Chapter 55: Eighth-Grader Syndrome[1]

Chu Qin pushed the check for one million back, "Auntie, even if you add ten times the amount, I still wouldn't accept it." The Zhong family's mother seemed to have watched too many television dramas? In what world would she really throw a check at her son's partner.

"Hmph, just take what I've given you. If you don't want to return my son then spend this money on him," Mother Zhong said, her tone fierce yet soft[2]. She picked up her branded bag, turned around and left.

Chu Qin blinked, somewhat stunned. Wasn't the purpose of the money to break off their relations.h.i.+p? How did it become Zhong Yibin's pocket money in a blink of an eye… Gazing at the silhouette leaving the teahouse with her head high and chest out, Chu Qin couldn't help chuckling in a low voice. He suddenly felt that Mother Zhong was a bit cute.

At night after Zhong Yibin reached home and finished bathing, Chu Qin stuck the check to his wet head and yelled, "Seal!"

Zhong Yibin immediately stopped moving and blew against the piece of paper obstructing his vision, "Baby, quickly release me, I haven't dried my hair."

"Hahahaha…" Chu Qin hadn't expected Zhong Yibin to be so cooperative. Seeing his rigid stance, Chu Qin guffawed till he fell onto the bed.

Zhong Yibin tore the check off his face and pounced onto the bed, rubbing the water on his head against Chu Qin's embrace. Chu Qin cried out as he avoided him. But he laughed till he had no energy left and was greeted by that large wet head. A large wet stain appeared on the dry and soft silk pajamas.

"Where's that sealing talisman?" Noticing that the large head against his cheat was becoming more and more enthusiastic, and even revealing his mouth's forest of white teeth, Chu Qin hurriedly pushed him aside, preventing him from getting his way.

Zhong Yibin raised a hand and stuck the check gripped in it onto Chu Qin's head, "Now it's your turn to stop moving. Come, let me have a bite."

"Hahaha, stop fooling around, it could rip," Chu Qin plucked the crumpled check off and waved it in front of Zhong Yibin's eyes.

Only then did Zhong Yibin realize that this 'sealing talisman' was actually a check for a million yuan. "Where did it come from?" He sat up and smoothed out the check to inspect it carefully. The name signed on it stated 'Li Shuxian'. He glanced suspiciously at Chu Qin. It was clear that Shuxian was female and was even an old lady. The youngsters nowadays were rarely given this sort of name.

"Did someone make things difficult for you?" In a split second, Zhong Yibin came up with the scenario of a wealthy woman wanting to provide for Chu Qin. Now, instances where rich ladies kept young hunks weren't rare. A few days ago, a rich woman entrusted someone to pa.s.s on these words to Chu Qin, asking if he was willing to accept such a life.

"This was given by your mother," Chu Qin rolled his eyes. This guy didn't even remember his mother's name.

"…Oh," Zhong Yibin stared blankly for a while, making an embarra.s.sed sound in reply.

Chu Qin pursed his lips as he held in his laughter and recounted his meeting with Mother Zhong today to Zhong Yibin. Zhong Yibin listened till the corners of his mouth trembled in rage. Mother was even more unreliable than him, what was this even!

"You just hold onto the allowance she gave then," Zhong Yibin thought for a while and pa.s.sed the check to Chu Qin. Anyway, Mother Zhong didn't say that this was a breakup fee later on and said that it was to be spent on him. One wouldn't dare refuse what was given by an elder, since it was already given then one should just take and use it. Just nice, he had come across a good dagger but didn't buy it for fear of Chu Qin saying that he wasted money. This time, he made an undeserved fortune and could purchase it.

Sure enough, Zhong Yibin picked Chu Qin up after work the next day and directly went to the cartoons section in the shopping mall. He pointed at a long sword that was crafted extremely elaborately and declared his intention to purchase it.

That sword was an imitation of the sword made by the Gold Saints in Saint Seiya. Although it was not made of pure gold, it had been plated with a layer of gold. The craft-work was exquisite, and its appearance was not consistent with cartoon-related merchandise but rather a work of art.

"Fifty-thousand!" Chu Qin glanced at the price in the gla.s.s cabinet and the corner of his mouth twitched. A piece of merchandise was actually selling at such a high price.

"En, I've long thought of purchasing it. Now that Mother gave pocket money, just use that then," Zhong Yibin looked at Chu Qin with a large pair of sparkling eyes.

In the afternoon that day, they had just withdrawn the money from the bank and deposited it into a card under Zhong Yibin's name.

