thank you JP for the ko-fi! <33
Cao Feng was so embarrassed that he wanted to sink into the ground. Hearing Duan Yuche speak in such a casual tone, his face turned even more red. “No need, I…I’ll go back to my room and memorise some vocabulary. I’ll be okay in a while. Xiao Che, you can keep watching TV, I’ll come out later.”
Duan Yuche said “En”, and then reacted.
Memorise vocabulary?
He was a little confused. Cao Feng was like…this, and he still wanted to memorise vocabulary?
Or was it because he was shy, so he lied and said he was going to study?
Cao Feng hurriedly stood up and rushed back to his room as if he was fleeing. He pulled out the Oxford Dictionary from his desk, turned to the bookmarked page, and started reading from the last word: “Gallant! G-a-l-l-a-n-t…”
On the surface, he was reading out the words and even the spellings, but in his head, he was only mechanically and numbly parroting the letters he saw. He couldn’t remember the words he saw at all, because his mind was already filled with Duan Yuche. He only had to imagine his didi’s hand accidentally grabbing onto him just now, and his whole body would grow hot.
He knew that Duan Yuche definitely didn’t mean it, and it was because of this that Cao Feng felt guilty.
He tried hard to fight against the thoughts he shouldn’t have, warning himself not to do so, but he still couldn’t control it.
Cao Feng put the dictionary down in pain, knowing that it wasn’t going to work at all. He went into the bathroom and tried to douse the flames with cold water.
Outside the door, Duan Yuche was leaning against the door. Hearing that Cao Feng was actually reciting vocabulary, he was completely shocked. Cao Feng was not of this world, even when he was like this he could still study.
In the bathroom, Cao Feng stood under the shower head spraying cold water, his arms resting on the marble wall. His body temperature was very hot, and the water was ice cold. After being sprayed like this for several minutes, Cao Feng really couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t control it anymore.
Memorising vocabulary wasn’t working, he would have to change to Buddhist scriptures next time.
He was thinking that, but his hands were full of guilt, and he unconsciously murmured Duan Yuche’s name.
Duan Yuche continued to watch TV. After watching a comedy sketch and two musical performances, Cao Feng still hadn’t come out.
Duan Yuche was puzzled and ran back to eavesdrop again, but this time there was no sound of reciting vocabulary.
After running back and forth several times in a row, Cao Feng happened to come out, and he bumped into Duan Yuche who was pressed against the door.
Duan Yuche: “…”
“You didn’t come out for so long.” Duan Yuche looked at Cao Feng and said honestly, “I thought something was wrong. Why did you take so long? It’s almost twelve o’clock.”
“I, I don’t know…” Cao Feng’s face was flushed, and his eyes were a bit dazed and hard to read. He carried a sense of moisture on his body, but it wasn’t the fresh kind; rather a scorching, masculine heat.
Duan Yuche laughed and walked towards the living room. “If you want to do this often, go find a girlfriend.”
Cao Feng still hadn’t sobered up, and he looked at Duan Yuche with burning eyes: “Find a girlfriend for what?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Duan Yuche sat down. “It’s normal to have needs. It doesn’t mean you have to…like that, but…it’ll always feel different. Even if you just kiss her, it’s still different.”
“I don’t need that.”
Duan Yuche shook his head, and said to himself that Cao Feng’s way of thinking was harder to change than the wood of an elm tree. Duan Yuche received a Western education, and had different beliefs than Cao Feng. He believed that in these matters, one should please themselves.
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 Che.” Cao Feng suddenly called him, “Do you have anyone that…you like?”
“Tfjt, P vb.”
Jjb Mfcu lwwfvljafis ofia tlr tfjga aegc ab jrt.
Gejc Temtf mbcalcefv: “P ilxf ws vjv, jcv P ilxf sbe abb.”
Jjb Mfcu gjlrfv tlr tfjv revvfcis, jr lo lc vlryfilfo.
“P jirb ilxf…” Ktfc tf rjlv atf cjwfr bo rfnfgji oglfcvr.
Jjb Mfcu’r rtlclcu fsfr vlwwfv j ilaaif, yea atfs kfgf ralii ygluta: “P vbc’a wfjc atja xlcv bo ilxf.”
“Oh, a girlfriend.”
Cao Feng thought to himself, shouldn’t it be a boyfriend? How could it be a girlfriend? Could it be that even gay people would call their partners girlfriends?
Then he who is like this…Cao Feng looked down at his long arms and legs. Who would want a girlfriend who was 1.9 metres tall?
