Chapter 111 – Xia Menghuan x Liao Zhenyu V (Translated and edited by Xing)
If life could rewind, Liao Zhenyu would definitely not invite Xia Menghuan to Lake City.
If she had not gone to Lake City, she would not have known that he managed to gain two pairs of limited-edition sneakers from Li Yubing. If she had not known about it, there was no way that she could have taken the opportunity to blackmail him the equivalent in cash for a pair of those shoes.
Though Liao Zhenyu never had a great impression of Xia Menghuan in the first place, at that moment, his impression of her fell a little more.
Liao Zhenyu had the faint feeling that his relationship with Xia Menghuan was not comparable to an eagle and a chick. Rather, it was like a cat and a mouse.
—And he was the mouse.
What a tragic fact.
However, life was like a roller coaster, abound with twists and turns and unexpected surprises. Liao Zhenyu never thought that the shoes blackmailed away from him by Xia Menghuan would come back to him via another way.
——
Shortly after school reopened, the Dauntless Dragons Club and the RCU school committee jointly organized a series of events to promote ice skating. The first event held was a grand innovation challenge relating to ice and snow.
The competition theme was straightforward: how to attract more people to the ice rinks and get them to try out ice skating.
The competition was split into the preselection stage and the final stage. The final stage offered first, second and third prizes that came with not only monetary reward but also innovation credits.
The innovation credit was a component of the course requirement for undergraduate students. Undergraduates in their fourth year must accumulate a certain number of innovation credits before they are allowed to graduate, so this was a rather important award.
As part-timers at the ice rink and part of the club, Liao Zhenyu and Xia Menghuan naturally leapt to sign up for the competition.
The two of them formed a team. After signing up, they arranged to meet at a pavilion in the garden near the medical science building. They sat facing each other and started to brainstorm.
Liao Zhenyu asked, “Say, what is the key to luring people on the street to an ice rink?”
Xia Menghuan piped up, “The key is to attract their attention.”
“How do we attract their attention?”
“With something that’s entertaining.”
“For example?”
Xia Menghuan thought about it for a moment. “Boss elopes with wife’s younger sister, employees not able to get paid! Ice rink tickets at half price! Further discounts on the equipment rentals!”
Liao Zhenyu held his forehead. “That’s too cliché! Come up with something new.”
“Boss elopes with wife’s younger brother, employees not able to get paid! Ice rink tickets—”
“… No!”
“Boss elopes with mother-in-law—”
“Pfft, cough, cough, cough…” Liao Zhenyu nearly split his sides with laughter. “Can’t you let the boss off?”
Xia Menghuan tapped her two index fingers together and asked, “Then what do you think is better?”
Liao Zhenyu’s brain was currently abuzz with the boss and his relatives. He was unable to come up with something at the moment either. The two of them stared at each other for a good while. Finally, Liao Zhenyu lamented, “Forget it, let’s do our assignments first. I need a break.”
“Oh.”
Thus, the two of them fished out their books.
Xia Menghuan held her book with one hand and used the other to prop her chin as she stared at the sky. The pavilion had no actual roof and there was only a rack built out of steel bars above them. Wisteria vines circled the rack. At the current season, the wisteria vines only had pale, budding leaves. The sunlight of early spring filtered through the sparse vines and shone on their bodies, bringing a comfortable warmth.
She gazed into the distance with half-lidded eyes, her mind relaxed and her heart tranquil.
Flipping through his book, Liao Zhenyu raised his eyes and glanced at her. He gave a light humph. “Silly fool.”
……
After working on his assignments for a while, Liao Zhenyu’s head finally cleared. He used his pen to tap the table gently, looking like a young monk knocking on a wooden fish. “Got it.” He smiled.
“Mm?” Xia Menghuan looked at him.
Liao Zhenyu spoke without hesitation. “I think we need not focus on using entertaining headlines to attract people’s attention. We could reflect on ourselves to see what we like. It could be a good idea to incorporate those elements into the ice rinks.”
Xia Menghuan nodded. “What comes next?”
Liao Zhenyu asked, “Tell me, what do you like?’
“I…” Her eyes darted and landed on a magnolia tree nearby. “I like…” Perhaps due to courage drawn from the beautiful spring day, she had the immense urge to reveal her feelings to him and stop hiding everything. Thus, she lowered her head and in the softest whisper, said, “I like… you.”
As she was too nervous and apprehensive, her voice became softer as she spoke. When she said that most crucial last word, her voice was barely audible. It came out as nothing more than a mumble that seemed like she had spoken without opening her mouth.
Liao Zhenyu clarified, “Oh, you like fish?”
