Cheng Boyan was lying on the bed. The light was already off, the room was very quiet, and after the curtains were drawn, the atmosphere in the bedroom was perfect to drop one’s head and fall asleep right away.

But he wasn’t sleepy. With his arm under his head, he was still thinking.

At first, he was thinking about Xiang Xi’s behaviour tonight—this half–drunken-rage-style. Was it liking someone, or was it more like the possessiveness of a kitten or puppy whose toy had been snatched away, that violated sense of ownership?

Hard to say.

He couldn’t be sure.

After thinking for only a short while, his train of thought went off track.

Although Xiang Xi smelled alcohol today and had thrown a drunken tantrum, in the end he had even taken out the lubricant, there had been touching and kissing. Even if it was just to scare Xiang Xi, some thoughts still popped up.

Cheng Boyan closed his eyes. This was seriously affecting his sleep quality. When he reached into his pants, he was genuinely thinking that…

When the phone rang on the bedside table, Cheng Boyan hadn’t even gotten to enjoy the peak of desire before being startled into an abrupt release.

“Hey!” he shouted irritably, grabbed the phone, and glanced at it. Lin He.

He didn’t answer. He tossed the phone onto the bed and ran into the bathroom.

While getting dressed after his shower, he saw the clothes Xiang Xi had tossed onto the bathroom rack. He sighed, grabbed them, threw them into the washing machine, and washed his hands again.

Back in the bedroom, the phone lay quietly on the bed. Lin He hadn’t called a second time.

He picked up the phone and called Lin He back. “What are you doing calling in the middle of the night?”

“You’ve got some nerve saying that. You were the one who treated us and then ran off halfway—I haven’t even scolded you yet, and now you’re annoyed at me?” Lin He said irritably. “We changed venues. Are you coming over or not?”

“No. Didn’t I say so when I left?” Cheng Boyan lay back down on the bed.

“Why rush back?” Lin He clicked his tongue in annoyance. “It’s not easy to get out once in a while.”

“Nothing. Just doing something that your call totally messed up,” Cheng Boyan stretched his arms and lay down.

“Whoa!” Lin He shouted. “Were you in the middle of doing something? My bad—should I hang up?”

“Too late. If you pull this on me a couple more times, I’ll be left with only one lonely road to walk: impotence,” Cheng Boyan said.

“No, Boyan, something’s off with you lately,” Lin He lowered his voice. “Isn’t your frequency a bit high?”

“Are you stupid,” Cheng Boyan said. “At this frequency, isn’t it clearly heading toward sexual apathy?”

“Get lost. I just happened to run into it twice—twice!” Lin He laughed. “Your frequency is already so high that every time I call, I can catch you, okay!”

Cheng Boyan smiled. “Relax a little, relax.”

“Didn’t you used to relax by listening to those ear-cleaning videos?” Lin He asked with a laugh. “Changed habits now?”

“Aren’t you guys switching places? Hurry up and go,” Cheng Boyan yawned.

“Alright, alright. You continue?” Lin He said.

“What’s it to you? Or you could come over and take a look?” Cheng Boyan turned the air conditioner temperature down a bit.

“Good night!” Lin He laughed and hung up.

“Good night.” After hanging up, Cheng Boyan finally felt a bit sleepy. He put the phone on the bedside table and was about to lie down, but after a moment’s thought, he got out of bed again, picked up the phone, and blocked “Long Legs” on QQ and Weibo.

Just to be safe—he didn’t want Xiang Xi to pull something like that again.

***

When Xiang Xi got up in the morning, it was later than usual. He only sprang out of bed after hearing noises by the front door.

He ran out and, seeing it was Yu Baoquan, finally relaxed. “Damn, you scared me to death. I overslept. I was afraid it was Brother Song.”

“Drank too much, huh?” Yu Baoquan said with a smile, handing him a bag. “Breakfast.”

“Huh? You even bought me breakfast?” Xiang Xi took it and looked. A huge ball of sticky rice.

“Didn’t buy it. My mom made it. I brought one for each of you,” Yu Baoquan said proudly. “Try it. My mom’s rice balls are seriously delicious.”

Looking at his expression, Xiang Xi felt a bit envious—breakfast made by someone’s mom.

He went to wash up, then took a bite of the still-warm rice ball. The taste was actually pretty average, but he ate it happily anyway. It wasn’t just envy; he felt quite satisfied inside. Breakfast brought by a coworker—how interesting was that!

