This New Year’s, Jiang Chu spent it with Brother Da Ben and the others.
Fang Zi was the one who set it up. They hadn’t gathered much this year. Every time they wanted to eat together, either one of them had something to do or the other wasn’t around.
So Fang Zi booked the date a whole week in advance this time. He was a party maniac, with a bit of OCD. If everyone wasn’t there, he felt all out of sorts.
“You not going to see your little brother?” Da Ben parked at an intersection with Jiang Chu, waiting for Bao Li and Chen Linguo. He was peeling a roasted sweet potato, slurping as he went.
“He’s busy. Has final exams. Called this morning and he was already holed up in the library.” Jiang Chu rolled down his window a crack. “Don’t eat in my car and stink it up with farts.”
“What kind of talk is that? My mouth is on my face, not my ass. I’m not gonna fart a whole carload of stink in here.” Da Ben blinked, nearly dropping his sweet potato.
He tore the skin off on another side and took a bite, the heat making his tongue curl: “Your little brother is really low-maintenance… hiss, burned my heart out. If he were like Old Du’s nephew, you’d have no peace all year round.”
“Shouldn’t it be ‘your ass is on your mouth’?” Jiang Chu smirked.
Whenever Da Ben talked about Qin Zui, he loved comparing him to Du Miaomiao. Jiang Chu thought about it, he hadn’t seen Du Miaomiao all year.
The last time was at the back gate of the 27th High School. Du Miaomiao’s face was all tear-streaked like a blotchy cat.
“How’s Du Miaomiao doing with his retake?” he asked casually.
“Who knows. He’s locked in that school every day.” Da Ben waved his hand out the car window. Bao Li and Chen Linguo were walking arm-in-arm across the street towards them.
“But he’s repeating a year. If he has any sense at all, he should have made some progress.” Da Ben reminisced. “At least I haven’t seen him post on WeChat Moments in half a year. Used to be several times a day.”
“Well, maybe he just blocked you.” Jiang Chu drove forward to meet them. “Is Old Du bringing him to eat today?”
“Wouldn’t be surprised.” Da Ben pulled out his phone to check. “Yeah, he told Fang Zi to reserve an extra seat.”
Old Du did bring someone.
But it wasn’t Du Miaomiao. It was his girlfriend.
“Damn! Since when?!” Fang Zi saw Old Du walk into the private room with a girl and jumped up laughing. “Here, here, add a seat for sister-in-law!”
“Over here.” Bao Li patted the table next to Jiang Chu. “The girls’ squad sits together.”
“What’s the rush? When we set a date, I’ll let you know two months in advance.” Old Du smiled, sitting down between Jiang Chu and Bao Li with his girlfriend.
He was also carrying a big paper bag. Jiang Chu glanced at it: it was stuffed with a ball of clothes. Old Du put it on the floor behind his seat after sitting down.
“What’s that?” Jiang Chu asked.
“Du Miaomiao’s clothes. Just went to see him at school, and he shoved a bag of laundry at me to take home and wash.” Old Du took off his coat and sighed softly. “Can’t do a thing himself.”
“You two went together?” Jiang Chu nodded slightly towards his girlfriend, holding back a laugh. “Didn’t the kid give her a hard time?”
He remembered Old Du telling him helplessly that every time he started dating, Du Miaomiao would mess it up. The kid had a real temper.
“Just happened to run into him.” It seemed Old Du hadn’t planned on letting Du Miaomiao know yet. He didn’t want to get into the details, just took a sip of water from his cup, keeping his voice low.
“But he did okay today.” Thinking about Du Miaomiao’s reaction, Old Du raised his eyebrows in slight surprise.
“I was afraid he’d just throw a tantrum and leave like before. But he was pretty well-behaved today. Knew to call her ‘Auntie’ on his own.” There was a touch of approval in his eyes.
“Well, he is another year older. Repeating a year really builds character.” Jiang Chu nodded.
