Title: Baby’s Breath
Translator: System Yaoi
Note: Kindly read this novel at https://secondlifetranslations.com/novel/babys-breath/
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Chapter 12 I will show you something good
Out of friendship for this ice cream, Xue Youka was no longer angry with Cheng Yu. Cheng Yu reluctantly let him blow a few mouthfuls of hot air, his breath chocolate flavoured and said, “Okay, okay.”
“So, are you still in pain?”
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“R’x dsv usw.”
“Xb.” Gqvla qkdkpbkdt lyvkdt, Dwl Zswjy pyke, “Mbld R’zz ts vs Hbsdtpbyd Yswdvykd ydsvbla eyu vs qkde qkalqzklp qsa usw. Jwv vblu yal ralpldv sdzu yv dktbv… R’zz byhl vs ypj xu taydery vs vyjl xl vblal.”
“Ls dlle vs ts,” Ubldt Zw pyke.
“Jwv esd’v usw oydv vs pll vblx?”
“Lsv yduxsal,” Ubldt Zw qasodle yp kq bl oyp wdbyrru, pyukdt, “Mblal’p dsvbkdt osavb pllkdt.”
“Gzvbswtb R’x tzye usw esd’v oydv xl vs nyvnb vblx, R pvkzz byhl vs pyu vbyv kq usw nyvnb qkalqzklp yde rwv vblx kd vbl xspiwkvs dlv obkzl usw’al pzllrkdt yv dktbv, kv’p alyzzu clywvkqwz, zkjl y ealyx okvb pvyap…” Tkp zkxkvle hsnycwzyau xyel kv kxrsppkczl qsa bkx vs elpnakcl vbl qllzkdt bl alxlxclale. “R’hl qsatsvvld y zsv sq vbkdtp qasx xu nbkzebsse, cwv vblal oyp sdl ulya, R esd’v alxlxcla bso sze R oyp, obld xu eye pweeldzu nywtbv y tzypp csvvzl qwzz sq qkalqzklp qsa xl yde rwv vblx kd vbl xspiwkvs dlv. El zyu sd vbl cle, dyxkdt lynb sdl sq vblx.”
“Jwv dso, qkalqzklp byhl clnsxl pnyanl, yde xu eye byp zlpp vkxl.” Dwl Zswjy rasrrle bkp nbkd sd bkp byde, pkvvkdt sd vbl cle yde pktbkdt okvb xlzydnbszu. “Mbyv eyu, R eked’v nyvnb qkalqzklp qsa usw. R ealyxv sq nzkxckdt Hbsdtpbyd Yswdvykd yde nyvnbkdt ps xydu.” Tl qlzv vbyv Ubldt Zw, obs eked’v pxkzl xwnb, oswze pwalzu pxkzl obld bl pyo psxlvbkdt ps clywvkqwz.
Ubldt Zw nbyvvle okvb bkx ycswv vblka nbkzebsse qsa y obkzl yde vbld blyae psxlsdl qasx vbl Dwl qyxkzu nsxkdt cynj.
Xue Youka leaned over and looked down. “My grandma is back from playing cards.”
“Then I should go,” Cheng Yu stood up.
“I’ll walk you downstairs.” Xue Youka accompanied him downstairs and saw his grandma in the front yard, so he pulled Cheng Yu through the back door.
There was a small area behind the back door where they raised chickens. As soon as the door opened, Cheng Yu smelled an indescribable stench that seemed to reach the heavens.
The ground covered in chicken droppings gave him the answer.
“Go out from here? I’d better use the main gate.”
“Just wait a moment.” Xue Youka opened the chicken coop door and took out two eggs from the henhouse. He rinsed them with water and handed them to Cheng Yu, saying, “I’ll give you two eggs. They were just laid today, extra nutritious.”
Cheng Yu stared at the two eggs with water droplets, his gaze filled with complexity, unsure whether to accept them or not.
“Just take them! Don’t be polite,” Xue Youka insisted and stuffed the eggs into Cheng Yu’s hands. He held onto Cheng Yu’s wrist and led him towards the back door.
Cheng Yu took a deep breath, held it, and turned pale, tiptoeing to avoid the chicken droppings on the ground.
