PL | Chapter 3

Chuan’er-ge

Qi Yue told him to leave.

Gu Zhong did not comply.

His boss, the so-called “Er-ge,” the one rumored to have tried and failed to become his life mentor, was currently surrounded by three people and had already taken a hit.

At a moment like this, being told to leave made it impossible for Gu Zhong to move his feet. It also felt like it violated some kind of jianghu code.

Even though he had no idea what the jianghu code actually was.

So he rushed in.

With a tangled mix of nerves, excitement, fear, and adrenaline, he grabbed Qi Yue’s arm and tried to drag him toward the back door. Qil Yue’s look, however, was extremely clear and direct—

Are you out of your mind?!

Gu Zhong did not have time to think about why his brave intervention had earned him that kind of look.

“Go!” he shouted, pulling him. For a split second, he even had the illusion that they were eloping.

Qi Yue did not cooperate. He shook his arm free, then shoved Gu Zhong hard on the shoulder.

“Get the hell out!”

What annoyed Gu Zhong about this short command was not the “get out,” nor even the “quick,” but the fact that at a moment like this, Qi Yue actually did not believe in his fighting ability.

“Cut the crap!” Gu Zhong reached out again, trying to drag him away. He could not understand why Qi Yue refused to leave when they were clearly at a disadvantage.

Before his hand could reach him, he saw one of the men raise his arm again. This time he saw clearly that the thing smashing into Qi Yue’s back was a thick rubber baton.

“Damn you!” In that instant, Gu Zhong felt like he must be some kind of hero deep down. Or maybe he owed Qi Yue a debt from a past life. Without hesitation, he thrust his arm toward the back of Qi Yue’s head.

The baton struck his arm.

Crack.

Or maybe it was more like a series of cracking sounds.

Or maybe there was no sound at all.

All he knew was the overwhelming pain.

“Ah!” he yelled.

“Fuck!” he shouted again, unable to stop himself. The pain was unbearable. His entire arm immediately lost strength.

To be honest, this was only the second time in his life he had felt pain like this. The first time was in elementary school, when he fell out of a tree and broke his leg.

At that moment, he panicked.

When he broke his leg, he could cry and call for his dad.

But now, with his arm likely broken by what looked like gangsters, he had no idea what to do.

In an instant, Qi Yue, whom he had just tried to save heroically, became his only hope.

Qi Yue shoved him toward the back door, then turned and walked toward the three men.

Gu Zhong made a difficult decision. Clutching his arm, he scrambled out the back door and onto the street. When he reached into his backpack for his phone, he discovered in despair that not only was the phone gone, the backpack itself was gone too.

One round, and he had lost his backpack.

Gu Zhong, you’re incredible.

There were very few people on the street. He froze for a few seconds, then turned and ran back. Standing by the front window, he shouted at the top of his lungs:

“Police!”

He banged on the glass as he yelled, “Over here! Inside! There’s a robbery! Hurry, hurry!”

After shouting that, he did not even bother holding his arm anymore. He slapped every window one by one, yelling whatever came to mind.

At least, in his own opinion, it created the effect of a charging army.

About ten seconds later, three figures ran out from the other side of the back door, heading for the van parked at the roadside.

Including him, there were only four people present, and not a single bystander.

The scene suddenly felt awkward.

But he could not let it go cold. Standing in the darkness, he jumped and slapped the window a few more times.

“Here! They’re running! They came out this way! Hurry—”

He had used up a lifetime’s worth of acting skill in one night.

Even after seeing them jump into the van and hearing the engine start, he still shouted a couple more times. Only when he heard the rolling shutter beside him did he stop.

“Get in.”

Qi Yue bent down, bracing one hand on the half-open door.

“How are you? You okay?” Gu Zhong ducked inside.

As the door closed behind him, he saw the mess inside. Tables and chairs overturned, things smashed across the floor. The scene felt strangely familiar.

It was exactly what he had seen the first time he entered this place.

“I think I get it now…” Gu Zhong turned back, but before he could finish, he froze.

