Ch 55: Those who wronged me are now begging me for mercy

Straight Men Don’t Deserve Sweet Girls

“Blow, blow a tune? Is that what I think it means?” The chubby man was instantly baffled.

But Rong Ziyin responded calmly, “Sure!”

The chubby man suddenly had the urge to rush over and pull him back.

That burly Northeastern man looked menacing, not like someone with good intentions. Standing next to him, Rong Ziyin looked like a smaller version of a Russian nesting doll, almost as if he could be swallowed whole by the big guy. If Rong Ziyin got involved in a “group activity” like this, especially with “props” involved, he was bound to be at a disadvantage!

The chubby man’s mind raced—his thoughts were so quick and wild that most people wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Just as he was about to dash out to rescue the wayward youth, a sound like a chicken being strangled suddenly burst out from the woods, startling him.

Before he could regain his composure, more chicken-like sounds followed intermittently from the woods.

As he looked closer, he realized that there were actually quite a few people hiding in the woods, at least twenty of them, each holding an identical horn.

…So, this wasn’t a late-night hookup, but an illegal gathering?

In an instant, thoughts of pyramid schemes and cults flooded the chubby man’s active mind. But the key thing was, these twenty young men weren’t holding a meeting, nor were they promoting anything—they barely even talked. They just kept making those chicken-like noises.

After nearly two hours of this, when the chubby man felt like he was on the verge of losing it, the vet students finally decided to call it a night.

The chubby man watched them slowly emerge from the woods, wanting to talk to Rong Ziyin, but then he heard the class monitor walking beside Rong Ziyin sigh.

“Do you think we’ll make it in time? The suona is really hard. The graduation ceremony is just around the corner—can we really learn it in time?”

“We should be able to. It’s just sixteen measures; we can definitely learn it.”

“Forget sixteen measures, we can’t even manage eight!”

Rong Ziyin thought for a moment, then patted him on the shoulder and said, “You need to have a strong will.”

Class Monitor: …

Is this something that can be mastered through sheer willpower? Playing the suona requires talent!

Frustration level: 500

Meanwhile, the chubby man, who had been feeding mosquitoes for hours, finally pieced together what was going on from their conversation. It turned out that Rong Ziyin and his group were practicing for an upcoming graduation ceremony performance.

Considering how terrible they were, if they practiced in the dorm, they’d probably get kicked out by everyone else in the building.

What a miserable situation!

The chubby man thought about getting up to talk to Rong Ziyin, but he had been crouching for so long that his legs were numb and he couldn’t move.

By the time he managed to get feeling back in his legs, Rong Ziyin was already far away. The chubby man watched his retreating figure and suddenly felt like a complete fool for not going back to bed but instead following Rong Ziyin into the woods.

The chubby man’s anger level: 1000

Rong Ziyin: ???

System: Holy crap, Master! Are you so impressive now that just being near someone makes them want to curse?

The real kicker came at midnight when Rong Ziyin received another system notification.

Anger level from the chubby man: 2000

System: What? How did it level up? Is he getting angrier the more he thinks about it?

Rong Ziyin was puzzled because he really hadn’t interacted with this person much. No matter how hot-headed someone might be, it didn’t make sense for them to get this mad just thinking about him in the middle of the night!

System: Could someone be badmouthing you?

Rong Ziyin shook his head: That’s unlikely, unless I’ve made some big mistake in the lab.

With that thought, Rong Ziyin got a little worried and quickly messaged one of his senior lab members.

The senior assured him that everything was fine and even mentioned, “All three of the big shots praised you today.”

Rong Ziyin: “What did they say?”

“Of course, they were complimenting you! Especially the chubby one—he had nothing but good things to say.”

Rong Ziyin was thoroughly confused. If the chubby man was praising him, why did he suddenly get so angry? It couldn’t have been the geese that upset him, could it?!

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that might be the case, especially since that day, the chubby man had been with the department head checking on the geese.

“Forget it, I’ll find out eventually.”

