TA •Chapter 32

Jiang Yuduo wasn’t afraid of the cold. Even if it snowed and got ten degrees colder than today, he could still run a few kilometers in a thin coat. But he didn’t like this kind of weather. It was so cold it stripped away every bit of life from the streets, and even the breath he exhaled seemed like it would freeze, then fall.

If nobody had snatched Ertu today, he wouldn’t have gone out at a time like this.

"Over there," Ertu said, pointing at a few buildings ahead. "They ran in that direction. There’s nowhere else around here where people could hide, right?"

Jiang Yuduo pushed up his glasses and looked over. He could actually see quite clearly.

These glasses had been a gift from Chen Qing earlier that day. The lenses were yellow, supposedly to cut glare when driving at night. Jiang Yuduo didn’t drive, but Chen Qing thought wearing them at night would make things sharper.

"They can block the wind too," he had said. "Pretty good."

Still… Jiang Yuduo lowered the glasses a little, then pushed them back up. After comparing the view, he thought they were kind of useful. Everything looked brighter.

"Have Da Bin and the others come over yet?" Chen Qing asked.

"They’re at the intersection ahead," someone answered.

There were four or five people who had snatched Ertu. Now they were hiding, and there were probably more of them. They had to gather everyone on their side too. Gangsters robbing gangsters counted as a street dispute, and it usually didn’t turn into a real fight. It all came down to presence.

"Let’s go," Jiang Yuduo said as he headed that way. "Move faster and settle it. Try not to use our hands."

"Okay," a few of them replied.

"Okay!" Chen Qing shouted, holding up his phone a beat late.

Jiang Yuduo glanced at him. "Should I get you a camera too?"

"No need, the phone’s clear enough," Chen Qing said. "I wouldn’t know how to use a camera anyway."

Jiang Yuduo sighed.

These buildings were on the edge of Jiang Yuduo’s territory. They had already been marked for demolition, and many residents had moved out. After dark, the lights on the second floor and above were scattered and sparse.

The ground-floor shops facing the street, though, were all lit up. A few mini marts, repair shops, and little general stores were still open.

For Jiang Yuduo and the others, finding those people wasn’t hard. They all knew each other.

Da Bin led a few people out from the intersection. After taking in the area, they slipped into a narrow stairwell. That was the entrance to a pool hall on the second floor.

The pool hall was still pretty crowded at the moment. The moment the door opened, more than ten pairs of eyes turned to look. If anyone had actually come here to play, nearly all of them would have turned around and left.

"The one in the yellow shirt," Ertu said after glancing inside.

With Ertu’s identification, their whole group went in.

A few people who had been playing pool stopped and straightened up, gripping their cues and staring at them.

Jiang Yuduo swept his gaze across their faces, and his eyes stopped on one man sitting by the wall.

He had never seen this guy before. He definitely wasn’t from this area, probably new here or from the neighboring turf. He looked honest and plain, like a hardworking local, but Jiang Yuduo could tell from his eyes that he was the boss.

"My younger brother was careless on the road today," Chen Qing said, looking at the man in the yellow shirt. "He lost something, and I heard this brother here picked it up?"

The yellow shirt frowned. "How would I know?"

"It’s a small thing. Forgetting is normal," Chen Qing said. "Just a wallet, not much in it, except his pay from this month. My younger brother’s poor, so losing his wages is a big deal…"

"If you lose something, go look where you lost it," said the plain-looking local. "We’re not garbage pickers."

That was way too rude. Usually people on the streets didn’t want such direct conflict. Saying that was practically open provocation.

"What this brother just said isn’t really appropriate," Chen Qing said. "If we really find it, then you’d have to change careers. That wouldn’t look good, would it?"

The atmosphere in the pool hall instantly tightened. A single match between the two sides would have been enough to start a bonfire.

Jiang Yuduo was getting impatient. He had never liked talking trash with people, and he had already made plans to get barbecue with Cheng Ke later, so now he was even less patient.

He took out his phone to check the time. When he put it back in his pocket, he looked up at the people across from him. "Wallet."

The yellow shirt gave a cold laugh.

Jiang Yuduo walked over. The instant he moved, everyone on his side surged forward with him.

