Chapter 2.1: Diplomat
This time, An Ning stayed at home for two days but received countless caring messages which mainly asked her to bring food back to the dormitory. Only Mao Mao firmly opposed, saying food will bring great mental torture to her! An Ning saw those who were online besieging Mao Mao, so she occasionally sent a smiley face to confirm …… uh …… she was still watching.
Qiang Wei sent her a private message: What are you doing?
An Ning: Reading a translated post written by a Russian.
Qiang Wei: What is that?
An Ning: “The Best Method to Deal with a Corpse” and “Feasibility Report on the Liquor to Dissolve Corpse.”
Qiang Wei: This kind of things are very disgusting, right?!
An Ning: I am happily reading them ah.
Qiang Wei: You are different. By the way, I had dinner with Jiang Xu yesterday and he mentioned about you.
An Ning: Oh.
Qiang Wei: Is there anything else?!
An Ning: Oh …… Thank you for thinking about me.
Qiang Wei: ……
Qiang Wei: When you come back, bring me roast chicken!
An Ning: Ok.
Qiang Wei: Meow Meow, if I am a man, I’ll marry you.
An Ning: Just for a roast chicken?
Qiang Wei: Haha, yes ah!
The next day, An Ning returned to the university and brought meat, hope and mental torture to the students …… fully stuffed her winter overcoat pockets. If it was mental torture, then it was really a very cruel one.
When she was passing by the basketball court behind the cafeteria, she saw a familiar figure …… the third rib …… seemed like after she started to take notice of him, she would frequently see him.
Many people were watching the match outside the court. An Ning also watched for a while. When he was passing the ball to his teammate, all of a sudden, he seemed to have noticed something, stopped and glanced at her direction …… An Ning looked around …… Oh …… a lot of pretty girls ah.
“Li An Ning?” Someone called her from behind, An Ning turned around…… famous senior brother.
Jiang Xu came over, “Why are you carrying so many things? Just came back from home?”
“Yes.”
He smiled: “I’ll help you to carry some, ok?”
An Ning: “No need.”
Jiang Xu: “Don’t need to be so polite.”
An Ning: “No, uh …… we are going to different directions.”
“……” It was rare for him to be rejected by a girl, moreover with such an excuse. For the first time Jiang Xu did not know whether to laugh or cry. When he recovered his composure, the other party has already slowly walked away.
That day they’ve a mini party in the dormitory, everyone has a roast chicken in hand. However Mao Mao has two because An Ning gave her share to Mao Mao, double the mental torture.
Qiang Wei will usually start talking about Japan AV (Adult Video). Then the topic changed to Japan’s Prime Minister releasing a record, “I feel this prime minister of Japan is not attending to his proper duties. I remember someone once told me that he is very fond of reading manga.”
An Ning: “Oh …… already changed. The one who likes to read manga is Taro Aso.”
Qiang Wei: “Stood down already?! So fast?”
An Ning: “The current one is Yukio Hatoyama …… you’ll definitely like his gossips more.”
Everyone immediately became very interested: “What, tell me?!”
An Ning “…… that is he snatched someone else’s wife, specifically his parents’ good friend’s brother’s wife……”
Zhao Yang: “Japan is really a country filled with performance art ah.”
Qiang Wei: “Non-human gathering place.”
Mao Mao: “Beasts!”
Zhao Yang: “Too insulting to the beasts.”
Qiang Wei: “Ya, some more the Japanese people actually dare to condemn the Chinese people as being cold and have no compassion!”
Mao Mao: “Anyway, they are kind of similar to the Koreans.”
An Ning: “How should I put it? Sim-nida (Korean term used by the Chinese to express ‘sarcasm’ and restricted only to informal chats) is just substituting our history, no real killing or wounding power. Japan, uh …… desires most to swallow China alive, more troublesome?”
Zhao Yang: Your ‘simida’ is making me laugh uncontrollably! Meow Meow, why are you so cute ah!!”
An Ning smiled: “Because I am Li An Ning la.”
Everyone: “…… Meow Meow, you are so proud of yourself.”
The first class on Monday was old Zhang’s Quantum Statistics. This time it was rare for An Ning to enter the classroom before the bell rang, but she did not see Zhao Yang and others wave to her. Instead she saw him in the first row ….oh …… really a bit too frequent, right? He saw her and to her surprise, he faintly said, “Come here.”
While An Ning was still lost in thought, he once again said “Sit right here”. She can’t decline his courteous invitation. After An Ning sat down, she only discovered that ——she was sitting next to him.
An Ning glanced at him, but he was already earnestly flipping through the book.
Why did he ask her to come over?
He listened attentively for the entire class. Occasionally, his mobile phone on the table will light up, then he will reply the text message. An Ning dared not openly looked at him, so she only looked at his gray mobile phone and his slender fingers on top of the phone……
An Ning swore, she did not want to look at him, but to ask him why he called her to come over ……
“Uh—— ”
“Pay attention to the lecture.” he said with a gentle tone.
…… Like this, wouldn’t it be difficult for anyone to continue to concentrate?
He seemed to sense that she was “watching” him, raised his head and asked lightly, “Did you bring ‘An Introduction to Diplomacy’?”
“Oh …… I brought.” Although puzzled, she still handed over to him “An Introduction to Diplomacy of Contemporary China” which she has been carrying around recently. He took it with one hand, turned to the preface page and wrote something. Then he handed it back to her.
An Ning took a look …… beautiful calligraphic style, the handwriting has not dried out yet …… Xu Mo Ting ……
As it turned out the third rib was Xu Mo Ting……
An Ning lay in bed to ponder …… coincidence is really everywhere in the world. After all, why it was him again? However, it did not seem to feel awkward. Recalling his expression when he later asked for her number, like a matter of course …… how can someone do something so properly and expect it as a matter of course?
