FF CH47
This glass was freezing cold, making his hand ache.
After Fan Jun’s hand was pulled away, Zou Yang’s hand tightly gripped the glass.
The coldness made his palm ache.
Following the pulse, he felt his entire forearm turning cold.
But as if frozen stiff, his hand showed no intention of letting go.
That indescribable emotion—a jumbled mix of disappointment, awkwardness, heartache, and who knew what else—acted like a pair of pliers, clamping his hand firmly onto the glass.
He didn’t want to move.
“Zou Yang…” Fan Jun spoke up.
It sounded very difficult for him.
Zou Yang was suddenly jolted back to reality and let go.
After a brief pause, he switched to his right hand and picked up the glass.
It was a very beautiful drink.
He took a sip.
The taste was completely different from how it looked.
The first second was bitter.
A certain herbal bitterness bounded on the tip of his tongue along with the bubbles.
“It’s bitter,” he said.
He took another sip.
Only a few seconds after swallowing the liquor did he finally taste the sweet-and-sour, slightly astringent red grapefruit flavor at the very end.
It was amazing. This stuff didn’t taste good—it was bitter with sourness, sour with astringency, and only at the very end was there a tiny bit of sweetness.
Yet it wasn’t unpalatable either. It possessed a bizarre attraction that made you want to keep drinking.
Brother Lu returned behind the bar. Fan Jun asked him to send a few more drinks over to Liu Wenrui and the others.
Zou Yang drank in silence. He didn’t look at Fan Jun, nor did he speak.
By the time the waiters brought over the sliced cake, the drink in his glass had hit the bottom. He tilted his head back and finished the last drop.
“Let’s head over,” he put down the glass and stood up.
Fan Jun came over and supported his arm.
Zou Yang hopped back to their booth and flopped straight onto the sofa. He felt like he let out a soft sigh, but then felt like he hadn’t.
“This piece with the flower is for the birthday boy,” Liu Wenrui handed a slice of cake to Fan Jun.
“Thank you,” Fan Jun took the plate and sat down next to Zou Yang.
“Here,” Liu Wenrui handed another piece to Zou Yang.
Zou Yang took the plate, lowered his head, and took a bite directly. He didn’t know if it was because he had just finished that drink, but this bite of cake tasted exceptionally good.
That drink really worked up an appetite.
The waiters brought over a few more drinks. Liu Wenrui and the others started holding up their glasses, striking various poses for photos. Snapping pictures of the drinks and the people, they were quite happy.
Perhaps because the distance was too close and he was afraid Fan Jun would notice something amiss, Liu Wenrui didn’t look over at Zou Yang’s side once. Let alone whispering behind his back, there wasn’t even any eye contact.
He was just like this—reliable one moment and unreliable the next.
He even managed to chat, edit the video they took earlier, and send it to the group chat before turning to Zou Yang and saying: “Send it to Brother Fan later…”
“Mm,” Zou Yang responded, leaning back in the sofa.
Liu Wenrui finally noticed something was off with him. He performed an exaggerated stretch, leaned close to him, and asked in a low voice: “Damn, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” Zou Yang said.
Liu Wenrui glanced over at Fan Jun. Fan Jun just happened to pull out two dice cups from under the table and looked over as well: “Want to play dice?”
Liu Wenrui didn’t speak. He nudged Zou Yang with his elbow, using a bit too much force. Zou Yang’s arm shot up from the nudge.
The nudge meant, You tell him whether we’re playing or not.
But this is too obvious, bro!
Zou Yang sighed: “…How do we play?”
Besides High-Low, the simplest game: shaking the dice. When you reveal them, if you rolled a six, you take it out; if you roll a one, you give it to the opponent. Whoever runs out of dice first loses.
Zou Yang struggled a bit to sit up straight. He took the dice cup, shook it a few times on the table, and opened it for a look. There was a one, so he took it out and placed it on Fan Jun’s side.
It was Fan Jun’s turn. Holding the dice cup face down on the table, he lightly shook it once, then casually swept it to the side. The dice were swept off the table, shaken a few times mid-air, and then slammed back down onto the table.
Before he even opened the dice cup, Zhang Chuanlong and Liu Wenrui spoke simultaneously: “Holy crap, teach me!”
