Edited: 1.2.2022
The next day was the weekend. Pei Lu woke Li Jun up early in the morning. Li Jun yawned and then greeted him, “Good morning.”
Because of last night’s incident, Pei Lu was still a bit uncomfortable so he simply replied, “Good morning,” back with a squirm.
Li Jun washed up as if nothing had happened, then packed up the clothes he needed and turned to Pei Lu, “Let’s go.”
Li Jun’s mother, Wen Wan, had just returned from Hongfu Temple. She was a believer in Buddhism and ever since the year of Li Jun’s accident, she had taken a month out of every year to go to the temple to recite sutras and pray for her son. Although Li Jun was not close to his mother due to his personality, he could still feel Wen Wan’s care and love for him hence he packed his luggage to head home today after receiving a call from Li Qingyi yesterday.
However, heading home was heading home. The person he needed to bring also had to come along. Moreover, out of a covert “show-off” mentality, Li Jun also wanted to show his mother the person he had his eye on.
Pei Lu had just unpacked a carton of yogurt drink when he heard Li Jun’s words. He bit into the straw and asked vaguely, “Aren’t you going home, why would I need to go?”
Li Jun frowned, “Don’t you want to meet my mother?”
“……” Pei Lu almost choked on his yogurt as he rejected, “It’s your family reunion so it’s not good for me to disturb you. You go back first, I’ll come look for you another day.”
“Go together.” Li Jun pursed his lips. He put his luggage down, straightened himself in front of Pei Lu, and looked down on him from above.
Here we go again……Pei Lu shrunk his neck and unconsciously felt weak in his knees. The words he spoke ended up being a degree weaker, “Actually…..I’m good.”
Li Jun stared at him for a while before suddenly saying, “But……I want you to meet my mother.” His voice was a bit low while his bangs covered his eyebrows, making him look a bit pitiful.
Pei Lu’s heart immediately softened. Wasn’t it simply meeting the parents of the students, what was there to be worried about? The mouth was always faster than the brain, “Okay, then I’ll go back with you.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Pei Lu regretted it.
Li Jun, who was just looking pitiful a while ago, showed him a smile and he buried his head to his neck with an intimate rub, “Teacher, you’re so good.”
Pei Lu accepted the ‘good man card’ and burst into tears.
666 watched Pei Lu with cold eyes as he sold himself.
He just wanted to look and didn’t want to speak
The driver was already waiting downstairs.
Li Jun put the luggage in the trunk, then sat in the back with Pei Lu. The driver then drove them to the Li family……
Pei Lu clenched his fingers with a torn face. Several times he wanted to say something but ended up stopping himself. He desperately wanted to say that he shouldn’t go……but every time the words came to his mouth, Li Jun would show him the ‘Teacher, you’re so good’ little puppy dog eyes.
And so Pei Lu swallowed the words that came to his mouth down with great force.
He was torn and repeated this idea several times, but even when he reached the gate of the Li’s residence, Pei Lu still was unable to say the words he had in his stomach. In the end, he could only summon his courage and follow Li Jun in.
“Teacher Xiao Meng?” Li Jun’s mother, Wen Wan, greeted him.
As her name suggests, she was a very gentle woman. With soft looks and a gentle voice, Pei Lu had a good feeling when he first met her.
“Hello, auntie.” Pei Lu greeted politely.
Wen Wan chuckled lightly. She was also very excited to see a well-behaved boy like Pei Lu, “During this time, our Li Jun has bothered you.”
Pei Lu shook his head, “No, no, Li Jun is quite nice to get along with.”
Wen Wan stared at him in surprise. Seeing that his expression didn’t look forced, she couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, “You are the first teacher to evaluate Li Jun like this.”
Pei Lu scratched his cheek. Not knowing how to continue, he could only keep smiling.
Wen Wan chuckled even more happily and inadvertently swept over her son’s expression. She paused slightly, however, when she attentively cast another glance and found that Li Jun was still expressionless, she thought she had just simply mistaken it and turned her head to continue chatting with Pei Lu.
