Chapter 21 I Can Still Salvage It
How did Ling Che find out? Was it because his face was very red?
He thought that Ling Che wasn’t paying attention to him at all. When Ling Che touched him, he began to blush, even if he didn’t before.
Xu Tangzhou hesitated for a moment and lied innocently: “No.”
Seeing how he was clearly feverish, even the corners of his eyes became red, yet he still insisted on saying no, Ling Che took back his hand and retreated a bit: “You don’t even know that you have a fever?”
Xu Tangzhou thought again, ‘No, it’s not a fever. It’s being horny*.’
TN: In Chinese, having a fever is “Fa Shao”, and to be h*rny is “Fa Sao” (He’s making a joke on the similar pronunciations)
His body has other thoughts about Ling Che’s pheromones!
The two regained their previous distance, and the pressure from Ling Che lightened up.
Xu Tangzhou still didn’t dare to breathe loudly, and his heart beat faster and faster. The place where he was touched by Ling Che burned, and his disobedient nose was also very hot. If he couldn’t stop himself, two rivers of blood would come streaming from his nose!
He subconsciously covered his nose and said in a muffled tone: “The weather is warm, and it’s easy to accumulate heat*. I should be fine after I go back and drink some tea.”
TN: From Traditional Chinese Medicine, certain foods will increase/decrease internal “heat”, and the accumulation of too much “heat” will cause people to develop health issues.
This person was reluctant to drink water, let alone tea.
Ling Che realized that it wasn’t a simple matter. He was about to speak when Xu Tangzhou had already hauled a bag of dog food and led Ruby to the cashier.
By the time Ling Che left the convenience store, Xu Tangzhou already walked far ahead of him. No one knew if it was the dog walking him or him walking the dog, but he trotted the entire way toward the cabin as if Ling Che was some dangerous beast.
After entering the yard, Xu Tangzhou quickly opened the dog food and poured it into the food bowl.
However, Ruby sniffed it a few times, waited for a while, and refused to eat a single piece. This proved that, shockingly, dogs were also picky eaters.
As a result, Xu Tangzhou’s original plan to quickly hide in his room was thwarted, since Ling Che had already returned.
Xu Tangzhou already felt much better after walking with the sea breeze. At least that sudden dry and hot feeling had mainly subsided.
He knew that there was a camera in the yard. If he ran away after seeing Ling Che, it wouldn’t be too good. Therefore, he somewhat calmed himself down and scolded the dog: “Princess Ruby, your temporary poop scooper* has forked out a huge sum of 150 yuan to buy high-quality food for you. How could you be like this?”
TN: “Poop scooper” is what Chinese pet owners like to jokingly refer to themselves as. The English equivalent is “pet owner” or “pet parent”
Xu Tangzhou picked up a piece of dog food to hand feed it to Ruby, but it stuck out its tongue, made some whimpering sounds, and even looked aggrieved.
Xu Tangzhou: “...... Is it too late if I return the dog food now?”
Ling Che: “What do you think?”
Xu Tangzhou felt a headache: “Then do we have to buy a few more flavors for it to try?!”
Ling Che watched on coldly for a while. Without mentioning anything that had just happened, he also squatted down next to Xu Tangzhou. The scent of the pheromones gradually approached Xu Tangzhou, making his body feel hot again. He discreetly moved further away to the side.
Alpha’s auras were much stronger than Omega’s.
Ling Che picked up the first piece of dog food and placed it in the palm of his hand. Without needing to feed it, Ruby tilted its head and obediently ate that piece of dog food under the Alpha’s gaze.
Xu Tangzhou: ??? Was this gender discrimination?
At that moment, Xu Tangzhou felt that Ruby and Ling Che unexpectedly had some similarities… They were both arrogant and also picky eaters. The person was not bad, but they were just unwilling to back down.
Ling Che said coldly: “Very good. It knows that I’ll only give it one chance not to delay the show’s progress.”
