Chapter 69: Sixty-Nine, Fanwai – Song of Four Seasons (The Final Ending): Another spring had arrived.

Cheng FengLai was 19 years old, a freshman at JingCheng (the capitol, aka Beijing) University.

On the day he entered the school, he caused a huge stir. Many people heard about him and also made a special trip to catch a glimpse of his face, because he was too beautiful, the kind of beauty that was not explicitly feminine, but totally transcended the gender boundary. A universal beauty, lively, vivid, splendid, and bright, so that every movement easily touched people’s hearts. Some people joked that even if the beautiful boy picked his nose, he would look ten times better than other people.

As a result of his arrival, the “Top Ten School Flowers” ??and “Top Ten School Grass” lists selected annually by the campus BBS forums when the freshmen entered JingCheng University were merged into a post in this year – “JingCheng Top Ten Beauties.” Cheng FengLai had a crushing advantage of double the vote of the next highest place; the popularity value of a beautiful face could be seen clearly.

However, the temper of this beautiful boy didn’t seem to be very good. Usually, he was alone and was most annoyed with people who would talk about his looks. If anyone stared at him and looked at him for a while, he would turn his face away. If they made even a slight remark, he wouldn’t even greet them. This kind of cruel result was 100% effective at creating a peaceful barrier around his life.

At first, the students of JingCheng just dismissed it. They thought that they could all enjoy the beautiful boy, so none of them would approach him. Until one certain evening, outside the canteen, when the head of the JingCheng University Taekwondo Association, who was also a junior-level student well-known on the campus, held out a rose in public to Cheng FengLai as a confession. Cheng FengLai turned a blind eye to him and walked away with no expression. The senior manager couldn’t just allow his reputation to take this blow, so he tried to catch up to and stop this guy. As a result, in full view of everyone, Cheng FengLai didn’t even turn his head as he raised his long legs in a whirlwind kick that couldn’t even be seen clearly. The two-time top Taekwondo Men’s Champion of the JingCheng University Games was kicked into the small pond next to the canteen.

From then on, Cheng FengLai became known as a thorny flower on a high ridge, to be admired only from far away, not up close.

In the next semester, on one afternoon in the spring, outside the JingCheng University’s West Gate, Cheng FengLai got out of a luxury car, making many students side-eye him. No way, has our “JingCheng Freshman Flower” also fallen into the recent vulgar trend and become a kept lover? Or did he reject the pursuit and confessions of all his classmates just because the economic strength of those students wasn’t worthy in his eyes?

——Yes, Cheng FengLai had really tried to avoid trouble by concealing his origins and family when he had entered the school. He had gone to the capital to study like a normal university student. Because of all his excess energy, he even did part-time odd jobs in his free time.

The scene of the beautiful young man stepping out of the luxury car was quickly captured by a classmate with fast reflexes and posted to the campus BBS, accompanied by a bold, black headline titled “The famous flower has an owner, losers please go no further.” The post was a stone that stirred up a thousand waves, breaking people’s hearts, the sight of which made people cry.

After Cheng FengLai got out of the luxury car, before he was even a few steps away, the owner of the luxury car also got out and chased after him.

When the students along the road saw this, they immediately screamed in their hearts, if you’re throwing away this young, top-quality, long-legged handsome guy, I’d love to take him ah, ah, ah ah!

What the students didn’t know was that that the conversation between the beautiful young man and the handsome guy wasn’t as beautiful as the image of them side by side.

Cheng FengLai: “Thank you for dropping me off, you can go now.”

Qiao JingXuan: “Cheng PaoPao, let’s have a meal together at night? Ning Cheng opened a branch of Spring and Autumn here in the capital years ago, I think you’ll like it.”

Cheng FengLai: “First of all, don’t call me this name; I’ve already said that I don’t know you that well. Secondly, I like Ning Cheng Spring and Autumn, but I don’t like to eat out with other people. If I want to eat, I will go by myself, since I can also afford it.”

Qiao JingXuan: “Cheng PaoPao, why do you get less cute the bigger you grow? Have you forgotten how you chased me as a child, crying ‘JingXuan-gege’?”

Cheng FengLai: “Impossible, you’re talking nonsense! I’m not cute, what’s the matter with you? Aren’t you the one who calls my father ‘YuTang-gege’? Then you’re supposed to be my elder, isn’t that right, Uncle JingXuan?”

