CH 65

Chapter 65 – Arguing Over Little Details

How can I like you so much ah?

He finally admitted it in the end, and the moment he spoke, Fang Juexia seemed to have made the most rebellious decision he had ever made in his life. Yet, he was saved by this. For so many days, the push and pull of infatuation and shrinking away had almost torn him apart. He had immersed himself in a glacier of logic, but his heart had just wanted to jump into the boiling molten lava that was Pei Tingsong’s crazy love.

Everything will eventually come to an end, and it was still the heart that gets the final say.

Pei Tingsong almost thought that he had heard wrong; he had thought that no matter how long he waited, he wouldn’t get an answer. The heap of nonsense he had just blurted out even made him feel ashamed; it had been complete nonsense with no order at all, but then he had actually gotten an answer. 

Doubt followed the second after the initial ecstasy. He was afraid that Fang Juexia would follow this up with a “but”, as if this was just another form of rejection. So he couldn’t help asking, “You…are you telling the truth?”

Fang Juexia didn’t expect suspicion. “Of course.”

“You didn’t make a mistake? It’s not because I got hurt, and you feel bad for me and want to coax me, or because you just have friendly feelings towards me…”

“Pei Tingsong.” Fang Juexia once again called out his whole name, and in a tone both sincere and serious stated, “Although I have no experience, I am an adult capable of independent thought. Sympathy, goodwill, curiosity, friendship, gratitude, and the like; these emotions are not so difficult for me to classify. I have separated them very clearly, and when it comes to you…”

I just like you.

These remaining four words were swallowed back at the critical moment. Fang Juexia suddenly felt that he had also been affected by this person, since he seemed to have also become so direct.

“Summing it all up, what I just said is true,” Fang Juexia added in a low voice, dropping his eyes downwards, “And I even said it twice.”

Saying that he liked him twice, confessing and then confirming again. 

Hearing this, Pei Tingsong nearly lost his head from the ecstasy that erupted within him. He hated that he couldn’t just directly jump onto Fang Juexia, for as soon as he moved a little bit, Fang Juexia pushed him back down onto the bed. “Don’t move around.”

Pei Tingsong was a little aggrieved. “You even admitted that you like me, so can’t you hold me?”

This question being asked immediately pinpointed a blind area in Fang Juexia’s knowledge. It had already cost him all his courage to utter the affections that he had been hiding, and now it became even more difficult for him to just face Pei Tingsong. “Then— then do I need to hug you right after saying it? And you are injured, you have to be careful.”

“What kind of injury is this?” Pei Tingsong, in order to show off how sturdy he was, raised his hand and began to shake it back and forth. “You see, it’s completely fine. I’m really good, hiss…”

It really hurt after the anesthetic wore off.

Seeing him like this, Fang Juexia grew distressed again. “I already said that you shouldn’t move around.” He didn’t  dare to touch his hand, just gingerly holding the part of his hand peeking out of the cast. “Does it hurt?”

“Not bad.” Upon seeing how Fang Juexia’s eyebrows had completely twisted, Pei Tingsong stretched out his other hand and smoothed his brow. “It was just a little bit just now, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“The doctor said it would take four weeks for you to recover.” Fang Juexia sighed.

Listening to his sigh, Pei Tingsong sighed as well. “I regret it.”

What did he regret? Fang Juexia looked up at him, a little uneasy. Seeing that he had turned his body around, and seemed to be looking everywhere for something on the bed, he felt that the situation had turned strange again. “What’s the matter?”

“Where’s my cell phone? Just now, I should have recorded it when you said you liked me, so you can’t deny it later.”

So it turned out he regretted that. Fang Juexia was relieved and grumbled in a low voice, “I’m not drunk right now.”

Every move of Fang Juexia’s under Pei Tingsong’s gaze became awfully adorable to him.

The phone in his pants pocket suddenly vibrated, and Fang Juexia took it out in a hurry to pick up the incoming call. When he saw the words “Cheng Qiang”, he grew even more flustered. His behavior right now was exactly like that of a high school student who had been caught by his parents while on a puppy love date. 

“Hello…” Fang Juexia glanced at a corner of the room and said, “En, he’s good.

“It’s fine, let the staff go back first. The hospital is quite safe.

