Chapter Seventeen

Yu Mufeng's wish to train with Cheng Xiangbei was dashed from the start.

He attended classes for half the afternoon, sitting with Lu Nan the whole time. When he went to the playground for training in the evening, he found that Cheng Xiangbei was already surrounded by a group of people. Not only his roommates Li Weide and Luo Ming, but even the girls had come to join in the fun. There were already few girls in the engineering class, and everyone who had signed up for a project came to the playground, not counting Chu Lian and others who joined later.

The easy solo training session turned into a cumbersome and sticky mess, like a string of rice dumplings. Yu Mufeng looked at the group of people running laps with Cheng Xiangbei, and his last bit of hope was shattered.

"Boss, you're a complete menace, a total menace!" Li Weide ran after Cheng Xiangbei, gradually picking up speed and leaving the others behind. Cheng Xiangbei glanced at him and scoffed, "What nonsense are you talking about?"

"I'm talking nonsense?" Li Weide pointed to his nose and exaggeratedly said, "Look at this string of rice dumplings behind me! Did you bring them here, or did I?"

"I didn't confess to anyone," Cheng Xiangbei said calmly, adjusting his breathing.

"Yes, the boss is so handsome that people come to him automatically without him needing to recruit anyone."

"Go away, I didn't mean that!" she quickly denied.

"Hey, boss..." Li Weide winked and said, "The beautiful Chu's feelings are pretty clear, don't you have any... you know?"

"What...what?" Cheng Xiangbei glanced at him. "Boring."

"Hey, boss!" Li Weide followed closely behind him, saying nervously, "Chu is pretty good, with a great face and figure, what else could you possibly want?"

Cheng Xiangbei ignored him completely.

"Could it be..." Li Weide looked around and whispered, "Boss, are you impotent?"

Cheng Xiangbei took two steps back and kicked him directly in the butt. "Whether I'm good or not, it's good that someone knows." I just tested it yesterday, and its performance and quality are excellent, humph!

"Who? Who?" Having his attention diverted, Li Weide eagerly followed Cheng Xiangbei, trying to extract firsthand information. Unfortunately, Cheng Xiangbei remained tight-lipped, refusing to utter a single word.

Given the inconvenience of training in the evening, Cheng Xiangbei changed the time to the morning.

Except for the days he spent in bed with Lu Nan, he always got up early. After running three kilometers in the nearby park and doing two sets of boxing, Cheng Xiangbei went home to take a shower. Lu Nan hated his sweaty smell, so he made sure he was clean before going to find her.

It was only a little past seven when Cheng Xiangbei got back to the dormitory. He took breakfast and knocked on the door of room 406.

"The door isn't locked!" Zhong Wei responded when he heard the door open.

Cheng Xiangbei entered the room and saw Zhong Wei and Yang Shaofan packing their schoolbags. "Going out?"

"Yeah, I have class this morning, let's eat out."

Cheng Xiangbei nodded and placed breakfast into Lu Nan's bowl. "Nan Nan, are you awake?"

"Hmm..." Lu Nan mumbled unconsciously, then snuggled into the blanket and continued to sleep.

"Wake up, you have class this morning!" I continued to pat you gently.

"Okay!" He rolled over and faced the wall, snoring away.

"Never mind him, he woke up at 7:30," Zhong Wei said with a smile. "We're leaving now."

"Okay, see you later." Cheng Xiangbei waved. After Zhong Wei and Yang Shaofan left, he locked the door and nimbly climbed into Lu Nan's bed. "Baby, get up!" He pursed his nose and playfully licked Lu Nan's lips with his tongue.

"Get out of the way!" He was still half asleep and had a terrible temper when he woke up.

"The sun's already high in the sky!" He continued kissing, his tongue probing into Lu Nan's mouth. "Mmm..." Unconsciously, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, the weight pressing down on her finally bringing Lu Nan back to her senses. "Tiger?"

"Finally awake." He rewarded him with a quick kiss on the lips. "Alright! You have class this morning. I bought your favorite xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). Get up and brush your teeth and wash your face!" With that, Cheng Xiangbei nimbly jumped out of bed, handed Lu Nan's clothes to him, went to the bathroom to run the water for washing his face, and even squeezed out the toothpaste.

Lu Nan slowly got dressed, climbed out of bed, and crept into the bathroom with her eyes half-closed. "I hate going to class in the morning!"

"What time is it? Still early? Why don't you come jogging with me?" Cheng Xiangbei grinned mischievously.

Lu Nan poked her head out with her mouth full of foam. "Dream on!"

After breakfast, Lu Nan sat comfortably in the back seat of the car and asked Cheng Xiangbei to take him to the teaching building.

On the way, they ran into Li Weide and Luo Ming. Li Weide called out, "Boss, where have you been running around so early in the morning?"

Cheng Xiangbei asked with a smile, "What, do I need to report to you?"

"Tch, maybe he went off to steal a kiss or a woman?" He winked knowingly.

"That's not right!" Luo Ming shook his head. "Stealing kisses and jade is something for the night; doing it in broad daylight is called illicit sex!"

"Cough, cough!" Lu Nan almost choked on her milk. "Old Luo, what are you hiding for?"

Luo Ming protested. "Lu Nan, don't change the subject! It's the boss who's having an affair, not me."

"I'm not that lucky!" Cheng Xiangbei shook his head.

"Hey! Boss! You were saying yesterday that you were very experienced!"

"Hmm?" Lu Nan blinked. "What experience?"

“That one!” Li Weide slowed down to be alongside Lu Nan. “Lu Nan, you know the boss best. Do you know who the boss drove for the first time?”

Lu Nan paused, his mind slowing for a second before he understood Li Weide's meaning. A tiger's first time? Wasn't that him? A blush rose to his face, but he quickly realized this wasn't the time to be shy. "Uh, is it that important?"

