The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

Lin Wenxi seemed to have returned to normal, but Zhao Yuan could not be sure whether Lin Wenxi was alright.

Lin Wenxi was willing to talk to his roommates now, but every time he spoke, his sentence would contain only 3 to 8 words. He actively answered questions in the classes and he usually answered them exceptionally well. Everybody thought that Lin Wenxi was alright now.

He was able to cope with Zhang An’an and Shu Xiaoman’s teasing naturally. He somehow restored his relationship with Zheng Kai. They would pat each other’s shoulder to great each other every time they met. He even helped Wang Xiang answering a roll call. All the boys in the dorm, except Zhao Yuan, thought that he was alright now. Lin Wenxi always smiled and treated everyone friendly. He treated Zhao Yuan friendly too, but just as an ordinary friend.

He did not go to the bathhouse together with Zhao Yuan anymore. Neither did he go to the canteen together with him. Every time he saw Zhao Yuan, he would walk away.

Zhao Yuan decided to have a serious talk with Lin Wenxi.

Recently, Lin Wenxi liked to visit piano stores in the city. Every time he went to a piano store, he would play “Colorful Clouds Chasing The Moon” on a piano. Gu Xi, who accompanied Lin Wenxi on all these trips, gradually remembered the peice of music and hummed it every day. Zhao Yuan decided to follow Lin Wenxi to a piano store.

To carry out his plan, he told Shu Xiaoman, who often broke into their dorm to discuss the relationship between one’s constellation and his or her personality with Lin Wenxi, that he intended to help Lin Wenxi tackle a psychological problem on Saturday. He asked her not to come on that day.

Upon hearing his request, Shu Xiaoman replied, “As long as you don’t plan to help him solve the physiological problem, I’ll do what you want.”

On Saturday, Zheng Kai invited Zhao Yuan to play basketball together. Zhao Yuan fobbed him off. Wang Xiang invited him to go to the martial arts class together. He said that he had already asked for a leave. Lin Wenxi quickly realized what Zhao Yuan was up to and sneered coldly.

When Zhao Yuan followed Lin Wenxi to Gate No.3 of the university, he saw a girl standing under the Chinese parasol trees near the gate. The girl stood with her back toward him. She had long hair, and her yellow coat seemed a little short for her. When he recognized who she was, he was surprised. “Why does Zhang An’an suddenly come to this place?”

Lin Wenxi got on the bus with a cold expression on his face. When Zhao Yuan was about to catch up with Lin Wenxi, Zhang An’an grabbed him and asked, “Wait, didn’t you say that you want to tell me something about Wang Xiang?”

“I didn’t ask you to come out,” Zhao Yuan said assertively.

Zhang An’an took out her mobile phone and showed him a text message on it. “An’n, meet me at Gate No.3 at 2:00 pm. Wang Xiang did something wrong recently. I think you should know.” It clearly showed that its sender was Zhao Yuan.

Zhao Yuan suddenly realized what Lin Wenxi had actually done when he had been pretending to compare the appearances of their Nokia cellphones back in their dorm.

In fact, Wang Xiang did get too close to his so-called “sister” recently. Zhao Yuan knew about it but never planned to interfere. He never knew that Lin Wenxi noticed this too. Neither did he expect Lin Wenxi to use this to set him up. He did not know what to say at this moment. In the end, he just told Zhang An’an that this was a prank that Lin Wenxi played on him.

Zhang An’an refused to believe that and said, “Wenxi never made groundless guesses. He must’ve have sent you here for a reason. You must know something!”

“What a clever girl!” Zhao Yuan sighed helplessly in his heart. He asked, “You’re good at psychology, aren’t you? Can you help me understand why Lin Wenxi behaves like this recently?”

Several days ago, Lin Wenxi had asked Zhang An’an to come down her dormitory building to meet him. When they met, Lin Wenxi asked, “Is there really a bet between Chen Wanxin and Zhao Yuan?”

Zhang An’an knew that it was meaningless to hide this fact from him anymore, as Shu Xiaoman had already told him about this bet. She nodded to Lin Wenxi, and then the boy left and walked into the darkness.

Zhang An’an could not help but complain, “How can I know the things between you guys? If you think that he’s strange recently and you want to know why, you can ask him or his friend by yourself. Now Wenxi’s best friend is Gu Xi. Why do you ask me about it?”

Zhao Yuan thought that Zhang An’an did have a point and thus told her what he knew about Wang Xiang and his so-called “sister”. Upon hearing that, Zhang An’an staggered away while crying and covering her face with her hands.

After that, Zhao Yuan told Wang Xiang what had happened to avoid being accused of interfering in the personal affairs of other. He also used this thing to threaten Wang Xiang into helping himself.

He chose Wang Xiang for a reason. Lin Wenxi did not have many friends. Zheng Kai was not close to him especially after the incident wherein he had nearly beaten him up. Although they could treat each other as friends now, Zhao Yuan was pretty sure that Lin Wenxi still held a grudge against Zheng Kai.

