Chapter 22: Taken Away at Boot Camp
“Lift your foot.”
“Oh…”
Holding onto young master Gu’s shoulder, Gu Tang lifted his left foot first, then his right, and with great difficulty managed to put his shorts back on underwater.
The system’s electronic voice sounded especially cheerful.
[Host, you’re amazing! Without making a fuss, you just completed the plot mission ‘Force the male lead to do something he hates’! Gu Qinian hates water, but to help you retrieve your swim trunks, he had no choice but to get into the pool—hahaha!]
[We made a huge profit! You gained 50 life points in one go, plus 5 plot coins!]
Gu Tang covered his face. “Stop talking…”
He did not know how red his face was, but the fact that it was so hot he felt like he was about to melt was absolutely real.
That sharply rising life-value bar and that bulging wallet full of plot coins looked nice, did they?
He had traded social death for them!
Across both his lifetimes, Gu Tang had never experienced a social death this severe.
[Congratulations, now you have!]
Gu Tang: “…”
Shut up!!!
“It’s okay. No one saw it anyway…”
Young master Gu was still trying to comfort him.
Gu Tang said in humiliation and anger, “You saw it!”
Gu Qinian pressed his lips together. “It’s not like I haven’t seen it before…”
“Waaah!”
Young master Gu and the system really were cut from the same cloth. If you do not know how to comfort people, then do not talk!
Gu Tang also wanted to put on his own little swim trunks, but it was hard to keep his balance in the water. He could barely stay upright just lifting his legs, let alone put on his shorts. If he came out of the water, then he would have to be publicly watched by the children from both classes…
Compared with becoming a public exhibit, he chose young master Gu.
One person seeing was still better than a whole crowd seeing it, sob sob sob…
Once the other boy had helped him get both pant legs on, Gu Tang immediately bent over and yanked the shorts up high, clutching the waistband tightly with both hands.
Gu Qinian had tied a dead knot in the waistband elastic for him.
This time they definitely would not fall off again.
But Gu Tang had also lost all interest in playing in the water.
The PE teacher came over, grabbed one little child in each hand, and lifted the two of them out of the pool.
Afraid the teacher would bring up his swim-trunks-falling-off incident again, Gu Tang quickly poured on flattery. “Teacher, you’re so strong! You can pick both of us up!”
“Of course. I didn’t train these abs for nothing.”
The PE teacher patted his head. “Be more careful next time. Choose swim trunks that fit properly. That way they’re less likely to fall off.”
Gu Tang: “…”
So all that praise had been wasted.
Then the teacher turned his head and looked at Gu Qinian. “And you—you can’t take risks and jump into the water to save someone if you can’t swim. You need to call the teacher. Understand?”
Young master Gu gave a quiet “Mm.”
Seeing that the two little boys were obedient, the PE teacher did not criticize them any further. He straightened his chest, sucked in his stomach, showed off a perfect set of abdominal lines, and walked off with his hands behind his back.
Gu Tang let out a sigh of relief.
Then he turned his head and discovered that young master Gu was also sucking in his stomach.
Gu Tang: “???”
What kind of strange competitive spirit was this?
But something like abs could not be produced just by sucking in your stomach.
From that day on, young master Gu overcame his dislike of water, and swimming was added to his daily exercise routine.
The long-unused indoor swimming pool at the Gu residence was put back into service.
At first, Gu Tang found it fresh and interesting, and he joined in splashing around a few times, but soon he lost interest.
He still liked drawing more.
While young master Gu swam, he sat at the side and drew him.
Gu Lin, who was already in college, would also come back now and then to swim with his little nephew. But Gu Tang still only drew Gu Qinian, as if he could not see the person beside him at all.
Gu Lin was both envious and jealous. He deliberately walked back and forth in front of Gu Tang wearing nothing but a towel.
A trail of wet footprints was left on the floor.
But in the little boy’s eyes, there was still only the other little boy.
The ignored second young master of the Gu family was extremely annoyed. He snapped his fingers in front of Gu Tang’s eyes. “Tangtang—”
“Hm?”
Gu Tang looked up blankly and saw Gu Lin posing in front of him.
With second young master Gu’s personality, there was absolutely no way he would directly ask to be praised.
Gu Tang understood at once and generously complimented him. “Uncle, you’ve been working out really well lately. You have one, two, three, four… eight-pack abs!”
