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Chapter 2 | He might want to beat me up / He might like me
[One]
It was two more lessons to dismissal time. Qi Yu noticed that his new desk mate was always staring at him; focusing on him with a very fierce expression. Once he looked over, the other would immediately look down, poking the sealed pen in his hand here and there on the table surface.
Qi Yu was lost in thought. Does Luo Shu want to punch him? He felt that this possibility was very high.
At this young and impulsive age, there were bound to be a few students who liked to settle problems using their fists. They always proclaimed themselves as leader, recruited followers, and would just get into a fight with anyone that they disliked.
Luo Shu’s fierce expression obviously read “I1 want to pick a fight with you, pretty faced weakling.”
He had heard of Luo Shu’s reputation in this school. Luo Shu had studied in this school since middle school, “fighting and killing” all the way throughout. Smoking, fighting, and hair colouring — he had left none of this out.
However, he rarely got into conflicts with schoolmates. It was usually with those from other schools, as well as the society hooligans he mixed around with.
His family was also really well off. Since young, he had been a little overlord who could do as he pleased in this city.
Based on observation, Qi Yu reconfirmed that Luo Shu wanted to challenge him to a fight.
His glance landed on the hand he was using to write with.
White and clean. Distinct knuckles. Many people said it suited piano playing. Of course, he could play the piano.
At a glance, this pair of hands did not portray him as a person who could fight. However, upon looking closely, it can be seen that there is a thick layer of callus. He had practiced ten years of sword fighting. Apart from that, he also learned a little of other types of martial arts.
So Qi Yu could fight. Very well.
He had large strength. With a single punch, he could make a person see stars and hear ringing in their ears.
Very few people knew this fact.
Qi Yu pressed his lips together, looked at the inattentive teenager beside him, then looked at his hands.
So —
If he gave this fierce teenager a punch, would he cry?
It would be good if he cried. However, if he cried too quickly, there would not be interest to continue anymore in the future.
After all, novelty and anticipation dissipates after fulfilment is achieved.
Without value, there is no need for attention.
Qi Yu liked novelty.
[Two]
Luo Shu felt very uneasy this lesson.
Because the boy he had a crush on would stare at him from time to time, causing his thoughts to run wild uncontrollably.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other’s slightly withdrawn fingers. He lowered his eyes to look, and thought, what beautiful hands, they must be as soft as they look.
If only he could touch it for a bit. Even better if their fingers were interwined. Luo Shu’s heart was raring to go, yet he dared not try.
Whatever the teacher was saying on the podium, bad student2 Luo Shu did not know. He only knew that he was engrossed with looking at the person beside him.
Focusing on him who was listening to the teacher’s lesson and occasionally lowering his head to make markings on the textbook.
Was learning a fun matter? Luo Shu saw enjoyment from Qi Yu.
He could not help but concentrate and listened to a few minutes of the lesson. The words that the teacher was saying, he knew them separately, but together in a sentence, it was confusing.
Luo Shu propped up his chin, eyes staring up soulessly. The image of teacher on the podium became multiple copies and the voice of the teacher became distant.
Eyelids heavy.
Who am I? Where am I? I am really tired?
The teenager’s head gradually slipped down against his hand, moving towards the side bit by bit.
His head successfully landed on the arm that was placed on the table and half laid on top of it.
[Three]
The weight that landed on the arm caused Qi Yu, who seemed to be paying attention to the lesson but actually zoning out, to recover from his daze.
He knew all the contents of the lesson; it did not matter whether he listened. He was only taking some notes casually out of boredom.
His desk mate falling asleep was not uncommon. Ever since the two of them had been seated together, Qi Yu had never seen the other pay attention to the lessons for more than three minutes.
Drowsiness was a norm; sometimes, he also used his phone with his head lowered. More often that not, he would be sent out of the classroom to stand along the corridor.
The physical distance between the two of them had always been rather far apart.
This was the first time that it was nearer. Too near.
The teenager’s dazzling silver hair was just right in front of him. Along his hair whorl, there was a tiny lock of hair curled upwards. Qi Yu stared quietly at it for a long time.
While the teacher moved her optical mouse to look for a file to project on the screen, a slender and attractive finger moved right on top of the tiny curl.
Finger on the ends of the curled hair. Press down.
Let go. Back to original.
He narrowed his eyes, then reached out to press down along the entire lock of hair.
A few seconds later, he let go slowly. Seeing the pressed-down hair, Qi Yu was pleased.
Just when he was about to find something else to do, “biu—” the tiny lock of hair continued curling up, untamed, right in front of his eyes.
The hair ends swayed to the breeze that came in through the window, seemingly mocking him for his futile attempt.
