My Deskmate Chapter 29 (Part 2)
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 29.2
Chi Ye wasn’t wearing his school uniform. He was dressed in loose cargo pants that wrapped around his legs, and the hem of his shirt was creased, as if something was hidden inside.
Both of them knew exactly what the other was there to do.
Wen Xiao, standing a few centimeters taller thanks to the height insoles in his shoes, straightened up. He tugged at his black mask. "Move."
"I won't let you pass," Chi Ye said, his expression serious and without a trace of a smile. "Go back."
Chi Ye could hear his own heartbeat. Wen Xiao was dressed in black, a color that made him appear even thinner than usual. His hands hung at his sides, pale and striking against the dark clothing.
He hadn't expected to run into Wen Xiao here, but somehow, it didn’t surprise him in the slightest.
With his lower face covered, Wen Xiao’s eyes and brows were even more captivating. His double eyelids gave him an aloof, distant air, and his deep-set eyes gleamed with a cold, detached expression. "What if I refuse?"
Chi Ye gave a half-smile, though it lacked any warmth. "How about we settle this with a fight?"
Wen Xiao took a step forward, bringing his right shoulder in contact with Chi Ye’s right shoulder. Their faces were angled in opposite directions.
They were standing so close that Chi Ye could faintly smell the light, fresh scent of shampoo or body wash on Wen Xiao.
"I’m better suited for this," Wen Xiao said, slipping his hands into his pockets as his gaze drifted to a patch of wild grass growing at the corner of the wall. "No need to argue, I know my limits."
"You—"
Wen Xiao cut him off, not giving him a chance to finish. "You’ll bring me breakfast for a week. Soy milk, three parts sugar. That’s the deal."
Without another glance at Chi Ye, Wen Xiao turned and walked away.
Behind them, Qian Zhengliang realized the footsteps that had been following him had suddenly stopped. After a moment of startled tension, he guessed the path had become too confusing for the person to follow. He momentarily felt relieved at having made the right choice.
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, a sudden and powerful force hit him from behind. Completely unprepared, he lost his footing and stumbled into the concrete wall.
The bones in his back felt as if they were snapping. His previous injuries hadn’t yet healed, and this new impact made his whole body ache so much that his vision went dark. A sharp, cold breath rushed into his throat, making it burn painfully.
Before he could even shout out a curse, he heard a sharp "swish" sound. A fruit knife was violently shoved into the gap between his fingers, pressing into the wall. The knife tip scraped against the wall and sent fine debris flying into his eyes, the pain causing him to immediately squeeze them shut, tears flooding down his cheeks.
Just before closing his eyes, he caught a glimpse of his distorted face reflected on the gleaming blade.
His fingers dared not move an inch. After all, the icy blade was only half a centimeter away. His voice trembled as he asked, "W-what do you want?"
"I don’t want much," Wen Xiao's voice was low and heavy, completely unlike someone his age. He spoke slowly, the mask and cap concealing most of his face, but his sharp eyes gleamed with a cold, calculating light. "Just some pocket money."
With his left hand, Wen Xiao swiftly pulled the phone from Qian Zhengliang’s grasp. "Phone password."
"How much do you want? I’ll give you whatever you need, just don’t kill me—" Qian Zhengliang tried to move, tried to turn around to face his attacker, but the next second, he heard the knife scrape down the wall with a soft "squeak" as it slid toward his fingers, now cutting into the skin. Blood began to trickle from the wound.
Frozen in fear, Qian Zhengliang’s mind went blank as he stammered out the unlock code.
Wen Xiao, wearing gloves, quickly tapped on the phone, checking to see if it had what he needed.
"I’ll take this phone and sell it," Wen Xiao muttered coldly.
Before his words could fully settle, Wen Xiao took a step back with the phone in his hand, and the unconscious Qian Zhengliang fell to the ground.
The next day, after finishing his evening self-study session, Wen Xiao went downstairs to the fruit shop.
