Translated by Eve
“Do You Need Help?”
This place was dilapidated and crude. The ring was just a rectangle drawn on the ground with pylons placed at each of the four corners.
There were people on both sides of the ring and some open space left in the middle.
Some people followed Xing Ye’s gaze and noticed Sheng Renxing, who was standing at the door. Someone quietly whispered to their friend, “Who’s that?”
Their friend shook their head.
“You guys have lost.” A man in a jean jacket standing in the flock of people closest to Sheng Renxing shouted to the group standing on the opposing side.
The sturdy looking man who had fallen to the ground was helped up. Upon hearing what the man in the jean jacket said, one member of the other group sneered: “I’ll have the money sent to Chrysanthemum Terrace tomorrow.”
The man in the jean jacket smiled and stuck up a finger. “You guys are also banned from these premises for a year.”
The member of the other group who had spoken up sucked in a breath of air. His face flushed red. It looked like he was about to cuss the other out. Ultimately, he managed to hold his curses back. He suppressed his emotions with his dignity as a man. “Let’s go.”
Although they had lost, they couldn’t show any weakness. Several people supported the sturdy combatant out, their heads raised and chests thrust outwards.
Between Sheng Renxing and Xing Ye, the former was the first to break eye contact. Sheng Renxing’s gaze shifted to the side and he just so happened to witness the sturdy man smacking his head against the door frame due to how high his head had been raise.
“……”
Sheng Renxing didn’t know what kind of expression he had on right now. He lowered his head, putting his earbuds away. While he was at it, he shifted his hair to cover his flushed ears.
“Good fight. Congratulations.” The man in the jean jacket watched the group leave before turning around to face Xing Ye. He clapped his hands and the people behind him gradually quieted down.
Xing Ye nodded.
Jean Jacket was used to how silent the other became after a round in the ring. There was no joy in the boy’s eyes from having won.
He then reminded the boy of a few things, said a few pleasantries and then left with his posse.
When Jean Jacket passed Sheng Renxing, he smiled at the younger boy.
Sheng Renxing didn’t smile back. He shoved his hands into his pockets and watched the man and his group walk away.
He then turned around and made his way over to the ring.
Neither of them said anything. Sheng Renxing didn’t know what to say. After all, this was only their second meeting and it was under circumstances.
The scene just now wreaked havoc on his mind, as if it were a destructive gale of wind.
As he got closer, he gained a better view of Xing Ye. The other’s body carried a sheen of sweat, his hair matted. Beads of sweat slid down from his head, mixing with the watery blood on his face.
His pheromones assaulted Sheng Renxing’s senses.
Sheng Renxing took a discreet step back. Several opening remarks flashed through his mind. In the end, he chose to start with: “Are you okay?”
After he said this, he saw Xing Ye roughly wipe away the watery blood that had dripped into his eyes. Sheng Renxing frowned slightly. “You’ll aggravate your wounds like that.”
Hence why he was still bleeding.
Xing Ye let go of the hem of his shirt. The bottom of his shirt now stuck to his abdomen, crumpled. He looked at Sheng Renxing: “Why are you here?”
The way he spoke made it seem like they were having a normal conversation between friends.
He also sounded a bit breathless and tired. There was a dazed, quiet warmth to his tone.
“To return your umbrella.” Sheng Renxing did his best to compose himself. He also skipped over the pleasantries.
He was also internally cussing the deer in his heart. It better fucking stop jumping around so much, he thought.
“We agreed to meet at the noodle stand.” Xing Ye began to take off his boxing gloves. After taking one of them off, he shoved it under his underarms.
Sheng Renxing crossed his arms, putting on a self-righteous expression. “I waited for you at the noodle stand for half an hour.”
The only reason why he came here was because he didn’t want to wait anymore.
“We agreed to meet at 9:30.” Xing Ye paused and then glanced at Sheng Renxing. “It’s only 9:45 right now.”
Sheng Renxing was surprised. He looked down at his phone and saw that it was currently 9:46. He blurted out, “How did you know that?”
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.
Xing Ye’s gaze was on something behind him.
