Half an hour later, Sheng Renxing got out of a taxi by the roadside.
He did not even have time to thank the driver before the man slammed on the gas and sped away as though fleeing for his life. Sheng Renxing lowered his hand and turned to look at the twisting alleyways before him, so dark they seemed to belong to another world.
The streetlights illuminated the mouth of the alley nearest him. The line where light met darkness was as sharply drawn as the Chu River and Han Border dividing a Chinese chessboard. There was no sign of Xing Ye.
“Xing Ye?” he called into the alley.
He waited a moment. No one answered. So he took out his phone and called Xing Ye. The moment the call connected, a sound suddenly came from inside the alley. Sheng Renxing froze at the unexpected noise, countless movie scenes flashing through his mind.
—A dark shadow streaked past. The person who had been standing in the black alley talking on the phone vanished, leaving behind only a phone that continued to ring.
He stepped into the alley. He had only gone a few steps when he abruptly spotted a figure sitting off to the side. Sheng Renxing jumped so badly he nearly shouted. Only when he moved closer did he realize it was Xing Ye. He was sitting on the stone steps lining one side of the alley, his head buried in his arms.
“?”
Sheng Renxing walked over, bent down, and cautiously pushed his shoulder. “Xing Ye, still alive?”
He waited. Just as he was about to shake him again, Xing Ye lifted his head and glanced at him. “Alive.”
As though nothing were wrong, he stretched his legs and rolled his shoulders and arms.
“You fell asleep just now?” Sheng Renxing let out a breath of relief, straightened, and turned on his phone flashlight.
The surrounding area instantly lit up.
“Got a little dazed.” Xing Ye rubbed his face. He did not look particularly alert. “Turn the flashlight off.”
Sheng Renxing switched it off without hesitation. He had the feeling Xing Ye did not want him seeing what he looked like right now. Then, relying on the brief glimpse he had gotten, he sat down in the relatively clean spot beside Xing Ye.
They had agreed over the phone on “the south exit of Yanjiang Street.” Xing Ye had said that if he told the driver that, the driver would know exactly where to stop.
The moment Sheng Renxing said it in the taxi, the driver’s expression had changed, as if Sheng Renxing had not spoken a sentence but pulled a knife from inside his coat.
Just when Sheng Renxing had started wondering whether the address Xing Ye had given him was actually some secret meeting code for an assassination target, the driver floored the gas and brought him here without speaking a single word the whole way. If Sheng Renxing had not been quick at the end, the man might have fled without even taking his money.
Sheng Renxing looked around. Although it was pitch-black, the terrain did not seem much different from where he had gotten into that fight last time. Dirty, cramped, chaotic. Just quieter. His phone showed 1:13 a.m. Yet faint noise still drifted from deeper in the alleys, as though someone were roaring with laughter or spewing curses.
It only made where they sat seem even quieter. He looked farther into the alley. Several paths forked off inside. Beyond every one of them lay deeper darkness hidden beneath the moonlight.
Xing Ye’s home was probably somewhere inside that darkness too.
While Sheng Renxing was thinking about it, a voice suddenly sounded beside him. “What are you looking at?”
He nearly jumped, but managed to hold himself still.
“I’m looking for the place where we fought last time.” He turned toward Xing Ye.
They were sitting very close together, so he glanced over once and then shifted his gaze away.
“You can’t see it from here.” Xing Ye’s voice already sounded completely normal again. He raised a hand and pointed, his arm crossing in front of Sheng Renxing’s eyes.
“It’s west of here. You can get there through this alley.”
Sheng Renxing followed his finger but could not make anything out. Remembering how he had wandered around like a headless fly last time, he sighed. “The roads here are like a maze, and you actually remember all of them!”
“They’re like that on purpose.” Xing Ye brushed it off casually. “I’ve lived here seventeen years, after all.” His voice sank slightly again.
Sheng Renxing, however, caught on to something else. “You’re seventeen?”
“Hm?” Xing Ye paused, then nodded. “Yeah. Don’t I look it?”
