After the teacher finished taking attendance, Chu Yi still had no concept of who exactly was in their auto repair class, except for the seven people in the dormitory, he didn't notice anyone else.
After all, he was in the front row, and while others dared to look around at people, he didn't dare.
He had been in school for nine years and had never had such an experience before. Most of the time, he kept his head down and was never interested in who was next to him, what their names were, or what they looked like.
But.
The whole class knew, the person in the first row.
It was Chu Yi the Mutt.
Chu Yi really wanted to drag Hu Biao out and beat him up, to let him experience what it meant to be a mutt.
But there was no chance.
After the teacher finished the roll call, military training began.
Their instructor's surname was Chen, tall, dark and strong, with a loud voice.
"Students!" Instructor Chen shouted in front of Chu Yi, stunning him and making him unable to hear clearly what was said afterwards.
Then they were taken to the auto repair area, with a row of garages on the side, all low, unable to block the sun. The girls training in the shade of the teaching building were much more comfortable.
The initial training content was similar to that in junior high school, lining up, aligning front and back, left and right, counting off, and turning circles front, back, left and right.
Just this turning left and right.
It made Chu Yi feel that many things in this world are the same.
No matter where you go, no matter what age, there will always be people who can't tell left from right.
Every time they turned around, they could see people standing opposite each other staring at each other, and they would all stubbornly refuse to look to the side, betting that they were right.
Chu Yi was very nervous. Every time someone made a mistake, they would be picked out by Instructor Chen to stand in front of the team and turn ten or eight times until they got it right.
This was something he absolutely had to avoid. The nickname "mutt" had already spread and put a lot of pressure on him. If he made a mistake and was picked out in front of so many people to redo it, he estimated that he wouldn't be able to figure it out even if he turned eighty circles.
But the more nervous you are, the more likely you are to make mistakes. This is a very experienced experience.
Chu Yi not only made a mistake, but it wasn't the kind of mistake that many people would make by not being able to distinguish between left and right.
He veered off while marching forward in a one-two-one formation.
When nervous, he would veer off. This finally happened to him.
Moreover, because these students were a bit lazy, Instructor Chen was already very unhappy with the one-hour training session, and was no longer punishing those who made mistakes by having them redo the movements a few times.
"State your name!" Instructor Chen glared at him and pointed.
"Chu Yi." Chu Yi replied, but due to nervousness, he couldn't even raise his voice.
"Say it again, I can't hear you!" Instructor Chen said.
"Chu Yi." Chu Yi reported again.
He had already tried to amplify his volume, but it still didn't sound very loud, and because he wanted to control himself from being so nervous that he was nervous about saying two words, he slightly elongated his voice.
"Okay, quite cocky," Instructor Chen nodded, "Step out!"
Chu Yi didn't know that he actually had the ability to make the instructor also give him such an evaluation. He stepped out of the formation in a bit of a daze.
"Sixty push-ups!" Instructor Chen said.
There was a small commotion in the ranks.
Chu Yi was stunned for a moment, feeling that he was really out of luck. Instructor Chen had just said that they could take a break after an hour, but he ended up being picked out just before the break, and it was sixty push-ups no less.
The key was that two classes next to them had already taken a break, and they were all female students in early childhood education.
"Hurry up! Don't dawdle!" Instructor Chen said.
"Go for it, Mutt!" Someone in the ranks shouted.
Mutt my ass!
Chu Yi lowered his head, hesitated for a moment, but really had no other choice. He got down on the ground.
"The posture must be standard!" Instructor Chen said, coming over and using his toes to spread Chu Yi's hands apart, "Shoulders must be level! Body must not touch the ground! Each movement must be done in place! Deformed movements will not be counted!"
Chu Yi didn't make a sound. Out of the corner of his eye, he could already see people gathering around, and he could see quite a few feet on the side.
He controlled himself not to look around, as this could make him less nervous.
He straightened his body, propped up his arms, pressed down and then back up.
"One!" Instructor Chen counted for him.
He had actually practiced push-ups in the boxing gym, but not many times. He usually used more equipment, pull-ups and sit-ups.
