CH 7

After a year, his older brother finally came back and mother Ye’s preparations were quite grand.

Ye Zhou was lying in bed and flipping through the book. Occasionally, he could hear the voice of mother Ye excitedly calling various relatives. Ye Zhou put down the book, walked to the door, and quietly pulled the door open. Mother Ye’s voice became clear immediately.

“Right, it’s this Wednesday when Little Heng will be back. I booked a room at the Fujin Hotel for noon . Everyone will be gathered there…Ye Zhou, he came back. He’s still the same old…”

Ye Zhou closed the door, not wanting to hear his mother’s contemptuous tone when talking about him.

After reading the book for a while, mother Ye opened the door and said, “I’m going out. You call for takeout in the evening. Study well. You should know that the hardship you suffer is in order for you to become a better person.”

Ye Zhou impatiently replied, “I know.”

Maybe because her mood was good, mother Ye actually didn’t mind his tone.

When he heard the sound of the living room door closing, Ye Zhou placed the book on his face. Reading the book for a morning, his head was dizzy. His hand groped toward the pillow and he took his cell phone and got up. The book on his face slipped on the the edge of the bed and fell to the ground with a thumpin the quiet bedroom.

Ye Zhou glanced at the textbook on the ground. He didn’t hate learning, but the frame of mind when taking the initiative to study and being forced to study weren’t the same.

Looking at the time, Ye Zhou picked up the book and set it aside. He took out his cell phone and sent a message to his high school friend, Shang Ming.

Ye Zhou: What are you doing?

The weather on National Day was very good, sunny and cloudless and, except for the bustling crowd on the streets, was the best time to go out and play.

“You’re really not going?”

Shang Jin turned his back to the people in the doorway and said, “You should go quickly. I’m staying in the hotel and not going anywhere else.”

“This child has no energy at all.”

“Big brother isn’t going with us?”

“Yeah, forget it. Shang…he doesn’t like being around crowds. Don’t force him.”

The voices drifted away until they disappeared. Shang Jin turned his head and looked at the empty hotel suite. He turned to the side and continued to close his eyes to nap.

Ding ding.

Shang Jin frowned slightly. With a trace of displeasure from being disturbed, he opened his eyes and tapped open the text message.

Ye Zhou: What are you doing?

It couldn’t be said that this text wasn’t surprising.

Prior to this term, Shang Jin’s impression of Ye Zhou was that, aside from him, he was the only student who had a stable performance, whether it was in academic performance or in various competitions. Shang Jin took first place, Ye Zhou took second place, and third place often changed among the classmates.

Shang Jin reflected that if he were in this position with someone pressuring him from above everyday, even if he didn’t hate him, he certainly wouldn’t like him. He didn’t expect that Ye Zhou was really an exception, unexpectedly liking him so much that he’d fill his entire photo album with photos of him.

This was the first time that Shang Jin had faced such a frank and strong feeling. He hadn’t had the time to reflect on it yet when the person involved in the incident began to strongly deny and repeatedly beg him to clarify.

Since knowing Ye Zhou, Shang Jin dared to say that the phrase he heard the most was: “I don’t like you. I really don’t like you!”

Even though Shang Jin had no feelings for Ye Zhou, and also didn’t care whether he liked him or not, but a person who seemed to be avoiding ‘severe floods and fierce beasts’ [T/N: a great scourge] kept repeating in his ear “I don’t like you. I don’t like you”, made it seem like he was pursuing the other and the other was rejecting him. Even if it was Shang Jin, there would be a little bit of discomfort in his heart.

Shang Jin wasn’t comfortable. Naturally, he didn’t want to let Ye Zhou be comfortable either.

Therefore, when Ye Zhou asked him to clarify, he was a bit bad. Only, when he saw the other’s flustered appearance, he felt a bit guilty. So when he heard that Ye Zhou usually didn’t return home on the long holiday, he thought of his identity as a local and worried that there would be further misunderstandings with their classmates. Shang Jin deliberately distanced himself and agreed with his family’s travel plans, not thinking…

Originally thinking Ye Zhou would desperately pull away from the relationship with him, who knew that on the journey, due to a freak combination of factors, they’d ended up sitting together.

