Chapter 40: Looking at Your Legs

With the help of Jiang Shi and Cheng Ye, they sold a lot of accessories tonight. After deducting the costs, they made a net profit of about three hundred yuan.

They didn’t close their stall until four in the morning, then immediately went to the barbecue stand next door to celebrate.

Gao Xinhe was originally playing games with his classmates at an internet cafe. As soon as he heard there was free late-night food, he came running over happily.

Xiao Liu vividly described to him how Cheng Ye sold things. Jiang Shi, wrapped in his coat, sat beside them, drowsy. Cheng Ye and Liu Man stood under a tree not far away, smoking.

In the residential area not far away, a few households began to light up one after another. A faint white glow appeared where the mountains met the sky.

Liu Man took a drag from his cigarette. His eyes were bloodshot from staying up, but his spirits were high. “If this trend continues, it won’t be long before we make our money back.”

Cheng Ye rubbed the cigarette Liu Man handed him, his brows furrowed, and said nothing.

Liu Man added, “I think selling these small things is a way out. If accessories don’t work, we can sell other things. It’s better than doing nothing, right?”

“It is,” Cheng Ye said, “but it’s too slow, and the money we make is too little.”

He said this calmly, but Liu Man read a monstrous ambition in his eyes.

The smoke entered his lungs, causing him to cough violently. He only recovered after a minute.

The early morning wind was very cold, raising goosebumps on Liu Man’s hands, but his heart was beating fast, and his throat was dry.

“Brother Cheng…” he laughed drily, “we’re just small-timers, our families are poor. It’s enough to have a little money to get by. How could it be our turn to do big things? We don’t have that kind of fate.”

Cheng Ye tore off the paper layer of the cigarette, his fingertips fiddling with the tobacco shreds. “I don’t believe in fate. I want money, a lot of money.”

Enough to buy pearls, and enough to buy gems.

Sincerity is worthless, so he had to kneel before Jiang Shi holding money.

A chill ran down Liu Man’s back. The fingers holding the cigarette trembled. “What do you need so much money for?”

Cheng Ye didn’t speak, turning his head to look at Jiang Shi.

The young man had tilted his head and fallen asleep on the chair, his long eyelashes resting quietly.

Liu Man wasn’t stupid. On the contrary, having been in many situations, he understood more than others. He bit his cigarette and also looked at Jiang Shi. “Does he know?”

“Know what?”

“Know that you’ve done so much for him? Or rather… does he know why you’re so good to him?”

When Liu Man was still in school, he had liked a girl. The girl was very pretty and came from a good family. He naively thought sincerity could move a person, until the girl’s brother cornered him.

“My sister’s clothes cost over a hundred yuan a piece. Your monthly living allowance isn’t even a hundred. What are you going to use to pursue her?”

A single, light sentence had crushed Liu Man’s self-esteem on the spot.

For a teenager in their teens, along with the rebellious phase came a useless arrogance and self-esteem.

But Cheng Ye had no arrogance or self-esteem in front of Jiang Shi. His arrogance and self-esteem had long been crushed, and his soul had sunk into the mud, only to be reformed in the image of Jiang Shi on a cold, rainy night.

Cheng Ye opened his mouth and stuffed the tobacco shreds from his hand into it. He chewed them bit by bit, his gaze fixed on the mole on the tip of the young man’s nose, as if he were also taking that little dot emerging from the white skin into his mouth, chewing it up and swallowing it down.

“What does it matter if he knows or not? The outcome won’t change. Whether he’s leading me on or being insatiably greedy, in the end, he’s only taking from me, isn’t he?”

It was a pity that Jiang Shi was still too soft-hearted. His bottomless indulgence hadn’t spoiled him.

Cheng Ye chewed the tobacco shreds. The streetlight shone on his shoulder. Liu Man saw the faint green light in his dark eyes. Compared to a wolf, at this moment, Liu Man felt he was more like a snake.

