Don’t Pretend to be Poor with Me - Chapter 34

Strike first to gain the upper hand

The moment he entered the game room and saw his own profile picture and ID, Song Yan had already thought of the hospital that Xia Zhiye would be born in in his next life.

He sat in his original spot, held his cell phone, and stared at the screen without moving at all.

As if thinking as long as he didn’t move, then time would stop at that moment, and his shame and social embarrassment would never come.

But Xia Zhiye above his head, who didn’t know right from wrong, called out, “Song Yan”.

So with a blank face, Song Yan put down his phone.

Then he cracked his neck, loosened his wrists, and prepared to warm up his body.

He vowed that as long as Xia Zhiye dared to say a word he shouldn’t, then from now on, there will always be the departed spirit of a pure and good-looking male high school student floating overhead in the canyon of King’s Glory.

The male high schooler was entirely clueless as to the concentrated killing intent in the bottom bunk, and with a calm tone of voice, asked: “Do you have an extra charger?”

Song Yan’s movement of rotating his wrists paused.

Then he saw a slender and pale arm drape down from the upper bunk.

Xia Zhiye extended his arms while his fingers grasped the edge of his phone loosely, then waved his pitch-black screen twice: “I charged it for half a day but it just suddenly shut off, my charger is probably broken. Can I borrow yours first? I just arranged a game with someone.”

Song Yan lowered his head, and looked towards the corner of his bed. Xia Zhiye’s profile picture on the screen of his cell phone really did show a departure time.

He really did get disconnected.

Also, it seems that Xia Zhiye didn’t find out that the person he arranged to play a game with was himself.

So could it be that before he entered the game room, Xia Zhiye’s phone had already automatically shut down?

It wasn’t impossible.

After all, according to Xia Zhiye’s brain, if he really did find out, there’s no telling how much trouble he’d make.

Song Yan embraced this wishful thinking, and while pretending to be natural, asked indifferently: “You’re playing with Zhou Ziqiu and them?”

“No, someone rich little lady who’s pretty cute. But I just invited them when my phone suddenly turned off, so can our Yan ge help me out?” Xia Zhiye leaned over and lowered his head to look at Song Yan, smiling both sloppily and lazily.

With a blank look, Song Yan unplugged his charger from his powerstrip, and tossed it up towards the upper bunk: “Take it and then get out of my sight.”

“Thank Your Majesty for this gift.” Xia Zhiye casually raised his arm and effortlessly caught it, then returned to laying down on his bed.

All throughout, his expression was not abnormal in the least.

If he were acting, then Xia Zhiye might as well aim for the Oscars.

Seems that God was still merciful, and he couldn’t bear for Xia Zhiye to die at such a young age.

Song Yan had the feeling of a new lease on life, as if he were pulled back from the edge of committing a crime, and with a cold face, picked up his cell phone, exited out of the game, switched his account, and then once again entered the game room.

[Beautiful and Rich Little Lady]: QAQ, xiao gege, where did you go?

[Beautiful and Rich Little Lady]: Did something happen suddenly so you went offline?

[Beautiful and Rich Little Lady]: Xiao gege, xiao gege, are you still there?

[Beautiful and Rich Little Lady]: Ying

As long as you’re sufficiently shameless, then the sockpuppet can be covered up tightly.

After Song Yan sent these three messages with a face of ‘nothing left to live for’, he finally understood a principle —— more often than not, a single lie requires countless other lies to make it complete.

And Xia Zhiye on the upper bunk stared at these three messages, and couldn’t help the gentle rise of the corner of his lips.

Some people looked like a pretty and cool brother on the surface, but in actuality was a golden sweet little sister. In reality they said ‘what fucking Ye gege,’ but on the internet, they said xiao gege one after another. They really were like a little girl with two faces.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly and acted well. Or else if he exposed the other on the spot, Song Yan with his thin skin would probably directly choose to live on a different planet.

At that time, being maimed was a small loss, but not being able to hear Song Yan call him xiao gege would be too big a loss.

So for now, this sockpuppet can’t be torn apart.

At the very least, it can’t be torn apart before he successfully wooed Song Yan.

Otherwise, if Song Yan felt ashamed and transferred schools, where would he find such a cool and sweet boyfriend that wholeheartedly loved him?

He figured that at that time, Song Yan wanted to better understand him but didn’t know where to start, so he decided to create such a sockpuppet.

