Mu Yicong had the ability to always appear completely unresponsive in the face of Qi Yang’s various emotions, suppressing any feelings he had until they were undetectable.
Under the dim yellow streetlights, Qi Yang truly felt at that moment that he was seeing the Mu Yicong from their school days again.
It was the same Mu Yicong from that day when, bewitched, he had sat in the dark stairwell at Mu Yicong’s home waiting for him.
“What’s wrong?” Mu Yicong asked him in return.
Without thinking, Qi Yang replied, “You tell me. Is pretending to be clueless fun?”
He really couldn’t figure out what Mu Yicong was thinking.
Ten years ago he was one way, and when they first met after ten years he was another. Clearly he was the one who had been bitten without any guard up, and he hadn’t said a thing, yet Mu Yicong had gone all cold and changed his attitude.
Qi Yang wasn’t as reckless as he was as a child anymore. He no longer judged people and things based solely on his initial impressions of like or dislike.
He understood that Mu Yicong was someone worth befriending… a friend, if you will, if only Mu Yicong could act normal and get along with him properly.
Qi Yang really didn’t want to owe anyone favors, especially Mu Yicong.
After going through this train of thought, Qi Yang voluntarily sat back in the car, closed the door, and tried to calm down and have a proper talk with him.
“There’s no need for us to play dumb. I know your quirks and you know my temper.” He lit a cigarette and asked Mu Yicong, “Tell me honestly, is it because I hit you yesterday? Or…”
Or is it because I made it clear to you that nothing sexual was going to happen.
Qi Yang could only say that once yesterday when his emotions were boiling over; he couldn’t bring himself to say it a second time.
But if that really was the reason, then there wasn’t much point in them being “friends.”
“Because I realized that you’re really not all that.”
While Qi Yang’s head was still full of thoughts, Mu Yicong spoke.
Calm and unhurried, nonchalant.
Qi Yang abruptly lifted his face to look at him.
“My interest in you and helping Qi Xing are two separate things.”
Mu Yicong met his gaze, with not a trace of anything extra in his eyes.
“You insist on mixing these two things together, thinking that I helped you just to get something physical out of you, to demand some repayment. You’re the one who’s selling yourself short.”
“And I overestimated you.”
For once, Mu Yicong spoke to him in a continuous string of words — a density rare for him ever since they were kids.
Qi Yang’s ears burned with blood, waves of displeasure and humiliation rising from the back of his head, so intense that his temples tightened.
After saying this, Mu Yicong deliberately waited for a while.
Seeing that Qi Yang was just staring at him without reacting, Mu Yicong raised one eyebrow.
“You’re pretty boring now.” He told Qi Yang. “Did I make myself clear?”
Pretty boring.
After the New Year, Qi Yang would be twenty-nine, heading straight for thirty. In his nearly thirty years of life experience, this was the first time someone had used “pretty boring” to describe him.
Using words that Qi Yang had once used to judge others.
He didn’t know why this sentence hit him so hard.
Maybe it was because he had never admitted defeat since he was a child, never felt inferior to anyone. Maybe during these ten years since Qi Dahai’s accident, he had been living on that one breath of strength; without that force holding him up, he would have been crushed by family burdens long ago.
Or maybe simply because the person who said it was Mu Yicong.
“Ah.” Qi Yang’s head was flushed with blood, but instead he became calm. He deliberately put on a nonchalant expression and grinned at Mu Yicong.
“I thought you knew.”
“I am indeed pretty boring.”
Mu Yicong was silent for a long time, then lazily lowered his eyelids and nodded towards the passenger door, signaling Qi Yang to get out.
Qi Yang didn’t go straight home. He went to the small supermarket and bought some sticker notebooks for Qi Xing, as promised to the kid before leaving.
Then he went to the flower bed where he usually smoked, and lit one cigarette after another.
It was the twenty-eighth day of the New Year, nearly eleven at night. The air was so cold that it froze one’s respiratory tract; even dog walkers weren’t out loitering.
The old residential area still housed many people. In the darkness, the floors flickered with squares of light, each one a family living a plain, normal, warm life.
The fourth cigarette butt fell to the ground. The crooked-neck landscape light above him emitted an overloaded electrical buzz and went out with a “pop.”
In the chaotic darkness, Qi Yang watched the remaining embers in the flower bed for a while, then stood up, kicked some snow, and extinguished them all.
The appointment to see the expert was set for the ninth day of the New Year. On the third day, when Liu Dameng came back from his in-laws with his wife, Qi Yang called him and invited him to dinner.
Liu Dameng, as usual after every visit to his mother-in-law, came back full of complaints. He poured out his grievances to Qi Yang, saying he was really afraid of the old couple. Even though they had gotten the marriage certificate two or three years ago, every time they visited it was like being on trial. He was terrified that if he performed poorly in any aspect, his father-in-law and mother-in-law would judge his character as needing further review and take back his wife.
“You can use the word ‘recycle’ for a living person?” Qi Yang laughed.
“Hey, it’s just a metaphor.” Liu Dameng insisted on having mutton hotpot. Once they sat down in the shop, he didn’t stop using his chopsticks.
Qi Yang had no appetite. He leaned back in the sofa chair, chewing on the cigarette filter, staring absently at the misty copper pot.
“What are you thinking about?” Liu Dameng scooped a big spoonful of meat into his bowl. “If you don’t eat and just stare, are you feeling sorry for the money spent on all this meat?”
“Piss off.” Qi Yang didn’t have the energy to banter with him. He picked up his chopsticks and took a couple of bites.
“You’re smoking more and more. You light up before even eating.” Liu Dameng studied his expression, thinking Qi Xing had problems again. “How’s my little princess Xingxing doing lately?”
