Chapter 89: Meeting on a Narrow Path
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
After breakfast, Zhao Guang drove Zhao Yanzi to school, and Zhao Hongyu drove her Ferrari to her office.
Hao Ren declined their friendly offers and decided to take the bus to school. For one, his school was not on the way, and he didn’t want Zhao Guang to detour; secondly, the Ferrari would attract too much attention, so he didn’t want to get a ride from Zhao Hongyu, either.
On the bus, he rolled up his sleeves and studied the bite marks on his arm. He recalled the look on Zhao Yanzi’s face when she finally freed her feet, jumped onto him, and showed her teeth while biting him frantically. Hao Ren found it aggravating and hilarious at the same time.
When Bus 767 stopped in front of the main entrance of the university, Hao Ren got off and headed towards the southern dormitory.
At this exact hour, most students who had morning classes were crawling out of bed. As a result, the entire dorm building was filled with clanking noises made by the clashing of toothbrushes and mugs.
As he was on his way to the Dorm Building No. 7 and just when he was about to turn at a corner, he heard Ma Lina and Liu Yan’s voices. Ma Lina and Liu Yan were in the same class as Hao Ren. In their conversation, Hao Ren seemed to hear them mentioning Xie Yujia.
He looked around and found Ma Lina and Liu Yan on the other side of the road. They were walking towards the south gate while talking amongst themselves; they did not notice Hao Ren.
Judging from the look of it, they planned to have an early breakfast, so they could get to class early and grab the seats they wanted.
After obtaining a breakthrough to the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll, Hao Ren’s hearing had become sharper than ever. As he focused, he was able to hear their conversation.
“Xie Yujia has been close with Hao Ren lately. I bet that is because she thinks he’s from an affluent family,” Liu Yan asserted as she walked alongside Ma Lina.
“That’s nonsense. Xie Yujia is my roommate, and I know all about her. I don’t think she is that kind of person. We used to stay up all night and chat. Even back then, she had often said that Hao Ren is a decent guy,” Ma Lina clarified.
“Oh, so Xie Yujia has always had a crush on Hao Ren?” Liu Yan became interested.
Ma Lina shook her head and replied, “Not really. She was only saying that he is a good guy. I don’t think she meant anything else besides that.”
“Tsk, doesn’t that prove what I just said?” Liu Yan curled her lips and continued, “She didn’t like him before, but now, she knows that Hao Ren’s family is rich, so she became close to him.”
“Again, I don’t think Xie Yujia is that kind of person,” Ma Lina continued to defend Xie Yujia, “Besides, didn’t Wang Jia and the others conclude that Hao Ren is only from an ordinary family after their investigation? The fancy cars that came to pick him up were all sent by the family of the pretty little girl whom he is tutoring. Wang Jia was the most excited when the Benz and the Lincoln showed up to pick up Hao Ren, and she kept saying that she was going to pursue him. Yet, after she found out that the cars did not belong to Hao Ren’s family, she cooled down instantly, didn’t she?”
After listening to their conversation, Hao Ren was able to have a glimpse of how he was seen in the girls’ eyes.
“That’s true,” Liu Yan nodded, “Knowing the kind of girl Wang Jia is and how she made no moves after she found out about Hao Ren’s real background, there is no reason for Xie Yujia to be oblivious to the fact that Hao Ren is from an ordinary family.”
“Right, and I think Xie Yujia is a good person. The only thing is that she studies too hard and takes things too seriously, but she is definitely not the superficial type like Wang Jia…”
As they were talking, they had walked away. Even with Hao Ren’s keen hearing, he could not make out what they were saying anymore.
“Xie Yujia is seen as superficial by some girls all because she has been close to me lately. Ay, people sure will talk…” Hao Ren thought quietly.
Looking at the time, Hao Ren realized that Xie Yujia might come out of the girls’ dormitory and ride her bike to class at any moment. Hence, he sped up and entered his dorm building at once; he was afraid to run into Xie Yujia here and now.
At this time, Zhao Jiayi and the other two were causing a commotion as they were freshening up by the sink in the public washroom; Hao Ren could hear their jeering from the staircase.
