CH 36

Translation checker: Rin

Editor: Junyans

Chu Mian’s arms were a little numb. He turned his face towards the wide road and whispered, “Come down, I’m going to let go.” 

Yu Ran nodded in agreement. He straightened his legs and naturally slipped off Chu Mian’s body, almost squatting on the ground. He immediately stood up straight again and slowly put on his jacket, but he couldn’t put his hands inside the sleeves, so Chu Mian had to help him.

The two were still very close, and Chu Mian wanted to take a step back, but he found that his scarf had been caught by Yu Ran.

Yu Ran clumsily undid Chu Mian’s scarf, then picked up half of it and wrapped it around his neck.

This time he was not cold anymore, and he did not forget to cast a satisfied look at Chu Mian. 

Their necks were held together by this scarf, and no one could move two steps away from each other. Chu Mian didn’t want to face him, so he could only keep looking away, trying his best to keep a nonchalant expression.

Yu Ran put his arm around Chu Mian’s shoulder and said, “Let’s go, I’ll take you home.”

“No need.” Chu Mian quietly grabbed the back of Yu Ran’s collar, allowing more distance between the two. After hesitating, he said, “I’d better take you home. It’s not safe for you to walk alone when you are like this now.”

He lightly held Yu Ran’s arm and walked to the side of the road to hail a taxi.

Sitting in the taxi, Yu Ran was still able to accurately say his home address, albeit with some tediously long prefixes: “Solar System, Earth, Asia, China, Ronggang City, Jiangdong District, Queming Road, Yuejin Community, Building 12, House No. 301.”

After listening to this, the driver immediately said, ” “Wow, where did you come from, young man?”

Yu Ran leaned against Chu Mian’s shoulder, and said after thinking, “I came from my mother’s belly…”

After he finished speaking, he raised his face and asked Chu Mian, “Do you want to drink milk?” 

Chu Mian looked at him suspiciously as Yu Ran unzipped his jacket and reached in to dig something out. Feeling something was wrong, Chu Mian pressed Yu Ran’s wrist and warned him in a low voice, “Don’t take off your clothes.”

Yu Ran ignored him and stretched out his arm that held a bottle of AD calcium milk, and said, “I bought it for you at noon, but I forgot to give it to you after the exam.”

He shoved it into Chu Mian’s palm hard. “Here, take extra calcium so that you can grow taller quickly.”

After a while, Yu Ran touched his pocket again, found a packet of Skittles and put it on Chu Mian’s lap. “I ate both the green and orange ones. Now they are all the colors you like to eat.” 

A little surprised, Chu Mian put away the candies.

Along the way, Yu Ran rummaged through all his pockets. As long as he found candy, he would give it to Chu Mian. While giving it, he would say, “Eating candy can make you stupid. Let me give you a magic trick to make you stupid.”

Chu Mian always looked at him quietly, without refuting anything.

After arriving at the community where Yu Ran’s family lived, Chu Mian paid the bill and dragged Yu Ran out of the taxi. They walked inside the community and stopped under the building Yu Ran lived in before Chu Mian asked, “You can go up by yourself, right?” 

Yu Ran nodded. “Then where are you going?”

“P’w ublcu yjmx ab ws tberf.”

Te Ejc ibbxfv eq ja atf gfrlvfcalji yelivlcu, jcv revvfcis bqfcfv tlr wbeat jcv rtbeafv, “Te Alc!”

Ktf ygluta klcvbk bc atf atlgv oibbg kjr delmxis bqfcfv, jcv j ybs lc qjpjwjr ibbxfv vbkc. “Tbe’gf yjmx!” 

Te Ejc gjlrfv tlr jgwr tlut jybnf tlr tfjv. “Ueii wf eq delmxis!”

Yu Jin didn’t understand the meaning of his brother’s action, but he still put on his shoes and went downstairs obediently. Seeing a boy next to Yu Ran, Yu Jin took the initiative to say hello and asked, “Are you my brother’s classmate?”

Chu Mian nodded, nudged Yu Ran’s back, and told Yu Jin, “Your brother went out with us to play and he drank some wine. Take him back to wash his face.”

Just as Yu Jin was about to agree, his eyes froze on the scarf the two of them were wearing together. 

