Chapter 37: 037 Ranked Match In The Dormitory
Wang Heng’s dormitory was on the fourth floor, room 414.
Fu Hanwen, Wang Ke, and Tang Hexing climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, still somewhat dazed even when they opened the door and entered the dormitory.
They sat down at their respective desks, habitually turned on their computers, but gradually realized… for some reason, this game suddenly wasn’t fun anymore.
Fu Hanwen canceled the ranked match, wandered behind Wang Heng, and sneakily glanced over, instantly feeling blinded.
“What’s this… Unity3D?” Fu Hanwen was shocked. “School hasn’t even started yet, and you’re already studying textbooks?”
Hearing this, Wang Ke and Tang Hexing both crowded over.
Wang Heng turned back to look at his three roommates and explained, “It’s normal. You all know I’m about to go work for someone and need knowledge in this area.”
Fu Hanwen: “You’re about to go work, and you’re cramming now? It’s too late, right?”
Wang Heng: “No problem. I’ve seen a bit of this knowledge before; now I’m just picking it back up.”
“Seen a bit before…” Fu Hanwen’s mouth twitched twice.
Wang Ke couldn’t help but be curious: “By the way, why did they pick you? Do you know someone at Penguin Company?”
“Sort of. During summer vacation, I already did some work for them, wrote a bit of code, and earned a little money. Probably because they think finding people on outsourcing platforms isn’t reliable, so they want me to come work again.”
Wang Heng spoke casually, leaving his roommates exchanging glances.
As someone with a mental age approaching thirty, he naturally knew this seemed like showing off, but while climbing the stairs, he had thought it through: rather than forcibly playing dumb to eat the tiger, it was better to establish a persona from the start in the eyes of those around him, letting others know he had coding skills far beyond a first year university student—a strategy that killed three birds with one stone.
On one hand, this would give him greater freedom at school and be more advantageous when seizing certain opportunities; on the other hand, he could use the image of a nerd who only knows code and not romance to refuse potential peach blossom tribulations; of course, there was also the fact that showing off like this was pretty satisfying…
Tang Hexing picked up the newly issued C language textbook from school, flipped through a few pages, pointed to a line, and raised a question:
“Can you explain why this line has to be written here?”
Wang Heng glanced at it and casually explained, “Oh, this is a preprocessing directive. Simply put, it’s declaring in the C system to insert code from other files. You can break it down: #include is the command, and what’s after is the filename required by the command. This file is a header file, the standard input-output function library…”
Tang Hexing’s mouth opened slightly, and as he listened, he suddenly had a feeling of enlightenment.
Meanwhile, Wang Ke and Fu Hanwen were completely confused, unable to understand what these two were discussing, and could only look at the textbook cover in Tang Hexing’s hand to guess it was something from C language.
After a while, Wang Heng finished explaining, and Tang Hexing silently retreated to the side holding the textbook.
Fu Hanwen asked again, “Big Brother, did you get in through Gaokao?”
Wang Heng nodded.
Fu Hanwen was almost doubting his life: “That doesn’t make sense! Gaokao is so exhausting; just the Chinese, Math, English, and comprehensive science stuff is brain-draining enough. And you still self-taught programming?”
Wang Heng said calmly, “For me, it’s not really self-teaching. I just did it out of interest, playing around with code.”
Fu Hanwen and Wang Ke exchanged a glance, seeing similar complex feelings in each other’s eyes.
Wang Ke sighed, “Big Brother, you’re really… awesome!”
Wang Heng chuckled, turned back, and continued reading.
Obviously, there was no need to say more; the geek persona was initially established.
He planned to keep reading, but heard a text message notification on his mobile phone. He opened it and saw a new message from Pei Ningle:
【Found work! Want to come listen to me sing tonight?】
No need to guess; it was probably another short-term job like resident singer at a bar—Wang Heng wanted to refuse directly, but halfway through typing the message, the girl called him.
He answered the call and heard the young girl’s full of energy voice:
“I talked to the bar boss; I’ll go try tonight. If it works, they’ll give me some money on the spot, and then there’ll be work every evening!”
“Work every evening…” Wang Heng couldn’t help but complain, “Don’t you think that phrasing is a bit ambiguous?”
“What ambiguity?” The young girl was stunned for a moment, then reacted, “Oh, you mean that? Tsk tsk, your mind is so dirty!”
Wang Heng: “Don’t talk about my dirty mind first. The place you’re going to has a complex environment. Even if you assume the worst intentions toward others, you still might not guess their bottom line.”
Pei Ningle: “What do you mean? Are there that many bad people in bars?”
Wang Heng thought for a moment and explained, “Bars that need to temporarily find resident singers shouldn’t be deserted. And any bar with some popularity, the clients who come to spend are mostly people unwilling to be lonely. These people aren’t necessarily bad, but the environment is complex, people’s hearts are hard to fathom—what kind of birds you get depends on the size of the forest. Plus, when people drink, their rationality weakens, and impulse often leads to trouble. You get it?”
The young girl on the other end of the phone was silent for more than ten seconds, then said softly, “You’re right. I’ve encountered disgusting guys in bars in the Imperial Capital before… But even if I’m afraid, I have to go. Otherwise, how can I work and earn money?”
Wang Heng: “Yeah, anyway, you’re just a resident singer and won’t be responsible for getting drinks with clients, so it should be okay. Good luck then.”
Pei Ningle: “But you can come with me! Then it’d be safe!”
Wang Heng: “Huh?”
The young girl’s voice was full of expectation: “Think about it, a girl like me going to sing at a bar alone is so dangerous. But with you, it’s different. I feel especially safe with you; even kidnappers wouldn’t be a problem!”
Wang Heng: “…”
Pei Ningle: “Please, please, I beg you, okay?”
Wang Heng reluctantly replied, “Okay…”
“Yay! Great, it’s settled then. I’m almost at your school gate; come out quick!”
The young girl happily hung up.
Wang Heng woodenly put down his mobile phone and saw Fu Hanwen giving a thumbs up.
“Big Brother, while you were on the phone, we discussed it. We heard that many dorms used to rank by age, with titles like boss, second, third, etc. We think ranking big brother, second brother by age is too subjective.”
Wang Heng: “So?”
Fu Hanwen continued, “We three don’t care how we’re ranked, but you must be Big Brother.”
Tang Hexing: “Yeah, for hooking up with girls, Big Brother has to teach us hands-on!”
Wang Ke: “I don’t need to hook up with girls, but you can teach me how to program.”
Wang Heng: “…Alright, when I get back tonight, I’ll explain it to you guys.”
Fu Hanwen quickly waved: “No problem, no problem. Big Brother doesn’t need to worry about our feelings; you spending the night out with a girl tonight is totally fine!”
Tang Hexing: “Exactly, we all heard. You’re going to a bar. After getting the girl drunk, there’ll definitely be further action. Big Brother, good luck!”
When walking out of the dormitory, Wang Heng could only smile coldly in silence, utterly speechless.
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Great gratitude for everyone’s recommendations and collections, as well as the rewards from Shenke Rumen, Wei Xiao Zhi Yi Hua Hong Chen, FIFA16. Deng Classmate. Thank you!
