TSIBAMS Chapter 114
by VolareThe thirty-fifth sneeze.
Qi Guang stopped his hands on the piano keys, rubbing the back of his hand over his nose several times. He had managed to steal half a day of leisure to play the piano at 1984, but now he had completely lost the desire to continue.
“Why aren’t you playing anymore?” Bai Shu, who was wiping the top of the piano case, also stopped.
“Someone misses me too much, affecting my performance.” Qi Guang closed the piano keyboard lid and stood up.
“Put on some clothes,” Xu Ge said, not looking up from his game on the sofa.
This guy was not only multitasking but also implying something?
Qi Guang took a breath, unable to refute, and when he turned to look at Bai Shu, the latter was already laughing so hard he couldn’t stand straight.
Just then, as if to give Qi Guang a way out, his phone vibrated in perfect coordination.
Xu Ge clicked his tongue, “Oh, someone really does miss you.”
The phone kept vibrating without any sign of stopping. Qi Guang thought these days the harassment calls were quite persistent. He glanced at it, ready to hang up, but his finger quickly retracted just a second before pressing down.
He narrowed his eyes.
Li Ke?
He paused for a long while before confirming he wasn’t mistaken.
It felt like an ex-girlfriend’s best friend calling, either to scold him or to hit on him.
In short, this call was hot to handle.
Qi Guang pressed the answer button, “Hello.”
“Hello, it’s Li Ke.”
“I know, what’s up?”
“What’s wrong?” Li Ke sounded a little innocent, “Your attitude makes it seem like I owe you money.”
Qi Guang cleared his throat, trying to make his tone friendlier, “What is it?”
“Oh, I’m just passing on a message for another guy who owes you money. Why did I say another…”
Before he could finish, Qi Guang firmly stated his position: “No need to pay it back, that money was never mine in the first place. I wouldn’t have even touched it if it weren’t for him.”
“That’s perfect, I’m here to talk about this. Ye Xing can’t pay back the money for the time being.” Li Ke said.
“Mm.”
“He was almost there, he would have been able to transfer it to you soon, but…” Li Ke tried to salvage the image of his “best friend,” organizing his words for a while before deciding to abandon this complicated process, “Well, he will pay you back, but it’s difficult in the short term, you get it?”
The person on the other end of the phone didn’t immediately respond.
There was a blank silence for a dozen seconds, and then Qi Guang opened his mouth hesitantly, “Did something happen at home?”
This question surprised Li Ke a bit, after all, in Ye Xing’s words, the current Qi Guang was an uncommunicative and cold ex-boyfriend, and since Li Ke was not close to Qi Guang anyway, he was naturally unconditionally biased towards Ye Xing.
After the surprise, he decided to reorganize his words.
“Not really, things at his home are a bit complicated now, he’s been busy with everything, taking over a café, emptying his savings, and it’s not even enough. Fortunately, that cafe used to belong to a classmate of his, so they’re letting him pay the remaining money slowly. They say that cafe used to do pretty well, so I guess he’ll be able to make it up by the end of the year, and there’s the money he owes you… but I don’t know how much the rent is, and he seems to be under a lot of pressure recently…”
“Why is he opening a cafe, isn’t he studying?” Qi Guang interrupted him.
Li Ke seemed to realize he was talking out of order and without cause or effect, and not minding Qi Guang’s interruption again, he seriously replied, “He’s still studying, mainly he did it for his mom to have something to do, that’s what the therapist told Ye Xing.”
Qi Guang frowned slightly, and his breathing became somewhat uneven.
“What therapist?”
This time, Li Ke was sure that Qi Guang always managed to extract the key points from his illogical statements and ask precise questions. It wasn’t that he was uncommunicative, but rather that he couldn’t hide his concern.
“It’s for Aunt Fang, she’s been in a bad state recently, diagnosed with moderate anxiety,” saying this, Li Ke couldn’t help but sigh, “Oh, poor little Ye Xing has been forced to grow up.”
“How much is still owed for the cafe’s transfer fee?” Qi Guang asked.
“I’m not sure of the specifics,” Li Ke said, “Should I ask?”
Qi Guang stood motionless by the piano, like a statue.
If Li Ke went to ask now, Ye Xing would definitely know it was him who transferred the money when he saw it. Considering that he was still making a show of paying him back, he definitely wouldn’t want it.
He tapped his fingers lightly on the piano case, pondered for a moment, and then opened his mouth, “No need for the specifics, just give me an estimate.”
“It’s got to be at least sixty thousand,” Li Ke said.
Qi Guang walked to the front of the cash register, leaned his upper body in, and flipped through the drawer, pulling out a piece of scratch paper and a pen.
“Give me your bank card number.” He held the phone between his ear and shoulder, smoothed the scratch paper with one hand, and held the pen in the other.
“No, why are you asking me?” Li Ke was startled by his swift and unconventional style of doing things, “Just give it to him directly, I’m just here to pass on a message, I don’t provide a collection service.”
“Just say that you lent it to him.” Qi Guang gripped the pen tightly, his tone not allowing for refusal.
“…Okay.”
After hanging up, Qi Guang clearly sensed that 1984 had become unusually quiet.
