Chapter 23

Chapter 23

“Derek’s figure is so good~”

“Why aren’t you wearing clothes again?” Fu Ke incredulously turned around and sure enough, he saw that Derek had just come out from the bathroom, his upper body naked as he drank a bottle of water.

“I’m in my own bedroom. It’s not like I’m streaking out on the streets. I’m also wearing pants.” Seeing Ning An on the video screen, Derek confidently walked over. “Thank you for your compliment. I accept it.”

“Wow, you even have abs.” This time, Ning An could see his body even more clearly and sighed. “Such a good figure~”

“Go away. You’re being a bad influence.” Listening to their exchange, Fu Ke had a strange feeling in his heart and urged Derek go put on some clothes.

Derek muttered to himself “How is this a bad influence?” before leaving the range of the video. Fu Ke then looked at Ning An again, but suddenly didn’t know what to say.

The two of them stared at each other; you look at me, I look at you. Finally, Ning An let out a yawn and Fu Ke grasped this opening.

“Lately, have you been under a lot of pressure?”

“Mm, I’m not bad. A little tired, but it’s quite tolerable.”

Ning Meng’s eye cream for removing dark circles was pretty effective. Ning An still looked energetic and didn’t seem to be putting on a front. It shouldn’t be because of too much pressure, but rather because of that ‘brotherhood’ group.

Fu Ke wanted to ask about the ‘brotherhood’ incident the other night, but thinking about it, he felt that it was too inconvenient to ask.

And so, there was another round of awkward silence.

Ning An felt that the current situation was a little weird. “That, did you find me just to ask me this?”

“En. I haven’t seen you in the training ground these days.” Thinking about it, Ning An hadn’t appeared since his fight with Xu Yu Sheng. “That day, your situation wasn’t quite right. It must have been hard on you.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Pa’r olcf, la’r olcf. P’w qfgofmais ubbv cbk. P’nf yffc lc atf ilygjgs atfrf qjra ofk vjsr. Xfbwfags lr gfjiis tjgv.”

“Po sbe kjca, P mjc afjmt sbe atf atfbgs.” Me Bf yiegafv bea klatbea atlcxlcu.

“Ct, atja kbeiv yf gfjiis ubbv.” Ktfrf vjsr, Rlcu Cc tjv yffc abufatfg klat Lf Wlc, yea rlcmf atfs ybat vlvc’a ecvfgrajcv atf reypfma, atfs mbeiv bcis raeqlvis rajgf ja atflg ybbxr. “Ktfc tbk jybea kf wffa eq ja atf ilygjgs abwbggbk cluta?”

“Okay.”

“Wait a moment. He Xin just called me over.” Ning An’s figure disappeared for a while and then appeared again. His expression clearly looked like he was holding back his laughter.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hahahahaha!” Once he started, Ning An couldn’t stop and was rolling on the floor with laughter. “You, hurry up and call Derek back from the balcony. He’s comparing his muscles with your neighbour hahahaha. He Xin was hanging out the washing on the balcony and saw hahaha. Aiyah, so funny.”

“…… Just let him do what he wants.” Fu Ke was momentarily speechless. “Wait, you guys can see our bedroom from your balcony?”

“Mhm, we’re both on the seventh floor, just across from our balcony.” Ning An took a few breaths to calm his laughter. “Ah, by the way, have you made any new friends recently?”

Why did this sound like a mother who was concerned about her son’s interpersonal relationships?

Ning An must have laughed too hard that his brain still hadn’t reacted yet. He thought about it and decided to rephrase the question.

“You……” Fu Ke was a little apprehensive. “Aren’t we friends?”

“Ah, me?” So they actually counted as friends. Thinking about it, Ning An felt that their relationship had indeed gone beyond the scope of just ordinary classmates. “Mm, I’m very happy to be your friend.”

Thinking that he had unknowingly become friends with a real top student, Ning An smiled even more happily.

“Me too.” It turned out that making friends with him could make the other so happy. Fu Ke felt as though he understood something, but was also a little uncertain about it. “It’s late, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, see you later.”

