Chapter 60#
The Storyteller (Part 12)#
“A mysterious person has appeared in our city.”
“He is the guardian deity of this city, judging all bad people on behalf of justice.”
“Those who are blind, spread rumors, pretend to be deaf and dumb, and resort to violence must all die!”
Boom!
In early September, a heavy rain fell in Huaicheng. When Ye Sheng woke up, the clothes hanging on the balcony had been blown to the ground. He picked them up and washed them again.
After the rain, the air was fresh and humid. The area around the boys’ dormitory was planted with camphor trees. When Ye Sheng went out, the ground was covered with green fallen leaves that had fallen into puddles.
After the Luohu Mansion incident, he hadn’t found any other clues about the King of Stories. It just happened to be the start of the semester at Huaian University, so Ye Sheng stopped dwelling on anomalies and focused on his life.
He was very busy every day. He worked at the haunted house at night and prepared for the orientation with the student union during the day.
Yes, orientation.
The counselor made the best use of everything, saying that the student union was short of hands, and asked Ye Sheng, a freshman, to make up the numbers.
—What is this called, “I, welcome, my, self”?
However, coming from Yinshan, Ye Sheng’s most obvious qualities were endurance and patience. He helped print documents and set up the venue, doing things without any sloppiness, crisp and neat, just a bit too neat.
Except for doing things, he was too lazy to say a word.
Some senior sisters saw him and their hearts fluttered. They came up to strike up a conversation and wanted his WeChat ID.
Ye Sheng replied uniformly that he didn’t bring his phone.
Because he really didn’t bring his phone.
However, in this era where everyone is inseparable from their phones, no one believed him.
“Didn’t bring your phone? Junior, your way of rejecting people is too old-fashioned.”
“Exactly, how can anyone go out without a phone these days? You might as well say you like men.”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Ye Sheng took a deep breath and said very calmly: “I like men.”
The two senior sisters: “…”
Ye Sheng checked the time, told the head of the publicity department, and went to the haunted house. After Huang Qiqi and Ye Sheng started school, Xia Wenshi could no longer be a hands-off shopkeeper.
He was now working as both a receptionist and a cleaner, very busy.
When Ye Sheng went over, Xia Wenshi was wearing an apron and holding a feather duster, discussing something with Huang Qiqi around the computer.
Xia Wenshi was shocked: “You’re writing the script for the school promotional video this year?”
Huang Qiqi lay in front of the computer and said weakly: “Boss, I’m the vice president of the Literature Club of Huaian University, why are you so surprised?”
Xia Wenshi became interested: “How is it, do you have inspiration, have you decided on a theme?”
Huang Qiqi shook her head, grabbed her hair, and said depressedly: “No, the deadline is coming soon. The people in our club are going crazy, bringing up all kinds of melodramatic plots as suggestions.”
She flipped through the chat records and complained while flipping: “A classmate of mine watched two months of domineering CEO romance novels during the summer vacation and became silly. The script she gave was actually a crematorium for chasing wife. The heroine had poor grades in high school and the hero looked down on her, then the heroine quietly excelled, amazed everyone, worked hard for a hundred days to get into Huaian University, and from then on the hero cried bitterly and regretted endlessly.”
“Ahahahahahahaha.” Xia Wenshi laughed ruthlessly.
Huang Qiqi said: “If this is filmed, it will definitely not be the hero’s crematorium, but our crematorium. It will be us kneeling in front of the principal’s office begging him to love us again and not throw us out.”
Xia Wenshi laughed until tears came out, waved the feather duster and said: “You still say that. Maybe the freshmen love to watch this.”
Huang Qiqi: “Freshmen love to watch it, but the principal doesn’t. But other themes have been filmed, family, friendship, growth, future, youth. What else is there?”
Xia Wenshi: “Then you guys try love this time. It’s not illegal for eighteen-year-olds to fall in love. Besides, the promotional video is not official anyway, and it won’t be put on the serious official website to represent the school’s image. As long as it’s not too outrageous, the school leaders will definitely turn a blind eye.”
Huang Qiqi felt that what he said made sense, nodded and said: “Then I’ll write a childhood sweethearts story?”
