Chapter 2.4 — “Guan guan!” Cry the Ospreys, On an Islet in the River (4)
Can’t shove it back down …
Shove my *ss!
If you can’t shove it, then don’t shove!
What man would forcefully shove his thang back down? Wait, no, she wasn’t a man …
He Zhi Zhou’s heart felt as if there were ten thousand horses stampeding wildly inside, trampling through as the wind let out piercing whistles. However, his face still remained collected and unperturbed, except that beneath his long eyelashes, misery had filled those eyes.
Gripping his mobile phone, he typed his reply one word at a time: You can ignore it.
Ignore it … Shen Xi laid on her bed, those fine, dark eyes blinking once before she typed: Ignore? But then how do I put on my pants?
Serious. It was bulging so much. How was she going to stuff it into her pants?
How to put on her pants? Staring at that question mark on the screen of his phone, He Zhi Zhou finally lost it. His hand clenched into a fish and he slammed it hard into his bed board. Then, he lifted his covers and got off the bed.
He Zhi Zhou’s action of punching the bed still carried the vigor of a man, and hence, the noise it created was rather loud. In an instant, it woke up Xia Wei Ye, who gave the bed a hard kick and grumbled, “It’s early morning. How are people supposed to sleep?” And then she rolled over in bed.
He Zhi Zhou did not say anything and went directly into the bathroom to wash up. When he was done, it was time to change. Rubbing his temples, he stood leaning against the wal, for quite some time before opening Shen Xi’s wardrobe. Summer clothing was already hanging inside, and there were all sorts of styles and textures: lace, chiffon, sik, modal …
The colours mostly consisted of pink, yellow, smoky gray, and soft green …
He Zhi Zhou could not bring himself to move his hand and make a choice. During the entire process, his temple was pounding away with a “thump, thump, thump.” At the very bottom of the wardrobe was a small box. Opening it, those long, slender fingers trembled slightly and his palms grew hot.
The colours of the items inside that little box were even more complete. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple. These were all Shen Xi’s most private little things … He Zhi Zhou closed his eyes. He must have committed some unforgiveable act in his previous life so that now, he had to deal with such an evil brought upon him.
After hunting through the entire wardrobe, He Zhi Zhou finally found a tracksuit. He spent more than half an hour inside the washroom before he managed to successfully get himself changed. When he stepped back out, there was an abnormal red colour to his cheeks.
He was a man already in his early twenties, and his eyes had already witnessed many women’s bodies found on Brawny’s hard drive. Besides all sorts of body shapes, slender or plump, there had also been examples of different skin colours. However, he had never expected that he would ever use this method now to look at a woman’s body and to feel this body’s softness and delicateness.
As a man, he was probably than only one to ever do a dastardly deed like this as if it was right and proper. He Zhi Zhou took a deep breath, then shoved aside all the distracting thoughts
In the girl’s dormitory, Chen Han, Xia Wei Ye, and Dou Dou were all getting out of bed one after another.
After He Zhi Zhou finished changing, he sat beside his desk and began organizing his schedule. Then he went online and began searching the profiles of the instructors for all of Shen Xi’s classes. He needed to draw up a detailed plan and timetable.
In addition, he contemplated that he needed to somehow get a doctor’s note. If Shen Xi’s field of study had been commerce or something along those lines, he would have had no problems dealing with it. But dance …
He Zhi Zhou massaged his forehead. He laid out a schedule for himself, then wrote up for Shen Xi a copy of what would have been his timetable, including jotting down some things, regardless of how big or trivial they were, that she should be aware of. Over these last two days, he had completely come to understand one thing: he had only himself to rely on for everything.
After being rudely awakened so early in the morning, Xia Wei Ye had put on a surly face since rising from bed. However, seeing that the perpetrator looked not the least bit apologetic, her temper flared even more. “Shen Xi, when you get up, can you be more considerate of other people? Did your mother ever teach you that?”
Before the sound of her words had finished echoing out, He Zhi Zhou swept his gaze over to her. Xie Wei Ye was suddenly intimidated by his icy stare and did not continue with her rant.