“Huh?” Fan Jun froze for a moment.
“Teach us!” Zhang Chuanlong shoved Li Zhiyue aside and squeezed in next to Fan Jun to sit down.
Fan Jun quickly shot a glance at Zou Yang. Zou Yang didn’t speak; he just leaned back into the sofa again.
The dice game ended before it even began. Fan Jun was forced to start teaching these guys—who possessed an eternally strong drive to improve on the path of looking cool—how to shake dice.
Time slowly passed, and the crowd in the bar gradually increased.
The lighting also grew dimmer than before. The music started to get louder bit by bit, eating away the whispers around them. The waiters brought over candles and placed them on the table.
Zou Yang leaned against the sofa, his entire body hiding in the shadows of the already dim lighting, watching the dancing candle flames on the table and Fan Jun’s profile.
He felt suffocated all over, and the sounds around him were indistinct.
…Hearing impairment.
Is this what Fan Jun feels like normally?
All his attention was concentrated on his vision.
Having gotten familiar with this group of guys, Fan Jun looked much more relaxed now. His movements were very handsome, his smile was very handsome…
Even the way he pulled his hand away earlier was quite handsome.
Zou Yang zoned out a bit watching him. His brain felt congealed, unable to turn, and too lazy to turn. It was as if he was thinking about a lot of things, yet also completely blanking out.
He felt a slight itch on his face and raised his hand to scratch it.
His fingertips were wet.
Crying?
Fan Jun turned his head and swept a glance his way. He froze for a moment, then quickly looked away.
After a two-second pause, he reached out and pulled a tissue.
While the guys at the table were still enthusiastically practicing the Great Method of Shaking Dice, he quietly passed the tissue over.
Just as it was about to be placed into Zou Yang’s hand, Zou Yang quickly raised his hand.
Fan Jun turned his head, looking at him with some surprise.
Zou Yang also looked at him. He didn’t speak, just raised his hand and lightly rubbed a finger against his face, wiping away the tear.
Fan Jun held the tissue, unmoving.
It’s fine.
Zou Yang mouthed the words.
It was still Fan Jun’s birthday.
The first twenty-fourth birthday someone had celebrated like this for him.
Don’t be a buzzkill.
Don’t leave any regrets.
Zou Yang took a deep breath, took off his glasses, lowered his head, and rubbed his eyes. When he put his glasses back on, he smiled at Fan Jun and leaned forward: “Teach me.”
“Okay,” Fan Jun nodded.
Before this, Fan Jun probably couldn’t have imagined these college students’ thirst and focus for knowledge outside of textbooks.
For the entire night, these guys didn’t do anything else. Aside from interleaving a few rounds of High-Low, they spent all their time researching the skill of shaking dice mid-air.
When the group walked out of the bar close to 1:00 AM, Zhang Chuanlong was still waving his arms around, pantomiming shaking dice in mid-air without an actual object.
“Thank you guys… so much for today,” Fan Jun said.
“Don’t say things like that, we were just playing too,” Li Zhiyue said. “As long as everyone had a good time, that’s what matters.”
Fan Jun smiled.
“How is everyone getting back?” Liu Wenrui asked, then looked toward Zou Yang.
The implication was—Are we going back to the dorm to sleep?
“I’m going back to school with you guys,” Zou Yang said.
A trace of doubt flashed through Liu Wenrui’s eyes.
Really, Zou Yang?
“Let’s drop Fan Jun off first,” Zou Yang said as he pulled open the passenger door and hopped into the car.
When the car reached the bottom of the building, Zou Yang didn’t get out due to his injured leg.
Fan Jun stood by the car holding a large paper bag filled with gifts, waving at the guys inside: “Drive slowly. Just head out straight from the road I told you about earlier and you’ll hit the main road. No need to detour through the small streets.”
“Got it! Don’t worry!” Liu Wenrui gripped the steering wheel. To drive, he was the only one who hadn’t drunk any alcohol today.
Fan Jun smiled and didn’t say anything more.
Zou Yang turned his head and looked at him through the car window glass.
He said, Good night.
Good night.
After the car drove away, Fan Jun stood in place for a while before turning and walking into the hallway.
