ATLAS TRANSLATES

The girl who asked for WeChat widened her eyes, going from disbelief to bewilderment.

After freezing in shock for a few seconds, she hurriedly said “Sorry to bother you” and left with a dazed expression, as if questioning her life choices.

Ji Gaozhuo withdrew his gaze with a complicated expression: “Do you think you’re being funny?”

Chen Yuzheng asked back: “What do you think?”

Ji Gaozhuo: “…It’s just ridiculous.”

It was already around five or six after playing basketball in the gym.

Ji Gaozhuo had changed his clothes and came out of the locker room while Chen Yuzheng was still showering inside. He packed up his things and went to sit next to Yu Nuo. The two weren’t very familiar with each other and had nothing much to talk about.

Ji Gaozhuo ran a tattoo shop. For complex designs that took longer to tattoo, he would pass the time by chatting.

Moreover, he was especially good at dealing with gentle girls like Yu Nuo who seemed completely harmless.

Yu Nuo found his way of speaking particularly interesting, like watching a comedian perform. She would occasionally burst into laughter. Plus, Ji Gaozhuo gave her a sense of contrast – despite having flashy sleeve tattoos like a gangster, he was actually very approachable.

Ji Gaozhuo suddenly asked: “By the way, sister-in-law, did you see that girl who came asking for Chen Yuzheng’s WeChat just now?”

Yu Nuo made a sound of agreement, “I saw.”

“Do you know what he said?”

Yu Nuo was curious: “What did he say?”

“He said he got married last year and already has two kids.”

Yu Nuo: “…..”

Ji Gaozhuo was very concerned, “Do you think any normal person would say something so ridiculous?”

Yu Nuo wanted to laugh but was already used to Chen Yuzheng’s occasional shocking statements, “He likes to joke sometimes.”

Ji Gaozhuo slapped his thigh: “No, no, it’s not just joking. Let me analyze this for you – Chen Yuzheng definitely has something wrong with his brain, he’s mentally unstable, different from normal people, you understand? Sister-in-law, you really need to think this through. You don’t want this kind of intelligence passing down to your future kids.”

Yu Nuo: “…..”

Ji Gaozhuo: “Look, although I’m not as handsome as Chen Yuzheng, I was more popular than him in high school, and I have more experience too. It must be tiring dealing with him sometimes, right? Chen Yuzheng not only has a bad temper, he’s also narcissistic and has some delusions. To sum it up, he’s just not very likeable.”

Yu Nuo’s eyes glanced upward.

Ji Gaozhuo hadn’t noticed and kept talking non-stop.

“Ji Gaozhuo.”

Someone called him from behind.

Ji Gaozhuo jumped, turned around, and made an innocent “ah” sound.

Chen Yuzheng controlled his temper and calmly reached out to grab his collar: “What nonsense are you telling her?”

Ji Gaozhuo tried to brush off his hand, making two “ai” sounds, “I didn’t say anything, just helping reminisce about your rebellious youth.”

“I’m not likeable? Bad temper?” Chen Yuzheng pulled Ji Gaozhuo up from beside Yu Nuo and kneed him, “Narcissistic? Delusional?”

A sharp pain shot through his lower body, and Ji Gaozhuo cried out in pain, struggling frantically: “Fuck, don’t get physical with me! If you piss me off, I won’t back down either!”

“What’s wrong with you?” Chen Yuzheng kicked him again, “You could be a decent person, but you choose to be a dog.”

After leaving the gym, the two kept insulting each other all the way – to the parking lot, getting out of the car to the restaurant, and even during dinner. They kept cursing at each other, trading insults back and forth, seemingly determined to expose all of each other’s secrets. Even after finding a place to eat, they were still arguing. Yu Nuo tried to mediate but to no avail. She rarely saw Chen Yuzheng this angry. She felt both helpless and amused, and could only order food by herself.

After ordering, she passed the menu to Chen Yuzheng: “Want to take a look?”

Chen Yuzheng paused: “You order, I’m fine with anything.”

Yu Nuo was about to pass the menu to Ji Gaozhuo: “I ordered four dishes, see if you want to add or change anything?”

Chen Yuzheng snatched the menu and handed it to the waiter nearby, “We’re done ordering.”

Ji Gaozhuo: “?”

After the waiter left, Chen Yuzheng told Yu Nuo: “Don’t mind him, he’ll eat anything.”

Ji Gaozhuo sat across from them, “Why are you targeting me like this?”

