DFLB – Chapter 10

Qian Wei, holding the vegetarian barbeque meal in her hand, sat at a table at the entrance of the canteen and waited for Lu Xun. Liu Shiyun stood beside her with two dark circles under her eyes, and while waiting she had yawned more than a dozen times. Lu Xun finally arrived slowly. He was wearing a beige jacket and khaki trousers, the kind of clothes that were worn by ordinary college students, but his face was really not ordinary at all. Two girls at a table nearby to Qian Wei’s table were quietly talking about him.

“Well, that is Lu Xun, who serves as the living signboard of our law school. In the past, his photos and videos were used for publicity on the official website of our law school and as a result, the law major, a major that has the lowest employment rate across the country, was suddenly full of girls. You picked the right time to visit me today. It’s rare to see him normally.”

“How handsome! Really handsome! Compared with him the boys in my school are just weeds, they seem completely vulgar by comparison.”

Qian Wei couldn’t help rolling her eyes as she listened to their conversation. Those girls knew nothing. If they knew what the 28-year-old Lu Xun was called in the legal circle, they would understand what a ‘Poisonous Beauty’* really was.

“Wait, he seems to be looking at us. He seems to be walking towards us!”

Lu Xun barely glanced at the two girls, before he went straight over to Qian Wei and Liu Shiyun and sat down. It was obvious that he had long been accustomed to this kind of overt attention and did not care about it.

But Qian Wei was not Lu Xun, she had always been an ordinary person, with average academic performance, ordinary family circumstances, ordinary hobbies, and mediocre performance at work. Now, because of Lu Xun sitting at her table, she suddenly felt many gazes from a lot of people. Even with Liu Shiyun by her side, she felt ill at ease.

Lu Xun glanced at Liu Shiyun before looking at Qian Wei, he said, “Is this a buy one get one free dinner with you? Did I ask her out?”

Qian Wei laughed and said, “It’s for your own good. You see, there are many people in the canteen with curious eyes. If people see you eating alone with me, in ten minutes, there will be rumors that you and I are secretly dating. In another twenty minutes, there will be more than thirty witnesses on the school forum providing forty different versions of our love story.” She pulled Liu Shiyun beside her. “But if I take my friend with me like this, we won’t be eating alone, and it won’t create a rumor.”

“You’re so well informed. Do you know who all the people I’ve been ‘secretly dating’ before?”

“I know.” Liu Shiyun replied, “The ones rumored to be secretly dating you are Cai Xinxin, the department flower of the Broadcast Host Department, Chen Jiameng, the goddess of the Medical Department, and the famous tea ceremony girl among the freshman at the School of Civil Engineering. But it is said that the one you really like is Mo Zixin, the flower of our law school.”

Lu Xun glanced at Qian Wei and then smiled faintly and said nothing.

“…” Qian Wei thought to herself, does that look mean that even if the people see us eating together, they wouldn’t spread a rumor about you dating me? Are you making a joke of me right now? But then the irony is, even though you want to satirize me, why are you still so silent right now? Seeing that you are my future boss, I will put up with it!

Enduring the humiliation, she took the vegetarian barbecue meal that she had in her hand to Lu Xun: “Then you eat here slowly, I’ll leave ahead of you!”

But since when was Lu Xun so easy to deal with? He raised his eyebrows and said, “Is this all there is to eat?”

Qian Wei was a little speechless. She knew she had bought enough, because after working for him for so long, she was well aware of Lu Xun’s eating habits. He usually did not eat large portions and the breakfasts he ate were especially small. So she had bought breakfast entirely in accordance with the 28 year old Lu Xun’s habit. How could she have known that the 19 year old Lu Xun obviously had a strange skeleton that caused a huge appetite…

“Buy three more cups of soy milk.”

He really knew how to enjoy life. When he wanted food and drink, he had to drink three cups. This Lu Xun was really gluttonous, wasn’t he?

Whatever, she couldn’t let the future boss go hungry. Although Qian Wei was complaining in her heart, she still went back to the queue to buy more.

Unfortunately, by this time, the vegetarian barbecue had long been sold out, so Qian Wei had no choice but to buy two big meat buns for herself, and the soy milk for Lu Xun.

Once Qian Wei pushed everything in front of Lu Xun and was ready to leave, Lu Xun stopped her again.

“Sit down.”

“Hmm?”

Lu Xun between her and Liu Shiyun, the latter of which was obviously excited, and said to Qian Wei: “Please eat with me.” He smiled at Qian Wei and said, “After all, I have to thank you for last night. Don’t get too excited about having a meal with me.”

Qian Wei stared at Lu Xun’s evil face and felt something indescribable building in her chest. Was this considered treating her? She was obviously the one who waited in line and then spent her own money to buy it! Why would she be excited? What would she be excited about?

It was a real pity that it was only September 2009, and Sina Weibo had just now started its internal testing, so there was no hot search yet. If there were, Qian Wei believed that Lu Xun could easily make it onto the annual Top Ten Best Bosses list, not only would he top the list, but he would probably also win the runner-up as well.***

It was said that mealtime was the best way to show a person’s upbringing. And Lu Xun ate his breakfast like he was eating Michelin French food, with a kind of vague aristocratic arrogance and laziness. Meanwhile, Qian Wei swallowed her steamed buns in two or three bites. On the side, Liu Shiyun stared at Lu Xun’s face and forgot to eat. Lu Xun was still eating the vegetarian barbecue elegantly and Qian Wei could not help but roll her eyes seeing him, remembering all the times Lu Xun bossed her around after work.

