Chapter 26: Pathological Beauty

  On the way back, Zhang Wei suggested going to his place for a gathering. Qin Ke said she had to train new members of the modeling team that night, so we sent her back to school and headed to Zhang Wei's bar. On the way there, I called Li Songwei and Ma Ke separately. I like it when the atmosphere is lively when drinking. When we arrived at the bar, Li Songwei and Ma Ke were already waiting for us. To my surprise, Zhao Lijia also came with Li Songwei today. In my impression, Zhao Lijia has always been an anti-human drunkenness warrior. I didn't expect her to appear in a bar too. Maybe it's because of women's sensitivity, she must have suspected that we would get drunk and be promiscuous, especially when Ma Ke and Zhang Wei appeared at the same time, the probability of this situation occurring would increase greatly, based on these points, triggering Zhao Lijia's sensitive nerves.

  Because of my own reasons, Zhao Lijia and Ma Ke, Zhang Wei were already familiar with each other, but Li Songwei was someone I had known for a relatively short time. So when she arrived, we didn't feel much discomfort, especially since there was a beautiful woman to keep us company, which would also help to ease the atmosphere and stimulate digestion. We all went up to a private room on the second floor together. Before entering, I specifically reminded Zhang Wei to move the KTV equipment out of the room. I really couldn't bear another night of drinking under the noise generated by Ma Ke. From what I know, normally when people are catalyzed by alcohol, their sex hormones become more active. But with Ma Ke, apart from his sex hormones being active, some unknown hormone in the part of his brain that controls music also becomes more active. So usually when he sings a song, his face would turn red like a monkey's butt. After three rounds of drinking, he would unconsciously look for a microphone, just like "Bananaman" from an American cartoon I watched as a kid who would become Superman after eating bananas.

  Li Songwei's liquor was always annihilated by Zhao Lijia in a subtle way, which made Ma Ke and Li Songwei very annoyed. The Northeasterner's boldness is not only reflected in their character but also in drinking. At the wine table, six relatives are not recognized, and those who dare to show off are undoubtedly playing with fire. Under Ma Ke and Zhang Wei's punitive drinking, Li Songwei finally became dizzy. Zhao Lijia was also deeply remorseful for her foolish behavior at this time. When Li Songwei was about to collapse, we shifted the focus of the conflict to Ma Ke again because I found that he had started to have an urge to find a microphone. So I winked at Zhang Wei, and he took advantage of Ma Ke's inattention to replace his liquor with vodka - a strong liquor that can substitute for alcohol. The result was predictable: under the influence of the strong liquor, Ma Ke quickly became a dead pig. In this way, we continued to clink glasses without any danger.

  After clinking glasses a few times, Zhang Wei received a phone call. I could tell it was a woman's voice, with a hint of anger. But seeing how gentle and submissive Zhang Wei was on the phone made his image in my mind change from a majestic lion full of male hormones to a castrated tom cat.

  After Zhang Wei hung up the phone, I tried to ask him about the identity of the mysterious woman on the other end of the line, but he refused to answer any substantial questions except that she was a friend, which made me feel even more suspicious. After finishing this call, Zhang Wei became very excited and restless, and after drinking a few more cups, he hastily announced the end of the banquet and sent us away in a hurry.

  After saying goodbye to Li Songwei and Zhao Lijia, I supported Marco, who was drunk like a puddle of mud, into a taxi. I rolled down the window and leaned his head against it, which would reduce the chances of him vomiting on me.

  When I was drowsy and almost fell asleep, the car stopped at Mark's place downstairs. Mark, who is usually thin as a rake, was surprisingly heavy in my arms. I almost had to use the "dead pig" method to drag him to the door of his home.

  I propped him up against the wall, one hand supporting him and the other rummaging through his pockets for keys. Just then, the door to Marco's house suddenly swung open, revealing a long-haired figure with a pale, bloodless face. At that moment, I felt the hairs on my body stand on end as if they had been electrified, and my body involuntarily took a big step back, leaning against Marco's side, ready to push him forward in case of any danger in order to save myself.

