Xiang Xi rubbed the scraps of bait from his hands, while watching Cheng Boyan grit his teeth as he struggled to attach the bait to the hook. At the same time, he reached his hand toward his own bag.

« What are you doing? » Cheng Boyan stared at his hand. « You already threw your bag around on the ground like that and I didn’t say anything. And now you want to touch it with that hand? »

« I’m not touching the bag, » Xiang Xi said. He quickly reached into the open bag and pinched out a small packet of dried beef. « I’m eating this. »

« Aren’t you disgusted? You just touched poop… » Cheng Boyan stopped halfway through his sentence. Looking at the hand that was currently holding the “poop”, he said, « If you’re really that hungry, go wash your hands first. »

« It’ll get dirty again after washing anyway… » Xiang Xi thought about it, then stood up from the stool and squatted down beside the fish pond.

« Xiang Xi! » Cheng Boyan looked at him helplessly. « Are you planning to wash your hands here? »

« Ah— » Xiang Xi withdrew the hand he had been about to put into the pond and let out a long sigh. He turned around and walked toward the hand pump well inside the farm, muttering as he went, « Haven’t you heard that old saying: dirty water doesn’t dirty your hands… »

« Never heard of it, » Cheng Boyan said.

After washing his hands, Xiang Xi came back, sat on the stool, and began eating dried beef. Meanwhile, Cheng Boyan still had not managed to attach the bait even after a long time.

« Let me do it, » Xiang Xi said while chewing on the dried beef. « If you keep making that orchid-finger pose while pinching it, you won’t be able to put it on even by tomorrow. »

« I just don’t want more fingers touching it! » Cheng Boyan frowned.

« There’s another box of bait. The boss said the two boxes are different and used for catching different fish, » Xiang Xi pointed at the other box. « Why don’t you try that one? Maybe it’s easier to pinch? »

« Really? » Cheng Boyan was already quite frustrated. Hearing this, he immediately threw away the bait crumbs he had almost completely crushed in his hand and opened the other box.

The previous bait was mainly too soft and he could never handle it properly. He stuck his fingers into this box and pinched out a little, wanting to first feel how soft or firm it was.

The moment he pulled his hand out, his whole body froze in shock.

« Huh? Live bait? » Xiang Xi was also startled. « These are earthworms? »

Cheng Boyan stared at the earthworm twisting between his fingers. An indescribable horror swept through his entire body. It felt as if his body hair was not standing on end—it had simply abandoned him altogether.

« I—! » Cheng Boyan suddenly flung his hand away, jumped up, and then ran and hopped toward the hand pump as if he had been electrocuted, violently shaking his hand the whole way.

Xiang Xi hurriedly jumped up and followed him. Halfway there, he could not hold back anymore and crouched down laughing, almost unable to catch his breath. « Are you actually afraid of bugs, or do you just find them disgusting…? »

Cheng Boyan ignored him completely. He rushed to the well, grabbed the pump handle, and pressed it seven or eight times. He kept rinsing and rubbing his hand under the water for a long time.

After finally washing his hand clean, he walked back to Xiang Xi, water still dripping from his fingers. « Is this boss crazy?! »

« Using earthworms for fishing is completely normal, » Xiang Xi pulled his hand over, touched it, then gently patted the back of his hand. « It’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t be afraid, it’s fine now. »

« Are you going to blow on it and say “there, there, there”? » Cheng Boyan glanced sideways at him.

Xiang Xi immediately wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his hair. « There, there, there, it won’t scare you… »

« I’m not fishing anymore, » Cheng Boyan said. « I want to go home. »

Xiang Xi laughed so hard he could not stop. « Not fishing anymore? Then shall we go catch chickens? »

« You’d better watch yourself, or I’ll deal with you! » Cheng Boyan pointed at him, then flicked his forehead. He let out a long sigh. « I’ll just use the previous bait. »

The two of them sat back down by the water. Cheng Boyan bent over and struggled for a while again, finally managing to put the bait onto Xiang Xi’s hook.

« There, go ahead and fish. »

« What about you? » Xiang Xi swung the rod. The hook and fishing line traced a thin arc through the air and flew out elegantly.

