My Favorite Ship Became My Sister-in-Law - Chapter 20

Shi Yue did not know which nerve of Li Chao’s had suddenly misfired.

“Stay away from her, or I will beat you just like last time,” Shi Yue warned Li Chao.

“You do not like her, yet you will not let anyone else pursue her. Are you not being a bit too overbearing?” Li Chao said.

“I do not care about others, but you specifically are a no.”

“Why?”

Since losing the game at the gym last time and being lectured by his brother, Li Chao had no one to back him up and did not dare to act out against Shi Yue. Otherwise, based on what Shi Yue just said, he would have attacked long ago. That was one reason. The second was that he truly felt Shi Yue was not like other high-achieving students who acted superior all day, which he found disgusting. He genuinely wanted to turn their enmity into friendship.

There was a reason Li Chao had suddenly become interested in Ji Zhiruo. That day, when his nose suddenly started bleeding in the hallway, it was Ji Zhiruo who handed him a tissue. At that moment, he felt as if he had seen a beautiful angel descending to earth.

“Because your character is too poor,” Shi Yue said mercilessly.

Li Chao fell silent. That was the truth.

As halftime arrived, Li Chao spoke up suddenly before serving. “Shi Yue, if I score three goals against you, will you agree to let me pursue her?”

“Score the goals first before you talk to me,” Shi Yue replied.

Upon hearing this, the players on both sides shifted their gazes between Shi Yue and Li Chao. For a moment, the determination of both sides to win intensified the atmosphere to an unprecedented level of tension.

Throughout the entire second half, Li Chao played as if he had been injected with adrenaline, desperately trying to score. Shi Yue, however, would not let him succeed. When a teammate passed the ball to Li Chao, he caught it and tried a post-up play to prevent Shi Yue from stealing it. Unexpectedly, Shi Yue timed it perfectly, suddenly flashing out from the left and snatching the ball away.

Li Chao tried to steal it back, but Shi Yue used a feint, causing him to lunge into thin air. By the time he reacted, the basketball had already traced a perfect parabola through the air and dropped into the hoop.

Time was up.

Li Chao had only managed to score one goal.

“Shi Yue!”

Ji Zhiruo happened to arrive at the court from her house to find Shi Yue. She held a bottle of water and ran toward him with a smile.

Looking at the smiling Ji Zhiruo, Li Chao felt as if his heart had been struck by a ten thousand point critical hit. He stared at her blankly.

“Remember, you only scored one goal.” Shi Yue glanced at Li Chao, his words more of a warning than a reminder.

Li Chao’s Adam’s apple bobbed a few times. He shrugged and deliberately walked over to lightly bump Ji Zhiruo’s shoulder, then said sincerely, “I am sorry! I did not do that on purpose.”

Shi Yue: “…”

Ji Zhiruo was naturally a tomboyish and carefree person. Although Li Chao had caused a major conflict with Shi Yue because of her last time, once the matter was resolved, her small brain capacity automatically pushed the incident aside. Otherwise, she would not have taken the initiative to hand him a tissue when she saw his nosebleed.

“It is okay!”

Ji Zhiruo did not notice the fiery gaze Li Chao cast upon her at all. She responded to him casually and immediately ran up to hand the water to Shi Yue, saying she had something very important to tell him.

Shi Yue asked what it was.

“We are going to Hainan to pick coconuts during summer break. Are you going?”

Shi Yue did not even consider it. “No.”

“Why not?”

“I do not have time.”

“Talk to Aunt He! Tell her not to sign you up for classes yet! It is only for a week, and my brother is going too. Are you really not going?” Ji Zhiruo knew Ji Chenchuan was not going. Seeing Shi Yue refuse, she thought of her brother’s “phone effect.” She believed that as long as she said Ji Chenchuan was going, Shi Yue would definitely agree to go, even though she did not know the reason.

“Are you sure Brother Chenchuan is really going?” Shi Yue indeed wavered slightly and asked for confirmation.

As far as Shi Yue knew, Ji Chenchuan did not like traveling. When they were seven, their two families had gone to Hainan together once. He wanted to pick coconuts, but because he was young, the adults would not let him climb the trees. In the end, Ji Chenchuan picked them for him, and for his efforts, Ji Chenchuan was stung by bees and had a swollen face for several days. Since then, whenever traveling there was mentioned, Ji Chenchuan would not go.

Ji Zhiruo answered with certainty that he would go.

“Then let me think about it. I will let you know if I am going,” Shi Yue said.

“Okay, give me an answer before tonight so my mom can book the flights and hotel.”

In reality, she just wanted to be sure so she could prepare her pretty clothes. The flights and hotel could be booked next week; one week in advance was plenty of time.

Knowing he would have another summer break without visiting the bookstore, Shi Yue did not go back with Ji Zhiruo. He followed his usual route to the Xinhua Bookstore, read for an hour, and then cycled home.

When Shi Yue arrived home, it was exactly two thirty. He took a shower first, changed into comfortable cotton pajamas, and then sat on the sofa. He closed his eyes and thought for a long while before dialing his tutor’s number.

“Hello, Teacher Liu. This is Shi Yue. May I ask if my mother has already paid the fees for my summer tutoring?”

The other party confirmed that she had, and that classes would start tomorrow and continue until the end of summer break. As before, there would be no classes on Sundays during winter and summer breaks, but those days were usually filled with endless practice papers.

He knew that would be the result.

Shi Yue sat quietly on the sofa. Since He Lin had set him on the path of mathematics competition recommendations, he had never had a weekend or a winter or summer break. Much like the Bohr model based on quantization assumptions, he was an “extranuclear electron” that could not move along just any orbit, but only within a specific one.

