Chapter 69: The Stolen No. 7 Jersey
Gu Qinian envied that mask, and he also envied the hand he had once placed over Gu Tang’s mouth.
The two lips in his palm had been soft and damp.
Yet he could not truly touch them.
Gu Tang did not resist that level of intimacy when it was just covering his mouth, but a kiss through a mask was too much.
Ever since that day, Gu Tang had avoided him for a long time. It had even made him start to worry—would the boy be frightened away before he ever had the chance to understand his own feelings?
It was only after Gu Tang fainted and was brought back home by him that he finally lowered his guard again.
From now on, Gu Qinian would have to be twice as careful. Before he received a completely certain answer, he could not casually touch him again.
Thinking of this, Gu Qinian became even more eager to get that answer.
“Gu Tang.”
He had asked the wrong question just now.
What he had really wanted to ask was, “Who do you like best?”
But if the name that came out of Gu Tang’s mouth was not his, he suspected he would break down even more.
So when the boy lifted his head and looked at him with those clear eyes,
Gu Qinian shook his head. “No, it’s nothing.”
Gu Tang only assumed Young Master Gu had been teasing him, so he deliberately shouted, “Niannian!” back at him, then tipped his head up to look at the sky as if nothing had happened.
“…”
Looking at his childish, playful behavior, Gu Qinian suddenly remembered something. “Auntie said you were born in June.”
Gu Tang narrowed his eyes. “What? You don’t want to celebrate your birthday with me anymore?”
“No.”
Gu Qinian lowered his eyes, the corners of his long eyes tilting upward slightly, and the faintest trace of a smile appeared at his lips.
Taking advantage of Gu Tang’s lack of vigilance, he raised a hand and touched the boy’s soft cheek. “It’s just that based on your actual age, you’re almost an adult.”
His treasure was finally about to grow up.
Gu Tang had no idea why Young Master Gu seemed so happy about him becoming an adult. He blinked in confusion.
In the blink of an eye, May arrived.
Yu Zhongyuan’s condition had grown better and better.
The doctor said he was only one last step away from waking up.
Gu Tang was a little anxious and wanted to share more life value with his father again, but the system stopped him.
[Host, take it easy! Your life value doesn’t just fall from the sky. You can’t keep spending it like this! The physical fitness test is coming soon. Do you want to pass out during a run again?]
The system earnestly tried to persuade him.
Gu Tang thought that made some sense, so he decided to wait until after the physical test, then do a few more tasks and earn some more life value.
The moment he thought of the period after he had fainted, when Young Master Gu kept carrying him around again and again, even he felt his face grow hot.
Lately, Young Master Gu had also been acting very strangely.
He had become extremely clingy.
When Gu Qinian asked Gu Tang for the Nth time in a single day whether he would accompany him to basketball practice,
Gu Tang turned his head, rested his chin in his hand, and looked at him. “Niannian, you should change your name to ‘Gu Cling-Cling.’”
Like an incredibly clingy big puppy.
Gu Qinian did not argue. The moment class ended, he simply bundled Gu Tang up together with his schoolbag and carried him off to the basketball gym.
“Ahhh! So handsome!!!”
Gu Tang was sitting in the players’ resting area, quite a distance from the spectator stands, yet he could still hear girls shrieking behind him.
Young Master Gu had just made a beautiful three-pointer.
[The male lead is so annoying!]
[It’s not like no one else is cheering for him, so why did he insist on dragging you here?!]
[Host, do you think the male lead just wants you to know how popular he is?]
The system muttered in a very conspiratorial tone inside Gu Tang’s head.
But then it heard its hopelessly weak host mumble in a tiny voice—
“Niannian really is handsome.”
And while saying that, he also sketched out the pose Gu Qinian had just made while shooting.
[…]
The system died on the spot from anger.
It curled up inside Gu Tang’s mind and went into self-isolation.
On the court,
Gu Qinian had just finished a round of training.
The moment he stopped, he looked toward where Gu Tang was sitting.
