Raine: I learned a few tricks from fellow translators over Discord hehe.
“What are you looking at?”
Su Zhiyan noticed that Shen Nianjing’s gaze lingering on him all day, and when he walked over just now, Shen Nianjing even looked him up and down with such intensity.
This was the first time Shen Nianjing stared at him like this, completely different from every other time before.
But he couldn’t say exactly what was different. Either way, this kind of intense attention inexplicably made him nervous.
“Is there something wrong with me today?” Su Zhiyan asked.
Shen Nianjing cleared his throat awkwardly. “No,” he said. “You look… really good.””
The weight of Shen Nianjing’s gaze felt almost tangible. Although it made Su Zhiyan feel a bit uncomfortable, he didn’t find it annoying.
“…” He lowered his head to avoid Shen Nianjing’s stare, reached up to scratch his cheek, then casually took off his glasses and set them aside. “I went home yesterday.”
When he opened his bedroom closet, he found all his fall clothes had been completely switched out. He turned around and saw Su Zhiyao covering her mouth and giggling secretly at the door.
Then this morning, his sister pressed him in front of the closet and made him try on outfit after outfit like she was dressing up her favorite childhood doll. Finally they settled on this DK uniform-style[mfn]DK制服 (DK zhìfú): DK is an acronym for the Japanese 男子高校生 (Danshi Kōkōsei, meaning “male high school student”). A “DK style outfit” mimics the classic Japanese male school uniform, typically consisting of a black or navy jacket with a stand-up collar (a gakuran or blazer), matching trousers, a white shirt, and a tie.[/mfn] outfit.
She also very generously “lent” him her non-prescription glasses, then wished him and Shen Nianjing a fun time before sending her big brother out the door.
“Yaoyao picked this out for you?” Shen Nianjing immediately understood what he meant and praised Su Zhiyao’s taste. “Little sisters definitely have way better fashion sense than their big brothers.”
Su Zhiyan felt a bit indignant when he heard this. “I think I usually dress pretty well too.”
Shen Nianjing suddenly raised an eyebrow and laughed softly. He didn’t expect Su Zhiyan to actually get competitive about this.
So cute!
“I think you dress great too!” he immediately replied, then asked, “So what do you think about me?”
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes bright and sparkling as he looked at Su Zhiyan.
Su Zhiyan gave him a once-over.
Shen Nianjing’s usual style was just like his own, very simple.
But today he seemed to have changed things up a bit. Although Su Zhiyan couldn’t pinpoint the specific details, he could feel that overall Shen Nianjing looked more eye-catching than before.
Did he even do something with his hair?
Shen Nianjing was already a tall, handsome guy with traditionally good looks, sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, strong and defined features. Plus because he liked sports, he had all the right muscles in all the right places.
Now for some reason he seemed to be actually trying to dress himself up. Su Zhiyan thought about it. Could this guy be planning to become a aesthetics influencer[mfn]I’m not sure about the recent internet terms today TT. 颜值博主 (yánzhí bózhǔ): 颜值 = literally “face value,” i.e. attractiveness, good looks. 博主 = blogger/content creator. It’s someone whose popularity/content relies heavily on their good looks. They may not necessarily be a pro in fashion or beauty, just attractive and posting selfies, lifestyle content, etc. I’m not sure whether to use fashion blogger/beauty blogger/lifestyle blogger because they all seem to be too specific. I asked chatgpt, and it recommended aesthetics influencer, google gave me nothing so I guess this is not really a real term people use, but I will use it hehe[/mfn] like Zhou Zhou?
“Pretty good,” he smiled and commented. “You’ve got potential as an aesthetics influencer.”
He thought Shen Nianjing would definitely appreciate this evaluation.
Shen Nianjing: “…”
He wanted to hear Su Zhiyan say he liked what style of clothes he wore or what he needed to improve, not get a career assessment.
But it didn’t matter. At least what Su Zhiyan meant was that he was really handsome!
Shen Nianjing’s mood immediately brightened.
It was worth all that last-minute cramming he’d done since last night, searching online for men’s fall fashion and styling tutorials. Looked like it worked out pretty well!
While they waited for their food, Shen Nianjing looked Su Zhiyan over again from head to toe.
His condition had been getting better and better lately. His complexion was rosy, even his hair had a healthy shine to it. He could totally compete with the celebrities walking red carpets on TV.
