Chapter 5

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The sudden shock made Zheng Yi sick to his stomach.

Zheng Yi disliked Chen Gong, but it wasn’t like he hated him. And he had a human heart, after all. Seeing the proud and aloof Chen Gong unconscious, violated, recorded, shared online for the entertainment of others… Even a manly man like Zheng Yi could not help but crease his brow, clench his jaw, and shut his eyes tightly.

He shut them to stop the tears from flowing.

But Zheng Yi couldn’t hold them back. He had to wipe away the unbidden tears.

Zheng Yi didn’t think of crying as a sign of weakness. In that moment, they described the fury of a hot-blooded man. Forget Chen Gong, his own second-in-command — even if a young intern in the department found themselves in potential danger, Zheng Yi would charge forth and crusade against the villains.

Zheng Yi was righteous. Even as a child he had always been clear-eyed and strong-minded, knowing exactly what he liked, and what he didn’t.

Much of the ice he’d held against his jaw had been melted by the hot blood rushing to his head. The sodden towel wrapping the ice cubes began to drip with a tap-tap-tap. Restless, Zheng Yi went to the bathroom and threw the towel and ice into the sink.

The room was brightly lit, from the spotlights hanging from the ceiling, to the headboard reading lamp, to the warm lights of the bathroom vents, to the table lamp… Unlimited rays of light overlapped in the limited space as if to expose every corner, revealing the grime between the fine floor tiles and the dust above the carpet.

— “How horrible…”

His mind played and replayed the scenes he had just watched. He felt suffocated.

Finally, he forced out the yell trapped in his throat before he could breathe normally again.

Every ray of light felt like a needle, piercing everywhere. Zheng Yi frantically turned off the master switch. The world turned quiet again.

After resting in darkness for five minutes, his emotions had just begun to settle when the doorbell rang.

It was not Yang Yi, but a hotel worker bringing Zheng Yi his takeout.

When he got off work, Zheng Yi’s one-track-mind was filled with a variety of beautiful fantasies about the night’s “farewell to boyhood”. Hence, he’d rushed to the hotel with guns blazing, completely forgetting dinner. Only upon calming down did he feel the need to refuel. Yang Yi was working overtime, so he had sent Zheng Yi a text saying that he’d had a bento at the office.

But now, holding the fresh hot takeout, Zheng Yi had no appetite at all.

No appetite, and his forehead was unusually cold.

Zheng Yi found himself relieved that it wasn’t Yang Yi. The steaming fragrance of meat emitting from the plastic bag turned his stomach, so Zheng Yi placed the food in the bathroom and closed the door.

It was quite late now, and from the full-length window, the dancing lights overhead occasionally flickered. Zheng Yi sat at the foot of the bed. He watched the lights outside the window, stuck in his trance.

After sitting for ages, the phone rang. The caller ID read “Xiao Yang”. Zheng Yi picked up. “Hello?”

“Zheng Ge — I’m calling you from the restroom. The client hasn’t finalised the details, and since tomorrow is the National Day holiday, I may have to wait for them to come over for an in-person meeting… I don’t think I can make it today…”

“Okay…”

“Next time, let’s do this next time, alright?”

“Sure…”

“Okay, bye!”

–

After hanging up, Zheng Yi glanced at the clock. 10:03. It was only after turning his screen off that he realised that Yang Yi had flaked on him.

It was the first time he’d been let down like this… yet he didn’t feel disappointed. He still couldn’t shake off his earlier shock.

Zheng Yi, who had tried and failed to transform into a “real man”, lay down alone on the bed until it was past 10:30 before getting up. He straightened up, checked out, and left the hotel.

Under the hotel was a small bar. From the bar came the crooning of a freelance singer. Zheng Yi paused unconsciously. The lounge singing seemed to trigger an association — Zheng Yi suddenly thought of Chen Gong again.

He’d once heard Qiu Mang mention that Chen Gong used to sing in bars for a living. Zheng Yi could not imagine that cold face singing a love song – how would he sound? How would he look?

Dribs and drabs of what Qiu Mang had told Zheng Yi about Chen Gong trickled in:

Chen Gong was Qiu Mang’s school senior. They studied at the National School of Design.

He vaguely remembered that Chen Gong came from a small mountain village, and that his was a single-parent family of meagre means.

During his days attending university, he was a top student by day and a nightclub worker by night. He was only a cleaning, table-bussing waiter at first, but the bar owner stumbled upon his vocal talent and made him the singer in residence. It seemed that all of Chen Gong’s university tuition and living expenses had depended on this side income.

But it was strange. Though Chen Gong clearly treasured the job at the bar, one day he offended a customer and was beaten up so badly he was sent to the hospital. After disappearing for a week, he returned to school with a badly battered face, and never returned to work there.

When Zheng Yi heard Qiu Mang talking about Chen Gong back then, he kept thinking, “This guy’s really talented, so punk rock, what a legend!”

And for a moment he even forgot… he was supposed to hate him.

–

It was 11:03 when Chen Gong asked how the work was going.

It was a short, succinct message: “Has Zheng Yi sent the docs to the client?”

Even through the screen, Qiu Mang could picture Chen Gong’s poker face.

She was about to respond to Chen Gong with “I’ve already arranged for Zheng Yi to handle it” when Mr Wang’s text popped up: “Qiu Mang, Zheng Yi listens to you, can you arrange for him to go to Chengdu tomorrow to assist Chen Gong with the prospecting?”

In that second Qiu Mang felt her brain expand from the stress.

Taking a deep breath, Qiu Mang decided not to respond to Chen Gong first, instead texting Zheng Yi: “Busy?”

Zheng Yi called. “Yeah I’m busy, I’m at the office wiping my lazy intern’s ass for them.”

