“…” Shen Nianjing remained frozen, still gripping the cup, as he met Su Zhiyan’s accusing glare without moving a muscle.
“Hahahahaha!” Qin Qi and the others burst into laughter.
“It’s fate that you had to drink today!”
“Just down it in one go, Shen-ge. Your alcohol tolerance isn’t bad, don’t feel inferior.”
“Sumimasen, dear Shen-dage, I accidentally put my cup next to your hand.” Zhao Lin pressed his palms together above his head and bowed deeply in apology. “But I never expected you to just pick it up and chug it! Were you that thirsty for milk tea?” He made a pitiful face.
Shen Nianjing still stood motionless like a statue, as if someone had hit the pause button.
Su Zhiyan rubbed his forehead. He’d never seen someone with such slow reflexes.
Wouldn’t a normal person put down the drink and spit it out after tasting something wrong?
Shen Nianjing blinked, as if belatedly realizing what he had done, and his gaze shifted to meet Su Zhiyan’s eyes again.
Su Zhiyan smiled helplessly and shoved a glass of plain water into his hands. “Do you want to go home first?”
As much as he’d love to see Shen Nianjing suffer from embarrassment, forcing him to stay in this state felt unfair.
Bathed in the dim light of the private room, Su Zhiyan’s usually sharp features softened with quiet concern, shadows gently draping over him.
Their eyes met, and Shen Nianjing unconsciously held his breath.
The atmosphere suddenly grew tense.
“No,” he said.
“You’re not leaving?” Su Zhiyan repeated, wanting to confirm his thoughts.
“Mm, I want to stay with you all.” Shen Nianjing nodded.
Just as he finished speaking, Su Zhiyan suddenly leaned forward, his beautiful features abruptly magnified in Shen Nianjing’s vision.
Shen Nianjing could practically see his own reflection in those bright, clear eyes.
“Are you drunk already?” Su Zhiyan asked.
“N-no.”
Shen Nianjing turned away, forcing himself to look elsewhere.
“Then why are your eyes suddenly darting around?”
“…”
“I’m not drunk anyway.” Shen Nianjing lifted his chin stubbornly.
“Oh.” Su Zhiyan turned back to his seat and took a bite of his brown sugar rice cake.
Shen Nianjing let out a breath, his tense body finally relaxing, but he felt inexplicably uncomfortable inside. He unconsciously turned to look at Su Zhiyan.
Su Zhiyan had a bit of brown sugar syrup at the corner of his mouth, right beside his full, rounded lips.
He seemed to notice it and slightly stuck out his tongue to lick it off.
“!”
Shen Nianjing whipped his head back around.
Looks like he really was drunk after all.
As if to prove his point, half an hour later when everyone just arrived at the KTV room, he was already sprawled face-down on the sofa, dizzy.
He collapsed like a toppled plant, completely unresponsive to attempts to pull him upright.
“Seriously? You’re done in by one glass of wine mixed with juice?” Qin Qi was shocked, poking his back a few times with the microphone.
The poking made Shen Nianjing a bit itchy. He shifted positions before settling back down, his breathing gradually evening out as he fell into a solid sleep.
Everyone: “…”
“It’s fine, drunk people won’t wake up no matter how noisy it gets. I trust Shen-ge’s quality of sleep.” Zhou Zhou picked up another microphone to make his “grand announcement,” then joined Qin Qi in scanning the QR code to select songs.
“Tang, what song do you want to sing?” he turned to ask.
Su Zhiyan, who was sitting next to Shen Nianjing checking his phone, lifted his head slightly at the question. “I’m tone-deaf. I’ll just listen to you guys sing.”
“But that’s no fun! We don’t sing well either.”
“Damn you Zhou Zhou, I sing super well! Don’t drag me down with you!”
“I was trying to get Tang Tang to sing, not mock your duck voice, why are you being so sensitive!”
“You talk about my duck voice when you sound like a squeaky door? This is deep and mellow!”
Su Zhiyan sat on the sofa watching them roughhouse with amusement, while Zhao Lin calmly selected a rap song and started acting cool.
The room grew lively, so noisy that Su Zhiyan couldn’t hear what Wang Mingzhi was saying in their conversation, and didn’t even notice when the server knocked to deliver beer and fruit platters.
However, Zhou Zhou was right about one thing. His and Qin Qi’s singing really was terrible, each worse than the other…
Being terrible was one thing, but they insisted on going all out. One moment they were singing emotional love songs, the next they were attempting high notes and vocal runs. They even attempted to sing Western hits.
“Dude, you sing really well, just as good as me!” Qin Qi gave Zhou Zhou a thumbs up while juggling a beer bottle and microphone.
“Right back at you!”
“Next song! Let’s switch, I’m gonna hit those high notes! LET’S GOOOO!” Qin Qi howled, windmilling his arms like a man possessed.
Su Zhiyan: “…” Please spare my ears, thank you.
He sighed softly, thinking about sneaking outside for a bit, when suddenly his left ear felt warm as the noisy singing was blocked out.
Su Zhiyan froze, then looked down.
Shen Nianjing had woken up at some point and was gently covering Su Zhiyan’s left ear with his right hand, looking at him intently.
Seeing Su Zhiyan look down at him, Shen Nianjing gave a bright smile and said something.
“?” It was impossible to hear clearly in such a noisy environment.
Su Zhiyan leaned down. “What did you say?”
Shen Nianjing looked at Su Zhiyan’s face now just inches away, his Adam’s apple bobbing suddenly.
“I said,” he spoke slowly, “you’re amazing for being able to tolerate their singing.”
