PL | Chapter 5

New Year’s Eve

School had let out for break, and the campus, usually so lively it got on people’s nerves, became desolate in an instant.

Surprisingly, Gu Zhong did not feel excited at all. After seeing Su Jin and the others off at the station one by one, he did not hurry home either.

The school was quiet. Home was even quieter.

He sat by the basketball court, watching a few vocational secondary school students who had not gone on break yet play ball.

He had always found it irritating seeing vocational students everywhere, but only now did he realize that once the campus emptied out, there were actually pitifully few students from the vocational division left.

All of a sudden, he tasted what winter was like. It was actually lonelier than autumn.

Ever since learning that the “boss” had ultimately died, he had been feeling rather lonely.

He had classmates he was close with, childhood friends, friends too, but he had never had a bond of life and death with any of them. These days, it was not easy to have that kind of relationship.

Qi Yue must be very lonely too, beneath that careless exterior.

Even if Gu Zhong could not truly relate.

A basketball bounced off the edge of the court and flew toward him, accompanied by a shout.

“Wanna play?”

“No.” Gu Zhong caught it one-handed and tossed it back.

“From the junior college division?” the guy asked after catching the ball.

Division? Division my ass. Gu Zhong looked at him without a word, his expression darkening.

Going to a slapped-together college was bad enough, but being called a “division” instantly made it feel like he’d dropped another rank. Just hearing it made him choke with irritation.

He got to his feet, ready to leave.

“Aren’t you that guy who lost to us last time?” the guy asked again, smug laughter in his voice.

Gu Zhong stopped and turned to look at him.

Lost my ass. We lose games all the time. Who the hell knows which time you’re talking about?

“Cut it out.” Another person slapped that guy on the shoulder and said quietly, “He hangs around that café.”

“What café?”

“That one with the guy surnamed Qi… the one with the tattoo sleeves…”

Gu Zhong clicked his tongue and turned to leave the court.

It had been cold for a long time already, and Qi Yue had had his arms covered up for a long time too. If that guy had not mentioned it, Gu Zhong would almost have forgotten about Qi Yue’s tattooed arms. He ought to make him show them sometime and refresh his memory.

Gu Zhong had the day off today. Qi Yue had told him to come to the Paolou in a couple of days, but after struggling with himself, he still said he would come tomorrow. He did not want to stay at home, did not want to meet up with classmates who had gotten into good schools, and wanted even less to meet up with classmates who had not gotten into any school at all.

Of course, sometimes he felt all those reasons were just excuses. He simply wanted to go to the Paolou. He liked being with Qi Yue. It felt comfortable. Maybe because he was being considerate of Gu Zhong’s exam mood, Qi Yue had not spent much time targeting him with insults when he went over lately.

He went back to the dorm, slung his already packed bag onto the bicycle, rode into the north wind to the market first, bought two roasted sweet potatoes as big as watermelons, then headed for the Paolou.

Afternoon tea time had already passed, and it was not dinner rush yet, so there was no one on the first floor.

“Xiao Zhang, were you fired from your last job because the way you talked hurt your former boss’s self-esteem too badly?”

Qi Yue was sitting in a chair against the wall, legs stretched out long and propped on another chair, talking to Xiao Zhang, who was busy behind the bar.

“No,” Xiao Zhang answered.

“If one day I fire you, that’ll be the reason,” Qi Yue said. Then he turned and saw Gu Zhong, raising a brow and lifting a hand. “Er? Why are you here? Didn’t you say tomorrow?”

“Bored.” Gu Zhong shoved his bag under the bar. “It’s too early for me to go back now.”

“Your family’s emotional bonding work is not doing so great, huh.” Qi Yue stretched lazily.

Xiao Zhang carried two cups of hot cocoa upstairs. Gu Zhong quickly fixed himself a small cup of coffee, took it over, and sat down beside Qi Yue.

“I’ve realized something. Teasing people, is that your only hobby?”

“Jealous? Been a while since I ripped into you.” Qi Yue smiled.

“Xiao Zhang’s so honest, and you still talk to him like that.” Gu Zhong lowered his voice and glanced upstairs. Xiao Zhang was coming back down carrying the tray.

“I asked him to work an extra shift, and he would not give me the slightest face. Did not even leave room for negotiation, just rejected me outright.” Qi Yue glanced at Xiao Zhang. “Right, Zhang’er?”

“No one would agree to work overtime on New Year’s Eve,” Xiao Zhang sighed. “Besides, who would even come out for coffee on New Year’s Eve?”

