Chapter 13#

Qiming Manufacturing Factory#

Chen Ziqing rubbed against the wall and ran to the window to look out at the corridor. The place where Zhong Ming spoke to him was not far away.

Seriously, I’m speechless.

Why was Zong Huaitang still hiding by the window eavesdropping?

Chen Ziqing pulled his head back and smiled awkwardly at Zong Huaitang.

Zong Huaitang also smiled: “Nothing to say?”

Chen Ziqing rubbed his hands.

At first glance, he looked very helpless and cramped, but he still knew to stick up his scalded finger so it wouldn’t touch anything.

Zong Huaitang’s lips curled into a sarcastic arc. This person really pretends.

“Technician Zong, listen to me.” Chen Ziqing stammered, “I didn’t expect…”

Zong Huaitang leisurely continued: “Didn’t expect I had ears?”

Chen Ziqing: “…”

The first choice was a dead end, and the second choice was also blocked. He hung his head dejectedly, listless.

Zong Huaitang sneered coldly and went back to his chair to continue assembling the sailboat.

Chen Ziqing was wearing a white tank top with large armholes. The wind from outside the window blew in gusts, giving him goosebumps. Small stones poked him, and he shivered all over.

“What now? The lie didn’t work, so you’re starting to use the bitter meat trick?”

Zong Huaitang was tinkering with the sailboat, not even glancing at him, but he could mock and ridicule him in time: “You got the wrong target, right? A man playing pitiful with another man, isn’t it disgusting?”

“Stop scolding, stop scolding, I’m leaving right now.” Chen Ziqing turned around dejectedly.

“Retreating as soon as you encounter a problem.”

Chen Ziqing’s hand lifting the curtain paused. Zong Huaitang’s voice slowed down and lowered, sounding like his brother Zong Linyu.

And the tone.

Twins after all.

Chen Ziqing looked back. The light from the desk lamp hit the man’s silhouette, quite charming.

Especially when his eyelids drooped slightly, casting shadows with his eyelashes.

Chen Ziqing looked at the ceiling and heard him say: “I see you have no intention of repenting at all.”

“I do.” Chen Ziqing kept a straight face, “Regarding my concealment from you, it was entirely my personal problem. At that time, I only wanted to achieve my goal and didn’t consider moral conduct…”

After explaining, he made a final summary: “I was despicable and dishonest. I review myself, I reflect.”

Facing Chen Ziqing’s apology racked from his brains, Zong Huaitang asked after a while, in a very casual tone, as if he didn’t care much: “What point did Zhong Ming rely on to surpass me and become the first choice?”

Chen Ziqing: “…”

Is this the main point?

“He didn’t surpass you.” Chen Ziqing said patiently, “I just looked for you guys in the order of the dormitories.”

Zong Huaitang maintained that posture: “Is that so?”

Chen Ziqing immediately said: “Of course.”

Zong Huaitang stretched his legs out from under the table, shook them comfortably, and said lazily: “It’s hard for me to believe your words. His pectoral muscles can knock someone dead. I’m a cripple who can’t even walk properly, how can I compare?”

Chen Ziqing said: “I’m looking for a roommate, not a life-and-death teammate.”

Zong Huaitang smiled unhurriedly: “Oh, as a life-and-death teammate, I’m nothing.”

The next second, his smile vanished, and he said seriously: “You are humiliating me.”

Chen Ziqing gritted his teeth: “I didn’t say anything!”

Zong Huaitang glanced sideways: “Silence speaks louder than words.”

Chen Ziqing glared at him. With that mouth of yours, your handsome looks are wasted.

“I’m leaving. I shouldn’t have invited you without thinking clearly, and I shouldn’t have looked for you after looking for Zhong Ming.” Chen Ziqing said exhaustedly, “Pretend I never came.”

No response. Chen Ziqing lifted the curtain, and Tang Xiaoguang couldn’t dodge in time and met his eyes.

Tang Xiaoguang panicked and put his finger to his lips, signaling Chen Ziqing not to speak, not to let the person inside know he was eavesdropping. He was also very annoyed and afraid.

Chen Ziqing put down the curtain and walked to Tang Xiaoguang’s room. He was tired from dealing with Zong Huaitang and didn’t want to take the initiative to speak, waiting for Tang Xiaoguang to speak himself.