"Two! Three!" Instructor Chen continued to count for him, "Not bad, now the movements are very standard!"
After doing a few, Chu Yi relaxed a bit. As long as he didn't look around and didn't listen to other sounds, he could relax a bit.
"Twenty! Twenty-one!" Instructor Chen's voice was mixed with some other voices, and people began to count along, "Twenty-seven! Twenty-eight!"
Chu Yi began to feel a bit fatigued, not knowing if it was because he was too nervous or hadn't slept well last night.
Fortunately, the instructor didn't open his mouth and say a hundred, or he would have had a hard time. Even if he couldn't hold on anymore, he wouldn't dare to stop. He was afraid of making a fool of himself in front of everyone. If he couldn't push himself up at any point, he was afraid he would hear laughter.
"Thirty-four! Thirty-four!" Instructor Chen's voice was very loud.
The repeated number indicated that his movements had deformed. Chu Yi very helplessly straightened his body and continued to press down.
At fifty, he paused for a second or two to adjust his breathing.
To be honest, although he had practiced boxing for a year and had strength training every day, he was still a bit tired at this point. This thing didn't require too much strength, endurance was the most critical, and if the movements were slightly non-standard, Instructor Chen wouldn't count it for him. The arms had to be straight, and the waist, back and legs had to be in a straight line... If he could let him go a little faster and deform the movements a bit, he would have finished long ago.
"Fifty-one! Fifty-two!" The shouting from the people around drowned out the instructor's voice, "Fifty-five, fifty-six..."
"Sixty!" Instructor Chen clapped his hands, "Sixty-one!"
Chu Yi was stunned for a moment, what the heck, sixty-one?
But he didn't dare to get up, and did one more along with it.
"Sixty-two!" Instructor Chen continued to shout.
Chu Yi was a bit unhappy.
When Instructor Chen called out sixty-three, he quickly did a few more push-ups. The movements were not very standard, but they saved effort. After reaching seventy, he stood up.
He lowered his head and patted his hands and pants.
"Okay, not bad," Instructor Chen said, "Back in formation!"
Chu Yi breathed a sigh of relief and quickly returned to his position.
"Damn," Hu Biao said behind him, "not bad, Chu Yi. If I went up there, I'd probably struggle to do even thirty."
"Stop bragging," someone laughed, "with your physique, you'd probably struggle to even get back up after going down."
"What are you saying! You want to chat, is that it?" Instructor Chen glared over, "Do you want to come over and do seventy push-ups while chatting, like just now?"
Everyone fell silent.
After scolding for a few sentences, Instructor Chen dismissed them.
Everyone slowly dispersed. Chu Yi lowered his head and stood with a few dormitory mates under the shade of a nearby tree. Everyone was still unfamiliar with each other now, even if they were in the same class. For the time being, they still gathered in dormitory units.
"You're quite capable, didn't expect that," Li Ziqiang said, "I can do thirty at most too."
Chu Yi didn't say anything.
While doing the push-ups, he felt okay, only thinking that he must complete them no matter what, he couldn't make a fool of himself, couldn't be ridiculed by others. Having finally changed to a new environment, he no longer wanted to be ostracized and mocked like before.
Now that he stopped, he only felt his arms aching and swollen. He tried to put his hands in his pockets but took two tries to find the pocket's location.
"Tired?" Hu Biao asked.
"Arms are about to, break." Chu Yi said.
"Even if they break, it's worth it. Look over there," Hu Biao nudged him with his shoulder, raising his chin forward, "the nickname 'Mutt' has made its mark."
Hearing these two words made Chu Yi feel depressed. When Yan Hang called him 'Mutt', he only felt it was very endearing, and would feel he was extremely cute.
When people other than Yan Hang called him that, he just felt like he was a lunatic.
Being called a mad dog would be less uncomfortable.
It's just that he really had no strength now and was too lazy to argue with Hu Biao. He glanced in the direction Hu Biao was pointing.
A group of girls were gathered together, looking this way. When he raised his head to look over, the girls all started shouting with laughter.
Chu Yi was very unfamiliar with this kind of reaction. He couldn't even judge if such a reaction was embarrassment, happiness or mockery.
