Chapter 15 – ‘Thwack’
Novel Title: 你的虎牙很适合咬我的腺体 (Your Fangs Are Perfect for Biting My Glands)
Author:麦香鸡呢 (McChicken)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 周舟 (Zhou Zhou -MC), 程澈 (Cheng Che -ML)
*Please read at Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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At noon, there was a broadcast announcement that an important senior leader would come to the school for inspection the next day. So the afternoon self-study class today was changed to a school-wide cleaning session.
Originally, Zhou Zhou would be very happy to hear this news. Cleaning session? Come on! Isn’t this the best opportunity to chase and play with a broom and mop? And to erase the blackboard while having fun? The whole school would celebrate!
But in today’s case, he couldn’t receive chemistry tutoring from Cheng Che today. Nor could he spend time alone with him.
Zhou Zhou slumped a bit on his desk, thinking about how to find an opportunity to talk to Cheng Che during the afternoon cleaning session.
“In the past, when you heard about a cleaning session, you used to jump up and run around the classroom to celebrate, didn’t you?” his desk mate asked, puzzled. “Why aren’t you happy today?”
Zhou Zhou pouted and tapped his pen on the desk, asking, “Is the Student Council in charge of assigning cleaning tasks?”
“Usually, yes. What do you want to do this time? Should I talk to them for you?”
“I want to clean the windows!” Zhou Zhou’s eyes lit up. He remembered that Cheng Che sat by the window. So he absolutely had to go clean the windows himself in the afternoon.
“I thought you were going to do something unusual. Like catching spiders or collecting dead moths,” his desk mate said. “Cleaning windows is easy.”
Saying this, he turned to call the Student Council member across the aisle, “Hey, Zhou Zhou wants to clean the windows.”
“What?” The Student Council member pushed up his glasses. “I just assigned Zhou Zhou to paint little flowers by the doorknob.”
“…,” Zhou Zhou clenched his fist. “What kind of sissy task is that? I won’t do it! I want to clean the windows!”
“Okay,” the Student Council member crossed out Zhou Zhou’s name on the list with a pen. He then glanced at Zhou Zhou’s desk mate. “Then you can paint the little flowers.”
Desk mate: “???”
***
In the afternoon, after the second class ended, the whole campus went crazy. The head teacher couldn’t control the situation. He had to run around on different floors, shouting and trying to calm down the chaos.
It turned out to be futile.
Zhou Zhou quickly finished wiping the window that he was assigned to clean and then excitedly ran to the back door of Class Five. He saw Cheng Che standing next to his seat, holding a book in one hand and a cleaning cloth in the other. But he hadn’t started cleaning yet.
Skipping over the puddles on the floor and the mops scattered by other Alpha students, Zhou Zhou bounced over to Cheng Che. With shining eyes, he called out to him, “Cheng Che!”
Cheng Che turned his head and looked at him with lowered eyes. “What’s up?”
“It’s nothing! I’ve already cleaned my window. So let me help you with yours!” Zhou Zhou said as he squeezed into Cheng Che’s spot. “You can keep reading. I’ll take care of the rest for you!”
With that, he began patting the cleaning cloth on the window, trying to prove how enthusiastic he was.
However, what he didn’t notice was that the window was open.
So Zhou Zhou patted nothing but air. He ended up lunging toward the open window. The cleaning cloth slipped from his hand and fell straight down.
Although he himself didn’t fall out of the window, it still looked quite dangerous. Cheng Che quickly reached out and grabbed Zhou Zhou, pulling him back to the window sill. Zhou Zhou was now leaning on it, with Cheng Che pressed against his back.
But Zhou Zhou didn’t have time to blush and feel his heart race because he had just witnessed something unpleasant.
***
The head teacher was standing below the teaching building, directing a few Alpha students who were clearing the bushes.
“Hey, hey, can’t you see this? Are your glasses just for show? Decorations?”
“Oh my, look at the trash that got blown out of the garbage can. Hurry up and pick it up!”
“What is this? Who left their takeout packaging here again?!”
“The school’s atmosphere is getting worse and worse, all of you…”
Before he could finish his sentence, he felt the sky darken. And something, carried by the airflow, seemed to be falling from above. Without waiting to raise his head, a wet and cold object landed with a ‘thwack’ on his sparsely vegetated crown.
The Alpha students who were picking up trash all paused simultaneously. They then bite their lips trying hard not to laugh.
But they couldn’t hold it in.
They burst into laughter and quickly grabbed brooms and trash bins, running away from the scene at lightning speed to avoid being caught in the wrath of the head teacher.
Zhou Zhou was left dumbfounded. He was sprawled on the windowsill, while Cheng Che looked down beside him.
Even though he knew he was in trouble, when Zhou Zhou saw the head teacher’s shining bald head covered by the cloth with a ‘thwack’, an idiom came to mind: ‘covering the sky and blocking out the sun’.
The head teacher tremblingly lifted the cloth from his head and then slowly raised his head with a grim expression.
He saw two heads directly above on the second floor window. One belonged to Zhou Zhou and the other to Cheng Che.
Without hesitation, the head teacher chose Zhou Zhou.
“Zhou Zhou!!!! What are you doing running over to Class Five?!!! Stand there and don’t move!!!”
As he shouted, he immediately went up the stairs. His bald head was still dripping with water but it looked as if it were about to catch fire.