As a result, unfortunately, Lu Xun, who had been bowing his head to eat, suddenly raised his head slightly and saw Qian Wei who was obviously rolling her eyes at him without any concealment.

Lu Xun sneered: “Qian Wei, do you have a problem with me?”

“No, I have absolutely no problem with you.”

“Then why did you roll your eyes just now? Didn’t you want to be friends with me? How can you roll your eyes at your friends?”

Qian Wei pointed to her eyes: “I have been studying every night these days, using you as my role model, so now my eyes are a little cramped.” Then, in order to prove her story, she bravely began to roll her eyes again and again, which really made her eyes cramp up.

Lu Xun obviously didn’t buy it. He rolled his eyes and his mouth pursed coldly. Although he didn’t say anything, Qian Wei knew that this face was the prelude to him finding fault with her.

She could never let him find fault!

Qian Wei spoke hurriedly: “In fact, I do have an opinion about you!”

Lu Xun raised an eyebrow and said, “Oh?”

Qian Wei solemnly took out a box from her bag and respectfully placed it in front of Lu Xun with all the ceremony of a small foreign country paying tribute to an emperor. It was a box for keeping fruit fresh and inside were neatly sliced pineapples, which Qian Wei had prepared in advance to flatter Lu Xun.

“My only opinion of you is that you do things too seriously and don’t pay enough attention to your health!” Qian Wei smiled ingratiatingly: “It’s good for your health to have some fruit two hours after dinner so I’ve prepared a pineapple for you. You should combine work and rest…”

Lu Xun looked into Qian Wei’s eyes and said: “It’s a pity I don’t like pineapple very much.”

“…”

Would Qian Wei give up with just this much? Of course not! To be a lackey, one had to have flexibility!

Fortunately, Qian Wei had developed the ability to tell lies with her eyes wide long ago for being a working adult. She looked back at Lu Xun and said calmly, “Pineapple can allow you to concentrate. It will go from germination, to growth, to a brilliant bloom, and the result will be a mind immune to distractions. There are no boundaries. And even if there is only a single square inch of land, using pineapples you can go deep into the essence, with the belief in the pursuit of perfection. So we can say the pineapple symbolizes perfection, just like you! I think among the fruits, only pineapple is worthy of you! Really, you should learn to like the pineapple, it is the fruit most in line with your temperament! This time, you should try it!”**

Although her speech was full of over-the-top flattery, at least Lu Xun did not continue to press her. He put away his previous stormy expression, took a final meaningful look at Qian Wei, and then eventually accepted the box of pineapples.

After working with him, Qian Wei was long used to being abused by Lu Xun. So Qian Wei was grateful for his indifference. “I will begin to work in the library today, the East Library on the second floor.” She winked at Lu Xun. “As long as I’m there, I will reserve an exclusive seat for you. You know, this opportunity is very rare if you think about it. It’s very hot in September and the dorms have no air conditioner but the library does. And when the temperature starts to drop in late October, the heating in the library will be warmer than in the dorms.”

In 2009, the dorms of A University were not equipped with air-conditioning, and the temperatures in City A were still very high in September, so the air-conditioned library always became a scramble for territory. The library opened at 7 o’clock in the morning, and people were already lining up to grab seats at 05:30. Within ten minutes of opening, all the study rooms on the sixth floor of the library would be claimed because at A University the seats in the library were important resources. Chasing girls out on the university campus might not produce any result even if the boys did it for several months in a row. But on the contrary, it was absolutely more effective for the boys to help the girls occupy seats in the library every day for several months in a row. If that didn’t work, the boys could try again to help the girls’ friends occupy the seats. And if that didn’t work, nothing would work.

The work-study program in the library was a one-year employment system, so Qian Wei thought that the olive branch she threw out was very attractive. After all, this was tantamount to offering to help Lu Xun ensure he had library seats for the coming year.

It’s just that Lu Xun never played his cards according to common sense. His face was indifferent and did not show any excitement at all. He was very calm: “I don’t go to the library very much.” He smiled. “With my grades, I don’t need to go to the library, not to mention that I can never feel at ease enough to study when I do go.”

“You can’t feel at ease?”

“There are always girls writing notes to me.” Lu Xun looked troubled. “Once there was even a man.”

“…”

All right, I know you’re a heartthrob, next question, next question!

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*“蛇蝎美人” is the term used. ‘Snake and scorpion beauty’ / ‘vicious beauty’ / poisonous beauty’ you all get the idea I’m sure.

**okay I’ll level with you. I’m machine translating here and that paragraph about the greatness of pineapples is at least 60% fan fiction because I don’t speak Chinese

***I don’t know anything about weibo’s top 10 best bosses list but I assume it’s meant sarcastically? From the context here I mean. It’s either that or I mistranslated the ‘worst’ as ‘best’. Either way the meaning should be clear enough right?