A pen twirled nimbly between his fingers.
He glanced around aimlessly. The neighbouring desk sat a slightly chubby girl; her hair was styled in a bob. Her mouth was wide open, expressing her astonishment, as if she saw something incredible.
In her line of sight were their desks.
It was apparent that she had seen what happened just now.
Qi Yu’s glance stopped on her face for a few seconds, then went all the way down, to the little hair clip in her hand.
The girls enjoyed shopping online for all kinds of little charms and equipment to hand make accessories they liked, which they then sold to classmates or schoolmates; they usually did this during the lessons that they were not able to comprehend.
Just when the girl had not fully recovered from the scene she had just seen, a pale hand stretched towards her — a piece of paper between the thumb and fore finger, with something handwritten on it.
She glanced at the teacher on the podium who had not noticed it yet and hurriedly took it.
The handwriting on the white paper was as beautiful as the person himself. It was apparent at a glance that effort had been spent on penmanship; it could not be any more excellent.
She always felt that the top students3 of their class were excellent in whatever they did; their five-star talents and skills were something to be envious about for sure.
The contents of the note was simple — How much do you sell the thing in your hand for? I want it.
The girl did not take any money; with a blush on her face, she gave the hair clip to Qi Yu.
Receiving the item that he wanted, Qi Yu of course wanted it to serve its purpose.
With a small “click” sound as the clip clasped tightly, the teenager’s head moved, and he looked up to see what happened. Qi Yu’s hand had not fully retracted, and the two of them were really close to each other.
“Crash—”
The chair fell; everyone in the class looked over, not understanding what was going on with this big shot again.
Qi Yu slowly faced the teenager’s reddened face and his fierce eyes. He feel that he was really going to get beaten up.
His delicate eyes and brows smoothened out slowly as he thought this, his lips curled upwards.
The teenager facial expression froze, and became even fiercer in the next moment.
Yep, he was going to be cornered and beaten up.
The teacher hollered, asking Luo Shu who was disturbing the class to get out. Even though the school had quite a lot of young masters and young ladies who were academically less inclined, there were still many students who were actually in school to learn. Class Five’s overall standard was not bad compared to the cohort; it cannot have a person like Luo Shu disturb the class.
Before he left, Luo Shu fixed his eyes on Qi Yu who smiled, then walked out of the classroom with a glum face.
In the empty corridor, he placed his hands in his pockets, lazily leaning against the stretch of wall beside the window, his gaze laying upon the sky that was a little grey.
Remembering the smile that he saw just now, he raised his hands to cover the corners of his mouth.
This person is really bloody5 good looking when he smiles, I1 really bloody5 like him.
[Four]
A few minutes after Luo Shu stood there, a familiar holler came from next door. Soon after, two boys came out.
One with his hair in a half bun; the other with yellow-coloured hair.
These two looked all sleek and smooth; the moment they saw Luo Shu, they turned to face each other.
“Pfft—”
“The two of them covered their mouth to laugh at the same time. Their other free hands raised to point at Luo Shu and continued laughing. Till their tears fell like crazy; till they punched the wall.
No one dared to make a louder sound, if not it would attract attention from many people.
Luo Shu was bewildered by the laughter.
These two boys he knew; they were childhood friends and had never landed themselves in any less trouble together. Because since young, he had been their leading figure. These two also called him Luo-Ge6, or even Luo-Ye7 when they made fun of him.
Luo Shu now looked at those two who were laughing like mad across from him as if he were looking at idiots.
Should he go up to them and give them each a punch? For mocking him, even brothers need to be punched.
The bell for the next class came quickly. The two boys immediately came over, winking and raising their brows at Luo Shu.
“I say, which girl put it on for you?”
There was this girl in their class that always liked to play with her boyfriend’s hair, often using his slightly longer hair to tie a small ponytail of some sort.
Luo Shu did not understand, but he soon recalled why he was called to stand outside.
He remembered the moment he woke up, the boy that he liked had his hand reaching out, and their faces were really close. He had jumped up out of nervousness.
Perhaps —
Luo Shu, with doubt in his mind, raised his hand and sure enough, he felt something on his head.
He was not kind on himself at all. He used force to pull down the hair clip; there were still a few strands of silver hair stuck in the clip.
This kind of thing he actually recognised.
As the two boys looked on with mischevious gleams in their eyes, Luo Shu carefully put the obviously girly hair clip back on.
Under his breath, he let out a hum. The corners of his lips were very upturned, but did not give an explanation.
His friends, “Luo-Ye7, sure enough, your girlfriend gave it right? Wow, just not long after switching classes, you’ve found us a sister-in-law8 behind our backs.”