Seeing the boy sitting there obediently without having slipped away, and even waving a little hand at him when he noticed his gaze, so adorably that it softened his heart,
Gu Qinian curved his lips slightly and felt that the training had not been tiring at all.
“That shot just now was really beautiful!”
The basketball captain came over and patted Young Master Gu on the shoulder. “Keep up this form. Those guys from No. 5 aren’t our match.”
Gu Qinian’s gaze did not leave the boy. Distracted, he answered with an absent-minded “Mm.”
The basketball captain tested the waters and asked, “You’re really quitting the team? With your score, even if you kept playing through senior year—”
Before he could finish, Gu Qinian shook his head.
Still staring fixedly at a certain spot in the resting area, he said, “Gu Tang and I agreed we’d take the college entrance exam together and go to the same university in the future. In senior year, I’m going to stay with him. I won’t have time to come train with the team.”
The basketball captain, for no reason at all, felt like he had just been shown off at.
He gave a dry laugh and joked, “Even married couples aren’t as clingy as you two brothers.”
Gu Qinian neither confirmed nor denied it. He only curled his lips and smiled faintly.
“You only smile like a normal human being when your brother’s involved…”
The basketball captain thought to himself that his star player was about to leave the team. The problem was, once Gu Qinian stopped coming, Gu Tang definitely would not come to the gym anymore either.
So, for the sake of his younger sister, he tried one last time. “Well… my sister wants your brother’s contact info—”
This time, Gu Qinian finally turned to look at him.
His gaze was as cold as two ice blades.
A sister was important, yes, but matches and one’s life were even more important!
Not to mention that Gu Qinian looked like he was ready to kill him, if they lost Gu Qinian before the match against No. 5, winning would become difficult.
The basketball captain immediately changed his tune. “Just kidding! I was joking, hahaha!”
“It wasn’t funny.”
Gu Qinian dropped those cold words, brushed aside the captain’s hand from his shoulder, and strode toward Gu Tang.
Left standing there, the captain awkwardly touched his nose. “Tsk. They’re already so grown up, and these two brothers are still so clingy…”
The moment Gu Qinian walked over, the cute-looking boy immediately sprang up, handed him water, and even shoved some drawing he had done into his hands for him to see.
The boy had fair skin, a very pleasing smile, and sparkling eyes.
And all of that was directed only at Gu Qinian.
“…”
The basketball captain, who had nobody handing him water, inexplicably felt as though someone had stuffed a sour lemon into his mouth.
At that exact moment, another team member came over, looked in the direction of the little pair, and clicked his tongue. “This is weird. Gu Tang obviously isn’t a girl, so why am I kind of jealous of Gu Qinian?”
Another teammate chimed in, “Honestly… me too.”
Mainly because the boy’s smile was just too sweet.
One smile from him seemed enough to heal all physical and mental exhaustion.
The basketball captain slapped both players on the back of the head. “Are you two???”
The teammates looked aggrieved. “Look at you, all noble and superior, lonely and unloved with no one keeping you company!”
The other one nodded. “Even your sister doesn’t come watch you.”
The basketball captain: “…”
So angry that the captain started dunking the ball over and over with a bang-bang-bang.
The basketball gym shook from how hard he smashed the backboard.
Meanwhile, over on Gu Tang and Gu Qinian’s side, the world was peaceful and still.
Young Master Gu was drinking water. Because he had just finished training, he was covered in sweat. Damp strands of hair clung to his forehead, the long corners of his eyes were faintly red, and small beads of sweat stood out on the bridge of his high nose.
His Adam’s apple rolled as he drank.
Although his features were extraordinarily refined and gorgeous, his height and bearing alone made him radiate hormones just by standing there.
Over the years, if not for the facts that Young Master Gu was the student council president and his cold personality kept people at a distance, cutting off his own romantic prospects, he would not merely have been attracting bees and butterflies—
it would have been much worse.
Gu Tang stood in the shadow cast by the boy’s tall body.
He was completely covered by it.
He was not short either. Just like in his previous life, he had grown to 180 centimeters. It was only that his frame was smaller.
But in front of Young Master Gu, the difference in size became extremely obvious.
