Chapter 3: It Might Hurt a Little
Besides the freshmen doing military training, there were also a few older students scattered around the sports field.
Especially in the spectator seats on one side of the field, where a young couple was sitting closely together, acting very sweet with each other.
The scene gave Lin Wan a small shock. His eyes grew wide.
In broad daylight! In front of so many people!
This was simply too shameless. He didn't even dare look.
As for what Lin Wan thought about them...
He was honestly just jealous!
Of course, he wasn't jealous of their love.
He was jealous of how thick their skin was.
If he had that much confidence, he would have already finished two laps around the sports field while drinking soda.
Lin Wan pulled the brim of his hood even lower and lowered his head as much as he could.
He slowly shuffled toward his roommates' training formation.
"Lin Wan, stay calm!"
"They're not people. They're all trees! They're not people. They're all trees!"
"As long as you don't look at them, they can't see you!"
With his head down, Lin Wan silently repeated his own "ostrich theory."
Even so, he still felt countless burning eyes staring at him.
In reality, if he had simply walked in naturally, almost no one would have paid attention to him. He wasn't nearly as noticeable as he imagined.
But Lin Wan looked like a thief.
On such a hot day, he was wearing a long-sleeved hoodie. His face was hidden under the hood, and he moved around suspiciously. There wasn't a single thing about him that made him look trustworthy.
If he had entered the school through the front gate looking like this, the security guard would definitely have stopped him for questioning.
Step by step, Lin Wan made his way to a basketball hoop.
There were piles of small personal items underneath it, such as keys, wallets, and bottles of water.
He hid half of his body behind the basketball stand.
He looked toward his roommates' formation.
Then he suddenly shrank back after meeting a sharp gaze.
One of the instructors was staring directly at him.
"Did he recognize me as a freshman and wants to drag me into military training?" Lin Wan guessed nervously.
The instructor narrowed his eyes.
Looking at the skinny young man in black standing under the basketball hoop, he thought the boy looked exactly like a thief.
How bold.
With so many instructors around, this kid still dared to come here and steal people's belongings?
The instructor tensed his muscles.
The moment Lin Wan made a suspicious move, he would charge like a leopard and catch him immediately.
In the instructor's eyes, Lin Wan was no longer a person.
He was a walking achievement waiting to happen.
"Almost there!"
Lin Wan left the basketball hoop and continued shuffling toward the spectator stands, leaving behind an instructor who looked slightly disappointed.
His roommates' formation was right below the stands.
As long as he could get there, the task would be half finished.
Closer.
Even closer.
Finally, Lin Wan reached the area beneath the stands.
Standing beside the wall, he was protected from both the sunlight and most of the freshmen's view.
He let out a long sigh of relief.
Turning his back toward the field, he secretly took out the bottle of cola.
"Pssht!"
He twisted the cap open.
Holding the bottle up, he carefully poured a small mouthful into his mouth.
That familiar taste!
Ah!
People always said the first sip of ice-cold soda was worth half the bottle.
They really weren't lying.
He screwed the cap back on.
Now he had to figure out how to give everything to his roommates.
Should he shout, ‘My dear sons from Dorm 205! Your dad brought you something to drink! Come and get it!’
Like that? No. Absolutely not.
He couldn't possibly say something that embarrassing. It would attract way too much attention.
So what should he do?
"Tweet!!!"
A sharp whistle suddenly sounded.
Lin Wan jumped.
It felt as if an electric current had shot from his backside all the way up his spine to the back of his head, making all his hair stand on end.
"Ten-minute break! Anyone who needs the restroom, go now!" the instructor shouted with a hoarse voice.
Just as Lin Wan turned around, he saw three figures sprinting toward him.
Qiu Cheng, Zhang Dingding, and Sun Mao each carried an empty water bottle as they stopped in front of him.
"Um... are you guys thirsty?" Lin Wan asked quietly while holding the cola.
Apparently, there had been no need to think of a plan.
His roommates had already smelled the cola and come running.
"Brother Wan, I won't say anything else. From now on, you're my greatest father!" Zhang Dingding said emotionally after drinking the last warm sip of water from his bottle.
In the middle of a hot summer day...
Having a roommate willing to bring you a cold drink...
What kind of happiness was that?
He wasn't human, he was an angel!
