56: What a weirdo!

The night passed without a word.

Early the next morning, Lu Chuan was woken by the sounds of someone doing morning exercises, panting and puffing.

Lu Chuan, still half-asleep, saw it was only 6:10 AM and immediately flew into a rage.

He threw open the window and flung a slipper down at He Jingrui, who was exercising in the small courtyard below.

"!!!"

He Jingrui was caught off guard and hit directly, looking utterly bewildered, but when he looked up and saw the fuming Lu Chuan, he realized his morning exercise was too loud and had disturbed Lu Chuan's sleep.

He quickly offered an apology with an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry, sorry~"

They say you don't hit a smiling face, and seeing He Jingrui's good attitude, Lu Chuan couldn't stay angry.

He could only depressed let him be quieter, then lay back down in bed, intending to go back to sleep.

But after a few minutes, a dull "thump, thump, thump" sound suddenly started downstairs again.

The sound wasn't loud; if you didn't listen carefully, you wouldn't notice it.

But it had an extremely strong rhythm that made it impossible to ignore.

If you weren't careful, the sound would start playing on a loop in your head.

Even burying his head under the pillow was useless for Lu Chuan; it was like demonic music piercing his ears.

...

Lu Chuan stared blankly at the ceiling, beginning to ponder life's three unanswerable questions.

Who am I, where am I, what am I doing?

After a long while, Lu Chuan, unable to fall back asleep, angrily punched his pillow, then, with one slipper on, ran downstairs to the courtyard.

Before he even reached the courtyard, he was already shouting in anger:

"What are you doing now?!"

He Jingrui heard the sound, turned his head, and asked with a puzzled expression:

"I'm practicing, what's wrong?"

Only then did Lu Chuan see that a wooden board stood in front of He Jingrui, already covered with dense, small holes, similar in size to a finger's width.

Looking down again, He Jingrui's hands and fingers were covered with fine wood shavings.

Lu Chuan was silent for a moment, then finally couldn't help but ask in surprise:

"These were poked out by fingers?"

Lu Chuan had been hooked on short videos recently and had seen many karate and taekwondo performance videos.

In them, he often saw masters who could easily punch through a four-centimeter-thick wooden board with just one punch or kick.

But the wooden board in front of He Jingrui was much thicker than four centimeters!

Although he hadn't gone closer to measure carefully, its exaggerated thickness looked to be no less than twenty centimeters.

Even more infuriating was that He Jingrui was actually poking into it with his index finger, yet his finger looked completely unharmed.

This was just too unbelievable!

Seeing Lu Chuan's shocked expression, He Jingrui couldn't help but feel smug.

He immediately waved his hand, pretending to be nonchalant, and said:

"No need to be surprised, it's just a trivial little trick worth no mention."

If Lu Chuan had ignored the way He Jingrui's mouth almost stretched to his ears when he said that, he might have almost believed him.

"When you're boasting, can you please control your expression..."

"Ah, is it that obvious?"

He Jingrui was surprised and quickly rubbed his face.

"Extremely obvious."

Lu Chuan helplessly rubbed his forehead.

He now understood that this He Jingrui had quite a few flaws.

He Jingrui was a terrible with directions, a chatterbox, loved to show off, and often acted unintelligent.

Moreover, for a bite to eat, he could abandon all shame, begging him relentlessly, and even after being rejected, he would continue to pester him.

This oddball completely shattered all his beautiful illusions of special forces soldiers being elite and decisive.

And he, of all people, had brought this oddball home.

Just to understand the truth of the world's anomaly... hmm?

Wait.

Lu Chuan's eyes suddenly widened as he realized something.

He quickly took a few steps to He Jingrui's front, examining He Jingrui's hands and ten fingers with a look of pleasant surprise.

The knuckles were thick, and the touch was firm.

Although they looked red and swollen, there were no traces of external injury.

This seemed unscientific no matter how he looked at it, but what if it was caused by the world's anomaly... Under He Jingrui's surprised gaze, Lu Chuan lifted He Jingrui's fingers, repeatedly examining them and nodding occasionally.

He Jingrui looked bewildered and finally couldn't help but ask:

"...What are you doing?"

Lu Chuan looked up, met He Jingrui's gaze, then said seriously:

"Answer me one question, and for the days you stay at my house, I guarantee you'll eat until you're stuffed!"

He Jingrui seemed to have realized something too, and his usually flippant expression suddenly became serious.

Their gazes met, and they could both see the solemnity in each other's eyes.

Lu Chuan was satisfied with He Jingrui's sudden seriousness and couldn't help but nod.

It seemed that even an oddball like He Jingrui had his reliable moments.

Lu Chuan was about to speak.

"Then I'll ask, are you..."

"Stop!"

However, He Jingrui quickly raised his hand to stop him, his expression becoming incredibly tense.

He stared at Lu Chuan's expression and asked seriously, word by word:

"When you say 'eat until you're stuffed,' do you mean eating until you're stuffed with dishes, or with rice and steamed buns? You have to make that clear!"

Lu Chuan almost fell to the ground.

Stunned, he looked at He Jingrui, his mouth opening and closing, finally only able to squeeze out one sentence.

"...You really are beyond help."

He Jingrui looked unconvinced.

Getting to eat until he was stuffed just for answering a question, shouldn't he ask for details?

What if Lu Chuan had set some verbal trap, wouldn't that be a waste of a good opportunity?

Someone as smart as he was wouldn't make such a low-level mistake?

The two stared at each other, subtly seeing a hint of disdain in the other's eyes.

The two immediately got angry and spoke in unison.

"Hmph!" ("Hmph!")

"How dare you look down on me?!" ("How dare you look down on me?!")

Lu Chuan and He Jingrui both laughed in anger, then spoke in unison again:

"You're on your own for food today."

("I won't answer your ques...")

However, He Jingrui didn't finish his sentence; after clearly hearing what Lu Chuan said, he immediately froze.

The next moment, He Jingrui reacted with lightning speed, grabbing Lu Chuan's shoulder, his mouth splitting into a grin, ready to resort to his old trick of loudly wailing and begging for mercy to win Lu Chuan's sympathy and pity.

"No, you can't be so heartless!!"

Lu Chuan, however, sneered, shook off He Jingrui's hands, and turned to leave, leaving He Jingrui behind with a look of remorse.

Hmph, let him play his tricks; I'll make him hungry for a few meals first.

Lu Chuan discovered that He Jingrui seemed to have a persistent craving for delicious food.

Since that was the case, he would use food as temptation; he didn't believe he couldn't get him to talk then.

An hour later, the dining table in the living room was laden with a sumptuous breakfast.

Lu Chuan chewed on a fried dough stick, drank hot soy milk, and occasionally picked up a plump meat bun to take a bite.

When a bite was taken out of the tender, wobbly large meat bun, the meat juices immediately seeped out.

Then the fragrant aroma of meat instantly filled the entire living room.

He Jingrui, with half his body leaning by the door, staring intently at the breakfast on the table, felt his stomach rumble wildly and swallowed his saliva non-stop.

If Lu Chuan relented now, He Jingrui would definitely pounce on the table and eat frantically.

Unfortunately, Lu Chuan didn't; he even deliberately teased him, eating with a satisfied shake of his head and a look of pure enjoyment, which left He Jingrui with a resentful and helpless expression.