He Zhi Zhou’s eyes looked over the entire dormitory room before he said to Dou Dou, “I have some things to take care of today and won’t be able to make it to class. Could you help me ask for the day off?”
Dou Dou had a hesitant expression on her face. “But A’Xi, it’s hard to get approval to get time off from Teacher Wen’s class. Plus, you’re her favourite so she’ll be looking for you for sure.”
“Alright, I understand.”
He Zhi Zhou did not want to stay any longer in the girls’ dormitory. Putting his mobile phone and money into his pocket, he was about to step outside, but when he reached the door, Dou Dou shouted to him, “A’Xi, you forgot to bring your bag.”
“No need,” He Zhi Zhou rejected.
“What’s she so smug about? So what? It’s just a boyfriend that she has.” After “Shen Xi” left, Xia Wei Ye turned her lips up in a scowl and complained. “And anyway, she’s just running after Lin Yu Tang everyday.”
Chen Han grinned and looked at Xia Wei Ye. “So you should hurry and catch He Zhi Zhou and make him yours. That way, our dorm will have captured the two best men in S University’s engineering and technologies faculty.”
Xia Wei Ye’s lips pursed together in a smile and then she waved her mobile phone in Chen Han’s direction, saying happily, “Let me tell you, last night, He Zhi Zhou replied to my text!”
“Wah! Really? Hurry, let me see!”
With such explosive news, Chen Han and Dou Dou both moved in closer. Xia Wei Ye had deliberately saved the previous night’s message, and she pulled it up to show Chen Han. Her phone did truly have a text message sent over from He Zhi Zhou’s mobile phone number: Good night.
Last night, Shen Xi had indeed replied to Xia Wei Ye’s text message, but she had not purposely wanted to reply. Since she had gotten He Zhi Zhou’s mobile phone, she had received more than a dozen messages from Xia Wei Ye, and even when she wanted to sleep, she could get no peace from the phone. So, she had sent off a good night to Xia Wei Ye.
The meaning of that was, “Just go to sleep!”
An early-rising Shen Xi was also rummaging through He Zhi Zhou’s wardrobe, but sadly, inside consisted almost only of clothing in the three colours, black, white and gray. With dislike, she made do by pulling out a slightly more fashionable-looking polo shirt and pairing it with a simple pair of jeans.
But it still was a little boring and uncool. Bending over at the waist, she rolled up the legs of the jeans to her ankles. Immediately, they became an extremely stylish pair of ankle pants and brought about frequent glances from her male roommates.
Brawny could not hold back his sighs. “Leader, are you heading along the direction of trying to force all the males in S University to commit suicide?”
“It looks okay.” Shen Xi faced the mirror and took in her reflection, carefully studying it. It was still the same face, but previously, He Zhi Zhou had only seemed “averagely handsome” to her. Why was it that, now that she had control, he had suddenly become a “high standard” type of handsome?
Most likely, this should be because it came from the inner character and qualities …
When Shen Xi stepped out of the washroom, she received a text message from He Zhi Zhou. The content of the message was reminding her what her class timetable was today and was written very clearly so that it was easy to understand. Comparing it to what she had written, she discovered that the schedule she had jotted down the previous day was completely wrong.
But she had copied Monkey’s. Why would it be wrong?
Yesterday, Monkey had happened to see Shen Xi copying down his class timetable. Monkey had also been bewildered for a long time. Why was Leader copying down his schedule for all the classes he had failed? …
Dorm room 921 of S University had two star students living in it as well as two who were the bottom of the class. Early in the morning, Brawny and Monkey went together to attend class, and Lin Yu Tang was also heading out the door. Shen Xi sat on the edge of the bed, sipping milk as she asked him, “Hey Third, I thought you didn’t have class?”
Lin Yu Tang looked listless. “I’m going to the library.” There was a reason behind Lin Yu Tang’s bad mood. When he got up this morning, he had sent Shen Xi a text message, but alas, he had not received a reply yet, and his mood had grown dim along with the screen of his mobile phone.
