Chapter 75

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Translator: Cheese

Falling off his horse1

Su Tian and the group of people rushed over to look. Some people let out exclamations of “Fuck!”

They couldn’t see clearly from far away, but when they came closer they discovered that the snowman the youth had built was not a lion or tiger, but in fact a plump, rotund octopus!

Your mom, an octopus!

Everyone’s impression of an octopus was either its plush squishy, sticky tentacles or those takoyaki balls sold on the street. This was their first time seeing someone build an octopus snowman.

Paints in a medley of colors lay strewn by the youth’s feet–blue, red, yellow, and black, stacked in a pile on the ground.

Wang Haoxue quietly tugged on Su Tian’s arm, whispering, “It can’t be that he wants to paint this octopus, right?”

Su Tian wordlessly nodded her head.

Wang Haoxue: “…Fuck, crazy.”

The youth turned to Su Tian, smiling. “Tiantian, help me paint Xiuxiu?”

Su Tian: “Okay.”

She was just about to walk over when she was dragged back by Wang Haoxue, who hissed, “What’s Xiuxiu?”

Su Tian whispered back, “A pet octopus he’s raising.”

Wang Haoxue: “…”

Damn, this lunatic keeps an octopus as a pet.

“Tiantian…”

Before Su Tian could take a step forward, she was stopped again by Liu Kaiyan.

Liu Kaiyan closely kept watch on the youth. Without looking at Su Tian, he stepped in front of her. “It’s too tiring for girls to do. I’ll help you.”

The youth’s bright eyes instantly dimmed, but his eyes and brows were still curved as he waited for Su Tian’s answer.

Su Tian smiled and led Wang Haoxue over. “It’s okay, let’s do it together.”

This time, Liu Kaiyan didn’t object.

The youth opened the blue paint. He poured the fluorescent agent inside, mixed it, and directed a question to Liu Kaiyan. “Have you heard of the blue-ringed octopus?”

Liu Kaiyan: “I have.”

The youth: “Then you can paint the pattern on the octopus’s body.”

Liu Kaiyan: “Sure.”

Wang Haoxue looked at Liu Kaiyan, then back at the masked boy. Why did she feel like the normal and casual conversation was filled with the tense smell of gunpowder?

Was she being too sensitive?

She looked back at Su Tian, who was completely unaware and said with a smile, “Me too, I’ll also paint the pattern on Xiuxiu’s body.”

The youth’s eyes curved again from above the mask. “One person is enough to paint it. Come help me mix the paints?”

Wang Haoxue: “What about me?”

The youth glanced over at Wang Haoxue. “You can help this classmate paint.”’

Wang Haoxue: “…”

You just said that one person painting was enough. Can you not slap your own face like this?

But the youth didn’t feel anything at all, simply treating everything he said before as a fart, and began to mix paints with Su Tian in a completely natural manner.

Both Liu Kaiyan and Wang Haoxue were astounded by the youth’s incomparably thick skin.

Su Tian still didn’t react, simply coming over with a smile to help him mix paints.

The other students keenly sensed that the atmosphere was not right and silently kept away from the four of them. One group built a snowman, while the other waged a snowball fight. The field seemed to be split into two worlds: one moving, one static, neither affecting the other.

Painting was Liu Kaiyan’s bread and butter, and soon the octopus was evenly covered with many small rings. By the time he and Wang Haoxue finished painting, Su Tian and the youth had also finished mixing the paints.

A yellow background, fluorescent blue patterns, muted black outlines…

All the classmates who had been throwing snowballs huddled around and watched with amazement as a beautiful octopus came to life under the hands of the four people.

The PE teacher came over once, but because the field was covered in snow and no class could be held, he just let everyone play freely. Later, he also couldn’t help but come over to watch them paint the octopus.

When they finished, even the teacher could help but ask, “Liu Kaiyan, what kind of octopus is this?”

Liu Kiyan: “Blue-ringed octopus, highly venomous.”

At the words “highly venomous,” not to mention the spectating classmates, even Wang Haoxue gasped. She looked back at the beautiful octopus, feeling a chill in her heart.

