I Treat You as a Brother - Chapter 45

From being too surprised, Xu Xiran’s voice was a little loud. At a distance not too close or far from them, and with the melodious and soothing music in the background of the cafe, he couldn’t tell if the two had heard him.

Xu Xiran and Fang Mo both felt as guilty as thieves and lowered their bodies to lie closely on the table, hoping to minimize their presence and their chances of being discovered.

The table was not big, and when he came back to his senses, he realized that they were face-to-face with each other, with the brim of Fang Mo’s hat almost touching Xu Xiran’s forehead.

Fang Mo’s eyes widened. With Xu Xiran being closely watched by him, he also widened his eyes and looked back. After the two of them, who were less than ten centimeters apart, looked at each other for a few seconds, they couldn’t help but silently laugh. But they didn’t dare to laugh out loud, in fear of revealing their whereabouts.

This kind of not-so-honorable operation brought a strange sense of excitement, which was both nerve-wracking and thrilling.

After the two shared what they were thinking with their eyes, Xu Xiran quickly looked up, and then immediately lay back down. He mouthed at Fang Mo, telling him that they were safe and that the two of them didn’t look in their direction.

Fang Mo let out a sigh of relief, and then asked in a quiet voice, “Are you sure that’s really Professor Xu?”

Hearing this, Xu Xiran cautiously raised his head to look around again, but just as his gaze just moved over, his view was obstructed.

“Hello,” the waiter who was blocking his view looked at them both with a confused expression and a forced smile, “You can’t bring outside drinks here.”

On their table, there were two cups of pink milk tea that were both more than half full.

Xu Xiran cleared his throat in embarrassment, “We’re not drinking them, we’re just placing them here. So… do you have a menu?”

~

The two each ordered a cup of latte, and then while their coffees weren’t ready yet, they both went back to lying on the table.

“I’ve confirmed it,” Xu Xiran whispered the intel to him, “It’s really Professor Xu.”

Fang Mo had an extremely puzzled expression, and he remained silent for a long time.

“Did you make a mistake somewhere?” Xu Xiran asked.

Fang Mo quickly blinked a few times and then fell into deep thought.

Xu Xiran glanced in the direction of the two again.

Professor Xu smiled as he said something, but the volume was low, so he couldn’t hear it clearly.

In front of him, Zou Shun propped his chin with one hand, tilted his head, and looked out the window. Holding the stirring spoon in his hand, he slowly drew circles in his cup. He had an absent-minded look.

The atmosphere didn’t look bad, but it didn’t seem very lively either.

After he lay down again, once Fang Mo finished his contemplation, he said something surprising: “Have you seen Professor Xu’s body before?”

Xu Xiran froze for a moment, then hurriedly shook his head.

“Did you know?” Fang Mo had a serious face, and sat up straight and gestured at his belly, “Professor Xu has a six-pack.”

“…Ah?” Xu Xiran couldn’t keep up with his train of thought, “So? What’s this got to do with anything? You’ve seen it before?”

~

After a few minutes, he finally figured out the whole sequence of events.

“So, because of his good figure, the coincidental timing, and his unwillingness to show his face, you assumed that the person Zou Shun wanted to meet was Liu Xiaochang?” he concluded.

Fang Mo’s thoughts went astray: “Both of them don’t look as good as you when they have their clothes on, but how do they look better than you when they take them off?”

Xu Xiran felt wronged: “What’s this got to do with me?”

Fang Mo didn’t respond, and instead, let out a sad sigh.

Xu Xiran’s self-esteem was slightly hurt, and he reached down to touch his abdomen and thought that it wasn’t too bad. But when he thought about it again, he felt that something was not right.

“Why are you comparing with me, why don’t you compare with yourself, do you have abs?”

Fang Mo nonchalantly changed the subject: “No wonder Zou Shun said he felt comfortable chatting with this person. He really does like older men.”

The coffee was then brought to the table by the waiter. He didn’t know if it was due to the psychological effect of its high price, but the smell of it was very fragrant.

