Chapter 8 - 8 8 The Powder Keg Dormitory

Words : 1106 Updated : Sep 16th, 2025

8: Chapter 8: The Powder Keg Dormitory 8: Chapter 8: The Powder Keg Dormitory Opposite the bicycle shed lay the boys’ dormitory. Searᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The boys’ dormitory came in two types. One was a large communal room, about the size of a classroom, filled with bunk beds and leaving only a narrow corridor for entry and exit. Each room could house about 40 people. The sole advantage of this type of dormitory was its low accommodation fee. The other type was an eight-person room with four bunk beds, chosen only by students who stayed at the school long-term; it was cleaner, more hygienic, and more spacious, but also relatively more expensive. The communal rooms constituted the vast majority. Luo Yang, carrying his belongings, looked for the communal dormitory he was assigned to. He searched from the first floor to the second, and then from the second to the third, finally finding his dormitory. “Niu Zai! I’m in the same dormitory as you,” Xiao Daniu said happily. Luo Yang squinted at the list posted at the entrance of the dormitory. When he saw the name “Wu Guangde,” Luo Yang thought to himself that enemies were fated to cross paths. Wu Guangde was from Donggang Brigade, nicknamed Big Bear, one of the “Top Ten Dunces” in the ninth grade, and had always had a bad relationship with Luo Yang at school. Among the ninth-grade students at Dongfeng Middle School, there weren’t many from Donggang Brigade. After glancing at the accommodation list just once, Luo Yang noticed that almost all the ninth-grade boys from Donggang Brigade were staying in dormitory 305. “Shui Niu, look.” Luo Yang pointed at the list and laughed. “What?” Xiao Daniu glanced at where Luo Yang was pointing and said indifferently. They hadn’t even entered the dormitory when they could already hear Wu Guangde’s distinctive duck-quack voice. Entering the dormitory, they were greeted by a musty odor. Wu Guangde and a few boys from Donggang Brigade were bragging away. Seeing Luo Yang and Xiao Daniu come in, they all looked over coldly. Not a trace of friendliness, but heavy with hostility. In the entire ninth grade, there were few who could match Xiao Daniu’s strength, and although Wu Guangde was a few centimeters shorter, he was not the least bit less muscular. Just looking at his thick neck and Popeye-like arms, many students were afraid of him. The dormitory suddenly fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop, every inch of air thick with the smell of gunpowder. There were several wall fans inside, and the beds closest to the fans had been claimed quickly, leaving only two beds in the darkest corner at the far end. September in the south was still quite hot, and without a fan, it felt like turning into a stick of dry sausage. “Damn it! I don’t have a fan to cool off with! We need to reassign the beds!” Xiao Daniu said, glaring around. Most of the people weren’t in the dormitory, and Wu Guangde’s group pretended they heard nothing. “Let’s go check out the classroom first, and deal with this later. What’s the hurry? It’s not like the beds are going to grow legs and run away,” Luo Yang said as he set down his water bucket on an empty bed and whistled his way out of the dormitory. Descending the stairs and walking west along the school path led to the teaching building area. Each year, classes would be reshuffled, and to see which class you were in, you had to check out the teaching building. On their way, they bumped into many old classmates from grades seven and eight. They’d chat for a bit upon meeting, walking and stopping, and what should’ve been a three-minute walk stretched into more than ten minutes. The classrooms for the ninth grade were distributed across the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors of Building A. He went up the stairs on the left, started checking on the fourth floor, and then proceeded to the fifth. In front of classroom 9(5), Luo Yang found his name, “Luo Yang,” on the list of students posted on the wall. “Niu Zai! I’m in the same class as you again!” Xiao Daniu said, excitedly wrapping an arm around Luo Yang’s shoulder and shaking him. “You disaster magnet, always in the same class as me; every year we both make the top three, alerting the CPC Central Committee.” “Haha…” Squinting his eyes to finish reading the list for class 9(5), Luo Yang whispered to himself, “Wow, this is huge! Five professional dunces in the same class!” When Luo Yang saw the name “Hong Jiaxin,” he laughed. Hong Jiaxin was a bona fide, top-notch scholar, always ranking first in exams every term and known as the school beauty, a dazzling view at Dongfeng Middle School. She was nicknamed Hua Mulan because she had practiced martial arts from a young age, was quite good with her fists, and no boy dared to show off in front of her, or he’d definitely end up with panda eyes. “Shui Niu, you’re doomed. There’s a female scholar in the same class as you, the dunce. You won’t be able to cope.” “Isn’t she also in the same class as you, the dunce?” “I hear she’s a fierce tiger. We need to be very careful…” Before he could finish speaking, he heard Xiao Daniu “haha” loudly laughing along with the other students snickering nearby. “Niu Zai, you’re in trouble now!” Turning his head, Luo Yang felt a surge of infinite embarrassment and wished for a crack in the ground to swallow him up. Hong Jiaxin was standing right behind him! “Shui Niu! This ‘female tiger’ you mentioned is just a paper tiger,” Luo Yang pointed at the name “Xiao Daniu” on the list. “I’m a male,” Xiao Daniu corrected. Taking another look at Hong Jiaxin, he saw her pretty face covered in frost, thankfully with a faint smile lingering at the corners of her mouth. “I wasn’t talking about you; I was talking about Xiao Daniu,” Luo Yang explained. Hong Jiaxin remained unmoved by Luo Yang’s explanation, hands on her hips, her gaze growing colder. “Shui Niu, let’s talk about something back at the dormitory.” “Niu Zai, the female scholar is still glaring at you, the dunce. You’re done for.” Amidst the laughter, Luo Yang beat a hasty retreat from the scene.

Chapter 8 - 8 8 The Powder Keg Dormitory

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