I Am The Third Party (GL) - Chapter 1

Gentlemen, we share a shared past .

“Classmate, is there water in the shower head next to you?”

Huh? Calling me?

I wiped the lather from the cleanser on my face, straining my eyes to glance at the girl clutching a bath towel next to me.

She was at the faucet closest to our row. A few steps further was the door to the bathhouse changing rooms. People came and went without closing the door. It was autumn, and a cool breeze blew in.

It happened to be the day the solar panel on the top of the bathhouse wasn’t working or something, but the water was neither cold nor lukewarm. After a shower, my palms and feet were colder than before.

“Is that possible?”

I scooped up some water and wiped my face. The girl gritted her teeth. “Oh, I’m freezing! I’m right in the draft!”

With that, she quickly gathered her basket, picked up her shampoo, and hopped over to the faucet on my other side.

“Of course,” I said, squeezing a dollop of Dove Shea Butter shower gel, which smelled a lot like the coconut milk tapioca pearls I always mix at the store. “People come and go without closing the door.”

“Yeah, the water’s cold too!”

“Yeah.”

No, it’s too cold. I’ll catch a cold if I continue showering.

I remembered that I still had half a box of 999 brand Ganmao Ling Granules in my rental apartment, bought last summer. If I woke up tomorrow morning with a sore throat

, I’d make a packet of it. It’s a sedative, and it makes me sleepy. It would be terrible to go to work feeling sleepy after taking a packet in the morning. I absolutely mustn’t catch a cold.

After rinsing myself off, I draped a towel over myself and grabbed my basket to change.

Although I lived in the dorms at the University of Science and Technology in City A and bathed in the A University bathhouse, I wasn’t a student there.

To be precise, I was, but not now.

I’d always been naughty and didn’t study hard, barely making it into high school.

I muddled through two and a half years of high school, but by the end of the second semester of my junior year, my dad had a beating. Amidst my mom’s sobbing, I decided to change my ways. After six months of hard work, I finally got into the junior college affiliated with the university.

I studied marketing at the university for four years, failing eight courses during those eight semesters and retaking five, with remarkable success.

At the end of the semester, when the final bills were settled, the retake fees alone were a four-digit sum. While others were standing in their graduation gowns in the library taking graduation photos, my dad was chasing me with the bill in his hand.

“Qiao Xianyu, Qiao Xianyu, look at you!”

My dad pointed at my nose, his eyes furious, like a fighting c0ck.

I huddled in my collar and yelled, “Dad, I’ve paid it all!”

Finally, my dad threw the stick at the foot of a tree, sighed, and left.

I followed him home like a chicken.

Halfway through, my dad sighed again and said, “At least I graduated from college.”

Graduated from college?

If a junior college degree counts… does a junior college degree count?

Yeah, I think it does!

After graduation, I talked to Aunt Zhang from my old dormitory building and rented a spare dorm room where we kept our belongings. That’s how I ended up living at HKUST.

There used to be a small milk tea shop downstairs from the HKUST library. The owner went back home and wanted to sell the space, so I borrowed some money from my housekeeper and bought it. I renovated the old shop’s facilities and opened a mini-café on my own.

During the renovations, I specifically had a painter paint the exterior white. I asked a friend from the art academy for paint and brushes, and spent three afternoons alone, braving the scorching sun, painting a wishing wall.

I also made stars and paper cranes and bought a bunch of small trinkets and strung them on the wall. This has become one of the most dazzling gems in HKUST’s small shop culture, attracting many customers.

Every time I think about this, I can’t help but smile. I’m a master of the art of Tathagata and the brush of Ma Liang!

Not only do I paint beautifully, I also make delicious drinks. Milk tea, juice, iced coffee—everything you could ask for.

“Classmate, please lend me a hand!”

The locker room was also crowded, with naked girls, a mass of white flesh, crammed into the small space.

I quickly threw on my coat, my bag on my back, and slipped out of the bathhouse like a tiny fish.

As I exited the bathhouse, a cool breeze, slightly damp and mingled with the strange odor of cheap shampoo,

hit me in the face. A chilly breeze blew in along my collar, prickling my arms and causing small bumps.

I was wearing only a nightgown under my coat, leaving my calves exposed. I was shivering with cold, and all I wanted was to get back to my apartment and get into bed to watch a movie.

But I couldn’t resist my cravings and went around the corner to the convenience store to buy a square cake (a glutinous rice ice cream wrapped in a cone-like substance).

I’m just craving it, not just for food, but for everything. I’m curious and stubborn.

Later, I sometimes wondered if it had been raining, or if I had resisted my cravings and instead walked back to the dorm without going to the convenience store, perhaps I wouldn’t have met Qi Xi…

These thoughts filled me with fear.

Whenever I lost my focus, Qi Xi would always notice, rubbing my head, saying I wasn’t paying attention, and asking what I was thinking about.

I rolled my eyes, leaned over and kissed her, saying, “I’m thinking, you’re my big red bean and glutinous rice cake!”

Then I hugged her and nibbled and nibbled. Naturally, I couldn’t get up before midnight the next day…

I slipped on my holey sandals, hummed a little tune I’d made up, and twisted the small string dangling from the brim of my coat, preparing to walk through the woods back to the dorm.

The path was a bit dark and deserted, but it was short.

Some people say the woods are unsafe in the dark, but I wouldn’t say it’s unsafe at all. At least, I’ve never had any trouble walking along the path in all the years I’ve been walking there.

