Chapter 2: The Arrogant yet Pretty Girl  

Just as Zhao Jiayi and the others in the dorm were predicting how no girls would lay their eyes on Hao Ren in the next three years, Hao Ren had left the school frantically. He waved down a taxi and was on his way to the hospital that had the best department of dermatology – Huaxi Hospital.

There, Hao Ren went through a series of cumbersome administrative procedures and tiresome checkups. After, while handling a pile of reports from the equipment, the expert dermatologist determinedly told Hao Ren that the streaks on his arm were caused by a type of dye, as in the discoloration of some bad quality bed sheets.

According to the reports, there was no mutation in the cells in his body. All of the results from the various tests had indicated no abnormalities. Moreover, the green color was not a result of pigmentation. As for the scale patterns, it was only accidental – the color happened to spread out in a relatively regular pattern. Most importantly, it was definitely not contagious.

Although unconvincing, this explanation was enough to assure Hao Ren and calm him down temporarily.

Upon receiving the reports, Hao Ren left the hospital and returned to the school. As he began forcefully scrubbing his arm with soap, he noticed that the color did seem to lighten a bit. After scaring and exhausting himself for half a day over nothing, he replaced his bed sheet with a clean one and fell into sleep.

The Saturday afternoon sun shone through the curtains and found home on Hao Ren’s butt.

“Ren! Ren!”

At that moment, the door of the dorm room was loudly banged on.

“Heck! Who is it!?” Zhao Jiayi who was the occupant of the lower berth grabbed a pillow and threw it right onto the door.

“Ren, there is a pretty girl waiting for you!” On the other side of the door came the voice of Gu Jiadong who lived in dorm room 301, right across from theirs.

“Pretty girl? Pretty girl!?” As confused and dazed as he was, Zhou Liren abruptly woke up from his dream and arose to an upright position. Ever since Zhou Liren was rejected by the most popular girl at the university, he had lost the courage to pursue a relationship. However, he managed to retain his passion for admiring pretty girls.

“Ren, get up already! Cao Ronghua told me to come and get you. Because of the pretty little girl who is waiting for you there, so many people have already gathered around the entrance of Green Hill Cafeteria! You have quite an audience!” Gu Jiadong continued shouting on the other side of the door.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Gently rubbing his slightly aching stomach, Hao Ren thought of something. As he raised his arm, the trace of the winding green marks came into sight. It did not fade away, but it did not expand either. He felt a little relieved.

Thump, thump, thump! The knocking persisted.

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” Hao Ren jumped off the bed and went to get the door.

By this time, Zhao Jiayi who was on the lower berth could not sleep anymore and rose from his bed grudgingly. On the other hand, upon hearing the words “pretty girl”, Zhou Liren had already started to get dressed excitedly.

“So many people have surrounded the entrance of Green Hill Cafeteria. Cao Ronghua and I were on our way to get food and thought an incident had occurred. We went over to take a look and found that it was a pretty girl waiting for someone.” Seeing that Hao Ren had finally opened the door, Gu Jiadong explained feverishly.

“F*ck, that doesn’t necessarily mean she is waiting for me, does it? This kind of fun is more suitable for Zhou Liren. I’m not interested.” Hao Ren stared at Gu Jiadong in annoyance. He had a very upset stomach yesterday and did not fall asleep until midnight. Now, being awoken by this meaningless commotion had only irked him more.

“Let me finish!” Gu Jiadong grabbed onto Hao Ren. “That pretty girl had a portrait in her hands, and it is totally you! She said that whoever brings you to her would get awarded 500 Yuan!”

“Me?” Hao Ren looked lost. He then locked his eyes on Gu Jiadong, “You are here for the 500 Yuan, aren’t you?”

“Heehee…” Gu Jiadong’s smile was a little too bright.

At this time, a growing uproar was approaching the outside of the dorm building. Hao Ren walked over to the balcony and saw a big group of male students he was acquainted with running wildly towards his dorm room. He could tell that they were all coming after him for the reward. Therefore, he quickly threw on some clothes and shoes and followed Gu Jiadong down the stairs.

As the dorm captain, Zhao Jiayi worried about any unexpected mishaps. Hence, he readily gave up the comfort of sleep, got dressed, and accompanied Hao Ren to wherever they were headed. Zhao Jiayi was closest with Hao Ren. Even though he was usually foul-mouthed and liked to bug Hao Ren a lot, he was also the one who cared about Hao Ren the most.

