No one understood better than Ning Song how to act like an insignificant passerby being teased by the villain.
He lowered his head and said nothing. He didn’t flee in panic. He merely quickened his pace a little.
As a result, those guys, for fear Ning Song didn’t know they were calling out to him, shouted again, "New guy!"
After they shouted this, they burst into laughter and rushed around him.
Ning Song quickened his pace, unbuttoned his cuffs, and thought for a moment about his chances of winning if he fought back against bullying.
He wasn't a stranger to beatings. Even when he was limping, he could win three or five fights. Now that he had both arms and legs, it might not be impossible to win.
In a fight, it was either about who was stronger or who was more ruthless. As long as he had a physiological or psychological advantage, he would have a chance of winning.
He was not as physically strong as most boys, but he didn't care about getting hurt.
If he went crazy and drew blood, these guys would behave.
His brows furrowed, and he bit his pale lower lip.
Then he caught sight of Pu Yu’s figure.
A sudden idea came to him, and he called out, “Pu-ge!”
Under the streetlamp, his shadow grew longer and longer, quickly overlapping with Pu Yu’s. The head of his shadow was nestled between the legs of the other boy’s shadow.
The two of them were vastly different in size, and the difference in their shadows was even greater. By comparison, he looked thin and frail.
Pu Yu turned to look at him.
Ning Song smiled and caught up with him, panting. “I’m the new guy, we’re in the same class.” He tried to establish a connection.
Pu Yu glanced back at the boys behind them.
His hair was a little long, and his eyes were half-hidden beneath his thick hair.
Pu Yu’s eyebrows were a stroke of genius, long and sharp, with an upward slant that gave them a sharp look. The corners of his eyes were pointed and his eyes were dark.
Such a gentle, elegant face, such a dull personality, yet they were paired with such gloomy and sharp eyebrows.
Ning Song didn’t look back. He just looked up at Pu Yu, his smile growing wider.
Pu Yu looked at him as if he were an insignificant passerby.
No, it wasn't “as if.” He was.
He suddenly realized that he had never heard Pu Yu speak, nor had he seen him walking with anyone.
He had never seen such a sullen yet handsome boy.
He wasn’t a mute gong, was he?
But this was fine.
He didn’t think Pu Yu was the kind of aloof and ruthless jerk who only showed a different side to his lover. He must have sympathy for strangers, because his pace had slowed down a little.
His legs were very long, and even though he had slowed down a bit, Ning Song still found it difficult to keep up.
So he followed Pu Yu, and when he looked back after walking a distance, he couldn’t see those people anymore.
Once they reached a fork in the road, he parted ways with Pu Yu.
Pu Yu turned onto a path heading south.
That path led directly to an overpass, and after the overpass, it entered another area of the school. Senior Zhou had told Ning Song that it was the mysterious First Tower where the students with black nameplates lived.
The long overpass was a bridge between two worlds.
And they were people from two different worlds.
Ning Song ran back to his dormitory.
When he returned to the dormitory, he discovered that the light in his room was broken.
He went downstairs and bought a desk lamp to use for now, then went to the first floor to take a shower.
The rooms in this building didn’t have private bathrooms; they had to go to the public area on the first floor to use the toilet and shower.
The Fourth Tower was for so-called special admission students, but Ning Song saw that most of the people living here were also rich kids, wearing brand-name clothes and shoes.
There were always people desperate to send their sons to Easton Boys’ School.
There probably weren’t many poor students like him.
The shower rooms were all well-sealed single rooms, and the conditions were fine. The hot water was also free.
He was a bit of a clean freak, so he took a long shower. While showering, he felt that he really had no sexual appeal at all.
He wasn’t very short, of average height, and only seventeen years old, so he still had room to grow taller. He was just too skinny. Adolescent boys usually have strong bone structures, but it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he was as thin as a rail. He had no hips and no waist.
He looked a bit sickly.
He thought back to how he felt when Li You lifted him with ease, and felt a little panic.
He needed to eat more and try to get stronger.
He washed his hair last, and was rubbing it with jasmine-scented foam when he suddenly heard a few boys talking outside the partition.
Someone knocked on the cubicle door.
Two sharp raps were followed by the all-too-familiar, obnoxious laugh of a boy. There was the sound of splashing water. With foam covering his ears, Ning Song wasn’t entirely sure if they had been knocking on his cubicle door. He rinsed the foam off his head and heard a male voice call out, "Hey!"
He could hear the footsteps outside scatter in different directions.
After his shower, he came out wearing only a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. There was no one outside the stall.
False alarm.
But someone whistled at him from a distance.
He turned his head and saw Li You.
He was practically the opposite of Pu Yu.
Li You was completely at ease, wearing only a bath towel around his waist, revealing his strong chest and long legs. His wheat-colored skin was smooth and firm, with defined chest and abdominal muscles. His body fat percentage was low, and unlike the muscular build depicted in the cards, he had a more youthful appearance.