"Why must you use your mother's money?" Chu Qin placed a hand against his forehead. This guy, just buy if he wanted it, it wasn't like he had taken away all his money. Why did he make it seem like he was the one who was stingy and wouldn't let him buy it.

 "We cannot recklessly spend our money," Zhong Yibin said seriously. He got the store employee to bring the sword down and went to make payment.

"Mister, our store also has some of the Gold Saint's other weapons, would you like to take a look?" This sword had been displayed in the cabinet for close to a year and had yet to be sold off. It was not easy to meet such a good customer, the store employee's eyes were emitting rays of light.

"Oh? What else is there?" Zhong Yibin followed the store employee in high spirits to take a look at some Gold Saint outfit and Athena's scepter. The children who visited this cartoons and comics shop stared enviously at the items in Zhong Yibin's hands. There were some who couldn't resist pleading with their mother to buy it as well.

"That brother is already earning his own money, only with your own hard-earned money can you buy such an expensive toy. Study well and you can buy it in the future after you make lots of money, aren't you ashamed to be spending Mother's money to buy such an expensive toy?" The child's mother immediately started reprimanding him.

Chu Qin silently covered his face. He wanted to say that this elder brother was also spending his mother's money to buy toys.

When they exited the store, Chu Qin had a lifeless expression on his face, a holy sword in his left hand and a scepter in his right hand. In contrast, Zhong Yibin was hugging a large box, which contained the legendary golden holy outfit. He was in such good spirits that his mouth was about to stretch to the back of his ears.

"Qin-ge, Yibin-ge!" A clear shout could be heard behind them. Chu Qin turned around, noticed Wu Qianqian and revealed a smile.

"Qian Qian," Chu Qin's hands were both occupied so he could only raise his chin in greeting.

Wu Qianqian was being accompanied by two other girls, who appeared to be her best friends. They grew excited upon seeing Chu Qin, "Is it really Chu Qin?"

"Don't say it out loud, it'll be bad if other people were to hear about it," Wu Qianqian hurriedly warned her best friends in a low voice. The two girls instantly stopped doing so, directing a burning gaze towards Chu Qin.

Zhong Yibin stuck his head out from behind the large box and glanced at Wu Qianqian.

"Yibin-ge, why are you carrying it yourself, it'll be much easier to have the store employee send it to the car," Wu Qianqian looked at half his head sticking out from the box and couldn't help wanting to laugh.

Chu Qin smiled slightly, "It's very close and they're not heavy," In fact, it was Zhong Yibin who was too enamored with his holy outfit and refused to let the store employee take it, insisting on carrying it himself.

Wu Qianqian smiled, wanting to say something yet being unable to voice it. Ever since Zhou Zimeng had been sentenced, her brother had calmed down and finally realized that he should not have gone to make peace. The crime had already been committed, what good was there in persuading. Thus, he felt that he had no face left to meet Zhong Yibin. Their group had played together ever since young, yet they already had zero contact for a month. Their small group was already on the brink of dispersing, leaving a sense of sorrow in his heart.

In the end, nothing was said. Only after Wu Qianqian was pinched vigorously on her lower back by her best friends did she say with a dry cough, "Qin-ge, I heard Mu Chen and Qiao Su will be invited to Lollipop, can you help us get three tickets? We three would like to watch it."

Lollipop was another entertainment program hosted by Chu Qin. Its full name was actually 'The Lollipop Then and Now', a program that explored ancient and modern culture. The ratings were more modest compared to Confusion but had still received good reviews. This time,

was being fervently broadcasted by the station and the ratings were rising rapidly, making the Chief of the station very happy. He brought up increasing the level of publicity and got Mu Chen and Qiao Su to go on this program.

For every program session, Chu Qin would get a few tickets as part of his privileges. This wasn't a particularly hard thing, hence he nodded and agreed.

The three girls cheered and rushed to thank Chu Qin. Then, they couldn't hold it in any longer and asked Chu Qin to take a group photo with them. Zhong Yibin placed the large box down and squeezed to Chu Qin's side.

Those two girls only now got a close look at Zhong Yibin's face and they simultaneously let out a sound of surprise, "Director Zhong… you guys…" As if they had uncovered some immensely large secret, the faces of the two girls reddened in response to their excitement.

