Chapter 18 – Nickname
Translator: Xena
Proofreader: Wint8
Cheng Yinian couldn’t help but feel a little confused. Before he could figure out what was going on, Chen Xiangsui had gently put his arm around his shoulders and then pulled him into his embrace.
“…There’s no need for this.” Cheng Yinian smiled helplessly, “Why would you think that?”
Chen Xiangsui hesitated for a moment before answering beside his ear, “…Intuition.”
“Your intuition isn’t very accurate.” Although Cheng Yinian said this in an attempt to push him away, he couldn’t help but want to stay in the other person’s arms for a while longer. “Do you usually comfort others like this?”
Chen Xiangsui seemed to be seriously trying to recall if he did. “When I was young, my parents would come home from work tired, and I would comfort them like this.”
“I’m not your family, so let go of me. I’m fine.” Cheng Yinian sighed imperceptibly. Chen Xiangsui, for some reason, tightened his arms around his shoulders. “I won’t let you reject me again. You always break your promises.”
“This is different. Last time, it was just friends helping each other out…”
“This is no different. This is also friends helping each other out.” Chen Xiangsui looked helpless. “It’s normal to comfort a friend.”
Cheng Yinian felt that he couldn’t win the argument, so he could only let the other hug him.
“Are you hungry? I’ll buy you lunch.” After a long time, Chen Xiangsui finally withdrew and asked him.
Cheng Yinian couldn’t help but curl up the corners of his mouth. “Didn’t you just treat me to meat buns?”
“It’s almost lunch time now.” Chen Xiangsui stood up after saying this. “It’s just in time, you can eat more.”
Cheng Yinian had no choice but to place an order with him. For some reason, Chen Xiangsui seemed to have an inexplicable obsession with increasing his food intake.
……
As soon as Chen Xiangsui arrived at the cafeteria, he planned to buy the shredded chicken rice that Cheng Yinian wanted to eat. However, when he asked at the window, he found out that there was no more shredded chicken today.
I have to come early and queue up next time, Chen Xiangsui thought. He opened the chat box with Cheng Yinian and asked what else he wanted to eat besides the shredded chicken rice. [Yiniannian, the shredded chicken rice is already sold out.]
He frowned as he looked at the message he had sent, wondering why he had accidentally typed an extra “nian”.
However, he found this nickname cute and was very pleased with it, so much so that he immediately changed the nicknames of both of Cheng Yinian’s accounts.
His gaze lingered on one of the accounts with the ID “Yiniannian,” as if he was admiring a masterpiece. Only when a small red dot lit up did he end this inexplicable stare.
Cheng Yinian: [I can’t think of anything to eat right now, so I’ll just have the same as you.]
Chen Xiangsui ordered two servings of roast goose rice with free soup. Although he thought all the free soup at school tasted like hot water with floating oil, he still took it back to Cheng Yinian.
When Cheng Yinian opened the disposable lunch box, he found that an extra portion of meat had been added to the meal which was a paid add-on. He subconsciously looked at Chen Xiangsui’s portion, which also had a thick layer of roast goose on top. “Do you like this?” He couldn’t help but ask.
“Yeah, I like meat. You should eat more too.”
Every time Cheng Yinian went out to eat with Chen Xiangsui, the other party would order a lot of dishes, and most of them were meat. He noticed Chen Xiangsui had not gained weight regardless, so he surmised that he must be really disciplined about exercising. As far as he knew, Chen Xiangsui always played basketball with his friends on weekends.
“By the way.” Cheng Yinian paused for a moment with his chopsticks in his hand. “…don’t call me by that nickname.”
“What do you mean? Yiniannian?” Chen Xiangsui paused.
Cheng Yinian shyly avoided Chen Xiangsui’s gaze. “Mn, don’t call me that anymore.”
“Why? I think it’s cute.”
“It’s not about whether it’s cute or not.” Cheng Yinian almost buried his face in his lunch box. “I just don’t want you to.”
Chen Xiangsui felt guilty. He hung his head like a child who had gotten into trouble. “I understand, you don’t like it.”
He was silent for a moment, then asked timidly, “Did I upset you?”
“I’m not that petty.”
Before Cheng Yinian could pick up his chopsticks again, Chen Xiangsui suddenly moved from opposite him to his side, then reached out and scratched Cheng Yinian’s neck. Cheng Yinian was tickled and couldn’t help but laugh as he shrank back. “What are you doing?”
Chen Xiangsui didn’t answer his question and instead continued to gently tickle Cheng Yinian’s neck. His fingers then moved down to his belly under his clothes. He used both hands at once, leaving the other party unable to escape. He was tickled so hard that he burst into laughter and even had tears in the corners of his eyes. “Ha… stop it… I can’t anymore…”
“Okay.” Chen Xiangsui stopped. Cheng Yinian had unconsciously laid down on the floor to avoid him; he didn’t know how he ended up sitting on someone’s lap. Chen Xiangsui looked down at the other person’s face and asked, “Still unhappy?”
Cheng Yinian’s ears flushed, and he quickly turned his head to avoid Chen Xiangsui’s gaze. “How can you make people happy like this?” Chen Xiangsui is a stupid straight man. I can never say this enough.
