Sheng Yan glanced at Ning Song upon hearing that. His skinny body was sandwiched between his backpack and his cardboard box, a thin frame that looked frail and desolate.
"I heard he's from the Lower Harbor," Li Qingyuan said.
They all knew about the Lower Harbor. They knew, but these rich young masters had never been there. Now that they saw Ning Song, it was as if the destitution of the Lower Harbor had suddenly become concrete. That was…
"Is the Lower Harbor that poor?!"
It was a sunny spring morning, the sun was shining and spring was in full bloom. Ordinary, yet extraordinary. At that time, no one would have thought that in the near future, this boy would disturb the peace of the entire school, like the most ordinary pebble thrown into a river. No one cared as it sank to the bottom of the river, but then at a certain moment, like a delayed wave, it surged out of the depths.
When that time came, Ning Song, who was once so thin and pale that he was almost colorless, had completely changed.
His hair was as black and soft as seaweed, the corners of his eyes were upturned, his amber irises were seductive yet innocent, and his lips were moist and red, as if they had been dyed with rose juice. His flesh was evenly proportioned and his skin was smooth and fair, as if the slightest pinch would leave a clear red mark. He was so beautiful that it was almost sinful, more fragrant and gorgeous than a summer rose.
He was a gift from God to the young masters, a gift that was both a blessing and a curse.
Easton Boys' School had a total of four dormitory buildings. The conditions of the Easton Boys' School dormitories were among the best in the entire Easton Province. Most boys' schools were relatively simple and frugal, adhering to the principle that luxury breeds debauchery and simplicity fosters virtue. For example, St. Grace, another of the Four Great Public Schools, had bunk beds in its dormitories, with strict military-style management.
The dormitories at Easton Boys’ School were divided according to the color of the nameplates, and the nameplates were determined by the overall score. Of course, this didn't apply to the sons of tycoons. They were nobles among nobles, and they naturally all lived in the best dorms.
Of the four dormitory buildings, the First Tower had the fewest residents. The First Tower was the five-star standard, with strict security, a dormitory butler and a cleaning lady. It was where everyone strove to go. Currently, there were only eighteen people living in the entire building. There were only so many rooms in the First Tower, which meant that the number of people at each nameplate level was fixed. When someone moved up, someone else had to move down, making the competition between different levels even more brutal. The school used this to spur everyone on and ensure that they never slacked off in their studies.
The Fourth Tower, which had the worst conditions, held the second-smallest number of people. There were over eighty people in the building.
Of course, most students lived in the middle-level buildings, the Second and Third Towers. These held suites with three bedrooms and a shared living room. Each person had their own private bedroom, but they shared a common living space, meaning they all had roommates.
He had heard his best friend talk about how a certain character had moved into the Second Tower, and several suitors almost fought over being roommates with him. The suitors had strutted around like peacocks, using every means possible to improve their scores, leveraging their connections and trying their best to please their crush, staging a fierce drama filled with undercurrents. The most exciting part was that all of this was done in secret. The person being pursued was completely unaware, so these struggles were full of hidden daggers but no bloodshed, making her squeal like a groundhog.
He had listened to his best friend talk about these things with little interest, but now that he was in the thick of it, he was genuinely curious about who the protagonists of these stories were.
The four dormitory buildings were quite far apart, especially the First Tower. It was across a skybridge, in the faculty residential area. It was next to the sea and must have an unbeatable ocean view.
He glanced at the First Tower. It had a dark gray granite exterior and frosted glass windows in shades of red, white, and gold. Through the white wattle blossoms, he could vaguely see the huge fountain in front of the dormitory building.
“Just a friendly reminder,” Zhou Lu said coldly, seeing him looking at the First Tower. “You’d better not go over that skybridge if you can help it. It won’t do you any good.”
He understood.
If he had a black nameplate like them, naturally he could try to interact with the students there. But in his current situation, it was best not to provoke those top-tier rich kids.
The Fourth Tower where he was staying looked old. It was a red brick building with mottled walls. The fragrant wattle flowers below almost climbed up to the fourth floor. Perhaps to encourage the students in this dormitory building, with the worst conditions and the lowest level, to improve, they didn't even have independent bathrooms.
Zhou Lu led him inside. His room was small and a bit messy.
"No one has lived here for a long time. There's a storage room on the top floor with cleaning supplies. You can clean up yourself. You only have one music class this morning, so you can go over when it begins."
