I Treat You as a Brother

70 – Awesome 1 Fang Mo

Translator: tamago

Editor: Yin

It wasn’t until the afternoon that Fang Mo finally got a message about his package. The express package locker at the school’s package room sent him a pick-up code to remind him to pick it up in time.

He wouldn’t be able to give it to Xu Xiran until after he got back to school, but Fang Mo wanted to pick it up early to appreciate what the jacket he had carefully selected was actually like, so he made a detour after class. He didn’t expect that he would run into an acquaintance at the door of the package room.

To a certain extent, he and Yang Lin were actually quite destined. Every face-to-face meeting they’ve ever had was an unexpected encounter.

After noticing the existence of the other party, both of them felt a little awkward, and they each raised the corners of their mouths with difficulty as they greeted each other.

They say that meeting a love rival can make things awkward. However, Yang Lin was already a defeated foe in the past, and now Liu Xiaochang had been dating him for a while. Fang Mo had recently become good friends with Liu Xiaochang as well, and in theory, you should always maintain basic friendliness with your friends’ lovers.

It was unfortunate that Yang Lin didn’t seem to think this way. After showing the minimum perfunctory smile, he very deliberately looked away and even turned his back to Fang Mo as much as possible. It seemed that he was still brooding over his failure from back then.

Of course, Fang Mo was not in the mood to be met with cold rebuke, so he simply pretended that he didn’t exist, took the package neatly, and left the collection point to go to the accommodation area.

Then an embarrassing thing happened.

Yang Lin came out at the same time as him and went in the same direction.

Their dormitory buildings were not close, but they were indeed in the same area. Because of this, they would both be headed in the same direction the whole way.

Both of them deliberately wanted to keep a distance from each other, so in a tacit understanding, one walked on the far left side of the road while the other walked on the far right. Yang Lin purposely quickened his pace, while Fang Mo deliberately walked slower.

After pulling away a distance of about ten meters, he then began to move forward at a normal speed.

As he looked at Yang Lin in front of him, Fang Mo suddenly realized that he was definitely going to have a date with Liu Xiaochang tonight. He was holding a small box in his hand, which must have just been taken out of the express package locker. Fang Mo had seen with his own eyes that he could not wait to remove the ugly express packaging back in the package room, revealing a beautiful dark blue packaging inside. It was undoubtedly a Christmas present. When Fang Mo disappeared from his sight, his footsteps became visibly brisker, brimming with joy.

How nice. Despite being the winner in the beginning, he found himself envying Yang Lin now instead.

But on second thought, if someone were to ask whether he’d switch places with Yang Lin now, he would not want that either. He had watered that silly piece of wood for so long, and now that it had finally sprouted and was about to bloom, he was happy to continue waiting.

Then he had another thought and wondered how Yang Lin felt about Liu Xiaochang. The two had a rocky start, and it was reasonable to say that Liu Xiaochang’s appearance did not suit Yang Lin’s taste, so the fact that he was willing to try and accept him, was most likely because he indeed made him quite happy in bed. But what about now? How serious was he to Liu Xiaochang now? Getting along with a lover who had a hole in his head and a different way of thinking from ordinary people must be tiring at times. From listening to Liu Xiaochang’s troubles last time, the two lacked a common language except for physical communication, and so there must have been some awkwardness when getting along. He didn’t know if things were better now.

Liu Xiaochang was now his friend, and although he felt sour at this moment, Fang Mo still hoped that his friend’s relationship would go smoothly.

~

Once he entered the dormitory area, Fang Mo quickly noticed that something wasn’t right.

Although he wasn’t sure which building Yang Lin lived in, it was definitely not in the same direction as his. But seeing Yang Lin’s direction of travel, he was getting closer and closer to his residence.

He wouldn’t be looking for Liu Xiaochang, would he?

His prediction was quickly confirmed. Following the number, Yang Lin stopped in front of Fang Mo’s dormitory building, then turned and walked in.

Fang Mo, who was following behind him, soon felt awkward. He had no idea what to do. He didn’t want to face Yang Lin in the dormitory at all, that would be too stupid. Would it be better to go to the dormitory next door to kill some time first? Once the two young lovers meet up, they would probably soon leave, right?

As he thought, he slowed down his pace and took his time entering the dormitory building. As soon as he reached the stairs, he unexpectedly bumped into Yang Lin again.

Yang Lin hadn’t gone upstairs; he was standing in front of the stairs, making a phone call.

The atmosphere became weird again.

Yang Lin hung up the phone and looked at him strangely. Feeling helpless, Fang Mo decided to pretend he hadn’t seen him and nonchalantly walked past him to go up the stairs He had a feeling that Liu Xiaochang was not in the dormitory, so Yang Lin was probably going to leave soon, right?

He had just walked up a few steps when Yang Lin behind him asked, “You also live in this building?”

Fang Mo turned his head and found that this guy had knitted his brows.

Then at this moment, he heard the voice of his roommate Liu Xiaochang come from above the stairs.

“Fang Mo? Are you done with class?”

