After Thinking I Was the Top, I Was Taken by a Cold Beauty - Chapter 16

After suffering through another agonizing night, Yun Deng finally declared that he was truly going to die. He lay on the bed, curling his body and constantly shifting to find a comfortable position.

Song Shuya had not left after helping him drive his car back last night. She had stayed to cook him a bowl of plain white porridge and had rested on the sofa for a while. She was genuinely afraid that Yun Deng might die in the middle of the night without anyone knowing. Having nothing else to do and unable to stop worrying, she simply stayed over. Consequently, she spent half the night listening to that sickly ghost in the room moaning in pain.

When Xia Shisheng pushed the door open and returned early in the morning, he was startled to see Song Shuya in his home. He rubbed his forehead, looking puzzled. “Why are you here? I was not even home last night.”

Song Shuya stepped forward, patted Xia Shisheng on the shoulder with one hand, and grabbed her bag from the rack with the other. “I am heading out. Who knows how Yun Deng is doing? Just make sure he does not die in your house.”

With those parting words, Song Shuya walked out, leaving Xia Shisheng standing there as confused as a monk scratching his head.

Inside the room, the painkiller Yun Deng had taken at 4:00 AM was finally starting to take effect. He had felt much better after getting an IV at the hospital, but as soon as he got home, he ate a single piece of chocolate and had been in pain ever since. It had reached the point where he did not dare eat anything at all. After another thirty minutes of resting, he gradually began to feel calm.

At noon, Xia Shisheng was shocked by Yun Deng’s pale complexion. After asking, he learned that the other party’s stomach was acting up. Xia Shisheng suddenly understood why Song Shuya had left a pot of white porridge in the kitchen; initially, he thought she had made it for him. Now, he was incredibly grateful to his morning self for not finishing the porridge and leaving half for the patient in front of him.

As the two sat down, Yun Deng could not help but complain, “We drank the same alcohol, so why are you perfectly fine?”

“I have a good constitution. Unlike you, acting like Lin Daiyu,” Xia Shisheng blurted out.

“Lin Daiyu, Lin,”

Yun Deng suddenly thought of Lin Yanxu. The man still had not replied to his messages, and he wondered what he was doing at this hour. Seeing him staring blankly at his phone, Xia Shisheng guessed, “You are not thinking about that man even while you are sick, are you?”

“Yes, I am. I think it was love at first sight.”

“Get out of here. More like lust at first sight if you ask me.”

Hearing this, Yun Deng actually felt that Xia Shisheng’s description of lust at first sight was not wrong. He was indeed pursuing the man because his looks fit his aesthetic perfectly. Unfortunately, the man was an icy beauty. Although he responded to him, the tone was always lukewarm, and the progress relied entirely on Yun Deng being thick-skinned.

Suddenly, Yun Deng remembered a Q&A he had found on Baidu earlier. He immediately put down his spoon and grabbed his phone. After the loading circle spun once, the screen jumped to a website. He recalled the exact words he had searched: “How to pursue a high school male teacher who looks very gentle and refined? He teaches Chinese.”

The top results on the first page showed similar questions.

User Question: “Family, I have recently fallen for an extremely gentle and easygoing high school teacher. I really want to chase him, but we are not very familiar yet. How should I go about it?”

Top Popular Answer 1: “With this type, it seems the poster just needs to be persistent and say a few sweet words to win them over.”

Top Popular Answer 2: “My colleague’s boyfriend is exactly this type. Apparently, she won him over by being shameless. Her boyfriend was very cold at first, but later he became incredibly good to my colleague.”

After finding this comment section, Yun Deng quickly gave both comments a Like. It really did seem useful.

“So, what have you been saying to that guy? I am truly curious about your pursuit tactics,” Xia Shisheng asked.

Yun Deng was in a relatively good mood now, having tasted the sweetness of his success. He started talking nonsense, unable to provide a straight answer. “Naturally, I conquered him with my charm.”

Normally, Xia Shisheng might have believed this, as none of Yun Deng’s exes had ever been anything to brag about. They either liked him for his money or they liked him for his money. It was no different from them throwing themselves at him; they were the ones chasing Yun Deng.

But regarding the current person he was pursuing, Xia Shisheng did not believe a word of it. That man looked like someone who was not lacking for money. A teacher at a key high school in Beijing; put those descriptions together, and he likely had plenty of high-quality pursuers.

“You,” Xia Shisheng hesitated.

“What is it?” Yun Deng looked up and saw Xia Shisheng looking at him with total disbelief.

“Never mind. Just drink your porridge.”

After saying that, Xia Shisheng began eating a takeout order of grilled fish right in front of him. He even maliciously picked up a piece of fragrant, tender fish and waved it before Yun Deng’s face. Yun Deng was annoyed to death by his friend, but he had no choice but to accept his fate and sip his bland, tasteless white porridge.

He had intended to take another nap and rest in the afternoon, but just as he pulled the covers over himself, he remembered it was Friday. Lin Yanxu usually had no classes on Friday afternoons, and since tomorrow was the weekend, he could shamelessly harass him.

Yun Deng fished his phone out from under the covers and quickly opened WeChat. Upon entering, the screen lagged as it displayed “Connecting,” and then several unread messages popped up. Among them was one from Lin Yanxu. He had originally been sad because he had not received a reply all night, not realizing it was because he had not opened the app since yesterday.