Cheng Boyan originally thought Xiang Xi’s casting posture looked quite impressive, and he was about to praise him. But before he could say anything, the line flew out and directly wrapped itself around a small tree branch beside the pond. He paused. « I’ll… first help you get the line back. »

Luckily, Xiang Xi’s casting direction had been more or less acceptable. It was only a small tree, barely bigger than a bush. Cheng Boyan pulled a few times and managed to get the line down. The hook was not damaged, but the bait he had painstakingly attached was gone.

« Could you have a little more accuracy? » Cheng Boyan said helplessly as he pinched another lump of bait.

« I thought I controlled it pretty well. How about you stand farther away later? I’m mainly worried that when I swing it out, the hook might hit your face. »

Cheng Boyan stepped back several meters. « Is that enough room for you to perform? »

« Move a little more to the side, » Xiang Xi instructed him. « Just in case I stretch backward when I swing… »

Cheng Boyan moved a few more steps aside. « Fine, swing away. Even if you were doing broadcast gymnastics, you wouldn’t be able to reach me from there. »

Xiang Xi swung his arm. This time, it was successful—the hook landed in the water. Although it felt a little too close to the shore, he did not try throwing it again. He sat back down on the chair and put on the posture of an experienced fisherman.

Cheng Boyan did not fish. After washing his hands again, he sat beside Xiang Xi and watched the surface of the water. He was not very interested in fishing. Between fishing and catching chickens, if the only alternative was death, then he would have no choice but to pick fishing.

Xiang Xi, however, seemed to really like fishing. Sitting on the stool, he quietly waited, barely moving for more than ten minutes.

« You’re actually pretty good at sitting still, » Cheng Boyan said.

« I just space out, » Xiang Xi replied with a smile. « When I had nothing to do before, I often sat like this. A few hours was no problem. »

An hour passed. Xiang Xi pulled up his fishing rod four or five times. Cheng Boyan attached bait for him four or five times, and also washed his hands four or five times.

They did not catch a single fish.

“Didn’t you order fish when you ordered the food just now?” Xiang Xi asked.

“No, I didn’t. I only ordered a chicken and some stir-fried dishes, and also the thing you wanted... locusts.” Just thinking about that thing made Cheng Boyan speechless.

“Then that’s good,” Xiang Xi sighed in relief. “Otherwise, if we waited for me to catch one, we probably wouldn’t be able to eat until tonight.”

“Even if we had ordered fish, we wouldn’t be waiting for this one,” Cheng Boyan laughed. “Could it be that we ordered a chicken and were going to wait until we went to...”

“Exactly!” Xiang Xi suddenly threw down his fishing rod and stood up. “I forgot! We ordered a chicken, right? We have to go catch the chicken!”

Cheng Boyan immediately felt like picking up the fishhook and sewing his own mouth shut.

“Let’s go, have the boss take us to catch chickens!” Xiang Xi had originally been rather depressed because he could not catch any fish, but the moment catching chickens was mentioned, his fighting spirit instantly soared again.

The farm had enclosed a small dirt hill for raising chickens. There were trees planted by the farmers themselves, and one section was surrounded by netting. All the chickens were inside. They were also fed, but most of the time they ran around looking for insects to eat. Therefore, although they were only raised for one or two months, the meat was much better than ordinary broiler chickens.

But...

Standing outside the fence, Cheng Boyan watched as Xiang Xi, without the slightest hesitation, followed the boss and lifted up a torn opening in the fence to crawl inside. At that moment, he felt that eating some ordinary broiler chicken was actually not such a big deal.

“Come on!” Xiang Xi turned around and waved at him.

The boss also turned back to look at him and pointed at the torn opening. “Be careful not to hit your head.”

If, in this situation, it had been a girl who said, “Ah, it’s so dirty, I’m not going in,” that could still be somewhat understandable. But if a grown man acted like that, he would probably be laughed to death.

Cheng Boyan sighed inwardly and let out a silent wail. Gritting his teeth, he lowered his head and crawled into the opening.

He did not know whether it was because he was too tall or because he had not bent his waist enough, but as soon as he stuck his head inside, he felt his hair get caught on something.

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it!” Xiang Xi hurriedly jumped over, grabbed the net above, and lifted it up.

Cheng Boyan quickly crawled inside and patted his head all over.

From that point onward, he absolutely refused to take part in the chicken-catching activity. He simply followed behind the boss and Xiang Xi.

First, they had to find the chickens. There were quite a few chickens inside the netted area, but because the space was large, the chickens were not moving around near the edge of the net. They were all in the woods, so they had to go into the woods to look for them.