Today, he wasn’t sure if it was because he’d slept ten minutes longer, or because of last night’s events… no, because of what Cheng Boyan had said last night. Xiang Xi felt his mood was great, and at work he wasn’t as dazed as before.

As long as he didn’t think too much about the fact that when Cheng Boyan pinned him against the table, he had actually… reacted.

He didn’t dare think too deeply about that. He always felt that once he started pondering the “why,” Tan Xiaokang would suddenly jump out and yell at him, “You freak!” and then add, “Like you’re any different!”

But it was different. As Xiang Xi put the messed-up items on the shelves back one by one, he thought: it was the same kind of thing, but when it was Tan Xiaokang, it was being a freak; when it was Cheng Boyan, it wasn’t—and he himself definitely wasn’t either.

Near lunchtime, as usual, Zhang Xin brought over the menu. Xiang Xi checked off the dishes he wanted. He recognized almost all the characters on the menu now—not all of them learned from the “textbook.” He had memorized this menu carefully.

After the food was delivered, the group ate in the changing room. Yu Baoquan ate while holding a book and reading.

“What are you reading?” Zhang Xin took a look at the book. “English? You’re studying English now?”

“Just giving it a try,” Yu Baoquan said with a slightly embarrassed smile. “I signed up for a class. It started these past couple of nights. I read whenever I have time—and there’s homework too.”

“Not bad,” Zhang Xin said with a smile. “I’m not that hardworking. I just take a flower-arranging class on weekends.”

“What kind of class?” Xiang Xi asked from the side.

“Just a training class—there are lots of them,” Zhang Xin said, picking a piece of fatty meat out of her bowl and putting it into Xiang Xi’s. “I’m dieting. Help me eat this. You’re so skinny—you need to build up your body.”

“Training class? Anyone can sign up?” Xiang Xi asked as he ate the fatty meat.

“Yeah, anyone can,” Yu Baoquan said, immediately scooting closer to him. “What, you want to sign up too? Why don’t you take an English class as well? I signed up for a beginner’s one—you could take it too, and we can keep each other company…”

“I can’t,” Xiang Xi laughed. “I… I just can’t learn it.”

He had only barely managed to figure out pinyin because he needed it to type. English was simply too distant for him. But…

“Are there other kinds of classes? Besides English and flower arranging or things like that?” Xiang Xi asked again.

“There are, lots of them. Why don’t you go take a look? Inside the Cultural Palace—there are tons,” Zhang Xin said. “Lots of people go.”

“A lot of people?” Xiang Xi lowered his head and took a bite of his food.

“Yeah. It’s about improving yourself a bit,” Yu Baoquan said, then picked up his book and kept reading.

Xiang Xi usually ate slowly, chatting as he ate, but today he ate very fast. He finished in just a few mouthfuls, then went to switch places with He Xiaoru, who was still standing at the cashier.

Standing behind the counter, his mood felt a little unsettled.

Training classes?

You could learn English, flower arranging, and many other things?

Anyone could sign up?

Then could he go too?

What would he study?

Elementary-school Chinese? Elementary-school math? Elementary-school English?

Should he go take a look?

For the entire afternoon, Xiang Xi was immersed in a mix of excitement, nervousness, and unease.

He didn’t know his direction—except forward.

But Yu Baoquan’s words, “improve yourself,” suddenly made him uncontrollably excited. Besides moving forward—always moving forward—he should also “improve.”

But how to improve? Improve what?

If it were before, he would’ve known clearly what he needed to improve: pickpocketing skills, scamming skills, escaping skills, dodging the police skills… plenty of them.

But now he felt lost.

After getting off work, he ate a bowl of noodles at a small shop nearby, went back to the store to check the inventory in the warehouse once over, then strolled out, circling the green paths of the nearby residential compound again and again. When he ran into people walking their dogs, he’d stop to tease the dogs along the way. Seeing that it was past nine thirty, he gave Cheng Boyan a call.

Cheng Boyan read every night—all kinds of books, plus lots of reference materials. Before, Xiang Xi had only thought Cheng Boyan was a really good doctor. Now that he thought about it, this too was self-improvement. He felt that maybe Cheng Boyan could tell him what he himself should improve.

“Hello?” When Cheng Boyan answered the phone, there was some noise on his end.

“You’re busy, right? If you’re busy, I’ll call you later,” Xiang Xi said right away. Ever since the last time he’d gone over and run into Cheng Boyan being in the operating room, he’d been afraid of calling at the wrong time.

“It’s fine. Just a bit busy. I’ll call you back in a moment,” Cheng Boyan said.

