Chapter 15

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Any Northerner without experience in earthquakes would be easily startled by them. Chen Gong could sympathise.

After quite some time, Zheng Yi was finally reassured, but still lingered in the doorway with no intention of returning to his room.

–

Two girls emerged from the lift. Their faces turned red as they cast their eyes over; the sight of the two men, one in clad only in shorts and the other with his shirt unkempt, could not help but attract their gaze.

Chen Gong thought about it and finally decided to invite Zheng Yi in. He closed the door and pulled his T-shirt on, then said to Zheng Yi, “If you’re scared, you can sit in my room for a bit. But only for 15 minutes at most—I’m going to bed soon.”

After this, he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Zheng Yi’s shock had yet to dissipate. He nodded obediently and sat on the bed. But not half a minute later, he bounced off the bed again. “Agh, I panicked, I forgot to bring my phone!”

Chen Gong was brushing his teeth. “Go back then.”

“But… what if there’s another quake?”

“There won’t be. There really won’t be. Chengdu isn’t even on the Ring of Fire.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Can I come back and stay here with you a little longer?”

Chen Gong found Zheng Yi a little troublesome, but after a bit of thought he said, “Fine, go get your phone.”

“Okay,” said Zheng Yi.

After he had walked out of the door, he turned back. Zheng Yi poked his head into the toilet. “If there’s another earthquake while I’m off getting my phone, don’t wait for me, just run!”

Chen Gong couldn’t stifle a snort.

Zheng Yi tch-ed, aggravated. “Why are you so cheeky!”

Chen Gong found the frightened Zheng Yi rather childlike and fun to tease. He laughed at the mental image of Zheng Yi’s terror, but his amusement was cut short when he remembered that it was this childlike demeanour that made him so guileless and unsuspecting.

If it hadn’t been for his carelessness, Zheng Yi wouldn’t have fallen prey to Yang Yi’s recording and blackmail, and he, an unfortunate passerby, wouldn’t be filled with guilt and regret.

Because of this regret, Chen Gong unconsciously put up with Zheng Yi’s troublesome stubbornness.

Zheng Yi went back to his room and searched wildly for his phone—because their rooms were next to each other, Chen Gong heard the commotion very clearly. A moment later, the kid showed up at his door with his luggage and backpack in tow.

Chen Gong had just finished brushing his teeth and washing his face when he walked out of the toilet and saw what Zheng Yi had dragged into his room. “What are you doing? I said you could sit for a while, not stay here.”

“Oh, ah, I’m not staying over! I just… brought them! In case there’s another earthquake while I’m in your room!”

Helpless, Chen Gong sat at the head of the bed to charge his phone. “If there’s a real earthquake, you can’t carry that many things with you anyway. You need to put your phone and ID in your pocket and leave the rest. Understood?”

Zheng Yi nodded, then frowned again. “There really won’t be another earthquake?”

Chen Gong felt like saying I’m not God of the Earth, how the hell would I know? But after thinking about it, he said, “There won’t be. Don’t worry. I know this place; if I say there won’t be one, there won’t be one.”

Zheng Yi was finally comforted. He sat on the couch cautiously, his brows knitted, and lit a cigarette as he poked his head out the window. The streets were filled with groups of people chatting and laughing, as if immune to the earthquake that had just occurred.

——Had he really overreacted after all?

–

Chen Gong sat at the head of the bed looking at his phone while Zheng Yi sat on the couch by the window as he smoked.

The room was unusually quiet.

Clearing his throat, Zheng Yi decided to break the silence. But Chen Gong was completely focussed on his phone, his attention undisturbed by the intentional cough. Zheng Yi peeked at Chen Gong. He wore a simple grey T-shirt and a pair of soft-textured shorts, leaning easily against the headboard as he looked at his phone.

— He was pretty handsome.

— When he knocked on Chen Gong’s door, wasn’t Chen Gong half-naked?

— Yes.

— And the heart-shaped birthmark…?