Qi Yang never hid anything from Liu Dameng. He briefly told him that Qi Xing had experienced her first menstrual period before the New Year, and the little girl had no idea what was happening. He and Zou Meizhu had been in a panic those days.
“Oh man.” Liu Dameng looked at the dish of red fermented tofu on the table, holding his chopsticks and grimacing.
Qi Yang swapped out the fermented tofu dish for him.
“Then you and Aunt Zou can’t just keep hovering over the kid forever. What are you going to do in the future?” Liu Dameng was truly worried for this family.
“Mu Yicong arranged for a hospital,” Qi Yang squinted as he inhaled smoke. “I went to consult before the New Year. It seems reliable. I’ll take Qi Xing to see them in a few days.”
“Who?” Liu Dameng thought he misheard.
Qi Yang exchanged a look with him and responded vaguely: “Mm.”
Having grown up together, the only thing Qi Yang had ever kept from Liu Dameng was his experience with Mu Yicong during the last part of high school, and the way they had been interacting recently.
So in Liu Dameng’s impression, these two young masters had always been in a state of irreconcilable opposition, like two kings who never meet.
Of course, one was a real young master, while the other had long entered hell mode.
“How come after you gave him a ride home, you two developed feelings?” Liu Dameng tried hard to recall their class reunion, but couldn’t imagine a scene where the two could coexist peacefully.
Not that he could blame himself. Now whenever Qi Yang thought of the name Mu Yicong, he felt completely uncomfortable.
“Let me ask you something, Dameng.” He finished the last puff of smoke and crushed the butt into the ashtray.
“Go ahead.” Liu Dameng settled down and continued eating lamb.
“For example, if you helped someone.” Qi Yang slowed down, weighing his words, afraid Liu Dameng might guess something. He emphasized, “Helped a girl. Would you expect something in return from her?”
“Depends on what kind of help.” Liu Dameng thought about it. “If it’s just someone borrowing a power bank or getting a ride along the way, that’s not worth talking about expecting anything.”
“What about a big favor?” Qi Yang looked at him.
“What big favor?” Liu Dameng was stunned. “Did you lend out money?”
“I’m asking you.” Qi Yang kicked him under the table.
Liu Dameng had this one good quality: he wasn’t very clever, and he didn’t have a lot of messy thoughts. Whatever Qi Yang asked him, he would just think about that, without making wild guesses.
“Well, if it’s a big favor,” he thought seriously for a moment, then revealed a somewhat lecherous grin. “If I were still single, I’d definitely be expecting something.”
“Expecting what?” Qi Yang asked.
“What could it be? These days everyone is living tight with mortgages and car loans. If it’s not a close relative or a real friend, who would bother to meddle?” Liu Dameng said. “You didn’t say what relationship you have with this girl. If she’s not a relative or close friend, if I do a big favor for her, it must be because I like her.”
“It’s not about expecting her to repay me.” Liu Dameng added. “In the end, if you like someone, you’re willing to help them.”
Qi Yang fell silent.
After a pause, he asked again, “Let’s say it’s a girl you liked. What if she thought your help was because you wanted to sleep with her?”
“Who’s being insulted here?”
Liu Dameng clicked his tongue.
“Is she insulting herself or insulting my feelings? Huh, is that the kind of person I’d set my sights on?”
“If I really needed someone to sleep with, I’d just pay for a hooker and be done with it. It saves me time.”
Liu Dameng’s words were crude but the reasoning was sound. Qi Yang first felt like laughing, but the corner of his mouth twitched and couldn’t lift into a smile.
“What’s with the sudden questions?” Liu Dameng studied Qi Yang’s expression and started grinning weirdly. “Did you get involved with some girl from our class at the reunion? I never saw you interested in anyone in high school.”
“Just eat.” Qi Yang pushed the fermented tofu dish back to him.
This conversation with Liu Dameng kept Qi Yang from sleeping well all night.
He himself had never genuinely liked anyone; all his attention was on Qi Xing. He couldn’t really think things through from the perspective of “liking” someone.
But he tried to apply Liu Dameng’s crude words to his own situation, and suddenly he could somewhat understand Mu Yicong’s sudden coldness.
Indeed, it was pretty boring.
Once this thought settled in, Qi Yang felt very uncomfortable.
He instinctively picked up his phone to look at his chat with Mu Yicong. The last time they had contacted each other was the day they went to another place to find the expert; they hadn’t spoken since they got back.
On the fifth day of the New Year, Che Li’s annual leave ended and work officially resumed.
In the afternoon, while Qi Yang was still tidying up, Ren Wei suddenly arrived.
He adopted a formal tone, came over to greet Qi Yang without even looking at the car, and pulled out two contracts.
“Regarding the car rental we discussed earlier, let’s finalize it today.” Ren Wei pointed at the models indicated on the contract. “Can all of these be delivered before the end of the month?”
Qi Yang first glanced over the contract. It was fine.
According to procedure, he could now arrange for people to move the cars, and once both parties signed, the deal would be done.
But out of the corner of his eye, seeing Ren Wei’s fingernails tapping on the table, Qi Yang felt a wave of irritation rising from inside him, stronger and stronger.
Ren Wei hadn’t sensed Qi Yang’s mood. He was always tactless. He craned his neck to look at the interior decoration of Che Li, commenting with a condescending tone.
“Where’s Mu Yicong?” Qi Yang pushed the contract back, interrupting Ren Wei’s rambling.
“Huh?” Ren Wei was taken aback. He looked Qi Yang up and down a few times before clearing his throat and answering, “Yicong has handed this matter over to me. If you have any questions, just discuss them with me.”
“I have nothing to talk about with you.” Qi Yang stood up to leave. “The boss already told me earlier that I only handle things with him directly. Tell him to come here.”