“I’m dedicated.” Qi Yue bit down on a cigarette after lighting it. “I’ll give you overtime pay, and I’ll make you beef short ribs. Whatever you want to eat, I’ll make it…”

“Qi-ge, I’m serious. That day, just having you there alone is enough. There will not be any customers,” Xiao Zhang said while wiping down the bar. “Why don’t you ask someone else… ask Xiao Gu?”

Gu Zhong turned to look at Qi Yue. Qi Yue exhaled slowly, then unhurriedly stubbed out the cigarette before finally turning to meet his eyes.

“I…” Gu Zhong wanted to say, I’m free.

“He’s not free.” Qi Yue cut him off, and all Gu Zhong could do was shut up.

He really should be free, though his dad probably would not agree.

Every New Year’s Eve, the whole family went to his grandma’s place. The entire clan gathered there, making a racket while getting things ready, then making a racket while eating and drinking, then making a racket setting off firecrackers.

Nobody slept that whole night anyway. They chatted, played mahjong, played cards, and kept the noise going until noon the next day, and only after lunch would anyone go to sleep.

Gu Zhong usually could not last through that twenty-four-hour nonstop battle, and did not want to either. He did not like noise, did not care much for eating, could not play mahjong, and playing cards with relatives was no fun. If things got heated, he could not even swear.

Usually he just said he was playing on his phone off to the side, or holed up at the computer gaming.

He had time to come work overtime.

But… if he agreed too quickly and too readily, would that not seem a little off somehow?

Poor Xiao Zhang looked miserable and could not dodge it no matter what, while he was charging right into it, even more dedicated than the boss. He had no idea where that kind of motivation was even coming from.

Still, honestly speaking, the moment he heard Qi Yue say he would make Xiao Zhang beef short ribs, even make whatever he wanted to eat, Gu Zhong got insanely jealous. Maybe he had starved to death in his previous life.

As soon as it was time to get off work, Xiao Zhang bolted, as if afraid Qi Yue would grab him again and make him stay overtime. As soon as the two people taking over walked in, Qi Yue got up and went over to persuade them.

Beef short ribs. Whatever you want to eat, I’ll make it.

After a while he sat back down beside Gu Zhong again and said, “Go make me a cup of black tea. More milk, no sugar.”

“Mm.” Gu Zhong got up and made him the tea.

“This bunch of heartless ingrates.” Qi Yue took the tea and drank a sip.

“Why are you so set on staying open on New Year’s Eve?” Gu Zhong really did not understand Qi Yue’s thinking.

“I promised someone,” Qi Yue said.

“Promised… who?” Gu Zhong asked in surprise.

But before Qi Yue could answer, he suddenly felt like he had guessed it. It seemed a little unbelievable, but it was almost his very first instinct.

“Qi Maomao’s dad.” Qi Yue smiled.

Sure enough. But even though he had guessed it, Gu Zhong still could not guess what sort of promise would make Qi Yue insist on it like this.

“One year, the two of us had nowhere to go on New Year’s Eve, so we wandered around outside freezing on the streets.” Qi Yue tilted his head back against the windowsill, eyes fixed on nowhere in particular. “He said it would’ve been nice if there were a shop open at a time like this, somewhere we could go in and stay a while. I said when my café opens in the future, I’ll keep it open on New Year’s Eve. You can just come.”

Gu Zhong looked at him for a long while before finally asking, “That’s all?”

“Mm.” Qi Yue shot him a glance. “What did you think it should be like?”

“I thought it’d be more dramatic than that…” Gu Zhong answered honestly.

“You’ve read too many novels and watched too many movies.” Qi Yue stood up and looked out the window. “Where are you supposed to get that many… Say, if I told them this reason, do you think anybody would agree to work overtime?”

“Don’t say it,” Gu Zhong said quickly. “If you do, even fewer people will come.”

“What?” Qi Yue laughed. “Afraid he’ll show up?”

Gu Zhong sighed. “Nobody is really going to come eat on New Year’s Eve night. Why do you insist on dragging in a server?”

“Because I’m lonely,” Qi Yue said.

Gu Zhong glanced at him and said nothing.

“You.” Qi Yue lightly tapped his leg with his toe. “Stop thinking about coming over. The overtime pay I give is not that much. Staying up all night is not worth it.”

“I… it’s not for your overtime pay…” Gu Zhong said.

“Oh, so it’s for me.” Qi Yue looked enlightened all at once, framing him with his fingers as if taking aim. “Not gonna lie, your type is actually pretty appealing to me. If you work hard, I just might…”

Gu Zhong stood up. “I’m leaving. I’ll come to work tomorrow.”

Behind him came Qi Yue’s delighted laughter.

