Bite Your Fingertips

82nd -【Dog fight】

I was contemplating whether I should still split this or not, but yea, as you can see, you get the whole chapter now. Enjoy!

Chu Yu got used to the anklet after a few days of wearing it.

Except for when wearing ankle-length socks, it didn’t affect him at all. He’d look down from time to time and think it was pretty.

Returning from the May 1st holiday, there were three consecutive days of midterm exams. After the exams, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter how good or bad they did on the tests, at least they could relax and enjoy the two days before the test results were announced.

Li Hua scouted Chu Yu and Lu Shi, then several of them gathered to match their answers.

Fang Ziqi trembled with fear every time a question was answered. He’d directly cover his ears after a correct answer appeared. Because of staying up late to review, there was still a clear circle of greenish-black shadow underneath his eyes.

“No, no, torture! This is really torture! If I have a nervous breakdown one day, it’ll definitely be caused by matching answers!”

Zhang Yueshan waved his hand and said in a discontented tone, “You might not believe this, but we had ten multiple-choice questions in math and I actually have six questions to which answers differ from Lu-Shen. I’m dead, I can’t live on, I don’t dare think about how many marks I’ll get in math… matching answers is really too fucking terrible!”

Li Hua comforted him, “Maybe you got the rest of the choices and fill-in-the-blank questions all correct.”

Zhang Yueshan was briefly excited before his face broke down. “Do you believe so? That the rest of my questions are all correct.”

Faced with Zhang Yueshan’s expectant look, Li Hua wanted to say “I believe” in good conscience, but he stated the truth in the end. “I don’t believe it.”

Zhang Yueshan looked haggard. “Brothers, do you want ice cream? My treat. I just request of you all to bless me.”

The group gathered in front of the school’s convenience store.

Zhang Yueshan did what he said and treated them to ice cream.

Dream-Ge was the most driven. He took an ice cream from Zhang Yueshan and wished him well in a loud voice, “I wish you eternal youth!”

Before Zhang Yueshan could react, Chu Yu quickly chose a strawberry flavored one. “I wish you and your children a fulfilling life!”

Lu Shi also reached out and picked a random flavor. “I wish that you give birth to a son soon.”

Zhang Yueshan’s face looked dumbfounded. “You guys, you’re-,” he couldn’t think of an adjective. “You guys! I wanted you to bless the rest of my math questions to be correct! Laozi isn’t married or old yet, why would I want to stay young forever or birth a son so soon?”

Dream-Ge tore off the wrapping paper and licked. “Class Rep, our wishes were perfect! Eternal youth is fucking awesome!”

Chu Yu’s eyes curved. “That’s right Class Rep, anyone who has studied political philosophy knows that we don’t have the final say in whether you can get all the multiple-choice questions correct.” He smacked his lips. “This ice cream is delicious!”

The group of students laughed and made noise all the way, and in a blink of an eye, they forgot about the monthly exams.

It was rare that there weren’t many people lining up at the entrance of the school building’s elevator, so the group quickly entered it.

Zhang Yueshan remembered, “You have to do something in exchange for eating my ice cream, right? Tomorrow night, can you all come cheer me on in the finals of my fencing competition?”

Dream-Ge stretched out his arm and hooked it around Zhang Yueshan’s shoulders. “Okay, no problem. The other players have cheerleading squads, so our Class Rep can’t be missing his!”

Chu Yu found the key point. “Rep, you’ve entered the finals in fencing? So awesome?”

Li Hua slightly revealed the truth, “There are less than ten people in their fencing team.”

During evening self-study the next day, they first requested leave from Old Ye before going to the indoor sports complex.

Jianing Private’s indoor sports complex was very spacious, with a high domed roof and bright lighting. A big red banner had been hung on the wall of the fencing area which read, “The 7th Campus Fencing Competition Finals”, full of ceremonial feel. There were also people holding DSLRs next to them, ready to capture pictures.

