Chapter 11

You just don't know how filthy men's minds can be?

Ji Su's first reaction was that he himself was a man — how could he not know?

Wait, no—

The next instant, Ji Su realized where the weight of that sentence lay: the other party must have looked at his photo and conjured something filthy in his mind, which was why he was projecting onto others.

He immediately tapped the photo, trying to recall it, but the time limit had long since passed; he couldn't help muttering under his breath: "Pervert!"

"What? Pervert?" Qiao Jin caught the keyword, a strange excitement in his tone. "How was he perverted?"

Ji Su found it a little hard to bring up: "I think he might have used my photo to..."

He couldn't finish the sentence halfway; the tips of his fair ears faintly flushed pink.

Qiao Jin's eyes lit up: "Let me see — did he say something really excessive to you?"

"Not exactly, but—" Ji Su paused, then reasoned with himself. "Forget it. We're all the same sex anyway, it's no big deal."

"I see." Qiao Jin understood. "But I have to say something fair — looking at that photo of yours, which straight man could hold back?"

Ji Su: "..."

"Of course, this is also part of our revenge plan." Qiao Jin quickly added. "Once he finds out you're a guy too, maybe he'll lose his appetite for good, hahaha!"

Ji Su felt somewhat comforted and turned his gaze to the phone screen: "What do we do now?"

Qiao Jin answered without hesitation: "What do you mean, what do we do? Of course we click accept!"

Ji Su frowned slightly: "Isn't that not great?"

The two-hundred-yuan red packet before had been fine to accept, but this transfer was too much — far larger than the amount the senior sister had been scammed out of.

"What's wrong with it?" Qiao Jin dragged a chair over and sat down. "The scumbag's money to you is most likely scammed from other online-dating targets — all ill-gotten gains."

"Now that you put it that way, I definitely can't accept it." Ji Su's expression turned serious. "One thing at a time — he scams money from others, and I can't do the same thing as him."

Qiao Jin scratched the back of his head: "Seems like you have a point..."

Ji Su thought carefully for a moment, then said: "As for the money he owes the senior sister — once I get his real information, I'll confront him directly and demand he return every cent."

"Good, good." Qiao Jin nodded rapidly. "If he doesn't pay back then, we can take his identity information and report him to the police."

"Right." Ji Su agreed, and lowered his head to tap refund on the transfer.

Soon, another message came from the other side.

G: [Why did you refund it?]

Mengmeng: [Really, I don't want it — chatting with you isn't about your money...]

G: [It's for buying you a dress.]

Mengmeng: [Oh, don't worry, senior — this dress won't be worn outside.]

Mengmeng: [It was always meant to be worn only for you to see~]

The other side was silent for a while, seeming to deliberate over something.

G: [Understood.]

G: [Thank you for the gift, Mengmeng. I like it very much.]

Ji Su curled his lip. Of course you like it, you scumbag.

He thought for a moment and decided to take the opportunity to probe the other party further.

Mengmeng: [What about you, senior? Do you have a gift for Mengmeng?]

G: [What do you want?]

Mengmeng: [Can it be anything I want?]

G: [Tell me. I'll consider it.]

Ji Su: "..."

Shouldn't he be saying something like "whatever you want, I'll give it to you" right about now?

With this reaction, the scumbag probably hasn't really fallen for Mengmeng at all, has he?

Mengmeng: [Senior, do you have abs?]

Mengmeng: [shy cat.jpg]

G: [Yes.]

This was exactly what Ji Su had been waiting for; he immediately typed a reply.

Mengmeng: [Then... can I see your abs?]

Mengmeng: [shy cat.jpg]

G: [Sure.]

G: [Not convenient right now. I'll go back to the Dormitory and take a photo for you.]

Ji Su raised an eyebrow slightly — he hadn't expected it to go so smoothly.

Mengmeng: [Then I'll be waiting for you~]

Ji Su lifted his eyes: "Xiao Qiao, the scumbag agreed to send me an abs photo."

"Holy shit! For real?" Qiao Jin exclaimed in surprise. "The scumbag actually has abs?"

"I don't know either — he said he has them." Ji Su set down his phone. "We'll find out later anyway."

*

After ending the chat, Ji Su opened his computer and began drawing.

A little past nine, the other two roommates came back.

Zhao Ziyun asked while peeling off his clothes: "Ji Su, Qiao Jin — do you know who we ran into playing basketball today?"

Ji Su played along: "Who did you run into?"

Zhao Ziyun tossed his jersey aside: "Gu Zhao from the Law Department!"

"Gu Zhao?" Qiao Jin turned around with interest. "Didn't he crush you guys badly last time?"

"How could that be?" Zhao Ziyun said stubbornly. "We went back and forth that time!"

Qiao Jin's tone was doubtful: "Really?"

"Sigh, let's not bring that up!" Zhao Ziyun changed the subject. "Let's talk about tonight — we were playing fine, he took a break in the middle, and when he came back on court he suddenly went crazy!"

"We got crushed by him badly tonight too." Li You, more honest, said: "Gu Zhao is really too strong — no wonder he usually doesn't play much."

Qiao Jin laughed: "Once he's on the court, is there any room for anyone else?"

Zhao Ziyun waved his hand and concluded: "Anyway, I never want to play basketball with him again."

Ji Su, completely unaware that this had anything to do with him sitting in the Dormitory, smiled and proposed: "To soothe your wounded hearts, I'll treat you all to a big meal this weekend."