  "Long time no see!" The female ghost seemed surprised to see me, but I was even more shocked. The female ghost actually knew me, it seems I won't be able to escape this calamity.

  "Guo Cheng!!!! How...how did you end up here?!" I took advantage of the light in the room to observe carefully, and it turned out that Guo Cheng had a face mask on. At this time, Guo Cheng was wearing a nightgown, making me wonder if I had drunk too much and walked into the wrong place. But then I thought about how Guo Cheng always lived in the dormitory, and this place was undoubtedly Mark's residence, so I changed my gaze from shock to interrogation, hoping that Guo Cheng would give me a reasonable explanation.

  "Stop standing there! Quickly help him in!" From Guo Cheng's slightly flustered and concerned gaze, I seemed to understand something. So I helped Guo Cheng bring Marco into the only bedroom of his rented house. Besides the bedroom, Marco's house also had a small living room. But seeing that the original single bed in Marco's room had been replaced with a double bed, and thinking about some of Marco's strange behavior recently, I was completely enlightened at this point, just a bit surprised. Thinking about the singles around me who had established "immoral" relationships through me, it seemed like I was a bridge connecting them, or more precisely, a magpie bridge.

  "When did you start?" I asked Guo Cheng, who was undressing Marco, as I sat down on the sofa in the living room with a thud after throwing Marco onto the bed.

  "Hmm... it's been a week already."

  "When did you move in?"

  "It's been about two weeks, right!" Guo Cheng's response almost made me fall off the couch. She seemed to be quite relentless in her pursuit of my performance, "Don't pretend, you and Ke Yi aren't living together now, are you?"

  "You need to understand the essence of the problem, Qin Ke Yi and I are just a simple housemate relationship. Living together with you first, and then determining the relationship based on each other's physiological reactions is fundamentally different."

  "Hmph! If Kaiyi had said that, I might have barely believed it!" From Guo Cheng's current state of mind, I suspected that Ma Ke's despicable thoughts could be contagious through bodily fluids, so I decided to change the subject.

  "Weren't you and Marco not very familiar with each other before? How did you end up together?"

  "Do you still remember that time when we bumped into each other at the bar, and Kexin was with me? After you left, Mark brought another guy over and used the same despicable tactics as you to rescue me and my friends. We've been in touch ever since." From Guo Cheng's words, I analyzed that Mark had already developed evil intentions towards Guo Cheng a long time ago. At this moment, I suddenly felt whether I should remind Guo Cheng about Mark's true nature in relationships, but the words got stuck in my throat. After all, even the most promiscuous man can have his heart captured one day, who can guarantee that Mark isn't sincere this time? They are both my friends, and I really don't want to see either of them get hurt by the other. This conflicting feeling has appeared before me for the second time."

  "Guo Cheng? You... know Mark?" I tried to give Guo Cheng some information by playing it cool, which was also my responsibility as a friend.

  "Don't be silly, isn't it all about getting to know each other while talking? Besides, college romance is no big deal, right? It's just a matter of being together or breaking up, no need to take those things too seriously." Guo Cheng's carefree attitude towards relationships made me feel like my worries were unnecessary. So after chatting with her about some other topics, I bid her farewell and left their love nest with Ma Ke.

  On the way home, Guo Cheng's views on college romance have been lingering in my mind, although only a few words, but they are memorable. In my eyes, many of my friends around me who fall in love are just to satisfy certain needs, some are to solve physiological needs; some are to relieve loneliness; some are to pursue material enjoyment (this phenomenon is especially serious among female groups); more are to follow the trend, feeling that others are dating and I am not, which also perfectly explains why college emotions are so fragile, graduating and losing love, but a university without romance is imperfect, so if you use an idiom to describe the romance of most college students, it's "quenching thirst by drawing a deer".

