The lunch box was empty, but there were still some remnants of old vinegar and chili sauce, which all smashed onto that person’s face and then dripped down to his collar.

That person instinctively stopped in his tracks and let out a howl. Xiang Xi took the opportunity to fling the box of uneaten mixed noodles at him as well. This time it hit accurately—right on the face.

The noodles weren’t hot, but having them smeared all over his face frightened the man, and he screamed again.

Xiang Xi seized the chance to charge and slammed into him hard. Ever since he was young, whenever he got into fights, he relied on ramming because he was thin.

This hit caused the man, who had been jumping, to lose his balance, slip, and fall backward onto the ground.

Xiang Xi originally wanted to go over and kick him in the face or stomach, but the two companions running behind him had already arrived. One reacted quickly; seeing his friend fall, he leapt over him as a unit, swinging his arm toward Xiang Xi’s face.

Xiang Xi dodged backward and saw that the person was holding half a broken brick. He jumped in shock; if that hit his face, he’d be scarred.

Cheng Boyan’s car had already arrived. Xiang Xi turned and sprinted toward the car, bending forward as he ran to prevent the half-brick from hitting the back of his head.

If Cheng Boyan weren’t there, he would probably have had to run anyway; he generally avoided entanglements. One-on-one, he might get the short end, let alone one against three.

Even though he knew Cheng Boyan would see him causing trouble again, right now, Cheng Boyan and his car were his safe harbor.

“Open the door!” he shouted while running. Suddenly, something bumped his right shoulder; he stumbled a step—it was the half-brick. “Fuck!”

Cheng Boyan unlocked the car door. As Xiang Xi pulled it open and jumped into the passenger seat, Cheng Boyan got out.

“Drive off!” Xiang Xi shouted from inside. “Why did you get out?”

Cheng Boyan ignored him, circled around the front of the car, and kicked the person with the brick. The man bent over and fell to the ground. Another one of the two swinging his arms with an object aimed at Cheng Boyan’s face was dodged by Cheng Boyan.

A lump—mud or cement residue—hit the passenger-side window.

“Damn it!” Xiang Xi flared up and reached for the door to get out.

Just as he pushed the door open, Cheng Boyan had grabbed the back person’s collar and yanked hard backward. The man staggered toward the car door.

Xiang Xi quickly closed the door; the man slammed into it.

Before he could get up, Cheng Boyan had picked up the man who had been kicked down earlier and threw him onto the other one in front, who hit the door again.

During this relay of throwing people against the car door, Cheng Boyan didn’t say a word. When the three first came running over, he finally shouted at one: “Coming back?”

The man stopped.

“Get lost!” Cheng Boyan turned and went back to the car, opened the door, and got in.

“Will he get crushed?” Xiang Xi asked, seeing that Cheng Boyan was about to drive. He quickly moved out of the window.

“No.” Cheng Boyan didn’t shift gears and pressed the gas pedal. The engine roared instantly.

The two still clinging to the car door quickly jumped aside.

Only then did Cheng Boyan shift gears. The car sped into the dark, unlit alley.

“Damn,” Xiang Xi turned to see the people quickly vanish from view. “What a bunch of idiots!”

“What happened?” Cheng Boyan asked. “Which way?”

“Turn right, then at the end turn left. That decrepit building,” Xiang Xi pointed. He started venting a bit, “I was eating at Sha County, and that guy—looking like a night pot —took up several stools. I just took one to sit, and he came out after me. Damn, my noodles weren’t even eaten… I thought you’d jump out, but crashing the door was still satisfying!”

Cheng Boyan said nothing and followed Xiang Xi’s directions. There were no parking spaces here, and even if there were, they couldn’t be seen clearly—the street lights were gone.

He guessed and parked in an empty spot. The front of the car scraped against a barely noticeable stone on the ground.

“Ouch!” Xiang Xi jumped in his seat and got out.

“It’s fine.” Cheng Boyan reversed a bit and got out too.

