In the pitch-black space, Ren Ximing was surrounded by countless codes. He was sipping on hot milk while feeding the hamster a plump sunflower seed. He was like a bystander, watching everything unfold on the screen.
In the world of his design, Shen Muhan, the so-called God, was an incarnation of himself, just without any of his memories. He would not purposely influence Shen Muhan’s choices, but he felt everything the male lead felt.
Song Yao currently had no idea of his existence and precisely because of this, the virus named “Ren Ximing” could easily invade the innermost corner of his mind and spy on the rich activities of his brain.
He manipulated his incarnation, Shen Muhan, to encounter Song Yao at a suitable time and place; as expected, Song Yao noticed him. The series of brain activity displayed before him made him feel warm and fuzzy.
In real life, Song Yao, the self-proclaimed elder, never observed his appearance closely. He always either reprimanded him or ignored him.
But now he would involuntarily blurt out “Ren Ximing”, he would stare at him with undivided attention, he would describe him as sacred and beautiful, and would rack his brain to capture him. He even reached the point where he couldn’t resist taking pictures of him…
Every single point was enough for Ren Ximing to savor over and over again. He unconsciously licked his lips. Perhaps, Sao Yao didn’t hate him as much as he let on.
He also realized that he had not been perfect enough in some places.
For example, in reality, he shouldn’t have overdone it with acting “frail” in order to attract Song Yao’s attention. As a result, even now Song Yao thought he was a frail seedling that toppled with the lightest push.
And another thing stumped him, how was his current appearance unattractive? He tested it before using a beauty meter app and his face was rated as SSS-rank.
*
Song Yao didn’t know why, but he was a little apprehensive of Ren Ximing’s eyes.
Sometimes, when he finished reading the newspaper and turned his head, he would nearly knock into Ren Ximing’s face. That child was staring fixedly at him. His lashes were like spilt ink and were especially dense. His irises were like watercolor paint, light and clear. His expression would alternate from empty, cold, hot, and passionate. His eyes reflected the sunset outside the window, and they also contain his relfection, trying to lock him within them.
He couldn’t help but think that he was being “devoured”. It was as if the frail Ren Ximing was actually a venomous snake from the desert. He hid in the dark, watched him with his golden eyes, gauging his strength, scheming after his flesh and bones, and at any time, he might strangle him and swallow him into his stomach alive.
This imagination came quite out of nowhere, after all, Ren Ximing was exceptionally pitiful and weak. Compared to a snake, he was more like a pitiable hamster, a hedgehog baring teeth and claws, or a moody longhaired cat.
And right now, Song Yao, being looked at by that pair of eyes, had goosebumps.
The person in the camera frame took off one of his earphones and raised his brow, “I, Song Yao, promise to not stalk, photograph, or harass Shen Muhan.”
He was repeating the apology Song Yao posted on the school’s online bulletin board yesterday.
Song Yao immediately reacted.
He couldn’t possibly tell Shen Muhan he took his photo because he looked like Ren Ximing. Telling the capture target they look like someone else was a deadly taboo.
Since his setting was a fanatic, he’d play it to the end.
He copied the original body, tugging at his hair in shame and embarrassment, “Sorry…I couldn’t help myself…because you look too good…I…actually I didn’t take the photo…you can check if you don’t believe me.”
Shen Muhan, full of disdain, held the right corner of the phone with two fingers and verified what he just said. He really didn’t take any, but the album was full of pictures he’d secretly taken before: Him reading books, him running, him eating, him sleeping…
“Delete them.” He ordered.
“Okay.” He already made a copy of the phone’s contents last night. The library of information on the capture target was still quite important.
Shen Muhan tossed the phone back to Song Yao, looking thoroughly revolted, “Disgusting!”
No one had ever called Song Yao something like this before, in fact, it felt quite novel.
He thoughtfully handed Shen Muhan an alcohol wipe and reminded the other to wipe his hands, “Don’t worry, the phone’s very clean, but it’s better if you cleaned your hands.”
Song Yao had simple intentions. As a fellow germaphobe, aversions to touching other people’s belongings or wanting to disinfect the hands that touched it afterward, he completely understood such feelings.