The street was steeped in winter desolation. The loneliness of the cold season rose with the old north wind, carrying fine sand and dead leaves.

Lonely, huh. Gu Zhong caught the thing that smacked into his face and looked down. It was not a dead leaf at all, but a sealing strip torn from a packaging bag.

Lonely, huh. Frowning, he tossed the thing into the trash can beside him. It was the particular kind of loneliness that came right before the happiest, noisiest holiday of the year.

Was Qi Yue not going home for the New Year?

Only then did Gu Zhong realize that after knowing him this long, he had never once heard Qi Yue mention home or family. The only person who even counted as “family” was his goddaughter, Qi Maomao. His only friend was Qi Maomao’s dad, and that man was dead too.

Did Qi Maomao have the surname Qi too? Was her name really Maomao?

Gu Zhong squeezed the brake lever and stared at the red light at the intersection.

He could vaguely make out some contours. Qi Yue was like a clump of smoke, half hidden and half visible, half real and half false. Impossible to see clearly, yet some outlines could still be faintly discerned.

To Gu Zhong, that was the attraction. There were all kinds of things about Qi Yue that drew him in, things he could not explain clearly.

But working overtime on New Year’s Eve met with fierce opposition from his dad. Even though he never joined in the cooking, did very little eating, had no interest in games, and never participated in the fun, his person had to be there.

“I don’t care whether you think it’s meaningful or not. Your heart and soul can go flying wherever they want, but your shell has to stay here and spend New Year with everybody!” his dad said, staring at him.

Gu Zhong said nothing.

“Are you going to work overtime, or are you going on a date?” his mom asked.

“Hm?” Gu Zhong looked up at her, feeling as if he had glimpsed a ray of hope. To be safe, he used the tactic of pretending to resist while actually inviting the idea. “Work… overtime.”

“Is that female boss you cook for working overtime too?” his mom sat down beside him and asked softly.

Feeling his dad’s gaze on him, Gu Zhong cleared his throat and said nothing.

“If he’s dating, there is no point stopping him. Stuff like that has to be left to live or die on its own,” his mom said to his dad. Then she turned back to Gu Zhong. “But you still have to eat at home. After dinner, you can go do your overtime.”

That decision startled Gu Zhong. He had never realized before that his mom was this eager for him to go find himself a romance. The moment he got into college, she seemed as if she had started hurrying to hold a grandchild.

“Do I… get any spending money?” Gu Zhong tried asking.

“No,” his mom answered firmly. “But I can give you your New Year’s money in advance.”

“A hundred, right?” Gu Zhong asked.

“Otherwise how much do you think you should get? In our family, the tradition is one hundred yuan,” his mom said.

One hundred yuan. That was from home. As for the relatives, they had all agreed in advance that everyone would only give fifty, and this year even that was gone, because it had been agreed that once you got into college, you stopped getting any.

A united, frugal clan that had joined forces to gang up on the children.

Tch.

He could go to the Paolou to work overtime after New Year’s Eve dinner. The family ate early so there would be more time left for collective fun, so by the time he got there, he could probably even still catch Qi Yue making him a serving of beef short ribs.

But Gu Zhong did not tell Qi Yue about this. It felt like Qi Yue would not agree. From the very beginning, he had been able to tell clearly that Qi Yue had never actually planned to let him come do this so-called overtime shift. He just did not know why.

Business was not bad during the stretch before the New Year. Young couples would come sit around before going back home, lingering over Candlelight Coffee. Young couples who had come back from other places would also come sit for a while, pouring out their lovesickness over Candlelight Coffee.

Every day while doing odd jobs, Gu Zhong watched scene after scene like that. At first he thought it was pretty funny, but within a few days he started feeling annoyed, the annoyance of a lonely single dog hitting him in full force.

Whenever the couples hiding away on the second and third floors started getting too out of line, he would always show up at once, wiping a table, nudging a chair, whatever. If there truly was not a damn thing to do, he would just pretend to be passing by.

“The way you run around every day carrying a torch, you really have no humanity,” Qi Yue said, leaning by the window with a cigarette between his lips.

“There are customers downstairs.” Gu Zhong shot him a glance. “Stop smoking. It’s so cold out, and you’ve still got the window open.”

“It’s not on my side anyway.” Qi Yue glanced at the two tables beside him. Both were empty.

“It’s because nobody wants to sit near you, okay?!” Gu Zhong said. “The second floor is full.”

“That’s great.” Qi Yue turned to look out the window. “Peace and quiet.”

Gu Zhong said nothing more and went back to work.

