Translator: Re
Editor: Mims
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(21)
I don’t know if it’s because of my sickness but the male god has been very good to me these last several days.
Buying food and water for me wasn’t really worth mentioning. For several consecutive days, I noticed after waking up that my bad habit of kicking the blanket off in the middle of the night had been cured.
When trying to show off to the male god, what I was told in exchange was “That’s what I been doing for you.”
My whole body became rooted in place. I pointed at the male god and asked while stuttering, “BOSS… you, you, are you falling in l-l-love with me!”
In response, the male god chose to calmly ignore me and turned to answer the phone.
It could be said that in the past few days ,the number of times the male god answered the phone had risen like a straight line. Once, I had decided to tease him on a whim.
“New girlfriend ah? Need to report to her every day?”
While wearing the bear hair clip and with the light from the computer screen reflected in his eyes, the male god replied after some time, “It’s the business partner I mentioned last time.”
While laughing like a hooligan, I moved closer to the male god’s side.
“Then why do you need to avoid me every time to sneakily make the phone call?”
BOSS finally turned from his laptop to look at me wordlessly.
More so coldly than defensively, the male god didn’t look away and instead suddenly changed the topic stiffly.
“Right, your birthday is coming soon. What gift do you want.”
Using “flattered” to describe my feelings at that moment wasn’t nearly enough.
This specific situation was probably like a mouse that fell into the rice container!
After a while, I stretched my legs out and rested my bare feet on top of the male god’s trouser covered thighs then scratched my head.
“No need for gifts ah…”
Just “remembering” is already very good.
The male god’s tone was still hard, I guess he wasn’t accustomed to asking people this kind of question. I remember on BOSS’s birthday last year, I sent him a Russian doll. His expression at that time was not much different from his current expression.
Then, a lightbulb went off in my head.
“Didn’t I send you an apple on Christmas Eve? You can just get me an orange.”
Thinking of the male god’s character, I deliberately added one more sentence.
“You don’t have to buy a big box, the two of us won’t be able to finish that much.”
If I remembered correctly, sending one *liu ding represents the willingness to try, two represents that you are a pair, and three shows that your love career has risen to the next level.
[TN: liu ding is an alias for orange]
In my heart, I put my hands together in prayer.
Two liu ding, two liu ding, two liu ding, two liu ding, two liu ding…
(22)
On January 2nd, the sky was clear and the air was fresh, it was as if the fiery sun had dispelled all the cold.
I sent the male god out to buy the orange then happily rolled around in the wooden chair. I wondered for a moment if I should persevere in asking an implicit question.
BOSS, you really don’t like me, hahahahaha.
I believe that even if I asked him a thousand times, he would also be laughing like I am. Teasing the male god is a lifelong career that I can’t miss a single opportunity of!
As usual, I was laying on the cold window frame waiting for the male god to return home. The warm sunlight hits my face and my cheeks felt as if they were absorbing all the fresh air and warmth.
“Ring ring ring, ring ring ring”
Who would be calling at this time ah? I flew to the wooden table and pressed the answer button. Holding the phone, I leaned back against the window frame.
“Hello, who are you looking for?”
The opposite end was silent for a long time, this wouldn’t be a prank call ba?
Just when I was thinking of hanging up, a warm voice said, “Xiao Yan, happy birthday.”
“…”
It’s him.
“Xiao Yan, I know you don’t want to see me, but listen to Dad. Fang Jingqiu, I will call… help on his side. You should live well, don’t wrong yourself, alright?”
My mind hadn’t yet recovered, I didn’t quite understand the words that followed. I stared foolishly at the phone when I suddenly had a very horrible thought.
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.
Kbb tbgglyif… P vlv cba vjgf atlcx jybea la.
Kbb tbgglyif.
“Gjv,” P mjiwis mjiifv bea.
Bjcu Ojcdlcu kjr j yla raeccfv. Qtfc tf rqbxf jujlc, tlr agfwyilcu nblmf tjv jc bynlber pbsber abcf, “Jtliv… Wljb Tjc….”
