Ch45 - The Wind Is Picking Up

Translation checker: Rin
Editor: Junyans

Because Yu Ran’s grades had improved significantly this time, Li Guirong was very confident when she went to attend the parent-teacher meeting. She arrived at school early in the evening and stood at the back door of the classroom. She found her son playing with his mobile phone in class but she didn’t even send a text message to scold him. 

Yu Ran was watching a new anime this month. When he had heard the name “Attack on Titan”, he’d thought that it was the same type as Ultraman. As a result, the scenes in the first episode were already so bloody and nauseating that he felt physically uncomfortable. He patted his chest, turned his head, and lamented to Chu Mian: “Fuck, do you know how the fuck this MC’s mother died? His mother was… was…”

The anime’s scene had impacted Yu Ran so greatly that he stammered for a long time, yet he could not bear to say the second half of the sentence. He just said, “I will be a vegetarian from today on.” When he turned his head, he was shocked to find that his mother was standing in the corridor, staring at him through the glass of the back door of the classroom.

Yu Ran immediately burst into tears. As soon as the bell rang after class, he rushed out and hugged Li Guirong, “Mom, I miss you so much!”

“Get out of the way, don’t ruin my clothes.” Li Guirong pushed him away, took out a can of Wangzai milk from her bag and handed it over. 

When it was time for school to be dismissed, the parents entered the classroom one after another. Li Guirong sat in Yu Ran’s seat and turned her head to see a young woman behind her, who obviously didn’t look like a mother at all. Out of politeness, Li Guirong took the initiative to say hello: “Who are you here for in the meeting?”

“Hello.” The woman showed a standard and polite smile. “I’m Chu Mian’s mother’s assistant.”

“Oh…” Li Guirong quickly glanced at the other party’s black professional clothes, muttered a few words quietly in her heart, sat upright and ignored her.

Chu Mian didn’t know who had come to hold the parent-teacher meeting today until he walked out of the school gate and saw a dark and shiny high-end car parked by the street, and immediately guessed that it was his mother.

Ye Zhihan, who was inside the car, saw him, quickly pushed open the door, and smiled at him.

Yu Ran shoved the can of Wangzai into Chu Mian’s hand. Noticing that Chu Mian remained motionless, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“My mother is here.”

Yu Ran followed his gaze and saw at a glance the woman with deep eyebrows, her lithe and tall body wrapped in a caramel-colored coat. The picture of her standing by the car seemed like a page torn out from a fashion magazine. 

“Wow, your mother is a foreigner!” Yu Ran blurted out in surprise.

“She is of mixed race.” Chu Mian was amused by his use of words, and his antagonistic feelings towards his mother were eased as a result. “I’ll go first, and then I’ll take a picture of my homework for you when I get home.”

“Okay, bye bye.”

Chu Mian slowly put away his smile and walked towards Ye Zhihan, greeted her obediently and helped her pull open the car door. 

Ye Zhihan smiled lightly and sat in, and glanced at the milk in Chu Mian’s hand. “It’s best to drink less of this kind of saccharin drink. Your aunt should have bought you powdered milk, right?”

Chu Mian clenched the can of Wangzai tightly and changed the subject: “When did you come to Ronggang?”

“Just arrived at noon. Isn’t your parent-teacher meeting today? I asked my assistant to go.” Ye Zhihan gave the driver a restaurant’s name, and the car slowly drove forward. “I’ll go back to Shanghai tomorrow. I just wanted to have a meal and talk with you tonight, we haven’t seen each other for two months.”

“Talk about what?” Chu Mian asked. He knew that his mother would not fly over to visit him for no reason. The two of them were not so close. It was normal for them not to see each other for half a year. 

Ye Zhihan didn’t answer. She pursed her lips slightly, leaned calmly on the soft seat, and looked straight ahead.

Chu Mian didn’t ask further. He turned his head and looked at the street outside the car window, remaining silent all the way.

The car finally stopped in front of a Chinese restaurant. The environment was elegant and beautiful. Bamboos were lined up along the path. The waiter led them around the corridor, and into the VIP room.

Chu Mian was used to staying at school. He sat in a lazy posture and held his cheek in his hand as he waited for the first dish. Ye Zhihan called him and asked him to pay attention to his image. 

