My Deskmate Chapter 9
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 9
Wen Xiao’s eyes were naturally double-lidded, but up close, they appeared sharp and piercing. In the dim light, they glimmered with a cold, hidden glint. His thin lips were pressed in a faint line, giving him an expression that was indifferent and distant.
There was a streak of blood across his face, drawing immediate attention. Chi Ye's gaze involuntarily fell on it.
Unexpectedly, that was when the strike came.
They were close, and Wen Xiao was firmly held in place. Without warning, his left hand, which had been hanging by his side, shot out, aiming a direct punch at Chi Ye’s temple. Chi Ye instinctively raised his arm to block the blow, but Wen Xiao's right hand, fingers pressed together, thrust straight for the exposed Adam’s apple.
Chi Ye stepped back, shifting his weight, narrowly avoiding the attack. But to his surprise, Wen Xiao swiftly retracted his feint with his left hand, and his right knee slammed into the exposed, unguarded part of Chi Ye’s abdomen.
Holy shit!
You fucking feinted with your left hand!
But Chi Ye was no amateur either. As he sidestepped, he grabbed Wen Xiao’s wrist, yanked him forward, and with a sharp twist, slammed Wen Xiao hard against the wall.
Pinning Wen Xiao's thin, white wrist against the wall, Chi Ye chuckled lowly. "Didn't even give me a warning before attacking?" He didn't seem angry. Instead, his voice was laced with interest. "How did I provoke you?"
Wen Xiao stopped struggling. His voice, as cold as the winter fog, seeped through the night air. "You were too close."
Is this a warning?
Chi Ye released Wen Xiao’s wrist and took a step back. "Is this distance enough now?"
Wen Xiao straightened, glanced at Chi Ye under the dim light, but didn’t respond. He adjusted the hood of his black sweatshirt with one hand and turned to leave.
Chi Ye stood still, watching his slender figure disappear — this prick was really irritating.
After returning home, Wen Xiao took a shower. He took off his glasses, and his eyelashes, wet from the water, clung together. The cut beneath his eye, now washed clean of blood, still glowed red. He opened the fridge and grabbed a can of soda.
On his desk, two math test papers were spread out. Wen Xiao took a sip of his soda and picked up his pen. The first few questions were easy, but the last one stumped him. He spent ten minutes on it and still couldn’t solve it.
After the fight, a restless feeling lingered in his chest. Feeling stuffy in the room, Wen Xiao stood up and opened the window.
The cold breeze rushed in, instantly refreshing him.
Jizhuang Road was quiet at midnight, save for the occasional bark of a dog, which quickly faded into silence again.
Wen Xiao aimlessly looked around and suddenly saw a little girl leaning on the windowsill of the opposite building, seemingly daydreaming.
She looked a bit like — Yaya.
Just as he was about to take a closer look, his phone on the desk rang.
Only two people knew his phone number. He'd lost touch with his old classmates and hadn't exchanged numbers with his current ones. It was easy to guess who the caller was — it could only be his grandmother.
His grandmother’s voice was always gentle. "Still working on your problems?"
"Mm, I haven’t finished the math homework yet. Two more papers to go."
"Well, finish up and get some rest." There was a brief pause before she slowed her speech even more. "Dr. Lin called me. He said you've been at Mingnan for over half a month and still haven't contacted him."
Wen Xiao stared at the window across the street, where the girl who resembled Yaya seemed to be watering plants. He pressed his lips together and didn’t respond.
His grandmother sighed softly. "I’ve scheduled an appointment for you on Saturday morning. You know the address — make sure you go."
After a long pause, Wen Xiao finally responded, "Okay."
The Mingnan Medical University Hospital was always crowded, and the escalators constantly made a "teng teng" sound, as if they might break down from the heavy load at any moment.
After swiping his card at the payment counter, Chi Ye stood in the lobby, holding a stack of receipts. The financial stamp on the receipts was bright red, and the ink hadn’t dried yet. Without realizing it, he smudged some of the red ink onto his hand. Chi Ye didn't mind and checked the amount on the receipt to make sure it was correct.
When he looked up again, he unexpectedly saw a familiar face.
Chi Ye casually slipped the receipts into his coat pocket.
Wen Xiao wasn’t wearing a school uniform. Spring seemed to arrive early for him. He was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, the collar piled up around his chin, making his already small face look even smaller.
However, Chi Ye was very familiar with this hospital. The corridor that Wen Xiao had come down led to only one place — the Mental Health Center.
Surprised by the encounter, Wen Xiao didn’t immediately turn and leave. He greeted Chi Ye with a nod. "What a coincidence."
