The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

When Lin Wenxi woke up again, he saw Zhao Yuan bent over his desk, snoring. It was winter now, but Zhao Yuan still wore only a thin sweater and a coat. Upon seeing that, Lin Wenxi could not help but think worriedly, “It was really cold and windy last night. He drank so much beer and went out to find me in the chilly weather. It’s not good for his health no matter how strong he is.”

His nose twitched and he began to weep.

He thought to himself, “Zhao Yuan, I know that you’re optimistic and humorous and can make fun of anything, but what do you really think about me? Do you take me seriously? Or do you just treat me well because of a bet? I don’t blame you. I can’t blame you. My body was dirty. I can’t ask you to adore me and cherish me.”

He got out of his bed and saw a cup of cold ginger tea on his desk. Beside the ginger tea, there were a few buns and tarts and a bottle of soy milk. He found a note beneath the bottle. It was left by Gu Xi.

“Big Xixi, just be happy. Remember to eat your breakfast.”

Lin Wenxi packed some of his clothes and left the university.

When Zhao Yuan woke up, he yawned and smiled. He had been busy taking care of Lin Wenxi last night and fallen asleep at 5:00 am or 6:00 am this morning. To his surprise, he had a good dream. He dreamed that he had an unforgettable night together with Lin Wenxi. In his dream, Lin Wenxi looked at him with smiling eyes, and there were red silk curtains around their bed and a pair of red candles burning in their room.

He smacked his lips and turned around. When he saw that Lin Wenxi’s bed was empty, he was startled and broke out in a cold sweat. He looked at himself and found out that Lin Wenxi had covered him with the blue and white coat that he often wore. He touched Lin Wenxi’s bed and quilt. Although the quilt was still somewhat warm, the bed was cold. He thought that Lin Wenxi must have left a long time ago.

He called Lin Wenxi but failed to get through to him. After that, he called Gu Xi, Wang Xiang and Shu Xiaoman, but still failed to get any clue as to Lin Wenxi’s whereabouts.

Zhao Yuan asked Wang Xiang to find their university counselor and tell the counselor that they had to contact Lin Wenxi’s parents in an emergency.

“Why do you want me to do that?” asked Wang Xiang.

“You have the cheek to do anything.”

Wang Xiang beat his breast and sighed before leaving for the counselor’s office.

Not long after that, he returned dejectedly, as he failed to get the contact information. Zhao Yuan asked him to find the counselor again and tell her that they had to contact Zheng Kai’s parents in an emergency. This time, Wang Xiang succeeded.

Upon seeing the contact information, Zhao Yuan frowned. He went to find the university counselor by himself and successfully got what he wanted.

“How did you do that?” Wang Xiang asked curiously.

Zhao Yuan smiled and said, “I just asked her if there’s anything special about Lin Wenxi’s parents? I told her that I just couldn’t understand why she could tell us how to contact Zheng Kai’s parent when she refused to let us contact Lin Wenxi’s parents.” Zhao Yuan felt somewhat curious about Lin Wenxi’s family now. All he knew was that Lin Wenxi’s family lived in this city. They had never asked about each other’s family by now. Neither had anyone of them taken the initiative to talk about his own family. Zhao Yuan wondered, “I don’t want to talk about my family for a reason. What about Lin Wenxi? Why didn’t he talk about his family at all?And why did the counselor feel so reluctant to give us the contact information of his parents?”

When talking with Lin Wenxi’s parents on the phone, Zhao Yuan found out that they sound quite nice. They thanked Zhao Yuan and told him that Lin Wenxi had come home this afternoon. Upon hearing that, Zhao Yuan felt relieved.

Lin Wenxi was the only child of his parents, and they cared a lot about him. As he had locked himself in his room for hours since returning home, his mother Huang Xiya kept crying for hours. Despite that, he still refused to come out. The moment his father Lin Ziwei received the call from Zhao Yuan, he was busy urging his son to come out of his room.

Not long after that, Lin Ziwei received a call from Lin Wenxi’s university counselor. This counselor was the wife of his subordinate and would tell him everything about his son. Today, she told him a thing that totally irritated him.

“When Wenxi’s teacher read out his name in today’s lecture, a girl named Shu Xiaoman answered the roll call for him. She probably thought that it would be alright as the teacher probably didn’t know who Lin Wenxi was. However, she didn’t know that the name list the teacher had was actually a name-gender list. When she answered the roll call for Wenxi, the teacher was shocked and asked her to stand up to further ensure that she was a girl and could never be Lin Wenxi.”

Lin Ziwei was angry. He stood in front of Lin Wenxi’s door, gave a choked cry and then kicked the door open. To his surprise, he did not see anyone inside the room.

He panted heavily and opened the closet. He saw his son hiding inside the closet. The boy was trembling and weeping.

Two days later, when Lin Wenxi came back to the university, he looked absent-minded, and his eyes were glassy. He kept lying on his bed and refused to attend any lecture or class.

