Chapter 6: The Legendary Club

  The class committee and Ruan Ruan walked into the classroom one minute before the bell rang. The teacher had not arrived yet, but many classmates were already seated inside. As it was the first day of school for freshmen, attendance was exceptionally high. Those who arrived early all chose seats close to the podium, fearing that they might not be able to see the teachers' impressive appearance. Brand new notebooks were neatly arranged, and their eyes shone with a strong desire to learn.

  Zheng Wei always liked to make some small movements in class, so when she saw the empty seat in the back corner, she couldn't help but pull Ruan Yun over. The boys' eyes all pretended to be unintentionally following the two girls, saying that beautiful girls repel each other, but these two were particularly inseparable.

  This is Zheng Wei's first day back in class after returning home, and she has two consecutive engineering drawing lessons. At the beginning, she told herself to be serious and not fall behind at the new starting line. However, after sitting for a while, her mind began to wander. She glanced at Ruan Ruan, who was intently reading with her head down. Zheng Wei thought about striking up a conversation several times but felt hesitant to disturb her. After a while, she felt that Ruan Ruan's focus was over the top and curiously reached out to flip through her book. "What's going on? Is 'Engineering Drawing' really so interesting?" As soon as she flipped through it, she blurted out, "I'm such an idiot! I was feeling guilty for not studying as hard as you earlier, but it turns out you're reading 'The Previous Life and Present Life of Pan Jinlian'. You've deceived my pure emotions!"

  Ruan Ruan whispered "shh" without lifting her head and said "be quiet, I'll lend it to you after I finish reading."

  "I'm not, I get a headache just by looking at the text." She felt a bit more balanced in her mind, thinking that even good students are like this. Speaking of Ruan Ruan, she's also an interesting person. It's said that she got into G University's Civil Engineering department with the second highest score in her major, and usually she's someone who loves going to the library. However, Zheng Wei later realized a few times when following her to the library that she never reads anything but magazines and leisure books, sometimes even spending an entire evening reading gossip tabloids with great relish. Zheng Wei's evaluation was: "What a disappointment!" Ruan Ruan would always say: "As long as I pass my courses, that's enough. I'm most afraid of being first place and making myself so tired, what's the point?" Zheng Wei felt indignant, thinking that someone who looks like her is actually deceiving, even reading "obscene books" makes people feel so serious and elegant.

  "Stop staring and talk to me." She nudged him with her elbow, and Ruan Ruan raised his head to glance at the middle-aged male lecturer on the podium, whose eyes were thicker than bulletproof glass. He was still speaking expressionlessly. She skillfully closed her book. "What's up?"

  Zheng Wei supported her chin with her hand "It's fine to talk about anything, but honestly there's nothing much to say. You can ask me, a single teenage girl who has just experienced a huge change in life."

  She had already told Ruan Ruan everything that happened at home in detail, from the characters' expressions to their mental activities, after returning to school yesterday afternoon. However, Ruan Ruan cooperated with her and asked in a low voice, "Don't you plan on thinking of another way to contact Lin Jing?"

  Zheng Wei's hand that had come out was doodling randomly on her notebook "Lin Jing, he's so far away and it seems like he also knows about things at home, he won't bother with me again."

  Ruan Ruan was a bit regretful for choosing this topic and wanted to change the subject, but Zheng Wei smiled mischievously and said: "But don't worry, can such a small setback defeat me, the invincible Little Flying Dragon? One Lin Jing left, but millions of Lin Jings came forward. Our school may not have much, but it has plenty of men. One or two are still okay. In the future, these wildflowers on the mountain will still be mine to pick and choose..."

  Ruan Ruan smiled and said: "It's also good that you can think of it this way."

  "Why didn't I think of that? What a great environment! Let me tell you, yesterday Bei told me something very interesting. She said there's a girl in their class who suddenly burst into tears while sleeping at night. When others asked her what was wrong, she said she had never seen so many handsome guys in one school with not many beautiful girls competing, and just thinking about it made her cry with joy."

  Ruan Ruan couldn't help but laugh.

  After school in the afternoon, walking on the main road of the school to the dormitory, both sides were filled with stalls, and a group of people gathered together, curiously like a fair. Zheng Wei squeezed into a crowd and took a look at the table behind which several people were standing, next to which was a propaganda poster. She immediately understood and muttered: "So this is the legendary university club."