"It really is. I caught a bit of a cold and got an appointment. Didn’t expect to run into you here."
Wen Xiao glanced at him, noticing that he didn’t look at all like someone who needed to be in the hospital for a cold. He knew the excuse was probably a quick, half-hearted lie, but he wasn’t one to pry into others’ private matters. He simply nodded. "Mm, well, I’ll be going now."
Surprisingly, less than half an hour later, they ran into each other again.
The row of restaurants next to the hospital was plentiful, but none looked very inviting — it felt like after eating there, one could be carried straight to the hospital for emergency treatment.
Over the past year or two, Chi Ye had come to the hospital at least once or twice a week, so he had grown familiar with the area. He aimed for a dumpling shop he liked, where he ate every time. The owner had come to recognize him.
Finding the last available table, Chi Ye sat down. The owner, seeing him, greeted him immediately. "The usual, four ounces of pork filling?"
Chi Ye smiled. "Yes, but with extra vegetables."
"Got it!"
Chi Ye snapped apart a pair of disposable chopsticks. As if on cue, he looked up and saw Wen Xiao pushing aside the transparent plastic curtain and entering through the door.
It was lunchtime, and the restaurant was already full. Wen Xiao ordered a plate of dumplings, and Chi Ye glanced around the restaurant, surveying the available tables. Finally, he stood up and walked over to Wen Xiao’s table. "Mind sharing?"
Once Wen Xiao was seated, Chi Ye said, "Good choice. Out of all the restaurants near the hospital, this one’s the only clean one. Eating noodles in the others is like eating poisonous hemlock."
Wen Xiao glanced at him. "Good thing your voice isn’t too loud."
"Good thing?" Chi Ye, fully aware of his own tone, chuckled. "If my voice were any louder, I’d have the owners of the other shops chasing me with brooms. It would be quite a spectacle."
The pot of dumplings steamed, and a laminated menu lay on the table. Chi Ye scanned the menu from top to bottom, then flipped it over and read it again, realizing that sitting face-to-face like this without saying anything was really awkward.
He decided to break the silence. "Didn’t something big happen at school on Friday?"
Wen Xiao vaguely recalled the academic officer mentioning it during a break. "What happened?"
Chi Ye: "People were digging up some land in the northeast corner of the sports field, planning to plant trees. But when they started digging, they uncovered an ancient site. Isn't that exciting? The initial judgment is that it should be an ancient tomb. Our school has a history of over two thousand years, so whatever’s buried there, it’s not something ordinary."
Wen Xiao paused for a moment after hearing this. "Graveyard disco?"
Chi Ye laughed out loud. "You’re thinking too much, deskmate. You wanna go clubbing? At most, you'll just be doing graveyard calisthenics!"
Feeling the conversation had taken a decent turn, Chi Ye asked, "So, are we good now?"
He was referring to the incident in the alley, when they had gotten into a scuffle.
Honestly, he didn’t quite understand himself why he had impulsively shoved someone against the wall. With Wen Xiao’s sharp temper, it wasn’t surprising that a confrontation happened. Thinking it over, Chi Ye decided to chalk up his own actions to the typical recklessness of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy.
Wen Xiao held the plastic cup with two fingers. It was clear, filled with amber-colored tea. His fingers were elegant, and the way he held the cup made it look less like a cheap disposable and more like a priceless piece of fine porcelain.
Without thinking, Chi Ye blurted, "You should be in commercials."
"What?"
Chi Ye: "Nothing."
Wen Xiao didn’t press further. He answered the earlier question instead. "I was always in your debt."
Chi Ye felt that being the one owed a favor was quite pleasant.
When Monday came, the hallways at school were packed like a market, with everyone buzzing about the ancient tomb uncovered near the sports field.
Chi Ye reached the classroom door. He hadn’t even stepped inside when he heard Xu Rui’s flustered voice from behind. "Chi-ge? I’m definitely late, aren’t I? Totally—"
Chi Ye raised an eyebrow. "How did you manage to be late?"
"Well, I ran into you, didn’t I? That means I’m definitely late!"
Chi Ye: "......" Logically, there was nothing wrong with that statement. He pointed to the clock on the wall. "Look carefully, my friend. The bell hasn’t even rung yet. You’re not late."
Reaching his seat, Chi Ye greeted, "Morning, everyone." Seeing his deskmate focused on memorizing English, he added, "Morning, deskmate."
Wen Xiao briefly acknowledged him, "Morning."
Zhao Yiyang felt something was off and whispered to his deskmate, "Shangguan, it feels like I just witnessed the end of World War III in the winter sunshine."
Shangguan Yu stared at him like he had lost his mind. "World War III? What kind of force would it take for a bomb to just disappear?"
