Seizing Dreams

Ch77.1 – Valentine’s

A red glint then flashed through Medusa’s eyes. Zhou Sheng immediately raised his shield to block, while the black dragon took the lead in rushing forward!

The bell rang, and the audience erupted into an uproar!

During summer vacation, Zhou Sheng went out almost every day — either for a morning or night run. Meanwhile, Yu Hao began his second job. He had to translate Chinese reports into English scripts this time, assisting the World Health Organization in establishing a database for the Greater China region for easier referencing.

Amongst them, the cases of crimes caused by psychological issues were just horrifying. Compared to the last batch of manuscripts, the current one was even harder for Yu Hao to go through. As he translated, he often stopped to wonder if the report was real. He checked the sources of the reports and the content of the newspaper clippings — they were all published by the local news media.

“Some people commit homicide.” Zhou Sheng said, “Like those cases with dismembered corpses, and in order to get away with the crime, they would bribe the doctor to give them a false diagnosis. Of course, it doesn’t rule out the fact that homicide can be committed by people who are actually psychotic, but nothing can be done about that. There are a lot of people who have been acquitted under the juvenile protection law as well.”

Yu Hao said, “That’s too cruel.”

In the news he read before this, every single one of them had caused quite a sensation, like the case in Chongqing where a small girl had beaten up a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler in an elevator, or the rape and murder case in Changping’s New Oriental School. However, those were merely the tip of the iceberg covered by the media.

What made him most uncomfortable were the cases he had never heard of before: the revenge killing in Tonghe, Heilongjiang Province; revenge for habitual theft of a minor in Dongguan……these cases were a little too much for his heart. Apart from the cruelty of the acts, what made him even more angry was how the criminals would only stay in the reformatory for one and a half years or even get released since they weren’t deemed guilty under juvenile protection laws.

“I’ll translate it in a few days.” Yu Hao said, “I don’t want to read these anymore, it makes me really upset.”

“Those are just the ones you’ve seen.” Zhou Sheng said, “There are still tons of cases out there in the world that you can’t see. I had a classmate in junior high; he was a pretty good guy, but we weren’t that close. He always bumped into me when we played basketball. I repeated a year while he went to high school, and he got into a pretty good school too. But because he was wooing a girl, he got surrounded by a bunch of people and got beat up in an alley. His skull was fractured, and he had to enter ICU; after he stayed bedridden for a month, he died.”

“What about the murderers?” Yu Hao asked.

“Ran away.” Zhou Sheng said, “Their parents helped. After staying away for a year, they were captured and got a three-year sentence. The case wasn’t reported. The school and parents both thought of ways to suppress the case. Learning a bit of self-defence still has its use, at the very least you wouldn’t die in such a stifling way. If anyone dares to touch Laozi, then let’s all die together ba.”

Yu Hao got a WeChat message. Zhou Sheng was playing games in the upper bunk and had just unleashed a big move. His gaze shifted from his phone screen; he ignored Sun Wukong for awhile and turned sideways to glance at Yu Hao, who had his head buried in his phone to reply to his messages.

“That rich guy again?” Zhou Sheng asked.

After Yu Hao translated those scripts, he still hadn’t recovered from his depressed mood, “Un……he asked me out for dinner.”

Half their summer vacation was over, and at the end of July, another guy looked for Yu Hao. Yu Hao had added him and just left his contact in his phone. He didn’t expect that after such a long time passed, that guy would take the initiative to talk to him, then he chatted with him for awhile. That guy just so happened to have fallen out of love, and provoked Yu Hao’s angelic nature so he started comforting the other guy. Unfortunately, that guy just droned on and on about how meaningless life was.

Thus, Yu Hao put his knowledge of psychological treatments and guidance to practical use and chatted with him for two hours. The man felt better the next day and transferred a thousand to him. Yu Hao was immediately frightened and didn’t dare to accept it, but the other man kept sending him messages. Zhou Sheng wasn’t around during the day and was also ignoring him. Yu Hao translated documents in the dormitory and would sometimes reply to him in his spare time.