“Oh.” Xiang Xi responded, and Cheng Boyan quickly hung up.

Xiang Xi walked another two laps along the path. When he was almost back at the supermarket, Cheng Boyan’s call came through.

“I didn’t know you were busy,” Xiang Xi said as he answered. “Did I delay anything?”

“No,” Cheng Boyan smiled. “It wasn’t anything urgent. What’s up?”

“It’s nothing urgent on my end either… I just wanted to ask,” Xiang Xi scratched his head. “What do you think—I should do to further improve myself?”

“Improve?” Cheng Boyan paused for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, besides learning to read characters, should I learn something else?” Xiang Xi hesitated. “My coworkers are all studying something. They say it’s about improving yourself—one’s learning flower arranging, another’s learning English.”

“I see,” Cheng Boyan laughed. “Then what do you want to learn?”

“How would I know?” Xiang Xi sighed. “It’s like—I don’t know how to do anything. It’s like someone who’s read lots of books: if you ask him what kind of books he likes, he can tell you. But someone who doesn’t even recognize characters—if you ask him about books, how would he know?”

Cheng Boyan laughed for quite a while. “Then how are they studying? Signing up for classes?”

“Yeah,” Xiang Xi said immediately. “At the Cultural Palace. They say there are lots of training classes, and you can just sign up freely.”

“How about this,” Cheng Boyan thought for a moment. “I’m free on Saturday. Let’s go take a look—see what classes there are, then decide what you want to sign up for?”

“You’ll go with me?” Xiang Xi lifted his head as soon as he heard that. He had originally planned to go by himself, but he didn’t feel very confident and was afraid he wouldn’t understand things. With Cheng Boyan saying this, he immediately felt reassured.

“Yeah. I’m afraid you won’t be able to read and understand the characters,” Cheng Boyan said.

“I recognize quite a lot now. Don’t mention just ‘accompanying my dad to go grocery shopping’—even walking around a department store is no problem,” Xiang Xi said, chuckling twice.

After confirming they would go to the Cultural Palace on Saturday, Xiang Xi spent several consecutive days thinking about this whole “self-improvement” matter.

Zhang Xin and Qi Baoquan—these two had signed up for completely different kinds of classes. Xiang Xi felt that signing up for classes could also be divided into types. One type was like Zhang Xin’s: mainly for interest—liking flower arranging and learning it whenever there was time.

The other type was like Qi Baoquan’s: learning something practical that could help make things easier and lead to a better job.

Xiang Xi felt he belonged to Qi Baoquan’s category. His current situation hadn’t reached the point of learning things purely for pleasure yet. Although the supermarket job was already quite good for him, he still hoped to earn more money. He didn’t dare think about things like houses or cars, but at the very least, he wanted to pay Cheng Boyan back, be able to afford a new computer, rent a comfortable place to live, and, when Cheng Boyan had another birthday, give him a gift more expensive than a lollipop.

Thinking of the lollipop… he wondered whether the lollipop he’d given last time had ended up being eaten or thrown away.

He actually spent a whole day thinking this through.

On Saturday morning, Cheng Boyan drove over. The moment Xiang Xi jumped into the car, he couldn’t help blurting out his first question: “That lollipop I gave you last time… What happened to your arm?!”

Cheng Boyan’s left arm was wrapped in bandages. Xiang Xi was shocked. When he’d been hospitalized, Cheng Boyan’s hand had already been injured once. This was the second time, and it was obviously more serious than before. His eyes widened. “What happened to your arm?! Huh? What’s going on?!”

“The lollipop’s in the fridge,” Cheng Boyan replied with a smile, turning the car around.

“Who’s asking about the lollipop! I’m asking about your arm!” Xiang Xi shouted.

“You just asked,” Cheng Boyan sighed. “Listen to that voice—you weren’t exactly quiet…”

“Did you fall, or did someone hit you?” Xiang Xi lowered his voice a bit and asked again.

“It’s nothing, not serious,” Cheng Boyan said lightly. “Someone got into a fight and ended up in the emergency room while I was on duty, so I went over. I ran too fast and didn’t notice the guy had a knife in his hand—it just got sliced a bit.”

“Was the cut deep?” Xiang Xi frowned, then suddenly widened his eyes again. “Ah! Was it that day when I called you?!”

“More or less. I was just about to get the wound stitched up then,” Cheng Boyan said with a smile.