The snake that had just been coiled around Jiang Shi’s wrist.

Cheng Ye’s expression was also very tired. Excessive fatigue caused a throbbing in his temples that even chewing tobacco couldn’t alleviate. But contrary to his tired body, his nerves were floating.

His body was sinking, but his spirit was floating upwards.

So some private thoughts he had hidden in the bottom of his heart that he had never spoken of were now somewhat difficult to contain.

“I always want him to demand more from me, to become spoiled, to become bad, to become a beautiful waste with nothing but a shell, who can’t do anything without me. It would be best if no one could tolerate him but me.”

“It’s easy to spoil a person rotten. Just give him inexhaustible money and love that doesn’t ask for anything in return.”

Cheng Ye pulled out another shred of tobacco and put it in his mouth.

He leaned against the tree, the cooking smoke from the barbecue stand rising before him, the morning light behind him about to break.

“I don’t know if I like him or not. He’s the only piece of driftwood I can hold onto. Whether I like him or not is no longer that important. I know I can’t leave him.”

He chewed on a mouthful of spiciness and bitterness.

“But, being too clingy to someone will make you disliked.”

So, he had to make Jiang Shi cling to him.

It didn’t matter what kind of Jiang Shi it was, but it had to be Jiang Shi.

But the young man had taken out twenty thousand from his treasure box and pulled out clothes from a plastic bag.

Cheng Ye couldn’t bear it anymore.

He swallowed the tobacco shreds, twisted open a bottle of water and chugged several mouthfuls. After the wind had blown away the lingering smell on his body, he returned to his usual self.

“Let’s go eat.”

He waved at Liu Man.

Liu Man stood there for a long time without coming back to his senses. The wind fanned the cigarette to a scarlet red, and he only snapped out of it when the red burned his fingertips.

His back was soaked in cold sweat, and his throat was tight and dry.

And at the barbecue stand not far in front of him, Cheng Ye pulled up a chair and sat down next to Jiang Shi. He reached out to steady him, and the young man’s head leaned on his shoulder without any reservation.

Gao Xinhe and Xiao Liu were talking about something, laughing so hard they were bent over.

Amidst their boisterous noise, Cheng Ye lowered his head, his lips brushing past the mole on the tip of Jiang Shi’s nose.

Liu Man looked away and extinguished the cigarette in his hand.

…

Jiang Shi was woken up by Cheng Ye.

His head had somehow ended up on Cheng Ye’s shoulder. In his peripheral vision, he could still see Gao Xinhe’s messy chicken-coop hair.

Having stayed up too long, Jiang Shi’s mind was muddled, and he didn’t notice anything wrong with this posture. He just turned his head and sniffed at the crook of Cheng Ye’s neck. “Why do you smell like smoke?”

Cheng Ye put a few skewers of things he liked to the side. “It’s Liu Man who was smoking, I accidentally got it on me.”

After speaking, he smiled. “Is the young master a dog’s nose? You can still smell it after being in the wind for so long.”

Cheng Ye’s body was warm. Leaning against him was very warm in the coldest morning hours. Jiang Shi didn’t really want to get up from his arms, but he wasn’t happy about being teased either, so he gave him a light kick.

“Calling me a dog?”

“My mistake.” Cheng Ye honestly admitted his fault. “Eat something and then go back to catch up on sleep.”

He wouldn’t bring Jiang Shi out next time. Staying up all night was too damaging to the body.

Only then did Jiang Shi lazily prop himself up. Seeing him awake, Gao Xinhe exclaimed, “Little cousin, come have a drink! We won’t go home until we’re drunk!”

“Drink my ass.” Jiang Shi said, “It’s already dawn. You don’t drink either, or I’ll tell your dad when we get back.”

Gao Xinhe, who was planning to sneak a drink, felt wronged. “No, little cousin, why would you sell me out?”

