Chapter 105: Side Story 5

Dinner was steamed seafood. Ye Si found the place—a restaurant on a dining street along the river, about a twenty or thirty-minute walk away.

As they strolled along, Xie Lan was interrogated the entire way.

He reported his major, his Gaokao scores, his Bilibili account, his YouTube history, the donut shop near his house in London, his recent experiences with commercial music arrangement, and even mentioned that he was expected to be selected for the IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad) next year.

Zhong Chen walked with both hands folded behind his head, stretching his shoulders. He asked in a very, very slow voice, “England and China—which one do you like better?”

Before Xie Lan could speak, Jian Zixing, who was wearing the same earring as Zhong Chen, rolled his eyes at him. “Are you imagining yourself as a Chinese oral examiner? What kind of garbage question is that? Aren’t you annoying?”

Zhong Chen was about to grin and beg for mercy, but Xie Lan shook his head solemnly. “The Chinese oral examiner isn’t as annoying as he is.”

As soon as he finished, Ye Si, who was walking ahead with his arm around He Xiu’s shoulder, whipped his head around. He made an incredibly ridiculous face at Zhong Chen—black pupils rolled up to the sky, tongue almost licking his chin.

“Did you hear that? Even the little junior thinks you’re annoying! You talk way too much; I’m stuffed just listening to you speak.”

Zhong Chen scoffed. “If you’re actually stuffed, don’t order anything later.”

“Bullshit,” Ye Si cursed. “If I leave the menu to you, will anything you order even be edible?”

Zhong Chen shot back, “I order shrimp, shellfish, and river fish—who doesn’t eat those? You order oysters by the bucket every time; they’re dirty and deathly expensive. Who eats that?”

“Hehehehehehe.” Ye Si sounded like one of those electronic reading pens Xie Lan used in senior year, articulating every word perfectly: “I eat oysters to build my body and replenish my essence and energy. What the fuck does it have to do with you?”

“Pfft.” Zhong Chen laughed. “You have no sense of your own position. Someone like you… do you even need to replenish?”

The moment those words fell, the surroundings went silent.

Xie Lan keenly caught Dou Sheng pausing his step. Then, Ye Si flew into a rage, his face turning red and his neck thick as he prepared to charge forward for a fight, only to be hooked around the neck by He Xiu’s arm and dragged away.

Just as Zhong Chen was about to strike a winner’s pose, he immediately received an elbow strike from Jian Zixing.

Thud. A very solid hit.

He hopped around holding his arm, losing his composure and waving his hands frantically. “Xing-xing-xing-xing, I didn’t mean to imply anything about you, I—”

“Get lost,” Jian Zixing said.

Zhong Chen wilted with a sigh. A moment later, He Xiu failed to cover Ye Si’s mouth, and Ye Si turned back to point at Zhong Chen, cursing: “Someone like you, with such a rigid perception of ‘power positions’ in a relationship, should be stuffed into a pig cage and thrown into the rolling waters of the Yangtze flowing east!”

Zhong Chen immediately shouted back, “Don’t you dare escalate this to a moral height! You just saw that I accidentally ‘ricocheted’ onto Jian Zixing and you’re intentionally adding fuel to the fire, aren’t you? The surging waves may wash away heroes, but they’ll never wash away a scheming dog like you!”

The two of them argued with the momentum of two entire battalions. Their speed and vocabulary gradually exceeded Xie Lan’s linguistic tolerance. After being back in the country for a year and a half, he thought he had infinitely approached the level of a native Chinese person, but at this moment, he suddenly felt like he had been knocked all the way back to before he returned.

A strong sense of frustration welled up in him.

The ridiculous thing was that the more these two cursed, the fiercer it got, and the more it escalated into personal attacks. Yet, their boyfriends—He Xiu and Jian Zixing—seemed to have absolutely no intention of intervening.

He Xiu stared dazed at the river surface, casually hugging Ye Si to perform an ineffective “quarrel interception.”

