My Online Girlfriend Has a Twin Sister - Chapter 397 - 258: Even a Pervert Deserves Respect
“We’re here!”
Lu Yiyi slammed on the brakes. The electric tricycle’s brake cable went taut as a bowstring, and with a piercing SCREECH, the two rear wheels even felt like they were starting to drift.
The four passengers lurched forward from the inertia, fighting the urge to vomit as they shakily climbed out one by one.
“Senior…” Liu Nan clutched a nearby stone railing, bending over and pressing on his stomach. “The way you drive… it feels like I was on a roller coaster.”
“Thrilling, right?” Lu Yiyi, completely unabashed, clapped him on the shoulder and chuckled, taking it as a compliment. “Haha, I’m quite confident in my driving skills.”
“Senior, you don’t happen to race go-karts as a hobby, do you?”
“Oh! Something like that. I can drive both tricycles and tractors back home. I learned when I was sixteen.”
“Tractors!?”
The guys were stunned. They scrutinized Lu Yiyi, who stood on the steps, brushing her hair back. She exuded an artsy aura. Her floral dress and long hair fluttered in the wind, and a pink hair tie was looped casually around her fair wrist.
If you looked closely, you could see a small mole on the left side of the bridge of her nose.
No matter how they looked at her, her aura reminded them of that one girl in high school—the pretty, well-off one who sat in the middle of the class, her every move capturing the attention of all the boys. It was impossible to connect that image with a… wild tractor driver.
Liu Nan’s mouth twitched. He’d been planning to hit on her and ask for her contact information, but now he was having second thoughts.
“My family owns a lot of land, so I often had to help out. I used to get super tan,” Lu Yiyi said, waving her wrist. “We’ve hired more hands in recent years, so I don’t have to go through that anymore. See? My skin has gotten fair again.”
“So your family are big-time landowners?”
“Not really. It’s nothing major.”
Lu Yiyi led the way, climbing several steps to the entrance of a building in the far corner of the Art Academy. Before her stood four incredibly thick marble pillars with simple patterns carved into their bases.
It was then that Chen Yuan finally took notice, marveling at the building before him.
It was evening, and the sun was setting. A few sparse clouds drifted across a vast, gentle blue sky. The four-story building had a massive footprint, flanked on each side by two shorter, adjacent structures. It had red-tiled roofs and stone walls, with uniform windows set at regular intervals. Below, the main entrance was steeped in shadow; above, a terrace was bathed in the last rays of sunlight.
The four corners of the building featured upward-curving eaves, their sharp tips forming a gentle arc. Countless sparrows, like scattered sesame seeds, dotted the red tiles, preening their feathers or suddenly taking flight.
The building, steeped in artistic flair, clearly had some age to it; the marble pillars were weathered and ancient. Lush green trees surrounded it, and a small pond sat out front. The only issue was the steps, which were overgrown with calf-high weeds that no one had bothered to clear.
“Hold on, I’ll call security,” Lu Yiyi said, pulling out her keys. “My key opens the exhibition hall inside, but I can’t open the main gate since it’s locked.”
“Is the security that strict?”
“Of course. The things inside are extremely valuable—all paintings by famous artists. Even this building itself. It was designed by Mr. Wu Liangyong, a famous alumnus of our Landa University.”
Lu Yiyi spoke with casual confidence.
Chen Yuan, however, found himself curious about the small pond up ahead. Since waiting was boring anyway, he jogged over by himself to see if there were any fish in it.
He walked forward, parting the messy weeds and descending the steps. Right in front of him stood a “No Fishing” sign.
And yet, right at the edge of the pond, an old man was sitting on a small folding stool, leisurely fishing.
Next to him were a white plastic bucket, a box of earthworms, and a thermos of tea.
In pure defiance of campus rules.
Chen Yuan found it rather amusing. He drew closer to watch the old man, who, despite his white hair and beard, seemed hale and hearty. He watched him raise and lower his rod, skillfully baiting the hook with an earthworm.
