Please Be More Serious Chapter 34

I liked the story originally done by C-Novel Project; he/she dropped it so I thought I might give it a go. I understand Chinese even less than I do Japanese; so if the machine translations and my editing are not up to lofty standards, please go read it yourself. Links to 1-33 and the original book are in the Index page. 💝 Fore-warning: I make Running Commentary.

Who is Controlling You?:

Zhengquing woke up to see Yin Ting staring at him. They stared at each other for what seemed like a long moment, then Zhengqing realised he’d fallen asleep. He saw Yin Ting smile at him.

Yin Ting watched Zhengqing rub his face as he sat up and groaned.

‘I’m not usually this tired.’ He said, he felt like he should assure her that he was healthy, and not a lethargic old man. Falling asleep in front of her twice was an accident. It was a matter of pride.

‘I know,’ Yin Ting replied in an understanding manner, trying to help him find an excuse, ‘the cat must be very troublesome, so you haven’t been resting well.’

Zhengqing found Miao-dada beside him; the cat was sitting up beside him and gave a prolonged yawn and stretched lazily, as though it had just woken up, ‘It’s because it is in an unfamiliar environment. It will get better.’ He said. He did not want to complain about Miao-dada, he thought Yin will feel guilty and try to find it another home. Miao was very important to him now.

Yin Ting merely laughed and did not say anymore.  Zhengqing got up quickly and went to wash his face. He looked in the mirror; average thirty three year old face, not aged, not showing the vicissitudes of life, not tired looking. Conclusion: So far so good.

After performing some ablutions, he returned to fine Yin Ting standing in the living room with her bag on her shoulder, looking like she was ready to leave, ‘Since everything seems in order, I’ll be taking my leave, oh’

‘I’ll drive you back,’ he said without hesitation.

 Yin Ting laughed, ‘No need, you’ve had a tiring day, the taxi is convenient.’

Zhengqing did not want to appear over eager or pushy or too obvious, so he said, ‘Alright, ah, be careful on your way.’

‘Yes.’ Yin ting replied laughing. Zhengqing laughed along with her, though his heart was a-kilter.   

He walked her to the door, as Yin Ting put on her shoes, she said, ‘I took lots of photos today, when I sort them out, I’ll send them to you.’

‘Sounds good,’ thinking the pictures of Miao-dada would be used to advertise its adoption, he quickly said, ‘Let me adopt Miao. You don’t need to go through the trouble of finding someone. And my conditions are good and you can come and see him at anytime.’

Yin Ting cocked her head and looked at him, ‘Are you sure about this? He’s a very naughty cat, oh.’

‘It doesn’t matter, I think it is cute.’ He said.

‘If you get tired of it, please tell me quickly so I can have enough time to look for someone else.’

‘Will do,’ Zhengqing replied in agreement, though he doubted that would happen.

‘If I get a boyfriend and he doesn’t mind cats, or I get married and my husband is fine with cats, can I take Miao-dada back?’ Yin Ting asked earnestly while batting her lashes.

The absolute convoluted ludicrousness of that question had him equal parts flummoxed and panicked, but he replied in his trademark calm yet serious manner,

‘I’m afraid I can’t answer this question at this point in time. After all, who can say what will happen tomorrow. At the moment, Dada is now my cat, right? You don’t know when you’ll meet your boyfriend, or know when you’ll get married, by which time; Miao-dada and I would be a lot closer, like family even. How would I be able to give him away then?’

Simply put, the cat has entered his house. He wasn't coming back out again!

He realised he may come across a bit heated and he wondered if she might be angry. However, even if she was unhappy about his reply, one can’t be soft-hearted if they wished to win. To have another man interfere was unacceptable. Whatever the outcome, he was now Miao Dada’s guardian and this was an advantage he was not letting go of.

But Yin Ting wasn’t angry; she merely raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. In that moment, she looked quite like Miao-dada,

‘You’re right,’ she said, ‘I know.’