The guy was called “Gothic Armour”, and his profile picture was Luffy. He’s bisexual and has had both boyfriends and girlfriends. His ex-girlfriend went abroad and didn’t want to come back, while Gothic Armour didn’t like the environment abroad and wouldn’t go with her, so they peacefully broke up.

Yu Hao did find him easy to talk to, like he was just a normal online friend. The topics they covered were hardly related to love or dating, and he just felt like a straight guy that Yu Hao had gotten to know through a game as they talked about this and that during their idle chats. Gothic Armour enumerated all his exes to Yu Hao — there were a dozen or so, and there were even two who had terminated pregnancies for him. One of them cooked for him every day, while the other often bought things for him.

But there were no more feelings anymore, and love was dead.

Gothic Armour asked Yu Hao:【Do you think I’m a scummy guy?】

Yu Hao thought, more importantly, are you even gay? Don’t tell me you’re just using me to pass time ba. However, even though this person has a rich relationship history, he was still a very earnest and persistent guy. Aside from his prolonged and short lovelorn sighs, he was pretty upright when it came to his views on a lot of societal issues.

It was only when Gothic Armour asked him what he looked like one day that Yu Hao casually sent him a picture of him singing in the college.

Gothic Armour was stunned at once:【You’re a celebrity?】

Yu Hao:【How’s that possible? Take a closer look, wouldn’t it be too sad if a celebrity performed on such a shabby stage?】

Gothic Armour:【Don’t lie to me, I’ve seen that person before. He’s been on ‘My Style, My Show’.】

Then he said a name and Yu Hao replied:【That really is me!】

Gothic Armour was stunned at once:【Take another photo then? You guys can’t look that alike. Do you have any brothers or cousins who are in showbiz?】

Yu Hao casually took a photo and suddenly wondered if he had been tricked, but he had already sent the photo.

From that day on, Gothic Armour began throwing money at him.

A 200 yuan red packet in the morning titled【Baby have you woken up】, then another 188 yuan red packet after a short while:【Baby why are you ignoring me?】Yu Hao accidentally fell into his trap once and accepted 180 yuan from him. That guy wouldn’t take it back when Yu Hao tried to return it to him, so he could only set it aside for now. After that, as soon as the message ‘the current version does not support checking this message, please check your message on the mobile phone’ appears on the WeChat on his desktop, Yu Hao would wonder, why are you sending me a red packet again? Do you have nowhere else to spend your money?

Zhou Sheng asked, “How much did he send you today?”

Yu Hao, “Don’t touch it!’

Zhou Sheng tapped the entire row of ‘Ba, by, Ha, ppy, Valentine’s, Day’, and 1,200 yuan entered his account. Yu Hao blew up and shouted, but Zhou Sheng tapped on the last red packet【Have dinner with me?】and said, “1400, not bad.”

Yu Hao, “AHHHHH—— YOU JUST RUINED ME——”

“Go ah.” Zhou Sheng said, “Won’t you be able to return it all to him if you treat him?”

Yu Hao held his forehead with one hand and really wanted to close his laptop, then smack Zhou Sheng with it.

The other party sent him a location:【When you arrive, just tell them ‘Mr. Zhang, last few digits of the mobile number is 2520’.】

Zhou Sheng looked at it and said, “It costs about 500 per person at this restaurant, and just casually ordering some dishes would jack the price up to a thousand. After you order, go to the bathroom in advance and settle the bill, then the matter will be over.”

Yu Hao, “I keep feeling like there’s something wrong with this; it’s not like he gave me those red packets for this meal.”

Zhou Sheng, “Who cares? At most you could just buy something else for him as a gift afterwards.”

So Yu Hao could only say, “Okay then.”

He definitely had to dress in a simpler attire this time. Gothic Armour wanted to pick him up at his college tomorrow, and Yu Hao adamantly refused. Zhou Sheng said, “Gege will be coming over tomorrow. We’ll just eat at a random place outside and wait for you. After your blind date, let’s all celebrate Valentine’s together?”

“Okay, that’s great!” Yu Hao said immediately. He hadn’t seen Fu Liqun in a long time and missed him very much.

