The main class reunion was scheduled for the evening.
Zuo Tao spent the afternoon at the board game cafe with other classmates, including Ding Lei, who were closest to him. But perhaps because of the incident at the barbershop, Zuo Tao kept feeling uneasy, as if something bad was about to happen.
The unease carried until the end of dinner.
After seeing their teacher off, some of the students left for their own business, while the others urged each other to go somewhere else to continue the fun.
Ding Lei pulled Zuo Tao aside. “We’re going to a bar later1Reminder: Legal drinking age in China (and many other Asian countries) is 18. Senior high students also usually graduate at 17 to 19.. Are you coming?”
Zuo Tao glanced at the time on his phone, being a little tempted. “I’ll join for a while, but I can’t stay for too long. I still have to go back to the base.”
“Ah? You’re going back to base this late?” Ding Lei couldn’t hide his disappointment. “I wanted to drink with you, but doesn’t that mean you can only drink juice?”
Zuo Tao: “It’ll be fine if I drink just a little.” He scrolled through Weibo as he spoke. “I’m going to drink 50% juice.250% as in, 100-proof alcohol. Higher ABV/proof = higher alcohol content.”
Ding Lei laughed at his answer, hooking an arm around Zuo Tao’s shoulder. “Sure enough, you’re still the Boss Zuo we all know.”
Zuo Tao dodged him with disdain, but soon his eye caught on something on the hot search, surprising him —
【#PINK_passerby_perspective】
【#PINK_yourmomtoldyoutogohomeandputonlongjohns】
When he first saw these two entries, he didn’t react immediately. It wasn’t until he opened the first one and saw the posts that made him lose the smile on his face.
【PINK’s online mother: It’s so cold today and he went out looking like this. @Wildfire-FIRE, aren’t you coming to take care of him? 😡】
A photo was attached to the post.
In it, he stood by the zebra crossing, waiting for the light to change. The surrounding trees swayed in the wind and puddles on the ground reflected images of the dim sky. He was spinning his cap with one hand. Whether it was his legs that were exposed to the air, or the skull-print on the back of his sweatshirt; he looked flamboyant and eye-catching in the gloomy weather.
There were tens of thousands of reposts, tens of thousands of comments, tens of thousands of likes.
【Whoa, OP, you’re so lucky. Where’d you meet him?】
【U1S13“One says one”, basically ‘telling the truth and nothing but the truth’, legs are so good.】
【Do you know how tempting this looks for a high school student who is taking online classes? 😌】
【I didn’t realize that my son is quite good at fashion 🎉】
【Something might be wrong with me. All I see is legs 🙈】
【Sisters, please stop digressing. The point is not the legs, but that the child is being rebellious. Look at what he’s wearing!】
【He’s wearings legs… sorry, I mean, pants.】
【What is Wildfire base’s official phone number? Call and ask if the child has gone home!】
Zuo Tao: …
He finally understood where the ominous feeling was coming from.
He knew it couldn’t have been nothing.
He kept scrolling with a heavy heart. Maybe because the Weibo post was popular, among many gaming influencers who have reposted, he even saw the local weather station:
【Fengshi Meteorological Observatory: Because of the typhoon, temperatures in the city have dropped by ten degrees compared to last week’s average. Please avoid going out and remember to keep the elderly and children to wear more clothes //Reposted @PINK’s online mother: It’s so cold today and he went out looking like this…】
Opening the comments section again —
【PINK’s beautiful stepmother: Hey, my son is in his rebellious period this time. Please forgive him, official dad4You know how we have uncle dads, grandpa dads, god dads, etc? They’re calling the official who posted the announcement ‘official dad’.】
【White boiled water: It is my son who has brought shame to the weather station. A shame.】
【Drunk Butterfly: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!】
【PINK’s strict mother: @Wildfire-PINK, did you hear what official dad said? Wear more clothes when it’s cold, or you’ll have cold legs!】
【PINK Official Fan Club: Thank you for your reprimand. We will make sure to educate him properly when he gets home.】
【PINK’s gentle mother: Everyone, please don’t laugh too much. Rebellious teenagers at this age need to save face. We will simply reprimand him when he gets home 🤫】
Zuo Tao’s hand was shaking. Ding Lei saw him standing there motionless, surprised. “What are you doing?”
Zuo Tao closed his eyes, feeling like he was about to die. “I feel like I’m about to die.”
As soon as he finished talking, his phone rang with a special alert. The scary thing was that there was only one special alert setting on his phone.
The ominous feeling reached its peak. Zuo Tao finally looked at his phone and, indeed, it was a post from Song Shihan.
From one second ago:
【Wildfire-FIRE: Got it. //Reposted @PINK’s online mother: It’s so cold today and he went out looking like this…】
A WeChat message soon popped up.
【FIRE: Is your reunion over?】
【FIRE: Send your location.】
Zuo Tao: …
His world was blown up by an atomic bomb, creating a mushroom cloud.
Ding Lei: “Wait, what’s wrong with you? At least say something, my friend.
Zuo Tao waved his hand and ignored him, refreshing the homepage as a manner of escapism, and ended up with another terrifying Weibo post:
【Wildfire Esports Club: We have heard the public’s call. We will broadcast the process of arresting the rebellious teenager through @Wildfire-QIU’s livestream later. For now, we would like to remind the public to wear more clothes when going outside. Students, do not learn from @Wildfire-PINK.】
“Hello, my friend?” Ding Lei called. He leaned over and peeked at Zuo Tao’s phone screen, still not knowing what was going on. It took him a few minutes to figure out the cause and effect of what had happened, and soon he burst out laughing.
