Chapter 21

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

“Hey, are you awake? I’m going to kiss you.”

“…Who are you?”

“That doesn’t matter. Here I come.”

In August, I only saw Li Weisen once. He showed up at my farewell dinner without his fiancée. His excuse for it was so that he could drink to his desire that night. After several rounds of alcohol, all my other friends had said their goodbyes and good wishes. When Li Weisen bumped his bottle of beer against mine, he was already slightly drunk.

“Here! Down it with me! Out of everyone I know, you’re…the one I admire the most…you’re goddamn…amazing.”

I smiled and drank my bottle in one gulp. “You flatter me.”

“No need…to be modest…what can’t you…do? Haha…don’t you have everyone…in the palm of your hand?”

When everybody else heard his words, they shook off their drunkenness and stared at me with shock in their eyes. Xiao Chuan immediately took hold of Li Weisen on the shoulder, and said quietly, “Weisen, you’ve had too much to drink—”

“Who said I had too much! I can drink even more! Gao Yu! Let’s each have another bottle! You up for it?”

Xiao Chuan looked over at me, the look in his eyes telling me to ignore Li Weisen. I thought for a moment, then I grabbed two unopened bottles of beer and set them on the table.

“Okay, on this happy day, as bros, we’ll drink however much you want!”

“You better keep your word! Xiao Chuan, tell them to bring over a whole case!”

“Weisen…Gao Yu…don’t do this….”

“Xiao Chuan, just do as he says. I’m going to keep him company. Don’t interfere.”

We chugged one beer after another. I soon lost count of how many bottles we drank. My last memory before passing out was of Li Weisen running out of things to say and instead mumbling the word “why” over and over.

For some reason, that word sounded oddly familiar to me, but I couldn’t think any deeper on the matter. According to Xiao Chuan, two people had to support me into a taxi that night. Li Weisen hadn’t been any better than me. The only difference was that I had been quiet, while he had kept on mumbling nonsense the entire time.

I asked Xiao Chuan what our other friends thought. He smiled drily, and said, “They kept on asking me questions about what happened. I just said that you guys had a fight a few days ago, nothing major. Li Weisen too, I can’t believe he would drink you under the table in front of so many people.”

I was silent for a while, then I implored Xiao Chuan, “After I leave, can you avoid bringing me up in front of him?”

“Exactly what happened between you two?”

“Ha, didn’t you hear him? I played a trick on him. I never saw him as one of my bros. He’s right to be acting that way. In any case, he and I are still your bros. Isn’t that enough?”

“What trick did you play on him? You guys have been acting strange for quite a while now…but it’s not like there’s any great hostility between you two….”

“If you still think of me as one of your bros, then just drop this topic. Xiao Chuan, didn’t I say this before? You don’t have to worry. When the boat reaches the bridge, it will pass underneath without any trouble.[1] After I come back, everything will be fine as we won’t have seen each other for so long.”

Two days later, I stepped onto my train while Xiao Chuan and my dad looked on at the platform. My dad was supportive of my decision to take more courses. He said that for someone young, learning more skills to improve oneself was more important than having stable employment. I felt a bit ashamed of my real reasons for leaving: playing around, relaxing my mind, and not doing anything productive.

After one night’s sleep, I found that I’d already arrived at the city up north. A male and a female classmate had come to pick me up. Even though we were classmates, they were younger than me, only 18 or 19 years old. Of course, I wasn’t older enough than them to be feeling a generation gap, so we got along rather well.

The school I had picked was located on the outskirts of the city. The newly built classroom buildings and dorms looked rather nice from the outside; that was one reason for why I chose this school. I was only here to “take a few extra courses” so I only needed a certificate of completion. I was taking the same classes as the journalism undergrads, but I didn’t need to struggle like them to get the diploma at the end of their schooling.

I wasn’t the only one like that at this school. There were others who had decided to come back and take classes, despite having worked for years or even decades. To them, it was also an excuse to take a break from work and relax, but there was one additional positive for them—dating young girls. People like us were considered the sort who had the money to spend and the time to spare at school. Even though the normal students frequently glared at us, they were probably envious of our situation on the inside.

I didn’t speak much during classes, and I was only friends on the surface with the “young masters” I roomed with. Despite that, they kept on dragging me to their group dates with girls. I didn’t make any true friends until the night of the school’s November Gala.

For some reason, the Department of Student Affairs had picked me to organize the gala. I wasn’t an official student; I wasn’t even part of the student association, yet they put me in charge of creating the list of programs for the gala. They told me that several other schools were collaborating with us and that I was the “first choice” picked out by a bunch of girls at school. It was utterly absurd, and I took on the job with great reluctance.

For the next few days, I practically lived in the rehearsal rooms. One of the students—I didn’t know who—managed to find a band. At the beginning, I wasn’t interested in them at all. They were so loud with their drumming and yelling that I couldn’t stand to be next to them. But then they played one of their own songs, and I thought they had something to them. I asked them where they lived, and it turned out they were staying at a place close to the school; two of them were even second year students at a nearby university.

The band consisted of five people total. The drummer was just filling in temporarily, but the others lived together. I talked with them every day and by the time the gala came around, we were very close. I listened to rock music occasionally, so I couldn’t be considered an expert. The five of them were crazy for rock however, nine out of ten times, they would direct the conversation onto music.

After their performance, I went on stage and sang a mainstream song. The minute I stepped off the stage, they crowded around me and said they wanted to “battle” me.

