Hearing You Say Love chapter 9
Educational Material
Su Ming waited for more than ten minutes and, seeing that the update content had passed the review, went to take a shower and sleep.
However, the person across the hall was surprisingly unable to sleep.
Zou Beiyuan thought he was doing this purely out of curiosity. He loaded money into the comic account and then read “Rabbit Conspiracy, Wolf Trail” from start to finish, all the way to chapter fifteen. The wolf Jue was framed and imprisoned by the old rabbit king, and the rabbit Zhen secretly rescued him, and they escaped the palace together. After that, there was nothing more; he had to wait for the next update at midnight.
There was still an hour until twelve.
Zou Beiyuan opened another comic by Shu Yu Ming Jin. It was a modern urban story, and the synopsis indicated the protagonist and the supporting role. It took Zou Beiyuan a minute to understand what those terms meant, and then he continued reading.
This comic was bolder; the first chapter opened with two men kissing. The kiss was depicted in great detail, showing how their mouths and tongues intertwined, how saliva connected them like silver threads, and how their bodies were tightly pressed together…
Zou Beiyuan quickly exited after looking at a few panels and tossed his phone aside. The strange emotions lingered in his heart for a long time. He rubbed his hair, took off his shirt, and walked into the bathroom.
After finishing his shower, he came out at eleven fifty-five. He lay on his bed with his phone, and within a few minutes, he saw the update notification for “Rabbit Conspiracy, Wolf Trail.”
Suddenly, a system message popped up at the top of the phone screen: “Book Lord Yi Mo rewarded ‘Rabbit Conspiracy, Wolf Trail’ with a fruit basket x5.”
Then the system message transformed into a star shape and dropped into the reader patron list on the right side of the page. Zou Beiyuan noticed that the number one on the patron list was the reader with the ID Book Lord Yi Mo.
The patron list was long; he scrolled several times without reaching the end and saw a reader’s nickname at the 117th position called “Jing ah Ni Nan.”
Zou Beiyuan: …
Zou Jingnan was indeed very recognizable. Thinking of this, he suddenly froze. Shu Yu Ming Jin—Su, Ming?
Such a coincidental pen name and familiar font seemed to validate Zou Beiyuan’s suspicion, the answer was clear.
Shu Yu Ming Jin was Su Ming, right?
Zou Beiyuan thought complexly, could it really be him? But how could it be? Su Ming was as bland as plain water, he would be so anxious that he would take action if someone touched him in a bar.
How could it be him?
By the time he snapped back to reality, his fingers had unconsciously clicked on chapter sixteen.
Heavy rain, a dark forest, the rabbit and wolf hiding in a small cave. The rabbit trusted and relied on the little wolf so much that he snuggled into the little wolf’s arms and fell into a deep sleep without any guard.
When Zou Beiyuan saw the little wolf wanting to eat the rabbit, his heart tightened. Then the rabbit woke up, and Zou Beiyuan thought again that the rabbit must be pretending. The little wolf thought the rabbit was foolish, but in fact, the rabbit was very clever.
Later, the scene where the rabbit wanted to lick the wolf’s fur was drawn very cutely. Zou Beiyuan raised the corners of his mouth and looked down, but then it felt wrong again… As it got further down, the scene became incredibly ambiguous.
He was both puzzled by what he was seeing and unable to resist scrolling through the panels.
After several panels of detailed depiction, it finally stopped at the white liquid on the rabbit’s face. The rabbit extended its tongue and licked the liquid it had on the corner of its mouth.
Zou Beiyuan abruptly turned off his phone, breathing rapidly.
He was very certain of his sexual orientation, and the protagonists in the comic were not even human but two animals, so he could only blame the comic author for drawing too well.
Was this really drawn by Su Ming? If it was his work…
Zou Beiyuan began to doubt another question—if this was drawn by Su Ming, why was he able to draw an act between two males so well?
….
The next morning, around nine o’clock, Su Ming woke up naturally. He rarely slept so well and thought that after his body restarted, the pain in his shoulder might ease, but it felt like it had worsened.
Since he couldn’t speak, it was very inconvenient to communicate with the doctor, so he sent a message to Chen Muchao for help: [Are you free to accompany me to the hospital today?] He needed Chen Muchao to act as his sign language interpreter.
Chen Muchao didn’t reply; he probably hadn’t woken up yet. After Su Ming finished washing up, he finally received his message: [Just driving, what’s wrong?]
Su Ming: [Shoulder hurts… It’s going to give out.]
Chen Muchao: [Okay, you register first. Our sample of the picture book has come out; I’m going to the publisher to pick it up now, and I’ll bring it over for you to see later.]
He was referring to a public welfare project that Su Ming worked on with him, a series of picture books promoting early intervention for hearing-impaired children. Su Ming was responsible for two of the volumes.
Su Ming: [Okay, I’ll wait for you at home.]
It was still early, so Su Ming registered the appointment on his phone and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Glancing at Zou Beiyuan’s door, he figured he was still at home, so he made an extra portion while preparing breakfast.
..
Zou Beiyuan hadn’t slept well all night. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw the wolf and rabbit in the cave and that excessively obscene little card.
He lay in bed tossing and turning. At three a.m., he still couldn’t sleep, so he got up and went through all of Shu Yu Ming Jin’s columns, trying to find any clues linking this author to Su Ming or not.
Finally, he found the author’s Weibo.
Shu Yu Ming Jin’s Weibo was just his pen name, and the most recent post was a retweet of the news about the release of “Rabbit Conspiracy, Wolf Trail” in print.
