You’re Causing Chaos Again

Advertisement

In the instant their hands overlapped, Shen Yanming involuntarily tensed up, his body straightening. Even his index finger, which had been casually gliding across the screen, froze.

Soon, He Changkong realized that his action was a bit abrupt. He quickly withdrew his hand, picked up the toy that Shen Yanming had put aside halfway through assembly, and tried to put the two pieces together. After struggling for a while and failing, he realized he had picked up the wrong components in his haste.

Sunday pulled a corn cup from the takeout bag, opened it, took a spoonful, put it in his mouth, and sneakily glanced at his two awkwardly seated older brothers across from him.

If he didn’t say something soon, it seemed like smoke would start coming out of their heads.

Was it really that serious? It was just a hand touch.

Sunday cleared his throat. “I’ll help with the plan to seduce that Moonlight.”

Shen Yanming took a couple of sips of cola, attempting to mask his embarrassment with light-hearted words. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. If someone asks you a question, you spend a few minutes checking the dictionary and a few more minutes editing the text. If they’re in a hurry to meet, they certainly don’t want to waste time with you…”

Sunday found this hard to accept, “I’m not that slow!… Besides, I have a group!”

It took Shen Yanming a while to understand that the “group” Sunday was talking about was his “venting” group. “Still, it’s better not to involve others. It wouldn’t be good if outsiders found out… Let Yan ge handle this.”

“Alright,” Sunday sounded a bit deflated, but quickly perked up again. He laboriously spoke a long sentence with distinct pauses between each word, “When the time comes, you can use my account to post, that way, you won’t be exposed.”

Shen Yanming took another sip of cola.

When he had taken the first sip earlier, he felt a gaze on his cola. Now he confirmed it wasn’t just his imagination. He realized He Changkong was watching him.

Advertisement

Shen Yanming pursed his lips and asked, “What’s wrong, ge?”

He Changkong hesitated for a moment. “…Nothing.”

Shen Yanming had picked up the wrong cola. The cup he was holding now was the one He Changkong had drunk from earlier. When Sunday was rummaging through the bag earlier, he accidentally nudged the two colas that had been placed close together. Their positions got mixed up in the process.

He Changkong didn’t directly say it, but Sunday, being unreserved, acted as a good Samaritan, “You drank Kong Hiong’s cola.”

“…,” Shen Yanming immediately put down his cola, stood up, and said, “Let me get you another one from the fridge.”

He Changkong shook his head. “No need.”

Still, Shen Yanming went to fetch two new drinks and handed one to He Changkong. He opened the other for himself, this time paying attention to the placement to avoid mixing them up again.

In truth, was he being a bit overly sensitive? Normally, nobody cared so much about such trivialities while eating and drinking. Back when they played basketball, passing around a big bottle of water and each taking a sip was pretty normal.

Advertisement

After finishing the Happy Meals, Sunday claimed he had homework to do. After dutifully cleaning up the table, he rolled back to his room. Shen Yanming asked He Changkong if he wanted to queue together, after receiving a negative response, he climbed upstairs to his own room.

He didn’t have any homework to do, but he still sat down at his desk. He took out the letter that had been temporarily hidden behind his phone case, unfolded it, and read it again, and placed it alongside the previous letter in his notebook.

Shen Yanming thought about responding to He Changkong like he did last time. He wanted to be a bit lazy and use some song lyrics to improve the quality of his reply. However, the lyrics he could think of were either too resentful or too cheesy. After racking his brain for a while, a clever idea struck him. He grabbed a ruler as an aid and started writing on the paper stroke by stroke.

After finishing, Shen Yanming still felt a bit embarrassed. He neatly folded the letter, then went next door to knock on He Changkong’s door.

“Today’s your mailman, Little Shen,” Shen Yanming scratched the back of his head, “Sir, here’s your mail.”

He Changkong took it. “This time it’s not a hotel card, right?”

