Chapter 16 - A business transaction (Translated by Xing and edited by Souhi) 🙂
The bone wasn't too cleanly polished and had bite marks on it.
Li Yubing could almost visualize the terrifying image of Tang Xue gnawing on the bone, her mouth glossy with oil.
He gave the thermos flask a few shakes. The bone was firmly stuck and did not move at all. He wanted to get the bone out but did not want to touch that greasy thing with bite marks on it.
Li Yubing thought, even if the bone did come out, keeping this bottle in use would mentally traumatize him in the long term.
So much so that he might start hallucinating about bone broth whenever he was drinking from it.
At this thought, Li Yubing flunked the thermal flask into the bin.
Old Deng who was observing him from the side felt his heart ache. He silently thought that this young master was living life way too irresponsibly.
Ever since she joined Li Yubing's fan club group chat, Tang Xue's phone had been buzzing nonstop with message notifications. Back in her dorm, she browsed through the group chat history and found out that they not only talked about Li Yubing but also discussed various gossip, celebrities, beauty tips, food, and other random things.
Tang Xue did not discover anything important from the chat history. She suddenly felt that her aim of gaining a deeper understand of the enemy by joining his fan club was not practical.
——On Li Yubing that trash's true colours, she was way clearer than any of these fans.
The chat was still discussing lipsticks when someone sent a photo. Tang Xue immediately found the photo familiar. She clicked on it and nearly jumped up. If you see this, this translation has been reposted without permission from teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com.
The stars of the photo were Li Yubing and her. The two of them were seated facing each other while studying in the library.
Didn't this just happen earlier that night……
Today's internet was too scary. Taking someone's photo without their consent was kind of unacceptable, wasn't it?
What was even more maddening was that the photographer did not even bother to use a camera filter. Tang Xue's skin was still darkly tanned. Being photographed in the poor evening light resulted in a ghastly effect.
With the appearance of this photo, the fan club group chat exploded.
[Who's this? Studying with my Ice God[1,2]? Did I see this wrongly?]
[Take it easy, maybe it's a stranger and they just happened to be sitting together.]
[They know each other. I saw her and Ice God talking.]
[So what if they know each other, I also know Ice God.]
[Well, have you studied with Ice God before?]
[Don't worry, she's so tanned, Ice God definitely won't fall for her.]
[Even the belle of the Department of Foreign Language was rejected by Ice God. Would he fall for this trash? Please, use your brain.]
[You guys are all freaks.]
This sentence threw what had previously been a rather harmonious discussion into disarray. There was a few moments of silence. Their reaction after this, Tang Xue did not know.
She had been kicked out of the chat.
This won't do. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. Tang Xue stretched a hand towards Xia Menghuan. "Can I borrow your phone for a while and use your account to reply in Li Yubing's fan club group chat?"
"Go ahead." Xia Menghuan passed over her phone and also curiously stuck her head over to see what Tang Xue was going to say.
Tang Xue began to busy herself with spinning a story.
[I know what's going on. This girl is actually my roommate. She's Li Yubing's childhood sweetheart. Li Yubing wasn't able to forget her even after so many years, and is still relentlessly pestering her till this day.]
[I know you guys might not believe it. To be honest, I also can't really believe this myself.]
[Another thing, Li Yubing is a huge pervert. Tsk tsk tsk. Not going to say anymore about this since it's confidential.]
[I just asked my roommate. She says that she doesn't like Li Yubing but couldn't shake him off no matter how hard she tried. It's very frustrating for her. Help her to think of a solution.]
After texting these, the chat was naturally flooded with cries of doubt and disbelief.
Tang Xue:
[It's all true. Oh right, Li Yubing is also forcing my roommate to deliver him breakfast. Any of you interested in taking her place? She really doesn't care for it.]
Immediately after sending this, numerous people requested to add Xia Menghuan as a WeChat friend. The number of requests did not stop ticking.
Tang Xue looked at Xia Menghuan who was beside her. Xia Menghuan pressed a hand onto Tang Xue's shoulder. She gravely nodded. "My king, feel free to do what you need to."
Tang Xue accepted a few of the friend requests. With no exception, all of them were on one hand, testing the truth of her earlier words and on the other, subtly hinting that they were willing to take Tang Xue's place.
Tang Xue was elated by this. She approved all of the requests and wrote a message that she then mass sent to them.
[There are too many people who wants to deliver Li Yubing's breakfast. My roommate has decided to auction this task to the highest bidder. All proceeds will be donated to the "International Association for Oppressed Individuals". Don't worry, we're not scammers. You guys can WeChat transfer me the money after delivering breakfast to Li Yubing. If for some reason you didn't manage to do so, this payment is waived.]
Just like this, Tang Xue successfully auctioned the rights to "deliver Li Yubing's breakfast tomorrow" for 50 dollars.
Xia Menghuan who was still watching from the side was astonished. "That actually worked?"