There was a deep gash on Qi Yue’s forehead. Blood had flowed down, staining half his shoulder red.

The pain in his arm surged back instantly.

“I… fuck!”

“How’s your arm?” Qi Yue reached out and touched it.

“Don’t touch it!” Gu Zhong instantly jumped back several steps. “I think it’s broken.”

“Is it swollen?” Qi Yue walked to the sink beside the bar, turned on the faucet, and splashed water onto his face. “I’ll take you to the hospital.”

“Your injury… that water… aren’t you worried about infection?” Gu Zhong stared at the blood flowing again from the wound. “Shouldn’t we call an ambulance…”

Qi Yue’s car was decent. It did not have that overwhelming perfume smell his father’s car had. Instead, it carried a faint scent like sun-dried clothes.

“Who were those people?” Gu Zhong held his arm, which Qi Yue had tied up with a napkin sling, slowly recovering from his daze.

Qi Yue stared ahead without speaking.

“You knew they were coming, didn’t you?” Gu Zhong asked again.

Still no response.

“You did know,” Gu Zhong turned sideways. The pain made him freeze in place for a moment. “You were rushing me out today. Closed up faster than you ever do…”

Qi Yue finally glanced at him.

“You’re pretty tough.”

“…I think so too,” Gu Zhong said, looking at his arm, feeling a bit sorry for himself. “It hurts like hell, but I didn’t think I could endure it.”

“Not just endure it,” Qi Yue nodded, “you can also talk enough to make people want to break your other arm. Tough.”

Gu Zhong opened his mouth but could not think of anything to say. He shut it again.

“There’s cigarettes in my pocket,” Qi Yue said.

“I don’t smoke,” Gu Zhong replied irritably.

“I’m telling you to get one for me,” Qi Yue said, then added, “since you’re so tough.”

“Fuck,” Gu Zhong felt anger flare through his bones. “Then go without!”

Qi Yue smiled, took out the cigarettes himself, and lit one.

“Does your arm hurt?”

“Save it,” Gu Zhong turned toward the window. “Too late. Sounds fake.”

“Why didn’t you run when I told you to?” Qi Yue asked.

“I couldn’t.”

At this moment, Gu Zhong deeply regretted that he had rushed in instead of staying outside to watch Qi Yue get beaten and cheer.

“Did you think running would make you look disloyal? Lose face?” Qi Yue asked.

Gu Zhong said nothing.

“Did you feel like you were about to compose some grand, tragic jianghu ballad?” Qi Yue continued.

“Do you even have friends?” Gu Zhong turned to stare at him.

Qi Yue smiled faintly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“With your personality, if you have friends, then heaven must have gone blind,” Gu Zhong said.

“Upset?” Qi Yue glanced at him.

“Qi Laoban,” Gu Zhong glared, “no matter how much you mock me usually, today I took a hit for you. I risked—well maybe not my life—but at least a broken arm to help you out. I didn’t run. Can you at least show a little better attitude?”

“Thanks,” Qi Yue said.

It was so direct and quick that Gu Zhong took a few seconds to react.

“…You’re welcome.”

The conversation ended there.

After they got their wounds treated at the hospital, Gu Zhong stood at the hospital entrance, deep in thought.

Did this count as a workplace injury? Even if his boss looked utterly ungrateful, his arm had still ended up broken. He lowered his head and looked at it. Such a handsome arm.

“Want me to take you home?” Qi Yue asked from beside him.

Gu Zhong glanced at him.

Qi Yue was a pretty handsome guy, but right now there were stitches in his head wound, and the bandages had been wrapped once horizontally and once vertically, even looping under his chin.

When he stood there asking calmly whether Gu Zhong wanted a ride home, all the tattooed-tough-guy aura had vanished. At this moment, there was something impossible to describe about him, something absurdly ridiculous, and Gu Zhong found himself staring at him and laughing for a full two minutes without being able to stop.

Qi Yue turned and walked off.

Gu Zhong froze, then, toughly, laughed a little longer before squatting down in gloom.

