Ch71 - Xiao Yiheng’s sketchbook

After Xiao Yiheng left, Li Cheng came back to his senses and dazedly took out the small piece of paper from his swimming trunks.

He was lucky for the ten thousandth time. Fortunately, he wore long racing swimming trunks. If he wore low-waist briefs when Xiao Yiheng stuffed him with money… wait, stop! Stop it! 

Li Cheng shook his head vigorously, dispelling the X-rated fantasies in his mind.

He focused on the note—Xiao Yiheng’s handwriting was exquisite and reflected his personality. It was very restrained but every stroke was natural. Li Cheng thought about his own “ant colony” handwriting, and for the first time he had the idea of ​​practicing calligraphy.

Xiao Yiheng had set the meeting on Saturday morning, and the place was naturally the art classroom. Li Cheng thought with a guilty conscience that when teacher Qiu Xian entrusted the keys to Xiao Yiheng before going on maternity leave, she must have never thought that the sacred classroom would be used as a place for their secret date.

… 

Saturday morning, the Xiao family.

Even on weekends, this “3A” family absolutely did not allow family members to stay in bed for an extra minute. At seven o’clock in the morning, the three members of the Xiao family were sitting around the dining table, silent as always.

Mother Xiao prepared the breakfast as usual—a cup of coffee, fried eggs and bacon, in addition to bread and jam that had been purchased in advance. Of course, all the ingredients were bought from the membership-only high-end supermarket. All the ingredients were organic and natural, and the taste was naturally worthy of its price.

But no matter how high-quality the ingredients were, for Xiao Yiheng, they were utterly tasteless. The steamed buns and fritters sent by Li Cheng a few days ago, even though completely cold when he ate them, were far better than these things.

Father Xiao was using a tablet to browse his work mailbox. As an associate professor, he had five graduate students working for him. When Xiao Yiheng was young, he visited him once at the university where he taught. As a result, he came across the scene of his father yelling at the graduate students in charge and making them cry because of incorrect experimental data… That scene left a deep impression on Xiao Yiheng. He knew from then that his father really didn’t have “feelings”.

At the top of the mailbox was an email from the school’s academic affairs office with a red exclamation mark in the subject, indicating that it was a very important email. Father Xiao put down the coffee cup, opened it with a frown. After he read it from beginning to end, he cursed a few words in a low voice.

“What’s the matter?” Mother Xiao asked when she saw this.

“The dean’s secretary emailed me again.” Father Xiao said impatiently, “It’s the same thing again. He said that I only enrolled alpha students for five consecutive years, and every interview caused complaints from beta and omega students. According to “Teacher’s Code of Conduct”, if I don’t adjust the gender ratio next year, I will not be allowed to enroll new students.” 

Mama Xiao immediately said, “I will help you coordinate this matter, okay?” She and her husband worked at the same school. She was in the administrative office, and often interacted with the academic affairs office.

“It’s ridiculous. The research student interview is a two-way choice. Students can choose teachers, why can’t teachers choose students?” Father Xiao took another sip of coffee and continued angrily, “Beta are extremely mediocre. Those numbskulls need to be taught several times whereas the others understand after saying it once. Omega are too weak. Anyway, all they want is to marry in the end. Why should I spend the effort to impart them knowledge? During selection, it’s better to choose an alpha.”

He had said the same thing more than once and twice. In terms of the popular words among young people nowadays, he was an out-and-out straight A cancer.

Xiao Yiheng had to endure his remarks since he was a child, but somehow, that day he was unwilling to endure it anymore. 

He stopped eating, raised his eyes to look at his father sitting across from him, and interrupted him unceremoniously: “Your opinion contains too many subjective factors. Modern medicine has long proven that the difference in IQ between the three genders of ABO is minimal. There is only a certain difference in physical development, and this difference can be compensated by acquired training.”

He paused, and added: “I know that in power institutions and academic institutions the proportion of alphas is much larger than the other two genders, but this is because of the inequality in genders, not because of the inequality in ability. Incidentally, the two academic leaders known as the creators of the “artificial womb” are exactly a beta and an omega. If you want to deny the ability of beta and omega, then I, sitting in front of you, would not have existed eighteen years ago.”

Xiao Yiheng rarely expressed his opinions at home. He had always been silent and obedient in front of his parents. His sudden outburst this time really exceeded their expectations.

