Keztranslations

Chapter 5

They lived together in harmony for ten more days.

On Friday morning at eight o’clock, Tong Yan was sinking into a beanbag chair after his bath, he hadn’t changed out of his pajamas. He’d heard Zhuo Xiang Ming moving around outside, so he didn’t plan to go out.

    Lost in thought, the phone on top of the bed rang.

    Xuan Gui had quietly left at dawn to prepare for Zhuo Xiang Ming’s departure. No one was around to run errands for him, so Tong Yan had no choice but to walk as softly as he could from the window to the bedside.

    The name “Tong Yang” was flashing on the screen.

    “What?” Tong Yan answered rudely.

   “Oh my,” Tong Yang said, “A few days without discipline and you’re already getting an attitude.”

    Tong Yan sat on the edge of the bed: “Then why haven’t you disciplined me recently? “

    Tong Yang laughed and said: “Ahhh, so someone’s homesick.”

    Originally, this feeling was a bit surprising. In the past, when he was at home, Tong Li Qin and Tong Yang were always busy, it was normal to not see each other for half a month. Now, Tong Yan was busy adapting to a new life, and every night before going to bed, there would be some shameful sadness and baseless resentment. Then the next day, when the sun came up, after pumping himself up, it’d feel like nothing was wrong.

    However, sending messages and calling were still very different things. When the two teased each other on OUKM, he only felt that it was fun. Now, hearing Tong Yang’s voice, Tong Yan’s heart unexpectedly felt somewhat sore.

    “Narcissist.” Tong Yan said.

    On the third day after the wedding, Tong Yang went on a business trip. Since he finally called, he most likely had just returned home.

    As Tong Yan thought this, Tong Yang confirmed: “I just came back today. Since you’ve lived there for more than half a month, there should be no more paparazzi. Tomorrow’s Saturday, Dad said that you should come back for two days and prepare for school next week.”

    After getting married, Tong Li Qin still hadn’t called him. Conversely, there have been several times when Zhuo Xiang Ming came back from work and said that he encountered Tong Li Qin during the day, and he’d asked after him.

    Two weekends had passed in between, and no one mentioned letting him go home, so, since the day he moved in, except for holidays, Tong Yan never thought that he could go home during the fake marriage period: “I can go back home?”

    “Yeah.” Tong Yang said, “After school starts, you’ll go to school from there, and come back home on the weekends.”

    “Weekdays are one thing, but staying together on the weekends isn’t appropriate.”

    Tong Yang also added, “Ah, did you think we’d sold you off?”

     “That’s what it is, child selling!” Tong Yan rolled around on the bed, “Ok!”

    After two rounds of tumbling around, Tong Yan halted, asking in doubt, “Why is it not appropriate to stay together on the weekends?”

    Tong Yang laughed sleazily: “Adults have adult business to take care of.”

    “Shameless.” Tong Yan hung up the phone.

    As soon as he hung up, Zhuo Xiang Ming, who probably heard the movement in his room, knocked on his bedroom door for the first time: “Tong Yan, are you awake?”

    Tong Yan hurriedly opened the door: “Brother.”

    Zhuo Xiang Ming froze, Tong Yan followed his gaze and looked down at himself; his pajamas were crooked, and the top two buttons were undone.

    Zhuo Xiang Ming was about to go out. His hair was neatly combed back, he was carrying a briefcase, and he was dressed meticulously. The black suit was paired with a dark blue stripped tie, his trousers looked like they were made out of a cozy material, and his leather shoes were shined to perfection, he gave off a solemn aura as he looked down at Tong Yan. The two were in sharp contrast. Tong Yan also felt a little embarrassed, quickly fastening his buttons, and haphazardly pushing his hair back. Seeing that Zhuo Xiang Ming was still not talking, he could only prompt: “You’re heading to work?”  

    Zhuo Xiang Ming made a sound of positive acknowledgment.