Qiao JingXuan: “……”

Cheng FengLai: “Uncle JingXuan, I’m going to class, please don’t come back again later or my studies will be affected.”

Watching the young man head into an academic building, Qiao JingXuan stood frozen in place for a long time, before finally heading home sadly.

Soon, a new post on the campus BBS came out titled “What to do, the freshly-sprouted gentle multi-golden very rich handsome man X self-disciplined beautiful young man CP seems to be cold, breaking glass hearts all over the place,” which replaced the “The famous flower has an owner, losers please go no further” post as the most recent popular post.

However, this post disappeared inexplicably overnight and then the campus BBS was hacked and crashed for three days. After the forum returned to normal, the students’ attention had been diverted to the hot gossip about a new star.

In the summer, Cheng FengLai, who was working as a waiter in a coffee shop, was groped by a vulgar guest with a big reputation. Before he could knock the guest into the ceiling, the man was kicked by another guest at the next table over and he was thrown to the ground in front of all the other guests. Although the manager didn’t place the blame on Cheng FengLai afterwards, the part-time job was still lost.

After leaving the coffee shop, the two had another unpleasant conversation.

Cheng FengLai: “Are you stalking me?”

Qiao JingXuan: “No, it’s just a coincidence.”

Cheng FengLai: “Qiao JingXuan, thank you, but I can handle this kind of thing myself. I have no need of you swooping in on a chariot. Now my job is gone, are you satisfied?”

Qiao JingXuan: “Sorry, I didn’t think things would go like this. If you liked it here, I can buy this coffee shop and give it to you.”

Cheng FengLai: “Have you forgotten my surname? If it would make me happy, I’d have no problem buying one hundred, but it wouldn’t. You don’t understand me at all. I think the generation gap between us is too wide, there’s absolutely no way for us to communicate.”

Qiao JingXuan: “I’m sorry, I’ve acted impudently. I was just trying to help you. I ran into your grandma a few days ago and she said she’d give me a chance to look after you.”

Cheng FengLai: “Then my grandma knows that you have bad intentions for her grandson. You want to take care of me in bed? Uncle JingXuan, while you are studying abroad, didn’t you have two girlfriends? Don’t tell me that you suddenly switched sexualities to prefer men and that I’m your specific type.”

Qiao JingXuan: “…………”

For the first time, Cheng FengLai unceremoniously stabbed into the heart of the matter, making Qiao JingXuan shocked and speechless from embarrassment.

Cheng FengLai sneered, and then turned away, leaving Uncle JingXuan standing where he was, his heart burning like this hot, tormenting weather.

In the fall, Cheng FengLai got off a night shift and was running back to school. After passing a secluded intersection, he encountered a truck on a runaway rampage. In order to protect an old lady who was crossing the road, Cheng FengLai was knocked down by the truck, falling on the side of the road.

A moment later, a luxury car pulled over and a distraught man got out and rushed over, taking him in his arms.

Qiao JingXuan: “PaoPao, where did you hurt? Are you in pain? I’ll take you to the hospital right away!”

Cheng FengLai: “I’m fine, I don’t need to go to the hospital. Uncle JingXuan, don’t show this kind of heartache-esque expression, you’re troubling me like this.”

Qiao JingXuan: “It’s not heartache-esque, it really is heartache. PaoPao, the question you asked me last time, I can answer you now. I don’t like men, I just like you – the kind of like where I want to see you all the time, to kiss you, to press you into the bed and slam into you, to fuck you until you cry, that kind of like. I know that you also like me, because you’re angry and jealous that I had sex with ‘girlfriends’. But you can rest assured, they were just my classmates, I never even held hands with them.”

Cheng FengLai: “……really? Are you sure you really like me? No matter what I am? Then how about this?”

In the next second, the man in Qiao JingXuan’s arms transformed into a pheasant with a pointed beak and long beautifully-colored feathers.

Qiao JingXuan: “…………………”

Soon after, the pheasant transformed back into a beautiful young man and he broke away from the grip of Qiao JingXuan, who had frozen. He said calmly and almost cruelly, “Sorry to scare you, you can treat what happened just as a nightmare. Bye, Qiao JingXuan.”

After he finished speaking, he didn’t look back, leaving the man stunned out of his wits frozen in the autumn wind.

