Chapter 15

To be honest, when Jiang Chu dragged Da Ben and his wife out, his initial intentions were completely innocent.

He just wanted to get a cake for Qin Zui. One of those ones you can decorate and write on yourself.

Da Ben had brought one to the office before, something he and Bao Li made at one of those new DIY shops in the mall.

They provided all the ingredients and tools, so it was as easy as playing a game, and you didn’t have to clean the kitchen afterward.

Da Ben and Bao Li each made one. Bao Li took hers home, but Da Ben’s came out so ugly that he brought it in to share with everyone.

Jiang Chu had made fun of him for it at the time. Here was a guy who was a professional designer, and he’d managed to make a cake that looked like a pile of crap.

Da Ben had laughed so hard he nearly pissed himself, saying that was exactly right. Didn’t you notice he made it chocolate flavored on purpose? Their professional standards were beyond reproach.

Jiang Chu hadn’t originally thought of this. On the drive back from Jiang Liantian’s, he’d just planned to grab a random cake from a roadside shop. Make a token gesture.

The kid was eighteen, a grown man, not a little girl who needed a cake to celebrate her birthday.

But somehow, watching Qin Zui—so clearly carrying a heavy burden, yet forcing himself to hide it in front of everyone, including his bio mom, his stepdad, and Jiang Chu, this half-assed brother who’d just come into his life—left a bad taste in Jiang Chu’s mouth.

His stepdad and bio mom had completely ruined the birthday. If Jiang Chu didn’t step up, who else was going to comfort this sensitive eighteen-year-old?

Liang Xiaojia?

At home you rely on your parents; out the door you rely on your friends. Jiang Chu didn’t know what kind of friend Liang Xiaojia was to Qin Zui.

But Qin Zui already had it backwards from everyone else. No parents at home, and his friends were out of town.

And with his personality, would he even be willing to open up to anyone and vent?

The sight of Qin Zui’s back as he went into his room and closed the door to sleep made him think, for just a moment, of a lonely bird, one that had been hit hard by a gust of wind in the sky, but could only silently endure its misery here, because it no longer had a home.

He marveled at how poetic he was being today, and then his thoughts naturally turned to the crap cake Da Ben had made.

Wasn’t Qin Zui bothered by that wrong character, “drunk” (Qin Zui)? Well, then Jiang Chu would cover a whole cake with the character “most” (Qin Zui). That couldn’t go wrong.

In Jiang Chu’s eyes, short of just handing over cash, nothing showed more sincerity than something made by hand.

But on a weekend, two grown men like him and Da Ben going to put on aprons and make a cake? It felt a little insane.

So he had Da Ben bring Bao Li along. Having a girl around when making a cake would make things more comfortable.

But what Jiang Chu hadn’t expected was that Da Ben and his wife would bring someone else along.

More specifically, Bao Li had brought her. A close girlfriend who had apparently popped up out of nowhere for Bao Li, named Chen Linguo.

At first, Jiang Chu didn’t react. When he walked in and saw the three of them standing close together, he thought Chen Linguo was an employee.

He’d just greeted them and stood next to Da Ben when Bao Li hip-checked him over towards Chen Linguo.

“You have to team up in pairs. Sister-in-law found you a partner, don’t be shy.” Bao Li introduced them enthusiastically. “This is my bestie, Chen Linguo. Guo’er, this handsome guy is Jiang Chu.”

“Hello,” Chen Linguo said, quite casually. She was pretty enough. Fair skin, round eyes, straight black hair tucked behind her ears. A neat fringe made her look innocent, and dimples appeared when she smiled.

“Hey.” Jiang Chu smiled back, taking the apron she handed him and setting it aside.

Back in his high school or college days, she would have been exactly his type.

But now, he just found it awkward.

He used the excuse of getting bubble tea to pull Da Ben aside and let out a frustrated, “Fuck.” “What’s the deal here?”

