You Have Everything I Dislike

Because the two of us often traveled from Xiamen to Beijing, my roommate posed a curious question one day.

“Since you’ve got that much money saved up, why don’t you go somewhere else to travel? What’s the point of just going between Beijing and Xiamen when you can go visit scenic spots elsewhere? It’s almost the same thing, right?”

“You talk too much!” was all I said to her.

How could someone as smart and as beautiful as I was never once considered picking a place between the two cities to meet to save some on travel expenses?

Our purpose was not to travel around, however. It was so the third master and I could meet up in person, go somewhere to stay together for a while, and catch up on what had been going on with each other’s lives. 

For example, I would point to his dormitory and say, “I remember there being a stadium nearby on the map.” 

He would also invite his roommates out to eat, sing, and accompany us to the playground to play on their trampoline.

It feels great being able to get along with your partner’s circle of friends. It helped make me feel as if I was also more involved in his life.

During our fights, I would sometimes not pick up his phone calls. So, he would call my roommate instead and ask him to pass me a message asking for mercy or something of a similar fashion.

There were also times when in the middle of a phone conversation, his buddies would, all of a sudden, snatch the phone away from him just to greet me on the other line. 

“Sister Bu, we miss you so much,” they would say.

I went to Xiamen one winter to visit the third master. My exams were finished at the time, but the third master’s exams were still in progress. Because I informed my parents in advance, I stayed in Xiamen for two weeks, waiting on him so we could return home together during the holidays.

They would go back to the dorms after finishing their exams to eat and play cards and games together. I disliked staying in hotels, so I stayed in the third master’s dorm and squandered my time playing alone whenever they went out to take their exams. But as soon as they returned, we’d play Werewolf together.

We played in the open space by the parking lots, in their crowded dormitory, on the barbecue stall tables, and so on. This was to the point where every time I showed up in the third master’s dormitory, a crowd would form in less than ten minutes.

From then on, it was as if I carried with me my own BGM; its sound bouncing off the walls of the hallways in the form of: “Sister Bu is here! Let’s go play Werewolf! Let’s go play Werewolf!”

During the third master’s exam week, we stayed in a B&B hotel by the sea. The boss was a scrawny-looking man with a very good temper. 

Every day, whenever he saw us going in and out of our room, he would ask, “Is there enough toilet paper in the room? Do you need me to get you a refill?”

I’m guessing he probably used to be a toilet paper salesman before.

In the evening, when the third master was reviewing, I sat on the bed and watched TV. More specifically, the TV was playing “The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties” series. 

The third master could not help taking a couple of glances up at the TV after a while of doing test questions. I looked back to reassure him. 

Later, he ran into the bathroom with the practice book in his hands. 

Curiosity got the best of me, and I peeked inside. I saw him sitting on the small toilet seat. The book was on the toilet lid as he concentrated on reviewing. 

I was so touched by his spirit of learning that I went up and told him, “I’ll turn the TV off, and you can come out and study here instead.”

Once he heard that I was going to turn the TV off, he hurriedly yelled at me, “No! Don’t turn it off, don’t turn it off! It’s what’s been keeping going! I’m gonna get out and watch some TV once I’m done reviewing!” 

The vast sea behind the hotel was very quiet, quite different from the beach in Qingdao, where people often go swimming all year round. It was more like the type of scenery seen in TV dramas and films where the characters enjoy lovemaking and strolling on the beach with their shoes in hand. 

The third master and I would go for a stroll along the beach in the evening, picking up flat rocks and skipping them in the water.

One day, we were walking back to the hotel when out of the blue, we saw a gray, fluffy object moving slowly half a meter away from us. My sharp eyes immediately saw that it was a mouse. 

“Awh~” I could not help but say. 

As a result, the mouse stopped in its tracks. It turned around and looked at me face-to-face, remaining motionless. 

“Squeak!” It let out a noise of its own before skedaddling away.

The third master laughed out loud. 

“It said you scared it,” he said to me.

I have a million roaring emotions in my heart right now — it also scared the delicate flower-like me, okay?!

We also used to go review in the cafeteria. 

After eating one morning, we stayed sitting at a table. I was bored, so I peered down at the book he was reviewing and found that it was “Functions of Complex Variables,” which was the same textbook as ours. 

After noticing this, I found a blank piece of paper and started to jot down the key points and important exam questions while looking for examples from the book. My exams had just finished at the time, so my memory was quite fresh. I was able to write down roughly all the exam questions.

When he was about to start reading on a new topic, I showed him the outline I wrote while also giving him a detailed account of everything. After I was done speaking, the look in the third master’s eyes had completely changed.

He was like a mental patient with 800 personalities that finally saw a medicine that could cure them. 

“Baby, you’re so much better than our teacher!” he said to me, bright-eyed.

I was so proud of myself that I felt untouchable.

When our grades got out, I got more than an 80, but the third master’s exceeded 90…

Hehe, maybe their teacher’s hand slipped!

I was in a video call with the third master the night before. 

He had enthusiastically asked me to continue the video call with him last night. It was a good thing I remembered this before going to bed. 

I sent a video call request to say good night for a minute or two.

The second the call got connected, the third master was quick to exclaim, “Damn! How are you so beautiful today!”

I had not taken a shower that night. My hair was oily, my face was puffy from eating too much, and I could not even keep my eyes open at that point. I looked so sleep-deprived.  

“Are you trying to be sarcastic?” I asked.

The third master stared at me for a full thirty seconds before suddenly coming to a realization.

“Oh, I see! It’s because you’re not wearing anything!”

Once he said this, everyone in the dorm looked over to my bed…

But I had a quilt on me! It was just an arm showing! The quilt completely covered everything!

It feels like my image just collapsed in front of my roommates…