Part 3
Before leaving, he coldly threw a sentence to Meng Shen: “Go back to your own home early after eating.”
Yu Xi told Meng Shen with some happiness, “A-Shen, Xingxing really cares about you.”
Meng Shen: “…Mhm.”
In the blink of an eye, the day for university to start approached.
Pei Wang, being a senior in high school, had already started school early. Yu Xi, who didn’t need to tutor him, had plenty of time and had made enough grass-woven grasshoppers.
Before he went out, Auntie Wan specifically packed some homemade snacks for him. They were individually wrapped, making them very suitable as small gifts.
In the afternoon, Yu Xi put on a sun-shading baseball cap and headed out with the paper bag.
The sun was a bit intense. Wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, his skin felt painful from the sun, so he quickened his pace.
By the time he reached the front of the Sheng family villa, he was covered in sweat. After he rang the doorbell, the Sheng sisters soon came out to greet him.
“This is the first time you’ve come to our house since you returned!” Sheng Yunzhuan was very excited, having the live-in auntie bring out all the delicious treats to entertain him.
“I came to give you some things.”
Yu Xi first took out a grass-woven grasshopper from the paper bag and placed it in Sheng Yunzhuan’s hand. “Like we agreed.”
“Wow!!!”
Sheng Yunzhuan held the grass-woven grasshopper above her head, overjoyed. She hugged Yu Xi and nuzzled him, saying emotionally, “I knew Xiao Xi was the best. The first person to receive one this time is indeed me!”
Yu Xi rubbed the tip of his nose with a bit of guilt. “I’m glad you like it… Yunshu, this is yours. And these are the snacks Auntie Wan made. Try them; they’re sweet and delicious.”
Sheng Yunshu took them with a light smile. “Thank you, Xiao Xi.”
After talking for a while and hearing that Yu Xi still had to go to the other households one by one to deliver gifts, the Sheng sisters—one giving up her nap and the other giving up her novel—changed their clothes to accompany him.
Sheng Yunshu held an umbrella, covering Yu Xi with a bit of shade as well. “There’s something I have to tell you. Shuhuai Ge is coming back soon.”
Yu Xi’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Sheng Yunzhuan skipped ahead, playing with the long tail of the grass-woven grasshopper in her hand. “It’s next week. His global music tour starts from here and ends here. The last show is coming up soon.”
“We should all gather together then,” Sheng Yunshu said.
Yu Xi was already looking forward to it. “Mhm.”
The closest house to the Sheng family was the Meng family. Although over ten years had passed and most of the other Meng children had grown up and moved out to other residences, Father Meng was also away for most of the year. However, Mother Meng preferred quiet, and the three of them rarely interacted with the other Meng family members, so it was inconvenient to enter the house.
Therefore, Yu Xi called Meng Shen and called him out from the house to the entrance.
Meng Shen seemed to be busy when he answered the phone, as it took him some time to run over. “Did you wait long?”
Yu Xi shook his head. Seeing sweat on his forehead, he pulled out a tissue and handed it over.
Meng Shen took it but didn’t wipe, clenching it in his palm.
Sheng Yunshu remembered something and looked up. “It was my oversight. It’s your livestreaming time right now.”
“Livestreaming?” This was the first Yu Xi had heard of it. His eyes were as bright and curious as a fawn’s as he looked at Meng Shen.
Meng Shen blocked his warming face. “Mhm. Game livestreaming.”
Yu Xi had heard a bit about Meng Shen relying on the internet to earn money and support himself during his spare time, but he hadn’t expected it to be game livestreaming. In his mind, some variety streamers who did all sorts of tricks on camera popped up. It was hard to imagine how the usually silent Meng Shen interacted with an audience.
“You never told me. It’s quite surprising.”
Sheng Yunzhuan took over the conversation: “It’s normal that he didn’t tell you. At the beginning, I specifically went to give him some gift donations to support him. Guess what? He directly blacklisted me and told me not to come! Even if he feels embarrassed being seen by acquaintances, he shouldn’t have gone as far as blacklisting me. Don’t you think he’s out of line!”
Yu Xi thought it was also only natural that Meng Shen didn’t want to be known. He patted Sheng Yunzhuan’s back to help her calm down.
He simply changed the subject: “If you have proper business to attend to, hurry back. We still have to go to Xingxing’s house later.”
Meng Shen’s thin lips parted slightly as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he nodded silently and went back.
