The Slip Into the Pool Chapter 10

After Ethan Cheng helped him unscrew the bottle cap, he picked up the plate and went straight to the sink.

While washing the dishes, Max Ye came up to me and said, "Thank you. This is for you."

A bottle of Coke, 500 ml, and his own was rock sugar and pear juice.

"You're welcome." Ethan Cheng drained the water from the plates, piled them in the recycling area, and turned to leave.

Max Ye continued: "You don't like Coke? Then...then I'll give you this pear juice."

Although she said this, her arm holding the bottle of pear juice did not loosen at all. She looked like a little animal guarding its food and was very reluctant to exchange with him.

Ethan Cheng thought it was funny and said, "No, I'm not thirsty."

It took three minutes to walk from the cafeteria to the teaching building, but Max Ye dragged him for ten minutes.

"Are you hungry? I see you don't eat much."

"Have you ever tried the milk lollipops at the canteen?"

"Would you like to go to the bathroom together?"

"Your first class in the afternoon is physics? Ours is chemistry."

"This drink is so heavy, can you help me carry it?"

...

Leo Liao mentioned Max Ye by chance before, saying that he was the little sun of their class. Ethan Cheng didn't believe it at first, but now he thinks that the nickname is indeed somewhat appropriate.

At the stairs, the drinks were still not delivered. All the good intentions were rejected by Ethan Cheng's cold and official answer. Max Ye was surrounded by dark clouds, his mouth was pouting, he stretched out his arm to stop Ethan Cheng from going upstairs, and announced with his head held high: "That breakfast is not for others, it is for you."

Ethan Cheng stopped and asked, "Oh?"

After all, it was Max Ye’s first time to confess his feelings. Even though he was just acting without much sincerity, he was embarrassed and at a loss, his face was so red that it seemed like blood was about to drip out.

It was impossible to wait for the other party to take the initiative, so Max Ye mustered up his courage and said, "I came here by bike today, too. Wait for me after school."

"What's the matter?" Ethan Cheng asked in a businesslike manner.

Max Ye didn't believe that he didn't realize what he meant, but he was the one chasing after him, so he closed his eyes and said with difficulty: "I, I want to do homework with you."

There is more than an hour of rest time before evening self-study. Usually Max Ye would take this time to run home for dinner. If he was fast, he could even play a game in time. Today, he called Laura Luo early to say that he would not go home for dinner. Laura Luo asked him where he would eat, and he answered vaguely: "With my classmates."

The autumn wind was bleak at night. Max Ye put on his school uniform before leaving the classroom. He met Emily Sun in the corridor, who pointed at him and laughed non-stop: "Qin, you are so nervous when you dress like this. I always feel like there is a little cutie in our class who wants to compete with me for the title of class flower."

Max Ye had been laughed at all day and was immune to it. When he was sitting on his bicycle waiting for someone, a classmate from the next class who knew him joked with him: "Brother Qin, you are dressed so cool, which girl are you trying to pick up?"

Max Ye felt comfortable listening to it. He pretended to be mysterious and kept his mouth shut. In his heart, he proudly answered - the girl named Cheng in your class.

After waiting for twenty minutes, Ethan Cheng still didn't come down. Max Ye became a little anxious and ran back upstairs to look for him.

Ethan Cheng didn't leave the classroom at all. He brought his lunch to school every day. He ate one lunch in the cafeteria and the other lunch he brought. In recent days, he had to tutor Wei Jiaqi, so he moved the cafeteria meal to noon. In the evening, he poured a cup of hot water into his lunch box, and it was another hot meal.

When Max Ye angrily walked into the science class, Ethan Cheng was pouring hot water into the rice. He stared blankly, forgetting what he was going to say. He said with some surprise and some disgust: "You're just going to eat this?"

"Yeah." Ethan Cheng mixed the rice with a spoon, then sat down and started eating.

At this moment, all the other students had gone to eat, and there were only the two of them in the classroom. Max Ye made a phone call, then raised his legs and sat on the chair in the front seat, holding his head and watching him eat.

The food in the lunch box was ordinary and a bit shabby. The Chinese cabbage was just the stems, and there was barely some meat in the stir-fried carrots and potatoes. It was worse than the school cafeteria. Max Ye couldn't stand it: "What is this? Don't eat it. I ordered takeout. It will be here in ten minutes."

After saying that, he stretched out two fingers to pick up the lunch box lid on the side and wanted to cover it for him.