Not one of the employees agreed to work overtime on New Year’s Eve. After Qi Yue asked every last one of them and got rejected across the board, he stopped trying. He only took a beat-up scrap of paper and wrote himself a New Year’s Eve dinner set menu on it, then studied it every day.

The shop closed for the holiday on the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month. After the deep clean was finished, Gu Zhong came downstairs from upstairs. On the first floor there was only Qi Yue, sitting by the bar, staring at that same beat-up piece of paper.

“Upstairs is all cleaned up,” Gu Zhong said as he walked over to the bar.

“Mm.” Qi Yue stood up. “Wait here.”

“Oh.” Gu Zhong watched him go into the changing room. When he came back out, he was carrying his coat and reaching into his pocket. “A red envelope?”

“Yep.” Qi Yue pulled out a red envelope and handed it over.

“Big?” Gu Zhong squeezed it. “Feels pretty big?”

“What’s big?” Qi Yue lowered his head.

“Fuck.” Gu Zhong was speechless. “Do you have any shame? You’re a grown man.”

“Thick, right?” Qi Yue smiled, glancing at him. “They’re all tens.”

“Thanks, Qi-ge.” Gu Zhong said, “Happy New Year.”

“Get going.” Qi Yue waved him off. “You come back to work on the second day.”

Cut off all at once from the pre-holiday rush, Gu Zhong felt a vague kind of letdown. New Year’s Eve itself was busy too, but it was not the same kind of busy as bustling around in the Paolou. It left him vaguely restless.

He went to Grandma’s house early in the morning. All the relatives had arrived. The whole place was noisy and lively all day long, voices overlapping everywhere, some people chatting, some people working. Gu Zhong sat the whole time in the sofa in the corner, feeling as if all the noise had made his head a little woozy, until he took his little cousin outside for a while to set off firecrackers.

It was already afternoon. The streets were empty, and the cars were gone too. Firecrackers kept sounding in the stillness. You could see smoke and hear the pop-pop crackling, but you could not see a single person. The icy air carried the smell of gunpowder, and it smelled pretty good.

He wanted to call Qi Yue and ask what he was doing, but after hesitating a while, he did not.

While they were eating, Qi Yue sent him a message asking where the milk they had bought the week before had been put. After replying, Gu Zhong asked one more thing.

Have you eaten yet?

In a bit. Easy enough to deal with when you’re alone, Qi Yue replied.

Dinner at home was the same, lively and chaotic. Out of three tables of people, half were not even sitting, just walking around toasting and laughing. Gu Zhong ate a few random bites, then retreated off to the side.

He looked toward where his mom was, but after trying for about five minutes, he still had not managed to make eye contact with her. Forget his mom, he had not managed to connect with anybody else’s eyes either. He confirmed that he had now entered Sixth Man Invisibility Mode, so he got up and walked out.

Facing the old north wind head-on, he wrapped his head up until it was practically a ball and rode all the way through “rising clouds and driving mist.”

There was no one on the street. Even if there had been, he would not have been able to see them clearly. Everything was smoke.

He kept his neck hunched in until he saw the familiar signboard of the Paolou, then straightened it.

The Paolou really was still open. The lights were on from the first floor to the third, and warm yellow light poured out of the windows, exactly the same as usual.

After leaving his bicycle by the door, he tugged at his scarf and suddenly felt a little excited. He did not know whether he was looking forward more to seeing Qi Yue, or to the scene of Qi Yue seeing him.

A burst of firecrackers went off. He leaned over to the gap in the door curtain and peeked inside.

Qi Yue was standing with his back to the door at a table in the corner. It was hard to tell what he was doing. That table was by the window, and outside the window was a battered old brick wall covered in graffiti. Gu Zhong had said before that on the first floor, this was the table with the best view because you could not see the chaotic street from it.

He quietly lifted the curtain and slipped inside, planning to use the sound of the firecrackers as cover and scare Qi Yue.

He had barely crept two steps toward the table when the firecrackers abruptly stopped. Just as he was about to speak, Qi Yue suddenly opened his mouth first.

“So you came?”

“Hey!” Gu Zhong jumped and yelped.

“Whoa, listen to that reaction.” Qi Yue let out a laugh and turned to look at him. “With guts like that, and you still want to roam the world with sword in hand?”

“How did you know somebody came in?” Gu Zhong asked.

Only now could he see clearly that Qi Yue had been laying out tableware. Plates, bowls, knives, forks, two full sets.

“If the noise you made locking your bike had been any louder, I would’ve known someone had come in even if I’d been upstairs,” Qi Yue said.

“I came over right after dinner…” Gu Zhong looked at the tableware, then at Qi Yue’s utterly calm face. “Aren’t you even a little surprised to see me?”