But Shen Muhan wasn’t a germaphobe at all. However, he had an abrupt realization: This guy is such a perv, who knows what he does with his phone at night!!
He vigorously wiped his hands with the alcohol wipe. His expression was hard to describe, but simply put, he looked like he swallowed a fly.
He watched as the favorability value above Shen Muhan’s head drop to -2%.
The favorability went down after he wiped his hands?
Song Yao was confused but he didn’t feel any sense of crisis. He just felt like laughing.
Ming Ming looks just like him when he’s forced to drink traditional Chinese medicine.
“What are you smiling at?” Shen Muhan asked icily.
Song Yao hid his smile and continued deleting the photos in earnest. After he deleted them all, he gave it to Shen Muhan to check. Shen Muhan’s expression finally softened a little.
Seeing the opportunity was arriving, Song Yao looked at his watch: “Oh no, we’re going to be late!”
The truth was, Song-scheming-Yao had been stalling for time all this while. He waited until there was only 20 minutes left before reminding the other party. Having the target capture who despised him willingly sit in the backseat of his bike, it was quite moving.
At this time, while running to school from here would be cutting it close, at the same time it was also too early; there were hardly any people outside, calling a cab would be difficult.
Song Yao stopped the bike before Shen Muhan, “Why don’t you get on, I’ll drive you. I promise to drop you off a bit earlier so you won’t be seen by other people! You also don’t want to be late, right?”
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.
Vtfc Zetjc kjr fzagfwfis vlruerafv ys tlw jcv cbgwjiis, tf kbeiv cfnfg yf kliilcu ab glvf bc atf yjmx bo tlr ylxf, Lbkfnfg, atf rlaejalbc kjr vloofgfca gluta cbk, Vtfc Zetjc’r rfaalcu kjr j ubbv raevfca ktb raglmais jvtfgfv ab atf rmtbbi geifr!
Cr fzqfmafv, Vtfc Zetjc vlvc’a qgbafra jcv rja lc atf yjmxrfja klat tlr yjmx ojmlcu tlw.
Song Yao pedaled him and sped through the streets.
Clearly it was just a crappy bike, but it felt like he was driving his Rolls-Royce.
He was in an exceptionally great mood. He couldn’t help humming the tune in his head.
It was a song that often came from Ren Ximing’s room.
He heard it too many times and ended up learning it.
He didn’t expect that the song he hummed, it was the one Shen Muhan was listening to right now on repeat.
Shen Muhan took off his earphones and asked, “Do you also like Eason Chan?”
Song Yao, “Yeah.” Although it wasn’t him, it was Ren Ximing.
Shen Muhan didn’t speak again.
He listened quietly in the backseat as Song Yao hummed intermittently:
The dark sea is covered by white moonlight
As I gazed at the sea, I don’t know where my heart should fly
I heard her telling you
Say she really likes you
I didn’t know, where to hide
Is it necessary to have chemistry to love someone
Everytime I looked at you, I thought you knew
The secret that I have hidden
Every early morning
It was in the coffee I quietly gave you
…
Seeing they were nearly at school, he let Shen Muhan get off.
Shen Muhan looked at him rather stiffly, as if he wanted to say something.
After holding back for a few seconds, he whispered “thank you”. After saying it, he left.
[Hamster: God’s favorability increased by 3%. Reason: Likes the same music. Current favorability value: 1%]
*
Song Yao walked into Year 2 Class 3 barely on the dot and seeing the second to last seat by the window was still empty, it must be his. He could see Shen Muhan at a glance, Shen Muhan sat in the middle of the classroom and right now he was clearing away the books on his desk, just like everyone else. It turns out, there was a test first period, and the subject was English.
Receiving the exam paper, he looked at the familiar reading passage and Song Yao felt extremely nostalgic. How many years had passed since he touched something like this? He skimmed through a couple of lines.
His mother was French and from a young age, he knew Chinese, English, and French. He scored four 8s on the IELTS, studied English at school, and later it also became his workplace language. The test posed no difficulty for him at all. Even the listening section was extremely easy, the speaker was so slow and clear, he almost fell asleep listening.
He really ended up falling asleep and by the time he woke up the test still wasn’t finished. Bored, he observed the capture target.