Although he desperately wanted to see what Lin Yanxu had said, he suppressed his curiosity and replied to the other messages first. Finally, after clearing everything else and leaving only the red notification dot for Lin Yanxu, a strange sense of satisfaction bubbled up in his heart. Like opening a gift, he clicked into the chat. The timestamp showed 9:50 PM last night.

Beautiful Handsome Guy: “I will return it to you next time we meet.”

Seeing the words “next time we meet,” Yun Deng could not help but let out an excited howl. Outside, Xia Shisheng heard him screaming like a lunatic again and seriously considered booking a doctor to check if his best friend had a brain problem.

Yun Deng immediately weighed how to find a topic to chat and increase their rapport. After much consideration, he decided to go for something bold. He dialed a video call directly and then immediately hung up.

Mianmian Yu: “[Video Call: Cancelled]”

Mianmian Yu: “Sorry, I clicked it by mistake.”

Every Friday during the students’ afternoon self-study was the routine time for meetings.

After the meeting, Lin Yanxu submitted his resignation. He would leave after finishing this semester. The Director of the Academic Affairs Office was first surprised and then tried to persuade him otherwise. Many people fought tooth and nail to get a teaching position like this, and since his arrival the year before last, things had been going excellently. The grades of the classes he taught were steadily rising. The school had even planned to assign him to the eleventh-grade honors class next semester, yet he was resigning now.

“Xiao Lin, tell me the truth. Is there something going on at home, or did you find a better private school to jump to?” the Director asked, puzzled.

“My apologies. My father’s health is not very good, and I might be too busy to manage next semester,” Lin Yanxu explained.

The Director sighed helplessly, took off his glasses, and wiped them with a silk cloth. He wanted to say more to convince him to stay, but for the moment, nothing came to mind.

It was not until he left the conference room that Lin Yanxu picked up his phone to check his messages. The screen, which had been on silent during the meeting, would light up from time to time. He thought it was his company assistant sending him files, but upon opening it, he found it was Yun Deng.

45 minutes ago: Mianmian Yu: “[Video Call: Cancelled]” Mianmian Yu: “Sorry, I clicked it by mistake.”

20 minutes ago: Mianmian Yu: “[Ginger Cat peeking.jpg]”

15 minutes ago: Mianmian Yu: “What are you doing?”

6 minutes ago: Mianmian Yu: “Good brother, you will not find me annoying, will you?” Mianmian Yu: “[Ginger Cat sad.jpg]”

Lin Yanxu had originally planned to set it aside and reply later, but thinking of the other party’s inexplicably clingy personality, he typed a few words and sent them.

Yun Deng had been waiting for almost an hour.

He deeply regretted making that video call. Nothing would have happened otherwise, but he had to go and do something so stupid. Just as he was drinking his umpteenth glass of water to calm down, he finally saw the red dot he had been waiting for.

Beautiful Handsome Guy: “Self-deception.”

Yun Deng knew the story behind the idiom, but he did not know why the man had sent those four words. Realizing there was a smart person outside, he immediately put on his shoes and ran out with his phone. Xia Shisheng was currently playing a video game and was in high spirits when he saw Yun Deng walk over and sit next to him. Having just won a round, he felt refreshed.

“Bro, what does he mean by this?” Yun Deng handed the phone to Xia Shisheng.

The first thing Xia Shisheng saw was the contact name Yun Deng had given the man. Good heavens, “Beautiful Handsome Guy.” Then he looked at the chat history, and a single glance made him burst out laughing.

“Wait, this,” “Did you not say you conquered him with your charm? Why does the chat look like you are chasing him like a simp?” “And are you not a macho top? Why are you calling him good brother?”

There were too many funny points; Xia Shisheng did not know which to laugh at first. Even the man’s four-word reply was exceptionally hilarious. Yun Deng’s brain had not processed it when he first saw the message, but now, seeing his friend doubled over with laughter, he was overwhelmed with shame. His face instantly turned deep red.

He scrambled to grab the phone back, but Xia Shisheng had not laughed enough yet and refused to return it.

“Good brother, hahaha! Stop, you are killing me!”

“Shut up! If I do not call him brother, I will never win him over!”

Xia Shisheng laughed until he literally rolled off the sofa. This was absolutely the funniest thing he had encountered all year. If Yun Deng had not insisted on that macho top persona, he would not be laughing this hard. On the other side, Yun Deng was annoyed to death by Xia Shisheng, half out of anger and half out of embarrassment.

He snapped, “I will call him whatever I want, mind your own business!”

“Then call him a few more times! Quick, send a voice message to your good brother. I want to hear it too,” Xia Shisheng said, twitching with laughter.

He was just making a joke because he knew Yun Deng could take a jest, but he did not expect the guy to be so bold. Yun Deng snatched the phone back and sent several voice messages right then and there.

“Make your voice sound a bit better. Do not sound all angry like you are scolding him!”

Yun Deng truly felt Xia Shisheng was being too demanding. He immediately withdrew the messages, held down the voice key, and called out a few times in a softened tone before sending them.

So what if he called him that? Who was afraid of whom!

Support