She looked again at the youth, and her heart felt an even stronger chill.

If she remembered correctly, didn’t Tiantian say just now that this weirdo was raising one as a pet?

Wang Haoxue wanted to cry but had no tears. Sure enough, he was a lunatic, keeping a highly venomous octopus as a pet.

The PE teacher: “The blue color is so gorgeous, I guessed it was venomous.”

In nature, the more beautiful the creature, the more dangerous it was. Otherwise, such flashy colors would have been discovered by predators early on.

The youth suddenly said, “Tiantian, I’ll give him to you.”

After a pause, he asked with a bit of trepidation, “Do you like him?”

Su Tian didn’t answer. She tilted her head and smiled at him, asking, “Ji Hang gege, has your allergic reaction not healed?”

The youth was stunned. His expression became a bit dodgy as he nodded. “Mm… mn.”

Su Tian continued to smile. Her eyes fell on his hands. The youth’s hands had been stained with paint, but she could still see that the exposed skin was fair and clean, free of any allergic reaction.

She asked, “Your hands won’t be affected by allergies?”

The youth’s hands shifted slightly. “…They won’t.”

His answer was already a bit tentative.

Su Tian didn’t ask anything more. She looked at him, smiling slightly without speaking.

The youth’s abnormal attitude was too obvious. Which of the onlookers couldn’t see it?

Su Tian was very popular at school, and someone piped up, “Ai, who are you? You don’t seem to be from our school?”

Just now, they had seen Su Tian and the other two making the octopus with the youth. Coupled with the fact that the youth was wearing a hat and mask, everyone thought that he was a classmate from school, and it was because he was afraid of the cold that he was so bundled up. Now, they suddenly reacted–there wasn’t such a person from their school.

When the PE teacher heard this, his nerves also tensed.

This was a school, after all. If something went wrong, it would be a big matter.

He asked, “This classmate, please state your classroom number. Also, please take off the mask.”

The youth turned his head, but before he could speak, Su Tian had already spoken up. “Teacher, he is a child from my uncle’s family. He has a mask on because he has an allergy to UV rays.”

PE teacher: “Not a student from this school?”

Su Tian smiled. “He is studying in Didu. He doesn’t have much homework, so when my uncle came to my house last night, he also came along.”

The PE teacher finally let out a sigh, his expression easing. “The school does not allow outsiders to come in and out freely. After class, send him outside.”

Su Tian quickly replied, “Yes, Teacher, I understand.”

After the PE teacher left, Su Tian dragged the youth over to a sparsely populated shaded area nearby.

She let go and looked at the youth, waiting for him to explain himself.

He looked down at the hand that had been held by Su Tian for a while before silently taking off his mask, revealing the face she had seen more than once.

His facial features were well-defined, the curves of his face clean and three-dimensional. His skin was pale, particularly in contrast with his dark brows and eyes. Standing in the snow, he seemed to meld with the winter, carrying a pure, icy sense of cold.

It was different from Su Tian. She was like summer, more specifically an early summer–warm, but not scorching.

Tiantian was summer.

The youth averted his eyes and explained, “I didn’t mean to deceive you. At that time, I really did have allergies.”

Su Tian nodded, responding with an “mn.”

Her reaction was so calm. The youth felt even more anxious, as well as a slight sense of grievance. “I just wanted to get to know you.”

Su Tian continued to nod. “We’re already acquainted.”

The youth opened his mouth. What he wanted wasn’t as simple as being acquainted, but…

“Are you angry?” He asked, almost apprehensively.

Su Tian heaved a sigh in her heart. She answered, “I’m not angry, I just feel sorry. I can’t give you what you want.”

The youth: “…”

He wordlessly stared.

Again. She rejected him before he could say anything.

Perhaps the grievance in the youth’s eyes was too obvious, as though he were close to crying. Su Tian’s heart finally softened, and she gently comforted, “Don’t be sad…”

“But,” the youth turned his face and whispered, “I like you…”

He liked her. How could he not be sad?