The teenager drooped his eyelids, retracted his arms, straightened his back, and asked her, “If you have something to say, hurry up, I still have to go back to do my homework.”

Ye Zhihan took a sip of the aperitif and put down the glass calmly. “How are you getting along with your classmates? I saw there was a boy who came out with you just now, so you two should have a good relationship.”

“Hmm.” Chu Mian nodded. “He takes very good care of me.”

The exquisite dishes were soon served, and Ye Zhihan casually chatted with her son: “How old are your classmates? Are they also only children?” 

“Yes, but some of them are not.”

Ye Zhihan slowly and methodically picked up the food, and then gracefully put them in her mouth, and swallowed them thoroughly before talking. The topic basically revolved around Chu Mian, and Ye Zhihan asked about everything from his school life to his physical condition.

Chu Mian had yet to eat enough but he was already impatient. “Don’t beat around the bush. Let’s get straight into the point.”

Ye Zhihan looked at him and put down her chopsticks. 

“You have been away from your parents for a long time, which makes me always worried about you. Fortunately, you are almost an adult now, and can judge some things by yourself.” Yezhihan smiled happily. “You are the most important part of the family. I think it is appropriate to refer to your opinion on this matter first.”

Chu Mian smacked his lips and finally looked directly into her eyes.

The four eyes met for a moment. The teenager seemed to catch a hint from the woman’s eyes, and then combined with the part of the conversation just now, he more or less formed a reasonable guess.

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.

So he expressionlessly asked, “You want to have another one?” 

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Jte Zljc ogbkcfv jcv rjlv, “Tbe jgf atlgas-olnf sfjgr biv, atlr lr nfgs vjcufgber.”

“Aera rjs ktja sbe atlcx, vbc’a kbggs jybea wf olgra.” Tf Itltjc rjlv ilutais jcv ibbxfv ja Jte Zljc klat atbrf rxs yief fsfr jujlc.

“I don’t understand why you’re asking me.” 

“Because you can be considered independent—”

“No,” Chu Mian interrupted her, “what I mean is that I don’t understand why you would be nice enough to ask me.”

After saying that, he gave a laugh, his breath cold.

“I just want to give priority to your opinion.” Ye Zhihan’s smile did not diminish, she only accentuated her tone. 

“Really?” Chu Mian let go of his chopsticks and stared at her. “If I said I didn’t agree, would you give up the idea?”

Ye Zhihan’s eyes sank, she hesitated to speak, and the atmosphere between mother and son became rigid. Chu Mian’s Adam’s apple rolled, and he let out a short sigh. He stopped looking at his mother, lowered his head and said, “You know that I will definitely not object, so you came to ask in person, right? You say you are giving priority to me, but you actually want to alleviate the guilt in your heart.”

His voice was calm, and she could hardly hear any emotional fluctuations. Ye Zhihan couldn’t determine whether her son was feeling abandoned or holding back, so she had to observe in silence first.

After a while of silence in the private room, Chu Mian looked up and asked, “Why do you call me every time around four o’clock on Sunday afternoon?” 

Ye Zhihan’s reactions became sluggish for two seconds, and Chu Mian directly took out his phone and flipped out the call records of the two of them.

“Since I started senior high school, this is the time you call, I’ve gotten used to it.” He quickly swiped the screen. “I thought at first that you were usually too busy and could only find time on weekend afternoons. But in the few days of the New Year, I found that you seem to be more free than I thought…”

When his thumb got tired, he buckled his phone upside down and said, “You call me at a fixed time every week because your assistant reminds you according to the schedule, isn’t it?”

Ye Zhihan’s face, which had always been unperturbed, finally rippled, and she immediately spoke, “Your study time is already limited, I don’t want to disturb you.” 

Chu Mian almost directly rebutted her, “What kind of disturbance is it when a mother calls her son,” but he calmly held back, not wanting to make the atmosphere more awkward.

In fact, he knew in his heart that the reason why his mother didn’t bother to call him was that she didn’t miss him much and also didn’t care much. He should not have held on to a hope, expecting that his parents would miss him during their busy time.

