Chapter 37: Don’t Look at Me Like That

Zhang Chi: “??”

“No…” he said, “When did your relationship with him get so good? Good enough to the point where you’re buying him clothes?”

“It’s not that good,” Jiang Shi said awkwardly. “It’s mainly because he’s poor. Poor, you know? He doesn’t even have a single decent piece of clothing. I’m just taking pity on him.”

Zhang Chi had only ever seen poor people on TV, but that didn’t stop him from imagining a poverty-stricken young man from the mountains who couldn’t even cover his body. Thinking about it, it was quite pitiful. “Then you go ahead and buy it. Do you want me to give you money?”

“No need, I brought some.”

Jiang Shi held up the clothes and asked the owner again, “How much is this?”

The owner was sitting in the back, cracking melon seeds. Hearing him, he looked the two of them up and down. “Eighty.”

Zhang Chi scratched his head. “That’s so cheap. You can buy a T-shirt for eighty yuan. Maybe I should come here to buy clothes in the future.”

Jiang Shi: “…”

He only had a little over a hundred yuan on him. If he bought the T-shirt, he wouldn’t be able to buy anything else.

He took the clothes and turned them over and over, wanting to try and bargain with the owner like Jiang Xue would, but the words “a little cheaper” got stuck in his throat and just wouldn’t come out.

Help! So embarrassing!

Having no other choice, Jiang Shi put down the clothes, took two steps back, and leaned in to whisper in Zhang Chi’s ear, “Do you know how to bargain?”

Zhang Chi: “Bargain? What’s that?”

Jiang Shi: “…”

Fifteen minutes later…

Song Jian’an casually flipped through the clothes, not even raising his head. “Twenty.”

“Twenty?” the owner’s voice rose. “For twenty, why don’t you just go rob someone?”

He stood in front of the stall, looking much more composed than the two peeking out from behind him.

“It has loose threads, the stitching is uneven, the cut is wrong, and the fabric is rough and abrasive. Twenty is already too high.”

The owner said, “Little brother, I really can’t do twenty yuan. My cost price is over twenty. Fifty yuan, if you want it, it’s yours.”

Song Jian’an: “Twenty-five.”

“Hey, you…”

He put the clothes down. “If you won’t sell, then forget it. We’re leaving.”

Seeing him about to leave, the owner panicked. “Twenty-five it is, twenty-five! It’s yours, it’s yours.”

Jiang Shi was dumbfounded.

He dazedly paid the money, his gaze toward Song Jian’an filled with admiration. “You’re so amazing.”

Song Jian’an pushed up his glasses. “Basic operation.”

Jiang Shi’s originally tight budget suddenly became ample with Song Jian’an’s help. He was carrying several bags of things on his way back.

The plane landed close to eleven at night. The airport in Lincheng was deserted. There weren’t many people outside, and the wind blowing in the middle of the night was incredibly cold.

The moment Jiang Shi left the airport, he saw Cheng Ye leaning against a streetlamp.

His hair had grown a lot. His bangs covered his overly sharp eyebrows. The light was soft, shining on his face, and the sense of distance he usually had faded a lot, giving rise to a hazy gentleness.

The wind blew against his face. Jiang Shi stopped in his tracks and didn’t move forward.

Cheng Ye didn’t have a phone, so how did he know he was on this flight?

Before he could figure it out, Cheng Ye under the streetlamp looked over at him.

The young man walked toward Jiang Shi, the dim yellow light falling on his shoulders, dispelling the late-night cold.

Cheng Ye reached out and took the things from Jiang Shi’s hands. “Why did you stop walking? Are the things heavy?”

“No,” Jiang Shi replied softly. His hands were now empty. He curled his fingertips, gathering a handful of cold wind. “Why are you here?”

Cheng Ye stood beside him and tilted his head to look over. “To pick you up.”

“How did you know I was on this flight?”

