Chapter 39: CH 39

Ou Shaowen was silent for a while, “Then I want to see you, I want to see you tomorrow.”

Ou Renjin didn’t answer immediately.

“Song Yijiu said that the competition will be closed for three months, and I will not be able to see you for three full months.” It wasn’t just the three months he was afraid of, he wondered if by the time he returned from the competition, Ou Renjin would never want to see him again.

“I’m a little busy tomorrow.” When his reply came from the other end of the phone, Ou Shaowen’s face was still expressionless. The disappointment in his heart just started to rise when it was pressed down by Ou Renjin’s next words.

“But I can see you now. Do you want to come out? I have about three hours to take you to play.”

“Yes.” Ou Shaowen replied firmly.

“I can’t drive today, ask Uncle Li to take you over. I’m at the archery hall on Xinyu Road. Uncle Li knows the location.”

Originally, to Ou Shaowen, dragging Uncle Li to drive when he could have rested was something he always avoided, but when Ou Renjin said this, he pushed down the bit of guilt he felt towards Uncle Li in his heart.

He almost ran the short distance from the living room to Uncle Li’s room, knocked on his door and went in, his voice very soft, “Uncle Li, I may need to trouble you to take me to a place.”

As soon as Ou Shaowen entered the archery hall, he looked up and saw Ou Renjin. Wearing special gloves and arm guards for archery, he squinted slightly with one eye, tilted his head, looking cold, and the arrow snapped out, directly hitting the red circle in the centre.

The entire archery hall was empty, and only the two archery targets in Ou Renjin’s practice area were still lit.

“Ou Renjin!” Ou Shaowen called out to him from far away, his voice so loud that it echoed through the hall.

Ou Renjin turned to look at him, a smile appearing on his otherwise cold face. “Come here.” He beckoned to him.

Ou Shaowen walked over quickly and, after a few steps, ran up. Ou Renjin stopped him with a smile, “Just hug, don’t pounce on me, I don’t have the strength to catch you now.”

When he finished speaking, Ou Shaowen was already in front of him. He really controlled his strength and after a seemingly ferocious run-up gave him a gentle hug.

Ou Renjin was still holding his bow in one hand and patted him on the back lightly with the end of it, “Have you eaten yet?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What did you eat?”

“The shredded chicken and garlic shrimps I ate were all delicious, but they were a bit salty, which caused me to drink a lot of water afterwards. How about you, what did you eat for dinner?”

“I forgot, I ate with the director, it was a mess, I didn’t get much of a taste.” That was a cutting-edge director that Qimeng had just signed. The box office of his low-budget debut movie was quite good. Later, he went to make literary and artistic films that went unnoticed at home but won several awards abroad. Ou Renjin had seen several of his movies and felt that he was quite talented in controlling the plot, so he personally ordered him to be signed up, preparing to train him more and let him take the place of Qimeng’s already old director.

When they met for the first time, the director didn’t know his style of never drinking and was toasting him with gusto throughout the whole process. Ou Renjin was a man of sometimes strange principles. No matter what impression he had of others, next time he could be angry or indifferent, but he would never embarrass others when meeting for the first time. As a result, refusing while trying to keep up appearances again and again almost exhausted his mind.

Surely it was better to meet Ou Shaowen. He needed to give himself a reward for being so tired today.

They hugged quietly for a long time until Ou Renjin pushed him a little farther and Ou Shaowen let go.

He began to look around, stared with considerable interest at the tail of the arrow stuck in the centre of the target, and exclaimed, “Ou Renjin, you were so handsome just now, you made my heart throb a little.”

“Do you know what it feels like when the heart throbs?”

“It’s the kind of feeling that my heart is pounding, and I especially want to rush up to hug you.”

Ou Renjin smiled, changed the subject and handed the bow to him, “Let’s try it, so I can also experience the feeling of my heart throbbing to the point of wanting to rush up and hug you.”

He stood next to Ou Shaowen and gave him hand-to-hand instructions on how to hold the bow. His voice touched Ou Shaowen’s ears like silk, causing him to take several deep breaths before he could listen attentively and concentrate on the meaning of the words.

“Let go.”

There was a short sound of the shot arrow, and the first arrow hit the seventh ring.

“That’s amazing.” Ou Renjin stepped aside, “Try a few more times by yourself.”

Ou Shaowen stood still, and every arrow that followed did not go farther than the seventh ring. One after another, they got closer to the red circle in the centre, and finally, after an arrow hit the red circle, Ou Shaowen seemed to have established the correct and precise procedure and could easily hit the same spot the next time.

“I’m good too, right?” He turned his face to beg for praise.

“Yes, very good, better than me, better than everyone I know.”

Hearing this somewhat exaggerated praise, Ou Shaowen looked away with some embarrassment, glancing at the target in front of him. His gaze unconsciously fell to the clock on the wall, “It’s already been half an hour, time flies so fast.”

Ou Renjin checked his arm that held the bow and said softly, “Don’t be coquettish.”

“Hmm?” He looked confused.

“It’s okay, I’m complimenting you for being so cute.” He confirmed that Ou Shaowen didn’t have any bruises on his arm and took another bow, “Let’s compete once. If you win, you will be given a reward.”

“Is it the kind of reward that fulfils a request again?” Ou Shaowen blinked, looking forward to it.

“No, I will set the reward, and it’s up to you if you want it or not when the time comes.” Ou Renjin walked to the target to clean up the arrows on it. Ou Shaowen followed him a few steps behind.

“Okay.” Although he couldn’t just make Ou Renjin live at the villa like he did before, it was well worth the surprise to receive a reward from him.

“Can you beat me?”