“It’s time for me to go back to do my homework.” Chu Mian stood up with his school bag, and without looking at Ye Zhihan, he said, “Thank you for inviting me to dinner, mom.”

He walked briskly, quickly left the restaurant, and took a taxi back to Hanning Mansion. 

When he got home, Chu Mian didn’t tell Chu Heng about the meeting because he hadn’t been able to fully accept it himself.

Since the day of the attack of narcolepsy, his grades had regressed frequently, and all talent courses he had joined had to be suspended. According to the original plan, he should have gone abroad directly to receive a strict elite education after he had finished his studies outside Ronggang, but his body, which had to sleep for seventeen hours a day, could no longer achieve such a goal. For the sake of his physical and mental health, his parents did not dare to ask him more of him and agreed to let him stay in Ronggang.

The days were getting longer and longer, and their expectations for Chu Mian declined little by little. He was like a cracked treasure they hid in a box and put away, which they never remembered to repair.

Chu Mian lay on the bed listening to intense music to refresh his mind, and opened the class chat group to watch everyone talking about tonight’s parent-teacher meeting. 

[Class President — Xiang Xuehua]: “Everyone, remember to read the group announcement. Unified exam for Chemistry will be held on June 11th, and the placement exam will be held in early August.”

[Diuge Yizhen Ling]: “My mother said that the placement will only depend on the exam results in August. Is it true or not?”

[Qing Deng Ancient Wine]: “Yes, that’s what my dad said when he came back. It’s because the placement exam is very late, and there is still more than a month to review before the exam”

[The Wolf Character Hides the Dog Radical]: “Ah, ah, ah, really?!” 

Chu Mian turned over to lie down properly and checked the chat history. Half a minute later, Yu Ran called and shouted his name excitedly.

“I saw the group chat.” Chu Mian knew what the other person was going to say. “You’re lucky.”

“Does that mean I don’t have to worry about the midterm and final exams next?”

“You don’t need to care about your grades, but you still have to study the content before the placement exam.” Chu Mian couldn’t help but remind him. “Everyone’s review time is the same this time, don’t take it lightly.” 

“I know, I know! You just wait!” Yu Ran was confident.

Chu Mian chuckled, in a good mood again. Anyway, Yu Ran had also been admitted to the top 40 of the school at the beginning, so his talent was definitely not bad. Now what mattered was whether he could improve faster than others in the future.

Yu Ran browsed the homepage of Bilibili and said: “Hey, the second episode of Attack on Titan has been uploaded. I’ll hang up first.”

“Didn’t you say in the afternoon that it was hard to watch the first episode?” 

“Yeah, I felt painful but also happy.”

“I think you have a masochistic tendency.”

“You’re the one who’s fucking masochistic, you sadist!” Yu Ran retorted loudly before hanging up the phone.

After Chu Mian heard this logic, he couldn’t help laughing out loud. 

He remembered that once he had run into Yu Ran and Fang Zhao cursing at each other. The content was very childish, something like “Your grandma doesn’t care about you, your uncle doesn’t love you” “ When a donkey sees you, it kicks you, when a pig sees you, it steps on you.” In terms of eloquence, Yu Ran was always at a disadvantage, but he finally thought he had a perfect humiliation, so he immediately shouted two words at Fang Zhao: “Dad!”

Fang Zhao couldn’t wait to agree, while Yu Ran was still immersed in his own logic, convinced that he had turned defeat into victory.

As the spring breeze got warmer in April, fewer and fewer people wore jackets to school, and the playground was once again occupied by black school uniforms.

The inter-class exercises this semester also included Tai Chi. The purpose of this was not only to inherit traditional Chinese culture, but also to allow students to cultivate their temperament and relieve study pressure. 

However, teenagers were always somewhat rebellious in nature. When they were required to actively exercise in “Dancing Youth”, they were very lazy, and when they needed to cultivate in Tai Chi, their movements were as quick as a fleeing hare.

“Ka me ha me — ha!” Yu Ran put his wrists together and punched Zhao Wuli who was next to him through the air.

A few seconds later, Zhao Wuli coughed and covered his chest, showing an unbelievable look: “You actually… plotted against me!”

“Stupid!” Yu Ran rushed over and kicked him. “I’ll fight with you righteously, don’t cook up a story!” 

