Chapter 34: CH 34

His previous school also had a forum, but it wasn’t frequent much; after all, it was a key high school where the teachers fell short of actually holding metal detectors to scan each individual student for mobile phones the second they entered through the gate every day. Consequently, phones were at constant risk of being confiscated, which was the direct effect of why no one generally toyed with these things, and at most, there were only small-scale gossip groups on WeChat.

Such a forum, meshed with all sorts of erratic discussions and spectacles was not something that Jiang Cheng had been exposed to in the past.  

In barely a day, the fujoshi thread that was posted on the day of their match had tons of likes and comments that were extremely astonishing. 

Jiang Cheng hesitated for a long while but didn’t click open the post for a look in the end. 

Although this kind of groundless teasing was common amongst young girls, he wouldn’t have felt anything even if he and Wang Jiuri were matched, however, he felt uneasy upon seeing that it was he and Gu Fei that was put together.  

In the end, he clicked open the post that discussed ‘Da Fei, my idol’.  

There were many photos of Gu Fei during the game that were taken from various angles. The girl must have circled the court for however many times just to get some of these photos. There were even some of Gu Fei doing layups that were taken from below – who knew how she managed to get such a shot. 

The first few comments were all photos and the original poster’s frantic ‘ah, ah, ahhhh’ with a long series of exclamation marks then below were some replies that echoed the aforementioned sound of wailing.

Once he reached the 30th comment, there was finally a voice of disagreement. 

– that’s it? You can find anyone like that on the street.

That one comment, like a single tossed stone that created a thousand ripples, aroused many replies that lasted a good seven to eight pages long, all of which consisted of curses. 

Jiang Cheng glanced at the ID of the commenter only to no longer be able to hold it back, “What the… fuck!”

ostentatiously_handsome  

“You must really be bored,” he said and looked at Gu Fei.  

“Unless they’re bored, who would get on…” Gu Fei took the phone back and giggled as he read it. “See, a xueba like you generally can’t be bothered to take a look.”

“I’ve… also looked,” Jiang Cheng said.  “It’s just that the forum at my old high school was like a ghost town, no one looked at it.”

“What’s your ID?” Gu Fei tilted his head.  

Jiang Cheng hesitated for a moment: “a_certain_cheng” 

“What?” Gu Fei couldn’t comprehend that.  

“My main account is ‘a_certain_cheng’ and the side account is ‘soandso_cheng’,” Jiang Cheng said. 

“What the hell kind of name is that? And you have the nerve to laugh at me,” Gu Fei said. “Since your WeChat was in English, I had to add a nickname. Why don’t you just combine your style and make them all something like ‘jiangxx”?”

“The thing is, I’m too lazy to think of a name,” Jiang Cheng said. “What nickname did you use for me?”

“Cheng-ge bei.” Gu Fei glanced at him. 

“I think that Gentle Little Bunny should be the one who needs a nickname,” Jiang Cheng laughed.

After that, the two of them no longer spoke. Jiang Cheng held his own phone and continued to blather with Pan Zhi; at first, he wanted to look at (High School No. Four) Sizhong’s forum again but with Gu Fei beside him, he decided against it. 

Pan Zhi was quite envious that Sizhong’s forum was so lively and had even expressed that he wanted to join to pick up girls. Jiang Cheng laughed for a long while, looked at the time only to see that it was almost midnight, so he got ready to sleep. 

He looked over at Gu Fei and found that he had already fallen asleep somehow, lying with his face toward the wall and half his head buried beneath the comforter.  

Jiang Cheng glanced at the headboard and noticed a power switch; he pressed it, eliminating the light and the room was overtaken by a sheet of darkness. A few seconds later, he saw a faint light leaking in from behind the window curtains.

After he laid on the pillow, Jiang Cheng turned to the right. It had always been a habit of his to sleep on this side, however, the moment he turned, he saw Gu Fei lying there with his back toward him. 

Hence, he had no choice but to turn his body to the left side and closed his eyes. 

He recalled a survey regarding sleeping positions between couples that consisted of side-by-side, face-to-face, and so on with the most popular being both individuals lying on the same side called “spooning”… 

Fuck. He suddenly thought of what that meant. 

Gu Fei slept quite silently with a very even breathing pattern that carried a hypnotic effect to it. Jiang Cheng followed along with his breathing and drifted to sleep not long after. 

However, who knew whether it was due to the change of bed or because someone was beside him, but he couldn’t fall into a deep sleep – since he was a child, he had never slept with another person on the same bed before. 

Even when he was in a daze, dreaming and knowing full well that he was dreaming, he could still sense Gu Fei turning over beside him.

