Social Outcast

Chapter 3

Edited by: Planetes

When Song Yuanxun stepped into the lab in the morning, he saw Fang Zhaomu standing by the document cabinet, arranging things with his side facing the door.

Maybe because he felt someone entered, Fang Zhaomu looked up. When his eyes met with Song Yuanxuan’s, he quickly lowered his head.

Fang Zhaomu was a lot shorter than Song Yuanxun. His back and shoulders were slightly hunched, and he looked very stiff. Any traces of his relaxed manner on the app last night could not be seen at all.

Song Yuanxun’s feet did not stop. He walked past Fang Zhaomu, and headed in the direction of his group member, Zhang Ranyu.

Last night, after listening to Fang Zhaomu’s compliments, Song Yuanxun then decisively deleted the app. After all, to be successfully goaded by someone like Fang Zhaomu into sending a voice message was incredibly irrational of him. And to chat with such an academically incompetent gay, it was a pure waste of his time.

“Brother Yuan.” Zhang Ranyu greeted Song Yuanxun, and showed him the results of last night’s computation.

Their group’s experiment was more than halfway done, and had already reached its conclusion stage. Today, after a short meeting in the lab, they would have to start writing their thesis.

It did not take much time for the remaining members of their group to arrive and for Song Yuanxun to finish assigning them their tasks. All of a sudden, they could hear the sound of glass breaking.

Everyone turned their heads to look. Fang Zhaomu had broke a test tube, and was bending down to pick the shards up.

“It’s him again…” Zhang Ranyu had a mocking look on his face. “Embarrassing.”

Zhang Ranyu’s voice was not loud, but Fang Zhaomu had heard it. Fang Zhaomu threw the glass shards into the bin, then turned around and looked at Zhang Ranyu. He asked Zhang Ranyu in a cold voice, “How am I embarrassing?”

Yesterday afternoon, it was Zhang Ranyu who had angered Fang Zhaomu.

If Song Yuanxun was the invisible nucleus of the chinese people in the lab, then Zhang Ranyu would be a character like the many eunuchs next to the emperor that could be seen on television.

Song Yuanxun was working on two degrees, and was seldom in the lab. He would not have any direct conflicts with Fang Zhaomu, and had rarely spoken to Fang Zhaomu, mostly just ignoring and avoiding him.

However, that was not the case for Zhang Ranyu. In his life, Zhang Ranyu only had two hobbies. One was to suck up to Song Yuanxun, and the other was to think of ways to make Fang Zhaomu feel uncomfortable.

Yesterday, when Fang Zhaomu was holding on to a reagent, he accidentally bumped into an electronic weighing scale that Song Yuanxun was using.

Song Yuanxun was standing next to Fang Zhaomu, and he quickly used the lab report in his hand to push Fang Zhaomu’s hand away. With a poker-face, he stared at Fang Zhaomu. Then, before Song Yuanxun could even open his mouth, Zhang Ranyu had leaned over,  blaming Fang Zhaomu for destroying Song Yuanxun’s half hour of work.

At the start, Fang Zhaomu still apologised nicely, but after getting unrelentingly scolded by Zhang Ranyu, his face also turned cold, and he walked off with his reagent.

Zhang Ranyu had not expect that the usually tolerant Fang Zhaomu would dare to retort. He was stunned, and watched Fang Zhaomu walk towards him.

“How am I embarrassing?” Fang Zhaomu drew closer to Zhang Ranyu, and asked again.

Although Fang Zhaomu was not tall, he was still half a head taller than Zhang Ranyu.

His eyes were fierce, and he was still holding on to the half-broken test tube. Stared at by Fang Zhaomu, Zhang Ranyu took a step back in panic, and his backside pressed against the table. He then mustered up his courage, raising his neck up to confront Fang Zhaomu. “Was I talking about you?”

“Then who were you talking about?” Facing Zhang Ranyu, the corner of Fang Zhaomu’s lips twitched.

“Alright, alright. Stop arguing.” Zhou Meng, standing next to them, came to mediate. She told Fang Zhaomu, “Ranyu was just speaking casually, why are you treating it so seriously.”

Fang Zhaomu still wanted to argue, but the professor and the assistant chose that moment to enter the lab, so he could only let it go.

He went upstairs to his own table and switched on his computer. He then took out his phone, and opened the app that he had started using yesterday.

After complimenting Andrew’s muscles yesterday, Andrew seemed to have turned shy, opting for silence.

Fang Zhaomu felt that he  might have gotten himself imprinted on Andrew like a little duckling. Other than Andrew, he was not interested in anyone else. He opened his chat with Andrew, and sent Andrew another message.

He first typed a message, telling him good morning, and asked him if he had woken up already. After spending some time on his analysis report, Andrew still had not reply. Fang Zhaomu then pressed on the voice message button, dragging his words out, he asked Andrew, “What are you doing?”

“I met an idiot again today, and I’m in a bad mood. Chat with me,” Fang Zhaomu persisted. “Ok?”

Just as he finished, Fang Zhaomu heard a small noise coming from behind him, and he turned around to look. Surprisingly, Song Yuanxun had also came upstairs, which he rarely did. With his back facing him, he took out his computer.

Now that there was someone else present, Fang Zhaomu was unable to send a voice message anymore. He sent a few crying emojis to Andrew, then started looking at through his materials.

After Fang Zhaomu finished reading a thesis, he could not resist opening the chat again, discovering that Andrew had replied. Andrew asked, “That idiot made you cry?”

“Mn,” Fang Zhaomu lay on the table, typing his message to Andrew. “I cried.”

This time, Andrew replied a lot faster than he did last night. He told Fang Zhaomu, “I don’t believe, take a photo for me to see.”

“I’m in the lab, there’s people next to me.” Fang Zhaomu turned his head to take a look. Song Yuanxun was typing on his computer very seriously, he should not notice him. He then lowered his voice and told Andrew, “You’re not working?”

“I’m working,” Andrew said. “I saw that you said you weren’t in a good mood, so I took some time out to chat with you.”

Fang Zhaomu felt that Andrew was a little different from last night, he seemed to have become friendly. Fang Zhaomu did not know what else to say, so he told him, “Thank you, with someone to speak to me, I feel a lot better now.”

“You can send voice messages in the lab?” Andrew asked Fang Zhaomu. “What are you studying?”

“Sure I can.” Fang Zhaomu told Andrew his major, then asked him, “What does a mechanical engineer do at work? Is it very busy?”

Before his voice faded away, more noise sounded behind Fang Zhaomu. He turned around to see Song Yuanxun stand up and walking quickly in the direction of the staircase with his phone.

Andrew’s side of the conversation suddenly fell quiet again. After Fang Zhaomu analysed some data, he looked up and casually sent another message. “Are you really that busy?”

After a moment, Fang Zhaomu then received a reply. In it were only four words, “I’m really quite busy.”