And he actually also didn’t discover this, and even wanted to hurry and make some extra income from this little rich lady to buy a gift for Song Yan.

After running around in circles, it turns out nothing comes for free.

But this was also good.

In this way, this washing machine is the first piece of furniture that he and Song Yan bought together. When they get married in the future and buy a house, they can directly move this machine in as a commemorative souvenir.

As Xia Zhiye thought, the smile on his lips deepened.

Then he estimated that the time it took to recharge his phone after an automatic shut down was reached, and prepared to enter the room again.

[Pure and Good-Looking Male High School Student Accompanying to Play]: I’m sorry, my phone ran out of battery before

[Beautiful and Rich Little Lady]: No problem gege, but tonight I suddenly have something to do. If you’re in a hurry for money, I’ll give you the money for 15 rounds first, and we can settle the account later, is that okay

Seems a certain someone wanted to run away.

[Pure and Good-Looking Male High School Student Accompanying to Play]: You trust me that much?

[Beautiful and Rich Little Lady]: Of course (^ധ^)

[Beautiful and Rich Little Lady]: I already transferred the money to you. I’ll go do my homework now, see you later, gege

After he sent that message, Song Yan logged off at the speed of light, tossed aside his phone, and laid down on his bed, with a face as if he could directly be placed into a coffin.

He made a decision.

Later, that huge idiot Xia Zhiye could find whatever jiejie he wanted.

It had nothing to do with him.

Anyway, he couldn’t lose his legendary reputation just to support the poor.

Just let this last 300 yuan payment terminate the relationship that shouldn’t have existed between [Beautiful and Rich Little Lady] and [Pure and Good-Looking Male High School Student Accompanying to Play].

.

Xia Zhiye had no idea that he had already been given 300 yuan as a breakup fee.

After having his invitations rejected by this little rich lady with various reasons over the next few days, he simply guessed that a certain someone was too ashamed and for the time being did not dare face reality.

He just stared at that sentence [Soon it’ll be midterm season, and my mom won’t let me play games, so gege, you don’t need to find me these next few days]

Xia Zhiye could already imagine a certain someone in the bottom bunk gritting his teeth with red ears as he said ‘Don’t fucking look for me’.

Thus he gently laughed, then replied with: [Fine]

It really was nearing midterm season, and after exams were done, then it would be the sports competition and the basketball competition. So not only did he have to busy himself with studying, he also had to prepare for basketball training. He really was quite busy, so he temporarily let the other off.

Anyway, the actual person was right under him, and he couldn’t escape. In the future, there will be more opportunities.

Also, Song Yan really was busy studying.

He already self-studied the basic knowledge for second years, and for STEM subjects, other than the last two big problems, he could guarantee 100% that he wouldn’t lose points.

However, the teaching staff and student base at NanWu’s No.3 Middle High was poor. The difficult points and test questions for each subject to pull apart the outstanding students from those in the middle wouldn’t be discussed systematically.

After asking the teacher twice, they were only able to explain the question without a clear train of thought, training, or summarization.

So Song Yan basically could only rely on himself.

He bought a workbook himself, found questions online, did them himself, reviewed them himself, categorized the questions he got wrong himself, then organized the error-prone knowledge points and problem solving. After all this busywork, he also had no time to think about anything else.

Just that Song Yan preferred the quiet, and the classroom during the day was too noisy, so he usually studied alone in the dorms at night.

Then during the day, hearing the teacher explain the basic knowledge that he didn’t need to listen to at all, he grew persistently sleepy.

So every time little fatty and Zhao Ruiwen turned around, they could only see the back of someone’s head as they laid across the table, and they couldn’t help but lament and denounce: “Yan ge, you can’t be like this, you’re the no.2 seed of our grade. If you continue to fall from grace, our No.3 Middle High will once again be crushed by ShiWai!”

The no.2 seed didn’t even raise his head, and only raised his hand to slap the other with a notebook.

Little fatty nimbly avoided it, and looked at the neighboring no.1 seed: “Lord Xia, you should control him. Last time, the situation with Liu Yue made such a big fuss at the flag raising ceremony. If he doesn’t test well this time, Liu Deqing will definitely come to trouble you.”

Xia Zhiye quickly completed problems while lazily replying with: “You think I can control him?”

