TA • Chapter 22

"That worked great," Xu Ding said, glancing around at the people nearby. "You’re leaving now? Not staying a bit longer? Grab dinner together."

"No," Cheng Ke said. "I don’t have much appetite after performing, and I don’t understand any of this stuff anyway."

"It’s all just a show, anyway. It’s not on your level," Xu Ding said with a smile.

"Stop flattering me," Cheng Ke said, smiling too.

"Earlier…" Xu Ding hesitated. "Xiao Yi came."

Cheng Ke froze. He frowned. "I didn’t tell anyone about this before."

"It’s normal for him to find out," Xu Ding said. "I invited so many people. I mainly just didn’t want him to know too early… but I didn’t expect he’d actually come."

"Did he get in?" Cheng Ke asked.

"No," Xu Ding said. "I blocked him outside."

Cheng Ke looked at him, unsure what to say for a moment. With Cheng Yi’s personality, no matter how skillfully or tactfully someone blocked him, he would still be annoyed.

"It’s fine," Xu Ding said. "I told you, I’m not getting involved in your business. I don’t have any business to do with Xiao Yi either. I’ll give face if I want to, and if I don’t want to, then I won’t."

"I never noticed you were this stubborn before," Cheng Ke said.

"If I weren’t stubborn, I wouldn’t be where I am today," Xu Ding said, glancing over at Jiang Yuduo, who was standing off to the side with a frown as he studied a painting. "Xiao Yi ran into Lao San. They probably talked."

"…Fuck." Cheng Ke bit his lip.

"He probably didn’t say much, just the usual stuff," Xu Ding said. "Why didn’t you let him in just now?"

"I’ve never brought anyone to an event before, and there wasn’t an invitation," Cheng Ke said. "He didn’t seem all that interested anyway. I wasn’t interested either."

Xu Ding laughed. "If you bring someone next time, just come straight in."

"Mm." Cheng Ke sighed. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. Jiang Yuduo had told him not to worry about it, so he hadn’t. If he’d known he’d run into Cheng Yi, he wouldn’t have brought Jiang Yuduo along at all.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t count as a friend, but in Cheng Ke’s eyes, he was already more than just a landlord or someone Cheng Ke knew. Any conflict with Cheng Yi would make him uneasy.

"Want me to send a car to take you back? It’s so cold." Xu Ding walked over toward Jiang Yuduo.

"No need. You’re still busy here," Cheng Ke said. "We’ll just get a taxi. We took one here too, and with the event going on, there’ll definitely be cabs waiting outside."

"All right." Xu Ding smiled at Jiang Yuduo. "Third Brother, how was it?"

"I don’t understand any of this art stuff," Jiang Yuduo said. "I only thought the sand art was kind of interesting. If Cheng Ke hadn’t been performing, I’d rather have gone outside and caught some wind."

"Fine. Next time I invite Xiao Ke to perform again, I’ll definitely send you an invitation," Xu Ding said, then turned back to Cheng Ke. "Really not going to eat? Mi Li and the others are coming too."

"Really not eating," Cheng Ke said. "I’m going home to sleep."

Xu Ding didn’t insist any further. He saw them out.

Most of the people at this event Cheng Ke didn’t know, but there were still a few familiar faces. All the way out, he kept greeting people, and for a moment it felt as if he had gone back to life from several months ago.

But he couldn’t say he felt much. There was no lingering sadness, no nostalgia, just a familiarity he hadn’t felt in a long time.

After leaving the art gallery, he and Jiang Yuduo walked all the way to the middle of the road, but they didn’t even see a taxi. A little annoyed, Cheng Ke took out his phone. "Let’s call a car."

"Just standing here in this north wind," Jiang Yuduo said, walking toward the other side of the intersection. "By the time the car gets here, we’ll be frozen stiff like road signs."

