Chapter 64: Impending Storm
Because Xiao Luo was against her, Huang Ruoran had always despised him. She wished that he was not even in the cla.s.s at all. However, when this loathsome boy had appeared at her most desperate moment and rescued her like some sort of savior, Huang Ruoran’s hatred for him crumbled in an instant.
She had a fair complexion, refined facial features, and slender, arched eyebrows. Then there were those cynical, dark eyes…
Huang Ruoran was sitting in the backseat on the pa.s.senger’s side and staring blankly at the man in the front seat. Her heart was unable to settle.
“What’s your name, pretty lady?” Zhang Dashan asked with a smile while looking at Huang Ruoran in the car’s rearview mirror.
“Huang Ruoran.”
“Oh. Ruoran. My name is Zhang Dashan. I’m Xiao Luo’s trusty old partner. My nickname is Cannon, but you can call me by my real name, Dashan. Although Cannon also works!” Zhang Dashan giggled, attempting to lighten up the atmosphere.
Huang Ruoran could not understand his sense of humor, so she didn’t give him any response. She just sat on her seat without saying a word. The fear she had just experienced still lingered in her mind. The ambiance inside the car instantly plunged into an awkward silence.
Zhang Dashan wasn’t giving up. He didn’t believe that he couldn’t liven things up. After a couple of dry coughs, he said, “Ruoran, let me tell you a joke. A monkey is sitting in a tree. When a big truck pa.s.ses beneath the tree, it stops. Guess why?”
Seriously? Such an old school joke?
Xiao Luo couldn’t help but shake his head. He refused to believe that this was the first time Huang Ruoran heard this joke. He glanced at the back seat out of the corner of his eyes. As expected, Huang Ruoran remained indifferent. She was in a daze as if in some faraway land.
Zhang Dashan continued, “Because the truck driver thought that the monkey’s a*s was a red light! Don’t you think he’s stupid? He’s really stupid, right? Hahaha…”
As he finished telling the joke, he cracked himself up and even teared up.
After only four or five seconds, he discovered that Huang Ruoran wasn’t reacting to his punchline at all. Beside him, Xiao Luo studied him expressionlessly.
“I—isn’t it funny?” Zhang Dashan asked.
“Not at all,” Xiao Luo said, not mincing his words.
Zhang Dashan spread his hands and retracted his neck. “Well, awkward!”
“Just focus on driving. Don’t go the wrong way again,” Xiao Luo exhorted.
Zhang Dashan became agitated and raised the pitch of his voice as he said, “F*cker, if I go the wrong way again, I swear I won’t touch another girl ever again in my life!”
Half an hour later, they were finally back at Huaye.
Although Huang Ruoran was still badly shaken, she refused Zhang Dashan’s offer to drop her directly at her dorm. When she got out of the car, she bowed deeply to Xiao Luo and Zhang Dashan and said, “Thank you.”
Then, she turned around and returned to school.
Xiao Luo understood her very well. She had a strong personality. Unlike the other girls, she wouldn’t so readily accept help and affection from boys.
“That girl isn’t bad, you know. Look at how small the crack is between her legs. I think she’s still a virgin! Xiao Luo, hurry up and take her down,” chuckled Zhang Dashan while looking at Huang Ruoran’s back.
“Do you have anything else inside your brain besides that one thing?” Xiao Luo said directly.
“C’mon bro. Our ancestors used to say that the desire for food and s.e.x is part of human nature. Can you not be so uptight? In our society today, wolves are abundant, and meat is scarce. So, if you don’t bang a pretty girl, someone else will, sooner or later. Why not take the good stuff for yourself? You shouldn’t restrain yourself too much. YOLO!” Zhang Dashan preached earnestly.
“Dubious nonsense.”
Xiao Luo rubbed his nose, then s.h.i.+fted the topic of conversation. “Oh yeah? Are you really gonna go wh*ring later?”
Go wh*ring?
Zhang Dashan’s expression changed immediately. “The heck? How can you say that and still look so dignified? Don’t you feel ashamed?”
