Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side

Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side
Start of the end

Zhou Li: “I can explain.”

Ji Shaoyan: “I didn’t ask.”

The implication was that the young master did not need an explanation at all.

However, Zhou Li wanted to explain, so he clarified with a few simple words, “I’m… I was just creating hype*.”

[T/N: 口嗨: creating hype but not following through with promises]

Ji Shaoyan reminded with a smile, “But one will tell ten, ten will tell a hundred, and soon everyone will know. If we delay our engagement, they’ll start saying that we will not last long again.”

Zhou Li was very rational. “What I said was ‘they are planning to’, and later I can post something like ‘because we’re underaged, we’ll take it back’ and everything will go back to normal.”

Ji Shaoyan smiled with no further comments.

He knew that this matter could be settled right away if he put it under enough pressure, but since Zhou Li said it, if nothing else happens then sooner or later, the promise will be honoured. This silly fool can really surprise people, and was even kind enough to give Ji Shaoyan some information that could be held over his head as an extra bonus.

He smiled and said, “I’ll listen to you.”

After a pause, he happily added another word: “Mengmeng.”

Zhou Li: “……”

The campus was only so big and it didn’t take long to explore all that it had to offer. After a while, the little brothers also had their share of fun. 

The two parties met at the entrance and got into their cars to go home. The next day,  Zhou Li visited the campus again, intending to criticise the trinkets those brain-dead fans sent to Ji Shaoyan, but then he saw Ji Tianyang standing in front of a stall.

He asked the person beside him, “How big do you think the probability is that your brother will be this bored for two consecutive days?”

Ji Shaoyan said, “Not too big.”

Zhou Li thought so too. He signaled for Ji Shaoyan to retreat and strolled up to Ji Tianyang’s side, poking him on the shoulder.

Ji Tianyang was standing in front of a small jewelry booth when he turned his head to look at him, smiling and calling out “Zhou-ge”. Zhou Li responded in kind and asked, “You’re bored today as well?”

Ji Tianyang said, “No, I didn’t want to stay at home. I thought that it was more lively here so I came again.”

He looked at the stalls with various specialties, with a not-so-serious look, and sighed softly, “It feels so good to be able to come out and play around without restraint. Zhou-ge, why did you come?”

Zhou Li: “Came to play.”

Ji Tianyang hummed “en” and walked forward with him, side by side. Seeing that there was no one around, he laughed in a low voice, “In the past, I attended a public school. I’ve never been to this kind of school festival. These kids have good ideas, selling all kinds of stuff. The things in this world are also quite interesting.”

Hearing him bring up this topic, Zhou Li remembered something, and asked, “There was no concept of the liminal space on your side, so how did you know that if there were two pieces of jade in the same world, the holders must be in the same camp?”

Ji Tianyang said, “It’s more of an abstract idea, written by Buddhists, something like one flower, one world, but it also talked about reincarnation and cause and effect. At first I thought that the book said that the jade petal could merge into one flower, and that all the pieces were in my world, that people who are reborn through its powers will have to be on the same side. Only after transmigration did I find out that it was about travelling into another world, just like the legends from this world.”

He looked at Zhou Li. “What professor did you ask? I also want to know more about the Tiansang tribe.”

Zhou Li said, “I have to find your brother, I’ll pass on the business card in a bit and go to say hello to the professor along the way. If you have any questions, you can ask him.” 

Ji Tianyang naturally had no objection and said his goodbyes before moving on to another small stall curiously.

Zhou Li returned to Ji Shaoyan’s side and didn’t say anything about the chat with Ji Tianyang for the time being. Instead, he picked a place where no one was around and called Professor Xia, saying that he had a younger brother who suddenly learned about the Tiansang tribe and wanted to find that the jade petal to try travelling, a simply stupid idea.

Professor Xia went silent on the other side, thinking ‘you still have the face to say that others are stupid when it was you who initially had the whimsical idea to travel through yourself?’ 

Zhou Li said with deep grief, “He came to ask me for your business card, I can’t persuade him.”

