TA •Chapter 31

There were not too many people in the elevator, and the thief was standing one step lower than Cheng Ke. He looked obviously out of place, but no one noticed.

There were just too few people like Jiang Yuduo, the kind who were used to making an effort to see every person clearly while walking. Once something fell outside the scope of "me" and "mine," then for most people, it simply did not exist.

When the elevator was almost at the top, the thief, who had been leaning forward and holding onto the rail, moved his hand and reached for Cheng Ke's coat pocket, which was no more than ten or so centimeters away.

Jiang Yuduo walked up two steps and grabbed the thief's arm from behind, yanking him back.

Startled, the thief tried to struggle too, but Jiang Yuduo pulled on him with enough force to make him turn a full 180 degrees and stop face-to-face with him.

Jiang Yuduo raised his index finger and softly put a finger to his lips in a "shh."

The thief was probably too panicked to react and froze in place.

Cheng Ke, with all the awareness of a water barrel, still failed to notice the movement behind him. After getting off the elevator, he stepped out and started studying the map on the second floor.

Jiang Yuduo was honestly impressed to the point of utter admiration. Had he gone through the trouble of looking at the first-floor map for nothing?

He had spent several minutes looking, only gone up one floor, and now had to look all over again?

He hooked an arm around the thief's shoulder as the man tried to use the chance to run. "Come on, let's go downstairs."

The thief was extremely unwilling, but he was no match for Jiang Yuduo's strength, and he still couldn't quite figure out what was going on, so he could only be dragged around and led back onto the down escalator.

Cheng Ke felt like his memory had started to decline. He didn't know if it was because of insomnia. Before coming up, he had still remembered that appliances were on the fifth floor and sports and outdoor goods were on the fourth.

After riding the elevator, he only remembered that appliances were on the fifth floor and forgot about sports and outdoor.

He sighed.

As he turned around and went on past the elevator to continue upstairs, he glanced down at the descending escalator.

Was that Jiang Yuduo?

That back looked pretty familiar, especially that coat. Jiang Yuduo had worn it before.

He stood by the railing and looked for a while, but still couldn't be certain. After all, he had never seen Jiang Yuduo get so intimately shoulder to shoulder with anyone while walking, not even his constant guardian had enjoyed that kind of treatment.

That person got off the escalator, turned a corner, and disappeared. Cheng Ke kept going upstairs.

Fourth floor, sports and outdoor. Fifth floor, appliances.

What was he buying again?

Oh, a dishwasher.

Was that really not Jiang Yuduo?

"All right," Jiang Yuduo said as he reached the mall entrance and let go of the thief. "You can go."

The thief had come to his senses by now. Even though he wasn't sure what Jiang Yuduo wanted to do, he could tell Jiang Yuduo wasn't undercover and definitely wasn't going to call the police. His expression immediately changed.

Bold and ferocious.

If it was a local hoodlum from this area, they would basically all know Jiang Yuduo. But thieves were different. They weren't in the same system as the local punks, and there was little to no overlap. Neither side had many people who truly mixed in both circles.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" the thief glared at him.

Jiang Yuduo knew there had to be accomplices nearby, one, two, three, maybe four. Otherwise, with his kind of height, the kind where even hooking an arm around someone's shoulder almost ended up around their forehead, he wouldn't dare act so cocky even if he knew he wasn't going to get caught.

"I don't care about anyone else. But that one just now, if I catch you and your little buddies following him again," Jiang Yuduo said, "none of you are getting off this street standing up today."

After saying that, he didn't even wait for the thief's reply and turned back into the mall.

Someone had already taken the seat by the rest area, an old lady and the pile of things she had bought, plus a child sitting on the floor and bawling his head off.

Jiang Yuduo stood off to the side and watched for a while.

He was a little envious.

The kid looked to be seven or eight already, and he could still throw such a tantrum. If nothing unexpected happened, he probably could keep throwing tantrums until he was in his teens, all the way until someone outside finally taught him a lesson.

That was pretty good.

As far as Jiang Yuduo could remember, he had never been this unrestrained. Forget lying on the ground kicking and rolling, he had even been afraid to cry out loud.

