Don’t Pretend to be Poor with Me - Chapter 26

You guys continue

Song Yan was not at all aware of what Xia Zhiye was thinking, and only felt that since the two had even squeezed into the narrow, 1.2meter bed at the dorms, then it would be nothing to squeeze into the 1.5meter single bed at the hotel.

Also, every time he slept with Xia Zhiye, he slept better than usual.

It was probably because Xia Zhiye had some kind of scent that made him feel very relaxed.

It was like a citrus scent, but it also wasn’t overly sweet. Usually, he couldn’t smell it, but every time he was hugged by Xia Zhiye, that kind of smell would bring along with it a warm comfort that calmed his fretful nerve cells.

For example, the night he had insomnia the first day he arrived at NanWu.

For example, the hug in pitch-black darkness.

So once Song Yan passed the age of needing to sleep with an adult, Xia Zhiye became the first person Song Yan allowed to sleep in the same bed as him.

But two 1.8meter tall boys squeezing into a single bed couldn’t be considered comfortable. Song Yan laid on his back but felt it was a bit tight, so he turned to lay on his side, but under the hazy light from the bedside table, he could vaguely see something that looked like a red mark on the back of Xia Zhiye’s neck.

Xia Zhiye’s skin was white, and the red mark appeared abrupt. The position was also particularly ambiguous. Once he thought of what that red mark could possibly be, Song Yan’s look immediately grew cold, and he reached his hand out to tear aside the collar of Xia Zhiye’s pajamas.

Xia Zhiye had just been laying on the bed, pondering over what he should say, when his collar was suddenly pulled aside with explosive strength. He then thought, could it be that Song Yan was so active?

Then he heard Song Yan coldly ask: “What’s this?”

Xia Zhiye was a bit dazed: “What’s what?’’

“Look for yourself.”

Song Yan pulled out his phone and angled it at the other’s neck, then took a photo and handed it over to the other.

Xia Zhiye glanced at it, understood it clearly, sat up, and began to pull aside the belt of his robe.

Song Yan immediately grew alert, grabbed the blanket and scooted backwards: “What are you doing?”

Xia Zhiye reflected on the other’s movement, felt it was interesting, tilted his head while squinting his eyes, and purposefully lowered his voice: “What do you think you can do when a lonely man and a widowed man are left in the same room, and one’s clothes are untidy?”

“……”

Absolutely nothing.

Song Yan coldly turned around: “Fuck off, laozi’s perfectly straight.”

Xia Zhiye lowered his head and lightly laughed. He didn’t respond, after all, a month earlier, he also felt he was perfectly straight.

So just saying it couldn’t determine whether or not one was straight.

After all, would a straight man care whether or not another straight man took his clothes off in front of the other?

No.

After Xia Zhiye came to this conclusion, he continued to pull apart his belt with complete satisfaction, while explaining: “The hotel probably didn’t get rid of the mites on the pajamas, I’m a bit allergic.”

When Xia Zhiye said this, his pajamas had already completely been pulled off his body.

Song Yan turned around and just happened to see the other’s back which really was covered in densely packed red marks. His originally healthy looking skin appeared quite shocking.

Song Yan furrowed his brows: “Go to the hospital?”

“No need, I’ll be fine if I just rub some ointment.” Xia Zhiye looked quite lax.

As if this kind of allergic reaction was normal.

He usually saw Xia Zhiye as untidy, with no scruples regarding the kind of food he ate. Turns out he was actually quite delicate.

Song Yan got off the bed, opened his suitcase, and brought out a first aid kit. He searched around for a while before he pulled out a tube of ointment that was much larger than most other tubes. He then turned to face Xia Zhiye: “See if you can use this.”

Song Yan was also easily allergic to bugs like dust mites, so Tan Qing had frequently prepared this ointment in his first aid kit. It was one she brought from abroad and it was said that the efficacy of the medicine in stopping a rash was moderate, and could even deal with a majority of skin rashes that weren’t serious.

Xia Zhiye originally planned to call someone to go buy medicine and send it to the hotel, but upon hearing Song Yan’s words, he walked over, took the ointment, and glanced at the English written on the packaging. He nodded: “Yeah, I can use it.”

“It’s fine if you can use it.”

Song Yan smoothly shut his suitcase and prepared to stand, but upon raising his head, his line of sight unavoidably looked straight at some certain area. He was attacked on the spot, and his breathing stuttered.

