The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

Lin Wenxi wrapped himself in his quilt, and Zhao Yuan was drenched with rain. Upon seeing that, Gu Xi decided to leave them alone. He covered his mouth to avoid making a sound and got the quilt at the end of Zheng Kai’s bed tucked under Zheng Kai’s feet. After that, he left smilingly. Zheng Kai was snoring and had no idea what was going on.

Wang Xiang lay in his bed with his back toward Lin Wenxi. He breathed evenly and listened attentively.

When Lin Wenxi was about to get up, Zhao Yuan stepped forward to stop him by saying, “I know that this is not your fault. I don’t blame you.” Drops of water fell from his body to the ground.

“I’ve filled all the 6 thermos bottles with hot water. Don’t go to the bathhouse. Go to take a warm shower in the bathroom,” said Lin Wenxi.

“I’m not cold,” said Zhao Yuan.

“I don’t care if you’re cold or not. Go to take a warm shower. This is an order.” Lin Wenxi raised his voice a little. As he shrunk inside a dark corner behind his desk lamp, his facial expression was indiscernible.

Shortly afterwards, Zhao Yuan finished his shower and ran out of the bathroom while wearing only his thermal underwear suit. He said to Lin Wenxi, “I’ll give you a piece of good news soon!”

“I don’t want your good news. I only want you to be good,” Lin Wenxi said softly.

“Wenxi…” Zhao Yuan held Lin Wenxi’s bed railing with one hand and placed the other hand on Lin Wenxi’s desk. He felt an urge to get into Lin Wenxi’s bed, but upon seeing the snorting Zheng Kai and the silent Wang Xiang, he clenched his fist and suppressed this urge.

“There’s half a cup of ginger tea in that thermos cup. Drink it,” said Lin Wenxi. Zhao Yuan immediately drank up the tea. Lin Wenxi had prepared the tea half an hour ago and had heated it up for three times by now.

“Your toothbrush is so worn. I’ve bought you a new one. Your gums bleed recently. I’ve replaced your toothpaste with another one recommended by Xiaoman. Go brush your teeth now.” This was the third order given by Lin Wenxi. Zhao Yuan obediently followed it and went to brush his teeth.”

“Your quilt is too thin, I’ve laid a blanket on top of your quilt. Go to sleep now,” Lin Wenxi said in the dark corner. Zhao Yuan crawled into Lin Wenxi’s bed quietly and touched his cheeks. He asked, “When did you start crying behind my back?”

Zhao Yuan had found out that Lin Wenxi sounded somewhat hoarse long ago. Back then, he had thought that Lin Wenxi probably caught a cold. When Lin Wenxi shrank into the corner, he realized that the change in his voice was not caused by a cold.

Upon hearing Zhao Yuan’s question, Lin Wenxi just remained silent, but he could not stop tears from welling up in his eyes. He began to sob and was unable to utter a word.

“I’m sorry.” The two of them blurted out at the same time.

“I shouldn’t hide this thing from you,” said Zhao Yuan. “I just don’t want you to feel worried about me. After all, you’re not obliged to share this burden with me.”

“You didn’t tell me because I’m just your roommate. Am I right? You just could not find a reason to tell me about it, right?” Lin Wenxi asked while weeping. “Zhao Yuan, I’ll tell you everything about me very soon. We’ll sit down and talk it through. We’ll take this talk seriously, okay?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll do whatever you want,” said Zhao Yuan.

“Climb up to your bed and sleep now,” Lin Wenxi gently pushed Zhao Yuan and said. Suddenly, Zhao Yuan took him and his quilt into his arms.

“No, please. We’re in the dorm now,” Lin Wenxi said anxiously.

“Uhm, I feel exceptionally cold tonight.” Zhao Yuan tightly hugged Lin Wenxi from the back and said, “Sleep now, dear.”

“You can’t mess around,” said Lin Wenxi.

“I’ll behave myself, But if you continue to nag me, I can’t promise you that my little brother won’t mess around,” Zhao Yuan whispered beside Lin Wenxi’s ear.

Lin Wenxi was stunned and touched Zhao Yuan’s little brother with his hand. Upon finding out that he was somehow aroused, he felt somewhat irritated and sneered, “You should be castrated!”

“If so, who’ll make you happy for the rest of your life?” Zhao Yuan said with a smile.

“Piss off…” Lin Wenxi flushed red with embarrassment and said.

“Cute Wenxi, time to sleep…” Zhao Yuan whispered. Lin Wenxi felt so warm and relaxed. He thought to himself, “Thank you, Zhao Yuan. Thank you for giving me the courage.” Soon enough, he fell asleep.

In the meantime, Wang Xiang was gnashing his teeth anxiously while lying in his bed. He did not know whether to laugh out or to remain silent. He was also not sure whether he should tell this thing to Zhang An’an. He thought, “Maybe this is just a joke between them. It’s not necessarily a fact now. Once I laugh and tell this thing to the others, it’ll be considered a fact and the others will judge their relationship.

