Chapter 24: Walk the Path With Him
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
If it weren’t for his hand accidentally knocking against the tea table and the dull pain, Zhou Kai wouldn’t have realized he had fallen asleep while watching TV. Rubbing his hand, he sat up, feeling disoriented. It took him a while to remember that he was the only one at home at the moment.
He glanced at his phone, raising an eyebrow in surprise. He had somehow slept for over an hour without waking up. Was it because he had overused his brain during the midterms? He felt like a pig in terms of exhaustion.
Chuckling at himself, Zhou Kai picked up the pillow that had fallen on the floor, turned off the TV, then went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. Afterward, he turned off the lights and headed to his bedroom.
However, once he lay in bed, sleep wouldn’t come. He tossed and turned for half an hour, feeling restless and sweaty. He shoved the blanket off himself, lying flat on his back and staring at the ceiling, feeling frustrated.
His phone buzzed a few times. He lazily reached out for it, squinting as he opened the message. It was from the class group chat—scores from the previous day’s exams had come out, and everyone was sharing their reactions. Zhou Kai scrolled down the screen and saw his own score, then He Ye’s.
His score had improved slightly from the last semester, while He Ye was still below the passing line.
Zhou Kai compared it with the others in the class, feeling like He Ye’s chances of getting the progress award were probably slim.
Tsk, well, it’s no surprise. He never studied, so where would the progress come from? All he cared about was making money.
Zhou Kai sent a meme in the group chat, then scrolled down further to find the message where He Ye had tagged him. But it had been a few days, and the message had long since been buried under new ones. Everyone in the class was so active, constantly sending memes and flooding the chat.
Zhou Kai spent a little time searching but couldn’t find it, so he gave up. He then clicked on He Ye’s contact in the group.
There was nothing—just the default profile picture, an empty feed, and his nickname was just a simple punctuation mark.
Zhou Kai stared at the screen for a while, then backed out. He wondered if he should add He Ye back on WeChat. But he had blocked and deleted him before. If he tried to add him again, would He Ye even accept?
Zhou Kai thought about it and figured, since He Ye had dared to say “I’m going to do you,” he’d probably agree to being added back. If he didn’t, it would be unreasonable.
Encouraged by his own thoughts, Zhou Kai quickly reinstalled his WeChat account under the same name—“Him.”
As he typed in the account and password for his secondary account, his hands were shaking so much that he couldn’t lie still. He sat up straighter to focus. Once he finished logging in, the phone vibrated twice. Not only did the WeChat team send a “Welcome back” message, but there was also a red notification on his contacts list.
Zhou Kai curiously clicked on it, and when he saw that the red notification was under the new contacts section, his heart started racing uncontrollably. When he clicked on it and confirmed his guess, he threw himself onto the bed, clutching his phone, face flushed, heart pounding.
He finally understood why He Ye had tagged him that day.
“Damn??”
He had said this person was a jerk and told others not to mess with him, but then he himself had done so much. How could one not start to imagine things?
After putting down his phone and patting his hot face, Zhou Kai couldn’t sleep anymore. He got out of bed barefoot, squatted down on the floor, and summoned the little black creature, placing it in the palm of his hand. He poked its head and nagged with a smile, “Were you being dramatic? A big talkative wolf, huh? You really made me delete you—who told you to be so fierce? Just one mention, and no one would know what you were up to. Couldn’t you have added another word?”
The little black creature, curled up in his hand, didn’t respond. Its tail twitched for a moment before going still again.
He reached up to adjust his bangs, scratching his hair as Zhou Kai glanced around, his voice lowering as he spoke, more to the little black creature than to anyone else. “If I went to find you now, would you call me a slut?”
Getting no response, Zhou Kai returned the little black creature, rubbed his face with both hands, exhaled deeply, and suddenly stood up, pulling open the wardrobe.
His mind was elsewhere while he worked. He had already cursed himself multiple times that night. But there was nothing he could do. Cursing himself didn’t stop him from thinking about it—he just couldn’t help it.
When the last customer paid and left with their bottle of liquor, He Ye grabbed a rag and began cleaning the tables. He had to set the chairs right and empty the trash bins. While he worked, the boss was counting the money at the counter. The money on the side was his pay for the week.
The chubby chef who had poured beer for He Ye last time took the kitchen trash out. He Ye picked it up, along with the rest of the garbage, and headed toward the door.
He pushed open the thick insulation curtain, lowered his head, and walked straight to the trash can on the sidewalk. After tossing the garbage, he heard shouting across the street. Two people were arguing over a parking spot. He Ye glanced at them but turned around and walked back into the shop. He had almost reached the stairs when something felt off. He turned and looked up, frozen.
With his hands in the pockets of his trench coat, Zhou Kai revealed his mouth from beneath his high-neck sweater when He Ye looked over, pursing his lips and gazing back, humming to himself. But before he could finish his inner monologue, He Ye suddenly turned and headed back inside the shop.
Zhou Kai was a bit stunned, feeling more disappointed and unjustly wronged. Leaning against the bicycle, he pouted, hesitating whether to leave but not wanting to give up just yet.
Inside the shop, He Ye felt a whirlwind of emotions. Several times, he almost cursed out loud but swallowed it back down.
He Ye couldn’t believe Zhou Kai would come looking for him at that moment, dressed so provocatively, looking so polished, completely different from the person he remembered from school.
He Ye really wanted to mess with him, wanted to tear off his clothes and bully him until he cried or begged—he wouldn’t let him off the hook. If it got dirty or broken, it would be Zhou Kai’s fault—it was Zhou Kai who had pushed him.
He Ye thought he had gone mad, that he was sick.
The chair he knocked over made a loud crash. He Ye, eyes red, looked down, his chest rising and falling slowly. He cracked a smile.
The boss watched him put the chair back and motioned for him to come over, handing him his pay with a smile, saying, “I gave you a bit extra. You’ve been diligent. I’ve got the right person for this job.”
He Ye slipped the money into his pocket, his boss noticing how out of it he seemed. Remembering the usual teasing words from the two chefs in the kitchen, the boss joked, “Can’t wait to tell your girlfriend goodnight, huh? Young people sure have it easy. You’ve finished your work, so you can go if you want.”
He Ye heard this and immediately took off his apron, turning to leave.
The boss chuckled and said, “Hey, you’re in a hurry.”
His heart was pounding so fast that he could almost hear the thumping sound in his ears. He Ye threw open the curtain and walked out, his gaze locked on the spot where the person had been standing just moments ago.
But there was no one there, just his own old bicycle.
In an instant, the restless blood in him went cold.
He Ye stared ahead, his gaze fixed for a long time, before suddenly laughing aloud. It was a mocking laugh, so bitter that tears almost started to form.
He wiped his face with his hand, unlocked his bicycle, and pedaled away.
By the time he was halfway down the street and about to turn a corner, a bicycle suddenly shot across the crosswalk with the green light. With no cars or people around at that late hour, the rider blocked his path.
He Ye quickly slammed on the brakes, but the two bicycles collided at the front, not too hard.
He Ye, still burning with anger, looked up, and when he saw the person glaring at him, jaw clenched in a defiant manner, his anger simmered for a moment before it flared back up.
Zhou Kai had left, but he couldn’t let it go. He had thought about it over and over, and he just wasn’t satisfied, so he came back.
Once he came back, there was no turning back.
Zhou Kai didn’t need to. He was determined to keep going down this path, and he wanted to know if He Ye was willing to walk it with him.