His six-pack was clearly defined, with a line disappearing into the bath towel below his navel.
It was still a bit chilly at this time of year, and Ning Song shivered as he came out. Li You, however, was standing casually in the breeze, chatting with someone.
“Ning Song, you have your welcome party today,” someone else laughed. “You should wash up properly.”
Immediately, everyone else burst into knowing laughter.
Ning Song ignored him and walked out of the stall with his shower basket. On top was a green bottle of shampoo, a popular brand in the Lower Harbor. It was cheap and came in a big bottle, and for most wealthy people, the scent was too low-quality. The night wind blew in, pressing his loose T-shirt against his body, making his thin, white arms and legs look even more slender.
Like a lamb that had wandered into a pack of wolves.
Ning Song sneezed from the cold wind.
He couldn’t afford to get sick now. Any illness could take days to recover from. He hurried upstairs. Li You’s voice was carried over by the night wind, sounding as ethereal as the white fog drifting out of the bathroom door: “Are they still having that welcome party?”
After his shower, Ning Song had wanted to map out a new route, but being followed today made him a little agitated.
There were only three types of people who were truly safe in this school.
The wealthy, the powerful, and those who were exceptionally talented.
He needed to change his position at the very bottom of the pyramid as soon as possible.
So he made a ranking chart.
White, red, gold, black.
If only he could get a black nameplate.
No one would love him, but no one would dare to provoke him either.
Easton Boys’ School had a very simple ranking system.
It depended on the accumulation of points. There were several types of points. Aside those earned from donating money to the school, there were also points for academic performance, various competitions, various social programs, and even participating in group activities, cultural performances and so on.
He felt that he had hope.
As long as he had a goal, he could be very tough on himself.
He wanted to climb up, level by level!
Instantly, the strength of a warrior came to him. He searched for the best universities for game design in this world.
He was self-taught, and his strengths lay in his conception and imagination. He was born to do this. The games he designed were novel and interesting, but his fundamentals were not solid. As a game designer, his strengths and weaknesses were equally prominent. If he wanted to go further in this life, he needed a professional and systematic education. Self-exploration alone was not enough.
While searching for schools, he did leg stretches.
His body was in bad shape.
It wasn't even ten o'clock yet, but he already felt tired.
He was almost an invalid.
But he didn’t have the excuse of having a chronic illness.
That kind of physique was usually reserved for the protagonist.
He poured himself a glass of water. His phone suddenly vibrated, so he picked it up and glanced at it. He had a private message from a netizen he'd met on a forum.
When he first arrived in this world, he wasn't very familiar with the games here, so he had been hanging out on a well-known gaming forum. He was more talkative online than in real life, and as a result, he met a bunch of like-minded netizens. One of them was a netizen called @knifefish. The other person was quite skilled, and the two of them often discussed game design together. Later, it was Knifefish who introduced him to his company, Shark E-Art, and encouraged him to submit his small game designs.
[knifefish]: "Haven't seen you around lately."
[vegancat]: "Been a bit busy."
Their chat history looked a lot like a couple's. One was an ice-cold swordfish and the other was a hungry little cat waving its paws.
He didn't originally have this avatar or this name. He later changed them specifically for Knifefish.
Once, he and Knifefish had a disagreement about an idea, so he argued his point with him. It was just a debate, but he discovered that Knifefish was very serious and even a bit shy, so he started to take things further. In the end, Knifefish stopped responding at all, and everyone else joined in to stir things up, so Ning Song deliberately chose a corresponding nickname to tease him.
Gradually, the two of them became more familiar with each other, and often exchanged game design insights.
Their strengths and weaknesses complemented each other perfectly. Knifefish was skilled in internet technology, while he was good at coming up with wild and imaginative ideas.
But their interactions were limited to the forum, and they rarely sent private messages. The last private messages they sent were related to Blackrose Campus, and at first glance, they seemed more like a business collaboration.
He couldn't help but tease him now.
[vegancat]: "What's up? Miss me?"
[knifefish]: "Did you find a new job?"
Sure enough, he didn't take the bait.
It was funny how serious he was.
Ning Song replied: "First day on the job. My new coworkers are so cold 😭"
Most people on the forum were office workers, so he was afraid that if he said he was a high school student, he wouldn't be treated fairly. So his persona on the forum was a 35-year-old, soon-to-be-laid-off, miserable programmer.
[knifefish]: "What's wrong?"
[vegancat]: "The pressure in this new environment is enormous!"
[knifefish]: "If you can't adapt, you could consider our company."
[knifefish]: "The company atmosphere is pretty good."
[knifefish]: "It's very humane."
[vegancat]: "Are there any bald people?"
[knifefish]: "…Yes."
[knifefish]: "But I don't think it has anything to do with our company. It's probably hereditary hair loss."
Ning Song burst out laughing and all his fatigue disappeared.