“I knew you’d come.” Qi Yue took the apron off the back of the chair and slipped it on. “Can you still eat a bit more? I’ll make the beef short ribs now.”

“You prepared this for me?” Gu Zhong asked.

“What else? If you don’t eat it, I’ll leave it for Maomao’s dad.” Qi Yue smiled, eyes narrowing a little.

“Don’t scare me.” Gu Zhong dragged over a chair and sat down. “Boss, I want beef short ribs, medium, with black pepper sauce, corn chowder with extra cream, a glass of red wine, and for dessert I want almond yogurt pumpkin and doughnuts…”

“You really have no shame.” Qi Yue looked at him.

“You said for whoever came to work overtime, you’d make whatever they wanted to eat.” Gu Zhong took off his scarf, shrugged out of his coat, and leaned back into the chair. “Give me a milk pudding first.”

Qi Yue smiled and walked off.

Gu Zhong sat there at the table in a daze for a while, figuring Qi Yue probably would not actually make all that stuff for him. The pudding, though, was already there ready-made, so he stood up, planning to grab a milk pudding to eat first.

The moment he turned around, Qi Yue came over carrying a tray with one serving of milk pudding on it.

“That attentive, huh?” Gu Zhong stared blankly for a second.

“If you’re not eating it, then I’ll leave it for…”

“Eat eat eat eat, I’m eating! I ordered it because I wanted to!” Gu Zhong cut him off, sat down, and picked up the spoon. “What about the rest?”

“Wait.” Qi Yue patted him on the shoulder, then lightly squeezed once before turning and heading into the kitchen.

He finished the pudding quickly, then got up and went behind the bar. Leaning by the kitchen pass-through, he carefully stuck his head in and saw Qi Yue there with his sleeves rolled up, making the beef short ribs.

“Docking your pay,” Qi Yue said without even turning around.

“Hey, do you have some kind of superpower?” Gu Zhong said. “How come every single time you don’t even need to turn around?”

“My intelligence and powers of observation, in front of you, are probably in the god-tier category.” Qi Yue flicked a finger against the stainless steel pot beside him. “The window shows in there.”

“Oh…” Gu Zhong looked at the pot.

He stood there dazed for a while. Qi Yue ignored him after that, so in the end he had no choice but to squeeze himself a glass of orange juice at the bar and sit back down.

Qi Yue worked quickly. It was not long before he brought over the beef short ribs, with the desserts paired and ready too.

Gu Zhong was pretty touched. The desserts he had named were all things the shop already had on hand, but Qi Yue had at least remembered and actually served them. Unexpectedly, though, what Qi Yue made for himself was congee and sugar-frosted youtiao, the kind of thing that felt very much like breakfast food.

“Eat.” Qi Yue tossed the apron aside, dragged over a chair, and sat down right beside him.

Usually when he chatted or ate with Qi Yue, they rarely sat side by side. They were always facing each other. Now that Qi Yue sat down next to him like this, he suddenly felt a little… It was not embarrassment, and not discomfort either. It was nervousness, and constraint.

Even his heartbeat was a little off-rhythm.

Like he’d been possessed.

“You said just now that you knew I’d come?” Gu Zhong forced out a question just to have something to say. He picked up his knife and fork, cut off a piece of meat, and put it in his mouth. “How’d you guess?”

“Guess?” Qi Yue picked up a youtiao and bit into it. Then he suddenly leaned close to Gu Zhong’s ear and said in a low voice, “I even know that your head is full of me all day long, thinking about me, this and that.”

“I…” Gu Zhong jumped, leaning back against the wall beside him. Maybe the heat in the shop was too strong, because his face suddenly felt scorching hot. After a while he frowned. “Who spends all day thinking about you? Where are you getting that confidence from?”

“You gave it to me.” Qi Yue looked at him while eating his youtiao, in a thoroughly delighted mood.

“I…” Gu Zhong had no idea what to say, so all he could do was cut off another huge piece of meat and stuff it into his mouth. “Whatever makes you happy.”

“Did you come out because you fought with your family?” Qi Yue asked.

“Ha!” Gu Zhong set down his fork and laughed two loud, ringing laughs. “Ha! Hahaha!”

“Did I guess wrong?” Qi Yue curled his lips.

“I came out peacefully and safely, and I even got a hundred yuan in New Year’s money…” Gu Zhong felt at his pocket. “Crap, I forgot to ask for it. I wonder if my mom’s going to welsh on me…”

“Then why aren’t you staying home on New Year’s Eve?” Qi Yue asked again.