At that moment, Lin Wan seemed to be glowing in all three of their eyes.
Zhang Dingding respectfully held out his empty bottle with both hands, as if making a toast.
Lin Wan unscrewed the cap and carefully poured the cola into it.
Feeling the cold drink filling the bottle, Zhang Dingding's eyes almost filled with tears.
"Holy crap... it's cold!"
Watching the cola pour out, Qiu Cheng swallowed.
"Brother Wan, the moment I caught sight of your handsome figure walking onto the field, I knew the sky had become brighter!"
After finishing his praise, Qiu Cheng immediately pushed his way into second place in line for his share.
"I also brought a watermelon," Lin Wan said, pointing at the watermelon on the ground behind him.
The moment Sun Mao heard that, his lips trembled as if he were about to cry.
"Waaah! I've wandered through life for so long without meeting the right person. If you don't mind accepting me, I'm willing to become your sworn son!"
Zhang Dingding drank half a bottle of cola in one go.
After letting out a satisfied burp, he sighed happily.
"Brother Wan, I have nothing to repay you with except this pure body. Tonight I'll wash up carefully and wait for you beneath the moonlight!"
Lin Wan almost hit him in the face with the bottle.
"Please don't!"
After dividing the cola, the three of them quickly finished drinking.
Then all three pairs of eyes turned toward the watermelon lying on the ground.
It looked like it was wearing a dark green dress around its round body.
The three looked at the watermelon.
Then at Lin Wan.
Their eyes clearly said only one thing.
Our swords are thirsty.
As long as Lin Wan gave the order, they would rush forward, peel off its clothes, and eat it clean.
"Um... I don't have a knife. How are we supposed to cut it?" Lin Wan scratched his nose.
He realized he should have asked the supermarket worker to cut it earlier.
"Easy!"
Qiu Cheng pulled out a keychain. Attached to it was a tiny folding knife about the length of a finger.
"Brother Cheng, do it!" Zhang Dingding gritted his teeth, trying to hold back his desire.
"Awoo! Brother Cheng, bite it!" Sun Mao acted like a werewolf.
Crack!
The watermelon skin was very crisp.
As soon as Qiu Cheng stabbed it, the watermelon split open by itself.
After breaking it into several pieces, Lin Wan asked the Spirit and picked one piece that met the task requirements.
Sun Mao and the other two sat on the ground with their watermelon slices.
After taking a bite, perhaps because they had already been drinking cola, they didn't think it was especially sweet.
Even so...
It tasted amazing.
Why? Because nobody else had any.
Looking around the entire sports field, who else was eating watermelon?
Only the four of them.
The world was full of differences. Sometimes, having something that others didn't was happiness by itself.
Holding his cola and watermelon, Lin Wan took several deep breaths.
Ignoring the confused looks from his three roommates, he slowly started walking along the outer edge of the sports field.
Bang!
"Ow!"
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I bumped into you!"
Because he had been walking with his head down, Lin Wan accidentally ran into a girl's back.
"It's okay," the girl said, waving her hand.
"I'm really sorry," Lin Wan apologized again before walking around her and continuing on.
The three watermelon-eating roommates, who were sitting on the ground, all let out sighs of relief.
Damn.
For a second they thought the kid had suddenly become brave enough to bring something to a girl.
Everyone had just started college.
They were all happily single.
Were you seriously going to be the first one to start dating?
Thankfully...
That wasn't the case.
More training groups were now taking breaks, and people spread out across the field.
Hidden among the crowd, Lin Wan became even less noticeable.
One bite of watermelon.
One sip of cola.
Lin Wan realized the task wasn't nearly as difficult or frightening as he had imagined.
Before he knew it, he had already finished one full lap around the sports field.
Returning to where his three watermelon-eating roommates were, Lin Wan rubbed his stomach.
He was so full. He had eaten a large lunch. Now he had also eaten watermelon and drunk cola.
Since he didn't normally eat much, he felt as if the cola had already reached his throat.
"Brother Wan, thanks!"
The three handed him the pale watermelon rinds they had finished eating. They had to return to formation, so they asked Lin Wan to throw away the trash for them.
"Mm... okay."
Lin Wan didn't dare open his mouth too much.
He was afraid that if he did, he might spray watermelon and cola all over them.