Most of his Weibo was promotional retweets, occasionally posting some of his own drawings. Zou Beiyuan scrolled back five years but found no post that could confirm his identity.
However, he did discover that this author was indeed very popular, as the post announcing the release had thousands of comments below it.
Zou Beiyuan felt somewhat enchanted, staring blankly at the ceiling after waking up in the morning.
The phone vibrated twice, and he picked it up to see it was Su Ming.
Su Ming sent a photo: scallion pancake, finely beaten yam porridge, and a plate of side dishes.
Su Ming asked him, [Want to eat?]
The plate with the egg pancake looked familiar; it was the one that Zou Beiyuan had lifted Su Ming to get that day.
The warm, homely aroma of the food seemed to waft out of the picture. Zou Beiyuan felt a bit hungry, but the inexplicable emotions bubbling up inside him made him hesitant to meet Su Ming.
“No, I…” Zou Beiyuan typed a few words and then deleted them, going back and forth several times. In
the end, he said, [Yes.]
Su Ming replied immediately, [Okay, I’ll wait for you.]
That day, Su Ming was wearing a loose light pink short-sleeve shirt made of soft material, with his hair casually down. He had a comfortable presence that made one want to be around him. He opened the door, looked at Zou Beiyuan, and smiled, silently greeting him.
Zou Beiyuan also greeted him but didn’t look directly into Su Ming’s eyes; his gaze dropped to Su Ming’s clothes.
He had always held an unreasonable prejudice against men wearing pink, but he had to admit that Su Ming looked good in it.
The bowls and chopsticks were already set. Zou Beiyuan pulled out a chair and sat down opposite Su Ming.
Unusually, he didn’t initiate any conversation. Su Ming also didn’t take out that spiral notebook to write; the meal was eaten in silence.
The person opposite him lowered his head to drink the porridge, and his long, delicate eyelashes naturally fell down. The light above the dining table illuminated him, casting shadows below his eyes, making him look incredibly soft and innocent.
Su Ming noticed Zou Beiyuan’s gaze and lifted his face, looking over with a questioning expression: ?
The blender had turned the yam porridge into a thick, smooth consistency, and a milky white liquid clung to the corner of Su Ming’s mouth. He extended his tongue to lick it. A soft tongue tip peeked out from his beautifully shaped lips, brushing over the corner of his mouth, touching that milky liquid, and slowly rolling it into his mouth, making his lips glisten.
Zou Beiyuan’s mind exploded, as if something had burst open, feeling blood rush to his face. Su Ming seeing his face suddenly turn red, he worried he might be allergic to the yam, and reached out to touch his face, but Zou Beiyuan flinched away dramatically.
Su Ming: ???
At that moment, the doorbell rang. Su Ming looked at Zou Beiyuan in confusion, then stood up to open the door.
Chen Muchao came in, casually looking for slippers to change into. Su Ming signed to him: Little Wolf is here. I invited him for breakfast.
Chen Muchao glanced toward the dining room, just as Zou Beiyuan turned to look at him. Chen Muchao naturally raised a hand to greet him, and Zou Beiyuan nodded in acknowledgment.
Su Ming’s shoulder hurt, and when he signed, he couldn’t raise his left arm, but his fingers moved quickly as he asked Chen Muchao: Have you had breakfast?
Chen Muchao replied, “I ate early. You guys eat.”
Turning to the dining table, Chen Muchao pulled out a chair and sat next to Su Ming, placing a picture book on the table.
While eating, Su Ming watched as Chen Muchao opened the picture book and said to him, “The printing is pretty good; I think these two volumes you drew are the best.”
Su Ming leaned in to look. The printed colors were slightly different from what he saw on the computer, and he frowned, tapping on the paper and gesturing to Chen Muchao: There’s color deviation.
“There will definitely be color deviation; there’s no way around it. But this color isn’t bad; it’s a bit brighter, which kids like more.”
Zou Beiyuan suddenly spoke up: “Did Su Ming draw this?”
“Yeah,” Chen Muchao replied, handing the picture book to Zou Beiyuan, “It’s really well done; I’m jealous. Take a look.”
Zou Beiyuan took it and saw the book’s title: I Have a Special Little Ear. The cover featured a child wearing a cochlear implant, with the author’s name—Su Ming—printed below the title.
The colors inside were very bright, and while the drawing style wasn’t particularly delicate, the characters and scenes were cute, quite different from the comics he had seen last night.
However, he didn’t know that for skilled artists, occasionally changing their style was not a difficult task.
The picture book wasn’t thick and was an introduction to how cochlear implants work for children. He quickly flipped through it and returned it to Chen Muchao, saying, “It really is well drawn and very interesting.”
“Right?” Chen Muchao sincerely said, “The text was also written by Su himself; he’s really impressive.”
Zou Beiyuan asked Chen Muchao, “Are all the pictures Su Ming draws like this?”
Su Ming glanced at Chen Muchao. This glance held no particular meaning, but Chen Muchao remembered the last time Su Ming said that if Zou Beiyuan found out he drew adult comics, they might end their friendship. He answered ambiguously, “Well, he mainly draws educational materials.”
Adult comics could also somewhat be considered educational materials, right…?
Zou Beiyuan suddenly felt relaxed, a sense of “I knew it” rising in him. It made sense for Su Ming to draw such comics.
He turned to look at Su Ming, who was also looking at him earnestly. Their eyes met, as if they had something to say. But Su Ming didn’t reach for paper or a pen, nor did he take out his phone; he simply slowly lowered his eyes, averting his gaze, and took a sip of the milky porridge.
Author’s Note:
Su Ming: Yes, adult comics belong to educational materials. (Confident)