Pandora’s Box

When I went to class today, the big-eyed girl who insisted on sitting in the row above me daily, Yuan Keke turned around to ask me, “Will Zhuo Wenyang come today?”

“No,” I answered with a playful smile, “but I’m here.”

She snorted in response.

“What do you mean,” I said, “I think I’m pretty handsome, too.”

Exasperated, she said, “How superficial! Do you think we are from the same mold as the male god?”

I smiled and teased, “So you’re not denying my handsomeness?”

“…..,” she said, “You’re not handsome at all!”

“Oh, what a pity. I didn’t expect you to be so hurtful,” I said, taking out my notebook, “I wanted to show you Zhuo Wenyang’s notes so that you can feel the aura of the male god.”

“What? Did he give you his notebook?” Her eyes became rounder and larger.

“That’s right!” I presented it in all directions and said, “This is the real work of the male god!”

She stared at the notebook’s cover enviously, “Ah nice, nice!”

Then she asked, “Can you lend me the notes?”

“Of course not.”

She was upset again, “You’re stingy.”

I held up my chin and said, “If you give me a copy of all future courses in the future, I can reconsider.”

She immediately agreed without considering, “Deal!”

Then she grabbed the notebook with both hands, worshipping it and showing a gleeful smile as if she caught onto stars.

I actually thought she was quite amusing. Although she was annoyed by me, like an inflatable pufferfish, she could not withstand our frequent interactions, as we are becoming more and more familiar with each other.

Yuan Keke was the first friend I made in this university. This made me feel less lonely and not so distant from this place.

It appeared that I had started to integrate into this campus that I was once coldhearted to.

Zhuo Wenyang sometimes came to accompany me to class. She would be restless and vibrated out of excitement whenever that occurred. Even her ponytail would vibrate alongside, causing me to laugh.

So I asked her, “You worship Zhuo Wenyang so much. Do you want me to arrange for everyone to have dinner together?”

“No, no, no, no!” She immediately shook her hands and righteously said, “Must keep a distance from idols!”

I was amused by her seriousness.

Although she acted humbly in front of her idols, but unlike me, Yuan Keke was the type of student that secured an honorable first-class scholarship. She was also beautiful with her petite, exquisite round face, and doe eyes. If Zhuo Wenyang was the male god, then she was regarded as the goddess in the hearts of many boys in college.

Occasionally, Zhuo Wenyang would appear by my side and he remained low-key and was actually not very noticeable. On the contrary, Yuan Keke and I often attended classes and sat in the front and back rows together. We got along very well, appearing in and out of class together daily. This caused my reputation to almost rise to heaven with her, attracting the public’s attention.

On this day, I carried a pink Hello Kitty schoolbag, Melody water bottle, and hugged onto her big-eared dog folder for Yuan Keke. I stood in front of the professor’s building, waiting for her to come out of the bathroom with her doe-eyes.

I was numb to this. I was like her sister.

Two boys came towards me and bumped into me out of nowhere. I staggered and things I was holding onto scattered all over the floor.

Although there was a dull pain in my shoulder, I ignored it at first and squatted down to pick up the items. I stared at them, but the other party did not apologize at all. They even viciously said, “What are you looking at?”

“???”

Amongst them, a taller boy stared at me, “Do you think you’re all that?”

The shorter one reactively echoed, “You want to die?”

I was extremely baffled so I responded sincerely, “Looking for shit? Didn’t I just find you two?”

The taller one immediately rolled up his sleeves, as if he was about to give me a vibrant show. That was when a shrill, female voice called out, “What are you doing?”

Yuan Keke ran over angrily and stood in front of me, “Gao Qi, what are you doing?”

The taller man said, “Nothing, just showing you how poor your vision is.”

“???”

Yuan Keke anxiously pressed, “What are you talking about?”

“What’s so good about this guy? Are you involved with this kind of thing? Have you ever thought about my feelings?”

“???” What kind of thing? I was a very high quality product, ok?

Yuan Keke stomped her feet angrily, “Stop talking nonsense! What does this have to do with you?”

“For your sake, I’ll let this guy go today,” the tall man turned to harshly warn me, “You, be careful in the future.”

“???”

It was not certain who would let go of who.

The two walked away and I asked Yuan Keke, “Who was that? Your suitor?”

“Don’t pay attention to him. There’s something wrong with him.”

I sighed, “Infatuation makes people sick.”

“No, no, I’m going to vomit,” she said with a stink on her face as if she swallowed cockroaches, “Who wants such unwanted attention?”

“Oh,” I suddenly realized, “Is this the guy who posted on the school forum not long ago to look for the ‘girl I fell in love with at first sight,’ and then placed love candles under your dormitory building and sang love songs?”

Initially, it was a big fanfare speech, and then he followed up with a strong courtship in public. This scene was filmed by onlookers and posted to the school forum with comments of “so romantic” and “why doesn’t the heroine go downstairs, so ruthless.” Such public display of emotional devotion incited gossip.

Yuan Keke blushed, not from shame, but from anger.

“It’s just so vexing. There’s no common sense. His dramatic confession was just him trying to win over my feelings, okay? A group of people said he was so romantic and asked me why I didn’t agree. I really don’t understand what people are thinking nowadays. It seems that if I don’t fulfill his wishes, I’m suddenly a scumbag. Don’t people have the right to refuse?”

She angrily continued, “Does Zhuo Wenyang have to help me write my thesis if I go downstairs to his building and pray all night?”

“??” How obsessed was she with writing a thesis?

I said, “This man is such a stalker. I guarantee that I can help you persuade him to leave. Just say you have a rich man and he will go away.”

