Eat Less Fish in the Future - Chapter 3

 

Zheng Yimian placed the bottle of water in her hand on the table and opened the door, asking, “Is there anything else?”

Liang Yu looked down at her and said, “I just remembered that rooms that haven’t been lived in for a long time might have cobwebs. I came to help you clean them up.”

Not “you all,” but “you.”

Zheng Yimian opened the door and was about to speak when Liang Yu smiled again, “No need to thank me, it’s nothing.”

After entering the room, Liang Yu asked, “Do you have a broom?”

Zheng Yimian saw a broom in the corner. It was new. She asked her roommate Li Min, “Did you buy this?”

Li Min nodded, “Yes, I just bought it. You can use it.”

Zheng Yimian handed the broom over.

Liang Yu quickly started using the broom to clean the cobwebs in the corners.

While Liang Yu was cleaning, Li Min mouthed to Zheng Yimian, “Is he your boyfriend?”

Zheng Yimian shook her head, of course, “No.”

Li Min continued mouthing, “Is he pursuing you?”

Zheng Yimian pointed at his armband and said, “He’s a volunteer.”

Li Min grinned mischievously and made a teasing OK gesture.

Then Li Min continued mouthing to Zheng Yimian, “He’s kind of handsome.”

Zheng Yimian glanced at Liang Yu.

He was cleaning the cobwebs, and she could barely catch a glimpse of his profile. Because he was concentrating, his brows were slightly furrowed, and his bangs hung softly on his forehead.

His high brow bone and bridge of the nose made him look like the male protagonists she often drew in her comics.

Indeed, back in high school, quite a few girls were infatuated with his looks. He didn’t like attending classes, but whenever he came to school, girls would lean on the corridor railings during breaks to steal glances at him.

A few times when he played basketball, the girls who gathered to cheer formed a beautiful sight to behold.

Although she hadn’t met him before that embarrassing incident, she had heard quite a bit about his exploits.

As she was reminiscing, Liang Yu had already finished cleaning and was preparing to leave.

He carefully surveyed the room one last time, paying extra attention to Zheng Yimian’s area. After making sure there were no problems, he prepared to leave.

Just as he took a step out of the room, he remembered something and turned back, pointing at the object in Zheng Yimian’s hand.

Zheng Yimian: “Huh?”

He said concisely, “My water is still in your hand.”

Zheng Yimian then handed over the water, smiling awkwardly.

Liang Yu held the mineral water bottle cap with his fingers, pressed his lips together, and before closing the door, he still said to her, “See you tomorrow.”

Zheng Yimian waved her hand, “See you tomorrow!”

The door closed.

Liang Yu looked at the mineral water bottle in his hand.

Because it was cold water, holding it would leave marks, but those marks weren’t very obvious, their edges blurred by falling water droplets.

He had never held the bottle body from beginning to end.

So the handprints on it were hers.

He smiled, inexplicably recalling what she had just said to him — “It seems you’ve helped many people.”

There were no others, I only helped you.

Liang Yu returned to the reporting area with that bottle of water. As soon as he stepped in, Zhao Yuan sprang up from the table, “Water! I want to drink water!”

Zhao Yuan was about to reach for the bottle, when his hand accidentally touched the body of the bottle slightly. Liang Yu immediately sharpened his gaze and moved the water bottle away.

“Buy your own if you want to drink.”

Zhao Yuan felt wronged, “You took my armband too, and I helped you wait for sister-in-law, yet you won’t even let me have a sip of water! I hate this!”

Someone couldn’t stand it anymore and patted Zhao Yuan, “Can’t you see it’s so hot, and he hasn’t even opened the water to drink? Don’t you have any awareness?”

Zhao Yuan immediately understood, but still pointed at Liang Yu, “Sister-in-law just bought you a bottle of water and you’re treating it like a treasure. Oh, are those fingerprints on the bottle hers? Are you going to keep it as a specimen or what?”

Liang Yu glanced at him, “Have you ever seen someone make a specimen like this?”

