My IQ has been increasing year by year.

Chapter 248 Not to be mentioned

The sun slowly set.

From the laboratory building of the School of Materials Science and Engineering to the dormitory area, Dayong usually walks briskly and can finish the journey in five or six minutes.

He walked for almost twenty minutes today.

He gripped the document bag with the red stamp tightly in his hand.

The paper bag was a bit rough around the edges, so he switched hands to hold it, wiping the sweat from his palms on his trouser leg, careful not to get the bag dirty with the machine oil on his hands. The aroma of stir-fried green peppers and pork wafted from the cafeteria, and the street was full of students returning with their lunchboxes.

A boy from his class was passing by with a lunchbox and waved to him from afar.

Da Yong didn't yell his jokes as usual; he just nodded haphazardly, his steps a little stiff.

He walked down to the bottom of the dormitory building.

The building manager was sitting at the door, fanning himself with a palm leaf fan and listening to the radio. Dayong lowered his head and walked in along the other side of the wall.

I went up the stairs.

When Dayong usually goes upstairs, he always takes two steps at a time, and his voice can be heard in the dormitory long before he even reaches his floor.

Today he stood at the top of the stairs and paused for a while.

He took a deep breath, lifted his feet, and started walking uphill step by step.

We arrived at the corridor.

In the hot summer, the doors to the boys' dormitory are usually left open for ventilation.

215 and 216 are opposite each other, with their doors wide open, allowing a draft to blow back and forth along the corridor.

Da Yong walked to the passageway between the two doors.

He stopped, didn't go inside, but stood outside the door frame looking inside.

The situation in the two dormitories was exactly the same as yesterday, the day before yesterday, and the day before that.

Inside room 216 on the left.

Chu Ge was wearing a wrinkled short-sleeved shirt and sitting in a swivel chair with his back to the door.

The computer screen on the table was shining white light, and he was typing away on the keyboard. There was also a half-empty can of Red Bull next to him.

Lu Jia sat behind Chu Ge, the light on. He held a ruler and a pen, drawing lines on a complex chart in his notebook. Every time he drew a line, he would push up his glasses.

Inside room 215 on the right.

Chen Zhuo leaned against his bed.

A thin blanket was draped over her legs, and she held a book in her hand that she had read countless times.

The electric fan overhead was blowing loudly, making the hair on his forehead a little messy.

Everything was perfectly ordinary.

No one was packing their bags, and no one was talking about parting.

Da Yong stood in the corridor, his fingers gripping the file folder tightly.

He suddenly felt a dryness in his throat.

He took a step and crossed the threshold of 215.

Chu Ge, who was in the opposite room, had sharp ears. Hearing the sound, he didn't even turn his head, his eyes still fixed on the code on the computer screen.

"Dayong?"

Chu Ge's voice was a little hoarse, and also carried the fatigue of working non-stop all night.

Da Yong paused, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"ah."

Did you bring lunch?

Chu Ge typed on the keyboard blindly while casually complaining.

"I'm starving. If you're going to the cafeteria, could you please bring me a fried pancake with extra chili?"

Da Yong stood in front of his desk, motionless.

If it were two days ago...

Or even this morning.

Dayong would definitely roll his eyes and retort without hesitation.

"What do I owe you? Don't you have legs? I'll let you starve to death, you keyboard warrior."

But at this moment, as Da Yong looked at Chu Ge's back, the file folder in his hand felt hot.

He stood frozen in place for about two or three seconds.

"I didn't bring it."

Da Yong spoke up.

His voice was somewhat dry, and even carried an extremely stiff politeness.

"I just came back from the workshop. You write first, and I'll change my clothes and go downstairs to buy it for you."

These words were spoken.

The air on both sides of the corridor seemed to freeze for a moment.

Chu Ge's fingers stopped typing, and the code on the screen stopped scrolling.

He turned his swivel chair around and looked at Dayong in room 215 with some suspicion across the corridor.

Lu Jia also stopped writing with her pen and looked up.

Even Chen Zhuo, who was leaning against the bed reading a book, shifted his gaze from the pages and calmly focused on Da Yong's back.

"Did you take the wrong medicine?"

Chu Ge looked Da Yong up and down.

Looking at Dayong's work clothes covered in black machine oil and dust, and the comical black mark on Dayong's face.

"Did you go to the underground workshop to dig coal? Why are you talking so slowly?"

Chu Ge frowned.

Da Yong avoided Chu Ge's gaze.

He didn't respond, turned around, and faced away from the person outside the door.

"The machine tool guide rail was stuck, so I applied some oil."

Da Yong gave a vague reply.

Chu Ge didn't press further; he was indeed too busy. He turned around and continued typing his code.

"I'll grab something to eat in the back alley later. Go take a shower, you smell like engine oil."

Da Yong didn't move.

He stood in front of his desk and pulled out the chair.

He bent down and reached for the bottom drawer of the desk.

The drawer was a mess.

Several advanced mathematics textbooks from his freshman year, a tangled mess of old headphone wire, and a half-used soap dish. Da Yong took a deep breath.

