TL: Lattenights
Editor/TL-checker: PJ
Chen You was in the living room, hurriedly typing away on the keyboard. When the man returned, Chen You noticed it immediately, “You only went to the supermarket, what took you so long?”
Jian Dan placed the shopping bag on the table, “I smoked a cigarette by the road.”
Chen You stretched his neck to take a look. The man had a bright red rose in his hand.
Jian Dan pinched his nose as he said, “This is for Valentine’s Day, in advance.”
It’s only June, Boss Jian.
Chen You’s shoulders shook as he laughed, “You’re so cute, this can also be celebrated in advance, ah? And I’ve never seen anyone picking flowers from their own garden as a gift.”
Jian Dan said, “Then I just happen to be the first person to eat crabs, then.”
Chen You stopped playing his game. As he circled around Jian Dan, he asked if Jian Dan had bought anything delicious.
“I’ll go to the washroom for a bit.” Jian Dan said, “I bought a lot, and all of them are your favourites, you can look through them yourself.”
Chen You hugged the snacks as he ate them, and he waited for quite a bit before the person came out. His fringe was wet, it was evident that he had washed his face. Some of the water even got into his eyes and they were a little red.
Jian Dan glanced over at him, “What are you staring at this Senior for?”
He’s really got that masculine look going for him, ah.
Chen You took a potato chip and stuffed it into Jian Dan’s mouth, before stuffing another into his own mouth in unison.
At night, after putting the bowl and chopsticks aside, Jian Dan directly brought him into the bedroom.
On the second day, it was just like usual.
Chen You listlessly laid on the sofa eating strawberries and yelled at the direction of the kitchen, “Senior, don’t make too much, I don’t have much appetite!”
A voice drifted out from the kitchen, “It won’t be too much.”
Chen You thought 一True, with that guy’s culinary skills, nothing much can be said.
He ate strawberries as he asked the system, “444, is that 0.2 still the same?”
The system said, “Yes, same old, same old.”
Chen You straightened his legs, placing them on the coffee table, “Is there anything you want to say to me?”
The system said, “JiaYou.”
Chen You, “… Thank you, ah.”
The fragrance of rice wafted out from the kitchen.
He smacked his lips. This feeling of waiting for someone to call for you to eat, it’s really pleasant.
Even though the dishes were just so-so, it didn’t have any effect on Chen You’s mood.
The morning after the third day, after Jian Dan got out of bed, he suddenly said that he wanted to wash Chen You’s hair.
Chen You was burrowed in his blankets, “What hair are you going to wash so early in the morning, ah, I can just wash it when I bathe at night.”
Jian Dan scooped him out from his blankets and forcibly got him some clothes to wear, being very overbearing as he said, “I want to wash it for you now, and don’t want to wait till later at night.”
Chen You was in a daze and pressed onto a small stool in the bathroom. There was clearly a showerhead in the bathroom, but this person didn’t use it, only using a pail and a scoop. No matter what Chen You said, it fell on deaf ears; he was really persistent.
Jian Dan gathered some water in the scoop, pouring it over Chen You’s head, “Is the water temperature alright?”
Chen You was wide awake now, “It’s a bit hot.”
Jian Dan added some cool water from the pail, and poured it over Chen You, “How about now?”
Chen You said, “It’s better.”
Chen You could feel that Jian Dan was washing him very slowly. The fingers that glided through his hair were very warm, and the force Jian Dan used on his scalp was the most gentle Jian Dan had ever been with him.
“Senior, are there any special arrangements today?”
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.
“No.” Jian Dan said, “After I’m done washing your hair, you just go back to sleep. I’ll be out for a while.”
Jtfc Tbe wfgfis nblmfv bea, “Yt.”. Rbgwjiis tf kbeivc’a qgs, yea abvjs, obg rbwf ecxcbkc gfjrbc, tf jvvfv jcbatfg defralbc, “Vb ktja jgf sbe ublcu bea obg?”
Aljc Gjc rjlv, “P tjnf rbwfatlcu ab vb.”
Lf abbx j abkfi jcv klqfv Jtfc Tbe’r tjlg vgs, “Vla bc atf mtjlg, P’ii yibk-vgs sbeg tjlg.”
Chen You obeyed and obediently sat on the chair, waiting for him.
Jian Dan brought over a hair dryer, and was just as gentle as he was earlier as he blow-dried Chen You’s hair. He kissed his ear and gave him a glass of milk, “Drink the milk and sleep tight.”
Chen You held the cup and finished the milk, “You’re going out now?”