The shop owner was chatting with a customer when Wen Xiao entered.
"...Do you know that man? Thankfully, I keep a tight watch on my daughter. What a wicked person!"
"I heard he lost his phone and someone found it. They wanted to see who the phone belonged to, but when they casually looked through it, they found something incredible. The person who found it should have taken it straight to the police, right?"
"It wasn’t found. It was stolen. The thief took Mr. Qian's phone, and when he looked through it, he found something shocking. The thief had a conscience, though, and quickly took it to the police."
"Right, right! Who would’ve thought stealing a phone would uncover something this big? They said not only were there photos, but videos too. And from the content of one particularly disgusting video, it matched a case from six months ago. That’s why the police rushed over to arrest that person."
"I also heard that Mr. Qian claims he’s innocent, that someone framed him, and even named a person — someone surnamed Chi. But at that time, that person was at the supermarket with his little sister, how could he have had time to frame him? The police told him that, but he just kept yelling..."
After meals and tea, there was always a lull in conversation. With this topic in hand, rumors spread, mixing truth and fiction everywhere.
Wen Xiao picked up bananas and returned home, where his grandmother was waiting by the door. She casually brought up, "By the way, you asked me about that person, Qian Zhengliang, a few days ago."
Wen Xiao paused, raising an eyebrow. "What about him?"
"The police came by today and took him away," his grandmother said as she placed the bananas into the fruit bowl. "They said it was related to a case involving a minor from six months ago." She paused for a moment before continuing, "I heard it from the neighbors while I was out buying vegetables. They were all talking about how you can’t judge a book by its cover. He always seemed so honest and upstanding, yet no one expected him to have done something like this."
"I overheard the shop owner mention something when I was buying fruit," Wen Xiao replied, meeting his grandmother's gaze. "Will he be sentenced to many years?"
His grandmother nodded. "Yes, he will. They’ll give him a long sentence."
Wen Xiao lowered his eyes, and after a few seconds, he quietly said, "That's good."
Just as he turned on the desk lamp, a message popped up on his phone.
Chi Ye: "You back?"
Wen Xiao: "Yeah."
Chi Ye: "Doing practice questions?"
Wen Xiao: "I still have two more papers left."
Chi Ye: "Is one of them Chinese? You always do Chinese last."
The remaining two papers were indeed Chinese. Wen Xiao didn't like doing Chinese questions because, aside from the multiple-choice section, most of the answers required a lot of writing. The more he wrote, the more tedious it became.
The "typing" indicator at the top of the chat box disappeared, then Chi Ye's message came through again: "I'll wait for you to finish?"
Wen Xiao: "Sure."
Close to midnight, Wen Xiao finished his shower and went downstairs. Chi Ye was waiting under the streetlamp.
He handed Wen Xiao a can of soda. "Cold. Just took it out of the fridge."
Wen Xiao's fingers brushed against the cold metal, his hands quickly covered in tiny water droplets. He shook them off, popped open the can, and took a sip.
After drinking, he said, "At first, I didn’t expect it to turn into something this big."
The tone of his words was somewhat complex, but it amused Chi Ye. "It means that scumbag had done so much bad stuff, and heaven sent you, the righteous hero, to take care of him."
Wen Xiao nodded.
No matter how it went down, the result was a good one.
Chi Ye glanced at Wen Xiao’s feet. "What happened to your height insoles?"
"Threw them away." To fake his height, it was the first time Wen Xiao had worn height insoles, and walking in them had felt awkward. "Gloves, fruit knife, mask, hat, I threw them away in different places."
At the time, he had been worried that Qian Zhengliang might cause trouble for Chi Ye and Yaya, so he deliberately disguised himself as a petty thug who lurked in empty areas, waiting to snatch phones and wallets from unsuspecting pedestrians.
"By the way, Old Xu asked me to remind you that midterms are coming up. He wants you to make sure you show up for the exam."
"I know the date," Chi Ye said, shaking the half-empty can of soda. "Do you want a late-night snack?"
