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Shang Jin threw his clothes on the table. The two people on the upper bunk didn’t even notice. That stranger snorted and still held Ye Zhou tighter.
Shang Jin took a deep breath and walked to the dorm doorway. He pulled the door open and then slammed it heavily.
The dorm door closed with a bang.
The two people on the bed were woken up.
Taking advantage of when Shang Ming loosened his arms, Ye Zhou pushed Shang Ming a little farther and sat up. Squinting his eyes, he looked out. “Shang Jin, why are you back so early?”
Shang Jin swept his eyes on Shang Ming who was still clinging to Ye Zhou’s waist and said, “What, did I disturb you?”
Ye Zhou didn’t understand why and poured oil on the fire by asking, “It’s hard to return home once. Why not stay two more days?”
Shang Ming held Ye Zhou’s waist and rubbed twice, and looking at Ye Zhou, he was accustomed to it.
The vein on Shang Jin’s forehead pulsed. He turned his back and didn’t continue to face Ye Zhou. “If you’d told me earlier that your…friend would come, I would also adaptable to the circumstances and stay home for two more days.”
Ye Zhou looked at the disgraceful Shang Ming and felt deeply that he’d lost face. He patted Shang Ming’s hands and whispered, “Let go. I’m going to get up.”
Shang Ming turned reluctantly, and Ye Zhou carefully climbed over him and jumped out of bed. He poked Shang Jin’s shoulder with his finger and said, “You’re in a bad mood? Did something unpleasant happen at home?” But from yesterday’s photo, it didn’t seem so…if something really happened, how would Shang Jin have the leisure to take a picture of Shang Youyou and send it to him?
Shang Jin lowered his head and turned on his computer. “Nothing.”
With one more person appearing in the shared dorm, Ye Zhou felt it was necessary to say something to Shang Jin. “My friend came from C City to play for two days. Anyway, Tian’er and Ah Xu weren’t in the dorm, so I let him stay.”
“Staying isn’t a problem, but don’t stay in the same bed.” Shang Jin hung his arms from the back of the chair and slightly lifted his head to look at Ye Zhou and said, “The quality of the beds in the dorm isn’t so good. Two big men sleeping together, not mentioning whether you’re comfortable or not, the bed definitely is uncomfortable.”
Ye Zhou agreed, “I also don’t plan to sleep with him today. Being held all night was simply killing me.”
Shang Jin snorted and, taking a bag from the table, said, “Your breakfast, for one person.”
Ye Zhou “heheh” smirked, “Thanks. It’s best that it’s for one person. That fellow is lazy to death. If he doesn’t sleep till noon, he wouldn’t get up. It’s best to starve him to death.”
Shang Jin heard this and his mood was a bit better, but his peripheral vision swept over the person on the bed and the corner of his mouth that had just hooked up was pulled down again.
Shang Ming’s sleep was as Ye Zhou had said: sleeping until noon, he yawned, opened his eyes and looked around. He didn’t see Ye Zhou, but saw an extra person at the opposite table. He guessed that it was Ye Zhou’s roommate. He was an extrovert and immediately said familiarly, “Hey, are you Ye Zhou’s roommate?”
Shang Jin gave him a look and “mm”.
Seeing Shang Jin’s face, Shang Ming frivolously whistled, “Ye Zhou didn’t tell me that he had such a handsome roommate.”
Shang Jin raised a single eyebrow and asked with his eyes: So what do you want to say?
Shang Ming failed to set up a relationship and embarrassingly said, “Ye Zhou?”
“Bathroom.”
With such a succinct answer, even if Shang Ming didn’t know the meaning of the glance, he’d still be clear that the other didn’t want to chat with him. He jumped off the bed and ran to the sink to wash his face. Just then, Ye Zhou came out of the bathroom.
“You’re up. I’ll find clothes for you.” Ye Zhou wiped dry his hands and walked to closet. He found a long-sleeved shirt from inside and the pants on the chair. “Putting them here. I’m going to go dry the clothes.”
Shang Jin’s eyelid jumped. If he didn’t get it wrong, Ye Zhou just looked for clothes for the other person. That was to say that the other would wear Ye Zhou’s clothes?
He incredulously asked the other, “You went out to play without bringing any clothes?”
