SMMW | Chapter 41

Only after they had laughed and played around enough did the two of them remember that they were hungry. Wen Qing had missed lunch, and Song Hao had simply missed both meals.

Song Hao asked, “What do you want to eat?”

The moment he asked, a list of restaurants started running through his mind, which ones were good, which ones were nearby, whether Wen Qing had any dietary restrictions now that he had only just recovered from being sick.

But Wen Qing said, “I want to eat at a street stall.”

“?”

“You know, the kind where the stalls line up along the street, selling all kinds of things, like the one after the poetry gathering, when you treated me to food.” Wen Qing described it to him with a hint of excitement.

“Why?”

Song Hao could not understand it. After all, no one went out specifically planning to eat at roadside stalls. Weren’t those the kind of things people only bought conveniently on the way to or from work?

“My mom says roadside stalls are dirty and won’t let me eat them, so I’ve only had them a few times. And I’ve never bought my way from one end of the whole row to the other.”

“…”

So this had actually become an obsession?

Were those brainless dramas really telling the truth, where the overbearing CEO takes one bite of “astonishing instant noodles” and immediately falls in love?

Song Hao started educating this young master about how ordinary people lived. “Nobody buys from one end to the other. In the game, I only did that to gain stat bonuses for the exams.”

“Oh.”

The young master looked disappointed.

Song Hao continued persuading him. “Those little stalls don’t really care much about hygiene. If you eat there, it’s easy to get diarrhea. You just recovered from being sick, so you’d better not eat that stuff.”

Wen Qing still refused to give up. “Will every single one of them give me diarrhea?”

“Well, not exactly.” Song Hao could not bring himself to lie and say every single stall was a problem. “But my stomach has been tempered through years of hardship, it’s a seasoned warrior. You’re different. Your pure defense stat is zero, total newbie.”

“…Oh.”

He looked even more disappointed now.

Song Hao started maliciously suspecting that maybe this was Wen Qing’s tactic, advancing by retreating, showing weakness to lure the enemy, patiently tightening the net step by step…

“Ahem. There’s a night market two streets away from the neighborhood gate. The stalls should already be set up by now… I can take you to have a look.”

“Okay!” Wen Qing agreed happily.

Damn it. He really had done it on purpose.

Saying “have a look” was really just Song Hao agreeing to take him there to eat.

The sky had only just darkened, but the night market was already lively. There was a special management office here, and all the stalls were standardized to the same size and layout, much more reliable than the random tricycle stalls people set up along the roadside.

Red and green signs, the aroma of frying and grilling, strings of blinking colorful lights.

“Wow~” Wen Qing stood at the entrance to the night market with sparkling eyes and an expression of complete delight, looking exactly like someone sightseeing on vacation.

What exactly are you wow-ing at? Even the guy selling grilled sausages next to you is staring!

Song Hao felt a little embarrassed and dragged him farther inside. Wen Qing thought this was new, and that was new, everything seemed fresh to him. But just like they had said, they were only “having a look,” and he really did only look. He never actually said he wanted to buy anything.

Though it was obvious that he really, really wanted to eat.

He’s doing this on purpose, right? He looks young, but he’s got plenty of tricks in him.

Song Hao surrendered. “Since we’re already here, if you want to eat something, then just eat it.”

“Really?”

Song Hao inwardly sighed that this really was an excellent tactic, and silently pulled out his phone to pay. Spicy squid, freshly squeezed orange juice, takoyaki, cheese buldak noodles, iron-plate tofu, grilled pig trotters, stir-fried rice cakes…

In short, just like Wen Qing had said at the beginning, “from one end to the other,” they really did buy from one end of the market to the other without stopping, each person ending up with an average of seven or eight plastic bags hanging from them.

There was a small square in the middle of the night market, with a circle of tables set out specifically for customers. The two of them had come early, so there were still lots of empty seats. As soon as they set the food down, one entire table was full.

Thanks to Wen Qing, this was also Song Hao’s first time eating such a complete spread.

Wen Qing put on a pair of plastic gloves and ate a little of this and a little of that. When he got thirsty and wanted a drink, he stopped again right before touching the cup.

He held up both hands, covered in sauce, and showed them to Song Hao as he asked for help. “Can you help me put in the straw?”

Song Hao had not been eating anything that needed to be handled directly. He had been using chopsticks, so he asked in confusion, “Aren’t you wearing gloves?”

“…”

Got it.

If the gloves touched the drink, then the drink would count as contaminated. It was the same logic as when he had eaten roast duck and could not touch the teacup.

Song Hao stuck the straw into the orange juice and held it up to Wen Qing’s mouth, teasing him, “Drink up, young master~”

Wen Qing lowered his head in embarrassment and took a sip. Song Hao did not keep teasing him and simply put the orange juice back down in front of him.