Jiang Shi held a skewer of meat, picked off the burnt piece at the top and gave it to Cheng Ye. Hearing this, he yawned sleepily. “A couple of days ago my mom called me and said your grades have been slipping, and told me to manage you.”

Gao Xinhe felt he and Jiang Shi were two of a kind, neither was much better than the other. “Let you manage me? How is that possible, your test scores are even lower than mine.”

As soon as he said that, Cheng Ye looked over at Gao Xinhe.

Gao Xinhe shrank his neck under his gaze. Can’t people even speak the truth anymore?

Jiang Shi didn’t care. He put down the bamboo skewer, took out his phone, found a photo he had taken not long ago, placed the phone in front of Gao Xinhe, and lifted his chin at him.

“Take a look.”

Gao Xinhe picked up the phone and saw that the photo was of an award certificate, with “Best Progress Award” written on it.

Student Jiang Shi has improved from 55th place to 33rd place in this monthly exam. This award is hereby issued as a reward.

Gao Xinhe: “…”

Gao Xinhe wanted to say something but held back. “Little cousin, you…”

Jiang Shi took the phone back. “What about me? I’m not the me I used to be.”

He tossed a bottle of AD Calcium Milk into his arms. “Go drink your milk.”

Gao Xinhe turned away gloomily with the milk. Jiang Shi turned back and found Cheng Ye staring at him.

It was an indescribable gaze, like the ocean, like a gentle breeze, drowning him softly within it.

Jiang Shi’s grip on his phone gradually tightened. The base of his spine felt a little weak from his gaze, but his back was still ramrod straight. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.” Cheng Ye glanced at his phone. “Didn’t you find this award certificate embarrassing back then and crumpled it into a ball of waste paper to stuff in your desk drawer?”

Jiang Shi was quiet for two seconds, then picked up a skewer of beef and stuffed it into Cheng Ye’s mouth. “Even food can’t shut your mouth.”

“…”

Cheng Ye bit down on the beef, a hint of a smile in his eyes.

A tsundere Jiang Shi was also very cute.

The short weekend passed, and Jiang Shi began his bitter life of studying again.

With Cheng Ye’s tutoring, Jiang Shi found that studying didn’t seem so difficult after all.

His ability to understand was naturally a little slower than others. When he was young, his tutors would always have to explain things to him two, three times after the first time because he couldn’t understand.

The teachers wouldn’t show their impatience on their faces, but Jiang Shi could feel it.

After a while, he didn’t dare to ask much, and over time, his grades got worse and worse.

But Cheng Ye wouldn’t.

He seemed to have an inexhaustible amount of patience for Jiang Shi. No matter how stupid Jiang Shi was, in Cheng Ye’s eyes, he was always a smart kid.

Besides tutoring Jiang Shi, Cheng Ye was also busy with other things.

Jiang Shi could always see him reading books with complicated titles. Sometimes it was newspapers. On weekends, he would go to the internet cafe. While others were playing games, his computer screen was filled with dense news.

The newspapers he finished reading were used by Jiang Shi to line his desk. The recently printed newspapers gave off a smell of ink. Jiang Shi flipped through them; they were all current affairs news.

“What are you reading these for?”

After reading so much news, Cheng Ye’s face showed fatigue. At the end of the day, he was just a teenager in his teens, with a belly full of ambition but completely clueless on how to actually implement it.

“I’m looking for what the next big trend will be…”

It was already close to the end of the term. Jiang Shi was taking a rare break, leaning against the wall and playing games on his phone.

At this time, new touchscreen phones had already come out, with large screens and only three buttons, operable with fingers.

But Jiang Shi still had his old phone, with blocks on the small screen.

He dropped a block, heard Cheng Ye’s words, and lifted his eyes to look at him. “Want to make money?”

Cheng Ye hummed in agreement. “Want to make money to support my young master.”

Jiang Shi’s block was misplaced again.

