Qing Kuang
/ Qing Kuang Chapter 104
Published at 10th of May 2023 01:16:57 PM
The living room went silent for a moment.
Even Shuaishuai stopped making noise at Kou Chen’s dad’s puzzlement.
The whole family turned to look at the thermos in Kou Chen’s dad’s hands.
“We got the wrong one?” Kou Chen couldn’t believe it, and he asked Huo Ran.
“No way,” Huo Ran said. “I watched her put it in.”
Kou Chen looked at his dad.
“This dog…” His dad furrowed his brows, studying the bottle.
“Let me see,” Hearing that, Huo Ran knew that it was the right one. There couldn’t be any other idiot who’d print a photo of himself hugging a dog. He took the thermos from Kou Chen’s dad, “This is…”
The photo of Kou Chen and Shuaishuai was clearly printed on the bottle.
“Let me see!” Kou Chen grabbed it. He only took a glance before he stuck it in his dad’s face. “Seriously? Are you even my real dad?”
“That you have to ask your mother,” His dad said. He took the bottle again and stared at it. “If your mom says I’m not your real dad, then I’m not your real dad.”
“Kou Chen, what do you mean by that?” Kou Chen’s mom immediately started questioning him.
“…What could I mean? Can you not always get pushed off-topic by him?” Kou Chen said. “Think about it!”
“I can push him around with just a word!” Kou Chen’s mom pointed at Kou Chen’s dad. “Put it out!”
Kou Chen’s dad looked at her.
Then he sighed and pressed the previously put-out smoke into the ashtray a few more times.
“See that?” Kou Chen’s mom said.
Kou Chen opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything. He only gestured to her in respect.
“This is you?” Kou Chen’s dad finally recognized the person in the photo. “Did you use that beauty camera of your sister’s?”
“No,” Kou Chen sat down beside him. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
“Let me see!” Kou Xiao walked over and picked up the thermos. She looked at it with Old Yang and Kou Chen’s mom. Then Kou Xiao sighed, “My brother doesn’t need filters, he’s just handsome.”
Kou Chen’s dad wasn’t satisfied with how everyone else knew it was his son with a glance. He took the thermos back: “It’s because… Your face is puffy… Look, printing it on a bottle would more or less change the shape…”
“It’s a selfie,” Kou Chen said. “So it’s mirrored. Maybe you’re not used to it?”
Kou Chen’s dad didn’t say anything. He kept staring at the photo.
Kou Chen was probably still a little apprehensive, so he waited for a response.
Huo Ran also waited, seeing as Kou Chen’s temper came from his dad. If he wasn’t happy with it, maybe he’d suddenly smack Kou Chen on the head with it.
And the thermos itself…
“Say, I don’t think I’ve seen many of your photos.” Kou Chen’s dad suddenly spoke, sounding a little wistful. “You took a lot of pictures when you were little though, that I’d be able to recognize.”
“How little?” Kou Chen asked.
“Elementary school,” Kou Chen’s mom said. “You didn’t want to take pictures anymore after middle school. Everything in our albums is from back then.”
“It’s not like he didn’t want to, he took plenty of selfies.” Kou Xiao said as she snacked. “He just didn’t want to take them with you guys.”
He just didn’t want to take pictures with his dad.
Kou Chen suddenly looked a little sad. He was obviously not as excited as before.
“Ranran, you…” Kou Chen suddenly turned to Huo Ran.
Huo Ran didn’t even need a second to understand what he wanted. He quickly grabbed his phone and opened the camera app.
“You don’t smile like that normally either…” Huo Ran sighed.
“Hurry up!” Kou Chen showed his teeth. “Dad, smile.”
“What’s there to smile about?” Kou Chen’s dad held the thermos with a blank face.
“Smile!” Kou Chen’s mom said. “Is this how you feel after getting a birthday gift from your son?”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Kou Chen’s dad looked at him. When he turned back around he was smiling and he asked, “Like this?”
Kou Xiao burst out into laughter: “It looks like you two are being held at gunpoint!”
