After learning that Zhou Zeliang was quarantined at home because he was suspected of contracting an infectious disease, Duan Yuche was so regretful that his innards were turning green.
“I don’t know if I’m sick or not,” Zhou Zeliang sent him a message saying. “When the doctor came, I said I forgot to get vaccinated. He touched my lymph nodes twice and just sent me home.”
“If I knew, I should’ve pretended to be sick.” Duan Yuche regretted not doing it, and sent a message lying sprawled on the table. “So you won’t need to take the exam?”
“Yep.”
“How many days are you staying at home for?” Duan Yuche suddenly realised, with Zhou Zeliang gone, wouldn’t there be no one to go with him to the cafeteria?
“I’m applying medicine in the hospital now, later I need to get an injection. I can probably come back in a week or two.”
“Then I…” Duan Yuche wanted to ask what he should do, but halfway through the sentence, he cut himself off: “Then make sure you rest well, I’ll come see you in a few days. The teacher saw me on the phone, I’ll talk to you later.”
It was about to be lunch time. Duan Yuche didn’t want to go to the cafeteria by himself; he’d rather be hungry than alone.
Meanwhile, every time class let out at lunchtime, Cao Feng always seemed to be the one walking the fastest. He wanted to walk faster and fill up his stomach earlier, so he could save a few more minutes to study.
He had a mini vocabulary book in his pocket. Just as he was about to go out, he saw Duan Yuche lying on the desk, looking listless, as if he was sick.
Cao Feng thought he was still wondering about whether he had an infectious disease or not. Seeing that he was so listless, he walked over and sat at the desk next to him: “Xiao Che?”
Duan Yuche was lying on the table, and titled his head to look at him.
Cao Feng resisted the desire to touch his head, and in a very gentle tone, asked: “What’s wrong? Are you still feeling uncomfortable?”
“En.” Duan Yuche didn’t feel physically uncomfortable, but he was a little hungry. The Cao Feng in front of him was Duan Yuche’s saviour, but because of his ego, he didn’t know how to say it.
Should he pretend to be sick and go home? Duan Yuche thought about it in his heart, but at home he would still be alone. Duan Shumin had to work, Cao Feng had to go to school, and there would be no one to cook for him, so he might as well go to school.
“Where is it uncomfortable, is it…here?” Cao Feng stretched out his fingers and lightly touched
Duan Yuche’s cheek. “Or is it your stomach?”
“Both, a little.”
Everyone in the class had left. Cao Feng noticed that Zhou Zeliang hadn’t come yet, so he asked him, “Where’s Zhou Zeliang?”
“He…” Duan Yuche said. “He seems to actually be sick. He went home for quarantine.”
Cao Feng suddenly remembered everything that Duan Shumin had told him that day. After a moment, he said, “If your stomach feels bad, then you have to eat something, can you do it? Come with gege to the cafeteria and drink some millet porridge? It nourishes the stomach.”
“Millet porridge?” Duan Yuche said disagreeably. “I have no appetite, I want to eat Tan Ji’s sugar-fried roast chestnuts, and Zhengyangchun’s duck fat buns…”
“The school doesn’t sell those, do you not want to eat anything else?”
“Didn’t I tell you that I don’t have an appetite? You go eat by yourself, I’ll sleep for a while.” The ‘sickness’ had already been faked to this extent, so Duan Yuche had no choice but to continue acting. For Duan Yuche to set aside his ego and beg Cao Feng to go with him to the cafeteria, there was really no way he could do it.
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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Cao Feng told him to rest well, and then left.
In the classroom that was empty of any other person, Duan Yuche looked at Cao Feng’s back, closing the door behind him as he left. For some reason, his heart felt even more uncomfortable.
At one o’clock in the afternoon, Cao Feng still hadn’t come back, and Duan Yuche hadn’t fallen asleep yet. He took out his mobile phone to play PSP, and when Airplane came back, he saw that Duan Yuche seemed to be in a bad state, so he said: “You wouldn’t have actually become sick, right? Your complexion is so bad.”
Of course his complexion was bad, he didn’t eat and he was in a bad mood, how could his complexion be so good?
“I don’t think you can continue like this.” Airplane was actually quite concerned about him. Duan Yuche was good to him, often sharing snacks with him, and was super generous. “Do you want to ask for time off to see a doctor?”
“Let’s wait to see what Xiaobo says.”
“Xiao Mada doesn’t seem to be here this afternoon.”
“Oh……”
Airplane said: “Let me touch it and see if you really have mumps.” He wasn’t overly polite – he regarded Duan Yuche as a buddy, so he didn’t even ask, copying the doctor from the morning and pinching Duan Yuche’s chin. Duan Yuche was startled, and knocked his hand away: “What are you doing!”
