DTTM – Chapter 26 : So I can say it a few more times in the future. And exchange it for sweets.

Chapter 25 | 🍲 Contents 🍨 | Chapter 27

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Translator: Silvery
PR: Decadence

The two Boss Bros’ arm-wrestling match ends in God Kun’s total defeat.

Looking at the two figures not far off behind them, Cen Rui can’t keep his curiosity on a leash and lowers his voice to a whisper:

“What happened? Did they really arm-wrestle?”

Liang Yifan has his head buried deep in thought.

Cen Rui uses him as his human meat shield to sneakily peek back at them.

Team 7 had initially thought these two may not know how to fence-vault, but unexpectedly, they’re both more than savvy at it.

After much pushing and pulling, when the Academic Tyrants finally made it through to the other side of the wall, they discovered Yu Sheng and Jin Linkun had already been waiting out there for god-knows-how-long.

Be that as it may, the head start these two Boss Bros had did not last very long. As the gang debated animatedly about where they should eat, the Boss Bros slowly fell back behind them.

……

On top of that, it looks like the distance between those two is shrinking.

Shadows extending under the streetlights, their conversation is lost on the crew up ahead. They seem to stick closely as a pair.

Cen Rui withdraws his gaze, lost in thought over it.

“Friend, let’s talk about it.”

Jin Linkun rubs his nose, flanking Yu Sheng’s side:

“We’re already out here. Can you—”

Yu Sheng replies frostily: “No.”

Jin Linkun: “……”

Jin Linkun: “Friend, it’s just a piece of candy. It won’t change my mind to go out and eat with you…”

Yu Sheng grumbles inwardly. Who the hell wants to have a meal with you. He looks up and he casts him a glance. Tepidly, he says:

“If my memory serves me right, I only gave you one piece of candy.”

Jin Linkun is blunt to the point:

“One’s not enough to sate me.”

“……”

That line of reasoning is fine and well. Yu Sheng looks at him, parting his mouth, speechless. He can’t come up with a retort for that.

Back in the classroom, Yu Sheng had technically noticed Jin Linkun stealing a 2^nd sweet from his bag.

Jin Linkun probably didn’t mean to be discovered either. While keeping his eyes trained on his Sudoku, his hand just slipped into Yu Sheng’s bag all too naturally, pinpointing the inner pocket containing the sweets with ease.

It’s such an effortless manoeuvre in fact, even Yu Sheng couldn’t stop a swell of admiration for this guy’s ability to know all happenings within his radius.

One’s preference does change overtime; After his 2^nd year of Middle School, Yu Sheng no longer liked to eat overly sweet things.

Even if he carries sweets around with him, he doesn’t have the slightest intention to eat them. Seeing Jin Linkun come to take them off him by himself, Yu Sheng couldn’t be bothered and let that sweet sit soundlessly in their under table.

But not long later, Team 7 began to talk about going out to eat.

Jin Linkun is still wrecking his head over how to recover that carefully safeguarded sweet in Yu Sheng’s hand. Yu Sheng doesn’t doubt it in the least; If he truly loosens his grip and lets him have it, the other will immediately find an excuse to slip back to the dorms.

……

Giving him a look, Yu Sheng chucks the sweet deep into his pocket right before Jin Linkun’s very eyes, and he quickens his steps to catch up to the gang before them.

His roommate is too firm on this. Jin Linkun’s struggles are in vain. He can only save his energy for the time being and pick up his pace.

Unlike high school, this street follows the schedule of N Uni students who are only let off after 7pm. The later it is into the night, the merrier it becomes. In a way, it can be considered a Night Market.

The first half of the street is full of food carts rolled out when the skies began darkening. The tantalizing scent of deep-fried and grilled food pervades and surrounds them. From time to time, there’s even the tangly salty-sweet sauces intermingling with them.

Are they clean for sure? Let’s set that question aside for now. In any case, it’s certain to tempt passersby to stop in their tracks.

The students of Team 7 bypass the Food Stalls CBD briskly. After deliberating for a long while, they finally settled on a rotary hotpot restaurant*.

(*Rotary Hotpot Restaurant: It’s just Mini Electric Stoves instead of your plates at a ‘Sushi’ / Hotpot Ingredient Restaurant.)

Though they call it hotpot, it’s really just a mini stove-cooker for each customer.

The ingredients are all stuck on a bamboo stick and set to turn on the conveyor belt. One takes whatever they like. The final bill is calculated based on the number of sticks.