Professor Xia felt his the loving care in his words and replied, “Then give it to him, I will try to talk to him.”

Zhou Li immediately thanked him. “Don’t mention that we were the ones who gave you the book, just say that you saw it on a businessman by chance, and don’t say you’ve seen the jade pendant in case he finds the link to my friend and tries to do something else. Just say I learned about the Tiansang tribe after sitting in on your lecture.”

Professor Xia was happy to oblige. “That’s fine, I understand.”

Zhou Li warned him that the kid was very good at acting and would not mention the travelling theory as soon as he visited. Instead, he would ask about the traditions or the gods of the Tiansang tribe. Either way, he must not let his guard down.

Finally, he told Professor Xia that he had come across another ancient book not long ago and became acquainted with the owner of the book so there was a possibility he might be able to lend it to Professor Xia.

Professor Xia was thrilled and exchanged a few more words before cutting off the call.

Ji Shaoyan stood to the side, watching him put away his phone, and asked, “Did he ask about Professor Xia?”

Zhou Li said, “En, said he was curious about the Tiansang people.”

Ji Shaoyan thought for a while. “Take out the jade pendant.”

Zhou Li raised his eyebrow.

Ji Shaoyan smiled slightly. “Let’s test him, find out whether he is really curious or faking it.”

Zhou Li quickly understood. First, he ran off to look at the gifts from the fans and, seeing that they were all rather average, followed Ji Shaoyan to the bank with a pleased mood.

After dealing with the jade, he went home to cheer up the slow-minded teens who were stuck in their tutoring session. He saw the class group chat announce they had won the most popular production award in the high school category and chatted with them for a while with a grin on his face. After the day passed by as usual, a new week of classes started the following morning.

The classroom was embraced in a jubilant aura.

The class monitor was more than ecstatic. At that time, she had broken down after a series of surprising improv, but after hearing the public’s feedback, she realised that people didn’t know those were mistakes. They all thought it was part of their carefully designed act and found it to be a very enjoyable experience.

So when almost everyone had arrived and began to discuss the general performance direction for next year’s school festival as per usual, she turned her attention to Zhou Li.

Zhou Lilue was a little shocked. “Why are we thinking about this a year in advance?”

The class leader said that in their first year of high school, they had struggled for several days and couldn’t come up with what to do. They had no choice but to make a hasty-last minute effort* and almost became a joke for the whole school. So they learned from the pain and decided to start thinking way ahead of time, even if they struggled for an entire semester. 

[T/N: 临时抱佛脚/to clasp the Buddha’s feet when danger arises: profess devotion only when you’re in trouble]

He said, “Look for yourself, opportunities are reserved for those who are well prepared, and this time we managed to win first place.”

Zhou Li glanced at him with a smile, not dealing the final psychological blow.

For what happened that day, if there had been one person whose mind didn’t adapt in a timely manner, there was a great chance they would’ve become a joke for the whole school again.

The class monitor came up to him, very politely. “Zhou-shao, do you have any ideas?”

The class leader’s followers said, “Zhou-shao is the great hero this time around, you can be the first to speak.”

The introverted Little Glasses also turned his head to look at Zhou Li.

Zhou Li faced everyone’s intense staring and considered for a few seconds, then asked, “Each class can only show one performance?”

Oh!

Everyone felt that this was said with a very uplifting tone, and they told him that any number of performances were fine.

Zhou Li: “Then how’s this, we reserve for two slots, one for the collective and one for the individual. For the class-based one, you guys can think of something. As for the individual performance, I can do it. I’ve decided to sing.”

Everyone: “……”

No, singing with that voice of yours, who gave you the courage to take the stage?

The monitor hardly dared to imagine the scene and said in a trembling voice, “Zhou-shao, you don’t want to think about it some more?”

Zhou Li waved his hand. “Nope.”

He has already started his training lessons and the coach said his voice has been saved. After a year of professional teaching, he will definitely become a true Love Song Prince.

He bragged, “Don’t worry, I am guaranteed to shock the audience on the day!”

Everyone: “En, we believe you will.”

