RALP Chapter 19

You should read this chapter over at Travis Translations – It’s free and the ad revenue is much better for me!

You Haoyu, though drunk, still recognises who the person is. He is pressing on his forehead; he has a headache, “… leave me alone.”

“Are they your friends?”

What friends?

You Haoyu doesn’t understand, and turns into the direction the person is pointing. He sees a few unfamiliar girls standing there filming him on their phone cameras. They all scatter away with reddened cheeks when they see him looking in their direction.

His head feels like it’s aching more.

“You should probably move somewhere else,” says Du You, “there will be more people out when the rain stops.”

You Haoyu slowly stands up with his back on the shutter. Right now he’s already seeing afterimages looking at people. If he doesn’t hold onto something for support, he’ll probably fall down again.

But, he stood up fine. He shakes his head a bit after standing straight, trying to wake himself up. He’s about to walk forward, but just one step and he’s already fumbling and about to fall forward.

Du You extends his hand in time to pull him back by his arm, “where is your home; I will take you there.”

You Haoyu wants to pull his arm back, “why do you even care? The company has paid you back already. Do we even know each other?”

Du You knows that he’s probably massively drunk from that slurred speech. He drags the person along, “get in the car first.”

“Shit, let me go!”

You Haoyu is struggling, but he is having difficulty even just walking, so he can’t muster up any strength whatsoever, and gets forcibly dragged into the car.

Du You closes his umbrella and sits inside, then tells assistant Xiao who is in the driver’s seat, “contact his agent.”

Assistant Xiao didn’t imagine she would see her boss getting off the car for a minute and then picking a man off the street back in. When she’s about to answer and call, the backrest of her seat gets heavily knocked.

You Haoyu can’t even sit straight right now, so he just headbutts the seat. Then he covers his head with his hands, trying to soothe this head-splitting headache he has, “don’t call that guy.”

Assistant Xiao looks between the celebrity and her boss. She isn’t sure whether she should call or not.

“Where is your house.” Du You asks again.

You Haoyu opens his eyes, answering, “I don’t have one.”

It seems he wouldn’t be getting a meaningful answer. So Du You can only tell him, “then let’s go back to my place for now.”

Hearing that, You Haoyu remembers what his agent said.

He tilts his head and looks at Du You, furrowing his brows in disdain, “what, do you still want to ‘have a private meal’ with me?”

Someone as smart as Du You certainly gets what he is trying to imply with this sudden talk of food.

“Are you hungry? I only have instant noodles at home…”

“That’s not what I’m asking!”

And a CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation actually eats instant noodles?

You Haoyu thinks the person is acting dumb, so he yells out in reflex, which makes him more uncomfortable.

He is clutching his stomach with a pale face. After soothing it slightly he says, “let me off.”

That is when assistant Xiao interjects, “Mr. Du. I just contacted agent Chen. He said Mr. You no longer lives in their lodgings. He is also unsure where he is living…”

And that is when her backrest gets heavily shaken by a powerful kick which stops her from speaking.

You Haoyu then turns around to look ferociously at Du You, then he pulls the man’s collar forcefully towards him.

Barely any distance remains between the two, “what the fuck you do want to do, is it really funny to see me like this?!”

Du You has no idea why the young man is angry. Isn’t he doing a good thing?

Du You asks the system [Right?]

The system gets woken up from its sleep and has zero idea what is going on [Right? What right?]

Seeing him not even twitch or knit his brows a little bit, as if he’s just an insignificant speck of dirt, You Haoyu really doesn’t understand what that man is thinking about.

His stomach is churning too, so he says harshly, “I’ve had enough. Let me off.”

The black van is coursing through the rain, creating splashes on the side along the way.

And when it drives past a big puddle on the road, the car bounces greatly.

So You Haoyu’s stomach can’t hold it anymore. His face grows even paler and he’s covering his mouth.

Du You realises what is happening, and says, “stop the car.”

Too late, and You Haoyu is already about to puke.

And the one more agitated than anyone else present is the system which has been treated to this wonderfully exciting scene right after waking up [AAAAAAAA He’s going to puke, puke! Uwuwuwu I don’t want to see!]

The car makes a sudden stop on the side of the road.

A few minutes later, the young man is still retching while leaning against a trunk for support. Du You crumples up the dirtied jacket and throws it into the bin.

The rain is still pouring down, but it seems to be letting up soon.

You Haoyu raises his head just as a bottle of water is handed in front of him. He pauses briefly before taking it.

Du You asks, “how do you feel.”

You Haoyu’s muddled mind has cleared up slightly, and he has finally realised what he has done just now. He opens his mouth, wanting to apologise, but swallows the words back. Instead, he says, “I’ll pay you back.”

“No need.”

If there’s one thing that he, the bossy CEO You, didn’t need more of, that would be money.

Then he says, “the assistant is taking the car to be washed. My house is nearby, can you still walk?”