Jian Zixing, on the other hand, simply put on one earbud in annoyance and lagged a few steps behind to walk beside Xie Lan.

“Noisy as hell, right?” Jian Zixing asked in a low voice.

Xie Lan didn’t react immediately; his gaze fell on the earring on Jian Zixing’s earlobe.

It was a very simple stud, very small, but it sparkled brilliantly under the glow of the sunset by the river.

A tiny, shining point.

Instinctively, he suddenly felt a spark of liking for Jian Zixing. Perhaps it was because Jian Zixing spoke little and at a calm pace; to Xie Lan, this felt like he was broadcasting the signal: “I am your friend.”

Xie Lan nodded. “Do they always fight like this?”

“They snap at each other the moment they meet. This might be their unique way of decompressing.” Jian Zixing sighed, glancing at the river with a hint of disdain. “Let’s the three of us walk slower and enjoy the quiet world for a while.”

Dou Sheng smiled and pinched his own ear. “Did you get your ears pierced with Zhong Chen?”

Jian Zixing shook his head. “He copied me.”

The weather was hot, and mosquitoes occasionally flew by the riverside. Dou Sheng walked beside Xie Lan, clapping his hands together to kill mosquitoes so they wouldn’t bite him.

Jian Zixing suddenly said to Xie Lan, “I’ve heard your arrangements. I heard them even before He Xiu introduced you. Young Swordsman—I’ve been watching since the first episode of the first season, and I’m following the second season now too.”

Xie Lan’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

Jian Zixing hummed and handed over one of his wireless earbuds. “Want it? A divine tool to block out the arguing.”

Xie Lan took it and tucked it into one ear. The earbud was indeed playing the OP of Young Swordsman 2.

Hearing a song he wrote through an earbud shared by someone else was a subtle and wonderful feeling.

The setting sun cast a half-circle reflection on the river. The tall buildings on the opposite bank stacked their shadows within that half-sunlight. As the wind blew across the river, the city’s reflection rippled with the water, flickering and hazy.

The sounds of Zhong Chen and Ye Si’s arguing were carried far away by the wind, intertwining with the music in his ear—at times ethereal, at times clear, like an old camera repeatedly trying to focus.

A familiar sensation came from the gaps between his fingers. Dou Sheng was walking on his side closest to the river, silently interlocking their fingers and giving a gentle squeeze, signaling him to look at the sunset sinking into the far reaches of the river.

Jian Zixing suddenly whispered, “By this river, you will meet the person you love.”

“Mm.” Xie Lan turned to look at him. “You’ve heard this ‘Yingzhong Legend’ too?”

“Yingzhong Legend?” Jian Zixing froze for a moment, then suddenly curled his lips into a smile.

After knowing him for this long, this was the first time Xie Lan had seen him smile.

When he smiled, that indifferent and annoyed aura vanished instantly. His dark eyes were quiet and deep, with a spark of brightness at the center of the pupil, exceptionally focused.

“That’s not an ‘Yingzhong Legend’.” Jian Zixing tilted his chin slightly toward the “immature ghost” ahead. “He was the one who said it.”

Dou Sheng’s interest was piqued instantly. “Senior Zhong Chen said it? The legend says you’ll meet the person you love by this river, and also… those who hold hands by this river will never let go of each other.”

Jian Zixing smiled. “The second sentence… was said by me.”

Xie Lan was stunned for a moment. By the time he looked again, Jian Zixing had already retracted his gaze.

His expression was normal as he looked ahead, but his ears were slightly red, contrasting with that small, shiny earring.

---

The Steam Seafood restaurant was a glass-walled establishment. Sitting by the window, one could see the river and the opposite bank in their entirety.

On the massive steam pot, clusters of steam billowed. Red shrimp, white clams, and cockles were packed tightly against the walls of the pot. Besides the impressively large steamer, there was a giant platter on the table with oysters spread across layers of crushed ice.

Ye Si held a lemon, giving each of them a “shower.”

