Ch100.2 – Investigation

Zhou Sheng, “……”

Yu Hao, “……”

Fu Liqun, “……”

Huang Ting, “……”

The clamour of the gongs and drums resounded through the sky, and it was extremely lively, attracting the attention of many students at the entrance of the college. The large text, “A Favour Tantamount to Giving Another a New Lease on Life” were written on the silk banner. The parade made its way to the college entrance before stopping.

Fu Liqun looked at Zhou Sheng, who himself seemed embarrassed.

“You really made them get a lion dance troupe?!”

“I was just kidding!” Zhou Sheng said frantically.

“Why did the security guards let them in?” Fu Liqun said in despair, “Do the security guards in this college not care about anything?”

Yu Hao, “I need to go to the washroom! I’ll leave first!’

Zhou Sheng, “I’m going to smoke! Leaders, take care! We won’t be seeing you off!”

“Ai! That’s the one! That tall student over there!” Ou Qihang’s form teacher, who was following the troupe, immediately said, “Aiya, I recognise you! I have a really deep impression of you! Come come come, give him the silk banner! Where are the teachers in your college?”

It was too late for Fu Liqun to escape. The lion dance troupe began their clamour again and offered the silk banner to Fu Liqun, who was standing on the platform. All the students around him wore baffled expressions on their faces; some were recording while others cheered him on, and Fu Liqun was about to go mad from embarrassment on the spot. He had never felt this embarrassed before in the past 20 or so years of his life. Ou Qihang’s mother had followed along as well and shook hands with Fu Liqun, repeatedly saying, “Thank you! Thank you all! Thank you for saving my son! Where are the other two students?”

The three men from the investigation team were the first to start clapping, followed by the applause of the crowd who didn’t know what was going on. The applause converged into a sea of baffled faces; all the teachers in the college came out and saw that Ou Qihang’s mother was incredibly agitated, while Fu Liqun, who hadn’t completely woken up yet, was trembling as he stood on stage and accepted the silk banner with the words, “A Favour Tantamount to Giving Another a New Lease on Life”.

Yu Hao only nudged Zhou Sheng after class, “Are you nuts?”

Chen Yekai came over. Zhou Sheng’s whole body was trembling as he looked through the photos that their classmates had sent to the group chat and showed them to Chen Yekai and Yu Hao. Quite a few students had gathered around as well, and everyone immediately burst out laughing so hard they almost overturned the classroom.

“HAHAHAHAHA——HAHAHAHAHA——” It was Chen Yekai’s first time laughing so exaggeratedly.

There were a lot of videos as well, and they were all of Fu Liqun trying to escape, but he ended up getting surrounded by two lion dancers. He looked like he was on the verge of exploding. With Yu Hao’s understanding of Fu Liqun, when he saw that expression, he knew that Fu Liqun must have wanted to kneel down to Ou Qihang’s mother at that moment and beg her to let him off as soon as possible.

“HAHAHAHAHA——”

Zhou Sheng hung up “A Favour Tantamount To Giving Another a New Lease on Life” in their dormitory. Fu Liqun took it off and stuffed it in the wardrobe, but Zhou Sheng just hung the silk banner up again. Fu Liqun took it down again. Zhou Sheng laughed so hard his stomach was hurting and lay on the swivel chair. Fu Liqun’s face made him look like he was about to fall apart.

“Stop fooling around, hahahaha……” Yu Hao laughed as he laid on the upper bunk, exhausted from laughing.

Fu Liqun said, “I’m begging you guys, I never want to see that silk banner again in my life.”

“If you try snatching it again I’m cutting off all ties with you!” Fu Liqun finally blew up and snatched the silk banner away, throwing it onto the desk.

Yu Hao played Cen Shan’s voice recording she sent to the group chat. On the other end, Cen Shan was laughing madly with “HAHAHAHA”s, “What the hell did you three bros do this time, hahahaha”.

“Who sent the videos to your sis-in-law?!” Fu Liqun went mad.

“Xia Lei sent it.” Yu Hao said, “It really wasn’t us, Gege.”

“Go eat ba.” Zhou Sheng said, “Let’s all go out and celebrate!”

Zhou Sheng treated Chen Yekai, Huang Ting, Fu Liqun, and Xiao Yujun to a meal at the stir-fry shop at the foot of Mt. Yunding, treating it as a make-up meal for Yu Hao’s birthday. Ou Qihang was busy so he couldn’t come, but he entrusted six small wooden hand-engraved seals with Huang Ting to bring over.

“The kid’s pretty skilled with his hands.” Chen Yekai said, “It’s well carved.”

Zhou Sheng said, “Come, cheers!”

