The next day, Sheng Renxing went to wash his face; as soon as he opened the door, he caught sight of Xing Ye sitting on the sofa, leaning against it while still half asleep and squinting at himself.
Acting as though he wasn’t surprised, Sheng Renxing casually changed his posture from slouching to standing straighter, yawning while asking, “Are you awake?”
He had assumed that Xing Ye would leave while he was still sleeping.
“Mhm,” Xing Ye replied, “Going to school?”
His tone was very natural, without any extra emotions at all.
However, Sheng Renxing knew how much Xing Ye would conceal his emotions. Sheng Renxing had analysed the situation and had come to a conclusion last night, but now his ‘conclusion’ seemed like a sword hanging over his head, and he didn’t know when it would fall.
He nodded.
Outside, Xing Ye’s motorcycle had disappeared.
“Where’s your motorcycle?” Sheng Renxing looked around.
Xing Ye pulled a bicycle over.
“Returned it.” He picked up the bicycle, placing it in front of Sheng Renxing. His meaning was self-evident.
“……” Sheng Renxing looked at the hand-tied floral cushion on the back seat of the bicycle. “How about we take a taxi?”
Xing Ye looked at him. Then, as if he hadn’t heard, he sat on the front seat while stretching his long legs, tilting his head and motioning to him: “Come on.”
“…”
Sheng Renxing sat on the backseat with his hands in his pockets, feeling uncomfortable.
The bicycle didn’t have a handle.
He prepared to ride on it with his hands in his pockets.
“Holding on?” Xing Ye suddenly asked from the front.
“What? No,” Sheng Renxing replied, startled, “There’s no need, there’s no need.”
Xing Ye seemed to hum, and said nothing after that.
He rode quite steadily.
Maybe it was because he had an injured passenger in the backseat, but he did not ride recklessly like some people, nor did he rush forward to overtake anyone when there was a gap.
Others on the path were also driving steadily, causing a motorcycle that was behind them to honk.
Sheng Renxing looked back and saw a young man on the motorcycle, with his hair being blown back by the wind. When he saw Sheng Renxing turn his head, he cursed at him.
Sheng Renxing had woken up in a good mood this morning, and he didn’t want it to be ruined by this person, so he just smiled and gave him the middle finger.
Who knew that at this moment, the bicycle would suddenly turn: Sheng Renxing lost his balance, and his forehead hit Xing Ye’s spine that stuck out.
He hissed, grabbing the side of Xing Ye’s waist.
Before he could blame Xing Ye, Xing Ye stopped the bicycle, got off, held the handlebars and turned to look at him: “Are you ok?”
Sheng Renxing covered his forehead with his hand: “Stupid!” He didn’t get off the bike, but he planted his feet on the ground. He looked up at Xing Ye angrily, “Is your back made of iron?”
Xing Ye frowned slightly, pushing Sheng Renxing’s hand away; he lifted his hair and looked at his forehead carefully.
Sheng Renxing returned his gaze for a while, then became self-conscious and avoided his hand.
Xing Ye retracted it: “It’s red.”
“Uh huh.” Sheng Renxing fixed his hair and looked around: “What are we doing here?”
“Breakfast.” Xing Ye released the handlebars and stood up on the side of the bike. “What do you want to eat?”
Sheng Renxing tilted his head and looked at the shop that stood before him.
It was a traditional breakfast shop: there were steamed buns and fried dough sticks.
“Nothing.” He thought about the grease and shook his head.
Knowingly, Xing Ye continued to ask: “Do you want steamed buns?”
“…A plain one.” Sheng Renxing’s expression was very reluctant.
“With soy milk?” Xing Ye searched his pocket for the shape of a banknote.
“All right.” Sheng Renxing nodded.
After watching Xing Ye walk into the store, Sheng Renxing loosened his neck.
It was a bit awkward.
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.
After Xing Ye came back, he hung the bag containing the breakfast on the handlebars.
Dea tf vlvc’a rajga ab glvf, lcrafjv aegclcu ab ibbx ja Vtfcu Efczlcu: “Lbiv bc ab wf.”
Qlatbea kjlalcu obg tlw ab rqfjx, tf mbcalcefv: “Ofa’r kjla obg atf mjgr ab qjrr ys, P’w rmjgfv P’ii atgbk sbe boo.”
