The boys’ dormitory housed eight people per room, with bunk beds.
Their conditions were worse than the girls’ side, with two extra beds making it quite cramped.
In the equally pitch-black dormitory, the boys’ side was much noisier.
Chi Yao was on the upper bunk, half-sitting, having just showered, wearing his clothes.
These boys had added each other as friends to form teams for gaming: “I’ll play top lane. Yao-ge, add me as a friend?”
Chi Yao recited a string of numbers from the upper bunk.
That boy: “Got it.”
After entering the search, he was startled when he saw the contact’s profile picture: “Your profile picture… is quite cute.”
Chi Yao didn’t respond.
He was deleting a friend, removing the person who had inexplicably added him, before saying: “Someone picked it for me.”
“Your sister?” This kind of cute profile picture made the boy immediately assume Chi Yao’s family probably had more than one child. “Girls indeed like these kinds of profile pictures. But if it were me, I probably couldn’t stand it for long and would find a chance to change it.”
“Can’t change it.”
Chi Yao neither confirmed nor denied, only saying: “She’s not very reasonable. Not only does she make a fuss, but she also cries easily.”
On the other side.
Tang Shuxuan stared at the “You are no longer friends” message and the sudden red exclamation mark that appeared. She fell silent: …
Tang Shuxuan: Great.
Tang Shuxuan: He deleted me.
Lin Zhexia didn’t know how to comfort her and could only type: That’s just how he is. Do you know what I have him saved as in my contacts?
Tang Shuxuan: What?
Lin Zhexia: Chi Dog.
Tang Shuxuan: Very fitting.
Tang Shuxuan: I was warned on the forum before I came
Tang Shuxuan: It was a girl who had offered water to Chi Yao. She said she advised everyone not to give Chi Yao water, just let him die of thirst.
For some unknown reason, even though it was Chi Yao who had rejected Tang Shuxuan, Lin Zhexia felt a strange sense of guilt. After a while, she sent another message: Don’t be sad.
Tang Shuxuan was surprisingly resilient and quickly recovered: I’m not sad. There are thousands of men in the world; why bother with a tough bone to chew? There’s a handsome senior in the second year, too. I’ll try my luck with him another day.
Lin Zhexia: …
The intensity increased over the next few days of military training, with standing at attention alone taking an hour each day.
Perhaps it was a case of fearing what you most expect, but Lin Zhexia’s class had a particularly fierce instructor who was incredibly demanding and punished the entire class with extra standing whenever he was dissatisfied.
That day, their class had failed to march in perfect formation. While other classes went to lunch, their class was held back by the instructor.
The midday sun was so hot that the military training caps felt scorching.
Tang Shuxuan secretly muttered to Lin Zhexia: “Even though I always complain about the cafeteria food tasting bad, having something to eat is still better than having nothing.”
After the incident of asking for contact information, she and Tang Shuxuan had unexpectedly grown closer and become friends.
Lin Zhexia: “I’m starving to death.”
Tang Shuxuan: “My stomach just growled. I hope no one heard it.”
After a moment.
Chen Lin said from the back row: “I heard it.”
Lin Zhexia consoled herself, and by extension, them: “I don’t think he’ll let us miss lunch…”
The instructor heard voices from their direction, scanned them with his eyes, and harshly demanded: “Who’s talking? Step forward.”
“…”
No one moved.
Lin Zhexia summoned her courage and stepped forward: “Me.”
Instructor: “What were you discussing? Let’s hear it.”
Since she had already stepped out, Lin Zhexia decided to brazen it out: “Health is the foundation of revolution, so eating is very important.”
However, she underestimated the instructor’s ruthlessness. Her words had no effect, and their class still missed lunchtime.
Starving until evening, they ate dinner but soon felt hungry again.
This hunger wasn’t just because they missed lunch today; it was like a tipping point. After several days of not eating well, this feeling of “not being full” came particularly strongly this evening.
That night, the dormitory’s conversation turned to naming dishes.
“I want hotpot, I want barbecue…”
“Actually, in our current situation, instant noodles would be most suitable. There’s a hot water dispenser right outside in the corridor. Did anyone bring instant noodles?”
“…”