Everyone toasted one another. Xiao Yujun said, “Hopefully this case can be reported as soon as possible, then this major headache will be considered resolved.”

“Hopefully it won’t affect his college entrance examination.” Yu Hao was most concerned about Ou Qihang’s exams.

“It won’t.” Zhou Sheng said, “He’ll get into Tsinghua or Peking.”

“Happy birthday.” Xiao Yujun smiled and said to Yu Hao, “You guys are really something, no one would believe that you’re only in your twenties.”

Huang Ting said, “I took a few photos of Fu Liqun accepting the silk banner today, you can use it for your features……”

Fu Liqun’s soul scattered immediately. “Please don’t, don’t!”

“Hahahaha——” Yu Hao had forgotten about it, but now he burst out laughing again.

After sobering up the next day, Fu Liqun watched the news nervously for fear that his foolishness would appear on it. Zhou Sheng returned after his run and comforted him, “It won’t, don’t worry! Wouldn’t reporting it be equivalent to reporting Ou Qihang’s case? Jun Jie promised them before that the college wouldn’t report it.”

Only then did Fu Liqun say angrily with slight trepidation, “During the most critical juncture, the two of you escaped by yourselves!”

Yu Hao didn’t have classes in the morning. In the early winter mornings, he could never wake up. He wanted to pretend that he was asleep, but Zhou Sheng climbed up to kiss him. Zhou Sheng’s lips smelled of fresh mint toothpaste. Yu Hao could no longer pretend to be asleep, so he had to get up to brush his teeth and wash his face.

Fu Liqun said, “Why did you guys get up so early when you have no classes in the morning?”

After Yu Hao washed up, he lay on his bed to sleep again. Zhou Sheng looked here and there, but only he was standing, so he said helplessly, “Get up, let’s go play basketball. The match is coming up soon.”

“Ah……” Yu Hao huddled under his blanket. Winter had arrived, so wasn’t it implicitly understood that mornings are meant for sleeping?

Fu Liqun was huddling too and said, “Let’s rest for a few days ba.”

Zhou Sheng sat on the swivel chair, thought about it for a bit, then said seriously, “Gege, there’s something I need to discuss with you.”

Yu Hao’s heart halted. Zhou Sheng wanted to mention renting a house to Fu Liqun? After they returned, while Yu Hao had thought about being together with Zhou Sheng every day, he also felt like he would really be letting Fu Liqun down so he struggled over it for a very long time in his heart. He even suggested to take Fu Liqun along with them and just rent a place with two rooms, but Zhou Sheng told him to leave it up to him. In any case, it’s not like they would need to spend every night out after renting a place, it’s just that from time to time……

“What?” Fu Liqun said, “Adjusting our tactics?”

As long as Fu Liqun was free, he would only think about their three-man basketball tactics.

Yu Hao’s mind was in a mess when he suddenly thought that they should just forget about it because it didn’t seem right, so he interjected, “Yeah, I’ve always thought that——”

“I want to rent a place with Yu Hao outside.” Zhou Sheng ignored Yu Hao and said to Fu Liqun, “We’ll be looking around for places in a few days.”

Fu Liqun, “……”

Yu Hao turned over, hugged his blanket and thought it’s over. Fu Liqun will definitely be really upset.

Zhou Sheng waited for Fu Liqun to express his views and raised an eyebrow at him.

Yu Hao thought that Fu Liqun would say “oh, okay” sadly, but who would have thought that Fu Liqun would suddenly explode, “NO WAY!”

Zhou Sheng, “……”

“Then what about me?!” Fu Liqun said exaggeratedly, “You guys can’t leave me behind! That’s too inhumane! Young Master, can you bear to leave me alone in the dormitory?!”

Zhou Sheng said, “We’ll just be spending the night outside once in awhile, it’s not clean to get a room outside!”

“No way! No way! No, WAY!” Fu Liqun said in despair, “I don’t agree!”

Yu Hao suddenly burst out laughing. If Fu Liqun had said, “Okay”, Yu Hao may have felt very upset, but now that Fu Liqun stirred up the atmosphere like this, all his gloominess was swept away in an instant.

Zhou Sheng didn’t care anymore. He said to Fu Liqun, “We want to MATE! How do we mate in the dorm?! Why don’t you try for me to see?”

Yu Hao roared angrily, “Zhou Sheng——!”

Fu Liqun said, “I said that I’d leave the dorm for you guys!”

“This bed will collapse!!” Zhou Sheng said, “It’s not like we’ll spend the night out every day, do you need to do this?”

“You’ll slowly stop coming back!” Fu Liqun said, “I don’t agree! Whatever you say will be useless!!”

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