“Do you have a problem with that?”

“Why are you so petty?” Ji Gaozhuo tried to recall what he’d done to trigger this person to become so agitated, “I just said some bad things about you in front of your girlfriend, what’s the big deal?”

“You call that just saying bad things?” Chen Yuzheng sneered, “You’re spreading rumors.”

Ji Gaozhuo was confused and scoffed, “What rumors did I spread? I just said you’re delusional, what, can’t say that anymore?”

Chen Yuzheng: “?”

“You even said you had two kids, virgins these days sure love to dream!”

Chen Yuzheng: “…..”

Knowing Yu Nuo was sitting right there, Chen Yuzheng couldn’t do much to him, so Ji Gaozhuo’s mouth got even more obnoxious. Having grown up together, he could be said to be the person who knew Chen Yuzheng best, and every word hit right where it hurt.

Having achieved a small victory, Ji Gaozhuo continued to twist the knife: “You probably haven’t even watched two adult videos, Chen Yuzheng, and you’re talking about having kids? What’s wrong with calling you delusional? What’s wrong? Is there something incorrect about that?”

After he finished speaking, Chen Yuzheng’s face turned ashen.

Yu Nuo saw him at a loss for words for the first time, with a dark fire in his eyes. She shrank her shoulders, trying to minimize her presence and be invisible on the side.

Having finally gotten his revenge by leaving Chen Yuzheng speechless, Ji Gaozhuo felt satisfied. He contentedly poured himself a glass of water, moistened his throat, and said to Yu Nuo: “Sister-in-law, did our argument scare you? Actually, we’re just joking around. Sometimes I can be a bit rough, and while my words might be vulgar, I’m actually a very gentle person.”

Yu Nuo shook her head, holding back her laughter but unable to control her lips curving up: “It’s fine, carry on.”

Not only was she not scared, but she actually found Chen Yuzheng’s way of interacting with his friend quite interesting. Watching them insult each other made her feel relaxed and happy.

Before this, Yu Nuo never had the chance to see what boys were like together. Because Yu Ge didn’t really have close friends, he interacted most with his OG teammates. Yu Ge was rather aloof, and as team captain, the others were quite afraid of him, let alone joke about him.

Yu Nuo learned for the first time that this was how boys interacted with each other, and found it quite cute.

Throughout the meal, perhaps feeling guilty about saying too many bad things about Chen Yuzheng earlier, Ji Gaozhuo leaned on the table and lowered his voice: “Sister-in-law, please don’t take what I said earlier to heart, we were just messing around. And you know, even though Chen Yuzheng looks like a player, he’s actually quite innocent, really, I’m not lying to you.”

“That time, the day before he was going to confess to you, he stayed up all night and came to my house early in the morning. I’d never seen him that nervous, not even during the college entrance exam.”

Yu Nuo’s heart skipped a beat.

She remembered that day they went to watch a movie, and Chen Yuzheng fell asleep halfway through. She had felt a bit disappointed at the time, but later forgot about it.

Now hearing Ji Gaozhuo’s explanation, she realized it wasn’t that he didn’t care about their date, but that he was too sleep-deprived to stay awake.

—

After dinner, as night fell, Ji Gaozhuo tactfully took a taxi home, no longer wanting to be their third wheel.

Yu Nuo sat in the passenger seat.

It was still early, so she wasn’t in a rush to go home. The trending topics these past two days had been about meteors, which were supposed to appear tonight.

Yu Nuo remembered this and cheerfully said: “The news said there might be meteors later, should we go watch?”

Chen Yuzheng: “Where should we watch?”

Yu Nuo checked the map and found there was a riverside park nearby with a small mountain. If they climbed up, they should be able to get a good view.

It was too late to go anywhere further.

Chen Yuzheng turned on the navigation.

The window was half down, letting in cool night breeze. Yu Nuo noticed his mood wasn’t high, “Still upset about what Ji Gaozhuo said?”

“Mm.”

Yu Nuo stared at his profile: “He was just joking with you.”

“That guy just loves being annoying.” Chen Yuzheng paused slightly, his tone casual, “He ruined my perfect image in your heart.”

She gave a short laugh.

—

When they drove near the park, all the parking spots were taken.

Chen Yuzheng found a random spot to park. The usually quiet park was packed with people, including some carrying camera tripods, presumably all here to watch the meteors.

Infected by the joyful atmosphere, Yu Nuo eagerly pulled Chen Yuzheng’s hand as they walked up the mountain, taking several steps at once. She was afraid of missing the meteors.