Even his hands and feet were much smaller.
Thinking about how the other boy could easily pick him up, carry him anywhere, even trap him in a corner where he could not escape…
Gu Tang’s cheeks started to warm.
After finishing his water, Gu Qinian lowered his head and met the boy’s dazed gaze and flushed little face.
Their eyes met.
Gu Tang suddenly came back to himself and turned his gaze away.
Gu Qinian: “?”
He did not understand why Gu Tang had started avoiding him again for no reason.
Gu Qinian stepped forward.
Just as expected, Gu Tang’s eyes darted around, and he casually—far too casually—took a step backward.
Gu Qinian: “!”
After living through that period when Gu Tang avoided him, even if it had not lasted long, to him it had felt the same as an eternity.
Once had already been too much.
He had no desire to go through it a second time.
But the problem was, today he had not done anything excessive at all…
Gu Qinian instinctively looked for the reason in himself first. Lowering his head, he glanced down.
His basketball jersey was damp with sweat.
Using his germaphobic brain to think it through, Young Master Gu suspected that Gu Tang simply did not like sweaty clothes.
So, without another word, he stripped off his jersey.
The spectator area immediately erupted with screams and a few whistles.
At such close range, Gu Tang was brutally struck by the sight of a body as perfect as a Greek statue. Panicking, he grabbed Young Master Gu’s jacket and wrapped it around him. “Don’t take your clothes off so casually!”
Lowering his head, Gu Qinian looked at the boy whose face was completely red. “Should I go take a shower?”
It was an entirely normal sentence.
But when Gu Tang heard it, it somehow felt very awkward. His face grew even redder, and he pushed at the other boy, urging him away. “Go, go!”
Anyway, he absolutely was not allowed to strut around here showing off abs and those V-lines!
After finally sending Young Master Gu away, Gu Tang picked up the jersey the other had thrown onto the chair. It was thin, but heavy now because it was soaked with sweat, and even the number 7 on it looked darker from the dampness.
For some reason, simply holding that jersey made Gu Tang’s face grow hotter and hotter.
The skin of his fingers where it touched the jersey felt almost scorched.
He quickly folded it neatly and placed it on his knees, then sat obediently back down to wait for Young Master Gu.
At that moment, someone came over and greeted him. “Hey.”
Gu Tang knew this was the basketball captain, so he politely waved back and curved his eyes in a smile. “Hello, Captain.”
At first, the basketball captain had not understood why his younger sister was so obsessed with Gu Tang, but at this moment he suddenly did.
This kid was really too adorable!
Small hands, small feet, small everything, delicate and pretty.
His smile warmed people right to the heart, like a bright little sun.
All of a sudden, he understood why Gu Qinian treasured Gu Tang so much.
If his family had a younger brother like this, he would have to keep him tied to his belt too. Otherwise, the moment he let his guard down, someone would steal him away.
For the harmony of the whole team, and also to avoid being stabbed to death by Gu Qinian’s icy gaze, the basketball captain did not bring up his younger sister to Gu Tang. He only asked Gu Tang to keep supporting Gu Qinian and supporting the basketball team.
“When you’re here, Gu Qinian plays at his best. The match against No. 5 is our faith-on-the-line decisive battle. I hope you’ll come.”
The basketball captain gave his invitation sincerely.
Gu Tang nodded. “Mm, I’ll come.”
Of course he could not miss Niannian’s basketball farewell match.
As he spoke, he lowered his head and touched Young Master Gu’s jersey.
Seeing that, the captain sighed. “Number Seven. He’s worn it for two years now. Highest-scoring MVP in No. 1 High history. Honor player. And yet he’s just letting it go… he really can bear to do it.”
The captain thought Gu Tang probably had no idea that Gu Qinian was quitting basketball in order to stay with him and study.
But then he thought that was a matter between the two brothers, so he did not say anything more.
Instead, he clenched his fist and said, “Anyway, with Number Seven here, our faith is here! We’re definitely going to win!”
…Faith?
Gu Tang suddenly remembered that he still had an unfinished task called Destroy the Male Lead’s Faith.