“Sure I…”

Just when he starts to reply he realises something’s off. Did he ever agree to going to his house?

But Du You who’s heard ‘sure’ has turned around and started walking forward. You Haoyu then takes a good look back at himself. He’s messed up. Even taxis will probably refuse to carry him at this point.

And he really, didn’t know where he could even go.

Like his appearance, Du You’s home is cold and simple. There’s barely any decoration. It’s as if no one lives here.

White walls and flooring throughout the two floors of his house, not a speck of dust to be found.

Du You switches on the light inside. The warm yellow light finally gives a little bit of liveliness to this house.

“Turn left in the corridor for the bathroom. Just throw the clothes in the basket. The cleaning lady will wash it tomorrow,” says Du You as he walks inside, “I will bring you a change of clothes.”

You Haoyu walks in, and water from the rain drops from him onto the floor. He walks past the empty living room and enters the bathroom.

In the mirror, he can see his current form. His skin is unhealthily pale. There’s veins popped in his eyes. His lips and dry and cracking. He has a hard time even recognising himself in such a sorry state.

Pathetic.

The young man is gripping onto the sink. His head is drooping.

There’s the sound of water coming from inside the bathroom when Du You puts down the change of clothes. Warm air is seeping through the gaps of the door, rising in the air in a white cloud of steam.

He puts down the clothes outside the door, and starts thinking about whether to eat or to shower first. He did have dinner already, but he’s hungry again after spending some time in the rain.

His appetite wins by a landslide. He opens up his storage of instant noodles and lays them out on the table.

Let’s go with 50 packs for a start.

You Haoyu is finally looking like a normal human again after the shower. At the door is new clothes whose tags haven’t even been removed yet. Probably never worn before yet, and they’re all well-known brands as well.

The two of them have similar build, so it fits him as well. Near the living room, though, he can smell the instant noodles already.

He had to be careful about his weight so it’s been years since he last had one. The smell is actually slightly irritating when he suddenly catches its scent again.

Looking into the living room, he can see Du You eating noodles on the sofa. He is holding a small bowl in his hands while there’s a big bowl placed in front of him.

Speaking of, isn’t that bowl way too big in size?

Du You greets him seeing he’s finished showering, “want a bite?”

You Haoyu looks at the big bowl, then looks at Du You, then looks back at the bowl, and after a while does he hear himself reply, “no. I’m dieting.”

He squeezes the bridge of his nose. He’s slightly tired now. Before, he thought the man was kidding him, but he’s actually eating instant noodles right now. This is certainly not what he expected of a CEO.

Isn’t there normally an exclusive servant or exclusive cook?

That is when a crisp, refreshing male voice comes out from the TV near his back.

“I might not have learned about singing or dancing, but please take care of me!”

The voice is quite familiar, and taking a look backwards, You Haoyu realises it’s the talent show he participated in a few years ago.

That show is the beginning of his debut, and also part of the history he would much rather stay buried. This variety show wouldn’t normally be airing now, so he must be streaming it. But why pick this?

The boy in the screen starts performing following the self-introduction. You can practically see how rudimentary his techniques and interpretations of the dance and song are, but he has this highly impactful vibe. The eyes of the audience would all naturally fixate on him.

Though this is practically a public shaming for You Haoyu right now.

He closes the TV.

The song is cut off right when it was about to enter its climax. Du You raises his head in confusion, still sipping on his noodles.

You Haoyu’s brows are knit together again, “don’t watch TV while eating.”

Not watching TV while eating? Then what should he watch.

Du You then replies, “then I’ll watch it on my phone.”

That’s not really the problem, is it.

You Haoyu is speechless for a moment before replying, “you can watch whatever, but don’t watch my show.”

“Why.”

“You…” You Haoyu sounds frustrated, “why do you want to watch me?”

Du You replies without a second thought, “I want to understand you.”

So that he can predict when it would be best to tell him his parallel universe hypothesis. He can’t be as tough on him as he is to Shen Chen, because that will likely backfire.

Hearing that, You Haoyu appears stunned. Then he has this displeased expression on.

“Stop messing with me.”

His amber-coloured eyes seem to be burning with anger, “what do you think you can learn about me on there? People like you just add whatever convenient character traits you want onto me. Then you throw tantrums and cast me away when I don’t play along like a marionette. Or do you think…”

He grips his fists tightly, “do you think that helping me and saying stuff like that will make me fucking subservient to you?”

“Sluuuurp——”

“Don’t you even dare,” You Haoyu says as he approaches him in as imposing a manner he could, “I will never come to like men. Not in my entire life, not even in my next!”

“Sluuuurp——”

Du You finishes the last of his noodles. He is trying to work out why they have suddenly started talking about liking men.

The system is facepalming [Host, can you stop eating for even a single second…]

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TL’s notes: I’ve taken some artistic license with the translation here because You Haoyu is my fav. character of the series and honestly he’s just had it so hard… and not just because he is… uh, you’ll see later on.