ATLAS TRANSLATES

At eight in the evening, the car steadily stopped at the entrance of First High School in the neighboring city.

Xie Ci glanced at Xu You through the rearview mirror.

Under the soft yellow light, she had her eyes closed, head slightly drooping against the seat, her expression tired.

She seemed to be asleep.

He turned off the engine, and with the mechanical noise gone, only her soft breathing could be heard.

Xie Ci’s fingertips unconsciously tapped the steering wheel. He turned his head, discreetly observing her.

A pale, delicate little face.

The black jacket casually draped over her was still too big for her thin, slight frame. The hollow of her collarbone showed, snow-white.

The night was intensely quiet.

The more he looked, the more thirsty he felt. Slowly, he leaned closer, not making a sound.

Bit by bit, getting closer to her.

Xu You’s breathing was very faint, her chest rising and falling slowly.

His lips touched a small patch of skin on her neck.

Xie Ci thought he might be a bit perverted. He always liked to smell her scent, enjoying how each breath was surrounded by the soft, cool fragrance from her body.

Immersed in it, he couldn’t help but nuzzle his cheek, extending his tongue to lightly taste.

Wanting to know what this taste was.

He felt a heat rising from below. His whole body was surrounded by an unnamed desire and pleasure, a hunger that rose from his stomach straight to his spine.

So hungry.

Suddenly waking up, Xu You shuddered. She opened her eyes, taking a moment to react, not knowing where she was.

The person in the driver’s seat was nowhere to be seen, and the car’s engine was off.

Xu You rubbed her eyes, propped herself up, and unbuckled her seatbelt to get out.

She looked up to see Xie Ci with his back to her, sitting against the car’s hood, head lowered smoking a cigarette.

He knew she had gotten out but didn’t turn around.

Xu You closed the car door and said to his back: “Xie Ci, I’m leaving.”

At the distant horizon, the starlight was dim, and her figure gradually disappeared into the darkness.

Xie Ci withdrew his gaze, exhaling a breath of smoke.

The white smoke was dispersed by the night wind.

—

After dinner that evening, Li Jieyi called a group of people and rented a hotel room to play cards.

When Xie Ci arrived, it was almost ten o’clock.

In the room, the sound of mahjong tiles clashing together rang out, with faint shouts coming through.

He pushed open the door and heard Song Yifan’s wail.

“Damn, why am I dealing again?”

A round had just ended, with Li Jieyi happily collecting money when he looked up to see Xie Ci arrive, making a “yo” sound and saying playfully: “Ci, what’s with the stuffed toy?”

Song Yifan turned around at the sound, eyes widening, “Holy crap, Xie Ci, where’d you get that bear?”

“Aww, it’s so cute!” Chen Jingyi excitedly ran to his side, bending down to touch the yellow bear’s ears.

She played with it lovingly, looking up with curved eyes, her tone slightly coquettish: “Ci, can I have it?”

Xie Ci didn’t answer, only saying flatly to Song Yifan: “Get up, let me play.”

“Fine, fine, fine, you’re rich, you play.” Song Yifan said, moving aside.

There was also a girl from Class 4 at the card table, who was close with Chen Jingyi.

Xie Ci sat down, placing the bear sideways on his lap, and began shuffling the cards.

Perhaps it was that girls naturally had an affection for stuffed toys. She sat across from Xie Ci, hand propping up her chin, smiling brightly: “Xie Ci, where did you buy this bear? It’s so cute!”

“I didn’t buy it.”

“Huh?”

Xie Ci lowered his gaze to look at the cards in his hand, saying casually: “My wife gave it to me.”

Chen Jingyi stopped her movements, slightly stunned.

Li Jieyi was quick to react, catching the key point: “You changed again?”

“Not that fast.”

Song Yifan brought over a stool to sit beside them eating sunflower seeds, casting a suspicious glance at Xie Ci.

He played a tile, making a crisp sound as it hit the table.

“None of your business.”

“Heh, listen to how you’re talking.” Li Jieyi took out the cigarette box, shaking out a stick. He put it in his mouth, had just pressed the lighter when he heard Xie Ci say.

“Don’t smoke here.”

Li Jieyi paused his movement, eyes sliding over: “So now my smoking bothers you too?”

Xie Ci made an “mm” sound, saying: “Don’t make my bear smell bad.”

At these words, everyone at the card table: ……….

Li Jieyi nearly spat.

“For this stupid bear, you’ve become ridiculously soft, Xie Ci.”

—

School days passed peacefully, and in the blink of an eye, it was mid-November.

After the second morning class, before the big break running exercise, the homeroom teacher entered the classroom with a stack of papers.

“Return to your seats, I’ll speak quickly so you can go assemble for the running exercise.”

Xu You sat in the first row. She stopped her pen and closed her book to look toward the podium.

Xu Huiru roughly divided the stack of papers into several portions, throwing them onto the desks of the first row students in each group, letting them pass them back.

Xu You picked up the papers on her desk and looked down.

Class Stream Preference Form.

She got up and started distributing the papers one by one.

Xu Huiru was still speaking at the podium: “Take this form home now, discuss with your parents at noon whether to choose arts or science stream, and return it to me tomorrow morning. The class monitor will collect them and put them in my office. Also, as I told you before, the school administration has decided that starting today, we’ll have evening self-study sessions until eight o’clock. If you have special circumstances, come request leave from me separately.”

This announcement caused an uproar in the classroom.

When Xu You was distributing forms to the back of Group Two, someone called out something, and the group of boys lounging together suddenly burst into loud teasing, laughing ambiguously.

She didn’t understand why, and looked up.

Her gaze met directly with someone’s.

