Chapter 39: The Damned Sound of the Television

The three of them, when facing Hua Tianyu, couldn’t even touch his ball, but when it came to Zuo Wenyu, it was as if they were just playing around. Two of them pressed their knees into his lower back, while Fan Hao personally dressed him, piece by piece, from undergarments to the utterly humiliating lettered panties. The underwear was a bit small, but precisely because of that, it had a certain visual effect. As the saying goes, “Time and cleavage—if you squeeze, there’s always space!” The crowd watching grew thicker and thicker.

After the first rendition of “Conquer” was finished, Bao Hongwen could do nothing but try to maintain order at the side. There was simply no way around it—the crowd was overwhelming! A single post on Moments or Weibo could draw the whole class over. Soon, even Hua Tianyu had to help keep things under control on the basketball court.

“Hey, you in the front row! Watch the angle of your phone! Shooting from below—what exactly are you trying to film?”

“I don’t care if he’s a guy, if he’s in women’s clothes, you can’t film him from that angle!”

“Bao Hongwen, keep an eye on things, will you?”

Sweat beaded on Hua Tianyu’s forehead; his classmates’ enthusiasm was impossible to contain.

Half an hour later, DouBear Video was flooded with popular clips, each from a different angle, but all featuring the same content: a man by the basketball court, changing into five sets of mortifying women’s clothing and singing “Conquer” five times in a row. The best-angled video captured the man’s D-cup bra in perfect detail. According to observant viewers, within twenty-four hours, that video had tens of millions of views.

Later, it was said that the original singer of “Conquer,” Najie, was alerted to the video. Najie even asked publicly if the performer would join his “China’s Good Voice” team, but only on the condition that he performed in drag, wearing a D-cup bra.

Of course, all that is another story.

Naturally, the best video was shot by Hua Tianyu himself. Watching the flood of likes pouring in on the app, even he was astonished. Was this really what people found entertaining these days?

Lin Lin, standing at his side, grew ever more excited. In just a short while, she’d already received a thousand likes—something that had never happened to her before since she started posting videos.

“Hua Tianyu, let’s go have a drink! Seeing Zuo Wenyu humiliated like this makes me feel so much better!” Lin Lin shouted.

Hua Tianyu frowned at her, thinking, A drink? Who said you could drink?

He deliberately said, in a cold tone, “Did you pass your makeup biology exam?”

With that, it was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over Lin Lin’s head.

Annoyed, Lin Lin retorted, “Hua Tianyu, can you not bring up the biology exam today?”

Hua Tianyu considered for a couple of seconds. “Then did you vote for my book on Genesis today?”

Lin Lin fell silent.

In the end, after much pleading from Lin Lin, Hua Tianyu reluctantly agreed to let her go to Xingyu Bar to have a drink with Tian Li and the others—but only one drink!

At that hour, Xingyu Bar was not yet bustling. Tian Li, Xia Yang, and a group of young people had just learned about the drag “Conquer” incident through their social feeds and were watching their phones as the notifications poured in.

“Hehe!” Tian Li suddenly shouted in excitement.

“This is Lin Lin’s Shangjiang College—it’s their basketball court! I go there often, I recognize it!”

“That’s right!” Xia Yang chimed in, now recognizing it as well. “It’s Lin Lin’s campus!”

The others crowded around.

“Look at this one, this one! The top video on the trending chart—the angle is the best!”

“Wait a minute… isn’t this trending number one video posted from Lin Lin’s account?” Tian Li suddenly discovered something new, since she and Lin Lin followed each other and spotted it quickly.

“The singer is Zuo Wenyu!” As Zuo Wenyu often pestered Lin Lin at the bar, he was quickly identified.

“That’s the guy who’s been stalking Lin Lin lately? Hahaha!”

“Did he destroy his own image just to chase after Lin Lin?”

“Are you kidding? With his image ruined like that, who’s going to want him? Keep dreaming!”

“What are you all making a fuss about? We should be congratulating Lin Lin for hitting number one trending!”

“Yay!”

Laughter and chatter filled the air at Xingyu Bar.

“Lin Lin!” Someone with sharp eyes spotted her coming in.

“Tian-ge!” Tian Li saw Hua Tianyu come in behind and called out, quickly looping her arm around his.

“Lin Lin, tell us—what’s the story behind that video?” The group surrounded Lin Lin on the sofa, firing off questions.

For them, reaching the top of the DouBear trending list was a huge deal. Normally, getting a few hundred likes on a video was enough to brag about for days.

Lin Lin recounted everything, starting from their trip to the basketball court, the wager against the sports department, Hua Tianyu’s one-against-five victories, and finally Zuo Wenyu’s five humiliating costume changes and performances of “Conquer.” As for the reason behind it all—failing the makeup biology exam—she conveniently left that part out. After all, she was the big sister here, and big sisters had to save face!

Most of those at the bar had witnessed Hua Tianyu beating up Jiang Yong last time, and now, hearing Lin Lin describe how he trampled Zuo Wenyu and dunked over Fan Hao, they were all in awe of him.

Some even started joking with Tian Li: “Li Li, can we move in with Lin Lin? Maybe we’ll meet a Tian-ge too!”

“Move in together?” Tian Li’s eyes suddenly lit up. That’s right—she should have Hua Tianyu move in with them.

“Tian-ge, come live with us,” Tian Li said, clinging to Hua Tianyu’s arm and pouting.

Hearing Tian Li’s suggestion, Hua Tianyu was tempted and fell into thought. At present, Tian Li and Lin Lin were sharing the apartment left by Bear, a place Jiang Yong and his gang already knew about. Given the ongoing conflict with the Jiang Family Martial Arts School, Hua Tianyu felt he really should move in to protect the two of them.

He was lost in thought and didn’t reply immediately.

After a moment with no response, Tian Li shifted from holding his arm to wrapping her arms around his neck, then whispered softly in his ear, so only he could hear, “Even if your period comes every day, you still have to move in. I’ll personally take care of it.”

Hua Tianyu pondered for a couple seconds. “Take care of my period? Aunt Flo, is that you?”

Tian Li was speechless.

Lin Lin, too, had heard Tian Li’s suggestion. Before this afternoon, she might not have agreed. But now she did, with one condition…

“Hua Tianyu, you can live with us, but only if it’s an apartment with three bedrooms. You’re not allowed to share a room with Tian Li.”