Ch76.1 – Meeting
Lightning burst forth from the horns of the goat monster, drawing thunder and illuminating the dark world; millions of thunderbolts chased after the hovering black dragon. Both sides were evenly matched and were embroiled in a bitter battle. Zhou Sheng clenched his teeth and raised his shield to protect himself and the black dragon from being obliterated by lightning.
All of his energy was expended on defence. Every time he challenged G.o.d Pan, he would almost always get trapped in this muddy deadlock.
But today, he has another artifact in his dreamscape.
G.o.d Pan let out a prolonged roar, “Your ending will be the same no matter how many times——”
“Not today.” Zhou Sheng said coldly from within the gap between the thunderbolts.
He then transferred his shield to his right hand and flipped his left hand over. Amidst the loud roars, a silver metal gem appeared in his palm; the gem expanded into a protective shield with a “buzz”!
G.o.d Pan, “……”
In the next moment, the gem flashed. Its white light swept through the entire arena, as if a hurricane had pa.s.sed! Zhou Sheng steered the black dragon, and the shield in his hand turned into a jingubang which shot towards G.o.d Pan like a bolt of lightning!
With this one flick of the rod, G.o.d Pan was caught off guard and was sent flying into the air.
With a second sweep of the rod, G.o.d Pan’s goat horns ruptured with a loud bang!
On his third strike, the rod struck dead-on, and G.o.d Pan was instantly knocked into the lofty Roman pillars of the arena like a missile, smashing the pillars into pieces!
Zhou Sheng’s short hair was scorched black and he was in a terrible condition. He used his jingubang to support himself and gasped for breath in the middle of the arena.
“Let me see what the h.e.l.l you are ba.” Zhou Sheng held the metal gem and faced it towards G.o.d Pan in the rubble.
At this time, in the quiet arena, another round of applause and cheers roared through the audience.
The horns of G.o.d Pan faded under the radiance of the heart-shaped gemstone. It revealed the struggling figure of an ordinary male ancient Greek G.o.d in the ruins of the Roman pillars trying to escape the light.
“Don’t recognise you.” Zhou Sheng frowned, “Have I seen you before?”
“Priapus.” Satan’s voice rang out, “During your teenage years, your feelings of inferiority came from him. Because of the development of your s.e.xual characteristics and the size of your tool, you stood out among your peers, so you were often mocked. Later on, when you referred to a popular ma.s.s-market medical science book, you happened to recognise this G.o.d of Fertility.”
Zhou Sheng stood upright and regulated his breathing with an evil smile on his face.
Zhou Sheng mocked himself, “And what is his pretense of G.o.d Pan supposed to remind me of?”
The black fire in Satan’s hand controlled Priapus to rise into the air.
“Priapus considers rape a punishment for human beings, reminding them that mortals are born for the purpose of reproduction, so abnormal relationships are evil.” Satan laughed wickedly, “You want to redefine your s.e.xual needs and purposes, yet you struggle bitterly within the prison of morals. General, is admitting your fall from grace so difficult?”
“Indulge in your l.u.s.t ba!” Satan raised both hands, and his whole body shone with a brilliant splendor , “Whether it’s G.o.d Pan or Priapus, what’s wrong with admitting that it’s a sin?”
“You f.u.c.king……” Zhou Sheng muttered.
Priapus let out an enraged roar and revealed two machetes, then rushed at Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng brandished his jingubang and flagrantly swung it down! With the force of a thousand juns, he smashed down and an anguished wail sounded; Priapus exploded into countless light particles that burst into the air and flew like meteors towards the black dragon behind Zhou Sheng. Light suddenly flowed through the black dragon’s scales and glowed briefly with a bright golden colour. A sharp horn appeared on its forehead, and a strong light burst forth from the horn. It raised its head and let out a prolonged cry before gradually quieting down.
“You came prepared.” Satan stepped on the black fire and reappeared in the arena, “Master of the dreamscape confronted G.o.d Pan, the incarnation of Priapus, and won.”
Another round of cheers resounded, but Zhou Sheng just stood in the same place in a daze with his jingubang in hand. After a long time pa.s.sed, he seemed to snap out of his stupor and beckoned Satan with his other hand.
Satan lowered his head slightly, a black flame flashed past his eyes.
“You’ve succeeded.” Satan said coldly, “General.”
“What does that success mean?” Zhou Sheng’s brows were locked in a deep furrow, “That it’s no longer a sin?”
Satan sneered, “The right is returned to you, but the next enemy may not be so simple anymore.”