When Zhao Yang came in, she saw An Ning was holding her pillow and curled up in bed with her headphones, so she asked in surprise: “Meow Meow, you didn’t go to class ah?”
An Ning raised her head, “Went and came back.”
Zhao Yang looked at her watch: “It is already ten o’clock! I’ve lost track of time while conducting my experiments. By the way Qiang Wei and Mao Mao have gone to the university next door to watch the basketball match—— ”
An Ning took off the headphones and got out of bed to find her slippers, “I only saw the message after I finished my class, but the teacher did not call the roll today.”
“Bah, why every time I didn’t go, he also called the roll?” Then Zhao Yang gave a poster to An Ning, “I got it on the way home, very interesting.”
“X University’s ambassador” recruiting fervently …… “Oh.”
“Hey, we get Mao Mao to participate?” Zhao Yang smiled and picked up An Ning’s book from the table, “Why are you reading this kind of book?”
“Ah ……” An Ning walked to the water cooler and got herself a drink.
Zhao Yang flipped through the book and was about to put it down but she seemed to see something to make her pick it up again and flipped open, “Xu …… Mo Ting? Meow Meow, this is not your book?”
“No.”
“Xu Mo Ting, how come this name sounds so familiar?”
“…… Many people have the surname Xu.”
Zhao Yang suddenly smiled knowingly: “Meow Meow, this won’t work. Leniency to those who confess, punishment to those who resist!”
An Ning: “Okay …… I’ll take the punishment.”
On Xu Mo Ting’s end, after he attended a useless course, he returned to his dormitory to put down some stuff. Zhang Qi was surprised to see him, “Aren’t you in Control Yuan (an investigatory government agency that monitors the other branches of government) today?”
“I came to do something.”
Xu Mo Ting has always done things in a low-key manner. When he was a research student, he has already started work at Control Yuan and will only return to the university occasionally for a short while when there were matters to settle. “Do something? What is the big matter in the university which I don’t know about?”
Xu Ting Mo patted his shoulder: “A private matter, none of your business.”
“Ha, since you mentioned it, I notice recently you come to the university rather frequently. Leader, this is not like you ah ——It can’t be like what Cheng Yu said that you are interested in a girl in our university?”
Xu Mo Ting smiled: “I won’t deny it.”
Three days later, An Ning met Xu Mo Ting again at the venue to sign up for the “talent contest”. Zhao Yang and her were coerced by Qiang Wei to come together. The person who was accompanying him by his side was the girl who moved house with her last time.
Last night, An Ning was dragged by her cousin to play online game for most of the night so she was very sleepy now. There were quite a lot of people signing up so it should be at least half an hour before their turn. All An Ning wanted to do now was to find a seat to take a little nap.
“Zhao Yang, I go outside to take a sit, you accompany Wei Wei.”
Last night, Zhao Yang saw a sleepy cat played World of Warcraft (an online game), so she waved her hand: “Go la!”
An Ning has just left the gymnasium when she received a call from her cousin, “Someone woke me up!”
An Ning: “The pharaoh (a ruler in ancient Egypt) said, if you disturb people who are sleeping, you will go to hell.”
Cousin: “You come to execute la, let our dormitory teacher goes to hell.”
An Ning: “If I can execute then I won’t get up this morning, last night ……”
Cousin: “What?”
An Ning: “Well …… The weather is quite good today, so I want to take a nap.”
Cousin: “Are you implying that I ought to go to hell?”
An Ning: “As a matter of fact, I am expressing it explicitly.”
Cousin laughed out: “Ok, I won’t drag you to play that game next time.”
An Ning smiled: “Thank you.”
Cousin: “Hey, I was so in love with you ah!”
An Ning: “I also love you.” Well, as long as you don’t drag me to play game at midnight.
In the end, An Ning picked a wooden chair beneath a shade and closed her eyes.
In a daze, there seemed like a person sitting next to her and she drowsily rested her head on his shoulder.
Later, An Ning was awakened by Qiang Wei, “How can you really fall asleep in public? You are not afraid someone will rob or harass you?”
An Ning: “We are all civilized people.”
Qiang Wei: “……”
An Ning got up and stretched her body: “Where is Zhao Yang?”
Qiang Wei: “Went to toilet.”
When Zhao Yang was running back, a luxury car drove past her, she can’t help but sighed: “I’ve always wanted to experience turning a sports car 180 degree, stopped the car and stretched out my legs —— Wei Wei, grant me my wish, ok? ”
Qiang Wei looked at her in disdain: “I’ve never sat on the driver’s seat before, so if I drive, both of us will go directly to heaven!”
Zhao Yang chuckled: “I saw a handsome guy just now, that person who previously came to old Zhang’s class to get the blacklist.”
Qiang Wei: “Didn’t you say back then that he is only average looking?”
Zhao Yang: “Last time, he stood too far away so I did not see clearly. But after I saw him directly at close range, I then discovered what is a magnificent seven-feet man. He is like grown jade that faced the wind (which is why it got its beautiful polished shape) —— An Ning, you missed the golden opportunity again, what a pity.”
An Ning: “Oh.”
Qiang Wei held An Ning’s arm: “Our An Ning is not such a superficial person who will become starry eyed after seeing a handsome guy. Meow Meow, am I right?”
An Ning: “Yes ah——what a pity.”
Qiang Wei: “……”
Zhao Yang was already laughing so hard until she has to lean on An Ning.
After the talent contest registration event, for a time, practice voices that sounded like wail of the ghosts and howl of the wolves could be heard from the girl dormitory. According to Zhao Yang, it was an indication of “strength” but An Ning thought, “the pharaoh ought to go to hell.”