As for Gu Xi, he was a very loyal friend to Lin Wenxi. Zhao Yuan worried that if he asked Gu Xi for help, he would sell him out and tell Lin Wenxi his plan.

As such, Zhao Yuan could only choose Wang Xiang, who was sometimes a pushover and a yes-man but had good people skills. Lin Wenxi was seldom on guard against him.

After repeatedly swearing his loyalty to his girlfriend, Wang Xiang was exhausted. Several days later, he finally seized an opportunity to help Zhao Yuan.

At night, he dragged Lin Wenxi down the dormitory building and said, “I lost something in the bathhouse. I need you to help me finding it.”

“Why does it have to be me?” asked Lin Wenxi.

“Well, to be frank, I’m afraid of the dark,” Wang Xiang said while trembling in the chilly wind. His lips turned purple because of the cold weather. He looked really pitiable.

“Why don’t you ask Zheng Kai to help you?” asked Lin Wenxi.

“Zheng Kat? You know what kind of person he is. If he knows that I’m afraid of the dark, he’ll probably lock me in the dark bathroom for a whole night and believe that he can cure my fear of the dark by doing this,” Wang Xiang said worriedly.

Lin Wenxi could not deny that Wang Xiang had a point, but he still felt that there was something wrong about this invitation.

When they entered the bathhouse, Wang Xiang suddenly pushed Lin Wenxi into a shower room, and the door of the room was quickly locked. Warm water came out of the shower and drenched Lin Wenxi from head to toe. Lin Wenxi saw Zhao Yuan, who only wore shorts, standing in front of himself.

“What’re you doing?” Lin Wenxi shouted, and his face changed.

“After taking a warm shower, you won’t want to take a cold shower anymore,” Zhao Yuan said while soaping himself and singing, “Let us learn how to be cruel…”

Lin Wenxi tried to pull out the bolt to open the door but failed. He saw a lock on the door. Zhao Yuan had locked it the moment Wang Xiang pushed Lin Wenxi into the shower room.

“Zhao Yuan, let me go,” Lin Wenxi said coldly. Warm water was flowing down his body, but he still felt cold inside.

“You sneakingly used my cellphone to send out a text message. Now I get back at you by playing this prank on you. Now we’re even. Just take a warm shower here, cute Wenxi. I’ve found your underwear, sweater and coat in your closet and brought them down here. You won’t feel cold. Come on. I’ll help you undress,” Zhao Yuan said smilingly and tore Lin Wenxi’s wet coat off. After a while, Lin Wenxi was stripped to the waist.

“Slap.” Lin Wenxi slapped Zhao Yuan across the face. Zhao Yuan covered his face with a hand and looked at Lin Wenxi in disbelief.

Zhao Yuan took a deep breath and said, “Wenxi, this is the second time.” .

“Let—me—go!” Lin Wenxi said coldly.

Zhao Yuan abruptly took Lin Wenxi into his arms and said, “You treat everyone well recently except me. Why do you keep avoiding me? I know it’s cold in the winter, but my heart is warm. Can you feel it?”

He pressed Lin Wenxi’s face against his strong chest. Lin Wenxi felt so comfortable and safe and did not want to move.

Nevertheless, the next moment, he thought, “No, I can’t face him now. I’m dirty and abject.”

“Moreover, this Zhao Yuan…” Lin Wenxi thought of Shu Xiaoman’s words and Wang Xiang’s stealth behaviors. He suddenly felt that love and friendship were just ridiculous. He somehow thought of the night again and felt as if he were embraced by Zhang Dong. He felt disgusted and screamed, “I won’t believe no matter what you say!”

“Wenxi…” Zhao Yuan said and suddenly felt a sharp pain. He looked down and saw Lin Wenxi biting him on his chest. He bit him ridiculously hard.

Zhao Yuan felt that Lin Wenxi was about to bite off the flesh on his chest. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists while enduring the pain. He remained still and let Lin Wenxi bite him. He looked at Lin Wenxi with difficulty. After quite a long time, he closed his eyes in pain.

He thought, “It looks like he’s determined to treat me as an enemy. He doesn’t care about me anymore. Why does he want to get rid of me so much? Why?” He felt so frustrated that he did not want to get close to Lin Wenxi again. He twitched his nose, and his heart turned cold.

Gradually, Lin Wenxi felt exhausted. He stopped biting Zhao Yuan and looked at the deep bite in a daze.

Zhao Yuan pushed Lin Wenxi away and opened the lock without saying a word. He left Lin Wenxi some clothes wrapped in a waterproof package and walked away.

Lin Wenxi stood alone in the shower room. He slapped himself hard across the face. He had felt some drops of warm water fall on his body a moment ago, and he knew for sure that they were tears shed by Zhao Yuan!