Seizing Dreams

Bei Xiaozhou said, “Girls tend to spend more time thinking things through compared to guys in the first place. But when it comes to feelings na, if they were so easy to understand clearly, then how could there be so many unhappy couples in this world?”

Yu Hao had to nod in response and answered, “You’re so right.”

“Do you have Weibo?” Bei Xiaozhou said, “I’ll follow you bei.”

Yu Hao was somewhat overwhelmed by these blessings from above, “Don’t ba! You have two million fans! If your fans end up making random speculations......”

Bei Xiaozhou said, “False reputations will never last, why bother about it? What’s your Weibo name?”

Yu Hao’s Weibo only contained simple pictures of his college’s scenery, as well as the trees, flowers, rainy days etc. that he uploaded after he got together with Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng often mocked his photos for being too lousy, but Yu Hao just quietly enjoyed them by himself—— he only wanted to record his feelings at the time, but he didn’t flaunt his affections in his Moments.

“Does Zhou Laichun know about it?” Bei Xiaozhou asked.

Yu Hao answered, “He shouldn’t know. I think it may be alright after graduation.”

Bei Xiaozhou said, “Be careful, Zhou Laichun isn’t someone to be trifled with. That guy’s a boor, too much of a ruffian.”

Yu Hao nodded, “Thank you.”

“But it’s nothing much, Zhou Sheng will protect you.” Bei Xiaozhou said casually, then stared out of the cafe’s French windows in a daze, “It’s natural to protect the person you like.”

Yu Hao said, “How could you tell?”

Bei Xiaozhou said, “Zhou Sheng never mentioned his dorm mates or classmates to Xiao Ya, I could tell that there was no chance just by listening to him. I guessed that he most likely already had someone he liked and asked Xiao Ya not to try. When I saw you follow him the other day, I guessed that it was you. Your T-shirt looks pretty good, you guys have already discussed it, right?”

Yu Hao tugged his collar again awkwardly to cover Zhou Sheng’s hickey and nodded.

“After discussing it,” Yu Hao said, “I actually feel quite guilty instead. The better he treats me, the more uneasy I become. After all, everything was going fine for him in the first place......”

“You must not think like that.” Bei Xiaozhou leaned forward slightly and said, “Being overly cautious and feeling like you’ve harmed him all the time is the most irresponsible thing to do. You must treat him well, under any circumstance, no matter how difficult it may be, you definitely can’t give up!”

“I understand.” Yu Hao felt moved. “Thank you.”

Xiao Yujun opened up her laptop at another table to sort out her manuscript, while Bei Xiaozhou’s manager would glance over at them from time to time. Half an hour had already passed, but Yu Hao was still chatting with Bei Xiaozhou. Only then did Yu Hao know that Huang Jingya was a fan of Bei Xiaozhou at first; she started following her and had even given her presents. Bei Xiaozhou met up with her since she was grateful for her support, and then the two of them gradually became close.

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.

In many people’s eyes, Bei Xiaozhou’s bright and glamorous life was attained through selling her body. In reality, Bei Xiaozhou has never slept with anyone and even used to live a life of hardship.

“When I was at my poorest.” Bei Xiaozhou said, “I had to travel somewhere for my modelling interview, and in order to save on the bus fare, I walked three bus stops in winter. Do you understand that kind of feeling?”

“I do.” Yu Hao said, “I understand that very well. I used to do that as well; it was really despairing. Also, if it wasn’t for Zhou Sheng, I would’ve already been dead by now.”

“Right?” Bei Xiaozhou said, “But even when I was at my poorest, I never considered sleeping with anyone. When I see the comments left on my Weibo sometimes — especially the ones left behind by guys — that are full of unrestrained rebuke, I get so damn angry. In their eyes, I’m just a prostitute. I once cried for a whole night. At that time I thought, I relied on my own efforts to make money and live the life I want, so who did I provoke? And whose ancestor’s grave did I dig up? Why do they hate me so much? But Xiao Ya told me not to care about what they say. In that way, she’s the one who’s more like that ruffian.”

Yu Hao suddenly felt that he had touched upon something that Xiao Yujun couldn’t ask.

“Can I add all this into the interview piece?” Yu Hao said, “Regarding the clarification of your job and some rumours.”