The two were laughing and fighting when the soothing music of Tai Chi came to an abrupt end.

The supervising teacher stood on the stage, looked at the two of them, raised the microphone and said, “The two boys at the back of the Senior Year 1 Class 1!”

Seeing that the situation was bad, they hurriedly returned to stand in line.

The teacher had seen their faces clearly. “It’s you again, Yu Ran! Why don’t you perform what you just did on the stage?” 

The eyes of all the students in the school gathered neatly on him, and Yu Ran desperately shook his hand and refused: “No, no!”

There were bursts of laughter on the playground.

Now, Yu Ran was considered to be well-known in Chengjun. First, he was often named because he didn’t obey the rules when doing inter-class exercises. Second, because of his outstanding appearance, many girls continued to discuss him. Whenever he went to the small shop near school, some people would hit on him, and some people would secretly pay the bill for him, which baffled him.

The same was true today. When he was picking cookies, he was poked twice in the back. 

“Who? Who’s poking this Chinese guy in the back?” Yu Ran turned around curiously and saw three girls.

Their movements were identical. All of them had their hands retracted into the cuffs of their school uniforms, and they were covering their mouths with one hand.

“Can we add you on QQ?” One of the girls asked in a soft voice.

Yu Ran didn’t hear clearly, so he tilted his head and leaned over. “Huh? ” 

The girl turned up the volume and repeated.

“Ah?” Yu Ran looked up at them inexplicably. “Why are you covering your mouth when you talk? Do you want to be heard or not?”

The girls had yet to put their hands down, when Yu Ran suddenly felt that their movements were familiar, and he suddenly realized: “Oh — I see! Do you girls want to disguise yourself as a guy, thinking that if you cover your face, others won’t be able to tell your gender? Hahahahaha……”

He was proud of his discerning eyes: “What are you thinking, your hair is so long!” 

The girls looked at each other speechlessly.

Yu Ran left happily.

But after he returned to the classroom, he slowly discovered that several girls in the class liked to cover their mouths while talking as if they had some secret. He was puzzled, so he turned and asked Chu Mian, “Why do so many girls cover their mouths when they talk? Are they afraid of being beaten?”

Chu Mian hadn’t noticed it before. He was also surprised when You Ran mentioned it. 

After thinking about it, he came to the conclusion: “They may be shy.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is.”

But it didn’t take long for Yu Ran to find that girls not only liked to cover their mouths while talking, but also liked to cover their heads when running, so they couldn’t swing their arms. Then how could they run fast?

In Physical Education class, girls ran 800 meters, while boys watched nearby. Yu Ran watched Ye Xi and Cui He chase after each other, surpassing each other five or six times, but both failed in the end. The two of them were flushed, and collapsed on the football field, panting, with their hands covering their foreheads. 

When their breath stabilized, Yu Ran walked over, squatted next to them and asked, “Why do you always touch your heads, are you afraid that your IQ will leak?”

Cui He did not want to pay attention to him. She was lying on the ground, and she gave him a middle finger.

Ye Xi’s voice was hoarse, and she said with difficulty: “Because our bangs will be parted…”

“Uh, what happens when they get parted?” Yu Ran felt at a loss. 

“It looks ugly without hair in front.”

“Oh?” Yu Ran stood up unexpectedly, found Chu Mian and ran over, then took advantage of the other party’s unpreparedness to lift the hair on his forehead, revealing a piece of smooth skin.

Chu Mian was confused: “What are you doing?”

“Ye Xi said that if there is no hair in front, it will look ugly.” Yu Ran looked at Chu Mian’s face. “But no, you still look very handsome.” 

Chu Mian said, “Oh.”

Hearing someone calling him from behind, Yu Ran let go of his hand and simply dragged Chu Mian over together.

The registration for the Spring Games had started today. Each person could register for up to three events. As the Sports Committee member, Yu Ran naturally had to take the lead in participating. He chose the 4×100-meter relay, the men’s 200-meter sprint, and the high jump.

After filling out the form, he turned his head and asked Chu Mian: “You’re so fast at long-distance running, how about signing up for one?” 

“No.” Chu Mian decisively refused. “I have to be responsible for reading the cheering script.”

