Rock Sugar And Pear Stew

Chapter 20 - A pervert (Translated by Xing and to be edited by Souhi)

The next day was Sat.u.r.day.

Li Yubing attended a commercial event affiliated with Dauntless Dragon Club in the morning. It was the opening ceremony of an ice rink. That rascal wore a suit and tie, looking suitably impressive with his true nature hidden. Most athletes looked good in suits. After all, their years of training have resulted in bodies with nice builds and defined muscles. When immaculately dressed in a proper suit, they appeared both striking and attractive, fully capable of inciting a riot.

By right, regardless of how well he played, Li Yubing was only a member of the school ice hockey team. He had no obligations to attend such events. However, Dauntless Dragon Club especially enjoyed showing him off. He was extremely good looking and whenever he appeared dressed in a suit, people would be trying to find out which young male idol this person was. This brought the club management great relish.

Tang Xue tagged along as well. She was the grime-covered a.s.sistant in-charge of taking care of Li Yubing"s things, running his errands, and looking on as others shone and appeared polished in the spotlight. It was a lonely spot at the bottom while everyone else basked in the excitement.

When they headed back, Li Yubing hailed a cab. Both of them sat in the back seat. Tang Xue could smell a light cologne scent from his clothes. She felt a wave of envy and resentment.

"Wolf in sheep"s clothing," She sourly muttered.

Li Yubing took off his blazer and threw it over her head.

Tang Xue was completely covered. She huffed out a "hey" and tugged down the blazer. Her head reappeared. "Are you looking for a beating?"

"Help me to hold it." Li Yubing said while loosening his tie.

The loosened tie slanted slightly to the side. Together with the V-shape neckline of Li Yubing"s shirt that gaped to reveal his neck and part of his collarbone, it gave Li Yubing an air of languidness that was rarely seen on him.

The sunlight streaked in through the car window, shining on half of his face and shirt. The shirt was blindingly white under the sunlight, calling to mind the lithe and elegant wings of a white dove in flight. If you see this, this translation has been reposted without permission from teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

He seemed to be unaccustomed to the sun shining on him and twisted his head. Facing Tang Xue, he coincidentally saw her looking at him.

Li Yubing raised a brow.

"You really look like a dog," Tang Xue said.

Li Yubing drank some wine earlier. He was a little tired and did not have the energy to bicker with her. His eyes slid close and he fell asleep.

Initially, he was still on proper behaviour. However, after falling asleep, his head gently nodded several times before finally landing on Tang Xue"s shoulder.

Tang Xue disdainfully pushed him away. However, it did not take long before he leaned his head back again.

This happened again and again. Tang Xue smacked his head.

He was deeply asleep and did not appear to have sensed anything.

As a result, Tang Xue could no longer be bothered with him.

Li Yubing"s chest rose and fell evenly. Tang Xue could feel it through the area where their bodies were touching. She suddenly thought how one of Li Yubing"s fan club member once mentioned that every day, Li Yubing diligently went to bed at 11 pm and woke up at 6 am. He had to juggle both his studies and ice hockey, and also occasionally make time for practicing cello. His schedule was always tightly packed, causing him to be as exhausted as a dog.

Tang Xue used to be an athletic herself. She knew how difficult and remarkable this sort of extreme self-discipline was.

Therefore, even though she detested him, Tang Xue was still able to acknowledge the great effort and strong will that he had to do so.

Li Yubing returned to school and changed out of the suit for training. At night, he changed out of his training attire and went to study at the library.

After he finished studying, he went back to his dorm and changed into pyjamas.

In one day, he had used a grand total of three pairs of socks.

Tang Xue: "……"

Li Yubing smirked as he pa.s.sed her the bag of socks. Using the most self-control that she ever had to use in her entire life, she restrained herself from jumping up and beating his dog head into a pulp.

"Good night." Li Yubing said.

"Li Yubing. From now on, for your personal safety, it"s best if you don"t talk to me."

Li Yubing turned and went back into the dormitory building. Back-facing her, he gave a little wave.

Tang Xue held the cloth bag and was full of disdain. Actually, the socks inside were wrapped in another layer of plastic bag. It was impossible for her to smell anything. However, she still had a vague impression of being surrounded by poison gas.

She suddenly had a little understanding of how farmers felt when carrying a bag of manure.

Li Yubing"s dormitory building and Tang Xue"s dormitory building were roughly a 5 mins walk apart. In between, she would pa.s.s by Liao Zhenyu"s dormitory building. When she did pa.s.s by his dormitory building, they coincidentally met.

Liao Zhenyu had just parked his bicycle. Upon turning his head, he saw his boss and was pleasantly surprised. "Boss!"

Tang Xue was not pleasantly surprised at all. "Oh." She thought, please don"t ask me what I"m holding.

Liao Zhenyu asked, "Boss, what are you holding?"

"A gas bomb."

"Huh?"

Tang Xue did not plan to continue her nonsense and wanted to leave after saying this. However, as she casually tossed a glance in Liao Zhenyu"s direction, she saw that there was a security guard standing not far behind him. If you are not reading this at teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com, this translation has been reposted without the consent of the translator.

The security guard was alertly watching her, his right hand on the truncheon by his waist. His left hand was fishing for a walkie-talkie.