  Looking back on the mindset when I first stepped into the university campus, many people, including me, were very excited. At that time, the first thought in my mind was not how to study well and contribute to the Four Modernizations, but rather how to quickly find a girlfriend. When you encounter a group of boys walking with their mouths open, talking about girls nonstop on campus, 80% of them are likely freshmen. This is also a result of the harm caused by the ban on romance in education before college. I really don't know why nine years of compulsory education plus three years of high school education would lead to collective hormonal imbalance in boys.

  When I returned home and opened the door, a loud coughing sound came from Qin Ke Yi's room that echoed throughout the house. I walked to the door of Qin Ke Yi's room, which was half closed, and knocked on it. Qin Ke Yi said in a weak voice, "Come in." So I pushed open the door and entered the room, finding Qin Ke Yi lying under the covers on the bed, coughing severely.

  "What's wrong with you? You were fine this afternoon, how did you end up coughing like that now?"

  "I don't know, maybe it's because they had them jumping rope in the afternoon and worked up a sweat, then got blown by the wind when they came out, so they started coughing." Qin Ke Yi's sickly appearance made me feel a strong urge to pamper him, and at the same time, I experienced what people call "sickly beauty". I reached out to touch Qin Ke Yi's forehead and found it was slightly warm, so I went back to my room to get a thermometer for Qin Ke Yi to hold under his arm. Since I rarely get sick, especially with colds or coughs, there wasn't any medicine at home, so I decided to make him a bowl of ginger soup while he took his temperature.

  After the ginger soup was cooked, I brought it in and placed it on Qin Ke Yi's bedside table, then asked her to take out the thermometer.

  "It's less than 38 degrees, just a low fever, drink the soup and you'll be fine. Tomorrow I'll take you to get an IV drip, and you'll recover quickly." I said as I helped Qin Ke Yi up from the bed, then handed him the ginger soup.

  "Hmm! What is this? It's so hard to drink!" Qin Ke's face contorted in pain after taking a sip.

  "Don't spit it out, drink it all! There's no medicine at home, so just drink this to hold on for now."

  "Hmm! Won't you drink it? It's too hard to swallow!" Qin Ke pleaded with me like a spoiled child.

  "No way! Hold your breath, and it's all gone!" I said as I helped Qin Ke drink the apple juice. Qin Ke held the bowl, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then suddenly gulped down the entire bowl of ginger soup in one go, giving me the feeling that she was drinking poison.

  "Give me the apple quickly! I'm dying of thirst! Why didn't you put some sugar in it?" Qin Ke snatched away the apple that I hadn't finished yet, saying as he ate.

  "The sugar is all gone! Eat slowly, don't eat the one that's not sold out! Finish eating and rest early, I'll take you to get an IV drip tomorrow, I'm going out."

  "Hey! Wait a minute! Chat with me for a bit!" Qin Ke suddenly regained some energy.

  "Alright! What's up?" I sat down again on Qin Ke Yi's bed.

  "Whatever!... Uh... Are you this thoughtful when your girlfriend is sick?"

  "Isn't that a given? You're like this and my girlfriend is even more so! Moreover, she's even more meticulous than before, but she didn't used to get sick easily."

  "Oh! Alright, nothing's wrong! I'm going to sleep now! You go out and close the door!" Qin Ke Yi seemed disappointed with my response, and returned to her sickly appearance, saying lazily. It seems like I can feel something in my heart, but every time I do, I deny it at the same time. Although sometimes I am very confident in myself, whenever I face Qin Ke Yi, my confidence disappears without a trace. I'm already very clear that my good feelings towards her are slowly upgrading to a higher level of emotion, but every time I confirm this feeling, Tong Chen's shadow appears before me, making me feel very conflicted.

  I took a look at Qin Ke who was lying on the bed with her back to me, then slowly got up and walked out of her room, gently closing the door.