After cleaning everything up, Lin Wan walked toward the exit of the sports field. This time, he was much more relaxed.
What a joke!
I've already walked one full lap around the field. Why would I be scared now?
"Tweet!"
"Fall in!"
The break was over, and another round of military training began.
Lin Wan noticed two male students walking toward the field. Neither of them was wearing a military training uniform.
They were chatting and laughing while carrying a plastic bag. Inside it was half of a bright red watermelon and an unusually large spoon.
The two also noticed Lin Wan. Seeing that he was carrying the same things, they smiled knowingly at him.
After leaving the sports field, Lin Wan hid behind a tree and curiously watched the two students.
One of them took out a selfie stick and happily made a peace sign.
The other took out the watermelon and the spoon.
What were they planning to do?
Lin Wan kept watching. He had a feeling something interesting was about to happen.
The student holding the watermelon scooped out a huge spoonful and casually walked past the military training formations.
The student with the selfie stick followed behind while recording.
Looking at the young freshmen standing under the sun, he smiled proudly, as if remembering something.
He still remembered that last year, when he was the freshman doing military training, an older student had done exactly the same thing.
He had been furious back then.
But now?
He slowly took out an ice cream bar, unwrapped it, and took an exaggerated lick.
Wow.
Today's ice cream tasted especially sweet.
What goes around comes around.
Now it was finally his turn.
He had waited for this moment for an entire year.
Hahaha!
Today the breeze felt wonderful, the sunshine was beautiful, and life was simply very, very good.
The student couldn't have been more pleased with himself.
"Damn it!"
One of the instructors saw the smug look on the two students' faces and couldn't take it anymore.
"The boys too! Listen up! Go catch those two!"
"Yeah!"
"Awooo!"
"For the country!"
"For the master!"
"Get those idiots!"
The male freshmen instantly got excited. They had already been annoyed by those two jerks. Today they were going to teach them what real regret felt like.
"Holy crap!"
The two older students realized things had gone wrong and immediately ran for their lives. But the crowd chased after them from every direction.
They were quickly caught. Then everyone lifted them over their heads like animals about to be sacrificed.
"Junior brothers, I'm sorry!"
"Please don't!"
"Hey! Who grabbed my balls?!"
"No! No! Please stop!"
The two seniors were carried beneath the basketball hoop.
"Turn them around! Press their backs and butts against the pole and rub them up and down!" the instructor ordered.
Nowadays, the old prank of slamming people against the pole wasn't allowed because it could seriously injure them.
But rubbing their backsides against the pole was harmless enough.
"Instructor, please don't! I was wrong! I really was! I'll buy everyone drinks!" one of the seniors cried.
Nobody listened.
More than ten pairs of hands grabbed them tightly like iron bars and started rubbing them against the pole.
"Take it easy. Don't hurt them. Just let them feel your enthusiasm," the instructor reminded everyone.
"Hahaha!"
"Hehe!"
A group of girls giggled as they took out their phones to record the whole thing.
One of the seniors blushed bright red.
"Junior sisters, at least turn on a beauty filter for me!"
He had completely accepted his fate.
Watching all of this made Lin Wan's heart pound.
He quietly touched his own butt.
Luckily, he had kept a low profile.
Otherwise, he might have been the one getting rubbed against the pole.
Sure enough, showing off always came back to bite you.
After slowly making his way back to the dormitory, Lin Wan crushed the empty bottles from earlier and threw them into a sack inside one of the closets.
There were already quite a few empty bottles inside. Their dorm room was built for six people, but only four students had been assigned there.
So they paid for a six-person room while enjoying the extra space of a four-person room.
The two unused beds and desks had become storage space for suitcases and books.
Putting down his hood, Lin Wan sat in his chair.
"Spirit, is the task finished?"
"Finished~"
"Then... where's my reward?"
"It's coming right away. Are you ready? It might hurt a little~"
"Mm. I'm ready!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Wan felt an electric current spread through his entire body.
It flowed through every part of him. His body felt numb and warm.
There was a little pain, but compared to the pain from his illness, it was nothing.
The whole process lasted for a little over a minute. When it ended, Lin Wan felt lighter than he had ever felt before.
"Only 0.1% healing already feels this amazing! If I get to 100%, I'll practically be flying!"
