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Chapter 4
After Shang Jin said this sentence, he no longer cared about the farce on this side: he carried out his task then left.
Xu Yangjun came over and put a hand on Ye Zhou’s shoulder, winked and said, “Not bad, Zhou. You just confessed yesterday and today, Shang Jin’s protecting you.”
Zhou Wendao smirked and asked, “Yes, yes. Zhou, what did you say to Shang Jin? How did you conquer him so fast??”
Ye Zhou was choking on his anger. He didn’t know whether he should rush out to grab Shang Jin’s collar and ask him why he wanted to say unnecessary words, or if he should first gather all the people in front of him watching a good show and punch each and every one of them.
It seemed like the day when he’d be washed clean were further away…
This farce continued until National Day1. This was the first time Ye Zhou looked forward for the holiday to come a bit sooner. Presumably, after one week, everyone should forget about it.
“Zhou, you’re not going home for National Day again?” The day before the holiday, the other two people in the dorm had already embarked on their way home. Zhou Wendao was also making his final inspection. Not waiting for Ye Zhou to answer, Zhou Wendao was minding his own business when he suddenly realized, “I remember that Shang Jin is a local person, you two…made an arrangement?” Saying the last thing, Zhou Wendao’s face held a cheap smile.
Ye Zhou had already prepared for this and proudly took out a train ticket and said, “Who said I’m not going back? The ticket has already been bought.”
Zhou Wendao pulled the zipper of the suitcase and lifted it up, placing it to one side. Sitting in the chair next to him, he said, “It’s a rare long vacation. You and Shang Jin aren’t going out to travel?”
Ye Zhou scoffed and said in a bad mood, “When there’s nothing, why would I go traveling with him?”
“You can’t do this…” Zhou Wendao scooted the chair to Ye Zhou’s side and said earnestly, “You can’t not value him because you’ve caught him in your hand. Feelings depend on effort to build up…”
After passing through this period of ravage, Ye Zhou had already become too lazy to refute. As for the teasing of the surrounding people, it came in one ear and left out the other. Just like Shang Jin said, what others said was their business. Anyway, he was clear on his own innocence. Ye Zhou fiddled with his phone and accidentally opened Su Yin’s chat box.
Because of the misunderstanding with Shang Jin and him, Su Yin was also greatly stimulated.
“You actually with Shang Jin…actually with Shang Jin…” Su Yin looked like the world was about to be destroyed. She looked at Ye Zhou as if her eyes were hiding a needle and wanted to prick him with it.
“Other people can not believe me, but don’t tell me that you also don’t believe!!” Ye Zhou exclaimed, defending himself, “Who did I take the pictures for??”
Su Yin glared at him and hatefully said, “You yourself!”
“Youー”
“Isn’t it? You originally wanted Tang Dongdong’s photos before so you promised to exchange them with me.”
“Iー” Ye Zhou choked, really unable to dispute it. He opened his phone and said, “Then let’s exchange them quickly. Shang Jin’s photos are taking up space on my phone.”
Su Yin guardedly said, “That’s a must. Just in case you look at it for a long time and you really have evil thoughts for Shang Jin…”
“Pei! I have evil thoughts for him???” Ye Zhou sneered, “No matter who I like, I still wouldn’t like him.” (T/N: pei – spitting sound)
“It’s best if it’s like that.” After Su Yin received the photos, she didn’t dispel her vigilance. “There’s really nothing going on between you and Shang Jin?”
“No, no, no!” Ye Zhou resentfully said, “Besides, am I worse than Shang Jin? Why do you have a ‘dirty things shouldn’t stick to Shang Jin’ expression?”
“Because no one is worthy of Shang Jin.”
Ye Zhou snorted and said in his heart: if you saw Shang Jin’s messy dorm, you’d know that the male god was also human.
After exchanging the photos, Su Yin repeatedly confirmed that Ye Zhou had really removed all the photos of Shang Jin before giving up. Before leaving, she still repeatedly said, “You have to hold your position! No matter how outstanding Shang Jin is, you can’t waver!”
“Rest ten thousand times assured, in my love, Shang Jin has never been an option.” Looking at the dozens of photos of Tang Dongdong on his phone, Ye Zhou instantly felt a sense of healing. It’s just that, to avoid this misunderstanding from happening again and causing trouble for others, Ye Zhou only dared to leave two photos of Tang Dongdong in his cell phone and interspersed them in a mess of landscape pictures to prevent others from finding clues.
At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, Ye Zhou and Zhou Wendao set off to the station together.
The waiting room was jammed with people. Ye Zhou and him didn’t even have a chair to sit on.
Ye Zhou leaned against the railing while Zhou Wendao sat on his suitcase, and the two men idly chatted.
When the waiting room began to broadcast, Ye Zhou glanced at the ticket gate. Seeing that it wasn’t his train, he was about to retract his gaze when unexpectedly, his gaze intersected with another man’s. He immediately turned around and his heart beat a few beats.