Wen Qing was eating honey-glazed grilled pig trotter. He tore off a piece of meat, removed the bone, and held it up to Song Hao’s mouth.

This time it was Song Hao’s turn to feel awkward.

Seeing Wen Qing’s cheerful, smiling look, Song Hao felt like he could not lose, so he lowered his head and ate it.

Wen Qing pulled back a point. “I’m not a young master, so stop calling me that.”

“Not a young master? There’s no way we can finish all this. You’re just trying everything because it’s new.”

Wen Qing stubbornly insisted, “I can take it to feed stray dogs.”

“Stray dogs eat buldak noodles?”

“…”

“Hahahahahahaha. Alright then, leave the things dogs can eat for the dogs, and the things dogs can’t eat, you eat.”

Wen Qing knew Song Hao was still teasing him, so he deliberately put on a fierce face. “Then I am a young master. There’s sauce on my mouth, help me wipe it off.”

There really was sauce on his mouth. His plastic gloves were covered in sauce, and taking them off and putting them back on again would be troublesome. He had not touched the drinks, so naturally he had not touched the napkins either.

Song Hao pulled out a napkin and beckoned to him. “Young master, come a little closer.”

He himself stayed seated and did not move, making the young master lean his face over so he could wipe him.

Wen Qing scooted closer so that Song Hao could reach him. He had originally wanted to counterattack, but in the end he was the one who felt awkward.

Song Hao wiped him one stroke at a time, slowly and leisurely, while still not letting him off with his mouth. “How old is the young master this year? What books does the young master usually study?”

“I’m a junior in college, majoring in printmaking.”

“Then I’m probably two or three years older than you. You should call me ge.”

After Song Hao finished wiping him, Wen Qing immediately sat back, and only once he had confirmed there was some distance again did he answer, “Baishu-ge.”

“Hahahahahahaha, you’re pretty cheeky. You weren’t this talkative in the game.”

Wen Qing looked a little downcast and muttered softly, “In the game, you couldn’t hear anything I said.”

“What?”

“In the game, sometimes when I spoke, you couldn’t see it either. Maybe it went beyond the game’s limits. Like when I said that I knew you could rewind time.”

Song Hao thought about it. That really had happened, and it had become more frequent later on. He could only see Wen Qing’s mouth moving, and there was no dialogue box at all. He had thought it was just a game bug.

“Then what did you say to me? I can hear it now.” Song Hao even put on a serious listening posture. He genuinely wanted to know what content he had missed.

But Wen Qing’s face instantly turned bright red. The first thing that came to mind was that concealed confession.

Wen Qing lowered his head and started eating fiercely without saying a word.

“Hey? We were chatting. Keep going.”

Wen Qing started deboning chicken feet for Song Hao, clearly trying to block his mouth with food.

“Don’t bother with that, I’ll eat it later.” Song Hao set the deboned chicken foot Wen Qing handed him off to one side. “…Did you secretly curse me out?”

He’s acting that guilty. He definitely took advantage of the fact that I couldn’t hear him and cursed me out, didn’t he?

Wen Qing froze for a moment and thought that this was still better than admitting to the confession.

And besides… he really had cursed him before.

“So you really did curse me? What did you call me?” Song Hao became even more curious.

“…I said you were a deaf, smelly monster.”

“Monster?”

“I realized you could rewind time, so I thought you were a monster. I confronted you about it, but you couldn’t hear me.”

“You could remember all my reloads?”

Holy crap. When I dug herbs, I reloaded five or six times like it was nothing. If he went through every rewind with me, that would have been torture.

“No. I could only sense the ones connected to me, like the exams.” At this point, Wen Qing looked at Song Hao with grievance. “Every single time, I had to go through the exams with you at least three times.”

That really was painful.

Song Hao felt guilty, so he poked a takoyaki straight into Wen Qing’s mouth. “Young master, calm your anger, young master, please enjoy a takoyaki.”

Even though they had bought a lot of food, fortunately everything came in small portions, and there were also drinks like orange juice and coconut water that did not take up much space in the stomach. In the end, the two grown men managed to eat through most of it. Then they picked out some leftovers that dogs could eat, so in the end nothing went to waste.

After eating and drinking their fill, the two of them strolled slowly to help digestion and chatted idly as they walked.

When they passed a pharmacy, Song Hao went inside for a moment. When he came back out, he handed Wen Qing a small bag. “There’s digestive tablets in there, and medicine for diarrhea too. When you get home, check the ingredients first and make sure you’re not allergic before taking anything.”

“Will I definitely get diarrhea?”

“Just in case.”

Wen Qing took the bag and carried it in his hand together with his “dog takeout.”

By the time they had wandered all the way to eight-thirty, Wen Manqiu sent Wen Qing a message asking where he had gone.

He was still in recovery, so he needed more sleep. The doctor’s rule for him was that he had to be in bed by ten-thirty at the latest. There were still two hours left.

