Chapter 75 – Like Grass Before Spring

translator: xiin
editor: butter

Song Yu remained worried about Xie Sui’s state and was absent-minded when he went back for dinner that evening.

He would pick up a bite of green vegetables, place it in his mouth, and chew each bite for a long time. He didn’t eat more than a few mouthfuls of rice, either.

Grandma Meng shook her head and sighed, but didn’t comment on it to him.

Song Yu hurried upstairs after eating a perfunctory meal and taking a bath, going back to his room. The first thing he did was send Xie Sui a message.

He snapped out a whole pile of words.

[ Song Yu: Are you okay? ]

[ Song Yu: The more I think about your state today, the more I think that it wasn’t quite right. Did you get bewitched or something?! ]

[ Song Yu: Will you be able to sleep tonight? ]

[ Song Yu: Should I do a great mercy incantation for you?! Or, I can give you a call and read you a piece about socialist core values, hey ]

His worry was practically written there on the screen.

This was nothing like the straight man’s concern that was expressed by a ‘.’ back then.

Sure enough, treatment was different when it was one’s deskmate.

When Xie Sui received the message—

He was in the midst of checking his mail. Everything was about Song Yu. At first, he’d purposely spent a lot of time getting documents in order to investigate Song Yu, but now it seemed that it wasn’t necessary.

His hooded gaze fell on the cell phone screen and he typed out a short reply.

[ Xie Sui: I’m fine ]

Song Yu was unconvinced. He’d been so scared in the haunted house that it was like he’d lost his soul. It would be strange if he was fine now.

He continued to express his concern.

[ Song Yu: Don’t be shy, who are we to each other? I won’t tell anyone else about your fear of ghosts ]

Xie Sui smiled slightly.

Then, he called Song Yu directly.

Song Yu’s cell phone suddenly started vibrating, frightening him so much that he sat up straight in bed. After being stunned for a moment, He poked the connect button after being stunned for a moment.

Xie Sui’s voice travelled through the cell phone, cool with a touch of magnetism, “Song Yu.”

Song Yu’s heart inexplicably skipped a beat.

When he recalled his original purpose, he immediately sat back up straight again and answered, “Yeah, hey, how are you?”

Xie Sui laughed lightly, a sound that could cause people’s hearts to stir. He asked, “Are you so worried about me?”

Song Yu: “Yeah, you were so off at the time. I think you’ll have nightmares tonight.”

Xie Sui leaned back in his chair. His other hand moved the mouse, stopping at a photo. It was a photo of Song Yu as a child; even though he was giving the camera a ferocious look, he was still indescribably cute.

His dark eyes filled with laughter.

“Now that you mention it, I’m afraid I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

Song Yu gave him a suggestion, “When do you usually sleep? I can read scriptures for you and wait till you’ve fallen asleep before hanging up.”

Xie Sui laughed despite himself, “Are you sure?” He might not be able to sleep all night when listening to Song Yu’s voice.

Song Yu: “Of course, what do you want to hear? I’ll look it up for you on Baidu. The Vajra Sutra, or socialist core values?”

Xie Sui’s lips curved and he said lightly, “Read a paragraph about Lagrange’s mean value theorem, then.”

Song Yu: “???”

Song Yu: “……”

Was Xie Sui doing this on purpose?

He felt particularly ashamed every time he heard these words. It was a segment of dark history.

He held up his cell phone and remained silent for a long time.

“Do you really want to hear it?”

“Mm.”

The corners of Song Yu’s lips pulled into a stiff line, but he’d promised, and it wasn’t good to go back on his word. He really got out of bed, ran over to the computer, and pulled up Baidu.

He muttered, “I’ll read it off the encyclopedia. You’d better go lie in bed right now, put on your headphones, and try to go to bed early… But, how can you sleep listening to this thing?”

Xie Sui stood on the balcony, looking down at the scene of the city at night as he listened carefully to the youth’s voice. He laughed quietly, “Read, then.”

