Chapter 108.1 - The Cycle of Karma, What Goes Around Comes Around (22.1)
Chapter 108.1 – The Cycle of Karma, What Goes Around Comes Around (22.1)
Gan Yu opened his eyes. Without even asking a thing, he said, “Come on up.”
Chi Xiaochi, wrapping his quilt around himself, climbed up the ladder like a cat. The bed shook slightly, letting out a few creaks.
Yuan Benshan turned over. Fortunately, he really was in deep sleep and didn’t wake up.
Gan Yu shifted closer to the outer guardrail, leaving the inner half of the bed to Chi Xiaochi. “Come inside.”
Chi Xiaochi froze slightly.
Gan Yu nodded slightly, his attitude clearly firm.
Chi Xiaochi didn’t delay any longer either, moving inside as told. He arranged his quilt around him, but just as he was about to lie down, he was stopped with a hand motion by Gan Yu.
He flipped the pillow over.
Chi Xiaochi watched, stunned, as he pulled out an unsheathed dagger from under the pillow. The handle of the dagger was facing him, while the blade was facing Chi Xiaochi.
He hid the dagger in his quilt. “Be careful, I’ll take this, so it doesn’t accidentally stab you.”
Chi Xiaochi, “……You were awake?”
Gan Yu, “En.”
Chi Xiaochi, “When did you wake up?”
Gan Yu, “When ‘she’ came.”
Chi Xiaochi lay down and pulled his quilt over himself. “She’s a ghost, what use is a dagger.”
“If she made you go with her, I would have followed you,” Gan Yu said gently, “If she tried to harm you, her head would already have been sliced off by my blade.”
Chi Xiaochi, “……” Big boss, big boss.
He said, “Is it okay to put your dagger under your quilt? Be careful of stabbing yourself when you turn over.”
Gan Yu laughed. “Don’t worry about that. Sleep, I’m always here for you.”
This bed was a single bed, with a width of about one metre. It was indeed a bit cramped with two men sleeping on it, so they both had to lie on their sides. Chi Xiaochi faced the wall, and Gan Yu faced Chi Xiaochi’s back.
Chi Xiaochi lay there for a while, before suddenly speaking, “Do you still have that story about the clownfish?”
The whale shark, who had already made its way around the world once, said, very apologetically, sorry, it had already forgotten.
In order to make up for its wrongs, the whale shark joined the little clownfish on its journey.
Having someone to accompany it now, the little clownfish was very happy. Hiding under the whale shark’s fin, it continued on its travels with the whale shark.
The voice of the man telling the story was really pleasant to the ear, murmuring yet clear, like the sound of a spring, making it impossible for someone to help but wonder what kind of vocal cords could produce such a voice that made one want to kiss its owner and share their breath.
Chi Xiaochi fell asleep.
As he listened to that even breathing just within his reach, it took all of Gan Yu’s control to not pull Chi Xiaochi into his arms. He only gently rested his head against the other’s back while his arms were propped against the wall, mimicking the position of a hug.
In a helpless yet tender whisper, he said, “Usually you’re so smart, why is it that now…… You really want to anger me to death before you give up, don’t you?”
After being given the cold shoulder by Chi Xiaochi for so long, 061 had seriously reflected on his wrongdoings.
Earlier, he’d really been too rushed in his actions.
Chi Xiaochi hadn’t had a sense of security since he was a child, and even after growing up, it was still the same. He liked to keep all people and things within his realm of control. Once something went beyond his ability to control, and interfered with his reasoning, his first response would probably be to keep away to minimise the damage.
The more you hurried him, the more you pushed him, the tighter he would retreat into his shell, the farther he would go to hide.
061’s eagerness to hint at his identity, had actually had the opposite effect.
If what Chi Xiaochi needed was a sense of security, he was willing to be grasped in Chi Xiaochi’s palm, becoming part of his sense of security.
He lowered his voice and said, his smile audible, “Lou-laoshi. Goodnight.”
Xi Lou, who’d seen all of this, “……” Get lost, you damned rogue.
The next morning, Chi Xiaochi woke up on the bottom bunk.
He laid there in a daze on the bed for a long time, finding it terribly miraculous.
When had Gan Yu moved him down? How hadn’t he felt a thing.
But this was still good, as Yuan Benshan got up as usual to wash up, utterly unaware of the green now streaking through the black of his hair.