— He forgot to check again…

“Fuck…” Zheng Yi swore at himself, then lowered his head and took a long drag of his cigarette. Of course he wouldn’t give up yet—even if there wasn’t a need for him to think about the matter, especially since it didn’t concern him at all, whether it had happened or not… Zheng Yi’s curiosity was still unwilling to give it up.

—His heart hurt for him, inexplicably pained; and on top of that, the regret he felt when he mused upon his bullying behaviour earlier on seemed to magnify the pain a hundred, no, a thousand times.

Zheng Yi’s nose felt funny again, and his forehead burned. He threw out what seemed like a complete non sequitur: “If only we’d met earlier…”

Chen Gong had only just dragged his attention away from his phone screen. He turned towards him. “Huh?”

“I said, if only we’d met earlier…” Zheng Yi leaned back against the couch. “Maybe before August this year? Before I started working here. Then we wouldn’t have this whole head-or-deputy, superior-or-subordinate thing hanging over us and making us unhappy with each other.”

After Zheng Yi spoke, he looked at Chen Gong. Right before their eyes met, Chen Gong looked down, unwilling to make eye contact. Chen Gong hated this sort of mushiness; he avoided Zheng Yi’s gaze and made a noise halfway between a cold harumph and a self-mocking laugh in response.

But Zheng Yi was a candid sort of person. He continued: “Earlier than that would be fine too—maybe university… if we’d met in our university days, you’d…” Zheng Yi paused here, then continued, “…you wouldn’t be so stubborn.”

Chen Gong didn’t get angry at the insult. “I was like this in university, too.”

“I heard from Qiu Mang that you were a lot more gentle at the beginning of university. Now you look cold all the time, like the world owes you a living. I prefer the old you—she said you used to joke around with her, and that you sing well, and that you know how to show off—you won first place in the university singing competition.”

Chen Gong didn’t accept the moniker of “show-off”. “That was for the prize money.”

“You’re such a character. I was praising you, but you’re not even happy about it.” Zheng Yi laughed at him, and then added, “Please don’t hold it against me that I dumped my drink on your head. I took a blow from you, after all. And as for me ratting on you, it was a misunderstanding—I was actually trying to apologise to you.”

“Apologise?”

“Yeah. Why do you think I came to Chengdu with you to survey the area?” Zheng Yi stubbed his cigarette butt in the ashtray on the coffee table. “I’ve been pig-headed with you all this while. So… for all of that, I want to apologise: I’m sorry.”

Chen Gong avoided Zheng Yi’s gaze again. “I was wrong, too.”

“Of course you were.” Zheng Yi hadn’t the least bit of courtesy. “But I forgive you. We’re square now, so let’s be nice to each other after this. I daren’t say that we can be friends, but let’s cooperate at work at the very least, so we don’t give Lao Wang any more trouble.”

Zheng Yi’s words made Chen Gong sound like the immature one. Chen Gong tsked. “I’ve been thinking that all along.”

“Good,” said Zheng Yi.

The two of them fell silent again.

Zheng Yi felt his forehead burn again.

It wasn’t the shame of apologising, or the joy of making nice—it was neither of these, but what it was, Zheng Yi couldn’t say.

He retrieved two cans of beer from the hotel fridge and chucked one at Chen Gong while he opened one for himself.

He took several large swigs to cool himself down and block his mouth in the bargain.

Zheng Yi felt that if he let himself speak, he would end up saying things that he wouldn’t be able to handle the consequences of.

—”I wish we’d met earlier, so I could help you if I could, so you wouldn’t have to struggle through everything alone, on top of experiencing something so unspeakably horrid…”

—”I think you’re a really wonderful person… I don’t know what it is that makes you wonderful, you just are.”

—”I wish I could protect you and keep you company… I don’t know where this strange ‘sense of obligation’ came from. It would have been fine if I hadn’t known, but now that I know, I can’t take it; I can’t help but hurt for you.”