The two boys peeked in through the window, wanting to see who in class could possibly be Luo Shu’s girlfriend. Since young, they had never seen Luo Shu up close with any girl before.
“Get lost!”
Luo Shu raised his leg with a smile, pretending to give a kick.
A title or whatnot, it was unconfirmable before confession, but it was going to be soon.
[Five]
It was the last lesson.
While Qi Yu was writing his notes with his head lowered, a hand had reached out from the side, with a piece of paper underneath.
— Stay behind after school, there’s an issue I want to settle with you.
The handwriting on the paper was vastly different from the teenager’s appearance. Cute rounded words. The spacing between each word was very comfortable to read.
It read: I1 am a cute obedient baby.
Qi Yu picked up the paper, finding it an interesting discovery. He liked interesting.
From the handwriting, it seemed that he would be easily bullied into crying. He could not help but think of the drawing under his desk.
Their eyes met and Qi Yu glanced briefly at the teenager who still had the hair clip on his head.
His hair was a little messy; it was obvious that the hair clip had been moved. As to why he did not remove it, then rush over right away to sort it out with him, perhaps he wanted to go the violent, but cultured, way?
Qi Yu could not repress, and did not want to repress the strange feeling in his heart. His lips slowly curved upwards.
This time, his eyes seem to be swimming full of crushed starlight.
This was the third smile Luo Shu recieved today. Smiles that were only for him.
His mental image of Qi Yu was a warm appearance, but a cold personality. Before this, Luo Shu had only seen him smiling at others out of politeness; it was polite yet distant.
Whether it was a smile that came from the heart, Luo Shu who had encountered many people could feel it.
Qi Yu’s smile towards him must be from his heart.
Because his own heart was already beating fast because of this smile.
If Qi Yu smiled like this every day, he would be “smiled to death” one day.
Really liking him more and more now.
[Six]
Qi Yu thinks —
He might want to beat me up.
Fine, then let’s give it a try. Maybe, he would really cry from the (my) punches?
A crying desk mate would probably give a lot of pleasure.
Luo Shu thinks —
He might like me.
Otherwise why would he smile so nicely at me, till I want to lean over and kiss him.
This date invitation for confession was a success.
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– Translator’s Corner –
Luo Shu is so cute! He asked Qi Yu on a “date” after school so that he can confess to Qi Yu. Meanwhile… Qi Yu be like “He’s picking a fight with me after school, let’s make him cry with my punches!”…
Please let me know if there are any mistakes, but there shouldn’t be any major ones!
Do leave a comment if you’ve enjoyed the story, or give me any suggestions!
Thank you for your support >_<
Sorry for the SUPER long wait!
– Notes –
Special note:
Throughout the novel, the concept of 乖 guāi and 怪 guài is mentioned. Luo Shu is 乖 guāi while Qi Yu is 怪 guài. 乖 guāi means obedient, good [boy], cute etc. 怪 guài means weird, peculiar, bizarre etc.
For simplicity, I will be using obedient and weird for my translation. [return]
Other notes:
I1: The original text is 老子 lǎo zi. As mentioned in the previous chapters, 老子 is a not-so-nice phrase for “I/Me”, used by people to refer to themselves as another person’s father. Looks like it will be commonly used by Luo Shu in the novel. [return] (2nd instance of I please click on [return] after bloody5)
bad student2: The original text is 学渣, which often has quite a few different translations, for the sake of this novel I am simply using ‘bad student’. [return]
top student3: The original text is 学霸, which often has quite a few different translations, for the sake of this novel I am simply using ‘top student’.[return]
Damn4: The original text is 艹, more often written as 操 cao. I think this should a familiar enough swear word for you; I will be translating this word as “damn”. [return]
bloody5: The original text 他妈 tā mā literally means his mother. Another swear word from our beloved Luo Shu which I will be translating as “bloody”. [return]
Ge6: The original word 哥 gē means older brother. You don’t necessarily have to be related to call a person Ge, as long as the person is an older male or when you really respect the person. In this case, I’m guessing that they just call Luo Shu as Ge because he is a leading figure for them. [return]
Ye7: The original word 爷 yé means grandfather, or a male of that same age. It is also used in cases to mean ‘master/lord’ where a person holds much respect / has high standing. In this case, they are using it as a joke. [return] (2nd instance of Ye please click on [return] after sister-in-law8)
sister-in-law8: The original text 嫂子 sǎo zi means the wife of your older brother. Very often used colloquially as a title for the girlfriend/wife of your ‘bro’/friend. [return]
– End of Translator’s Corner –
caffeine translations 