Old Du’s girlfriend was named Song Jiao. She ran her own flower shop and met Old Du at some trade show.
Over the course of the meal, Jiang Chu felt she was a good person. She had a nice, open look about her, and a cheerful personality.
Fang Zi and Da Ben loved to joke around. They enthusiastically asked her a bunch of questions about her and Old Du. She took it all in stride, laughing and chatting right along with them.
“Hey, actually, the real reason I wanted to get everyone together today was to announce something myself.” After a few rounds of drinks, Fang Zi tapped his glass and stood up, smiling a little sheepishly.
“I, uh, and Chen Linguo… we’re together now.” Before his sentence even finished, the whole group was hooting and hollering.
“Hey, shut up! Not yet!” Fang Zi and Chen Linguo were both getting embarrassed. “It’s not my fault. I hadn’t even gotten started before Old Du swooped in and stole my thunder!”
“You should have told me in advance. I could have waited outside until you were done before coming in.” Old Du raised his glass and clinked it with Fang Zi’s.
The whole gang was laughing and making a ruckus. Jiang Chu didn’t know if Bao Li and Da Ben knew, but he was genuinely surprised.
Then he broke into a sincere smile. “Are you serious?”
Actually, it made sense. Fang Zi and Chen Linguo worked at the same place, they knew each other well, and there was no way Bao Li would have passed up a chance to set them up.
“Would I lie about that? And Jiang Chu, they can not believe if they want, but you have no excuse!” Fang Zi pointed at him while holding Chen Linguo.
“What are you saying!” Chen Linguo covered her mouth and laughed, then smacked Fang Zi.
“I wish you all the best, from the bottom of my heart.” Jiang Chu nodded, making a respectful bow gesture.
“Two yokes in one night, huh.” Hua Zi had been quietly laughing to himself the whole time. He couldn’t help but drop a golden line.
“Just shut up and drink your booze.” Da Ben snorted a laugh and slapped Jiang Chu on the back. “Don’t be rubbing salt in the wound of our lone bachelor.”
“Yeah, I need to stay calm.” Jiang Chu smirked, biting onto a cigarette and lighting it.
When the group finished eating and moved on to karaoke, Jiang Chu felt a bit dazed.
Normally, he was single and okay with it. He didn’t really think about how others were doing.
But suddenly, with all his friends paired off around him, walking at the back of the group with both hands shoved into his coat pockets, he felt a strong, subtle sense of detachment.
He couldn’t help but think of Qin Zui.
Even if he didn’t know what was going on between him and Qin Zui, and even if they were really “together”, they couldn’t just tell their relatives and friends about it, like Fang Zi and Old Du could.
Jiang Chu let out a melancholy cloud of smoke.
Emotion sounds like a personal matter, but once it becomes truly private, it inevitably makes a person feel lonely.
He couldn’t see the way forward.
Just before eleven, Qin Zui called him.
Jiang Chu missed it. He’d had a bit too much beer and was in the bathroom.
When he came back, he didn’t go straight in. Da Ben and Bao Li were belting out “Two Butterflies”, their pitch wandering like a couple of moths, completely deafening.
He stood in the hallway outside the private room, leaning against the wall to light another cigarette. Old Du also came out with a cigarette in his mouth.
“Your phone was buzzing.” Old Du saw Jiang Chu as he opened the door and pointed inside the room.
“Oh.” Jiang Chu responded, went in, grabbed his phone, and saw that Qin Zui had already missed a call from him.
There was also a WeChat message asking what he was doing.
Jiang Chu dialed back. Qin Zui picked up quickly: “Bro?”
“Wasn’t near my phone just now.” Jiang Chu walked down the hallway towards a quieter spot. He could hear that it was pretty noisy on Qin Zui’s end, not the sound of a dorm room. “You went out?”
“Came out for some hotpot.” Qin Zui smiled. “You’re out with Brother Da Ben and them, right?”
“Yeah.” Hearing his smiling voice made Jiang Chu’s chest feel warm and fuzzy. He smiled too.
