Cao Feng lost on purpose a few times. Although some questions were hard, it wasn’t like he couldn’t answer them. But whenever Duan Yuche saw that his questions actually stumped Cao Feng, he was extremely happy. Still, every time he punished Cao Feng, he would use a very gentle force, and ask, “It doesn’t hurt, right?”
Although Cao Feng had expected this, it still made him feel a little unsteady. It wasn’t that he liked being slapped, he just knew that Duan Yuche wouldn’t really use force.
Cao Feng kept playing until he felt sleepy, and only then was he willing to end it.
In order to produce a piece of the same size and quality as the original jumbo puzzle, Cao Feng measured the size and thickness of the gap, drew the image, collected different types of papers at home, and made several failed products.
Although a small thing like this was easy to make, in order to achieve a seamless effect, one had to buy the right paint.
Cao Feng had made wax paintings in his hometown, but there weren’t such materials here. He sent a message online to He Tiantian, asking her where to buy paint, and she gave him an address: “Next to Gome Retail, start from Yongjin plaza and go down the avenue next to West Lake. There’s an alleyway, and if you go in, there are galleries on both sides selling art supplies.”
He Tiantian: “What do you want to buy? I live not far from there. If you want to buy professional supplies, I can go with you. I buy art supplies there a lot and get discounts.”
Cao Feng had already used watercolor pens to draw the shape of the missing piece. Even though it was very small, he had drawn it from memory after all, and he wasn’t a professional painter, so he wasn’t familiar with professional matters.
Cao Feng pondered for a few seconds: “Then I’ll have to bother you. I’m in a bit of a hurry and I need it tomorrow. Are you free tomorrow? If you are, I can treat you to something simple.”
The reason why he wanted to go out tomorrow was because Duan Shumin had said he would be back on the morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year. If Cao Feng went out in the early afternoon of the same day, then didi wouldn’t be alone at home. When Duan Yuche woke up, he would see his father coming home.
After they agreed on the time, Cao Feng thanked her again and again.
He Tiantian kept saying: “It’s okay, it’s okay, what are friends for?”
Early the next morning, Cao Feng took the bus and went out. The place He Tiantian mentioned was in the old city, not too far away. Cao Feng thought that her family lived far away, which was why she lived on campus. Unexpectedly, it wasn’t far from them.
When he got off at the bus station, Cao Feng only took a few steps and saw her. She was wearing a white coat, and waved, shouting: “Cao Feng, I’m here.”
Cao Feng strode over, and He Tiantian asked him, “Have you had breakfast?”
“Yes.”
He Tiantian said: “I’d already bought you a bottle of yoghurt. You can take it first and drink it later.”
Cao Feng was a little embarrassed: “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Let’s go this way, the art supply store is over there.” As they walked, He Tiantian asked, “By the way, what are you buying art supplies for? Drawing?”
“No…there’s a puzzle at home that’s missing a piece…” Cao Feng explained the reason clearly, and even took out his camera to show her: “This is the puzzle, this is the missing piece.”
He didn’t take a picture of the complete puzzle, but only a part of it. Deep down in his heart, he didn’t want others to see the whole puzzle. That was the shared opinion between him and Duan Yuche.
Cao Feng also said: “I made the puzzle piece already, and spares, just in case. Now I need to pick out the paint and colour it. I think the missing piece should look like this.” He took out the watercoloured version that he had done.
It didn’t match the rest of the puzzle.
He Tiantian said: “This yellow is not right. This white is not white, but a bit beige. You should be able to get the right colour by mixing bud yellow ash and ivory white. But you’re only using such a small amount, you don’t need to buy paint. It just so happens that I need to buy some acrylics and gouache, so if you need them just use them, and you can return the rest to me at school another day.”
“This won’t work, how can I…” Cao Feng felt that asking his female classmates to come out and help him choose art supplies was already really troublesome for others. Now, it was like he didn’t even have to spend a dime. How could this be done?
“What’s wrong with it? You still have to buy paint brushes. You won’t be able to use those things after you buy them, so you might as well give them to me. If that’s the case, I’d rather just buy them and lend them to you. Isn’t it the same thing?” He Tiantian said, “And aren’t you going to treat me to a meal? There’s a restaurant near here that makes super good West Lake Vinegar Gravy Fish, I’ll take you to try it later.”
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.
Coafg tfjglcu ktja rtf rjlv, Jjb Mfcu mbeivc’a olcv j gfjrbc ab gfoerf, rb tf mbeiv bcis rjs: “Ktjcx sbe, gfjiis atjcx sbe rb wemt.”
