Transmigrated as the Campus Heartthrob’s Cannon Fodder Ex-Boyfriend Chapter 58

Shoutout to Kari for the commission!

Le Cheng had always known that Zhou Shirui had many pairs of glasses.

But it was only after they started living together that he truly realized just how many pairs of glasses Zhou Shirui had.

Before they lived together, although Le Cheng often stayed over, he had always felt that casually rummaging through someone else’s things was inappropriate. But after they officially moved in together, he developed a strange sense of being the male owner of the house.

So one day, on a whim, he went into Zhou Shirui’s study to clean it with a feather duster. That was when he discovered an entire drawer filled with all kinds of glasses.

The pair Le Cheng saw Zhou Shirui wear most often was the semi-rimless pair. For formal occasions, he would wear silver-wire frames, and occasionally he would wear black frames. Although glasses were only a small accessory, square frames and flat frames gave off completely different vibes, not to mention all the other styles.

There were so many kinds of glasses in the drawer: flat frames, square frames, black frames, rimless frames, gold-wire frames, geometric frames, oval frames, browline frames…

Le Cheng was dazzled and extremely shocked.

After all, considering Zhou Shirui’s extremely monotonous color palette, wearing pure black four days a week and white or gray on the other three, if it were not for his naturally good looks and great figure, which made him stand out wherever he went, such a simple color combination would have been quite ordinary.

So why had he bought so many pairs of glasses despite keeping his clothing so simple? Le Cheng was very curious.

When Zhou Shirui came home that evening, Le Cheng was lying on the sofa with his feet raised, playing a rhythm game. Because he was wearing headphones and concentrating intensely, it was only when someone grabbed his ankle that he realized someone had come home.

Le Cheng jumped in surprise and turned his head, only to see Zhou Shirui’s face extremely close to his.

His hair was slightly tousled from the wind, which instead gave him a few more traces of casualness. His gaze fell on the screen, and Zhou Shirui softly reminded him, “You’re about to lose.”

“Ah!” Only then did Le Cheng hurriedly turn back to save the game, but he still lost after continuing to miss notes.

Le Cheng did not play rhythm games because he loved them. He used them to train his hand speed. The customized mini-game Zhou Shirui had made for him was already on its third version, and if he did not improve, he would not be able to get through it.

After suffering a spectacular defeat, he put down his phone and pouted. “I lost. What are you doing, suddenly grabbing my ankle?”

“To see if it’s cold,” Zhou Shirui said. “I’ll help you get through it.”

“Then is it cold or not?” Le Cheng leaned against him, decisively refusing. “I’m not letting you help me. I’m doing this to challenge myself and train my hand speed.”

“A little.” Zhou Shirui took the blanket beside him and covered Le Cheng’s feet. He lowered his head to look at the difficult level Le Cheng was playing. Noticing his gaze, Le Cheng hurriedly turned off the screen so he couldn’t see, afraid that he would discover what an easy level he was playing.

Suddenly, inspiration struck, and Le Cheng remembered what had happened during the day.

He looked seriously at Zhou Shirui and noticed that he was wearing half-rimmed glasses today.

Zhou Shirui, being watched by him, didn’t pay much attention and instead asked, “What do you want to eat tonight?”

Le Cheng said, “I want your scallion-oil chicken, and I also want ice cream.”

“Okay,” Zhou Shirui said. “But it’s too late. The ice cream is canceled.”

Le Cheng’s bright face immediately fell.

After they finished eating, Zhou Shirui returned to the study to work. Le Cheng’s eyes were watching TV, but his thoughts had already drifted far away.

Less than half an hour later, when Zhou Shirui came out to get some water, Le Cheng was propping up his chin as if he were watching TV, but he was making all sorts of little movements. One moment he was touching this, the next he was scratching his cheek. Finally, when Zhou Shirui walked toward him, he stopped and raised his face to ask, “What’s wrong?”

Between Zhou Shirui’s long fingers was a feather. Le Cheng glanced at it, then looked away.

“What is this?” Zhou Shirui asked him.

Le Cheng said, “Probably a feather.”

Zhou Shiru: “Whose feather?”

Le Cheng shook his head, looking completely innocent. “How would I know?”

Zhou Shirui watched him pretend and stared for several seconds before smiling very lightly. “You really don’t know?”

