Chapter 1700: Bastard

(Happy New Year, big brothers! May the Year of the Horse bring you great fortune, good health, and peace of mind!

Eat well, drink well, stay safe, and conserve your energy for the coming year!

Five years have passed in a flash; thank you, big brothers, for your unwavering support that helped your little brother escape this sea of bitterness. Though I've been a shut-in for five years, transitioning from a fresh youth to an older unmarried man, I remain content.

Forgive your little brother for being unable to write a free chapter to distribute red envelopes to you all...

Respectful greetings!

Sincere kowtows!

Big brother, Happy New Year!)

In the early morning, rain poured down heavily, but by late morning it had diminished significantly, becoming merely a moderate rain.

Wang Yan drove out, parking right downstairs from the dormitory building.

To facilitate daily travel and the transport of equipment, he had purchased two second-hand vans, with the other one parked downstairs from his studio.

When he drove to the girls' dormitory building, he saw Li Shuci already standing there obediently, waiting for him.

"Get in."

"Oh."

Li Shuci responded, trotting over to the passenger seat and getting in; holding her phone, she said, "I found a Beijing hotpot restaurant with good reviews..."

"No need; I've been to one before. Let's just go there."

"Oh..."

Li Shuci fell silent again; she fastened her seatbelt across her chest, wanting to speak but not knowing what to say, so she simply glanced occasionally through the window at the heavy traffic outside, then looked at Wang Yan driving quietly, feeling that this silence was quite nice too.

But upon further reflection, why wasn't Wang Yan speaking? Did he dislike her? Hate her?

Then she felt it wasn't nice anymore; she wanted to find something to say but still didn't know what to say...

Stuck in traffic once again, Wang Yan slowly inched the van forward; inside the vehicle played gentle instrumental music, while rain struck the windows, creating a symphony between interior and exterior.

Li Shuci finally couldn't hold back and spoke: "Wang Yan, am I particularly annoying?"

"You are particularly likable."

"Really?"

"Of course. I told you before: how else could I have sat directly beside you when school started, if not because you are so likable?"

Li Shuci asked bluntly: "Then why didn't you speak to me at all during this entire journey just now?"

"You got in the car and just looked out the window without saying anything; I assumed you were enjoying this sense of quiet." Wang Yan turned to look at her. "Didn't you notice the music has become purely instrumental, without those noisy songs from before?"

"Huh?"

Li Shuci stared blankly, trying hard to recall what song had been playing when she first got in, but she had been so nervous and agitated at the time that she hadn't paid attention to the background music at all; she only remembered it definitely wasn't gentle, soothing instrumental music.

"I'm sorry, Wang Yan; I thought you hated me."

Wang Yan shook his head: "There's nothing to apologize for; you just think too much and are always hesitant and overcautious. If you have something to say, just say it; otherwise, bottling it up for too long can easily make you sick, affecting your physical health."

"Mm, I'll definitely speak up from now on." Li Shuci nodded obediently.

This opened the floodgates of conversation; the two chatted about all sorts of random things, and even though the road was heavily congested, neither felt agitated, driving all the way to the hotpot restaurant happily and laughing cheerfully.

After ordering the meat and preparing their dipping sauces, the two drank soda and began eating heartily.

"Look, dump this entire plate of meat in, pick up a huge chopstick-full, put it in your bowl, and chomp..."

Shoving a large mouthful of mutton into his mouth, Wang Yan shook his head with apparent satisfaction, savoring the aroma of the meat.

Li Shuci was likewise stimulated to appetite; imitating Wang Yan, she ate and drank in large bites. However, the meat was very filling; after just a few large mouthfuls, she was nearly full, so she could only eat slowly, bit by bit, while chatting with Wang Yan.

Wang Yan asked: "Are you scared being alone in your dorm room at night?"

Apart from Li Shuci, the other three girls in her dormitory had all left campus: Zhong Bai went home, Xu Lianqiao's whereabouts were unknown, and Lin Luoxue went out traveling.

Previously, Lin Luoxue had even asked Wang Yan what he planned to do this week; she had intended to indulge in wild revelry with him day and night, but since Wang Yan needed to work on producing his project during this period and she didn't want to just hang around idly with him, she had no choice but to go out touring mountains and rivers to enjoy life.

Of course, Wang Yan wasn't particularly eager to indulge in wild revelry with Lin Luoxue either; after all, the disparity in their stamina was too great. Saying it would last a week, if they really let loose, most of that time would probably just be spent feeling sick of each other.

Clearly, Wang Yan had little need for such tedious intimacy. Occasionally was fine, but continuous persistence would become meaningless...

"It's alright, just too quiet. In the evenings before, Zhong Bai would always talk for quite a while, and Lin Luoxue and Xu Lianqiao would join in the conversation too."

Li Shuci seriously described the usual situation from past days, then seemed to think of something, blinking her big eyes as she added, "A little scared!"

"Then you'll just have to overcome it." Wang Yan said with a smile.

