The Beautiful Top Student Dodges Whenever He is Touched - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: He Who Touches Pitch Shall Be Defiled?

“You’ve researched it?” Tong Ze asked.

“This still requires research? Everyone in the world knows it, okay?” Xie Yi slightly raised his voice level.

“Can you not treat everyone in the world as yourself, okay?” Tong Ze used the identical tone, yet speaking it out possessed another kind of flavor.

“Tsk, copying my way of speaking, doesn’t look like your style.” Xie Yi let out a scoff.

“My style can be very multi-changing, it’s merely that you don’t know.” Tong Ze continued to browse through the other books on the bookshelf.

“Is that so?” Xie Yi sized up Tong Ze, “Incapable of imagining it. But speaking back to the matter, those two books truly aren’t too suitable for you.”

“I know, just taking them down to flip through and look, didn’t intend to buy.” Tong Ze said, “But this kind of book isn’t completely without a single merit. I am not you, occasionally I still need them, but just not right now.”

“Hey? For the first time I’ve discovered, you actually quite possess self-knowledge.” Xie Yi was like discovering a new continent.

“You think everyone is identical to you?” Tong Ze shot a glance at Xie Yi.

“Me? What about me?” Xie Yi suddenly highly wanted to know Tong Ze’s view toward himself.

Tong Ze didn’t even think, “Arrogant, conceited, acting willfully and recklessly.”

“Damn.” Xie Yi smiled, “Don’t you feel these descriptions are too one-sided?”

Tong Ze looked at him with an execution of complete seriousness, his eyeballs turning for a bit, “Oh right, there is still one more: good grades. Gone.”

“Other merits?” Xie Yi still didn’t give up.

“Gone.” Tong Ze emphasized.

Xie Yi’s smiling intent froze on his face, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Tsk, incapable of chatting on further. The all-powerful magic treasure: shifting the topic.

“Are you about to wait here for your mom to off-work in a bit?” Xie Yi asked.

“No… Er… Unclear.” Tong Ze hadn’t expected Xie Yi would ask this. Originally he had intended to directly return home after finishing eating the meal and taking the luggage trunks, but being asked about this matter of waiting for his mom to off-work, Tong Ze felt some hesitation. How long had it been since he took the bus home together with Tong Qinyuan.

How about waiting for her to off-work tonight? Had to wait until ten o’clock. Not too late either. But it was just that he again had to consider the place to go for the following three-plus hours.

“Unclear?” Xie Yi was astonished.

“No.” Tong Ze said, “I’m waiting for my mom to off-work.”

“Must be quite late, right?” Xie Yi began to look for words to speak when there were no words.

“Yeah, ten o’clock.”

The two individuals fell into a round of bizarre silence.

Xie Yi discovered that Tong Ze’s speaking truly was saving words like gold, and furthermore he consistently maintained it very well. Every single time chatting his words weren’t many. What could be spoken fully with a single character he absolutely wouldn’t speak two characters. Was it because they hadn’t become familiarized up yet? So his words were few. After getting familiarized up, what kind of appearance would he be again?

Tong Ze’s focus was still on the bookshelf.

Xie Yi looked at Tong Ze’s profile—the outline was distinct and the proportions clear yet without losing an exquisite softness—no matter doing what, he possessed an appearance of being very focused.

Truly focused? Could he be thinking about something else beneath the surface appearance of focus?

Xie Yi discovered that unknowingly he always liked to observe Tong Ze. Somewhat inexplicably.

Tong Ze put those two books from just now back onto the bookshelf, and again took down a book on mathematical thinking, flipping and looking page by page, the time his gaze stayed being relatively long.

Xie Yi shot a glance, it was a not-bad book. He didn’t speak words again, because he saw that Tong Ze possessed the intention to buy this book.

“Du… Du…” Xie Yi flipped out his phone, “Sister.”

“Xie Yi! Went to do what?” Xie Yunxi’s voice level was very high, “A pile of things placed here, and you ran until your shadow is gone. Where are you? Come over quickly, I can’t carry them, I’m sitting opposite the escalator on the first floor waiting for you.”

“Fine, then!” Xie Yi turned his head to say to Tong Ze: “I must leave, are you leaving?”

Tong Ze cast a glance at his phone; it was six thirty-five.

“Leaving, but I must line up to hand over the money.” Tong Ze shook the “Mathematical Thinking” in his hand, “If you’re anxious just leave first!”

“Sure, leaving.” Xie Yi turned his body and departed.

After Tong Ze finished settling the bill, he went to the first floor to look for Tong Qinyuan. Exiting the elevator, he then from afar saw her currently speaking with a woman. That woman he had seen before, it was the brand’s Business Representative Zhang.

