TSIBAMS Chapter 126
by Volare“I’m back!” Qi Guang excitedly closed the door, quickly kicked off his shoes, and haphazardly slipped into a pair of slippers before darting into the kitchen.
In front of the stove, Ye Xing was the epitome of a capable homemaker, wearing a pink apron that was probably bought online by Shuai Xiaoyun, skillfully stir-frying shredded green peppers and pork in the pan. The constant buzzing of the range hood added to the scene, making him look quite agitated.
Qi Guang pattered over to him, wrapped his arms around his waist from behind, and said, “Why are you ignoring me?”
“The range hood answered for me.”
Ye Xing, who usually sat before his easel looking like a gentle, harmless prince, immediately transformed into an irascible short-order cook in a busy diner once he stepped into the kitchen.
Nevertheless, he had been cooking for the family’s sole breadwinner for days without complaint.
“I’m officially on break tomorrow! That little girl finally has her exams! I got paid for the last few days today, so tonight I’ll take you out for a good meal!” Qi Guang chuckled, resting his head on Ye Xing’s shoulder.
Ye Xing, a human with a single-core processor, could be described as almost aloof when focused on a task. Afraid of burning the food, he deftly dodged Qi Guang’s lips that were about to land on his neck, and then pushed him out of the kitchen, “Xu Ge and Bai Shu are coming over tonight, we’ll eat at home. The hotpot seasoning I ordered online should be here soon, listen for the doorbell.”
“Okay.”
Qi Guang responded and went back to the living room, sitting down on the rug by the edge of the sofa, then turned on the TV.
He didn’t usually sit on the rug as if it were a sofa. The first time he saw Ye Xing do it, he had lectured him on how rugs easily accumulated dirt and bred mites. But who was Ye Xing? A student who was never late, never dozed off in class, and always found ways to complete his homework even though he was a terrible student. He had a good attitude, but whether he listened was another matter.
Finally, after seeing Ye Xing sprawled out on the rug, playing on his phone, and falling asleep for the twenty-third time, the lustful… no, the sympathetic Qi Guang, finally, embracing a “to hell with my cleanliness” mentality, took a comforter and lay down beside him.
Now, without Ye Xing even as bait, he had naturally come to ignore the existence of the sofa.
He listlessly flipped through channels with the remote, his long legs shifting restlessly, and just as he glanced under the coffee table, his face suddenly froze and he sharply pulled his foot back with a hiss.
Was there something under the coffee table?
The coffee table was low enough, and wasn’t an ideal storage area. Furthermore, they’d cleaned the place a few days ago, and there was nothing under there.
He put down the remote and suspiciously bent down, searching for the culprit that had stubbed his toe.
Without much effort, he found it—a wide but not too thick box.
Qi Guang froze for a few seconds after pulling the box out.
It was clearly a carefully wrapped gift.
How careful?
—Half of the care came from the pink wrapping paper, and the other half came from the bright red lace ribbon tied around the wrapping paper.
That’s right! Bright red! Lace ribbon!
The pink wrapping paper even had visible rose patterns, emanating a powerful, flamboyant aura as if it were afraid others wouldn’t know it was hiding something scandalous.
His mind filled with inappropriate scenes, he quickly dropped the hot potato on the ground. The kitchen range hood, which had been turned off a second ago, made the sound of the box hitting the carpet particularly jarring.
Then, Ye Xing’s voice came from the kitchen, “What happened?!”
Qi Guang quickly pulled the comforter from the sofa and covered the box on the floor, and looked up to see Ye Xing holding a spatula and opening the kitchen door. He forced a smile, “Nothing, I just bumped my foot on the coffee table!”
Ye Xing became even more worried, dropped the spatula on the table, and rushed over, “Did you hurt it?”
“No, no!” Qi Guang waved his hand, signaling him to go back quickly, “I’m fine, I…”
Before he finished, he saw Ye Xing kneeling on the rug, looking at his toe.
“It’s a little red.” Ye Xing said, reaching out but hesitating to touch it, afraid of getting oil on himself.
Qi Guang felt his heart melt at the sight of this.
Ye Xing didn’t get a response from him, so he glanced at him.
“Huh?” Qi Guang was distracted, and his heart skipped a beat at that sudden glance.
“Does it hurt?” Ye Xing was still looking at him, and when he noticed that his expression was off, he asked again, “What’s wrong?”
Qi Guang stared at him for a few seconds, then gave a slight smile, “Go wash your hands.”
“Wash my hands?” Ye Xing repeated, looking him up and down in disbelief, confirming that he was not hurt at all, and decisively tried to stand up, “You can amuse yourself! The food’s about to be ready!”
“Forget about the food.” Qi Guang grabbed two tissues and covered Ye Xing’s palm with them. Then, he pressed him down onto the floor.
Ye Xing’s hands were covered in oil and he couldn’t move, much less resist, so he could only let Qi Guang press him down and lift him up to move him around.