Jian Dan assented, “Gu Sheng, give me a kiss.”
Chen You turned his head, kissing him once on the nose and then once more on the lips.
As he walked out of the room, Jian Dan said, “Gu Sheng, I’m going off now.”
“Come back early.”
Chen You resumed lying on the bed. After a while, he rubbed his eyes and yawned a few times, feeling exceptionally tired. He felt dizzy, and soon fell asleep.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, Chen You’s brain received a notification prompt of him completing the mission successfully, and he had 30 mins left before he had to leave.
He was immediately shocked awake, and found himself lying on the bed, unsure as to when Jian Dan carried him there.
There was a small tear on his lips, and it was even scabbed over. Chen You reached out his hand and touched it. No, something isn’t right 一 Jian Dan kissed him so forcefully, how was he still unaware of it?
“Senior?”
Nobody replied to him.
Chen You continuously shouted for him, but there still wasn’t a reply. His heart started to feel restless despite not knowing why.
He flipped over the study room, living room, balcony and all the other places he could think of searching, and he still wasn’t able to find the man. At this point, Chen You panicked even more.
The doorbell suddenly rang. Chen You went to open the door, and when he saw the visitor, his facial expression got extremely ugly. The worry in his heart then overshadowed all his other feelings, “Brother Zheng?”
What the f*ck, what are you here for, ah?!
Zheng Ze forced out a smile that was a hundred-fold uglier than Chen You’s, “Xiao Gu, it’s been many years since we last met. I even thought that you wouldn’t be able to recognize your brother Zheng anymore.”
Chen You gripped onto the door handle, It’s over.
Jian Dan was still caught in the end.
This is the long-arm of the law, right?
The system said, “The target has already lived a few more years, and doesn’t have any regrets. Hence all of his evil points disappeared when he got arrested.”
Chen You didn’t understand, “Why didn’t he tell me?”
The system answered him, “He was scared of you feeling sad.”
Chen You was even more confused, “I wake up, and then find out that he has been arrested. Won’t I still feel sad?”
The system said that the sadness he experienced now was probably less than the sadness he would have experienced if it happened before his eyes.
“I thought that before he left, he would have killed me.” Chen You said, “Since I once promised him that I will always be by his side.”
The system replied, “He probably didn’t have the heart to do it.”
Chen You asked immediately, “Has he been sentenced?”
The system said that he has been sentenced; they will be carrying it out today.
Chen You retreated one step, avoiding the hand Zheng Ze extended out to him, “Where is Senior?”
“I came here to talk to you about this.”
Zheng Ze lowered his head, “Xiao Gu, what I will say later, you might not be able to accept it for a while. However, after a long time, you will understand why.”
Che You listened to him, and when he was done, Chen You merely said, “I want to be alone for a while.” He didn’t even have thirty minutes left, he needed to get the system to extract his soul from his body. He remembered that there wouldn’t be any negative side effects if it’s done for a short while.
Without waiting for Zheng Ze’s reply, Chen You closed the door on him.
Quicky, his soul floated out of the room. He saw Zhen Ze at the door, sitting on the steps with his face buried in his knees and his shoulders shaking slightly.
Zhen Ze was crying.
To personally bring in his brother, that sort of agony 一 it was really unbearable for ordinary folks.
System said, “The target has entrusted you to Zhen Ze.”
Chen You laughed coldly, “You know a lot, ma.”
He angrily said, “To only inform me of this now, not bad.”
System, “…”
Chen You, “Then later, when Zhen Ze finds me dead in the room, how would he react?”
System said, “He wouldn’t have the face to meet his brother, ba.”
Chen You sighed. He couldn’t care about much anymore. To stay or leave – it was not something he could decide for himself.
“Bring me to Jian Dan.”
System said, “The mission has been completed, there is no need to care about this world anymore.”
“I just want to say goodbye to him.”
Chen You didn’t linger around, floating under the system’s guidance back to the country, where Jian Dan was. He was tied up on a bed with an exceptionally serene expression.
At this moment however, Chen You was extremely sad and couldn’t even speak.
He floated to the man’s side, “Ai, you, really… You didn’t tell me anything. I’m not a child anymore…”
As expected, he didn’t get a reply.
Chen You bent down, whispering into Jian’s Dan’s ear, “ When you visit your family, you must pass on my greetings to them, ah.”
“Jian Dan, I hope that in your next life, you will be reborn into a happy family, and live a peaceful and happy life.”
Chen You sincerely prayed, even if he didn’t know how effective it would be in his current form as a soul.