Yu Xi watched him enter the house. Just as he was about to leave with the Sheng sisters, he felt something and looked up at the second floor of the villa.
Behind the curtains, a peeping figure flashed by, not hiding very quickly. Yu Xi saw that it was Meng Liang and retracted his gaze, acting as if he hadn’t seen anything.
On the way to Zhang Xingkuo’s house, Yu Xi’s phone vibrated.
He opened it and found that Meng Shen had sent a link to his livestreaming channel.
Meng Shen: [Xiao Xi can know everything about me.]
Yu Xi couldn’t help but smile.
It was normal for friends to have their own privacy. Even if Meng Shen didn’t want him to know where he was livestreaming, he wouldn’t mind.
He hadn’t expected that right after they separated, Meng Shen would send it over, as if deeply afraid this matter would affect their relationship.
Yu Xi wasn’t in a hurry to go and investigate, typing his reply slowly.
[Okay! When I have time later, I’ll check out how impressive our A-Shen is! Good luck with your livestreaming!]
[Puppy skipping and waving pom-poms.jpg]
Arriving at Zhang Xingkuo’s house, Sheng Yunzhuan, who was close to Mrs. Zhang, acted very familiar as soon as she entered. It was obvious she came often.
Mrs. Zhang was drinking tea in the backyard and came to greet them first, having them sit down and ordering the auntie to call Zhang Xingkuo from upstairs.
“Sorry, Auntie Zhang, I only brought a bit of snacks.” Yu Xi hadn’t expected Mrs. Zhang to be home and shyly pulled out the last portion of snacks from the paper bag.
Mrs. Zhang was beaming. “They go perfectly with tea. I still remember you liked this kind of filled candy when you were little. Here, catch.”
Yu Xi caught a small handful. “It’s a bit too much…”
“Take them home and eat them slowly if you can’t finish.” Mrs. Zhang told him to keep them. Her ears were sharp enough to hear the urgent footsteps of her child. She smiled and stood up to leave the space for the children. “Xingxing is here.”
Yu Xi turned around. What he noticed first wasn’t Zhang Xingkuo, but the smoke-grey large dog following behind him.
“August!” Sheng Yunzhuan bent down and clapped her hands. The large dog immediately rushed into her arms with its tongue out, greeting her enthusiastically.
“Okay, okay.” Sheng Yunzhuan smiled and held down the dog’s head that was nuzzling her face, introducing it to Yu Xi. “Xiao Xi, you haven’t met him yet, have you? His name is August, because he was picked up in August.”
Yu Xi’s eyes were full of novelty as he examined August’s fluffy fur and spirited eyes.
August also noticed this stranger, tilting his head similarly to examine him.
Sheng Yunzhuan said, “You can shake hands with him.”
Yu Xi then crouched down, trying to reach out a hand, and gave a solemn greeting: “Hello, I am Yu Xi.”
August raised a paw and placed it in his palm. “Woof!”
Thus, the person and the dog were acquainted. August had an enthusiastic and lively personality, and before long, he began biting Yu Xi’s shoe to get him to play.
Zhang Xingkuo barked a low reprimand: “August, no being undisciplined!”
August immediately lowered his ears and became much more behaved. Clearly, he was often scolded.
“Can I pet him?” Yu Xi’s hands were a bit itchy looking at that big furry head.
Zhang Xingkuo took the initiative to grab his hand and rest it on the dog’s head. “Don’t pet for too long. If you pet for too long, he easily gets ahead of himself.”
Yu Xi felt the incredibly good texture and carefully pinched the ears that looked very bouncy. As he petted, he looked up at Zhang Xingkuo’s hair and blurted out, “Your hair is so similar to his fur.”
Even the feel was similar.
“Pfft—!” Sheng Yunzhuan burst out laughing instantly, clutching her stomach and slapping her thigh. “I said that day you dyed your hair like dog fur, and you said I had no eye for style, hahahaha. Look, Xiao Xi thinks the same!”
On the side, Sheng Yunshu also lifted the corners of her mouth.
Zhang Xingkuo’s face was dark. “I’ll go dye my hair in a couple of days.”
Yu Xi was stunned, realizing he seemed to have said the wrong thing. “I didn’t mean to mock you just now. I think your current hair color suits you very well; it looks quite cool.”
Zhang Xingkuo’s face turned from cloudy to sunny, changing his mind in a second: “Then I won’t change it.”