He stood there and watched for almost five minutes. It wasn't until the kid was tired of crying and started kicking the old lady's feet that he turned and went upstairs.

Cheng Ke usually bought things at the supermarket near his neighborhood, but today, for some reason, he had come over here instead.

Jiang Yuduo rode the elevator upstairs, habitually analyzing things. Second floor was women's clothing, third floor men's clothing, fourth floor sports and outdoor. Women's clothing definitely wasn't it… For some reason Jiang Yuduo thought of that pretty little cutie…

Tsk.

Men's clothing wasn't it either. Cheng Ke had bought men's clothes here before, so there was no need to look at the map again. Unless he was a dumbass, the target item was probably on the fourth or fifth floor… Appliances were more likely. After all, a young master who didn't know shit would probably want all kinds of appliances.

Jiang Yuduo went up to the fourth floor and carefully swept his eyes around in a quick scan. He just wanted to see what condition Cheng Ke's face was in. He didn't want Cheng Ke to notice him.

After half a circle on the fourth floor, he saw Cheng Ke. He was standing in one of the more expensive sports brand stores on this floor, in front of the shelf nearest the door, but only his side profile was visible, so the swollen eye couldn't be seen.

"These pants are very comfortable, and they're more breathable and sweat-absorbent," the salesperson introduced. "You can wear them to the gym or when you go running. They're very suitable."

"Mm." Cheng Ke responded.

"For running, we also have this style over here…" The salesperson picked up another pair of pants.

"I don't run, and I don't go to the gym," Cheng Ke had never been able to get used to this kind of shadowing, follow-you-around service. He casually picked up two pairs of pants that looked decent and grabbed two jackets. "I just wear them at home."

"Oh, okay," the salesperson said as she took the clothes from his hands. "Would you like to take a look at this side as well? This side…"

"No need, this is enough." Cheng Ke cut her off, quickly snatched the clothes back, and dashed straight toward the cashier.

After walking a few steps, he looked back at the store entrance.

Maybe it was a side effect of the ghost movie, but he kept feeling like someone was watching him.

But there was no one at the entrance, only a human-shaped реклам… no, a human-shaped advertising stand.

Carrying the bag out, Cheng Ke headed for the elevator, only to realize when he got there that the elevator on this floor only went this far. To get to the fifth floor, he had to walk to another elevator.

He felt a little irritated. The kind of mall elevator layout that refused to honestly go straight through made him irritated every time.

He turned around in another half circle before finding the elevator that went up.

The first salesperson approached him, and Cheng Ke hurriedly spoke first: "Dishwasher."

The salesperson pointed him in a direction, and he walked over, only to run into a second salesperson. "Dishwasher."

After saying "dishwasher" four times, he finally stood in front of a row of dishwashers.

"It's just me, so one that can wash and sterilize dishes is fine," Cheng Ke looked at the pile of machines, a little lost. "Sometimes there might only be one bowl…"

Cheng Ke froze when he saw a very cool and flashy mirrored dishwasher.

"This model is pretty good. It's this year's new release. Isn't the design very sci-fi?" the salesperson said. "Also, this one doesn't need installation, and we have a mini version too. It fits your requirements…"

Cheng Ke didn't really listen to what she was saying. He turned his head and looked behind him.

What was going on today?

Had he been possessed?

He had seen Jiang Yuduo on the elevator, then while buying clothes he felt like someone was watching him, and now he had seen Jiang Yuduo's face flash past on the surface of the dishwasher door.

But when he looked back, there were only two female salespeople chatting behind him.

He couldn't help walking past the two rows of washing machines behind him and looking left and right, but he still didn't see Jiang Yuduo, not even a single man.

"Sir?" the salesperson called him from behind.

"This one." Cheng Ke pointed at the mirrored dishwasher. "The smallest size."

After Jiang Yuduo confirmed that Cheng Ke had gone back to the salesperson to test the machine, he stepped out from behind a double-door refrigerator, took the elevator, and went downstairs.

The bruise at the corner of Cheng Ke's eye was large and dark. Although it wasn't especially swollen anymore, he still looked like he had been through a fierce fight.

