3

Prologue 002- Li Xiang ( Part 1)

Wu Zewen was lining up for food when his shoulder was suddenly tapped. He turned around to see a boy looking at him with a smile.

— Li Xiang, the class monitor of the Physics Department Class One, Wu Zewen’s best friend.

Completely different from Wu Zewen’s paralyzed face, Li Xiang was a typical sunny and handsome guy, always wearing a smile on his face and seemed to be in a good mood. This kind of optimistic guy very easily infected those around him, making them feel good too. Li Xiang just had this magical charm. He often hosted various activities, and wherever he was, there was never a dull moment.

He joined the Student Union in freshman year, the Club Department in sophomore year, the Youth League Committee in junior year…

In college, enthusiastic and cheerful people like Li Xiang were the most popular among classmates. Even more, he was particularly loyal. Whenever he went out to eat with friends, he would take the initiative to pay the bill. Whenever the girls in class had to move their computers, lift tables, or perform other laborious activities, as long as he saw it, he would always take the initiative to lend a helping hand. Coupled with his height of 1.85 meters and quite handsome looks, he could be said to be the type that had an extensive network of friends, with friends spread all over the place.

The fact that two people with such different personalities could actually become friends was unimaginable to many.

In fact, there was a rather embarrassing dark history behind how the two could become friends.

According to the record in The Memoirs of Li Xiang: During freshman military training, on a certain afternoon, the instructor asked everyone to sit under the tree shade to talk about life and dreams. When the instructor asked, “Students, what are your ideals¹?” Student Li Xiang², who had been dozing off, immediately stood up at attention, “Here! Instructor, are you calling me?”

Everyone, “…”

The instructor looked at him as if looking at an idiot, and then punished Li Xiang by making him run ten thousand meters.

Student Li Xiang completed running ten thousand meters, and was panting heavily from exhaustion. After coming back, he picked up the water bottle on the ground and poured water into his mouth like crazy. He had just finished drinking half of it when he suddenly felt a focused gaze on the side of his face. Li Xiang turned his head to see a bespectacled boy looking at him silently with a calm expression. Li Xiang gave him a friendly smile and took the initiative to greet him, “Classmate, do you need something?”

The boy calmly said, “The one you’re holding is my water bottle.”

Li Xiang, “…”

Lifting the water bottle and taking a look, he saw that on both the front and back of the bottle were three very very large words written in proper handwriting: Wu Zewen.

Li Xiang awkwardly handed the water bottle over, “Sorry, I didn’t see it.”

Wu Zewen glanced at him, hugged the water bottle, turned around and walked away expressionlessly.

Li Xiang stood in place, blushing — such large words, saying that I hadn’t seen it, would he think I’m an idiot?

Many years later, on his birthday on the 22nd, Li Xiang couldn’t help but post on Weibo: “It seems that for all the best friends around me, the first time we met had been when I was being silly? Is everyone’s first impression of me very ‘silly³’?

A group of people happily lined up to retweet —

Hello Second Junior Brother!

It was quite silly indeed!

So silly!

Extremely silly!

You really have self-awareness!

… Li Xiang burst into tears.

***

In fact, besides the fact that Wu Zewen was his good friend, the more important reason why Li Xiang instigated Wu Zewen’s roommate to use provocation to entice Wu Zewen into playing online games was: he wanted to form a team for arena battles, but unfortunately lacked enough players.

In this game, Wulin, the arena had a very strict point-based leveling system. Team matches were 6v6 team battles, and you could enter into a randomly formed team yourself, or form a team in advance for the match. It was naturally easier to win with a fixed team formed with people you know. Randomly formed team members would be completely unfamiliar to you. It was guaranteed that there would be someone who got disconnected midway, be AFK for meals, give away kills in anger…

The most terrifying thing was not god-like opponents but pig-like teammates!

There were three people in Li Xiang’s dorm, plus two from He Xuyang’s dorm. There were only those five students in the physics class playing this game, not enough to form a full team of six. With five people and lacking one, it was really frustrating having to form a team with strangers all the time, so Li Xiang planned to drag Wu Zewen into the game, preferably to have him play as a healer to help increase everyone’s blood…

It was a pity that Wu Zewen had played with his Tang Sect for fifty whole games, and then went downstairs to eat as if nothing had happened.

