Chapter 33: 33

33 – He Looked Good, Is That Not Okay?

Translator: tamago

 

Xu Xiran stood in front of Fang Mo, leaned forward a little, raised his right hand, and just barely touched Fang Mo’s chin with his fingertips.

Fang Mo sat in the chair, raised his head to look in Xu Xiran’s direction, and slightly opened his lips.

From an outsider’s perspective, how would they interpret this?

Fang Mo’s two roommates had marvelous expressions.

Xu Xiran himself was not much better. After his mind went blank for a few seconds, he stood up abruptly, and tried to explain by gesturing with both his hands.

“He cut his lip!” he called out.

Of the two people outside the door, one had his mouth open with his eyes wide and round, and the other’s eyes and eyebrows were all creased up. Hearing this, the two of them slowly shifted their gazes toward Fang Mo’s face.

Fang Mo nodded quickly, and raised his finger at the corner of his mouth, “Here, here, there’s a cut!”

Such a small wound was hard to distinguish even if they got close, not to mention that they were several meters away.

After the two men looked at each other, one of them hesitated and said, “Did we come back at a bad time?”

“No, you really didn’t!” Xu Xiran mentally collapsed, his face turning red, “I’m just looking at a wound for him! Really! The wound is so small so it’s hard to see it clearly!”

The other person who hadn’t spoken yet hesitated for a while, then said, “…What’s there to look at?”

Xu Xiran and Fang Mo were stunned by this question.

There really wasn’t much to look at. But what’s wrong with looking at it!

Xu Xiran felt he couldn’t argue, and Fang Mo lowered his head and pursed his lips in silence.

Once the atmosphere became extremely awkward, the person who had just spoken forced a smile, “Hahaha, it’s okay, you can look.” After saying that, he tried to pretend that nothing had happened and wanted to head inside, but because his limbs were stiff and he didn’t look carefully, he lifted his leg and kicked his toe against the cabinet, and he bent over with a shriek of pain.

The other was startled, then walked up behind him quickly, and asked, “…Do you want me to take a look for you too?”

Xu Xiran was speechless, raised his hand to wipe his face, and looked back at Fang Mo. Fang Mo still didn’t look up. His sitting posture was particularly upright, his legs were neatly arranged, and his hands were propped on the edge of the chair beside his legs.

He looked like a good boy.

Xu Xiran couldn’t see his expression clearly, but he could see the red tips of his ears protruding from his medium-length hair.

“I’ll head back then?”  Xu Xiran asked in a low voice.

Fang Mo immediately raised his head to look at him when he heard the words, and then nodded slightly, “Mn.”

Xu Xiran smiled at him, walked half a step away, and then turned around, telling him, “Be careful later when you eat, don’t cut yourself again.”

Fang Mo nodded again.

When Xu Xiran walked to the door, Fang Mo’s roommate, who was still standing there, greeted him without embarrassment, “Come again anytime!”

Xu Xiran smiled at him, “Heh heh, okay.”

After closing Fang Mo’s bedroom door from the outside, he lowered his head and walked forward a few steps, thinking, Fang Mo’s face was really red just now.

 

~

 

That night, Fang Mo sent him a message.

[“Those two roommates of mine have big mouths.”]

It turned out he was right. A few days later, as soon as Xu Xiran returned to his dorm, he saw his upper bunkmate winking at him.

“I heard that you and your wife were caught at 301 a few days ago?” his upper bunkmate asked him.

What a terrifying rumor. The situation that day, at most, could be misunderstood as a kiss. However, through word of mouth, the intensity soared. Although it was agreed that they would pretend to be a couple, it was only supposed to be in front of those of the same sex who had certain thoughts about them. Xu Xiran didn’t want these things to affect his normal social interactions with Fang Mo.

Seeing Xu Xiran silent and his face pale, he went up to the bunk and asked tentatively, “I’ll say. Before we came, you even let him live in this dormitory, don’t tell me…”

“Don’t tell me my ass,” Xu Xiran pulled up a pillow and threw it at his head, “My wife is still on my bed!”

His upper bunkmate dodged and grabbed his pillow, and asked, “What wife?”

Of course, Xu Xiran was talking about his Xiaoyao pillow. At this moment, he didn’t have any intention of joking around, and only wanted to explain.

“The corner of Fang Mo’s mouth had a cut that day, so I was helping him take a look, and right then and there, his roommates came back and misunderstood the situation,” he frowned, “If we really were doing something in broad daylight, wouldn’t the door be locked?”

“His lip was cut, what’s there to look at?” his upper bunkmate asked the same question as Fang Mo’s roommate, “Are you a doctor?”

“I…” Xu Xiran gave up, and spread his hands, “It’s just good to look at1, okay?”

After he spoke, he snatched back the pillow and fell back on his bed.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” his upper bunkmate shook his head, lying on the edge of the bed and looking down at him, “I didn’t expect that you’d go down such a path. I thought it was just a joke before.”

Xu Xiran looked at him expressionlessly, and raised his leg, “I’m perfectly straight, if you talk nonsense again, I’ll kick your bed.”

“Was he seducing you?” The comprehension ability of his upper bunkmate was worrying.

Xu Xiran immediately kicked him, causing the bunk bed to shake.

“Are you sick? Kick again and see if I don’t crush you to death.” The upper bunkmate retracted his head, then poked it out again, “You two really don’t have something going on?”

Xu Xiran picked up his Xiaoyao pillow, “Where do I look gay? You tell me.”

“Well, you don’t look like it,” his upper bunkmate smiled at him, “but he does.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Xiran slightly frowned, “Huh?”