At noon, Zhao Yuan bought Lin Wenxi a box of lunch food and some porridge from the canteen after class. When he went back to the dorm with the food, he found out that the ginger tea cup was empty. He thought that Lin Wenxi must have drank up the tea and smiled. After putting the lunch box on Lin Wenxi’s desk, he went to the bathroom to wash his hands. To his surprise, he smelt ginger tea in the sink. The smile on his face disappeared.

“Today’s lecture was about the configuration of a computer system. You know what. The teacher managed to finish the first two chapters during the first class! The guy who invented the first computer is named Alan Turing, and he’s gay. Do you know what that means? He was a guy who liked guys! Well, that’s not important. I should tell you about floating-point arithmetic, binary arithmetic and octal arithmetic…”

Zhao Yuan threw away the cold buns on Lin Wenxi’s desk and then bought him a bowl of warm porridge. Lin Wenxi got up and get dressed. After that, he left with a somber face.

“He’s a grown-up man. Why do you have to do these things for him?” Zheng Kai said disdainfully.

“He’s not a man,” said Zhao Yuan.

“Haha, even you…” Zheng Kai laughed and said.

“He’s a boy,” Zhao Yuan interjected.

Zheng Kai sighed after a moment of silence. “No matter what, he should take care of his own business. Look at him. He refuses to attend lectures and even refuses to eat. What the fuck does he think now?”

Zhao Yuan said solemnly, “Don’t worry about it. You won’t understand it at all. You’ve gotten used to handling everything in a simple and direct way. You know what. I think you deserve to be alone for your whole life.”

“What? Why do you talk like Wang Xiang now? And what does this have to do with my love life?” Zheng Kai asked dejectedly.

Right at this moment, Lin Wenxi walked into the dorm while bending his head down. He held a cup of juice in his hand. It was orange juice instead of his favorite cherry juice.

He still refused to attend any lecture in the afternoon.

When Zhao Yuan came back to the dorm after class, he sat beside Lin Wenxi’s bed and kept talking about the lecture “Digital Logic” for an hour. Suddenly, Lin Wenxi turned around, and his face flushed red.

“Huh, what does he want to do now? I remember this face. When I pulled him up in the tent that day, he looked just like this,” Zhao Yuan thought and felt somewhat excited.

He continued to talk about “Digital Logic”, like a teacher giving a lecture.

“Zhao Yuan! Don’t call my parents anymore! Just mind your own business!” Lin Wenxi suddenly shouted to Zhao Yuan. Zhao Yuan was stunned and did not how to react for the time being. He continued to talk about “Digital Logic”.

“Piss off!” Lin Wenxi shouted again. Zhao Yuan could not believe what he had just heard and stopped talking. He looked at Lin Wenxi in disbelief, feeling sad and helpless. Lin Wenxi looked back at him sneeringly and distainfully. Zhao Yuan did not know what he had done wrong. He moved his lips but failed to utter a word. Zheng Kai abruptly turned up the volume of his music by several times to make noise. Zhao Yuan quietly left the dorm and went to play basketball to vent his emotions.

“It’s too noisy!” Lin Wenxi covered his ears and shouted toward Zheng Kai. He sounded even louder than the music now. Zheng Kai stopped playing the music, jumped off his bed and strutted to Lin Wenxi. When he was about to beat Lin Wenxi, Wang Xiang hurriedly ran over to stop him by holding him tightly.

“Impulse is the devil. Just make some concessions for the sake of peace and our friendship,” Wang Xiang said to Zheng Kai.

At this moment, Lin Wenxi suddenly sat up on his bed and looked up at Zheng Kai while saying, “You’re too noisy.”

Zheng Kai punched Lin Wenxi twice in his chest. Lin Wenxi could not stand it and fell heavily on his bed. His back happened to hit on the guardrail of his bed. He managed to sit up again and glared at Zheng Kai.

Wang Xiang thought frightenedly, “Does Lin Wenxi really want to die?” He could not watch it anymore and covered his eyes with his hands.

Suddenly, he heard a sweet voice. “You can’t beat him.” He opened his eyes again and saw a slender boy throw himself at Lin Wenxi. It was Gu Xi. Gu Xi turned around to face Zheng Kai, who was really angry now, and opened his arms to protect Lin Wenxi.

Zheng Kai had no choice but to stop. He grumpily picked up his coat and strutted out of the dorm.

After that, Gu Xi held Lin Wenxi’s hands and whispered to him, “The boys in your dorm, including Zheng Kai, all treat you well and care about you. Zheng Kai is just dumb and simple-minded. Please don’t be mad at him.”

Lin Wenxi silently pulled back his hands and looked coldly at Gu Xi.

“Why do you have to set yourself against everyone?” Gu Xi felt worried and asked with a trembling voice.

Lin Wenxi frowned and muttered. “Only in this way, they won’t care about me anymore. I should’ve died 6 years ago…”