Shang Ming’s mouth was full of foam and he vaguely said, “Ye Zhou and I don’t divide between you and me.”
Shang Jin said with a smile, “What a good ‘don’t divide between you and me’.” However, the smile didn’t reach the bottom of his eyes. Shang Ming didn’t feel friendly at all, but felt flustered instead.
Shang Ming brushed his teeth while observing Shang Jin out of the corner of his eye. To say, he’d felt a lot of hostility when he came to A Uni, but this person in front of him was definitely the most hostile.
Ask if you don’t understand.
After Shang Ming finished washing, he went in front of Shang Jin and asked, “I haven’t offended you. Why does it feel like you have an opinion of me?”
Shang Jin said with an innocent look, “How could that be? You and me are total strangers. Why would I have an opinion of you? This is your illusion.”
“Exactly.” Ye Zhou walked in from outside the door and just heard Shang Ming’s question. “You’re just overthinking it. Yesterday you said that people were hostile to you. People don’t know you, so why would they be hostile to you. What, did you stay too long in the literature institution and even your mind became delicate?”
Shang Ming looked suspiciously at Shang Jin and reluctantly agreed with Ye Zhou’s statement. He touched his empty stomach and said, “Can we go to lunch now?”
“What do you want to eat?”
“Hotpot!”
“There’s a delicious hotpot restaurant on the street behind our school.” Ye Zhou eyed Shang Jin and said, “Shang Jin, go together?” When Ye Zhou asked this sentence, he intuitively thought that Shang Jin would refuse, but didn’t expect that he would immediately agree.
“Since you say so, it’s good to have hotpot occasionally.”
Shang Ming’s eyes moved back and forth between Ye Zhou and Shang Jin.
On the way to the hotpot restaurant, Shang Ming deliberately kept reminiscing on their life in high school, and didn’t give Shang Jin a chance to intervene.
Shang Jin wasn’t annoyed and just nonchalantly listened to them with no trace of emotion appearing on his face, as if the previous hostility to him was really an illusion. On the contrary, Ye Zhou next to him, for fear of snubbing Shang Jin, would also say something to Shang Jin from time to time.
At the hotpot restaurant, Ye Zhou sat in the middle and Shang Jin and Shang Ming sat on both sides of him. When it was time to order food, the waiter asked which pot, and Ye Zhou said, “Mandarin duck pot.”1
Shang Ming was astonished. “What mandarin duck pot? When we both had hotpot before, we used the spicy pot. What’s the meaning of eating hotpot without eating spicy?”
Ye Zhou gave him a supercilious look and said, “You also know to say that it was us two eating before.”
Shang Ming uttered a long “oh” and meaningfully said, “That’s true. After all, this is your friend. We should also take good care of him.” In a remark, he’d differentiated between Shang Jin and them. Just like the hotpot soup base, they were together and Shang Jin was on the other side.
Shang Jin poured three cups of water from the teapot. The first cup was given to Shang Ming, the second cup was given to Ye Zhou, and finally he took up his cup and took a sip. He said, “Let’s order the spicy pot. We hosts should follow the guest’s preference. It’s hard for your friend to come once, so we must let him enjoy to his heart’s content. After all, I still have a long time to spend with you; what pot base can’t we eat.”
“No, still order the Mandarin duck pot. Ye Zhou and I have eaten spicy pots too many times before. It’s not like we can’t occasionally change the taste.”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re only staying here for two days. How can we let you return in disappointment?”
Ye Zhou looked left and looked right. Why did he feel that there was the sound of sparks growing between Shang Ming and Shang Jin?
Shang Jin and Shang Ming were still pushing to give way to each other. Ye Zhou finished drinking the cup of water and put the cup heavily on the table, making the final decision, “Just order the Mandarin duck pot!”
After Ye Zhou finished the sentence, Shang Ming proudly lifted his chin, while Shang Jin only took his cup and drank the water. His face was as calm as if the one Shang Ming had a grudge against wasn’t him.
Ye Zhou looked at Shang Jin and couldn’t understand it. Shang Jin was really strange today. Obviously, he rarely ate spicy food, but today, he still stubbornly insisted on the spicy pot.
Mandarin duck pot ( 鸳鸯锅): hotpot divided into two sides, one with mild broth and one with spicy broth.