  A group of boys behind the table noticed Zheng Wei's confused expression and enthusiastically invited her, "Little junior sister, do you want to join our literature club?"

  Zheng Wei immediately retreated a few steps, turned around and left, thinking to herself "With my writing skills being so poor, how can I join the Literature Society?" She walked back to her original spot, where Ruan Ruan was now being enthusiastically recruited by several clubs. "Ruan Ruan, do you want to join us?"

  Ruan Ruan shook her head "Too much trouble, let's go."

  Just as I was about to reach the end of the club booths, I suddenly heard a voice calling out from not far away: "Wei Wei Wei Wei..."

  Zheng Wei subconsciously glanced around to confirm it wasn't for her, but then she heard an even more urgent call: "Wei Wei, look over here!" This time, she finally spotted a familiar face in the most inconspicuous corner. The owner of that face was frantically waving at her.

  "Do you know him?" Ruan Ruan asked in surprise.

  "Looks familiar, let's go take a look."

  As soon as the two of them walked over, the boy who called her immediately greeted her familiarly: "Weiwei, you finally arrived. It's been so long since school started and you still haven't given me a call. That's your fault."

  Zheng Wei shivered inwardly after the other person's "Wei Wei" and thought to herself, when did I get such a familiar acquaintance? She took a glance at the weathered face in front of her and suddenly realized that this was none other than Old Zhang from the new student orientation day.

  "Hey, I saw Old Zhang come back a few days ago, what are you doing here?" Since they were acquaintances, she wasn't as guarded.

  "What else can we do? The club is recruiting people and should absorb some fresh blood."

  It seems like everyone is joining a club these days. Zheng Wei took a look at Old Zhang's territory, which was the most inconspicuous corner among all the booths. Behind him stood two or three men who looked just as worn out as he did. On the table, there were no colorful and eye-catching promotional posters like those of other clubs, nor were there many freshmen squeezing in to sign up.

  "What kind of club is this? At least have a logo!"

  "Here it is." Old Zhang picked up a piece of paper from the table, which was obviously torn from a notebook. The edges were rough and on top of it, three big characters "Weiqi Society" were written with a ballpoint pen.

  Zheng Wei burst out laughing "Old Zhang, your community is too simple and austere. Along the way, I haven't seen such a shabby place like yours."

  Old Zhang didn't mind at all and shook the paper "We call this low-key! The water is not deep, there are dragons, then the form is not important, we value the connotation."

  "You continue to have depth then, I'm leaving." Zheng Wei said with a smile.

  "Now that you're here, why don't you join our club?" Old Zhang said matter-of-factly.

  Zheng Wei burst out laughing: "You guys have such profound things that I don't understand. I only know how to play Flying Chess."

  "It's okay, you just came in and we have so many people who can't teach you, a little girl like you looks smart and will definitely learn quickly."

  "Never mind, never mind, you guys go find someone else." Zheng Wei was about to leave when Old Zhang stopped him with one hand "Sister, just give us some face, or we won't collect your membership fee...... Is that not okay? Alright then, if you join this vice president position, I'll let you have it..."

  Zheng Wei was startled and felt that he was in a precarious situation. Old Zhang once again used his persuasive tactics, "It seems that helping you on the first day of school was also a kind of fate, so why don't you join us? Don't worry, after joining, you won't have any obligations, only privileges... I'm not going to beg you, am I? After all, I'm half a senior brother."

  Seeing Zheng Wei's confusion, Old Zhang decisively handed her a pen and half-jokingly forced her to sign up. Before she could react, she heard Old Zhang turn around and laughingly say to the other boys: "Our Go club finally has a girl member, and what's more, a pretty little sister! It'll be the death of those Computer Association and Guitar Club guys."

  Zheng Wei was completely speechless and felt that she had unknowingly been sold out. However, seeing their collective joyful smiles, she thought to herself that these people were also quite pitiful, probably being bullied by other clubs all the time. Anyway, since she didn't have anything better to do, she might as well join them.

  Lao Zhang's eyes began to stare straight at the back of Zheng Wei, who turned around and glanced over there. It was exactly where Ruan Ruan was standing. Ruan Ruan was facing the street, calmly watching people coming and going.

