SEBLS Chapter 32

Translator Xena’s other works: https://ko-fi.com/xenatl/gallery
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After eating hot pot, Zhuang Wu paid the bill and went out with Qin Qiyue. After going out, they found that it was snowing outside and snowing quite heavily.

Zhuang Wu was wearing very little to begin with, and it was snowing outside with strong winds, so he couldn’t help shivering from the cold.

Qin Qiyue was not too surprised when he noticed Zhuang Wu shivering. Zhuang Wu was wearing little when they left after all, and it was snowing now. It was expected that he would be cold.

Only that, he seemed unwilling to see Zhuang Wu cold, so he wanted to take off his coat and put it on Zhuang Wu.

But probably because he had done this so many times, Zhuang Wu knew what he was going to do and stopped him before he could take his coat off. “Gege, don’t do this, you’ll be cold too.”

“Aren’t you cold too?” Qin Qiyue still took off his coat. “Put it on.”

“Gege, don’t you know that I’m very good at taking advantage of others?” Zhuang Wu smiled. “I’m going to take advantage of you when you act like you care about me.”

Qin Qiyue didn’t understand what he was talking about, “What?”

“I thought about it.” Zhuang Wu pretended to think. “You’ll be cold if you give me your coat but I’m wearing clothes that are too thin. Then how about you carry me on your back and I’ll cover both of us with the coat. It’s a nice solution as neither of us will be cold. Aren’t I smart, Gege?”

Qin Qiyue smiled bitterly, “Wouldn’t I be tired?”

“I know Gege cares about me, but I don’t want you to be cold. This is the best solution I can think of right now. Gege, carry me on your back.” Zhuang Wu didn’t give him a chance to refuse.

“……”

After carrying Zhuang Wu on his back, Qin Qiyue was questioning what got into him that made him agree to this.

Zhuang Wu took Qin Qiyue’s coat and covered the both of them. He looked at Qin Qiyue’s cheek and couldn’t help rubbing his head against it. “Gege is so handsome.”

Their faces were very close, so close that Qin Qiyue could kiss Zhuang Wu just by turning his head.

Several times, Qin Qiyue couldn’t help but turn his head away. He didn’t know why, but recently he liked and feared close contact with Zhuang Wu more and more.

The snow was falling heavier, but Zhuang Wu didn’t feel cold while leaning against Qin Qiyue.

It would be great if he could be like this with Qin Qiyue every day—if Qin Qiyue would be willing to carry him on his back every day.

Unfortunately, Qin Qiyue has been so cold in recent days, so cold that he didn’t know what to do.

Qin Qiyue didn’t have a lot of layers on, and the thickest thing was just his down jacket on the outside. However, when he saw Zhuang Wu shivering from the cold, he still wanted to take off his clothes and give them to Zhuang Wu.

It seemed like it was okay for him to be a little cold, but not Zhuang Wu. In his impression, Zhuang Wu was a little pretentious.

But he couldn’t hate it.

Qin Qiyue carried Zhuang Wu all the way to his doorstep before putting him down.

“Thank you, Gege!” Zhuang Wu returned the clothing to Qin Qiyue. “I’m glad you’re willing to come out with me. Go back and review your studies well.”

After saying goodbye, Zhuang Wu returned home reluctantly.

“Zhuang Wu.” Wen Jia was sitting on the sofa watching TV, but her attention was not on the TV. When she saw that Zhuang Wu was back, she called him, “Come here, I have to tell you something.”

Zhuang Wu didn’t understand why, but he went over anyway.

“What’s wrong?”

Wen Jia, whose nose suddenly felt a little sour, forced a smile while looking at Zhuang Wu. “You’re about to have your winter vacation, right? When that time comes, we and Qin Qiyue’s family will go to Yicheng for a few days.”

When Zhuang Wu heard that Qin Qiyue and his family were also going, he immediately became happy. “OK!”

Wen Jia smiled, then asked tentatively, “Xiao Zhuang, let me ask you something.”

Wen Jia seldom called him Xiao Zhuang, and now that she suddenly did, Zhuang Wu felt that something was not right with Wen Jia.

“What is it?” Zhuang Wu was puzzled.

“How do you feel about living here?” Wen Jia asked casually, “Do you want to go to high school somewhere else?”

Zhuang Wu shook his head. “After the final exams, there will only be one semester left in my senior year. I’ve been here for so long, and it’ll be hard to adapt if I go somewhere else.”

Why does this scene seem so familiar? Has Wen Jia asked the same question before?

Something else seemed to have happened after this. Zhuang Wu frowned, unable to remember for a moment.

“Okay, I got it. I was just curious and asked casually.” Wen Jia stood up. “I’m going to go cook first, you do your own thing.”

The more Zhuang Wu thought about it, the more he felt that he must have experienced this scene in his previous life.

A few seconds later, Zhuang Wu suddenly remembered that he had transferred schools in his senior year of high school.

It was because something happened to Wen Jia and she needed to go to another city, but he was never told the exact reason.

How did he only remember it now?

In his previous life, he transferred to another school in the second semester of senior year. If the time was the same as this time, then he won’t have much time to spend with Qin Qiyue.

Before he fell in love with Qin Qiyue, his only best friend, Ji Zhixian flew to see him every weekend after he transferred to another school, no matter how tired he was.

Thus, when Wen Jia said he wanted to take him away, he agreed without much hesitation.

But this time it was different, he liked Qin Qiyue and wanted to stay with Qin Qiyue forever.

