Like a boulder that sank into the water, the piece of explosive news gave rise to great waves.
The young elite that sent shockwaves through the business world had made a public announcement that he wasn't straight. Furthermore, he had also resigned from his position as a chairman.
More astonishingly, the personnel of his company collectively came out of the closet at the same time he made the announcement.
Countless young men and unmarried women fell into depression after finding out that these eye-catching handsome men and dazzlingly beautiful women were homosexuals. Public discussion ignited like wildlife. In a flash, everyone expressed their differing opinions and caused a huge tidal wave.
When his photo was published online, he was immediately named the best-looking chairman of the year. What kind of appearance did he have?
His sharp eyebrows were like the rainbow and his pupils glittered like stars. The bridge of his nose was tall and straight. He had sharp facial features and a cold, grave face that lent him an imposing aura even when he was calm. He was truly a giant among men, someone with a great temperament in addition to good looks.
He was surnamed Zhao, with the single name of Yuan. Though young, he was already a top gun of the construction materials business of the current generation. Not only was he famous for the astronomical figures in his company's annual financial report each year, but he was also known for pouring in nearly half of his personal fortune into building charitable schools and developing the LGBT community.
Once, a busybody investigated him and learned that he was married. The busybody subsequently committed suicide by jumping into a lake.
There were also those who found out that Zhao Yuan was intricately connected to a certain famous pianist, a certain beautiful but unfortunate diva whose star power had diminished, as well as a man whose face was splashed across newspapers for sending his own father to the guillotine. They were all graduates of Jifu University.
Thus, news of a certain chairman murdering his wife in order to love in the open appeared in newspapers. No matter how many times the police personally clarified matters, it was no match for the barbarous growth of public opinion. By the time everyone recovered their senses and looked for Zhao Yuan to clear the dense fog that shrouded the whole affair, he had secretly vanished and escaped far from trouble.
Everyone's target turned to Jifu University.
The former site of the university was unfortunately turned into a business area lined with tall buildings a long time ago.
One detective-minded reporter happened to find an old photo printed in a small town newspaper.
The main building of Jifu University had abruptly collapsed into a pile of dust and ash, revealing the complete vista of the setting sun. The sunshine that was so bright that it could cause one to stifle was now sprinkled over a lone young man standing in the wind. He wore a fedora and his suit coat billowed in the wind. His lowered head concealing his appearance as he silently lit a cigarette. Behind him were bits of paper that filled the sky. Upon closer look, those were bits of a photo that was torn to shreds.
Tracing back the time, the one who stood atop the ruins three years ago was named Lin Wenxi. What he torn to shreds was all the photos left behind in Jifu University. His hands were trembling but in the end, one of the photos still remained.
That photo was the one that ended up getting published online and provoked tears in countless people. It was of a time when he was the most youthful.
The time in which the photo immortalized was his ardent youth. Like ink that was spilled on fine writing paper, it gradually spread out diluted and permeated subtly. Under the white halo, Lin Wenxi could be vaguely seen to be squinting as if he had shed the heavy burden that weighed on his body. His two hands hung beside him as he allowed Zhao Yuan to freely embrace him. Zhao Yuan wrapped his slender body around Lin Wenxi as they kissed, with blue veins protruding on one of his arms.
He was like a bud of a bamboo shoot that sprouted after the rain. He was like an expansive forest of bamboo trees, stretching his branches and leaves for him. When the first light of dawn rose in early summer, before the morning star Venus became visible, there was no one else there. Only the light breeze of May quietly immortalized everything into an unobliterable youth.
—Epigraph.
Eleven years ago.
The admission rules of Jifu University clearly lined out that students would be undergoing a three-month military training upon entering the university.
"So long?!" Lin Wenxi wore a slight frown.
"Since university students can be exempted from entering military service, Jifu University especially arranged this as a form of compensation. The goal is to develop a strict discipline, a firm studying manner, blah blah blah..." His father, Lin Ziwei, who was also the headmaster of the university, was rather solemnly reprimanding his son.