“These guys…” Hao Ren went into their dorm room, grabbed his toothbrush and mug, and got into the washroom.
“Holy sh*t! You just came in!? We were hoping we could play cards together with you yesterday!” Hao Ren’s appearance caused them to make an even bigger uproar.
“Be honest, what did you do this weekend? Since your face is glowing, I bet you were with some pretty girls!” with a towel on his shoulder, Zhou Liren walked over and wrapped his arm around Hao Ren’s neck.
Watching the noisy bunch fooling around, Hao Ren’s mood was instantly lightened.
“If I told you guys that I went for a tour of the Dragon Palace on the weekend, I don’t think you would believe me,” Hao Ren thought to himself.
After the four finished freshening up, they gathered their books and started walking down the stairs side by side.
When they got out of the dorm building, they found Xie Yujia, who was in a relaxed plaid shirt, waiting outside.
In her hands, there was an immaculately clean jacket; the one Hao Ren lent her on Friday.
“Thanks for the jacket on Friday. I’ve washed and dried it for you,” she candidly stated as she walked up and handed the jacket to Hao Ren.
“Uh, oh!” standing next to Hao Ren, Zhou Liren began jeering untactfully and had his mouth covered by Zhao Jiayi’s hand immediately.
However, it was enough for Xie Yujia to feel embarrassed. Blushed, she hopped onto her bike and paddled away.
“Xie Yujia is actually quite cute,” Cao Ronghua concluded as they watched Xie Yujia disappeared into afar.
Hao Ren was speechless as he held his jacket in hand. In truth, he had long forgotten about lending his jacket to Xie Yujia.
“Looks like you might have a chance, go for it!” Zhao Jiayi said as he subtly elbowed Hao Ren.
“She was just here to return a jacket, is it really worth making a big fuss about!?” Hao Ren gave the others a hard stare and crisply put the jacket on. “Come on, let’s go get food in the cafeteria!” he said.
“Ren, since you seem to be having amazing luck with the ladies, breakfast should be on you!” Zhou Liren shouted as he ran after Hao Ren.
“You bastard! All you ever think about is food! Fine, I will pay!” Hao Ren responded loudly.
After they finished eating, they went straight to class. At ten o’clock, their morning class ended, and they had two hours in between until their next class which was to start at 12.
The group was indecisive about how to spend their time. They were torn between going to the Internet Cafe or going back to the dorm to play cards. Since their lunchtime also needed to be taken into consideration, they found the two hours to be less than sufficient to travel back and forth.
“Apparently, the Rock Climbing Club is very popular among girls, and they are all wearing attractive sportswear. The Rock Climbing Club is recruiting today; I bet there will be a lot of beautiful girls joining, why don’t we go take a look?” Zhou Liren suggested on a whim.
“Rock climbing? Isn’t that Huang Xujie’s turf?” Zhao Jiayi said.
“What are you afraid of, Zhao Jiayi? Isn’t your family so powerful that even the players on the basketball team had to offer you compensation and apologies!? Let’s go take a look, Huang Xujie won’t dare to do anything to us,” Zhou Liren insisted.
Zhao Jiayi rolled his eyes at Zhou Liren’s remark. After he thought about it, he agreed, “Alright, let’s go check it out. Hopefully, it will be worth spending an hour there, so we can go for lunch by the time we come back. Ren, let’s go together!”
“Yeah, let’s go!” Hao Ren nodded.
“We are just going to take a look. Even if Huang Xujie is there in person, I don’t think he’ll cause a scene!” Hao Ren thought.
“Let’s not get Yu Rong and the others, just us four!” Zhou Liren said suggestively as if the more people he went with, the fewer glances he could steal from the pretty girls.
As they finally settled on a decision, the four grabbed their belongings and hurried towards the Sports Stadium.
When they arrived at the outdoor public square outside of the Sports Stadium, they found that there were already over 100 people swarming the area.
Moreover, Yu Rong and the others were also in the crowd. They were standing on tiptoes and craning their necks forward.
“Damn, they came to see pretty girls without telling us!” Zhou Liren exclaimed as he was irked by the sight of Yu Rong and the others.
