Li You lifted him completely off the ground. Ning Song pressed his hand against the other boy’s waist, his slender fingers curled. Li You had a crew cut and a lean physique, and his school uniform was wide open. Instead of wearing the uniform shirt like the others, he was only wearing the black vest. Through the thin fabric, Ning Song could feel his well-defined abs, hot and hard.
Ning Song pondered the difference in size between the two of them, as well as his current physical condition.
He couldn't win.
Squid-ge seemed to be a boxer.
Ning Song had experience with fighting, and he could tell at a glance who he shouldn't mess with.
And because he was so experienced, he knew how to deal with this.
A hoodlum like You-ge obviously wouldn’t want to bully people who were far weaker than him.
So Ning Song immediately pretended to struggle in fear, revealing his thin and tight waist. He opened his mouth, revealing the bright red tip of his tongue behind his white teeth, with a look of pain.
Li You was stunned, probably not expecting him to be so light. His gaze swept across his face, and he let go.
"I didn't see anything." Ning Song’s face turned slightly red from the struggle.
As soon as he finished speaking, a boy at the back laughed.
It was the beautiful boy who he had glimpsed swallowing wine earlier.
He had peach blossom eyes, long brows, scattered bangs, a swan-like neck and a slender waist. He was stunningly beautiful.
Ning Song thought the boy had been forced, but now he was casually putting his arm around another boy, his lips moist. He seemed to always be smiling, like an expensive white cat.
“You didn’t see it?” The boy seemed completely unconcerned about being seen. “Do you want us to do it again so you can see?”
Ning Song shook his head, and the boy laughed harder, almost to the point of hysteria.
“Are you new here?”
Ning Song nodded.
Several boys looked him up and down. “Are you the special admission student from Class 3?”
Ning Song nodded again. Another boy, who seemed rather arrogant, said, “Why are you such a skinny bean sprout?”
There were many of them, five or six, all tall and lanky, reeking of cigarettes and alcohol. Ning Song had always been strong-willed, but now he planned to lower his head. He didn't know if he was acting submissive enough.
“I really didn’t know you were in there,” he said.
“What’s your name?” Li You interrupted him with a question.
“Ning Song. 宁 Ning as in 宁静 (níngjìng, peaceful), and 颂 Song as in 歌颂 (gēsòng, praise).”
He answered more than was asked.
Perhaps finding it boring to bully someone like him, Li You reached out and patted Ning Song’s face before walking away.
The pat was light, yet forceful and flippant. The calluses on his fingertips were surprisingly rough, and they scratched Ning Song a little.
"You-ge, are you just going to leave it at that?"
Li You, hands in his pockets, didn't turn around. "Why should I do anything about a little bird?"
The two boys sitting on the steps also stood up, laughing, and the group followed them down, saying as they went, "Damn, I was scared to death. I thought it was the student council coming to do a surprise inspection again. Fuck, even smoking a cigarette makes me nervous."
"Why does our school keep recruiting nerds? I thought we might get a cute boy this time."
"What are you going to do with a cute boy? Want You-ge to beat you up, huh?"
There was another burst of laughter. Ning Song looked over and saw Li You glance back at him.
Those eyes left a deep impression, bright and piercing. He was smiling, but his eyes, when seen from a distance, didn't seem to hold much of a smile.
Li You was a little different from what he had imagined.
He wasn't as handsome as his character card, but perhaps because the real person had a greater impact, he looked wilder, with an unruly, tough and gritty aura. In this elite school, he seemed even more out of place than a bean sprout like him from a poor neighborhood.
After the group left, Ning Song went into the storage room to get something and cleaned up the wine bottles and cigarette butts inside while he was at it.
This must be their base, or maybe not just theirs, because there were wine bottles and cigarette butts everywhere.
The school rules stated that smoking and drinking were strictly prohibited at Easton Academy.
When he left, he found several foil squares scattered under the abandoned tables and chairs outside.
Damn.
Sure enough, there were a lot of stories about the top floor of the boys' dormitory.
His eyes felt like they had been scalded. On his first day here, his worldview had been shattered.
And he had also discovered something else — many people were paying attention to him, the new special admission student.
But so far, everyone seemed very disappointed in him.
Thank god.
He had just finished tidying up his dorm room when he saw a message from his class monitor.
It was their class schedule.
“Our next class is cello, room 101 in the music building. Remember to come early; don’t be late to the first class.”
Ning Song washed his hands and changed into his newly-issued spring school uniform: a black coat with a single row of buttons fastened up to the collar, a white shirt underneath, grey pants and black leather shoes. The uniform of Easton Boys’ School, whether in color or style, had a sense of restraint and asceticism, a complete opposite of the chaos he had just witnessed in the storage room.
Before leaving, he looked at himself in the mirror. The school uniform didn’t fit him well, making him look even more frail and pale, as if he had stolen an adult’s clothes.
But that was better. It made him look more ordinary, so unremarkable that there were hardly any advantages to find.
He checked his phone. There was still some time before class, so he went to the library to get a library card.
The Easton Boys’ School library was located right next to the dormitory building, and it was as luxurious as an art gallery.
After getting his card, he checked the map and went directly to the magazine section in the lower left corner of the first floor.
It was during class time, so there were almost no students inside, only a teacher sitting near the door, playing cards on a computer.
