Translator: Ryn
The meaning behind those words were self-evident —
Because you are my boyfriend, thus I bought it for you.
Because I now have a boyfriend, thus I will only buy it for you.
……
Just a few common words, yet when pieced together and spoken from Qi Feng’s mouth, it was akin to a magic spell that led Ling Ke’s heart to tremble endlessly.
In fact, within this past month, Qi Feng had inadvertently moved Ling Ke’s heart many times.
For example, there was this one night when they both went for a walk in the Literary Garden. Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, Qi Feng suddenly grabbed hold of his hand and then in an “act first, explain later” manner, justified how he was seizing the opportunity to practice acting as lovers… By the time Ling Ke could regain his senses, he had already lost his best timing to break free. With his heart trembling restlessly, he had no other way but to allow the other to hold his hand for more than 10 minutes.
Another time was when Qi Feng proposed for them to go on a date for the very first time. On his own accord, he chose the date and time, booked the movie tickets, and when they arrived at the cinema, he even took the initiative to buy them drinks and popcorn. Ling Ke passively followed him the entire way. The two of them interacted as they usually did on a normal day, without feeling the slightest bit of awkwardness despite them being on a “date”.
There was also that one time when they came across one of Qi Feng’s suitors in school. The girl stood before Qi Feng, humming and hawing, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end was too embarrassed to speak due to Ling Ke’s presence.
That was the first time they encountered this kind of thing after they had made the agreement to pretend as lovers. Ling Ke was somewhat at a loss, not knowing whether or not to leave.
At that time, Qi Feng said to the girl in a very natural manner: “If there’s something you want to say, just say it ba. There’s no need to mind Ling Ke. I do not keep any secrets from him.”
After hearing that, Ling Ke felt his whole body quiver. The girl naturally retreated to avoid the awkward situation… After this incident, Qi Feng told him that in such small “cases”, there was no need to pull forth any large tricks. He only needed Ling Ke to stay beside him, and that would be enough.
There were many of such small instances that incessantly moved his heart. At times, it could be just a single gaze, a small gesture, or just like today, a simple sentence.
If it wasn’t for the agreement they had, Ling Ke sometimes felt as if they were both dating for real, rather than pretending to be.
And at times, although he knew it was all a pretense, yet due to his own selfish motives, Ling Ke did not want to stop the ambiguity between them, and instead, ravenously enjoyed Qi Feng’s gentleness and preferential treatment, all the while keeping a calm exterior.
At this moment, the Ling Ke whose heart was beating wildly due to Qi Feng’s words and had nowhere to vent his inner excitement, finally noticed Qi Feng staring directly at…. the steamed bun in his hand. Reflexively, he held up the bun in front of the other, asking: “Do you want to eat it?” There was no fluctuation in his tone, as if what Qi Feng had said earlier wasn’t “You are my boyfriend” but instead “Give me a bite of your steamed bun”.
Soon after saying those words, Ling Ke realised that it wasn’t quite appropriate to let others eat what he had already taken a bite out of. However, before he even had the time to regret his words, Qi Feng had already lowered his head and had taken a bite.
Ling Ke: “………”
The four girls who were walking towards them after having bought their steamed buns, were stunned when they saw this scene.
This wasn’t all. They even witnessed their following exchange —
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.
Olcu Bf: “Qjca rbwf wbgf?”
Hl Mfcu: “Ycf ylaf lr fcbeut, sbe rtbeiv fja atf gfra.”
Olcu Bf: “Pa vbfrc’a wjaafg, mbwf tjnf jcbatfg ylaf?”
Hl Mfcu: “Yxjs…”
Cujlc, Hl Mfcu ibkfgfv tlr tfjv jcv abbx jcbatfg rwjii ylaf. Coafg ajxlcu atf rwjii ylaf, Hl Mfcu’r ujhf wfa Olcu Bf’r jcv atfs rwlifv ja bcf jcbatfg. Coafg fzmtjculcu rwlifr, atf akb delmxis ofia fwyjggjrrfv jcv ater, rtsis aegcfv jkjs ogbw bcf jcbatfg.
The four girls, each holding onto a steaming hot bun, stood there, completely stunned.
They didn’t…have to be… so frugal ba…
It was only a ¥2 steamed bun…
Obviously…they could’ve…bought another one ah…
Perhaps due to having received a heavy blow, no one raised the questions in their hearts. And by the time they finally recovered, they had already boarded the bus from the railway station, heading towards the ancient town.
When they arrived at the entrance to the ancient town, the team leader Zhang Wenqin called the owner of the inn they had made an online reservation for, in advance.