He could only turn his head away again.
"Yes, keep up this cool attitude," Hu Biao said, "very cool."
"You," Chu Yi sighed, "give it a rest for a bit."
"As you command, Brother Dog." Hu Biao said.
...Get lost.
Chu Yi felt that even his thoughts were a bit listless.
"Who can help take a photo of me?" Zhou Chunyang walked over, "My mom wants to see. If she doesn't see me, she'll think I'm going to be a corpse on the training field."
"Give me your phone," Zhang Qiang, who had been squatting on the side all along, said, "I'll take it for you."
Zhou Chunyang sat on the edge of the flowerbed, stretching out one leg: "You know how to take it, right?"
"I don't know," Zhang Qiang pressed the shutter with a click, "Okay, take a look."
"...Can we change to someone else?" Zhou Chunyang glanced at the phone, "You made my legs look like they're only three inches long."
"You're being so picky about a photo you're showing your mom." Gao Xiaoyang said with a laugh on the side.
"My mom will take it and post it on her Moments. I can't afford to lose face," Zhou Chunyang sighed, "her girlfriends will also take it to show their daughters..."
"Okay, okay, I'll take it seriously for you again," Zhang Qiang said, "so you don't lose face in front of the girls."
Zhou Chunyang was very vain. Chu Yi watched him instruct Zhang Qiang for a good five minutes before a photo finally passed his review.
"Thanks," Zhou Chunyang said, "come on, I'll treat you guys to drinks."
Holding a Coke, Chu Yi looked at Zhou Chunyang, feeling very conflicted.
He wanted to take a photo to send to Yan Hang, but a selfie would definitely not be able to capture everything. If he asked someone else to take it for him, he really didn't have the "eloquence" to give instructions.
And for someone as vain as Zhou Chunyang, you could tell at a glance that he could definitely take photos.
But... tsk.
He took two gulps of Coke, gritted his teeth. Zhou Chunyang it is.
He took out his phone and walked over to Zhou Chunyang's side.
"Want me to take a photo for you?" Zhou Chunyang asked before he could speak.
"Mm." Chu Yi nodded.
Zhou Chunyang pointed to the steps where he had just stood: "Just stand there, the pose you had just now was pretty good."
Chu Yi stepped back, but had already forgotten what pose he had before.
Zhou Chunyang came over again and tugged at his pant leg, helping him get into the right pose, then took several shots in a row: "Take a look."
Chu Yi looked at them for a few moments.
Very cool.
Even if he was called a Mutt, still very cool.
"Thanks." He smiled.
"Who are you sending it to?" Zhou Chunyang asked.
"Fri... friend." Chu Yi suddenly felt inexplicably guilty.
"Yan Hang?" Zhou Chunyang asked again with a smile.
Chu Yi was stunned. He didn't expect Zhou Chunyang to guess so accurately. It took a while before he responded: "Ah."
Yan Hang was about to go to the manager's office. Halfway there, his phone rang. He took it out and glanced at it. It was a message from Chu Yi.
A photo.
Standing on the steps in a military training uniform.
The photo was taken by someone unknown, a million times better than his selfies. The angle and lighting were great, the beads of sweat on his face shining, his 1.74-meter legs captured with a 3.82-meter effect.
-Handsome dog
He replied, put the phone back in his pocket, and knocked on the manager's office door.
"Come in." The manager responded from inside.
He pushed open the door and walked into the office: "Manager Tang."
In the office was not only Manager Tang, but also their newly arrived director.
"Xiao Yan," Manager Tang said, "I saw the menu you sent over this morning. The translation is not bad, quite accurate."
"Thank you, Manager Tang." Yan Hang said.
"There are a few more here, translate them on the spot for me." Manager Tang handed a piece of paper over.
Yan Hang took it and glanced at it, picking up a pen: "Lobster and fennel risotto*... cashew grano*... lobster and fennel risotto, crushed cashews... pickled tokyo turnips*..."
*T/N: Spoken in English
The director had been watching him with a smile, making him a little nervous.
Pickled tokyo turnips.
He had memorized turnips, but suddenly got stuck when he became nervous.
