Qin Zui’s hand twitched slightly, and Jiang Chu saw the name clearly: Liang Xiaojia.
Sounded like a girl’s name.
“Girlfriend?” Jiang Chu teased.
Qin Zui was tossing his backpack into the back seat. He paused briefly before answering, “No.”
Jiang Chu smiled and didn’t say anything else.
“He’s a guy.” Qin Zui added, his tone a little stiff, as if still annoyed from the phone call he’d just hung up.
Jiang Chu glanced at him, a little surprised.
His surprise had nothing to do with it being a guy. It was because Qin Zui had actually bothered to offer an extra explanation for such a boring question.
It wasn’t like him at all.
“How was your day?” Jiang Chu changed the subject. “Ate at the cafeteria for lunch?”
Qin Zui grunted in acknowledgment, still staring out the window.
Jiang Chu heard that familiar, signature Qin Zui response and mentally thought, That’s more like it.
“Hungry?” Jiang Chu looked at the various shops lining the street, then asked again, “Want to grab a bite while we’re out?”
“You haven’t eaten yet?” Qin Zui’s phone buzzed twice. Liang Xiaojia had sent a flood of WeChat messages. He glanced at them, then locked the screen and shoved the phone in his pocket. “Let’s just buy something and eat at home. I have a lot of homework.”
Jiang Chu didn’t know why, but hearing the word “homework” come out of Qin Zui’s mouth made him want to laugh.
“Qin Zui” and “homework” felt like they belonged to two completely different worlds.
“Homework on the first day of school, huh?” he mused.
Qin Zui didn’t reply.
Even though Qin Zui usually wasn’t a talker, Jiang Chu could tell the kid was in a bad mood right now.
The problem was probably that Liang Xiaojia guy. The one who had called Qin Zui yesterday, yelling “Brother Qin Zui.”
They were probably pretty close back in Qin Zui’s hometown. It was normal for two buddies to have a fight.
Even the back molars bite your tongue sometimes. He and Da Ben had been tight since junior high, but when they fought, they still wanted to beat the living daylights out of each other.
But compared to them, the fight between Brother Qin Zui and Liang Xiaojia felt pretty clingy.
A phone call once a day. Putting two and two together, the call yesterday evening that had left Jiang Chu waiting on an empty stomach was probably also from this Liang Xiaojia guy.
Qin Zui had just told him it wasn’t fun, and then the guy sent another flood of WeChat messages.
They were acting like a couple.
And this “couple-like” state had lasted for quite a while.
Whether Liang Xiaojia’s calls were genuinely increasing day by day, or Jiang Chu just hadn’t noticed before, ever since he’d learned about this person, he hadn’t missed a single instance he could see or hear.
If Jiang Chu didn’t know that Qin Shuman didn’t give a damn about her son, seeing Qin Zui’s calm or annoyed expression after every call, he would have thought Qin Zui was talking to his mom.
But Qin Shuman did make a call. Near the middle of September. And she didn’t call Qin Zui. She called Jiang Chu.
It was a Saturday. Jiang Chu was about to head home early. He and Da Ben had packed up and were heading out when Da Ben suddenly exclaimed, “Shit!” and started frantically tapping on his phone.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chu was startled.
“It’s my wife’s birthday.” Da Ben flipped through his calendar to check the date. “Shit, I almost forgot.”
“Today?” Jiang Chu grinned. “Bao Li didn’t kill you?”
“I knew she was testing me the past couple of days,” Da Ben scratched his face and breathed a nervous sigh of relief. “I seriously forgot. Damn, I almost got killed at midnight tonight.”
Jiang Chu just smiled.
Da Ben looked like a rough, fat slob, but he was nothing but good to Bao Li.
But then again, with Bao Li’s explosive temper, it was pretty amazing.
Jiang Chu still remembered their senior year in college, busy with their final projects. Da Ben forgot about Qixi Festival and only went crawling back to apologize to his wife three days later. The next day, he came back with a circle of red handprints on his waist, his fat pinched by Bao Li until it looked like the belt of an opera singer.
“Alright, don’t go home yet.” Da Ben calculated his remaining salary after handing over most of it, sighed, and put his arm around Jiang Chu’s shoulder. “Come with me to buy her a gift. We’ll grab a drink tonight. Haven’t seen Fang Zi and the others in a while.”
“Can we just not?” Jiang Chu said helplessly. “I’ve been picking stuff out for you since college.”
“Damn it, you’ve got good taste, okay? The last bag you picked out, she’s still using it.” Da Ben was frustrated too. “I bought her a whole outfit two months ago, and her mom happened to be wearing it when she brought over that braised pork last week.”
As he spoke, he called Bao Li, then pinged everyone in the guys’ group chat. His wife’s birthday dinner was tonight. If you’re not coming, send the red envelope.
All the fools were super enthusiastic: “Coming, coming!”
Jiang Chu also sent a message to Qin Zui: Not sure when I’ll be back tonight. Don’t leave the light on for me.
Not that it really mattered. The kid was used to being alone.
As expected, two hours later, Qin Zui replied with a single “Mm.”
Qin Shuman called at 8:30 PM. They had just moved from the restaurant to a KTV.
Jiang Chu missed her first call. He was in the bathroom. He’d been forced to drink a lot during dinner, and Da Ben’s love song to Bao Li was so cringey it made him need to pee. It made Jiang Chu so uncomfortable he couldn’t sit still.
When he got back to the private room, amidst the cacophony, Fang Zi handed Jiang Chu his phone and yelled over the noise, “Phone call!”
“Probably my little brother.” Jiang Chu collapsed onto the sofa, propping his legs on the coffee table, a little dizzy.
