Translated by Eve
“I Think You’re Warmer Than I Am.”
Sheng Renxing pretended not to see that message and locked his phone.
Actually, he really didn’t like it when other people used his stuff.
But when he had realized Xing Ye had used his towel, rather than feeling unwell, he had felt uneasy.
It was like when you tried out a new piece of clothing you didn’t usually wear. It made you feel a bit uncomfortable, but it also felt novel.
Xing Ye was currently sitting on the bed, leaning against the headboard. He was fiddling with his Nokia. It seemed like he was sending a text message.
His eyebrows were furrowed. It looked like the conversation was not going well.
The Nokia looked small and toy-like in his hands.
Sheng Renxing blew his hair dry, watching Xing Ye through the mirror.
Neither of them spoke. The sound of the blowdryer cut through the silence.
After he finished drying his hair, his hair was left in a mess. He shook his head a few times before combing his fingers through it. He then peered at himself in the mirror.
Sheng Renxing nodded, pleased with his appearance. He was as handsome as ever.
As he turned his head, he caught Xing Ye looking at him.
“……”
“……”
Sheng Renxing grabbed his phone resentfully and started tapping randomly on the screen. He pretended to be busy.
He then heard some rustling noise. He looked up and saw that Xing Ye had put his phone down and was currently in the process of getting under the covers.
“Are you going to bed now?”
“Mn.”
“Oh.” Sheng Renxing also locked his phone. He thought that he should go to bed now as well.
With a click, the bedside lamp was turned off.
Sheng Renxing stared at the ceiling. He felt so awake, he thought he would probably be able to run several laps outside.
He hadn’t shared a bed since he had been in elementary school. He wasn’t used to this at all.
Although the bed was large, he felt like he’d bump into the other if he were to move so much as an inch. The other’s presence was strong. The heat emanating from his body could be felt through both their blankets.
He could smell the scent of antiseptic coming from Xing Ye’s body. It didn’t smell very good.
But he had been the one who had put it on the other boy.
Xing Ye had probably tried his best to avoid getting it wet while showering. Otherwise, the scent wouldn’t be this strong.
Or at least, that was what Sheng Renxing thought.
As he mulled over this, he suddenly realized what a rotten idea this was. The other was covered in wounds. What should he do if he ended up hitting the other while asleep?
Enough. Sheng Renxing flipped over, still wide awake. He guessed that he wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink tonight.
Contrary to his expectations, a wave of drowsiness did eventually hit him. He didn’t know if it was because the antiseptic had a hypnotic scent, or if he was just exhausted.
While his imagination ran wild, his thoughts gradually faded away, morphing into an incoming, enchanting dream.
Slowly, sleep overtook him.
The dark dreamscape rushed towards him. In his dream, he found himself back in the corrugated iron building.
Xing Ye was standing in the ring.
But both the spectators and his opponent had disappeared.
It was just the two of them in the room. Sheng Renxing found himself also standing in the ring, staring the other right in the eye.
“Why are you here?” Xing Ye’s head was slightly lowered, hiis overgrown bangs obscuring his eyes.
Under the shadows, the pale whites of his eyes contrasted sharply with his pitch-black pupils. Sheng Renxing could feel the other’s gaze on him.
Xing Ye continued: “You shouldn’t have come.”
“What?” Sheng Renxing was confused.
Suddenly, everything began to shake. Images flashed through his mind, like a montage. Holes began to burn through his dreamscape, as if it was a picture and someone was holding a flame against it. The holes were jet-black, like endless abysses.
Sheng Renxing whipped his head around. Xing Ye now stood behind him, his skin so white it looked like all the blood had drained from his body. Thick, black liquid dripped out of him, spreading towards the black holes behind him.
Xing Ye suddenly reached out and grabbed his neck. His lips came close to Sheng Renxing’s ear as he said, “Save me.”
Everything suddenly started to crumble around them. The growls and pants of some wild beast emitted from the black holes.
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.
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Ktf ijra atlcu tf rjk—Wlcu Tf’r vjgx fsfr atja rffwfv ab rkjiibk jii iluta—oliifv tlr wlcv.
Lf aglfv ab gjlrf tlr tjcv, kjcalcu ab abemt tlr cfmx, yea tf jmmlvfcajiis xcbmxfv lcab rbwfatlcu yfrlvf tlw. Pa kjr kjgw jcv fijralm….
