Chapter 18 Part 2

He Yang was playing games at his house, holding the controller and shouting, “Damn, I almost cleared this level just now – the boss only had a sliver of health left.”

As he spoke, he threw the controller and leaned over to ask, “Did you not pay any attention to my gaming progress because you were chatting with my Xia-ge?”

Chi Yao didn’t answer his question, instead he said, “Something’s off.”

He Yang, “What’s off?”

Chi Yao shook his phone.

He Yang swept over the chat and said, “What’s off with it? Looks fine to me. The conversation is going back and forth and is quite harmonious.”

Chi Yao did not speak again. He tapped a few more times on the screen and then sent three words, “Where are you?”.

The person on the opposite side of the screen typed like a turtle.

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

Gqvla vurkdt qsa yzxspv byzq y xkdwvl, vbl rlapsd qkdyzzu alrzkle okvb vos pldvldnlp:

-Pked’v R yzalyeu vlzz usw, R’x swvpkel.

-Yu nzyppxyvl nyxl vs pll xl, ol yal vyjkdt y oyzj aktbv dso.

Tl Zydt, “Ju vbl oyu, usw vos nbyv ps xwnb, R alyzzu ldhu usw twup. Uyd usw yzps alrzu vs xu xlppytlp psxlvkxlp? Tso nsxl obld kv nsxlp vs xl, kv’p yp kq usw vos byhl ds dlvosaj nsddlnvksd?”

Tl Zydt nsdvkdwle vs ayxczl sd, cwv pweeldzu pyo Ubk Zys pvyde wr, rwv sd bkp fynjlv, yde oyzj swv okvb y cyt.

“Tyhl psxlvbkdt vs es,” bl pyke. “R’x tskdt swv.”

Tl Zydt, “…Ebyv vbkdt?”

Ubk Zys, “R’hl clld pvyukdt okvb usw qsa vss zsdt. R dlle vs pokvnb kv wr yde calyvbl psxloblal lzpl.”

–

Lin Zhexia sat by the lake for more than twenty minutes.

Just as she had finished adjusting her mood and decided to pretend that she didn’t hear anything, walk home and wait for Lin He to find a suitable opportunity to tell her, she saw a familiar figure standing under the streetlight by the lake.

Even though the man wore a winter jacket, he didn’t appear bulky.

His figure still showed the unique thinness of boys his age, which was too eye-catching under the streetlights illumination.

“Talking a walk,” Chi Yao walked through the light to her, enunciating each word, “with, your, classmate?”

Lin Zhexia rarely lied, and this rare occasion ended up being caught immediately.

She felt a little guilty as she said, “My classmate, just left.”

Chi Yao said coldly, “Is that so?”

“Yeah, we were just sitting here, talking about life.”

In order to increase the believability of her story, she began to add specific details, “It was Chen Lin, you know her. She has been studying hard recently, and the pressure was too much for her.”

“Are you done?”

Chi Yao lowered his head and looked at her. The person in front of him was only wearing a thin and oversized sweater jacket, which was a piece she often wore at home. The girl’s ears had turned bright red from the cold. She had tucked both her hands inside her sleeves because she was afraid of the cold, looking quite pitiful.

Chi Yao continued, “Should I give you a few more minutes? To call Chen Lin.”

Lin Zhexia was puzzled, “Call her for what?”

“So you guys can match your testimonies.”

After a two-second silence, she cautiously probed, “If you are willing to give me this opportunity, I might as well?”

Chi Yao stared at her for a long time.

Lin Zhexia thought he would be angry, but unexpectedly, he didn’t say anything.

Chi Yao only lifted his hand and pulled down the zipper of the jacket he was wearing. Then, that black jacket, which had been warmed by his body temperature, fell on her, enveloping her completely.

Chi Yao’s clothes were several sizes too big for her.

The coat, which reached down to Chi Yao’s knees, almost draped down to Lin Zhexia’s feet.

She looked exceptionally clumsy, like a child wearing adult clothing.

After dressing her, it seemed Chi Yao felt it wasn’t enough.

He took out the knitted scarf from the bag and wrapped it around her neck twice.

Chi Yao was indeed a little angry, but his point of anger seemed different from what she thought.

After letting go, he said with an unsmiling smile, “Lin Zhexia, is your brain filled with water?”

With half of her face covered by the scarf, Lin Zhexia spoke in a muffled voice, “My brain is filled with intelligence.”

“Dressing like this in minus two Celsius, so intelligent.”

Lin Zhexia, “Actually, today was an accident.”

“Oh,” said Chi Yao, “zombies accidentally ate your brain when you went out.”

Forget it.

No brain… so be it.

It was indeed pretty foolish of her to forget to wear a jacket when she went out today.

Lin Zhexia felt the temperature on her body rising slowly, the chill fading, and her fingers no longer felt numb. She asked, “How did you know I was here?”

After Chi Yao threw his jacket at her, Chi Yao was left only in a loose-fitting sweater.

He sat down beside Lin Zhexia on the bench and said, “Where else can you go when you’re in a bad mood.”

This place is Lin Zhexia’s secret base.

Whenever she’s in a bad mood, from big things like failing exams to small things like losing an argument with him, she’ll come here.

Lin Zhexia moved her finger, “Then how did you know that I was in a bad mood?”

Chi Yao said, “That Kay.”

Lin Zhexia: “Kay?”

Chi Yao unlocked his phone and found his chat with her.

Lin Zhexia took a glance and remembered, “Isn’t it normal to reply with a Kay? Sometimes I can also be a little cold.”

“You won’t.”

Chi Yao imitated her with his ever lukewarm voice, “You will say, I have the key, I can open it myself. If you’re so capable, you can change the lock right now.”

Lin Zhexia opened her mouth, unable to refute.

This was indeed something she would say.

“So,” Chi Yao switched the topic, “what’s wrong?”

Lin Zhe pretended not to understand and avoided his gaze, “…What what’s wrong?”

Chi Yao raised his hand and placed his palm behind her head, forcing her to face him, “I mean, what happened to you today?”

Their eyes met.

His light-colored pupils hit her.

She could even see her own reflection clearly in them.

“Nothing happened.” She insisted at first.

“It’s really nothing.”

As she spoke, the tip of her nose rubbed against the soft scarf. She suddenly felt a little tingly.

“I was just suddenly a little unhappy, but now…”

But now it’s okay.

The last two words got stuck in her mouth for a moment and she couldn’t say them out loud.

She blinked her eyes and found herself on the verge of tears. When she opened her mouth again, her voice choked with emotion, “I…”

So embarrassing.

She couldn’t believe she actually wanted to cry.

It was a small matter that she had thought was insignificant, a tiny, inexplicable emotion that didn’t seem worth talking about.

But when someone asked her about it, it felt like she had the right to be sad.

Lin Zhexia didn’t continue.

She didn’t want to cry in front of Chi Yao, or to reveal her own vulnerability, which wasn’t an easy thing to do in the first place.

Chi Yao seemed to have realized this and let go of his hand that was resting on the back of her head.

Then he lifted his hand and pulled the scarf around her neck up, covering those deer-like eyes that looked like they were wet with rain.

“You can cry,” he released his hand. “I can’t see.”