CH 79

Huo Ran never understood why such a frail organ like the nose would be right on the front of your face with no protection.

Kou Chen’s nose felt like it was made of fucking iron when it bumped into his, and it felt like his nose was already flat. 

But he didn’t have the time to keep thinking about his nose.

Their boat bumped into the back of the boat in front of them violently.

The woman exclaimed in surprise, and the guy named Hu also roared in anger.

He grabbed the woman. 

The action was really just a subconscious show of true love to a couple.

But to them, it was basically a challenge, a declaration of war, something that showed they didn’t mean anything in his eyes!

Jiang Lei and Wei Chaoren have never been more in sync than now. They both frantically pedalled backwards.

“Back, back, back!” Wei Chaoren said. “Again! Cuddle again, I fucking dare you!”

Huo Ran let go of his nose and wiped his tears, looking at Kou Chen as he pedalled.

“…Kou Chen!” He said lowly.

“I’m fine!” Kou Chen turned to say as he pedalled as well, then he sniffed his nose.

Huo Ran looked down at his arm, there was a drop of blood. 

From when Kou Chen just turned his head.

Kou Chen saw the drop of blood as well, and he paused, wiping his arm: “Fuck? Your nose is bleeding?”

“Me?” Huo Ran looked at him, “Are you dumb?”

“Huh?” Kou Chen looked back at him. 

“Pedal!” Jiang Lei yelled at the two of them, “Forward!”

Kou Chen quickly changed directions, and then he stared at Huo Ran again: “Fuck!”

“It’s your fucking blood!” Huo Ran whispered.

“Fuck!” Kou Chen wiped his nose, jolting at the sight of his bloody hand, “Fuck! Ah, I’m bleeding! I’m bleeding!” 

“What?” Xu Zhifan was about to poke the other boat with a paddle, but hearing that, he turned around in shock.

Everyone all turned around to stare at Kou Chen.

Kou Chen probably realized what he was doing, and thinking of his meticulously crafted domineering character, he quickly wiped the shocked expression from his face. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and said calmly: “Hit them!”

They all pedalled fiercely, and the boat shot forwards. 

The woman and the man named Hu didn’t just sit there, the two of them were also pedalling as fast as they could to escape. And because their boat was smaller and lighter, they weren’t slow at all.

They gave chase for around ten seconds when the man finally snapped back to reality to turn and yell in their direction: “Hu Yi! You’re insane! You brat!”

“Shut up! Look who's talking!” Hu Yi yelled back.

“Damn.” Their back and forth made Xu Chuan laugh. He was standing on the boat and he almost fell in the water. 

Neither of them could hold in their laughter either.

“Don’t stop!” Jiang Lei smacked his thigh.

They all stopped laughing, and continued their chase.

Huo Ran found an opportunity to take out a pack of tissues from his pocket, handing one to Kou Chen: “Here.”

Kou Chen wiped his nose: “No wet wipes? I thought you always had wet wipes on you.”

Huo Ran didn’t say anything. He usually only brought them when he went camping, so he really didn’t have any on him at the moment. He hesitated for a moment before getting another tissue and patting it on the wet side of the boat, letting it absorb the water before handing it to Kou Chen.

“God,” Kou Chen shook out the tissue, “Forget all the microorganisms that are in this lake, there has to be swan poop in it at least…” 

“Better than having a face full of blood!” Huo Ran cut him off. “All we did was run into a boat and you end up with all that blood, how embarrassing is that?”

“Fuck,” Kou Chen grit his teeth and wiped his nose before stuffing it up a nostril. He frowned and whispered, “My nose hurts…”

Huo Ran touched the back of his hand: “We’ll get it checked later.”

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“Divorce!” Hu Yi stuck the paddle in a crack in the other boat as they bumped off of each other. “Fucking go back home and divorce my mom!” 

“Divorce!” They all yelled, “Finalize the divorce! Are you a man or not?!”

“I’ll call the police!” The woman yelled. “I’m going to call the police!”

“Call them!” Hu Yi pointed at her. “If you don’t then you’re a fucking idiot!”

They were all pretty shocked. 

Hu Yi rarely even said ‘damn’, so for that word to come out of his mouth would mean that he really was pissed.

“Hu Yi!” The man yelled angrily, “What are you trying to do?! Did your mom tell you to do this?”