Xia Wenshi’s smile froze on his face immediately. He was scared by Luohu Mansion. Hearing the words “childhood sweethearts” made his scalp tingle. He immediately shook his head and said: “NO! Don’t! Too cliché!”
Ding. Huang Qiqi received another new message, and she almost sprayed on the computer.
“Boss, my love-brained roommate gave another suggestion. The hero suddenly developed cancer in his third year of high school and told the heroine that he hoped to see her get into Huaian University before he died, and take their promise to Lover’s Lake. But after the college entrance examination, the heroine burned the admission notice to him in front of the hero’s grave.”
Xia Wenshi laughed crazily.
“So love brains are also divided into underworld love brains and world of the living love brains.”
At the same time, Ye Sheng and Luo Xingyan were also talking in the utility room. Regarding the investigation of the Story Magazine Agency, the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs kept its promise and told him all the information found.
“In the past month, we have successively found some old books published by the Story Magazine Agency from some elderly people in their eighties and nineties. But the ‘Night Voyage’ you mentioned is not for sale, and the quantity is scarce. Not a single issue was found in the entire Huaicheng.”
Ye Sheng said: “Doesn’t Duan Shi’s family have any?”
Luo Xingyan said: “No. Duan Shi’s family said they moved once and thought old things were cumbersome, so they sold all of Duan Shi’s grandfather’s books as waste. Even Duan Shi only kept one copy of ‘Night Voyage’ as a souvenir.”
Ye Sheng didn’t speak again.
Luo Xingyan narrowed his cat eyes, looked Ye Sheng up and down, and asked suspiciously: “You care so much about this magazine, do you have any guesses about the King of Stories?”
Ye Sheng threw the mop in his hand to him: “Yes.”
Luo Xingyan was a little interested: “What is it?”
Ye Sheng: “Too lazy to say. You sweep the floor.”
“…” Luo Xingyan gritted his teeth and took the mop, chuckling twice.
When they went out,
Xia Wenshi and Huang Qiqi finally decided on the theme of the promotional video after a soul exchange.
Secret crush.
“Yes, secret crush. Secretly crushing on an excellent person makes one’s obscure youth exciting. Chasing that person’s steps, becoming a better self.” Huang Qiqi patted the keyboard happily: “Write it if you want, the last one counterattacks to become a beautiful straight-A student, I love to watch this.”
Speaking of the topic of secret crush, Xia Wenshi was a sentimental yellow-haired spirited guy, and instantly became melancholy: “I feel like I haven’t liked anyone in my student days. I really want to experience the bitterness of secret crush.”
Huang Qiqi said: “Me too. In high school, I had a small exam every three days and a big exam every five days. I didn’t have time for youthful pain.”
While the two were sympathizing with each other, they saw Luo Xingyan and Ye Sheng coming out, and immediately happily pulled them into the topic.
Xia Wenshi: “Xiao Luo Xiao Ye, did you have a secret crush on anyone in your student days?”
Huang Qiqi disagreed: “Boss, you asked the wrong question. With their looks, they were the ones being secretly crushed on in their student days.”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Luo Xingyan: “…”
What is a secret crush.
Luo Xingyan was afraid that chatting too much with the silly and sweet boss and colleague would make him stupid too, so he was very perfunctory: “No, I went to a military academy, the competition was fierce, no time for these.”
Ye Sheng was also concise: “No.”
Huang Qiqi said: “Then have you been secretly crushed on?”
Luo Xingyan rolled his eyes: “No.” There is no secret crush in the First Military Academy, only assassination.
Ye Sheng didn’t want to talk more about this meaningless topic: “No.”
He was gloomy and withdrawn in his student days, a marginalized figure excluded by the class. Especially when he was young, he was sallow and thin. If he hadn’t been able to fight, he didn’t know how many times he would have been bullied in elementary and junior high school.
Huang Qiqi was shocked and couldn’t believe that such a handsome guy didn’t become anyone’s youth.
Xia Wenshi laughed non-stop, possessed by a philosopher, and suddenly said: “Sigh, Qiqi, actually youth doesn’t need a secret crush to be exciting. Many times, youth is just a time that can’t be returned to, just like childhood. Isn’t there a saying? Some people use their childhood to heal their whole lives. As people get older, what they want to return to most is often not eighteen, but eight.”