At this hour, he did not even need to look at his phone to know he could not go home. His phone was in his backpack, and his backpack was nowhere to be found. His family might not call him, but if they did, he definitely would not be able to answer.

So with his dad’s temper, even if he went home, he still would not get in.

As for the school dorms, everything at school was simple and plain. The only thing that was not plain was the dorm manager. Those guys who tried to experience college nightlife still had not found any way to get in or out of the dorm after lights-out.

Although, if he showed up in front of the dorm manager looking this tragic, maybe they might bend the rules once…

A car stopped in front of him and honked once.

The horn had a deep, solid sound, startling him so badly he sprang up from the ground.

“Didn’t you leave?” Gu Zhong looked at Qi Yue in the car.

“I did,” Qi Yue said. “Left to get the car. Get in, I’ll take you home.”

Gu Zhong opened the door and got in. “I can’t go home. My dad definitely won’t open the door for me.”

“Then back to school?” Qi Yue drove off.

“The school also…” Gu Zhong got halfway through the sentence, then stopped. “Yeah. Fine.”

He did not want to look like some homeless loser in front of Qi Yue.

Qi Yue said nothing and turned on the music in the car.

A burst of rap hit him head-on and blasted Gu Zhong’s train of thought about where to spend the night completely to pieces. By the time Qi Yue parked, he still had not managed to pick it back up.

He did not even have money. Where was he supposed to stay?

Right, money.

“My backpack might’ve fallen in the shop. How about I go back first…” He looked out the window. “Why are we back at the Paolou?”

“Didn’t you want to come back for your backpack?” Qi Yue said. He paused and looked at him again. “What did you just call this place?”

“Paolou…” Gu Zhong awkwardly gestured with one hand. “Look, it’s this narrow, and it’s this tall, so… doesn’t it kind of look like a Paolou?”

“Oh.” Qi Yue opened the car door. “That explanation sounds pretty innocent.”

“Well, obviously. I’m a very innocent person…” Gu Zhong got out with him, then paused. “Wait, what other explanation is there?”

“You tell me.” Qi Yue opened the door and went inside.

“A… brothel?” Gu Zhong asked.

“Aren’t you an innocent person?” Qi Yue turned and smiled at him, then reached over and switched on the small light on the first floor.

The light lit up Qi Yue’s face, wrapped in bandages into the shape of a pancake. Gu Zhong did not even bother reacting to the way he had just needled him again. He stared at Qi Yue’s pancake, no, Qi Yue’s face, and burst out laughing once more.

“Sorry, but you look way too funny like this.” Still laughing, he lowered his head and started looking around for his backpack. Then he tripped over an overturned chair.

By reflex, he started to throw out his left hand to brace himself against the wall.

The instant he lifted it, he remembered that arm was in a splint, but by then his body had already tipped forward. It seemed too late to switch hands.

“Ah!” he cried out, and in the middle of the panic, he aimed the top of his head at the wall.

What lightning-fast reflexes. In that tiny instant, he had actually managed to decide to use his head to hit the wall. Only after bumping into it did he realize the wall was surprisingly soft.

“You’re welcome,” Qi Yue said.

Gu Zhong looked at the hand he had braced against the wall and was speechless. “You could’ve just pulled me.”

“I was afraid I’d hit your arm,” Qi Yue said as he went behind the bar and took out his backpack.

“Oh.” Gu Zhong took the bag. For some reason, that sentence moved him a little. A person who never said anything nice had suddenly said something with no hidden meaning at all. It was concern, plain and simple, and there was not even a second half coming after it to ruin the moment. How moving.

Qi Yue ignored him after that, walked around the room a bit, and righted two tables.

Gu Zhong stood there awkwardly, staring at the few drops of blood on the floor, not knowing whether they belonged to Qi Yue or those men.

“Do you know, Chuan’er,” Qi Yue said, “if you slash someone with a knife, how long it takes before the blood drips onto the ground?”

“…No idea,” Gu Zhong answered.