    “Oh, okay.” Tong Yan said, “Then, have a safe trip, pay attention to the road.”

    Zhuo Xiang Ming: “Try to get up early for breakfast, it’s not good for your stomach if you always eat brunch.”

    Tong Yan couldn’t say that he woke up so late every day in order to avoid him, promising, “Okay, I’ll remember.”

    Zhuo Xiang Ming nodded, seemingly satisfied with Tong Yan’s obedience, his somewhat taut face also relaxed slightly: “Tomorrow’s the weekend, I’ll take you out to eat tonight.”

    Tong Yan hurriedly said: “I’m going back home today.”

    Zhuo Xiang Ming seemed very surprised, frowning slightly, but before he could speak, his phone rang.

    He apologized softly to Tong Yan and answered the phone: “Tong Yang?”

    “Not yet.”

    “He’s right next to me.” Zhuo Xiang Ming glanced at Tong Yan and said.

    “You called just as he said it.”

    “Okay.” Zhuo Xiang Ming said finally, “I’ll send him back after work.”

    Tong Yan had his heart set on speeding home, seeing him hang up, he hurriedly said: “Brother, I know all the roads here, I can pack things up in a jiffy and go back by myself.”

    Zhuo Xiang Ming frowned even tighter: “I’ll send you.”

    Tong Yan agreed.” OK.”

    Zhuo Xiang Ming immediately realized that his tone was a bit misleading, so he explained, “I was so busy before that I forgot to accompany you back to your family. Since Tong Yang’s there today, we can go together tonight.”

   When Tong Yan heard this, the slight fear he’d felt immediately disappeared, smiling: “Then I’ll wait for you at home.”

    Zhuo Xiang Ming also revealed a smile: “I’ll get off work early.”

    –

    Tong Yan sent Zhuo Xiang Ming off, then went up to pack his clothes. He recalled that most of his things on this side were gifted to him by Zhuo Xiang Ming’s mother, he simply hadn’t carried anything from home, so naturally, he didn’t need to carry anything back.

    He wandered from the second floor to the first floor, after eating, thinking about going back home, he didn’t have the mind to read a book, so he could only browse his cell phone.

    Zou Jing Yu sent out the daily question: How are you getting along with your newlywed alpha? Is the marriage life satisfactory, happy?

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: pleasantly, satisfactory, happy

    Beautiful-Teacher: Wow, look at this halfhearted answer

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: I’m being sincere

    Beautiful-Teacher: hehe

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: I can see that you’re awfully bored

    Beautiful-Teacher: I’m not bored at all, okay? I’ve made a major discovery

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: tellme_tellme.jpg

    Zou Jing Yu sent over a question and answer forum post entitled, ‘How to help older adopted children adapt to a new environment.’

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: Do you want to adopt a child? Remember to make me the godfather

    Zou Jing Yu sent a speechless emoji, then sent another screenshot.

    Beautiful-Teacher: We needed to collect some information for a summer internship, and I found this while searching, read it

 The screenshot was of the first half of the post: As adoptive parents, without a blood relationship, it’s not an easy task to cultivate feelings with an adopted child who already has extensive memories. Affection should first be built on a sense of security and a relatively solid foundation, only then can the bond be healthy and strong. So, how can you help your child feel safe after arriving in a new environment?

    1. Family members should have a fairly mapped out schedule.

    Make the child understand that you’ll definitely come back home after you leave! You shouldn’t call off work to stay home with your child when they move in. You just need to let them get used to your work schedule, and know what time you’ll come home from work. It’s a hundred times more effective for building up a sense of security, than staying home with them for a couple of days, then suddenly abandoning them to go back to work.

    2. Cultivate parent-child activities.

    Try to do things together when the child moves in! It can be small things, such as having dinner together, watching a regular TV show, reading a book together before bed, and having a dedicated time to make crafts together… these collaborative activities will give a boost to affection between you two, and it will also help your child trust you faster.

