TA •Chapter 36

The waiter saved them just as Cheng Ke was so embarrassed he was about to smash Jiang Yuduo unconscious with his bare hands.

"Number 23, your turn!" The waiter lifted the curtain and shouted.

"Come on," Jiang Yuduo said, clearly unfazed, tugging Cheng Ke along with obvious cheer. "We’re Number 23."

What a lousy place!

The waiter couldn’t even say, "Number 23, please come in," and had to bark out something so rude instead.

Come on what.

Come on and bathe, come on and get on the bus, come on and buy your tickets…

Still, once they stepped inside and caught the rich aroma of sour soup fish, Cheng Ke temporarily forgave them.

"What kind of soup do you want?" the waiter asked.

Jiang Yuduo looked at Cheng Ke.

"What kinds do you have?" Cheng Ke asked.

"Salt-sour, spicy-sour, numbing-spicy-sour, fresh-sour, and astringent-sour," the waiter rattled off in one breath.

Probably because he had to say it so many times every day, he was extremely practiced. He spoke at an astonishing speed, and by the time he finished, Cheng Ke remembered nothing except the word sour.

Jiang Yuduo waited for him for a moment, then turned back to the waiter. "Spicy-sour soup, with black fish."

"Okay," the waiter said with a nod. "I’ll put in your order first. Let me know when you’ve picked the side dishes."

Before either of them could answer, the waiter had already turned and walked away, heading for another table while waving for service.

"Business is that good?" Cheng Ke said with some feeling.

"Yeah, so the waiters are especially tired. Er Tu worked there for a year and couldn’t take it, so he left," Jiang Yuduo said.

"Oh." Cheng Ke nodded.

"Have you ever worked a part-time job?" Jiang Yuduo asked, then thought about it and changed the wording. "Have you ever had a job?"

"No," Cheng Ke said. "I mean… I worked in my dad’s company for a while."

"Doing what?" Jiang Yuduo asked again.

This was the topic Cheng Ke least wanted to talk about. Let alone saying it out loud, sometimes even thinking about it made him depressed. To put it nicely, he had been in his dad’s company. Less nicely, he had been working alongside Cheng Yi, with Cheng Yi taking him around. To put it bluntly, he had just been helping Cheng Yi out.

He let out a faint sigh. "Doing odd jobs for Cheng Yi."

"…Oh, no wonder." Jiang Yuduo didn’t seem all that surprised. He even nodded. "That’s pretty good. Not tiring, and you still get money."

Cheng Ke laughed. "Yeah."

"How much was your salary?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"I didn’t take a salary," Cheng Ke said. "When I needed money, I’d just take some, and at the end of the year we’d split the spoils."

"Ah." Jiang Yuduo nodded, using the pen to tick things off the menu. "No wonder you could throw away a watch worth over a hundred thousand dollars and not care."

"That watch," Cheng Ke said with a smile, "was given to me by Cheng Yi."

Jiang Yuduo glanced up at him. "He gave you stuff too?"

"Mm." Cheng Ke took a sip of tea. "I thought it was… a sign that our relationship might improve a little."

"Turns out it was a sign you were about to be kicked out of the house. I’m not wrong, right? That watch was pretty new, you hadn’t worn it for many days," Jiang Yuduo said. "Actually, if you’d kept on like that, even without the second young master fighting over the inheritance, your dad kicking you out was only a matter of time."

"Probably." Cheng Ke said.

"But you should’ve held out for a few more months," Jiang Yuduo said. "At least split the spoils at the end of this year, right? The way you spend money, there probably wasn’t much left from last year’s share."

"I…" Cheng Ke really didn’t want to say it. Those embarrassing old stories, he would never have told them to anyone else, but Jiang Yuduo always seemed able to make him let his guard down a little. "I never got a share."

Jiang Yuduo looked up in surprise. Before he could speak, the waiter brought over a huge pot of sour soup fish, and Jiang Yuduo just stared at Cheng Ke across the steam.

After the waiter lit the burner and left, he waved a hand in front of the heat. "You didn’t even work a full year?"

"Mm." Cheng Ke answered.