Li Jun sat to the side and listened to the two chatting with a tense face.
Pei Lu had a look of obedience and politely answered Wen Wan’s questions. It was probably a common problem for women of this age. Even if they were elegant and sensible, they would become talkative when they meet youngsters they were quite fond of.
Such as “how old are you this year,” “do you have a girlfriend,” “have you found a job,” and so on. These questions directly made Pei Lu burst into cold sweat. In the end, it was too much for him to carry and Pei Lu could not help but sneakily kick Li Jun a little.
Why are you just sitting here, help take some of the heat, brother!
Li Jun was immovable as a mountain.
Pei Lu’s face still carried a smile and his feet stepped down on Li Jun again, this time especially hard!
“Mom.” Perhaps Pei Lu had stepped too hard, or perhaps Li Jun’s conscience would also be hurt, he finally spoke up.
“Yes?” Wen Wan answered, looking at Li Jun with a look of excitement. Her son usually rarely opened his mouth to call out to people.
If you aren’t reading this on acupofhalfmoon.wordpress.com, then it has been reposted without permission. Please don’t give ad revenue to them and come join us for tea. I promise we don’t bite.
“……” Faced with Wen Wan’s expectant eyes, Li Jun was silent. He thought about it before finally speaking out, “Eat first.”
Wen Wan’s expression paused for a moment and then she looked at Li Jun in amazement. She always felt that her son had changed a lot in a month.
“Okay, I’ll go get your father, you stay and take care of Xiaoyue.”
Just a short time after meeting, the way he was addressed had changed from “Teacher Xiao Meng” to “Xiaoyue.” It could be seen that Wen Wan was very satisfied with Pei Lu. The corner of Li Jun’s mouth curled haughtily; he was also very satisfied.
There were now only two people left in the living room and Pei Lu subconsciously moved to the other side.
“Sit over here.” Li Jun frowned. His arm reached out and pulled Pei Lu, who was trying to sit far away, back. The two of them were leg to leg and arm to arm, before Li Jun squinted in satisfaction.
“……” Pei Lu twisted his body with a face full of reluctance. However, he couldn’t win against Li Jun and could only secretly sulk in his heart.
“Did he grow up eating fodder? Why does he have such enormous strength?!” Pei Lu was very unhappy. The difference in strength was so disparate that it made him feel insecure.
It was rare for 666 not to hang up and his reply was particularly fast. “Dear~ I can smell your jealousy through the screen.”
Pei Lu was angry, “Exactly whose side are you on?!” How does he know how to shoot his mouth off?
666’s lips twitched, “Whoever gives me a five-star rating, then that’s the side I’m on, dear~”
“Do you not want any face[1]?” Pei Lu was stunned and dumbfounded, “Are your businesses that difficult to do now?” That you guys would pull positive reviews in such an undisguised way.
666 arrogantly harrumphed, “We, AIs, are just direct like that, dear~”
“……” Pei Lu felt that he simply could not win against this AI, who loved to shoot his mouth off, so he had to silently shut his mouth and re-immersed himself in the bizarre atmosphere.
Wen Wan and Li Qingyi headed downstairs and saw the two of them close together with arms next to arms, thighs against thighs. Even without any communication, a strange atmosphere had filled up between the two.
“Hubby, why do I feel that the way the two of them are getting along is a bit wrong?” Wen Wan whispered to Li Qingyi. Her slender eyebrows were furrowed, yet she couldn’t say exactly what was wrong.
If even Wen Wan couldn’t tell, then Li Qingyi, this man who had been straight for decades, naturally couldn’t be able to tell even more. He looked for a moment before replying innocently, “I see the two of them are quite good. In the future, our son can also have a companion.”
“……” Wen Wan glowered at him and went downstairs with quick steps.
Li Qingyi, who just had his wife take out her anger on him: “……”
A family of three……or a family of four, reunited and ate a meal. Before Wen Wan could chat with Pei Lu for a while more, Li Jun had the foresight to bring him to the game room.