“Are you telling me that you’re not after wh*res by going to that night club?” Xiao Luo shot him a glance.
“Bro, stop using the word ‘wh*re,’ please. It’s not elegant at all.”
Zhang Dashan made his face serious and said solemnly, “Okay, here it is then. Didn’t you eat a pineapple stick outside the club last time? From now on, we will refer to this cla.s.sy and elegant activity as ‘pineappling."”
Xiao Luo was speechless. He was a little bit thankful that his sister hadn’t fallen for this guy.
******
Back at the dorm, before Xiao Luo even opened his door, he heard groaning coming from inside.
When he walked in, the room was in a mess. Cups, books, boxes were all over the floor. The chairs were turned over. Xiao Luo’s area, in particular, was chaos. It looked like it had been overrun by bandits.
Zhu Xiaofei and Ding Kai were lying on their beds with bruises all over their bodies. Their clothes were torn. Zhu Xiaofei was in especially bad shape. The corners of his lips were inflamed, and his eyes were so swollen that they looked like two squinting lines.
“B-brother Luo…” Zhu Xiaofei and Ding Kai called to Xiao Luo.
“What happened here?” Xiao Luo asked.
“It was the people from the mixed martial arts club. They came looking for you but couldn’t find you here, so they beat us up instead,” Ding Kai explained through gritted teeth. No matter how timid he may be, he couldn’t hold back his anger after taking such a beating.
Zhu Xiaofei spat out a mouthful of blood and said with rage, “Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Wait until I get better. I will make them pay for what they did today. Even if it means getting expelled!”
“There’s no need to wait until then. I will make them pay sooner rather than later.”
Xiao Luo’s face turned grim. He had tolerated one incident after another. Still, Song Jian and his gang continued to provoke him repeatedly. He had reached the last straw. “Where’s the mix martial arts club?”
Zhu Xiaofei’s heart stiffened. “Brother Luo, what are you going to do? Don’t act recklessly!”
“You and Kaizi should rest in the room. Just tell me where the mixed martial arts club is,” Xiao Luo said calmly. However, a terrifying chill could be felt coming from deep within his eyes.
Zhu Xiaofei paused for a moment then said, “They’re located at the indoor basketball court next to the swimming pool. That place is the training ground for the mixed martial arts, taekwondo, karate, and wushu clubs. The school specially approved that site for them.”
“Got it.”
Xiao Luo stood up, opened the door, and left.
Zhu Xiaofei and Ding Kai exchanged glances, and each could see the intense worry in the other’s eyes.
“Kaizi, do you think something bad will happen?”
“I don’t know. If brother Luo doesn’t return in half an hour later, let’s call the counselor,” Ding Kai said.
Zhu Xiaofei nodded in agreement. Just now, something about Xiao Luo’s expression had chilled them to the bone. Xiao Luo wasn’t someone who would compromise. Still, there were more than a hundred people in the mixed martial arts club, and Xiao Luo was on his own. No matter how great of a fighter he may be, he couldn’t possibly take on more than a hundred opponents. If Song Jian and the others failed to hold themselves back for a moment and injured Xiao Luo, then Zhu Xiaofei would feel uneasy for the rest of his life.
…
Although it was almost 11 o’clock at night, and the mixed martial arts club was still as bright as day. People were training inside the venue.
Aside from the members of the mixed martial arts club, there were also many from the other clubs. After all, that night, Song Jian had challenged the school’s fiend, Xiao Luo, to a fight. Although Xiao Luo wasn’t here yet, the others had all arrived with the utmost antic.i.p.ation. They were eager to see if Xiao Luo was really as brutal as the legends made him out to be. Two members of the mixed martial arts club gossiped at the door during their water break:
“What a waste of excitement. That jerk doesn’t even dare to show up.”
“Yeah, right. He’s so afraid that he doesn’t dare return to his own dorm. We are only flattering him by saying that he’s ‘wukong."”
“I wonder how this piece of trash ended up being a celeb on our school’s forum. Xiao Luo the fiend? More like Xiao Luo the coward.”