“So it even needed stitches… I never really thought about it before, but now I realize your line of work is way too dangerous—getting injured all the time,” Xiang Xi looked at his arm and sighed heavily. “Sigh! Patients’ families get emotional and you get hurt; fights in the emergency room and you get hurt too…”

“It’s all accidents,” Cheng Boyan smiled. “Go straight to the Cultural Palace?”

“Can you really go like this?” Xiang Xi asked worriedly.

“It’s been several days already,” Cheng Boyan glanced at him. “It’s not like I’m carrying a huge load over there.”

The Cultural Palace was very lively on the weekend. It was Xiang Xi’s first time there. There was even a snack street by the back gate, with lots of stalls selling things.

The place to sign up for training classes was in the innermost building, and there were lots of people, some just looking around, some attending classes. On the first floor, several classrooms were full of children: some dancing, some drawing, others loudly reading English.

“Why is it all kids?” Xiang Xi stood by the window and watched for a while.

“There are more upstairs, and over there too—several buildings altogether,” Cheng Boyan tugged at his arm and pointed to a large bulletin board nearby. “Let’s look here first.”

All the enrollment ads were posted on the bulletin board, with many smaller signs standing beside it.

There was too much content. Xiang Xi felt like his eyes were full of characters. After staring for a long time, he still hadn’t understood a single one, and muttered softly, “All that effort learning characters went to waste, huh.”

“Want me to read them to you?” Cheng Boyan asked.

“I’ll read them myself,” Xiang Xi walked up and stopped in front of the board. “If I read them one by one, I can understand. My eyes just can’t keep up.”

He slowly leaned in to read. Most of it was English, plus German and French, various elementary, middle, and high school tutoring courses. Then he saw Western pastry, cooking, fashion design, computer drafting, makeup, and the flower arranging Zhang Xin had mentioned. Finally, he saw photography.

“There’s photography too,” he said excitedly as he turned back to Cheng Boyan. “Is it taking photos?”

“This one is wedding photography,” Cheng Boyan said, holding a thick stack of flyers. “It’s a bit different from the kind you usually do. Interested?”

“Where did you get all that?” Xiang Xi stared at what he was holding. “In just this short time you’ve already got enough to paste a whole wall…”

“They gave them to me,” Cheng Boyan smiled. “We can look at them more carefully when we get back.”

“Why didn’t anyone give me any?” Xiang Xi immediately felt a bit annoyed. So even handing out flyers depends on who you are?

“They did give them to you. You were reading so seriously—I took them for you,” Cheng Boyan patted the flyers in his hand. “I was too enthusiastic. They probably thought I was collecting them to sell as scrap paper.”

“This photography thing…” Xiang Xi walked over to him and happened to see the top flyer—wedding portrait photography. “After finishing the course, do you go work at a studio?”

“Yeah, more or less,” Cheng Boyan nodded.

Xiang Xi didn’t say anything. He lowered his head and flipped through the flyer. There were quite a few students’ works on it. After looking for a while, he saw that they were very different from the kinds of photos he usually liked to take.

“Want to go ask about it? It’s on the third floor of the building at the back,” Cheng Boyan asked.

“I’ll see if there’s anything else first,” Xiang Xi felt that no matter what kind of photography it was, it seemed a bit too advanced for him. It also felt less straightforward for making money than things like cooking. “I’ll compare a bit more.”

“Okay,” Cheng Boyan smiled and flipped through the flyers one by one for him.

“Why don’t you help me make up my mind?” Xiang Xi frowned. “I really…”

“Just tell me why you want to sign up for a class. Is it for self-improvement? To kill time? Or to learn a specialized skill?” Cheng Boyan asked.

“A specialized skill—one that can make money,” Xiang Xi bit his lip and spoke as he thought. “You see, I don’t know how to do anything right now. This supermarket job—anyone could do it. If it weren’t for Song—I could be replaced by someone else at any time.”

Cheng Boyan looked at him without speaking. After a while, he patted his shoulder. “You really think about a lot.”

“I can’t afford not to,” Xiang Xi said a bit embarrassed. “My circumstances are right here.”

“Then let’s walk around some more and see if there’s anything else,” Cheng Boyan said as he headed toward the classrooms. “I’ll help you think it through. No need to rush a decision.”

“Mm.” Xiang Xi followed him.

The two of them wandered through several buildings. Not all the training classes were located here—some only had a table set up for enrolment, with classes held elsewhere.

Xiang Xi looked over every classroom and every table, picking up a large stack of promotional materials.

“I’ll go back and look through them carefully,” he said as they went downstairs, still flipping through them again and again, with an indescribable sense of happiness in his heart.