“It takes quite a while,” Qi Yue said. He pulled over a chair and sat down in front of him. Then he waved his hand and suddenly shouted, “Bang!”

“Hey!” The sudden roar made Gu Zhong jump so hard he nearly shook the splint right off his arm. “What’s with the jump scare?”

“When the knife comes down,” Qi Yue stretched lazily, “the flesh flips open first. White. There’s not a drop of blood at first. After a while it slowly starts turning red, and then the blood comes out.”

Gu Zhong said nothing. He just stared at him.

“But there isn’t that much. It clots after a bit,” Qi Yue looked at him. “If you want it to bleed more, you have to really…”

“Enough.” Gu Zhong turned and headed for the door. “I’m going back to school.”

“There’s a room upstairs,” Qi Yue said behind him. “I live there. It’s kept pretty well. You can sleep upstairs tonight.”

Gu Zhong paused and turned around. “What do you mean?”

“Stop forcing it,” Qi Yue stood up. “You can’t get back into the dorm either, can you?”

“…Couldn’t I just stay at a hotel?” Gu Zhong held the door.

“Save your money,” Qi Yue said as he pulled down the rolling shutter. “With your arm like that, it’s easy to bump it during the night. I can keep an eye on you.”

“You keep an eye on me?” Gu Zhong froze again. “From where exactly are you planning to keep an eye on me?”

“You’re sleeping in my room.” Qi Yue turned and looked at him face-to-face. “Where else would I be keeping an eye on you from? Obviously from beside the bed.”

“You don’t have to be this… filial.” Gu Zhong became incoherent.

“Go to sleep,” Qi Yue said as he headed upstairs. “It’s late. I still have to clean up in the morning.”

Gu Zhong’s attention was instantly caught by the phrase “I still have to clean up in the morning.” In his understanding, even with his arm injured, Qi Yue should still have made him finish the work one-handed…

This tiny little room was Gu Zhong’s first time entering it. If Qi Yue had not mentioned it, he would never have noticed this inconspicuous little door, even after all those days of cleaning upstairs and downstairs. It looked like a small storage closet.

He followed Qi Yue inside. The moment the light came on, his first impression was that this room and Qi Yue were completely different styles.

It was… cozy.

And primitive.

The ceiling sloped down like an attic room.

There was no bed, only a thick straw mat in the corner spread with a coarse cloth sheet. It looked very comfortable, though he had no idea how one maintained it on a daily basis so bugs would not grow in it. Could bugs grow in it?

There was not much in the room, and everything looked old and warm, the kind of warmth that belonged to childhood memories.

A small bookshelf made from an old wooden rack. An old medicine box. A long table that looked like it had once been an abandoned carpenter’s workbench. On top of it sat a row of little flower pots. Some had succulents planted in them, while some were empty, probably because nothing had sprouted yet.

“This room,” Gu Zhong said. He saw Qi Yue take off his shoes as soon as he entered and stand barefoot on the worn wooden floorboards, so he took off his own shoes too. “Did you do it all yourself?”

“Mm.” Qi Yue pointed at the straw mat. “You sleep on the bed.”

Gu Zhong walked over and pressed a hand into the mat. Instantly, he felt so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. “This mattress is so comfortable.”

“I’m going to take a shower.” Qi Yue took a change of clothes out of a little cabinet at the side and got ready to go out. “You sleep.”

“What about me? I also…” Gu Zhong realized something was wrong as soon as he asked it. “I…”

“How are you supposed to wash?” Leaning against the door, Qi Yue looked him up and down. “Would you mind if I helped you wash?”

“Good night.” Gu Zhong lay straight down onto the mat.

When Qi Yue came back smelling faintly of soap, Gu Zhong was staring at a photograph above the mat.

Wooden boards lined the slanted ceiling, and the photo had been pinned to them with two thumbtacks.

“This,” Gu Zhong said, pointing at the photo, “is…”

Qi Yue said nothing. He came over and sat on the floor beside the mat, leaning back against the wall with his head lowered as he fiddled with his phone.

