Rock Sugar And Pear Stew

Chapter 41 - PR crisis (Translated by Xing and edited by Souhi)

Early next morning, Li Yubing"s Gossip Information Counter posted a long wall of text. The post opened with a short summary of the reason for deleting the photos yesterday. Then, came the highlight…

Just yesterday night, 7 hours after the incident between Li Yubing and Tang Xue happened, the gossip account owner received messages from many students who said that they saw Tang Xue parading through the streets with a guy. Why did they say that it was "parading"? Well, this was because the two of them were holding countless stuffed toys! It was impossible for them to not attract attention even if they did not intend to do so!

This post was released with numerous photos of Tang Xue and Yu Yan walking through the campus that was secretly captured from various angles and locations. With the number of toys they held, it was indeed conspicuous. The last of these photos showed Tang Xue bidding farewell to Yu Yan outside her dormitory building. Her whole body was almost covered by stuffed toys after Yu Yan pa.s.sed the ones he held back to her.

In this photo, they were gazing at each other with a faint smile on their faces.

"This reeks of love!” the gossip account owner declared.

At the end of this post, the gossip account owner even supplemented some information on Yu Yan, the young male lead of this incident. He was relatively famous in the figure skating circle and had won numerous awards. Perhaps due to being a new student, Yu Yan was not as well-known as Li Yubing. However, this had changed with this incident…

Lastly, there was a photo of Yu Yan accepting an award on stage at the age of 16. In the photo, he had yet to hit p.u.b.erty. The baby fats were obvious on his face, and his brows and eyes were clean, delicate and tender.

The gossiping crowd had yet to recover from the intense play on the sports field yesterday afternoon. Seeing this new post, they went wild.

What the heck was this! Going on a date with two different guys within the same day? And with both guys being G.o.ds too? Is it that all good-looking guys these days had poor eyesight? If they weren"t blind, why would they be attracted to such a disgusting flirt? Poor Li Yubing and poor Yu Yan! Please wise up and see Tang Xue for the huge liar that she is…

When Li Yubing saw this gossip, he was in the middle of cla.s.s.

Old Deng was triggered by goodness knew what and suddenly swore to study well. Therefore, he did not skip cla.s.s nor fall asleep this morning. He even took the initiative to sit next to Li Yubing, intending to bask in the halo of a top student.

It was a pity that after mere minutes of concentration, he became distracted and started fiddling with his phone.

Li Yubing was taking notes when Old Deng suddenly tapped his arm. He leaned away but Old Deng kept tapping him. Puzzled, Li Yubing raised his head and looked over.

Old Deng"s eyes were filled with sympathy. He pa.s.sed his phone over and whispered, "Dude, brace yourself."

Li Yubing took the phone and lowered his head to look at it.

His fingers brushed the screen lightly. His eyes were lowered and his face was impa.s.sive. However, Old Deng could feel the atmosphere tensing up.

Heart in his mouth, Old Deng dared not even make a peep.

When Li Yubing finished reading and pa.s.sed the phone back to him, Old Deng could hear the distinct sound of grinding teeth. Then, his own phone in hand, Li Yubing stood up abruptly and headed for the door.

Li Yubing was sitting in the third row. Between him and the aisle was a plump Old Deng. Now that he wanted to leave, the two of them caused a small stir that attracted the attention of students behind and distracted them from paying attention to the lecture. This chapter is a labour of love that should not be found outside of teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

In front, having been interrupted, the white-haired professor searched for the source of the commotion. When he saw that it was Li Yubing, he forgave him immediately. Li Yubing was an excellent student and he must had some emergency to act this way.

In this eye-catching manner, Li Yubing strode out the cla.s.sroom.

When he stepped into the corridor, he let out a harsh exhale.

But this exhale was not enough to release his frustrations. His feelings were a tangled knot that weighted on his chest. Like dark and heavy storm clouds, it loomed over his heart and refused to leave.

He walked out of the school building. Holding his phone, he dialled Tang Xue"s number.

Ring—— Ring——

The phone had barely rang twice when he hung up without waiting for Tang Xue to pick up.

What could he say after calling her… Li Yubing gave a self-deprecating laugh. A glaring truth lay in front of him—he did not even have the rights to question her.

From the start, he had never entered her world.

No, he had.

Even earlier than Bian Cheng, earlier than Yu Yan.