Ou Renjin walked back to where he was and stood still, and Ou Shaowen, his little tail, came and stood obediently again, “I don’t know.”

“Being a genius and having so little confidence? If you can’t win, there’s no reward. So think clearly and answer me again.” Ou Renjin glanced at him, his expression still gentle but a little stern.

“I can win.” Deep down, Ou Shaowen actually had that confidence, he had always been able to do well when it came to things related to body control.

“Good.” Ou Renjin narrowed his eyes as an arrow was shot, “Five arrows per person, the number of rings will be added up, the one with more points wins.”

Tenth ring! (on the archery target, the 10th ring is the closest to the centre but not the centre itself)

Ou Shaowen followed suit and shot an arrow. Ninth ring, close to the circle line of the tenth ring. He had been walking and changed his position, and now he needed to find the reference point again.

Ou Renjin hooked the corner of his mouth. Another arrow and another tenth ring.

This time Ou Shaowen followed closely. Although he didn’t hit the centre, his arrow also landed in the tenth ring.

The final arrow, 39 to 40.

Ou Renjin’s hand holding the bowstring paused a little, and the arrow shot out at a slight angle and hit the eighth ring.

He moved his shoulder and said, either simply stating the fact or putting pressure on Ou Shaowen, “Ninth ring for a tie, tenth ring for you to win.”

Ou Shaowen’s eyes were full of certainty and confidence, and his tone sounded with a hint of rare arrogance, “Then I must win.”

The bowstring bounced with a snap, and Ou Renjin squinted slightly to confirm the position of the arrow that landed firmly and surely in the red circle.

He applauded softly and raised an eyebrow at Ou Shaowen flirtatiously, “It really makes people want to hug you.”

Ou Shaowen curled his lips and smiled happily, “Then hug.”

Ou Renjin rubbed his hair, “Better not, if I hug you, I will just make this hug my reward.”

Ou Shaowen had a look of being hurt by the false advertising on his face, “How can this be considered a reward? It’s only a reward if I can’t get it easily.”

“Then when you come back from the competition, if you can stay in the last ten and make your debut smoothly, there will be another reward. The two will be given to you together.”

“Okay, then it’s a deal.” Ou Shaowen was extremely happy, even happier than he had been when he won in archery.

Ou Renjin looked down at the time, “Time to go back, it’s getting late.”

“Hasn’t it only been less than an hour? You said before that you had three hours to keep me company.” Ou Shaowen’s spirits immediately sank; he looked like a rabbit with its ears hanging down.

“That’s right.” Ou Renjin had his own evil delights. ”Since I called you, it has been almost two hours. I will take you to the door of the community by car. Isn’t it almost the same?”

The way Ou Shaowen unconsciously flattened his mouth was so amusing; Ou Renjin couldn’t help but poke his cheek, “Let’s go, don’t let Uncle Li wait for us too long.”

He said he would take him to the entrance of the community, but because Ou Renjin’s residence was closer to here, Ou Shaowen didn’t want to trouble Uncle Li to send him home and then drive again to send Ou Renjin home, so he proposed to let Uncle Li take Ou Renjin back first.

“It’s not far away, it’s a quick drive.” Uncle Li tilted his head and looked at Ou Renjin in the rear view mirror.

“It’s too much trouble, you can just drop me off first.”

Since President Ou expressed his agreement, Uncle Li nodded, “Okay.”

Before getting out of the car, Ou Renjin held the car door and said one last thing to Ou Shaowen, “Go for it, I look forward to seeing a different you in the show.”

“I’ll make my debut.” Ou Shaowen pursed his lips and looked determined.

Ou Renjin smiled gently, straightened up and waved to him, then motioned to Uncle Li to go.

Uncle Li then really didn’t linger a moment longer and quickly started the car. When Ou Shaowen turned and held the seat back to look, Ou Renjin had already walked inside, and even his back quickly disappeared in the shade of the trees.

He was tired, as if he had been drained of strength.

Archery was so fun! But it seemed to be a bit exhausting, otherwise why did he feel that he was too weak to do anything at the moment and so tired that even blinking was difficult?

In the next two days, Ou Renjin really did not contact him again. On the morning of the recording, Ou Shaowen took the initiative to send him a message, saying that his mobile phone would be taken away soon.

He got a reply very quickly:

It’s okay with me, anyway, I’ll be able to see you on TV in half a month.

It was okay with him.

Ou Shaowen was somehow a bit inexplicably angry. He fished out his wallet; in the empty wallet there was the photo of the kiss on the cable car. Of all the photos, this was the only one that showed just the back of his head but gave the best view of Ou Renjin’s face.

I can see you every minute of every day anyway.

Ou Renjin sat in his office, glancing at his mobile phone from time to time, but Ou Shaowen did not reply. He waited for more than ten minutes, then turned on the mobile phone and took a look, then turned the phone over and began to deal with business affairs wholeheartedly.

“President Ou?” Xiao Liu had now taken over Guan Qijun’s job and become his personal assistant. He had a lively personality and was sometimes not as disciplined as Guan Qijun.

Now, he opened the door, poked his head into the crack and smiled goofily at him, “Before Mr. Shaowen left by car this morning, he gave me something and asked me to hand it over to you.”

“Come in, what is it?”

Xiao Liu took out a packing box from behind and handed it to him, “I don’t know, it seems to be a gift, so take your time and look, I’ll go out first.”

When he went out, he was very sensible and didn’t forget to close the door lightly.

Ou Renjin smiled and took out a utility knife from the drawer to carefully cut open the package.

Then, he saw the gift that Ou Shaowen had promised him to give, his own favourite gift.