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“……”
“Tbe kfgf ralii ijaf.” Lf gfqilfv yjmx, j riluta uijgf lc tlr fsfr. Cii tlr ilof, la kjr batfg qfbqif ktb tjv ab kjla obg tlw. Rb bcf tjv fnfg wjvf tlw kjla yfobgf.
“Sorry.” Who would have expected that Xing Ye would apologize so easily? Sheng Renxing didn’t know how to respond.
“….” He turned his backpack around so that it leaned against his chest. He pulled the umbrella out and said, “Here.”
Xing Ye looked down and then quietly accepted it.
Sheng Renxing didn’t leave after returning the umbrella. He watched as Xing Ye undid the other glove. His fingers on both hands were stained with half-dried blood. He didn’t know whose blood it was. His knuckles were also bruised.
Sheng Renxing stared for a while before asking, “Do you need help?”
Xing Ye looked up. A second later, it was like all the tenseness had drained out of his body. Slowly, he sank to the ground.
“You should go to the hospital.” Sheng Renxing grabbed a few cotton balls nearby and carefully cleaned the blood from Xing Ye’s wounds.
Xing Ye sat in place while Sheng Renxing knelt on one knee beside him, helping him treat his injuries.
However, it was Great Young Master Sheng’s first time treating someone’s wounds. In the beginning, he kept accidentally poking the other’s injuries.
More importantly, although Xing Ye never said anything whenever this happened, Sheng Renxing would still suck in air through his teeth, as if it were his own wounds being poked. Xing Ye nearly thought that the wound on his eyebrow bone was so bad that, not only should he go to the hospital, he should be admitted into the ICU.
Originally, he had planned on telling the other that he could handle this himself. But when he looked up and saw how earnest Sheng Renxing looked, he decided against saying anything.
Sheng Renxing was a bit nervous. When he was nervous, he had a habit of rambling, even uttering things he had originally planned on keeping quiet on.
“The rules you mentioned before—it had to do with boxing?”
Xing Ye nodded. As soon as he did so, Sheng Renxing once again bumped into the other’s injury. Sheng Renxing acted like he had been burned: “Don’t move!”
“…Mn.”
“Are you a boxer?” Sheng Renxing was curious. He had not seen what the fight had been like, but he had noticed the boxing gloves on Xing Ye’s hands.
Xing Ye was quiet for a moment. “No.”
Sheng Renxing gave him a curious look.
The two of them were very close together. Xing Ye was sitting on the floor while Sheng Renxing knelt next to him. They were only an arm’s length away from each other. He was so close to the other that the view of Xing Ye was actually a bit fuzzy.
Xing Ye looked down. Sheng Renxing couldn’t make out his expression.
“Did you win?”
“Mn.”
“Impressive.” Sheng Renxing was astonished. “That guy was huge. He was like double your size.”
The scene he had witnessed was like a scene from a movie. It had felt like it had played out in slow-motion. Xing Ye’s appearance was now engraved into his memory.
It had felt strange, unreal. It had also gotten his blood boiling to a ridiculous degree. Even now, as he recalled that memory, his heart still raced abnormally. His fingers still felt numb.
He promptly shook his hands out.
“He’s all muscle, no technique.” Xing Ye analyzed rationally. He then corrected the other: “He wasn’t double my size.”
Xing Ye didn’t feel like he was that thin.
“Yeah, he was.” Sheng Renxing said in a certain tone.
Xing Ye: “…You and I are basically the same size.”
“No, we’re not.” Sheng Renxing shot back quickly.
After a moment of silence, he added, “You’re skinnier than I am.”
For some reason, he couldn’t let this go.
Sheng Renxing pressed down with a cotton ball with one hand while sticking out his other arm.
Xing Ye also stuck out an arm. They compared their forearms.
Sheng Renxing carefully examined their arms. “You have bigger bones than me but I have more muscle.”
Xing Ye didn’t pull his arm back: “That’s not muscle.”
Sheng Renxing flexed, unconvinced. The contours of his muscles became evident.
Xing Ye didn’t say anything. He silently flexed as well.
