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shijiujun · 5 years ago

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[ENG] History3: Trapped Novel - Chapter Four

~5,700 words (proofread by @weilongfu)

Translation Masterpost can be found here

Disclaimer: Translations are entirely mine - these are not official translations and some phrases have been changed for better English interpretation so you’ll definitely see better/different translations elsewhere. Also keeping in mind when we translated this we aren’t exactly thinking about the style of writing and this translation is as close to the novel as we can make it XD So yes, some parts may be a little awkward to read. And yes some teeny weeny details and words may not turn up in the translation because the Chi to Eng mind acrobatics didn’t work out. If you see asterisks, scroll all the way to the bottom for notes!

Full chapter below the cut

Chapter Four

The music festival period is upon them and this is also usually when drug dealing becomes more rampant, and the drug dealer nicknamed Big K will be proceeding with a huge transaction in a well-known bar. Team 3 is in charge of this case, and under Captain Shi’s orders, all of Team 3’s members are undercover as bartenders, customers and janitors in the bar, waiting for the opportunity to arrest Big K.

Inside the bar, the dance floor is filled with many men and women dancing and moving their bodies to the heavy EDM beats, and some of them are even intimately dancing in each other’s space, gyrating their bodies against one another. Shao Fei, forced to wear a couple shirt with a frog printed on it by Yu Qi, dances with uncoordinated with movements, his attention preoccupied with supervising the bar’s every corner.

Suddenly, Shao Fei pauses in all his movements, glaring at the darts area next to the dance floor.

“Did you find our target?” Captain Shi, in charge of today’s operation, asks Shao Fei through their communication ear-pieces, thinking that his team member found something.

“No,” Shao Fei responds, his eyes trained on Xing Tian Meng’s leader, who’s currently playing darts at the machines with a beautiful man.

At the darts area, both men are chatting and laughing, their actions overly intimate.

“I want to know who’s the person who attacked me.”

“You’re asking me to work the moment you get here. We haven’t seen each other in so long, don’t you miss me?” pouts Andy with his hands locked around the back of Tang Yi’s neck, wearing a black lace shirt that leaves his muscles and skin visible and which exposes most of his chest.

“You sure you want me to visit often?” Tang Yi asks.

Andy hits at Tang Yi’s chest lightly and whines, “Forget it. Every time you visit, trouble follows.”

The music in the bar suddenly switches from EDM to a slow tempo-ed jazz piece, and the sound of the saxophone, filled with an air of temptation and also turning the atmosphere on the dance floor into something more flirty.

Yu Qi, pressed against Shao Fei’s front, seizes the opportunity to hug the senior she has had a crush on for several years now, and smiles to herself, delighted. Just as she is about to take advantage of the sensual atmosphere to ask Shao Fei if he has anyone he likes right now, she sees a familiar someone standing on the other side of the dance floor.

Yu Qi watches the two men slow-dancing with their hands circling each other’s waists, and stunned, she opens her mouth, “It’s actually Tang Yi? Looks like that gossip is real.”

“What gossip?”

“The one that says Tang Yi has many lovers and is very popular, and…” Yu Qi moves to the tips of her toes until she’s right next to Shao Fei’s ear, and enunciates, “He doesn’t discriminate between men and women!”

On the dance floor, Andy suddenly remembers something and so he presses himself against Tang Yi’s chest and says quietly, “Oh right… Chen Wen Hao just met with a broker.”

“I know.”

“You know? Who told you?”

The almost-naked man is actually approximately 190cm tall, but he’s more attractive than most women and looking at Tang Yi, who’s smiling before him, Andy bites at his right ear, pretending to be angry.

“You playboy! Who is it this time? Is he better than I am?”

“No, he absolutely cannot compare to you,” his seductive gaze moves past Andy’s shoulder, and he looks toward Shao Fei who’s holding another girl against him, but staring straight at him. “That person is impulsive, stubborn and destructive, but…. He’s okay.”

Shao Fei, who’s been staring at the corner of the dance floor from the beginning, only feels anger rushing to head as he watches Tang Yi’s fingers caress at the man’s waist. Not wanting to look weak in front of the man, he hugs Yu Qi even closer and sends a challenging glare Tang Yi’s way - the Xing Tian Meng leader who’s currently being all intimate with another man.

“Do me a favour.”

Tang Yi is sharp enough to sense Shao Fei’s emotions. He smirks, and after asking for his favour, immediately grabs at Andy’s neck and presses his lips against the other man’s. Although Andy was caught off-guard by this move, he can more or less guess why Tang Yi is doing this, so not only does he cooperate with Tang Yi, but even deepens the kiss with passion, pulling Tang Yi closer by the back of his head.

“Bastard!”

Shao Fei shakes Yu Qi’s hand off, about to rush over to separate the two men who are still kissing hotly, but he’s held back by Yu Qi, who thinks Shao Fei is going over to cause a scene.

“Senior, you can’t!” she says, and drags him back to the bar counter.

After enjoying the surprise kiss, Andy is the first one to pull away from Tang Yi. Licking at his lips, he asks, “You’re suddenly being really passionate to me, something is definitely amiss. Talk! What are you scheming this time, huh?”

Tang Yi walks over to the round tables and picks up his beer, using the mouth of the bottle to point towards a table where trouble seems to be brewing. Changing the topic, he continues, “There’s trouble!”

“Fuck,” Andy looks in the direction Tang Yi pointed out, then glares at the Xing Tian Meng leader standing right next to him, “The moment you visit, something always happens over at my place.”

The tall man twists his head and starts moving through the corridors, until he comes to a room filled with surveillance equipment. Tang Yi, putting down his beer, follows the man to this restricted area as well.

“Look!” Andy points at a screen on the bottom left corner.

On the screen, Shao Fei and other members of Team 3 disguised as guests and the bartender converge on one of the private tables. The man inside, who was speaking with several other men, find the situation a little alarming. Just as he’s about to knock a few tables over to escape, Shao Fei and another short police officer restrain him easily, and slam the handcuffs over his hands. They then move to each of his sides to secure him between them, and it looks as if they’re just helping a drunk friend home. Without alarming any of the other guests, the team leaves the bar with their target.

