The thin, underdeveloped boy lowered his eyes until they were completely hidden. He stood beneath the shadow of a tree, broken sunlight scattering in mottled patches over him. Quietly standing before Chu Yigui, he looked like an insignificant pebble that anyone could kick aside at will.
While sitting in the car, Chu Yigui had watched everything that happened between Wan Qiu and Yang Xiaoyu. He had not missed the ugly bruise across Wan Qiu's abdomen.
Now Wan Qiu's slender arms hovered protectively over his lower abdomen, the boy's final line of self-protection. He closed his eyes slightly, as though waiting for something.
Wan Qiu's words left Chu Yigui stunned.
Wan Qiu was implying that he had already prepared himself to be hit. He was ready to accept the pain that might come.
But no one knew whether a pebble wanted to be kicked, and a human being was not a stone. Pain was the body's warning, something meant to be rejected.
"I'm sorry. I don't understand what you mean. What does 'don't hit here' mean?" Chu Yigui believed there had been a misunderstanding in their communication.
Wan Qiu pressed his lips together. "Being hit here hurts more than usual."
Wan Qiu blinked, misunderstanding him. Even the last weak attempt at resistance disappeared. He lowered the hands protecting himself and stood entirely defenseless.
Chu Yigui bent halfway down so that he could look directly into Wan Qiu's eyes.
"Why would I hit you?" Chu Yigui's voice was gentle, carrying a subtle coaxing quality as he tried to find the meaning behind Wan Qiu's reaction. "What did I say or do that made you think I was going to hit you?"
Wan Qiu stared into Chu Yigui's eyes and opened his mouth. "You're unhappy."
For Wan Qiu, it was difficult to use more complicated words to describe the emotion Chu Yigui had shown.
In that instant, Chu Yigui seemed to understand something.
Although a smile still lingered at the corner of Chu Yigui's mouth, the gaze he directed at Wan Qiu had already grown complicated.
Chu Yigui was intelligent. He immediately realized that the fleeting emotion he had failed to hide just now had been caught by Wan Qiu.
Chu Yigui concealed his surprise at Wan Qiu's sensitivity and lowered his voice slightly. "Why does me being unhappy mean I would hit you?"
Wan Qiu lowered his eyes. His shoulders drew inward more than before, his body tensing as he bowed his head, as though he could be trampled into the dust in a crowd and no one would ever notice.
Chu Yigui could no longer see Wan Qiu's eyes. Perhaps Wan Qiu did not want him to. He straightened and looked down at the crown of Wan Qiu's slightly overgrown hair.
Wan Qiu was refusing to answer his question.
Though they were the same age, Chu Yigui saw before him a small, weak child who seemed far younger than he truly was, trying to protect cruel people with silence.
"When someone is unhappy, you get hit." Chu Yigui thought carefully, trying to understand the logic. "Has someone done that to you?"
Wan Qiu's body stiffened. His fingers unconsciously clutched the hem of his shirt. Perhaps because he was so thin, even the smallest body language became magnified.
Chu Yigui frowned. Wan Qiu's shrinking posture made him understand that the logic of "someone is unhappy, so I get hit" was probably already carved into Wan Qiu's instincts.
"Can you look up at me?" Chu Yigui found an easier way to question him, a method better suited to communicating with a child who was bad at hiding things—or perhaps did not know how to hide them at all.
Wan Qiu obeyed. He lifted his head. A faint fear still misted his clear eyes, framing Chu Yigui within them.
"Who does that? Who hits you when they're angry?" Chu Yigui asked.
Wan Qiu looked away.
A hand touched Wan Qiu's cheek, bringing Chu Yigui's reflection back into his pupils.
Chu Yigui recaptured Wan Qiu's gaze and stared seriously into his eyes. "Who's done it? Dad? Mom? Grandma? Relatives? Elders? Classmates? Friends? Neighbors?"
After each title, Chu Yigui paused. From the changes Wan Qiu could not hide, he could at least confirm the first three.
Chu Yigui drew in a deep breath. The fingertips touching Wan Qiu's cheek seemed to sting faintly.
It was not a cool summer day, yet his fingertips felt nothing but cold.
"Do you just let people hit you?" He had hands and feet, he was not disabled, and he could run. Even if he could not fight back, at the very least he should know how to flee.
Wan Qiu shook his head. "I run."
"Then why didn't you run?" Hearing that answer did nothing to clear the fog spreading through Chu Yigui's emotions. If Wan Qiu knew how to run, then why had he remained standing here after deciding that Chu Yigui was unhappy?
"We're friends," Wan Qiu said.
Chu Yigui opened his mouth, but only asked, "If we're friends, you don't run?"
Wan Qiu nodded. "Friends are supposed to stay together."
Chu Yigui's brows drew together faintly. "Are you like this with all your friends?"
Wan Qiu shook his head.
"Only me?" Today was the first time Wan Qiu had met Chu Yigui. This was only the second real conversation the two of them had ever had.
"Mm," Wan Qiu answered.
"Why?"
"You're my only friend." Wan Qiu looked into Chu Yigui's eyes, his gaze clear and bright. Only when those words left his mouth did Chu Yigui see genuine emotion from Wan Qiu for the first time.
It was like watching a transparent, crystal-clear lake that had never rippled, only for a tiny red fish called joy to suddenly leap from its surface.
Chu Yigui abruptly lost his voice.
It felt as though his heart had been pricked by the swishing tail of that fish, an itchy, painful discomfort.
Chu Yigui felt as though something had closed around his throat and cut off his voice.
He thought, hesitated, and tested his words before speaking again.
"I'm not unhappy, and I won't hit you. There's just something I want to do, but I'm a little embarrassed and don't know how to tell you."
"What is it?" Wan Qiu's whole body suddenly relaxed. He believed him without the slightest doubt or defense.
That completely trusting gaze made Chu Yigui unable to look directly at him. He turned aside and said, "I want to go to your house. Is that okay? Friends visit each other's homes, don't they?"
It was the first time Wan Qiu had ever heard such a request.
It was also the first time anyone had ever asked to be his friend.
What were friends supposed to do? His classmates had many different kinds of friends. Dad had Dad's friends, and Mom had Mom's friends.
Dad brought friends home to eat and drink. Mom also brought friends home to chat and drink.
Mom had never said he was not allowed to bring a friend home. If she had not forbidden it, could he do it?
If Dad and Mom both did something, he could do it too.
Bring a friend… home.
"Okay." Wan Qiu sorted through the logic of friendship and said, "I'm going home now. I'll take you home."
The phrasing was strange, but Chu Yigui had received permission.
"Thank you."
When Wan Qiu turned around, Chu Yigui saw his profile.
He really was very beautiful.
For a brief instant, Chu Yigui seemed to see an even more beautiful Wan Qiu: his lips pressed together, the corners curving upward ever so slightly.
Chu Yigui could not tell whether that fleeting happiness had been real or only something he imagined.
