KMYB | Chapter 50

Fortunately, Zhou Zeqi only shed one tear, unlike Xi Shui, who cried nonstop at certain times.

Zhou Zeqi rarely showed his vulnerability, and that made Xi Shui muddle-headedly agree to a whole string of conditions.

For example:

They had to make sure they spent an hour every day on calls or video chats;

They had to exchange their WeChat account passwords.

And also:

Even if he went abroad, he still had to think about him every day…

"Then if I don't think about you, you won't know, will you?" Xi Shui voiced a reasonable objection to that demand.

Zhou Zeqi pressed close to him and lowered his voice to say something.

Xi Shui's body hair stood on end at once. He practically jumped off Zhou Zeqi's lap as if he had burned his butt, smoothed down his training clothes, and said with red ears, "How could that be? I don't believe you."

"Then try it sometime," Zhou Zeqi said unhurriedly.

"Try it, then."

–

The weather in the capital was dry, and heaven was stingy with water, sending it all down south. The south had already reported several flash floods, while the trees here in the capital looked like they were about to catch fire from the sun.

Xi Shui was stretching in the practice room at school, while Li Weiwei next to him was desperately holding up his leg, kicking left and then right. As she kicked, she chatted with him, "Did you get the email from Nuluo Ballet Academy?"

"I haven't checked my mailbox yet," Xi Shui said, leaning over the barre. "How do you know the email came?"

"Senior Blue Lan posted about it on Moments," Li Weiwei said with a laugh, tossing her leg up to her head. "I figured I'd ask you too~"

Blue Lan was the third-year senior Xi Shui greatly admired, and also the one who had taught him not to casually date around.

"I'll go back and check," Xi Shui said.

Li Weiwei lowered her leg and tilted her head. "You don't seem… very happy?"

Lin Xiaojin, drinking water nearby, said, "Of course not. Once he goes abroad, it'll be for a whole year. The academy over there is way more intense than ours, with more exams and more performances, and it's overseas. But that's not the main thing. The main thing is, he'll be separated from Old Zhou, right?"

Xi Shui nodded. "Yeah."

Li Weiwei went, "Ah, it's fine. We'll help you keep an eye on him."

Xi Shui looked blank. "Keep an eye on him for what?"

"You idiot!"

"If you're not around, once he starts his internship and joins his own company," Li Weiwei began counting on her fingers for Xi Shui, "then he'll be rich, handsome, the boss's own son, the designated heir, and he's already good-looking. If people at school know you two are a couple, they'll probably be pretty self-aware, but the people outside may not be. Just based on that background of his, there'll definitely be plenty of people throwing themselves at him."

Xi Shui had never thought about any of that.

"I believe in him."

Lin Xiaojin nodded furiously. "Exactly, exactly. If people are throwing themselves at him, our Xiaoxi has people who like him too."

Li Weiwei nearly lost her mind. "They're a couple! Why compare who has more love rivals?"

Lin Xiaojin was silent for a moment, then tentatively asked Xi Shui, "Why don't you let Zhou Zeqi accompany you? Just for one year."

Xi Shui shook his head very decisively. There was a firmness in his clean, clear eyes that belonged to him alone. "I don't want my own plans to affect or delay his life plans. Then wouldn't he become my accessory? I'm just going abroad to study. If I really like him, and he likes me too, then it doesn't matter whether it's one day or one year."

So the things Li Weiwei had said, Xi Shui had never thought about. Even now that they had been pointed out, he still trusted Zhou Zeqi, and trusted their relationship.

His mother had said that when you start doubting the other person, doubting a relationship, that is exactly the beginning of that relationship's collapse.

But Xi Shui still hadn't told Li Wanzhi that he had a boyfriend. Before going abroad, he needed to tell his mother, and let Zhou Zeqi meet his family too.

Lin Xiaojin rested her chin on her hand and skipped over that heavy topic, bringing up something else. "I'm going to pick up a package later."

"I'm going too," Xi Shui said.

"What are you going for? Your packages are always sent home, aren't they?" Lin Xiaojin asked curiously.

Xi Shui's expression turned a little awkward. "It's something Zhou Zeqi bought. He filled in the school address before and never changed it."

"What did he buy?" Lin Xiaojin asked casually.

"Um… I don't know," Xi Shui said softly.

"Then we'll go together later," Lin Xiaojin said.

–

As soon as they came out of the school bathhouse, there was a sudden rumble overhead. Xi Shui looked at the sky, which had darkened all at once. "Is it going to rain?"

Lin Xiaojin pulled him along. "Come on, let's hurry and get the package."

There were more than a dozen package pickup stations at Jinda, and the one Xi Shui needed happened to be the same as Lin Xiaojin's.

Xi Shui entered the pickup code on his phone. The boy working part-time in a uniform asked casually, "What did you buy? Is it a big item?"