Before Fang Mo turned his head, Yang Lin, who was standing at the stairs, had a strong reaction. He quickly ran up a few steps, and loudly asked Liu Xiaochang, “Do you know each other?”

Yang Lin was right in Liu Xiaochang’s blind spot. He suddenly jumped out, and Liu Xiaochang immediately laughed: “If you had told me earlier, I would’ve come to pick you up. I’m in 301, don’t forget next time.”

Yang Lin turned a blind eye to his joy and asked again: “You two know each other?”

Liu Xiaochang was puzzled, so he nodded, “He’s my roommate.”

Yang Lin’s eyes widened in an instant and turned his head to aggressively look at Fang Mo.

Fang Mo stood where he was the whole time, feeling extremely awkward, and didn’t say a word. He thought to himself, this time I’ve really been wronged.

~

The atmosphere in the dormitory felt sinister.

Liu Xiaochang realized later that something was wrong, but he didn’t understand why, so his whole face was full of question marks.

When he opened his mouth to Yang Lin, it was a fatal blow of a sentence: “What is it now?”

Yang Lin crossed his arms and sat on Liu Xiaochang’s chair, shaking his legs and rolling his eyes: “I’m fine!”

Liu Xiaochang was completely baffled and raised his head to launch a distress signal to Fang Mo.

While Fang Mo was still hesitating on whether he should make a sound or not, Yang Lin, who seemed to grasp this situation, said, “You two seem close, are you flirting in front of me?”

“No, I…” Liu Xiaochang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “What are you doing? What do you mean by flirting? Fang Mo is my friend.”

Yang Lin turned his head angrily: “Oh, friend. You and your friend sleep in the same room every night.”

Liu Xiaochang was stunned: “This… the dorms were arranged by the school, and it’s not like we sleep in the same bed. Did you think that I lived in a single? Is that not the case? You also have roommates, right?”

Yang Lin was being a little unreasonable, held back for a long time, and muttered in a low voice: “My roommates are all decent people.”

“Ah?” Liu Xiaochang finally came to his senses, “What do you mean? Can you explain? Did Fang Mo offend you?”

Yang Lin stood up abruptly: “Are you helping him?”

“I… no, what on earth do you want?” Liu Xiaochang knew nothing about their festivities, and was beginning to have a headache, “Ever since you’ve accused Fang Mo, he hasn’t even said a word up until now. What is this misunderstanding?”

Yang Lin glared at Fang Mo angrily, and sneered: “Okay, peerless white lotus1, you’re incredible.”

Fang Mo, an innocent bystander, stood in the center of the storm, feeling perplexed to no end, and didn’t know whether to participate or to quickly disappear.

Although he was being viewed as the enemy, he could somewhat understand Yang Lin’s feelings. If Yang Lin lived in Xu Xiran’s dormitory, and Xu Xiran treated him like a good brother despite knowing that he was gay, Fang Mo would definitely vomit blood out of anger.

But he certainly wouldn’t explode at his boyfriend’s face like Yang Lin. So, this xuedi was still a little fragile.

Seeing that Yang Lin’s eyes were turning red with anger, although Liu Xiaochang felt that he was being unreasonable, he still comforted him for the time being.

“What’s the matter? Don’t feel anxious, let’s just talk about it. Is there a misunderstanding?”

Yang Lin frowned and said nothing, looking like he was about to cry. The cunning rival who had once stolen his crush and made him lose face in front of a male god was now sharing the same room with his current boyfriend every night and they seemed close to one another. Wanting to launch an attack, but didn’t want to act without justification, he felt so wronged that he was about to go crazy.

Seeing this, Liu Xiaochang hesitated for a moment, took him by the hand, dragged him into the bathroom, and closed the door.

This was a rare smart moment for him.

After all, Fang Mo was here as a lightbulb2, so there were probably things that Yang Lin couldn’t say.

Fang Mo was temporarily freed from the Asura field and heaved a long sigh of relief as he fell onto his bed. He guessed that Yang Lin was going to say a lot of bad things about him, and really wanted to hear what he would say.

Shortly afterward, he realized that he probably would still be able to hear. The poor soundproofing in this dormitory was a meritorious service. His bed was close to the wall of the bathroom, and he could faintly hear the sound of movement from inside.

Yang Lin’s voice was very quiet at the moment, and he was crying. Although he couldn’t hear his words clearly, his tone was clearly aggrieved.

Liu Xiaochang was very bad at comforting him and soon provoked him.

Yang Lin suddenly raised his voice: “Can’t you put yourself into my shoes? If I had a 1 in my dorm who messed around all day, and I told you that I was close with him, wouldn’t you have some ill feelings in your heart?”

Liu Xiaochang replied in a low voice, and then immediately afterward, Yang Lin’s voice became louder.

“You don’t love me at all!” he yelled, “You just want to find someone to fuck. I should have known from the start!”

Fang Mo kind of wanted to laugh, but he also felt anxious. It seemed that Yang Lin was quite serious about Liu Xiaochang. But if Liu Xiaochang continued on like this, he would undoubtedly make him want to leave.

