Don’t Pretend to be Poor with Me - Chapter 12

Pure and Good-Looking Male High School Student Accompanying to Play Online

“It’s not serious, just a superficial wound. It just might leave a scar.”

“Ah……”

All the policewoman at the police station sighed with regret and pity.

The little gangsters on the side who had been yelled at for half an hour: “?”

What?

What’s wrong with leaving a scar on a man?

They have scars all over their body, but no one felt sorry for them?!

As if they could guess what the men were thinking, a young policewoman turned around: “Can you be the same?”

Gangster: “?”

How can they not be the same?

“All day long you only know to break the law and fight with others. These two students are both good at studying and are well behaved, kind and filial. How could you compare?”

“……” The gangsters, “???”

Good at studying and well behaved? Kind and filial?

Can’t you clearly see who got beat up and has a swollen face and bloody nose after the fight?

The little gangsters wanted to cry but had no tears.

After all, besides Buzzcut, the other good for nothing feather dusters really were beat quite miserably by Song Yan.

But Song Yan was pretty and clean, and his temperament was pure and noble. While sitting there, it made people think he was definitely a good student.

Added to the fact that the elderly neighbors testified for him, the recording evidence from the scene of crime, as well as the timely call to the police, Song Yan, in the policewoman’s eyes was a righteous, calm, coolheaded, respectful of the old and lover of the young, model citizen that had only attacked out of self-defense.

“Worthy of being our country’s flower1, revitalizing China is all up to you.” The old director of the police station felt even more gratified, “But how come you didn’t call the police before?”

Xia Zhiye sat upright, and answered cleverly: “Grandma is old, and I’m usually at school. I was afraid this group of people would wait for an opportunity to take revenge.”

As he said this, his eyes drooped, and his eyelashes trembled slightly.

With the wound on his shoulder, he looked both sensible and helpless.

The old director felt distressed and immediately slapped the table, faced that group of gangsters and yelled: “You guys illegally provide loans, violently force others to pay their debt, deliberately hurt others, suspected of defrauding others, you only have yourself to blame for this judgment! Whoever dares to enact revenge is challenging the law of our country, and must be punished severely!”

The gangsters blankly stared at Xia Zhiye: “?”

Who is this handsome boy?

Why is he suddenly so delicate?

The old director felt they were brazenly threatening others with their eyes, and were simply challenging the bottom line of the people’s public servants. His fury rose from within, and he shouted: “Do you hear me!”

The little gangsters’ bodies jolted: “We heard you!”

“That’s good enough.” The old director then turned his head to speak to grandma Liu, “Old miss, don’t worry. Later I will arrange more staff to reinforce patrols of that area. Later there will definitely be no violent events such as this.”

Grandma Liu was choked with sobs: “Thank you.”

Little mahjong also raised her head, shed a few tears, then sweetly said: “Thank you police uncle.”

“Aiyah, so well-behaved. Later you can find police uncle, and police uncle will support you.”

“You can also find police jiejie2, and jiejie will give you candy.”

“Thank you pretty jiejie!”

“So cute.”

The police station became harmonious and joyous.

The gangsters that were about to go to jail: “……”

It’s them that didn’t match the mood.

.

The situation could be considered to have been resolved perfectly.

It’s just that after it was resolved, it was late at night. You couldn’t see any other pedestrians, and rain was still falling.

Song Yan took out his phone to call a cab.

Xia Zhiye glanced at the destination: “Are you planning to go back and wake up the dorm manager aunty, who will alarm Ruan Tian and Liu Deqing, and tell them you came back from the police station after you were in a fight?”

Song Yan didn’t raise his head: “I’ll climb over the wall.”

Xia Zhiye: “My shoulder is injured.”

Song Yan: “You go back home.”

Xia Zhiye: “The doctor said at night I might catch a fever from infection. Do you have the heart to make grandma pull an all nighter to care for me at this age?”

Xia Zhiye lowered his head to look at Song Yan with an expression of moral kidnapping3 shown clearly on his face.

Song Yan raised his head to return the gaze, with an expression of ‘what does that have to do with me,’ written clearly on his face.

He had firsthand experience of how the other pretended to be pitiful in front of the policemen, so with all expressions he remained indifferent.

Later, Xia Zhiye pulled aside his collar, and exposed his shoulder covered in medicinal ointment: “I got hurt to save you, and it really hurts.”

As he said this, he extremely aggrievedly blinked twice.

