Chapter 78

Chapter 76

"Shoes broken, hat broken, on the body kasaya broken; you laugh at me, he laughs at me, one fan broken..."

Xue Liangliang reached out and turned up the volume.

The next moment, except for Li Zhuoyuan, everyone in the car sang along:

"Namo Amitabha, Namo Amitabha..."

You Benchang's TV drama "Ji Gong" had been released for several years but was still popular.

After one song finished, the car finally quieted down.

Yinmeng asked, "How much longer until we reach Jinling?"

Xue Liangliang said, "Still about an hour or so until we arrive."

"Then you all live quite close to the provincial capital."

"Close?" Xue Liangliang laughed. "Jinling is the provincial capital of Jiangsu, but for most cities in the province, getting to Jinling isn't that close. On the contrary, for the area around my hometown in Anhui, it's more convenient to go to Jinling."

"This doesn't count as close?"

"This still counts..." Xue Liangliang thought that Yinmeng was from Fengdu, and her provincial capital was Rongcheng. "Also, compared to your area, it's indeed much closer, but generally, you all don't go to Rongcheng; it's more convenient to go to Chongqing."

"Last time when I came back with you all, we passed by it, and that was the first time I had been to Chongqing in my life."

Tan Wenbin slapped his forehead and said regretfully, "You should have said so earlier! If I had known, we would have stayed in Chongqing for two more days and kept you company."

Yinmeng said somewhat sadly, "I originally thought Nantong would be more fun."

She had actually lived at Li Sanjiang's house for quite a while. At first, she had also gone to the city center to visit attractions, but she felt they were all meaningless.

Especially right after the New Year, when Li Sanjiang went to Langshan to burn incense, Yinmeng also accompanied him. As a result, when climbing the mountain, she hadn't even warmed up and had already reached the summit.

So, later on, even when she had free time with no work, she preferred to stay at home watching TV or practicing kung fu, too lazy to go out.

Yinmeng asked again, "Is Jinling fun?"

Xue Liangliang said, "Don't have too high expectations for the natural scenery; it definitely can't compare to your hometown. But there are many historical sites here.

Oh, last time Xiao Yuan came to Jinling, he just went back after his exam and didn't play much. This time, you can have time to go around and let him take you. He can act as a guide and explain."

Li Zhuoyuan responded, "Okay."

Tan Wenbin opened a bottle of soda, took a gulp, and said, "Scenery or not is secondary; the main thing is to see if there are dead bodies. We've finally left our hometown with great difficulty, so we must seize the opportunity properly.

Brother Liangliang, do you know where there are many dead bodies near our school?"

Xue Liangliang said, "If I knew that, would I still be alive to know you all?"

Tan Wenbin looked at Li Zhuoyuan again and asked, "Brother Xiao Yuan, can you find fishing spots?"

Li Zhuoyuan thought for a moment and said, "Actually, from the perspective of feng shui and luck, it's relatively easy for a group of people like us to encounter dirty things."

"Ah?" Tan Wenbin scratched his head. "How does that sound like a math problem?"

"Almost. We have four corpse salvagers here." Li Zhuoyuan glanced at Xue Liangliang, who was driving. "And one Bai family son-in-law."

Xue Liangliang said, "Did you have to add those two words 'son-in-law'?"

Li Zhuoyuan spread his hands. "When five cleaning balls are put together, the surroundings are too clean, which will naturally attract some dirty things to balance it out."

Tan Wenbin understood and said, "The meaning is, as long as we gather together, the probability of encountering dirty things in a normal situation is much higher than that of ordinary people?"

"Yes." Li Zhuoyuan nodded. "If you still subjectively go looking for them, the probability will be even greater."

Tan Wenbin clapped his hands. "That's great! From now on, I'll change my morning run to a night run by the river."

Xue Liangliang shook his head and sighed, "Binbin, you're really hungry."

Tan Wenbin glanced at Xue Liangliang. "Brother Liang, that's like a full man not knowing the hunger of a hungry man."

"Xiao Yuan, just play around before school starts. After school starts, you can also experience some university life. When the teacher finishes his busy work, a new project will start, and at that time, people will be transferred from the school, and you will definitely be included."

"Okay."

Tan Wenbin asked, "Then what about me?"

Xue Liangliang teased, "You don't want to do a night run?"

