Dog Days - Chapter 6.1: "Out." Jiang Kuo pointed to the door...
“School hero,” said Li Zirui again. Probably afraid that he still didn’t understand, he added, “The kind of hero that protects the school.”
“Oh.” Jiang Kuo nodded. But the reply didn’t answer any of his questions. At most, it proved to him that his hearing was still good.
“I heard that he had to repeat the freshman year because he got hospitalized for half a year from protecting the school,” said Li Zirui, “Tsk, tsk. He got some balls.”
Jiang Kuo originally wanted to follow the topic and try to complain about the air-conditioned single room, but Li Zirui’s reaction made him feel like Duan Feifan should have deserved a single room in the principal’s office.
“How did he protect the school?” Jiang Kuo couldn’t help but ask again.
“Well, I don’t know about that,” said Li Zirui after thinking for a while, “I didn’t ask either, just know that he did protect the school. It might be that someone threw a bomb in the school…”
Jiang Kuo yawned, “You gave him the title of school hero, right?”
“Not really, I heard it from other people as well,” said Li Zirui, “But I just made it sound better. You see, since he protected the school, he had to be a hero, so school hero is a perfect title.”
“Where did the ‘protect’ part go?”, said Jiang Kuo, “Why don’t you call him a school-protector hero?”
Li Zirui opened his mouth, and nothing came out. He then said quietly, “Your focus is not on the correct part… Who cares about an extra word?”
“Got it,” said Jiang Kuo as he waved his hand, “So, the main part is ‘hero'”
“That’s right!” said Li Zirui.
…
Duan Feifan was whispering in a low voice, “Didn’t you promise that I won’t be on stage?”
“That’s right, you don’t have to talk on stage at all,” said Ding Zhe, “Just a quick freshmen welcome meeting, and you can sit there the whole time.”
“Can I play on my phone?” asked Duan Feifan as he walked to the stage stairs.
”Can’t you have a little bit of self control?!” said Ding Zhe, “You’re still the freshmen representative after all!”
The auditorium was noisy, and Duan Feifan sat in his seat. After the school officials were all seated, he found that the bald director in front of him had covered up most of his body, which was perfect.
The freshmen below didn’t seem to be in a meeting at all. Very noisy, very hypnotic.
Duan Feifan leaned back on the chair, looked at the name card in front of him, and stayed still.
The officials started talking one by one, and it didn’t take too long. None of them had the habit of giving lengthy speeches.
But he still couldn’t bear the exact opposite lifestyle that he had at home, where he would wake up at three or four in the morning to help his old uncle wait for the meat delivery car. After that, he would go for a morning run and sleep until noon.
During the past few months in the hospital, he has returned to his original routine even though he just spent a lot of effort in school last year to build up a good one. Duan Feifan has been sitting on the stage for less than 20 minutes before his eyelids were fighting to stay open.
But in order to maintain his image of the “freshmen representative”, he supported his chin with his hands, lift his eyelids with his fingers, and force his eyeballs to move around, for fear that he would fall asleep completely if he stopped for more than a second.
“So I am very much looking forward to working hard with you and starting our new life together. Military training will be an energetic start to this new life…”
Jiang Kuo raised his head and looked at the ceiling of the auditorium. He knew that his eyes were blurred and his mouth was half-open. Give him another minute and he would lose consciousness.
But when the words “military training” reached his ears, they still injected energy into him. When military training was brought up, it meant that today’s meeting was almost done.
“So today, we…”
He raised his hand around the back of his head, pulled his head back in a daze, and looked at the person on the podium.
It was finally time for the final applause.
Then, a crisp “bang” was heard.
The freshmen representative Duan Feifan, aka school hero, had his head slammed onto the table in front of him.
The row of school officials all turned around to look at him at the same time.
Before his head hit the table, he was already awake, but the inertia of the movement prevented him from lifting up his head in time. Duan Feifan instantly reacted and quickly pressed on his forehead after his head was hit.
At the same time, he looked at the stage stairs.
Ding Zhe was standing under the stage stairs and immediately understood the signal. He rushed on the stage and pulled Duan Feifan up while supporting Duan Feifan’s arm.
“He probably hasn’t fully recovered yet,” said Ding Zhe quietly, “I’ll take him to the doctor’s office right now.”
“Quick,” The director waved his hand, “Get someone to help you.”
“Okay,” Ding Zhe nodded.
“I’m fine… I can still…” Duan Feifan struggled a little.
Ding Zhe pinched his arm and whispered beside his ear, “Shut up. Your actings are too much!”
“His injuries haven’t recovered yet!” Li Zirui said with distress.
“It’s more like he enjoyed his late-night snack yesterday so much that he didn’t get much sleep and hasn’t recovered from that,” said Jiang Kuo with a sneer.
Li Zirui looked at him. “I’ve found that you’re…”
“Very annoying,” said Jiang Kuo, glancing at him, “I’ve known this before you.”