“It’s over, it’s over, it’s over…” Zhou Zhou clung to the windowsill, trembling in Cheng Che’s arms. “I’ve been caught by the head teacher so many times this month. It’s over, it’s over, it’s over…”
Cheng Che lowered his gaze, observing Zhou Zhou who was anxiously mumbling to himself. He wasn’t wearing a shirt today. He was just wearing a round-neck T-shirt that exposed a portion of his fair and slender neck. Beneath the loose collar of the school uniform jacket, the glandular area was faintly visible.
Cheng Che’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Then, he stood up, pulling Zhou Zhou out of his clutch to the window and handing him his own cleaning cloth.
Zhou Zhou was about to say, “The teacher is coming. I might not have a chance to help you clean the window anymore. So maybe you should clean it yourself,” when the head teacher already appeared at the back door.
He angrily stomped through the puddles on the ground. His anger was evident. Along the way, he narrowly avoided tripping over an Alpha’s mop.
The entire class stopped what they were doing and turned their attention in their direction.
“What’s this? Zhou Zhou, I’m asking you. What is this?!” The head teacher held up the wet dusty cloth that had just made intimate contact with his bald head and thrust it in front of Zhou Zhou’s face. “What is this thing?!”
“This is a cleaning cloth, teacher,” Zhou Zhou patiently explained. “You see, it’s still wet. Which means it was just washed and not very dirty.”
The head teacher clutched his chest in exasperation and took a step back.
“Teacher, I’m sorry. It was my fault,” Cheng Che suddenly spoke up, waving the book in his hand. “I was cleaning the window while reading. The cloth accidentally slipped out of my hand. I’m really sorry.”
Zhou Zhou widened his eyes and turned to look at him.
“It wasn’t Zhou Zhou who dropped it. His cloth is still in his hand,” Cheng Che said slowly. “Zhou Zhou came over to borrow my chemistry exercise book.”
The head teacher looked at Zhou Zhou’s cloth in his hand with some doubt.
“No. Teacher, actually…” Zhou Zhou didn’t want Cheng Che to get scolded. So he attempted to explain.
“Oh, I see,” the head teacher sighed in relief. He wiped off the remaining water from his head and waved his hand generously. “Be more careful next time. It’s rare to have a school-wide cleaning. So don’t read while cleaning. Stand up and move around. Come on, here’s your cloth back.”
At this point, Zhou Zhou didn’t feel like explaining any further. He even wanted to roll his eyes.
“Thank you, teacher. I apologise again. I’m really sorry. I’ll be more careful next time,” Cheng Che accepted the cloth and bowed his head slightly toward the head teacher.
“It’s alright. Accidents happen,” the head teacher said with a warm smile, patting Cheng Che’s shoulder. “Well, carry on with your cleaning. I’ll go supervise others.”
“Goodbye, teacher,” Zhou Zhou said.
The head teacher gave Zhou Zhou a warning glare and then walked toward the door.
The classmates exchanged glances for a moment before returning to their chaotic cleaning.
The head teacher’s voice echoed from the hallway, “Yu Yang!!! Who gave you permission to use a mop to clean the windows? Put it down now!!!”
Yu Yang, once again unrepentant, retorted, “What’s the difference? I’m cleaning, aren’t I? I think our school’s cleaning cloths are even dirtier than the mops!”
Zhou Zhou couldn’t help but chuckle at the situation and then turned to look at Cheng Che. He ran his fingers through his hair. He felt a bit embarrassed as he said, “Sorry about that. I had to let you take the blame for me.”
Cheng Che continued cleaning the window without looking back. “I asked the teacher for a set of blank chemistry test papers we’ve taken before. They’re on the desk, along with the problem set. I’ve organised them for you. Start with the test papers. I’ll help you grade them tomorrow.”
Zhou Zhou picked up a notebook from the desk and found a stack of test papers inside it. Flipping through them, he saw the mistakes marked neatly with beautiful handwriting.
“I’ll do it diligently,” Zhou Zhou said. “Please remember to come and get me for self-study tomorrow.”
“Sure.”
Zhou Zhou ran off with the problem set. Cheng Che turned to watch his retreating figure. Zhou Zhou’s hair bounced with each step, resembling a puppy’s ears.
***
-21:17-
@ZZZZZhou:[Crying][Crying][Crying] Why is he so kind? I can’t believe he took the blame for me! He’s just too kind! He even got me blank chemistry test papers (even though I really don’t want to do them)… But tomorrow I can study chemistry with him again! His handwriting is so beautiful! And there’s his pheromone scent on the notebook! It smells so good! I’m hugging it to sleep!
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*Translator’s Note: This scene is so hilarious. I would usually turn the idioms into its meaning immediately in my translation but this time, I keep the idiom because of the context. -K
*GLOSSARY:
The Chinese idiom “遮天蔽日” (zhē tiān bì rì) literally translates to “covering the sky and blocking out the sun.” This idiom is used to describe a situation where something or someone is so overwhelming, powerful, or all-encompassing that it seems to obscure the entire sky and block out the sun. In other words, it conveys the idea of something being extremely dominant, oppressive, or all-consuming.
For example, you might use this idiom to describe a powerful dictatorship that suppresses all opposition, a dense forest that is so thick with trees that no sunlight can penetrate, or a person who has an overwhelmingly large and controlling presence in a particular situation. It’s a vivid and dramatic way to express the idea of something being overpowering or dominating to an extreme degree.
Next update: 2023.10.12
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