Chapter 67: Caught Eating Chocolate
Gu Tang was caught red-handed, and he had not even had time to swallow the chocolate in his mouth.
His eyes widened into perfect circles, and both cheeks were puffed out.
He looked like a little chipmunk caught in the act of stealing food.
Seeing Young Master Gu stride toward him on those long legs, Gu Tang hurriedly chewed a few times and swallowed the chocolate.
What a pity.
It was even his favorite brand of chocolate, and it was really delicious, but he had eaten it in such an undignified way.
He had gulped it down without even tasting it properly…
But compared to the flavor of the chocolate, he was more concerned about something else—
Why had the system still not announced that the task was complete?!
[Report, Host! The main brain has not detected task completion!]
The system was anxious too.
How strange!
Its host had clearly already been sabotaging the male lead’s social interactions, so why had the main brain not acknowledged it?
Could it really be, as the host had said, that there was a bug in the main brain’s program?!
In the past, it would have gone to consult a senior system, but now that it had learned the truth about those seniors, the little cannon-fodder system did not dare go. It could only curl up inside the host’s mind and worry helplessly.
Its host’s life value had already been consumed to the point of almost running dry. Without replenishment, even the most basic vital signs would become difficult to maintain!
In the short time Gu Tang spent talking with the system in his head, Gu Qinian had already walked up to him.
Young Master Gu picked up the scattered chocolate wrappers from the tabletop, pinching them between his long, jointed fingers, and looked down at him. “Can you explain what exactly you’re doing?”
Gu Tang swallowed and said guiltily, “Preventing early romance.”
As he spoke, he hugged the pink letters in his arms tighter. Only then did he barely recover some courage. “…These letters are evidence that I was going to report.”
“Oh?”
Gu Qinian arched a brow and did not even look at the pile of letters.
He bent down, supporting himself with one hand against the back of the chair and trapping Gu Tang in the seat. With his other hand, he wiped at the corner of Gu Tang’s mouth with his thumb. “Then what is this supposed to count as? Destroying evidence?”
Gu Tang looked at the smudge of chocolate on Young Master Gu’s fingertip, and his face immediately turned red.
Gu Qinian rubbed his fingers together and deliberately said, “What should I do? I originally planned to return this to someone else, but now that you’ve eaten it, doesn’t that mean you accepted it?”
Gu Tang: “!”
This was not how he had imagined it!
[Oh no, no wonder the host can’t complete the task!]
The system suddenly realized it with the wisdom of hindsight.
The host needed to destroy the male lead’s social interactions, not help him accept them. Now things were a mess—he had done the exact opposite!
Gu Tang felt upset and started thinking of a remedy. “Then… how about I buy an identical box and return it to them?”
Gu Qinian shook his head. “Too late.”
“You already ate it. Buying a new box now wouldn’t count as ‘returning’ it. That would count as ‘exchanging gifts.’”
Gu Tang: “!!!”
Seeing the troubled look on the boy’s face, Gu Qinian kindly offered a suggestion. “Still, you can put these letters into the complaint box.”
He bent close and whispered in the boy’s ear, his gaze lingering over that deeply flushed face.
Recently, Gu Tang had been avoiding him badly. It felt like it had been a very long time since he had looked at him from this close.
Gu Tang clutched the letters and nodded quickly. “Mm-hmm!”
Young Master Gu was right!
The reason the system’s backend had not judged the task complete was because he had not successfully filed the complaint yet. It could not count as sabotaging the male lead’s social interactions before that.
Thinking that, Gu Tang suddenly felt enlightened.
He wanted to immediately go report the letters.
But Young Master Gu was leaning on the back of his chair. If he stood up, the two of them would inevitably run right into each other face-to-face.
That would be very bad!
In a small voice, Gu Tang said, “I’m going to deliver the letters, so could you move aside?”
“If it’s something that needs to be reported, just hand it to me directly.”
Young Master Gu parted his thin lips, the corners of his eyes lifting like a sly fox tempting him.
