CH 32

Translation checker: Rin

Editor: Junyans

After the beginning of winter, the temperature in the north continued to drop again. The air in Ronggang was foggy and dry for several days. 

Chu Mian had ranked seventh in the district in terms of total points this time, easily breaking Chengjun’s highest score record in the past six years. It was a pity that he was suffering from narcolepsy and had no time to participate in municipal-level competitions. The greatest chance to win glory for the school was the future college entrance examination. The school leaders also had high hopes for him.

Since the results this time were a little higher than expected, Chu Mian decided to reward himself with a half-day break. He put on his coat and went out for a walk. And in passing, he made an appointment with Xu Si of “Bronze Bird Club” to meet him. He had found the contact number of the other party from Huang Feng when he had gone to the hospital a while ago.

The man had been waiting at the door of the club for a while. Chu Mian arrived quickly and found that the other party was carrying a snake box in his hand.

Xu Si didn’t beat around the bush and handed over the box directly. “I’ll give it to you, don’t worry about other things anymore.” 

Not long ago, Xu Si had received a few photos from an unfamiliar number. They were selfies of a boy he knew who often came to have fun in the club. He was startled, thinking that someone wanted to use the information about them entertaining minors to threaten them and ask for money, but it turned out that the other party only wanted to inquire about the purchase channels of reptilian pets. Xu Si pondered for a long time before he remembered that he had indeed met a tough teenager a few months ago.

Chu Mian didn’t receive the box, but went straight to the point: “Did you buy it from the black market?”

“I don’t know about that. The snake was used by someone to pay off their debts.”

Xu Si took out a cigarette and handed it over. Chu Mian shook his head and refused, and then asked, “Is it a kind of usury?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Xu Si nodded. “That person always goes out of town to hide and I have to look for him for several days every month. Last time he thought this snake was good and just gave it to me directly.”

“Where did he get it?”

“It should be from his own channel in Ronggang. I haven’t inquired about it… If you like to play like this, should I give you his contact number?” Xu Si took the initiative to send Chu Mian a contact name and phone number. He exhaled a mouthful of smoke, and gave the snake box to the boy again. “Dìdi, you can take it for yourself. Let’s discuss something. Don’t spread those photos out, and delete them as soon as you get home.”

Chu Mian didn’t answer. He lifted the lid of the snake box and took a look, and found that the red and white two-headed milk snake that was lying inside looked very wilted, and the snake’s head on the left didn’t move. The snake looked like it was dying. Judging from the length of the snake’s body, it was only seven or eight months old, and it was not the one that he had lost at all. 

He had mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.

“Forget it, keep it for yourself.” Chu Mian shook his head.

He had made plans to buy this rare mutant snake from Xu Si at a high price before, just to make it a substitute for Marija, so that he might have less regrets in his heart. But the lifespan of double-headed snakes was not long and Chu Mian didn’t want to experience the pain of parting again. After thinking about it, he gave up the idea of ​​raising it.

More importantly, he felt that with the current emotional state of his life, he no longer needed to pin his emotions on animals. Even if the regrets of the past could not be completely released, they could at least be slowly covered up by other forms of happiness. 

Chu Mian lowered his head and saved the number and name sent by Xu Si before turning and leaving without saying anything more. Xu Si kept telling him to delete the photos, but he ignored him.

After returning home, Chu Mian found that his aunt was busy cooking newly learned dishes in the kitchen hurriedly, saying that she was preparing dinner for his birthday.

After she reminded him, Chu Mian realized that it was already mid-November, and there were still two days before his birthday on the 19th. He was usually so focused on his studies that he had almost forgotten about his birthday.

He was in a good mood now, so he went into the bedroom and picked up Fiona, lay on the bed and kissed her. 

Soon, Chu Mian remembered an important thing: he hadn’t filled in his birthday in his QQ profile, so the system would not remind his friends to send him a birthday card.

Chu Mian thought casually that the only person in the class who knew his birthday was Cui He, but she spent all her days eating, drinking, and having fun, so maybe she had already forgotten about his birthday this year. If she remembered, she should have told Yu Ran and the others, but so far, Chu Mian had not been asked by anyone about the birthday gift.

In fact, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I don’t lack anything… Chu Mian gently stroked Fiona’s smooth scales, slightly distracted.

He was just a little curious about how Yu Ran would pick birthday gifts for others. 

Chu Mian let out a long sigh of relief, put the snake on the pillow, picked up his mobile phone and logged into QQ, and at the first glimpse of the system message, his heart sank—

The admin [tn content="The Wolf Character Hides the Dog Radical"] This is the correct translation. Wolf character = 狼, Dog Radical = 犭. So, the wolf character hides the dog radical.[/tn] has removed you from the group.