   … After a rough glance over, Tong Yan scrolled down to the chat log. In the latest comments, a guest user with an id string of numbers asked: I go and come back from work on schedule, but the child still refuses to do things with me, what should I do?

    A system message reminded: If you need professional consultation, please ask questions after registering for a small fee.

    After an interval of three minutes, a user with the id “ZXM” asked: Why would a child reject watching TV with their parent?

    The following consultations belonged to the private category; Tong Yan couldn’t view them. He closed the web page and entered

Beautiful-Teacher: Your “adoptive father” is very interesting

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: Indeed

    Beautiful-Teacher: Oh no, I can’t stop laughing again. Are the uncles nowadays so cute?!!

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: He’s not an uncle

    Beautiful-Teacher: Oh myyyyyy, what do you call him?

   ………

    Beautiful-Teacher: I_worked_so_hard_to_find_this.jpg

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: Change your handle first

    As planned, Zou Jing Yu was admitted to a normal university in the city. The bustling high school days were over, and she was about to start her ideal university student life, so she was very upbeat this whole summer vacation.

    Beautiful-Teacher: What the heck? Your handle disregards the facts too. Yeah, you’re a hermit, but where’s the muscle?

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: I have big dreams

    Zou Jing Yu wasn’t pushy, moving on, she asked in concern: Classes begin on Monday. How are your preparations going?

    Tong Yan replied: I’ve recovered well. I’ve also finished all the summer homework.

    Although he wasn’t required to do it as he was on leave from school, he’d wanted to return to school this semester, so Tong Yan had asked an old teacher about the summer homework. He reviewed as he did the homework, so he wouldn’t fall behind too much.

    Beautiful-Teacher: What about the examination results?

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: I went to the hospital the day before yesterday, I think I’ll get the results tomorrow

    Beautiful-Teacher: Tell me as soon as you get it, ‘kay?

    Muscular-Hermit-Boy: Okay

    –

    After chatting with Zou Jing Yu, Tong Yan brought Xuan Gui to the second floor, and laid down on the big bed, playing with his tablet as he waited for Zhuo Xiang Ming to get off work. At about twelve o’clock, he called Tong Yan and said that he would be home at about three o’clock.

    Xuan Gui searched for some very old cartoons and they watched them together. Tong Yan looked on absent-mindedly, thinking about Zhuo Xiang Ming.

    They had been getting along peacefully for more than half a month. Previously, Tong Yan always thought that this was because of his polite evasion. He was thinking simply; less contact, less chances for contradiction.

    Until this moment, he didn’t know that he wasn’t the only one trying. It turns out that Zhuo Xiang Ming was also worried about them getting along.

    Even though Tong Yan knew that this was simply done to help ease his stress disorder, it didn’t stop him from honestly thinking that Zhuo Xiang Ming was a good person.

    After all, Zhuo Xiang Ming was an adult who adhered to “celibacy”. He really did no other activities besides work-attending cocktail parties and dinners were also included in his work. He did very few purely private activities, but now he was willing to search an unfamiliar social software for articles about child wellbeing, all for him.

    This alone was enough to allow Zhuo Xiang Ming to become a gentle silhouette in Tong Yan’s heart.

    Tong Yan felt a bit of regret. If Zhuo Xiang Ming wanted to, he would be able to wholly get along well with others, he had sufficient capital that people generally liked.

    Unfortunately, he was celibate.

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T/N:

Tong Li Qin – The raws says Zhuo ZengDe, ZXM’s father’s name, twice. But it makes no sense in this context. I’m 99% sure it’s a typo, so I fixed it. I hope there’s no more typos. This stuff is hard enough to translate accurately as it is….

accompany you back to your family – Chinese wedding custom. Chinatour.com “Three days after the wedding, the bride and bridegroom will pay a visit to the bride’s family, at which point the bride would be received as a guest as opposed to a member of her former family.”

I’ll try to keep the online usernames accurate, but if they’re nonsensical, I’ll get as close as I can.