Chapter 58 - Lovey Dovey
In the blink of an eye, it was already ten in the morning. The sun shone through the light blue window curtains, making the whole room warm and cozy. Song Xiao laid in Yu Tang’s embrace, the sunlight highlighting each strand of his fluffy hair and exposing the red marks on his neck.
Yu Tang looked left and right in elation, then moved closer to kiss that fair face, which was breathing deeply. He couldn’t help reaching out to stroke that smooth body.
It was already very late when they finished last night. Song Xiao had been so tired that he didn’t want to lift a single finger. The invigorated Yu Tang carried him to the bathroom to have a proper shower, then changed the bedsheets himself. Only then did he hold the empress, who was already unable to open his eyes. Thus, Song Xiao’s body was now clean and fresh, which made Yu Tang unwilling to let go.
“Mn…” Song Xiao was dreaming that a large octopus had wrapped itself around him. Its rough tentacles rubbed his neck and all the way down to his waist, circling around him, then slowly crawled down from his waist to his b.u.t.t and roguishly pressed into the cleft. Frightened awake by this dream, Song Xiao furrowed his brow and opened his eyes to see His Majesty the emperor’s silly smile.
Even though it had been a little hard to bear in the beginning last night, Song Xiao had no choice but to admit that he enjoyed it very much later. After living two lives, this was the first time he learned that the harmonious union between a couple could be this wonderful, and he didn’t blame the emperor for smiling so foolishly.
“Is it sore?” Yu Tang touched a certain overused area and asked softly.
“Wu…” Song Xiao replied vaguely and drew his head back into the quilt, closing his eyes and wanting to go back to sleep.
Seeing that he was still sleepy, Yu Tang knew that he was incredibly tired, so he didn’t continue to bother him. Pulling him into his embrace, he waited until Song Xiao’s breathing evened out, then quietly got up. He raised the air con temperature, then went to the bathroom to shower and change, before he turned and left the room.
His parents weren’t home. His sister had already gotten up, and was playing the piano in the small living room. A melodious tune resounded throughout the living room.
“Eldest young master, will you be having breakfast now?” the butler inquired with a smile when Yu Tang came downstairs.
“Prepare two portions, then bring them to my room door.” Yu Tang considered for a moment, then added, “Cook something light and easy to digest.”
“Yes.” The butler smiled and left to let the kitchen know.
Yu Tang picked up a cup of hot tea and took a sip. He looked around but didn’t see his little brother. After asking, he learnt that the fellow was still sleeping. Putting down the cup, he turned and went upstairs to invade his little brother’s room.
Yu Lin’s room was decorated in the style of the ocean. On the kid’s bed, which was shaped like ocean spray, was a little dumpling; his little brother’s face couldn’t be seen, with only a few strands of his hair poking out through a gap in the blanket.
Yu Tang walked over and grabbed the blanket. He ripped it away, immediately exposing the little fellow sleeping like the dead underneath it with his b.u.t.t sticking out.
Didi, who was dreaming, felt a little cold, and reached out to grope around. Unable to find the blanket, he suddenly realized something, and abruptly opened his eyes. Shooting up, his body a.s.sumed a defensive pose as he looked at the person by his bed with sharp eyes. Yu Tang narrowed his eyes. That definitely wasn’t an expression that a three-year-old should have.
When he realized who it was next to his bed, little Yu Lin finally realized what had happened. He laughed hollowly, then covered his exposed little bird. “Good – good morning, ge.”
“What time is it now? Still not getting up for court?” Yu Tang sat next to the bed unabashedly.
Yu Lin retreated to one corner of the bed. For a while, he struggled between continuing to play dumb or telling the truth. In the end, he still decided to confess, hoping for clemency. “In fact, ge is still here, so I don’t need to… Ai ai, don’t pull my ear!”
Yu Tang silently looked at his little brother. This kid still wanted to pretend. For three years, he didn’t reveal a single flaw; if it wasn’t because Yu Tang had long had suspicions, and had observed carefully, he probably wouldn’t have realized it at all.
