CH 70

Little Cutie Arc #7

Translator: sunshine

Editor: meowmiao

Proofreader: XavierForest

When Chi Shu Yan spoke, his tone was very gentle. The soft, golden glow from the sun shone on his face, making his cold-looking eyebrows seem warmer. Li Cheng, with his mouth wide open, momentarily couldn’t react to what he’d heard.

He’d known Chi Shu Yan for a long time and understood the other party’s temper well; he might seem cold and stoic, but once you got close to him, he was a very kind person. Still, that kindness couldn’t be compared to the tenderness that was shown now.

At least, he’d never been treated so tenderly.

Ahem, but it might also be because he was usually kind of cheap and frustrated most people with his behavior. Even his own mother hadn’t been that tender with him; Chi Shu Yan, who hadn’t punched or hit him, was already the most gentle towards him.

Li Cheng thought for a while and found it reasonable, but when he went to take another look at those two, he felt that this wasn’t the case.

It was like… like a pair of lovers.

Li Cheng was taken aback by his thoughts. Although he was still a single dog, he’d seen friends who were couples around him. When they got together, they would more or less give rise to a sweet atmosphere—it was the so-called pink bubbles that girls talked about, though he’d always called it the sour stench of love.

Today, when he saw Su Tang and Chi Shu Yan, he felt that the atmosphere was so strong that he couldn’t ignore it. It was unknown what he was thinking, but anyways, when he saw this scene, he felt that they were very well matched with each other. 

No no, Li Cheng shook his head. Those two are boys ah.

Su Tang really was cute, adorable, and gentle—even more gentle than most of the girls in the class. Furthermore, it wasn’t the fake type of gentle, but instead natural. A glance would make others feel compassionate, even wanting to stand up and protect him. Judging from a straight male’s aesthetics, the other party was indeed very good-looking, just like a carving made from white jade. 

But… But… Even after thinking carefully, Li Cheng still couldn’t find a reason to refute it. He was silent, quietly looking at Chi Shu Yan for a while. Although there was a basketful of words he wanted to ask, since Su Tang was sleeping so soundly, he decided to wait until later.

After all, disturbing others’ dates wasn’t good.

While Li Cheng didn’t have any awareness in regards to this aspect, when Chi Shu Yan’s murderous gaze drifted towards him, he wobbly drifted away.

After a while, when Chi Shu Yan woke Su Tang up, the other party was muddled and had on a dazed expression. He tried to open his eyes for a long time before finally succeeding. Rubbing his eyes, he leaned softly against Chi Shu Yan’s shoulder, and in a sweet, baby-like tone, he said, “So sleepy. I’m gonna sleep for a bit longer.”

Chi Shu Yan was stunned for a moment, feeling that he couldn’t refuse the other party’s words at all. However, time was running out, so he could only turn his head, not daring to look at Su Tang’s face, and then said, “We only have ten minutes to get to the exam room.”

“Ah, what?” After hearing that, Su Tang rose in a panic, his eyes widening, and he blinked while looking around, still a little dazed.

“Where is this?” he asked.

“The school pavilion ah.” Chi Shu Yan looked at him in surprise, then recounted what had happened from beginning to end. Su Tang soon recalled the situation.

“I might have slept until it became a blur.” Su Tang said embarrassedly. He then stood up and walked forward while saying, “Then let’s go to the exam room ba.”

“It’s this way.” Chi Shu Yan pulled his collar and pointed in another direction.

“Oh oh oh, it’s like this ah.” Su Tang hurriedly turned around. Chi Shu Yan let go of his collar. He’d forgotten that Su Tang’s school uniform hadn’t been sent out yet and that he could only wear a T-shirt with a similar colour to the school uniform.

Summer clothing was very thin and elastic. Just after being stretched by Chi Shu Yan, the collar quickly tried to return to its original shape, and immediately afterwards, a big portion of the other party’s shoulders was exposed.

Before Su Tang could react, Chi Shu Yan immediately stretched out his hand and helped the other party straighten his collar. Following that, like any person that was alright, he hooked the other’s hand and walked to the teaching building.