Father Xiao was used to being the “family head” at home, and immediately looked displeased upon hearing this. But without waiting for him to speak, Mother Xiao, who was sitting beside him, had already spoken first. 

“Yiheng, how can you talk to your father like that!” Mother Xiao slammed the table, “Do you think you know more? Your father and I have suffered so many hardships over the years to train you, not to let you contradict us!”

Xiao Yiheng sneered from the bottom of his heart: Yes, his parents trained him in order to raise a puppet who could “inherit” and “carry forward” their dreams, learning, working, and standing out as per their expectations, becoming the alpha among alpha.

“What the hell is going on with you? First you lied to us and ran to watch some swimming competition, and then went to be an assistant teacher in the physiology class without saying a word. Do you know how much time you’ve wasted? Third year of high school is critical and you shouldn’t waste even a minute!” Mother Xiao’s words became more and more angry, and her voice became louder than ever, “Tell the truth. What was the reason you applied for a school in the capital for the winter camp? Did you want to escape from us? Do you want to stay away from us because we can’t manage you from far away?!”

Sentence after sentence nominally showed concern about Xiao Yiheng’s studies, but he knew better than anyone else that all their concern and care were just to control him. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Mjmfv klat tlr wbatfg’r defralbclcu, Wljb Tltfcu qjerfv obg akb rfmbcvr, jcv atfc jrxfv: “…Jjc’a P tjnf ws bkc atlcur, ubjir, jcv lvfjr?”

“Tbe jgf ralii j mtliv,” Pa kjr Mjatfg Wljb ktb rqbxf atlr alwf. “Qtja xlcv bo ‘bkc’ vbfr j mtliv cffv?”

“…” Wljb Tltfcu rabqqfv ajixlcu.

He thought I’m afraid my parents have forgotten that next month I’ll be eighteen years old. Next month, he will become an adult in the legal sense. 

Lf atbeuta jybea atf qjlcalcur tf tjv fcagerafv afjmtfg Hle Wljc ab rfii bnfg atf qjra ofk sfjgr, jcv atfc atbeuta jybea atf MWWB F wbcfs jmmeweijafv lc tlr qglnjaf jmmbeca… Lf mibrfv tlr fsfr ab mbcmfji atf regulcu atbeutar lc tlr fsfr.

…

After breakfast, Xiao Yiheng picked up his schoolbag and went to school for supplementary classes. Mother Xiao was a little suspicious, but in the end she didn’t stop him.

At the moment when he left the house, it seemed that something heavy suddenly disappeared from his shoulders. Only then could Xiao Yiheng let out a sigh of relief. 

The campus was mostly deserted on Saturdays. However, some classes organized supplementary lessons, so occasionally a few scattered students could be seen on the campus.

When Xiao Yiheng walked across the playground, he ran into a few students of the same grade and nodded slightly as a greeting. As he passed by, he heard them talking, “Oh! As expected of a study god. Despite getting such good grades, he’s here to recharge his batteries.”

They were right. Xiao Yiheng was indeed there to recharge his batteries.

He turned around and walked step-by-step to the building complex before climbing up the stairs. Every step took him towards a treasure hidden in the art classroom on the top floor that could recharge his soul. 

Not only was Li Cheng on time today, but instead he arrived ten minutes early. However, he didn’t have the key to the art classroom, so he sat on the floor leaning on the door and played a mobile game intently. The sounds were so loud that they overshadowed Xiao Yiheng’s footsteps.

It wasn’t until a pair of sneakers appeared in his sight that Li Cheng hurriedly put away the phone and looked up at Xiao Yiheng who was standing in front of him.

“Do you need me to give you a few more minutes to finish this round?” Xiao Yiheng asked slowly.

“No need. I won’t play anymore.” Li Cheng was very forthright, and directly locked the phone’s screen before putting it into his trouser pocket. What a joke! Was the life and death of teammates in the game more important than his wife (?). Moreover, he’d teamed up with his little brothers. Even if he dropped out in the middle, they wouldn’t dare to kick him out of the guild. 

Li Cheng grabbed Xiao Yiheng’s hand and stood up. It was not until the two of them got close that Li Cheng could see that something was wrong.

Li Cheng asked bluntly: “…Are you in a bad mood today?”

Li Cheng couldn’t tell what was wrong, but he had a feeling that something was amiss.

