NANSO Chapter 16

TL: Hua

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Chapter 16: Sound Asleep

“Of course it’s for you; who else would it be for?” Xie Yu said irritably.

He snatched the scarf box from Shen Ci’s lap and tossed it to the back seat. “Don’t just sit there like an idiot; put it on for me to see.”

Shen Ci paused slightly. The fabric in his palm was exceptionally soft, of excellent quality, and worth several months of his food money. He awkwardly wrapped the scarf around his neck, circling it tightly twice.

It looked as if he intended to hang himself with it.

Xie Yu: “…Are you stupid? Forget it, I’ll do it.”

He leaned over and re-tied the scarf for Shen Ci, forming a beautiful knot. The tassels hung loosely over Shen Ci’s trench coat, completely enveloping him.

Shen Ci gathered the scarf, lowering his gaze to watch Xie Yu tie the knot. Young Master Xie’s fingers were long, beautiful, and exceptionally nimble: “…Sorry, I haven’t tied one like this before.”

There were no scarves at home, only his grandmother’s old silk scarves, which were wrinkled, faded, and bleached from washing.

Xie Yu paused, properly tied it for him, then sat stiffly in the driver’s seat, his fingers rubbing something, silent for a long time.

Shen Ci: “Then I’ll go to class?”

He reached for the door latch, intending to get out.

Xie Yu stopped him: “Don’t move! There’s more!”

Seeing Shen Ci stop, Xie Yu held the box in his hand, cursing the cursed plot a million times in his mind. Then he closed his eyes and commanded, “Hey, you, lower your head.”

Shen Ci was slightly startled but obediently lowered his head.

Xie Yu: “Tuck your hair back, expose your earlobe.”

Shen Ci tucked his hair behind his ears, revealing his earlobes.

Xie Yu opened the packaging and reached out to press his hand on Shen Ci’s ear rim. The next second, Shen Ci’s earlobe felt a slight prick; something had clipped onto it.

Xie Yu: “This…”

He mumbled a certain noun: “This ear stud too. You’re not allowed to take it off until after class.”

The word “ear” was deliberately slurred and unclear.

Shen Ci tilted his head and saw the small accessory in the car’s rearview mirror: a platinum ear clip the size of a grain of rice, with a beautiful, flowing calligraphic “x” that resembled intertwined vines.

The ear clip was plain-faced. Being small enough, it was very subtle and didn’t attract attention. It was a unisex style, cool against his ear, almost unnoticeable.

Shen Ci touched it: “X?”

Xie Yu narrowed his eyes: “The letter of my family name. What, you don’t want to wear it?”

In the perverse novel, the original owner was determined to leave a mark on Shen Ci. The original description was “*stud with Young Master Xie’s name written on it.” Although the * was censored, Xie Yu could tell with his toes what it was. He was utterly speechless and refused to say it no matter what, so he commissioned this ear clip from a jewelry merchant overnight.

As for why it wasn’t an earring, firstly because Xie Yu didn’t have pierced ears, and secondly because he found it strange to ask Shen Ci, a man, to get his ears pierced for him. Fortunately, even though it wasn’t a stud, it was close enough, and the system raised no objections.

Shen Ci pinched it. The tiny ear clip dangled on his ear and was wrapped by the scarf; from a social distance, only tiny silver glints could be seen, almost indistinguishable.

While he was examining the ornament in the mirror, Xie Yu’s Adam’s apple twitched, and he felt completely uneasy: here he was going to class, and Xie Yu insisted on branding him, even with his own initial, like marking a possession. It was practically psychotic. Although it was a system requirement, it was still utterly twisted.

Xie Yu was a little annoyed: “If you don’t like it, sell it after this class. It can fetch a lot of money.”

Young Master Xie wasn’t short on cash. The ear clip was a high-end custom piece, a unique designer creation, and could sell for a good sum second-hand, enough for Shen Ci’s expenses for the next few years.

Shen Ci’s hand, pinching the ear clip, paused.

Xie Yu continued to be irritable: “Anyway, I don’t care how you handle it afterward, but you must wear it during this class, understood?”

“Mm,” Shen Ci said, then added after a moment, “I won’t sell it.”

As class approached, the crowd at the teaching building entrance grew. Xie Yu’s Bentley was exceptionally eye-catching. With less than five minutes until class, Shen Ci pushed the door: “I have to go.”

He looked at Xie Yu, seeing that he had no intention of starting the engine. He hesitated slightly, initially wanting to say, “Are you waiting for me?” but then felt that Young Master Xie’s time was precious and such a question would be presumptuous. So he asked, “Do you have plans later?”

Xie Yu often hung out with his rich second-generation clique, but with He Zhiyuan at the police station, they likely wouldn’t be going out today.

Unexpectedly, Xie Yu pulled out the car keys and jumped out from the other side: “I’ll go with you.”

Shen Ci paused: “With me?”

Xie Yu: “I’ll attend class with you.”

He stretched his face long: “What, I want to listen to your class, can’t I?”

Shen Ci: “It might be a bit boring.”

Today was a Q&A session for a specialized course. A University, as Jiangcheng’s top institution, gathered many academic geniuses, and the difficulty of its studies was very high. The course Shen Ci taught had a failing rate of 50%; half the students in his major couldn’t grasp it. If Xie Yu insisted on listening, he would definitely find it extremely boring.