Shen Muhan was taking the test seriously, his cheek was prop on his left hand, his fingers were pale and slender and the slightly bulging blue veins had appealing shapes. His silver hair was clean and fluffy, and showed a bit of his neck. When taking the test, he would unconsciously spin his pen, he seemed to have already finished the test, he kept checking it over, and rubbed his temple with his middle finger.
Song Yao took out the scrap paper he didn’t use and sketched leisurely using a 2B pencil.
Speaking of drawing, the most talented person around him had to be Ren Ximing. Ren Ximing was especially gifted in arts and programming. He could capture the likeness of anything on the canvas, and the longer he drew, the more 3-dimensional, vivid and lifelike it would become.
Song Yao only had half-baked drawing skills, he only knew how to sketch and didn’t know how to color, but his strong point was, he could use simple lines to recreate the essence of the subject.
After the test, Song Yao took out his phone. Fortunately, the high school described in the novel didn’t take away the student’s phone, otherwise he would be bored to death.
He opened Weibo and created a new account called “Song919”. He followed Shen Muhan who had 180k fans then opened his hot Weibo page and posted the drawing.
According to the novel’s setting, although Shen Muhan gained a certain number of fans during high school, he was still relatively unknown. However, he was very enthusiastic. He entered all sorts of competitions, zealously wrote lyrics, made songs, choreographed dances, and although he didn’t come from a professional performace arts school, he had a relatively solid foundation. When the magezine he was featured in became popular, he was finally signed by an entertainment company, but it wasn’t until his first year of college that he received the golden opportunity and became wildly popular.
Shen Muhan’s family background was rather humble and he didn’t have much financial resources. Whether it was recording a song demo or the outfits for a performance, they all needed money. He secretly took part-time jobs, at one point he was even a singer at a bar. The black materials on him were quite outrageous too, some Su Muhan-bots even posted “convincing” black materials such as he was being kept by a 40 year old boss lady, he sold his body, his songs are plagiarized, he has an early romance, etc.
Song Yao couldn’t even be bothered to read those black materials, he returned to his homepage and discovered he had gained two followers and someone called “Sunset_” even @ him.
He took a look, the great master added background and colors to the drawing he posted and instantly raised it by several grades!
[HanHanIsMine: Beautiful, clean, holy! Oh lawd, look at those hands! I wanna see the real things too!]
[Ohno: Is HanHan solving problems in the classroom? Nope, HanHan is making a mess of my heart!]
[Wuwuwu: He looks like a novel’s male lead…it’s like he’s about to turn his head to look at me!]
[DrunkAlone: I hereby announce, this beautiful beautiful picture is now my phone’s lock screen.]
[I’mALittleFairy: Sunset_ and song919 are all new accounts and both of them only follow HanHan! What kind of chemistry is this! Could they both be HanHan’s classmates? They drew him from such a close distance, I’m so envious, wuwuwu!]
In the afternoon, the post was liked by the main subject.
Song Yao looked at Shen Muhan who was playing mobile games with his friends. He felt a bit satisfied, yet dissatisfied. He was dissatisfied because the favorability didn’t actually increase. His strategy was too covert, he needed to be more direct.
As for how he could be more direct, he discussed it with the hamster.
[Hamster was very straight forward: Pursue him.]
Pursue him? But they weren’t gay. He just wanted favorability values…
Oh, I see.
The system was quite reliable. The hamster meant, capturing the male lead was like pursuing a girl.
As for how to pursue someone, Song Yao only had one such experience and that was when he pursued Jun Jun. Basically, he greeted her mornings and goodnights, sent flowers and gifts, took her out to eat, and was available at her service 24/7…
He didn’t even have Shen Muhan’s Wechat right now, but nothing was stopping him from sending gift.
Thus began his experimentation.
He sent gifts and attached notes on them.
He never wrote anything like this before, but right now he did it for the sake of letting the capture target know just who exactly was capturing him.
He knew Shen Muhan was a fan of Eason Chan, so he gave him Eason Chan’s album, accompanied with a note:
For you.
— Song.
Shen Muhan was so busy with social activities, competitions, and his studies that sometimes he didn’t even have time to eat. Song Yao bought bread, placed it on his desk, accompanied with a note:
Eat your meals.