Sheng Renxing jumped and pulled his hand back in fear. The tactile sensation that told him someone was next to him travelled through his fingers and to his brain. Countless horror films flashed through his mind. He was fully awake now.
He then noticed Xing Ye.
Xing Ye was lying on his side, facing him. He was fast asleep, but his eyebrows were furrowed tightly. He didn’t look like he was very comfortable. Half of his face had sunk into the space between their pillows. It looked like he was going to bury himself inside the crevice.
There was nothing behind him. His blanket was squeezed between his legs, with the majority of it pushed over to Sheng Renxing’s side. It seemed like he was feeling too hot.
Half of Sheng Renxing’s own blanket was on the ground. If he had rolled in the opposite direction of Xing Ye, he would have woken up on the ground.
“……”
Sheng Renxing thought, no wonder I was sweating.
This person was so quiet when he was awake. He never expected that the other boy would torment others in his sleep.
Sheng Renxing pulled his blanket completely back onto the bed, folding it a bit. He then looked at Xing Ye curiously.
A second later, he noticed that Xing Ye’s breathing was abnormal. He seemed to be panting quietly.
Sheng Renxing was taken aback. A bad premonition emerged in his chest. He lifted his hand up and touched the side of Xing Ye’s face.
It was hot.
Fuck. He has a fever.
Sheng Renxing sat up and leaned over, shaking Xing Ye. “Wake up, wake up! Xing Ye?”
Xing Ye woke up from his shaking. His eyes opened but his mind was still fuzzy. He seemed conscious, well, at least until he shoved his face back into the crack between their pillows a second later.
Sheng Renxing shook his shoulder again. “You have a fever. Do you want me to take you to the hospital?”
Xing Ye didn’t react. He looked at him with hazy eyes for a while before he frowned. He looked a bit intimidating.
When Sheng Renxing repeated his question, he replied with, “No.”
His voice was low and hoarse.
He then rubbed his face and sat up with much difficulty.
Sheng Renxing helped him up. “What are you doing?”
Xing Ye had no strength in his body. He leaned against the headboard, covering his face with one hand. He seemed muddleheaded. His lips were tightly pursed and he didn’t respond.
Sheng Renxing examined him. He had also been startled awake in the middle of the night so he was feeling quite grumpy. There was a lack of patience in his tone: “If you don’t tell me, I’m going to call EMS.”
Xing Ye was still silent. Just as Sheng Renxing thought that the fever had caused the other to lose his ability to think, Xing Ye spoke up.
“I have fever reduction medicine in my backpack.” Xing Ye’s fingers were pressing down on his throbbing temples. He sounded like he was talking to himself in his low, pained voice. “I’ll be fine after taking it.”
He then started to get out of the bed.
Sheng Renxing pushed down on his shoulder. “I’ll get it.”
He then went over to the other’s bag, opened the first aid kit and found the fever reducer.
“Painkillers too.”
Sheng Renxing paused. Could these be taken together?
He rummaged through the bag but couldn’t find it. Therefore, he brought the whole backpack over to the bed. “I don’t know which one it is. Find it yourself.”
He then went to get the other boy a glass of water.
There were kettles in the room. Since he never drank hot water, he had never used it. He fiddled with the appliance for a while before figuring out how to open the lid. Upon doing so, he noticed that there was dust inside.
“What kind of shitty kettle is this?” He pushed his bangs back and threw the kettle to one side.
He then picked up the nearby unopened bottle of mineral spring water and twisted the cap off.
Xing Ye accepted it. He put the medicine in his mouth and then swallowed it down with the water.
“Thanks.”
Sheng Renxing sat back down on the bed and stared at him.
Xing Ye nodded. “I’m fine now.”
Sheng Renxing didn’t know if it was because of the fever, but the pacing of the other’s speech was really slow. There was a slight pause between each word, and it sounded like he had to carefully consider each word before speaking it out loud. It was as if they were discussing some grave matter.
It also seemed like he was just spacing out.
Sheng Renxing raised his hand, wanting to touch the other’s forehead.
But Xing Ye avoided his touch.
He took another sip of water. “It’s not going to take effect that quickly. It’ll be gone by tomorrow morning.”
“I see.” Sheng Renxing retracted his hand.
He tried to recall when the last time he had a fever had been and realized that it was either last year or the year before that. He had already forgotten what it was like to have a fever.
“Does it hurt?” Sheng Renxing looked at the other’s furrowed brows. “Are you really not going to go to the hospital?”
