Chapter 652: Chapter 1: Wan Chu’er vs. Jiang Kechu
Two and a half months after the college entrance exams, in a booth at Heavenly World, sat three boys and two girls—a group of adolescents.
The three boys flaunted exaggerated hairstyles—one with yellow hair, one with green, and another with purple. They were hollering as they played drinking games. A girl with similarly dyed yellow hair leaned against the shoulder of the boy with purple hair, egging him on while cozying up to him.
Because of them, the booth was in a lively uproar.
Yet, amidst this chaos, an extremely out-of-place, silent girl nestled herself.
In the innermost corner of the booth, Chuchu sat hugging her knees, with a large hood from her jacket covering her head, leaning against the edge between the booth sofa and the wall, looking bewildered and somewhat lonely, speechless, merging with the dim lights.
Her state was extremely jarring in this noisy nightclub, yet somehow perfectly aligned with it.
The yellow-haired girl, after passionately kissing the purple-haired boy in the commotion stirred by Yellow Hair and Green Head, turned around and noticed Chuchu’s utterly lifeless expression and mocked:
"Hey, look at Xiao Chu over there, it’s like she’s heartsick."
Green Head laughed and said: "Isn’t she just heartsick? Xiao Chu’s good student buddy went off to college and abandoned her."
The yellow-haired boy cheered: "What’s the big deal? If Xiao Chu wants, I can be her boyfriend right away."
"Give it a rest, you, with your buck teeth—how do you match up to Xiao Chu?" The yellow-haired girl immediately retorted.
The yellow-haired boy countered: "What’s wrong with my buck teeth? You once wrote me love letters, if I hadn’t turned you down, there’d be no Purple Feather business now."
Purple Feather wasn’t annoyed, instead said: "Your previous girl even tried to hit on me; looks like Huang Ya has come to her senses, thinking I’m better than you. Anyway, I’m just better than you."
...
Chaotic boys and girls, chaotic relationships, chaotic nightclub...
Chaotic emotions!
Chuchu sighed, stood up, and scolded, "Shut up!"
Green Head chuckled: "Xiao Chu, how can this place not be noisy? I say just play along—no need to keep this up every day; we’re out to have fun, so let’s have a blast, as they say: seize the day, drink till you’re drunk, worry about tomorrow when it comes."
Chuchu rolled her eyes and said disdainfully, "Get lost, I’m going outside for some air."
The yellow-haired boy, Green Head, and the rest thought she was stepping out for a smoke—Heavenly World’s only issue was its no-smoking policy inside, supposedly set by their Manager Xiao Bai, whose name suggested a sissy, forbidding indoor smoking.
Purple Feather nudged his female companion to accompany Chuchu, but the yellow-haired girl shook her light chest flirtatiously and said, "No way, it’s so cold outside, I want to keep you company."
The yellow-haired boy then gallantly chuckled: "Xiao Chu, I’ll join you."
Chuchu yelled irritably, "Can’t I have a moment alone!" With that, she stormed out without looking back, ignoring the mocking laughter behind her.
She increasingly felt these people were so superficial, unbearably vulgar, exceedingly irritating, and she was one among them, which she resented about herself.
This feeling grew stronger day by day; since Zhuo Yao left for college, there was no one speaking admiringly in soft tones about how she could mingle with society, enjoy herself at nightclubs, envied how societal figures pursued her.
What Zhuo Yao envied increasingly irritated her.
She didn’t know what was the point of mingling with these people day after day, didn’t know what her tomorrow would look like, didn’t know where lies life’s meaning...
Actually, a voice deep inside her grew louder: she also wanted to go to college, she wanted to go see outside.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t gotten into college, and Zhuo Yao said this place was their most beautiful memory together, this was their hometown, she would reminisce about it while at Wutong, so she hoped she would remain at Wutong, guarding it for her.
Guarding Wutong?
Chuchu took a deep drag of her cigarette, but cold air mixed with smoke hit her throat, making her cough violently.
"Cough cough... cough cough..."
As she coughed until tears welled in her eyes, the cheap cigarette between her fingers was snatched away by someone. She swallowed her coughs and looked up, seeing a man playfully holding her cigarette, looking at it disdainfully.
"Tsk tsk tsk, kids these days are so pitiful, smoking this stuff, wasting their precious time, how sad, how pathetic!"