Every time the other person was so serious, he found it very amusing.
He chatted with his friend Knifefish for a while about the recent trends on the forum.
Before he knew it, it was already ten o'clock.
[vegancat]: "I have to go. I'm busy, my colleagues are calling me for a team-building activity."
[knifefish]: "Now?"
[vegancat]: "😭It's a social engagement I can't refuse."
As soon as he sent this message, Qiao Qiao knocked on the door outside, calling for him.
He quickly typed "Bye," and closed his computer.
He put on his coat and went to the First Tower with Qiao Qiao and two other boys.
Qiao Qiao told him that this was a rare opportunity for non-black-badge students like them to freely enter the First Tower. It only came once a year.
But Ning Song felt that this kind of opportunity wasn't a good thing for every new special admission student.
This welcome party was more like something that brought each new special admission student to the First Tower so that the young masters of the privileged class could choose from among them.
Did Li You come to this welcome party when he first arrived?
Would he have obediently let himself be chosen?
At ten o'clock, the school was quiet. In this century-old school, the vegetation was dense, and the twisted branches of the tall trees looked like monsters that blocked out the sky in the darkness. Their fragrance also had a hint of the sea.
"Will we get caught?"
He had never done anything like this before.
He had read the rules of Easton Boys' School, and they were very strict.
"Today is special. If the security guards see us, they'll turn a blind eye. It's fine," Qiao Qiao said. "I wanted to tell Zheng Xiaobo and ask Li You to come and support us, but Zheng Xiaobo's phone was always turned off."
"Who was Zheng Xiaobo again?"
“He’s my neighbor and also my childhood friend. He has a great relationship with Li You. Li You never attends these welcome parties, but if Zheng Xiaobo asked him to come, he might be able to back us up.”
Ning Song picked up on the implication. "Didn't you say it was fine?"
Qiao Qiao laughed. "More protection, right? ...Hey, don't worry, we're not Qin Yi's type. He's very picky."
Sure enough, the reason he said it was "fine" was that he was plain enough to be safe!
Following Qiao Qiao, he walked through the white wattle flowers, crossed the bridge and walked a semicircle around the lake before entering the First Tower.
The young masters of the five major financial families in Easton Province—except for the young master of the Yolaraile family, who made their fortune in shipping—the other four, consisting of Pu Yu, the only son of the Pu family; Sheng Yan, the heir to the Magnifia Entertainment empire; the young master of the Li family, that made their fortune in textiles; and Qin Yi, the infamous second young master of the Qin family, who made their fortune in gambling — they all lived in this building.
Qiao Qiao had told him this.
Up close, the First Tower seemed even more luxurious and gloomy. There was a security guard smoking by the door, but he didn't say anything when he saw them; he just watched them quietly.
Following Qiao Qiao’s lead, Ning Song gave a little nod to the security guard before running inside.
They went straight to the east side of the first floor. This didn’t seem like a student dormitory but more like a place for large events. At the end of the dark corridor, there was a door with a faint light coming from under it.
Qiao Qiao pulled him through a long corridor with many suites and then through another door. A huge room full of boys came into view.
Even though they were all high school students, he felt as if he had entered a world of debauchery and corruption. Some were drinking and laughing, while others were whispering and kissing passionately, but as soon as they noticed them coming in, the noisy sounds stopped.
Their eyes were fixed on him.
Many candles were lit in the room, covered with colorful glass balls. His face was dappled with rose-colored light, adding a touch of color he lacked during the day, but he was too thin, like a scrawny farm dog that had wandered into a wolf pack.
This was the first time he had seen Qin Yi.
Qin Yi had the face of a villain.
He was very handsome, but the words arrogant and domineering were practically written on his face. There was a distinct scar stretching from his right brow bone to his hairline, like a red worm, making his whole face look somewhat wickedly ferocious. A seemingly innocent boy with a red nameplate was clinging to his arm, and Qin Yi was stroking the boy's necklace as if he were stroking a pet he carried with him.
This was the first time Ning Song had seen so many black nameplates at once. The black nameplate on Pu Yu was a sign of wealth and quality, but on the chests of these people, it carried an arrogant haughtiness, more like a privilege.
The boys surrounding Qin Yi examined him.
English songs were playing in the hall, and the female singer’s voice had a velvety, sultry smoothness that blended with the scent of whiskey in the room.
"Seniors." Ning Song greeted the others proactively and sensibly.
***
cela’s notes:
Qín Yì is named 秦异, the first character being the name for the ancient state of Qin and the latter meaning “different” — the same character is also present in 怪异 (monstrous). A suitably villainous name.
47 minutes for 3056 words, or 1.5 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease by 0.5 minutes.
A total of 4 hours and 37 minutes for 12945 words, or 2.1 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease by 0.2 minutes.
If you like this translation, please consider encouraging me on Ko-fi! Extra chapter for every ko-fi 💛
Comments
Post a Comment