After he said this, he realized he sounded like a fretful auntie and also frowned.
“I’m fine.” Xing Ye’s temper was a lot better while he had a fever. He answered any question Sheng Renxing asked him. “I think my wounds are just inflamed. I’ll be better after taking some painkillers and fever reducers.”
“You think?” Sheng Renxing raised his voice slightly.
Xing Ye: “Regardless of what it is, it’ll go down after I take the fever reducers.”
“….” Sheng Renxing was speechless. Was it actually okay to randomly take two different kinds of medication together like this?
He felt like Xing Ye really didn’t think much of his illness and that he was meddling too much. As such, he pouted and said, “Whatever makes you happy.”
He then shoved the medication back into the bag.
Afterwards, he propped his pillow up and leaned against the headboard.
Xing Ye looked at him, eyes half-mast. He whispered, “Are you not going back to sleep?”
“I’ll sleep after playing on my phone a bit.” Sheng Renxing turned off the light and unlocked his phone.
He opened up Baidu and searched for information regarding fevers.
The first article he found said that, if the patient was sweating, that meant that their fever was going down.
He thus decided to wait until Xing Ye started to sweat before he went to bed.
Xing Ye had been still for a while now. It seemed like he had fallen back asleep.
His breath was still a bit rough but they were longer now. It seemed like he was still in pain.
Sheng Renxing opened up WeChat. Big Head Qiu had posted to his Moments a few minutes ago:
【Taking advantage of Xingxing gege’s absence to ride his little wifey.
[Photo][Photo]】
One of the photos was of Big Head Qiu and their other friends. It was a selfie at the top of a mountain. There were quite a number of girls around them and many motorcycles behind them. One of them belonged to Sheng Renxing.
The other photo was also taken at the top of a mountain. This time, it was at night. The lights in the picture were dazzling.
The comments were filled with people shooting off their mouths.
Someone said: [Be careful, Sheng ge’s going to come back and beat you up.]
Someone else replied to that comment: [Sheng ge isn’t in the city? Where did he go?]
He continued to scroll down. A lot of people in the group had posted to their Moments.
If he wasn’t in Xuancheng right now, he probably would have gone to the mountains with them.
Sheng Renxing looked at his screen coolly. Agitation bubbled in his chest.
He tapped on the screen and typed his reply.
Smoke Tyrant: [Sheng ge isn’t in the city? Where did he go?]
X replied to Smoke Tyrant: [Is it any of your business?]
After replying, he exited the app. His fingers twitched, the urge to smoke rising inside him. But he endured it.
He opened up Angry Birds and turned the sound off.
He then started to kill time.
Sheng Renxing didn’t play seriously. But after firing off a few small birds, his mood did improve.
A while into his gaming, he heard a voice sound next to him. “What are you playing?”
Sheng Renxing was startled, his phone nearly flying out of his hand. He subdued his pounding heart and forced his expression to remain calm. “Angry Birds.”
He then asked, “Weren’t you sleeping?”
“No. Couldn’t sleep.” Xing Ye flipped over. He had actually fallen into a shallow sleep but had woken up from the pain.
In his haze, he had thought that the efficacy of the medicine had decreased. Seems like his body had built up resistance to the medication.
Sheng Renxing thought that the other couldn’t sleep because of the pain. When he thought of his unreasonably bad attitude just now, he couldn’t help but soften his voice in guilt. “Do you want to play?”
“Hm?”
“It’ll distract you.” Sheng Renxing reached out to turn on the bed lamp.
The warm yellow light spilled into the room.
He handed his phone over to Xing Ye.
Xing Ye raised his hand to block the sudden light. He then leaned against the headboard like Sheng Renxing.
He accepted the phone. Sheng Renxing had played for quite a while so the back of the phone was a bit hot. “How do I play?”
“Like this.” Sheng Renxing leaned towards him and demonstrated how to play, his finger tapping on the screen beside Xing Ye’s.
He swiped at the screen: “You use the little red bird to hit the pigs.”
“Like this.” Sheng Renxing tapped down on the little bird and dragged it backwards. After he released, the bird was launched into the air.
“It’s more fun with sound.” After playing like this for a while, he thought that it was kind of boring without sound so he pressed on the side of the phone to turn the sound back on.
Xing Ye didn’t move. Their fingers touched accidentally. Sheng Renxing thought that the other’s hand was really warm.
