Chapter Fifteen: Slumber Chamber Conversations

  "How do I know that just by casually mentioning blue, you'll be stimulated to go drink water from the South Lake?" Chen Chufan also showed an innocent face. However, he felt a slight relief in his heart, as it seemed that his two companions basically believed his explanation.

  "By the way, are there any other hidden aspects of yours that you haven't revealed yet? Just make it clear so that next time you won't suddenly become arrogant and scare people!" Yang Tao said weakly.

  Yang Tao's words reminded Chen Chufan, and he recalled the scene when he fell into the lake, that dreamlike scenario. He suddenly felt that his changes must be related to that dream. What was in the dream? Countless melodies? Countless instruments? He also thought of himself walking out of Old Xiao's office and inexplicably going to the music room, and suddenly a light bulb went off in his mind. He blurted out: "Actually, there are things you don't know about me, I can play many musical instruments, like piano, guitar, and so on! I learned them when I was young, although I rarely practiced, but I still remember a bit! So one day if you find out that I can play a few tunes, don't be too surprised!" Chen Chufan continued to fabricate his non-existent learning experience with a straight face.

  Meng Wei and Yang Tao stared at each other in dismay.

  "My god! Are you kidding me?! You're so talented, why didn't you perform at the freshman welcome party in our department? We ended up with a boring chorus and sang that embarrassing song 'Unity is Strength'!" Yang Tao exclaimed.

  Meng Wei also nodded in agreement on one side, it can be seen that the big chorus of the History Department at the welcoming party was really unpopular.

  "I wasn't low-key before, was I? Getting on stage and performing such a high-profile thing, do you think the old me would have done that?" Chen Chufan continued to use his usual low-key personality as a shield.

  "You said you wanted to keep a low profile, then just keep a low profile! You suddenly become so high-profile, we can't take it!" Yang Tao looked Chen Chufan up and down, as if seeing him for the first time.

  "Am I not being ruthlessly abandoned by Wang Linlin? I just realized that if a person is too low-key, they will be bullied! So I've decided to change this personality!" This time, Chen Chufan shamelessly used his own heartbreak as a shield. However, it's clear that this excuse is quite useful, as Meng Wei and Yang Tao both paused for a moment, seemingly still sympathizing with Chen Chufan in their hearts. It's said that this kid is quite pitiful! Because of one heartbreak, he not only jumped into the lake but also completely changed his personality.

  "Is there anything else?" After a while, Yang Tao continued to ask, now even Meng Wei was looking at Chen Chufan with an expectant face.

  "It's over for now, right?" Chen Chufan said in an uncertain tone.

  "My god, I asked you what your specialty is, and you say it's temporarily gone? Are you saying that you have a specialty but even you yourself can't figure it out?" Yang Tao asked discontentedly.

  "I'm a low-key person, there are many things I don't dare to say, afraid of hurting you guys!" Chen Chufan continued to talk nonsense, anyway he had already started to bluff, and now he was completely letting loose.

  At this moment, the dormitory door was suddenly slammed open by Xiao Pang, who ran to Chen Chufan's face with an excited expression and shouted exaggeratedly: "Hero! Teach me two moves!"

  "Hey, hey, we were discussing serious matters, what's wrong with you now?" Yang Tao said bluntly to Xiao Pang.

  "I just heard about Brother Chen's heroic deeds in the neighboring dormitory, and I'm so excited! I heard that at the time, countless beauties wanted to marry him, and a little beauty from the law school even took the initiative to ask one of our brothers in the neighboring dormitory for Brother Chen's name! I was so excited that I rushed back to learn a few moves from Brother Chen!" Xiao Pang explained.

  Yang Tao curled his lip, looking at Xiao Pang with a slanted gaze: "You'd better not try to learn from Old Chen's blue ribbon, your weight is still a problem. Even if you could really get a blue ribbon, the beauty would take one look at your fat body and give up on you!"

  One sentence seemed to have touched Xiao Pang's sore spot, and Xiao Pang actually let out a long sigh, without continuing to pester Chen Chufan, but instead lamented and dragged his heavy body onto his own bed.

  Before long, the sound of Xiao Pang's snores came from the bed. This little fatty is a weirdo, his daily life is always eating, attending classes, sleeping, and going online. What's more, he is especially good at sleeping, basically as soon as he touches the pillow, he can fall asleep, and then nothing can wake him up, his sleep quality is so good that it makes people jealous.