Chu Mian noticed the change in the other party’s expression, which made him remember that he had forgotten the part of his scarf that Yu Ran had borrowed. But when he turned his head and saw that half of Yu Ran’s face was buried in the black wool for warmth, Chu Mian simply said to Yu Jin, “Let’s help him up.”

“No need.” Yu Ran opened his mouth and strode forward directly.

Chu Mian’s neck was tugged by the scarf, so he followed him.

Li Guirong was not at home tonight, so only Yu Jin was waiting for his brother to come back. The three entered the bedroom, and Yu Ran approached the bed without thinking and sat down. 

Chu Mian briefly glanced around. The room was not big, and it had to accommodate two boys to sleep together. The items were piled up in a mess, and the walls were covered with posters of anime characters, making the room look a little crowded.

He stretched out his hand towards Yu Ran’s neck, trying to take off the other half of his scarf, but Yu Ran, who was staring at his movements, suddenly clutched the scarf tightly and lay back. Chu Mian didn’t want to be strangled, so he knelt down on the bed.

Yu Jin was leaning against the quilt beside him. When he turned around, he saw that his brother was about to be overwhelmed by the other boy who had come. He hurriedly covered his eyes and his lips trembled: “Hey, hey, hey, hey it’s not suitable for children!”

Chu Mian’s cheeks were flushed. He wasn’t looking into Yu Ran’s eyes, but he knew that Yu Ran was looking directly at him, which made the movements of his hands more awkward. When he finally took off the scarf from Yu Ran, his hand was held by the other party again. 

Yu Ran’s voice was slow and patient: “Chu Mian, you have to be careful on the road and protect yourself.”

Chu Mian gave a perfunctory “Okay”. He just wanted to leave quickly.

But Yu Ran didn’t let him go, grabbed the black scarf again, and said, “Chu Mian, it’s almost New Year’s Eve. The chickens are going to be slaughtered on the second day of the New Year, so don’t be killed by mistake!”

Chu Mian tried to look at Yu Ran, but within two seconds he hurriedly shifted his gaze. 

He quickly took off the scarf around his neck and put it on Yu Ran’s chest. Only then did he regain his freedom.

“I’m going back, you should rest early.” Whispering a polite farewell, Chu Mian hurried away from Yu Ran on the bed. Before leaving, he glanced at Yu Jin, and found the boy huddled by the bed, watching them both through the gaps between his fingers.

“Goodbye brother!” Yu Jin waved his hand. “Come to play when you have time!”

Although this was the first time he saw Yu Jin, Chu Mian felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity. Then he remembered that he had already known this boy through Yu Ran’s essay before. Unlike Yu Ran’s fabricated image, his younger brother was not only polite, but also had a lot of hair. 

Chu Mian gently smiled at him. “Goodbye.”

As soon as Chu Mian left, Yu Jin crawled to his brother’s side, and shook him worriedly. “Brother, are you okay? Have you been drugged?”

Yu Ran was irritated by him, and threw away his hand and said, “Get out of the way and stay there.”

His tone was not as gentle as when he had been talking to his classmate just now. Yu Jin snorted coldly, and took the opportunity to kick his brother a few times. 

Yu Ran held Chu Mian’s scarf in his arms, and quickly covered his face with it unconsciously, smelling the light fragrance. It smelled the same as Chu Mian’s neck, but it was not as warm.

Yu Ran unconsciously sat up and carefully folded the scarf so that it wouldn’t wrinkle.

After a while, he asked Yu Jin, “Where’s Chu Mian?”

“He left a long time ago.” 

Yu Ran’s brain slowly processed the information in this statement, and his mood was low for a few minutes. Soon after that, his attention was drawn to something else.

He stared at the bulge between his legs, and muttered to himself suspiciously: “What the fuck is in there?”

After saying that, he grabbed it out of curiosity.

Before Yu Jin could stop him, he heard Yu Ran’s heart-wrenching howl. 

“Brother—!” Yu Jin empathized and held Yu Ran with gritted teeth. Then he saw a layer of cold sweat oozing out of Yu Ran’s forehead.

“Fuck.” Yu Ran instantly became sober, and hurriedly lowered his head to confirm. “It scared me to death, it’s still there, it’s still there…”

“I was scared to death too! You almost became my sister!”

Yu Ran felt that his throat was as dry as if it had been burned by fire, so he went out and poured himself a large glass of water to drink. When he returned to his room again, he casually said “I haven’t finished my homework yet”, but was told by Yu Jin that it was already winter vacation. 

