TA •Chapter 34

When Jiang Yuduo reached the bottom of Building 3, Da Bin, who had been squatting there smoking, stood up. "Third Brother, I called everyone over. They’re waiting on the seventh floor."

"Go up." Jiang Yuduo went into the stairwell.

He had not been back since the thin old uncle died, and Lu Xi had not pushed him either. On the other hand, the other tenant on the seventh floor had called twice, saying he would pay rent right away and hoping Jiang Yuduo would hurry up and clear out that room.

Jiang Yuduo had dragged his feet and never called anyone to clean it out, not because he was afraid. A dead person was nothing to be afraid of. When they were alive, they had just been a name in Lu Xi’s ledger, gone after one page was turned. After they died, if there really was a King of Hell, they would be nothing more than a name in the King of Hell’s ledger, and after one page was turned, they would be gone all the same.

He simply did not want to face that kind of atmosphere, the emptiness left behind after someone who seemed never to have existed disappeared.

When he reached the fifth floor, Jiang Yuduo caught the scent of incense, along with the scorched smell of burning paper.

"What are they doing up there?" He frowned.

"Doing a ritual to see someone off, just for peace of mind. This person doesn’t seem to have any family either," Da Bin said quietly. "It also makes the tenants next door feel steadier, so nobody starts talking shit when the room gets rented out again."

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo answered.

The window in the seventh-floor stairwell was open, but it was still thick with smoke. The few younger brothers Da Bin had called over had burned paper both inside the room and at the doorway, and incense was also lit inside.

"Third Brother." When they saw Jiang Yuduo come up, they all stopped.

"Done yet?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"That’s it, everything’s done," one of the younger brothers said. "In a bit we’ll… go in and clean up."

"Put all his things in boxes," Jiang Yuduo said. "Aren’t there that little broken shed next to Building 2? Take them over to that old lady who picks up trash. She wants them."

"Okay." The younger brother nodded, then after thinking about it, asked in a low voice, "She wants dead people’s stuff?"

"You just haven’t gotten that desperate yet," Jiang Yuduo said. "Hurry up and clean."

The group of younger brothers cleaned up the room. They probably never did chores at home anyway, and with that little bit of discomfort in their hearts, they basically just tossed everything into boxes. It clattered and rattled as they worked, and anyone who did not know better would have thought they had been robbed.

Halfway through, the old woman who picked up trash arrived. Jiang Yuduo did not even know how she had gotten up to the seventh floor.

"Someone will take it down to you in a bit," he said. "No one’s going to fight you for it."

"Let me see." As she spoke, the old woman squeezed into the room, hunching her back as she leaned over a cardboard box to look inside. After a few glances, she reached in, pulled out a plastic cup, and threw it onto the floor. "I don’t want this. It’s no use, and it won’t sell for money."

"Fuck!" Da Bin threw the cup back into the box. "You’re already getting picky? If you throw things out like that, how are we supposed to carry them down?"

"Won’t sell for money," the old woman repeated. Then she yanked out something that looked like a music box, or who knew what. Jiang Yuduo was just thinking that the thin old uncle actually had some taste, but the old woman had already lifted her hand and smashed the box onto the floor. She stomped on it twice, shattering it into pieces all over the ground, then used her foot to rake through the wreckage. "There’s nothing in here that can be sold…"

Jiang Yuduo had no idea where she got that much strength. If he wanted to stomp a box apart, even he would need two kicks.

He frowned, went over, grabbed the old woman by the arm, and dragged her out. Pointing at her, he said, "If you want it, just stay here and watch. If not, go home and wait. If you touch anything again, you won’t get a single item."

The old woman looked at him, very unhappy, and stood off to the side muttering curses.

"This is what they mean when they say the pitiful deserve some pity, but also some hate," Da Bin said unhappily. "Look at her. We were being nice and giving her stuff, and she still picked through it and threw it away!"

"Everyone has their own way of living," Jiang Yuduo said. "Even if you anger her to death, she won’t feel a thing. Keep cleaning. When you’re done, hose the floor down with water."

"Mm." Da Bin nodded.

Jiang Yuduo took a big red envelope from his pocket and handed it to Da Bin. "Give it to them later, then go eat something too. I’m feeling stifled. I’m heading out first."

"Leave it to me," Da Bin said, taking the red envelope. "You go do your thing."

After leaving the stairwell, Jiang Yuduo took in a breath of cold air and felt a lot better.