His meaning was very clear. Xu Tangzhou shrank his neck, feeling guilty.
He remembered the time when Huang Ge brought him to the company, and he had seen Ling Che’s private room. Inside, there were all kinds of preparations for the concert. Xia Xing and the others mentioned that Ling Che had practiced very hard for the concert.
Like Ling Che had said before, he only wanted to properly record the show, treat the show as a task, and not be willing to create extra trouble.
Xu Tangzhou: “If… if it was delayed?”
Ling Che didn’t respond and returned to his room.
Xu Tangzhou slowly breathed out a sigh of relief and touched below his nose. Thank goodness, at least he still didn’t start to nosebleed yet.
But what about the next few days?
Should he directly tell Ling Che that he was very sensitive to his pheromones and needed help? And as for why he was very sensitive, wasn’t it because he subconsciously wanted to be marked by Ling Che?
Xu Tangzhou really couldn’t say it out loud.
*
The fact that the cabin had a big pit inside was known to the other two guest groups. When they reconvened on the morning of the second day, Lumi CP and the Xia sisters gave each other high fives.
“For every 100 grams lighter, 500 is deducted. It would be gone after one trip to the bathroom.” said Mi Fei, “Expensive. Really expensive. I’ve never seen such a precious dog.”
Xia Xing was playing with the dog: “Then have you weighed the dog today?”
Xu Tangzhou said: “We’ve already weighed it today. It didn’t get lighter today, and it was even heavier than yesterday.”
After getting up that morning, the first thing Xu Tangzhou did was weigh the dog.
Lu Chengan said: “Then when you check out, it’ll be fine if you give it some more water.”
Ling Che looked on coldly as if he was looking at an idiot.
Day after day, the show’s progress was more and more exciting. Their dog obviously became a highlight. No one knew if it was Xia Xing or Xia Yue who was a genius, but bright and early in the morning, they went to the beach and rented a big tent. They then checked out of the house that needed to pay rent and prepared to live in the tent.
The director group was very surprised that they would do this, but they couldn’t say that they had violated the rules. Before they rented the tent, they rushed over and asked them to move the tent to the cabin’s yard for ease of filming. As a result, they officially became neighbors with Chezhou and Ruby.
Lu Chengan already asked tent rental. A tent this big only needed to pay 500 RMB per day. The longer they rented, the cheaper the daily rent was. He wasn’t sure what the Xia sisters had discussed, but he was a bit impressed upon seeing how cheap they were.
Bao Fenni’s resources were extremely precious for Lu Chengan as well.
Moreover, once their group wins and they became spokespeople, they would be the first AB couple with international brand-name resources.
“Senior Lu, you’re not allowed to come to our yard.” Ling Che sensed his intentions and preemptively rejected him, “Otherwise, I’ll have no other choice but to also rent a tent, and we’ll play it like this.”
Ling Che especially didn’t like noise.
He let it go after an extra dog appeared in their yard, but now there were two other people in a tent. If it wasn’t for the show, Ling Che would just leave.
Lu Chengan said: “You won’t Che Shen. Look, we could rent a tent and it would be enough. However, you and Zhouzhou are different genders, so you’d need to rent two tents. The cost wouldn’t be any cheaper than renting the house unless you and Zhouzhou are also a pair. What about you two also consider going into a relationship?”
Ling Che: “...... Not interested.”
Lu Chengan: “Heh, I’m just joking.”
Ling Che: “Not funny.”
It wasn’t part of the show now, so Lu Chengan gestured to the following cameraman to turn off the camera and give them some privacy.
He began to talk about business: “Last night, Xiao Mi said that Zhouzhou appeared a little uncomfortable. Is he alright?”
Ling Che looked not far off. Xu Tangzhou was currently walking the dog and talking with a group of staff members. The corners of his lips held the hint of a smile. He was the palest one among the crowd, but Ling Che still remembered the other person who seemed to have a fever, and their face dyed crimson last night.
