HCILH Ch. 31

Chapter 31: Monthly Exam Results

Sui Houyu was someone who couldn’t sit still.

When he was at home, he would clean. At the hotel, unsure what to do, he paced around the room until he ended up standing by the bed, staring at Hou Mo.

After being stared at for a while, Hou Mo lazily rolled over and continued playing on his phone: “I have a competition, don’t mess with me. We can talk after it’s over.”

In Hou Mo’s mind, Sui Houyu was always looking for a fight.

But even if he did want to fight, the time and place had to be right—and right now, he didn’t feel like moving at all.

“Don’t you guys train during competitions?” Sui Houyu asked, seeing Hou Mo sprawled out on the bed.

“We’ll do muscle activation training tomorrow morning, but right now, the task is to rest. Coach will call me around eight to go over some tactics, and that’s it.” Hou Mo’s voice was so slow it seemed like talking any faster would be exhausting.

Feeling restless, Sui Houyu began doing push-ups on the carpet.

Hou Mo slowly rolled over again and glanced at him. “If you work out now, won’t that shower you took go to waste?” 

“I’ll just shower again.”

“You really love making things difficult for yourself.” Hou Mo kept scrolling through his phone. “I don’t have any spare clothes for you, and I can’t stand the smell of sweat.”

Sui Houyu propped himself up, glanced at Hou Mo, and thought to himself that Hou Mo must rely entirely on his looks in relationships.

He imagined Hou Mo as the kind of person who would stay sprawled on the couch for half an hour even when told to take out the trash, only moving once his girlfriend scolded him.

With a sigh, Sui Houyu stopped his push-ups and sat on the other bed.

He had barely sat down when Hou Mo came over and sat beside him, “If I sit here, will you be able to fall asleep?”

Sui Houyu hesitated for a moment, “Probably.”

“Then sleep. I’ll head back to my bed once you’re out.”

Sui Houyu glanced at his phone—it was only a little past seven. Going to bed this early?

Sleeping this early wasn’t something he usually did.

But it was awkward for the two of them to be in the same room, so why not try to fall asleep?

He laid down, trying to sleep, but he kept tossing and turning without feeling tired.

Hou Mo kept watching him. After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out and gently patted Sui Houyu’s back, just like he used to when they were kids.

Sui Houyu rolled his eyes and muttered: “What am I, a kid?”

But before he could say anything else, he fell asleep.

Hou Mo continued patting him for a while, ensuring Sui Houyu was deeply asleep before stretching lazily and heading to the coach’s room with his key card.

Sui Houyu slept for about two hours. When he woke up and looked around, Hou Mo was nowhere to be found.

The room was quiet except for the soft hum of the air conditioning.

He got out of bed, grabbed a bottle of water from the counter, and took a couple of gulps before noticing another bottle next to it.

He vaguely remembered Hou Mo saying the unopened one was for him, while the bottle with part of the label torn off was Hou Mo’s—and that Hou Mo had already taken a sip from it.

He quickly checked the bottle in his hand. Sure enough, it was the one with the torn label, so he quickly screwed the cap back and returned it.

He drank from the wrong bottle.

Realizing he had drunk from it, he spat repeatedly in disgust.

He stared at the bottle, now obviously less full. If Hou Mo noticed, he would definitely make a big deal out of it.

In a panic, Sui Houyu opened the other bottle and tried to pour water into the first one, carefully measuring the amount to make it look untouched.

Just as he was pouring, the door beeped. The sound startled him, making water spill onto the table.

Hou Mo walked in, saw what Sui Houyu was doing, and paused. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing…” Sui Houyu struggled to come up with an explanation.

Hou Mo walked over, glanced at the two bottles, and then left the room without saying anything.

A moment later, he returned with six more bottles of water and dumped them onto the table: “Here, now there’s plenty to drink.”

“Oh…” Sui Houyu hurriedly cleaned up the table and tried to act nonchalant.

Hou Mo was a water fanatic—he could drink so much that people worried he might get water intoxication. 