Vice-Captain Kong Jiahe opens his mouth, and he apprehensively reminds them:

“This sales method does not distinguish prices. The profits are all spread out, so it is very easy to get an ingredient with higher price than value…”

Xia Junhua cuts straight to the point:

“You eating with us or not?”

“……” Kong Jiahe shuts up and does his best to blend in with them.

Since it is still summer vacation, there aren’t many within the store. Team 7 ends up block-booking the restaurant.

Jin Linkun is already seated here in person. He thinks he’s gained the right to make another attempt, and so he tries to get that sweet from Yu Sheng once again.

Yu Sheng didn’t think this person would be so persistent. An uncontrollable migraine presented itself:

“How childish can you be… We’ll talk about it when we get back.”

He doesn’t think there’s much to these words of his. Yet, Jin Linkun is obviously pacified by something in there and finally stops running his mouth, fully content. He lowers his head to analyse the simple model of the hotpot before him.

The sauces are located at the side of every table. Meat and drinks have to be ordered separately. They will be tabulated when the bill is made.

Team 7’s Captain makes a round of calculations before circling over to Jin Linkun and Yu Sheng’s side. He stammers:

“God Kun—She—Sheng Gē—”

Frankly speaking, when they first decided on this place, Team 7’s Captain wasn’t entirely sure if these two would agree to join them.

Jin Linkun is probably the prime reason for that. Just his dress shirt alone looks priceless enough. No matter which angle you look at him from, he just doesn’t match with the atmosphere of a Hotpot Restaurant at a Night Market.

Team 7’s Captain is quite worried about him opening his mouth and ordering what freshly-squeezed juice or hand-ground coffee.

Yu Sheng frequently goes out to eat with those guys from Central Third, so he shares none of the Captain’s worries. Flipping through the menu casually, he orders:

“A can of beer. No ice.”

“……”

The air around him suddenly turns hushed. Yu Sheng looks up: “?”

Team 7’s Captain: “……”

This option is also out of his expectations.

“Minor, you can’t drink that.”

Jin Linkun is very helpful. Patting Yu Sheng’s shoulder, he helps to amend his answer:

“Two Nutri-Express*.”

(*营养快线 Nutri-Express: (Apple) Flavoured Yoghurt)

Yu Sheng seriously suspects this to be the other’s attempt at revenge for calling him childish. He smacks off his hand:

“How do you know I’m not legal yet?”

Jin Linkun says it in a lofty, enigmatic manner:

“The stars told me so.”

Bearing tall expectations for two bottles of Nutri-Express, Team 7’s Captain has already made a break for it. Jin Linkun moves over and helps turn up the power for Yu Sheng’s hotpot by a notch:

“I even know you’re 2 months and 07 days away from your birthday.”

Yu Sheng: “……”

The Particulars Form.

There’s his birthday on it.

He didn’t think this person would look at the form in detail and even remember it. Rubbing his forehead, Yu Sheng feels a sudden pang of regret for not filling in an effing 30 February instead.

The mini hotpot is not big to begin with. With the power turned up a notch, bubbles find their way up the soup in a blink of an eye, bringing wafting hot steam to the surface with it.

Yu Sheng picks out a couple of veggies and stirs them in with his chopsticks, taking in the steady stream of misty steam.

Deep in the depths of his heart, some part of himself suddenly clenches very lightly, subconsciously.

Jin Linkun picks up a stick of quail eggs to dump into his pot. Turning to him, he leans in and drops the last one to his pot:

“What’s wrong?”

The pale white quail egg plops into the red oil soup, dancing up and down.

Yu Sheng looks down, prodding it lightly with the ends of his chopsticks. He frowns:

“I don’t like quail eggs.”

“Let me borrow your pot for a while. I’ll eat it if you don’t.”

Jin Linkun is full of patience. Eyeing the stream of ingredients making their rounds on the conveyor belt, he smoothly swipes off a stick of fish tofu:

“Do you eat this?”

Yu Sheng remains silent.

Jin Linkun quickly figures out the rules. As he helps drop the fish tofu into his pot, he reassures him:

“You shouldn’t hurry to become legal. It’s not like time will flow any faster just because you fuss over it. If that doesn’t suit you, you can also choose to become like me: First take a year off from school, then go bully the little kiddies from the Second Year…”

Yu Sheng can’t keep it in. A chuckle bubbles out of him against his will. He shoves the other away:

“You’re the little kid.”

Jin Linkun smiles and doesn’t banter over that. He turns to pick out his next ingredient.

This shop is not big by any means. After some dozen high schoolers squeezed in, it’s already about half occupied.

This is the first time these Academic Tyrants from Team 7 are spreading their wings. They’ve hardly yet to empty their enthusiasm during Night Self-Study; Now, they talk animatedly about everything under the sun. It seems like nobody remembers anything regarding the match any more.