Only then did Le Cheng break character. He stepped forward, tugged at the feather, then wrapped his arms around Zhou Shirui’s waist and burrowed into his embrace. “Aiya, you found it again.”

This kind of strange conversation had been happening frequently over the past two weeks.

The reason was that Le Cheng had fallen in love with a game of secretly playing hide-and-seek.

The game had started one day when Le Cheng had no classes. He had followed the hourly cleaner around and helped her with the housework. That afternoon, after Zhou Shirui returned home, he made himself a cup of coffee, but suddenly asked, “Did you drink coffee today?”

Le Cheng was puzzled. “No.”

All the coffee in their house was for Zhou Shirui. He didn’t like that bitter yet fragrant taste.

Le Cheng asked, “Why do you ask?”

“Nothing.” Zhou Shirui said casually, “The bag holding the coffee beans used to be folded twice, but today it was folded three times. Only you have that habit.”

Le Cheng was amazed.

He himself couldn’t even remember such a tiny detail. It wasn’t that his memory was bad; he simply didn’t pay attention to things like that. But he hadn’t expected Zhou Shirui to remember so clearly.

He explained that he had only happened to help clean up a little. Over the next few days, out of curiosity about how clearly Zhou Shirui remembered the details of their home, he began an experiment.

And true to expectations, Zhou Shirui could always notice within a very short time when something was out of the ordinary. When it came to things concerning Le Cheng, he was especially meticulous.

Somewhat troubled, Le Cheng buried his face in the crook of his neck. “Actually, I originally mixed up the order of your glasses. I didn’t expect a feather from the feather duster to fall in!”

Zhou Shirui stroked his hair. “I noticed that too.”

“Really?” Le Cheng was satisfied now. “I even stopped myself from asking you questions so that you could discover it yourself.”

“What were you going to ask me?”

“Why do you have so many pairs of glasses?” Le Cheng said. “I counted them. There are ten pairs. It doesn’t really seem like your style. And I’ve never even seen you wear most of them.”

Zhou Shirui pressed his lips together. “Want to know?”

Le Cheng turned his head and kissed him on the cheek, urging him, “Tell me, tell me.”

Only then was Zhou Shirui satisfied, and the reason he gave sounded perfectly reasonable.

At first, he had only had two pairs of glasses. One had a slightly stronger prescription, and the other had a slightly weaker one. He wore the stronger pair when driving and the weaker pair normally.

But because of an event organized by the student union, everyone had to dress uniformly. To match the natural style of the clothes, a senior female student recommended that he get a pair of rimless glasses. When he went to the optical store, he thought that he might encounter similar situations in the future, so he simply had the shop assistant choose several frames and had all of them fitted and packed up.

After he finished explaining, he turned his face toward Le Cheng. Le Cheng didn’t say anything and suddenly asked a question. “Then how long ago did you get your glasses?”

The sudden jump in his train of thought made Zhou Shirui pause for a second. “A year and a half ago.”

“I remember reading that you’re supposed to get your eyes checked once a year. How long has it been for you?” Le Cheng immediately decided. “Let’s go get your eyes checked tomorrow, okay?”

Zhou Shirui said, “Okay.”

The next morning, they went to the hospital to have his vision tested. The result was that his prescription had increased by twenty degrees compared to a year and a half ago.

Le Cheng was very surprised. He had thought that an adult’s prescription wouldn’t continue to increase.

The doctor smiled and said, “That’s very normal. Do you use your eyes a lot normally? Eye strain? These can all cause the prescription to increase.”

Fortunately, an increase of twenty degrees was only around one diopter. Le Cheng asked worriedly, “His work involves being on the computer. So how should he take care of his eyes normally?”

The doctor reassured him. “It could also be pseudomyopia. Look at scenery outside more often, gaze into the distance, and reduce the amount of time you spend using your eyes.”

Only then did Le Cheng agree.

After returning home, Zhou Shirui didn’t really care much about it, but Le Cheng began strictly regulating his screen time.

“Your nearsightedness is already this serious!” Le Cheng exaggerated. “I heard that your prescription can even decrease if you use your eyes less, so other than work, you’re not allowed to look at the computer or phone anymore.”

In fact, aside from work, Zhou Shirui basically didn’t use his computer or phone anyway. But seeing Le Cheng’s serious expression, he still nodded.

However, for various reasons, things didn’t go smoothly at first. Every time Le Cheng came stomping into the study in his slippers, carrying an alarm clock and preparing to pressure and coax Zhou Shirui into putting down his computer, he would see the other person still working overtime and soften immediately.

