"Little Xi, don't be fooled by the fact that he's not here for the basketball game. In high school, he was already part of our provincial tennis team, but he quit later because he had to inherit his family's company," Lin Xiaojin explained.
"Remember when you said those sneakers were really comfortable? That brand belongs to his family. That's partly why everyone at the sports college treats him so well," Lin Xiaojin clearly knew a lot. "In high school, he earned the title of national second-level athlete in Sanda. During his freshman year, he played a tennis match against our provincial team's vice-captain. You probably didn't see it, but I did. He absolutely destroyed his opponent!"
"You know why he's not participating in this basketball game? Because he could single-handedly crush the entire CSU team. So they voted him out and won't let him play. Otherwise, there'd be no point in having the competition."
Whether it was CUSC, CUDC, or Capital Academy, they all valued strength above all else.
Xi Shui was confused, "Isn't it a shame not to continue competing?"
"You're telling me?" Lin Xiaojin shrugged. "But everyone has their own path. If my family had a company worth billions to inherit, I'd go to my advisor and drop out tomorrow."
Their conversation reached Zhou Zeqi's ears with perfect clarity.
Zhou Zeqi chuckled, unscrewing the cap of his water bottle and tilting his head back lazily to pour water into his mouth.
"Ah, then I'd drop out too," Xi Shui's voice was very distinctive, soft and mellow, with clear enunciation. He spoke slightly slower than others, as if each word was carefully considered before being spoken.
Lin Xiaojin didn't speak further, his attention now on Wu Fengyi who was just below the stage.
Meng Kewen had his arm around Wu Fengyi's shoulders and nodded slightly towards Lin Xiaojin's direction. "My childhood friend likes you... your abs."
Wu Fengyi shrugged him off, shifting his gaze from Meng Kewen's childhood friend's face to Xi Shui beside him. Xi Shui was looking down at his phone, his long neck accentuated by the loose T-shirt that made his thin frame look even more slender, creating a stark contrast with the bustling surroundings.
Meng Kewen waved his hand in front of Wu Fengyi's eyes, "What are you looking at?"
"Is that your childhood friend too?"
"No," Meng Kewen said, "That's my childhood friend's friend, he came with him."
"You don't know him?" Meng Kewen seemed surprised.
"Should I?"
"That's Old Zhou's rumored boyfriend!!!" Meng Kewen lowered his voice, but his excitement was still palpable.
Every pore in his body seemed to be brimming with excitement.
So much so that even Zhou Zeqi looked over at him.
"What boyfriend?" Zhou Zeqi always had a lazy, carefree demeanor. He leaned against the wall, his head bumping into something hard.
He turned to look and saw that he had bumped into the toe of the canvas shoe belonging to Meng Kewen's childhood friend's friend.
Xi Shui hadn't expected the man to suddenly lean back. He pulled his foot back a bit, "I'm sorry."
Zhou Zeqi let out a "hmm" through his nose and shifted his gaze, speaking to Meng Kewen, "I'm asking you, what boyfriend?"
Meng Kewen squatted down, "You know, that CP ranking thread on the forum? Last semester you saw it, you even said his dancing was beautiful and that he was a good match for you."
Wu Fengyi grinned.
Old Zhou was shameless.
Zhou Zeqi pretended he had never said such a thing, "What dance does he do?"
"Ballet, you know, the one where they spin on their toes." Meng Kewen raised both hands above his head and spun around once while squatting.
"Oh..." Zhou Zeqi's eyes flickered, drawing out the end of his words in a long, low tone, "That little swan from CUDC."
-
As the competition reached its climax, Xi Shui checked the time and tapped Lin Xiaojin, who had gotten so excited he was now standing. "I need to head back."
Lin Xiaojin nodded vigorously, "Be careful on your way back."
"You should get back to the dorm early too, we have morning practice tomorrow."
Xi Shui picked up his water bottle from the ground, pulled open the two-finger wide strap, and slung it across his shoulder along with his bag. He then crouched down and made his way out via the stairs on the side.