Standing at a good vantage point, Dream-Ge unzipped his school bag, took out a pair of red ribbons, and stuffed one into each hand.

Chu Yu wondered, “What are those? Are we going to hold that and wave it later? How shameful!”

However, Chu Yu completely underestimated the level of shame these red ribbons could bring.

“Of course not!”

Dream-Ge gave a demonstration. He tied a red ribbon to his forehead in three to two moves, then tied a twisted and ugly bow on the back of his head.

Looking from the front, two big characters in white were printed on the red ribbon— For the Win, followed by three big exclamation marks.

Not noticing Chu Yu and the others’ silence, Dream-Ge excitedly recommended, “We’re all going to tie one on our foreheads, don’t they look particularly unified and imposing? When Class Rep sees them, wow, what rainbow-like momentum! While obtaining a huge boost in morale, a force will surge up from the bottom of his heart and he’ll immediately be invincible!”

Chu Yu tried to struggle. “But this ribbon—” is really ugly.

Dream-Ge pointed to the field. “Look! Other players have cheerleaders with balloons, or colorful banners! Brothers, friends, you just have to steel yourself to the task cuz our Class Representative has no one else in the whole audience!”

Li Hua looked around and finally made up his mind to tie the ribbon to his forehead.

Fang Ziqi muttered, “If other players have it, our Class Rep should have it too!”

Having said that, he also tied one.

Chu Yu thought that what they said was reasonable, moreover, the red ribbons were to be tied for only ten or twenty minutes, so he might as well!

Chu Yu handed the ribbon to Lu Shi and closed his eyes. “Tie it, I simply won’t look in the mirror!”

Their group stood in a row at the front of the spectator stands.

When Zhang Yueshan, who was wearing a white protective suit and gear with a foil sword in hand, walked onto the piste, he saw Chu Yu and the others at a glance.

He silently uttered in his heart— what the fuck ah.

This design is really spicy to the eyes!

The contestant, who was to battle Zhang Yueshan, took a step forward and nodded towards the audience. The cheerleading team standing behind Chu Yu and the others neatly yelled, “Fang Weilin jiayou! Fang Weilin’s the best!”

There’s also a slogan?

Chu Yu hurriedly bumped Dream-Ge with his elbow. “Dream-Ge, what’s our slogan?”

Dream-Ge was also caught unprepared. “Slogan? I didn’t prepare a slogan, I only prepared these red ribbons!”

Seeing Zhang Yueshan take a step forward and greet the audience, Chu Yu was struck by inspiration amid this time of emergency and made up a cheering slogan on the spot. “Class A Yueshan, happiness wide like the ocean! A lifetime of peace, longevity may you seize!”

As soon as this slogan came out, the whole audience turned their attention over.

“Amazing!” Dream-Ge slapped Chu Yu on the shoulder. “School Flower, that was awesome! If Class Rep doesn’t take first place, I’ll be sorry for your awesome slogan!”

After Chu Yu finished shouting, he also thought that he was very quick-witted. He turned his head and asked Lu Shi with a face fishing for compliments, “I made that right then, how was it?”

Lu Shi rubbed Chu Yu’s soft hair. “Hm, it rhymes very well.”I mixed it up a bit so the slogan rhymes. A班月山，一生平安！ 福如东海，寿比南山！The literal translation is: “Class A Yueshan, a lifetime of peace! May your happiness be as immense as the East Sea, live as long as the Zhongnan Mountains!

Zhang Yueshan didn’t let them down and took first place.

After confirming that the match was over, Chu Yu quickly untied the red ribbon on Lu Shi’s forehead. Then he raised his hand and untied his own.

But he discovered something wrong.

He carefully examined Lu Shi’s forehead and wondered, “Lu Shi, why is your forehead red?”

Li Hua pointed out, “School Flower, your forehead is also red.”

