The Promise Sealed with Our Lips

He Papa was suddenly a bit embarra.s.sed, he actually felt a sense of oppression from the kid in front of him. But he still spoke kindly to Shi Yan, “Don’t give He Nuo anymore things in the future, and don’t even bother lending him anything.”

But towards He Nuo he was full of rebuke, “Didn’t I teach you ever since you were a kid to never take other people’s things no matter how nice it is?! You can never remember anything!”

He Nuo nodded his head, “I do remember.”

After his family left, He Nuo emptied his bag before stuffing it with the books, “I’m sorry for dragging you into this. Can I stuff them in here first? In the afternoon just give me your bag and I’ll bring it to school for you ba, then I’ll take it to your cla.s.s.” Because Shi Yan can’t spare a hand to carry extra books when he cycles.

“You’re still going to school in the afternoon?”

“Of course, we still have lessons in the afternoon.”

“Don’t go, your face is still swollen.”

He Nuo didn’t say anything in reply. Shi Yan walked over to take his bag, “I’ll deliver your bag to you after school, you’ll go to school tomorrow instead. I’ll go to your cla.s.s and help you apply for a leave of absence and get your homework for today.”

“Thank you.”

He Nuo sent Shi Yan out. When they pa.s.sed by his younger brothers’ room, Shi Yan stopped and knocked on their door, then the two of them looked over.

“Where’s the conch sh.e.l.l? Hand it over!” Shi Yan spoke in an authoritative manner.

So one of them had to hand the conch sh.e.l.l over, then say in embarra.s.sment, “Yan Ge, what’s this conch sh.e.l.l called?” Within Shi Yan’s gang of buddies, they called each other brothers and all of them called Shi Yan “Third Brother”, while outsiders call him “Yan Ge”. These twins evidently knew his alias, so they respectfully called him ‘Yan Ge’.

But Shi Yan didn’t care, and didn’t appreciate the respect either. He took the conch sh.e.l.l and placed it in He Nuo’s hand, “If someone dares to s.n.a.t.c.h something I gave you, I’ll cut his hands off.” Then he glared at the twins.

“You…hurry and go back to eat ba. It’s already so late.” When He Nuo saw him threatening his younger brothers like this, he quickly sent him out.

When He Nuo was reading books in his room at night, he heard someone knock on his window screen. He walked over to the window with a puzzled expression, “Who?”

“Of course it’s me! Open the window!” It was Shi Yan’s voice.

He Nuo was afraid that mosquitoes would come in, so he turned off the light before he opened up his window screen. Shi Yan propped himself up on the window frames, then leapt onto the windowsill. After he entered the room and the light was turned back on, He Nuo then asked, “Why did you knock on the window? I can hear you even if you had knocked on the yard’s door.”

“If you can hear it then won’t others be able to hear it too? I don’t want to see them. I saw that the lights in your younger brothers’ room are off, they’re not around?”

“They’re watching TV at my parents’ room. They usually watch TV as soon as they finish their homework.”

He Nuo had brought He Nuo’s bag over. He took out one of the books that was inside, then told He Nuo the homework for each of his subject one by one. He Nuo interrupted, “Why did you come over so early? Did you skip cla.s.s again?”

“Skipped what cla.s.s? It’s our night self-study session now, it’s not like we have cla.s.ses. Can’t I go home to revise by myself?” As he spoke, he pulled He Nuo over to sit on the bed and took a thermos bottle from his bag and opened it. A cool air wafted out of it.

“What is it?”

“Ice. If you don’t deswell your face, others can see how swollen it is at a glance.” He took out a handkerchief to wrap an ice cube before placing it on He Nuo’s face. Just as it made contact with He Nuo’s face, he dodged it because it was cold.

“Get back here!”

“It’s too cooling, cold.” He Nuo shrank his neck.

“Nonsense, how can it reduce your swelling if it’s not cold? Why aren’t you talking about how delicate you are right now?”

