Don’t Pretend to be Poor with Me - Chapter 43

Henpecked

They couldn’t play basketball anymore, and they couldn’t fight anymore. Instead, they watched as Chen Rui and the others wrote a 3,000 character self-reflection, then went to the nurse’s office to apply ointment, and it was as if their grievances were resolved.

But the group of students also didn’t want to return to No.3 Middle High, so they wasted their time while sitting at the steps of ShiWai’s sports field under the idling sun. They each held a popsicle in their mouths, and contemplated life.

As they contemplated, little fatty was still not reconciled and turned around, then for the hundredth time, asked Song Yan: “You and Lord Xia are really just purely brothers?”

Song Yan sat on a higher step, and bent over to look at him: “Do you really want to be beaten?”

“……” Little fatty was instantly terrified, “Sorry, I’ve bothered you.”

After saying this, he obediently turned around, and pretended that nothing had happened.

Song Yan had also withdrawn his killing gaze, but as his line of sight turned, he glanced at the girl below the steps that was walking towards them, then he kicked Xia Zhiye next to him, who had been lazily peeling chestnuts, and unhappily said: “Get up, someone’s looking for you.”

Xia Zhiye raised his head to look, understood what was to happen, then got up and patted the dust off the back of his pants: “Don’t worry, I’ll go then come back, I won’t run off with someone else……”

“Who the fuck cares if you run off.”

The other hadn’t finished speaking when Song Yan kicked him off the platform.

Staring at a certain someone’s expression that looked very similar to one of being jealous, Xia Zhiye couldn’t help but lower his head to smile. Only when he walked to stand in front of Jiang Yuanyuan, did he slightly restrain his expression: “What’s up, did something happen?”

“That…… Um…… Actually, it’s nothing, just that I wanted to thank you, then also wanted to apologize to you. I made you endure such a large grievance, and even interfered with your basketball competition. This is a bit of my good intention, and I hope that you can accept it.” Jiang Yuanyuan handed over a pile of tickets.

Xia Zhiye glanced at it, then asked: “What’s this?”

“Group tickets for the newly opened amusement park in ChengNan, my father’s company gave a lot. Anyway, I won’t use it, so you help me hand them out. Just take it as an apology.”

For some relationships, others wanted to compensate you, but if you don’t accept it, others would feel very apologetic. Only by accepting it can you completely wrap up those past, unhappy matters.

So Xia Zhiye didn’t say anything more, and simply accepted it: “Thanks.”

“No problem, you’re welcome, I hope you guys play happily.” A generous smile blossomed on Jiang Yuanyuan’s face, then she confidently and easily turned to leave.

There was no excess chatting, and no excess time spent together.

As if they knew that there was no need to speak up and make things difficult for each other, and there was also a kind of satisfaction in quietly putting a tacit end to those worries in their youth.

Meanwhile, Song Yan, who sat at the uppermost step, couldn’t hear their conversation. He could only see Jiang Yuanyuan handing over some kind of ticket to Xia Zhiye, then Xia Zhiye didn’t even think before accepting it. And Song Yan immediately felt that the chestnuts that Xia Zhiye had just peeled for him weren’t sweet anymore.

From beginning to end, he was busy for half the day helping the other vent his anger and appeal for justice, but as a result, he ended up helping a certain person continue their love affair.

Once Xia Zhiye turned around, he just happened to meet Song Yan’s ice cold gaze, and the edge of his lips lifted up slightly. He unhurriedly walked back: “Does Yan ge have time this weekend?”

Song Yan was too lazy to even roll his eyes. With twenty four hours in a day, other than the half hour they spent showering, they basically hadn’t ever entered each other’s blind spot. Whether or not he was free, it was impossible for Xia Zhiye not to know.

On the other hand, little fatty below him loved to join in on the fun, and energetically turned around: “I’m free, I’m free! What’s up, what activities is Lord Xia planning?”

“In order to express her thanks and apologies, Jiang Yuanyuan treated us to a trip to the amusement park. The tickets are valid before December 1st.” Xia Zhiye handed out the tickets.

There were five main players, three substitutes, two cheerleaders, and ten tickets were just enough for all of them.

Little fatty and Kong Xiaoxiao happily accepted the tickets: “Why don’t we go tomorrow? Anyway, the basketball competition is canceled, we have no homework this weekend, and we’re all free.”

Liu Yue pushed the ticket back: “I’m not going, I have no interest in these kinds of things.”

