ASSHKHME Chapter 12
by VolareXie Yu spent an entire afternoon in the school’s gym. After returning to the dorm and showering, he didn’t go out again, instead opening his computer to review the latest company’s potential investment project data.
After all, he was the only son in his family. Even if he could hire professional managers to run the company in the future, he couldn’t be a useless, clueless rich second generation. The feeling of having everything under his own control was the most secure.
His eyes felt dry from staring at the computer for so long, so Xie Yu went to the balcony to wash his face. Outside, the sky was completely dark, and the night breeze carried a hint of coolness.
He glanced at the time; it was already 9:30 PM, and the dorm building’s curfew was at 10:00 PM.
Xie Yu sat back down at his desk, his desire to study gone. He simply closed his laptop.
The room was quiet. Through the open balcony door, he could hear the sounds of laughter and conversation from downstairs, and someone was playing badminton.
Xie Yu leaned back in his chair. The iron bunk bed above him blocked the overhead light from the fluorescent lamp, half of his face hidden in shadow, making it impossible to read his emotions.
The screen of his phone on the desk suddenly lit up with a meaningless spam text message. Xie Yu glanced at it; it was already 9:45 PM.
Turning his gaze to the unlocked dorm room door, Xie Yu, as if finding a legitimate reason, picked up his phone to send Chen Zhuo a WeChat message.
The moment the message was sent, Xie Yu felt like a resentful husband, bitterly waiting for his wife who was late in returning. The thought startled him.
He thought, having a gay guy in the dorm is really messing with my mind! It’s all Chen Zhuo’s fault.
Chen Zhuo, who was being unfairly blamed and was completely unaware, was comfortably taking a bath, happily half-closing his eyes in the fine bubbles that released a peach fragrance.
After having lunch with Xu Qingyou at noon, the two men didn’t seem to have any other entertainment options besides drinking, KTV, and playing games together.
Chen Zhuo didn’t want to go back to the Xu house. He originally wanted to find an excuse to go to the library and slip away.
But Xu Qingyou said that a friend of his in the business world had opened a mountain village inn in the North Suburbs and invited him to go and play. He wanted Chen Zhuo to go with him to take a look. It was said that there were large grasslands where you could ride horses and camp under the stars.
Chen Zhuo wasn’t interested in camping and feeding mosquitoes, but he was interested in riding horses.
Anyway, there wasn’t anything else to do back at school, and it wasn’t good to always refuse Xu Qingyou’s kindness.
After all, the Xu family had taken care of him for ten years, and what’s more, Xu Qingyou treated him even better than a biological brother. He couldn’t make it seem like he was an ungrateful wretch who couldn’t wait to draw a line between himself and the Xu family as soon as he grew up, so he agreed.
Probably because it was surrounded by mountains and rivers and far away from the city, the temperature in the North Suburbs was much cooler.
Chen Zhuo loved the feeling of being free in nature. As he chased the orange-red sunset while holding the reins, the wind of the wilderness brought freedom.
They played until it got dark, and Xu Qingyou had something to discuss with his friend, so they stayed there.
If he soaked any longer, his skin would wrinkle, so Chen Zhuo reluctantly got out of the massage bathtub, stood under the shower to rinse off, put on a bathrobe, and drank half a glass of warm water.
After drying his hair and humming a song, he picked up his phone and saw the WeChat message that Xie Yu had sent.
Rambunctious Wild Boar: [What time is it? Why haven’t you come back yet?]
This was the first private message between the two since the start of the semester a month ago.
Chen Zhuo savored the meaning of these two sentences, and the more he tasted them, the stranger they seemed.
It seemed that words still couldn’t represent human emotions. Anyone looking at this message wouldn’t be able to tell how antagonistic their relationship was.
Inexplicable. I don’t want to deal with this.
Chen Zhuo didn’t plan to reply to Xie Yu. Just as he was about to put down his phone, Xie Yu’s video call popped up without warning.
Instinctively, he wanted to hang up, but his finger didn’t press down. After the ringtone sounded for a while and was about to automatically disconnect, he finally tapped to answer.
A handsome face, flushed white and red by the heat, appeared on the screen, lazily asking, “What’s up? Are we on video-calling terms in the middle of the night?”
Xie Yu saw the bathrobe loosely hanging on Chen Zhuo’s shoulders and immediately sat up straight. “Where are you? Why are you taking a bath?”
He remembered the past that his mother told him today, learning that Xu Qingyou and Chen Zhuo had no blood or legal relationship.
He subconsciously questioned, his tone strange: “Are you with Xu Qingyou? Even if you like men, you have to be picky! Rabbits don’t eat grass near their own… Hello? Why did you hang up on me! Chen Zhuo!”
“Did this wild boar get possessed? What disgusting things is he saying?”
Chen Zhuo threw his phone onto the bed in disgust and called room service from the landline, asking them to bring him some late-night snacks. He was a little hungry.
Five minutes later, the phone vibrated again with a video call.
It was still Xie Yu calling. Chen Zhuo hung up directly and leaned against the headboard, preparing to play Snake, but Xie Yu kept calling him over and over again like a madman.
Chen Zhuo was full of displeasure and answered the phone while cursing, “What the hell do you want?”
Xie Yu inexplicably asked, “Are you in a room by yourself?”
This question was like a spark falling on a fuse full of firecrackers, causing Chen Zhuo’s anger to “whoosh” to the top of his head.
The image of gay men in the public eye had indeed been tarnished by some rotten people, but why should Chen Zhuo accept this kind of malicious suspicion without any reason!
Chen Zhuo was so angry that his head was buzzing. He wished he could slap Xie Yu’s face with a toilet plunger across the internet.
“Did the donkey stop grinding and just kick your head? Does it have anything to do with you whether or not I’m in a room by myself? One straight intestine to the brain, you just spew whatever comes to mind! If you’re sick, go take medicine! Don’t go crazy on me!”
Xie Yu was stunned by his scolding. So, besides using mothers as the center of the circle and ancestors as the radius to fire insults, one could also curse in such a variety of ways.
But it seemed that Chen Zhuo was indeed alone in his room.
Xie Yu was also annoyed by his excessive attention to Chen Zhuo. Maybe he really was crazy tonight. Being scolded like this, he only frowned.
“Watch your mouth. I’ve been waiting for you. Why haven’t you come back?”
Chen Zhuo scratched his hair, his anger still not subsided, his face full of disbelief. “Are you drunk? Why are you waiting for me?”
Xie Yu felt stuffy and asked back, “Didn’t you send me a message telling me not to lock the door and wait for you to come back?”
Chen Zhuo laughed in anger. “I just told you not to lock the dorm door, I didn’t tell you to wait for me. Can’t you just go to sleep? Does not locking the door keep you from sleeping? What’s wrong, are you afraid that weasels will steal your chicks?”
Xie Yu: “…”
Just as Chen Zhuo finished speaking, the lights in Xie Yu’s dorm automatically went out.
Darkness swallowed the momentary daze and shock on Xie Yu’s face.
His eardrums seemed to “buzz,” and his thoughts were as muddled as porridge.
That’s right, why did he have to wait for Chen Zhuo?
Whether Chen Zhuo came back or not, who he was in a room with, did it have anything to do with him?
Xie Yu hung up the video call as if avoiding a viper.
This isn’t right!
Is being gay contagious?
No, no, no, impossible! Absolutely impossible!
Living in the same dorm, seeing each other all the time, it’s normal to be affected and have some abnormal behavior.
It’s all Chen Zhuo’s fault!
Chen Zhuo looked at the suddenly disconnected call, his expression complex. “Idiot.”