CH 25

In fact, his thinking was not unreasonable. Recently, Grandpa Lin and Uncle Yue have been watching Lin Chengyu very closely. From his previous life, their meeting was still a long way ahead. Jiang Xiao had a good mentality, so being annoyed by him occasionally was not a big deal.

Moreover, the final exam was only a few days away. There are still some unsold items on Jiang Xiao’s shelves. To maintain his grades, he didn’t plan to go to Liujiang before the final exam, so he buried himself in his studies and exercise papers. Whether he can be Lin Heyuan’s deskmate was one thing, but his own goal was another. He wanted to show his mother good grades to prove that he was good at both business and study.

However, it was not that simple to enter the top 100 in his school. Although the opponents were junior high school students, they had studied for three years, while he only had studied for a few months. It was really not easy to master all nine courses at the same time.

Jiang Xiao sometimes sat at the desk in his room and worked on exercise papers. When he got tired, he stood up, stretched his waist, and move his fingers around. Through the glass window of the room, he can see the snow falling quietly outside. The street lights were dim and warm. In such an ordinary time, he always felt a sense of peace and quiet.

The mirror in the closet next to him reflected his current appearance. At home, Jiang Xiao was dressed very casually: a set of pajamas, hair messed up like a chicken coop, a pair of plush slippers kicked under his feet, and a pen in his hand. As he lived in the capital city in the south in his previous life, Lin Chengyuan’s house didn’t have heating. But here, the floor was heated and his face was flushed by the heat. He looked messy and youthful.

He smiled at himself in the mirror and then continued to work on the exercises. It was the same when he was in Class 15, he was the only one in class who was listening carefully to the teacher. His entire life now has a positive outlook. Even if Lin Chengyu came over occasionally, it was just a small episode in life.

Moreover, Jiang Xiao also discovered that Lin Chengyu had developed some hostility towards Lin Heyuan after that incident. Although he didn’t show it too clearly in front of him, as long as Lin Heyuan was by his side, Lin Chengyu would feel that it was wrong. If this was true, Lin Heyuan was estimated to be rid of by him.

Jiang Xiao knew what Lin Chengyu was thinking, and after he realized it, he felt that Lin Chengyu was simply unreasonable.

“He and I are schoolmates, not everyone has the same dirty thoughts as you.” Jiang Xiao was afraid that he would target Lin Heyuan, so he deliberately told Lin Chengyu about it. “I’m not your property, so don’t mess with him.”

Except for the words ‘No need’, ‘I don’t want to see you’ and ‘don’t come’, this was the first time Jiang Xiao had said something meaningful to Lin Chengyu during this period, for the sake of others.

Lin Chengyu was emotionally possessive and almost went crazy, but in his sane mind, he wanted to suppress these emotions. For example, in the case of Lin Heyuan, he saw the possibility, but if he were to chase and block Jiang Xiao just because of this possibility, he would only push Jiang Xiao away more. It was even possible that because of his actions, these two people would be forced to come closer.

“I haven’t,” he said to Jiang Xiao, feeling sad and aggrieved, “I haven’t even touched a finger of his.”

Jiang Xiao could only reply, “Then you better keep it that way in the future.”

He didn’t want to be with Lin Chengyu again. Because of Lin Heyuan’s matter, he just felt that this person was really making trouble for no reason. Besides, Lin Chengyu had no position to control him now.

Finally, Jiang Xiao was willing to say a few words to himself, but he didn’t want to mention other people, so he followed behind him, trying to find some other topics.

“Xiao Xiao, the final exam is coming, can I help you practice in English, in Listening?”

Jiang Xiao’s English score was indeed not very good. His language talent was really average. He could memorize ancient Chinese poems very smoothly, but memorizing English words hurts his brain. It’s no secret which subject he was weaker in, Lin Chengyu knew it after paying attention a little bit.

In Jiang Xiao’s current state, apart from studying and making money, he basically had no other desires. If someone wanted to please him, there were only these two ways. Lin Chengyu had wanted to send money directly, but Jiang Xiao didn’t accept it. In the end, he just arranges for some people to secretly collect some of the not-so-good leftovers from Jiang Xiao’s shelves. He didn’t dare to make it too obvious, and the quantity wasn’t large, for fear that Jiang Xiao discovered them. Many of the items on Jiang Xiao’s shelf were selling well, and for some popular items people actually had to snatch them, so it was not his turn to help.

To be able to fight for a little favor in the open and also behind closed doors, was probably his only term in learning.

“No need,” Jiang Xiao just start this conversation to talk about Lin Heyuan, so the rest returned to his usual style. “Stay away from me.”

Jiang Xiao was still holding a thermos in his hands. The reason why Lin Chengyu could see him was that Xia Wanwan was working overtime, and Jiang Xiao just bumped into him when he went out to deliver her meals.

The weather was too cold today. The snow on the road had been swept away and a new thin layer had been added. Xia Wanwan’s company was relatively close to here. Jiang Xiao wanted to finish delivering the meal quickly and didn’t say anything to Lin Chengyu. He tried to shrug his hand away, but the snowy road was slippery and he couldn’t control it all at once. He fell on the snow with a thud.

Jiang Xiao was wearing thick clothes, so it didn’t hurt, but he didn’t hold the thermos firmly. It fell to the ground with the lid fell off, and the soup inside was spilled all over the place, even onto his clothes, jacket, and shoes. He had to wash it again.