“What you just sang isn’t music. Our song is music!”

“That’s fine with me. I don’t think it’s anything I’ll lose sleep over,” I said.

Disapproving expressions appeared on their faces one by one. “What did you just say? You need to be educated. Come with us!”

“The gala isn’t over yet. I have to let those old folks at student affairs know first. Also, your stuff—”

“We’ve already finished packing up. You don’t need let them know anything.”

With everyone pitching in a hand, they dragged me like a criminal to their home. It was pitch-black on the streets, and I quickly lost track of the alleyways we twisted in and out of.

“Hey, are you guys conspiring something against me?”

“We are conspiring to murder you! Are you scared?”

To be honest, I wasn’t all that scared. The one month I’d spent here had been too calm for me, so I was hoping for something “exciting” to happen.

When I reached their “home,” I was shocked. The room was dirty beyond belief. Several beds were pushed together in a corner, and there was a game of mahjong playing out on the table in front of the beds. The guys playing mahjong blew out clouds of smoke and glanced up at me before focusing their attention back on the game, but that didn’t stop them from commenting on my arrival.

“Who are you? I haven’t seen you around before.”

“He doesn’t look like one.”

“We all think he’s great. There’s potential in him.”

“Tch, do you know how to play the guitar?”

“No. We don’t do much of that back where I’m from,” I responded blankly.

“The keyboard? Bass? Drums?”

“…Nope.”

“Then why did you guys bring him around? Are you stupid?”

The bad-tempered fellow sitting at the mahjong table seemed to be their leader. He had a head of wavy, long hair dyed with streaks of purple. His features couldn’t be considered delicate, but their sharp lines gave him an aloof beauty. His skin was pale, the result of not getting any sunlight for years on end. His voice was raspy and deep, sounding a bit unhealthy. When it came to people like him…I couldn’t resist thinking about how he would be in bed.

Perhaps I was staring at him too obviously, but he glanced back at me, and asked, “Are you gay?”

Breathing in the heavy mixture of smoke in the air, I felt a little bit different from usual. I responded, “So what if I am?”

The two second-year students standing next to me reacted in shock, glancing at my face with curiosity. The others in the room didn’t pay much attention to me and went back to what they were doing. I was the one shocked at that.

“Find a place to sit. You’re blocking my light.”

Their leader turned his eyes back to the game at hand without any expression on his face. The ones who had brought me to this place started laughing.

“Come and sit! Let’s play a few rounds of cards!”

In a daze, I spent several hours playing cards in that smoke filled room. I didn’t speak much, but I had plenty of energy. The periods of insomnia I had in the past meant I could stay up as long as I wanted. It was late enough that people were collapsing onto beds and passing out, so I moved over to the mahjong table.

I wasn’t used to their method of dirty playing, so their leader kept on cursing at me.

“Do you even know how to play? Stupid!”

The guy sitting next to me had a head of wine-red hair. His skin was also on the pale side. He looked over at the hot-tempered guy lazily. His voice was even lazier when he spoke, sounding as if he were still half-asleep.

“What are you being loud for? Just focus on your own hand.”

Out of gratitude, I smiled at him. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I’ve taken a liking to you. I’ll come find you when I have time.” I could feel his warm breath penetrating all the way to my eardrum as he spoke.

The hot-tempered fellow snickered coldly. “You’ve taken a liking to him? I knew it! Even if you’re going to fool around, don’t fucking do it here!”

I glanced back and forth between the two of them, but I couldn’t figure out the gist of their relationship.

The remaining guy at the table tried to placate them, but he didn’t sound serious about it either. “Lin Dong, Xiao Bi, can you wait until the game’s over before fighting?”

So the long-haired guy was called Lin Dong. I looked back at him, but he glared at me like a leopard waiting to pounce on its prey, fiercely beautiful. “You can get lost along with him!”

But the one named Xiao Bi didn’t pay him any mind. He looked at me lazily and motioned with his eyes. “Don’t mind him. He’s a weirdo.”

With a “bang,” Lin Dong flipped the table aside and punched Xiao Bi in the face. “Why do I even need someone like you? Fooling around all day long. Where are your drums? I haven’t seen a single hint of them despite how long you’ve been here!”

Xiao Bi raised his head, the corner of his lips slightly swollen, but he still spoke in the same slow manner. “Don’t you know I’m broke? I’ll have my drums when I have money. Moreover, do I even need to practice with a guy like you? I’ll just go right on stage.”

The guys sleeping on the beds started mumbling complaints at their argument and knocked on the wall in protest. Lin Dong went up and put his hands around Xiao Bi’s neck… The situation was a mess, and I didn’t want to bother with it, so I found myself an empty bed and lay down in it.

My breathing slowed and my consciousness faded. In that hazy way, I went to sleep.

A lazy voice woke me up from my blank dream. When I opened my eyes, that guy was kissing me, even his tongue had made its way in. I looked at him with drowsy eyes and felt a sweet, fruity flavor spread in my mouth. I flashed him a lazy smile and asked, “You don’t have HIV[2], right?”

“…And what if I do?”

“Nothing… The toothpaste you’re using tastes quite good, let me borrow it later.”

Translation Notes:

[1] Idiom meaning “everything will be all right.”

[2] Despite what Gao Yu suggests, HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva. The only exception being if there are bleeding ulcers, bleeding gums, or other injuries in the mouth. The main way of transmission is through body fluids such as blood, semen, and vaginal fluids.

Like this:Like Loading...