Mistaken Canary Chapter 67
Chapter 67
Awakened by the commotion outside, Ying Tongchen sat up, slipped on his pants, and stepped out—only to see Meng Gong and Zhen Mingxin ganging up on Zhuo Shu, but failing to get the upper hand.
“What are you all doing?”
Meng Gong, as if spotting a savior, quickly said, “You came just in time! This man went way too far! Our fire—”
“What about the fire?”
“He blew it out!” Zhen Mingxin immediately tattled.
Ying Tongchen glanced down at the ashes on the ground, then turned to look at Zhuo Shu.
In a flash, Zhuo Shu remembered Zhen Mingxin’s ‘Thirty-Six Stratagems’, and immediately put on a pitiful expression. “I really don’t know what happened. A gust of wind blew just now and the fire went out. They’re blaming me for blowing it out. Ying Ying, you’ve got to help me—they bullied me while you weren’t around. Waaah, QAQ.”
Ying Tongchen gave the two bullies a cool, disdainful look.
Zhen Mingxin: ?
He stared at Zhuo Shu like he’d seen a demon. After being taught, the student throws the master under the bus—that’s exactly what this is!
“You want a fire?” Ying Tongchen asked.
“Yeah.” Zhen Mingxin nodded like a little chick pecking at rice.
Ying Tongchen pulled out a lighter and had the fire blazing in seconds.
Meng Gong: “...”
Zhen Mingxin: “...”
The unruly child, Zhuo Shu, was escorted back into his tent by Ying Tongchen. Zhuo Shu looked at him blankly for a moment but inwardly was overjoyed.
Master Zhen’s method was really effective!
Once inside the tent, Ying Tongchen bent down to carefully examine the stitching on his mended pants with a flashlight. It looked like a crooked, wriggling centipede... This pair of pants was definitely a lost cause.
“These pants…” Ying Tongchen had just started to speak when Zhuo Shu suddenly wrapped his arms around his waist from behind.
He turned and asked, “What’s up?”
“Nothing.” Zhuo Shu hugged him tightly, reenergizing himself by inhaling Ying Tongchen’s scent. The cold seemed to fade away, he smiled softly, “It’s so nice to have a boyfriend.”
Ying Tongchen was silent for a moment, then recalled the earlier incident and asked, “So the fire really was blown out by the wind?”
Zhuo Shu pursed his lips, trying not to laugh, “You clearly suspect it was me, but you’re still willing to trust me first?”
Ying Tongchen’s fingers twitched as he absentmindedly felt the crooked “centipede” stitches on his pants, then turned around to look at Zhuo Shu with a helpless look.
Zhuo Shu placed both hands on his shoulders and smiled warmly, “Since you trust me so much, I’ll just admit it—it was me.”
Ying Tongchen: “...”
“Oh, what were you going to say just before? What about your pants?” Zhuo Shu glanced down at his handiwork, frowned, and sheepishly said, “Better buy a new pair when we get back.”
“No need. I can still wear it indoors,” Ying Tongchen replied, vaguely changing the topic. “Enough, I’ll go help cook the noodles.”
Zhuo Shu watched him rush out anxiously, and before he could ask more, his feet had subconsciously already followed.
…
Meng Gong was busy cooking noodles in the pot.
Ying Tongchen squatted nearby to help and said, “Sorry about earlier.”
“Ah, it’s nothing big,” Meng Gong laughed. “You just woke up and don’t know what happened, so of course you’d side with your partner.”
Ying Tongchen merely smiled silently.
Seeing no one else nearby, Meng Gong lowered his voice and asked, “What’s his personality like? Is he a keeper?”
After adding some more kindling into the fire, Ying Tongchen suddenly spoke up, “I quit my job.”
Meng Gong paused for a moment. “Huh? What do you mean? Which job did you quit?”
“The teacher position.” Ying Tongchen sat down beside him, gazing up at the sky. “From now on, I’m no longer Teacher Ying.”
“So you finally decided to resign.” Meng Gong’s thoughts shifted, suddenly realizing that Ying Tongchen’s resignation might not be because of exhaustion, but something else...
“Well, quitting might be for the best. I always thought juggling both jobs was too tiring for you.” Meng Gong offered calm reassurance. “I told you before, if you focus on the translation work, you’ll make more than now. Just settle down and do what you truly enjoy.”
“Being a teacher wasn’t so bad either.” Ying Tongchen smiled faintly, and seeing Meng Gong about to lecture him, quickly stopped him. “Yeah, I know—it’s hard to date like this. And I’m also really not fond of keeping things secret.”