Fang Mo took a sip and quickly frowned. He took out a bag of sugar from the jar on the table, tore it open, and poured it in.

Xu Xiran looked at him with amusement, and also took a sip. The whipped milk made the coffee taste smooth and dense, with a mellow and not too bitter taste. At least it was much more delicious than the milk tea.

“Are you still worried now?” He asked Fang Mo after putting down the coffee cup.

Fang Mo defaulted to stirring the sugar in the coffee and didn’t answer right away.

“Professor Xu is worthy of your good cabbage1, right?” Xu Xiran continued, “He’s a great professor, and he’s not bad-looking and has a good sense of humor. Although their age difference is a bit big, since Zou Shun likes people who are mature, this is a pro, right?”

Hearing this, Fang Mo craned his neck to look in the direction of the two, then lowered his head and cautiously took a sip of coffee.

“If you’re still not happy, I’ll really question your way of thinking.” Xu Xiran said.

Fang Mo frowned, opened another bag of sugar, and poured it into his coffee: “Do you still remember, when we went to the movies together, there was a boy around our age sitting together with Professor Xu?”

Xu Xiran remembered, and he also remembered that Professor Xu had asked them to sit with him, and that he kept quietly explaining to the boy throughout the movie. It looked very normal, and it didn’t seem like there was any ambiguity.

“Don’t you think it’s strange,” Fang Mo said, “He took that boy alone to watch a movie together, so there must be something going on between them. But at that time, he was already talking to Zou Shun.”

“Watching a movie doesn’t have to mean that there’s something going on,” Xu Xiran said, “Didn’t we also go to the movies together that day?”

Fang Mo’s face suddenly turned red, and he denied in a hushed voice: “That’s different! He was interested in you before, and now he’s dating Zou Shun, which means that he likes boys our age, right? That’s not the same as the t-t-two of us who are str-str-straight, straight guys, there’s no comparison.”

He suddenly stuttered, which amused Xu Xiran.

Fang Mo cleared his throat, “Anyway, I don’t think this person is very reliable.”

Xu Xiran sighed, then said: “Generally speaking, I think that between guys, even if they’re really close, they usually wouldn’t care that much about each other’s personal lives.”

Fang Mo lowered his head and drank coffee in small sips, and muttered: “…You care a lot about me though.”

“……”

Here it came again, that strange feeling that made people involuntarily flustered.

“That’s different.” Xu Xiran didn’t look at him, “You’re silly, and you don’t pay close attention to things.”

Fang Mo raised his eyes to look at him, then continued to lower his head to focus on the cup of coffee that seemed already too sweet in Xu Xiran’s opinion.

“If you think he’s unreliable, you can just find an opportunity later to tell him what we saw in the movie theater that day,” Xu Xiran said, “Zou Shun is already an adult, and he has his own judgment. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, and he can find clarity in the situation. The key is to see if he likes him, right?”

Fang Mo put down the coffee cup, licked his lips, and looked in their direction for a while.

“…I don’t think he likes him,” he whispered.

Xu Xiran felt a little tight in his chest.

“Are you just reluctant to let him see someone else?” He asked.

“No,” Fang Mo was a little anxious, “Zou Shun is not like this in front of the person he likes, I’ve seen it before.”

Xu Xiran looked at him and did not want to respond. Didn’t Zou Shun just like Fang Mo? Of course, Xu Xiran knew what he looked like in front of Fang Mo. He was indeed much more lively with him than he is now, but feelings take time to develop, and this was the first time he’s met this person, so how could he immediately be that enthusiastic?

“Do you still remember that person surnamed He that we met the other day?” Fang Mo said, “Whenever Zou Shun was with him, he’d always look very different. His eyes would be bright and always glued to him, not bearing to blink.”

“…Isn’t that how he was hired to act?” Xu Xiran said, “He must have exaggerated it a bit.”

Fang Mo was in pain: “I don’t know what to say.”

Xu Xiran was also unhappy: “Oh, then go and talk to him.”