"Your treat?"
"My treat."
The night breeze was light and gentle. Since they were walking so close, their shoulders kept brushing against each other. Chi Ye thought to himself that at this rate, they might even create static electricity from all the contact. But despite that, he didn’t step away, maintaining the distance between them.
Perhaps it was the late spring warmth, but the barbecue stand was doing much better business than before. There were three or four tables occupied in front of the stall. When the owner saw them coming, he energetically called out while brushing seasoning onto the grill, "Meat or vegetables, your choice! Food will be ready in twenty minutes!"
Chi Ye picked up a menu covered in grease stains from the table and asked Wen Xiao, "What do you want to eat?"
"Beef, dried tofu, green beans. You can order the rest."
While Chi Ye was still holding the menu, Wen Xiao didn’t notice a small boy lose his balance and stumble right into him.
A young man, who had just finished packing his barbecue, saw what happened and quickly jogged over. He stared awkwardly at Wen Xiao’s clothes.
Wen Xiao looked down and saw a large stain of spicy oil on his shirt, dotted with chopped scallions and cumin. At his feet was a piece of grilled eggplant, still steaming.
The little boy burst into tears, his sobs loud and heartfelt. The young man quickly bent down, picked him up, and kept apologizing, pulling out two hundred yuan from his wallet and offering it to Wen Xiao. "I'm really sorry, really sorry! Here, take this money and buy a new one. My sincerest apologies!"
Once the crying faded into the distance, Chi Ye grabbed some tissue paper and started helping Wen Xiao clean his clothes. He wiped a couple of times before pausing to look more closely at the oil stain. "If you really observe it, it has a certain artistic flair."
Half of Wen Xiao’s shirt was soaked in a yellow-brown oil stain, emitting a spicy smell. He had a slight obsession with cleanliness, so his face looked even colder than usual.
Chi Ye glanced around. "Over there. Big brand clearance sale. Want to take a look?"
The stall was a temporary setup made of steel bars and blue tarps, with red paper pasted on all three sides. On it were handwritten signs in bold brushstrokes: "Blowout prices! Huge clearance sale!" "We have all your favorite brands, starting at one-tenth the price!" "Limited-time offers!!"
Two people inside were busy calculating bills. When they saw Chi Ye and Wen Xiao approach, one of them waved them over, "Feel free to browse, you can try on the clothes!"
There were a lot of items, but after flipping through plenty of clothes, Chi Ye found either outdated, middle-aged styles or winter garments that would make anyone sweat if worn. Finally, he found one that was barely acceptable in terms of aesthetics, but they didn't have his size.
As he looked at the large "Clearance Prices" signs fluttering in the wind, Chi Ye guessed that if the owner kept up with this "clearance" for a few more days, they might not even be able to sell these clothes at all.
After more searching, Chi Ye finally found a white sweatshirt, priced at 49 yuan each. "How about this?"
Wen Xiao took the shirt from the rack, inspecting it.
The style of the sweatshirt was pretty standard. It was hooded and it felt like pure cotton when he touched it. The only glaring issue was the English phrase boldly written across the center: "I am a beautiful boy, I am so happy."
Chi Ye noticed it too. "Did the designer not wake up and just randomly copied two sentences from a third-grade English textbook?"
Wen Xiao didn’t put the shirt back. "Would you dare to wear it?"
Chi Ye: "What’s so scary about it? If you dare, I dare."
Wen Xiao: "If you dare, I dare."
Their gazes locked.
Under the blue tarp, a bare incandescent bulb hung, casting light that made the English words glow even brighter.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Chi Ye gave in. "One for each of us, let’s wear them." He grabbed a shirt and added, "If we’re going to wear it, we wear it all the way. Tomorrow, we’ll put it under our school uniforms and wear it to school."
Chi Ye's eyes sparkled with laughter, shining brightly under the light.
This was clearly a challenge.
Wen Xiao: "I'm in."