The few people who had been sitting all stood up, except for the local.

The other side was obviously not following the rules. They had come here to cause trouble from the start. As soon as Jiang Yuduo moved, they reacted immediately.

The closest man swung his pool cue at Jiang Yuduo’s face.

Before the cue even came down, Jiang Yuduo had already reached out and caught it. Then he gripped it and shoved downward. The cue slipped free from the man’s hand.

Before he could back away, Jiang Yuduo had already whipped the cue up and struck him under the ear.

The man dropped cleanly to the floor. He didn’t waste even a second before passing out.

The few others who had wanted to rush in stopped in their tracks.

Jiang Yuduo tossed the cue aside, looked around once, and let his gaze settle on the yellow shirt again. He repeated, "Wallet."

The yellow shirt curled his mouth and sneered again. This time the smile wasn’t nearly as confident as before, but he moved fast. The moment he lunged at Jiang Yuduo, Da Bin standing beside him didn’t even have time to block it.

Jiang Yuduo frowned. He braced one hand on Da Bin’s shoulder for leverage, leaped up, and drove a kick straight into the yellow shirt’s chest.

The yellow shirt came flying in and then flying out. For most of the move, he barely touched the ground at all.

Jiang Yuduo was irritated enough that he didn’t want to deal with them one by one anymore. He jumped straight onto the pool table, crossed it in one stride, and before the others could even react, he had already jumped down and landed in front of the plain-looking local.

Only then did the local spring up, reaching inside his clothes.

Jiang Yuduo hooked a hand over the top of his head, grabbed his hair, and dragged him to the edge of the pool table. At the same time the man pulled a knife from inside his shirt, Jiang Yuduo slapped his face down onto the table.

The knife fell to the floor. Then the man’s legs slowly went weak, and he dropped to his knees, motionless.

"Wallet," Jiang Yuduo said.

The yellow shirt struggled to his feet against the wall, then pulled out a wallet and threw it in front of Chen Qing and Da Bin.

Da Bin picked it up and handed it to Ertu.

Ertu opened it and looked. "That’s it."

"Let’s go." Jiang Yuduo let go of the local’s hair. The man slid to the floor.

The pool hall fell silent. When Jiang Yuduo reached the door, Chen Qing turned back and said to the people inside, "Thanks for helping my younger brother get his things back."

Back on the street, Jiang Yuduo took out his phone and checked the time again. "Break it up. Ertu, you need to be sharper from now on. If you can’t beat them, can’t you run? You actually let them rob you."

"Thanks, Third Brother," Ertu said, shaking the wallet. "Thanks, everyone. Drinks are on me."

Everyone responded at once.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say anything and walked back with them.

"Third Brother really opened my eyes today," someone said with emotion. "We didn’t even need to do anything. One man taking on that whole room was no problem at all."

"If they’d known their place to begin with, Third Brother wouldn’t have needed to make a move," Da Bin said. "They actually dared to challenge him, and they all came straight for Third Brother. Now they’ve learned their lesson."

Jiang Yuduo still didn’t say anything, listening to them jump around in the cold north wind, excitedly talking over one another.

That was the kind of thing that thrilled these idiots. Third Brother taking on one, taking on two, taking on three or five, taking on a whole crowd… In this area, there really weren’t many people who could stand toe-to-toe with him.

But he didn’t want to see scenes like that. The only reason he could do it was because, when other people his age were still rolling around on the ground and acting shameless with adults, he had been living in a darkness where there was never any hope to see.

When they were almost at the little place they usually drank at, Jiang Yuduo glanced at Chen Qing.

Chen Qing walked over beside him.

"I’m not going," Jiang Yuduo said quietly. "You go with them. Keep an eye on them, don’t let them drink too much and cause trouble. When you’re done, send them all home."

"Mm," Chen Qing nodded, then asked softly, "Where are you going? Heading back?"

"I’m going to find Cheng Ke," Jiang Yuduo said. "He told me to treat him to barbecue."

"Then have him come over," Chen Qing said. "You can all eat together… Oh, right, this meal’s Ertu’s treat, not yours. Still, that’s fine. As long as you treat him to something."

"Treat my ass," Jiang Yuduo sighed. "Does he lack this one barbecue meal?"