But because of the competition, he had cut back a bit, especially before bed, to avoid disrupting his sleep.

“That should be enough. If not, I’ll grab more.” Hou Mo said, looking at Sui Houyu. “Slept only a couple of hours?”

“Yeah, just over two hours.”

“Sleeping for a bit at this time will only make it harder to sleep later.” Hou Mo sat back down on Sui Houyu’s bed. “Try again, though. I’m not sure how well you’ll sleep.”

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Sui Houyu grabbed a bottle of water, placed it on the nightstand, and lay back down.

Hou Mo, now experienced, scrolled through his phone with one hand to read the news, while casually patting Sui Houyu with the other.

Sui Houyu remained quiet, and Hou Mo wasn’t sure if he had fallen asleep. After a while, Hou Mo himself began yawning.

He intended only to put his phone down and rest his eyes for a bit, but before he knew it, he had fallen asleep beside Sui Houyu.

The bedside lamp cast a warm orange glow over them as they slept.

Hou Mo’s pillow was still upright behind him, but as he slept, he instinctively shifted toward the darker side of the bed, moving closer to Sui Houyu.

At the same time, he was getting closer and closer to Sui Houyu.

Sui Houyu’s sleeping posture was defensive—his body curled up as if guarding himself.

But when his hand brushed against someone familiar beside him, he gradually relaxed. 

Suddenly, he finally felt at ease.

The night was silent, with all things at rest.

In deep sleep, the moon’s weariness was buried, and the night’s fatigue concealed.

He nestled in his embrace, sleeping soundly like a baby, undisturbed and dreamless throughout the night.

*

The next morning,

The shrill beeping of a phone alarm broke the silence.

Hou Mo frowned but didn’t wake immediately.

It wasn’t until the phone rang that he reluctantly opened his eyes. Glancing down, he saw Sui Houyu still curled up in his arms, then awkwardly searched for his phone.

He fell asleep unusually quickly last night, tossing his phone aside carelessly, and now, it was nowhere to be found.

He eventually found it under the blanket and answered the call.

Deng Yiheng’s voice came through from the other side: “Senior Brother—”

“I got it.”

Hou Mo cut him off and hung up directly, then turned back to the person in his arms.

He wasn’t even sure how the two of them managed to sleep last night. With both of them over 1.8 meters tall squeezed onto a single bed, the level of discomfort was unimaginable.

Half of the blanket was already dangling off the edge of the bed, but at least a portion still covered their stomachs. Judging by the state of things, he must’ve been pulling the blanket around in his sleep, making sure both he and Sui Houyu were covered.

Unlike his usual fierce demeanor, Sui Houyu slept quietly, lips pressed into a line. His head rested on a pillow, face buried against Hou Mo’s chest, with one hand draped over him.

Seeing that mess of curly hair, Hou Mo’s morning grumpiness vanished. After hesitating for a moment, he slowly slid away.

After carefully extracting himself from Sui Houyu, Hou Mo leaned back and let himself drop onto the carpet with a soft thud.

He glanced up, relieved to see that Sui Houyu was still asleep.

Hou Mo got up, went to the bathroom, and quickly freshened up, ready to tackle the morning routine.

On competition days, they always had to get up three hours early to go through neuro-muscular warm-ups before having breakfast.

After washing up and changing into sportswear, Hou Mo left the room to meet the other teammates. Following their training, he returned with breakfast in hand.

Originally, Deng Yiheng wanted to join him for breakfast, but Hou Mo rejected him without hesitation.

Even Sang Xian came by to ask what Hou Mo was up to, but Hou Mo brushed him off.

Back in the room, Hou Mo locked the door and suddenly felt a strange sensation.

It was like hiding someone precious in a gilded chamber.

Returning to the bed, he saw it was empty, but the sound of water running in the bathroom indicated Sui Houyu was up.

Hou Mo didn’t wait for Sui Houyu. He sat down to drink his porridge, checked his phone, and immediately began searching the room for a charger—he hadn’t charged his phone the night before.