“Scratched the paint! Ah!” Xiang Xi bent over and looked at the front of the car, distressed. “What now?”

“Just scratches,” Cheng Boyan said without looking over, glancing at the dark doorway. “Is this the building?”

“Yes,” Xiang Xi took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and said, “Your car…”

“Move in, don’t live here anymore.” Cheng Boyan walked into the stairwell.

Xiang Xi followed quietly and whispered after a while: “Actually, it’s okay, it’s pretty good during the day.”

Cheng Boyan didn’t reply. As he turned up the stairs, his leg bumped into something stacked in the stairwell, and he gasped.

“Where did you bump?” Xiang Xi asked, feeling embarrassed, reaching toward his leg, and extending his phone forward. “I’ll walk in front.”

“It’s fine.” Cheng Boyan grabbed his hand and guided him to walk ahead.

Upstairs, Liu Yuanping’s room was still dark—no one had returned. Xiang Xi pulled out his key, opened his own door, and slapped the wall to turn on the light. “This is my room.”

“Mm.” Cheng Boyan followed him in and closed the door behind him.

“A bit small,” Xiang Xi said, placing the small fan on the only chair in the room and switching it on. “Sit on the bed.”

“Is this the bathroom?” Cheng Boyan pointed at the closed bathroom door.

“Yes, the toilet, shower, and sink are all inside.” Xiang Xi nodded.

Cheng Boyan reached to push the door, and Xiang Xi quickly stopped him. “Better not look, it’s just the bathroom.”

“You don’t flush the toilet?” Cheng Boyan asked.

“Of course I flush! Damn, of course I flush,” Xiang Xi rolled his eyes. “You don’t really think I’m like that, do you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with looking.” Cheng Boyan pushed the door open and glanced inside, then frowned.

The bathroom was fairly clean and didn’t smell bad, but the yellowed water stains on the walls and floor and the peeling paint looked… unpleasant.

“I said don’t look,” Xiang Xi said, closing the door and pointing at the bed. “Sit here, it’s fine, no need to change your pants.”

Cheng Boyan looked at the bed, sat on the edge, and then glanced around the room, sighing. “There’s a reason the rent is so cheap.”

“Have you eaten?” Xiang Xi held his phone. “If not, hold out a little longer—after 8:30 Sha County will deliver food. I’ll have the boss send something over.”

“No need,” Cheng Boyan said. “I had some bread, not very hungry.”

“I’m not full yet; I also threw away my noodles,” Xiang Xi rubbed his stomach. “Do you want some xiaolongbao (NT: small steamed buns)? I’m having them delivered anyway.”

“…Dumplings then,” Cheng Boyan said.

“Mm,” Xiang Xi lowered his head and dialed. “Li, it’s me, Xiang Xi. Can you send some food over later? Dumplings, mixed noodles, fried noodles…”

“You’re a pig,” Cheng Boyan said, hearing the list.

Xiang Xi laughed and hung up. “It’s not much.”

The room was very small. Aside from the bed and bathroom, the only space to move was from the bed to the door. Cheng Boyan sitting on the edge of the bed, legs extended, basically blocked that path.

Although Xiang Xi didn’t need to walk there now, leaning against the table and being so close, face-to-face with Cheng Boyan, made him a bit nervous.

At Cheng Boyan’s place, they had been even closer, but the space here was different, and it felt different being like this.

Cheng Boyan didn’t speak. Xiang Xi couldn’t think of anything to say either. In the few square meters of this room, the silence gave the atmosphere an indefinable sense of intimacy.

Xiang Xi inexplicably remembered the thing Cheng Boyan wrote on Weibo about wanting to touch someone’s leg, and subconsciously patted his own leg lightly.

“I’ll help you set up the computer.” Cheng Boyan glanced at him, stood, and turned around.

“Oh!” Xiang Xi, still leaning on the table, quickly straightened up and almost pressed against Cheng Boyan, then moved aside. “Okay.”

Beside him was the chair with the fan. As he moved, he knocked the fan over. The fan got stuck in the gap between the chair and bed, clattering while stubbornly blowing air.

