Chapter 74: A Tender Kiss
Su Jinli was hurrying to put on his bathrobe when An Zhiyan took a toothbrush out of the bathroom sink and asks him, "Can this toothbrush be used to brush your fish scales?"
Su Jinli paused and after some thought, he nodded.
An Zhiyan beckoned him over, positioning himself in the bathtub. "To show that I'm not here to do anything inappropriate, I've even put on swim trunks."
He raised an eyebrow, "Then why are you using a ginger slice?"
"Because it's warming," he replied.
After some thought, Su Jinli stepped into the bathtub, discarded his bathrobe and swiftly transformed into a beautiful koi fish.
A surprised An Zhiyan stares at the golden koi in the bathtub, reaching out to touch his scales. He wass pleasantly surprised by the texture.
Carefully, he proceeded to clean his scales with the toothbrush.
"Do I use the body wash?" he inquired.
Su Jinli nodded in affirmation.
With the body wash applied to the toothbrush, An Zhiyan gently yet meticulously continued to brush the scales of Su Jinli's koi form.
This was absolutely a magical experience.
At least for An An Zhiyan, in his first 23 years of life, he had never imagined that he would fall for a fish.
Su Jinli felt an unusual pleasure while his scales were being brushed. It was so comfortable that his entire body flexively flapped around, flicking his tail at An Zhiyan several times.
An Zhiyan couldn't help but laugh and asked Su Jinli, "Can you talk in this state?"
"Yes, I can!" Su Jinli replied, his voice unexpectedly high-pitched like a child's, which startled An Zhiyan.
"And what else can you do?"
"I can even run!" Su Jinli claimed. After swimming around, surprisingly, petite and fair legs sprouted from the sides of his fish body...
"Put them back, I don't want to see," An Zhiyan said, feeling instantly disillusioned.
He could come to terms with a fish.
But a fish with two tiny human legs was something An Zhiyan couldn't quite accept at the moment.
What happened to the mermaid ideal?
Wasn't it supposed to be a human upper body with a fish lower body? How come this koi spirit was like this?
"Oh." Su Jinli disappointedly retracted his legs.
When he first managed to sprout legs, he was so excited that he couldn't stop running all over the place. His delicate new feet became raw and bloody from all the scrambling, but he didn't feel any pain.
A fish that could run — how cool was that!
Why wouldn't these foolish humans appreciate his beautiful fish legs?
After An Zhiyan finished brushing all of Su Jinli's scales clean, he stood up and washed his own body with the shower.
Su Jinli lay in the bathtub, looking up at An Zhiyan as if he were a giant. "Aren't you afraid of the fact that I'm a fish?" he asked him.
Before he came into human society, his grandfather had repeatedly warned him to protect his identity. If humans found out he was a spirit, they would certainly consider him a monster, and he might cause a riot.
But it seemed that An Zhiyan was unusually accepting.
"Indeed, I can accept that you're a fish," An Zhiyan began, "but I can’t accept that Shen Cheng is your brother!" He sounded rather desperate as he said it.
What kind of misfortune was it to encounter this kind of mess?
"I think you're a good person," Su Jinli said to An Zhiyan.
"You think I'm good, but you don't want to be with me?"
"I think An Zhihan is quite nice," Su Jinli said.
"You think everyone is nice," the other person replied.
"Actually, I really appreciate your help today. What you did maintained the order between humans and spirits, and preserved the previous..."
His words were cut off by An Zhiyan: "And I also saved the world as a bonus?"
"If it indeed prevented a great battle between humans and spirits, then yes, you truly saved the world!"
"How great I am," An Zhiyan answered sarcastically.
After cleaning themselves, An Zhiyan came out and dried their body with a towel. He then wrapped Su Jinli in the towel and took them outside.
Su Jinli rolled in the towel to dry themselves and then jumped out, instantly turning back into a human. They immediately ran towards the living room, making hurried noises.
An Zhiyan saw a naked person running past them and quickly shouted, "Your clothes from before have fish scales on them from your fish form. Put on something else!"
From a distance, Su Jinli yelled back, "I don't mind being dirty!"
"I'm not saying you're dirty, but won't there be a fishy smell?"
"I already used athlete's foot medicine once this morning."
"When you are trying to get rid of the fishy smell, couldn't you use something else? It sounds rather tacky," An Zhiyan said as they followed Su Jinli into the living room. Su Jinli had already dressed, with only his underwear discarded in the trash bin.
Well... they were commando under their clothes now.
Just thinking about the sight of Su Jinli earlier, bare and vulnerable, and their current attire, made An Zhiyan feel a little ticklish inside.
Su Jinli stood properly, returning An Zhiyan’s gaze.
An Zhiyan returned the gaze, and they shared a long silence before An Zhiyan heaved a sigh and took a seat on the couch, patting the spot beside them, signaling Su Jinli to sit down as well.
Once Su Jinli had sat down, An Zhiyan finally began to speak, "I'm not trying to pressure you. I just feel that if I don't do this, I might never get another chance. I truly like you a lot, and I don't want to give up. That’s why I took such an extreme measure."
