CH 20

Translation checker: Rin

Editor: Junyans

After the training, the boys went back to their dormitory one after another. When they entered the door, they saw Yu Ran lying in front of the table and cutting vegetables. A hot pot had been placed in the middle of the aisle, and the water had just reached the boiling point and began to churn “burble burble”. 

Yu Ran cut the ginger slices, turned around and threw them into the pot, then asked Chu Mian, who was doing nothing next to him, to pour the hot pot base ingredients. Chu Mian moved very slowly. No matter what ingredients he took, he had to read the instructions first. He seemed to be completely unfamiliar with them.

“Yu Ran, are you really going to do this in the dormitory?” Fang Zhao entered the door in a daze, and then faced Chu Mian. “Why didn’t you stop him?”

Chu Mian calmly said, “You think I can stop him?”

Yu Ran rolled up his sleeves and sat down before dividing six sets of bowls and chopsticks. He smiled and said to Fang Zhao: “You worry about this and that every day, just like my mother. Don’t worry, you guys just have to eat. If something happens, I’ll be responsible for it.” 

Fang Zhao exhaustedly hung his head and quickly turned back to lock the door. The others cheered for Yu Ran’s boldness and picked up the chopsticks unceremoniously.

Zhou Weixi put the pork slices in. “It’s actually a mandarin duck hot pot, you’re so well prepared.”

Yu Ran explained casually: “Well, Chu Mian can’t eat spicy food.”

Being suddenly named, Chu Mian lost his original train of thought. He quietly watched Yu Ran’s profile, and after a while he also sat down to help put the vegetables into the pot.

Fang Zhao confirmed that the door was tightly closed before returning to sit down and asked, “Where did the meat come from?”

Yu Ran licked the tip of his chopsticks and said: “I took your dick off yesterday and cut it while you were asleep.”

Zhou Weixi, who was chewing meat slices, instantly stiffened.

Fang Zhao retorted with a roar: “Fuck! It’s not detachable! It’s still on me!” 

Chu Mian couldn’t help laughing. He glanced at the meat plate and asked Yu Ran, “I don’t think you can cut this much, right?”

Fang Zhao was stunned and couldn’t believe it: “Chu Mian, why are you…”

Yu Ran laughed loudly and almost fell on Chu Mian. “Why is your mouth so fucking poisonous?”

While he was laughing, he found that there were a few shallow scratches on the back of Chu Mian’s right hand, which were very conspicuous in contrast with his fair skin, so he asked him how he got them. Chu Mian looked down, but didn’t care about it at all. 

During the past few days of living together, everyone had learned that Chu Mian paid special attention to nutrition and following a balanced diet. Therefore, when they put the ingredients in, they would pick the good ones first and put them in the clear soup pot for Chu Mian. Chu Mian had never been able to respond enthusiastically to other people’s thoughtfulness and thus, had inevitably been perceived as having a cold personality in the past. But now, the situation had changed for the better. Yu Ran seemed to have become his agent. Without any regard for courtesy, he would directly pick up the food and stuff it into Chu Mian’s bowl without any explanation, and would deliberately grimace and order him to eat it.

Zhou Weixi had also secretly brought a laptop with him to the military training, but in the past few days, he had been too tired to take it out. Now that he had eaten hot pot until he was full, he asked everyone: “Want to watch a movie? I’ve downloaded several of them.”

Maybe it was because Yu Ran’s bad acts were too contagious. Following his footsteps, everyone was becoming more and more unruly. Fang Zhao was worried again: “If the instructor comes in, we’ll all die.”

Yu Ran pointed to the computer screen: “Cha Gē, I want to watch this!” 

Ktf wbnlf tf tjv mtbrfc kjr “2012”, ktlmt tjv yffc nfgs qbqeijg lc atf qjra ofk sfjgr. Lf tjv jikjsr obgubaafc ab kjamt la. Rbk, tf mbeiv pera fcpbs atf fzmlafwfca klat tlr oglfcvr.

Kjxlcu jvnjcajuf bo atf ojma atja atf lcragemabg tjvc’a sfa mbwf ab atf vbgwlabgs ab lcrqfma, atfs tegglfvis mifjcfv eq atf gfwjlcr bo atf tba qba, atfc aegcfv boo atf ilutar, gjlrfv atf delia bc atf ibkfg yecx, jcv qea atf ijqabq lc yfobgf qijslcu atf wbnlf.