The space inside the game room was once again filled. The white dominoes were arranged into a huge square and they were neatly arranged. The bottom left corner of the square had a row of dominoes in a curved line, all the way to Pei Lu’s feet.
“When did you set it up again?” Pei Lu squatted down and carefully surveyed the square in front of him. Before this, Li Jun was almost inseparable from him, how was it possible that he still had the time to come back and set up the dominoes?
Speaking of which, he couldn’t figure out why Li Jun liked such a time-consuming and brain-consuming game. A domino of this scale would take at least tens of days or even months to calculate and place, but it only took a split second to push down.
Without answering his question, Li Jun turned to ask, “Would you like to help me?”
“Help you with what?”
“Push it down.” Li Jun looked at him deeply. His eyes were shining with something Pei Lu couldn’t understand.
“What kind of help is that?” Li Jun breathed a sigh of relief. He originally thought it was going to be some kind of difficult question.
Pei Lu stretched out his finger and gently placed it on the first domino. He suddenly remembered something and turned back to ask Li Jun, “Aren’t you doing this with me?” Last time, they also pushed it down together.
Li Jun did not move as he looked at him with an indescribable gaze. For a moment, he slowly hooked the corners of his mouth and said very seriously. “You can’t regret it if you push.”
“No regrets.” Pei Lu thought he was still talking about the dominoes and he grinned, “Come on over, let’s do it together.”
“……Okay.” Li Jun moved. He squatted down behind him and placed his sweaty palms over the back of his hands before pushing it with him.
Tiny rows of dominoes winded their way forward, like a gurgling stream, and one layer pushed another before finally merging into the sea. Circles of dominoes fell and the shadow hidden under the square was finally revealed.
It was like an iceberg floating out of the water, slowly revealing its appearance below the surface.
——White dominoes fell and what was finally revealed was a black heart that was on the verge of reality.
********
The author has something to say:
Li Jun: Since I have showed you my heart, you belong to me now.
Pei Lu: ……
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
[1] Face: In Chinese, giving face to others is like being considerate so as to not embarrass them. Another version is also similar to “shame” whether they have any shame or not.
Edited: 1.2.2022
The next day was the weekend. Pei Lu woke Li Jun up early in the morning. Li Jun yawned and then greeted him, “Good morning.”
Because of last night’s incident, Pei Lu was still a bit uncomfortable so he simply replied, “Good morning,” back with a squirm.
Li Jun washed up as if nothing had happened, then packed up the clothes he needed and turned to Pei Lu, “Let’s go.”
Li Jun’s mother, Wen Wan, had just returned from Hongfu Temple. She was a believer in Buddhism and ever since the year of Li Jun’s accident, she had taken a month out of every year to go to the temple to recite sutras and pray for her son. Although Li Jun was not close to his mother due to his personality, he could still feel Wen Wan’s care and love for him hence he packed his luggage to head home today after receiving a call from Li Qingyi yesterday.
However, heading home was heading home. The person he needed to bring also had to come along. Moreover, out of a covert “show-off” mentality, Li Jun also wanted to show his mother the person he had his eye on.
Pei Lu had just unpacked a carton of yogurt drink when he heard Li Jun’s words. He bit into the straw and asked vaguely, “Aren’t you going home, why would I need to go?”
Li Jun frowned, “Don’t you want to meet my mother?”
“……” Pei Lu almost choked on his yogurt as he rejected, “It’s your family reunion so it’s not good for me to disturb you. You go back first, I’ll come look for you another day.”
“Go together.” Li Jun pursed his lips. He put his luggage down, straightened himself in front of Pei Lu, and looked down on him from above.
Here we go again……Pei Lu shrunk his neck and unconsciously felt weak in his knees. The words he spoke ended up being a degree weaker, “Actually…..I’m good.”
Li Jun stared at him for a while before suddenly saying, “But……I want you to meet my mother.” His voice was a bit low while his bangs covered his eyebrows, making him look a bit pitiful.
Pei Lu’s heart immediately softened. Wasn’t it simply meeting the parents of the students, what was there to be worried about? The mouth was always faster than the brain, “Okay, then I’ll go back with you.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Pei Lu regretted it.