“Ktf bcf ktb mjc atgbk wf boo tjrc’a yffc ybgc sfa.” Vtfcu Efczlcu rcffgfv. Lf ygbeuta tlr tjcvr bea ogbw tlr qbmxfar, qjerfv obg j rfmbcv, jcv olgra ugjyyfv Wlcu Tf’r mibatfr. Ktfc, offilcu ilxf atlr qbrlalbc kjr j ilaaif ragjcuf, tf tfiv bcab Wlcu Tf’r rlvf.
Xing Ye took hold of his hands, pulled them to the front, and hooked them around his waist.
Sheng Renxing cursed in his heart and leaned back. In this position, the two of them were too close.
But he didn’t change it, and neither of them spoke.
It wasn’t until halfway down the road, while they were waiting at a red light, that he remembered: “Are you ticklish?”
“No.”
“Oh ~” With a lilt in his voice, Sheng Renxing suddenly moved his hand to touch Xing Ye’s waist.
Almost at the same second, Xing Ye seemed to know what he wanted to do, and held his hand in place.
“Fuck!” Sheng Renxing laughed.
In the end, Xing Ye put his hand in the pocket of his clothes and did not allow him to move.
Xing Ye rode them all the way to the school parking lot.
Bicycles were parked sparsely.
Xing Ye handed him the bag, let him get off, then squatted down and secured the bicycle to the bicycle port using a lock.
Sheng Renxing was surprised – this broken bicycle could still be locked?
It wasn’t far from having to be scrapped: it constantly creaked on the road, as if the wheels were going to fall off in the next second.
Xing Ye turned around and, as if he could see what he was thinking, spoke as he took the bag back: “Someone else’s. If it disappears, you have to pay.”
“How much?” Sheng Renxing asked casually.
Xing Ye: “Cheaper than your uncle’s wobble toy.” He stretched out a hand to help him.
Sheng Renxing batted it away.
Xing Ye didn’t insist, only walking two steps forward before looking back at him, his eyes moving from his face to his legs.
“…” Sheng Renxing watched him stop.
Xing Ye: “Try taking two steps?”
Trying to ignore the feeling in his leg, Sheng Renxing walked two steps forward with his hands in his pockets, and stood in front of him: “No problem.”
Xing Ye gave him a thumbs up.
He then took him to the stairs and handed him his breakfast, but he didn’t leave. After a while, he spoke: “Let’s meet at noon?”
“Not at noon.” Sheng Renxing took his breakfast and replied.
Seeing Xing Ye’s reaction, he took out his phone and pretended to look at something. Then, at random, he said: “Dinner?”
“Yes,” Xing Ye seemed to smile, “please.”
“What do you want to eat?” Sheng Renxing regretted it after speaking, but looking at Xing Ye’s smile, he couldn’t help but go on.
“You choose?” asked Xing Ye.
“Alright,” Sheng Renxing waved his phone, “I’ll message you on QQ later.”
Because of this, Sheng Renxing was restless the whole day.
There was one point in the middle where a note got handed over to him.
He looked up and saw the captain retract his hand.
Sheng Renxing put down the pen he had been holding and opened the note. In it was a long string of words, beginning with the sentence, ‘I’m sorry’.
The captain’s handwriting was beautiful, but small. Sheng Renxing couldn’t even count the Olympiad questions, let alone read all of this. He squinted his eyes and looked at it patiently; after a quick scan, he inferred that the captain was talking about what happened last night during dinner.
Sheng Renxing’s first reaction was… was he angry at that time? He had already forgotten about it.
The captain had filled the paper with his writing, so Sheng Renxing tore a corner off of his draft paper, and with his flamboyant, cursive handwriting, he wrote ‘It’s okay’ and handed it back.
He had already forgotten about what had happened yesterday, even forgetting that it was he himself who had exploded at the other, so of course he would ‘forgive’ the captain.
If it was someone else in the captain’s situation, they would still be bearing a grudge; luckily, when the captain saw his reply, not only did he have no other emotions, but he even gave a sigh of relief.
Sheng Renxing had no idea what it would be like to have dinner at night with Xing Ye now. Jiang Jing and the others would definitely start asking themselves what was going on between them. Had Xing Ye already told them? Probably not, he was just a dull gourd.