How could Shang Jin be at the station? Wasn’t his home local?
“My train is about to start checking in. Zhou, I’m going to toilet first. Help me watch my luggage.”
Ye Zhou absentmindedly agreed, praying that Zhou Wendao didn’t see Shang Jin.
However, things turned out against his wishes.
Ye Zhou hid from Shang Jin didn’t mean that Shang Jin would hide from Ye Zhou.
Zhou Wendao just walked away when the next moment, Shang Jin arrived at Ye Zhou’s side. His expression was even more astonished than Ye Zhou. “Ye Zhou? What are you doing at the station?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you this question???” Ye Zhou incredulously said, “Isn’t your home local?”
“My family planned to travel for National Day. They left first and I’m going to meet them now.” Shang Jin crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the railing like Ye Zhou. He stared at the crowd in front of him. “If I’d known earlier that you weren’t going to stay at school for the holidays, then I would have refused them. Who likes to come out to play when National Day is so crowded with people.”
The more Ye Zhou listened, the more wronged he felt. He interrupted Shang Jin, “Wait, what’s the meaning of your words? Are you blaming me??”
Shang Jin said to himself, “Forget it. At worst, I’ll just sleep in the hotel.”
“It’s because of you that I’m going home! Otherwise, with the school just starting a month ago, what would I go home for!” Ye Zhou was almost driven crazy. He said that as long as he met Shang Jin, no good would come out of it!
Shang Jin eyelids drooped as if they could close at any time. “You still have time to refund the ticket now.”
“Why do I have to refund? If anyone should refund, it should be you!”
“I don’t care. Anyway, those rumors don’t matter to me.” Shang Jin yawned and said, “Giving you a friendly reminder: Zhou Wendao is coming this way with great interest.”
“Can you not use such a serious expression to say something I don’t want to hear?” Ye Zhou didn’t need to look back to be able to visualize Zhou Wendao’s expression. “In a moment, pretend that we accidentally ran into each other.”
“We didn’t make an appointment.”
It’s true: this kind of assertion made it seem like he and Shang Jin really had something to hide. But Ye Zhou really wasn’t at ease. He explained again, “Then in a while, don’t speak nonsense.”
Looking at Zhou Wendao’s figure getting closer, Shang Jin had a slight thought and asked, “Of course, I can. How are you going to repay me?”
“Re…repay??”
Shang Jin shrugged and said, “Anyways, I don’t care…”
Ye Zhou most hated this kind of ‘everything didn’t matter’ expression of Shang Jin. Without desires and without wants, his appearance made Ye Zhou feel that nothing could threaten him. But people under the eaves had no choice but to bow down. He hatefully said, “What do you want?”
“After returning to school, continue to help me tidy up the dorm room.”
“Didn’t I tidy it up for you last time?”
Shang Jin boldly and confidently said, “It’s a mess again.”
Seeing Zhou Wendao come before him, Ye Zhou hurriedly said, “Fine fine fine, no problem. Don’t speak randomly in a moment. Just let me talk.”
“Yo, isn’t this Shang Jin??” Zhou Wendao’s expression was as Shang Jin had described, and was even more exaggerated than Shang Jin’s description. He bumped Ye Zhou and whispered, “You weren’t honest. You lied to me before that there was no arrangement.”
“There is no arrangement. I’m just going home.” Ye Zhou showed his ticket and said, “Going home!”
Zhou Wendao looked at Ye Zhou and, seeing that he couldn’t get any information from this side, he turned to Shang Jin and smiled flatteringly. “Shang Jin, where are you going?”
Shang Jin glanced at Ye Zhou, and Ye Zhou gave him a warning glance.
“I came to send someone off.”
“Youー” Ye Zhou suddenly stared at him with wide eyes. He’d clearly said before that he was traveling. How could it suddenly change to sending someone off???
“Oh~~~” Zhou Wendao stretched out the tail end, winking at Ye Zhou. “Send someone.”
“Well, but alreadyー” Not waiting for Shang Jin to finish, Zhou Wendao looked at the ticket gate and immediately rushed forward with his luggage. “Aiya, I’m not going to make it! I’m going first. We’ll talk again when we’re back in school!”
When he could no longer see Zhou Wendao’s figure, Ye Zhou’s face sank. He dragged Shang Jin’s coat and said, “You only had to tell the truth. Why did you have to lie? Saying it like that, wouldn’t he misunderstand that you came to send me!”
Shang Jin rescued his coat from Ye Zhou’s hand and shot him a glance. He took the ticket from his pocket and laid it before his eyes.
“A City to D City, high-speed rail, Car 2ー” Ye Zhou suddenly stopped. He took out his ticket, looked at his own and then looked at the other’s. The train and car on the two tickets were the same…
“Or did you want to let the other person misunderstand that we’re going together for a vacation?”
Notes
1. National Day: (国庆) The week-long holiday in China starting October 1st. Also known as the “Eleventh” as it’s the eleventh holiday of the year.