Chapter 36: Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Translated by: DMlations/Zryuu

Edited by: Amelea and FistFullOfDollars

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Zhou Sheng was wearing a casual suit jacket today. He had been holding it when they were at the foot of the mountain, but only wore it when he reached the mountain peak. Yu Hao didn’t register this change at first, so he almost walked right by him twice. After composing himself, he saw that guy’s expression — Zhou Sheng looked like he was on the verge of killing someone. If anger could materialize into a concrete form, it would surely have a special effect of rushing into the skies right now.

He didn’t know where the girl called Ye Jin had gone; Zhou Sheng was sitting by himself.

Yu Hao didn’t know how but, even if Zhou Sheng doesn’t speak, he could clearly sense his anger, happiness and other emotions. In the past he had always thought it was based on intuition, but it was particularly obvious today.

“Why are you here alone?” Yu Hao asked, “What about the others?”

“Ran away after my scolding.” Zhou Sheng said.

“Why did you scold her?” Yu Hao was dumbfounded, and felt that he needed to quickly apologise to her soon.

Zhou Sheng raised his head and looked at Yu Hao, “Let me ask you this, what are you thinking? I asked you to wait for me, yet you just went ahead?”

Yu Hao knew that Zhou Sheng was truly angry, and was currently in a state where he was suppressing his anger and hadn’t exploded yet.

“Say something!” Zhou Sheng said.

“I wanted to give you two……some alone time.” Yu Hao said, “You guys were chatting quite happily ah, I saw the both of you laughing and talking……”

“Is there something wrong with you lately?!” Zhou Sheng couldn’t endure much more.

Yu Hao quickly replied, “Yes yes yes, I’m sick, it can’t be cured anymore. Don’t get angry, it’s all my fault.”

After Zhou Sheng heard this, his expression finally relaxed a little. He took a cup of coffee from Yu Hao’s hands. Right now Yu Hao definitely didn’t dare to say that he had bought it for Chen Yekai.

The furrow between Zhou Sheng’s brows was very deep as he scolded Yu Hao, “You made me very, un, happy!”

“I’m sorry.” Yu Hao was perplexed.

“Xiao gong and xiao shou are fighting again……” As soon as they had started quarrelling, the girl who was streaming immediately came over, “Yeah, that pair who were going to kiss during Higher Mathematics the last time……”

Yu Hao, “……”

Zhou Sheng, “……”

The students around them who hadn’t yet returned to the foot of the mountain noticed them once again. Yu Hao thought, that just made the situation worse. Forget it, he has given up on fighting so hard against it, just let them say what they want ba. When he thought this, he felt a bit more relaxed, as if a burden had just been lifted off his shoulders. He smiled and was about to explain himself to Zhou Sheng when some other people came over from the side.

——guys from two whole dormitories.

“Zhou Sheng! What were you getting at?!” A Sports Class 3 guy approached and immediately said angrily, “You bullied my sister?”

Zhou Sheng said, “Yo, you want a fight? Call your sister over! How did I bully her?”

“If you wanna fucking be gay then go be gay.” That guy said, “What did you scold Ye Jin for?!”

That guy was in a different class from Zhou Sheng and Fu Liqun. He was also here to tread the green, under the supervision of another form teacher. Zhou Sheng quickly stood in front of Yu Hao and said, “Say that again?!”

They were instantly surrounded by a group of people. Yu Hao could vaguely guess what had happened. A girl ran over to them quickly, “Are you guys crazy?! What does it have to do with Yu Hao?! Don’t fight here! It’s too disgraceful!”

“Get Yu Hao to explain it clearly!”

“You dare try to lay a finger on him!?”

“Don’t fight!” Yu Hao shouted.

The guy who instigated the conflict strode over to haul Yu Hao away; Zhou Sheng was instantly incensed. He seized the other guy by the wrist and drew back his other hand to punch him. The opposing side had a lot of people, and they all proceeded forward one after another to lock Zhou Sheng’s arms down — several of them wanted to keep this one Zhou Sheng under control.

“All of you, stop!” Chen Yekai roared angrily as he stormed over.

The crowd immediately dispersed with this one roar from Chen Yekai. Zhou Sheng had been suppressing a bellyful of anger, so how could he so easily relinquish his attack on them? He immediately seized this opportunity, preparing to throw a punch exerting all of his strength to strike the ringleader down to the ground.

“Yu Hao!” Chen Yekai pointed at Yu Hao, “Get out here!”

Zhou Sheng immediately realised that something was awry, so he ceased his pursuit and shouted at Chen Yekai, “This has nothing to do with him! What do you want?!”