Sheng Yunzhuan was speechless for a moment. “Xiao Xi, believe it or not, if you said he looked most handsome bald right now, he’d immediately shave off the dog fur on his head.”
Yu Xi: “Ah?”
Zhang Xingkuo pretended to kick Sheng Yunzhuan. “Can you say something nice for once?”
“Xiao Xi, look at him!” Sheng Yunzhuan hid behind Yu Xi.
The group fooled around. Although August couldn’t understand, he followed with high spirits, excitedly jumping around in the middle and almost tripping someone, earning a flick on the forehead from Zhang Xingkuo.
“Already a five-year-old dog, and not steady at all.”
Sheng Yunzhuan laughed, “He’s probably only well-behaved in front of Gu Chuanzhou. He wouldn’t even dare to grunt.”
Yu Xi asked, “Is he very afraid of Chuanzhou Ge?”
Sheng Yunzhuan nodded. “After all, the person who picked him up was Gu Chuanzhou.”
Yu Xi was curious, so Sheng Yunzhuan slowly told him the story of August.
Five years ago, August was still a puppy. He had a car accident on the road, and it was Gu Chuanzhou who passed by and sent him to the pet hospital for treatment.
August was just a crossbred stray dog. Having left his mother dog and being on the verge of death after the accident, he was rescued by Gu Chuanzhou and recognized him as his master.
Gu Chuanzhou, who originally hadn’t planned on keeping a pet, saw him continuously nudging his legs and pleading, so he adopted him.
August was naturally mischievous. Gu Chuanzhou spent quite a bit of effort training him. Although August often chewed up furniture, knocked things over, and turned the house upside down—to the point where Sheng Yunzhuan shook her head and said he was a difficult “dog ancestor” and advised Gu Chuanzhou to give him away—Gu Chuanzhou didn’t dislike him. He patiently cleaned up the mess and said, “Since he recognized me as his master, then he is my dog.”
Until Gu Chuanzhou discovered that this dog was a dog with no discernment.
He would enthusiastically wag his tail to please anyone, and even when seeing strangers while walking, he would rush up to act coquettish. When playing happily, he wouldn’t even listen to commands.
After teaching him countless times to no effect, one time when August played at the Zhang house with Zhang Xingkuo and refused to leave, Gu Chuanzhou simply left him behind.
Zhang Xingkuo brought the dog back to the door, but Gu Chuanzhou kept him out. “Since he sells himself to anyone, then I don’t want him anymore.”
Just like that, August stayed at Gu Chuanzhou’s house for three months before switching to Zhang Xingkuo as his master.
It’s just that the conditioned reflexes carved into his bones during those three short months remained. Every time he saw Gu Chuanzhou’s cold face, August would still instinctively be afraid and not dare to act up.
Sheng Yunzhuan petted August and grumbled, “Don’t you think this guy is strange? He endured so many flaws, but he couldn’t endure this one point of August’s. Ordinary people would even wish for their dog to be close to everyone.”
August seemed to understand, letting out an “Awooo.”
“Oh, our August feels wronged. Come, Sister will take you to get some delicious meat jerky!” Sheng Yunzhuan wanted Zhang Xingkuo to lead the way.
Hearing there was meat jerky, August seemed to have his keyword triggered. He immediately became spirited, wagging his tail and looking expectantly.
Zhang Xingkuo let out a sigh and went into the house with the person and the dog to get it.
Yu Xi was still thinking about Gu Chuanzhou’s matter. At this time, Sheng Yunshu, who was reading her novel beside him, spoke up: “This can be considered a severe emotional obsession with purity.”
So severe that he had similarly strict requirements even for a pet; what he wanted was absolute loyalty.
Yu Xi was stunned. “…Emotional obsession with purity?”
“Similarly, this kind of person will be faithful and loyal to their chosen partner from beginning to end, accompanied by a possessiveness and desire for control so intense it is frightening.”
Sheng Yunshu put down the novel in her hand, tilting her head to look at Yu Xi.
“Xiao Xi, if you are targeted by such a person, you must be careful. Do you understand?”
Yu Xi understood only half.
Coincidentally, the phone in his hand rang.
Lowering his head, it happened to be a message from Gu Chuanzhou.
[Xixi, are you with Zhang Xingkuo?]
[Wait for me, I’m coming over right away.]
Translator’s Note:
A “Male Ghost” who follows and watches wherever you go. .
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