Ch50 – Love Song on Ice (7)
After their meal, Dong Feihong was bent over his desk, drawing, and Chi Xiaochi was on Dong Feihong’s computer, watching recorded figure skating videos, the atmosphere harmonious, each leaving the other to focus on their own things.
Outside, it was snowing. The heating in the house was on full blast. Fragments of ice covered the windows in a pale white, silvery frost. In the house, one could hear the roaring of ovens as they baked. Even far away, one could still imagine the alluring aroma given off by the egg tarts as they baked in the oven and the slow puffing of their crisp, golden crusts.
Chi Xiaochi raised his head from the computer and looked over.
Dong Feihong, buried in a pile of lined sketches, had on a pair of gold, thin-framed gla.s.ses. He put down the blue pencil in his hand, then raised a hand to touch the tear mole below his eye, seemingly in deep thought. He thought for a long time, before reaching out to grab an eraser.
Chi Xiaochi watched his movements, rather unnaturally focused.
061 felt like Chi Xiaochi seemed a little off. “What’s wrong?”
Chi Xiaochi moved back his gaze and naturally changed the topic, “Dong Ge’s feelings for Lou Sifan amount to eight years of chasing and five years of dating, in total, thirteen years.”
After doing the simple math, Chi Xiaochi raised a very realistic concern, “If the time taken for every world is so long, by the time I go back after I’ve finished all my tasks, I’ll open my eyes on the hospital bed, say a single “I”, and bam, I’ll have directly died of old age. When that happens, who am I supposed to complain to?”
061 couldn’t help but laugh, “You haven’t noticed? There’s a type of card in the shop, called a ‘Compression Card’.”
Chi Xiaochi had actually noticed it before, but that was the most expensive one out of all the high-grade cards.
One needed to exchange 20 regret points, or 40 goodwill points, for just one low-grade compression card.
The high price of these things were naturally justified. But when he was flipping through the storehouse, for such expensive things, Chi Xiaochi at most shot a quick glance at the label with the brief description, and made a simple record of them in his mind before dismissing them.
In Chi Xiaochi’s opinion, when he had insufficient funds on hand, blindly splurging on high-grade cards was a really unadvantageous move.
And if a tempting good thing was temporarily unavailable, even just taking a look would only increase one’s distress.
Chi Xiaochi opened up yet another video of a figure skating compet.i.tion. At the same time, he continued to discuss this with 061, “When I saw the brief description, I even thought ‘compression’ was referring to compression of objects.”
“……I refers to time,” 061 said, “When the card is used, it will affect the rate of the flow of time of the entire world. For example, with a low-grade compression card, the world’s flow of time will become six times faster. The acceleration lasts an indefinite amount of time, but the card is single-use only. Once the user decides to stop this acceleration, it will automatically be deleted. If you want to use it again, you would need to buy it once more.”
Chi Xiaochi translated his words, “One is more effective than six?”
061 laughed, “You could take it that way.”
Many of 061’s previous hosts would grit their teeth through countless difficulties, do their utmost, unwilling to spend their points on anything else, rather willing to bow and bend the knee to their targets, sucking up through every means possible precisely to fill up their goodwill value as fast as possible and exchange them for this type of card, so that they would complete this long, arduous role-playing game as fast as possible and return to their own lives.
But even for 061, who had abundant experience under his belt, it was his first time experiencing this kind of thirteen year long emotional marathon, actually even including the youth’s crush period.
This meant that Chi Xiaochi would have a really long period of time where he wouldn’t be able to find a chance to get in contact with the mission target.
And no matter whether they were trying to grind goodwill points or regret points, they would have to get in contact with the target to do so.
……061 had only just brushed on this matter, but he could already feel the points of disgust within.
Chi Xiaochi unexpectedly didn’t have any reaction. He lowered his head and did some mental calculations for a while, then raised his head and said, “In short, if we want to get through this world faster, we’ll need at least 20 regret points, right?”
061, “En.”
He once again opened up the storehouse and checked its contents. At the same time, he asked, “…….Or 40 goodwill points?”
061, “……En.”
Just as 061 was beginning to get slightly anxious, Chi Xiaochi said bluntly, “Settle down, we can win this.”
As he spoke, his expression was calm, but there was a light in his eyes.
That kind of brilliance didn’t come from Dong Ge, but from the soul in this body. It was more attractive than any flirtatious glance.
