Life's Winner

As class was about to start, Qin Luming saw Diao Ligang and Guo Gaoming come in, so he switched seats and sat with them.

"Zhu Baiqing was furious last night. He kept rambling on and on, even when he was on the phone with Qi Ahe." Guo Gaoming glanced toward the other end of the long classroom table. Qi Ahe seemed to be explaining something to her roommates, and the girls kept looking this way. Their attention was probably on Qin Luming.

Qin Luming was the oldest male student in the class. In most of his classmates' eyes, he was not especially sociable. He did not go out of his way to blend in with everyone, but there was nothing particularly annoying about him either.

Some girls liked that type. They found his slightly mature air attractive, with a touch of individuality.

"Once he gets his royalties next month, he'll probably rent a place with Qi Ahe." Diao Ligang sounded somewhat envious. "Having money is great... You can bang every day without paying for a room."

"Isn't the important part that he won't have to pay for sex anymore? When you guys go get a happy ending, you don't need to pay for a room either." Qin Luming laughed.

"Old Qin, you're way too sleazy. Do we look like the kind of people who go to places like that?"

"I definitely don't. But Old Diao, judging by your surname, you do."

"You don't? The wrinkles on your forehead keep scrunching into a P, then a C."

"Damn, that was vicious!"

"What, my surname Diao offended you or something?"

The three of them laughed and traded nonsense for a while. Zhu Baiqing entered the classroom with the professor, sat beside Qi Ahe, opened his laptop, and immediately started writing.

Qin Luming rubbed his head. Looking at Zhu Baiqing's dedication to writing, he really felt ashamed. This morning, he seemed to have... uh.

After class, Diao Ligang and Guo Gaoming watched Qi Ahe leave with her arm linked through Zhu Baiqing's.

"Do you think Zhu Baiqing counts as a winner in life?" Diao Ligang asked enviously. Straight male college students were often like bags filled to bursting with energy, swelling up, ready to explode. Their hearts suppressed feverish desires. Without girlfriends, they could only watch videos, collect dirty stuff, flip through magazines, and tremble in the dead of night... Yet none of that was as satisfying as a living, breathing girlfriend.

"As annoying as Zhu Baiqing is, we have to admit he isn't some rich second-generation kid. He earns money with his own skills and supports his girlfriend. That's pretty impressive." Guo Gaoming tried to give an objective assessment. "Still, he'd better graduate smoothly and learn his major properly. Writing novels... he can't do that for the rest of his life."

"Writing novels is a dead end." Qin Luming nodded too. "I've heard plenty of authors say that... Recently, I met an author who was being hunted by one of his own characters."

"There's no need to hunt him down. Just cut it off."

"If you cut it off... what if he gives up on himself and becomes a eunuch for good? Some authors need to be cut off first, then reattached after they finish the book."

Diao Ligang and Guo Gaoming kept chatting, not taking Qin Luming seriously.

"Old Qin, why don't you find a girlfriend? You hang around with us all day at school. It makes people wonder." Guo Gaoming's forehead wrinkles creased as he opened his mouth and stared expressionlessly at Qin Luming. "Tell us. Am I or Old Diao the one you've got your eye on?"

"Even though I might not accept you, I respect your freedom to have a crush on me." Diao Ligang spread his hands, sounding faintly regretful.

"Old Qin would have a crush on you? If he had one, it'd be on me. Have some self-awareness, will you?" Guo Gaoming shoved Diao Ligang.

"Old Qin, you tell us. Who do you have a crush on?" Diao Ligang asked.

"You can both get lost." Qin Luming punched each of them once.

"Seriously, it feels like quite a few girls are interested in you, and you don't look gay either." Guo Gaoming could not understand it. "Watching everyone else show off their love during holidays and festivals, don't you get jealous? Don't you feel sad?"

"Some girls really are saying you might be gay." Diao Ligang nodded in wholehearted agreement.

Qin Luming smiled. Of course he was not gay. And the girls who said he was gay, or believed he was gay, would not be the girls he liked anyway.

"I don't like women in real life. They only want to possess my body." Qin Luming said this as if he could not accept it.

"Have some shame."

"Exactly."

When Qin Luming got home, he saw Zuozuo and Caicai sitting on the staircase that had been installed that day, holding brushes and doing something that made his eyebrows twitch.

Qin Luming walked over and saw Zuozuo holding a brush, casually and boldly smearing ink along the exquisitely carved lines on the stair panels.

Caicai held a bottle of ink and watched intently, anxiously reminding Zuozuo not to stain any other spots.

"What are you doing?" Qin Luming was so angry that his breathing grew rapid. The elegant Song-style paintings had now been smeared into something like elementary school brushwork by children just learning how to use calligraphy brushes, with large blotches of ink everywhere.

If they had colored it like the original Song paintings these carvings were based on, with their richly layered washes and distinct gradations, that would have been one thing. But at a glance now, it looked like enormous black insects had crawled crookedly over more than ten stair panels.

"We're coloring it." Zuozuo looked up at Qin Luming and showed it off with some pride. "Isn't it pretty?"

"We're almost done." Caicai pointed at the last panel. "But good work takes time, so don't rush us!"

"Why are you coloring it?" Good work took time? That was not the point at all!

"Because it looks like the coloring book we got when we bought rainbow pens." Zuozuo pointed at the coloring book tossed aside nearby.

Qin Luming understood. For some reason, they had suddenly become interested in coloring the pictures in the book today. Then, after picking it up, they had noticed that the outlined patterns looked similar to the ones on the stair panels, so they had started coloring those too.

"Go wash your faces and hands, then change your clothes. We're eating out today." Qin Luming looked at the two little girls, whose faces and hands were covered in ink, then at his own hands, reminding himself that this was probably what people meant by I can't control myself.

"Can we go eat a buffet?"

"But I want the kind where there are lots of things laid out and we can eat whatever we want."

"Idiot, that is a buffet!"

"You want to eat spiders!"

Zuozuo used her brush to draw a huge X across Caicai's face. Caicai glared at Zuozuo, then without hesitation splashed the ink in her hand all over Zuozuo.

"I'm only waiting thirty minutes." Qin Luming watched as they started fighting again, his hands tucked into his pockets.

Zuozuo and Caicai looked at each other, then held hands and hurried back to their room to wash up.