MLH | Chapter 7

Big Brother Zhou sent over a basket of vegetables. Fang Zichen gnawed on the two cucumbers he’d sent, and he didn’t touch a single mouthful of the porridge Big Brother Zhao had cooked.

Guai Zai held the bowl and ate with great relish, and Fang Zichen looked at him and sighed again.

It was really too deceptive.

If he hadn’t already eaten a bowl at noon, he would have suspected that Guai Zai was eating chicken-soup abalone porridge.

The house lacked everything. At night, the three of them simply washed their feet and, with nothing else to do, lay down in bed.

The bed the village chief and the others had put together on short notice wasn’t big, after all, at first they had only thought Fang Zichen would be the only one, who knew this guy would be so capable, and the next day he already had a husband and child, warm on the kang.

Fang Zichen had slept squeezed up with his big brother and second brother since he was little, so he didn’t mind sharing a bed with someone. Even if he had minded, there was only one bed at home, and he couldn’t go insane enough to make that father and son sleep under the eaves.

The three of them really were a little cramped. Big Brother Zhao lay at the very inside, pressing as close to the wall as he could. When Fang Zichen climbed into bed and lay down, his heart pounded hard, inexplicably tense. He didn’t even dare breathe too loudly. Even though Guai Zai was still between them, he seemed able to sense the warmth coming off Fang Zichen through a layer of coarse cloth. The drifting scent was dry, warm, and mind-stirring, making him feel flustered for no reason.

He heard Fang Zichen talking to Guai Zai, close at hand.

“Were you good when you slept at night? You won’t feed me your foot in the middle of the night, will you? Did you wash your feet properly tonight?” Fang Zichen asked three questions in a row.

“I washed them cleanly,” Guai Zai lay flat obediently, both hands placed neatly on his lower belly, his eyes blinking and blinking, seeming as if he still didn’t want to sleep.

Fang Zichen was pressed right against the edge of the bed. He had made up for his sleep in the morning, and at this moment his mind was restless, his stomach was hungry, and he couldn’t sleep even more. He asked, “Can’t sleep?”

“…Mm.” Guai Zai nodded.

“So young, and already learning from adults how to have insomnia? That’s impressive,” Fang Zichen laughed, turned over, and lay on his side facing Guai Zai. “Then I’ll tell you a story!”

Guai Zai had never heard a story before, and was a little more excited at once. “……Okay.”

“Once there was a child who couldn’t sleep at night. He closed his eyes and thought, why can’t I sleep! He thought and thought, and then…”

“…And then?” Guai Zai pressed.

Big Brother Zhao also pricked up his ears.

Fang Zichen wasn’t behaving like a human at all. He made the story up carelessly and didn’t put any heart into it at all. “…And then he fell asleep.”

Big Brother Zhao: “……”

Guai Zai: “……”

Guai Zai’s little mouth couldn’t help pouting, but he was still young after all, and at noon he had been busy picking wild vegetables. Big Brother Zhao gently patted his chest the way he usually coaxed him to sleep. He muttered a few words Fang Zichen couldn’t quite understand, then fell asleep in a daze.

Big Brother Zhao drew his hand back and pressed it tightly against his side, silent. Fang Zichen slightly raised his head and, like a thief, asked in a breathy voice, “Big Brother Zhao, you can’t sleep too? Want me to tell you a story as well?”

Big Brother Zhao: “……”

“…Okay.”

“Once there was a ge’er who couldn’t sleep at night. He closed his eyes and thought, why can’t I sleep! He thought and thought, and then he fell asleep.”

Big Brother Zhao: “……”

……

He was silent for a long while. Fang Zichen listened to his somewhat chaotic breathing, and was just about to speak when he heard Big Brother Zhao’s low voice come from beside him.

“Guai Zai is asleep, you…… do you want it?”

Moonlight came in through the broken window and the roof that had lost more than half of itself. The room wasn’t dark. Big Brother Zhao’s both hands gripped tightly at the not-so-soft straw mat beneath him. His expression didn’t change at all, as if he were walking in the village and ran into an acquaintance he usually got along well with, asking, “Have you eaten?” Just as ordinary, nothing worth feeling ashamed or embarrassed about.

At first Fang Zichen didn’t react, and looked at him blankly. Big Brother Zhao lowered his lashes and didn’t dare look at him. The white skin at the neck opening of his collar gradually stained red like peach blossoms under Fang Zichen’s gaze.

Fang Zichen seemed to have had his Ren and Du meridians suddenly opened, and instantly understood. His pupils shrank sharply, and he sat bolt upright, the not-too-sturdy wooden board making creaking sounds. “Y-How can you say something like that to me.” His face was full of disbelief. “I’m only eighteen! Can’t you behave like a person?”