Xia Menghuan: = =
Liao Zhenyu rubbed his chin and pondered how to incorporate fishes into ice rinks. As he brainstormed, he scribbled on his foolscap paper with his pen. After a while, his eyes lit. “Ah, I’ve got an idea!”
Xia Menghuan was silent as she gawked at his series of baffling actions.
Liao Zhenyu declared, “We can put fishes in the ice of the ice rink.”
“… Huh?”
“Of course, it’s not real fishes. We just need realistic looking ones, which shouldn’t be hard to get. When everyone skates and looks down, they’ll be able to see countless fishes below their feet. The fishes are set in the ice but people would be skating across the surface and moving around. If we take each person as the point of reference, it would seem like the fishes are moving. Do you get what I mean?”
“… Ah?” This chapter is a labour of love that should not be found outside of teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.
“From a person’s point of view, the fishes beneath their feet appear to be moving as they skate. I was thinking that besides fishes, we can also put other things like prawns, crabs, seashells, jellyfishes…” Like a seafood supplier, he rattled off various sea creatures. Then, he added, “Oh, right. We can also make the ice rinks themed. Other than an ocean world, we can also create a butterfly valley. Think about it. What would it be like to skate and have thousands of butterflies beneath your feet?”
Xia Menghuan was dumbstruck.
She did not know how to skate. But when she imagined breezing across a sea of fishes or a kaleidoscope of butterflies, the anticipation was real.
She had merely confessed casually and he was actually so inspired by it. So was this the power of love? Xia Menghuan was somewhat astonished. She rubbed her face and tried to think along the same line as Liao Zhenyu. She added to the discussion and commented, “The ice of most indoor ice rinks are rather thin. It might not be suitable to put a bunch of realistic fish models under it. We could perhaps use drawings or relief carvings that are easier to manage in terms of thickness. These techniques can also be used to make 3D shapes that would make everything appear even more lifelike.”
“Right. And I just thought of it. We could dye the water used for the ice and turn the entire ice rink azure. When people skate on it, they’ll really feel like they’re travelling across the ocean. ”
“Yes, yes, yes. And…”
……
Both of them discussed this eagerly for a while, to the point that it felt like they were about to step onto the highest level of the prize podium at the very next moment. After they finished discussing, they planned to immediately start working on the project after heading back. When they passed by the stadium, they happened to meet Tang Xue.
Tang Xue saw their cheery faces and was slightly curious. “What are the two of you up to? Managed to pick up some money? How much is it; pass it to me. I’ll help to hand it over to the police.”
“Boss, I’m sorry but I think we might be fulfilling our innovation credits earlier than you.”
“What do you mean?”
Liao Zhenyu spilled the results of the discussion to Tang Xue without any reservations.
When Tang Xue heard it, she was amused. She shook her head and used her finger to tap Liao Zhenyu’s head before doing the same to Xia Menghuan. As she did so, she said, “Big fool. Little fool.”
Xia Menghuan asked, “My king, you think it won’t work?”
“Don’t you know? Water is transparent but not ice. At most, it’ll appear translucent. When you put those things into the ice, you can’t see it clearly at all. Everything beneath the ice would appear as vague shapes. For all you know, people might think that it’s trash.”
“Ah? Seriously?”
“Yup. You two silly cuties. Don’t you pay attention to your surroundings?”
Xia Menghuan ruminated over this. “But the ice I see in the freezer are all transparent.”
“The freezer is the freezer while the ice rink is the ice rink. Go have a look if you don’t believe me. Look at it closely.” As Tang Xue explained, she pointed to the ice stadium. “I still have plans so I won’t be joining you two.”
Liao Zhenyu had skated numerous times and he had genuinely never paid any attention to the transparency of the ice before. He entered the ice stadium with Xia Menghuan. They lay on their stomachs as they scrutinized the ice, their actions looking extremely suspicious.
After observing for a while, they sat down on the ice in disappointment. Xia Menghuan looked at Liao Zhenyu listlessly. “What do we do?”
Liao Zhenyu pointed to the ice and asked, “Why is it translucent?”
“Need you ask? Of course it’s because there’s air in the water. We learnt this in middle school but overlooked it.”
“Since it is only air, we can simply think of ways to remove the air.”
Good—the first step in their plan now was to reduce the air in the water as much as possible in order to increase the ice’s transparency.
They not only had to consider ways of doing so but also the possibility of each method and its cost…
When Xia Menghuan thought of the work that they had to put in, she was flummoxed. So it turned out that the road to executing a glorious plan was riddled with many challenges and difficulties.
For example, on how to turn ice into an ocean.
For example, on how to make you like me.
This was life at its rawest.
