Chapter 55
Face-Slapping the School Heartthrob and Student Council President (10)
Editor: ghost
Chang Shaojun instantly turned white when he received the email. He hated crossdressers the most because of his father–his father was precisely a transvest.i.te.
His father always liked to put on the appearance of a woman. It was to the extent that he permanently removed his facial hair so that it would be easier for him to put on makeup.
In Chang Shaojun’s memory, his childhood was filled with quarrels between his parents. His mother felt like his father had tricked her. There were two years where his father indeed did not crossdress, but he was very unhappy. Thus afterwards he would secretly go out and crossdress, but was eventually found out by Chang Shaojun’s mother.
When he was seven, Chang Shaojun’s parents divorced.
On the day of the divorce, his father was still wearing women’s clothes.
Afterwards, they brought Chang Shaojun out to eat. During the meal, the two seemed a lot calmer and thus on that day, Chang Shaojun took that photo together with his parents.
The Chang Shaojun at that time was already beginning to understand things. He knew his father was very weird and Chang Shaojun never let his friends to come over to play in fear that they would feel the same about his father.
Chang Shaojun’s mother remarried and this man was very gentle. Even Chang Shaojun really liked him.
When he compared the two father figures, Chang Shaojun found that he always hated his biological father and now he could finally bring his “father” out of the house, finally invite friends over and finally be the same as other students, admiring how great his father was.
Afterwards, Chang Shaojun’s biological father went to look for him a couple of times, but was rejected. Chang Shaojun’s disgusted gaze finally saddened his biological father and hence, in order to not give Chang Shaojun “too much trouble”, he never appeared again.
Chang Shaojun’s life was then smooth sailing. He intentionally threw the matter with his father to the back of his mind, leaving only his bone-deep hatred for transvest.i.tes. Hence even though he liked Zhou Xu, after he found out that Zhou Xu liked crossdressing, he took his liking and kicked it away, just like he had done with his father.
He was still a child in the photo and both his father and mother were smiling. This was the only time in his memory where his mother had not quarreled with his father in women’s clothing.
This photo became his worst nightmare. He was extremely afraid that other people would find out. However, he could not bear to destroy it. It was the opposite: he protected it like a treasure and even took a picture of it to save on his computer because he was afraid to lose it.
Chang Shaojun did not want to admit how much he yearned for mutually loving parents. Currently, he was already an adult and as before, rejected transvest.i.tes. This was one thing he could not forgive no matter what.
But, wasn’t this picture saved on his computer? His computer had a pa.s.sword. Who was it? How did they gain access to this photo? And what did they plan to do?
Chang Shaojun was drenched in cold sweat. He realised that his body was shaking. This was something hidden in the recesses of his heart. Who was it? Who on earth was it?
It must be one of Zhou Xu’s fans. It must be. Who else would do something so rotten?
Retaliate. He must retaliate. He kept reminding himself that he was not afraid of anything. He must first calm down. However, he could not calm down no matter how hard he tried; Chang Shaojun had already lost the ability to think rationally.
Rushing out of the dormitory, Chang Shaojun ran wildly along the road. He needed a way to vent his inner fear.
He ran until he was drenched in sweat, tired to the point of panting heavily. The overwhelming fear finally subsided. Even if he died, he must bring transvest.i.tes down with him.
There were times when people were just this stubborn: stubborn to the point where their ears could not hear anything and their eyes could not see anything. They wholeheartedly persevered despite understanding that they were wrong.
You Luoqi only saw the email at night. After he saw it, he asked for leave and directly left for You Gan’s house.
Seeing that You Gan was currently eating dinner, You Luoqi went up and flipped his meal. His voice changed accents as he roared at You Gan, “Why did you show the drafts to others? Why?”
You Gan was only a high school student and a senior at that, hence he was very busy. Especially since the Gao Kao was currently only a few months away, he completely did not know what his cousin was saying.
“Ge, what are you talking about?” You Gan ignorantly looked at You Luoqi.
“Continue acting. Who else did you give the drafts to when you gave them to me a few months ago?” You Luoqi’s face was red from anger. His rage finally reached the muddled You Gan.
“Ge, what on earth happened? Apart from you, I never gave those drafts to anyone. Didn’t you say that some advertis.e.m.e.nt company had already used the design and paid us? You gave me half the money ah, three thousand yuan and I haven’t used it yet. Why would I give the drafts to someone else? You know that I’m a third year in my second semester–where would I find the time to meddle in these design matters?” You Gan said softly. He originally had a gentle personality and would speak in a soft and gentle manner, never quarrelling with anyone. Essentially, he was a warm and gentle child in everybody’s eyes.