Zhou Liren’s unabashed manner had made Hao Ren feel a loss for words.
Brushing Hao Ren with his elbow while curling his lips, Zhao Jiayi signaled Hao Ren to pay attention to the other side of the crowd.
As Hao Ren looked over to the hinted direction, He saw Xie Yujia, Ma Lina, and a few other girls in the crowd.
At this time, Cao Ronghua pointed in a different direction while poking Hao Ren.
Hao Ren turned and found that the strong-built giant-like Xie Wanjun was also among the crowd. His height, which was over two meters, had made him stand out like a towering monument in the flood of people.
Hao Ren felt a hint of contempt toward Xie Wanjun, who was usually extremely occupied, for showing up here. Hao Ren knew he was right about the fact that the basketball team and the Rock Climbing Club were birds of the same flock.
Now, Xie Yujia was glancing over at Hao Ren as she had also noticed his presence. Yet, when she saw that Hao Ren was staring straight at her older brother, her heart sank a little.
Seeing that more and more students had finished class and were rushing to join the crowd from all directions, Huang Xujie spoke through a bullhorn while standing next to the rock climbing wall, “Today is the recruitment day for the Rock Climbing Club. Our club is the biggest club at East Ocean University and currently consists of over 300 male members and 200 female members. Those who have joined our club are all sports lovers. The Rock Climbing Club not only provides indoor and outdoor training at the Sports Stadium but also sometimes organizes trips to the wild. In addition, the equipment that you purchase from us is guaranteed to be priced lower than those you will find in the sports shops out there…”
His voice was sonorous, and his tone was mild and gentle. Moreover, he was good-looking and confident. If one only knew him on the surface, they would surely take him as a polite, friendly, and poised senior student.
However, Hao Ren knew very well how proud and arrogant Huang Xujie was and how he lost his temper when he lost the race to Hao Ren.
Even though many uninformed junior students were tempted by the list of benefits the Rock Climbing Club had promised, none had hastily gone over to sign up.
“Haha, there is no rush. We will first showcase our Rock Climbing Club today,” Huang Xujie handed the bullhorn over to a skinny, dark-skinned male student next to him while giving him a look.
That guy held up the bullhorn and continued, “I am Lu Bo, the Assistant Captain of the Rock Climbing Club. Now, I will demonstrate to you some of the techniques required for rock climbing.”
Next, while holding the bullhorn, he began explaining and putting on the different types of gear needed for the climb. After, he moved to the bottom of the rock climbing wall and put down the bullhorn. He then raised the volume of his voice and used his limbs to demonstrate the proper climbing positions.
Many of the students who had no experience with rock climbing became intrigued and were paying attention closely.
However, Zhou Liren was becoming impatient, “Where are the pretty girls…” he murmured.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Suddenly, Huang Xujie clapped his hands.
Following his clapping, four beautiful girls who were wearing athletic gears came out from behind the rock climbing wall. Instantly, their elegant figures and charming faces had stunned and dazzled all the male students.
“Now, four of our members will take over and demonstrate the process of a climb to you, from start to finish,” Huang Xujie picked up the bullhorn once again.
As the beautiful girls appeared, everyone’s eyes had lit up. At this time, Hao Ren discovered that Lin Li, who was wearing athletic wear, had also joined the Rock Climbing Club.
“She joined, too… But that is no surprise. Since Lin Li is after Huang Xujie, it gives her more reasons to join the Rock Climbing Club that is run by Huang Xujie. Likewise, Huang Xujie needs to pull in as many beautiful girls as possible to help him attract other students; there is no reason for him to reject her application, either.” Hao Ren thought.
On the rock climbing wall, the four beautiful girls utilized all of their bodies. After their safety was ensured by their harnesses and ropes, they grasped onto the colorful rocks and began moving up.
Gradually, they had climbed up so high that the student audience had to stretch their necks considerably to see them.
“This is really nice…” admiring the display of the beautiful girls’ youthful postures, Zhou Liren let out sighs of satisfaction as he eyed every inch of their bodies
“Using beautiful girls as their marketing strategy, I wonder how many male students are going to fall for that…” Hao Ren pondered as he observed the agile and athletic beauties.