Shen Nianjing suddenly had an idea. “That dream of yours…”
Being suddenly asked about the dream, Su Zhiyan looked up calmly and said, “What about it?”
On the way back to school after he’d cleared up the misunderstanding with Shen Nianjing that day, he’d already figured out what his “nightmare” would be about.
He had to thank this guy’s imagination. All that stuff about “monsters, fear of heights, fear of the deep sea” – Su Zhiyan just combined it all and prepared an end-of-the-world lost-in-the-wilderness version.
Scary enough, exciting enough.
It would definitely convince Shen Nianjing’s way of thinking.
He felt confident and relaxed, smiling as he prepared for whatever Shen Nianjing would ask next.
“Do you think your dream might evolve? Maybe we should touch each other more every day,” Shen Nianjing said.
He blinked and smiled at Su Zhiyan like a happy little puppy wagging its tail.
Su Zhiyan: “…It won’t.”
Since Shen Nianjing didn’t ask about the content of the dream, all of Su Zhiyan’s prepared explanations were completely useless. But he didn’t feel disappointed because he was already numb to it.
Shen Nianjing never followed any kind of logic anyway.
But he was a bit confused about why Shen Nianjing thought the dream might “evolve.” Although he was sure that kind of thing would never happen, he still briefly imagined it in his mind…
Before he’d met Shen Nianjing, the person in his dreams was a faceless man. But when Shen Nianjing played “hide and seek,” the person who appeared in his dreams was completely and totally Shen Nianjing.
This was actually worth thinking about, but during that time he’d been so focused on finding Shen Nianjing and explaining the misunderstanding that he’d completely forgotten about it.
Evolve…?
Su Zhiyan frowned. If that could really happen, wouldn’t God be way too cruel to him!
“Okay then.” Shen Nianjing’s mouth drooped down when he heard this.
Su Zhiyan didn’t understand why Shen Nianjing looked unhappy after he denied it. He couldn’t figure it out, so he just stopped thinking about it.
–
His phone buzzed. Su Zhiyan looked down at it.
Su Zhiyan was a bit surprised and picked up his phone to type.
Shen Nianjing had been trying way too hard lately to help him get good sleep. Every day he confirmed times and locations, and sometimes he’d even wait right outside the classroom for him to finish, then they’d eat together.
It was a lot like how they used to interact, except their roles were switched around.
Su Zhiyan was confused. This was something that could be done in just a few minutes after class ended. Why did Shen Nianjing need to go through all this trouble and get up so early?
Could it be that life was going too smoothly so he had to find ways to make himself miserable?
Right after he sent the message, a reply popped up.
Su Zhiyan: “…”
He really must be bored out of his mind.
“I’m sitting here, right?”
A clear, gentle voice spoke up. Su Zhiyan looked up to see Shen Nianjing in a full athletic outfit gracefully taking his seat.
“?” He looked Shen Nianjing’s outfit up and down.
A blue and white varsity jacket with a hoodie underneath. His long legs and well-proportioned body made even simple casual sportswear look like he was walking a runway.
He even had a sports headband on, with his hair pulled up but still falling freely and naturally. He looked more spirited than usual.
Su Zhiyan just stared at Shen Nianjing like this, looking him over from top to bottom.
The corner of Shen Nianjing’s mouth curved up slightly as he turned his body a bit, letting Su Zhiyan look him over.
This was exactly the effect he wanted!
“Hmm.” Su Zhiyan tilted his head and thought about it.
Shen Nianjing puffed out his chest and smiled with complete satisfaction.
Come on, praise me!
“No wonder you weren’t too happy when I said you should be an aesthetics influencer that day,” Su Zhiyan said seriously. “So you’re going for the fashion influencer route instead?”
Shen Nianjing: “?”
Su Zhiyan smiled and gave his friend the biggest encouragement and support. “Whatever kind of creator you want to be, you definitely have the potential for it.”
After saying this, he turned his head away and didn’t look at Shen Nianjing again.
Shen Nianjing: “……”
The smile disappeared from his face instantly.
Su Zhiyan was looking at his phone, so Shen Nianjing slowly leaned back in his chair and stared at Su Zhiyan without saying a word.
But this kind of long, intense stare was way too obvious.
Su Zhiyan turned back to look at him, a bit confused. “What’s wrong?”
After saying this, he thought about it and added, “You’re going to have to take this class anyway later. If you don’t want to listen, you could actually go walk around campus for a while.”