“If we go this way, my grandma won’t know you came.”
“Am I that unsightly?”
“It’s not that,” Xue Youka knew that with his grandmother’s hospitable nature, she would definitely insist on Cheng Yu staying for dinner, which would result in a table full of dishes. Xue Youka didn’t want his grandma to go through so much trouble. However, he couldn’t directly tell Cheng Yu that, so he said, “I’m sorry, I don’t want my grandma to see you.”
“What’s there to be sorry about?”
Once they were out of the chicken coop, Cheng Yu’s breathing returned to normal.
“I definitely have reasons to be sorry…” Xue Youka racked his brain but couldn’t come up with a good explanation.
Cheng Yu seemed to see through him and smiled inwardly, no longer pressing for answers.
When Cheng Yu arrived at his house, the parrot sneezed, while his grandfather was drinking tea. Seeing him return, his grandfather asked, “Did you go to see that little girl in the afternoon?”
“I went to collect money.”
“You really went to collect money?” His grandfather didn’t believe it. Cheng Yu had no concept of money. He wouldn’t even bend down to pick up a gold necklace if it fell on the ground.
“I didn’t receive any money.” Not only did he not receive any money, but he also lost an ice cream. “He compensated me with two eggs.”
Cheng Yu returned holding the two eggs.
Grandfather Cheng burst into laughter when he saw the eggs. Cheng Yu said he was going upstairs.
Uncle Wei saw him carrying the eggs upstairs, touched his greying hair, and whispered to the grandfather, “Is Xiao Yu in love?”
“Hard to say. But I think, even if he’s not, this kid definitely has some feelings for her.”
Uncle Wei found it unbelievable. Cheng Yu, who held himself above everyone else and had a bad temper, wouldn’t look at anyone, yet he spent twenty minutes walking to ask a little girl for money, and then came back with two eggs—
And he even took the eggs to his room.
“Grandfather,” a voice came from upstairs. “Do we have any scar removal ointment at home?”
“I’ll look for it. Xiao Yu, did you get hurt?”
Cheng Yu said there was a small injury on his leg, which he hadn’t noticed before, but it was nothing serious.
After a while, Cheng Yu asked again, “Grandfather, do we have a mosquito net at home?”
“Grandfather, let’s go to Zhongshan mountain tomorrow during the day, okay?”
**
“Mimi.” In the morning, Grandma put the freshly baked matong1a local snack in a basket. “Take it to Uncle Pi’s house.”
That was Hu Pi’s house.
Xue Youka received instructions and coincidentally had some comic books to return to Hu Pi, so he took the basket and went to Pi’s house. He and Hu Pi often borrowed comics from each other, and Xue Youka had several books at his place.
Outside the courtyard of Pi’s house, before getting close, Xue Youka heard Hu Pi wailing and howling like a ghost.
Was he being beaten again?
It seemed to be the norm.
Xue Youka thought about whether he should go in and save Hu Pi, but then he heard Hu Pi shouting, “I didn’t steal it! I didn’t steal the money!”
“Then who took the twenty yuan? Who else but you? Kneel down!”
Xue Youka peeped inside through the crack in the door.
Hu Pi was kneeling on the ground, crying uncontrollably, “It wasn’t me, there must be a thief in the house!”
“Would a thief go into your mother’s room to steal twenty yuan? Why didn’t he steal the television?”
“T-the television is too big, and thieves aren’t dumb… I really didn’t steal it!”
Hu Pi’s mother laughed angrily and whipped him, “You still won’t admit it, huh?”
“No, no, it really wasn’t me, Mom, please stop hitting me!”
“Who else if not you?”
“It’s… it’s… my classmate! He came to my house to watch cartoons, maybe he took it?”
“You mean Xue Youka?”
“I don’t know, please stop hitting me! It really wasn’t me!”
“Besides him, who else would come to our house to watch cartoons? Last time, wasn’t it him who stole the Vitamin C? I’ve told you so many times! Stop hanging out with him! Don’t you know his father is gambling outside? Let him come and borrow money from our house next time, and we’ll see what you do!”
“The next time he comes looking for you, lock all the money in the house!”