In winter, it snowed and the world was wrapped in silver. After the snow, Cheng FengLai left the university alone and took the bus to the suburbs to climb a mountain.

At the foot of the cold, deserted mountain, he was surrounded by a bunch of foul-mouthed thugs with knives.

Cheng FengLai recognized one of them. Just a few months ago, he had caught that bus pervert, taught him a lesson, and turned him in to the police station. The man had been detained at the time and now it seemed that he had come back to get revenge against him.

It wouldn’t take much effort to handle these dirty trash, but Cheng FengLai’s originally good mood was now ruined, which upset him a bit.

After less than three minutes of fighting, Cheng FengLai beat most of the punks all around, scattering them to the ground looking for their missing teeth, leaving only the lead bus pervert.

He was about to handle this last one when behind him came a groan of pain from the pervert and a muffled grunt from another man.

Cheng FengLai turned around and saw the pervert fall to the ground, knocked out. A bloody knife fell to the side and the man who he kept thinking about everyday, who he couldn’t stop from meeting in his dreams, covered his abdomen with one hand. Blood spilled out between his fingers, blossoming into dots on the ground.

Cheng FengLai, who had always been self-disciplined and cold, who wouldn’t even blink if Mount Tai collapsed before him*, was petrified. For the first time in his life, he showed an expression of panic and fear on his face as he rushed forward to hold the collapsing Qiao JingXuan.

Cheng FengLai: “Why did you follow me like a ghost? Why did you block the knife for me?”

Qiao JingXuan: “Sorry, I really couldn’t help myself. But this should be the last time, because later on I probably won’t appear in front of you again…… Actually, even when you were a chick, I liked you so much. I’m really not lying to you this time, otherwise I’ll die as a dog…… Since then, the more sides I saw of you, the more I liked you……”

Cheng FengLai: “Don’t speak anymore! You are a bad egg, a big liar, I hate you the most, wuwuwuwu……”

Qiao JingXuan: “Sorry, PaoPao, allow me to say one last thing. I love you, no matter what your identity is or if you’re a human or a monster…… Since we had no chance in this life, let’s meet again in our next life……”

Cheng FengLai: “Qiao JingXuan, I forbid you from dying! Open your eyes! Don’t die, don’t die, I-I love you too……”

Qiao JingXuan didn’t hear his last sentence, because he had already passed out due to excessive blood loss.

– Of course, the Qiao family’s second child wasn’t so unlucky and wouldn’t lose his life to the hand of some insignificant gangster in a place like this. He had just put too much realism in his acting, not only deceiving Cheng FengLai, but also almost faking his own self out so that he believed it was real.

Although this knife wound wasn’t fatal, it still made Qiao JingXuan lie in the hospital for a month. During this period, countless relatives and friends he didn’t even know well came to visit, but the only one he never saw was Cheng FengLai.

Qiao JingXuan’s heart filled with gloominess. He had used every method he could think of and had also done things that he shouldn’t have done, but he still couldn’t impress the young man who was as beautiful as a spring flower but whose heart was as hard as iron.

Maybe the two of them really weren’t meant to be.

On the day of his discharge, Qiao JingXuan did not tell anyone and just went through the formalities of leaving the hospital alone, and then left in a depressed mood.

However, there was actually a sports car waiting for him on the side of the road. The young man in the driver’s seat turned and hooked his finger at him, “Get in the car.”

Qiao JingXuan was in a state of disbelief. It felt like a dream as he got in the car. Cheng FengLai proficiently started the sports car and drove along the street.

Cheng FengLai: “I’ll trouble you to fasten your seatbelt.”

Qiao JingXuan: “Wh-where are we going?”

Cheng FengLai: “Your private villa, my apartment, or renting a hotel room, you choose one.”

Qiao JingXuan: “……to do what?”

Cheng FengLai: “You said that you want to fuck me until I cry, did you forget? Or, after getting injured, can you not do it?”

Qiao JingXuan: “……………………………”

On this day, the weather was glorious, the sun was shining brightly, the nearby willow trees on the street had sprouted new green buds, and another spring had arrived.

—

Footnotes:

1. ….Mount Tai collapse… (泰山崩于前而色不色): quote from a Song Dynasty writer, meaning to cultivate your heart so that you don’t even flinch/change expression if a mighty mountain collapses before you

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