Chapter 25 – Forget it, it’s up to you

25th -【Forget it, it’s up to you】

Editor: Sammy
Proofreader: Bubbles

Chu Yu took out another math paper.

It was finished in less than five minutes.

The moment he closed the pen lid, Chu Yu sighed and felt exactly like a scumbag; the kind who had been in the midst of a cluster of exam questions, but not a single page managed to touch his body¹Play on words. Another tl would be, “Who had been in the midst of a thicket of exam questions, but not a single leaf managed to touch his body.” The character for leaf could also mean page..

He spun his pencil around as he gazed at the words printed on the paper, recalling what Guan Yiyang had said: Did your mother know that you were mud who couldn’t support the wall so she spent money to buy you a school?

There was a bit of astringency freely rising from the tip of his heart.

Chu Yu glanced at the date, but suddenly didn’t dare count how many days he hadn’t seen Shi Yaling.

Chu Yu placed the pen aside and went out.

Standing at the door of the neighboring dorm room, Chu Yu raised his hand but then put it down in hesitation. In the end, he still lightly knocked three times.

The door opened quickly after.

When Chu Yu saw Lu Shi standing behind the door, he didn’t know why, but his eyes became a little sour.

He curled the corners of his mouth as much as possible to smile. “Are you busy right now? Can I—”

“Come in.”

Conscientiously closing the door behind him, Chu Yu looked around.

This was his first time inside Lu Shi’s room, and he found that it was more or less similar to what he’d imagined with the overall style being very cold; it was either white or black and gray.

The books on the shelf were arranged in order from tallest to shortest, just like how those with OCD would arrange them. The quilt on the bed was neatly folded and the floor was without a speck of dust.

Contrasting it with his own room, Chu Yu quietly consoled himself— my room is just full of life in comparison!

Lu Shi pointed to the chair next to the desk. “Sit.”

Chu Yu sat down.

His sitting posture wasn’t the least bit proper and rather very casual— legs spread out, hands hugging the back of the chair, and chin resting on his hands. As if boneless, he tilted his head to look at Lu Shi.

The desk lamp was on and a test paper was spread out on the table, nearly half done.

Chu Yu vaguely said, “You do your questions, no need to worry about me.”

Hearing what Chu Yu just said, Lu Shi really ignored him.

He continued solving the questions with the pencil between his fingers.

Chu Yu quietly watched Lu Shi.

The light from the lamp was like a pen which very meticulously outlined Lu Shi’s profile; his eyes, nose, lips, and jawline.

He was akin to an oil painting where nothing wasn’t exquisite, and nothing was unsightly.

His suspended heart slowly landed on the ground.

Chu Yu didn’t know how, but after sitting next to Lu Shi for a while, his heart suddenly calmed.

After finishing two questions, Lu Shi shifted his eyes and met Chu Yu’s gaze.

“How long are you going to watch?”

Chu Yu was taken aback by the question, but before he could answer, he heard Lu Shi continue to say, “If I didn’t let you in just now, you might’ve been planning to stand at my door and cry.”

It wasn’t a question, but rather an affirmative statement.

Chu Yu’s fur exploded. “Who? Who’s going to stand in front of your door and cry? You point it out and make it clear!”

Lu Shi turned sideways, lazily leaned against the back of his chair, raised his hand, and pointed a finger at Chu Yu. Then he said with a hint of a smile in his voice, “Hm, I’ve pointed it out.”

It was unknown if it was a conditioned reaction driven by instinct, or his anger that made him muddle-headed, but Chu Yu inched his way forward and very skillfully opened his mouth to bite Lu Shi’s fingertip.

Wait, what am I doing?

Seeing Chu Yu’s eyes subconsciously widen and his thick eyelashes tremble, Lu Shi lowered his eyes and pushed his fingertip a bit further into Chu Yu’s mouth. His voice was soft and hoarse, as if drifting along the deep, dimly lit night outside the window. “Hungry?”

The sound landed in his ear and seemingly scratched his eardrums, making it itch. Chu Yu felt a little strange and his heart rapidly jumped twice.

He loosened his teeth and looked away in discomfort. “Not… not hungry yet.”

“Hm.”

Lu Shi retracted his hand and asked, “Something you needed me for?”

Chu Yu shook his head lightly.

“Want to tell me something?”

Still, Chu Yu shook his head, but after two seconds, he nodded.

“You… should know about it, right?”

“The calling father thing?”

He didn’t know why, but when Lu Shi mentioned the matter, it indescribably sounded a bit childish and two parts shameful. Chu Yu nodded and explained, “Actually, I wasn’t intending on putting up with Guan Yiyang. After all, the school is big and I’ll always run into one or two idiots, but-“

Lu Shi cut in, “He said something that made you care greatly.”

“How’d you know it was something he said?”

Chu Yu sat up straight. His lips moved and he repeated the sentence with some difficulty. “’Did your mother know that you were mud who couldn’t support the wall so she spent money to buy you a school?’ is what he said.”

“You were very bothered?”