Before 061 could figure out what the slight movement in his heart meant, he heard his tone change, “……f.u.c.k.”
061, “……What’s wrong?”
Chi Xiaochi said, “We forgot something.”
From his storage, he pulled out a slightly old and creased photograph.
The photograph was of Shen Changqing and Help from the last world. The person in the photo had a reserved yet gentle smile.
Chi Xiaochi wondered if he had recovered his ability to smile without a care yet.
However, now, he was already in the next world, even if he wanted to return the photo he feared he wouldn’t be able to find a way.
Chi Xiaochi placed the photo back into his storage. “If I had torn up Zhou Kai’s stamp collection right in front of his hospital bed, I reckon I could have gotten a dozen high-grade compression cards.”
061 thought about it, and felt the same.
However, he didn’t want Chi Xiaochi to think too narrowly, so he refrained from sharing in his regret and comforted him, “Nevermind. It’s all already past.”
“I was just saying this casually.” Unexpectedly Chi Xiaochi spoke with a natural att.i.tude, “I specifically left that stamp collection alb.u.m for Shen Changqing.”
“……Hmm?”
Chi Xiaochi said, “Shen Changqing’s situation and personality is different from Cheng Yuan’s. For Shen Changqing, he needs an outlet that he can control. Leaving him the stamp collection was the most intuitive, and simplest way to let him vent.”
Zhou Kai had killed Shen Changqing’s Help, Shen Changqing returned him with a destroyed stamp collection. Only then was this barely a fair trade.
Chi Xiaochi concluded concisely, “To put it simply, it was to let him have a good time.”
061, “Mm……” He could understand Chi Xiaochi’s way of thinking, but thinking about the damage Chi Xiaochi had suffered in that world, he inevitably found it a bit of a pity on Chi Xiaochi’s behalf.
Chi Xiaochi, however, didn’t feel any unnecessary regret. He asked 061, “Don’t you think it’d feel good?”
061 imagined that scene. He replied honestly, “……Seems like it’d feel really good.”
Chi Xiaochi said brightly, “Then isn’t that good enough.”
As soon as his words fell, Dong Feihong over on his side seemed to have heard something funny, suddenly letting out a laugh.
Brush in hand, his already beautiful features were decorated with a smile, making them even more vivid and amiable.
Chi Xiaochi immediately switched to Dong Ge mode, looking at him confusedly.
After Dong Feihong was done laughing, he waved it off, “I thought of something funny. Did I disturb you?”
Chi Xiaochi shook his head.
Dong Feihong stood up, drew out a wet wipe and wiped his graphite-stained hands, “Have an egg tart. You won’t get fat with just one.”
Chi Xiaochi said, “Okay.”
Immediately after, he watched Dong Feihong enter the kitchen, an indiscernible emotion in his gaze.
While as Dong Feihong stepped into the kitchen, he couldn’t hold back a soft laugh.
……Chi Xiaochi really was a person who could easily make others feel better.
Next Monday, after Chi Xiaochi finished his basic flexibility, speed and visualisation exercises, he then began practicing jumps in a corner of the rink.
This time, he was practicing axels, one of the six foundational jumps.
He tried a single axel, succeeding in one try, landing perfectly.
After that was the double axel.
When he landed successfully once more, he vaguely heard an emotional “holy s.h.i.t” coming from the corner.
Chi Xiaochi pretended that he hadn’t heard, quietly taking the compliment, and began skating again on the ice.
Another jump, another landing on the ice and another shower of fragmented ice.
The youth’s figure under the light was like a beautiful b.u.t.terfly, the paper-cut silhouette cast on the half-transparent ice both flexible and moving.
Even though the 3A this time wasn’t too perfect, the youth didn’t let out much frustration, circling around on the ice while at the same time consciously moving his body, splitting his legs past his shoulders, or stretching his arms, as if trying to get in the mood.
He was helping Dong Ge adjust his mental state.
The past Dong Ge was unnecessarily haughty, lacking in calm, and as such, no matter how attractive his appearance, how stellar his performance, he still had a group of people who extremely disliked him, thinking that he worked far too hard and his face was always filled with the desire to win.
Now, his gaze was still filled with Dong Ge’s unique melancholy and stubbornness, but in it was added some of Chi Xiaochi’s indifference.
