SEBLS Chapter 27

Translator Xena’s other works: https://ko-fi.com/xenatl/gallery
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After they finished watching, Zhuang Wu walked home with Qin Qiyue beaming with happiness.

Using the excuse of being afraid of ghosts, he had a lot of physical contact with Qin Qiyue, but this alone was not enough to quickly heat up their relationship.

So, when they reached the alley, even though there was light shining on the ground, Zhuang Wu still pretended to be afraid and shrank behind Qin Qiyue.

“Gege, this road is so dark. A female ghost in red will not suddenly jump out, will it?” Zhuang Wu pulled the corner of Qin Qiyue’s clothes and smiled when Qin Qiyue couldn’t see. “Gege, I’m scared.”

He was walking peacefully when Zhuang Wu pulled the corner of his clothes. It felt very uncomfortable.

Qin Qiyue wanted to break free, but was afraid that Zhuang Wu would make trouble, so he could only sigh and say, “You’re already a high school student, can you be any less courageous?”

“Don’t high school students have the right to be afraid of ghosts?” Zhuang Wu retorted, “Anyway, I’m just afraid that not only will you not protect me, but you’ll also blame me. I’m going to be heartbroken!”

“……”

Why did you say you’ll be heartbroken in a such a retorting tone?

“So if you just pull my clothes like this, I can protect you?”Qin Qiyue tried to get Zhuang Wu to let go.

Zhuang Wu thought about it for a while, and actually let go.

Before Qin Qiyue could breathe a sigh of relief, Zhuang Wu said something that left Qin Qiyue speechless. “If a ghost comes, you indeed can’t protect me, so you should just hold my hand.”

“……”

“???”

“Isn’t this just as useless as pulling my clothes?” Qin Qiyue called him out. “Then you might as well continue to rip my clothes off.”

Zhuang Wu acted as if he hadn’t heard what he said and took Qin Qiyue’s hand. “This way, I won’t be afraid.”

Qin Qiyue didn’t know what to do with Zhuang Wu for a moment. After a few seconds of silence, although he was a little reluctant, he still acquiesced to Zhuang Wu holding his hand.

Since Zhuang Wu looked very scared the whole way, Qin Qiyue only thought about going back after sending him home.

Finally, Zhuang Wu called him: “Gege, my mother was asked to work overtime by the company. I don’t dare to be alone at home. Can you accompany me?”

Wen Jia was, in fact, not asked to work overtime by the company. She just went shopping with her friends. However, if she told Qin Qiyue directly that Wen Jia went shopping, it would give people the feeling that Wen Jia would be back soon, and there was no way Zhuang Mu couldn’t even stay up waiting for Wen Jia to come back from shopping.

After the last flood incident where Wen Jia was called to work overtime by the company, Qin Qiyue had no doubts at all about what Zhuang Wu said about Wen Jia being called away by the company again.

However, he had already spent such a long time with Zhuang Wu and he really didn’t want to stay with Zhuang Wu any longer.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. You can stay home alone and listen to music or watch TV. Maybe Aunt will come back soon.” Qin Qiyue was about to leave after saying this.

Seeing that Qin Qiyue was about to abandon him so cruelly, Zhuang Wu grabbed Qin Qiyue and started to make a scene. “What if my phone suddenly starts playing scary music, or a ghost crawls out of the TV to look for me? I don’t care. I want Gege to accompany me!”

Qin Qiyue couldn’t help but grit his teeth and restrain his urge to beat someone up. “Zhuang Wu, let go.”

The tone was not right. Zhuang Wu felt a little angry. Could it be that she was being impatient with him?

He has been pestering Qin Qiyue for so long and Qin Qiyue should have been used to it, so why was he always impatient with him still?

This being the case, Zhuang Wu pursed his lips and let go in a huff.

“Forget it, if you’re annoyed with me then there’s no need to stay with me,” Zhuang Wu said this as he took out the key from his pocket and went to open the door.

Why does it sound like it’s his fault? Qin Qiyue was speechless, but seeing Zhuang Wu’s current state, what if he went to Lin Mengyu to complain again?

After thinking for a long time, Qin Qiyue compromised. “I don’t think you’re annoying. If you’re really scared, I can stay with you.”

Zhuang Wu immediately raised the corners of his mouth and turned to look at Qin Qiyue. “I’m really scared. I promise not to lie to you. Please stay with me!”

After opening the door, Qin Qiyue followed Zhuang Wu in.

After letting Qin Qiyue sit down on the sofa in the living room, Zhuang Wu went to the kitchen to get a drink and then came over to hand it to Qin Qiyue.

Qin Qiyue thanked him after taking the drink, but merely placed it on the coffee table and did not drink it.

It was indeed quite awkward for the two of them to just sit there like that and it just so happened that Zhuang Wu’s homework still had some blanks.

He asked Qin Qiyue to wait, and after taking out the homework, Zhuang Wu sat down next to Qin Qiyue while the homework was spread out on the table.

“Gege, can you teach me these two questions?” Zhuang Wu knew that Qin Qiyue would have no choice but to agree, still, he asked politely.

“Hm.” As he expected, Qin Qiyue nodded. “But you’ve already become my deskmate. You’ve already achieved your goal, so why do you still care about these two questions?”

Zhuang Wu was stunned, as if he didn’t expect Qin Qiyue to ask this.

