KMYB | Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Zhou Zeqi narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Sure."

He agreed almost without thinking, which made Xi Shui feel a little strange.

"Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"I do," Zhou Zeqi said.

"And you still agreed?"

"Because being on top is actually pretty tiring," Zhou Zeqi looked oddly serious for a moment, so serious it was hard to tell whether he was joking or not. "Didn't you say you don't want to lose weight anymore? That might make you lose muscle."

"And if you strain a muscle during that time, it'll affect your dancing."

Xi Shui gnawed on a plum and felt that Zhou Zeqi's analysis had some merit.

"But when I said on top, I also meant I don't have to be the one moving," Xi Shui said with a perfectly innocent look. "You do it."

?

Zhou Zeqi's expression froze for a brief moment in confusion.

Then, little by little, he understood what Xi Shui meant.

Not taking the passive role.

He really meant trying being on top and moving himself.

"Fine, sure." Zhou Zeqi agreed decisively.

Lin Xiaojin beside them had already heard enough. He kept turning his head to size Xi Shui up, checking whether his face had gone red. After all, Xi Shui usually had a pretty thin skin, but now he had thrown out such a bold statement and still wasn't blushing at all.

Actually, Xi Shui was a little absent-minded. What he mainly wanted to talk to Zhou Zeqi about wasn't that at all. He wiped his hands, opened his phone, and showed Zhou Zeqi the chat with Xu Wei.

Zhou Zeqi lowered his head and read the messages in the chat box.

He kept his eyes down for so long, his face completely blank, that Xi Shui couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"You want to go?" Zhou Zeqi asked, handing the phone back.

Xi Shui met his gaze and nodded. "I'm going."

Not want to go, but will go. Zhou Zeqi's opinion didn't matter.

Zhou Zeqi looked at Xi Shui for a while, then suddenly straightened up and stretched. After that, he flopped onto the table. "Go then. That's a good thing, of course you should go."

Xi Shui gripped his phone. "Then what about you?"

"What about me?" Zhou Zeqi gave a laugh that meant something but said nothing.

Studying abroad for a year, in Zhou Zeqi's eyes, didn't seem like much at all.

Or maybe, Xi Shui himself didn't seem like much in Zhou Zeqi's eyes.

Xi Shui wasn't quite sure.

"A lot of seniors and juniors, when they study abroad or do long-distance, they end up arguing, and then breaking up," Xi Shui poked Zhou Zeqi's face. "So what about you? You won't, right?"

Zhou Zeqi poked him back. "A year, three hundred and sixty-five days, eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours, it's not as long as you think."

Xi Shui drooped his eyelids and grabbed another plum to chew on. "Then you have to wait for me."

There was nothing much to it, really.

It was just further study. Now that transportation was so convenient, if he missed the other person, he could fly over to see him, hug him, kiss him, sleep with him. Zhou Zeqi knew how important ballet was in Xi Shui's heart. Of course he wouldn't compete with the dream and ambition of the person he liked, or argue over who mattered more.

But at this moment, Zhou Zeqi still felt as if a cat had scratched hard at his chest, a little painful, a little sour and swollen.

"I thought you were going to say that if you liked someone else, then I shouldn't wait for you." Zhou Zeqi stared at Xi Shui's lips stained with plum juice, that layer of shining moisture making them look very kissable, and even the voice that came out from there sounded very nice.

"How could that be," Xi Shui leaned in and kissed the corner of Zhou Zeqi's mouth. "I like you. I don't want you to like anyone else."

His kiss was very light, like a feather falling on the lips.

Zhou Zeqi wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer, then kissed him hard, only to break away just as quickly.

Lin Xiaojin was already staring in dumbfounded silence.

He felt that these plums didn't seem that sweet after all. They were pretty sour.

And he finally understood why Zhou Zeqi liked Xi Shui so much.

Damn, if someone seduced him like that, he would like him too!

–

Zhou Zeqi accompanied Xi Shui to two classes, then went back to the sports university.

