Chapter 1

Chapter 1
His slightly damp black hair clung to his cold, sharp cheeks. Hao Tu took off his basketball jersey, revealing firm, well-developed muscles, then pushed open the door and stepped onto the balcony.

It was scorching hot.

He muttered as he removed the towel, grabbed the body wash, and slipped into the bathroom.

Turning on the showerhead, cold water came rushing out with a loud splash.

Droplets scattered everywhere, soaking the cramped bathroom. Water trickled down his neck, tracing over his athletic body.

The cool water poured over him, carrying away the heat inside his body. Hao Tu could not even be bothered to turn on the hot water and simply took a cold shower.

After shutting off the shower, he remembered that he had not brought any clean clothes. Fortunately, men were not that particular about such things, and there was nobody in the dorm anyway. Lowering his eyes, Hao Tu casually wiped himself a couple of times with the towel, opened the door, and prepared to go out and get his pajamas.

Click.

At that moment, the sound of a door opening came from inside.

His roommate had returned.

Hao Tu narrowed his eyes unhappily.

Hui Jiang opened the dorm room door. Seeing nobody inside, he casually tossed his bag onto his desk.

This damned weather was unbearably hot.

He switched on the fan, gulped down several mouthfuls of plain water, and only felt a little better after resting for a few seconds.

The men's dormitories at H University had a rather unusual layout. Both the bathroom and toilet were built outside on the balcony. The balcony was enclosed by a concrete wall about four feet high, so even if someone stood there naked, people across the way would not be able to see. Hearing that someone had returned, Hao Tu leisurely grabbed a pair of underwear from the balcony and put it on.

His movements were so quiet that Hui Jiang inside the room did not notice a thing.

Hui Jiang glanced at the trash basket beside the opposite bed and discovered that it was once again full of discarded drafts.

Since nobody was around, why not collect a few more?

Pushing up the black-framed glasses on his nose, he decided it was a good idea. He set down his cup, walked over to his roommate's trash basket, and skillfully picked up the discarded drafts inside.

As he collected them, he could not help but sigh. These design sketches were actually pretty good, yet Hao Tu had thrown them all away. Top students really did love nitpicking.

【Collected Hao Tu's manuscript ×1. Reward: ¥10】

The price had fallen to ten yuan per sheet.

Hui Jiang did the math. He had been collecting Hao Tu's manuscripts for half a month now. The reward had slowly shrunk from one thousand yuan per sheet at the beginning to only ten yuan now.

Well, ten yuan was still money. But he could not take too many sheets, or Hao Tu would notice.

Half a month earlier, Hui Jiang had picked up a bronze-colored badge beside a campus road. The badge was only about the size of a coin and looked completely ordinary. But that very night, he had been bound to a system called "King of Gentlemen," which swore that it would train him into a super "gentleman"!

Hui Jiang had read web novels before, so he had been a little excited at first. He thought the system would turn him into some kind of European-style gentleman and lead him to the pinnacle of life.

But he soon realized he had been overthinking.

The system was complete garbage. All it ever did was encourage him to do strange and creepy things. However, Hui Jiang did not give up. After several attempts, he actually figured out a way to make money from it.

The system's original intention was for him to collect other people's belongings, but taking things without permission was theft. As a model young man, Hui Jiang firmly refused.

Digging through trash cans and picking up things that other people had thrown away, however, was a different matter.

After trying it, he discovered that collecting trash also earned rewards. Exploiting this loophole in the system's judgment, he began earning pocket money through garbage collection.

As the cleanest guy in the dorm, Hao Tu had privately set up his own personal trash basket. What he threw away were mostly paper drafts, making it a hundred times cleaner than the communal trash can. Naturally, it became Hui Jiang's target.

Carefully picking up the manuscripts from Hao Tu's trash basket, he thought about how the rewards had been decreasing recently and decided to take a few extra sheets. Later he would stuff some A4 paper underneath. As long as the height of the trash remained the same, Hao Tu probably would not notice.

Pushing up his glasses, Hui Jiang diligently sorted through the discarded drafts.

What he did not know was that the owner of those drafts was standing outside the balcony door, watching him through the crack.

Holding a towel in his hand, Hao Tu pressed his lips together. He wanted to push open the door but hesitated.

How many times had this been now?

Digging through his trash basket again. Could this guy be some kind of pervert?

Hao Tu was a careful person. He had noticed signs that the trash basket had been disturbed several times before. After paying attention to it, he quickly discovered what Hui Jiang had been doing.

Out of consideration for maintaining a good relationship in the dorm, he had endured it without exposing him.

He never expected the other party to become increasingly excessive!

Hao Tu laughed in anger, ran a hand through his wet hair, and gritted his teeth while thinking about how to teach this perverted roommate a lesson.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Hui Jiang's voice came from inside.

Hao Tu hurriedly looked over, but in the next second, he froze.

At the bottom of the trash basket lay a small gray piece of fabric. Judging from its appearance, it was probably the underwear he had thrown away the night before.

A CK brand one too. As expected of a rich guy.

Hui Jiang raised an eyebrow and silently sighed to himself.

【Host, Host!】

'What?'

It was the first time Hui Jiang had heard the system sound so eager.

【Quickly pick it up! There will be a very generous reward!】

For some reason, the system's tone had become somewhat flirtatious, completely different from its usual lifeless manner.

'No.'

Without even raising his eyelids, Hui Jiang refused outright.

【Do you know that it's worth one point of "Gentleman Value"? And there's also a reward of ten thousand yuan!】

Ten thousand?!

Hui Jiang's hand paused.

The way he looked at the gray underwear instantly changed.

His gaze became fixed, direct, and completely undisguised.

