TA • Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Cheng Ke stared at the door in front of him, which had just been slammed in his face, and for a moment he couldn’t even react to whether he should say something, wait silently, or turn around and leave.

"Wait a sec." Jiang Yuduo’s hoarse voice came from inside.

"Oh." Cheng Ke answered. Jiang Yuduo’s voice sounded about the same as it had on the phone earlier, maybe even rougher. He was probably sick?

Cheng Ke tried hard to clear the image of Jiang Yuduo’s naked body from his mind so he could remember his face and tell whether he looked pale.

But he failed. After all, this was the first time in his life that someone had opened the door to him completely naked, and the impact had been just too strong. No matter how hard he tried, Jiang Yuduo’s naked body kept flashing in front of his eyes.

He even failed to stop a line of commentary from popping up in his head.

Nice build.

Ah, fuck off!

Cheng Ke frowned. Just as he was about to take out his phone and calm himself down a little, the door opened again.

The whole thing had taken less than five seconds. For someone with one arm and one leg in splints, that was a freakishly divine speed…

What the hell?

"You!" Cheng Ke stared at Jiang Yuduo, who was still standing there in the doorway with not a stitch on.

This time, he still couldn’t see whether Jiang Yuduo’s face looked pale.

What he saw first was the scar on Jiang Yuduo’s chest.

…Just how many scars did this guy have?

He actually had them on both sides, front and back.

"Getting dressed is a pain," Jiang Yuduo said. "I just wanted to ask one thing first, are you fucking clueless about how to top up a gas card?"

"No!" Cheng Ke yanked off his jacket with supernatural speed and flung it at Jiang Yuduo. "I fucking already topped it up!"

"Then why the hell are you here?" Jiang Yuduo caught his jacket and held it in front of his body.

"I came to see if you’d dropped dead!" Cheng Ke was utterly speechless.

"Not yet." Jiang Yuduo stepped back a couple of paces and opened the door wider. "Come in."

Come in my ass.

Cheng Ke had no intention of stepping inside at all. He now deeply regretted letting his sympathy run wild and coming all the way here to suffer this kind of stimulation.

But then the door across the hall suddenly made a sound.

Cheng Ke jumped in shock and shot into the apartment in one stride, then slammed the door shut behind him.

If a neighbor saw this, he wouldn’t be able to wash himself clean even if he jumped into the Yellow River, much less the Pacific, though the neighbor might not even know who he was.

Jiang Yuduo threw his jacket onto the sofa and turned to hobble slowly toward the bedroom.

Compared with opening the door, closing the door, and opening it again, that pace was about 5,700 times slower. Cheng Ke knew it was because of Jiang Yuduo’s injured leg, but he still really wanted to walk over and shove him.

"I thought it was Chen Qing." Jiang Yuduo finally said something after shuffling into the bedroom.

"Are you deaf? I said I was Cheng Ke!" Cheng Ke sat down on the sofa. That ridiculous excuse even made him forget to be surprised that Jiang Yuduo could receive the head marshal in this kind of shape.

"I heard you," Jiang Yuduo said. "I just thought you were Chen Qing, what don’t you understand?"

"I…" Cheng Ke wanted to say of course I don’t understand. He had clearly heard the words Cheng Ke, and yet Jiang Yuduo still thought it was Chen Qing. Who could understand a brain process like that, with soybeans planted in the grooves?

Before he could finish, something furry suddenly brushed his hand.

Rat!

Cheng Ke sprang straight up from the sofa. Only when he was in midair did he remember this should be Jiang Yuduo’s cat.

When he looked back at the sofa, sure enough, there was a little cat staring at him with its eyes wide open, looking extremely shocked.

It was probably stunned by his lightning-fast speed.

"I’ve never seen a grown man this scared of mice," Jiang Yuduo said.

"Who says I’m scared?" Cheng Ke turned around, then quickly turned away again. Jiang Yuduo was somehow still naked by the bed, with only one leg in his underwear. He couldn’t help himself and turned back again, pointing at Jiang Yuduo. "Can you actually get this damn clothes on or not?"

"Shouldn’t I put on my pants first?" Jiang Yuduo looked at him, then suddenly squinted and smiled. "What, you’re jealous and want to look a few more times?"

"I’m leaving." Cheng Ke grabbed his jacket and prepared to go.