The two looked at each other in silence. Fang Mo finished the coffee in the cup, took a spoon, and tapped the rim of the cup twice, making a small and crisp sound.

“You look like you’re jealous,” he said suddenly.

Xu Xiran was taken aback.

Fang Mo raised his head, looked at him, and repeated: “Are you jealous?”

Xu Xiran hurriedly looked away: “You’re mental.”

After a few seconds of silence, he tried to defend himself again: “I’m not a little girl.”

Only little girls get emotional because a best friend is getting closer to someone else. Xu Xiran was convinced that he was not that kind of person.

Fang Mo stared at him for a while, then suddenly smiled.

“I really don’t think he likes me,” he said to Xu Xiran, “Look, it’s just like how I misunderstood that he came to see Liu Xiaochang today. Sometimes, even if inferences seem reasonable, they may not necessarily be true.”

“That’s because your reasoning itself is flawed,” Xu Xiran said, “You said that the two of them have met before, and when you asked Liu Xiaochang, he refused to admit it, right?”

“……”

“You suspected that someone was stealing the axe2, and you interpreted all the clues subjectively based on your guess, which means that your seemingly reasonable guess was actually groundless,” Xu Xiran carefully analyzed with him, “The fact is that if it really was Liu Xiaochang, it would be impossible for him to immediately schedule a date with him.”

“……”

“If you think about it carefully, does what I said make sense?”

Fang Mo frowned: “…What are you so proud of?”

Xu Xiran spread his hands at him: “This is the disparity. My inference is different, and every detail is based on fact.”

Fang Mo hesitated to speak with a troubled expression on his face, then made a few random gestures with his hands, and finally sighed deeply.

“Alright. You’re amazing,” he said.

Xu Xiran smiled at him: “What is it? You still look reluctant.”

After being immensely proud of himself, he glanced over in Zou Shun’s direction and was stunned. Seeing this, Fang Mo quickly looked over and was also stunned.

“Where did they go?” they both said at the same time.

~

They got so into their conversation that they neglected their business at hand.

Zou Shun and Professor Xu had quietly left at some point, and now, they didn’t know where they went.

“What should we do?” Fang Mo asked.

“Instead of asking what to do, you should first ask yourself what you want to do,” Xu Xiran said, “You don’t really want to strictly monitor how Zou Shun deals with dates, do you?”

Fang Mo shook his head vehemently.

“Then don’t worry about it so much,” Xu Xiran comforted him, “Being a good brother is to comfort him when he’s in trouble and to listen to him when he wants to complain. Interfering any more than that is meaningless.”

“Mn,” Fang Mo nodded, “That’s true.”

Xu Xiran smiled at him: “What do you want for dinner?”

Fang Mo pondered over for a bit: “Let’s go get some brown sugar cake from last time, shall we? Then afterwards, we can find a shop nearby to eat something casual.”

Xu Xiran nodded: “Then let’s go.”

The two walked out of the cafe one after the other, each holding a pink milk tea that was still half full, but soon both stopped in their tracks.

Two meters away from them at a flower bed on the roadside, Zou Shun was sitting on the edge, swaying his legs.

After noticing their staring eyes, he quickly raised his head, and then showed them a slightly exaggerated smile.

“Wha-what a coincidence,” Fang Mo said exaggeratedly, “Why are you sitting here?”

Zou Shun looked at him and smiled: “You two, do you think I’m blind?”

Yin: I can’t bear to look straight at them, they will be the death of me sooner or later (艸дﾟ*)

Author’s note:

*Two people who think they are low-key: (⁎⁍̴̛͂▿⁍̴̛͂⁎)*✲ﾟ*｡⋆٩(❛ัᴗ❛ั⁎)

*****

*Professor Xu: Don’t worry, those two are my students. They probably won’t come over.

* Zou Shun: 눈_눈

*Professor Xu: What, do you know them?

* Zou Shun: … I don’t know them!

Slang for someone who is innocent and pure

Describes those who ignore facts and rely on subjective assumptions to make suspicious judgments of people or situations