Rong Ziyin decided to set the mystery aside.

Little did he know, it wasn’t the geese that upset the chubby man; it was the suona practice sessions held by his class at night.

The suona, the king of folk music, lived up to its reputation. Even though Rong Ziyin’s classmates couldn’t even play a proper tune, their strong lung capacity made for a deafening racket.

The screeching sounds, reminiscent of a chicken being slaughtered, were so relentless that even after the chubby man returned and tried to rest for three hours, his mind was still filled with the background noise of the suona.

At 1 AM, unable to fall asleep, the chubby man angrily got out of bed, downed three large glasses of water, and spat in an attempt to rid himself of the haunting BGM. Feeling somewhat better, he finally went back to bed.

But his dreams were plagued with images of funeral processions. To make matters worse, all the water he drank caught up with him, and just as he finally managed to fall asleep, the need to use the bathroom woke him up.

The next morning, when Rong Ziyin woke up, he found that the chubby man had generously contributed a whopping 10,000 emotion points.

Seeing something about tossing and turning, the system suddenly had a bad feeling.

“Master, I’m starting to think this chubby guy has been watching you and mentioning you to others because he’s interested in you!” The system couldn’t help but connect this to the recent scandal online involving a mentor’s inappropriate behavior, and it started imagining the worst.

After all, why else would this chubby man be so restless over Rong Ziyin unless he found him attractive?

But Rong Ziyin remained calm, “What’s there to be afraid of? I’m a guy!”

“That’s exactly what makes it scary!” The system was almost numb at this point. Since it had been bound to Rong Ziyin, not a single person who developed special feelings for him had been a sweet girl!

The only young, beautiful, and wealthy person who had shown interest had been ignored by Rong Ziyin. Despite following him all the way from the village to the university, Rong Ziyin hadn’t once taken the initiative to contact them after that day when Ji Shu reached out.

Even when Ji Shu messaged him later, Rong Ziyin often forgot to reply on the same day, usually responding the next day.

Yet, when responding to clients on TanTan, Rong Ziyin was never like this!

“Sigh.” The system let out another long sigh. “Master, it’s 520 day today. Don’t you feel anything special?”

“Feel what? Is today some special day?” Rong Ziyin thought for a moment, “Ah! That’s right, Honor of Kings is releasing new skins for Liu Bei and Sun Shangxiang. Sun Shangxiang’s looks pretty good.”

System: “…There’s more! Today is a holiday, a holiday!”

“Hmm?” Rong Ziyin thought again, “Pan Jinlian poisoned Wu Dalang?”

“Ahhhh! It’s Confession Day!” The system started to go crazy.

Rong Ziyin suddenly perked up, his spirit lifting.

“This is a great holiday!”

“You’ve finally got it,” the system said, feeling relieved.

But the next second, it watched as Rong Ziyin quickly opened WeChat Moments and posted a message.

“The most romantic thing I can think of is growing old with you. Today, goose eggs are 5% off. [Attached meme: Bald little person making a heart sign with the caption ‘Let me be your darling, okay? If not, I’ll think of something else.’]”

System: Is that really what you’ve taken away from this?

Rong Ziyin, proud of himself: Yes, holidays are the best time for sales.

The system completely shut down, deeply understanding the online sentiment that “straight men don’t deserve sweet girls,” and wanting to add, “nor do they deserve to be in same-sex relationships!”

At this moment, not only did Rong Ziyin, the straight guy who didn’t deserve sweet girls and also didn’t deserve same-sex relationships, happily sell a large number of Anhui White Goose eggs, but he also celebrated their success.

The batch he had previously sold had successfully hatched.

Not a single egg was lost, all of them hatched, and the newborn goslings were particularly robust and easy to care for.

As future down producers, the fluffy goslings were incredibly endearing. With their innate following behavior, they always wanted to be near their gentle “mother.”

