Ch40.1 - The Rules of Raising a Dog-Type Boyfriend (10)

“0901, why do the male leads of these worlds seem so familiar?”

0901: “Mr. Xu, were your own emotions incorporated in your writing or were the characters based on a prototype?” 

0901’s rhetorical questions made Xu Qichen reflect deeply.

That’s right.

It’s because of his own obsession.

“From here on, I’ll be teaching you Statistics and Probability Theory. Alright, let’s begin.” 

The Mediterranean’s voice brought Xu Qichen back. He dug out the textbook and a pen from his bag. When he looked up, his eyes met the Mediterranean’s, which were clearly sending the message [At least you had the decency to join the class as you’re told]. He began to mark attendance before beginning the lesson.

To be honest, Xu Qichen was listening very attentively, but the Mediterranean’s class was overly ordinary and boring. Even though it was clearly a branch of Mathematics, he simply showed them powerpoint slides one by one.

Shouldn’t he at least do some calculation by hand on the blackboard?

To an Arts student like Xu Qichen who really wanted to learn well but could not understand anything at all, this class was actually a form of torture.

For the entire session, Xu Qichen sat up straight and stayed focused on the lecture, afraid that if he relaxed even slightly, he would fall asleep.

When the bell rang, the Mediterranean continued solemnly, “I’ll take another 5 minutes of your time. We’ll end the lesson after this question.”

The students were upset but nobody dared to protest. Those who had prepared to stand up sat back down.

Thinking of Mu Yao who had not spoken the entire lesson, Xu Qichen turned around while the Mediterranean was looking down at the textbook, only to see him lying on the table with his head pillowed on his arms. 

The boy beside him said, “He’s slept the whole lesson away, good thing the Mediterranean didn’t bother about him.”

“Attempt this question by yourselves when you go back. I might put this in the midterm exams, okay?”

The students replied without much energy, “O– kay.”

“You may go.” 

The classroom immediately came back to life.

“It’s the weekend! We survived!”

“Let’s eat, I’m starving.”

“Remember to pick up your delivery.” 

“I’m going to nap~~”

Xu Qichen turned around and leant close to Mu Yao, who had not yet woken up. He was resting the side of his face on his right arm. Under the sunlight, his black hair reflected a gentle tint.

Mu Yao was still sleeping as if he could not hear the ruckus around him at all.

Weren’t dogs supposed to have sharp ears? 

Speaking of which, how exactly did his ears pop out?

Thinking that he was in deep sleep, Xu Qichen reached out, wanting to move his hair aside to investigate. He couldn’t help but laugh at himself.

He seems to be getting more and more childish.

But before his fingers could touch the hair, his hand was caught. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

He woke up?

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Ktf tjcv atja kjr yflcu tfiv kjr kjgw. 

They were the only ones left in the room.

“If you like my ears so much, I can make them appear, along with a giant litter of puppies. Okay?”

Xu Qichen faltered and shook his head. Then he thought of something, “Why didn’t you attract any dogs yesterday?”

Mu Yao made an expression that said ‘I shouldn’t have said that’, and Xu Qichen immediately caught on. 

“So you can control it? They don’t come every time, do they?”

With a smile Mu Yao changed the subject, “The lesson has ended ba, let’s go eat.”

Xu Qichen refused to give in, “You did it on purpose.”

“I didn’t.” Mu Yao softened his voice, “Let’s eat, let’s eat, I’m starving ah senior.” 

He was changing the subject again.

But…

“Weren’t you sleeping deeply earlier? Why did you wake up suddenly?”

And the timing was a little too perfect, he even caught his hand. 

Mu Yao picked up his bag and placed both his hands on Xu Qichen’s shoulders to steer him out of the classroom.

“I heard you laugh.”

Ah, so he had exposed himself.

The fourth game of the season was on Saturday afternoon. When he reached the gym, he caught sight of Qi Meng and Yu Cang sitting in the front row from a distance. 

Qi Meng immediately stood up and put her hands around her mouth to shout, “Senior Ye Han!”

Everyone turned to look.

Xu Qichen smiled a little embarrassedly, “You’re early.”

Qi Meng took a sip from the yoghurt drink in her hand and removed her bag from the seat beside her, “Take a seat, senior. You have no idea how popular that dog is. There was already a queue outside the gym before it opened at noon.” 

Whenever he heard Qi Meng call Mu Yao ‘that dog’, he felt like laughing.

“Oh, right, I brought some food for you.” Xu Qichen took out two lunchboxes from his bag, “Didn’t you say you came at noon? Did you have a proper lunch?”

Qi Meng shook her head happily. When she opened the lunchbox, she exclaimed, “Ah! Sandwiches! Thank you senior!”

Xu Qichen handed the other box to Yu Cang, “Xiao Cang, I made some creamed corn, you can eat it while watching the match.” 

Yu Cang took the box with both hands. Although he still trembled when he said thank you, his front teeth couldn’t help showing up. He looked very happy.

“Senior you’re really the wife type, so cute!” Qi Meng’s cheeks were stuffed full, “Oh! Here comes the dog!”