“Not bad! Subtly arresting a drug dealer, I like this little cop,” Andy touches his lips and smiles lightly.

As he looks at the drug dealer that the police arrested, he sharply changes the topic and says, voice icy, “These people dared to sell drugs on my territory? Do they want to die? But, how did you know that something was going to happen? You have a cop you know?”

“I know him really well.”

Andy grasps Tang Yi’s tie, pulling the man to stand right in front of him. With a laugh, he threatens, “No wonder you were so passionate towards me earlier. You better come clean and tell me who that man is right now, otherwise tonight don’t think of leaving!”

“If my answer is… I was impulsive in that moment?”

“Tch, those words truly should be used on someone like you.”

Seeing that he probably won’t get an answer no matter how much he prods, Andy side-eyes Tang Yi and releases his hold on the man’s tie. Tang Yi’s lips curves, and he adjusts his wrinkled tie and shirt from the mess Andy made.

The next day

Ah De has been waiting all morning at the stairs. Once he sees Tang Yi coming down the stairs, Ah De immediately follows his footsteps and says, “Boss, let me accompany you.”

“No need.”

Every time there’s something Tang Yi wants to think seriously about, he will always get up early and do a morning jog. Wearing tight navy blue jogging gear, Tang Yi refuses Ah De’s suggestion and heads for the door himself. However, Ah De moves in front of him with quick steps and stops him with a hand, and with a face filled with worry, he persists, “Boss, it’s too dangerous for you to go alone, let me accompany you!”

Tang Yi pauses in his footsteps, and asks, “Have you found out who it was that attacked me?”

“Not yet…”

“Then what you need to do right now is to find out who attacked me.”

“Boss, if you get hurt again, I-”

“Li Zhi De, you do what you’re supposed to do, and don’t have any unnecessary expectations.”

The stammering man is interrupted by Tang Yi, unable to finish his sentence. Tang Yi’s eyes are sharp, and he seems to have seen clearly through Ah De.

“I understand…” he says bitterly.

As if a cold bucket of water is poured over his head, Ah De swallows Tang Yi’s painful reply with difficulty and suppresses the feelings he shouldn’t have for Tang Yi. Dropping his arms which are stopping Tang Yi right now, he moves back to the position that a ‘subordinate’ should have.

===

Next to the river, a cool breeze blows past a well-defined face*.

“Yo! You’re up so early?”

The man focused on running quickly senses the approach of someone else. Clenching his fists, he is immediately on guard, ready to return any attack coming. When he hears the familiar voice of the person, however, he relaxes and releases all tension. Joking, he asks, “Skipping work?”

Matching his pace, Shao Fei runs by Tang Yi’s right side and unceremoniously scoffs, “Who’s skipping work? I’m on field duty today.”

“What do you want to ask this time?”

These four years, Tang Yi has become used to Shao Fei appearing anytime, anywhere but ever since the kidnapping incident previously, Tang Yi now has other feelings for the man, feelings that are not dislike and thinking about how to make use of him.

“Who was the guy in the bar yesterday?”

“A friend.”

“A friend? Who’re you trying to fool? If it was just a friend, would you have hugged and touched him like that?” asks Shao Fei, his tone of voice going higher with every word unconsciously, even touching his own waist and re-enacting Tang Yi’s movements with the other man from yesterday.

Tang Yi stops running, looking at the young police officer who quickly stops in his footsteps as well.

With both arms open, he teases, “Do you want me to hug you as well?”

Shao Fei’s cheeks grow hot. Looking away quickly, he says, “Who- Who wants to be hugged by you?!”

“So what is it exactly you’re trying to say?”

Just as Hong Ye said, with all these years, Shao Fei indeed does understand him very well, but the other way holds true as well. Tang Yi knows Shao Fei very well too, so Shao Fei is definitely not here just to ask about Andy.

As expected, hesitation flashes across Shao Fei’s eyes for a moment. He swallows and begins, “Let’s forget about the first four years, recently you and I have been through so many things together, you saved me, and I saved you. The both of us… we’re counted as friends, right?”

“Nnn,” Tang Yi affirms lightly, then starts to jog again.

“What does ‘nnn’ mean?! Hey! Tang Yi! Tang Yi!” Shao Fei persists, catching up to Tang Yi.

“Let’s run a lap?”

“Who’s scared of you? I can even do two!”

Confidently putting up two fingers, Shao Fei makes Tang Yi’s smile grows wider, more radiant.

The morning sunlight illuminates the man’s angular features. From his forehead, his perspiration follows the lines of his face to his jaw, then landing on the ground as he runs past. The tight-fitting exercise gear he’s wearing sticks to him like a second skin, drenched with his sweat and revealing a well-sculpted body to be envied**.

Shao Fei can’t help but sneak glances at Tang Yi’s face from the side as he runs, but he doesn’t realise that the moment he looks away, the man running at his side turns his own heated gaze onto Shao Fei.

Not wanting to lose to the other, what began as a simple jog turns into a challenge for both men, and gradually they start to focus on running forward. As they pick up the pace, they concentrate on adjusting their breathing pace. The competition between them only stops when Shao Fei, panting, notices Tang Yi’s loosened shoelaces and points it out.

“You… you really…. You really can run.”

Shao Fei, with both hands on his hips, tries to catch his breath as he watches Tang Yi bend down to tie his shoelaces. Suddenly, a flash of light crosses his eyes. Alarmed, he looks towards the light source and finds that at the road on the top of the slope, a person wearing a dark blue baseball cap and holding onto a brown backpack is standing there, looking suspicious by the railings.

He doesn’t even have time to warn Tang Yi before the sound of a bullet being fired whizzes past them - Shao Fei pushes Tang Yi down onto the grass and whips out his own gun from his back. Just as the shooter readies for a second attack, he is interrupted by another jogger running in his direction from afar, and so the man aborts his plans. Shouldering his bag, he retreats.

Shao Fei moves to chase him, but Tang Yi stops him, pressing at his left arm, “Don’t chase him.”