After walking like that for a while, Su Tang realised what had just happened and very quickly felt extremely ashamed. He let go of Chi Shu Yan’s hand, but before they could speak, the two had already reached the door of the classroom.

Their exam rooms were different, so naturally their floors were different too. Su Tang took the exam on the first floor while Chi Shu Yan was on the fifth floor. In this way, he was able to send Su Tang to the examination room first, which made him feel relieved. 

“I wish you success in the exam. After the exam, wait for me here. I’ll take you out for dinner.” Without waiting for Su Tang’s reply, Chi Shu Yan hurriedly passed his bag back to him and then went upstairs.

Su Tang looked at the back of the other party in a daze. Just as he wanted to say something, he saw Li Cheng wander out of the classroom. The other person was surprised when he saw him. He said hello before following Su Tang’s gaze and then understanding what had happened.

“You two have a really good relationship.” Li Cheng sighed.

“It’s… It’s okay ba.” Su Tang muttered.

“I think he treats you very well.” Li Cheng said.

“En, he is pretty good.” When Su Tang heard what he said, he realised that it was true and couldn’t help but be a little content.

It was just that he lowered his head and didn’t show any special expression. When Li Cheng saw that, he felt that things might be far more complicated than he’d thought they were. He was good at everything other than studying, so this wasn’t him boasting. Just looking at Su Tang’s expression confirmed that he wasn’t with Chi Shu Yan yet.

And it was probably just Chi Shu Yan being secretly in love with the other party. After all, since it was his first time experiencing this, he was just quietly treating Su Tang well, slowly merging into Su Tang’s life. As a result, Su Tang was dense and naive, and he didn’t think too deeply.

What a tragedy! Suddenly, Li Cheng thought of the tragic posts on Mao Pu Tian Ya of gay men falling in love with straight men and couldn’t help but shed some tears for Chi Shu Yan.

He patted Su Tang on the shoulder and solemnly said to him, “Chi Shu Yan likes you very much, so you have to properly cherish him.” 

After speaking, he freely and easily left.

Su Tang was dumbfounded and didn’t know what the other person’s words meant. He felt as if he’d been transmigrated into some kind of bitter romance drama. It was a bit inexplicable, and he felt a little sickly.

However, after Li Cheng’s ‘performance’, Su Tang succeeded in temporarily forgetting what had happened in the pavilion. He then prepared his stationery and entered the exam room.

It was still a boring but tense afternoon. Su Tang was tested on math and physics questions that he wasn’t good at—those kinds of questions were abnormal and all kinds of formulas were needed to do them. Su Tang worked them out on a piece of paper, and as his mood followed his messy handwriting, he felt irritated. Ten minutes before the end of the exam, he grew sick of it all and started to write and draw on the paper to pass the time. 

He drew two stick figures, and thinking that it wasn’t vivid enough, he added facial expressions to them. Afterwards, he gave the both of them names; one was Tang Tang and the other was Chi Chi.

He was purely just entertaining himself, and since he’d happened to thinkt of Chi Shu Yan, he wrote his name. Except his faint handwriting wasn’t very nice. It was just like him, looking a little soft, and it didn’t fit with Chi Shu Yan’s ‘Chi’, so he went back and immersed himself in his handwriting.

When humans were bored, they could basically do anything—just like how Su Tang had created countless signatures for Chi Shu Yan. After he handed in his test paper, he found out that there weren’t any trash cans in the examination room, therefore he could only stuff the piece of paper into his school bag.

Like this afternoon, he waited for Chi Shu Yan to arrive before having a meal together. After eating and without getting distracted, he went straight to the classroom, taking out the study materials for the subjects being tested tomorrow. At 5.30 in the evening, the self-study assembly bell rang and everyone returned to their original seats.

Only Su Tang was standing as the class teacher hadn’t had the time to add a table and chair for him. The only vacant table left was the seat belonging to Chi Shu Yan, who had gone to a meeting. Of course, Su Tang was too embarrassed to sit there.

It is precisely because of this that Su Tang stood out and everyone turned their heads, looking at him while guessing his identity.

Su Tang felt a bit flustered and stood there not knowing what to do.