When he lifted it, the weight felt off. He looked down and found that the cat had somehow grabbed the sleeve and was dangling from it.

"Get down." Cheng Ke shook the jacket.

"You still haven’t said why you…” Jiang Yuduo had probably talked too much and now his voice was so hoarse it was almost gone. "came here."

"Listen to yourself," Cheng Ke said with a sigh as he kept shaking the jacket. "Your call was dead silent all of a sudden, so I came over to see what was going on. If you’d dropped dead, at least I could call the police."

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say anything.

Cheng Ke shook for a long time and still couldn’t shake the cat off. He also didn’t dare reach out and grab it, afraid the cat was unfamiliar with him and might scratch him.

After a while Jiang Yuduo said from behind him, "Thanks."

Cheng Ke turned around and saw that he had already put on his underwear and a pair of athletic pants. He was still bare-chested, but visually, at least, it was enough to let people breathe a little easier.

Still, suddenly hearing such a sincere thank-you made Cheng Ke not know how to respond.

Jiang Yuduo shuffled over slowly, reached out, picked the cat off his jacket, and tossed it onto the sofa. Then he asked, "You haven’t eaten yet, have you?"

"No, I was going to boil a couple eggs, but the burner wouldn’t light," Cheng Ke said. The moment he finished, he immediately regretted it.

Sure enough, Jiang Yuduo instantly picked up the phone on the table while dialing and said, "Then let’s eat together."

"No need," Cheng Ke struggled to refuse. "I have things to do. I’ll just grab something random when I go out later."

"What things?" Jiang Yuduo looked up at him.

"Just…" Cheng Ke suddenly couldn’t come up with a reasonable excuse. Mostly because he still hadn’t fully adapted to Jiang Yuduo’s brutal habit of taking every polite remark seriously and making the atmosphere awkward over and over again. He was always caught off guard.

"You’ve got shit to do," Jiang Yuduo said in that hoarse voice while continuing to poke at the phone. "You go to the supermarket every day, and you’ve never even left my turf…"

"Are you stalking me?" Cheng Ke was so shocked his eyelids nearly failed to hold in his eyeballs.

"No." Jiang Yuduo said, "I told you, this is my turf. For a suspicious character like you, I don’t even need to follow you. People report to me every day…"

Jiang Yuduo painfully cleared his throat, then coughed twice. "…report."

Suspicious your ass.

Cheng Ke didn’t want to talk anymore.

"Da Bin," Jiang Yuduo got through to the phone. "Help me go to Tingfulou and buy two breakfasts… I’m fine, yeah, bring them to my place… whatever, just pick what you think is good."

After hanging up, Jiang Yuduo lit a cigarette and sat down on the chair, glaring at Cheng Ke face to face.

"I really don’t eat." Cheng Ke said.

"Then watch me eat." Jiang Yuduo said.

"…Are you always like this?" Cheng Ke was no longer even angry. He only felt deeply impressed by Jiang Yuduo’s crazy-ass state.

"Like what?" Jiang Yuduo said. When he said those two words, no sound came out. Cheng Ke could only guess from the airflow and his mouth shape.

"Forget it, don’t talk," Cheng Ke sighed. "Listening to you is a pain. Makes me want to hit someone."

Jiang Yuduo smiled and didn’t say anything else. He grabbed the cat, which had jumped onto the table, and set it on his lap, rubbing it.

Cheng Ke didn’t really want to stare at Jiang Yuduo’s bare upper body, but that scar of his was just too eye-catching. It was hard to look away.

In the end, he still couldn’t help asking, "When you fight every time, are you aiming for the crematorium or what?"

"Huh?" Jiang Yuduo paused, then looked down at his chest and laughed.

"This looks like someone hacked you with a forty-meter broadsword," Cheng Ke said with a sigh. He didn’t understand how Jiang Yuduo, carrying scars all over his body, could still laugh.

"Just this area," Jiang Yuduo said after laughing, then cleared his throat, though his voice was still hoarse. "Who could beat me up like this in a fight?"

"What a big mouth," Cheng Ke said dismissively. "If I hadn’t seen those two splints of yours, I almost would’ve believed you."

"That’s different. Nobody here dares use a knife on me," Jiang Yuduo said as he stubbed out his cigarette and casually grabbed a T-shirt nearby to pull it on. "These were all from when I was a kid."