“Okay,” Cheng Boyan glanced at the time. “How about we go eat first—”

“Huh?” Xiang Xi shouted from behind, then lowered his voice. “Oh my god!”

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Boyan turned around.

“I…” All the happiness on Xiang Xi’s face turned into gloom. He grabbed Cheng Boyan’s arm and dragged him quickly downstairs, whispering as they walked, “No, no, no—forget it.”

“What’s going on?” Cheng Boyan was dragged downstairs and then toward the Cultural Palace’s main gate, completely confused.

“Money! Money! Did you see it?!” Xiang Xi dragged him all the way out to the street before pointing at the flyers, poking them repeatedly with his finger. “I never noticed the price before! I thought it was an extension number! Even the cheapest ones are several hundred per term!”

“Not enough money?” Cheng Boyan looked at the prices. He had been aware of them the whole time, but since Xiang Xi hadn’t mentioned it, he hadn’t said anything either—and now he didn’t dare say outright, If you don’t have enough, I’ll pay.

“If you say it’s enough, it is… barely,” Xiang Xi frowned. “But I’d have to take out all of it. I just deposited the money into my card—it hasn’t even had time to sit there yet.”

“Then you… want to think about it some more?” Cheng Boyan didn’t know what to say.

“Yeah, I…” Xiang Xi had just started speaking when a burst of noise from not far away cut him off.

“There’s a thief! Catch the thief!” a woman shouted.

Because there was a snack street here and it was mealtime, there were a lot of people. When she shouted, everyone around immediately became agitated, all turning to look around.

“Thief!” The woman suddenly pointed in one direction and shouted, chasing after it as she yelled. “That’s him!”

Cheng Boyan followed the direction she pointed. There were too many people to see clearly; he only caught a glimpse of a figure flashing through the crowd and darting into a small side alley nearby.

Before he could say anything, Xiang Xi suddenly threw the flyers in his hands onto Cheng Boyan and took off running after him.

“Xiang Xi!” Cheng Boyan grabbed the stack of flyers and froze for a moment. Without time to think, he tossed them onto a toy stall nearby and chased after him as well.

Xiang Xi ran extremely fast. After just a few steps, Cheng Boyan saw that he had already turned into that alley.

“Xiang Xi!” he shouted again. He truly hadn’t expected Xiang Xi to suddenly chase a thief—nor had he expected Xiang Xi to be able to run at such speed.

Such explosive power!

What training classes were even needed? He could just go compete directly!

By the time Cheng Boyan reached the alley, Xiang Xi was already out of sight. The few people who had been helping chase the thief, along with the female victim, had all lost their sense of direction.

By the time the thief was discovered, it was already too late. At this point, it was impossible to catch up even if they wanted to.

Looking at the many small alleyways branching off on both sides—too many to count in a short time—Cheng Boyan began to worry. He kept running forward while pulling out his phone.

Xiang Xi’s phone connected, but no one answered.

After asking around for quite a while, Cheng Boyan finally learned from a cigarette stand by the street that two young men had run one after the other into an alley.

“Over there,” the stall owner pointed.

“Thank you,” Cheng Boyan said, immediately running into the alley.

The alley wasn’t very long. This area had already been redeveloped; the alley was only about two hundred meters before it ended. Beyond it was another small street, with traffic and pedestrians flowing. Let alone one thief—even a whole group of thieves could instantly disappear into the crowd once they came out.

Anxiously, Cheng Boyan picked up his phone and was just about to dial when the corner of his eye caught sight of someone leaning under a tree nearby. Looking again, it was Xiang Xi.

“What the hell are you doing!” Cheng Boyan shouted, walking over and grabbing his arm, giving it a hard tug. “Have you lost your mind?!”

Xiang Xi lowered his head and didn’t speak. He seemed to have just stopped running and was breathing heavily. Cheng Boyan immediately felt a bit of heartache. Strictly speaking, helping to catch a thief wasn’t doing anything wrong… He softened his voice. “If you’re going to chase a thief, at least assess the situation. He’d already run so far—you just blindly chased him. What if something happened?”

“I wasn’t chasing a thief,” Xiang Xi raised his head. “I wasn’t chasing a thief.”

Cheng Boyan was surprised to find Xiang Xi’s eyes a bit red, his voice trembling. He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“It was Mantou,” Xiang Xi grabbed his arm with his backhand, gripping tightly. “It was Mantou. It had to be Mantou… I didn’t catch up… What’s going on with him?… I just want to know what’s wrong with him…”

 

Translator : DarNan