“Next.” Zhou Sheng said coldly, “I’ll solve it all at once.”
“I feel fear.” Satan said, “Your soul is trembling.”
“I said next!” Zhou Sheng turned indignant.
Satan slowly retreated, black streaks of light criss-crossing in front of him, and a huge cage emerged. Within the cage, a female demon with a human body and a snake’s tail screamed sharply, grabbing the cage’s metal bars and shaking it frantically!
“Next!” Satan announced loud and clear, “Master of the dreamscape, this General is going to challenge Medusa! To overcome his resistance towards Love and Family! Let’s give him our warmest round of applause!”
Zhou Sheng’s eyes slightly widened and reflected the ferocious Medusa who had sharp claws.
“This is a bit difficult to fight……” Zhou Sheng muttered.
At daybreak, Zhou Sheng was frowning deeply and opened his eyes from his nightmare. He let out a long breath.
For a week after that, although it was summer vacation, Yu Hao didn’t feel like he was on a summer vacation at all. Zhou Sheng would go out for a run in the morning and bring breakfast back as usual, no matter if Yu Hao ate it or not. If he found out that Yu Hao had slept till noon, then Zhou Sheng would throw the breakfast away. At noon, they would sometimes go to the canteen to eat stir-fry together. They often b.u.mped into Chen Yekai, and the three of them would have lunch together. In the late afternoon, Zhou Sheng would either go for a run or leave without telling Yu Hao where he was going.
It was really too hot. Zhou Sheng’s exercise was slightly reduced, and most of it was moved to the nighttime. Unexpectedly, Yu Hao received a translation contract from the previous research inst.i.tute he worked for. They hoped that he would a.s.sist in translating some of the Chinese reports into English for their reference repository.
This time, the fees for the scripts had slightly increased, and Yu Hao thought this is great! After he looked at the workload, Yu Hao accepted the job. Even if he took his time translating them, he would earn more than 3,000 in a month!
“Aren’t you guys going to go out and play a few days during the summer vacation?” Chen Yekai asked.
“Yu Hao’s making some online friends.” Zhou Sheng casually replied, “Vico.”
“Vico?” Chen Yekai was a little surprised, “What’s Vico?”
“He’s a person!” Yu Hao said, “I added him on my private WeChat number.”
Yu Hao roughly shared with Chen Yekai and Zhou Sheng that person’s information — a white collar worker, model 0.5, 180cm, likes playing basketball.
The three of them sat in the canteen, and Yu Hao kept feeling like the atmosphere was a little weird. He asked Zhou Sheng a few times if they were going to erase that portion of Chen Yekai’s memories, but Zhou Sheng’s answer was always, “We’ll see.”
A week later, the person in Yu Hao’s phone had sent him a bunch of photos, yet the only photo he had seen of Yu Hao was his profile picture in WeChat, and he finally couldn’t bear it anymore.
Vico:【Would you like to meet up? I don’t have a meeting after work tomorrow.】
Drum Washing Machine:【Let me think about it.】
Vico:【Let’s meet up ba, I dreamt of you last night.】
Drum Washing Machine sent him an emoticon and neither agreed nor refused.
Zhou Sheng wanted to see how he looked, so Yu Hao showed him his picture. Vico looked pretty okay, but he wasn’t Yu Hao’s type. Of course, even Yu Hao himself couldn’t say what kind of type he liked. He could be considered a 7, white-collar man, bespectacled, good temperament, and even joins marathons despite not being able to place. Likes music, red wine and coffee.
“A yuppie.” Zhou Sheng said, “You didn’t give him your picture?”
“My profile picture is my picture, it’s just a bit blurry. Didn’t you tell me not to send my pictures to other people?”
Zhou Sheng said, “You can just send them if you want to, it’s not a big deal.”
Yu Hao still decided not to send them, but he was okay with meeting the other party face to face.
“I’ll meet up with him tomorrow ba.” Yu Hao said.
Zhou Sheng, “Have you thought it through?”
Yu Hao didn’t answer. Zhou Sheng continued, “If you have, then go ba, I’ll accompany you?”
Yu Hao said, “No need, I’m afraid that I’ll regret it at the last minute.”
“Decide for yourself then.” Zhou Sheng said nothing more. He had just finished running and was sweating all over as he went to take a bath.