Zhou Li: “……”

After hanging around together these few days, they almost figured out this young master’s personality.

Every time he enters the state of ‘mysterious self-confidence’, there is a high probability that he won’t come back down from the high, so everyone decided to let him pace himself first and got together to discuss the class performance.

Zhou Li suddenly missed his family’s extremely tolerant Eggy, so he got up and went to the other classroom. After seeing two more people asking for help with problems, he spared them a few passing glances.

Ji Shaoyan looked up at him. “What is it?”

Zhou Li calmly said, “I missed you.”

The people around them settled into a silence and watched him take away their divine school grass.

This time, the two did not go to the rest area, but stood to talk in front of the windows in the corridor. Seeing that he wasn’t directly diving into the main topic, Ji Shaoyan asked, “Need me for something?”

Zhou Li said, “No.”

Ji Shaoyan reacted for a second, coming to a realisation.

So this time, ‘missing you’ really did mean he missed him, and not used as an excuse. The smile on his face deepened immediately and he pulled the boy into his arms for a short hugging session, keeping him there until classes began again. He returned to his classroom in a happy mood.

As expected, the engagement rumour soon spread, and Zhou Li added the statement of waiting for adulthood.

The brain-dead fans didn’t feel like this was a good turn of events because this semester was already halfway over, with the New Year arriving in only a few months. After the New Year, they will both be 18 years old.

The few group chat members who were secretly in love wailed again, wailing so much that the group’s atmosphere turned foul.

The senior sister administrator coaxed a few words that didn’t work before simply banning their words, which Zhou Li found much more acceptable .

The Song siblings’ matters were handled equally quickly. First of all, parents were unwilling to have their children in the same class with them. Second of all, Father Song was very cooperative. Therefore, before the week was even over, the twins were kicked out of Mingying and returned to their former public school in disgrace.

Song Yingshi didn’t want to live under the same roof as them, nor did she want to live in the house where she had stayed with her grandmother, so in order to avoid any danger of living alone, she moved to live in the campus dorms.

Father Song supported her decision and began to secretly transfer the property to her name, waiting to divorce that poisonous woman.

After the school festival ended, Zhou Li didn’t need to rehearse anymore. After school and during the weekends, he was snatched by Grandpa Wei to start the development of a small studio.

The Wei family juniors and the rich second generations finally found out that the old man did not want to find an heir for his antique inheritance, but wanted someone to take over the game company. The former immediately felt relieved, while the latter felt that they were silly and naive to think that they could get a hand on a collection of antiques just through playing a small mobile game.

Zhou Li didn’t know of their thoughts and continued to work.

He and Ji Shaoyan found a few reliable staff and threw the recruitment job to them. When everyone who was needed had gathered, he called the people to a meeting and began to concentrate on the game development.

Time flew quickly and another month passed in the blink of an eye.

As the weather turned cooler and the season changed to winter, the jade that Ji Shaoyan asked someone to make was finally ready.

They couldn’t hook people in with the real jade, so they asked Yan Yunhui for help.

Yan Yunhui’s grandfather had a business in jade and jewellery, so he found a trustworthy master from the workforce who tried his best to imitate the jade petal. Whether in terms of material or engraved patterns, it had to be as perfect as possible.

The two returned the real jade back into the bank, Zhou Li held the copycat in his hand, thinking that even the touch to the hand felt the same. He asked, “What now?”

Ji Shaoyan said, “Find someone to approach him.”

Zhou Li: “Who?”

Ji Shaoyan: “One of my men.”

Young Master Ji always thought about the long-term, and had a deep well of knowledge. With that mother-son pair that he cannot put his guard down against in the family, he naturally couldn’t be an obedient normal high school student. Besides, Mingying had a 90% rate of their students heading abroad after graduation, so he has been selecting people he could use ever since he stepped foot in the school.

After selecting and whittling down, he found only one person who could be used in his grade. The student was in another class and his family was ordinary, and as of now, he has long since been devoted to Ji Shaoyan. They basically communicated in private and rarely spoke at school. If Ji Shaoyan didn’t bring this up, Zhou Li never would have thought he was one of his men.

