TA •Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Cheng Ke remembered that not long ago, Jiang Yuduo had told him very seriously, "I don’t just think anyone is my friend. Friends mean a lot to me."

He had always believed Jiang Yuduo didn’t think of him as a friend. As for himself, he could make Jiang Yuduo a friend. After all, his standards for friendship were pretty low. Eat a few meals together, and he could introduce someone as his friend. As for how much weight this particular friend carried, he had never really thought about it in detail.

Now, hearing Jiang Yuduo suddenly declare that the two of them were friends, aside from the soft feeling in his chest, Cheng Ke also felt a little lost.

It had only been a short time, yet Jiang Yuduo’s definition of friendship seemed as unstable as the man himself.

"Didn’t you say… friends are a big deal…" Cheng Ke looked at him.

"Because you came running back today." Jiang Yuduo said.

"Really?" Cheng Ke froze. "I mainly came back because I was afraid something would happen. I originally thought Chen Qing could hold out for a while, but he went down in one second."

Jiang Yuduo laughed. "He doesn’t know how to fight. His mom spoiled him rotten since he was little."

"Actually, I wasn’t…" Cheng Ke had run back, and he really had been worried, but he wasn’t a particularly cold person to begin with. Watching someone he knew take on three people at once, especially when the other side had even called his name, and Jiang Yuduo, in order to make sure he was safe, had rather risked being unable to survive in that world than let him call the police. In that situation, if he really had run off, it would have been hard to justify. "Chen Qing and those little brothers of yours wouldn’t just abandon you either."

"It’s different," Jiang Yuduo said. "Besides Chen Qing, those brothers all know that if they don’t help me this time, I won’t help them later either."

Cheng Ke could roughly understand what he meant. Jiang Yuduo covered for his brothers, and those brothers would also put in effort for him. But Jiang Yuduo, compared to other bosses, like Ba Zhe, was different. Even with the same kind of trade-off in interests, someone like Jiang Yuduo, who would still notice a brother’s scalp turning blue from the cold while hailing a cab in freezing weather, really was different.

Cheng Ke thought maybe that was one of the reasons he got anxious whenever he saw Jiang Yuduo in trouble.

"No one ever did this for me either." Jiang Yuduo took a drag on his cigarette.

"Did what?" Cheng Ke smiled. "Running back to help you even though they’re not one of your guys…"

"No one has ever pulled me back when I was about to hit someone." Jiang Yuduo cut him off.

Cheng Ke looked at him. It took a while before he answered, "Oh."

"That’s different from running back to help me," Jiang Yuduo said. "It was the first time someone worried I’d hit too hard. That kind of thing had never happened before. They all told me that when I make a move, I need to go all out."

There it was again, that "they."

Cheng Ke could tell Jiang Yuduo’s "they" did not refer to Chen Qing or his little brothers. Those people only wanted him to win.

But he didn’t ask again what these "they" really were. Jiang Yuduo kept dodging the question, and with his upbringing, Cheng Ke really couldn’t keep pressing.

Maybe someday Jiang Yuduo would want to tell him himself.

After standing there for a while, the alarm clock Cheng Ke had left in the living room rang.

"What’s that noise?" Jiang Yuduo froze.

"An alarm clock," Cheng Ke said as he returned to the living room and stopped it. "It reminds me that it’s about time for dinner."

Jiang Yuduo followed him over and stared at him for a long time. "Shouldn’t you go get your IQ tested?"

"Sometimes I’m still asleep at this hour." Cheng Ke said.

"This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone set an alarm just to eat dinner," Jiang Yuduo said. "You don’t know phones can set alarms too?"

"I like alarm clocks," Cheng Ke set another one, this one due to ring a minute later. He placed it on the table and looked at Jiang Yuduo. "Like this."

"Like what?" Jiang Yuduo looked at him in confusion.

"Wait." Cheng Ke said.

"Wait for what?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

Cheng Ke said nothing. He just looked at him.

Jiang Yuduo frowned and stared back.

A minute later, the alarm burst out with a ringing peal.

