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Chapter 36: Let Me Protect You (IV)

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Shang Ke and Feng Juan’s stature were contrastingly smaller compared to their peers, and with the addition of their eastern features, they simply couldn’t avoid being “bullied” by the other children when they started elementary school. However, although Shang Ke’s right leg was not too nimble, handling those few children was still easy enough. He used but a few days to subdue those brats that had nothing better to do but look for trouble, not even the teacher was alarmed.

Fran Elementary School’s education was very easy, there was quite a bit of free time which Shang Ke used to think about computer subjects.

The Ferrg couple(the foster family) heard that Shang Ke wanted to buy a computer and immediately prepared to take them to Computer City.

Shang Ke interjected, “Mr. Ferrg, I want to earn money and buy it myself.”

Mr. Ferrg asked with a smile, “And how are you planning to earn this money?”

“I saw a violin in the study yesterday.” Shang Ke used a gaze full of anticipation to look at him, “Mr. Fergg, can you let me borrow that violin? I want to play a performance in the park.”

“Oh?” Mr. Ferrg was a bit surprised now, “You can play the violin?”

Shang Ke shyly nodded his head.

“Alright, let me hear it. If you play well, then I will let you go.” Mr. Ferrg took out his violin in high spirits and handed it to Shang Ke.

Shang Ke tested the sound then stood perfectly straight and bowed to the Ferrg couple and Feng Juan. His noble-like manner made it feel like this was his personal musical performance, making everyone watching it feel very priveleged.

Shang Ke placed the violin under his chin with the bow on the strings and started to play a fast-beat children’s song with considerable skill.

Amazement flashed through Mr. Ferrg’s eyes, as he really didn’t expect that the child could play the violin, and to actually play this well. His violin wasn’t some kind of famous brand, but in the child’s hands, a touching and ample melody sounded from the violin.

After the performance was over, Mr. Ferrg agreed to his request without any hesitation. After that, he would take him to the park every afternoon until Shang Ke earned enough money to buy a computer.

Feng Juan watched quietly by the side the entire time, his gaze dark and heavy.

Shang Ke was always so dazzling, multi-talented. Compare to him, he felt that he had no good points at all.

At the park, Shang Ke ended his last song amidst the clamoring applause and turned his head back to see Feng Juan’s frustrated appearance.

He handed the violin and today’s earnings to Mr. Ferrg and said, “Mr. Ferrg, I want to stay at the park a little longer with Ian today.”

Mr. Ferrg looked at Feng Juan and his eyes became somewhat understanding. He nodded, “Be careful, don’t come back too late.”

After Mr. Ferrg left, Shang Ke dragged Feng Juan to sit on a bench in the park and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” Feng Juan pursed his mouth, his expression being lonely.

“Juan Juan.” Shang Ke looked at him, seriously berating, “We are brothers, family and should be frank with each other. If you aren’t happy, then I won’t be happy either.”

Feng Juan raised his head and met a pair of bright eyes. On Shang Ke’s forehead were beads of sweat that glistened under the sunset and they seemed to contain some kind of vitality.

Feng Juan felt a bit ashamed of his own inferiority before the dazzling boy before him.

“Keke, am I not very useless?” Feng Juan’s voice was downcasted, “You were always the one to protect me, to take care of me. Now, you can even earn money by yourself while I can only watch. I can’t do anything.”

“Juan Juan, do you also want to protect me, take care of me and earn money for me to spend?” Shang Ke asked with a bright smile.

Feng Juan strongly nodded, “Yes.”

“Then,” A flash of slyness flitted through Shang Ke’s eyes, “let’s make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

“I will teach you everything I know. When you surpass me, I will wait for you to raise me.”

“Can I… surpass you?” A cautious expectation grew on Feng Juan’s face.

“Of course.” Shang Ke roughly rubbed his hair, “Our family’s Juan Juan is the smartest.”

The dullness in Feng Juan’s eyes gradually scattered and his eyes once again regained their luster. He faced Shang Ke, saying with the utmost seriousness, “Keke, I will raise you in the future.”

Shang Ke’s smile turned even bigger and he left a quick and chaste kiss on his face, lively replying, “Alright, I will wait for you.”

Two months later, Shang Ke successfully assembled two computers, one desktop and one laptop. Mr. Ferrg also gave them a $200 allowance.

With the computers, Shang Ke could finally show more of his skill. Feng Juan and his life officially started to accelerate.

Jogging in the morning, going to the library after class, learning to code and working on homework in the evening, then practicing martial arts on the weekends.

Shang Ke taught him everything to the best of his ability, so in Feng Juan’s heart, he was not just his brother, he was even more so his mentor.