"You lived twenty-seven, twenty-eight years without ever having a real job, then worked at your own company with your own younger brother for less than a year before your own father kicked you out?" Jiang Yuduo summed it up for him. "Calling you a loser would be insulting to losers…"

Jiang Da-cun was indeed someone who’d grown up hustling around the streets. He always spoke this bluntly, without the slightest hint of tact.

Cheng Ke thought he ought to feel embarrassed, but unexpectedly, he only felt a little wistful, and even found it somewhat funny. Jiang Yuduo’s summary was actually pretty accurate.

"Yeah," Cheng Ke laughed. "I did odd jobs for a few months. I was just starting to get involved in the business, and I seemed to have… screwed things up after only getting through the opening part."

"That doesn’t sound like something you’d screw up," Jiang Yuduo frowned. "Did your younger brother screw you over?"

Cheng Ke said nothing. He tapped the empty cup.

Of course he wouldn’t screw it up. Although he had no interest in any business, once he did something, he still wanted to do it well.

But Cheng Yi hadn’t given him that chance.

Jiang Yuduo took the bottle and filled his glass. "If you were just a loser all the time, maybe you could have safely stayed a loser until old age. Once you stopped being one, of course someone would want to clear the obstacle."

Cheng Ke glanced at Jiang Yuduo. This guy was young, but he thought about a lot.

"People like you rich folks live pretty hard," Jiang Yuduo poured himself some too. "If you’re a loser, your own father’s unhappy. If you’re not a loser, your own brothers aren’t happy."

Cheng Ke picked up his glass, and Jiang Yuduo lifted his too.

"Bottoms up." Cheng Ke knocked his glass against Jiang Yuduo’s hard. Some of the liquor splashed into the soup.

"I’m fine with that. I don’t know your tolerance, but I sure as hell don’t want to carry a drunkard home. It’s pretty far," Jiang Yuduo said, tilting his head back and finishing the liquor in one go. He set the glass on the table and looked at Cheng Ke with some provocation.

Saying he didn’t want to carry a drunkard one second and then preparing to mock him if he couldn’t hold his liquor the next. So childish.

Cheng Ke tilted his head back and drank the whole glass, then set it down hard beside Jiang Yuduo’s.

"Oh," Jiang Yuduo said with a smile. "You’re challenging me?"

"Third Brother," Cheng Ke said with a smile of his own, "I’m not useless at everything."

"Relax. If I really get too drunk," Jiang Yuduo filled both empty glasses again, "you don’t need to carry me. Just call Chen Qing and have him drag me into the car."

"Then what if I get too drunk?" Cheng Ke asked.

"I’ll slap you awake," Jiang Yuduo said.

When it came to drinking, Cheng Ke probably took after his dad. From childhood to adulthood, he had watched his father drink countless times, and never once had he seen him get drunk.

He drank with those former friends of his no matter what they were doing, and he had never gotten drunk either.

On that point, he was stronger than Cheng Yi. Cheng Yi couldn’t hold his liquor.

But Cheng Yi had never gotten drunk either. From the day he knew he couldn’t drink well, he never touched alcohol again.

Thinking about it that way, Cheng Yi was still stronger than him.

He had no accurate judgment about anything that was bad for him, and he would never make the right choice based on reason.

For example, Jiang Yuduo.

He looked at Jiang Yuduo across from him.

If it were Cheng Yi, he would never have had any connection with someone like Jiang Yuduo in the first place. And after noticing all of Jiang Yuduo’s strange behavior, he definitely wouldn’t have allowed even a second of contact.

Everyone categorized people, whether intentionally or not. Cheng Yi did. Even he, that easygoing good-for-nothing who just went with whoever looked pleasing, did too. Even if it was only separating Jiang Yuduo from those street thugs, Jiang Yuduo himself had drawn a line too, putting people like Cheng Ke, those young masters, on the other side with the words "my type."

Cheng Ke held his glass and extended it all the way toward Jiang Yuduo.

Jiang Yuduo glanced at him and lifted his own glass to clink against it. "What? If I hadn’t seen your glass was full, I’d have thought you were begging for a drink."

Cheng Ke smiled.

Today’s sour soup fish was delicious. The spicy-sour broth was rich and fragrant, the fish had hardly any bones, and the liquor was going down very happily too.

When Jiang Yuduo paid the bill, he glanced at Cheng Ke. "Didn’t expect you to be able to drink this much."

"One should not judge a book by its cover," Cheng Ke said, patting his shoulder.

