CH 30

he pulled out a lifetime of acting skills to adjust his gaze, recalling the heart-wrenching scenes from the movie where the male and female leads parted with deep love and reluctance. xiao nian left for a moment and returned with a bottle of eye drops. since there was no core, he had to make do with some physical tricks.

“are your eyes uncomfortable?” si di saw xiao zhenyun tearing open the eye drops packaging and bent down. “got some sand in them?”

xiao zhenyun liked people who would find reasons for him like this, so he nodded appreciatively. si di’s fingers were agile, and he was fast. before xiao zhenyun could react, the eye drops were already in si di’s hand.

“i’ll help you with this.” he said, “medicine can be a bit tricky, so use the eye drops sparingly.”

“no…” xiao zhenyun had only said half of his sentence when si di lifted his left eyelid. si di stared at this misty blue iris. “which eye got the sand in it?”

“…this one.”

si di looked left and right but didn’t see any sand because he couldn’t get too close to xiao zhenyun’s face due to the mouth guard he was wearing. he vaguely glimpsed a broken eyelash, so he blew lightly on the eyelid from a distance, but no wind seemed to have passed through. so, si di applied a bit more force…

xiao zhenyun’s eyeball almost flipped over from this blow. he jerked away from si di, and tears welled up instantly.

one second he was pretending to be a smooth operator, and the next second he was at a loss. the helpless si di asked, “are you okay? sorry, i didn’t control the force…”

“it’s okay…” xiao zhenyun looked at si chu with his teary, reddened eyes, determined to complete the scene, no matter what.

xiao nian leaned over and looked into xiao zhenyun’s eyes, which were teary and misty, with a hint of romantic tenderness in them. he nervously held xiao zhenyun’s hand, feeling the plot turning red…

“woo woo wooo—”

suddenly, a pitiful dog’s cry attracted everyone’s attention. all four of them turned to see tian lu furiously chasing after the wolfdog and kicking it. the power of a deer was not to be underestimated. when it first met tai ji, tian lu kicked the black wolf, exposed its belly as a sign of submission. now, bullying the little dog was a piece of cake.

back when it was in the hospital, it had stuck its hot face against the cold butt of the dog. the proud deer couldn’t stand this kind of humiliation, and today, the little wolfdog, xiao mu, acted like nothing had happened and came over to smell its butt. tian lu kicked it with a hoof.

its own spiritual form was covered with hoof prints on its face and belly. this unexpected turn of events made xiao zhenyun’s eyes, which had barely contained any moisture, suddenly shed tears, leaving only one dry and red eye. he couldn’t cry anymore. xiao mu was in pain, whimpering and holding back tears, raising its tail and whining to its owner.

it even complained to it’s parents?! tian lu, not willing to show weakness, quickly trotted over to xiao zhenyun and let out a long ‘yo’ to express its innocence, only to receive a sharp look from its owner: a foolish little deer who can’t handle anything!

tian lu became even angrier. it angrily looked around, then suddenly found someone it could talk to. it hurriedly ran to si di’s side, pretended to be affectionate, and circled around the sentry’s leg. it whined for a long time, complaining about the unfair treatment it had received.

si di, of course, fell for it. he softened his eyebrows and gently comforted tian lu by stroking its short fur. he asked without a scolding tone, “why did you kick xiao mu, huh?”

although he was squatting down, his face was clearly directed at xiao zhenyun. everyone knew that the actions of the spiritual form followed the true intentions of the owner. tian lu would kick xiao mu to prove that xiao zhenyun wanted to kick si chu… but he didn’t have legs.

does xiao zhenyun really want to kick si chu? —yes, he really wanted to kick him.

after all, this was the man he had set his ‘deep affectionate gaze’ on. xiao zhenyun couldn’t complete this laborious and outstanding task on his own, and a bit of resentment naturally fell onto the innocent dog’s shoulders.

