TL: Hua
Xia Shu’an was very moved and then rejected him.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have…” The teenager considered his wording and said, “I don’t have that kind of hobby.”
Shen Boyan frowned deeply, but the sun was a bit bright today, and the young man looked a little pale, making Shen Boyan worried whether he would faint. Finally, he said, “Well then, I’ll wait for another opportunity.”
Xia Shu’an: “…”
Just like Xia Shu’an doesn’t understand why the other party wanted him to be his little brother, Shen Boyan doesn’t understand why Xia Shu’an can’t accept being his little brother. However, he is a broad-minded person. In ancient times, Liu Bei visited the thatched cottage three times before inviting Kong Ming to join his camp[mfn]Three Kingdoms reference.[/mfn]. In order to get a satisfactory little brother, what’s the big deal if he goes to find Xia Shu’an again?! !
After school that evening, Shen Boyan wandered towards the classrooms of Grade 2 and Grade 3, but when he arrived, he heard from his classmates that Xia Shu’an had left.
Why is he leaving so fast? Don’t all the good students stay and study more?
Shen Boyan frowned and walked towards the school gate. There were two roads out of the gate; one was a broad road, and the other was the road with a small section of narrow alley followed by a clear path. Shen Boyan usually took the main road directly, but for some reason, he looked at the narrow path and felt something in his heart.
Shen Boyan is a person who follows his inner feelings. He raised his legs and walked into the alley.
At this moment, in the alley:
“I wonder who will come to save you this time? Now do you remember my girlfriend’s name?”
Three boys were blocking Xia Shu’an’s way. The alley was narrow, and the three of them almost blocked the entire alley. The boy in front was holding a stick in his hand. The streetlight happened to be broken, and the pale light kept flashing, making his face look particularly ferocious.
“Damn, you still say you don’t know my girlfriend. Yesterday I talked to her, and she directly dumped me….”
Xia Shu’an sighed in embarrassment, looking at the exit on the opposite side, contemplating whether it was faster to run back or rush out to the front.
“He wants to run away!” one of the boys shouted sharply.
Xia Shu’an was stunned as he turned away. The next second, he suddenly turned around and rushed back towards the school.
“F&ck, don’t let him get away!”
Poor Xia Shu’an was not good at sports since he was a child, and he often took time off from running. Now he had to bear the consequences. He was caught as soon as he turned around. His escape obviously angered the boys, and the stick in his hand was raised high in annoyance: “You dare run!”
The stick fell, but the pain didn’t follow. One hand firmly held the head of the stick with such force that the boy couldn’t even pull it out.
“You–”
The tall boy stood next to Xia Shu’an, half a head taller than him. He looked at Xia Shu’an and said as if he was disgusted, “Why are you always running into trouble?”
Xia Shu’an was silent. What should he say?
Personal physical reasons?
“It’s you again?” That person also recognized Shen Boyan. Last time, he was a little timid because there were only two of them. Now there are three of them, so he’s no longer afraid. The old and new grudges are put together, and there is ferociousness in his eyes: “I’ll let you play the hero. Brothers, let’s come together!”
The three people rushed towards Shen Boyan together. Shen Boyan pushed Xia Shu’an behind and fought with the three people with his long hands and feet. The boy originally thought that three people could overpower one person, but he didn’t expect that Shen Boyan would defeat him with just one kick. He had no qualms when fighting. His tall body demonstrated terrifying dominance in this primitive battle.
With another kick, Shen Boyan directly struck the person to the ground. The sound of the fist hitting the flesh made Xia Shu’an frown. Suddenly, he shouted, “Careful!”
There was a shadow coming towards him from behind. Shen Boyan subconsciously raised his hand to block the falling stick; then he grabbed the stick with his hand and threw it towards the boy.
“F*ck, let’s go!”
Seeing that they could not defeat Shen Boyan, the few people had to cover their injured shoulders and run away.
“Cowards.”
