HCILH Ch. 79

Chapter 79: The Gift

Ouyang Ge, who was teaching the interest class, was wearing his training outfit and secretly playing on his phone in a corner of the training room.

Suddenly, someone kicked open the door to the training room and shouted inside: “Who is Ouyang Ge?”

The sudden noise startled Ouyang Ge, causing him to slide his finger across the screen, then look up at the unexpected guests.

The students who were practicing in the training room also stopped to look at the group, somewhat confused, and glanced at Ouyang Ge.

Ouyang Ge stood up and walked over, saying: “I am. What’s the matter?”

“Heh, so it’s you, the bully of Fengyu, Ouyang Ge?”

“Huh?” Ouyang Ge was truly baffled by such a cliché line.

“Look at you, with a face nearing thirty, and still hanging around here?” the arrogant voice taunted again.

At 31 years old, Ouyang Ge was surprisingly pleased by that remark.

It seemed he still looked quite young.

Suppressing a laugh, Ouyang Ge asked: “Why are you so angry? What do you want?”

“I heard you’re the bully of Fengyu and wanted to meet you.”

“Who said that?” Ouyang Ge raised an eyebrow, remaining calm and collected.

“A guy with yellow hair from the tennis team.”

“Oh—who else?” In an instant, Ouyang Ge guessed who it was.

“A curly-haired guy, and another with small eyes, plus a particularly burly one… Damn, why am I even telling you this?”

“Isn’t there also a stutterer and a guy with a blank look on his face?”

“Stutterer? No stutterer, but there is a guy with big eyes and a big mouth.”

“Oh, then it must be the stutterer who didn’t speak.” Ouyang Ge nodded, confirming the identities of those from the dorm.

After confirming, Ouyang Ge said to the arrogant voice: “Alright, change into your training outfit.”

The arrogant voice disdainfully asked: “Do I need to change to fight you?”

“If you don’t change, it’ll look like I’m bullying you. It’s more appropriate for us to spar normally, alright?”

The arrogant voice coldly snorted: “Heh, do you think I’m afraid of you?”

Twenty minutes later—

The arrogant voice was now kneeling on the mat, dejectedly saying: “I-I knew that name sounded familiar; y-you are my master’s master?”

Ouyang Ge, sitting diagonally in front of him with his legs crossed, replied: “Not really a master; I just taught him for a bit. He lacks talent and can’t compete in any events, at most he can be a training instructor for an amateur class. I didn’t want to take him on anymore.”

“I-I didn’t know—”

The arrogant voice now realized he had been set up.

Coming to challenge a national Sanda champion was just a joke!

He was beaten to the point where he couldn’t even fight back, becoming a living target, utterly humiliated.

Who was that little yellow-haired guy?!

What about that dog?!

Next time they meet, he would…

Ouyang Ge suddenly asked: “Is learning Sanda meant for bullying the weak, or for provoking others to dominate?”

The arrogant voice was caught off guard and stared blankly at Ouyang Ge.

Ouyang Ge continued: “You can learn Sanda to strengthen yourself or to protect the weak, but it should never be used for that purpose; otherwise, what you learn will lead you down a wrong path. Today you ran into me, and I didn’t want to beat you too badly. Next time you encounter a tough opponent, you might not even get a chance to speak.”

The arrogant voice was beaten down and had no retort.

“Are you secretly cursing those students now?” Ouyang Ge suddenly asked with a smile.

Caught off guard, the arrogant voice panicked.

Ouyang Ge continued: “They are much smarter than you, knowing to seek someone to teach you how to behave. I could see your level when we fought; you’re not even a match for that little yellow-haired guy.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve taken care of him before.”

Hou Mo was the only student to have knocked Ouyang Ge down once.

The arrogant voice immediately fell silent.

Ouyang Ge didn’t want to argue with these little punks, so he said: “Take your little brothers back. Don’t cause trouble at our school again, or I’ll have your master break your legs.”

“Okay, okay!”

After saying this, the arrogant voice stood up to leave but was called back by Ouyang Ge: “Change out of your training outfit.”

Watching the group flee in a panic, Ouyang Ge took out his phone and messaged Hou Mo: “Come here.”

After sending it, he saw a notification with an exclamation mark.

Holding the phone in one hand, Ouyang Ge turned it around and messaged Sui Houyu: “You joined in too?”

Another conspicuous exclamation mark appeared. No need to ask; it was definitely Hou Mo’s encouragement.

Ouyang Ge was furious and, after changing his clothes, went directly to the tennis team’s training ground.

Arriving at the training room door, he saw a bow tied with chains on the door, and there was no sound of training inside.

Ouyang Ge glanced at his watch and didn’t go looking for anyone but went to the parking lot and drove home.

These little punks would be let off this time.

*

Sui Houyu experienced sitting in the cold wind for dinner for the first time and shot Hou Mo a glance while eating.

Hou Mo shifted a bit to shield Sui Houyu from the wind, then suddenly laughed, “Just thinking about Gege’s expression makes me want to laugh.”

“Isn’t Gege going to be mad?” Sui Houyu asked after taking a few more bites.

“He knows I’m forced into this; if I cause trouble, I’ll lose my scholarship, so I can’t fight. Plus, if they don’t learn a lesson, they’ll definitely come back and annoy us endlessly.”

“So we have to keep hiding from them?”

“You ungrateful little brat, they have their sights on you too! Once Gege cools off, we won’t need to correct our bones anymore. Look at the time now; isn’t it just right for him to work overtime on bone-setting?”