Li Shuci's gaze turned melancholy: Since you want me to overcome it, then why did you even ask...

She changed the subject, asking: "Wang Yan, do you still miss Gu Yixin?"

"We still chat occasionally; she also watched the documentary I filmed and said I did a good job."

"Then how did you two get together back then? Clearly, you couldn't stand each other before; whenever she mentioned you in the dormitory, she would gnash her teeth and say nothing good—how did you two suddenly get together?"

"Perhaps love grew from hatred." Wang Yan ate peanuts from the mixed vegetables, crunching them loudly. "It was just that once we started seeing each other favorably, we gained more understanding; then, upon careful reflection, the conflicts between her and me weren't really that significant—we weren't mortal enemies.

Once this attitude softened, one could naturally discover the good in others; since we could discover the good, and we were already so familiar, wasn't it natural to grow closer? She moved a step closer, and I didn't reject her; that's how we got together."

"It sounds like you just muddled along into a relationship, nothing like those passionate emotions in movies."

"Aren't you and that guy with glasses the same? It's mostly the same. Where do you find so much drama and excitement? If relationships really had as many emotional ups and downs as in movies, whether the relationship would succeed is debatable, but the people involved would definitely become mentally ill."

"You're right." Li Shuci nodded solemnly, accepting Wang Yan's reasoning.

She asked again, "So much time has passed; don't you want to find a girlfriend again?"

"Let fate decide."

Wang Yan then changed the subject, saying, "Are you full?"

After Li Shuci answered the question, she followed that train of thought, talking about hotpot, mentioning that hotpot in Ba-Shu was even more satisfying, and making an appointment with Wang Yan to go eat Ba-Shu style hotpot together next time.

Over the next few days, Wang Yan and Li Shuci had more contact; every day, Li Shuci would go with Wang Yan to the filming site.

She watched Wang Yan direct others in their work, watched him quickly establish connections with strangers as if they were friends, and then guide the subjects being filmed to speak, while simultaneously avoiding the camera shyness common among non-professionals.

When people look at the camera, they consciously become pretentious, unnatural, and subconsciously stare at the lens; this is a point that must be overcome.

Through chatting and guiding, Wang Yan made the subjects ignore that sensation and return to a state of natural conversation. This made their speech more believable; after all, someone who frequently glances at the camera with shifty eyes lacks conviction in what they say.

With the outdoor filming work concluded, this holiday was essentially over.

That morning, after eating breakfast, Wang Yan brought food for the three corpses lying in the dormitory, then began tackling the editing issues. Even with a clear script, being a first-time editor working on a project that had already succeeded and generated some response, the student, acutely aware of his own lack of experience, simply dared not make a move.

He constantly had to ask Wang Yan for opinions, and his inner panic was clearly visible through their text exchanges.

While Wang Yan was busy on this side, Jiang Yunming and the others on that side got up to eat breakfast.

"Old Wang, do you guys smell something foul?" Jiang Yunming sniffed, unable to help frowning. "I've been smelling an odor these past two days, but today it seems to have suddenly gotten stronger."

Wang Yan nodded with a smile: "It smells like hot pot; maybe it's from next door. When the holiday first started, I saw them eating hot pot in their room."

So the four of them went and pushed open the door to the next room. As soon as it opened, a smell hit them in the face, accompanied by a wave of heat; the hot pot was bubbling and boiling vigorously. Lu Qiaochuan, Yu Hao, and others held bowls and chopsticks, sitting around the table, seemingly waiting for the ingredients inside to cook through.

The table and the floor were a mess: rotten vegetable leaves, soupy water, congealed unidentified substances, and numerous cigarette butts—it was simply a chaotic scene, resembling a garbage dump.

"Well, well." Jiang Yunming looked at the five dumbfounded individuals. "I was wondering why I kept smelling that stench these past few days; it turns out it was your room. You're all holding bowls and chopsticks; you're not actually planning to eat that pot of unidentified stuff, are you?"

"How could that be? Are we that kind of people?" Yu Hao immediately denied.

The others followed suit, hypocritically offering various reasons to claim they would not eat the food in the pot.

Jiang Yunming shook his head helplessly: "You guys are hopeless; hurry up and clean this place up; you're polluting the environment outside."

Having said that, he turned and left.

Wang Yan said: "You'd better not eat it; it's easy to get food poisoning. If you insist on eating it, I suggest you prepare in advance to call 120."

Knowing they wouldn't eat themselves to death, just suffer for a few days and endure some misery, Wang Yan offered this advice and said nothing more.

As expected, by afternoon, the sound of an ambulance rang out outside; medical personnel, led by the dormitory manager, ran to Room 618.

Students from the same floor all came out to watch the commotion; they saw Yu Hao and the others, all pale-faced and looking as if they were about to die. Of course, they also saw the dormitory environment resembling a garbage dump and breathed in the mingled scent of various odors.