[This is a great chance, Host! The hint has practically been delivered straight to your door!]
The system was extremely excited.
Wasn’t this exactly like being fed when hungry and handed a pillow when sleepy?
Its host not only worked efficiently, his luck was amazing too!
But Gu Tang refused. “No. I can’t ruin Niannian’s farewell match.”
The system panicked, but he ignored it.
Gu Qinian took a quick shower in the basketball gym’s shower room. When he came back out, he saw the basketball captain sitting beside Gu Tang, apparently talking to him about something.
The moment he remembered how the captain had repeatedly tried to match Gu Tang with his younger sister,
Young Master Gu felt fury blaze through him. Frowning, he strode over, grabbed Gu Tang, and pulled him away.
“Wait! The jersey!”
The moment Gu Tang stood up, the jersey slid from his knees to the floor.
He cried out and shook free of Young Master Gu’s hand, then bent down to pick up the No. 7 jersey. Carefully, he dusted it off, folded it again, and hugged it in his arms before saying, “Okay, let’s go now.”
The boy’s eyes curved into two crescent moons. Without the slightest disgust, he held the sweat-soaked jersey in his arms.
Seeing this, Gu Qinian’s mood miraculously improved again.
There was even a hint of a smile in the corners of his eyes.
Before the high school basketball league, all second-year students first had to complete the physical test for the college entrance exam.
The physical test was not graded. It was simply pass or fail.
Anyone who failed would have to take a makeup test in senior year.
Poor Little Glasses, Duan Zhengyu, had already secured a guaranteed admission spot through the math competition, yet still got stuck on the physical test.
A 1000-meter run felt like an impossible mountain to him.
Gu Tang comforted him. “Don’t be scared. I’ll run with you.”
Little Glasses rubbed his eyes miserably. “But Tangtang’s performance isn’t stable either. Last time you came in last place and even fainted…”
Gu Tang: “…”
It was fine. He still had a trick.
“Niannian will run with us too!”
Gu Tang casually dragged Young Master Gu into it.
After all, the college entrance physical test did not have rankings. You just had to pass. Running slowly was fine too, and it would not waste as much life value.
If he ran slowly together with Little Glasses, and Young Master Gu controlled their pace from the side, then they would definitely pass.
Little Glasses pouted. “Would Gu Qinian even agree to that?”
“He will.”
Gu Tang puffed out his chest confidently. “I’m his brother. If I say it, would he dare refuse?”
The greater the thrill of boasting in front of Little Glasses, the more pathetic the reality of asking later became.
After showing off in front of Little Glasses, Gu Tang turned around, grabbed Young Master Gu’s arm, and shook it with a pleading smile. “Niannian is the best. You’ll agree, right?”
He was also doing this to help build a solid friendship between Young Master Gu and Little Glasses.
That way, in the future, there would not be the situation from the original book where the future Mr. Gu could not get the mathematician Little Glasses to help him.
Before he was completely “crushed to death” by the male lead, he wanted to lay out a broad, easy road for Young Master Gu.
So that he could walk steadily forward, and Gu Tang himself could leave in peace.
Gu Qinian did not know any of Gu Tang’s thoughts. He only saw the boy’s obedient, smiling face, and his heart softened. The boy was even lightly shaking his arm and speaking to him in a soft, coaxing voice.
Facing a Gu Tang like this, he could agree to anything.
But aloud, he still deliberately said in a deep voice, “You’re not allowed to act spoiled in public.”
Gu Tang leaned against his shoulder like he had no bones, speaking in a clingy tone. “Then I’ll act spoiled at home. Just agree first.”
“…”
Gu Qinian’s Adam’s apple sank, and one word rolled out of his throat. “…Okay.”
With Young Master Gu running alongside them, both Gu Tang and Little Glasses passed the test smoothly.
Duan Zhengyu was so happy that he hugged Gu Tang at once. “Thank you, Tangtang! Whenever I practiced by myself, I always went over the time limit!”
But before Gu Tang could hug him back, he was pulled away.
Gu Qinian wrapped an arm around Gu Tang and said icily, “A verbal thank-you is enough. Don’t go touching people.”