Lu Xi called and asked him to help buy some plants from a flower shop, ones that could ward off evil and bring in wealth, to put in the card room.

"You’ve got a bunch of chain-smokers in there every day, smoking up a storm," Jiang Yuduo said. "What kind of plant is supposed to survive that? Besides, where are you even going to find green plants this season?"

"Who says there aren’t any? They’re all grown in greenhouses," Lu Xi said. "You can definitely get those indoor plants. Buy more, ten pots or eight pots, they can even purify the air."

"I’ll go take a look." Jiang Yuduo said.

"Also, my mom’s coming in a couple of days. She said she wants to go back and look at the old house," Lu Xi said. "Just find some place to make do for two days."

"Mm," Jiang Yuduo said with a smile. "Didn’t she say she didn’t want to go back? She’s always fighting with Old Lady Zhang."

"She’s lonely," Lu Xi said. "She’s quarreled her whole life, and suddenly there’s nothing left to quarrel about. Of course she’s restless."

"Then I’ll clean up the place first." Jiang Yuduo said.

"Don’t bother. She won’t stay two days anyway. Don’t waste the effort," Lu Xi said. "The nanny doesn’t want to stay in the old house for long either, so she’ll definitely drag her back."

"Okay." Jiang Yuduo agreed.

Lu Xi’s mother was a weird-tempered old woman. When she came back here, she refused to live with her daughter and had to stay in the old house. Then from morning till night she would argue with the grandmother of a three-and-a-half-year-old kid. After two days she would be so furious she would insist on leaving, then a few months later she would move back and start arguing again.

Before, whenever the old woman came back, Jiang Yuduo would just stay at the new house, or go to the rental place and find an empty room to stay in for a couple of days. But now the new house had been rented to Cheng Ke, and the rental place was full too. Only the thin old uncle’s room was empty… so he could only go to a hotel.

The only slightly troublesome thing was Miao.

His group of younger brothers would definitely all be willing to help him take care of it, but with how each and every one of them could barely take care of themselves, leaving Miao with them would be worse than stuffing it back into a trash can. Aside from Chen Qing, he did not trust Miao being anywhere.

But Chen Qing lived with his parents, and his mom would not let him keep furry things because they shed. Chen Qing was not even allowed to raise a fish, probably because it shed scales?

Troublesome as hell.

Jiang Yuduo lit a cigarette. He would go buy the plants first.

There were quite a few flower shops two streets over from the flower market, on a road shared half and half by wedding photography studios and flower shops.

But he had never been to a flower shop before, so he did not know what was inside. And the stores all looked small, too. Lu Xi’s request for ten pots or eight pots felt like it would not even fit inside the shop.

The sun was decent today, and the wind was not strong, but the temperature was still low. There were very few pedestrians on the road. People like Cheng Ke, who hated the cold, would not go out unless they had to.

For Jiang Yuduo, having streets with no people on them was pretty good. It was safe. He did not need to keep checking or watching everyone one by one, and that made things much easier.

There really were still plenty of flowers in the flower shop. He could not tell through the glass whether there were any that met Lu Xi’s requirements. Jiang Yuduo walked half a street, randomly picked a flower shop that looked big enough to hold a lot of stock, and pushed the door open.

"Welcome." A man inside said it.

Jiang Yuduo did not see anyone. Out of habit, he looked in the direction the voice had come from and walked two steps that way. In the corner, he saw a person squatting there tying a bow on a big bunch of flowers.

Only then did he look around the shop again. There were a lot of flowers, and he did not know the names of most of them. They were all in buckets, and the room was filled with a strong fragrance.

"Boss, do you have any big green plants here?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"How big?" The boss stood up and walked over. "Where are you putting them?"

"In…" Jiang Yuduo froze when he got a clear look at the person. "Inside the room."

"Yes, we have them. Sizes big and small." The boss said.

"Oh," Jiang Yuduo looked at the person in front of him, whose voice was clearly male but who looked like a short-haired girl with eyeshadow on. "I want bigger ones… but I don’t see any here."

"If you’re sure you want them, I can have them delivered directly to you. We don’t keep them in the shop," the boss said. "I’ll have them brought over from the greenhouse."

"Ah." Jiang Yuduo nodded. "Then… recommend some that are easy to keep alive."

"Sure." The boss pulled out his phone and lowered his head to tap at it. "I’ll show you pictures. You can pick from them."

Jiang Yuduo could now tell for sure that this was a man. He had seen the Adam’s apple.

