CH 3

Chapter 3: My Mom

During evening self-study, Qin Shiwu rushed back to the classroom.

Seeing that he hadn’t bought lean meatballs, Guapitou’s expression dropped: “Your feelings were earth-shattering this afternoon. Did you go out to reminisce about your youth?”

Qin Shiwu grabbed his collar: “What class is Qin Chu from?”

For the first time, Guapitou was treated so fiercely by Qin Shiwu. He was fooled by this kid’s shiny dog tricks, and he reflexively said: “Isn’t he in our class?”

After Guapitou finished speaking, he added: “You are really weird today. Did you buy water for Brother Gu today? Be careful that he finds someone to block you at night.”

Our class?

Qin Shiwu loosened his grip on Guapitou’s collar.

He hurriedly searched around the class but did not find Qin Chu.

Evening self-study started at 6:30, and it was now 6:00 sharp, called evening advance –evening advance was the half an hour cleaning time before the start of evening self-study.

There were few people in the class. Girls should be in the dormitory curling their hair or discreetly putting on makeup, or taking a shower and changing clothes for evening self-study. Most of the boys went to the basketball court to play basketball or play football on the playground.

“Where did Qin Chu go now?” Qin Shiwu spoke anxiously.

“How should I know?” Guapitou said inexplicably. He was a little unwilling to talk to Qin Shiwu.

Qin Shiwu’s eyes suddenly darkened and he said impatiently, “I’m fucking talking to you, where are you looking?”

Guapitou was startled by him and was about to scold him. When he saw Qin Shiwu’s expression, he felt panicked again.

He was a person who bullied the weak and feared the strong. When he saw Qin Shiwu like this, he inexplicably thought of Qin Chu.

Obviously the two people did not look anything alike, but at this moment, he felt that Qin Shiwu and Qin Chu were too similar. The resemblance was so much that he felt a little afraid and didn’t dare to continue asking questions.

“Just …… in the music room, or else playing basketball in the playground.” Guapitou asked, “Why are you looking for Qin Chu?” He muttered, “haven’t you been beaten enough? If you still go to find him at this time, aren’t you looking for death.”

Although his voice was small, Qin Shiwu still heard it.

Suddenly, his blood was poured out to cool his heart.

That’s right, he thought to himself, and at the same time came back to his senses.

Guapitou had a point. What is the use of looking for Qin Chu at this time? Tell him I am your son, I came from sixteen years in the future, He Yuanyuan is not your wife, do not get involved with her? Or it will easily affect the smooth birth of the dream lover of nine million girls in this century?

It would be a shame if he was not beaten to the ground by Qin Chu!

Qin Shiwu sat back in his seat and fell into a deep meditation.

Guapitou said, “What’s the matter with you? There’s been something wrong all day.”

Qin Shiwu’s slightly long bangs covered his eyes as he asked, “So, do you know Lu Tong?”

“Lu Tong? The one in class 1, second year?”

Qin Shiwu’s eyes lit up with a smart-dog-trick-like spirit, only to be blocked by the thick lenses of his glasses.

“He’s in his second year? Where is he?”

Guapitou said, “Basketball court. There is a basketball game between No. 4 High School and our school today.”

“The basketball court!” Qin Shiwu raised his voice: “What is he doing in the basketball court? Giving people water? Or …… he plays basketball?!”

Guapitou said: “Your voice is so loud. Isn’t Lu Tong on the school basketball team? What’s wrong with playing basketball?”

Qin Shiwu bit back the words in his mouth.

——”Playing basketball?” When did his virtuous and gentle mother ever play basketball? Is knitting sweaters not interesting enough for him anymore!”

Impossible.

Qin Shiwu denied it at first.

In his impression, Lu Tong always had a quiet and calm appearance, neither quick nor slow to speak. Although it had nothing to do with indifference, according to the description of his auntie, Lu Tong’s reputation in the Qin family was nearly perfect, a good, traditional and virtuous wife.

This kind of person must be a kind of “Shen Chia-Yi*” in high school… gentle and virtuous school flower, right?

