Chapter 42: Roommate 02
Swoosh—
Gu Xiu’s arm turned into an afterimage, pulling an unknown object out of his roommate’s closet. He quickly rushed to the opposite side and stuffed it into his upper bunk quilt. Then he stood leisurely by the guardrail, his legs crossed, and his palm pretentiously smoothed through his hair.
007 looked at its unfazed host, then at the person who had just walked in.
Gu Xiu, who was being a thief for the first time, had timed it just right.
The person who came in only glanced at the strangely acting Gu Xiu and did not pay much attention to his own closet. Then he walked straight to his own seat, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
Gu Xiu’s gaze, on the other hand, followed him and was fixed on his sharp side profile.
The 22-year-old Chen Beichuan still had a bit of a youthful and handsome air, with just the right amount of maturity. It was a good age, the most charming age.
His features were very three-dimensional, but not rugged. He had 100% oriental features, but his eye color was light. At first glance, he felt very cold, like the mist floating on an ice lake in winter.
…It was a pair of gray eyes.
Gu Xiu had seen countless eyes of various colors in the Qidian small worlds due to supernatural powers and was no longer surprised. But this time, he was uncharacteristically and uncontrollably sizing up those eyes for a long time.
Until a cold, knife-like gaze swept over.
Gu Xiu shivered. He didn’t know what expression to put on, so he just smiled.
Chen Beichuan: “…”
He had a gut feeling that something bad was about to happen.
“What did you do?” Chen Beichuan frowned, his demeanor far more authoritative than his age. “You were standing in front of my closet just now.”
Gu Xiu inexplicably felt like a primary school student being reprimanded by a teacher. But he had never experienced the nine-year compulsory education of the modern world. Not only did he have no reverence for the elder who was reprimanding him, but he was also provoked into a rebellious streak.
“Just looking at your clothes,” Gu Xiu said nonchalantly, his hands behind his back as he swayed. He suddenly leaned forward, looked at those gray eyes carefully, and then his gaze slid down to the campus prince roommate’s shirt, and he sneered, “This brand-name shirt of yours is a fake, right?”
Chen Beichuan seemed mature, but he was still a young man in his early twenties. It was one thing to be slandered by others, but this person was his decadent, incompetent, and pretentious roommate whom he found annoying at first sight?
Chen Beichuan stood up abruptly. He and Gu Xiu were both over 1.8 meters tall, slender and straight, their gazes clashing directly.
He knew that Gu Xiu was a weakling. It was fine if he didn’t argue with Gu Xiu, but if they really confronted each other, Gu Xiu would definitely be the one to back down first, not having the guts to go head-to-head with him.
The current Gu Xiu was deliberately provoking him with his words, probably because he knew that he was too lazy to waste time on such trivial matters. However, when he really flared up, there was no surprise on Gu Xiu’s face. He even seemed to find it quite novel and tilted his head slightly, his face full of innocence.
Chen Beichuan was instantly speechless and only sneered after a long while, “Do you think everyone is like you?”
“Huh?” Gu Xiu was even more confused. He looked from his left sleeve to his right. “Mm, am I wearing a fake?”
Although he was vain, he probably wouldn’t wear fakes to save face, right?
Chen Beichuan: “…”
The campus prince roommate did not stoop to his level, which further fueled Gu Xiu’s curiosity. He looked at the back of his roommate, who had silently sat back down in his chair, circled around his straight back, came to his side, and went to observe those eyes again.
“You’re probably not mixed-race, are you?” Gu Xiu said to himself.
Since 007 hadn’t told him that Chen Beichuan was mixed-race, then he definitely wasn’t. Otherwise, this protagonist gong would have to add a very Jack Sue-like title like “of eight nationalities.”
Chen Beichuan looked down at his book, turning a deaf ear, and turned a page.
But those gray eyes were really intriguing. Gu Xiu couldn’t help but ask again, “Are you nearsighted?”
Chen Beichuan didn’t even raise his head, his attitude cold. “None of your business.”
“Oh,” Gu Xiu was not discouraged and said casually, “You’d definitely be handsome with glasses too.”
“…Gu Xiu,” Chen Beichuan said seriously, turning his head to call out his roommate’s full name, his tone certain. “What on earth did you do?”
He was 100% sure that Gu Xiu’s uncharacteristic sweet talk was out of guilt.
But Gu Xiu was calm and composed. He was about to put on his headphones when he heard this and paused. He thought for a moment and said, “Oh, I just think you look a little familiar, like someone I used to know… huh? Who was it?”
Chen Beichuan: “…?”
So the person Gu Xiu really wanted to praise was not him?
The original owner was a steel-straight man who was addicted to games. Gu Xiu directly played himself, fighting passionately in the game, his adrenaline soaring, and he was having a great time.
First, he was typing away on his computer, and when he got into bed, he switched to playing mobile games on his phone. He was immersed in the game and thought that the volume of his external speaker was very low.