The two went together everywhere, completely inseparable, and their life was rich and beautiful. Unknowingly, five years had passed and the two entered the same middle school. But Feng Juan entered it with the achievement as number one in the whole grade while Shang Ke just barely scraped through.

Feng Juan was very resentful for this, “What happened to passing with high marks together?”

Shang Ke shrugged his shoulders and helplessly said, “Sorry, I was up all night before the day of the exam so I wasn’t really awake when we took the exam, almost falling asleep. I didn’t even finish half of it.”

Feng Juan coldly stared at him, “You better not let me find out it was on purpose.”

Shang Ke innocently smiled. The features of the thirteen-year-old him were gradually smoothing out like a polished jade. He started to stand out more and more, and the eyes on his body gradually increased.

Feng Juan was one of those eyes, his eyes only had Shang Ke and only stopped for Shang Ke.

Shang Ke had not seen geniuses before and was now convinced. The reason why he was able to become so skillful was due to the system’s assistance and time. Meanwhile, Feng Juan completely relied on his own talent and hard work.

His height was already taller than Shang Ke while his computer skills were just a fine line behind. The only reason Shang Ke was better than Feng Juan was probably the experience of the “future”.

“Oh right, Mr. Ferrg organized a room for you, let’s go take a look.”

Feng Juan let Shang Ke drag him along and indifferently voiced, “No need, I already decided to turn that bedroom into a library.”

“Hm?” Shang Ke stopped and puzzledly looked at him, “Library?”

“We have an increasing number of books and Mr. Ferrg’s study is too small so it can’t hold them all. Therefore, I suggested for him to change that room into a library.”

“He agreed?”

“Hm.” Feng Juan nodded without even changing his facial expression. Even if he didn’t agree yet, he will make it happen.

“But don’t you think it’s a bit too tight for the two of us to sleep on that bed?” The main problem was that it was like Feng Juan was shot with hormones and grew quickly at only twelve years old. Shang Ke had no choice but to raise his head up at him while his heart was a bit disgruntled at the inequality.

“Let’s go.” Feng Juan pulled Shang Ke’s hand and walked out.

“Where to?”

“To buy a bed.”

“!”

That day, Feng Juan really had taken Shang Ke to the shopping center and bought a large bed. The bedroom that wasn’t very big in the first place had almost half of its space taken up by this large bed.

The Ferrg couple was a bit surprised and humored at the sight, but they were also a bit sullen. The two boys of their family, weren’t they a bit too intimate? Don’t tell them that they were planning to sleep together for a lifetime?

At night, Shang Ke rolled on the bed twice then spread out on it, his face full of delight.

Feng Juan caught sight of his satisfied appearance and a smile flitted through his eyes. He then turned his attention to the computer, his fingers flew across the keyboard as he hacked into the Cruise Middle School server unnoticed. He then found their student numbers and noticed that they were put into separate classes as expected.

Cruise Middle School’s classes weren’t completely made according to grades, but the higher the grades, the greater the chances they would be placed into the same elite classes were. The other lower graded students were more random.

Feng Juan quickly switched Shang Ke’s student number with another student in class A that had a regular grade and then cleared his traces and withdrew from the server.

After he did so, Feng Juan raised his head to look at Shang Ke and discovered that the other had already fallen asleep. In his hands was also an incomparably ugly teddy bear. This bear was actually bought by him two years ago with the money he earned for the very first time. Although it looked very stupid now, Shang Ke still liked to hug it as his most favorite thing.

Feng Juan turned off his computer, walked to the bed, then picked up Shang Ke and moved him inwards a little more. Then he laid by him and closed his eyes at ease.

After summer vacation went by, Shang Ke and Feng Juan reported in together at Cruise Middle School.

The two’s appearances stood out and they were also of the rare Eastern type. As they walked on campus, they immediately attracted many people’s attention.

The UK was rather open on the subject of love, the ages twelve to thirteen being the timeframe when love started to sprout. The black hair and dark-eyed Shang Ke and Feng Juan stood out like cranes in a flock of chicken among all the blond haired or brown haired youths. From the day they entered the school, the two of them were included on many boys’ and girls’ list to conquer.  

Feng Juan entered Cruises with the achievement as number one and this year’s representative. He had became a popular prince charming the moment he entered school, and Shang Ke who was always with him also became somewhat popular. But compared to the elegant and gentle Shang Ke, the tall, aloof and handsome Feng Juan was clearly more popular.

After they entered middle school, Shang Ke’s grades remained at a level where it was neither high or low. On the other hand, Feng Juan’s grades skyrocketed and he became the more outstanding one.

Ding dong~, a text message notification sounded from his phone.

Shang Ke clicked and found out that it was a party invitation. Students would frequently set up parties and invite friends over to their house as guests. He and Feng Juan had received more than ten over the past half year.