Xu Qichen looked up to see both teams entering the gym.

“I heard the opponents this time, the Physics department, are very strong.” Qi Meng finished her sandwich and moved close to whisper in Xu Qichen’s ear, “Senior, some of our kind are in there.” 

Xu Qichen frowned and glanced at the Physics team in the dark blue jersey. One of them; a blonde dyed hair, although he was not especially large, had a particularly aggressive look.

“Is it number 21?”

Qi Meng hummed in affirmation, “And number 8.”

Number 8 was about the same height as Mu Yao and much broader. He looked to be at least 120kg. 

He began to feel unsettled.

After the coach’s pep talk, the Computing team began to do some basic warm ups. Xu Qichen shouted, “Mu Yao!”

Although he did his best to call out loudly, his voice was still easily swallowed by the crowd.

Even then, Mu Yao immediately turned around and smiled at him, then jogged over. 

Qi Meng chuckled, “What a loyal dog.”

“Senior,” Mu Yao leant over the railing, “You’re here.”

Xu Qichen nodded. When he saw the hairband on Mu Yao’s forehead, his heart felt warm. But his fringe was still too long. Xu Qichen reached out to move the hair on Mu Yao’s forehead aside, “Doesn’t it block your eyes?”

Mu Yao blew the fringe aside, “A little, and today I keep sweating.” 

Qi Meng: “Tie it up ba, then it won’t affect your playing.”

Xu Qichen agreed with her.

“Then tie it for me, senior.” Mu Yao snatched the hair tie that Qi Meng had taken out of her back and stuffed it in Xu Qichen’s hand, then removed the hairband and shook his head. Like a dog shaking itself dry after a bath.

“Uhm…” Xu Qichen gathered the hair on Mu Yao’s forehead, “I don’t really know how to tie this ah.” 

“It’s no problem, as long as it doesn’t fall in front of my eyes.”

Xu Qichen clumsily tied it loosely, afraid of hurting him if he looped it too many times.

“Done.”

Mu Yao raised his head and revealed his pair of sharp teeth. The little ponytail on the top of his head swayed, making him look like a small apple. 

There was suddenly a wave of screams from the audience, giving Xu Qichen a fright. Qi Meng was speechless, “Dog, please get disfigured and grow fat.”

Mu Yao rolled his eyes and wrapped the hairband around his wrist, “Thank you senior.”

He stretched out his palm to Xu Qichen in a high-five gesture.

“I’m going.” 

Xu Qichen gently patted his palm.

He was about to turn around when Xu Qichen interlocked their fingers and held onto his hand.

Mu Yao turned back and looked at him.

Xu Qichen’s expression was solemn, “Be careful.” 

Ah, it’s back.

The urge to ignore everything and kiss him.

His stunned stiff fingers bent slowly until they touched the back of Xu Qichen’s hand and clasped it

And held it tightly. 

“I know.”

As he watched Mu Yao leave, Xu Qichen still felt worried.

He turned around and saw Qi Meng drawing in a sketchbook.

“What are you drawing?” 

From the other side of Qi Meng Yu Cang replied quietly, “A book.”

“A book?” Xu Qichen frowned, “What book.”

“BL book– wu…” Before Yu Cang could finish, Qi Meng had covered his mouth.

But Xu Qichen was not stupid, plus he was a danmei author himself. 

He quickly understood what was going on.

So she’s a rotten girl ah.

When the whistle was blown, unsurprisingly, with his long arms, Mu Yao caught the ball, but as soon as he turned around, he was fiercely bumped into by number 8 and the ball was snatched away.

The strong smell of gunpowder made Xu Qichen feel even more uneasy. 

Number 8 was the opposing team’s centre. His skills were not better than Mu Yao’s but his weight was an effective weapon. Taking a hit from him would cause one to be dizzy for half a day.

“They’re using the pincer attack on that dog.”

Number 8 and 21 had clearly tailored their tactics to Mu Yao’s attacking style. Every time Mu Yao stepped on the other side’s inside line, he would be targeted. As a result, Mu Yao was forced to pass the ball to Ah Ming.

Xu Qichen watched every move on the court seriously. 

Mu Yao, who was originally focused on the inside, was blocked to the point that he could only stay outside. After the ball was passed to him, he stepped back and threw a three-point.

All the girls in the audience screamed, but Xu Qichen was suffering inside.

By halftime, Mu Yao was covered in sweat. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees as he panted. The coach gathered them and began discussing tactics.

But Xu Qichen was hoping they would switch Mu Yao out. 

Because in the novel, Mu Yao was injured in this match.

And there seemed to be something wrong with numbers 8 and 21. Even after playing half the game, they looked perfectly fine.

Even Qi Meng noticed something wrong, “Logically their fitness levels should be about the same as Mu Yao, then why…”

Xu Qichen could not resist calling out to Mu Yao, “Mu Yao, maybe you should sit the second half out.” 

The opponents were clearly not here to play basketball. They had an ulterior motive.

Mu Yao shook his head. “Senior, I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

The second half thus began with his smile.