Moreover, the dreams were incoherent and changed constantly.  

Finally, he dreamed that he and Gu Fei were standing in the middle of the basketball court, naked, and surrounded by a group of people with paper bags over their heads that were taking photographs of them while hurling all sorts of curses and making sharp jeering noises. 

This is a dream.  

And quite preposterous too – he wondered why he would have a dream with such details so suddenly.

This isn’t real, he reminded himself. 

But this dream was unlike the ones he previously had that could be sped up, rewound, or skipped at will – it simply kept to the conventional ways and moved ahead step by step. 

His perspective was sometimes of his own as he faced the surrounding onlookers and ridicules, and sometimes it became that of another outsider, rotating like a camera that circled the two people on the court at high speed. 

In a state of horror and panic, he turned to look at Gu Fei. 

Gu Fei was saying something to him without any expressions at all, but he couldn’t hear a single word.  

Do you see me singing…  

Listen, to the panic being wiped out. 

Gu Fei heard the sound of the door, opened his eyes, and found that the first appearance of light in the sky was approaching as a faint warm light bled in through the curtains. Gu Miao walked in barefooted with a fixed gaze and then sat down on the sofa before she adjusted the cushion and lay down.

He sighed lightly and sat up quietly.  

Gu Miao used to sleep with him in this room. After primary school, Gu Fei let her sleep by herself, but Gu Miao would still come back every time she experienced an episode of sleepwalking, however, with Gu Fei’s firm education of, “brother is a boy, you can’t sleep on a bed with a boy so casually,” she would go straight to the sofa. 

Gu Fei glanced over at Jiang Cheng’s face. Jiang Cheng appeared to be sleeping soundly, but his breathing was a little unstable – he was probably dreaming. 

He propped his hand on the bed with one leg knelt at the side of Jiang Cheng and stretched the other leg over Jiang Cheng’s body. This person actually occupied quite a bit of space when he was sleeping, Gu Fei nearly pulled a hamstring to avoid stepping on him. 

Then he picked his body and prepared to cross over Jiang Cheng. 

But just as he was passing directly above Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng frowned abruptly and turned over – the two were suddenly face-to-face.

Gu Fei felt that Jiang Cheng wasn’t in a very deep sleep upon seeing his tightened brows and uneven breathing… he quickly propped himself up a bit more, intending to cross over immediately.

Just as he wanted to push off with the leg that was knelt on the inner side in order to directly jump off the bed, Jiang Cheng opened his eyes. 

Gu Fei wanted to say something but was afraid of waking up Gu Miao who had just laid down, and also because he was unsure of whether or not her state of sleepwalking had ended. Hence, all he could do was stare at Jiang Cheng and wait for him to be fully awake. 

Jiang Cheng’s opened eyes instantly stretched from a slit to a set of enlarged European-style eyes. And after staring at him for a few seconds, he said two words in a hoarse tone that was filled with confusion, shock, and horror: “The fuck…”

With the sound not being low in any way, Gu Fei was startled and quickly used his hand to cover Jiang Cheng’s mouth. 

Jiang Cheng’s eyes became rounder, and he immediately started to struggle as if he had been stabbed with a knife, flinging his arms and lifting his knees all over the place. Gu Fei didn’t dare to loosen the hand that was covering his mouth, but his current position also left him wide open and he was afraid that Jiang Cheng might knee him in the crotch… 

It took a long while for him to grab hold of one of Jiang Cheng’s arms before sitting his butt directly down on Jiang Cheng’s body. He kept his voice down and said: “Gu Miao!”

Jiang Cheng paused, stared at him for a bit, and then suddenly shifted his eyeballs toward the sofa.

Gu Fei loosened his hand on his mouth: “She just came in. I’m not sure if she’s asleep again or not. I want to go check on her.” 

“… en,” Jiang Cheng responded and lied still.  

Gu Fei got off the bed and walked over to crouch in front of the sofa. He looked at her for a moment and then got a blanket from the closet and covered Gu Miao with it.  

Jiang Cheng also sat up and stared at Gu Fei without even a hint of sleepiness left and was as awake as if he had drunk two bottles of eucalyptus oil.

Opening his eyes just to see Gu Fei hovering over his body was honestly a bit too exciting for someone who had always slept alone. 

At that moment, he couldn’t even tell if he was still dreaming or was already awake; he had only returned to his senses from the horrifying scene in his dream that had interlaced intricately with Gu Fei’s posture when he saw Gu Miao lying on the sofa.

And also realized that at some point, he was already drenched in sweat.  