When the elevator doors opened on the top floor, Fan Jun stood inside without moving, holding the “open doors” button and snapping his fingers.
The hallway lights flickered on. He scanned the shadows on the ground before finally stepping out.
It was the same when he opened the door. He couldn’t hear clearly, so everything relied on his eyes and intuition.
When he opened the door, he saw Da Hei standing on the table, letting out a massive yawn at him.
Safe.
The first thing he did upon entering was take the takeout box out of the bag and put it into the freezer.
He wanted to keep those four words, just like how he would occasionally go buy a can of yellow peaches.
He stood in the middle of the living room for a while. The birthday was over, and the liveliness and clamor of the entire day had departed at this very moment. The customary quietness of the room suddenly made him feel a bit sad.
He changed into his pajamas. When he went into the bathroom to wash his clothes from today, he saw Zou Yang’s clothes in the washing machine.
The next second, the sensation of Zou Yang’s fingertips pressing firmly against the back of his hand suddenly reappeared, carrying a faint, aching soreness.
He threw his clothes into the washing machine and lowered his head to look at his own hands.
“Drop me off at home first,” Zou Yang leaned against the passenger seat and said.
“What?” Liu Wenrui turned his head to look at him.
“Watch the road!” several of them yelled simultaneously.
“Watching, watching,” Liu Wenrui turned his head back to look forward, only using his eyes to strive to peek toward the passenger side. “You’re going home?”
“Yeah,” Zou Yang nodded. “Don’t have any clothes to change into.”
“Those two are taking the train to leave tomorrow,” Liu Wenrui reminded him.
“What, do they still need a cripple like me to see them off?” Zou Yang said.
“No need,” Li Zhiyue yawned in the back. “We’re already sick of looking at each other.”
“Alright,” Liu Wenrui nodded and turned on the blinker.
When Zou Yang opened the door to his home, he smelled the familiar scent and felt as if he hadn’t been home for a long time.
He wheeled around the house once, then froze in his own room.
He didn’t know why he insisted on coming home in the middle of the night.
It was so desolate it was full of loneliness.
After standing in a daze for a long time, he got up, slowly hopped to the bathroom, washed his face, and then leaned against the counter, not daring to look up.
If he looked up, he would see himself in the mirror.
For some inexplicable reason, at this moment, he suddenly didn’t dare to look at himself.
He stood there until his legs felt a bit sore before returning to the living room and sitting on the sofa.
When the doorbell rang, Zou Yang had already fallen asleep on the sofa.
Hearing the doorbell, he couldn’t react for a long time.
It wasn’t until his phone rang as well, and he saw Liu Wenrui’s name on the screen, that he finally woke up fully and answered the call.
“Open the door! I thought you were dead!” Liu Wenrui’s voice sounded simultaneously outside the door and over the phone.
“Are you psycho?” Zou Yang hung up the phone, got up, hopped over, and looked out through the peephole.
Liu Wenrui was standing outside the door flipping him the middle finger.
Zou Yang opened the door and flipped him off as well.
“Talk,” Liu Wenrui walked in, took off his shoes, kicked them toward the shoe rack, took large strides to the sofa, and sat down. “What happened?”
Zou Yang closed the door and turned to look at him: “You made a thousand-mile rapid march in the middle of the night just to hear some gossip, right.”
“That depends on whose gossip it is,” Liu Wenrui said. “This is my best bro’s gossip, I have the premier right to know… give me some water.”
“…You’re incredible.” Zou Yang hopped to the fridge, grabbed a bottle of water, and threw it to him.
“What happened?” Liu Wenrui asked after taking two gulps of ice water. “Don’t tell me you got rejected?”
Zou Yang leaned against the fridge, looking at him without speaking.
Actually, it didn’t count as that, but the result didn’t seem to be any different.
Liu Wenrui kept his mouth half-open and waited for a while, a look of shock slowly replacing his expression: “Seriously?”
Zou Yang still didn’t speak.
“Holy shit? You’re the real psycho, right!” Liu Wenrui stood up. “What were you in such a rush for?”
“What are you in a rush for?” Zou Yang said.
“What am I in a r… In one day I found out you… and then found out you…” Liu Wenrui shook his water bottle, his movements feeling like a continuation of shaking dice mid-air from earlier. “You ask what I’m in a rush for? I’m in a rush because I haven’t even digested it yet, and the whole thing is just over like that?”
