ATLAS TRANSLATES

It was already past eleven at night. The clouds had shifted slightly, revealing bits of moonlight. Dry leaves fell silently in the cold wind, swaying as they floated to the ground. Fu Xueli wasn’t sleepy at all. She stood on her tiptoes, clinging tightly to Xu Xingchun like a little kitten, nuzzling against him affectionately.

“Xu Xingchun, your chest is so warm. Is something wrong?” Fu Xueli suddenly asked, looking up at him.

After a moment of silence, he leaned against her and stroked her hair. “My heartbeat is irregular, and my organs are misaligned,” he said.

“…..”

As expected of someone who studied medicine – he could describe a racing heart in such a cultured way.

“I want to sleep with you tonight. You haven’t agreed yet,” she repeated, stepping back slightly.

“Okay,” he replied.

Snow was falling gently, almost imperceptibly. Having gotten her answer, Fu Xueli moved closer to Xu Xingchun again and kissed his chin. Before he could react, she quickly jumped away and boldly teased, “Do you know how handsome you are?”

“…..” He kept his eyes on her.

“Don’t come closer, or I might kiss you again,” she threatened, half-jokingly.

Xu Xingchun approached her, gently holding her wrist. “It’s cold outside. Let’s go in,” he said patiently.

“You don’t believe I’ll force a kiss on you?”

“I do.”

“Tch.” Fu Xueli pouted, tilting her head. “You’re always so boring. I don’t want to kiss you anymore.”

On their way back to his room, she suddenly remembered something and pulled an item from her pocket. “I have two candies. A little boy next door gave them to me earlier during dinner.”

Fu Xueli opened her palm, lowering her face. “I’ll share one with you.”

One red, one green – watermelon and lychee flavored.

She asked, “Which one do you like?”

“Lychee.”

His answer made Fu Xueli ponder for a moment, glancing at Xu Xingchun.

She remembered a time in middle school when Xu Xingchun suddenly asked if she wanted to be with him during class.

Being together meant dating.

At that time, she was shocked, her heart feeling like it had been pinched. Mostly, she felt confused. After a few seconds of hesitation, she coldly rejected him.

Back then, Fu Xueli was a rebellious pretty girl. To her, this class monitor who exuded seriousness from head to toe, even if handsome, couldn’t be her boyfriend.

After rejecting Xu Xingchun, he noticeably became colder towards her. His gaze never actively met hers, and he would just focus on his homework during and after class. But seeing his indifferent attitude, Fu Xueli’s desire to conquer him somehow grew.

In the following days, during breaks, she would play cards with a group of boys at the back of the classroom while he swept the floor. During her card game breaks, Fu Xueli noticed Xu Xingchun glaring at her coldly.

She didn’t back down, returning a grimacing expression.

This tense interaction continued for about a week. One day, as Fu Xueli turned to talk to someone during class, Xu Xingchun finished copying from the blackboard and came down from the podium. He stopped, frowning, and used his chalk-dusted hand to pull up her T-shirt collar that had slipped down to her shoulder, covering the exposed bra strap.

She froze for a moment.

In front of everyone, his action was completely instinctive. The person Fu Xueli was talking to saw this and their mouth formed a small ‘o’ shape.

After Xu Xingchun took a bottle of water from his seat and went outside to wash his hands, the person behind her nudged her with their elbow and said with sudden realization, “Tsk tsk tsk, who would have thought! So you and the class monitor have such an ambiguous relationship?”

Fu Xueli was also a bit embarrassed by his recent action. She rolled her eyes, turned around without a word, and pulled out the pillow from her drawer to pretend to sleep.

They didn’t speak to each other all morning.

By the first afternoon class, the physics teacher stood at the door calling for the class representative to collect homework after the next class.

Xu Xingchun sat at his desk doing homework.

After pulling the nearby window closed and lying still for a while, Fu Xueli turned her face and asked, “Hey, what do you want for Christmas?”

He said, “Nothing.”

She placed a lychee-flavored candy on his desk and shamelessly said, “Class monitor, actually, I want your physics homework.”

“…” After a while, he was still bought over by a fruit candy. He took out his homework notebook and handed it to her, saying, “If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me.”

After saying this, as if nothing had happened, he continued to lower his head and do his own homework.

His skin was fair and delicate, from the tip of his nose to his jaw, his yet-to-mature features already showing signs of refinement.

Fu Xueli crossed her hands behind her head, and somehow, as if possessed, she teasingly said, “How about a kiss?”

Her tone had clearly changed.

Xu Xingchun seemed slightly surprised, his pen pausing. Slowly, the tips of his ears turned red. His lips tightened, still not looking at her, his face remaining calm. “Hmm…”

“So, can I kiss you?” She continued in her momentary craziness, staring at his profile, noticing a cute little dimple.

“Okay,” Xu Xingchun paused again, putting down his pen. Looking at Fu Xueli, whose eyes had gone wide, he said, “You can.”

The usually carefree Fu Xueli looked around, and seizing the opportunity, she leaned in and bit Xu Xingchun’s lips.

Soft, like jelly.

Sweet.

Giggling, Fu Xueli smacked her lips, savoring the moment.

So, for the second half of the class, Xu Xingchun left a pile of homework on the desk and disappeared.

In the boys’ bathroom on the second floor of the school.

Water was running in the sink. Xu Xingchun lowered his head, both hands supporting himself on the washbasin.

