Don’t Pretend to be Poor with Me - Chapter 40

good night

This time, Song Yan didn’t directly answer.

Rather, he seriously pondered this for a long time, before he seriously shook his head: “That’s not good.”

Xia Zhiye’s heart sank a little: “Why not?”

“Because I have to be the top scorer in the gaokao.”

“?”

“Dating will affect the speed at which I complete questions.”

“……”

Xia Zhiye thought of 10,000 reasons why Song Yan might reject him, for example, the other couldn’t accept boys liking boys, or they were not suitable for each other, or the other had someone he liked. But he never would have thought that he would unexpectedly be defeated by studying.

It wasn’t like Xia Zhiye didn’t like learning, or else he wouldn’t have gotten first place in the grade, but he also didn’t have any particular obsession with studying. He wasn’t like Song Yan, as if the other would never give up until he got first place in the gaokao.

He was a bit curious, and he quietly coaxed: “So why does our Yanyan want to be first place in the gaokao so bad?”

“Because it’s 100,000 yuan. If I have 100,000 yuan, then I won’t have to go home ever again, I don’t like it there.”

Song Yan buried his head into the crook of his arm. His voice was depressed, and it sounded as if he suffered quite a bit of grievances.

Xia Zhiye sighed, he has never met someone who knew how to act as coquettishly as Song Yan. Every time he acted spoiled, it was as if he purposely kicked at the most sore and aching part in a person’s heart. He was particularly able to attract other people’s love, and Xia Zhiye reached out to rub his head: “Then actually, we can study together.”

“No.”

The other party didn’t appreciate the kindness at all, and rejected him extremely decisively.

Xia Zhiye raised his eyebrows: “Why?”

“Because I won’t date someone whose math scores are lower than mine.”

“……”

Xia Zhiye vaguely felt that that sentence was a bit familiar. After recalling, he remembered that it came from the study encouragement story that Shang Huai told during the farewell party to send him off, and for a moment, he felt both angry yet laughable.

During the last exam, his math scores really were lower than Song Yan’s by one point, but who would have thought, the words he used to encourage someone else to study would one day return to him by heavenly law.

He even suspected that Song Yan wasn’t drunk, and was purposely pretending to be drunk to anger him.

But no matter how angry he was, he still had to coax the other: “Then is it that as long as my math scores are higher than yours, I can chase you?”

After a moment, no one replied.

Xia Zhiye inquisitively called the other: “Song Daxi?”

No one replied.

“Song Yan?”

Still no one replied.

With a bad premonition, Xia Zhiye raised the head that had been buried in the crook of Song Yan’s arm, and as expected, found a little face that was in the midst of a deep sleep.

Xia Zhiye: “……”

Once again, he suspected that Song Yan was someone that god had sent over to purposely anger him.

But what else could he do? He couldn’t hit the other, or scold the other, he could only softly and quietly help the other take off his shoes and socks, as well as his jacket, then carry the other horizontally and place the other onto the bed.

The moment he placed Song Yan on the bed, and wanted to let go of the other to clean up the room, Song Yan hooked his neck and exerted all his strength to tug at him. Then he unhappily rubbed against him twice while mumbling: “Sleep together.”

Xia Zhiye nearly fell down onto Song Yan with the other’s pull, but fortunately, he used his elbow to support himself in time. Only by turning to the side was he able to avoid the embarrassment of painstakingly pressing down on Song Yan.

Yet Song Yan seemed to be just as unhappy as before, and incessantly moved to stick himself against Xia Zhiye’s body, and his head even buried itself into the other’s neck as he gently rubbed back and forth: “Sleep together, I don’t like sleeping alone, I can’t fall asleep.”

A warm breath sprayed against the skin of his neck, and Xia Zhiye was rubbed into wanting to whisper some profanity, but he endured: “You can’t.”

“Why?”

A certain someone who had been rubbing this way and that stopped their movement, as if they were particularly dissatisfied.

Xia Zhiye glanced at the cellphone on the table, and very honorably replied: “I’m a very traditional man. If you want to sleep with me, you must take responsibility of me.”

“……”

Song Yan evidently hadn’t quite fully reacted to such a huge amount of information.

Xia Zhiye switched to a simpler wording: “For example, agreeing to let me chase you.”

A brief moment of silence, as if he was weighing the pros and cons to see which would be more profitable.