Tang Xiaoguang heard bits and pieces, guessing the missing parts. He volunteered: “Master Xiang, if you need a roommate, can I be one?”

Immediately after, he stated his position: “If you think I’m okay, I’ll file a report tomorrow morning.”

Chen Ziqing shivered. Damn it, he forgot that changing dormitories required an application. The reporting process took half a month. What the hell, so long.

Tang Xiaoguang looked up obediently: “Master Xiang?”

Chen Ziqing scratched the bridge of his nose and looked at his residence, finding a book on his table, which seemed to be an original English edition.

The filter of knowledge immediately draped over Tang Xiaoguang.

Chen Ziqing’s gaze at him became much more fervent: “Comrade Tang, you are an intern assigned here. The dormitory is decided by the factory and is hard to change. I can’t disrupt the factory’s arrangement for my own selfish desires.”

Tang Xiaoguang didn’t even hear clearly what was said. He lowered his head and covered his face. Why were there stars in this Xiang Ning’s eyes???

“Not a big problem, I can go find… Eh? Where is he?”

Tang Xiaoguang muttered to the empty room, patted his face, walked to the curtain, lifted it a little, and stuck his head in: “Brother Huaitang, can I come in?”

“Just say it there.” Zong Huaitang refused.

Tang Xiaoguang made a face at an angle he couldn’t see: “Master Xiang wants you to move to his dormitory. Are you going?”

Zong Huaitang fiddled with the mostly assembled sailboat: “Why, you want to go?”

“He doesn’t look up to me.” Tang Xiaoguang reluctantly stated the fact he had figured out, “His standards seem quite high.”

Zong Huaitang twitched the corner of his lips. Could they not be high? He had become the second choice.

And he lied to him saying he was the first choice.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

Tang Xiaoguang yawned: “Brother Huaitang, just agree.”

Zong Huaitang suddenly said: “If your dormitory wasn’t arranged by the factory and you had to choose your own roommate, between me and Zhong Ming, who would you choose?”

Tang Xiaoguang blurted out: “Of course Zhong Ming.”

Dead silence in the room.

Tang Xiaoguang pinched his own annoying mouth. Noticing Zong Huaitang’s face looked ugly as if he had eaten a bowl of flies and couldn’t spit them out, he felt a bit secretly pleased. So he simply didn’t apologize and just smashed the pot: “Zhong Ming is so strong, his arms are thicker than my thighs. He looks very capable. Being his roommate must be very relaxing.”

Zong Huaitang glanced at him: “I’m not capable?”

Tang Xiaoguang opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed it again, and finally performed “silence speaks louder than words”.

Zong Huaitang told him to get lost. He muttered: “I didn’t enter your room anyway.”

Letting go of the curtain, Tang Xiaoguang hugged his arms and kicked the wall, hurting his big toe. He hopped on one foot to the bedside and sat down, lifting his leg to blow on his toe. A man’s desire to win was not a joke; once aroused, it was hard to suppress.

No, he had to find an opportunity to fuel the flames and send Master Zong to Xiang Ning to be worshipped.

Tang Xiaoguang began to fully monitor Xiang Ning’s every move the next day.

Speaking of which, Xiang Ning had changed a lot. Before, he always tried to please him, but after getting injured, he stopped doing that. It wasn’t playing hard to get; he really treated him as if he didn’t exist.

Didn’t even look for him.

However, last night he started admiring him again.

The sincere kind.

Tang Xiaoguang spent most of the day and went to the office with his harvest: “Brother Huaitang, Master Xiang has been visiting various workshops. He’s probably choosing a roommate!”

Zong Huaitang was feeding rice to the grass turtle. He accidentally fed too much, so he fished out the excess rice and threw it into the cement bucket.

Picking and choosing in every workshop, selecting a concubine?

Zong Huaitang strode out.

“Brother Huaitang, where are you going? Brother Huaitang?” Tang Xiaoguang pretended to be anxious, but actually didn’t take a step, just shouting in place. When the person left, he revealed a successful smile.

When Zong Huaitang went to the workshop, Chen Ziqing was standing next to Zhong Gu, talking to her about finding a roommate.