“Like this?” Xing Ye swiped at the screen with his left thumb. He took aim and shot.
It hit, but the obstacle didn’t topple over.
“Hit the blue ones.” Sheng Renxing pointed to the little pigs’ fort. “It’ll cause it to fall over completely.”
Xing Ye made an ‘oh’ sound before firing in that direction. The little bird caused one of the forts to topple over.
But there was still one left.
“It didn’t fall,” Xing Ye said as both of them stared at the fort.
As he said this, he prepared to fire another little bird.
Sheng Renxing grabbed his hand. “Wait.”
A moment later, a piece of the fort that had fallen earlier slowly bumped into the other fort, causing the latter to fall.
“As if my strategy would fail.” Sheng Renxing chuckled with pride.
He turned to look at Xing Ye and was met with the sight of Xing Ye smiling at the screen.
Noticing Sheng Renxing’s gaze, Xing Ye also turned to meet his eyes. His eyes were dark like the pair in his dream, but the current Xing Ye’s eyes were resplendent, reflecting the light from the phone while carrying traces of a smile.
Sheng Renxing’s mind blanked out. Inappropriately, the word ‘alluring’ popped into his mind.
He then realized that they were too close and that he was still holding onto the other’s hand.
Sheng Renxing couldn’t help but look away, averting his gaze. “Are you feeling better?”
Just then, a notification came in.
Smoke Tyrant had replied to his comment on WeChat: [Sorry, Sheng ge. I haven’t seen you at any of our get-togethers so I thought you went on a trip or were busy with your girlfriend. I didn’t mean anything by that….]
Sheng Renxing hadn’t even finished reading the message as he hastily let go of Xing Ye’s hand. He then swiped the notification away before pulling back.
“Don’t you need to reply?” Xing Ye asked.
“Huh?” Sheng Renxing’s mind was a mess so he didn’t realize what the other was asking at first. Two seconds later, he said, “I don’t want to pay any attention to that dumbass.”
As he said this, he hopped off the bed, flustered. “I’m going to get a bottle of water.
Xing Ye covered his forehead with a hand. He then moved to rub at his temples, still in pain. However, he did think that he was feeling better now, although it was probably just in his head.
When Sheng Renxing came back, he saw that the other had lifted up his bangs.
“?” Sheng Renxing looked at him while watching the other.
Xing Ye: “Wanna try?”
Was he asking him to test his temperature?
Sheng Renxing placed the bottle of water down. He then placed one hand on his own forehead while putting the other one on Xing Ye’s.
He had touched his overheating phone and then the cold bottle of water. Because of this, he couldn’t feel anything.
Xing Ye clicked his tongue and then threw off Sheng Renxing’s hand. Afterwards, he moved in closer.
Sheng Renxing froze. Xing Ye then pressed his forehead against his and compared their body temperatures.
It lasted a few seconds.
Xing Ye: “I think you’re warmer than I am.”
The author has something to say:
Sheng Renxing: I’m even warmer down there.
Eve: SO. GODDAMN. CUTE. Xing Ye is a natural tease (and it’s only going to get worse (better?)). He’s just so…cute and pure…. I love them both so much. Also, the author’s note is always so dirty HAHAHAHA.
That was so cute 🥰
Thanks for the chapter!!!
adjksjhsjs that was so cute, I can’t.
Thank you for the chapter ❤
adkhjhjjs that was so cute, I can’t.
Thank you for the chapter <3
Thanks for your hard work!
Ahhhhh this two is too cute! My heart was struck!!!
This two cutie is on my “MUST PROTECT LIST!”
Thanks for the chapter<3
Sweetness overload!!! Ahhhh so cute.
Thanks for the chapter!
Too adorable 🥰
Thanks for the chapter!!
…I’m dying from excessive amounts of dog food…no regrets~
Thanks for the chapter~
ohhhh!! such adorable cuteness is just what I needed since I have been let out of isolation today!
thanks so much for the chapter <3
the fluff is so perfect!! thank you so much for the chapter <3
Angry birds… Temple run… Wow… Memories…
He’s going to think he has a girlfriend now, isn’t he? 😅
PLS I CAN’T TAKE IT IT’S SO CUTE ALREADY!!!!
Sheng Renxing: gay panic
Ty for the chapter!!!!!💜💜💜
Hay que lindo me muero de ternura😍😍😍 .gracias por el capitulo
Thank you for the chapter… Renxing, I am rooting for you.