Cheng Ke froze, then said nothing.

Putting clothes on one-armed was a bit of a struggle. Jiang Yuduo wrestled with the shirt for a long time. Ever since his arm had been injured, getting dressed or undressed had always been such a mess he looked ready to tear the clothes apart. Cheng Ke had no idea how he’d managed to take it off yesterday…

"Come help me tug it down." Jiang Yuduo showed one eye from the collar and looked at Cheng Ke. "Can you still see with those eyes of yours?"

Cheng Ke, who had been staring blankly at him the whole time, frowned and got up to grab his hand, helping him pull the shirt down. "How do you get dressed when no one’s around?"

"If you say right now that you’re not a person," Jiang Yuduo said, "I’ll dress myself."

Cheng Ke paused, then grabbed his hand again and pulled the shirt that had already gone on back over his arm. "I’m not a person."

"You and the three-and-a-half-year-old kid next door are in the same class, aren’t you…" Jiang Yuduo tried to shout, but his throat didn’t cooperate, and most of the rest of the sentence came out silent.

"Are you catching a cold?" Cheng Ke asked. "You didn’t go to the hospital to have it checked?"

Jiang Yuduo struggled to get the shirt back on. "No."

No hospital.

He felt sick just thinking about hospitals.

The only time he’d gone there was to get the splint put on, and he’d had nightmares several times after that. He hadn’t even gone back for dressing changes, and had just kept going to the community clinic to have people do it.

After he got dressed, he glanced at Cheng Ke a few more times. Only after confirming that Cheng Ke had no intention of forcing his way out did he light another cigarette and hold it between his teeth.

"At this rate you smoke," Cheng Ke said, "you should probably get ready to learn sign language."

Jiang Yuduo was about to speak when he suddenly caught a shadow flickering outside the window out of the corner of his eye. He abruptly stood up, held up one finger to Cheng Ke to tell him not to speak, then silently hopped two steps to the window and looked out through a crack in the curtain.

There were quite a few people outside now. Today was Saturday, and people who were off work were only starting to come out.

Jiang Yuduo quickly searched from the farthest point in his field of vision inward, but he only saw a back figure slipping into the passageway diagonally across the way.

That passageway again.

For the second time.

Only after he moved away from the window did Cheng Ke ask in a low voice, "That leg of yours, is the splint just decoration?"

"No." Jiang Yuduo sat down. After those two quick hops, his calf felt a little sore, but it wasn’t a big deal. It was already about time to remove the splint these next few days.

Actually, he could have taken it off today if he wanted to. He just felt more at ease with it on.

If you were injured, you were less likely to get injured again.

…Getting bumped by a cabinet door didn’t count.

Da Bin’s voice came in from outside the window. "Third Brother, I’m here."

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo answered. Out of all his little brothers, Da Bin was the smartest, the only one who would make a sound first when passing by the window to let him know.

Just as he was about to get up to open the door, Cheng Ke had already stood and gone over to open it.

"Brother Ke?" Da Bin greeted Cheng Ke in surprise. "I thought Third Brother was ordering two portions."

"What did you buy?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

As soon as Da Bin heard his voice, he paused. He seemed like he wanted to ask something, but in the end he still didn’t. He placed the two takeout bags on the table. "I bought a little of everything that looked good. It wasn’t enough to split into two portions, so I just packed them into two bags."

"It’s fine." Jiang Yuduo pulled out some cash from his wallet and gave it to him.

"Too much, Third Brother," Da Bin said.

"Then you giving me change?" Jiang Yuduo asked. "Or do you want to give me a payment code to scan?"

"That’d be too ugly," Da Bin laughed. "I’ll take it. I’ll buy you late-night snacks next time."

"Want to eat a bit together?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"No," Da Bin said. "I’m going to eat with Qing-ge in a bit. I’m going to their shop for an interview today."

"Then hurry up and go." Jiang Yuduo waved him off.

After Da Bin left, Jiang Yuduo sat down by the table and looked at Cheng Ke, who was still nearby watching the cat play with a plastic bag. "Eat. Need me to feed you?"

"Does this cat have a name?" Cheng Ke sat down opposite him.

"Miao." He opened the takeout bags and took out the stacked plastic containers inside. They were all steaming hot and looked very inviting.