 Zhengqing let out a sigh of relief. Yin Ting opened the door to leave, a sudden thought popped out,

‘Will you be coming tomorrow to see Dada?’

Yin Ting laughed,

‘No, I have something on tomorrow; I’m out with my friends. It’s not good to always bother you. Maybe some other time,’

She had intended on spending her weekend at home or to come here and play with Dada, but she changed her mind because she’d spent too long here

 Zhengqing’s heart sang. Who was this friend? Was this another blind date or a meeting with a prospective boyfriend? But he did not let his distress show, ‘Alright, we can text each other anyway.’

‘Yup, see you,’ she said with a smile and then she was gone.

Zhengqing closed the door and turned back to the living room to see Dada sitting on the sofa watching him. He walked over and picked it up, and stroked the cat. ‘If she finds another boyfriend, I am going to change your name to Miao xiao xiao.’

 Miao-dada gave a displeased purr and struggled a bit.

Zhengqing continued to rub it, ‘Then I will put up your photos on my microblog everyday and white about Miao xiao xiao and my little family.’ He held Miao up and looked into its eyes and continued, ‘I want to be her boyfriend, so wish me success or your name will get changed. Xiao Xiao is also pleasant to hear, kind of like those little poops you bury. We'll do that.’

Miao opened its eyes very wide and gave a loud meow.

 ❀❀❀

Yin Ting got into the taxi still laughing, her grin was so wide the taxi driver asked, ‘Young lady, has there been a happy event?’

Yin Ting nodded and said ‘Yes, a happy event.’

She felt really happy, if he contacted her in the next three days, she would award him extra points. Why? He was so proactive it got her happy and excited (Zuben: Points, huh? A person’s feelings…)

 Later that evening, Yin Ting finished touching up the photos she’d taken and mailed them to Zhengqing when Qin Yu Fei called.

‘Don’t tell me you are still at Please be serious’ house?’

‘No but I will be going back there later.’

‘You’re actually going to go back there?’ Yufei said trying to ridicule Yin Ting.

‘Why not?’ Yin Ting said, ‘I will be thinking about a good strategy.’

‘What sort of strategy?’ Yufei asked hunting for gossip.

Yin Ying did not reply, but asked, ‘How did you know you liked Gu Yingjie, and decided to be with him?’

Yufei made a thoughtful sound and replied, ‘That is…hard to say,’ (Zuben: I’ll tell you Yin Ting: They had sex, it was good. The End. °_°)

‘Right? I don’t know how exactly I feel. I think I might like him, but it is still complicated.’ Yin Ting said.

‘It is not the same!’ Yufei snapped snappily, ‘Your ambiguous situation is not the same thing. That night, there were fireworks, I was...’ she trailed off. She had been with Gu Yingjie, but suddenly lost him. She looked for him, her mind blank with distress. The sky exploded with fireworks and suddenly he was there, also looking for her. They held hands so tightly never wanting to let go (Zuben: What are you; children?’)

She could not put into words the feelings she had at that moment. All the feelings of resistance fell away.

‘Fireworks? Although, that is very romantic, but I don’t think I can rely on fireworks to tell me how I feel about him. You seem confused.’ Yin Ting said in a teasing manner.

‘Yes. Yes, you know best. But don’t forget that it is Please be serious we’re talking about here.’

‘This is the problem,’ Yin Ting said, ‘I will have a plan and not rush into things. Let me tell you, oh, he asked me to come to see him tomorrow but I refused. I used my sense, thinking a little distance would be good from time to time.’

‘So, you really like him?’ Yufei asked, she really still cannot believe that there is something brewing between these two.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Really dangerous.’

‘But I am so happy!’

‘Well,’ Yufei said, ‘Happiness means you like him.’

‘You can’t be sure,’ Yin Ting replied, ‘you say he likes me but how? Why? Also that I like him? But at that date I third-wheeled, he talked about work. He seems to like talking about work, and he is very serious and diligent. I find work such a boring topic to talk about.’

