got married. On their wedding night, the wife ran out and told everyone her husband was a pervert, causing him to lose his job and eventually commit suicide.”
Wen Rong was in disbelief. “Why was he a pervert, and why did it lead to that?”
“Because if you pursue the truth, you’d find that the wife didn’t understand sexual knowledge at all. She mistook normal sexual behavior between a couple for perversion.”
Wen Rong was even more incredulous. “Is this story true?”
Leon reached out and patted Wen Rong lightly on the head. He used a bit of force, resulting in a soft thud.
“It’s fake. I just wanted to tell you that an adult who doesn’t understand sex will only make a joke of themselves.”
Click.
Leon pulled open the door. “Let’s go, you—little—idiot—”
…
“Cousin, the Principal sent a message saying a relative of his wants to commission a silk jacket from Zhang Jincheng. He wants you to help open up manufacturing channels for Zhang Jincheng.”
On the balcony, Zhou Xie closed his eyes against the sea breeze, his shirt billowing into a round ball.
“Cousin?”
Zhou Xie: “Move all the craftsmen under Wang Allen to Zhang Jincheng’s team.”
“All of them?”
“Mm.”
“Will that make it easier to spark conflict between them?”
Zhou Xie was silent for two seconds. “This is to prevent Wang Allen from arguing with Zhang Jincheng and affecting the production schedule.”
He added, “I don’t always want to make people unhappy.”
Li Ao knew he had misspoken. He shut his mouth and silently replied to messages on his phone.
“I can’t believe Leon brought him here,” Zhou Xie suddenly spoke up.
It took Li Ao a few seconds to process the meaning. He nodded. “Mm, it’s a bit surprising. This is the first time an outsider has been allowed in here.”
“He didn’t even ask for my permission.”
“…”
“That Special Recruit—aside from being a bit pretty, does he have any redeeming qualities?”
Li Ao naturally didn’t know. He was also puzzled as to why both Leon and Shi Ye were captivated by Wen Rong.
Clearly, he was just a Special Recruit with no background who didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth.
“Maybe they just find him novel and want to get close. They’ll get over it in a while.” He paused. “It’s not like they’d actually think of marrying him.”
After saying this, Zhou Xie went quiet. Just then, a new message arrived on his phone—a backend notification from Black Pigeon.
Li Ao showed the annoyance of forced weekend overtime and told Zhou Xie, “Cousin, because of the post the Special Recruit made on the forum, many people have submitted request forms to the Student Council recently. They want to purchase materials to make small self-defense devices. Should we reject or approve?”
“Him again—” Zhou Xie turned around, his hair slapping against his cheeks. “Why do strange things always pop out of his brain?”
Corporate slave Li Ao reported helplessly, “News about bullying and living alone has been very hot online in recent years. Basically, vulnerable groups can’t protect themselves.”
As he spoke, he touched on something he cared about, and his mood lifted. “Actually, I’m a bit interested too. Recently, I thought of a tentacle robot. Although not as flexible as a human hand, it can…”
Zhou Xie interrupted him. “Tell me why.”
“What?”
“Why does that Special Recruit always do the unexpected?”
“…” Li Ao realized something was wrong, but couldn’t put his finger on it.
Just then, footsteps came from upstairs. The subject of their confusion followed Leon downstairs.
Zhou Xie lowered his chin, his eyeballs floating straight over.
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