ECG -Chapter 46 Winter Vacation Begins

Watching the band go up on stage, Lin Hao asked Bai Zhitao, “How are you getting back tonight?”

Bai Zhitao smiled. “Two people in the band live near our school. They can drop me off at the school gate.”

Wu Xiaozhou asked, “How are you getting in then?”

Only then did Lin Hao remember that the school gate closed punctually at 10 p.m. every night. How was she going to get into the school?

Bai Zhitao giggled. “Secret!”

“Don’t do that, we can’t get back either!” Wu Xiaozhou became anxious.

Bai Zhitao put her hands behind her back and said seriously, “Call me big sister, then apologize to me!”

“Big sister!” Wu Xiaozhou immediately put on his shameless act. Without the slightest hesitation, he opened his mouth and shouted.

Bai Zhitao had only wanted to make things difficult for him, but she never expected this guy’s skin to be so thick.

“Big sister, what do I need to apologize for?” Wu Xiaozhou genuinely hadn’t realized.

Bai Zhitao’s face turned slightly red. She glared at him and said angrily, “What did you call me?”

The male singer on stage had already started singing. Since they were sitting so close to the stage, they had to shout just to talk.

“Oh, that thing!” Wu Xiaozhou suddenly looked enlightened. “I was wrong, big sister, really. Big sister, I’ll never call you ‘big white legs’ again!”

Hearing him say “big sister” over and over, as if he had gotten addicted to it, Bai Zhitao couldn’t help but blush. At the same time, she felt a little smug.

“Big sister—” Wu Xiaozhou put on a coy, fawning expression.

Bai Zhitao’s hair practically stood on end. She hurriedly shouted, “The west wall! Behind the two haystacks, there’s a section of wall that’s much lower. You can jump over there!”

“Got it!”

The fawning, delicate expression on Wu Xiaozhou’s face instantly disappeared.

“Thanks, we’re leaving, big white legs!”

“You?!”

Watching Wu Xiaozhou’s tall back, Bai Zhitao stomped her foot in anger.

Lin Hao, Fatty Meng, and Cui Gang were also holding back their laughter as they followed Wu Xiaozhou out.

Before they even reached the entrance, they saw Fourth Sister again.

Lin Hao smiled and waved at her. It was too noisy, so he didn’t say anything. Fourth Sister didn’t show much expression on her face either, only nodding at them.

More than twenty minutes later, the four of them really did find a gap in the western wall and climbed inside without much effort.

……

The final exams were over.

The professional course assessment was held in the small auditorium. Lin Hao played a piece from his professional coursework. It was steady and proper, with no mistakes, but there wasn’t much that stood out either.

After the exam ended, many teachers whispered among themselves, feeling that Director Fan hadn’t accepted any first-year students for several years. This time, it seemed he had misjudged. Perhaps the rumors weren’t true after all.

But Fan Gang continued doing things his own way and showed no reaction.

The students were all leaving campus. Lin Hao, Wu Xiaozhou, and Cui Gang went to the train station and lined up to buy tickets.

Their train was the next evening, so the three of them lay on their beds and read books out of boredom.

Fatty Meng had already gone home, leaving only the three of them in the dormitory.

Cui Gang was lying on Wu Xiaozhou’s upper bunk, still holding his trumpet mouthpiece and blowing into it with little “puff puff” sounds.

Following Lin Hao’s guidance, he had finally managed to produce a sound after twelve days of practice. It took another two days before he went back to class.

His major teacher was extremely surprised by his improvement. After finding out the reason, he even specially invited Lin Hao to dinner.

After drinking heavily with Lin Hao, the teacher benefited greatly and became even more impressed by him.

Meanwhile, after Wu Xiaozhou’s electric bass teacher Wang Leping met Lin Hao through Wu Xiaozhou, he often left Wu Xiaozhou behind and invited Lin Hao out for drinks alone.

It wasn’t because he was unwilling to spend money feeding one more person. The main reason was that asking his own student’s classmate for professional advice was somewhat awkward.

So, things gradually developed into a situation where both Cui Gang and Wu Xiaozhou’s professional course teachers would ask Lin Hao for advice. After digesting everything themselves, they would then pass those advanced ideas on to their students.

Although Lin Hao was helpless, there was nothing he could do. He made a three-point agreement with these two teachers who were so willing to “learn humbly from someone below them”: they couldn’t tell anyone about his little secret, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to study peacefully anymore.

On the train home, they didn’t run into Xia Yumeng and Jiang Rong from the normal university, nor did they see Bai Zhitao. Both Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou felt a little regretful.

