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Chapter 26: A Rat Grinding Its Teeth

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

“That is not the original words of Ruan Ruan.” Shen Jingya, aware of his anxiety, took two deep breaths, stroked his hair and repeated Ruan Yu’s original words.

Gu Xiuhan still did not say anything, but his jawline was not so tight, like a sigh of relief.

Shen Jingya’s voice, piqued by anger, drew Gu Rong to her.

Gu Rong perked up his ears and listened to a couple of sentences, his eyebrows twisted to the point of killing flies, angry and anxious, but did not dare to interrupt the lady. He paced behind Shen Jingya with his hands behind his back, his feet stomped on the floor, and he wanted to drive the mecha to assault the person immediately.

“What kind of person is this? Ruan Ruan has not been an adult for long, and does not understand these things, he can also be brazen enough to take advantage of.” Shen Jingya was distressed and angry, “Ruan Ruan that silly child has been praising him well, one mention of him and his eyes are bright, little cheeks red, like something trapped. This kind of person can look good but other than to his face, what else is good? I’m really anxious…”

Her side was in a frenzy, but Gu Xiuhan did not seem to be listening, his eyelashes lowered, as if in thought.

“I don’t even want to talk about you, the base is a little bit of chicken work to complete, compared to Ruan Ruan which is more important? If you are really too busy to take care of such a big thing, send Ruan Ruan back to the capital star.” Shen Jingya finished speaking, picked up her tea cup and moistened her throat.

Gu Xiuhan then lifted his eyes and said absentmindedly, “He can’t go back.”

Gu Rong’s face was already red and purple, and when he saw his wife finish, he first froze, then hurriedly interjected, “Which one is the shameless one? Bastard!”

Shen Jingya, as if she could not hear such vulgar words, turned her head, covered her lips and coughed lightly.

“What’s his name? Ah?! Which army? Don’t want to die? See if I don’t break his legs…”

“Ahem.” Shen Jingya interrupted, “Your father is asking you something. What is that man’s name, which army he belongs to… You don’t even know which one is close to Ruan Ruan…” Shen Jingya said, suddenly paused, lips pursed into a white line, scanned Gu Xiuhan from head to toe slowly, “Gu Xiuhan, have you been listening to us or not?”

“Keep praising him well… Mention him once and eyes light up… Little cheeks are so red… Sinking in…”

Gu Xiuhan did not speak, a light smile like spring water melting ice gradually surfaced on his lips. He clenched his left fist and put his index finger against his lips to hide it.

But how to hide it, the smile still spilled out from the pupils of those dark eyes.

Shen Jingya frowned suspiciously, “This thing… What is there to smile about? You love Ruan Ruan the most, you don’t care about this? You and that person are close… You are not that kind of person ah, how can I not understand it…”

Shen Jingya mumbled to the second half of the sentence to Gu Xiuhan warm smiling eyes, the words abruptly stopped.

“What do you mean? Want to cover up?” Gu Rong was so angry that he jumped straight up, “He dares!!!”

“…” Shen Jingya was silent for a few seconds, her straight and ready spine suddenly softened, her body leaned back into the chair, her jaw raised and lowered, sizing up her son from head to toe, and said meaningfully, “Yo~”

Gu Rong turned his head straight to look at his wife, “Huh?”

Gu Xiuhan lowered his eyes and nodded slightly, acknowledging, “Hmm.”

Gu Rong glared at Gu Xiuhan again and said gruffly, “What’s the riddle!”

“Really?” Shen Jingya confirmed.

It wasn’t hard to guess, and she wasn’t stupid. If Gu Xiuhan’s image of being unenlightened about his feelings wasn’t too stubborn, she would have guessed it ten minutes ago.

“Really.” Gu Xiuhan closed his eyes, and his tone was quiet and serious.

“The person who likes Ruan Ruan, is me.”

“… I told you there was always something wrong.” Shen Jingya looked subtle, a mixture of anger, helplessness, and a little amusement at making a mess, while the annoyance was subsiding at a rate visible to the naked eye.

“It’s really you.”

Gu Rong froze, so angry that his face shook three times, rushed over and pointed at Gu Xiuhan’s hologram and jumped, “Yes! You damn… I didn’t mean that, madam… Is it you?”

In just a few seconds, Gu Rong had already quickly compared his own cabbage with his own pig.

The baby cabbage is more lovable.

Still have to shoo the pig!

