ED: Quarterwings
TLC: Rin
Cao Feng squeezed out of the train station, carrying a faded camouflage military bag, a snakeskin pocket, and a plastic bucket of local specialties with crystal beads of sweat dripping from his bronzed face. He was used to farm work from a young age and was skillful in chopping wood and hunting. He had great strength, and had no trouble carrying so many things. Along with the flow of people leaving the station, he traveled through the underground passageway and climbed up the stairs.
The sun shone down from the station exit. Cao Feng raised his sturdy arm and wiped his sweat, gazing at the radiance with his pitch-black eyes——this was his first time in a large city.
Many people stood at the train station exit, holding name tags to fetch people. He put his bag on the ground and looked around. An aunt handed Cao Feng a small card: “Boss, do you want to have a stay or a massage?”
He swung his hand and refused with a look of embarrassment, but the aunt still pestered him. She winked and said that there was a beautiful woman who would accompany him. Cao Feng’s sweaty face was a little uncomfortably red, and he shook his head at a loss. At this moment, he suddenly saw a thin young man in a suit in the crowd. He was wearing glasses, leather shoes, and a necktie. He was spotlessly clean and looked like a “high society” person.
The young man held up a piece of paper with two words written on it: Cao Feng.
Finally finding the person, Cao Feng was overjoyed, strode towards him, and stood restlessly in front of the young man: “Mr. Duan… he-hello.”
He had practiced this phrase countless times on the train, but it was still not up to standard, and his accent was heavy. He could write plenty of Chinese characters, but he seemed to lack the talent to mimic the language. Hence, he couldn’t speak it well.
Xiao Zhang picked up the photo and took a glance for comparison. He had dark skin, white teeth, a quite handsome appearance, and natural curls. His upper body wore blackened blue plain clothing, with straight tube blue cloth pants underneath. This kind of attire, at first glance, could be seen as ethnic minorities from the village.
“Are you Cao Feng?” He even didn’t expect him to be so tall that he had to raise his head to look up.
“I am.” Cao Feng hurriedly put down his things and wiped the sweat from his palm, “I’m Cao Feng, hello Mr. D-Duan.”
“I am President Duan’s driver. My surname is Zhang. The president was in a meeting and asked me to pick you up.” Xiao Zhang lightly kicked the snakeskin pocket on the ground with his toe and glanced at the plastic bucket, “You brought so many things?”
“These are all local products taken from my hometown.” Cao Feng realized that this person was not Duan Shumin, who had been sponsoring him. He hesitated and called him, “Zhang-ge.”
This address was quite useful. Xiao Zhang asked, “Why did you come out so late?” He originally wanted to help Cao Feng carry his things, but when he saw his appearance drenched in sweat and his dirty and worn-out backpack, he didn’t reach out.
“Sorry, I couldn’t find the location and got a little lost.” Cao Feng lowered his head and apologized, sweat dripping onto the dry ground.
The biggest place he had been to was the county town, and he had never visited a modern large city like Linzhou.
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.
Xiao Zhang opened the trunk, stuffed the things for him inside, and said politely: “The young master will be dismissed from his class soon. I still have to hurry up to pick him up at school. Your school bag.” Xiao Zhang stretched out his hand and motioned him to insert his school bag in the trunk.
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Cao Feng stood by the car without moving. He had never been in such a car before. He was embarrassed to touch it with his hand and even more embarrassed to sit on it for fear of getting it dirty.
Xiao Zhang rolled down the car window and said with some amusement, “What are you waiting for? Get in the car!”
“Okay, okay.” Cao Feng complied embarrassedly and sat in the car very reservedly. The air conditioner was on in the car. The blowing of the air conditioner made him very comfortable. The seats were of leather texture. He didn’t dare to lean on it for fear that the sweat that had soaked his back would stain the car. He sat upright, with his head against the car roof, and didn’t dare to move.
Xiao Zhang sized him up in the rearview mirror.
He was completely a country folk, from the mountains, the kind of old-fashioned that couldn’t be more old-fashioned, with dark skin and wistful eyes looking out the window. Probably he had never seen such a tall building, such a beautiful residential district. His eyes were full of glittering light.
