My hometown is far away in Moscow.

045 You must be Xiao Wang!

"A tall,... Chinese guy!" Peng Song gasped for breath. "Feifei... Feifei is outside..."

Another banging on the door, followed by a hysterical shout: "Open the door now! If you don't open it, I'll kick it down! I really will!" The voice sounded familiar.

"Who the hell is so arrogant?" Hu Yi muttered to himself, his face darkening as he pulled Peng Song behind him. He gently unlocked the door, just as the person outside kicked it. The lock, not yet fully retracted, scraped against the edge of the latch, and with a "crack," the wooden door frame split open diagonally, and the door panel was also cracked. The person had exerted too much force and was nearly split in half by the sudden opening of the door. He staggered a few steps and fell into Hu Yi's arms. It was Wang Shen.

Wang Shen didn't live in Building 6; he was invited to celebrate the holiday tonight by other preparatory students. These new students had received a lot of help from him during their enrollment procedures, and at the dinner table, they were treated like royalty, with everyone taking turns toasting him. Wang Shen drank until his stomach swelled up, then hummed a little tune as he went to the restroom to urinate.

Turning around to pull up his pants and head out, Wang Shen bumped into Peng Song, who stumbled into the bathroom. Wang Shen took a step back, about to lash out, when he saw Peng Song's throat tremble slightly, and he vomited with a loud "Ouch!"

Wang Shen couldn't dodge in time, and his shoes and trouser legs were splattered with filth. He couldn't help but yell angrily, "Hey! Where are you spitting? Don't you have eyes?"

Peng Song, hands on his knees, gasped for breath, feeling another wave of nausea in his chest. Forgetting all about apologizing, he kept walking forward, head down, wanting to vomit by the pool. Seeing him stumble towards him, Wang Shen quickly grabbed Peng Song's head and shoved him aside, yelling, "Get out of here!"

Peng Song was so drunk he could barely stand, and with a cry of "Ouch!" he fell flat on his back. Hearing the cry, Wang Shen, now certain he was Chinese, walked over to Peng Song, still seething with anger: "Look at you! Disgusting! You're such a wimp! Get yourself cleaned up right now!"

Peng Song was dizzy from the fall. He struggled to lie on his side to catch his breath. When he saw the big blond man staring at him fiercely, he could only barely brush his sleeve across the man's shoes.

The vomit smelled so pungent that Peng Song, lying on the ground, couldn't hold it in and spat it out again. Fortunately, Wang Shen was prepared this time and managed to dodge it in time.

"You little bastard! Are you doing this on purpose?" Wang Shen was furious. He covered his nose and kicked Peng Song a couple of times, then turned on the tap and rinsed himself off while cursing. He then turned and walked out.

Just as he stepped out of the restroom, Wang Shen saw Yu Feifei turning the corner from the stairwell. He immediately greeted her with a beaming smile, "Hey! Isn't this Feifei? What a coincidence! What brings you to Building 6?"

Yu Feifei and Wang Shen were in the same year but different departments. Sometimes they would run into each other at school, and Wang Shen would often strike up a conversation with a joking smile. Yu Feifei didn't really like his sleazy manner, but she was flustered by Li Baoqing's confession and didn't know how to face him when she got back to her room, so she stopped and smiled slightly: "Yes, what a coincidence, I came to visit a friend."

"You have friends in preparatory school?" Wang Shen frowned and smiled. "Oh, yes, yes, there are two lads from Maji. Do you know them?"

Yu Feifei nodded: "Yes, we'll have dinner together tonight. What about you?"

"Me too. A bunch of my preparatory school juniors invited me for drinks. It's Christmas Eve, so I came to celebrate." Wang Shen leaned against the wall, tossing his long hair with a self-satisfied air. "Come on, why don't you sit at our table?"

"No need, they're still waiting for me inside." Yu Feifei took a step to leave, but Wang Shen stretched out his arm to stop her with a grin: "Hey, what's the rush? Come with me to meet some new friends and have a few drinks."