"Fuck!" Jiang Yuduo jumped to the side in shock and roared, "What the hell, why is it still fucking ringing!"

Cheng Ke reached out and slapped the top of the alarm clock. The ringing stopped.

"Just like that," he said. "I like that little smack. One tap, and it stops."

"Are your days really that boring," Jiang Yuduo said, "that you’ve already ended up playing with this?"

"Don’t you have that kind of small, time-killing hobby?" Cheng Ke asked.

"No," Jiang Yuduo shook his head. "I don’t have big, medium, or small hobbies. I don’t need to kill time."

"…Do you work from morning to night every day?" Cheng Ke clicked his tongue. "Counting trash cans in your territory?"

"No," Jiang Yuduo said. "I haven’t counted them, but I know the bar street has two every hundred meters. Some are for sorting, some aren’t. The streets with fewer people nearby have them about one hundred and fifty meters apart."

Cheng Ke looked at him, speechless.

"Time can’t be killed." Jiang Yuduo said.

"Huh?" Cheng Ke looked at the hands on the clock.

"Time always goes really slowly. It’s always that slow. The more you try to kill it, the more you notice how slowly it’s moving," Jiang Yuduo said. "Only when you forget about it does it feel better."

Cheng Ke smiled.

He didn’t really understand that kind of feeling. To him, only when someone was in terrible pain, sick, uncomfortable, or emotionally down did time seem to crawl.

Then he suddenly thought of Jiang Yuduo’s answer about the protagonist.

I’m not.

What kind of life would make someone feel as if time was always slow?

The two of them stood in the living room in silence for a while. Jiang Yuduo walked over to the window and looked outside. Cheng Ke noticed that whenever Jiang Yuduo looked out the window, he never pulled back the curtains.

He looked at Jiang Yuduo’s side profile, then after a moment glanced at the time again.

It was dinner time now. For Cheng Ke, that time was a little awkward, mainly because Jiang Yuduo was here, and he didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving.

If he were alone, he would order takeout if he was hungry. If he wasn’t very hungry, he would just make a bowl of instant noodles, or boil a couple of eggs.

Now, if he kept Jiang Yuduo for dinner, he didn’t have anything worthy of serving. Going out to eat wasn’t very appealing either. He had never in his life invited someone to dinner on two consecutive days.

But directly telling Jiang Yuduo to leave, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

"Are you… hungry?" After struggling for a while, he asked Jiang Yuduo.

"Hungry." Jiang Yuduo answered simply, and apparently didn’t catch the implication behind the question. After saying that one word, the answer was considered complete.

"Then what do you… want to eat?" Cheng Ke had no choice but to ask again.

"You, a guy who can’t even light a gas stove," Jiang Yuduo turned to look at him, "actually had the nerve to ask that?"

"I can fucking light it!" Cheng Ke said.

"Sichuan food." Jiang Yuduo said.

"…What?" Cheng Ke blinked.

"You asked what I wanted to eat," Jiang Yuduo said, the corners of his mouth hooking up in a smug little challenge. "I told you I wanted Sichuan food. So what now?"

"You go out and eat by yourself." Cheng Ke said.

"You’re not eating?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"I’m eating instant noodles," Cheng Ke said, then curled his lips as well. "You want some?"

"Sure." Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke opened his mouth but didn’t manage to say anything.

"You actually can’t even make instant noodles, can you?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"Fine," Cheng Ke turned toward the kitchen. "Wait here. You were the one who said you wanted some, so don’t back out."

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo answered.

Instant noodles were still easy enough to make. Cheng Ke filled a kettle with water and put it on the gas stove to boil. Sometimes he could even level up a bit and cook them in a pot, adding an egg.

Compared to the way he had been at home before, his progress now was honestly so great that even he had to admire himself.

But today he wasn’t planning to cook them. Two bowls of soaked noodles would be enough.

He took out two packs of instant noodles from the cabinet. "Do you want spicy, pickled cabbage, or seafood?"

"Spicy," Jiang Yuduo said, standing at the kitchen doorway with his back against the frame. "There are that many kinds?"