As the clock struck twelve, Duan Yuche said, “I don’t like anyone yet.”
On the TV, the MC was wishing everyone a happy new year. The sound of fireworks exploding on the TV complemented the sky outside, which lit up at the same time. Duan Yuche turned his head, looked at Cao Feng, and said, “Happy New Year.”
Cao Feng squashed down his inner excitement and said loudly: “Happy New Year.”
Duan Yuche: “…You suddenly became so loud.”
“I’m happy!” The corners of Cao Feng’s mouth lifted upwards.
Duan Yuche wanted to go out and watch the fireworks. The two of them walked outside, and looked up at the sky for a long time. Cao Feng took out the Kongming lanterns he made during the day, and handed one to Duan Yuche. He had even written on the Kongming lanterns. Cao Feng was deathly afraid of being discovered, so not only was it written in traditional Chinese, but the characters were also very small. Based on Duan Yuche’s standard of Chinese, he probably wouldn’t be able to understand it.
After releasing the Kongming lanterns, they each said good night, and Cao Feng and Duan Yuche went back to their respective rooms.
Cao Feng couldn’t sleep, so he turned on the bedside lamp and read. He had a very contradictory mentality. He simultaneously hoped that his feelings were fake and were misguided, but also he hoped that they could come true, even though there would be many obstacles to overcome.
Setting aside whether or not Duan Yuche would like him; Duan Shumin was the sword of Damocles hanging over Cao Feng’s head, and would question and criticise his morals.
But maybe one’s love doesn’t need to be announced through words. Maybe there would never be an opportunity to do so anyway. Hiding it silently at the bottom of his heart, that could be the best decision to make.
On the morning of the first day of the new year, Cao Feng put on new clothes that he had never worn before, lit the firecrackers he bought yesterday, and made a hearty breakfast.
Cao Feng spent the day playing jigsaw puzzles with his didi. This kind of jigsaw puzzle was difficult at the beginning, and could take hours to find the correct piece. But towards the end, there would be the feeling of sweeping away the clouds and finally seeing the clear blue sky. It would no longer be as difficult as it was in the beginning, and would become easier and easier.
They worked hard from morning to night, and finally completed it. Their victory, which they had been working on on-and-off for half a year, was right in front of their eyes. Duan Yuche was clearly in a very good mood, and took out chocolates to share with Cao Feng.
But in the end, when they had finally reached the last two pieces of the puzzle, Duan Yuche suddenly discovered that one piece was missing.
“Eh?” He lifted up the puzzle mat. “Where did it go? I definitely put it away properly every time, why is it missing?”
“Don’t worry, it might have gotten lost somewhere. I’ll help you find it.” Cao Feng put the puzzle aside. The quality of the puzzle was very good, and it didn’t fall apart even when picked up.
Duan Yuche’s eyes scanned the ground, searching for the tiny puzzle piece. His room was often messy, but every time he finished working on the puzzle, he put away the rest of the pieces. Even when the hired help came to clean the house, they would avoid his pile of stuff.
There was no way it could get lost!
“The last piece, it’s the last piece!” Duan Yuche was going crazy looking at the missing piece in the middle of the puzzle.
Cao Feng lay down and looked under the bed. It was pitch black. He asked Duan Yuche for a flashlight: “It might be under the bed, Xiao Che, don’t worry.”
Duan Yuche went around looking for a flashlight. The bed was cleaned regularly, and there was some dust and dirt, but no puzzle piece.
“We did a deep clean yesterday.” Duan Yuche thought of Cao Feng coming to help him tidy up his room and desk yesterday, and said, “Could it be that it got lost yesterday while we were cleaning?”
“No.” Cao Feng said, “I wouldn’t touch any of your things.” He wouldn’t even throw away boxes that looked like garbage, only obvious crumpled pieces of paper.
“Then where did it go?” Duan Yuche sat on the ground, his little face scrunched up as if he would cry at any moment. “I was almost done…Cao Feng, I was almost done, how could it get lost?”
Cao Feng saw his sadness and felt sad himself. They had worked on the puzzle together, and it was their combined hard work. He couldn’t comfort Duan Yuche by saying something like, “The result isn’t important, what matters is the process.” He could only continue to search through the desk where he left the puzzle: “Don’t worry, don’t worry, gege will help you look for it. We’ll definitely find it.”
“It’s hopeless…” Duan Yuche lowered his head gloomily. “Too small, it’s just too small, there’s no way to find it.”