"Thank you, Senior."
The other boy nodded. He probably had a severe love for cleanliness. He stood at the door and didn't come in. When he opened the door, his sleeve brushed against some dust, so he wiped it repeatedly with a handkerchief.
This was the first time Ning Song had seen a boy carrying a handkerchief.
He thought the other boy's arrogant yet refined appearance was very much like that of a splendid peacock.
The peacock gave his instructions and left quickly. Soon, the sound of him making a phone call came from downstairs: "It's all been arranged...a special student from the Lower Harbor, what's there to be dissatisfied with? President, when will you be back..."
Ning Song rolled his eyes, put down his backpack and opened the window for some air. He collected the newspapers on the desk and bed, then went out to the storage room on the top floor.
It was class time, and the entire dormitory building was quiet. He climbed to the top floor and saw a small loft-style room. There was a pile of discarded desks and benches outside, and a cat was lying on top of them.
Then he heard a faint sound.
At first, he thought it was the white cat lying there that was calling out. It was lying in the spring sunlight, and the wind from the window carried a faint sweetness, suggesting that all things were reviving and blossoming.
Spring came early in Easton Province.
But when he reached the door of the storage room, he realized it wasn't just the cat that was calling.
Behind the cat's sweet meows was a young male voice, young and pleasant, like the wind that brushed over the flowers in spring with a trembling sweetness.
Then he looked through the half-open door and saw scattered wine bottles and a boy kneeling in a cloud of smoke.
Well-tailored school trousers wrapped around a shapely rear, curving upwards into a beautiful waistline. He arched his neck, holding up a wine bottle and gulping it down.
Perhaps sensing the footsteps outside, he turned his head, his eyes flushed, sticking out his bright red tongue like a strawberry candy that had been half-eaten and then pushed out.
"What’re you looking at?"
Someone slapped the boy’s face. "So inattentive, and you want to please You-ge?"
A wave of malicious laughter immediately followed.
Then someone pushed the door of the storage room wide open. Ning Song saw several boys in the smoky interior, waiting like hyenas in the shadows.
He quickly turned around in fear.
In this sealed-off boys' school, there were a bunch of rich young masters who didn't know how to control their hormones, as well as a strict and repressive hierarchy. This nurtured a restless and oppressive atmosphere. This proper and ornate campus hid a bunch of lunatics.
Today, one boy pinned another against the wall. Tomorrow, another forced a kiss on someone else. One poor little thing became the plaything of the evil young masters, while a second beautiful shou was pursued. One gong might be tolerant, while another was perverted. One top student revealed washboard abs when he took off his clothes, while another playboy was actually a virgin. Today there was a note in the library, saying, “Hurry up and come see, there’ll be a shameful show in the boys' dormitory tomorrow. They’ll be doing it until the boy’s eyes lose focus, hurry up and get on board.”
Every day, his best friend would drag him out from his video games to squeal at him.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the least bit interested in boys’ love.
Perhaps being too perfunctory towards his best friend was a sin, because when he woke up, he found himself in such a dangerous novel world.
Ning Song wanted to jump off a building.
He quickly went downstairs, returned to his room, and after a while, he heard faint footsteps coming from upstairs, as if several people were coming down.
When the sound of footsteps faded away, he came out of his room and went upstairs again, but as soon as he turned the corner and entered the corridor, he bumped into several boys.
The tall boy who was the leader took advantage of this collision and grabbed his collar, lifting him up like a baby bird.
The height difference made Ning Song uncontrollably afraid. The bluish tattoo on the hand grabbing his collar extended along his blood vessels like a vigorous vine, entering his sleeve and spreading out on the side of his neck.
Li You looked down at him, his jawline sharp, a playful smile on his moist lips, and said in a casual tone:
"Caught you."
***
The author has something to say:
Extra:
Li You took off his boxing gloves and squatted down to tie Ning Song's shoelaces. The blue tattoo on his hand contrasted with the old white sneakers.
Squid-ge: I’m a playboy, but I’m actually a little virgin.
***
cela’s notes:
Lǐ Yóu is named 李猷, with the characters for “plum” and “scheme.” His nickname is Yóuyú-ge, because the yóu in 鱿鱼 (squid) sounds the same as the Yóu in his name.
54 minutes for 1812 words, or 3 minutes for every 100 words.
A total of 2 hours and 55 minutes for 6445 words, or 2.7 minutes for every 100 words.
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