“Is it right to judge them? Well, I really don’t know. Alas, why did I eavesdrop on their conversation?” After that, Wang Xiang thought about the relationship between Zhou Nannan and Wang Zhengjuan and that between Gu Xi and Zheng Kai. He also thought of Zhang An’an and how he had been carried away by his feelings on the first day at this university.

The next day, Zhao Yuan left early in the morning again. The other three boys had already gotten used to his absence. When they woke up, they washed up and waited for Gu Xi to deliver some breakfast food to them. After that, they went to attend lectures together. It seemed to be another normal day.

Nevertheless, for Lin Wenxi, this day was not normal.

He went to the dean’s office and asked the dean to solicit contributions from the public to help Zhao Yuan.

The dean expressed sympathy but asked Lin Wenxi to provide him with many documents, such as proof of family income of Zhao Yuan, his father Zhao Ming’s medical records and some documents signed by the administrative departments of the university. It would take the administrative departments at least a week to review all the documents. More importantly, Zhao Yuan would never want to provide such documents to solicit contributions.

“Just sign the documents for me now. I’ll bring them to the president of the university for you. I’ll find a way to get them signed!” Lin Wenxi said coldly.

The dean was shocked upon hearing Lin Wenxi’s request since this boy asked him to organize a fundraising today.

Although he knew that Lin Wenxi was Lin Ziwei’s son, he could not allow him to behave so unreasonably.

When he was about to ask Lin Wenxi to get out of his office, Lin Wenxi said while banging his desk. “You should know who I am!”

“Even if I can’t get the documents, I’ll organize a fundraising today. If someone comes out to stop me, you’ll be in real trouble!” With these words, Lin Wenxi stormed out of the dean’s office and slammed the door behind him. He thought grumpily, “This dean is so stubborn. It’s an urgent thing. Why does he have to stick to the rules?”

The dean touched his bald head covered with cold sweat and thought somewhat angrily, “Is there anything wrong about this boy? Maybe I should contact his father Lin Ziwei now.” On second thought, he decided to call the president of the university first. Unfortunately, no one received his call. After some thought, he smiled and thought, “I can let him organize the fundraising first and submit the required documents afterwards. After all, rules are rules.”

Lin Wenxi regretted shouting at the dean very much, as he knew that his father would know about this thing sooner or later. He wanted to find a chance to make an apology to his father, but when he called his family, his mother told him that his father had gone to some village on business and could not answer a call since his cellphone had no signal in the countryside. Upon knowing that, Lin Wenxi felt much relieved.

He quickly brought Zheng Kai, Wang Xiang, Gu Xi, Shu Xiaoman and Zhang An’an together and told them what had happened to Zhao Yuan. At this moment, they finally understood why Zhao Yuan did so many part-time jobs this semester. Shu Xiaoman and Zhang An’an felt somewhat embarrassed and their face turned red. Two days ago, when they had run into Zhao Yuan in the canteen, they had teased him, “Take care, Zhao Yuan. You’ve pined away since the beginning of this semester. Is it too hard for you to satisfy a boy and a girl at the same time?” Back then, Zhao Yuan had just smiled at them and hurriedly walked away.

Zheng Kai made a donation box by himself, and Wang Xiang wrote down what happened to Zhao Yuan and printed it out. Shu Xiaoman, Zhang An’an and Gu Xi went to buy some goddess of mercy pendants as thank-you gifts for the donors.

Upon seeing the thank-you gifts, Wang Xiang was surprised and said, “These gifts will make us look like those monks who beg for alms by giving you some Buddha statues…”

“As long as this method works, we don’t mind it!” Zheng Kai glared at him and said.

“Wait…” Zhang An’an pointed at the notices that Wang Xiang had printed out and continued, “Zhao Yuan even did not want to tell this thing to Wenxi before. Do you think that he wants everyone else to know about this thing?”

Lin Wenxi agreed with Zhang An’an and felt worried. After some thought, he muttered to himself, “I’m sorry, grandpa.” He told Wang Xiang, “Rewrite the story. Tell everyone that it’s my grandfather that is lying in a hospital now.”

Zhang An’an was shocked and asked, “Are you serious? Is your grandfather still alive?”

Lin Wenxi shook his head and replied, “No, he’s dead. He’ll forgive me.”

It took the boys and girls a while to calm down. Wang Xiang thought for a moment and asked, “What if a rich person wants to donate a large sum of money and our donation box is too small for the money?”

Lin Wenxi took out another sheet of paper, rapidly wrote down Zhao Yuan’s bank account number and stuck it to the donation box.

Wang Xiang was impressed and said, “I guess that you even know the size of Zhao Yuan’s underwear.”

Lin Wenxi felt anxious now. Upon hearing Wang Xiang’s words, he blurted out, “Anyhow, it’s much larger than yours!”

Everyone burst into laughter upon hearing that. Gu Xi put an arm around Lin Wenxi’s shoulders and said, “Wenxi, I know that you probably said that without thinking too much… But… It’s really hurtful.”

“I can’t imagine how you guys live together in the same dorm…” Zhang An’an got stuck for words. Lin Wenxi flushed with embarrassment. Soon enough, they began to visit dorms of the computer science department to solicit donations.