After saying this, he took a few other basketball team members and left.

Zhou Ziqiu also stood up: “I made an appointment with someone this weekend to level up, I have no time.”

Little fatty and Kong Xiaoxiao could only look towards the remaining two people: “Yan ge, Lord Xia, are you two going?”

Xia Zhiye lazily stretched out his leg: “Don’t look at me, ask your Yan ge, what I say doesn’t count.”

Kong Xiaoxiao expectantly looked at Song Yan, then gained a cold and ruthless response: “Not going.”

“……”

Kong Xiaoxiao who was inhumanly rejected was angered into trembling, and asked classmate Song Yan from Beijing a question, “Do you what a person like Lord Xia would be called in Chengdu dialect?”

Song Yan: “?”

Kong Xiaoxiao: “Henpecked1.”

After saying this, she didn’t leave Song Yan any time to react with a killing blow, then grabbed little fatty and quickly escaped from the crime scene.

Song Yan who had been left behind, raised his eyebrow slightly, then looked towards Xia Zhiye:  “What does ‘henpecked’ mean?”

Xia Zhiye remained expressionless as he began to speak groundlessly: “Just means that this person loves to run his mouth.”

Song Yan understood, and without any emotion on his face: “Then you really are quite henpecked.”

“Mm, you’re right, I really am quite henpecked.”

Xia Zhiye laughed as he leaned against the railing, staring at the shallow halo from the setting sun wrap around Song Yan’s outer ear, and thought to himself that in the future, his status in the family would also be like this.

But he also had to have a family first, before he had a family status. He had just picked up two tickets to an amusement park for free, and had the good opportunity of personally delivering it himself. It would be a pity If he didn’t take advantage of this opportunity.

So he leisurely said: “Grandma said to take you home to eat tomorrow, said she wants to check if you gained weight or not. Are you going?”

“I’ll go.”

Regarding the hard to come by matter of having someone taking the initiative to care about him, Song Yan could never bear to betray their good intentions.

.

The next day, the pair directly set out for Wine Alley after waking up at noon.

Grandma Liu was just in the kitchen busying herself, saying she would help Song Yan make up his weight. Meanwhile, little mahjong had just prepared herself to happily run forward to let the pretty gege pick her up, when Xia Zhiye rushed forward to call for her.

Little mahjong immediately understood, and ran towards him: “Ye gege, what’s wrong.”

Xia Zhiye glanced towards the kitchen to ensure Song Yan was chatting with grandma Liu, then looked down at little mahjong while smiling: “Little mahjong, do you want to go to the amusement park?”

Little mahjong frantically nodded: “I want to go!”

“Then if you want to go, help gege out later.”

Little mahjong tilted her head, as if she felt this exceeded the scope of knowledge of a three year old.

Xia Zhiye switched to a more direct way of speaking: “Later when we eat, as long as Ye gege mentions the amusement park, you just have to rush towards your pretty gege and act spoiled, and cute, and pitiful, got it?”

“Got it!”

Little mahjong nodded heavily.

Xia Zhiye patted her thin hair satisfactorily: “Then gege will hand over my lifelong happiness to you. If you behave well, then I’ll buy a small cake for you.”

“What does ‘lifelong  happiness’ mean?”

Little mahjong was worried about things that children her age didn’t have to be worried about.

Xia Zhiye thought, then looked into her eyes, and seriously replied: “Lifelong happiness means you can eat your favorite little cake for the rest of your life.”

“Wow! Then that’s too much of a blessing! I have to let Ye gege buy me little cakes forever!” Little mahjong didn’t dare think of what kind of supernatural day it was, and her eyes were so happy they nearly burst with bubbles.

When Song Yan came out and saw this scene, he immediately felt a bad premonition: “Xia Zhiye, what bad behavior did you teach little mahjong this time?”

“What kind of bad behavior can I teach to such a small child? It’s just that she saw the amusement park tickets in my pocket, and insisted I bring her.” Xia Zhiye’s tone of voice was incomparably natural, and he didn’t even blink.

Song Yan also didn’t think too much: “If she wants you to take her, then take her. You also just happen to have tickets.”

“But she’s too small, she can only go to the parent-child park.”

Xia Zhiye’s voice was not without regrets.

Song Yan didn’t understand: “It’s not like this amusement park doesn’t have a parent-child park.”

“But at least two guardians are required to participate in the activities in the parent-child park.”

