TA •Chapter 98

Not much of a promising future.

Cheng Ke was a little surprised. Not surprised that his dad would say something like that. His dad saying something like that would not have surprised him at all, after all, he had heard too much of it since he was little. What surprised him was that he did not get angry because his dad had given Jiang Yuduo that kind of评价.

He was silent for a moment, then smiled.

His reaction was probably a surprise to his dad too. His dad looked at him for a long time.

"Pretty refreshing," he said, handing the watermelon juice back to his dad.

His dad took the cup, drank a couple of mouthfuls, then frowned. "Looks like you agree with that评价 too."

"Agree with what? That he doesn’t have much of a future?" Cheng Ke said. "Just like your评价 of me."

His dad said nothing.

"I don’t care about those评价 anymore now, whether they’re about me or about him," Cheng Ke said. "I used to care a lot. From dissatisfaction to numbness, I used to think being numb meant I didn’t care. But that wasn’t it. Only now, when I can laugh about it, does it really mean I don’t care."

His dad furrowed his brows and looked at him.

"Whether someone is trash, whether they have promise, how much promise they have," Cheng Ke also looked back at him, "that’s not for you to decide. Your standards, your judgment, none of it matters."

"Is that so." His dad gave a cold laugh.

"Especially Jiang Yuduo," Cheng Ke said. "To him, you’re a stranger who has nothing to do with him. Whether your评价 is good or bad, whether you’re satisfied with him, it has nothing to do with him."

"You talk a lot more now." His dad said.

"You didn’t come here just to stand around with me and space out, did you?" Cheng Ke said with a smile.

"Is he still crazy now?" His dad glanced toward the shop entrance.

Jiang Yuduo was standing by the wall near the door, a cigarette in his mouth, staring over here the whole time. The sunlight was bright, and he was squinting. Even though Cheng Ke knew he did not actually feel that way, he still looked impatient.

"He’s in treatment. He’s very stable right now," Cheng Ke said.

"Fine. I don’t want to say much more. It’s your business. If you think it’s fine, then it’s fine," his dad said.

"Mm." Cheng Ke answered.

His dad lowered his head and took another two mouthfuls of watermelon juice. "This car doesn’t even have air-conditioning?"

"It does." Cheng Ke turned on the AC.

"This car has air-conditioning?" his dad said.

"…Yes," Cheng Ke was a little speechless. "This isn’t one of those elderly mobility carts. It’s an electric car."

His dad turned his head.

"I wasn’t trying to buy one. I was just introducing it to you," Cheng Ke said. "It’s a car. There’s not much to explain."

"What do you mean?" his dad asked.

"If it were a person," Cheng Ke said, "I wouldn’t say much. Your judgment of this car is just like your judgment of people."

"You’re saying I’m very arbitrary?" His dad looked at him.

"No," Cheng Ke said with a smile. "I’m saying you’re too confident."

His dad said nothing. After a moment, he turned and looked at Jiang Yuduo, who was still standing there with a cigarette between his lips.

Jiang Yuduo had been looking this way the whole time. Since he could not see what was going on inside the car, he probably had not expected that Cheng Ke’s dad had been watching him all along too.

Cheng Ke felt there really wasn’t much else to say. Over the past few years, this was probably the most he had ever talked with his dad.

Just when he was thinking of ending the conversation, his dad turned back and asked, "Aren’t you going to ask about Xiaoyi?"

"Is there anything about him I need to know?" Cheng Ke said.

His dad was silent for a moment. "He took over things on the new company’s side."

"Oh." Cheng Ke nodded.

His dad’s new company was not local. So Cheng Yi had already left. Maybe his dad wanted him to know Cheng Yi would not make any more moves against him. Maybe he hoped the relationship between the two brothers would improve. Maybe he was telling him Cheng Yi had compromised. After all, with Cheng Yi leaving, he would have to give up everything he had built here over so many years…

But Cheng Ke felt he might only end up disappointing his dad. Some things really were hard to improve. He could not give his dad the reaction he wanted. The best his relationship with Cheng Yi could probably ever be was two strangers who had grown up together.

"I’m going," his dad said, opening the car door. "Call your mom when you have time. If you’re not busy, go back and see her once in a while."

"Mm." Cheng Ke answered and also opened the car door to get out.

