TWSITAOCP Chapter 37

This pair of cat-human fan art was posted just a day or two ago, so it hasn’t been up for long, but it’s already gained a lot of attention. 

One cat has blue fur, the other golden. The blue-furred cat even has a specially drawn armband and a red-striped school badge, while the other looks much more familiar— emerald eyes, golden fur, and an arrogant expression, looking like it’s living the good life 

These kinds of art are always very popular in this thread.

The artist’s strokes were decisive. Probably busy with classes, they didn’t work on the details. But anyone who sees it can immediately tell which two people these cats correspond to.

After all, the official pairing thread has maintained high popularity for an entire semester, accumulating quite a few images—some refined, some rough, some widely circulated. This pair of cats is just one of many fan arts. 

Yan Xiu isn’t really surprised that Yu Sui would repost art from here, since most people tend to pay more attention to things related to themselves. And Young Master Yu is essentially a reserved peacock, so his self-awareness is even more heightened than others. So, it’s no surprise they’d repost art—some might even boldly share it on social media for more people to see. 

But this profile picture was only changed half a day ago, why the sudden switch to white?

Yan Xiu frowned in confusion.

The person behind him wasn’t walking properly either. If Yan Xiu slowed down even slightly, he would inevitably bump into him.

After being bumped into three or four times in a row, Yan Xiu simply walked to the side, silently watching this person walk.

Yu Sui walked while playing on his phone, not even lifting his eyelids, but this time he didn’t bump into anyone. His “accidental” collisions were oddly targeted.

After leaving the Yuanyang Building, the group no longer walked in a straight line, instead forming rows of two, three, or four people. 

Young Master Yu walked for a while before realizing he was all alone. 

He stopped and scanned his surroundings, spotting Yan Xiu walking parallel to him, half an arm’s length away. 

Half an arm’s distance—clearly not a close relationship. 

Yu Sui asked irritably, “Why are you standing so far away? 

Yan Xiu gave him a look that seemed to say, “What nonsense are you talking about?” He looked like he was holding back a lot of sarcasm and complaints, but surprisingly, he didn’t say anything and walked back to Yu Sui’s side.

Then, out of nowhere, he asked, “Do you really like cats?”

Yu Sui shook his head decisively: “Cats are too much trouble. They’re picky about food and bed, have terrible tempers, always need coaxing, and love to scratch people.”

When he was younger, his family had kept many animals, including cats. Once, when his father, Yu Si, went on a trip, he brought back two cats. One was hairless, and since his mother didn’t like hairless cats, it was given away. The other cat settled in well at the Yu household, gaining weight within days, but it was too energetic, constantly darting around the house and leaving cat hair everywhere. 

One day, it brought a dead mouse to his parents’ bedroom door, startling his mother so much she strained her back. That day, his mother, clutching her back, immediately gave the cat to a relative who supposedly had a mouse in their house.

Yu Sui didn’t really have much of a problem with cats themselves, but from his observation, that cat, who had only stayed for a few days, was more demanding and troublesome than him. Yu Sui already considered himself quite troublesome and didn’t like this even more troublesome cat.

Thinking of this, he shared his insights with Yan Xiu: “Actually, dogs are a bit better than cats. At least when they’re being bullied, they don’t realize they’re being bullied.” 

A question mark popped up in Yan Xiu’s mind. He glanced at Yu Sui, then averted his gaze. 

Yu Sui suppressed a smile and strolled up the front, phone in hand.

But when he refreshed his phone, he suddenly saw his own avatar—a golden-haired kitten—reappear in the list. 

Except this time, his own avatar was still a blank white space. It wasn’t him who had changed it. 

Yu Sui took a closer look and realized it was the person behind him—the one who never changed his avatar. 

Yu Sui had once wondered whether Yan Xiu would still be using the default avatar if it weren’t so ugly. Now, it had suddenly turned into a golden-haired cat. 

Yu Sui stared at that avatar for a moment, a sudden jolt running through him. He suddenly wanted to change his own avatar to that blue-haired cat.

That would be a little strange, but rounding it off, it would be a kind of…

Before he could continue his thought, the avatar on the other side refreshed abruptly, becoming a solid black square.

Yu Sui was taken aback. He turned and grabbed Yan Xiu: “I just saw it.”

Yan Xiu looked at him, raising an eyebrow: “Saw what?”