His face was flushed, forced to breathe slightly, his breath irregular and rapid. Water droplets fell from his forehead and eyebrows.

He stood there in a daze for a while.

Looking at the cold, dark grey walls. Slowly, Xu Xingchun seemed to come back to his senses. He raised his right hand, which was also wet. With the back of his hand, somewhat carefully, he gently rubbed his lips.

Remembering these past events, she suddenly felt nostalgic.

Fu Xueli put away the watermelon-flavored candy and unwrapped the lychee-flavored one. She put it in her mouth, then pulled Xu Xingchun’s neck, held his chin, closed her eyes, and pressed her lips against his.

Her soft little tongue poked out halfway, sliding across his lips. There was a deliberate seductive intention.

His lips were like hot winter snow, or like cherry red, with the moist cool air, soft and sweet between the lips and teeth.

It was a bit problematic.

Liking someone seemed to be mutually contagious.

She had thought she had already become a worldly-wise adult, annoyed by everyone she met, treating love with indifference and unable to stir up any waves. But Fu Xueli increasingly felt… addicted to Xu Xingchun.

“You’re getting aroused, Xu Xingchun.”

“Mm.”

“What should we do?” Her mind was hazy as she leaned to his ear, “Should we go into the room? I can help you take care of it.”

“No need.” Xu Xingchun’s voice was already hoarse. He changed his position, holding the back of her head and pressing her into the crook of his neck. He held her tightly, leaving no space between them.

His breath was hot, and they were at a distance where they could kiss with just a slight turn of the head.

“Look at you, pretending to be proper again.” Fu Xueli grumbled, “Do you know what Song Yifan used to say about you?”

His evaluation of Xu Xingchun had a very funny part that she always remembered:

“Let me tell you about the class monitor. From a man’s deep understanding of another man, the monitor is more colorful than you imagine. He seems proper on the surface, but he’s actually super lustful!”

In the end, she couldn’t help him resolve his issue. Xu Xingchun went to shower alone, leaving Fu Xueli by herself in the room, clutching her stomach and rolling on the bed.

She stared blankly at the lampshade by the bed for a while, which was emitting a soft glow. Fu Xueli suddenly felt her throat dry and hot, and then she saw Xu Xingchun walk past the window.

He was holding a glass of water in one hand and closed the door behind him.

“I suddenly felt a bit scared just now.”

As Xu Xingchun approached, Fu Xueli knelt up and placed her hand on his waist.

He bent down to embrace her, whispering in her ear. In the quiet of the night, his voice had a low, gentle quality, “Drink some warm water.”

After turning off the lights, the room fell into dark silence.

Fu Xueli’s hand slowly moved from under the covers to his neck, then to his chin. “Actually, I haven’t been doing well these past few years. Often working day and night for filming, sometimes dreaming about you in hotels, feeling disappointed when I wake up, and feeling guilty when I space out.”

These words were somewhat insincere.

Although it was heartless, in fact, Fu Xueli had hardly dared to think about Xu Xingchun these past few years. Because whenever she thought about him or anything related to him, she would be surrounded by a strong sense of guilt, mixed with indescribable regret. It was too painful to get over.

It was too hard to bear.

Fu Xueli would rather forget the pain once the wound had healed.

She was never a saint, and occasionally she would despise herself, knowing she had done many wrongs.

She couldn’t control the occasional thoughts that popped up in her mind.

Without her these past few years, Xu Xingchun must have lived a very lonely and dull life, able to forget her faults and remember only her good points in the deep of night.

Now that they’ve reunited, she could still fill his cracks with warmth.

After mumbling these words, Fu Xueli wanted to kiss him but couldn’t reach. So she became slightly annoyed, and also a bit guilty, “Xu Xingchun, you’re so cold. You don’t say anything to me, keeping everything bottled up inside will make you sick. Or is it that you don’t care about me at all?”

“What should I feel sorry for you about?”

“What?!” Fu Xueli pushed him away and questioned, “Why are you so heartless?”

Unfortunately, before she could finish her tantrum, he grabbed her face and turned it towards him. Xu Xingchun forcefully kissed her again. One kiss after another.

It was more deadly than the intertwining of lips and tongues.

Her heart trembled wave after wave. Pinned down by his hand, with a hint of forced submission. Fu Xueli struggled to break free from his restraint, mumbling and kicking her legs.

His thumb caressed her lips. Xu Xingchun bent his elbow and lowered his head to kiss Fu Xueli’s eyelids. The room was quiet as he listened to her self-deprecating, intermittent murmurs.

“Actually… I think I’m very selfish. I’m afraid you’ve had a bad time these past few years, but I’m also afraid you’ve had too good a time. Although I know I’ve wronged you, I also don’t want you to be very happy without me.”

Happy?

Xu Xingchun felt a bit self-mocking.

After leaving Fu Xueli, he had no choice but to try his best to cover up his mess of a self.

The first few years were terrible, time passed so slowly.

Knowing she had become a celebrity, he didn’t dare watch TV or entertainment news.

He didn’t dare to touch anything related to her.

Countless deep nights were spent thinking.

Hiding his desires in his coat.

Then taking a train to find her.

Because Xu Xingchun couldn’t stand himself anymore.

The him that loved her so completely.

A longing that bordered on obsession.

Every moment, it was about to drive him crazy.