But this could be regarded as finally breaking the ice.
He still hadn’t figured out what to do afterwards; everytime he thought of something, a voice in his head would say ‘Don’t make a decision so quickly, think again.”
Forget it, he would take it one step at a time.
Deep breaths.
However, unexpectedly, they could not eat dinner together at night.
Sheng Renxing had already sent a message to Xing Ye saying ‘class is over’ when in the next second, his phone began ringing.
The name “Uncle” was flashing on his phone.
“?” Sheng Renxing answered, “Hello?”
“Class is over?” Wei Huan’s voice came clearly through the phone. The two hadn’t seen each other in a long time.
“Yes,” Sheng Renxing sat in his seat, not moving. He was waiting for everyone to leave, and for Xing Ye to come and pick him up.
Although he did not say, Sheng Renxing knew that he would come over.
“What’s the matter Uncle?” Sheng Renxing asked.
“Let’s have a meal.” From Wei Huan’s voice, it seemed like he was smiling, but he wasn’t sure: after all, he could only hear the emotions that were in his voice.
“No,” Sheng Renxing packed up his schoolbag and swiftly refused, “I have an appointment tonight.”
Wei Huan did not change to a different day as he would’ve usually done, instead smiling and firmly saying: “Push it back.”
Sheng Renxing paused: “Uncle, do you want something?”
“Kind of, come here first.” Wei Huan replied.
Sheng Renxing watched as Xing Ye approached from the window, and clicked his tongue, “What about tomorrow? I’ve already arranged to have dinner with someone today.”
“With Xing Ye?” Wei Huan asked.
“Huh?” Sheng Renxing was stunned.
“I’m at the gate of your school.”
Sheng Renxing frowned. He had a good impression of this uncle, but he really didn’t like this kind of semi-forced invitation.
Xing Ye saw that his expression was wrong, so he did not speak, instead sitting at the captain’s table and looking at him.
Wei Huan seemed to understand his silence. He then said: “Aren’t you injured? I just came to pick you up.” He sighed, “You have to tell me about the gambling and motorcycle racing as well, and then I have to explain this all to my sister, right?”
“…” Sheng Renxing lost his voice in an instant.
“You are so good.” Wei Huan exclaimed, “I’m so busy, but you still don’t forget to make a name for me.”
“…” Sheng Renxing realised he couldn’t fight back to that, so he pressed the red button on his phone.
Xing Ye, sitting next to him, heard the voice on the phone and frowned slightly. When Sheng Renxing had hung up, he said, “Should I explain to your uncle?”
“Explain what?” Sheng Renxing asked him, and pointed to his leg, “The evidence is here.”
He stood up with his bag, licked his dry lips and said to Xing Ye: “Let’s meet next time.”
Xing Ye’s mouth collapsed into a straight line; he said nothing, and then nodded: “I’ll walk with you to the school gate?”
“No need,” Sheng Renxing smiled, pretending to be relaxed, and joked: “You are now the bad child who’s spoiled me in my uncle’s eyes.”
He had meant to say it casually, but after he finished speaking he found that it had come out wrong.
Sure enough, Xing Ye cooperatively hooked the corners of his mouth, but his dark eyes betrayed him.
Sheng Renxing opened his mouth, trying to explain, but he couldn’t find the words.
When he got into Wei Huan’s car, he sat down carefully.
Xing Ye had still walked over with him, but he had stopped further away from the car to avoid saying hello to Wei Huan.
Wei Huan nodded politely towards Xing Ye, then moved his gaze to Sheng Renxing and couldn’t help but laugh: “Am I lame?”
“…” Sheng Renxing did not roll his eyes. “Almost.”
“What a pity,” Wei Huan started the car, “Or you could live without causing trouble for a few days.”
“…….” Sheng Renxing: “Your sarcasm is straightforward enough.”
“Really?” Wei Huan pretended to be surprised. “I thought I was being tactful.”
Sheng Renxing stretched his hands, cracked his knuckles and twisted his fingers until they clicked: “Then…”
“Don’t make those kinds of noises,” Wei Huan said, frowning, “I can’t stand them.”
