Before long, the sound of a motorcycle came from behind them. It chugged slowly down the road. The sound traveled from behind Sheng Renxing to in front of him. He opened his eyes and even saw the old man on the motorcycle turn around to look at them after riding some distance away.
Sheng Renxing met the old man’s eyes.
The man looked thoroughly puzzled.
“…” Sheng Renxing patted Xing Ye on the back.
Xing Ye let go.
“It’s getting a little cold. Let’s go.” Sheng Renxing shoved his hands into his pockets.
Xing Ye nodded. They naturally moved on to other topics. And right up to the end, neither of them told the other not to let anyone else know.
Wei Huan’s apartment really did have two bedrooms and a living room.
By the time they got back, the cleaners had already finished and left.
There was even a note stuck to the table explaining which parts of the apartment had aging electrical wiring. Sheng Renxing tore it off, then slapped it onto the door instead: Remember to get someone to fix this when you go out tomorrow. Xing Ye was staying in the guest bedroom. The room was spotless. The two of them rummaged through cupboards and drawers looking for blankets and pillows.
In the end, they dug out a set of bedding from the bottom of a cabinet. Black-and-white checks. Who knew how long it had been sitting there. Sheng Renxing lowered his head and sniffed it. Surprisingly, there was no dusty smell. Just a faint fragrance.
It wasn’t the flashy, peacock-like scent Wei Huan wore. This one was light and clean, but you could tell it was expensive the moment you smelled it. It also seemed strangely familiar.
Xing Ye saw him sniffing it for a little too long and picked up the quilt to smell it too, giving him a questioning look.
Sheng Renxing snatched the quilt out of his hands. “Someone’s probably used this before. I’ll check my room and see if there’s anything new.”
That wasn’t the smell of laundry detergent. It was probably perfume. He just couldn’t remember who he had smelled it on before.
But one thing was certain: someone had definitely slept under this quilt. Sheng Renxing had a feeling there was something suspicious about a quilt that had been used, not washed, yet folded neatly and stored at the bottom of a cabinet, so he stuffed the bedding and pillows back inside.
“Whose apartment is this?” Xing Ye looked around.
When Sheng Renxing first said he was moving, Xing Ye had assumed it was a new place. But now that he was here, something didn’t seem quite right.
“My uncle’s.” Sheng Renxing went back to his room and rummaged around.
Xing Ye asked, “You’re staying here for free?”
“I pay rent.” Sheng Renxing finished going through the wardrobe and found several pieces of clothing his uncle had left behind. There weren’t many formal clothes; most were casual.
He pulled out his phone, took a photo, and sent his uncle a message: Do you still want these?
At the same time, he answered Xing Ye, “A thousand a month.”
Xing Ye nodded. “Pretty fair.”
Sheng Renxing looked back. Xing Ye had been standing in the middle of the room with his hands tucked away, his gaze wandering as he took everything in. “Sit down. It is pretty fair. At first he wanted twelve thousand a month. He only dropped it to one thousand after saying I wasn’t allowed to touch anything in his place.”
Xing Ye sat in the chair beside the table and watched him pull everything out of the wardrobe until it was piled in a chaotic heap on the floor. There was no telling how Sheng Renxing planned to stuff it all back in later.
“You two have a good relationship.” Xing Ye drew his gaze back.
“It’s all right.” One entire wall was wardrobes. Sheng Renxing decided he might as well ask Wei Huan directly. “He’s a good person.”
After thinking about it, he laughed. “Before giving me this place, he was planning to let me live in some garden estate out in the suburbs and make me pedal a bicycle to school every day.”
“Your uncle is Wei Huan?” Xing Ye had been fiddling with a decorative object on the table. He paused when he heard that.
Sheng Renxing turned to look at him. “You know each other?” His uncle had never mentioned Xing Ye to him.
“He helped me once.” Xing Ye touched the ornament. It immediately began swaying violently, yet somehow never struck the tabletop. Thin metal rods swung back and forth, passing within a hair’s breadth of one another without colliding. Xing Ye had no idea what it was. He thought it looked like one of those weighted toys that always righted themselves.
“You like this?” Sheng Renxing followed his gaze to the table.
“It’s interesting.” Xing Ye looked at him.
Sheng Renxing met his eyes. “I don’t know what it is either.” He guessed, “One of those roly-poly toys, maybe.”
Xing Ye looked back at the supposed roly-poly toy. Sheng Renxing braced his hands on his knees and stood up. His legs had gone a little numb from squatting. He walked over beside Xing Ye, planted one hand on the back of his chair, and gave the ornament a shove with the other.
