"We can do this, guys. We have already corrected a third of the papers. Let me start working on encoding the numbers," another fair and handsome guy spoke, trying to encourage the boys who fell listless after hearing their leader"s reminder. He was called Yuan He, one of the fellows still wearing their college department"s uniform.He gave the half-naked whiner a look. "Hey, Mo Zemin, if you don"t want to check papers one by one, how about you just sort them out by categories?"
"I would still have to look at papers though…" grumbled the youth.
Looking at his face, it could already be inferred that Mo Zemin was the type who hated studying and loved playing. If he was given a chance, he would rather go to the basketball than be confined in a small room. Unfortunately, there was no way he could do that.
First, his leader, the first guy who spoke to him when he complained, was a serious and no-nonsense type of person, a regular study geek. This dude was a friend of his and was actually reasonable and fun to be with. But that was only as long as his grades were not at stake. Yep, the leader was his exact opposite, a grade-conscious campus male lead.
The second reason why he, and actually the rest of people here, couldn"t slack off, was that they were currently working on something very important. Their final thesis! Yup, all the dudes here were students in the fifth year of their studies in college.
"All of us have to suffer for a few couples of days since our final defense is coming. If we don"t take this seriously, we will be held back by a semester, or worse, a whole year. Hey, I also just want to play video games, but I can"t right now because I don"t want to stay a math student for life!"
"Stop complaining and work. If we finish early, we can be freed from this torture!" said another guy wearing their checkered uniform.
His words made sense so although miserable groans and sour faces filled the place for some time, apart from the leader, everyone started to work more efficiently. They looked as if they had finally accepted their fates.
This was simply a hurdle that all graduating students had to suffer from... cough, no, overcome! Unless they didn"t wish to graduate.
Time pa.s.sed swiftly. After an hour, due to the constant urging of the serious-looking guy, the questionnaires were all checked, and the tallying was also completed. Following this, the leader finally declared a rest. Everyone happily dispersed, but since it was already quite deep into the night, they didn"t leave the house and only went to the bathroom to finish some business, or to the kitchen to grab some snacks and drinks from the fridge.
They then returned to the living room. The son of the owner of the house, the half-naked young man probably finally felt the chill of the night wind so he put on a black s.h.i.+rt.
He frowned at his thesis groupmate who emerged from his group with something foreign in his hand. The person was his neighbor and a close friend so he was not surprised that the other randomly picked up something from his room. But looking at the cards in the other"s hands, he inquired in a sharp tone, "Where did you get that? From what I remember, you did not even bring anything when you come here."
"Hmm. From your room, where else? Isn"t this yours?" The guy, Zhao Xieren, who was in a casual getup raised the tarot cards and tilted his head as he walked towards the table.
"No. Why would I buy stuff like that? I"d rather save up the money for a new pair of shoes," replied the guy wearing a black s.h.i.+rt.
"Oh, then it must be your brother… So your little brother knows how to use this?"
Mo Zemin laughingly shook his head. "Probably not. I don"t know. But I know that I need to tell my mom and dad that the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d is spending money on useless stuff again. They will be back with little bro tomorrow."
"You must be p.i.s.sed off that you can"t go on vacation with them due to our thesis. Bad bro, wanting his sibling to be scolded." Zhao Xieren laughed.
Mo Zemin shrugged. He then s.n.a.t.c.hed the deck from his friend and sat down before the table. "Hey, leader." There was a toothy grin on his face as he shuffled the cards and cut them.
"Hmm?" The handsome young man sat down after placing his cup of coffee down the table looked at his hard-headed goofy groupmate.
"I heard you really liked the Fas.h.i.+on Department"s G.o.ddess. Hehe, you really have a nice taste. But don"t worry, I think you two are quite suitable. It"s just that we can"t know what fate stored for us. Why don"t you let me check if you have a chance with her?"
As the person in question, it was natural that the leader got caught off-guard. What did he hear again? Did someone just openly mention to everyone here who his crush was?