"Walk back?" Cheng Ke stared at him. "And not that way either, it’s the wrong direction! Are you directionally challenged or what…"

"There’s a subway station a hundred meters ahead," Jiang Yuduo said, looking back at him. "Never taken the subway before, Young Master? Today I’ll broaden your horizons."

"Sorry, I already had my horizons broadened," Cheng Ke said. He looked ahead. Sure enough, he could see the subway sign not far away.

"Ever swiped an IC card?" Jiang Yuduo pulled a card out of his pocket and tossed it over.

Cheng Ke caught it and looked. "…No."

"Then swipe it and have some fun later," Jiang Yuduo said. "I’ll buy the ticket."

"I’m not some three-and-a-half-year-old kid from next door," Cheng Ke said. "What’s there to play with?"

"Kids don’t even care about that anymore. They go to the subway with their grandma every day to buy cheap vegetables." Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke sighed and put the card in his pocket.

After they got into the subway station, Jiang Yuduo went to buy the tickets, and kept staring at him when they entered the gate.

"I’m not so useless I can’t even swipe a card!" Cheng Ke said through clenched teeth.

"Who knows? You can’t even light a gas stove," Jiang Yuduo said, then thought about it and lowered his voice to ask, "Can your brother?"

"What?" Cheng Ke blinked.

"I figure he probably can’t either. Anyway, when people look like rich kids, you just feel like they probably can’t light a gas stove," Jiang Yuduo said. "And he can’t even drive… now that I think about it, he’s more useless than you."

Cheng Ke couldn’t help laughing. "Fuck."

He had never actually thought about Jiang Yuduo’s question. Did Cheng Yi know how to do those basic things of daily life that Cheng Ke didn’t?

But whether he did or not, Cheng Yi probably would never put himself in a situation where he had to learn them.

The station where they boarded was packed. Several times, Cheng Ke wanted to ask Jiang Yuduo what had been said when he ran into Cheng Yi today, but he never found the chance. There were people all around them, all kinds of chaotic noise.

Jiang Yuduo, on the other hand, looked no different from usual. There was nothing unusual about him at all.

When they were standing by the train doors waiting to get on, Jiang Yuduo suddenly frowned.

"What is it?" Cheng Ke asked at once.

"Hungry," Jiang Yuduo said. "Xu Ding asked us to eat together just now. Why’d you turn him down?"

"Huh?" Cheng Ke froze. "I thought you didn’t want to. Besides Xu Ding, there were other people too, and I’m not that familiar with them."

"I can eat with anyone," Jiang Yuduo said, rubbing his stomach. "Anyway, I just eat. I don’t talk to people."

"Then how about," Cheng Ke thought for a moment, "I treat you to dinner later. You pick the place."

"Fine." Jiang Yuduo immediately looked up at the station name. "Get off after four stops."

The subway pulled in. Before the doors had even opened, two people squeezed forward. The moment the doors opened, they rushed inside, and together with the force of two people against those getting off, they actually managed to force their way halfway in.

"Let people off first before getting on!" someone in the line behind them yelled.

The two of them acted like they hadn’t heard and kept squeezing.

Jiang Yuduo went over, grabbed their clothes, and yanked them backward, directly pulling them out. Then he sat down hard where they had been.

"What are you doing! What the hell are you doing!" one of them jumped up and pointed at him.

"What the hell does it have to do with you what I’m doing?" Jiang Yuduo quickly caught his finger, then pressed the head of the other one who was about to get up and shoved him back down to the floor. "I’m not fucking you, am I?"

The man’s hand dropped at once.

"Get on," Cheng Ke said, pushing him.

Jiang Yuduo let go. The two of them got on the train, and Jiang Yuduo didn’t go farther in. He just stood by the door, turned around, and looked at the two people who still hadn’t boarded. "You’re not getting on."

Cheng Ke stood behind Jiang Yuduo and couldn’t see his expression, but he could imagine it. The two of them actually just stood there, staring as the doors closed.

"Over here." Jiang Yuduo turned and grabbed Cheng Ke by the arm, pulling him to the side until they found a spot with fewer people and stood there.