Little fatty and Zhao Ruiwen thought of the daily life of Xia Zhiye being beaten every day, then still having to coax others after being beaten: “……”

Seems like he really can’t.

“Then what should we do.”

Little fatty was nearly worried to death.

Xia Zhiye was both clearheaded and ruthless: “Why does a person with a math score of 74 have to worry about what a person with a math score of 148 is going to do.”

“……”

A kill without shedding blood.

Little fatty: “Sorry, I’ve bothered you.”

So in full view, Song Yan slept straight through the afternoon, until school ended.

Xia Zhiye pushed the dinner he bought over to the other: “After eating and resting for a bit, let’s go to the basketball court, mainly to practice our teamwork first.”

“Mm.”

Song Yan replied listlessly.

He opened the lunch box, glanced at the pig liver and celery, then frowned with disgust and gave it all to Xia Zhiye.

Xia Zhiye stared at the little mountain piled high in front of him, and raised his eyebrows: “You’re not eating it?”

Song Yan just woke up, didn’t think too much, and only coldly ‘mm’ed: “It tastes too heavy, I feel sick after eating it.”

“……”

So Song Yan didn’t like eating pig liver?

Then how come he bought a huge packed container of pig liver the second night he was at the dorms?

Xia Zhiye just wanted to ask when someone at the door called him: “Classmate Xia Zhiye, can I bother you to come out for a bit?”

The two heard the sound and raised their heads, and found it was a girl they weren’t too familiar with. She was delicate, fair, and refined, and smiled bashfully at Xia Zhiye.

Song Yan asked: “Who is it?”

Xia Zhiye: “I think I’ve met her before, but I don’t remember.”

“Hmph, scumbag.”

“?”

Once Song Yan saw the girl hugging something in her arms, he could probably guess as to what it was all about. He coldly lowered his head and continued eating his dinner.

Due to his manners and upbringing, Xia Zhiye had no choice but to put down his chopsticks, and stand up to walk towards the girl: “What’s up?”

“Um……” The girl seemed a bit embarrassed. She lowered her head, and her voice, “I heard that your basketball team is resuming training, and there’s a competition next month, so……”

The girl held a shoebox in her hands, and handed it over to Xia Zhiye: “I hope you like it.”

Her lips were pursed tightly, and her eyebrows and eyes drooped while trembling slightly.

Actually, she was a very cute girl.

But Xia Zhiye simply courteously and politely replied with: “Thank you for your good intentions, but it’s not suitable.”

The girl promptly rebutted: “It is suitable, I specially went to find Zhou Ziqiu to ask your shoe size and your preferences, he said……”

“That’s not what I meant when I said it’s not suitable.” Xia Zhiye pupil swept towards the corner of his eye, and glanced at a certain someone who was picking at his food with disgust at the back of the classroom, and the corner of his lips raised with a smile.

Then he turned back around, “It’s because I already accepted someone else’s shoe.”

His tone of voice was rarely this serious.

The implication was self-evident.

The girl lightly bit her lower lip, and probingly asked: “Is it the pair with no owner that you left in the lost and found office the other day?”

Xia Zhiye nodded: “Yeah.”

He just finished speaking when the girl immediately exposed a bright smile: “That’s great! So can I bother you to give this to Song Yan!”

After she said this, she put away the shoe box, then as if conjuring something out of nowhere, she pulled out a delicate, pink box from behind her back and stuffed it into Xia Zhiye’s hand. Then without waiting for him to reject her, she ran away screaming ‘Ahhhhhh’.

While running, she also didn’t forget to announce the good news to her sisters: [Good news! Xia Zhiye accepted the pair of shoes that someone sent to him the other day! He and Song Yan aren’t a pair!!! Us iYAN1 girls still have a chance!!!]

Xia Zhiye, who had been left behind, hugged a gift box that appeared out of nowhere, and stood at the doorway of the classroom in a slight daze.

So could it be that he was actually just a tool man?

Ever since he was young, Shang Huai and Zhou Ziqiu helped others send him gifts. This was the first time that he helped others send a gift to someone else.

Looks like his Song Daxi really was very charming.

Xia Zhiye lightly grit his molars, and felt as if he had to strike first to gain the upper hand.

1. iYAN was written originally in english. It’s also a pun as i sounds like the character for love (爱, ai) so it literally means love YAN.