TA •Chapter 51

"So that’s how it was," Cheng Ke said, not knowing what else to say. "Then you… picked a pretty good day, huh?"

"Mm, Children’s Day," Jiang Yuduo quickly found his footing again and said with a smile, "I just wanted to pick some kind of holiday, so I started counting from New Year’s Day. Turns out Children’s Day was the best one."

"Mm." Cheng Ke nodded. When Jiang Yuduo brought up things from the past this time, it felt different from before, though he still couldn’t tell exactly how. Still, this kind of state would make things much easier between him and Jiang Yuduo. He kept rinsing the meat as he asked again, "Then the year you were born in, that wasn’t just some random number you filled in, was it?"

"No," Jiang Yuduo said with a smile. "I’m just that young."

Cheng Ke made a sound of disbelief and said nothing.

"After you finish eating today…" Jiang Yuduo thought about it. "Are you going back to the hotel, or staying here tonight?"

"Today… probably won’t make it," Cheng Ke said. "I still have to go watch the装修 at the shop this afternoon, and there’s a pile of stuff in the hotel I haven’t packed up yet… You know how I am when I pack things…"

"Very slow," Jiang Yuduo nodded. "You might even leave something behind, or find out the same thing just won’t fit back into the suitcase no matter how you stuff it in."

Cheng Ke laughed. "Not that bad!"

The hotel had only been booked for a month, and that time hadn’t run out yet. Before Jiang Yuduo asked him, Cheng Ke hadn’t even thought carefully about whether he wanted to move back, or when he would move back.

Even though he had already been completely dazzled by Jiang Yuduo for the moment, he still remembered why he had wanted to move out in the first place.

He had been afraid that his appearance had caused Jiang Yuduo to have frequent episodes of abnormality, so he had wanted to leave and let Jiang Yuduo calm down, return to the kind of state he had been in before, the one where Chen Qing had gone ten years without ever suspecting him.

But right now, with his usual ostrich tendency, there were still some questions he hadn’t fully sorted out.

Was Jiang Yuduo’s abnormality because of his appearance?

Why had Jiang Yuduo never mentioned before that the existence of "them" was due to his own psychological problems?

Why had he suddenly admitted it now, and gone to see a therapist right away?

Was Jiang Yuduo really, as he himself said, already "better"?

None of these questions had answers yet. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the answers, he just… was getting addicted to the ambiguous mood of the moment.

Even if it was just for one meal, he might as well finish eating first.

As for whether he wanted to move back, and when, he still hadn’t given Jiang Yuduo a clear answer. But Jiang Yuduo didn’t seem to care, or rather, Jiang Yuduo had already made the decision for him.

If he couldn’t move back today, then tomorrow. Or the day after. In any case, he would be moving back.

That left Cheng Ke at a bit of a loss. He didn’t want to disappoint Jiang Yuduo, but if nothing was cleared up… then this month of frustration would have been for nothing.

"Is this wine not as good as the one from last time?" Jiang Yuduo poured him some. "I finished the last bottle from last time."

"It’s fine to me," Cheng Ke said. "Maybe one day I’ll brew my own bottle too, some grape wine, plum wine, strawberry wine, that sort of thing."

"Can you do it?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"Just look up a tutorial," Cheng Ke said as he picked up his phone and tapped at it. "Following the steps should be fine. Buy some wine, throw the stuff in, then wait to drink it. Pretty much like that."

"Strawberry, then," Jiang Yuduo said immediately. "I saw strawberries for sale at the supermarket, strawberry wine."

Cheng Ke glanced at him. "You actually believe I can brew wine?"

"I don’t believe it," Jiang Yuduo said. "I just… really like strawberries. If you want to make some, use strawberries."

"Okay." Cheng Ke had only been saying it casually, but the expectant look on Jiang Yuduo’s face made him decide to turn that casual remark into something serious. "Once I brew it, I’ll even put a label on it, Third Brother brand strawberry wine."

"Lao San is fine," Jiang Yuduo said happily. "Lao San strawberry wine."

"Sure." Cheng Ke nodded.

"Then it’s settled." Jiang Yuduo raised his glass.