Lin Yu Tang also left, so in the entire dormitory room, only Shen Xi remained. She did not have any classes during the first two periods of the morning and only had one in the third period. Flipping through the books from the specialized courses for He Zhi Zhou’s faculty, she decided that she should cram and learn a bit about them.
But then, she skim read them and discovered that she did not even understand the name of those specialized courses. So, she could only give up.
He Zhi Zhou felt that, after switching bodies with Shen Xi, even his luck had turned sour.
Every morning, the Department of Dance had a training class for dance basics. He had planned on skipping the class but had the bad luck of being caught by Teacher Wen and getting dragged to the dance studio.
Arriving at the dance studio, He Zhi Zhou was dazzled by the glass that surrounded him in that practice room until his head also felt dizzy. The girls inside were doing backbends, splits, and leg stretches.
For the first time, He Zhi Zhou experienced the feeling of wanting to back out of something. He went to the bathroom and called Shen Xi. Just as the phone call ended, Shen Xi’s classmate shouted at him to go back in again.
“Teacher Wen wants you to go over. We’re doing a group training. Hurry up.”
He Zhi Zhou closed his eyes and pressed his lips tightly together, despair rising up from the bottom of his heart, like a gushing flow moving against the current until it became a river.
In the change room, he donned his dance shoes before stepping back out. Outside, the girls were already standing in a row, heads raised and chests lifted high. With a deadpan face, he walked over to the furthest corner. Sorry, but he just could not make himself stick up his chest.
There were sixteen girls in total, and He Zhi Zhou was the last one. Following Teacher Wen’s command, in succession, they were to do low kicks. This was not a difficult move, and he could handle it.
Next, it was high kicks. Since he was a child, He Zhi Zhou’s ability to learn things was strong, and he could passably handle this move, too. However, he was called out by Teacher Wen and criticized for not focusing in his efforts. Oh, God knew how he had used up all his dignity and pride just to do that move.
Then, it was single tour en l’air [360 degree turn executed in the air]. He Zhi Zhou felt he truly needed to leave. With a sullen look, he watched the girls in front of him complete their 360 degree turns in midair. One, two, three, four … And then it was number fifteen.
Number fifteen successfully completed hers.
It was his turn! Many people turned to look at him.
Why did everyone look at “Shen Xi”? Because Shen Xi’s tour en l’air was the best in the class, and everyone wanted to learn from the main aspects of her movements.
He Zhi Zhou’s brow was furrowed tightly, but he remained there, standing still.
Teacher Wen reminded, “Shen Xi, begin now.”
He Zhi Zhou took a deep breath. A dead pig has no fear of being scalded by boiling water [situation is bad enough that it can’t get any worse, no matter what happens]. He would leave now and just forget it. Right as he was about to lift his foot up and stride away, the dance studio’s door was suddenly pushed open. The real Shen Xi had come.
Shen Xi was gasping for air, having rushed over here to rescue the situation. Glancing at the familiar faces of her classmates inside the room as well as He Zhi Zhou, she beamed and walked over until she was in front of Teacher Wen. “Teacher Wen, hello, hello …”
Teacher Wen stuck out her hand awkwardly. “Student, hello. You are …?”
Shen Xi introduced herself. “He Zhi Zhou of S University.”
He Zhi Zhou!
The hearts of the girls inside the dance studio all gave a little quiver, especially Xia Wei Ye, who had already stepped up to “He Zhi Zhou” and greeted “him” as if they were very familiar with each other.
Teacher Wen had heard of the great name of He Zhi Zhou and his reputation before, and the smile on her face was amicable. “Student He, you are here because …?”
Shen Xi pointed her finger at He Zhi Zhou. “Um … Shen Xi, your mother’s here …”
When He Zhi Zhou had taken off his dance shoes and walked out of the studio, Shen Xi followed after him. Her conscience was guilty, so the whole time from behind him, she tried to pacify him. He Zhi Zhou did not say anything until they had walked down the stairs, and then, his first words to her were, “Can you roll those pants back down?”