He had no idea why the other person had suddenly become like this while watching TV. Ye Xing’s mind was only focused on the food in the pan, “The food…”
Qi Guang was amused by his house-husband persona, and kissed him while trying to suppress his laughter.
Even though the two of them had been intimate at home lately, it was limited to the bedroom. But today, Qi Guang’s impulsive and aggressive behavior made it seem as though he wanted to finish things right here and now, which surprised him a little.
Suddenly, Ye Xing felt something hard against his waist, making him yelp, “Ah!”
Qi Guang paused, panting.
“What’s that?” Ye Xing lifted his waist slightly, his chest rising and falling. He frowned slightly, staring at Qi Guang, “There’s something under the comforter.”
“Crap…” Realizing what was happening, Qi Guang took a deep breath, gripping him tightly.
“Qi Guang, let go, it’s digging into me.” Ye Xing didn’t know what he was thinking. He struggled for a bit, and without minding the oil on his hands, he flipped the comforter open. When he saw the pink box underneath, he froze, “How did this get here?”
Qi Guang blushed and didn’t know what to do.
“Did you put it here?” Ye Xing turned to look at him, “Why are you so red?”
The latter quietly released his grip, rolled over, sat on the rug against the sofa, and rubbed his nose awkwardly, “Ye Xing… you…”
Ye Xing looked at his expression, not understanding.
“I was originally going to surprise you tonight, but since you found it early…”
“Surprise?” Qi Guang swallowed and glanced at the pink object, then quickly looked away, “Are you sure it’s a surprise?”
Ye Xing’s eyes suddenly darkened, and he lay back down on the rug dejectedly, “Don’t you like it?”
Qi Guang couldn’t bear to see him like this and after a moment of hesitation, he found the right words.
“No, it’s not that, do you think I don’t have enough tricks? I can learn, there’s no need to get so daring right now, we’re still young.”
That way, he shouldn’t hurt his feelings over the gift he prepared, right?
But Ye Xing just looked at him, confused.
“What are you talking about?”
This topic was not easy to bring up directly. Even though their earlier actions were moving towards a public display of affection, there was a difference between acting on impulse and carefully explaining things. He looked away and whispered, “If you want to be on top or whatever, you can tell me.”
“On top?” Ye Xing’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he propped himself up to get closer to Qi Guang, “Are you saying I can… really?”
So he really was a kid.
Qi Guang was amused by his reaction and sighed, shaking his head, “Yeah… I’m the one who’s been taking the initiative lately, I thought you preferred being the bottom.”
“No, I thought you liked being on top!” Ye Xing, with a sense of camaraderie and generosity, said that. Then he suddenly kissed him on the cheek, smiled, “But I don’t mind, as long as I’m with you, it’s fine, even just kissing or hugging is enough for me.”
As he spoke, he took a tissue and wiped his hands clean. Then, he picked up the striking red box and began to unwrap it.
“What are you doing?” Qi Guang watched him warily.
“Unwrapping the gift, of course!” Ye Xing paused and handed the gift over, “Or would you rather unwrap it yourself?”
The blush on Qi Guang’s face had not yet faded, and it was rising again, “I think the food in the pan is getting cold.”
Ye Xing didn’t move, and said seriously, “It’s okay, I can heat it up later, let’s open it.”
“Fine… okay… whatever makes you happy.” Qi Guang sighed and decided not to avoid it any longer. After untying the red lace ribbon, he quickly tore off the pink wrapping paper. Surprisingly, the contents were not as flashy as he had imagined. Until the image of a laptop on the cardboard box came into view, he was still a bit out of it, “What is this?”
“What’s with that expression? Don’t you like this style?” Ye Xing asked.
Qi Guang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“A laptop, and you use such a flashy wrapping?”
“That’s the only wrapping paper we had at home! Shuai Xiaoyun probably bought it. It’s already good that there’s wrapping at all.” Ye Xing said, and then started to sigh, “You know, Sister Xiaoyun seems like a cool girl, but secretly she only likes little princess, cute things.”
“Little princess, cute things?”
“Pink? Isn’t that cute? There’s a saying—’in the heart of a tiger, there is a rose’. Sister Xiaoyun really does have the heart of a maiden.”
“You’re dead, you said she was a tiger, I won’t keep that a secret.”
“Pfft!” Ye Xing couldn’t help but laugh, and it took him a while to recover. Then he said seriously, “Since you have so many opinions on this wrapping paper, why don’t we talk about when you gave me my first gift? When you wrapped the second-hand film camera with old newspapers?”
Qi Guang quietly examined the gift that had been stripped of its wrapping and ignored his accusatory question.
After a while, he asked, “Why did you give me this?”
“You need a laptop for college, otherwise, will you be fighting with me for my computer to do your homework?” Ye Xing stood up, patted his pants, smoothed out his distorted T-shirt, and walked toward the kitchen to save his beloved food, “Impossible, my computer is for painting and making money to support the family, it bears a heavy responsibility.”
“Where did you get the money?” Qi Guang asked.