The “roly-poly” toppled instantly and smashed heavily onto the tabletop. Metal pieces clattered everywhere, and several glass-ball-like pieces fell to the floor and shattered with a series of crisp crashes.
“…”
The silence became extraordinary.
After a long moment, Sheng Renxing blinked. “Shoddy counterfeit.”
Xing Ye turned his head and looked at him. Just then, Wei Huan replied.
Throw them away. You can wear them if you want, though they’ll probably be too big.
Ignoring the jab, Sheng Renxing replied: Uncle, what’s that thing on your table that looks like a roly-poly toy? It’s pretty nice. How much was it?
After thinking about it, he added a little blushing-smile emoji. He half leaned against the arm of the chair. Xing Ye glanced at his phone. Neither of them dared make a move toward the wreckage.
But Wei Huan didn’t reply for quite a while. Who knew what he was busy doing.
“Probably busy opening the bar,” Xing Ye said.
“Hm?” Sheng Renxing looked down at him. “You even know he owns a bar?”
“Your uncle’s bar is pretty famous.” Xing Ye paused, then explained, “It was the first gay bar in Xuancheng.”
Sheng Renxing froze and met his eyes.
That was something he genuinely hadn’t known. His uncle had never brought it up either.
He thought for a moment. “Then he’s impressive.”
Opening the city’s first gay bar—anyone could imagine how much courage that must have taken.
Then, curious, he asked Xing Ye, “Have you been there?”
Xing Ye nodded. Sheng Renxing raised his brows in surprise.
Xing Ye smiled and looked at him. “I’m not gay.”
“Oh,” Sheng Renxing said, thinking, Why are you emphasizing it? I could already tell.
Xing Ye stared at him and pressed his lips together. “The bar is beautiful. Yellow Hair and the others go there to hang out sometimes too.”
It took Sheng Renxing a moment to realize Xing Ye was patching over what Dong Qiu and the others had said after school about homosexuality being disgusting. He gave an indifferent little smile. He had never cared what other people thought about it.
But Xing Ye had deliberately gone out of his way to say that, and Sheng Renxing couldn’t help smiling again.
His phone chimed.
If you’re compensating me, I’ll give you a discount. Ten thousand is fine.
The smile vanished from Sheng Renxing’s face at once.
“What?” Xing Ye noticed immediately.
Sheng Renxing held up the phone for him to see. Xing Ye fell silent too.
“This thing is worth ten thousand?” Sheng Renxing stared at the table, his brows knotting. He picked up one of the metal rods and examined it.
“Probably handmade.” Xing Ye picked up another piece and turned it over in his hands.
“How can you tell?” Sheng Renxing looked at him in surprise.
Xing Ye pointed out some of the joints. The workmanship was visibly rough—not because whoever made it had been careless, but because they weren’t practiced.
“You can even tell that?” Sheng Renxing fitted two of the metal rods together.
Xing Ye nodded. “I’ve made things before.”
Sheng Renxing’s eyes widened. “This?”
“No.” He paused. “Other things. Out of wood.”
Sheng Renxing snapped his fingers, dropped the rods into Xing Ye’s hands, and smiled with curved eyes. “Then I’ll trouble you.”
“…” Xing Ye wanted to refuse. Working with wood and repairing this were still pretty different. But remembering the “ten thousand” in the message, he pressed his lips together. “I’ll try.”
“We’ll count it against the lodging fee.” Satisfied, Sheng Renxing stood and went to look for bedding again.
“…Ten thousand for one night?” Xing Ye tidied the pieces on the table and began studying them.
Sheng Renxing thought it over and agreed that this apartment really wasn’t worth that much. He clicked his tongue at his tenant, folded his arms, and said, “What exactly are you dissatisfied with about the rates for your landlord’s personal chat-companion service?”
Xing Ye turned his head, narrowed his eyes, and looked him up and down. “Do you charge by the word?”
Sheng Renxing shook his head and pointed solemnly at his own face. “By the face.”
Xing Ye failed to hold it in and laughed. “That’s easy money.”
“You could do it too if you wanted.” Sheng Renxing inspected his face in return. “With a face like yours, you’d get at least nine thousand.”
Still a little less than him.
Xing Ye silently looked at him, his expression mild. “What about smiles?”
Sheng Renxing made up nonsense with a completely straight face. “You don’t smile much. Thirty thousand.” He had originally wanted to call him expressionless, but after getting to know him better, he had discovered that Xing Ye actually did smile. His facial nerves weren’t completely dead after all.
Xing Ye nodded. The next second, he flashed Sheng Renxing a smile that looked as though half his facial nerves had died. It vanished immediately. “Now you owe me twenty thousand. Put it on the tab.”