Xie Ci had a faint smile, chewing gum, one hand on the desk spinning a pen, leaning back in his chair looking up at her.

He had gotten a haircut at some point, the sides cut very short, black bangs falling across his forehead.

Xu You gave him an almost imperceptible nod as greeting, then withdrew her gaze and continued distributing papers.

By the time she reached the back, she had run out of forms with two rows remaining.

“Wait, I don’t have one.” Xie Ci deliberately called out to her, his face showing a teasing smile.

Xu You nodded, telling him: “You all go to the podium to get them from the teacher.”

Then she turned and left.

Xu Xiaocheng snickered, leaning over to mock Xie Ci: “I feel like she’s quite cold towards you.”

“This shouldn’t be happening to my Ci, how did you mess up?” Xu Xiaocheng added with a sly grin.

Their group of friends all knew that Xie Ci seemed to have some interest in that newly transferred top student. But after all this time, she still seemed indifferent to him.

That hit a nerve.

Xie Ci looked up, not bothering to reply, and directly kicked him.

“Hey hey hey, don’t get embarrassed and angry.” Xu Xiaocheng patted his pants, leaning over to put his arm around Xie Ci’s neck, “I’m telling you, I’m more experienced at chasing girls than you, want your brother to teach you some tricks?”

Xie Ci removed his arm from his neck, twisting it hard, saying irritably: “Go play somewhere else, don’t bother your Brother Ci.”

As the two were roughhousing, Song Yifan’s voice suddenly came from behind: “Ci is always very irritable lately, I guess it’s because he’s sexually frustrated.”

Xie Ci threw a book at his face, cursing: “You get lost too.”

—

During the big break running exercise, the second-year students had to run three laps around the teaching building. First, each class in the grade would line up, then when the music started, they would run following the commands in the music.

Class 2-9 was always the target of criticism from the grade director.

Every time their formation was messy and disorganized, and the boys liked to fool around and play with each other.

This time was no different. Just after completing one lap, the grade director stood on the second floor with hands on hips, shouting through a microphone: “Those people from Class 9, run properly! If you don’t run well, you’ll have to run an extra lap!”

Xu You wiped the sweat from her forehead.

She had never been good at sports since childhood, running especially wasn’t her strong point. Running two laps was already enough to exhaust her, let alone adding another lap.

Xu You was breathing slightly heavily when she noticed her shoelace was coming undone. Just as she slightly slowed her pace, preparing to leave the formation to tie her shoelace, a group of boys overtook her from the side, forcefully separating her from the girls’ formation.

Xu You froze for a moment, looking up at the tall boys blocking her way.

“What are you doing?” she spoke up.

“Following orders,” the boy in front laughed while running, not turning back.

The boys had three rows. Xu You’s position now was trapped between the first and second rows.

She was speechless, preparing to cross through the formation when suddenly an arm reached out to hold her.

“Why are you running in front of me, trying to attract my attention?” Xie Ci’s teasing voice rang out.

Xu You was basically being dragged along as she ran, unable to break free. She was a bit angry, frowning as she hit his arm, “Don’t pull me, let go!”

Xie Ci made a tsk sound, lazily glancing at her, saying: “Stop getting physical with me all the time.”

The people around them minded their own business, not daring to watch the boss’s “courtship.”

Xu You reached out to pinch him, twisting a bit of flesh, “Are you going to let go or not? If not, I’m going to get angry.”

She wasn’t afraid of Xie Ci now, just sometimes found him annoying, always being so persistent.

Xie Ci looked down at her, saying quietly: “Your temper has grown lately.”

After finishing the run, everyone dispersed.

Xu You took out her campus card from her pocket and went to buy a bottle of water from the supermarket. She unscrewed the cap and started walking toward the classroom, having just taken two sips when someone caught up beside her.

Xie Ci had his jacket slung over his shoulder, with a somewhat wild smile, “What a coincidence.”

There was also a surging crowd around them, students gathering densely together.

The two were pushed closer by the crowd.

It seemed that since that day they went out together, their relationship had gotten slightly better, although Xu You still didn’t talk to him much in class. However, they weren’t quite like friends either, it was hard to define.

Xu You glanced at him, “How do you have so much free time all day?”

“Either sleeping or playing around,” she added.

Xie Ci thought for a moment, slightly turning his head, responding in a very good mood: “I didn’t realize you paid so much attention to me.”

“…….”

Knowing he was just being frivolous and liked to tease her, Xu You still couldn’t help sighing inside.

They walked silently, one tall and one short.

Xie Ci suddenly snatched the water bottle from her hand, unscrewed the cap and took a drink, his lips touching the bottle mouth.

Xu You ignored him, walking quietly by herself.

“The bear you gave me, I sleep with it on my bed every day,” he licked away the water from his lips, pretending to say casually.

“Mm.”

Hearing this, she wanted to laugh a little, thinking Xie Ci was like a child.

Just that sometimes he liked to be unreasonable, with a violent yet innocent personality, somewhat contradictory.

Noticing he was standing too close, Xu You imperceptibly stepped to the side, “Isn’t it dirty, all dusty?”

Xie Ci immediately said: “I washed it.”

The topic ended there. More silence followed.

After holding back for a long time.

As they were approaching the stairs, Xie Ci couldn’t help but get physical again.

He forcefully pulled and dragged Xu You to a corner where there were few people, the light somewhat dim.

Xu You’s uniform was almost pulled off by him. She frowned, looking down to straighten her clothes, saying impatiently: “What are you going crazy about now?”

“No, I just want to ask you one question.”

Xie Ci’s tone had lost its teasing quality, his eyes dark, showing a hint of seriousness.

“When will you finally be my girlfriend?”