Chen Beichuan was so annoyed by him that he couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned on the old wooden bed, making a creaking sound. But his good-for-nothing roommate was like he was deaf, completely unaware, and was even cheering “Yay, yay, yay” because of a victory in the game.
Swoosh!
Chen Beichuan was furious and suddenly pulled open the bed curtain, shouting angrily, “Hey! Gu Xiu.”
“…Huh?” During a break, Gu Xiu finally noticed the movement on the opposite side.
Seeing Gu Xiu’s face, which was illuminated by the blue light of his phone into a terrifying skeleton, Chen Beichuan was choked.
The carefree Gu Xiu had not even installed curtains. He was leaning against the wall, wrapped in a quilt, his torso and legs curled up like a chrysalis, holding his phone with both hands.
Chen Beichuan’s morning anger had nowhere to vent. He took a deep breath. “Be quiet. I want to sleep.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Xiu’s phone vibrated again. The sound waves spread through the thin wooden bed board and throughout the entire dormitory.
“Huh? Ji Ning?” Gu Xiu glanced at his phone and said to his roommate with an unusually good temper, “Then I’ll go out to answer. You can go to sleep.”
A little unexpected, Chen Beichuan was stunned for a moment.
What was even more unexpected was that Gu Xiu shook off the chrysalis shell on his body, and a body between adolescence and maturity emerged from the quilt. In the dormitory, which was only illuminated by the street lamp outside the window, his skin was delicate, fair, and glowing.
Mid-Autumn Festival had just passed, and the two had been roommates for less than a month. The summer heat had not yet dissipated. Gu Xiu was not wearing a shirt, his upper body bare. It was only because of the air conditioning in the dormitory that he was tightly wrapped in a quilt.
He was straight as an arrow, and even his hair was straight. The scum gong he was playing this time happened to be a slow-witted straight man, so he simply played himself, doing whatever was comfortable.
Gu Xiu held his phone and got out of bed with one hand on the ladder. As he moved, his upper body muscles were like a lake rippling in the night, the faint light undulating and shining.
He slipped on his slippers, pushed open the sliding glass door to the balcony, and did not notice his roommate who was hiding in the darkness and peeping.
His roommate’s gray eyes were particularly bright in the night, fixed on his back, the bare and smooth back muscles, and the loose pajama pants hanging on his hips.
The gray thin pajama pants were long, covering his ankles and half of his slippers, making his legs look particularly long. His shoulders were just the right width, and his waist was tight and strong.
When his figure disappeared into the night on the balcony, Chen Beichuan woke up as if from a dream.
In his impression, Gu Xiu was a shut-in with terrible living habits. He really didn’t expect that he would have such a superior figure, comparable to a sports student.
He attributed the strange feeling in his heart to a sense of incongruity and quickly calmed down, preparing to go back to sleep.
Not far away, a light suddenly lit up outside the glass door.
Gu Xiu looked at the figure on his phone screen, his lips opening and closing.
It was almost two o’clock, in the middle of the night. Was Gu Xiu on a video call with someone?
For example… that person who looked a bit like him?
The late night fueled human’s wild thoughts. Chen Beichuan’s sleepiness was instantly driven away. He propped himself up on the guardrail and squinted through the gap in the curtains to look at his abnormal roommate.
But Gu Xiu was following the plot.
007 said: 【The protagonist shou always finds all sorts of excuses to ask you out to play, to chat with you, to call you… but as slow-witted as you are, of course you don’t notice anything. Although you’re a straight man, when you don’t know the protagonist shou’s sexual orientation, your attitude towards him is still very good, and you don’t realize your own preference…】
First, he had played games with great enthusiasm, and then he had a long late-night chat. The bit of excitement that had been aroused by the game gradually dissipated. Blown by the cool night wind of the summer night, the yawn that had come to Gu Xiu’s lips suddenly turned into a sneeze, “Achoo!”
Ji Ning’s voice suddenly stopped, and he quickly asked with concern, “Gu Xiu, what’s wrong? Do you have a cold?”
Of course, Gu Xiu would not go into the topic and give himself overtime. He changed the subject and asked, “Don’t you have an early class tomorrow?”
Ji Ning was a little guilty and hummed like a mosquito, “Mmm… I do.”
Gu Xiu let out a long yawn. His teary black eyes looked at the empty playground outside, and he tactfully urged, “Then you should go to bed early.”
“Okay, then you should go to sleep early too,” Ji Ning brewed it for a while and sandwiched a short “Good night” in the middle of a long sentence. “Rest well, good night, and don’t stay up late playing games anymore.”
Gu Xiu ruffled his hair and, with no romantic cells, only replied briefly, “Mm.”
He hung up the phone.
Gu Xiu lowered his head and only then did he notice that in a corner of the balcony, there was a green potted plant.
It only had leaves and no flowers. He didn’t know what kind of plant it was. It was quite ugly, and perhaps because it was so uniquely ugly, Gu Xiu couldn’t help but take a few more looks until sleepiness washed over him like a tide.