Zhao Yuan was already used to his cold words. Although his momentum weakened a bit, he still retorted while holding his neck, “If you want to, what can’t you do?”

Liang Yu took off the armband on his hand, his eyelids half-closed. Just the time it took to remove the armband, he was already a bit impatient.

After finally getting the thing off, he threw the armband into Zhao Yuan’s hands and said lazily, “I’m going back to the dorm first. I’ll treat everyone to dinner tonight.”

A newly enrolled student who had registered saw Liang Yu leaving casually and couldn’t help but comment, “Isn’t he a volunteer?”

They had originally wanted to ask him to show them around the school…

“No, he’s not,” Zhao Yuan threw the armband to someone beside him. “Well, to put it this way – in front of others, he’s the boss; but in front of a certain person, he’s an attentive volunteer.”

“See, he even borrowed the volunteer armband just to find an opportunity to help someone move their things – because there’s a lot of stuff at the start of the semester, and he’s worried they might get tired.”

After saying this, he sneered, “Huh, double standards!”

After finally finishing all the reporting matters for the new students, Zhao Yuan clapped his hands, “Thank you all for your cooperation today. Brother Yu is treating everyone to dinner, let’s take the car there.”

After a satisfying dinner, the car took everyone back to the student apartments.

While going up the stairs, Zhao Yuan confidently asked Liang Yu, “Military training tomorrow, are we skipping?”

— Not “are we going,” but “are we skipping?”

Liang Yu replied without any hesitation, “Not skipping.”

Zhao Yuan: “…?”

Liang Yu: “I told her I’d see her tomorrow.”

Zhao Yuan let out an exaggerated cry, even startling the lights to flicker, “Damn, you’re putting so much effort into her. Secretly liking someone for three years without expecting anything in return, even applying to the same university, and now you’re really going to reform…”

After knowing him for so many years, this was the first time he had seen this.

Liang Yu smiled casually, thinking of Zheng Yimian, and hooked his finger on the seam of his pants.

As long as he could see her, it didn’t matter if it was reformation or degeneration.

Who’s afraid?

Meanwhile, after an afternoon of communication and interaction, the four people in Zheng Yimian’s dorm had pretty much gotten familiar with each other.

She had just finished her shower and was sitting down on the chair when she heard the third roommate say, “I heard you were helped by a volunteer today? You’re so lucky, I didn’t even meet one.”

Zheng Yimian was patting on some water while replying, “Maybe they got tired from helping too many people and went to rest.”

“But I heard there was a quite good-looking volunteer, though people say he only helped one person.”

Li Min said, “That might be the one who helped Mianmian.”

Zheng Yimian was stunned, and her right hand accidentally squeezed out too much lotion.

She thought of Liang Yu again.

The third roommate said, “Maybe this is what they call fate.”

Zheng Yimian looked at herself in the mirror, her mouth corners slightly drooping, and said listlessly, “No, it’s an ill-fated relationship.”

Throughout Zheng Yimian’s student life, thanks to her looks and grades, she had always had good luck with romance.

However, those pursuers were always very high-profile, wanting everyone to know about their pursuit. During long breaks between classes, they would squeeze through the bustling crowd, and amidst everyone’s cheers and gossipy glances, present her with an exquisitely packaged gift box.

Although she wouldn’t accept them anyway.

…

But, at some point, a strange, secretly ongoing emotional thread appeared in her world.

On Christmas Eve, an apple would appear in her drawer; forgotten notebooks would be returned with her name already written; in summer, a cup of iced mung bean soup would be left on her desk; in winter, hand warmers would be placed on her seat; after busy sports meets, she’d return to find a meal perfectly suited to her taste at her seat – even knowing to remove the egg yolk and leave only the white.

These things seemed to be done by one person, but she had no idea who this person was, or how they could understand her so thoroughly.

Until that one time–

Zheng Yimian remembered every detail of that incident clearly, probably unforgettable for a lifetime –

That time, a certain rejected suitor had rallied once again, following her from the art room to the classroom, even showing signs of getting physical.