"Pickled tokyo turnips?" the director repeated.
"Pickled veg." Yan Hang said and wanted to turn and leave the office.
The director suddenly laughed.
"Pickled turnips," Yan Hang remembered and wrote it on the paper, "Sorry, when I memorized it before I remembered it as pickled veg..."
"Very good." The director smiled and nodded.
"How are you doing as acting team leader?" Manager Tang asked, "These past two days when your Sister Chen wasn't here, did you run into any difficulties?"
"It's been okay, Sister Chen had already been training me for a while before," Yan Hang said, "We've also been communicating by phone these two days, it's been basically fine."
"Are the other employees able to cooperate with the work?" Manager Tang asked again.
"They all can, we worked together before, we all understand each other quite well, and they can all cooperate with me." Yan Hang said.
"That's good then, keep working hard, thanks for your efforts." Manager Tang nodded.
Yan Hang frowned as he left the office.
Manager Tang wouldn't have specially called him to the office just to translate a few dish names.
Whether the other employees could cooperate with work was the key point behind this seemingly casual question. Yan Hang sighed, someone must be dissatisfied with him and reflected it to the manager.
This kind of thing was certainly not uncommon, but for Yan Hang, he felt it was a bit tiring.
Following his dad, he had always lived casually and freely. Even when working part-time jobs, it was very simple, with no consideration of promotions, no competition, when there was no money he would work for a while, and when he changed places he would just leave.
Now this kind of work pressure and various interpersonal relationships were a bit exhausting for him to deal with.
It was still okay when he was a waiter, but now as acting team leader, he felt too tired to speak after getting off work every day.
He went downstairs to the back door of the hotel.
It was very quiet here, except for delivery trucks and such, employees rarely came over. He would usually come here to rest for a bit before the restaurant opened, to let himself relax in order to deal with the busyness later.
He stood by the trash can and lit a cigarette, taking out his phone to look at Chu Yi's photo.
Chu Yi was a very amusing mutt.
Sometimes thinking of Chu Yi's stuttering wisecracks, Yan Hang would feel like laughing.
-There's an especially embarrassing thing
Chu Yi's message came over, before he could reply, several more came one after another. Chu Yi typed faster on his phone than he could speak by the length of one of his legs in the photo.
-My classmate told people my nickname is Mutt
-Now it's spread everywhere, everyone knows the guy who got in a fight the other day in Auto Repair Class 1 is called Mutt, now he even calls me Dog Bro
-I'm afraid if he calls me that and others hear it they'll all call me Dog Bro too
-So embarrassing
Yan Hang held his phone, stunned for a moment, then couldn't help bursting out laughing, almost dropping his cigarette from laughing, and laughed for a good while before stopping.
-Hahahaha
-Don't haha, what's so funny, what should I do?
"What's there to do," Yan Hang laughed and sent a voice message, "This is called crude meets refined, it's very cool, handsome boy."
-......
-Gotta go, I'll call you after I finish military training
-Okay, Dog Bro
-!!!!!!
Chu Yi didn't make any more mistakes in the afternoon military training. He really didn't want to be singled out to do push-ups again. One reason was he was afraid of people watching, and second his arms were really sore.
But being watched was unavoidable. Two girls fainted in the afternoon, and even though their Auto Repair class was all tough guys, one of them fainted too.
When military training ended, even the homeroom teacher sighed, "Your physical fitness is really problematic. The cafeteria prepared cooling and heat-relieving drinks today, everyone go drink some later. Rest well tonight, don't go out wandering around. I don't want to see anyone else faint tomorrow."
"If I bake in the sun a bit longer I'm going to faint too." Hu Biao wiped his sweat. He was fat, and although he called himself Big Tiger, he couldn't even compare to a cat all afternoon.
After returning to the dorm and washing up, the group went to the cafeteria to eat. Chu Yi once again experienced how behind the times he was. He didn't know how to add money to his meal card, and even after adding money he almost didn't know how to use it. Hu Biao had to teach him all the way.
After finishing eating and lying on the bed, he didn't want to move. Seeing it was about time, he called Yan Hang.
