After Ji Xu ended the call with Tang Jing, he took a couple more sips from the mineral water and walked towards Cheng Yue’s room once his expression softened.
He stopped in front of Cheng Yue’s door, knocked, and after receiving no response for a while, he frowned and turned the handle to open it.
Seeing Cheng Yue’s bed, Ji Xu sighed with some frustration.
The blanket on Cheng Yue’s bed was always scrunched up, with him turning into a little ball while sleeping.
The problem was that Cheng Yue wasn’t exactly short, about 175 cm tall. Seeing him curled up like that was uncomfortable for Ji Xu.
He reached out to pull aside one corner of the blanket. Just as he was about to pull another corner, an arm shot out from under the blanket, quickly and accurately pulling it back to cover him.
Ji Xu: “…”
Ji Xu furrowed his brow and directly threw the blanket off Cheng Yue’s head, then reached in to uncover Cheng Yue’s face.
“How many times have I told you not to bury your head under the blanket while sleeping?”
“Just let me sleep a bit more…” Cheng Yue groggily glanced at him and closed his eyes again.
“I bought some youtiao (fried dough sticks) today,” Ji Xu raised an eyebrow and said.
Cheng Yue liked fried food, though Ji Xu thought it was unhealthy, so he rarely bought it. But having it occasionally was fine.
“Really?” Cheng Yue asked, eyes still closed.
“Fake,” Ji Xu ruffled his hair, then turned and left the room.
After rolling around in bed a few times, Cheng Yue eventually succumbed to the temptation of the youtiao, jumped up, and groggily brushed his teeth and washed his face.
While Cheng Yue was brushing his teeth and washing his face, Ji Xu set out the breakfast he had brought back.
Cheng Yue, after washing his face without drying it, ran to the dining table. The moment he saw the youtiao, his face immediately lit up with a smile.
Ji Xu turned around just in time to see Cheng Yue grinning like a fool early in the morning. Despite the foolishness, the smile was quite charming, with dimples showing and messy black hair giving him a youthful look.
Cheng Yue, moving quickly, made a loud sound as he sat down on the chair, and his back slammed into the backrest due to the momentum.
“Ah!” Cheng Yue’s face went pale with pain as his back hit the chair.
The impact wasn’t too hard, but it was painful because of the incident the previous night when he had been slammed against the door handle in the restroom by several people.
When he got up in the morning, his back had ached a bit, but he was mostly distracted by the youtiao, so he didn’t pay much attention. Now, sitting on the wooden chair and hitting his back hurt so much that he couldn’t speak.
“What’s wrong?” Ji Xu, concerned, helped Cheng Yue straighten up and lifted his oversized t-shirt to examine his back.
The position with his stomach against the table was uncomfortable for Cheng Yue. He turned his head slightly to explain, “It’s nothing, just bumped into something accidentally.”
“When did you bump into something?” Ji Xu’s fingertips slid slowly down the bony part of Cheng Yue’s back, “Why is there such a large bruise?”
“Ugh…” Cheng Yue flinched at Ji Xu’s cool fingertips touching his back, and he began to explain, “It was when I was in the restroom. There were a lot of people pushing, and I bumped into the door handle. My skin bruises easily, but it’s not too painful.”
“Have you applied any medicine?” Ji Xu asked.
Cheng Yue nodded vigorously, “Yes, I have.”
“What medicine do you use? Your hands can’t even reach that,” Ji Xu frowned, “Sit still and don’t move.”
Cheng Yue: “…”
He was forced to have the medicine applied, and then, under Ji Xu’s watchful eye, finished his breakfast. Ji Xu then took him to the car and drove him to school.
After dropping Cheng Yue off, Ji Xu went straight to Tang Jing’s house to discuss the matter of Tan Minmin.
In Ji Xu’s view, Tan Minmin was definitely suspicious, so the immediate task was to figure out why she sent people to intimidate Cheng Yue and gather her specific details. He realized that the situation wasn’t just about intimidation.
The chain of events—Cheng Yue’s family business going bankrupt, his parents dying in a car accident, then threats involving IOUs and personal threats—formed a complete chain in Ji Xu’s mind.