It’s hard to tell if he was triggered by Yu Sheng, but Team 7’s Captain orders a can of milk beer* and drinks himself till he’s red. He pushes Cen Rui down by the shoulders:

(*奶啤 Milk Beer: Sour but refreshing milk drink with low alcohol content. Tastes like sweet but soured milk)

“Next time I go for a lottery, I must wash my hands! I will wash my hands!”

“Okay, okay, you’ll wash your hands. You’ll wash them thrice.”

The midget Cen Rui does his best not to get shoved face-first in his hotpot. He fumbles to remove his totally fogged up glasses:

“Once you’re done cleaning them, remember to find me. I’ve got a Dabao SOD Honey* here which I’ve preserved for years. It’s sure to bestow you some heavenly blessings. On account of our friendship, the price is…”

(*大宝SoD蜜 Dabao SOD Honey: Moisturizing Lotion)

Jin Linkun absently listens to their ruckus as he eats. Just when he’s about to take a wad of Dragon’s Whisker Noodles* stuck on a stick, his hand comes to a sudden halt.

That piece of candy had navigated between them at some point of time.

It’s placed slightly closer to his side, sitting quiet and unnoticeable as if it had just appeared out of thin air without warning.

Jin Linkun picks up that piece of candy, and he raises his head.

Yu Sheng is currently fishing up the sweet potato chips in the stove which are close to dispersing. He’s so desperate, he doesn’t even have an eye to spare for him.

In the slightly cramp shop, the boiling hot red soup gurgles profusely within the mini hotpot. Thick clouds of moisture float up, clinging onto the fan of the youth’s lashes.

Clutching onto his chopsticks absently, Jin Linkun loses himself in the sight of him without thinking.

Perhaps he’s too obvious about it. When Yu Sheng fails to rescue the last tiny sweet potato chip, he puts down his chopsticks and he looks up:

“What’re you staring at me for?”

“Ah.” Jin Linkun snaps back. He smiles, “I’m thinking.”

Yu Sheng takes the bait. He prompts:

“What’re you thinking about?”

Jin Linkun doesn’t reply instantaneously, lowering his head and twirling his chopsticks in the pot. Ever so slightly, the ends of his chopsticks dips down on that quail egg bobbing up.

……

Yu Sheng’s biggest peeve is people who leave things half-unsaid. Scowling deeply, he leans in:

“Just spit it out. You—”

Jin Linkun looks up, his brows slightly raised.

When the two people’s eyes meet, Yu Sheng’s chest clenches for some unknown reason.

Drawing his brows, he’s about to tear away his gaze in the next second when the other speaks up abruptly.

“I’m thinking… about what I might’ve said right.”

Jin Linkun chuckles. His voice comes unhurried through the cacophony of the gang and hotpots, almost as though it’s rumbling from the depths of his chest:

“So I can say it a few more times in the future. And exchange it for sweets.”

Till the end of the meal, Yu Sheng remains tight-lipped about what exactly he got right.

Team 7 have lived by the rulebook for over a decade. For most of them, this is the first time they’re doing such an exciting thing. Their enthusiasm can’t die down even thereafter; the idea of having an ice-cream before they head back is raised.

Since they’re drawing close to their 10 o’clock curfew, the Captain leads by example and firmly rejects them. He marches the gaggle of Academic Tyrants back, pushing and shoving them up the fence and over in proper order.

Yu Sheng is somewhat stunned by these academic tyrants’ self-disciplines. He couldn’t contain the urge to lend a hand and push a couple of students who have overeaten up the fence.

The Captain is the last. Laying flat on top of the fence, he strains himself extending a hand to him:

“Sheng Gē! Hurry up! I can’t hold on any longer—”

Dumbstruck by how much he resembles a scene from a war film, Yu Sheng is rendered speechless. Ignoring his hand, he easily hops onto the top of the fence with a light smack.

N Uni’s fences are all pretty vault-friendly. Yu Sheng finds purchase on the fence and sits down, swiftly dumping the still laying Captain into the awaiting arms of the boys down below:

“You guys, go back ahead of me. I’m taking a moment to digest.”

He looks lithe and agile with whatever he does. Certainly, he does look like he’d have the ability to survive in late-night food districts.

Over the course of the short meal, Team 7 have already gotten extremely used to calling him “Sheng Gē”. Bidding a reluctant farewell to him, they line up and sneakily make their way back to the dorms.

Yu Sheng perches on the top of the fence, losing himself in the breeze for a while.