Gu Tang stared at him for two seconds, then shrank back. “Wouldn’t that still mean they end up in your hands?!”
He was not falling for that!
Gu Qinian’s mouth curved upward. “Otherwise, who do you think has the key to the complaint box?”
Gu Tang: “…”
He had forgotten!
Young Master Gu was the student council president. How could he possibly not have the key?
No matter where he reported the letters, they would eventually be gathered together and end up in Young Master Gu’s hands. In other words, sabotaging Young Master Gu’s social life was an impossible mission…
The boy instantly lost all spirit. His shoulders slumped, and with his head lowered he muttered, “I really did all this for nothing…”
“That’s right.”
Gu Qinian raised a hand and rubbed the boy’s fluffy head.
Gu Tang glared up at him from below.
Young Master Gu did not even know how to comfort him anymore!
“Do you want to see whose names are actually written on these letters?”
Gu Qinian tapped the envelopes with his fingers. The faint smile at the corners of his eyes disappeared, leaving behind a trace of displeasure.
Gu Tang: “?”
Seeing all the letters in Young Master Gu’s drawer, he had automatically assumed they were all addressed to him.
Were they not?
“Xie Qian’s, Song Chen’s, Senior Sister Ye Xiao’s, and…”
The more Gu Tang flipped through them, the smaller and driftier his voice became.
“Read.”
There was not the slightest trace of a smile on Young Master Gu’s face now. He even looked faintly angry. “Who else? Read it out yourself.”
“Mine…”
Gu Tang had not expected it either.
More than half of the letters in that pile actually had his name written on them.
Because he had played Xiao Jiu, Gu Tang, though still just a student, could already be considered a public figure who had shown his face. So it was not strange that he had fans. Since fans knew that sending letters to Xinglin Media would just get them intercepted, they had found out where Gu Tang studied and actually entrusted students to risk delivering the letters to the school.
On top of that, there were already quite a few students at school who liked Gu Tang.
With both groups combined, the number of letters intercepted by the student council naturally grew even larger.
As Gu Qinian spoke, he took out another stack. “I just took these out of the complaint box. If I had waited any longer, I wouldn’t have been able to carry them all.”
Gu Tang craned his neck to look.
Sure enough, his name was written all over them too.
Because of him, the student council and Young Master Gu had ended up with a lot more work.
Feeling embarrassed, Gu Tang reached out and held the other boy’s hand, squeezing it a little as he acted cute. “Thank you for your hard work, Niannian…”
“It’s not hard work. I’m willing.”
Staring at the thin white fingers the boy had laid on his arm, Gu Qinian felt that all his years of effort had been worth it.
Being student council president was tiring, but if not for that, how could he guard against all the people charging forward one after another trying to snatch away his treasure?
It was just like how sitting in the position of head of the Gu family would not be easy.
But for Gu Tang, he still had to climb there as soon as possible.
Before, it had been so that no one in the Gu family could oppose his relationship with Gu Tang.
Now things were different again.
He would not only have to surpass his own father, he would also have to become stronger than the Yu family. Otherwise, Gu Tang’s parents and brothers would never feel at ease handing him over.
Of course, even if he managed that, the Yu family still would not let go of him.
But that was fine.
As long as he was strong enough, he could simply take him by force.
Thinking this, Gu Qinian’s gaze darkened, as if an eerie wind had swept across a black still pond.
Yet the instant Gu Tang raised his head to look at him, those dark eyes returned to calm.
As though nothing at all had happened.
Naturally, Gu Tang did not notice the change in his gaze. Instead, he asked curiously, “Then what about the chocolate?”
The letters had been taken from the complaint box by Young Master Gu.
But a chocolate box was much bigger than a letter. It could never fit inside the complaint box.
Unexpectedly, the moment he asked, Young Master Gu awkwardly turned his eyes away, and even the tips of his ears became slightly red.
“You ate that much sugar all at once…”
Gu Qinian pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek and said vaguely, “If I had known, I wouldn’t have bought it for you.”