Yu Lin’s large protruding ears were particularly convenient to pull. As Yu Lin tried to save his ear, he lifted his eyes and peeked at Yu Tang’s expression. After a glance, he didn’t dare look anymore. He closed his eyes, and then said everything in one breath. “After you died, saozi wanted to cut his throat, and I immediately rushed in to stop him, and also let him read the edit, but who knew that he would kill Zhang Xiaoren and then seize the opportunity to kill himself; the heavens and earth can testify that imperial sister-in-law was infatuated with imperial brother and wasn’t willing to linger a moment longer, and didi made a mistake and was unable to protect saozi, and I could only put the two of you in the same coffin to atone for my crimes!”
This long sentence flowed out without pause. As soon as Yu Lin finished speaking, he opened his eyes and stared into Yu Tang’s, once again feeling that he was in the right. Thinking back, he was only fifteen that year when his brother and saozi died, leaving behind a group of powerful ministers who eyed him covetously. If he hadn’t been wise and martially powerful, and in possession of outstanding means, how could there be the golden age of Jinghong?
“Hmph.” Yu Tang had come to his little brother to confirm precisely this. After finding out that Song Xiao really had read the edict before he died, he huffed contentedly and let go of his brother’s ear. “I will spare you for now. Later, we will settle this debt.”
Yu Lin rubbed his ear and curiously got out of bed. He went to the door on bare feet and leaned over the threshold to see where his elder brother was going. Just as expected, Yu Tang, who had just imperiously bullied his brother, took over the dining cart which the maid had pushed to the door of his room, and his head emitted pink bubbles as he went into the room. Faintly, Yu Lin could hear “Get up and eat something, then you can go back to sleep”.
After rubbing his b.u.t.t, which was covered in gooseb.u.mps, Yu Lin ran back to his bed and dove into the quilt. It seemed that the two of them didn’t have any problems anymore. With Song Xiao around, Yu Lin would probably grow up safe and sound… probably.
Body and mind now fused into one, there were no more misunderstandings between them, and they played together stickily in Yu Tang’s house for a week.
Yu Miao sat on the bench swing with her little brother as they each held a cup of ice cream and looked silently at the two people in front of them. Their family’s childish big brother clearly had one, but he just wanted to eat the one in Song Xiao’s hand.
“Their relationship is really good,” Yu Miao quietly whispered into her little brother’s ear.
Because Yu Lin was young, the housekeeper had only given him a small cup, and there wasn’t enough to eat at all. Glancing at the couple before him, he felt his eyes hurt, so he didn’t look anymore, and instead dipped his spoon into his sister’s cup to take a big scoop. “Our relationship is really good, too.”
After a week, the Yu parents returned. Afraid that they would notice something, Song Xiao politely took his leave.
Song Xiao became the top scorer, and many local media outlets wanted to interview him; there were even some companies who wanted him to become a commercial spokesperson.
“h.e.l.lo, is this Song Xiao? We’re Silver Naojiang Oral Solutions. If you take a photo while holding our oral solution, we’ll cover four years of your university tuition fees…”
“This is Jin Top Scorer Learning Machine’s advertising department. We would like to invite you to shoot an advertis.e.m.e.nt for us. We’ll offer the standard fee for a C-list celebrity…”
“We’re A City Daily Newspaper; we would like to interview you for a special feature.”
This sort of phone call happened every day, and Aunt Chen had experience in answering with the sentence “Our family doesn’t lack money” to send them packing. It was only this A City Daily Newspaper that was a little troublesome.
This paper wasn’t an entertainment newspaper, but a government newspaper, and the reporter was in charge of special interviews. Already used to everyone treating him deferentially, he was very uncomfortable at being rejected so abruptly.
“Are you his family’s housekeeper? Have him or his father pick up the phone. This isn’t something you can decide.” This Mr. Reporter wouldn’t yield at all.
Auntie Chen was a little unhappy. “Sir has already said that we will not accept any media interview.”
“But we’re a daily newspaper. You have to understand, we’ve already done the interview with the top scorer for the science stream, and we’re about to send out the draft. We hope that Student Song will be willing to accommodate us.” The reporter for the daily newspaper spoke as if it was already a given.