“How many people did you actually offend? There are so many people looking to kill you?”

“It all just takes getting used to.”

Shao Fei keeps his own gun and walks over to Tang Yi’s side, only to see the man’s arm bleeding profusely. He breathes in sharply, “You’re hurt!”

“It’s alright. Let’s leave first,” Tang Yi replies calmly, still pressing at his bleeding wound.

“I’ll protect you.”

Tang Yi stares, stunned, at Shao Fei, who deliberately walks over on his left side and begins to survey their surroundings with a sharp eye.

For the first time, Tang Yi experiences the feeling of being protected by someone else.

Two days later

“Boss, I have a request.”

“No problem. Just tell me what request you have, I’ll treat it as your reward.”

Due to the successful arrest of drug dealer Big K, Captain Shi generously treated the whole team to fried chicken and pizza. It’s rare for him to do that, and what’s even more rare is Captain Shi agreeing to Shao Fei’s request so readily, without even scolding him.

“I want to protect a witness, I hope Boss will agree.”

“A work thing? No problem! Which case needs it? Who are you protecting?”

“Tang Yi!”

“You want to protect me?” Tang Yi asks incredulously, looking at Shao Fei, who is here with his luggage and bags directly after he received permission for this.

“Yes. Citizens can apply for protection from a civil servant***, which is the police, in the event of possible threat, danger or harm to oneself. That’s me, applying for protection.”

Tang Yi’s gaze slides downwards. He picks up his tea cup and tastes it, then says, “But I didn’t apply.”

“I know you wouldn’t apply, so I did it for you,” Shao Fei responds without faltering, with an expression that says ‘I knew you were going to say that’.

Ah De, standing at the side, looks at this man, this man who treats this house as his own backyard, who always intrudes whenever he likes and snaps.

“Meng Shao Fei, do you fucking think we are gangsters for nothing?! Our boss doesn’t need police to protect him.”

“I’m not just protecting your boss, I’m also protecting myself!”

“What are you talking about?”

“The other time we were trapped on the mountain, I was there. This time the attack, what a coincidence! I was there as well. I thought of course the target was Tang Yi, but with these two consecutive attacks I can’t help but wonder, maybe the target was me all along.”

“Bullshit!”

Shao Fei raises his brows and pushes his face towards Ah De. He smiles, “You gangsters offend people, but the people I have offended number as many, especially from Xing Tian Meng, am I right?”

Tang Yi places the cup back on the table, coldly replying, “I will not have a police officer stay at my side.”

“You can’t reject. We’re ‘half friends’, aren’t we? If we’re friends, we should help each other out.”

Seeing his boss quiet at Shao Fei’s reply, Ah De says anxiously, “Boss, if news of us getting involved with a cop gets out, how will people in the underworld see us?”

“I don’t think so,” Jack, who was standing away at the entrance with his arms crossed for a while now, cuts in suddenly.

“Since we still can’t find the person who attacked Boss, and with Officer Meng claiming that the target is him, why not we just put them both together? Firstly, Officer Meng will stop bringing us trouble… and secondly, Officer Meng is skilled at fighting. Isn’t it more advantageous to have one more person protecting Boss?”

“You!” Ah De points at Jack who has been at odds with him, so angry, his hands shaking in rage.

Tang Yi nods, looking at Jack. “Bring Officer Meng to the guest room upstairs.”

“Yes Boss.”

“Boss!”

“Sorry, excuse me,” Shao Fei gloats, picking up his luggage and bag.

He walks over to Ah De’s side and deliberately knocks Ah De , who’s stunned that Tang Yi would allow this, out of his way with his shoulder and follow Jack upstairs to a room on the second floor.

“Thanks for what you did earlier!” says Shao Fei to Jack in the guest room, after dumping his bags at the side and unceremoniously jumping onto the bed.

“You’re welcome. I also have a favour to ask.”

Jack, all smiles, walks over the side of the bed and makes a request that only Shao Fei can fulfil for him.

At Zhao Zi’s House

“You didn’t have to pick me up from the police station, I would have made my way there myself.”

After getting a call from Shao Fei, Zhao Zi agreed to help improve the security systems in Tang Yi’s house - he barely took a step out of the police station’s doors, prepared to have Thai food for lunch with his colleagues, when Jack turned up with a bag of groceries insisting that he return Zhao Zi that bowl of instant noodles from the previous time, and then dragging him back home.

“This is for a girl, right?” Jack asks standing in the kitchen, curious as he picks up the red apron with grey bears sewn onto it from next to the fridge.

Holding onto a carton of eggs and looking at the apron on Jack, Zhao Zi replies wistfully, “Nnn. It was left behind by my grandma. She passed away a long time ago.”

“If it was what she left you, why don’t you store it somewhere and keep it?”

“Grandma said that things are meant to be used, and if I don’t use it’s such a waste too.”

Jack nods, agreeing with that logic. So he secures the apron around him, then turns the gas stove on and begins boiling water for the noodles. On the other hand, Zhao Zi is standing on the side at the counter, naturally rolling up his sleeves and helping to prepare the ingredients they need for later.

“Actually you don’t have to return me the instant noodles. It’s not like you knocked it out of my hands.

“If I said it, I will do it. That’s my principle. Since I said I’d make it up to you the next time, I’ll definitely make it up to you,” smiles Jack, as he cracks open an egg into a bowl and starts to beat the eggs swiftly, looking at Zhao Zi from the side.

“Are you always such a stickler for rules when you do things? Grandma said before that doing things like that will be very tiring, so you better not not do things by the book like this, and you can live longer!”

Chopsticks in his right hand, Jack stops all movement, staring almost incredulously at this person who Jack thought was kind of crazy, but is now seeing through Jack so easily. Once again, he cannot help but think that Zhao Zi is a mysterious creature he cannot understand, and this only fuels the desire to get closer to Zhao Zi, to know more about him.

A few minutes later, a bowl of instant noodles looking exactly like the previous one is settled onto the short wooden table by the window. Zhao Zi sits at the table with his legs crossed, and he breaks out into a wide smile. Zhao Zi praises, “Wow! It’s really the same as the previous time!”