Duan Shumin sponsored many students.
He was the president of the Guangshang Bank branch in Linzhou City. Nowadays, financial institutions also responded to the appeal from above to probe the path of financial poverty alleviation. But among the poor students he sponsored, he heard that Cao Feng had the best grades, and he would write to Duan Shumin every year to thank him.
He didn’t know whether to say he was simple and honest, or deep scheming.
Xiao Zhang looked at his black eyes, his cell phone rang, and he picked up the phone: “President Duan.”
Cao Feng in the back seat promptly tensed up.
“Mn, yes, I’ve picked him up…” Xiao Zhang turned the steering wheel with his hand, “Now I’m driving to school to pick up Young Master Xiao Che.”
Duan Shumin said: “The school said that he didn’t take part in the physical examination to get vaccinated. No one was there after the morning arrival. The teacher is looking for him everywhere right now.”
Xiao Zhang’s mouth opened wide in surprise.
This little ancestor was really used to his unrestrained lifestyle abroad. Two days ago, he didn’t join the military training, and it was only a few days since school started. So he skipped class like that?
Duan Shumin said with annoyance: “Not even answering the call! I reckon he’s surfing the Internet at an Internet café nearby. Go and look there first. If you can’t find him, then I’ll call the police station.”
When the car arrived at the school, Xiao Zhang stopped the car, turned off the engine, and glanced at Cao Feng.
Cao Feng scratched his hair: “Zhang-ge, let me go find him with you.”
“Forget it, you don’t know…”
“I can run fast. Two people can find him faster.”
Xiao Zhang hesitated, looked at his persistent appearance, and said, “Well, I will show you the picture of the young master. He is good-looking and very white. You can catch sight of him at one glance in the crowd. He’s almost at this height, one meter and seventy-seven.” While gesturing the height, he turned on his phone and found a photo of Duan Yuche’s junior high school. He was wearing a red scarf.
Cao Feng fixedly looked at the photo. As he said, this young master was very good-looking, his appearance was exquisite like paintings, and his dimples were exposed when he smiled. Although he hasn’t reached maturity yet, he could already imagine how popular he would be growing up.
The two entered an Internet café. Xiao Zhang asked the network manager: “Is there a foreign language student who came here to surf the Internet?”
The network manager spitted out the melon rind and said lazily, “There are so many computers, you find it yourself.”
There were hundreds of computers in the Internet café. The black curtains were closed tightly, the environment was gloomy, and the smell of smoke filled this confining space. Many people who surfed the Internet looked like they were not yet adults, and some people were wearing school uniforms.
Cao Feng also often went to an Internet café. However, in his county, the black Internet café was very small. For one yuan an hour, buzzing standbys crowded around the ten computers, and it was a turmoil.
Xiao Zhang said, “You look on this side, and I’ll look for that side. Pay more attention to the students in blue school uniforms.”
After looking around, the two found nothing and went to another Internet café, but they still couldn’t find the person.
Xiao Zhang was already anxious and wrote his phone number to Cao Feng: “Let’s split up. Don’t get lost. If you see the young master, you give me a call.”
Xiao Zhang went to another Internet café, while Cao Feng went to the school entrance. Opposite the school were several stationery stores next to each other, and next to them were noodle shops, breakfast shops, milk tea shops… The aroma strongly filled the air.
It was already time for the Experimental Foreign Language School afternoon dismissal, and students in school uniforms were coming out in waves.
With so many students, Cao Feng was momentarily dazzled, and at the same time, felt strongly out of place. When he came, he was wearing clean clothes and pants, and he even rubbed his toes and heels very cleanly, but he was on the stifling hot train for 30 hours. After sweating a lot, he didn’t take a bath, and his body was full of all kinds of smells.
He wasn’t short-sighted and could see far away. In the beginning of the school season, there were many students in the stationery store. Cao Feng walked into one and took a look. The owner immediately looked at him vigilantly, as if he was some kind of thief, and asked him what he would buy.
