Chapter 8 Duan Yu 2

  The next morning at 6:50, everything was exactly as it had been the day before.

  Linghu Chong challenged the iron lock for an hour, only to find that the old thing was indeed quite durable, so he reluctantly withdrew his hand and continued to attack Guo Jing's iron lock the next day. Duan Yu, on the other hand, had completely lost interest in going out for breakfast, standing blankly in front of the window, propping up his chin and staring outside.

  "Cheers!" Linghu Cong's momentum for striking down was already sufficient, but he shook his head and withdrew his stance to pat Duan Yu's shoulder.

  "Old Five? Old Five? Have you seen the Fox Spirit?" Lao Wai wasn't a dull person, and he had already sensed that Duan Yu was out of sorts all day yesterday. The most obvious sign was when Lou Zhang swept up a pile of scraps, just went back to get the dustpan, and Duan Yu openly stepped on the scraps with one foot and walked past. In the dormitory building, even if the sky and earth were big, they weren't as big as Lou Zhang's authority. Even Lao Wai and Qiao Feng, who considered themselves to be tough guys, didn't dare clash with Lou Zhang. But Duan Yu just stepped on it and walked past, and when Lou Zhang saw Duan Yu's expression, he felt a bit surprised in his heart, but said nothing and swept the scraps into a pile again. It wasn't until he was dumping the trash that Lou Zhang suddenly shuddered violently, emitting cold air from the bottom of his heart.

  "Get lost." Duan Yu brushed off Linghu Chong's hand.

  That girl indeed passed under the window again, but by that time it had already passed, and Duan Yu was just savoring the memory. Disturbed by Linghu Chong, Duan Yu was very unhappy and ran away with a shrug of his head.

  "Fox spirit? Fox spirit?" Linghu Cong felt bored, and with some self-mockery, he shouted out the window, "I also admire you, why don't everyone come out and meet?"

  "Ah!" A loud shout from behind.

  Linghu Chong was frightened and trembled. Tian Boguang from the Chemistry Department happened to come in for a visit, presumably having heard his previous words, and stood at the door. Then Tian Boguang excitedly turned around and rushed out, shouting loudly in the corridor: "Take a look, don't miss it! Linghu Chong has gone mad!"

  "Good grief," Linghu Chong curled his lip, "without even seeing the appearance of Old Fifth, you have the nerve to claim that you know a madman?"

  Duan Yu continued to be lovesick, getting up at 6:30 every morning to watch the girl walk by the window. Linghu Chong continued to struggle with Guo Jing's iron lock. If this had happened to Ouyang Ke, no one would have been depressed, and he would have gone to a flower shop to order a bouquet of roses and lay in wait under the silver apricot tree. But when these sudden feelings descended upon Duan Yu, they made him melancholy. In the past, when watching girls in the cafeteria, Duan Yu had only done so for pure entertainment purposes, like someone who likes to drink beer while watching TV. Now, however, he had transformed from a flower idiot into a romantic saint, and began thinking about how to get close to her.

  As soon as he thought of this problem, Duan Yu got a big headache. He didn't have the guts to ambush like Ouyang Ke, nor did he have the thick skin of Lin Hu Chung to fight in an open field, and even less had the good luck of Guo Jing when he met Huang Rong to fight a chance encounter battle. All he could do was get up early in the morning and watch her from afar, worrying that one day she would no longer pass by here. Bianjing is very big, Duan Yu knew that once she walked into the crowd, the opportunity to find her again would be slim.

  One day, when opening the window, will he never see her again? Thinking of this question, Duan Yu was almost frightened.

  So every morning Duan Yu woke up earlier, lying in bed with wide eyes thinking about this and that, but ultimately couldn't come up with a plan, so he had to wait until 6:30 to get up and wait for the girl to pass by.

  It wasn't until about a week later that Tian Boguang said the light bulb in their room was broken and ran to Guo Jing's bed to borrow a place to sleep.

  At half past six in the morning, Linghu Chong and Tian Boguang were still snoring back and forth. Duan Yu pushed open the window and lay on the windowsill waiting, as if they had an appointment, that girl walked by again with a songbook in her arms. In the morning twilight, the tall figure was a bit blurry, Duan Yu sighed, wanting to praise but having no words.

  As the sound of admiration rose, the two men on the bed suddenly jumped up and leaned against Duan Yu's shoulder. Linghu Chong held an old-fashioned telescope, which was a Russian military product that Yang Kang had bought at a low price from a second-hand stall, with a magnification that was really satisfying. Linghu Chong could see the girl's nose and eyes clearly. The sunlight shone on the girl's face, leaving a faintly transparent rosy glow, and Linghu Chong muttered to himself: "I see, no wonder, no wonder."

  "Brother Baoguang, what's your take on this?" Linghu Chong asked with a chuckle, exuding the air of a general on the battlefield.

  Tian Boguang also manipulated a telescope, slightly nodding his head and saying: "Oh..."

  Tian Boguang's dormitory lights were fine, he came to borrow a place to stay for the sole reason that Linghu Chong discovered Duan Yu's unusual movements and pulled Tian Boguang to take a look at who the girl was. Tian Boguang was one year senior to Linghu Chong, in the same department as Guo Jing, nicknamed "Knife Scar". In fact, Tian Boguang didn't have a single mole on his face, let alone knife scars. His real nickname was "Knife Ba" - or simply put, it was a word for "lust".