Su Zhiyan laughed, at a loss for words.
“Weren’t you asleep? How did you know I was listening?”
Shen Nianjing sat up, expressionless. “Who told you I was sleeping?”
Su Zhiyan raised an eyebrow.
Shen Nianjing stretched lazily, casually extending his long legs to the edge of the sofa. His right leg deliberately brushed against Su Zhiyan.
Su Zhiyan wondered if this guy was really drunk or not. He looked sober, but somehow different from usual.
“Why did you help me anyway?” he asked.
He didn’t buy any noble explanations about humanitarian nonsense.
He wanted the truth.
Shen Nianjing’s attitude changed too drastically. There had to be a reason.
“I helped because I wanted to.”
“But why did you want to?” Su Zhiyan pressed.
“Because I’m a good person.” Shen Nianjing turned to meet Su Zhiyan’s gaze.
“I’m really a good person. I’ve been an outstanding student and youth since childhood, I’ve memorized the core socialist values, never had any thoughts of harming others, and I’m very pure and sincere.” Shen Nianjing raised his right fist, his eyes shining as bright as the five-starred red flag.
“…” What nonsense was this?
He shouldn’t have believed this guy was drunk.
These obvious lies, he didn’t seem out of it at all.
“You need to get along with your teammates…” Shen Nianjing leaned back lazily against the sofa, his eyes growing hazy as he mumbled, “Don’t always carry everything by yourself.”
“You’re not a god, you can’t handle so much.”
“Learn to work together. Everyone around you has their own strengths and bright spots. They want to learn too, and they’re all willing to help.”
“Any obstacle can be overcome…”
“What one person can’t overcome, friends working together can…”
Su Zhiyan suddenly remembered the presenter from their previous group assignment. He’d thought that student was pushed to present because they did not participate in the work, but surprisingly, they did quite well.
“You seem to be knowledgeable about getting along with people.” He gave Shen Nianjing a meaningful look.
“Huh?” Shen Nianjing turned his head, and seemed to not catch what he’d just asked.
Warm breath brushed against his face as Su Zhiyan looked at Shen Nianjing just inches away. “So why did you keep avoiding me before?”
Although he didn’t want to take advantage of someone who definitely wouldn’t say these things when sober during the day.
But he asked anyway.
This guy was clearly good at getting along with people, yet specifically malfunctioned when it came to him, and it was completely one-sided.
Meanwhile, he’d been stalking him like a creep because of those dreams.
Su Zhiyan: …How embarrassing.
No, wait – given what happened in his dreams, this bastard should be the embarrassed one!
Su Zhiyan said, “You need to give me a satisfactory answer.”
Shen Nianjing’s eyes widened as he lowered his head and slowly sat back, as if thinking about what to say.
Su Zhiyan propped his chin up, waiting patiently for the answer.
Then he watched as this guy suddenly covered his mouth and nose with both hands.
There was a certain beauty in how he was determined to protect his secret even when drunk out of his mind.
Su Zhiyan: “…” Damn it.
He tried to pry Shen Nianjing’s hands away, but whether due to his natural strength or the alcohol, this guy had the force of a bull, holding firm.
Su Zhiyan watched as Shen Nianjing’s face turned red. Was this guy holding his breath while covering his mouth?
Do drunk people all think in such a single-tracked way?
So childish, just like a kid.
Worried something might go wrong, Su Zhiyan decided to let him off the hook.
“Stop, stop, I didn’t ask anything.”
He got up to leave. He really couldn’t stay here any longer, not with these lunatics.
Just as his hand touched the doorknob, a warm body suddenly pressed against his back.
Shen Nianjing followed him.
Su Zhiyan froze, stepping backward to push him back to the sofa, but Shen Nianjing stood firmly in place, blocking his retreat.
“You’re not asking me…”
Shen Nianjing lowered his head slightly, looking into Su Zhiyan’s eyes, and mumbled:
“But I want to ask you why you killed me?”
Then he walked back to the sofa on his own, preparing to flop down again.
Completely unaware of how shocking his words were.
“…” Su Zhiyan stood petrified, thunderstruck. His expression was a perfect picture of an incoming storm, as if lightning was about to strike.
Huh?
That was the only word in his mind right now.
Along with a string of question marks.
Huh???????
“!” Seeing Shen Nianjing about to pass out, Su Zhiyan glanced at the others who were absorbed in their karaoke, then dragged Shen Nianjing out of the room with lightning speed.
“?” Shen Nianjing was pulled along in confusion.
“Bang!”
After closing the door to an empty room, Su Zhiyan flipped on the ceiling light with a “snap” and threw the dizzy Shen Nianjing onto the sofa.
“What do you mean?”
His mind was thundering with confusion as he kept asking.
“What did you mean by what you just said?”
Trying to follow Shen Nianjing’s wild and nonsensical train of thought, he fought back with the same logic:
“Defamation is a serious crime!”
“Who did you say killed someone?”
“I’m a good citizen who loves my country and party and remembers my mission.”
“With these baseless accusations, you can forget about winning any awards.”
Su Zhiyan crouched in front of the sprawled-out Shen Nianjing and threatened in a low voice, “Great, if I report you, that’s one less competitor for the National Award.”
Whether it was the threat that worked or his cold tone, Shen Nianjing’s eyes suddenly flew open.
Su Zhiyan smirked, but the next words froze on his lips.
He was crying???
Now it was Su Zhiyan’s turn to stare at him in confusion.
Tears welled up in Shen Nianjing’s eyes as he spoke in the most aggrieved tone possible, “I’m about to lose my life, what do I need an award for!!!!”
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