"Done with training?" Yan Hang answered the phone, it was quite noisy on his end.
"You're not, not off work yet?" Chu Yi rolled over and spoke softly facing the wall.
"Not yet," Yan Hang laughed, "There's a meeting today, still busy now."
"Then I'll hang, up." Chu Yi quickly said.
"It's fine," Yan Hang said, "A few minutes won't delay anything. How did military training feel today?"
"Alright, a bit, tired." Chu Yi said.
"Tired after just the first day?" Yan Hang said, "Then your year of boxing was for nothing?"
"Not, really, I was punished, had to do sixty, push-ups," Chu Yi sighed, "the especially, standard kind, my arms are sore."
Yan Hang laughed, "Poor thing, when you're done with training I'll take you somewhere for a massage."
Chu Yi laughed, then asked softly, "How many can, you do?"
"The especially standard kind?" Yan Hang asked.
"Yeah, non-standard ones don't, count." Chu Yi said.
Yan Hang thought for a moment, "Fifty?"
"Stop bragging," Chu Yi said, "You usually just run, do you run, with your arms?"
Yan Hang laughed on the other end, "You think I only run? Why don't you come over sometime and count for me."
"Okay," Chu Yi said, "Witness your, humiliation live."
No one played cards in the dorm tonight, everyone was lying in bed playing games and chatting.
Chu Yi held his phone not knowing what to do. He had always used a crappy phone that couldn't run any games. After getting a new phone, he was busy practicing boxing and working every day. Any other time he was messing with Little Li's BBQ and had no time to play.
Now everyone was playing but he could only stare blankly at the ceiling.
"Chu Yi," Li Ziqiang called to him from the upper bunk opposite, "Want to team up? I'll carry you."
"Huh?" Chu Yi was stunned for a moment and turned to look at Li Ziqiang, "Team up for what?"
"...You don't play games?" Li Ziqiang was also stunned.
"No." Chu Yi replied. The only mobile game he had ever played was Snake.
"Carry me please." Zhou Chunyang said from the side.
"Come on." Li Ziqiang said.
Chu Yi rolled over and continued facing the wall. Although his dormmates were all quite nice to him, he couldn't play cards and wasn't familiar with the games they played, which left him feeling a bit depressed.
Several of his dormmates had joined in, and even those who hadn't were gathered around watching and cheering enthusiastically. The only ones who remained silent besides him were Su Bin.
Chu Yi sighed. He really wanted to join in, but was afraid of embarrassing himself.
He wondered if the fashionable Yan Hang knew how to play. Maybe he could ask the stylish Brother Xiao Tian to teach him first...
Feeling a bit sleepy today, perhaps due to the pressure of being watched, Chu Yi fell asleep amidst the noisy chatter of his dormmates before long.
I can do fifty push-ups, Yan Hang said.
I'll count for you, Chu Yi replied.
Yan Hang took off his shirt and got down on the floor to start doing push-ups.
One, two, three... how many was that? One, two... lost count again. One, two, three... forget it, he'd never be able to keep track.
He watched Yan Hang's back.
He didn't think he'd ever seen Yan Hang shirtless before.
He tried hard to get a clear look at Yan Hang's back.
It was so beautiful.
Smooth, firm, with perfect muscle definition visible with each exertion.
Chu Yi felt like he was in a trance.
Inexplicably, he felt the urge to touch it.
He reached out and touched it.
The instant he made contact with Yan Hang's skin, his breathing quickened...
Yan Hang slapped his arm.
Startled awake by the sudden intense awkwardness, Chu Yi's eyes went wide.
Another slap landed on his arm. Zhang Qiang was standing by his bed. "Get up, you're going to be late!"
"Ah." Chu Yi sat up.
The images from the dream quickly faded. He could barely recall the details, but Yan Hang's back lingered in his mind.
Along with that real feeling of excitement that left him utterly embarrassed.
He rubbed his face and slowly got out of bed.
He couldn't believe he'd had such a dream. He must be going crazy.
Every chapter whispers secrets; every coffee sip fuels the journey. Let's embark on another chapter, powered by everyone's support! >.<
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