Chapter 2

apter 2

The large-scale “Supergirl” talent show recently held in Hailing City is nearing its end. The total number of participants matched the population of Hailing City, specifically those holding a Hailing City household registration. With 1.2 million contestants and hundreds of elimination rounds, the last remaining five “Supergirls” have rightfully earned the title of the “Top Five Nationwide.” Becoming one of the top five “Supergirls” means that a mere seconds-long advertisement can earn them five million yuan. If a company wants them to endorse a product, the annual endorsement fee wouldn’t be less than two million. Therefore, for this goal, there’s nothing the contestants wouldn’t do. In this competition, only the result matters. If you shout “the process is the most important” on stage, there will definitely be someone in front of the TV who would throw a size 45 shoe at you!

Ye Chen, Mingzi, and Cai Erman are juniors at Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College in Hailing City. The college has a three-year academic system, and in July this year, the three of them will graduate and enter the workforce. It’s said that the entry score for this college is ridiculously high; out of a total of 700 points, this college only accepts scores between 690 and 700. As a result, it gathers the top “exam talents” from Xiahua Country! According to Shengze’s official data, the average nearsightedness degree of students over the past 10 years is 575 degrees.

Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College has undoubtedly become a battleground for eyeglass manufacturers. A popular saying circulating in the eyewear industry over the past few years goes: Do you want to become a millionaire overnight? Do you want to ensure a worry-free life? Now, besides buying lottery tickets, playing Mark Six, there is a more humane method to realize your life dreams: Put the same brand of glasses on all the students at Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College! Who knows, you might even end up on the cover of Time magazine! Sometimes, such advertisements are nauseating enough to make people spit blood!

The three of them walked towards the north gate of Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College. The empty space in front of this gate was brightly lit by four suspended lights on either side, with the ground paved in tempered glass. Underneath the glass, small colorful lights flickered between green, red, and yellow, making the glass surface look like a dazzling stage. However, this stage seemed too deserted, perhaps because the night cooled its warmth, or it was just too far out of reach.

The open space at the gate was about a hundred meters wide on either side, and it was fifty meters from the gate to Municipal Road 670. This area had been decorated so brilliantly by the school, clearly showcasing its solid financial standing. On either side of the tempered glass-paved road, there were clusters of blooming flowers and lush trees, with white snow-like decorative lights adorning them, which was a comfort to the eyes and the heart.

Ye Chen, Cai Erman, and Mingzi reached the gate, and the security guard, as if seeing visiting officials, saw them from afar and activated the electric gate. Without pausing, Ye Chen, Cai Erman, and Mingzi walked straight into the school.

Once inside, they turned left. Under the streetlights, moths were already exploring the taste of summer atop the flowers and grass. The rectangular bluestone pavement was polished to a shine, so much so that aside from their shadows, they could almost see their reflections.

The three walked leisurely on the bluestone path when suddenly, they stopped abruptly.

“What the heck! Who’s so uncivilized! Heaven and earth bear witness!” Passing by a dormitory building, Mingzi suddenly felt a stream of warm liquid compelled by gravity hit his head. As the liquid reached his nose, a lazy foul urine smell filled his senses, and unable to contain his anger, Mingzi looked up and cursed.

To say that students at Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College lack manners is hard to accept, yet such incidents are, indeed, not uncommon at this school.

“Probably didn’t have time to go to the restroom, so they just sorted it out by the window. I often relieve my bladder this way too,” Cai Erman said, patting Mingzi’s wet shoulder to comfort him, though the exhaustion in Cai Erman’s eyes suppressed his smile.

Cai Erman had just participated in the school’s sports meet yesterday, where he was eliminated in the 200-meter sprint preliminaries, and today he was out working to earn money. Indeed, there were many in this world with difficult lives.

Suddenly, there was a crisp “clang” sound, likely caused by the person who had relieved themselves feeling so comfortable that they forgot to discreetly close the window.

Arriving in front of the Zone N dormitory building, they looked up and saw that two-thirds of the lights in the dormitory were already off. The three of them entered the elevator and headed straight to the thirteenth floor.

Often, they attributed their misfortunes to living on the “unlucky” thirteenth floor. However, no one bothered protesting to the building manager, as there was one floor in the Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College’s Zone N dormitory building that remained unoccupied-the top floor. Although its door was always open for anyone who dared to enter, even with the building manager’s approval, few would venture there.

Initially, there was only one empty room on the eighteenth floor of Zone N. Gradually, the person living next door moved out, and eventually, the entire floor was vacated. Some say four golden snakes roam that room. Others claim there’s bizarre lightning, or a contagious mental illness virus present on that floor. In such a whirlwind of rumors, the eighteenth floor became deserted. Perhaps the administration at Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College believed these fantastical tales to be a concoction by students unwilling to live on such high floors, thus they didn’t bother investigating any further. Among those living in the dormitory building, no one dared to covet the eighteenth floor.

If Mingzi, Cai Erman, or Ye Chen went to the building manager to request a change of floors, the manager would reflexively respond, “The eighteenth floor is available; you can move there anytime.” Then, the three would leave the office feeling sheepish. However, they would never switch rooms, because Room 1301 in the Zone N dormitory is virtually a treasure of Shengze Mainstream Language and Literature College!

