Chapter 17

After dozing for another half hour in the bathroom, Jiang Chu got up, made himself some food, and went to the office.

Da Ben arrived carrying a big bag of steamed buns. They were stuffed with carrot and beef, each one the size of a fist. As soon as he came in, he handed two to everyone. Said his mother-in-law had made them and his fridge couldn’t fit anything else, forcing him to eat four boxes of ice cream last night just to make room for the buns.

“Your mother-in-law sure is generous,” Jiang Chu said, unable to even finish one, the whole room smelling so strongly of steamed buns it was stifling. “Red braised pork last month, giant buns this month.”

“Find yourself a wife and you’ll get the same treatment.” Da Ben sighed, a mix of happiness and burden. “Hey!” he said, swiveling his chair over and kicking Jiang Chu. “What’s going on with you and that Guoguo? Anything?”

“What Guo… ah.” Jiang Chu was looking for a document and took a second to process what he meant.

Chen Linguo.

“I think that girl is pretty good. She’s not bad looking and has a decent figure. Just passed the civil service exam at Bao Li’s place, so she’s got a stable job too.” Da Ben pointed at Jiang Chu’s screen. “Give me a copy of this prototype. She’s tall too, wearing flats yesterday, she must be almost five seven? Stands pretty well next to you.”

Jiang Chu plugged in a USB drive to copy the prototype for Da Ben, saying offhandedly, “It doesn’t matter how much you talk her up. She has to be interested.”

“How is she not interested in you? Why else would she add you on WeChat without a second thought yesterday? I think you’re the one who’s not interested.” Da Ben kicked the floor and slid back to his own desk. “Let me tell you, Chu, don’t go thinking you’re all that just because you’re decent looking, and look down on everyone. These days, any girl worth having has plenty of guys chasing her. If you keep wasting your time like this, you’ll just end up spending the rest of your life with that wildling brother of yours!”

Da Ben mentioning WeChat reminded Jiang Chu of the message Chen Linguo had sent and unsent last night. He laughed. “A wildling brother is fine. I don’t even have to pick up his cat poop.”

“Fuck, why do you have to be such a little shit? Bossing us around at work, bossing him around at home.” Da Ben said, completely off-topic, then reminded Jiang Chu more seriously, “I’m serious. Have a proper chat with Chen Linguo. Who knows, it might work out? Bao Li told me to remind you.”

Jiang Chu wasn’t really interested in whether it worked out or not.

It wasn’t that he had no interest at all. He just wasn’t interested right now.

Chen Linguo did seem like a really nice girl. Their interactions yesterday were pleasant enough, but he’d never gone out of his way to get to know a girl just for a relationship. His previous girlfriends had all happened naturally, with mutual feelings.

Still, his friends were so invested. Besides feeling helpless, he was also a little touched.

They worked until almost eleven. Jiang Chu, driven out to the courtyard for a smoke by whoever’s radish farts, opened WeChat and saw Chen Linguo had sent him another message at nine something.

Chen Linguo: Good morning. I just remembered I accidentally sent you the wrong message last night. Sorry, I hope I didn’t disturb your rest.

Whether you disturbed me or not, you already sent it.

Jiang Chu thought to himself, replying: No, I was already asleep.

Chen Linguo: That’s good.

She followed it up with a kitten sticker pack.

Chen Linguo: Is the cat in your Moments yours?

Jiang Chu: Yeah.

Chen Linguo: So cute! What’s its name?

Jiang Chu laughed reading this. A cat that looks like a mix of Jay Chou and Shen Teng, how cute could it be? This girl didn’t even have a good script for this small talk.

They chatted about the cat for a bit. Jiang Chu finished his cigarette, politely sent her “Gotta work, talk later,” and Chen Linguo replied with a “Mm-hmm,” then quickly typed another line: A friend of mine’s Persian cat just had kittens. I’m thinking of getting one soon. If I have any questions, I’ll ask you.