“Fuck!” Xiang Xi hurriedly reached to pick up the fan.

Cheng Boyan slapped his arm lightly but sharply, producing a crisp sound.

Xiang Xi jumped. The slap was hard. He threw the fan onto the bed and shouted, “What are you doing!”

“I said if I hear it again, I’ll slap you,” Cheng Boyan didn’t look at him, instead turned the monitor on the desk, picked up the cables, and bent down to inspect them. “I held back in the car.”

“I…” Xiang Xi placed the fan on the bed edge, letting it blow, and rubbed his arm. A small patch turned red quickly. “Your hand is heavy!”

“Obviously, this is the hand of someone who plays Big Bone,” Cheng Boyan said as he plugged in the cables. “If I don’t put some force, you won’t learn your lesson.”

The mention of Big Bone made Xiang Xi laugh immediately. He flopped on the bed, laughing for a long time. “I saw your Weibo. So funny. What do you usually think about?”

“I just hope no colleagues see these Weibo posts,” Cheng Boyan said, moving the computer tower onto the desk. The table was too small; with the tower there, there was no legroom, so everything had to go on the desk.

“Your latest post… how did you know I would go look at your Weibo?” Xiang Xi laughed up at the ceiling.

“I already told you the name. It would be weird if you didn’t look. I also knew you’d definitely read it all from start to finish,” Cheng Boyan said, plugging all the cables into the computer and connecting the mouse and keyboard. “This keyboard… really disgusting…”

Xiang Xi’s laughter cut off halfway. Cheng Boyan had said he’d read it all from start to finish… and he really had. And judging from what Cheng Boyan said, he probably realized Xiang Xi had seen the “touching legs” post too…

Damn it! This person not only is unpredictable!

He has a thick skin!

“I… saw that one…” Xiang Xi didn’t even know why he said it—probably out of embarrassment, trying to fill the silence. “I thought you, after surgery, seeing someone’s legs would… want to touch them.”

“Am I crazy? Even if I were, it depends on whose legs,” Cheng Boyan said, pulling over the network cable and plugging it in, then pressing the power button. “Most of the legs I operate on are grandpa’s or other elderly people’s,” Cheng Boyan added.

Xiang Xi felt embarrassed but mumbled, “What about young people’s legs?”

“You think I said I wanted to touch anyone else?” Cheng Boyan said, turning, kneeling on one leg by the bed, looking down at him. “Isn’t it just you?”

Xiang Xi opened his mouth but couldn’t speak, staring at Cheng Boyan.

Cheng Boyan looked at him a moment, bent down, one hand resting beside Xiang Xi’s head, looking into his eyes. “You don’t seem angry?”

Cheng Boyan’s voice was low, a little hoarse, and Xiang Xi suddenly felt his heart race. The pressure felt like being wrapped tightly by Cheng Boyan made it hard to breathe. “Ah, I… I’m not…”

“I thought you’d be angry,” Cheng Boyan smiled.

“I’m not, I just feel…” Xiang Xi tilted his head, avoiding Cheng Boyan’s gaze. “I just feel I don’t have any temper with you.”

Cheng Boyan didn’t speak. He grabbed Xiang Xi’s chin and turned his face toward him.

Xiang Xi didn’t know what he was feeling. His heart was beating so fast that the world seemed to bounce along with it. His mind was a chaotic mix of embarrassment and nervousness.

He didn’t dare look at Cheng Boyan’s face, staring at the wall instead, almost too busy to think about what Cheng Boyan was going to do.

When he felt Cheng Boyan’s breath, Cheng Boyan was already holding his chin and kissing him. His lips felt warm and wet, pressed firmly by Cheng Boyan.

Xiang Xi’s eyes widened, and reflexively he lifted his hand to push Cheng Boyan’s shoulder.

Cheng Boyan held his hand down. Before Xiang Xi could recover from the shock, Cheng Boyan’s tongue lightly parted his teeth and slipped in.