Young master Gu, who had just come out of the water, paused when he heard that.
“It’s alright, I guess.”
Gu Lin was so delighted that the corners of his mouth almost split to his ears, and the family’s inherited tsundere habit struck again. “It’s not like I want you to draw me or anything—”
Gu Tang nodded obediently. “Mm, that’s good then. I only draw Niannian.”
Gu Lin’s smile froze on his face. “…”
At the side, the corners of young master Gu’s lips lifted ever so slightly.
Since he had been bedridden in his previous life, things like abs had always been beyond Gu Tang’s reach. Resting his soft little cheek in his hand, he asked innocently, “Uncle, how old were you when you started growing muscles?”
Gu Lin lifted his chin proudly. “Middle school.”
Rounding it up, that meant there were only a few years left!
The moment Gu Tang got his answer, he immediately abandoned Gu Lin and pounced toward Gu Qinian like a little bird returning to its nest, happily telling him, “Niannian will have abs very soon too!”
The smile on Gu Qinian’s lips deepened, and he nodded gently. “Mm.”
Gu Lin: “?”
In a scene with three people, only he did not deserve to have a name?
Why would a little brat need abs?!
Before he could protest, Gu Tang had already lowered his head and gone back to drawing his little nephew.
Did he really like him that much?
Didn’t he get tired of drawing him every single day?!!
Gu Lin could not understand, and to make matters worse, young master Gu leaped into the water and splashed him from head to toe.
Gu Lin: “…”
He should never have come back!
Gu Tang really loved drawing young master Gu.
Gu Qinian reading, Gu Qinian practicing martial arts, Gu Qinian swimming…
He drew many, many pictures.
As time passed, his drawing skills improved, and his work became more and more delicate. The figure in his drawings also gradually stretched taller. By the time they were in middle school, he had already begun to look like a teenager.
September was scorching hot—the season of the new school term and military training.
The students wore identical camouflage uniforms and sat around in small groups on the ground, chatting during breaks.
Scratch, scratch, scratch—
The pencil rubbed lightly across the paper.
Gu Tang sat beneath the shade of a tree, drawing. Reflected in his clear eyes was the portrait he was sketching—
A simple black, white, and gray sketch outlined the image of a boy swimming.
Because he was wearing goggles, his brows and eyes could not be seen, and only his high nose bridge and finely shaped thin lips were exposed. Most of his body was hidden beneath the water, but the arm rising above the surface was long and strong, enough to show that he was quite tall.
After using young master Gu as a live model for so many years, Gu Tang could draw a vivid Gu Qinian on paper even with his eyes closed.
“Hey, what are you drawing?”
A classmate came over and curiously leaned in to look.
Gu Tang closed his sketchbook and looked up. On his bright, handsome little face, his round shining eyes curved into crescents. “Swimming.”
Military training only involved standing at attention, marching in formation, and practicing goose-step again and again. There was nowhere to go swimming.
In weather this hot, it would definitely feel amazing to jump into a pool.
The classmate sighed. “Are you using that to quench your thirst by imagining plums?”
Gu Tang pressed his somewhat dry lips together.
He had not seen young master Gu for several days.
From childhood until now, this was the first time they had been apart for so long.
The Gu Group’s educational investment only extended through elementary school. He and Gu Qinian had both passed the formal junior high entrance exam and successfully entered Jiang City No. 1 Middle School’s junior division.
But unfortunately, they were not in the same class.
Gu Tang’s main task was to complete plot missions, so he was quite laid-back about studying. On top of that, since he liked drawing and playing the piano, he had tested into the arts class.
Unexpectedly, Gu Qinian had also proposed entering the arts class with him, and no matter what Papa Gu said, he would not change his mind.
But no one was perfect. Young master Gu had excellent grades, but he truly did not have even the slightest bit of artistic talent. During the interview, the moment he opened his mouth to sing, he was completely tone-deaf, and he did not know any other artistic skills either.
The interview teacher was heartbroken over it and said that with a face like his, he could at least learn acting!
But young master Gu was a little iceberg-faced child. Even when facing the teacher, his smile carried killing intent, so he was eliminated on the spot.
There was no helping it. The future Boss Gu could only throw himself into hard study, and in the end, he entered the experimental class as the top scorer.