There were a few small raindrops coincidentally on the tips of his eyelashes that glistened until he blinked. It slid down to kiss the mole on the tip of his nose, then fell into the hollow of his collarbone, where it finally burst.

Song Yan: “……”

If it hurts, then it hurts. Don’t flirt arbitrarily.

.

Song Yan originally thought even if he did return home with Xia Zhiye, but how was there enough room in that palm-sized room for the two of them to live.

But then Xia Zhiye directly opened the door of the neighboring courtyard.

Grandma Liu lowered her voice to explain: “When Xiao Ye was young, he lived there with his mother and father. Later when his mother and father left, he lived there alone.”

So it was like that.

Thinking of this, when Xia Zhiye’s mother and father left, he wasn’t that old.

A child who was half mature, was it grandma protecting him or him protecting grandma. He even picked up little mahjong who no one wanted to raise. How in the world did they pass these days.

The faint glow from the lights on the walls of the courtyard trembled, evoking the youth’s tall and thin silhouette, though he didn’t appear overtly frail.

Song Yan suddenly felt that the things he was complaining about before was quite meaningless, so he pulled down his backpack, and followed Xia Zhiye into the room.

The single-story house had one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom, and a single bed. It was kept quite clean, and the walls were filled with posters of some basketball star and some rock-and-roll band. There was a drum kit placed in the living room, as well as a Lego spaceship, and in the bedroom, a pretty good computer was placed on a desk.

Just looking at the decorations, you wouldn’t be able to tell he was poverty-stricken. Instead he was like a decadent and unruly young master, but it was unknown where he got all that money.

Song Yan had some misgivings in his heart, but had no intentions of asking.

After all, he didn’t like others encroaching on his private matters, so he naturally also didn’t like encroaching on others.

By comparison, he was more concerned about another matter: “One bed?”

Xia Zhiye looked back: “Yeah, what’s the matter?”

You dare say what’s the matter.

Song Yan’s face was expressionless: “I’m not used to sleeping on the same bed with people I’m not familiar with.”

Xia Zhiye heard this and was quiet, he lowered his head, tapped a finger against the tip of his nose, and didn’t say anything for quite a while.

Song Yan had no more patience: “If you have something to say, say it.”

Xia Zhiye seriously replied: “It’s nothing, I was just thinking, before, who was it that slept quite well when I stuffed myself in the same bed at the dorms.”

Song Yan: “……”

Xia Zhiye: “Also today when giving a report at the police station, in the recording you made, who was it that said my business is his business.”

Song Yan: “……”

“Aiyah, why can’t I remember.” Xia Zhiye stroked his chin, his tone pompous, yet no trace of irritation could be heard.

Song Yan: “……”

If you can’t remember, might as well dig out your brain. It’s best if you can’t remember it for the rest of your life.

He really must have been out of his mind to follow Xia Zhiye home.

He immediately turned around to leave, without any hint of hesitation.

Xia Zhiye rushed to grab his wrist: “How come you can’t endure any teasing at all.”

Fucking teasing.

As if he were raising a cat.

Song Yan forcefully pulled his arm in an attempt to push the other’s hand off, but Xia Zhiye held his wrist and pulled him back.

Song Yan didn’t stand steadily, and nearly stumbled. He was just about to blow up, when a low voice came from the top of his head: “Ok, don’t be angry, it’s my fault.”

“?” Song Yan’s body paused, lifted his eyes, with a face as if he just saw a ghost.

Xia Zhiye lowered his eyes and replied: “Weren’t you angry this morning.”

Song Yan: “……”

“I thought about it all morning then figured out what you were mad about. But I swear, I never wanted to tease you, or laugh at you. Just that a person like you always has a face that wants to be a thousand miles away from other people, and it’s hard for you to actively say two words to others. If I directly said I don’t need those study materials, and don’t need you to tutor me, then you’d definitely ignore me. I just wanted to tell you later, I really had no other meaning.”

“……”

“So now, I’m apologizing to you. Don’t be mad at me, okay?”

The rain outside the window continued to drizzle down, cooling down the last of Xia Zhiye’s impatient heat. The coolness mixed with the smell of osmanthus flowers and saturated the air.

The youth’s voice was slightly low, slightly soft, bringing the implication of good-natured coaxing.

The two faced each other in the narrow doorway, and their bodies were nearly stuck together. When Xia Zhiye spoke, his breath landed on the ends of hair on Song Yan’s forehead, while the temperature of the palm surrounding his wrist was similar to that of a hot iron.