Gu Tang froze. “Niannian bought it for me?”
“Mm.”
Gu Qinian answered in a low voice.
The basketball captain had told him that on Valentine’s Day, you were supposed to buy chocolate for the person you liked. Especially in a vague, ambiguous relationship—no matter how innocent or naïve the other person was, receiving chocolate would still make them suspect something.
Most importantly, even if the other person rejected the confession, it did not matter.
You could still say it was just friendship chocolate.
It was something that could advance if the moment was right and retreat if it was not—a perfect chance to confess.
So he had bought chocolate according to Gu Tang’s taste, planning to find the right opportunity to give it to him.
Who could have guessed that before he even got the chance, Gu Tang had already eaten enough chocolate to start hiccuping from it?
“…”
Gu Qinian: It was incredibly irritating.
After hearing the confirmed answer, Gu Tang happily hugged the chocolate box. “Thank you, Niannian.”
Although there was only a little less than half left, Young Master Gu had given it to him, so he cherished it very much. At the same time, he felt a little regretful.
He had eaten the earlier pieces far too quickly and wasted them.
As for the ones left, he would definitely eat every single one carefully and savor them slowly!
His eyes curved into crescents as he smiled and asked, “Why did Niannian give me chocolate?”
The two of them had already celebrated their birthdays in January.
And it was not any special day.
Looking at the innocent, uncomprehending expression on the boy’s face, Gu Qinian felt a headache coming on. He reached up and pinched Gu Tang’s cheek. “Don’t ask.”
“?” Gu Tang’s mouth was mercilessly pinched into a tiny chick’s beak.
Gu Qinian stared at those two moist, rosy lips, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard as he said fiercely,
“Come back with me and brush your teeth.”
When he had been little, Gu Tang had once broken half of one front tooth during the period when he was losing baby teeth because he ate too much candy. Ever since then, Grandma Mei and Young Master Gu had strictly controlled his sugar intake.
Other family members might occasionally soften and give him candy, but with Grandma Mei and Young Master Gu, that would never happen.
So receiving chocolate from Young Master Gu felt novel and unexpected to Gu Tang.
And he was very happy.
Who would have thought that the other boy’s very next move would be dragging him back to the dorm to brush his teeth.
Fortunately, the advanced class moved through the material quickly and had already finished teaching the entire high school curriculum. Since the second half of sophomore year, they had entered full review mode.
Every day in class was basically just doing practice papers, going over papers, or studying on their own. If they had questions, they asked the teacher one-on-one.
So when Gu Qinian found an excuse to bring Gu Tang back to the dorm for a while, the teachers did not object much.
After all, for the number one and number two students in the grade, if the two of them tucked themselves away somewhere to study privately, the results might be even better than sitting in the classroom eating from the same big pot as everyone else.
How were the teachers supposed to know
that the top student was not taking the second student back for a private study session, but to watch him brush his teeth?
“Did you get the back too? Be thorough. Don’t fool around.”
Young Master Gu was very strict.
Gu Tang spat out the foam in his mouth and rinsed. “This is already the third time. Is that enough?”
Forget chocolate residue—he felt like his teeth had practically been polished!
Gu Qinian stood leaning against the sink with his arms crossed. “Open your mouth. Let me see.”
“…”
Gu Tang suddenly felt like he was not the older brother at all—Young Master Gu was the real older brother.
Still, he obediently opened his mouth wide. “Ahhh—”
Gu Qinian raised his hand and held the boy’s chin, carefully examining his mouth.
As the other boy came closer and closer, Gu Tang suddenly saw again in his mind the image of Young Master Gu leaning toward him in the mask, which overlapped with the dream in which he had taken the mask off and kissed him.
His face turned red, and he quickly pulled his chin out of the other boy’s hand and turned his head away, not daring to look at him.
“What are you hiding from?”
Gu Qinian frowned slightly.
The soft, slippery feeling of the boy’s jaw still lingered on his fingertips. The way Gu Tang was dodging him filled him with a mixture of irritation and helplessness.
