Chapter 85: Coward in Hiding, Do You Dare Accept the Challenge?!
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Hmm??
Everyone paused in surprise at the sight.
What did he mean by this?
Judging by his direction… was he heading for the Chinese Martial Arts Club?
Before long, Lin Qiu and Zhao Dezhu had already reached the registration desk of the Chinese Martial Arts Club.
“Hahaha!!”
No one knew who started it, but soon the crowd erupted in laughter!
“A coward will always be a coward! Even when picking a club, he chooses the most cowardly one!”
“He probably knows deep down that, with his pitiful looks, no decent club would ever want him. Only a club as worthless as the Chinese Martial Arts Club would possibly take him in!”
Every word was harsh and grating.
At least…
To some students who still retained a measure of kindness, it sounded particularly jarring.
They knew, of course, that there wasn’t much to be gained from joining the Chinese Martial Arts Club.
But still…
The name bore “Chinese” in it.
So, inevitably, these students felt somewhat uncomfortable hearing such ridicule.
But…
That was the way of the world now.
To fit in, the weak often had no choice but to go with the flow, even at the cost of suppressing some purer thoughts. Otherwise, they feared being cast out by whichever group they sought to join.
Campus life was simply a microcosm of society.
Lin Qiu, of course, paid no heed to the mocking chatter behind him, and stood firmly at the registration desk.
He took a careful look at the three people seated behind the table.
Two men and one woman.
One man was tall and thin, wearing glasses. The other was short and plump, yet with thick brows and bright eyes that gave him an energetic look.
Behind the table, a young woman sat quietly, wearing rimless glasses, an ancient-looking scroll in her hands.
The moment Lin Qiu saw her, he narrowed his eyes.
It wasn’t any sort of aura about her that caught his attention…
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It was simply that—
Something about her, on instinct, felt out of place.
It was as if this girl was not someone who belonged to the mortal realm.
Her skin was extremely fair—so pale that it seemed almost excessive, as pure as freshly fallen snow. Her eyes carried a trace of indifference, as though she saw through the ways of the world. Her lips were small, like two crimson petals, naturally vivid.
But on her profile, there was a long, obvious scar.
The scar stretched from the tip of her eyebrow all the way down to the corner of her mouth.
If not for that scar…
She would have been an unrivaled beauty.
Alas—
The scar’s destructive power was astonishing.
With it there, not only did it conceal her breathtaking beauty, it also made most men unwilling to spare her a second glance.
Yet—
Lin Qiu did not feel that way.
In fact, from the moment he arrived, he had glanced at her three times already.
He even wanted to look a fourth time…
“Are you here to register?” the girl asked.
“Welcome, welcome!” said the tall, thin man and the plump one, stepping forward with cheerful faces as they handed Lin Qiu a form. “Just fill in your name and department.”
Lin Qiu smiled. “I just caused quite a stir out there. Aren’t you worried I’ll bring trouble to your club?”
The two exchanged glances and laughed. “We’re not blind. We saw exactly what happened just now. That lot loves to stir up trouble. If you ask me, you must have offended someone before, and now they’re just looking for an excuse to pick on you.”
Lin Qiu chuckled. “That’s the kind of wisdom you get from studying Chinese martial arts.”
With that, he wrote down his name, department, and class.
Zhao Dezhu didn’t hesitate in the slightest and quickly filled in his own name.
Lin Qiu said, “Zhao Dezhu, you really don’t need to get yourself targeted just because of me.”
“Hey, what are you saying? Are you trying to insult me?” Zhao Dezhu glared. “Sure, I’m greedy, cowardly, broke, lecherous, lazy, and… well, a lot of things, but when it comes to my friends, I’m loyal to the core! Don’t worry, even if a fight breaks out later, I promise you’ll always have my voice cheering you on from the sidelines!”
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Lin Qiu couldn’t help but smile. “So what you’re saying is, if there’s a fight, I’ll be doing the hitting, and you’ll just be shouting encouragement?”
Zhao Dezhu looked indignant. “Don’t underestimate the power of words! Fighting is physical damage, but insults are magical attacks! You may not think much of it, but I really have a knack for trash-talking! It’s an art, a skill! If only there were a major for it at university, I’d sign up for a minor right away!”
“Insulting people is an art? A skill?”
At this point, the tall, thin man and the plump one were clearly amused by Zhao Dezhu and joined in. “Tell us, what’s so special about the art of insults?”
Lin Qiu couldn’t help but interject, “Are you two serious? Do you really want to learn from him?”
The tall man quickly replied, “There’s an old saying in China: ‘Live and learn.’”
The plump one nodded vigorously. “And another: ‘No skill is ever a burden!’”
Lin Qiu laughed in spite of himself; these two were quite the characters.
“Alright, go ahead then.”
Without missing a beat, Zhao Dezhu cleared his throat and adopted a scholarly air. “First, remember: there’s a core technique to the art of insults.”
The tall man’s eyes widened behind his glasses. “There’s a core technique?”
“Listen up!” Zhao Dezhu raised his head. “First, take the other person’s mother as the center, their relatives as the radius, and their father as the pivot. Then, with your own… vital organ as your main weapon, and your imagination as your primary skill, bombard them from every possible angle, three hundred and sixty degrees with no blind spots. With the utmost sincerity and earnestness, curse their entire family tree, up and down five thousand years of history, from Yu the Great taming the floods all the way to the national soccer team winning the World Cup…”
He went on and on, eloquent and unstoppable!
What was even more amusing was that the tall man and the plump one listened with rapt attention, eyes wide. The plump one, especially, hurriedly took out a small notebook to jot down notes!
Meanwhile, Lin Qiu finally couldn’t help himself—
He glanced at the pale young woman a fourth time.
At that moment, she suddenly spoke.
She didn’t look up, only turned a page in her book with long, slender fingers as delicate as jade, smooth and fair.
“I’m sorry. My scar seems to have distracted you.”
Her voice was extraordinarily beautiful—like the ethereal tones of a celestial maiden in an ancient drama, otherworldly and pure, yet with a softness that made one’s heart tremble.
“No, you misunderstand,” Lin Qiu replied, rare interest flickering in his eyes as he extended a hand. “Hello, my name is Lin Qiu. May I ask how I should address you?”