Chapter 98: Ashes and Dust for the Mighty Fleet

“Spit it out already! Are you trying to drive me mad?”

At this point, Zhang Shen could wait no longer. Faced with Meng Ran’s hesitation, he felt an urge to strangle the man on the spot.

“Brother Zhang, I threw that black bag into the trash can.”

“What...”

Zhang Shen could hardly believe his ears. How could that fat fool have casually tossed the black bag away as if it were garbage?

“Damn it, what the hell were you doing? That bag isn’t mine, you fat idiot.”

“Brother Zhang, I saw you go out, and I got a little lonely and restless, so I couldn’t help myself and dug up a few videos to look at. Before I knew it, I’d lost control and wasted a lot of tissue. And there wasn’t a trash bag in the dorm, so I dumped all the tissue with, you know, what was in it, into that bag.”

Zhang Shen held back his rage and listened in silence until Meng Ran finished.

The very last second Meng Ran stopped speaking, Zhang Shen could no longer contain himself and shoved the fat man aside. Meng Ran’s own bulk served as a cushion, and though he landed heavily on the floor, nothing serious happened.

Zhang Shen immediately sprinted to the trash can by the stairwell. Luckily, the black bag was sitting on top. But what he saw next nearly made him retch.

The can was full of used tissues and all sorts of unidentifiable trash. Zhang Shen didn’t know whether he should even pick the bag up. Though it had been given to him voluntarily by Huang Wanting, he had already admitted the item was in his possession. If he didn’t retrieve it now, that lie would be hard to make work.

With no other choice, Zhang Shen lifted the black bag from the trash can, and he could clearly feel that it seemed a bit heavier than before.

“Damn it, that fat bastard doesn’t value his own life at all. Just how much tissue did he stuff in here?”

At the thought, Zhang Shen wanted nothing more than to go back to the dorm, drag Meng Ran out, and make him clean the filthy contents out of the bag himself.

For now, though, Zhang Shen had no time to spare, and Huang Wanting was still waiting downstairs. On the other hand, he was also relieved that she had not followed him. If she saw the state of his bag, who knew what reckless thing she might do.

Zhang Shen unzipped it and carefully tipped the black bag over. One tissue wad after another tumbled out.

At the sight, Zhang Shen was already furious enough to curse the heavens.

He really didn’t dare hand the black bag directly back to Huang Wanting like this. So he ran back to the dorm again, grabbed a plastic basin, poured in some laundry detergent, then quickly soaked the bag in it. After that, he rinsed it thoroughly twice inside and out with clean water before he finally dared go downstairs to meet Huang Wanting.

After all, in Zhang Shen’s opinion, a little smell was better than a stench.

Once downstairs, Zhang Shen saw Huang Wanting pacing back and forth, looking impatient.

“I’m here!”

Zhang Shen waved the wet black bag in his hand to show her.

“Why did you take so long? How long does it take to fetch a bag?”

“You girl, once I hand the gold card back to you, your temper just grows and grows, doesn’t it? If I’d known you were this kind of person, I never would have given you that gold card.”

“Hmph, you dare! If you don’t give it back to me, I’ll send the letter to the Education Bureau.”

When Huang Wanting snorted like that, Zhang Shen did not think she looked angry at all. On the contrary, she seemed a little playful and endearing.

“Fine then, I’d be delighted. Whoever backs out first is a puppy.”

Huang Wanting clearly felt she had walked into Zhang Shen’s trap, so she did not continue. Instead, she changed the subject and said, “Hurry up and give me back my bag.”

Seeing her hold out her hand, Zhang Shen passed her the black bag that had just “finished its bath.”

“Why is it wet?”

Huang Wanting looked stunned. By rights, it shouldn’t have been. The weather had been sunny these past two days, and besides, this was a girl’s bag. How could a grown man casually wash her bag for no reason?

“It looked filthy, so I took pity on it and washed it while I was doing laundry last night.”

The moment he said it, Zhang Shen regretted it himself.

Just thinking of that black bag, stained not only with the filth of the trash but, even worse, with the fat man’s hopes for the next generation, made him feel sick. Even though he had soaked it in detergent, that didn’t mean the bag was truly clean.

As for Huang Wanting, she was no fool. She did not think Zhang Shen was the sort of person who liked to do housework. And for someone who could haggle with her over a single gold card, she now had to be a little more cautious.

Huang Wanting lifted the black bag and brought it to her nose. The instant she sniffed it, she let out a cry and nearly threw up.

“What on earth is this smell? It stinks so badly. What did you do to my bag?”

Zhang Shen had been confident that after a wash with laundry detergent, the black bag should at least have lost some of its harsh odor. Could it be that Huang Wanting was deliberately trying to trick him?

Still unconvinced, Zhang Shen took the bag from her hands. The moment he smelled it himself, he nearly gagged. He had not expected the stench to be this unbearable.

By now, Zhang Shen had already beaten Meng Ran in his head more than eight hundred times.

At the same time, faced with Huang Wanting’s accusation, he simply could not tell the truth.

Seeing that she could get no answer out of him, Huang Wanting no longer wanted to tangle with Zhang Shen. She turned on her heel and stormed off.

“Your bag...”

Zhang Shen called after her retreating back, but Huang Wanting paid him no mind.

At this moment, Zhang Shen knew full well that the true culprit behind all this was Meng Ran. If not for that fat man’s malicious meddling, none of this nonsense would have happened.

The more Zhang Shen thought about it, the more he felt he had nowhere to vent his anger. So after returning to the dorm with the bag, he hurled the foul black thing at Meng Ran.

“Fatty, you made this mess yourself. You clean it up.”

Seeing Zhang Shen’s menacing expression, Meng Ran knew immediately that this had seriously affected him.

In Meng Ran’s heart, however, Zhang Shen was the only guiding light on the road to his own happiness. So any request Zhang Shen made, Meng Ran accepted gladly, including washing this black bag clean.

Very obediently, Meng Ran picked up the bag from the floor and went back to the washroom, where he began washing the black bag he had once “ruined” all over again.

Thinking back on what Meng Ran had done, Zhang Shen scolded him aloud. “If one wash isn’t enough, wash it ten times. Keep washing until there’s no smell left.”

Meng Ran, for his part, did nothing but nod and agree, showing not the slightest intention of resistance.