Chu Mian was baffled. He frowned as he searched for the group number to confirm if it was disbanded, only to find that the other four people were still in the group.

Then he noticed that the group name had been changed to “Chu Mian’s Birthday Surprise Plan”. 

“…”

Jte Zljc kjr jiwbra mfgajlc atja atlr xlcv bo yftjnlbg bo yijajcais vlrmerrlcu tlw joafg xlmxlcu tlw — atf mbcmfgcfv qjgas — bea bo atf ugbeq kjr vfolclafis Te Ejc’r lvfj. Lf fralwjafv atja rfnfgji batfg qfbqif kfgf sfiilcu jyerf ja tlw lc atf ugbeq ja atlr alwf obg tlr rwjgajrr wbnf.

But Chu Mian didn’t have time to sigh at Yu Ran’s stupidity. When he first saw the group’s new name, he was caught off guard and tightly wrapped up in joy, and he felt a sense of satisfaction and gratification. Soon his arms went weak and his phone slipped from the palm of his hand onto the bed.

Fiona slowly crawled up to his neck. The snake’s head pressing down on his profile, making him feel slightly cool. 

The atmosphere of the chat group at this moment was not warm.

[Whale Song.]: You are really a stupid moron! Don’t you fucking know how to pull the four of us into a new discussion group? Do you take Chu Mian for a fool like you to not doubt anything?

[Diuge Yizhen Ling]: Don’t scold him, Yu Ran must have really felt that his operation was seamless just now. Why are you arguing with a stupid person?

[misaki]: Forget it (￣▽￣) Let’s think about what gift to give. 

[Whale Song.]: Just don’t scare him, he hates having accidents.

Yu Ran told them: “I bought the gift today! He’ll like it! But I won’t tell you guys what it is!”

[Whale Song.]: We’re not interested in knowing, okay? Forget it, I’m too lazy to pick a gift. I’ll buy him a cake directly. Can any of you help me ask what flavor Chu Mian likes to eat? If I ask, I’ll be exposed for sure.

“I’ll ask!” Yu Ran actively took over the task. “I’ll call him now.” 

Cui He was very worried and instructed him: “You should ask him in a roundabout way, don’t directly say ‘Chu Mian, what kind of birthday cake do you like to eat’ or something like that.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll pretend to ask him about his homework first, and then I’ll politely talk about cakes.” Yu Ran was confident and he called Chu Mian directly.

Chu Mian had regained some strength in his fingers at this time. With difficulty, he pressed the answer button, and chose hands-free.

He guessed that Yu Ran’s next words would definitely be related to his birthday, so he focused his attention and wanted to guess their plans from the details in the other party’s words. 

As soon as Yu Ran came up, he said that he couldn’t write his homework and wanted to ask a few math questions: “I can’t understand the notes, it’s that seduction formula…”

Chu Mian corrected: “It’s the induction formula.”

“Yes, yes, the seduction formula.” Yu Ran flipped the paper on the other side of the phone and pretended to read the question. “Explain the second question to me.”

His absent-minded tone was too obvious, but Chu Mian had to cooperate with the explanation of trigonometric functions seriously. Yu Ran only kept saying “yeah”, pretending that he understood, and finally suddenly realized that he had to raise his voice: “Oh… it turns out that I’ll need to seduce this way!” 

Even when acting, Chu Mian didn’t forget to remind him: “Don’t forget to memorize the diagram of the induction formula, it will definitely come in the final exam.”

“Ok ok.” Yu Ran couldn’t wait to get to the point now. As he spoke, he tapped the side of the phone with his knuckles. “Chu Mian, don’t you think the graph of this trigonometric function looks like a cake?”

Hearing this, Chu Mian choked a little: “…a little bit.”

“Hey, it’s written in black water pen and looks like chocolate. Chocolate flavor is my favorite.” Yu Ran was still knocking on the phone, and his knuckles were already red. “What flavor do you think is the most delicious?” 

“Fruit.”

Yu Ran wrote it down silently, and immediately sent a message to Cui He: “He wants the longevity peach kind.”

Chu Mian continued to hear noises from the other side, and he couldn’t help but ask Yu Ran, “Is there something wrong with your phone? It sounds like an action of hitting something.”

“Huh?” Yu Ran stopped abruptly. 

His expression was tense. He feared that Chu Mian would find out that he had actually been beating around the bush just now.

“Well then, I’m going to do my homework!” Yu Ran made a quick decision and hurriedly ended the call to avoid arousing Chu Mian’s suspicion.