“…I just want to see if you’re sick, don’t be so nervous.” Airplane was also taken aback by his reaction.
“I’m not…” In his heart he knew what was wrong with him, and inconspicuously wiped his face with his sleeve. “I’m not sick.”
Duan Yuche looked back around, but Cao Feng’s seat was still empty.
Where did he go? How come he still wasn’t back? Was he studying in the library?
He knew that Cao Feng attached great importance to this first monthly exam. Cao Feng wanted to do well, so he studied desperately. That day when he came to Duan Yuche’s room to play with puzzles with him, after a few minutes, Cao Feng had started doing practice questions instead.
He knew that Cao Feng wanted to get good grades in the exam and win the scholarship money.
The lunch break started, and most of the students in the class were resting. Only one or two people were quietly studying and doing practice questions, and the whole classroom, no, the entire campus, fell into an abnormal silence.
Everyone was resting or reviewing.
Duan Yuche simply couldn’t sleep well while lying on the desk. With his face pressed against a book, he dozed dazedly. Suddenly, he felt someone beside him gently push him.
Duan Yuche thought it was Airplane and was about to scold him. But when he opened his eyes, his gaze met a pair of dark and bright eyes.
Cao Feng’s face was still dripping with sweat, and he was panting, beads of sweat following the smooth lines of his refined jaw: “Xiao Che.” He pulled down the zipper of his school uniform, and revealed the things inside. “Ge bought these for you to eat, are you really hungry? We can go out and eat it.”
Duan Yuche was immediately stunned. He stared at Cao Feng, who looked as if he had just finished a marathon, exhausted beyond belief, sweating so much that even his eyelashes were wet. Then he looked at the thing in his arms.
A yellow leather bag, and Tan Ji brand fried chestnuts.
There was a disposable takeaway food box in Cao Feng’s pocket that hadn’t been opened yet, but Duan Yuche could already smell the aroma of duck fat buns.
Those two stores were not in the same location.
“Cao Feng…” He was extremely moved. “Why did you…”
“Shh.” Cao Feng said in a low tone. “They’re all sleeping, let’s go out to eat.”
“Okay.” Duan Yuche stuffed the blanket into its original bag, and quickly followed Cao Feng out of the classroom.
“There is no one in the upstairs classroom now, let’s go to the upstairs classroom to eat.” Cao Feng took out the chestnuts. He saw the red marks on Du Yuche’s face from his nap, and wanted to reach out and rub them for him. “I bought the chestnuts first, and the duck fat buns afterwards, so the chestnuts may have gone a little cold.”
He was afraid that the things would get cold, so he kept holding them in his arms. His whole body was covered in nervous sweat – the weather was neither cold nor hot, but he acted like he was competing in a race, afraid that he wouldn’t make it back before class started, and even more afraid that didi would be hungry.
“Thank you. The chestnuts are hot, they’re not cold yet.” Duan Yuche peeled off the shell and ate one. This store’s small Yunnan chestnuts were glutinous and fragrant, different from the kinds sold on the streets. Duan Yuche asked him: “Have you eaten? How did you go out to buy this?”
“I…climbed over the wall.” He couldn’t find Ma Xiaobo, so he couldn’t get a get-out-of-class pass, and he didn’t dare to fake one, so he just climbed over the wall.
“Over the wall?” Duan Yuche was taken aback, and looked up at Cao Feng above him. “What about the barbed wire?”
“The barbed wire fence can also be climbed over. It’s not very high.” Cao Feng was very good at climbing trees, so for him, such a short fence and barbed wire netting weren’t even worth mentioning.
“Then have you eaten lunch?” The two pushed open the door of the upstairs classroom.
“I ate, I ate a few buns.” It was just that the calories had been burned, and he seemed to be feeling hungry again.
The duck fat buns were fragrant, but this store’s duck fat buns were also very expensive. Cao Feng wanted to eat them, but held back. Since his didi liked them, and there were only a few buns per serving, he only bought two servings.
After finding a place to sit down, Cao Feng pretended not to be hungry, and took out a pocket vocabulary book and a pen to review grammar. Duan Yuche first ate a duck fat bun, which was still a little hot. Although the taste was not as good as eating it in-store, it actually wasn’t much different.
“Did you burn your mouth?” Seeing that he only took a bite of the outer dough wrapping and then put it down, Cao Feng asked.
“It’s a little hot.” In his heart, Duan Yuche was very grateful for his thoughtfulness, and was very moved. If Cao Feng weren’t here, Duan Yuche definitely would have suffered greatly over what happened today.
