Chapter 77

The sound at the table suddenly lowered, and everyone looked at Xu Shangxiu with meaningful eyes, thinking, "The minister just said she would protect her boyfriend, and a member stands up to propose a toast. How does Dan Rao lead her team?"

Xu Shangxiu's action made Bian Xuedao both happy and bitter. He was happy that Xu Shangxiu seemed to be a bit jealous of his relationship with Dan Rao, but he was bitter because in front of so many people, Bian Xuedao couldn't let down the deeply devoted Dan Rao.

Bian Xuedao used a trick he often used when drinking with colleagues in his past life, to divert attention.

Bian Xuedao said to Xu Shangxiu, "Put down your glass first. I'll tell a joke. If you guess the answer, we both drink a cup. If you don't guess it, I won't drink, and you don't have to either."

Gao Jian, afraid of ruining the atmosphere, immediately chimed in, "Quick, quick, I'll guess too. I'm just a drink lover, if I guess right, I'll drink with you."

Bian Xuedao started to tell the story: Two boys were pursuing the same girl. The girl found it hard to choose, so she said to both of them, "Travel the world and come back to me." One boy immediately packed his bags and was ready to leave, while the other boy circled around the girl and said a historic sentence, "You are my world!" The girl was deeply moved, and in the end... who do you think she chose?

Seeing everyone listening intently, Bian Xuedao intentionally changed "you" to "you two."

Xu Shangxiu frowned slightly, thinking about what Bian Xuedao meant by telling her this joke. Could he be hinting at "You are my world" in front of Minister Dan?

Before Xu Shangxiu could speak, everyone started guessing. Some said it was the boy who circled around the girl because he was wise, while others said it was the boy who immediately packed his bags because he was sincere and proactive.

Seeing that everyone had almost forgotten about Xu Shangxiu's toast, Bian Xuedao smiled and revealed the answer, "In the end, she chose the one who was the richest at home."

"Hey!" Everyone slapped the table and said, "You're not fair, this is clearly a trick question."

Bian Xuedao usually didn't like to talk much in such situations, but today he made an exception to divert attention from Xu Shangxiu. He smiled and said, "Alright, I'll tell another one that's not a trick question. But you have to answer quickly, only 3 seconds to think."

After saying that, Bian Xuedao took off his watch, put it in front of his eyes, and said, "This is a true story. A friend's younger brother was taking the middle school entrance exam and needed to write the word '恩惠' (favor). He couldn't write the character '惠', so he thought hard... Suddenly, he remembered that he brought a bottle of drink into the exam room, and the bottle cap often has '谢谢惠顾' (thank you for your patronage) written inside. He thought the '惠' in '恩惠' should be the same. He pretended to drink, opened the bottle cap, and almost fainted. Can you guess what he saw?"

After hearing Bian Xuedao's story, several people at the table stretched out their left palms to stop him, and pointed to their faces with their right index fingers, shouting, "Don't tell me, don't tell me, I know, I'm about to remember..."

Bian Xuedao glanced at his watch and, without waiting for them to remember, calmly said, "He saw '再来一瓶' (one more bottle) inside the bottle cap."

At this point, Xu Shangxiu's toast was completely diverted.

Everyone started to share their own jokes, but almost none of them could stump Bian Xuedao.

There was no way, as Bian Xuedao had worked for nearly 10 years, dealing with computers every day, and had plenty of time to browse various jokes online. It was very difficult for the people in 2003 to stump him in this area.

As Yang Enqiao and the people from the lily table came over to propose a toast, the original table-based setup was immediately disrupted. People from both tables started to pair up and compete, and at this moment, only Bian Xuedao was the most relaxed.

Dan Rao was also caught up by the literary minister who had been competing with her for three years. It looked like she wouldn't let her go without a few drinks.

Wu Tian pulled Xu Zhiyou and two others to the sofa in the rest area and asked them who they learned to play soccer from.

When Wu Tian heard that Xu Zhiyou's brother-in-law was a former first-tier player in the Jia A league, who retired due to injury and now barely made a living by renting books, he used the excuse of being tipsy to express deep emotion.

As he spoke, he rolled up his pants and pointed to his left ankle and the shin of his right leg, saying, "Here, here, and here, I have injuries. I'm still considered lucky. I didn't make much money, but I'm left with a body full of injuries. Listen to me, playing soccer is just for fun and exercise. Don't take it seriously, it's not worth it. Especially in the current soccer environment in China, sigh..."