Li Jun, who was just looking pitiful a while ago, showed him a smile and he buried his head to his neck with an intimate rub, “Teacher, you’re so good.”
Pei Lu accepted the ‘good man card’ and burst into tears.
666 watched Pei Lu with cold eyes as he sold himself.
He just wanted to look and didn’t want to speak
The driver was already waiting downstairs.
Li Jun put the luggage in the trunk, then sat in the back with Pei Lu. The driver then drove them to the Li family……
Pei Lu clenched his fingers with a torn face. Several times he wanted to say something but ended up stopping himself. He desperately wanted to say that he shouldn’t go……but every time the words came to his mouth, Li Jun would show him the ‘Teacher, you’re so good’ little puppy dog eyes.
And so Pei Lu swallowed the words that came to his mouth down with great force.
He was torn and repeated this idea several times, but even when he reached the gate of the Li’s residence, Pei Lu still was unable to say the words he had in his stomach. In the end, he could only summon his courage and follow Li Jun in.
“Teacher Xiao Meng?” Li Jun’s mother, Wen Wan, greeted him.
As her name suggests, she was a very gentle woman. With soft looks and a gentle voice, Pei Lu had a good feeling when he first met her.
“Hello, auntie.” Pei Lu greeted politely.
Wen Wan chuckled lightly. She was also very excited to see a well-behaved boy like Pei Lu, “During this time, our Li Jun has bothered you.”
Pei Lu shook his head, “No, no, Li Jun is quite nice to get along with.”
Wen Wan stared at him in surprise. Seeing that his expression didn’t look forced, she couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, “You are the first teacher to evaluate Li Jun like this.”
Pei Lu scratched his cheek. Not knowing how to continue, he could only keep smiling.
Wen Wan chuckled even more happily and inadvertently swept over her son’s expression. She paused slightly, however, when she attentively cast another glance and found that Li Jun was still expressionless, she thought she had just simply mistaken it and turned her head to continue chatting with Pei Lu.
Li Jun sat to the side and listened to the two chatting with a tense face.
Pei Lu had a look of obedience and politely answered Wen Wan’s questions. It was probably a common problem for women of this age. Even if they were elegant and sensible, they would become talkative when they meet youngsters they were quite fond of.
Such as “how old are you this year,” “do you have a girlfriend,” “have you found a job,” and so on. These questions directly made Pei Lu burst into cold sweat. In the end, it was too much for him to carry and Pei Lu could not help but sneakily kick Li Jun a little.
Why are you just sitting here, help take some of the heat, brother!
Li Jun was immovable as a mountain.
Pei Lu’s face still carried a smile and his feet stepped down on Li Jun again, this time especially hard!
“Mom.” Perhaps Pei Lu had stepped too hard, or perhaps Li Jun’s conscience would also be hurt, he finally spoke up.
“Yes?” Wen Wan answered, looking at Li Jun with a look of excitement. Her son usually rarely opened his mouth to call out to people.
If you aren’t reading this on acupofhalfmoon.wordpress.com, then it has been reposted without permission. Please don’t give ad revenue to them and come join us for tea. I promise we don’t bite.
“……” Faced with Wen Wan’s expectant eyes, Li Jun was silent. He thought about it before finally speaking out, “Eat first.”
Wen Wan’s expression paused for a moment and then she looked at Li Jun in amazement. She always felt that her son had changed a lot in a month.
“Okay, I’ll go get your father, you stay and take care of Xiaoyue.”
Just a short time after meeting, the way he was addressed had changed from “Teacher Xiao Meng” to “Xiaoyue.” It could be seen that Wen Wan was very satisfied with Pei Lu. The corner of Li Jun’s mouth curled haughtily; he was also very satisfied.
There were now only two people left in the living room and Pei Lu subconsciously moved to the other side.
“Sit over here.” Li Jun frowned. His arm reached out and pulled Pei Lu, who was trying to sit far away, back. The two of them were leg to leg and arm to arm, before Li Jun squinted in satisfaction.