The old man noticed someone beside him and glanced over, but he paid Chen Yuan no mind and continued fishing for several more minutes.
Suddenly, the old man reeled in his line and deftly picked up his folding stool.
“It’s getting late. Time to head home for dinner. Today’s haul was pretty good.”
Curiosity flickered in Chen Yuan’s eyes. As he observed the man, he got the impression of someone with a serene, detached air—likely a master angler with superb skills. What impressed him even more was that the man clearly had no intention of keeping his catch. Instead, he muttered, “What comes from the pond, returns to the pond,” and proceeded to dump the entire contents of his bucket back into the water.
’Such a profound mindset!’
Chen Yuan’s eyes shone with a sudden, deep admiration.
Until… the old man finished pouring everything out, and Chen Yuan saw that there wasn’t a single fish. It was just a bucket full of pond water!
’So after all that, the guy got skunked! And here he was acting all profound and enlightened… I really thought he was on some higher plane…’
Maybe it wasn’t that it was getting late, but that he simply couldn’t catch anything. Add to that the fact that someone was watching, and the old man probably couldn’t handle the embarrassment, so he’d grabbed his stool and bolted.
“Yuan, the door’s open! We’re going to move the stuff,” Wei Zhen shouted from a distance.
“Coming!”
After an hour of fussing, they finally followed Lu Yiyi into the exhibition hall. The moment they stepped inside, a pleasant coolness washed over them. They’d felt it seeping out when the door was first opened. The entire corridor was dim and deep. Since the hall was closed to the public year-round, it was no surprise that it was cool and deserted.
’Good architecture is frozen art.’ The building had many ingenious design elements. Chen Yuan looked all around, taking everything in with obvious interest.
Their footsteps echoed as they walked to the second-to-last room on the second floor. Lu Yiyi pulled a long chain of keys from her pocket with a JANGLE, muttering, “I think it’s this one. Let me check the number.”
“Senior, can our little cart even fit more than a dozen paintings?”
“I’m not sure. It really depends on which ones you take. Some are so big you can only fit one, but for the smaller ones, fitting forty or even fifty is no problem. But you guys have to be really careful when you move them. Make sure you don’t damage them.”
“Got it, got it.”
“And you have to return them in perfect condition later on.”
CLICK. As they spoke, Lu Yiyi unlocked the door, pushed it open, and followed the others inside. The room was surprisingly clean—spotless, even.
“Minister Liu sent you guys the serial numbers, right?”
“Yeah, let me find them.”
Chen Yuan pulled out his phone, intending to swipe over to Green Bubble to find the chat log. But his fingers moved too fast, and he accidentally opened a short-video app instead.
And then, a voice blared from the speakers at maximum volume.
“Having a foot fetish is not a sign of psychological deviancy. It can be understood as a normal preference, not so different from being attracted to legs or pretty faces. Humans naturally gravitate toward beautiful things—”
Chen Yuan’s eyes widened, and his whole body went stiff.
The guys admiring the paintings up ahead all whipped their heads around. Lu Yiyi happened to be standing right next to him.
In that instant, you could have heard a pin drop in the hall. The atmosphere was frozen with awkwardness.
Chen Yuan had forgotten that he’d cranked the volume to max while listening to music earlier… He slowly brought a hand to his forehead and said in a strained voice, “My bad.”
“Uh… it’s fine. We can understand your preferences, Chen. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Lu Yiyi said, patting his shoulder in earnest consolation.
“I’m not saying *I’m* embarrassed! I’m saying I clicked the wrong thing! Wait, what do you mean you ’understand’?”
“It’s all the same.”
“There’s a huge difference! Hey, why are you giving me that ’I’ll respect you even if you’re a creep’ look? I’m not into that stuff! It just popped up on my feed!”
“Sure, sure, sure.” Lu Yiyi nodded emphatically, though it was clearly just to humor him.