Cold sweat. 

The scene in the dream made him a bit unbearable already, but he suddenly thought that if Gu Miao had woken up and saw such a misleading position… 

Jiang Cheng closed his eyes.  

He suddenly understood the reason why he didn’t click open that post.

He was scared.  

This was the first time he had a profound understanding of his own fear. 

Even a mere sleepwalking little girl lying on the sofa could merge with his dreamland so vividly.

“This is why I wanted you to sleep on the inside,” Gu Fei whispered after covering Gu Miao with a blanket. “If you sleep on the outside, I have to climb over you to get off the bed at night.”

“What time is it?” Jiang Cheng also asked in a whisper. 

“Just past six o’clock.” Gu Fei looked at the little alarm clock on the bedside table. 

“Oh.” Jiang Cheng hugged the comforter and sat still.  

“What’s wrong?” Gu Fei got back on the bed from behind him, drilled underneath the comforter, and sat up. He then reached out to touch his pajamas, “You…”

Jiang Cheng gave his arm a good slap.  

“… you have a fever?” Gu Fei pulled his hand back and completed the sentence.

“No.” Jiang Cheng was a bit embarrassed as he tugged at his clothes, “I’m just…” 

“Did I scare you just now?” Gu Fei lied down and sighed lightly. “In all my years, you are the most flustered that I have ever seen, xueba.”

“The fuck?” Jiang Cheng turned to look at him and reached out to gesture with his hand. “With the way you were just now, if I wasn’t already scared to death that must mean that I’m a xueba with an outstandingly amazing psychological quality, okay?”

“Sorry about that,” Gu Fei smiled.  

Jiang Cheng didn’t say anything and continued to sit but after a few minutes, he sneezed then helplessly lay down and covered himself with the comforter.  

This time, Jiang Cheng really couldn’t sleep, and his open eyes also didn’t know where to look either.

He felt that his psychological endurance might not be very good and couldn’t help but to always cerebrate over any slight matter repeatedly and allow it to affect his mood – often putting substantial pressure on himself. 

… he understood the truth, albeit highly difficult to control.

Every so often, he was quite envious of Pan Zhi. His heart was large enough to hold three and a half universes within it. Whether it was the repercussions of a failed exam or losing a love prematurely, with a night of good sleep, roars of motherfuckers, and some complaints, all things would pass. 

As for him… perhaps, having been influenced by the atmosphere from his previous family, whatever the case might be, it was impossible for him.    

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There wasn’t much time left between six o’clock and the time to wake up. Jiang Cheng couldn’t fall back asleep but simply closed his eyes to recuperate while struggling strenuously between arbitrary and non-arbitrary thoughts. 

Beside him, Gu Fei had fallen asleep the second he lay down, probably sleeping much more soundly after that interrupted sleep. 

He consciously listened as Gu Fei’s breathing steadily evened out, then after an unknown amount of time, it slowly quickened, which was then followed by him turning over —probably waken now— before sensing Gu Fei reached beside the pillow for his phone to look at the time. 

The time meant for sleeping he didn’t, and now that he knew he had to get up Jiang Cheng suddenly was so tired that he didn’t want to open his eyes. 

Gu Fei moved, and just when he was hesitating on whether to open his eyes now or wait for Gu Fei to cross over his body and then wake up, Gu Fei’s finger gently touched his forehead. 

He suppressed the urge to jump straight up and give him a good and hard square kick to the crotch[1], but clenched his teeth and remained still instead. 

“No fever,” Gu Fei whispered and sat up. 

Fever? 

Jiang Cheng was dumbfounded then remembered that Gu Fei had asked earlier if he had a fever.

He insisted on keeping his eyes closed, refusing to move but suddenly felt a slight ache inside his nose.

This fucking nose can just be cut off, getting emotional so easily just like a girl[2]2

He seldom received such meticulous care; even in his previous home when he was still their “own son”, he had to tell his parents if he felt unwell. 

Saying it would bring him very good care, but if not, as long as he didn’t faint on the spot, no one in the family would even notice that he was sick. 

And, it was even more preposterous after coming here. If at this moment he really had a fever, he didn’t even know who he could tell, Li Baoguo?

Even if he did, what then? 

After contemplating about it, he would just call Lao Xu to request a leave of absence and then sleep for a half a day or so in that little room without any sense of belonging…  

“Cheng-ge.” Gu Fei had stood up at some point and lightly kicked his leg, “Get up.” 

 “En,” Jiang Cheng answered and opened his eyes. 

 Gu Fei had a coat over his pajamas and was preparing to get off from the foot of the bed. 