Cheng Ye stood by the side of the road and hailed a taxi. He first opened the car door for Jiang Shi, then put the things in the trunk before getting in next to Jiang Shi to explain.

“We had a computer class this afternoon. I checked online. There were only two flights from Jiangcheng to Lincheng today, one at nine o’clock and one at ten-thirty.”

“So you waited from nine until now?”

Cheng Ye didn’t answer him. Like a magic trick, he pulled a roasted sweet potato from his pocket and placed it in Jiang Shi’s hands. “I just bought it from the roadside. It should still be warm. Eat it while it’s hot.”

The warmth of the sweet potato warmed Jiang Shi’s icy fingertips again. The streetlights receded past the car window, their light falling into Cheng Ye’s eyes. In his pupils, Jiang Shi saw himself.

He lowered his head and tore off a small piece of the sweet potato skin. “Cheng Ye…”

“Why are you so good to me?”

Cheng Ye tilted his head to look at him. “Little young master, what answer do you want to hear?”

Jiang Shi opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Cheng Ye’s voice came from his side. “Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”

What’s the difference between the truth and a lie?

Jiang Shi buried his head and fidgeted. The soft, mushy sweet potato was kneaded into a paste through the plastic bag. After a long while, he finally said weakly, “The lie, I guess.”

Cheng Ye laughed.

“I’m dumb, I don’t know how to talk. Young Master saved my life with twenty thousand yuan. This life of mine belongs to Young Master, so I want to do everything I can to be good to Young Master.”

Jiang Shi pouted. “Then what about the truth?”

The truth, huh…

Cheng Ye rubbed his fingertips.

Every time you look at me with those eyes, I want to kiss you.

Such a beautiful person must be so exciting to listen to when he cries in bed.

In the end, he didn’t say anything. He took the sweet potato Jiang Shi wasn’t eating back into his own hand. “We’re at the school.”

Since Jiang Shi didn’t eat the sweet potato, Cheng Ye took him to the beef noodle shop next to the school. At this hour, the owner hadn’t closed yet. A few students who had just come back from the internet cafe were sitting in the shop.

Cheng Ye ordered the food. When he turned back, Jiang Shi pushed the pile of bags toward him. “For you.”

He opened the bags to take a look. When he saw there were clothes inside, he was stunned for a moment. “Clothes? For me?”

Under the lights, the corners of Jiang Shi’s eyes tilted up. His eyes seemed to hold a thick, charming allure as he looked at Cheng Ye with a long, lazy gaze.

“They’re all old clothes that Zhang Chi didn’t want. Seeing how pitiful you are, I asked him for them to give to you.”

Cheng Ye took out the clothes and shook them out. They were his size. He let out a low laugh. “Does Zhang Chi wear my size?”

Jiang Shi’s gaze paused for a moment. “Can’t he just be this tall? And look at you, dressed so shabbily every day. It’s so embarrassing to be seen with you. People who don’t know would think I’m abusing you.”

When he got anxious, Jiang Shi’s speech became sharp, laced with barbs, without any regard for whether it would hurt people.

Cheng Ye only found his thorns cute. They looked sharp, but the core inside was soft. They would hurt when they pricked the skin, but after the brief pain came a numbing itch.

He probably had masochistic tendencies. He just wanted to gently gather those thorns in his palm, protect them in his embrace, and if they were to prick, they would only prick him.

Jiang Shi’s flustered look was too cute. Cheng Ye knew that the best thing to do right now was to go along with him, but the thorns had already pricked his hand, and this little bit of pain wasn’t quite satisfying enough. So, his fingertips hooked a price tag from inside the clothes that hadn’t been removed yet. “Your friend is so generous. He even gave me clothes he’s never worn.”

Jiang Shi: “…”

Jiang Shi said, “He has money and buys a lot of clothes. What’s wrong with having one or two pieces he’s never worn?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Cheng Ye said. “Does he also wear clothes with a suggested retail price of one hundred yuan?”

