Enjoy this chapter ♪ヾ(☆ゝ∀・)ノ
Also, happy April’s Fools! Don’t worry, I don’t have the energy to make fake chapter updates!
In the corridor near the balcony, Zhu Tong turned on his mobile phone. He saw a message from Xiao Xin, saying that she had left the Zhu family’s house. When he called her, Xiao Xin was almost at school.
He didn’t ask Xiao Xin why he didn’t come to him, why didn’t she go back to their grandfather’s house. At this time, it might be better for Xiao Xin to stay in a place far away from “family”.
He told Xiao Xin about Qin Junhong’s disappearance. He reminded her to be extra cautious, especially with the things that others handed her to drink.
Hearing Xiao Xin obediently answer all his precautions one by one, Zhu Tong finally was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
He stood in the corridor for a while, then turned and went back to the room.
He walked with his head down, so when his periphery vision caught a long burgundy dress, he slowly raised his head.
“…Miss Jiang, is there anything wrong?”
Jiang Wan smiled and said, “Why does Young Master Zhu always expect me to have something to say?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
He turned around and avoided Jiang Wan, intending to directly go back to the room.
He really wasn’t very good at dealing with others, especially with people like Jiang Wan.
‘If there’s anything she wants to say, why does she have to be so roundabout?’
As he passed by, Jiang Wan finally talked. “Don’t you want to know why your little boyfriend got out of my car?”
“…”
Zhu Tong’s footsteps slightly paused as he turned his head. “Does Miss Jiang have to intentionally make her words so ambiguous when she talks to anyone?”
Jiang Wan was stunned for a moment. Finally, she let out her usual smile and asked, “You trust him so much?”
Zhu Tong looked at her as if she was saying something strange.
‘If I don’t believe him, then who should I believe? You?’
“However, since you believe in him, then why lie to him?”
Zhu Tong: “?”
What lies did he tell to Shao Ming?
Jiang Wan continued, “Young Master Zhu, is your body healthy?”
Zhu Tong frowned. “What are you trying to imply?”
Jiang Wan was silent for a long time. Then, she gently leaned on the side of the hallway before saying, “Young Master Zhu may not know this – his cooperation with me actually started before your transfer to Gongshui County. But, he has been hiding very deeply before, always refusing to directly contact me. I have tried to prod him a few times, but he’s a very private person, and I couldn’t find any leak about him. I didn’t even know what he looked like.”
Zhu Tong was a little stunned. “And you actually dared to cooperate with him despite all of that?”
Jiang Wan only gave him a shrug before continuing, “Why wouldn’t I do it if I can get a benefit out of it? Besides, even if the cooperation fails, I can afford it.”
Zhu Tong: “…”
Quite the decisive businesswoman, isn’t she?
“But then, a few days ago, he actually took the initiative to contact me, and offered to directly meet me.”
Zhu Tong almost blurted out a “why”, but was restrained by reason again.
Jiang Wan looked like she didn’t notice his almost-blunder. She looked straight at him, and stated, “He asked me for something.”
“…”
Zhu Tong couldn’t remember exactly how he walked back to the room.
Jiang Wan didn’t go with him. She said that she apologized for causing him to faint, and went downstairs after apologizing.
His cousin was still playing with his mobile phone in the room. Both he and Shao Ming were doing their own thing without interfering with each other.
When he sat back on the sofa, the fruit plate in Shao Ming’s hand had already been eaten by a quarter, not a fruit more, not a fruit less. Except for a little gap in the platter, it was still neat and tidy.
Zhu Tong knew that Shao Ming was actually a bit of a perfectionist, even bordering obsessive-compulsive at times.
He didn’t ask him about it. He turned to look at his cousin and said, “Jiang Wan asked me to tell you that she’ll be leaving first.”
Cheng Chen casually replied, “Mn, I see.”
Judging by the way he held his phone, he should be playing a game.
Zhu Tong didn’t bother to interrupt him, he turned to look at Shao Ming and asked him, “Are you going back to the hotel?”
Shao Ming didn’t answer, but instead asked back, “How about you?”
Zhu Tong was going back to his grandfather’s house.
He paused and said, “Shall I take you back first?”
Shao Ming raised his eyebrows, looked somewhat surprised by his answer, but he didn’t refuse his offer. “Alright.”
On the way back to Shao Ming’s hotel, the back seat of the car was eerily quiet.
Zhu Tong felt mixed feelings in his heart.
What Jiang Wan told him in the corridor was Shao Ming’s request. He had asked her for his medical records and hospital visits.