Then Song Yan tightly hugged Xia Zhiye’s neck, then took the opportunity to wrap his legs around Xia Zhiye’s waist, using a manner that one would use to hug a stuffed animal, to tightly embrace Xia Zhiye: “Then later on, you always have to sleep with me.”

In that moment, Xia Zhiye felt his body stiffen as his heart softened, and deeply sighed.

The day he finally succeeds in chasing Song Yan, he must practice what he preaches, and tell the other exactly what ‘later on, you always have to, sleep with me’ means.

Anyways the evidence was in his hands, and a certain someone had no chance of reneging on this debt.

Or else he would make a terrible scene.

.

Song Yan had a dream.

A not so good dream.

In his dream, he tightly wrapped himself around a person in the dark, as if he greatly craved the scent and warmth on that person’s body, and also as if he longed for the only sense of security that the other provided in the dark.

As a result, no matter what, he refused to let go, and just tightly wrapped himself around that person, as if he were bewitched, he wrapped himself around that monk and did some things he should have. Although he was ashamed, he indulged in it, until he felt his body grow warmer and warmer, and warmer and warmer, and felt so stuffy he nearly couldn’t breathe, and then he suddenly woke up.

After waking up, he discovered his hand was tightly wrapped around Xia Zhiye’s waist, his legs were tightly wrapped around Xia Zhiye’s legs, his head just happened to be snuggled up against Xia Zhiye’s chest, while the back of his head and his waist each had one of Xia Zhiye’s large pig hooves.

The posture had a certain kind of similarity to his dream, and with conditioned reflexes, Song Yan immediately sat up, then kicked aside Xia Zhiye: “Get off!”

Xia Zhiye was kicked awake, and was initially in a daze. Then he saw Song Yan’s expression, and knew that a certain someone blacked out again. Without any surprise at all, he half sat up, then smiled at Song Yan without saying anything.

Song Yan followed along with the other’s gaze and looked downward.

“……”

Fuck.

With immediate ruthlessness, he kicked Xia Zhiye, then ran away in a flurry towards the bathroom.

He didn’t think that he should feel ashamed of having a normal reaction that all male high school students have in the morning, it’s just that the dream he had before that reaction made him feel that it was a bit hard to accept.

Although he couldn’t see the face of the person in his dreams, it seems he had a vague idea as to who it was. That kind of familiar scent and body warmth, he had only ever found it on one person.

But was it possible for a man to have a spring dream about another man?

Impossible.

So then it definitely wasn’t Xia Zhiye, it was just reality influencing his dreams.

Song Yan thought this as he showered for an entire half hour, until all the hot water in the water heater was gone. Then he dawdled around as he unwillingly walked out of the bathroom.

Xia Zhiye had also already gotten out of bed, held a bottle of milk and was just about to say something when he was glared at by Song Yan: “Shut up!”

Xia Zhiye’s mood was unprecedentedly good today, so he obediently shut up, smiled as he placed the milk and bread in front of Song Yan, then walked into the bathroom himself.

A certain someone had thin skin, and it was best not to lay some things bare even after seeing through it.

Anyway, if a certain someone had that kind of reaction, then perhaps he wasn’t so straight either.

Song Yan, who had a large information gap behind Xia Zhiye due to his drunken blackout, sat on the sofa with his legs crossed as he rubbed at his hair viciously.

Fuck, exactly what happened last night, how come the atmosphere was somewhat strange after waking up.

But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t figure it out, and could only toss the towel aside in a fit of frustration, while fishing out his phone to check it. To his surprise, it was nearly noon, and he had several missed calls and WeChat messages, all of which were from Shen Jiayan.

He opened WeChat to look.

[The Sweetest Little Milk Strawberry in the World]: Xiao Yan! Are you awake! Good news, good news! I finally sold the watch that I helped you post on Salted Fish!

[The Sweetest Little Milk Strawberry in the World]: The other party was particularly straightforward, they directly gave 50,000 yuan, later when he confirms he received the goods, I’ll send the money to your account.

[The Sweetest Little Milk Strawberry in the World]: But the market value of that watch is nearly 180,000 yuan, and you sold it for just 50,000 yuan, it’s still a bit of a pity

That watch was a birthday gift he had received last year. Actually, he still quite liked it, but now, the only thing that was convenient for immediate realization for cash was that.

It really was a pity to sell it for 50,000 yuan, but it wasn’t a limited edition watch. If you can afford the original price, then there was no difference between a discount of 10,000 yuan or 20,000 yuan. But if you can’t afford the original price, then you have to worry about whether or not the product is genuine. Therefore, after posting it for several days, many people asked about it but few sincerely wanted to buy it.

