Chapter 3: Let's Make a Bet

  Zhang Peng followed Yang Zhen like a younger brother, passing through half of the campus to the front of the new teaching building.

  "How can there still be triads in Zhongda? He's the leader of the Bald-Headed Party?" He saw Yang Zhen knock on the table and said to the two men crouched down eating boxed lunches, "Hurry up, get a room." Those two men who looked like old birds also had shiny bald heads.

  Two bald men raised their heads and said, "Not so, boss. We're all set to close up shop, how come you've brought two more people? Are they your friends?"

  "What's the point of so much nonsense?" Yang Zhan waved his hand, but took over the two room keys handed over by the bald men. Yang Zhan was stunned for a moment, "Building 14?"

  "You're a lucky friend." The two bald men chuckled and said, "This year the department is expanding enrollment, and there aren't enough dorms. Originally, three more people were supposed to be squeezed into a mixed dorm with three students from the Metallurgy Department. But then the Metallurgy Department specially recruited three talented students, and Director Qiu had no choice but to use a graduate student dorm as a backup. You know that every year, out of the hundreds of new students in the Materials Department, there are always a few who don't show up for various reasons. If they didn't all show up, we wouldn't need to use that dorm. But this year everyone showed up. One of them just reported and already left. Now it's just you."

  Yang Zhen couldn't help but say "Damn it!" when he threw the key to Zhang Peng.

  The student dormitory, Ba She, is an old building from the 1950s, even older than many of the ancient trees on campus. Each room was originally packed with eight students, and a two-layer wooden frame served as a closet. With only a desk in the middle, each person had less than one square meter of space. The bunk beds were tiny, and if you brought a girl back to your room, the two of you would probably have to sleep on top of each other all night. If someone over 1.8 meters tall stretched their legs out, their smelly feet would touch the headboard of the bed below, supposedly making it easy to get Hong Kong foot and dandruff like snowflakes on New Year's Eve. The worst part was that the entire dormitory building had double-layer wooden floorboards, which creaked when you walked on them, and at night, rats came out to forage. At night, the sound of rats scurrying under the floorboards and above the ceiling made it easy to feel like you were sleeping in a rat's nest rather than in the elegant dormitory building of a prestigious university.

  The fourteenth dormitory is different, the later the dormitory is built, the later it is built. The fourteenth dormitory is a newly built dormitory in recent years. If the eighth dormitory is an xx hotel, then the fourteenth dormitory can be considered a five-star suite. Not only does one dormitory have only two people living in it, but also air conditioning, TV, internet, and even a living room and bathroom, most importantly, there is 24-hour electricity.

  To have electricity for 24 hours, even Yang Zhan, who was known as the "master of materials" in his department, had to pay the price of three packs of cigarettes and invite an electrical expert from the dormitory building's corridor lights to secretly connect a wire back to his dorm room. Every time after the lights-out time, they also had to use bed sheets and pillowcases to cover the windows, making it look like they were having some kind of illicit relationship inside.

  Zhang Peng didn't think that after getting into a fight, not only would he not get punished, but he'd also encounter such good fortune. It's really true that "disaster and blessing are intertwined". "Here, take this." Just as Zhang Peng was thinking this, Yang Zhan had already brought him to the location. He didn't enter the house, but simply tossed a package from his hand over to him.

  Zhang Peng felt a sudden weight in his hand, "What?"

  "Some reference books, you have to use them in class, but once you've used them, they're useless. It's not worth spending money on them. Just give them to the lower grades after you're done with them." Yang Zhan lit a cigarette and then waved goodbye to Zhang Peng, "My name is Yang Zhan, if you have any questions or don't understand something, you can come find me too. Don't buy anything from those door-to-door salespeople these few days, they'll sell you a radio for 80 yuan and make you think it's cheap, but the school's commercial street sells them for 20 yuan. The ones selling CDs say they're A-discs, but when you open them up, they're just Autocad, and not even the latest version."

  "Thank you."

  "That's just how the old raise the new."

  Yang Zhan's tall and majestic figure soon disappeared into the light gray night sky, with a bright bald head that seemed to be wrapped in cigarette smoke.

  "This guy is not bad." Zhang Peng had a good impression of this bald-headed man. Half an hour ago, Yang Zhan had helped Zhang Peng get his Golden Dragon Card for eating in the cafeteria, but when taking Zhang Peng to eat, Yang Zhan always used his own card. Even when giving him books, he would help carry them to the door before handing them over.

  From then on, Zhang Peng felt that this bald man was already his friend.

  "My name is Wu Yingda."