Just now, back when these bunch of people had just started climbing the fence, he’d discovered Jin Linkun had disappeared without a trace or a sound. Where he had gone off to remains a mystery still.

Figuring that they can’t lose a fully-grown adult anyways, Yu Sheng is in no hurry to find him. He only intends to make a round if that guy doesn’t show himself and head back to the dorms first if he’s still MIA thereafter.

The night breeze is cool, refreshing, and especially soothing to the touch. He doesn’t know if it’s because of the spice or some other thing – Whatever it is that caused his reddened face and ears, the heat is completely swept away by the breeze.

A sneeze makes its way out of him. Yu Sheng smoothly slides off the fence, only to run right into a person.

He’s tall, lanky, but muscular. His dress shirt’s stained with the lingering fragrance of hot pot yet to dissipate.

 Yu Sheng: “……”

Why does he come packaged with the bad habit of silent walking too?

Killing his flight or fight impulse in the nick of time, Yu Sheng pushes the guy who’s been MIA for 10 minutes off him and he fixes his clothes:

“Where did you run off to?”

Jin Linkun stops two steps away, lifting the two oolong tea ice cream cones in his hands:

“I bought some ice-cream. The queue was quite long.”

He takes a moment to compare between the two icy treats and hands the neater one to Yu Sheng:

“I told you, but I guess you didn’t hear it.”

“When did that happen? Next time, speak up louder…”

On the way back, Yu Sheng didn’t pay an ounce of attention to his words indeed. Shifting into an illuminated place, he takes the offered ice-cream in hand.

Jin Linkun was struck with a sudden spark of inspiration due to Team 7 back there. After dropping Yu Sheng a word, he’d separated from them midway to join in a line.

Since Team 7’s request to eat ice-cream was blatantly overruled by the Captain, he thought they shouldn’t be too showy about it. Therefore, he had dropped his voice to a murmur when informing Yu Sheng about it.

In the end, he was completely left in the dust when he looked up.

He tried finding Yu Sheng the whole way back, then he had stopped at the base of the fence without a single ray of light, wondering if they’d all gone back. Just when he’s mulling over the possibility of fence-vaulting without hands, a person suddenly fell from the heavens above him.

……

If not for the fact that he’s got an ice-cream in each hand, he could have very well been scared into hugging the offender right there and then.

Jin Linkun still remembers his bad habit:

“We’re just done with the hotpot. Will you be fine with this?”

“It’s nothing serious.”

Yu Sheng takes a bite of the ice-cream:

“It’s just hunger pangs. Usually, there’s no problem.”

His condition is a result of starvation.

Back in those first years when Yu Sheng started living by himself, he was still too young, so his housekeepers were not hired by him personally.

One time, there was a person hired who wasn’t very responsible. They would stuff a couple of bills in Yu Sheng’s bills each time they’re too lazy to cook and tell him to go buy a meal for himself.

Yu Sheng had never come into contact with those restaurants and roadside stands since he was young. Standing stiff and stubborn at the side of the road, the some 10-year-old crumpled the bills in his hand and wasn’t willing to step out. In this manner, he had starved for who-knows-how-many meals.

Maybe it’s because of that baffling atmosphere back at the hotpot restaurant. While eating his ice-cream, Yu Sheng easily brushes over the things he’d never mentioned before to anyone.

As the pair circle back to the night market, Jin Linkun accompanies him and dips his head down for the occasional bite of his ice-cream. He only speaks up after a while:

“What happened after that?”

Yu Sheng raises his brows: “After that?”

…After that, Yu Sheng finally realized he can just fire the housekeeper and hire a new one by himself. This matter was thus easily resolved.

The stalls on both sides are ablazed with vibrant lights, the spicy fragrance of grilled squid mixing in with that of deep-fried chicken cutlets. Not willing to be outdone, the aroma of fried potatoes and grilled sausages chases up to them.

Jin Linkun walks beside him, not saying a thing. He just accompanies him quietly, in this manner.

It gives him the strangest, misleading feeling that in 2 months and 07 days, this guy might just be there to let him spend a birthday where somebody finally remembers.

Yu Sheng rubs his hair. He laughs aloud:

“And then, I realized I was so freaking dumb back then. Streetside foods are so delicious.”

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Silvery: No kidding. Sometimes, I think I’m translating Shokugeki.
Decadence: I’m reading it, imagine how much drooling it took me to finish this chap. I’m going ahead ❤

Next Time on DTTM! – Chapter 27: <Suddenly, I’m left with no drive as well.>

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Chapter 25 | 🦑 Contents 🦑 | Chapter 27

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