“You can.” Bei Xiaozhou said, “You can write whatever, I don’t care. Just don’t mention the part about Xiao Ya.”

Yu Hao laughed, “Of course I won’t. They were both sent by God to save us.”

Bei Xiaozhou said, “Yeah, so it’s impossible for them to get together. If too many resources are wasted, they’ll get struck by lightning.”

Yu Hao laughed again. Bei Xiaozhou said, “I owe you a favour. If you need help in the future, feel free to look for me. Here, cheers.”

“You’re really something, aren’t you? How are you acquainted with that internet celebrity Jiejie?”

After Bei Xiaozhou left, Xiao Yujun was very surprised by this.

Yu Hao uttered an “uh” and said, “We talked about how hard she worked at her job.”

Xiao Yujun scrutinised Yu Hao for a moment, “Are you going to include it?”

Yu Hao said, “I can try?”

Xiao Yujun made a call and brought Yu Hao to their second appointment with another internet celebrity. Yu Hao took his laptop out in the other cafe and transcribed some of his interview with Bei Xiaozhou. They worked until 4pm; Zhou Sheng came to pick Yu Hao up while Xiao Yujun was still talking. They had interviewed six people in total. All the internet celebrity girls didn’t want to pay much attention to Xiao Yujun, but they were quite interested in Yu Hao.

“I’ll treat the little Gege to a sandwich ba.” One of the girls said, “He looks so hungry.”

Yu Hao was extremely touched that someone actually noticed that he hadn’t eaten yet.

In the end, Xiao Yujun nodded and passed Yu Hao a USB, “For Male God, you’ve worked hard.”

Zhou Sheng took over and went back to the college with Yu Hao. Zhou Sheng said, “Bei Xiaozhou didn’t do anything to you ba?”

Yu Hao and Zhou Sheng walked to a place devoid of people. He remembered how Bei Xiaozhou had said ‘you definitely can’t give up’, and as he thought about it, he turned around and hugged Zhou Sheng.

Zhou Sheng, “???”

Zhou Sheng instantly burst with joy and said, “What? What is it? After not seeing each other for the whole day, did you miss your hubby?”

Yu Hao didn’t say anything.

“You didn’t get bullied ba?” Zhou Sheng said, “If you got bullied then don’t do this anymore; I’ll take revenge for you.”

Yu Hao leaned on Zhou Sheng’s shoulder and felt Zhou Sheng’s heart beating wildly.

“I didn’t, everything’s fine.” Yu Hao smiled, “Let’s look for Kaikai first, then we can go for dinner. Let’s go.”

Zhou Sheng and Fu Liqun both found part-time jobs. Zhou Sheng began tutoring a junior high student in math, while Fu Liqun went to a gym to become an assistant equipment coach to protect customers from getting injured when they’re adding weights, as well as tidying up the equipment and other odd jobs.

“Oh my god,” Zhou Sheng was complaining about the junior high student, “He’s so difficult to teach, way too rebellious. I’m so tempted to hit him.”

Yu Hao didn’t know if he should cry or laugh, “They’re all like that, being a tutor is hard work.”

It was obvious that Chen Yekai hadn’t been getting much sleep recently. This was Yu Hao’s first time talking to him since the end of summer vacation. His house was now decorated in a similar style to the safe haven in his dream, and even the tablecloth was exactly the same. However there was a messy pile of materials on the table — including the subjects and schedule used for their college’s appraisal, the course analysis for next semester, as well as Lin Xun’s case report.

“Want anything to drink?” Chen Yekai asked.

“How many hours of sleep are you getting a day?” Zhou Sheng couldn’t help but ask.

Chen Yekai used one hand to gesture a number and said, “I haven’t been sleeping much. Drink low caffeine coffee ba, don’t lose sleep at night. Still seizing dreams recently?”

Yu Hao passed the USB to Chen Yekai. Chen Yekai printed out the data, and made coffee for the both of them while it printed.

“Not anymore.” Zhou Sheng said, “But I can only give you the Golden Crow Wheel after a while.”

Yu Hao threw Zhou Sheng a meaningful look and pointed at himself, then pointed at Zhou Sheng to indicate whether or not they should tell Chen Yekai that they were together. But Zhou Sheng waved his hand and stopped Yu Hao from saying anything first.