If only, at that time…

Li Yubing shook his head.

Life was like a series of questions; once an answer had been given, it was impossible to change it. There was no such thing as "if".

Even though he understood this principle, it did not stop him from feeling melancholic.

Hands in his pocket, Li Yubing wandered across the campus aimlessly like a lonely spirit.

He tormented himself by visualizing the individual scenes of Tang Xue and Yu Yan"s date. When he was done, he came to the realization that no matter what, he would never, ever tolerate them being together.

Even though this did not seem to make sense, he did not care—he simply would not agree.

Having thought this through, he went to relook at the gossip in a calmer mood.

However, as he read on, he began to feel a little distressed again—the whole world was cursing at Tang Xue.

Li Yubing was unable to continue after a short while. Even if it was only over the internet, he was unable to accept Tang Xue being insulted by others like this.

Malicious words were like a knife. Stab by stab, it would strike at a person"s most vulnerable spots. No matter how thick Tang Xue"s skin was, she was only a girl. What"s more, she was someone who was very conscious of her image.

Li Yubing was still brainstorming on how to turn the public opinion around when he received Tang Xue"s WeChat message.

Tang Xue: Ice dog, why did you call me? Do you know that I"ve been completely dragged through the mud because of you!

Li Yubing: I"m sorry.

Tang Xue: …

Li Yubing"s apology came too fast, making Tang Xue a little unaccustomed. Furthermore, she felt that Li Yubing was a victim of this incident as well. After all, he was now completely green[1] in the eyes of everyone in school…

Li Yubing: Where are you now?

Tang Xue: I just skipped cla.s.s. I"m going to train. Right now, only exercise can drive away my misery.

Li Yubing: I"ll join you?

Tang Xue: Please don"t. There"s no need. I"ll be at the at the ice stadium. You know what, let"s not meet up in this period of time. The closer you are to me, the greener you are in everyone"s eyes, get it?

Li Yubing: Let"s have lunch together.

Tang Xue: Hey…

Li Yubing: Ask Yu Yan along.

Tang Xue: ???

Tang Xue had indeed been driven up the wall by the gossip. When she woke up, the whole world was cursing at her for being a piece of trash who was cheating on and toying around with the hearts of two innocent guys at the same time…

What the actual flying heck!

And the most frustrating thing about this whole incident was how impossible it was to explain matters. Even if she did so, others might not necessarily be willing to listen.

She felt slightly better only after skating in the ice stadium for the better part of the day and drenching herself in sweat.

When she ended training in the afternoon, Li Yubing actually came to find her, determined to have lunch with her and Yu Yan.

What made things even more incredulous was that Yu Yan had the same thoughts as well.

This was how the three of them ended up gathering amicably in the canteen.

When they went to buy their meals, Li Yubing wanted to personalize a lunch set for Tang Xue meant for bulking up. He took her lunch card while Tang Xue took his to help him buy his requested food. Halfway through, she realized that Li Yubing"s card was out of credit. She found a stranger to top up the card before returning him the money through Alipay.

This was only a small interlude.

Finally, the three of them sat down at the same table for their meals. The atmosphere was so relaxed and natural that it was as if they were a happy family of three.

In the canteen, everyone closely following the gossip was at once dumbstruck at this scene.

And what the heck was this? How could they be sitting together so harmoniously at a time like this? Weren"t they being a little too broadminded? Broad enough to the extent of being able to encompa.s.s the Pacific Ocean? What happened to the supposed storyline of a female player caught for cheating? Where did the dramatic fight that was going to take place went? Wasn"t this scene just a bit too peaceful?

However, it was as if the three protagonists caught in the storm of this gossip did not hear the inner cries of the surrounding crowd at all. They laughed and chatted cheerfully as they ate.

Sigh, with how things played out like this, everyone was feeling extremely awkward…

The awkward crowd furtively took photos of the ongoing scene and uploaded it onto the forum. Originally, there were people who were still waiting for the drama of "Li Yubing and Yu Yan dumps female player in anger after discovering the truth" to unfold. In the end, they were greeted with a finale that showed a reunion so peaceful that it went beyond their wildest dreams. G.o.ddammit! This translation is meant to be released only on teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.

The awkwardness felt by the live crowd was hence uploaded onto the forum, successfully causing the gossipers who were still hotly debating this topic to fall silent.