In that moment, Xiang Xi was dizzy, hearing nothing, seeing nothing. All he could feel was Cheng Boyan’s tongue gently entwined with his.

When Xiang Xi’s knees hit Cheng Boyan’s ribs, Cheng Boyan almost instinctively bit toward Xiang Xi’s tongue in pain.

Letting go of Xiang Xi’s arms, he saw Xiang Xi’s confused, stunned expression, eyes wide open.

Cheng Boyan… you’re crazy.

That was his first thought. As he quickly got up and jumped off the bed, the second thought didn’t even form.

You’re crazy.

You’re crazy.

Crazy.

That single thought echoed in his mind.

Cheng Boyan pinched his brow, leaning against the wall, thinking about how to explain his repeated lecherous and unpredictable behaviour to Xiang Xi.

Xiang Xi didn’t speak either, lying on the bed with one leg bent. The fan had somehow rotated, blowing toward him.

His clothes puffed slightly with the air, revealing his unevenly rising and falling stomach from irregular breathing.

“The wall might not be very clean.” Xiang Xi finally spoke.

Cheng Boyan immediately straightened, moving away from the wall.

Xiang Xi stared at the ceiling, silent.

“Xiang Xi,” Cheng Boyan hesitated, walking to the bed. “I…”

“What exactly are you trying to do?” Xiang Xi didn’t look at him, eyes fixed on some point above, voice slightly trembling.

His tone made Cheng Boyan feel a jolt inside, and he let out a soft sigh.

What exactly is he going to do?

Cheng Boyan didn’t know what to say—impulsive? A flash of madness? Or… like?

From Xiang Xi’s reaction he clearly could not accept it yet. Cheng Boyan couldn’t bring himself to say the word “like,” fearing that Xiang Xi would be unable to refuse out of all the gratitude and reliance he had built up.

But if he didn’t say it, he couldn’t find a proper reason to explain his behaviour.

Suddenly, he felt a little annoyed.

He couldn’t say why, just felt frustrated.

The two fell silent again. The room only held the buzzing of the fan and the computer case, making it feel heavy and suffocating.

Cheng Boyan didn’t know how long he stood there in a daze when footsteps sounded outside, followed by someone knocking on the door: “Delivery!”

“Ah!” Xiang Xi answered loudly after a couple of seconds, bounced up from the bed, and went to open the door.

“Pay now or next time?” the delivery man asked, handing Xiang Xi several food boxes.

“Now, I have exact change.” Xiang Xi fished money from his pocket.

After the delivery man left, Xiang Xi closed the door, put the bags on the bed, opened a few boxes, and took out the dumplings, stabbing a pair of chopsticks into them and handing them to Cheng Boyan.

Cheng Boyan wanted to comment that leaving oily food on the bed wasn’t ideal, or that stabbing chopsticks directly into food wasn’t proper…

In the end, he said nothing and just stood by the wall eating with the chopsticks.

He felt annoyed and a little heartbroken for Xiang Xi, who was bewildered and frightened by him repeatedly. The dumplings almost had no taste and were hard to swallow.

Xiang Xi silently finished the rest, eating quickly, basically finishing at the same time as Cheng Boyan.

He stacked the boxes back into the bag, extending it toward Cheng Boyan to put the boxes inside. Cheng Boyan took the bag, putting the boxes in, and said, “The computer is ready to use. Call me if there’s any problem. I’ll… head back now.”

“Oh.” Xiang Xi replied, standing in front of the computer, staring blankly at the monitor.

“Xiang Xi,” Cheng Boyan opened a room door, “I’m not acting mischievously, and there’s nothing else…”

“I know.” Xiang Xi interrupted him.

“I won’t do this again in the future, I promise.” Cheng Boyan said.

Xiang Xi stayed silent.

Cheng Boyan paused, carrying the empty food bag out, closing the door behind him.

Hearing the door close, Xiang Xi stared at the computer for a while longer before suddenly plopping down on the bed.

He didn’t know what was wrong with Cheng Boyan.