Song Xiao was sitting on the side, and when he heard the voice on the other end of the phone, he indicated for Aunt Chen to pa.s.s the phone to him.
Aunt Chen didn’t really approve. It was still fine if reporters didn’t speak to the party involved, but if they did, and were even offended, who knew what would be written.
Song Xiao smiled and took the phone. “h.e.l.lo, this is Song Xiao.”
“Ah, Student Song, it really isn’t easy to get hold of you.” The reporter sighed in relief. “I would like to interview you; do you have time today? I’ll drop by your house.”
“No time,” Song Xiao deadpanned.
The reporter choked for a moment. “Then when will you have time? I’ll…”
“I’ve had no time at all recently.” Song Xiao looked at Imperial University’s admittance notice in his hand, which he had just received. “Mr. Reporter, there is no law in China that requires me to cooperate with the daily newspaper.”
With this, Song Xiao hung up.
Being the top scorer in the entrance examination wasn’t the same as being the top scholar back in Great Yu. In Song Xiao’s opinion, this was, at most, first place in the provincial imperial examination, and was nothing to boast about.
The next day, A City Daily Newspaper published the interview with the top scorer in the science stream, wantonly praising the student’s ingenuity. As for Song Xiao, only one sentence was written at the end: “We regret to say that the top scorer in the humanities stream, Song Xiao, was unwilling to be interviewed by this newspaper.”
Therefore, the true ident.i.ty of A City’s top scorer in the humanities stream remained a mystery.
Soon, it was the start of a new term in September. Yu Tang had already gone to the US, while Song Xiao had to report to Imperial University first.
This education collaboration project between Imperial University and Halun University was only in its second year. None of the aspects were really fleshed out, but the quality of education and main procedures were nevertheless guaranteed. This project by Halun University had been launched simultaneously with other countries. For students in this collaboration project, the university had drawn up a separate curriculum which didn’t align with the academic course schedule of regular students like Yu Tang.
Imperial University’s century-old campus still maintained the style of the Great Zhuo Dynasty. Song Zicheng sent his son to the university entrance, happily dragged him close for a photo together. then uploaded it onto Weibo, which had gotten popular recently.
Song Zicheng V: My son is now in university. (Photo attached)
Weibo had just become popular, and not many people were using it yet. Those who followed Song Zicheng were mostly people within the circle. Even though Weibo wasn’t very popular domestically, entertainment companies that kept up with the international trends all knew that foreign social media like Facebook and so on were extremely popular, so they had all their artists register for Weibo accounts long ago.
Once this post was published, some artists immediately commented.
Musha V: Our Xiaoxiao really matches Imperial University so well.
Li Meiyi V: He’s clearly our family’s Xiaoxiao.
David-Wei Ge: LS is right, LS is formidable.
Bernard Shaw: Our Xiaoxiao is already this big.
Song Zicheng stared at this “Bernard Shaw” for a long time. After clicking into this person’s homepage, he saw that there were very few posts, and they were all in English. He silently removed him as a follower.
The students partic.i.p.ating in Imperial University’s collaboration project were gathered together in a cla.s.sroom. They first took an English test, and only those who pa.s.sed could continue onwards to the US; those who didn’t pa.s.s would stay in school and transfer into the general university.
Everyone in this cla.s.s were top scorers from various regions, and each was more arrogant than the other. No one greeted each other, and they left on their own when the test ended, waiting for the results.
Song Xiao had no problem with English, and pa.s.sed the test smoothly. He stayed at Imperial University for another month, before officially embarking on his journey to the US.
Little Theater
Didi: I – I – I – I confess
Fish Tang: Severity to those who confess
Didi: Then I won’t
Fish Tang: Kill without mercy those who resist
Didi: Saozi, save me
Xiaoxiao: What your gege says is right ah
Didi: QAQ Shouldn’t have waited for them to reconcile before speaking up
Fish Miao: (Lights candle)
Baobao Notes
The end of the first book.