They were faced with the same red marks on each other’s foreheads after taking off the ribbons, rendering their eyes blank.

Chu Yu blinked and suddenly realized what the hell was going on. His eyes turned to Dream-Ge and Chu Yu furiously questioned, “Damn, Dream-Ge, where did you buy the fucking ribbons, why is it shedding color?”

In the bathroom of the indoor sports complex.

Several people stood in a row in front of the sinks, bowing their heads as they caught the water from the faucet and washed the red marks on their foreheads with it.

Chu Yu was stroking his forehead. “Dream-Ge, do the red ribbons you bought meet the requirements of product inspection? Will the stained color cause allergies or disfigurement?”

Dream-Ge disliked how troublesome it was and straightforwardly put his head under the faucet. He thought carefully. “I really don’t know about this.”

Chu Yu got worried. He didn’t feel at ease, so he rinsed and rubbed several times. After making sure that he’d washed it all off, only then did the string in his heart loosen.

However, his skin was delicate, causing his forehead to turn red from all the rubbing.

Standing straight with his reflection in the mirror, Chu Yu saw through it that Zhang Yueshan and the others had reached the childish segment of splashing water on each other.

A good opportunity.

Carefully taking a step, Chu Yu shifted to Lu Shi’s side, moved his head close, and whispered, “Lu Shi, quickly look, it’s red and it hurts!”

Lu Shi helped Chu Yu wipe off the water drops on his forehead with a piece of tissue before lowering his eyes and blowing lightly towards the reddened area.

“Does it still hurt?”

Chu Yu felt a little comfortable with the blow and nodded again and again. “It hurts!”

It has to hurt!

Hearing this, Lu Shi leaned in and kissed.

“What about now?”

Chu Yu’s smile filled his eyes like water, and he pretended to be honest. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

He stood up properly, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Zhang Yueshan and the others who’d already stopped splashing water at some point, and were quietly watching by the side while holding their breaths.

Receiving Chu Yu’s gaze, Dream-Ge reacted quickly and shouted with his clumsy acting skills, “Uh, uhh, who poured water onto my neck just now? If I don’t avenge this hatred, then my surname isn’t DreamOkay, you’re not cut out for acting LOU JIAXUAN! Your surname is not Dream, what are you even talking about XD.!”

It was late when they exited the sports complex. Chu Yu looked at his phone and found that by now, evening self-study was over.

Their group walked to the classroom and packed two books each, intending to take them back to the dormitory.

Chu Yu took his physics textbook and they went downstairs all together.

At the entrance of the school building, Lu Shi’s phone rang.

After seeing the number displayed, Lu Shi didn’t answer it immediately. Chu Yu smilingly said to Zhang Yueshan and the rest, “You guys can go back first, see you tomorrow!”

Zhang Yueshan nodded. “Okay, we’ll go grab some late night snacks first, see you!”

Lu Shi only answered the phone after Zhang Yueshan and them had gone far enough.

It was Fang Weishan who called.

Chu Yu followed Lu Shi until they reached the small pathway beside the school building.

Jianing Private’s school building was a European-style educational institute with red brick exterior walls, quite retro. There were many flowers and trees planted in the corners, and their faint fragrance was in the air.

The light from the screen illuminated half of Lu Shi’s face. His voice was deep and he spoke very little.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the phone, Fang Weishan spoke very fast, a little excited apparently.

Chu Yu raised his eyes to gaze at Lu Shi. Unable to steady his heart, he simply reached out and took Lu Shi’s left hand, then pinched and kneaded it.

Lu Shi let him touch.

The call lasted for almost ten minutes before it was hung up.

Chu Yu didn’t have the chance to ask when Lu Shi said, “Fang Weishan has done it. In the past 20 years, he has secretly done a lot of things for Lu Shaochu and was holding many deadly handles in his hands.”

Lu Shaochu regarded Fang Weishan as an obedient dog, but he wouldn’t have expected that it’d be this dog who’d aim straight for his throat when he bit back.