“You’re laughing too loud!” Zuo Tao hissed, still feeling uneasy. Looking around himself, his eyes landed on Ding Lei.
Ding Lei, horrified: ???
Zuo Tao put his hands on Ding Lei’s shoulders and said deeply: “Son, Dad has raised you for so many years, it is time for you to repay his kindness.”
Same time, Wildfire Esports Club.
Wang Qiu had already started livestreaming on his mobile phone, greeting their fans enthusiastically: “Good evening, everyone, we’re just getting ready to go out now. Yes, our captain is coming, too, and he’s asking PINK to send his location.” He turned the camera to Song Shihan. “Captain, has PINK replied?”
“Yeah, got it,” Song Shihan answered as he slid his phone into his pocket. Since he was wearing a mask, not much of his expression could be seen in the video, making it so he seemed colder than usual.
Song Shihan drove on the way to Zuo Tao’s location, with Wang Qiu in the passenger seat with the livestream. “Don’t worry, everyone, we will definitely educate PINK well.”
His gloating was obvious as he read through the comments on the screen, answering some that he found important: “Yeah, he went out for a class reunion today. Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll make sure the captain takes good care of him.”
Twenty minutes later.
Song Shihan parked the car in the ground-level parking lot and had just gotten out of the car when he caught sight of Zuo Tao sitting on the roadside flower bed a short distance away. Next to him stood a boy of similar age, probably his classmate.
Zuo Tao also noticed the group’s arrival, standing up and whispering to Ding Lei, “Remember everything I told you?”
“Got it, got it,” Ding Lei answered. He was also watching the livestream, laughing as he said, “Don’t worry about me doing my job. Don’t forget, you’re going to help me rank later.”
Zuo Tao: “If we can survive tonight smoothly, I’ll take you to become King.5Probably the highest available rank in the game, kind of like Diamond in LoL or Mythical Glory in MLBB.”
Ding Lei’s lit up at that. “That’s a promise!”
He soon saw a group of five walking towards them, so he took a firm step forward, enthusiastically reaching for Jiang Ming’s hand. “This must be our Taozi’s coach!”
Jiang Ming was stunned, glancing at Zuo Tao. “Who is this?”
“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself,” Ding Lei said, greeting everyone. “I’m PINK’s classmate and also his best friend!”
Wang Qiu’s camera was already on Zuo Tao. “Taozi,” he called, “say hello to your fans.”
Zuo Tao sat frozen, struggling to relax as he looked at the camera. “En, good evening, everyone,” he said, glancing at Song Shihan from the corner of his eye.
In the comments —
【Sure enough, he didn’t change!!】
【Though, I still have to say… nice legs.】
【Mr. Qiu, can you change perspective and lower the camera?】
【PINK, if you do this again, mom will get angry. You’ve just recovered from your cold, so don’t do anything rash!】
【You should go home and put clothes on slowly (can’t help but make strange noises)】
Zuo Tao opened his mouth, not quite sure what to say. Song Shihan took half a step forward, standing close to him, and asked calmly, “How long were you waiting?”
Zuo Tao looked up at Song Shihan, unease rising in his heart again. “Not… not too long.”
Ding Lei was engaged in conversation with everyone else nearby: “I saw the comments online, too. Well, isn’t this boy just so lovable? He lost a truth-or-dare game before, so I dared him to wear that outfit, and he really did! It was just a dare, I wasn’t expecting him to actually come out in the cold wearing something like that.”
Jiang Ming felt that something was strange, but he still agreed nonetheless: “Indeed, PINK is quite the sensible child.”
Ding Lei successfully pulled Jiang Ming into a conversation and continued talking nonsense. “Yes, yes, yes, he’s a nice kid. When we were in school, he’d get up at 5:30 for morning exercises and then bring me breakfast on his way to class.”
He glanced at Song Shihan as he spoke, raising his voice just a little. “And he’s very well-behaved, a model student in the eyes of the teachers of the school. He never swears, stays behind in the classroom to read, quietly listens to music… and we can rarely call him out on weekends. He’s usually at the library or on his way to the library. But then again, if he didn’t do that, he wouldn’t be in the top ten of our grade.
“But I don’t think that’s an okay thing to do. He’s turning 18 soon. What if he gets bullied because he’s too soft? I wanted to take him drinking tonight, but he refused. I insisted but he said he could only drink juice at most. I said, how is that possible? Is there juice with 50% alcohol content?”
【Can I just ask, who is this narrator, PINK?】
【Lol, this classmate is also a funny one.】
【This sounds just like my bestie praising me in front of my boyfriend.】
Zuo Tao: …
He no longer dared to look at Song Shihan.
Moving his eyes away from Zuo Tao’s well-proportioned, slender legs6( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), Song Shihan asked, “Are you cold?”
Zuo Tao sniffed and nodded. Actually, it wasn’t so bad during the day, but with the temperature drop at night and with the wind, it was indeed a bit cold.
“Let’s just get in the car to talk,” Song Shihan said. “The heater is on in the car.”
Zuo Tao didn’t move immediately. He wanted to find an opportunity to stop Ding Lei from talking any further. After all, if he continued talking the way he did, it would turn into an outrageous situation.
“What is it?” Song Shihan asked, looking back at him, a smile flashing in his light-colored eyes. “Your shoes can’t get wet today, either?”7Throwback to the white sneakers scene in chapter 21
From the TL: I hope you enjoyed! Please support the author if/when you can. You can buy the raws here
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