Ethan Cheng raised his hand to block it: "You eat yours, I eat mine."

Max Ye said confidently: "How can that be possible? I ordered two."

Ethan Cheng ignored him. Max Ye sat there bored. He put down the lid of his lunch box and started to comment on his lunch box: "What kind of meat is this? Chicken? Chicken breast or chicken thigh... I still have three classes in the evening. How can I survive eating this... The oil tastes so weird. Different dishes are piled together without worrying about the smell. Is this food for human consumption?"

Ethan Cheng swallowed a mouthful of rice, and finally looked up at Max Ye, saying without any expression: "If you don't like it, please go back to your class. I have to continue eating here."

This is anger, Max Ye thought, it's good to be angry. Ryan Liu said that being angry is better than having no reaction, which proves that he cares about him.

Max Ye continued to hold his head, watching Ethan Cheng eat while waiting for his meal, occasionally interrupting him and saying, "Is it really so delicious? Did your mother make it?"

Ethan Cheng didn't bother with him and just said "hmm". Max Ye couldn't be happy when he heard this answer. His mother was the woman that James Ye kept outside. She had once made his mother cry. He remembered this debt in his heart and would make her return it one day.

Five minutes later, the takeaway arrived. Max Ye was still angry, gnawing on the ribs and making a bunch of smacking noises, for fear that the people on the other side didn't know how delicious it was. Ethan Cheng finished eating and was about to wash the lunch box, but Max Ye pulled him back pitifully: "I can't finish it... help me eat it."

Ethan Cheng felt a headache and asked, "What do you want to do?"

Max Ye finally waited for this sentence, the ribs in his mouth fell to the ground with a plop, and he said with a beaming face: "Chase you."

After evening self-study at 9:30, Ethan Cheng was chased all the way by Max Ye who was riding a bicycle.

When passing the road under repair, Max Ye was so elated that he said, "I was stopped by a traffic policeman last time, but he can't stop me this time."

As he said this, he turned around and made a face at the traffic policeman on duty. He was so tough that he didn't look like someone who couldn't open a bottle cap at all.

Fortunately, he was not sent to the door of his house. When Max Ye saw the gate of Yulin Community from afar, he stopped consciously, waved goodbye and left.

Ethan Cheng carried his bicycle and walked into the dark corridor. Grandpa Li on the second floor opened the door and a beam of light shone on the stairs.

"Xiaochi is back."

"Hey, Grandpa, please go in. It's cold outside. I can see the road."

Grandpa Li smiled kindly: "It's okay, I just have something to tell you."

Back home, Ethan Cheng was still thinking about what Grandpa Li had just said. He said that recently a young man was wandering around here, and when he asked for directions, he pointed to Building 3 and asked if there was a woman named Cheng here.

Grandpa Li was alert and cautious. He pretended to be confused and said he didn't know. He guessed that the young man might come again, so he reminded Ethan Cheng and his mother at home to be careful.

The first person Ethan Cheng thought of was that man, perhaps the man he sent.

Last summer, after the man came to his house for the first time and was kicked out by him, he often came over when he was not at home. If Ethan Cheng was not sure that he would not hurt his mother, he would rather continue to take a leave of absence from school and stay at home than let him set foot in the house.

But recently, Grace Cheng's attitude towards that man has shown obvious signs of softening.

There had always been only the mother and son in this family, and they had survived all the hard times. Ethan Cheng remembered that Grace Cheng was aloof and arrogant when she was young, and once said despite her illness that she didn't need charity from anyone. Even if she accidentally let that man in, she would not accept anything he gave her...

Ethan Cheng looked at the exquisite watch on the desk in front of him, and the uneasiness hidden in his heart came out again, making trouble and making him uneasy.

When he threw the watch, including its packaging and box, into the trash can, Grace Cheng advised him, "You don't usually use this thing, so just keep it."

Ethan Cheng listened to his mother, picked up the box from the trash can and put it on the table. He walked to the door of the room and suddenly turned back: "Next time, should I call him 'Dad'?"

The questioning words made Grace Cheng panic for a moment, but she returned to normal in just a short moment, so quickly that Ethan Cheng thought he was dazzled.

Just like when she taught Ethan Cheng to be independent and responsible, she said calmly: "Mom won't harm you. You will understand when you grow up."

Perhaps the young are always frivolous and arrogant, Ethan Cheng felt that he knew enough. When most people of his age were still playing around in their parents' arms, he had already understood the survival rules of this society, calmly and thoroughly arranged his future path, and urged himself to strictly implement it every day, not allowing any deviation.