However, that was only effective against adults who were fully eighteen. Lin Wenxi himself was clearly a seventeen-year-old child.
"You won't be enjoying any privilege!" Lin Ziwei was obviously dissatisfied with his son's reaction.
"I... don't want to live on campus," Lin Wenxi said, stammering.
Lin Ziwei's expression turned cold as he scowled. His wife, Huang Xiya, immediately terminated her desire to send her son to school. She watched as Lin Wenxi walked out on his own without any expression. On one hand, she pondered if everything was prepared—be it clothes or commonly-used medicine. On the other hand, she couldn't help wanting to put his son back into her belly like when she was pregnant with him. Once she thought of her pregnancy back then, Huang Xiya looked pensively at Lin Wenxi's disappearing figure. "There isn't much resemblance between them. In the end, he's still more similar to me."
It was the third day since the freshmen first reported to the university. After arguing with Lin Ziwei over this matter, Lin Wenxi had no choice but to haul his two heavy suitcases and carry a burlap bag on his shoulders alone. Looking like a penniless person, he followed the map of the campus and slowly made his way to his own dormitory building. Though his sense of direction didn't improve simply because he was now in university, he still successfully arrived at his dorm after several twists and turns. The only thing was that he was covered in mud after getting splashed by a luxury car. The provocation, as well as narrowed eyes of the girl inside the car, caused Lin Wenxi to subconsciously frown.
His dorm was completely deserted. He assumed that his dorm mates had gone foraging when noon arrived. There were four beds, with the bed near the washroom still empty. To a person who had never slept in a top bunk like Lin Wenxi, this was a challenge even greater than the three-month of military training. The two other beds were in somewhat of a mess; the one underneath his was the only neat and tidy one. The quilt was folded until it resembled a block of tofu. It seemed as if the owner had gone through militarized training beforehand.
Lin Wenxi attempted to carry the leather suitcase up the top bunk but upon weighing it, he realized that his meddlesome mom must have stuffed a few more clothing or a pile of books inside. He failed to carry the suitcase even after several tries. Instead, the suitcase fell on his face and brought him down with it. The leather suitcase fell on the lower bunk and instantly made a mess out of the neat and tidy bed, leaving behind a muddy imprint.
While Lin Wenxi's head was still spinning, he heard a voice coming from the door. He turned his head and saw his three dorm mates entering. He was sweating profusely and his good-looking face was burning red.
Out of the three people, one exuded the air of a bandit. He had a full beard despite being only eighteen or nineteen. There was a vague look of resentment in his eyes. He looked like Lu Zhishen with an unshaved head (a monk character in the novel "Water Margin"). The other person looked fresh-faced and handsome. His every movement exuded gentleness and ease. He looked at Lin Wenxi with an amused expression. The last one wore a mocking smile. His brows were so sharp that they looked like they were engraved onto his face. His eyes were like stars and his nose was tall and straight. His robust chin was faintly dyed with an ink-like, greenish-black color. Though he dressed in incredibly ordinary clothing, he exuded a bold and spirited air.
It was only later that Lin Wenxi would learn that they were Zheng Kai and Wang Xiang, and that the last one was named Zhao Yuan.
"My God! How beautiful!" Wang Xiang said, giggling. He saw a child with silk-like strands of black hair, picturesque eyebrows, limpid pupils and thin lips. He looked so natural that it seemed as if spring flowers had mistaken the season and bloomed amongst the cold frost. One couldn't help feeling an inexplicable sympathy for him.
Zheng Kai put on a stern expression and said nothing.
Zhao Yuan placed his hand on the chair with the other placed on his hips. While picking his teeth, he looked at Lin Wenxi as if nothing had happened. "Are you okay?" he asked. The moment he entered the door, he saw full and plump little buttocks swinging nonstop and then a boy falling down along with a suitcase. The boy looked so pathetic that despite being rather concerned, he felt more like laughing.
