Chapter 55: 055 Xiao Tang’s Meritorious Service
Among the boys attending this social gathering, the skinny, bespectacled otaku Tang Hexing was almost the most inconspicuous one.
In terms of appearance, he certainly couldn’t attract girls’ attention like Wang Ke. In terms of behavior, he also lacked Sun Xing Si’s smoothness. He even couldn’t bring himself to liven things up occasionally like Fu Hanwen. Moreover, Fu Hanwen had a couple of signature songs that earned him applause in the KTV, and he even managed to really chat with some girl because of it.
Tang Hexing could only silently eat the fruit platter. He didn’t like popcorn, so he naturally could only eat this. The problem was that if there was only the fruit platter, it would be fine, but the watermelon and cantaloupe in the fruit platter had surprisingly been taken by the boys currying favor, leaving only oranges and small tomatoes. Hmm, each one more sour than the last.
Looking around, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of sadness, inexplicably somewhat regretting it—why did he have to wade into this mess? Wasn’t it good to stay in the dormitory playing games?
The one holding the microphone now was Sun Xing Si, singing “cold, cold icy rain slapping randomly on my face” with utmost affection. Tang Hexing listened and inexplicably felt some resonance and emotion, even though Sun Xing Si was off-key…
When the song ended, Tang Hexing couldn’t help but clap and cheer: “Well sung!”
Sun Xing Si glared at him with an expression of ‘are you freaking kidding me’, showing that the person involved was still quite self-aware.
Tang Hexing withdrew his hand and scratched his head slightly awkwardly.
Sun Xing Si looked at the corner where Tang Hexing was, visually estimated the distance to the nearest girl from this classmate, and immediately understood a bit of his awkwardness.
Then Sun Xing Si pressed pause on the song selection screen and said into the microphone: “Should I order some beer to liven up the atmosphere for everyone?”
Fu Hanwen was the first to agree, shouting loudly: “Waiter, bring the wine!”
The girl in front of him was amused again, and Fu Hanwen immediately felt full of pride.
Sun Ruimin also called out: “Yeah, bring the wine quickly, we can’t wait!”
There were two boys around Sun Ruimin both trying to strike up a conversation, but they still couldn’t make her laugh. They didn’t know that Senior Sun Ruimin, who had been all smiles during dinner, now seemed to have suffered some kind of blow…
About fifteen minutes later, Sun Xing Si led the waiter in. And in the waiter’s cart were two cases of beer and nearly thirty glass cups.
Each case had 24 bottles, two cases made 48, which looked like a lot, but actually each bottle was smaller than the common beer in the supermarket. Choosing these two cases of beer really took Sun Xing Si quite some thought. The alcohol content couldn’t be high, or it would be dangerous; the beer price couldn’t be high, or the classmates splitting the bill afterward would definitely protest. So he picked for a full ten minutes and finally found this one in the KTV’s promotional alcohol section.
The waiter left, and everyone had a bottle of beer. Even classmates who didn’t want to drink took a bottle, opened it, poured themselves a glass, and at least put on a show.
“Come on, cheers!”
Led by Sun Xing Si, the classmates all smiled and raised their glasses to drink.
In the corner of the crowd, Tang Hexing was also smiling, but the moment the beer went down his throat, that smile turned bitter—hmm, beer wasn’t tasty either.
But for some reason, not long after swallowing it, he started feeling a bit tipsy.
Tang Hexing hadn’t drunk much alcohol before; after all, he was a middle school student previously, with too few opportunities to drink. Even at occasional classmate gatherings, he’d take a tiny sip and not want more. But tonight, holding the wine cup, he suddenly had the impulse to down it all in one go.
So he really did it, downing the whole glass into his stomach.
Putting down the wine cup, Tang Hexing looked around and saw that no one seemed to have noticed him yet.
So he poured himself another full glass.
————
At 1:53 a.m., Wang Heng felt his situation becoming increasingly critical.
Pei Ningle turned off the computer, yawned, and asked somewhat naively: “Where are you sleeping tonight? Are you going back to the dormitory?”
Alert!
Wang Heng immediately replied: “Of course I’m going back to the dormitory.”
Pei Ningle glanced at her mobile phone and rubbed her eye corner: “But it’s almost two o’clock now, does your school still have the doors open?”
Wang Heng: “It’s possible, of course it’s possible. The dormitory building too; even after lights out when the door is locked, you can get in by swiping the meal card. Besides, if I don’t go back, where would I sleep? You only have one bed here.”
Pei Ningle pointed at the sofa: “I can sleep here; last night I was so sleepy that I slept here.”
Wang Heng still shook his head: “Forget it, me a boy visiting your place and squeezing you onto the sofa—what kind of thing is that?”
Pei Ningle patted the sofa cushion and asked again: “Then if you go back now, won’t you disturb your roommates?”
This girl was so perceptive tonight? What’s going on?
With strong alertness, Wang Heng answered: “No, it won’t. There was an activity tonight, my roommates should all be at the KTV. The KTV stays open until dawn, they probably haven’t finished yet.”
“Your roommates…”
Before Pei Ningle finished speaking, Wang Heng’s mobile phone suddenly rang. He took it out and saw it was Fu Hanwen calling.
Could it be reinforcements from his roommates? He secretly looked forward to it.
Answering the call, he heard Fu Hanwen say: “Hey, Wang Heng, have you gone back to the dormitory? Come out quick, Xiao Tang is blackout drunk and puked everywhere! This drunkard is really hard to carry, Wang Ke and I can’t carry him, Teacher Wang come help!”
Well done, Tang Hexing, I’ll note this merit for you!
Wang Heng deliberately turned his phone volume to maximum, so the young girl beside him could hear Fu Hanwen’s voice on the phone.
So after hanging up, he put on a helpless expression: “See, my roommates are really waiting for me, and they urgently need my help.”
Pei Ningle yawned again: “Then go back quickly, be careful on the night road.”
And so, Wang Heng walked out of that residential building with cold sweat on his back that hadn’t dried yet.
————
When he arrived at the KTV doorway, Wang Heng didn’t see those girls, only a group of boys from the same class.
Fu Hanwen explained to him: “The girls have all gone back; they called two taxis. We’re here discussing how to deal with this guy.”
Following the direction Fu Hanwen pointed with his chin, Wang Heng saw Tang Hexing hugging a tree and crying bitterly.
“Xiao Tang…” Wang Heng asked cautiously, “what happened to him?”
Just as he spoke, he heard Tang Hexing slurring loudly: “You’ve lived five hundred years, you must know… those foolish mortals… what romance…”
Wang Heng looked at the little tree Xiao Tang was hugging: “Can this little tree be five hundred years old?”
Fu Hanwen covered his face and said: “Don’t mention it, Xiao Tang is drunk and ranting; he seems to think that tree is Dan Sheng Gu Sen Xia.”
Wang Heng: “…What Sen Xia?”
Wang Ke: “Don’t mind these details, it’s just a two-dimensional character.”
The three roommates looked at Tang Hexing with faces full of sympathy… and awkwardness.
————