"I thought you were about to fight them," Cheng Ke said quietly.

"How could that be," Jiang Yuduo said. "If I really made a move, I’d just be beating them one-sidedly. That’s not a fight."

Cheng Ke smiled but didn’t say anything.

Jiang Yuduo’s style of lashing out at the slightest disagreement, even in a situation like just now, wasn’t something he could fully admire. But after spending some time with him, seeing him like this actually felt kind of interesting.

Degenerate!

This is degeneracy!

His father’s voice rang in his ears.

Probably.

Two stops later, with fewer people around them, Cheng Ke finally had the chance to bring up what had happened earlier.

"You ran into Cheng Yi today?" he asked softly.

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

"What did he say to you?" He kept his voice low. "Sometimes the way he talks is pretty infuriating, you…"

"What could he possibly say to me?" Jiang Yuduo said. "Are you worried I’d beat him up?"

"Not really," Cheng Ke said with a smile. "You probably wouldn’t hit him."

"Not necessarily. If Xu Ding hadn’t come out today, I would’ve started something." Jiang Yuduo clicked his tongue.

Cheng Ke froze. "Really?"

"False." Jiang Yuduo sighed. "I’m not an idiot. If I really laid a hand on your brother, that’d be like handing him a head on a plate. At the very least I’d have to spend a few days in detention."

Cheng Ke said nothing, feeling a little uneasy.

"But there’s one thing…" Jiang Yuduo lowered his voice.

"What?" Cheng Ke asked.

"…Forget it." Jiang Yuduo looked around. "Nothing."

"Are you fucking with me?" Cheng Ke was a little impatient. "If it’s nothing, then don’t even start."

Jiang Yuduo smiled. "Later. I’ll tell you after we get off."

These few stops made Cheng Ke feel a little hard to endure. Actually, he could guess roughly what it was. For someone like Jiang Yuduo, a curious guy who wanted to ask but didn’t have the nerve to do it in a crowded place, it could only be those kinds of things.

He just wanted to know whether Cheng Yi really had said it, and what exactly he had said.

He didn’t mind people knowing he liked men, but he did mind Cheng Yi mentioning that sort of thing to Jiang Yuduo under these circumstances.

After they left the subway station, Jiang Yuduo led him from the busy main street into a narrow, old side street.

"What kind of place did you pick?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Aren’t you pretty into hotpot?" Jiang Yuduo said. "I’m taking you somewhere tasty and cheap."

"I thought you only moved around on your own turf," Cheng Ke said.

"There isn’t a place in this city I haven’t been to," Jiang Yuduo said, waving an arm. "I know it way better than taxi drivers do."

"Really?" Cheng Ke smiled. "You must have a lot of free time."

"Not really," Jiang Yuduo said. "I basically work for Lu Xi. Anything she doesn’t want to run around for, she dumps on me."

"Does she pay well?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Depends on her mood," Jiang Yuduo said, pulling him into another side street. "But her mood’s been pretty good."

This street looked exactly like an old street in the old part of town. There were small restaurants on both sides, with a few convenience stores and milk tea shops in between. It wasn’t dirty, but it was very old, and the buildings looked older than he was.

"This one." Jiang Yuduo pointed to a storefront ahead. "Timing’s just right. Any later and we’d have to wait for a table."

Cheng Ke looked at it. It was a very unremarkable shop, perfectly blended into the street.

"Xiao Zhuge Hotpot, Branch Two," he read. There was only one shop, and yet the entrance was packed with parked cars. "They opened a lot of branches?"

"What branches?" Jiang Yuduo said. "I asked the owner. This is the only one."

"Then why does it say Branch Two?" Cheng Ke didn’t get it.

"To look grand," Jiang Yuduo said. "If I were the owner, I’d call it Branch Eighteen. That’d be grand enough."

"And if someone asked where the other seventeen were?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Hello, this is the first branch of our restaurant chain to enter this city’s food and beverage industry," Jiang Yuduo said, lifting the curtain. "Smells good, right?"

