After hanging up the phone with Cheng Boyan, Xiang Xi got back into the car. Brother Wang checked the time. “The neighbourhood committee is closed for lunch now anyway. How about we grab something to eat first and go this afternoon?”

“Okay,” Xiang Xi thought for a moment. “I'll take you somewhere cleaner. Around here... I know the area.”

“Then show me the way,” Brother Wang said with a smile.

After the car pulled away, Xiang Xi didn't actually give any directions. He simply stared out the window in silence. After a while, he quietly said, “How about... we just drive around for a bit first?”

“No problem,” Brother Wang replied immediately.

Zhaojiayao was a large area. The police station was on the edge of the run-down district. Brother Wang didn't ask where they should go; he simply drove slowly deeper into the neighbourhood.

Under the harsh daylight, Zhaojiayao still looked lifeless. If anything, the dense web of electrical wires—like bushes growing in mid-air—was even more visible.

The streets were narrow, barely enough for two cars to pass. Every pothole cast a shadow in the sunlight, making the road look like it was covered in patches of black.

It was the first time Xiang Xi was sitting in a car, driven through these streets instead of walking them. The car jolted over the uneven road every few moments, and he nearly bit his tongue several times.

“I honestly never noticed the roads were this bad before,” he said, looking at the small shops and food stalls lining the street. Every now and then he spotted a shopkeeper who looked just as dispirited as the storefront itself.

“No one's really taking care of this area,” Brother Liu, sitting in the back seat, said. “Who knows when they'll finally redevelop it.”

“What developer could afford to buy this place?” Brother Wang looked out the window. “Every household wants enough compensation to cover the next eight generations. Xiao Xiang, you grew up here?”

“Yeah.” Xiang Xi nodded, then smiled. “You could say this is my territory.”

When they reached the entrance to Dawa Alley, Xiang Xi asked Brother Wang to stop the car. “I'll go take a look.”

The other three got out as well and stood at the street corner.

Xiang Xi almost laughed. He didn't know exactly what the three-man team had done before, but judging by Song Yi's demeanour, they had probably all been street fighters at one point. Even so, compared to the people of Zhaojiayao, the three of them looked far more intimidating.

As Xiang Xi walked into the alley, he suddenly felt as though he'd returned to show off with a bunch of badass little brothers behind him.

Dawa Alley hadn't changed. It still looked filthy, chaotic, and rundown on the outside, and just as filthy, chaotic, and rundown on the inside. Even the chickens people raised looked exactly like the previous generations.

“Xiao Zhan?” As he passed an open doorway, Xiang Xi heard the Fake Blind Man's voice.

He turned around. “Master, it's me.”

“What are you doing back?” The Fake Blind Man came out of the house. Before stepping outside, he didn't forget to grab his dark glasses and put them on. “Why'd you come back?”

“Just looking around,” Xiang Xi said. “I was passing by.”

The Fake Blind Man craned his neck toward the entrance to the alley and spotted the three men standing there with folded arms, watching this way. He instinctively shrank back. “You here for revenge?”

“Revenge against who?” Xiang Xi walked forward slowly. “I've got no grudge against this place.”

“Your Uncle Ping ran off. Erpan ran off too. Mantou also disappeared...” The Fake Blind Man followed behind him. “What's with your arm hanging in a sling?”

“My arm got tired, so I hung it up,” Xiang Xi replied casually before asking, “Who's living there now?”

“No one. No one's taking care of it either. It's all empty now,” the Fake Blind Man said. “Xiao Zhan... you seem different.”

“What about Li Hui?” Xiang Xi ignored his last remark.

“She ran away too. Left with her mother the night of the fire.” The Fake Blind Man adjusted his sunglasses. “If that hadn't happened, she'd probably have been beaten to death sooner or later.”

Xiang Xi suddenly let out a long breath of relief.

He looked up toward Erpan's rooftop—the place where Li Hui had once been kicked off. Now it was empty.

The flowerpots that had once lined the edge of the roof had all withered, their yellow leaves and dead branches hanging limply.

“Running away won't do her much good anyway,” the Fake Blind Man continued, talking to himself. “She'll probably just follow her mother and find another man to rely on.”

The small blue address plate was still hanging on the wall of Uncle Ping's building. Dawa Alley No. 17.

The curtains had been opened, making the inside visible, but Xiang Xi didn't bother looking. Instead, he turned and looked toward the wall opposite No. 17.