“I do want to sit next to you, but I also said that I want to get closer to you in the rankings. If I feel that everything will be fine if I just sit next to you and don’t need to learn anything…” Zhuang Wu explained, “wouldn’t you look down on me? Besides, I don’t know what the teacher has in mind for letting me sit next to you. If I don’t do well in the exam next time, our seats will still be separated.”

I won’t look down on you, Qin Qiyue thought, but Zhuang Wu was willing to learn, so he naturally wouldn’t say anything that would make Zhuang Wu give up trying.

Qin Qiyue chuckled and told Zhuang Wu, “Got it, let’s look at the question.”

Wen Jia went shopping not because she had made plans beforehand, but because he was suddenly dragged away by someone and it was already very late when she went out. After she sent a message to inform Zhuang Wu, Zhuang Wu came back not long after she went out, so for a while, there were only Zhuang Wu and Qin Qiyue in the house.

There were a lot of homework assignments this week, but many of them were simple basic questions. It was not difficult for Zhuang Wu to solve them. Only these two questions were far beyond his knowledge range. Therefore, even when Qin Qiyue explained, Zhuang Wu’s brain was still in a state of shutdown and unable to function.

After explaining one of the questions, Qin Qiyue asked him, “Do you understand?”

If he said he didn’t understand, would Qin Qiyue think he was stupid? Qin Qiyue seemed to have disliked him for being stupid more than once. Oh right, besides being stupid, there were many other things that Qin Qiyue disliked.

In the end, Zhuang Wu chose to answer honestly. “I don’t understand.”

This time, Qin Qiyue didn’t react much and just said calmly, “With your current grades, it’s normal that you can’t solve this problem. Let me explain it in more detail, listen carefully.”

Seeing that Qin Qiyue didn’t blame him, Zhuang Wu smiled from the bottom of his heart, and then moved closer to Qin Qiyue, “Okay!”

After a while, Zhuang Wu finally managed to understand the two questions.

He drank some water and wanted to take a break, but Qin Qiyue unexpectedly turned to the other questions he had done before. Zhuang Wu subconsciously sat up straight.

Why does Qin Qiyue look so much like a teacher checking the students’ homework? Zhuang Wu was a little nervous.

“You made a mistake in the previous question.” Qin Qiyue crossed his arms and looked at Zhuang Wu expressionlessly. “I circled the wrong questions for you, so do them again.”

Zhuang Wu agreed almost automatically, “Yes.”

After saying this, Zhuang Wu paused. He had done it wrong the first time, and it might not be right the second time either. How could he do it again?

Soon, a scene appeared where Zhuang Wu was trying hard to solve a problem but couldn’t. Qin Qiyue couldn’t bear to watch it any longer and moved closer.

The distance between the two people was instantly shortened. Zhuang Wu could even hear Qin Qiyue’s breathing.

After another round of explanation, Zhuang Wu finally corrected the wrong questions, although not very smoothly.

After he finished the corrections, Qin Qiyue checked his homework again. After confirming that there were no mistakes, he closed the homework and returned it to Zhuang Wu.

“Thank you for your hard work, Gege.” Zhuang Wu grinned. “My Gege is very good at explaining the questions. It’s easy to understand.”

Qin Qiyue said in a calm voice, “It should be. I explained each question two or three times.”

“……”

So embarrassing.

After waiting for a while, Wen Jia still hasn’t come back. Qin Qiyue couldn’t help asking, “Will your mom come back today? You’re always scared and Auntie hasn’t come back yet. I can’t keep waiting here with you. I have to go to school tomorrow.”

“It’s okay, Gege. If you don’t want to stay with me, just go. You really have no obligation to accompany me anyway.” Zhuang Wu said with grievance, “Just let me stay home by myself and deal with it. Gege, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“……”

Qin Qiyue took back what he just said. “I don’t plan to leave so soon. Let’s wait a little longer.”

Having achieved his goal, Zhuang Wu tidied his schoolbag with satisfaction while at the same time teases Qin Qiyue without looking at him. “That’s fine too, Gege. I knew you wouldn’t have the heart to abandon a poor timid creature like me.”

This description sounded inappropriate yet somehow apt as well. Qin Qiyue’s mouth corners twitched slightly.

When Qin Qiyue was about to get impatient and wanted to go back again, Wen Jia finally came back.

Seeing the two people in the living room, Wen Jia felt a bit of headache. Why did Zhuang Wu always bring Qin Qiyue home every time he came back from outside?

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Qin Qiyue, but Wen Jia knew Zhuang Wu’s character. He definitely caused trouble for Qin Qiyue everywhere, making her feel really embarrassed.

“Zhuang Wu, Qi Yue.” Wen Jia came over to them.

“Aunt.” Qin Qiyue, who finally saw Wen Jia return, quickly stood up. “Since you’re back and can accompany Zhuang Wu, I will leave first.”

There was something amiss with this statement and Wen Jia was keenly aware of it. “What do you mean accompany Zhuang Wu, Qiyue?”

It was just an unintentional remark, but when Wen Jia asked it, Qin Qiyue suddenly remembered that Zhuang Wu had gone to Lin Mengyu to complain before and felt a hint of maliciousness.

“We went to see a horror movie today. When we came back, he was quite scared and asked me to stay with him.” Qin Qiyue shot a glance at Zhuang Wu. “I waited for you with him.”

Zhuang Wu, who was the receiving end of Qin Qiyue’s glance, didn’t expect Qin Qiyue to sell him out like this.

After Qin Qiyue left, Wen Jia sneered and asked, “Zhuang Wu, let me ask you, when have you ever been afraid of ghosts?”