In the next two days, Zhu Tong truly experienced what it means to be attended hands-and-feet.
The wound on his leg looked serious at the time, but because of his careful attention, it basically scabbed over the next day. After the scab had fallen off, the wound didn’t hurt as much. However, it did look worrying.
Zhu Tong tried to apply medicine by himself several times, but Shao Ming threatened to tattle Uncle Liu if he did that.
Holding a chicken feather as if it was an actual arrow1“拿着鸡毛当令箭” a colloquial expression that means someone who takes something insignificant or trivial too seriously, mistaking it for something more important or authoritative. It conveys the idea of exaggerating the significance of a small matter..
And it was effective – Zhu Tong, indeed, was only afraid of Uncle Liu.
After two more days in the homestay, the wound finally healed. At that point, Zhu Tong was finally able to put his pants on and walk like a normal person.
In fact, after the initial embarrassment was relieved, Zhu Tong quickly got used to Shao Ming carrying him around. However, it was inconvenient when he wanted to change clothes.
It’s hard to maneuver things like that in the bathroom, so every time, it was Shao Ming who took care of all of it, um… including his underwear.
He did push against it again and again. He did not want to fall to the point of having someone else wash his underwear.
On the last day of the National Day holiday, Shao Ming went to work at the milk tea shop. The part-time girls, who were service staff, approached him, and only on their last day of part-time work did they finally meet their target. They eagerly asked for a group photo, but Shao Ming used “already taken2og: having a “Master”” as an excuse to decline.
He then met Luo Suo, who also came back to work part-time. His friend noticed Shao Ming repeatedly declined the requests of the young girls without changing his excuses, causing him to feel somewhat surprised. He asked, “You used to come up with all sorts of excuses when refusing to take photos. Why are you so monotonous now? Have you run out of clever ideas?”
Shao Ming casually replied, “This is easier to use.”
Luo Suo: “…”
‘So what if it’s easy to use? What if someone asks whom you have already taken with?’
Suddenly thinking of a person, Luo Suo said suspiciously, “You… aren’t really taken, are you?”
In fact, he wanted to directly ask him of what’s going on between him and Zhu Tong. During the National Day holiday, his Ming-ge accompanied Zhu Tong to finish his homework for several days at the homestay!
Spending the National Day at home doing practice questions, he was at a loss on how to tease this Wei Guangzheng3Wei Guangzheng (伟光正) refers to the abbreviation of three words: greatness (伟大), honor (光荣), and proper (正确). Wei Guangzheng is synonymous with narcissistic person in slang. It expresses Luo Suo’s (the speaker) contempt for the uncooperative Shao Ming (the subject) guy.
Shao Ming asked him back, “What do you think?”
Luo Suo said, “What?”
Shao Ming smiled: “Do I look like someone who’s already taken?”
Luo Suo: “…yeah.”
Not only like, but he also looked like a man with an extra-strict kind of wife.
He even declined taking a group photo with other people!
Shao Ming raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t deny anything.
Luo Suo’s heart thumped even more. He looked around the milk tea shop and didn’t see any familiar faces. Perplexed, he asked, “Why didn’t Zhu Tong come today? Is his leg injury still not healed?”
Shao Ming turned around and filled a cup of milk tea, smiled inexplicably, and said, “He… ah, he won’t come today.”
Luo Suo said, “Why?”
Shao Ming smiled and said nothing.
Luo Suo didn’t dare to ask. He felt that the smile on this guy’s face was a bit mean, so he prepared himself to not hold back his tongue once he’s able to reply.
Shao Ming handed a cup of milk tea to the customer before continuing, “Because there is no need for tomatoes in this milk tea shop.”
Luo Suo: “?”
‘What tomatoes? What’s the deal with tomatoes?’
—Because Zhu Tong’s face now looks like a tomato.
Before going out in the morning, Shao Ming made breakfast and went into the room to call a certain someone, but found that the door was not closed.
Zhu Tong was used to not wearing pants these two days. After getting up in the morning, he thought about going out today, so he planned to make his bed, folding his quilt and blanket. Then, at this moment, his door was pushed open.
Shao Ming was standing at the door of the room, staring intently at the youth’s long white legs, and especially, a certain place that was half-hidden by his long sleep shirt.
They fell silent for a few seconds.
Then, Zhu Tong’s face immediately burned, truly like a ripe tomato.
And so, their plan of going outside together fell through, resulting in only one of them going out.