"Now that's more like it!" Zhao Ziyun came instantly back to life. "Looks like we should thank Gu Zhao, our campus heartthrob, for his merciless slaughter!"

Qiao Jin mocked him: "Where's your dignity?"

"You've got dignity? Then stop clinging to Ji Su from morning till night!" Zhao Ziyun shot back without thinking, blurting out: "Everyone else thinks you two are a pair of faggots!"

Ji Su's brow twitched: "What?"

Qiao Jin's face changed too: "Who said that?"

"Hey hey hey, don't listen to Zhao Ziyun's nonsense!" Seeing the atmosphere shift, Li You hurried to smooth things over. "It was just a casual joke — don't take it seriously!"

Qiao Jin pressed: "Who started that joke?"

Zhao Ziyun, realizing he'd misspoken, quietly shrank his neck: "No one, really. I just happened to overhear it."

Qiao Jin wanted to say more, but Ji Su looked at him and shook his head, almost imperceptibly.

Though society had grown far more tolerant of homosexuality these days, plenty of people still harbored prejudice and malice.

It was precisely because of this that Qiao Jin had never officially come out.

"Qiao Jin and I are close because we've known each other a long time." Ji Su's tone was light, half in jest: "You're not jealous, are you?"

"Exactly, exactly." Qiao Jin folded his arms. "I think you're all just jealous of how close Qiao Jin and I are!"

Zhao Ziyun blinked, then burst out laughing: "Yeah, I'm jealous! Who told you to hog Ji Su all to yourself?"

After a few more rounds of bickering, they each went off to do their own things.

Ji Su picked up his phone, checked the time, and logged into his alt WeChat account.

It was half past nine. G still hadn't sent the abs photo, so he decided to nudge him.

Mengmeng: [cat peeking.gif]

Several minutes passed, still no reply.

Mengmeng: [Senior, are you there?]

Mengmeng: [Show me the abs~]

This time, the other side finally replied.

G: [Want to see the abs?]

Mengmeng: [Want to see~]

Mengmeng: [cat covering face.jpg]

G: [What do you call me?]

Ji Su blinked, and quickly figured it out.

Mengmeng: [Is gege here?]

Mengmeng: [Show me the abs~]

A few seconds later, a photo popped up in the chat window.

Ji Su tapped it open at random, and his gaze froze.

The other person stood before a bathroom mirror, posture casual, having taken the shot on a whim.

He seemed to have just stepped out of the shower; the mirror still held a faint veil of steam, but it did nothing to keep Ji Su from making out the sharply defined ridges of his abs.

A symmetrical eight-pack, solid without being overblown.

The other person seemed very tall; the mirror caught only from his waistline down and below his chest.

Ji Su studied it for a moment, half-convinced these weren't really the other person's abs, and suspected he'd pulled the image from somewhere online.

If the scumbag really had a body like that, why bother with online romance scams for money and sex?

Mengmeng: [Wow! Gege really has abs!]

Mengmeng: [Just a bit too blurry, can't really see clearly...]

After sending, Ji Su waited for the reply, curious what excuse the other man would come up with.

A minute later, a video popped up in the chat window.

Ji Su didn't think twice and tapped it open.

The camera shook a little at first; a few seconds in, something was pressed right up against the screen.

Ji Su looked closely, and his eyes widened of their own accord.

A full eight-pack filled the frame, rising and falling gently with each breath; droplets of water rolled along the deep grooves between the muscles, traced two beautiful Adonis belts, and disappeared beneath the gray waistband barely clinging to his hips, leaving a small dark stain.

At such close range, the sex and the raw power of it seemed almost to break through the screen and hit him in the face.

The camera suddenly jerked, and thrust further down.

Ji Su's pupils contracted sharply; he drew in a sharp breath.

The bulge beneath the gray sweatpants was disturbingly impressive — one could even faintly make out a terrifying shape...

"Ji Su?" Just then, a voice rang out suddenly at his ear.

Ji Su startled, and his phone slammed onto the desk with a bang.

"Did I scare you?" Li You quickly stepped back. "Sorry, sorry — I just wanted to ask, do you have the notes from today's Building Construction class?"

Ji Su felt as though he'd been caught red-handed looking at something forbidden; his heart hammered like a war drum, so loud his ears were going numb: "Wh-what?"

"Didn't we have Building Construction today? I wasn't really paying attention." Li You repeated himself. "I wanted to borrow your notes to look over."

"Ah... the notes." Ji Su struggled to steady himself, dug the notebook out of his bag, and handed it over.

"Thanks, I'll return it as soon as I've copied them." Li You thanked him and walked off with the notebook.

Ji Su sat in his chair, his gaze drifting to the phone lying on the desk; his ears and cheeks heated up again, beyond his control.

His slender, pale fingers reached toward the phone, then recoiled as if struck by electricity — as though the device held some man-eating monster inside.

A monster, wasn't it?

How could any normal human being possess something that terrifying...

With a buzz, the phone vibrated.

Ji Su drew a deep breath, and mustered the courage to tap back into WeChat.

G: [Saw clearly?]

Ji Su raised one hand and, like a thief covering his ears while stealing the bell, pressed his palm over the video's thumbnail image at the top of the screen.

Getting no reply from Mengmeng, two more messages came from the other side.

G: [Why'd you stop replying?]

G: [Don't like it?]