CH 83

Chapter 20.1 (TL: Bara Chou)

Unbeknownst to the shippers on the forum, one-half of the ship was about to die from embarrassment.

If not for the gossip-loving audience around them, Ruan An’an would have yelled at Gu Jue for what he whispered.

To think that he dared to say those words in this kind of public moment… bringing up the “sense of honor” too!

Vengeful! Petty!

Also, “offering your body” shouldn’t be used in this context!

Didn’t I merely preach to you teasingly? Did you really hold a grudge for 2 whole days and are now getting back at me?

Mister, your name shall be Grudge Holder.

Even though ­thoughts formed in Ruan An’an’s brain fast than she could count them, her mouth remained unmoving.

Gu Jue straightened himself once he had delivered his message. The crowd was still loudly cheering and Ruan An’an was still consumed by anger and bashfulness, but then, she felt a weight on top of her head.

Ruan An’an wore a hoodie today. Without directly touching her, Gu Jue flipped the hood up, hiding her head, and dragged her towards the exit of the sports field.

Even though she was ready to leave the scene, Ruan An’an didn’t want to do so under his command. “What are you doing?” She shook her head. “Let go, I can walk on my own!”

Still confused about what just happened, she asked, “also, why the hood all of a sudden?”

After a few seconds, Gu Jue’s nonchalant voice replied, “I knew you’d get shy and all, so I thought I’d use the hood to help you hide.”

“…”

She felt like he was alluding to when she avoided him after the ear incident, but before she could retaliate, she heard a genuine-sounding sigh from his direction.

“What am I gonna do with you if you’re this bashful?“

He sounded as if he was in a serious dilemma.

So, what if I was touch-me-not incarnate? What does that have to do with you?

What do you mean “what am I gonna do with you”???

The pair had just reached the exit when Ruan An’an started a new round of struggles. In the end, Gu Jue yielded and let go of her.

She immediately freed her head from the hood and turned to stare at him. “You think you can drag me around just for that?”

Her pitch rose with each word.

Gu Jue wasn’t fazed in the least by her pretense, and simply explained, “if I didn’t hold onto you, wouldn’t you run like last time?”

“…” F̲u̲c̲k̲, of course, he’s bringing this up.

Ruan An’an took a deep breath and looked into his eyes whilst keeping her voice as level as possible, “Mr. Gu, this is a personal deal between you and the Sports Committee member. And it has nothing to do with me.”

What she lacked in height, she made up in volume. She decided to reason with him, “look, this kind of deal should be approved by everyone in the class. Have you asked? No.”

Ruan An’an felt that the shouting had eased her anger. Now, she no longer felt annoyed. Staring straight at Gu Jue, she said, “I never got my say before, so now, I am allowed to say no.”

Gu Jue looked at the young lady who was tilting her head up, her cheeks flushed and her eyes as bright as the sun.

This slightly-angry-and-still-a-bit-flustered look made her appear so lively and especially charming.

After a 2-second staring contest, Gu Jue chuckled and admitted, “you’re right.”

He sighed, “of course you can refuse.”

Ruan An’an: …?

This made her pause, and the attitude she had just worked up started to falter.

Something was up.

No way that Gu Jue would yield this easily.

Judging from the interactions in the past month or so, even when he yielded, wouldn’t he at least get his fill of indecent remarks first?

As if to prove her understanding correct, he only made a small pause before continuing, “just like how it was completely voluntary when I signed up for the 100m, the 200m, the 800m, and the relay…”

Ruan An’an: …

His tone became what sounded like melancholy mixed with a tinge of wistfulness. “I participated in a Sports Meet for the first time in my life, since I wanted to experience being a part of a group, to improve my sense of collective honor, and totally not to look cool in front of a certain someone… Even when I asked this someone what events she thought were cool, I only did that for reference and had no ulterior motives at all…”

The certain someone: …

Ru An’an wanted to applaud him.

“The reward thing just now wasn’t offered by the Sports Committee member. I was the one who asked for it. If you put it that way, though, I also think…”

She just watched him blather on.

The set of activewear he had on was crisp-looking, paired with his innocent-looking eyes, she could see no hint of the guy who whispered to her intimately in the center of the crowd.

When his eyes glanced down from time to time, his long lashes cast shadows on his pale skin, making him seem especially hurt.

Elegant yet heartbreaking with his appearance alone, not to mention the great acting.

Thus, even knowing it was all an act, that his feelings are the opposite of fragile, Ruan An’an couldn’t help but take pity on him.