“No,” she disagreed in frustration, “You don’t have to stand up for me. People like Gao Qi can’t be provoked.”

She took back her schoolbook from my hands, hugged her folder and sighed, “Student council’s work is so tiring.”

“Do you want me to ask Zhuo Wenyang for you to see if he has any experience in this field?”

She said, “Zhuo Wenyang has never participated. How could he have time for that?”

“Then why do you want to participate? Aren’t you following the idol’s footsteps?”

She hesitated for a moment, “However, he doesn’t need this in his personal resume. He doesn’t lack professional experience, but I’m different.”

I was not prepared for that.

Indeed, not everyone had the privilege of having a strong resume and financial back-up. Yuan Keke even needed to work a part-time job. Unlike how I earned some red envelopes by playing games, she was really trying hard to earn her living expenses by working.

Sometimes when I thought about it, the starting point of my self-pity and disdain may be the endpoint of where people liked to be after struggling so much in life.

Soon, I understood what she meant by “people like Gao Qi can’t be provoked.”

Gao Qi and his friends deliberately went to eat at the restaurant where Yuan Keke worked part-time. Then, another boy who secretly crushed on her also invited additional guests to dinner. While ordering food, he flirted and laughed with her. Gao Qi rushed up and lifted the table, causing the two to stand up and fight.

The fighting scenes were circulated wildly amongst classmates in school forums, but soon disappeared as if it never happened. There were only chicken feathers left for Yuan Keke to clean up.

“The store manager said he will not fire me, but he asked me to compensate for the damages caused to the restaurant,” Yuan Keke mentioned this to me, tears filling up her eyes, “It’s more than 3700 yuan. My salary is not that much…”

Although I did not think much about girls, I still hated to see girls crying.

“It’s okay, I’m here. I’ll take it upon myself,” I thumped my chest loudly, “I’ll help you resolve it.”

She choked up and said, “But you don’t have money either.”

“…..,” I said, “It’s okay, I can get money even if I have to steal car batteries.”

When this occurred, my first instinctive reaction was to find Zhuo Wenyang. However, after thinking about it, Yuan Keke cared too much about disturbing her idols that she may not be able to accept the help.

And who was Zhuo Wenyang to her? He was held dear in my heart. I couldn’t bear to let him pay even a dime! In the end, the first time he was asked to spend money and it was on other women? That wasn’t any good; I couldn’t swallow this vinegar! (jealousy)

I was not familiar enough with Ke Luo to borrow money from him without repaying it. Thus, Cheng Yichen was the only one left I could reach out to. However, I was really embarrassed to ask when I factored in his bookstore’s profit and how much the family of four ate everyday.

After racking my brains for ideas, I suddenly realized a blind spot — obviously there was another person I could ask — I could ask Lu Feng for money! The last thing he needed was money!

Although I was a little apprehensive about it, after a period of time, one thing to say, it was easier to get along with Lu Feng than I originally remembered and imagined.

To be precise, it should be said that as long Cheng Yichen was by his side and Cheng Yichen remained to be in charge, then it was not that troublesome to interact with Lu Feng. Sometimes, he was even easy to talk to.

Perhaps to him, most things in this world other than Cheng Yichen was deemed insignificant, so he did not bother to care much.

I built up a lot psychological barriers and mustered the courage to walk up to the rich man and said, “What–”

Lu Feng continued reading the newspaper without raising his head as he answered, “Xiao Chen went out to buy fruit.”

“…..”

Well, it was true that whenever I was home, I frequently called out:

“Uncle Chen, I’m hungry.”

“Uncle Chen, did you put away my clothes?”

“Uncle Chen, where did you put the umbrella?”

And when I had no choice, I had to find Lu Feng and weakly asked a question, “Lu Feng, where is my Uncle Chen?”

Anyhow, I took a deep breath and said, “I’m not looking for Uncle Chen. I’m looking for you.”

Hearing this, Lu Feng slowly lowered the newspaper and looked directly at me.

I mumbled, “Can you lend me some money for emergency? It’s very likely I won’t be able to pay it back.”

I thought he would at least ask “what’s the emergency,” “how much,” or “you can’t pay?”

Instead, he said, “Give me your account number.”

I said, “…..can I use Alipay? It’s more convenient.”

“Fine.”

He really had Alipay.

I hurriedly struck while the iron was hot. I said, “That’s great, my Alipay account number is this, or you can scan the QR code…..”

However, this man was not the charitable type after all. Hearing this, he wore an expression of “why bother me with such insignificance?” He simply turned on his phone, handed it to me, and said, “The password is Xiao Chen’s birthday. You can transfer it yourself.”

I clicked on Lu Feng’s Alipay and was astonished by the balance on his account.

Originally, I didn’t intend to talk nonsense with him but could not help asking, “You have deposited in here so much money. What are you planning to buy?”

“I don’t plan to buy anything,” Lu Feng replied, “It’s here for Xiao Chen to buy things and act as an account payment for him.”

“…..” Obviously Cheng Yichen didn’t spend money in it.

Lu Feng said, “He has too much pride.”

Luckily, I basically had no self-esteem!

So, I transferred money over to my account.

In fact, it was easy to understand. Cheng Yichen would not tap into Lu Feng’s wallet until he spent all his money.

For some unknown reason, Cheng Yichen always maintained a somewhat of a ‘self-reliant’ attitude. He lived with a man like Lu Feng who basically had no other advantages other than being rich and attractive. Yet, he did not spend money like water and he, himself, did not have a lot of money either.

I didn’t know what he was trying to do.

Probably, he really only wanted Lu Feng.

Pondering about this, I couldn’t help but be in awe.

Like Lei Feng, what a selfless, model citizen he was!