The King of Black Fog

Li Changzhou returned to the dormitory from the cafeteria, changed into more comfortable clothes, and continued to exercise.

Pull-ups, push-ups, bicep curls, abdominal crunches, and lunges—several types of exercises that didn't require any equipment.

As the sun set, he went to the sports field to begin his endurance training.

The field was crowded with people—some, like him, were seriously running, but most were there to walk or date.

Li Qianxia and Yang Qinglan were also there, both engaging in physical training.

Seeing them, Li Changzhou suddenly remembered that a week ago, his sister had suddenly started running and had asked him to join her, but he had been neurologically weakened by the human-shaped black fog and had not agreed.

Soon, Li Qianxia drew the attention of most people on the field; she was running too fast.

With a whoosh, the wind hit faces so sharply that it even stung a bit.

"Three laps now! Big bro!" Li Qianxia had lapped Li Changzhou three times.

Without using "Wolf Howl," her agility was at 7 points; she could even compete in the Olympics.

Li Changzhou ignored her, maintaining a steady pace and continuing his 90-minute long run.

Li Qianxia quickly disappeared into the crowd on the track, and after a while, Li Changzhou ran into Yang Qinglan.

Her physical strength was the weakest, about 4 points; Li Changzhou had lapped her once.

As they passed each other, he heard her gasping and whispering,

"When you... study… exercise... if it feels painful, that's... proof you are getting better."

True to the philosophy department, thought is her main weapon.

The two beauties ran for twenty minutes and then shifted from running to walking, leaving only Li Changzhou still running.

Forty minutes later, Li Changzhou felt his breath burning in his chest, and each inhalation felt like swallowing a needle through his nostrils.

After sixty minutes, every step was met with resistance from his legs.

An elderly man, who came to school to exercise, told him: "Young man, that's not how you run. Fifteen minutes a day is enough."

Li Changzhou didn't respond; he couldn't respond.

He had no extra energy to speak; his brain was only focused on: keep running, keep running.

He feared that if he got distracted for a moment, his body would relax like a released spring.

"Bro, take a break!" Li Qianxia yelled.

Li Changzhou ignored her as well.

"Isn't that Li Changzhou from the Law School? What's wrong with him?"

"Could he be heartbroken?"

"Ah? I didn't hear he had a girlfriend!"

Li Changzhou's talents that caught the whole school's attention were not known; his good grades were only known within his class; his strong gaming skills were only known in the male dormitory. His fame at Ming University was all thanks to his face and his being a twin.

At seventy minutes, his hair was dripping with sweat, looking as if he had been fished out of water.

His throat felt as if it was being sanded with sandpaper; he was gasping like a bull and struggling to move, with people walking faster than him.

Li Qianxia wanted to go up to him and force him to rest, but Yang Qinglan held her back.

"Let him continue."

"That's ..."

"If he wants to stop, he will stop by himself," said Yang Qinglan in a calm voice.

Li Qianxia looked at her brother's back, but in the end, she didn't go up to him.

At eighty minutes, Li Changzhou was straining his neck, stumbling with every step he took.

From then on, he was almost dragging his feet.

He felt as if every muscle fiber in his body was twitching, trying to escape from the skeleton.

Finally, after a 90-minute run, he no longer cared whether there were pebbles on the grass; he just lay down.

He looked at the night sky, slightly cyan because of the giant spotlights of the field, staring blankly.

The lights of a night flight blinked in the sky; Li Changzhou's chest heaved, and he felt nothing, as if the lights had hypnotized him.

"Here," Li Qianxia handed him a bottle of water.

Li Changzhou tried to reach for it, but his arm fell powerlessly back onto the grass.

"Why run so hard?" Li Qianxia sat down next to his head, supporting the back of his head with one hand and helping him drink with the other.

"Cough, cough!"

"Choked?"

"No, the more I exert myself, the more I want to cough," Li Changzhou pointed to the back of his head. "Pillow."

"You do know how to enjoy the finer things. Treat me to a milk tea later," Li Qianxia placed her leg under his head.

Li Changzhou shifted his body to adjust his lying position, sighing contentedly.

"You've worked hard," Yang Qinglan also sat down on the grass, her knees bent.

Surrounded by the two beauties, he felt like he was a seriously wounded person on the brink of death in a TV drama.

"Do you feel your body getting stronger?" Yang Qinglan asked softly.

"I'm almost dead, and all you care about is whether my body is getting stronger?"

"Do you feel your body getting stronger?" She repeated her question without changing her expression or tone.

"...No."

Yang Qinglan nodded, "You've worked hard."

Li Changzhou turned to lie on his side, resting his head on his sister's leg, ready to sleep.

After recovering his physical strength, he separated from the two and returned to his dorm. He didn't rush to shower but continued doing push-ups.

The students who visited Dorm 407 all expressed their curiosity, and Li Changzhou used the excuse of wanting to be "both handsome and fierce," half-jokingly brushing them off.

