HCILH Ch. 10

After Sui Houyu became the class monitor, he hardly ever fulfilled the responsibilities of that role. This made the students of Class Seventeen gradually forget that they even had an official class officer.

One day, for some reason, Sui Houyu suddenly started acting like a class monitor.

The most annoying part was that he only targeted Hou Mo, which ended up affecting a whole group of people.

After Sui Houyu sat down, he took out his homework from his bag and placed it on the desk. He turned to Hou Mo, who was sitting nearby, and asked: “Doesn’t the academic representative collect homework?”

Hou Mo hadn’t even done his own homework. Clearing his throat to cover his embarrassment, he said, “Everyone, I’ll collect the homework after the morning self-study period, so remember to give it to me.”

As soon as Hou Mo finished speaking, the students in the classroom were thrown into chaos: “Oh my God, what homework is there?!”

“What?! There’s homework?!”

The classroom fell into a mess. Deng Yiheng, who had just come back to his seat with a bun in his mouth, rummaged through his backpack for a while, then stood up again and said: “I’m going to buy a notebook.”

After walking a few steps, he turned back and asked Hou Mo: “Senior Brother, how many subjects do we have?”

As soon as Deng Yiheng finished asking, a group of people asked him to help them get notebooks. Deng Yiheng simply decided not to bother: “I’ll just buy a bunch and bring them back.”

With that, he left.

While Hou Mo sat at his desk diligently catching up on his homework, he took a bite of his bun and glanced at Sui Houyu.

Their eyes met.

Sui Houyu sat in his seat, propping his head up with one hand, seemingly enjoying watching him do his homework. His cheek pressed against his palm, making him look surprisingly cute.

This guy really…is always making things difficult for him.

Is it true that you capture the leader before capturing the minions?

The hellish morning self-study began. Many people were absent-mindedly reading aloud, their voices weak and even a bit drawn out. If you didn’t listen closely, you’d think the whole class was chatting instead of studying.

Everyone was struggling to write their homework, putting in quite a bit of effort.

Finally, when the morning self-study ended, all the homework was collected by Hou Mo. He gathered a pile of assignments and took them to the teacher’s office. Since it was the start of the semester and there was no class representative yet, he could only ask the athletes for help.

After returning to the classroom, Hou Mo yawned and leaned on the desk, ready to sleep.

As soon as Hou Mo lay down, Sui Houyu noticed.

However, Sui Houyu waited until Hou Mo was gradually falling asleep before pulling out a small water gun from his bag. He aimed it at Hou Mo’s face and sprayed him.

Hou Mo felt a coolness on his cheek. Wiping his face with his hand, he realized it was a puddle of water, almost as if someone had spat on him.

He straightened up but didn’t really wake up.

Then he turned to look at Sui Houyu, only to see him mouthing: “No sleeping.”

Hou Mo stared at Sui Houyu for a while, then glanced at the other sleeping students in the classroom. He sighed deeply, rubbed his face, and continued to pay attention in class.

A good man doesn’t suffer losses in front of him.

It’s said that the one who teases first is the one who is cheap.

Clearly, it was Sui Houyu and his friends who were looking for trouble first; he was just catching Sui Houyu in the act.

He couldn’t even say he was retaliating; he was just temporarily restraining him. How did it become a reason for Sui Houyu to come looking for trouble? Why was Sui Houyu so fixated on holding a grudge?

This person is really unreasonable and had no manners.

*

According to the new school’s regulations at Fengyu High School, there are only two classes on Friday afternoons. After the two classes, everyone is free to go home with their luggage.

This is also to accommodate students who live far away.

Ran Shu insisted on going to Sui Houyu’s house to take a look. Sui Houyu thought that this young master would definitely be picky the moment he walked through the door and impatiently refused.

He shouldered his bag and walked out of the school, only to see a pile of cars at the school gate, but no taxis available, and it was unlikely anyone from his family would come to pick him up.

Deng Yiheng suddenly poked his head out of a van and shouted to Sui Houyu: “Class Monitor, want to carpool?”

Deng Yiheng remembered that Sui Houyu lived quite close to them and greeted him warmly.