The clothes Xia Zhiye had changed out of had already been sent to the hotel’s laundry room, and he had taken off the pajamas due to his allergy. So at this moment, he only wore a pair of black briefs.

He stood there, while Song Yan squatted. As soon as Song Yan raised his head, the visual effect was a little overwhelming.

“……”

Fuck.

What did this person eat to grow so big.

Song Yan couldn’t help but scold the other in his heart, then quickly lowered his head. He rummaged around his suitcase for the biggest loungewear he had and tossed it at the other: “Don’t fucking behave indecently.”

Xia Zhiye was suddenly slapped in the face with two pairs of clothing for no reason at all, and was originally quite dazed. But when he lowered his head, he found Song Yan’s ears had turned red. He paused for a moment, then reacted, and couldn’t help smirking.

Would a straight man be this shy?

No.

So his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs were probably quite attractive to classmate Song Yan.

Xia Zhiye thought this, and leisurely pulled on Song Yan’s pants. But he unexpectedly didn’t wear the shirt.

Song Yan couldn’t help asking: “Are you that confident in your abs?”

He really was very confident, but that wasn’t the problem.

Xia Zhiye waved around the ointment in his hand: “If I wear the shirt, how can you apply the ointment on me?”

Song Yan: “……”

Why should laozi help you apply the ointment.

Xia Zhiye seemed to have guessed what the other was thinking, and unhurriedly explained: “Because I can’t reach my own back.”

“……”

The red rash was largely focused on his back, and Xia Zhiye really had no other way.

Song Yan also couldn’t just leave a dying man, so he could only coldly kick Xia Zhiye onto the sofa: “Lay down obediently.”

Xia Zhiye’s back was actually super itchy, but was worried that Song Yan would be worried, so he didn’t say anything. So he just honestly laid down on the sofa and played on his phone, in an attempt to divert his attention.

Meanwhile this was the first time little master Song applied ointment on someone else, and after putting on transparent latex gloves, stood next to the sofa. But he paused as he had no idea where he should place his hands, so he just stepped onto the sofa, and sat on Xia Zhiye’s legs, then slapped the palm of his hand on Xia Zhiye’s back: “Don’t move around.”

Xia Zhiye: “……”

He didn’t dare move.

With this kind of position, he was scared something would happen as soon as he moved.

But Song Yan was really thin, and he unexpectedly didn’t think the other was heavy once the other sat on his legs.

Also, although the movement of his hand was unskilled and clumsy, it wasn’t difficult to feel the other’s meticulously slow, and cautious movements.

The cool ointment against his stinging and itchy skin was quite comfortable.

Considerate, gentle, and able to love others dearly.

Xia Zhiye didn’t think there was anything wrong with the three adjectives he had given Song Yan, and only silently enjoyed the top-notch service that Song Yan provided.

Unfortunately, his phone inconsiderately began to ring.

It was a WeChat call from Shang Huai.

It wasn’t until Xia Zhiye had smoothly picked up the call did he realize it wasn’t a voice call, but a video call. He just wanted to ask what was wrong, when Shang Huai’s big face on the screen immediately turned from joy to a dull stiffness, that finally turned into a shock in his pupils.

“Xia…… Lord Xia…… You, you and Yan ge…… You guys…… Fuck!”

What do you mean, fuck? What was there to make a fuss about?

Upon hearing Shang Huai’s shout of doubt regarding the collapse of the world, Song Yan coldly raised his eyes to look at Xia Zhiye’s phone screen.

Then in the little window at the upper right corner of the screen, he saw Xia Zhiye’s bare upper body laying down on the sofa, with his own self sat behind Xia Zhiye, wearing latex gloves while holding up a tube of ointment.

Added to the fact that a few faint red marks could be seen on Xia Zhiye’s neck, as well as the fact that with one look, their background was that of a hotel room, despite the fact that he was only helping the other apply allergy medication, the entire scene was very imaginative.

Song Yan: “……”

Shang Huai: “……”

Xia Zhiye: “……”

Two phones, two cameras, three men at the crosswords of life, they all remained silent across the radio waves.

After a moment, Shang Huai resentfully said: “Lord Xia, although I felt since a long time ago that something was fishy about you two, I could’ve never imagined you’re actually the one to be on the bottom!”

“……” Xia Zhiye calmly asked, “Are you an idiot?”