“…”
Little Glasses was furious.
Gu Qinian had been stealing Tangtang from him ever since they were little!
In elementary school, Tangtang had clearly been his deskmate, but Gu Qinian stole him away.
Later, when they were learning to swim, he had been the first one to notice Tangtang drowning, but Gu Qinian had stolen the rescue too.
And the last time Tangtang fainted while running, he had been the first to rush over, only for Gu Qinian to take him again.
Now he had finally passed the physical test, and he was not even allowed one hug from Tangtang!
Ah! Gu Qinian was so hateful!!!
Gu Tang still had no idea that thanks to all his efforts, Little Glasses now disliked Young Master Gu even more, and in the future would only help the Gu family because of Gu Tang’s face.
At that moment, Gu Tang, fresh off the run, was taken to the lounge in the basketball gym.
There, he lay face down on a long bench, enjoying the stretching massage Young Master Gu was giving him.
“If you don’t relax properly after exercise, you won’t even be able to move tomorrow.”
Gu Qinian said this in a low voice.
Gu Tang agreed deeply with Young Master Gu’s words. He was not normally active, so suddenly running 1000 meters had left his body very tight.
Over the past few years, Young Master Gu, for reasons unknown, had worked desperately to improve his massage skills.
He had already reached a professional level.
Although the massage was still very intense at first, it was undeniably effective.
Once you endured the soreness at the beginning, the relaxation massage at the end was extraordinary—comfortable enough to make a person drift off to sleep.
Lowering his eyes, Gu Qinian placed his large hands over the boy’s slender waist and back. As he massaged, he probed, “Does it feel good?”
Gu Tang was so comfortable he could barely open his eyes.
His body lay limp on the bench. Only when he heard Young Master Gu ask did he weakly answer, “Mm… it feels good…”
A flicker passed through Gu Qinian’s eyes. “Then who do you like best?”
“?”
Gu Tang felt there was no necessary connection between those two questions, but the atmosphere had already reached this point, so he went along with it. “Niannian?”
Gu Qinian raised a brow. “You sound very uncertain.”
Gu Tang coughed lightly, then changed his tone. “Niannian.”
A firm tone, meaning the one he liked best really was Niannian.
As expected, Young Master Gu was extremely satisfied with that answer.
His two hands massaged Gu Tang even more comfortably. With his eyes half-closed, Gu Tang let out a lazy, contented sigh.
What he did not know was that the person behind him had gone dark-eyed the moment he heard that sound.
“Actually, I could make you feel even better.”
Young Master Gu’s voice seemed to carry a kind of enchantment as he whispered by his ear, “But it might make you angry. If I did it, would you stop liking me best?”
Gu Tang had already been kneaded half senseless by those hands, and asked dizzily, “Feel even better… why would that make me angry?”
Gu Qinian stared at the boy’s beautiful shoulder blades, his gaze sliding from his waist and back all the way down to the base of his spine.
After a moment of silence, he changed the question. “What kind of thing would be absolutely unforgivable to you?”
“Mm…”
Gu Tang used the few remaining clear brain cells he had left to think about it.
As a cannon-fodder fake young master, his very existence was meant to serve as a reverse motivator for the male lead, before finally being “crushed to death” by him.
Since he had already accepted the ending of “being crushed to death by the male lead,”
he truly could not imagine what else Young Master Gu might do that he could never forgive.
So slowly, Gu Tang said, “As long as it doesn’t go against heaven and conscience, and doesn’t break the law, Niannian can do anything.”
“Really?”
Gu Qinian bent down, almost kissing the back of the boy’s long neck. “You said that yourself. Remember it.”
“No, wait! There is one thing you absolutely can’t do!”
Hearing those words, Gu Qinian froze.
Staring at that creamy-white stretch of skin in front of him, he asked hoarsely, “What?”
Feeling the other boy’s breath on his neck, Gu Tang found it a little ticklish and raised a hand to scratch it. In a serious tone, he said, “You’re not allowed to do anything that hurts yourself.”
He had almost forgotten.