His reaction was huge. Big Brother Zhao’s expression changed, and he drew in a sharp breath. His mouth moved, seeming as if he still wanted to say something else, but Guai Zai was disturbed into a mumble. Then he turned over and faced Fang Zichen. Big Brother Zhao gently patted his shoulder, and before long he was sound asleep again. Interrupted by Guai Zai like this, most of that courage leaked away. Big Brother Zhao stopped talking. Just when Fang Zichen thought he had already realized his mistake, felt deeply ashamed, and was too embarrassed to say anything else, Big Brother Zhao spoke again. His voice was light, but the unease and apprehension in it were not hard to hear. “You don’t want to?”

Fang Zichen: “……”

He looked at Big Brother Zhao in disbelief, then suddenly thought of the fact that this was Xiahe Village, not that modern world from before.

In the village, a man like him at eighteen was already living with wife and children, warm on the kang. Doing that kind of thing at eighteen was perfectly normal in Big Brother Zhao’s eyes.

Only he, after more than ten years of life lived properly and by the rules, still hadn’t turned his thinking around.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand Big Brother Zhao. Newly arrived, two strangers were forcibly bound together. As the weaker side, Big Brother Zhao was uneasy. He was eager to show his sense of presence, obediently and diligently doing the work under the bed, taking Fang Zichen as his guide. On the bed, he wanted to become something needed, no matter what it was. As long as Fang Zichen needed him, as long as it made him feel he was an indispensable, obedient thing, then he could stay here.

When he asked for pleasure again, Big Brother Zhao wasn’t without embarrassment either.

He bit his lip, closed his eyes, and buried his face in Guai Zai’s back. Fang Zichen could see the ears that had turned red all the way through, too red to be hidden by Guai Zai’s small body.

Fang Zichen touched Guai Zai’s head, his voice low. He didn’t say any more words of reproach. “I’m eighteen. In our place, strictly speaking, at my age it isn’t encouraged to have sex too early, and,” he patted the bed beneath his ass, “with our situation right now, do you think I still have the mind for that kind of thing? Even if I did want to, could this bed hold up?”

His gaze fell on Big Brother Zhao’s trembling, thin shoulders. “Not counting yesterday evening’s time, if I really count it, we’ve only known each other for not even a day. In my way of thinking, that kind of thing is something you can only do with someone you like. I respect you. I look at you as someone on the same level as me. If I touched you tonight, what would that count as? Doing that kind of thing to someone who could be said to be a stranger isn’t impossible, and if I really did it, I wouldn’t suffer any loss at all, but for you, that wouldn’t respect you. You’re not an outlet for my desire, do you understand?”

“I helped you, but you don’t have to lower your own status and use this kind of way to repay me.”

“Making love, making love, there has to be love before you can make it.”

Guai Zai slept soundly, entirely unaware of the profound topic the two adults at home were discussing.

Big Brother Zhao was silent for a long while. A dull, almost crying, slightly hoarse voice came from behind Guai Zai’s back. “Mm! I understand.”

Fang Zichen let out a breath of relief, lay down right next to Guai Zai, and Guai Zai curled his body into a small little bundle. His two hands were clenched into fists, his sleeping face rosy. Fang Zichen found it amusing and reached out to poke his little nose. Guai Zai’s mouth moved, but he didn’t wake. In the hot summer, a child’s body temperature was high. A little sweat had gathered on his forehead. Fang Zichen slapped a hand over it and roughly wiped once, not very gently, and even rather roughly. Guai Zai’s little head swayed back and forth several times.

Big Brother Zhao’s forehead was bumped by the back of Guai Zai’s head. With so much noise, he still hadn’t woken, so it seemed he really was deeply asleep.

Big Brother Zhao propped himself up. The redness around his eyes hadn’t yet faded, his lashes were damp, and his expression was somewhat unnatural as he looked at Fang Zichen. “…Don’t tease him.”

Fang Zichen smiled. “I’m not teasing him, I’m wiping his sweat!”

He had a big heart and didn’t keep dwelling on what had happened just now. Seeing that Big Brother Zhao still seemed a little embarrassed, he poked Guai Zai’s face and joked, “This little piglet has it rough. Being sandwiched between the two of us in the middle of summer, when he gets up tomorrow, will he be cooked?”

When Big Brother Zhao saw Fang Zichen grinning and seeming to have completely forgotten what had just happened, the blush on his ears faded a little, and he wasn’t so embarrassed anymore. He even felt a little angry, and he defended Guai Zai. “…He’s not a little piglet.”

Fang Zichen blinked and obediently drew his hand back, resting it under his head. “I’m not calling you an old sow, don’t misread me.”

Big Brother Zhao: “……”

“…You still say that.” Big Brother Zhao glared at him, his eyes round and bright.

Fang Zichen’s mouth was still annoying. He looked at Big Brother Zhao for a while, then laughed. “I’ll sing you a song. It fits exactly how you look right now.” His expression was wicked to the extreme, and even his smile carried a rogue, loose air. Big Brother Zhao could tell at a glance that what he was going to sing was definitely nothing good. Just as he was about to open his mouth to say no, he heard Fang Zichen already start singing slowly.

“Eyes glaring like copper bells, shooting out lightning-like shrewdness～”

Big Brother Zhao slapped a hand over his mouth.

Fang Zichen: “……”