but chairman xiao, who was always good at saving face, would never admit it. he explained it away, saying it was an old grudge between tian lu and xiao mu from their time at the hospital, nothing to do with the master himself. he even claimed to dote on xiao chu, insisting that tian lu was just playing around with the wolfdog. if he were really unhappy with si chu, why would tian lu only use his hooves to kick? the sharp horn on his head was not just for show, a low blow could easily open xiao mu up, and his intestines, liver, spleen, and lungs would go flying.

xiao mu: “…”

the czechoslovakian wolfdog trembled and hid behind si chu.

si chu, too, occasionally glanced nervously at xiao zhenyun, feeling like he had done something wrong and made his uncle unhappy.

xiao zhenyun, who couldn’t act with the constant prying eyes of the little dog: “…”

it was very tragic that even then, he couldn’t complete his scenes with his affectionate and watery eyes.

after returning home, xiao nian immediately developed the photos and pushed xiao zhenyun into the basement. there were pictures of si chu hanging all over the three walls, most of them taken without his knowledge. sometimes, they even accidentally captured other people in the frame, si chu embracing someone’s shoulders, walking closely with someone, and so on. in those messy and uneven strokes of the marker on the faces of those intruders, one could clearly feel the jealousy and infatuation of the person holding the pen.

xiao zhenyun looked at them for a while, goosebumps rising on his skin.

normal people really couldn’t understand the psychological activities of a mentally ill person.

xiao nian arranged the developed photos on the table, and among the shaky ones, there were occasionally one or two that were discernible. he took out two marker pens from the drawer and handed one to xiao zhenyun, “come on, let’s mark them. it’s quite a bit of work.”

“…”

“although, according to the novel, the marks on the photos should all be made by you alone, but since it’s not explicitly described, we’ll take advantage of that. i’ll help you mark half of them.” saying this, xiao nian had already completely blackened ye feiran’s face, “be quick, i have to go to school tomorrow, and my homeroom teacher has been strict about punctuality.”

hearing this, even a world administrator had a tough time… xiao zhenyun took a stack of photos and casually blackened the faces of other people. some of them had more than ten people in them, and his hand got sore. especially in those two photos where si di’s face took up eighty percent of the frame, si chu just poked his head out from the corner.

“do you want to hang this one on the wall too?”

“you have to admit, si chu looks the most human in this one.” xiao nian glanced at it and continued to work with his head down.

xiao zhenyun found it bothersome and drew a turtle on si di’s nose, added a few whiskers and a crown on his forehead. “does this count? the original only mentioned that ‘xiao zhenyun’ was jealous of those who could get close to si chu, and he crazily distorted their photos. doesn’t this count as ‘distorting’?”

xiao nian: “…”

xiao zhenyun then drew a few cat whiskers on si di’s face in the second photo, added two pointed ears on top, and included a speech bubble that said, “meow~”

it was truly ‘distorting,’ and seeing it, si di would likely develop cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

“…” xiao nian’s hand also got sore, and after thinking for a moment, he acquiesced to xiao zhenyun’s actions and quickly followed suit, adding pig noses to the faces of all the others in the remaining photos. sometimes, when he drew too fast, he accidentally gave si chu the same snout and mole as everyone else.

an hour later, dozens of whimsical doodles were neatly pasted on the wall.

having rested at home for just a week, xiao jingfeng had already arranged for xiao zhenyun’s enrollment procedures. the guide students at the white tower were all aged between twelve and twenty, and xiao zhenyun, in his thirties, could be their teacher. in addition to his physical condition, which made it inconvenient for him to share a dormitory with other students, xiao jingfeng directly arranged for him to be an assistant, just like the vice president of the union, enjoying the privileges without the responsibilities.

professors would never bother him with anything, and if he wanted to attend classes, he could go as an auditor, and if he didn’t want to attend, he could claim to be ill. he could come and go from the white tower at will, there were no final exams, and if he felt like it, he could even act as an examiner to make things difficult for other students.

xiao zhenyun was very satisfied with this identity, so he went to the white tower to report the next day.

just as he arrived in the morning, news about the new beautiful assistant teacher in class 1 of the white tower’s fifth grade had spread throughout the entire school. even the tower of sentinels, a neighboring school, had heard of it. at the age of sixteen or seventeen, when hormones were raging, energy was abundant, and a love for new things prevailed, a crowd gathered around him to watch, only to be driven away by the stern instructors.

xiao zhenyun calmly attended classes for two days, and on the third day, which was also friday, as he walked out of the classroom, he saw a sentinel with amber-colored, drooping eyes staring at him, looking extremely nervous, with dark gray feathers on his forearms.