The fact that he could pick up Ji Chenchuan from the airport and accompany him on a business trip the next day was the result of a deal he made with He Lin. When it came to academic performance, He Lin never showed any leniency.

It was not until the doorbell rang that Shi Yue snapped out of it, surprised that he had been sitting idly on the sofa for the entire afternoon.

It was Ji Zhiruo calling him to her house for dinner.

At the dinner table, Shi Yue sat next to Ji Chenchuan and ate happily, just as he usually did.

“Eat slowly, do not choke,” Ji Chenchuan said, placing a piece of asparagus in Shi Yue’s bowl as a reminder.

Shi Yue loved the asparagus Feng Liuyu stir-fried; it was crunchy and delicious. He stuffed the piece of asparagus into his mouth and gave Ji Chenchuan a silly smile. He said he was finished eating and then sat at the table waiting for everyone else. Once everyone was done, he helped Feng Liuyu clear the dishes into the kitchen. After tidying up, he uncharacteristically did not stay for a while and went back to his own house.

Ji Chenchuan sat at the bar, watching Shi Yue’s retreating back. He felt that something was not quite right with Shi Yue tonight.

Just as Shi Yue reached home, He Lin’s call came through, asking how he did on his exams.

“The same, first in the grade.”

On the other end of the phone, he could hear from He Lin’s happy laughter that she was very satisfied.

Shi Yue suddenly wanted to take advantage of He Lin’s good mood to “apply” to go to Hainan with Ji Chenchuan for a week. But before he could speak, He Lin mentioned that she had enrolled him in an elite mathematics competition class taught by famous teachers from Tsinghua and Peking University, which would start in two weeks. She would be back from her business trip by then and would accompany him. Until then, she wanted Shi Yue to attend his regular tutoring.

After hearing He Lin’s words, what Shi Yue wanted to say got stuck in his throat. Thinking of the look on He Lin’s face whenever she saw him resting, as if she were watching him fall into ruin, Shi Yue ultimately said nothing. He only gave a calm “Mm.”

He Lin asked Shi Yue some caring questions about his daily life. The mother and son chatted for a short while before hanging up. He Lin seemed completely unaware that Shi Yue’s state today was very poor.

Shi Yue sent a WeChat message to Ji Zhiruo, saying he was not going because he had tutoring and wishing them a fun time.

Shi Yue went back to his room and habitually sat at his desk. He took out two math papers and “Classics of the Mathematical Olympiad.” As usual, he closed his eyes, took a light breath, and then picked up his pen to enter his focused state and start solving problems.

But tonight, Shi Yue repeated this motion no less than twenty times and still could not enter the state.

Snap!

Shi Yue slammed the ballpoint pen onto the desk, breaking the barrel. He was angry at himself for not being able to focus, angry at himself for being so sentimental, and angry at himself for being useless. His parents worked so hard to earn money, and most of it was poured into him. Just because he could not go to Hainan with Ji Chenchuan, he was acting like this. He hated himself for being this way.

Receiving the message that Shi Yue was not going to Hainan, Ji Zhiruo grumbled unhappily as she snuggled in Feng Liuyu’s arms.

Ji Chenchuan listened from the side, lost in thought.

He did not believe he could not focus.

Shi Yue went to the balcony, set the treadmill to its maximum speed, and began running like his life depended on it.

Sweat poured down like rain, soaking him completely, yet Shi Yue did not stop. He continued to run until he was so exhausted that he collapsed, unable to move.

Shi Yue held onto the treadmill and stood up shakily. He walked slowly to the bathroom, took off his sweat soaked clothes, and stood under the shower head. He turned on the cold water. The moment his steaming body came into contact with the cold water, Shi Yue got goosebumps and shuddered violently.

Soon, while the cold water cooled his scalding skin, his head began to spin. Shi Yue leaned against the cold tiled wall, wanting to leave the bathroom, but he collapsed heavily onto the floor without warning and fainted in the shower.

The cold water continued to splash loudly over Shi Yue’s body.

Ji Chenchuan had already gone to bed when his heart suddenly skipped a beat for no reason. He felt as if something was about to happen. His instinctive reaction was to pick up his phone and call Shi Yue.

However, he called three times, and no one answered.

Ji Chenchuan immediately rushed out of bed. At this hour, his parents were already asleep, and Ji Zhiruo was also locked in her room.

Ji Chenchuan slipped into his slippers and quickly opened the door. He rang Shi Yue’s doorbell, pressing it continuously for half a minute without any response. The bad premonition in Ji Chenchuan’s heart grew even stronger. He anxiously searched his contacts for the “Locksmith” and dialed the number in a hurry.

The reason he had a locksmith’s number was because once, while he and Shi Yue were talking in the hallway, the wind had blown his own door shut. He had to call a locksmith to open it, and fortunately, he had kept the man’s number until now.

The other party answered. Hearing it was a request to pick a lock at night, which was the best time to raise prices, the man asked for three hundred instead of the usual one hundred and eighty.

“I will give you three thousand. Please arrive as fast as possible, the sooner the better,” Ji Chenchuan said anxiously.

Ten minutes later, Ji Chenchuan met the locksmith at the elevator. Upon seeing him, the man still remembered Ji Chenchuan and which unit was his. Seeing that Ji Chenchuan wanted him to open the door to another unit, the locksmith was horrified. He said they had to register such things and could not just open someone else’s door; it was illegal and could lead to prison time.

“Just open it. If there is prison time, I will take the blame,” Ji Chenchuan urged. During this time, he had been calling Shi Yue continuously, yet there was still no answer.

“You said it. If I really end up in prison, I am not responsible,” the locksmith said, still fearful.

Ji Chenchuan repeatedly guaranteed that he would bear any consequences. Only then did the locksmith take the tools from his large bag and skillfully open the door to Shi Yue’s house.