Shang Huai didn’t admit he was an idiot, and only felt Xia Zhiye was probably incapable of facing reality, so he tearfully comforted: “Don’t worry, Lord Xia. It’s also worthy of admiration to be a 01 for love. We all understand.”

What the fuck do you understand.

Xia Zhiye was too lazy to continue speaking nonsense with him, so he took the ointment from Song Yan’s hand, and placed it in front of the camera: “Do you know how to read?”

Shang Huai shook his head.

Xia Zhiye: “Baidu2.”

“Oh.” Shang Huai lowered his head and obediently searched on Baidu, paused his fingers for a moment, then raised his head stiffly, “Allergy medication?”

“Otherwise?”

“……”

Shang Huai awkwardly rubbed his nose: “That, you also can’t blame me, most importantly……”

He originally wanted to say ‘Most importantly, you and Song Yan usually act pretty gay’, but seeing Song Yan’s face that was cold enough to boil formalin3 behind Xia Zhiye, he forcibly swallowed his words, then honestly replied: “Most importantly, my entire brain is filled with yellow waste. I’m immoral, I’m vulgar, I have no shame.”

Song Yan’s face on the screen finally warmed up, then got down from Xia Zhiye’s back, directly walking to the bathroom to wash his hands.

Xia Zhiye was also too lazy to bother about Shang Huai, and lazily asked: “Fine, why’d you video call me in the middle of the night?”

“Good news!” Only then did Shang Huai remember the reason why he called tonight, and a sliver of excitement could be seen in his eyes, “Let me show you something!”

As he said this, the camera shot changed to show the screen of a computer.

The screen showed an email.

[Sender]: HuanYue Entertainment

[Subject]: Notice of Interview

[Main Text]: Congratulations Mr. Shang Huai for passing our company’s open audition for demos. We invite you to participate in the second round of interviews on 10/6 at 10am, the address……

Xia Zhiye reacted: “You passed the open audition for singer-songwriters that you mentioned before?”

Shang Huai switched back to selfie mode: “Of course, if I didn’t pass the audition that would be too unworthy of my Lord Xia’s fatherly love.”

“Sure, then let me know if you’re missing anything. I’ll always be your outstanding father.”

“I’m not missing anything, just wanted to find you tonight to treat you to a meal. Tomorrow morning I have to go to Beijing. If I pass this time, then I might not come back so let’s make this meal a farewell dinner.”

As he said this, Song Yan had just happened to exit the bathroom. Hearing the latter half of the sentence, he asked: “What farewell dinner.”

“Nothing much.” Xia Zhiye easily explained, “Just that Shang Huai passed his audition, and has to go to Beijing for the second round on the 6th. He’s leaving tomorrow morning, and wanted to treat us to a meal before leaving.”

“The second round’s on the 6th, but tomorrow’s only the 3rd. Why leave so early?”

Xia Zhiye had also realized the issue, and asked Shang Huai: “Is there a reason why you’re going so early?”

“Haah, why else would I go to Beijing so early.” Shang Huai helplessly sighed, “Isn’t it because I’m poor. I don’t dare tell my mom about this, and I only have about 1,000 yuan on me. I can’t even buy a round-trip high speed rail ticket. I can only sit on the green-colored train.”

Song Yan really had no concept of this ‘green-colored train’.

Xia Zhiye explained: “Travelling from NanWu to Beijing on the green-colored train takes around thirty or so hours.”

Shang Huai added: “It’s even the hard seat.”

Song Yan: “……”

It was hard to imagine.

“But you only have that much money on you, where are you going to live in Beijing?” Xia Zhiye asked Shang Huai.

Shang Huai’s faced looked very frank: “I’ll just randomly find a shady Internet cafe to get by for a night. Then later when I become famous, I can pull out this experience to talk about. It’ll definitely be encouraging and moving and it’ll definitely add a stroke of heavy color to my autobiography!”

Having said this, it was as if he had already submerged himself in the wonderful fantasy of his future life as he foolishly laughed.

How could he be so blindly optimistic.

Xia Zhiye felt this was both interesting and funny: “That’s enough, stop daydreaming over there. Send me the address. Later, Song Yan and I will come together. See if we can pool together a bit more money.”

“You really don’t need to pool money……”

“It’s fine, don’t be stupid, I’m hanging up.”

Xia Zhiye disconnected the video call, turned and found Song Yan standing nearby while holding his phone. His hair covered his eyes and face, and his lips were slightly pursed, as if he was worried about something.