Gu Xiu rubbed his tired eyes, turned around, and pushed open the glass door, returning to the air-conditioned dormitory.
He hurriedly returned to his bed and wrapped himself in the quilt, and a corner of the bed curtain on the upper bunk behind him quickly fell.
Summer was the peak period for electricity consumption. Some time ago, a dormitory had caught fire due to the use of illegal electrical appliances. The school had learned its lesson and had launched a special inspection of student apartments, commonly known as room checks, once a week.
But in the eyes of the original owner, who had poor living habits and was unwilling to follow the rules, this was just a formality. He didn’t take it to heart at all, doing whatever he wanted, and being as messy as he wanted.
The scum gong Gu Xiu was playing now had a basket of bad habits. Fortunately, they were not much different from his own. He was a night owl, and his daily life was not very particular. He also never left his cigarettes and alcohol.
As for alcohol… Gu Xiu thought for a moment. He had a gut feeling that alcohol would cause trouble and might lead to some consequences he couldn’t accept. As for cigarettes, he had tried them out of curiosity when he was a teenager, buying them from the main god space, and he felt they were not bad.
His top student roommate was either in the lab or the study room every day, leaving early and returning late. The two of them basically never met, and most of the time, Gu Xiu had the comfortable two-person dormitory to himself.
He would skip the classes he could skip and would never show up for the classes he could find someone to sign in for. When he had no classes, he would stay in the dormitory and play games, living in a daze day after day.
He used the leftover soda cans as ashtrays, filling them with trash while playing games, and turning a perfectly good student dormitory into a mess.
Chen Beichuan would definitely go crazy when he came back.
Hehe, that’s the effect he wanted.
This protagonist gong from Jinjiang was a decent person. No matter how angry he was, he would just warn him with a stern face. As long as he was a dead pig not afraid of boiling water, there was nothing he could do.
In short, before the crematorium started, Gu Xiu’s life was still quite carefree.
Near evening, 007 came out to issue a mission: 【Host, tonight is ‘Key Plot Point 1.’ You’re going out to eat with the protagonist shou and his roommate. After his roommate gets drunk, he’ll tease you about your relationship, but you’ll insist that you’re a straight man and that the protagonist shou is just your good buddy… To prove yourself, you’ll even scold homosexuals as perverts, dirty and disgusting… wuwu, the protagonist shou who hears all this will be heartbroken!】
Gu Xiu: “…”
007’s tone was a little more cheerful than when he first arrived, but this plot was still the same familiar, so much so that he didn’t even know where to start complaining.
【I know.】 Gu Xiu closed his eyes, accepted reality, and quit the game.
Just then, a message from Ji Ning came in, asking Gu Xiu to meet at the entrance of the teaching building and go to a hot pot restaurant together.
A large crowd of people came out of the public course teaching building. Gu Xiu waited under a tree, playing on his phone absentmindedly. Ji Ning had been in class all day and came looking for him with a tired body. From a distance, he saw the tall and slender young man waiting for him, and a smile immediately appeared on his face. He jogged forward with light steps.
“Gu Xiu!”
“Hey,” Gu Xiu raised his head, his attitude lukewarm. “Class is over.”
“Then, Ji Ning, I’ll be leaving now. You guys have fun,” a classmate who was with Ji Ning said, his gaze darting back and forth between the two, a playful smile on his face.
Behind the moving crowd, the broad-shouldered and long-legged Chen Beichuan stood out like a crane among chickens. His gaze was not blocked by the heads in front of him. With a casual glance, he found his roommate and a handsome boy with black-framed glasses.
Chen Beichuan was wearing a simple white T-shirt, with a black crossbody bag as the only embellishment. The bag strap created a few wrinkles, outlining his tight waistline. His dress was simple and refreshing, without any flashy decorations, a youthful and vibrant scenery in itself.
“Ji Ning?”
He had his hands in his pockets, indifferent to the gazes and whispers around him. His brow was slightly furrowed as he silently recited that name, searching his memory. It seemed he was not a student of the computer science department.
He opened WeChat and searched for this not-so-common name. He scrolled through various official account articles and, sure enough, he found a student from A University, a sophomore just like Gu Xiu, a student of the art academy.
Ji Ning’s professional grades were excellent, and he was a regular on the academy’s official account. He also found a photo of Ji Ning receiving an award. It was the same person who had been chatting and laughing with Gu Xiu just now.
The young man’s appearance was youthful and reserved, his smile shy. He wore a pair of large and round black-framed glasses, gentle and handsome, with a strong scholarly air.
But Chen Beichuan’s ability to appreciate beauty was quite worrying. The more he looked, the tighter his brow furrowed, vividly writing out the last character of his name.
A few days ago, what had Gu Xiu said to him… You’d definitely be handsome with glasses too?
This “too” was used very cleverly. 🙂