Actually, it was quite interesting. The air in the woods was very good, and the scenery was also nice.

Cheng Boyan looked around and felt that as long as the chickens did not suddenly charge at him, walking around like this could even be considered a kind of enjoyment.

But before he could begin to properly enjoy it, he heard the sound of chickens.

Then he saw the boss point with his hand, and Xiang Xi shot out with a lightning-fast, elegant, and beautiful posture comparable to a weasel, carrying out his first surprise attack.

But he failed to catch the chicken.

A group of chickens, frightened, immediately scattered in all directions, clucking and flapping as they fled.

Cheng Boyan turned around and wanted to run away. He did not know why, but the chickens seemed as if they had received some kind of signal, or perhaps they felt that there was such a tall leader running ahead and that following him would be safer...

In any case, after he turned around and had only run a few steps, he felt a chicken flap its wings and crash into his leg.

“Catch that one!” Xiang Xi shouted from behind. “Dad, catch that one!”

Cheng Boyan was completely stunned by the way Xiang Xi shouted “Dad” right in front of the boss. To stop him from continuing to yell it, Cheng Boyan reached back and grabbed blindly. His hand touched something fluffy and warm, and without caring whether it was the chicken’s head, butt, or wings, he grabbed it firmly.

Once he had caught it, he did not dare let go again. No matter how much the chicken flapped its wings, sending feathers and dust flying all over his face, he only frowned, pressed his lips together, held his breath, and remained completely unmoving.

The boss ran over, took the chicken from his hands, and expertly secured his grip on it. He said, “You’re pretty impressive. You caught it without even looking... Is this one okay? If you’re not satisfied, we can catch another...”

“No, no! No! This one! This one!” Cheng Boyan stepped back twice and pointed at the chicken. “This is the one!”

The boss carried the chicken away. Cheng Boyan said nothing and looked at Xiang Xi.

“Right away!” Xiang Xi immediately understood what he meant. He quickly took disinfectant and a pack of disinfecting wipes out of the bag and handed them over.

Cheng Boyan first rubbed his hands, then pulled out a wipe and fiercely scrubbed his face. After wiping his face four times in a row, he finally let out a sigh of relief. “Ah...”

“Did it hit your face?” Xiang Xi asked with a laugh.

“It didn’t hit me, but I feel like I might have eaten chicken feathers,” Cheng Boyan said with a frown.

“Let’s go wash up down there?” Xiang Xi suggested.

“No need to rush over a second or two. Do you want to walk around in the woods?” Cheng Boyan asked. “Anyway, I’m already... like this...”

“Sure,” Xiang Xi nodded. “The boss said there’s a pavilion a little further up. It’s like a viewing platform. You can see quite far from there. I also want to go up and take a few photos.”

“Then let’s go up,” Cheng Boyan said. “Just don’t go through the chicken area.”

“We won’t. We can pass around from the side, and that’s the path to the pavilion,” Xiang Xi said. Then he laughed again. “This is the first time I’ve seen you look this miserable. Why did you say you wanted to come to a farmhouse restaurant when you’re so obsessed with cleanliness?”

“I just wanted to bring you here to have some fun. I’m actually fine, it’s just that it happened too suddenly...” Cheng Boyan put an arm around his shoulder, then let go to pat him down, and then hugged him again. “A dog licking me, chickens attacking me...”

As for not walking through the chicken area, that was just something they said. Before they left the fenced area, no one knew where the chickens were. This was their territory; they had stepped on every inch of the place. From time to time, they could even see chicken feathers stuck against the lower parts of tree trunks.

When they crawled out through the opening in the fence beside the path, Cheng Boyan truly could not understand. “Why didn’t the boss make a gate in the net? Why did he have to tear open a hole like this?”

“Installing a gate would be too much trouble,” Xiang Xi said. “If it weren’t for making it convenient for customers to come in, he probably wouldn’t even bother making this opening. He could just lift the net from the ground and crawl straight in.”

Cheng Boyan sighed and patted his clothes. “Let’s go to the pavilion.”

The dirt hill was not high. The pavilion had been built on a flat area near the top of the hill. It was a very rustic-looking pavilion, but because the wind was strong, it had actually been blown clean.

Xiang Xi took the snacks and water out of his bag and placed them on the stone table in the middle of the pavilion. Then he sat down with a plop and sighed emotionally, “I brought so much food?”