“……”
Sheng Renxing pulled his arm back.
Some time later, he said: “But you’re paler than I am.” Sheng Renxing looked at Xing Ye. The other’s complexion was so fair it looked like his skin was glowing underneath the light.
A pretty boy.
Sheng Renxing let go of the cotton ball and checked the other’s wound to see if it had stopped bleeding. He grabbed a new ball and pressed it down against the wound.
Xing Ye watched him, speechless. He didn’t know what came over him when he blurted out: “…You’re shorter than me.”
Sheng Renxing whipped his head up. He didn’t look convinced: “I’m 175cm.”
“I’m 177.”
“No way!”
“I look shorter ‘cause I usually hunch my back.”
Sheng Renxing was skeptical. A moment later, he scoffed at the other’s competitiveness. “Childish.”
“?”
The two of them continued to chat as Sheng Renxing dealt with Xing Ye’s wounds. When Sheng Renxing noticed that the blood on the cotton balls had decreased significantly, he asked, “What next?”
Xing Ye handed him some antiseptic solution. “Dip the cotton swabs in this.”
“Okay.” Sheng Renxing gave it a try. He then handed a cotton ball to the other boy. “Use that to cover your eye.”
He was afraid that the antiseptic solution would get into the other’s eyes.
After he finished applying the solution, Sheng Renxing asked, “Do we have to put a bandage on this now?”
“No.” Xing Ye uncovered his eye. “This is fine.”
Sheng Renxing also pulled back and went to gather the garbage littered on the ground.
After everything was done, he got up and patted the dust off of his pants.
He looked at Xing Ye, who was still sitting on the floor. “Is there anything else I can help with?”
Judging from the way Xing Ye had stood in the ring motionlessly, and how difficult it had looked for him to sit down, it was clear to see that he had injuries other than the wound on his brow bone.
But Xing Ye shook his head.
“Okay. I’ll be going now.”
Sheng Renxing nodded at the other and bent down to pick up his backpack. He didn’t ask any other questions. He thought that the other probably wanted to deal with the rest of his injuries on his own.
Xing Ye: “It’s raining outside.”
“?” Sheng Renxing turned so that one of his ears faced the door. Indeed, that was the sound of rain pelting against the corrugated iron roof.
“You can take the umbrella.” Xing Ye handed the umbrella over. He had noticed that the other boy hadn’t brought one when the other had opened the bag.
“What about you?” Sheng Renxing took the umbrella.
Xing Ye shook his head.
Sheng Renxing thought about the first aid kit Xing Ye had asked him to get from a corner of the room.
Shocked, he asked, “You’re not planning to stay the night here, are you?”
Xing Ye nodded.
He didn’t know what was going on with his mom these days. She would randomly come back in the middle of the night. It would be troublesome if his mom were to see him like this.
“….” Sheng Renxing took a look at his surroundings. Sleeping here would be like sleeping on a park bench. The only difference was that the area was enclosed by four walls. It was a very bare room.
Xing Ye sat there, silently treating the abrasions on his hands.
He looked quite lonely.
Sheng Renxing felt his heart skip a beat. Impulsively, he asked, “How about staying at my place?”
“….” Xing Ye looked up, surprised. He subconsciously declined, “I’m okay.”
Half an hour later, Sheng Renxing brought Xing Ye to his hotel.
The new clothes he bought yesterday were piled high onto the sofa. Because he thought the closet was dirty, he had left all the clothes there.
There was nowhere for either of them to sit. “You can pick out some clothes. I’ve never worn any of them.”
He said this after noticing Xing Ye’s gaze on the sofa.
“I’m good.” Xing Ye shook his head. “I brought a change of clothes.”
“Do you want to shower first?” Sheng Renxing hadn’t noticed at first, but now that he was looking at the room carefully, he realized that his bed was unmade, his pyjamas were strewn on the bed and the pillows were at the foot of the bed. His towel was also thrown onto the ground.
He hadn’t thought much of it before, but upon seeing Xing Ye seriously inspect the room, his ears started to heat up.