They arrived late, and the pavilion at the mountaintop was already occupied.

Using the dim light at the peak, Yu Nuo pulled him to the side and found a large rock to sit on.

After resting for a while, Yu Nuo took out earphones from her bag, plugged them in, and gave one to Chen Yuzheng.

He put it on.

Yu Nuo opened her playlist and fiddled with it for a while, selecting a few songs.

Hearing the opening melody, Chen Yuzheng raised his eyebrows and turned to look at Yu Nuo.

She was a bit shy as she met his gaze: “Chen Yuzheng, do you know what this song is called?”

“No.”

“Should I tell you?”

“Mm.”

Yu Nuo unlocked her phone, opened the notes app, typed a few words, and handed it to him.

Chen Yuzheng glanced at it.

She said seriously: “That’s the name of this song.”

Chen Yuzheng pretended to suddenly remember, “Oh, this song?” He joked: “May you love me till the end of time?”

Yu Nuo looked at him with a smile and without any hesitation said, “Okay.”

Chen Yuzheng froze.

There were fireflies in the grass below, emitting small green lights. Occasional insect sounds could be heard, and in the night, Yu Nuo’s voice was gentle: “Actually, last time in the car, I answered you like this in my heart.”

At that time, even though she knew he was just teasing, she couldn’t help but think. If one day Chen Yuzheng really wanted her to love him that long, Yu Nuo would be willing.

Unusually, Chen Yuzheng was quiet for a moment, his Adam’s apple moving, “How did you get so good at flirting?”

Yu Nuo laughed softly, “Honestly, I wasn’t flirting with you.”

“You weren’t?” Chen Yuzheng put her hand on his chest, “Can you feel it? It’s about to beat out of control.”

—

The meteor shower mentioned in the news hadn’t appeared even by nighttime, and most people on the mountaintop had left.

The surrounding noise and clamor faded away, as if the whole world was left with just Yu Nuo and Chen Yuzheng.

Sitting shoulder to shoulder on the rock, she asked him, “If we really see a meteor later, what wish would you make?”

Chen Yuzheng looked over, thought for a moment, and said, “Nothing I want to wish for.”

Actually, he wasn’t interested in meteor showers at all, he just wanted to spend more time with her.

Yu Nuo: “Then, what about winning the championship?”

Chen Yuzheng responded arrogantly, dismissively: “I don’t need to rely on wishes for that.”

“Besides winning the championship, don’t you have any other wishes? I think these wishes are quite effective.”

“How effective?”

Yu Nuo told him: “When I graduated high school, I watched a meteor shower with my friend, and I wished that my brother would win a championship in the future, and it came true.”

As they were talking, excited young voices suddenly came from behind: “Wow, look, the meteors are here!”

Yu Nuo looked up, instinctively standing up from the rock.

Like a magnificent scene from a movie, the meteor’s tail was as brilliant as fireworks, suddenly lighting up the deep blue night sky.

The starlight reflected in her eyes, and Yu Nuo was lost in thought for a few seconds before suddenly reacting, quickly tugging at Chen Yuzheng: “Chen Yuzheng, the meteor shower is here! Let’s make wishes quickly!”

She gathered her thoughts, closed her eyes for a moment, clasped her hands together against her chest, and made a wish devoutly.

After making her wish, Yu Nuo opened her eyes to see Chen Yuzheng still sitting on the rock, staring at her without blinking.

Yu Nuo asked expectantly: “Did you make a wish just now?”

Chen Yuzheng nodded: “I did.”

Yu Nuo smiled, pressing her lips together with a bit of excitement, asking: “What kind of wish was it?”

He had been dismissive earlier, but now he was very cautious: “If I tell you, will it not come true?”

Yu Nuo hesitated: “Probably not? Otherwise, just give me a general idea.”

Looking at her thoughtfully, Chen Yuzheng’s expression was hard to read: “Do you want me to tell you?”

Yu Nuo: “If you’re worried about it not coming true if you say it, then don’t tell me.”

He curved his lips, smiling strangely: “Well, this matter might need your help, so I should tell you?”

Yu Nuo froze for a few seconds, pondered it over in her mind, and nodded seriously: “Okay, tell me, I’ll see if I can help.”

Chen Yuzheng made a show of humming in agreement.

He looked at the sky, appearing very sincere, and said in a calm tone, “I hope heaven will be kind and let me lose my virginity this year.”