"He has become a bully in a second," Lin Wenxi thought upon seeing this. He pondered over it a little longer and passed Wang Xiang a note.
Unexpectedly, Wang Xiang started reading the note out loud after receiving it. "Nice to meet you, friend. I'm new here, so please treat me kindly. I'll suffer from insomnia if I sleep on the top bunk. Is it okay if we exchange beds?" Lin Wenxi had originally planned to leave the note after putting away his suitcase and go out for lunch. When he saw that Wang Xiang was the owner of the tidy bed, he directly handed him the slip of paper.
Once Wang Xiang finished reading the note, he and Zhao Yuan raised their heads and guffawed. Lin Wenxi cast Wang Xiang a furious look, his face turning even redder.
"Look, look. Everyone thinks this bed belongs to me. You might as well hand it to me." Wang Xiang was grinning at Zheng Kai.
"You are judging someone by their appearance, youngster. This bed is mine!" The unruly Zheng Kai first lit up a cigarette before spitting out a mouthful of smoke above Lin Wenxi's head.
Zhao Yuan glanced at Lin Wenxi with a small smile. "Zheng Kai, I'm also taking the lower bunk. I'll trade with you."
Zheng Kai scrunched his nose after hearing what he said. "Then you must help make my bed again. I want to see if your bed-making skills are up to my level."
Lin Wenxi made a noise as quiet as a mosquito in answering him and slowly moved Zheng Kai's "bed items" without saying a word. He unfolded the bed sheet, applied pressure on the corners of the bed, and removed creases on the sheet. He didn't rest for a single moment during the whole process and in no time at all, an even neater bed sheet, the quilt folded to form neat edges, and a new appearance came into view. Zheng Kai couldn't help praising him in his heart. Being a fresh graduate of a military school who underwent extremely strict military training, he had unexpectedly lost to a child who hadn't even grown a mustache yet.
Meanwhile, in Wang Xiang's eyes, Lin Wenxi's actions earlier were more like an artistic performance. The use of the phrase "lightly pinching in the strings, slowly strumming and plucking them" was incredibly apt for him. Immediately, he felt a sense of familiarity with Lin Wenxi as if he was an intimate friend. He jumped around a little, sometimes calling their new dorm mate the reincarnation of Lin Daiyu (a female character in the novel "The Dream of Red Mansion") and sometimes saying his skin was soft and smooth or his face was icily cold. Zheng Kai felt that his ears were unconsciously shivering and his hands were somewhat itchy.
Soon enough, Zheng Kai pressed Wang Xiang down on the bed and resolutely threw several punches at him through the quilt. "You're so verbose even though you're a man! Don't you find that to be pedantic?!"
As Lin Wenxi was still not talking, Zhao Yuan patted his quilt with a smile. "We're all brothers of the same dorm. If you want the lower bunk, I'll take the top one."
Wang Xiang suddenly escaped Zheng Kai's clutches and laughed. "Zhao Yuan, if you sleep up there and twitch too loudly, you'll make this young master below you cry. By the way, young master, we still don't know your name. Why don't you introduce yourself? You can also tell us your three measurements."
Lin Wenxi didn't speak even after a long time had passed. This bored Wang Xiang and he ran off to the dormitory next door to make some noise. Zheng Kai left for the court with a basketball in hand to look for his friends. Before leaving, he asked Zhao Yuan, "Zhao Yuan, you know how to play basketball, don't you? Let's have a one-on-one match."
"Go ahead. I still have something to do," Zhao Yuan replied, smiling. Zheng Yuan left on his own, a little miffed. When everything was finally peaceful, Lin Wenxi went to the washroom to change clothes.
"Yo? He isn't even saying thanks?" Zhao Yuan smiled pensively. His sight fell on Lin Wenxi's luggage.
Lin Wenxi entered the washroom quietly and walked out dressed in a pair of casual black shorts and a white, feather-like shirt with short sleeves. The shirt set off his pale and thin cheeks, making him look like an otherworldly figure free from the vulgarity of the mortal world. Zhao Yuan's heart jumped in surprise and a smile soon appeared on his face. "Wenxi, have you eaten?"