“Don’t even talk about it. You really know how to pick your moments.” Da Ben was even more frustrated than he was. “I spent the whole morning shopping with the wife. Finally, she called this girl to take over for her. Then your call comes in and she’s over the moon. She’s been dying for a chance to set you up.”

“Ugh.” Jiang Chu forced a bitter laugh, resigned. “What’s her obsession with this?”

“Just play along. Bao Li means well.” Da Ben immediately started defending his wife the moment Jiang Chu complained. “We’ve all been hanging out as a crew for years, and you’re the only one still single. Every year you drag those of us with families to spend Singles’ Day with you. Isn’t that just shameless?”

Shameless or not, she was already here. Bao Li had even pre-selected the advanced team-building option. It would be rude to just leave the girl hanging.

Besides, although Chen Linguo seemed quiet and refined, she wasn’t shy at all. When Jiang Chu said the cake was for his little brother, she enthusiastically helped brainstorm what shape and flavor would look good.

And she was actually pretty good at it. Her ideas had real market appeal.

Jiang Chu was a rough guy who, until today, hadn’t even known there were different types of flour for different purposes. He was good for little more than assisting, making small talk with Chen Linguo, and waiting with the chocolate sauce to write the character “most” on the cake.

Da Ben and Bao Li joined in when it was time to write.

“What’s all this?” Da Ben craned his neck to read the words. “Qin Zui, Q-2nd-tone… Q-2nd-tone-zui? The Coolest, Little Brother Qin Zui… What’s the deal with this hierarchy?”

“Just his nicknames.” Jiang Chu smiled as he wrote, looking quite pleased with his work.

“Hand over the pen. Let Brother Da Ben leave your Little Brother Qin Zui a sincere birthday wish.” Da Ben waddled over, squeezing in, and wrote around the edge of the cake: “Tallest, Most Handsome, Strongest on Earth — Your Bro, Da Ben.”

Bao Li grabbed a tube of strawberry sauce, added an “&” after “Da Ben,” followed by “Your Sis Bao Li,” and squeezed out a little heart.

She was really getting into it. After she finished, she turned to Chen Linguo. “Guoguo, do you want to write something too?”

Jiang Chu and Da Ben exchanged a glance, then looked at Chen Linguo.

It was one thing for Da Ben and Bao Li to write on the cake. But for Chen Linguo, a virtual stranger, to write on it too? That felt off.

But the three of them had written, and leaving the fourth one out felt a little like excluding her.

Luckily, Chen Linguo had good social sense. She’d been watching happily from the side, and when Bao Li asked, she just smiled and waved her hand. “I can’t, my handwriting is terrible. If I do one stroke, we’ll have to make another cake.”

Da Ben made a joke and smoothly changed the subject. Jiang Chu’s opinion of Chen Linguo improved considerably in that moment.

But that good impression couldn’t shield him from Bao Li’s overly enthusiastic matchmaking when he invited them all for afternoon tea as thanks.

“Want to add each other on WeChat?” Bao Li and Da Ben were sitting together, and she was practically bouncing with excitement. “You can be friends from now on. We can hang out sometime.”

Chen Linguo seemed to like Jiang Chu well enough. Without a word, she pulled up her QR code.

Jiang Chu scanned it and added her, then shot Da Ben a text: “SAVE ME.”

They’d been working together for so many years, since school and into the professional world. They were close enough to run a company together. Da Ben glanced at the message notification and knew exactly what it meant.

He finished his waffle and asked Jiang Chu, “So, you’re just getting your little brother a cake?”

“Yeah.” Jiang Chu raised an eyebrow in response. “What else is there?”

“He’s eighteen. It’s his coming-of-age ceremony, and all you’re getting him is a lousy cake? You’re a real piece of work as an older brother.” Da Ben grinned, his smile full of lewd, calculated mystery.

“So what do you think I should get him?” Jiang Chu laughed. A voice in his soul resonated, raising its hand to shout: Masturbation cup! Masturbation cup!