Wu Tian pointed out the technical weaknesses of the three boys and shared some training tips and technical skills he had learned through experience.

The saying goes, "If you embroider a pair of mandarin ducks, don't give away the golden needle." Wu Tian did this partly because he was inspired by the alcohol and partly because he saw extraordinary soccer talent in the three boys through the match.

Wu Tian, a man who loved soccer from the bottom of his heart, although he was already disillusioned, still sincerely hoped that there would be more good seeds in the Chinese soccer circle.

Wu Tian, with a bit of chivalry, got the contact information of the three boys and promised to visit Xu Zhiyou's brother-in-law in a few days.

Although they had never met, they were in the same circle, and Wu Tian said he would visit after hearing about it. He also gave the address of the indoor soccer training field he operated to Xu Zhiyou and the others, saying, "You're welcome to come play, it's free."

After a few rounds of drinks, many people showed their true colors, chasing after the female student council members to pour out their hearts.

Dan Rao, who was being pushed to her limits by the literary minister, teamed up with a few members who could hold their liquor, and they kept pouring drinks for the literary minister and the girls from their department, determined to make the other side drink until they were convinced.

Although Bian Xuedao hadn't drunk any alcohol, he had drunk a lot of tea, and he got up to go to the bathroom.

At this moment, Dan Rao was too busy to pay attention to Bian Xuedao. She was desperately holding onto the literary minister, who was either truly drunk or pretending, and refused to let her rest.

Feeling bad and having drunk a lot, Xu Shangxiu saw Bian Xuedao leave the private room alone and, for some reason, found the courage to follow him out. She had only one thought in her mind: to ask Bian Xuedao, "What did you mean by finding me last year? What did you mean by sitting at the back door of 10A every day? What did you mean by copying a song lyric for me? What did you mean by giving me gifts a few times and then disappearing? Were you just playing with me because I was a freshman?"

With the alcohol in her head, Xu Shangxiu decided to get to the bottom of things with Bian Xuedao today.

However, when she walked out to the corridor and turned the corner, she didn't catch up with Bian Xuedao but saw Tao Qing.

Tao Qing, seeing Xu Shangxiu, excitedly grabbed her shoulders, "Shangxiu, why did you drink so much? Who made you come to drink with them?"

Xu Shangxiu, seeing Tao Qing, smiled foolishly, "Hey, Tao Qing, why are you here? Did they invite you? You came too late, they're almost done eating."

Tao Qing firmly supported Xu Shangxiu, "Come, let's go back to school!"

Xu Shangxiu seemed to be in pain from his grip and tried to free herself, "Let go of me, you're hurting me. I'm not going back, I still need to find him and ask him something."

Tao Qing immediately caught something from her words, "Who? Who are you going to ask?"

Xu Shangxiu didn't answer and increased her efforts to break free, "Tao Qing, let go of me!"

"Let her go!"

Tao Qing, hearing someone speak behind him, turned around angrily and saw it was Bian Xuedao. He released one hand but still held Xu Shangxiu's arm tightly, glaring at Bian Xuedao with fierce eyes, and pulled her towards the stairs.

Seeing Tao Qing dragging Xu Shangxiu like a chick, and seeing his wife from his past life helplessly trying to break free from Tao Qing's grip, Bian Xuedao felt his hair stand on end. He rushed forward and grabbed Tao Qing's neck with his right hand, "Let her go, did you hear me?"

Seeing Bian Xuedao take action, Tao Qing released Xu Shangxiu and freed both hands to fight back, but he clearly wasn't good at fighting.

Bian Xuedao kicked forward, sending Tao Qing to the edge of the stair railing. He grabbed Tao Qing's collar and tripped him, causing Tao Qing to crash into the corridor wall with a "bang."

Tao Qing, red-eyed from the beating, stood up and lunged at Bian Xuedao again.

Bian Xuedao sidestepped and kicked Tao Qing's calf, causing him to lose balance. Bian Xuedao grabbed Tao Qing's neck and, using his waist strength, slammed Tao Qing's face into the wall.

Seeing Tao Qing being beaten, Xu Shangxiu seemed to suddenly sober up. She screamed and rushed towards Bian Xuedao, pushing his chest and shouting, "What are you doing? Why are you fighting? Stop it!"