The specific cause of illness was rarely known. But to find out about it, it was not particularly difficult. Not to mention the side of Jiang Wan at that time, there was the “traitor” Qin Junhong.
But why did Shao Ming suddenly remember to check his medical records?
Judging from the time Jiang Wan provided her medical records to Shao Ming, it was just before the time when he fainted.
Although he didn’t think it was linked… but most likely, that sudden drop in favorability has something to do with it, right?
Jiang Wan said that it was unfair to Shao Ming that he concealed his health condition.
He did hide his condition at first, but when Shao Ming asked him about this matter later, he told the truth!
He is in really good health now.
—But how was he going to explain the fact that he was physically healed within two months?
And how can this be explained?
The future is still unknown.
If the favorability level couldn’t reach 100% within a year, he would still die.
The current favorability is 70%.
In terms of efficiency, 70% in two months was quite astounding.
However, the higher it was, the harder it got for it to increase. Zhu Tong understood this fact.
What he didn’t understand, however, was the reason his favorability level dropped the moment Shao Ming knew about this condition. Shouldn’t he sympathize with Zhu Tong’s poor health and give him a little more favorability?
Oh wait, the favorability did increase later, and it’s more than just “a little”.
‘What is the reason for that surge in favorability?’
Zhu Tong felt that his brain was about to explode.
What was Shao Ming thinking in his head?
If only he was the roundworm in Shao Ming’s stomach1since a roundworm is always within its host body, it will know everything about its host.…
“What are you thinking?”
The youth next to him suddenly spoke.
Zhu Tong was so startled that his body froze. He immediately shook his head and said, “It’s nothing.”
Shao Ming tilted his head and smiled at him.
Zhu Tong felt uneasy. “What’s wrong?”
Shao Ming said, “I’m thinking… What did Cheng-zong mean when he’s saying you were talking in your sleep after you fainted and were brought to the hospital?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
Judging by his increasingly reddening face, Zhu Tong was caught off-guard by Shao Ming’s question. He tried to reply, but he stumbled upon his words. “N-no. I said nothing. He’s just talking nonsense. Don’t think much of it.”
Shao Ming repeated, “Don’t think much of it?”
Zhu Tong nodded. “Don’t think much of it.”
Shao Ming: “That’s also very enviable.”
“…”
He didn’t expect such a reply.
Zhu Tong was stunned and utterly confused. “Who do you envy? What do you envy?”
Shao Ming looked at him with a smile. “I envy Cheng-zong for being able to stay by your side when you are lying in the hospital.”
While his demeanor looked calm and his tone playful, his aura was quite heavy.
Zhu Tong didn’t know whether the emphasis of his reply was “Cheng-zong” or “lying in the hospital”.
He suddenly found that since he met Shao Ming at the banquet, every time he felt this heavy pressure from Shao Ming, it always had a connection to his health.
Is Shao Ming worried about him?
He was dumbfounded for a moment and averted his eyes, “Cheng Chen is my maternal cousin. I’m not in some weird relationship with him.”
Shao Ming was stunned.
Is this… evading the loaded questions and answering the easy ones2og Chinese proverb: 避重就轻?
He continued to smile. “Do you know that Jiang Wan is investigating your relationship with Cheng-zong?”
Zhu Tong said, “I know, what’s wrong?”
“Then do you know that I can go to the banquet because of Jiang Wan’s help?”
“…”
“I owe her a favor now. So, aren’t you afraid that I’ll tattle to her about your relationship with Cheng-zong, as a way for me to repay that favor?”
Zhu Tong was stunned for a moment, but his subsequent reply was firm. “You won’t do that.”
Shao Ming looked directly at him and asked, “Why won’t I?”
Zhu Tong was a little nervous when he saw Shao Ming’s current state, causing his voice to waver a bit. “I believe you won’t.”
“…”
Shao Ming suddenly took a deep breath.
The driver parked the car at the gate of the hotel. He turned his head hesitantly and said, “Young Master, we have arrived.”
Zhu Tong glanced out the car window.
Shuhua Hotel, the students from E City who came to participate in the math competition were all arranged to stay in this hotel.
It took more than two hours of travel from the banquet venue to this hotel. Because Shao Ming was sitting next to him, he didn’t feel that the time was long at all.
Suppressing the reluctance in his heart, he looked at Shao Ming and said, “Then you…”
“Do you want to visit my room and sit for a while?”
“…”
When he came back to his senses, Zhu Tong had already pushed the door and got out of the car under the gaze of the driver. The driver himself, Xiao Lin, was hesitant to say anything.