Huang Qiqi thought for a while, nodded, and said cheerfully: “Yes. Wanting to return to eighteen is wanting to change fate against the will of heaven, because at that time one was in the prime of youth, with expectations for the future, for love, and for success and fame. But wanting to return to eight, there are not so many complex emotions. The world at that time was a pure land. Happiness and satisfaction were particularly simple. Eating a pack of spicy strips on the way home from school, and looking at the illustrations every time a new book was issued was enough.”
Ye Sheng didn’t intend to join their conversation.
But when Huang Qiqi said this remark about childhood, Ye Sheng was slightly distracted.
After chatting with Ning Weichen that day, he was thinking about what the most extreme human emotion would be.
At that time, Ye Sheng’s thinking was limited to between people. Family affection, love, friendship.
Abandonment, deception, and harm between people. But in fact, there are more nihilistic things in this world that people cannot let go of, such as life and death, time.
Ning Weichen said “The King of Stories is like a child trapped in the past”.
So what is the past of the King of Stories?
Yanzhen Bridge, Nightcrawler.
True love is pure, good and evil are rewarded.
Looking at it this way, it really is a flawless pure land.
In the evening, when Ning Weichen came to pick Ye Sheng up from work, Huang Qiqi also asked him that question about secret crush. If Luo Xingyan was because of his weird temper, and Ye Sheng was because of his cold personality, then Ning Weichen didn’t have either, so it was impossible for him not to have a secret admirer.
Good family background, good looks, good personality.
Such a person was definitely a prominent figure in his student days.
“People who secretly crushed on me?” Ning Weichen smiled and said casually: “Maybe.”
Huang Qiqi said: “Junior, you are too modest.”
Ning Weichen smiled faintly and suddenly said: “But I do have someone I secretly crush on.”
Huang Qiqi almost choked on her own saliva and looked up in disbelief.
Xia Wenshi was also stunned: “You have a secret crush?”
Luo Xingyan, who had been keeping a straight face, rolled his eyes again.
Ning Weichen smiled meaningfully. Before he could speak, Ye Sheng had already dragged him away.
Ning Weichen smiled and shut up, obediently following him away.
Although Ye Sheng agreed to participate in the promotional video, he was just a passerby showing his face, not the hero or heroine, so he didn’t care about what the script wrote at all.
He now had four groups on his phone.
Freshman group. Dormitory group. Work group. Student union group.
The day before the start of school registration.
Everyone in the dormitory group was excited and agreed on the arrival time.
The freshman group had even agreed to meet at a bar in the evening.
And the student union group.
Someone suddenly exploded a message like a bomb at night.
[Do you know, a remarkable figure has come to this batch of freshmen!]
[????]
[Brother, your style of passing messages is really like a eunuch [nose picking]]
[What big shot? Are you talking about Xie Wenci who donated a building to enter the school? That’s old news.]
[…No, brother, the junior I’m talking about has a family background that crushes Xie the socialite. He can really be called wealthy enough to rival a country. Let alone donating a building, he can build another Huaian University casually.]
[Damn, really?!]
[Really, I overheard it outside the door when the president was on the phone. I also heard that this new junior actually went to university abroad long ago. Graduated from MIT with a double degree in mathematics and psychology at the age of seventeen. I completely don’t know why he came back to study for another bachelor’s degree. You rich people are really hard to understand.jpg]
[MIT? Massachusetts Institute of Technology? Seventeen years old?!!!]
[Yeah, awesome right. I told you it was remarkable, you didn’t believe me. A classmate of mine in the food street told me before that he saw a Bentley worth tens of millions on the ground. I guess it’s this young master. Damn, what kind of school is this, that the young master has to come to attend in person. Old slave tears [lemon]]
[Genius boy, noble son. Thank you, I have material for dreaming. Chapter 1 “Return to China”, Chapter 2 “Freshman Registration; Senior Sister You Wrote My Name Wrong”]
[Ying, actually it can also be Senior Brother.]
[I’m a little nervous. Will he talk to me in English when registering? Help, I passed CET-6 with a low score ahhhhhhh.]
[If you can’t do it, let me do it. My IELTS is 7.5!!!]
Ye Sheng: “…”
He suddenly didn’t really want to continue helping with the orientation tomorrow.