Chapter 25

When Zhuo ZhengDe returned home, dinner was served. The atmosphere at the dining table was good. Zhuo Jia Shuo was calm, and no one spoke while eating, except for the occasional noise from the collision of chopsticks and dishes, the table was quiet.

Theday was coming to an end, Tong Yan was tense, and Lin Yue Hua was tired, sothey left soon after the meal, heading upstairs to their rooms.

No one came out to make special arrangements, everyone just assumed thatTong Yan would also share a bedroom with Zhuo Xiang Ming at night. Tong Yan himselfdidn’t think much about it, but after entering the room, the realization madehim feel embarrassed.

The situation was subtle at first, the two were on their first day ofconfirming their relationship, in fact, the time that passed was less than twohours.

“Can I speak to you now?”

Zhuo Xiang Ming had asked this question a few times before, but he wasrejected by Tong Yan every time.

After Tong Yan fell out of bed, Zhuo Xiang Ming was sternly ordered to nottalk to him before dinner.

At that time, Zhuo Xiang Ming wanted to check if he had hit his head,but Tong Yan refused to let him look. When Zhuo Xiang Ming insisted, he thensaid, embarrassed, “I just fell on my butt.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming quickly shut up.

Thinking about, Tong Yan still felt ashamed.

But the two had already not talked for half an hour, Tong Yan said in asmall voice, “You can speak.”

Afterhearing those words, Zhuo Xiang Ming walked to the bathroom door and pushed it open:“Bathe first. There’s school tomorrow, it’s best to sleep early.”

Seeing his normal appearance, Tong Yan also didn’t want to make himself looktoo overwhelmed, agreeing in as calm a tone as possible.

But when he reached the bathroom door, Zhuo Xiang Ming’s hand was stillresting on the door knob, blocking Tong Yan’s path.

TongYan: “Let me …”

He looked up to find Zhuo Xiang Ming watching him.

Zhuo Xiang Ming had a kind of strong and cold appearance. Different fromthe round-eyed Tong Yan, his eyes were longer, the outer corners slightlyraised. If Tong Yan’s face had those eyes, they would give off a feeling ofbeauty, but on his face, they seemed cold. When he stared at someoneunblinkingly, even momentarily, the other person’s heart would absolutely feelpressured.

“You….” He raised his hand a little, as if to put it on TongYan’s shoulder, but he quickly pulled it back, his eyes still locked on TongYan.

TongYan subconsciously asked: “What about me?”

Aftera pause, Zhuo Xiang Ming finally asked: “Do you regret it?”

Tong Yan was shocked: “Never!”

Zhuo Xiang Ming examined him closely, as if he was searching for clueson Tong Yan’s face: “Really?”

TongYan was doubtful: “Really! Why are you asking this?”

“Never mind.” Zhuo Xiang Ming removed the hand that was on thedoorknob as well, “Go in.”

TongYan looked at his own toes: “I just, feel a little embarrassed …”

ZhuoXiang Ming: “What?”

TongYan: “I rolled off the bed, isn’t that very humiliating?”

Apparently,Tong Yan’s words called to mind that scene, and Zhuo Xiang Ming’s mouthtwitched. Tong Yan saw that he was holding back laughter, and was once again onthe verge of flying into a rage from shame: “I’m taking a bath, “

Hedove into the bathroom. There were a lot of toiletries in the cabinet, and twostacks of heated towels in the sterilization cabinet. When he was done bathing,Tong Yan realized that he didn’t bring any clothes in.

To be precise, he didn’t bring any extra clothes, only the ones he waswearing previously, and when he’d taken them off, he’d thrown them into thedirty clothes basket. In the end, he could only put on one of Zhuo Xiang Ming’sbathrobes.

The bathrobe had no problems besides being a little too slack. Tong Yan lookedat himself in the mirror and felt quite satisfied, walking out in confidence.

Zhuo Xiang Ming: “…”

TongYan rubbed his blow-dried messy hair and sat at the foot of the bed: “I’m done.”

“Okay.” Not saying much, Zhuo Xiang Ming got up and went intothe bathroom.

It wasn’t until Zhuo Xiang Ming came back out that Tong Yan understoodhis previous meaningful expression.

It was obvious that the alpha had no intention to expose his flesh, thestrap was tightly fastened, but if Zhuo Xiang Ming had chosen to wear thebathrobe normally, not only would the pectoral groove on his chest be exposed,most importantly, the hem wouldn’t even reach his knees—there would be quite agap.

OnTong Yan’s body, it almost reached his calf.

Fortunately, Zhuo Xiang Ming had always been a man of few words.