“I…just take a look.” Cao Feng saw all kinds of notebooks, stationery bags, pens, and toys on the shelves. They all had beautiful patterns and looked fashionable. They were all styles that he had never seen before. A few students were discussing which one looked better.
Before he came, he knew that Mr. Duan had a son in his family who was a few years younger than himself, so Cao Feng had specially prepared a gift for him.
But as soon as he entered this stationery store, he immediately felt that his gift seemed a bit not presentable, and this younger brother would probably won’t like it. His gaze moved from the shiny stationery and toys, to the refrigerator filled with all kinds of beverages he hadn’t seen or tasted before. He licked his chapped lips and saw a student took a bottle of orange juice beverage from it and handed the owner three yuan.
Cao Feng held back the desire to drink water.
After school, the crowd was comparable to when he got off the train. The students flocked, but they all coincidentally avoided Cao Feng carefully. He noticed those hidden sights. He had low self-esteem and was sensitive——it was a kind of stare at the rats in the stinky ditch.
When the owner saw that he had affected his business, he hurriedly waved his hand to drive him away: “Go, go, go! Don’t disturb my business if you won’t buy anything.”
Cao Feng immediately said in shame, “I’m sorry.”
He left the stationery store and then went to the next store to continue looking. He searched very carefully and spent a long time along the street to look for him. When he passed a fast food shop, he suddenly stopped.
The beautiful teenager was leaning against the ordering table. His black hair was soft and smooth, and his ears were showing. He was wearing a white shirt, long pants, a pair of white socks, and a famous brand of sneakers on his feet. The waiter handed him an ice cream cone. He smiled and said thank you. His eyes bent when he smiled, and his amber pupils were clean and warm, just like in the photo.
The teenager licked his cone and went out of the store. When he raised his eyes, he noticed Cao Feng standing outside.
The washed white and perforated black cloth shoes looked like they had gone through a long journey. The clothes were wrinkled and worn as if he had just picked them up from the garbage heap. There was dense hot sweat on his face, and his lips were very dry. He looked thirsty and starving.
“Hey, don’t you stare.” Zhou Zeliang was also a little frightened when he saw the guy’s strong arm muscles and tall figure. He whispered to Duan Yuche, “It’s an ethnic minority, very barbaric.”
“Oh.” Duan Yuche had been a little sensitive to the word “ethnic minority” recently. After taking a few steps, he found that the guy was still staring at him, with a rather stubborn and pure gaze in his black eyes.
He glanced at the man, took out the change he had just received, and handed it to the dark-skinned ethnic minority along with a pack of tissue paper. He said indifferently, “Here, ice cream is three yuan and fifty cents. You can go in and buy it.”
Cao Feng was stunned when the teenager’s clear voice came to his ears.
“Take it.” Duan Yuche licked the cone, and there was a circle of white ice cream stains at the corner of his lips.
Cao Feng didn’t take it.
Looking at him doing a good deed, Zhou Zeliang pulled him away instantly with displeasure in his eyes: “Be careful of beggars pestering you.”
“I’m not…” As soon as Cao Feng wanted to explain that he was not a beggar, he noticed the reflection on the glass of the fast food shop. To put it bluntly, he looked just a little cleaner than a beggar.
Yet the teenager in front of him was the most good-looking person Cao Feng had ever seen in his life.
Aww poor baby it must be tough having to face all those judgements 🥺 thanks for the chapter 💜
This feels so sad to start with 😳😭
Can’t imagine how delightful I’d be after 30 hours of rough travel…then judgment from every angle. Thanks for the chapter 🙂
i might even have the urge to just drop down dead if that was what happened to me, poor guy
Nice start in a new life, eh Cao Feng? :’D
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
Aww it certainly grabs me,poor ML
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
Ohhh! 😟😭
Those ignorant bastards! At least Dian Yuche seems to be decent to Cao Feng, although the bar is in hell. It always puts me in a bad mood when colorism and classism crops up in a novel, and the author’s done a great job of making me despise literally everyone except the main couple rn.