DFLB – Chapter 28

By the time everyone had gone back to their cabins, taken hot baths, and changed their clothes, it was time to go back to school. Although there was some disappointment, they had more or less enjoyed the full two days and one night, so everyone got on the bus willingly. In order to make counting the people easier, the seating arrangement on the return trip was the same as the one they used when they came, so Qian Wei sat beside Lu Xun again. While everyone else was chatting and eating snacks in a bright mood, Lu Xun was just sitting quietly. He just leaned his head against the window and looked at his phone like he was bored. Even though he was as expressionless as always, Qian Wei intuitively felt that he was not in a good mood.

Lu Xun eventually put down his phone but the screen was still on, Qian Wei glanced over and, although she did not want to peek, who told her to have such excellent eyesight? Qian Wei could see Lu Xun’s chat record.

‘I’m sorry, Lu Xun, but I broke your external hard drive. I took it to the repair shop to fix it but they said it couldn’t be repaired. I’ll buy you a new one.’

It was probably a text message from Lu Xun’s roommate and Lu Xun’s reply was concise: ‘It’s fine, don’t worry about it.’

Qian Wei had a sudden realization: it seemed that Lu Xun was in a bad mood because his external hard drive had been broken. There was probably a lot of important information stored inside it, so it was normal to be a little depressed.

Lu Xun was her future boss, and he had saved her this time. Qian Wei was already rubbing her hands together and thinking about how to return the favor. Helping him pursue Mo Zixin was a long-term project. If that plan wouldn’t take effect any time soon, she might as well start doing what she could do with what was right in front of her!

After they got off the bus, as soon as the classmates disbanded, Qian Wei dragged Qian Chuan to a computer store near University A. Although it was a little way away from the University A campus, the quality and after-sale service of this computer store was always reliable.

Qian Chuan looked puzzled: “Can’t I just lend you an external hard drive? Why do you want to buy a new one?”

“Don’t worry about that, just hurry up and find me a staff member. What kind of external hard drive should we buy? Don’t you know a lot about this stuff?”

Although Qian Chuan was full of doubts, he eventually decided to just help Qian Wei look. In the end, after they compared the goods with each other, Qian Chuan helped Qian Wei choose a 2.5-inch Seagate external hard drive*.

“Give me the maximum capacity, 500GB!”

In 2009, the price of a Seagate 500GB external hard drive was around 800 yuan, which was much different from the costs today. It was quite a bit for the college students of the time.

The salesman was excited to see such a big purchase: “Miss, what color do you want? Most girls like this pink one.”

“No, it’s not for me. I’m buying it for someone else.” Qian Wei compared the several different colors and decided to choose black since that seemed safest.

Qian Chuan was stupefied: “You don’t need it yourself? Then who are you buying it for? A man?”

Qian Wei ignored him and paid the money directly: “Wrap it for me as a gift.”

Qian Chuan smelled gossip: “Who is it? Who did you fall in love with? Or who are you going to fall in love with?” He rolled his eyes, “It seems that such an expensive thing must be a birthday gift for someone. And among the people I know with a birthday this month… there’s Zhou Yingjie. Ah, no, he is shorter than you. So is it that Zhang Wenqiang? No, no. Although he is a little sissy in his speech, his parents are quite strict.”

The salesman also became curious: “Miss, if this is for a man, is it your boyfriend?”

Qian Wei answered the two gossiping men: “Although the person I’m giving it to is a man, he is neither my boyfriend nor the person I want to chase. Stop guessing randomly Qian Chuan.” She blushed slightly as she remembered what Lu Xun looked like when he rescued her from the water, and then she added, “He’s not my boyfriend, but he’s a friend.”

The salesman nodded: “Since your friend is a man but not your boyfriend or a boy you like, let me give you something good on this external hard drive.” He smiled. “These are all treasures that I have collected over several years. If you weren’t making this huge purchase, I wouldn’t want to share it with anyone.”

“Is it some movies?”

The salesman nodded and smiled: “Yes, they are all classic films from abroad, the domestic ones really can’t compare. Your friend will understand after he sees it. There are also some learning materials.”

Qian Wei thanked him, thinking to herself that the salesman at this computer store was very studious and diligent. He not only saved several years of study materials, but even when watching movies he only watched imported classic blockbusters, domestic films couldn’t even enter his eyes. He must be a person with extremely elegant tastes.

In 2009 at University A, even though the dormitories had a network connection, the speed of the connection was so slow that it would make people burst into tears. People wanted to play games but the network was not up to the task. So on weekdays, everyone would download movies and TV dramas at home and then copy them onto an external hard drive and bring them to school. Since Lu Xun’s original external hard drive was broken Qian Wei figured he must have lost a lot of stock. This arrangement happened to kill two birds with one stone, not only would he get a new external hard drive, but it would also come with some movies and learning materials. Qian Wei felt that she was really a perfect lackey.

