TT Chapter 15. Cool Freshman

Chen Ting was not entirely convinced by the whole “grain of rice” explanation, but he decided to believe it anyway. As far as Pei Yiyao was concerned, he had already classified him as one of his own. And when it came to his own people, Chen Ting had always been generous.

So if he gave him a pinch, then he gave him a pinch. He probably didn’t mean anything by it.

Once he had sorted it out in his head, Chen Ting no longer minded. Pei Yiyao went home that night and slept well too. The next day, he went back again, only to find that Chen Ting was not at the café.

Pei Yiyao: Not working today?

Donghu Crab King: Nope, I only work weekends.

Pei Yiyao: Oh.

Donghu Crab King: Are you at the café now?

Pei Yiyao: I came to the library. Thought I’d stop by.

Donghu Crab King: The cakes there are really good, by the way. You should try one.

Pei Yiyao: Okay.

“Add a slice of cake,” Pei Yiyao said as he slid his phone back into his pocket. His tone was calm as usual.

“Alright. What kind of cake would you like?” the server asked.

“Which one does Chen Ting like?”

“Chocolate cake. Should I get you a slice?”

“Yes.”

Back at the dorm with both the coffee and the cake, Pei Yiyao found his roommate slumped in his chair scrolling through his feed. The scent of the cake drifted through the room, catching his attention immediately. He sat up straight in surprise.

“Wait, you bought cake? Don’t you hate sweets?”

Pei Yiyao set the cake on the table and said.

“It’s a gift.”

“Then give it to me. You’re not going to eat it anyway. Leaving it there is just a waste.” His roommate watched him go into the bathroom and then come back out again.

“Don’t touch it.”

“Alright, alright, I won’t…” he muttered under his breath. What was with the attitude?

Time passed quickly, and before long it was Saturday again. Pei Yiyao showed up at the café once more, but Chen Ting was still not there. Da He explained, “Chen Ting? He took the day off.”

“Took the day off?”

“Yeah, he might not come in today. Didn’t he tell you?”

Da He was already aware of the relationship between Chen Ting and Pei Yiyao. He actually had a pretty good impression of the newly crowned campus heartthrob. From the way he had come by to speak to Chen Ting several times, he did not seem all that aloof. Rumors were just rumors, after all.

Pei Yiyao nodded and thanked him, walked out of the café with his coffee, paused on the steps outside, and only then sent a message to Chen Ting.

Pei Yiyao: Where are you?

Donghu Crab King: Wuzhen!

Pei Yiyao: Wuzhen?

Donghu Crab King: Yeah, our econ class is doing a joint outing with another class, so we came to Wuzhen for the day. I’m on a boat right now.

Pei Yiyao: A joint outing?

Donghu Crab King: Yup.

Pei Yiyao stood at the steps of the café entrance, staring at those words for a long time. Thanks to his roommate’s thorough explanations, he now knew what a CP was, and of course he knew what a class outing meant.

His roommate’s original description had been: this is just a hormone-fueled matchmaking party disguised as a group trip.

What he had not known was that Chen Ting would actually go.

At that very moment, Chen Ting was floating gently across the waters of Wuzhen in a covered boat. Aside from the man steering at the back, he was the only male on board.

He was mentally cursing Yang Shulin for abandoning him to ride a different boat.

“Chen Ting, does your family own a boat too?”

“Yeah, Ting Ting, tell us about it. Do you know how to row?”

“If we had a little wooden boat and a pond full of lotus flowers, that would be perfect.”

“Ting Ting, why didn’t you wear your headband today? You look so cool with it on.”

“Ting Ting…”

“Ting Ting…”

Chen Ting wanted to jump into the river.

Compared to Chen Ting’s class, the gender ratio in the economics department was far more balanced. So once the boys started going out of their way to chat up the girls from Chen Ting’s class, the remaining girls naturally drifted toward him.

Chen Ting had not wanted to come in the first place. He had already declined once last semester, and if he skipped again, it would start to look like he was deliberately avoiding people. Besides, Yang Shulin wanted to go, so Chen Ting had no choice but to come along for his sake.

“My family does have a boat,” Chen Ting said with a polite smile. “Both wooden ones and concrete ones, but I don’t really know how to row.”

The girls did not seem to care whether he gave long or short answers. Once they gathered together, conversation came easily. There were always more than enough topics to go around.

As they chatted, the boat had yet to reach its destination. Suddenly, the conversation shifted to Pei Yiyao.

“By the way, Ting Ting, how did you and Pei Yiyao meet?”

“That cool freshman guy?”

“Cool freshman guy, seriously? Then what does that make Ting Ting?”

“Ting Ting the upperclassman?”

Hey, I can hear you!

The moment Pei Yiyao’s name came up, the atmosphere changed ever so slightly. Two girls sitting diagonally across leaned in to whisper to each other. Whatever they said made them glance at Chen Ting, then hurriedly cover their faces as if they had just seen him without any clothes on.

Chen Ting had no idea what was going on. Just then, a message from Pei Yiyao popped up, so he lowered his head to reply. But for some reason, after reading the word “outing,” Pei Yiyao had stopped responding altogether.

“Ting Ting, who are you texting?” someone suddenly leaned in and asked.

“Pei…” Chen Ting stopped himself mid-word. His gaze drifted to another profile picture on the screen. “I’m chatting with my mom.”

