Chasing Game

[Lu Zhaoshen, I regret it]

Xu Xingzhe pestered Lu Zhaoshen downstairs for half a day as if Lu Zhaoshen wasn’t going back to his dormitory but was about to leave far away. It wasn’t until the parents who helped carry luggage stared at him with strange looks that Xu Xingzhe reluctantly released Lu Zhaoshen’s hand.

“Take a photo of your roommate and show it to me, okay?” 

Lu Zhaoshen only felt a headache, “Xu Xingzhe, not everyone is gay.”

“It’s not difficult to bend a person at all.” Xu Xingzhe dared not directly stick to Lu Zhaoshen, so he lowered his head and pretended to be pitiful, whispering, “Didn’t you also say you were a straight man before?”

“I still am one,” Lu Zhaoshen blurted.

Xu Xingzhe chuckled and gently kicked Lu Zhaoshen’s ankle with the tip of his shoe. “A straight man?”

Lu Zhaoshen’s expression became a little unnatural.

As soon as Xu Xingzhe raised his gaze, he saw Lu Zhaoshen’s slender neckline exposed from his collar. He turned his head and didn’t want to look at Xu Xingzhe, but instead allowed Xu Xingzhe to calmly draw his beloved in detail. 

Lu Zhaoshen had changed his pair of glasses. Although they were still black frames, it was now made of a metal material, reflecting a dignified golden colour in the sunlight. His eyes and eyebrows were fine, and the bridge of his nose was also very superior. The only drawback was his thin lips, not because it wasn’t good looking, but Xu Xingzhe heard that people with thin lips have always been ruthless.

So every time they kissed, Xu Xingzhe was very persistent in kissing Lu Zhaoshen’s lips swollen. 

Xu Xingzhe leaned around in front of Lu Zhaoshen and stood on tiptoe to wink and signal him. He saw his face in Lu Zhaoshen’s lenses.

He thought, ‘Lu Zhaoshen and I are really the best couple in the world.’

“Can I invite you out to get a room together this weekend? Straight man?”

Running out of patience, Lu Zhaoshen grabbed the luggage lever and was about to leave. Xu Xingzhe curled his lips at him and begged for mercy. “Okay, okay, I won’t bother you anymore.”

“Xu Xingzhe–” someone suddenly shouted. 

Lu Zhaoshen and Xu Xingzhe turned their heads at the same time and saw that it was the person they had just met at the entrance of the dorm. The person leaned out lazily against the dorm management auntie’s window, lifted their hand and waved something in their palm, saying with a faint smile, “Xu Xingzhe, is this your phone? It’s been ringing for so long.”

Xu Xingzhe was a bit stunned and looked at Lu Zhaoshen in confusion. “Who is he?”

Lu Zhaoshen’s gaze, however, stilled on the person, as if measuring their appearance and figure. Xu Xingzhe felt anxious: Lu Zhaoshen had never even looked at him so patiently. He pulled Lu Zhaoshen aside, changed his usual posture, and then turned around to run to the person at the door. He politely asked, “Why is my phone with you?”

The person smiled, “I’m your roommate.” Then he reached out his hand and introduced himself, “Yan Xiao, I’m sleeping across from you.”

Xu Xingzhe took the phone. Seeing that his mom had called and had already hung up, he didn’t need to call her back in a hurry, so he leaned out in his hand to see Lu Zhaoshen’s back.

Yan Zhan suddenly leaned down close to Xu Xingzhe, who turned his head and almost bumped into him. He was so startled that he suddenly took a step back.

“Are you psycho?”

“Has your cousin left?”

Xu Xingzhe’s face immediately turned gloomy and unhappy.

Just now, in front of Cheng Yuanqing and Dai Liang, he only used Lu Zhaoshen’s words and called him his cousin in order not to embarrass him. However, at this moment, Yan Xiao’s eyes were full of amusement, and those four words clearly wasn’t as literal as they sounded.

Xu Xingzhe’s radar was ringing.

Oh, he’s the same kind. 

“He’s my boyfriend, don’t think about it.”

Yan Xiao smiled, still looking carefree. “I don’t want him, I’m more interested in you.”

Xu Xingzhe sulked even more and narrowed his eyes to warn him. “It’s impossible, stay away from me.”

At this time, Xu Xingzhe’s phone rang again. He thought it was still his mom, but when he picked it up, he found it was his “super kissy baobei” and quickly connected.

“Xu Xingzhe, hurry up and buy a thermos and a clothes hangers.”

The anger in Xu Xingzhe’s heart instantly disappeared, even his tone softened. “T-then, can you accompany me?”

Lu Zhaoshen didn’t answer, but he didn’t hang up either.

Feeling overwhelmed by this flattery, Xu Xingzhe glanced at his phone screen again, but he still hadn’t hung up.

“I’ll wait for you under your dorm building!” He seized the opportunity and  hung up.

Yan Zhan stood next to him, unable to stop himself from laughing as he tsked at Xu Xingzhe, “How good you are at licking1.”

　　*

Finally getting rid of Yan Xiao, Xu Xingzhe went upstairs to wash his face and changed his coat, then ran to Lu Zhaoshen downstairs to wait for him.

Twenty minutes later, Lu Zhaoshen went downstairs expressionlessly, and Xu Xingzhe greeted him. Taking advantage of the fact that there was no one on either side of him, he hugged Lu Zhaoshen’s arm and placed his chin on his shoulder. He asked in a sticky manner, “Where are we going to buy things?” 

He had just looked up malls near the school using the map downstairs. The nearest one was three kilometers away from the school, which means they had to spend at least nearly an hour on the road, plus shopping at the supermarket… He could spend time alone with Lu Zhaoshen all the way until evening. 

“Campus supermarket.”