(* TN: from a Taiwanese semiautobiographical novel called Those Years, The Girl We Went After Together. She was an honor student who was very popular among the boys in her school. Here’s the Wikipedia page about it if you want to know more.)

Besides, Lu Tong’s persona… was just not suitable for playing basketball in his head ah!

Who had ever seen “Shen Chia-Yi” play basketball? This was totally inconsistent with traditional socialist values.

Qin Shiwu’s three views were once again shaken. He got goosebumps all over and refused to believe that Lu Tong could play basketball.

He didn’t stay in the classroom for long and ran nonstop to the basketball court.

When the basketball match between No. 4 High School and No. 1 High School reached its final, he saw a long banner hanging on the railing from afar: friendship first, competition second.

Qin Shiwu was very familiar with the barbed wire of the railing. After three years of junior high school, he didn’t know whether the barbed wire was green or blue.

The outside of the basketball court was crowded with people. The Discipline Inspection Department of the student union was orderly beating the students who poked their heads out. After beating them one by one, the crowd was finally willing to step back. Qin Shiwu also took advantage of this gap and squeezed into the innermost part with the advantage of this body’s high physical flexibility.

There were more boys who came to watch basketball, and the school uniforms were worn in a variety of ways, none of them right.

The two high school teams inside the basketball court played with fervor, and every time they scored points, the audience in the basketball court roared dutifully, more accurate than the hourly report of Beijing Time.

Qin Shiwu struggled to squeeze through the cracks to survive, pushing apart a few of his weighty classmates around him, squeezing out of the gaps. His eyes immediately locked on the basketball court and scanned around: there was no sign of Lu Tong.

Qin Shiwu breathed a sigh of relief.

Good.

His mother did not play basketball.

In Qin Shiwu’s heart, asking his mother, who likes to knit sweaters, cook and sing at home, to play basketball was as shocking to his whole family as seeing sister Lin Chi-ling* lifting weights at the Olympics.

(* TN: a Taiwanese model, actress, singer and television host, according to Wikipedia.)

Qin Shiwei hadn’t yet finished his breath, just halfway relieved, when he saw a person in the corner of his eyes, and he directly cut off this breath of relief.　　

“Lu Tong is here!”

A person behind him shouted. The female compatriots at the scene turned their heads, twisted their bodies, and their eyes all fell on Lu Tong.

Lu Tong had just finished dealing with the head teacher and came down from the laboratory building, taking off his school jacket while walking.

He was accompanied by a pale-skinned and thin-legged female student, with a ponytail, curled hair, and a touch of makeup on her face. The degree was just controlled to the extent of not being caught by the Political and Religious Affairs Department to remove her makeup, which showed that she was proficient in her business.

“He came with He Yuanyuan.”

“Why did he Yuanyuan follow Lu Tong again? Is she not bored ah?”

“She’s in a losing situation* ah. Lu Tong is too cold and doesn’t take her seriously. Does she really think she is Lu Tong’s girlfriend…”

(* 倒贴: pay for the keeping of an unprofitable business. Basically a person insisting on giving their everything to an uninterested party, even though they know the other party doesn’t reciprocate.)

Qin Shiwu craned his neck to look, ignoring the chattering and fragmented discussion in the crowd.

Lu Tong’s appearance looked not much different from that of sixteen years later. He had always been a frosty male star in the eyes of the public.

But now, he had more collagen on his face. He had pale skin, a thin waist, long legs, pronounced collarbone, long eyelashes and a cold face. His whole body was covered in a broad school uniform. In addition to exuding juvenile spirit, he also revealed a sense of fragility like white porcelain.

After he took off his jacket, He Yuanyuan smoothly took Lu Tong’s jacket in her arms, skillfully as if she were his girlfriend.

A level twelve alarm went off in Qin Shiwu’s head.

“It’s a close friend.” he comforted himself poker-faced, “it’s definitely a close friend. It’s normal for Lu Tong to have a close friend in high school and to take his clothes for him, who doesn’t have a few close friends yet.”