Wen Qing looked at Song Hao hesitantly. “My mom sent me a message. I should go home now.”

Song Hao instinctively grabbed Wen Qing by the wrist.

Sent a message? His mother knew how to use a phone. The home he was going back to was… his real home.

Wen Qing looked at Song Hao in confusion. Song Hao let go and hurriedly patched it up. “Want to add each other on WeChat?”

“Okay.” Wen Qing lowered his head to pull up his QR code.

Song Hao opened the scan function and, without really thinking, started saying some polite nonsense. “From now on we’re friends, so if we have time we can get together for food and games…”

He had not even finished this whole polite speech and had not even sent the friend request yet when he suddenly saw that Wen Qing had a hurt expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

Wen Qing said something. His mouth moved, but his voice was too soft to hear.

The moment Song Hao saw this, he got a little scared. He grabbed Wen Qing’s wrist again, and only after feeling that it was tangible did he relax slightly. “I didn’t hear that.”

Wen Qing drew in a breath. This time he spoke loudly enough to be heard. “We’re already married. At the very least, that makes us… boyfriends.”

Boyfriends?

Inside Song Hao’s head, the alarm labeled Straight Man immediately escalated to Level One.

Emergency! Emergency!!!

A paper character was one thing, when I was little I even liked Sakuragi Hanamichi! But this is a real person. A real man. If I become his boyfriend, that means I’m being a boyfriend to a man. That means I’m gay, that means male-male, does this mean I’m really going to be gay?

Song Hao’s mouth opened and closed several times. In the end, under Wen Qing’s nervous gaze, he spat out a single word.

“Okay.”

Who you’re a boyfriend to is still being a boyfriend anyway. It’s all the same.

At least, that was how Song Hao convinced himself.

Ding-dong!

Wen Qing received a friend request.

The application message from the other side read, AAA Boyfriend Song Hao

Wen Qing looked at those few words, and the smile at the corners of his mouth grew wider and wider. His eyes curved into slits as he stared at the phone over and over.

In the end it was Song Hao who cracked first, reminding him in a rough voice, “Hurry up and accept it.”

Wen Qing accepted, then immediately grew curious. “Then what note did you give me?”

“Hm? It’s nothing. Hurry up and call a car to go home.”

“I haven’t called a car yet. Tell me first.”

Song Hao refused to speak, which only made Wen Qing even more curious.

“What is it?”

“…Qinqin.” Song Hao looked off to one side and muttered vaguely.

To find out, I have to qin him?

Wen Qing suddenly got nervous.

But they were already in a romantic relationship now, so kissing once was perfectly normal, right?

Song Hao had turned his face slightly to the side, probably waiting for Wen Qing to take the initiative. Wen Qing silently encouraged himself, grabbed Song Hao’s arm, and slowly leaned in toward Song Hao’s cheek, touching it very lightly.

Just from that one touch, he was already red as a tomato. Even so, he still pretended nothing was wrong. “Can you tell me now?”

A long while passed, and there was still no answer.

When he lifted his head, the other tomato was covering his face too, already about eighty percent ripe.

“Huh?” Big Tomato had no idea what to say.

“Ah…” Little Tomato had no idea what was going on.

Big Tomato turned his phone around for Little Tomato to see. “It’s Qingqing.”

The note on the WeChat screen was Qingqing.

The misunderstanding had come from some very difficult qing/qin sounds.

He had misheard…

“My ride is here,” Wen Qing said.

“Didn’t you just say you hadn’t even called one yet?” Song Hao said.

“Anyway, it’s here already, I’m leaving first!”

Wen Qing ignored objective reality, turned round and ran off like a little rolling ball.

Song Hao watched Wen Qing’s back grow farther and farther away, smaller and smaller. He thought, It’s not even that big a deal. Did he really need to be this shy?

Since it was not far from home, he tucked his hands in his pockets and strolled slowly back.

The evening was cool, and there were lots of people out on the streets.

Young guys playing basketball and middle-aged aunties dancing had broken through the limits of age and life experience and were happily conversing together in a somewhat cramped square.

A young couple watched indulgently as their child jumped around inside the fountain pool. With one stomp of those little feet, a whole splash of water flew up, printing countless beautiful droplet patterns across the mother’s skirt and the father’s shirt.

A bird carried a black fluffball in its beak and hopped from branch to branch, while beneath the tree, a bald old man also hopped back and forth, his shiny forehead reflecting the jumping moonlight.

What a beautiful evening it was~

The smile at Song Hao’s mouth grew wider and wider. His cheekbones lifted high, and his lips were almost unable to cover his teeth.

He hurriedly covered his face with his hand and crouched down by the roadside. After quite a while, a ridiculously silly laugh leaked out through the gaps between his fingers.

“Hehe~”