Can I still be saved? [Transmigration] - Chapter 48.1

After the school holiday started, Shen Nianyun brought the whole family from Henglin to Beijing for the Lunar New Year.

Although Wen Yanlai still held some prejudice against Fu Hanzhou because of the wedding, under various circumstances she could only maintain a polite surface of harmony with him.

Su Yunjing had originally worried that Fu Hanzhou might not get along with Wen Yanlai, but to his surprise, the first conflict before the New Year wasn’t between those two— it was actually between Wen Yanlai and elderly couple Grandma Guo Xuihui and Grandpa Wen Huaishan.

Wen Yanlai and Shen Nianyun had never officially registered their marriage, they’d only held a wedding ceremony.

For the older generation, the marriage certificate was indispensable, it represented legitimacy.

So the old couple couldn’t understand: since the wedding was done and they were already living together, why not go get the marriage certificate?

From Wen Yanlai’s point of view, if not for wanting to reassure the old couple, she wouldn’t even have wanted the ceremony in the first place.

She and Shen Nianyun were financially independent, respected each other’s privacy, gave one another personal space, and in terms of career, were mutually understanding, Wen Yanlai found this kind of relationship very comfortable.

But in Grandma Guo’s eyes, this wasn’t a normal or healthy marriage.

The clash of two generations’ understanding of marriage led to an argument, which angered Grandma Guo so much she almost went straight back home.

Su Yunjing could understand her, she was just worried about Wen Yanlai, hoping she could have a stable partner in her later years.

Most parents urge their children to marry because they believe that once married, the couple can care for and support each other.

But everyone’s understanding of marriage and of happiness is different. As long as one is content, there’s nothing wrong with never marrying for a lifetime.

The household atmosphere was tense for several days. After Wen Yanlai had a deep talk with Grandma Guo, she finally figured things out and stopped dwelling on the issue.

At last, the Lunar New Year passed peacefully, and Su Yunjing finally let out a sigh of relief.

The ‘car accident rescue’ plot, where the female lead was supposed to save Fu Hanzhou, never happened, thanks to Su Yunjing’s careful avoidance.

Before the New Year, he and Fu Hanzhou had stayed obediently at the Shen household. Even when Tang Wei invited them out, Su Yunjing refused, afraid something unexpected might occur.

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Lin Lie called to invite Su Yunjing and Fu Hanzhou to his place the next day.

Lin Lie’s parents had divorced years ago, his mother remarried abroad, and his father remarried locally and had another son who was more than ten years younger.

Now Lin Lie lived alone, only visiting home once or twice a month and staying over only on New Year’s Eve.

The fifth day of the New year happened to be his birthday, so he invited them for a little get-together.

Uncle Wu drove the two over. Su Yunjing pressed the doorbell at apartment 702, following the address Lin Lie had sent.

The door opened to reveal Tang Wei’s fierce, impatient face.

Seeing it was Su Yunjing and Fu Hanzhou, his frown relaxed slightly.

“I thought it was the pizza delivery guy,” Tang Wei grumbled. “He said he’d be here in twenty minutes, but it’s been more than forty!”

Su Yunjing glanced at his slippers, not stepping in right away.

“Do we need to change into slippers?” he asked.

From the living room, Lin Lie walked out with his phone.

“No need. He’s wearing those because he crashed here last night — came to freeload my food, my bed, and my game console.”

Tang Wei snorted.“What do you mean freeload? I was being nice! It’s New Year’s, and you looked pathetic, so I stayed to keep you company.”

Lin Lie ignored him and called the pizza place to ask about the delay.

Su Yunjing smelled hotpot broth in the air — sure enough, there was a yuan-yang hotpot ¹ bubbling in the living room.

“Pizza with hotpot?” he couldn’t help but laugh.

Tang Wei, who adored junk food, grinned proudly.

Tang Wei loved all kinds of junk food, and today was nothing short of a junk food feast. Grinning gleefully, she said, “It’s Lao²Lin’s birthday—if we’re going to celebrate, we’d better go all out!”

Hot pot, pizza, burgers, cheesy fried chicken, barbecue, and, of course, some ‘fat otaku’s happy  drink’.

Su Yunjing: Just hearing that lineup made his stomach hurt a little—but it also sounded amazing. Pure happiness.

Little tsundere had a light palate— his diet was always clean, green, and healthy, and he even had a bit of a stomach problem. Su Yunjing was worried he wouldn’t be able to handle this kind of ‘happiness’.

He leaned in and whispered,“If it’s too much, I’ll cook you some noodles later.”

Golden light fell through Fu Hanzhou’s long lashes and shimmered in his dark phoenix eyes.

He replied softly,“Mm.”

That “mm” sounded light and content, like a breeze.

Su Yunjing turned to Tang Wei,

“By the way, did you buy any noodles?”

Tang Wei:“Of course — it’s a hotpot! I got my favorite mixed- flour noodles.”

Su Yunjing: …I never knew he had such heavy taste.

Su wasn’t picky about food — he could handle almost anything. But there were three things he would never touch: soft-boiled eggs, stir-fried cucumbers, and mixed-flour noodles.

Lin Lie came back from the balcony after calling,

“They said they mixed up the pizza orders and had to go back to switch them, so it’ll be a bit late.”

Tang Wei, craving pizza badly, couldn’t help blurting out a curse.

Su Yunjing handed Lin Lie a gift card.

“Happy birthday from both me and Hanzhou.”

He hadn’t known what to get him. Tang Wei had mentioned Lin liked photography, but he had no knowledge of it, only that it was expensive. So he and Fu Hanzhou had simply settled on a shopping gift card.