But his condition seemed all right. At the very least, he had seen his own reflection on the dishwasher for less than a second.

Jiang Yuduo sighed. This was the kind of mistake he would never have made before. With a single glance, he would have taken in everything that was advantageous and disadvantageous to him. Today, though, he hadn't paid attention to that dishwasher.

Probably all his attention had been on Cheng Ke's face.

As he was walking out of the mall, Lu Qian called him.

"Come over and eat with us, over by the mahjong parlor," Lu Qian said. "Everything's handled. After dinner, find some housekeeper or someone and have them clean up the place."

"Mm," Jiang Yuduo replied. "Housekeepers definitely don't do this kind of work. I'll find someone."

"All right," Lu Qian said. "Bring a bottle of liquor. I need something to calm my nerves."

"Okay." Jiang Yuduo smiled.

Lu Qian was pretty timid. She wasn't afraid of the living, only of the dead.

By the time Jiang Yuduo arrived at the mahjong parlor with the alcohol, Lu Qian was the only one sitting beside the mahjong table.

"No one here?" he asked.

"What the hell do you mean no one? Who's coming to play cards at my place today? Everyone knows someone died in my building," Lu Qian got up and carried the dishes out from the small kitchen. "Those bastards aren't afraid of dead people, they're afraid of their luck getting ruined. Just watch, it won't be until at least two days from now that anyone comes."

"Then that's a good chance to rest," Jiang Yuduo said as he sat down.

"I don't have that kind of fate," Lu Qian said. "Tomorrow I'm going back to see my mom. I haven't gone to visit her in a long time. You know, people, they die just like that. If you can spend more time with them, then spend more time with them."

Jiang Yuduo said nothing.

"Don't drink tonight. You look off," Lu Qian looked at him. "Didn't you sleep well?"

"I slept pretty well." Jiang Yuduo rubbed his face.

One bad night of sleep wouldn't make his complexion this bad. Today, he probably just wasn't in a very good mood. Jiang Yuduo picked up his chopsticks and ate a bite of food.

Because of a person who had died suddenly.

Because of a friend who might disappear.

Since getting the dishwasher, Cheng Ke felt that life had become much better. Every day, he made sure to pour his takeout food into a bowl before eating it. Even instant noodles, after soaking, had to be poured into a bowl before eating. Snacks also had to be poured out of the bag and put onto a plate before eating… He had never realized before that he was so childish. It was just a dishwasher, yet he had been playing with the novelty for more than half a month and still hadn't gotten tired of it.

Or maybe life was just too boring.

There wasn't much to do. The video he had scheduled with Xu Ding wasn't for another week. In the past, even when Xu Ding asked him to do something once every two or three months, he still thought it was too much. Now that he was bored enough, he even wanted to call Xu Ding and ask him to exploit him sooner.

Actually, life like this had already gone on for quite a while. It was only during this stretch that it had felt especially hard to endure.

Maybe it was because Jiang Yuduo really wasn't showing up anymore. No calls, no messages, no accidental run-ins.

Cheng Ke frowned. No, that wasn't right either.

He and Jiang Yuduo had barely made a few phone calls total. As for messages, there was nothing to even start from. They weren't even WeChat friends. At most, they would just run into each other by chance.

In these past few months, the time they had spent together hadn't even added up to a week. Going half a month without seeing each other was perfectly normal.

…The only thing different was probably that one sentence from Jiang Yuduo.

If you need anything in the future, go find Chen Qing.

The implication was that he wouldn't have any more contact with Cheng Ke.

Cheng Ke sighed.

When the dishwasher started working, he took his phone and sat down on the sofa.

He poked around on it for a while, not knowing what to do, and finally opened Moments.

He hadn't looked at it in a long time. Ever since he became a lonely single person, he had rarely checked Moments. Those same old contents, unchanged from before, didn't just make him feel bad to look at, even thinking about them made him uncomfortable.

Everyone else was still living the same kind of life they always had, while he stood outside it.

The first post in Moments was Chen Qing's.

That made Cheng Ke feel pleasantly relieved, as if there had been some kind of psychological buffer.

