Chapter 23: Lao Zhu The Scrooge


    <strong>Trantor:</strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio<i></i><strong>Editor:</strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio


    Xiao Luo dealt with them appropriately; his actions were well within limits, and the six guys would be okay after resting up for three to five days.


    Zhu Xiaofei and Ding Kai’s worship of Xiao Luo surged like the Yellow River flood. Once it started, there was no stopping it. He was handsome, a brilliant gamer, and an even better fighter: One person challenging six people to a fight? He was an all-around talent.


    Luckily, Chu Yunxiong had cleverly designed his character as a student returning from the army to continue his university studies. How else could anyone ount for his extraordinary fighting abilities?


    “Brother Luo, those troublemakers aremunity sports majors. They’re in the same year as us. Three of them–Tang Yuze, Chen Jie and Xie Bin–are known for throwing their weight around on campus. That’s because they rely on support from Song Jianan, a third-yearmunity sports major. If you think they’re bad sports at losing aputer game, you should see what happens when they lose a set of basketball. You wouldn’t wanna be there.”


    They even had someone lending them support?


    Xiao Luo frowned and asked, “Does Song Jianane from an influential background?”


    “Not really. This guy’s a big northeastern jock trained in mixed martial arts and is president of our school’s mixed martial arts club. The dude has some serious skills. Like he can split bricks with his bare hands. Everyone’s afraid of him,” Zhu Xiaofei said, choosing his words carefully and slowly.


    “He’s also the boyfriend of An Huanhuan from our ss!” Ding Kai added.


    Xiao Luo nodded to show he had a clear understanding of the situation.


    Ding Kai sighed, sick with worry. “I don’t know if he’ll retaliate. What I’m afraid of is that he’ll grab me like a helpless puppy and throw me to ground like I’m nothing. That guy’s a bully and a narcissist.”


    “What are you afraid of? Our Brother Luo used to be a soldier; he’s also a trained fighter. Even if Song Jianan dares to darken our door, it’s still debatable who’d be the one meting out a lesson,” Zhu Xiaofei raised his voice to give his courage a boost.


    But Ding Kai was still restless. He said apprehensively, “No, I’ll go to An Huanhuan and ask her to put in a word for us. It’s better to minimize the issue until things die down. Hopefully, all this wille to nothing. I came to Huaye to study, not to get beaten up. If that doesn’t work, I’ll tell the counselor.”


    He hurried about, preparing to go out as he spoke.


    Xiao Luo stretched his hand out and put it on his shoulder. “Kaizi, the university is a microcosm of society. You have to deal with all types. Don’t panic when you encounter difficulties. Keep calm and think of ways to solve them.”


    “That might work if you’re in elementary school. If you have a problem, you can always go to a teacher or your parents, but that doesn’t work when you’re in your twenties.” “Can you be a bit mature and steady?” Zhu Xiaofei rebuked.


    Ding Kai was at a loss, he looked at Xiao Luo, “What should we do?”


    “Don’t worry. I was the one who beat the six people up. If Song Jianan wants to make trouble, he’lle looking for me. You and Lao Zhu will be fine.” Xiao Luo patted his shoulders andforted him reassuringly.


    “Brother Luo, I don’t like this. If it weren’t for me, Tang Yuze and his goons wouldn’t have found us. It’s all my fault. I feel so bad about letting you bear this burden alone.”


    Zhu Xiaofei patted his chest with a vowed solemnly, “If Song Jianan dares toe near us, don’t worry. I’ll stand by you. I’ll go all out and fight him.”


    These words scared Ding Kai. Fight with the president of the mixed martial arts club? Was he crazy?


    But he also summoned up his courage and yelled in trembling voice, “I… I’ll fight him too!”


    Xiao Luo raised his eyebrows. He suddenly felt that these two roommates were quite impressive. It was going to be an exciting next three months.


    ******


    That night, the three of them went out to dinner. After mming some beers, they stumbled back to the dorm. Their rtionship was slowly growing closer.


    As Xiao Luoy crashed out on his bed looking at the 10,000 points he had earned in the system, he felt an excitement he could not express. He never expected it to be so easy to earn points. He got a lot of them just by ying two games a day.