“Try one plain first.” Dou Sheng placed a peeled shrimp onto Xie Lan’s plate.

Xie Lan tasted it. It was very fresh, with the natural, light saltiness of seafood.

As soon as he finished chewing and swallowed, Dou Sheng peeled another one and dipped it in soy sauce—the sauce had bits of celery and a few rings of red chili.

Once dipped in the seasoning, his taste buds were instantly activated. It was a bit spicy, but not overwhelming. It was very satisfying.

Ye Si “tsk-ed.” “Can you guys get it together? Feeding him one by one… your eating efficiency is way too low.”

Zhong Chen chuckled. “Look at yourself before you talk about others.”

He Xiu turned a deaf ear and continued peeling shrimp for Ye Si.

Ye Si smiled. “May I ask, Student ‘Zhong Lottery’, what exactly are you doing then?”

Zhong Chen peeled one for Jian Zixing with a straight face. “But I wasn’t the one talking about others.”

Ye Si: “…”

They soon started bickering loudly again. Jian Zixing, unable to take it anymore, moved his chair closer to Xie Lan. When the crabs arrived, Xie Lan and he each peeled a crab, eating with great relish.

If one treated Ye Si and Zhong Chen’s bickering as Chinese listening practice, it was a whole different world.

Xie Lan sucked on crab roe while extracting information points from their mutual insults.

For instance, Ye Si was starting his fifth year and had just been accepted by his internship hospital. Though his temper was still explosive, he was in a state of pure joy.

For instance, He Xiu was also entering his fifth year. He was happily working on his graduation design; he hadn’t started looking for a job yet but aimed for a top foreign-funded design firm in the future.

For instance, Zhong Chen was heading back to B-City the day after tomorrow to join a private equity firm for a summer internship with an astonishingly high salary. Furthermore, he had already secured a preparatory internship at a top foreign investment bank for before his graduation next year. His future was a smooth path.

And then there was Jian Zixing…

Uh.

Xie Lan put down a crab shell. “What did you say that robot you made was called again?”

“Xiao Xie.”

Xie Lan’s pupils shook. “Xiao Xie???” (Homophone for Xie Lan’s surname)

“Oh, oh. ‘Xie’ as in crab (xiè), not your ‘Xie’ (xiè).” Jian Zixing tapped the crab shell in his hand. “Xiao Xie is already a series name. The first generation was a combat robot; the one we use most at home now is the Housework Crab. My supervisor is doing a major project on surgical robots over the next three years. I haven’t decided if I want to skip the entrance exam and join that project, but I’m trying to develop a simplified version of a surgical assistant robot. I’ll call it… uh, Medical Crab.”

Xie Lan understood, yet didn’t quite understand.

He was dazed for a moment, then respectfully placed the empty crab shell neatly on his plate.

My apologies for the disrespect.

He Xiu finished peeling shrimp and clams for Ye Si, then buried his head to eat for a while. Feeling a bit full, he took a gulp of beer.

He smiled at Dou Sheng. “What are you two planning?”

Dou Sheng’s hands were still busy. “The video schedule for this summer break is basically full, mostly focusing on processing and editing. I’ll record a VLOG of the freshman military training, and Xie Lan has an ad shoot. I also plan to do a few career interview episodes—it’s perfect to interview the three of you. And then…”

He Xiu was a bit stunned. “Tell us about other things. Besides making videos?”

Dou Sheng was also stunned by the question. “Huh?”

“For example, do you have plans for a double major, or going abroad for an exchange in sophomore year, or looking for internships?” He Xiu guided him patiently. “I’ll see if you need to contact any alumni early; I can help you find people.”

“Oh.” Dou Sheng suddenly burst into a smile, his eyes overflowing with bright laughter. “I’m not in a hurry.”

Zhong Chen pulled himself away from his busy schedule of arguing with Ye Si. “How can you not be in a hurry? If you want to exchange or double major in sophomore year, you need to take extra credits starting from freshman year. If you want to go the internship route, you can start ‘potting’ (networking) with professional alumni now.”