The room was quiet again, and after a few seconds, Chu Mian burst out laughing, regretting that he hadn’t recorded the conversation just now.

It was a rare sunny day on Monday, and Yu Ran arrived at school early. 

Holding a brand new notebook in his hand, he asked everyone to take a few minutes to write a birthday wish for Chu Mian, starting from the first classmate by the door. The classmates also actively cooperated. Some people felt that there were too few students in the class after writing, so they took Yu Ran to a few classes next door and asked many unfamiliar students to write.

However, this matter was very time-consuming. Yu Ran could only temporarily hand over the notebook to other students, let everyone pass it on privately, and come to pick it up after school.

Back in the classroom, Yu Ran was afraid that he would slip up in front of Chu Mian, so he avoided talking to him as much as possible in the morning. When it was lunch time, they would deliver the surprise.

Yu Ran was in charge of taking Chu Mian to the canteen, while the others took this opportunity to stuff gifts into Chu Mian’s backpack and bookcase. Cui He took the cake from the school gate and hid it under Chu Mian’s chair. 

“Do we light the candles or not?” Ye Xi asked. “We don’t even have a lighter.”

Fang Zhao shook his head. “Let’s not light it, it’s not safe in the classroom. We can just insert the candles later as a ritual.”

Several people began to discuss again: What if Chu Mian came back to read a book and didn’t find the gift box?

Cui He dispelled their doubts: “Impossible, he would be suspicious even if the angle of the things on his table changed a little, not to mention that Yu Ran was sneaky today. I guess Chu Mian saw it a long time ago and pretended to not know.” 

They waited anxiously for Chu Mian to come back, and finally, Yu Ran’s voice came from the corridor.

“Go, go, turn right, keep going…”

Everyone looked up and was shocked to find that Yu Ran was walking backwards into the classroom, while Chu Mian had put on a blindfold and was slowly walking forward with his arms held by Yu Ran.

“Okay, take two more steps, stop, sit down.” Yu Ran softly gave instructions, waited for Chu Mian to sit firmly, and then personally helped him take off his blindfold. “Guess what has changed here?” 

Cui He couldn’t bear it any longer, and slapped Yu Ran’s head with a stiff face. “What the hell are you doing?”

Yu Ran hurriedly gave her a wink, implying her to not remind Chu Mian.

Chu Mian’s ears were now flushed on both sides with embarrassment. He was not good at acting, and he really didn’t know how to express joy naturally, so he just stared at the desktop and resolutely did not look down at the bookcase and under his chair, lest his reaction was too cold and spoiled everyone’s mood.

Fang Zhao clearly felt Chu Mian’s dilemma through the air. He couldn’t bear to torture today’s protagonist anymore, so he took the initiative to squat down and take out the cake and put it on Chu Mian’s table. He smiled heartily and said, “Happy birthday!” 

Chu Mian breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey, what are you…” Yu Ran was so frustrated that he grabbed Fang Zhao by the collar. “You ruined a good birthday surprise!”

Cui He rolled her eyes and separated the two. “You put on a blindfold for Chu Mian, and you still have the face to talk about others?”

Yu Ran said confidently, “What’s wrong with putting a blindfold on him? Chu Mian didn’t know there was a surprise.” 

“Stupid, do you think he doesn’t know that today is his birthday?”

Yu Ran was stunned for a moment after finally seeing the light: “Fuck… I felt that he wasn’t particularly happy today, so I thought that he’d forgotten.”

Cui He was speechless.

While they were bickering, Ye Xi had already helped Chu Mian take apart the cake box and inserted sixteen slender colorful candles. 

Chu Mian didn’t like to make wishes in front of others because he felt that it was naive to close his eyes and put his hands together, but considering how everyone had spent a lot of thoughts into this, he temporarily let go of his psychological burden and closed his eyes and made three wishes piously.

— I wish that my narcolepsy will get better soon.

— I wish that my grades keep improving.

— I wish that my first two wishes… 

Chu Mian was thinking silently in his heart, but his thoughts started to gradually dissipate.

Seeing that his head suddenly dropped, Yu Ran held his shoulder reflexively. He shouted the other party’s name twice but didn’t get any response. As expected, he really fell asleep again.

“It’s okay, let’s cut the cake for him first,” Fang Zhao suggested.

Cui He said, “I don’t want cream,” and Ye Xi immediately said, “I don’t want cream either”. Then the two talked about the reasons why they hated cream. 