“I know it has nothing to do with him.” Chen Yekai said, “I just wanted my coffee.”

Zhou Sheng, “……”

Chen Yekai had effectively managed to divert Zhou Sheng’s attention. After considering it, Zhou Sheng realised that he had been tricked, so he said frigidly, “Good job, Kaikai.”

“They’re about to fight because of this xiao shou……” A girl’s voice said from the side, “The form teacher is currently protecting xiao shou……”

“Stop broadcasting!” Everyone shouted angrily at that girl.

“Can’t you see that we’re currently in a fight?! Move aside!” Zhou Sheng said angrily.

Chen Yekai, “Live broadcasting is prohibited during extracurricular activities!”

That girl wanted to broadcast Chen Yekai too, but she was scared of angering him so she quickly fled like a gust of wind. The crowd now couldn’t fight anymore, so they could only glare at each other resentfully.

Chen Yekai said to the group, “Where’s your form teacher?”

“He already went down the mountain.” The leader of the group said.

“If there’s any problem, talk it out without using your fists.” Chen Yekai took a coffee and promptly left. The guys could no longer continue their fight.

Yu Hao thought, thank God. The ringleader threatened, “Zhou Sheng, just wait for it.”

“Come come come.” Zhou Sheng barked impatiently, “Bite me, bite me, bite me to death. All talk and no action just means you’re incompetent.”

“You……” The opposing group endured it, then completely dispersed.

At this moment, Fu Liqun finally managed to climb up to the Golden peak with women’s bags hanging all over him. He was like a huge, panting golden retriever, “I’m here at last! I’m so damn exhausted! Un? What are you guys doing?’

Zhou Sheng, “Move aside, I’m irritated!”

Fu Liqun, “……”

The loitering people who had been taking videos had left as well, and only Yu Hao and Zhou Sheng remained as they stood at the edge of the Golden peak.

“You bought the coffee for Kaikai ba.” Zhou Sheng said coldly.

Yu Hao, “Un.”

“Buy another two cups.” Zhou Sheng said, immediately throwing away the coffee he held, “Then pass one to me.”

Yu Hao thought, Zhou Sheng really is quite peculiar today. He almost got into a brawl just moments ago, yet now he’s so concerned about a cup of coffee?

He also noticed that Ye Jin was speaking with a few other girls from her dormitory in another corner of the Golden peak, so he bought a cup of coffee and brought it over to them.

“Where are you going?! Come back here!”

“What’s wrong?” Yu Hao ignored Zhou Sheng and walked over to stand in front of Ye Jin. He passed a cup of coffee to her and said, “Zhou Sheng always says things like that. We often argue too, so don’t take it to heart.”

The girls all looked at Yu Hao with a strange expression on their faces.

“I’m sorry.” Ye Jin answered, “I didn’t know the two of you were together. Yu Hao, don’t mind it.”

Yu Hao almost fell down, “Us? No no, Zhou Sheng and I aren’t ‘together’, and we have never been together either.”

“Ah?” Ye Jin looked bewildered.

Yu Hao learned that Ye Jin began liking Zhou Sheng soon after entering college last year. Apparently, it started during the sprinting competition during military training, and she finally mustered up the courage to confess to Zhou Sheng today, only to be rejected by him.

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When she associated it with the rumour in the college, Ye Jin thus tried to sound him out and asked if Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao were a pair. After all, after being rejected she couldn’t help but want to know if the other party just had no feelings for her, or if it was because of his sexual orientation.

Zhou Sheng clearly didn’t have a girlfriend. If he was gay, Ye Jin would then be able to give up on him entirely. However, Zhou Sheng’s reaction was a little over the top. It was roughly “who said that?”, “who’s talking about Yu Hao like that all the time?” After all, Zhou Sheng knew about Yu Hao’s sexual orientation, and what it meant for it to be exposed. If even Ye Jin knows about it, it can be deduced that people have been talking about Yu Hao for a very long time.

But Ye Jin has never interacted much with Zhou Sheng before, so she was immediately scared silly. Afterwards, Zhou Sheng had a long face the whole time he sent Ye Jin back to her dormitory mates and left without uttering a word. Ye Jin’s confession failed, and Zhou Sheng even gave her the cold shoulder, so she was extremely upset and couldn’t help but cry for a while.

Then the guys from Sports Class 3 came over. The guy who led them had pursued Ye Jin before, but he was rejected. He knows that Ye Jin likes Zhou Sheng, and a lot of people found Zhou Sheng an eye-sore to begin with. They connected it to the rumour about how Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao were “being gay”, so they decided to come over and teach him a lesson……

Yu Hao was laughing his heart out. He quickly waved his hand and said, “You’re really overthinking it, Ye Jin. Zhou Sheng is as straight as straight can get.”