Lu Shi’s fingers caressed Chu Yu’s profile as his voice became very soft and his eyes turned dark. “There should be news tomorrow.”

Chu Yu was restless all morning.

Old Ye was explaining the midterm exam.

“…Students, the poems I wrote which I read to you are indeed really good. I’m very happy that you recognize my talent. But! Can you please not use the poems I wrote in your composition? You even wrote down at the end that the poem was by a famous poet — Ye Mou — 800 years ago. I’m standing in front of you! I wasn’t alive 800 years ago!”

The whole classroom burst into laughter.

The bell for the end of the class happened to ring right then. Old Ye sighed and waved his hand. “It’s the end of class, this famous poet Ye Mou of 800 years ago is going back to the office.”

After the end of class bell rang, Chu Yu received a call from Lin Wangxi.

He found a place with few people around, and stood with the phone pressed close to his ear. “Sister Lin?”

“I watched out for the time to make this call, you should’ve just finished class, right?”

After a couple of pleasantries, Lin Wangxi got to the point. “You shouldn’t have received the news yet over there, but something happened to the Lu family in A City.”

Chu Yu’s heart skipped a beat.

He pretended not to know and controlled his tone. “Didn’t their family meet with a mishap not long ago? I heard that Lu Shaochu’s wife was sentenced to death for murder and executed.”

“It’s not about this.”

The sound of a door closing was heard on Lin Wangxi’s side before she continued, “My dad got wind of news that Lu Shaochu was taken away an hour ago to assist in an investigation.”

Chu Yu was subconsciously holding his breath in nervousness, and his fingers in his pocket were moving restlessly.

After two seconds, he asked while considering his tone, “What’s going on? But, based on the Lu clan’s magnitude, even if he’s taken away to assist in an investigation, he should be released soon, right?”

Lin Wangxi lowered her voice a little. “I can’t say for sure this time.”

Chu Yu’s line of sight was fixed onto a small, ash-colored gap between some red bricks as he continued to ask, “Why can’t you?”

“Because, it’s said that Lu Shaochu’s matter this time was due to him being involved in Wang Yiyuan’s case, and the evidence is very comprehensive so he won’t be able to shirk responsibility. Even if the elder of the Lu family tries to fish him out personally, the one’s on top will most likely not let go. Chu Yu, you know, businessmen don’t fight with officialsReal idiom is, “Civilians don’t fight against officials, and the poor don’t fight against the rich.” Basically saying, no matter how powerful the Lu family is, they can’t win against people who has position in the government..”

Lin Wangxi said a few more words, “You don’t need me to tell you how sensitive Wang Yiyuan’s case is, you’re also aware of it. Lu Shaochu’s involvement is a violation of the taboo of the one’s at the top. That friend of yours… your classmate named Lu Shi who came to pick you up at our party that night, do you know his background?”

Hearing Lin Wangxi’s question, Chu Yu wasn’t surprised.

He was still in school, and his social circle was limited to S City. It was impossible for Lin Wangxi to suddenly call him for no reason and tell him that something had happened to the Lu family.

It was only because Lin Wangxi knew that Lu Shi was from the Lu family, so she specifically called to tell him about it.

Chu Yu replied, “Of course I know.” He added one more sentence, “But he doesn’t have a good relationship with his family, and he hasn’t gone back in a long time.”

Lin Wangxi said, “He doesn’t have a good relationship with his family? No wonder he kept hiding his identity. Even He Zhihao thought he was a poor student who entered Jianing Private through a scholarship.”

“Mn,” Chu Yu didn’t say much and just answered vaguely.

Regarding his identity, Lu Shi had never deliberately concealed it from him.

When Chu Yu had heard Lu Shi talking about the Lu family, he began hearing Lu Shaochu and Fang Weiyun’s familiar names, so it didn’t take long for him to put two and two together.

