Even though Chen Linguo said she was treating them to dinner, when it came time to pay, Jiang Chu was the one who picked up the tab.
He never liked letting a woman pay for a meal when he was part of the group.
Chen Linguo actually felt a bit bad about it. As they left Haidilao, she said, “Well, now I owe you one, Brother Chu. How about I treat you guys to a movie?”
Qin Zui was nearby, looking down and kicking a candy stick with his shoe. When he heard this, the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
Jiang Chu shot him a glance. “Let’s do it another day. Don’t you still have things to buy? The supermarket will close soon if we wait any longer.”
“Alright.” Chen Linguo smiled immediately. Either she had a good temper or she was just easygoing, but at least she didn’t make things awkward.
The things Chen Linguo wanted to buy were just the usual stuff: potato chips, cola, cookies, beer. Snacks and drinks. You could get them at the farm stay, but the prices would be jacked up.
She pushed her cart ahead, while Jiang Chu and Qin Zui followed leisurely behind. Qin Zui sent a few more messages on his phone, and Jiang Chu glanced at him every now and then.
“What are you looking at?” Qin Zui asked without raising his head.
“Trying to figure out when you’re going to crash into a shelf so I can calculate how much I’ll owe the supermarket.” Jiang Chu said.
Qin Zui smirked and put his phone away.
“If there’s anything you want, grab a cart.” Jiang Chu added. “I’ll buy it for you.”
The moment he said that, it was Qin Zui’s turn to stare at him for a while.
“What are you looking at?” Jiang Chu felt an inexplicable urge to laugh as he said those three words. These two brothers were a bit crazy.
Qin Zui ignored him. They happened to pass by a row of shopping carts, so he grabbed one and tossed a pack of toilet paper into it.
Jiang Chu could never remember if they were running low on paper towels at home or not. They were near the canned goods section, and he remembered Qin Zui seemed to like the canned yellow peaches he bought last time, so he threw a few more bottles into the cart.
Chen Linguo was pushing her cart around the snack aisle. Jiang Chu reminded her, “You should get some disposable towels. And you girls going on a trip, you have those little travel bottles. Fill them with your usual shampoo and skincare stuff. It’s more convenient to carry.”
“Oh, right. Sister Bao Li told me to buy those too.” Chen Linguo went to get some disposable items. Figuring she had enough, she headed for the checkout.
The three of them bought two big bags of stuff. Chen Linguo asked for a smaller bag to pack her disposable towels separately.
“Where do you live? I’ll give you a ride.” Jiang Chu offered.
“No need.” Chen Linguo shook her phone at him again. “It’s out of your way. I live in a different district. I already called a ride. It’ll be here in three minutes.”
Jiang Chu smiled and said, “Alright, then.” But inside, he was already planning to call Da Ben later and give him a piece of his mind about his wife. There was nothing going on yet, and they’d already given Chen Linguo his home address.
“But you can just leave my stuff in your car, Brother Chu,” Chen Linguo added. “Brother Da Ben said I’m riding with you tomorrow, so I won’t have to carry it all over again.”
“Okay.” Jiang Chu nodded. “I’ll talk to them tonight about the route. I’ll text you the exact time and where to meet you tomorrow.”
It was a given that she’d be riding in his car. He didn’t need Chen Linguo to tell him that.
“Great, see you tomorrow then.” Her ride had arrived, and Chen Linguo waved goodbye to Jiang Chu and Qin Zui as she answered the phone. “Bye-bye, little brother!”
On the way home, Qin Zui’s phone buzzed twice more, but he didn’t pull it out.
Jiang Chu’s mind was still working through the ideas that had been sparked by Chen Linguo’s comments during dinner. The more he thought about it, the more he felt Qin Zui had some kind of “secret.”
Even the first time he’d heard that faint voice through Qin Zui’s crappy phone saying “Brother Qin Zui,” it hadn’t sounded like the way normal boys in that age group addressed each other.
It was just like that. If you don’t think about something, you don’t think about it. But once you start to suspect something is off, all the little details from the past come together to confirm your theory.
When they got home, Qin Zui went to take a shower first. Jiang Chu changed his clothes, sat down on the couch, and scrolled through his phone while the TV played in the background.
When Qin Zui came out again, Zhou Teng circled him and meowed twice. Jiang Chu tilted his head to look at the cat. “Got a craving, huh?”
Qin Zui went to get him some cat treats. He knelt on one knee, a leg bent, his body still carrying the fresh scent of the shower, and fed the cat.
Jiang Chu studied him from the edge of his phone screen. He felt there was a very peculiar quality to Qin Zui.
Sure, he acted like a prick to everyone. Didn’t matter if it was his mom, his stepdad, a man, a woman, a stranger, or someone he knew. But deep down, he was an incredibly attentive person.
Especially with Zhou Teng, a spoiled house cat that would be helpless without humans. Every time he took care of him, he was quiet about it. You never heard him go “here, kitty kitty kitty,” or saw him pick the cat up. But he was patient, and he gave off a feeling of… gentleness?
Actually, there was a bit of that in how he treated people too. Like that evening when Lu Yao was annoying the hell out of him, he still reminded her to fix her collar. Or during the hotpot dinner with Chen Linguo, he casually ordered the squid and pig brain for her.
Jiang Zhu thought that the endless phone calls and texts from Liang Xiaojia might also count as an example of this.
His thoughts circled back to this “Liang Xiaojia” person. Jiang Chu shifted to a more comfortable position, slouching sideways into the corner of the couch, his legs crossed. He continued chatting with Da Ben and the others on his phone, then asked in a deliberately casual tone, “Hey, Qin Zui, have you ever been in a relationship?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Qin Zui look up at him first, then ask back, “Why do you ask?”