Lin Wenxi nodded.
"That's enough. How can a busy kid like you have time to eat?" Zhao Yuan pointed at the electronic keyboard, the variety of books, umbrella, and medicine that Lin Wenxi took out. For a moment, he wanted to laugh.
Lin Wenxi paused for a moment. How would he know the location of the dining hall or canteen when he was new to the university? For Zhao Yuan to speak this way, he was just trying to use language as well as possible actions to terminate this conversation as early as possible.
"Let's go." Zhao Yuan put his arm over Lin Wenxi's shoulders, wanting to leave. Lin Wenxi followed along in a daze. It wasn't until they were on their way that he recalled something and asked, "Didn't you guys already eat?"
"I wasn't full." Zhao Yuan smiled as he touched his belly that was almost bursting from his hotpot lunch earlier. He fiercely suppressed the belch that would betray his willpower.
During their subsequent meal, Zhao Yuan stuffed himself so much that he nearly spewed blood. Even so, he was perfectly content because this kid gave him an inherently familiar feeling.
Zhao Yuan volunteered to show Lin Wenxi around the campus after they were done with lunch. Lin Wenxi wore a complicated expression the entire time. In the expansive campus, avenues that stretched north and south crossed at the center while arterial roads that stretched east and west traversed over them horizontally. Sitting in the middle of it all were crisscrossing lanes. There were also some walking trails that led to remote areas of the campus, hidden under the canopy of blooming flowers and verdant greenery. The numerous tall buildings made of reinforced concrete showed a hint of the interesting design of the Classical Gardens of Suzhou with its alternatively hidden and visible structures. To Lin Wenxi's surprise, Zhao Yuan had memorized all these complicated lanes and where they lead to. What made Lin Wenxi even more speechless was that Zhao Yuan was very familiar with the buildings–whether it was a teaching building, lab building, or dormitory building, which fac
A girl named Zhang An'an picked Wang Xiang and made him give her a hug. Zhang An'an was Chen Wanxin's dorm mate. The latter was unpleased with the former's taste and kept asking her for a reason on their way back. Zhang An'an smiled calmly and replied, "Zhao Yuan is impressive and has more than just looks but he seems to go his own way and is full of his own quirks. Lin Wenxi is terribly introverted and gives off the aura of a scholar from an aristocratic family. He looks somewhat delicate. Wang Xiang has thirty percent of Zhao Yuan's mightiness and fifty percent of Lin Wenxi's elegance and gentleness. He might very well embody the merits of them both." The girls enthusiastically discussed their male classmates in their dormitory. Simultaneously, they were also surprised that their last dorm mate had yet to show up. Over at the guys' dormitory, Zheng Kai and Wang Xiang had been finding Zhao Yuan strange recently. Wang Xiang muttered to himself, "D
Next, the students needed to practice matching their strides. Those who marched well would be selected for the square-shaped military parade while those who didn't would be selected for the square-shaped military boxing parade. Every day, the students would gather at the center of the field to practice military boxing. The only problem was that the center of the field was the field that the university had just freshly repaired. The grassy ground had been cleared out, leaving behind yellow soil. When wind swept the ground, sand would fly as well. Wang Xiang found it hard to imagine why history books didn't make records of the number of deaths that occurred during military parades in the fall in ancient times. The guys and girls practiced on their own. Zhao Yuan was part of the frontline troops and the one beside him was Lin Wenxi. Zhao Yuan had been upset in many ways ever since drinking Lin Wenxi's "Desiccation Water of Lin Clan" and the incident gave rise to
