The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

The manager said with surprise, “What? You’re classmates! Jifu University has recruited some really handsome boys this year.”

“Handsome and talented boys…” Lin Wenxi mumbled in a low voice and then fell silent. Zhao Yuan stared at him and asked, “How did you find me here, honey?”

Lin Wenxi shrugged his shoulders without saying a word. Soon enough, they got changed and stood at the door of the restaurant. Now, each of them wore a red jacket with two ribbons and a tassel medal in the front part of it, shoulder boards with yellow tassel fringe trim, a cowhide belt which was 3 centimeters in width, a pair of red pants and a pair of black leather over-the-knee boots. Both of them looked great in the suits. Lin Wenxi said proudly, “We’re dressed like young generals with outstanding and meritorious achievements.”

When they started to work, they did not feel so proud anymore.

They had to stand upright at both sides of the door and greeted and bowed to every customer, when he or she entered the restaurant. They had to work from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm, and during this period of time, they were allowed to go to the toilet only once. They had half an hour to eat their lunch and another half hour to take a nap. In the afternoon, they had to work from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm before handing over their work to their colleagues on the next shift.

During the military training, they had been asked to stand still under the scorching sun for three consecutive hours and not allowed to blink too often. Given this, they used to think that this job would be easy for them. They could occasionally move their necks to relax themselves and went to the toilet when necessary. To their surprise, not long after they started to work, they were soaked with sweats. As it was a weekend, there were many customers. They had to bow again and again.

In the beginning, Lin Wenxi could not tell passers-by from customers and bowed to some people who were just walking past the restaurant. Every time those passers-by were surprised by him and ran away while laughing, he would look pale and embarrassed. Some girls would come to take a photo with Zhao Yuan and even ask for his number. Some passers-by who were attracted by his good looks would even come to touch him. Zhao Yuan treated them politely and did his job well.

When they came off duty and each got a daily wage of 200 yuan. They decided to eat hot pot together.

Zhao Yuan lifted up his arm and said to Lin Wenxi, “Come on, grab me.”

Lin Wenxi shook his head and said, “No, you’re tired too.”

“That’s not a big deal. I’ve gotten used to this kind of life. I’ll be alright.” Before Zhao Yuan finished his sentence, Lin Wenxi grabbed his arm and rested his upper body on it. In this way, they walked all the way to the bus stop. Lin Wenxi thought to himself, “I used to despise Gu Xi as he always lets Zheng Kai drag him in this way, but now I see why he does this all the time. This really feels great.”

When they returned to their dorm, Zhao Yuan asked Lin Wenxi to lie prone on his bed. After that, he sat on Lin Wenxi’s butts and gently massaged his waist. Lin Wenxi felt much relaxed.

Upon seeing that, Wang Xiang immediately took a picture of them and sent it to Zhang An’an, while mumbling teasingly, “My beloved lad comes on horseback.”

Lin Wenxi was too tired to move, so he said, “Stuff a banana into his mouth, Zhao Yuan.”

“Let Zheng Kai take care of him,” Zhao Yuan said while massaging Lin Wenxi’s waist. Not long after that, he told him that he had to leave and walked out of the dorm. Lin Wenxi was curious and crept behind him. Wang Xiang laughed and said, “What’re you doing? He’s going to meet Chen Wanxin!”

“Are you sure?” Lin Wenxi asked, his eyes widened in surprise.

“They meet up at the gate of the university nearly every night. Who the hell knows what they’re up to!” Wang Xiang said while reading a geography magazine in his bed.

Zhang An’an was pleasantly surprised upon receiving the photo from Wang Xiang. She immediately threw her cellphone to Shu Xiaoman. Shu Xiaoman nearly screamed with excitement when seeing the photo. She managed to suppress the urge and quickly saved the photo to the phone. After that, she gave Zhang An’an a hint, asking her to remove the photo from the chat history. Zhou Nannan happened to see the photo and cried out in excitement, “Oh, this is great. I’m looking forward to seeing a photo of them kissing!”

At this moment, Chen Wanxin came out of the bathroom wearing a pair of white bunny slippers. She walked to the bedside of Zhang An’an and asked, “What’s it?”