Before the theater in his head stopped, the students around Qin Shiwu spoke again.

“He Yuanyuan is not shy about it, an Alpha and an Omega being so close, she’s not afraid of causing trouble.”

After hearing this, Qin Shiwu immediately overturned his previous theory of close friends without hesitation and stared at He Yuanyuan with a grimace.

He nodded wildly in his heart: that’s right! What kind of close friend’s eyes are so affectionate. Even if this Alpha woman is shameless, my mother, an Omega, still has a reputation to live up to! What if my father sees it? Who will take responsibility?

… However, he couldn’t tell ah, He Yuanyuan looked so soft, but turned out to be a female Alpha.

“What kind of pure person do you think this omega is? She can’t wait to make something happen. Haha, if something really happens, can Lu Tong not be responsible for her?”

Qin Shiwu listened and his anger burned: fuck! this alpha woman is shameless! It’s too insidious——

——No, what do you mean not a pure person?

He reflexively thought that the Omega insulted by the students was Lu Tong*, so the people behind didn’t say two sentences before Qin Shiwu interrupted angrily: “what do you mean? He’s not pure, you’re pure?”

(* TN: the student used ‘she’ to refer to hyy when insulting her, but the pronunciation of she and he is the same in Chinese, which is why qsw doesn’t realize that hyy is the omega that’s being insulted.)

The man said, “I didn’t say anything about you. Who are you?”

As soon as Qin Shiwu’s temper came up, he wanted to scold “I’m your father” on the spot, and then step on the other party and rub beneath his heel repeatedly. But when he thought of the current situation, it was not convenient to cause trouble. He tried to be more tolerant, secretly recited “my Buddha’s mercy”, and calmly said, “Then what you said about Lu Tong is right? Are you a roundworm in his belly that you know him so well?”

“Who’s talking about Lu Tong? I’m talking about He Yuanyuan.”

Qin Shiwu was stunned: “didn’t you say Omega?”

“Yes, He Yuanyuan is an Omega.”

Qin Shiwu’s brain failed to reboot and became sluggish: “but you just said that an alpha and an omega being so close– “

“Lu Tong is an alpha. Are you crazy? Does he look like an omega?”

No.

Qin Shiwu was shocked by these words. He thought dully in his heart: it’s not a question of whether Lu Tong looks like an Omega or not, it’s that Lu Tong is an Omega, right?

If he was not an omega, where did he come from?

Is it possible that he was really picked up?

Did the urban legend of picking up a son from the trash finally come true in his case?

On second thought, it was impossible.

Lu Tong was such a cold-hearted person. How could he be willing to raise a son for others? Was he a philanthropist?

Qin Shiwu’s brief bewilderment was soon dissipated by the sound of voices on the scene.

In order not to be pushed to the back, Qin Shiwu struggled to grab the barrier in front of him and stared at Lu Tong on the basketball court.

Lu Tong seemed to be very popular in the circle of female students. When he was not there, the female students cheered feebly and absent-mindedly. As soon as Lu Tong took the stage, all the heroines on the scene changed from Consort Yu to Conqueror of Chu*, shouting fervently, using all their energy.

(* TN: Conqueror of Chu was a famous warlord who rebelled against the Qin dynasty, and Consort Yu was his wife.)

This popular scene was not much different from what Qin Shiwu imagined, but he had completely misunderstood the target.

Lu Tong was obviously more popular with girls than boys.

After one game, Provincial No. 1 High School made a comeback against the odds. Lu Tong made several dazzling dunks, causing the screams on the scene to overturn the sky, and in the end, the champion was undoubtedly No. 1 High School.

After Qin Shiwu witnessed the whole process, he seemed to have gotten a new understanding of Lu Tong.

The iceberg handsome guy with facial paralysis in front of him was 180,000 miles away from the “gentle and virtuous” Mrs. Qin in the future!

Qin Shiwu’s head was extremely dizzy: What the hell, is it really my mother? When you were young, you were so wild? He pretended to be an alpha?