It was not as if he had never contacted his mom. On Mother’s Day, he had sent her greetings and even a red packet. His mom had accepted the money but not replied to him by even a single word. Right now, he was not too clear on what exactly she thought of him.

But he had also never really missed his mom. Still, since his dad told him to go home and see her, he felt that was fine too.

Some things could only be left to time, slowly.

The moment his dad got out of the car, Jiang Yuduo had already reached the side of the door and snatched the cup from his hand.

"My dad’s heading back now," Cheng Ke said, handing the cup he was holding to Jiang Yuduo too.

"Goodbye, Uncle," Jiang Yuduo said immediately.

"Have you been hoping I’d leave quickly for ages?" his dad could not help saying.

"No," Jiang Yuduo said. "I don’t use the car anyway."

"…I’m leaving." His dad turned and walked toward the door parked across the road.

"Goodbye, Uncle," Jiang Yuduo said again. "Take care, Uncle."

His dad said nothing and did not wave back, only lifted a hand. Even his back looked helpless.

After his dad’s car started up, Cheng Ke heard Jiang Yuduo, standing beside him, let out a long breath.

"You okay?" Cheng Ke said with a laugh, patting his back.

"A little nervous," Jiang Yuduo said. "I get nervous when I talk to him, I’m afraid I’ll say the wrong thing… Did I say anything wrong?"

"No," Cheng Ke said. "You said it pretty well."

"Next time you two meet, I still won’t follow you. It’s too hard to take," Jiang Yuduo said.

"I don’t… exactly have many chances to meet him anyway," Cheng Ke said with a smile. "Actually, you could’ve stayed in the shop just now. Wasn’t there a performance on the second floor?"

"I wasn’t reassured." Jiang Yuduo frowned.

"Are you… worried my dad would kidnap me again?" Cheng Ke looked at him.

"I know he won’t," Jiang Yuduo said, "but I just don’t trust him."

"Mm." Cheng Ke squeezed his shoulder. "Go inside."

"Didn’t you say some things can’t be made up for?" Jiang Yuduo walked into the shop with him.

"How so?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Everything about me can’t be made up for," Jiang Yuduo said softly. "For example, I clearly know your dad can’t possibly kidnap you again. He even invested in you, and he put aside his pride to come find you… but I still suspect him."

"Mm, I know," Cheng Ke suddenly understood why Jiang Yuduo had been standing by the wall the whole time. "That’s normal. You don’t need to feel pressured."

"I also have people I can trust," Jiang Yuduo said. "You, Chen Qing, Lu Xi, Sister Luo, Dr. Chen… no, Sister Luo and Dr. Chen I don’t trust either, but I have to trust them."

"None of that is anything major," Cheng Ke said. "Actually, if you asked me to name a few people I can trust right now, aside from you I might not be able to come up with a single one."

"Really?" Jiang Yuduo stopped walking.

"Mm. I’ve actually never thought about it, but if I had to say, Jiang Yuduo, you’re the one person I can trust unconditionally," Cheng Ke said. "As for everyone else, I do trust them, but only conditionally. For example, I trust Xu Ding because of my own judgment of him. If Xu Ding says he only started having contact with my dad in the past two months, I’ll believe it, because I can tell he has no reason to lie to me. He has always stayed out of my family’s business too… do you get what I mean?"

"I get it." Jiang Yuduo nodded.

"So putting it that way," Cheng Ke said with a smile, "you’re stronger than me. I, Chen Qing, and Lu Xi, we can all be said to be people you can trust unconditionally, that’s three people."

"Two more than you." Jiang Yuduo raised a brow.

"Mm." Cheng Ke smiled.

"When you got thrown out of the house, you didn’t even have one, right," Jiang Yuduo thought about it, then clicked his tongue. "Pretty miserable, Young Master."

"…Yeah." Cheng Ke sighed.

Jiang Yuduo was in a much better mood now. When he went into the shop, even his brows were raised, which stood in sharp contrast to the fierce, black-market-boss look he had worn when facing Cheng Ke’s dad earlier.

What a pity. His dad probably would not get many chances to see Jiang Yuduo like this.

Jiang Yuduo had no real concept of opening day. After the shop was finished decorating, he did not even want to hold an opening ceremony. He had planned to just start business right away.

But Chen Qing and Sun Qinqin were clearly different. The two of them first checked the almanac, then prepared a whole pile of things.