The inn owner drove a pedicab to drive them into the city, allowing them to save ¥50 each from having to pay for the entrance fee into the town.
Passing through the quaint stone pavement roads, their eyes lit up from looking at the beautiful scenery on both sides.
The small stone arch bridges and the ancient courtyards with white walls and black tiles arranged in rows along the curved waterways outlined the unique features of the Jiangnan water town.
Having grown up in the states of Wuyue, Qi Feng and Ling Ke have already seen many Chinese-style houses dotted within the city, but this was the first time having seen such a wide stretch of ancient buildings.
They arrived pretty early, and with it being an off-peak weekend, the town wasn’t crowded with people, which instead made it seem a little peaceful and quiet.
The inn that Zhang Wenqin reserved was located along the waterway. Although the location wasn’t too bad, the inn was still a cheap lodging with heavy guest flow rate, with average guestroom conditions and low customer requirements.
The four girls planned to squeeze into a standard room, with two sharing a bed. The owner seemed to have no objection. It was likely that they usually received too many a reception of such poor students, hence it didn’t seem too big a surprise.
A standard room only costs ¥130 a night, which costs them only about ¥30 per person. The high quality to price ratio made Qi Feng question the meaning of life.
— In this way, their ¥160 budget was indeed more than enough.
“Then, what should Ling Ke and I do?” Qi Feng looked at the different room types on the price list at the counter. At the very bottom of the list, there were options for four-people bunk bed rooms, and also eight-people bunk bed rooms. It couldn’t be that Zhang Wenqin intended for them both to sleep in these rooms right?
A thin, white finger pointed directly to the options that Qi Feng was looking at. Zhang Wenqin then directly confirmed his conjecture aloud: “This inn, I have seen the photos of the rooms online, and they are almost the same as the ones in our school dormitory. The cheapest option only costs ¥20 a bed, which is cheaper than our standard room. You guys can consider choosing this option.”
Qi Feng & Ling Ke: “…”
“Would you like to take a look?” The owner of the inn offered to take them to the bunk bed rooms for a look.
Looking at the rudimentary bunk beds lined up against the wall, Qi Feng and Ling Ke’s heart fell…
— Since they’ve all come for leisure trip, was there a need for them to be so miserable ah?
And although the bunk bed rooms looked similar to their dorms, they were still very different in nature. After all, the beds in their dorm were only reserved for themselves to use since the beginning of the school term. Conversely, the bunk beds here were slept on by different people almost on a daily basis ah!
Moreover, if they chose this bunk bed option, they may also have to sleep in the same room with several other strangers tonight.
People with the slightest bit of mysophobia would definitely be unable to withstand these living conditions, let alone Ling Ke who originally held great importance in personal hygiene, and also the “Little Princess” Qi Feng, who would very likely break out in allergies the following morning after covering himself in a quilt that someone else had used the night before.
“What do you think? We get many university students renting the rooms here in groups. Boys would usually rent this kind of bunk bed rooms, and the price is very affordable.” The owner of the inn was still enthusiastically promoting the rooms.
Qi Feng and Ling Ke both exchanged glances and saw the same reluctance in each other’s eyes.
“Let’s look at the other room options again…” Qi Feng said helplessly.
— I’d rather go hungry than ill-treating myself by lowering the quality of my sleep.
If they didn’t want the bunk beds, then they could only opt for the standard room with ordinary specifications, however the inn owner regretfully informed them that the last standard room was just taken by Zhang Wenqin and her 207 dorm roommates.
“Today is a Saturday, so there are a lot of university students from nearby cities coming here to play. If you guys didn’t booked in advance, there definitely wouldn’t be any rooms available!” The inn owner said.
This is f*cking embarassing…
“There is still a single room available. It’s ¥100 a night, and not impossible for two people to share. Some young couples like to stay in this kind of room,” the inn owner looked at them and said, “But you are both boys, so I think you may have to squeeze a bit.”
Hearing that they may have to “squeeze” into a single bed, Ling Ke felt that it was an even worse option than having to sleep on a bunk bed. Before he could raise his objection, he saw Qi Feng rubbing his chin while saying: “The cost after splitting into two is at ¥50 per person, which is quite acceptable…”
The two have not yet made a decision, when Yao Jing interjected: “Since the both of you can’t accept the bunk bed rooms, then just settle with the single room. Put up with it a little ba.”
Qi Feng glanced at Ling Ke and tentatively asked: “What do you think?”
Ling Ke: “…” What else could he say? If he refused, they wouldn’t have any place to stay.