Shen Xi glanced down at her self-made ankle pants. “It’s no good?”
“Extremely no good.” He Zhi Zhou’s eyes were staring straight ahead of him. Even a single glance at her was painful.
Hastily, Shen Xi crouched down and rolled the legs of her jeans back down.
The two of them found a quiet place. At this time of day, everyone was basically in class so the quietest place was the school’s Lover’s Slope. Up on that hill, Shen Xi and He Zhi Zhou began discussing and strategically planning certain matters.
Handsome guys and pretty girls were always eye-catching and always drew attention. People passing by would continually turn their heads and stare nonstop at them.
Time seemed to quickly jump ahead until it was past ten o’clock already. He Zhi Zhou escorted Shen Xi back to S University for her to attend the third period class: Semiconductor Physics. Looking at him, Shen Xi kindly suggested, “You really don’t want to go and sit in on the class? If you feel awkward, you can sit next to me.”
He Zhi Zhou suddenly gave a cool laugh, and his lips twitched into a sneer as he said, “If it is not absolutely necessary, I don’t want people to think that I’m stealing my friend’s girlfriend.”
Hmph!
“If it is not absolutely necessary, I don’t want Tang Tang to think that I’m cheating on him.” Hugging the textbook for that specialized course, Shen Xi ran to the teaching building.
Outside of the classroom, Shen Xi peered around. Seeing Lin Yu Tang, she happily went in and sat down beside him. After greeting him, she pulled out a mandarin orange from her pocket and held it out to him. “Want to have some?”
Lin Yu Tang turned down her offer.
Feeling bored, Shen Xi flipped open her book. Written on the first page was the name, “He Zhi Zhou.” The writing was slender but exuded strength, carrying a sense of purity and refinement. Shen Xi thought of one line: “’Guan, guan!’ cry the ospreys, on an islet in the river.”
While class was in progress, she laid her head down on top of her desk and stared at Lin Yu Tang, asking him, “Yu Tang, you understand all this?”
Lin Yu Tang called up his patience and replied, “You’re funny. Don’t tell me you don’t understand it.”
Shen Xi turned her head to face the other side. “I … just find it too boring.”
But the next second, something not boring at all happened.
Up on the podium, Professor Wang had stated a problem, but not a single one of the three students he had consecutively selected could provide the correct answer. This disappointed professor did not want to keep trying anymore and called directly upon He Zhi Zhou to answer his problem. In other words, he was basically announcing the answer indirectly this way.
“Zhi Zhou, why don’t you talk a little bit about this problem?”
He Zhi Zhou’s name had been called, so Shen Xi rose to her feet. Her brain, which had been thick with drowsiness, instantly cleared. She stared at the problem up on the Powerpoint presentation. She didn’t even know a single one of those symbols!
Shen Xi opened her mouth, but no matter how her brain whirred, it was no use.
When all the students in the class saw that the god of studies, “He Zhi Zhou” had opened his mouth to speak, they immediately picked up their pens, planning on jotting down notes as they listened to his reasoning.
Shen Xi’s eyes flitted back and forth. She was about to say that she did not know the answer, but seeing Professor Wang’s expectant and kindly gaze, she did not have the heart to. Clearing her throat, she told Professor Wang, “Lin Yu Tang and I discussed this problem, and our thoughts are in agreement. Just now, Lin Yu Tang told me that he really wants to stand up and give the answer, so Teacher, could you let him do it? …”
No teacher would ever refuse a student who wanted of his own accord to answer a question, and rejoicingly, Professor Wang looked toward Lin Yu Tang. “Lin Yu Tang, you do it!”
关关雎鸠，在河之洲 “guan guan ju jiu, zai he zhi zhou.” The first line of the famous ancient poem, 关雎 “‘Guan!’ Cry the Ospreys” found in The Book of Poetry. The last three characters, meaning “islet in the river”, of this line are homophonic with 何之洲 He Zhi Zhou’s name. In fact, the only difference is his surname is not the same “He” as the poem. (Translation modified from this )
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