“I’ll take care of Xiao Pei in the hospital ba, even if I went back, I wouldn’t be able to sleep.” He dropped his eyes. “En, bye bye.”

When he hung up, Fang Juexia’s heartbeat still hadn’t recovered. He pressed the lock screen, took a deep breath, and looked up just to see Pei Tingsong say, “I’m not Xiao Pei.”

Fang Juexia didn’t understand, so he just kept looking at him.

Pei Tingsong once again stressed, “I’m not Xiao Pei now, I’m your boyfriend.”

This word fell into Fang Juexia’s ears and burned his ears until they felt hot. “Boy…” He couldn’t even say it.

“Yes ah.” Pei Tingsong, as if afraid of him running away, grabbed his hand and declared, “I like you, pursued you, and you also like me back. We should go out, just like all the other people who love each other do.” His thumb rubbed against the back of Fang Juexia’s hand as he continued, “It can’t be that you don’t want to associate with me?”

Pei Tingsong was really the most straightforward person he had ever met. Clearly, this love would be unspeakable in many people’s eyes, but with him, there wasn’t even a shadow of an obstacle. His enthusiasm was so rampant that Fang Juexia had no room to parry him.

“I—” Fang Juexia no longer wanted to be overcautious and indecisive, and compared to Pei Tingsong, he seemed to be the most entangled person in the world, but his voice was much smaller because of his lack of confidence. “….I’m willing.”

Pei Tingsong, who had achieved his goal, moved forward and asked, “You’re actually still afraid of me, aren’t you?”

Fang Juexia looked at him and shook his head.

“Really?” Pei Tingsong came closer. His eyes, that looked very childish when smiling, stared at him silently. He shifted his hand, which was holding Fang Juexia’s hand, upwards, stopping when he came to hold his arm instead. “How about this?”

Fang Juexia unconsciously held his breath. It seemed as if a cup of sour and sweet lemon soda had been overturned in the air, and its sweet bubbles floated between them.

He shook his head again.

As the distance between them shrunk further, Pei Tingsong moved forward again, and the position of his hand changed once again, going from Fang Juexia’s arm to the side of his waist.

The sweet bubbles in the air couldn’t help Fang Juexia resist at all, they were scattered everywhere by Pei Tingsong’s insatiable advance. Fang Juexia was trying very hard to maintain his last barrier of calmness. He was already a rational adult, and Pei Tingsong wasn’t some dreadful monster; there was nothing to be afraid of. He couldn’t lose his composure just because of such a small thing.

“Not afraid.”

The corner of Pei Tingsong’s mouth hooked up. “Really?” He put some force into his right hand, his palm pressing into the back of Fang Juexia’s waist, and drew Fang Juexia’s upper body into his own direction. The gap between them was compressed to the shortest possible distance.

He rubbed the tip of his nose against Fang Juexia’s and asked in a low voice, “How about this?”

Fang Juexia’s heart was about to leap out. He found that his reason had already been stripped out of his body, and he was unable to control his breath and his body, for everything was being led by Pei Tingsong. Clearly, this wasn’t the first time he had been so close to him; there had been occasions where he had been even closer. 

His brain failed, and Fang Juexia subconsciously closed his eyes.

Seeing that he had consciously closed his eyes, Pei Tingsong’s heart was about to melt. He held back his smile and teased, “You can only get this far ah?”

Upon being teased by him, Fang Juexia opened his eyes in a hurry. “I’m not afraid.” Then he asked, “If I close my eyes, that means I’m scared?”

The tip of his nose brushed against that of the other’s nose. “Otherwise what then?” Pei Tingsong asked softly, “It can’t be that you closed your eyes because you want me to kiss you?”

Fang Juexia was left speechless. On the surface, he still looked like that beautiful little ice floe, but the wavering water within his eyes gave him away. Pei Tingsong knew that he was wavering and melting.

“Juexia, can I kiss you?”

His breathing was completely disordered, and his whole being was only one step away from a complete breakdown. As long as Pei Tingsong leaned down and kissed him, maybe in the next second, he would fall apart and become a pile of scrap metal.

Fang Juexia closed his eyes again in the midst of this suffocation, and squeezed them shut tight. 