Chen You wished to do something for this man, even if it was just something small, in the remaining time he had left.
“Although you were a huge pervert, and at times were especially infuriating and will mess with me for no reason, hurt me, piss me off, tease me, and even treat me like a little white rabbit, but… to be able to get to know you, I was really happy.”
Chen You said, “Really, really happy.”
He saw Jian Dan’s lips move, as though he said something.
“444, quick, tell me – Did Jian Dan say something just now?”
The system, “He said, “Gu Sheng, goodbye. I love you.” ”
Chen You was stunned into a daze.
Someone came in and gave Jian Dan an injection. It was really quick, happening in the blink of an eye. Chen You widened his eyes there and then, and soon his vision blurred out completely. He couldn’t make out anything anymore.
“Didn’t you say that souls can’t cry?”
“You really didn’t shed any tears.”
“Then… why does it feel like I’m crying?”
“It’s probably your heart crying, ba.”
The man wasn’t moving anymore, all of the pain and hate had been washed away 一 he had gone to be reunited with his family.
Chen You floated over to him, hollowly leaning on the man’s chest as he said, “Goodbye, Jian Dan.”
Just as his words were uttered, the final second left in the countdown elapsed.
Chen You was then sent to the resting station. While he was floating about, the system was busy brain-washing him.
He was being drilled with stuff like “Don’t get too emotionally involved”, “Don’t forget your true intentions”, “Don’t think about it anymore after completing the mission” and the like.
“You’re really annoying!”
Chen You spent a very long time before he managed to repress his feelings, “Let’s go.”
World fragments floated over to him from the sky above. As Chen You watched them with his head raised, he soon became crossed-eyed – there were simply too many.
The system said, “Have you chosen yet?”
Chen You rubbed his eyes, “Why are you in a rush? I finally had the rare chance to choose for myself.”
The system said, “You have a time limit, there are only 5 minutes left.”
“So this is the afore-mentioned reward?” Chen You was feeling unsatisfied with this treatment, as he glanced at a fragment, “Qing Feng Lou’s owner, it’s a pretty powerful existence.”
“This one, ba.”
In the next second, Chen You was sent to the mission world. He woke up on a boat, and was fairly disoriented for a while.
The boat swayed and rocked gently, he really felt like sleeping.
Chen You dusted his own robes.
This material, the pattern adorned on the robes, this pendant hanging off his waist – all of these were of very good quality.
This was an ancient world, and it is currently the 21st year of the Yuan Zhou Dynasty. Chen You arrived around March.
He combed through the memories of the original owner of the body- this body belonged to a person called Liao Qing Feng, who was the owner of Qing Feng Lou.
Liao Qing Feng had just come from his hometown in An Prefecture. His person hadn’t even arrived at his destination when his memorial tablet had to be hung on the wall.
Qing Feng Lou initially belonged to one of Liao Qing Feng’s good friends. However, business was bleak and he only suffered losses before he eventually decided to sell it off at a low price.
Liao Qing Feng took the opportunity to snatch it over. That good friend of his was also pretty dumb – not only were the fine liquour and beauties all swallowed up by Liao Qing Feng, he also managed to bargain for a further discount on the already low selling price and confirmed the transaction on the documents with inked fingerprints.
Just like that, the relationship between these two brothers soured.
That friend was deeply upset over it, and it resulted in Liao Qing Feng suffering a mishap.
Chen You stretched his entire body, He’s finally a boss, ah, it’s really not easy.
The system made itself known again as it asked, “You’re done with going through the original owner’s memories?”
Chen You replied, “No, why?”
He suddenly had a bad feeling, “Asking me this so suddenly, it’s making me feel a little nervous.”
The system, “We’ll talk when you’re done.”
Chen You sat back and continued to go through the memories of the original owner, and his face morphed into one that had “WTF” written all over it.
Qing Feng Lou was a gigolo den. It was considered ancient gold, not a restaurant/bar.
So far it only had a few gigolos, the rest already had spouses arranged for them. They didn’t marry out of love – it was simply because no one wanted them.
Therefore, one can imagine how strange and exotic they looked.
Liao Qing Feng specially went back to his hometown this time to get some silvers. He was also the extremely cunning type, he didn’t visit anyone but his maternal grandmother.
Old people always pamper their grandchildren, and since Liao Qing Feng was her sole grandchild, the moment she heard that he wanted some silvers, ah, she just gave.
Liao Qing Feng happily returned to Jiang city with his silvers and had ambitious plans to manage Qing Feng Lou nicely and replace the number one gigolo den in the city.