Ye Zhou kept saying that he didn’t like him. Then why did he give him an apple and also send him a text message?

Anyways, no matter what, Shang Jin quickly replied.

Shang Jin: Sleep.

Sleep??

Shang Ming, this guy actually sleeping on the precious holiday was really the sun rising from the west.

Ye Zhou quickly replied.

Ye Zhou: Come out and play!

Looking at the other party’s reply message, Shang Jin was unable to make sense of the other once again.

Did he really want to go traveling hand-in-hand with him?

Shang Jin: Many people.

These two simple words succeeded in making Ye Zhou click his tongue. He wondered: did this kid eat the wrong medicine? Could it be that he was influenced after being in the a literature institution for a year and his whole human temperament had settled down?

Making an association with Shang Ming’s hobby, Ye Zhou lightly typed on the phone with his fingers.

Ye Zhou: Right, this time I came back, I borrowed a copy of “The Art of War: The Thirty-Six Stratagems”. Obviously, I’m already familiar with many of these words already, but I really want to digest them and really understand them to be able to use them flexibly in real life.

Shang Jin tapped on the screen of the cell phone. This Ye Zhou, didn’t know how his brain worked, but the dialogue really jumped all over the place. However, “The Art of War: The Thirty-Six Stratagems”, he’d read it before, completely reading it like bedtime stories.

Shang Jin: Once used well, there’s no disadvantage.

Ye Zhou became interested and curiously said: Which strategy do you like best?

Shang Jin didn’t think about it and replied: kill with a borrowed knife.

Kill with a borrowed knife: (借刀杀人) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-Six_Stratagems

Ye Zhou: Why?

Shang Jin: Completely don’t need to do it yourself, in a few words, able to let others help you do the work is more effortless.

Ye Zhou rolled over and, lying on the bed, sent back a text.

For one afternoon, the two men went from the Art of War to talking about the history of kings, lamenting the rotation of dynasties, to discussing the status quo in society, and looking forward to the economic situation in the future.

Unwittingly, it was already dinner time. Ye Zhou went to the toilet and directly dialed Shang Ming from his recent calls.

“Ye Zhou?”

“Us two idlers should eat together tonight. In any case, you seem to have nothing to do.” After all, if he weren’t idle, he wouldn’t have chatted for a whole afternoon.

“What are you talking about? I’m traveling in B City!”

“You’re on a trip but still have the time to text me for so long?? Are you idle?”

Shang Ming was unable to make head or tail of it. “You haven’t woken up yet, right? Who sent you texts? I’m going first. It’s my turn in line now…” dududu

“Heyー” After staring blankly for a moment at the phone that had been hung up, Ye Zhou hurriedly opened the inbox.

Inbox latest message fromーShang Jin!

Shang Jin???

Ye Zhou was unwilling to give up and opened the conversation with Shang Jin. These messages were exactly the ones he’d exchanged with the other party all afternoon.

Shang Jin…

Shang Ming…

In the contacts, the two individuals were one above the other. If he wasn’t careful, he’d press on the wrong chat box.

Ye Zhou grabbed his hair. Unexpectedly, he’d been chatting casually with Shang Jin for an afternoon!!

He fiercely slapped his own head. No wonder that after the topic changed to the economic situationーsomething that had nothing to do with literatureーthe other person was still able to reply quickly and fluently.

Staring at the chat box, Ye Zhou was thankful that just now, he’d directly called Shang Ming instead of sending an invitation by text. Otherwise, if the person he’d met with was Shang Jin, maybe he would be so scared he’d turn around and run away.

The latest message from Shang Jin had just come over, but after Ye Zhou knew he’d texted the wrong person, he couldn’t recall the pleasant atmosphere from before. He thought for a moment and made a concluding remark.

Ye Zhou: I’m going to go eat. PS: Coming to my great D City, even if you don’t visit the scenic spots, you still must buy some preserved fruit. This is the specialty of our D City: it’s never been said that they’re not delicious~

After sending this text, Ye Zhou, as if avoiding the phone, threw it at home and ran out with his wallet to look for food.