“You and Ruan Ruan… Old Gu you get out of the way.” Shen Jingya gently shoved Gu Rong to keep him out of the way in front, “When did this start?”

Gu Xiuhan quietly said, “More than a year ago.”

“When I noticed it… It couldn’t be contained anymore.”

Shen Jingya gradually saw through everything, “You went to the border star… You didn’t go to the Frontier Planet to hide from Ruan Ruan, did you?”

“Yes.” Gu Xiuhan was embarrassed, gently pursed his lips, and said word for word, “He was only seventeen at the time, and from a moral point of view, I think this kind of feeling is inappropriate in itself.”

“Ha!”

Gu Rong was so angry that he laughed loudly and coldly.

“But seeing him every day, I couldn’t restrain… The urge for him.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…”

Gu Rong shook his head with an expression of “how dare you say such bullshit out loud”.

“Gee, are you bored?” Shen Jingya slapped Gu Rong on the back of his hand, “You let Xiuhan talk properly.”

“Woo.”

Gu Rong stiffly answered a sentence and did not make a sound, the rigid black face actually showed a rare trace of aggression.

Gu Xiuhan was quiet for a moment and continued, “I thought I could stop thinking about it by not seeing each other, so I applied to go to the border star to calm myself down.”

“The result… It only backfired.”

“…”

Gu Xiuhan’s relationship experience was completely blank.

Therefore, although he was a mature male of thirty, he had been as confused and clueless as Ruan Yu was now when he first became aware of that charming affection.

The age gap and the sense of responsibility could give rise to various worries and constraints.

Gu Xiuhan considered a lot and worried a lot. He worried that he had been alone for too long and was impulsive.

He also knew that the difference between his inner self and outer self would shock Ruan Yu.

He worried about whether “the person whom he trusted and considered as his elder brother actually had other plans” would make Ruan Yu feel uncomfortable.

It would also be difficult to face the possessiveness and control that are in the subtle gaps of human nature, and which might scare Ruan Yu just by saying it… The insatiable craving for more.

Fear of losing control.

The more one cherishes love, the harder it becomes to talk about it.

Because of the lack of emotional expression, Gu Xiuhan spoke somewhat slowly and would suddenly fall into silence, his brow furrowed slightly, patiently picking out the words that could describe the exact feeling or emotion.

Shen Jingya looked at Gu Xiuhan, who was trying to tell them his emotions, and inexplicably recalled his teenage years.

At that time, Gu Xiuhan was much more closed off than he was today, and his expression disorder was so severe that even his daily communication was limited.

Shen Jingya had heard a spiritual therapist describe Gu Xiuhan’s feelings – that what a normal person could do naturally by instinct, such as speaking or making expressions, Gu Xiuhan needed to work at it. His crippled mental body was like manipulating a mecha called “body”, with complicated buttons and levers in front of him, and no one could enter the mental world to teach him.

For such a Gu Xiuhan, a little mermaid who could read his heart sound was like destiny.

Shen Jingya often saw such a scene during that period –

The little Ruan Yu with a short tail painstakingly rolled into Gu Xiuhan’s arm, milk tofu like a pair of small fat arms intimately wrapped around Gu Xiuhan’s neck, sticky with plastic imperial language to pester Gu Xiuhan. After saying a sentence, little Ruan Yu crooked his head for a few seconds of silence, reading Gu Xiuhan’s thinking activities, reading clearly, and then responding to Gu Xiuhan.

In this way, little Ruan Yu was able to chat with Gu Xiuhan, who did not say a word, back and forth.

Once Gu Xiuhan’s personal spiritual therapist came for a regular checkup to record Gu Xiuhan’s recent performance, Ruan Yu sat in Gu Xiuhan’s arms as a small adult and listened, wrinkling his eyebrows in displeasure and showing a rare bit of aggression, correcting Shen Jingya and the therapist with his little milk voice, as if he could not hear a single negative word about Gu Xiuhan. 

“The aunts are wrong, brother is the most gentle.”

“Brother speaks, he just doesn’t make a sound when he speaks!”

“Brother’s expression is not missing, he is laughing in his heart, Ruan Ruan heard it all, rest assured, bah!”

After learning about Gu Xiuhan’s feelings for Ruan Yu, Shen Jingya was indeed surprised.

But calmed down to think carefully … If not Ruan Yu, who else could have entered Gu Xiuhan’s heart?

During Gu Xiuhan’s self-imposed period, Ruan Yu was the only person who could read his tenderness.