“Oh.” Then Sheng Renxing asked, “Did those middle-aged men complain to you?”
“The word ‘complain’ is ugly,” said Wei Huan, “I just wanted to come here, concerned about my nephew.”
“You’re quite enthusiastic.” Sheng Renxing sneered.
Wei Huan turned his head and glanced at him: “Who did you learn that hand from?”
“Which one? Are we talking about playing cards?” Sheng Renxing pulled at his hair, which had grown a little, “Sheng Yan asked for someone to teach me.”
“He taught you this?!” Wei Huan’s tone was a little off, but after a while, he said “Oh” and, “It’s him, that’s normal.”
“Mhm.” Sheng Renxing leaned back in his seat, “Pragmatism.”
Wei Huan smiled: “Is he that principled?”
“I don’t know,” Sheng Renxing shook his head honestly. “I had just mentioned it once, casually. He might be a cynic.”
Wei Huan was taken back, but then trembled with a smile: “Maybe.”
After talking a bit more, Wei Huan brought the topic back and asked him to elaborate on what had happened that day in the chess and card room.
As soon as Sheng Renxing thought about the chess and card room, he would think about the conversation that happened after they left. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat again.
“If you aren’t going to tell me, should I ask?”
“Ask.”
“Why did you go there?”
Sheng Renxing opened his eyes to look at him: did those people who complained not mention Xing Ye?
“I went to accompany a classmate.”
Wei Huan glanced at him as if he wanted to say something, but swallowed instead – Sheng Renxing didn’t know what he was thinking.
“How did the fight happen?” Wei Huan continued.
“There was no fight,” he replied.
“When you were playing cards!”
“Oh,” Sheng Renxing thought, thought again, and only when Wei Huan turned his head to look at him for the third time did he speak: “I wanted to see them upset.”
After he spoke, there was silence for a while. Then Wei Huan gave him a thumbs up. “Did you crush them?”
Sheng Renxing was modest: “I was okay.”
“Then why did you think to tell them my name?” Wei Huan asked.
Sheng Renxing rolled down the car window only to roll it back up again at Wei Huan’s “Cold, close it!”. He didn’t beat around the bush: “Xing Ye told them.” he said, “He didn’t want to fight.”
Sheng Renxing thought for a while, then amended: “Just that time though.”
“One time is enough.” Wei Huan sighed.
“Is someone troubling you?” Sheng Renxing frowned.
Wei Huan glanced at him, then rolled his eyes.
“?” Sheng Renxing pointed to his ear, “Say it outright, or I won’t understand.”
“…” Wei Huan spoke, “When you go out, your name is connected to my name.”
“?” Sheng Renxing frowned. “What?”
“Do you know what he does?” Wei Huan asked.
Sheng Renxing frowned, disliking his tone. He was speaking as if Xing Ye was some sort of social figure, but he had gone to school almost every day these past two weeks.
However, he replied with an “um”, knowing that he was referring to Xing Ye’s boxing.
Wei Huan said “Ha ha”, and Sheng Renxing couldn’t tell whether it was ironic as he sighed, “It’s very familiar.”
He tapped his finger on the steering wheel: “His environment is quite complicated. Although I opened a nightclub, I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“Don’t you run a bar?” Sheng Renxing couldn’t help choking.
“…It’s 60 per hour now. Be careful or I’ll push you down.” Wei Huan threatened and continued, “After you did that, some people thought that I had long hands, and some saw that as a business opportunity.”
He glanced at Sheng Renxing, knowing that he wouldn’t necessarily understand if he spoke too deeply, which he didn’t want to do: “In short, it’s troublesome. Do you understand?”
“Oh,” Sheng Renxing answered indifferently, and then thought for a while: “So are your hands actually long?”
Wei Huan glared at him: “We’re here.”
Oooh tense tense
Thanks for the chapter!!
SRX’s intersection with his uncle is interesting, I’m also glad that he reconciled with XY somewhat.
nunca puedo entender a xing ye ueueueueueu
gracias por el cap <3
Thanks for the chapter!
I don’t know how to feel about this tension💀
Ty for the chapter!💜💜💜
Thank you for the chapter
His own personal bodyguard hehehehhee
Thanks for the chapter 🥰
Thanks for the chapter ❤️❤️