The Tang Family’s Seven Os

On Saturday, as usual, Sheng Cen slept until he woke up naturally, then opened his eyes and finished the tasks his grandfather had assigned him, and finally he went to the fencing room to exercise for an hour and helped his mother with the flower garden.

He finished all this, and it was only noon.
After lunch, he sat on the sofa and basked in the sun, feeling a little bored.

He tapped his fingers, sat on the sofa for a while, picked up some fruit and took two bites, after a while he sat up again, poured out the tea on the table and made a new pot, and when he was making the tea, he couldn’t resist adding two more goji berries to it.

Sheng Xi was watching a movie about artwork, he was watching it seriously, but he couldn’t stand being annoyed by him wandering around in front of his eyes, so he couldn’t help but say, “Cen Cen, if you’re bored, you can go play with Xiao Qi.”

“Heh……” Sheng Cen snorted, ruffling his hair in disbelief, “I have to see him five days a week, and now that I’m on holiday, why would I want to abuse myself?”

Sheng Xi laughed and said nothing more, after a while, he saw his duplicitous brother running upstairs with his phone, he couldn’t help but sneer and shake his head helplessly.

Sheng Cen went back to his room and struggled with his mobile phone for a while before dialling the number.
When the call was answered, he cleared his throat and said: “Hello! Idle and bored, go fishing?”

He would begrudgingly accompany his young table mate on another wellness trip for the sake of his hard work teaching him how to study.

“Fishing ah……Sheng Cen, I don’t really want to go……” Tang Qi Yuan’s voice was soft, the tone sounded a little embarrassed.

He actually got rejected?

Sheng Cen froze for a moment, then his face darkened, and with a voice an octave lower than just now, spoke, “Why?”

“Xiao Nai Cha has just arrived at home not long ago and is too timid, I’m not comfortable with it being at home by itself, I want to stay home and play with it.”

Tang Qi Yuan’s voice contained laughter, and Sheng Cen could hear his love for something like ‘little milk tea’ from his voice.

Sheng Cen raised his eyebrows in displeasure, holding his phone and asking in confusion: “Xiao Nai Cha?”

“Xiao Nai Cha is a kitten that Classmate Xia Cheng Lang picked up and left here at Ge’s place to raise.” Tang Qi Yuan explained.

“A cat?” Sheng Cen converged his eyebrows, so……he is not as good as a cat?

He couldn’t help but grind his teeth, his table mate actually chose to accompany a cat instead of coming to accompany him for fishing.

Tang Qi Yuan was unaware of his table mate’s anger and was still smiling to himself, “Yeah, it’s super cute, tiny, very good and well-behaved.”

Sheng Cen held his tongue for half a day and said angrily: “You’re paying excessive attention to playthings1玩物丧志 (wán wù sàng zhì): an idiom, refers to blindly enjoying unhelpful objects, thus consuming one’s ambition.!”

Aren’t you the one who loves to study and maintain your health, and now you’re giving it up for a cat? Shouldn’t you be spending your holidays tutoring him or going fishing with him!

“……But Xiao Nai Cha is too cute, I really can’t help the temptation ah……” Tang Qi Yuan vainly snapped his phone cover and silently reviewed himself.

Sheng Cen listened to his aggrieved but unrepentant words, so angry that he could not say anything.

Tang Qi Yuan suddenly shrieked in the phone, his voice fading away as he shouted in panic, “Xiao Nai Cha you slow down, don’t fall down……”

“Sheng Cen, I’ll hang up first.” After a while, Tang Qi Yuan spoke to Sheng Cen hurriedly and hung up the phone in a hurry.

Sheng Cen listened to the disconnect tone coming from the phone and angrily threw the phone on the sofa to the side.

He suspected that his table mate no longer had him in his heart, only that damned smelly cat!

