ASSHKHME Chapter 24

Chapter 24: He’s Such a Delicate Darling

Xie Yu subconsciously wanted to refuse.

But on second thought, he was surrounded by guys all the time now, and it was highly likely that an excess of yang energy was causing him to be abnormal! Contacting female classmates might help him return to normal.

So Xie Yu said, “Okay, I can.”

When he wasn’t smiling, Xie Yu’s appearance was very aggressive. The lines of his face were cold and sharp, and the eyes beneath his sharp brow bones were deep and dark, giving off a kind of coldness that said, “Keep away.”

The female classmate nervously put down her textbook, tentatively trying to strike up a conversation with Xie Yu, but accidentally caught sight of his phone screen and froze.

Question: Is homosexuality contagious?

Answer: Sexual orientation is mostly innate. The possibility of changing it later in life is very small. Even if it does happen, it’s because the person already had that inclination.

Xie Yu expressionlessly turned off the phone screen, flipping it face down on the desk.

What a load of bullshit that answer was! It was a pile of crap on top of another pile of crap! All poop!

Xie Yu was very unconvinced. Although he’d never liked any girls, that only proved that his fate hadn’t arrived and he hadn’t met the right one.

He couldn’t possibly be labeled as a potential homosexual with a tendency towards men just because he kept himself clean and didn’t mess around with relationships between men and women, right?

Heh, ridiculous!

Heh, bullshit!

Human joys and sorrows are not shared.

Xie Yu was annoyed and confused, while the female classmate next to him had already transitioned from shock and regret to excitement, turning to the side and excitedly sharing the gossip with her best friend in real-time on her phone.

A gentle breeze swayed the white yarn curtains in the classroom, and sunlight cast silhouettes of branches and leaves on the white wall.

Xie Yu sat in a window seat on the second floor, leaning back in his chair, his mind a tangled mess.

Absentmindedly looking into the distance, he accurately captured Chen Zhuo’s figure among the students rushing to class.

Riding his Yadi little electric motorcycle, limited to 21 kilometers per hour, he sped through the crowd. His T-shirt was puffed up by the wind, and the tips of his hair were gilded with the golden light of the sun, like a picture from a magazine, full of youthful vigor.

But Xie Yu knew that this guy Chen Zhuo was only good for looking at from a distance. He looked decent and gentle and handsome, but right now he was probably cursing a blue streak because he was about to be late.

Xie Yu watched him with his hand propping up his chin, a hint of a smile on his face. He saw Chen Zhuo drift his little Yadi into the parking area and rush into the opposite teaching building with Zhao Jiashu.

Hmm? Zhao Jiashu was there too?

Had he been in the back seat the whole time? How come he didn’t see him just now?

Xie Yu was silent for two seconds, then solemnly opened his textbook, trying to drown Chen Zhuo in the ocean of knowledge in his mind.

—

After the National Day holiday, various clubs on campus began to recruit new members.

The fountain square was full of stalls, and upperclassmen and upperclasswomen enthusiastically handed out flyers. The noise of voices was chaotic, and the scene was lively.

Chen Zhuo was blocked in a circle by a muscular upperclassman wearing a basketball uniform, as if he was running a pyramid scheme: “Bro, at first glance, I can tell you’re a basketball prodigy! Want to join our basketball club? There are even girls to hand out water during breaks!”

Chen Zhuo wasn’t interested in girls handing out water.

He quietly sized up the upperclassmen with their big white teeth, and saw that each of them had been given extra attention by the sun, which meant that they all trained on outdoor basketball courts.

Under the blazing sun, they were tanned black and covered in sweat.

The refined Chen Zhuoer said he couldn’t accept it, politely declining: “I’m not very good at sports, sorry.”

One of the upperclassmen directly reached out and pinched Chen Zhuo’s arm, smiling: “You have these muscle lines and you’re saying you’re not good at sports?”

Chen Zhuo was speechless at these straight men’s unconscious offensive behavior, withdrawing his arm with a displeased expression, and turning to leave.

He was stopped again, “Hey! Our basketball club has off-campus basketball games every year. As long as you participate, you can add points to your comprehensive assessment. Seriously, won’t you consider it?”

“I really…”

Chen Zhuo didn’t finish his sentence when suddenly someone put their arm around his shoulders. Xie Yu pulled him to his side, annoyed, “What’s the point of playing basketball with your delicate skin and tender flesh? What if you get hurt because someone doesn’t know their own strength? He’s such a delicate darling.”

A burst of laughter erupted from the crowd of boys: “A tall guy over 1.8 meters isn’t that easy to hurt! Hey, this classmate! I think you’re even more of a basketball prodigy!”

Xie Yu ignored him, grabbing Chen Zhuo’s arm and pulling him out of the encirclement, all the way to the secluded shade of a tree.

A breeze passed through their hair, and dappled sunlight danced on them through the leaves.

Chen Zhuo was still angry that Xie Yu had messed up his desk, impatiently shaking off Xie Yu’s hand, “What are you doing?”

Xie Yu said in a low voice: “Most of the basketball club is made up of men. What are you, a homosexual, doing trying to get in there? All kinds of physical contact while playing basketball, isn’t that just letting people take advantage of you for nothing?”

Although Chen Zhuo didn’t understand what medicine Xie Yu had taken, he seized on Xie Yu’s logical loophole, reminding him: “Is there any possibility that I’m the one taking advantage of them?”

Xie Yu choked, looking at him in disbelief, his expression complex as he said, “How can you be so perverted?”

Chen Zhuo, who had lived for so long, was hearing this adjective being used on him for the first time. His face wasn’t too good-looking: “Xie Yu, are you looking for trouble?”

“No, you!” Xie Yu looked around, lowered his voice, and asked unnaturally: “You like that kind of thing? Athletes?”

Chen Zhuo raised his eyebrows slightly, narrowed his eyes scrutinizingly, and a teasing smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, “What kind of person I like, is it any of your business? Xie Yu, the way you’re acting right now, aren’t you jealous?”

“Who would be jealous of you! I’m not a homosexual!”

Xie Yu kicked a small stone at his feet in annoyance. He thought he was probably crazy, he felt so annoyed watching Chen Zhuo being surrounded by men.

“I’m just being a good roommate, kindly reminding you, that’s all. I’m telling you, those athletes all have stinky feet! They don’t wash their socks for days!”

After hearing his last sentence, all of Chen Zhuo’s anger dissipated, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

Glimmers of light danced on his slightly curved eyelashes, and his bright eyes looked at Xie Yu with a smile, scolding him: “Crazy.”

Xie Yu was shaken by Chen Zhuo’s smile, awkwardly turning his head away, muttering: “You’re the crazy one.”

Chen Zhuo suddenly reached out and grabbed Xie Yu’s wrist, pulling him behind a thick willow tree, looking into his eyes.

Xie Yu felt prickly all over from his gaze, his tone stiff: “What?”

Chen Zhuo looked at Xie Yu for a few more seconds, then smiled, clearly with bad intentions as he leaned closer to him, “Didn’t I say it before? I like you.”

Xie Yu’s throat was a little dry, and he swallowed.

The last time Chen Zhuo teased him like this, Xie Yu just wanted to beat him up and shut him up.

But this time, probably because of that ambiguous and absurd dream, even though Xie Yu knew that Chen Zhuo was deliberately teasing him, he was still momentarily distracted by this insincere “confession”.

His palm pressed against the rough, uneven bark of the tree trunk, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, as he said fiercely: “If you dare to talk nonsense again, I’ll beat you.”