Chu Mian had already seen “2012” a long time ago, so he didn’t watch it with them again. Instead, he went to the side and turned on the desk lamp he had brought with him, turned down the brightness, and began to write a self-criticism review — today’s punishment.

But he couldn’t write more than a few paragraphs because Yu Ran was too noisy. He would exclaim “wow” in every thrilling scene in the movie, and explain every one of his guesses about the upcoming plot (as opposed to just thinking about it). Chu Mian couldn’t concentrate without earplugs, and could only have his attention attracted by Yu Ran. 

Chu Mian simply put down his pen and sat with them to rewatch the movie.

He had fallen asleep halfway through the movie, and when he woke up, the dormitory lights were on again, and he could hear Yu Ran’s anxious voice: “Where can I buy tickets from? Is there an age limit? Maybe it’s only scientists who can get on it…”

A boy said: “Don’t worry, Yu Ran. I’ve already pinched my fingers and calculated, you won’t die in 2012.”

Yu Ran pressed the other party’s shoulder eagerly, and said piously: “Great God, can you help me calculate the survival rate of my mother, father, and brother?” 

“Okay, wait a minute.” The boy sat cross-legged on the bed, his eyelids blinking as he rolled his eyes. “Well… They are all fine too, but you may have to face mortal danger on the day of the end of the world.”

“What?!” Yu Ran realized the seriousness of the situation and began to fidget.

Chu Mian was confused and couldn’t understand what was going on with Yu Ran until he heard Fang Zhao say: “Yu Ran, are you stupid? How can you believe what the Great God says? Don’t you remember, last time he had even said that he could see the tails of humans. Okay, the world isn’t going to end this year. But if you don’t write your self-criticism review, you’ll definitely die.”

Chu Mian remembered that there was still work to do, so he immediately went over to grab Yu Ran by his collar and dragged him to the table. 

Yu Ran poked his chin with a pen and asked seriously, “Chu Mian, do you know how to buy tickets for Noah’s Ark?”

Chu Mian paused in the middle of writing. Now he finally understood what Yu Ran had been anxiously worrying about just now, and sighed: “Yu Ran, you’ve broken through the limit of my understanding of your IQ.”

“Tsk.” Yu Ran curled his lips. “I’m asking you something, what are you doing praising me!”

“Hurry up and write the review.” 

“I’m not writing it!” Yu Ran threw away his pen and shouted, “The protagonist must find a way to save the world!”

He said that he wouldn’t write, so he really ran to the side to play with his mobile phone. Chu Mian sat alone at the table for a long time, and finally completed a review that had a correct attitude and clear logic. Looking up, he saw Yu Ran sitting listlessly on the upper bunk in a daze.

It was getting late now and evening training would begin soon. There would definitely be a serious punishment for failing to submit the review on time. Chu Mian hesitated, but still couldn’t leave Yu Ran alone: “Come down now and copy what I wrote.”

The corners of Yu Ran’s mouth were drooping: “I don’t want to write, so I’ll just give an impromptu speech later.” 

Chu Mian tried to persuade him, but a sharp whistle sounded from the corridor, and everyone put down their phones and arranged their clothes to go out to stand in line.

Yu Ran got out of bed unhurriedly. He was halfway through tying his shoelaces when someone slapped his head with a piece of paper.

A page of neat handwriting appeared in front of his eyes, and then he heard Chu Mian say, “Take it.”

Yu Ran subconsciously took it and found that it was Chu Mian’s review, but his name was written in the blank space at the top. 

After understanding, Yu Ran asked: “Then what about you?”

“Anyway, our school’s teachers won’t punish me, let alone give me any disciplinary action,” Chu Mian said with certainty.

He knew very well that the school was taken care of by his mother, so he would naturally be given preferential treatment in all aspects. But Yu Ran was different from him. If ordinary students made mistakes repeatedly during military training, they would definitely be criticized when they returned to school.

“The school might not care, but the instructor will definitely punish you,” Yu Ran said, “with a lot of squats and push-ups as well as frog jumps.” 

“If I get punished, treat it as you owing me,” Chu Mian lightly dropped these words before walking outside the door.

Yu Ran hurriedly followed, and felt deeply moved in his heart: “You’re so fucking kind, you care about me so much.”

“It’s not that I care about you,” Chu Mian seriously corrected his thoughts, “I’m just weighing the pros and cons and minimizing the punishment we might possibly receive.”