“En, I was very bothered. It could even be said that I was more bothered than I thought.”

Chu Yu discontentedly leaned forward. His line of sight fell on the floor or maybe at some point in the air. “In fact, I myself don’t really understand why my mother bought Jianing Private.”

He explained in a low voice, “My brother and sister both attended boarding schools abroad during elementary school, and were successfully admitted into the world’s top five universities. They’re both outstanding people who others can only look up to. They don’t possess qualities to which I can refer to, so I don’t know if my mother would buy either of them a school to go to if they ever didn’t get good grades.”

He raised his eyes and stared at Lu Shi, unrestrained panic in his gaze. “Lu Shi, I… I’m quite afraid.”

He couldn’t tell what he was scared of.

Obviously, he was already used to his mother’s indifference to him, but when someone put forward another hypothesis, his heart felt as if it were ruthlessly pierced by a steel needle.

He couldn’t even come up with any evidence to prove that the other person’s conjecture was wrong, let alone find a sufficient reason to refute with—

My mother bought the school not at all because she thought I was mud who couldn’t support the wall.

Lu Shi loosened his fingers which were clenching his cuffs, one by one.

Only then did Chu Yu discover that a row of nail marks had been left in the palm of his hand.

“Chu Yu.”

“En?”

The moment he raised his eyes, a teardrop fell out.

Chu Yu wanted to lift his hand to wipe it and eliminate the evidence of his crying, but before he could make a move, he found Lu Shi’s fingertip beneath his eye, brushing it away.

After tasting the wet traces with the tip of his tongue, Lu Shi spoke in a very gentle voice, “You’re crying.”

Chu Yu couldn’t react.

The entire scene was being played in a loop inside his mind—

Lu Shi placed his finger on his lips, stretched the tip of his tongue out, and licked his fingertip which had just swept away some tears.

His tears.

Forgetting even his sadness, Chu Yu could only dazedly stare at Lu Shi’s finger, to the extent that he didn’t even notice Lu Shi’s expression suddenly going cold because of his crying.

Lu Shi stood up. “I’ll take you to a place.”

“Where?”

Without answering, Lu Shi reached out and picked up a thin black jacket and asked, “You coming?”

Chu Yu promptly nodded. “Yes!”

Throwing the coat in his hand to Chu Yu, Lu Shi opened his closet and took out another one. “Let’s go.”

Chu Yu thought that Lu Shi would just be taking him around the school.

When he stood below a short wall in a remote corner, Chu Yu couldn’t remain calm anymore. “Are we… going out?”

“En.”

Lu Shi’s figure was agile as he climbed on top of the short wall, squatted down, and stretched out his hand to Chu Yu below. “Come on.”

His wrist, where a round bone protruded, was thin but very powerful.

Chu Yu placed his own hand on it.

After jumping down the short wall, Chu Yu realized something. “Won’t we be caught in the surveillance?”

“No, the surveillance circuit is damaged. The school employee didn’t connect it to the new line and instead installed a new surveillance system in another location. This has become a blind spot.”

Chu Yu didn’t ask anymore and followed while wrapped in Lu Shi’s thin jacket.

The two rode a taxi. After exiting the car, Lu Shi familiarly walked Chu Yu through a narrow alley, then stopped by a small sliding door and talked to someone inside. “I came to get the key.”

The person handed a bunch of keys to Lu Shi’s hands. “Lie-Ge said that you can have fun with it for a few days.”

After hearing a few words, Chu Yu understood that Lu Shi had called Lie-Ge when they were in the taxi.

But what did he borrow?

Taking the key, they went to the back of the building where Lu Shi walked to a corner and reached out to lift a piece of black waterproof tarpaulin.

Under the thatch was parked a heavy-duty motorbike with a steel frame and a sturdy tail fairing. It was a simple model, pure and strong. Its whole body was sprayed with black paint and partly covered with silver powder.

Chu Yu’s eyes lit up. “Is this a ‘tomahawk’?”

“No, it‘s been modified to imitate a tomahawk.” Lu Shi propped his long leg on the ground, mounted, and instructed, “Come up.”

Chu Yu sat at the back.

He’d already conscientiously given up asking whether Lu Shi had a driver’s license or not.

Unhurriedly putting on the gloves colored silver and black, Lu Shi lowered his eyelids and asked Chu Yu, “If you know you’re in a bad mood, what should you do?”

“What should I do?”

“Vent it out.”

The moment his voice fell, the engine abruptly sounded and the entire tomahawk sped out like a sharp arrow cleaving the wind! Chu Yu was pushed backwards by force and was so frightened that he immediately hugged Lu Shi’s waist tightly.

The wind was strong and it took a while for Chu Yu to adapt. His eyes were shut and his mouth was filled with wind as he spoke, “Are we going to… the abandoned highway from last time?”

His ears were plastered upon Lu Shi’s back, causing him to feel the temperature of his skin and the slight vibrations of the other’s chest when he responded.

The underground illegal competition’s race course was an abandoned highway, deserted on all sides. Once the noisy voices were gone, the surroundings appeared empty and quiet. The light casted by the street lamps stretched long and unbroken. There was nothing else around except the hum of the wind.