Shen Boyan threw the stick to the ground. Xia Shu’an quickly stepped forward and grabbed his hand that blocked the stick: “Are you ok?”
“I’m fine.”
Shen Boyan’s eyes were itchy, so he rubbed his forehead. When he looked at his hand, there was red smeared on his palm.
Xia Shu’an: “…”
Shen Boyan: “…”
Xia Shu’an: “No, you are injured and need to go to the hospital.”
“I won’t go to the hospital.” The tall boy muttered, “If I go to the hospital, I have to contact the homeroom teacher, and after contacting him, I have to contact the parents, so I won’t go.”
“But you…”
“I’m fine. My head is not injured. It’s probably just a scratch. Don’t worry. I’ll just go home and get some sleep.” The boy said carelessly.
Xia Shu’an was really worried that he would go home and just lick his wound with his saliva. Seeing the boy’s complete indifference, it was not impossible. No matter what, he was his savior. The young boy sighed, raised his head, and said, “Then let’s go to my house. I will help you clean your wounds.”
……
……
Walking all the way from the dilapidated old city to the downstairs of the community and then up the narrow stairs that could only accommodate one person, Shen Boyan finally raised his eyebrows when he entered Xia Shu’an’s so-called home.
“This is your home?”
“It’s so broken.”
Xia Shu’an ignored him. He walked quickly to the bedroom and said, “You can sit anywhere.”
Although he said so, Shen Boyan looked around and followed him into the bedroom. Xia Shu’an had just taken out a simple first-aid kit from the desk drawer and turned around to see Shen Boyan sitting down unceremoniously on his bedside.
“…”
Forget it; there’s only a bed to sit on in the bedroom anyway.
Xia Shu’an took out alcohol, cotton swabs, and band-aids from the box and waved to Shen Boyan.
“Keep your head down.”
“Ah?”
The boy, who looked to be fifteen times the size of Xia Shu’an, lowered his head blankly. Xia Shu’an knelt on the bed with one knee, caressing the boy’s head with his fingers, and pulled back his hair to see if there were any wounds on his head. Fortunately, his head was not hit, so it seems that the blood on his forehead was just a scratch on his face.
When Xia Shu’an was looking at his wound, Shen Boyan was still beeping:
“Your home is so shabby, rundown, and small. Can someone live in such a small place?”
The reason why you grew so tall is to prevent others from hitting you in the face because of your stupid mouth, right?
Xia Shu’an thought expressionlessly in his heart, stood up, and said, “Go and wash up first.”
Shen Boyan followed him to the bathroom while thinking quietly.
Once entering the bathroom:
“Wow, it’s such a small bathroom. Does the showerhead work? Is there hot water?”
“Yes, there is. But drinking water still needs to be boiled.”
Xia Shu’an didn’t even know what he had answered. He watched the boy obediently bend down and wash off the wound on his face, then wipe it clean with a tissue. Xia Shu’an led him back to the bedroom and sat on the bed, disinfecting the wound with an alcohol cotton ball.
Shen Boyan became quiet again at this moment, but his eyes widened, looking at Xia Shu’an without blinking, which made Xia Shu’an feel another kind of pressure.
“You……”
“Why don’t you be my younger brother?”
Xia Shu’an: “Huh?”
The boy said seriously, “If you become my little brother, I will protect you and won’t let anyone bully you. Things like today won’t happen.”
Xia Shu’an: “But you can’t predict in advance when others want to find you trouble, right? Isn’t there a saying, ‘It’s hard to guard against an arrow shot from the dark’?”
Shen Boyan was stunned by his question and didn’t even notice that he deliberately avoided talking about the key points.
Xia Shu’an looked at him with a furrowed brow and a thoughtful expression. Then he couldn’t help but smile softly and concentrated on cleaning his wound. Shen Boyan is a single-celled organism, but single-celled organisms have their own advantages. For example, if he can’t think of something clearly, he simply doesn’t think at all.