Although it was a closed afternoon, and there were only three of them in the entire 1984, one was cleaning, one was playing games, and there should be some sound even from fingers tapping on the keyboard.
Before he could turn around, Bai Shu patted him on the shoulder.
“Tsk, such a good Chinese ex.”
Qi Guang carefully folded the piece of paper with Li Ke’s card number and put it in his pocket, “I’m using Boss Qi’s ill-gotten gains to help the poor and accumulate good karma.”
“I’m so moved I’m going to sew you a banner tonight,” Xu Ge walked over, leaning against the cash register and looking at him with a “watching a good show” expression.
Unexpectedly, Qi Guang directly took the opportunity, “Then you better sew one for me tonight. If I don’t see it tomorrow, I’ll tear down 1984.”
Having said that, he raised an eyebrow at Xu Ge provocatively.
“Bai Shu, show him out!” Xu Ge was so angry that he slammed the table.
Bai Shu was amused by their childish bickering and gestured for Qi Guang to leave, “Qi Guang, you should go back and do your homework.”
Qi Guang pulled his backpack from the sofa and glanced at him, “Bai Ge, you should hang out less with Xu Ge, you’re getting corrupted.”
“You should hang out less with me!” Xu Ge made a gesture to kick his butt, but Qi Guang dodged skillfully like a monkey and darted out, leaving Xu Ge yelling at his back, “I don’t even want to talk about you always being second! When you surpass the top of the grade, then come to me for a banner!”
Ye Xing stood quietly in front of Wutong Cafe, looking at the figures inside, some busy and some at peace, feeling a bit emotional.
Having been a part-time employee at 1984, Ye Xing had always thought he knew a thing or two about management, but after really getting his hands on the cafe, he realized he had been incredibly naive.
Even if everything seemed to be readily available, all the procedures behind the scenes were exhausting.
Fortunately, the previous barista and waiters were willing to stay, and Wu Tong had given him some regular suppliers, so the cafe had managed to come back to life.
As for Fang Rong, since learning he had taken over the cafe, she didn’t seem surprised that her son could independently make such a big decision. Her calm and cooperative attitude surprised Ye Xing.
But mostly, he was relieved.
The doctor’s advice was indeed spot on. Since Fang Rong had started working, she had visibly improved, dealing with different people every day, and she didn’t have much time to keep a close eye on him, which relieved Ye Xing while also making him feel good.
Just then, his phone vibrated, and he pressed the answer button, “Hello.”
“Ye Xing, right? If you don’t come get your photos, I’m gonna stick them on the door as an advertisement!”
Ye Xing was stunned for a moment, and then realized what was going on, “Don’t, please don’t, I’m really sorry, I was too busy the past few days, I’ll come over now!”
“Within ten minutes, otherwise, I’ll clock out and lock the door on time,” the person on the other end of the phone said calmly.
If it were someone else, Ye Xing would have retorted, but since the other person’s photo studio was the only place in the city he had found that could develop film, he could only treat him with caution.
He quickly scanned a shared bicycle parked at the door, pushed off, and sped out.
The photo studio owner was a man of his word. When Ye Xing arrived, he had already put on his bag and was slowly locking the door.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Ye Xing dropped his bike and rushed over to stop him, panting, “I’m here to pick up my photos.”
“Oh, you’re quite punctual,” the owner put down his bag and took out a yellow envelope, handing it over, “If you were a minute later, I really would have stuck them on the door as an ad, you can decide whether or not you want to take them down.”
“Thank you, sir!” Ye Xing grabbed the envelope, cradling it in his hands as if it were a treasure, too busy to pay attention to his sarcasm.
Seeing him unaffected, the owner found it pointless to mock him, so he put his bag back on, hopped on his electric scooter, and leisurely rode away.
Ye Xing couldn’t bring himself to move. His mind was filled with the photos in his hands, and he felt like he wouldn’t come back to his senses until he had a look.
Embracing this sacred feeling and sincere emotion, he simply sat down by the curb and carefully opened the envelope.
For film camera users, the thrill of opening the photos was no less than opening a mystery box. A roll of film had thirty-six shots, but because of its uniqueness and inability to delete, every time the shutter was pressed, it was a carefully considered action, which led to the possibility of a roll taking several months or even half a year to finish.
Plus, since you didn’t know what the images would look like until they were developed, you often forgot what you had photographed by the time the roll was finished.
But Ye Xing remembered.
Every one of his shots had something to do with Qi Guang, even if he didn’t remember the specific scene and content.
He spread the photos on his lap, looking at them one by one, like a montage sequence in a movie, many fragments began to spin rapidly, and memories suddenly came to life.
Because neither of them liked nor were good at taking selfies, most of the time Ye Xing would silently press the shutter behind Qi Guang’s back.
Qi Guang’s back as he played the piano at 1984 for the first time—that was the day Qi Guang had given him the camera.
Qi Guang’s back as he lowered his head to carefully take orders from customers.
Qi Guang’s back as he cooked in the kitchen.
Qi Guang’s back as he organized notes for him under the lamp.
Qi Guang’s back as he adjusted the sound system in front of the TV while watching a movie together.
…