The lights were turned off, and Tong Yan covered himself with the samequilt from during the day. Zhuo Xiang Ming took new bedding out from thecloset. The two were in the same bed, but were using different quilts. Tong Yanwas lying perfectly straight, and after Zhuo Xiang Ming went to bed, he laid onhis side, facing Tong Yan.

TongYan couldn’t suppress it, he called out in a soft voice: “Brother.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming: “Yeah?”

TongYan: “Do you know, if eighteen-year-olds can still grow taller?”

Zhuo Xiang Ming thought about it, then said: “They should be ableto grow a bit more.”

His voice sounded a little strange, but Tong Yan ignored it, continuingto ask, “Does drinking milk help?”

This time, Tong Yan heard it clearly, Zhuo Xiang Ming was laughing.

TongYan: “You’re laughing at me!”

Zhuo Xiang Ming: “No.”

“You obviously are!” Tong Yancrawled over, meeting Zhuo Xiang Ming’s smiling eyes in the darkness: “Andyou say you’re not laughing!”

Zhuo Xiang Ming tried his best to remedy: “You’re already tall enough.”

“But you’re so much taller than me.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming explained, unknowingly attracting jealousy: “Ah … whatcan I do, when I was a middle school student, I was already taller than you arenow.”

TongYan humphed: “How lovely …”

“Lovely?” Zhuo Xiang Ming comforted him, “If you’re too tall, otherpeople will most likely call you a big oaf, right? All brawn and no brain.”

TongYan collapsed in front of him, half of his face next to Zhuo Xiang Ming’s unusedpillow, pouting exaggeratingly: “You’re not a big oaf.”

Indeed, Zhuo Xiang Ming’s slender limbs and perfect body proportions werereflected in the effect he gave off in everything he wore, like a natural born malemodel. No one would associate him with the typical “big oaf”.

TongYan laid still for a while. Zhuo Xiang Ming accidentally touched his cold arm, andopened his quilt, asking him if he wanted to come in. Tong Yan just turnedbright red, and returned to his own covers.

–

Thesports competition started at eight, first was the opening ceremony, everyone neededto be on time for the square-shaped formation march, so Tong Yan got up very early.At the breakfast table, only he, Zhuo Xiang Ming and Zhuo ZhengDe were present.

After Zhuo Xiang Ming asked his dad about his sleep, the father and son didn’texchange anymore words. When it was time for them to leave, Zhuo ZhengDe onlythen asked: “What time does your sports meet end, Tong Yan?”

TongYan: “At four in the afternoon, uncle.”

Zhuo ZhengDe drank his tea, his only response a hum.

Apparently,being taciturn was hereditary.

Only students and teachers could participate in the sports meeting. Parentswere not allowed to enter the campus, but they could watch the live broadcaston the school’s official website. Each game had a special window.

TongYan gave Zhuo Xiang Ming an introduction: “This morning should be moreexciting. There’s the one-hundred-meter and two-hundred-meter dash, you can watchthese two.”

ZhuoXiang Ming: “What are you doing today?”

“The relay race is on the final day, we’ll practice during thesedays.” Tong Yan said, “After the opening ceremony, we can move aroundfreely, and practice on the small field. In the afternoon, there’s thelong-distance race. A few of my classmates chose the 1,500 km and 2,000 km races.I’ll go cheer them on.”

“Is there a live broadcast for the small field?”Zhuo Xiang Ming asked.

TongYan: “The small field is used for practice, there are no games.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming: “I know.”

TongYan finally understood, Zhuo Xiang Ming wanted to watch him.

If Zhuo Xiang Ming had spoken this sentence before yesterday, he might nothave paid much attention to it. In fact, Zhuo Xiang Ming often said similar things,so Tong Yan was always aware of his concern for him.

But now, when Tong Yan heard this, his heart couldn’t help but feelmoved.

He said, “Do you want to see me practice?”

“Yeah.” Zhuo Xiang Ming said, “Will the camera film the cheeringstudents?”

TongYan thought about that, and couldn’t help but laugh: “Even if it did, withso many people and only a few seconds of airtime, would you even be able to recognizeanybody?”

Zhuo Xiang Ming nodded. “Seems I can only wait for your official game.”

TongYan wasn’t nervous at first, but now, he was starting to feel a little self-conscious.

Theyquickly arrived at the school. Zhuo Xiang Ming parked, took the schoolbag fromthe back seat, checked the warning card, and checked whether Tong Yan’s water bottlewas full: “Remember to warm up before practicing.”

He felt that he was acting like an old nursemaid, but in fact, Tong Yanwas also a little bit reluctant to part. He nodded obediently at everything ZhuoXiang Ming said, until finally there was nothing else to say. Zhuo Xiang Minglooked at him, then said, “Go on.”

TongYan stood outside by the car and said goodbye to him. Zhuo Xiang Ming washolding the steering wheel, not leaving, he called out to Tong Yan: “Goin, you’re going to be late.”