“You can’t have both fish and bear’s paw*. Just choose what you want most.” Meng Gong said, then glanced toward Zhuo Shu standing in the distance. “Does he know about this?” he asked.
(TLN: ‘the fish and the bear's paw, you can't have both at the same time’ is an idiom from Mencius. It means ‘you must choose one or the other’ or ‘you can't always get everything you want’.)
“I was just about to tell him.” Following his gaze, Ying Tongchen turned around and saw Zhuo Shu and Zhen Mingxin huddled in a corner, whispering furtively and letting out low chuckles from time to time.
Both Ying Tongchen and Meng Gong’s expressions darkened.
Zhuo Shu remained oblivious to the Death Eye silently sweeping behind him in a continuous scan, still eagerly pestering Zhen Mingxin about the Thirty-Six Stratagems.
“Master Zhen, can you teach me some other strategies?” he asked.
Zhen Mingxin closed his eyes as if in deep thought. “Of course there are more, but I only know a few myself. I’ve already handed them all over to you.”
Zhuo Shu couldn’t help but feel disappointed. “Then I’m already a master.”
“Wait, I just remembered,” Zhen Mingxin suddenly opened his eyes. “You might have forgotten my true identity—I’m a 108th-tier actor, so obscure that even with a lantern, no one could find me in a crowd!”
Zhuo Shu: "Oh."
“From my countless hours of watching films, there are three types of men who are most popular,” Zhen Mingxin snapped his fingers.
Curious, Zhuo Shu pressed, “Which three types?”
“There’s a type of man, so poor and down on his luck, yet holding an unwavering belief and dream. Even such a salted fish, when he meets the woman he loves, won’t hesitate to shout out—”
Zhuo Shu: "Marry me?"
Zhen Mingxin: "No, ‘I’ll provide for you’!" He continued, "Imagine if you were the woman—wouldn’t you be touched? Wouldn’t you want to cry?"
Zhuo Shu nodded in acknowledgment. "Of course."
Zhen Mingxin continued, “In this world, there’s no problem that can’t be solved with money! If your partner doesn’t want to try anymore, no worries—just say, ‘I’ll provide for you!’ Of course, there’s a downside: while they gain love and wealth, they also lose all their troubles.”
Zhuo Shu: "…What about the second type?"
Zhen Mingxin: “For the second type, we can look at a hit idol drama from a while back, based on the web novel ‘Contract Marriage: The Cold-Hearted CEO Always Wants More’, starring the nearing expiration date Liu Li’ang.”
Zhuo Shu: "Never seen it."
"Then you’ve missed out big time! Liu Li’ang in this drama is basically walking aphrodisiac. Every gesture screams domineering, domineering, and more domineering! I’d call him the gold standard of CEOs and Chairmen.”
“……” Zhuo Shu was baffled. “How domineering could he really be?”
Zhen Mingxin enacted the CEO role as he spoke, “He pins that delicate, beautiful woman against the wall, eyes slightly reddened, teeth clenched, and growls: ‘Woman, thinking of running away? Did I ever give you permission to escape?’”
Zhuo Shu: “…Is there more?”
“Of course!” Zhen Mingxin continued, slamming his palm and completing a tree-don, flashing a devilish smile at the absent ingénue, “He corners that fragile beauty against the wall… and says, ‘Call me ‘husband’ and I’m all yours, mm’.”
He interrupted himself. “Don’t underestimate that ‘mm’—it’s dripping with passionate longing, a CEO’s conflicted restraint and impatience, and it’s the very pinnacle of the audience’s brain-melting high!”
Zhuo Shu: Elderly man, subway, on phone.jpg
Zhen Mingxin performed more tree-don poses against the resilient, sturdy trunk. “Like this, pinning against the wall, eyes reddened, hoarse voice begging that delicate beauty to come home…”
Zhuo Shu groaned. “No, we (CEOs and Chairmen) are very busy, we have no time to be pinning people against walls every day.”
Zhen Mingxin: “You can also pin them against the sofa, the car seat, or the corner of the bed!”
“……” Zhuo Shu’s eyes lit up. “Brilliant.”
“These are just minor tricks,” Zhen Mingxin said. “There’s something even more fierce. Want to hear about it?”
“I’m all ears,” Zhuo Shu replied.
“From years of reading eroti—ahem ahem—danmei novels, there's another type of unconventional top that’s quite popular.”
“What kind of top?”
“The crazy, unhinged top.”
Hitting a knowledge blind spot, Zhuo Shu pressed on, “What kind of crazy?”
“Moody and unpredictable, with an inscrutable personality and a tragic past. Talks in a sarcastic tone. Their favorite hobby? Killing people, dogs, even whole families! When they’re in a good mood, it’s a five-horse dismemberment for fun; when bad, they annihilate nine clans and destroy entire clans just for kicks.”