Originally he thought to casually sell it for 20,000 or 30,000 yuan, or even a few thousand yuan. But who would have thought that as soon as he woke up, the blind cat unexpectedly ran into a dead mouse1.

Song Yan quickly replied: [Mm, thanks]

[The Sweetest Little Milk Strawberry in the World]: Haaa, it’s nothing. If only I didn’t test well during the midterm exams and my mom didn’t give me an allowance, then you also wouldn’t be reduced to selling your watch. But your dad is also really ruthless enough

Song Yan avoided the last sentence, and directly replied: [Send me the papers for your midterm exam, I’ll see where you had problems]

Shen Jiayan on the other side immediately gratefully called him dad, then sent over ten scanned sheets of paper.

It just so happened that Xia Zhiye had finished showering and walked out of the bathroom. Song Yan didn’t dare look at the other, only stared at his phone, and pretended to be natural as he said: “I’ll borrow your computer.”

“What happened?”

“I’m helping Shen Jiayan check over his midterm exam, it’s not convenient to annotate it on my cell phone.”

“Oh, sure, I’ll check over it with you.”

Song Yan raised his head and furrowed his eyebrows a bit: “What are you checking?”

Xia Zhiye lazily picked up the milk box that he secretly stole the straw from last night, cut open the packaging, then unhurriedly replied: “Check out what kind of questions the best private high school in Beijing puts out so I can conveniently check out what gaps I have, so as to prevent my math scores from forever failing to move upwards.”

“?”

Xia Zhiye scored a 147 during the last exam, this is what ‘failing to move upwards’ means?

He felt Song Yan’s suspicious gaze, and Xia Zhiye raised the milk carton in his hands: “I have no other choice, if my math scores don’t surpass a certain someone, I don’t have the qualifications to date him. So it’s all for learning and romance, cheers.”

Song Yan: “……”

What a psycho.

.

Whether Song Yan thinks Xia Zhiye is a psycho or not, Xia Zhiye’s attitude towards studying in the next few days was indeed much more serious than before.

So serious that little fatty directly cried out, asking if Xia Zhiye planned to leave a last bite for the learning scum social class to eat.

Meanwhile, the days grew colder, and when the students in other dorm rooms struggled to wash their increasingly thick clothes, the pink laundry machine in 616 conscientiously protected Song Yan’s freedom in changing his clothes.

So much so that Song Yan was imperceptibly influenced into believing that the color pink seemed to be quite good looking.

And the day they finished exams just happened to be the start of winter. Following the bell to signify the end of the test, after some despairingly shouted out: “Winter is coming2”, the entire sophomore class turned into a cemetery of defeated students.

Little fatty sat paralyzed in his seat, as if he were a corpse: “Abnormal, it’s really too abnormal. How can there be a school as abnormal as ShiWai. Only someone who isn’t a person would come up with the problems they came up with.”

Zhao Ruiwen sat paralyzed next to him, and was like another corpse: “It’s over, I’m completely over. If I didn’t have Like god’s learning materials, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do even one big problem.”

Little fatty: “Ah, laughing to death, I didn’t even have any time to do a single big problem.”

Zhao Ruiwen: “Ah, laughing to death, I didn’t even know whether the last big question in the math exam was about numerical series or solid geometry.”

“So, Lord Xia, how’d you do on the exam?”

Little fatty and Zhao Ruiwen attempted to seek a bit of comfort.

Xia Zhiye lowered his head to play with his phone: “Not bad, a minimum of 700.”

Little fatty, Zhao Ruiwen: “……”

They were unresigned, and once again looked towards Song Yan: “Yan ge, what about you?”

Song Yan tidied up his bag and casually replied: “Around 710.”

“……”

Little fatty and Zhao Ruiwen had no idea why they sought such humiliation upon themselves.

They quietly shut their mouths, and chose to die.

When all is said and done, some people just weren’t the same as others.

They were people, but the two behind them were abnormal people, and were classified as being part of their enemy social class in society.

When Ruan Tian walked into the classroom, she saw this group of zombies, sighed, then looked towards the two normal people in the last row of the classroom: “Song Yan, Xia Zhiye, come out for a moment.”

The two people who were called out composedly walked out of the classroom.

Ruan Tian stared at the two 1.8 meter tall boys, and worked hard to stick out her chest and raise her head, so as to make herself appear less petite: “I called you guys out primarily to tell you two that next month, there will be an English speech contest.”