Li Xiang was truly in tears!

Attracting academic tyrants to play games wasn’t just a physical job, it was also a mental job!

Wu Zewen lowered his head and ate his meal seriously, very quickly finishing all the food on his plate.

Looking up, he saw Li Xiang tilting his head, seemingly lost in thought. Wu Zewen couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”

Li Xiang touched his nose and said, “Zewen, are you really not interested in playing online games? This game is different from other games. It has a well-established official professional league with many star teams and players. It’s very popular, and the game’s balance was also done exceptionally well.”

Wu Zewen decisively said, “Not interested.”

“…” Li Xiang paused for a moment, then continued to persuade him, “It’s okay if you don’t like playing in the arena, the sceneries in the game are also very beautiful, and there are also many fun dungeons and daily activities. A new server will open in September. Do you want to go to the new server to check it out?”

Wu Zewen thought for a moment and said, “No need.”

Li Xiang was extremely helpless!

Academic tyrants have never played online games, so it was normal for him to not be interested. Moreover, Wu Zewen was a decisive person. His decisions were rarely changed once made. It was like when we encountered a question in an exam, and weren’t sure whether to choose option B or C. We would hesitate for a long time… but Wu Zewen wouldn’t. Once he finished calculating the answer, choosing B meant choosing B, the kind of character that had never changed the answer once he filled it in.

It was at this moment that Li Xiang’s phone suddenly rang. It was a call from the homeroom teacher.

Li Xiang answered the phone and heard Teacher Zhang on the other end, speaking in a gentle tone, “Li Xiang, are you free? Can you come to the Student Affairs Office?”

Li Xiang hurriedly said, “Okay, Teacher Zhang, I’ll be right there.”

***

When Li Xiang hurriedly arrived at the Student Affairs Office, he saw two female teachers sitting in the office seemingly chatting. The homeroom teachers in universities did not have to teach, but mainly handled the students’ various life and psychological issues. Most of them were senior brothers and sisters who remained at school, so they were all quite young.

Li Xiang naturally knew Teacher Zhang from their Physics Department, but he had never seen the other young female teacher before.

Li Xiang politely knocked on the door. Teacher Zhang looked up and said, “Come in.”

Li Xiang walked into the office and asked with a smile, “Teacher, do you need anything from me?”

Teacher Zhang said, “Li Xiang, there’s something I’d like to ask of you. I remember your dormitory has always had only three people, right?”

“That’s right.” Li Xiang nodded.

Teacher Zhang said, “Your dormitory is a quad room, there’s still one empty bed. Would it be convenient to vacate it in the next few days?”

Li Xiang was taken aback.

Most of the boys in the Physics Department lived on the fourth floor. Because there were an extra three, Li Xiang and his two roommates had been assigned to the third floor. These past few years, their dormitory, Room 301, had always only been occupied by three people. The extra bed was naturally used to place luggage, various boxes, clothes, and cardboard boxes…

For things like luggage, the more you neglect to organize it, the more it inexplicably accumulates…

The originally empty bed was now piled up like a mountain.

However, since the teacher suddenly asked to vacate the bed, Li Xiang couldn’t directly refuse. He nodded and said, “Teacher, we have been using that bed to store luggage, and over the years, we have piled up quite a lot of things. The dormitory is a bit messy and would take some time to clean up. Is someone going to move in? Is it urgent?”

“It’s not too urgent, just sort it out within three days.” Teacher Zhang paused and added, “I originally didn’t want to trouble you guys, but the beds in the school dormitories are in high demand, and there are also many new students this year. The Logistics Department checked that only your dormitory still had an empty bed. Since a student is moving in and there’s no available bed, I thought of asking you to sort it up and vacate the empty bed for him.”

— In other words, someone suddenly parachuted in looking for a dormitory? What exactly was the background of this airborne person?

Note:

理 lǐxiǎng ↩︎

李想 Lǐ Xiǎng ↩︎

二 èr: also means number 2 ↩︎

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***