“It must have been you,” Su Tang said in a huff.
“Yes yes yes, it’s me, it’s me.” Chi Shuyan answered, but raised his brow, “There’s only two of us in the dorm. Apart from me, who else would be nice enough to help you out of your clothes and carry you to the bed?”
Su Tang was stumped; he realised that it was really the case. If it weren’t for Chi Shuyan, he would have sat on the stool and slept there the entire night. Would he have been able to get up comfortably like he did this morning?
He raised his head and looked somewhat shyly at Chi Shuyan, but the latter simply smiled and used his finger to lightly poke his forehead, “You are really a heartless little man.”
“Ohh…” Su Tang staggered back from the poke, but was pulled back by Chi Shuyan. The refreshing and familiar scent lingered around him. Su Tang lightly took in a breath, feeling calmer, before he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have misunderstood you.”
“It’s alright.” Chi Shuyan didn’t really mind it, because what he minded was something else.”
“But what did you misunderstand about me? That I was taking advantage of you? Or that I was behaving like a rogue?” He asked jokingly.
“None of those!” Su Tang was feeling extremely guilty from Chi Shuyan’s questions. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. They were both men, so there wasn’t any issue if they helped each other take off their clothes. However, he still felt quite uneasy. It wasn’t that he hated it; he was just feeling embarrassed.
Now, this was tricky.
When Su Tang thought of this, he was immediately conflicted. He realised that his behaviour was very strange. He clearly hated getting intimate with others, but with Chi Shuyan, he was a changed man. He liked the other person touching his head and pinching his cheeks. Sometimes, when the other person held his hand or even leaned forward to talk to him, he would feel his heart beating rapidly.
Perhaps he knew the type of feeling he held towards Chi Shuyan, but in his heart, he was unwilling to admit it. Rather, he felt that it was terrible that he developed such feelings. After all, he was a transmigrator; he shouldn’t invest too much feelings into this world, and all the more he shouldn’t have fallen in love with someone from this world.
And that person was the male lead, the lead character that he was supposed to matchmake.
At this thought, Su Tang couldn’t help but feel contempt towards himself. And this conflicted feeling was stuck in his heart, filling up every bit of him. He felt upset, and he didn’t have an outlet to release, nor someone to vent with, so he could only approach the system for help.
“What should I do now?” Su Tang asked.
“That’s what I want to ask too.” The system was beyond tears too; it only felt despair, but what could it do? It still had to press on.
Moreover, it was in a worse condition than Su Tang. The latter’s memories in every world were wiped, but it had to carry these failed memories and continue to transmigrate. And transmigrate they did. But when it saw the expression when the male lead looked at Su Tang, its nightmare would begin once more.
Damn, he must have been smitten by his family’s little Su Tang! The system could resist cursing, and after cursing, it looked at Su Tang’s face. Indeed, Su Tang was rather moe and cute, and he was very obedient. He would never recklessly fool around with others. If it wasn’t because the bastard male lead who always got close to him and had a crush on him, their missions wouldn’t have failed!
The system forcefully pushed the blame to Chi Shuyan, and immediately its guilt lessened significantly. However, it was only comforting itself, what’s left was to try its best to regulate the situation.
“Do you like to be around him now?” The system questioned Su Tang.
“I quite like it.” Su Tang replied.
“That’s normal. After all, he’s the male lead, so he’s sure to be charming. Furthermore, he’s the only person that you got to know after you came here, and he’s nice to you, so you’ll definitely like him.” After the system said this, it immediately changed the topic, as it continued, “But in actuality, such feelings are not love. You just treat him as a closer friend.”
“Is that the case?” Su Tang was quite doubtful.
Of course not! The system was cynical internally, but it didn’t say anything. After all, sparks were flying between the pair, and if they stopped it now, there might be a chance of extinguishing the sparks. However, if it left the situation alone, the situation would probably burn into a sea of fire.
“Yes, it’s like that.” The system said with certainty, then continued spouting nonsense, “Think about it. If you reared a cat, wouldn’t you like it to rub against you and lick you? Then, in your opinion, is that love?”
Su Tang suddenly felt that the system made a lot of sense. Although he still felt that there was something strange, he still accepted the other party’s brainwashing, and even heaved a sigh of relief, feeling that it was pure friendship between Chi Shuyan and himself.
The system had complicated feelings watching him. It didn’t know if it was doing the right thing, but he didn’t want to think about it further. After all, it was already difficult enough for him to successfully swindle someone, so all it wanted to do was to hide away and lie down quietly for a while.
On the other hand, Su Tang was filled with confidence. He felt that he could properly face Chi Shuyan from now on. Yet, he didn’t know that sometimes, one could talk all they wanted about logic and reasoning, but they might still be cowardly when acting upon it.
Plus, the logic that the system imbued into him was a fake one.