Xue Youka stood outside, holding the basket, his entire face filled with disappointment.
He ran away with the basket, without going home. He sat on the riverbank for a while, angrily took a few bites of a piping hot matong.
He didn’t want to go find Hu Pi anymore.
But what should he do with these matongs?
Should he eat them all by himself?
Across the river, there was a house built along the riverbank, which happened to catch Xue Youka’s attention.
He owed Cheng Yu money, and Cheng Yu bought him an ice cream. Obviously, two eggs wouldn’t be enough to repay him.
However, when Xue Youka approached Cheng Yu’s house, he found that there was no one at home, and the car was also not there. They must have gone out. Xue Youka faintly heard the sound of a sneeze. It was the parrot, he knew.
This time, Xue Youka didn’t have to wait too long. When he heard the sound of a car, he stood up.
“Oh?” Uncle Wei saw him and turned to look at Cheng Yu. The young master, who had been dozing off in the car earlier, was now alert.
“Uncle, these are the matongs my grandmother fried,” Xue Youka explained first, “I specially brought them over for you to taste.”
“Made by your grandmother? Specially bringing them over?” Grandfather Cheng marvelled at the simple folk customs once again. “You did not have to bother yourself with these troubles. You’re too polite! We bought some red dates today, wait a moment, I’ll give you some to take back to your grandmother.”
“Not a bother at all. I took a shortcut through the field, and it only took me ten minutes to get here.” He handed over the basket, and Uncle Wei opened the door. Cheng Yu washed his hands and took one to taste as well.
Xue Youka started eating the red dates that Uncle Wei gave him and asked, “Uncle, did you go to the city for a trip?”
“No, it’s Cheng Yu who said we were going to Zhong…”
“Uncle Wei.” Cheng Yu, who was eating the matong, interrupted, “I will take her upstairs.”
As Xue Youka followed behind him upstairs, he continued asking, “Where did you go? Was it fun?”
“None of your business.”
Xue Youka paused for a moment.
After Cheng Yu finished speaking, he realised that his tone was a bit too much. “We went nearby to climb the mountain. What about you? Weren’t you the one who said you don’t want to play with me anymore?”
“When did I say that?”
Cheng Yu entered his room and looked at him. “Yesterday, you said you wanted to hang out with your good buddy. Forgot?”
“I’m not playing with him.” Xue Youka entered his room, and the first thing he did was look at the computer.
But then he noticed something on Cheng Yu’s desk—a towel folded to cushion the eggs.
Those two eggs, no matter how he looked at them, seemed like they were laid by his own hens.
Xue Youka felt a bit puzzled and was about to ask when he saw Cheng Yu throw a stack of documents over to cover the eggs, expressionless. “I just wanted to see if I could hatch baby chicks.”
Xue Youka said, “We don’t have a rooster at home.”
Xue Youka said, “And that’s not how you hatch chicks. You need to…”
Cheng Yu wasn’t interested in discussing how to hatch eggs.
“What about your good buddy?” He changed the topic. “Why aren’t you playing with him?”
“I just…” As soon as Hu Pi was mentioned, Xue Youka remembered the things he heard at his house’s doorstep, and his heart felt a bit uncomfortable. Xue Youka turned his head slightly away from Cheng Yu and didn’t look at him. “I don’t want to play with him anymore,” he paused, then smiled, “I prefer playing with my brother.”
Cheng Yu thought that someone named Hu Pi must be very ugly.
His gaze slid over Cheng Yu’s black hair, and the ears which peeked out from his hairline. Cheng Yu noticed a leaf trapped in his hair strands, probably gotten when he made his way through the woods, accidentally caught.
“Xue Mimi,” Cheng Yu raised his hand and pushed aside his short hair, removing the leaf. His voice was lazy, “Stay tonight and I’ll show you something.”
“What are we going to see?” Xue Youka felt Cheng Yu rubbing his own hair but didn’t resist.
“Something you’ll like.”
The author has something to say:
Cheng Yu: Do you like playing with me, or do you like me?
System: If chu would like to support System, chu can consider leaving your System kofi at https://ko-fi.com/systemyaoi
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Thank you for the chapter!