After a while, his phone rang, and Sheng Cen impatiently picked it up and took a look at it, it was a picture sent by Tang Qi Yuan, showing a naive and cute Garfield, with the words ‘Cute, right?’ and a few heart emoticons next to it, which showed how much Tang Qi Yuan liked this ‘Little Milk Tea’.

Sheng Cen looked at those few eye-piercing hearts and replied without hesitation with the phrase ‘ugly as hell’.

He put it down in his hand, thought about it and grabbed his phone again, and couldn’t help but dial Xia Cheng Lang’s number directly.

After the call was answered, he didn’t give Xia Cheng Lang a chance to speak, directly yelling out with anger, “What are you doing buying a cat for Tang Liu Yuan?”

Xia Cheng Lang was half a beat slower to react to what he was saying, smiled and said: “You mean Xiao Nai Cha ah……”

“That’s the one I found on the side of the road……” Xia Cheng Lang’s voice fluttered heartily.

Sheng Cen was extremely angry and said conspiratorially, “Don’t tell me that you can still pick up a precious breed of Garfield on the roadside!”

Xia Cheng Lang was guiltily silent for a moment, laughed heatedly twice, and then wondered: “Ge, why are you so angry when I gave the cat to Liu Yuan ah?”

Xia Cheng Lang was close to asking ‘what’s it to you’ directly.

“……” Sheng Cen was furious! Hanging up the phone straight away.

Your cat has hooked my table mate’s heart, what do you think it has to do with me!

Tang Qi Yuan didn’t reply to the message again, the chat log stayed at the phrase ‘ugly to death’, and Sheng Cen was bored at home for two days until Monday when he saw Tang Qi Yuan again.

When Sheng Cen walked into the classroom, he subconsciously glanced at his table mate and saw that Tang Qi Yuan was honestly sitting in his seat reading a book, and satisfied, he hooked one side of his lips and walked over.

“Morning.” Tang Qi Yuan raised his head and gave him a faint glance before lowering his head and continuing to read his book.

“Morning.” Sheng Cen nodded and sat down, the corners of his lips slightly curled upwards, ready for the next compliment from his table mate.

Tang Qi Yuan had always adhered to the principle of complimenting each other a few times a day between table mates to help the two make progress together, and basically complimented Sheng Cen a few times every morning.

Although Sheng Cen had never responded, he had always insisted on doing so, especially when he came back and met again after two days of vacation like now, he would often find every reason to compliment Sheng Cen, and sometimes even when Sheng Cen was sleeping on his desk, he could even compliment him on his beautiful sleeping posture.

Unfortunately for Sheng Cen, he waited and waited until class started today, and apart from saying good morning, his table mate never complimented him again as he had done before.

As time went on, Sheng Cen’s face became darker and darker.
Even teacher Deng noticed the low pressure on him and couldn’t help but look at him a few more times, but unfortunately, Tang Qi Yuan was indifferent and didn’t even notice the low pressure on his table mate, and kept looking at his books without raising his head.

He didn’t even raise his head.
Until the end of the second period, there was still no movement from Tang Qi Yuan, and Sheng Cen’s face was completely dark.

After holding back and holding back, he finally couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Tang Qi Yuan and asked in a cold voice, “Why didn’t you praise me today?”

When Tang Qi Yuan heard his words, he raised his head from the book and looked at Sheng Cen and said seriously: “People who don’t love small animals don’t deserve to be praised, so I’m not praising today.”

The corners of Tang Qi Yuan’s mouth pressed into an unhappy arc, he couldn’t help but let out a small light hmph, Little Milk Tea looked so cute, Sheng Cen even called it ugly, Tang Qi Yuan found it really intolerable!

Sheng Cen froze for a moment, not expecting it to be because of this matter.

He felt that his status in Tang Qi Yuan’s heart had plummeted, that his little table mate had been angry with him for two days over that cat!

He really wanted to pull out his cousin who had nothing better to do than to give away a cat and punch him twice.