Cheng Ke lifted his too, clinked it against Jiang Yuduo’s, and tipped his head back to drink.

"This strawberry wine," Jiang Yuduo said quietly as he took the bottle and poured more, "should be ready to drink around May or June, right?"

Cheng Ke reacted instantly and understood what Jiang Yuduo meant.

"Probably about right." He said. Looks like this wine absolutely had to be brewed, and if it couldn’t be brewed, he’d have to buy some.

When Cheng Ke normally ate hotpot and drank a little, two or three liang was about enough. But whenever he ate hotpot and drank with Jiang Yuduo, he always ended up feeling drunk.

Today, even though it was broad daylight and they were eating hotpot, they still finished nearly two bottles of wine. By the end, Jiang Yuduo still wanted to pour more, and Cheng Ke hurriedly stopped him. "No more. I still have to supervise the work this afternoon. What if I fall asleep?"

"So you really can’t hold it up," Jiang Yuduo said, putting the bottle down. "If I got drunk, I could still go out and fight someone on the street."

"Bullshit, that’s the same thing?" Cheng Ke said. "If I got drunk, I could still go out and fight someone too. Guys like Chen Qing, I could take eight of them with one hand."

"I could beat ten Chen Qings," Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke leaned back in his chair and laughed for a long time. "Chen Qing is going to sneeze."

"Do you really fight when you’re drunk?" Jiang Yuduo finished scraping the last of the hotpot broth noodles from his bowl and leaned back in his chair too, rubbing his belly.

"No," Cheng Ke said with a smile. "The first time I met you, that was the first time I ever fought someone in the street."

"I was waiting for Chen Qing to come help me get the cat out," Jiang Yuduo said, and after thinking about it he laughed. "It kept crying in there, and then you came over and kicked the whole thing over."

"How was I supposed to know? I didn’t even hear it crying," Cheng Ke said. "You’re really fucking explosive."

"And you didn’t hesitate at all when you hit back," Jiang Yuduo said, while slowly clearing the things off the table. "At the time I was thinking this guy might actually know how to fight."

"Did you think you could beat me then?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Yeah." Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke clicked his tongue.

"I’m sure I could beat anyone." Jiang Yuduo carried the pot into the kitchen.

"Where does that confidence come from?" Cheng Ke called after him, raising his voice.

"Since I was little," Jiang Yuduo turned back. "You have to be sure."

Cheng Ke didn’t say anything. He looked at him, his head still swimming. Right now, even Jiang Yuduo seemed to sway in his vision. After a while, he finally asked without being able to stop himself, "If you can’t win, do you die?"

"No," Jiang Yuduo said with a smile. "Not that serious."

"Oh." Cheng Ke responded.

Jiang Yuduo turned and went into the kitchen.

Cheng Ke hadn’t really had any intention of thinking about these things right now. Once his head started spinning, he didn’t want to use it even more. But he could still tell that Jiang Yuduo no longer resisted talking about the past, as if he was discussing something very ordinary.

Yet just over a month ago, because of one little dog, Jiang Yuduo had almost exploded on the spot.

That look, Cheng Ke remembered it clearly. He probably wouldn’t forget it for the rest of his life.

When Jiang Yuduo came out of the kitchen holding a cup of water and drinking as he walked, Cheng Ke was still staring blankly in that direction.

"Whether you do it or not, at least help clean up, young master." Jiang Yuduo put the cup down.

"Oh," Cheng Ke stood up. He realized he was probably parched from the hotpot and the alcohol, so he took the half cup of water Jiang Yuduo hadn’t finished and drank it, then picked up a stack of plates and followed Jiang Yuduo into the kitchen. "Or… I’ll wash them."

"I don’t have a dishwasher here," Jiang Yuduo said.

"By hand, then." Cheng Ke said.

Jiang Yuduo looked at him. After a moment, he nodded. "Fine. You wash them."

Cheng Ke rolled up his sleeves, put all the bowls and plates into the sink, and turned on the tap. After waiting a while, he reached out to test the water temperature, and the cold made him shiver. "Why isn’t the water warm yet?"