Chen You was floored, “I became a pimp?”
The system, “Yes, ah.”
Chen You sneered, “This is awesome, ah.”
The system said, “Yet another entirely new experience, congrats.”
“I don’t want to talk to you!”
Chen You ran out to the deck, shedding tears as the wind blew against his face.
He should really jump into the river and call it a day.
So this is the wrap-up for this arc! As y’all read, the new arc is based on, well, gigolos (Y’all saw what I did when I mentioned “giggling” in one of the comments before? ;3 No? But for real I did giggle ahahahaha)
Thank you for reading, chapters will be posted weekly from now on for as long as IRL decides to grant the team mercy!
.. thanks for the chapter, im so sad.
Me too, I cried so much translating because I kept thinking of more fitting terms to describe the sadness and I just got more upset TwT
especially that he was so calm and peaceful while dying.. that just hit me so hard
F*ck, this chapter hurts so much, it’s 3:00 am and I have a broken heart T_T hehe anyway, thank u for the chapter.<3
Gives instant noodles for your broken heart UwU Thank you for reading <3
Ai… pain…
Thanks for the chapter ~~
IKR T-T Thanks for reading ~~
Author…who hurt you
I’ve read one of the author’s other novels, and the author is very “lovely.” They come up with such interesting plots and some are just really dark or make you go “wtf” haha
I read their “The Door Keeps Getting Smaller and Smaller” and…doors and birds…author’s wordplay is getting more and more uh…
MOVING ON LOL their other work was not as dark or depressing as this one, like it was just kind of yandere and funny. I-
I don’t know who hurt the author but we all know who hurt us now :’3
Thank you for your hard work translating 😄
Thank you for reading! 😊
Thanks for the chapter!!
Thanks for reading!! UwU
Thank you so much for translating! I really love this novel. Fell in love with it from the very first arc. The ML has been so pitiful in the past arcs, but this one hurts too muchhh. Ah but Chen You started as a gigolo in the first arc, and now he’s a pimp. I’m strangely proud ;-;
SAMEE, it’s why I chose to join this project hehe
and lmao it’s a promotion!
Why did they both die😥😥
The only consolation I got was that the ML didn’t have to live without CY after he was done with the mission, but I feel you fam hugs
hugs
thank you lovely author and translators for making me cry
hands tissue Thank you lovely reader for taking the time of day to read and comment <3
What a beautiful and sad way to end this arc. I cried a river😢. Thank you so much for your work!❤😘
hands a box of tissues Thank you for reading! <3
I havent moved on from the first arc’s death scene because holy crap he literally detonated himself and saved the ML eternally scarring him. but this actually made me almost as sad mostly because of poor Zhen Zhe 🙁 I’m glad that CY and JD got to have some sweet moments even tho JD has some pretty twisted kinks hahaha
pats I felt bad for Zhen Zhe too, like fr what did the guy do to deserve this T-T And yeah, the things I learnt from reading this series, don’t even ask because I wouldn’t know where to begin ahahaha
Speaking of kinks and quirks, the next arc had me going: Just why, dear author-sama? Just why- TwT
Referencing the translator’s note… I would expect that “ancient gold” is the character making a personal reference to the arc when he worked as a rent boy in a pleasure house that was called “Gold”. Just now it’s ‘gold’ but in ancient times. Definitely not somewhere he wants to go back to… especially after having thought he was a boss just to find that he’s back selling *ss just now as a pimp.
Ooh now that’s an interesting correlation! I’ll have to check again and try to get raws which had that mentioned since in Chinese it didn’t feel like they were talking about a noun, but rather a colour. But who am I to decide that since our ML for this arc was literally named after an adjective: 简单 aka simple-
I– although I love mutual consent these two had shown me a scenario that really differs so much to what I understand. I love how much feels this novel is giving me, looking forward for the next chapters~
Thank you for your hardwork! (May i ask how many chapters would the next arc have? I’m planning on stockpiling them. thank you ^^)**its 3:47 AM and i have to sleep with my fragile heart and soul damaged 🙂
*Mutual understanding, rather.
mutual understanding, rather😆
I’m sad, I also feel like crying 😢
Thank you for the chapter
WAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
ಥ_ಥ “……….”
Ni siquiera puedo llorar agusto con el nuevo arco apareciendo 😅
💛💚❤️❤️💜💜💙💚💛
Thanks for translating the chapter.
Can you pls tell number number of chapters in the new arc? Cliffhanger and me dont have a good relationship 😅🤣