[Hou Jun]: …What shower?
[Yuan Ziqiang]: Taking a shower.
Hou Jun froze. He typed and deleted in the chat box, thinking, of course he’s just taking a shower. But how would the study god know about him showering in such detail!
[Tan Kai]: You two, are you together??
Talking about being together wasn’t wrong.
Dating at a young age was a really complicated feeling. You wanted everyone to know, but at the same time, you had to keep it hidden.
Xu Sheng typed: During vacation, he’s at my place. Is there a problem with exchanging feelings between deskmates?
The class group chat fell silent.
[Hou Jun]: …
[Tan Kai]: …
[Yuan Ziqiang]: …
Finally, the experienced class monitor came out to ease the atmosphere: No problem. I often go to Kai zi’s house during holidays, right, Kai zi?
[Tan Kai]: ? No, I won’t take a shower in front of you!
When Shao Zhan came out after showering, the topic hadn’t passed yet. He saw Xu Sheng holding his phone, fingers not stopping, and asked, “Who are you chatting with?”
Xu Sheng, “Class group chat. Hou zi and others are asking if you’re going to play with them.”
Shao Zhan wiped his hair as he opened up the class group chat. He paused for two seconds on the phrase ‘exchanging feelings’, and the entire class group saw Xu Sheng’s simple and arrogant ‘S’ pop up.
[S]: Not playing. Got something to do.
Hou Jun couldn’t help it, even though he knew that sending this message wouldn’t end well and might even result in backlash. He still asked: What could you be so busy with?
Already took a shower, but still not free…
[S]: Busy exchanging feelings.
When Shao Zhan sent this message, Xu Sheng exclaimed, “Damn!” He raised his head from the phone screen, holding chopsticks in one hand. He had secretly sent messages in the group earlier, and he hadn’t expected Shao Zhan to join in. “You really dared to send that.”
“To be honest,” Shao Zhan said, “There’s nothing that can’t be sent.”
Those two sentences, when put together, seemed exceptionally ambiguous.
Although the class group shamelessly joked along with them, saying “You two have something going on” and “What kind of feelings need to be exchanged after taking a shower”, these jokes quickly turned into another topic.
The topic shifted from team building in the game to holiday gatherings.
[Hou Jun]: I just asked lao Meng. Our grades will be out latest this weekend. We don’t have many days left to enjoy life. How about a get-together this weekend?
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The holiday was only a little over ten days, and everyone knew that once school began again, they would be facing hell mode. According to the education system at Lin Jiang over the years, all new courses in the second semester of the sophomore year must be completed within a month, followed immediately by the first round of an intensive review for the college entrance exam.
[Qiu Qiu]: Sure, I’m down. Where should we go? Set a time, and I’ll finish my homework in advance.
[Hou Jun]: @Xu Sheng, @Shao Zhan, the two of you must come. You’re not allowed to form a clique from exchanging feelings.
Yo mbegrf atfgf kjrc’a jc lrref. We Vtfcu kjr tjqqs ab ub bea. Vtjb Itjc tjv cb mtblmf. Po qbrrlyif, tf kbeiv qgfofg ab vb wbgf qgjmalmf qjqfgr, yea ecvfg atf meggfca mlgmewrajcmfr, ublcu bea kjr yfaafg atjc rajslcu ja We Vtfcu’r tberf.
Dbat bo atfw gfqilfv klat “Yxjs”.
When Shao Zhan came, he hadn’t planned on staying, so naturally, he didn’t bring any clothes. The outfit he was wearing now had been taken from the bedroom. Xu Sheng, from a bystander’s perspective, looked at himself wearing Shao Zhan’s clothes and still wasn’t used to it. “Can you pull the collar up a bit?”
Was it so…revealing when he had worn it before?
Shao Zhan looked down and said, “You’re too thin.”
“Your waist is thin too, and your pants always sag. How did you grow up like this, so skinny, but with long legs.”
As someone who had touched every part of Xu Sheng’s body before entering it and could freely touch any part after entering it, Shao Zhan had the most say in this matter.
Xu Sheng blushed from his remarks.
“Your ears are very sensitive. They turn red easily when I lean in closer to talk to you. Your waist is also very sensitive. Just a touch during the shower…”
Xu Sheng stood up abruptly: “I’m going to take a shower.”
Shao Zhan, separated by the bathroom door, listened to the sound of water inside and coldly said, “Didn’t you want to exchange feelings?”
“…”
Xu Sheng turned on the shower, not wanting to hear more about what happened during the shower or what had been seen. “Shut up.”
Xu Sheng was supposed to complete the planned two sets of test papers tonight. However, he had been bothered by the little cousin all day, and his brain cells were exhausted. He didn’t want to touch any problems again. Moreover, with Shao Zhan here tonight, after a simple shower, Xu Sheng lay on the desk, glanced at the questions, and bluntly pushed them aside. “Don’t want to do them.”
Anyway, his boyfriend was like a cheat code, so two sets of questions were no big deal.
Shao Zhan glanced at him.
Xu Sheng was only willing to make sacrifices when seeking help. Shao Zhan had helped him with homework before, so he naturally raised his eyes, making it clear that he wanted to slack off. He prolonged his tone and said, “Gege, help me do it.”
“Next time, whether you want to touch my waist or elsewhere during the shower, feel free to do so.”
Shao Zhan didn’t say anything. “…”
This trick used to be effective for Xu Sheng.
But now, with wet hair and a face showing this expression while lying on the table, in the end he was still in his body. Even if Shao Zhan knew that the person inside the body was Xu Sheng, it was still challenging to avoid this strange visual impact.
Xu Sheng had spent too much time inside Shao Zhan’s body and easily forgot who he was now and continued to act according to his usual habits.