"Of course it's important!" Li Weide exclaimed.

The car screeched to a halt, and Lu Nan swayed, suddenly realizing he was already at the foot of the teaching building. Students were coming and going in the corridor. He blinked, returning to reality. "How can you discuss tigers' private lives in such a sacred place! This is absolutely a desecration of knowledge!" With that, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and strolled into the building.

Cheng Xiangbei locked his bicycle, suppressing a laugh as he followed. Li Weide and Luo Ming exchanged a glance. "Blasphemy of knowledge?! Could he be any more hypocritical?!"

After half a month of training, Cheng Xiangbei won the 3,000-meter championship at the sports meet as he had hoped.

Under his leadership, the entire class won a collective honor. Li Weide and Luo Ming pestered him to treat them to a meal, and Liu Fei also shyly said he wanted a treat. Cheng Xiangbei patted his head and said, "Granted!"

Lu Nan was always a regular at 307's celebrations, and it was always an event paid for by Cheng Xiangbei. But once the handsome Cheng was involved, the dinner party took a turn for the worse. First, the girls from the joint dormitory got involved, then Yu Mufeng joined in, and when the whole group headed to the restaurant, they bumped into Meng Tianze. If it were anyone else, Meng Tianze definitely wouldn't have participated. But when he heard that Lu Nan would also be there, no matter how inappropriate it was, Meng Tianze forced himself to join in.

The large round table was almost too small to seat everyone. Li Weide sighed inwardly at the "femme fatale" phenomenon, while Liu Fei began to worry about his boss's wallet. Would he be living on instant noodles for the next two weeks?

Cheng Xiangbei didn't join the main group; instead, he and Lu Nan went to the supermarket to buy drinks. When he carried two cases of beer inside, he was shocked to find that the table was more than half full. The girls from the dorm—okay, that was acceptable, and he could even tolerate Yu Mufeng—but what was with Meng Tianze?! In front of so many people, Cheng Xiangbei said nothing, simply offering a broad smile to express his welcome.

Lu Nan didn't care about the number of people; he just wanted to find a place to sit, but the seating arrangement was strange. There was an empty seat between Chu Lian and Meng Tianze, and another empty seat between Meng Tianze and Yu Mufeng; all the other seats were full. He stood next to Meng Tianze, who smiled and said, "Lu Nan, sit here!"

"You, sit there." Lu Nan pointed to the seat next to Chu Lian and said casually.

"Huh?" Meng Tianze was surprised. He had originally planned to separate Lu Nan and Cheng Xiangbei, but since Lu Nan had spoken so loudly, it seemed unreasonable not to move. "Everyone is sitting apart."

"I don't care, how am I supposed to eat if the tiger isn't around?"

"Pfft!" Li Weide, who was drinking water, immediately spat it out and slammed his hand on the table, shouting, "Nanny Cheng, stop opening that box and hurry up and serve your master!"

Cheng Xiangbei clapped his hands, handed the wine case to Luo Ming, and then strolled over. "Nannan, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Lu Nan shook her head, and only sat down leisurely after Meng Tianze moved to the side. "Tiger, you sit!"

Once the dinner started, everyone realized what Lu Nan meant by "we can't eat without the tiger."

Starting with the cold dishes, Cheng Xiangbei kept piling Lu Nan's favorite dishes into his bowl, while Lu Nan just kept eating, not even reaching for the food. Some of the side dishes were quite delicate and served in small portions, but Cheng Xiangbei, without batting an eye, gave all the best parts to Lu Nan, ignoring the girls' resentful expressions.

When the prawns arrived, Lu Nan stopped eating. Finally, they didn't have to fight with the old man for food, and everyone secretly rejoiced. Before the smiles faded from their faces, they saw Cheng Xiangbei deftly peel a prawn and put it in Lu Nan's bowl. Under everyone's strange gazes, Cheng Xiangbei calmly peeled three more prawns for Lu Nan. "What, aren't you all going to eat?"

"Cough, cough...eat, eat..." Everyone seemed to wake up from a dream.

"Lu Nan, Xiang Bei is so good to you." Seeing Lu Nan so naturally calling Xiang Bei by his name, Yu Mufeng felt quite uncomfortable.

Lu Nan glanced at Cheng Xiangbei. "If he's not good to me, who is he good to?"

"Hey! That's too arrogant!" Everyone glared at Lu Nan. Only Meng Tianze looked at Lu Nan with interest. He knew Lu Nan was a bit oblivious, but he hadn't expected him to be so... well, interesting in everyday life. He watched Lu Nan casually greeting Cheng Xiangbei, completely ignoring the reactions of everyone at the table. This guy was someone you could completely ignore if you weren't interested, but once someone captured your heart, you'd be completely focused.

He longed to be the one Lu Nan would wholeheartedly focus on. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that Lu Nan's heart had already been filled by someone else; otherwise, he wouldn't have experienced the setbacks and failures that followed. But now, however, the seeds of love were just beginning to sprout, and Meng Tianze's heart was filled with anticipation.

Unlike Meng Tianze, Yu Mufeng felt quite resentful. Why did Lu Nan deserve all of Cheng Xiangbei's attention? In terms of looks, he was confident he wasn't inferior to Lu Nan; and in terms of intelligence, Lu Nan's thick-skinned nature was well-known throughout the department. So, what did Lu Nan have that surpassed him?

"Tiger, here you go!" Seeing that everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Lu Nan took out Cheng Xiangbei's wallet. Cheng Xiangbei took it and went to pay the bill first. Yu Mufeng watched Lu Nan patting his belly and burping contentedly, a smile appearing on his lips.

It's because of money, isn't it? That makes things simple.