“Stop dreaming, I won’t go.”

Song Yan realized Xia Zhiye’s real intention in a second, and decidedly refused.

Xia Zhiye guilt-tripped him: “It can’t be that you want grandma to go with us?”

“Go? Go where? For how long?” Grandma Liu only heard halfway and she hurried to reject them, “Anyway, don’t include me. My old arms and legs can’t go anywhere, if you want to go then only you young ones should go.”

Xia Zhiye shrugged his shoulders a bit, indicating that he had no other option.

Song Yan had just wanted to refute, when little mahjong lowered her head and pouted, fluttering her eyelashes while blinking: “All the other little friends in kindergarten have gone to the amusement park, only little mahjong hasn’t gone. Little mahjong also wants to go, can Yan gege take little mahjong, can you, can you?”

The three or four year old little girl’s milky voice was soft and sticky, and once she spoke, no one could deny her.

Song Yan hadn’t figured out how to reply, when he heard a ‘pitter-patter’ and little mahjong’s tears dropped to the floor: “Is it because little mahjong doesn’t have a mother or father, so little mahjong can’t go to the amusement park. But little mahjong really wants to go, little mahjong wants to be like all the other little friends.”

“……”

Song Yan was immediately moved.

In that moment, he thought of himself anxiously watching as all his classmates’ parents brought them to the amusement park, so he squatted, then hugged little mahjong, and helped her wipe her tears. With a low voice, he coaxed her: “Little mahjong is like all the other little friends, wherever you want to go, gege will take you there.”

“Really?”

With red eyes, little mahjong sniffled.

Song Yan pulled out a tissue, then helped her wipe her nose clean, then whispered: “Really.”

“Then pinky promise.”

“Okay, pinky promise.”

The chubby and round hand exerted all its force as it hooked itself around the youth’s pale, and slender fingers. After pulling at it twice, it was as if they had agreed to and signed a contract.

Little mahjong then turned her grief into laughter, and hugged Song Yan: “Pretty gege treats little mahjong the best! Little mahjong loves pretty gege the most!”

While hugging she energetically rubbed this way and that against Song Yan, and Xia Zhiye who was watching this, was very envious. He had just wanted to open his mouth and say ‘Me too’, when Song Yan coldly raised his eyes, then looked over at the other with a gaze full of killing intent.

Xia Zhiye: “?”

Song Yan patted little mahjong’s head: “Be good, first go in and watch some cartoons.”

Then he stood up and looked at Xia Zhiye: “What are you trying to do now?”

Xia Zhiye raised his eyebrow with an innocent looking face: “What could I be doing?”

“Didn’t you teach little mahjong to say those words?”

Song Yan’s expression of ‘Do you think I’m fucking dumb’ was brimming with impatience.

Xia Zhiye felt no sense of guilt at all: “I have never taught little children to lie. Everything she said was what she truly thinks in her heart.”

He just created an opportunity for her, and couldn’t be considered a bad guardian.

Song Yan was skeptical.

Xia Zhiye looked at him with curved eyebrows, then exposed a smile that allegedly made Song Yan turn stupid: “Am I the kind of person who would exploit a child to gain your sympathy?”

“……”

He really didn’t seem the type.

“It’s best that you aren’t.”

Xia Zhiye: “What do you mean?”

“The last person who tried to exploit my sympathy already has 2 meter tall grass growing over their burial mound. I hope that you can still live a bit longer.”

Xia Zhiye who really didn’t mean to but ended up pretending to be poor in front of Song Yan to exploit the other’s sympathy: “……I’ll go help.”

After speaking, he turned around and entered the room.

He had just entered the room, when someone knocked at the door to the courtyard: “Is ‘The world’s cutest, handsomest, King’s Glory player’ at home? Your delivery is here.”

“Yan ge, help me sign for it.”

Xia Zhiye’s voice came from the inside of the room.

This person really chose such a shameless name, yet Song Yan expressionlessly opened the door, accepted the package, and prepared to sign for it.

But with a glance, he saw several lines of words on the delivery form:

Sender: [Your prettiest, rich, jiejie]

Item Sent: [Omega wristwatch]

Note: [Xia Zhiye, what are you going to give in return for the debt you owe me]

Song Yan: “……?”

Why did he have a faint feeling that something wasn’t right?

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TN: so sorry for the delay, had to deal with some personal things. will resume normal updates!

1. Someone, usu. a male, who is under their partner’s thumb.