Yu Ran had to ask others in disappointment.

Every time he tested a 1,000-kilometer long-distance run, Chu Mian’s results were among the best, and he had never fallen asleep. However, the explosive power required for sprinting would easily cause him to fall into cataplexy. However, the reason he hated participating in sports games was that he just didn’t want to be watched while running. He would care if his running posture was good enough, which was really distracting.

There were three Physical Education classes before the arrival of the sports meeting. Students participating in the project could take this time to fully practice. Not only the athletes, but the cheerleaders also had not stopped practicing, and they often rehearsed in the empty field. Most of them were members of the women’s basketball team. Yu Ran had long been familiar with them. When he was free, he would stand next to them and watch them dance and change formations. 

This time in the rehearsal, the girls finally made no mistakes from start to finish, and perfectly put out the final pose. Just as they were about to cry with joy, Yu Ran’s voice suddenly came from behind: “Armor Hero, form!”

Then, unsurprisingly, he was chased and beaten violently by them as a group.

“Chu Mian!” He ran out of the field, caught up to the familiar figure, and jumped directly on the other person’s back.

In order to cushion the sudden weight on his body, Chu Mian bent his waist, which also let Yu Ran lie more steadily on his back. He not only didn’t rush Yu Ran down, but also backhandedly held Yu Ran’s legs. 

Yu Ran put his chin on Chu Mian’s shoulder and asked, “Where are you going now?”

“Not going anywhere.”

“Then let’s play on the parallel bars.”

“Okay.” Chu Mian acquiesced in allowing him to stay on his back and walked forward. 

Yu Ran took out Mentos from his pocket, tore the package and squeezed one out and fed it into Chu Mian’s mouth; it was sweet and cool. After a while, he stuffed two more, and his fingers touched Chu Mian’s lips, which were softer than the melted candy, every time.

He put his arms around Chu Mian’s shoulders relaxedly, and heard the other person sneezing very softly, so gentle that it was not easy to detect.

Then he sneezed one after another, and Yu Ran could not help but worry: “Caught a cold?”

“It’s okay, I’ll be like this when I eat something cold in spring.” Chu Mian narrowed his eyes and felt an itch at the bridge of his nose. 

Yu Ran immediately got down from his back and walked around Chu Mian to the front of him.

Due to continuous sneezing, Chu Mian’s eyes were glistening with moisture, and the tip of his nose was a little red. Yu Ran hurriedly patted his shoulder to comfort: “Don’t cry, don’t cry.”

“I didn’t cry.” Chu Mian pushed away his hand, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and then covered his mouth and nose to breathe gently.

Yu Ran laughed a little. “You’re covering your mouth now, just like when a girl is shy.” 

Chu Mian held back his sneeze, glared at him with red eyes, then let go of his hand and stared at him intently.

Yu Ran was initially smiling, but when Chu Mian stared directly at him like this, he felt an invisible sense of oppression. Chu Mian’s face was expressionless now, and Yu Ran couldn’t tell whether he was calm or angry. Yu Ran could only purse his lips and stare at the other party frankly.

He had never seen Chu Mian’s facial features so meticulously like this before. From the height of the eyebrows to the shape of the corners of his lips, they were all incomparably perfect. After all, he had inherited the genes of his mixed-race mother. The distinctive features of Westerners were reflected on his face, but he still retained the typical beauty unique to Asians.

Yu Ran looked at Chu Mian’s face, and only the thought “Chu Mian is so good-looking” was left in his mind. Seeing the good looking face made his heart panic, and his cheeks and neck became hot. 

He felt a little unable to hold on, so he covered his face with both hands, feeling happy for no reason.

Then he couldn’t move his eyes away, so he separated his fingers, and his eyes peered at Chu Mian through the cracks of his fingers.

“What are you doing?” Chu Mian frowned.

“I…” Yu Ran blinked. “I’m a guy disguised as a girl.” 

Chu Mian didn’t understand what nonsense he was talking about again, but it didn’t matter if he didn’t understand. Just from looking at Yu Ran’s dumbfounded features, Chu Mian felt his heart surging over and over again.

The leaves were rustling overhead.

The wind was picking up.