Seems like Da Ben was right. Chen Linguo was definitely interested.

Jiang Chu flicked his cigarette butt into the trash can and replied with a “Sure.”

When he got off work in the evening, Da Ben and Fang Zi were chatting in the group. Da Ben discussed with Jiang Chu, “Fang Zi said for the National Day holiday, we could go to that mountain for a farm stay. It’s about a forty-minute drive, stay two nights. His friend has some coupons. What do you think?”

It was their tradition to find a place to go for a few days during any break. Back in school, they’d just go wild anywhere. Now that they were all working and busy with their own lives, it wasn’t easy to get everyone together to mess around. As long as the timing worked out, Jiang Chu was always up for it.

He checked the dates and the upcoming workload, then nodded. “Sure. Book it.”

“Alright.” Da Ben snapped his fingers. “Bring your brother along. I haven’t met him yet.”

“I’ll ask him when I get home,” Jiang Chu said. “I don’t know if they’ll have extra classes.”

“He’s in his third year of high school, right?” Da Ben asked.

“Second year,” Jiang Chu said.

“Eighteen and in his second year?” Da Ben calculated. “Held back a year?”

“Who knows how his parents figured it out. Maybe the kid’s grades are shit and they wanted to hold him back a year to catch up.” After hearing what Qin Zui said yesterday, Jiang Chu felt a little bad for Qin Shuman now.

He didn’t exactly have a bad impression of her before, but he didn’t really like her either. After knowing what was going on with her and Qin Zui, he just felt sorry for her. She’d had a tough time.

Qin Zui didn’t have any particular opinion on going out, but he had a midterm exam at the end of September, and the school hadn’t announced how the National Day holiday would be scheduled.

“Probably something like that. My guess is the exam will be right before the holiday.” Jiang Chu was lying on the sofa playing games. “How are your grades? Can you keep up here?”

“Mm.” Qin Zui came out of the shower, cut a watermelon in half, and sat at the dining table eating it with a spoon.

Jiang Chu grabbed his phone and sat down too, eating the other half. “If you were at your old school, would you be in your second or third year now?”

“Third year,” Qin Zui said, his fingers flying across his phone screen as he typed.

“Ah.” Jiang Chu responded. So Qin Shuman had definitely held him back a year.

He glanced at the name on Qin Zui’s screen. It was Liang Xiaojia again.

“So, your old classmates… they’re all in their third year now?” Jiang Chu scooped out the sweetest, center part of his watermelon half and ate it. Seeing Qin Zui typing away endlessly, he reached his spoon over to dig into Qin Zui’s half.

Qin Zui pushed the watermelon a bit closer to him.

“All in their third year, and this buddy of yours isn’t studying?” Jiang Chu said casually. “Phone calls or WeChat messages every single day.”

Qin Zui leaned back in his chair, lifted his eyes to scan Jiang Chu for a second, and didn’t even stop typing. “So what?”

“Nothing, I’m not saying it’s a problem.” Jiang Chu also leaned back, hoisting one leg up to rest his foot on the edge of the chair, continuing to eat his watermelon. “Just curious. What do two teenage boys have to talk about every day? Porn? Video games? Girls?”

Qin Zui sent his last message, pressed the lock button on his phone with a click, placed it face down on the table, and tilted his head back slightly, fixing his gaze on Jiang Chu.

“What are you looking at?” Jiang Chu asked.

“Talking to you, and you’re pretty boring.” Qin Zui pulled his half of the watermelon back. “Let’s talk.”

“You’re out of your mind.” Jiang Chu laughed, turned his head to spit out a watermelon seed, and stood up to go shower.

He could see it now. This kid didn’t want to talk about that Liang Xiaojia guy.

Jiang Chu grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom. Qin Zui flipped his phone over. Liang Xiaojia had sent him another string of messages.

Qin Zui scanned them quickly, frowned slightly, and didn’t reply.