But this last fatal blow didn’t fall on the lips as he had imagined it would, but rather on the corner of his eye. Pei Tingsong’s lips gently pressed against his red birthmark, the mark that distinguished him from anyone and everyone else in the world.

Now, it was finally branded with Pei Tingsong’s warmth.

It was just a light kiss, and Fang Juexia didn’t actually fall apart, melting into Pei Tingsong’s arms. That hand that had pulled them both close patted his back, then gently rubbed his hair on the back of his head.

“Don’t be afraid of me.” Pei Tingsong held him tightly with one hand and promised, “I will cherish you.”

Hearing these words, Fang Juexia’s eyes, for some reason, started to sting. He raised his hand and hugged Pei Tingsong, embracing him as he would a lover.

Pei Tingsong let out a quiet laugh. “Did you know? I fantasized for a long time that if I could win you, and you were willing to be with me, of where I would kiss you for the first time. I thought for a long time and found that when that time really came, I still wanted to kiss your birthmark.”

This was a mark unique to only him in the whole world, and Pei Tingsong treasured the sense of having it all for his own.

Fang Juexia wondered, “Why did you want this?”

“This is our first kiss ah.”

Fang Juexia’s character caused him to only pay attention to the facts. “But previously you were also…” Thinking of the muddleheaded things he had done when he was drunk, Fang Juexia felt a little too embarrassed to go on.

As expected though, as soon as Pei Tingsong heard that, he released Fang Juexia from his hold and started up his taunting mode. “You still remember ah, I thought you had forgotten all of that. You’d better remember this for me for a lifetime: that I, Pei Tingsong, had my first kiss forcibly taken away by you, Fang Juexia, after you got drunk. That was my first kiss, you know? First kiss! That was a boy’s first kiss since the period he had grown up from a baby to someone with a clear sense of self!”

The more he said, the more energetic he became, and his words were nearly an indictment. Fang Juexia couldn’t help fighting back. “You’re not much better. You got drunk and also forcibly kissed me before, and…”

“And what?” Pei Tingsong asked intentionally.

Fang Juexia licked the corners of his mouth and swallowed the words “french-kissed” before continuing, “Anyway, no one owes anyone now, and it’s very fair.”

“Fang Juexia, you’d better maintain this standard of fairness and justice forever. As long as I kiss you, you must return it. You can’t let a single debt fall behind.”

Then he raised his right hand and started calculating, “Look, you kissed me when you were drunk, and I kissed you when I was drunk, so that’s even. But don’t forget, I also kissed you from across the candy wrapper when I passed it to you, and then I kissed you once from across the piece of paper when I was drunk…”

“You remember it all!” Fang Juexia realized with a start that he had been deceived. He pointed his index finger at Pei Tingsong, who just grabbed it and pulled it over, kissing his fingertips then. “Shh, I’m counting.” Pei Tingsong continued, “I just also kissed your birthmark. Oh, right,” he shook Fang Juexia’s fingertips and added, “And this one. Calculating it all out, I’ve kissed you four extra times, so quickly return them.”

Fang Juexia, a mathematics student who was extremely sensitive to numbers, was actually defeated in the calculation of such units. The account of one kiss after another that leaped out of Pei Tingsong’s mouth made him feel very flustered. 

He thought of what Pei Tingsong had said when he had hugged him just now, and it was as if he had grasped a life-saving straw. “You just said you would cherish me.”

When this sentence was said by him, it inexplicably gained a kind of coquettish feel to it. Pei Tingsong’s heart softened into a complete muddle, but he still had the cheek to say, “Yes ah. I’m going to cherish you, but don’t you have to cherish me as well ah?”

He gently kneaded Fang Juexia’s hand. “You should count every penny and pay me back for all the times I bullied you.”

Currently, Fang Juexia looked like a frozen small animal, not moving at all, simply staring at him with bright eyes. Pei Tingsong thought he was cute no matter how he looked at him, and his thesaurus of adjectives collapsed, with only the word “cute” rolling and echoing around in his brain. 

“Alright.” He didn’t intend to continue to tease him, for fear that Fang Juexia would be teased into never answering him again. “I don’t…”

As soon as he said these few words, Pei Tingsong’s hand was pulled up by Fang Juexia, with his index finger being held by him as it was pulled towards his mouth. Fang Juexia gave it a small peck and released it.

