KMYB | Chapter 26

Xisui’s phone was still the one he’d bought in his first year of high school. Aside from a few chipped spots on the corners, it still worked perfectly fine.

The memo app in his phone was basically his own notebook.

It held all the usernames and passwords for his accounts and apps, plus his bank card PIN.

It also held every record, happy or unhappy, from his first year of high school up to now.

Every time Xisui went back and looked through it, he still thought it was pretty interesting.

Back in first year of high school, he’d still get mad because his spins weren’t centered properly, and angrily eat two 500g tubs of ice cream.

"Xisui, this is so good!!!" Lin Xiaojin covered his mouth, too hot to speak properly, and handed over a skewer of napa cabbage.

Xisui put his phone away. As he reached out to take it, Zhou Zeqi, sitting across from him, handed over a disposable plate.

Xisui ate like a cat.

Polite and neat, feeding himself bite by bite, nibbling in small mouthfuls, but not slowly at all. He was almost completely absorbed in the food.

"Meng Kewen is the best at making this kind of snack. He can’t even fry egg fried rice, but he’s been good at skewers since he was little," Lin Xiaojin ordered Meng Kewen around with alarming ease.

When it came to eating, Xisui and Lin Xiaojin temporarily forgot all about the boys they "loved" so deeply.

Xisui didn’t drink. He poked at a roasted potato slice in his bowl while whispering with Lin Xiaojin.

Lin Xiaojin asked him, "Did you and Zhou Zeqi have a fight?"

Xisui had no idea where that question came from. He looked blank. "No."

"You did fight!" Lin Xiaojin widened his eyes. "When Lao Zhou went to piss earlier, his face was black as hell."

"He didn’t go to piss," Xisui said softly, defending Zhou Zeqi.

"Is that the point?"

Xisui said nothing.

"What did you say to make him so mad? Tell me, I’ll help you analyze it."

Xisui glanced at Zhou Zeqi, who was chatting with Wu Fengyi and the others and hadn’t noticed them, then set down his chopsticks and said quietly, "I told him that if I liked him, he’d get angry."

Lin Xiaojin blinked.

Xisui blinked too.

"He actually didn’t hit you?" Lin Xiaojin found it unbelievable.

Xisui picked up his chopsticks again. "He didn’t hit me."

Zhou Zeqi hadn’t hit him, and he hadn’t even lashed out at him. He’d just gone off to sulk by himself.

"I already coaxed him into being okay again," Xisui said, a hint of smugness on his face.

"How did you coax him?" Lin Xiaojin was curious. Was Zhou Zeqi really that easy to appease?

Xisui’s cheeks reddened. "I kissed him!"

"…"

Lin Xiaojin still couldn’t help worrying about Xisui. "If he finds out later that you agreed to date him just to kiss him, he’ll definitely kill you."

Xisui had thought about that.

He lifted his eyelids lazily and said, "Anyway, I’m going to dance ballet for the rest of my life, so I can date him for the rest of my life too."

Lin Xiaojin: "…" So reasonable, impossible to refute, seriously amazing.

More than a dozen people were there, and none of them had small appetites. Meng Kewen and two teammates were sweating all over by the grill, and every so often he would lift the hem of his shirt and wipe the sweat from his face directly, looking no different from a street-stall barbecue vendor.

But Meng Kewen loved this job very much, because when he came across something tasty, something he liked, he could eat a couple of bites first.

They had brought several boxes of food, and most of it was already gone.

Xisui let out a tiny burp.

Zhou Zeqi glanced at him, then patted the cushion beside himself. "Xisui, come sit here."

Lin Xiaojin gave Xisui a push.

Xisui was just about to get up from the ground when Zhang Kan stopped him and looked at Zhou Zeqi. "Come on, Lao Zhou, we haven’t even started drinking yet. Xiaoxi doesn’t drink anyway, go play somewhere else."

Wu Fengyi casually grabbed a bottle of mineral water and threw it at Zhang Kan. "Come on, let me see if everything you just ate actually went into your brain?"

Zhang Kan fell silent for a few seconds. Meeting Zhou Zeqi’s gaze, he immediately crawled somewhere else and made room beside Zhou Zeqi.

Xisui moved over and sat next to Zhou Zeqi.

Zhou Zeqi stuffed a carton of milk into his hand. "Are you full?"