“Buy whatever you like. Just swipe the card,” Su Yunjing said, sounding like a little boss.

Lin Lie accepted and said.“Thanks.”

Tang Wei’s eyes lit up.

“How much is on that card? Judging by Wen Ci’s family, he’s loaded and Brother Fu wouldn’t go small either.”

Then he slung an arm around Lin’s shoulder, grinning meaningfully.

“Lao Lin, don’t forget your friends when you get rich,” Tang Wei said, slinging an arm around Lin Lie’s shoulders and hinting wildly. “There’s this pair of sneakers I really like that’s about to drop, you know what I mean?”

Lin Lie brushed off his hand with a calm expression. “And there’s this new camera I’ve got my eye on that’s also about to come out.”

Tang Wei clicked his tongue. “Didn’t you just buy the Phantom1?”

Lin Lie replied, “The Phantom1 is the Phantom1. The new camera is the new camera. You’ve got so many pairs of sneakers already, but that doesn’t stop you from buying more, does it?”

Tang Wei had no comeback for that; he even thought it made perfect sense.

Since there was no hope of mooching off Lin Lie, and his parents had recently cut down his allowance over his grades, he could only turn his hopes toward Su Yunjing.

He was just about to ask Su Yunjing to lend him a little cash—planning to pay it back once things loosened up—but before he could say a word, or even get his arm around Su Yunjing’s shoulders, Fu Hanzhou shot him a sharp, slanted look from those beautiful, phoenix eyes.

Tang Wei immediately straightened up, deciding he’d better behave. He even began a deep internal review of why it was wrong to borrow money just to buy a pair of sneakers that were so, so, so perfect for him.

The last time the four of them had hot pot together was months ago, up on the school rooftop.

The two portable alcohol stoves Tang Wei had bought were confiscated by the dean of students and still hadn’t been returned, probably not until graduation.

The drinks were from Tang Wei’s house, something his dad had brought back from abroad. After a few sips, Su Yunjing noticed something off, the sweetness had an odd aftertaste he couldn’t quite describe.

He looked at the label on the bottle. It wasn’t in English, and he couldn’t read a single word.

“Why do I feel like there’s alcohol in this?” Su Yunjing sniffed at his cup.

Tang Wei, chewing on a piece of lamb, said, “Because it is alcohol. It’s a kind of fruit beer from overseas but it packs a way stronger after taste than the ones we have in our country.”

He had barely finished speaking when he noticed everyone staring at him. Tang Wei froze mid-bite, completely lost. “What? Why are you all looking at me like that?”

Su Yunjing sighed helplessly. “Minors aren’t allowed to drink. That includes beer.”

Technically, their school ages were a total mess. When Su Yunjing was seventeen, he was already in his third year of high school.

But the novel had mentioned that the heroine saved Fu Hanzhou when he was seventeen and in his second year.

That single line had thrown this whole world off by a year, everyone basically started school late.

“We’re not minors anymore, though,” Tang Wei, the academic underachiever, argued righteously. “We just celebrated New Year’s—you guys forgot we’re eighteen now?”

Lin Lie was checking the alcohol content on the can. At that, he lifted his eyes and said lazily, “Legally speaking, ‘eighteen years old’ is calculated according to the date of birth on your ID card, starting from the day after your birthday.”

“Get it? Even for me, I wouldn’t be officially eighteen until after midnight tonight.”

“Is it that complicated?” Tang Wei blinked, suddenly doubtful. “The teacher explained this in class? How come I don’t remember?”

Su Yunjing didn’t have the heart to tell him that this was just common sense. Instead, he quietly gathered up the fruit beers. “When this time next year comes around, we’ll drink again. For now, let’s just stick to soft drinks.”

When Su Yunjing went to take away the bottle in front of Little tsundere Fu Hanzhou, he realized the latter had already finished more than half of it. He gave him a look.

Fu Hanzhou seemed perfectly normal. He figured it wasn’t a big deal—it was only fruit beer, after all, with a lower alcohol content than regular beer.

But as they ate, he started to sense that something was off. Fu Hanzhou was leaning his elbow on the table, staring at him with a smile, eyes glimmering.

His smile wasn’t a broad grin, but a small, well-behaved curve at the corners of his lips and brows—gentle and obedient.

Su Yunjing couldn’t help but poke his soft side under the table. “Chuan chuan, are you drunk?”

Fu Hanzhou shook his head, the smile in his eyes deepening. His long lashes trembled softly, making him look even softer, almost fluffy.

Su Yunjing poked him again. “Then what are you laughing at?”

A quiet, ticklish laugh slipped from Fu Hanzhou’s throat. He folded down onto the table, resting his face on his arms.

After a moment, a small gap appeared between them, and a pair of phoenix eyes peeked through.

The long, slanted corners of his eyes looked like peach blossom petals, steeped in honeyed sweetness—his gaze sugary and tender.

Su Yunjing froze.

Maybe it was the aftereffect of the imported fruit beer, but he suddenly felt a wave of heat rise in his body, his throat going dry.

Tang Wei and Lin Lie had also noticed something was off with Fu Hanzhou, asking Su Yunjing what was wrong.

From their angle, all they could see was Fu Hanzhou lying on the table. But Su Yunjing was directly facing those black, honeyed eyes.

The other boy was looking at him, smiling softly.

That sweet, fluffy little cool prince made Su Yunjing want to reach out and ruffle his hair.

His heart rippled like a spring pond in March, with petals falling gently onto the surface, spreading circles of warmth.

He covered Fu Hanzhou’s eyes with his hand— but the ripples in his heart just kept expanding, impossibly soft.