To his surprise, the cat was still there. It looked pregnant, much fatter than before, curled lazily into a ball on top of the wall, squinting at him in the sunshine.

The corner of Xiang Xi's mouth lifted involuntarily.

“Meow.” The cat opened its eyes slightly wider, then quickly narrowed them again, looking thoroughly uninterested in acknowledging him.

Xiang Xi watched it for a while.

The sunlight was too bright. He rubbed his eyes. “I'm leaving.”

“That's it?” the Fake Blind Man asked in confusion. “What'd you come here for?”

“I told you,” Xiang Xi said without turning around. “Just to take a look.”

“What's there to look at? A bunch of people who are as good as dead,” the Fake Blind Man called after him without following. “A bunch of blind people. What's the point of looking?”

“To feel superior,” Xiang Xi replied. “I'm just here to show off my sense of superiority.”

“You coming back again?”

“No.” Xiang Xi waved without looking back. “Take care, Master.”

Without turning around once, Xiang Xi walked out of Dawa Alley and got back into the car waiting at the entrance.

“Let's go eat,” he said. “This meal's on me.”

“No need,” Brother Liu laughed. “How could we let a kid like you treat us? If Song Yi found out, he'd never let us hear the end of it.”

“I still owe him a meal too,” Xiang Xi smiled. “Treating you guys here is just making do. As long as you don't mind. We'll go to Zhaojiayao Grand Hotel—the best restaurant around.”

“Grand Hotel?” Brother Wang looked around in confusion. “We haven't seen anything remotely worthy of that name.”

“Turn right up ahead. You'll see.”

The so-called Zhaojiayao Grand Hotel was actually named Lao Si's (NT: Old Fourth) Hot Pot. It was twenty square meters, one floor, and after subtracting the refrigerator, stacks of beer crates, and various odds and ends, there was room for maybe seven or eight tables.

Xiang Xi and Mantou used to eat here all the time. One personal hot pot cost thirty yuan, and with the complimentary vegetables, tofu, and unlimited rice, the two of them could each spend fifteen yuan and leave completely stuffed.

The owner still recognized him. “Long time no see, Xiao Zhan,” he said in surprise.

“Yeah. I was away on business,” Xiang Xi answered.

“Where's your little buddy?” The owner brought a pot of tea to their table. “Haven't seen him either.”

“He went home.”

“He went home? That's good.” The owner nodded. “There's no place better than home.”

Although the weather had already cooled down, after finishing two hot pots Xiang Xi was still sweating.

As soon as he stepped outside, the breeze wrapped around him, making him sneeze. “Ah—that feels great!”

Checking the time, it was almost right.

Officer Li had given him the address of the neighbourhood committee, but he'd still have to find it.

If someone asked Xiang Xi where to find an illegal internet café, underground gaming room, or gambling den in Zhaojiayao, he could point them there with his eyes closed.

But places like the neighbourhood committee? He had absolutely no idea.

First, they barely registered in his world. Second, even when he'd walked past them before, he'd looked right through them.

Different people lived different lives and came into contact with different things.

The neighbourhood committee… That belonged to ordinary residents.

Only now, when he was about to become someone with a household registration and an ID card—a real resident—did it occur to him to come looking for it.

The neighbourhood committee office was tucked among a cluster of old buildings. It was easily the cleanest and tidiest place in the area. A sign hung outside the entrance on the first floor, making it easy enough to find.

Inside the office were only three women: two younger clerks and an older woman who was the committee director.

“So you're Liang Chuanping's child,” the director said.

The moment she mentioned Uncle Ping's real name, the other two younger women both looked up toward Xiang Xi. “I know who you are. Have a seat first.”

Uncle Ping had already been fairly well known around here. Now that he was a wanted fugitive for drug trafficking, he'd become something of a local celebrity overnight.

The director took out a record book and began asking Xiang Xi about his background in detail.

“When he brought you back back then, our neighbourhood committee actually came to ask about it. I checked—we still have a record. But I hadn't started working here yet at the time, so I'll need to go over everything with you again.”

The director's "checking into things" didn't just involve asking Xiang Xi questions and looking up the old records. She also took him back to Dawa Alley to speak with longtime residents.

Xiang Xi froze for a moment, then reluctantly stood up to follow her. “I have to go too?”

“Of course,” the director replied. “The police station already told me about your case, but this isn't a small matter. We still have to verify everything carefully. Normally it would take me two or three days to investigate before I could issue this certificate. After all, you don't have any supporting documents at all. But now we have policies for homeless and trafficked persons, so we'll do our best to get your certificate as quickly as possible.”