"Oh…" Su Jinli responded weakly.
"This time you don't have to take responsibility, or need your dozen blessings, or even a scale talisman. I just want you to promise me that if there's ever a day when you come to like me, I hope you can disregard your brother's feelings, accept me, and let me be with you, alright?" An Zhiyan asked.
Having experienced the previous stringent requirements of obligatory responsibility, the current request felt entirely acceptable — even reasonable.
Su Jinli immediately nodded in response.
"Then, you can stay with me for a while longer, before you go back to your room. That way, no complications will arise from seeing you leave my place tomorrow morning," An Zhiyan suggested.
"Alright," Su Jinli agreed, "What should we do though? Play poker? How about Go Fish!"
An Zhiyan would wager that this was the most boring game he would play in their 23 years of life.
The game involved laying a string of poker cards. If you draw a Jack, you collect them all. For any other card, you collect a few. The aim is to have the most cards.
Regrettably, An Zhiyan found himself playing this game with a koi spirit like Su Jinli, who delightedly collected cards. In less than 10 minutes, An Zhiyan had lost 6 rounds.
That poker game - one that could easily last half an hour with no clear winner - being this one-sided was a rare occurrence.
Holding the poker cards, An Zhiyan asked Su Jinli, "Would you like to go to Macau with me?"
"To play?"
"No, to make money."
"Sure! I suppose that will have to wait until after the show finishes?"
"Yep. I anticipate that you might not be as keen on grinding as an entertainer anymore. You have a shortcut to make a fortune," An Zhiyan lightly joked.
"I still really want to be a star. I love the feeling of being on stage, and knowing that people like me makes me feel fortunate. When I saw my fans waiting for me outside the hotel earlier, I thought I must not let them down. I have to continue working hard and deserve their admiration."
"If your fans heard this, they would be thrilled to death."
"It's not necessary for them to hear this; I'll show them through my actions."
"Go for it! Our little lucky charm is truly amazing!" An Zhiyan raised a hand and gently ruffled Su Jinli's hair.
"Alright, I have to go now!"
An Zhiyan stood up and followed Su Jinli to the door. As they reached it, An Zhiyan suddenly grabbed Su Jinli's wrist, pulled them close, and positioned them against the wall.
An Zhiyan leaned an arm next to Su Jinli and asked, "Would it make you uncomfortable if you absorb too much of my yang energy?"
"Yes."
"Then, what about just a peck on the lips?"
Su Jinli looked at An Zhiyan, understanding what they meant. After pondering for a moment, they replied, "Just... you can give a quick peck."
"Alright," An Zhiyan responded. They lowered their head and gingerly pressed their lips against Su Jinli's, then whispered, "Goodnight."
The gentle voice made Su Jinli's heart tremble.
"Um..." After replying, Su Jinli quickly opened the door and ran out.
________________________
The next day, a new episode of National Idol was broadcast as usual.
This episode was edited by Boruo Pineapple's team. The quality of the episode after the edit was really good, which gave Zhang Heming a lot of reassurances.
In this episode, the program candidly confronted the issues it had been avoiding.
From the oversight in management, the failure to check gifts, to Su Jinli's injury and emergency hospital visit, all were included.
In the show, Su Jinli's medical records, test results, and images were made public, validating just how serious Su Jinli's injury was, not a pretense of Su Jinli.
The elimination of Zhou Wenyuan was downplayed, but it still caused an uproar. This was unavoidable.
The clips where Qiao Nuo challenged Su Jinli were kept as intact as possible, including the commotion when Su Jinli asked for the pipa.
As expected, once this episode ended, it caused another significant uproar. National Idol dominated the screen once again.
Firstly, the matter of Su Jinli's injury was brought up once more.
Following that, after the airing of Cang Ai's segment saying that Su Jinli lost his voice, a group of fans flocked to Cang Ai's Weibo profile angrily blaming him.
Of course, the one who received the harshest attacks was probably Qiao Nuo, even earning a particularly scathing trending topic: "The most disgusting trainee, Qiao Nuo."
Certainly, Qiao Nuo's actions could be understood and were in line with the procedure.
However, the consequence of his actions was that he faced a barrage of criticism. His reputation might lead to a string of derogatory nicknames should he debut.
When Qiao Nuo challenged Su Jinli, he never anticipated Su Jinli's injury would become public.
If Su Jinli's injury had not been disclosed, at most, the story would have been about Su Jinli "losing his voice," and Qiao Nuo wouldn't have faced any severe backlash. Some might even accuse Su Jinli of overacting.
But as things stand now… Qiao Nuo and the production team are the ones receiving the worst of the criticism.
Su Jinli also ended up trending, of course.
However, voices of skepticism quickly emerged, insinuating: "Even a trivial matter concerning Su Jinli makes it to the trending list."
Following that, a new trending phrase appeared: "Even trivial matters concerning Su Jinli can trend."
Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter
No comments:
Post a Comment