Lu Shi parked the vehicle at the center of the starting line, then stepped on the ground with his long legs and got off.

Chu Yu was at a loss. “Lu Shi?”

Lu Shi removed the black and silver colored gloves on his hands and threw them to Chu Yu.

Chu Yu caught it quickly. “You—”

He suddenly came to a realization. “You-you’re asking me to drive?”

Lu Shi stood straight with his hands in his pockets. His hair tips which hung down naturally were being blown up by the wind. He raised his chin and asked, “Do you know how to drive a motorcycle?”

Chu Yu nodded. “I know, but—”

Could driving an ordinary motorcycle be the same as driving a modified one?!

Lu Shi let Chu Yu sit in front and personally squatted down to carefully help him adjust the height of the seat and position of the controls. Once he was sure that there were no more problems, he got up and sat behind Chu Yu.

The two people’s chest and back stuck close to each other.

Close enough to feel the other’s heartbeat.

“Lu Shi—”

With his chin rubbing against Chu Yu’s shoulder, Lu Shi leaned close to the other’s ear with his voice slightly lowered, “Don’t be scared, I’m here.”

After saying that, he stretched his hands out over either side of Chu Yu’s waist, still keeping their position, and put on the gloves for Chu Yu.

Then holding Chu Yu’s hand, he placed them on the handlebar.

There was a warmth mixed with trembling surging from his back, a dry and itchy throat, and heavy breathing. Chu Yu couldn’t tell whether he was too nervous and excited, or actually thirsty for blood.

Or both.

Lu Shi placed the helmet on Chu Yu’s head.

As if a certain switch in his body was flipped, Chu Yu grasped the clutch.

Violent friction occured between the rubber tires and the ground, but the motorcycle’s body only jittered slightly. Through the helmet’s glass face shield, everything became blurred, and the dotted lines of warm light from the street lamps on both sides of the road continuously disappeared from his field of vision.

Chu Yu reached the highest speed in the blink of an eye and only felt his entire body be pulled up by the airflow, so much so that a pair of wings seemed to have sprouted out of his back. The huge lifting effect gave him the illusion that he was on the verge of being suspended in the air!

At that moment, all the grievances, confusion and sadness, as well as his frustrations, it all dispersed along with the rumble of the engine beside his ear!

After loosening the handlebar, Chu Yu gasped inside his helmet. He could feel the countercurrent of blood flowing all over his body. His blood vessels were about to burst one after another and his chest was tight, as if he’d suffocate in the next second, like approaching death!

He took his helmet off.

The wind in this open field brought plenty of oxygen. Chu Yu’s soft bangs had long become wet with sweat and stuck to his forehead. They were being brushed against by the wind, leaving a slight chill.

Yet his eyes were very bright, resembling a horizon containing stars.

Lu Shi stood by the motorcycle, carrying his helmet in his hand. He questioned, “Still feeling sad?”

The open field and the sky overhead had become his background at that moment.

Chu Yu looked at Lu Shi.

In the next second, he grabbed Lu Shi’s jacket with his limp and weak hands. Straightening up, he clung onto him and pressed his lips against the hollow of Lu Shi’s shoulder and neck where he then bit down.

A tingling sensation came from his shoulder, which was heavier than usual.

Lu Shi raised his hand and helplessly guarded the boy.

“Be gentle.”

Slight huskiness traced his voice as Lu Shi spoke again, “Forget it, it’s up to you.”

The author has something to say:

Here’s my shining heart made up of stars in the sky~

Thank you little fairies for your support! I will do my best!

－－－

I wasn’t satisfied with what I wrote in the previous chapter. After the update, some small details have been revised several times oh~²So this is why the previous chapter has a lot of revisions… I translated some of the author’s note bc I saw this. If you’re curious about the author’s notes, they express their love to the readers in diff ways according to a scene in the chap like “Here’s my shining heart made up of stars in the sky~” in reference to Chu Yu’s eyes earlier, then proceed to thank the readers who gifted/supported. See the free chapters in the raws if you wanna take a look~~ (and maybe buy the VIP chaps in the process hehehe)

No SS today. But! Bubbles pretty much summed up the feels in this chapter:
And I, wasted a couple of hours just searching tomahawks…. I really like the first one </3

And I saw this too pwahahahaa… Imagine Chu Yu just hanging on for dear life

• 1
  Play on words. Another tl would be, “Who had been in the midst of a thicket of exam questions, but not a single leaf managed to touch his body.” The character for leaf could also mean page.
• 2
  So this is why the previous chapter has a lot of revisions… I translated some of the author’s note bc I saw this. If you’re curious about the author’s notes, they express their love to the readers in diff ways according to a scene in the chap like “Here’s my shining heart made up of stars in the sky~” in reference to Chu Yu’s eyes earlier, then proceed to thank the readers who gifted/supported. See the free chapters in the raws if you wanna take a look~~ (and maybe buy the VIP chaps in the process hehehe)