Xiao Yiheng didn’t know how to tell him about the contradiction between himself and his parents, so he could only reduce it to one word: “Yeah.” 

Fortunately, Li Cheng was not an inquisitive person. Without asking anything, he simply opened his arms and gave Xiao Yiheng a hug.

“If there’s a matter to be settled, tell ge. Ge will help you take care of it!” Li Cheng pressed the alpha’s head firmly to his shoulder, “If you want to cry, it’s okay. I’ll lend you my shoulder!”

Xiao Yiheng was amused by him. He pressed his forehead against Li Cheng’s neck, and his laughter was very light but heavy, hitting Li Cheng’s heart.

They stood in the empty corridor and hugged quietly. At an unknown time, the induction lamps above their heads went out one by one, leaving only the light from the window covering them. 

After a long time, Xiao Yiheng let go and stood up straight.

Li Cheng looked at him carefully, and said with some regret: “Oh! You didn’t cry?”

Xiao Yiheng had seen him cry. He thought that seeing Xiao Yiheng cry this time he’d be able to recover some lost ground.

Xiao Yiheng replied: “I haven’t shed tears for many years.” 

“That’s not good!” Li Cheng tried to scare him, “Even if it’s a man, it’s good to shed tears occasionally. This kind of moisture is the channel for emotional catharsis. If you hold it in forcibly, you will hurt your body!”

Xiao Yiheng was silent for a few seconds: “…Chengcheng, the second half of your sentence can actually refer to another kind of moisture.”

Li Cheng: “?”

Li Cheng didn’t understand it at all. 

However, Xiao Yiheng didn’t intend to explain. He opened the door of the art classroom with the key and walked into the classroom holding Li Cheng’s hand.

He had already made arrangements in the art classroom in advance. After painting and drying, all the recently completed works were sent to teacher Qiu Xian’s house, and he’d asked her to contact the gallery for sales. Now the whole classroom was vacant with a large open area in the middle. Xiao Yiheng had somehow managed to arrange a set of simple sofas, covered them in cloth and two pillows.

“Sit down.” Xiao Yiheng moved a chair and sat opposite the sofa. He put down his school bag and took out a black hard-cover notebook and a few sharpened pencils.

That book was not too big. At first glance, Li Cheng thought it was a diary or something. He didn’t expect Xiao Yiheng to directly open the middle page of the book. It seemed that he was going to draw directly in the book. 

Li Cheng was stupefied, and pointed to the drawing board and easel stacked in the corner: “Don’t you use those?”

“No, I want to sketch today,” Xiao Yiheng lifted up the notebook in his hand, “This is enough.”

The so-called sketch, as the name suggests, is to describe a person or a scene in a very short time. For a long time, Xiao Yiheng had been painting scenery, but after meeting Li Cheng, a strong desire for creative work emerged in his heart.

He wanted to portray Li Cheng with his paintbrush; his bright eyes, his straight nose, his smiling lips… He wanted to paint his body, paint his soul. 

Li Cheng had previously been a model for other classmates in the art class before, but that time he was just playing around. The classmates portrayed him as strange-looking, as if he was a monster who failed to pass through some calamity.

But this time was different. He was modeling for his boyfriend!

Li Cheng was excited and nervous. He sat on the sofa, not knowing where to put his hands and feet.

“Don’t be so stiff.” Xiao Yiheng guided him with words, “just do what you like.” 

What he likes…

Li Cheng subconsciously assumed a “contemplating” posture: “Is this okay?”

Xiao Yiheng: “…”

Seeing his boyfriend’s dissatisfaction, Li Cheng changed it to a “discus throwing” pose: “What about this?” 

Xiao Yiheng: “…”

Following that, Li Cheng posed as the Statue of Liberty, the Guanyin Bodhisattva etc. It was only because he didn’t know how to pose without broken arms, otherwise, he also wanted to try and pose as Venus…

“There’s no need to try so hard,” Xiao Yiheng hurriedly called to stop him, “You just have to act as usual. You can lie on the sofa, read a book, or play with your mobile phone. As long as you stay in the same posture for a few minutes, you can change your posture at will.”

This requirement was too easy! 

Li Cheng immediately lay down, picked up the book at hand and began to read. Those books were prepared by Xiao Yiheng in advance. Knowing that Li Cheng didn’t like to read textbooks, he prepared several fantasy novels that were very popular.