    Curious, he suddenly asked, “System, what’s the most expensive ability in the mall?”


    Ding! It’s the life-extension ability. One redemption requires 500,000 points! The system responded.


    Xiao Luo was so astonished he turned pale. Could he extend his life? This “cheat code” was a little too much.


    “Can I extend my life in any circumstances?”


    Ding! You can use this ability for all sorts of factors that endanger the life of the host, such as disease, aging, external and internal injuries, etc.


    Xiao Luo was shocked, “In other words, as long as I have enough points, I can live forever?”


    Ding! You can understand this. But each time you extend your life, the points required next time will increase exponentially. That is, you pay 500,000 points to use the life-extension ability the first time. The second time you want to use this ability, you need to spend five million points. For the third time, you need to pay 50 million points and so on. There is no ceiling on the points that you spend!


    Xiao Luo was dumbfounded. Just now, he thought that 500,000 points wasn’t expensive at all. Now it seemed that it was just too darned expensive.


    Forget it. It was better to cherish life and not think about extending it. Whether he had this system or not, life was precious. Besides, he had escaped the Grim Reaper’s clutches once already and, thus, had gained an even greater appreciation of life.


    Early morning the next day, Xiao Luo was awakened by Zhu Xiaofei’s movements.


    “Kazi, where’s your toilet paper? Where did you put it? I need to go to the bathroom right now. Hurry up and get it before I sh*t in my pants!”


    “It’s In the closet; get it yourself,” Ding Kai muttered as he turned on his side, still half-asleep.


    Zhu Xiaofei opened his closet, dug out the toilet paper rolls hidden under a pile of clothes, and ran into the bathroom. After mming the door, he did not neglect toin, “Why hide it so secretively? Isn’t it just toilet paper? You treat it like it’s your baby. ”


    It seemed that Ding Kai had kept his resentment bottled up for too long. This was too much! When he heard this, he jumped up from the bed and rushed to the bathroom, scolding, “You have the nerve to say that? We’ve been roomies for almost a year, and you’ve never bought a single roll of toilet paper. You always use mine, and in suchrge quantities. I’m starting to wonder what else you’re doing in there!”


    “F*ck. So much resentment. Fine, I’ll buy some today, okay?” Zhu Xiaofei replied loudly from the bathroom.


    “Gimme a break. You say this every time.” Ding Kai was hopeless.


    Xiao Luo could not help but be amused. He teased, “You mean he hasn’t bought toilet paper in over a year?”


    “He’s never bought any.”


    Speaking of this, Ding Kai was full ofints, “Brother Luo, you don’t know the half of it. Even though Lao Zhu is fat, he’s a total scrooge. He’s a Mr. Miser who loves to stretch a dor to ten dors. Leaving aside the fact that he’s never bought a pack of toilet paper, he never even buys toothpaste,undry detergent, clothes racks. In this one year plus, he’s been using all of mine. ”


    Xiao Luo nodded in agreement, “That’s indeed a little too stingy!”


    “It’s not just a little, Brother Luo. Look at his slippers again,” Ding Kai pointed at Zhu Xiaofei’s seat.


    Xiao Luo looked at the floorboard at the bottom where the shoes were. A pair of strange-looking slippers came into view. Why were these slippers strange? Because they were made by cutting a stic Sprite bottle down the middle. Using the mouth of the bottle and then the technique of threading a needle manually, he turned the bottle into a pair of flip-flops.


    “Lao Zhu made these?”


    “Who else? And to save a few dors that a pair slippers cost. He tinkered and came up with such a lousy pair of slippers,” said Ding Kai.


    “How ingenious!”


    Xiao Luo had to take his hat off to his friend. He acknowledged that Zhu Xiaofei was brilliant at saving money.


    “Kazi, you bast*rd. Stop dissing me in front of Brother Luo. What I did was art, so don’t talk if you don’t understand it.” Zhu Xiaofei opened the bathroom door just a little and yelled indignantly.


    Suddenly, a stinky odor wafted out; the smell was unspeakable.


    Xiao Luo frowned and pinched his nose.


    Ding Kai immediately cursed, “F*ck. Just talk. Don’t open the door, you dumbass. You’re stinking up the room with your sh*t.”