“…”

The hedgehog’s quills bristled.

…

Late at night, the roommates were all asleep. Cheng Ye knelt by Jiang Shi’s bed, his tall back like a silent little mountain. Afraid of waking the roommates, he spoke in a low voice, “I’m sorry. I really know I was wrong this time. I was just purely curious, I absolutely had no other ideas, and I certainly didn’t mean to make fun of you.”

The only response he got was the quilt being pulled higher and higher.

Cheng Ye looked at the tip of the head peeking out and tugged at the quilt. “Jiang Shi? Young Master? Please acknowledge me, okay? I’ve never seen nice things before. Those clothes looked so good, I got excited for a moment and said those things.”

Jiang Shi would be a fool to believe him. He had finally seen it clearly. Cheng Ye just pretended to be honest; in reality, his heart was completely black.

What ‘honest person, doesn’t talk much’? I think it’s more like ‘not an honest person, doesn’t say much truth’ is more like it.

The figure lying with its back to Cheng Ye paused. Even the tip of the hair that was showing disappeared under the quilt. After a while, Jiang Shi’s muffled voice came from inside. “You know everything. Watching me act like a clown in front of you, you must be very proud, right?”

Cheng Ye leaned his back against the bed. “I’m not proud. I’m very happy.”

“Jiang Shi, this is the first time someone other than my mom has bought me clothes. I just want you to be more honest. When you give someone a favor, you should say it, let them remember your kindness. Hiding it away is not a good habit.”

Jiang Shi didn’t make a sound under the quilt. He could feel Cheng Ye kneeling by the bed, close to him, as if he would keep kneeling there until he forgave him.

Thinking of this, Jiang Shi’s face burned as if on fire. He wanted to get out even less. He even shifted further inside. “I don’t want to talk to you today. Don’t just stand there in front of my bed.”

Cheng Ye didn’t move, staying there like a big dog, his voice even sounding a bit wronged. “Then can I still have the clothes to wear?”

At the foot of Jiang Shi’s bed, the few bags were still there.

The person in the bed fell silent again, as if asleep.

He didn’t speak, and Cheng Ye didn’t rush him, just quietly waiting by the side.

His eyesight was very good. He could see clearly even at night. The quilt was lifted a crack, and a warm fragrance slipped out through that crack, wafting to his nose.

Cheng Ye sniffed the fragrance, his gaze sweeping over the quilt. At some point, the young man had quietly revealed half of his face. His porcelain-white fingertips rested on the pillow, his forehead was smooth, and the tip of his nose was beaded with a little sweat from being under the quilt. The small black mole rested on it.

The person kneeling by the bed suddenly lost his voice. Even his breathing grew faint.

From the corner of his eye, Jiang Shi could only see a hazy silhouette; the rest was unclear. He pushed the figure through the quilt with his hand. “Cheng Ye, are you annoying or what?”

Usually, when he said this, it meant he had compromised.

Cheng Ye pressed against the bed, his hand grabbing a corner of the quilt. Several times, he wanted to just throw caution to the wind, rip off the quilt, and press himself on top of him.

How could someone like Jiang Shi be seducing him no matter where, no matter when?

But the snores of the roommates rose and fell one after another, and the footsteps of a few boys going to the bathroom came from the doorway.

Jiang Shi didn’t get his answer. He simply reached his hand out from under the quilt and pushed him again. “What are you doing? Why are you just standing by my bed? What if someone sees?”

Cheng Ye grabbed his wrist in a backhand motion.

Jiang Shi was thin, and his wrist was just a slender section. Encircled in his hand, the rough palm made his skin itch.

That feeling of being controlled came back again.

Jiang Shi turned his head, his eyes shimmering with moisture in the darkness. “Cheng Ye, what are you doing?”

Cheng Ye suddenly reached out and covered his eyes, his voice as if squeezed from his throat. “Don’t look at me like that.”

Too seductive.

Jiang Shi.