What Did You Call Me?

Tang Yi had originally wanted to bring Lu Cancan along. Honestly, he would rather spend time with Lu Cancan than with Zhou Yuwen and Gao Qiang. When they had first met, Tang Yi had learned that Lu Cancan was from Zhejiang Hangzhou and said with a smile, "You're actually from Zhejiang Hangzhou?"

"Zhejiang Hangzhou is a lot richer than where we're from. Do you smoke, brother?"

Lu Cancan had simply turned him down.

Lu Cancan said he didn't know how to play cards and would just stay in the dorm.

Tang Yi had wanted to persuade him some more, but seeing that Lu Cancan kept insisting, he said nothing further and simply left the dorm with Zhou Yuwen and Gao Qiang.

After meeting Tang Yi's girlfriend, Gao Qiang's attitude toward him had clearly changed a great deal, and he affectionately called him Brother Yi. He could tell that Tang Yi seemed to want to get close to Lu Cancan, so as they left the dorm, he said, "Hey, Brother Yi, don't waste your effort. Anyone can see Cancan isn't the same kind of person as us."

"I'm not the same fucking kind of person as you, either," Tang Yi said, rolling his eyes at Gao Qiang with a Xuanhemen cigarette between his lips.

Gao Qiang nodded in agreement and said with a smile, "Right, right, right. You're a cut above the rest, not like us."

"Get lost~" Tang Yi could hear the teasing in Gao Qiang's voice, but he wasn't angry. He just cursed at him with a laugh.

After they left the dorm building and saw the Mercedes-Benz parked there, Tang Yi couldn't help saying, "Whose car is that? They dropped their kid off and still haven't left? What a show-off!"

"Huh, I didn't see it when I got here. I guess they just arrived this afternoon? That car must be pretty expensive, right? It's a Mercedes-Benz!" Gao Qiang said.

One look at Gao Qiang told Tang Yi that he knew nothing about cars, and he couldn't resist showing off a little. "Do you know what model that is?"

"What do you mean, what model?" Gao Qiang didn't even know Mercedes-Benz had different models.

So Tang Yi told him, "It's the latest 2015 model, a Mercedes-Benz E-Class. It costs over 600,000 to buy outright and get on the road!"

"Damn, that expensive? Back home, that would be enough to build a huge villa, wouldn't it?!" Gao Qiang really was startled. His parents were both farmers through and through, and their annual earnings were only in the five figures.

In fact, Gao Qiang hadn't wanted to study agriculture at first, but the tuition was cheap, and there were government subsidies.

Hearing that the Mercedes-Benz cost over 600,000, Gao Qiang couldn't help feeling a stir in his heart.

But then he thought that he hadn't grown up yet back then, and he hadn't had any opportunities in the village.

Now, though, he had left the village behind.

When Gao Qiang was little, there hadn't been much in the way of entertainment. Every day, he either went with his parents to plant seedlings and harvest rice or went catching shrimp and fish with his friends. It wasn't until he went to high school in the county town that he barely managed to get any real exposure to the world. He and his classmates had hidden in their dorm to watch Hong Kong films like "Once a Thief," "God of Gamblers II," and "To Be Number One."

He believed man could conquer heaven! As long as he was given a chance, he might not be any worse than anyone else!

And now, he had only just glimpsed one corner of society!

"When I graduate, the car I drive will definitely be better than that one!" Gao Qiang declared, brimming with ambition.

"Heh!"

Tang Yi almost laughed out loud when he heard that. He gave Zhou Yuwen a look, hoping Zhou Yuwen would understand what he meant. Zhou Yuwen simply smiled along.

Tang Yi said, "Even I've never thought about driving that car after graduation. Gao Qiang, look at you! You really speak from the heart!"

"Man can conquer heaven! Thirty years the river flows east, thirty years it flows west!" Gao Qiang said.

"Did you hear that, Yuwen? He really speaks from the heart!" Tang Yi kept shooting Zhou Yuwen looks.

Zhou Yuwen merely smiled.

The September campus was filled with the fragrance of osmanthus blossoms. There were fewer freshmen hauling suitcases around, but every few steps, they could still see plenty of them in groups of three or five.

Near the cafeteria in particular, the entrance to the convenience store was packed with freshmen, a sea of heads jostling together.

The sun was blazing overhead. Most of the boys wore T-shirts, while the girls wore everything from short skirts to hot pants.

The best-looking were those wearing simple gray pleated skirts paired with thin white socks that came up to their knees.

Their pale, jade-like thighs were left bare.

On the osmanthus-strewn campus, they complemented youth so perfectly.

Tang Yi said that going to college was all about looking at legs.

"I've seen more legs today than I did in a whole year of high school," Tang Yi said to Zhou Yuwen, tilting his head.

"Brother Yi, you already have a girlfriend, and you're still looking at other girls' legs? Besides, none of their legs are as pretty as your girlfriend's," Gao Qiang said.

"Oh, what do you know?"

Tang Yi didn't much like talking to Gao Qiang and spoke mostly to Zhou Yuwen.

Gao Qiang, on the other hand, really wanted to hang out with Tang Yi. He kept butting in, and whenever he saw a pretty girl, he would point her out to Tang Yi. "Brother Yi, look, that girl's pretty!"

Occasionally, he spoke a little too loudly, and the girls heard him.

When a girl turned around, she would see Gao Qiang and Tang Yi walking together.

Tang Yi immediately lowered his head and couldn't help saying, "Can't you keep your fucking voice down?"

The three of them chatted and laughed their way to the cafeteria. The first floor wasn't much to look at, and it was crowded and noisy. Xia Hui and the others had said they would wait for them on the second floor, which had been newly renovated over the summer vacation. Because it required climbing the stairs, most freshmen wouldn't choose to go there on the first day.

They soon met up on the second floor.

Tang Yi had mentioned earlier that he and Xia Hui had gone to the same high school, a well-known private school in Changzhou. The students whose families had money had all gone abroad to study, leaving only a few slackers like him in the country.

"Nothing I could do. My family's too poor and couldn't afford to send me abroad, so I could only stay here and muddle along!" Tang Yi said with a self-deprecating laugh.

Gao Qiang chimed in, "You call yourself poor? One outfit of yours costs what my parents earn in a whole year!"

Tang Yi smiled without saying anything. He and Xia Hui were in the same major and the same class. In his own words, he had never even planned to come to Nanjing to study.

He had only come because Xia Hui had.

Gao Qiang said he was devoted.

He said he was all right.

After meeting up, everyone introduced themselves. Xia Hui was still wearing the same outfit. They had been too far away to see her clearly before, but now that Zhou Yuwen had a closer look, he saw that Xia Hui really did have a great figure. She was slender without being too thin, with flesh where it belonged and long, slim limbs. Her thighs were only a little thicker than Zhou Yuwen's arms.

Her arms were even more slender.

She held her phone in one hand and a juice she had just bought at the cafeteria in the other, sipping it.

It was their first meeting, so everyone was fairly reserved.

Tang Yi introduced Zhou Yuwen to Xia Hui, and she merely nodded.

When it came to Gao Qiang, Xia Hui was even colder.

But Gao Qiang grinned and said, "Hello, sister-in-law!"

Xia Hui, who hadn't been much inclined to pay him any attention, couldn't help frowning. "What did you call me?"