The first key to unlocking this chain was Tan Minmin.
“You’re not doing well academically,” Teacher Chen said, looking at Cheng Yue with a troubled expression. She then lifted her gaze to Cheng Yue, who was standing in front of her desk. “However, after so many exams, today you’ve managed to pass one subject.”
“Passed?” Cheng Yue’s eyes lit up immediately. Early in the morning, right after his morning study session, he was brought to Teacher Chen’s office, and now she had such a serious look that he feared his results had fallen into a deep abyss.
“Which subject did I pass?” Cheng Yue asked, excitedly.
Seeing him like this, Teacher Chen frowned and solemnly advised, “Don’t be arrogant in victory and don’t be discouraged in defeat. Although your English has indeed improved, you must not become too proud.”
“Mm.” Cheng Yue nodded vigorously.
“But it is indeed very good; you’ve improved by more than 30 points this time, from 26 points to today’s 60 points. I see your effort and hope you continue to make progress.” After praising him, Teacher Chen handed the test paper to him.
“Alright, you should go back to class now. Remember to ask your classmates and correct any mistakes.”
Cheng Yue took the test paper and looked carefully at the bright red 60 points on it, almost grinning foolishly.
On his way back to class, he felt like he was practically bouncing with joy, nearly floating.
The first thing Cheng Yue did upon sitting at his desk was take a photo of the test paper and send it to Ji Xu.
Cheng Yue: [Look, look, look, have you ever seen 60 points!]
After sending it, Cheng Yue stared at his phone, afraid of missing Ji Xu’s reply.
But soon, Cheng Yue was surprised to receive a phone call directly from Ji Xu.
He answered the phone, nervous yet excited.
“I passed,” Cheng Yue said, with a hint of pride in his voice.
“Great,” Ji Xu said, handing over the documents he was holding to Tang Jing, then continued, “I’ll reward you with a gift. What do you want?”
Cheng Yue didn’t expect there would be a gift as well, which made him even prouder, but he tried to act indifferent and replied, “Anything is fine.”
“Gift?” Tang Jing, who had overheard, pointed out, “Don’t think that just because Cheng Yue passed, you should give him a pen, a book, or some exam preparation materials. That’s an insult. You need to pick something he actually likes; that’s what counts as a reward.”
Ji Xu recalled that Cheng Yue had previously mentioned liking to wear those uniform skirts. Although he furrowed his brow, feeling it might be inappropriate, he thought about Tang Jing’s words and decided to ask, “How about a skirt?”
Cheng Yue was stunned for a moment, then his heart started racing. He held the phone tightly to his ear, his palms starting to sweat.
Ji Xu just said he wanted to give him… a skirt?
Cheng Yue mentally confirmed three times that Ji Xu indeed said a skirt, and he felt a bit dazed. Although he had vaguely sensed Ji Xu’s ‘abnormalities’ in certain aspects before, he didn’t expect Ji Xu would have a preference for boys wearing skirts…
After swallowing twice, Cheng Yue began to recall the information he had found online last time.
He didn’t remember the details clearly, but the general idea was that people with such atypical preferences often struggle internally and feel very insecure, fearing ridicule from others.
“Cheng Yue?”
Ji Xu noticed the sudden silence on the other end of the line and thought Cheng Yue might be embarrassed. He knew that such preferences might be hard to openly discuss, but he wanted to respect Cheng Yue’s interests and said, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it…”
Cheng Yue steeled himself, feeling he couldn’t be so heartless. He knew Ji Xu was good to him, and it was just a skirt. He didn’t want Ji Xu to think he was discriminatory about these things. After all, it might be just this once, and even if Ji Xu gave him the skirt, he didn’t have to wear it. With that thought, Cheng Yue felt much more at ease.
Author’s Note:
Cheng Yue: Today I’m jumping off from here! Even if I’m not wearing underwear! Even if I don’t have a single piece of clothing to wear! I absolutely will not wear a skirt!!
After dressing up ——————
Cheng Yue: The skirt looks really good, hehehe.