*****

“Maths is really hard.” Ning An chewed on the dried vegetable strips He Xin had given him, making crunching sounds as he poured out his grievances to Ning Meng. “It’s not like I intend to operate any mechas in the future; why do I need to draw sectional diagrams of one? I also don’t plan to fly a starship; why must I calculate its energy consumption and mileage?”

“The value of knowledge lies in its uselessness.” Ning Meng said pretentiously, but after only maintaining it for a few seconds, she broke her facade. “I’m just kidding. I read that sentence in a book today; I think it suits you very well. Keep studying and you will become a smarter person.”

“I’ll probably be a baldy before I become smart.” Ning An was depressed and frustrated as he stuffed vegetable strips into his mouth. He bit them to pieces as though he was chewing on all the homework he had to do for each course. Suddenly exerting too much force, he bit down hard on his teeth. “Ah! Cough Cough! Pei!”

“You should also be a little more careful. I have already mailed the shampoo to you. Remember to use it every day.” Ning Meng saw Ning An appear in front of the camera again. “Brother, did you request for leave yet? Is it inconvenient to apply? How about I just let my classmate accompany me?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve already gotten my leave approved. I’ll see you in a few days!” It would be fine if Ning Meng hadn’t mentioned it, but as soon as she raised this topic, Ning An once again stabbed at the voodoo doll of Qin Zhao in his heart.

“You’re requesting leave for so many days. This will be very difficult for me to approve.” Although Qin Zhao said this, he looked completely at ease. He feigned a troubled expression and said, “5 days ah……”

“Instructor, there are two rest days in between.” Ning An was afraid that there would be complications and hence prepared his words. “I’ll only miss 3 days of classes.”

“3 days ah…… Have you finished writing your research report on the changes in the use of mecha I mentioned last time?” Qin Zhao propped up his arm on the table and spun a pen in his hand. “If you hand me your report after you come back from your leave, I will sign off your request.”

This bloodsucking demon! Ning An cursed and raged in his heart while maintaining a smile on his face. “Then, thank you instructor.”

“You’re welcome.” Qin Zhao stopped spinning the pen and elegantly signed off the leave request form. He then filed it to the school through his terminal. “I look forward to receiving your research report. Remember that it must also include diagrams.”

To hell with the diagrams! He needed to draw the front view, side view, top view, internal cross sectional view. Ning An felt like his head was going to explode.

“Oh right. Brother, what’s that you’re eating?” Ning Meng knew that Ning An ate nutrition packs every day, and in order to temper his abdominal muscles, he wouldn’t eat late night snacks. This was the first time that she saw him eat something.

“This? They’re dried vegetable strips. My roommate gave them to me. His family made them.” Ning An looked at the bag that still had more than half the vegetable strips left. Wiping his hands, he sealed up the opening of the bag. “I’ll bring some for you to try.”

“There’s no need, just eat them yourself.” Ning Meng had recently been eating vegetable salads to lose weight. Seeing the vegetable strips, she didn’t have the slightest bit of appetite.

“Alright, you should rest early.”

“Okay, goodnight brother.”

Although he had successfully applied for leave and booked a ticket in advance, he still had an additional research report to write. Ning An didn’t want to write the report while he accompanied Ning Meng. That kind of company was useless.

*****

“I’m sorry for troubling you to accompany me again.” Ning An had separated a small portion of the vegetable strips into a small packet to give to Fu Ke. “These are pretty tasty.”

“En.” Fu Ke nodded and took the pack. He then opened the book in front of him. “Then, we should start early and end early. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask me.”

“Okay.” Ning An took off his personal terminal and put it on the table. He then turned on the display screen and set it so that Fu Ke could also see it. Finally, he flipped open the book he had already prepared and started to write his report.

Ning An didn’t have any problems regarding the theory, but his weak point was in drawing diagrams. Asking help from Fu Ke sitting beside him, Ning An’s progress became a lot faster than he expected.

“I remember seeing a book on mecha designs before. Where did I put it? I’ll go look for it……” Ning An said this and left his seat, disappearing amongst the tall bookshelves.

His terminal screen was still open and a reminder notification suddenly popped up. Fu Ke habitually took a glance and froze.

[Estrus date is in three days.]