NFM Chapter 22

Lu Jin’s expression was hard to describe, but he swallowed his words. Seeing Lin Huai turn back to his seat to play with his phone, he also swallowed a bellyful of words and returned to his own seat.

He and Lin Huai had been roommates for nearly two years. When he first met Lin Huai, he thought this person was hard to get along with—always with a cold face, head lowered, looking as if everyone owed him a fortune, and he rarely stayed in the dorm, spending all his time in the overnight study room. Now, after a fall on the stairs, although his phone was broken, Lin Huai had a smile on his face all day.

Others thought Lin Huai had come to his senses, or that he was finally planning to excel in group discussions and had subdued his aloof personality under the influence of group meetings. The other dormmates also privately said that Lin Huai was much easier to get along with now, but sometimes Lu Jin felt… the current Lin Huai occasionally smiled in a way that made people feel uneasy.

However, Lu Jin, a game otaku with the intuition of a small animal, also inherited the seven-second memory of a fish. After feeling uneasy for seven seconds, he turned back and opened “Don’t Starve” again.

Lin Huai, with his back to Lu Jin, scrolled through his entire contact list. He clicked into each one to check their social media, but he couldn’t remember the name of that human. He sighed, put his phone aside, and picked up a book titled “Theoretical Mechanics” to read.

While Lin Huai was struggling with Lagrange, his second roommate, Shao Wei from the street dance club, returned covered in sweat. Carrying a basin, he rushed into the bathroom under the dorm auntie’s angry shouts, managed to wash his hair despite her continuous scolding, and then rushed back to the dorm with the basin.

At the same time, Tan Xiruo, the bespectacled academic genius, pushed open the door with his ten-pound laptop on his back. Shao Wei, while blow-drying his hair, loudly said, “There’s a three-day holiday coming up, let’s go into the city to play. I heard a particularly fun haunted house opened in Dongzhuang, and the group price for four people is only 79 per person…”

Lu Jin, engrossed in his game, didn’t respond. Lin Huai, hearing the word “ghost,” peeked at him from the corner of his eye. Tan Xiruo snorted, “There’s only two weeks left before the exam week, and you’re already slacking off…”

“There’s still a few weeks left, what’s the rush?” Shao Wei muttered, “If you don’t want to go, I’ll find someone else. Lin Huai, Lu Jin, are you two going? Haunted house, 79 per person, a junior said it’s really fun.”

Upon hearing “haunted house,” Lu Jin immediately shook his head like a rattle: “No, no, go yourself if you want to.”

“A grown man over a hundred pounds afraid of ghosts, little bro, you’re so lame.”

“You’re the brave one, Wei.” Lu Jin said while rapidly tapping his fingers, “Anyway, I’m not going.”

After a back-and-forth verbal battle between Lu Jin and Shao Wei, Shao Wei shrugged and said, “Fine, if you don’t want to go. What about you, Lin Huai? Are you going?”

Lin Huai shook his head: “No.”

Shao Wei was greatly disappointed: “Seriously, bro? You’re also that lame?”

He sprang up from his chair, about to ruffle Lin Huai’s head. Lin Huai dodged and said, “What’s so fun about haunted houses? They’re all fake, not interesting.”

“Do you want to play with real ones?” Shao Wei mocked.

Lin Huai blinked and didn’t respond. Tan Xiruo also stopped his CAD drawing and turned around, “So-called haunted houses are just a combination of mechanics and background music, specifically designed to fool people like you. There’s no such thing as specters in this world. Back in high school I…”

At this point, he glanced at the bottom right of his computer and stopped speaking.

Shao Wei got anxious: “What happened in high school?”

“It’s 11:45, time to brush my teeth.”

After this cold and ruthless statement, Tan Xiruo took his electric toothbrush to the bathroom, leaving the three of them staring at each other.

Shao Wei cursed: “Damn! I hate it the most when people run off mid-sentence!”

Lin Huai, pinned under his hand, thought for a moment and decided to comfort him: “Old Tan brushes his teeth at 11:45, washes his face at 11:50, drinks warm water at 11:55, and closes his eyes in bed at 12 sharp.”

Shao Wei: “So?”

Lin Huai said, “So, during the minute he’s climbing into bed at 11:59, you still have a chance to make him tell you about high school for one minute.”

Shao Wei: …

The next morning at 7:50, Lin Huai sat in the front row of the elective class lecture hall on time, opened his notebook ready to take notes. He had just lowered his head to write a date on a new page when someone pressed down on his shoulder.

He looked up to see Shao Wei holding a bottle of Assam milk tea, smiling with a mouthful of white teeth against the backlight.

Normally, Shao Wei never attended morning classes, but now he was acting unusually, bringing gifts without a reason—either he was up to no good or he was about to steal. Lin Huai said to him, “Get to the point.”

Shao Wei said, “This is a bottle of 1982 Assam milk tea, made from the spring water of the Alps, and the Longjing tea picked on the spring equinox, creating a brand-new spark…”

After listening to his lengthy ad, Lin Huai said coldly, “You have three minutes left.”

Shao Wei said, “Dad, come to the haunted house with me.”

Lin Huai raised an eyebrow: “Didn’t you say you’re not afraid of ghosts?”

Shao Wei, standing over six feet tall, was uncharacteristically shy. He casually placed the milk tea aside and sat next to Lin Huai, saying, “Here’s the thing…”

As a key member of the street dance club, Shao Wei had once bumped into Lin Dangdang, the club president’s roommate, during a performance. Lin Dangdang was a girl with a sweet voice and a beautiful smile, and Shao Wei fell head over heels for her at first sight. Every day, he crossed most of the campus to follow the law school’s schedule, holding his phone every night trying to chat with her.

Unfortunately, the feelings were not mutual. Shao Wei sent dozens of messages daily, and Lin Dangdang would reply with one sentence, if she was in a good mood. Shao Wei was so distressed that his hair turned white, repeatedly pestering the club president for advice. The president, annoyed, finally told him that Lin Dangdang loved supernatural and horror stuff, was obsessed with studying gods, demons, and Cthulhu, and if Shao Wei wanted to pursue her, he had to target her interests.

Shao Wei was deeply moved and that night sent Lin Dangdang a message: “Do you like ghosts? I love them too! Gong Yoo is so handsome, ah—”

Half an hour later, Lin Dangdang replied: “…”

Two weeks later, their diplomatic relations finally returned to normal. With the president’s help, Shao Wei got a chance to go to the haunted house with them, on the condition that “you have to bring your other roommates.”

Shao Wei asked the president why, and after hesitating for a long time, the president said, “You have a roommate… who’s quite handsome.”

“…After thinking about it, in our 301 dorm, besides me, you’re the most handsome.” Shao Wei patted Lin Huai’s shoulder, “Heaven has bestowed a great responsibility upon you…”

Lin Huai coldly pushed him away: “I’m not going.”

Shao Wei was heartbroken: “Dad! Just help me out this once, the final step is within reach…”

Lin Huai said, “Chasing girls is your business, not wanting to go out in the sun is mine. Move, you’re blocking the PPT.”

Shao Wei, embodying the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, was not afraid to confront strong opponents and was determined to win love on the battlefield. Lin Huai was so annoyed he wanted to strangle him and throw him into the toilet. In the end, he finally said, “Fine, I’ll go.”

Shao Wei was quick to say, “I’ll cover the ticket cost.”

Having achieved his first small goal, he started pushing his luck again: “Um… Brother Lin, can you do me another favor?”

Lin Huai looked at Shao Wei’s pleading eyes and felt a sense of foreboding for the first time.