“No reason, just curious.” Jiang Chu tossed his phone aside and sat up a little straighter. “Why is it that whenever I ask you something, you have to ask ‘why’ first? Don’t people back home know how to just have a casual chat?”
Afraid that Qin Zui would finish feeding the cat and just head straight to his room without answering, Jiang Chu stretched out his foot, aiming a light kick at Qin Zui’s thigh. “Go open a can of peaches for me.”
Qin Zui deftly grabbed Jiang Chu’s ankle, stood up, and looked down at him from his full height.
“Gonna try to break it again?” Jiang Chu raised an eyebrow, his other foot ready to aim for a more sensitive spot.
The hem of his t-shirt had ridden up as he’d slid down the couch, exposing a strip of his toned stomach.
Qin Zui’s gaze slid over it, and he paused. A strange, sudden thought connected to the evening before, when Jiang Chu had bitten his finger while he was feeding him a mochi.
He let go of Jiang Chu’s leg, unconsciously rubbing his right index finger, before turning to head to the kitchen to open the can.
Even with the canned fruit delaying things, and the two of them sitting on the couch watching TV and eating together, Jiang Chu couldn’t manage to pry any information out of Qin Zui.
When Jiang Chu asked again what kind of girl Qin Zui liked, Qin Zui’s fork, spearing a piece of yellow peach, stopped for a moment. He turned his head and looked at Jiang Chu with a sharp gaze. “What are you trying to ask?”
Jiang Chu met his eyes, but couldn’t bring himself to say what he wanted to ask.
Why do you keep talking to that Liang Xiaojia guy?
Is there something special between you two?
Are you… more interested in boys than girls?
Jiang Chu couldn’t ask. When it came down to it, this was Qin Zui’s private life. And when it came down to it, he was just the guy taking Qin Zui in temporarily. The “brotherly” relationship between him and Qin Zui was even flimsier than the formal, legal bond between Qin Zui and his biological mother.
If Qin Zui just said, “What’s it to you?” he would have nothing to say.
Besides, Jiang Chu didn’t really think Qin Zui was into guys… to put it more bluntly, he didn’t think he was “gay.” That was too… too much like some “other world.”
He just thought it was strange.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
But Qin Zui’s reaction only deepened that feeling of “strangeness.”
They stared at each other for a moment. From the TV came some unknown show; the guests were breaking into exaggerated laughter.
Jiang Chu averted his gaze. As if nothing was wrong, he took another bite of the canned fruit and came up with an excuse. “I was wondering what you thought of Chen Linguo. Do you think she’d be a good sister-in-law?”
Hearing this, Qin Zui felt a slight, quiet wave of relief.
But it was immediately followed by a surge of subtle irritation that made him uncomfortable.
Like how he’d felt that day when he’d suddenly seen Chen Linguo’s “Brother Chu” text to Jiang Chu.
Chen Linguo definitely wasn’t a potential girlfriend Jiang Chu had been planning on. At least, not before Qin Zui came to stay with him. You could tell by the way they interacted today, the vibe between them. They hadn’t even known each other that long.
They’d only known each other for a few days, and he was already thinking about marriage, about settling down, about her becoming his “sister-in-law”?
“Why ask me? Don’t you know what you like yourself?” He shot back.
Jiang Chu leaned back into the couch, his legs stretched out long on the floor. “Yeah, I’ve never really known exactly what I like. If I did, I wouldn’t need your opinion.”
Qin Zui didn’t say anything. He stared at the TV as he chewed and swallowed the last half of the yellow peach. Then he stood up and headed back to his room, throwing a final “Don’t know” over his shoulder.
“Temper like a wild boar.” Jiang Chu clicked his tongue from the couch. He called out after him, “Pack some clothes, some changes of clothes. I’ll wake you up tomorrow morning.”
Back in his room, Qin Zui flopped onto the bed, covering his eyes with the back of his hand, and let out a deep breath.
He really shouldn’t be so impatient with Jiang Chu. Jiang Chu was treating him like family, like a normal person. That’s why he was asking him these questions.
But he wasn’t normal.
And this “not normal” thing was getting more and more serious lately, even starting to go off the rails.
His phone, which he’d tossed on the bed before his shower, buzzed twice. Annoyed, Qin Zui grabbed it. A message from Liang Xiaojia.
Liang Xiaojia: Brother Qin Zui, I’m sorry
Liang Xiaojia: I won’t say those things anymore. Please don’t be mad at me.
Qin Zui stared at his phone, frowning. He didn’t know what to reply to Liang Xiaojia.
He froze for a moment, and the phone screen went dark. He moved his finger to turn it back on, and the image that greeted him was a photo of Jiang Chu’s shirt riding up, a shot of his abs from above.
Jiang Chu had set it as his wallpaper during his last crazy episode. Qin Zui had intended to change it, but for some reason, he never did.
The TV was still on in the living room. He could hear Jiang Chu’s footsteps as he probably went into the kitchen to throw away the empty can.
Qin Zui turned the phone over, placing it face-down on his stomach, and closed his eyes.
The strip of Jiang Chu’s stomach that had been exposed on the couch just a moment ago re-emerged in his mind, perfectly matching the image on his phone wallpaper.
From that strip of stomach, his mind traveled upwards. It was Jiang Chu that day, drunk, walking out of the bathroom naked, water beading on his chest. His nipples, tightened by the cold air from the AC. The hot breath on his neck and ear when Jiang Chu, dizzy and leaning on his shoulder, had laughed and talked. And…
Qin Zui’s fingers on his stomach twitched. The finger that Jiang Chu had bitten gave a very slight spasm.
He sighed, turned onto his side, and buried his face in the pillow.
You really shouldn’t have asked me that.
Qin Zui said silently in his mind.
I can’t answer questions like what kind of girl I like.