“It’s not that I’m lecturing you, Xiao Tong, last month’s performance, among the eight shops I am responsible for, this place of yours was second to last.” Representative Zhang pointed at the performance report sheet in her hand, “Look at this, this style of liquid foundation, last month the factory activity was half price, the sales volume of counter ladies in other shops were all above fifty pieces, the highest person’s house was upwards of one hundred and twenty. You! Only thirty-two pieces. Just this, how do I report upward, the manager definitely must scold me.”

“It’s my problem, last month it was indeed done not well enough.” Tong Qinyuan knew clearly in her heart, firstly it was indeed not good, secondly being scolded by the upper-level leader, her posture still ought to be placed low. So many people around were watching, dismiss Representative Zhang first and speak further.

“Ai, truly, completely don’t know how to lecture you anymore.” Representative Zhang was like failing to hear Tong Qinyuan’s words of admitting fault, “And also, bad performance is not spoken about first, you clocked in late several times, and actually further possessed two early departures. This can’t be justified, right!”

“…” Tong Qinyuan froze.

“You’ve already worked in this shop for three years, just what on earth is the matter? This period of time always committing this kind of mistake.” Representative Zhang continued, “And also, I heard people say you always play with your phone during work hours, sending voice notes? Is there or is there not this matter?”

“Who told you?” Tong Qinyuan who was in a daze instantly was like being pricked, in a flash opening her eyes wide to stare at Representative Zhang and asking once more: “Who said it?”

Being scolded didn’t matter, her face skin was thick, but what she was most incapable of bearing was someone speaking gossip behind her back and stabbing her with a knife. She regarded herself as getting along with everyone in this patch of the beauty makeup group quite not-badly. She had already been intentionally controlling herself not to spark conflict with anyone, she knew the lack of ease in a job’s coming.

But, but, damn it.

“Who said it, this, this, how can this be told to you.” Representative Zhang hadn’t expected Tong Qinyuan would suddenly change her face, nearly being startled to the point of stammering.

“Fine, you don’t speak, right! I’ll ask myself.” Tong Qinyuan was like exploding as she looked toward the counter ladies around who possessed various distinct expressions, her lips opening and closing, her eyes being angered to the point of turning red.

She forcefully closed her eyes once, a feeling of helplessness and powerlessness in an instant attacking her entire body, and ultimately she still didn’t ask it out.

The mere shred of remaining reason pulled her, letting her not recklessly throw a magnificent thunderous rage under the large public view; that way she would truly lose this job.

She knew, she couldn’t. She had to diligently restrain herself, especially under this kind of circumstance. Forced by life, body not following self.

Besides, even if she asked this way it was in vain. Exactly who said it could ultimately all be a mystery. Every single person here was like wearing a mask, on the surface befriending you, chatting about other people’s various intolerabilities, and behind backs could also chat with other people regarding your rumors and stray words. It was precisely this ironic.

Tong Qinyuan’s fingernails dug into her own palm.

“Fine, this time let’s leave it at this! Care about who said it! Doing oneself well is enough, indeed you shouldn’t play with your phone. Think about your own reasons first, if what you did possessed no flaws who would reflect this.” Before departing, Representative Zhang didn’t forget to explain logic to Tong Qinyuan.

“Mom.” When Tong Ze came over, Representative Zhang’s front foot had just departed.

From afar, he merely felt that Tong Qinyuan seemed to be about to quarrel with Representative Zhang, yet didn’t hear his mom noisy with especially loud volume. The final expression seemed to be restraining anger.

“Mom, what’s wrong with you?” Tong Ze saw Tong Qinyuan staring at the direction Representative Zhang departed, and again like looking at the distant void.

“Ah…” Tong Qinyuan returned to her senses, a face of irritation: “How come you only came now? It’s nearly seven o’clock, the meal period is nearly passed.”

Tong Ze let out a sigh.

It seemed just now Tong Qinyuan indeed had some unpleasantness with Representative Zhang. If his mom possessed anger with no place to vent, she would shift her anger onto him, letting herself possess a venting outlet.

When he was small, the mother and son pair would still quarrel. Right now Tong Ze normally just took it as failing to hear, because he knew Tong Qinyuan wasn’t truly angry at himself.

“Bought a book.” Tong Ze said.

“Buying a book taking this long time, seven o’clock, when the time comes returning late after finishing eating the meal, must again be reported to the leaders by others.” Tong Qinyuan’s mouth murmured in a small voice.

Tong Ze didn’t speak anything; he knew inside Tong Qinyuan’s heart was currently bottling up a whole stomach of anger.

“Who cares about it! Let’s go, go eat.” Tong Qinyuan with a clank closed the counter door and locked it, walking in front of Tong Ze, walking faster and faster.