However, things are unpredictable, and there are always uncontrollable factors that hinder his progress, such as the gay incident that caused a sensation in the Normal University Affiliated High School, and the person who was jumping around in front of him every day.

Max Ye did what he said and took the word "chase" to the extreme. Whenever Ethan Cheng was in school, he would find opportunities to wander around him, as if he had installed a tracker on Ethan Cheng.

At first I thought he was a flash in the pan and would get bored after a few days of cold reception, but more than half a month had passed and he was still pursuing me tirelessly.

At the end of November, Ethan Cheng found a waiter job from 9:30 to 12:00 in a commercial street near No. 6 Middle School. He applied to his teacher, saying that his mother at home needed care, and he would leave fifteen minutes early every day so that he could start work when he arrived at the place.

Therefore, Max Ye failed to catch Ethan Cheng at the back door for several nights in a row.

Max Ye was a little impatient. He wore the pink sweater and pretended to be disabled, but Ethan Cheng was still indifferent. His biggest reaction to him was to smile with the corners of his mouth pulled, like an audience member who was finally amused by a monkey show.

Max Ye felt greatly insulted, so he wrote the three words "Ethan Cheng" on the target. He went back to the other side of the wall and threw darts coldly. Three darts flew over, each hitting one word just right.

"You think, besides being gay, this guy has no other weaknesses that can be attacked?" Owen Zhou was anxious about Qin Ge's worries, and said thoughtfully, "Except for being poor, it seems that there is no other weakness, right?"

Max Ye thought to himself, of course there is, he is an illegitimate child.

"Besides being poor, he has no other weaknesses?" Dylan Zhao said sarcastically, "being poor is his biggest weakness."

Max Ye, who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, agreed with this. How could he live without money? Eating rice soaked in water at school and working part-time jobs after class?

Oh, right, work.

Max Ye accidentally found a new breakthrough point and regrouped. He spent two days finding out where Ethan Cheng went after leaving evening self-study early. In the evening, he rode his bicycle to the food stall and sat in the seat closest to Ethan Cheng, playing games with his PSV.

Occasionally, he would give the boss two hundred dollars to buy the waiter half an hour to chat with him and ask him to copy his homework for him.

As for the question "What do you want to do?", Ethan Cheng was too lazy to ask. Max Ye even tried to persuade him to do it by doubling his salary, but Ethan Cheng frowned and said nothing when he heard this, with resistance written all over his face.

Max Ye thought about it and felt that doing so was indeed a bit hurtful to the man's face, as if he was keeping a mistress, so he put the matter aside and did not mention it again.

Habit is a terrible thing that can penetrate into people's bodies silently without making people aware of it.

After a few days, Ethan Cheng got used to seeing Max Ye curled up at the table closest to the kitchen when he served the dishes.

The heating hadn't started yet, and he loved to show off, so he wore very cool clothes. His nine-point pants barely covered his calves, with the trouser legs empty, revealing his thin ankles, which swung in circles with his slightly raised toes. Sometimes he would cross one leg on a chair, copy homework with one hand, and rub his frozen red ankle with the other hand, blowing hot air from his mouth.

Ethan Cheng felt cold just looking at him and wanted him to go home.

He would definitely not listen if he was told verbally, so Ethan Cheng used his brain a little and deliberately filled in all the multiple-choice questions incorrectly one day, so that Max Ye would also make mistakes.

The next day, Max Ye was reprimanded by several teachers for openly defying the rules and was dragged out of the classroom to stand for an entire afternoon. News of his heroic deeds spread throughout the high school department and also reached Ethan Cheng's ears.

As long as he is not stupid, he will not come again at night, Ethan Cheng thought.

However, before ten o'clock in the evening, Ethan Cheng came out with two plates of freshly cooked dishes, and saw Max Ye, wearing a goose yellow hooded sweatshirt, lying on the dining table closest to the kitchen, writing something with a bitter and resentful look on his face.

Tonight, Young Master Ye spent two hundred dollars as usual and bought the waiter's half an hour's work.

"A three thousand word review is so hard to write. I only wrote eight hundred." He blew two puffs of hot air into his palms, pushed a page of paper full of crap in front of Ethan Cheng, hung his head, and said with a sad face, "Can you help me write a little bit? Three hundred will be enough. I will write the rest myself."