Li Zirui rolled his eyes and turned his head to Tang Li, continuing to chat about the school hero’s legacy.
When this happened, everyone became wide awake. Jiang Kuo gritted his teeth and forced himself to not laugh out loud. He was already laughing so hard in his heart that he wouldn’t even trade eight 107 air conditioners for it.
After the meeting, everyone went out slowly. Jiang Kuo found Lu Ning in the crowd and went after her.
“Sister Ning.” He called out.
“Huh?” Lu Ning turned her head and smiled when she saw him, “Jiang Kuo, you look much more lively now after your nap.”
“Did I… nap?” Jiang Kuo was a little unsure.
“Like his,” said Lu Ning as she looked up and half-opened her mouth, “Ahhh… Doesn’t your neck feel sore after sleeping like that?”
“… It’s alright,” said Jiang Kuo, sighing.
“What can I help you with?” asked Lu Ning with a smile.
“I want to move out,” said Jiang Kuo, “How can I apply for that?”
“Where to?” Lu Ning was surprised, “Off-campus housing?”
“Yeah.” Jiang Kuo nodded.
“First-year freshmen are not allowed to rent off-campus. Credits will be deducted if you don’t return at night!” said Lu Ning looking at him, “Is there a specific reason why you want to? You just got on campus yesterday.”
“… It’s too hot here,” said Jiang Kuo, “I’m doing to die like this without A/C. I barely slept last night.”
He thought that although he did sleep in the hallway last night, but any sleep that wasn’t on a bed couldn’t be considered sleep.
“Oh, that’s the reason? Don’t worry!” Lu Ning patted him and said, “The new campus’ air conditioners are already installed, and the old campus, which is where we live, is planning to get air conditioners installed by this winder as well. Only a few months away!”
“I don’t think I’ll last until then,” said Jiang Kuo feeling desperate, “Can I apply to go live in the dorms of the new campus?”
Lu Ning almost laughed, “Hey, only a few more days of the hot weather left. It’s just the autumn heat waves, and it will be all nice and cool before October comes.”
“Then I’m going to apply installing an air conditioner myself in the dorm.” Jiang Kuo made his last effort. “If the school is going to install it anyway then I will contribute my installing one myself.”
“I’m not sure if this will work,” said Lu Ning, “The main reason is that it’s not necessary. Are your roommates willing to share the cost? It won’t be hot for long, so are you just going to get an air conditioner for only half a month?”
“I’m still going to apply, even if I’m just going to use it for one day,” said Jiang Kuo looking at Lu Ning, “I can cover all the electric bills for the room…”
Lu Ning stopped walking and sighed, “Jiang Kuo, if you do that… have you thought about what your roommates might feel.”
Jiang Kuo looked at her and said, “Feeling cozy in the air-conditioned room of course.”
Lu Ning smiled helplessly and said nothing.
“Fine,” Jiang Kuo frowned, “They’re welcome to look down on me for my pretentious and greedy behavior, but I don’t care. I just want to be comfortable, and if they don’t want to take advantage of this, they can apply to switch rooms with someone who wants to.”
“I get it, don’t get angry so fast.” Lu Ning waved her hand. “I have to go ask about this and will give you an answer later. Why don’t you tell me if you’re going to park your car in the school or not? If you want to, you need to go with me to get your parking permit and transit pass. After school starts, unregistered vehicles will not be permitted to enter or leave easily.”
Parking was very simple. All one needed to do was to get a transit pass and pay the fees on a monthly basis.
When Jiang Kuo returned to the dormitory, he saw the two ceiling fans on the roof, and the sweat that was accumulating in his body, burst out suddenly.
He went directly into the bathroom to take a shower, and as he came out, he was troubled by another problem: how would his clothes be washed?
“Wash them yourself,” said Tang Li as he pointed toward several clothes hanging on the balcony, “We’ve already washed ours. There’s also a washing room, and you can swipe your card to enter.”
“It’s public?” asked Jiang Kuo.
“Yeah,” Tang Li nodded, “Of course.”
“Don’t the dorms have any laundry services…” Jiang Kuo decided to not finish the rest of his question.
His roommates were looking at him, and there were unspeakable words in the silence. He could feel that the calming atmosphere after breakfast was gradually being washed away again.
“Thanks,” said Jiang Kuo.
That’s fine, if I need to apply to get an air conditioner, I can at least buy a small washing machine. My roommates don’t need to care about anything, and I can pay all the electric bills.
That night, it was still hot. The heat didn’t seem to be over just yet, and Jiang Kuo, like yesterday, took his chair out into the hallway.
About half an hour ago, he started to regret not having thought about one thing earlier. Whether it was an air conditioner or a washing machine, these wouldn’t be available right away. But at least he could go to the supermarket right across the street to buy a reclining chair or even a camp bed.
How did he forget?
Now, he could only take out all four chairs in the room, line them up together, and place pillows on them. Even so, he could still imagine the soreness the next morning when he woke up.
He sighed softly.
Mikaela
Thank u so much for translating!