Song Yu frowned bitterly on the other side of the call.

“Then, I’m starting now. Lagrange’s mean value theorem, also known as Lagrange’s theorem, is one of the basic theorems in differential calculus…”

The night was thick, and the moon was round and bright.

The osmanthus flowers from the residents downstairs were blooming, sending out a faint fragrance that drifted with the night wind. Song Yu’s voice was clear and warm, dispelling the fear and despair caused by life and death, parting and missing.

Xie Sui stood on the balcony, his gaze lowered and a gentle smile on his lips.

He placed his fingers on the railing and tapped it gently twice. He seemed to recall something.

“So, in the open interval A to B, there’s a one point three, which is greater than A and less than B…”

He recalled the clean and beautiful youth he’d met for the first time in Linshui, who looked like frost under light and shadow.

At the milk tea shop, where he lay on the table writing his test paper.

Or on the silent streets, pulling him to one side and talking trash at others.

Midsummer, when he jumped off the wall, and the breeze when he landed in his embrace.

There was too much.

Xie Sui said, “That’s enough.”

Song Yu was finally able to get rid of this torture. After letting out a sigh of relief, he asked, “Sleepy?”

Xie Sui: “Mm, a bit.”

Song Yu: “Then hurry and go sleep.”

Xie Sui: “Do you still remember what you asked me today?”

Song Yu tsked, “I remember; I asked if you were afraid of ghosts, and you said you weren’t afraid. Didn’t you slap your own face? But it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Normal people are all afraid of mysterious things like ghosts.”

“Okay.”

Song Yu started to push, “That’s not right, I realized that you didn’t react much to the heads and blood that was put in front of you. It wasn’t until you saw the tomb at the end that you started to get scared. Are you afraid of the dead?”

Xie Sui laughed briefly, then said lightly, “It should be fear of death.”

Song Yu was stunned for a moment, then began to comfort him, “Wow, don’t worry. In any case, people will die sooner or later, think a bit more broadly about it. Why is our conversation becoming more and more philosophical.”

Xie Sui didn’t explain anything. His eyes were cold as he looked up ahead, but his voice was very light, “Okay, I won’t worry.” He spoke in almost a whisper, his voice gentle, “Good night, Yuyu.”

Yuyu.

Song Yu almost dropped his cell phone. His ears grew a little red, and he said in embarrassment, “What messy name are you shouting?”

There were thousands of lights in the distance.

A cold wind blew up from below, traveling along the walls.

Xie Sui bowed his head and laughed, briefly and vaguely.

This place, it was where he came to know life and death for the first time.

As a child, there’d been a rainstorm that split the skies, and a woman who’d jumped down from above, becoming a scene that couldn’t be forgotten in two lifetimes.

Everything in this world, except for life and death, were all small affairs. In fact, even life and death was insignificant.

Now, he had another perception of it.

There was an old saying, that we do not change until death; that is, when death separates us.

Xie Sui turned off his cell phone and turned to go back into the room.

––Even death cannot separate us.

[ Brother Yu didn’t go to No.13 High to make trouble, but Yao Rui sent himself up to our door to get beaten? ]

Main post: Don’t mention it anymore, one of my friends is getting annoyed to death by one of his little followers. They’re asking all sorts of things about Brother Yu’s background, the places where he often goes, and says that they want to challenge him for a fight. To hell with challenging him, is Brother Yu even paying attention to him?

1L: ??? The monthly exams are approaching. Brother Yu is in the library all day and he’s not paying attention to anything outside. He probably doesn’t know about it.

2L: What kind of trash is No.13 filled with, hey?

3L: Speaking of which, I heard that they plan to block the entrance to the library in the afternoon to have a fight with Brother Yu.

4L: Shit, since I’m in No.1 High, I have to do this even if it’ll be punished. Hurry up and call the detention master, protect my husband!