“Ah.” Zou Yang responded.
Liu Wenrui froze for a long time, finally sat back down on the sofa, and patted the spot next to him: “Come here, Yang Yang, sit here. I’m not sleeping tonight.”
“Scram,” Zou Yang said.
“You can cry a little if you want,” Liu Wenrui said.
“Scram.” Zou Yang didn’t move.
“Tell me the details,” Liu Wenrui pointed at him. “Don’t think I won’t dare to go ask Fan Jun in this situation.”
Zou Yang sighed.
The temperature was a bit high early in the morning. After running five kilometers, Fan Jun felt his back was completely soaked.
Xiao Bai was also panting harder than usual.
“Bai, sit,” he tied Xiao Bai’s leash to the lamppost at the entrance of the police station. “Wait for me here.”
Xiao Bai sat down properly.
Officer Liang was sitting at his desk eating breakfast. Seeing Fan Jun walk in, he put down his steamed bun.
“Any news on Sun Xulei?” Fan Jun walked over to the desk.
“Not yet,” Officer Liang sighed. “We visited a round of people connected to him—classmates, friends, people from arcades and internet cafes—no clues at all.”
“Is he still alive?” Fan Jun asked.
“What you’re saying…” Officer Liang frowned.
“He didn’t usually associate with many decent people,” Fan Jun said.
“There’s no news in that regard either,” Officer Liang said as he took a bite of his bun and sighed again.
Fan Jun didn’t speak. After a moment of silence, he asked softly: “Any news on Fan Gang’s case?”
Officer Liang stopped and looked at him.
“Is there anything you can tell me?” Fan Jun continued to ask.
“No,” Officer Liang swallowed the bun in his mouth, stood up, and patted his arm. “Jun’er, don’t worry too much. He’s been on the run for months now. If he really wanted to come over, he would have come long ago.”
“If he knew I was here, he would definitely come,” Fan Jun said.
Bringing Xiao Bai back to the new gym, Lv Ze was sitting at the front desk on a phone call. Seeing him walk in, Lv Ze waved him over.
Fan Jun walked over and stood by the front desk, waiting.
“Do you have time later?” Lv Ze asked him after hanging up.
“Yes,” Fan Jun said.
“The guy who said he wanted to transfer the venue along with the equipment earlier, he agreed to just sell the equipment,” Lv Ze said. “His stuff is still quite new. Go over and take a look later. If the price is right, we’ll take it.”
“Okay,” Fan Jun nodded.
The phone vibrated in his hand.
“The main thing is, he wants to sell it all as a package, so you have to see exactly how much of it is suitable for us to use…” Lv Ze said.
“Mm,” Fan Jun replied, picking up his phone to glance at it.
[Zou yang]: The video of you unboxing the cake yesterday.
“If you talk to him…” Lv Ze was still speaking.
Along with the video, Zou Yang had also sent a string of photos, all taken at the campsite. He had no idea when Zou Yang had taken so many—there were solo shots of him, and group shots of everyone together.
“Mm.” Fan Jun wasn’t paying attention to what Lv Ze was saying, just blindly agreeing.
Then he clicked to play the video.
“I’m recording, I’m recording…” Liu Wenrui’s voice came out, followed by a beat-matching BGM.
Fan Jun quickly closed the video and looked up at Lv Ze.
Lv Ze was looking at him.
“You were saying,” Fan Jun said.
“What the hell else is there to say,” Lv Ze said.
“Things other than the hell,” Fan Jun said.
“Nothing!” Lv Ze raised his voice.
“I’ll head over later,” Fan Jun turned and walked toward the training area, preparing to change his clothes.
“Have a better attitude toward your work!” Lv Ze said grumpily behind him.
“Mm.” Fan Jun nodded.
The phone vibrated again.
[Zou yang]: Booking a class for this afternoon.
Fan Jun froze and stopped walking.
[Fan]: Your leg?
[Zou yang]: I saw your 2:00 PM class was empty.
Before Fan Jun could reply, the phone vibrated once more. The mini-program notified him that member Zou Yang had booked the 2:00 PM class.