Song Yan immediately handled it: “Not interested.”

Ruan Tian: “……”

Even if you’re not interested, you have to be interested.

Ruan Tian pretended she didn’t hear that: “The English speech contest this time requires every single key high school to recommend two students, then you will all create a keynote speech with several schools in Beijing. Several universities have organized this contest, so if you win the prize, it will be helpful for you to be independently recruited in the future.”

With a glance, it was clear that Song Yan still had no interest.

Ruan Tian continued to persuade: “The reason why I’ve chosen you two is also based on the consideration of comprehensive factors such as English performance, oral pronunciation, temperament, and image, and then it was decided upon by all the teachers of the grade group. Therefore, you shouldn’t fail to live up to your teacher’s expectations.”

Song Yan was very indifferent to fame or fortune: “I’m really not interested.”

“……”

Ruan Tian looked at Xia Zhiye.

Xia Zhiye indifferently raised his eyebrows: “I’m fine with anything.”

“Okay, then I’ll count you in.”

Ruan Tian seized the reply of one, but was still unresigned, and patted Song Yan’s shoulder, “Young people should take every opportunity they get. I have to submit the registration form next week, so you still have a weekend’s time to think about it.”

After saying this, she also didn’t give Song Yan the chance to reject her: “That’s enough, I heard Liu Yue say that the basketball competition is at ShiWai’s court this time. You guys have to familiarize yourself with the court this afternoon, so you guys hurry off, be safe on the road.”

After saying this, she ‘diudiudiu’ away in her high-heeled shoes and walked far away, as if afraid Song Yan would open his mouth to reject her for the third time.

Song Yan who was one second too late to reject her: “……”

Forget it, rejecting her next week was all the same.

Xia Zhiye wrapped his arm around Song Yan’s shoulder, then chuckled: “Don’t worry, Ruan Tian won’t stop until you sign up, you should just drop the matter.”

Song Yan uneasily pushed aside the other’s arm: “Don’t fucking paw at me.”

Xia Zhiye ‘tsk’ed, as expected, men change their faces faster than turning a page in a book, and it was unknown as to who it was that insisted on wrapping themself around his waist.

.

The basketball competition between ShiWai and No.3 Middle High had more or less become a yearly essential event for sophomore students after the joint midterm exam, and they took turns for the home court year after year.

This year it just happened to be ShiWai’s turn.

The entire basketball team as well as the cheerleading captain Kong Xiaoxiao and vice captain, classmate little fatty, walked towards ShiWai’s entrance with tall and straight backs, nearly shocking the security guard captain into calling 1103.

“Don’t, security guard uncle, we really didn’t come for a group fight. It’s just an old practice for us to come ahead of time to scope out the field. Did no one tell you in advance?”

The security guard suspiciously shook his head: “I didn’t receive a notice. How about you guys contact a teacher in ShiWai, or have the student union draw up a certificate. Or else I can’t let you guys enter.”

“But how would we know a teacher at ShiWai or someone from the student union?” Little fatty was speechless, and looked towards Liu Yue, “Didn’t you say you already told their basketball team?”

“I told them already, but they haven’t responded to my WeChat today.” Liu Yue once again tried to call them, but no one picked up, and he turned to look at Xia Zhiye, “Didn’t you go to ShiWai for middle school, you should know a few people here, right?”

He had just said this when an indifferent voice could be heard from behind them: “Xia Zhiye, what are you guys doing here.”

Everyone turned around to look, and just saw a tall handsome asshole with pale skin. The shirt of their school uniform was well ironed, as if the other party had OCD, and he walked slowly over towards them.

“Damn, ShiWai actually has someone that looks as good as that.”

Kong Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

Little fatty amiably reminded her: “Xiao jie, pay attention to your saliva.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Kong Xiaoxiao hurriedly wiped her mouth.

Fortunately, this handsome asshole was extremely aloof with a fixed gaze, and didn’t even notice them at all.

Xia Zhiye seemed to have a pretty good impression of this person, and lazily replied: “Came to check out the court.”

“Oh, I’ll take you in.”

The handsome asshole was concise, and brought out the ID card of the president of the student union.

The security guard was clearly very familiar with this person, as he didn’t ask any extra questions, so after registering their names, he opened the door to the school.