“There’s a rumor, you want to hear?”

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“Does it have to do with Fang Mo?” Xu Xiran asked.

“Rumor has it that he might really be ‘that’,” his upper bunkmate stretched out his pinkie and shook it at him.

Xu Xiran was stunned for a moment, then immediately shook his head, “Che, and I thought it was about something else. There’s no way.”

“Let me finish.” The upper bunkmate felt uncomfortable hanging suspended for a long time, and finally retracted back, “You know the girl I’ve been chasing recently, right? She also just moved here from the old campus this semester. It’s from her.”

“How does she know? Does she know Fang Mo?” Xu Xiran asked.

“She has a best friend who chased your wife before and was rejected, but she didn’t want to give up, so she became a bit clingy,” said his upper bunkmate. “After a few months of pestering, your wife told her that he didn’t like girls at all.”

Xu Xiran still didn’t think much of it, “You said that she was still clingy after she was rejected. It’s not that strange to quickly make up a reason to get someone to back off.”

“That girl didn’t believe it at first, but then she thought of a way to find out,” said his upper bunkmate, “Did you know there are special dating apps for gays?”

“…Then?” Xu Xiran asked.

“The girl installed one, and found a user nearby, and the profile picture was of him.”

“…….”

“Think about it, with his appearance, and with no girlfriend so far, do you think it’s possible?” His upper bunkmate said again.

“But doesn’t he not have a boyfriend either?” Xu Xiran said, “Did the person who told you this mention any boy that he’s very close to?”

“Yes, there is, and this is proof,” said his upper bunkmate excitedly, “The man that he has the best relationship with is gay, and he’s publicly out. I hear that they hang out all day, and many people think that they’re a couple.”

Xu Xiran had been a little shaken before, but hearing this, he was relieved.

“Zou Shun, right? I know him,” he said, “They don’t have that kind of relationship at all.”

“You just don’t believe me anyway.”

“Nonsense,” Xu Xiran said, “It’s been less than a week, and people say that the two of us are having an affair in the dorm. From one person to another, what kind of demons and ghosts can’t be made up?”

The upper bunkmate poked his head out again, “So you two really don’t have anything?”

Xu Xiran was made angry to the point of laughing, “Hell no, I think you’re sick!”

“But there is always some reason for people to spread something like this,” said his upper bunkmate. “If you really don’t have something, I advise you to still be on guard with him.”

“And guard against what?” Xu Xiran said, “It’s not like he’s going to rape me.”

“I can’t say for sure,” said his upper bunkmate, “You treat him as a good brother, and he might want to blow your ass.”

 

~

 

“I swear that I’m not.”

After Xu Xiran told Fang Mo what his upper bunkmate had said to him as a joke, Fang Mo, after being shocked, raised his right hand with four fingers up towards the sky and earnestly said this to him.

“You think I don’t believe you?” Xu Xiran said with a smile, “I just want you to hear how outrageous this is.”

Not only did he not believe it, but he also felt that this was a bit too devastating for Fang Mo. It was one thing to be harassed by gays all the time, but to be mislabeled as gay was simply a big injustice. Furthermore, he was not only harassed by the same sex, but also by girls he didn’t like. Being this handsome had its many disadvantages.

“I also don’t know if she made up that so-called dating app from holding a grudge against you. You better go check to make sure. If someone really used your photo to trick people on a gay dating app, that’ll be quite troublesome,” Xu Xiran said, “There are some people out there that will just find good-looking photos to pretend and use them as their own.”

“…I’ll ask Zou Shun to take a look for me.” Fang Mo said.

Xu Xiran suddenly felt awkward inside. He lowered his head, thought for a while, then said, “The people that harass you probably misunderstood because they found people pretending to be you on the app.”

Fang Mo nodded his head.

He was clearly not happy; his face was sullen and looked depressed all over.

To have this kind of thing happen would indeed make someone feel ill at ease. Xu Xiran felt bad for him, and racked his brains to find something to say that would cheer him up. After thinking for a while and coming up with nothing, he then thought about if he could take him somewhere to do something else to help take his mind off of this.

“I say… that…” He reached out and patted Fang Mo’s upper arm, “Do you want to watch a movie?”

Fang Mo suddenly raised his head with a look of surprise, “Ah?”

“A movie,” Xu Xiran repeated, “Want to watch?”

 

~

 

The only movie theater around here was three stops away from their campus. The two came up with this plan on a whim and were too lazy to go that far, so they went to the school’s screening hall as the next best thing.

This was a new building in their school, which was just completed last year. There were not many seats, and there were a few classic films that would be shown regularly every day. The tickets were very cheap and the theater was well-received. There was also a nice shop at the door, selling Coke and pre-packaged popcorn.

The school’s screening hall naturally did not support online ticket sales, but it was possible to check the showtimes and movies that were playing that day online. For some highly acclaimed films, the tickets might even be sold out before getting there.

The seat numbers were not written on the tickets from the school’s screening hall, so anyone could sit wherever they wanted. Seeing that the seats in the middle were already occupied, Xu Xiran dragged Fang Mo to the last row. That way, if they wanted to chat or play on their phones later, they wouldn’t disturb others.

The film had not yet started so the lights were still bright. The two of them had just reached the second to last row when Xu Xiran casually glanced at the seat and saw an acquaintance.

And that person’s eyes seemed to have been on them for a while.

“…Professor Xu?” Fang Mo exclaimed in surprise.

 

 

Author’s note:

I opened a seaweed raffle on Weibo and all you need to do is reply. If you want to try, you can enter haha

 

1

What he said here could also be taken as “he’s good to look at” or “he looked good”

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