Jiang Cheng felt that he was absolutely not doing it deliberately, but with just a glance, he could still see that a certain part of Gu Fei’s loose pajamas had bulged.  

He already couldn’t figure out how to react. He sighed and blurted out without thinking: “Don’t you have to wait every day for your little brother[3] to calm down first before getting up?” 

“… I have to urgently pee,” Gu Fei said.  

“Not even afraid of your piss flying all over…” Jiang Cheng didn’t understand why, at this moment, he went along with such a topic as if he wasn’t completely awake when he obviously hadn’t slept.

“Does your piss fly all over the place? I’ll teach you ah…” Gu Fei dragged his slippers and walked out, saying: “You have to stand a bit further away then keep peeing as you walk forward.”

“Fuck you!” Jiang Cheng closed his mouth.    

Nutcase. 

After Gu Fei went out, he got up, and still sleeping on the sofa with her face against the backrest was Gu Miao, probably about to wake up as well. He got off bed and picked up the pants from the day before for a look, intending to change first before Gu Miao actually got up. 

Unfortunately, he picked them up only to realize that because he was too anxious yesterday, the water was not shaken out of the now bundled together clothes; now all the fucking clothes were still wet.

Although they could still be worn and half an hour on his body would probably be sufficient for them to dry completely… it was quite disgusting, nonetheless. 

Just as he was worrying, Gu Fei walked into the room while brushing his teeth and handed him a new toothbrush. Jiang Cheng took the brush, “Thanks.” 

Gu Fei continued to brush his teeth and pulled open the closet door, pointing at it.  

“No.” Jiang Cheng only took a single glance at Gu Fei’s row of clothes and immediately shook his head, “No, I’m not wearing yours.” 

“En?” Gu Fei was a bit baffled as he looked at him.  

“You’re ostentatiously_handsome. The whole school has their eyes on you. I highly doubt that none of them don’t know what your underwear looks like,” Jiang Cheng said. “The last time I wore your clothes, even Lao Xi could recognize it. I truly admire you from the bottom of my heart.”

Gu Fei laughed and happily walked out brushing his teeth.  

Jiang Cheng was resolved in wearing his own disgusting clothes.

With Gu Fei occupying the bathroom, he could only change in the bedroom. He turned around to glance at Gu Miao, who didn’t show any sign of movements, swiftly took off his pajamas then grabbed his own jeans and pulled them up his legs. 

He was relatively shameless in showing off his good looks, so even the jeans he bought had to be slim-fitted. But since the legs of this thing were wet, it wasn’t easy to pull them up. Just as he got halfway there, Gu Miao rolled over and before he had a chance to react, she suddenly sat up. 

What the fuck! 

Gu Miao’s natural and clear-cut movement of getting up made him nearly fall over in shock as he rushed out —holding onto his pants before she could turn her head around.  

 … and zipping them up while running into the bathroom. 

Gu Fei was in the middle of washing his face when he turned to look at him: “Why the rush?” 

“Rush my ass,” Jiang Cheng said as he finished buckling his belt. “I only pulled my pants halfway when Gu Miao suddenly woke up… doesn’t she have a grace period for when she wakes up?!”

“It has always been like this.” Gu Fei smiled broadly, “She’ll space out for five minutes after she sits up before she actually wakes up.”

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng let out a sigh of relief.  

Gu Fei finished washing up, took Gu Miao back to her room, placed a set of clothes on her bed, closed the door and then returned to the living room. 

He usually didn’t get up so early. Gu Miao generally got up herself and went out to eat breakfast before he woke up. Even though Gu Miao had no school to go to now, they still had to strictly abide by that daily routine – that could not change. 

And with a xueba who was inherently never late at his house today, he couldn’t just sleep ‘til class started before waking up.  

When Jiang Cheng finished washing up and came out, he asked: “What do you want for breakfast? I’ll have Gu Miao buy some in a bit.” 

“There’s no need,” Jiang Cheng said. “I… I don’t want to eat anything. I’ll head to school first.”

“En?” Gu Fei froze but then nodded his head, “Oh, okay.” 

Jiang Cheng quickly packed up his things, said a few words to Gu Miao who had come out of her room rubbing her eyes and then carried his school bag out of Gu Fei’s home. 

He ran down the seventh floor, and after the wind blew through his not quite dry clothes, he suddenly came to his senses, feeling that since he was so easily emotional and flustered in the morning and then left in such a hurry just now, it just seemed a bit… bad. 

When Gu Fei heard that he wasn’t having breakfast and wanted to head out first, the expression on his face was clearly of shock. 