“It’s too greasy, I feel like vomiting even when I think about the taste…” Cui He frowned and curled her lips. Feeling her throat itch, she dry heaved immediately. This sound was contagious to some people, just like how seeing others yawning can cause them to want to yawn. Ye Xi also quickly covered her neck and gritted her teeth: “Vomit—”

Neither of them could tolerate this sound, but they thought it was funny to infect each other, so the retching continued uncontrollably one after another.

Chu Mian gradually woke up after a few minutes, and when he opened his eyes, he saw two young girls vomiting passionately in front of him. He was shocked and subconsciously dodged backwards, but his head hit Yu Ran’s arms.

Yu Ran felt him shrinking his shoulders just now, so he imitated an adult’s tone, and while touching Chu Mian’s hair, he coaxed: “It’s okay, it’s okay my little child, no need to be scared…” 

Chu Mian felt that the air was getting hot.

The cake was cut into a lot of pieces. Fang Zhao helped Chu Mian distribute it to the whole class, and also gave some to the teachers in the office. Yu Ran had been thinking about smearing cream on Chu Mian’s face, but his thoughts were quickly seen through by Chu Mian, and he guarded against it all afternoon, resolutely not letting Yu Ran succeed.

After school was over in the evening, Yu Ran asked Chu Mian to stand still and wait, and then he ran upstairs to pick up the notebook that he had lent out in the morning.

“What?” Chu Mian took it and wanted to open it. 

“Look at it when you get home.” Yu Ran held his hand and pushed the notebook to Chu Mian’s chest.

Chu Mian listened to what he said, closed the notebook and held it tightly in his hand.

The two walked out of the school together. It was cold outside, and fog came out of their mouths as soon as they spoke.

“Cui He just told us the day before yesterday that your birthday is today. She didn’t say such an important thing sooner, fuck! I almost didn’t have time to go out and buy you a present.” Yu Ran began to tell Chu Mian about his preparation process for the past two days. “Also, why didn’t you say before which day was your birthday?” 

Chu Mian didn’t answer, nor was he listening carefully to what Yu Ran asked, but he noticed that Yu Ran had said “such an important thing” at the beginning.

An important day that only concerned himself was also valued by another person. This kind of unprecedented feeling of peace of mind and relief spread subtly throughout Chu Mian’s chest.

While Yu Ran wasn’t paying attention, Chu Mian quietly opened the notebook and browsed with the help of the warm yellow street lights—

What greeted his eyes was a large number of birthday wishes with different handwritings, different colors, and different signatures. The first few pages were filled with his classmates’ wishes. There were many classmates with whom he had never spoken since the start of school, but now they had personally written “Happy 16th Birthday” and “I wish you all the best in your new year”. From the fifth page onwards, the people who left the message were all unfamiliar names, but the blessings were equally sincere, as if everyone was happy that he was another year older. 

Chu Mian clearly felt that his heart was beating faster.

“Hey! Why the hell did you open it in advance!” Yu Ran reprimanded loudly, before reaching out and closing it for him forcefully. “I told you to look at it after going home.”

A smile appeared on Chu Mian’s face. He nodded slowly and said, “Okay.”

Afraid that Yu Ran would not be at ease, he added: “I didn’t see anything clearly just now.” 

“That’s good then.” Yu Ran believed his words. “I’m afraid you’ll be too happy and have a cataplectic attack on the road… Hey, but it’s okay, even if you suddenly fall now—”

“I’ll be by your side to hold you.”

The words that Yu Ran had said casually had forcefully aroused Chu Mian’s sensitive nerves, and no matter what Yu Ran said afterwards, Chu Mian didn’t listen to it.

His heartbeat was beating faster and faster in the cold wind, and without him realizing, Chu Mian had already walked to the place where he separated from Yu Ran every day. Only after the other party said “Bye” several times in a row, did Chu Mian slowly raise his head: “Oh, bye, see you again later.” 

Before turning around, Yu Ran asked again, “Is it our group’s turn to clean up tomorrow? What time should we arrive at school?”

“Five six… Six Fifty, around fifty, may be seven twenty…”

As soon as Chu Mian opened his mouth, his mouth stuttered uncontrollably, and his mind went blank.

Yu Ran didn’t mind this. He waved his hand with a smile like always, and crossed the road to go to his bus stop. 

Chu Mian took a deep breath and walked slowly on the way home, as if he was stepping on a soft cream. His jacket didn’t have a collar, and all of his neck was exposed, but he didn’t feel very chilled, to the extent that he overlooked the fact that it was already winter.

He looked up and saw the light shining from the Ferris wheel above the Lan River.

The last trace of warmth before the bitter winter was firmly fixed on the day he turned sixteen.