“How about we just eat here? After we finish, we secretly sneak away. Anyway, we haven’t paid for the meal yet,” Cheng Boyan said as he wiped the chair with a tissue before sitting down.

“Stupid, aren’t you?” Xiang Xi clicked his tongue twice. “Your car is parked right in front of their entrance. Once you’ve got chicken feathers in your brain, your intelligence really doesn’t work anymore.”

“Don’t disgust me,” Cheng Boyan took a bottle of water, opened it, and drank two sips. After thinking about it, he added quietly, “What did you call me just now when you caught the chicken?”

“...Dad. I don’t know how I ended up shouting it,” Xiang Xi scratched his head. “After I shouted it, I didn’t even dare say anything else. But it seems like the boss didn’t notice?”

“Even if he noticed, it doesn’t matter,” Cheng Boyan walked over to him and smoothed his hair. “It’s not like you were calling him Dad.”

“It’s all your fault. You usually just say things for the fun of it” Xiang Xi leaned against him, buried his face against his stomach, and wrapped his arms around his waist. “You made me get used to saying it too.”

“My clothes are dirty,” Cheng Boyan tugged at his clothes.

“It’s fine,” Xiang Xi said with his face still buried against his stomach. “I don’t mind you.”

“I mind you,” Cheng Boyan pushed him away, lifted his chin with his fingers, and said, “Your whole face rubbed against chicken feathers. How am I supposed to kiss you?”

“Do you want to kiss me now?” Xiang Xi raised his face, then wiped his cheeks and mouth with his hand. “Go ahead.”

“You...” Cheng Boyan did not know what to say. He laughed, sighed, bent down, and lightly kissed him on the lips.

Just as he was about to press closer again, a groan came from outside the pavilion.

The two of them froze.

The voice sounded like it belonged to a woman. Just as they were wondering whether someone had fallen and gotten hurt, they heard another sound, even clearer than the first.

“Wh—” Xiang Xi had just started to speak when Cheng Boyan covered his mouth with his hand.

“Someone’s there,” Cheng Boyan said softly. He turned around and walked over to the chair on the mountain-facing side of the pavilion.

The place where the pavilion had been built was actually just a flat area cleared out at the edge of the mountain. One side was the mountain, while the other side was a downward dirt slope covered entirely with grass and trees.

Cheng Boyan knelt on one leg on the chair, held onto the backrest, and leaned half of his body out to look down.

The grass on the slope was not very dense. Besides, at this time of year, some of it had already withered. With that one glance, he saw two people in the grass below, about five or six meters away.

“Fuck,” Xiang Xi had somehow crawled over beside him. Seeing the scene, he immediately whispered, “This is... outdoor sex?”

Cheng Boyan said nothing. He pulled back, dragged Xiang Xi back as well, and quickly turned around to pack everything on the stone table into the bag.

Just as he was about to pull Xiang Xi away, he discovered that Xiang Xi had actually taken out his camera and crawled back to the chair again.

“Are you crazy?” Cheng Boyan hurried over, snatched the camera away, then reached out and covered Xiang Xi’s eyes. Half hugging and half pushing him, he moved him out of the pavilion.

“I just want to look...” Xiang Xi turned his head, but Cheng Boyan immediately followed his movement and covered his eyes again. Xiang Xi sighed. “Fine, I won’t take pictures. I’ll just look.”

“What’s there to look at?” Cheng Boyan lowered his voice.

“I’ve never seen the real thing before,” Xiang Xi said with a laugh.

“What meaning is there in watching something like this?” Cheng Boyan grabbed the bag, pulled him out of the pavilion, and walked back along the path.

After they had walked a distance away, Xiang Xi finally burst out laughing. “This is really too exciting. You actually wouldn’t let me watch. Those two came here to have fun too, right? No wonder I haven’t seen anyone around... Hey, do you think if they had been two men, you would have watched together with me?”

“If you want to watch, I’ll record us doing it tonight and let you watch slowly,” Cheng Boyan said.

“I was just watching for fun,” Xiang Xi said while laughing. “You’re too serious. If it had been Mantou, we definitely would have watched first. After watching, we’d throw a stone or something...”

Cheng Boyan smiled but said nothing. After walking a few more steps, Xiang Xi paused. “Why did you say there’s no meaning in watching that kind of thing?”

“You don’t have any use for it,” Cheng Boyan said.