Xi Shui looked blank. "I don't know, it's clothes."

It counted as clothes, right?

Anyway, it was something Zhou Zeqi bought. Zhou Zeqi had no classes that afternoon. He was training at the swimming pool and had Xi Shui pick up the package first before going home.

"Then it probably isn't big," the other person muttered to himself and turned to look on the shelf. He searched for a while but couldn't find it. Scratching his head, he stepped back and scanned everything again. In the end, it was a very large box. "Whoa! You must've remembered wrong. What clothes need such a huge box?"

It was even bigger than a twenty-inch suitcase. It wasn't heavy, though. Xi Shui signed his name and carried the box to the entrance. "What did you buy?" he asked Lin Xiaojin.

As he unpacked it, Lin Xiaojin said mysteriously, "Guess."

She didn't really expect Xi Shui to guess it correctly.

In a few quick moves, she tore off the wrapping, tossed the trash into the box by the door, and turned around. "A pair of sunglasses!"

Only the lenses were cat-shaped, and there were also two thin chains hanging from the sides of the frames. They were not exactly refined or understated, because two little bells dangled from the chains too.

Xi Shui: "…"

Lin Xiaojin put the glasses on, beaming as if she had picked up a treasure. "Xiaoxi, what did Old Zhou buy? Let me see."

Xi Shui immediately became alert. He hugged the cardboard box tightly. "His stuff, we shouldn't open it. That's rude."

"Oh, right. Rude."

After saying goodbye to Lin Xiaojin, Xi Shui hugged the package and hurried home. Before he even got out of school, raindrops the size of beans came crashing down, hitting his face with a chilly touch. As Xi Shui ran, there was also a sound coming from inside the package.

He slowed down, lowered his head, and pressed his ear against the package, shaking the box once. What he heard was the same kind of bell-like jingling as Lin Xiaojin's bizarre sunglasses.

So strange.

What on earth had Zhou Zeqi bought?

By the time he got home, Xi Shui's clothes were already wet through in most places. He set the package on top of the shoe cabinet, took off his backpack, and peeled off his drenched shirt before rushing into the bathroom.

Thunder kept rumbling outside. Only when Xi Shui ran into the bathroom did he remember, Zhou Zeqi was still at school!

He didn't have time to shower. Xi Shui grabbed a clean shirt and put it on, took a large umbrella, and hurried back to school.

The rain this time was astonishingly heavy, pouring down in sheets, the kind of summer downpour that happened often.

In just a short while, the sky had grown utterly dark. Thunder mixed with the occasional flash of lightning, and the ink-colored sky seemed to have been brutally torn open by a gaping crack.

Xi Shui looked up overhead. He held the umbrella with both hands, but water somehow seeped in, gathered along the ribs, then ran down the shaft in streams into his palm, dripping steadily down.

His shoes and pants were completely soaked.

Before he even reached the swimming pool, he saw a group of boys standing at the entrance. They didn't seem to take the heavy rain seriously at all and were still chatting and laughing.

Zhou Zeqi had his head lowered, sending Xi Shui a message, wondering if Xi Shui had gone home yet. With rain this heavy…

Wu Fengyi patted Zhou Zeqi on the shoulder. "Old Zhou, look who's here."

Zhou Zeqi looked up, and just then Xi Shui walked under the eaves of the swimming pool with his umbrella.

Xi Shui was soaked all over except for his head. His shirt was semi-transparent as he looked up the steps at Zhou Zeqi among the crowd. He was still very happy. "I came to pick you up!"

"…" Zhou Zeqi took a deep breath, turned around, pulled his jacket out of his backpack, and went down to place it directly over Xi Shui's shoulders. "What were you thinking?"

"An umbrella doesn't help against this rain."

Xi Shui folded his umbrella and stood it aside, then shoved his hands into the sleeves. "I was afraid you'd get caught in the rain."

Zhou Zeqi answered him with the same words. "I was afraid you'd get caught in the rain."

"Forget it." Zhou Zeqi opened the umbrella, pressed down on the canopy, and pulled Xi Shui into his arms to shelter him, while turning back to Wu Fengyi and the others. "We're heading out first."

Meng Kewen watched the figures of the two of them walking into the rain, then looked at Wu Fengyi and Zhang Kan. "What about us?"

Wu Fengyi sat down on the steps. "What do you mean, us? Let's wait for the rain to stop, or just dash through it."

Zhang Kan said, "Let's just dash through it. Count it as taking a shower."

"I think that works."

So a group of people let out ghostly wails and charged into the rain, while the couple in the other direction under a single umbrella looked like they had stepped out of a completely different youth movie.