  Zheng Wei hooked her arm around Ruan Ruan's shoulder, raised an eyebrow and said to Old Zhang: "Why are you staring at our Ruan Ruan with such a lecherous gaze?" She wasn't jealous of Zheng Wei, but rather she had psychologically acknowledged Ruan Ruan as one of their own, so when others praised or liked Ruan Ruan, she felt a sense of pride. However, Old Zhang's eyes clearly spelled out "coveting for a long time", which made her feel uneasy and vigilant.

  Old Zhang quickly rummaged through his pocket and handed something to Ruan Ruan with both hands: "You're Ruan Wan, right? I've heard of you before. I'm Zhang Tianran from the Environmental Engineering Department, also a good friend of Zheng Wei."

  Zheng Wei rolled her eyes. This guy really didn't know how to behave. It seemed that he always carried his self-made business card with him and handed it out whenever he saw a beautiful woman.

  Ruan Ruan smiled and took it without saying anything. On the contrary, Old Zhang continued to say "Why don't you join our Go club too?"

  Zheng Wei saw Ruan Ruan's embarrassed expression and said to Old Zhang, "Isn't this a case of 'after getting the Longshan Mountains, looking down on Shu'? You've already taken advantage of our young lady, but you still want to monopolize our family's beauty, Ruan Ruan. Aren't you afraid that your Go club will be kicked out?"

  Lao Zhang was also a very capable person who knew when to stop while he was ahead and didn't insist on more.

  At night when everyone in the dormitory arrived, they talked about their experiences visiting clubs in the afternoon. Xiao Bei spoke loudly: "So-called clubs are just places where senior brothers flirt with junior sisters."

  "What's wrong with you? I think so too! Xiao Bei, you haven't even joined any clubs yet?"

  Xiao Bei said "What's this? I've joined the Photography Club, Cooking Club, Charity Club, Film Association..."

  Zheng Wei sneered: "Isn't what you said earlier nonsense?"

  Xiao Bei said straightforwardly, "I just said that the club is a place where seniors hook up with juniors, but I didn't say it's bad. Can't they just date? It's not like we can't give them a chance, right? That would be too cruel. Zheng Wei, what club did you join? I walked around for half a day today and didn't see the Fei Long Club."

  "I've joined the Go club." Zheng said in a soft and weak voice.

  "Oh my, what's wrong with joining other clubs? You want to join the Go club? I heard from previous students that among all the school clubs, the Go club is the most useless. It's said that many of its members are repeaters, typical examples of people who have lost their sense of purpose. The student union has considered dissolving this club several times, but for some reason it still exists."

  Zheng Wei immediately became anxious "I just want to play with things, but the Go Club is trashy. It's said that there's a club rule: come one, come all (excluding liberal arts students)."

  Zhu Xiaobei laughed and said "It's interesting, it's interesting."

  Li Wei Juan was lying in bed, her face pale with anger. In the end, Ruan Ruan smoothed things over by saying "Whatever exists is reasonable, it's just a matter of personal preference."

  Li Wei Juan didn't want to offend Zheng, so she went down the stairs and said "But then again, I heard that there are a few nice guys in the Go club. The electronics major Xu Gongzi is also in the Go club."

  Zheng Wei was still unsatisfied and let out a cold hum without responding. He Lü Yu asked: "What's with Xu Gongzi?"

  "Xu Gongzi, you don't even know." Li Wei Juan said "The sophomore of the Electrical Engineering Department, Xu Kaiyang, comes from a very rich family and is also very good-looking. Several girls in our class have talked about him secretly, and it's said that he doesn't even have a girlfriend yet."

  "It seems you've secretly figured out the clues. If you don't have a girlfriend, then aren't you still in with a chance?" Zhu Xiaobei said.

  Li Wei Juan said with a pout: "Why can't others look up to us?"

  "Don't say that, our classmate Li Weijuan is great, there's no one more loyal and dedicated than you," said Zhu Xiaobei.

  Everyone discussed and decided that Zheng Wei and Zhu Xiaobei joined the Cooking Club, Zhuo Mei joined the Cooking Club, He Luyan joined the Literature Club, Li Wei Juan joined the Student Union, but Ruan Ruan didn't join any of them. Her reason was simply that she was afraid of trouble and would rather spend her time reading books in the library.