Just as Sui Houyu came out, Hou Mo triumphantly pulled a charging cable from a pile of clothes, a grin on his face like someone who had found an empty bottle in the trash worth an extra ten cents.

Before heading off to eat, Hou Mo opened WeChat and saw a message from Deng Yiheng. Without thinking much, he tapped on the voice message. Deng Yiheng’s voice blared from the speaker: “Senior Brother! The monthly exam results are out—your scholarship is secure!”

Though Deng Yiheng wasn’t the best student, he was well-informed about gossip and quickly brought news of the exam results.

Hou Mo casually replied, “I’m first, right?”

Deng Yiheng confirmed, “Yep, first place.”

Sui Houyu, who had just picked up his breakfast, suddenly looked up. “What about me?”

Hou Mo typed on his phone: “What about Sui Houyu?”

Deng Yiheng replied almost instantly: “He’s second. Not bad, huh? Just four points behind you.”

In Deng Yiheng’s view, it was no surprise that Hou Mo came in first, but Sui Houyu ranking second was quite unexpected.

Sui Houyu stared at Hou Mo, wide-eyed, as if in disbelief.

Hou Mo put his phone down, returned to the table, and continued eating while peeling an egg for Sui Houyu: “You did well.”

“How could I score lower than you?” Sui Houyu, still stunned, muttered. 

“I got bonus points on the exam,” Hou Mo explained while peeling the egg. “I take freelance gigs now and then. People pay me five yuan per character for handwritten calligraphy. But I’ve taken fewer jobs lately—it’s a hassle to test out new brushes.”

Still unconvinced, Sui Houyu frowned. “But you barely even study!”

“I do!” Hou Mo protested, as if he was wronged. He pulled out a textbook from the bottom of his suitcase. “Look, I even bring books to competitions.”

Sui Houyu glanced at the brand-new textbooks buried at the bottom of the suitcase, clearly untouched.

Hou Mo placed the peeled egg into Sui Houyu’s breakfast box and advised, “Eat more. You’re too skinny.”

“I’ll skip the porridge. It’ll just make me need the bathroom, and that uniform is a hassle to get out of,” Sui Houyu said, setting down his chopsticks. He took a bite of the egg and picked up his phone to message Ran Shu.

Roronoa: “Are the monthly exam results out? Find out my scores.”

Ran Shu didn’t reply.

Sui Houyu glanced at the time and estimated it would be another five or six hours before Ran Shu woke up.

Still brooding, he asked Hou Mo, “What’s the total score?”

Hou Mo took another bite of food, then used his phone to ask Deng Yiheng. “I got 702. You got 698. The scoring was pretty harsh this time.”

“Not even 700?!” Sui Houyu exclaimed in disbelief.

Hou Mo panicked and rushed over to cover his mouth: “Ancestor, keep it down! If my teammates hear, I wont be able to explain this…”

Unconvinced, Sui Houyu pushed Hou Mo aside and grabbed his phone to message Deng Yiheng himself: “Do you have proof?”

Deng Yiheng: “???”

Deng Yiheng: “Proof? Does the leaderboard count? It’s posted on the announcement board. Our Class Seventeen really made a splash—full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.”

Deng Yiheng: [Image]

Sui Houyu enlarged the image to confirm the leaderboard:

001 Hou Mo — Class 17, Year 2 — 702 points
002 Sui Houyu — Class 17, Year 2 — 698 points
…
005 Sang Xian — Class 17, Year 2 — 683 points
…
009 Su Anyi — Class 17, Year 2 — 667 points

Sui Houyu stared at the screen, zooming in and out repeatedly, confirming it was indeed the school’s announcement board. He remained dazed for a while.

Meanwhile, Hou Mo, like a doting grandmother, hovered with an egg in hand, urging: “Come on, one more bite.”

Sui Houyu pouted but begrudgingly took a bite.

Omake: 

From Deng Yiheng’s Perspective:

Deng Yiheng: “Senior Brother, you’re first again!”

Senior Brother: “Do you have any proof?!”

Deng Yiheng almost choked on his porridge, nearly snorting it through his nose.