The Invasion Day – Chapter 55

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 55

The atmosphere fell completely dull and an invisible pressure crushed down on the whole car. No one spoke a word.

Tang Xuhai’s expression was cold, Fu Shiwu’s expression was stern and Wen Zhaoming’s expression was helpless, looking at this person then the other person. Meanwhile, Miao Jia peeked at the two in front with intrigue: This was the first time these two had such a big quarrel.

Until 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon, when the three cars pulled over a large slope for lunch, the two of them still didn’t talk, making even people in the other cars curious.

Wen Zhaoming felt that it wouldn’t be good if this continued, so he stepped forward to try some persuasion: “Shiwu, there’s no need to have a cold war just because of something so trivial, right?” 

The reason was too strange. If it was something important, it could still be understood, but it was just about putting on some clothes…

Fu Shiwu pushed his glasses up helplessly: “I don’t want to do this either, but I seriously feel that I can’t wear that T-shirt…”

Before he even finished speaking, Tang Xuhai stood up and grabbed the T-shirt: “I really don’t believe that you can’t wear it. Clothes can’t bite you!”

He pulled open the hem of the T-shirt and tossed it over Fu Shiwu’s neck.

“Ah —” 

After an exclamation pierced Tang Xuhai’s eardrums, Fu Shiwu’s face turned as white as a sheet and cold sweat poured down his whole body. He quivered and slumped to the ground at once.

“F**k!” Staring at Fu Shiwu, Tang Xuhai was completely stupefied. Fu Shiwu was lying on the ground with a T-shirt hanging on his neck and panting very hard, as though he was almost out of breath.

Hollande’s expression twisted and he quickly rushed over to pull the T-shirt away!

He bowed his head and stroked Fu Shiwu’s cheek.

“Is he okay?” Wang Dan also leaned forward, while Liu Zhao put down his food to run over.

Tang Xuhai started to feel uneasy now as he stood perplexed by Fu Shiwu’s side: “I just want to put a T-shirt on him, I don’t know how it happens!”

“He fainted.” Hollande said.

“How is it possible?” Wen Zhaoming’s eyebrows furrowed.

Tang Xuhai’s expression instantly became unsightly. He was angry that Fu Shiwu had to be so particular about some simple clothes, but he never wanted to hurt Fu Shiwu just because of this.

He pushed Hollande to one side and hugged Fu Shiwu, then patted him on the face: “Fu Shiwu! Fu Shiwu! Wake up.”

“Try to pinch his philtrum.” Ma Dong gave an idea from the side.

Without wasting another word, Tang Xuhai immediately pressed on Fu Shiwu’s philtrum. Next to him, Huo Enting said: “His reaction is so intense that he even faints. Perhaps it’s not just that he doesn’t like wearing T-shirts?”

Hollande seemed to figure something: “Looking at this, does he have a phobia?”

“A phobia?” Stunned, Wen Zhaoming raised his head: “A phobia of being wrapped around the neck?!”

“What?” Miao Jia’s eyes open wide in surprise: “Is it a kind of illness?”

“It’s a kind of mental disorder. He must’ve been through some sort of trigger before, and since then, he’s become unable to accept something wrapped around his neck.” Hollande explained: “However, in such a case, people generally won’t be able to wear necklaces, scarves, ties and so on. I’ve never heard of it being so serious that they can’t even wear a T-shirt.” 

Having his philtrum pinched, Fu Shiwu feebly came back to his consciousness. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a circle of people surrounding him.

“…” Slowly he remembered something, then his face turned pale and he struggled to stand up. Tang Xuhai didn’t want to use too much force on him, so he had to let go.

So embarrassing!

Fu Shiwu felt massively tormented. Being surrounded in such a small space made him remember the unbearable memories from back in primary school, when they pushed him into a corner, bullied him and made a joke out of him. In a blink, all the embarrassment of those times pounded onto his heart, as though he was cornered and laughed at once again.

“Shiwu, I’m very sorry…” Tang Xuhai felt especially accountable, the guilt in his heart almost drowning him.

“It’s okay…” Whatever was going on in Fu Shiwu’s mind was a total mess, and he had no idea what Tang Xuhai was apologising for. The corner of his mouth twitched violently as he fixed his eyes at the ground: “I want to be alone for a while.” 

Done saying so, he quickly ran away from this place where he couldn’t breathe.

“Fu Shiwu!” Tang Xuhai immediately chased after him.

Fu Shiwu’s mind was blank. He only felt ashamed that he was horribly frightened by a mere T-shirt, to the extent that he actually fainted. It was so embarrassing that he wished he could flee from Earth immediately.

Just let the aliens take me away! Even such nonsensical thoughts began to wander in his head.

Fu Shiwu was quite a tall man himself, and his legs were definitely not short. Although his body hadn’t strengthened to become as powerful as a mutant or Tang Xuhai, he had grown to be much sturdier than before, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to expand his sensory ‘ability’ every time he summoned it. This was proof that his physique was getting better each day.

So now he was running much faster than when he took the physical exam back in high school, but his speed was still nowhere enough to beat Tang Xuhai.

A moment later, Tang Xuhai finally caught up.

“Don’t run! You stop there!!!” Tang Xuhai shouted.

Fu Shiwu found it hard to breathe: “I told you to let me be alone for a while!”

“No! It won’t work if we don’t talk things out clearly!” Tang Xuhai got closer and closer.