Cheng Ye thought he was going to curse at him next, but instead, Jiang Shi put away his phone.

“Go into game development, Cheng Ye.”

Games…

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment. “Why do you say that?”

“Phone screens are getting bigger, and intelligence is the future trend. Actually, to be precise, it’s not games, but the digital age.”

“I’m guessing the next big trend is this.”

In the sunlight, the young man’s eyes had an amber-like luster. Standing behind Jiang Shi, Cheng Ye felt the wind of the new trend.

Jiang Shi was busy with final exams, and Cheng Ye began to self-study programming.

Cheng Ye’s learning speed was so fast it made Jiang Shi click his tongue in amazement. He was really like a weed. Once he determined his direction, he would desperately absorb all nutrients and grow vigorously regardless of anything.

When Jiang Shi was studying, he was reading. When Jiang Shi was eating, he was reading. When Jiang Shi woke up from a nap, the night light on his bed was still on.

The wind brought the breath of summer, and the cicadas began to chirp.

After the last final exam, Cheng Ye had finished reading three books. Knowledge from books is ultimately shallow. On the first day of summer vacation, Cheng Ye bought an old computer from a second-hand store.

Jiang Shi never expected that Cheng Ye’s house, which was so dilapidated and looked like it had leaks on all four sides from being unoccupied for so long, would actually get an internet connection and have a computer installed.

Cheng Ye became the first person in Xiliu Village to use a computer.

When the internet cable was being installed, all the villagers came to watch.

The gossipy uncles and aunts gathered together, watching the thin black internet cable being pulled from the utility pole.

“What kind of internet cable is this? You even have to get someone to pull it. How much does that cost?”

“It doesn’t look cheap. I saw Cheng Ye carrying a so-called computer in this morning. He said it was for this computer.”

“Computer? What’s that?”

“My son said that this computer is more expensive than a TV. He said you can play games on it. Do you think Cheng Ye installed it to play games?”

“Play games? Isn’t that a waste of money? The house is so broken down, what’s wrong with doing something else? Why buy a computer to play games?”

“This computer isn’t cheap, right? Where did he get the money?”

“Jiang Xue’s son is rich, isn’t he? Cheng Ye follows her son around like a tail all day. Maybe her son gave it to him.”

“It’s not that I’m saying this, but Jiang Xue works so hard in the fields every day. Her son doesn’t give the money to her, but to an outsider?”

“Hah! It’s because he wasn’t raised by her side since he was little. No matter how close you are, if there’s no affection, it’s all for nothing…”

Suddenly, a cool voice sounded from behind. “You say it as if it’s true. Did you see me give Cheng Ye the money?”

The aunt was stunned, turned around, and saw a beautiful young man standing behind her at some point.

Seeing her look over, Jiang Shi curled his lip. “With such a gossipy mouth, be careful you don’t bite your tongue when you eat.”

The aunt’s face turned green and then white.

Jiang Shi ignored them and went straight into Cheng Ye’s house.

Cheng Ye gave the money to the workers who installed the internet cable, saw them off, and then bent over to tinker with the second-hand computer he had bought.

It was hot, and he was only wearing a tank top. With a screwdriver in his mouth, the muscles of his shoulders and back were fully visible when he bent over.

Jiang Shi poked the bulging muscle on Cheng Ye’s arm with a finger. “Is it done yet?”

Cheng Ye’s room was too small, so he had placed the computer in the living room. He had moved a table against the wall and put the second-hand computer on it. Because he had a screwdriver in his mouth, he spoke indistinctly, “Almost.”

Jiang Shi was wearing shorts, his calves long and straight, with very little body hair. They were dazzlingly white in the dim room.

Cheng Ye’s eyes kept glancing down.

Jiang Shi saw it and kicked him. “What are you looking at?”

Cheng Ye wiped the dirt off his hands, really wanting to reach out and hold them. He took the screwdriver out of his mouth and said honestly,

“Looking at your legs.”