Upon reaching the thirteenth floor, they headed towards Room 1301. Their footsteps were silent on the soundproof flooring, and overhead, ornate hanging lamps emitted a bright, snowy glow. The walls were adorned with a ceramic finish, and the corner molding softened the sharp angles of the room. In their view, this dormitory was a “super-modern residence.”

Entering Room 1301 and switching on the lights, they were greeted by curtains embroidered with the “Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival”¹ in a muted yellow hue. To the left, three single beds were aligned along the left wall, each accompanied by a round table with a laptop on it. On the right side of the room, a prominent 1.5-meter ultra-thin LCD television was mounted on the wall. Next to the TV were two two-meter-high wardrobes, one bulging as if “pregnant” with their dirty clothes. The floor was covered in a khaki soft carpet, and the ceiling boasted tiles with vintage landscape painting patterns, befitting of a “super-modern residence” indeed!

Living in such a luxurious place, yet taking time out to work part-time for money, besides the bored, there’s another type of person-those who are simply financially strapped. For every student entering this school resides in such dorms, yet not everyone living in these dorms is necessarily well-off.

“I can’t take it anymore; I’m about to grow mold! I’m going to take a bath,” Mingzi exclaimed as he entered the dormitory, taking off his shirt hastily. After shedding his pants, he strode naked toward the bathroom. Barely ten seconds passed before a sudden scream pierced the air! Cai Erman and Ye Chen, who were about to change shoes, jumped up and dashed towards the bathroom.

“Bang bang!”

“Open the door!” Ye Chen and Mingzi shouted, pounding on the bathroom door.

“Creak! Slam!”

“What happened?”

“In the bathtub… isn’t this the legendary golden snake?” Mingzi exclaimed, clinging to his towel like a girl covering herself in distress.

“Ah!…” Following Mingzi’s gaze, Ye Chen and Cai Erman gasped in unison, standing frozen at the doorway, not daring to step a foot further.

“One, two, three… Oh my gosh! Four of them, exactly four!” Cai Erman yelled as he spun around and ran back to the room.

Mingzi quickly followed, leaving only Ye Chen at the doorway, silently observing. He focused on the “snakes” in the bathtub and muttered, “These aren’t golden snakes; they’re much darker than typical snakes.” What puzzled him more was, when did the bathtub get filled with water? Curiosity overpowered his rationality, and Ye Chen slowly approached the tub, squinting at the dark, wriggling creatures in the water. Suddenly, he sighed in relief, “Pfft! They’re just ricefield eels, not snakes!” His heart, which was pounding hard, finally settled back into place. With a relieved breath, he turned around, washed his hands, and noticed a pack of “Artistic Life” facial tissues on the sink. Picking it up, he gave it a gentle whiff, chuckled, and walked out of the bathroom.

When Ye Chen saw Mingzi and Cai Erman, he found them huddled in the corner, their wide eyes fixed on the large, bulging wardrobe beside the TV. Mysteriously, the wardrobe doors were opening and closing by themselves. There was no wind, no rain, and certainly no thunder or lightning-how were the wardrobe doors moving like that?

“Come out!… Wei Zina? Are you not coming out?” Ye Chen called out a few times, but received no response. He cautiously approached the wardrobe and, seizing the moment when the doors closed, leaned his body against them forcefully.

Seeing Ye Chen bracing against the wardrobe, Mingzi and Cai Erman finally snapped out of their daze, seemingly not even registering the name “Wei Zina.”

After a dozen seconds, a muffled female voice emerged from the wardrobe: “Are you trying to suffocate me? Get out of the way!”

Taking advantage of the person’s push from inside, Ye Chen suddenly sprang aside, and out came a living, breathing person from the wardrobe!

The girl was dressed in a white nightgown, her hair damp-evidently washed recently-and she wore a pair of red “cross-shaped” slippers. As she stumbled out, the hem of her dress rode up to her hips. Just by looking at her legs, you could tell she weighed less than fifty kilograms!

“How did you know it was me?” Wei Zina said, brushing the hair from one side of her face behind her ear, revealing a remarkably fresh face, as if “a classic beauty” were etched across it.

Her eyebrows weren’t willow-leaf shaped, and her eyes weren’t almond-shaped, yet they surpassed the allure of any combination you could imagine. Her eyelids were thickly double-folded, looking striking and beautiful. Her eyes seemed like crescents of a waxing and waning moon, embedded in her eye sockets, gently glowing and always captivating. Her small nose was perfectly proportioned, and her slightly larger mouth fit her face perfectly. Despite being as gorgeous as she was, this girl had quite a mischievous streak, affirming something a mother once told her child-“The prettier a woman is, the more cunning she can be!”

Strangely, in all of Shengze College, not a single person pursued her. Who would believe that? At the school, a beauty so stunning had two possible explanations for the lack of admirers: First, the guys at Shengze College were intimidated; second, this beautiful girl had some powerful connections, standing with clout that clearly intimidated the entire school!

Footnote:

1. Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival(清明上河图): “Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival” is a famous painting by the Northern Song dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan. It is a panoramic scroll depicting the bustling life of the capital city, Bianjing, during the Qingming Festival. This artwork is celebrated as a masterpiece of Chinese historical painting.