A Lifetime of Never Showing Off

A Lifetime of Never Showing Off

The young man looked about as tall as Cheng Yan. Cheng Yun estimated that he was at most 172 centimeters, and while his build might be considered standard in the eyes of many petite girls, Cheng Yun thought he was extremely skinny—probably no more than 60 kilograms. Someone that size was fine if he behaved himself, but if he wanted to start a fight, one shove would send him tumbling.

Cheng Yun immediately relaxed. Only then did he slowly walk down the stairs, carefully sizing up the young man as he went—

He was fairly handsome, perhaps a third as handsome as Cheng Yun. He wore cotton shorts, a white T-shirt, and casual shoes, along with a string of decorative prayer beads on his wrist, as if following the latest trend. He looked like a clean-cut, delicate-looking "young gentleman."

However, it was already past eleven at night, and Cheng Yun could faintly smell alcohol on him. There were quite a few scattered bars and nightclubs near Yizhou University. Most were fairly respectable, but some did center around romantic encounters. This guy had probably just returned from a nightclub after failing to meet anyone, which was why he had come here alone looking for a place to stay. Otherwise, he had suffered a setback in love, felt depressed, and gone out drinking by himself.

Clearly, the tipsy young man was instantly captivated by Cheng Yan's still-youthful, charming face and tall figure.

As Cheng Yun drew closer, the young man remained completely unaware, staring fixedly at Cheng Yan. He even forced out what he thought was a suave smile. "You didn't even say whether you have a boyfriend. It's not like I absolutely have to pursue you. Just turning me down with one sentence like that is a little too heartless, isn't it?"

Cheng Yan glanced at Cheng Yun from the corner of her eye, then continued staring coldly at the young man. "If you want a room, you're welcome here. If you're here to make a drunken scene, you'd better get lost!"

"Are you always this fierce?" The young man was stunned. "I just wanted to make friends."

"I don't want to be friends with you."

"Wow, little beauty, you're so gorgeous. How come your personality is so difficult? Is it really that hard to leave me your WeChat?" The young man gave a helpless, bitter smile. "If you have a boyfriend, I'll turn around and leave, all right? I, Lu Hetong, am not the kind of person who likes stealing someone else's girlfriend. But if you don't have a boyfriend, give me a chance. Just give me a chance, all right? Let's add each other on WeChat. Whether we hit it off can depend on fate. What do you say?"

"I'm not giving it to you!" Cheng Yan's gaze turned cold.

Was this guy an idiot?

"Little beauty, don't be so heartless. Do me a favor, all right? Give me a way out, okay?" The young man pleaded bitterly. "If you give me your WeChat and later decide we're not compatible, you can delete me—that'll be my fault. But if you don't even give it to me, then that'll be your fault..."

While the young man prattled on, Cheng Yan expressionlessly picked up the thick, heavy copy of Atlas Shrugged lying on the computer desk in front of her. Before he had finished speaking, she swiftly turned sideways, swung her arm with the force of her waist, and slammed the book into the side of his face like a brick—

"Blame your sister!" Cheng Yan shouted coldly.

Bang!

The young man lurched sideways and landed hard on his butt. His head spun, and his consciousness became hazy.

From several meters away, Cheng Yun smiled.

Cheng Yan wasn't merely aloof-tempered—she had a fierce temper, and she had genuinely trained before. The young man was probably no heavier than she was, and he was about the same height. Cheng Yan could probably take on two of him.

But businesspeople valued peace above all.

So Cheng Yun walked over. Seeing that the young man seemed dazed and had been sitting on the floor for ages without recovering, he hurried over, grabbed his hand, and pulled him up. "Oh, brother, what happened to you? Why did you suddenly sit down on the floor? You drank too much, didn't you? Come on, get up..."

The young man blinked twice, shook his head hard, and looked at Cheng Yan in disbelief. The copy of Atlas Shrugged, practically as thick as the Oxford English Dictionary, still lay on the counter.

He extended a hand, seemingly wanting to point at Cheng Yan.

Smack! Cheng Yun pressed his hand down. "Steady, brother. Don't move around, or you'll fall again!"

The young man turned to Cheng Yun, his face filled with bewilderment and confusion. He opened his mouth and forced out a few syllables. "That girl..."

Cheng Yun pursed his lips, then let go with both hands.

Bang! The young man landed on his butt again!

The heavy impact on his tailbone sent pain through him so severe that his face twisted. He couldn't say a word.

Cheng Yun hurriedly grabbed him by the arm and hauled him up again. Given Cheng Yun's height and weight, the frail young man was lifted like a puppy. "See? I told you not to move, and you fell again! Come on, where do you live? I'll take you back!"

Smack!

A student ID fell out.

Cheng Yun picked it up and glanced at it, then immediately grinned. "Oh, you're a junior brother! Class of 2016, and you're already out drinking at bars as a freshman? Lu Hetong, dance major..."

Cheng Yun looked the young man up and down before saying, "With your physique, you'd be better off doing crosstalk!"

Lu Hetong looked up at him, his face contorted as he squeezed out a sentence. "Brother, I was wrong."

Well, that ruined the fun!