Shen Yanming: “…”

He Changkong was about to unfold the paper, but Shen Yanming stopped him. “Um, ge, maybe you should read it later.”

He Changkong paused, sensing that there might be something in the letter that made Shen Yanming feel awkward.

Just then, there was some noise from downstairs. Shen Yanming went to the corridor and looked down. Pudding and the others had returned.

Advertisement

Probably feeling the gaze from upstairs, Meng Yan and Pudding both looked up and waved. Shen Yanming hurriedly dashed downstairs, and He Changkong followed suit after putting away the letter.

Pudding rarely dressed in male attire outside of competitions. Today, he probably wore it because he was going home. Other than his unconventional purple shoulder-length hair, he had the team jersey on top and jeans below. He sat on the sofa, and Shen Yanming joined him, asking, “How did it go?”

Before Pudding could say anything, Meng Yan acted like a spokesperson, recounting the situation in detail. Only then did Shen Yanming learn that Pudding had gone home to deal with his father.

Shen Yanming patted Pudding’s ponytail as a comforting gesture and asked, “So, what did you guys do afterward? Did you report it to the police?”

Meng Yan slumped onto another sofa, hugging a pillow. “How could we? His dad hasn’t committed any crimes, and he hasn’t caused substantial harm to Auntie or Ding jiang. Reporting it won’t help. Even if we report it and he gets detained for something, he’ll just come back to harass us once he’s out.”

“True. So…?”

Sometimes, family issues were really difficult to resolve. They knew that Pudding’s father was just here to exploit them, but what could Pudding do? It might be satisfying to directly confront the situation, but as long as one party was a parent and the other a child, the one who had received care and upbringing couldn’t stand on moral high ground. Using overly aggressive methods might cause more problems in the end.

Afeng chimed in, “I wonder who told his dad about Xiao Xian’s address? He showed up at the door, demanding a million. What’s a jobless vagabond like him going to do with a million?”

When the coach called someone, he liked to use their full name. Shen Yanming hadn’t realized at first that Xiao Xian was referring to Pudding.

“Then what happened?”

Meng Yan continued, “So, we decided to play the bad guys.”

Afeng started off, “I told his dad that Xiao Xian owed us tens of millions from a high-interest loan and that he’s working as an unpaid laborer at the club.”

Meng Yan sat up, beginning to recreate the scene, “Feng ge really knows how to act. He usually looks pretty decent, but when he got there, he put on sunglasses and held a cigarette. He really looked like a gangster. Feng ge told Ding Ding’s dad, ‘You’re his dad, right? Then help him repay. He needs to pay a hundred thousand this month. If he can’t pay… do you want to keep your left leg or your right leg?’ And then his dad got scared, saying he had other matters to attend to, and he left looking defeated.”

Shen Yanming gave a thumbs-up, “Did he really believe that?”

Meng Yan: “He believed it. We made a fake IOU, and since his dad doesn’t know the law, when he saw the paper with words and a seal, he genuinely thought Ding jiang owed a lot of money. He must’ve hurried to distance himself.”

Advertisement

Pudding sighed, “At least he probably won’t come back for a while. I’ll have to move with my mom again, what a hassle.”

Shen Yanming patted Pudding’s back supportively, they were speaking casually, but it felt off to him. Who would want a father who caused so much trouble and had no warmth? Always resorting to violence, cutting ties for so long, only appearing when he heard his child had money, ran away faster than anyone when he heard that the child had debts.

Private addresses exposed, needing to find a new house again, dealing with all sorts of tedious matters…

Pudding must be really stressed right now.

Shen Yanming empathized deeply. Now he felt quite low as well. Just as he thought about that, Pudding said again, “We have too many properties. I don’t know which one to move my mom to. It’s really troublesome, it’s been bothering me.”

“…Shut up!” Shen Yanming snapped irritably, “Are you really that rich?”

Considering it, he couldn’t be poor. The club paid them well, they got a share from the live streams due to their high popularity, and there were endorsements and other commercial activities… Yet, saying he had too many properties in Haicheng seemed a bit exaggerated.