“Is Chen Linguo there?” Qin Zui asked directly, without any pretense.
“You call her ‘Sister’ properly.” Jiang Chu knew he was being petty and clicked his tongue.
Qin Zui didn’t say anything.
“Hey.” Jiang Chu never knew what to do with him, and the way he was acting was kind of funny. “Or you can call her ‘Sister-in-law’. She and Fang Zi got together.”
When Qin Zui heard the first part, “Sister-in-law”, he nearly froze in his tracks, his foot unable to lift properly. Kang Che even turned around to look at him.
After Jiang Chu finished, Qin Zui was stunned for a moment, reacting almost exactly the way Jiang Chu himself had earlier. He let out a disbelieving laugh. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, tonight’s like ‘Cast Off Party’.” Jiang Chu casually chatted with him. “Old Du brought his girlfriend too.”
“Who?” Qin Zui paused before asking again.
“You’ve never met her. Neither had I until tonight.” Jiang Chu thought he was asking who Old Du’s girlfriend was. “He met her at some trade show…”
“Du Miaomiao’s uncle?” Qin Zui interrupted him.
“Who else? Which other Old Du would it be?” Jiang Chu said.
Qin Zui hummed in response.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Chu couldn’t figure out why Qin Zui was more interested in Old Du finding a girlfriend than in Chen Linguo.
“Nothing.” Qin Zui paused on the phone again. “We’re at the restaurant. Gotta go, bro. Don’t drink too much. Wrap things up and head home soon.”
“Alright, you guys don’t go wild after you’re done eating either.” Jiang Chu warned him.
Qin Zui hung up.
Jiang Chu stared at his phone for a couple more seconds, locked the screen, and turned to go back.
Old Du was still by the ashtray, also scrolling through his phone. As Jiang Chu walked over, he asked without looking up: “Your little brother?”
“Mm.” Jiang Chu nodded.
“He’s away at college and still remembers to call you.” Old Du tapped his ash off. “That little brat’s got more of a conscience than I thought.”
“Not everyone’s like yours.” Jiang Chu stubbed out his cigarette.
“A few more months and I’ll be free too.” Old Du pocketed his phone and slapped Jiang Chu on the shoulder. They went back to the room together.
“Done talking already?” Kang Che walked in front of him, looking back with a bit of surprise.
“You guys go on up. I need to make another call to a friend.” Qin Zui frowned slightly, scrolling through the names in his phone.
Kang Che, as usual, didn’t pry into his business. He just nodded and followed the group upstairs.
Qin Zui’s call didn’t take long. By the time the group had ordered their food and Kang Che had just gotten back from the condiment station with his dipping sauce, he saw Qin Zui walking in from the stairwell.
Kang Che whistled at him.
“In a bad mood?” He glanced at Qin Zui’s expression and handed him a plate.
“No.” Qin Zui took it, glanced around nonchalantly, and picked up a few slices of watermelon.
Kang Che just smiled and didn’t say anything.
“Have you ever been in a relationship?” As they were about to head back to the table, Qin Zui asked suddenly.
“Kinda, I guess.” Kang Che thought for a moment.
“Kinda?” Qin Zui raised an eyebrow.
“What’s with the face?” Kang Che laughed again. “I’m not allowed to have my own stories?”
“Is it the kind I’m thinking of?” Qin Zui looked at him.
“Yeah.” Kang Che nodded generously. “A guy. Same as you.”
This was the first time they had truly leveled with each other. Amidst the bustling crowd of the hotpot restaurant, each holding a small dish of seasonings.
“Why ‘kinda’?” Qin Zui asked after walking a few more steps.
“There’s no big ‘why’ about it.” Kang Che sidestepped to let a waiter pushing a cart pass. “In this world, you don’t always get what you want. Not everyone gets their wish.”
His tone was light. When he looked back at Qin Zui, his eyes seemed to find him amusing. “Your big brother has spoiled you so much, you don’t even realize how lucky you are.”