Left with no choice, Xiang Xi agreed. Less than two hours ago he'd told the Fake Blind Man he would never come back. Now here he was again.

The director worked efficiently. She went straight to several neighbours and questioned them. It was also the first time Xiang Xi heard independent confirmation about his own past.

He had been carried home. No one knew where he had been brought from. He had been very small when he was brought back—a tiny little baby, only a few months old at most.

No one could remember the exact year, but everyone was sure it had been winter. He'd been wrapped in a thick swaddling quilt.

He had been sick all the time after he arrived, and Liang Chuanping had almost thrown him away again.

Liang Chuanping had always claimed he'd found him.

*

The director stamped the printed certificate and handed it to him. The younger clerk beside her picked up a camera. “May I take a picture?”

“What for?” Xiang Xi turned to look at her.

“This counts as one of our successful cases,” the clerk said. “It's meaningful, so we'd like to document it. We won't photograph your face, and we won't publish your name. Is that alright?”

Xiang Xi thought for a moment. “Take it from behind.”

The clerk moved behind and slightly to one side of him and photographed him and the director together, both holding the certificate.

“Young man,” the director said, patting him on the shoulder, “I wish you all the best in your work and your life from now on.”

“Thank you.”

Xiang Xi looked at the certificate in his hands. The bright red official seal stood out vividly. It was the first time in his life he'd seen an official red stamp on a document that belonged to him.

It felt strangely miraculous.

The overwhelming excitement of knowing he was about to become an ordinary person in the eyes of the law completely filled him. Yet he couldn't express that feeling.

No one could possibly understand the anticipation, excitement, anxiety, the urge to shout at the top of his lungs that had been building inside him these past few days.

No...

There was one person who could.

Cheng Boyan.

Only Cheng Boyan could understand how he felt.

Only Cheng Boyan knew what these certificates, these red seals, these thin sheets of paper and forms truly meant to him.

*

When he got home, Cheng Boyan hadn't returned yet.

Xiang Xi changed his clothes, sat down on the sofa, and carefully spread all the documents and forms across the coffee table, arranging them page by page.

Then he sat upright, quietly staring at the papers covering the table.

He didn't move again until Cheng Boyan came through the door.

The moment he heard the door open, he sprang off the sofa and bounced over to the entrance, pointing at the papers on the coffee table as he shouted, “Look!”

“Oh—” Cheng Boyan had just reached for the disinfectant dispenser. Xiang Xi startled him so badly that a blob of disinfectant landed on top of the shoe cabinet. “Look at what?”

“Look! Here! These!” Xiang Xi bounced back to the coffee table. “This is my evidence! My documents! Xiang Xi's! Proof that I exist! See the stamp? It's red!”

Ignoring the disinfectant on the shoe cabinet, Cheng Boyan didn't even bother taking off his shoes. He walked straight over to the coffee table and looked down at the documents.

“Is everything there?” he asked.

“The main thing was this certificate from the neighbourhood committee.” Xiang Xi tapped it twice. “This one. The rest are forms. Once they're filled out, I have to hand them in. I'm going back tomorrow. After I submit everything, all I have to do is wait. They'll register my household under the welfare institute, and then I can use that registration to apply for an ID card. Officer Li is also taking me for a blood sample tomorrow. He said that if my parents have also submitted DNA samples, they might be able to match them...”

Xiang Xi spoke so quickly and so excitedly that Cheng Boyan was afraid he might bite his tongue. He quickly pulled him into a hug, gently patting his back. “Slow down. Slow down. I can't keep up.”

“I'm done,” Xiang Xi immediately leaned against him, giggling. “Everything went so smoothly. I thought they'd keep dragging it out, that I'd have to run back and forth a hundred times just to get one stamp.”

“Government offices are actually pretty efficient these days. Besides, your case is particular, so they're probably handling it as a special case.” Cheng Boyan rubbed his back until he felt Xiang Xi had calmed down a little, then let go and walked back to the entrance, rubbing his hands together. “Go change your shirt.”

“Huh?” Xiang Xi tugged at his clothes. “I just changed. Right after I came in.”

“I touched you. Now you've got germs all over you,” Cheng Boyan said. “Go change.”

“Seriously? Just because you touched me?” Xiang Xi felt Cheng Boyan's germophobia seemed to be getting worse. “What, did you stick your hand in shit?”