"True, he’s a young master," Chen Qing clicked his tongue. After thinking about it, he asked, "Didn’t you say you weren’t seeing him lately?"

Jiang Yuduo looked at him but didn’t say anything.

"Oh, so he was the one who found you," Chen Qing nodded. "Come to think of it, even though this guy isn’t really one of us, his personality’s actually pretty good. He doesn’t hold grudges at all."

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo answered.

When they reached the neighborhood entrance, Jiang Yuduo took out his phone and called Cheng Ke. "Come downstairs. I’m almost at the bottom of your building."

"Downstairs?" Cheng Ke paused. "You can just tell me where you are, and I’ll go over there."

"Cut the crap," Jiang Yuduo said. "I’m already here."

"Fine," Cheng Ke said. "I’ll go down."

Jiang Yuduo hung up, then looked around again. The neighborhood lights were bright, staggered front to back, and the shadows cast by everything had faded.

That kind of light let him relax a little. He didn’t have to keep staring into the dark and guarding against shadows that might suddenly flash by.

Still, he hadn’t been in touch with Cheng Ke for quite a while, and he had never come here before. There probably wasn’t any danger now.

The only thing that made him feel a little uneasy was that he didn’t understand why Cheng Ke had suddenly looked for him.

After all, the two of them had once had a very nasty conflict.

Trust your friends.

He treated Cheng Ke as a friend, so he had to trust him.

Actually, when Cheng Ke contacted him, he had felt more relief than suspicion.

Compared with danger, what he cared about more was not losing a friend.

When Cheng Ke came out of the elevator, he spotted Jiang Yuduo standing just outside the corridor at a glance, back turned this way, a cigarette hanging from his lips.

For a second, his feelings were hard to describe. It almost gave him the illusion of a long-awaited reunion.

As he walked over, he lightened his steps, not wanting Jiang Yuduo to hear that he was walking pretty fast.

But after only a few steps, Jiang Yuduo turned around.

"…Pretty sharp," Cheng Ke said.

When he saw Jiang Yuduo’s face, he froze.

Jiang Yuduo was wearing a pair of yellow night-vision glasses, the most ordinary goggle-style kind. On anyone else’s face, they wouldn’t have been worth a second glance.

But this time, Cheng Ke stared at Jiang Yuduo for five whole seconds, one look, two looks, three looks. Usually it was just a normal handsome face with not much warmth to it, but now it looked…

Pretty damn handsome.

"Sharp my ass," Jiang Yuduo said. "That elevator’s yelling so loud. Only someone as dull as you would fail to hear it."

"What did the elevator yell?" Cheng Ke asked, bewildered.

"Ding! First floor reached," Jiang Yuduo mimicked in a pinched voice. "I could hear that from ten meters farther away."

"Oh." Cheng Ke glanced back at the elevator and laughed. "I hear it every day. I don’t even notice it anymore."

"Barbecue?" Jiang Yuduo stubbed out his cigarette and looked at him.

"Whatever," Cheng Ke said. "I only said it casually. Anything’s fine."

"At this hour, barbecue is the only thing around." Jiang Yuduo headed outside.

"Just now…" Cheng Ke followed him. "Did you finish dealing with everything?"

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo turned his head and looked at him. "You say things so politely."

"Did you finish fighting?" Cheng Ke asked again.

"Finished." Jiang Yuduo nodded.

"Get hurt?" Cheng Ke asked.

"No. Just a bunch of small fry." Jiang Yuduo said.

After that, Cheng Ke couldn’t think of anything else to say. He walked side by side with Jiang Yuduo in silence, and the two of them kept going until they were out of the neighborhood, neither of them speaking.

Only then did Cheng Ke realize that he and Jiang Yuduo weren’t actually as close as he had imagined. It had only been one month without seeing each other, but it already felt like he didn’t know where to pick up the thread from anymore.

And it really was hard to find a topic. Chen Qing had said that they were not from the same world, and after racking his brains, Cheng Ke found that his head was actually blank. If Jiang Yuduo forced him to speak, he probably could only ask where they were going to eat.

"Do you want to walk or take a cab?" Jiang Yuduo stopped and asked.