How many times had this been now?
Recently, Gu Tang had been avoiding him just like this again and again…
“…” Gu Tang pressed his lips together and shook his head.
How could he possibly say it?
Young Master Gu was so innocent and simple, and he had even bought chocolate for him. He did not know at all that Gu Tang had dreamed that kind of… shameless dream.
If he found out, Young Master Gu definitely would not pay attention to him anymore.
And he would think he was some kind of??…
Gu Tang thought of that disgust-value progress bar that had nearly maxed out. Before, he had still been able to numb himself and say it was just a bug in the plot task. But this time, he could not even convince himself.
The joy of receiving chocolate was quickly covered over by the anxious emotion in his heart.
Gu Tang no longer let Young Master Gu inspect his mouth. He pushed him away and climbed back onto his dorm bed, curling up there.
He looked like a drooping, self-isolated little mushroom.
Sensing that something was wrong with the boy’s mood, Gu Qinian followed him to the bedside.
Young Master Gu was tall. Even just standing there, without standing on tiptoe, he was still a full head taller than the upper bunk and could easily catch the little mushroom hiding in the corner.
“You won’t let me look?”
Gu Qinian narrowed his eyes and threatened, “If you won’t let me look at your mouth, then I’ll tell Grandma and let her see whether you still listen to her now.”
Gu Tang froze and turned back in disbelief. “Niannian, how did you even learn to tattle now?”
“I’ve always been good at tattling. You taught me when we were little.”
Since the boy absolutely refused to come down, Gu Qinian simply swung one long leg up and climbed onto the bed. “I already told you—if there’s a simple solution, don’t use a complicated one.”
Gu Tang felt guilty, so he panicked and shrank backward. “Y-you, why did you climb up here?”
But there was a wall behind him. No matter how much he shrank, all he could really do was make himself curl up into a tighter little ball.
It had no practical effect whatsoever.
With two boys sitting on the narrow little bed, the space instantly became cramped.
Gu Qinian sounded completely matter-of-fact. “Why can’t I come up? Don’t you climb onto my bed all the time too?”
That was simply a factual statement.
But Gu Tang could not stand hearing words like that right now. His face instantly burned, and he instinctively denied it. “I didn’t—”
“Very good. Now you’ve even learned to deny debts.”
Young Master Gu pressed closer, trapping him in the corner against the wall.
These past few days, Gu Tang’s avoidance had nearly driven him insane. Now that he had finally managed to block him in, Gu Qinian found that he could not bear to do anything to him. Leaning down close, he coaxed softly, “Be good. Open your mouth.”
He was still fixated on checking his teeth.
Gu Tang knew he could not avoid it, and he also wanted Young Master Gu to finish the inspection quickly so that he could get far away from him again.
Otherwise, if he lost control for even a second, who knew what perverted thing he might do to Young Master Gu…
So with the back of his head pressed to the wall, he obediently opened his mouth and even squeezed his eyes shut in embarrassment.
That way, no matter how close Young Master Gu got, he would not be able to see it.
And if he could not see it, he would not start thinking nonsense again.
But the very next second, Gu Tang felt something enter his mouth.
His eyes flew open in shock, and he let out small muffled noises of surprise.
“Shh. Don’t move.”
Young Master Gu was very close. One hand held the back of his neck, while the thumb of the other hand was inside his mouth.
Gu Tang had no idea what Young Master Gu was doing, so he did not dare move even a little.
A mist gradually filled both of his eyes.
Gu Qinian pressed lightly on one of the boy’s teeth. “Here. Does this hurt?”
Gu Tang wanted to shake his head, but his neck was being held. He wanted to speak, but his mouth was blocked. So he could only make a strained, muffled sound. “N-no…”
When he tried to speak, his tongue naturally moved.
The soft, wet sensation on Gu Qinian’s finger made him suddenly come back to himself, and he pulled his hand out at once—only to draw out a shining, delicate strand of saliva.