—Song.
After gym, he thought Shen Muhan might be thirsty, so he sent him a bottle of water. Accompanied with a note:
I wanted to buy milk tea for you, but it’s not healthy. Stay hydrated.
—Song.
He bought him breakfast every morning. Accompanied with a note:
Breakfast is a must.
—Song.
He noticed a mosquito bite on his arm, so he sent him herbal balm. Accompanied with a note:
Put some on.
—Song.
He noticed he forgot to bring his homework, so he sent over his own homework. Accompanied with a note:
Nothing wrong with copying once in a while.
—Song.
When he noticed his mood was down, he sent over a cola flavored lolly. Accompanied with a note:
Cheer up.
—Song.
……
This pattern continued for 2 days until Shen Muhan reached his limit.
He walked towards Song Yao’s direction.
The entire class was watching them while making surprised noises.
They saw him stand before Song Yao and tap the desk gently with his knuckles.
“After school, let’s talk?”
*
8:40 p.m., everyone in Year 2 Class 3 was gone except for Shen Muhan and Song Yao. Outside the window, it was raining.
Shen Muhan sat before Song Yao and went straight to the point: “The things you did the last 2 days, what do you mean by it?”
Song Yao smiled, “I just want to send you gifts. If you like them, I have more.”
“Why are you giving me gifts?”
Song Yao stared at the favorability value above his head and replied honestly, “I want your favorability of me to rise.”
Shen Muhan frowned and rejected firmly, “I have no favorability towards you, it’s impossible for me to like you. So don’t send anymore gifts.”
Song Yao looked out the window. It rained heavier by the minute. “Did you bring an umbrella?”
Shen Muhan couldn’t keep up with his brain circuit.
He thought about why this crazy ass Song kept sticking to him, and his conclusion was, it was probably because he never clearly turned him down, which encouraged the other’s behavior. He thought after hearing his hard as steel refusal, the other would be embarrassed, hurt, and perhaps he would even cry.
But after hearing it, crazy ass Song had no reaction and looked more interested in the weather outside the window.
Shen Muhan replied huffily, “No.”
Song Yao took out a black umbrella from his drawer and placed it in front of Shen Muhan, “Then use this.”
Shen Muhan: “I said, stop giving me stuff!”
Song Yao: “I’m letting you borrow it. Give it back to me tomorrow.”
As he said this, he packed up at the speed of light. “I’m going home now. My mom and dad are waiting for me.”
He must head back and slowly influence his father to invest in the right businesses.
Seeing he was about to slip away, Shen Muhan asked, “You don’t have an umbrella?”
Song Yao replied as if it was matter-of-fact, “I’m super healthy, so I don’t need it.”
He said this and left.
So, what he means is, I’m weak, so I need the umbrella?
Shen Muhan sat there. He was definitely mad, but he was unable to get mad. The favorability value above his head sometimes decreased by 2%, and sometimes it increased by 2%, and in the end, it neither increased nor decreased.
He didn’t want to use the umbrella, but when he placed the umbrella back into Song Yao’s drawer, a note fell out. On it was a familiar penmanship:
Even if you hate me and reject me, you have to use the umbrella. It wouldn’t be good if you caught a cold.
—Song.
He must have written it this afternoon.
It turns out, Song Yao knew he was hated, and he also predicted he would refuse him, but he still chose to give Shen Muhan the only umbrella.
The words his friend said popped into Shen Muhan’s head and wouldn’t leave him alone, like a noisy, goddamn fly:
I’ll say, Shen bro, crazy ass Song is obsessed with you for real. He was humiliated like that a couple days, I thought he would quit school or something, but it turns out? He did it secretly before, but now he’s switched to chasing you openly! If I were you, I might even be a little moved.
The mosquitoes bit me all over but what about it? Did anyone send me balm?
Is there someone who would let me copy their homework whenever?
Or is there anyone who would pay attention to whether I ate or not, or whether I’m happy or not?
Song name: 不要说话 by Eason Chan
So in love with this novel, i come running to read every time time there is a new chapter! Thank you for translating ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thank you for the chapter. 😘
I tried to wait and hoard chapters but I’m reading when only 7 are out bc it sounds way too interesting lol.