SEBLS Chapter 1

In a private room, Zhuang Wu was sitting lazily and browsing Weibo. There was one post with a particularly eye-catching title: Qin Qiyue and Zhuang Wu look like they’re in love.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhuang Wu clicked on it. This post included some screenshots of his and Qin Qiyue’s various interactions on the set, and there was also a short fan fiction at the bottom.

After scrolling down to the comment section, all kinds of CP fans could be seen lining up for the candies online.¹The phrase “to give out candy” is now mostly popular among different fandoms. It refers to the scenario where their favorite celebrity couples publicly display affection, either in real life or on social media. It’s like giving out candies to their fans to make them happy.

[A Bite of Sweet Moon: Am I the only one who thinks their interaction is so sweet? Aahh!]

[A bit Sus: Passerby here. I personally think this pairing is pretty good hehe.]

[Adding oil without vinegar: Replying to 1st floor, I’m a CP fan, I also think they are so sweet! ]

Looking at these comments made Zhuang Wu uncontrollably curl the corners of his lips. He also felt that he and Qin Qiyue were a good pair. However, as he continued to scroll down, several of the comments caught his eyes which caused Zhuang Wu’s smile to gradually fade.

[Forty Dusks: To the rotten girls who love CP, if you want to be rotten²Fujoshi literally means rotten girls., go to gay novels, don’t disgust people in real life, okay? ]

[Forty Dusks: What level of status does Zhuang Wu have to be put together with Qin Qiyue? Use your rotten brains and think carefully!]

[……]

There is a person with the online name of Forty Dusks. She alone made several comments, most of which were cursing those who supported the CP and slandering Zhuang Wu.

Suddenly, the phone screen was covered by a hand. Zhuang Wu raised his head and met the eyes of the man in front of him.

The man had a cold white complexion, delicate facial features, and a graceful jawline. A mole under the corner of his eye made his entire face look even colder. However, when he looked at Zhuang Wu, his gaze was gentle.

After a few seconds, both parties looked away at the same time. The phone in Zhuang Wu’s hand was taken away by Qin Qiyue.

“The food is about to be served, stop looking at your phone.” Qin Qiyue sat down next to Zhuang Wu and placed the phone next to him as if it was his own. After a while, he added, “There’s nothing nice about those derogatory comments.”

Hearing the latter sentence, Zhuang Wu paused, then turned his face away to not let Qin Qiyue see his smile. “Oh……”

After the food and drinks were served, the director stood up first with a glass in hand and gave his remarks, “The filming of the drama ‘Train Chamber’ took more than 100 days, and today is the end. I wish you all the best in your career in the future.”

Everyone present picked up their glasses and also stood up. After saying some polite words and clinking their glasses, they all sat down again.

Zhuang Wu looked at the glass of alcohol in his hand, glanced at Qin Qiyue beside him, gritted his teeth, and drank the alcohol in big gulps.

After today, Qin Qiyue would go on with his already full schedule, possibly traveling all over the country. He didn’t know when they would meet again. Tonight was the best time for him to confess his love to Qin Qiyue. He could use a few more glasses of alcohol to give himself courage.

Qin Qiyue, who was watching him, reminded, “Don’t drink too much or you’ll feel sick tomorrow morning.”

Zhuang Wu nodded obediently, but still did not stop pouring alcohol into his mouth. It was not until Qin Qiyue reached out to stop him that Zhuang Wu reluctantly restrained himself.

After the wrap-up party, everyone went back to their homes. Zhuang Wu and Qin Qiyue were walking on the same road. It was already the middle of the night, and they were the only two people on the road. It was a perfect moment to confess.

He rehearsed the words and actions of his confession in his mind several times, but Zhuang Wu’s mouth seemed to be glued shut and he couldn’t open it no matter what. He kicked the pebbles on the side of the road in frustration. He had drunk so much alcohol, but why was it of no use?