After begging, he looked at his boyfriend, who remained silent for two seconds, averted his eyes, and ruthlessly replied, “Write it yourself.”
“…”
“All I did was switch bodies. Is it necessary to be like this?”
“It is.” Shao Zhan said, “And also, don’t speak like that next time.”
Fuck.
In the end, Xu Sheng could only write the two sets of test papers by himself.
It was already past eleven o’clock by the time he had finished writing the papers.
Staying overnight at his boyfriend’s house was originally a matter that had sparked endless imagination. Sharing a room, sharing a bed—back in school, they had thought about it, but unfortunately, the bed in the dormitory was too narrow, making sleeping together torturous.
Now they could sleep together; Xu Sheng could reach out and touch the person beside him—initially, the person beside him was quite cooperative. In the dim light, along with the fact that they were full of the vitality of youth, Shao Zhan’s fingers touched a strand of semi-dry hair, then he turned over, his hand supporting himself beside the person’s ear.
They locked eyes. “…”
Xu Sheng didn’t directly raise his hand to hook Shao Zhan’s neck and lean in, and Shao Zhan didn’t lower his head as usual, because as they got closer, they both saw their own faces.
Even the hottest passion was instantly extinguished.
The familiar temperature of the palm against the skin, the other’s wrists, waist, every detail—both were intimately acquainted with them.
Xu Sheng, “Can you go forward with it?”
Shao Zhan, “What do you think?”
Xu Sheng, “I don’t think it’s quite right.”
After a while, Xu Sheng tried to use his imagination, “How about closing our eyes and giving it a try?”
Shao Zhan, “…”
Two minutes later.
Imagination failed, and the two maintained an awkward yet polite distance as they opened their eyes.
Xu Sheng said, “Forget it.”
Clearly, his significant other was lying beside him, yet why did this relationship feel like a long-distance one? Unable to touch even if it was a slight brush, unable to get close. The most distant distance in the world is when I become my boyfriend. Xu Sheng raised his hand to cover his eyes and sighed to himself.
With Shao Zhan’s behaviour like this, he might as well go back and stay with Xu Yaping.
Neither of them fell asleep. Xu Sheng suddenly sat up, eager to understand one thing. “When can we change back this time?”
This feeling of being this close to each other but unable to touch each other was too uncomfortable.
And they didn’t know when it would end.
In the previous occurrences, the two had tried to speculate and discuss the sudden appearance of the ‘thunder’. However, at that time, there weren’t many cases available for analysis. They were both busy dealing with numerous unexpected situations, and no matter how much they discussed it, the result was always ‘unsolvable’.
Shao Zhan couldn’t fall asleep, and he was also thinking about this.
It couldn’t go on like this.
Changing occasionally was not only about the difficulty of exchanging emotions. There were also many exams ahead, big and small. If this couldn’t be resolved, a lot of issues were going to happen.
“Why does the ‘thunder’ appear? Is the timing really random? It can’t be that it randomly chooses people to strike for no reason.” Xu Sheng connected the scene of their first meeting and vaguely felt that there must be some traces of a hint. “Is there any solution?”
Xu Sheng remembered something. “That day you took a day off, where did you go?”
Shao Zhan opened his eyes. The room was not lit, and everything was pitch dark. He went back to the day of the final exam results. He walked through the long, dim corridor, he held the telephone wire in his hand. On the other side of the glass window, there was a man in a prison uniform with very short hair. His face looked old. After a while, he said, “I went to see my dad.”
After Shao Zhan finished speaking, he suddenly realised that neither he nor Xu Sheng had focused on the most obvious thing: the ‘thunder.’
Thunderstorms, police cars, and overwhelming news coverage.
…Thunder.
Shao Zhan vaguely grasped a clue, but it wasn’t clear.
If he couldn’t figure out the cause of something, he had to look at the results.
Shao Zhan wasn’t sure about the other times, but during the Green Boat Bay incident, the thunder seemed to be directed at Yang Shiwei, revealing his past.
Shao Zhan wanted to ask: In the past…specifically on a day during a thunderstorm, did anything happen to you?
But he couldn’t ask this question. He turned around and saw that Xu Sheng had already fallen asleep.
Xu Sheng had thought that it would have been better for Shao Zhan to go back to sleep.
But when Shao Zhan was really called back by Xu Yaping the next day, Xu Sheng couldn’t help but start missing him.
Xu Sheng’s house was very clean. When Shao Zhan returned, Xu Yaping had just finished cleaning the windows.
“How was your time at your classmate’s house?” Xu Yaping, usually busy with work, had intentionally taken two days off to mend their mother-son relationship. “I specifically took two days off to spend more time with you.”
Shao Zhan stood stiffly at the doorway. He hadn’t expected to receive such a ‘surprise’ as soon as he came back and felt like saying there was no need.
You should focus on your career instead.
“…While you were growing up, I didn’t have much time to accompany you. You’ve been moving around with me since you were little, changing residences everywhere. In middle school, you even transferred schools with me. But you always adapted well and made many friends.”
Shao Zhan originally thought he should resist, but he found that listening to others talk about Xu Sheng’s childhood experiences seemed quite interesting.
He was actually very curious about how Xu Sheng grew up in places he couldn’t see, as well as what he had experienced.
Xu Yaping noticed that the youth sitting across the dining table didn’t reject this conversation. Since their past experiences were the most memorable part of her memory, she continued talking. She rambled on about many things and, in the end, mentioned naturally, “You never gave me any worries since your childhood, except for drawing—”
After Xu Yaping said these two words, she suddenly stopped.
Shao Zhan caught onto these two words and noticed that the woman seemed unwilling to bring it up.
Drawing?
Thank you for the chapter ☺️
Drawing 😳😳
i… i caught up. no… why did i binge it so fast 😭 thank you for your hard work TvT