“Hurry up!” Kou Chen hissed through his teeth at Huo Ran.”
Huo Ran quickly took a few pictures: “There.”
“Send it to me.” Kou Chen took his phone out.
“Me too,” Kou Chen’s dad looked at his phone. “I’ll save one, so I can recognize you from now on.”
Kou Chen glanced at him: “You…”
After taking the photo, Kou Chen’s dad happily went off to wash the thermos, and then he poured some tea into it. He took a sip and sighed in satisfaction: “Ah…”
“How is it?” Kou Chen asked.
His dad looked at the photo on the thermos, and then he turned it around to look. In the end, he sighed: “Where did Kou Chen get his tastes from? He has good fashion sense normally, so how come the thermos he got me feels like it’s from the eighties?”
“What do you know?” Kou Chen yelled. “There’s a lot of meaning to it! And it’s fun! And it’s cool!”
“Huo Ran, didn’t you say anything about it?” Kou Chen’s dad looked to Huo Ran.
“Ah?” At being suddenly called on, Huo Ran froze for a second before replying, “I think… it’s pretty nice. It’s meaningful, and fun… and cool.”
“Sure,” Kou Chen’s dad said. “Did he give your money, or did he threaten to beat you up?”
“He didn’t,” Huo Ran laughed.
“You can be honest, I’ll protect you,” He said. “Kou Chen won’t do anything in front of me.”
Huo Ran glanced at Kou Chen: “I’m serious.”
Kou Chen raised an eyebrow contemptuously: “Hear that?!”
“You aren’t friends for no reason.” Kou Chen’s dad said. And then he took the thermos upstairs with dignity.
Halfway up the stairs, he pointed at the books on the table: “Give those to me, I’ll look them over later.”
Kou Chen quickly handed him the books, presenting them to him in both hands.
“You can go get a job now,” Kou Chen’s dad took the books. “To pay for my Peking University tuition.”
“No problem!” Kou Chen snapped his fingers.
Huo Ran was about to put his phone back in his pocket when he got a message. It was from Wei Chaoren.
-how is it? is it serious? I don’t even have the guts to message him!
-it’s not a big deal, got 3 stitches
Wei Chaoren immediately called him: “Three stitches is not a big deal? Fuck! I’ll be right there, is he at home?”
“Why?” Huo Ran paused. “He’s fine, really.”
“To apologize, it all happened because of me!” Wei Chaoren said. “I asked Zhou Ning, it was someone who knew her since they were little. He’d liked her for years, and I guess he thought I was her boyfriend, so he sent people over. But they ended up hurting Kou Chen!”
“He’s okay now. If you wanna apologize, you can do it when we’re back at school,” Huo Ran said.
“I…” Wei Chaoren was about to say something but he stopped. Then he dragged his voice out, “Ohhhhhhh! I know, you two are together, right?”
Huo Ran didn’t say anything.
“Okay, okay, okay, I won’t bother you anymore,” Wei Chaoren said. “I don’t wanna see it either, you two have fun together. I’ll talk to Kou Chen at school.”
“Mhm,” Huo Ran only hummed.
“See you,” Wei Chaoren said. “Young people should practice restraint, stay safe.”
“Fuck off!” Huo Ran said.
“Fucking off now,” Wei Chaoren hung up.
Kou Chen came down the stairs, shuffling over to him as he sat on Shuaishuai. “Who was it?”
“Chaoren,” Huo Ran said. “He was asking if you were okay.”
“Tell him I’m fine, he doesn’t need to worry so much,” Kou Chen said.
“Mainly because you staying passive is just too unusual,” Huo Ran whispered. “It probably scared him. He wanted to come over, but I told him that you can talk at school.”
“Mhm.” Kou Chen looked at him, and suddenly started smiling. “Come on, upstairs.”
“What?” Huo Ran looked at him, suddenly feeling guilty as if he was sneaking around like a thief.