The hot air and the fragrance of chili and Sichuan pepper that rushed out from behind the curtain instantly made him feel hungry.

Jiang Yuduo picked a small table near the back. "We’ll sit here. It’s a bit cramped, but at least we don’t have to share a table with anyone."

"This place even has people sharing tables?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Don’t look down on a small shop," Jiang Yuduo said, grabbing the menu and checking off items at lightning speed. "You’re treating this meal, right?"

"Mm." Cheng Ke nodded.

Jiang Yuduo checked off a bunch more items in a rush, then shouted, "Server!"

Cheng Ke had just picked up his chopsticks to tear open the wrapper, and Jiang Yuduo’s shout startled his hand. The chopsticks shot straight through the wrapper and flew out, landing on the floor.

"Bring another pair of chopsticks!" Jiang Yuduo shouted again.

"Coming right up!" someone on the other side, he didn’t know which server, answered at the same volume.

The shop wasn’t very big, maybe twenty or thirty tables. A few were still empty, but the place was already buzzing with noise. It felt like everyone was shouting while they talked, shouting while they laughed.

Cheng Ke was a little dazed. In the heat and the drifting fragrance all around him, people seemed to be everywhere, above and below, left and right. All kinds of voices were ringing out, but he couldn’t make out a single sentence.

Yet the noisy atmosphere didn’t make him irritated. Instead, it felt novel, and oddly invigorating.

It wasn’t until all the dishes had been served and Jiang Yuduo flicked his forehead that he came back to himself.

"I’m starting the boil now!" Jiang Yuduo poured him a full glass of liquor.

"Okay." Cheng Ke nodded.

Jiang Yuduo grabbed a plate of meat and dumped it straight into the pot. Only then did Cheng Ke suddenly remember that this man ate hotpot like a wild thing from some past life who had starved to death.

"Eat quickly!" Jiang Yuduo told him. "It’ll get old in a minute!"

"…If you put less in, wouldn’t it not get old?" Cheng Ke said helplessly, picking up a chopstickful of meat from the pot.

"That’d be so boring," Jiang Yuduo said, using the strainer to swirl through the pot before dumping a big ladle of meat into Cheng Ke’s bowl. "Eating meat should fill your mouth up completely."

Cheng Ke hesitated for a moment, then dipped the meat Jiang Yuduo had scooped for him in the sauce and stuffed it all into his mouth.

"Good, right?" Jiang Yuduo watched him.

"…Can’t chew it," Cheng Ke said, frowning as he struggled to work the mouthful of meat around. "Fuck… hot…"

Jiang Yuduo burst out laughing at him.

After a few big mouthfuls of meat, Cheng Ke put down his chopsticks and took a sip of liquor.

It was indeed pretty satisfying, but his cheeks were getting tired, and after just a few bites, he felt like he was already full…

"What was it you wanted to say on the subway?" he asked Jiang Yuduo.

Jiang Yuduo took a sip of liquor, then leaned over the table toward him. "You…"

Cheng Ke looked at him.

"You used to…" Jiang Yuduo sounded even more strained than Cheng Ke had while eating meat. "You used to date guys, right?"

Cheng Ke narrowed his eyes. "You just wanted to ask that?"

"No." Jiang Yuduo paused, then picked up another plate of meat and dumped it into the pot. Stirring with his spoon, he said, "It’s just, your brother said the ones you liked were all… that kind…"

Cheng Ke took a slow sip of liquor from his glass and patiently listened.

"That kind," Jiang Yuduo gritted out. "Pretty little cuties?"

Cheng Ke choked and quickly turned his head away.

"Like that, right?" Jiang Yuduo scooped him another big spoonful of meat. "A pretty… a pretty cute shemale…"

"What?" Cheng Ke coughed twice, feeling like his own voice had come out with a question mark attached to it, the tail end wavering.

