TWSITAOCP Chapter 22.2

The road ahead was long and difficult.

There were several tables put together in the dormitory, with boys’ belongings piled on them. The one with the cleanest tabletop belonged to Yu Sui, with a frosted glass cup placed upside down on it.

After confirming it was Yu Sui’s cup, Yan Xiu took it to rinse it. By the time he returned, the water had just boiled. He poured the granules in and picked up the kettle, then putting the water into the cup. When he came back, Yu Sui crawled under the quilt again, leaving only half of his face exposed.

Between dying of heat and dying of humiliation, one had to choose.

Yu Sui shifted a little, then stretched out a hand from under the quilt and said politely, “Give it to me, thank you.”

Yan Xiu: “…”

He stared at the snail-like young master: “You come out first.”

Yu Sui said, “No need.”

Yan Xiu glanced at the balcony window: “Aren’t you hot?”

Hot.

Yu Sui blinked gently: “I’m cold.”

The glass cup was not heat-insulated, warming Yan Xiu’s hands. He tilted his head slightly, not intending to continue the stalemate with Yu Sui: “Come down.”

Yu Sui was about to continue to argue, but the minister below glanced at him coldly and said, “Either I drag you down or you come down yourself. Choose one.”

“…”

The young master smiled awkwardly and silently lifted the quilt, climbing down the stairs.

He had woken up because of the heat, and after he covered himself with the quilt, his whole body felt like it had been soaked in water, with the short hair on his forehead sticking to his face.

Yan Xiu shoved the cup into his hand, stood up, found a towel, washed it, wrung it, then brought it over.

Even the best deskmate in the world wouldn’t do more than this. If Yu Sui were really sick, he’d be deeply moved by such care.

But Yu Sui wasn’t. He held the cup and put it back on the table gently.

Yan Xiu saw it and asked, “Too hot?”

Yu Sui: “No.”

“Don’t want to drink it?” Yan Xiu looked at him.

Yu Sui: “…”

He knew that his aggressive personality would definitely make people dislike him, but he still said stiffly, “I’ll drink it after you leave.”

This is almost ungrateful.

Sure enough, Yan Xiu’s expression cooled. Yu Sui took one look and immediately regretted it. However, his ability to tell lies to everyone was hindered by exhaustion. Though anxious, he didn’t know how to fix it, which made him even more frantic.

The dormitory was quiet for a long time, without even a sound from outside.

After two seconds, Yan Xiu nodded: “Okay.”

“No!” Yu Sui’s eyelids twitched. He intuitively felt that if Yan Xiu walked out of this door now, he would definitely regret it for a long time.

Isn’t it just taking medicine? You shouldn’t eat just anything, and you can’t take medicines randomly. Besides, it’s just cold granules, so it’s okay to drink a little…

“Don’t go, I want to drink now.” Yu Sui stretched out his hand to stop Yan Xiu. He immediately picked up the cup and took a polite sip.

Yan Xiu leaned slightly to the side, leaning against the edge of the table, looking quite at ease.

The young master remained completely oblivious.

Yu Sui took two sips, stared at the cup in confusion, and brought it to his nose to sniff. He looked for the trash can and found the empty packet of Ban Lan Gen ¹板藍根 (Ban Lan Gen) is a herb, used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is commonly used to treat conditions such as colds, influenza, sore throat, mouth ulcers, hepatitis, herpes, measles, and psoriasis. in the black plastic bag. He was immediately furious.

So, someone had known all along that he was faking illness, brewed him a cup of Ban Lan Gen, and watched him put on a one-man show like a fool!

Yu Sui drank the whole thing in a hurry, slammed the cup down, and turned around to fight with someone. But when he met Yan Xiu’s quiet eyes, his arrogance instantly died down and he couldn’t even utter a word.

Although he had never read the book much, it was from him after all. He vaguely remembered a few quickly skimmed fragments. Although they were not too serious, there was ambiguity between the lines. It was obviously not feasible to fool people by saying “I don’t know what that is”.

Yu Sui coughed dryly and saw the bag of medicine out of the corner of his eye. He said dryly, “Did you buy medicine for me?”

After saying that, he wanted to slap himself in the face.

Why do people buy medicine?

Because you’re pretending to be sick.

Yan Xiu’s mouth twitched: “Because someone is sick.”

Yu Sui: “…”

Yu Sui was visibly uncomfortable. His sweat-damp hair had dried, sticking up foolishly over his head—a little cute, but also a little pitiful. 

Yan Xiu guessed that the young master was probably going to play the ostrich again. His peacock heart was probably bleeding from all seven orifices and couldn’t stand any more stimulation.

So Yan Xiu did not mention the book, nor did he tell Yu Sui that he had followed the URL marked in the booklet to find the shipping thread in the school forum.

If the young master could get this worked up just from seeing a book, Yan Xiu suspected that letting him know there was an entire, long-standing CP thread in the forum would make him embarrassed he’d bury himself three layers of blankets and fall ill for another month.

Yan Xiu was being considerate, but Yu Sui didn’t know it.

Yu Sui went back under the bed, took off his shirt and threw it into the laundry basket, then pulled out a new shirt.

A flash of pale waist passed by.

Yan Xiu looked away and saw a round-headed, earless cat cartoon character²I’m actually looking for this, but I’m still clueless. Please let me know, if you have an idea! Thank you! neatly placed in a section of Yu Sui’s closet.

This sight was truly incredible. Young Master Yu himself seemed aware of it too—he took the cat down and casually set it on the desk.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yan Xiu looking at his cat, and Yu Sui mumbled an explanation, “I usually don’t keep it there. I only put it up there when I encounter a problem.”