Li Cheng just flipped through it just to pose at first, but the more he looked at it, the more fascinated he became. He was so engrossed that he simply sat up on the sofa and leaned against its back, sitting with his feet crossed. He held the book on his lap and read it in earnest.

As the plot progressed, Li Cheng’s expression also changed. His mouth tightened and then relaxed, and then it was his eyebrows that were provoked into a tap dance on the spot.

Xiao Yiheng watched him quietly and captured every subtle change in his expression. 

One page was full of Li Cheng’s bright eyes.

Another page was filled with Li Cheng’s hands reading the novel.

Turning to another page, it became Li Cheng’s sitting posture. Even if the drawings merely outlined the basic frame with a few details, one could identify the subject at a glance.

Finally, the fantasy novel turned to the last page. Li Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, closed the cover, and was still immersed in the world of the novel. Then, he remembered that he was supposed to be a model!! 

He looked at Xiao Yiheng awkwardly, but soon discovered that the sketchbook in Xiao Yiheng’s hand had been turned over several pages… Did this mean that he’d done his “work” quite well?

Thinking of this, Li Cheng asked with confidence: “Hey! Xiao Yiheng, have you brought the second volume of this book?”

Xiao Yiheng stopped drawing and looked at him: “I can give you the second volume, but I have a request.”

“What request?” 

“Can you stop calling me by my full name?” Xiao Yiheng stated, “We’re officially dating, right? I call you ChengCheng, you should use a more intimate name to call me.”

Li Cheng thought for a moment: “Then I’ll call you HengHeng?”

“…” Xiao Yiheng immediately refused, “No, change it to something else.”

In fact, Li Cheng thought “HengHeng” sounded pretty good. He secretly called out several times in his heart, but unfortunately “HengHeng” couldn’t hear it. 

It didn’t matter, Li Cheng was very “flexible”. Since Xiao Yiheng said that he didn’t like this nickname, he was “conscientious” and gave him a new nickname: “Please give me the second book, wife.”

Xiao Yiheng: “…”

Let alone the second volume, from then on, even the first volume was gone.

Ch71 - Xiao Yiheng’s sketchbook

After Xiao Yiheng left, Li Cheng came back to his senses and dazedly took out the small piece of paper from his swimming trunks.

He was lucky for the ten thousandth time. Fortunately, he wore long racing swimming trunks. If he wore low-waist briefs when Xiao Yiheng stuffed him with money… wait, stop! Stop it! 

Li Cheng shook his head vigorously, dispelling the X-rated fantasies in his mind.

He focused on the note—Xiao Yiheng’s handwriting was exquisite and reflected his personality. It was very restrained but every stroke was natural. Li Cheng thought about his own “ant colony” handwriting, and for the first time he had the idea of ​​practicing calligraphy.

Xiao Yiheng had set the meeting on Saturday morning, and the place was naturally the art classroom. Li Cheng thought with a guilty conscience that when teacher Qiu Xian entrusted the keys to Xiao Yiheng before going on maternity leave, she must have never thought that the sacred classroom would be used as a place for their secret date.

… 

Saturday morning, the Xiao family.

Even on weekends, this “3A” family absolutely did not allow family members to stay in bed for an extra minute. At seven o’clock in the morning, the three members of the Xiao family were sitting around the dining table, silent as always.

Mother Xiao prepared the breakfast as usual—a cup of coffee, fried eggs and bacon, in addition to bread and jam that had been purchased in advance. Of course, all the ingredients were bought from the membership-only high-end supermarket. All the ingredients were organic and natural, and the taste was naturally worthy of its price.

But no matter how high-quality the ingredients were, for Xiao Yiheng, they were utterly tasteless. The steamed buns and fritters sent by Li Cheng a few days ago, even though completely cold when he ate them, were far better than these things.

Father Xiao was using a tablet to browse his work mailbox. As an associate professor, he had five graduate students working for him. When Xiao Yiheng was young, he visited him once at the university where he taught. As a result, he came across the scene of his father yelling at the graduate students in charge and making them cry because of incorrect experimental data… That scene left a deep impression on Xiao Yiheng. He knew from then that his father really didn’t have “feelings”.