Yu Hao remained silent for awhile. Chen Yekai asked:【Huang Ting wants to ask Junjun out for dinner tomorrow night, but it would be difficult for him to ask her out alone. I asked Zhou Sheng, but he’s not going, so shall we accompany them for dinner?】
Yu Hao told Chen Yekai that he might be meeting an online friend. Chen Yekai said:【Go ba, jiayou. I’ll pick you up tomorrow.】
Yu Hao:【I haven’t decided yet!】
Chen Yekai:【Go and take a look, how long have you guys been chatting for? Do you feel anything?】
Yu Hao:【I don’t actually feel anything, why does this seem like a blind date?!】
Chen Yekai:【It is a blind date; you might end up feeling something when you’re there? It’s okay, even if you don’t feel anything, it’s okay to just be friends.】
Yu Hao hesitated apprehensively for a long time and only sent Vico a message when he was about to fall asleep. The other party replied within seconds:【You’ve thought it over?】
Then the other party sent him a location; it was a restaurant, so there shouldn’t be any problems.
Zhou Sheng asked from his bed, “Are you going tomorrow?”
Yu Hao replied, “Going……ba? This restaurant, we’ve eaten there quite a few times.”
Zhou Sheng said, “Okay, I’ll pick you up once you’re done. Send me the location. I’ll be busy all day tomorrow.”
“What are you looking at?” Yu Hao glanced at it out of curiosity.
Zhou Sheng was using Fu Liqun’s laptop to look up some information, and the legend of G.o.d Pan was shown on screen. He casually clicked on another page, and it unexpectedly revealed an entry on Priapus, and then he closed the entire browser.
“Nothing.” Zhou Sheng said casually, “Has your Psychology of s.e.x cla.s.ses issued its textbooks?”
Yu Hao thought that was a little strange and said, “I borrowed the textbooks to read through them first. I have other extra readings and relevant materials as well, do you want them?”
Zhou Sheng thought about it for a bit, then asked Yu Hao, “I’m just asking, but during p.u.b.erty, do people generally feel a sense of shame?”
Yu Hao thought but you shouldn’t have had any sense of shame ba. He muddled through his own p.u.b.erty, but just like how girls would feel ashamed if their b.r.e.a.s.t.s developed too early, boys would also feel uneasy about the premature growth of their s.e.xual characteristics sometimes.
“Depends on the case.” Yu Hao said, “The majority of young people mature and pa.s.s through this period smoothly, while a small portion would form some autosuggestions that can be both good and bad. Actually, I think it depends on the att.i.tude of their peers.”
Yu Hao sat down to search for a book and explained to Zhou Sheng, “In your previous cla.s.ses, did you have any people whose ‘that’ developed earlier and appeared bigger, so they got mocked by their cla.s.smates when going to the toilet and appeared to lack self-confidence; or girls whose secondary s.e.xual characteristics developed earlier so their peers began talking behind their backs and maybe bully them?”
“There were ba?” Zhou Sheng took the book and flipped through it as he began recalling the time when he was about 12 or 13-years-old.
“That was the most irritating phase of my life.” Zhou Sheng flipped through the book and answered, “My parents divorced, I didn’t get along with my cla.s.smates, and they often mocked me because of my dad’s affair. They asked if my d.i.c.k was as big as my Dad’s and treated me like a little monster and said that I would sponge off women everywhere……in the beginning there was only one girl who was my friend……”
Yu Hao was a bit surprised. He didn’t know why Zhou Sheng would suddenly talk about his past at this strange timing.
“The viciousness of young people is always very hurtful.” Yu Hao said, “When I was in the first year of junior high, my friend had a similar experience, and she was a girl.”
Zhou Sheng was immersed in his past memories.
Yu Hao knew a girl in his first year of junior high. Because her mother changed boyfriends frequently, she was often humiliated in school, especially during p.u.b.erty.
“What happened to that friend?” Yu Hao asked.
“Repeated a year, and then we drifted apart.” Zhou Sheng answered, “We didn’t contact each other after junior high.”
“It’s all in the past. The secretion of hormones during p.u.b.erty would increase the severity of this effect; one must have an accurate understanding of themselves.” Yu Hao said, “This kind of uneasiness would soon disappear. Of course, students shouldn’t use this as a joke just because it seems new and exciting. After p.u.b.erty, the presentation of male s.e.xual characteristics would instead become the source of their self-confidence. It really is important for more people to be exposed to such knowledge on s.e.x.”
Zhou Sheng lowered his head and read the book. After a while, he said, “Got it, go meet your online friend ba.”
Yu Hao still wanted to say something else, but Zhou Sheng placed a bookmark inside and got up to take a bath.