My Deskmate Chapter 54
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 54
The corridor was pitch black. Both of them were controlling their movements, neither giving an inch in that confined space.
Chi Ye held Wen Xiao’s wrist firmly against the wall. Nipping at his lips, Chi Ye spoke in a hushed voice, "Can't you be a little more obedient?"
Wen Xiao wrenched his arm free from Chi Ye’s grip, his movements swift as lightning. He grabbed Chi Ye’s collar, spun on his heel, and slammed him back against the wall, kissing him once more.
Leaning against the cold, hard wall, Chi Ye couldn’t help but laugh between kisses. Even in a moment like this, his Xiaoxiao was still as prickly as ever.
Freshly out of shower, Chi Ye was covered in a layer of moisture, and within a few minutes, he was sweating again. His hand slid to the small of Wen Xiao’s back, feeling the heat radiating from his body.
At that moment, they heard the faint sound of a door opening from either upstairs or downstairs. The two of them froze, holding their breath. After a while, the sound of footsteps echoed, followed by the sound of a door closing.
The corridor fell silent once more.
In the darkness, their eyes met.
The natural taboo and excitement of the situation caused a flame to erupt in their hearts. Neither knew who initiated the action, but their lips clung together once more, with even more passion than before.
It wasn’t until they realized they were teetering on the edge of losing control that Wen Xiao pulled back a couple of inches. "Shall we continue?" His voice was slightly hoarse and nasal, as if he'd just woken up from a satisfying nap.
Chi Ye tightened his hold around Wen Xiao's slim waist, pressing his hips against him. "I’ll listen to you."
There was a subtle hint of amusement in Wen Xiao’s voice. "I didn’t give any orders. You’re the one who reacted on your own."
It was unclear which word triggered the voice-sensor light, but as it flickered on, Chi Ye released his grip and lazily leaned back against the wall, his gaze fixed on Wen Xiao.
Still a bit overwhelmed, Wen Xiao couldn't stand the look in Chi Ye's eyes and directly covered his eyes with his hand.
Amused by the gesture, Chi Ye teased him. "Hey, deskmate, at a time like this, you should say you’ll gouge my eyes out if I keep looking."
Wen Xiao: "And then?"
Chi Ye: "Then I’d say, ‘If I look, I’ll take full responsibility.’"
The two of them entered the room.
After changing into slippers, Wen Xiao asked softly, "Has Yaya fallen asleep?"
"She’s been asleep for ages. I don’t know if it’s because she’s still young and has nothing to worry about, but she falls sleep as soon as she shuts her eyes." Chi Ye’s gaze fell on the two test papers on the table, and he sighed with a smile. "Her older brother is left here worrying about her dreadful math test."
Compared to most of his peers, Chi Ye’s bedroom was unusually tidy. The neatly folded corners of the blanket and the carefully arranged books on the shelves spoke volumes about his discipline.
He gestured for Wen Xiao to sit in the chair, then perched on the edge of the bed. "Come here, let me see if your lips are hurt."
Wen Xiao’s face showed little expression, but he obediently tilted his upper body toward Chi Ye.
Finding Wen Xiao's action endearingly obedient, Chi Ye suppressed a smile and, with a serious expression, cupped Wen Xiao's chin with his fingers. Using the desk lamp, he examined it carefully. "Tsk, it's bit again. Does it hurt?"
Wen Xiao, in that posture, wearily pressed his chin into Chi Ye’s palm. "It doesn’t hurt. I’m not that delicate."
"If it hurts, you can always whine a little. Your Chi-ge doesn’t mind." With Wen Xiao’s movement, Chi Ye’s voice softened. "Are you tired or just sleepy?"
"I’m tired from all the studying, and still a bit sleepy." Wen Xiao rubbed his face against Chi Ye’s rough palm and sniffed, catching the scent of body wash. "Did you just shower?"
"Mm, I just finished when I saw your message. My hair is still damp."
Wen Xiao looked up at Chi Ye’s hair. "What about now?"
"I stood in the hallway for almost half an hour. It’s dry now." Chi Ye watched as the person resting in his palm seemed to lose all of his usual sharpness and prickliness, his eyelids almost fluttering shut. A soft, warm feeling spread through him. "You suddenly came to find me. Did you miss me?"