Chapter 111 – Xia Menghuan x Liao Zhenyu V (Translated and edited by Xing)
If life could rewind, Liao Zhenyu would definitely not invite Xia Menghuan to Lake City.
If she had not gone to Lake City, she would not have known that he managed to gain two pairs of limited-edition sneakers from Li Yubing. If she had not known about it, there was no way that she could have taken the opportunity to blackmail him the equivalent in cash for a pair of those shoes.
Though Liao Zhenyu never had a great impression of Xia Menghuan in the first place, at that moment, his impression of her fell a little more.
Liao Zhenyu had the faint feeling that his relationship with Xia Menghuan was not comparable to an eagle and a chick. Rather, it was like a cat and a mouse.
—And he was the mouse.
What a tragic fact.
However, life was like a roller coaster, abound with twists and turns and unexpected surprises. Liao Zhenyu never thought that the shoes blackmailed away from him by Xia Menghuan would come back to him via another way.
——
Shortly after school reopened, the Dauntless Dragons Club and the RCU school committee jointly organized a series of events to promote ice skating. The first event held was a grand innovation challenge relating to ice and snow.
The competition theme was straightforward: how to attract more people to the ice rinks and get them to try out ice skating.
The competition was split into the preselection stage and the final stage. The final stage offered first, second and third prizes that came with not only monetary reward but also innovation credits.
The innovation credit was a component of the course requirement for undergraduate students. Undergraduates in their fourth year must accumulate a certain number of innovation credits before they are allowed to graduate, so this was a rather important award.
As part-timers at the ice rink and part of the club, Liao Zhenyu and Xia Menghuan naturally leapt to sign up for the competition.
The two of them formed a team. After signing up, they arranged to meet at a pavilion in the garden near the medical science building. They sat facing each other and started to brainstorm.
Liao Zhenyu asked, “Say, what is the key to luring people on the street to an ice rink?”
Xia Menghuan piped up, “The key is to attract their attention.”
“How do we attract their attention?”
“With something that’s entertaining.”
“For example?”
Xia Menghuan thought about it for a moment. “Boss elopes with wife’s younger sister, employees not able to get paid! Ice rink tickets at half price! Further discounts on the equipment rentals!”
Liao Zhenyu held his forehead. “That’s too cliché! Come up with something new.”
“Boss elopes with wife’s younger brother, employees not able to get paid! Ice rink tickets—”
“… No!”
“Boss elopes with mother-in-law—”
“Pfft, cough, cough, cough…” Liao Zhenyu nearly split his sides with laughter. “Can’t you let the boss off?”
Xia Menghuan tapped her two index fingers together and asked, “Then what do you think is better?”
Liao Zhenyu’s brain was currently abuzz with the boss and his relatives. He was unable to come up with something at the moment either. The two of them stared at each other for a good while. Finally, Liao Zhenyu lamented, “Forget it, let’s do our assignments first. I need a break.”
“Oh.”
Thus, the two of them fished out their books.
Xia Menghuan held her book with one hand and used the other to prop her chin as she stared at the sky. The pavilion had no actual roof and there was only a rack built out of steel bars above them. Wisteria vines circled the rack. At the current season, the wisteria vines only had pale, budding leaves. The sunlight of early spring filtered through the sparse vines and shone on their bodies, bringing a comfortable warmth.
She gazed into the distance with half-lidded eyes, her mind relaxed and her heart tranquil.
Flipping through his book, Liao Zhenyu raised his eyes and glanced at her. He gave a light humph. “Silly fool.”
……
After working on his assignments for a while, Liao Zhenyu’s head finally cleared. He used his pen to tap the table gently, looking like a young monk knocking on a wooden fish. “Got it.” He smiled.
“Mm?” Xia Menghuan looked at him.
Liao Zhenyu spoke without hesitation. “I think we need not focus on using entertaining headlines to attract people’s attention. We could reflect on ourselves to see what we like. It could be a good idea to incorporate those elements into the ice rinks.”
Xia Menghuan nodded. “What comes next?”
Liao Zhenyu asked, “Tell me, what do you like?’
“I…” Her eyes darted and landed on a magnolia tree nearby. “I like…” Perhaps due to courage drawn from the beautiful spring day, she had the immense urge to reveal her feelings to him and stop hiding everything. Thus, she lowered her head and in the softest whisper, said, “I like… you.”
As she was too nervous and apprehensive, her voice became softer as she spoke. When she said that most crucial last word, her voice was barely audible. It came out as nothing more than a mumble that seemed like she had spoken without opening her mouth.
Liao Zhenyu clarified, “Oh, you like fish?”
