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Thirteenth Period (2)
T/N: Translated by Jen on Broken Jinsei! Please do not repost my translations! All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
When Jiang Huihui woke up, it was already morning. Zhou Yanli was normally that reckless of a person, yet today, he’d deliberately lightened his movement even when opening the door.
Afraid that he will disturb her sleep.
It was most likely snowing outside. His shoulders and hair were all covered in white.
The clothes on him were still that set from yesterday. He must have stayed with her in the hospital all night.
She produced a bit of guilt inside, feeling that she’d given him trouble.
Seeing that she was awake, Zhou Yanli no longer deliberately restrained himself, boldly walking in. The plastic bag containing their breakfast had a knot. He carried it in his mouth, freeing his hands to have the folding table in the corner propped up.
This shitty place really was a dump. Even the hospital’s VIP room was this rundown. For those who don’t know, they would even think that this was some small clinic.
Zhou Yanli was absolutely certain that he was here to experience rural life.
“Bought some breakfast for you. Eat it before heading to school.”
Jiang Huihui’s head was a bit fuzzy from sleeping, perhaps a side effect of that medication from yesterday. But this sleep was still quite sound.
She lifted the covers, about to get out of bed, but it was a bit cold outside the covers, so she slowly shrank back under again.
Zhou Yanli was amused by this careful appearance of hers. He took off his coat and threw it at her, “Put it on.”
When his coat got tossed over, there was a fresh scent of laundry detergent, neutralizing that distinctive smell of disinfectants unique to hospitals that made Jiang Huihui feel uncomfortable.
She held his coat. That sense of reassurance was just like the coat in her arms, both heavy and comforting.
Zhou Yanli although was impulsive and easily angered, often using his fists to solve problems, in certain aspects, he was more attentive than ordinary boys.
For instance, he liked to be clean.
The boys around her age always seemed to have a faint strange smell on them, including a previous deskmate of hers.
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
He had an unpleasant smell all over from head to toe. In the month that Jiang Huihui shared a desk with him, every single day practically felt like an eternity.
But Zhou Yanli was different. The smell on him was clean and pleasant.
Jiang Huihui strangely thought of Zhou Jinwei. He was also the same. His clothes were forever infused with the scent of sandalwood. That kind of steady and austere composure seemed to be something he was born with.
The only difference was the sense of distance that matched his personality, similarly making Jiang Huihui feel that he was unattainable and beyond her reach.
In fact, last month, she didn’t even dare to imagine that she would actually cross paths with someone like him.
Her limited understanding towards him all came from what was spread around by her classmates. He got depicted as a ruthless character who wasn’t bound by any rules and mustn’t be offended.
This was also the reason why Jiang Huihui was scared of him.
That school building was just built two years ago. Starting last year, it began accepting new students. The school had admitted a batch of transfer students.
Judging from their attire, appearance, and demeanor, they clearly didn’t belong to the same world as them.
They were born and raised in a small place, each and every one of them all appearing rather dull and lackluster.
But those people, when coming and going from the school, all had chauffeurs picking them up and dropping them off. The clothes they wore were also visibly of high quality.
Zhou Jinwei’s appearance, in particular, was the type where you can’t find a second one like him in all of Pingjiang City.
That was also when Jiang Huihui saw Zhou Jinwei for the first time. He’d expressionlessly gotten out of the car, and by his side was the principal introducing the school to him. He seemingly was listening, but also seemingly not listening.
That pair of eyes was incomparably cold.
Jiang Huihui got tugged by the person next to her, who whispered, “He’s so handsome, is he a celebrity?”
Jiang Huihui shook her head. She also didn’t know.
But, in the next second, as if sensing something, the other party looked over in her direction. The ice-cold eyes and the bewildered eyes met just like that across a hundred meters.
Jiang Huihui didn’t dare to look closely, because she’d gotten startled by that gaze, hurriedly turning around and leaving.
Strange, why did she suddenly think of Zhou Jinwei.
She pursed her lips and lowered her head.
Something flashed across her mind—–Right, Zhou Jinwei!
Jiang Huihui looked to Zhou Yanli with a complicated look, “Zhou Jinwei, he…….”
“He left, just left half an hour ago.” Zhou Yanli had the noodles spread apart and then poured some soup in, letting it not be that dry. Afterwards, he finally had the chopsticks and the bowl handed to her altogether.
Jiang Huihui reached out to take it, “Just left half an hour ago? Then he……..was in my hospital room the whole time?”
Zhou Yanli asked back, “Well, he can’t just go into someone else’s hospital room, right?”
Saying it like this indeed made sense somewhat.
Just……she kept feeling that it was still a little weird.
Seeing her holding the bowl and not moving, Zhou Yanli urged her to quickly eat, or else the noodles will become soggy later.
