Chapter 31
Proofreader: Akimi
Zhen Yuanbai was confused for half a second before his face slowly turned red and his eyes brightened. Although he pursed his lips, his expression had already exposed his feelings.
“If you want to laugh, then laugh. What is that expression?”
Zhen Yuanbai finally burst into laughter. He clutched his stomach and rolled on the bed, making shi Bufan curl his lips. He climbed on the bed and held Zhen Yuanbai in his arms, but the latter was still laughing hard. He pushed Shi Bufan and said, “Rabbits don’t have slender legs like you.”
Shi Bufan said, “Have you heard of the polar rabbits? The ones with huge bodies and extremely slender legs.”
It felt like someone had turned on the laughing button on Zhen Yuanbai. Tears fell down his face from laughter as he stayed in Shi Bufan’s arms. His face rubbed against Shi Bufan’s fluffy onesie. Because he ran out of energy, his voice was extremely soft, making Shi Bufan feel numb. “You, haha….Why did you wear the pink one?”
“So I can make you happy. Why else?”
It felt like someone turned off Zhen Yuanbai’s laughing button and he looked up at Shi Bufan while the latter’s eyes smiled. Zhen Yuanbai seemed to be sucked into this moment, frozen. It felt like Shi Bufan was scared of scaring him, so he carefully moved closer.
His breath was on Zhen Yuanbai’s and the latter finally rolled over all of a sudden, coming to the realization of what was about to happen. He even rolled off with the blankets.
“…”
Choosing between kissing Zhen Yuanbai and sleeping, Shi Bufan decided to lay down, using his arms as a cushion. His exposed legs made him look like he was wearing knickers. The clothes were supposed to be loose but because it wasn’t Shi Bufan’s size, it was quite tight on him. The pinkish red rabbit on the youth’s slender body made him look a little funny, despite how handsome he was.
Rabbit Shi turned around and poked the little turtle’s head. “Share the blanket.”
The little turtle kicked him and loosened his grip. Rabbit Shi tugged the blankets firmly and pulled the blanket over. The little turtled was exposed immediately and he turned around to fight for the blanket. The curly hair became messy and it stuck to his face, making Shi Bufan want to kiss him. The latter suddenly loosened his grip and Zhen Yuanbai grabbed it back.
Zhen Yuanbai rolled himself and half of the blanket away, saying, “Can’t you just take out another blanket?”
“You’re just sleeping here for the night. Do I really need to?” Shi Bufan found his voice and moved closer saying, “Just deal with this for the night.”
At this time, they heard knocking outside the door and then Mother Shi’s voice rang. “Will it be a bit too tight for the two of you guys to sleep on the same bed? I ordered people to clean out the room next door, so Yuanyuan can sleep there.”
Shi Bufan knitted his eyebrows while Zhen Yuanbai happily got up, tossing the blanket at Shi Bufan. He opened the door in a delightful manner.
Shi Bufan hugged the blanket while making eye contact with his mother. Ling Xuan subconsciously laughed, seeing her son’s cold and unsatisfied expression.
She withdrew her gaze and looked at Zhen Yuanbai. The latter was just thanking her and she wondered how it was possible to raise such an obedient son. She tossed her own son to the back of her mind and brought Zhen Yuanbai to the guest room.
The guest room was plain and Zhen Yuanbai politely saw Mother Shi off before immediately pouncing on the bed and rolling. What accomplice? Mother Shi is an angel!
The next morning, the two of them squeezed into the same bathroom. The mirror reflected two young and tender faces brushing their teeth. Shi Bufan was quickly done and wiped his mouth after rinsing, asking, “How did you sleep last night?”
“Very good.” Zhen Yuanbai said this and then emphasized, “I love sleeping by myself.”
Shi Bufan was bumped to the other side and he looked at Zhen Yuanbai resentfully like an abandoned wife.
Zhen Yuanbai switched on the sink and began to wash his face. Shi Bufan leaned against the side and said, “Today’s weather is pretty good. Let’s go jogging after you’re done washing your face.”
“No.” Zhen Yuanbai washed his face and said, “I’m not running.”
“If someone hits you next time, you can run quicker.”
After Zhen Yuanbai washed his face, he stared at Shi Bufan unhappily. “Who would hit me?”
“How would I know?” Shi Bufan pushed him to the side and washed his face. “If you can run quicker, you can run over and call for my help. If you can’t run quickly, you will get a beating before you can even come for me. Think about this.”
Zhen Yuanbai pursed his lips and went out to change his clothes, before coming back. “I don’t want to get sweaty. Can we just walk?”
Shi Bufan snorted and wiped his face clean before moving closer to Zhen Yuanbai. He kissed him while Zhen Yuanbai dodged it, catching him back. “How about we make a deal?”
“What, what deal?”
“When I can’t resist my feelings for you like 100 times, can you allow your feelings to become unrestrained for once?”
Zhen Yuanbai’s face turned red and had no choice but to say, “Hm…ok” because he was captured by Shi Bufan and unable to escape.
Shi Bufan hugged him and said, “Your turn.”
“?”
“In less than a minute from before, I couldn’t help but fall in love with you 100 times.”
“…”
Shi Bufan looked to the side and said, “Give me a reaction.”
Zhen Yuanbai made eye contact with him for 3 seconds and suddenly fisted his hands, softly pushing his face to the side. He said timidly, “I couldn’t help but want to…hit you.”
“…” Fine. At least he couldn’t help but feel a certain way towards himself. Shi Bufan snorted and suddenly looked fierce, shaking his head and biting Zhen Yuanbai.
The garden in the Shi family was beautiful. Zhen Yuanbai placed his hands behind his back, following Shi Bufan like an old man. Meanwhile, the latter lazily asked, “Oh right, how is your adrenaline for running?”