Yu Feifei's face darkened slightly, and she was about to refuse when she suddenly saw Peng Song walking slowly towards her from the opposite side, looking exhausted. His clothes were wet, and there were two dark footprints on his stomach.

"Peng Song? What's wrong with you?" Yu Feifei asked curiously.

"Feifei?" Peng Song stopped and turned to look at Wang Shen, blinking timidly a few times.

Wang Shenchong chuckled dryly at Yu Feifei a few times: "What? This kid... is he also your friend?"

"Yes, we were classmates in Maji."

"Everyone from Maji is someone important!" Wang Shen squinted his triangular eyes, drunk. "That little bastard just threw up on my shoe in the toilet. Look, he's still covered in filth. Look at him, so dirty!"

Yu Feifei glanced at Wang Shen with displeasure, but Wang Shen didn't notice. Taking advantage of his drunkenness, he reached out and pulled her arm: "Come on, let's go sit in our room for a while. Don't pay any attention to this ugly thing."

"I'm not going." Yu Feifei tried to break free, but couldn't, and was involuntarily pulled forward a step. Peng Song, seeing this, flew into a rage, and said in a trembling voice, "Let...let her go!"

"What the hell?" Wang Shen frowned and turned to look at Peng Song, but unexpectedly, Peng Song suddenly lowered his head and buried his face in Wang Shen's chest. Wang Shen cried out "Ouch!" as he was pushed against the wall. Peng Song then jumped up and swung his arm, delivering a resounding slap to Wang Shen's face: "Smack!"

"Ah!" Yu Feifei screamed in fright. Peng Song landed on his feet, turned around and ran towards Hu Yi and Li Baoqing's room. Wang Shen's head was buzzing from the slap he received from Peng Song's thick, chubby hand. Ignoring Yu Feifei's attempts to stop him, he cursed and chased after Peng Song, kicking open the door, only to fall headfirst into Hu Yi's arms.

Hu Yi grabbed Wang Shen by the arms to steady him, then shoved him out the door, angrily saying, "Are you out of your mind, kid?"

Wang Shen, a bright red handprint on his left cheek and bloodshot eyes, stood on tiptoe to look behind Hu Yi: "Where's that fat guy?! Tell that little brat to get out here!"

Peng Song huddled in the corner, not daring to utter a sound. Hu Yi frowned and said, "Who's the little brat? What do you want?"

"What did I want to do?!" Wang Shen pointed angrily at his face. "I was chatting with my classmate in the hallway when this guy came up to me and started beating me up without saying a word! Look at my face! Look! It's red, isn't it? It's definitely red!"

Hu Yi pretended to cradle his neck and stare at Wang Shen for a few moments, then almost burst out laughing: "Which fat guy? The person you're looking for isn't in this room."

"You're talking nonsense! I saw him go into the house with my own eyes!" Wang Shen gasped for breath, then his expression suddenly changed. He stared at Hu Yi and sneered, "Oh, I see, you're all Maji's. Hehe, you're that... that... Hu Yi, right?" He deliberately pronounced Hu Yi's name in the swear words of Russian, full of provocation.

Since the minor altercation during the entrance physical exam, Hu Yi and Wang Shen hadn't had any contact. Occasionally, they'd bump into each other on the street, exchange a glance without speaking, but they'd already figured out each other's backgrounds. Hu Yi smiled faintly: "That's right. If you find that inappropriate, you can call me Anton. I know you, you're Xiao Wang, right?"

"Xiao Wang! There's no 'right'!" Wang Shen's expression changed, and he curled his lip. "Why are you so gossipy?"

"Alright, Xiao Wang." Hu Yi chuckled and pointed to the cracked door frame. "It's Christmas Eve, and you've come all this way to kick down my door. What do you mean by that?"

Wang Shen turned his head impatiently: "Stop talking nonsense! It's all that fat guy's fault! Make him come out here!"

At this moment, the male students from the preparatory course who had been eating with Wang Shen rushed over upon hearing the news. They surrounded him behind him, whispering amongst themselves with surprise and uncertainty, while the female students who had come to visit watched anxiously from a distance.

