CH 14

Edited by Vai

In the afternoon, Sui HouYu moved to his new dorm. 

He brought his luggage to the gates of building 11, and saw a group of sports students fighting, and Hou Mo being carried out of the dormitory building by a group of people.

Hou Mo was also terrified, and kept on saying, “Wrong! Wrong!” 

Looking at their actions, Ran Shu couldn’t help but ask, “Is this some kind of sacred ceremony?” (probably an initiation rite bb) 

Sui HouYu replied lazily, “Maybe they want to use a dog to call upon rain*.”

The two watched for a while, then went upstairs with their luggage.

This dormitory building was also unique. The hall on the first floor, the stairs, and the 5th and the 6th floors had been renovated.

The rooms on 1st to 4th floors were not finished yet, but it only needed one last step: installing the floor tiles.

However, it really made a world of difference whether there were floor tiles or not, at least the floor tiles looked cleaner.

Sui HouYu brought his luggage to his assigned dorm room, and saw the floor was full of bags. It seemed like the sports students just haphazardly threw them here as they carried Hou Mo to worship the heaven.

Ran Shu pushed the luggage away, walked to the bed and said, “We’ll each have the lower bunk?”

There are only two lower bunks in total. If they both took it, that group of sports students would start a fight when they returned.

Sui HouYu thought for a while and decided, “We would each take one from up and down.”

“Okay.” 

Sui HouYu chose the lower bunk, while Ran Shu settled in its upper bunk. 

When he was almost done tidying up, Ran Shu squatted by the wall near the socket to test the electrical appliances, and then exclaimed in surprise, “Yu-ge, there is no power. I plugged the iron; it didn’t turn on.”

Sui HouYu tried it then smiled. “This is not bad.” 

It was a blessing in disguise.

When the group of sports students came back, they saw Sui HouYu and Ran Shu squatting around a boiling pot.

The aroma of what they were cooking was so strong it could be smelled from a mile away, which attracted everyone, and made them swallow their saliva. 

Hou Mo approached Sang Xian to discuss who would get the remaining lower bunk. After all, the two of them were the tallest in the room, and the small space at the top would be an inconvenience. As they were talking, they couldn’t help but glance at Sui HouYu and Ran Shu.

Deng YiHeng ran towards them and whispered, “They are making dark cuisine.” 

Hou Mo asked, “What can we do?” 

“Look, how red the turkey noodles wrapped in the handmade pancakes are! My god, how spicy is this?” 

The four sports students in the dormitory stopped making their beds, and watched the two people making “dark cuisine” together.

Ran Shu took a bite and said, “Well, this time it was just right.” 

Sui HouYu while making pancakes instructed, “Wrap some and send it to Su Anyi later.”

“Okay.”

Hou Mo couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t they living a good life?” 

Deng YiHeng sighed, “Who would even bring a to school?pot ”

Shen JunJing swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Sang Xian returned to the topic, “I want the lower bunk.”

Gfcu TlLfcu mbeivc’a rajcv atf rlweijalbc rb tf rabqqfv tlr mifjclcu jcv vfmlvfv ab ajxf j kjix. Dfobgf tf ifoa, tf aegcfv ab Lbe Zb jcv rtbeafv, “Gj Vtlzlbcu, vlv sbe cba rqjgf jcs bo atf rqbgar raevfcar? Rba bcf, gluta?” 

Hou Mo made his bed and said, “Shi Xiongdi*, let’s all go to hell together.”

“Beautiful!” Deng YiHeng sighed as he ran to the corridor crying, “Ah, ah, ah, I will never talk to Da Shixiong again! I have to read a reflection letter on Monday!” 

Ccbatfg qfgrbc gfrqbcvfv, “Xbbv obg sbe, P kfca bc rajuf ijra Zbcvjs ab gfjv ws gfoifmalbc ifaafg, jcv ws gfoifmalbc kjr jybea tbk P rabif akb bclbcr. Prc’a la rtjwfoei ab atgbk atfw jkjs? Glv P ibrf atf gluta ab mtbbrf j qjgacfg cbk?” 

“No, you are determined to be single until graduation.”

Sui HouYu stood in the corridor with his wrap while he watched the people buzzing around. Most of them were strangers to him.  

Swimming in a pool full of sports students! 

However, Sui HouYu remained calm and continued to leisurely eat his wrap while watching all of them buzz around like busy bees.

After a while, Deng YiHeng approached him and asked, “Is it delicious?”

“Delicious, want one?” Sui HouYu replied. 

“No, they are instant noodles, right? Sports students can’t eat them.” Deng YiHeng was still staring at the wrap when he answered. 

Sui HouYu took another bite and asked, “Why can’t you eat it?”

“It affects our muscles. We can’t drink carbonated drinks or eat fried food. When the season comes our diet becomes more strict, and we can’t eat food from outside.” 

After thinking for a while, Sui HouYu asked, “Does the school only have a tennis team?” 

“No, we also have a track and field team and other competitive sports. However, our school is one of the rare ones that can compete with sports schools. If you study abroad tennis is more recognized so the school focuses on that.”  

“How long have you been practicing tennis?” 

“I started in primary school, while Da Shixiong started in junior high school.”

“Started in junior high?” It wasn’t long enough, and this made Sui HouYu even more disgruntled. 

“Yeah.”

At this time Ran Shu came out of their room and asked Sui HouYu, “Why are you inquiring about the tennis team? Do you really want to join?” 

Sui HouYu immediately shook his head and denied, “I’m just asking.”

Deng YiHeng stopped talking and went to another room to chat.

Holding a bag in his hand, Ran Shu told Sui HouYu, “I’ll go deliver food to Anyi.”