Qian Wei happily put away the newly bought external hard drive and spoke up in a good mood: “Let’s go, it’s my treat today.”

As a matter of fact, the computer store was not very close to University A. If not for purchasing computer parts and electronics, the students of University A would never choose to come here, so Qian Wei and Qian Chuan were not familiar with the area. After discussing it they decided to leave it to fate and just walked into the nearest restaurant.

Soon a large pot of steaming fish fillets were served to their table and Qian Wei could not help thinking: ‘So authentic! These ingredients are actually pretty good. The fish looks good, the sauerkraut seems refreshing, the taste of the soup is not too strong. It all seems just right.’

She was happy they chose this restaurant.

By this time, they were already eating a pretty late meal because this area was a long way from University A. Although there were only a few college students from University A in the area, there were several electronics factories nearby, so this small restaurant was basically full at the moment.

“Why is this soup so hot? You want to burn me? And this bowl and these chopsticks, they’re not clean at all! And why is there hair in these scrambled eggs?”

Just as Qian Wei was ready to start eating, she heard a loud voice coming from not far away. Qian Wei looked up following the sound of the voice. She didn’t have the hobby of butting into other people’s business so she normally wouldn’t care, but she could see the source of the problem with a casual glance.

The one talking in a loud voice was a middle-aged man. From what he was wearing you could see that he had no real job and his face was fleshy with small triangular eyes that were full of treachery and duplicity. One of the restaurant’s waiters was standing in front of him with his head bowed. It was an ordinary scene you could see at any restaurant, but it was different this time because of the waiter’s face.

The waiter was none other than Li Chongwen.

Even in this difficult situation, he still acted elegant and restrained: “I’m sorry, but our bowls and chopsticks are all sterilized with high temperatures, and two staff members in the kitchen will independently ensure their cleanliness, so there is absolutely no possibility that our dishes or chopsticks are not clean. As for you finding a hair, our head chef is bald, so it is impossible for him to leave any hair while cooking, and every waiter wears a work cap to prevent hair from falling into the food. Further, you say that your Boiled Fish with Pickled Cabbage and Chili is too hot but it was only after the first time you complained that the food was not hot enough that we deliberately heated it more for you.”

When he spoke he sounded neither humble nor arrogant and his words were reasonable and well-founded. But it was a pity that even when reason stood on his side, there was nothing he could do when faced with an unreasonable person.

“Don’t talk nonsense. Your restaurant is not sanitary at all. I ate here yesterday and puked half to death!”

Li Chongwen clearly made great effort to restrain his emotions and his words were still very polite: “If you feel any discomfort after eating your meal, you can go to the hospital to identify the cause. If it is our restaurant’s responsibility, then we will be responsible to the end.”

“What do you mean ‘if’ it’s your responsibility? This is your responsibility! Do you still want to play tricks?!”

The middle-aged man was obviously looking for trouble on purpose. He suddenly flipped the table with a crash, surprising Li Chongwen. The large bowl of hot Boiled Fish with Pickled Cabbage and Chili fell onto his body and Qian Wei saw that after being burned, his brow furrowed slightly from the pain but he still said nothing.

“I tell you, this is a black shop. The fish here are not fresh at all. After you finish eating, you will definitely have diarrhea.” The man stood up, looked around, and began to harass the rest of the diners. Two young couples who had just sat down but had yet to be served chose to leave because of his trumpeting and the faces of the other guests who were already eating all showed signs of impatience.

Li Chongwen had originally tried to maintain his humility in front of a customer, but after all, he was still a young man, and now he had finally been pushed to the breaking point: “Have you had enough? Haven’t you been here looking for trouble every day week? I paid for all your meals this week. What more do you want? If the Boiled Fish with Pickled Cabbage and Chili in our restaurant is not fresh and makes you sick, why do you keep coming back every day? I hope you will stop being so unreasonable. You have already violated the law and affected the normal operation of our restaurant!”

The middle-aged man picked his teeth and said, “OK, it seems that college students from big universities can really speak so smoothly. Why don’t you tell everyone why I come here every day to eat and drink your food and mess with you?” He raised his voice. “I’m here because this seemingly respectable college student doesn’t pay back the money he owes me!”

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*I’m not 100% sure if they’re talking about a flash drive or an external hard drive but I don’t think seagate made 500gb flash drives in 2009 so I just assume it must be an external hard drive.

Tl note: can you imagine the salesperson at a computer shop adding something to a hard drive you just bought from them?? Like what the hell?