“...No,” Cheng Boyan replied, glancing at him. After hesitating for a moment, he added, “We had an emergency patient today. Drunk-driving accident. Multiple fractures. I was examining him when he threw up all over my hand... My stitches were supposed to come out tomorrow, but after all that, they disinfected it thoroughly and just removed them today.”

Xiang Xi frowned. “That's disgusting.”

“Yeah,” Cheng Boyan said as he changed into slippers. “You insisted on asking. I'll take a shower first, then I'll go over those forms carefully.”

“You've got to fill them out for me,” Xiang Xi said. “My handwriting's terrible. And... I want these to look nice. They mean something.”

Cheng Boyan smiled. “I wasn't planning to let you write them anyway. If you did, I'd have to fill one out first so you could copy it.”

While Cheng Boyan was showering, Xiang Xi changed into another shirt.

Then he wiped the section of floor where Cheng Boyan had walked with his shoes on.

There weren't even any visible footprints, but Xiang Xi still cleaned it according to Cheng Boyan's standards.

If this keeps up, I'm going to be trained into a clean freak myself.

When he finished cleaning, he sat back down on the sofa and stared at the forms and certificates again.

After quite a while, he suddenly remembered something. He jumped up, ran to the bathroom door, and knocked. “Your stitches came out?”

“I thought you wouldn't remember to ask until tomorrow,” Cheng Boyan laughed from inside. “Yeah, they're out.”

“Is there a scar?” Xiang Xi asked. “Let me see.”

“Of course there's a scar right now,” Cheng Boyan opened the door and held out his hand, palm up. “Here.”

“...That's ugly.”

Looking at the scar across Cheng Boyan's palm, Xiang Xi's heart ached.

Cheng Boyan had beautiful hands. Now there was a scar there, and it bothered him deeply.

“What if it never goes away?”

“So what if it doesn't?” Cheng Boyan said indifferently. “I'd rather it leave a bigger scar.”

“Why? Are you sick?” Xiang Xi glared at him.

“So I can jerk you off with this hand.”

Xiang Xi opened his mouth but couldn't get a single word out. He simply slammed the bathroom door shut.

This old pervert.

When he said things like that, his tone never changed in the slightest. It was as natural and effortless as asking what they were having for dinner. He was hopeless.

By the time Cheng Boyan came out of the shower, Xiang Xi had already placed the forms that needed filling out, a pen, and the sample form neatly in the centre of the coffee table.

“Hurry up and fill them in.” The moment Cheng Boyan appeared, Xiang Xi stood up and gave him the sofa.

“I'll do it in the bedroom,” Cheng Boyan said, gathering everything up. “The coffee table's too low. My back will kill me.”

He carried everything into the bedroom, sat down at the small desk, and switched on the desk lamp.

“What do you want to eat?” Xiang Xi dragged over a little stool and sat opposite him. “I'll make it for you. Fried little fish? Mixed-bean puree?”

“No.” Cheng Boyan looked at him. “Are we going to be living off Hu Hai's recipes from now on?”

“Not really. Those are just the two things I've learned so far.” Xiang Xi laughed. “So what do you want?”

“I'll take you out to eat later,” Cheng Boyan said with a smile. “Just because I can't cook it doesn't mean I can't afford to buy it.”

Xiang Xi giggled for quite a while before resting his chin on the edge of the desk. “Then go ahead. I'll watch.”

Cheng Boyan began filling out the forms according to the sample, discussing each entry with him as he wrote: name, sex, place of birth, ancestral home (NT: the officially registered place of family origin), current residence, personal background...

Xiang Xi watched the tip of Cheng Boyan's pen.

Cheng Boyan normally had beautiful handwriting, though he usually wrote in quick cursive. Only when leaving Xiang Xi little notes would he carefully write each stroke.

Now his handwriting was even neater than usual. As Xiang Xi watched the blank spaces gradually fill up, it felt as though his own life was also being rewritten bit by bit— the correct page finally being written.

“I'm so excited,” he said softly. “You understand how I feel, don't you?”

“I do,” Cheng Boyan replied. “I'm excited too. I was even worried my hand would be shaking while I wrote.”

“What are you so excited about?” Xiang Xi laughed.

“If you have an ID card, I'll finally be able to take you out to have fun,” Cheng Boyan said. “Who knows, maybe one day we'll even be able to get married. Too bad you can't register your household under mine as my son. We'll just have to wait until we can get married.”

Resting his chin on the desk, Xiang Xi sat there grinning foolishly for quite a while, not even knowing what he was so happy about.