After walking into the hotel elevator, Zhu Tong didn’t know what he was doing.
The corridor outside the hotel room was empty. The footsteps of two youths echoed quite loudly. When he arrived outside Shao Ming’s room, the taller youth already skillfully took out his room card and opened the door.
Zhu Tong hesitantly followed after him.
When Zhu Tong entered the room, Shao Ming immediately gently closed the door.
The corridor’s lighting – which was quite dim in the first place – was no longer able to reach the closed-off room. The room darkened, its only source of lighting was the faint light from the floor-to-ceiling decorative lamps. The figure of the two youths became blurred, only shadows remain visible.
“Why don’t you turn on the lights…”
Zhu Tong said as he reached out to touch the switch beside the door.
Before he finished speaking, his wrist had already been precisely caught. Zhu Tong felt that he was being pulled forward and crashed into a familiar embrace. Without waiting, Shao Ming pulled him, then cornered him into a cramped space.
With the distance between the two of them grew closer, Zhu Tong was able to feel the taller youth’s hot breaths without any hindrance. He felt the air getting warmer and more humid, startling him. Purely out of instinct, he raised his hand. “What are you doing?”
Shao Ming had no trouble retraining him from breaking free. He easily resolved all his squirming, his voice getting lower as he spoke, , “When you followed me up here without hesitation, did you not think about what a guy who had just confessed his love for you could possibly do to you?”
Zhu Tong’s breaths hitched.
Shao Ming pressed him against the wall, pressing their foreheads together, causing the tip of their noses to also touch. Within this dangerous distance, he continued to ask, “Little Young Master, have you considered what you promised you would consider well?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
Why didn’t he set a suitable deadline for his reply at that time?
Hasn’t it only been a few hours?
Why is he in such a hurry!
Was he… sending himself, the sheep, into the hungry wolf’s mouth?
Zhu Tong’s nose felt itchy because it was rubbing against Shao Ming’s. He couldn’t help but turn his head as he said, “I… I may need… a little more time to think about it…”
“How much more time?”
“…”
Zhu Tong’s mind blanked. Let alone thinking about the appropriate deadline, he couldn’t even do basic thinking.
Shao Ming continued in a low voice, “What if I said that I can’t wait that long?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
He hasn’t even been talking for long!
The two of them couldn’t possibly get any closer now. Shao Ming didn’t continue talking, but Zhu Tong could feel the change in his temperament.
He seemed to be suppressing something, restraining… something.
Zhu Tong’s heart was beating like crazy, like an ant surrounded by water on all sides – no way to retreat, no way to escape.
He blurted out, “You… have you ever thought about it, we are all still young, and the thoughts you have now may just be a misunderstanding…”
“Do you think I like you because I’m too young to understand my feelings? How old do you think I am now?”
“…”
Zhu Tong shook his head and said, “No, I just think, how can you like me, I…”
Shao Ming’s hand holding his wrist tightened slightly. The smile in his face twisted ever-so-imperceptibly. “How could I not like you?”
He said in a calm tone, “Zhu Tong, when you transferred to Gongshui County, asked the principal to be my deskmate, and went out of your way to help me solve my problems, did you ever think that I would like you? When Qiu Shaoping went crazy and you jumped out to help me block his slash, did you ever think I would like you? When you flirted with me but planned to go with the flow, dying without resistance when your time is up, did it ever occur to you… that I already liked you?”
At the end of his sudden outburst, both youth felt suffocated for a moment at the same time.
Zhu Tong moved his lips, but could only say: “You…”
Before he could ask “why”, a warmth came over him, enveloping him.
Zhu Tong really didn’t understand how Shao Ming could pinpoint his position so precisely in such a dark environment.
In the darkness, the two youth’s breaths were intertwined, their soft lips pressed against each other. Zhu Tong felt his lips being sucked, and after a while, their lips parted.
Shao Ming’s voice became hoarse. “Aren’t you hiding something?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
What did he hide, ah?
Zhu Tong was confused. “I…”
The moment he opened his mouth, someone had already taken advantage of it.
The shorter youth’s body was pulled into his arms, his head was forced to tilt upwards. Because of the poor lighting, Zhu Tong couldn’t exactly see clearly, so he simply closed his eyes.
His stiff body gradually loosened, but the hand that was cornering him only tightened.
The two youth’s entanglement, between their lips and teeth, gradually lost their sense of proportion. The kiss only deepened, as reasons lost from within their minds.
This kiss in the darkness and silence took their breaths, but accelerated their heartbeats.
Quite the strange, yet wonderful experience… all the same, it’s a little sweet.