Just as Zhuang Wu was scolding himself for being a coward, his hand was suddenly held by Qin Qiyue. The moment their hands touched, Zhuang Wu’s body froze. Meanwhile, Qin Qiyue, who held his hand first, had an expression that revealed obvious nervousness.

After a while, Qin Qiyue finally dared to look straight at Zhuang Wu. He called out, “Zhuang’er.”

This was the first time Qin Qiyue called him like that, and it was also the first time Qin Qiyue took the initiative to hold his hand. Zhuang Wu had a vague premonition in his heart. He suppressed his inner expectations and excitement and just waited for Qin Qiyue to continue.

“I like you.” Qin Qiyue mustered up the courage to say what he had been holding back all the way. He really wanted to see Zhuang Wu’s reaction immediately, but at the same time, he was also afraid to see it.

Although he’d expected Qin Qiyue to say those words, Zhuang Wu’s heart still trembled for no reason when he actually heard it. Simultaneously, he no longer had the timidity of wanting to say something but not being able to open his mouth.

“Qin Qiyue.” Zhuang Wu smiled at him, “Actually, I wanted to confess to you first, but I didn’t expect you to get ahead of me.”

After learning that Zhuang Wu also liked him and was planning to confess his feelings like him, Qin Qiyue’s originally uneasy mood gradually relaxed. He naturally hugged Zhuang Wu and his gaze fell on other’s lips.

At this moment, there was only each other in their eyes. No one noticed the figure beside a tree or the knife in that figure’s hand.

The person hiding behind the tree was paying attention to Qin Qiyue and Zhuang Wu’s movements while holding their mobile phone in one hand and looking at the comments scolding them on Weibo with a distorted expression.

She previously registered an account called Forty Dusks on Weibo with the original purpose of learning more about Qin Qiyue’s personal schedule and updates. However, since the official announcement of the upcoming “Train Chamber” being in the making and the release of some filming behind-the-scenes, popular posts and super topics on Weibo gradually began to feature Qin Qiyue and Zhuang Wu as a CP.

In fact, Zhuang Wu was scolded by netizens because of the behind-the-scenes. In the first few footage, Zhuang Wu seemed to be aiming at Qin Qiyue, and netizens scolded him after they saw it. But in the later updated footage, Zhuang Wu changed his attitude towards Qin Qiyue, and it was Qin Qiyue who was watching Zhuang Wu seriously, which led to the group of CP fans on the Internet.

As a fanatical fan of Qin Qiyue, her love for Qin Qiyue has almost reached the level of perversion. Thus, when she saw these comments and super topics, she cursed them without restraint in the comment section, and the result was that she was cursed in return by CP fans in several posts.

And now, she saw with her own eyes Qin Qiyue, the man she had liked for several years, confess his love to Zhuang Wu, and they even hugged each other. Seeing that they were about to kiss, she pulled down the brim of her hat, rushed out from the tree to the two of them, and was about to stab Zhuang Wu with a knife.

Qin Qiyue reacted and subconsciously tried to block the knife with his hand. Zhuang Wu dodged to the other side, but it was too late. The person moved quickly and the knife slashed through Qin Qiyue’s hand and stabbed towards Zhuang Wu.

Before Zhuang Wu completely lost consciousness, he saw Qin Qiyue anxiously come over to hold him up and take out his cell phone to call the hospital while the person who stabbed him ran away.

…………

“Zhuang Wu, stand up!” There was a roar, accompanied by the pain from something hitting his forehead. Zhuang Wu opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the piece of chalk that had just slipped off his forehead.

Looking more closely, underneath the chalk was a slightly scratched table top with heavy books piled on it.

Seeing these, Zhuang Wu was a little confused for a moment. Wasn’t he just walking on the road with Qin Qiyue? Where is this place now? Why does it look more and more familiar the more he looks at it…?