Hearing the word “we” in the other party’s words, Yu Ran’s smile deepened. He knew that Chu Mian was confirming their friendship, so he didn’t say anything more, put the review paper in his pocket, and followed Chu Mian closely. 

When they walked out of the dormitory building, there was a sudden sound of thunder in the night sky.

Yu Ran was overjoyed: “Fuck, prayers to the Rain God worked!”

The instructor blew the whistle to tell everyone not to be too happy too early, and asked them to squat down and listen to the command. As a result, he didn’t know who from which class started to sing Jam Hsiao’s “Princess”. The rest of the students were also eager for rain, and they also disobeyed the instructor’s command and sang along loudly.

The instructor said in a loud voice: “Don’t be superstitious!” 

As soon as his words fell, the sky thundered loudly. After about half a minute, raindrops poured down pitter-patter, quickly soaking the ground. This time there was no need for the instructor’s command. Everyone leapt up with excitement and ran back to the building while singing loudly.

The self-criticism review had been ignored by the instructor. Yu Ran reached into his pocket. The folded corners of the page sliced his fingertips and caused him a little pain, but he started to like the feeling and kept pressing the sharp corners with his fingers. After thinking about it, he decided not to return the review to Chu Mian. This thing was a testimony of their friendship, and Yu Ran wanted to keep it as a memento.

After the lights went out at midnight, Chu Mian noticed that there was still a faint light in his field of vision.

He listened attentively and found that in addition to the sound of the rain outside the window, Yu Ran was also muttering something in front of his pillow. 

Chu Mian was annoyed by the noise, and asked, “Why are you still awake?”

Yu Ran immediately rolled over to lie on his stomach, crawled forward a little, and asked softly, “Do you know the Mayan calendar?”

“I’ve already told you, there’s no end of the world.”

“The Mayans predicted the world’s end in December this year. It’s already October now. Who knows what will happen next on Earth?” 

Chu Mian did not want to dwell with him on this kind of unscientific topic. He covered himself tightly with the blanket before saying, “If you want to believe it, believe it.”

Yu Ran approached him again, and his head almost squeezed past the railing between the two beds. “Chu Mian, are you afraid of death? What if the next month is really the end of the world? We promised that day…”

Chu Mian felt that Yu Ran’s voice seemed to be close to his ears. He raised his hand and fumbled in the air. When his palm touched Yu Ran’s forehead, he pushed it out hard and said in a muffled voice, “Then we will die together.”

Seeing the other party ignoring him, Yu Ran was forced to retreat back to the quilt silently and browse “What are the items I need to prepare to survive the end of the world” in Tieba. 

The next morning, the rain had stopped. Chu Mian woke up early and got out of bed to look for water to drink. He habitually glanced at the next bed and found that it was empty.

Forgetting his thirst, he immediately sent a text message to Yu Ran to confirm his location, and told him not to get into trouble.

— I’m performing a soil survey. Requesting help!

Chu Mian frowned as he read Yu Ran’s reply. 

At this moment, Yu Ran was squatting beside the flowering shrubs outside and concentrating on stirring the soil with a wooden stick. When Chu Mian found him, he had already dug out soil the size of a cup, and was still poking the wooden stick inward.

“I saw it!” Yu Ran’s eyes lit up. “Earthworms are coming out!”

Chu Mian heard the word “earthworms” and took a half step back without thinking. He stared at Yu Ran’s back in disgust and asked him what the hell he was doing.

“I’m analyzing the activity level of the earth’s surface through the state of color of earthworms to predict the disasters before the end of the world.” 

“I don’t understand.” Chu Mian didn’t know where Yu Ran had learned this technique. “It’s disgusting. Go back and wash your hands quickly.”

Yu Ran was immersed in his own world and couldn’t extricate himself. “Fuck, why does it drill so fast, it has already opened a tunnel in the soil—”

“Don’t describe it.” Chu Mian’s face sank.

“Come on, Chu Mian!” Yu Ran turned his head and smiled brightly at him. “This is the breakfast I prepared for you!” 

Chu Mian held back the word “get lost” that was about to spill out of his mouth, walked over and glanced at the soil, then immediately looked away and told Yu Ran: “They only come to the surface after it rains, so find a damp place.”

“Found it, now what?”

“Then attract it out.”

Yu Ran said “Ok”, put down the small wooden stick, and heartily cast a wink at the soil. 

“Not this kind of attraction.” Chu Mian did not hold back and directly kicked him into the shrubs.