“Oh, your mom? Then have you figured out the answer to my question yet? Come on, tell us. Does Pei Yiyao have a girlfriend?”

“A girlfriend?”

“Yes, yes. We’ve all been guessing what kind of girl he might like. He’s so good-looking, he must have been popular before…”

Everyone chimed in at once, their curiosity bubbling back up and turning the atmosphere lively again.

Chen Ting shook his head, saying he had no idea. Still, he could not help wondering.

What kind of girl would Pei Yiyao like?

Just then, his phone lit up with another message.

Pei Yiyao: Having fun?

Donghu Crab King: It’s alright.

Donghu Crab King: Do you want me to bring you back any local snacks or souvenirs?

Pei Yiyao: You pick.

Donghu Crab King: Leave it to me. 【cig-in-mouth.jpg】

Donghu Crab King: Yang Shulin’s definitely going souvenir shopping too. He’s got better taste than I do, so I’ll ask for his opinion.

Yang Shulin again.

Pei Yiyao was starting to notice how often that name came up in Chen Ting’s messages. Far too often. It was no longer something that could be brushed off as coincidence.

Meanwhile, just twenty meters away from Pei Yiyao, behind the flowerbed outside the library, two girls were hiding under a tree, secretly watching him.

One of them nudged the other on the shoulder. “Go on. This is your chance. Be bold.”

“But look at his face. He looks terrifying. I don’t think I can handle it.”

“I thought you liked that cool, unapproachable vibe?”

“Do you think if I walk over, he’ll smile at me?”

“Um… probably not?”

“Then I’m not doing it!”

Pei Yiyao had no idea any of this was happening. He was still thinking about Chen Ting. He had assumed that he would run into Chen Ting at the café on Saturday, so he had deliberately waited until the weekend to go. But when the day came and Chen Ting was nowhere to be found, it felt like solving a math problem with the correct formula, getting every step right, yet still ending up with no answer.

That kind of feeling was difficult to shake. So he decided that tonight, he would find the solution no matter what.

Chen Ting got back to campus a little after seven. As he approached the dorm, he spotted Pei Yiyao near the entrance.

He was sitting on the back seat of his bicycle, head lowered as he read from a Kindle. The soft yellow glow from the streetlamp stretched his shadow long across the ground.

“Pei Yiyao?” Chen Ting ran over.

Pei Yiyao looked up at the sound of his voice and saw him approaching, cheeks slightly flushed from the run. He put away his Kindle and stood up. “You’re back.”

“Yeah.” Chen Ting nodded. “Were you waiting here… Did you need something from me?”

“My mom wants you to come over for dinner next Friday,” Pei Yiyao said.

Friday? Chen Ting did not have work that day, but he had just gone over not long ago. He felt like it would be imposing to show up again so soon. Still, the invitation had come directly from them, and given how close their families were, it did not seem polite to turn it down either. He found himself stuck.

Pei Yiyao, however, was straightforward. “You don’t want to go?”

Chen Ting quickly shook his head. “No, no, it’s not that. I just feel bad for troubling Auntie.”

“It’s no trouble. She’s got plenty of free time.”

“…Alright then. Should we head back together?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, right.” Chen Ting suddenly remembered something. He quickly took off his backpack and rummaged inside, pulling something out and handing it to Pei Yiyao.
“Here. A souvenir.”

Pei Yiyao accepted it and saw that it was a small wooden charm, about the size of a mahjong tile, with the word “Peace” carved into it.

Chen Ting explained, “I walked around the whole place and couldn’t really find anything good. I figured you probably wouldn’t like any of the snacks, so I had this little tag carved instead. You can hang it on your bike.”

Pei Yiyao thought of the charm hanging from Chen Ting’s own bicycle and nodded. He slipped the wooden tag into his pocket.

Even after accepting the gift, he did not leave. Chen Ting rubbed his nose and asked, “Is there something else?”

Pei Yiyao did not answer. He just kept looking at him. Chen Ting started to feel awkward under the gaze, mostly because he could not figure out what that look was supposed to mean. Just as he opened his mouth again, Pei Yiyao suddenly raised a hand and ruffled his head of curls.

“Let’s go.”

Cool guy gave him a pat and left, not even giving him a chance to react.

Chen Ting stood frozen where he was. He reached up and touched the spot where he had just been patted, completely baffled.

Yang Shulin walked over, looking at him curiously. “What were you two talking about? You look totally lost.”

Chen Ting paused for a few seconds, then turned to him and asked sincerely, “Yang Shulin, would you ever want to touch my hair?”

“Touch your hair?”

Yang Shulin was just as confused. But when he took a closer look at the soft little curls under the streetlight, he actually felt a bit tempted. So he walked right up and gave it a good pat, then offered a review—

“Feels great. Your hair might be curly, but it’s really smooth and soft. You could do a shampoo commercial with this.”

“Really?”

Yang Shulin nodded enthusiastically. “Of course. Why would I lie?”

“Oh.”

“Right?”

“You said I could do a lip balm commercial too.”

“That’s because the girls were all saying you have those… what do you call them, cherry blossom lips? Actually, you could be the face of a jelly brand too.”

“…”

Chen Ting no longer wanted to speak to him. But with all that nonsense, whatever strange feeling Pei Yiyao had left him with was gone, scattered like the wind.

He went to bed, and when morning came, it was a brand new day.

Face pinches or head pats, none of it mattered to Ting-ge.