Sui Houyu looked over and saw Hou Mo sitting in the car, drinking a bottle of mineral water. As he drank, his Adam’s apple bobbed, exuding a strong sense of sexual tension.

Sui Houyu walked over and asked, “Is there no way to get a taxi here?”

“No, you can’t get a car on Didi^[1] during this time; all the cars gather here. Get in! We know the driver well. It’ll only be eight yuan each to get home. Other drivers would charge you ten yuan, and the sketchy ones could charge fifteen.”

Sui Houyu thought about it and still got into the car. He didn’t know what Deng Yiheng was thinking, but he actually let Sui Houyu have the front seat and went to the back.

Sui Houyu bent down to look and saw that there was no space in the backseat, so he could only sit next to Hou Mo.

Hou Mo ignored him, holding his bag and sitting in the seat.

After sitting for a while, Sui Houyu finally understood why Deng Yiheng was so enthusiastic. The driver wouldn’t leave until the car was full.

It seemed someone noticed that both Sui Houyu and Hou Mo were in the car, and later, three girls got in. Two of them squeezed next to Sui Houyu, while one went to the front passenger seat.

Sui Houyu was a bit surprised. Isn’t this overloading?

Just when he felt uncomfortable, he saw Deng Yiheng looking even more uncomfortable—had he known girls would get in, he wouldn’t have switched seats with Sui Houyu.

After the car started moving, the driver took a shortcut along a rural road, making the car bounce the entire time, “flying” and “falling.”

Sui Houyu turned his head to look for a seatbelt, only to find there wasn’t one. Not only that, but the seats were shaking along with the motion, creating quite a rhythm.

Hou Mo noticed his movements and said to Sui Houyu: “There’s no seatbelt. If you can’t sit steadily, just hold onto me.”

Sui Houyu didn’t touch him, raising his hand to hold onto the car ceiling.

The girl sitting next to Sui Houyu seemed to be doing it on purpose, leaning against him. Hou Mo turned his head and noticed.

When they reached a steep incline, the car jolted, and Sui Houyu couldn’t hold on, tumbling toward Hou Mo, who caught him with one hand.

Then Hou Mo extended his hand, which was closer to Sui Houyu, to the girl beside Sui Houyu. It looked like he was helping Sui Houyu, but in fact, he gave her a push and smiled, asking: “Are you okay?”

The girl who was pushed aside was momentarily taken aback, then awkwardly replied: “I’m fine.”

At that moment, Sui Houyu stabilized himself, turned to look beside him, and said: “I’ll get down.” He hadn’t noticed earlier, just thinking it was cramped in the car.

Sui Houyu’s habit was generally not to size up the opposite sex. When there were girls around, he wouldn’t even look at them, which led him to not notice it.

After getting out of the car, everyone dispersed.

As they walked, only Sui Houyu and Hou Mo were left.

Hou Mo followed behind Sui Houyu, watching him walk with a confident stride, and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

His gaze was locked on the trembling tips of Sui Houyu’s hair. The way they curled was interesting, just at the right angle, exposing his fair ears.

It wasn’t until Sui Houyu turned at a corner that Hou Mo caught up, reached out to pull him back, and said, “Wrong way; it’s this building.”

Saying that, he pointed.

Sui Houyu glanced over, then patted Hou Mo’s hand: “Oh, thanks.”

Hou Mo shook his hand and complained: “You really have no sincerity at all.”

With that, he turned and walked in another direction.

Sui Houyu couldn’t help but ask: “Isn’t it that way?”

“I’m going to buy groceries.”

*

At ten thirty on Saturday morning, the doorbell rang at Sui Houyu’s house.

Sui Houyu knew it was the cleaner but ignored it and continued reading in his bedroom.

The cleaner had the password for the guesthouse lock. After waiting a moment, the cleaner opened the door and walked in, carrying a bamboo basket filled with sheets, towels, and other items.

After he walked in, he put on shoe covers and said to the room, “Hello, I’ve replaced the towels for you; the new ones have just been washed and disinfected at high temperatures, so you can use them with peace of mind.”

Hou Mo took the replacement bath towels and towels, walked into the bathroom to change the toiletries, threw out all the used ones, and replaced them with the ones he had brought.

Next, he went to check the washstand to see if he needed to replenish the hand soap and other items.