It stretched between them, still connected, making it hard for him to let go.
His fingertip came back to press against the boy’s lips, rubbing at the lip bead gently.
Yet out loud, he still tried to maintain a completely proper tone. “If you ever eat that much sugar all at once again, that spot will hurt. I already saw signs of a tiny cavity. When school break comes, you’re going to the dentist. Understood?”
Gu Tang’s lips were being rubbed and kneaded, and he did not dare make a sound. He only nodded obediently.
He was too obedient.
It was almost as if, no matter what was done to him, he would never get angry.
Very cautiously, little by little, Gu Qinian shortened the distance between them, his gaze dark as he stared at those lips he had rubbed red and vivid.
Right then, Zhu Xu’s loud voice came from outside the dorm room.
The boy who had been quiet all this time suddenly jolted in shock and almost frantically grabbed the bed curtain, pulling it shut.
The curtain blocked out all light.
The narrow space the two of them occupied immediately plunged into pitch darkness.
Nothing could be seen—only the sound of each other’s breathing could be heard.
Gu Tang could not see, but at that moment Gu Qinian’s eyes had become so deep it looked as though he wanted to swallow him whole.
“Why is Tangtang’s bed curtain closed?”
Zhu Xu said loudly outside.
Gu Tang became so nervous his breathing turned ragged. He had no choice but to cover his own mouth, his chest rising and falling sharply.
But his eyes gradually adjusted a little to the darkness.
Maybe it was just his imagination, but it seemed like Young Master Gu had curled his lips and was still inching closer to him.
“Mm—”
Gu Tang was so nervous that his brain stopped working. Instinctively, he reached out and covered the other boy’s mouth too.
That way, the thing from his dream would not happen.
“Don’t tell me he’s still not awake?”
Zhu Xu said outside. “I’ll wake him up!”
As he spoke, it sounded like he was about to pull open the bed curtain.
Gu Tang felt like his heart was going to leap right out of his chest, but the corners of Young Master Gu’s eyes were hooked up, and there was playful amusement written all over his face.
Then Xie Qian’s voice came from outside. “His schoolbag isn’t even here. He definitely hasn’t come back yet.”
“That’s true. Alright, let’s go get lunch!”
After Zhu Xu said that, the sound of two pairs of footsteps gradually faded away, followed by the sound of the door closing and locking.
Only after waiting a while longer, once Gu Tang was sure there was really no one outside anymore, did he finally let out a breath of relief and try to withdraw the hand that had been covering both of their mouths.
But Young Master Gu was faster. He grabbed his wrist, pulled his hand away, and pinned both of his hands down to either side of the bed.
“Why did you close the curtain?”
Young Master Gu asked him.
Gu Tang choked on the question, and his cheeks burned fiercely.
Yet it was as if the mutual understanding they had built up since childhood had suddenly flown away. Young Master Gu paid no attention to whether he was embarrassed or not, and kept pressing on relentlessly. “Why did you want to hide secretly? Why were you afraid of being seen? Why were you so nervous?”
“…”
Gu Tang could not answer.
He only felt that if someone had seen the way he and Young Master Gu had been just now, he would have died of embarrassment.
It was just like his dream.
Something that absolutely could not be seen by other people.
But he also felt like he could not say that out loud to Young Master Gu. While he was desperately scratching at his heart, unable to think of how to answer, he suddenly heard Young Master Gu laugh softly.
It was a delighted laugh, full of relief.
Gu Tang could not understand what Young Master Gu was so happy about.
He had failed his task, and on top of that he had improper thoughts about Young Master Gu. He felt rotten and awful, and the whole person wandered around in a daze.
[Host, pull yourself together! One failure doesn’t mean everything is over!]
The system worriedly tried to comfort him.
Recently, because the host had been in such low spirits, his life value had been dropping like crazy.
This task failure had made things even worse!
Even during PE class, Gu Tang was limp and listless.
The bespectacled Duan Zhengyu came over to him. “Tangtang, are you scared of the physical fitness test too?”