Only then did You Luoqi go silent. He sat at the side with both hands hugging his head–he needed time to carefully think things through.
In the beginning, because You Luoqi wanted to partic.i.p.ate in the national design compet.i.tion, he prepared for quite a few months before finally producing a work he was satisfied with. Since he was in such a good mood, he went to You Gan to play.
You Luoqi knew that You Gan could also design, hence he did not mention anything about the national design compet.i.tion and said that it was an a.s.signment from an advertising company. The theme was still the environment. You Gan thought for a bit before taking out a piece of paper and drawing.
After he was finished, he signed his name at the bottom right corner by habit.
You Gan handed it over to You Luoqi to look, “Ge, I feel that this way would be very effective. Look, at the top left corner the colour of the clouds is well-used: the white signifies purity and cleanliness while the tinge of multicolour shows freshness. Under these clouds, people’s lives would also be very colourful. In addition, directly using black here…”
After You Luoqi saw it, he knew that in comparison to his own work, You Gan’s concepts and ideas were much better.
Smiling, You Luoqi took a picture of the design, “En, not bad, anything else?”
You Gan thought for a while before adding a few more strokes to the design. You Luoqi took another picture.
Afterwards, the two spent the entire afternoon on it.
When they finished the design’s entire general framework, You Luoqi asked, “You Gan, aren’t you very busy now? You don’t have time to do designs, right?”
You Gan nodded, “En, I don’t have time. The Gao Kao is approaching and I want to test into B University so I need to work hard.”
You Luoqi hesitated for a moment before saying, “You Gan, why don’t you give this design to me? I will give it to the advertising company and I will finish the detailing. If it is used, I’ll give you the money. This way it would not affect your studies.”
“Okay. I don’t care too much about the money. I just want my name to be listed as one of the designers. Right, at that time, use both our names to sign since we did the design together.”
“Sure, leave it to me.”
You Luoqi did use his design and indeed finished the detailing. However, You Gan had not expected that he would use it for a compet.i.tion and under only You Luoqi’s name, without a single mention of You Gan. In the end, You Luoqi gave You Gan three thousand yuan just as a way to calm his own unsettled heart.
At present, You Luoqi thought things through. All the design drafts were taken by him in the beginning and although he gave a copy of the photo to You Gan, You Gan indeed did not have any time to do such things. You Gan had also long deleted the photo.
Because he was afraid of being found out, You Luoqi was excessively agitated. He was not able to properly think about the entire process and the various probabilities of certain reasons for such a situation before criticising so violently. Fortunately, he did not say that he put the design into a compet.i.tion, otherwise everything would really be exposed.
Stabilising his mind, You Luoqi raised his head and gently laughed, “Sorry, You Gan. I was wrong. It seems that there were people who stole the design, but I never gave it to anyone hence I wrongfully a.s.sumed it was your fault. I’m really sorry. The key point was that this design was your idea and came from your painstaking efforts. I was unable to restrain my anger knowing that it had been stolen.”
You Gan saw that You Luoqi was no longer angry. Now that he understood the reason for You Luoqi’s behaviour, You Gan laughed along, “Ge, it’s alright. I know that you were angry on my behalf. Stolen designs are a common sight and cannot be guarded against. You really did not need to be so angry.”
“En, this time I was too rash. Look, you didn’t even get to eat your meal properly. How about this: I will help you order takeout since you need to revise and cannot go out to eat. When your exams are over, I’ll treat you to a feast.”
“好。”
“Sure.”
You Luoqi returned to school at night. The more he thought about the situation, the more he felt that something was not right. Who on earth was able to access such hidden files on his computer?
难道是他的舍友？
Could it be his roommates?
However, he had three roommates. One of them was Zhou Xu who never touched other people’s things. It could not be him, much less the other two roommates who were game addicts and held no interest towards his laptop. Moreover, both of them always acted together and they most likely would not use his computer together nor specially open his hidden folder.
Then, the problem was back to Zhou Xu.
It could not be that it was really Zhou Xu? Then when did he find out? Why did he not say anything if he knew? Could it be that he knew half of those posts on the school intranet were put up by him?
However, You Luoqi thought, he only wanted Zhou Xu and Yang He to break up. Moreover, he had carefully chosen his words to protect Zhou Xu. Anyone who saw those posts would feel bad for Zhou Xu while condemning Yang He. Why would Zhou Xu still do this?
What You Luoqi did not understand was that it did not matter how much he slandered Zhou Xu. Zhou Xu was most concerned with Yang He’s slander. Perhaps You Luoqi would never understand this point; in You Luoqi’s world, there was no such thing as consideration for others. His world only revolved around himself.