Now that he was closer, the clean scent on him was especially obvious. Compared to that, Gu Zhong felt like a dusty buckwheat bun.

“You’re sleeping on the floor?” he asked.

“Mm.” Qi Yue glanced at him. “Why are you still awake?”

“New bed,” Gu Zhong said, lying down and carefully placing his splinted arm at his side. “Is that you in the photo?”

“Do I look less handsome there than I do now?” Qi Yue asked.

“…Are you very handsome now?” Gu Zhong looked at him.

“Yeah.” Qi Yue turned his head too. Light traced the clean lines of his profile, but the circle of bandages around his head turned all those sharp lines into curves.

“Oh.” Gu Zhong held back his laughter. Well, fine. Without the bandages, he was still pretty handsome.

“That’s me,” Qi Yue said, lowering his head to his phone again. “The one next to me is… Qi Maomao’s dad.”

A boss, and a second-in-command.

Gu Zhong practically confirmed it in an instant. Qi Yue really was the legendary Er-ge. Even though he had never asked, if he had, he probably would not have gotten an answer anyway.

“Her… dad?” Gu Zhong asked again.

“He’s dead,” Qi Yue said.

“Huh?” Gu Zhong was stunned. That did not match the rumors at all. “Wasn’t he supposed to have gone to prison?”

Qi Yue turned and looked at him.

“I mean, I just heard…” Gu Zhong cleared his throat. “That there was a boss, and a Er-ge…”

“Er-ge?” Qi Yue tilted his head and looked at him with interest. Then his gaze dropped toward Gu Zhong’s crotch. “Whose?”

“Not whose!” Gu Zhong yanked the little blanket beside him over himself. “Haven’t you heard it? Wasn’t it you?”

“What about me?” Qi Yue still looked extremely interested, one hand propping up his bandage-wrapped face.

“My classmate told me,” Gu Zhong said, looking at him suspiciously. Qi Yue did not react like the person involved, but this guy’s acting was excellent. Who knew whether he was just waiting for a chance to mess with him. So Gu Zhong proceeded carefully. “A jianghu rumor.”

Qi Yue smiled, pulled a pillow out from under Gu Zhong’s head, lay down on the floor, and turned off the light.

Moonlight poured in through the curtainless window, spilling all over the room. With the plain furnishings around them, it felt vaguely like they had stepped into another world.

Gu Zhong stared at the photo above him.

The jianghu rumor did not say how many years ago the story had happened. But in the photo, Qi Yue looked five or six years younger than he did now.

There was no smile on his face. He looked fierce, in sharp contrast to the lazy, unserious way he acted all day now.

Gu Zhong could not really put that state into words. He could only say that if he saw someone on the street who carried that kind of fighting aura around with them, he would stay farther away to avoid getting caught in a brawl by accident.

Bandit air.

Jianghu air.

Even after closing his eyes and preparing to coax himself to sleep, Gu Zhong was still wondering what exactly had happened to make these two versions of Qi Yue so different.

“Go on,” Qi Yue’s voice sounded in the moonlight.

“What?” Gu Zhong asked, baffled.

“That jianghu rumor.”

“Oh.” Gu Zhong tried to turn onto his right side to face Qi Yue, but once he turned, he discovered there was nowhere to put his left arm, so he had to lie flat again and turn his head instead. “They say there used to be a big boss around here, really badass. Later, he got cornered. He and his sworn brother stood and fought back hard, but they couldn’t win. His brother refused to run, and got beaten half to death. Then in the end the boss had a last flash of strength and fought back, took one of them down, and then… went to prison.”

“Who told you a story that stupid?” Qi Yue laughed.

“My classmate. His family lives around here.” Gu Zhong used his arm as a pillow. “Stupid?”

“What happened after that?” Qi Yue asked.

“There isn’t any after that. They say after the boss went to prison, his brother looked after his kid.” Gu Zhong paused and looked at Qi Yue. “And opened a… coffee shop.”

“Called the Paolou?” Qi Yue said.

“…No idea.” Gu Zhong clicked his tongue. “So is it you or not?”