Zhang An’an realized that Chen Wanxin must’ve seen everything and said smilingly, “I’ve deleted it, as I don’t want anyone else to see it.” With these words, she gave Chen Wanxin her cellphone and showed her the chat history between her and Wang Xiang.

“What’s the photo about?” Chen Wanxin asked with a smile.

“It’s about something that a guy does when his wife is not at home,” Zhang Anan smiled helplessly and replied.

Chen Wanxin asked smilingly again, “Does this guy do this thing together with a man or a woman? Sometime, your words just can’t be taken in their literal sense.”

“It’s really just a funny photo that I took back in my hometown. Only village girls like me will find this funny.” Zhang An’an smiled embarrassedly and replied. Chen Wanxin threw a quick glance at Shu Xiaoman, took out a mask, and slowly put it on her face. After a while, she finished dressing up and walked out of the dorm with a smile.

“What do you think she goes out to do together with Zhao Yuan every night?” asked Shu Xiaoman.

“Don’t care about the things that you shouldn’t care about,” Zhang An’an said in a deep voice.

“But do you forget about what I’ve told you? On that day, I heard her say…”

Zhou Nannan interjected, “But she did nothing, didn’t she? I think she won’t do anything to him. She’s not that mean. Every time there’s something wrong with the things in our dorm, she’ll find someone to fix them without asking us to share the expenses. She even helped me getting an antenna for the radio I made. She’s not a bad girl.”

“You’re such a stupid and sweet girl. It’s easy to buy off someone like you. Hey, did you tell her what I told you girls?” Shu Xiaoman frowned and asked.

“No, I didn’t. I remain neutral all the time, hehe,” Zhou Nannan said with a smile.

Zhang An’an smiled and held their hands as she said, “Stop it, Xiaoman. Nannan is a pure-minded girl. She’ll keep asking who the good guy is and who the bad guy is when watching a TV show. She won’t become suspicious of anyone without evidence. As long as she doesn’t tell Wanxin what you told us, it’ll be alright.”

“I won’t. Trust me!” Zhou Nannan grinned and put a strawberry jelly drop into her mouth. These sweets were brought back from abroad by a friend of Chen Wanxin.

Zhao Yuan felt tired recently.

Apart from the campus cleaning part-time job, he did three other part-time jobs. He worked as a doorman in the weekends, a martial arts instructor at night, and a part-time salesman in the computer market. He went to the market whenever he had time to earn commissions by selling computers, and every night, he had to teach two one-hour martial arts classes. When Zhao Yuan weighed himself, he found out that he had lost 2.5 kilograms over the past month. Despite his hard work, he still did not have enough money to pay his father’s medical expenses. Now he was thinking about selling his house back in his hometown again.

At midnight, he sat beside the boxing ring alone, soaked in sweats. His arms hurt as he had helped his students practicing the round kick for hours. He lit a cigarette and inhaled the cigarette smoke. Suddenly, he thought that he had an illusion. “Why is Lin Wenxi here?”

He fixed his eyes upon the person in front of him and saw that it was Chen Wanxin. She smiled and took out a bottle of sports drink. She had stayed here quietly and watched Zhao Yuan for a long time.

“Have you been here all night?” asked Zhao Yuan.

“Yes, I just wanted to spend more time together with you,” replied Chen Wanxin.

“You should’ve returned to the university when I finished the first class. Now the door of your dormitory building is closed,” said Zhao Yuan.

“Yuan, how about I pay the remaining debts for you?” asked Chen Wanxin. She did not sound very confident as she had already sold all her jewelry and borrowed money from all her close friends and relatives. She thought that she probably had to steal some of her mother’s jewelry to pay the debts for Zhao Yuan. She had thought about asking Mo Qian for help, but Mo Qian would never lend her money without asking the use of the money. Once Mo Qian knew that she borrowed money to help Zhao Yuan, he would definitely tell this thing to her father.

“Thank you very much, Wanxin! But you’ve promised me that you’ll let me solve this problem. I’ll find a way to solve it,” said Zhao Yuan.

“But there’s only half a month left!” Chen Wanxin could not help but retort.

Zhao Yuan remained silent. He wanted to solve this problem by himself. In the meantime, he also wanted to see how hard he could work and how much potential he had under such pressure.