Xisui nodded. "Full."

"I’ll take you for a walk," Zhou Zeqi said. He knew Xisui was very prone to worrying about his weight. He downed the beer in his hand in one go, then pulled Xisui up with him.

Wu Fengyi and the others didn’t ask anything.

A couple in love, that’s how it was. They liked going off on their own.

Heh heh heh.

–

The winding mountain road on Jili Mountain had been paved exceptionally smoothly, and there were even anime character drawings on the cement left by tourists who had climbed up before.

Walking along the road, you could take in the scenery of the surrounding mountains all at once.

Only the last sliver of sunlight was still hovering above the mountaintop, and the clouds overhead were dyed gold by the light that hadn’t yet faded.

Xisui took out his phone and snapped a photo.

"Let me see the photos Lin Xiaojin took before," Zhou Zeqi said, asking Xisui for the phone.

Xisui handed it over directly.

It wasn’t until Zhou Zeqi was already walking and looking at it that Xisui suddenly remembered his memo app. He stuck close to Zhou Zeqi. "You’re only allowed to look at the photos. You’re not allowed to look at anything else."

"…"

"What, do you have something shameful in here?" Zhou Zeqi teased.

He smiled at Xisui, only to find the other staring at him seriously and nervously.

Zhou Zeqi’s gaze lingered on Xisui’s face for a moment. When he looked down again, he thought that maybe Xisui’s phone really did contain something shameful.

"Videos?" Zhou Zeqi curled his lips.

Xisui didn’t react at first. "What videos?"

After he said it, he understood.

"I haven’t watched any," Xisui said softly. "I don’t have any websites I can use. They said I need a ladder, but I can’t climb."

"Do you want to watch?"

Xisui looked around. There wasn’t anyone nearby, only the mountain wind and the sinking sunset. He covered his mouth with a hand and leaned close to Zhou Zeqi’s ear, his voice very low. "I want to."

He looked up at Zhou Zeqi with eyes full of anticipation.

Zhou Zeqi copied his posture, only he leaned in even closer, almost speaking against Xisui’s ear.

"There’s nothing worth watching. Practice is more important than theory."

Zhou Zeqi would never let Xisui go watch those things in videos.

"If you want to learn, I can teach you."

Xisui felt like Zhou Zeqi’s gaze had warmth in it, and that warmth was rising little by little.

His cheeks burned. "Why do you know how?"

"It’s not hard."

"Then I don’t need you to teach me. I can learn it myself."

"But I want to teach you."

Xisui rarely managed to get his brain around a turn like this, but now he did. He said softly, "You don’t want to teach me at all. You want to…"

"I want what?" Zhou Zeqi asked while looking at the photo on Xisui’s phone. Xisui had cropped it halfway before backing out, so he’d have to crop it again.

"I know what you want."

"You know?" Zhou Zeqi laughed. "Then tell me, what do I want?"

"I’m not telling you."

As soon as Xisui finished speaking, his chin was pinched, and a shadow fell over him. Zhou Zeqi bit viciously at the corner of his mouth. It hurt a little, and it was a little numb.

"Fine, don’t say it."

Zhou Zeqi tossed out those words, then lifted the phone. "Send me a copy of the photo later."

Xisui took the phone back from him, his face still red. "What do you need it for?"

"To change my profile picture."

Xisui stayed close to Zhou Zeqi, and while walking along the road, he opened Zhou Zeqi’s WeChat avatar. He only had Zhou Zeqi on WeChat.

Zhou Zeqi’s profile picture was a basketball hoop, from the Jingtan athletic field, instantly recognizable.

"I think your current avatar suits you really well," Xisui said.

Zhou Zeqi gave him a sidelong look, watched him for a long while, then casually looked away. He crouched down and yanked out a green vine growing along the road, roots and all. Xisui crouched down too. "What can this be used for?"

Zhou Zeqi plucked off the withered yellow leaves on the vine and twisted it into a ring in his hands.

Xisui watched his movements carefully until Zhou Zeqi placed the ring on his own head.

There were tiny white flowers on the green vine.

Xisui let out an "ah" and reached out to steady it. "For me?"

"Thanks." Xisui’s happiness was simple.

Xisui had never gone out to play before, not even on a normal outing.

He thought everything right now was novel, even the ants carrying leaves in a line along the road felt fresh to him.