Su Tian: “Yu Cai, I will not like you.”

She originally wanted to comfort him, but at these words, the youth looked even more aggrieved.

Su Tian: “…”

“I won’t like anyone.”

She could only append one more sentence.

Yu Cai looked back at her and asked, “You won’t like Liu Kaiyan either?”

Su Tian: “Liu Kaiyan and I are friends.”

She was quite sure on this point.

Yu Cai’s eyes lit up once again. “I can also be your friend first.”

Su Tian: “…”

“Forget it, do whatever you want.”

In any case, she had clearly told him everything she could say.There was nothing she could do either if he didn’t give up until he saw the Yellow River2.

Yu Cai: “I will be an adult after the New Year. I can transfer out my household registration from Ji Shaoheng’s. That way we will have no relation to each other.”

That wasn’t what Su Tian cared about. She had never been concerned about such inexplicable things.

She just didn’t want to like someone, that was all.

“You should hurry back. I’m going to go play with my classmates.”

She said and turned to leave.

“Wait…”

Yu Cai suddenly pulled her hand. Su Tian didn’t look back at him and just looked down at his hand.

Yu Cai’s hand quietly loosened, then stubbornly clenched harder.

Finally, Su Tian turned around.

Yu Cai’s lips were pressed together so tightly they were pale. He looked into the girl’s eyes and called out “Su Tian” in a low voice.

Her first and last name.

He doggedly refused to let her go.

Su Tian sighed. Smiling, she took the mask from the youth’s hand, stood on tiptoe, and gently helped him put it on.

“Since you’re allergic to UV light, don’t take off your mask so casually.”

Just now, she had been so suspicious of him, but she never asked him to take off his mask.

The youth’s dimmed eyes instantly lit up once again.

She was so warm. He wanted to go up and hug her, hiding her snugly within his clothes. Wrapping her up tightly so that no one could see her.

He wanted to… wanted to…

Su Tian helped put on his mask and said again. “Everyone’s waiting for me. Today is a workday, so you should hurry up and go back with Uncle Ji.”

Yu Cai slowly let go of her hand. Fragments of light sparkled in his eyes.

He didn’t understand why he, who had always been stubborn and tough, always gave in with no bottom line when he was with Su Tian.

Just a light glance and a simple action from her was enough for his obstinance to crumble.

She pulled her hand away with a smile, waved goodbye, and ran towards Liu Kaiyan and the others.

The youth stood from a distance in the snow, quietly watching her melt into the crowd. Liu Kaiyan and that fat girl looked in his direction several times. Then, Su Tian said something to them, and the three of them laughed happily and played in the snow.

He stood in the snow and continued to watch. He watched the snowballs fly through the air, watched her laughing among the group.

She was so happy.

Occasionally, her gaze would sweep over and pause for a moment. Then, she would shoot him a smile before continuing to play with them.

But with just this glance, he felt that even if he stood in this icy world, even if his hands and feet were frozen and his limbs were stiff, it would be worth it.

With just one look from her, his congealed blood began to flow again.

Later, when gym class was over, Su Tian came over and placed her fluffy gloves in his hands. She told him to go back quickly before returning to the classroom with the others.

Clutching those gloves that still carried the girl’s warmth and fragrance, the youth continued to stand in the snow, staring at Xiuxiu, who had been left behind on the field.

The snow started falling again, gradually covering up the color on Xiuxiu’s body and turning him white, no longer that beautiful little octopus.

The youth lifted the soft gloves to his face and took a deep breath.

He thought, she doesn’t like Xiuxiu at all.

[1] 掉马: slang for having one’s true identity behind a disguise or alias revealed. I’ve mostly seen it used in a humorous or comedic tone.

[2] 不见黄河不死心: to keep going until you have reached your goal

Cheese: a rather anticlimactic confession

apologies for the late upload–i’ve been super invested in playing Harvestella. if you like farming jrpg’s (like rune factory), or you’re a fan of square enix’s games, i highly recommend! it’s available on steam and nintendo switch heh 😉

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