“As long as it’s something i want to remember, I can remember it all,” Jack’s lips follow in an answering smile. “How is it? Comparing to Thai food, which is more delicious?”

“Thai food.”

Jack harrumphs, angrily snatching away the bowl of instant noodles. The next second, Zhao Zi snatches it right back, looking like a little animal fiercely defending his food.

“Ah… compared to Thai food, Thai food is really more delicious! Instant noodles, no matter how you well you cook it there’s a limit to how delicious it is, don’t make things difficult for the instant noodles already.”

“Then…” Jack squints at Zhao Zi, and does something he rarely does - giving in.

He asks again, “Then if we don’t compare it to Thai food, is this delicious?”

Zhao Zi looks at the other man, fervently nodding and his smile so radiant. “Delicious.”

A smile has a contagious, magical affect. When one sees it, they would very naturally respond to it. Even for a man like Jack, who is used to standing far away observing everything, he cannot help but move closer to the shorty who’s eating his lunch so seriously. Jack smiles too, unconscious of it.

Looking around, Jack notices that other than the items and photographs that belonged to Grandma, everything else clearly belongs to a male. Curious, Jack runs up to the second floor.

“Don’t go up, it’s really messy upstairs! Hey, Jack!” shouts the homeowner who hasn’t had time to clean out his house in a few weeks.

Making a round and ensuring that there is no sign of another person living in this house, Jack returns to the first floor. With his hand on the wall next to the staircase, he asks, “You stay alone?”

“Nnn.”

“You love to eat?”

“Nnn nnn.”

“Girlfriend?”

“Nope,” Zhao Zi replies after drinking from the glass of milk.

“Virgin?”

“Yeah!” answers Zhao Zi with his mouth full of noodles, confused now.

“Damn!” exclaims Jack, his eyes widened and entirely surprised.

Zhao Zi puts down his chopsticks and walks to Jack until he’s standing right in front of him. Rolling his eyes and irritated, he says, “We’re police officers, if we’re not doing an investigative report then we’re out catching the bad guys. We’re short on manpower on the team, and basically one person is doing three persons’ worth of work. I’m so busy protecting the citizens of this country, where do I get the time to find a girlfriend?”

“So…” Jack squints again, smirking, and then continues, “So you’re really a virgin?”

“So what? I can’t be a virgin? I haven’t even had my first kiss! I’m great, aren’t I?”

Jack looks at the fuming shorty and immediately tries to soothe him, putting both thumbs up. “Great, great. You’re the greatest.”

“Hmph!”

Having recovered a little bit of his dignity, Zhao Zi turns around and walks back to the short table. Just as he’s about to pick up his chopsticks and continue enjoying his unfinished bowl of noodles, he hears someone calling him.

“Shorty!”

“What?”

“Some other day, I’ll introduce you to a very good looking person, how about that?”

Not yet seated, Zhao Zi rushes back to Jack, grabbing onto Jack’s arm excitedly. He says, “You’ll really introduce a girl to me? You’re not lying to me, are you?”

“Really really, I swear,” Jack swears, putting up three of his fingers on his right hand.

“Then let’s exchange our LINE. If there’s any girl you want to introduce to me just LINE me!”****

Zhao Zi, who has been teased by Shao Fei for being single all his life, immediately takes out his phone from his pockets and slides open the screen, tapping on the app he uses most often.

“Okay!” Jack takes out his phone from his back pocket too, and taps on the app’s QR code so Zhao Zi can scan it.

“Hehe, thanks!”

Having just gotten Jack’s number and walking back to the table feeling entirely satisfied, Zhao Zi receives a notification from the app. Tapping into the conversation between the both of them, he sees the sticker that Jack sent, which says ‘wow~ you’re really great!’.

“Are you an idiot!” Zhao ZI scolds, laughing.

As the man returns to eating his noodles, he doesn’t notice that Jack, who previously put up three fingers in a swear, is now moving his left hand behind his back. He secretly crosses his second and middle finger…

I swear- that the swear I just made, doesn’t count!

Gelato Ice Cream Store

Just a little past seven in the evening, Hong Ye - who just got into an argument with Tang Yi about Shao Fei moving into the house Tang Ye left him - is bent low in front of a gelato ice cream store’s freezer. Just as she points at a flavour of ice cream, the person next to her is a step ahead and says to the staff, “Chocolate mint. And the passion fruit sorbet.”

Hong Ye glares at the old-antique wearing black-rimmed glasses next to her. Irritated, she stands, saying, “Am I that angry? Why did you pick those two flavours?”

Dao Yi, dressed in a grey suit, patiently replies, “I’ve been at your side for so long, of course I know what mood you are in right now, and what flavour you’ll want to eat?”

“That’s true. No matter what happens, good or bad, you will always bring me here.”

They take the two glass bowls filled with ice cream scoops, then push open the glass door to the wooden eating area outside.

Dao Yi scoops a spoonful of his organic ice cream, then says, “Don’t forget our rules. After we finish these two scoops there will be no third scoop, so eat slowly.”

“I’ll eat as many as I want, you can’t control me.”

The 27 year old CEO of Shi Hai Corporations is just as she was when she was younger, willfully taking a scoop out of the other person’s ice cream.

“Are you done being angry?”

“No, didn’t you say Ah Yi will call me? Why have I not gotten his call yet?”

It’s all because of that bastard cop clinging onto Tang Yi that caused him to get hurt, but he actually still agreed to the suggestion of Meng Shao Fei staying at his side to be his bodyguard? The worse thing was that guy actually claiming that he and Tang Yi were… ‘half friends’...

Friends?

Who the fuck are they kidding?

One of them is from the mob and the is a cop, how can they ever be friends? In any case, whenever Ah Yi meets Meng Shao Fei, his attitude towards the man becomes really strange, especially recently. Yes, that’s right, ever since they went missing on the mountains for two days, everything started to become different.