Jiang Yuduo’s expression immediately turned even more strained. "Pretty… cute… people…"

"Shut up!" Cheng Ke cut off that last word halfway, keeping his voice low. "Jiang Yuduo, are you fucking stupid?"

"I’m not fucking gay either," Jiang Yuduo said, glaring at him. "How the hell would I know what your taste is? If I knew, would I even ask you?"

Cheng Ke took a sip of liquor to calm himself down. After a while, he frowned and asked again, "Cheng Yi said that?"

"He didn’t say people… just said pretty little cuties." Jiang Yuduo refilled his glass.

Cheng Ke sighed.

"He probably thought I…" Jiang Yuduo cleared his throat. "So he wanted to provoke me or something."

"He thought you were my new boyfriend?" Cheng Ke said with a smile.

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo nodded. Now that he had asked it out loud, he seemed more relaxed, and his face returned to its usual expression. "Your brother’s pretty vicious. Even at this point, he still wouldn’t let up on you. If I really were your new boyfriend, I’d probably be pissed hearing that."

"What’s there to be pissed about? Can’t I change my taste once in a while?" Cheng Ke said.

"…I’m not your boyfriend either, so what the hell would you be changing your taste for?" Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

Cheng Ke smiled but said nothing.

"Hey," Jiang Yuduo ate a couple bites, then couldn’t help leaning over again. "Is it true?"

"What?" Cheng Ke looked at him. "Pretty little cuties?"

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo nodded.

"Yeah." Cheng Ke took a sip of liquor.

"I really don’t get it," Jiang Yuduo frowned. "If you like that kind, then why don’t you just find a girl? Any girl is prettier and cuter than a guy, right?"

"Girls don’t have dicks." As soon as Cheng Ke said it, he and Jiang Yuduo both froze.

He quickly looked at the glass. It was only his second drink. Then he quickly looked at the bottle.

This had to be fake liquor.

"I really…" Jiang Yuduo stared at him. "Underestimated you."

"You’re too kind." Cheng Ke raised his glass at him and took another sip to steady himself.

Environment really could change a person.

For the past twenty-seven years, let alone saying something like that out loud, he hadn’t even thought it in his head.

Jiang Yuduo also seemed stunned for a moment, and it took him several bites of meat before he looked up at Cheng Ke again.

"Anything else you don’t understand that you need me to explain?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Nope," Jiang Yuduo said. "I just don’t really get it. They’re all the same, and there’s not even any mystery to it. What’s the point?"

"I can’t explain that to you," Cheng Ke said. In the past, once the people around him found out, they wouldn’t really react much. Whether they accepted it or not, out of politeness, no one would step all over that politeness and eagerly pry into it like this. Looking at Jiang Yuduo now, he didn’t feel offended at all. Instead, he thought it was kind of interesting. "Why don’t you try finding a pretty little cutie and see for yourself?"

"Fuck your uncle," Jiang Yuduo suddenly leaned back against the chair. "Stop disgusting me."

People who trampled politeness underfoot were sometimes adorable, and sometimes they made your mood twist so suddenly it felt like you’d thrown out your back.

Jiang Yuduo’s blunt, sincere reaction honestly hurt Cheng Ke a little.

"So you do have that idea, huh," he said with a smile. "Too bad I don’t have an uncle."

Jiang Yuduo looked at him and said nothing.

Cheng Ke didn’t continue either. He picked up his glass and took a sip of liquor, then grabbed some greens and rinsed them in the hotpot.

"Cheng Ke," Jiang Yuduo said after a while, pulling his chair a little closer to him. "Are you mad?"

"No," Cheng Ke said. "If I got mad over this, I would’ve died of anger ten years ago."

"I’m not saying you’re disgusting," Jiang Yuduo said quietly. "If it’s you like that, I just… don’t think it’s disgusting. It’s just that if it suddenly gets put on me, then I feel a little… disgusted."

"Mm," Cheng Ke said, glancing at him. "Eat your food."