When he was about to clean up the table, the watermelon rinds, and head to his room to do homework, Jiang Chu’s phone vibrated once, lighting up with a message.

Qin Zui looked over instinctively. “Chen Linguo,” a girl’s name for sure. She had sent Jiang Chu a message saying “Brother Chu.”

One of Qin Zui’s eyebrows raised.

Not even two seconds later, the phone buzzed again. Chen Linguo again, this time with [Image].

Followed by a [Sticker].

Qin Zui stood by the table, holding two stacked sets of watermelon rinds, staring at the phone screen, waiting.

The screen went dark. Chen Linguo didn’t send anything else. He reached over, flipped Jiang Chu’s phone face down on the table, and went to throw the trash away.

The day before National Day was also the Mid-Autumn Festival. Jiang Liantian called Jiang Chu, asking if he wanted to get together.

Jiang Chu asked Qin Zui first. Qin Zui figured he didn’t want to see Qin Shuman yet, and said he had exams. So Jiang Chu went to his own mom’s place for a meal.

His mom already knew that Jiang Liantian had dumped his stepson on Jiang Chu. She was particularly unhappy about it.

“Your dad is an idiot, and that woman is no saint either.” She frowned as she boiled dumplings for Jiang Chu. The dumplings were store-bought. She didn’t have time to make them herself. “What kind of thing is that to do? Putting your own son in someone else’s son’s house. She doesn’t have to worry about a thing, just waiting for your dad to kick the bucket so she and her kid can split the money, right?”

“It’s not really fair to say that,” Fang Zhou, the husband of his mom’s second marriage, was setting the table in the dining room. “Maybe there are difficulties. After all, the mother and son haven’t seen each other for years…”

“That’s exactly why it’s crazy,” his mom interrupted him, frowning. “You’re all the same. You just think about your own comfort. If he’s not your own son, you don’t care.”

Fang Zhou pushed up his glasses and gave Jiang Chu, who was leaning against the kitchen doorway, a helpless smile.

“He pays me sixteen thousand a month. It’s a pretty good deal.” Jiang Chu also smiled, went over to his mom, and guided her out by the shoulders. “Let me scoop them up. You always break the skin.”

He didn’t say much more in front of Fang Zhou. It was after dinner, when his mom was walking him downstairs, that he roughly told her the situation between Qin Shuman and Qin Zui.

His mom was silent the whole way after listening. When they got to the garage and Jiang Chu got in the car, she had piled boxes of mooncakes of all sizes in the back. Then she let out a breath through her nose and said, “Speechless.”

Jiang Chu couldn’t stop laughing. He leaned one arm on the car window, looking at his mom. “You’re getting more and more trendy with your language every day, Mom.”

“Of course.” His mom smiled, took his rolled-up sleeve, and pulled it down. “Alright, get going. Drive carefully. Let the kid stay if he wants to. He’s in high school, right? Once he goes off to college, it’ll be over and done with.”

“Do you have enough money?” his mom asked again. “If you don’t, ask your dad!”

“I’m a grown-up, Mom. Don’t worry.” Jiang Chu smiled, pinching her shoulder.

“You know that, do you?” His mom immediately slapped his arm. “When are you going to get married? Da Ben got married last year, and you haven’t even had a steady girlfriend yet. On top of that, your dad saddles you with a little brother to take home. Jesus…”

Jiang Chu immediately shut the car door. “You married young, too, and look at you two now, living apart. I’ll bring her to meet you when I find the right one. Alright, Mom, you go on up.”

His mom was about to take another swipe at him, but Jiang Chu sped off in the car.

It was only 6:30 when he left his mom’s place. He happened to be passing the 27th High School, so he sent Qin Zui a message asking if he was done with his exam and was going to pick him up on the way home.

Like last time, Qin Zui replied with “Back door.”