The residential complex where Xi Shui lived was right next to the school. Because it was surrounded by hospitals, shopping malls, and elementary schools, the rent was quite high. However, due to its convenience, many teachers and students from the school chose to rent apartments there.
At this hour, when Xi Shui entered the elevator, he found several workers inside with stacks of cardboard boxes piled high at their feet, looking as if they were moving in.
Xi Shui reached out to press his floor button, but noticed that the 6th floor had already been pressed.
New neighbors?
When they reached the 6th floor, Xi Shui, who was in the corner, gestured for the workers to exit first. The workers hurriedly said, "You go first, we have so many things here."
"Alright then," Xi Shui responded, while fumbling in his bag for his keys. His keychain only had one key for the door, but it was attached to a nearly 20-centimeter long Pink Panther plush, which always made it a bit difficult to pull out of his bag.
As he was tugging on the Pink Panther's leg to pull it out, the workers pushed their cart out of the elevator, steering it towards the apartment next to Xi Shui's - the new neighbors were just separated from Xi Shui by a single wall.
Once inside his apartment, Xi Shui took off his bag and water bottle, tossing them in the entryway. He removed his shoes and ran barefoot to weigh himself.
The numbers on the scale fluctuated a few times before settling on exactly 60kg.
Dance performers can't be fat - this was a principle that Xi Shui's parents had drilled into him since childhood.
Of course, there were ballet dancers who specialized in playing chubby roles, but the market demand for such roles was far less than for slender, graceful ballet dancers.
However, as a male dancer, Xi Shui also couldn't be too thin and weak. He was well aware of this point himself, as male dancers often need to lift female dancers and perform some high-difficulty dance moves.
Although Xi Shui had a natural talent for ballet, he had one major flaw.
He was a glutton, always craving food.
Usually, Xi Shui would practice an extra hour just so he could eat one more mouthful of rice, two more cookies, or one more sip of milk tea.
Xi Shui had a normal constitution and no digestive issues. He would gain weight if he ate too much and lose weight if he ate too little. But because of his high daily exercise volume, gaining weight wasn't that easy, although losing weight happened quite quickly.
But even with an easy-to-lose-weight physique, it was hard to resist Xi Shui's food cravings.
A new fried chicken shop had opened in the school's food court. It looked delicious, and was also high in calories.
He had been wanting to try it for several days now. Just one more day of perseverance, and on Saturday when there were no classes, he'd go eat it in the morning.
In the apartment where Xi Shui lived, the living room and two bedrooms all faced the sun. The bedroom where he usually slept faced the morning sun, while the practice room faced the afternoon sun. The practice room had a small balcony that was right next to the large balcony of the neighboring apartment.
Xi Shui had investigated before and found that if someone from next door wanted to come over, they could easily climb onto the balcony and jump across.
However, since no one had been living next door before, Xi Shui hadn't paid much attention to it.
Now that new neighbors had moved in...
Xi Shui made a call to his mom.
Li Wanzhi was in the middle of applying a mud mask to her face when she heard Xi Shui's explanation. She exclaimed, "Oh my, that's not very safe."
"Right?" Xi Shui agreed.
"Well, go online and buy a set of security grilles. Don't buy plastic ones. Install them yourself, and I'll talk to your godmother about it." The landlord was Li Wanzhi's best friend and Xi Shui's godmother, who only charged a nominal rent of 500 yuan.
"I don't know how to install them."
Li Wanzhi didn't know either, "Use a wrench and screws, right? If you can't do it, just call a professional."
Xi Shui, having finished washing his face, responded, "Okay."
After settling the matter of installing the security grilles, Li Wanzhi asked Xi Shui if he had been overeating at school, if he had been attending classes and practicing diligently, and if he was preparing for the Varna competition dance.
Xi Shui answered each question, and then ended the call with Li Wanzhi.