“Boss is probably still busy with other things, so…” Dao Yi tries to explain on the young master’s behalf, but immediately offends Hong Ye as well.

“He’s busy? Am I not busy? Just Shi Hai’s things alone I’m already exhausted, and now there’s another Meng Shao Fei? And Ah Yi actually admits that they are… what, half friends? What even is that?! And he promised me that he wouldn’t do anything to make me worry!”

“Boss of course understands that Miss is worried about him, it’s just like the way he worries about you.”

“The both of you will only treat me as kid who needs to be protected.”

“No, we all think that you’ve grown up, enough to be independent.”

Hong Ye looks at the man who’s exactly 14 years older than she is. Holding out the spoon, she laments, “The person who has no right to say that is you.”

Dao Yi sighs, “I promised Boss Tang that I will take good care of Miss.”

“Miss, miss. So what Boss Tang said to you is always worth more than the things I say to you?”

Not willing to continue the conversation, Dao Yi turns his back to Hong Ye’s accusations literally, but the woman grabs his shoulder and turns him back, even forcing him to eat a scoop of her passion fruit sorbet.

“This is the flavour you eat when you’re angry, eat!”

Dao Yi looks at the Zuo Hong Ye who’s no longer a child, and without another word, eats the spoonful of ice cream. After, he personally drives the woman who’s most important to him, back to Tang Yi’s house.

The Tang Household

“You better get out tomorrow.”

Standing at the sink washing his cup clean, Shao Fei is startled by a voice behind him. Turning around, he sees Hong Ye standing at the entrance to the kitchen with her arms crossed.

“Hey, don’t scare people in the middle of the night, okay? Don’t you have your own place to live at? Why haven’t you gone back?”

“I just really don’t understand what the grudge is between Xing Tian Meng and the police? With you now, or the woman who died four years ago.”

Successfully stepping right where it hurts for Shao Fei, Hong Ye looks at the silent and still Shao Fei and continues to poke at him.

“That’s right. You can really get a lot of benefits being in the pockets of Xing Tian Meng. I wonder how much Lee Li Zhen took that year?”

“Zuo Hong Ye, I’ll not allow you to speak of Li Zhen Jie that way.”

Whenever Li Zhen Jie is mentioned, Shao Fei becomes serious. With a sharp look, he glares at Hong Ye, dressed in a white shirt.*****

“Did I say anything wrong? You’re definitely Lee Li Zhen’s protege. No wonder you’re using the identity of ‘half a friend’ to force Ah Yi to tell you what happened four years ago. What, do you want to be just like her, to side with Xing Tian Meng?”

“Li Zhen Jie didn’t side with Xing Tian Meng, it’s impossible for her to have been on your side.”

These four years, he’s heard too many, too many accusations, but he refuses to believe that the Li Zhen Jie who hated drugs, who taught him so strictly, would have any illegal dealings with the mob.

“Then why did she die with Boss Tang at the exact same place?”

The sharp tone of voice pierces through Shao Fei’s eardrums - and no matter how much he believes in Li Zhen, he has no way of refuting what Hong Ye is saying. This is exactly what has been bothering him all these years. He can’t understand why, and he can’t find any evidence to prove otherwise either.

“Of course! How much does a cop earn a month? To be greedy, that’s normal.”

“Zuo. Hong. Ye!”

Angrily moving past a Hong Ye who’s testing his patience, intending to head outside to calm his head, Shao Fei is instead shoved backwards by Tang Yi after seeing Shao Fei’s actions at this moment. Shao Fei falls, striking the chair on the side.

“Meng Shao Fei, I might have let you stay here, but this doesn’t mean you have any right to touch my people.”

“You!”

Only intending to move her aside but now being seen as an asshole who would hit a woman, Shao Fei’s eyes widen as he stares at Tang Yi, still in disbelief that the man would think him capable of such.

“Do you know what she just said?”

“I don’t care what she said, don’t you dare touch her!”

Shao Fei looks at both people standing before him, and it’s almost as if they’ve gone back to when they first met, those days full of hateful confrontations. His heart throbs painfully, and with reddened eyes Shao Fei pushes Tang Yi aside and rushes out.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m good,” Hong Ye shakes her head, leaning into Tang Yi’s embrace and revealing a victorious smile.

Notes:

*The placement of this sentence even in Chinese is a little strange to me - I think the author is trying to kind of… describe the feeling of the wind caressing someone’s face as Tang Yi or Shao Fei runs - it’s not really specified in the sentence whose face is it, but I’d go with Tang Yi’s face, and the author describes the face as having ‘clear lines’ - Like I said, this is a little weird for me to read even in Chinese

**LOL WHAT IS THIS ENTIRE PARA DEDICATED TO TANG YI’S SWEAT-SOAKED BODY THE AUTHOR IS THIRSTY (Wei: We’re all thirsty for Tang Yi. Feed our fantasies, Author.)

*** literally translated Shao Fei refers to ‘the citizen’s nanny’ which I think i may have mentioned in previous chapters like i think the first chapter - but as Wei pointed out calling him a nanny is a tad bit weird, so we changed it to civil servant

**** LINE is a chat messaging app from Japan I think, works like whatsapp but with better stickers hahaha (Wei: LINE, LET ME BUY THE HISTORY3 STICKERS DAMN IT)

***** what is with this fixation of describing what every character is wearing

#history 3: 圈套 #history 3: trapped #history3圈套 #history3: trapped #history3: trap #history3 novel #translations #ch 4 is out

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thoughtsonhurtandcomfort · 6 years ago

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First official story with my lady immortal and her immortal cat! Set in modern times. I love this sweetheart already. >_<

Don’t...don’t ask too many questions about the details. Just accept it. I don’t know what I’m doing. I just want to hurt characters who can’t die. Let me live. XD

ANYWAY, enjoy. Story under the cut.

(Content warnings: lady whump (but not sexual in any way), immortality, fallen objects, broken bones, internal bleeding, blood, self-healing, emotional whump, angst, loneliness)

EDIT: Now with art!! @thecloudattack answered a prompt for ‘pinned under something heavy’ with this beautiful drawing inspired by this story. <3

The weight registers before the pain.