He Changkong explained, “He saved up some money before to invest…”

Shen Yanming, sitting up straight, turned to Pudding with a serious expression, “Do you need a Samoyed at home? Someone who hasn’t been to college but can play games?”

He Changkong: “…”

“Get out of here, go find your owner,” Pudding said in a disgusted tone as he shifted his position, “There’s one more thing I want to tell everyone. I’m really pleased with our little friend’s performance on the stage today.”

Saying that, Pudding glanced toward Sunday’s room. The door was tightly closed; the kid was probably in there, doing homework and listening to music, completely unaware of what was happening outside.

Pudding continued, “My shoulder’s been bothering me, as you all probably know.”

At first, he hadn’t planned to say anything, but later, after his teammates found out from witnessing his pain, they assumed it was just a strain. Everyone advised him to see a doctor, but he was reluctant.

Now he finally opened up, “It’s not because of playing professionally that I got injured. It happened when I fought with my dad at home. Before, I was afraid that the professional team wouldn’t want me if they found out, so I kept quiet. I’m sorry.”

That was how it started, but then he was afraid his teammates would worry, so he didn’t dare to tell them. He thought he could endure it. Besides, he didn’t want to leave without finding someone to replace him. And so, it dragged on until now.

Everyone assured him it was okay. Pudding continued, “Tian Jiang is fine. I trust him to play in my place…”

Meng Yan was taken aback, “Why do you sound like you’re retiring?”

Pudding playfully punched him, “What nonsense? I’m saying that, in order to extend my professional career, I want to have my shoulder treated. I’ll have to go back for treatment regularly, and when the time comes, I’ll have to come back and take care of you bunch of troublesome kids.”

Meng Yan: “Who’s taking care of whom?”

Shen Yanming smoothed things over, “Let’s say we’ll fly together.”

After chatting for a while in the downstairs living room, once the coach left, they resumed plotting the fishing expedition with law enforcement. Meng Yan was entrusted with a significant task – he downloaded a well-known gay dating app. While looking for Moonlight’s account, he shook his head and sighed, “I feel dirty, I’m not pure anymore.”

Before finding Moonlight, Meng Yan randomly entered a group chat.

[PeerlessBeauty0]: Anyone around?

Seeing this username, Pudding’s face immediately twisted, “Are you sure you can catch fish with a name like that?”

Meng Yan, quite enjoying his role as a fake gay, posted some disgustingly affectionate messages in the group while teasing Pudding, “What do you know?”

They were having a blast, but Shen Yanming said he was going upstairs to wash up and sleep. He Changkong followed him back to their rooms, of course, their separate ones.

He Changkong hadn’t forgotten about the letter he didn’t read earlier.

When he wrote to Shen Yanming, he hadn’t expected to receive any response; he just wanted to encourage him. However, receiving a reply now made his heart race uncontrollably.

Now, finally at peace, he leaned back on the bed and unfolded the paper.

The neat handwriting of an elementary school student was still there, and it said:

“Ge, I was deeply moved by your letter. I don’t have much education, and I’ve never read Shakespeare. My biggest hobby is listening to songs, so I’ll use some lyrics to express my feelings.”

“…May heaven know that I don’t give up/ With a grateful heart / Thankful for you / Accompany me throughout my life/ Giving me the courage to be myself…”

He had directly copied an entire verse from the song “Grateful Heart” and sent it to him.

Author’s Message:

Kong: Ah, I won’t write a letter next time.

Luan luanzi: Why not? I find the lyrics of Grateful Heart very touching, OMO.

Sunday: Got it, got it. And there’s also “Accompany me throughout my life,” OVO.

Translator’s Note:

Hello, as I was busy with moving back to my dorm, instead of updating two chapters for today, I will be doing it for Monday’s update instead, please look forward to it

Thank you for reading! 

Hope you enjoy the rest of your day

If you like reading my translations, do consider supporting me with ko-fi