Wu Qianqian had long gotten used to this scene. Only now did she realize that it was such a stimulating event to see these two people strolling the streets. She immediately felt somewhat anxious. She had never mentioned Chu Qin and Zhong Yibin's relations.h.i.+p in front of her best friends, which was why those two people still had on an excited appearance of having 'discovered gay love'.

"Can we take a group photo?" A girl asked happily.

Chu Qin smiled. Since he dared to openly come out to walk the streets with Zhong Yibin, then he was naturally not scared of other people taking photos of them. He gladly agreed. Zhong Yibin was proactive and stood beside Chu Qin, lightly placing a hand over a girl's shoulder in a gentlemanly manner. Chu Qin did the same to another girl and everyone took a photo.

"I, I, can I share it on the internet?" One of the girls already couldn't hold herself back from the desire to post on Weibo but was stopped by the other girl and made to first seek the opinions of the people involved.

"Let me take a look," Chu Qin smiled and went over to look at the photo on the phone. The girl had cleverly used a beautifier tool to make it prettier, and it didn't look bad, "Share it."

On this day, a post t.i.tled [Pa.s.sing by Zhong Qin as they walked the streets together] was crazily shared and forwarded. The picture was of the two handsome youths linking arms with the two girls and smiling brilliantly. The faces of the two girls had been pixelated but the faces of Chu Qin and Zhong Yibin were extremely clear.

[My G.o.d, has their loving affection already reached the stage of strolling the streets together? Cupping face]

[Is it some promotion? It's similar to Mu Qiao. Where in the world would such a coincidence exist]

[The one above, take a look at the t.i.tle of the original blogger before speaking]

This last thread drew everyone's attention and the audience quickly ran to observe it. They realized that the original blogger had been authenticated as 'Board member of Green Wilderness Estate'. This person's previous Weibo posts all had pictures attached and was quickly weeded out by others. This was a big sister of Green Wilderness Estate, a true Ms Perfect. Those who had called her a marketer instantly had their faces slapped.

Due to the program the other time, the 'Zhong Qin' group who had quickly risen to fame by chance once again became famous. However, not all netizens would look favorably on such entertainment. Voices of dissent quickly appeared.

[s.e.x scandal with the boss; if this was a female celebrity, she would have long been scolded to death!]

[Reaching his position by using the unspoken rules, what is there to show off]

Originally, the fans had not intended to pay attention to them but seeing that the remarks were increasingly becoming more and more nasty, they couldn't resist speaking out against them.

[It's definitely not the unspoken rules! Our Qin Qin is so cute!]

[Hehe, is it not considered unspoken rules just because he's male? All of you chicken[3] wors.h.i.+ppers, your double standard shouldn't be too obvious]

"These people don't seem like netizens, more like a water army," Chu Qin was warned by his manager and only then knew that the argument on the internet had already reached awful levels.

"Ah, who cares if it's the water or fire army, they will be thoroughly dealt with," Zhong Yibin smiled coldly.

"Oh, how will you deal with them?"

Zhong Yibin remained silent for a moment before suddenly drawing out the golden holy sword and stating sternly, "Just wait to bear the Battle G.o.d's rage, silly mortals."

Chu Qin, "…"

The author has something to say:

Small theater:

Qin Qin: What is the rage of the Battle G.o.d

Er Bing: That will depend on who the opponent is

Qin Qin: Against the water army

Er Bing: Find the root cause, cut off the rations

Qin Qin: Against Mother

Er Bing: Fish out the wallet, use up the checks

Qin Qin: What if it's against me?

Er Bing: Take off the pants, possess the body, take action against the root of the problem, seven times a night

Chu Qin: ……

[1] 中二: Short-form for 中二病 which refers to the eighth-grader syndrome, also known as chuunibyou if you're more familiar with j.a.panese terms. This term is typically used to describe early teens who have delusions of grandeur, that desperately want to stand out that they have convinced themselves they have hidden knowledge or secret powers (stolen from Wikipedia).

[2] 色厲內荏: Appearing fierce while cowardly at heart. I really had no idea how to translate this line in this context… its just not the way tone would be described in English so unfortunately y'all will have to make do with my shoddy translation ☹

[3] 拜雞｜巴: There's a censored word here so I wasn't very sure on what the intended meaning was, although I think it refers to some sort of male genitalia? But I'm not entirely sure and it would be jumping the gun to put something like 'p*nis wors.h.i.+pper' so if anyone knows what this means do tell~

Translator's corner: I recently found some novels that I'm really enjoying so I thought I'll share them with you guys~

Do check out and ! The plots are totally my cup of tea and the translations are superb ?