He had heard that the guests here didn’t stay long, so there weren’t many signs of use.

The bathroom seemed to have been used only a few times; the toilet paper didn’t even need to be replaced. He just needed help to tidy up the floor.

While he was cleaning, he saw a pair of slippers coming toward him, and the person stood at the door looking at him.

He also looked up to explain: “I’m here to tidy up this weekend…”

Then he made eye contact with Sui Houyu.

Sui Houyu was still chewing gum when he arrived, and after blowing a bubble, he popped it back in.

He always had that domineering demeanor, seemingly amused by Hou Mo’s presence, with a look full of mockery in his eyes.

Hou Mo hesitated for a moment, continued to tidy up, and explained to Sui Houyu, “My mom’s health isn’t good; I help her work on weekends.”

In fact, there were many guesthouses in this building, which had started booming because of the development of tourism.

Most of the residents here were former residents who had returned, so many houses were empty and rented out. Later, he heard that if they renovated them nicely, they could turn them into guesthouses, and the income would be three times that of renting the houses, so everyone rushed to start guesthouses.

However, these guesthouses were tidied up by the homeowners themselves. For example, the three houses that Hou’s mother managed were because the owners were too fond of playing mahjong and too lazy to tidy them up, so they hired Hou’s mother.

Actually, when Hou Mo saw Sui Houyu appear in this building, he had suspected it.

He didn’t expect it to be such a coincidence.

“Oh—” Sui Houyu answered, stretching out the sound.

Hou Mo set aside his embarrassment and chatted with Sui Houyu: “Are you living here long-term?”

“Yeah, booked for six months.”

“Can you check if there’s anything wrong with the bathroom?”

“The showerhead is a bit clogged.”

“Okay, let me take a look.” Hou Mo rolled up his sleeves and walked over.

The showerhead was very simple in design; it was one unit, and the large showerhead couldn’t be removed at all.

After opening it and taking a look, Hou Mo found a toothpick and used it to clean out each hole, then turned on the showerhead to test it.

Hou Mo worked on unclogging the showerhead for about ten minutes, during which Sui Houyu stood patiently watching him, only taking a moment to spit out his gum.

Once Hou Mo finished tidying up, he turned on the showerhead and asked Sui Houyu: “Is this okay?”

“Yeah.” Sui Houyu nodded, then pointed at the floor gap and said, “The water stains need to be cleaned; it makes me uncomfortable to look at with my obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

Hou Mo looked at the water stains in silence for a moment. There was a floor drain that had been constantly submerged in water, and if it hadn’t been cleaned promptly, it left behind stains.

After looking at it, he squatted down and made an effort to clean it.

At this point, he realized that Sui Houyu was deliberately making things difficult for him.

After Hou Mo had almost finished tidying up, while he was organizing the replaced towels and sheets, Sui Houyu came out and said: “The curtain rod is rusty; you should scrape it off.”

Hou Mo hesitated for a moment, threw the last pillowcase into the bamboo basket, and turned back to Sui Houyu, saying, “Sui Houyu, don’t go too far with your requests!”

“Now what did I do?”

Hou Mo looked at Sui Houyu and said softly, “You clearly provoked me first. You sprayed me with a water gun, and of course, I had to catch you. I didn’t even touch you; why are you so sensitive? When others say I’m gay, it’s because I often use my preference for boys to reject girls so it won’t hurt their feelings too much. I’m straight, so don’t think just because you look like a girl I’d be interested in you.”

Sui Houyu’s expression fell, looking increasingly worse.

He genuinely didn’t know that others said Hou Mo was gay; this was a bit of a self-exposure.

Sui Houyu disliked being told he looked like a girl.

Hou Mo continued, “I just don’t want to start trouble; don’t think I’ll spoil you.”

Sui Houyu raised his chin and said, “Am I being spoiled by you?”

Hou Mo pulled off the rubber gloves on his hands and said, “Isn’t it just that you want to annoy me into a fight? Is it that you won’t let it go unless you get into a fight with me? Fine, I won’t tidy up; do you really think I’m afraid of you?”

Right, if they didn’t fight, Sui Houyu would never get over this hurdle in his heart.

He still had to find a reason; who would have known that Hou Mo would endure for so long.