"You have to change up the flavor sometimes." Cheng Ke took two spicy ones and set them on the counter.

"Even if you change it, it’s still instant noodles, isn’t it?" Jiang Yuduo said.

"Can you shut up and just watch? Or go read a novel for a while?" Cheng Ke frowned as he tore open the packaging.

"I’ll watch quietly then." Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke didn’t bother with him anymore. He tore off the lid of the noodles, took out the seasoning packets, ripped them open one by one and poured them in. Once both bowls were prepared, he stood by the stove waiting for the water to boil.

Just as the water started steaming, his phone rang in the living room.

He froze. Ever since he had left home, he almost never got any calls. The old "friends" in his phone, aside from Liu Tiancheng occasionally sending a message, were all like they had never known him at all and had long since cut off contact. As for Xu Ding, he usually only messaged when he needed something. Lately, he hadn’t even gotten scam calls or sales pitches.

When he returned to the living room, picked up the phone, and saw the number on the screen, he immediately felt annoyed.

He hadn’t saved Cheng Yi’s number, but he remembered that superstitious tail number of his, the one like a license plate.

Why was Cheng Yi calling him? A private contact that couldn’t possibly show off his brotherly affection should count as a useless investment to Cheng Yi.

After staring at the number for a while, Cheng Ke answered the call. "Hello."

"Ge, it’s Xiao Yi," came Cheng Yi’s gentle voice from the other end, though it sounded like he was a little far from the phone. "Where are you right now?"

"Getting ready to board a ship." Cheng Ke said.

"What ship? Are you traveling?" Cheng Yi sounded surprised.

"A spaceship," Cheng Ke said. "I’m about to depart and save all of humanity."

"Are you at home?" Cheng Yi ignored him and asked again.

"What do you want?" Cheng Ke asked impatiently.

"I wanted to come see you." Cheng Yi said.

"You’ve been looking at me for 25 years and still aren’t tired of it?" Cheng Ke was getting irritated. "Can’t you not be so fake? Why do I not want to see you at all?"

"Xiao Ke." Suddenly a woman’s voice came through the line.

Cheng Ke jolted. That was his mother’s voice.

"Mom and I are together, with speaker on," Cheng Yi said. "Mom wants to see you."

"…What’s there to see?" Cheng Ke immediately realized why Cheng Yi’s voice had sounded a little far away.

In that instant, he felt like he wanted to pin Cheng Yi down and stomp on him a few times right there on the spot.

Cheng Yi knew he would react like this, so he had turned on speakerphone and let their mother hear it.

Nice one, little brother!

He paced around the living room several times, his irritation making him restless.

"You’ve been out for so long," Cheng Yi said, "isn’t it normal that Mom wants to see you?"

Normal my ass!

His mother was the sort of person who ignored all worldly changes and only cared about eating vegetarian meals and reciting Buddha’s name. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about family. She chanted every day asking for blessings for everyone’s health and success. But among everyone in the family, including the relatives, she was the only one who couldn’t accept his sexuality and needed to rely on Amitabha Buddha to calm herself down. If it weren’t for Cheng Yi, she would absolutely never have thought of coming to see him.

"It’s not convenient right now," Cheng Ke gritted out.

"Why? Is there… a friend over?" Cheng Yi asked.

That pause of his was very clever. It was much more skillful than first saying "male" and then correcting himself.

"No." Cheng Ke wanted to throw his phone. "Why are you both outside at this hour? Aren’t you eating?"

"Mom hasn’t eaten after noon all week." Cheng Yi said.

"The car’s downstairs," his mother’s voice came through again. "Xiao Ke, you’re at home, right?"

"…Yes." Cheng Ke sat down hard on the sofa.

"Which floor?" his mother asked again.

"16th floor." Cheng Ke said.

After hanging up, Cheng Ke looked around the apartment. If his mother saw Jiang Yuduo, the conclusion that "Xiao Ke has been kicked out of the house and still has the mood to find a man to live with" was basically guaranteed. Especially since he had just said no one was home.

