Chapter 423
Chapter 423: Xishan Tower's dirty ruffian
Xiang Ning had a nickname amongst that bunch of Xu Tingsheng's friends who had seen her before: Little Wifey.
After picking Xiang Ning up, partway through their journey, Xu Tingsheng suddenly realised as he looked at his little wifey on the passenger seat, "Oh my…Miss Little Xiang Ning, why are you still in your school uniform?"
Actually, with Xiang Ning's height, while she looked a bit on the young side, it was to the extent that her age could not be determined with a single glance. After all, there were quite a few girls in university still with the 'babyface'. There were even those who would not look out of place in junior high school.
Still, things were different now that she was wearing her school uniform.
Short-sleeved blouse, sports shorts, little white shoes and fresh ponytail. It really looked great, actually, emanating that freshness like a forest after the rain…
But that 'Yanzhou first-tier senior high' by her chest…
All would be exposed.
"I didn't know that I have to change! Do I go back and change now then?" Little Xiang Ning said as she looked at Xu Tingsheng, "Oh, I know! You're afraid of others learning that you swindled a fine young lassie…hah, daring to do it but not daring to admit it."
She was saying it like she felt like it was very glorious to have been 'swindled' by him…
Xu Tingsheng was totally owned by this as he just felt so helpless.
"Fine, I won't expose you! It's too late to go back and change now anyway," Little Xiang Ning shook Xu Tingsheng's arm and acted cute.
How would Xu Tingsheng be able to resist this? He immediately said, "It's alright. It's fine even if you expose me."
"Really?"
"Really."
As the two hurried to the music hall after parking the car outside the university's side gate, Little Xiang Ning was tugging on Xu Tingsheng's sleeve and frolicking happily throughout as she chanted:
"Look, everyone! Xu Tingsheng's swindled a fine young lassie."
"Look, everyone! I'm Xu Tingsheng's little wifey."
"Xishan Tower's dirty ruffian."
"…"
"Xishan Tower's dirty ruffian?" Xu Tingsheng felt on the verge of a mental collapse, "Miss Little Xiang Ning, you've also been getting more and more deviant, alright?"
Surrounded by countless curious gazes of varying kinds, Xu Tingsheng could only increase his pace.
Only when they entered the music hall where the lights had already been dimmed did Xiang Ning quieten down. Xu Tingsheng made two calls and finally managed to find the others of Room 602 with much difficulty. He led Little Xiang Ning over and sat down.
As Xu Tingsheng did not introduce Little Xiang Ning, those who had never seen her before, such as Lu Xu, Chick Bao and Li Xingming were all left totally bemused.
Xu Tingsheng had spent more than an hour going and coming back, all just to pick up a younger girl. What was this all about?
Xu Tingsheng was a well-known figure in Yanzhou University and the entire Xishan Academy City at that. Those who recognised him mostly came to pay a bit of attention to him. Immediately, their gazes then came to fall on the pretty little girl beside him.
Fragmented snippets of discussion could be heard.
Back when Dongdong had been 'kidnapped' by some female seniors in their fourth year, some people had caught a glimpse of Little Xiang Ning from the distance. They would basically believe her to be his little sister or something. Having no such basis to work off, others were heatedly discussing this matter.
This predicament caused Xiang Ning to finally learn of the influence Xishan Tower's dirty ruffian had at school as she became flustered as a result.
In order to hide her awkwardness and nervousness, even though Xu Tingsheng did not introduce her, Xiang Ning still took the initiative to greet others, such as Tan Yao whom she had met before and Li Linlin whom she was very close with.
After calling Li Linlin big sis, she looked at Old Wai who was sitting beside her and greeted him sweetly, "Big brother-in-law."
Old Wai was invigorated all at once as he happily responded before covertly jabbing Xu Tingsheng in the side and blinking as if to say, "Come on, call me big brother-in-law."
"This old man's gonna kill you!" Xu Tingsheng waved his fist at him indignantly.
Having come with his girlfriend to watch the performance, a fellow member of the university's football team waved at Xu Tingsheng from the row before them, asking him, "Who's that young lady beside you, Tingsheng? She a cousin of yours?"
Xu Tingsheng pretended not to have heard him.
Her status had actually not been acknowledged? The dissatisfied Little Xiang Ning smiled craftily and answered on his behalf, "I'm his little wifey."