“I returned one.” Fang Juexia was always very serious when he spoke, and this time was the same, carrying out a very sincere retaliation. 

Pei Tingsong froze; he hadn’t expected his jokes to be taken seriously. While he was still in a daze, Fang Juexia drew closer again. His face carried a heroically righteous expression on it, as if he had prepared himself ideologically enough, and finally, he gently kissed his eyes.

“I’ve also returned this one.” Fang Juexia backed away a great deal. “That’ll be all for now.”

Pei Tingsong caught his hand. “Why did you kiss my eye, didn’t I kiss the corner of your eye?”

The corners of Fang Juexia’s mouth raised raised, and he pointed at the area under his eye as he said, “You have a very small mole there.”

And he had discovered it a long time ago.

As soon as the answer was given, Pei Tingsong leaned back on the bed and pulled up the quilt to cover his face. His whole person leaned to one side, and his feet even kept pedaling around inside the quilt. 

“What’s going on?” The injury on his hand was constantly on Fang Juexia’s mind. “Be careful, don’t bump your hand.” After he finished saying that, he tried to drag Pei Tingsong’s quilt down. “Why are you covering your head? Lie down quickly and have a good rest.”

“I’m hopeless.”

“What’s hopeless?” Fang Juexia said hastily, “You just have a small injury.”

“It’s really hopeless, I’m finished,” Pei Tingsong’s voice came out from the quilt, sounding all stuffy, “Fang Juexia, how can I like you so much ah?”

Only after 20 years of being the devil incarnate did he now come to understand the saying that ‘everything has its vanquisher.’

God must have known that Pei Tingsong wasn’t easy to push around; he couldn’t go with him, and even worse, he couldn’t go against him, so he pinched and formed a little person precisely according to his preferences and breathed into him a bit of an ethereal air. This little person then knocked Pei Tingsong down, and after entrancing him until he was thoroughly confused, then he obediently subdued him. 

Ever since he had confessed to Pei Tingsong, Fang Juexia had found that all the social rules he had followed over the course of so many years had failed. He didn’t even know how to talk to Pei Tingsong anymore. Looking at him hiding in the quilt like this, Fang Juexia could only rub his back and try to think of a way to coax him out, “You mind your hand, come out first.” Saying that, he also tried the solution of threatening, “Otherwise I’ll leave and go back to the dormitory.”

“No way.” Pei Tingsong immediately lifted up the quilt. “How could there be anyone like this, throwing their boyfriend in the hospital ward alone on the very first day they start to date? Fang Juexia, you’re still heartless.”

“Then lie down, and I’ll keep you company.” Fang Juexia tucked in the quilt for him. “You even fell asleep while they were doing the operation, so I’m sure you’re very tired. Get some rest early. You’ll be able to leave the hospital tomorrow once they have finished examining you.”

“Then what about you?”

Fang Juexia looked out the door. “There is a sofa in the waiting area outside the suite, and I will go out of the room when you fall asleep. Making do with it for one night will be fine, I’ve even slept on the floor of the practice room.”

“That’s not okay, you can’t leave.” Pei Tingsong moved to one side of the bed and offered, “You come up and sleep with me.”

Fang Juexia immediately started blushing. “How is that okay?”

“Why not?” Pei Tingsong asked, “Do you need me to count the number of times we’ve slept together in the same bed?” He raised his left hand. “If you refuse me, I’ll hit the wall.”

Fang Juexia was helpless. “How old are you?”

“20 years and a month, not at the legal age for marriage, but definitely an adult.” Pei Tingsong raised his eyebrows, and with an arrogant expression, questioned, “Do you have any doubts?”

He couldn’t talk him out of it, and he was also worried that the little devil would really do something like that, with complete disregard for his own safety, so Fang Juexia had to give up his resistance and lower his bed down. He thought he’d just deal with him first, and then when Pei Tingsong fell asleep, he would go out quietly and have the best of both worlds.

Fortunately, the bed didn’t count as being small and was big enough for two people to squeeze into. However, as soon as he got in, Pei Tingsong said, “I’m going to fall down. As expected, this bed can only contain one person.”