  As Zhang Peng walked into the dormitory, he still had some hope for another roommate who was also lucky. It's worth noting that in college, a dormitory is usually shared by several people for four years. Especially in Building 14, each room only accommodates two people, so if you end up with someone extremely boring, it would be a super depressing experience for the next four years. At this moment, this guy named Wu Yingda looked quite disappointing to Zhang Peng. With his glasses pushed up on his forehead, he looked like a bookworm who was both obedient and pedantic.

  Moreover, Zhang Peng saw Wu Yingda fiddling with a radio. Zhang Peng thought of Yang Zhen's words and couldn't help but ask, "Is this radio new? How much did it cost?"

  "Yes, just bought it, very cheap, priced at one hundred, I got it for eighty."

  Hearing his response, Zhang Peng couldn't help but wonder if this guy had never even been to a porn site. At this time, Zhang Peng still hadn't realized he was wrong and saw a notebook on the table next to him, so he asked, "You brought a laptop but aren't using it, what's with playing with a radio?"

  Wu Yingda pushed his glasses and said, "Nnd, this dorm looks so cool, but don't even mention the internet, not even cable TV is connected. I only found out after asking the dorm manager downstairs that all these need to be registered with a student ID before they can be opened. The only thing that works is the phone in the dorm. I was bored and just bought a radio to play with."

  Zhang Peng lay on the bed and said that there's nothing fun about a radio. Wu Yingda then said, "Let's make prank calls."

  "Ah!" When Zhang Peng heard Wu Yingda say that, he thought Wu Yingda was just the kind of pervert who liked to call in to midnight hotlines for emotional comfort. "Ding ding ding~" But after the phone connected, Zhang Peng discovered that Wu Yingda had actually called a radio hotline.

  At this time, Wu Yingda's radio was playing a heart-to-heart talk show. The host said emotionally that he had received a letter from an enthusiastic reader, who said that he had fallen in love with a girl but was too shy to speak out, so he wanted everyone to help think of a poem for her, and by the way, his girlfriend's name is Gao Lan.

  "Just then, the host connected Wu Yingda's phone call, 'I didn't expect a enthusiastic audience to call in so quickly.'"

  Zhang Peng looked at Wu Yingda, and Wu Yingda asked seriously, "Is it that kind of poem where the first or last character of each line is connected to form a sentence called a hidden head poem?"

  The host said yes. Wu Yingda then said, "Well, I'll give it a try."

  "It seems there are still quite a few talented people in the audience."

  "Where, where. His mm is called Gao Lan, right?" Wu Yingda said, "My hidden head poem is like this:"

  I'm trash

  Like going to red light district.

  It's been done dozens of times already

  "Rotten little JJ."

  "What do you think of this poem, host?"

  "...". The host fell silent for a moment before saying, "Let's go to our next enthusiastic audience member."

  "My god!" Zhang Peng suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, staring at Wu Yingda with a look of utter shock, "Is this okay?"

  "What's wrong with it?" Wu Yingda said with a pleased smile, "It's fun."

  Zhang Peng said with great admiration: "That's cool."

  Wu Yingda said: "Actually, it's nothing, it's more fun to scold the host."

  Zhang Peng said: "Can you make the host scold his mother?"

  "What's difficult about that."

  "Awesome, you're exaggerating."

  Wu Yingda looked at Zhang Peng with disdain and said, "How about we make a bet? Whoever loses has to be in charge of fetching hot water for a week?"

  "Go all in." When Wu Yingda said that, Zhang Peng just realized that everything was fine in dormitory 14, except there was no boiled water to drink. If you wanted boiled water, you had to go to the boiler room next to the cafeteria to fetch it.

  Wu Yingda quickly dialed the hotline of another station, which was a legal program. However, it happened to be during commercial time, and they were advertising a brand of shampoo.

  The host on the radio said: "Hello, listener, you are now calling a free hotline. May I ask, are you also a user of xx brand shampoo?"

  Wu Yingda said, "Yes, I forked recently."

  The host said: "It doesn't matter, as long as you persist in using xx shampoo, it will split."

  "What's the point of forking a small jj?"

  The host remained silent for a long time before saying, "Then cut one off and apply some iodine." After that, the host continued to say, "This listener can hang up now. Next is our 'Everyone Speaks' legal program."

  Wu Yingda said, "Ah, just in time, I have something to respond to."

  "Hello everyone, now it's 'Everyone Speaks' program." The host said, "This audience member, what issue do you want to respond to?"

  Wu Yingda said, "Some people incited me to self-mutilate, inciting me to cut off my little brother."

  The host was silent for a moment, "So have you cut it off now?"

  Nothing.

  Host: "The person who instigated hasn't committed a crime yet. Once you cut ties with him, we can arrest him. Any other questions?"

  "It's all gone."

  "Since there's no problem now, let's move on to the next listener."

  "Wait a minute."

  "What's wrong?"

  "I've already cut off little jj!"

  "...". The host said, "I'm gonna f**k your mom!"