Da Huang was playing games, sometimes cursing, sometimes laughing triumphantly;

Dong Ge was watching short videos and commenting, "This is slick! This is slick!" "To be able to fish in such a place! Truly a fishing master!"

Chen Shao was voice chatting with a girl from the student council, complaining that the head of the cultural department kept making her pick up parcels.

Li Changzhou wanted to play games, watch videos, and chat with Yang Qinglan in the "Three Sisters" WeChat group.

"When you study! Exercise! When you feel the pain! That's... proof you are improving!" With gritted teeth, his arms trembling, he pushed himself up.

A human-shaped shadow hovered beside Dong Ge's bed, two meters tall, its head exactly level with Dong Ge lying on the bed.

Dong Ge, under the silent gaze of the human-shaped shadow, giggled foolishly, which was a very eerie scene.

The next day was Sunday.

Li Changzhou tiptoed out of bed, trying not to wake his roommates. Without brushing his teeth or washing his face, he left the dormitory with his sore body.

After eating breakfast in the cafeteria, he went to the dewy playground and started jogging.

As the sun came out and the temperature rose rapidly, he returned to the dorm.

The three were still sleeping. He quietly did push-ups. The loudest noise was his breathless gasps as he lay exhausted on the cold floor.

It wasn't until he heard the sound of someone using a cellphone at 10:30 a.m. that he finally picked up his toothbrush and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth and shower.

After his shower, Chen Shao showered, and then he, Dong Ge, and Chen Shao went to the cafeteria to eat together.

"Dong Ge, no vermicelli, add more potatoes!" Da Huang shouted from his bed.

"Got it!" Dong Ge slammed the door shut with a clang.

After returning from the cafeteria, Li Changzhou didn't train, saving his energy for the evening's activities.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door. As the person beside the door and on Bed Number Two, it fell to him to get up and open it.

"Hello everyone!" A fourth-year junior classmate walked in—the assistant class advisor.

"Hello, senior sister!" Chen Shao was the first to get up and greet her, even quicker than Li Changzhou.

Dong Ge and Da Huang also said hello.

"Still gaming and not getting out of bed, huh?" the junior classmate said with a smile, glancing at the two of them.

"Senior sister, what brings you to the boys' dorm?" Chen Shao asked with a big smile.

The junior classmate had been managing them since freshman year; she even remembered that summer when she walked into the evening class—her cool, long legs caught all the boys' attention.

At that time, everyone had just left the intense high school life, and the girls in the class hadn't yet started to dress like adults, still dressing conservatively. The junior classmate suddenly became their college dream lover.

"I'm here for Changzhou," she said, fixing her gaze on Li Changzhou.

"Is there something you need, senior sister?" Li Changzhou asked.

"Senior sister, take a seat first," Chen Shao said, twisting his chair to the middle for her.

"No need, just a few words. Thank you, junior Chen." After thanking him, the junior classmate continued questioning Li Changzhou, "Your roommate told me that he saw you vomiting blood on the playground last night. What happened?"

"There's no vomiting blood." Li Changzhou couldn't help but laugh.

"Senior sister, big cousin has been working out recently, saying he wants to become a handsome and fierce man," Chen Shao hurriedly explained.

"Leaving no room for us to live!" Dong Ge scratched his leg from the bed.

Although Li Changzhou didn't want to speak ill of others, Chen Shao really tended to betray his friends for girls, sharing everything with them as a topic of conversation.

And how did he know that? Every time a girl chatted with him, they confirmed these stories.

"Working out?" The junior classmate sized up Li Changzhou, her weak hands squeezing his arm.

"Wow, so hard~" she exclaimed, her eyes then settling on his fingers, "And so long!"

"Do you like hands, senior sister?" Li Changzhou pretended to be ticklish and moved away from her.

"Yeah, I'm totally into hands. I super like guys with nice hands. What about you, Changzhou? What kind of girls do you like?"

"Pretty ones."

"Such unabashed shallowness! That won't do," she said with a laugh.

"Then, both pretty and well-shaped, with a curvy figure, long legs, a waist as thin as 'Penal Law'."

The junior classmate laughed heartily and chatted some more in 407, with Chen Shao bringing up the topic of student council members making freshmen fetch parcels.

After the senior sister left, Da Huang asked with a lecherous smile, "Does the senior sister have a thing for you? She specifically came to check on you."

"Definitely!" said Dong Ge, "Li Zongsheng once sang a lyric, 'Having a face one can only dream of— is to have the spring—"

"Is that how it's sung?" Li Changzhou wondered.

"What song is that?" Chen Shao asked.

"You and I Are Ordinary People!" Dong Ge proudly sang the opening line.

"Born into the human world!" The other three in the dorm joined in singing.

"Toiling all day, no rest for even a moment."

"Since we're not immortals, temptations are unavoidable!"

"What nonsense, that's not the next line."

"Many a strong man, moved by a beauty!"

"That's not it either, wait, let me play it for you with my noble green diamond membership!"

"Screw your green diamond membership! This song is free!"

The dorm was filled with laughter.

Such were the daily routines of the boys' dorm.