Xie Lan grew more confused as he listened. Though he didn’t fully understand, he could sense a certain anxiety.

Until Dou Sheng laughed: “I’m not in a hurry to pad my academic background, I’m not in a hurry to intern, and I’m not in a hurry to make money. I just want to go to university happily, meet more interesting people, observe some profound phenomena, and then… still make videos.”

As the words fell, a silence seemed to settle over the table.

Xie Lan turned to look at Dou Sheng. That sliver of anxiety that had just surfaced in his heart suddenly vanished into thin air. In Dou Sheng’s bright, smiling eyes, nothing heavy could exist.

Dou Sheng pulled the tender meat of a white clam from its shell and placed it into Xie Lan’s small dish.

“Ah, I’m a member of the ‘experience school’ with no great ambitions,” he laughed. “Let me off the hook.”

Ye Si scoffed and nudged He Xiu with his elbow. “Hear that? The junior is more enlightened than you. Stop thinking about ‘upward mobility’ all day, aren’t you annoying?”

Jian Zixing also nodded, glancing at Zhong Chen. “Are you attending a university, or a job training camp?”

Zhong Chen was deflated and begged for mercy. After a moment of being stunned, He Xiu also couldn’t help but laugh, waving his hand. “Alright then. What about Xie Lan?”

Xie Lan said slowly, “I’m not in a hurry either. I’ll just keep doing math, and join a symphony orchestra to play the violin.”

He was attending T University to truly embrace his own university life, and also to embrace it on behalf of Xiao Langjing, who had turned away from it in the years past.

“We take ads to make a living,” Dou Sheng said with a profound look.

Xie Lan nodded seriously. “Yes. We need to take more ads.”

Ye Si sucked the soy sauce off his fingertip, raised his beer glass, and said seriously, “A toast to you two, lovely juniors.”

Jian Zixing followed suit and raised his glass; Zhong Chen and He Xiu soon joined.

Six glasses clinked together with a series of clangs. The ice-cold draft beer was refreshing in the throat; the aftertaste was a bit astringent, bitter, yet sweet.

He Xiu laughed, “Actually, when we first started university, we were also of the ‘experience school.’ The advice we just gave is nothing more than homework we feel would have been best done back then but wasn’t. However, we didn’t do that homework back then, and we’re living quite well now.”

“Don’t worry about tomorrow,” Ye Si muttered. “Live in the moment.”

He Xiu looked back at him with deep meaning and lightly clinked his glass against his. “Mm.”

Ye Si started a group chat for the six of them.

The group name was changed back and forth by several people. At first, Ye Si wrote “Yingzhong Wind and Cloud Meeting,” then it was changed by Zhong Chen to “Old Ma’s Three Gay Couples.” Then He Xiu, unable to stand it, changed it to “T-U P-U 5+1.” Finally, Jian Zixing changed it to “Please Keep Quiet.”

Xie Lan watched the group name flickering and was dazed on the spot.

Until Dou Sheng, who hadn’t spoken much, said with a laugh, “How about letting Xie Lan change it?”

“Me?” Xie Lan froze. “I won’t. My head is empty.”

Ye Si smiled and stood up, rubbing his stuffed belly. “No rush. The naming rights belong to you. Change it when you think of something.”

They settled the bill and went for a walk by the river. The sky was already somewhat dark. Six tall boys, carrying a hint of intoxication, chatted and laughed.

The three couples unknowingly drifted apart into their own space.

Xie Lan was feeling the evening breeze when he suddenly heard a click beside him.

Dou Sheng pulled back his camera.

It was a candid shot with excellent composition. The neon flow of traffic on the left and the boundless riverbank on the right were blurred as if drifting in the wind, but the running path along the river in front was very sharp, clearly capturing the handsome silhouettes of the two couples ahead.

“Recording footage?” Xie Lan asked.

Dou Sheng shook his head. “Just taking photos for fun.”