P alutafcfv ws tbiv bc atf qtbcf. Obbxlcu vbkc, P kjamtfv ecyilcxlcuis jr atf wjif ubv ribkis kjixfv bnfg bc atf cjggbk qjat.
In the harsh winter, there were withered flowers and grass on both sides of the small pathway, twisting and turning all the way to the building.
There was a natural explanation for everything.
For somebody rich and powerful as you, isn’t it very easy to hire a private detective to watch your son’s every move so that you can react when he’s in trouble?
I smiled.
“Dad, I’m the same as you, I like men. Mom was so mad her eyes were red and she drove me out.”
I don’t know what to say.
There was some shock but not one bit of sadness. So much time had passed that I have learned to face everything with an insipid and rational smile.
But…
Dad… you abandoned everything for that man yet told me to love myself.
Was it because you already knew that I was a child that nobody loved?
(22 continued)
My mind was blank for a moment. In fact, in that moment, I wasn’t thinking of anything at all.
When the male god entered and began taking off his shoes, I sat on the floor and hugged my knees.
Looking up at him, I asked, “How many liu dings did you buy ah?”
He lifted the bag in his hand, his bright eyes containing a slight smile, and said, “Two.”
I laughed, he really bought two ah!
Depressed, I buried my head in my knee and muttered, “Fang Jingqiu…”
This was the first time I called BOSS by his name. The rest of my words were stuck in my throat.
He approached me and squatted down, then gently rubbed my head.
“What happened?”
“… How do you know when my birthday is?”
“…”
“Is it because when that person and you made an ‘unconditional’ trade, he told you to take good care of me and treat me well?”
The male god was silent.
When he spoke again, his voice was a little flustered.
“He did say that, but even if he didn’t tell me to, I would still be like this to you.”
Is that so.
Would you notice that I will randomly kick off the blanket and get up for me in the middle of the night to tuck me back in?
Would you know when my birthday was even though I have never mentioned or celebrated it these past four years?
He held my head, forcing me to look up, and told me seriously.
“Kang Yan, after I succeed I will keep you by my side and treat you like a close brother.”
The temperature of his palm passed from my forehead to the depths of my body, so warm.
Oh……
I lifted the corners of my mouth and forced his hand down from my head.
“But I’m not special. BOSS, I don’t have any intentions of… staying.”
When I finished, I quickly stood up.
After piling the little bear and flower hair clips, apple, orange, house key, and floral blanket before him, I wiped my sweat and said to him, “This is all.”
The male god looked at me and the pile of familiar objects below at a loss of what to do.
To say sad, there wasn’t too much sadness in fact.
But if I say disappointment then…maybe a few points.
At least it wasn’t to the point of crying or it would really turn into an eight o’clock dog blood drama which I didn’t want to think about.
I wanted to say a few words to amuse myself but now wasn’t a good time. My eyes spun a few times and my head felt empty.
Maybe tomorrow, everything will be alright.
“My home, you can stay for as long as you like and leave whenever you like. Tell my dad that if he doesn’t ask that man to help you, I will never forgive him. So it should be okay.”
I maintained my expression as I put on my coat, taking only my wallet as I left.
I really felt that this farce was rather amusing.
If it wasn’t then just what kind of expression should I make?
Like all idol dramas, as I was stepping out the door, he tightly held onto my arm from behind.
I tightened my lips. “…I gave you everything.”
Everything.
My head still hadn’t returned as I blurted out, “Let me go.”
So let me go ba?
(23)
“Ah Yan, Ah Yan! I have the money, what now!!”
I ‘oh’d two times, one of which was aimed at the price displayed on the screen, and then said to the child whose hair was dyed like a parrot’s, “Thirty-six and a half.”
The child dug out thirty-seven and threw it on the checkout counter, the corners of his mouth rising towards the sky in a pretentious smile.
As I was getting the change for him, I said earnestly, “Kid, it’s so late, quickly go home ba.”
He stared at me like I was retarded and left with his things while cursing.