He didn’t understand what was wrong with himself.

He didn’t know if he was angry or what he felt, couldn’t explain it. He just felt blocked, no matter if Cheng Boyan explained or not.

But he couldn’t say where the frustration came from.

He was extremely annoyed.

He didn’t even bother to shower. He didn’t want to use the computer either. He turned off the computer, stripped off his clothes, and lay on the bed with his eyes closed.

He didn’t remember when he fell asleep, or how, but he knew exactly when and how he woke up.

The fan blew on him, yet he was still sweating.

At 2:43 a.m., he woke suddenly from a dream about Cheng Boyan.

He had dreamt about Cheng Boyan before, but this time it had startled him awake.

Cheng Boyan was whispering by his ear, lips brushing and kissing him, hands lightly stroking his legs, stopping at a certain place.

Excitement.

This uncontrollable excitement brought a strange desire. After the climax, he opened his eyes suddenly, feeling the mix of reality and fantasy lingering, his rapid breathing not yet calming.

He was stunned for a long time, sweating uncomfortably, so he got up and took a shower.

Afterwards, the drowsiness completely disappeared.

He stared at the window without curtains until the first light of dawn appeared.

Unsure whether it was lack of sleep or overthinking, he was a bit dazed when he went to work.

In the morning, changing into his work clothes, he stared at the little bear name tag Cheng Boyan had sewn for him. Only when the security guard called several times did he come back to reality.

In the morning, helping with the cashier, he counted money wrong twice. Luckily, no other coworkers were nearby, or he’d have been embarrassed. In the afternoon, he avoided cashier duties for fear of making more mistakes.

Like last time, Cheng Boyan didn’t contact him. For three days, he didn’t reach out.

But this time felt different.

He thought Cheng Boyan probably wouldn’t contact him again, but whether that was because of Cheng Boyan himself or because Xiang Xi had blocked his knee, he didn’t know.

That knee hit hard, mainly because of the effective position—when he lifted his leg, it collided.

Cheng Boyan’s Weibo hadn’t updated either. He checked secretly a few times; the latest post was always “Good afternoon, Xiao Xixi”.

He suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

On the fourth night, he opened Cheng Boyan’s Weibo again. Still “Good afternoon, Xiao Xi Xi.”

But the previous 8 comments had become 9.

Xiang Xi clicked the comment and saw the latest one: “Why didn’t you reply on QQ? I miss you so much.”

Xiang Xi’s hand shook on the mouse, a surge of indescribable anger rising.

He clicked on a Weibo account called “Big Long Legs.”

Damn it! Such a disgusting name, not afraid it would make people vomit!

Big Long Legs’ Weibo had no content, just forwarded pictures of various men, with captions about licking the screen. Xiang Xi felt sick all over.

No need to say, this person was the same type as Tan Xiaokang.

…Why not the same as Cheng Boyan?

Who knows!

After browsing one page, Xiang Xi tried to close it but noticed on the left:

“The people I follow also follow him (1).”

Below was Cheng Boyan’s green leaf avatar. Big Bones.

Xiang Xi froze. He wasn’t very familiar with Weibo yet, didn’t know how to comment properly. After fiddling for a while, he realized Big Bones and Big Long Legs were mutually following each other.

Big Long Legs.

Big Long Legs!

Xiang Xi slapped the computer case.

“Go to hell, Big Long Legs!” he shouted.

The computer case beeped twice, then made a high-pitched ringing sound like tinnitus. Xiang Xi, irritated, slapped it again.

The case shook; the chaotic noise stopped, but so did everything on the monitor.

It shut down.

Xiang Xi froze, poking the power button with his finger—nothing. He poked again—still nothing. He panicked, started stabbing at the button repeatedly, over a dozen times in quick succession. The case sat quietly, like a “Big Long Legs” meditator sitting cross-legged on the desk, completely still and unresponsive.

Broken?

Xiang Xi sat in front of the desk, not knowing what to do.

 

Translator : DarNan