“You give it a try.” He Nuo grabbed Shi Yan’s hand that was trying to rub his face with ice and moved it onto his face. Shi Yan’s face immediately scrunched up, then he took his hands off.

“Now you understand right. It’s cold right?” He Nuo laughed at him.

“That’s why I wrapped it in a handkerchief…oh right, this handkerchief is basically for your personal use, it had even wiped you clean before.” Shi Yan smirked.

He Nuo knew what he was thinking about, so he immediately scolded, “Hoodlum1.”

“Being a hoodlum is great.” Shi Yan stuffed the handkerchief in He Nuo’s hand, “Rub it yourself, Laozi’s almost turning into your mother.”

“You think being a hoodlum is great?! What kind of logic is that!”

“Logic? My logic is that hoodlums are tyc.o.o.ns, be a hoodlum first then you’ll become a tyc.o.o.n later!”

“Ah?!”

“Don’t you know that there’s a TV series in Hong Kong called “Hoodlum Tyc.o.o.n”2? Be a hoodlum first, then you’ll become a tyc.o.o.n. Next time, whoever marries a hoodlum will be the wife of a tyc.o.o.n!”

He Nuo was so amused by Shi Yan’s reply, and his face that had been frozen by the ice was twitching with laughter.

Shi Yan continued to spout nonsense, “If you’re a girl, I’d do you a favour and make do with marrying you, then you can be the wife of a tyc.o.o.n. Un, isn’t that generous of me.” Then he even threw He Nuo a wink.

When the 1.8m Shi Yan raised his eyebrow and threw out a wink, he was so unbelievably charming. He Nuo could have never imagined that someone’s gaze could be so vivid; he only felt like Shi Yan’s wink was really beautiful.3

His eyes were really lively, no wonder those girls all like him so much. It was really difficult to resist those eyes of his. He Nuo thought it was regrettable that he wasn’t a girl, “You really should be a girl. With just one wink of yours, all men would collapse at your feet.”

“Pei!” Shi Yan spat at him, “Daye has no interest in seducing men. When will your younger brothers go back to sleep?”

“Not before 10pm ba. Why?”

“So I can leave before they come back duh? Idiot, I’ll leave through the window.”

“You’re going to jump through the window again?! Are you afraid that my Pa will scold you? My Pa had no intention of blaming you in the afternoon, don’t mind it. He’s just a bit stern, so he’s quite strict with our discipline.”

Shi Yan was about to sarcastically remark “he’s only strict with your discipline ba”, but he forced himself to swallow his words. But his face immediately darkened, “I haven’t settled my debt with you yet.”

“What debt?” He Nuo asked stupidly.

“You fooled me into going into science, yet you muddled yourself into liberal arts. Say it, did you do it on purpose? To avoid me?”

He Nuo chuckled as he lowered his head, “I really was a bit unwilling to be in the same cla.s.s as you that time, but I really do like studying the liberal arts. Also, when I applied for the science cla.s.ses I never thought that we would be in the same cla.s.s.”

Shi Yan nodded his head, then that’s fine, his wounded pride felt a bit better now. It’s fine as long as He Nuo didn’t escape to the liberal arts just to avoid him. Frankly speaking, Shi Yan doesn’t like to memorize stuff anyway. He’d rather study physics than memorize stuff for Geography and History. So it was good that he hadn’t been abducted to the liberal arts cla.s.s by He Nuo.

1. when you call someone a hoodlum in Chinese, you’re saying that’s he’s acting immorally lmao like taking liberties with people↩

2. It’s actually called Feud of the Two Brothers, but the English name isn’t translated straight from Chinese and is probably adapted because of the drama. The actual translation of the Chinese name is Hoodlum Tyc.o.o.n↩

3. Author’s footnote: This is one of Shi Yan’s unique skills. He would try to teach He Nuo how to do it next time as a joke, how to “throw” a wink at others. But it’s a pity that He Nuo had never been able to learn it from the master, whenever he tried to throw a wink his eyes would just look like they were cramping up — don’t even talk about seducing people with it.↩