“My mom told me to kill you!” Hu Yi cursed. “Be glad that I’m sparing your life! If you don’t fucking finalize the divorce by next weekthen I”ll show you what I can do!”

“Go!” Wei Chaoren called. 

The four of them started pedalling again, bumping into the other boat for a third time.

They didn’t bump into them that hard this time, but the angle was a bit off to the side, so the boat swayed, and the woman was knocked over the side from where she was still leaning.

The Seven of them all cheered.

“Go save her.” Xu Zhifan said. 

Xu Zhifan was as careful as ever. The weather hadn’t fully warmed up yet so the lake was freezing, and the woman was also flailing about frantically.

“Nah,” Hu Yi said. “He can swim, he was on the swim team when he was young too. He can save her.”

“Let’s go.” Xu Chuan patted the boat. “There’s people coming.” 

They all turned around to see that the people at management had realized something was going on and were heading over.

“Go, go, go!” Huo Ran yelled.

Everyone started pedalling at full speed again, and the ones with paddles helped as well.

The boat quickly neared the shore. 

Boats were supposed to be docked there, so there was only a small rocky slope. They hopped off the boat and climbed up and flipped over a flowery hedge, onto a path in the park.

“The back gate is that way.” Kou Chen had two bits of tissue stuffed in his nose, and he looked at the signs calmly, “It shouldn’t be far.”

They followed the path, and left the park through the back gate a few minutes later.

There was a small teahouse around the corner, so they sat down under one of the parasols outside.

“My legs,” Jiang Lei smacked up and down his legs, “My legs…”

“I’m so sore,” Wei Chaoren did the same. “It feels worse than playing a whole game of basketball. Fuck, I wasn’t even pedalling with my legs at the end.”

“It was determination,” Kou Chen said. “Right?” 

“Yup,” Wei Chaoren nodded. “You get it.”

“I don’t.” Kou Chen raised an eyebrow and leaned back onto the chair. “I didn’t feel it, I was pedalling with my legs.”

“…Okay then.” Wei Chaoren clasped a fist in the other hand.

“What happened to your nose?” Xu Chuan pointed at Kou Chen’s nose. “Has it stopped bleeding?” 

“I bumped it.” Kou Chen glanced at Huo Ran. “When the boat shook. I should be fine now.”

Huo Ran didn’t say anything, he only handed Kou Chen a tissue.

Bumped it.

Those words made him flash back to that exact moment, to the heat he felt. The heat that crawled up his back to his face. 

He didn’t know if Kou Chen had a low platelet count or just strong blood vessels, but his nosebleed still hadn’t stopped. Right after he took the tissues out, blood immediately dripped onto his pants.

“Ah,” Kou Chen frowned, pressing the tissue to his nose again, “My nose is done for.”

“Go wash it first.” Huo Ran felt a little uneasy, seeing as it was his nose that caused it. He stood up, “They should have water inside.”

The waiter brought them a menu, and then pointed them to the bathroom.

They walked into the bathroom one after the other.

It was empty, and Huo Ran relaxed a little.

Kou Chen bent down and rinsed his nose for a while, and then he stood up to look in the mirror: “Is my nose crooked?” 

“No way.” Huo Ran moved closer to look. It was still very straight.

“Still bleeding?” Kou Chen sniffed. “I don’t wanna stuff tissues up it anymore, what if it widens my nostrils?”

“…I think you’re overthinking it.” Huo Ran helped him wipe up the water next to the sink, and then he stared at him to see if it was still bleeding. “If they widen so easily then you can just put a clip on it to squeeze it back.”

“That’s true.” Kou Chen thought about it, and then he laughed. 

“I think it stopped bleeding.” Huo Ran pressed down on his nose gently, “Does it hurt?”

“Ow, ow, ow…” Kou Chen cried softly.

“Damn, why do you get hurt so easily?” Huo Ran didn’t really understand. He squeezed his own nose, “I don’t feel anything at all…”

Kou Chen didn’t say anything, staring at his nose. 

Huo Ran also didn’t say anything because of his staring.

The bathroom immediately went silent, and the only thing they could hear was the birds chirping outside.

A few seconds later, Huo Ran was about to break the strangely awkward air. He cleared his throat, trying to find anything to say. 

Before he could, Kou Chen suddenly moved closer and kissed the tip of his nose.

MUA!

Huo Ran felt like he just got struck by lightning.