So, aside from a few less fortunate cases—like the bald, middle-aged department head who ended up with a rebellious gosling—most of the chicks were sweet little bundles of joy, bringing much happiness to everyone’s lives.

And with Rong Ziyin’s 520 sales, many girls were further tempted to believe that “raising goslings is better than dating a man,” leading to a surge in orders. In just two short hours, over thirty orders were placed.

Three thousand yuan easily earned.

Rong Ziyin remarked, “520 really is a great day!”

The system, still in shutdown mode, refused to engage with him further. Meanwhile, after a wave of successful sales, Rong Ziyin focused entirely on his lab work.

Their recent experiments had made significant progress, and the entire team was buzzing with excitement, as if they had all been injected with adrenaline. Even the senior students working with Rong Ziyin couldn’t help but feel energized.

But Rong Ziyin seemed naturally devoid of such extreme emotional fluctuations. Even when he did experience them, they were brief and quickly returned to a state of calm. His steady demeanor only earned him more respect.

“I have to say, Rong, you’re incredibly composed. Working with you feels like we’ve gained an extra mentor!” One of the senior students, already very familiar with Rong Ziyin, casually slung an arm around his shoulders while watching him take notes.

“At this stage, do we really need to be so meticulous?”

“It’s still necessary,” Rong Ziyin shook his head. “Better to be overly cautious than regretful later.”

“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll keep that in mind.” The senior nodded in agreement.

Rong Ziyin was correct. These lab experiments might look promising, but if they failed, the consequences could be overwhelming. It was better to be thorough now, making it easier to troubleshoot later if something went wrong.

The senior students had been assistants for several years under their mentor, yet they found themselves outpaced by Rong Ziyin in these areas. It was no wonder the big shots favored him; his heart was truly in the right place.

This group of graduate and doctoral students had been brought in to do the heavy lifting, so there were no ulterior motives, making it easy to get along.

As luck would have it, around 4 PM, the separation experiment in Rong Ziyin’s lab finally made a significant breakthrough.

They had successfully isolated a special substance that could greatly increase fertility without causing excessive side effects.

“Oooooh!” The lab erupted with excitement as soon as the separation succeeded!

“I’ll go inform the big shots!” someone quickly rushed to notify the mentors, while the rest of the group celebrated together in their excitement.

This was a momentous achievement, deserving of celebration, so someone suggested having a small party before the mentors arrived to review and assign tasks.

“Rong! Is your class preparing for a performance? How about you play something for us?”

Rong Ziyin, in a good mood, agreed to their request.

So, under the curious eyes of everyone, Rong Ziyin pulled out his mysterious instrument—a suona—and began playing one of the most common tunes he remembered.

From the very first high-pitched note, the heads of the senior students in the lab started buzzing, as they all felt that something was off with this melody.

Outside the lab, the department head, Rong Ziyin’s mentor, and the chubby man, along with two other big shots, were approaching. From a distance, they could hear music coming from Rong Ziyin’s lab.

But there was something off about the atmosphere, and the tune was eerily familiar.

Rong Ziyin’s mentor, who had grown up in a village, listened carefully and hesitantly said, “Is this The Great Funeral Procession?”

“What does that mean?” the chubby man instinctively asked.

“It’s… the tune they play with the suona during funeral processions…”

The chubby man’s face instantly darkened. So, what he heard last night was something like this?

He thought to himself, “Is the veterinary department out of their minds? Do they really want to send off the entire school at the graduation ceremony?”

Coupled with the grudge from his sleepless night, the chubby man rushed in ahead of the others, burst through the door, and confronted Rong Ziyin.

“On a good day like this, you should play something more auspicious!”

Everyone else was stunned. What did he mean by “something more auspicious”? Wasn’t he telling Rong to stop playing altogether?

But Rong Ziyin, keeping up with the chubby man’s train of thought, immediately switched to another tune.

The same familiar prelude, the same familiar melody—someone hummed along for a couple of notes before realizing, with horror, that it was Gokuraku Jodo.

🍉🫐🍇🍒🥝