"Brother Liang~ I was wrong~"

"Xiao Yuan hasn't even enrolled yet, and he has already completed who knows how many sets of graduation designs."

"I was busy with the college entrance examination before. Is it still time for me to catch up on professional courses now? But, I also don't have Brother Xiao Yuan's kind of brain."

"Don't worry, I'm just scaring you. I or Xiao Yuan can just say a word to the teacher. Each project team has a labor quota, and there are only two requirements: one is that you are a major from this school, and the other is that your limbs are sound. What a coincidence, you meet the conditions."

"As long as I can get in, that's fine. Then, after getting in, is it like the last time we went to Wanzhou, where I don't need to stay at school and attend classes?"

"Yes."

"Tsk, the difference in freedom between university and high school is really big."

"It's the boss's gap that's big."

After the truck entered the urban area of Jinling, it drove directly to the north gate of the school and was stopped by security.

Xue Liangliang poked his head out the window and called out to the uncles, and the security guards smilingly opened the gate, skipping even the registration steps.

Entering through the north gate is the living area. The cafeteria and dormitory buildings are all here. Li Zhuoyuan and Tan Wenbin live in the same dorm, on the third floor of Building 9 in Area B, in the innermost corner.

This dorm is quiet, and unlike the six-person rooms in other dorms, there are only two beds here.

"Wow, this is so good." Tan Wenbin couldn't help but praise after putting down his luggage.

"Accommodation preferential treatment was originally one of the conditions for Xiao Yuan's early admission. I just inserted you in to be Xiao Yuan's roommate."

"The teacher is really good."

"Don't thank the wrong person. How could the teacher care about this? I pulled some strings to arrange you in."

"Brother Liang, do you have so much influence at school?"

"I've opened several small businesses at school and know some people."

Everyone worked together and quickly cleaned the dorm once. After making the beds and putting away daily necessities, the group left the dorm.

Xue Liangliang took everyone to a two-story building. On the left side of the large door hung a sign that said "University Activity Center," and on the right side hung "Reasonable Price Store."

The store area is not small, and the variety of goods is very complete.

Because it is still summer vacation, there are not many students, so there is only a fair-faced boy reading a book at the counter, and an aunt on the other side cracking melon seeds.

Seeing Xue Liangliang coming, the two put down their books and melon seeds respectively and came to greet him.

"Senior, you're here."

"Yes, Zhi Hua." Xue Liangliang patted the boy's shoulder with his right hand and took out two purchase orders from his pocket with his left hand, handing them to the other side.

After the boy took the purchase orders, his eyes immediately widened.

"Senior, listen to my explanation, I..."

"Do you know that if I report this matter to the school, you definitely won't be able to graduate?"

"Senior, I was wrong, I'm sorry, I'll return the money..."

"No need to return it. Just tidy up the account books, and then you can go. I'll treat this matter as if it never happened."

"Thank you, senior, thank you."

The boy put the account books and keys on the counter, then took his book and left in a hurry.

Xue Liangliang picked up the keys and handed them to Yinmeng. "Here, you manage this store."

Yinmeng quickly waved her hands. "How could I manage it..."

"Didn't you say you opened a shop before?"

"I did, but it almost closed down."

"It doesn't matter. I just renewed the contract with the school earlier this year, and there are still three years left. This is exclusive to Area B. You just need to sit at the counter and be responsible for collecting money."

"Okay, then."

"It's summer vacation now, and not many people are left. When school starts, we still need to get a list from the school and find seven or eight poor students to help with odd jobs and moving goods."

Runsheng said, "I can move goods, no need to recruit people."

Xue Liangliang waved his hand. "That won't do. Providing work-study positions is a political task. Do you think it was that easy to get the exclusive right here?"

"Then I'll also stay and help." Runsheng still wanted to work here so he could be closer to Xiao Yuan.

"That's no problem." Xue Liangliang pointed downstairs. "Upstairs is the rehearsal room. Some student activities will have rehearsals there in advance. Downstairs is a half-basement, which I use as a warehouse, but I've separated several small rooms below. They all have water, electricity, and a bathroom, but the lighting isn't very good. Aunt Sun usually lives here too."

The aunt who was cracking melon seeds earlier laughed. "That's right, yes, I live here."

Xue Liangliang continued, "My meaning is, you two can take a look at the environment downstairs. If you feel it's suitable, you can live here first. This is a house I rented outside the school. I'll also give you the key and address. It's mainly because living outside is far, and it's troublesome to go in and out of the school gate."