His motives weren’t pure either. He had been blinded by the other’s appearance just now. After his overheated CPU cooled down, embarrassment came rushing into his system.
He didn’t even know what kind of small talk he should make. All he could do was pretend like he hadn’t come to this realization.
“Sure.” Xing Ye dropped his backpack onto the ground, squatted down, and pulled out a change of clothes.
His actions were very relaxed and natural. He didn’t seem cautious at all.
“You can put it on the desk.” Sheng Renxing shoved the pile of clothing on the sofa over and made some space.
“It’s dirty,” Xing Ye said. “By the way, where am I going to sleep?”
“Huh?” Sheng Renxing was taken aback. He had not considered this issue at all! He quickly looked around the room…. Aside from the single bed, there was nowhere else to sleep.
The sofa was too small. As for the floor, while there was enough space there, it wouldn’t be good to make his guest sleep on the floor, right?
Sheng Renxing licked his lips. His brain continued to work hard. He did his best to act ‘straight’, like he thought nothing of his suggestion: “Are you okay with sharing the bed with me? It’s pretty big.”
Xing Ye nodded. He had even slept on communal bedding before.
He had just thought that Sheng Renxing wasn’t the type of person who was willing to share beds.
Sheng Renxing pretended to be unaffected and nodded as well. While trying to prove his innocence, he ended up sounding even more suspicious. “I’m cool with it too. I used to sleep with my friends all the time.”
Xing Ye glanced at him and then walked into the bathroom with his clothes.
Sheng Renxing pondered over what the other’s look had meant. He couldn’t figure it out. While taking in the mess in his room, he decided to tidy up a bit.
He also tried to clean up the bed. He stared at the messy sheets and started to straighten out the sheets.
In the end, he decided to just call the front desk to ask for a new set of bedding.
He then sat down and played on his phone.
A short while later, Xing Ye came out, freshly cleaned. He was still damp.
He had a towel over his head. It didn’t belong to the hotel. It had a black and white checkered pattern.
As he dried his hair, he asked, “Are you going to take a shower?”
“….” Sheng Renxing stared at the towel for a few seconds, mind blanking. A fiery flush then spread across his ears and face.
That was the goddamn same towel he had used yesterday.
This remained on his mind until he came out of his own shower.
He then pulled out his phone as he pondered over the issue. He wanted to say something to Xing Ye but hesitated. In the end, he asked Big Head Qiu: [Someone used my towel. I don’t know how to tell him that.]
Big Head Qiu was silent for a while before messaging back: [I remember that I used your towel once. At that time, you had thrown the towel at my face and told me that it was dirty….]
Eve: BAHAHAHA. They’re so childish, comparing their arms and height. And XingXing is already so attracted to YeYe dkm. He’s so cute.
Thank you for the chapter!!! Their interactions are always so cute to watch :DDD
Big head Qiu: You know the saying, bros before hoes? Definitely not true…definitely not!
Thanks for the chapter~
Thanks for the chapter!! The two are so adorable T.T
Oh, I don’t know how I ended up replying to your comment, I’m sorry >.<
No worries~
I didn’t expect Xing Ye to be so childish. They are already so cute together.❤
Thank you for the chapter <3
Childishness is really a great attitude to find love!~ They were so cute!!!
Big Head Qiu: I feel wronged Am I not your best friend!?~
Sheng Renxing: No
Big Head Qiu: “…..” QAQ
Thanks for the chapter<3
definitely super cute together!
thanks for the chapter <3
Comparing who’s bigger LOL
Thanks for the chapter!!!!
Thanks for the chapter!!!
Sheng Renxing can’t even hide it anymore!! He’s so infatuated!
Their friendship is cute.
Thanks for the chapter!
Oh my god!! Their little bantering was so cute! And it’s SO REFRESHING to have a gay protagonist that KNOWS he’s gay!! THEY’RE ALREADY SO ADORKABLE!
Ty for the chapterr!!💜💜💜
Renxing is too cute.
YOO THIS STORY IS JUST GETTING BETTER AND BETTER ASLDDJLSAKDJAJDKLA
Cute!!