Their afternoon class was a big lecture, three classes together. Wu Fengyi had saved him a seat and even brought his book.

"What's up? You don't seem in a great mood," Wu Fengyi asked in a low voice.

Zhou Zeqi twisted open the water bottle on the desk and took a big swig. "No."

"Good, good. Then let me tell you something." Wu Fengyi spoke in a mysteriously excited whisper.

"Mm."

"It's about that senior from our year above, the one they say was almost as handsome as you, the tennis major. His girlfriend wasn't from Jing University next door? She went abroad for grad school, and guess what?"

Wu Fengyi slapped his thigh. "She cheated! She gave him several green hats!"

Zhou Zeqi: "…"

Meng Kewen also turned around from the front. "That's rough."

Zhou Zeqi calmly wiped his face with his hand. "Watch the spit."

"Oh, oh, I got too worked up. That guy's character used to suck anyway, serves him right," Wu Fengyi said.

After he finished, he noticed Zhou Zeqi had no intention of joining in the gossip at all. But thinking that Zhou Zeqi had never really liked gossip before, he didn't dwell on it.

"What are we eating tonight?"

"Old Zhou, what do you want to eat?"

Zhou Zeqi casually made a couple lines of notes in his book, then tossed down his pen. "I'm not eating. I'm going home."

There were still two months until the summer provincial university swimming competition, and training wouldn't start until the month before that.

Right now, he didn't have training.

Xi Shui got out of class earlier than Zhou Zeqi, and by the time sports university let out, Xi Shui had just arrived downstairs.

His temperament was noticeably different from the sports students. He didn't have the sports university uniform, or the school's signature wrist guards, racket, sneakers, and the other things used only there.

Not to mention that ugly crossbody bag of his, which only students from Jing Dance had.

He sat under the willow trees in front of the teaching building, watching the people pouring out one after another.

When Zhou Zeqi came out carrying his backpack, he spotted Xi Shui at once.

The afternoon sun was still blazing hot. Zhou Zeqi wheeled out his bicycle, then went over to haul Xi Shui up from the edge of the flowerbed, bending down to brush the dust off his butt. "It isn't hot?"

Xi Shui pointed overhead. "There's shade."

Before Zhou Zeqi had even started pedaling, Xi Shui had already hopped onto the back seat and sat down properly. "Let's go."

"…"

Wu Fengyi and Meng Kewen only had time to glimpse the back of Zhou Zeqi's bicycle before the two of them hooked arms and leaned against each other.

"No wonder Old Zhou rushed off so fast. So he saw Xi Shui!"

"First time I've seen a driver this happy."

"His bike's expensive too, custom-made. He rode it to school only once before, got it scratched by someone, and never dared take it out again. Now he rides it every day and just leaves it in the bike shed with a pile of cheap yellow bikes, and he doesn't even seem to mind."

Zhang Kan came downstairs from the building next door just in time to hear the two of them complaining. "When you've got a wife, of course you worry about the wife first."

–

Because Xi Shui said he wanted potato pancakes, Zhou Zeqi had to take a detour to the supermarket to buy potatoes.

The wind rushed up under Zhou Zeqi's hem. Xi Shui pressed it down with his hand. "I'm hungry."

"Mm."

"Say more."

"Mm-hm."

"…If you keep being like this, I won't sleep with you anymore in the future."

Zhou Zeqi pedaled along the edge of the road. "I wasn't planning to touch you today, I'll let you rest a bit longer."

Xi Shui's ears turned bright red, and he was so flustered he couldn't say anything.

The asphalt road ran straight ahead, stretching all the way to the end of the street, where the sky at the far horizon had been washed with a brilliant orange glow, the color thick as oil paint.

By the time they got home from the supermarket, Xi Shui was carrying a big bag of potatoes. On the way, he teased the big orange cat called Xiao Ye. In the elevator, Zhou Zeqi suddenly said, "One of Zhou Zezhi's college classmates used to keep a white lion cat, and it just had a litter of kittens. Want me to get one for you?"

