Baiyuyi 43

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Chapter 43: He suddenly changed like this out of nowhere

Yuan Chenglei:
But is it really alright if I don’t return in time for my shift at the bookstore?

Laoban Song:
Things are fairly slow at this time at any rate.

Yuan Chenglei:
But I mean should I really be wasting my time like this?
Yuan Chenglei:
Not that helping someone is wasting time, but I mean shouldn’t I be cultivating?

Laoban Song:
The only person put at a disadvantage if you miss some of your cultivation time would be yourself.
Laoban Song:
I’m not sure what kind of excuse you’re look for. You are the one who saw it, and it’s up to you whether or not to get involved.
Laoban Song:
Personally speaking, I think this is a good opportunity for you to learn how to take responsibility for the karmic ties you keep provoking.

Yuan Chenglei stared at his phone glumly before looking up at the sky like all hope was lost.

Look, it’s not like he MEANS to keep … ‘provoking karmic ties’ or whatever! All these random encounters are totally, 100% not his fault, okay?

To be honest, he was hoping Laoban would have some sort of … advice! Or something! Or maybe just straight up tell him that he wasn’t ready for whatever he was about to get involved in and to return to the store immediately. But he’d forgotten exactly how ‘hands free’ his cultivation master could be.

Laoban wouldn’t get involved until Yuan Chenglei was actually dying, probably.

Isn’t this a bit too ‘let them experience the consequences of their own doings’?

Because again, Yuan Chenglei wasn’t being nosy and getting himself into trouble!

Trouble comes to him!

As Yuan Chenglei sat on the traffic barrier (ignoring that he really shouldn’t be), wallowing in his despair, his buddies were discussing what they were going to do next.

“I mean, now that we know what’s going on, it wouldn’t be right to ignore it,” Luo Jinwei said righteously, the meddlesome nature from growing up in a small town where everyone knew everyone flaring up.

“It wouldn’t be good to poke too much in other peoples’ stuff,” Wang Mujiu replied. “I mean, if it’s a couple’s fight… ah, but domestic violence already means that guy’s gone too far…”

“Hey, sorry for the wait!” Shao Lingna bounded back in high spirits with Tsu Huiling and Ying Xia following closely behind.

They’d gotten lunch for the poor girl that was hiding out in their dorm room and unwilling to go down to the cafeteria.

“No problem, no problem!” Wang Mujiu said, waving his hands in front of him. “Anyway, it’s probably better for us to walk you guys back, just in case that guy comes back.”

Tsu Huiling’s mouth twitched and she barely suppressed an eyeroll.

Wanh Mujiu’s a good guy and all, but he’s a bit… well, if push came to shove, he was probably the guy they could rely on the least. Because he’s a bit of a coward.

Rather than Wang Mujiu… Tsu Huiling glanced at Yuan Chenglei out of the corner of her eye.

Back in their hometown, Yuan Chenglei had always been the ‘nice guy’, the one who liked to go along with the flow and didn’t mind being the butt of the joke. He was also the one who got along with just about everyone, and seemed to have a very high threshold before he’d get angry.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get angry, and growing up together meant Tsu Huiling had definitely seen both Yuan Chenglei and Luo Jinwei get into fights with other kids before, but…

She loves her closest friends and all, but she would honestly say they ran away more than they got into fights. They would almost always get their butts kicked, after all.

That said, watching someone hit a girl in front of them, let alone Tsu Huiling who had been the ‘princess’ in their friend group back home, was definitely something those two wouldn’t hesitate to get into a fight for.

Tsu Huiling knew it, and so it wasn’t surprising that they stepped in (and she was even a little bit happy to see it), but hello, the opponent was a boxer!?

That guy probably wasn’t pro or anything, but to the average person off the street, someone who trained in a boxing gym was someone you wouldn’t want to get into a fight with!

At the moment her brain registered Yuan Chenglei stepping in and stopping the man from slapping Shao Lingna, Tsu Huiling had been scared to death her friend would get hurt badly and had regretted how reckless she and her girl friends had been to confront and anger Ning Meirong’s boyfriend.

But instead… …

It hadn’t been her imagination, right? That boxer couldn’t move his hand at all, right?

No, in the first place, how did Cheng-er manage to stop that man in time?

If ‘nice guy’ Yuan Chenglei had been close enough to catch that man’s hand in that instant, he would have stepped in earlier and tried to de-escalate the situation before it got that far, that much Tsu Huiling was certain. He wasn’t like Wang Mujiu, who tried to avoid confrontation as much as possible, after all.