She had just finished getting her things from the classroom and was at a loss for what to do when suddenly, a large bucket of water poured down from above, completely soaking the guy leaning on the railing.

The drenched guy leaned out and looked up, angrily shouting, “Who poured that water?!”

At that time, she couldn’t see what was happening upstairs, but she heard several male voices speaking in turn.

First, a slightly sharp voice. “Sorry, we just finished washing the curtains in our classroom, the drain was clogged, so we just poured it out randomly. We didn’t know you were standing down there!”

The soaked guy sniffed his hand and got even angrier. “You poured curtain-washing water on me?!”

Then, another male voice from upstairs rang out, carrying a hint of cold authority. “We already said it was an accident, why are you shouting?”

The soaked guy initially looked determined not to let it go, but after looking up and seeing whoever it was, his momentum immediately deflated. “In school, you shouldn’t be doing things like this!”

That male voice, tinged with laughter, surprisingly carried a fearless, roguish air.

“You don’t belong to this class either, what are you doing standing here?”

The sharp-voiced guy chimed in. “How about it, big brother? You still want to stand there? We might have to—”

The soaked guy stomped his foot, suddenly cowering like a wilted vegetable leaf. “Fine, I won’t stay here, okay?”

The person upstairs spoke casually. “In the future, don’t go to places you shouldn’t be.”

The soaked guy was so scared his lower lip was trembling. He let out an angry “hmph” and left in a huff.

Zheng Yimian felt something was off. She ran back to the art room to find her “know-it-all” friend, urgently pulling them to stand on the playground, looking up at her class’s floor while muttering, “I think I know who’s been leaving things for me. Quick, help me see who’s standing at that classroom door?”

—Who was it?

Liang Yu.

That year, Liang Yu hadn’t yet shed his troublemaker label. He walked with an air about him, and almost no one in the school could control him. He was like the most eye-catching rich kid of the student days. Wherever he stood, there would be girls discussing and staring, even teachers were at a loss.

So, Zheng Yimian was mercilessly mocked by her friend with a series of breathless “hahahahaha”s.

“I could understand if you said it was anyone else, but you’re telling me he has a secret crush on you? Liang Yu has a crush on you? Liang Yu, who has a line of admirers behind him, has a crush on you? Aren’t you just bullshitting? Isn’t this like saying Liu Yifei has a crush on me?!”

“If you told me Liang Yu liked anyone, I wouldn’t believe it. But now you’re telling me he has a secret crush – a secret crush, big brother – Liang Yu, the unruly boss Liang, has a crush on you?!”

“Hahahahaha, did you not wake up properly from your nap? Are you still fucking dreaming? Hahaha, I could laugh about this for a year.”

The mischievous friend boldly declared, “If Liang Yu has a crush on you, I’ll livestream myself being cooked in an iron pot.”

Because of this incident, she was laughed at for a full two years.

In her friend’s eyes, this was just an embarrassing history of her being presumptuous.

Thinking of this, she pinched her brow, applied the last layer of essence to her face, and went to bed.

The next day, they had to get up at 6:30 AM, as military training required assembly by 7:30 AM.

The hellish W University was already starting to feel hot by 6 AM.

Li Min, not being a local, felt despair at this scene. “Why is the sun so terrible at 7 AM?”

Zheng Yimian patted her back sympathetically. “The more desperate part is still to come at noon.”

During military training, men and women were trained separately. The instructor training them was a company commander. Although he was a bit gentler with the girls, he was still very strict.

“From today on, I’ll be responsible for you. You can call me Instructor or Company Commander, understood?”

“Un–der–stood–“

“Did you eat breakfast? I’ll ask again, did you understand?”

“Understood!”

After barely enduring for a few hours, just as class was about to end, Zheng Yimian felt the back of her neck burning from the sun.

Suddenly, she heard a command.

“Quick march!”

Turning her head to look, a group of boys marching in fairly neat steps was approaching them.

The two company commanders exchanged smiles, clearly intending to stir things up.

As the boys got closer, Zheng Yimian finally noticed something odd…

Liang Yu, Liang Yu was in this class, at the front.

This is bad.