That tone of his, never mind saying that she was his mom, to say that he was her mom, Jiang Huihui felt that it was even somewhat believable.
She obediently picked up a small portion of the noodles with her chopsticks and slowly began eating.
She had a docile appearance. When eating, she was also docile and won’t make the slightest sound, very refined and proper.
After finishing that bite, she stirred the bowl with the chopsticks, hesitantly asking him, “What….what were you two doing in my hospital room all night?”
“Stare at you, what else can we do?” He also took a large bite of noodles.
Jiang Huihui instantly widened her eyes. That pair of clear and beautiful almond eyes were filled with disbelief, “You two didn’t do anything all night and just stayed in my hospital room staring at me?”
Zhou Yanli wondered what was wrong with her, getting so worked up all of a sudden. He thought that she was having a fever again, her mind becoming muddled from it.
He reached out to check her forehead temperature, but there wasn’t a fever.
He really didn’t feel that there was the slightest problem warranting this reaction of hers, “There was just the three of us in the room. If not looking at you, who else would we look at, he and I mutually stare at each other?”
He frowned. Just thinking of that image, he felt goosebumps all over. Two grown man staring at each other, “Too f$%#ing disgusting.”
Jiang Huihui felt that there was some truth to his words.
But….
Just thinking about how there were two people to the side watching her the whole time while she was asleep……
….
So strange.
Zhou Yanli bought the same beef with dry noodles[1] as Jiang Huihui. Both portions were very light in flavor, not adding the slightest bit of chili or chili oil.
He originally wanted to buy congee for her, but after looking around, he couldn’t find any.
This place, he wasn’t familiar with either. Worrying that Jiang Huihui will be hungry when she wakes up, he randomly bought something and quickly came back.
He had the beef in his bowl all given to her, “What’s so strange about it? The nurse would also come in to check.”
She used the chopsticks to poke that pile of beef in her bowl that was about to overflow, her voice muffled, “The nurse coming in to check, that’s…..that’s different from you two staring at me the whole time.”
“What’s so different about it?” He ate very quickly, finishing half the bowl in two bites. Seeing her falter as she spoke, he lifted his head to look at her, “You didn’t do anything in your sleep either. Aside from letting out a snore, grinding your teeth, and sleep-talking for half an hour, you were pretty quiet.”
“Ah?” This time, she didn’t just widen her eyes, but also her mouth. This was even considered quiet? It was practically as lively as the Spring Festival Gala.
She stammered, “I snored? And…..even sleep-talked for half an hour?”
In front of Zhou Jinwei…….snoring, sleep-talking, and even drooling……
Seeing Jiang Huihui with an utterly hopeless look, Zhou Yanli suppressed his laugh and started spouting nonsense, “Yep, recited Chu Shi Biao[2] dozens of times.”
Jiang Huihui’s sense of despair lasted all the way to the classroom.
Seeing her complexion somewhat off, her deskmate asked her what was wrong. She shook her head and randomly rubbed her own face, “It’s nothing.”
Her deskmate was called Zhan Tong. She wasn’t really considered friends with Jiang Huihui, but she was also the person closest to her in the class.
Although the two of them had just been deskmates for a month, she recently would always come over to Jiang Huihui’s side, bringing her some snacks and fruits.
Every time she came, she would always chat for a long while.
The seats in the classroom were shuffled once a month, mainly to prevent chatting or budding romance between the deskmates.
Jiang Huihui’s deskmate this time was just so coincidentally Zhou Yanli.
This person had watched over her all night in the hospital room yesterday. On the way here, he was even quite spirited, helping her carry her backpack and even teasing her the whole way.
But as soon as he arrived in the classroom, he just dropped dead on his desk, sleeping like a corpse.
Earlier, there was someone messing around in the aisle, accidentally bumping into him. The other party turned pale from fright, freezing in place and not daring to move.
Zhou Yanli had just transferred here for a little over half a month, yet his reputation was already this stinky. This was mostly thanks to Qin Yu’s rampant boasting.
Qin Yu had gone around blowing things out of proportion everywhere, having the story of how Zhou Yanli stood off against Zhou Jinwei, then called Zhou Jinwei dad in front of everyone, embellished and spread around.
The other party had gotten frightened to this degree, yet Zhou Yanli still didn’t have any reaction. Jiang Huihui momentarily fell silent, somewhat worryingly sticking her finger under his nose to check his breathing.
Phew, he was still breathing, still alive.
[1] It’s also called mixed noodles, where the ingredients, dry noodles, and the sauce are all added together in a bowl and mixed together.
[2] 出师表 – Roughly translates to ‘Memorial on the Expedition’, refers to the memorials written by Zhuge Liang, the Imperial Chancellor of the state of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. See more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Shi_Biao
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