Zhao Yiyang: "......"
Glancing back again, he saw Wen Xiao still focused on his English, while Chi Ye borrowed a pen from Wen Xiao, fiddling with it absentmindedly.
While Zhao Yiyang had no problem with Chi Ye's character, he couldn’t deny that Chi Ye could be truly intimidating. During an evening self-study session in their first year of high school, Chi Ye had kicked open the back door of the classroom and rushed in to beat up Zhang Mingfeng. Zhao Yiyang still remembered the scene vividly. Later, when Zhang Mingfeng was sent to the hospital, it was he and the welfare officer who had mopped up the blood from the floor.
So, when Wen Xiao had just sat down in the back row, with a demeanor as cold as an ice block, Zhao Yiyang had worried that the two of them might end up clashing.
Now, however, he realized that, surprisingly, things were — harmonious?
The world was truly strange.
As the bell for the morning self-study session rang, Wen Xiao grabbed the textbook he needed and saw Li Pei walk through the front door of the classroom.
Li Pei had bandages wrapped around his forehead, his posture hunched as though he couldn’t stand up straight.
Someone exclaimed, "Li Pei, where have you been these past few days? What happened to you?"
Li Pei paused at the podium, hesitated for a moment, and then turned toward the last row near the window.
Zhao Yiyang’s heart skipped a beat, muttering, "Shit, did Chi-ge do this? Is he here for revenge?"
Half a minute later, Li Pei stopped by Wen Xiao’s desk. His expression was one of humiliation, but there was also fear in his eyes. Swallowing hard, he bowed deeply.
The class fell completely silent — what was going on?
Li Pei’s chest, where he had been kicked, still throbbed painfully. He stammered, "From now on, I will definitely go the other way. Please—"
"Enough." Chi Ye interrupted, casually propping his legs up on the desk and glaring at Li Pei. "Once you're done, get going. Don't scare my deskmate." He flashed a grin. "My deskmate is fragile. He just wants to study in peace."
Once Li Pei left, the classmates returned to their own business — so it was Chi Ye who had beaten him up, as expected.
Wen Xiao snatched the pen Chi Ye had been twirling. "Who’s fragile again?"
"Me," Chi Ye shamelessly replied, then added, "I didn’t bring a pen. Can I borrow yours? Or I can rent it, I'll pay five cents per class."
Wen Xiao tossed the pen back to him. "That’s too little, not interested."
The classroom was stuffy, with the windows and doors shut tight, and the air thick with the heat of so many people. The teacher was lecturing on classical Chinese, and within ten minutes, half the class had dozed off.
Chi Ye, bored, borrowed Zhao Yiyang’s Switch and started playing games, not even feeling the slightest bit sleepy.
After finishing a game, he turned his head and noticed that his deskmate had already fallen asleep. Wen Xiao’s face was scrunched, his eyebrows furrowed, though it was unclear whether it was from a nightmare or just an uncomfortable sleeping position.
Wen Xiao wasn’t sleeping deeply.
In his drowsy state, he realized he was sitting in a doctor’s office. The room was pure white, filled with the scent of disinfectant.
Dr. Lin was sitting behind the desk, holding a pen as he asked, "Do you still often dream about those scenes?"
He heard himself answer, "No, I haven’t dreamt about them in a long time."
He lied.
He often dreamt of them — his father, mother, and sister. The dreams were vivid, as if they had happened just yesterday.
They still lived in his dreams.
Dr. Lin nodded, making notes in his file, then asked, "Do you still feel fear when you see water, ice, or hear the alarm bells?"
"No."
Dr. Lin closed his pen. "From your answers, it seems your symptoms are gradually fading. Recovery is slow, but you must not lose heart."
In that moment, he felt as if he had become one with his dream self, nodding and murmuring a quiet thank you.
As he left the office, the bright, polished marble tiles suddenly turned into a swamp, the black mud swirling beneath his feet. In the next second, it froze into ice, a thin layer with deep blue, almost black, seawater churning beneath.
Wen Xiao stepped back in fear, but was immediately dragged by the rising waves. In the chaos, he grabbed hold of a piece of driftwood.
In the classroom, the Chinese teacher was saying, "‘When Zhuge Dan rebelled at Shouchun, the Wei Emperor personally led a military expedition. (Lu) Zhi, commanding the civil and military forces of Jingzhou, was sent ahead as the vanguard.’ What are the key points in this translation? Everyone, please take note."
Chi Ye looked down at his right wrist, which was being tightly grasped by Wen Xiao under the desk. He thought, It’s not that I don't want to take notes, but what can I do? I'm helpless!