In the original book, the future Mr. Gu had hurt himself plenty in order to succeed.
Going days and nights without sleep to defeat competitors had been common, and to stay conscious he had even relied on drugs.
Once the body was ruined, in the end there would only be nothing left.
He did not want to see Young Master Gu walk that path.
Gu Qinian straightened up and lovingly touched the patch of skin the boy had scratched red. “…What if the person I want to hurt is you?”
Of course he could never bear to hurt Gu Tang.
But his desire was almost beyond suppression.
One day, maybe, just like a moment ago…
he would want to kiss the boy in front of him.
He would want to possess him, swallow him whole, trap him by his side forever and never let him leave.
That kind of madness would undoubtedly frighten Gu Tang.
“You never would.”
Gu Tang did not turn around, only rested his chin on the backs of his hands.
He did not believe Young Master Gu would hurt him. Rather, it was he…
who might hurt Young Master Gu in order to complete a task.
After thinking about it, Gu Tang asked, “Niannian, to a basketball player, does a jersey count as faith?”
Gu Qinian did not know why Gu Tang suddenly asked this, but he still answered him. “I suppose so. Some players value their jersey a lot, and even treat their number as their lucky number.”
Gu Tang’s heart sank, and he pressed on. “Then what about you? If your jersey disappeared, would it affect your performance?”
Gu Qinian lowered his eyes to look at him and gently kneaded the boy’s swan-like neck. “If you weren’t there, that would affect my performance.”
“You’ll come watch my game, right?”
Gu Tang nodded happily. “Of course!”
That was great.
To Young Master Gu, the jersey was not the key thing.
So… if he took it away, it should not be too big a problem, right?
After getting Gu Tang’s affirmative answer, Gu Qinian curved his lips. “It’s a promise. You’re not allowed to go back on it.”
“Mm. If I don’t come, I’m a puppy.”
Gu Tang was growing sleepy under the kneeling and let out a yawn.
Gu Qinian coaxed him. “If you’re sleepy, then sleep.”
Under the other boy’s gentle persuasion and skillful fingers, Gu Tang closed his eyes.
In his hazy drowsiness, he felt a soft, damp touch on the back of his neck and shoulder, as if someone had kissed him there very gently and with great care.
But when he woke up, Young Master Gu was sitting properly beside him, reading a book.
Blushing, Gu Tang scratched his head.
Could it be that he was even having shameful dreams in broad daylight now?!
The night before the basketball league,
a shadow quietly slipped into the second floor of the Gu residence—to Young Master Gu’s room.
It was the first time in this house that Gu Tang had ever acted like a thief, and he was so nervous that every hair on his body stood on end. The thing he had come to steal was—
Young Master Gu’s No. 7 jersey!
[Don’t be scared, Host! Once we grab the jersey, we run! Think about the task reward—another 100 life points!]
The system tried to cheer him on.
Gritting his teeth, Gu Tang said, “Right!”
If he shared half of that life value with Father, maybe Father would finally wake up.
Anyway, Young Master Gu had already said the jersey was not important, so it might as well be used to complete a task.
This room was completely familiar territory to Gu Tang. He knew exactly where everything was. With a quick flash of movement, he slipped into the walk-in closet and easily found Young Master Gu’s jersey.
But it was, after all, his first time being a thief.
He had no experience.
Only after getting the jersey into his hands did Gu Tang suddenly realize that he had not prepared anywhere to hide it.
What if someone saw it and asked about it? What would he say?
After thinking it over, he folded the jersey into a neat little square and stuffed it inside his clothes.
A few minutes later, Gu Tang crept suspiciously out of the closet, but the instant he turned around, he crashed into a broad chest.
Gu Tang: “!!!”
“What are you doing?”
Steadying him with one hand, Gu Qinian lowered his gaze to the boy’s stomach, which looked almost like he was three months pregnant, and to the corner of the jersey peeking out from beneath the hem of his clothes.
A laugh spilled from between his lips. “Heh.”
***
Author’s Note:
Gu Niannian (thoughtfully): He’s stealing my jersey. He must like me.