Weight, and dampness on her face.

She lifts a hand - it feels heavy, distant - to touch it.

Tears on her cheeks. Blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

And then the pain hits all at once.

She makes a high, strained noise, tossing her head back against the ground while her body tries to move up, to free itself, but doesn’t budge under the crushing weight that has her pinned.

Trying to move only causes wet coughs to wrack her body. She covers her mouth, and when she pulls her hand away it’s stained red with blood.

She groans and settles back down, arms sprawled on either side of her head, and breathes raggedly. Internal bleeding, then. Great.

After a moment her eyes flutter open and she finally looks down.

I must be the unluckiest person alive, she thinks miserably. But then, anyone else as unlucky wouldn’t still be alive.

She only wanted to see the old building one last time before they tore it down. She remembers when it was brand new, ages ago. She’d grown fond of it, but like all things, time took its toll and people moved on.

So when the rumble of construction vehicles outside toppled over an unsteady support column…

Her stomach took the brunt of it, pressed painfully under the weight of cold marble that she can feel on hot, bruised skin. Her legs have gone completely numb. Her ribs are shattered; she can feel them shift and grate with every labored breath she takes and it hurts like hell.

And they’ve punctured her lungs, hence the blood. In fact, as her mind clears, she realizes that’s what killed her. Her lungs filled up and she died for a moment, before her body healed just enough of them for her to wake up.

If she remains here it will happen again, and again, and again, and again…

She covers her face with one hand as more tears slip out. You’d think after decades of this I’d stop crying every time… But she cries anyway. Because it always hurts and she’s always alone and has to get out of it herself.

Which she always manages. And it’s always awful.

She allows herself one more moment of rest, then wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. Here goes.

First comes the agonizing task of sitting up. She props herself up on her elbows, her broken body protesting with every movement. It’s late, no one is around, so she allows herself to gasp and wince and cry out, trusting that no one will discover her.

Sometimes she wishes someone would. That someone would help. But then they’d learn what she is, and that…no. That can’t happen.

With all the strength she can muster she begins to push the column off of her, rolling it down over her legs. It will hurt them too, she knows, but she can’t feel them anyway, and her extremities are always quicker to heal.

It takes time and effort and it hurts the whole way through, but she finally rolls it off of her and weakly prods it away with her feet. Then she collapses onto her back and closes her eyes with a sigh while her body begins the healing process.

Her legs heal first and soon she can feel them again, scrunching up her face at the unpleasant tingle of the limbs regaining feeling.

Her lungs are next. She turns her head and coughs up the remaining blood onto the marble floor, and once most of it’s out they begin to heal up and she can breathe again. She takes several long, deep, grateful breaths.

Next is her stomach, and that she knows may take a while, so she tries to forget about it for the time being. Easier said than done, when it twinges and aches without her even moving.

But the worst, by far, are her ribs. She can feel every awful sensation as the pieces mend and draw back together. Even after years and years, she hates the feeling of broken bones healing the most. Those, too, will take time.

When she finally feels like she can move without passing out, she turns carefully onto her side and gasps. “F-fuck…”

Hips. She was so distracted by the pain everywhere else that she didn’t notice her hip bones, too, were partially broken. She lies still a moment until they heal a little. Then she turns over some more and props herself up on one forearm.

“Ah…”

She wraps her other arm gingerly around her still-healing stomach. Oh, god, it hurts so much. More tears slip down her face and she can’t be bothered to wipe them away. They splash onto the marble floor.

Another attempt to sit up is thwarted by a surge of throbbing pain and she wails, throwing her other arm to the ground to help keep her from falling forward onto her mending ribs. She buries her face in her arms, hands clenched into tight fists, and waits out the wave of agony.

When it finally passes she wipes her eyes again and sits up fully. It takes careful maneuvering to prop herself onto her knees, but once she does, standing is a little easier. She sways but catches herself before she falls.

Her labored breathing echoes through the empty building. The roof is half-gone, revealing a night sky full of stars. She can’t appreciate it now, the building or the stars. She’s loved this building nearly her whole life. Of course even it managed to hurt her. Everything did, eventually.

One arm still loosely draped across her ribs, she begins the slow walk back to her apartment. She has to take short, stiff steps, trying to keep from falling and avoid making it all worse. She could stay here and wait it out, but it’s cold and she feels like hell. All she wants is her comfy couch and heated blanket and a safe place to break down.

By the time she steps shakily through her front door, her body has mostly mended. Mostly.

The ache lingers; it always does. She leans back against her closed door and sighs.

Mrrrowwwww.

With a faint smile she looks over to see her cat Simon perched on the counter, expectant.

That’s right. She’s hours late getting home; he needs fed.

“Hey there, Si,” she greets him with a pet to his soft fur, comforted by the way he nudges his head against her arm and begins to purr.

Leaning over to scoop out the cat food hurts, but she bears it. Simon rubs against her leg on his way to the bowl and begins chewing eagerly.

All of her movements are slow, careful. Taking a hot shower, changing into soft pajamas, having a snack and some water.

Finally she curls up on her side on the couch and puts on some late-night TV. She pulls the heated blanket up to her neck and wraps her arms loosely around her still-hurting ribs and stomach.

Simon soon comes over and curls into a ball on the carpet beside the couch, where she can reach down and stroke his fur and feel a little less alone in the world.

Centuries of pain and survival have still not managed to squeeze from her her greatest wish: that when she is hurt, and scared, and tired, that someone would just hold her until it’s all better, and maybe even after. Her body may repair itself back to new every time, but the loneliness...that is a never-healing wound she lives with every day.

#whump #lady whump #womp #immortal character #fallen objects #broken bones #trapped #internal bleeding #blood #bruising #healing factor #emotional whump #angst #loneliness #taking applications for someone to comfort her pls because i love her and want her to smile

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berkcastteam · 7 years ago

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I wonder what went over in this episode. ;)

I said in the episode I’d upload this short story here to the berkcastteam tumblr for people who want to follow along, or read it on their own time. Do check out the episode though much shorter one this time around, XD but also an interesting discussion after the story. Let me know what you think about this story though. Is it good, is it bad, or somewhere in between, and should I release the other story I’ve been writing here or should I quit while I’m ahead.