The morning flew past quickly. After another day of exams, Su Tang didn’t have time to ponder about anything else. However, when he returned to the classroom, he saw Chi Shuyan and Sun Qi chatting.
Su Tang felt a chill in his heart, as though he had been drenched from top to toe with a bucket of cold water bathed in ice shards. It was extremely cold, extremely painful, as though the ice shards had poked into his flesh. He wanted to pull them out, but his hands were filled with wounds.
He was feeling helpless and frustrated, but even more so, he was feeling aggrieved and upset. He knew that he shouldn’t be like this. After all, his mission was to matchmake the male and female leads; and when he saw them engaged in a conversation, he should have felt happy, but he didn’t. Not a single bit.
All he felt was sadness. He was so sad that he wanted to cry, but he held his tears back. He only pursed his lips and tried to turn himself away, so that he wouldn’t look, and wouldn’t think about it.
However, he didn’t manage to do it. He could only stand pitifully on the spot, looking like an abandoned puppy.
“Little Su Tang, what are you standing here for?” Li Cheng suddenly came into the classroom and asked him casually. It would have been better if he didn’t ask; but now that he did, Su Tang couldn’t hold back his tears anymore.
When Chi Shuyan heard the commotion, he turned back immediately. However, Su Tang suddenly covered his face and dashed out of the classroom.
He was actually crying over such a small matter. It was too shameful, he didn’t want Chi Shuyan to see it.
Chi Shuyan had also sensed something strange about Su Tang, so he couldn’t care about anything else. He simply told Sun Qi, “I’m going out for a bit”, then chased after him.
Li Cheng was someone who loved a show. He sneakily hid by the door frame to look, but before he could see anything, his ear was pulled by the class teacher.
“Su Tang,” Chi Shuyan yelled, but Su Tang didn’t answer him. Su Tang saw that there was a staircase nearby, so he took the stairs down.
He ran for a while, but realised that it was an emergency exit. The door was concealed, and there were no lights on. The entire stairwell was eerily dark, with only flashing green directional lights. He didn’t dare to push that door open, and continued walking down. It was only when he walked to the ground floor and pushed the door open that he was blinded by the sunlight.
At this moment, he felt that he was pulled into someone’s embrace. It was the familiar and fragrant grassy scent, Chi Shuyan’s smell.
“Let me go,” Su Tang struggled.
“I’m scared that you’ll run away.” Chi Shuyan didn’t lie; in order to chase after Su Tang, he had specially taken a shortcut, strode two steps down the stairs at one time, all because he was afraid that Su Tang would escape.
“I’m not going to run anymore,” Su Tang guaranteed weakly.
“I’m still not letting go.” Chi Shuyan said unexpectedly.
“You’re bullying me…” Su Tang couldn’t help but cry as he said this.
Chi Shuyan looked at Su Tang and quickly released his hold. He wanted to console Su Tang, but the latter ignored him.
Su Tang covered his mouth, stifling his sobs, but he felt something different. Chi Shuyan was patting his shoulder continuously, but Su Tang suddenly turned his head away, curling himself into a little ball as he kneeled on the ground.
“Why did you suddenly cry?” Chi Shuyan also kneeled down, and said softly.
“There’s no reason why.” Su Tang shifted towards the side, unwilling to face him.
Chi Shuyan was silent for a moment, then explained, “Just now, I was just asking the vice class president for the previous seating arrangement, and we were discussing the next round of arrangements. Don’t misunderstand.”
Su Tang didn’t speak, but his ahoge wavered. It seemed as though he was starting to believe him.
“When I went back to the classroom, Teacher Xing called me to arrange the seats before all of you finished your meals.” As Chi Shuyan said this, he twirled Su Tang’s ahoge.
“Ohhh…” Su Tang finally raised his head and looked at Chi Shuyan, his gaze carrying his bad mood.
“Be good. Don’t be angry anymore, alright?” Chi Shuyan took out a piece of tissue paper and wiped Su Tang’s tears, then said, “If you don’t believe me, then let’s go up together and see?”
“It’s not that I don’t believe…” As Su Tang said this, he reached his hand out, “Pull me up first. I, I want to go back to the classroom.”
Chi Shuyan burst out laughing, but Su Tang quickly explained, “I’m going back to take some things. It’s not because I want to see you.”
“Yes yes yes, everything you say is right.” Chi Shuyan pulled him up, his face still full of smiles.
“I’m not interested in anything about you. Don’t you overthink things.” Su Tang’s face was flushed as he grumbled.
“Yes yes yes, you aren’t interested at all,” Chi Shuyan nodded. However, he asked next, “Then who was the one who was crying with so much grievance, and even ran into the emergency exit just to hide from me?”
Su Tang looked down shyly, refusing to answer him, but Chi Shuyan stuck close to Su Tang’s ear and added, “Tell me, who was it?”