Cheng Yun stopped teasing him, let go, and even dusted off nonexistent dirt from his clothes. "All right. Since you know you were wrong, I won't hold it against you. Drink less normally, and be careful when you're drunk. What kind of behavior is it to pester a girl for her phone number in the middle of the night, then refuse to stop after she turns you down?"

Lu Hetong forced an ugly expression onto his face. With the alcohol magnifying his emotions, he actually felt like crying.

Didn't he have any dignity?

In the end, he rubbed his butt and limped out the door. He even paused outside and glanced around a few times before choosing a direction and continuing to look for a hotel.

Cheng Yun turned around and looked at Cheng Yan.

The two exchanged a glance. One could barely suppress a laugh, while the other remained cold and expressionless.

After a moment, Cheng Yun forced out, "Luckily, you hit him with a book. Otherwise, with his physique, one slap from you would've knocked him silly, wouldn't it?"

"I know my limits. I don't need you to remind me!" Cheng Yan said coldly. After a pause, she added, "If we hadn't been running the shop, I would've already swung the book at him."

"All right, I wasn't blaming you," Cheng Yun said. "I shouldn't have made you work the night shift in the first place. It isn't very safe for a girl at night. People instinctively categorize girls as easy targets... Especially someone like you. Aside from people who genuinely intend to cause trouble, you'll also attract plenty of punks."

"Punks like that one?" Cheng Yan's face showed disdain.

"You're young and have no idea how high the sky is or how deep the earth," Cheng Yun said helplessly. "What if someone taller and stronger really showed up? You'd recklessly attack him just like that, make him furious, and then what would you do?"

"Then why didn't I see you come help me just now?" There was a hint of displeasure in Cheng Yan's voice.

"I saw that you could handle him. If he'd been taller, wouldn't I have stepped in?"

"Can you stop thinking you're so impressive?" Cheng Yan shot him a sidelong glance. "You're still just a weakling!"

"..." Cheng Yun stared at her in surprise. "A weakling? Please, have you ever seen a weakling who's over 180 centimeters tall and weighs more than 70 kilograms?"

"181 centimeters with your shoes on. Without them, you'd be lucky to reach 180!" Cheng Yan said disdainfully. "Besides, if being fat were useful, wouldn't pigs be able to eat tigers?"

"My bare height is 180 centimeters! Thank you very much!" Cheng Yun was a little irritated. This girl always argued with him. "And I'm not fat. I used to play on the department basketball team, all right?"

"Used to."

"I still have abs and pecs!"

"Used to."

"You win." Cheng Yun helplessly raised his hands in surrender.

"I'm just telling the truth. You've completed the reverse process of building yourself a great physique back then." Cheng Yan looked him up and down, then turned her gaze to his face. "You slept for half a day, and your mental state is much better now. You even have the energy to argue with me!"

Cheng Yun helplessly curled his lips. What could he do?

He had exercised regularly back then and enjoyed sports, so naturally he had been in good shape. Later, he became busy with starting a business, and gradually exercised less, at most going out for a run on a whim. After becoming single again in his third year of university, he had gone through a period of depression. On top of that, he had stopped living on campus in his fourth year. With less exercise and plenty of good food and fun, of course he had put on weight.

He didn't want to argue with Cheng Yan about it. He walked behind the counter, sat down, and said, "Go to sleep. I'll keep watch tonight."

"I'm not tired." Cheng Yan spoke lightly as she picked up the thick book, flipped to roughly a third of the way through, and lowered her head to read. "If you can't sleep, sit here. If I get tired first, I'll go upstairs to rest. If not, I'll sit here with you and see whether any punks come by so you can make good on the boasting you just did."

"..." Cheng Yun said, "I'm so hungry."

"You should be." Cheng Yan nodded while holding the book, then lightly turned a page with one finger. "I had barbecue tonight. Grilled pork belly, ribs, eggplant, chicken wings, beef, lamb, chicken skin, pig skin..."

"Cheng Yan! You're going too far!" Cheng Yun's face darkened as he spoke in a low voice.

Cheng Yan ignored him and continued on her own. "Oh, right, I also ordered a cold dressed baby crucian carp as the main dish."

"That's enough!" Cheng Yun's face darkened further.

"Why is it enough?" Cheng Yan's face still showed little emotion. She didn't even raise her head. "Have you forgotten what you did to me when we were children?"

"We were so young back then! Do you really have to hold a grudge?" Cheng Yun was utterly speechless.

"I'm young now too. I'm not even an adult yet." Cheng Yan spoke lightly while reading. "So you'll just have to be a little more patient as my guardian."

"All right." Cheng Yun pursed his lips, sighed helplessly, then pulled out his phone and opened a delivery app. "I'll order delivery now. What do you want to eat? ...Not saying? Fine, I'll order all your favorites. I'm starving. I feel like I could eat an entire cow."

Cheng Yan: "..."

Cheng Yun really did order a huge pile of food, while Cheng Yan really did keep holding herself back instead of snatching any. But she had already secretly recorded this incident in her heart, and by the time she went upstairs, her expression was frighteningly gloomy.

A little after one in the morning, the hotel closed, and they went upstairs to sleep.

Old Mage still hadn't gone to sleep. Blue light shone through the gap beneath his door, particularly conspicuous in the darkness.