However, she wasn’t about to let go of the fact that he teased her, an innocent bystander… in front of the whole class.

Ruan An’an started slowly, “I mean, I didn’t say no yet…”

Gu Jue’s blathering came to a halt. “Hmm?”

“If you really want me to hang out with you that badly…” she looked at his face and her heart immediately began to flutter, “you can try begging me.”

She expected him to have enough dignity to struggle for a few minutes, or at least to negotiate for a different price.

Yet, not even a second had passed before –

“I’m begging you.”

Extra forthright, even happy sounding. An exemplary demonstration of “Dignity? What’s that?”.

“…”

Ruan An’an couldn’t go back on her words, so they ended up scheduling for Sunday.

Despite appearing to be in control of the whole negotiation, which had mostly gone as she had planned, and even earning her an “I’m begging you” from Gu Jue… when looking in hindsight, she may have been the one getting absolutely manipulated.

Ruan An’an usually spent her weekends at the office, but since she was “offering her body” this week, she shuffled her schedule around to free up the Sunday.  She labored at the office from dawn to dusk on Saturday. After she returned home, she took a bath and did her skincare routine, even putting on an expensive mask. She also headed to bed early to ensure her skin would be in its top condition the next day.

The Sports Meet ended on Wednesday, with a two-day break that was followed by the weekend. Since the students had 4 days before they had classes again, most had gone home, leaving the dorms quite empty.

Gu Jue must’ve gone home too. Then, we shouldn’t meet at school.

Upon realizing this, Ruan An’an pulled out her phone to send him a message.

[Ruan-An-Ruan]: Where should we meet tomorrow?

She habitually followed the question with a random sticker.

Gu Jue must on have been idling on his phone since his reply was instantaneous.

[gj]: How about the subway station?

After, he linked an address to a station near Downtown on Line 1.

[gj]: There’s a lot around there. We can meet up first and decide what to do.

“…”

Ruan An’an, who has never ridden any form of transportation other than a car, stared at the map with the subway station marked.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the screen, Gu Jue laid back in his chair after sending that message. There was an orange cat laying comfortably on his lap.

He switched to the “Gu Jue Is An Old And Ugly Dog” group chat.

[Gu Jue Is God]: Has anyone ridden the subway before?

[Zhou Chenchu Is Human]: Nope, why do you ask?

[Ji Qian Is Also Human]: @[Xue Zhao Is Not A Dog] Zhao has. His ex… yep, the one who cheated on him… she looked down on us “rich boys”, and used only public transport on their dates… tsk

[Zhou Chenchu Is Human]: He went that far and still got cheated on?! Tsk

[Xue Zhao Is Not A Dog]: … guys, f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g̲ come on! I’ve done goof, I admit! But! This is youth! You gotta love and learn… So, can we stop bringing it up???

[Xue Zhao Is Not A Dog]: Gu Dog, why are you asking?

Before Gu Jue had a chance to reply, he smelled something distinct.

He looked at the cat expressionlessly. The guilty cat returned his gaze.

“…”

This f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g̲ cat farted.

When a cat’s poop is extremely smelly, his farts won’t be any better.

Gu Jue immediately stood up, as he felt disoriented from being attacked by the stench. The cat jumped off Gu Jue and gave himself detention in the corner of the room.

Even after opening the window and letting the wind blow on his face for several minutes, Gu Jue still felt like he could smell the fart.

When he decided fresh air was no longer any help, he walked coldly towards the cat and knelt in front of it. “You dare to fart on me today, do you also dare to s̲h̲i̲t̲ on me tomorrow?”

The cat shivered in silence.

Although the cat’s name was Dummy, he was very smart. Look at him, he knew to act pitiful and cower in fear.

Gu Jue held in his anger and studied the cat for a while.

His gaze fell on a faint pale scar at the corner of an eye. He let out a sigh after clenching his jaw one last time.

He held out his hand to pet the cat’s head.

The little cat knew he should please his owner and rubbed his head against Gu Jue’s palm lovingly. This made Gu Jue chuckle.

Some more pats later, he whispered to the cat, as if conversing, “… if it wasn’t for your mom, you’d be getting slapped tonight, you know that?”

TL/N:

Hello! New TL Bara Chou here! Nice to meet you all. I’ve decided to pick up Getting Outsmarted by the CEO as my first project since I found it to be super sweet and cute. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are excited for the ones to come!