Yu Ran happily laid down to rest. He was happy for only a few seconds before he suddenly remembered that there would be a terrifying parent-teacher meeting next. Conservatively estimating, he could only be in the bottom three in the class this time.

In order to have a good and stable year for himself, Yu Ran actively shared the housework for Li Guirong in the following days, and even pretended to read a book under her nose, hoping that his mother would not scold him too harshly after she came back from the parent-teacher meeting.

Surprisingly, the report card was better than he had expected. He had improved a few points in Language and Mathematics. The Geography result had even helped him to pull up the average passing score.

It was all thanks to Chu Mian’s notes before the exam… Yu Ran knew very well the reasons for his improved grades. He couldn’t wait to call Chu Mian and share the good news. 

He called twice and no one answered, but Chu Mian sent a text message: “Wait a minute.”

“Okay~”

After Chu Mian on the other end of the phone received the reply, he immediately hid his phone under the cushion behind his back before sitting upright and continued to listen to his mother across the sofa.

“Although your score has risen, your ranking has regressed from seventh to twelfth in the district. Chu Mian, have your health problems become more serious recently?” Ye Zhihan raised her head and stared at the boy with her deep blue eyes. 

Chu Mian said, “It’s okay, I just made a mistake in writing the answer myself. I won’t make another mistake next time.”

Ye Zhihan nodded with a smile and put the report card aside. “If you are not satisfied with any aspect of the school, just mention it to the teacher. Your own health is the most important thing, you don’t have to be too shy, understand?”

“The school is very good.” Chu Mian didn’t look at her. “The teachers and classmates are also very good to me.”

“Then I’m relieved.” Ye Zhihan smiled. 

The mother and son had no more topics to talk about and the living room plunged into silence for a moment. Ye Zhihan handed the bag to her assistant and said commandingly, “Chu Mian, pack your luggage tonight and set off on time at ten o’clock tomorrow.”

Only then did Chu Mian look her in the face. “Auntie has already vacated the guest room for you.”

“I know.” Ye Zhihan continued to smile. “But the hotel service is better.”

Chu Mian watched her leave with her assistant. From the beginning to the end, his mother was as graceful as ever, and she did not slack off even in front of her son. She was so self-important that it was hard to approach. 

He was used to it and had no special reaction. He turned around and picked up his phone to call Yu Ran back.

Yu Ran excitedly told him that his grades had improved in the final exams, that he had gotten all the key points of his notes right, and that he had been spared from a beating and scolding from his mother. Chu Mian couldn’t help but feel happy for him.

“By the way, your scarf is still with me. Someday we’ll go out to play and I’ll give it to you then.”

“Just keep it first. I’m going to my grandma’s house tomorrow, and I won’t be back until after the Chinese New Year.” 

“Is it very far?”

“Yeah, in Shanghai,” Chu Mian said.

His mother was Chinese-Swedish, and his father was from the north, so he had to go back and forth every winter vacation.

Yu Ran held his phone with his one hand, and held the scarf under the palm of his other hand. He stroked the wool pattern on it and spoke again, “Chu Mian, I forgot to mention something, you were really handsome when you sang in the KTV that day.” 

The sudden praise made Chu Mian smile a little. “You seem to have said that already that day.”

Although the other party had also asked whether he had gotten a facelift.

Yu Ran recalled the scene at that time, and his chest gradually seemed to be filled with warm water. “Really, I was so stunned at that time! You were simply glowing.”

The corners of Chu Mian’s lips were originally curved upwards but then he misheard what Yu Ran said as “You were simply goblin”. His expression immediately turned cold and he said, “If there’s nothing else I’ll hang up, I still have to pack my luggage.” 

“Okay. Wait a minute, what was the name of the song?”

“U Make Me Wanna,” Chu Mian told him, “by English boy band Blue.”

Yu Ran repeated Chu Mian’s pronunciation, and then tried to translate it into Chinese: “You made me bend?”

Chu Mian sneered at first, but soon the corners of his mouth became a little stiff. He understood that Yu Ran was just talking nonsense, but after pondering the meaning, his heart suddenly dropped a bit, and his ears slowly warmed. 

He became aware of some kind of bad omen. He even forgot to say “bye” and took the lead in hanging up the call with Yu Ran.