Finally,Tong Yan put on his schoolbag and walked away. He turned around at the schoolgate, but he could no longer see Zhuo Xiang Ming’s face, so he quickly turnedaway.

When Zhuo Xiang Ming returned to pick Tong Yan up that afternoon, it was the first time he’d seen so many students at the school gate, and the many cars waiting to pick them up. It took about ten minutes for them to leave the crossroads at the school gate. Tong Yan looked very tired, Zhuo Xiang Ming asked: “Was the practice session good?”

TongYan said weakly: “Very good.”

“Thattiring?” Zhuo Xiang Ming smiled and glanced at him, noticing a rough patch on theknee area of his sportswear pants, he’d obviously fallen down.

Zhuo Xiang Ming frowned: “Did you trip and fall?”

TongYan followed his line of sight to his knees: “Ah, it’s fine, I landed on myhands. The pants tore, but my knees are okay.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming asked: “Which hand?”

“Bothof them.” Tong Yan exposed his palms, spreading them out for him to look,“See, it’s fine.”

Indeed,they weren’t bruised, just a little red.

After arriving home, Zhuo Xiang Ming immediately looked for the medicinebox. Xuan Gui scanned Tong Yan, confirming that there was no problem with hisbones, only then did Zhuo Xiang Ming rub some medicine on him. First, he rubbedboth of Tong Yan’s hands, then he rolled up his trouser legs to rub his knees.

The knees looked worse than the hands, some thin bloody scratches and bluebruising around them.

“Eh …” Tong Yan was stunned, “It didn’t look that bad thismorning, and it doesn’t hurt.”

He said this, and tried to stomp his feet to prove it, but he was helddown by Zhuo Xiang Ming: “Don’t move … Are you stupid?”

Zhuo Xiang Ming took a cotton swab in on hand and placed his other handon Tong Yan’s knee. First, he lowered his head and blew on the wound, then gentlyrubbed in the medicine, asking, “Does it hurt?”

TongYan slowly tensed up, his face a little red. He felt uneasy from head to toe, notknowing where to put his hands. He said in a small voice: “It doesn’thurt.”

“It’slike that at first, at night however.” After applying the medicine, Zhuo XiangMing packed up the medicine box.

“I’mnot trying to scare you. You’re still growing, if you don’t pay attention tothese things while your bones are still a bit brittle, it’s possible that you’llhurt latter. Forget about growing taller, even your running speed will suffer.”

Tong Yan was frightened by his words, nodding and repeating: “I got it.”

“OK.”Seeing his expression, Zhuo Xiang Ming was quite satisfied. He got up, enteringthe kitchen to oversee the housekeeping robot’s dinner preparations.

XuanGui: “You’re very weak.”

TongYan flexed his arms: “Nonsense, I’m obviously very strong.”

He also suffered from the common failing of every boy his age, that was,trying in vain to make others see the muscles on his pale, scrawny body.

XuanGui: “Then why does Sir treat you like you’re fragile?”

TongYan glanced back, Zhuo Xiang Ming still hadn’t come out of the kitchen, so hesaid, “Of course, it’s because he loves me.”

“What?” Xuan Gui said, “According to my memories from almostthree months ago, you said that your marriage is fake because you don’tlove each other.”

TongYan felt that he was being a bit shameless, even deceiving a simple robot: “Buthe loves me very much now.”

“We’re dating.” Disdaining himself notwithstanding, he couldn’thelp but publicize this news again.

XuanGui responded perfunctorily: “Ah, that’s great.”

TongYan: “Buzz off.”

–

Before going to bed, the two would separate in the corridor after going upstairs, returning to their own bedrooms. Zhuo Xiang Ming walked Tong Yan to his bedroom door, and the two stood face to face. Zhuo Xiang Ming reached behind Tong Yan to push open the door, saying, “Good night.”

TongYan looked up at him, also saying, “Good night.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming’s expression remained unchanged, after a brief moment, TongYan had no choice but to ask brazenly: “Don’t I need…desensitization?

Infact, he really didn’t need it anymore, but fortunately, Zhuo Xiang Ming wasn’tas dense as yesterday, following along with him: “Oh, I forgot.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming raised his hands and bowed his head, but the hug TongYan anticipated didn’t come, instead, Zhuo Xiang Ming touched the back of hishead and gently kissed him on his forehead.

Thekiss was brief. His other hand was on Tong Yan’s shoulder, kneading to signal TongYan to relax. Zhuo Xiang Ming said in a low voice: “From now on, your desensitizationmethod will be this.”

=========================================================

T/N:

almost three months- it said ‘3 days short of three months’

I love this. Anyway, that’s the end of mybacklog, expect normal updates from now on