Ran Shu stopped eating after a few bites. Since there were plenty of snacks hidden in his dorm, he didn’t need to endure eating these bland dishes.

He stood up, looked around, and asked: “Is this the place where you guys stole the scallions?”

Hou Mo replied: “Yeah, we come here when we hide because no one else wants to jump the wall to sneak into the school’s vegetable patch; it’s a long way and the wall is high, so most people can’t get in. In the summer, the first two rows of scallions are always bald, so we just picked them and ate them—totally natural, no pollution, no pesticides, super healthy.”

“S-So you guys acted in a group; then how did that guy who stole scallions get reported by you alone?” Ran Shu still vividly remembered that guy who stole scallions.

“I really couldn’t imagine that law-abiding good boy having any issues, so I wrote it up.”

Deng Yiheng suddenly said: “He kept complaining that the senior brother ruined his chances of choosing a partner first.”

After hearing this, Ran Shu scoffed: “Just you guys? Just you guys?! Heh, you should buy single insurance; twenty years later, you could get rich off of it!”

Deng Yiheng shook his head: “I’m about to get out of being single.”

Ran Shu asked again: “About to?”

“I think…”

“There’s a misconception that ‘I think she likes me.’”

Deng Yiheng suddenly felt a wave of melancholy and said seriously: “During the holidays, I want to get double eyelids, just one eye. How much would that cost?”

Ran Shu, who had a sharp tongue but wasn’t a bad person, took a serious look at Deng Yiheng and replied: “You also n-need to open the outer corner of your eye; otherwise, the size difference won’t change. If you open the outer corner, it might grow back; you can only open the inner corner, which will leave a scar, but it won’t be very obvious.”

Deng Yiheng was a bit surprised: “You know quite a bit.”

Ran Shu sighed: “D-Don’t mention it; having a lot of female friends makes it easy to pick up knowledge here and there.”

Deng Yiheng seemed genuinely concerned and asked: “How much do you think it would cost? Is five thousand enough?”

“It mainly depends on what level of doctor you find.” Ran Shu thought for a moment and took out his phone. “I can help you get in touch; my mom has a diamond membership at a beauty clinic she often goes to, which comes with exclusive services and discounts.”

“Sounds good!” Deng Yiheng was especially excited.

While Ran Shu typed to get in touch, Hou Mo glanced at Deng Yiheng several times: “Are you really going all out for Lu Yanxin?”

“I just want to give it a try… she’s a beauty fanatic, and with my uneven eyes…” Deng Yiheng felt a bit self-conscious about that.

Hou Mo reminded him: “Just don’t regret it later.”

Deng Yiheng spoke up again, “There are fewer naturally beautiful people like you and Brother Yu, and fixing my uneven eyes shouldn’t be a problem; I’m just changing one eye.”

Ran Shu chimed in: “Yeah, cosmetic surgery is justifiable for cases like this. But don’t use the term ‘naturally beautiful’ for Brother Yu; he won’t like it if he hears it.”

After receiving the news that Ouyang Ge’s car was not in the garage, Hou Mo and Sui Houyu returned to training.

After finishing their training and showering, Hou Mo helped Sui Houyu put on a hat, worried that his hair wouldn’t be completely dry and he might catch a chill outside.

Sui Houyu thought for a moment and couldn’t help but ask, “Can someone really go so far as to get plastic surgery for someone they like?”

“Maybe. Deng Yiheng actually looks pretty good; changing his uneven eyes might work. If you liked someone, what would you do for them?”

Sui Houyu thought for a while and shook his head: “I don’t know. I’ve never liked anyone.”

“I know you studied hard for Ran Shu.”

“Yeah, he was my only friend at that time.”

Hou Mo felt a pang in his heart and continued: “From now on, I’ll be your friend too.”

“Am I practicing tennis with a dog now?”

For the sake of studying with Ran Shu.

For playing tennis with Hou Mo.

Hou Mo suddenly laughed and said to Sui Houyu: “I bought you a gift. You’re definitely going to like it.”

“A gift?” Sui Houyu felt a bit shy again; he was particularly afraid of Hou Mo’s family spending too much, and receiving gifts always made him feel guilty.

This feeling of gratitude continued until they returned to the dormitory, where Hou Mo had him lie down on the bed and wait. After a while, he opened a box and took out a bedside bell to hang above the bed.

Sui Houyu: “…”

After hanging it, Hou Mo turned on the bedside bell and introduced it to him: “There are a total of 158 songs in the library!”

Sui Houyu lay on his back, looking up at the small plane spinning rapidly above him, playing a pure music version of “Jasmine Flower.” The piece played for a short while before switching to the next song, lasting less than 30 seconds.

After hearing this, Hou Mo immediately felt cheated: “You said there were so many songs, but they’re just excerpts?”

Sui Houyu pointed at the bedside bell and asked: “Why did you think I would like this?”

“To make up for your childhood regrets! Do you like it or not?”

Sui Houyu looked up at the bedside bell, hesitating for a moment before saying: “I like it.”

Hou Mo smiled: “As long as you like it.”

“Like it so much I want to beat you up.”

“…”

When they returned to the dormitory, Deng Yiheng and the others surrounded Sui Houyu’s bed to check out the bedside bell.

After understanding the situation, Deng Yiheng pointed at the bell and said: “This is hair from a cheap rooster!^[1]”

Sang Xian took off his coat and suddenly spoke: “What do you know? This is love.”

“Oh—” Deng Yiheng replied with a long tone.