“What is there to verify in this kind of embellished jianghu rumor?” Qi Yue yawned. “Nobody ever teaches kids anything good.”

Gu Zhong said nothing more.

Neither did Qi Yue.

Just as Gu Zhong was beginning to drift off and waves of sleep kept rolling over him, Qi Yue finally spoke in a very low voice.

“Thanks for tonight.”

“Ah,” Gu Zhong answered drowsily.

“If something like this happens again, and I tell you to run, then run. Don’t think about loyalty or not. If the other side’s obviously got the upper hand, then don’t be impulsive. And don’t blow up at the slightest spark all the time either. If something can be endured, then there’s no need to explode. Nobody’s going to call you a coward for not arguing with idiots.”

“…Ah.” Gu Zhong’s consciousness was already starting to leave him.

“You’re a lot like I used to be,” Qi Yue’s voice became harder and harder to hear. “Best thing is to keep your head down and live quietly. There are some things you really will regret for the rest of your life.”

It perfectly reenacted that unfinished jianghu rumor.

In the final scene, Gu Zhong was supporting Qi Yue’s head with his left hand. Qi Yue’s head was wrapped all over in bandages, looking like a pancake, and it was incredibly heavy, so heavy that his arm ached.

“Get out,” Qi Yue said weakly. “There are some things you really will… regret for the rest of your life.”

What surprised Gu Zhong himself was that after Qi Yue finished saying that, he did not even wait for him to die before putting him down.

Then he ran.

Tsk.

Gu Zhong frowned and sat up. Maybe deep down he really was just a cowardly weakling who feared death…

Qi Yue was no longer in the little room. He had probably already gone downstairs to clean up.

Gu Zhong hurriedly tried to get up and go help before Qi Yue could mock him, but the moment he moved, he realized there were things placed on both sides of him. A long cushion on the left, a pillow on the right. Qi Yue had probably been afraid he would roll over onto his arm in his sleep…

Filled with a strange and unexpectedly deep sense of emotion, he held his arm and trotted out of the room, then ran downstairs.

The ground floor still looked the way it had yesterday. Overturned tables and chairs, broken teapots and cups, glass everywhere, and those few drops of blood.

Qi Yue stood by the window with a cigarette in his mouth, looking outside.

“How about we open later today?” Gu Zhong walked over and saw an envelope on the one table beside him that had not fallen over. “What’s this?”

“For you,” Qi Yue said. “Reward for your righteous bravery, medical expenses, nutrition allowance, lost wages, and three months’ salary.”

Gu Zhong’s hand stopped in midair before touching the envelope.

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what it says.”

“What do you mean, three months’ salary?” Gu Zhong asked.

“A serious muscle-and-bone injury takes a hundred days to recover,” Qi Yue said. “For at least three months, you won’t be able to look for work…”

“Look for work?” Gu Zhong’s voice shot up at once. “What the hell? What did you just say? Pardon please? Niania? The wind and waves are too loud, I couldn’t hear you!”

Qi Yue turned around and crushed his cigarette out on the tabletop.

“You’re fired.”

“Why?” Gu Zhong glared at him.

“You’re injured. You can’t work.”

“Fuck your uncle! Why do you think I got injured?!” Gu Zhong found it impossible to understand. The grievance and anger made his nose sting. “Why don’t you go get your brain checked? Or did they wrap your damn bandages too tight and compress your brain capacity?”

“If changing your dressing is inconvenient, you can come to me. I’ll drive you to the hospital,” Qi Yue said.

The confusion in Gu Zhong’s head and the rage rising from the soles of his feet joined together into a battle anthem of total bewilderment. He raised a hand and pointed at Qi Yue. He opened his mouth several times, but not a single sentence came out.

“Fuck!” In the end, that was the only word he managed to squeeze out. He used it, very intelligently, to express all his feelings. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!”

As he turned and stormed toward the door, Qi Yue’s voice came from behind him.

“The money. Your backpack.”

After heroically saving his boss at work, he got fired.