Plus, if Tsu Huiling was being honest, even if the man had actually hit Shao Lingna, she would have expected Yuan Chenglei and Luo Jinwei to barge in yelling angrily, not come in swinging. They were the ‘less violence please’ duo, after all.

Well, technically Yuan Chenglei didn’t come in swinging, but the fact still stands.

Tsu Huiling would never have expected Yuan Chenglei to physically restrain the man. Especially not like that.

Even if he says he’s been working out … Tsu Huiling gave a small frown, not too sure about the changes in her friend.

But in the end, Yuan Chenglei’s basic good guy nature was still the same, focused on preventing the situation from getting worse rather than blowing it up into a full on fistfight while trying to get back at him, so Tsu Huiling finally dismissed her uneasiness with a shake of her head.

Having the three boys escorting them back to their dorm really did make Tsu Huiling and the other girls feel much better.

Although Tsu Huiling and Shao Lingna would consider themselves fairly independent women, they’d never gotten into an actual, physical altercation with a man, or anyone for that matter, before.

This was probably the closest they’d ever been to actually getting hit like this on the streets, and it had shaken all three of them.

Even though Tsu Huiling, Shao Lingna, and Ying Xia hadn’t known each other before ending up as roommates, they had gotten along well enough that they would go out together to eat, and now they were bonding over helping a mutual friend.

All three of them were determined to do something about Ning Meirong’s situation.

Even the timid Ying Xia had gotten frightened enough to think that they should help Ning Meirong get away from this scary boyfriend of hers.

The only problem was, they weren’t really sure what to do about it.

Even if they convinced Ning Meirong to break up with her boyfriend, what if he wasn’t willing to break up? What then?

After the close call today, even Shao Lingna, the feistiest and most headstrong of the three, couldn’t help but admit that they … might not be able to do anything if the boyfriend decided to use force.

So when the Yuan Chenglei asked if he could talk to Ning Meirong about her boyfriend, all three of them jumped at the opportunity to invite the boys to their room.

“Eh? Is it really okay to get involved like this?” Wang Mujiu asked as the boys signed in for a temporary pass into the girls’ dorm. “I mean, shouldn’t we be going to police, now that the boyfriend’s actually threatening violence?”

“Like the police will do anything,” Shao Lingna snorted. “Unless someone ends up in the hospital, they’re not going to want to get involved in a ‘private domestic affair’.”

“Besides, Ning Meirong doesn’t want to make this a big deal and even says he’s actually a good guy, he’s just under a lot of stress,” Tsu Huiling said.

“If he does it once, he’ll do it again,” Shao Lingna snapped angrily. “Just because he’s under a lot of stress? Please, this is life. There’s ALWAYS going to be a lot of stress!”

“We’re not the ones who need to be convinced,” Luo Jinwei said, a bit of a wry smile on his face as the six university students trudged up the steps to the girls’ dorm room.

Ning Meirong was a cute girl, a bit on the petite side. Normally she was talkative and energetic, clicking with Shao Lingna pretty well, but she was much quieter today, sitting on the edge of Tsu Huiling’s bed.

There was a slight mark on her face, but thankfully it wasn’t the angry bruise the three boys had expected.

That said, the fact that her boyfriend had hit her hard enough to leave any sort of mark was still disturbing.

“Rongrong, we got you lunch,” Shao Lingna announced, and the girl within lifted her head and gave a wobbly smile.

“Thanks, Lingna,” she said, and Shao Lingna and Ying Xia quickly busied themselves with arranging the food on the table.

As they ate, the girls explained what had happened at the food street.

Ning Meirong looked disturbed while listening, and a bit like she might cry, but eventually she just sighed and shook her head.

“I really don’t know what to think,” she said, toying with the food in her bowl. “I know it just sounds like excuses at this point, but I swear, he was never like this before, and never showed even the slightest sign that he would be like this. To be honest…”

Ning Meirong’s hands reflexively grasped her chopsticks more tightly as she shivered.

“To be honest, it scares me more. That he suddenly changed like this out of nowhere,” she whispered.

Shao Lingna pursed her lips, no doubt about to launch into a rant about scum men who were too good at hiding their true selves, but Ying Xia nodded her head emphatically.

“I … also think … it’s weird,” the girl said. “I’ve met him before, and it’s just … he doesn’t have a short temper…”

Shao Lingna didn’t look convinced, but she gave a huff and decided to keep quiet. For now.

“Did something out of the ordinary happen?” Luo Jingwei asked. “Like, family matters or something?”

Wang Mujiu nodded, leaning forward eagerly. “Yeah, that’s right! Sometimes extreme stress can trigger mood or personality changes!”