The day after the next day, Fu Liqun flew to Tokyo from Ying City and then flew over with Cen Shan. They arranged to meet up in the group chat. Zhou Sheng sent a message:【Yu Hao’s going for a blind date, let’s stand in a circle outside to watch tomorrow?】

Cen Shan sent a bunch of ellipsises while Fu Liqun sent out a bunch of question marks. Yu Hao said, “Stop talking about it!!”

The next day, Yu Hao wore a white T-shirt, black shorts, and sandals. He was ready to leave in this attire, just in case the other party thought that he came from a well-off family.

The restaurant was also a high-level clubhouse, and was called “Clear Clouds Autumn Moon”. It served exquisite Sichuan cuisine and was located in the center of the city by an artificial lake named Autumn River Lake. Those who entered and left the place were all beautiful girls who carried branded bags and hooked their arms around their lover’s, as well as successful figures who were immaculately dressed.

“Mr. Yu, this way please.” The manager came over with a menu and helped Yu Hao open the door.

“Mr. Yu! This way please!”

“Mr. Yu, happy holidays!” The attendants all bowed to Yu Hao one after another.

Yu Hao, “……”

He thought, how does that guy know that my surname is Yu? After he entered the room and saw “Gothic Armour”, he realised that he had never asked him for a picture before.

At first glance, he looked okay; he had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and appeared as if he wasn’t fully awake yet. He had an indolent air around him, his skin wasn’t that good because he often stayed up late, and he didn’t seem to pay much attention to his image. The room was an extremely elegant lake view room. Tatami mats covered the floor, and Gothic Armour was sitting in front of the table. He smiled when he saw Yu Hao, “You’re here?”

Yu Hao quickly greeted him and that person said, “You can just call me Zhang Liang. Sit ba.”

Yu Hao was a little distracted and suddenly realised why he was willing to meet the person named Vico and this Gothic Armour.

Because on them, he could find some tiny similarities with Zhou Sheng, and even though it was just a tiny bit, Yu Hao was unconsciously drawn to them because of it. Vico flaunted himself as a sports guy, and when he spoke he would flirt from time to time with Yu Hao in an improper manner, which seemed a bit like the times when Zhou Sheng teased him. In a similar manner, this Zhang Liang always talked about how he wasn’t fully awake and would occasionally send him voice messages, which always sounded really lazy, and he had an indolent temperament akin to Zhou Sheng’s.

“What do you want to eat?” Zhang Liang rubbed the back of his neck again, “Order yourself?” As he spoke, he drank the gongfu tea in front of him.

Yu Hao said, “There’s nothing I can’t eat, I’ll treat you today ba?”

“You’re still studying.” Zhang Liang smiled, “How much money could you have? Let Gege do it ba, your clothes look pretty nice. Simple and clean, where did you buy them?”

Yu Hao looked down and said, “Taobao.”

“When I was your age,” Zhang Liang said, “I liked to buy stuff on Taobao too. Later on I liked to buy luxury goods, but now I like Taobao again. It’s fine as long as the items can be used, it’s not necessary to pursue quality.”

“Yes, yes.” Yu Hao quickly said and thought, why does everyone like to use the phrase ‘when I was your age’.

Zhang Liang said, “Do you work everyday?”

Yu Hao’s thoughts weren’t on the menu at all, “I translate as part of my work-study program.”

Zhang Liang asked, “No one pays for your tuition fees?”

Yu Hao saw that Zhang Liang looked like he was feeling about for his wallet and was afraid that he would start writing cheques for him every minute like they do in dramas, so he quickly said, “There is! There’s no problem with my tuition fees, I’m just earning some pocket money.”

“You don’t really spend much ba.” Zhang Liang laughed helplessly, “I’m always badgering you for counselling sessions, yet I haven’t paid you yet……”

Yu Hao said, “Why talk about ‘payment’ between friends? I’ve never done counselling for anyone before, don’t give me anymore money. It’s not easy to earn.”

Zhang Liang said, “My family has a few apartments that were demolished, and the spare money is just sitting around collecting interest. All I do is sleep and play games at home all day, ai……”