Qiu Mang rejoiced. She smiled so hard her facial mask wrinkled. “My god… Director Zheng, actually properly working!”

She heard Zheng Yi’s mocking laugh. “Sis, stop making fun of me all the time. You know Chen Gong better than I do, right? The man with the patience of a buddha was rushing an intern to work overtime last night; it’s obviously because the deadline’s almost here. Since I let the intern go, wouldn’t Chen Gong punch me again for not filling in the gaps?”

“No wait… are you okay?” It was Qiu Mang’s turn to be confused. “Our princely Master Zheng is sympathising with Chen Gong…”

“…how awful do you think I am?”

Qiu Mang looked in the mirror and fixed her mask. “So you and Xiao Yang didn’t…?”

“Xiao Yang was stuck at work. By the way, Ms Qiu, could you transfer him to our department?”

“What are you thinking– it’ll never pass Chen Gong.”

Zheng Yi understood as well. “Ah whatever, it’s fine.”

“Are you that into Xiao Yang? Are you two… dating, now?”

Zheng Yi hesitated at this. After some humming and hawing, he replied vaguely: “I suppose so.”

“What do you mean, you suppose? If you are, you are, and if you’re not, you’re not — you can’t be so ambiguous with your feelings.”

Zheng Yi was none too fond of ambiguity himself, but Xiao Yang was never really clear, so Zheng Yi couldn’t figure it out. Though he played the part of a debauched, frivolous rake, Zheng Yi knew very well that emotionally, he was an untried novice. Acting like a Casanova was just a matter of face. He didn’t really understand why, but it was much more embarrassing to admit to being alone than to be taken for a fuckboy.

Zheng Yi gulped his coffee with a glug. “…thing is, Xiao Yang was the one who approached me first, but now I’m not even sure whether he has any real feelings for me…”

“Let’s not talk about whether he has any feelings for you just yet–” At this juncture, Qiu Mang suddenly grew very serious. “Do you even understand your own feelings?”

Zheng Yi felt like Qiu Mang had rubbed salt into his wounds. Still, he thickened his skin. “Well, duh…”

“Then may I ask what you like about him?”

“He’s good-looking and good-natured.”

“You can’t just base a love off those two points, that’s too thoughtless of you! I know you’re normally pretty reckless, but you can’t be like that when it comes to feelings!”

Zheng Yi kept quiet for a long moment before vaguely replying “mm”. Qiu Mang had no idea whether he understood.

Ending the digression into the topic of feelings, Qiu Mang finally recalled the purpose of her call. “Oh yeah — remember how Chen Gong’s surveying prospective locations in Chengdu? I heard from Mr Wang that Chen Gong’s been having some problems…”

“Oh?” On the other end of the line, Zheng Yi sounded as if the mention of “Chen Gong’s failure” shifted his mood greatly. “What’s up with Chen Gong?”

Qiu Mang did not give him a direct answer. “He’s not very good at networking, you know that. It would be great if we sent our Director Zheng over there…”

“But of course!”

Hearing that he was better at doing business than Chen Gong was, the gloomy Zheng Yi cheered up somewhat. “Chen Gong’s just a paper tiger. He looks scary, but there’s nothing to him!”

Qiu Mang caught the subtext in Zheng Yi’s comment. “Scary? –you’re afraid of him?”

“No way! How could I… Why would I be scared of him?” Zheng Yi objected weakly without his usual self-assurance. He paused and asked, “So… what trouble is he having? You can ask him and let me know, I’ll figure something out!”

Qiu Mang snorted. “My dear Master Zheng, how are you so awkward! If you want to help him, say it to the man himself! Why use me as the middleman?”

“It’s not that I want to help him,” Zheng Yi argued. “I’m serious! This is a company matter, and a department matter at that — if anything goes wrong on his end, it’s my responsibility too. I’m just thinking of the company. If it weren’t for HALO, I’d have no reason to ever interact Chen Gong!”

“Fine then, whatever you say…” Qiu Mang chuckled again, continuing, “Well… Our holiday pay is three times the usual salary. Since you just had a 25% pay cut this month after the fight, how about making up your losses?”

Of course, the princely Master Zheng wasn’t thinking about his puny monthly salary at all. But hearing Qiu Mang hint at it made him realise that Mr Wang probably asked her to give him work again. When he put it all together… “You want me to fly to Chengdu?” asked Zheng Yi.

“Yup. Mr Wang wants you to…” Qiu Mang replaced “assist” with “help” — “help Chen Gong…”

Though she’d phrased this with such delicacy, Qiu Mang wasn’t completely sure whether Zheng Yi would accept it.

But the response from Zheng Yi was unexpectedly agreeable; he mildly responded, “sure, if Chen Gong doesn’t mind it.” Then came a loud clack of the keyboard, followed by a “Hah! It’s all sent to the client!”

Both matters settled — “Combo shot!” cheered Qiu Mang inwardly.

She continued to banter with Zheng Yi on one hand and text an :ok: emote to Chen Gong and Mr Wang respectively on the other.

After some idle chit chat, the two bid each other good night. Qiu Mang had just removed one of her earphones when Zheng Yi stopped her from hanging up with a shout. “Right! Qiu Mang, you’re close to Chen Gong. Do you know if he has a heart-shaped birthmark to the left of his chest… somewhere around his armpit?”

There was a long silence.

Zheng Yi received an earful from Qiu Mang. “Are you crazy? How would I know that!”

–

Credits:

Author – Liang Azha (Weibo|Twitter)

Raws – Nandemonaiya

Translation – Nandemonaiya

Proofreading – Nandemonaiya, Terukutie, Zhiming

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< Chapter 4. The Man in the Clip Incident

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