Xie Yu thought to himself, “I have to listen.” This crappy plot was here, and he had to act it out. So he nodded with a stern face: “I know.”

Shen Ci had no choice but to take him to the classroom.

As the end of the semester approached, those who usually skipped classes came, and the classroom was packed. Xie Yu looked around and went straight to the back and found a corner seat.

In high school, he always preferred to sit in the back, sleeping where the teacher couldn’t see him.

Shen Ci watched him settle in, then stepped onto the podium. He spread open his lesson plan, his clear, cool eyes sweeping across the room, briefly lingering on Xie Yu before moving on: “Students, let’s start by discussing the exercises with the highest error rates in the homework…”

Shen Ci was tall and slender, wearing a fitted camel wool trench coat—the one Xie Yu had bought him last time. The belt cinched at his waist, creating a beautiful silhouette. Standing on the stage like that, he appeared refined and ascetic.

Xie Yu admired him for a moment, then raised his hand to check his watch: “System, keep an eye on things for me.”

According to the novel’s requirements, there were a few more plot points.

Time passed, three PPT slides were changed, and students buried their heads in calculations.

System: “Host, fiddle with the remote control.”

Xie Yu pulled out a TV remote control, his hand resting under the desk, blindly pressing buttons.

This was a hotel TV remote control. The two places were over ten kilometers apart, so the remote control was, of course, useless; otherwise, it would rewrite the history of infrared communication technology. Xie Yu brought it purely because the original text required it, and he just pulled it out as a prop for the moment.

The original text described, “The refined and beautiful young man on the stage was slowly lecturing. His posture was excellent, his back held perfectly straight. Young Master Xie watched him, scoffed, and thought, ‘He’s truly stubborn, enduring this far, yet still refusing to bend.’ He suddenly grew interested, wanting to test the young man’s limits, so he slightly curved his lips and pressed the remote control…”

To this, Xie Yu replied, “What remote control isn’t a remote control? Who stipulated which remote control to use? My TV remote control isn’t a damn remote control?”

He followed the system’s prompts. When the system said “increase,” he pressed the volume up button. When it said “decrease,” he pressed the volume down button. A series of random operations, just to get by.

Meanwhile, Shen Ci lectured, chalk scratching against the blackboard. He had just finished dissecting two major problems and now switched to a PPT, letting students practice on the spot.

No student dared to disregard practice problems before the final exam. For a time, everyone bent their heads, and the rustling of pen tips on paper filled the air. Shen Ci stood on the podium, his gaze subtly sweeping the room before settling steadily on Xie Yu.

System: “Quick, quick! Eye contact! Host, touch your scarf!”

In the novel, after the original owner left a humiliating mark on Shen Ci, he also wore a matching necklace himself. When the two made eye contact, he would deliberately rub his neck, like a condescending master reminding a slave of his place, full of smug triumph.

Xie Yu wasn’t wearing a necklace; he wore a matching scarf. So he raised his hand and awkwardly touched his scarf.

“System, thank you,” Xie Yu said with a blank expression. “This is the first time I’ve realized adjusting a scarf can look so perverted.”

Shen Ci also noticed the action. He recoiled as if burned, hastily averted his gaze, and buried his head in his lesson plan.

Xie Yu’s actions in the original text were limited to this. Now that he had completed them, but class wasn’t over, Xie Yu couldn’t leave, so he half-lay on the desk, listening to Shen Ci lecture.

Shen Ci must have been a well-liked assistant professor. His pace was unhurried, his logic clear and rigorous. As he eloquently explained, many students showed expressions of sudden understanding.

But Xie Yu wanted to sleep.

Specialized courses could be fascinating for top students, but for poor students, they were genuinely boring. Moreover, Xie Yu was a cross-disciplinary poor student. Shen Ci was reciting incomprehensible terms and unfamiliar formulas. He listened in a daze, dreaming of his high school classroom. Within two minutes, he was uncontrollably sleepy. Shen Ci on the podium seemed to become a double image, and the profound vocabulary turned into chanting, circling his head endlessly.

Xie Yu: “…So this is what a genius’s world is like? I listened for two minutes, and if I didn’t know I was just sleepy, I’d think my bipolar disorder had relapsed.”

Most of the class passed. Xie Yu couldn’t hold on, burying his head and falling asleep.

Shen Ci raised his head slightly, his gaze falling on Xie Yu, and he paused.

Xie Yu sat in the back row by the window. Outside were large expanses of ginkgo trees. It was late autumn, and the ginkgo leaves had all turned golden. Sunlight streamed through the window frame, bathing everything in a warm hue. Those halos of light fell on his overcoat, his scarf, and the skin of his cheeks, highlighting tiny, soft hairs, making him look fluffy and warm, steeped in the scent of the sun.

It was truly a peaceful, sound sleep.

Shen Ci looked at him and was momentarily stunned.

Xie Yu possessed a temperament completely different from Shen Ci’s. Shen Ci was tense and stern, exuding aloofness and cold detachment. But Xie Yu was relaxed, lazy, like a large cat basking in the sun, comfortable and content, making one want to lean in and ruffle his soft fur.

Shen Ci looked at him and suddenly thought aimlessly, “It would probably be very comfortable to hug him.”

He was startled by this strange thought, then suddenly remembered that he had already hugged him.

On many past nights, on the large bed in the hotel, he had been pressed against Xie Yu. At the time, he only considered it fulfilling a contract, but now, recalling it, that warmth felt somewhat scorching.

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