But if it were Chen Qing's usual Moments style, back when he still had the energy, Cheng Ke would have blocked him after one look.

Just today alone, he had posted ten times.

Five were about the shop, two were ads for the shop, two were notices for discount events, then one recruiting post, a good employee devoted to his work.

And five were personal posts, including a repost of "On their wedding night he walked into the room, only to see his wife…" and "Thirty years of archived records declassified! Why did XX back then BLABLABLA…" The smartest repost was a life hack, "Life experts teach you how to put on a duvet cover quickly."

Cheng Ke clicked in and saw that this was exactly the method Jiang Yuduo had told him about.

He actually watched the whole video through, laughing the entire time.

When he kept scrolling down, it was still Chen Qing. This guy's posting frequency was so high that seven or eight consecutive entries could all be his.

– The jianghu, my youth

It was a very stupid line, but the photo attached to it made Cheng Ke unable to resist opening it.

He had seen that scene before. It was the little garden plaza behind the building, with a bunch of people sitting or standing around the flower bed, and Jiang Yuduo sitting in the middle with a cigarette in his mouth.

Cheng Ke enlarged the photo, keeping zooming in until Jiang Yuduo's face filled the entire screen.

In that instant, he suddenly felt completely comfortable.

It was like seeing a drop of water land on rice paper, the soft, fuzzy edges spreading outward and unfolding little by little.

He lit a cigarette and scrolled further down. Chen Qing insisted on posting at least one Three Brother update every day, as if Jiang Yuduo had a global fan club.

Cheng Ke kept scrolling and scrolling, but he couldn't reach the end. Chen Qing's Moments probably only went back six months. With that ocean of content, you couldn't get to the end even in an hour.

Besides, Cheng Ke didn't want to keep looking. He directly tapped Add Friend and went to phone contacts.

He found Jiang Yuduo's name.

WeChat name: Da Cun

Cheng Ke stared at those two words for a long time. What a stupid name. It wasn't even as good as Chen Qing's XX Car Beauty Xiao Chen 139XXXXXXXX.

If you couldn't think of a good name, you might as well use your real one, like him.

Cheng Ke sent a friend request to Da Cun, then lay down on the sofa and turned on the TV.

A few minutes later, his phone rang once.

He picked it up and looked. Da Cun had accepted his friend request.

He stared at the line in the chat box, "Now we can start chatting," and for a long time, he still couldn't type a single word.

Jiang Yuduo stayed silent on his end too, never saying anything.

Cheng Ke waited a bit, then sent over a comma.

A few seconds later, Jiang Yuduo replied with a semicolon.

Cheng Ke froze. He had thought Jiang Yuduo would at least send back a question mark. Now that he was facing this semicolon, he had no idea how to keep the conversation going.

Seeing that Jiang Yuduo still wasn't sending anything else, he exited the chat and opened Da Cun's Moments.

What disappointed him was that Jiang Da Cun only had one Moments post, from three days ago, a vulgar cat photo.

In the photo, Miao was lying on its back, and the base of its tail had been circled out by Jiang Da Cun with a red ring, with the words: Xiao Cun.

？？？

He stared at those two characters for about ten seconds before he suddenly realized what Jiang Yuduo's Da Cun meant.

Fuck!

It was crude and shameless to the extreme!

His phone rang once, and Jiang Yuduo sent a message.

It was a voice message, only one second long.

Cheng Ke usually hated listening to voice messages. In general, whenever he saw one, he basically never opened it. Anyway, none of his friends ever said anything important.

But for this one-second voice message, he still tapped it open, since it was so short.

"Got something?" Jiang Yuduo asked. His voice was wrapped in wind, whooshing, as if it could blow the whole sentence apart.

– Nothing

Cheng Ke replied, then once again didn't know what else to say.

He rarely chatted with people like this. He and his friends usually talked in person, and when they messaged, it was at most to ask where someone was or whether they had arrived. Even if they were going to chat, it was usually the other person who started the topic. He only had to follow along.

When it came to someone like Jiang Yuduo, whose questions basically acted as a closing line, Cheng Ke couldn't even think of one more thing to say.

