Zhao Jiadi dragged his bicycle along on the campus. This time, he didn't dare to expect that God would bestow another "Lin Daiyu" on him. He walked back to the dormitory building, which was a certain distance away, in silence. This was the school where he would stay for the next four years. There was a counselor who seemed relatively accommodating, and then there emerged an old principal whose relationship had been greased by Zhao Sanjin. His three roommates also had their own unique characteristics. Presumably, life wouldn't be too boring.
Zhao Bajiang, whose outlook on life was completely opposite to that of Wang Banjin, walked along the long street. He considered himself to have no great vicissitudes but only small stories. The street lamps elongated his figure. People were coming and going. The girls were chattering merrily and the boys were talking volubly. At that moment, Zhao Jiadi felt that if he could have a girlfriend who took a fancy to him, an ordinary - looking guy like a toad, his life would be truly complete. Recently, his taste had changed from having a crush on the campus belle to preferring the pure - looking girl next door. With this thought in mind, he couldn't help thinking of the girl who had a certain connection with him. The more he thought about it, the more she suited his taste. When he recalled the scene of her running away in fright like a little deer, Zhao Jiadi smiled foolishly. He was so happy all the way back to the dormitory that he confused his roommates who had been worried that he might have died in the office building. They thought he had been too greatly stimulated. Li Feng joked, "Jiadi, I was just discussing with Shen Han how to divide your property. We both thought you couldn't get out of the office building alive."
"I don't have any valuable possessions. This IBM laptop that I've used for five or six years isn't even worth selling as scrap to anyone. Only the new bedding on my bed is worth a little money." Zhao Jiadi was amused. However, although the IBM itself was worthless, some encrypted files on the computer could still fetch a good sum of money if they fell into the hands of someone with ulterior motives. Ts is just a stone's throw from Beijing and Tianjin. So even if Zhao Jiadi hadn't experienced certain things himself, he had witnessed a great deal. Among the wealthy resource - based groups, on the one hand, there are people like Zhao Sanjin, who became one of the first batch of merchants to rise in ts by relying on solid coal and oil resources. On the other hand, there are those red - blooded descendants in Beijing, the second - or third - generation officials' children. They make money by reselling approvals or by using inside information to play the stock market. Perhaps it's precisely because he had seen so many underhanded dealings, even on a large scale, that Zhao Jiadi could calmly make a bowl of Master Kong instant noodles, take off his long pants, and bury himself in eating the noodles wearing only a pair of boxer shorts.
"Are you really all right?" Shen Han asked with concern.
"I was lectured a bit, which didn't really matter. Then the principal had something to do and entered the office, so I was let go." Zhao Jiadi took a few seconds to come up with this explanation. There was some exaggeration in this answer, but at least it was mostly close to the truth. As for how his roommates would understand it and whether they would be misled, Zhao Jiadi didn't care that much.
Seeing that there was no problem, Ma Xiaotiao settled down to play games. This guy had brought all the high - tech gadgets that a student could get access to. Li Feng was playing "Final Fantasy 7" on his PSP. Zhao Jiadi himself wasn't really that interested in these games. Mainly because in Zhaojia Village, he was often pestered by Zhao Yange to help him get through the levels. If Zhao Jiadi ignored him, the kid wouldn't kneel down, kowtow or make a fuss. A child already fourteen or fifteen years old would just lie on the ground and keep rolling back and forth until Zhao Jiadi couldn't bear it anymore. Up to this day, Zhao Jiadi had already helped him get through more than 20 classic PSP games combined, such as the "God of War" series, "Warriors Orochi", "Ace Combat" and so on. As an obsessive setting - lover, Zhao Jiadi was only willing to waste time on these games because of some interesting settings in them. Of course, as for some sexy little games like "Tail Concerto", the home - bound Zhao Jiadi himself also had a certain fondness for them.
While eating instant noodles and reading the newspaper, a temporary monitor came in to distribute the class schedule. Shen Han, who was known for his boldness, of course didn't forget to exchange some pleasantries. He almost brought out the bottle of Longbin Laojiao, a Heilongjiang - produced liquor, from the big drawer to have a drink with the skinny - monkey - like monitor. That "cadre" probably also hoped to win over each dormitory during this period, with a bright smile on his face. Ma Xiaotiao sneered at this, while Li Feng also accompanied him with a kind and gentle manner. Zhao Jiadi, sitting in the corner, just smiled and nodded, not as enthusiastic as Shen Han nor as cold as the playboy Ma Xiaotiao.