Song Yan suddenly felt as if he had been making trouble without reason regarding the whole situation: “Who the fuck is mad. Don’t use the words you’d use to coax a girl with me.”

Xia Zhiye raised his brows slightly: “When have I ever coaxed little girls?”

Song Yan unhappily raised his eyelids: “Didn’t you have more than 40 girlfriends?”

“??”

“……”

After reeling he may have said too much, Song Yan pushed him aside with a cold expression: “I’m not mad. I was serious when I said we’re not familiar with each other.”

“Fine, then we’re not familiar.”

All cats were like this, standoffish, but it was fine if you patted their fur.

Xia Zhiye already had a bit of insight for raising his desk-mate, then laughed while elaborating, and turned to the closet to pull out a pair of pajamas: “The cabinet in the bathroom has a one-time use toothbrush and towel. Use it as you see fit. I’ll go next door to change medicine.”

Song Yan also didn’t take back what he said about not being familiar, merely took the pajamas with a wooden face, then walked into the bathroom silently.

Before the door closed, Xia Zhiye once again called him: “Also.”

“?” Song Yan raised his eyes.

“Thanks for today, helping me protect grandma and little mahjong.”

When Xia Zhiye said this, there was no trace of undisciplined or sloppiness on his face, just honesty and sincerity.

Song Yan looked into his eyes, and suddenly felt as if some part of his heart had been smothered and punched, a very strange feeling.

He hurriedly lowered his eyes: “Bullshit.”

After saying this he closed the door, directly locking himself in. He only let out a sigh of relief after he heard the sound of Xia Zhiye leaving, then unscrewed the faucet.

But the single-story houses in the old city district were probably too old and in a state of disrepair. The hot water boiler was not that good, and after turning it on for a while, there was still no hot water, and no one came even when he called for Xia Zhiye.

Song Yan twisted the faucet again, then walked towards the neighboring courtyard.

The door to the neighboring courtyard wasn’t closed, and when he just prepared himself to push it open, he held back the strength in his hands.

Xia Zhiye’s voice flowed from across the wall: “You first take this 2,000 yuan, for little mahjong’s kindergarten fees.”

The old lady hurriedly rejected it: “This is your scholarship, how could you give it to us.”

“I was the one that picked up little mahjong, I should be helping pay for her school fees.”

“You can’t say it like that. At that time, I wanted to raise her myself, but who would have thought that I was useless as a grandmother and caused the child to suffer.”

“Don’t say that, little mahjong’s life isn’t any worse than any other child.”

“Ai, I can only say at least you’re there to be her brother. But you’re not even much older, how could you go and fight with those gangsters? Also if you give all the money to us, do you have enough for yourself?”

“Don’t worry, when have I ever lacked money.”

……

The fragments of the conversation gradually drowned in the drizzling rain.

Song Yan ultimately didn’t push aside the sliding door, and directly returned next door. Then used the cold water and barely took a bath.

Since he was young, he had been very picky when it came to eating and drinking and it was difficult for others to serve him. Under this sort of environment, if it were in the past, he definitely would have left much earlier.

Now he felt he was quite unreasonable.

Rather, he felt that he was quite unreasonable in the past.

He never had to worry about eating or drinking, a pair of shoes was the cost of other people’s yearly living expenses, and even felt as if the entire world had let him down. All day long he couldn’t show a nice expression.

Maybe Song Minghai was right, he was unable to differentiate right from wrong, so from childhood to adulthood, he had never been likable.

After taking a shower and returning to the bedroom, Xia Zhiye still hadn’t returned.

He also wasn’t sure if he hadn’t returned yet, or he came back and then went out again. But he just so happened to avoid the awkwardness of not knowing what to do4.

Song Yan walked to the desk, pulled apart the zippers of his bag, and was preparing to pull out a tablet of his medicine to get some sleep, when the edge of his bag accidentally bumped into the mouse on the table.

The screen abruptly lit up.

Song Yan didn’t have the bad habit of snooping on other people’s business, but the chat window on the screen was really just too big, and too dazzling. He hadn’t yet closed his eyes when he unavoidably saw the contents of the chat.

Then Song Yan slightly knit his brows.

Shen Jiayan was a standard young man with Internet addiction. If he had nothing to do, he would pull Song Yan to play a few games, so Song Yan did know a few things about games, and was familiar with this web page.

The web page was fundamentally decent.

But it seems the person using it was not that decent.

At the top of the chat window, Song Yan saw the massive ID of ‘Pure and Good-Looking Male High School Student Accompanying to Play Online,’ then he sank into a long silence.