At the top of the mailbox was an email from the school’s academic affairs office with a red exclamation mark in the subject, indicating that it was a very important email. Father Xiao put down the coffee cup, opened it with a frown. After he read it from beginning to end, he cursed a few words in a low voice.

“What’s the matter?” Mother Xiao asked when she saw this.

“The dean’s secretary emailed me again.” Father Xiao said impatiently, “It’s the same thing again. He said that I only enrolled alpha students for five consecutive years, and every interview caused complaints from beta and omega students. According to “Teacher’s Code of Conduct”, if I don’t adjust the gender ratio next year, I will not be allowed to enroll new students.” 

Mama Xiao immediately said, “I will help you coordinate this matter, okay?” She and her husband worked at the same school. She was in the administrative office, and often interacted with the academic affairs office.

“It’s ridiculous. The research student interview is a two-way choice. Students can choose teachers, why can’t teachers choose students?” Father Xiao took another sip of coffee and continued angrily, “Beta are extremely mediocre. Those numbskulls need to be taught several times whereas the others understand after saying it once. Omega are too weak. Anyway, all they want is to marry in the end. Why should I spend the effort to impart them knowledge? During selection, it’s better to choose an alpha.”

He had said the same thing more than once and twice. In terms of the popular words among young people nowadays, he was an out-and-out straight A cancer.

Xiao Yiheng had to endure his remarks since he was a child, but somehow, that day he was unwilling to endure it anymore. 

He stopped eating, raised his eyes to look at his father sitting across from him, and interrupted him unceremoniously: “Your opinion contains too many subjective factors. Modern medicine has long proven that the difference in IQ between the three genders of ABO is minimal. There is only a certain difference in physical development, and this difference can be compensated by acquired training.”

He paused, and added: “I know that in power institutions and academic institutions the proportion of alphas is much larger than the other two genders, but this is because of the inequality in genders, not because of the inequality in ability. Incidentally, the two academic leaders known as the creators of the “artificial womb” are exactly a beta and an omega. If you want to deny the ability of beta and omega, then I, sitting in front of you, would not have existed eighteen years ago.”

Xiao Yiheng rarely expressed his opinions at home. He had always been silent and obedient in front of his parents. His sudden outburst this time really exceeded their expectations.

Father Xiao was used to being the “family head” at home, and immediately looked displeased upon hearing this. But without waiting for him to speak, Mother Xiao, who was sitting beside him, had already spoken first. 

“Yiheng, how can you talk to your father like that!” Mother Xiao slammed the table, “Do you think you know more? Your father and I have suffered so many hardships over the years to train you, not to let you contradict us!”

Xiao Yiheng sneered from the bottom of his heart: Yes, his parents trained him in order to raise a puppet who could “inherit” and “carry forward” their dreams, learning, working, and standing out as per their expectations, becoming the alpha among alpha.

“What the hell is going on with you? First you lied to us and ran to watch some swimming competition, and then went to be an assistant teacher in the physiology class without saying a word. Do you know how much time you’ve wasted? Third year of high school is critical and you shouldn’t waste even a minute!” Mother Xiao’s words became more and more angry, and her voice became louder than ever, “Tell the truth. What was the reason you applied for a school in the capital for the winter camp? Did you want to escape from us? Do you want to stay away from us because we can’t manage you from far away?!”

Sentence after sentence nominally showed concern about Xiao Yiheng’s studies, but he knew better than anyone else that all their concern and care were just to control him. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Mjmfv klat tlr wbatfg’r defralbclcu, Wljb Tltfcu qjerfv obg akb rfmbcvr, jcv atfc jrxfv: “…Jjc’a P tjnf ws bkc atlcur, ubjir, jcv lvfjr?”

“Tbe jgf ralii j mtliv,” Pa kjr Mjatfg Wljb ktb rqbxf atlr alwf. “Qtja xlcv bo ‘bkc’ vbfr j mtliv cffv?”

“…” Wljb Tltfcu rabqqfv ajixlcu.

He thought I’m afraid my parents have forgotten that next month I’ll be eighteen years old. Next month, he will become an adult in the legal sense. 

Lf atbeuta jybea atf qjlcalcur tf tjv fcagerafv afjmtfg Hle Wljc ab rfii bnfg atf qjra ofk sfjgr, jcv atfc atbeuta jybea atf MWWB F wbcfs jmmeweijafv lc tlr qglnjaf jmmbeca… Lf mibrfv tlr fsfr ab mbcmfji atf regulcu atbeutar lc tlr fsfr.