The experimental class teacher was delighted: Now our class has a visual centerpiece. Even teaching is pleasing to the eye!
The arts class teacher cried bitterly: We lost a great talent!
Only after seeing the soft and adorable Gu Tang did the arts class teacher’s smile return.
Because they were not in the same class, young master Gu had been gloomy all summer. Just when school finally started, he then learned that during military training, their dorms were not together either.
His spoiled young-master temper flared up on the spot, and Gu Qinian proposed simply not going at all.
But Gu Tang had been really looking forward to military training. He had never taken part in it in his previous life and really wanted to experience what it was like, so he insisted on going.
And that was how the two of them ended up sulking at each other until now.
Young master Gu was very strange.
Although he had come to military training along with him, from the first day onward, he had not once come to look for him.
[Host, although we’ve completed many achievements such as ‘Make the male lead suffer under the scorching sun,’ ‘Don’t let the male lead rest,’ and ‘Make the male lead angry,’ if we’re not staying together with the male lead, it’ll be hard to complete new missions…]
Without continuously completing new missions, his life value would slowly decrease.
Gu Tang sighed.
That was probably why he had felt dizzy and lightheaded during formation earlier—his battery was running low.
He had to go find his power bank.
“Come on, let’s go watch the student council marching unit!”
A classmate slung an arm around Gu Tang’s shoulder and led him in one direction. “I heard this is the first time in the school’s history that someone from our first year got into the student council!”
Student council positions were usually held by upperclassmen from the senior high division. Even third-year junior high students found it hard to get in, let alone a first-year student who had just started military training.
So it was only natural that everyone was surprised.
Even from far away, Gu Tang spotted the boy in the student council formation who stood like a stalk of green bamboo—
Because he was still young, he was not the tallest in the line, but his frame was slender, and the proportions of his long legs were exceptionally good. One could easily imagine how tall and graceful he would become after he finished growing.
“He has the same surname as you—his name is Gu Qinian.”
His classmate warmly introduced him.
Gu Tang nodded.
The sketchbook he held in his arms was filled entirely with drawings of that person.
The brim of Gu Qinian’s camouflage cap was pulled low, revealing the same high nose bridge and thin lips as the figure in his drawings. A few fine strands of black hair showed from under the edge of the cap, making his neck look even fairer and more slender.
When he turned to the right, the shape of his Adam’s apple had already begun to show slightly.
Gu Tang subconsciously touched his own neck.
He had matured rather late in his previous life too. His neck was still smooth and soft, with nothing there yet.
How strange.
He and young master Gu ate exactly the same food every day, so how had Gu Qinian suddenly shot up like a bamboo shoot after the rain over just one summer vacation, while he still looked like a child?!
Gu Tang puffed out his cheeks and kicked a little pebble at his feet.
When he looked up again, the student council formation had begun its break.
Little Bamboo Gu took a step forward with those long legs and walked straight toward him.
Gu Tang felt another little stab of envy toward those legs.
So long…
The classmate holding him by the shoulder immediately grew nervous. “What’s going on? Why is he coming over here?!”
In the blink of an eye, Gu Qinian had walked right up to them.
A long, elegant hand lifted the brim of his cap.
Caught off guard, Gu Tang met a pair of pitch-black eyes.
Young master Gu only looked at him once before shifting his gaze to the arm draped over his shoulder.
He stared at it coldly with the kind of gaze that could freeze ice even in the height of summer.
Gu Qinian: stare.
Gu Tang: “?”
The classmate was so unnerved by the look that he instinctively dropped his arm.
The next second, Gu Tang was hauled away.
Classmate: “??”
The classmate stared in disbelief as the absurdly good-looking Student Gu from the other class straightened their classmate Gu Tang’s collar, then took his place and draped his own arm over Gu Tang’s shoulder.
Because of the height difference between them, little Gu Tang looked almost like he was being tucked into the other boy’s arms.
The classmate could not help blurting out, “You two… know each other?”
Gu Tang’s eyes curved sweetly, and his smile was just as sweet. “He’s my younger bro—mmph—”
Before he could finish speaking, someone covered his mouth and dragged him away.
Classmate: Witnessing a kidnapping in real time!!!
***
Author’s Note:
Tangtang: He’s my younger brother!
Classmate: Do I look like I’d believe that?