When Zhao Yuan thought of the punishment that Lin Wenxi would face the next day, his anger gradually dissipated. The last time Zhang Dong inspected their dormitory, Zheng Kai had sneaked out to celebrate his victory over a senior brother on the basketball court. His punishment had been to do one hundred press-ups. Zhao Yuan was thinking that he could step up when Lin Wenxi's face was twisted pitifully from panting while doing the press-ups. Being the platoon leader, him honorably offering to replace Lin Wenxi would cause the latter to owe him a great favor. Naturally, he would still wait until Lin Wenxi was almost dying of exhaustion before bravely stepping forward. Zhao Yuan fell asleep happily as if Lin Wenxi had already lowered his head and plead for leniency from him with a pout. However, Zhang Dong only asked about Lin Wenxi's whereabouts, evidently not finding it a huge problem. This turn of events confused Zhao Yuan. Zhao Yuan waited for Lin Wenxi to leav
Soon, it would be the final selection drill for the square-shaped formation of the military training. The students of Jifu University must form a proper square-shaped formation as well as listen to the military instructor's orders to stand straight, go forward, go backward, match others' strides, perform the goose-step, squat down in place, and march at the same time. In the beginning, the squads marched superbly after the order to perform goose-steps was made. Suddenly, someone in the front row staggered and plunged forward to the ground. Under ordinary circumstances, everyone would have stopped and burst out laughing but it was now a matter of honor for their entire class. Everyone fell into silence and inwardly despising this person who was humiliating them at this critical moment—Lin Wenxi. Lin Wenxi knew that when Zhao Yuan, who stood beside him, shoved his toes at him when withdrawing his foot. Unable to react in time, Lin Wenxi immediately collapsed.
The girls of the female Dorm No. 419 invited Zhao Yuan to tea. "You embarrassed him so much in public! You overdid it!" Zhang An'an said. "Did you see his gaze earlier? It was as sharp as a knife! It was so cold that it made one's liver and lung shiver! Moreover, he deserved credit for maintaining discipline and even when he was punished, he didn't show the slightest bit of reaction. He really knows how to grasp the bigger picture. I think Zhao Yuan will have a hard time nailing him." Zhang An'an was still having lingering fears over Lin Wenxi's gaze when they were in the square-shaped military boxing parade. "No... I was doing it to vent anger on behalf of Wanxin," Zhao Yuan retorted self-righteously. "Venting anger? That's one way to do it. But if you overdo things, how will you 'bend' him?" Shu Xiaoman interrupted. "I think... it doesn't matter... whether he's 'bent' or not. We don't have to go all the way,&
The group of fujoshi representatives, spearheaded by Shu Xiaoman, had already neglected the ultimate reward. Perhaps, it was better to say that they personally believed that they didn't have the capability of even getting close to the reward. They put all their focus on discussing how to make Zhao Yuan and Lin Wenxi into a pair. The verdict was working together to manufacture an exceptionally good opportunity for Zhao Yuan and help him succeed. However, the girls led by Chen Wanxin were used to watching scheming palace harem dramas. They had a very different idea when it came to the concept of manufacturing an exceptionally good opportunity. Thus, Zhao Yuan's supplies inexplicably disappeared. Wang Xiang, being a person who would rather advance and retreat together, shared his supplies with him. However, Wang Xiang's supplies disappeared as well. Thus, the members of the dorm discussed and came to the conclusion that everyone, except the weakling Lin Wenxi, would guard
Zhao Yuan abruptly pulled onto the drapery in a moment of panic. Pitch-black darkness shrouded the inside of the tent. He immediately turned on the light. The people outside would want nothing more than to break into the tent and see what was going on. However, they were afraid that the delicate Lin Wenxi would easily collapse. Thus, all of them transformed into the young imperial guards of the Ming Dynasty, searching for crevices in the tent or pushing open the draped door ever so slightly. Unfortunately, even though it was Wang Xiang who helped Lin Wenxi build the tent, Lin Wenxi had many nuisances helping him reinforce the tent. The tent was built so tightly sealed that not even wind could enter. Inside the tent, Lin Wenxi also heard the commotion outside. He said nothing but kept his hands over his eyes. "Hey, even if it's a girl who saw me like this, I don't think she'll have such a big reaction? Haven't you gone nude in your upper half?" Zhao Yua