Shen Han, a real liquor lover, now has two bottles of liquor in hand. One is Longbin Laojiao, and the other is Yuquan Fangping. He keeps the former hidden, while he drinks the latter like tea. Whenever he is happy or depressed, he will pour a glass and drink it all in one go. Ma Xiaotiao and Li Feng have already witnessed this tough guy's drinking capacity.
After studying the class schedule, Zhao Jiadi took a shower. He washed his clothes at once and hung them on the balcony. He hadn't been this diligent before. In high school, he and the guys like Baozi would accumulate clothes for about a week. There would be several big washbasins full of clothes. Then on weekends, they would play poker games like "Bluffing". The one who lost the most would have to do the laundry. What's more, they couldn't just pay to use the washing machine in the barber shop on campus. It had to be washed by hand. Zhao Jiadi was extremely shrewd when it came to psychological games involving probability like "Bluffing". So only when he had extremely bad luck and those guys had extremely good luck would he have to hold his nose and wash the clothes.
As for in Zhaojia Village, with his child - bride - to - be sister around, Zhao Jiadi could have easily lived a carefree life where he just had to stretch out his hands for clothes and open his mouth for food. The fairy - like sister was almost so diligent that she would have changed Zhao Jiadi's shorts herself. It wasn't that Zhao Jiadi didn't want to make her his own, but the old lady in the family had repeatedly told him that he could do any bad things except being unfaithful to Dongcao, the poor child. Zhao Jiadi listened to his grandma the most. Moreover, he also knew some of the family background and misfortunes of sister Dongcao. So he really endured and held himself back, preventing himself from becoming a brute. However, privately, he still secretly took advantage of her a few times. That feeling was simply wonderful. Holding her was really like holding Yang Guifei, the great beauty in history who was as soft as if she had no bones.
Maybe in terms of beauty, sister Dongcao is less gorgeous than Wang Banjin, the "queen of high - heels in Ts". But when it comes to the smoothness and moisture of the skin, from Zhao Jiadi's perspective, who has watched over a thousand AVs, both censored and uncensored, he dares to swear that there is no woman in this world whose skin is more like warm nephrite as Qi Dongcao's. Otherwise, Zhao Jiadi would never have gritted his teeth and studied painting on and off for many years, just for the grand ideal in his heart of being able to do body painting for his child - bride - to - be sister.
There was no set lights - out time in the dormitory. So Li Feng played the PSP until 11 o'clock, and Shen Han also read a copy of "Financial Engineering" until 11 o'clock. Zhao Jiadi spent about half an hour browsing through the table of contents of all the books, and then another half an hour digesting the parts that interested him. He roughly underlined and marked them. Finally, he stood all these books in the corner of the desk and began to study the "New Discovery" magazine he bought from the newsstand. He focused on reading an article "The Third Apple" about string theory and entropic force. Then, when Li Feng went to bed, he received a call from an unfamiliar number. When he picked it up, it turned out to be a girl with a soft and gentle voice. After introducing herself, it was the girl who had a free ride on the back seat of Zhao Jiadi's bicycle. Zhao Jiadi perked up and ran to the balcony.
"Didn't I disturb you while you were sleeping?" The girl, who had finally found the contact information from the class roster of Zhao Jiadi's class through her friends after much trouble, smiled gently.
"No, no. I'm a typical night owl." Zhao Jiadi said shyly.
"Thank you for today." Zhou Xiaoman, the "cabbage" (a term perhaps affectionately used here), managed to say sincerely after thinking for a long while. Presumably, she wasn't the kind of sociable child good at dealing with people either.
"It's the least I could do. You wouldn't have been scared if I hadn't gone crazy." Zhao Jiadi said with a wry smile.
Then there was a long silence. Zhou Xiaoman seemed to have run out of things to say, and Zhao Jiadi just waited patiently. He really couldn't come up with any common topics either. Finally, it was Zhou Xiaoman who said good night, and Zhao Jiadi hung up the phone with a sense of unfinished business. His Chinese grades had always been good. He got 124 points in the college entrance examination, but that was the result supported by excellent rational thinking. For example, he could recite the 108 heroes in "Water Margin" backwards easily, but that didn't mean he could conduct a large - scale, emotional analysis of the human nature in "Water Margin" like the literary youths. So he had always needed to improve in terms of sweet - talking and glibness. Regarding this, Zhao Sanjin often ridiculed that a capable father had an incompetent son. However, the old lady of the Zhao family would come out to protect Zhao Jiadi at once, saying that it was because of Bajiang's (Zhao Jiadi's) kindness and that this was the true blood of the Zhao family. By the way, she would also make some sarcastic and veiled remarks about the mother and son who finally entered the Zhao family's door. The old lady had always thought that Zhao Jiadi's young stepmother was a thief who wanted to squander the Zhao family's property and an evil person who would harm her beloved grandson and the filial Xiaobajiang. So she had also always disliked the little grandson Zhao Yange.