He wasn’t drunk, but he was definitely dizzy.

Cheng Ke stepped out of the restaurant and wanted some air to clear his head. The moment he took a breath, he turned around and went back inside.

"What’s wrong?" Jiang Yuduo walked over.

"It’s snowing," Cheng Ke said.

"So what if it is," Jiang Yuduo said. "Never seen snow before? Want to go outside and howl a few times?"

"…I just said it’s snowing." Cheng Ke said.

"Did it freeze you and send you running back in?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"Yeah." Cheng Ke smiled.

"Yeah my ass," Jiang Yuduo said, glancing at his collar. "You’re wearing enough layers."

"I went out too suddenly," Cheng Ke pulled his hat on and zipped his coat all the way up to his chin, then headed outside. "I wasn’t prepared."

"So delicate," Jiang Yuduo said. "You’re really the pretty little cutie, huh."

"…I fucking," Cheng Ke turned to look at him. "I really do admire you."

Jiang Yuduo laughed. "Hey, I don’t know, it just slipped out."

"Please, next time let something else slip out." Cheng Ke said.

This street couldn’t even let in tricycles, let alone motorcycles and bicycles. If you wanted to take a cab, you had to walk to the intersection.

Cheng Ke rarely had to stroll half a street after a meal and then stand by the roadside to hail a cab. As he walked with his head down, bracing into the wind, he almost admired the people who came here to eat. Everyone had to walk out like this, then either get a cab or go to the parking lot at the intersection to pick up their cars.

But in total it was only thirty or fifty meters. Watching everyone else walk so calmly and naturally, Cheng Ke felt Jiang Yuduo hadn’t been wrong at all when he called him delicate. He really was pretty delicate. A grown man, and yet in winter he could still find it worth sighing over just walking half a street.

"Can we get a cab here?" Cheng Ke stood at the intersection and looked at the cars going by.

"I called one. It hasn’t accepted the order yet," Jiang Yuduo said, holding his phone. "Let’s wait in the supermarket across the street. That way the car won’t need to turn around when it arrives."

"Okay." Cheng Ke nodded. The pedestrian light was green, so he hurried across to the other side.

In weather like this, walking was fine, but the second you stopped, the cold sank right through you.

When he reached the middle of the crosswalk, the wind was blowing hard. Cheng Ke heard something, but his ears were tucked inside his hat, so he could only tell it wasn’t the sound of the wind, sharp and harsh amid the north wind’s howl.

It wasn’t until he caught sight out of the corner of his eye of the headlights of a car that had almost reached him from the left that he realized it was the screech of tires grinding against the road during a sudden brake.

In that instant, one calm thought flashed through his mind.

This idiot is turning right without slowing down. The road’s icy, so of course he can’t stop.

Cheng Ke reacted fast enough. He chose to step back. If he charged forward, he might be flung by the car’s rear swing as it skidded from the sudden brake.

But he simply didn’t have enough time. The car was too close.

He only took one step back before he felt the car was already beside him.

Then the headlights suddenly became blinding, bright enough to fill the world. Light was everywhere, front and back, left and right, above and below. He couldn’t see anything.

Then he felt his right arm jerk viciously backward, and his whole body being yanked back around the waist.

The force was so strong he could feel his neck almost failing to keep up with his body.

The car shot past in front of him, skidding sideways over ten meters as it swerved, forcing three cars in the opposite lane to stop before sliding back into its own lane and driving off as if nothing had happened.

By the time Cheng Ke came to, Jiang Yuduo had already been pulling him backward all the way back to the side of the road.

"Fuck." He let out a low curse, still shaken.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say anything. He was still gripping Cheng Ke’s arm, the other hand wrapped around his chest as he dragged him back hard.

Because he was still in a backward stance, Cheng Ke was being pulled so badly he could barely stand, stumbling all over the place.

"It’s fine now," Cheng Ke said, turning to look at Jiang Yuduo. "You can let go of me."

Jiang Yuduo still said nothing, only kept moving quickly forward.

"Jiang Yuduo?" Cheng Ke pulled off his hat and shouted near his ear again. "Let go of me, it’s fine!"

Jiang Yuduo glanced at him, still silent.