“mr. xiao… xiao,” the sentinel hurriedly approached and introduced himself, “i’m garry.”

xiao zhenyun nodded in realization; that’s why this person looked somewhat familiar.

“i’m currently in class 8 of the third grade at the tower…” garry bowed his head so low that it almost touched his knee, “thank you very much for your help. i will definitely repay you! in the future, no matter what you need, you can tell me, anything!”

“just focus on your studies… and stop bowing, stand up straight and talk to me.”

garry stood up straight hesitantly, but then, in the next moment, he remembered something and twisted his body 180 degrees. “also, i’m very sorry, garry is not my real name, and i don’t remember my own name, so when i enrolled, i took a new name… it’s, it’s…”

in the end, garry’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s: “xiao jiali.”

“my life was given by you, and even though you didn’t want to accept me, i still took your surname…” xiao jiali didn’t hear xiao zhenyun’s voice and apologized nervously, “i’m very, very sorry!”

there were only five s-class sentinels in the entire tower, and xiao jiali’s awakening time was also very special. when he enrolled, he was as popular as xiao zhenyun himself. many guides in the white tower knew him, and coupled with the attention xiao zhenyun received due to his wheelchair, the entire corridor’s eyes were now fixed on them, each with a different expression, but all filled with meaning, creating quite a spectacle.

“…” xiao zhenyun was helpless. “it’s just a surname; you can call yourself whatever you like.”

xiao jiali cautiously raised his head and touched the black and white eagle tail feathers on the back of his uniform pants.

back then, this guy had been so tough in the basement, staring at him boldly, as if he were about to heroically sacrifice himself and blow up the fortress at any moment. now, standing in front of xiao zhenyun, he fidgeted like a little wife, and onlookers thought xiao zhenyun was bullying him.

it was the weekend, and guides who usually lived at school bid farewell in pairs and went home. xiao jiali took the initiative to push xiao zhenyun to the door, and then witnessed a scene of a son picking up his father from school outside the gate.

xiao nian leaned out of the passenger seat’s window and looked at the two without expression.

“where are you staying during the holidays?” xiao zhenyun turned his head and asked, and xiao jiali immediately replied, “still in the dormitory.”

“what about the long holidays?”

“…” this time, xiao jiali didn’t answer immediately; he hadn’t decided yet. it was clear that dr. zhang’s clinic wasn’t quiet enough, and it wasn’t possible for them to specially build a sentinel soundproof room for him. he also didn’t want to trouble people from the clinic again.

“if you can’t find a place to stay, you can come to my place.” xiao zhenyun said, “it’s not just polite words; you can even pack your things and come over for the weekend right now. myself and xiao nian are waiting for you in the car.”

it wasn’t out of sympathy; after all, xiao jiali was a sentinel who should have died. to prevent any potential chaos, xiao zhenyun felt it was necessary to keep an eye on him.

xiao jiali widened his eyes, pleasantly surprised, and asked, “really?”

xiao zhenyun was about to nod when the car window in the rear passenger seat, which should have been empty, slowly lowered, and in xiao zhenyun’s puzzled gaze, a face that seemed to be smiling and yet not smiling appeared behind the anti-peeping car window.

si di crossed his legs and sat in the back seat, squinting slightly. “little uncle?”

the author has something to say:

4d: i came at the wrong time.

zhenyun: no, you came at just the right time.

hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). i hope you enjoyed the story! if you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! check out the link below for early chapters.  (๑>ᴗ