TT Chapter 43. PPT

Chen Ting felt that Pei Yiyao had been spoiling him too much lately. Even Yang Shulin said he could not bear to look and changed his WeChat avatar to a doge meme.

Just how spoiled was he? So spoiled that Chen Ting no longer had to bend down to tie his own shoelaces.

He was living every day like some airheaded sweetheart, with his ability to do anything for himself dropping rapidly. It actually started to bother him, so he went to Yang Shulin for advice. “What do you think I should do?”

Yang Shulin clutched his chest and rolled his eyes. “Get out of here.”

Ting Ting was no longer the adorable Ting Ting he used to be. He had been totally ruined by Mr. Cool Guy. Completely and utterly ruined. He used to be someone who never showed off his love life so casually.

Yang Shulin decided it was time for him to get a girlfriend. So he turned to Big Tang-jie, who was already well-connected in the group chat, and asked her for help with matchmaking. Honestly, he did not look bad. At the very least, he was above average. He was 178 centimeters tall, had clean-cut features, and knew how to dress.

So why was he still single? Even he had no clue.

Big Tang-jie readily agreed. The new campus goddess might not be good at much, but she was well-liked and had tons of friends. If she was setting him up, there was no way it could go wrong.

But Yang Shulin waited and waited, full of hope, only to be hit by a thunderbolt.

Big Tang-jie: Do you know you’ve got a new nickname?

YSL: What?

Big Tang-jie: Wanzai Pier.

YSL: What??????

Big Tang-jie: Everyone’s starting to think you’re not all that straight. Seriously…

YSL: This is slander! Besides Ting Ting, Mr. Cool Guy, and Beauty Gao, who else? Name one!

Big Tang-jie: That’s already three. What, you trying to round out a mahjong table?

Big Tang-jie: Why don’t you ask Gou Ge?

YSL: …

He’d kill me!

Yang Shulin sank into a deep gloom. He felt like fate was toying with him, cruel and unforgiving. Still, he refused to believe it and decided to throw the question out to the “Winner Takes All” group chat.

YSL: Do you guys think I’m gay?

Dongbei Big Stick: Yeah.

Three-No Hermit: Yup.

Moped Maniac: Super gay.

A-Diao: Gay, gay, and gay again.

YSL: I’m warning you guys, have a little compassion, will you?

Gou Ge: [Screenshot]

Yang Shulin squinted at the screen. It was a screenshot from a few days ago, from the chat in their group. Everyone had been talking about Pei Yiyao and Chen Ting, and he had let slip a few lines.

YSL: If someone treated me that well, I’d go gay too. Damn it, eating dog food every day.

YSL: Gou Ge, you in or not?

Gou Ge: Get lost.

The evidence was right there. Yang Shulin felt so miserable it was like he was having a heart attack. What was he supposed to do? What could he possibly do to prove that he was straight?

I swear I’m not gay!

Did no one know that guys had always interacted in vaguely gay ways since the dawn of time?

Yang Shulin started banging his head against the wall while Chen Ting was still troubled by his own brand of sweet misery.

It was Sunday evening again. After work, Chen Ting sat with Pei Yiyao on a bench by the artificial lake on campus, chatting while cradling a cup of hot milk tea. Pei Yiyao pulled a small gift box out of his pocket and handed it over. “Congrats on passing the written test.”

The results for the preliminary interpretation exam were out. Chen Ting had passed with flying colors and could now move on to prepare for the oral exam.

“It was just the written test, not the actual certificate…” Chen Ting said that out loud, but his hands still obediently accepted the box. When he opened it, he found a headband inside.

A red-and-white striped headband embroidered with a whole row of red pixel-style hairy crabs.

The weather was starting to heat up. A headband actually made sense. Looked like Pei Yiyao really liked this sporty look on him.

Chen Ting picked it up and put it on right away. Since his boyfriend had given it to him, of course he had to wear it for him to see. But there was no mirror here, and no matter how he adjusted it, a few tufts of hair kept sticking out and refused to stay flat.

Pei Yiyao reached over to fix it for him. When he was done, he gave Chen Ting’s cheek a gentle squeeze. His skin was impossibly soft.