Inside the ramen shop.

“Just what kind of people, you speak up, meeting without lifting heads and meeting when lowering heads, how big a person already yet still making small reports.” Tong Qinyuan complained.

Tong Ze did not offer an opinion.

“One counter and one brand, yet not of one company, the leaders are also not one manager, horizontally straddling a street to make a report, damn it they don’t even dislike ripping their legs.” Tong Qinyuan continued to complain.

Tong Ze lowered his head to eat noodles; he wanted to wait until Tong Qinyuan finished her nagging before speaking words.

“One appearance on the surface, another appearance behind the back, truly human hearts are separated by a belly skin, salty eating radish and bland worrying mind, none are good things.” Tong Qinyuan finished drinking the ramen soup, “Go, add some soup for mom.”

Tong Ze stood up to go add soup.

Tong Qinyuan drank a spoonful of soup, sucking her tongue, “Aiya, truly scalding, annoying.”

“Drink slower, it’s fine as long as you understand. How big a person already, still don’t understand how realistic this society is?” Tong Ze ate a bite of cucumber, “You understand all the logic, but as soon as encountering a matter you completely forget the logic.”

“Don’t look down on your mom, I controlled it today, you didn’t see.” Tong Qinyuan lowered her head to poke the coriander in the bowl with her chopsticks, “Humph, if it wasn’t because I need this job, I would have fought with them long ago, probably would have smashed the counter, haha.”

Tong Ze noticed Tong Qinyuan used a tissue paper to press the corner of her eye.

I saw it, your expression on the edge of exploding yet extremely forbearing, Tong Ze thought in his mind.

For the first time, he felt his mom wasn’t easy, possessing some heart-ache.

“Really, too unlike your mom, me.” Tong Qinyuan put down her chopsticks, using a tissue paper to blow her nose, “Forget it, won’t speak of it, how big a matter.”

Yeah, how big a matter. A single simple “how big a matter” was filled with helplessness and compromise. The adult’s world, his future, what would it be like again.

“Mom, I’m waiting for you to off-work tonight, to go home together.” Tong Ze after finishing eating the ramen used a tissue paper to wipe his mouth and spoke.

“Must be ten o’clock, too late.” Tong Qinyuan’s expression was astonished.

“No matter, tomorrow is the weekend.”

Just like the vast majority of children of the same age, words of caring for parents he was incapable of speaking out from his mouth. He wanted to accompany his mom to take the bus home once.

Tong Qinyuan hesitated for a while, as though guessing out something, smiled and said: “Sure.”

In the evening Tong Ze again stayed inside the bookstore for more than two hours.

Zhenghong City after ten o’clock was truly quiet to an excessive degree. This city possessed a characteristic: aside from individual small-scope prosperous sectors, in areas above ninety percent of the acreage after eight or nine o’clock in the evening, the people on the main streets gradually became fewer and fewer.

Returning home required taking a single trip on the No. 6 bus for a direct route, needing to ride for nearly an hour—it wasn’t because of how far, but rather that the stops were many.

The people on the bus were very few, empty seats were very many, and Tong Ze and his mom sat down leaning against the window.

Tong Qinyuan lowered her head to look at her phone for a while, sending a WeChat message, and after waiting for a long time the opposing party didn’t reply, she pressed to darken the screen.

Tong Ze consistently gazed outside the window. Gradually, the city shifted from high buildings standing like forests and lamps fire brightly illuminated to having only scattered, single lights.

The weekend passed very quickly.

Tong Ze finished writing his homework, reviewed the content of the diagnostic examination, and further did tutoring.

On Sunday evening before sleeping when packing his backpack, he recalled tomorrow’s exam, heh, again couldn’t avoid having to clash with Xie Yi.

Actually that day in the bookstore his evaluation toward Xie Yi wasn’t truly as he spoke. Xie Yi’s body of course possessed merits, but watching Xie Yi urgently wanting to know his own evaluation toward his good aspects, for an unclear reason, he just didn’t want to speak it that much. Where would a boy ask another boy: “What merits do you feel I possess?”

Xie Yi wanting to know what kind of appearance he was in his own eyes was a bit strange. Couldn’t blame him for thinking too much; since the junior high period when he knew his own sexual orientation, and further experienced the matter with Li Ming, he became increasingly sensitive. The various modes of getting along between the same sex, including physical contact, and also including the probings during language exchange—even if the opposing party himself hadn’t realized it yet—he also wanted to try his best to avoid them.

These two years he became this cautious, actually it was quite tiring. Only because he didn’t want to repeat the same disastrous mistake.

Monday welcomed the first relatively formal exam after the high second year class division: the diagnostic examination.