"We need flower baskets, six on each side?" Sun Qinqin sat at the table under the sunshade, pen in hand, writing as she asked.

"Six?" Jiang Yuduo frowned. "How wide is the space in the middle for people to pass through? Six would reach the other side of the street."

"Then let’s cut two. Six-six-six," Sun Qinqin said.

"Fine, great." Chen Qing nodded.

"Hey." Jiang Yuduo sighed.

Cheng Ke stood off to the side, smiling without saying anything.

"As for the date, it’s the day after tomorrow," Sun Qinqin said. "The nearest good day for opening just happens to be Saturday, and there’ll be more people then."

"Okay, I think that works." Chen Qing nodded.

"Then the promotional posters are already done. For one week, all milk tea drinks will be half price," Sun Qinqin continued. "There’s also buy one get one free, and we can send a few people out to hand out Meow Cards. No flyers, just Meow Cards. The address is on the Meow Cards."

"What’s a Meow Card?" Jiang Yuduo froze.

"It’s that membership card, the one where you get a stamp for every drink you buy, and after ten drinks you get one free," Chen Qing said. "That’s the Meow Card."

"…Oh." Jiang Yuduo answered.

Sun Qinqin kept talking, Chen Qing kept chiming in and backing her up, and Jiang Yuduo stayed a little confused the whole time. From Meow Cards to stickers to various discounts, he did not really understand any of it.

Cheng Ke listened from the side and wanted to laugh a little.

"Boss Jiang, let me ask you something," he leaned close to Jiang Yuduo’s ear and said quietly, "are you really the boss here?"

Jiang Yuduo laughed. "Fuck."

"How do you not know anything," Cheng Ke continued in a low voice with a smile. "Do you just come here every day to look busy?"

"Not exactly. Sometimes the two of them just decide things while talking, I already handed it all over to Chen Qing," Jiang Yuduo lowered his voice too. "And I really am… kind of bad at remembering things."

"Hm?" Cheng Ke looked at him.

"I’m on meds, probably a side effect," Jiang Yuduo said a little awkwardly. "I’m going to see Dr. Chen next month. He said we’d look at the situation and maybe switch to another medicine, one with fewer side effects."

The moment Cheng Ke heard that, his heart ached so badly he regretted not having thought of that earlier. Usually when the two of them were together, he did not really feel anything obvious.

"It’s fine. Medicine does that," Cheng Ke touched his face. "Even cold medicine makes you foggy."

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo looked to both sides. "Don’t touch me randomly."

"What’s wrong with touching you," Cheng Ke touched him again. "You won’t even let me touch you? I’ve done you so many times, and you don’t remember that either, do you…"

"You little shit!" Jiang Yuduo said through clenched teeth.

"Whether you remember any of it or not doesn’t matter," Cheng Ke said. "You just need to remember me."

"Don’t worry. Even if you turned to ash, I’d still recognize you." Jiang Yuduo said.

"…I’m really touched," Cheng Ke said.

"Third Brother," Chen Qing turned his head, "how many people should we call?"

"How many people?" Jiang Yuduo was stunned.

"Our brothers, you know? Call some people over to hand out Meow Cards, then if there are a lot of people because of the discounts, they can help out too," Chen Qing said. "And security…"

"Security?" Cheng Ke could not help cutting in. A milk tea shop opening and they were already using the word security, which made the occasion feel rather grand.

"In case someone comes looking for trouble, like that guy who tried to extort money last time, or those people we used to have problems with," Chen Qing said. "Even if they’re pretty far away, this still isn’t our turf anymore."

Sun Qinqin sounded shocked. "Were you guys gangsters before?"

"No," Chen Qing said. "We were local bullies."

"Huh?" Sun Qinqin was even more shocked.

Chen Qing instantly switched on his bragging mode, no charge for it. "Otherwise why do you think I call them both brother? Third Brother! Ke-ge, go ask around the bar street in the east of the city, who doesn’t know us? Especially our Third Brother. He didn’t spend the last ten years for nothing…"

"Fuck." Jiang Yuduo let out a helpless sigh.

Cheng Ke held back his laughter, took out his phone, and snapped a picture of the shop entrance. Then he lowered his head to look at it. "Go stand over there. I’ll take one with you in it."

"Why?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"I’ll post it on my Moments and advertise for you guys," Cheng Ke said.

