018 A Man’s Crushing Defeat
Every person has a different body odor, determined by their genes and the symbiotic bacteria on their skin. The more vigorous one’s metabolism is, such as in the height of summer, the stronger the body odor naturally becomes. So, what kind of smell do you get when you gather over a hundred people with vigorous metabolisms in an enclosed train car?
Wang Heng had memories of long-distance travel in a hard seat, so today, when the green-skinned train was halfway through its journey, he felt he could still hold on.
Until the train attendant told everyone that the air conditioning was broken.
Then, the body odors of the hundred people in the car began to mix and ferment, growing ever more potent. To add fuel to the fire, many people couldn’t stand the stuffy heat and took off their shoes, letting the even more impactful smell of feet waft through the air…
The sallow-faced auntie sitting opposite Wang Heng not only took off her shoes but also tugged at her flesh-colored thin socks, then propped her feet up on the empty seat next to him. Just half an hour ago, Wang Heng had been somewhat relieved to find that no one was sitting next to him; now, that relief had been utterly crushed by the auntie’s uninhibited freedom.
He closed his eyes, trying to hypnotize himself, but soon gave up the attempt in despair.
Helpless, Wang Heng took out his laptop and started playing Minesweeper. The computer only had the built-in mini-games; he had been too busy writing code to make money to download anything else.
Suddenly, a more intense smell of instant noodles drifted from behind him. He sniffed and muttered, “Old Altar Pickled Cabbage flavor…”
**
Neither Wang Heng nor Han Yixuan knew that they were actually on the same train.
But Han Yixuan was in a soft sleeper car, so a chance encounter was naturally impossible. More importantly, the girl was not alone. Her mother had specifically taken her annual leave to send her daughter to school and wouldn’t be at ease until she had seen the school and the living conditions with her own eyes.
The journey was nearly halfway done, and the night was deep. Her mother was sleeping soundly on the lower bunk, but the girl on the upper bunk suddenly woke up with a start.
Han Yixuan touched her forehead and found that two drops of cold sweat had already formed.
“What’s… what’s wrong with me?”
In the dream just now, she had seen Wang Heng again. But this time, the dream’s protagonists were not two people, but three. By Wang Heng’s side, there was a strange girl. That girl seemed even more petite and cute than herself, but her face was as if veiled by a light gauze, indistinct.
The girl in the dream was holding Wang Heng’s arm, her laughter as crisp as a silver bell. And Wang Heng? He didn’t seem to resist such an intimate gesture. It looked like the relationship between the two of them… was there any need to even ask?
And then Han Yixuan woke up.
After waking up, the girl understood that what she had just seen was only a dream, but she still couldn’t help but feel a little flustered.
She picked up her phone and saw a Q message received two hours ago, from her best friend Song Xiaoxia.
【I’ve arrived at the school. Oh my god, you absolutely can’t imagine how hopeless a normal university is. Too few handsome guys, too many beautiful girls!!!】
Han Yixuan smiled, but gradually, the smile became a little bitter.
She replied: 【I haven’t arrived at school yet, but a university of finance and economics should be about the same. It’s okay, we can go find handsome guys at the engineering schools in the future.】
After sending the message, Han Yixuan was about to go back to sleep, but unexpectedly, Song Xiaoxia replied in a second: 【You’re still awake?】
【Not yet.】
【Then let’s chat…】
Looking at the words her friend had sent, Han Yixuan could almost see the familiar scene of her clinging to her arm and acting cute. She sighed and quickly typed a line on her phone: 【If you weren’t so thin-skinned around guys, you would have been out of singlehood long ago.】
Song Xiaoxia: 【You little brat, you have the nerve to talk about me? You’re single too!】
Han Yixuan was suddenly at a loss for words. Her hands, holding the phone, trembled slightly.
She thought of the dream again.
After a while, the girl replied in a fit of pique: 【I’m not talking to you anymore. Going to sleep!】
**
At ten in the morning, Lu Qi arrived at the security checkpoint at the airport. Her flight was at 11:30, so there was plenty of time to board.
After passing through security, she would be boarding the plane alone. But on the way to the airport, she was not alone. Following behind her were three men, none younger than her—they were all Lu Qi’s former subordinates.
Normally, a supervisor who was being transferred wouldn’t be seen off at the airport by their old subordinates. But Lu Qi’s situation was an exception. These three old subordinates clearly had something they wanted to say to her but had been holding it in the whole way.
“This is as far as you go,” Lu Qi turned to look at them. “Thank you all. We’ll meet again if fate allows.”
One of the three, Little Liu, asked impulsively, “What if fate doesn’t allow?”
“Then we won’t see each other. What’s the big deal? Besides, if you want to find me, just contact me online. But let me say this first, I won’t be fixing any bugs for you. That’s your own job.”
At this moment, another man finally made up his mind, took two steps forward, and said in a low voice, “I have something I want to say to you. Can we step over there for a moment?”
“Little Zhao,” Lu Qi smiled, her eyes narrowed. “If you have something to say, say it to my face, in front of everyone. Don’t be so secretive.”
The man called Little Zhao looked back at his two colleagues and gritted his teeth.
To say those words in front of others truly required immense courage. But on second thought, if he didn’t say it today, he probably wouldn’t have another chance in the future…
Little Zhao lowered his head and said, “Sister Lu, I like you!”
“What the hell?”
“What the hell!”
Behind him, his two male colleagues exclaimed in unison. But that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was…
After a few seconds of silence, Little Zhao heard no response and couldn’t help but feel flustered. He looked up and saw Lu Qi staring at him playfully. Besides surprise, her gaze seemed to hold a hint of amusement.
And so, Little Zhao became even more flustered.
Lu Qi cleared her throat and said, “You should know that I’m very against office romances.”
Little Zhao tried to salvage the situation. “But you’re not at the headquarters anymore. We’re not in the same office at all!”
“Uh-huh,” Lu Qi nodded, but her eyes showed no agreement. “But we’re both employees of Penguin. You can’t deny that, can you?”
“I…”
“We programmers don’t like to leave things ambiguous, so let me put it this way: your strategy was wrong from the very beginning.”
Little Zhao looked astonished. “Strategy?”
Lu Qi sighed. “Confessing directly is the stupidest strategy. Unless you’re devastatingly handsome, a girl will almost never agree. Look in the mirror. Do you think you’re Edison Chen or Daniel Wu?” (T/N: Two famous and widely recognized handsome male celebrities in the Chinese-speaking world.)
“Neither…”
Little Zhao’s head drooped dejectedly. Without a doubt, what he faced today was another crushing defeat.
Lu Qi casually patted Little Zhao on the shoulder and said, “It’s okay. That’s life. You’ll naturally succeed after failing enough times. In the future, if you have another girl you like, let me tell you, you must first make sure her affection for you is high enough before you confess, understand?”
Little Zhao replied with a mournful face, “I understand, Sister Lu…”