He raised his head to look at Feng Juan, and as expected, he was also invited. The two of them faced each other then Feng Juan asked, “Are you going?”

At school, social contact was very important. If they frequently declined other people’s invitation, then they would be left out of the social circle and become the weird ones that didn’t conform to groups in other people’s eyes.

“Let’s go.” Shang Ke turned off his phone. “We refused it once before, so if we refuse it again it would be a bit awkward.”

Feng Juan nodded and didn’t say anything.

The one who invited them this time was a girl called “Daisy”. She had a villa and frequently held all sorts of thematic parties and was a popularity queen on campus. But her temperament and Feng Juan’s were completely different.

The two of them arrived on time at the villa and was passionately welcomed by Daisy. When the two of them entered the living room, whistles and cheers immediately erupted.

Shang Ke glanced around and saw that there were around thirty people in the room and most of them had well kept appearances. Their attires were bold and unrestrained. Among them were also some that were clearly not from their school and were around twenty years old.

Shang Ke and Feng Juan were pulled into the crowd while drinks were also placed in their hands.

Shang Ke sniffed, it was actually wine?

At this moment, Feng Juan took the glass away from his hand and pushed aside the girls that were coming onto him wordlessly, his eyes were a bit hesitant.

“Ian, Bruno, are you two men?” Daisy teased, “Do you guys not even dare to drink a glass of wine?”

The surrounding people all agreed.

Feng Juan replied sternly, “Minors cannot drink.”

“Haha.” Everyone roared with laughter.

Daisy held up a glass of wine in front of Feng Juan, “Whether you’re a minor or not isn’t important here, what’s important is to have fun.”

“That’s right!” The crowd raised their cups in agreement.

Shang Ke mentally thought to himself that children of this age all liked to act unconventionally. Although they were a bit willful, they probably wouldn’t cause too much trouble. So he smiled and replied, “Alright, I’ll take one.” he then place the drink to his mouth.

Feng Juan also symbolically drank a bit.

Daisy smiled with satisfaction when she saw the actions did not bother them anymore, and left to party with other people.

The music started up and someone picked up the microphone, starting to sing, making the atmosphere surge up.

Shang Ke listen to the clamor of noise and suddenly felt a bit of regret for coming to this party. He turned to look at Feng Juan and saw the other’s serious face that was stiff like a statue. He was completely unsuited with the party’s atmosphere.

Shang Ke couldn’t help but laugh a little, looks like this guy also wasn’t used to this kind of noisy and crazy scene.

“I’m going to the bathroom for a moment.” Feng Juan leaned over to murmur softly. “Let’s leave after I come back.”

Shang Ke nodded and said nothing. He had thought it was a normal party, but he didn’t expect this adult natured party. Shang Ke wondered if Daisy’s parents knew about this and thought that he should probably give them a call so that this group of children didn’t overdo it.

While he was in his thoughts, he suddenly felt someone sit by him with an arm around his waist.

At first, Shang Ke thought it was Feng Juan and did not care. But when he turned his head around, it was an unfamiliar youth of about the age of eighteen to nineteen years. His appearance was pretty attractive, but his eyes that were rather dark.

He leaned close to Shang Ke’s ear and softly asked, “Your name is Bruno right?”

Shang Ke somewhat pulled away and replied, “Yes.”

“I noticed you for a long time.” the youth slowly moved the hand that was on his waist to his nape and ambiguously asked, “Got a girlfriend?”

“No.” Shang Ke pushed away his hand.

The youth did not mind and continued to ask, “Boyfriend?”

Shang Ke stared at him, “You’re gay?”

The youth smiled full of interest, “Looks like you aren’t as innocent as I imagined. That’s great, how about trying it out with me once? I guarantee that you will feel pleasure.”

“Not interested.” Raising this kind of request to a minor, he was simply a beast! Shang Ke gripped his fingers into fists, ready to give this guy a punch at any moment. At the same time, he was wondering why Feng Juan hadn’t come back yet.

Feng Juan at the moment had just left the bathroom when he suddenly heard strange moans as he walked out to the corridor. He followed the sounds and saw with great astonishment of two boys together. They kissed and touched each other as if there was no one around, one of them even had their pants pulled down while the other one had his legs hung on the other’s waist, their bodies moving up and down.

Feng Juan’s face turned bright red. To suddenly see such a passionate scene, he who had never gotten in contact with these kinds of things, it was a huge shock. Although he had matured quite early, in regards to emotions and physical relationships, he was still very ignorant. When girls tried to flirt with him, he was always aloof and uncaring.

Now that he saw two boys being so intimate with each other, his chest suddenly had a strange feeling.

Feng Juan retreated to a corner and leaned his head against the wall. He held his violently jumping heart as confusion and unease flashed through his eyes…

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