…

After breakfast, Xiao Yiheng picked up his schoolbag and went to school for supplementary classes. Mother Xiao was a little suspicious, but in the end she didn’t stop him.

At the moment when he left the house, it seemed that something heavy suddenly disappeared from his shoulders. Only then could Xiao Yiheng let out a sigh of relief. 

The campus was mostly deserted on Saturdays. However, some classes organized supplementary lessons, so occasionally a few scattered students could be seen on the campus.

When Xiao Yiheng walked across the playground, he ran into a few students of the same grade and nodded slightly as a greeting. As he passed by, he heard them talking, “Oh! As expected of a study god. Despite getting such good grades, he’s here to recharge his batteries.”

They were right. Xiao Yiheng was indeed there to recharge his batteries.

He turned around and walked step-by-step to the building complex before climbing up the stairs. Every step took him towards a treasure hidden in the art classroom on the top floor that could recharge his soul. 

Not only was Li Cheng on time today, but instead he arrived ten minutes early. However, he didn’t have the key to the art classroom, so he sat on the floor leaning on the door and played a mobile game intently. The sounds were so loud that they overshadowed Xiao Yiheng’s footsteps.

It wasn’t until a pair of sneakers appeared in his sight that Li Cheng hurriedly put away the phone and looked up at Xiao Yiheng who was standing in front of him.

“Do you need me to give you a few more minutes to finish this round?” Xiao Yiheng asked slowly.

“No need. I won’t play anymore.” Li Cheng was very forthright, and directly locked the phone’s screen before putting it into his trouser pocket. What a joke! Was the life and death of teammates in the game more important than his wife (?). Moreover, he’d teamed up with his little brothers. Even if he dropped out in the middle, they wouldn’t dare to kick him out of the guild. 

Li Cheng grabbed Xiao Yiheng’s hand and stood up. It was not until the two of them got close that Li Cheng could see that something was wrong.

Li Cheng asked bluntly: “…Are you in a bad mood today?”

Li Cheng couldn’t tell what was wrong, but he had a feeling that something was amiss.

Xiao Yiheng didn’t know how to tell him about the contradiction between himself and his parents, so he could only reduce it to one word: “Yeah.” 

Fortunately, Li Cheng was not an inquisitive person. Without asking anything, he simply opened his arms and gave Xiao Yiheng a hug.

“If there’s a matter to be settled, tell ge. Ge will help you take care of it!” Li Cheng pressed the alpha’s head firmly to his shoulder, “If you want to cry, it’s okay. I’ll lend you my shoulder!”

Xiao Yiheng was amused by him. He pressed his forehead against Li Cheng’s neck, and his laughter was very light but heavy, hitting Li Cheng’s heart.

They stood in the empty corridor and hugged quietly. At an unknown time, the induction lamps above their heads went out one by one, leaving only the light from the window covering them. 

After a long time, Xiao Yiheng let go and stood up straight.

Li Cheng looked at him carefully, and said with some regret: “Oh! You didn’t cry?”

Xiao Yiheng had seen him cry. He thought that seeing Xiao Yiheng cry this time he’d be able to recover some lost ground.

Xiao Yiheng replied: “I haven’t shed tears for many years.” 

“That’s not good!” Li Cheng tried to scare him, “Even if it’s a man, it’s good to shed tears occasionally. This kind of moisture is the channel for emotional catharsis. If you hold it in forcibly, you will hurt your body!”

Xiao Yiheng was silent for a few seconds: “…Chengcheng, the second half of your sentence can actually refer to another kind of moisture.”

Li Cheng: “?”

Li Cheng didn’t understand it at all. 

However, Xiao Yiheng didn’t intend to explain. He opened the door of the art classroom with the key and walked into the classroom holding Li Cheng’s hand.

He had already made arrangements in the art classroom in advance. After painting and drying, all the recently completed works were sent to teacher Qiu Xian’s house, and he’d asked her to contact the gallery for sales. Now the whole classroom was vacant with a large open area in the middle. Xiao Yiheng had somehow managed to arrange a set of simple sofas, covered them in cloth and two pillows.

