Life Winner

As it was almost time for class, Qin Luming saw Diao Ligang and Guo Gaoming enter and changed his seat to sit with them.

"Zhu Baiqing was furious last night, he kept muttering about it, even when he was on the phone with Qi Ahe," Guo Gaoming glanced at the other end of the long desk. Qi Ahe seemed to be explaining something to her roommates. The girls were looking this way, and their attention was likely on Qin Luming.

Qin Luming was the oldest male student in the class. In the eyes of most classmates, he wasn't very sociable and didn't actively try to blend in, but he also didn't do anything particularly annoying.

Some girls liked this type, finding his slightly mature aura charming and a bit unique.

"He'll get his manuscript fees next month, and he should rent a place with Qi Ahe," Diao Ligang said with some envy. "It's great to have money... you can have sex every day without paying for a hotel room."

"Isn't the point that you don't have to pay for prostitutes? You don't need hotel rooms when you go for massages either," Qin Luming said with a smile.

"Old Qin, you're too perverted. Do we look like people who go to places like that?"

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

"You don't? The worry lines on your forehead scrunch into a 'p' and then a 'c' every now and then."

"Damn, you're too mean!"

"What, is my surname Diao bothering you?"

The three of them chatted and joked around. Zhu Baiqing entered the classroom with the teacher, sat next to Qi Ahe, and started typing on his computer.

Qin Luming touched his head, looking at their dedication to typing, and felt ashamed. This morning, he seemed to have... uh.

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

"Do you think Zhu Baiqing is a winner in life?" Diao Ligang asked enviously. University students with normal sexual orientations are often like bags full of energy, about to expand, about to explode, suppressing fervent desires in their hearts. If they don't have a girlfriend, they can only watch videos, collect fetish items, flip through manga, and tremble in the quiet of the night... Ultimately, it's not as satisfying as a real girlfriend.

"Even though Zhu Baiqing can be annoying, you have to admit he's not from a rich family. He's quite capable of earning money to support his girlfriend," Guo Gaoming commented objectively. "However, it would be best if he graduates smoothly and studies his major well. Writing novels... he can't do it forever."

"Writing novels is a dead end," Qin Luming nodded. "I've heard many authors say that... I recently met an author who was being chased by his novel characters."

"Being chased is unnecessary, cutting them off would be enough."

"If they're cut off... what if he gives up and becomes a complete 'taijian' (author who abandons novels)? Some authors need to be cut off first, and then reattached after they finish writing."

Diao Ligang and Guo Gaoming chatted idly, not taking Qin Luming's words seriously.

"Old Qin, why don't you find a girlfriend? You hang out with us at school all day, it makes people suspicious," Guo Gaoming's worry lines furrowed. He opened his mouth and looked at Qin Luming expressionlessly. "Tell us, either me or Old Diao, who do you have a crush on?"

"Even though I might not accept you, I respect your freedom to have a crush on me," Diao Ligang spread his hands, saying with a hint of regret.

"Old Qin has a crush on you? If anything, he'd have a crush on me. Have some self-awareness, okay?" Guo Gaoming pushed Diao Ligang.

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

"Get lost, both of you," Qin Luming punched each of them.

"Seriously, it feels like many girls have a good impression of you, and you don't seem gay," Guo Gaoming found it hard to understand. "Seeing others show off their affection during holidays, you don't feel jealous or sad?"

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

Qin Luming smiled. Of course, he wasn't gay. As for the girls who said he was gay, and believed he was gay, they wouldn't be the girls he liked.

"I don't like real-life women; they just want to possess my body," Qin Luming said, unable to accept it.

"Have some dignity."

"Exactly."

Qin Luming returned home and saw Zuozuo and Caicai sitting on the newly installed stairs, doing something with a calligraphy brush that made Qin Luming's eyebrows twitch.

Qin Luming walked over and saw Zuozuo holding a brush, casually and freely smearing it along the finely carved lines on the stair panels.

Caicai held a bottle of ink, observing intently, and warned Zuozuo with great concern not to stain other areas.

"What are you doing?" Qin Luming's breathing became a little rapid with anger. The elegant Song Dynasty paintings were now smeared by them into something like a primary school student's calligraphy and painting work, with large splotches of ink here and there.

If the coloring were like the original Song Dynasty paintings with their layered dyes, it would be one thing. But now, at a glance, it looked like giant black worms wriggling all over the dozen or so stair panels.

"We're coloring it," Zuozuo looked up at Qin Luming, proudly showing off. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"We're almost done," Caicai pointed to the last panel. "But slow work makes fine products, don't rush us!"

"Why are you coloring it?" Slow work makes fine products? No one cares about that!

"Because it looks like the drawing book they gave us when we bought the colored pens," Zuozuo pointed to the drawing book lying aside.

Qin Luming understood. Perhaps today, for some reason, they suddenly became interested in coloring the pictures in the drawing book. After picking up the book, they found that the lines and patterns were similar to the stair panels, so they started.

"Go wash your faces and hands, change your clothes, and we're going out to eat today," Qin Luming said, looking at the two little girls with ink stains on their faces and hands, and then at his own hands, reminding himself that this might be called "I can't control myself!"

"Can we go eat at a buffet?"

"But I want to eat the kind where there are many things laid out for us to eat freely."

"Silly, that's a buffet!"

"You want to eat spiders!"

Zuozuo drew a big X on Caicai's face with the calligraphy brush. Caicai glared at Zuozuo and unhesitatingly splashed the ink in her hand onto Zuozuo.

"I'll only wait for you for thirty minutes," Qin Luming said, hands in his pockets, watching them start fighting again.

Zuozuo and Caicai exchanged a look, then held hands and quickly ran back to their room to clean up.