“Why put it up there?” Yan Xiu started at the cat, wondering whether Young Master Yu was just being too childish or he was mature beyond his years. There seemed to be a generation gap between them.

“To worship it.” Yu Sui pulled the hem of his clothes down. “Our family is a bit superstitious. My dad worships the God of Wealth³It was mentioned in the previous chapters, but to recall, in Chinese mythology and folk religion, a deity or group of deities revered for their ability to bestow wealth and prosperity., my mom worships Guanyin⁴觀音 (n) – often depicted as a female deity, she is known as the ‘Goddess of Mercy’ and is believed to hear the cries of the world and provide aid., and my sister worships Sun Wukong⁵孫悟空 (n) – is a central figure in Chinese culture, symbolizing courage, rebellion, and perseverance.…”

He spoke quite clearly, but when strung together, it wasn’t easy to follow. Yan Xiu managed to draw a line from it: whenever others prayed to different gods, Yu Sui would pray to this earless cat instead.

Extremely superstitious.

Yan Xiu stared at the earless cat in silence for a long time, then asked, “What are you praying for this time?”

Yu Sui was silent for a while: “For you to get dementia.”

Yan Xiu turned to look at him: “?”

Yu Sui looked away: “I just want you to forget what happened yesterday.”

Yu Sui understood the logic. If this matter was left unresolved, it would be like a time bomb in the future. He couldn’t avoid Yan Xiu forever, so he decided to just throw the jar into the air and get himself killed with one blow.

But, Yan Xiu’s reaction was even more indifferent than Yu Sui had imagined.

He just raised his eyes in surprise, and then nodded: “Okay.”

Yu Sui was stunned: “What do you mean ‘okay’?”

Yan Xiu: “I’ll forget now.”

Maybe guys with cold demeanors all talked in this tone, which is quite deceptive. Yu Sui was stunned for two seconds and stared at him: “Are you coaxing a child?”

This guy actually laughed: “Yeah.”

Yu Sui almost got angry again.

Since Yu Sui wasn’t actually sick, Yan Xiu didn’t plan to stay long. He took out a bag of Ban Lan Gen from the plastic bag of medicine and placed it on the table, then poured Yu Sui another glass of water with the kettle.

Yan Xiu: “Drink it and go to sleep. When you wake up, come back to class.”

Yu Sui hugged the cup and the Ban Lan Gen, nodding obediently.

Yan Xiu picked up the plastic bag without putting down the kettle: “Then, I will take this prohibited item away.”

Yu Sui froze.

Yu Sui slept in the dormitory for a day and lost an electric kettle. It belonged to his bunkmate and was the only prized kettle in the entire dorm.

The electric kettle took up space in the socket, but it was extremely useful. Yang Feiwen and his roommate always use that kettle to boil eggs at night. Sometimes, when they are too lazy to go out to fetch water, they also use this kettle.

Now, the pot was gone, and everyone was mourning.

“Wait, how did you manage to lose the kettle just by sleeping?” The roommate couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Yu Sui coughed dryly: “Someone came to see me.”

“Who is it? Your homeroom teacher, Lao Gu?” he asked quickly. “Lao Gu is soft-hearted, how about we go over and ask for it back?”

Yu Sui’s eyes drifted away: “It’s not Lao Gu. It’s my deskmate.”

Roommate: “…Oh, never mind.”

Their dorm had dodged one bullet only to get hit by another—losing a kettle so unexpectedly.

Luckily, although the Minister took away the prohibited items, he forgot to deduct points from them, and Yu Sui placed an order for a new electric kettle that same night. The next day, Yu Sui still felt a little restrained. It was not until two classes later that he found that Yan Xiu was no different from usual and immediately regained his peacock-like spirit.

“This is actually quite normal.” Yu Sui said to his deskmate. “People ship us because we are both good-looking . If we looked like Yang Feiwen, even if he was naked and hugged someone, no one would ship them.”

Yan Xiu put the red armband into the table and raised his chin: “Sit properly.”

Yu Sui put down his legs and slid back to his seat, mumbling, “Sit properly, stand properly, put your phone away, listen to the class… Is this something you, a deskmate, should be responsible for?”

He was so annoying that Yan Xiu had to pay attention to Master Yu’s request: “Then, what should I be doing?”

“You should take care of…” Yu Sui smiled politely, his eyes drooping obediently, and it was obvious that he was holding back some bad intentions: “Well, if my cup is empty, please fill it for me. If the teacher comes, please remind me. And lend me your homework for… reference.“

He was reciting the good deskmate rule that was widely circulated on the internet, but it had a different meaning when he said it.

Yan Xiu felt something was wrong: “Are you sure this is something a deskmate should do?”

“Of cour—” Yu Sui paused mid-sentence. Looking at the pair of peach-blossom eyes, his heart skipped a beat, “… I’m just guessing.”

After that, Yu Sui stopped chatting.

He had cleared one major hurdle, lifting a heavy weight off his chest, only to find another one taking its place.

In the past, he could ignore the teasing looks from others and talk to Yan Xiu freely, banking on the fact that Yan Xiu knew nothing from it. But now, he can’t do that anymore.

When Yan Xiu was out on duty, the class monitor handed out confirmation forms that required both of their signatures. After Yu Sui signed his own, he habitually signed one for Yan Xiu. Just as the tip of the pen moved to that position, it suddenly stopped.

He looked up at the class monitor and smiled: “I’ll let him sign it himself when he gets back.”

“Didn’t you always sign for him before?” The class representative didn’t want to wait for another class and sounded somewhat reluctant.

Yu Sui pointed to the line of information in front of him and said, “Look, they still need to confirm the phone number here. I don’t know his phone number.”

Only then did the class representative give up.

 

Translator’s note: Hmm… Yu Sui…