"Mm, I missed you." Wen Xiao’s eyelids couldn’t stay open any longer, so he simply closed them, his voice almost a whisper. "I found myself writing your name again on the scratch paper."
Damn. Whether it was his posture, the tone of his voice, or the content of his words — it was all too much for Chi Ye to handle. He almost couldn’t resist pinching Wen Xiao’s chin and kissing him, but something inside held him back.
He thought for a moment. This kind of feeling he had was probably similar to when he was a kid playing marbles. Transparent glass marbles were the rarest and prettiest, and he had spent three days competing with the neighbor's kid of the same age. He won game after game, and in the end, he managed to win all the marbles from the other boy’s hands.
From the colorful glass marbles, he would carefully select the transparent glass marble, holding it up to the sunlight. It sparkled, as if all the beauty in the world were hidden inside.
The feeling then was much like the one he had now — holding the marble, afraid it might be lost if he put it in his pocket, afraid it might break if he squeezed it in his hand. He held it gently, cherishing it deeply.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. When he opened his eyes, Wen Xiao spoke. "Should I go back?"
Chi Ye withdrew his hand but gently pinched his face. "Alright, I’ll walk you."
Although Wen Xiao lived just across the street, only a few minutes away, he still let Chi Ye walk him there.
Their shadows stretched across the uneven cement ground, damp from the rain that had just fallen. Occasionally, a droplet would fall from a branch above them.
The walk was mostly silent. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Wen Xiao glanced toward Chi Ye’s apartment. "Should I... walk you back?"
Chi Ye, as if unable to sit still, reached up and pinched Wen Xiao’s soft, white earlobe. "If we keep this up, tonight will never end. Neither of us will get any sleep, and we’ll just walk back and forth on this road over and over again."
After a few moments of silence, Wen Xiao spoke, "Then, see you tomorrow?"
"We won’t see each other at school tomorrow." Chi Ye noticed the disappointment in Wen Xiao’s eyes and quickly added, "But after evening study, we can meet at the bus stop?"
Wen Xiao’s mood lifted again, and he nodded. "Alright."
The next day, when Xu Rui came looking for Wen Xiao during the break, he noticed something. "Wen Xiao, how did your lips get hurt again? Did you bite them in your sleep and bleed? Hahaha!"
Zhao Yiyang, who overheard, turned around. "No kidding, I’ve had that experience. I once dreamed I was eating walnuts in the middle of the night, and I woke up in pain. When I looked, I wasn’t biting a walnut. I was biting my thumb!"
Xu Rui laughed so hard he nearly fell over. "What happened next?"
Zhao Yiyang: "Then my thumb was injured and bleeding, so I couldn’t hold a pen. I had no choice but to force myself to learn how to write with my left hand."
While listening to their conversation, Wen Xiao was multitasking. He finished reading the question Xu Rui had marked with a red pen, and on a scratch paper, he began writing out the solution.
After Xu Rui finished laughing, he looked at the solution. "Big boss, do you have some kind of cheat code? I’ve been pulling my hair out for half an hour last night and another twenty minutes this morning, nearly going bald, but you solve it just by glancing at it?"
Wen Xiao twirled the black plastic pen between his fingers. "Page 112 of One Question, One Practice, third question from the right. It’s a similar problem to this one."
Xu Rui turned to look at Zhao Yiyang, who was already flipping through One Question, One Practice, stopping at page 112. He handed the book to Xu Rui. "It’s this one."
After quickly reading through the problem, Xu Rui groaned in frustration. "Has Old Xu covered this? Damn, I thought I understood when he explained it, but I clearly didn’t!" Then, looking at Wen Xiao, he thought to himself, As expected, the cold aura Wen Xiao gives off is the unmistakable aura of a true genius!
Wen Xiao wasn’t concerned with what Xu Rui was thinking. He simply asked, "Is there anything else you don’t understand?"
"Nothing else!" Xu Rui hugged his books, thinking that if he still didn't understand after being given the solution, he might as well leave Class 1 and go sell pancakes outside the school.