Even Hao Tu, hiding behind the door, was startled by it.

This guy couldn't possibly be planning to—

Hao Tu's expression changed several times, growing uglier and uglier. Before he could react, the person inside had already picked up the gray underwear.

It's clean, Hui Jiang evaluated silently in his heart.

【Collected Hao Tu's underwear ×1. Gentleman Value +1. Current: 4. Reward: ¥10,000】

Although it was a little strange, as long as the money arrived, it was fine. Hui Jiang curled his lips into a smile.

Successfully frightening Hao Tu outside the door into breaking out in a cold sweat.

Damn it!

Had Hui Jiang gone insane?

He was so angry that he wanted to rush inside, point at the other man's nose, and fiercely demand to know why he was stealing his underwear!

He had just raised his arm when he remembered that he was only wearing a pair of underwear himself. Hao Tu glanced down at his body, touched his full chest muscles and six-pack abs, and calmed down a little.

No, if he went out like this, he would only be giving that damned pervert a free show...

What if Hui Jiang saw his body and suddenly lost control of his beastly instincts?

He needed to put on some clothes first.

Hao Tu temporarily gave up on kicking the door open and turned around to get dressed.

Hui Jiang checked his phone and realized it was getting late. He had to hide these things before his roommate came back.

He stuffed a prepared stack of A4 paper into the trash basket, covered the top with three discarded drafts, and only sighed in relief after everything had been cleaned up.

But what should he do with this pair of underwear?

Looking at the underwear in his hand, Hui Jiang thought for a moment and decided to store it in the same cabinet as the discarded drafts for now. When nobody was around someday, he would throw it away.

However, just as he returned to his seat carrying the underwear and drafts and raised his hand to open the cabinet, the wooden balcony door behind him suddenly flew open with a bang.

Someone was on the balcony!

Hui Jiang's pupils widened.

He stopped what he was doing and carefully used his body to block the "contraband" on the desk.

Stay calm.

He absolutely could not be discovered.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed up his glasses and forced out a smile before turning around.

"So there was someone in the dorm after all? Haha."

It was actually Hao Tu.

What had he been doing silently hiding on the balcony?

With a dark expression, Hao Tu walked straight toward him.

Hui Jiang panicked and hurriedly stuffed the underwear from the desk into his pocket.

When he turned back, he found that his roommate's expression had become even darker.

"What's wrong with you?"

Hao Tu continued approaching.

He was five centimeters taller than Hui Jiang. When they confronted each other face-to-face, his height naturally created a sense of pressure.

He had never paid much attention to this roommate before. Now that he was up close, he realized the other man was quite fair and clean-looking. His skin was so smooth that his pores were almost invisible. His features were pleasant enough, and he looked decent.

Seeing him get closer and closer, Hui Jiang had no choice but to lean against his desk.

"Hao Tu, let's talk this out."

Hao Tu sneered at his words.

"Heh. You know better than anyone what you've done."

Cold sweat broke out on Hui Jiang's back.

"What are you talking about? I don't understand."

Hao Tu narrowed his eyes. A chilly aura radiated from him.

"Then keep pretending to be stupid!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he reached out, bypassed Hui Jiang, and grabbed directly for the discarded drafts on the desk.

"Don't—"

Hui Jiang sat down directly on top of the drafts and wrapped both arms around his roommate's arm.

"Hao Tu, things aren't what you think. I can explain."

"Let go!"

Hao Tu was horrified.

He tried to step back, but Hui Jiang was holding too tightly for him to pull his arm free.

Just as expected!

This guy was gay!

Shameless. A pervert!

Ever since middle school, Hao Tu had known that he was exceptionally handsome. To avoid being pursued by others, he always wore a pair of plain glasses when going out to hide his eyes.

But he had never imagined that after entering university, he would be secretly in love with by his roommate.

And that his roommate would collect his belongings in such a perverted way!

"Sorry."

Hui Jiang released him and nervously pressed down on the drafts beneath his butt.

What should he do now?!

Had Hao Tu seen him pick up the underwear too?

Hui Jiang's face grew paler and paler.

"I..."

"You are not allowed to speak!"

Hao Tu interrupted.

Hui Jiang obediently shut his mouth and frantically searched for an excuse he could use.

That trash system was going to get him killed this time!

The system played dead and ignored Hui Jiang completely.

"Get down."

Hao Tu's voice was cold and commanding.

His eyes were indeed very beautiful. Even when glaring in anger, they possessed a unique charm.

But Hui Jiang certainly did not think so right now.

He opened his mouth several times but failed to squeeze out a single word. In the end, he could only move aside and slide off the desk.

"Stand over there."

Hao Tu pointed.

"Don't come near me."

"Okay, okay."

Hui Jiang nodded and obediently left his desk.

Looking at how cautious his roommate was acting, he knew he had already been labeled a pervert.

Hao Tu took one large step to Hui Jiang's desk, picked up the discarded drafts, and flipped through them with a rustling sound.

The more he looked, the darker his expression became.

After stopping, he suspiciously turned his head and glared at Hui Jiang, as if confirming whether he had done anything inappropriate with them.

"Hao Tu."

"Don't call my name!"

Hao Tu reacted like a cat with its fur standing on end, almost ready to jump.

Covering his face, Hui Jiang nodded.

Then he heard the sound of his roommate opening the cabinet door.

Holy shit!

"Don't, don't, don't!!"

Hui Jiang rushed forward to stop him, but it was already too late.

Piles of discarded drafts surged out of the cabinet, pouring forth like a flood and scattering across both of their faces.

Hao Tu had been a germaphobe since birth.

The moment he thought about how these things had all been picked out of a trash basket, nausea immediately rose in his stomach.