"It won’t be warm by tomorrow morning either," Jiang Yuduo said.

"Huh?" Cheng Ke froze.

"It’s just a faucet. Why would you think it could give hot water?" Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

Cheng Ke stared at the faucet again, somewhat stunned. "So you wash dishes with cold water?"

"Move aside," Jiang Yuduo lifted a kettle off the gas stove. After Cheng Ke stepped away, he poured half the hot water from the kettle into the sink. "Wash them. Add more if it’s not enough. Rinse with cold water when you’re done."

"Oh." Cheng Ke nodded and squeezed in some dish soap.

Jiang Yuduo immediately turned his head away.

"What’s wrong!" Cheng Ke hurriedly asked.

"Nothing," Jiang Yuduo said. "Use it, squeeze it all in."

"Was that too much?" Cheng Ke asked again.

"I’m right next to you!" Jiang Yuduo shouted. "You don’t need to be that loud!"

"Did I shout?" Cheng Ke blinked.

"I should’ve recorded you," Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke laughed. "Hey, I might be a little drunk… what if I put in too much?"

"Then wash slowly," Jiang Yuduo said with his arms crossed. "It’s not me washing them."

"Then don’t make any noise," Cheng Ke said. "The second you make noise, I get nervous and worry I’ll do it wrong."

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo nodded.

Cheng Ke tested the water temperature again and lowered his head to start washing the dishes.

This was his first time washing bowls and plates after hotpot. The oil and sauce were hard to clean off, and usually even a bowl from instant noodles had to go into the dishwasher. This was basically a test in the hardships of life.

"I think you’re pretty weird," Jiang Yuduo said softly.

"Mm?" Cheng Ke glanced at him.

"I think when you’re performing, or filming videos, or negotiating with people, you’re especially composed," Jiang Yuduo said. "So why do you get nervous when I say just one thing about washing dishes?"

"Because I can’t do it, and I’m afraid I’ll do it badly," Cheng Ke said. "Sand painting and stuff, I know I can do that well. I’m confident about it."

"You weren’t this good at sand painting from the start either," Jiang Yuduo said.

"I didn’t let anyone see it at the start anyway," Cheng Ke said with a smile. "I hid in my room and played with it for years."

"Huh?" Jiang Yuduo looked visibly surprised.

"I… actually don’t have much confidence in a lot of things. Until I’m sure there won’t be any problem, I won’t let people see it," Cheng Ke said.

"Huh?" Jiang Yuduo was still surprised. "You don’t look like someone who… lacks confidence."

"Could I let you see it?" Cheng Ke said. "Besides, didn’t you keep saying I was useless?"

"When I called you useless, I didn’t really think you were useless," Jiang Yuduo said. "I think you’re awesome."

Cheng Ke looked at him. "I know. But when my dad said I was useless, he really thought I was useless."

Jiang Yuduo looked at him without saying anything for a long time.

Cheng Ke kept washing the dishes slowly, head lowered. Actually, it was okay in front of Jiang Yuduo. He didn’t care if Jiang Yuduo knew he couldn’t do a damn thing.

"Teach me sand painting sometime," Jiang Yuduo said.

"…Do you have any consistency at all?" Cheng Ke said. "Didn’t you tell me to teach you taekwondo before?"

"I thought you forgot." Jiang Yuduo said.

"I didn’t forget," Cheng Ke said. "I’m twenty-eight, not eighty-two. I don’t forget things I agree to."

"Then can you teach me sand painting as well?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"Mm." Cheng Ke answered. He had wanted to nod too, to make it sound more emphatic, but he was feeling pretty dizzy right now. If he nodded, he was afraid his head would go straight into the sink.

"And strawberry wine," Jiang Yuduo said. "You remember that? I feel like you’re not very reliable. You’re the kind of guy who even forgets his keys."

"Keys are different." Cheng Ke said.

He suddenly drifted off for a moment.

In the lazy warmth after eating and drinking his fill, in the cramped kitchen space, with warm water in his hands, with Jiang Yuduo standing beside him speaking softly as though they would never see each other again and yet somehow were here now.