Hope you enjoy!

-Wolf

The Dragon Root Hiccup moaned as he heard metal clap against rock for what sounded like the millionth time. “Fishlegs, did you really need to take me this far out of the way just to talk to me?” “Yes, and you'll see why when we get there. Besides when did our chief get so impatient?” Fishlegs said smiling. Hiccup laughed. “I ask cause the flight to this cave was already fairly long, and now here we are walking through it without our dragons.” “For good reason,” Fishlegs said heavily. “I also figured you wouldn't mind getting away from the village for a bit.” Hiccup sighed, “You're not wrong there.” “Well then we're here!” Fishlegs said stepping out into an open almost rounded room with beams of light shooting down through different holes in the ceiling. “Wow!” Hiccup breathed. “A Whispering Deaths nest, That explains why you didn't want the dragons to come along.” “One of the reasons.” Fishlegs said sitting down against the cave wall. Hiccup nodded sitting down as well. “Is this what you wanted to talk with me about?” he prodded. Fishlegs chuckled. “No, no, I'm sure we've both seen enough Whispering Death tunnels and nests to last a lifetime.” He took a heavy breath turning towards Hiccup looking much more somber than he had a moment ago. “I'm sure you've noticed” “Noticed what, you're going to have to be more specific, Fish—” “The dragons and their groups getting smaller!” Hiccup sighed heavily. “Yea I've noticed, but what does that have to do with bringing me all the way out here?” “Well you do remember the dragon roots yea?” “Yea, but it's been years since we seen or found one. Since, Snotlout rounded them all up and turned them into mead.” Hiccup laughed. “Not like anyone was able to afford the price he wanted for it. Still I can't say it was one of his worst ideas.” “Well there is still one left—“ “And it's here isn't it?” Hiccup asked knowing the answer before he got it. Fishlegs gestured to a darker corner on the other side of the cave where Hiccup was just about able to make out what looked like a door. Hiccup got up walking over to it Fishlegs trailing behind him. As he got closer he could see a dull shine coming from the door itself as little bits of light managed to hit it. He could also make out different images carved into it. “This is...Gronckle iron...” Hiccup trailed off lost in the detail on the metal and who might have made it. “Hiccup,” Fishlegs said lightly. “This is why I brought you here I think we might be able to use the dragon root.” Hiccup shook his head getting his focus back to Fishlegs. “Use the dragon root how exactly?” “To maybe keep the dragons on Berk. Or to maybe somehow use it to find where they're heading off to. So—“ “What would we do when we found them? Or what would we do to keep them on Berk?” Hiccup had started to raise his voice. “You know what the root does to them. It wouldn't be right no matter how much we may dislike them disappearing.” “But Hiccup aren't you worried? What if this time they don't come back.” He sighed heavily “Fish I get your worry I do. I'm none to thrilled about their dwindling numbers either, but there's still much we don't know about them even now after all these years. And we can't just start chasing after them again either. No matter how much I might want to.” Fishlegs sighed “You're ever your fathers son” Hiccup laughed “Quoting Gobber again are we?” “Once your minds made up.” “It's made up” They both laughed. Fishlegs took a deep breath “The wait and see approach it is then I supose.” Fishlegs shook his head bringing himself out of the memory. He took a look around the room surrounded by books on dragons and herbs and papers filled with notes on them all. How long did we wait Hiccup ten fifteen years. It never did get better just slowly smaller and smaller their numbers got. Now the skies are almost empty, but you wouldn't know about now would you. His eyes started to blur. I can't wait any longer Hiccup I have to know why have to find out. People need to know, the Book of Dragons has to have one last entry. “How the dragons disappeared.”

#Wolf's fanfiction #fanfiction reading #httyd #hiccup and fishlegs

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quagmireisadora · 8 years ago

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Hi! For the prompt, fluffy highschool keynew please~ and congrats for you both xD

His eyes are dark but he is spun of light. When he moves, when he dances, the stage thrums with his every step. He breaks into a sweat of diamonds that slip along his limbs and shower his collar with damp. He is finite in the iron of his muscles, it is the mercury of his movements that defines infinity. In one moment he is untouchable steel, and in another he becomes molten lava. What little audience he may find is struck as if by the crackling of a star, its power and heat released in waves at their faces until they are red with surprise, with delight, with shock–that something could be so bright and yet not blind them. He spends days, weeks, months in the auditorium; alone and tireless. He builds his skill from blocks of courage and pebbles of aspiration. He dances mountains, creates buildings with a form so few in this school can appreciate or enjoy. He dances because it gives him peace, he dances to validate his existence in his own mind. He dances because his pulse burns and his heartbeat soars and his life ripples like an ocean of calm suddenly shaken awake into tide. Jinki knows as he watches from the sidelines; he will be a great artist one day, a great performer. He will become unforgettable when his feet touch veneer. He will rise above the rest and take the throne that awaits him.

But Kibum is more than all this. Much more.

His body works like calligraphy, but when he opens his mouth to speak, when he forms words on his tongue, these words fall out like silver bullets. They hurt, they hiss, they cripple the strongest questions at their command. They cut down compliments, they shatter critique, they tear at throwaway comments, and they dismantle rumours. Kibum is spun from light but he is unkind like a shower of knives, he is impatient like an unsheathed sword, he is angry like a dagger. It takes very little to get a rise out of him, it takes too much to calm him down. Jinki does not try to help in the regard, he does not even try to befriend Kibum. For all the awe he holds for the other, for all the poetry it inspires in him, for every singe on his flesh he earns from watching in the shadows, there is an accompanying brusie from the thought of a confrontation between them. Jinki is not bulletproof. Kibum intimidates him. In fact from where Jinki can see, Kibum appears friendless. He has a posse following him along the length of every hallway, the breadth of every courtyard. He has his tiny crowd of followers, his clique of admirers on SNS. But he spares them no thought—to Kibum, only his skill is important. What comes with it is inconsequential.