Ning Meirong shook her head. “No. I also thought it was strange, so I asked around, even calling back home to ask his grandma, but no one knew anything. In fact, some of his friends asked me if anything had happened between us, because they also thought he was acting weird.”

It seemed like her initial fear of the entire situation had worn off now, and she was now concerned and eager to figure out why it had happened.

“Hm…”

Luo Jinwei tilted his head in contemplation as he hummed thoughtfully, along with everyone else in the room.

It didn’t help that the boys barely knew Ning Meirong and her boyfriend, only aware of them through the girls as an acquaintance.

Heck, even Tsu Huiling and Shao Lingna didn’t really know Ning Meirong’s boyfriend all that well. Ying Xia was probably the only one of them who had interacted with the man enough to be able to know what he’d been like before this ‘unexpected change’ (unconfirmed).

None of them could even begin to guess what could have triggered him.

“Has something changed?” Yuan Chenglei suddenly asked, and Luo Jinwei and Tsu Huiling looked at him curiously. “Ah, I don’t mean anything major. More like, has he been hanging out with strange people, or visiting new places, or eating different things?”

“Would eating something different actually change someone’s personality that much?” Wang Mujiu asked, but Tsu Huiling narrowed her eyes.

“Do you mean… he might be taking drugs or something?” she asked.

No, that wasn’t exactly what Yuan Chenglei meant, but now that he thinks about it, that might be a more reasonable explanation than ‘he’s somehow picked up some weird karma or something’.

“Something that’s changed… …” Ning Meirong bit her lower lip as she thought about it. “I don’t think his schedule’s changed any, and the people he hangs out with are still the same.”

After a moment, when the only thing that filled the dorm room was awkward silence, since no one but Ning Meirong would have a chance at answering this question, she suddenly furrowed her brows.

“There’s… there was this new protein powder he got from the gym,” she said, and although it seemed like a small thing to bring up, the fact that she did meant that she might have sensed something was off about the situation.

“What brand?” Tsu Huling, ever the pragmatic member of their group, asked as she pulled out her phone, looking as if she was ready to start searching for reviews, or recalls, the minute Ning Meirong told them the name.

“Seriously, it better not be a copycat fake brand, those things have all sorts of stuff as additives,” Shao Lingna grumbled.

“That… it wasn’t, it was in a wax paper bag, like it came from an herbal medicine shop or something,” Ning Meirong said with a whisper.

There was another moment of silence, before they all started talking at once.

“Isn’t that super weird?”

“That’s suspicious, really, really suspicious!”

“And he just … took it? Without even getting it checked out?”

Ning Meirong gnawed on her lower lip, worry starting to come over her face. “I, I thought it was weird. It had a scent to it, that wasn’t like his other protein powders, and it had instructions, like take twice a day before meals like it was some medicine or something, but he said it came with a list of ingredients, and it was fine…”

“… No, that’s a shit idea, to just take herbal medicine without a prescription from a certified professional,” Wang Mujiu scoffed.

“W-well, if someone you trusted gave it to you and said it was protein powder,” Ying Xia said.

“What if – ohmygod, what if he’s … what if that stuff seriously messes him up? What if he doesn’t recover, or it sends him to the hospital, or…” Ning Meirong began to panic badly.

“Wait, hold on,” Tsu Huiling said. “We don’t even know if it’s the protein powder yet. It could be something else.”

“That’s true,” Luo Jinwei said with a nod. “Although it’s strange, it could also be legitimate protein powder with some herbal supplements, so let’s calm down and think about what else…”

“You said he got the protein powder from his boxing gym?” Yuan Chenglei asked suddenly, then realized he’d cut his buddy off.

“… You think it’s the protein powder?” Tsu Huiling asked. “That it could cause that big of a change in someone?”

“Well, you know, even if it’s actually just normal stuff, with herbal medicine, there’s always a risk of things being incompatible with the person taking it,” Yuan Chenglei said quickly, trying to downplay his own conclusions about the situation, since ‘I think someone’s spiking your boyfriend’s protein powder with some bad mystical magic karma stuff’ doesn’t seem like it would go over too well.

“Besides,” he said, “Even if we’re wrong and it’s something else, now that we’re worried about what’s in that stuff, it’s going to be hard to ignore it. So I was just thinking I’d go check it out just to put everyone’s mind at ease.”

Yeah, that’s a much better excuse. Yuan Chenglei thought he did a pretty good job with it, and everyone else seemed to also accept it.

So… why was Tsu Huiling giving him suspicious looks?

囧

<a/n: Got covid, and although it hit me pretty lightly at first, I had a bought of long covid, which made things… a bit touch and go with the brain fog and all. >