He was also the person who knew that he was not as cold and hard as he looked, and would care for him in the childish and serious way of baby Ruan Yu.

He was the only one who could hear Gu Xiuhan’s soft voice and give him a sincere response every time.

How could Gu Xiuhan not like him?

On the other hand, so did Ruan Yu.

Maybe they were just meant to be together.

A long quiet period.

“… Ooh.” Shen Jingya tilted her head and gently pressed the corners of her eyes with her fingertips, “You two kids…”

A few moments ago, the anxiety to burst a blood vessel turned out to be an ooh.

This was a good thing so far.

After all, they were not related to Ruan Yu, and to be frank, he and Gu Xiuhan also counted as a childhood friend relationship… The age difference was just a little more.

But the details weren’t completely fine.

Shen Jingya did not want to interfere with their feelings, but there were some things that could not be said, a little hesitation, but still persuaded, “Although you like each other, but Ruan Ruan has not really made a decision, not personally promised you. So soon to start… You should be a little bit restrained?”

That’s right!

Gu Rong’s anger doubled when he heard that, but Shen Jingya didn’t give him a chance to talk, so he held his eyes.

Gu Xiuhan knew it better than anyone, but his self-control had already been depleted.

He has… He has been restrained enough. Moreover, he did so with a purpose. He wanted Ruan Yu to perceive the essential difference between a lover and an older brother…

“Really like or find a way to pursue, hey, forget it. Even if I do not say this, you should understand…”

The two of them have come far from the past, and Shen Jingya guessed the course of Gu Xiuhan’s heart without asking, and knew that it was useless to say more as an elder, and picked the key to knock a few sentences and did not bother to say more.

When she hung up on Ruan Yu’s communication an hour ago, she said she would call him later, and now that things were clear, she also has something to say to Ruan Yu.

When she sent the communication request to Ruan Yu, Shen Jingya purposely threw the grumpy Gu Rong out of the room, fearing that he would not be able to resist interfering and causing Ruan Yu embarrassment, and then spoiling things.

She knew that Gu Rong still took Ruan Yu as a small fish in his heart, and felt that he was not yet old enough to fall in love, so he would feel sorry for anyone who took care of him.

Similar to the old father’s overprotective mentality, Shen Jingya could understand, but also felt it was unnecessary.

Ruan Yu must be independent one day and go through his own life.

Ruan Yu had probably been waiting, the communication was picked up quickly.

“Auntie,” the little mermaid, who was lying on his bed waiting for news, wagged his tail and was very good and concerned, “have you finished the urgent business you were talking about?”

“Aye, it’s all done.” Shen Jingya pondered, not slow to speak, “Auntie thought about this thing you said, in fact…”

She did not intend to get blindly involved, but still wanted to assist. In front of the two children for more than a decade of sincere and long-lasting feelings seem superfluous.

“… In the matter of feelings, it is very difficult for people other than yourself to give real advice, after all, others can not empathize with you. Whether or not you like the person, whether or not to accept his feelings, in the end, you still have to follow your own heart.” Shen Jingya did not intend to lead Ruan Yu in any direction, but only warmly said, “You just have to ask yourself what decision to make now so that the future you will not regret anything, do not rush, give yourself some time to think clearly…”

This reminder was enough.

“Mmn…” Ruan Yu thoughtfully and nodded his head slowly.

At this time, Shen Jingya’s side had a “shing” sound, crisp and bright.

Ruan Yu was stunned and strained his ear fins to listen, “What’s that sound?”

Shen Jingya, “…”

Gu Rong was sick again.

Gu Rong had a sword that had been with him for many years and had accompanied him in danger countless times, but it had long been out of use since the end of the war. Whenever Gu Rong became irritable and things could not be solved, he would pull out this precious sword and sharpen it silently for a while, remembering the great days of the past.

“Haha,” Shen Jingya laughed dryly twice, “it’s a rat grinding teeth.”

She dared to say anything outrageous because the child was not too smart.

Gu Rong, “…”

The brittle “ch-ch-ch-ch” sound as if it was insulting, the decibel doubled violently.

Ruan Yu wrinkled his brow and questioned in a small voice, “But it doesn’t feel like…”

“You’ve never seen a mutant rat before… Oh, baby, just leave it alone! Think about what auntie said to you today…” Shen Jingya hurriedly cut off the communication.

Ruan Yu stared at the hologram that had suddenly disappeared, “…”

What, what’s going on?

Why was even Auntie becoming strange?

 

 

 

 

 

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