“Zhuang Wu!” The teacher strode up to Zhuang Wu and slammed the table hard with his ruler. “Have you woken up yet? Didn’t you hear me when I asked you to stand up?!”

Hearing this, Zhuang Wu looked up. The person in front of him was none other than his high school homeroom teacher and math teacher, Hu Jianlong. But why was Hu Jianlong here? Hasn’t it been almost seven years since he graduated?

“Teacher Hu, are you here to see me?” Adhering to the fact that he had already graduated, Zhuang Wu politely asked, “What’s the matter?”

“……”

Seeing Zhuang Wu sleeping in class with a clear conscience, Hu Jianlong’s temper could no longer be kept down. He lifted Zhuang Wu’s clothes, pulled him up from his seat, and then dragged him. “Don’t you love sleeping? Come, stand at the back for me. If you feel like it, sleep standing up. For today, as long as it’s my class, you must stand at the back for me!”

After Hu Jianlong’s series of torments, Zhuang Wu gradually came to his senses. He began to look around. The students in their seats had their heads all turned towards him, smiling with mocking expressions. They did not turn their faces back until Hu Jianlong reminded them.

After observing for a while, Zhuang Wu suddenly realized that this was his high school classroom, and the familiar faces who were looking at him moments ago were all his high school classmates.

If he was the only one standing in the classroom, it would be easy to explain, but the problem now was that he graduated seven years ago and their class hasn’t held a reunion for a long time. Even if there was one, it wouldn’t be possible for the teacher and all his classmates to be present and sitting in the classroom in school uniforms… Moreover, Hu Jianlong was even giving lectures on the podium?

Thinking of this, Zhuang Wu quickly looked at the big words written next to the blackboard: 203 days countdown to college entrance examination. The date below was 2012.

So, he returned to his senior year of high school? Zhuang Wu was brainstorming at this moment. He couldn’t understand why this kind of plot that only happened to the protagonist in a TV series would happen to him.

He and Qin Qiyue had clearly expressed their feelings to each other and were almost kissing, so how did things go so wrong on such short notice? Was god playing a joke on him?

Thinking of Qin Qiyue, Zhuang Wu remembered that he and Qin Qiyue were in the same class in high school. So, he began to look for Qin Qiyue among the many classmates. Finally, his eyes fell on a familiar figure in the first few rows.

When those classmates were laughing at him just now, Qin Qiyue was the only one who sat in his seat and did his seatwork indifferently. No wonder he didn’t notice Qin Qiyue.

However, he has returned to his third year of high school, which meant that he and Qin Qiyue were still sworn enemies and the lovers relationship he had just established with Qin Qiyue was gone!

It took Zhuang Wu a long time to reluctantly accept this fact. What should he do now? He couldn’t continue to be at odds with Qin Qiyue just because he was back in third year high school. He absolutely didn’t want that!

After contemplating, Zhuang Wu decided that he should lay the foundation for his relationship with Qin Qiyue from now on. In other words, he was going to pursue Qin Qiyue.

It was just that he didn’t even dare confess his feelings after Qin Qiyue had become so gentle towards him, so how much more now that Qin Qiyue was his sworn enemy, wouldn’t he be even more afraid?

In the end, love prevailed over his timidity. If he still didn’t pick up the courage to reveal his feelings to Qin Qiyue, he would have to wait another seven years before Qin Qiyue would confess his feelings to him.

But pursuing someone always has to start somewhere. He couldn’t just ask Qin Qiyue to be with him right away, so the first step was to confess his love in a love letter.

Update schedule: Every Friday and Sunday

Translator Xena’s other works: https://ko-fi.com/xenatl/gallery
 – Just click the pictures and the link will show <3

• 1
  The phrase “to give out candy” is now mostly popular among different fandoms. It refers to the scenario where their favorite celebrity couples publicly display affection, either in real life or on social media. It’s like giving out candies to their fans to make them happy.
• 2
  Fujoshi literally means rotten girls.