“Ah?” Xu Xingzhe froze for a moment before he could react. “Ah?”

Lu Zhao pointed southeast and said, “There’s a campus supermarket over there, there should be everything inside.”

There were footsteps approaching, becoming louder and louder. It was the parents who had finished dropping off their children coming downstairs. Soon, a group of people came out from the corner of the stairs. Xu Xingzhe let go and stepped back.

He originally wanted to say that he would go shopping with Lu Zhaoshen.

But when he saw Lu Zhaoshen’s calm expression and the distance between them, he suddenly felt it was meaningless.

The new coat and the twenty minute wait were all meaningless.

The unfamiliarity and excitement of the start of school were extinguished in Lu Zhaoshen’s eyes.

“Okay.”

He nodded, took a long breath, and then turned around to walk in front of Lu Zhaoshen.

If Xu Xingzhe didn’t speak, Lu Zhaoshen wouldn’t speak either. If Xu Xingzhe didn’t speak all the way, they could walk the entire road in silence.

In the past, Xu Xingzhe would definitely be able to play his nagging skills well and not leave a moment of peace for Lu Zhaoshen. However, at this moment, he didn’t want to speak at all. Yan Xiao’s sarcastic “good at licking,” although not malicious, suddenly pierced into Xu Xingzhe’s heart.

When he became a licking dog, this term “licking dog” hadn’t become popular yet. 

He has been chasing Lu Zhaoshen since his first year in high school, and in a blink of an eye, he had grown up. 

With things on his mind, he didn’t pay attention to his feet, so when he turned the corner he tripped over a stone protruding from the side of the road. Lu Zhaoshen grabbed his arm in time, not letting  him fall and hit his jaw. 

“Xu Xingzhe, you–”

Xu Xingzhe shook off Lu Zhaoshen’s hand and walked forward without saying a word.

At this moment, his phone rang and he picked it up. He heard Qin Jiazhen’s  indescribable happy tone complaining, “Xing Xing, why don’t you answer mom’s phone? How does it feel at the start of school? Is the dorm okay?”

Xu Xingzhe suddenly felt his nose turn sour as he slowed down his steps. “I was just packing my things, but I left my phone on the table and didn’t hear it.”

“It’s okay, how’s the dorm, baobei?”

“Not bad.”

“What about roommates? Are they easy to get along with?”

“Not bad.”

“I knew that my Xing Xing has a strong ability to take care of himself. Your father doesn’t trust you to go to school alone. He just slapped the table with me and said you definitely wouldn’t bear it and would ask him for help in a few days. I said it’s impossible. Xing Xing said he’s grown up, so we should trust him.”

Xu Xingzhe’s eyes also turned red. “Mm, I’ve grown up.”

Previously, despite persuasion, he insisted on studying at Nangang University regardless of whether his major was a weak subject in Nangang or his seafood allergies.

Qin Jiazhen was clearly the most reluctant one, but she was still the first to compromise.

Xu Xingzhe has the best parents in the world, having the most and full of love, but he foolishly offered his true heart to Lu Zhaoshen to be trampled by him. If Qin Jiazhen knew that his precious son had been chasing someone shamelessly for three years, even losing his first kiss and first night, without even catching the word “like,” she would surely be very distressed.

September 1st was probably the busiest time at school with a lot of noise surrounding it, surrounded by the word ‘new’.

Everyone started a new life in their own way, only Xu Xingzhe’s still revolved around the past.

Qin Jiazhen hung up the phone, while Xu Xingzhe stood still and stopped, secretly wiping the tears that flowed from the corners of his eyes. Then he turned around and smiled at Lu Zhaoshen, but he wasn’t as enthusiastic and lively as usual.

“Let’s go and buy a hanger and a thermos. There are still many things left.”

Lu Zhaoshen grabbed him and said, “Did you cry?”

“No.”

Lu Zhaoshen looked at the corner of Xu Xingzhe’s eyes, stretched out his right hand, and pressed the light red spot with his thumb. “If you think that the things in the campus supermarket are bad, I…I’ll take you to the mall to buy them.”

Lu Zhaoshen didn’t know how to coax people, this was the only clumsy way he knew. As for him, if it were someone else, it might piss them off even more, but this move had been tried and tested by Xu Xingzhe repeatedly.

Sometimes before he finished speaking, Xu Xingzhe would smile through his tears and arch into his arms.

But this time, the trick lost its effectiveness.

Xu Xingzhe didn’t respond and even looked more aggrieved.

“Lu Zhaoshen, I regret it.”

Lu Zhaoshen paused, and before he could retract his hand, it stopped at the side of Xu Xingzhe’s face.

“I said in your dad’s car that it doesn’t matter if you agree or not. I’ll chase you for four more years.” Xu Xingzhe bit the soft flesh in his mouth and said word by word, “I regret it.”

Lu Zhaoshen’s face instantly turned pale. Xu Xingzhe lowered his head to wipe his tears without paying attention. He wasn’t good at the art of separation and as soon as he finished speaking, he wished he could slap himself in the face.

“Are you serious?” Lu Zhaoshen asked him coldly.

Xu Xingzhe didn’t speak, he couldn’t tell what he was regretting now.

He thought that Lu Zhaoshen would readily agree, clap his hands and even set off a pair of firecrackers to celebrate that he had finally shaken off this big trouble that is Xu Xingzhe.

But Lu Zhaoshen didn’t. He stood silently like Xu Xingzhe.

After a long time, Lu Zhaoshen reached out and wiped the corner of Xu Xingzhe’s eyes. His voice wasn’t as cold as before, but with some unfamiliar tenderness, “I’ll take you to the mall, let’s go.”

Footnote
1. 舔狗 tian gou (lit. licking dog): internet slang used to describe someone with no bottom line and “suck up” to someone who doesn’t like them