He didn’t mind being judged like that, but he didn’t want to be judged like that after already being thrown out.

Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo. Telling him one extra sentence and inviting him upstairs had been a huge mistake, but at this point it was too late to have him leave. With Cheng Yi’s style, he might very well find an excuse to let their mother wait downstairs a little longer, then come out only after seeing Jiang Yuduo and greet him on the way.

And making Jiang Yuduo go outside now to hide in the stairwell, then leave after they were inside… what the hell was that supposed to be?

"What’s wrong?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"My mom and my little brother are coming up." Cheng Ke said.

"Coming to see you?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"Mm." Cheng Ke forced out a smile.

"Then I’m leaving," Jiang Yuduo immediately picked up his coat, then hesitated a little. "Have they gotten in the elevator? Will we run into each other? Your brother knows me."

Cheng Ke was a little surprised. Jiang Yuduo wasn’t thin-skinned. He wouldn’t care about facing strangers, and he certainly wouldn’t be afraid of running into Cheng Yi.

He hadn’t expected Jiang Yuduo to be in such a hurry to leave.

"I just think it’s not quite right." Jiang Yuduo said.

"How so?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Your brother’s one thing, but if your mom sees…" Jiang Yuduo frowned. "Someone like me hanging around with you, then how are you supposed to make your way back into the wealthy family?"

Cheng Ke was already full of irritation, but when he heard Jiang Yuduo say that, he still couldn’t help laughing.

After laughing for a while, he found that he couldn’t really laugh anymore. For some reason, he felt a little heartache.

"Sit down," Cheng Ke stood up, took the coat from his hands, and hung it on the coat rack. "As long as you don’t mind my mom mistaking you for my boyfriend, there’s nothing else to worry about."

"What the fuck?" Jiang Yuduo immediately looked tense. "Is your mom that kind of person?"

Cheng Ke turned around and looked at him.

For some reason, he had never cared much about other people’s attitudes, yet Jiang Yuduo’s casual reactions always seemed to hit him one after another and leave him feeling inexplicably sad.

"Yeah," he said, nodding, then took Jiang Yuduo’s coat back down from the rack. "Or you can stay in the hallway for a while. Once they’re inside, you can leave."

Jiang Yuduo stared blankly at him, then suddenly waved both hands at him in a rush. "No, no, no, I’m not leaving. That’s not what I meant."

Cheng Ke narrowed his eyes.

"I don’t mind being misunderstood, but it’s not like it’s real," Jiang Yuduo said. "I was just saying your mom’s style is the same as your brother’s."

"After all, they’re blood-related." Cheng Ke said.

"I’m not leaving." As if to prove something, Jiang Yuduo immediately dropped back onto the sofa and even stretched his legs out, looking as if he had already sprawled there all day.

Cheng Ke tidied up the things casually tossed around the room, and then the doorbell rang.

He glanced at Jiang Yuduo, who was still sprawled on the sofa, and went to open the door.

His mother and Cheng Yi were standing outside. He stepped aside. "Mom."

"You’ve lost weight," his mother examined him from head to toe before stepping inside. "Are you not eating or sleeping properly…"

When she saw Jiang Yuduo sitting on the sofa, all three of them went silent.

Jiang Yuduo probably had never experienced a scene like this in his life. He didn’t even stand up, just shifted from lounging to sitting properly, nodded at his mother and Cheng Yi, and said, "Good evening."

For some reason, Cheng Ke suddenly felt like laughing.

"Ah, good evening." His mother nodded, then, after forcing down her shock and displeasure, turned to Cheng Ke. "Is this your friend?"

"Yes." Cheng Ke nodded.

"The landlord," Jiang Yuduo said. Cheng Ke looked at him, and he emphasized it again, "The landlord. I came to collect rent."

"Oh." His mother nodded, then looked at Cheng Yi.

"Yes, he’s a very nice guy," Cheng Yi said with a smile. "Last time my brother was doing a performance, he even accompanied him."

Cheng Ke took his mother’s coat and hung it up. He had a feeling he didn’t want to turn around again. He just wanted to hug that coat rack and wait until everyone left.