For a moment, he couldn"t reply and even forgot to comment on how Mo Zemin just looked and sounded like a half-baked charlatan. The tips of his ears were slightly red. His reactions were seen by the other guys. Had it been a girl who saw it, she would have found him cuter, but since it was his friends, it unfortunately only garnered loud laughter and teasings from them.
"Son of a beach! I saw a certain dude blus.h.i.+ng! Gosh, save my eyes!"
"Huh, what? Gawd, it"s real!"
The serious face of the handsome lad fell, annoyance was then painted all over it. "You guys…"
"Oops, he seems to be on the brink of allocating more tasks to us. I can"t let him think of more ways to torture us throughout this overnighting." Feeling threatened, Mo Zemin hurriedly spoke. "Come on, leader! Ignore these monkeys! Pick a card."
With a frown donned, the one teased a while ago complied, probably thinking there was no need to explain or say more words of denial after remembering that the whole campus knew about his infatuation with their campus belle. He extended a hand and drew from the deck.
It was Yuan He, the youth who helped him convince Mo Zemin to stop complaining, who flipped the card for him.
"Hmm, it"s a poor guy hanging upside down."
"Awwww." At Mo Zemin"s words, the teasing gazes became pitying glances. "Poor you."
The leader frowned.
The other guy in the uniform quickly chimed in, "Hey, don"t forget this kind of stuff is not real. So it might not even the least bit accurate!"
"Hmmm, true."
Mo Zemin laughingly contradicted them, "What if it comes true? There"s a chance, okay? As they said, tarot cards are tools used by people to connect to their higher selves and asked for visions or signs from the future. So maybe this is a real revelation."
One answered while laughing, "Where the h.e.l.l did you read that? Baidu? Or some doubtful sites online?"
"I found it on the deep web! It"s from the deep web, alright!"
The youth who fetched the cards from the room shrugged. "This guy, apart from loving basketball is a keyboard warriorr so I"m not surprised. How did you access that by the way? Be careful of stalkers and malicious busybodies."
He turned to the guy looking intently at the tarot cards and said, "As for you Dong Lan, you should not put that matter into heart. Mo Zemin"s a fake, so yeah, you"ll be a fool to believe him. Anyways, I heard you and Ms. Xia are getting along quite well these past weeks."
He heard no reply from the one he asked. It was Mo Zemin who spoke, "Wait, why are we discussing whether I"m a fake or not? We"re just having fun, alright!"
"Zemin, give me that, let me be the one divining this time."
The playful guy who said an hour ago that he preferred gaming than studying s.n.a.t.c.hed away the cards and spread them atop the table one at a time.
"Hehe, I"ll be the one acting as the fortune-teller. Come, boys, on your behalf, I"ll connect to this so-called higher self of mine and see if you all will pa.s.s Mr. Ling"s calculus exam next week and graduate!"
Peals of laughter immediately followed. Shuffling cards and various noises also resounded in the living room.
"The Hanged Man…" As the leader watched the others played around and joked with each other, a wry smile slowly formed on his lips.
Following that, he subconsciously took a deep breath. "It"s happening again..."
A chunk of words suddenly flashed across his mind, all of which seemed connected to the tarot reading that just took place. A while ago, the others simply interpreted it based on the fact that the picture looked sad, leaning to the negative side. However, right at this moment, some other interpretations just crossed his mind, making him forget to scold the noisy boys.
"Keywords: surrender, new perspective, sacrifice, release, waiting…"
Dong Lan started to feel weird, confusion filling his eyes. He subconsciously touched the blue stud earring on his left ear. He didn"t know when it started, but since he was young, every time he felt sad, or ran across difficult times, he would always do this.
To his horror though, instead of calming down like usual, a wall of texts popped up within his vision, floating in the air. It read,
"The Hanged Man XII..."
"You may feel frustrated that things aren"t moving as quickly as you"d like today..."
"Be patient, stop trying to force things to happen. Take this time of waiting as an opportunity to practice being present with yourself..."
"You may find that when you let go of your expectations that things turn out differently, and even better than you"d hoped."