When Jiang Yuduo turned his face, Cheng Ke heard his breathing. It was hurried and rough. Anyone could tell at once from that kind of breathing that Jiang Yuduo was extremely tense.

"Lao San?" Cheng Ke immediately tensed up too. He tried calling him again, while also preparing in case they somehow ended up in a fight again.

But Jiang Yuduo didn’t suddenly hit him. Instead, he kept dragging him back to the intersection, then to the side of a building, and only then let go.

"You…" Cheng Ke let out a breath, just about to say that his reflexes were really fast, when Jiang Yuduo suddenly pulled him into a hug.

The embrace came down hard. Cheng Ke was yanked forward all at once, and when he tried to move again, Jiang Yuduo’s arms had already tightened.

"Jiang Yuduo?" Cheng Ke was extremely shocked.

If this had been any other time, he would have instantly pulled himself together and started enjoying it. But right now, his first thought was that Jiang Yuduo might be planning to strangle him unconscious like this.

He quickly bent his elbow, trying to wedge his arm between them so he could shove Jiang Yuduo away the moment he applied force.

But Jiang Yuduo didn’t make any further move. After pulling him into the hug, he just stayed there.

It wasn’t true that he didn’t move at all.

He was moving.

Cheng Ke felt it.

The arm around him was shaking, and then Jiang Yuduo’s whole body started to shake too.

His breathing was still rapid as well, like someone who had been chased by a ghost for ten kilometers and was now panting from both fear and exhaustion.

Only then did Cheng Ke slowly begin to understand.

Jiang Yuduo’s state.

He was scared.

"It’s okay now." After hesitating for a moment, Cheng Ke raised his arm and hugged him back.

Even through the thick coat, he could still feel Jiang Yuduo’s body trembling.

"It’s okay now," Cheng Ke didn’t know how to comfort people, and he had never comforted anyone before. He had also never encountered a situation like this with Jiang Yuduo, and he couldn’t figure out what exactly Jiang Yuduo was afraid of. He could only repeat the words, "It’s okay now."

Jiang Yuduo didn’t react much. He only tightened his arms and gripped Cheng Ke’s clothes hard.

"It’s okay now, it’s okay now," Cheng Ke was practically admiring himself at this point. He kept repeating the same phrase over and over, while gently patting Jiang Yuduo’s back and frantically turning words over in his head, trying to think of at least one different sentence. But when he opened his mouth, it was still the same thing. "It’s okay now…"

Fine, shut up.

Cheng Ke said nothing more and just kept lightly patting Jiang Yuduo’s back.

After about two minutes, Jiang Yuduo still didn’t seem to have returned to normal. Cheng Ke felt that if they kept hugging like this a little longer, someone would definitely start staring, so he tried tugging lightly at Jiang Yuduo’s clothes.

Jiang Yuduo moved.

Cheng Ke hurriedly tugged again. As Jiang Yuduo’s arms loosened slightly, he pushed him away.

But Jiang Yuduo grabbed his sleeve again and stared at him.

"It’s me," Cheng Ke said immediately. "Cheng Ke. I’m Cheng Ke."

He was afraid that if he said it too late, Jiang Yuduo might throw a punch.

After he said that, Jiang Yuduo still didn’t react. He just kept his brows furrowed, his gaze a complete mess.

"Jiang Yuduo?" Cheng Ke carefully cupped his face and gave it a gentle shake. "Hey, it’s me."

Jiang Yuduo’s breathing finally changed, becoming less urgent.

"It’s okay now," Cheng Ke said.

Damn it, did he still not have any new words?!

Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

Cheng Ke couldn’t quite describe how he felt now. Aside from a faint thread of fear, the expression on Jiang Yuduo’s face made him ache a little.

This fear was real.

Jiang Yuduo was truly wrapped up in some kind of terror.

"Say something." Cheng Ke held his face and shook it gently again.

Jiang Yuduo still didn’t make a sound. He just kept looking at him.

Cheng Ke made a decision. He was certain this decision was made with the purpose of pulling Jiang Yuduo back to reality, but he didn’t deny that there was something else mixed into it too.

But right now, he had no other choice. He didn’t have the guts to slap Jiang Yuduo, afraid he’d end up starting a street brawl of his own, and besides, Jiang Yuduo still had a knife in his pocket.

He cleared his throat.

He had no idea why he was clearing his throat.