He wasn’t good at handling situations like this, nor did he want to, especially when there was someone like Cheng Yi, whose reaction speed was top-notch. It was annoying.

"No," Jiang Yuduo said. "Xu Ding invited me over."

"Oh," Cheng Yi said with a smile. "Mom, take a seat."

Cheng Ke turned back and saw his mother glance at the sofa, then sit down on the chair by the dining table.

Cheng Yi also took a chair and sat beside their mother.

Just as Cheng Ke was about to go sit on the sofa, the kettle in the kitchen started screaming.

"The water’s boiling." He walked toward the kitchen.

As he entered, he heard his mother say, "He can even boil water now."

He turned off the heat, stared blankly at the kettle for a moment, and then turned back into the living room.

No one was speaking in the living room. Jiang Yuduo had gone back from sitting properly to lounging again, head down as he played with his phone. His mother was looking around somewhat listlessly, and Cheng Yi, who was usually extremely good at controlling the atmosphere so things wouldn’t get awkward, was also silent this time, letting the mood turn so awkward it felt frozen.

"This place is okay. It’s new." Cheng Ke said.

"I can tell," his mother nodded. "It might be a bit noisy. I see there’s a public garden downstairs."

"The floor is high. You can’t hear much." Cheng Ke sat down on the sofa.

"Why haven’t you…" His mother glanced at Jiang Yuduo. "Contacted the family at all?"

"Everything’s been fine, and there hasn’t been anything that needed contacting." Cheng Ke said.

His mother probably wanted to say something, but because Jiang Yuduo was standing there, in the end she only asked that one question. After that, she made some small talk about the apartment and his daily life, then stood up. "As long as everything’s fine, that’s good. We’ll be leaving first."

"I’ll see you downstairs." Cheng Ke stood as well.

"Don’t bother, it’s cold outside." His mother patted his arm.

"Your friend’s still here," Cheng Yi said. "No need to see us out."

Cheng Ke gritted his teeth and said nothing.

As his mother and Cheng Yi walked out the door, Jiang Yuduo stood up and came over. "Take care, Auntie."

"Oh, okay." His mother smiled.

After the two of them got into the elevator, Cheng Ke still didn’t go back inside. He just stood there staring at the closed elevator door.

There was a fire burning under his feet. He tried hard to keep it from spreading, but with little effect.

He had never felt this way before. His dislike for his own little brother reached its peak in this instant. He didn’t understand why Cheng Yi had to use this relentless, won’t-stop-until-you’re-dead attitude on him.

Anger and helplessness mixed together, burning him until his hands and feet went cold.

"Aren’t you cold?" Jiang Yuduo asked from the doorway.

Cheng Ke turned his head, and the moment he saw Jiang Yuduo, he remembered his own "yes" and Jiang Yuduo’s "the landlord," and the anger with nowhere to go immediately exploded out.

"None of your fucking business," Cheng Ke said. "You fucking landlord!"

Jiang Yuduo froze. "What the fuck? Wasn’t I just trying to keep your mom from thinking you’d made friends with someone like me!"

"Really?" Cheng Ke sneered. "Then if you’re the landlord, why didn’t you leave just now? A tenant has guests at home! And the landlord is still fucking sitting on the sofa playing with his phone?"

"Don’t fucking fucking at me," Jiang Yuduo glared at him. "The one causing trouble for you today wasn’t me!"

"Who caused trouble for me?" Cheng Ke shouted. "Who caused trouble for me! Who the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, caused trouble for me! It’s all fucking trouble coming at me, fuck!"

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say anything. After staring at him for two seconds, he grabbed his coat and walked out. He slammed the door, came over, pushed Cheng Ke aside, and pressed the elevator button.

Cheng Ke looked at him. Two seconds later, he exploded again, shouting, "I fucking forgot my keys!"

Jiang Yuduo froze, then whipped around. "Shit!"

Author’s note:

Keys: I have a grudge against locks. I don’t want to touch it ﹁_﹁.