Xisui’s phone suddenly rang without warning.

He looked at the caller ID, and his good mood vanished at once.

"Hello, Dad."

It took Xisui Yaoyao a few seconds before he spoke. "I’m at the place where you live. You’re not home?"

Xisui’s heartbeat immediately sped up. The color drained from his face. He nervously glanced at Zhou Zeqi beside him and said quietly, "I went out to play with my classmate."

Xisui Yaoyao frowned. "When are you coming home?"

"Maybe, tomorrow?" Xisui answered softly.

After Xisui answered, only faint static remained on the phone.

Xisui was very uneasy.

"Xisui, you can’t neglect your studies, understand?" Xisui Yaoyao’s tone had clearly turned a little severe.

Xisui nodded repeatedly. "I understand."

After hanging up, Xisui put the phone back in his pocket and forced a smile at Zhou Zeqi.

"If you don’t want to smile, then don’t," Zhou Zeqi said.

"Okay…"

The two of them walked side by side for a while.

Then Zhou Zeqi suddenly stopped.

Xisui noticed that Zhou Zeqi wasn’t following and turned back to look at him in confusion. "What’s wrong?"

"Let’s make a bet," Zhou Zeqi said, hands in his pockets, chin lifting slightly toward the front. "From here to that big rock ahead, whoever gets there first gets to make one demand of the other. The loser has to agree unconditionally."

Xisui didn’t care about demands or agreeing to things. He only heard who got there first, who lost, that sort of thing.

"Okay!" Xisui agreed at once.

Xisui didn’t think his stamina was worse than Zhou Zeqi’s, just that he didn’t have as much strength.

For a distance of less than a hundred meters, winning shouldn’t be hard.

He and Zhou Zeqi stood on the same starting line.

"1," Zhou Zeqi said, his voice low and cool. He stood straight and tall, unlike Xisui, who looked like he was ready to shoot off any second.

"2…" Xisui’s voice was more serious than Zhou Zeqi’s.

"3!" They said in unison.

Xisui ran out first, but he had only taken a few steps when a gust of wind swept in behind him, white hem flaring. Before he could struggle, Xisui felt himself lifted gracefully off the ground like a white butterfly. Zhou Zeqi had hooked one arm around his waist and picked him up.

"Zhou Zeqi!" Xisui heard himself shout, heard the wind in his ears.

Why was Zhou Zeqi’s strength so freaking huge!

In less than a minute, Xisui had already thrown all the pressure brought on by Xisui Yaoyao to the back of his mind.

Xisui thought Zhou Zeqi had only attacked from behind because he wanted to win.

But at the finish line, Zhou Zeqi set Xisui down and let him stand properly.

Then Zhou Zeqi stepped back.

"Alright, you win," Zhou Zeqi said.

Xisui was still shaken. His hair had been blown all messy by the wind. "That’s not fair."

After saying that, Xisui immediately added, "Don’t do that next time, okay?"

"…"

Xisui started thinking about what request he should make of Zhou Zeqi.

He didn’t really want anything special.

Except kissing.

But Zhou Zeqi seemed to like kissing even more than he did, so there was no need to ask for it on purpose.

"Thought of one yet?" Zhou Zeqi asked softly.

"I have," Xisui said. He racked his brains and came up with one. He made a very sincere request to Zhou Zeqi, "When we sleep tonight, teach me how to climb the ladder."

"…"

"Just that?" Zhou Zeqi’s tone sounded rather indifferent.

"Mm, just that." Xisui nodded.

"Why do you have to learn it?"

Xisui answered hesitantly, "I have no experience at all, so… shouldn’t I learn?" In the long years before, Xisui had always kept company with dance. After leaving home and entering university, he had already vaguely sensed that he was different from other people, and sometimes he couldn’t even join in on Lin Xiaojin’s topics.

Worried that Zhou Zeqi still wouldn’t teach him, Xisui continued, "And if I learn it, it’ll be good for you too."

Zhou Zeqi had already been about to nod when he heard Xisui speak so confidently, and he became a little curious. "How is that good for me?"

How would Xisui know exactly what benefits there were?

He had never even read any dirty books.

After stammering for a long time, he recalled some things Lin Xiaojin often kept saying. They should be about right.

"It’ll make you feel really good," Xisui answered, certain and earnest.