  Time was almost up for lights out, Meng Wei and Yang Tao went to the bathroom again separately, then crawled onto bed exhausted. Only Chen Chufan was still at the desk under the bed, biting his pen and writing a self-criticism.

  "It's been two hours and you still haven't finished writing your review!" Yang Tao asked casually as he lay in bed, unable to fall asleep.

  "Huh? We've been back for two hours already?" Chen Chufan scratched his head, saying embarrassedly: "I only wrote three characters so far?"

  "Really? Which three words?" Yang Tao curiously sat up and looked down.

  Chen Chufan picked up the paper in his hand and waved it at Yang Tao, only to see three big words "Self-Criticism Letter" written neatly on the top of the white paper.

  "My god, you're so talented! Is it that hard to write a self-criticism?" Yang Tao looked at Chen Chufan with an incredulous expression: "Come on, bring out your brilliant ideas!"

  "Alas, I've never written one before, I don't know how to write it!" Chen Chufan sighed.

  Yang Tao looked at Chen Chufan with a sympathetic expression: "Kid, stop writing, go to bed and chat for a while before sleeping. Give me your self-criticism papers. It's just two pieces of self-criticism, right? Thinking back to my school days starting from junior high, which semester didn't I have to write several of these things? From the fact that you don't know how to write self-criticism, I can tell what a gloomy childhood you must have had. No wonder you were raised to be so low-key!"

  "There's another guarantee! About not jumping into the lake!" Chen Chufan reminded.

  "That thing is much simpler! Leave it all to me!" Yang Tao patted his chest and said with a big package.

  "You said it, I'm going to sleep too!" After that, Chen Chufan threw down the pen in his hand and also climbed onto the bed.

  "By the way, Chen, you haven't reported yet, why did Wang Linlin dump you?" Yang Tao asked, lying on the bed.

  "I'm poor, she wants to experience the life of a rich person!" Chen Chufan said succinctly.

  "Is it just for this?" Yang Tao said with some surprise.

  "Hmm!" Chen Chufan obviously didn't want to talk about it anymore and simply responded with a grunt.

  "The earlier the better!" Meng Wei chimed in.

  "What the boss said is right, no wonder that woman would choose a high-ranking cadre's son. When she was pursuing you at first, I felt that she wasn't quite reliable, and now it has proven that my feeling at that time was not wrong at all!" Yang Tao added.

  "It's actually nothing, once you understand it, it's fine!" Chen Chufan said lightly. But the truth is, losing your first love isn't that simple to get over. Perhaps a series of unexpected events happening to Chen Chufan was a good thing, at least it temporarily diverted his attention from this painful relationship.

  "It's fine as long as you understand, but I think your recent heartbreak is actually good for you. At least it makes you not so reserved and hidden. You say life is tiring or not, why play the low-key hermit every day? I think you're already great now! Just show whatever you have. We young people should be more outgoing." Yang Tao analyzed.

  "Finally, Lao Er said something human!" Meng Wei added from the side.

  Hearing the two people's evaluation, Chen Chufan couldn't help but smile wryly. Actually, he wasn't really low-key in the past. But since the words had already been spoken, it was no use saying anything more, so Chen Chufan just casually responded with a hum of acknowledgement.

  The two seemed to have nothing more to say to Chen Chufan, and they all fell silent, as if they had fallen asleep. Chen Chufan also began to think about his worries in silence, he decided that tomorrow he must verify whether his dream would become a reality. In his dreams, he could play hundreds of musical instruments, but was it the same in reality? It seemed that there was a guitar in the opposite dormitory and an harmonica in the next one.

  Chen Chufan was lying on the bed, lost in thought, when Yang Tao's soft voice came over again: "Little Chen, aren't you asleep yet?"

  "Huh? What's wrong?" Chen Chufan subconsciously replied.

  "How far have you developed with Wang Linlin?" Yang Tao's soft voice was full of curiosity.

  " Chest!"

  In the dark bedroom, Meng Wei let out a long sigh: "Alas, just one step short! What a pity!"

  One night, Chen Chufan seemed to have had another dream. In the dream, he appeared to have crossed over into a strange world where there were giant drums as tall as two people, pianos with more than a hundred keys, and many other instruments that were both familiar and unfamiliar to him, all being performed under his own direction in a grand symphony.