Cheng Ke looked at him without saying anything.

"It’s called Miao." He had no choice but to explain again.

"…Oh," Cheng Ke nodded. "That’s a name so ordinary it becomes one with all the other cats."

"Mimi is the one that becomes one with all the other cats." Jiang Yuduo pushed a steamer basket of liusha bao in front of him. "These are smaller than the ones in other places, but they’re really good. Eat them."

"I’ll just try two," Cheng Ke said. "I can’t eat that much."

"Even these buns aren’t as big as my eggs," Jiang Yuduo said. "And you’re only eating two?"

Cheng Ke’s hand froze in midair as he reached for the bun. Several seconds passed before he looked up at him. "Can you not use that kind of body part for comparison when we’re eating?"

"You’re so fussy," Jiang Yuduo said, looking at the liusha bao. After thinking for a moment, he repeated it, "They’re not even as big as a ping-pong ball."

"I don’t want to eat anymore." Cheng Ke said.

"Then eat something else," Jiang Yuduo said, taking the liusha bao back to himself and pushing over a box of char siu pastries. "These are good too."

Cheng Ke picked up a char siu pastry.

Just as Jiang Yuduo was about to eat a liusha bao, Cheng Ke said again, "Do you feel like you’re eating your own eggs right now?"

Jiang Yuduo’s hand stopped in midair. He looked at Cheng Ke.

Cheng Ke took a bite of the char siu pastry. "I think I’ve had this before. Is it from Tingfulou?"

"No." Jiang Yuduo said.

"Huh?" Cheng Ke looked at him.

"You," Jiang Yuduo leaned across the table toward him, lowering his voice, "can bite your own eggs? Damn impressive, young master."

Although Jiang Yuduo had fought Cheng Ke before and knew for sure this guy had trained, honestly, Cheng Ke usually looked pretty weak in terms of fighting ability, and Jiang Yuduo would occasionally forget the fact that he had once been punched hard enough by Cheng Ke to get a blue-black eye at the corner.

When Cheng Ke grabbed a fistful of his hair at a speed Jiang Yuduo didn’t even see and slammed his head onto the table with a bang, he suddenly remembered that this guy did have fighting ability, and quite a lot of it.

"I’m buying you breakfast," Jiang Yuduo said with his cheek pressed against the tabletop, staring at a box of chicken feet in front of him. "And this is how you treat me?"

"Did I say you had to buy it?" Cheng Ke pressed down on his head without loosening his grip.

"Anyway, you didn’t leave," Jiang Yuduo said. "If you wanted to leave, could I still stop you in this condition?"

"What the hell?" Cheng Ke sounded extremely shocked.

Then his hand loosened. When Jiang Yuduo lifted his head, Cheng Ke had already stood up and was walking toward the door while putting on his jacket.

"Hey!" Jiang Yuduo sighed. He actually hadn’t meant to spar with Cheng Ke, especially not in a situation where Cheng Ke had specially come to see whether he was dead in such a moving display of concern.

It was just that the two of them never seemed to be speaking on the same wavelength. He’d always thought it was only with Chen Qing, but he hadn’t expected he could be like this with Cheng Ke too.

He got up too, reaching out as if to hold Cheng Ke back. Even though he still didn’t fully believe Cheng Ke had really come here with no other purpose, he still wanted to keep things friendly. If something was really off, it would be easier for him to notice.

But maybe he had stood up too suddenly, and maybe because he hadn’t slept much, and maybe because someone had just smashed his head into the table… the moment he stood up, he couldn’t see anything anymore, and he was terribly dizzy.

When Cheng Ke turned around, Jiang Yuduo staggered two steps toward him, his gaze blank. On reflex, Cheng Ke caught him when he was about to crash into the chair.

"What’s wrong?" Cheng Ke asked with a frown.

"Got up too fast." Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke had just been about to let go when he saw Jiang Yuduo covered in sweat. There hadn’t been a single bead of sweat before he turned to leave, and yet in just over ten seconds…

"That’s not just getting up too fast, is it?" Cheng Ke immediately tensed. "Sit down first!"

Jiang Yuduo swayed toward the sofa. Cheng Ke braced him by the arm and half-supported, half-dragged him onto the sofa.