“Staying there is boring.” Gu Zhong sighed and kept talking while eating. “My maternal grandparents are gone, so we always go to my grandma’s place for New Year. It’s the same every year. Eating, drinking, playing, making noise. The chaos gives me a headache.”

Qi Yue said nothing and drank some congee.

“In my family, if it doesn’t turn into a full-blown headache, it doesn’t count as New Year. We have to stay up all night too. Cards, mahjong, and if you’re not playing, then you talk all night while waiting for midnight to set off firecrackers. It’s especially annoying. I even always end up fighting with my dad. If he feels like hitting me during New Year, he’ll still do it…”

“Sounds great,” Qi Yue said.

“Hm?” Gu Zhong turned to look at him, and Qi Yue turned too, meeting his gaze.

Unexpectedly, in Qi Yue’s eyes, Gu Zhong saw something beyond the calmness and teasing he was used to.

A bit of envy? And also a bit of… though it vanished in an instant, he still saw it, sadness.

That was right. Because sadness was an emotion that appeared so rarely on Qi Yue, even if it lasted only a moment, he still saw it very clearly.

“A whole big family.” Qi Yue smiled. His expression had already gone back to its usual calmness. “So lively, so bustling. That’s good. Annoying is annoying, sure, but if it were gone, you’d miss it.”

“Really?” Gu Zhong stared into his eyes for several seconds more before turning his head and staring down at his own fork.

Qi Yue’s irises were very light, amber-colored, and quite beautiful.

Only after taking a bite did Gu Zhong come back to himself and ask, “Is your family from another city?”

“I grew up here.” Qi Yue leaned back with a youtiao in his mouth, his arm resting across the back of Gu Zhong’s chair. “I watched your crappy school get built from the ground up.”

“It’s not that crappy,” Gu Zhong said. Then after thinking about it, he asked, “Then why don’t you go home?”

“Can’t go back anymore.” Qi Yue said it with a smile, his tone very even. “My family would rather spend the rest of their lives never seeing me again.”

Gu Zhong stared at him, trying to find some clue from his expression, from his eyes, but when Qi Yue said that sentence, he looked no different from usual, no different from when he was assigning work, and it was not even a deliberate sort of flatness.

“Eat.” Qi Yue tipped his chin at the food. “Wasting food gets you fined.”

By the time Gu Zhong finished everything, Qi Yue had long since finished his own congee and youtiao and gone off to watch television.

The occasional firecrackers outside drowned out the television pretty thoroughly. It was impossible to tell what exactly Qi Yue was staring at on the screen.

Gu Zhong gathered up all the dishes and took them to wash. As he washed, he kept mulling things over. This man had his home right here, yet he refused to go back for New Year. The more he thought about it, the more unbelievable it seemed.

His relationship with his dad was not very good. He got snapped at often, got looked down on out of habit, and they argued plenty. He had even gotten beaten, though that had only stopped after he started college. But if it came to him and his dad never seeing each other again for the rest of their lives, nobody could manage that.

What kind of thing could sever family ties?

Qi Yue really did seem to have a lot of stories attached to him, but after knowing him this long, Gu Zhong felt that the person himself was nothing like the kind of person in those stories. Easy to get along with, not stuck-up, and actually pretty charming…

When he came out of the kitchen after washing up, Qi Yue was still in the same posture, watching television. The screen was all red, and he had no idea what it was, only two words came to mind.

Festive.

“I think…” Gu Zhong began as he walked over to him.

“Hm?” Qi Yue turned his face and responded.

“I think, well, you’re not exactly some young kid anymore…” Before Gu Zhong could finish, some neighbor started setting off firecrackers, and the deafening blasts roared out. He stood there with his mouth open, not sure whether to stop or keep going, but Qi Yue kept looking at him with his head tilted, so he had no choice but to raise his voice and continue shouting. “If there’s something you can’t get past with your family, why keep locking horns over it like this? If you really went back on New Year’s Eve, your family would definitely be happy. Old people are always hard on the outside and soft on the inside. No telling how many of them are hoping you’ll come back!”

After finishing, he looked at Qi Yue.

Qi Yue was still looking at him too, unmoving and silent.

The two of them kept staring at each other until the firecrackers stopped, and only then did Qi Yue say, “What?”

“Fuck.” Gu Zhong deflated on the spot and dropped into the chair beside him, glaring at the television. “If you couldn’t hear a thing, why were you sitting there looking at me all full of attentive listening for?!”

“It wasn’t that I heard nothing. I heard you say I’m old,” Qi Yue said.

“I did not say you’re old! I just said you’re not a young guy anymore! I think…” Gu Zhong sat up straight and turned, planning to say it all again, but the firecrackers started up once more, this time from behind the building, the sound smashing in through the back door.