He reached in and rummaged through the drawer, pulling out all the books and odds and ends and pushing them to either side.

Clear out a flat area in the middle.

Then, he put the document bag with the red stamp in his hand into it.

The paper bag lay neatly at the bottom of the drawer.

Dayong looked at the red seal.

He quickly grabbed two thick textbooks from the side and covered the document bag tightly with them.

Then he threw the tangled mess of headphone wires and soap dish up there as well.

Bury that secret completely.

He pushed hard.

The drawer slammed shut.

Dayong took out a bunch of keys from his pocket, found the smallest one, and inserted it into the drawer lock.

It turned half a circle to the right.

哢哒.

The sound of the latch popping out was very faint, but it was exceptionally clear to Dayong.

He pulled out the keys and put the keychain back into his pocket.

After doing all this, Dayong seemed completely exhausted.

He didn't go to get the washbasin or a change of clothes.

He plopped down in a chair, wearing his blue work clothes that smelled of engine oil and were covered in dust.

Da Yong rested his hands on his knees and leaned back in his chair.

He didn't look at Chu Ge opposite him, nor did he look at Chen Zhuo behind him.

He looked up and stared blankly at the ceiling.

The old-fashioned ceiling fan was turning at a very slow pace.

With each rotation of the fan, Dayong felt that indescribable awkwardness in his heart intensify.

His mind was a complete mess.

Feeling guilty.

He didn't know why, but he always had an indescribable feeling in his heart, maybe it was awkwardness? Or maybe he felt guilty?

My thoughts kept drifting back to the past.

Just the night before last.

It's at Old Li's barbecue stall on the back street.

Right next to that plastic table covered in beer and peanut shells.

His face was flushed from drinking, and he was clutching an empty beer bottle when he grabbed Chu Ge's neck.

He could even recall how loud he had shouted those words.

"Next year and the year after! We brothers will still be able to walk with our heads held high at HKUST!"

"When we graduate, I'm definitely going to buy out Old Li's stall!"

Those words still ring in my ears.

Da Yong felt that his face was definitely redder now than it was that night when he drank alcohol.

Those were words spoken by Wang Dayong himself.

The results of it?

Less than 48 hours later, he received a transfer order in Professor Liu's office.

September marks the start of the senior year.

While others lined up at the academic affairs office to register, he wanted to go to Beijing.

While others were reserving seats in the study room to prepare for the postgraduate entrance exam, he was going to Academician Wang's research institute to look at blueprints.

He became the first person in this dormitory, besides Xiao Zhuo, to pack his bags and leave?!

Xiao Zhuo is a true genius. Going to Princeton was a done deal more than half a year ago, and everyone in the school knew about it.

Besides, with Xiao Zhuo's brain, this dormitory was never going to let him stay. It's only natural that he left early to cause trouble for the professor in W country; it doesn't count as breaking his promise at all. Da Yong sat in his chair, irritably scratching his hair.

What the hell is this?

How did he begin?

What did he say to Chu Ge? "I'm not going to play the fool with you anymore. I'm going to build the capital."

How did he tell Lu Jia, "You don't need to show me that hair loss prevention schedule anymore. I guess I'll have to stay up all night every day from now on?" Da Yong swallowed hard.

He felt like a liar who spouted nonsense.

He had just sworn an oath with his brothers to stand together through thick and thin, but the next day he locked his escape permit in the bottom of his drawer.

It's so embarrassing.

That was so embarrassing.

This embarrassment even overshadowed the excitement he felt when he first received the first authorship award in a top-tier journal.

The room was very quiet.

The sound of Chen Zhuo turning the pages of a book could be heard occasionally, and the sound of Lu Jia drawing on paper across the hall could be clearly heard.

The sound of keyboard tapping on Chu Ge's end was as dense as raindrops.

Everyone is doing their own thing.

No one knows what's in Dayong's locked drawer.

Dayong kept his head tilted back and stared at the fan for a long time.

My neck is sore.

He slowly lowered his head.

His gaze fell on his desk.

He made a decision.

Did not say.

I'd rather die than tell.

At least before the holiday, he wouldn't utter a single word.

He stayed in that dormitory room, pretending that nothing had happened.

They continued to fight with Chu Ge for the food serving window in the cafeteria, and continued to watch Lu Jia do her eye exercises every day without fail.

The day before the holiday arrived.

Da Yong gritted his teeth.

At worst, he could just treat them to another meal at Old Li's barbecue stall that day, let them call him a liar, and then pack his bags and leave. This was the least shameful solution Dayong could think of.

He let out a long breath.

The tightness in my chest subsided a little.

Da Yong stood up.

"Old Chu."

Dayong shouted at the door across the hall, his voice returning to its usual loud tone.

"Stop banging! Aren't you hungry?"

Chu Ge's keyboard clicks didn't stop.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't buy it for me?"

Chu Ge didn't even turn his head.

"I owe you."

Dayong walked to the clothes rack and changed into a clean set of clothes.

"I'll go downstairs and bring you some fried pancakes, right? Do you want an egg?"