"Call Chen Qing," Jiang Yuduo said, his voice extremely hoarse. "Don’t go to the hospital."

"What?" Cheng Ke hadn’t quite heard clearly.

"Chen Qing." Jiang Yuduo frowned, looking uncomfortable.

"Got it." Cheng Ke touched his forehead. It was covered in sweat. He casually wiped it on Jiang Yuduo’s shirt. Not hot. He wasn’t running a fever.

"Fuck your grandfather," Jiang Yuduo said.

"Your sweat, am I supposed to wipe it on myself?" Cheng Ke turned and picked up the phone Jiang Yuduo had left on the table.

The phone wallpaper was a photo of Miao, whose name did not become one with all the other cats. It had actually been taken pretty well, the little furry face shimmering in sunlight.

But Cheng Ke wasn’t in the mood to look closely. He opened the call log and didn’t see Chen Qing’s name. The first thing he saw was "Cheng·idiot·Ke."

"Damn," Cheng Ke cursed, continuing to look down. "Is this Heavenly King Covers the Tiger?"

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo answered with a frown.

Cheng Ke dialed Heavenly King Covers the Tiger. After a few rings, the other side answered. "Third Brother."

"It’s me, Cheng Ke," Cheng Ke said. Chen Qing went silent on the other end, probably too shocked to react. Cheng Ke added, "Jijia."

"Ah!" Chen Qing sounded very shocked. "Why are you holding his phone?"

Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo. "I’m at Jiang Yuduo’s place. He seems to be…"

"What did you do to him!" Chen Qing suddenly shouted.

"I didn’t do anything. He seems to…" Cheng Ke frowned, but before he could finish, Chen Qing cut him off again.

"If you didn’t do anything, why is his phone in your hands!" Chen Qing yelled.

"Go fuck yourself," Cheng Ke snapped. "I stabbed him. Come over right now. If you’re late, I’ll hack him to death with random knives!"

Chen Qing fell silent. Maybe he was trying to regain his intelligence. Two seconds later, he finally stopped yelling. His voice came out ragged, like he was running. "What’s wrong with him?"

"He seems really dizzy. His throat is hoarse too," Cheng Ke said.

"I’m on my way, on my way," Chen Qing said in a rush. "Don’t take him to the hospital, don’t go to the hospital, don’t go to the hospital. If he goes there, he’ll just get dizzy again."

"Got it. Do I need to do anything now?" Cheng Ke asked.

"No need, just keep an eye on him. He’s just dizzy, an old problem. Sister Qian guessed it might be that thing, some kind of beautiful-thing problem, but he’s never seen a doctor, so no one knows," Chen Qing’s voice was rushing with the wind. "I’ll be there soon. I’m driving over."

Cheng Ke had no idea what he was talking about, so he could only add one more reminder. "Be careful."

After hanging up, Cheng Ke stood by the table for a moment in a daze, then pulled over a chair and sat down beside the sofa, looking at Jiang Yuduo, who had already lain down on it. "Want some water?"

"No." Jiang Yuduo said with his eyes closed.

"Oh." Cheng Ke cleared his throat. He didn’t know what he should be doing now. He had never encountered a situation like this. No matter who got this sick, they wouldn’t just tough it out at home. At most, he’d stand in a hospital room and watch the doctor and nurses work.

But sitting in silence like this seemed a little perfunctory, with a kind of awkwardness that made it seem like he really had stabbed Jiang Yuduo.

"Want to eat something?" Cheng Ke asked again, forcing it.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t answer. After a soft sigh, he finally said, "You don’t have to force small talk. If you were dizzy, would you still be able to eat when I told you to?"

"No." Cheng Ke answered honestly.

"Then shut up." Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke didn’t want to argue with a sick man, so he stayed silent, only glancing at the sweat beads breaking out on Jiang Yuduo’s forehead again and feeling a little alarmed. He grabbed a towel from the sofa and wiped the sweat off Jiang Yuduo’s forehead.

"That fucking towel is for wiping the cat," Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke glanced at Miao beside him and couldn’t help laughing out loud. Laughing at a time like this was really a bit inappropriate, so he quickly stopped. "Sorry."

Jiang Yuduo tugged at the corner of his mouth, which counted as a smile.

After smiling, he said again, "I’m not going to the hospital."

"Mm, I know." Cheng Ke looked at him.