One Useless Rebirth

As a loud crash came,

Di Qiuhe jumped into the water, while He Bai’s instep was dripping wet from the spray.

“… What is he doing?” Niu Junjie was shocked by Di’s sudden move. He looked down at the surface of the pool, baffled.

He Bai shook his head and came to himself. It seemed that something occurred to him and made his face distorted, then he also jumped into the water.

Another spray came, wetting Niu Junjie’s face.

Niu Junjie: “…”

The fat cook running over with a barbecue fork, pushing Niu behind with a serious face, “Don’t be afraid, Master, security is coming. That intruder seems mental disordered, do not approach him. I…I learnt dog paddle when I was young, maybe I can go to save Master He…”

“Relax, uncle Hu, I knew that wall-climber, not an intruder.” Niu Junjie patted the cook’s shoulder and wiped away the water on his face. After a second-of-thought, he walked to the pool and jumped into it. Since He Bai, his good mate, vigorously helped to save the phone, he could not stand by!

Uncle Hu: “…”

The surface of the pool gradually resorted calm. After a short struggle with his mind, uncle Hu took off his apron, gritted his teeth and jumped into the water. Since his Master jumped, he had no excuse to escape, or he might well lose his job.

The security that arrived: “…”

The water in the pool was fresh and clear. He Bai immediately found Di Qiuhe floundering about in the water. He was totally speechless, instantly swimming to him. When Di Qiuhe noticed him, He Bai gave him a hint to stay there and threw his arms around Di’s waist. He did kick and stroke in the water, trying hard to surface.

After balancing himself, Di Qiuhe blinked and looked down at the arm seizing his waist. He suddenly moved his head closer to He Bai and gave him a smile.

He Bai gave him a glimpse with a stolid face.

Di Qiuhe smiled slightly, also clasping He Bai around his waist. They are attached so close, like glued together.

He Bai stopped swimming for a while, resisting the impulse to tear him off. Then he looked up, trying harder to surface.

Suddenly, there was a splash and something fell clumsily into the water. He Bai was dumbfounded, but held Di Qiuhe aside in time.

Niu Junjie’s eyes sparkled when he saw the other two. He beckoned them the position of the phone and then pointed to the ground. ‘Did you find the phone? Now went back to the ground?’

Di Qiuhe took one look and buried his head in He Bai’s neck.

He Bai pushed his head aside with dislike and waved to Niu Junjie, and pointed to Di Qiuhe who clinging to him, then pointed to the surface: Stop looking now, this fool couldn’t swim, take him to the ground first.

Niu Junjie burst out laughing but got choked.

Suddenly, another bigger thing was flung into the pool and floundered in the water, with cries for help coming from there.

He Bai: “…”

The one attached to him suddenly moved. He Bai turned back, only to find that Di Qiuhe’s face had gone red and eyebrows had frowned closely, with bubbles coming out of his mouth. He was shocked. After he calculated the time Di Qiuhe stuck in the water, he hurriedly took Di to continue surfacing.

Di Qiuhe felt He Bai’s movement and slowly opened his eyes which were smarting from the water. Gazing at He Bai’s dimmed face, Di Qiuhe prodded his dimple with a finger. As his head tilted, he got closer and closer to He Bai’s lips.

He Bai stared at him, with his head falling backward in a hurry.

But Di Qiuhe continued to get closer.

He Bai patted him on the head with anger and managed to get out of the water with the help of Niu Junjie. After a long breath, he shouted to Di Qiuhe, who was also panting for breath: “What was that? You want to get a thrashing?”

After a cough, Di Qiuhe finally could breathe normally. He turned to He bai with innocent eyes: “I just acted like some romantic stories in TV: when you are almost suffocated, the other one will kiss you to transfer the oxygen. My little puppy, do you hate me so much that you even refused to give me a breath when I was dying?”

He Bai didn’t know how to respond, but he was even more furious due to Di’s bold blame. He pulled Di Qiuhe by the pool and let him cling to the pool edge, scolding seriously: “I didn’t know you wanted to…You knew you couldn’t swim and you still jumped? That could have killed you! A non-swimmer should stay on the ground. You want to kill yourself, huh? Or you think you just have lived long enough?”

Di Qiuhe slicked his wet hair up and stretching hand to fondle He Bai’s face: “Sorry, don’t be mad at me.”

“You want to deny quibble, don’t you? Or what? Wind me up? Sorry?” He Bai was a little bit surprised. He frowned and gazed at Di Qiuhe in disbelief: “Are you real Di Qiuhe? Absolutely real?” Di Qiuhe would apologize so frankly? That childish guy should have insisted until the end and winded me up, fancy him apologizing now!

“I’m terribly sorry to have worried you.” Di Qiuhe pinched his face and stretched the other hand to show him something that had been held tightly: “And…sorry for your phone.”

The old phone lay in his clean and fair hand. This scene should have touched He Bai a little.

He Bai looked at his palm without taking the phone or saying anything, but his anger was fading.

“It has been completely damaged by water.” Seeing He Bai not take the phone, Di Qiuhe withdrew his hand and held the phone tightly again: “Sorry, I will get it repaired, if not possible, at least restore the data in it…I know it is important to you, sorry again.”

He Bai was not used to such an honest tone.

Looking at him, He Bai filled his mind with a myriad of thoughts. Finally, he turned around with a long sigh and grabbed the phone from Di Qiuhe’s hand. He sat on the edge of the pool and shook off the drips on his hand, saying: “Never mind, it’s just an old phone. Everything in it has been copied, so don’t blame yourself, my fault after all. Come on, you cannot swim, better stay on the ground.”

Di Qiuhe observed his face without blinking, carefully analyzing all the moods behind it. He lowered his eyes and got out of the pool, sitting beside He Bai. De Qiuhe buddy bumped him, “Bai…Bai.”

He Bai picked up the dry clothes beside the pool to wipe the screen of his phone and responded casually.

Di Qiuhe tilted his head and looked at him. Somehow he desired to hug He Bai…and he did.

“Hey!” He Bai was almost pushed into the pool.

“Sorry.” Di Qiuhe rubbed his chin against He Bai’s wet hair, with a vague sense of panic. The abnormal family relational deprived his ability to be close to others. Having dissembled himself for too long, Di Qiuhe, in face of this new person in front of whom he could be assured to put down his mask, would always act improperly, doing something that angered him.

He liked his little puppy to lecture him energetically when he got mad, but he didn’t want to see him feeling sad…Therefore, Di Qiuhe felt awful-he had intended to be a good senior, good role model and good big brother to take care of him, but ultimately messed it up. Di Qiuhe’s words were brimmed with so much remorse that He Bai was dumbfounded. He stopped pulling up Di Qiuhe’s arm and instead, patted him on the shoulder as a comfort: “Forget it. I am indeed sad for the phone but I have copied all the data before so it doesn’t matter. Anyway, ‘keep the old, you get nothing new’. Now I have an excuse to buy a new one. It’ too old. Even if it didn’t fall into water, it may go broken soon.”

In his last life, this phone also didn’t “make it” through his sophomore summer vacation. Before the new term, it totally died. He Bai was anxious at that time. He quitted his part-time job ahead of schedule and took it for repair. However, it was stolen on the way to the phone store and left nothing for him to be nostalgic for.

In the first few days of his rebirth, he led a messed-up life due to his shock. But instantly he saw this phone, he rushed out of school and bought a USB drive to copy all the messages in the phone.

Now this phone just left him a month earlier in another way. It’s OK, at least this time, he got a “corpse”.