Ciatbeut tf tjv jigfjvs yffc lc Ojlhtbe obg tjio j sfjg, Jjb Mfcu cfnfg kfca bea ktfc tf tjv cbatlcu ab vb. Lf kjr nfgs ecojwliljg klat atlr qijmf. Rjcrtjc Ebjv kjr nfgs yfjealoei, jcv rlcmf la kjr atf Oecjg Rfk Tfjg, atf raevfcar tfgf kfgf jii bc njmjalbc, jcv atfgf kfgfc’a wjcs qfbqif bea jcv jybea. Zjcs jga reqqis rabgfr kfgf mibrfv.
But some stores were open for business on the third day of the new year.
He Tiantian picked out ten cans of paint, each of which was 100ml. She usually used a lot of paint when painting, so she didn’t use the small bottles of paint. Then she bought a few new paintbrushes, a new paint palette, and the Staedtler, eraser, and 14b that she needed…
In the end it was as if Cao Feng was the one accompanying her to the art supply store.
After shopping for nearly an hour and buying everything she needed, He Tiantian said, “It’s almost noon, let’s go to that restaurant.”
At the restaurant, He Tiantian ordered two or three dishes, and told him how to mix colours: “Photos will definitely have colour differences, so you’ll have to go home to look for the specific colours. I’ve never seen the real thing, so I can only tell you that this yellow needs to be mixed with bright yellow and a little bit of orange. You can try it out on paper to find the painting method and amount.”
Cao Feng was so thankful to her. If he had come here by himself, he would have gone cross-eyed trying to figure out what to choose.
He Tiantian then asked him: “Your puzzle looks really complicated, were you the one who put it together?”
“Me and…my didi did it together.”
“Oh oh, your didi is studying here too?”
At that moment, Cao Feng’s cell phone suddenly rang in his pocket. It was the home landline’s number. He picked up the phone: “Hello?”
Cao Feng didn’t dare to call him Xiao Che. After all, his relationship with Duan Yuche was a secret. Except for the head teacher, no one in Class 7 knew what his relationship was with Duan Yuche.
Duan Yuche seemed a little angry and a little wronged: “Cao Feng, where did you go?”
“I… went out to buy something,” Cao Feng felt something was wrong. “Isn’t Uncle back yet?”
“No…he said he was too sleepy after driving all night. He slept for a few hours at the service station last night and won’t be back until this afternoon…when will you get home?”
A waiter came over and asked: “Would you two need any drinks, alcohol, water?”
“I’d just like some tea.” He Tiantian asked Cao Feng, “Cao Feng, do you want a drink?”
Cao Feng pointed to the tea, and continued talking on the phone: “There are frozen dumplings in the refrigerator. Boil some water and cook ten of them, and wait for gege at home. Gege will come home soon.”
Duan Yuche seemed to hear someone else speaking in the background. It was a girl asking Cao Feng if he wanted a drink.
His mood worsened even more: “…Are you on a date? Then you don’t need to bother with me.” After that, without listening to Cao Feng’s explanation, Duan Yuche angrily hung up the phone.
He Tiantian asked him: “What’s wrong? Is it your didi?”
“En. He’s home alone, and I’m afraid he’ll be hungry because he hasn’t eaten anything. I’m sorry, I have to go back first…”
He Tiantian was stunned: “There are so many dishes, you don’t even want to take a bite?”
Cao Feng took out the money to pay the bill: “I’ll treat you again next time, I really can’t do it today…my didi can’t be alone at home.”
He Tiantian said: “Okay then, I’ll eat it myself, you won’t get to eat any.”
Cao Feng felt that it was really ungentlemanly for him to do this, but he really couldn’t stop worrying about Duan Yuche, so he said, “When you get home after eating, please send me a text, and be safe on the way back.”
He Tiantian smiled slightly, nodded and said, “En.”
The restaurant was not expensive, and Cao Feng got a lot of change for the 100 yuan bill he used.
It took half an hour to return home, even with Cao Feng going as fast as he could.
Duan Yuche was sitting obediently in the kitchen, eating milk and oatmeal with a spoon.
Cao Feng breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought that Duan Yuche was refusing to eat at all.
Duan Yuche: “Why are you back?”
“You called me, of course I had to come back.” Cao Feng had miscalculated; he didn’t expect that Duan Shumin wouldn’t arrive home on time.
Duan Yuche: “Then you don’t care about…your female online friend?” After making the call, he spent time at home blindly speculating, who had Cao Feng gone out to see on the third day of the Lunar New Year?
A female classmate or a female online friend?
Anyway, he didn’t recognize whose voice it was, just that it was a woman’s.
“It’s not a female online friend, I didn’t go on a date, I just went to buy some things.”
“You bought paint?” Duan Yuche looked at the bag in Cao Feng’s hand. “Why did you buy this?”
Cao Feng smiled and said, “I’ll tell you when I’m done.”
Duan Yuche sniffed: “I don’t want to know anyway.”