Zhuo Shu: “……”
Zhen Mingxin: “Of all things in this world, there is only one person who can truly move his heart and soul. Tell me, if such an animal fell in love with you, wouldn’t you be moved?”
Zhuo Shu replied, “No, I wouldn’t dare to move.”
Prosperity, democracy, civility, and harmony…
(TLN: Xi Jinping delivered several speeches regarding this in 2014, many of them include something along the lines of “...we propose to promote prosperity, democracy, civilization, and harmony…and practice the core socialist values…” Read more here: https://en.everwinlawyer.cn/dtjs_details/40.html)
Zhen Mingxin withdrew his hands, reddened from pounding the tree, and slowly asked, “Stratless Zhuo, how much of what I taught you do you still remember?”
Zhuo Shu answered, "Almighty Master Zhen, I only remember a little more than half.”
Zhen Mingxin stroked his nonexistent long beard, “And now?”
Zhuo Shu: “Only a small part remains.”
Zhen Mingxin asked again, “And now?”
Zhuo Shu said, “I’ve forgotten everything completely!”
Zhen Mingxin replied, “Good, you may proceed...”
And so Zhuo Shu went!
To eat noodles!
Even the plain broth and noodles were completely devoured by the four men, finally filling their stomachs.
After extinguishing the fire, they each said goodnight and returned to their own tents.
After a simple wash, Ying Tongchen slipped into his sleeping bag, and Zhuo Shu pulled him close, holding him for warmth.
After a quiet moment, Ying Tongchen suddenly said, “I have something to tell you.”
Zhuo Shu asked, “What is it?”
Ying Tongchen hesitated for a moment, then half raised his head and looked into his eyes. “I resigned. I’m no longer a teacher, nor the homeroom teacher of your sister’s class.”
Zhuo Shu was stunned, staring at him for a long while before softly asking, “Is it true?”
“Mm.”
“When did this happen?”
“Just in the past couple of days. The semester ended, I finished it properly, so there are no regrets,” Ying Tongchen replied.
After a long pause, Zhuo Shu kissed his lips and asked, “Was it voluntary?”
“Mm,” Ying Tongchen nodded. Even if the administrators hadn’t discovered the relationship, he probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway. "Lu Zongcai is pregnant now, and with the translation studio getting busier, I won’t be able to juggle two jobs. It’s better to let a more suitable teacher take over."
Zhuo Shu gently patted his head and tilted his head to kiss his ear. “Mm, Mr. Ying really is cold on the outside but warm on the inside. Weren’t you chatting with your students in the class group chat?”
“……”
“It’s fine. If you can’t be their teacher, you can still be their friend,” Zhuo Shu chuckled softly. “And you can be Zhuo Zi’s in-law too—how great is that?”
Ying Tongchen pursed his lips, but the corners of his lips curled ever so slightly.
“Resigned is resigned.” Zhuo Shu said, “From now on, I’ll provide for you.”
“How shameless,” Ying Tongchen said with a laugh, reaching out to hug him back.
Zhuo Shu: “!”
Master Zhen lied to me not!
A biting mountain breeze occasionally swept through the quiet night.
But the wind couldn’t pierce through the warmth inside the tent.
Breaths tangled, temples brushed. In such a narrow space, it was perfect for making love.
Zhuo Shu's throat tightened, his body already poised. He braced his hands on either side of Ying Tongchen’s head.
Ying Tongchen tilted his face up to kiss him, dazed eyes opening to see Zhuo Shu flashing a grin laced with dangerous charm.
Had he read more web novels, he would’ve immediately recognized the professional term for that expression—a devilish smirk.
The next moment, Zhuo Shu pinned him to the corner of the tent, eyes tinged red, voice husky and low. “Call me ‘husband’ and I’m all yours, mm.”
Ying Tongchen: “……”
“Mm?” Zhuo Shu urged again, "Man, you stoked this flame, so you’ll have to put it out yourself."
“Will you die if you stop talking?” Ying Tongchen clicked his tongue, grabbed him by the collar, flipped him over and pinned him down.
“Mmph—mm!” Zhuo Shu flailed his arms briefly in the air before settling them firmly around Ying Tongchen’s back.
Zhuo Shu: (*^▽^*)
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.
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TL Note: I love how Zhou Shu is applying everything he learns, not just from Zhen Mingxin, but also the "Man, you stoked this flame, so you’ll have to put it out yourself." If you don’t recall, it’s from chapter four, where Qian Duo pulls a man onto his lap and said the same exact thing lmao.