People who minded exams would attach importance to every single exam; people who didn’t mind, every exam was nothing more than a passing scene. Tong Ze belonged to the former, yet Xie Yi was the latter.

Heaven was just not too fair, letting two kinds of completely opposite people have grades that didn’t divide into high and low, every time being in the identical first examination room, sitting as the front and back desks of the first and second rows leaning against the window.

Different from before was that before it was merely a nodding acquaintance, using the gaze to strike a greeting, and occasionally speaking a word when passing and collecting exam papers. Whereas right now, the two people became classmates of the same class who met without lifting heads and met when lowering heads, and were furthermore front and back desks.

The exam only tested for the single day of Monday: the morning tested Chinese and mathematics, and the afternoon tested English and physics-chemistry. Due to time reasons, physics and chemistry were combined into a single exam paper.

The recess before the exam.

“Clank…” Xie Yi knocked his chair toward the rear. One sound after another.

“Are you again using your so-called method of evading laziness to strike a greeting?” Tong Ze recalled Xie Yi’s reason from last time and asked.

“Damn, you still remember this matter.” Xie Yi turned his head back to look at him.

“Your reason was too unique, wanting to not remember is difficult instead.” Tong Ze checked the card-filling pen in his hand.

“Hey, you say this time who among the two of us is first?” Xie Yi smiled with an unclear meaning.

“Asking now, what significance is there?” Tong Ze picked his brow to look at him.

“Don’t you consider whether there is significance in everything. Many matters have no significance, but people still have to go do them.” Xie Yi said.

“Me.” Tong Ze spoke without avoiding anything at all.

Xie Yi let out a pfft as he laughed out loud.

“You say I am arrogant and conceited, actually you haven’t bytes stronger than me to anywhere either.” Xie Yi glanced at Tong Ze’s hand playing with the pen.

Tong Ze’s hand was very good-looking—the knuckles distinct, the fingers thin and long, the fingernails trimmed bare yet not affecting the length of the entire hand at all, the skin fair to the point of being capable of seeing shallow, thin, blue blood vessels.

The corner of Tong Ze’s mouth hooked up a smear of an arc, “This is probably because, he who touches pitch shall be defiled.”

Xie Yi lifted his eyes, his pupils pitch-black and thoroughly bright, “Fine, I am the pitch, then what are you?”

Tong Ze froze for an instant.

Damn, here it comes again. Chatting with people of high intelligence possessed pits everywhere; this time it was still a pit dug by himself.

“What?” Tong Ze didn’t want to answer, asking a casual sentence.

“Water.” Xie Yi smiled, “Aside from touching pitch then turning black, they can further fuse with each other.”

The two individuals looked at each other for several seconds, and Tong Ze was the first to shift away his gaze. Inexplicably.

How to avoid it, Tong Ze thought. This person Xie Yi was hard to fathom. An honest person encountering this kind of person, estimated being sold yet still helping the person count the money.

“Ding…” The bell to start class rang. The Chinese exam began.

After obtaining the exam paper, Tong Ze cast a glance at the back of Xie Yi’s head, lowering his head to hold his pen and answer the questions. Once the exam began, he would concentrate nearly the entirety of his attention onto the exam paper, only focusing on the test questions.

Conventional exams were all problem types he was familiar with.

When there were still thirty-five minutes remaining before the exam ended, Xie Yi stood up to hand in his paper early. Every time, every subject was like this. Tong Ze, however, would persist for every subject until the final bell rang.

After mathematics likewise had its paper handed in early, Xie Yi walked out of the classroom. Before, he basically all would directly go to the sports field, and if it neared noon he would depart the school to wander outside.

Today he didn’t intend to leave. After finishing the exam he had to return to the classroom to attend a self-study class. Anyway, possessing no place to go, he would just wait for Tong Ze here. Just right to advance the classmate feelings with his own front deskmate.

Xie Yi, pocketing his hands in his trousers, leaned against the corridor window ledge, obliquely facing the classroom front door to look inward at Tong Ze.

Tong Ze was currently earnestly checking his exam paper. It seemed like not even just once or twice.

Xie Yi recalled the conversation before the exam. When Tong Ze unexpectedly spoke out “he who touches pitch shall be defiled,” as well as the slightly ironic meaning of the smile his mouth corner hooked up, it caused him instantly to give birth to the thought of teasing Tong Ze for a bit.

Many items contacting pitch would all turn black—paper sheets, clothing—but what Xie Yi first thought of was precisely water.

The feeling Tong Ze gave him was precisely water. Cool, transparent, unstained by a single speck of dust.

But is he, Xie Yi, pitch?

Is he as black as pitch?

Heh, perhaps.

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