Cao Feng then took off his coat and put on his apron: “What do you want to eat? There are dumplings in the refrigerator. Do you want dumplings, noodles, or fried rice? I can also fry up some dishes for you, we have beef.”
“I want to eat fish.”
“We don’t have any.”
Duan Yuche rested his elbows on the dining table and looked at Cao Feng leisurely: “You can go buy it. I’m not hungry right now.”
Cao Feng took off his apron: “Then I’ll go buy fish now, wait for me nicely at home. What else do you want to eat besides fish? I’ll buy it on the way.”
Duan Yuche: “…”
He didn’t expect Cao Feng to be like this. After all, if the foods Duan Yuche wanted weren’t available at home, Duan Shumin would either ignore him, cook porridge, or take him out to a restaurant to eat.
He wouldn’t be like Cao Feng, who could clearly see that Duan Yuche was throwing a tantrum, and still give in to everything he wanted.
This dampened the anger in Duan Yuche’s heart, although he didn’t know where this inexplicable anger came from, and why he was more unhappy than when he found out that Duan Shumin had a girlfriend.
In the afternoon, Cao Feng spent time in the basement mixing colours. After several attempts, he finally found the correct colour.
He placed the puzzle pieces on the table to dry.
In the evening, Duan Shumin drove home weary from his travels.
It turned out that after he slept at the service station, he accidentally encountered a rear-end accident while driving in the morning. The other party refused to pay for it and said that Duan Shumin had blocked his way. Duan Shumin originally wasn’t going to press the issue at first, but that made him lose his temper, and he waited until the traffic police came to deal with it.
He hadn’t eaten yet when he got home. Cao Feng heated up the food for him, and Duan Shumin asked if they had gone out to play in the past two days: “Do you want to go somewhere to play?”
Duan Yuche said there was nothing fun to do.
Cao Feng said: “It doesn’t matter to me. If Xiao Che wants to go out, I will accompany him.”
Duan Shumin originally wanted to take his two children to Hong Kong, but Cao Feng didn’t have a travel pass, so he chose a new destination: “Then let’s go to Changbai Mountain to soak in a hot spring. I’ll book a hotel now. We can leave tomorrow and be back on the 10th.”
He was exhausted from visiting his hometown. Dealing with relatives was more tiring than dealing with customers, so he wanted to find a place to take a vacation and rest immediately. After all, there were not many holidays on weekdays.
Duan Yuche had no objection, so Duan Shumin took out his mobile phone and started booking tickets and hotels.
Cao Feng went to the basement and found that the paint was completely dry, so he took it to Duan Yuche’s room.
Duan Yuche was packing his suitcase. The room was a complete mess and clothes were scattered all around.
“Cao Feng, you came just in time. I can’t find my sweater. It’s white, but it’s different from my other white sweaters. Help me look for it.”
So Cao Feng put aside the puzzle pieces for the time being and helped to look for Duan Yuche’s clothes. But Duan Yuche had several white sweaters. Cao Feng didn’t know which one he was talking about, and no matter which one he found, Duan Yuche said it wasn’t right.
Cao Feng asked about any distinctive characteristics the sweater had, but Duan Yuche couldn’t say anything because they were all pretty much the same.
But he just wanted that piece of clothing, and seemed unwilling to give up until he found it.
Cao Feng knew that it wasn’t a reflection of how much Duan Yuche liked that white sweater, it was just because he couldn’t find it, so he wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it, and even in sleep he would be thinking about where it was.
It was obvious from how torn up Duan Yuche was about the puzzle, and was so upset that he almost cried.
Cao Feng saw that Duan Yuche was agitated, so while he wasn’t paying attention, Cao Feng put the puzzle piece he made into the gap.
“Xiao Che.” Cao Feng called him, “Look what I found?”
“You found the sweater?”
“No.” Cao Feng said, “Come and take a look.”
Duan Yuche stood up impatiently. But when he saw that the puzzle was filled in, he stopped dead in his tracks: “You found it?”
“You could say that.” After slotting the piece in, the puzzle looked like a complete picture on the surface. It was difficult to find the handmade product with a different texture among the 3000 pieces.
“Wait.” Duan Yuche touched it. He remembered the location of the gap, and immediately discovered something wasn’t right. “This isn’t the original one, it’s your…those paints!” He suddenly realised.
“Weren’t you asking me why I wasn’t here during the day? It was for this.” Cao Feng looked down at his didi, and found that Duan Yuche went from shocked to overjoyed. Duan Yuche’s eyes were sparkling, and he even hugged Cao Feng, and kissed him, his kiss landing on the side of Cao Feng’s face: “Xiao Feng gege, I like you so much.”
It was from this moment on that Cao Feng knew how to correctly make Duan Yuche happy.
this chapter is so cute TT cao feng dotes on duan yuche so much
💖
Awwww 🤗🥰