Yu Feifei tried to quell the situation by squeezing through the crowd, but Wang Shen, having been thoroughly outmaneuvered, refused to back down and blocked Hu Yi's door, refusing to give up. The foreigners in the other rooms also stood in front of their respective doors to watch the commotion, some even adding fuel to the fire with drunken shouts.

Seeing that the originally cheerful night had turned into such a disturbance, Li Baoqing stepped forward and said loudly, "Alright, alright, we're all Chinese, let's all restrain ourselves and talk things out. Let's not let the foreigners laugh at us."

Hu Yi also intended to let the matter drop, so he called Peng Song to his side and pointed at Wang Shen: "You really beat him up?"

Peng Song kept his head down and remained silent. Seeing that he agreed, Hu Yi asked again, "Why did you beat him up?"

"He...he...he bullied me!" Peng Song said indignantly.

"Don't talk nonsense!" Wang Shen was both angry and anxious. "You spat all over me, and all I did was scratch you a couple of times. How did I bully you? Did you have to slap me across the face like that?"

Peng Song straightened his back and glared at Wang Shen: "He, he even flirted with Fei Fei! That's why I hit...hit him."

"What the hell? You flirted with me?" Wang Shen looked at Yu Feifei with disbelief, as if he had been greatly wronged. "Feifei! To be fair, I flirted with you..."

Before he could even utter the word "ma," Li Baoqing suddenly roared, "You bastard!" and a fist came flying from the side, hitting Wang Shen squarely on the left cheek.

Wang Shen let out a muffled groan and flew backward, luckily being caught by a preparatory student behind him before falling. A commotion erupted in the corridor, and Yu Feifei rushed forward to stop Li Baoqing: "Baoqing! Don't hit people!"

"He...he actually dared...dared to do that to you..." Li Baoqing trembled with anger.

"That's not true! Don't listen to Peng Song's nonsense! We only exchanged a few words!" Yu Feifei stamped her feet anxiously. "You're all drunk! All of you are drunk!"

Li Baoqing, trained in throwing events, possessed upper body and core strength far exceeding that of his peers. Wang Shen, dazed and confused from the beating, took a long time to regain his balance, his face contorted with grief as he covered half his face and cried out, "This is too much! This is too much! I... I'll beat you all to death!"

Despite his loud shouts, Wang Shen was actually quite wary of the two men before him. Hu Yi was alright, merely possessing a somewhat domineering aura, but Li Baoqing truly intimidated him; his ferocious, ugly face alone was enough to deter anyone from looking at him for long. Therefore, although he shouted several times, he remained standing still.

However, the shouting did have an effect. The five or six preparatory students had also drunk quite a bit that night, and now, seeing their beloved Brother Wang being humiliated and beaten, they were immediately enraged and surrounded him, shouting their rebukes. Two of them, who were the most emotional, pushed and shoved Li Baoqing and started hurling insults at him, and it looked like they were about to come to blows.

Hu Yi was both angry and amused. It was Li Baoqing who had suggested that everyone "restrain themselves," but unexpectedly, he had lost his temper and started throwing punches. Seeing that both sides were losing their temper, Hu Yi was worried that things would escalate, so he quickly pulled Li Baoqing and Yu Feifei into the house and blocked the doorway himself.

Li Baoqing's punch to Wang Shen was purely impulsive. After entering the house, he was scolded by Yu Feifei, and feeling slightly guilty, he kept his head down and remained silent. The preparatory students outside saw him hiding in the house, cursing without retaliating, and felt that they had the upper hand in terms of both reason and emotion. They blocked the doorway and refused to let it go, determined to get justice.

With things having escalated to this point, Hu Yi had no choice but to lean against the doorframe, blocking the way for everyone. He was inwardly cursing and swearing, but outwardly he forced a smile and tried to smooth things over, his expression extremely unnatural: "Brothers! He's had too much to drink, please don't hold it against him. What happened tonight was purely accidental. Let's talk about it tomorrow when he's sober! Please, give me some face and go back inside, okay?"