However, his focus was slightly crooked, and he asked, “He and Song Yingshi are in the same class?”

Ji Shaoyan sent him a gentle look.

Zhou Li blinked back innocently, thinking in his heart that this mole probably played a significant role in the original plot. Unfortunately, he never got to read up to the plot point, and the original story has already flown very much off track as of now.

Ji Shaoyan didn’t bother confronting him and contacted his mole, handing the jade to the other boy and telling him to wear it around his neck, then go to Ji Tianyang’s friends, who seemed to have a good relationship with him, to play basketball. They always played at noon and a single boy asking to join them wouldn’t arouse any suspicion.

This arrangement had a very significant effect. Within two days, his confidant contacted Ji Shaoyan and said, “He wants to buy the jade from me.”

Ji Shaoyan replied, “Refuse, say that it is a gift from someone important to you and you won’t sell it no matter how high the offer. Then go and hide the jade.”

The mole was confused. “En?“

Ji Shaoyan smiled and said, “Otherwise, would you rather wait for him to find someone to jump you and steal the jade?”

The mole was surprised. “Ah?“

The dignified second young master of the Ji family, just for a piece of broken jade, would pull something like this?

Ji Shaoyan said, “Don’t hide it right away, wear it for a few more days and then hide it. If he asks, say you’re afraid of losing it if you carry it around. He is a smart guy. If the jade is not on you, he will not move against you.”

The mole touched the jade petal resting against his chest, getting a nagging feeling that this was something important, and said, “Then I’ll give it to you ba, in case I really lose it.”

Ji Shaoyan: “No need, just hide it in a place where you can guarantee that not even a thief can steal it.”

Seeing him being so insistent, his mole could only agree.

A few days later, the mole hid the jade according to Ji Shaoyan’s instructions. As expected, Ji Tianyang asked about it, and he brought out the prepared excuse. Then he found that Ji Tianyang had ‘stuck’ to him ever since.

This ‘sticky’ was not the pestering ‘sticky’, but the kind of ‘sticky’ that is natural and passive.

Ji Tianyang had a good grasp in the art of turning things in his favour. Starting from playing basketball, they gradually became closer to each other little by little. If it hadn’t been for him knowing about the entire jade-centered set up, he was afraid he would’ve really considered Ji Tianyang to be a good brother.

The end of the term arrived in the blink of an eye. Students finished their exams and began to enjoy their holiday.

Zhou Li was also wondering where to go with Ji Shaoyan to play around, so he turned down Grandpa Wei’s request for overtime.

Grandpa Wei asked, “Aren’t you on winter holiday?”

Zhou Li said, “I am ah, so I’m going to spend my honeymoon with my boyfriend.”

Grandpa Wei angrily scolded on the other end of the phone, “You two aren’t married yet, what honeymoon are you going on?”

Zhou Li said seriously, “In my heart, we have already tied the knot.”

Grandpa Wei: “……”

Zhou Li made up his mind, so no matter what the old man said, his persuasion was all useless. They quickly decided on the itinerary, and he dragged Ji Shaoyan to fly to the south with the intention to find a warm place to spend the winter.

The two flew for five hours. The moment they stepped off the plane, Ji Shaoyan received a call from the mole.

The voice on the other end sounded tired and hoarse, and said, “Ji-shao, my dad, he…had a car accident.”

Ji Shaoyan paused in his steps. “How is he?”

The mole said, “A light injury, but…”

Ji Shaoyan: “En?“

The mole hesitated for a long time before saying, “It…it was Er-shao who happened to pass by and rescue him. I want to persuade myself to believe it was just a coincidence, but I kept suspecting that he had something to do with this, so I called you.”

Ji Shaoyan’s heart skipped a beat. “I know now. I will investigate.”

Zhou Li noticed his narrowed eyes and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Ji Shaoyan looked at him. “That actor, is most likely someone who will use all means in order to achieve his goals.”

The author has something to say: 

Entering the final arc~~