The people ahead heard the shutter sound. Ye Si turned back and waved. “Let’s take a group photo of the six of us!”

“Okay!” Dou Sheng shouted. “Come over here, I’ll hold it.”

The six of them stood in a line. Dou Sheng held the camera at the very front, with Xie Lan right beside him.

“1, 2, 3—”

“Eggplant!” (Cheese)

“Eggplant!”

“Peppa!” (Peppa Pig)

“YES!”

“Ye Si!”

Dou Sheng didn’t shout a final slogan. Other than him, only Jian Zixing joined Xie Lan in shouting “Eggplant.” The other three were shouting god-knows-what.

After several consecutive shutter clicks, Dou Sheng lowered his hand and rubbed his arm, laughing. “I worked too hard; my arm feels like it stretched an inch.”

Ye Si gave a beer burp. “Please process these and send them to the group, dear UP. Thanks, thanks.”

“Mm, leave it to me.”

The four of them soon walked ahead again.

Xie Lan usually walked very slowly. When walking with Che Ziming and the others, or now with He Xiu and the group, he was always accidentally left behind. But he suddenly thought of something miraculous—it seemed that ever since he first met Dou Sheng at the airport, his and Dou Sheng’s walking speed had been consistent.

Or rather, from that first meeting, Dou Sheng had worked hard to adapt to his pace, always walking unhurriedly beside him.

“Holy crap.” Dou Sheng was fiddling with the camera and suddenly started laughing. He laughed while pressing the button for the next photo, laughing harder and harder until his shoulders shook.

Xie Lan leaned in. “What is it?”

“They’re all out of focus,” Dou Sheng said in a low voice.

In the dozen or so candid shots, without exception, only Xie Lan was clear. The four in the back were all blurred, and Dou Sheng, standing right in front of the lens, was even more out of focus.

Only one shot was barely in focus for everyone, but the timing was ridiculous. Xie Lan and Dou Sheng looked normal, but the other four were each ugly in their own way: Jian Zixing had his eyes closed, Zhong Chen looked dazed, He Xiu was looking at the back of Ye Si’s head, and Ye Si was rolling his eyes for some reason.

“What do we do?” Xie Lan was dumbfounded. “Take it again?”

“No more.” Dou Sheng gave a hum. “This one captures the two of us looking very good. Let’s keep it like this for my private collection.”

Xie Lan: “…Oh.”

That worked too.

Dou Sheng put away the camera. They continued walking together and naturally held hands.

Dou Sheng suddenly said, “Maybe my camera has gained a spirit. Among the crowd, it only recognizes little Xie Lan.”

Xie Lan’s eyes lit up. “Is that so?”

“Mm. Anyway, that’s the only explanation I can think of—it knows its master’s heart.” Dou Sheng spoke softly in his ear, “Do you want a little earring too?”

Xie Lan froze. “What?”

As soon as he spoke, Dou Sheng gave a gentle bite on his earlobe.

Not light—there was a distinct sense of pain.

But not heavy either. When the teeth left, his lips touched it; they were very soft.

Dou Sheng whispered in his ear: “A little earring that no one else can see.”

Xie Lan’s cheeks felt a bit hot in the wind. He muttered, “Childish.”

Night fell, and the light on the river grew sparse. Three pairs of young men stood on the river bridge.

Dou Sheng held Xie Lan’s hand, watching as Xie Lan slowly used his other hand to change the group name.

“Let’s go back to the river to catch the breeze together next year too”

Let the small group of six be called this.

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Author’s Note:

The egg nest is very crowded tonight.

The six eggs broke out in round after round of arguments over grabbing bed space.

Then the shouting stopped, replaced only by rising and falling burps.

Later, as the moon reached the treetops, the burping turned into snoring.

The peace belongs to the egg nest.

The “keyboard-thumper” (Author) only has a mess of plates and cups.

As she frantically cleans the dining table, she collapses: “Don’t come back! I’m not a nanny!”