“Talk what clearly?” Before Fu Shiwu could think straight, Tang Xuhai pulled him back.

The huge force of recoil almost had him fall backward. Tang Xuhai stretched out his hand to hug Fu Shiwu’s waist; at this moment, he didn’t dare to hook his arm over Fu Shiwu’s neck.

In the short duration that the two of them ran, even with his better physique now, Fu Shiwu still couldn’t be compared to Tang Xuhai. Tang Xuhai got back his stable breathing in mere seconds, but Fu Shiwu had to spend some time gasping for air.

“You let me go first.” Fu Shiwu struggled.

“I’m not letting go. Let’s talk clearly.” Tang Xuhai spoke with a resolute tone.

Fu Shiwu tilted his head to look at him in confusion: “What is it that you want to talk about?” 

“I want to say that I didn’t mean it.” Tang Xuhai apologised with distress: “I’m really sorry!”

“…” Fu Shiwu’s eyes widened and his mouth slightly opened in astonishment. Very close to his own was Tang Xuhai’s face that was turning all red.

For some reason, Fu Shiwu also felt his face starting to get hot: “What are you apologising for?”

“It’s all my fault. I only relied on subjective assumptions and single-mindedly thought that you were being fussy. I forced you to put that T-shirt on without caring about what you wanted. I shouldn’t thoughtlessly throw a T-shirt over your head like that. I caused you to suddenly faint!” As though a ghost was chasing after him, Tang Xuhai poured out all the words in his head.

I was frightened by a T-shirt to the point that I suddenly fainted… This shame was too much for Fu Shiwu to handle!

His heart was frantically screaming a long chant of “Arghhhh”. Can you please stop talking? Can we both completely forget about this dark history?!

Regrettably, Tang Xuhai couldn’t hear Fu Shiwu’s inner cry, and he kept on with his very sincere self-reflection: “I’m really bad-tempered, I just never accept anyone’s unreasonable objections — Of course you weren’t in the wrong. I misunderstood you! Don’t be angry with me! If you aren’t happy with just my apologies, you can hit me, I definitely won’t resist!” [T/N: Look at my dear Tang Xuhai trying to apologise in the manner of a true soldier... “If you aren’t happy, you can hit me.” What… (。￣□￣)]

He carelessly poked open someone’s scar, and there was no way to know how much psychological damage he had inflicted on Fu Shiwu. How could he ever apologise enough? Tang Xuhai was so upset he could pull all the hair on his head. In his whole life, he had never made a more serious mistake than this!

“How could this be your problem?” Fu Shiwu was both embarrassed and puzzled. Obviously this was his problem, right? “It’s mine… I was scared by a T-shirt, and I don’t know why either… I’ve never worn a T-shirt since I was a kid, so I have no idea that it’ll be this serious.”

“You don’t know?” Tang Xuhai found this unexpected, then he continued: “Hollande and Lao Wen said that you have some sort of mental disorder, a phobia of having something wrapped around your neck!”

“What?” Fu Shiwu’s eyes shot open in shock: “I’ve a phobia?!”

He really never knew this!

It was just that he had always been unwilling to put anything around his neck since he was a child. He simply felt repelled for no apparent reason.

He used to speculate that Tang Xuhai had claustrophobia, but after all this chaos, he was the one with a phobia?

“So you really don’t know.” Tang Xuhai’s heart relaxed a little. It turned out that Fu Shiwu himself wasn’t aware, so it was unsurprising that Tang Xuhai didn’t learn about it: “Have your parents not told you at all?”

Right now, what Fu Shiwu was thinking of was that Tang Xuhai’s body felt incredibly hot. He tugged at the guy’s arm, and Tang Xuhai’s chest that was like an iron wall finally left his back. Fu Shiwu lifted himself up and the feeling of pressure rapidly went away.

“I don’t know, my parents never said anything about it.” Fu Shiwu said as he turned to face Tang Xuhai.

“It can’t be? Your parents don’t know either?” Tang Xuhai couldn’t believe it. Aren’t these parents a bit too blur?

“They… probably don’t know about it too?” Fu Shiwu said with uncertainty: “I haven’t worn close-neck clothes since primary school. I was separated from my parents a long time ago.”

“Are your parents not in the country?” Tang Xuhai made a guess based on his words.

“Not that either.” Fu Shiwu raised his eyes and looked at him calmly, feeling that it wasn’t anything he would want to hide from Tang Xuhai: “Back in my younger days, I grew up with my parents beside me. They were involved in some highly confidential work. Later, when it was time for me to go to primary school, I left their unit and a babysitter was tasked to take care of me. I haven’t seen them ever since.”

“Then don’t you keep in contact?” Tang Xuhai felt very bizarre. This wasn’t like Huaxia during ‘Two Bombs, One Satellite’1Refers to an early nuclear and space project by China during the 1960s and 1970s. ‘Two Bombs’ refers to the atomic bomb and the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while ‘One Satellite’ refers to the artificial satellite. period when researchers couldn’t go home, and even if they went home, they couldn’t say anything to their family members. Was there any research that could be confidential to this point?

“We do.” Fu Shiwu looked into the far distance and explained: “We use computers to keep in contact. There’s a special device that allows us to send messages.”

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The translator has something to say: I swear, that whole chasing scene and “if you’re angry, hit me, I won’t resist bla bla” just sound like they come straight out from a shoujo manga… Not that I’m complaining… (⸝⸝•́દ•̀⸝⸝)