In any case, he just cleared his throat.

Then he kissed Jiang Yuduo on the lips.

Wake up, pretty little cutie!

The moment Cheng Ke’s lips left, Jiang Yuduo shoved him away hard.

There was a wall behind him, and Cheng Ke slammed right into it.

Jiang Yuduo stared at him for several seconds before finally speaking. "What did you do?"

"Fuck," Cheng Ke looked at the eyes that had finally regained focus and was almost thrilled. "You’re okay now?"

"…Yeah." After saying that, Jiang Yuduo froze for a moment, then asked again, "You fucking kissed me?"

"Yeah," Cheng Ke said. "If you still hadn’t moved, I was gonna fucking do you right there in the street."

Jiang Yuduo fell silent. After a long while, he sighed. "You scared the shit out of me."

"What?" Cheng Ke asked.

"You cross the street without looking?" Jiang Yuduo shouted.

"Hey, fuck!" Cheng Ke was startled by that shout and bumped the wall again. "Why are you yelling!"

"That car was coming and you didn’t see it?" Jiang Yuduo roared again.

"…I didn’t see it," Cheng Ke said, noticing someone on the other side of the street looking over and lowering his voice. "I had my hat on, and besides, I didn’t think anyone would drive like that in weather this bad."

"If I hadn’t grabbed you, you’d have been killed by that car!" Jiang Yuduo said.

"Not necessarily… it might not have killed me." Cheng Ke sounded a little weak. Mainly because he really didn’t know how to say it in a way that would stop Jiang Yuduo from getting angry.

Jiang Yuduo stared at him for a long time, then suddenly laughed. "Fuck your dad."

When Cheng Ke saw that smile, he finally relaxed and straightened his clothes. "Thanks."

Jiang Yuduo’s phone rang. Their car had arrived, but it hadn’t found them.

"We’ll be there in a second. We’re across the street," Jiang Yuduo said. After hanging up, he glanced at Cheng Ke. "The car’s here, let’s go."

"Mm." Cheng Ke answered.

This time when they crossed, Jiang Yuduo walked on his left. Halfway across the crosswalk, Jiang Yuduo moved around to his right again.

Cheng Ke felt like laughing a little, but his nose also stung with sudden emotion.

Whatever the reason for Jiang Yuduo’s behavior, his heart had softened into a lump of egg yolk.

Since the day they’d fought, the two of them had taken two rides together, and Jiang Yuduo had always sat in the front passenger seat. By the time Cheng Ke got into the car and sat in the back this time, Jiang Yuduo came in after him and sat beside him.

After the car started moving, Jiang Yuduo looked out the window again, then glanced back a few times before reaching into his pocket.

Cheng Ke’s heart jumped. When he saw Jiang Yuduo pull out a cigarette wrapper and a pen, he turned his head away, smiling at the window.

"Laugh my ass off," Jiang Yuduo muttered, head down as he wrote on the cigarette wrapper.

"What are you writing?" Cheng Ke asked quietly.

"The license plate." Jiang Yuduo wrote a string of letters and numbers on the wrapper.

"Of that car just now?" Cheng Ke was stunned.

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo nodded, then put the written-on wrapper and the pen back into his pocket. "If I don’t write it down, I’m afraid I’ll forget in a couple of days."

Forget in a couple of days? Cheng Ke felt like he would forget in a second.

No, it was impossible for him to remember it at all.

Yet Jiang Yuduo had actually memorized the license plate in that situation.

The driver put on a disc, and when the music started, Cheng Ke felt a rush of emotion.

It was rare to find a driver who didn’t listen to traffic reports, storytelling, crosstalk, or all kinds of music charts in the car, but instead played a guitar disc.

Neither he nor Jiang Yuduo said anything else, just leaning back in the rear seat and listening to the soft, flowing tune.

It wasn’t until the car turned onto the street where he lived that Jiang Yuduo leaned close to his ear and asked in a low voice, "You really fucking kissed me just now?"

From his tone, Cheng Ke guessed this question had been stuck in his throat all the way and he simply couldn’t hold it in anymore.

"Yeah," Cheng Ke leaned in close too and whispered back, "special situation, special treatment. Besides, it’s not the first time I’ve kissed you."

"…Ah." Jiang Yuduo frowned at him.