“What are you guys doing? You really don’t treat me as an outsider, huh? It’s the middle of the day and you’re all lovey-dovey.” Lu Yan, who was in the bed next to them, noticed this and jokingly teased them.
Cheng Yinian said embarrassedly, “Don’t be silly, this is not being lovey-dovey.” After he finished speaking, he turned his always disobedient and subconsciously dodging gaze towards Chen Xiangsui while trying his best to hide his embarrassment as his ears turned slightly red. “I’m happy now, can you let me up then?”
“Hmn.” Chen Xiangsui smiled and said, “Let’s eat, it will get cold soon.”
……
As a return gift for the roses, Cheng Yinian began to choose a suitable gift on an online shopping platform. He remembered that Chen Xiangsui had mentioned during their chat last Saturday that he was going to play basketball with friends, so he sent a message to him from Nian Gao’s account while on his dorm bed: [Gege, do you have a favorite basketball star?]
[Hmm.] After sending this message, Chen Xiangsui replied with a name. Cheng Yinian took note of it silently, and then chatted casually about basketball. He didn’t know much about anything related to basketball, so Chen Xiangsui basically taught him everything he needed to know.
He specifically asked one of his friends to get a basketball signed by Chen Xiangsui’s favorite star player, wrapped it up nicely, and sent it to the same courier. [Gege, I sent you a special gift~]
Chen Xiangsui: [Still won’t tell me what you bought?]
Cheng Yinian: [^V^ Of course~ It’s a surprise for Gege]
Chen Xiangsui: [I’m looking forward to it. I like every gift you buy for me.]
[I like you too. Can we video call tonight? No showing of faces.]
Cheng Yinian took a screenshot of the phrase [I like you.]
[OUO? You want to video call without showing our faces?]
Chen Xiangsui: [Yes. I want to see where you live.]
He and Chen Xiangsui made an appointment to have a video call on Saturday night. Cheng Yinian specially adjusted the position of his phone in advance so that the camera range would fall just below his neck. Only then did he send a video call invitation to Chen Xiangsui.
“Can you hear me?” It was rare for Chen Xiangsui to speak first, even if it was just a simple question.
Cheng Yinian couldn’t help but laugh. “I can hear you, Gege. I’m very happy to be able to video call with you.”
“That’s good.” Chen Xiangsui hesitated for a moment and continued the topic from last week’s live broadcast. “It seemed that you were very unhappy during last week’s live broadcast. Do you want to take a break this week?” Although he had been trying his best to cheer him up this week, Cheng Yinian always seemed to be holding something back, so he wasn’t sure how he really felt. Hence, he decided to probe his feelings using Age’s identity.
“I’m feeling much better now. I’ll be live on time tomorrow to play with Gege.” Cheng Yinian casually tightened the ribbon bow on his chest. “I was just editing a video I recorded earlier. It’s a walkthrough with subtitles for a single-player game. Do you want to watch it, Gege?”
“I’ll take a look when you upload it.” Chen Xiangsui hesitated for a moment, “May I ask why you don’t use your real voice for live streams?”
“…I can’t explain this to Gege right now.” Cheng Yinian’s eyes dimmed for a moment. “Let’s not talk about this anymore, what do you want to see, Gege? Do you want white or black stockings?”
He went on to say, “Oh right, I remember what Gege said just now. You wanted to see where I live.”
After saying that, he picked up his phone and panned around the background behind him. “This is my rented room. It’s fully furnished, so I can move in directly without buying anything.”
Cheng Yinian’s room was very clean and tidy, and there was nothing to complain about. The room was filled with games and various electronic devices, as well as some game-related merchandise neatly arranged in the cabinets. He also showed the view outside of the window. It was quite lively, with people chatting and some playing on the court.
“It’s somewhat very similar to Gege’s room, that’s probably why we have so many topics in common.” Cheng Yinian curled the corners of his mouth.
Chen Xiangsui hummed in agreement. “Let’s talk a little longer then.”
“Ok. Is there anything else you want to see, Gege?” Cheng Yinian asked while adjusting the camera.
Chen Xiangsui paused for a moment. “…About what you said earlier, black stockings, is that okay?”
“Sure, you can take a look at whatever you want.” After Cheng Yinian finished speaking, he stood up, took out the black stockings that he had to buy to match a certain skirt from the closet, and put them on directly in front of the camera. The black stockings wrapped around his fair skin bit by bit, making his legs look particularly sexy against the black fabric. “Gege, do you think it suits me?”
“…Very much.” Chen Xiangsui paused for a moment before saying, “You forgot to turn off the camera.”
Cheng Yinian didn’t think it mattered whether he turned off the camera or not. Given the angle of the camera, Chen Xiangsui would never notice that he was wearing men’s underwear. “It doesn’t matter. Gege’s my boyfriend anyway, so it’s only natural to see things like that.”
He then said sheepishly, “Now that Gege mentioned it, I feel a little shy.”
“I’m the one who’s embarrassed.” Chen Xiangsui’s tone sounded calm, but the words that came out of his mouth were, “The way you look in black stockings…”
He paused, then continued, “Should I say it like this? It makes my… heart beat faster.”