“…” They’re his new clothes.

Seeing him falling suddenly from behind, Lin Chengyu was startled and quickly went up to help him, but the road was too slippery. After he ran, he slipped and fell with Jiang Xiao, exactly ended up beside him. The two bumped into each other and Jiang Xiao was hit on the forehead by him. When Lin Chengyu regained his composure, he looked up and saw Jiang Xiao rubbing his head and glaring at him.

“Once I meet you, nothing good will happen,” Jiang Xiao’s tone was full of anger, “Go away!”

Lin Chengyu knew he was wrong. After apologizing, he helped Jiang Xiao to pick up the lid of the thermos and carefully said, “Shall I go to the nearby restaurant to pack a meal for auntie?”

Jiang Xiao ignored him, stood up, and walked back to his home with the empty thermos.

There should be some more food at home.

Jiang Xiao was going to make some more by himself and send them quickly. There was still time.

Lin Chengyu followed him step by step. When he walked to the gate of Jiang’s family house, Jiang Xiao was still thinking about the food and his clothes which were soaked in soup. Jiang Xiao himself still paid attention to hygiene. After taking off his jacket, he didn’t close the door immediately after he opened them, so Lin Chengyu could squeeze in.

Jiang Xiao was in a hurry and didn’t care about him. He entered the room, change out the dirty jacket, trousers, and shoes, then threw them in the laundry basket to wash them after he came back later. When he left the room, he didn’t see Lin Chengyu.

He frowned, then heard the sound of ding ding dong dong from the kitchen. He walked over and saw that Lin Chengyu washed the thermos he had put on the table. The thermos was stained with melted snow and soup, it really needed to be washed.

Jiang Xiao stood there for a moment, then walked over and said, “I’ll do it myself.”

“I’m almost done washing,” Lin Chengyu said and he lowered his voice, “Xiao Xiao, I just want to help you.”

Lin Chengyu had never been in the kitchen before, let alone washing dishes.

The water was really cold in winter and there was no central water heater at home. Jiang Xiao saw his hand were red from the cold but continued to wash the thermos.

Is he stupid or what.

Jiang Xiao bent down and picked up the hot water pot next to him, poured the freshly boiled water into the sink on the side, turned on the faucet, and mixed the water in, making himself a basin of comfortable warm water.

“We ordinary people wash dishes like this in winter, and we don’t embarrass ourselves.” Jiang Xiao took the thermos pot over the water and rinsed off the soap foam on it. “Young Master, you really don’t know how to live ordinary.”

Lin Chengyu froze as he looked at his red hands, a little at loss, and said, “Xiao Xiao, I will learn.”

He quickly reached out to help Jiang Xiao remove the parts of the thermos one by one. He rinsed it clean, the warm water was really comfortable. After rinsing the last one, he couldn’t help holding Jiang Xiao’s hand in the basin.

Jiang Xiao shook off his hand and splashed water on him to tell him to calm down.

“… I mean, I will try my best to become a person suitable for living the ordinary,” Lin Chengyu wiped the water from his face, “I will learn all this.”

“Why are you learning this?” Jiang Xiao glanced at him. “In a few years, if I have enough money, I will install a dishwasher at home, which is much easier to use than you. You are not born to do this, so why should you learn?”

“It’s not just this,” Lin Chegyu explained, “I will learn to take care of you, in every aspect, I…”

“No need,” Jiang Xiao said, “I already know these things, I will take care of myself.”

The two of them were not the same way.

Lin Chengyu wanted to learn, but time had already passed. This type of care at the wrong time was still wrong, no matter how you look at it. Besides, he had never touched any housework before. Jiang Xiao looked at his outstretched hands. Maybe because he fell before and his hands were propped to the ground, he could see his hand, his wrist, all the way to his rolled-up sleeves.

With his pampered appearance, it was really not convincing to say this sentence (T/N: that he wants to take care of Jiang Xiao).

Jiang Xiao cleaned the thermos pot and put it back layer by layer. The last bowl of chicken soup was still hot in the pot. It was originally made for the evening. Jiang Xiao scooped it out and put it in the bottom layer. He remembered there were leftovers from yesterday, so there was still time to make egg fried rice.

His hands’ speed had always been very quick. He heated the oil and cracked an egg into the pan. Slowly, the aroma of the egg came out. Currently, it was too late to deal with the frozen meat in the refrigerator, so he cut up a ham sausage and fried some shredded green peppers. The egg fried rice came out of the pan quickly. He cleaned up, checked the time, and prepared to deliver meals again.

Lin Chengyu didn’t speak since he started cooking, he just watched from the sidelines. The smell of food lingered around him and suddenly brought him back to past memories. His and Jiang Xiao’s past.

T/N: It was quite something to translate this. The original author often put little typos here and there and sometimes I got confused, like they put Jiang Xiao’s name when it’s Lin Chengyu’s POV. I sometimes daze into a wall and staaaaare at them before I realize what the author actually means. Lol.

And sometimes, translation felt like a part of your own work you know? Because I definitely added sentences here and there to make the whole paragraph make sense. Sometimes I want to beautify it because I feel like the author couldn’t express the feelings enough, but then I feel that I went too far and tried to keep it simple (because I want to stay true to the author’s style of writing). I get that it’s the original author’s story and ideas, but how do I want to translate it, is a variable that couldn’t be dismissed.

Thanks for reading~