The store manager came to the cash register. He didn’t blame me, only teasing, “Social worker Kang, teaching children again ah? Often telling people to go home, are you trying not to do any business ah?”
I shook my head and said solemnly to him, “Manager, it’s late, you should go home too. I can hold down the whole convenience store on my own.”
The manager laughed and said in appreciation, “Look at you not immediately hurrying home after work. Do you want to change to full time?”
I wanted to refuse yet didn’t want to at the same time.
“Don’t keep me, I want to convert to Buddhism.”
After work, I waited at the bus station. Shivering from the cold, I tightened my furry scarf and kicked the stones on the side of the road.
From my pocket, I took out my cell phone for a moment, then shut it down.
Five days have passed since I left home. On the first day, BOSS made an average of one call every hour, it could be called a *ghost chasing call.
[TN: 奪命追魂- reference to the movie Chasing Ghosts (2005) ]
As a result, I directly turned off the power on my mobile phone and ran to the neighborhood’s old apartment to rent a small unit.
The restroom was shared by each floor and its sanitary conditions are rather poor but for someone living alone, it was unexpectedly secure.
In this era where the price of property was more volatile than the price of seafood, I calculated my deposits in the bank versus my expenditures and I’m afraid that it won’t last long.
On that night, while I was thinking of some unrelated literature, a light bulb flashed in my head as I suddenly thought of *four words.
Hai jun ming zhu. [TN: 還君明珠- literally “return the pearl”) ]
In the darkness, the bus approached from the distance, raising the dust on the ground.
My frozen mouth sang, “You are the wind, I am the sand, winding around the world…”
Under the strange eyes of the driver, I calmly found a seat by the window and disorderly sang the theme song of Huanzhuge.
[TN: the lyric he sings is from the episode “New Pearl Princess” (新还珠格格) of the TV series Huanzhugege 2 (还珠格格 2) ]
(24)
It had already been two weeks since I left home when I bumped into a classmate from college in the convenience store.
Laoda’s whole body was wearing a military uniform, his figure that was taller than mine looked very imposing. I looked around him, then found an opportunity to suddenly pounce.
[TN: Laoda is actually a way of saying “boss” (not his name) but since we already have BOSS, I decided to keep this one in pinyin]
Standing by the Durex shelf while picking and choosing, he was obviously shocked. I winked at him.
“Are you using it or is the other person using it?”
He rolled his eyes unhappily, wisely bypassing this topic.
“You haven’t contacted me in three months. You didn’t come to the university party last week either. Where did you, this kid, die off to?”
I fawningly patted his shoulders.
“I… it’s a long story. Laoda, don’t be mad!”
Laoda’s domineering and hot personality hasn’t changed. He frowned when he heard that then pulled the smiling me to go out. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to tell the store manager.
“Today Kang Yan is contracted by me!”
“…”
When I returned to the present, I was sitting at a food stall not far away. A girl wearing a skirt so short that it was the same as not wearing anything smiled sweetly and put down half a dozen beers.
Laoda skillfully opened the bottle with his teeth and roughly patted my head.
“If you have a long story to tell, then talk slowly. I’m covering you.”
He was one of the few people who knew that I liked men. I remember… it was similar to what happened that time.
That year, I had just came out of the closet to my mother. Mother said coldly, “I just knew it. Your eyes are the same as that father of yours.”
When Laoda found me in the park downstairs, I was crying. He said, “What are you afraid of, you have me to cover you.”
After I finished crying that night, I sang beside him, “Friends walk together for a lifetime” and staggered back to his dormitory. He took me in for a long time.
Even though he had changed, he still said the same thing to me.
I poured some beer and said the same thing to him just like that time, “Laoda, if the one I liked was you, it would have been fine.”
He was the same as then. When he laughed he revealed his teeth.
“What a stupid thing to say.”
(25)
Like dumping garbage, words poured out of my mouth. I drank a lot of beer as I incoherently talked and laughed stupidly from time to time.
After listening, Laoda went straight to the point and asked, “In simpler terms, what are your plans now?”
I lifted two fingers and said vaguely, “Two choices.”