After filling out every form and checking them twice to make sure there were no omissions or mistakes, more than an hour had passed. Cheng Boyan stretched lazily. “Man... I wasn't even this meticulous when I wrote my thesis.”

“Let's go eat. I'm starving.”

Xiang Xi gathered everything he needed to submit the next day into a neat stack and slipped it into the document folder. After a moment's thought, he picked up the folder from the table and tucked it underneath his pillow.

“What do you want to eat?” Cheng Boyan asked, watching him with an amused smile. He reached over and ruffled his hair. “Steak? Didn't you say you wanted one last time? Let's go have steak today.”

“Are you trying to torture me?” Xiang Xi looked at him. “Just because your hand's healed doesn't mean you should take someone whose arm is still in a sling to eat something that needs both hands.”

“I'll cut it for you,” Cheng Boyan laughed, pulling him into a hug and kissing him once. “I'll feed you.”

Cheng Boyan took him to a small Western restaurant tucked away beside the lake. There weren't many customers, and it was pleasantly quiet.

Xiang Xi thought it was actually the perfect place to be fed. He imagined himself sitting there with one arm in a sling, doing nothing but opening his mouth while Cheng Boyan sat across from him, cutting up his food and feeding him.

That would have been hard to live down in a crowded restaurant.

Cheng Boyan chose a small table on the second-floor balcony corridor, which overlooked the lake.

The view was lovely.

After pouring them each a glass of water, the waiter placed the menus in front of them and stood nearby, waiting to take their order.

Xiang Xi had never eaten Western food before. He had no idea what any of it was. Even reading the menu meant searching through the English to find the Chinese names, and once he found the Chinese, the waiter standing beside him somehow made him forget how to read.

“I'll call you over when we're ready to order,” Cheng Boyan told the waiter.

“Certainly. Please take your time,” the waiter replied with a slight bow before walking away.

“Oh man...” Xiang Xi whispered. “What even is all this? I don't know how to order.”

“Beef, pork, lamb, or fish,” Cheng Boyan said with a smile. “Just tell me what you feel like eating, and I'll order it.”

“Beef. Isn't steak just beef?” Xiang Xi flipped through the menu. “Hey, once the waiter stopped staring at me, I could suddenly read again. French Herb-Roasted Lamb leg... Hey, they even have lamb legs?”

“Why don't you just go back to the tea house and have Hu Hai cook for you?” Cheng Boyan said.

“I was just saying it. I wanted to show you I could read those words. And... what's this one? Rose... something... roasted lamb... How do you pronounce this character?” Xiang Xi pointed at the menu.

“Dié. It's mídiéxiāng—rosemary,” Cheng Boyan answered helplessly.

After completing his little reading exercise with the menu, Xiang Xi still chose beef.

Cheng Boyan ordered him a set meal and added a pizza.

“How do you make pizza?” Xiang Xi asked, instantly becoming interested again as he looked at the picture.

“Xiang Xi,” Cheng Boyan said as he handed the menu back to the waiter, “that's not something we can make at home. We don't have the right equipment, and it's not easy to make well. Even your senior brother Hu Hai might not be able to.”

“Really?” Xiang Xi rested his chin in his hand and smiled.

After a while, though, the smile gradually faded.

He lowered his eyes and sighed softly. “You know... this afternoon, when the neighbourhood committee was issuing my certificate, they first went to ask my old neighbours about me.”

“Mm. That makes sense,” Cheng Boyan said after taking a sip of water. “What happened?”

Xiang Xi picked up his own glass and took a sip. “They said Uncle Ping brought me home when I was only a few months old. It was winter...”

He looked up at Cheng Boyan. “If that's true... then Hu Hai losing a baby brother who was only a few months old... doesn't seem very likely, does it? In the middle of winter, would a family really let him take a baby that young outside?”

Cheng Boyan didn't answer immediately. After thinking for a while, he finally said, “We still don't know exactly how he lost his brother. Are you saying... you don't want to try anymore?”

“No,” Xiang Xi replied quietly. “I'm still going to show off my wealth (NT: he is referring to his jade pendant). Even the tiniest bit of hope is worth trying. If that doesn't work, there's still the DNA sample. I'll try everything. I only told you this because... well... I guess... I was afraid you'd end up disappointed along with me, so I wanted to give you a heads-up.”

“You won't disappoint me,” Cheng Boyan said, gently pinching his chin. “As long as you're here with me, I won't have any reason to be disappointed.”

 

Translator : DarNan