Chilled Watermelon and a Call for Help in the Corridor
Early autumn in Jiangcheng was so hot in September that even the wind felt sticky.
The old air conditioner in dorm room 504, which had been in use for who knew how many years, was roaring like a tractor.
Although its louvers were open, the air blowing out was not only warm, but carried the musty smell of years-old dust.
Han Dong sat shirtless, slumped in his chair.
"I can't take it anymore."
His head was covered in sweat, and he felt like he was about to be steamed alive.
"Is this lousy air conditioner cooling or heating? Why does it feel like it's blowing warm air at me?"
The heat had put Chen Ziang in a foul mood too.
He held a tissue in his hand, constantly wiping the sweat from his forehead and neck. The local young master, who usually cared most about his hair and clothes, had also grown irritable in the stifling heat.
Even the usually quiet Zhao Yifan frowned slightly as he sat at his desk reading.
There was a soft creak.
Someone pushed the dorm door open from outside.
Just as the heat outside was about to pour through the doorway, everyone saw Lu Chuan walk in.
He wore a light gray T-shirt without a single logo, looking as fresh and composed as ever. Most importantly, he carried a clear plastic bag containing half a chilled watermelon, already cut into pieces, wisps of cold air still rising from it.
"Holy shit!"
Han Dong's eyes went wide.
He sprang out of his chair like a coiled spring.
"Brother Chuan, you're a living bodhisattva descended to earth!"
Lu Chuan set the watermelon on the table in the middle of the room.
"I just bought it outside campus. It's already cut."
His tone was casual.
"Eat it while it's cold."
Without another word, Han Dong speared the reddest piece with a toothpick and stuffed it into his mouth.
Cold, sweet watermelon juice burst in his mouth, cooling him all the way down his throat to his stomach.
"I'm alive again!"
Han Dong hummed with pleasure.
"That mouthful of watermelon saved my sorry life for the moment."
Chen Ziang and Zhao Yifan didn't stand on ceremony either, each taking a piece. In the stifling heat, the half watermelon was practically a miracle cure that saved their lives.
Han Dong ate several pieces in a row and felt his body temperature drop a little.
But when he looked up at the lousy air conditioner on the wall, still making noise without cooling anything, the heat inside him flared up again.
He casually wiped his mouth and turned to Chen Ziang, his eyes full of expectation.
"Ziang."
"Didn't your dad say yesterday he was going to replace all the air conditioners on this whole floor?"
Han Dong asked with a guileless look.
"It's been a whole day. Why hasn't the school's facilities office done anything yet? If they don't replace them soon, my Northeast China build really won't survive Jiangcheng."
The dorm room fell silent for a moment.
Chen Ziang had half a piece of watermelon in his hand, and his arm froze in midair.
Yesterday, his dad really had made a thunderous declaration in front of everyone, thumping his chest and promising to donate air conditioners for an entire floor at Jiangcheng University.
At the time, he had been a little embarrassed by how loud his dad was.
Now, though, the matter had truly put him on the fire to roast.
Zhao Yifan sat beside him and turned a page.
Although Zhao Yifan said nothing, Chen Ziang felt that even the sound of the page turning was waiting for his answer.
Chen Ziang cared about face above all else.
As a local young master, he absolutely wouldn't allow himself to lose standing in front of his roommates, especially when the school year had only just begun.
He forced himself to dryly cough.
"It should be soon, I guess."
Pretending nothing was wrong, Chen Ziang tossed his watermelon rind into the trash.
"A public institution like a school has slow procedures. The facilities office is probably still getting approval."
He stood up and picked up his phone from the table.
"I'll go out and make a call right now, see if I can hurry things along."
With that, he walked out of the room without looking back, pulling the door shut behind him.
Chen Ziang strode to the balcony at the end of the corridor.
There usually wasn't anyone there. Out of his roommates' sight, he hurriedly called his dad.
The phone rang several times before it was answered.
The background on the other end was noisy; Father Chen was evidently out entertaining people.
"Hello? Ziang, are you short on money?"
"No, I'm not."
Chen Ziang lowered his voice, anxiety creeping into his tone.
"Dad, what happened to replacing the air conditioners on the whole floor like you said in the dorm yesterday? Why hasn't anything happened?"
"My roommates are asking me about it to my face. Did you talk to the school leaders or not?"
On the other end of the line, Father Chen sighed after hearing him out.
His booming voice came straight through the earpiece.
"Of course I did!"
"I made a special trip to see your college leaders this morning. I was planning to spend some money to put on a show."
"But when their facilities office checked, they said some dorm rooms still don't have air conditioning, and the wiring in your old dorm building has deteriorated so badly that it can't handle the load of replacing all the air conditioners on an entire floor at once."
Father Chen clicked his tongue.
"They said that to replace them, they'd have to cut power to the whole building and redo the wiring. That's a huge project, and it'll have to wait until winter or summer break. The school turned me down politely."
Chen Ziang was dumbfounded.
His head buzzed.
"They can't replace them?"
He was so anxious he nearly jumped.
"You've already bragged about it in front of my roommates, and now you're telling me the wiring can't handle it, so they can't replace them? How am I supposed to save face?"
He paced in circles on the balcony, frantic.
"Dad, hurry up and think of something! I can't just go back and tell them my dad was bragging and couldn't get it done!"
Father Chen grew impatient on the other end of the line.
"All right, all right, it's not that big a deal."
"If they can't replace them for the whole floor, I'll send you some money first."
"Find an outside installation crew off campus and quietly have them install a wall-mounted unit just for your room, 504. That'll do for now. The facilities office said the wiring can still handle one unit on its own."
Before Chen Ziang could say anything,
the call had already ended.
Immediately afterward, his phone screen lit up.
A crisp WeChat notification sounded.
Father Chen had transferred him twenty thousand yuan, along with a voice message: "Buy a better one yourself. The rest is spending money."
Chen Ziang stood in the sweltering corridor, looking at the balance on his screen, all five flavors churning in his heart.
He had the money.
He could also get the air conditioner installed on an expedited schedule later.
But he was a local young master, and in the end he actually had to be the one to make good on his dad's bragging.
If his roommates found out, it would be worse than killing him.
The night breeze blew across the balcony.
Chen Ziang's mind began racing.
Once he bought the air conditioner and had someone come install it, he absolutely couldn't say he'd paid for it himself.
Otherwise, it would be beneath him and make him lose too much face.
He'd be just like some upstart sucker.
He had to find a reason that would both show off his family's power and sound impressive.
He took a deep breath.
He adjusted his expression until it was as relaxed and nonchalant as possible.
Then he turned and walked back to dorm room 504.
The moment he pushed the door open,
Han Dong immediately looked over at him expectantly.
"Boss Chen, how'd it go?"
Chen Ziang put on a composed smile.
In his head, he had already begun working out the perfect excuse: "My family pressured the facilities office and pulled strings to get one unit approved separately."
Lu Chuan, who was sitting at the table drinking water, merely looked up at him.
His gaze was calm.
But a nearly imperceptible glimmer of understanding flashed in his eyes.