“What to do? Should I just get out ba?”

“Like this.” Pei Tingsong hugged him tightly to his chest. Their chests were pressed together, their hearts crashing together. He heard Pei Tingsong’s deep voice resounding through their intimately close bodies. “You sleep in my arms, and I sleep in the bed, so that way, it only counts as one person sleeping here.”

What kind of a weird calculation was this?

Worried about him putting pressure on his hand, Fang Juexia asked him to lie on his back, while he lay on his side. However, Pei Tingsong kept wanting to stretch out his right hand and hug him. Seeing no other way out, Fang Juexia just had to let him hug him. And upon seeing his injured wrist, Fang Juexia still felt frightened, and he knew he couldn’t experience such a thing again.

“In the future, you can’t come running over to save me so recklessly.”

After hearing what he said, Pei Tingsong only laughed. “Do you think I can control myself?”

Fang Juexia didn’t want to hear this. “Promise me first.”

“Okay, okay, okay, I promise you.” Pei Tingsong kissed his forehead. “I won’t be like this in the future, okay?”

He’d been kissed again.

He didn’t know what was going on, maybe Pei Tingsong’s arithmetic had brainwashed him too well, for Fang Juexia had subconsciously formed the habit of counting his kisses.

“En.” He pretended to be very sleepy, closed his eyes, and shrank into Pei Tingsong’s arms. Clearly, he had said he was just going to deal with his request, then go away, but after really being embraced by him, Fang Juexia had long forgotten his original intention.

He already couldn’t remember when this boy, three years younger than him, had captured his heart. Thinking back through everything, in a backwards process like image correction, his mind brought up every single moment he had interacted with Pei Tingsong, but even so, this system that had never failed before still could not trace back to the root of the mistake.

There were only innumerable moving moments.

The two people lying in the same hospital bed were isolated from the world. They didn’t know that this meetup had caused a tsunami in the online world again. First of all, during the livestream, Kaleido’s interview had gone viral. In particular, Fang Juexia’s answer to the question on whether they should be called idols had aroused a heated discussion online. The word “idol” itself was full of controversy, and in addition to the controversy over Fang Juexia himself, it was debated for a long time.

[@Bolognese sauce noodles with ice: Suddenly moved by FJX.]

[@Baozi who likes to eat meat: It’s still only because he has the strength that he has the courage to say this ba. When I randomly saw his magazine interview, back then he had said that idols were the embodiment of dreams. Although I don’t know much about his experiences, I feel that he is really a person with his own ideas.]

[@Beautiful appearance, good hearted, small public official: He really possesses a face such as to represent all idols, what kind of great, glorious, and correct image are you trying to create, you’re not afraid of your own persona collapsing?]

Just as their popularity kept rising, the sudden stage accident pushed this contradiction to its highest level.

After the accident, the livestream was suddenly stopped, but many people had still witnessed part of the situation at that time through the livestream. In the beginning, the rumor that spread was that fans had pulled Pei Tingsong off the stage, causing him to be injured. Many netizens, including fans who didn’t show up, started to voice blame. The topic of #Pei Tingsong has been injured# exploded directly.

Not long after the incident, the venue issued an official notice, saying that the accident was not caused by any design defects on the stage itself or the negligence of the security personnel on scene, but rather by human beings. It would fully cooperate with the investigation to find the perpetrators.

As for the Star Chart, after Pei Tingsong’s physical condition diagnosis was complete, they also issued an announcement to clear up the situation, and finally also said they would hold the perpetrators accountable.

These two announcements clearly defined the accident as a malicious and deliberate attack. Conspiracy theories were the most popular thing online, and everyone “made suggestions” in order to explore the truth under the surface. Some people guessed it was the same malicious competitors as those who had been responsible for the leaked song before, while others said it was anti-fans taking action, and everyone had their own opinions.

However, this incident also propelled Kaleido into becoming a member of the “Beautiful, strong, and miserable” league. As soon as they became popular, one tragedy after another occurred, and there were who knows how many people behind all of these incidents. Most netizens expressed their heartache after learning about Pei Tingsong’s injury and hoped that he could recover as soon as possible.