Qi Yue suddenly cracked up. He threw one leg up onto the table, folded his arms, and laughed so hard his eyes practically disappeared.

Gu Zhong waved a hand in utter defeat and fixed his eyes on the television, giving up on talking anymore.

He spent nearly twenty minutes staring blankly at the TV before Qi Yue leaned over. Wrapped in the roar of the firecrackers, he bellowed a sentence into his ear.

“Want a drink?”

“What?!” Gu Zhong jumped and turned his head.

“Drink!” Qi Yue shouted right in his face again. “Drink. Alcohol. Little brat!”

“You go crazy after drinking or what?” Gu Zhong caught the smile at the corners of his eyes.

“Hard to say!” Qi Yue shouted back.

“Not! Drinking!” Gu Zhong roared.

Qi Yue laughed, stood up, walked over to the liquor cabinet, looked for a while, then took out some bottle or other, poured himself a glass, and carried it upstairs.

Gu Zhong hesitated, then got up and went over to the cabinet to take a look. It was rum for making Spanish coffee. The alcohol content was not actually that high, but he still followed Qi Yue upstairs.

Halfway there, Qi Yue came back down from upstairs. While putting on his coat, he placed the now empty glass into Gu Zhong’s hand.

“What is this supposed to mean?” Gu Zhong quickly asked, taking advantage of the momentary lull in the firecrackers.

“Come on,” Qi Yue said.

“Where to?” He ran down the stairs, snatched up his own coat, and put it on.

“My home,” Qi Yue said. “Didn’t you say old people were hoping for me to come back?”

“Fuck, didn’t you say you didn’t hear clearly?!” Gu Zhong shouted.

“With how simple you are, you’d better stop dreaming about roaming the jianghu.” Qi Yue slapped him on the back, draped an arm across his shoulders, and steered him out the door.

“You’re not closing up?” Gu Zhong looked back over his shoulder.

“No need. There’s no cash, and nothing valuable anyway,” Qi Yue said.

Gu Zhong huddled down into his scarf. Qi Yue’s arm stayed slung across his shoulders the whole time, but he still felt a little cold. Not just because of the temperature, but because of the empty street, shrouded in darkness and smoke.

In the dark and haze, Gu Zhong could only roughly tell that Qi Yue’s home was somewhere behind the Paolou, because after coming out they turned right twice, and Qi Yue had not driven, which meant it had to be very close.

That close, yet he still did not go home for New Year.

Gu Zhong truly could not understand that kind of bizarre behavior.

They had walked no more than ten minutes when Qi Yue stopped and looked up.

“Here?” Gu Zhong asked.

“Mm.” Qi Yue was still looking up. “There are people at home. They probably haven’t finished dinner yet.”

“Do you… need to get your emotions in order a bit before going up?” Gu Zhong asked.

Qi Yue laughed. “Is it that serious?”

“Then let’s go up.” Gu Zhong rubbed his hands together. “You really should’ve brought a gift. You could’ve just taken some coffee beans from the shop or something. Or red wine.”

“No need,” Qi Yue said. “Wouldn’t be used.”

“Hm?” Gu Zhong did not understand what that meant, but Qi Yue had already started walking forward, so he had no choice but to follow.

Standing in the elevator, Qi Yue stared blankly at the changing floor numbers. Gu Zhong, meanwhile, felt inexplicably nervous, with the absurd sensation that some deeply emotional scene was about to unfold and he would end up crying right along with it.

The elevator reached the ninth floor. The doors opened, and Qi Yue walked out, with Gu Zhong following behind him.

Qi Yue stopped in front of a door on the left, turned to look at Gu Zhong, then rang the bell.

The door opened quickly. Light and warm laughter spilled out at once, washing over Gu Zhong’s face in a wave of warmth.

“Qi Yue?” The person inside sounded startled.

Qi Yue said nothing. He just stood there in silence without moving.

The person standing inside was a middle-aged man. Gu Zhong had no idea what his relation to Qi Yue was. He grew anxious. After waiting two seconds and seeing no sign that Qi Yue intended to speak, he reached out to poke him as a reminder. Before his finger even touched Qi Yue’s clothes, an older woman rose from the table full of people inside.

She was not really that old. Judging by her age, she ought to be Qi Yue’s mother.

She moved quickly. After coming over, she shoved the middle-aged man aside, then shut the door without the slightest hesitation, clean and decisive.

Bang.

Darkness closed around them again.

Gu Zhong was so stunned he could not recover for the longest time. That woman had not even looked at Qi Yue one extra time. She had simply shut the door like that.