This was the most depressing thing Gu Zhong had experienced since his own name and getting into this trashy school.

And after that, there were even more depressing things.

When he got home, neither his father nor his mother believed that he had gotten hurt while saving someone.

“You got into a fight, didn’t you?” his mother said, frowning, her voice full of heartache.

“You got beaten up, more like,” his father said after giving him a couple of glances.

Gu Zhong gave up trying to explain.

The only positive outcome from this whole mess was that his mother increased his allowance. It went from fifty yuan a week to a hundred.

He was rich now.

The envelope Qi Yue had given him was stuffed full of money, a thick stack. He could get through the semester just fine even without working.

But he stuffed the money into a shoe and shoved it under the bed.

Using that money felt suffocating.

After he stopped going to the Paolou, his days became like a stomach that had been stretched too full, only to feel strangely empty after suddenly going on a diet.

Every day he went to class and came back from class, carrying books to the study room and pretending he was not wasting his life, or standing with his arm cradled and watching the vocational-school students play basketball on the court.

Other people seemed to live this kind of life with plenty of enjoyment. They still had time to date, fall in love, and spend all night at internet cafés.

Only he felt worse and worse with each passing day.

He was going crazy.

He no longer had to scrub tables, wash dishes, mop floors, and get mocked and teased by his boss every day at the Paolou. He even had money in hand. And yet he still felt lost.

Gu Zhong sat in the study room, sprawled over the desk for half an hour already. The self-appointed storyteller behind him had gone from talking about the former principal’s corruption to the fire caused by the demolition of illegal structures in the urban village across the road. Gu Zhong let out a heavy sigh.

Compared to now, he suddenly realized that he had actually quite liked those busy days at the Paolou. He liked the rich smell of coffee in the air. He liked watching all kinds of lives unfold every day from downstairs to upstairs. He liked his coworkers, whom he had not even gotten that familiar with yet. He liked… Qi Yue, with all his nonsense and occasional weirdness.

Quite a few times, when he rode past the Paolou on his bike, he saw Qi Yue standing at the window looking outside. Each time he suppressed the urge to go in and demand an explanation for why he had been fired, lowered his head, and pedaled away faster.

Qi Yue had become even more erratic than before. Over the course of a month and a half, Gu Zhong noticed that the Paolou had not opened at all on at least four days, and two of those days had even been consecutive.

It was going under.

Gu Zhong felt a little desolate.

So it really was going under.

Thanks to overwhelming boredom, his arm recovered pretty well. After the splint came off, it was basically fine. Though he was still careful in accordance with the doctor’s instructions, at least he could ride his bike with proper swagger again.

And once he got swagger back, he got careless about direction.

He had meant to go buy something to eat, but somehow he turned a corner for no reason and rode right up to the Paolou again.

The moment he looked toward it, he abruptly squeezed the brakes and stopped with one foot on the ground.

The Paolou’s doors and windows were all shut. A piece of paper was pasted onto the door.

Suspended operations.

Just those two words. No signature, no contact number, nothing about when they would reopen.

It felt particularly decisive, particularly unlike the kind of notice that suggested business would ever resume.

Gu Zhong stared at the paper, already a little torn, then at the Paolou, which had suddenly become so bleak. Those windows he had once wiped, those floors he had once mopped…

He got off his bike, locked it in the old usual spot, and walked over.

There was dust on the windows now… although the windows on this side faced the street. If they went one day without being wiped, they would already be covered in dust, so using dust to judge how many days they had been closed was not scientific.

Using the paper was not scientific either. Qi Yue could use the same hiring notice for a full year.

Standing at the door, Gu Zhong suddenly wanted to sigh.

After sighing, however, a faint unease crept over him. Qi Yue was carefree, always unserious, and never particularly concerned with whether business was good or bad. But precisely because of that, Gu Zhong felt that he was not the kind of person who would close shop.

Had something happened?

After thinking for a while, he took out his phone.

In his call history, Qi Yue’s name was actually still in the top ten.

Had he really been that bored lately? He had barely made any calls at all.