The two groups of people went to their respective rooms to put down their things, after having agreed to meet in the lobby half an hour later.
Qi Feng and Ling Ke checked in and received their room keys, found their room, opened the door and discovered that the room conditions were much better than they’d expected.
Although it was said to be a single room, the bed did not look small. The visual width was around 1.3 to 1.4 metres. For Qi Feng and Ling Ke who were used to sleeping in small beds like the ones in their school dormitories, the bed in the room were considered quite big.
“It doesn’t look too bad.” Qi Feng commented as he looked around the room.
While Qi Feng had already accepted their current situation, Ling Ke felt his heart quivering.
It was unknown if it was due to what the inn owner had said earlier about young couples preferring to stay in this kind of single rooms, but Ling Ke felt that the room was filled with an ambiguous air: beige sheets and quilts, a tissue box with love patterns on the bedside table, translucent window coverings…
Once he thought of having to share a bed with Qi Feng in this room tonight, Ling Ke felt some difficulty breathing.
He casually opened the wooden lattice window on the side, and unexpectedly discovered that their room was facing the waterways, and the scenery outside the window was fairly unique.
Qi Feng also came over and the two quietly appreciated the view.
Seemingly satisfied and content, Qi Feng said: “I guess this is it. Seems great.”
Ling Ke: “…”
The two took out the things they wouldn’t need to bring with them and placed them in the room, including some of their simple toiletries, and the two bottles of water in Qi Feng’s backpack, and left the room.
The four girls took a little more time. While waiting for them, Qi Feng took the opportunity to converse with the innkeeper.
After learning that they were students from the F University’s Department of Media and Journalism, and they were here on a leisure trip to conduct interviews as part of their assignment, the inn owner was very surprised and laughingly joked: “So you’re all talented students ah, so amazing! So who are you guys planning to interview? Do you want to interview me?”
“Sure, you must have had more contact with youth travelers compared to us, so if you’re willing to accept an interview from us, it would be a great help.” Qi Feng smiled, turned on the voice recording function on his mobile phone, and casually asked a few questions. The inn owner then replied in a frank, assured manner.
Ling Ke, having seen how quickly Qi Feng had become acquainted with people by exchanging a few words, simply sighed at his own inferiority.
By the time the girls arrived at the lobby, Qi Feng had already finished interviewing and even obtained some information about the guests who were coming to stay at the inn tonight. He suggested that they return early to the inn tonight – perhaps with the innkeeper’s reference, they could interview some of the fellow travelers who were also staying in the inn.
——————
【A brief interlude】
When Ling Ke noticed Qi Feng staring at the steamed bun in his hand, he offered the bun for him to eat.
Qi Feng refuted: No, I wasn’t looking at the steamed bun. I bought the bun for you. I was actually looking at you …. No, that’s not it. Actually, I do want to eat the bun, but I only want to eat it if you’re feeding it to me, not any other bun. If it’s just an ordinary steamed bun, I do not want to eat it, nor will I even look at it. So, it wasn’t that that I was staring at the steamed bun, but at you… do you get what I‘m saying?
Ling Ke: Not really.
Qi Feng: …
The four dorm mates from Room 207 readily made themselves invisible, as they quietly ate their buns.
Lmao they are so cute >u<
Thanks for the chapter! 🙂
I bet it’s a really beautiful place. I want to visit too, in the off season xD
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
Cute cute cute 🥰
Thanks for the chapter!!!
Super cute! Ling Ke feeding him the steamed bun was just them feeding us dog food. I approve xD
Thanks for the chapter! <3
A steamed bun can be this ambiguous?! Hehehe
Qi Feng must be thrilled now that they have to share a bed.
Thanks for the chapter!
Translator-sama I hope you’re doing well. Thanks so much for this chapter, it was all I ever wanted in a fake dating novel. Ling Ke could have stopped Qi Feng from doing all these things but he wants to secretly enjoy everything Qi Feng does with him. I love this webnovel it’s my favorite fake dating novel its got so many tropes that Im a complete sucker for. Hits me in the feels everytime
Thank you thank you thank you for the chapters! I’ll be waiting for your updates ♡(> ਊ <)♡ you’re doing an amazing job with the translation! Thanks for all your efforts and time uwu
Thanks for your hard work!
I’m gonna complain about those girls again… 😂. How come they made reservations for themselves but not for the boys? It’s like they completely ignored that the boys were coming. 🤦🏻♀️
Thank you for the chapter!
Love the interludes lol
Qi Feng:”Do you get what I’m saying?”
Ling Ke:”Not really…”
Me:”Neither do I…”