Jinki studies it all, the highs and the lows. He writes it down in the notebook of his mind like a diligent student. The hand that travels to a frowning forehead, the tongue piercing that flashes in the middle of an annoyed yell, the hair that is sometimes navy blue at the roots, the tattoo that bares its face in the middle of a sprint, the fingers that fuss with loose threads on a scarf, the shoelaces that are colored in with marker pens, the bob of an Adam’s apple before a performance, the springing step right after one, the straight line of teeth pressing into the curved line of a bow-shaped lip, the gaze that plunges into the earth’s farthest depths, the dimple that appears so rarely it could be mistaken for imagination. Jinki spends his mornings collecting data, his evenings reflecting on it. And by the end of their three years in high school, he has an encyclopedia of Kibum engraved in bits and pieces of his consciousness. He staples it, files it away, stows it at the back of his mind in all its detailed entirety.

Their eyes don’t meet, their words don’t cross paths, their footsteps do not convene anywhere. They live in different dimensions of the same world. Jinki writes his final exams and sits in the dark of the school auditorium, watching. Kibum writes applications to Juilliard, to the Royal Ballet School and practices for an audition, hoping. And in their watching and their hoping they are isolated in their individual spheres of loneliness. There is nothing that resonates in the interstices of their lives, no culminating point of intersection, no revelation and no unfolding secrets to bridge the gap between one and the other. They are separate, they are different. They never collide. On the day of his last exams Jinki leans against a dark corner, unseen and silent. On the day Kibum posts his applications, the stage creaks and complains under his frustrated weight. On a day like this, on their last day together, a thread snakes out and catches Jinki by his neck.

His phone rings, loud and shrill in his pocket. He picks it up naturally until he realizes what he is doing, what has already been done. He panics, rushes for the nearest exit and is almost out of the threshold into the open when Kibum’s voice is upon him like a gunshot.

“Why do you always watch and say nothing?”

Jinki whips around, takes several frightened steps backwards. He shakes his head to deny it.

Kibum confronts him, finally and forcefully. He notes the annoyance in his voice where there was originally curiosity. But the words come out as they wished to come out, and now he cannot suck them back in. He jumps off the stage and stomps across the hall to where the other stands, looking a little shaken, a little fearful. Kibum takes the other by his collar, shakes him a little more, this boy genius who attends the same dead-end school as him; a school where dreams do not take flight unless they are equipped with wings of the right shape and size. Wings that cost a lot of money despite the scholarship. He takes Jinki in his hold and pushes him backwards into an orange-lit hallway. The evening is nearly upon them and a guard will come in soon, asking them to leave before he locks up for the day. Kibum remains in his place despite this thought, he wants answers. “Why do you always watch me like that?” he demands, but more for his own peace than for a fight. “What, you think it’s funny? You think what I do is a joke?!” he prods. “Talk!”

“No, I…” Jinki shakes his head, now seeming confused. “Why would it be a joke?”

Jinki is like a language. His name falls from every teacher’s mouth like it resides there, his mention is on every student’s lips like native pronunciations that stay with you for life. He is the talk of the town, with his science medals and his American university offers and his well-planned railway track of a life. He never deviates from his goals and his achievements are news before they are reality. He is the best student this school has seen in decades, he puts everyone around him on a map. When he walks into school a red carpet of secret admiring glances paves the way. When he sits in the exam hall the invigilator stares with bated breath, like looking for the secret behind a magic trick. When he accepts awards at assembly his gait seems feathery light, as if he is a floating dream. When he speaks in class, when he answers questions, when he solves a complicated problem, his words are always clear as a brook beginning its journey. He is front page talk, he is local news hype. He is the future, the symbol of success, the pride and joy of the community. He is perfection itself.

Kibum hates it. He craves to reach that perfection. He dies for it, with every sore on his feet, every sprain in his ankles, every inch of tendon and bone that he must push to attain it. He strives to excel at his own art but he comes nowhere near, his mind promising to stay focused but always traveling, always distant when its presence is important. He wishes to cut through people’s hearts and remain in them, make a home in the space not simply pass through like an arrow. He wishes to build a temple, an empire with the music streaming through his headphones; his feet as the mortar, his arms the trowel. He wishes he could be good and glorious like that, he wishes he could be the best. But every moment he spends stewing in this dead-end school, he gets farther and farther from his wish. No matter how hard he dances, how high the volume of the music, how heavy the beats, Kibum cannot beat his fate. Yet Jinki has quietly paved his own way out of here, unnoticed by the others. Jinki simply breathes a phrase, exhales a sentence, and it is always gold. And Kibum hates it dearly.

“Why do you do it, then?” he asks in a low voice. “What else am I to you, if not a joke?”

The other frowns. “You’re not a joke, stop saying that.” He stands up straighter now, no longer looking afraid. “I watch because…” he blinks, licks his lips, looks away. “Because I can’t stop.”

Their eyes don’t meet, but Kibum has seen the strings of grey lighting in Jinki’s glance. Their words don’t cross paths, but Kibum knows the softness in Jinki’s tone. Their footsteps do not convene anywhere, but Kibum hears Jinki walk in and walk out during his rehearsals. They live in different dimensions of the same world, but Kibum chases Jinki in rings that do not intersect. Kibum keeps his ears open for the whisper of sunlight in his vicinity, only to find Jinki in its place. Jinki keeps his head bowed but his quietness speaks volumes to Kibum, pulsating with heat at their core. And in their listening and speaking they hold a thousand wordless conversations between them, never once bringing the words to their tongues, never holding them to each other’s ears, never producing sound but always heavy with meaning. There is nothing that resonates in the interstices of their lives, except these unspoken words. They are separate, but they are one. They are different, but they are the same. They never collide, but the crash is always deafening. On the day of his last exams Jinki stands before Kibum and tells him without telling him, how easy it is to admire him. And Kibum holds the surprising confession in the bowl of his hands, covering his chest with it so he can absorb it into his body.

#30 day challenge #with soapy #onkey #drabble

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