On the day before a holiday, there were lots of students and cars on the road. When Jiang Chu got to the back gate, he saw Qin Zui from a distance. He was leaning against a lamppost, one hand in his pocket, the other on his phone.

Standing next to him was a girl. Tall, thin, pretty. Probably a classmate. She was talking to Qin Zui.

Jiang Chu said “Ooh” to himself, pulled the car over to the side of the road, and honked the horn at Qin Zui.

The girl jumped, turned around to look at the car, and asked Qin Zui, “Someone picking you up?”

“Yeah.” Qin Zui’s face was expressionless. He caught Jiang Chu’s eye through the car window, pocketed his phone, and pulled open the passenger door to get in.

“Not gonna say goodbye?” Jiang Chu asked with a smile, moving the mooncakes and snacks his mom had piled on the passenger seat to the back.

“Is this your… brother?” The girl wasn’t shy. Hearing Jiang Chu speak up for her, she smiled brightly and greeted him proactively. “Hello, big brother! I’m Qin Zui’s friend. Call me Lu Yao.”

[T/N: “Lu Yao” pun (from the idiom Lu Yao zhi ma li – “Distance tests a horse’s strength”)]

Jiang Chu almost blurted out, “Then you can call me Zhi Mali.” But he caught himself in time. She was still a student, a few years younger than him. That would be a bit too much. So he just smiled. “I’m Qin Zui’s brother.”

Lu Yao looked like she wanted to say more, but Qin Zui threw the remaining boxes from the passenger seat into the back, got in the car, shut the door, and said, “Go.”

What an attitude.

If his mom saw Qin Zui acting like this, she’d be worried he’d never find a girlfriend.

But this girl named Lu Yao was pretty easygoing. Even though Qin Zui in the passenger seat had made a show of slamming the door, she was still leaning down by Jiang Chu’s window, saying goodbye to Qin Zui. “I’ll contact you later! Don’t ignore me again!”

Jiang Chu kicked Qin Zui under the seat. Qin Zui seemed a bit annoyed and impatient. He glanced at her and said, sounding irritated, “You’re showing your collar.”

Lu Yao quickly grabbed her collar and stood up straight. A bit embarrassed, she smiled at Jiang Chu again. “Thanks. I’ll get going! Bye, big brother!”

Jiang Chu drove the car out of Back Door Street, glancing at Qin Zui out of the corner of his eye. “Not bad, Little Brother Qin Zui. Radiating charm everywhere.”

Qin Zui just looked at him, not wanting to say a word.

“The girl offend you or something? Saying goodbye to you and you’re all grumpy.” Stopped at a red light, Jiang Chu reached back, grabbed a half-opened box of pastries from the back seat, and tossed it into Qin Zui’s lap. “And you don’t reply to her messages.”

He replies to Liang Xiaojia’s often enough.

“Are you done?” Qin Zui opened the pastries, looked at them without much interest, and was about to put them back.

“Give me one.” Jiang Chu ordered him.

It was a box of mochi, not individually wrapped. Qin Zui just squeezed one through the oil paper to hand it over when Jiang Chu’s phone rang, and the light turned green.

Jiang Chu held the steering wheel with one hand, and took out his phone with the other to answer the call. He tilted his neck naturally and just bit the mochi right off Qin Zui’s hand. His aim was a bit off, and his teeth scraped Qin Zui’s fingertip through the oil paper.

Qin Zui stared at him for a second, then retracted his hand, still holding the wrappings.

He didn’t say anything about being bitten, but Jiang Chu clicked his tongue, “Tch,” annoyed that it had hurt his teeth, and said into the phone, “Who’s this?”

Then he heard the voice on the other end. He forgot all about the teeth thing and froze.

“Brother Chu, it’s Chen Linguo.” Her voice was as gentle and warm as it had been when they met. “Sister Bao Li said we’re all going to the farm stay tomorrow. She wanted me to ask if you need anything to bring. Are you free right now?”