‘At least you know well,’ Yufei said softly, her friend was fortunately sobering.

‘Ah!’ Yin Ting suddenly called out.

‘What?’ Yufei said, scared.

‘Nothing, I just suddenly remembered he hadn’t replied the email I sent him for a long time, but he has now.’

Yufei had black lines, ‘Wait a minute, you guys mail each other?’

Yin Ting did not answer for a while as she was reading the mail. As she read it she couldn’t help but laugh and give him another score. So happy!

‘Listen. Listen! He said, he liked my photos, and he wants me to accompany him to pick a camera. That he’s a layman and he is hoping I could teach him what to get and how to use it.’

‘An excuse,’ Yufei said her tone droll.

‘Yes, so cute.’ Yin Ting said, excitement bubbling within her. This excuse was so perfect ‘He said he wanted to take wildlife photos,’

‘Yeah, right,’ Yufei said, sarcasm dripping in her voice.

Yin Ting laughed, ‘Let me tell you, oh, I tried to see what’s what and asked him today whether when I have a boyfriend or a husband that will help me look after Miao-dada, he would give him back to me. He refused! He said a lot of half arsed reasons why. It was so cute. It was so hard to keep my face straight. I wanted to die from the need to laugh.’

Black lines hung over Yufei, what was so cute about that?

‘I thought he would say “No Problem”, after all, he is very generous. I did not expect him to get so annoyed. He was so serious and shy, and a little awkward. So cute, you should have seen it…’

Yufei interrupted, ‘I beg you stop right there. Do not describe – do. Not. Describe. The image in my heart has collapsed. I really do not want to imagine Zhengqing as cute and shy and awkward. No, thank you.’

 Yin Ting laughed, ‘Anyway, he is very cute.’

‘Xiao Ting, liking a man and liking the idea of molesting a man are definitely two different things, don’t get it mixed up.’

‘You! You’re the one that likes molesting men.’ Yin Ting said vehemently in reply. Molesting? What does she mean by that? How could that be?!

‘I’m molesting too. I just like molesting my own.’ Yufei replied.

‘Yes, well I was only happy. No I did not molest anyone. It’s called observation.’ Yin Ting said spirit, ‘I am studying the specimen- it is not molestation.’

‘Whatever you say…’ Yufei said, too lazy to put up a fight.

Yin Ting hung up the phone and read the email Zhengqing sent again; she could not help but laugh. ‘It is not molestation it is a study!’ She cheerfully sent a reply saying: ‘Sure, happy to help, tentatively scheduled for Saturday? We can decide a specific time later.’

Zhengqing replied: ‘Okay,’ shortly after.

Yin Ting looked at the two words and giggled for a while. She was suddenly struck with inspiration. She went to a men’s clothing shop website. She looked for a man’s coat and sent pictures of two versions of the coat in different colours to Zhengqing saying, ‘I want to give my brother a coat. Which of these would look good? Personally, I think the blue is good ah, it might actually suit you. Which do you think would suit my brother?’

Zhengqing replied, ‘Brown.’

Yin Ting laughed and replied, ‘I’ll get him the brown, then.’

Two days later, Yin Sheng received a gift from her sister; a brown coat. He said, ‘I do not like brown anymore.’

‘Who is controlling you?!’ Yin Ting said getting up in his face.

At the same time, Zhengqing went to the mall to find the store of the brand that stocked the blue jacket. He saw the jacked on the mannequin in the window. Zhengqing looked for a while and thought that the coat looked good; Yin Ting had a good eye. He bought the coat. She said blue would suit him.

Maybe he would wear it on Saturday when he goes camera shopping with Yin Ting. She hasn’t met with him much and would not know he went out to buy it especially.

Zuben:

I will try to keep the language as 'pure' as I can but if it sounds like shit, it's going for a more Western version. I will not promise to do this on the regular because there is very little chance of 'pay-off' but I have enough smut in line to tide me over, and I will do this when it all gets too much😩

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