His eyes sparkled.
"Spirit, what's the next task?"
He was full of excitement. But the Spirit didn't answer.
"Hello? Spirit?"
"Hello?"
After quite a while, the Spirit finally spoke again. Its voice sounded tired.
"Your body is too weak. I had to carefully control my power. I'm a little tired, so I'm going to rest for a while~"
"Okay. Have a good rest, Spirit."
………………
Meanwhile...
Zhou Heng and Li Dongxu returned to their dorm room with messy clothes, looking as if they had been completely bullied.
Seeing their miserable appearance, Zhuo Feng continued playing his game while asking curiously,
"What happened to you two?"
"Waaah... Boss, I'm no longer innocent," Li Dongxu said as he collapsed into his chair and looked at the ceiling.
He didn't dare lower his head, or his tears would fall.
Han Jinsong, who was playing a duo match with Zhuo Feng, immediately became interested.
"Jingjing, from now on, when you fart, is it going to whistle instead of pop?"
Because Dongxu's name contained many 'sun' characters in Chinese, everyone had given him the nickname "Jingjing."
(Translation Note: 旭 (Xù) consists of 九 (nine) and 日 (sun). So, "nine suns." Which earned him the nickname Jingjing (晶晶). 晶 (Jīng) consists of three 日 (sun) characters stacked together.)
Li Dongxu was confused for a moment before understanding the joke. His face instantly turned red.
"Don't ruin my reputation with your nonsense!"
"Weren't you two showing off at the sports field? Don't tell me the freshmen caught you?" Zhuo Feng guessed correctly.
"They're monsters!" Zhou Heng said with lingering fear.
"They had absolutely no mercy! They kept touching us, and some of the junior girls even recorded videos!"
"People always say, 'Have fun, but don't take photos in the karaoke room.' They don't have any manners at all! They've definitely uploaded the videos online!" Li Dongxu agreed.
Thinking about the girls laughing at him made him regret everything. He had wanted to find a cute junior girl and start his first love.
Instead, those girls had all flown away like little birds.
At this point, even finding a junior boy might be difficult. The two of them were probably already famous on the school's online forum. If the videos spread further, they might become famous elsewhere too.
They could only hope the students uploading the videos would blur their faces. The thing they used to hate had now become the only thing protecting their dignity.
"Hahaha! Serves you right! I told you not to do it, and now you're paying the price!"
Han Jinsong searched for Qingnan University on TikTok and immediately found the video of them being rubbed against the pole.
After liking it, he secretly saved it to his favorites. He planned to play it at their weddings someday.
"Waaah... Brother Song, you've changed. You don't love me anymore," Zhou Heng said with the expression of an abandoned wife.
"Ugh! Get lost!"
"Look on the bright side. What if this makes you famous?"
While playing, Zhuo Feng casually said,
"If it were me, I'd ask one of the junior girls to send me the video on WeChat. Then I'd edit it and upload it myself. Easy traffic. Plus I'd get her WeChat too. If the video goes viral, I could make money from ads or product promotions. Wouldn't that be much better than working hard writing code?"
The moment Zhou Heng and Li Dongxu heard that, they slapped their thighs.
He was right! They immediately stopped acting silly and rushed back toward the sports field.
Whether they became famous wasn't important anymore. The important thing was getting the girls' WeChat accounts.
Each girl had recorded the scene from a different angle.
They could simply ask for the highest-quality version and use that as an excuse to add every girl who had filmed them.
Oh my God. This was going to be amazing!
After the room finally became quiet again, Zhuo Feng turned to Han Jinsong.
"Brother Song, have you found a support player yet?"
Han Jinsong shook his head.
"Not yet. There are only a handful of high-ranked players at our university. We've asked almost all of them, but very few support players are good enough."
The two of them were on the same esports team. They planned to compete in this year's university tournament.
However, their old support player had graduated, so they needed to find someone new.
"We'll keep looking," Zhuo Feng said.
.....................
As the sun slowly set, Zhou Heng and Li Dongxu finally arrived back at the sports field.
"You two actually dared to come back?!"
Before they could even catch their breath, one shout from the instructor scared them so badly that they turned around and ran as fast as they could.
Years later, they would write in their memoirs.
‘Thinking back to that run beneath the setting sun... that was the youth we lost.’