Tang Xue passed her back her phone. "Well, in any case, I don't have to wake up early tomorrow."
"I still have a question. What's the 'International Association for Oppressed Individuals'?"
"I just founded it. The association members are me, myself and I."
"What's wrong with it?" Tang Xue pointed to herself. "I'm currently being oppressed by Li Yubing. When in dire straits, establishing a foundation to save myself can be considered a last resort."
Xia Menghuan felt that ever since meeting Tang Xue, her worldview, just like a newsfeed, had been refreshing nonstop. Every time this happened was just as exciting as the last.
Early the next day, Li Yubing, sure enough, once again called Tang Xue and reminded her to deliver his breakfast. Tang Xue promptly agreed to do so.
This time, he did not wait long. However, the person who came was not Tang Xue.
"Hi, Li Yubing, my name is Yu Wei. You can call me Wei Wei." The girl who referred to herself as Wei Wei held breakfast out to him.
She wore a skirt and light makeup. Her complexion was excellent and her eyes were filled with hints of smile. Her lips lightly curved in a way that was both reserved and bashful. Overall, she was like a soon to bloom bud of a pink China Rose[3]. Head over to teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com if translator's notes are missing or if you simply want to read without ads.
Li Yubing slipped his hands into his pockets. He did not take the offered breakfast and instead asked, "Where's Tang Xue?"
"Something popped up. She was worried that you'll be waiting impatiently and asked me to deliver breakfast instead." Wei Wei replied with the excuse that she and Tang Xue had cooked up beforehand.
Li Yubing did not react to her words and instead quietly looked her in the eyes. Being watched attentively by him, Wei Wei's face unconsciously heated up from guilt. She shifted her reddened face to avoid his sight.
Li Yubing abruptly said, "You."
"Ah?"
"Tell me the truth, I'll treat you to a movie."
Without hesitation, Wei Wei narrated the entire business transaction process in detail.
After listening to the full story, Li Yubing's eyes flashed. His lips lightly quirked.
Heh. There was a path to heaven but you refused to take it—instead, you choose to barge your way into hell even though there was no door[4].
His mood suddenly brightened. Li Yubing accepted the breakfast and drank a mouthful of milk.
Wei Wei watched the male god took his breakfast and thought that this was an extremely endearing and mesmerizing sight. She was somewhat curious, and thus gathered her courage and asked, "Ice God, is it true that you are so deeply consumed by love with Tang Xue, to the point that you can't forget and still relentlessly chase after her even after all these years?"[5]
Pfffff——
Once again, Li Yubing spat out a mouthful of milk.
Originally translated at teafragrance[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Head there for extra content or to leave feedback and comments on the novel translation.Translator's Notes:
[1] The 冰 (bīng) in Li Yubing’s name is the Chinese character for ice. I first translated 冰神 (bīng shén) as "Ice God" for Chapter 10 to keep some suspense but from the comments, I wasn't fooling anyone. I'm gonna keep it consistent in the translation but take note that when others call Li Yubing 冰神 (bīng shén), it can also mean God Bing.
Something that might make you guys squeal: The 雪 (xuě) in Tang Xue's name is the Chinese character for snow. 😉
[2] As mentioned previously, if you've been reading Chinese novels, using the term 大神 (dà shén), Great God, to describe extremely attractive or talented people probably isn't foreign to you. There is the more gender specific 男神 (nán shén), male god, for guys and 女神 (nǚ shén), goddess, for girls. Another way of using this is by simply adding the word 神 (shén), God, to someone's name or a word related to something that they excel in. For instance, it's like how people address Li Yubing as "Ice God/God Bing". In Chinese, this usage is quite natural and less superfluous then it sounds.
[3] FYI, China Rose here is referring to an actual rose breed, Rosa chinensis, instead of being a metaphor for anything.
China Rose. Photo Credit:[4] I could have easily translated this as "asking for it"/"courting your own death" but where's the fun in that? "There was a path to heaven but you refused to take it—instead, you choose to barge your way into hell even though there was no door", 天堂有路你不走，地狱无门你闯进来 (tiān táng yǒu lù nǐ bù zǒu, dì yù wú mén nǐ chuǎng jìn lái), is such an interesting way of saying the same so why not. This phrase is similar to the Chinglish phrase "no zuo no die" (which you can find on Urban Dictionary) but it's usually used to describe or chide people who already did the stupid thing that is definitely coming back to bite them in the ass.
[5] Gosh, this was so funny in the original raws. Wei Wei's question described LYB's supposed "pursuit" of TX with a long string of idioms, one after another, that made it seem like he was deeply obsessed with TX and going to perish any moment without her.
I'm repasting translator's notes from past chapters as long as I feel that they are relevant to the current chapter. I hope you guys don't find it repetitive. It might be a little redundant for people who are binging on this story in the future but for now, I think it's useful for readers who are following this story while it's in the midst of being translated.