At breakfast, Chi Xiaochi told everyone about what had happened last night.
Hearing this, Yuan Benshan was given quite the shock. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Chi Xiaochi said, sounding helpless, pitiful and delicate, “I didn’t dare to get out of bed or even call for you, I was afraid that she’d suddenly come back. ……I didn’t even sleep for the rest of the night.”
Gan Yu, the one who actually hadn’t slept for the rest of the night, lowered his head and ate his noodles, silent.
Tian Guangbing asked, “Did you do anything special?”
Chi Xiaochi went through everything he had done the previous day, then replied, “No.”
But from the look in Tian Guangbing’s eyes, it was clear he didn’t believe him. “If you didn’t, why would she come find you?”
Gan Yu replied for him, “He really did stay next to us the entire time, he didn’t do anything.”
Yuan Benshan glanced at him, eyebrows furrowed.
Tian Guangbing snorted, “I was in the sports field too yesterday, and I saw him bring those three kids over to listen to stories. I remember that in the beginning, they wanted you to teach them how to sing?”
Liu Chengyin wasn’t there at the time. Hearing this, she said in shock, “You chased them off?”
Chi Xiaochi said innocently, “I didn’t.”
Xi Lou thought, your singing is so damned bad, is there any fundamental difference between you doing what they asked and you chasing them off?
Liu Chengyin goodnaturedly reminded him, “Getting along well, means that we do whatever they want us to do. Let’s not do anything unnecessary, and peacefully get through these three days.”
Tian Guangbing said, dissatisfied, “Yeah, I don’t care if you want to court death by yourself, but don’t drag us down.”
Chi Xiaochi said, “I just think that you can’t raise children by letting them do whatever they want.”
Yuan Benshan ruffled his hair, both angered yet amused. “Who asked you to raise them?”
Gan Tang gently cut in, “We still haven’t managed to find out how this world works, so we shouldn’t be so quick to decide if what Xiaochi did was wrong or right. If we really needed to go along with whatever they wanted, does that mean that Xiaochi should have gone off with that child last night?”
These words were reasonable, but Tian Guangbing still didn’t quite agree. He just curled his lip, not answering anymore.
This day, as before, went by methodically.
This group of children were like normal children, their personalities just as playful, their requests just as frequent.
Gan Yu and Gan Tang took on the responsibility of teaching the classes, one teaching Chinese and one teaching English. During Gan Yu’s class, a child suddenly started crying.
Gan Yu turned away from the blackboard. “What happened?”
Pigtails cried and pointed at the brat sitting behind her. “Laoshi, he pulled my hair.”
The brat laughed.
Gan Yu turned, calmly called him by name, and said, “Go stand at the back of the classroom for 10 minutes to reflect.”
The brat stopped laughing. He sat, stunned, in his seat. “……”
The temporary “teachers” gathered behind the classroom to listen in, “……”
Gan Yu, finding that he wasn’t moving, glanced back. “20 minutes.”
The brat jumped to his feet and scuttled off, running to the back of the classroom and obediently standing in place.
The classroom broke out into soft giggles, which were then quelled by a few smacks of Gan Yu’s pointer.
Tian Guangbing whispered, “He’s crazy, right?”
The others were also wiping away a forehead of sweat. Only Chi Xiaochi was resting his chin in his hand and staring off at the empty sports field. It was unknown what was going through his mind.
After class ended, Gan Yu handed out yoghurt to the children. The other trio had already left the classroom when class ended, clearly not wanting to have a stroke of bad luck.
After he was done handing everything out, he brought three bags of strawberry yoghurt over to Chi Xiaochi and the rest.
Yuan Benshan said, his tone unpleasant, “You’ve really got guts.”
Gan Yu smiled faintly and said, “If we’re really going to court death, then we might as well do so together.”
Chi Xiaochi took the yoghurt from him and turned to Yuan Benshan, “Old Yuan, don’t let them get away with everything.”
Yuan Benshan, “Why?”
Chi Xiaochi said vaguely, “Just a feeling.”
Last night, when Bobcut stood at the head of his bed with her neck twisted, Chi Xiaochi had felt surrounded by a thick cloud of malice, but when he found a reasonable way to refuse her, the malice had completely dissipated.
If other people were to say “a feeling”, Yuan Benshan would definitely scoff, but since it was Song Chunyang saying it, he was seventy percent convinced.