M! U! A! 

Crack!

Normally, just give him a second and he would recover. It was a normal Kou Chen thing to do, as a MUAMUA monster, it would be weirder for him to go so long without doing it.

But Huo Ran’s hand reacted faster.

He pushed Kou Chen away. 

Smack.

It wasn’t very loud, but it absolutely wasn’t a normal reaction from him.

Kou Chen looked at him in shock, a hand on his face.

“You…” Huo Ran fumbled, unable to get out a single word in his awkwardness. 

“You fucking hit me?” Kou Chen stared at him.

At that, a drop of blood dripped out. It didn’t drip onto the floor, but into Kou Chen’ s mouth.

It looked both sad and miserable.

Like he was so mad he spat out blood. 

“Your nose is bleeding again.” Huo Ran pointed at his nose.

“Yeah!” Kou Chen said. “Because you just hit me! What do you have against my nose? Did my nose rob you?! Fucking… fuck!”

As Kou Chen was talking, he had already gotten a mouthful of blood, and now he was bent over the sink spitting out into it.

“You startled me.” Huo Ran sighed, patting him on the back. 

“How come you don’t hit other people then?” Kou Chen grumbled as he rinsed his face, “You only hit me, is that right?!”

“I didn’t hit you that hard!” Huo Ran smacked him on the back. “It was just out of reflex, why don’t you say I just stabbed you?”

“That’s what you said. “Kou Chen turned the water off and pointed at him.

“What did I say?” Huo Ran asked. 

“You stabbed me.” Kou Chen glared. “Did you eat a leopard’s fucking guts to dare stab me?!”

Huo Ran looked at him in shock: “Say that again?”

“No!” Kou Chen grabbed some paper towels to wipe his face, then he turned and strutted out the door.

Huo Ran stood there for another ten seconds in shock before following him out. 

Back at the table, his reputation had already been destroyed by Kou Chen.

“Terrible temper,” Jiang Lei couldn’t stop laughing. “Don’t go to the bathroom with him anymore, it’s not worth getting beat up just to take a piss.”

Huo Ran looked at Kou Chen. 

Kou Chen still had some paper towels pressed to his nose, and he raised an eyebrow at him haughtily.

Huo Ran gave up making eye contact with him, and he took a sip of water.

Their original plan was to walk around the park some more after looking at the swans, but now with that unexpected incident, they had to leave the park. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet. 

“Let’s just get some drinks.” Xu Chuan said. “Wanna go to the amusement park after? You guys said it was too far yesterday.”

There was some new area in the city, one that could be called the most complete district in history, the kind that took at least three days to experience properly.

Apparently the amusement park was amazing, but it was too far, and nobody wanted to go yesterday.

But the situation is different now. 

After helping Hu Yi take his anger out, they were all full of energy. When Xu Chuan mentioned an amusement park, they all immediately nodded.

And just like that, Kou Chen forgot that he had just been ‘beat up’ in the washroom by Huo Ran. After they were getting up to leave, he leaned into Huo Ran and whispered: “I wanna go on a rollercoaster.”

“Ah?” Huo Ran looked at him. 

“And a drop tower.” Kou Chen said.

“Mhm.” Huo Ran nodded.

“I’ve never been.” Kou Chen whispered. “My mom said I’ll fall to my death so she never let me. Let’s go on it together.”

“Not scared of dying?” Huo Ran asked. 

Kou Chen chuckled: “Nope.”

There was a bus that could take them straight to the amusement park. Kou Chen wanted to get a cab, but he was refused by everyone, saying that they wanted the young master to experience the life of an ordinary person.

Wei Chaoren took Kou Chen over to the route map: “See, route 18…” 

“Route 18!” Kou Chen said, “Are we going clubbing?”

Huo Ran almost wanted to laugh. As he was about to go see if there was actually a route 18, Xu Zhifan came up next to him and put an arm around his neck, dragging him off to the side.

“What?” Huo Ran asked.

“There’s something I need to ask.” Xu Zhifan leaned against an advertisement and said quietly, “Don’t take offense, if you don’t want to say anything then I won’t ask further.” 

Huo Ran nodded.

“You and Kou Chen…” Xu Zhifan started.

Huo Ran felt his scalp tighten, and it was like all of his hair was pulled up to stand on end.

“What’s going on with you two?” Xu Zhifan asked.