  Tian Boguang has a one-year head start on Duan Yu in terms of his history with girls, and he also very frankly acknowledges this problem. When he first arrived, Tian Boguang was chatting with Guo Jing and said very seriously: "Actually, I'm a bit of a lecher." At the time, it scared silly everyone in the dormitory. Later on, Lin Huichong only discovered that his words were not empty, as Tian Boguang knew everything about every pretty girl at the school, including their hometown, age, department, and whether they were still single or not. Moreover, Tian Boguang boasted that he could estimate a girl's three measurements within 3% error from ten meters away in the summer, but unfortunately Lin Huichong couldn't verify this point. Lin Huichong once said "Then take a look at my three measurements", Tian Boguang shook his head and said "I have no experience with men".

  At this time, Tian Boguang once again proved his extraordinary experience in the Huāchī world. While holding a telescope to observe carefully, he muttered to himself: "Isn't that the legendary Wang Yuyan?"

  "What legend?" Linghu Cong was stunned.

  "Same batch as me, from Computer Science department. From Bianliang, lives in 29th floor."

  "What's your three dimensions?" Linghu Chong asked as he walked up.

  "Observing this is my personal hobby," Tian Boguang said seriously, "but I couldn't spread or sell yellow."

  Duan Yu had never heard of this girl's name before - Wang Yuyan.

  "King Yu Yan, don't you all know? Wang Huangmu Zhao Zhou, have you heard of them?" Tian Boguang felt regretful for the two juniors' ignorance.

  "What's all this nonsense?" Linghu Chong was taken aback.

  "School flower list, I updated it last year. Wang Yuyan is first, followed by Huang Rong, isn't Mu Wanqing in your class? You don't even know this as the class monitor?"

  "Mu Wanqing, is she still the school flower?"

  "Not good enough in terms of looks, just play along," Tian Boguang said disdainfully. "Zhao Min and Zhou Zhiruo are about the same, but as the president of the student union, she should get some extra points, so I put Zhao Min first."

  "Senior, you're really authoritative."

  Tian Boguang grinned, patted Duan Yu on the back and said: "But Wang Yuyan is really beautiful. When she first entered school, our classmates ran to tell us that there was a pretty new student in the computer science department. I didn't believe it at first, but when I went over to take a look, I found out that all the upperclassmen were hovering around her. I even took an elective course with her, and it was really impressive - if she sat on the left side of the classroom, everyone would squeeze in on the left side, and if she sat on the right side, people would switch to the right side. Isn't she the one in the first photo in our school's anniversary album? The teacher in charge of the school's anniversary celebration specifically asked her to take the photo, purely to deceive those who don't know any better into thinking that our school is full of girls like Wang Yuyan... but when you get here, you realize it's actually mostly silly girls..."

  "You have vision and a future, whereas Linghu Chong is hopeless in comparison." Tian Boguang thought Duan Yu was infatuated to a very high standard.

  Duan Yu smiled awkwardly, his mind only had the three words "Wang Yuyan" flying up and down, like an empty butterfly.

  The next week, Duan Yu was about to go crazy, not because of Wang Yuyan, but because of Linghu Chong and Tian Boguang.

  Ever since these two guys knew about Duan Yu's admiration for Wang Yuyan, the name "Wang Yuyan" appeared at least twenty times a day by Duan Yu's ear. When Duan Yu came back from dinner, Linghu Chong was already sitting there asking: "Hey, did you see Wang Yuyan today?"

  Tian Boguang then came over with nothing better to do: "Come, come, I'll tell you about the distribution statistics of beauties in each department at our school..."

  The most exaggerated thing is that sometimes Duan Yu sleeps more soundly, and Linghu Chong can get up at 6:30 to shake him: "Hey, old five, get up and see Wang Yuyan."

  When Duan Yu heard Linghu Chong humming a frightening ditty on the desk, his patience finally reached its limit. What Linghu Chong was humming was: "In a faraway place, there is a school flower named Wang Yuyan..."

  "Are you guys ever going to stop?" Even someone as honest as Duan Yu would get angry.

  "Huh?" Linghu Chong raised his head from the table in surprise. "Don't be impatient, we've prepared something to give you."

  "What?"

  "Clang——clang clang——" The intense drop in tone carried the momentum of a symphonic fate, as Linghu Chong stepped on a stool and waved a map with a flick. He had been drawing this while leaning on the table just now.

  "Huh?" Duan Yu was puzzled, it was just an ordinary map of Bianjing.

  "Let's see," Linghu Chong picked up his pen and dotted it, "we've counted that this week, apart from you seeing Wang Yuyan seven times downstairs, I saw her four times with Lao Tian in the cafeteria, twice at the gym, once at the library, and once at the entrance of Building 29."

  The map marks these five points, with notes on how many times Wang Yuyan appears.

  "Then we connect these five points," Linghu Chong said as he drew.

  "This is Wang Yuyan's daily route map!" Linghu Cong laughed, "Isn't it said in the classics? Know yourself and know your enemy, a hundred battles will not be in danger. With this route map, you'll know how to find her, then..."

  Linghu Chong swung his palm down and said with a heroic tone: "Then what happens next I don't know."

  Duan Yu was at a loss, seeing Linghu Chong drawing seriously, not entirely joking. But if he thanked him repeatedly and accepted the map, it would seem very foolish.

  "Can't you stop fooling around?" Duan Yu sighed.

  "Come on, isn't she just a girl? Can't you even handle this? It really makes me look down on you." Linghu Cong added a few more strokes to the map, "Alright, let's help you out... anyway, we're bored out of our minds lately..."

  Duan Yu looked up and almost swallowed his own tongue. On the map, there were three colored arrows indicating that the vanguard was led by Duan Yu, the second vanguard was led by Linghu Chong, and the rear support troops were led by Tian Boguang. The three arrows pointed majestically, like wolves and tigers, directly at a small point under the boys' dormitory - Wang Yuyan's department.

  This incident was later written by Yang Kang into a memoir of his life in Bianjing, known as the "First Siege".