However, Wen Jia probably hasn’t made up her mind yet, so it wasn’t convenient for him to discuss with Wen Jia whether he could stay or not. After all, it was useless to discuss it this early. He also had no recollection of what would happen later that caused Wen Jia to change her mind. He could only wait until Wen Jia said it herself and then he would object right then.

At least, he and Qin Qiyue could still stay together for one or two months instead of transferring away immediately after the second semester of senior year.

Back in his room, Zhuang Wu opened his practice book and started to do the exercises. Snow was still falling outside the window and had begun to pile up on the ground.

This was the first snow this winter.

The snow didn’t let up until evening. Zhuang Wu was tired of writing, so he stood by the window and watched the snow outside.

It seemed like he hadn’t played in the snow for a long time. He had only seen such heavy snow when he was a student. Afterwards, for some unknown reason, the snow fell less and less, and sometimes winter didn’t feel like winter at all.[mfn]The pain of adulting man T-T. Sometimes the things you took for granted when you were younger slowly disappear from your life because you’re too busy being a slave to money.[/mfn]

Zhuang Wu smiled inexplicably and took out his cell phone to send a message to Qin Qiyue.

[Haze: Gege, have you finished reviewing?]

Qin Qiyue replied quickly.

[1: No, what’s wrong?]

[Haze: Then hurry up, Gege. I’ll wait for you outside.]

[1: For what? Didn’t I already go out with you today?]

Zhuang Wu curled his lips. How could he only see the person he liked once a day?

Of course it needs to be multiple times a day!

[Haze: I just want to see Gege. Gege wouldn’t be unwilling to let me fulfill even this small request, right?]

[1:……]

[1: OK.]

After receiving the message, Zhuang Wu went out quickly. Qin Qiyue hadn’t come out yet. He didn’t know what to do and could only squat on the ground and wait for Qin Qiyue to finish reviewing.

However, Qin Qiyue did not let him wait too long. Qin Qiyue came out in less than a few minutes.

He had just closed the door when a snowball hit him.

Qin Qiyue turned around and found that it was Zhuang Wu who hit him.

“You called me out just to throw snow at me?” Qin Qiyue was speechless.

“Gege, you can hit me if you want.” Zhuang Wu has no self-awareness at all. “I’d love to be hit by Gege.”

After a few seconds of silence, the corners of Qin Qiyue’s lips suddenly lifted. He picked up some snow from the ground, made it into a ball and threw it at Zhuang Wu.

But he hit it carefully, deliberately avoiding Zhuang Wu’s face, and his force was not very strong.

Contrarily, Zhuang Wu, who was hit, was happy.

The two of them started throwing snowballs at each other for no reason.

After repeatedly bending down to pick up the snow and standing up again for a while, they both felt a little tired.

“Gege, it’s so rare to see such heavy snow, it would be a shame if we don’t build a snowman.” Zhuang Wu eagerly pulled Qin Qiyue’s sleeve. “I want to build a snowman, can we, Gege?”

Since he was free anyway, Qin Qiyue nodded. “Sure, go ahead and pile it up if you want.”

At Zhuang Wu’s repeated request, Qin Qiyue and Zhuang Wu built a snowman together, but they each built their own snowman.

Zhuang Wu’s was very close to him. Their two snowmen were almost touching.

None of them wore gloves and the snow was so icy that both of their hands were red from the cold, but no one stopped.

A long while later, both of them had finished their snowmen. Qin Qiyue was obviously not very good at making snowmen as the one he made looked indescribably strange.

Zhuang Wu picked up a branch from the ground and wrote his and Qin Qiyue’s names next to the snowmen. While writing, his hands were shaking due to the cold and he couldn’t write well.

After putting the branches aside, Zhuang Wu stared at the two snowmen.”Gege, we saw the first snow of this year together. I heard that people who see the first snow together will be together for life.”

Qin Qiyue glanced at him and said nothing. He knew Zhuang Wu had not finished speaking.

Sure enough, after this sentence, Zhuang Wu continued, “I hope I can be with Gege forever.”

Qin Qiyue didn’t know how to respond to this. He lowered his eyes to look at Zhuang Wu’s hand and found that Zhuang Wu’s hand was a little red and swollen.

He pulled Zhuang Wu’s hand over.

Zhuang Wu was stunned. “Gege, what’s wrong?”

“Is it cold?” Qin Qiyue asked.

“Hmm… cold…”

The next second, Qin Qiyue put Zhuang Wu’s hand into the pocket of his down jacket.

It was warm. Zhuang Wu’s hands, which were red and swollen from playing in the snow, gradually regained feeling.

“Gege, why did you…” Zhuang Wu wanted to ask why Qin Qiyue took the initiative to put his hand in his own pockets to keep warm.

The other knew Zhuang Wu would definitely ask.

Qin Qiyue thought of a random reason. “I’m cold too. This will keep me warm.”

It seemed that he was overthinking it. Zhuang Wu uttered an “Oh”.

But no matter whether Qin Qiyue really wanted this or not, Zhuang Wu was very happy, because if it was before, Qin Qiyue might not even bother to ask if Zhuang Wu felt cold or not.

Qin Qiyue used the excuse that he was also cold to hold Zhuang Wu’s hand tightly.

Qin Qiyue didn’t let go until both of their hands had returned to normal temperature.

Zhuang Wu curled up his suddenly empty palms.

“You have to go to school tomorrow, go back to bed early.” Qin Qiyue reminded, “Don’t oversleep.”

“I know.” Zhuang Wu tilted his head. “So many things happened with Gege today. I will definitely have a good dream about you today, so I’ll go to bed early.”

“……”