Everyone was just about to thank him, when the handsome asshole seemed to have seen something that shouldn’t be happening in the corner of his eye, then he coldly tossed out a ‘Something came up, you guys do as you please’, then quickly walked towards an area that had no video monitoring.

“Tsk, he’s quite aloof, who is he.”

Kong Xiaoxiao curiously asked Xia Zhiye.

Xia Zhiye casually replied: “Qin Zigui, an old school senior, but don’t think too much, he has a partner.”

“Aw……”

Kong Xiaoxiao let out a disappointed cry.

She turned around, and the tip of her brow jumped, “Now who is this girl? Is she looking for you? Lord Xia?”

From beginning to end, Song Yan was originally indifferent, as if everything was of no concern to him. But as soon as he heard this, he inexplicably suddenly raised his eyes.

Then, under a ginkgo tree in autumn, he saw a girl with long hair holding a pile of books, standing under the colorful leaves while looking at Xia Zhiye from afar. Her eyes seemed affectionate and hesitant.

If you add the slowed video effects of an idol drama style show as well as some BGM, it would be like the deeply emotional event of the male and female protagonists meeting after a long period of time.

And without waiting for Xia Zhiye to reply, little fatty slapped his thigh: “What the fuck! I know that girl! I saw her photo before, it’s just that, that, who, aiyah. I can’t remember her name, anyway, it’s just the one who had an affair with Lord Xia in middle school!”

Song Yan: “……”

Xia Zhiye: “……”

Song Yan coldly glanced at the girl, then coldly glanced at Xia Zhiye, then turned around and left.

Xia Zhiye raised his leg to kick at little fatty: “Saying nonsense all day long.”

Little fatty was baffled: “What the, what did I do wrong now?!”

Zhou Ziqiu expressionlessly put his earbuds in: “Think about whether or not you’ve instigated someone’s family relationships.”

Little fatty seriously contemplated.

He didn’t.

Really didn’t.

“What is there to instigate between two guys!” Little fatty was extremely aggrieved.

Xia Zhiye was too lazy to bother with him, and quickly strode in the direction that Song Yan had left towards.

When Song Yan heard this, he finally reacted. That’s right, he and Xia Zhiye were two guys, what was there to instigate? Why was he suddenly unhappy?

Thinking this, he suddenly stopped just as he turned the corner around the teaching block building.

The corner past the teaching block building was an extremely narrow alley. The gap between the school wall and the teaching building was full of green bamboo. Amidst the bamboo shadows, he saw the president of the student union, Qin Zigui, seemed to be blocking someone in the corner. With a displeased voice: “I was just gone for a day, yet you secretly went out to fight with someone?”

Thinking of Xia Zhiye saying that Qin Zigui had a partner, Song Yan felt that he shouldn’t listen to the words between a small couple, so he turned around, wanting to leave.

But it just so happened that the wind blew by, forcing a row of thin bamboo to bend, exposing the other person’s nimble short hair, as well as their sharp, and beautiful eyes.

Song Yan’s brows slightly jumped, it was a boy?

His face was bruised and he was probably hurt. Because Qin Zigui was holding the other’s shoulder with one hand, and the other’s collar with his other hand, it looked as if he was examining the other’s wounds.

Standing a distance away, Song Yan couldn’t see everything, but he felt that this kind of behavior of willfully examining another person’s body, as well as the atmosphere between them, was a bit strange.

But the two people were guys, what was so strange about it.

Song Yan thought that he was thinking too much, yet in the second just before he turned to leave, he saw the injured boy raise his head, then quickly touched Qin Zigui’s chin, then lowered his head, and with an awkward yet guilty tone: “Okay, I gave you a kiss, don’t be angry.”

In that moment, Qin Zigui leaned over and did something, but he didn’t have the time to see it clearly.

Because in the next second, his wrist was grabbed and pulled towards the side, and his back lightly pressed up against the wall. A familiar voice could be heard from above his head: “Don’t peek at other little couples showing off their love.”

Little couple.

Song Yan raised his eyes: “They’re……”

“Mhm.”

Xia Zhiye agreed calmly and lazily.

As if it were an extremely common matter.

The finger next to Song Yan unconsciously curled up, and he wondered why it was clearly the first day of winter, yet it felt as hot as if it were the middle of summer.

.

TN: the little couple at the end is from linqinian’s other novel, if y’all are interested i can post the summary and translate it if anyone wants to read it (no concrete promises though)

1. An idiom meaning an unexpected windfall

2. Originally written in English

3. 110 = 911 (in the States), aka: calling the police