After a few moments of calm, a new post surfaced.

[Thread] Request for Tang Xue to write a book on picking up guys—willing to pay an exorbitant price!

Tang Xue was browsing the forum to check the direction of the discussions online and chanced upon this post. When she read the topic, she burst into laughter.

Seeing her laugh, Li Yubing quirked his lips and asked, "What are you laughing for?"

Tang Xue did not reply. Instead, she locked her phone screen and raised her head to look at the two of them. She wiped the smile off her face and gazed at them with a solemn expression. "Thank you, really."

Li Yubing leaned back on his chair. "You indeed ought to thank me. My nickname used to be "Ice G.o.d". Now, it"s "Green Ice"."

Tang Xue laughed and waved her hand. "Say it, what do you want?"

Li Yubing pretended to consider the question for a while. Finally, he raised a brow and said, "I haven"t played a claw machine in a while."

Tang Xue was about to speak when Yu Yan, afraid that she was going to promise anything, interrupted, "I"ll go with you guys. I"m great at it."

Li Yubing felt that Yu Yan"s skin was getting thicker and thicker at Tang Xue"s influence. He stood up. "I was joking. Only kids like to catch stuffed toys."

Yu Yan became a casualty out of the blue.

When the three of them left the canteen together, Tang Xue swapped back her lunch card with Li Yubing. She informed him, "Oh right, your lunch card is out of credit."

"Mm."

After returning back to his dorm, Li Yubing checked his bank account balance and sat on the chair, lost in thought.

Old Deng walked into the room and found Li Yubing like a status as he held chin in deep contemplation. He circled Li Yubing twice before Li Yubing noticed him.

Li Yubing asked, "What are you up to?"

"Hey, what exactly is going on between you and Tang Xue? I"m no longer able to understand what"s happening…"

"Answer my question first." Li Yubing said.

"What?"

"Is there a job which I could earn lots of money easily within a short period of time?"

Old Deng pondered this for a while and looked at Li Yubing doubtfully. "Eh, sell your a.s.s?"

Li Yubing"s face darkened. He added another condition. "Without selling my body."

"If there"s really such a fantastic job like this, I would have long gone for it." Old Deng shook his head helplessly. He turned on his laptop and browsed through the forum. After some time, he suddenly slapped the table. "Oh, this job is perfect for you! Come and take a look!"

Li Yubing moved behind him curiously and looked at the laptop screen.

Old Deng pointed at the screen and said, "See here, the School of Art is looking for art models. You can choose between going half nude or full nude. The pay is different for both. The School of Art… that"s where all the hot girls are. So, tempted?"

Li Yubing was not keen. "Is there anything that doesn"t require stripping?"

"What"s wrong with stripping?" Old Deng turned his plump body and leaned on the back of his chair to lecture him. "This is for art; how can you simply summarize it as stripping? What"s more, you"ll be taking off your clothes for the girls in the School of Art—others who want to do the same won"t even get the chance!"

"I don"t want to strip."

Old Deng was extremely puzzled. "Why? Are you keeping yourself for Tang Xue? She already went on a date with another guy. Do you really not mind?"

Li Yubing was beyond calm. "I can afford to."[2]

Old Deng nearly knelt at his words.

Translator"s Notes:

[1] All a.s.sociations with the colour green or green hats are Chinese expressions for being cheated on.

[2] What Li Yubing originally said was 正宫，就该有正宫的大气 (zhèng gōng, jiù gāi yǒu zhèng gōng de dà qì). It means "the head of a palace (usually referring to the empress) should have the air of one", thereby implying that he"s the official spouse who can generously afford the emperor to favour a concubine on the side as the concubine ultimately won"t be able to touch his position as the official spouse. Too much context would be lost and it wouldn"t make sense so I changed the translation while trying to preserve the domineering and magnanimous att.i.tude he had about the whole affair.

I love shameless characters with a brain.

Anyways,

The team behind last year"s. .h.i.t drama (same director, producer, scriptwriter, art director, etc.) reveals the concept poster for their second project, modern sports romance . Cast TBD.

— c-drama tweets (@dramapotatoe)

Words on poster:
“Dreams don"t shine by themselves.
The one who shines is you who"s chasing your dreams.”

Send help, it"s official. Will try to increase releases when I have more free time. Hopefully I can finish translating before the drama comes out. Here"s the official  for those of you with an account ?