Actually, he usually did see men wearing makeup, and he had also seen men wearing skirts, but he had never faced one up close like this before, and never talked to one. So now he felt a little awkward. Especially after getting to know Cheng Ke, he no longer looked at people like this with a single glance and moved on the way he had before.

A pretty little cutie.

That sentence kept running through his head, impossible to shake off.

Pretty, pretty, pretty little cutie, cutie, cutie…

This should count as one, right?

Fuck, Cheng Ke likes this kind of person?

Then that taste really was hard to understand.

A girl with a dick…

"Brother Cheng, sit for a while," Xiao Yang said. "I’ll go get you a pot of fruit tea."

"No need," Cheng Ke said. "I’m just looking around."

"Sit for a bit, I’ll be right back." Xiao Yang quickly walked to the table in the lounge area, pulled out a chair, then hurried off toward the tea room.

Cheng Ke had no choice but to sit down.

Xiao Yang came running back with the fruit tea at top speed and sat down across from him.

"Actually, Brother Cheng, it’s not strange if you don’t remember me," Xiao Yang said. "We only spoke a few times before."

We talked before?

Cheng Ke was even more confused. By rights, with that face, even if he had not said anything, Cheng Ke should have remembered him for a long time.

"Sigh," Xiao Yang sighed. "Two or three years ago, we worked out at the same gym for several months."

"Really?" Cheng Ke looked at him again. "I knew all the personal trainers there."

"I wasn’t a personal trainer. I was fat back then," Xiao Yang said with a smile. "I just worked out there, and I even asked you for advice."

"…Oh." Out of politeness, Cheng Ke gave an expression of sudden understanding, but never mind two or three years ago, just based on the fact that Xiao Yang had been fat back then, he could not possibly have any impression of him. "Then you’re pretty impressive. You’re a personal trainer now?"

"I was interested from that time on. Later I got certified too, so I quit and started working as a fitness coach full time," Xiao Yang said. "Brother Cheng, if you’re living nearby now, then we’re probably one of the better places around here."

"Mm." Cheng Ke answered.

Xiao Yang kept introducing things to him for a long time. Cheng Ke did not really listen carefully to what he said. It was basically the same old stuff anyway. The only reason he kept sitting there listening without interrupting was that Xiao Yang looked decent, and his build was also pretty nice, the solid and lean kind.

About the same as his former trainers.

But… not as good-looking as Jiang Yuduo.

Thinking of Jiang Yuduo, he started drifting a little, and the dream from last night kept flashing back and forth in his head.

Usually with a wet dream like that, once you woke up in the morning, it vanished without a trace. The details would only amount to that much no matter how many times you replayed them. But the scene with Jiang Yuduo in it, he could still remember even now.

Probably because winter was almost over.

Or maybe because he had already seen Jiang Yuduo from both the front and the back, and his imagination had become too concrete.

"Brother Cheng?" Xiao Yang called him from across the table. "Then should we arrange it like this?"

Cheng Ke cleared his throat and looked at Xiao Yang. Being distracted in front of someone was really rude. He did not even feel comfortable asking how to arrange what, anyway all he saw was that the form in front of Xiao Yang already had a lot written on it.

"Ah." He answered casually. He had probably zoned out for quite a while, because from Xiao Yang’s expression, everything had already been arranged after signing up.

…Then sign up it was. He followed Xiao Yang and paid.

"Brother Cheng, add me on WeChat," Xiao Yang said. "It’ll make contacting you easier."

"Mm." Cheng Ke took out his phone.

"Then let’s start this Wednesday, the day after tomorrow," Xiao Yang said.

"Okay." Cheng Ke nodded.

Xiao Yang escorted him all the way to the gym entrance and then out onto the street before turning back and going inside.

Cheng Ke let out a breath. That whole thing was inexplicable. He had gone out for a stroll and ended up signing up for a membership and buying personal training sessions. By now, he still had not even remembered what the gym was called.

This commercial district was not only short on people shopping, it was also short on people eating. Cheng Ke went into a Western restaurant at random and did not even see a single person in sight.

He ordered a steak, took out his phone, poked at it aimlessly for a while, and in the end still opened Moments.

Today’s Moments still belonged to the right guardian, Jiang Yuduo’s global support club, plus an outstanding employee, plus a rumor-forwarding expert.

Cheng Ke opened a short video Chen Qing had posted earlier.

It should have been filmed when Jiang Yuduo went to help his younger brothers look for someone. It was very short, only a quick circle around, and the moment the camera turned toward Jiang Yuduo, it stopped.