“You look eighteen.” Sheng Renxing deliberately said it that way, privately surprised that Xing Ye was actually older than him despite that tender-looking face.
Xing Ye seemed to laugh softly but said nothing. Silence settled between them for quite a while. Xing Ye still did not speak.
Sheng Renxing quietly yawned, turned to glance at him, and searched for a topic. “That poem I told you about. You found it?”
“Mm.”
“How did you find it?” Sheng Renxing was curious. Had Xing Ye remembered individual English words? He had assumed the guy knew practically no English, considering he had not even understood the word kiss.
“Computer.”
“?” Sheng Renxing looked at him. “…Oh.”
Silence again. Sheng Renxing began to feel awkwardly restless.
He licked his lips. “You called me…”
Almost at the exact same moment, Xing Ye said, “Right now, I don’t really feel like talking.”
“…” Sheng Renxing said, “Oh.”
He answered coolly, stood, and brushed the dust from his backside. He felt irritated, a little angry, and a little embarrassed. Coming all the way out here in the middle of the night suddenly seemed unbelievably stupid.
Then Xing Ye’s voice came from behind him. “Sit with me for a while.”
Sheng Renxing paused and turned. Their eyes met.
“Is that convenient?” Xing Ye asked again when he did not answer. The dim moon reflected a sliver of light in his eyes, making his gaze look focused and bright.
Sheng Renxing blinked and looked down at his phone, putting on an act. “…Oh, I happen to have an opening in my schedule right now.”
Then he sat back down.
The corners of Xing Ye’s lips seemed to curve faintly.
After sitting again, Sheng Renxing did not try to talk. He opened one app after another on his phone, then closed each one. In the end, he took a picture of the moon.
He had been going to post it to Moments, but after thinking about it, he put it on QQ instead: [The moon’s gone moldy.]
The moment he posted it, his phone began vibrating nonstop.
Big-Head Qiu was the first to comment: [At this hour of the night…]
A whole line of people followed beneath him: [At this hour of the night…]
Among them, Yellow Hair’s comment broke the formation and stood out the most: [Yanjiang Street?]
Sheng Renxing exited QQ and yawned again.
Xing Ye suddenly spoke beside him. “Sleepy?”
Sheng Renxing looked at him. “I’m okay. The wind woke me up.”
This place seemed to sit directly in a wind tunnel. Cold gusts kept sweeping through. Xing Ye lowered his eyes as if thinking, then braced a hand on the ground and shifted a little closer. When their body heat met, Sheng Renxing realized Xing Ye was freezing.
He closed a hand around Xing Ye’s arm. “Still have feeling in it?”
“A little. Doesn’t need amputation yet.” Xing Ye smiled. It was faint and vanished almost instantly.
Xing Ye said, “I thought you’d curse me out.”
Only after calling had he realized it was past midnight, and that Sheng Renxing had already been asleep.
“Huh?” Sheng Renxing thought about it. He had not been fully awake then and had thought he was dreaming.
Surprise at being woken had outweighed anger.
Later, once he had gotten a bit more awake and started to get annoyed, Xing Ye’s bizarre opening line had completely derailed the feeling before it could take shape.
Thinking about it now, Sheng Renxing nodded. “Cursing you out would be boring. Obviously I had to come over personally and beat you up to vent.”
Xing Ye followed the slight lift of his chin and closed his eyes. “Then do it.”
His posture was crisp and straightforward, as though he had planned this in advance.
“?” Sheng Renxing stared at him for a moment, narrowed his eyes, and studied him.
Xing Ye did not move.
After a while, seeing how sincere his attitude was, Sheng Renxing suddenly perked up. He made a circle with his thumb and index finger, brought it to his mouth and blew on it, then lifted Xing Ye’s bangs with one hand.
With a sharp pop—
He flicked him right in the forehead.
Notes
Chu–Han boundary: The boundary between light and darkness invokes the “Chu River and Han Border,” the dividing line on a Chinese chessboard, named for two rival historical powers. The comparison emphasizes a sharply defined border.