Lin Hao had some money on hand now, but he still couldn’t bring himself to buy a sleeper ticket. A few young and strong guys could sit in hard seats for one night, chat along the way, and didn’t feel it was particularly tiring.

In the middle of the night, the three of them were hungry. Lin Hao opened a large plastic bag, which contained things Fan Gang had given him before he left.

Wu Xiaozhou bit open the plastic wrapper of a sausage and mumbled, “Look at Haozi’s teacher, he even knows to give him some good food! That Wang Leping guy is so stingy. He invited people over but didn’t even call me!”

Lin Hao picked up a sausage and smacked him on the head with it. “How can you talk about your teacher like that?”

“Damn!” Wu Xiaozhou curled his lips. “Putting on airs!”

Cui Gang chuckled and didn’t say anything. Both his hands were busy, constantly stuffing food into his mouth.

“When did Wan Yong leave?” Lin Hao asked Wu Xiaozhou.

“Yesterday!” Wu Xiaozhou answered, then thought for a moment. “Isn’t it strange? I heard from the sixth guy in his dorm that when Wan Yong left, he took all his bedding and stuff with him!”

“The sixth guy asked him about it, and he said he was taking it home to wash. Who washes a quilt?” Wu Xiaozhou finished speaking and took another bite of sausage. Just one bite—half the sausage disappeared.

Lin Hao fell into thought. Could that guy be planning to drop out?

The matter of Wan Yong plagiarizing his song at the Ferry Bar had spread throughout the academy not long after it happened. Lin Hao guaranteed that he hadn’t said anything, and Wu Xiaozhou, Fatty Meng, Cui Gang, and the others all said they hadn’t either.

One day, when Lin Hao met Bai Zhitao while eating lunch in the cafeteria, she said she wasn’t someone who talked that much.

That made things strange. The four of them hadn’t said anything, and Bai Zhitao didn’t look like she was lying either. So how had the news spread so widely?

Until after the exams were over, Lin Hao never saw Wan Yong again. According to Wu Xiaozhou, that guy seemed to have completely changed his personality. Before, he had been very active in class, flirting and showing off everywhere. Now, every day he stayed silent, walking with his head lowered and sticking close to the walls.

The next morning at five o’clock, before dawn had arrived, the train first reached Cui Gang’s hometown. They had agreed to meet again when school started, and he got off first carrying his trumpet and suitcase.

More than an hour later, Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou left the train station. They quickly hailed a taxi. It was too cold—the temperature was at least five or six degrees lower than in the provincial capital!

Amid Wu Xiaozhou’s “thump, thump, thump” footsteps rushing upstairs, Lin Hao opened the door of his home. Waiting for him was his father Lin Qingsheng’s relieved smile, and on the table were white porridge, steamed buns, and a plate of braised ribs.

Two days later at noon, Lin Hao was lying on his bed reading Form and Analysis of Musical Works when knocking came from outside.

When he opened the door, an unexpected woman was standing outside.

Chu Yu.

“Sis Chu?” Lin Hao was a little surprised. He didn’t know how she had found his home.

“What? You’re not inviting your sister inside to sit?”

Chu Yu was wearing a long white down jacket with a fox-fur collar and black knee-high leather boots. The mature aura of a woman mixed with the freezing air outside, which was more than thirty degrees below zero, rushed toward him.

“A rare guest! Come in, come in quickly. It’s cold outside!”

Chu Yu stomped her feet a few times and entered the house with a smile.

Seeing her looking for slippers, Lin Hao quickly said, “No need to change shoes. My house isn’t that particular!”

As Chu Yu walked inside, she took off her down jacket and handed it to Lin Hao.

“Cold, huh?”

Lin Hao hung the down jacket on a hook on the wall. The coat felt icy cold in his hands.

“Yeah! I guess it’s around thirty-four or thirty-five degrees below zero!” Chu Yu said as she sat down on the sofa opposite the dining table.

Lin Hao quickly poured her a cup of hot water. He also sighed inwardly—people from the south really had a hard time understanding what temperatures of minus thirty or forty degrees actually felt like…

Suddenly, he remembered a skit about a “shit-stirring stick” that Guo Degang and Gao Feng had performed in his previous life, and he almost laughed out loud.

“Sis, did you come looking for me because something happened?”

Chu Yu rolled her eyes at him. She didn’t know what this kid was laughing about. Those big eyes of hers, clear black and white, looked extremely beautiful.

“What can I possibly come to you for? Can you make me a station director?”

“Sure. Wait here, I’ll go write a note for you.”

Chu Yu burst into giggles. After taking a sip of hot water, she said, “I knew you were on vacation, so I finally managed to find out your home address. Come help your sister!”