Chen Ting immediately felt a little bitter. He knew he had gained weight again. Ever since the New Year, when he had put on half a pound, he had not managed to shed any of it. But was that his fault? It was Pei Yiyao’s fault!

Pei Yiyao fed him milk tea, fresh milk, cakes, and chocolate. Anything that could make him gain weight, he gave him generously. On top of that, he had pampered him so much that even his hands had grown clumsy.

“Pei Yiyao, why are you being so good to me lately?” Chen Ting finally voiced the doubt that had been sitting in his heart.

“Why shouldn’t I treat you well?” Pei Yiyao replied.

“Uh… you weren’t this good before.”

“I changed.”

Chen Ting was left speechless. He realized he had no way to argue back. Could a person really complain about someone treating them too well? Of course not. That would be the definition of acting spoiled after getting something good.

Still, he was a fully functional University student in the modern age. He had to put up at least a token struggle. He looked earnestly at Pei Yiyao with wide eyes and said, “If you keep this up, I’m going to turn into a useless little house pet.”

Pei Yiyao was confident. “You won’t.”

Chen Ting tilted his head. “Why not? Do you even know how lazy a person can get once they start slacking off?”

“You’re great, so you won’t.”

“…Are you complimenting me right now?”

Pei Yiyao raised a hand and ruffled his hair. That counted as a yes.

Chen Ting had not been sitting very steadily to begin with. The way Pei Yiyao kept ruffling him left him wobbling all over the place. He seriously wondered if this went on any longer, he might get squashed shorter. Not just shorter. He’d go bald too.

“I’m telling you, Pei Yiyao, my hair’s been falling out more than usual lately, and I’m sure it’s your fault…”

The thought of gaining weight and going bald was genuinely terrifying.

But Pei Yiyao completely ignored him. He took out his phone and snapped a photo of Chen Ting’s little sulky expression. He had been doing this a lot lately, sneakily taking pictures of Chen Ting whenever he could. It was impossible to guard against.

“Why are you taking pictures of me again?” Chen Ting was not a fan of selfies. He had barely taken any photos growing up, and now, in just this short period, Pei Yiyao had probably captured more of him than the rest of his life combined.

And the worst part was Pei Yiyao’s aggressively straight-guy sense of aesthetics. Which made no sense, because he was definitely not straight.

Chen Ting dove onto him and snatched the phone, then, still sprawled across his lap, opened the gallery to see what had just been taken.

And wow. That was a jump scare.

His face took up half the screen. The headband on his forehead was absurdly prominent. The shells of the embroidered hairy crabs were just as round as his cheeks.

But Chen Ting swore his face was not actually that chubby. He was absolutely sure of it.

“Delete it!”

“No.”

“I’ll delete it myself.”

“No.”

Pei Yiyao wrapped one arm around him and pinned him in his lap. With the other, he effortlessly snatched the phone back and tucked it into his pocket. Chen Ting could not win against him at all. Physically, he was just a weakling. And emotionally, he had only grown more useless under Pei Yiyao’s constant pampering.

Oh, and he had just noticed that Pei Yiyao’s lock screen was a picture of him. It had been taken last week when they went out to eat together. His cheeks were stuffed full, his lips glistening with oil. He honestly had no idea what was so appealing about that image.

These days, Pei Yiyao’s phone was loaded with every camera app imaginable: the default camera, Miaopai, Meipai, Faceu, and a whole bunch of other nonsense.

Sometimes Chen Ting suspected he had been possessed by something.

“You’ve been acting kind of weird lately. Be honest, did you do something shady?” Chen Ting was determined to get to the bottom of it today. He glanced around and, seeing no one nearby, boldly climbed onto Pei Yiyao’s lap, face to face. “Are you going to tell me or not?”

Pei Yiyao stayed quiet. Cool Guy was not afraid of Ting Ting’s so-called interrogation tactics.

“You really want to know?” Pei Yiyao held him by the waist to keep him from toppling over.

Chen Ting nodded. This was clearly a yes-you-dummy kind of question.

So Pei Yiyao gave him the truth. “My mom found out about us.”