Xue Liangliang handed a key and a piece of paper with the address written on it to Runsheng.

Runsheng didn't take it, pointing downstairs. "Then we'll just live downstairs."

"You also take the key to the house outside. I still have more there."

"Okay."

"Let's move the things first, and then we'll go eat. Now the school cafeterias are basically all closed, and only a few small windows are operating, but there's really nothing to eat. There's a Sichuan restaurant outside the north gate that tastes very authentic."

The disadvantage of the half-basement room is the poor lighting and the tendency to be damp, but this is fundamentally not a problem for Runsheng and Yinmeng. What kind of corpse salvager would be afraid of dampness?

Tan Wenbin was even more satisfied with the room here. If he didn't need to go to the dorm to accompany Xiao Yuan, he really wanted to sleep here too. After all, it had been so long, and he was used to sleeping in a coffin.

Actually, if Yinmeng weren't a woman, Runsheng could have completely moved into the dorm directly. At most, he could bribe the dorm manager aunt. As for the student union checking the dorm, they counted for nothing.

The little black dog raised at home had also grown up, but it still ate, slept, slept, and ate all day, entering a pure retirement life even earlier than Li Sanjiang. Runsheng unloaded it along with the dog cage from the truck and moved it into his room in the basement.

Out of the north gate, they came to the Sichuan restaurant. A big sign read "Old Sichuan," and a small sign read "Wanzhou Grilled Fish."

Although it was vacation, there were still several tables of guests inside the store, which was simply an extraordinary achievement for a restaurant near the school.

Now, most of the shops on the street nearby were already closed, and they would reopen when the students returned to school.

After Xue Liangliang entered the store, the boss couple and their daughter and son-in-law all came out to greet them, seeming overly enthusiastic.

Yinmeng heard her hometown accent and was very happy. Xue Liangliang just let Yinmeng go to the kitchen to watch the ordering.

After all, it was still the off-season at this time, and not too many dishes were prepared. They couldn't just order casually from the menu on the wall.

Tan Wenbin picked up the teapot on the table and poured water for everyone, then asked Xue Liangliang, "Brother Liang, you look like a regular customer here."

Li Zhuoyuan picked up his teacup and said, "This store was opened by Brother Liangliang."

Tan Wenbin blinked his eyes forcefully. "Brother Liang, really?"

Xue Liangliang nodded. "After coming back from Wanzhou last time, I invested in this store. The boss and his family are the ones I invited, but they also have shares, so they don't purely work for me."

"Brother Liang, you're amazing. Why don't you do business full-time? I think you can definitely make a lot of money that way."

"Why don't you go do the 'Zhuoyuan Secret Volume'?"

"I..."

"Making money is not as happy as building a dam."

Li Zhuoyuan took a sip of tea, then silently put down the cup.

Having been used to drinking Liu Yumei's tea leaves, his mouth was now picky.

The dishes came up very quickly, including a grilled fish.

"Hey." Xue Liangliang raised his chopsticks and picked up a piece of fish. "The main reason I invested in this store is still for my own convenience to come and eat."

Runsheng said, "Then you should open it by the Yangtze River, it's more convenient."

Xue Liangliang turned his head and shouted towards the kitchen, "Cook another pot of rice. We have someone here with a large appetite, and not enough rice won't shut him up."

After finishing the meal, Xue Liangliang drove the truck away. He had to go back to report to Luo Gong.

Runsheng and Yinmeng went to the store. Taking advantage of the off-season, they had to quickly familiarize themselves with it.

Li Zhuoyuan and Tan Wenbin returned to the dorm. While taking out their clothes from their luggage bags to hang them up, Tan Wenbin said:

"Xiao Yuan, you said that student who was originally watching the store, was he deliberately driven away by Brother Liang?"

"Yes."

"I even suspect that Brother Liang deliberately found someone to tempt him into taking kickbacks so he could fire him, but why do this? Why not fire this dishonest person earlier?"

"Brother Liangliang doesn't have the energy to manage things inside the school. If he changes to someone else to manage it, they would probably be greedy too, but this person is less greedy."

"Tsk, Brother Liang is really generous. As soon as he comes, he gives away a store. Later, when we eat and drink, we can just go to Runsheng's place and take whatever we want, ha ha ha."