“Chuan’er-ge?” a voice behind him called out in surprise.

Gu Zhong spun around sharply and said in an equally surprised voice, “Qi Maomao?”

“It’s me.” Qi Maomao swung her schoolbag and happily ran up to him. “What are you doing here?”

“I… just happened to pass by.” Gu Zhong pointed to the paper on the door. “What’s that supposed to mean? Why are you suspended?”

“Oh.” The light in Qi Maomao’s eyes dimmed. “It just means suspended.”

“Why?” Gu Zhong asked. “Where’s Qi Yue?”

“He’s busy with something.” Qi Maomao looked away. “So they’re suspended for a while.”

“He’s busy?” The second he heard that, Gu Zhong knew she probably had not even had time to draft the lie. “Busy with what exactly?”

“Don’t ask.” Qi Maomao waved her hand and ran toward the Paolou’s back door. “I’m not telling you. Come hang out again when we reopen, Chuan’er-ge.”

“What are you doing?” Gu Zhong chased after her and grabbed her.

“I’m getting something,” Qi Maomao said.

Gu Zhong said nothing. He only stared at her.

Qi Maomao held out for a while, but in the end she could not outlast his stare. She let out a long sigh.

“Aaah…”

“Say it,” Gu Zhong said, looking at her. “Did something happen to Qi Yue?”

“He’s in the hospital. He got hurt by someone,” Qi Maomao said, frowning as she leaned against the wall. “Don’t go see him, and don’t contact him either. It’s enough for you just to know. He didn’t want me telling you.”

“He just knew you’d run into me?” Gu Zhong said.

Qi Maomao still had her brows knitted. “He said you’d definitely miss him and come back to see the place. I come every couple of days to pick things up, so we’d definitely run into each other.”

“I miss him? Where does he get that confidence from?” Gu Zhong did not even know what to say to that. He paused, then dragged the focus back. “Who beat him?”

“I don’t know.” Qi Maomao shook her head. “I wasn’t there. By the time he contacted me that day, he was already in the hospital and admitted.”

“When did it happen?” Gu Zhong pressed.

“Last week.” Qi Maomao thought for a moment. “Anyway, I had a feeling something bad was going to happen. People have been coming to cause trouble this whole time. Ever since you left, it hasn’t stopped. It’s so annoying.”

Gu Zhong froze after hearing that sentence.

He felt as though he suddenly understood why Qi Yue had fired him.

“Which hospital is he in?” Gu Zhong glared at Qi Maomao.

“I told you, you don’t need to go see him!” Qi Maomao said anxiously. “If he finds out I told you, he’ll definitely deal with me!”

“Fine, I’ll ask him myself.” Gu Zhong took out his phone.

“What are you asking him for?!” Qi Maomao shouted. “He just doesn’t want to drag you into this! You…”

Gu Zhong ignored her. He directly dialed Qi Yue’s number, turned, and strode quickly toward his bicycle. He did not catch what Qi Maomao shouted after him. He swung onto the bike and rode off.

The call connected. It rang a few times, then the other side picked up. Qi Yue’s familiar voice came through.

“So little girls really are unreliable.”

“Didn’t you say you knew I’d definitely come back?” Gu Zhong slowed his speed as he rode. “Then how did you not know I definitely wouldn’t just listen to her make things up and leave?”

“I said you’d definitely miss me.” Qi Yue chuckled twice. “So? Miss me?”

“Have some shame, will you?” Gu Zhong was thrown into extreme embarrassment by that line, but somehow did not even remember to get angry. “Which hospital are you in? I’m coming to see you.”

“No need.”

“What are you acting for?!” Gu Zhong shouted. “How fake can you get? I’ve already called you. Do you think I can’t find you?”

“Oh? Pretty fierce.” Qi Yue laughed. “I’m a little touched. Here, let me praise you. Those little jeans you’re wearing today are pretty nice. Your ass looks nice and round in them…”

Gu Zhong froze.

Then he lowered his head and looked at his own pants.

He nearly fell straight off the bike.

“You just wait!”