“When Junjun approached me regarding this topic, I was very interested in it.” Chen Yekai said, “But since I’m still in the college, I can’t participate in social interviews, so I can only do it through you. Yu Hao, it must be hard on you, you should be very busy this semester.”

Yu Hao knew that Chen Yekai was always like this — he was obviously the one helping others, yet he would talk about it as if he was troubling others instead. Chen Yekai sat down with the coffee he brought over. Yu Hao said, “There’s not much to do, it’ll only take a month or two at most. With Junjun Jie’s interview speed, it’ll all be done soon.”

“Un......let me take a look......” Chen Yekai began reading the printed material, while Zhou Sheng laid on Chen Yekai’s sofa and played with his new Switch.

Chen Yekai glanced at Zhou Sheng, “A friend gave me that, you can take it back to play with it?”

Zhou Sheng, “Don’t, it wasn’t easy for Fu Liqun to start getting his act together. Give him another console, and he’ll lead a befuddled existence again.”

“You’re hungry ba.” Chen Yekai could tell that Yu Hao and Zhou Sheng were slightly on edge. Zhou Sheng sporadically pressed down on the console buttons forcefully, while Yu Hao repeatedly flipped through the materials, so he got up and said, “I’ll make you guys something to eat.”

“I’ll do it ba.” Zhou Sheng threw the console aside and got up to rummage through Chen Yekai’s kitchen. There were only six eggs, half a bag of rice, and a pot of cold rice.

Zhou Sheng, “......”

“Accompanied her for the interview?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. By dealing with interviewees face to face, you’ll be able to better understand the unspoken subtext of her questions, and there might even be new discoveries.”

“Yes, it really is like that!” Yu Hao said, “Even though I was just watching from the side, I could roughly understand the interviewees today, but I’m often unable to figure out how to phrase the content coherently......”

“Language and words aren’t important. First of all, you need to understand it yourself and pursue the inherent nature through your observations.” Chen Yekai said to Yu Hao, “Why would Bei Xiaozhou say the things she did today? Why did she choose this kind of life? Does she really like it from the bottom of her heart, or was she influenced by her environment? Why would she like it? The quintessence behind studying Psychology is to ask ‘why’. This what it means to be people-oriented.”

Yu Hao’s gaze shifted from the materials to Chen Yekai’s face. Chen Yekai took out several thumbtacks from the stationery box and pinned an A1 paper to the wall of the dining room. He then took a pen and began to analyze Yu Hao’s social data.

“Learn how to draw a mind map.” Chen Yekai added, “Try to sort out all the convoluted and complicated information you obtained, then search for its underlying essence.”

As Yu Hao watched Chen Yekai begin to reconstruct the underlying thoughts of the interviewees according to the data he had, he just wanted to exclaim ‘male god!’ Chen Yekai was way too strong; his lines of thought were all very clear-cut.

“Consumerism culture redefines personal values in our era, and by involving ourselves in it, everyone will be affected. From the theme of this article, it can be said that Xiao Yujun is committed to eliminating the generation gap between parents and young people. The collision and conflict of these two different values is the essence behind this issue’s topic.”

“In the 1970s and 1980s, people still held the idea of starting from scratch and weren’t very aware of the idea of consumerism, which is the root cause of the adolescents’ infatuation with internet celebrities. But their parents can’t understand it, and think that they’re bad role models......thank you.”

Zhou Sheng casually picked a handful of leaves from the peppermint plant in Chen Yekai’s house, and after he chopped it up, he made fried rice with peppermint and eggs. The three of them talked as they ate. Chen Yekai had a shocked expression after the first bite.

Chen Yekai, “......”

Yu Hao, “?”

Zhou Sheng, “???”

“Seems like I put in too much salt.” Zhou Sheng said to Yu Hao, “Drink more water later ba.”

“It’s just right.” Yu Hao said, “I’m starving, I only had a sandwich this afternoon......This fried rice with mint is really fragrant, it’s so good.”

Zhou Sheng, “Eat more, there’s still some in the pot. So Kaikai, you think it’s wrong to depend on buying bags, shoes, and other luxury goods to obtain happiness?”

“That’s the significance behind doing this topic.” Chen Yekai said, “Yu Hao, organise the piece first before sending it to me. I’ll help you revise it once and then send it to Xiao Yujun.”

—