–

By the time they got home, rainwater was dripping down Zhou Zeqi's hair. Xi Shui, protected by Zhou Zeqi, hadn't been hit on the head by a single drop. He stood in the entryway and looked at the huge puddle quickly gathering beneath his feet. He stamped at his shoes, and a squelching sound came from inside them.

He let out a silly laugh, about to share it with Zhou Zeqi, when his chin was pinched and he was pressed against the door. The kiss mixed together with the cold smell of rain and slipped into his mouth. The feel of wet clothes clinging to his body was not pleasant, cold and sticky.

The oxygen left in Xi Shui's chest was squeezed away until almost none remained.

He tilted his head back, his tongue sucked numb and sore.

Zhou Zeqi lifted him with one hand and set him on the shoe cabinet, leaning in to kiss him, biting at other places too.

Xi Shui clutched Zhou Zeqi's hair, which was completely soaked, and his palm became wet too.

Thunder boomed outside. Lightning flashed now and then, making the sky suddenly blaze so bright it hurt to look at. Only in those split seconds could one make out the two people in the bathroom.

The little swan was caught by the throat and gave a low, mournful cry.

Its soft white feathers, pure beyond compare, were tangled together from the wetness, and it still had to endure the fierce impact from outside. But the little swan's cries were completely drowned out by the rain.

Xi Shui fell into deep sleep in Zhou Zeqi's arms. Zhou Zeqi helped him wash thoroughly, wiped him dry, and tucked him into bed.

Even when blow-drying his hair, Xi Shui was only half-awake. He muttered a few lines with drooping eyelids, then fell asleep again.

First, rainy days make it easy to sleep.

Second, he had been worked very hard.

Third, he had cried very hard.

Zhou Zeqi was fine, though. Dance students had decent stamina, but compared with high-and-mighty athletes like Zhou Zeqi, who had been doing sports for more than ten years, there was still a huge gap.

After taking care of Xi Shui, Zhou Zeqi went to clean the bathroom, mopped up all the water in the entryway, then went to the kitchen to put beef brisket on to simmer in a pressure cooker before finally having time to unpack the package.

Halfway through, Zhou Zeqi slowly closed the box again. He still wanted to see Xi Shui open it himself.

It was still early, just past eight. Because of the terrible weather, the lights in the room looked pale and lonely.

Zhou Zeqi sat on the sofa reading a book on economics and management, along with some of the company's business plans from previous years.

Xi Shui's phone, left on the sofa, buzzed and vibrated.

It was a call from the administration office at their dance school, and Xi Shui had saved it with a note.

"Hello." Zhou Zeqi's voice was a little hoarse from the rain and from not speaking for a long time.

The person on the other end immediately knew it wasn't Xi Shui. "Where's Xi Shui?"

"He's asleep. If there's anything, you can tell me, and I'll pass it on to him later," Zhou Zeqi said as he stood up to pour some water.

"All right," the other person said calmly. "It's like this, the email from Nuluo Ballet Academy has already been sent to his personal mailbox. Please remind him to check it and reply to the academy office over there."

Zhou Zeqi paused slightly. "All right."

"Also, we hope he will carefully consider the invitation from the Nuluo Ballet Company."

Zhou Zeqi lowered his eyes. "All right."

After the administration office hung up, Zhou Zeqi came back to himself and realized the water in the cup had overflowed all over the floor.

–

Xi Shui slept only for an hour. He touched his stomach. He was hungry, so he touched the area above it too, then blushed and pulled the blanket over his head.

Zhou Zeqi, who had been sitting by the edge of the bed the whole time, sensed that he was awake and reached out to tug the blanket down from the top of his head. "Awake?"

The master bedroom hadn't been lit. Xi Shui could only vaguely make out Zhou Zeqi's outline. He sat up and switched on the wall lamp. "Y-You, why are you sitting there?"

Zhou Zeqi turned to look at him. "The administration office called you. They told you to reply to the email from that academy. And also, why did the dance company invite you too?"

Nuluo Ballet Company was one of the world's six major ballet companies. A ballet dancer invited there should feel immensely honored, and ought to accept immediately.

They must have seen Xi Shui's performance at the Arts Carnival some time ago and sent the invitation.

Xi Shui scratched his hair. "I'm only going to the dance academy to study, not to the company."

"Why not?"

"I was born here, and I grew up here. Why would I go to a foreign ballet company?" Xi Shui hugged the blanket. He had always only had this one reason for refusing those ballet company invitations, but now he should have a second reason too. In a low voice, he said, "You're here too. Since you're here, I'm not going anywhere else."

Zhou Zeqi wiped his face and said nothing.

Xi Shui hugged the blanket and slowly scooted over, then rested on Zhou Zeqi's shoulder and said something in a scratchy voice.

Zhou Zeqi immediately laughed. "What did you say?"

"I said…" Xi Shui leaned even closer, grabbed Zhou Zeqi's hand, and said softly, "Meow~"