"This calculus is just too difficult. I can't understand it at all." Shen Han complained at his seat, holding an upper - volume copy of "Calculus" in his hands. He was a typical student who chose liberal arts because he was afraid of mathematics. General liberal arts and Chinese were his strong points. So in his eyes, calculus was nothing less than a great scourge.
"It's okay. With your big brother here, one meal a day as the tutoring fee will be fine." Li Feng, who was already lying on the bed, said gleefully.
Shen Han ignored Li Feng's attempt to take advantage of the situation and sat there with a worried look on his face.
"Just listen carefully to the teacher during class. Unless the teaching level is really poor, with your foundation of 105 points in math in the college entrance examination, you will definitely be able to pass the exam." Li Feng comforted him, and he couldn't bear to hit this nice - natured northeastern guy anymore.
Shen Han sighed and remained silent.
"Shen Han, you can just move forward and back with me from now on." Zhao Jiadi said with a smile after returning to his seat. Shen Han still didn't respond, but Zhao Jiadi didn't mind. He knew Shen Han's thoughts better than Li Feng. This guy was definitely not the kind of student who would be satisfied with just passing the exam. Maybe he had started planning for a scholarship since the first day of school. For now, Li Feng was still nominally the best at math in the dormitory, so naturally Zhao Jiadi didn't say something like "leave your math to me, Shen Han." Looking at the old split - seconds chronograph watch on his wrist, it was almost 11:30. Zhao Jiadi then took out a thick German monograph, made a cup of Tieguanyin tea, and got down to business. The classic books in his hands were the complete opposite of the "masterpieces" of academic masters in China nowadays, who could churn out hundreds of thousands of words of works in a year. The latter kind of books were the most profitable when they were just published, and then their value gradually depreciated until they were worthless, and they were even a waste of space in the bookcase. However, the books in Zhao Jiadi's hands would still be immortal classics even after another hundred years. Zhao Sanjin said that recently, there had been a trend of reading "Das Kapital" in his circle. That vulgar upstart asked his secretary to buy a copy, flipped through a few pages, and then threw it away, saying it made him dizzy. Zhao Jiadi had always been speechless about this.
"Xiaotiao, Shen Han, would you like some tea? I brought some tea from home." Zhao Jiadi asked. The tea caddy was placed on the table for those who wanted to drink to help themselves. Maybe Shen Han, who had secretly hidden the Longbin Laojiao, would never have thought that the tea in this shabby - looking tea caddy cost nearly 8,000 yuan per liang, and it was the kind that was in high demand but short supply.
Ma Xiaotiao shook his head, busy playing games.
"Just get me some." Shen Han handed his teacup to Zhao Jiadi, and Zhao Jiadi made a cup of tea for him. Shen Han, who didn't know much about tea, took a few sips but didn't taste anything special. So he didn't make another cup. When he was brushing his teeth, he poured out the remaining tea and tea leaves all at once.
Zhao Jiadi read a book while drinking tea, occasionally twirling a ball - point pen. Later, when he saw Li Feng and Shen Han getting ready to go to sleep, he turned off the fluorescent lamp and turned on the desk lamp. Ma Xiaotiao, the well - deserved chief night owl, was already planning to fight until dawn, playing StarCraft on a gaming platform. Zhao Jiadi glanced a few times at his roommate's micro - operations. They were so mediocre that even Zhao Yange could probably beat him easily, so he stopped paying attention. After drinking five cups of Tieguanyin tea and going to the toilet once, it was just past midnight. He put away the books and took out his mobile phone. The screen of the mobile phone was a yellowed family photo. In the middle sat the prim and proper old lady of the Zhao family. On one side were Zhao Jiadi's parents, who had already been estranged at that time, and on the other side was the young Zhao Jiadi with a red - eyed and crying face. Standing behind him was Wang Banjin, who was a head taller than him and making a victory sign. In the corner stood Qi Dongcao, who had been quiet and timid since childhood.