"How far is it?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Very close," Jiang Yuduo said. "Though aren’t you the type who wants a cab after three hundred meters?"

"…I don’t," Cheng Ke said.

"Then let’s walk. It’s just next to the market." Jiang Yuduo pointed.

"Okay." Cheng Ke nodded.

After walking for a bit, Jiang Yuduo turned to look at him. "How are your eyes?"

"My eyes are fine. They didn’t hit my eyes," Cheng Ke said, touching the corner of his eye. "What about your hand?"

"It’s been fine for ages," Jiang Yuduo said with a smile. "It didn’t break."

"Mm." Cheng Ke smiled too.

"That day, I…" Jiang Yuduo cleared his throat. "That day, I had a nightmare. I was too tense, so I… I mistook the person."

"Oh." Cheng Ke nodded. After thinking about it, he couldn’t help asking, "Mistook who for who?"

"Chui Renmei," Jiang Yuduo replied.

Cheng Ke froze, then laughed without saying anything.

He was a little surprised. Jiang Yuduo had mentioned "them" before, more than once. Although he refused to go into detail, he didn’t avoid it too much either. Cheng Ke had thought Jiang Yuduo would answer "them" again this time.

But Jiang Yuduo had avoided "them."

There were quite a few barbecue places near the market, and in weather like this, only barbecue joints stayed open until this hour.

Heat, the smell of charred meat, cumin and chili powder in the air, and the din all around. When Cheng Ke lifted the cotton curtain, all of it made him feel comfortable.

"Why didn’t we go to the same place as last time?" he asked.

"Chen Qing and Da Bin are eating there," Jiang Yuduo said. "If we went, we’d definitely end up with them."

"Huh?" Cheng Ke didn’t get it.

"Sitting at one table with a bunch of gangsters who just finished fighting and are still all fired up," Jiang Yuduo said, "could you stand that?"

Cheng Ke thought about that scene. If it had been before, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to.

But now… it didn’t seem especially unbearable.

Jiang Yuduo ordered a pile of skewers, all kinds of meat, basically everything the shop had.

Cheng Ke had nothing to add, so he only ordered some vegetables.

After the two of them sat down, the waiter brought over the liquor, four small bottles of Erguotou.

Cheng Ke looked at the alcohol with some hesitation. "You’re drinking… three bottles?"

"If you’re too scared to drink," Jiang Yuduo clicked his tongue, "I can drink four."

"Fine." Cheng Ke smiled and took two bottles to put in front of himself.

"Relax. If you can’t make it, I’ll carry you back." Jiang Yuduo lit a cigarette.

For some reason, that sentence gave Cheng Ke a subtle, tiny thrill.

"I’m afraid you won’t be able to carry me." He looked at Jiang Yuduo.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t seem any different. Of course, a month wasn’t enough time for anything to change. But looking at Jiang Yuduo’s face, Cheng Ke still felt that something was different.

Except that the difference had nothing to do with Jiang Yuduo. It came from himself.

The way he felt looking at Jiang Yuduo now was not quite the same as before.

"When I came looking for you just now," Jiang Yuduo said, tapping on his phone, "I checked your Moments."

"Hm?" Cheng Ke looked at him.

"There was nothing at all," Jiang Yuduo said. "I thought there might be some sand art video or something."

"Right," Cheng Ke remembered something and took out his phone. "The video from that performance, Xu Ding clipped out your part separately. Do you want to see it?"

"No," Jiang Yuduo said immediately. "Was it stupid? I’m not watching."

The video was short, only a little over ten seconds. The camera panned from left to right, and Jiang Yuduo just happened to be standing in the middle, so he was in frame the whole time.

He really did look a little silly, but the focused, absorbed expression made him seem kind of… cute.

"I’ll send it to you." Cheng Ke sent the video over.

"I said I’m not watching it!" Jiang Yuduo frowned, but after the phone buzzed, he still lowered his head and tapped it twice. He looked at the screen, and after a moment lifted his head. "Fuck, I’m actually pretty good-looking."

"…Yeah." Cheng Ke couldn’t help laughing. "You are."