Zhen Yuanbai couldn’t help but think of something.
He disliked attending P.E. class, because he would be in a crowd of people and exposing how inflexible he was. Regarding sports, he had no talent or the right to flex. Even more, because he was shy, he was scared of any activities or sweating besides learning. Whenever it was P.E., the teacher didn’t force him to do anything much. At most, he had to run around and this made Zhen Yuanbai happy.
It was the first P.E. class since Shi Bufan had transferred into the elite class and the second time Shi Bufan caused trouble for him after the love letter incident.
When the teacher was announcing a sprint competition, Shi Bufan glanced at Zhen Yuanbai and said, “I want to race against him.”
Everyone knew that Zhen Yuanbai performed ordinary in P.E. So when Zhen Yuanbai was suddenly picked on, his face turned bright red and became extremely nervous. The teacher believed that Shi Bufan was bullying Zhen Yuanbai as well, knitting his eyebrows and scolding, “Not Zhen Yuanbai. You can pair up with someone else.”
“I only want him.” Shi Bufan said, “I want to test Shengyi High School’s elite student’s level.”
The teacher couldn’t win him, so they turned around to look at Zhen Yuanbai. They said in a gentle tone, “Do you want to race with him? If not, you can reject him.”
Zhen Yuanbai didn’t know how to reject someone. Under Shi Bufan’s fierce gaze, he nodded.
He was thinking that since Shi Bufan wanted to show off, he’d let him. Once Shi Bufan becomes at ease, he probably won’t cause trouble for him anymore.
The two stood on the starting line and when they passed each other, Shi Bufan said, “If you can’t beat me, wait for me after school.”
Zhen Yuanbai felt goosebumps rising. Before they started to race, he already imagined the scene of the other party bringing people to block his way off.
If he can’t win, he will get a beating.
This knowledge made Zhen Yuanbai feel his survival instincts kicking in.
Shi Bufan acted like he was going to win for sure. His fingers touched the ground and he glanced at Zhen Yuanbai from the corner of his eyes while the latter pursed his lips. His body was rigid and his clean face was reflected under the light.
The gym teacher said, “On your mark…” People surrounding them immediately cheered for Zhen Yuanbai and someone even yelled “Shi Bufan, let Zhen Yuanbai win!”
Shi Bufan made no comment.
The gym teacher placed the whistle in their mouth and the two people on the line both got ready.
“!” The sound of the whistle rang and Shi Bufan suddenly jumped up. Before he could run, the person next to him ran off like a rocket.
There seemed to be a spring attached to Zhen Yuanbai’s legs and Shi Bufan stood stunned at his original spot. All his words seemed to be trapped in his throat. He watched as Zhen Yuanbai rushed 100 meters out and even the gym teacher forgot to press on the stopwatch.
Until Zhen Yuanbai stood to the other side and looked over, the gym teacher pressed the stopwatch. By then, it was already 10.37 seconds when he realized, making him holler, “Damn!”
Zhen Yuanbai looked back at them and then looked down. At least 2 seconds. That meant that Zhen Yuanbai might’ve surpassed the world records.
The whole field was quiet and the gym teacher came over to call for him, “Come here, run again.”
Once Zhen Yuanbai confirmed that Shi Bufan hadn’t chased after him, he sat down and panted, feeling dizzy. After that, the teacher ran again and it only took 16 seconds. It made him sigh and say to others, “The world record!! It was beaten right in front of my eyes! He must’ve broken the record!”
But Zhen Yuan just felt lucky. He didn’t care about his score since he felt extremely blessed that he wouldn’t need to wait for Shi Bufan’s beating after school.
But, only he remembered this.
“It’s ok.” Zhen Yuanbai breathed in the fresh air and casually answered.
The time went back to the gym class and Zhen Yuanbai was laying on the field, feeling dizzy. He was confused and people chatted about as they ran past him. He didn’t know anything that was happening out of his line of vision.
Like when Ming Mai ran over to ask Shi Bufan, extremely shocked, “Was that fake? Was he flying before?”
Qiu Jing also yelled, “He actually won against you!!”
Shi Bufan’s face darkened, but chuckled strangely before turning around to leave. While passing by the garbage bin, he threw something in.
When Qiu Jing and Ming Mai followed Shi Bufan, Ye Lian grabbed the item that Shi Bufan threw in the garbage out. Ye Lian soothed the crumbled paper and it revealed XX Theater.
Time of show: 7:40pm.
The youth’s gaze became shocked and he slowly smiled, ripping the paper to pieces and throwing it back into the garbage.
He turned around to look at the other youth who was lying on the field, smiling.
While they were still young, they kept a lot of secrets from one another or hid it silently; rarely anyone knew. He turned around and followed Shi Bufan’s footsteps, calling out, “Brother Shi, why don’t we watch a movie tonight?”
“Watch what?’
5 minutes before class was over, Zhen Yuanbai raised his hand to say that he had a stomach ache. He placed his backpack over his shoulder and slipped out of school.
Up until Zhen Yuanbai left the school, he could still feel a fierce and intense gaze burning, like a shadow following him.
On the same autumn day, Zhen Yuanbai suddenly bumped Shi Bufan with his shoulder, making the latter raise his eyebrows. “What?”
“Nothing.” Zhen Yuanbai moved back and Shi Bufan continued to walk in front. Zhen Yuanbai suddenly bumped him again, then smiled while Shi Bufan was confused.
Shi Bufan looked at him and said, “See the tree in front? Let’s see who gets there first.”
“What happens?”
Shi Bufan thought about it for a while before something flickered in his mind. He slowly said, “If you can’t beat me, you have to watch a movie with me?”
T/N: Anyone getting the feels that SBF might be remembering snippets of his memory?