“That’s what I said, he didn’t seem like it at all ah.” Another girl said, “I was the Wanchai Pier in high school, all four of my ex-boyfriends were gay, and I’m telling you that Zhou Sheng isn’t.”

They were all being very considerate as they avoided making any judgments about Yu Hao and only spoke about Zhou Sheng. Yu Hao felt deeply grateful for that.

“Yu Hao!” Almost everyone on the Golden peak could hear Zhou Sheng’s angry roar.

“Jiayou ba.” Yu Hao said, “I can’t wait for someone to come cure him.”

Ye Jin breathed a sigh of relief, but she seemed to be in a very complicated mood.

Yu Hao went to buy another cup of coffee before returning to Zhou Sheng’s side. Zhou Sheng said, “I don’t like her! I don’t want to give her any false hopes! That would just hurt her!”

“I know.” Yu Hao said, “I just wanted to explain it to her clearly.”

“Explain what?” Zhou Sheng said, “Yu Hao, what do you have to explain? Do I have to go and explain it to them too? Would you ever finish your explanations if you went to explain it to all of them one by one?!”

“That’s different!” It was rare for Yu Hao to get agitated too. He said to Zhou Sheng, “I don’t want you to be misunderstood!”

Zhou Sheng straddled the stone seat with his long legs and faced Yu Hao, “Yu Hao, look into my eyes. Look at me while we talk.”

Yu Hao gazed attentively into Zhou Sheng’s eyes.

Zhou Sheng said, “You have a clear conscience, so what are you afraid of?”

“I have a guilty conscience.” Yu Hao answered without thinking, and thought, damn it why did I turn into Zhou Zhiruo……

Evidently, Zhou Sheng has never watched《The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber》. He had been completely caught off guard by Yu Hao’s ‘guilty conscience’ remark, and was at a loss for what to say.

Yu Hao said, “Zhou Sheng, I think, why don’t I move back to my original dorm……I’ll keep paying, I just don’t want……”

“Fuck.”

Zhou Sheng only said one word, then got up and left without looking back.

Yu Hao’s mind went blank, just like the hazy fog that enshrouded the Golden peak. He didn’t know why he ended up saying something like “I’ll keep paying”, even he thought that there was something wrong with himself.

He took his phone out and checked the time, then got up to chase Zhou Sheng. But Zhou Sheng’s figure could only be glimpsed around a corner after turning several corners on the plank walkway.

“Zhou Sheng!” Yu Hao had regretted his words as soon as he said it. He shouted at the end of the precipice, “I was wrong!”

Zhou Sheng had a brisk pace in the first place, so after he walked down several twists and turns of the steps to the Golden peak, he had already passed the suspension bridge.

Yu Hao followed behind him and shouted, “General!”

Yu Hao got on the suspension bridge. A gust of wind blew past; he was the only one on the bridge this time, and he immediately lost his footing a little.

Zhou Sheng’s figure suddenly reappeared from the fog. He grabbed Yu Hao’s arm firmly and took him straight across the suspension bridge.

Yu Hao said, “Zhou Sheng, I……”

Zhou Sheng left again. Yu Hao could only follow along behind and say in the end, “We haven’t taken a photo together yet.”

Yu Hao had suddenly remembered that he hadn’t taken a picture with Zhou Sheng yet.

Zhou Sheng walked all the way down without saying a word. Yu Hao was gasping for breath as he tried to catch up, and Zhou Sheng slowed down on purpose to ensure that he wouldn’t be left alone on the mountain, yet he still didn’t speak to him. Both of them walked down to the parking lot and saw that everyone had gathered at the bus, and were all waiting for the two of them.

Everyone on the bus watched Yu Hao follow behind Zhou Sheng as they walked through the parking lot, then get on the bus one after the other like a bickering couple.

“I’m sorry.” Yu Hao apologised in haste.

“It’s not time yet.” Chen Yekai said, “You don’t need to apologise. Since everyone’s here, let’s go and eat hot pot!”

Zhou Sheng sat at the last row. Yu Hao looked at his surroundings, then sat next to Fu Liqun. He took his phone out as he wanted to talk to Zhou Sheng, but he saw a photo of the two of them that Zhou Sheng had sent over.

It really was a picture of the two of them —— in the restaurant midway up the mountain.

When he was eating, Zhou Sheng made a funny face as he took a selfie. Yu Hao and Chen Yekai were sitting at another table not too far behind him. Yu Hao was looking out of the restaurant in a daze, and no one could tell what he was looking at.