Ultimately, with the help of their classmates, the five were carried downstairs, loaded into the ambulance, and taken to the hospital. Meanwhile, this incident was continuously reported upward and then communicated downward, until Ye Jiping's distress call finally reached Wang Yan.

On the phone, Ye Jiping begged Wang Yan to go to the hospital to look after them and help coordinate the issues; he was already rushing back and had also notified their parents...

By late evening, Ye Jiping had rushed back; looking at the five unconscious individuals, he suppressed the urge to curse their mothers, confirmed there were no serious problems, and then went to report back to his superiors like a grandson.

The next morning, Wang Yan went to the hospital again. By this time, the ward was quite lively, with a crowd of people visiting.

The four girls from the girls' dormitory, Yu Hao's parents, Xiao Haiyang's older sister Xiao Yu, and Ye Jiping were all there.

"Wang Yan, you're here." Li Shuci, standing in the corner, actively came forward to greet him.

This drew the gazes of Lin Luoxue and Xiao Yu onto Li Shuci, and they then cast ambiguous looks at Wang Yan.

Wang Yan ignored them and spoke to Li Shuci: "Why are you here?"

"I came with them; I also bought some fruit," Li Shuci replied earnestly.

"Mom, Dad, this is Old Wang I told you about..."

Yu Hao, though still pale-faced, enthusiastically introduced Wang Yan to his parents.

Not staying long, Wang Yan left with Lin Luoxue and Li Shuci.

However, when Wang Yan drove to the downstairs of the girls' dormitory, Lin Luoxue said: "Shuci, you go back first; I have some matters to attend to, so I'll just have Old Wang drive me over."

"Okay." Li Shuci agreed and got out of the car, but her gaze hesitated, lingering between Wang Yan and Lin Luoxue.

"Are you coming back, Luoxue?" she asked hesitantly.

"Not necessarily; why?"

"Nothing; just stay safe, Luoxue; bye-bye." Li Shuci turned and entered the dormitory building.

Wang Yan shifted gears and drove off; Lin Luoxue, smiling brightly, also reached out to shift gears: "My dear good classmate, it seems Shuci suspects us."

"She's not an idiot; you've left with me so many times, often not returning to the dormitory at night; how could she not notice? Especially since you do this every time, insisting on dropping her off before leaving with me. Now you've achieved your goal."

"Yes, how could she not notice?" Lin Luoxue nodded in agreement, not addressing Wang Yan's comment about her goal being achieved, but instead applying slight pressure with her hand and changing the subject: "Then what's the story between you and Xiao Haiyang's older sister? The way she looks at you is somewhat different; you two seem... very close?"

"Very close," Wang Yan nodded with a smile.

Lin Luoxue leaned closer, her breath fragrant: "How close? As close as the two of us?"

"Just as close."

Wang Yan gave an affirmative answer and, starting from filming the wedding for Xiao Haiyang's ex-girlfriend last year, spoke without reservation, saying whatever there was to say.

Arriving at the studio, the two went up to the third floor, where Lin Luoxue wrapped her arms around Wang Yan's neck.

"Now the fact that you're a scumbag is even more confirmed; it turns out back then, it wasn't just me, but also Xiao Haiyang's older sister. But speaking of which, do you like older women?"

"If we're talking purely about romantic affairs, from eighteen to forty, every age has its own unique beauty."

Lin Luoxue jumped onto Wang Yan, wrapping her legs around his waist: "Does that mean I should go home tonight? Otherwise, wouldn't I be interfering between the two of you?"

"I could go out instead."

"You really are a bastard."

In the girls' dormitory, when Lin Luoxue returned, Xu Lianqiao and the others had already come back and were chatting idly.

Li Shuci silently watched Lin Luoxue, who had changed into a fresh set of clothes and seemed to have just taken a shower; an inexplicable sorrow permeated her...

After recovering for two days, Yu Hao and the others finally returned to the dormitory to clean up their mess, vowing that in the future they would definitely maintain indoor hygiene, would not eat unclean things, and would never again lie paralyzed in the dormitory waiting to die.

So, to celebrate their rebirth, that very night they ate hot pot and drank beer in the room again...

Life is full of farces, yet it continues.

The difference is that Li Shuci no longer seems to seek out Wang Yan.

Previously, she had never discovered that Wang Yan and Lin Luoxue were a doggy couple; but once she suddenly sensed something, her heart became a tangled mess, and she began thinking of avoiding them.

After all, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment; Li Shuci will probably need some time to heal herself...

After a few days like this, Ye Jiping notified everyone about an ancient town photography exhibition with spots available for university students, asking the classmates to prepare their works for the exhibition, to experience the exhibition culture of the photography circle, and to learn from others' excellent works.

Thus, the students' hearts took flight; they actively screened their photos, finding each one unsatisfactory no matter how they looked, yet unable to resist imagining their photos being discovered by someone and them becoming famous overnight...

?? Daily thanks to the good brothers who generously donate, cast monthly votes, recommend votes, and silently read the book for their strong support!