Unfortunately, their class teacher had to go to a meeting in the city so there was no one taking care of them in the class. Some of the more daring classmates started to talk to Su Tang. Over time, everyone found out that the new classmate was not only soft and cute-looking, but his speech and personality were also the same. No matter what questions they asked, Su Tang would try his best to answer them.

“How about letting the new classmate introduce himself?” Li Cheng suddenly stood up and suggested.

“But the class monitor isn’t back yet. What if we get caught by the director?” Someone said.

“I’ll be on the lookout for you guys, so isn’t that problem solved?” Li Cheng said.

“Everyone, be quiet.” A very beautiful girl stood up and said, “Tonight, the director is going to inspect every floor. I know that everyone is eager to quickly get to know the new classmate, but when you guys get excited, your noise could easily ‘blow up’ the building. Except for our venerable Shu Yan, there isn’t anything that can control you guys.”

After she finished speaking, she smiled and said, “So I hope everyone can bear with it for a while. Although the deputy class monitor is a brave woman, I can’t withstand your ‘devastating bombing’.” 

“As for the new classmate, I’m glad that you can join us. My name is Sun Qi, and I’m the deputy class monitor. If you have any questions in the future, please ask me. Shu Yan is usually very busy with meetings and writing reports; these trivial matters can only be left to me.” 

“Hello, my name is Su Tang…” Su Tang mumbled. The other party smiled, pointed at Chi Shu Yan’s seat, and said, “Standing must be tiring. Given that he hasn’t come back yet, just sit at his seat for now. When the self-study is over at 7:20, I’ll help you get a table and chair.”

“Okay, thank you.” Su Tang nodded, carrying his bag to Chi Shu Yan’s seat. The classroom hadn’t quietened down yet. Many of them said to Sun Qi, “Goddess, don’t worry, we promise to be well-behaved”, and there were those saying, “Class monitor’s luck is so good, he has such a good internal helper.” In short, there were truths and lies. After listening to it, Su Tang only felt puzzled.

He hated himself for being like that, so he just took out a book and started to read it. But his mind wasn’t on the book at all. Instead, it stayed on the words that were said just now.

The female lead, Sun Qi, was indeed very beautiful. She had an oval face and willow eyebrows1 柳叶眉/ willow eyebrows …looks the same as normal to me:’), her nose straight, her eyes as tender as water, and her gestures graceful and gentle. She was proper goddess material. He knew that the other party was very popular from the echoes he could hear in class, and maybe there were many people who liked her.

Su Tang wasn’t envious of her being liked by so many people. In fact, his main focus was on how she’d addressed Chi Shu Yan. She’d directly skipped over his surname, calling Chi Shu Yan: Shu Yan.

That was what he was most envious of and saddened by. Although he vaguely guessed why he was upset, he didn’t feel like facing that problem. In the end, he just picked up a book and started to blindly read it, his mind not at all on the content of the book.

When Chi Shu Yan returned from the meeting, the class had already quietened down. He opened the door, but unlike in the past, he didn’t stand in front to speak. Rather, he scanned the classroom with his eyes before they finally settled on his desk and chair.

He looked for a while and everyone found out that Su Tang was still immersed in his inexplicable sadness. Chi Shu Yan smiled, walking a few steps toward Su Tang. He saw a piece of paper on the floor and bent to grab it before standing up.

He glanced at the paper and his expression became strange; it was a kind of excitement mixed with joy that also brought with it an unspeakable emotion, but no matter what, his mood seemed to be great and a little weird.

He rubbed Su Tang’s hair and roused the other person from his thinking. The other glared at him, however Chi Shu Yan just smiled and said, “Little student Su Tang, do you want to go up front and introduce yourself?” 

“…En.” Su Tang nodded, then put the book down and obediently walked up to the front with an incredibly well-behaved appearance.

Everyone was calling him cute and adorable, but Chi Shu Yan just kept his head down, staring in a daze at the piece of paper he’d picked up just now. Because that paper was the one from Su Tang’s book, with two stickmen holding hands drawn on it, one of which was the other party while the other was himself.

And the blank spaces were filled with his name.