5L: It’ll be okay, right? My husband hurt his hand only a few days ago, wuwuwu

Song Yu had indeed hurt his hand a week ago.

A dog had suddenly rushed out onto the court while he was playing basketball, scaring him out of his wits. A moment of mindlessness had resulted in him falling to the ground and twisting his wrist.

At the time, everyone at the scene had been scared.

Xie Sui had come over with big strides, his expression icy cold as he helped him to the infirmary.

After that, he couldn’t write for a week and his homework was basically all covered by Xie Sui. Actually, it felt pretty great.

From then on, Xie Sui monitored his every move during PE class, and he could no longer freely do as he liked.

He’d finally gotten rid of the bandage and felt that he’d recovered completely, but Xie Sui even went so far as to control how much time he could spend writing, only letting him use his right hand for two hours. He was only allowed to read for the rest of his study time.

Exams became more frequent in No.1 High towards the end of the term.

Monthly exams, weekly exams, they were endless.

Song Yu could be considered as ‘broken in body, but firm in spirit’.

He went to the school library every Saturday to study and review.

Of course, he wouldn’t come on his own. He brought along Ma Xiaoding, whose scores were at the tail end of the class, to suffer torture along with him. The math class representative had already given up treatment and had collapsed on the desk. Ma Xiaoding was going crazy, “Logarithmic functions, exponential functions, power functions, why can they appear in one question all at the same time? What is this peerless triangle of abuse.”

Song Yu replied, “There will be a parents’ meeting after the final exams. You can decide for yourself.” Ma Xiaoding was stimulated by the words ‘parents’ meeting’ and sat up again.

But after reading through the question for a long time, he trembled and chose C. This could also be considered a blessing for their beautiful love.

After putting aside his pen, Ma Xiaoding said wearily, “Don’t mention the parents’ meeting. Let’s talk about something happier. Isn’t the New Year’s Eve party coming up? Brother Yu, did you sign up?”

Preparations for the New Year’s Eve party had begun one and a half months ago. The third years were busy with their studies, so the bulk of the work was left to the first years. There was a mandatory performance, and each class was also allowed to select two or three students to perform an extra program.

Song Yu flipped his pen and sneered, “Why do you guys want me to get involved in everything? Although I’m really very excellent, I should restrain myself and give the other boys a way to live on.”

Ma Xiaoding replied, “What is our class performing? The literature and art committee said that it would be a drama. God, I started acting in Snow White in kindergarten. Can we do a Huluwa seven brothers? They’re also seven little dwarves, and the numbers match up. I can play a guest role as the grandpa and have seven more grandchildren.”

Song Yu laughed and cursed, “Dream on.”

One of Ma Xiaoding’s little followers ran in as they were chatting and shocked everyone with his shout, “Brother Yu! Something big has happened! It’s bad!”

Song Yu: “……” What kind of crappy news was this.

The little follower said, “There’s a group of people outside the library from No.13 High. They’re blocking the way and aren’t leaving. They said that if you don’t come out today, no one else should even think of leaving.”

Song Yu: “Where are the teachers?”

The little follower said, “Damn it, they calculated the time well. It’s Saturday, and this place is far from the security room. No one knows. Yao Rui also said that he was going to beat you up at No.1 High today even if lives were involved.”

Song Yu’s expression said he couldn’t bear to think about it, “There’s something wrong with his brain.”

He put down the book he had in his hands. He’d just finished reviewing a chapter and was restless with boredom. After getting injured, he felt like he’d held himself back for a long time and urgently needed to prove himself.

Song Yu stood up. He stretched out his long legs and stormed out of the study room, just to run into Xie Sui, who’d helped him bring some books over.

Their gazes met.

Xie Sui smiled slightly, “Where are you going?”

Song Yu: “……”

—

Butter’s Thoughts:
XS won’t let SY dirty his hands! He will personally protect his hubby!