“……” Pei Lu twisted his body with a face full of reluctance. However, he couldn’t win against Li Jun and could only secretly sulk in his heart.
“Did he grow up eating fodder? Why does he have such enormous strength?!” Pei Lu was very unhappy. The difference in strength was so disparate that it made him feel insecure.
It was rare for 666 not to hang up and his reply was particularly fast. “Dear~ I can smell your jealousy through the screen.”
Pei Lu was angry, “Exactly whose side are you on?!” How does he know how to shoot his mouth off?
666’s lips twitched, “Whoever gives me a five-star rating, then that’s the side I’m on, dear~”
“Do you not want any face[1]?” Pei Lu was stunned and dumbfounded, “Are your businesses that difficult to do now?” That you guys would pull positive reviews in such an undisguised way.
666 arrogantly harrumphed, “We, AIs, are just direct like that, dear~”
“……” Pei Lu felt that he simply could not win against this AI, who loved to shoot his mouth off, so he had to silently shut his mouth and re-immersed himself in the bizarre atmosphere.
Wen Wan and Li Qingyi headed downstairs and saw the two of them close together with arms next to arms, thighs against thighs. Even without any communication, a strange atmosphere had filled up between the two.
“Hubby, why do I feel that the way the two of them are getting along is a bit wrong?” Wen Wan whispered to Li Qingyi. Her slender eyebrows were furrowed, yet she couldn’t say exactly what was wrong.
If even Wen Wan couldn’t tell, then Li Qingyi, this man who had been straight for decades, naturally couldn’t be able to tell even more. He looked for a moment before replying innocently, “I see the two of them are quite good. In the future, our son can also have a companion.”
“……” Wen Wan glowered at him and went downstairs with quick steps.
Li Qingyi, who just had his wife take out her anger on him: “……”
A family of three……or a family of four, reunited and ate a meal. Before Wen Wan could chat with Pei Lu for a while more, Li Jun had the foresight to bring him to the game room.
The space inside the game room was once again filled. The white dominoes were arranged into a huge square and they were neatly arranged. The bottom left corner of the square had a row of dominoes in a curved line, all the way to Pei Lu’s feet.
“When did you set it up again?” Pei Lu squatted down and carefully surveyed the square in front of him. Before this, Li Jun was almost inseparable from him, how was it possible that he still had the time to come back and set up the dominoes?
Speaking of which, he couldn’t figure out why Li Jun liked such a time-consuming and brain-consuming game. A domino of this scale would take at least tens of days or even months to calculate and place, but it only took a split second to push down.
Without answering his question, Li Jun turned to ask, “Would you like to help me?”
“Help you with what?”
“Push it down.” Li Jun looked at him deeply. His eyes were shining with something Pei Lu couldn’t understand.
“What kind of help is that?” Li Jun breathed a sigh of relief. He originally thought it was going to be some kind of difficult question.
Pei Lu stretched out his finger and gently placed it on the first domino. He suddenly remembered something and turned back to ask Li Jun, “Aren’t you doing this with me?” Last time, they also pushed it down together.
Li Jun did not move as he looked at him with an indescribable gaze. For a moment, he slowly hooked the corners of his mouth and said very seriously. “You can’t regret it if you push.”
“No regrets.” Pei Lu thought he was still talking about the dominoes and he grinned, “Come on over, let’s do it together.”
“……Okay.” Li Jun moved. He squatted down behind him and placed his sweaty palms over the back of his hands before pushing it with him.
Tiny rows of dominoes winded their way forward, like a gurgling stream, and one layer pushed another before finally merging into the sea. Circles of dominoes fell and the shadow hidden under the square was finally revealed.
It was like an iceberg floating out of the water, slowly revealing its appearance below the surface.
——White dominoes fell and what was finally revealed was a black heart that was on the verge of reality.
********
The author has something to say:
Li Jun: Since I have showed you my heart, you belong to me now.
Pei Lu: ……
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
[1] Face: In Chinese, giving face to others is like being considerate so as to not embarrass them. Another version is also similar to “shame” whether they have any shame or not.