Xi Shui's eyes lit up instantly. He hadn't expected Zhou Zeqi to really keep his words in mind.

"Yes!"

"Then I'm the dad, and you're the mom." Xi Shui was overjoyed.

"Get lost."

Xi Shui knew Zhou Zeqi was just being sharp-tongued, and he clung to him all the way into the apartment. "Then let it take my surname, call it Xi Xiaoxi."

Zhou Zeqi laughed. "Aren't you already called Xiaoxi yourself?"

"I'm talking about its full name."

"Call it Xiaohe then."

"Or Dàhǎi."

"How about Shanchuan?"

"Call it Zhou Zeqi's good big son."

"Help me peel the potatoes."

"Okay…"

After peeling the potatoes, Xi Shui rushed back home to practice his evening routine. After that, it was time for dinner, a replenishment of energy after burning so many calories. He also weighed himself while he was at it, 59.5 kg.

Looking at those numbers that didn't mean anything at all, Xi Shui felt like he had let it go, no longer fixating on those tiny fluctuations of a few tenths.

Even when practice left him exhausted, he wouldn't feel like he had to make up for it by eating a bunch of little cakes.

What he wanted more was to hug Zhou Zeqi.

After showering, he got a call from Xi Buyao.

"Xi Yuan has already sued the people who bullied Xi He. Xi He got a new SIM card, I've sent the number to your phone. He's very busy during this period, so don't go bothering him."

"Okay."

"Your school's further study…"

Xi Shui knew this was the real point. He wiped his hair with a towel and said in a muffled voice, "I'm going."

Xi Buyao let out a breath of relief. "If things develop well over there…"

"Once the further study is over, I'll come back." Xi Shui cut off Xi Buyao's fantasy directly.

"If things develop well over there, you can also try staying." That was what Xi Buyao wanted to say, Xi Shui could guess it.

His temper had grown lately. He no longer obeyed Xi Buyao so completely.

"I have to come back and date my fellow countryman."

That was practically all the courage Xi Shui could muster.

After saying it, he hurriedly hung up, tossed his phone onto the sofa, and ran over to Zhou Zeqi's place.

He had given Xi Buyao a hint, hoping Xi Buyao would be mentally prepared.

Xi Buyao: "…"

–

Xi Shui also told Zhou Zeqi about it.

Zhou Zeqi put the chopsticks into his hand. "Your dad won't think you'd actually fall in love. Your dad's pretty simple."

This was the first time Xi Shui had ever heard someone call Xi Buyao simple.

Actually, everyone in the Xi family had a kind of purity that differed from most people.

Halfway through the meal, Xi Shui suddenly remembered something. He put down his bowl and chopsticks. "Next month is your birthday. Do you have anything, um, special you want?"

Zhou Zeqi slowly set down his chopsticks. "I do."

"What?" Xi Shui liked to ask clearly before buying gifts according to need. He wasn't very good at surprises and things like that.

Zhou Zeqi got up to grab his phone. As he walked, he looked down and searched for something. After finding it, he handed the phone to Xi Shui.

It was Wu Fengyi and the others' chat log, and what they had sent was an image.

No model, just a white background, then a few accessories, white cat-ear headbands, a white leather collar, white suspender fishnet stockings, white cat-paw gloves, except the palms were pink, and a few other things Xi Shui would need the descriptions to understand.

After reading it, Xi Shui stared blankly at Zhou Zeqi, who had been standing beside him and hadn't moved. "What is this?"

Zhou Zeqi bent down, one arm resting on the back of Xi Shui's chair. Rarely did he smile like a fox the way he did now. "You just asked what I wanted."

"Yes." Xi Shui was terrified of Zhou Zeqi looking at him like that. He swallowed and nodded in answer.

"I want to see you wearing everything in the picture, the whole set. Not a single piece missing." Zhou Zeqi touched Xi Shui's ear, his voice low, coaxing Xi Shui until he had no idea where he was anymore.