Plan B
When Lu Yu returned to the dormitory, Fat Jiang was slumped in a chair, scrolling through his phone with a look of despair on his face.
Shi Guang had changed back into his own clothes and was sitting at the desk, carving something on a piece of wood with a small carving knife, his expression focused.
"Damn it, Brother Lu, you're finally back!" When Fatty Jiang saw Lu Yu, he was like seeing a savior. He lowered his voice and whispered, "How long do you and Shi Guang plan to endure this ice age? I can't even breathe in the dormitory."
Lu Yu ignored him and walked straight to Sun Rui's desk, pulled a chair and sat down, his expression more serious than ever.
"Sun Rui," he said straight to the point, "I need your help."
Sun Rui, who was struggling with advanced mathematics, looked up at the words, a subtle flash of surprise in his eyes behind his glasses. He closed the book and asked formally, "What's the matter?"
"Help me analyze this," Lu Yu said, his gaze fixed on the figure wearing headphones and isolated from the world, his voice lowered to a very low level, "How can I repair my relationship with time?"
As soon as these words were spoken, even Fatty Jiang next to them instantly became alert and moved his chair over, forming a temporary triangle formation.
"Repair the relationship?" Sun Rui's brow furrowed slightly, as if he were dealing with a complex academic topic. "First, we need to define the root cause of the breakdown. Based on the existing data, the withdrawal incident was the direct trigger. The core conflict lies in the fact that your and Jiang Xiaopang's entertainment-oriented behavior clashed violently with Shiguang's extreme emphasis on personal privacy and boundaries."
"Speak human language!" Lu Yu and Jiang Xiaopang said in unison again.
Sun Rui cleared his throat and changed his words to a more commonplace one: "Simply put, you two treat him as a friend with whom you can joke around, but he doesn't treat you as friends at all."
These words were like a sharp arrow, piercing Lu Yu's heart accurately.
"Then...what should I do?" Fatty Jiang rubbed his round belly, revealing a rare hint of guilt. "How about...I go and apologize? And give him a red envelope?"
"No," Sun Rui immediately rejected the idea. "From a behavioral psychology perspective, apologies and financial compensation are post-incident remedial measures. They have little effect on repairing the emotional rift caused by personality incompatibility. Inappropriate methods may even trigger deeper resistance from the other party."
"Then what should I do?" Lu Yu was truly at his wit's end. He prided himself on being a social butterfly. From childhood to adulthood, there was no one he couldn't handle, only those he ignored. But in Shi Guang's time, all his social skills were like a punch into a vacuum, with nowhere to land.
Fatty Jiang rolled his eyes, came closer, and showed his signature lewd smile on his face: "Brother Lu, how about...you listen to me?"
"What bad idea do you have?" Lu Yu glanced at him.
"You don't understand," Fatty Jiang said mysteriously, "To deal with this kind of sultry type who's cold on the outside but warm on the inside, you have to use the simplest and most brutal methods! I'll give you two tips."
He held up a finger. "First, corny love talk! Think about it, if you whisper 'Bao, I love you more today' into his ear every morning, I guarantee he'll be petrified on the spot. Within three days, he'll become dependent on you!"
Lu Yu's face twitched: "Get lost!"
"Don't be impatient!" Fat Jiang held up a second finger. "Second, bombard him with gifts! Doesn't he like that little broken vase? Go buy a truckload of vases tomorrow and surround his bed with them! Let him know what it means to be pampered by a domineering monitor!"
"..." Lu Yu felt that if fighting was not prohibited in the dormitory, he would now let Fatty Jiang know what the iron fist of a domineering monitor was.
Seeing that the discussion was gradually turning towards metaphysics, Sun Rui finally couldn't bear it anymore. He tapped the table with his fingers to draw their attention back.
"Fat Jiang's suggestion lacks scientific basis and has a zero success rate. It is not recommended to be adopted." He made a calm judgment, then looked at Lu Yu and gave his own plan.
"From a rational perspective, I suggest you adopt a value attraction strategy."
"What do you mean?" Lu Yu was confused.
"What I mean is that your current proactive approach is a low-value social behavior because it doesn't meet the other person's needs. What you need to do is not to cater to him, but to demonstrate your own high value, so as to achieve secondary attraction to him." Sun Rui's tone was like he was giving an academic report.
"Brother, can you speak human language?" Fat Jiang scratched his head.
Sun Rui sighed, seemingly struggling to communicate with two "bad students." He thought for a moment and offered an analogy: "To put it simply, it's like a salesperson you have no interest in calling you every day. You'd just find it annoying. But if one day you discovered that this salesperson was actually the richest man in the world and could solve all your problems, would your attitude toward him change?"
Although this metaphor was not very appropriate, Lu Yu understood it instantly.
"You mean... I shouldn't go out of my way to talk to him, but instead let him see how powerful I am in other ways?"
"That's how it should be understood," Sun Rui nodded. "For example, in the upcoming military training, demonstrate your outstanding physical fitness and organizational skills; in your professional studies, show your exceptional talent and insights. Once your value is recognized, the value of your social interactions with them will be completely different. In economics, this is called brand premium."
Fatty Jiang was confused, but he grasped the key point: "Brother Sun's intention is to make you, Brother Lu, the most handsome guy in the school first, and then let time chase you back?"