Although unintentional, he was the source of this quarrel after all. Fang Mo thought that he might be able to play a subjective role in helping Liu Xiaochang through this difficulty.

Just as he was trying to think about how to deal with it, Liu Xiaochang suddenly raised his voice as well.

“Don’t you think your logic is very weird? Do you like Xu Xiran?”

Fang Mo was taken aback. The voice next door fell silent for a moment.

Liu Xiaochang had somehow actually guessed the root cause of Yang Lin’s fixation on Fang Mo. He clearly didn’t seem like a person who observed other people’s emotions this carefully. Fang Mo couldn’t help but suspect that ever since he heard that Yang Lin and Xu Xiran knew each other, he had always had some grievances in his heart, which was why his thinking was so agile at this moment.

Fang Mo felt conflicted. Xu Xiran, a die-hard otaku, had committed countless atrocities simply because of his lack of self-awareness of his own attractiveness.

 But Liu Xiaochang saying such things now was no different from self-destructive behavior.

Sure enough, after a few seconds, the bathroom door was violently thrown open, and Yang Lin rushed out. He took two steps outside, then quickly went back, and threw the blue packaged box in his hand at Liu Xiaochang, who was still in the bathroom, and shouted: “You heartless dog!”

Seeing that Liu Xiaochang hadn’t recovered yet, and Yang Lin was about to rush out of the dormitory, Fang Mo quickly jumped off his bed.

“Wait!” He said as he hurried over while slipping his shoes on, reaching out to hold Yang Lin back.

Yang Lin froze for a moment, then shook his hand away forcefully.

“What do you want?” He stared at Fang Mo.

Fang Mo inwardly sighed. Just for the sake of Liu Xiaochang’s face, he might as well repay some emotional debt to his future boyfriend Xu Xiran while he was at it.

“You seem to have a bit of a misunderstanding with me,” he said to Yang Lin.

“Ha,” Yang Lin forced a smile.

Fang Mo thought to himself, what kind of image did Yang Lin have of him in his heart? A vixen who seduced men all day long, and a peerless white lotus with ill intentions.

This was just too devastating. Fang Mo felt bad for himself. He was just a poor single virgin without a date on Christmas Eve.

Who had to deal with his stupid roommate’s delicate boyfriend.

Fang Mo licked his lips and decided to tell an exciting lie. As if he took revenge on the culprit who caused him not to have a date today.

“We met at the gate of the dormitory area a while ago, do you remember? That time Xu Xiran was there too,” Fang Mo said, slightly lowering his voice, “You didn’t seem to be able to move around very well that day.”

Yang Lin didn’t understand why he mentioned this and was puzzled and a little embarrassed at the same time: “What do you mean!”

Liu Xiaochang finally came out of the bathroom. Holding the small blue box in his hand, he looked at Yang Lin nervously, with a look on his face like he wanted to explain, but didn’t know what to say. Seeing that Yang Lin was standing still, he hurried forward and closed the bedroom door.

Fang Mo was instantly amused.

“Look, he was afraid you’d leave,” he whispered to Yang Lin.

Compared with Liu Xiaochang’s annoying speeches, his clumsy behavior was clearly more helpful to the person he cared about. Yang Lin’s complexion was slightly red, and he gave Liu Xiaochang, who was stupidly standing at the door, a look, but his appearance was no longer as fierce.

He looked at Fang Mo again: “What exactly are you trying to say?”

“…It was inconvenient for you to move that day, right?” Fang Mo finished speaking, lowered his head, and coughed, “Didn’t you realize that Xu Xiran was also like that?”

Once those words fell, the entire dormitory fell into a dead silence.

After a while, Liu Xiaochang broke the silence: “What do you mean? Is this what I think it means? Didn’t you say…”

Taking advantage of Yang Lin being still in shock and not having the chance to get distracted, Fang Mo glared at him fiercely, signaling him to immediately shut up.

“Your person and I are of the same position,” he continued to say to Yang Lin, “Your worries are completely unnecessary.”

“…I don’t believe it,” Yang Lin shook his head dumbfoundedly, “How could xuezhang be… and how could you be…”

“Tch,” Fang Mo shrugged, “Your person can be a 1, why can’t I?”

Liu Xiaochang looked like he wanted to say something.

But he stood still in his place, took a deep breath, and held those words back.

Author’s note: 

This should be from yesterday’s scene. I didn’t post it yesterday because I was worried it would ruin the atmosphere. 

【Super LOW warning】【View at your own discretion】

Fang Mo’s inner thoughts: wuwuwuuwuu how devastating, how pitiful, I feel so heartbroken for Xu Xiran, how could he not have a complete family, I can’t allow this, I have to give him lots and lots of warmth and love so he can be the happiest baby wuwuwuwuwu he must be pretending to be strong while enduring this pain wuwuwuwu the way he looks at me feels so genuine and tender, should I hug him!

Xu Xiran’s inner thoughts: He looks so enticing, I want to put my hand under his shirt and rub his nipples

Someone who looks pure on the outside, but dark on the inside

Third wheel, as in like a lightbulb while a couple wants to do things in the dark