He was silent for a while before he pursed his lips and said reluctantly: “It, Xiao Nai Cha, is quite good looking, I was wrong that day……it is very cute……and well behaved……heh heh……”

Tang Qi Yuan’s temper has always been soft and very easy to coax, hearing his words he immediately smiled and nodded vigorously, with arched eyebrows: “Yes! It’s super cute, and it’s especially pretty, with long eyelashes, Sheng Cen, the reason you misunderstood him before was because I didn’t take a good picture of him that day, wait until you have time to come home with me to see him, then you’ll like him!”

Sheng Cen looked at Tang Qi Yuan who was chattering away about the cat and frowned in dissatisfaction, but when he heard Tang Qi Yuan invite him to his house to see the cat, he couldn’t help but stretch his eyebrows again and suddenly felt that Little Milk Tea was indeed good.

He nodded in a fake deep voice and reluctantly agreed, “Okay, I’ll go when I have time.”

The smile on Tang Qi Yuan’s face grew wider and wider, and seeing how nice his table mate was, he couldn’t help but do a little self-reflection.

He felt that his attitude towards his table this morning was really not friendly enough, and he quickly made up for it by saying, “You are also very cute, table mate, as cute as Xiao Nai Cha, and you are also very caring, the posture and tone of your voice when you complimented Xiao Nai Cha just now were very handsome, I am really honoured to be table mates with you…… ”

Sheng Cen leaned back in his chair enjoying listening to the exaggerated praise from his table mate, the more his table mate complimented him, the more refreshed he felt, not sure why, although there were countless people who complimented him since he was a child, but none of them seemed make him as happy as when his table mate complimented him.

However, not only had he been complimented on his cuteness for the first time in his life, he was even compared to a cat, he wasn’t very happy about it.

He frowned slightly and opened his mouth to interrupt the gushing Tang Qi Yuan, looking up and asking: “Am I cute, or is Xiao Nai Cha cute?”

If everyone knew that their cold and aloof Second Prince was comparing cuteness with a cat, they would have screamed out in disbelief, and even Sheng Cen himself couldn’t help but want to smack himself when he finished the sentence, but unfortunately the words had already been said and he couldn’t take them back, and he really wanted to know the answer.

Tang Qi Yuan glanced at his table mate, he thought that Xiao Nai Cha is undoubtedly the cuter one.

He was too embarrassed to attack his table mate’s self-esteem, but he also didn’t want to lie to his table mate against his will, so after thinking for a while, he said politely: “You are a human being, how can you compare yourself to a small animal?”

Sheng Cen raised his eyebrows, “Didn’t you just compare me to a cat and say I was as cute as a Xiao Nai Cha?”

“……” Tang Qi Yuan rubbed his nose sheepishly after being exposed.

Sheng Cen moved closer to look him in the eyes and asked aggressively: “In the end, who’s really cute?”

“It’s not important……” Tang Qi Yuan ducked back.

“It’s very important.” Sheng Cen pressed closer threateningly.

“……Xiao Nai Cha is cute.” Tang Qi Yuan looked at Sheng Cen and stifled a whisper.

Sheng Cen’s face sank, and his deep eyes stared sadly at Tang Qi Yuan.

Looking at the increasingly ugly face of his table mate, Tang Qi Yuan hastily added loudly: “But you’re handsome, Cen Ge you’re the most handsome!”

Sheng Cen hooked his lips and said in a low voice: “Say it again.”

“What?” Tang Qi Yuan froze for a moment.

“The last sentence.”

“……Cen Ge you’re the most handsome?”

“En.”

Tang Qi Yuan repeated, “Cen Ge, you are the most handsome.”

“Say it again.”

“Cen Ge, you are the most handsome.”

“Continue.”

……

Tang Qi Yuan was worried, what if his table mate is too narcissistic?

It seems like the road to make his table mate into a good teenager is still long ah.

1玩物丧志 (wán wù sàng zhì): an idiom, refers to blindly enjoying unhelpful objects, thus consuming one’s ambition.