This made Le Cheng feel rather troubled, and the consequences were serious.

So serious that he changed Zhou Shirui’s contact name.

And deliberately showed it off in front of Zhou Shirui.

When Zhou Shirui saw his phone screen, he froze for two seconds before asking what the symbol meant.

Le Cheng lowered his eyes and put his hands on his hips. “It’s you.”

Zhou Shirui lowered his eyes and stared at the contact name on the phone.

[( @_@ )]

Le Cheng seriously explained it to him: “Look, the two circles are the frames of the glasses, and he even looks all dizzy. If you don’t take care of your eyes, sooner or later you’ll end up looking all dizzy while wearing thick glasses!”

Zhou Shirui stared at the expression for a while before admitting defeat. “Okay. I’ll pay attention from now on.”

“That’s more like it.” Le Cheng was very happy.

Zhou Shirui began reducing the amount of time he worked and the amount of time he spent using his eyes each day.

And after some time, he discovered that this wasn’t entirely a bad thing.

Whenever the curtains were drawn, the room would be dim, and not a single light would be turned on because Le Cheng would get shy if it was too bright.

Amid their heavy breathing, Zhou Shirui would press close to Le Cheng’s ear, but would deliberately delay the next movement. When Le Cheng became dizzy and disoriented and leaned over to kiss him, asking what was wrong, he would say in an extremely calm voice, “…It’s too dark. I can’t quite line it up.”

Le Cheng didn’t want to turn on the light. At times like this, he would bite his lip and whisper, incredibly embarrassed, “Th-then… should I help you?”

Zhou Shirui would silently laugh in the darkness and say okay. 

After Le Cheng tremblingly took hold of him and helped him, Zhou Shirui would suddenly exert force, making Le Cheng tense up and curl in on himself. Embarrassment made his entire body taut. Every time, when it was finally over and Zhou Shirui turned on the light and carried him to take a shower, Le Cheng would rest his chin on his shoulder, his fair skin burning hot, his entire body covered in a rosy flush from head to toe.

But even this had its limits.

After it happened too many times, Le Cheng gradually caught on. Not only did he refuse to help him line it up anymore, he also angrily changed his contact name to [(ε_ε)].

Zhou Shirui saw it and, very eager to learn, asked what it meant.

Le Cheng wasn’t very happy, but said somewhat guiltily, “Didn’t someone say he couldn’t see clearly? If he can’t see clearly, then when he takes off his glasses, this is what he looks like!”

Zhou Shirui didn’t say anything at the time. His expression remained perfectly calm. But that night, he didn’t take off his glasses, and only after he had completely entered did he very reasonably, yet maliciously, have the already-teary-eyed Le Cheng help him take them off.

As a result, Le Cheng stopped showing him his newly changed contact names.

And for a long time afterward, whenever Zhou Shirui took off his glasses, Le Cheng would inexplicably blush and feel weak in the legs.

The eye-protection plan was a great success. Under Le Cheng’s supervision, Zhou Shirui kept it up for four months, and when he went for another eye exam, his prescription had decreased by 10 degrees.

Le Cheng was even happier than Zhou Shirui himself. After they left, he especially enthusiastically praised him. “Hehe, I told you it would work. It went down by ten degrees, and you’re even more handsome now! We have to keep it up and do even better, okay?”

His tone was extremely exaggerated, but Zhou Shirui looked at his face and inexplicably felt his mood lift. He decided to make him even happier. “That discontinued LEGO set you mentioned a few days ago has arrived at home.”

Le Cheng didn’t quite believe him, but after they returned home and he saw the actual set, his eyes went round again. He couldn’t help letting out a “Wow,” then gave Zhou Shirui a quick kiss on the cheek. Smiling with his eyes curved into crescents, he said thank you.

Zhou Shirui watched him happily scamper away, excitedly playing with the LEGO.

So, before going to bed, Zhou Shirui decided to take a look at the computer.

Although Le Cheng no longer voluntarily showed him his contact name, he would always unconsciously use the computer at home and had a habit of leaving it on. Sometimes, WeChat would already be logged in.

So when Zhou Shirui opened WeChat, sure enough, his contact name had changed again. And this time, it had changed to reflect its owner’s particularly happy mood.

[↖(^ω^)↗]