“Upstairs!” Kou Chen shouted. He turned Shuaishuai around and headed for the stairs. “Shuaishuai is awesome, carry Gege all the way up the stairs…”
That shout made Huo Ran’s heart skip a beat. He kept feeling like they just did something scandalous in front of Kou Chen’s mom, Kou Xiao, and Old Yang.
“We’re eating soon,” Kou Xiao said. “The food is already here, what are you two going upstairs for?”
“To study,” Kou Chen said. “Did you hear dad say he wanted to go to Peking University?”
That excuse was way too unbelievable.
Huo Ran was kinda speechless.
Old Yang laughed and clapped his hands: “Good luck!”
Huo Ran followed Kou Chen up the stairs. As they passed his dad’s study, Kou Chen nodded at the door: “My dad’s serious about this.”
The door wasn’t closed, and Huo Ran saw Kou Chen’s dad sitting at his desk. The thermos was set down beside him, and in front of him was one of the workbooks.
Hearing the two of them come up, Kou Chen’s dad glanced over: “If you don’t work hard when you’re young, you’ll regret it when you’re older.”
“Right,” Kou Chen nodded. “You’re the oldest.”
“I’m the second oldest,” He said. “Your uncle is the oldest.”
Huo Ran didn’t quite know what to say in this conversation, so he walked past behind Kou Chen.
In his room, Kou Chen let go of Shuaishuai, and he immediately leapt onto his bed.
“Close the door,” Kou Chen said.
“Oh.” It didn’t even take a second for all of the blood in Huo Ran’s body to rush up.
He tried his best to keep calm as he closed the door behind him. He hesitated, and then he locked it.
“What are you doing?” Kou Chen looked at him.
“Wh… what?” Huo Ran felt embarrassed. If you poked his face with a needle, blood would burst out for sure.
“Just close it, you don’t need to lock it,” Kou Chen said. “The lock sticks sometimes, it’s really annoying to open.”
“Oh.” Huo Ran was a little dizzy from all the blood rushing up, and he turned to unlock the door again.
“Just leave it.” Kou Chen stretched, and then took his shirt off. “I have to change, this one’s so uncomfortable.”
“Oh.” Huo Ran looked at him.
Kou Chen opened his closet, and picked out a t-shirt to wear.
Huo Ran swallowed, looking at his briefly exposed waist.
Young people should practice restraint.
He reminded himself.
Kou Chen walked to his desk, and then took out a stack of worksheets from his backpack.
Huo Ran suddenly felt a little lost.
He might have misunderstood something.
He stared at Kou Chen’s hand, and when he flipped through the worksheets, he couldn’t help but ask: “Why did you… ask me to come up here?”
Kou Chen turned around to look at him. He stood there for a moment before he said two words: “To study.”
Huo Ran was shocked. It took him ages to recover.
“To study?” He asked.”
“I have too many English worksheets,” Kou Chen said. “I didn’t do any of them, good thing you’re here, there’s some I don’t really understand…”
“Kou Chen?” Huo Ran stared at the back of the guy masquerading as a good student. “What did you say?”
“I said, we’ll do English first,” Kou Chen replied.
At that moment, as a young man, as a young man that needed to show restraint, Huo Ran felt extremely humiliated.
He strided towards Kou Chen and grabbed his arm to turn him around to face him. “You fucking told me to come up here, smiling like that, just to study English?”
“Yup,” Kou Chen smriked slightly.
“Yup, my ass!” Huo Ran grabbed the collar of his shirt and dragged him back.
“What are you doing? Hey, hey, hey! I’m warning you!” Kou Chen stumbled as he was dragged along.
“I didn’t come up here to study!” Huo Ran threw him onto the bed.
Shuaishuai, who was licking his feet on the bed startled, and jumped to the side.
Kou Chen flipped around, and Huo Ran straddled him, pushing his shirt up his body.
“Huo Ranran,” Kou Chen laughed. “Are you starving to death or what?”
“You’re done for!” Huo Ran pointed at him, and then he went to tug at his pants.
Chapter end
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