Accompanying to play is nothing.

But adding that prefix, and something seems not quite right.

Thinking back to Xia Zhiye’s face, then thinking back to the money that he pulled out from who knows where, and that feeling that something was not right became even stronger.

Song Yan stood at the same spot, looking pensive.

Then that chat window began to jump.

[This Lady is Beautiful and Wild]: How come you’re on at this time?

[This Lady is Beautiful and Wild]: If you’re on, then play with jiejie for a bit. I’ve been stuck on Diamond I for so many days. Ionia clearly isn’t a place for people to play. You take me up to Master.5

[This Lady is Beautiful and Wild]: Are you there? Don’t act like you’re dead. Don’t worry, as long as you accompany me comfortably, jiejie definitely won’t treat you unfairly.

[This Lady is Beautiful and Wild]: Come, you just need to take jiejie up to Master. Just say if you want shoes or clothes. If you really can’t, then let’s go with the old rules, one round for 200 yuan?

[This Lady is Beautiful and Wild]: Oh, that’s right. On National Day, I’m going to go to Nan Wu. At that time I’ll take you to eat, play, buy clothes or whatever.

[This Lady is Beautiful and Wild]: You can’t refuse. I already booked the flight and hotel. This time, even if you don’t want to keep me company you must come, understand?

The messages kept coming in one by one, the finger Song Yan had on the table grew increasingly forceful.

No matter if it was the other’s user ID or their manner of speaking, including the profile picture of the dazzling Cartier bracelet that was just recently released, it all exuded ‘rich white beauty6’ in capital letters.

Thinking of Xia Zhiye bending that pair of peach blossom eyes, using that lazy tone of voice containing a hint of laughter with a low voice readily saying ‘jiejie’ to this pretty rich lady, Song Yan felt a heart attack coming on.

He didn’t think Xia Zhiye would really sell his body for this bit of money. At most he would just rely on his charm and voice to accompany others to play and level up.

But it seems this rich lady wasn’t that simple.

At the very least, from the last message, she didn’t simply covet Xia Zhiye’s skills in gaming.

And as far as boys at this age like Xia Zhiye are concerned, under such a difficult and bitter life, if some rich lady who is pretty, has money, is generous and willing to help appears, then even if they don’t rush for the money, they would still easily become ensnared under this kind of attentiveness. It would be hard to guarantee that he wouldn’t take a wrong step in life.

But it could be seen that Xia Zhiye really did lack money, and accompanying others to play was better than engaging in illegal business. At the very least, he could easily alleviate his current financial difficulties.

It’s just what if he ended up going astray.

A teenaged boy full of youth and vigor towards the first awakening of love could be impulsive.

Song Yan pursed his lips, pondered for a moment, then finally made a decision.

He opened WeChat, and pressed on Shen Jiayan’s profile picture.

[YAN]: Nowadays high school boys who accompany others to play like taking what type of orders.

[The Sweetest Little Milk Strawberry in the World]: You even have to ask this? A rich lady who’s pretty, has a lot of money, and is sweet.

Song Yan: “……”

Fine.

He downloaded the app.

Registered Username: [Beautiful and Rich Little Lady]

Profile picture: Hello Kitty

Search for ‘Pure and Good-Looking Male High School Student Accompanying to Play Online,’ typed to send: [Little brother, King’s Glory7, one round 200 yuan, is that ok?]

After he sent that, he then felt it wasn’t sweet enough, then thought of the style of the little girls that Shen Jiayan frequently messed around with, then with a paralyzed expression, added a sentence:

[QAQ, kisses~]

1. Country’s flower refers to the youth/younger generation.

2. Jiejie = 姐姐, which means older sister, do not have to be blood-related to call another person jiejie

3. Moral kidnapping, the literal translation of 道德绑架, and means using one’s moral value to pressure others to do what you want. XZY is taking advantage of SY’s (inner) kindness to not want to bother grandma to make SY come take care of XZY

4. Author uses 大眼瞪小眼, lit. big eye stares at the small eye. When two people stare at each other and don’t know what to do.

5. These are all League of Legend terms. Diamond and Master are tiers in the games, while Ionia is a map in the game.

6. 白富美, a common term used to describe girls that ‘have it all,’ ie: being pale, rich, and beautiful.

7. King’s Glory is a mobile game, similar to League of Legends. I don’t play either of those games, but they seem to have similar mechanics. 5v5 rounds, different tiers, multiple heroes/maps, etc.