“Sit down.” Xiao Yiheng moved a chair and sat opposite the sofa. He put down his school bag and took out a black hard-cover notebook and a few sharpened pencils.

That book was not too big. At first glance, Li Cheng thought it was a diary or something. He didn’t expect Xiao Yiheng to directly open the middle page of the book. It seemed that he was going to draw directly in the book. 

Li Cheng was stupefied, and pointed to the drawing board and easel stacked in the corner: “Don’t you use those?”

“No, I want to sketch today,” Xiao Yiheng lifted up the notebook in his hand, “This is enough.”

The so-called sketch, as the name suggests, is to describe a person or a scene in a very short time. For a long time, Xiao Yiheng had been painting scenery, but after meeting Li Cheng, a strong desire for creative work emerged in his heart.

He wanted to portray Li Cheng with his paintbrush; his bright eyes, his straight nose, his smiling lips… He wanted to paint his body, paint his soul. 

Li Cheng had previously been a model for other classmates in the art class before, but that time he was just playing around. The classmates portrayed him as strange-looking, as if he was a monster who failed to pass through some calamity.

But this time was different. He was modeling for his boyfriend!

Li Cheng was excited and nervous. He sat on the sofa, not knowing where to put his hands and feet.

“Don’t be so stiff.” Xiao Yiheng guided him with words, “just do what you like.” 

What he likes…

Li Cheng subconsciously assumed a “contemplating” posture: “Is this okay?”

Xiao Yiheng: “…”

Seeing his boyfriend’s dissatisfaction, Li Cheng changed it to a “discus throwing” pose: “What about this?” 

Xiao Yiheng: “…”

Following that, Li Cheng posed as the Statue of Liberty, the Guanyin Bodhisattva etc. It was only because he didn’t know how to pose without broken arms, otherwise, he also wanted to try and pose as Venus…

“There’s no need to try so hard,” Xiao Yiheng hurriedly called to stop him, “You just have to act as usual. You can lie on the sofa, read a book, or play with your mobile phone. As long as you stay in the same posture for a few minutes, you can change your posture at will.”

This requirement was too easy! 

Li Cheng immediately lay down, picked up the book at hand and began to read. Those books were prepared by Xiao Yiheng in advance. Knowing that Li Cheng didn’t like to read textbooks, he prepared several fantasy novels that were very popular.

Li Cheng just flipped through it just to pose at first, but the more he looked at it, the more fascinated he became. He was so engrossed that he simply sat up on the sofa and leaned against its back, sitting with his feet crossed. He held the book on his lap and read it in earnest.

As the plot progressed, Li Cheng’s expression also changed. His mouth tightened and then relaxed, and then it was his eyebrows that were provoked into a tap dance on the spot.

Xiao Yiheng watched him quietly and captured every subtle change in his expression. 

One page was full of Li Cheng’s bright eyes.

Another page was filled with Li Cheng’s hands reading the novel.

Turning to another page, it became Li Cheng’s sitting posture. Even if the drawings merely outlined the basic frame with a few details, one could identify the subject at a glance.

Finally, the fantasy novel turned to the last page. Li Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, closed the cover, and was still immersed in the world of the novel. Then, he remembered that he was supposed to be a model!! 

He looked at Xiao Yiheng awkwardly, but soon discovered that the sketchbook in Xiao Yiheng’s hand had been turned over several pages… Did this mean that he’d done his “work” quite well?

Thinking of this, Li Cheng asked with confidence: “Hey! Xiao Yiheng, have you brought the second volume of this book?”

Xiao Yiheng stopped drawing and looked at him: “I can give you the second volume, but I have a request.”

“What request?” 

“Can you stop calling me by my full name?” Xiao Yiheng stated, “We’re officially dating, right? I call you ChengCheng, you should use a more intimate name to call me.”

Li Cheng thought for a moment: “Then I’ll call you HengHeng?”

“…” Xiao Yiheng immediately refused, “No, change it to something else.”

In fact, Li Cheng thought “HengHeng” sounded pretty good. He secretly called out several times in his heart, but unfortunately “HengHeng” couldn’t hear it. 

It didn’t matter, Li Cheng was very “flexible”. Since Xiao Yiheng said that he didn’t like this nickname, he was “conscientious” and gave him a new nickname: “Please give me the second book, wife.”

Xiao Yiheng: “…”

Let alone the second volume, from then on, even the first volume was gone.