Ning Song took a bookmark and looked through the magazines row by row. At the top of the fourth row, he found the magazine he wanted.
There was a whole row of gaming-related magazines, covering game development to esports to entertainment. It had everything.
It was just that, probably because few students read these kinds of magazines, they were all placed on a high shelf.
They were placed on the highest shelf.
He couldn’t reach it.
This library was designed to be very high-end and atmospheric, so it was beautiful, but not practical at all.
He tiptoed and tried to reach the magazine with his bookmark, but just as it was about to fall, an arm suddenly reached out from behind him and took the magazine down for him.
Startled, he quickly turned around, placing his heels back on the ground. His gaze met the other person at a point just below his Adam's apple.
The other boy was a whole head taller than him, with broad shoulders, a lean build and clearly-defined muscles. As his arm extended, his body seemed to completely envelop him like a giant wing, as if he could easily cover him up, including any cries for help, if he so desired.
What a terrifying height difference.
The other boy handed him the magazine, and for a moment, Ning Song felt like he had stepped into a manhua. How else could he explain seeing such a tall, lean, manhua-like guy?
He snapped back to reality and quickly said, "Thank you," clutching the magazine.
The other person had distinctive brows, dark and sharp, and his pitch-black irises lacked any discernible emotion. At first glance, he seemed so gloomy that he seemed to feel neither love nor desire. But his face was upright and elegant, the kind of face a good student would have. His complexion was fine, with a sensual mole on his neck that was the only flaw on his skin, leaving him a trace of ordinary human emotions.
This scene, set in the library, reminded Ning Song of a scene from the 1995 movie "Love Letter." Compared to Takeshi Kaneshiro, who was eighteen when he played the male lead in that movie, this boy was just a bit gloomier. The library only lacked a fluttering white curtain.
He was so handsome, it was almost criminal.
After helping him reach the magazine, the boy reached for another magazine, "Game Development Weekly," and flipped through it.
Ning Song had no idea who this character was. He couldn't remember which card belonged to him.
Perhaps gloominess was a difficult thing to draw.
He had to be around 190 centimeters tall. This subtle realization of their height difference intimidated Ning Song a little.
Fortunately, the next moment, he was distracted by the badge on the gloomy boy's chest.
This was the first time he had seen a black badge.
The black badge on his black uniform wasn't very noticeable, but it had a low-key texture. The rose and sword on the badge were also black, but they were slightly different from the black of the uniform. When illuminated, they shone darkly.
It contrasted with Ning Song’s white badge.
Ning Song opened his magazine, "Electronic Sports," and took a glance. Suddenly, he heard a sound from behind the bookshelves.
He turned around and saw, through two rows of bookshelves, two boys embracing each other in a corner near the back door.
"Don't move."
"They saw us!"
"They haven’t, be good."
Ning Song: "..."
There was the faint sound of sensual kisses and pitiful whimpers.
They were...making out.
They kissed until the slimmer boy could no longer stand. He seemed unable to bear such a passionate kiss, yet unable to break free, as the taller boy’s broad hand pressed against the back of his head.
Damn.
Seeing two guys making out for the first time was a huge shock to him, a straight guy.
Would this be a daily part of his life in this school from now on?
He took his magazine and walked into the reading room, finding a seat and sitting down.
Soon, the gloomy boy came out too.
That young couple came out as well.
One had bronzed skin and a crew cut, looking like a student athlete, while the other was fair-skinned and pure, with long flowing hair, exuding a slight artistic aura.
Oh.
What a familiar formula for a campus BL novel!
The young couple had only been sitting for two minutes before they were leaning against each other again, oblivious to everyone else.
This was quite familiar.
Whether in high school or university, libraries were never short of lovey-dovey couples.
The art student was rather shy, constantly pushing his partner away but never daring to make a sound. The athlete, clearly the domineering and rebellious type, seemed even more excited by the other’s shyness.
It seemed like they wanted to include him and the gloomy boy in their little game.
Damn.
Ning Song secretly glanced at the gloomy boy who, like him, was forced to become a spectator.
As expected of the male lead, he didn’t show any expression at all, as if even if they started doing it right in front of him, he wouldn’t lift an eyelid.
He was like an icy iron bar in the cold of early spring, devoid of worldly desires.
***
The author has something to say:
Easter egg:
On a street of the slum night market, Pu Yu, who stood at the top of the golden pyramid, shouldered Ning Song’s backpack and held his hand as the boy ate a snack, holding a steaming piece of food in his other hand as they walked through the lively lights and smoke.
***
cela’s notes:
The Easton Boys’ School is named 上东男子公学, or literally “The Upper East Men’s Public School,” but “public school” doesn’t align with the “Elite Boys’ School” in the title, and is also clunky, so I took it out. The novel itself often shortens the name to 上东公学, or Easton Public School. The characters live in 上东州, which I translate as Easton Province. The word 州 can also be translated as “prefecture,” “state” (as in California) or a number of other administrative divisions. I chose “Easton” instead of “Upper East” because it follows the Western theme and makes more sense as a name.
50 minutes for 2321 words, or 2.2 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease of 0.2 minutes.
A total of 2 hours and 51 minutes for 6954 words, or 2.5 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease of 0.1 minutes.
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