Repressed chuckles resounded all around as those few in the know such as Tan Yao were basically doubling over in their chairs with laughter, clutching their stomachs.
"What an adorable young lady," His teammate did not know what to say to that, not knowing whether to interpret this as the joke of a mischievous little cousin or if…this was actually…truly the relationship between them. After giving a perfunctory reply, said teammate hurriedly turned back to face the front.
Xu Tingsheng did not know if he and the other people surrounding them had actually believed it for real.
Still, a sense of foreboding overcame him: It seemed that Xishan Tower's dirty ruffian…would be seriously validated.
Fortunately, the emcees were already up on stage and just beginning the programme by now as everyone's attention finally turned to the stage.
The first programme was some folk dancing by the female seniors. This was the performance in which Zhang Ninglang's female junior was participating. Bare-footed and garbed in distinctive flowery traditional clothing, the female dancers surged onto the stage and got into position.
As the music started, the girls began dancing gaily.
Ning Xia was not the lead dancer and was even standing relatively more to the side. Yet…she just unknowingly ended up the focal point of attention somehow. While her looks were pretty good, she was not the most outstanding of all the girls there. Still…no one could match that flying long plait of hers.
Especially in this sort of traditional setting, as her long plait swayed casually about, hence appeared a beautifully pleasant scene. She so perfectly combined the classic qualities of beauty, purity, simplicity and freshness of a traditional Chinese female.
The girls began envying that single long jet-black plait.
The boys began sighing regretfully at how they had only realised the existence of such a previously overlooked kind of blissfulness now.
"I heard that her boyfriend doesn't look all that outstanding. He's pretty much average too," Someone said.
"He's surely still better than that Xu Sheng, right? That dude's a bastard," Someone replied.
"What does this has to do with Xu Sheng?"
"Haven't you heard? Xu Sheng wanted to snatch his girlfriend, that girl with the long plait…he even drove to obstruct them on the road a couple of times, calling her boyfriend an ugly toad. In the end, he was beaten up soundly by Xu Tingsheng."
"Huh? And what does this have to do with Xu Tingsheng?"
"I think the guy is Xu Tingsheng's roommate. That trash Xu Sheng finally encountered someone who can properly make him eat dirt."
"…How complicated."
"Yup. Anyway, just wait for the show's that coming. Xu Sheng is going to confess later. I heard that there's gonna be a performance from the boyfriend's side too, that they intend to compete through this. Everyone's also saying that Xu Tingsheng helped to invite Rebirth, and they may even sing an original!"
"Wa…"
Amidst all that discussion, Xu Tingsheng turned and patted Zhang Ninglang who was currently sitting at the back row as it was not yet time for his performance. He was trembling slightly. To ascend the stage to perform was indeed hard for him. It would have been unimaginable once.
Still, Xu Tingsheng had seen and also heard from Fu Cheng that he had never shrunk back once throughout this entire undertaking.
"Is it this big brother?" Little Xiang Ning whispered into Xu Tingsheng's ear.
"Yup," Xu Tingsheng answered.
"You got into a fight for him?"
"Yup."
"Did you win?"
"Yup."
"That's good then."
Next, Little Xiang Ning turned and looked at Zhang Ninglang, pumping her fist, "Good luck, big brother!"
Zhang Ninglang smiled and nodded, replying, "Thank you."
At this point in time, another performance had already finished since the end of that dance.
Returning to the stage, the emcees had an uninspired exchange before they announced, "Coming up next, Xu Sheng and his band, Blue Storm, with the original song You Are My Destiny, Love At First Sight."
What long names. The length of the band's name which was four characters enabled Xu Sheng's name to stand out. The name of the song was very long too…and overly cheesy.
"Hi, how's everyone doing?" Ascending the stage with his band, Xu Sheng struck a cool pose with his guitar and said hi.
As he and his band ascended the stage, along with them came 999 roses that were delivered over by a few boys. The bouquets were placed neatly at the front of the stage, lining up nicely…
"The heck! Those filthy rich…" Someone cursed.
"But girls dig this stuff! And they love money…" Another guy complained helplessly.
"I'm going to confess to a girl today. Embedded in these nine hundred ninety-nine roses is my sincerity. The upcoming song was personally penned by me. Within is embedded my feelings towards you…" Xu Sheng said a very nineties phrase.
The opening sequence of the song resounded.