What kind of filming technique was this? It did not even distinguish between the main subject and the extra.

Then there was also a photo.

Jiang Yuduo eating barbecue with a bunch of people… after eating barbecue with Cheng Ke, Jiang Yuduo had actually gone off and eaten another meal with Chen Qing and the others.

He could really eat.

Cheng Ke sat there in a daze for a while, then put his phone back in his pocket.

Looking at Chen Qing’s Moments, he suddenly felt a little melancholy. Jiang Yuduo treated him as a friend, but compared to that, these people who mixed with him every day were even more like friends, at least on the surface, or when they were together.

As his friend, he actually could not even come up with a reason to see Jiang Yuduo.

Or rather, if he wanted to see Jiang Yuduo, he still needed a reason.

It seemed that his relationship with Jiang Yuduo could never be like the one Chen Qing and the others had with Jiang Yuduo, needing no reason, just one sentence, or even just showing up at his place directly.

For the entire lunch period, he was the restaurant’s only customer. The waiter was probably so bored that they had spent the whole time staring blankly in his direction.

After finishing the steak, which to be honest tasted pretty good, Cheng Ke took out his phone again.

Before he could regret it, he quickly opened Da Duan’s name and sent a message.

– Want to have dinner tonight?

After several minutes, Cheng Ke had already put his phone back in his pocket and paid the bill, ready to leave, when Da Duan finally replied.

– Got something to do

Cheng Ke stared at those two words for a long time before he came back to himself.

Your fucking mother!

What the hell do you have to do!

A punk who counted trash bins actually putting on the act of being too busy to spare two words for you was just ridiculous!

Cheng Ke left the restaurant in a very bad mood and took a taxi home at the intersection.

Though this might have been Jiang Yuduo’s normal way of talking to friends, for someone who had a bit of a guilty conscience, that kind of reply was extremely damaging to the self-esteem.

It was very humiliating.

Even if he had no guilty conscience, Cheng Ke had lived this long, and this was the first time he had ever gotten a reply like that.

Jiang Yuduo leaned against the door and sat on the floor. He watched the blood keep flowing out from the cut in the web of his right hand, then threw his phone onto the sofa.

Someone was talking outside the door, the three-and-a-half-year-old kid and his grandmother.

"I saw it. Uncle Jiang’s hand was bleeding," the three-and-a-half-year-old said.

"Go inside!" His grandmother lowered her voice. "If you see him again in the future, just run home. He fights people all day long, what’s so strange about bleeding? I told you not to pay attention to him, not to pay attention to him, but you never listen!"

"I didn’t pay attention to him," the three-and-a-half-year-old’s voice grew farther away. He had probably gone inside. "I just saw it."

After a door shut, the voices could no longer be heard.

Jiang Yuduo sat for a while before getting up and walking to the window. Through the crack in the curtain, he looked outside.

The person from before was already gone.

When he ran back just now, that person had been right behind him, staying very close. He could vaguely even hear the man’s breathing.

Only when they reached the stairwell entrance and saw the three-and-a-half-year-old did the footsteps and breathing behind him recede and leave.

Jiang Yuduo turned and went into the bathroom. He turned on the faucet above the sink and held his right hand under the running water. Blood kept seeping from the web of his hand, mixing with the water and dyeing the sink a pale red.

After rinsing for a while, he pulled his hand back, shook it off, then took out the knife from his pocket and rinsed that under the water too before going back to the living room.

When he was disinfecting the wound, Miao had been sitting on the coffee table, watching him.

"I’ll feed you in a minute. Why’re you in such a rush," Jiang Yuduo said. "You’re going on a trip tomorrow, but I still don’t know whether your Granddad Cheng is willing to keep you for two days."

Miao walked two steps toward him, jumped onto the sofa, climbed up along his side to his shoulder, and meowed once into his ear.

"But I feel like he probably likes cats," Jiang Yuduo said as he quickly wrapped the bandage around his hand, biting one end and tying a knot. After so many years, handling wounds like this was almost something he could do without looking. "Keeping you for two days should be fine. The main thing is I wouldn’t trust you staying with anyone else."

After the wound was taken care of, he got up to fetch cat food, poured Miao half a bowl, and scooped in two spoonfuls of canned food. "Eat. Eat until you get fat."

Cheng Ke had not worked out in a long time. Today, suddenly using the equipment again, he felt a little unaccustomed to it.