Xia Menghuan: = =
Liao Zhenyu rubbed his chin and pondered how to incorporate fishes into ice rinks. As he brainstormed, he scribbled on his foolscap paper with his pen. After a while, his eyes lit. “Ah, I’ve got an idea!”
Xia Menghuan was silent as she gawked at his series of baffling actions.
Liao Zhenyu declared, “We can put fishes in the ice of the ice rink.”
“… Huh?”
“Of course, it’s not real fishes. We just need realistic looking ones, which shouldn’t be hard to get. When everyone skates and looks down, they’ll be able to see countless fishes below their feet. The fishes are set in the ice but people would be skating across the surface and moving around. If we take each person as the point of reference, it would seem like the fishes are moving. Do you get what I mean?”
“… Ah?” This chapter is a labour of love that should not be found outside of teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.
“From a person’s point of view, the fishes beneath their feet appear to be moving as they skate. I was thinking that besides fishes, we can also put other things like prawns, crabs, seashells, jellyfishes…” Like a seafood supplier, he rattled off various sea creatures. Then, he added, “Oh, right. We can also make the ice rinks themed. Other than an ocean world, we can also create a butterfly valley. Think about it. What would it be like to skate and have thousands of butterflies beneath your feet?”
Xia Menghuan was dumbstruck.
She did not know how to skate. But when she imagined breezing across a sea of fishes or a kaleidoscope of butterflies, the anticipation was real.
She had merely confessed casually and he was actually so inspired by it. So was this the power of love? Xia Menghuan was somewhat astonished. She rubbed her face and tried to think along the same line as Liao Zhenyu. She added to the discussion and commented, “The ice of most indoor ice rinks are rather thin. It might not be suitable to put a bunch of realistic fish models under it. We could perhaps use drawings or relief carvings that are easier to manage in terms of thickness. These techniques can also be used to make 3D shapes that would make everything appear even more lifelike.”
“Right. And I just thought of it. We could dye the water used for the ice and turn the entire ice rink azure. When people skate on it, they’ll really feel like they’re travelling across the ocean. ”
“Yes, yes, yes. And…”
……
Both of them discussed this eagerly for a while, to the point that it felt like they were about to step onto the highest level of the prize podium at the very next moment. After they finished discussing, they planned to immediately start working on the project after heading back. When they passed by the stadium, they happened to meet Tang Xue.
Tang Xue saw their cheery faces and was slightly curious. “What are the two of you up to? Managed to pick up some money? How much is it; pass it to me. I’ll help to hand it over to the police.”
“Boss, I’m sorry but I think we might be fulfilling our innovation credits earlier than you.”
“What do you mean?”
Liao Zhenyu spilled the results of the discussion to Tang Xue without any reservations.
When Tang Xue heard it, she was amused. She shook her head and used her finger to tap Liao Zhenyu’s head before doing the same to Xia Menghuan. As she did so, she said, “Big fool. Little fool.”
Xia Menghuan asked, “My king, you think it won’t work?”
“Don’t you know? Water is transparent but not ice. At most, it’ll appear translucent. When you put those things into the ice, you can’t see it clearly at all. Everything beneath the ice would appear as vague shapes. For all you know, people might think that it’s trash.”
“Ah? Seriously?”
“Yup. You two silly cuties. Don’t you pay attention to your surroundings?”
Xia Menghuan ruminated over this. “But the ice I see in the freezer are all transparent.”
“The freezer is the freezer while the ice rink is the ice rink. Go have a look if you don’t believe me. Look at it closely.” As Tang Xue explained, she pointed to the ice stadium. “I still have plans so I won’t be joining you two.”
Liao Zhenyu had skated numerous times and he had genuinely never paid any attention to the transparency of the ice before. He entered the ice stadium with Xia Menghuan. They lay on their stomachs as they scrutinized the ice, their actions looking extremely suspicious.
After observing for a while, they sat down on the ice in disappointment. Xia Menghuan looked at Liao Zhenyu listlessly. “What do we do?”
Liao Zhenyu pointed to the ice and asked, “Why is it translucent?”
“Need you ask? Of course it’s because there’s air in the water. We learnt this in middle school but overlooked it.”
“Since it is only air, we can simply think of ways to remove the air.”
Good—the first step in their plan now was to reduce the air in the water as much as possible in order to increase the ice’s transparency.
They not only had to consider ways of doing so but also the possibility of each method and its cost…
When Xia Menghuan thought of the work that they had to put in, she was flummoxed. So it turned out that the road to executing a glorious plan was riddled with many challenges and difficulties.
For example, on how to turn ice into an ocean.
For example, on how to make you like me.
This was life at its rawest.