Even those earlier sensitive topics hadn’t affected his mood.

This comfortable feeling that only he could truly sense, the one-sided, ambiguous thoughts, the guilty pleasure of pretending not to think too much…

The bowl in his hand slipped back into the sink.

Jiang Yuduo sighed and stood beside him. "I’ll wash them. At your speed, you’ll be here until night."

"No need, your hand’s still hurt." Cheng Ke felt a little embarrassed.

"This injury doesn’t affect dishwashing," Jiang Yuduo said, putting his hand into the sink. "At this level, a wound counts as healed to me."

"I’ll do it, I’ll do it, I’ll do it…" Cheng Ke hurriedly reached into the water to grab a bowl and keep washing.

There were bowls, plates, spoons, chopsticks. There was quite a lot in the sink.

And yet, at that exact moment, his hand landed right on Jiang Yuduo’s.

…If it had been anyone else, he would definitely have thought it was deliberate, that it was aimed straight at the other person’s hand, some shameless pervert crap.

But when it was on himself, he felt wronged.

Even though he had wanted some kind of accidental touch, he really hadn’t planned to grab a hand in the sink.

But what surprised him was that he didn’t let go.

He just held Jiang Yuduo’s hand like that.

Even more surprising was that Jiang Yuduo didn’t move either, standing there as if pinned in place, one hand in the water, the other braced on the edge of the sink.

Cheng Ke felt the tension rise in that instant, the wet, slippery hand in the warm water.

When he turned his head, Jiang Yuduo was also looking at him. His face had no expression, his gaze was complicated, mostly blank.

Cheng Ke didn’t bother to judge it carefully. His habit of giving up on his brain and acting however he pleased performed perfectly under the influence of alcohol.

When he leaned his face toward Jiang Yuduo, he could see Jiang Yuduo’s shocked eyes drawing in toward the center with him.

He kissed Jiang Yuduo on the lips.

What happened next was a little out of control. He grabbed Jiang Yuduo’s collar as Jiang Yuduo tried to back away, and yanked him hard toward himself.

Jiang Yuduo’s fierce defense must have been stunned out of him, because he only braced himself against the sink and kept retreating. After just a couple of steps, his back hit the counter.

Cheng Ke cupped the back of his head and kept kissing him hard, not letting go.

Just as he was about to keep doing something more, his feet suddenly slipped, maybe because he had stepped on the dish soap water he’d carried out of the sink…

When he dragged Jiang Yuduo down with him, he was extremely annoyed.

Why the fuck had he used so much dish soap!

The fall was a solid one. Even though Cheng Ke had landed on top of Jiang Yuduo and had Jiang Yuduo to cushion him, he still had shoved hard against the floor with his hand so his face wouldn’t slam into Jiang Yuduo’s. The enormous force from that momentum was borne entirely by his right wrist alone.

The instant he hit the floor, he felt the wrist go numb first, then pain hit so sharply that he collapsed fully on top of Jiang Yuduo.

Then something struck the back of his head, and only when hot water poured all over both their heads did he realize it was the kettle of hot water they hadn’t used up.

Fuck!

At least the dishwashing had been slow!

The water wasn’t boiling anymore!

Fuck!

The chaos only lasted a few seconds, but when everything stopped, Cheng Ke felt that it had been the second longest few seconds of his life.

The longest few seconds had only just begun.

After the chaos caused by his brain being ruled by lust ended, the area around him fell into dead silence.

He was lying on top of Jiang Yuduo. The alcohol had already scattered and fled, and the rogue energy was dead on the floor. Now he didn’t even have the strength to get up and walk away. He only hoped Jiang Yuduo would just smack him unconscious already.

"Your wrist is fractured," Jiang Yuduo said first after who knew how long of silence.

"What?" Cheng Ke blinked.

"I heard it," Jiang Yuduo moved and caught the wrist on his right hand a little above the joint. "Don’t move. It’s fractured."

"Ahhh…" Only then did Cheng Ke feel that agonizing pain from before again, and he couldn’t help howling, "Fuck! That hurts so much…"

Jiang Yuduo said nothing. He kept hold of Cheng Ke’s wrist, then pushed him once more and flipped him off himself before sitting up.

