Eldritch Horror Theatre - Ch. 32: Friends
"Open the door, open the door! Wake up!"
Before Fu Qian could respond, the visitor was already shouting outside. It was Qin Mingze's voice.
Fu Qian cast a lingering glance at his noodles, then got up to open the door.
Outside, besides Young Master Qin who had visited yesterday, there was another harmless-looking young man in his twenties.
Looking at Fu Qian who opened the door, the two exchanged a silent glance.
"Is Young Master Qin so free lately? Did you lose your job?"
Fu Qian looked at Qin Mingze expressionlessly.
"Lose my job, my foot! Today is Saturday! Xiaoyu and I came over to hang out."
Qin Mingze almost sprayed saliva all over Fu Qian's face, pushing the door open and squeezing his way in.
The "Xiaoyu" he mentioned smiled helplessly, greeted Fu Qian, and followed him into the house.
Xiaoyu's full name was Wu Qingyu, and he was also an acquaintance of Fu Qian's—a mutual friend of his and Qin Mingze.
The twenty-four-year-old Wu Qingyu was a student at a prestigious medical school, currently in his internship period. It was said that he was being squeezed so hard he couldn't tell day from night. Fu Qian hadn't seen him for a month or two.
Ugh!
Young Master Qin dashed all the way into the living room, plopped his butt onto the sofa, and let out a comfortable groan.
"Lying down like this is the most comfortable. My cervical spondylosis has been acting up these past two days."
Wu Qingyu beside him was even more exaggerated; he practically lay motionless the moment he touched the sofa.
"Tell me, what's the matter? You two couldn't have just come over to freeload on my sofa."
Fu Qian glanced at the noodles on the table.
"Hurry up, I haven't eaten my meal yet."
"You're just eating this?"
Young Master Qin glanced at the table with a look of horror.
"Forget it, Xiaoyu and I brought some stuff. Take some out to make do."
Hearing this, the reclining Wu Qingyu weakly handed over a bag.
"It's really nothing. Both Xiaoyu and I happen to be off today. He told me it's been a while since he saw you, so we came over to hang out. Our weekend trio gatherings have been paused for way too long."
Young Master Qin explained without batting an eye.
Qin Mingze and Wu Qingyu were among the few guests Fu Qian ever had.
Once upon a time, Fu Qian was also a sunny teenager and an outstanding student.
Relying on his brilliant mind, for a very long time, he was the "other people's child" in the mouths of parents, and a nightmare to countless classmates.
However, ever since his parents passed away unexpectedly when he was ten, Fu Qian's temperament had drastically changed. In his own words, it was a profound awakening.
After several months of contemplating the meaning of life, he successfully kicked words like academics, socializing, future, love, and career out of his dictionary, completely growing crooked into the person he was today.
His friends, of course, were few and far between. Nowadays, Qin Mingze and Wu Qingyu basically made up his entire social circle.
"You're off today?"
Fu Qian looked at Wu Qingyu, who was slumping like a couch potato. The latter grunted an acknowledgment.
"Didn't you say before that you were dead tired and had absolutely zero time to rest?"
"I am busy!"
Wu Qingyu covered his face with a throw pillow, his voice sounding like sleep talking.
"Running errands, doing night shifts, sticking labels... and when I occasionally have a bit of free time, I f*cking have to write my thesis. Now when I sleep, my head is full of nothing but my thesis... so I came here to relax."
"Right, bring out your console so we can play. Haven't touched it in a long time and my hands are getting itchy."
Qin Mingze patted Fu Qian.
It has to be said here that although Fu Qian often didn't know where his next meal was coming from, he indeed possessed a full set of gaming equipment at home, and he always made sure to update it. For instance, the reason he had been surviving on pennies recently was because he had just bought the newest game console.
As for why this was the case: as a member of the "lying flat" generation, Fu Qian truly had a lot of free time, and gaming was a very good way to get a dopamine hit.
At the same time, writing copy for some indie games was one of his sources of income. As Fu Qian put it, creation requires an understanding of the application environment, and gathering appropriate reference material is very important.
"What are we playing today?"
Young Master Qin rubbed his hands together, the most excited of the three.
These days, games were an indispensable topic for single young men.
The games the three of them had played together were innumerable. Among them, Wu Qingyu, relying on the nimble fingers trained through his profession, had always been a peerless existence.
However, Fu Qian was no longer the person he used to be. His body control had reached an unimaginable level.
Watching Fu Qian mercilessly slaughter the two of them with an expressionless face, Young Master Qin finally flew into a rage out of humiliation and kicked him right off the stage.
"Any progress on your newest career plan?"
While bullying the half-asleep Wu Qingyu, Young Master Qin asked, pretending to be casual.
"It's only been a day."
Fu Qian thought to himself: *Here it finally comes.*
He had long noticed that the two of them had been carefully observing him. Hearing this, he directly pressed the pause button on the console.
"Spit it out. What exactly is the situation with you two coming over today?"
...
Qin and Wu exchanged a glance. Finally, Wu Qingyu spoke hesitantly.
"Yesterday, Brother Qin urgently found me and said you seemed a bit abnormal. He was worried there was something wrong with your health, and insisted on dragging me over to take a look."
"Xiao Qian."
Qin Mingze also looked serious.
"I understand your eagerness, but things like fitness require a step-by-step approach. Some quick-fix methods can be very harmful to the body."
After saying that, he turned his head.
"Is he really okay?"
"I still have that much confidence," Wu Qingyu yawned.
"Although I don't know how Xiao Qian has been training, he is obviously very healthy. In this state, he probably wouldn't have any problem fighting ten of me."
"But he trained way too fast! I can't understand it!"
Young Master Qin looked at Wu Qingyu with a face full of doubt about life. The latter merely shrugged.
"How should I put this... Actually, I hid some things yesterday."
Seeing his two bad friends take time out of their busy schedules to confirm his health, Fu Qian felt quite moved and decided to confess some things.
There really is a hidden reason!
Qin and Wu instantly sat up straight, their four eyes gleaming brightly.
"Actually, I recently found another part-time job that pays quite well. Exercising was just a side effect."
"Pays quite well? Manual labor?"
Both Qin and Wu were taken aback.
"Basically, yes. Occasionally I have to use my brain too, and my current technique is also very important."
Qin and Wu's eyes glazed over.
"The amount of physical exertion must be huge, right?"
"It's not always huge, but sometimes it's quite annoying having to repeat things many times."
"Take care of your health."
The two were left speechless.
"Wait a minute."
After a moment of silence, Qin Mingze's expression changed several times before he suddenly stood up and started taking off his clothes.
"Holy sh*t!"
This action completely dumbfounded Wu Qingyu, who instinctively started rubbing his face.
"I haven't woken up yet, I haven't woken up yet, I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming!"
After rubbing for a while, he suddenly let out a wail.
"Why haven't I finished writing my thesis even in my dreams!"
"Take your clothes off and put mine on."
Qin Mingze threw the clothes he had just taken off to Fu Qian.
"What for?"
"Just put them on."
After Fu Qian put them on, Qin Mingze took out his phone and snapped several pictures from various angles. Once done, he snapped his fingers.
"It'd be too much of a waste not to use these muscles of yours. We're about the same height; later on, I'll Photoshop your head out and replace it with mine. I'll be invincible at picking up girls."
Fu Qian turned back to look at Wu Qingyu.
"See? If you had this level of shameless drive, your thesis would've been finished long ago."
"...Forget it."
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