Ling Che responded: “En, he’s fine.”
Lu Chengan smiled and reminded him: “As long as Zhouzhou is fine. Unmarked Omegas are really fragile, such as inflamed glands or false estrus. Take care not to create any scandals.”
Ling Che looked at Zu Tangzhou.
He knew that there was something wrong with Xu Tangzhou, and he already had a guess as to what it was.
“Fast breathing, high temperature, flushed face, and also sweating.” After listening to his description last night, Ying Chen continued to be a hooligan, “This is false estrus! Tsk tsk tsk. I saw that during the extras of the show, Xu Tangzhou seemed to be extremely simple. Xiao Gege, are you deliberately spreading your alluring S-class pheromones to seduce others?”
Ling Che: “Be serious.”
Ying Chen said: “Oh, it’s not true? Then I’ve wronged you. What a pity, if it truly was a false estrus, anyone could give him a temporary mark, except for you, Che Shen.”
For the first time, Ling Che didn’t refute. However, he didn’t agree either.
In fact, when he and Xu Tangzhou were together, they were in a very delicate situation.
-- No one knew that he had once been waiting for his Omega to grow up. He used up 100,000 points of patience and 200,000 points of self-control, but he still had no experience.
He was never able to get that experience.
Ying Chen said: “I’m very skilled. If I catch the plane tomorrow, would I arrive in time?”
Ling Che hung up the phone.
The tourist checkpoint for the second day was the snorkeling center.
Everyone changed into swimsuits. As the only two female guests, Xia Yue and Xia Xing showed off their bodies at the beach. The show was recorded very quickly, and the money was also spent very quickly. The show full of pits didn’t prepare any items for them either. Aside from the Xia sisters who got free entrance tickets which also gave them free lessons from coaches, the guests had to pay for the lessons themselves.
The host, Xiao Bai, also stated that the guests could also decline lessons.
But only the winning group of guests could get a free meal at the Bird’s Nest restaurant and finish the checkpoint for the third day in advance*. So aside from the Lumi group, the other two groups competed.
TN: I’m using the syntax from the simplified version here since it makes a tad more sense in English.
Ling Che likes to go diving. He had a diving certificate and didn’t need an instructor, so why wouldn’t he participate?
This part requires the two guests to dive into the water at the same time, and then complete different poses of varying difficulties in the water.
Xu Tangzhou was very smart.
Under the guidance of Ling Che, he successfully completed the moves and also smoothly went back on shore.
They won and the show crew cheered. But Xu Tangzhou refused to take off the mask.
Ling Che blocked the camera, preventing them from recording or approaching them. He alone went to see what was wrong with Xu Tangzhou.
He only saw that Xu Tangzhou’s eyes were red, his body was burning hot, and even his breathing was a little quick.
Xu Tangzhou blinked his eyes. His body was still immersed in the feeling of their limbs entangling when they were just under the water. His glands were itchy, which made him appear very pitiful: “I, do I still have a chance to properly explain?”
Ling Che: “What do you think?”
Xu Tangzhou’s forlorn and muffed voice came from the mask: “I think I can still salvage it*.”
TN: It’s kinda a funny meme in China. From my understanding, it’s like a “last words” moment XD
Ling Che coldly said: “No need to salvage anything. Go back and just drink some tea.”
TN: Chinese terms as pinyin in this chapter
"Ge" (older brother, could be used as a respectful address for male acquaintances)
"Gege" (Older brother, a more intimate/teasing address than just "ge")
“Shen” (literally: god, but mainly for a highly respected and revered figure)
"Xiao" in front of names means little, but it's a way of addressing people you care about who are younger.
"En": Sound of agreement, kept in pinyin
See glossary for more info.
Chapter 20 | TOC | Chapter 22
TN: RIP finals and applications, I'll still try my best, although I refuse to split chapters (Stares at the 9000 character chapter and starts sweating)
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