-
He had a regular routine, usually going to bed at eleven o'clock after washing up, falling asleep within three minutes of lying down, and sleeping soundly until dawn.
But tonight there was a small incident. He had forgotten to close the floor-to-ceiling window in his practice room balcony, and the doors to both the practice room and his bedroom were left open.
The sound of laughter and conversation from the new neighbors next door crept in through the balcony, waking Xi Shui up.
Xi Shui checked the time - it was almost one in the morning.
He couldn't blame others. The soundproofing in this apartment was actually very good; Xi Shui had never heard any noise from upstairs or downstairs. Tonight, he had forgotten that new neighbors had moved in next door and had forgotten to close the doors.
He crawled out of bed, his mind foggy and too lazy to put on shoes. Barefoot, he ran to the practice room to close the balcony door.
The floor-to-ceiling window in the practice room was a whole sliding door. Xi Shui reached out to pull the door latch from the wall gap. As he slightly raised his eyes, he met the gaze of the new neighbor next door, who was leaning on the balcony drinking beer.
The young man's posture was relaxed as he changed out of his earlier school T-shirt. His white tank top failed to conceal the smooth, defined muscles of his arms. Even from a distance, Xi Shui could sense an imposing aura emanating from him.
The new neighbor, noticing Xi Shui standing pale and dazed in the shadows, lowered the can he was about to drink from and raised an eyebrow.
Just a few hours earlier, Xi Shui had seen this new neighbor - the "King of Hell Zhou" from the sports college, his rumored CP partner on the forum.
With the intention of maintaining friendly relations with his neighbor, Xi Shui took the initiative to greet Zhou Zeqi. He raised his hand and waved, "Hi."
Zhou Zeqi rested his elbow on the balcony railing. "Did I disturb you?" His voice was the polar opposite of Xi Shui's - past puberty, approaching that of a mature man, but not yet having lost the youthful spirit of campus life.
"No, I just forgot to close the window," Xi Shui explained.
He stood inside by the window, wearing thin white cotton pajamas, the long pants reaching down to his feet. The dark wooden floor made his toes look as white as snow in contrast.
Zhou Zeqi's gaze returned to Xi Shui's face. "I'll tell them to keep it down in a bit. Sorry about that." After speaking, he reached out to close his balcony door, immediately muffling the sound of lively chatter.
Seeing how reasonable and understanding he was, Xi Shui thought that he didn't seem as fierce as Lin Xiaojin had described on the forum. So why did they give him the nickname "King of Hell Zhou"?
"It's fine," Xi Shui didn't want to trouble him too much. He pointed at his own balcony, "I'm going to install some security bars in a couple of days anyway."
"?"
"......" Zhou Zeqi looked somewhat confused. "Security bars? To keep me out?"
Realizing Zhou Zeqi's bewilderment, Xi Shui felt a bit embarrassed and said, "Don't you think our balconies are too close? It's not safe."
He added after a pause, "It's not safe for you either."
The two balconies were less than half a meter apart, close enough to easily step from one to the other.
Zhou Zeqi stared at Xi Shui's nervously fluttering eyelashes for a moment, then smiled. His eyes remained calm as he smiled, "What's unsafe for me? Do you have any inappropriate thoughts about me?"
Inappropriate thoughts?
!
Never!
Xi Shui shook his head repeatedly, his ears turning red. "No, no, no inappropriate thoughts at all."
Zhou Zeqi pressed on, "Or are you saying your security bars can block out noise?"
Xi Shui retreated step by step, "I was just saying that." Initially, it wasn't meant to block noise, but to keep the new neighbor out.
Before this, Xi Shui didn't know that his new neighbor was a fellow student.
Although CUDC and CUSC had long been at odds, knowing that the neighbor was a schoolmate, regardless of the situation, was far more reassuring than someone whose name and identity were unknown.
Now that he knew the new neighbor was Zhou Zeqi, Xi Shui naively thought there was no need for security measures anymore.