In the second half of sophomore year, they had to complete the college entrance physical test, and the boys had to run 1000 meters. To Little Glasses, it felt like a death sentence, so he desperately wanted someone else to be scared together with him.
But before Gu Tang could answer, Song Chen shattered his fantasy. “How is that possible? Did you forget? Gu Tang once placed third in the school sports meet 3000-meter race.”
Ancient memories suddenly began attacking Little Glasses.
Duan Zhengyu burst into tears. “We’re not the same, wuwuwu…”
“Train hard. You can do it.”
Gu Tang patted Little Glasses on the shoulder and smiled faintly.
Meanwhile, off to the side, Gu Qinian had been quietly observing him.
Others might not have noticed, but he had already realized that Gu Tang looked drained.
Ever since that day…
Gu Tang still acted like a little sun every day, but he could feel that this little sun was almost running out of battery. Even his smiles seemed tired.
Those beautiful amber eyes had begun to lose their light.
At first Gu Qinian had been delighted by Gu Tang’s awakening. Now, however, he was starting to worry.
What was wrong with his treasure?
PE class began. After the teacher first went over the physical test items and the training plan, he also mentioned one piece of news that everyone in the class cared about very much—the Jiang City High School Basketball League.
Jiang City No. 1 High School had been matched up against No. 5 High School.
This game would also be Gu Qinian’s farewell match, because he did not plan to take the sports-student route. So after sophomore year ended, he would be leaving the school basketball team.
The PE teacher of the advanced class also happened to be the coach responsible for the basketball team, and he had high hopes for Gu Qinian. He expressed deep reluctance to lose him and hoped Gu Qinian would give it his all in this match.
Gu Qinian also agreed that for the near future, he would attend team practice every evening.
[Host, this is a good chance!]
[There’s a “Destroy the Male Lead’s Belief” task. We can try it!]
The system excitedly offered the suggestion.
Gu Tang secretly glanced at Young Master Gu, who looked full of vigor and spirit, then nodded. “Mm, I’ll try.”
However, in the physical training sessions that followed, Gu Tang’s stamina became very poor.
His life-value bar had almost reached the bottom.
The system did not even need to remind him anymore. The bar itself was flashing with warning lights.
After the 1000-meter run, Gu Tang came in last place.
Little Glasses came in second to last.
When the run ended, Duan Zhengyu turned around, gasping for breath, only to see Gu Tang’s face deathly pale as he swayed and collapsed.
“Tangtang—”
Duan Zhengyu shouted and rushed forward to catch him.
But another hand was faster.
Someone grabbed Gu Tang’s arm, pulled him in, and lifted him up.
In his dazed state, Gu Tang could hear that the person holding him was breathing hard, but still carried him steadily and quickly toward somewhere…
After that, he lost consciousness.
When he woke up again,
Gu Tang found himself lying in the infirmary, with an IV drip attached to the back of his hand.
Outside the window, it was already completely dark, and a crescent moon hung in the sky. He had no idea how long he had been asleep.
His throat felt a little dry.
The moment he moved, he realized his other hand was being held by someone—interlocked finger by finger.
Turning his head, he saw Young Master Gu crouched at his bedside, a pair of black, ink-like eyes staring at him without blinking as he asked hoarsely, “You’re awake?”
At the same time, the system notification sounded in his mind.
[Congratulations, Host! You have completed the task “Destroy the Male Lead’s Social Interactions”! Reward: 100 life points and 10 plot coins!]
[Additional reward: 1 “Double Reward Card.” Please use it carefully!]
Hearing this, Gu Tang asked Young Master Gu, “Didn’t you go to basketball practice?”
Gu Qinian did not answer that question. Instead, he stood up and bent down over him.
Covered by the other boy’s tall shadow, Gu Tang instinctively pressed his lips tightly together.
But the other boy only lowered his head until their foreheads touched. After a long moment, he slowly let out a breath. “Your fever’s gone.”