“What little brother? Started a company and now you’re recruiting underlings?” Fang Zi grabbed two bottles of dark beer, opened them with his teeth, and shoved one into Jiang Chu’s hand while clinking their bottles together. “Drink!”
“Drink your ass, you bunch of boozehounds.” Jiang Chu put the bottle on the table and swiped at his phone a couple of times to unlock it.
Just then, Qin Shuman’s second call came through.
Jiang Chu was stunned for a moment. His first reaction was that something had happened to Qin Zui. He gestured to Fang Zi and went out to take the call.
“Little Chu,” Qin Shuman’s voice was as polite and gentle as ever. She hesitated, hearing the faint background music from Jiang Chu’s side. “I’m not interrupting, am I?”
“No, my phone was just elsewhere.” Jiang Chu bit a cigarette. “Something up?”
“Nothing much. How is Qin Zui doing with you? He’s not a bother, is he?” Qin Shuman asked softly.
Jiang Chu thought this mom was really something. She’d dumped the kid on him a month ago and was only now pretending to ask.
“He’s not a bother. He’s doing pretty well.” Jiang Chu replied flatly.
“That’s good. Well, the day after tomorrow is Qin Zui’s birthday. Your father wants to have a small family celebration for him. Weekdays are pretty busy for you, and he has school too, so better to do it sooner rather than later. Tomorrow is the weekend. Do you have time around noon?” Qin Shuman said.
When Jiang Chu heard “Qin Zui’s birthday,” he felt a sudden pang of empathy for Da Ben’s earlier panic.
At the same time, he quickly recalled seeing Qin Zui’s ID card at the hospital that day. It was around September 13th or something.
“Oh, sure.” He squinted and exhaled a puff of smoke. “Did you tell him about it?”
Qin Shuman was silent for a moment on the other end before chuckling. “He didn’t answer my call.”
“He had school today.” Jiang Chu didn’t have much to say to Qin Shuman. “You can just text him. I’ll ask him when I get home tonight. I’ll contact you tomorrow.”
“Oh, okay, okay,” Qin Shuman said “okay” twice in a row. “See you tomorrow then.”
After hanging up, Jiang Chu leaned against the door outside and finished his cigarette before going back in.
Earlier that afternoon, he’d helped Da Ben pick out a skirt for Bao Li. He’d bought a similar bottle of perfume for himself, paid, and had Da Ben give both to Bao Li together.
Buying gifts for girls was the easiest thing. Now, thinking about Qin Zui’s birthday, he couldn’t come up with a single idea.
It was 1:30 AM. Fang Zi got a cab and dropped Jiang Chu off on his way home. Jiang Chu was still resting his head on his hand, asking, “Fang, what do you give a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy?”
Fang Zi, Da Ben, and Jiang Chu had been friends since school. They had zero filter when they were joking around. Fang Zi laughed and said, “An inflatable one or a non-inflatable one.”
Jiang Chu laughed and said “Damn,” and they both remembered the masturbation cup Da Ben had given him. They chatted about the old days, laughing so hard Jiang Chu saw stars dancing before his eyes.
“Can’t laugh anymore. Gonna throw up.” Fang Zi rolled down the car window to breathe, then nudged Jiang Chu. “Aren’t you gonna find someone? Your dad’s already remarried, but you can’t keep a girlfriend. Isn’t he nagging you?”
“The company’s just starting up. I’m still learning to walk. Find someone, my ass.” Jiang Chu closed his eyes, leaning back in his seat. The car’s air freshener mixed with the AC was making him nauseous, so he rolled down his window, too. “Not all of us are as carefree as you, with your cushy government job, spending all your time dating and playing around.”
He got in the car at 1:30. By the time he got home, changed his shoes in the dark, it was almost 2 AM.
He was going to just throw up and go straight to sleep, but he saw a sliver of light under Qin Zui’s door. He went over and knocked.
Hearing a rustling sound from inside, he didn’t wait for Qin Zui to answer and just pushed the door open.
Qin Zui was half-leaning against the headboard, scowling, pulling his little blanket over his waist and bending one leg up to cover a certain bulge.
“Get the fuck out!” he snarled at Jiang Chu.
“Oh!” Jiang Chu took a step back, laughing, and closed the door for him. “Sorry, go on.”
He walked a couple of steps toward the bathroom, then turned back and said through the crack in the door, “Lunch tomorrow, your mom wants to celebrate your birthday. Don’t stay up too late.”
Qin Zui couldn’t exactly “go on.” He closed his eyes in frustration, got out of bed, tugged at his waistband, flung the door open, and stormed out.
Jiang Chu was in front of the toilet, bracing himself against the wall, trying not to laugh and trying to throw up at the same time.
He heard Qin Zui come out like a thunderbolt, sounding like he was ready to throw a punch. Jiang Chu put his other hand on his own waistbelt, intending to turn his head and say, Don’t mess with me. Drunk and unsteady aim. I’ll pee all over you.
But he misjudged the angle when he turned. The lights in the living room and bathroom were both off. As Qin Zui reached the bathroom door, Zhou Teng suddenly darted past his feet like a parkour pro.
Qin Zui tripped, stumbled two big steps forward, and slid right up behind Jiang Chu, putting his hand on the wall to steady himself.
Jiang Chu turned his face just at that moment. Their mouths bumped against each other.
Qin Zui froze, staring at Jiang Chu in the pitch black.
Jiang Chu stared back at him.
The smell of malt liquor seemed to intensify ten thousand times in that awkward, frozen silence.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, dumbfounded. Before Qin Zui could react, the corner of Jiang Chu’s mouth twitched. He turned his head and silently vomited into the toilet.