He stared blankly for a while at Xia Shu’an’s eyelashes nearby and suddenly said:
“Your hands are so small.”
Xia Shu’an: “Huh?”
Shen Boyan grabbed his hand, put their palms together, and said:
“Look, my hands are much bigger than yours.”
Xia Shu’an couldn’t understand his thinking logic at all. He just said that “hidden arrows are hard to guard against.” In fact, it’s Shen Boyan’s brain that was “hard to guard against.”
It felt strange to be palm to palm with a person of the same sex. Xia Shu’an couldn’t help but withdraw his hand and said with his head down:
“My hands are not small, but yours are too big.”
Shen Boyan thought for a while and said, “Maybe. I’m very tall after all.”
He said enthusiastically, “Do you know how tall I am?”
“One meter nine?”
“One meter ninety-one.”
“Amazing.” Xia Shu’an said this sincerely. He really thought it was amazing that Shen Boyan could grow more than 1.9 meters. Moreover, he was still in high school, so he might grow even more in the future.
“Really?” the boy said proudly: “I think it’s amazing too.”
“How about you?”
Xia Shu’an has become accustomed to his leaping communication method: “I’m 1.77 meters tall.”
“It’s not considered short.” Shen Boyan said hypocritically, “comforted” him:
“You are only a sophomore in high school; you will still grow.”
Xia Shu’an couldn’t help but laugh: “I know; I don’t feel inferior.”
And 1.77 meters is not considered short to begin with.
Xia Shu’an put three bandages on Shen Boyan’s face and one on his neck, which looked a bit strange. Perhaps because he was tired, the boy who was unrestrained and couldn’t shut up now looked a little docile and dull. The bandages had a strange coordination on his face, weakening his sense of aggression.
The boy took off his coat and began to patrol around Xia Shu’an’s house as if he were at his own home. He walked to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and frowned when he saw the empty fridge. He scanned the entire room again and frowned again when he didn’t see anything to eat.
“What do you usually eat?”
“I usually eat in the cafeteria.”
“What about the weekend?”
Xia Shu’an felt a little guilty: “I just eat whatever.”
The boy stared at him coldly, making Xia Shu’an’s heart growl. After a while, he sneered, “No wonder you’re so thin.”
Xia Shu’an couldn’t help but retort, “I’m not thin, nor am I short, okay?”
Shen Boyan magnanimously stopped worrying about whether he was thin or short and instead asked a new question:
“Where should I sleep?”
Xia Shu’an was shocked.
“You want to stay?”
Shen Boyan frowned. “Then do you want to drive me away?”
Don’t say whether I want to drive you away or not; you shouldn’t be here in the first place, no?
After today’s short time together, Xia Shu’an probably understood the character of the person in front of him; that is, he has no character! The boy in front of him was completely opposite to Xia Shu’an, an alternative existence that Xia Shu’an could not understand, so he gave up reasoning with him and just said:
“But it’s too small for you to stay in.”
Shen Boyan touched his chin and said, “I think so too.”
With a wave of his hand, he magnanimously said, “Forget it, I’d better go back to sleep.”
Xia Shuxin was sincerely overcome with happiness:
“Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness.”
……
After Shen Boyan left that day, Xia Shu’an had a premonition that this matter would not end easily, but he still did not expect that the incident would have a follow-up so soon.
After class at noon the next day, people were coming and going in the hallway. The whole school was at the busiest time of the day. It was at this time that Xia Shu’an was called out. When his classmates said someone was looking for him, he had a premonition. When he went out and saw a familiar face, all he could think of was:
“Ah, sure enough.”
Shen Boyan stood on the side of the hallway near the handrail. He quietly watched Xia Shu’an approach. When the person arrived at his side, only then did he stand up straight and face the young man, saying:
“I thought about what you said for a long time yesterday. You said the house was too small, and I think you are right.”
“So you move out and live with me.”
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