Cheng Ke lay on the floor, unable to face the frowning face of Jiang Yuduo that appeared above him. He closed his eyes. "It hurts!"

"Get up," Jiang Yuduo said softly as he pulled him once. "What’s all this shouting for, you’re already thirty!"

Cheng Ke followed the force and sat up, then slowly stood against the counter and looked at his hand. It seemed to be swollen already.

Jiang Yuduo led him back to the living room, made him sit in a chair, then placed his hand on the table. "Don’t move."

"Mm." Cheng Ke collapsed onto the table, embarrassed to the extreme.

He could hear Jiang Yuduo calling Chen Qing, telling him to drive over and take him to the hospital.

He didn’t want Chen Qing to come over. He could just take a taxi to the hospital, or walk to the hospital, or even not go to the hospital at all. As long as he could disappear from Jiang Yuduo’s sight quickly, that would be fine.

But he didn’t say anything. He was too embarrassed to say anything at all.

It wasn’t until he heard Chen Qing’s car stop outside Jiang Yuduo’s window that he finally gritted his teeth and lifted his head. "I’m sorry."

Jiang Yuduo was sitting across from him, fiddling with his phone with his head down. Hearing that, he looked up at Cheng Ke. "Hm?"

"About just now," Cheng Ke bit his lip. "I think I probably… drank a little."

"Mm," Jiang Yuduo frowned, put down his phone, then lifted a hand to touch his own mouth. "I… I’m fine."

Cheng Ke said nothing, just looked at him.

"I mean…" Jiang Yuduo also looked at him. "I’m not angry."

Cheng Ke let out a huge breath of relief, but that answer really had surprised him.

"This is the third time already, right," Jiang Yuduo said. "I feel like I’m fucking… almost used to it."

Before Cheng Ke could say anything, Jiang Yuduo got up and went to open the door for Chen Qing.

In a blur of embarrassment and shock, Cheng Ke still noticed that Jiang Yuduo had not looked through the peephole first.

"What happened?" Chen Qing shouted the moment he came in, staring at the water all over Jiang Yuduo’s head. Then he turned and saw Cheng Ke with the same drenched head and shouted again, "Fuck? Did something leak upstairs?"

"If a leak could turn into this, the fucking floor would have collapsed." Jiang Yuduo sighed.

"Did a pipe explode?" Chen Qing guessed on in shock. "Fuck! Don’t tell me the sewer blew up!"

"I fell while holding a kettle," Cheng Ke offered a not-very-reasonable explanation, but for Chen Qing, it was enough.

"You…" Chen Qing stared at him. "I’m convinced. Hurry up! Is your wrist broken? Let’s go to the hospital!"

"It’s fractured." Cheng Ke stood up, glanced at Jiang Yuduo, and saw that Jiang Yuduo had handed over his coat and was also picking up his own.

"Third Brother, are you going too?" Chen Qing asked.

"I’ll wait for you outside," Jiang Yuduo said.

"Shouldn’t you two wipe your heads first?" Chen Qing said. "If you go out like that, you’ll freeze into hats."

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say anything. He turned and went into the bathroom, came back out with two towels, casually draped one over his own head, then walked over to Cheng Ke with the other.

Cheng Ke could tell he was trying to help him wipe his hair, and just as he was about to say there was no need, the towel had already been snatched away by Chen Qing. "I’ll wipe Jiajia’s. You wipe your own."

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo answered and lowered his head to dry the water on his head.

"Sit down," Chen Qing pointed at the chair. "Hurry up, it’s fractured!"

Cheng Ke sat down.

Chen Qing used the towel on his head in a furious burst of rubbing and scrubbing. "I’m not trying to be rude, but how the hell are you so good at fighting when you’re the kind of person who can even fall on flat ground? Why don’t you fall when you fight?"

"Because I wasn’t carrying a kettle when I fought," Cheng Ke sighed.

"Oh." Chen Qing answered.

Cheng Ke heard Jiang Yuduo laughing. He looked up and confirmed that Jiang Yuduo really was smiling.