“I’ll keep looking.”
“Cao Feng, stop looking.” Duan Yuche stopped him. “It may be a factory error, and there’s only 2999 pieces, not 3000 pieces at all. This puzzle might have been missing a piece from the beginning.”
He had bought a puzzle that was missing a piece before, but it was a small one. He had been miserable for a long time. It might only be a small thing in the eyes of others, but it wasn’t like that to him at all.
Cao Feng stood up, and touched the almost completed puzzle.
Every single piece was of very good quality, and compacted so they wouldn’t rot even if they came into contact with water.
Cao Feng looked at the shape of the missing piece again.
From the surrounding images, it was completely possible to deduce what the middle piece was supposed to be. If it were a solid colour, it would’ve been a lot easier, but it just had to be a non-solid colour, though it wasn’t difficult to draw either.
“Don’t be sad.” Cao Feng sat next to Duan Yuche and put his arm around his shoulders. “Xiao Che, I’ll figure this out. I’ll put it together.”
“It’s okay,” Duan Yuche did not resist his hug. “I’m not sad, it’s just a small piece, just a small piece…”
He repeated this sentence as if to comfort himself.
“We can play something else,” Cao Feng said. “Don’t you have other puzzles? We can open a new box.”
Duan Yuche raised his head: “Then what if…what if it’s missing a piece, too?”
“…Such an unlucky thing isn’t going to happen.”
“I don’t want to play anymore.” Duan Yuche had completely lost his enthusiasm.
“What about Lego?”
“Don’t want to.”
“A racing video game?”
“Don’t want to.”
“Want to watch a movie?”
“……don’t want to.”
“You don’t want to watch Doctor Who either?”
“…I don’t want to watch it right now.”
Cao Feng laughed and hugged his back: “Get up first, don’t sit on the ground, it’s cold.”
Duan Yuche grabbed his hand and stood up. Cao Feng said, “Since you don’t want to watch TV or play games, then teach gege how to speak English.”
Cao Feng often used an electronic dictionary. The dictionary could produce sound, and he would read the words along with it, so his accent had improved a lot.
“How do you want to learn?” Duan Yuche asked him.
“Teach me how to read the texts.” Cao Feng found the clean English textbook on his desk and opened the most recent chapter. It was a set of dialogue. “You read one sentence, and I’ll read the next one.”
“…Okay.” Duan Yuche didn’t have much in mind, but he was still interested in pretending to be Cao Feng’s teacher for a while.
It was just that the content of the text was a bit simplistic, and he was very bored when reading it. It was super boring, just like a prerecorded English class, so he suggested: “I’ll ask you a question, and you use English to answer. You can’t use Chinese, and you have to at least use a complete sentence to answer.” He paused. “But we need to have some kind of punishment, so if you don’t answer within half a minute, if you don’t answer…”
Cao Feng suddenly seemed to remember something: “Slap?”
“…I thought you didn’t like that?” Although Duan Yuche often played like that, he still thought it was ridiculous. He wouldn’t randomly hit people, and even if he won, he would just pat the other person’s face perfunctorily. He had already won anyway, and his opponent lost and was embarrassed, so that was enough.
“If other people…hit you, I won’t be happy anyway,” Cao Feng said. “It doesn’t matter if you hit me. We’re just messing around at home, outside…it’s not good to do that.”
“All right then.” Duan Yuche asked the first question, asking him what his favourite activity was.
Cao Feng answered in complete English: “My favourite activity is…going to school.”
“Who do you admire most and why?”
Cao Feng: “Einstein, because…”
After a few simple questions, Duan Yuche felt bored when he saw that Cao Feng’s answers were answered fluently, so he increased the difficulty and asked him: “What’s your opinion on the laws in China?”
Cao Feng: “…”
Duan Yuche counted for thirty seconds and said happily: “You lose, come here.”
Cao Feng silently moved his face closer.
“I’ll be gentle.” Duan Yuche didn’t like to hit people in the face, let alone Cao Feng, who was his friend. With an extremely light touch, almost like a caress, he gently touched the side of Cao Feng’s face.
In that second, Cao Feng’s eyelashes trembled, and he thought that this really was a terrible game.
hahaha duan yuche with that last question. how is cao feng supposed to answer?
also i can’t believe we got cao feng doing [redacted] this chapter…we’re really in it now!! so many romantic revelations for cao feng, i wonder when duan yuche is going to catch up..?