Zhong Gu was operating the machine with gloves on: “Previously, you shared a dormitory with my brother. You wrote a three-chapter agreement with quite a few rules. I thought you preferred living alone.”

Chen Ziqing sighed: “My state of mind has changed a lot since I got injured this time.”

“Indeed, even Little Ma’s brain could feel it.” Zhong Gu asked, “How was the re-examination?”

Chen Ziqing put his hands into the front pocket of his blue overalls: “Pretty good.”

Zhong Gu saw Zong Huaitang and shouted with a hearty smile: “Technician Zong, out for some activity?”

Chen Ziqing looked up.

Zong Huaitang looked at him with no expression.

The atmosphere was a bit off. Zhong Gu adjusted her stance and loyally blocked in front of Chen Ziqing, asking Zong Huaitang: “Is something wrong?”

Zong Huaitang’s gaze didn’t shift. His eyes were really born well. Staring at a person for more than ten seconds would appear affectionate and focused, highly deceptive.

Like now.

He was zoning out. Who would know if he didn’t say it.

Chen Ziqing lowered his eyes to comfort Zhong Gu: “You go ahead. I’ll go outside and talk to Technician Zong.”

Zhong Gu hesitated: “Alright, you guys chat.”

Chen Ziqing patted her shoulder and left the workshop with Zong Huaitang, one after the other.

Once outside, Chen Ziqing asked tentatively: “You are willing to share a dormitory with me, right?”

Zong Huaitang found it funny: “Is it written on my face?”

“Then why did you come to find me?” Chen Ziqing pursed his lips and said disappointedly, “Made me happy for nothing.”

Zong Huaitang stared at him silently for a moment, then left him and went back to the workshop.

Chen Ziqing was baffled. He didn’t follow him back to the workshop but squatted down, biting his nails in a daze.

In the morning, Chen Ziqing waited for Ma Qiangqiang while clocking in, saying he wanted to stay at his house for two days.

Ma Qiangqiang’s reaction was wrong; he didn’t even look at him.

Chen Ziqing knew this wouldn’t work. Ma Qiangqiang asked him if he was uncomfortable living in the dormitory.

Chen Ziqing said it was fine, thinking to himself that at worst he would sleep with the lights on.

Thinking was easy, but in reality, whether there were lights or many roommates didn’t matter. What mattered was having a companion who could make him feel secure.

And he had a mission. To put it bluntly, others would run when encountering danger, but he had to drill into it.

“Sigh…”

Chen Ziqing heard footsteps. It was Zhong Ming coming back from the office area. He didn’t speak, just looked up at him resentfully.

He had searched all the workshops, and no one had stronger yang energy than Zhong Ming.

Zhong Ming frowned: “I made it very clear last night. I can’t move back.”

Chen Ziqing made a solemn decision.

“Master Zhong, I know the fundamental reason you hate me is that I don’t keep my word and played you like a fiddle. You think I’m a villain, my character is bad, and I’m not worthy of your sister.”

“It’s a fact that I played you. I won’t defend myself on this. I understood many things after injuring my head and walking through the gates of hell. I’m sorry.”

He bowed deeply to Zhong Ming.

Zhong Ming took a step back, a bit unexpectedly at a loss.

“But there is one point I still want to make. Your sister and I really have a pure friendship.”

Chen Ziqing stood up: “If I tell you a secret of mine, you’ll know I’m not lying.”

Zhong Ming straightened his face, putting on a hard-hearted expression of “I won’t fall for whatever you say”.

“This secret concerns my job, position, even my reputation, and the rest of my life. Now I share it with you.”

The words were too heavy, like wedding vows. Zhong Ming stopped his stride.

In this moment of hesitation, Chen Ziqing had already walked up to him, face to face, and stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear.

“Actually, I don’t like…”

Chen Ziqing only mouthed the word “women” (女). Before he could make a sound, he was interrupted by a sudden shout. He looked in the direction of the voice.

“Master Xiang.”

Zong Huaitang stood at the workshop door, holding a struggling grass turtle with two fingers. There were water stains on his white shirt sleeves and front. He waved to Chen Ziqing with a face full of smiles.

“Didn’t you want to consult me about the application report for moving to your dormitory? Why don’t you come over quickly? I can’t wait.”

The second half of the sentence was emphasized seemingly unintentionally, said through gritted teeth.