Love Me in Another Universe

Chapter 95. Football and Online Gaming (Part 2)

June 22, 2000, Thursday. Guan Xuchen brought lunch to Gao Xinglang, urging him to pull back from his obsession with online games. Unfortunately, he accidentally spilled soup on Gao's computer screen and keyboard. This caused Gao Xinglang to lose the game, and he stormed off in a fury.

Gao Xinglang's desk was a complete mess. Behind and beside the computer monitor, there were textbooks, empty drink bottles and cans, and all sorts of clutter scattered—chaotic enough to rival the turbulent times of the Three Kingdoms.

Seeing this, Guan Xuchen first gathered the empty bottles and cans, along with Gao Xinglang's untouched boxed meal and soup, and carried them to the trash bin outside the dorm room. Upon returning, he neatly stacked the textbooks in one corner of the desk and organized the papers and other odds and ends into a tidy pile.

Guan Xuchen then went on to tidy up Gao Xinglang's equally messy bed. He noticed that Gao Xinglang's pillow towel had turned yellow, as if it hadn't been washed in days. Remembering what Niu Lixue had said earlier, he quietly asked Cui Jihao from the next bunk, "Jihao, those two buckets of laundry on the balcony—do you know which one belongs to Lang?"

"Not really sure..." Cui Jihao glanced at the two identical blue plastic buckets on the balcony, shook his head helplessly, then asked in surprise, "You're not going to wash Prince Lang's clothes, are you?"

Guan Xuchen's cheeks flushed slightly as he murmured a soft "Mhm." He picked up the washbasin beside Gao Xinglang's bed, placed the pillow towel inside, then grabbed the bottle of laundry powder from the desk. Twisting off the cap, he poured a small amount into the basin before carrying it out to the dormitory balcony.

Guan Xuchen took the basin with the pillow towel and laundry powder to the sink on the dormitory balcony, turned on the faucet to soak the pillow towel, then walked to the corner of the balcony where the two blue plastic buckets were placed.

Guan Xuchen was shocked at what he saw. Both buckets were brimming with clothes, the water inside a murky mix of seaweed green, vitriol blue, and duck-dung yellow. Combined with the white foam from the detergent, it looked just like a potion brewed by a wizard.

Though the clothes in the buckets weren't exactly stinking, they had already started to give off a faint unpleasant odor. What troubled Guan Xuchen most, however, was not knowing which bucket contained Gao Xinglang's clothes—and he felt awkward about asking Shang Youliang directly. After thinking for a moment, Guan Xuchen bent down, gently pushed aside the white foam on the surface of one bucket, and looked closely inside. He spotted a beige plaid shirt.

Guan Xuchen recalled Gao Xinglang mentioning before that he didn't like plaid clothes. He looked up again and saw Shang Youliang in the dorm room, eating while staring intently at the computer screen. Sure enough, Shang was wearing a blue plaid shirt.

Guan Xuchen then gently pushed aside the foam in the other bucket. Pinching several pieces of clothing between his left thumb and index finger, he found them all familiar—confirming that this bucket must be Gao Xinglang's.

Guan Xuchen carried Gao's bucket over to the sink. First, he poured out the "wizard's potion", then rinsed off the sticky residue from each piece of clothing and the inside of the bucket under running water. Next, he emptied the pillow towel and detergent solution from the washbasin into the bucket, then rinsed the basin clean.

Following his usual laundry routine, Guan Xuchen scrubbed each garment and the pillow towel thoroughly by hand, then rinsed them repeatedly under running water until they were clean. He wrung out the clothes and pillow towel, then went to Gao Xinglang's bedside to fetch several hangers hanging at the foot of the bed. Returning to the balcony, he hung up Gao Xinglang's three T-shirts, two pairs of long pants, two pairs of shorts, three pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks, and the pillow towel.