Shao Ming was distressed for a moment, thinking about doing something later to coax that certain tomato.
As for Zhu Tong, he regretted his decision after Shao Ming went out, as he was bored out of his mind.
He was thinking about finding an excuse to go to the milk tea shop when he suddenly received a call.
He blankly stared at the caller ID, to whom it belonged to a man who had not contacted him for more than a month. With a frown, he answered the call. “…Dad?”
The voice on the phone was as gentle as always, “Tongtong, how are you feeling after transferring to another school? Dad was too busy to call you during this time.”
Zhu Tong raised his eyebrows and replied, “I’m fine. Grandpa has arranged everything well. You don’t have to worry about it.”
“…”
After a moment of silence on the phone, he continued, “Yes, you definitely don’t have to worry about your arrangements over there. Dad wants to ask you, are you still getting used to the school over there? Have you made any new friends?”
New friends?
Zhu Tong lowered his eyes slightly as he replied, “My classmates are all very good to me, none of them made me uncomfortable.”
“Is that so?” Zhu Shoushan paused for moment, “Then if you ever feel uncomfortable, you must tell Dad. Dad will help you transfer back to A City. In fact, if you want to experience a dormitory life, you don’t have to be at the school there, there’s this school in A City…”
“No need, Dad.” Zhu Tong said, “I really like the school here, and I don’t want to transfer for the time being.”
After saying that he didn’t want to transfer to another school, Zhu Tong obviously heard the sound of breathing from the receiver getting heavier, before quickly recovering to normal. “Alright, if you like it, you can stay for a way. It’s just your body… be mindful of what’s happening in the school. When you have time, you can come back for a check-up. Dad is very worried that you suddenly transferred to such a faraway place. So, can you assure your father by doing the check-up?”
“…”
Zhu Tong probably knew what he meant.
He wanted Zhu Tong to go back to A City.
But why?
Why would a man who didn’t contact him for months since he transferred here suddenly asked him to go back?
Zhu Tong didn’t believe it was because of his health.
He calmly replied, “I see, I will go back for a check-up then. I’ll tell Grandpa and Uncle Liu to take me there. Don’t worry, Dad, I will take care of myself.”
Zhu Shoushan was really relieved, and said on the phone, “Alright. After you return to A City, don’t forget to call me.”
Zhu Tong gave a soft “Mn” and hung up the phone.
While he was relieved that the conversation ended, his earlier enthusiasm of going out vanished.
He looked at the empty living room, then turned back to his room.
In the evening, Shao Ming walked into the house with a cup of pudding sago milk tea. The lights in the living room were turned off, surprising him. He walked directly to the door of Zhu Tong’s room. Remembering what happened in the morning, he remembered to knock on the door before entering.
The door was quickly opened from inside, and a head peeked out first.
At the same time as the light in the room came out, Zhu Tong’s eyes also brightened. “Are you back?”
Shao Ming asked, “Mn. Did you miss me?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
‘This man’s teasing is getting smoother lately.’
But Zhu Tong was determined to be immune to that. He let Shao Ming enter as he said, “I just finished doing a mock Olympiad test, and there’s a couple of questions I can’t solve. Can you help me?”
Shao Ming: “…”
‘This man is getting more and more comfortable with me.’
He smiled helplessly and walked in with the milk tea in hand.
Zhu Tong still used the lazy person’s desk, as if he had been spoiled by the convenience of the item. He didn’t change it even after his legs’ injuries were recovered.
Shao Ming put the milk tea in the corner of the desk. “I wanted to do something else for you. I was afraid you wouldn’t like it, but I still brought this anyway.”
Zhu Tong replied with a grateful face. “This is delicious.”
He likes to drink this.
Shao Ming smiled, then looked at the competition booklet on the desk and said, “Why did you think of doing the Olympiad mock test?”
Zhu Tong replied, “I have nothing to do anyway, so might as well try and see how far I can go.”
Shao Ming blurted out, “Then why didn’t you go with me?”
Zhu Tong hesitated, blinked, and said, “Well… there’s already so many people in the milk tea shop, and I wouldn’t be able to help much, so…”
“Who said you need help if you go to the milk tea shop?” Shao Ming interrupted him. “There’s no need…”
He trailed off.
Zhu Tong looked at him suspiciously.
Shao Ming sighed. “Forget it, I’ll help you.”
Zhu Tong focused on the task immediately. “Okay.”