Just then, someone approached from behind at an angle, and in the blink of an eye, a breakfast appeared on Wen Xiao's desk, the plastic bag carefully unsealed.
"Your takeaway's here, soy milk with three parts sugar."
Hearing this, Xu Rui turned around. "Damn, Chi-ge?"
Chi Ye watched as Wen Xiao inserted the straw and started drinking his soy milk. With his lashes lowered, the way he held the straw made him look so docile and cute that Chi Ye's hands itched to touch him. When Xu Rui called him, Chi Ye lazily responded, "What is it?"
"Nothing." Seeing that Chi Ye's attention was all on Wen Xiao, Xu Rui also took a couple of glances. What’s so special about drinking soy milk? Does Chi-ge like watching eating broadcasts or something?
After Chi Ye showed up and left, the only thing left on Wen Xiao’s desk was the soy milk. Otherwise, everyone would have thought that Chi Ye’s brief appearance had been nothing more than a figment of their imagination.
Zhao Yiyang stroked his chin. "So, Chi-ge came all the way here just to bring you breakfast?" He sighed, "You’ve got such a good deskmate!"
Wen Xiao was chewing on the straw, leaving only the last two sips of soy milk, but he didn’t want to finish it.
During the long break, after finishing morning exercises and returning to class, Xu Guangqi called Wen Xiao to his office before he could even enter the classroom.
After half a semester, Xu Guangqi knew that Wen Xiao was a quiet student, so he didn’t waste time and got straight to the point. "Our school has a tradition of holding one or two academic exchange meetings each year. A few outstanding students from each year level are selected to go on stage and provide study guidance. After all, as teachers, our perspectives and positions are different from those of students, and sometimes the study methods we summarize may not be suitable for students, so we have this activity. The teachers in our grade have discussed it and decided to recommend you, Wen Xiao. Would you like to go? It's okay if you don't want to."
After thinking for a moment about what he had said, Xu Guangqi added a few more details. "It’s held in the school auditorium. Nine students from each year will be selected, and each person will talk about one subject. Since the third-year students are under a lot of time pressure, they won't be participating."
Wen Xiao wasn’t interested. "Sorry, teacher, but I don’t want to participate."
"It’s fine, it’s fine. If you don’t want to, that’s alright. I’ll go ask Zhang Siyao later if he’s willing to." Xu Guangqi looked a bit troubled and muttered under his breath, "If only Chi Ye hadn't gotten such a low score..."
Upon hearing this, Wen Xiao’s fingers unconsciously curled slightly—
If Chi Ye didn’t score sixty points, he would also be up there on stage, giving a talk on study methods, guiding others.
"Teacher?"
Xu Guangqi, lost in thought as he tried to figure out who could be nominated, responded when Wen Xiao called him. "What is it?"
Wen Xiao: "I’m willing to go."
Xu Guangqi's expression brightened. "Good, good, good! Now, which subject will you choose? I think maybe math or physics? These are subjects that many students struggle with. It would be great for them to hear your thought process and methods. Perhaps before they enter their third year, they could gain something new from it..."
Bus 117 wound its way through the city’s maze of roads. After announcing the Qixia Road stop, Wen Xiao stood up from his seat and moved toward the door. The glow of the streetlights outside swept over him, casting his silhouette in frames like a series of pictures.
Though he was already familiar with the station announcements and the street scenery outside, the thought of getting off the bus and seeing Chi Ye made his heart feel a little... elated.
That was probably the right word for it. In the past few days, this unfamiliar feeling had appeared many times, always related to the same person. Wen Xiao still couldn’t quite figure out how to describe this feeling with accuracy.
When the Jiuzhang Road station was announced, the bus stopped, and the doors opened. Wen Xiao grabbed the strap of his black backpack as he got off, stepping onto the curb. But when he looked around, the bus stop was empty. There was no familiar figure looking at him from afar.
He circled behind the LED sign, making sure no one was around. Taking out his phone, Wen Xiao dialed Chi Ye’s number.
The long "beep-beep" sound continued, dragging out with each ring, but no one answered.
Wen Xiao stood there in front of the bright sign, holding his phone, head lowered. He pressed the number again, digit by digit, carefully dialing each number once more.