"It's not exactly about pursuing him," Sun Rui corrected him strictly, "It's about making him psychologically accept and recognize the rationality and necessity of socializing with Lu Yu."
Lu Yu leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping the table unconsciously, lost in thought.
Jiang Xiaopang's persistence and Sun Rui's value attraction, two completely different strategies, were placed before him.
The former is simple and crude, but the risk is extremely high, and you may be directly blocked and deleted.
The latter sounds advanced, but the battle line is too long, and... too frustrating. When did Lu Yu need to make friends by demonstrating his value?
But looking at the tightly closed bed curtain, he had to admit that Sun Rui had a point. For someone like Shi Guang who was extremely resistant to being disturbed by the outside world, any excessive concern would be a form of harassment.
Maybe... we can combine the two methods?
An idea slowly took shape in his mind.
"Okay, I got it." Lu Yu suddenly spoke, his eyes rekindled with fighting spirit.
He stood up, walked to his closet, took out a clean T-shirt, turned to Jiang Xiaopang and said, "I won't go to the class dinner. Tell Zhao Teng to have fun. I'll be the one to pay for it."
"Ah? Brother Lu, you're not going?" Fat Jiang was stunned.
"No," Lu Yu glanced at the tightly closed bed curtain, a meaningful smile on his face, "I have to stay and implement Plan B."
After saying that, he took his clothes and walked into the bathroom whistling.
The so-called Plan B is actually very simple.
On the surface, he would strictly follow Sun Rui's scientific advice, maintain a safe social distance with Shi Guang, and no longer engage in any contact that would trigger a stress response in the other party. He would focus on the upcoming military training and professional studies.
But in private, he would turn Jiang Xiaopang's simple and rough concern into a silent contribution without disturbing him, seeking credit, or even leaving a name.
For example, when he went out in the morning, he put a box of warm milk on Shi Guang's desk. When he came back in the evening, he accidentally left a bag of cut fruit in the public area.
He didn't ask, nor did he say.
I'll just leave it here. It's up to you whether you eat it or not.
But my concern has been delivered.
Lu Yu felt that this plan was perfect.
When he came out of the shower, Shi Guang and he were the only ones left in the dormitory. Fatty Jiang had already gone off to the banquet, while Sun Rui was still hanging out in the library.
The dormitory was so quiet that the only sounds were the rubbing of the carving knife in Shi Guang's hand against the wood and the chirping of cicadas outside the window.
Lu Yu wiped his hair and didn't actively talk to Shi Guang. He sat back in his seat, put on his headphones, and clicked on a drone racing video, watching it with great interest.
After about half an hour, Shi Guang stopped working. He seemed to have finished carving, and he took the small piece of wood in his hands, examining it carefully.
Lu Yu glanced at him secretly out of the corner of his eye.
It was a bird spreading its wings, ready to fly. The lines were smooth, the shape was lifelike, and the texture of each feather was clearly visible.
He couldn't help but admire in his heart: This guy is really a genius.
At this moment, Shi Guang stood up, put away the wood carving and the carving knife, then picked up the washbasin and towel and prepared to wash up.
He walked past Lu Yu without any communication between them.
Just as Shi Guang was about to walk into the bathroom, he suddenly stopped, turned around, and said something in the direction of Lu Yu.
"Afternoon...thank you."
After saying that, without waiting for Lu Yu to react, he walked into the bathroom and closed the door.
Lu Yu was stunned.
He took off his headphones and kept repeating those three words in his mind.
Afternoon...Thank you?
[Is he thanking me for helping him out, or thanking me... for not bothering him any further?]
Whatever it was, this was the first time Shi Guang took the initiative to talk to him after he quit the group.
The corners of Lu Yu's mouth curled up without him even noticing. He felt that his Plan B was a stroke of genius. It had already yielded initial results before it even officially began.
He picked up his phone, opened the dormitory group with only three people, and changed his group nickname from "602 is also very tired today" to the showy "602 is the most handsome one".
The next morning, the military training mobilization meeting was held as scheduled, and the school distributed military training uniforms.
A set of camouflage uniforms that were washed out, a hat, and a belt.
Fat Jiang held up the camouflage uniform, which was two sizes too large for him, and was about to burst into tears. "Are these clothes real? Am I wearing them for military training or to sing Errenzhuan?"
Sun Rui calmly inspected the stitching of the garment and commented, "The fabric is rough and breathable, but it's durable. Its main function is to achieve visual unity, not individual comfort."
Lu Yu had a great figure and was a natural clothes hanger. Even in this sack-like camouflage uniform, he looked broad-shouldered and long-legged, exuding a commanding presence. After he finished changing, his gaze drifted involuntarily to the corner of the dormitory.
Shi Guang was also changing his clothes. He was thin, and the loose camouflage uniform looked a little empty on him. He lowered his head, carefully fastening his belt. Perhaps because he was not experienced, he failed to get it right after several attempts, and it looked a little clumsy.
Lu Yu's Adam's apple moved, and he almost instinctively wanted to step forward and say, "Let me help you."
But he finally swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue. He clenched his fist, turned around, and said to Jiang Xiaopang, "Let's go, gather at the playground, don't dawdle!"
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