As luck would have it, the premiere for the second season of ‘Escape For Your Life’ was scheduled for that night. It was 10 p.m. by the time the broadcast ended, and the topic of #TingJue CP Escape# shot up on the Hot Search list at the speed of a rocket. Scanning the Hot Search list, half of the top ten searches were all related to Kaleido.

Those netizens who didn’t listen to music, didn’t watch performances, and didn’t care about the previous incident with the leaked song, finally came to know the two of them because of ‘Escape’. The scene one chanced upon when clicking into #TingJue CP Escape# was basically witnessing a large scale transfer of fans. 

[@Wolves001: WTFWTFWTF, this is the first time in Escape history that the killer won ba!? I was completely led around by my own thoughts this entire time, and I even bet with my partner that the killer was either XXQ or ZZH. I didn’t expect that the killer would stab himself!! Pei Tingsong, you’re too awesome! How can you put on such a good show as a rookie?! Shit! And Fang Juexia! Number one hook in the nation! From today on, you guys are going to be what I hang up on my wall!]

[@Wolves001: Wuwuwuwu just saw the Hot Search below, and PTS was actually injured! That son of a bitch who deserves to be stabbed with a thousand knives pulled FJX and pulled PTS down! I’m so angry! Holy crap, flipping over all your ancestors’ headstones, you dare to touch my idols!]

[@Exclamation point: Me before watching Escape: The program team has gone crazy ba, finding two members of a boyband to come in, do they just think that the guests are too smart, and they need to lower the average IQ? [Disdain.JPG] Me after watching Escape: Delicious! Pei Tingsong is an immortal killer! What kind of immortal beauty is Fang Juexia?! Can you see if I’m still there? I’ve disappeared!]

[@eeeeeEe: I was really deceived by PTS! I was deceived by the killer for the first time in this program! And Fang Juexia, I really have to surrender to the way he solved that question. Maybe he’s too good-looking, but I didn’t doubt him from the very beginning. P.S. I just heard the news of Pei Tingsong’s injury, blessing the big handsome Ge to get better soon. I still want to see you guys in episode 2. Dogs that deliberately hurt people must be brought to justice ah!]

[@Has the second season of Escape been broadcast: ‘Escape For Your Life’ is also famous for being a big place for making godly (boy) (or girl) friends. Those who questioned the guest selection of the program group before, do your faces hurt?]

[@Woderfuldays: I didn’t fall into the pit with the airport video, I didn’t fall into the pit when there was that ensemble show with some kind of candy wrapper kiss, I also didn’t with the magazine cover, and I didn’t with those gifs that were released for the comeback a few days ago. I never thought that with “Escape For Your Life”, I would fall into the pit! How is TingJue this good to ship?! The fairy tale of, ‘when everyone was doubting each other, only we trusted each other’ is too sweet! When FJX finally escaped and hugged PTS, I even got goosebumps!]

[@ I love Escape: PTS and FJX really go well together [covering my mouth, after watching the program, I found the super TingJue link a little bit into my research, and when I clicked it… There was a kind of feeling of being a mouse who had been hungry for half a lifetime and then suddenly falling into a sea of food. How is this me doing a CP, this is the CP doing me, okay?!]

[@Today is also a day to ship my CP: Wuwuwuwu just saw the highlight reel, and FJX is too cute. Hengheng said that this problem couldn’t be brute-forced, and that there must be clues. XQGG also said, “Isn’t this nonsense, who can brute force this ah?” Yet in the end, Fang Juexia weakly raised his hand behind him, and he also gave an answer, which was actually right! Two high level players were stunned! It’s a pity that this part wasn’t in the broadcast episode, FJX is both powerful and cute, and I like him so much. Fang Juexia, human calculator, and Fang Juexia, a beautiful baby! I’m going to go watch his performance 55555]

[@Study hard and make progress every day: Before watching the program: You can’t escape my piercing eyes, and I’ll see what kind of goods you guys really are! After watching the program: Yingyingying our TingJue are permanent guests ba! Right ba! Begging Escape Daddy, let them go on every season, okay?]

[@Bringing a prophet: I’ve heard that CPs who have been on Escape are generally, with high probability, and most likely to be…. Shh.]