Tang Xue: "……"

"No, sir, I can explain, this is not a real bomb. I… I… I was only joking. You can see for yourself." Tang Xue hurriedly opened the bag. "Look, it"s all socks. Socks!"

The security guard"s expression was still slightly suspicious. He walked over with his hand on the truncheon.

Inside the cloth bag was a black plastic bag. He took out the plastic bag, opened it, and saw that there were really only socks inside.

There were three pairs in total—a pair of white, a pair of black and a pair of dark green.

The security guard exhaled in relief.

"Don"t joke about these things in the future. We just carried out a counter-terrorism exercise not long ago."

"Yes yes yes." Tang Xue quickly nodded.

The security guard was on night patrol duty. After educating Tang Xue, he shook his head and left.

Liao Zhenyu scooted next to Tang Xue and quietly asked, "Boss, are you a pervert? The kind that specially steals socks from the male dormitories?"

"Shut up."

Liao Zhenyu immediately showed his loyalty. "Don"t worry, Boss. I won"t tell anyone. When I get back, I"ll steal my roommates" socks for you."

Tang Xue clapped a hand to her forehead. "Is there something wrong with your head?"

"Nothing matters as long as my boss likes it. If it"s not enough, I can steal from the room next door as well."

"It"s not……" Tang Xue felt that she needed to explain. If not, she would find even more dirty socks thrusted into her arms the next day. This wasn"t something that she could… appreciate. "These socks are Li Yubing"s."

Liao Zhenyu narrowed his eyes. Things weren"t as simple as he thought. He asked, "Why did you steal Li Yubing"s socks. Have you set your sights on him?"

"I didn"t steal these socks. I"m going to wash it for him."

Liao Zhenyu"s mouth immediately formed an O-shape. He looked at his boss in amazement. He was like a statue and maintained this stunned expression for a long while, unable to snap out of his shock.

Tang Xue glared at him. "Seriously?"

"Boss, tell me the truth." Liao Zhenyu lowered his voice. "Do you have a nude video in Li Yubing"s hands?"

Liao Zhenyu"s consequence for having an overactive imagination—the bag of socks landed up in his hands.

Tang Xue patted his shoulders. "Wait here for me tomorrow." She decided to entrust the upcoming nine days of socks washing to Liao Zhenyu as well.

Liao Zhenyu"s face was miserable. "Tomorrow I can"t… I have club activities at night. I"m not sure what time it"ll end."

"What club?"

"The inline skating club. I"ve told you before."

Tang Xue nodded, he had indeed told her about it before. "Have fun, then. After you"re done, call me."

"Boss……" Liao Zhenyu tried resisting again.

"Thanks for your hard work. I"ll treat you to a meal." Tang Xue single-handedly decided.

The next day, Tang Xue thought that she would be waiting for long. However, Liao Zhenyu called her way before their meeting time.

"Boss, I"ve been bullied!" Liao Zhenyu"s words were full of chagrin.

Okie dokie. Anyone remembered the exciting news we promised you last week? Well, the drama rights to "Rock Sugar and Pear Stew" has been acquired. They"ve even released a mock publicity poster with an English translated t.i.tle. Which I shall not be sharing for fear of scarring your eyes.

The English t.i.tle on the poster is "Skate Into Love".

Help.

I cringed. Souhi cringed. I"m pretty sure somewhere in the universe, some star cringed as well. n.o.body add this into NovelUpdates. (Btw, if anyone"s interested in the t.i.tle translation of 冰糖炖雪梨, I posted it under the "Rock Sugar and Pear Stew" page.)

I was shook when I first saw this news but now I"m just kinda worried. The first concern would be the casting choice. The next would be the drama pace. The rumoured episode length is 40, which feels a teeny weeny too much for this story. The rights has been acquired by the team behind "Ashes of Love", which was great at the beginning, great at the end, but kind of a mess in the middle. Because dramas in China are sold by episodes, the current drama industry has the cancerous problem of dragging out a show in order to earn more. More often than not, they"ll put in lots of fillers in the form of unnecessary flashbacks or backstories of side characters that you don"t care about. The story is not as tight as it could be, which frankly speaking, is a huge waste of everyone"s time.

Drama adaptations that I really like would include "Just One Smile Is Very Alluring" (30 eps) and "A Love So Beautiful" (23 eps + 1 SP). Both are great adaptations but you can see how in "Just One Smile Is Very Alluring", the pace was slightly dragged out in order to fill in the 30 episodes that it did.

Even if there must be fillers, please, please, please let the fillers be good. I wouldn"t mind watching more of Liao Zhenyu and Xia Menghuan, or Li Yubing and Tang Xue"s interactions with their schoolmates that fleshes out their character. A show with more episodes isn"t a problem. The problem only comes in when a show has more episodes purely for the sake of having so. I will update you guys when I have more news ?

I just ended my second day of a 12 hour shift and I still have another 12 hour shift tomorrow. If you love me Tang Xue or Li Yubing, you can leave a lovely comment below, review this novel on NovelUpdates so that people have a clearer idea of what it"s about (the synopsis is terribly vague and I"m too lazy do it myself) or simply support this translation by only reading on the original site teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com if you"re not already doing so.