Chen Ting: “…Wow.”

Pei Yiyao said, “She told me to think it through.”

“Wait, let me get this straight.” Chen Ting buried his head in Pei Yiyao’s shoulder like an ostrich and stayed there, thinking for half a minute. Then he suddenly looked up. “She didn’t object?!”

Pei Yiyao said, “She’s always liked you.”

Chen Ting blurted, “That’s not the same thing.”

“There’s no difference. She knows me really well, so of course she could guess who corrupted who. Besides, my parents are genuinely open-minded and respectful. You don’t need to worry.” Pei Yiyao looked at Chen Ting with calm, focused eyes. There was something steadying in his gaze.

Chen Ting didn’t think he was lying. He had always found Pei Yiyao’s parents to be open and gracious. Since Aunt Ruan already knew about their relationship and hadn’t done anything drastic, it meant things were probably fine.

That thought lifted his mood. He leaned in, almost like he was bragging. “I actually tried to sound out my mom too. What she cares about most is whether I’m happy. So she’ll probably accept it too.”

“Exactly.” Pei Yiyao pulled him fully into his arms and gave him a light pat on the back, chuckling softly. “So, are you happy?”

Chen Ting nodded silently. He felt too shy to say it out loud.

But when he thought about it, everything with Pei Yiyao had gone so smoothly. No big misunderstandings, no major personality clashes. Even coming out had gone unexpectedly well.

He really was happy. Aside from those few carefree years as a kid, this might just be the happiest time in his life.

He didn’t know how other people dated. Maybe if he had never met Pei Yiyao, he would have eventually fallen for a girl, and their relationship would have been completely different. Some people said once the honeymoon phase ended, the spark would fade and relationships would fall apart and come back together over and over.

But Chen Ting didn’t want to overthink the future. His twenty-some years of life had taught him living in the moment mattered most.

And right now, what he had with Pei Yiyao was really good. In every sense of the word.

“Wait a sec, why are you taking all those pictures of me?” Chen Ting asked, suddenly serious.

“To show that you’re happy.”

“…Are you doing a project?”

“I could make a PowerPoint for your mom.”

Chen Ting stared at him in silence for a few seconds, then flushed red and yelled, “If you actually do that, I’m breaking up with you!”

A PowerPoint?!

Seriously, how could he even come up with that?

Why not go straight to heaven while you’re at it?!

But Pei Yiyao saw nothing wrong with the idea. A PowerPoint with data, charts, and maybe even embedded audio and video would present everything clearly and intuitively. He thought it would be nice to save it and look back on it in a few years.

He had heard that wedding invitations these days were mostly digital anyway.

But if Chen Ting was not into it, then that was fine. Pei Yiyao could always print the photos and bind them into a photo album. That would have a more artsy, literary feel anyway.

Ever since he had come clean to his mom, Pei Yiyao had been thinking hard about how to give her a proper answer. He could not deny that he had been careless in the past, so this time, he wanted to think things through.

Chen Ting would definitely graduate before him. In the future, they could rent a place together, preferably somewhere close to where Chen Ting worked. As for the choice to rent rather than buy, it was because Pei Yiyao did not want to rely on his parents’ money. He wanted to prove that he could be someone reliable for Chen Ting.

Rather than letting Chen Ting marry someone else and spend his days taking care of a whole family, Pei Yiyao believed he could give him a better life.

Burying himself in study like before was no longer an option. He could not let Chen Ting support him, so he needed to come up with a way to make money.

Compared to proving how happy Chen Ting was with him, this was the part he found easier.

Pei Yiyao said, “I’ve been looking into the stock market lately and managed to make a little money. But it’s not exactly reliable in the long run. What do you think of Gao Duo’s café? We could open one ourselves near campus.”

Chen Ting stayed silent for a moment.

Pei Yiyao glanced at him and asked, “You don’t like the idea?”

Chen Ting shook his head. “It’s not that…”

Pei Yiyao nodded. “Compared to stocks, running a shop feels more stable.”

Chen Ting clapped a hand over his mouth in exasperation. Was this man trying to show off how smart he was? He might as well smother him now and be done with it.