Lin Wangxi lastly explained, “I called to tell you that you must never dip your hands into the Lu family’s mess this time. Lu Shaochu currently has solid evidence against him. The nail to the coffin belongs to Wang Yiyuan’s family so he’ll definitely be dealt with. Even the Lu family is estimated to not have it easy in the next few years because of this incident. However, the Lu family’s roots are stable, and they’ll definitely recover after a few years. You don’t have to worry too much about your friend.”

Lin Wangxi has always taken good care of him, and Chu Yu knew in his heart that she was telling him this much for his own good.

“I know the severity of this matter Sister Lin, don’t worry.”

Lin Wangxi understood that Chu Yu could handle himself well. Her tone relaxed, “That’s good, don’t hate me for nagging you ah. Do you have time to meet?”

Chu Yu responded with a smile. “Yes, let’s meet, I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

“Okay, study hard and we’ll meet to chat next time.”

Hanging up the call, Chu Yu held his phone and only after a while did he exhale a stuffy breath.

He had to affirm, Lu Shi guessed right.

Fang Weishan, the dog biting Lu Shaochu, really aimed straight for the critical point on his neck.

After relaying what Lin Wangxi said to Lu Shi, Chu Yu contemplated, “Fang Weishan is very clear that he must make a decision and choose either you or Lu Shaochu. Once it was decided to pull down Lu Shaochu from his position, he must kill him in one blow. Otherwise, if Lu Shaochu gets the chance to struggle to get up again and retaliate, the one who’ll bear the brunt of his revenge is Fang Weishan himself.”

Lu Shi nodded. “En, so among the many handles he was holding against Lu Shaochu, he chose the most deadly one in the end.”

“He’s very clever.” Chu Yu became worried. “Then—”

Chu Yu felt really uneasy deep inside. “I’m a little worried. If you cooperate with Fang Weishan, Fang Weishan might bite you in return.”

Lu Shaochu had been taken away. While Chu Yu breathed a sigh of relief regarding this, he also couldn’t help but overthink.

After all, Lu Shi had only reached adulthood and there was no reliable person by his side to help him.

If Fang Weishan really wanted to do something, Lu Shi would have a hard time warding him off and confronting him.

Moreover, Fang Weishan was willing to help Lu Shi deal with Lu Shaochu, so it was clear to see that Fang Weishan definitely wasn’t a person without ambition nor with moral conscience.

Lu Shi very much liked that Chu Yu was worried about him, and that his heart was full of thoughts of him.

“Fang Weishan doesn’t need me to deal with him.”

Lu Shi wasn’t perturbed at all. He was akin to a collected hunter with all the clues within his grasp.

“Lu Zhaohe has a strong desire to control, and it’s impossible for him to tolerate a dog raised by the Lu family jumping out and biting Lu Shaochu to death. This is tantamount to slapping him in the face. He’d been suspicious all his life, so if he dared to use Fang Weishan to do things, then he surely has a handle on Fang Weishan. No matter if the handle is real or fake, Fang Weishan won’t be able to escape this time.”

Chu Yu understood. “You’ve calculated it from the start!”

Lu Shi’s fingertips gently traced the end of Chu Yu’s eyes as he spoke slowly and softly, “Well, isn’t it pleasant to watch a dog fight?”

The author has something to say: Here’s a heart woven with red ribbons~

• 1I mixed it up a bit so the slogan rhymes. A班月山，一生平安！ 福如东海，寿比南山！The literal translation is: “Class A Yueshan, a lifetime of peace! May your happiness be as immense as the East Sea, live as long as the Zhongnan Mountains!
• 2Okay, you’re not cut out for acting LOU JIAXUAN! Your surname is not Dream, what are you even talking about XD.
• 3Real idiom is, “Civilians don’t fight against officials, and the poor don’t fight against the rich.” Basically saying, no matter how powerful the Lu family is, they can’t win against people who has position in the government.