He threw his hand onto the coffee table, closed his eyes, and sighed.

Jiang Yuduo definitely didn't know why he had suddenly wanted to add him as a friend and force a chat.

But he himself knew very clearly.

The moment he saw Jiang Yuduo's photo in Chen Qing's Moments, he knew that even if he hadn't thought too much about it, at the very least, he wanted to see Jiang Yuduo again.

The last time he had felt this kind of fondness toward someone had been two years ago. But before it could even reach the level of fondness plus, Cheng Ke had already lost interest.

Just like how he took things as they came in many matters and didn't think too much or ask too much, it was the same with feelings. He didn't have much energy for them. He would often, without any warning, lose the desire to go any further with someone he had been thinking about just the day before.

And this kind of fondness he felt for Jiang Yuduo now was a little nostalgic, a little unfamiliar, both like something he had known before and yet something he seemed never to have experienced.

Jiang Yuduo was unlike anyone Cheng Ke had ever known since childhood.

And the pull Jiang Yuduo had on him, he was only now realizing how strong it really was.

Strong enough to stand up to the dangerous fact that he had been beaten hard less than a month ago. Strong enough to make him ignore the questions in his heart about Jiang Yuduo's mental state.

Still, Cheng Ke wasn't surprised by that version of himself. He was just rarely like this toward someone.

"You've got some serious guts," his father had said a long time ago. "So much guts that you can do whatever you want. You're so whatever-you-want that you can even throw your brain away!"

He had never had the nerve to ask his father whether he had meant that he was so bold he had practically squeezed his brain out.

Either way, it wasn't exactly a compliment, but from a certain angle, maybe there was some truth to it.

His phone rang on the coffee table. A call was coming in.

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

He answered. "Hello?"

"Do you have something going on?" Jiang Yuduo's voice was still wrapped in wind, every sentence sounding as if it came with a gust. "If you don't want to talk to me, then go find Chen Qing. Didn't I give you his number?"

"I don't have anything going on," Cheng Ke said.

"Then why did you add me?" Jiang Yuduo asked. "Did you blow up your gas stove?"

"I just added you for fun," Cheng Ke said with a smile. "If I hadn't added you, I wouldn't have known you were this shameless."

Jiang Yuduo paused. "Fuck, how am I shameless?"

"Da Cun." Cheng Ke clicked his tongue.

"Isn't it big?" Jiang Yuduo said. "You've seen it before."

"…What's that got to do with whether it's big or not?" Cheng Ke nearly choked. "Did you really have to write it into your name, afraid nobody would know how big it is?"

"Now you can't say I'm shameless, young master," Jiang Yuduo said. "We've got someone here called Big Dick. We can only say you're too innocent."

In twenty-seven years of life, this was the first time Cheng Ke had ever been called innocent by someone several years younger than him. The feeling was extremely complicated.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Patrolling the streets, counting trash cans to see if there are any missing," Jiang Yuduo said.

"I'll count with you," Cheng Ke said. Right after saying that, he wanted to hang up. He was shocked even by himself for saying something so stupid.

"…Forget it, I was joking," Jiang Yuduo said after a pause. "I've got people with me. One of my little brothers got robbed, and we're looking for him right now."

For some reason, the line XX Car Beauty Xiao Chen 139XXXXXXXX flashed through Cheng Ke's mind.

The jianghu, my youth

"Then…" Cheng Ke didn't know what to say.

"You really didn't break anything?" Jiang Yuduo asked. "Is the dishwasher broken?"

"No, really, it's fine. That thing only needs one button pressed to work. What the hell could be wrong with it?" Cheng Ke sighed, then suddenly froze. "How do you know I bought a dishwasher?"

Jiang Yuduo went silent on the other end. After a while, he said, "This is my turf."

"…Oh." Cheng Ke responded.

"Did you go watch a ghost movie again?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"No." Cheng Ke smiled and glanced at the time. "How about you treat me to barbecue tonight? Late-night snack."

"You'll have to wait until I finish looking for people," Jiang Yuduo said.

"Mm." Cheng Ke agreed.