Li Zhuoyuan sat down at the desk but didn't immediately open the book in front of him. Instead, he tilted his head to look at the trees outside the window.

He still remembered the first time he saw Brother Liangliang, it was on the riverbank of the 'pick river' in his hometown.

At that time, Brother Liangliang, although he already showed a completely different temperament from other people, still had a sense of youth and shyness.

In the past year, Brother Liangliang followed Luo Gong, traveling south and north, and he had indeed become more mature and capable.

Also, everyone is actually changing.

For example, Tan Wenbin, who changed into a vest and sports shorts after hanging up his clothes.

"Brother Binbin, are you really going for a night run?"

"Yeah."

"Then why did you shower just now?"

"I was afraid it would be awkward for you to shower alone."

"Oh."

"I'm off, Brother Yuanzi."

"Be careful."

"You say that, how could I encounter dirty things on the first day of living in school before school even starts?"

"Don't say such things."

"Hey, I was just kidding."

After Tan Wenbin went downstairs, he saw the dorm manager aunt moving things, so he actively helped. Then, he was invited by the dorm manager aunt to her office to drink a cup of water and chat for a while.

By the time he ran out of the dorm building, it was already ten o'clock in the evening. The reasonable price store not far away still had lights on.

Tan Wenbin started running in the opposite direction, planning to come back later. If Runsheng and the others were still there, he would go to the store and ask for a bottle of soda to drink.

The places he had seen during the day looked different at night, and since it was vacation, the school seemed very empty and quiet.

Tan Wenbin ran to the side of a small artificial lake. Saying it was a lake was actually just a larger pond.

He didn't run long along the side of the lake before he heard the sound of someone running behind him.

And, the person behind him was still actively speaking, "Hey, classmate, hello!"

Tan Wenbin immediately quickened his steps, changing from a normal run to a sprint.

"Hey, classmate, why are you running?"

After running quite a distance, Tan Wenbin gradually slowed down and stopped, then turned back, and found that there was no figure there.

"Yeah, what am I running for?"

He was the one who clearly wanted to come out and try his luck, but when there was a real possibility of encountering something, his first reaction was surprisingly to run.

"It must be that I've been living too comfortably for too long and haven't entered the state yet. Well, it's definitely not that I have the idea but not the courage."

Inside the dorm, Li Zhuoyuan was looking at a book under the desk lamp.

A new environment provided a very good background atmosphere for reading.

"Drip... drip... drip..."

In the corridor outside the dorm, the sound of footsteps came from far to near.

Li Zhuoyuan raised his head. It wasn't Tan Wenbin returning, because Binbin couldn't possibly run in high heels.

"Drip... drip... drip..."

The sound got closer and closer, and finally, it reached the end of the corridor on this floor and stopped.

Immediately after,

A light friction sound.

This was turning around to face the dorm door.

"Do... do... do..."

The sound of knocking came, each one very muffled, echoing in the cold corridor.

"Brother Binbin, you actually don't need to do a night run."

Li Zhuoyuan closed the book, opened the desk drawer, and took out a purple whip from inside.

There were a total of four demon subduing whips made. The others were all black, and only Li Zhuoyuan's was purple.

This was because Ah Li had scraped off the remaining old tablet skins and wrapped them little by little.

Holding the whip, he stood up.

"Pa!"

Li Zhuoyuan turned off the desk lamp, and the light inside the dorm suddenly dimmed. Light that was too bright would easily destroy the atmosphere.

The knocking sound on the dorm door paused for a moment.

Li Zhuoyuan walked towards the dorm door, conveniently turning off the overhead light in the dorm on the way. The dorm fell into complete darkness. This was the best background color.

The knocking sound outside the door became slow.

The boy stood in front of the door and said, "The door is not locked."

The knocking sound stopped.

The boy reached out and grabbed the doorknob. Without hesitation, with a "creak," he completely opened the door.

Outside, it was empty.

Li Zhuoyuan, holding the whip, walked out of the dorm, deliberately closing the dorm door.

"Bang!"

In the area at the other end of the corridor, the sound of "drip... drip..." high heels came, but no figure was seen yet.

Li Zhuoyuan took the initiative to walk towards that side. Seeing that he still wasn't closing the distance with that sound, the boy gradually started to run.

"Drip! Drip! Drip!"

The high heels became more and more urgent, and also farther and farther away, until finally, they completely disappeared.

Li Zhuoyuan stopped his steps.

It ran.

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