Shao Ming: “…”
What should he do with this young man?
The next day, the school was back in session. More than half of the people in the classroom were rushing to finish their holiday homework.
As soon as the two esteemed students entered the classroom, they instantly became the focus of the whole class.
“Have you finished your homework? Jianghu emergency, let me copy it!”
“Zhu Tong, you must have finished your English homework, right? Can I see what your answer is for the fill-in-the-blanks section?”
“Hurry up, hurry up, four people can copy together!”
As soon as Zhu Tong took out his vacation homework, he was scraped clean by this crowd of students.
To his surprise, even the class monitor joined the army of copying homework.
Tang Nuan said, “What’s wrong with your look? So what if I’m the class monitor? That position doesn’t change the fact that I’m a learning scumbag4students with bad grade / learning attitude. Look, even Lu Lao’er sometimes copies homework if he can’t finish it in time. There’s no need to worry about such trivial things.”
Zhu Tong: “…”
He learned something new everyday.
He looked at his classmates in the front row who copied the homework together, just like a true model of teamwork. He suddenly felt that as someone who completed the assignment diligently, he was quite out of place among them.
The English homework was quickly copied. Tang Nuan turned around and returned it to Zhu Tong, and asked casually, “By the way, did you go to the racecourse during the holidays?”
Zhu Tong took his homework and asked back slightly in surprise, “How did you know?”
Tang Nuan’s eyes lit up. “Whoa, was that really you? I saw it in a group chat. There were students from our school among the people who went to the racecourse that day. They snapped a few photos of you and Shao Ming riding together… wait, wait, I’ll let you take a look.”
Zhu Tong: “…”
The group chat consisted of about 50 members, it was quite private in nature. The most recent chat record was from two days ago. Tang Nuan slid up the record and showed it to him.
At the very front are a few long-shot photos, capturing the moment when Shao Ming rode a horse over a two-meter-high obstacle. Behind them, there’s also a photo of their confrontation with Xia Yang and others.
Zhu Tong scrolled down.
[Shit, this picture is photoshopped, right? Is it really possible to jump over such a high obstacle? Fucking amazing!]
[This is the Study God and Zhu Tong, right? Fuck! The two of them riding the same horse?!]
[Riding together like that? Isn’t this just a plain date? Are they both really dating each other? This must be true, right? They’re either real or I’m fake!]
[Mom! I agree with this marriage! Study God! If you don’t marry him, I will!]
[There are even more powerful ones (picture) (picture)]
This poster attached the photo of him being carried out of the racecourse by Shao Ming. There’s even a close-up shot among them.
[Oh my God! Princess carry! I’m dead aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!]
[Please make sure to take him back in one piece to your bridal chamber!]
Zhu Tong: “…”
Zhu Tong: ???
The fuck are these things?
Tang Nuan probed from the front seat without any sense of danger. “Zhu Tong, you take a good look at the picture, as for the rest…”
Before she finished speaking, she had already seen her phone screen – it displayed the group’s chat history.
When she handed the phone to Zhu Tong, there was a large picture on the phone, but when Zhu Tong took it over, she accidentally touched the screen, and the picture was closed.
“…”
Tang Nuan and Zhu Tong looked at each other, and an invisible sense of overwhelming embarrassment spread between them.
Tang Nuan: The scene of societal death.
Zhu Tong: The unfortunate soul suffering from societal death.
At this time, Shao Ming probed from the side, “What are you two looking at?”
Tang Nuan was startled and was about to say nothing, but she didn’t expect someone to react faster than her. With a “smack”, her phone was slammed face-down on the desk.
Tang Nuan: “…”
Her phone…
Zhu Tong looked unnerved. He looked at Shao Ming and said, “It’s nothing, just some nutritionless stuff.”
Tang Nuan: “???”
‘You’re reacting so strongly to something that’s not nutritious?’
Shao Ming obviously thought the same. He raised his eyebrows and looked at him with interest.
At this time, Tang Nuan naturally wanted to stand on Zhu Tong’s side. She took back the mobile phone from Zhu Tong’s hand with a distressed face, and said perfunctorily, “Yes, they are all nutritionless stuff, not suitable for students to see.”
After she said that, she turned around and suddenly thought of something. “By the way, Zhu Tong, why were you carried out by Shao Ming? Are you injured? Where is the injury?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
‘Please don’t mention that.’
‘—And Class Monitor, didn’t you just expose it?’
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