He lowly asked: “What are you thinking about.”

“Nothing.”

Song Yan’s fingertip tapped on the remaining balance on his bank card shown on his phone screen, and halfheartedly replied.

Although he returned the credit card to Song Minghai, Song Yan had never worried that he would lack money.

Because ever since he was young, no matter how sarcastic Song Minghai was, he had never treated Song Yan unfairly with regards to money. Every year, the new years’ money that the aunties and uncles gave him added up to well over six figures.

So Song Yan had always believed he still had quite a bit of money on his own card.

But he never would have thought he was unexpectedly quite extravagant ordinarily, so the total balance on his card was unexpectedly only 7518 yuan.

For him, this figure couldn’t even buy him a winter coat, but now it had to last him until the new year.

But actually, with 7,000 yuan, if he lived frugally enough to just get by, it wasn’t impossible to barely scrape by in the next four or five months, it’s just that……

Song Yan thought of Shang Huai’s happiness and excitement from just before and still made a decision. He raised his head, looked at Xia Zhiye, then nonchalantly said: “I’ll transfer 5,000 yuan to you. You transfer it to Shang Huai.”

Xia Zhiye made eye contact with the other, and raised his eyebrows, as if to question the other.

Song Yan was apparently unskilled at expressing this kind of goodwill. He avoided the other’s eyes awkwardly, his tone pretending to remain casual: “Anyway, it’s not that much money. Let him buy a roundtrip plane ticket, find a decent hotel and clean himself a bit. Don’t bring shame upon our No.3 Middle High.”

He was clearly worried it would be too hard on Shang Huai to ride the green-colored train, that Shang Huai would be unable to rest well, or that he might encounter some kind of danger while sleeping outdoors when alone in Beijing, so he wanted to help Shang Huai. But he insisted on maintaining his cold facade.

He really was a tsundere.

Xia Zhiye watched as Song Yan awkwardly avoided his gaze, and couldn’t help the smile in his eyes.

But he was so tsundere it was cute.

Ordinarily, if his grandpa hadn’t frozen his card, he could directly help Shang Huai, but now he temporarily had no money on hand, plus this matter was quite urgent, so he merely replied: “Sure, take it as me borrowing the money for him. I’ll definitely return it before the end of the year.”

How are you going to return it, by accompanying your good jiejie?

Thinking this, Song Yan felt uncomfortable in his heart. His head drooped down and arrogantly examined Xia Zhiye who sat on the sofa with his clothes out of order: “What do you plan to give back?”

Xia Zhiye: “?”

What does that mean? If he didn’t give money back after borrowing it, what else could he possibly give back? Could it be……

Xia Zhiye felt he understood something in that moment, raised his head, a look of sorrow akin to that of a woman4 remarrying: “If you insist on that, it’s not impossible.”

Song Yan: “?”

Song Yan: “……”

Song Yan: “.”

The fuck do you mean, it’s not impossible.

Song Yan raised his leg in preparation to kick a certain hoodlum that sat on the sofa.

But that hoodlum laughed while grabbing Song Yan’s ankle, in an attempt to protect himself.

But Song Yan had just come out of the bathroom, and the soles of his feet were wet. Stepping on the marble tile of the hotel floor was already quite slippery, and having his ankle pulled by Xia Zhiye in such a way caused him to lose his balance, and his entire body fell on top of Xia Zhiye’s body.

His head had coincidentally knocked into Xia Zhiye’s sturdy shoulder, and it hurt so much that he sharply inhaled a breath of cold air. He hadn’t had enough time to scold the other, when he heard a creak from the door.

He turned to look back, and saw Shen Jiayan’s hand on the doorknob, standing at the doorway. Shen Jiayan maintained his position of opening the door, looking into the room at the two people with ruffled clothes as well as the unnamed fluid on the floor, then sank into a rigid silence.

Three seconds later, the door closed.

“You guys continue.”

1. 0 is a slang term for bottom/uke/shou. In conjunction, 1 is a slang term for top/seme/gong. I’m sure you can guess why

2. Baidu is a search engine in China

3. For reference, the boiling point of formalin is -19C

4. The phrase author uses here is specifically a woman who wants to follow her husband in death. Essentially XZY is pretending to be a woman who is so sad about the prospect of remarrying as she hopes to follow her husband in death.