Watching Zheng Yi sit on the couch and chug down his beer with a gurgle, Chen Gong felt at a loss.

Of course, Chen Gong didn’t know what Zheng Yi was thinking. But by the looks of the way he drank, he could tell that Zheng Yi was trying to drown his sorrows. As he was about to open his mouth and say something, Zheng Yi stood and walked over. Chen Gong’s intended words were shocked back down his throat.

Chen Gong tried to avoid him, moving to the side of the bed. “You should… head back. I need to sleep.”

Zheng Yi was confused for a moment, then suddenly slapped his forehead. “Oh, I forgot—the earthquake!”

“It won’t come again. Really,” said Chen Gong, trying to get rid of him.

Zheng Yi’s brows pinched together again. “You have a really poor sense of self-preservation!”

Chen Gong began to lose his patience. “It really won’t come again. Hurry back to your room. I need to sleep. We’re getting up early tomorrow!”

Zheng Yi’s focus had been distracted by his emotions and he had long forgotten the matter of the earthquake, but the moment Chen Gong reminded him, his terror returned… When he thought about it, his life was more important than his pride, so he braced himself and begged, “Say… would you mind if I… stayed over in your room tonight?”

After speaking, Zheng Yi’s face lit up with an extra winning smile as he all but prostrated before Chen Gong.

Chen Gong stared at Zheng Yi. After a moment of silence, he finally sat up straight and said sternly to Zheng Yi, “Zheng Yi, I’ve been thinking about it, and I feel we should give each other some time. Maybe I’m a bit traditional, but I’m… a bit cautious about these things. I respect that you’re more liberal, but I’m not a casual sort of person. So you should go back to your room and sleep. I’m quite tired as well.”

Zheng Yi was baffled by Chen Gong’s response. He stood at the side of the bed for a long time before he finally got it. Chen Gong probably mistook his desire to sleep over as… a desire to do something with him.

Zheng Yi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He would just be shameless, then. Lying on the bed, he said, “Ge, I beg you… Look at how anxious you are. Even if I had ulterior motives, I wouldn’t have the guts. I swear that if I, Zheng Yi, touch a single hair on your head, then let me turn impotent!”

Chen Gong glared at the shameless Zheng Yi, unwilling to trust him.

Zheng Yi looked cheekily back at Chen Gong and laughed. “Alright, lights out! You need to stop letting your imagination run wild.”

–

The next day.

As they pulled their luggage cases out of the hotel, the two of them began to squabble as usual.

Zheng Yi was unhappy with Chen Gong. “It’s only eight! Our flight’s at eleven-something, why are we leaving so early?!”

Chen Gong couldn’t be bothered to deal with him, opening the boot and putting the luggage in it. “Our flight’s at 11:05.”

“Isn’t that eleven-something?! I didn’t even have time to wash my face!”

After throwing both their backpacks and Zheng Yi into the back seat, Chen Gong sat in the front. The driver checked their destination with them. “Shuangliu International Airport, Terminal 1, right?”

“Yep,” said Chen Gong, before turning around to confirm with Zheng Yi, “We’re both 1, right?”

Zheng Yi looked stunned. “…I am. You too?”

Chen Gong didn’t understand. It was the driver who caught Zheng Yi’s drift and became embarrassed. In a light tone that was somehow heavy with meaning, he answered, “I’m a 0.”

Chen Gong looked back and forth between them, deducing what they had taken “1” to mean. “I meant Terminal 1… is that right?”

“Oh, right! Terminal 1!” Zheng Yi finally understood.

The driver turned back as well, his voice deepening as he reminded the passengers in a professional tone, “Please fasten your seatbelts, we are now departing.”

Chen Gong thought the car seemed to lack oxygen; he was a tad suffocated.

–

Credits:

Author – Liang Azha (Weibo|Twitter)

Raws – Nandemonaiya

Translation – Nandemonaiya

Proofreading – Nandemonaiya, Dani

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< 14. The Earthquake Incident

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