In comparison to how most transmigrators didn’t dare to exhibit any age-inconsistent excellence in fear of arousing others’ suspicion and interest, Chi Xiaochi didn’t hide anything, didn’t suppress anything, exhibiting Dong Ge’s excellence as well as the experience he’d acc.u.mulated from ten years of compet.i.tions for all to see.
——Laozi doesn’t need anyone’s acknowledgement or approval, Laozi is a genius.
By the side of the ice rink, stood the coach who had previously scolded Dong Ge for wanting to jump before even learning to walk, Dong Ge’s coach, and the head coach of the skating team.
The one who had let out that “holy s.h.i.t” just now was the first one.
In contrast to the former’s lack of calm, the head coach watched Dong Ge for a long time.
He had observed this child before and judged that although his skill level was superb compared to the other children his age, he didn’t have a good personality, being far too irritable and impulsive, far too eager to prove himself. He still needed a lot more polishing, and they couldn’t rush to send him into compet.i.tions.
Otherwise, once he achieved something, he would either become arrogant and complacent, or long for even more victories.
Such a vicious cycle would never be a good thing for his growth.
But ever since last week, when the provincial team coach had come and talked to him for a while, he could see today that he seemed to have completely changed.
This unruliness with a little bit of seriousness shone with the radiance of self-confidence.
The head coach asked, “He still hasn’t partic.i.p.ated in any formal, large-scale compet.i.tions, right?”
Dong Ge’s coach nodded with slight surprise, “Mm-hm.”
The head coach said, “The National Figure Skating Junior series is in three months. Sign Dong Ge up, let him try it out.”
As soon as the namelist of the compet.i.tion partic.i.p.ants was posted, Dong Ge instantly became the talk of the school.
……The organisers of the compet.i.tion only gave three places to the school. How could someone with practically zero experience in partic.i.p.ating in major compet.i.tions, only having partic.i.p.ated in several regional compet.i.tions, being chosen to take part in the highest-ranking and most-watched event for youth skaters not be shocking?
Some of the gazes aimed at Dong Ge were admiring, some yearning, but even more were filled with the irrepressible flames of jealousy.
Chi Xiaochi preened at 061, “Heeheehee.”
061, “……” Silly.
Chi Xiaochi, “I just like how they look when they get upset when they look at me yet can’t get rid of me.”
061, “……” Is this child scheming or just childish.
But 061 was still always thinking about this mission’s target.
According to the current data, Lou Sifan’s initial goodwill towards Chi Xiaochi wasn’t low, at 50 points, but his regret level was simply zero.
At present, Chi Xiaochi had no intentions whatsoever of finding and getting into contact with Lou Sifan in advance and starting to cultivate feelings.
And without any contact, that meant there would be no change in values; and without any change in values, Chi Xiaochi would have to be stuck in this world.
Chi Xiaochi was as if he didn’t at all care about this. When he heard the good news, the first thing he did was call Dong Feihong.
When he’d gone back last week, Dong Feihong had given Chi Xiaochi a phone.
And the first and only phone number saved in this phone was Dong Feihong’s.
After hearing this good news, Dong Feihong brought him chicken soup stewed with shiitake mushrooms as a reward.
As Chi Xiaochi sat in the car gulping down chicken soup, he lost Dong Ge’s sharp edges, and Chi Xiaochi’s unique gaze. His head was lowered, revealing his fluffy, jet-black hair whorl, looking like it would be really nice to touch.
……Right now, he was just a child who was far away from home, chasing his dreams.
His quietened state looked so cute that it made one’s heart hurt. Dong Feihong couldn’t keep himself from raising his hand and ruffling his hair. “You’ve done really well.”
Chi Xiaochi shook, causing some of the chicken soup in his spoon to spill out.
Seeing his reaction, Dong Feihong immediately regretted it.
But to his surprise, Chi Xiaochi simply wiped his mouth, then continued to drink the soup without a change in his expression.
061, Dong Feihong, “……” Yi.
Didn’t it used to be that even shaking hands with a stranger was unacceptable?
061 also had to have been with him for a long time before being able to become slightly closer with him. When he first started touching him, Chi Xiaochi had also vomited until he fell apart.
061 frowned slightly, a slight sense of imbalance forming in his heart.
The author has something to say:
Actually we’ve already begun Dong Ge’s plotline qwq
Next chapter will be figure skating beauty Xiaochi’s elegant manipulations qwq
And Lou-ge who’s NTR-ing himself right in front of his own eyes feels like there’s something not quite right