Only after Qi Yue tugged him all the way out of the building and back onto the street did he finally manage to say something.

“That was your mom?”

“Mm,” Qi Yue answered. “The one who opened the door was my brother-in-law.”

“Oh…” Gu Zhong had no idea what else to say.

Qi Yue hooked an arm around his shoulders and said, “I’ll take you home. There’s still time. Go back and stay up for the new year with your dad and mom.”

Gu Zhong said nothing and just walked forward slowly with him.

All at once, he understood what Qi Yue had meant earlier by “wouldn’t be used.”

When they got back to the Paolou, the television was still on. The firecracker noise had died down some, so the singing from the TV sounded especially festive now. Only then did Gu Zhong finally see clearly that it was the Spring Festival Gala.

“You even watch the Spring Festival Gala?” he said.

“Every year.” Qi Yue went into the kitchen. “Wait a second. I’ll get you some late-night food.”

Gu Zhong followed him over and took a look. Qi Yue opened the oven and pulled out a tray of pastries that had just been baked. Gu Zhong could not tell what they were, only that they were puff-pastry.

“What filling?” he asked.

“Salted egg yolk pastries.” Qi Yue took out a paper takeaway box and started transferring them over one by one. “Salted duck egg yolk filling.”

“Huh?” Gu Zhong did not react at first.

“The same kind of filling as in egg-yolk mooncakes.” Qi Yue closed the box and handed it to him.

“You made these with filling left over from Mid-Autumn Festival?” Gu Zhong was so shocked his eyes went round.

“Yeah…” Qi Yue sighed. “With how upright you are, hurry up and call the food safety bureau to report me.”

Gu Zhong sat in the passenger seat holding a box of salted egg yolk pastries, his head tilted as he stared at Qi Yue the whole way.

“Am I that handsome?” Qi Yue said. “Feels like tonight… oh right, your family doesn’t sleep tonight. Then tomorrow. Feels like you’ll dream about me tomorrow night.”

“Do you have any shame?” Gu Zhong no longer had the strength to roast him.

“Right here. Want to touch it?” Qi Yue said.

“I’m coming to work on the second day, right?” Gu Zhong asked.

“Mm. I can go pick you up,” Qi Yue said. “In all the years my shop’s been open, you’re the first to get treatment like this.”

“You really didn’t come out after fighting with your family? With your temperament, it doesn’t feel like you were raised in some free-range household.” Qi Yue glanced at him.

“I really didn’t fight. My dad was against it at first, but my mom thought I was…” Gu Zhong cleared his throat. “On a date. So she made the decision and let me come out.”

“A date?” Qi Yue’s lips curved. “With who?”

“With the owner-lady… of the café where I work.” Gu Zhong looked out the car window, embarrassed.

Qi Yue froze for a second, then could not help laughing out loud.

“Stop laughing. What’s so funny?” Gu Zhong clicked his tongue. “When I brought you food before, I already said it was being delivered to the lady boss.”

“The lady boss is so moved she can barely take it.” Qi Yue laughed as he spoke.

“Can you give me a little face and stop laughing?” Gu Zhong said. “At least I’m here to work overtime.”

“Still want the overtime pay?” Qi Yue asked.

“Why wouldn’t I? Didn’t you say you’d give it?” Gu Zhong sat up straight.

“We’re already in a dating relationship, aren’t we? If this develops a little further, then in the future what’s mine will be yours, so what do you need overtime pay for?” Qi Yue said with a smile.

Gu Zhong could not even be bothered to answer anymore. Though in truth, he had never planned to ask for any overtime pay anyway. He had not run over here because of overtime. He had just wanted to stay with Qi Yue for a while…

“Here?” Qi Yue asked.

“Oh.” Gu Zhong came back to himself and looked out the window. “Yeah. That building up ahead. You can stop here. It’ll be easier to turn around.”

“Happy New Year.” Qi Yue stopped the car.

“Happy New Year.” Gu Zhong opened the door, stuck half his body out, then pulled back in again. “Why don’t you come to my grandma’s place for a while? It’s pretty lively.”

“No.” Qi Yue patted him on the arm. “I’m going back to sleep.”

“Oh.” Gu Zhong held onto the car door without moving. He wanted to get out, but did not want to move. His mind kept spinning, trying to come up with something else to say.

“Stop thinking about me.” Qi Yue shoved him lightly. “Hurry up and go upstairs.”

Gu Zhong had no choice but to get out.

As he was shutting the car door, Qi Yue added one more sentence.

“Actually, I think about you all the time too.”

Gu Zhong had no idea what his foot caught on, but in an extremely suave manner, he pitched straight into the flowerbed beside him.