“I don’t...” Xiang Xi stared at him. After being stunned for a moment, he said, “I...”

“There’s another path over there,” Cheng Boyan put his arm around his shoulder. “Let’s go up from there and enjoy the view from a higher place.”

“Don’t change the subject!” Xiang Xi said.

“What were you going to say?” Cheng Boyan looked at him with a smile.

“I wanted to say... I mean...” Xiang Xi suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Compared with Cheng Boyan, when it came to acting shameless, he felt like a pure little flower bud.

“You mean you want to use me for some real practice tonight?” Cheng Boyan said, the corner of his mouth curving up. “Sure. Whatever you want to do, I’ll cooperate.”

Xiang Xi had originally only been thinking about it, but seeing Cheng Boyan smile like that, he immediately lost his confidence. “I don’t know what I want to do.”

“I only need to know what I want to do,” Cheng Boyan leaned close to his ear and said.

“You shameless old bastard!” Xiang Xi gritted his teeth.

Although this mountain was said not to be high, the path going up twisted and turned, and it was all dirt roads. By the time they reached the top, Xiang Xi was already a little out of breath.

Cheng Boyan, however, was still very relaxed. When he reached the top, he opened his arms toward the wind. “Pretty good. You can see quite far.”

The mountain really was not very high, but because there were no other peaks nearby, it still gave the feeling of climbing high and looking into the distance. Far away, they could see the city shining under the sunlight.

“Can we see where we live?” Xiang Xi held up his camera and slowly turned around, looking in all directions through the viewfinder.

“Can’t see it,” Cheng Boyan said. Then he pointed to the front-left. “But do you see that building? The tallest one, with a pointed top.”

“Yeah, that’s the building near your hospital, right? That whatever tower?” Xiang Xi found the right angle and took a picture.

“Yes,” Cheng Boyan smiled.

“A building that tall, from here it only looks about the size of a finger,” Xiang Xi said. “Do you ever get a feeling?”

“What feeling?” Cheng Boyan found a stone nearby and sat down. Normally, he would rather die than sit on a stone like this, but today he felt he had already been completely defeated.

“It’s like... when you look over like this, such a huge city—you can see buildings, streets, windows,” Xiang Xi was still holding his camera. “You can see trees, you can see green belts, but you can’t see people.”

“Mm,” Cheng Boyan responded.

“You start wondering: Are there people there? Are there people there? What about there?” Xiang Xi said. “So many people... where are they? What are they doing? What are they doing right now? What did they do today? What about tomorrow? And the future?”

Cheng Boyan smiled. “Sometimes, yes, I think like that. When I’m on duty, sometimes at night I stand by the window and look outside. Sometimes I think about those things too.”

“Right? This kind of ‘other people’s worlds’ and ‘other people’s lives’ is quite wonderful,” Xiang Xi put down his camera, sat beside him, and took out some dried tofu from his bag to eat.

“We are also the ‘others’ in other people’s eyes,” Cheng Boyan said.

“Exactly,” Xiang Xi said while eating, then leaned back against the stone. “What am I doing? What am I doing today? Tomorrow? In the future? It’s just that there are too many ‘others’, so it makes ‘me’ feel extremely small, just a tiny little bit.”

“You are on the mountaintop, you just tried fishing but didn’t catch anything, and you didn’t catch a chicken either. Today you’re going on an outing, tomorrow you’ll go to Yunshui to make tea, and in the future you’ll be with another person who is also an extremely tiny little speck. Whatever you do, he will know.”

“You’re writing poetry now,” Xiang Xi said, then started laughing toward the sky.

“You started it first,” Cheng Boyan hesitated for a moment, then also leaned back and lay down beside him. “When I go back today, I might have to take a one-hour shower.”

“Are we going back into the city for dinner?” Xiang Xi asked.

“Mm,” Cheng Boyan said. “This place probably won’t be open tonight. It’s the off-season now. I’ll cook for you when we get back.”

“Then let’s eat back in the city. Let’s go to the tea restaurant. The last time I ate their salted egg custard buns (NT: Cantonese-style steamed bun with a sweet salted egg yolk filling), they were really delicious,” Xiang Xi said.

“We ate chicken at noon, so let’s eat something lighter tonight. We’ll go to the supermarket and buy some vegetables...”

“How about I cook instead? I’ll make something...”

“The tea restaurant’s salted egg custard buns sound pretty good to me.”

 

Translator : DarNan