"Chen Qing likes filming little videos too," Jiang Yuduo said, still looking at the screen. "He just grabs a phone and films blindly. Every time he catches me, I feel like some laborer hauling cargo at the docks. Looks like it really depends on the equipment."

"It also depends on the person, I guess." Cheng Ke hesitated, then picked up his phone and pointed it at Jiang Yuduo.

"You want to take a picture of me?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"Mm, can I?" Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo through the screen.

"Go ahead. I’m not some celebrity." Jiang Yuduo said.

"You’re Third Brother," Cheng Ke said, tapping the screen to zoom in on Jiang Yuduo’s face, then zooming back out. "The celebrity of this area."

The waiter brought over a huge plate of skewers and set it down between them.

The screen was suddenly full of steaming heat.

"Eat," Jiang Yuduo said, picking up a skewer of meat. "Take pictures later."

"Mm." Cheng Ke answered, and just as he was about to stop, he saw Jiang Yuduo’s collarbone through the screen. He couldn’t help lowering the camera a little and filming the collarbone for several more seconds.

After biting into a piece of meat, Jiang Yuduo stared at him. "What are you filming?"

Cheng Ke didn’t say anything. He just smiled and put the phone back in his pocket.

"What did you film?" Jiang Yuduo lowered his head and looked down at himself, his gaze going lower and lower. Then he suddenly looked up and glared at him. "You motherf…"

"Get lost!" Cheng Ke cut him off. "You’re the one who’s motherf… Where the hell are you looking? Put your eyes where your crotch is and see if you can spot my camera!"

"I thought you were filming downward. Whatever," Jiang Yuduo clicked his tongue and kept eating. "Hey, did you film it and then plan to go back tonight…"

Halfway through, he stopped again and looked at Cheng Ke once, not finishing the sentence, then took another bite of meat.

"Not likely," Cheng Ke sighed. "If I really wanted to go home tonight and do something, just watching this barbecue video of yours would probably kill the mood."

"Fuck," Jiang Yuduo said. "You talk a lot, huh? And you still have the nerve to call me Da Cun?"

"…That’s not the same thing." Cheng Ke said.

"Only you would make that connection. Da Cun is just Duo." Jiang Yuduo said.

"Right, then what’s Xiao Duo?" Cheng Ke picked up a skewer of chives.

Jiang Yuduo laughed but didn’t answer. He lifted his bottle and shook it at him.

Cheng Ke took the bottle, opened it, clinked it against Jiang Yuduo’s, and tipped his head back for a sip.

After that, neither of them spoke much. Cheng Ke was a little hungry, so eating meat and drinking felt very comfortable. In the past month, although he had insisted on using plates and bowls, all he had really eaten was instant noodles and takeout. It had been pretty miserable, so now the barbecue in front of him and Jiang Yuduo made everything feel especially pleasant.

He picked up another skewer of meat that looked like sausage and took a bite. It was crisp.

"What is this? Sausage?" He took another bite. "Why is it kind of crispy?"

"Never had it before?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"No." Cheng Ke hesitated. "It’s not some kind of worm, is it?"

"No," Jiang Yuduo said. "Some shady places might use fake stuff, like worms and whatever, to pass things off as the real thing. This place wouldn’t. They only have a few of these skewers left. If you came late, you wouldn’t even get to eat them."

"…Use worms to fake what?" Cheng Ke asked.

Jiang Yuduo looked at him. After a moment, he reached over and took the half-skewer of "sausage" from his hand. "Eat something else. I wasn’t even getting this for you."

"What the hell is it, then?" Cheng Ke started to panic.

Jiang Yuduo leaned a little closer. "I’ll tell you, but don’t curse at me."

"Fine." Cheng Ke also instinctively leaned closer, staring at him face-to-face.

"J8," Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke froze.

"Pig’s," Jiang Yuduo added. "It’s pig dick."

"…Huh?" It took Cheng Ke a while to come back to himself. He slowly leaned back in his chair. "Fuck."

Jiang Yuduo ate the whole skewer of pig dick in one bite, looked at him for a while, then suddenly laughed. "Hey, young master."

"Hm?" Cheng Ke looked at him.

"Your shocked face is pretty fun," Jiang Yuduo said with a smile. "Kind of like the three-and-a-half-year-old kid living next door to me."