Yu Sui couldn’t quite bring himself to say the term “the fanart avatar,” and he hesitated for a moment before saying, “You changed your avatar twice just now.”

Yan Xiu wasn’t surprised at all. He nodded. “Curious?”

“… Isn’t it obvious?” Yu Sui might as well have written “itching with curiosity” on his face. 

Yan Xiu was amused by his expression. 

Yi Tian, the person in front, stopped at the entrance and waved the card in his hand: “Go in one by one later, stick to the side aisle, don’t compete with other teachers. We’ll sit at the two tables on the side, or take it to the student cafeteria to eat. Don’t draw too much attention.” 

Yu Sui was still staring at Yan Xiu, who lightly tapped his arm with his phone, his tone casual and teasing: “I was curious too, just now.” 

Yu Sui: “…” 

So Yan Xiu did all this just to get back at him.

The young master, annoyed by the childishness, kicked him.

During the class meeting on Friday that week, Lao Gu brought in a stack of sticky notes and asked the students of Class 3 to write their future goals or dreams on them, then stick them on the bulletin board at the back. 

In fact, from the moment they stepped into school, every student had experienced something like this at least once. Teachers always subtly reminded them that life needed a belief to guide it. Even if that belief might change over time, there should still be a direction. 

Lao Gu had prepared thoroughly for this class meeting. For the first half of the session, he did his best to stir up the students’ emotions, only handing out the sticky notes when he felt the atmosphere was right 

Yang Feiwen tore off three sticky notes by himself, saying he had too many dreams to fit on one. As he wrote, he sighed, “Lao  Gu really is an artist by heart. Even a simple class meeting has to sound like a tear-jerking dating show.”

Teenagers this age love witty banter, and Yang Feiwen was perfect at it.

Yu Sui stood beside Yang Feiwen, his eyes catching a glimpse of one of his sticky notes: “Next month’s goal is to urge my mom to seriously lose weight. She gained weight again last month, and when I told her, she actually scolded me.”

“…” Yu Sui paused, then patted Yang Feiwen on the shoulder, “A-Wen, write more seriously.”

Lao Gu reminded them from the podium, “Students who really can’t think of anything can consider which school you want to attend a year from now and what direction you want to strive for.” 

“My goal is to get into Y University without even trying,” Yang Feiwen immediately chimed in after Lao Gu finished speaking. 

Several classmates around him covered their mouths and chuckled. 

Whether Lao Gu was too far away to hear clearly or something else, he actually raised his hand and gave a thumbs-up. “Yang Feiwen’s confidence is commendable.” 

The surrounding laughter erupted again. 

Yang Feiwen clasped his hands in a gesture of thanks to the applause from his classmates. After a while, he remembered Yu Sui’s warning and quickly went over to ask, “What’s wrong? Wasn’t I writing quite seriously?”

Yu Sui returned to his seat, pen between his fingers as he stared blankly at the sticky note. He answered absentmindedly, “If you want your parents to see your ‘serious’ goals, that’s fine too.”

Yang Feiwen didn’t react immediately: “Why would I show it to them?”

“They’ll see it themselves.” From behind Yang Feiwen, Yan Xiu suddenly walked over beside him and sat down in his seat.

Yan Xiu: “At the latest this Sunday, or possibly even today, Lao Gu will choose a time to hold a parent-teacher meeting for our class. Then, the parents will only need to turn around to see your ambitious goals.”

Yu Sui nodded in agreement: “Mm.”

Yang Feiwen: “…”

As a “gossip king”, he had actually heard rumors of an upcoming parent-teacher meeting, but he wasn’t sure how true it was. His latest information was that it was most likely a fake. Because who holds a parent-teacher meeting so early in the semester?

However, both of them seemed quite certain it would happen.

Yang Feiwen really wanted to ask them how they knew.

As his roommate, Yu Sui immediately understood Yang Feiwen’s confusion. He pointed to the board behind him and smiled, “Just guessing. I felt that Lao Gu had never been this serious about class meetings before.”

Yet today, he’d unusually prepared such an elaborate presentation.

Besides, for Class 3 Arts, a sudden parent-teacher meeting wasn’t strange at all. It could be a mobilization meeting for the G7 candidate competition, or another detailed breakdown of the students’ future paths for the next semester.

Lao Gu’s words, both explicit and implicit, carried a guiding tone. Most unprepared students might have followed his lead when writing their goal sticky notes. 