Nothing…

“Oh my god—”

Before I could even say the word “fvck” (or “fvck”), something suddenly rushed up from behind, slamming into me with a thud. Then a hand that smelled of rust grabbed me and dragged me to the edge of the dark woods.

A brute force pulled me to the ground, and I rolled twice down the slope before being stopped by a bush and hidden among the branches. I was almost about to die in this dark ditch because of that hand!

Damn, this is such bad luck! I’ve been here for seven years, seven years, and I’m dying here today.

I wonder if this guy’s out for rape or money? Ah, is he going to rape and kill me?!

I shuddered, banging my head against the chest of the person behind me. It was limp. Holy sh1t, it’s a female?!

So soft… and it looks pretty big…

Okay, I admit, a certain imbalance unfolded within me, the unspoken feeling every flat-chested woman has…

“Hmm…” A muffled groan came from behind me, and her grip tightened.

I struggled to pat her hand, and she grabbed it and patted it back gently.

I hesitated, then nodded symbolically.

She loosened her grip slightly, spreading her fingers a little, letting air into my mouth.

Soon, two or three figures scurried over from the other end of the path, acting stealthily. Something was reflecting off the distant streetlights. My heart tightened. Could it be a knife?

Soon, I noticed the person behind me breathing faster, and the hand covering my mouth was sweating.

I immediately realized that those people must be chasing this person.

He’d bumped into me while fleeing, and in a moment of panic, he’d dragged me down with

him. She and I were both nervous for the better part of a day, and only after the lights in the library were turned off did those men leave.

After another long wait, the person behind me finally released my hand, and I could breathe easier.

But I didn’t have the energy to stand. I was cold and hungry, and my freshly washed hair was caked with mud and leaves. I felt utterly miserable, so I just lay there, pretending to be dead.

Seeing I didn’t move, she didn’t get up either.

I’ve always had a very sensitive nose and an allergic reaction to smells (an abnormally sensitive sense of smell that allows me to detect odors that are invisible to most people and amplify those that seem subtle to others). Some smells that are common to others can be unbearable and even cause me to have difficulty breathing.

Therefore, I have always had very high standards for smells and I’m very particular about cleanliness.

So, this situation was practically killing me!

I could smell bl00d in the cold air, the same rusty smell as that hand covered my mouth.

I guess she didn’t move because she was injured and exhausted from running for so long.

“Tsk—” the older sister behind me made a bewildered sound, then… she grabbed a hand and rubbed my chest twice, asking, “Are you a man?”

Her voice was as chilling as the air drifting through the mud.

Damn her! Which eye saw that my sister had three legs?

Even if I’m not saying she’s stunningly beautiful, she’s still as beautiful as a fairy. Otherwise, how could her name have the word “xian” in it?

“No!”

My mind froze. I mentally refuted countless things, but only three words came out.

Yeah, my dad was right. I’m a loser, always a coward.

“Oh, I see,” I heard the subtle sneer of the guy behind me. “Let’s go for it, eh?”

Oh fvck!

“AA?” I rolled over, chin up, and looked at her. “What’s wrong with AA? Big br3asts, what’s so great about that? Oh, you look like a D, right? Let me tell you, big br3asts don’t necessarily mean milk. Even flat-chested women can be milk-producing champions! My mom is a lactation consultant. If you ever have a baby and can’t make milk, go to her and tell her my name and I’ll give you a 8–“

I raised my chin, watching the strange woman propping up her face with one hand under the bushes in the moonlight filtering through the intertwined leaves. She had narrow eyes, a straight nose, and the right corner of her mouth tilted slightly upward. A playful, sly smile clung to her eyes as she looked down at me, condescendingly, like a weasel glaring at a chick.

“8—“

I shrugged, pulling my coat tighter.

My goodness, with that look, that aura, a thug?

Not just that, she’s a female bearded man (another name for a bandit)! She’s probably some gangster.

I absolutely mustn’t let myself be targeted.

I’m still young, I want to live a few more years…

Of all the strategies, running away is the best. I’ll run away—

they say the human body is amazing, capable of reacting instantly to external stimuli.

Look, I was feeling weak just now, but now, realizing I’m facing greater danger, I’m standing up and running!

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

Oh my god, what’s going on? I won’t tell on anyone, I don’t know those people, I’m innocent!

I’m just… an ordinary, poor person!

“Your stuff,” she said, pulling me against a tree, pointing to the scattered toiletries at my feet.

“Here, here… Here, there, no need to thank me!”

I didn’t dare pick them up. I ran away. My life was more important!

I sprinted all the way back to the dormitory. Aunt Zhang saw my mess and asked, “Hey, Xiao Qiao, what happened to you?”

I said, “I fell into the ditch.”

She kindly told me there was a private bathroom in the international student dormitory, and she could take me there to talk to the dorm manager so I could have a fresh shower.

I quickly thanked her and said yes, then took out some spare toiletries from the cabinet.

When I went to the bathroom in the international student dormitory to swipe my card, I slapped my head and was stunned.

Oh no, my sister’s water card is gone!

Originally, water cards were only available to students. My card was specially opened for me by Aunt Zhang. My name was written on it, and I even wrapped it tightly with several layers of transparent tape to prevent the name from being blurred by water.

After taking a shower, I stuffed the water card directly into the basket. I had a fight with that woman just now, and the things in the basket were scattered all over the floor. The water card must have fallen out with it.