As for Zhou Liren, he would not miss the chance of meeting pretty girls. In

The southern dorm building was situated outside the campus. As the four walked along the southern entrance and entered the campus, they saw many bulletin boards on their way, big or small – they were all filled up by wanted posters with pencil-sketched portraits of Hao Ren on them. Underneath the portraits, written in a conspicuously big font, it said, “500 Yuan reward for bringing the above person to me – come to claim your reward by the entrance of the cafeteria!”

Going by the number of bulletin boards there were in the school, there had to be at least a few hundreds of these posters. This was no less than the scale of being wanted nationally!

“What did you do to that girl to make her come all the way to our school to make you a wanted man!?” Zhou Liren asked Hao Ren curiously as he anticipated in enthusiasm.

“How am I supposed to know? I don’t even know who she is!” Hao Ren responded impatiently.

Escorted by the big crowd, Hao Ren unwillingly walked towards the cafeteria. In a situation like this, there was simply no leeway for him.

“He’s coming. He’s coming!” Seeing that the wanted person had appeared, some students started calling out tauntingly.

As a result, the previously crammed crowd had automatically split to make way for Hao Ren.

Under the gazes of a few hundred people, Hao Ren awkwardly walked towards the door of the cafeteria, and… saw the pretty little girl from yesterday.

She was wearing a white shirt and a pair of washed-out jeans. It was a very common outfit; yet, it looked outstanding on her. Strands of her hair were drifting in the wind. However, underneath the fluttering hair, there was an angry face.

“Ohhh… Ohhhh…”

Someone started jeering.

“Such a pretty little girl,” Zhao Jiayi who self-claimed to have countless girlfriends whispered into Hao Ren’s ear.

“When did you meet such a beautiful girl? Give us an introduction!” Zhou Liren turned around and winked at Hao Ren as he said that. He was itching to have another shot with a pretty girl.

Seeing that Hao Ren finally showed up, the pretty little girl pursed her lips.

magic Suppressing the awkwardness he felt, he walked up and asked under the many piercing glances, “I heard you were looking for me?”

“Did you take something from me yesterday?” Staring right into Hao Ren’s eyes, the pretty little girl questioned unflinchingly.

“What? What thing?” Hao Ren was not expecting this from her. He felt surprised and confused.

Now that they had started their conversation, Gu Jiadong quickly came forward and interrupted them. Rubbing his hands, he said, “Well…”

The pretty girl glanced over at him and drew out her wallet. From the purse, she took out 500 Yuan and handed it to Gu Jiadong.

The students in the crowd were dumbstruck by this. They did not really believe that this little girl would fulfill the reward. Besides being shocked, they also regretted missing such a chance.

Gu Jiadong held onto the money tightly and contently squeezed out of the crowd. He had no intent to take part in this commotion anymore as he was afraid the pretty girl would regret her decision in giving him the money.

“What a generous and rich little girl! No wonder she is so arrogant…” Hao Ren secretly thought to himself.

“You! Did you take something from me yesterday?” The pretty little girl continued to question Hao Ren.

“What thing?” Hao Ren stared at her with eyes filled with gloom. He knew with the commotion that she has caused, he had now become “famous” in the school.

“It was a bead, a blue bead.” She replied.

“I didn’t see it. You must have dropped it somewhere else,” Hao Ren answered without a second thought.

The audience was a little disappointed by their conversation. They thought that the pretty girl had been bullied in some way and had come to seek revenge. The fact that she was only looking to recover a lost item was hardly entertaining to them.

“That bead is soft and bouncy.” The pretty little girl added, “I’ll give you two more minutes, think harder.”

“Can we talk somewhere else?” Browsing the watchful eyes surrounding them, Hao Ren couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

“Just give her back whatever you took from her! How shameless are you to steal from a pretty little girl!” Craving chaos and trouble, a few male students started yelling at Hao Ren.

“Shut up! You have no place to talk here!” The pretty little girl was immediately enraged by their words.

The male students went blank for a second. Although upset, it did not feel appropriate for them to lose their tempers here.

“The show is over, guys! Go away already…… Go!” Zhao Jiayi assessed the dispute and figured that it would be a rather small one. With the help of Zhou Liren and a few other friends, they started to scatter the crowd.

Regardless of others’ actions, the pretty little girl only focused on Hao Ren. “That thing is of utmost importance to me, so I hope you can return it to me.”

“But I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Before he could finish, the little girl put out her hand and covered his mouth.

“I can feel it here, right where you are.” As she finished, she furrowed her brows and looked as if she was listening carefully to something.

Suddenly, her hand reached for Hao Ren’s stomach.

As Hao Ren tried to move his belly away from her clutch, the pretty little girl abruptly clasped onto his wrist instead and rolled up his sleeve – the green colored dragon-like tattoo was revealed!