“One, I am going to shave right now… ah no, go to the temple. Two, I will re-open my mobile phone… on the day he makes his comeback, I will run away to become a monk.”
Laoda had a shocked expression.
“What you mean is that the next time I see you, you’ll definitely be bald?”
He probably thought that I was saying things confusedly and rubbed my messy hair regrettably.
“What a pity, it’s feels so nice.”
After touching it for a while, he used a tone that was like coaxing a child to say, “Kang Yan, I’m still not clear about your attitude. Since you made a decision, why are you still hesitating?”
I blinked, then whispered to myself, “I want to go, but I’m not reassured. I want to stay, but I’m also not willing.”
I clearly said “Let me go”, those three words.
I clearly should have already let everything go.
Laoda, who practiced Kung Fu, took my phone out of my pocket with the momentum of a tiger and pressed the power button.
“… Your BOSS sends you a message every hour on average, he really has good perseverance.”
Unable to comprehend what happened, I stared at the familiar phone in his hands. Laoda quickly swiped the screen then put his ear close to the screen.
“Hey, Xiao Kang Yan is at the XX road XXX food stall, come take him home.”
Wò…….zāo…….
[TN: English equivalent would be “wtf”]
After Laoda hung up, he told me, “Hurry and get drunk! Mother-in-law will give you a hand. Remember to thank me later!”
After he said that, he paid the bill but before leaving, he looked in the distance.
“Yo, that’s your BOSS? Quite handsome ah.”
The uncles were rowdily playing guessing games and the beer girl’s delicate laughter gradually faded as she walked away.
All that was left was me sitting at the food stall watching with wide eyes as the male god walked towards me from the darkness.
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Little Corner
Re: I nominate Laoda for Best Wingman and Mother-in-Law 0w0
MadMadamMims: thanks for the welcome ^^ 😮 ky’s dad likes men huhuhu also boss bought two oranges TT
Can someone introduce me to Laoda? The man is practically someone every girl wants as a bff / wingman / platonic soulmate
And wtf, i thought that thing abt being a monk in the synopsis was just a joke O-O And gosh, i feel for our boy Xiao Yan…
Thanks for the chapter! 🙂
I cried a little with this chapter… Kang Yan learning his BOSS is being nice to him Just because his dad and his partner are helping with his business is harsh. Even If that’s not the case, It’s Hard to understand why would he keep it secret.
There was his friend, fortunately. He’s a True Friend. And If Fang Jingqiu was so desperate to find him, and he bought two oranges, that mean he cares for him, even If It’s just as a close brother…. For the moment.
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter! ^ ^
Ah Laoda, such a good wingman. I’ll take 10 of him please~
Thanks for the chapter!
5 to me please ! Here😁
Thank you. I needed the lift today
Thanks for the chapter 😀 Laoda is such a nice person owo
Thanks for the chapter! 💕
And here I am for something fluffy. Not expected to punched hard by angst.
Good gracious, I didn’t think this would be a roller coaster ride (´;︵;`)
Thanks for the translation ❤️
I had to look at the comments to figure out why the MC was so disappointed…
Well, finding out that you’re being treated well just because of your relatives doesn’t feel good, though I imagine the stereotypical young masters love it.
Well the Boss already made him teeny winsy angry before when he questioned his willingness to help as wanting some compensation in the future. Then he had to learn all the sudden care and extra attentiveness had been due to his dad condition for business. He already had to endure enough his whole life but I guess this time when his hope goes high only for reality to struck down, he truly got disappointed with mundane life….. and trying to go for monk life 😅
Mother in law is amazing!
Thank you for the chapter
laoda…i love you.
Bother! What brother! Better keep up your promise with the two oranges. 😤 The dad is such a big shot, sneakily trying to bribe his future son in law. 😳
Aaaaaaa I need a laoda in my life
Why is there no warning that we need some tissue for this chapter? sobs I’m crying while in a milk tea shop (இ﹏இ
｡)<br>Thank you TL and editor for this chapter (இ﹏இ｡)Yo también llore y quería reir