For those who had guessed this, the sticky note felt more like another channel for communicating with their parents. 

“Holy shit,” Yang Feiwen suddenly realized. “I almost fell for it! Lao Gu is so sneaky!” 

Yi Tian, ​​standing nearby, laughed out loud: “You’re the one who’s too stupid, okay? Look at how many people wrote nonsense like you did.”

Yang Feiwen looked around and saw it was true. Clutching his two sticky notes, he shook his head and returned to his seat to think seriously. 

Knowing the notes were meant for their parents, many students felt more at ease and quickly wrote something down. 

But the corner where Yu Sui and Yan Xiu sat was a different story—each had a blank sticky note on their desk. 

In previous years, Yu Sui had always turned in a blank note with just his signature. On more thoughtful occasions, he’d add two more words: salted fish¹鹹魚 /xiányú/ a lazy bum.

For some reason this year, he hesitated for a moment before finally just signing his name. Then he turned his attention to the person next to him, who also had a blank sheet. 

But Yan Xiu was different from him—Yan Xiu wasn’t afraid of his family seeing it. He was probably someone who had always been clear about his goals from a young age. Lao Yan and Tang Ying didn’t need to rely on such methods to understand their son better. 

“Just signing your name is fine,” Yu Sui advised him. 

Yan Xiu glanced at him. “Or should I draw a salted fish?” 

Yu Sui: “…” He smiled faintly. “Are we never getting past this?” 

Later, Yu Sui didn’t see what Yan Xiu submitted, but it probably wasn’t just a signature. However, the characters on it must have had very few strokes, because Yan Xiu only made two or three marks before signing. 

As expected, a group of parents showed up at Class 3 Arts after school that day. They gathered at the gate, secretly condemning Lao Gu in the class group chat.

Students weren’t allowed to attend the parent-teacher meeting with their parents. The group was escorted out of the school by security.

Only Yu Sui and Yan Xiu lingered.

“Are you two leaving together?” Yang Feiwen pointed to himself, then at the two of them.

“Yeah,” Yu Sui glanced at Yan Xiu. “We’re on the way.”

Yang Feiwen gave a whistle and ran off with the others.

Meanwhile, Yu Sui took out his phone and sent his sister Yu Zhen the location of his classroom. He had originally thought no one would come to this parent-teacher meeting and hadn’t expected Yu Zhen to show up.

Yu Zhen not only came, but also asked Yu Sui if he wanted to go with her to the dinner party following Fu Lai’s collaboration with the restaurant next door.

Yu Sui wasn’t interested in such things and refused without hesitation.

The reason he hadn’t left yet was because they saw Tang Ying. She asked him if he wanted to have dinner together that night.

Truthfully, Yu Sui wasn’t too keen on facing Tang Ying directly at the moment. She was like a warning sign, constantly reminding him: They treat you so well, yet you’ve set your sights on their son. 

Yan Xiu’s finger slid across the screen, and he suddenly said, “If you don’t want to go, then don’t.” 

“…” Yu Sui’s eyelids twitched. “Really?”

“Really.” Yan Xiu turned off the screen, as if he wanted to say something more but swallowed it back. Actually, he wasn’t sure either, for various reasons.

He slightly lowered his gaze slightly, maintaining his cold and taciturn demeanor.

Half an hour later, Yu Sui brought Yan Xiu back to Fu Cun.

Yan Xiu had met Yan Wuyan a few times before, so they just exchanged brief nods as a greeting.

“You two can entertain yourselves,” Yan Wuyan glanced at them. He seemed very busy, opening the door while holding a pen. After letting them in, he went straight to his study and closed the door behind him.

They didn’t stay at Yan Wuyan’s place for too long. Yu Sui took something out of Yan Wuyan’s cabinet, pulled out an object, and signaled to Yan XIu that they could leave.

Yan Xiu glanced at it indifferently and saw it was a divination stick container. Unlike the ones they’d shaken at the barbecue restaurant, this container looked particularly ancient and rustic.

Yan Xiu looked at it for a while, then turned his gaze to Yu Sui’s face: “What’s this?”

Yu Sui gently shook the container: “Have you watched any TV dramas?”

“…” Minister Yan felt looked down upon, his face expressionless as he remained silent.

Yu Sui didn’t look at him either, as if speaking casually: “It is a divination stick holder for love fortunes.”

 

 

 

If you like this chapter, consider donating on my kofi! Thank you!