“My wife knows.” Da Ben grinned, nudging Bao Li’s shoulder.

Bao Li was already on the verge of laughing her head off, remembering the time Da Ben had given Jiang Chu a masturbation cup just to mess with him.

She smacked Da Ben. “I don’t know anything, and Guo’er doesn’t want to know either. You stinky guys figure it out yourselves.”

“What is it?” Chen Linguo asked between bites of her cake roll, laughing.

“Let your sister-in-law tell you.” Da Ben grabbed Jiang Chu’s arm and pulled him up. “Come on, come on, let’s go buy our little brother another gift.”

Bickering with Da Ben all the way to the unmanned vending shop, Jiang Chu was still treating it as a joke right up until he paid. “Are we really buying this?” he asked Da Ben.

“Hell yeah! He’s an adult now!” Da Ben was even faster than him. With a swift hand, he grabbed a tube of Durex warming lube, his whole body jiggling with laughter. “Big Brother Da Ben is even throwing in a bonus gift. I just love doing this kind of helpful deed. Want me to grab you a cooling one too? Hey, they’ve even got lychee flavor…”

“Go home and do your research with Bao Li.” Jiang Chu was getting swept up in it too. Just for the fun of it, he bought one for Qin Zui, figuring it would be a funny bit.

“I went into a shop like that for the first time in my life, all for you. So tell me, isn’t this a moving coming-of-age gift?” The game was over. Jiang Chu tossed his phone onto the sofa, reached between the cushions, and pulled out the Durex Da Ben had thrown in as a bonus, tossing it to Qin Zui.

Qin Zui was leaning against the bathroom doorframe. He caught it easily.

He glanced at the bottle’s packaging, then back at Jiang Chu. A lazy, mischievous smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He pushed at the word “Lubricant” with his index finger, his eyes half-lidded.

“That was from your brother, Da Ben.” Jiang Chu found it funny too. Guys his age were so easy to cheer up with little things like this.

“Who?” Qin Zui asked, twirling the warming lube between his fingers.

“A buddy of mine. Best friend.” Jiang Chu said simply, then turned and went to the kitchen to get the cake, telling Qin Zui to go put his “new toy” away in his room.

Qin Zui went to his room with his “new toy” and stood by the bed, looking at it for a moment. He thought Jiang Chu’s thought process was really… something.

Sometimes, the way he talked, the things he did, that seemingly careless but secretly reliable “vibe” he had—it made Qin Zui think that being Jiang Chu’s real little brother would probably be a pretty happy thing.

Other times, the guy was just a lunatic.

He propped the masturbation cup on his desk and tossed the lube up in the air.

The image of Jiang Chu after he’d gotten blackout drunk suddenly flashed into his mind, supporting himself on Qin Zui’s shoulder, his junk swinging out. Immediately after came the image of when Qin Zui had thrown him onto the bed, that bare, laughing ass.

Qin Zui’s wrist stopped mid-toss. The warming lube almost slipped from his fingers. He snapped back to reality quickly, catching it again.

“You’re not going to use that thing already, are you?” Jiang Chu’s amused voice came through the crack in the door, followed by a whistle. “Because I’m still starving here, little brother.”

Qin Zui set the lube down on the desk with a clatter and went over to pull open the bedroom door.

The pitch-black living room made him pause.

He quickly realized it wasn’t completely dark. The TV was still on, and the kitchen light was on too. On the low coffee table in front of the sofa sat a cake and several plates of food. The cake was covered in candles, casting a warm, flickering glow, surrounded by a neat ring of beer bottles.

Qin Zui walked over and looked. The cake was ugly, but it was covered in the character “most,” written in all different sizes.

“Happy birthday, Qin Zui.” Jiang Chu’s voice came from behind him.

Qin Zui turned around.

Jiang Chu was leaning against the wall by his bedroom door. Starlight from the candles danced in his eyes. He gave Qin Zui a crooked smile. “Go make yourself a bowl of noodles, and toss in some for me while you’re at it.”