Xiao Yang was very patient, patient to the point of being a little verbose. "On this seated chest press, you need to pay attention to… keep your head, upper back, and butt against the backrest…"

"Mm." Cheng Ke was already sitting in the proper posture.

Just as he was about to try pressing once to see whether the weight was right, Xiao Yang’s hand suddenly touched his stomach. "Tighten your core, lift your chest…"

Cheng Ke had already prepared himself, but with that sudden grab, all the breath he had been holding immediately rushed out.

"Deep breath," Xiao Yang said, and his hand moved up to his chest. "Use your chest muscles. When you push, don’t completely straighten your arms…"

Cheng Ke steadied himself and slowly pushed a few times. The weight felt okay. Just as he was about to continue, the phone placed beside him rang.

"Go ahead and answer it first," Xiao Yang said, stepping away.

Cheng Ke picked up the phone and glanced at it. It was Jiang Yuduo calling.

His fingers habitually moved as if to swipe it open, but then stopped. Two seconds later, he hit mute and stared at the screen until the call ended.

He had just started to put the phone away when it rang again. A message came in.

From Da Duan.

-Are you home?

Cheng Ke happily sent back a reply.

-Got something to do

One second later, Jiang Yuduo’s call came again.

Because the interval was too short, Cheng Ke did not react in time. His finger slipped down and just happened to hit answer, so he had no choice but to say, "Hello?"

"Are you free later tonight?" Jiang Yuduo’s voice came through.

The first time Cheng Ke heard Jiang Yuduo speak, he had thought his voice sounded really good. Hearing it now felt especially pleasant.

But he still insisted on answering, "Got something to do."

"What kind of thing?" Jiang Yuduo said. "It’s only five now. Are you going to be busy with things until tonight?"

"I’m busy until tomorrow night." Cheng Ke said.

"…Are you taking revenge on me?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

Cheng Ke clicked his tongue but said nothing.

"No," Jiang Yuduo also clicked his tongue. "Are you childish or what?"

"I’m three and a half," Cheng Ke said. "What about it?"

"Where are you?" Jiang Yuduo asked. "Out somewhere? I can still hear music."

"The gym." Cheng Ke said.

"Working out?" Jiang Yuduo was stunned. "You really do live pretty delicately… Then I’ll come find you."

"Huh?" Only then did Cheng Ke feel that Jiang Yuduo must really have something to ask him. "What’s going on?"

"It’s just…" Jiang Yuduo hesitated. "I’ll tell you when I get there. I’ll treat you to dinner later."

"Fine," Cheng Ke said. "Then come over. I’m at the shopping district by the supermarket, on some whatever street… some whatever gym on the second floor…"

"What the hell do you mean by some whatever street?" Jiang Yuduo sighed. "Fine, send me your location. I’ll find it myself."

After Cheng Ke sent Jiang Yuduo the location, Xiao Yang walked over. "Is a friend coming over?"

"Mm." Cheng Ke got into the standard posture before Xiao Yang could reach over and touch his stomach or chest.

"Then should we end early?" Xiao Yang asked. "There’s still half an hour."

"No need," Cheng Ke said. "He’ll probably be here soon enough."

"Okay," Xiao Yang said with a smile. "Then let’s continue."

This place was a bit far from Jiang Yuduo’s home, and Jiang Yuduo liked walking everywhere he went. It would probably take him around twenty minutes to get here.

But only ten minutes later, while Cheng Ke was halfway through a press, he looked up and saw Jiang Yuduo walking over from directly in front of him.

The gym’s heating was strong, and Jiang Yuduo took off his coat as he walked.

That way of taking off a coat was really handsome.

"Brother Cheng," Xiao Yang said beside him, holding the handle steady. "Focus."

Cheng Ke pulled his gaze back and only let go after he had finished the press.

"Your friend’s here?" Xiao Yang looked at Jiang Yuduo.

"Mm." Cheng Ke stood up.

Xiao Yang nodded at Jiang Yuduo, then glanced at Cheng Ke again. "Then, Brother Cheng, let’s stop here for today. The time’s about up too."

"Okay." Cheng Ke said.

After Xiao Yang left, Jiang Yuduo asked in a low voice, "Who’s this guy?"

"My personal trainer." Cheng Ke said.

"Ah," Jiang Yuduo looked at Xiao Yang again. "Ah."

Cheng Ke looked at him. "What the hell are you 'ah'-ing for?"

Jiang Yuduo cleared his throat. "Nothing."