He felt that he was always excellent, whether in appearance or studies. From youth, he was always the benchmark for excellence in others’ eyes. He always lived in songs of praise, even up till university. He became the school heartthrob the moment he entered and there people confessed to him almost everyday.
You Luoqi felt people admired him despite him being so outstanding was because he was not arrogant and could talk humbly to others.
However, a single question could accurately pinpoint his problem: “Did you think what you thought was really true??” You Luoqi was not at all warm nor gentle. He thought that he was not arrogant when in reality, he always firmly and arrogantly believed that he was a favoured child of G.o.d.
Reality was different. It would not be what you felt it was. It was You Luoqi’s first time encountering such a situation, thus felt it so inconceivable and unbelieveable. He believed that there must be people out to get him, but never considered that it was he who was very wrong.
Two days later, Zhou Xu felt that Chang Shaojun and You Luoqi should have made their decision already, hence Zhou Xu once again sent each of them another email.
The first email was sent to Chang Shaojun, simply demanding an apology to Zhou Xu.
The second was sent to You Luoqi. Zhou Xu demanded that he first apologise to You Gan, then Yang He.
Zhou Xu attached evidence of their IP addresses on the posts to both emails. The two could not be stubborn and refuse to admit their mistakes.
This time, Zhou Xu gave them an entire day’s time to carefully consider their options. If Zhou Xu did not see results after a day, then it showed that the two refused to admit their mistakes and Zhou Xu would not be polite anymore.
After he checked You Luoqi’s house address, Zhou Xu used the ident.i.ty of a friend to ask about You Gan’s address. Thus Zhou Xu and Yang He met You Gan within the same day.
You Gan was stupefied. He did not dare believe that his trusted cousin would unexpectedly do such a thing.
After a period of silence, he suddenly understood why You Luoqi was so angry when he came by the other day. It was definitely because what he did was exposed.
“What do you plan to do?” Zhou Xu asked You Gan.
“I don’t know. I thought he wanted to help me. I am his younger cousin, how could he do such a thing?” You Gan said.
Zhou Xu smiled and patted You Gan’s shoulder, “You just need to send your draft to the national design compet.i.tion’s committee, nothing else. The result will not affect your studies.”
You Gan nodded, then said, “But my draft is long gone. It was taken by my cousin.”
“We have it. He is Jia Bei, the judge of this year’s compet.i.tion. We will help you uphold justice, how about it?”
“Jia Bei? Jia Bei-laoshi?” You Gan was surprised. He calmed down after a moment and said, “Okay, thank you.”
Three days later, the organising committee of the national design compet.i.tion sent You Luoqi a letter. This time You Luoqi was truly stunned; his future was about to be ruined!
The letter organised the various evidences and had You Gan’s verification. In a week, they would issue a public announcement, cancelling You Luoqi’s rights to the prize and explaining the reason for such an action.
Paralysed, You Luoqi looked at the ceiling, not saying a word for a very long time.
At this time, Zhou Xu and Yang He were called to the office. Lu Zhongban-laoshi, Yang He’s mentor and a few lecturers of the design department were in the office. They earnestly admonished and advised them.
“Yang He, if you dare hand in this request, I will give your parents a call to let them come manage you.”
“Zhou Xu, if you dare to leave school, I will disband the crossdressing a.s.sociation.”
……
Zhou Xu and Yang He helplessly looked at each other and decided not to fuss about with these teachers. When they left the office, they grinned at each other.
The weak did not have any power. Zhou Xu was not weak. He was X University’s influential figure and an outstanding person in the design department with the national design compet.i.tion’s special award in his bag. Yang He was not weak either: he was Jia Bei-laoshi and the school’s teachers could not make him stay if he wanted to leave.
It was funny. The school indeed knew that they were dating; the two had directly handed a withdrawal letter to the staff office. As a result, they were called to the department’s office. This time, the teachers who wanted them to restrain themselves began to panic.
Hence Zhou Xu reached his expected outcome. He knew that tonight, all the posts that slandered them on the school intranet would be taken down and the university administration would intervene. After all, the school administration already received attention for holding a crossdressing beauty contest. Now that their school intranet had posts scolding and abusing transvest.i.tes, if the administration did not do something about it, weren’t they slapping their own face?
Zhou Xu guessed that the school administration would warn those posters. At that time, there would definitely be a good show to watch.
Translator’s Note: sorry for the delay since real life has caught up, i’ll be switching to weekly updates on mondays hopefully i can get another translator on board to let everyone continue reading more chapters every week! if you are interested, check the recruitment page ?