“Isn’t there a choir performance in the North Plaza today?”
The choir performances by A University’s vocal music majors followed current trends and appealed to the masses, so they were always really enjoyable to watch and experience. They went viral online every year, and lots of students would run over to watch them.
Su Zhiyan suddenly felt like making Shen Nianjing sit in a classroom for an 8 AM class was really unfair to him.
“You don’t actually need to sit in class with me,” he emphasized. “We just need to have contact every day.”
But Shen Nianjing still didn’t say anything, just kept staring straight at Su Zhiyan.
Su Zhiyan suddenly felt a bit guilty.
Did he say something wrong?
He carefully thought back through everything. Every single word was normal and perfectly fine!
He was still trying to figure out which word was the problem when suddenly Shen Nianjing leaned in close. His handsome, well-defined features instantly filled Su Zhiyan’s vision.
A faint scent of strawberry wafted over.
Su Zhiyan froze. It wasn’t strawberry season right now.
Just as his mind went blank, warm, dry fingers gently brushed past the corner of his eye.
The movement was very gentle.
Su Zhiyan was dazed for a moment, then focused his eyes to look.
Shen Nianjing had already sat back in his seat and slowly blew on his left thumb, then turned and said, “Eyelash.”
“Oh.” Su Zhiyan snapped back to reality and nodded. “Thanks.”
That night when he got back to the dorm, Su Zhiyan finished washing up and flopped onto his bed. He opened his phone and saw a message from Shen Nianjing.
When they had the same class, they often sat together. Normally even if Shen Nianjing didn’t ask, Su Zhiyan would save him a seat anyway.
Su Zhiyan smiled helplessly, feeling like Shen Nianjing was being way too careful about everything, even needing to confirm this.
He was just about to reply when another message came through.
Lunch, just a convenient thing to do.
Su Zhiyan replied “Sure, where should we eat?”
Then the chat suddenly went quiet.
The person who had been chattering in his ear or on his phone all day suddenly became so quiet that Su Zhiyan felt a bit unused to it.
Why did he suddenly stop talking?
It shouldn’t take this long to think about where to eat lunch.
Su Zhiyan waited forever without getting a message, so he sent a “where are you” emoji over, then his eyes caught sight of Shen Nianjing’s smug profile picture.
He reached out and poked it hard twice.
Not replying, huh?
Take that!
The more he looked at that thief-like smiling expression, the more annoying it got, so he kept poking it.
Zoom in, zoom out, zoom in, zoom out.
Like he was poking Shen Nianjing’s actual head, Su Zhiyan was having a great time.
Zoom out
He smiled.
Zoom in.
His smile suddenly froze on his face.
The dog that had been smirking just a second ago suddenly turned into a little bear with a pink background.
The art style even looked a bit like his own profile picture.
Almost exactly the same, except for the disconnected lines and weird perspective, it was almost exactly the same.
He opened the chat with a cold smile.
The reply came instantly.
Su Zhiyan was so annoyed he had to laugh.
He’d never seen someone so shameless.
Su Zhiyan didn’t really care that Shen Nianjing had copied his profile picture.
It was just that background…
That background full of pink bubbles all over the screen looked weirder and weirder the more Su Zhiyan stared at it.
After a while, a reply came.
Su Zhiyan frowned. Why this sudden request?
He’d never told Shen Nianjing he could draw.
His eyes flashed as he suddenly thought of a possibility.
—
Shen Nianjing looked at this line of text and smiled.
—
Su Zhiyan’s pupils shook.
Cute?
This was the first time anyone had used that word to describe him.
Su Zhiyan felt his ears getting a bit itchy.
His face felt hot, so he turned over and buried his head in his blanket.
Just how much did Shen Nianjing know about him from places he couldn’t see?
Su Zhiyan had never liked people or things without boundaries. He’d never gotten close to any of his friends growing up, so most people rarely knew about his hobbies or family situation, let alone random little details.
Shen Nianjing was the first person to know so much about him.
Luckily since he was a decent person, Su Zhiyan didn’t feel too resistant to it.
He just felt a bit uncomfortable.
Like when someone pushes open the door while you’re taking a shower, and you have nowhere to hide so you can only stand there awkwardly or turn around.
His phone buzzed again.
Su Zhiyan reached out and felt around beside him, then lifted his head after finding his phone.
Su Zhiyan stared at that puppy emoji for a long time, then suddenly smiled.
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Cool addition! Thanks for the update