“Yeah.”

When Ran Shu was some distance away, Sui HouYu ran to him shouting, “Bring two bottles of water when you return.”

“Roger.”  

As Sui HouYu walked back to their room with the wrap in hand, he heard the conversation between Sang Xian and Hou Mo.

Sang Xian: “Actually, there was no need to bring so many people to live in this building.”

Hou Mo: “If only a few people will be punished, it would become a big problem. But if there were a lot, the school won’t make such a big deal out of it. Instead, it would be turned into a cautionary tale.”  

Sang Xian: “You did this to ensure that the people who were leading the charge on our side were saved, but in the end, it was people from Fenghua who got punished, while the people from Lantau were fine.”

Hou Mo smiled: “It’s frustrating.” 

This was normal for them sport students, and they had long gotten used to it. 

In the end, no one cared about it and everyone would still treat each other the same – laughing, talking, and fighting out loud.

Sui HouYu stood at the door for a while debating whether to go in or not. Finally, he turned around and went downstairs, sat down on the stairs and continued to eat his wrap. 

The others won’t be able to smell anything from here… right? 

He didn’t know that those sports student’s weren’t allowed to eat it.

In the future, if they wanted to cook, they would go to a vacant room on the fourth floor.

* 

Sui HouYu was particularly concerned about the sleeping environment.

He always had insomnia, his disorder making it hard for him to fall asleep.

When he was young he thought it didn’t matter but as he got older he discovered that he was not able to sleep like a normal person, and it made his mood irritable and uncontrollable.

Anxiety, restlessness, and heart palpitations at night were obviously different from that during the day.

This had made him realize that he actually needed to sleep, but he just couldn’t.

In the current room, one of his roommates was a snorer, and not even ear plugs could block the sound, making Sui HouYu grumpy.

After tossing and turning for more than two hours, he took out his phone and saw that it was already two o’clock in the night. He sighed and sat up.

He walked to the desk; to his bag, and found some pastries in it. He walked out of the room, after looking left and right, squatted by the door to eat.

Eating sweets could calm and soothe him.  

After eating a few, he still wasn’t sleepy.

The last hospital he visited prescribed him sleeping pills – melatonin, and he took them for a while. But they became useless soon, so he stopped taking them. 

Now, he often thought about increasing the dosage. 

While he was contemplating it, someone opened the bedroom door and walked out. The person turned around and saw him at the door.

Sui HouYu faced the person and saw Hou Mo spinning and jumping in one go. He almost wanted to applaud.

Hou Mo clutched his chest in fear and looked at Sui HouYu. 

With a cake in his mouth and a couple more in hand, Sui HouYu stared dumbfounded at Hou Mo.

The two people stared at each other, and no one spoke for a long time. 

Hou Mo looked at Sui HouYu’s bulged face, like a chipmunk, and couldn’t bear it, “You can swallow it first.” 

Sui HouYu obediently did as told, then wiped his mouth and explained, “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Oh, I know you don’t like to sleep.”

“And I know you are a coward.”

Hou Mo didn’t bother rebutting, heart still beating loudly. He could only place a hand on his chest and lean on the wall, slowly crouching down next to Sui HouYu and muttering, “My heart has never beaten this fast in my life, and it wasn’t due to falling in love at first sight but was scared by you.”

Sui HouYu took the last few bites, “You snore too loud.”

“That’s Deng YiHeng. I have roomed with him too long to care. I’m such a deep sleeper that even the dormitory wake-up call won’t rouse me.”

“Then you are amazing.” 

Hou Mo regained his senses and walked to the toilet staggeringly.

Sui HouYu rolled his eyes, then got up and followed Hou Mo.

Hou Mo planned on going to the toilet, so he didn’t care. In the end, they both stood together but Sui HouYu did not take off his pants, merely looked down at him.  

Hou Mo: “…”

After Sui HouYu saw it clearly, he muttered, “So your hair down here is also the same color.”

Hou Mo almost couldn’t pee. 

After watching, Sui HouYu walked out leisurely.

Hou Mo quickly washed his hands and came out, catching up with Sui HouYu and pulling his arm to stop him from leaving, “Wait, let me see yours if you dare!” 

“Fuck off, it’s all rolled up!” Sui HouYu struggled hard.  

“You are usually sane. I really didn’t expect you to be such a person!”

“Curiosity is common to all.”

They both went back to their room, and Sui HouYu laid back on his bed to try to sleep. 

Hou Mo climbed to his bed and took a look at his phone. He went back down and sat beside Sui HouYu, whispering, “I need to send a message so I’ll sit here for a while. You go to sleep first.”

This building hasn’t been used before, so there were only desks but no chairs. The school said they would have that arranged, but they didn’t know exactly when.

This meant that during school days, if they wanted to sit down, they could only do so on the bottom bunks.

Sui HouYu doesn’t really like that. He especially didn’t like it when other people sat on his bed.

But thinking of what Hou Mo had said before, he reluctantly agreed.

Mother Hou took on several jobs at different companies as an accountant. She had taught Hou Mo her work, and would sometimes ask for help from him to look at statements and stuff.  

Hou Mo had slept early so he hadn’t seen his mother’s message. Now that he did, he planned on working on it so that she won’t need to do it by herself tomorrow.

At first, he noticed that Sui HouYu was quite far away from him.

Sui HouYu was thin and only occupied a small space, so there was still a huge space available on the bed. But gradually he began to lean on to Hou Mo, and eventually fell asleep completely snuggling the other.  

Looking at Sui HouYu all curled up and sleeping soundly, how could he not fall asleep too?