Not to mention that Gu Fei had taken him in last night, let him eat a delicious meal and was even concerned about whether or not he had a fever, plus Gu Miao’s face full of expectations… only for him to then say those words and run out just like that – even the most basic of courtesy was missing.

He took out his cellphone, leaned against a wall on the road that guarded him against the wind, and dialled Gu Fei’s number. 

“Forgot something?” Gu Fei answered the phone.  

“Bring Gu Miao down, there’s still time.” Jiang Cheng looked at the time on his phone, “Why don’t we go eat stuffed flatbread at Wang Jiuri’s?”  

“Alright.” Gu Fei didn’t ask why he had a change of heart all of a sudden and agreed immediately. 

When he saw Gu Fei come out of the corridor with Gu Miao, Jiang Cheng suddenly felt a bit of regret – he shouldn’t have told Gu Fei about himself. 

He didn’t know when he could become as calm as Gu Fei, without deliberately approaching or keeping a distance, without having thorns fly out at any moment.  

“We’re heading over now, should be there in a bit.” Gu Fei had given Wang Xu a call, “You don’t have to prepare anything special. Just a simple breakfast, that’s all.”

“Is there a bus that passes by there?” Jiang Cheng asked. 

Walking from where they were to school was doable, but if it was to go to Wang Xu’s place, walking was a bit far. 

“Let’s take the car,” Gu Fei said. 

“What car?” Jiang Cheng was startled, “The little cornmeal-coloured bun?”  

“En,” Gu Fei nodded. “What, are you looking down on the little bun?”

“I’m not,” Jiang Cheng sighed. “Alright, the little bun it is.” 

Gu Miao must really like the little bun; as soon as Gu Fei drove the car out, she ran over hugging her skateboard and agilely climbed into the back seat. 

“You two will have to squeeze in a bit,” Gu Fei explained. “Er Miao, put your skateboard to the side.”

This time, Jiang Cheng remembered to first put down the back of the driver’s seat before he got in and squeezed next to Gu Miao in the back seat. 

Gu Miao smiled at him, and seemed to be in a very jovial mood. 

After the door of the little bun closed, Jiang Cheng felt much warmer. He pulled at his clothes and carefully tidied up, hoping that they would all be dry by the time they got out of the car. 

“The clothes that I gave you to wear last time,” Gu Fei said as he drove. “I thought about it right, and it could be that I wore them when I read my self-reflection letter on the stage during the Monday morning assembly last semester.”

“That’s definitely not the reason,” Jiang Cheng said. “If it was Zhou Jing up there, don’t even mention reading a self-reflection letter, even if he were to read a whole pornographic novel, no one would remember what he wore.”

Gu Fei laughed out loud: “Thanks for the compliment.” 

“What did I compliment you on?” Jiang Cheng looked at the back of his head. “I think you might have to change your name. Let’s not call you freestyle handsome anymore, freestyle shameless is more appropriate.” 

“Sure, I’ll make a second account,” Gu Fei nodded.

“What sort of self-reflection did you read out loud huh?” Jiang Cheng asked after some thought.  

“Constantly climbing the wall to get into the school when I’m late and breaking a branch from that tree near the wall when I step on it…” Gu Fei said. “Just for that.”

“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng couldn’t help laughing. “Couldn’t you have just climbed another tree?”

“That one is the closest,” Gu Fei said. “Since I broke that branch, there have been fewer people climbing the wall nowadays. The wall around our school is too high, you can’t climb over without stepping on the tree.” 

Jiang Cheng didn’t say anything and only leaned against the window of the little bun, losing it to a fit of laughter not even knowing what he was laughing about. 

Actually, this was also very nice.  

When he didn’t overthink, Gu Fei was the only person who could let him completely relax. 

Translate: Sae | Proofread: Anasofia

The author has something to say: Resting tomorrow, see you all in a week.  

I’m not going to roast you. I just wanted to ask when did I actually become a hairy black spirit (essence)? I was a still a soy sauce the other day. o(≧口≦)o。The hair black soy sauce’s hair rose and shouted loudly. 

Many people called you a black furry spirit. I originally thought that I would type in soy sauce, and the result was that I had to type it into a spirit. *The author, who found the wrong word yesterday but was too lazy to change, drank a cup of tea and said.* 

[1] 鱼跃is like a fish jumping out of water, and 正踹is to kick straight if that makes sense, without a twist of the body, usually in the crotch

[2] 鼻子酸了- usually for when you’re about to sneeze or break into tears — and I guess its especially used on girls who get emotional easily

[3] 小兄弟 – little brother is referring to his manhood 

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