Only the two of them were in the picture. The angle of the photo was perfect, Chen Yekai didn’t show up in the shot.

Yu Hao had no choice during dinner, he could only sit at the table with the people from his class. Everyone was chatting idly. Most of them didn’t know what had happened at the Golden peak. Yu Hao glanced at Zhou Sheng’s table and saw that he was currently playing a drinking game with Chen Yekai. Both of their faces were flushed red from drinking, and it looked like they might break into a fight at any moment.

The group disbanded after dinner, those who had finished could leave first. Yu Hao didn’t have much of an appetite. After he waited for awhile, he saw that the sports class didn’t seem like they would be leaving any time soon, so he could only notify Chen Yekai that he was leaving. Chen Yekai thus nodded while Zhou Sheng was talking to the people in his class and didn’t even spare Yu Hao a glance.

Yu Hao returned to the dormitory first. When he turned on the lights, he saw Fu Liqun quietly lying on his bed playing games and cried out in horror.

“You’re back so early?” Fu Liqun said, “Is something wrong?”

Yu Hao said, “Zhou Sheng’s angry.”

Fu Liqun minded his own business as he continued looking at his phone and casually said, “I just knew he was gonna blow up.”

Yu Hao felt extremely remorseful, he felt like he was the one who had sought his own death today. He rolled up his sleeves, collected his clothes and took out Zhou Sheng’s dirty clothes that were left soaking yesterday to wash them. Fu Liqun asked, “Is Zhou Sheng jealous?”

Yu Hao threw the clothes he had gathered to Fu Liqun, “Do you have any more? Throw all your underwear and socks in to wash. Jealous? Who’s he jealous of?”

“Kaikai ah.” Fu Liqun looked bewildered, “Didn’t he mess around with Kaikai? Why else would Kaikai get him to accompany Ye Jin up the mountain?”

“He didn’t mess around with him ba?” Yu Hao said, embarrassed.

Fu Liqun said, “Zhou Sheng’s too possessive.”

“That’s true.” Yu Hao thought that he was right, but the key was that he didn’t know what to do about it. He felt like he was living in a haze that couldn’t be any murkier than it was now, just like the fog that had assaulted his senses on the suspension bridge.

“I don’t even know what I should do anymore.” Yu Hao stopped moving and said, “Everything I do is wrong. I just don’t want……”

Fu Liqun turned over and interrupted, “It’s all because you’ve been spoiling him too much.”

Yu Hao felt extremely helpless. Fu Liqun said into his WeChat, “Is it still on? If not I’m gonna strip and sleep.”

Zhou Sheng’s voice travelled over from the other end, “It’s not for now! Kaikai asked me to give him face! We’ll talk about it another day ba!”

“What’s ‘on’?” Yu Hao said, “You guys are going to play ball in the middle of the night?”

“A fight.” Fu Liqun said, “We arranged it on the way back. We were going to throw down with those guys from Class 3 outside of the school. Zhou Sheng was going to take on their entire dormitory alone, the rest will just be there to root for him, and they’d just be spectating without lending him a hand. If the other party dared to call for more help, we would then get involved as well.”

Yu Hao blew his top and shouted, “You’ll get punished ba!!”

Fu Liqun, “It’s a fight outside the school, so we won’t la. We just need to be careful not to get taken away by the police.”

Yu Hao, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?!”

Fu Liqun, “Our class has a small group chat of our own with ten or so people, we’re all pretty tight. Zhou Sheng said that they bullied you on Golden peak, so he needed to go and teach them a lesson.”

“They didn’t! They didn’t!” Yu Hao quickly refuted, “They didn’t bully me! Don’t use any violence!”

Yu Hao had been involved in fights before, and he wouldn’t be afraid if he did get into one since he just needed to hit the other party as if his life depended on it. But he had never arranged for a group fight before. With the entire group of sports students involved, wouldn’t it turn into a huge scene? Besides, if it develops into a story where Zhou Sheng had stirred up this large group into partaking in a group fight for his sake, then he really wouldn’t be able to wash himself clean even if he jumps into the yellow springs.

“He said that Kaikai knows about it, and that he’ll give him face this time so he’ll forget it.” Fu Liqun said, “I’m going to sleep now. I sent you the pictures we took together today, and touched up your skin. But you have good skin, so my touch-ups didn’t much have of an effect.”

Yu Hao thought, how could you be so calm about fighting? Looks like he should’ve been pretty capable in high school too. Zhou Sheng was really that popular in his class? He was usually with Yu Hao most of the time, and doesn’t hang out with his classmates often. But he recalled that Zhou Sheng was doing really well in his course, so perhaps that was what had helped him convince the masses ba.

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