"Forget it. There are even twenty people in your Moments friends list if you add them all up?" Jiang Yuduo said with clear disdain. "More than a dozen people, and half of them are rich. Who would come drink milk tea from some street-side shop."

"More than twenty," Cheng Ke said. "I’ve added a lot of regulars from restaurants here, all normal young people, the kind who have to drink milk tea when they go shopping."

"Let me see." Jiang Yuduo leaned over to look at his phone.

"Are you going or not!" Cheng Ke shouted at him in a low voice.

"Go to hell." Jiang Yuduo jumped in fright and stood up. "I’ll go, fine."

"What are you doing?" Chen Qing looked at Jiang Yuduo. "Taking photos?"

"Yeah," Cheng Ke answered, lifting his phone toward Jiang Yuduo. "Don’t come over. I want to take one of Boss Jiang alone."

"I wouldn’t go even if you got on your knees and begged me." Chen Qing clicked his tongue.

"Later," Cheng Ke said quietly, "you and Xiao Sun should take one together."

Chen Qing immediately stood up. "Third Brother, Third Brother, just stand facing us like that, the light is perfect."

Jiang Yuduo stood by the shop entrance, hesitated for a moment, then turned to face Cheng Ke. "Hurry up!"

"Pose a little, don’t just stand there!" Cheng Ke said.

"Pose? Oh." This time Jiang Yuduo did not hesitate at all. He took a step sideways, then swished his arms straight out to both sides.

Sun Qinqin could not hold back and burst out laughing.

"…Fuck!" Cheng Ke could not help laughing and cursing. "Do you not have any other pose at all!"

"Third Brother is only suited for candid shots, you know? You make him pose and he looks like a screw tightened too hard," Chen Qing said with a sigh.

"Then let’s take more candid shots." Cheng Ke pressed the shutter at Jiang Yuduo’s stick-straight, arms-out pose. "Third Brother, go into the shop now…"

"Oh." Jiang Yuduo turned and walked into the shop.

While pressing the shutter, Cheng Ke kept talking. "Then come out again, then go in again, then come out again, then go in again…"

"I’m going to punch you," Jiang Yuduo said, turning back to glare at him.

"Candid shots," Cheng Ke said, pressing the shutter. This shot of Jiang Yuduo looking back was especially handsome, his face edged with a golden outline. "Go in and come out! Faster! Go in and come out again!"

Jiang Yuduo was grumbling and looked very impatient, but he still followed Cheng Ke’s instructions and went into the shop, then came back out, then turned around and went in again, then came back out.

After several rounds of this, Cheng Ke nodded. "Candid shots really are better."

"Told you so," Chen Qing said smugly. "Back when I posted his photos on Moments, I never even gave him a heads-up. Just snap, and there it was."

"Snap?" Cheng Ke admired his magical use of onomatopoeia.

"Keep going, Third Brother, you still haven’t said how many people to call?" Chen Qing returned to the earlier topic.

"Just… casually…" Jiang Yuduo hesitated.

"Fifty people then," Chen Qing said.

"Fifty? Are you opening a shop or staging a parade, Brother Qing?" Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

"I was even afraid calling only fifty would offend people. So many of them all want to come, I’ve been holding them back. Otherwise there’d have to be fifty people here every day," Chen Qing said. "How about splitting them into groups, then? The opening lasts three days, and they can take turns coming."

"Is that really necessary?" Jiang Yuduo sat down and sighed.

"It is," Chen Qing said suddenly, very serious. "Third Brother, all these years, to be honest, you’ve run this crew in a pretty positive way. You didn’t let them cause trouble, but if trouble really came up, you’d definitely take it on. Every single one of these people, you’ve stood up for them. Now you’ve opened a proper shop in such a good place. Do you think they’d come or not? This is Third Brother’s shop, not someone else’s shop. You think no one would show up if Jiji opened a shop?"

"…No one would go," Cheng Ke said.

"Third Brother, this is time passing," Chen Qing said.

Jiang Yuduo looked at him and said nothing. He pushed off the ground with one leg and slid his chair back into the sunlight, then rubbed his arms.

"Fuck!" Chen Qing was a little unconvinced, so he turned to Cheng Ke. "Jiji, you tell me if that’s true!"

"Can we switch the way you address me first?" Cheng Ke said.

"Ke-ge, you tell me if that’s true!" Chen Qing said.

"It is." Cheng Ke smiled.