He peeled apart a whole chestnut and gave it to Cao Feng: “Eat it, I can’t finish it.”
When Cao Feng saw that Duan Yuche was happy and lively, he was happy too, and said that he didn’t need to eat, he wasn’t hungry, so Duan Yuche should eat.
“How can you not be hungry after you only ate a few buns?”
As soon as it was nighttime, Cao Feng’s stomach would always growl. His appetite was very large, and Duan Yuche of course knew that a few buns wouldn’t even be enough to line Cao Feng’s stomach. “Come with me to the cafeteria tonight, use my card, and I’ll treat you to a meal. Now, you finish this duck fat bun for me.”
“I only took one pair of chopsticks.” He just wanted his didi to eat more, not to worry about Cao Feng.
“Then you can use mine. Although I’ve used them before, you can wash them and they won’t be dirty.”
“I won’t wash it.” Cao Feng was afraid that he would misunderstand. “It’s not dirty at all, I…I won’t use other people’s, but yours, I can.”
This was the first time the two ate together at school.
Cao Feng finally understood the difference between being with someone and being alone. At night, he would eat with Duan Yuche, and the meals would be more delicious than usual, such that he could even eat two extra bowls of rice.
After school, the first thing Cao Feng did was to open the mailbox. He had been doing this for almost two weeks. He had a peek in the morning and in the evening, and it turned into a habit. Finally, Duan Yuche couldn’t help but ask him: “What are you always looking in the mailbox for, did someone send you a letter?”
“Yes.” Cao Feng glanced at him, thinking, his didi probably forgot about that, he forgot about sending Cao Feng a postcard, but Cao Feng never forgot, waiting and looking forward to it every day. In the past, writing letters was what made him the happiest. It was the only way for him to communicate with the outside world. If the letters he wrote received a reply, he would be happy for a very long time. Duan Shumin didn’t reply to many of his letters, only one or two, and just asked if he was doing well, if he was short of money, if the weather was cold. Even those kinds of letters, Cao Feng treasured to this day.
However, writing letters, this kind of ancient method, had already died out in modern times.
The postcard was received on the weekend of the day after the monthly exam. Cao Feng opened the mailbox, saw that there was something inside, and was so excited that he couldn’t help himself and took it out. It was a photo of Wuzhen at night, and there was just one line written on the back: “Wuzhen is beautiful. When I get the chance I’ll bring you here, we’ll go watch a shadow puppet show.”
It was signed .
This was the first time Cao Feng had ever received a postcard. He took it back to his room and put it on the table. Every few seconds he would look at it. Cao Feng picked up a pen and wrote on composition paper: Dear didi, I haven’t known you for long, but I feel like…
He thought that his literary skill wasn’t outstanding enough, so he drafted as he wrote, and flipped open his phrase book to refer to. Writing this one letter took him the whole day.
Cao Feng didn’t have an envelope here, so he folded one himself, put the written letter in it, glued it, and put it in the mailbox outside of the house.
Originally, he wanted to open the mailbox the next morning and let his didi read it, but Cao Feng couldn’t control himself. At almost twelve o’clock at night, he suddenly got up and rushed to the door of Duan Yuche’s room.
The light in didi’s room was still on, so Cao Feng knocked on the door.
“Come in.” Duan Yuche had been about to go to bed when he saw Cao Feng in pyjamas. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s not a big deal…” Cao Feng agonised over his words. “There is a letter in the mailbox outside.”
“Letter?” Duan Yuche was puzzled, what did this have to do with him?
“En…” Cao Feng looked at Duan Yuche, whose face was soft and gentle under the light. “Maybe…maybe it was sent to you, do you want to…to have a look?”
“How did you know it was addressed to me?”
cao feng finally got his postcard !!! i’m so happy our fluffy boy finally got it, and i just love how earnestly he wrote a reply even though duan yuche only wrote one line. also cao feng constantly getting mesmerised by duan yuche’s beauty is a mood
one thing that you guys might not know is how often i have to add clarifications on who’s actually being spoken about in sentences hahaha. in chinese it’s always “he did X” “he said X” so it’s a constant guessing game about who “he” even is.
anyway, i also hope that i’m translating cao feng’s speech okay. he uses kind of simple words sometimes (like in this chapter, ‘take/拿’ instead of ‘brought/带’ chopsticks, in a previous chapter, ‘below/下面’ instead of ‘downstairs/楼下’) and i wanted to translate that so you guys get the full effect that the author intended. duan yuche also makes some slight errors while speaking and i’ve tried translating that too. hopefully it comes across ! i kind of wish there were a show/drama adaptation of Little Ancestor so we could hear their respective accents, i bet it would be fun.
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️
thank you for reading ! : D