Ye Xing slowed down and patiently replied, “Remember that illustration job I did before? It was published recently, and they gave me the payment. Plus, my coffee shop is doing pretty well, so I can slowly pay you back…”
Qi Guang frowned.
Ye Xing immediately changed his words, “I mean, when I have money, I’ll take you out for some fun.”
Then, he quickly dashed into the kitchen.
Qi Guang was immediately amused, and followed him, “Take who? You?”
At nine o’clock that evening, Xu Ge’s car had just parked in Seattle Garden when two accusing faces appeared at the window.
“Weren’t you supposed to be here by six? Xu Ge!” Qi Guang looked down at the person in the car.
Xu Ge rolled down the window, “It wasn’t my fault.”
“Yes, it was your fault,” Bai Shu unbuckled his seatbelt, got out of the passenger side, and opened the car door.
“Bai Shu?” Xu Ge looked at him with a “Whose side are you on” look.
Bai Shu didn’t seem to get his signal. He didn’t even glance at him. He looked as if a wife full of complaints had finally returned to her parents’ home. He grabbed the two people who had been waiting outside the car and started complaining.
“Your boss Xu accepted a ride-sharing order the night before we left. Then, when it was time to go today, the girl who ordered the ride was late. After we got to S City in the afternoon, we found out that she was going in the opposite direction of your place. It was hard enough getting her there, and then we got caught in the evening rush hour, so we were stuck in traffic until now…”
“Wait, what is boss Xu up to?” Ye Xing chuckled, “When did you start doing a side job as a driver?”
“Bah, this is called being frugal! I came all this way to find you, will you reimburse me for the gas?” Xu Ge opened the car door, glared at them resentfully, and went straight to the trunk to get something.
“Oh…” Qi Guang repeated his words in a mocking tone, “Being frugal.”
After that, he and Ye Xing exchanged a smile and looked at Bai Shu with ill intentions.
Bai Shu lowered his head in embarrassment, then smiled, shook his head, and walked around them to the trunk, helping Xu Ge to carry several boxes out.
They had thought that they were going to be taking out luggage from the trunk, but when they saw the boxes coming out one after the other, Qi Guang and Ye Xing exchanged confused looks.
As expected, the boxes were filled with nothing else but grapes, strawberries, peaches, and even watermelons… it looked like a small fruit stall.
Ye Xing picked off a grape, confirming that it wasn’t a prop, and peeled it to feed to Qi Guang. Then, he said to Xu Ge, “Xu Ge, big boss Xu, did you come here to sell fruit?”
“Tsk!” Qi Guang swallowed the grape and echoed him, “You’re a driver and a fruit seller, you are not being frugal, I thought you were keeping a small internet celebrity.”
“Small internet celebrity” Bai Shu was squatting next to a box of peaches, laughing so hard that he couldn’t straighten up.
Xu Ge paused and raised his leg as if to kick someone, “You little brat!”
Qi Guang grabbed Ye Xing and ran, and Xu Ge wasn’t going to let them off the hook easily this time, passing by Bai Shu like a gust of wind as he chased after them.
“So, you brought all this fruit for us?”
The hotpot on the table was bubbling with chili. Qi Guang was still holding a piece of fatty beef, and half of it had fallen into the pot. He looked at the two people across the table, somewhat shocked.
Xu Ge crossed his arms, looking back at them with a head tilt, as if interrogating a prisoner.
“No, it’s for the dogs,” he stated firmly.
Ye Xing grabbed a few bottles of beer from the fridge, and when he went to the table, he saw the scene of the standoff. He had only caught the last bit of the conversation, and he became interested, “What dogs? Xu Ge, are you going to get dogs?”
Xu Ge hummed softly in response, took the ice-cold beer from his hand, and just when he was about to tap the bottle on the corner of the table out of habit, he stopped in mid-air and instead took the bottle opener that Bai Shu handed over.
Qi Guang glanced at the beer that was placed in front of Ye Xing, and said, “Where’s your coke?”
“Can I drink alcohol today?” Ye Xing asked hesitantly.
“Did you forget a few days ago when you wanted to drink at night, you ran out to the balcony and sang ‘Beijing Welcomes You’, disturbing the neighbors and having someone yell at you from the opposite building, calling you a country bumpkin?” Qi Guang didn’t hold back and didn’t treat the two people on the opposite side of the table, who were frantically suppressing their laughter, like outsiders.
Ye Xing took a deep breath.
Then he looked at Xu Ge dejectedly, “What kind of dogs are you getting?”
“Street dogs.” Xu Ge said through laughter.
Bai Shu, who was preparing the dipping sauce for everyone, and carefully placing the beef, pork, crab sticks, and shrimp paste into the pot, finally decided to break the silence.
He patted Xu Ge’s shoulder as a sign of sympathy, then turned to the audience and started to sell him out, “On the way here this morning, we encountered a car accident, and the road was backed up for a few kilometers. Xu Ge got restless in the driver’s seat and said he wanted to walk around. I waited for him in the car for half an hour, thinking he’d gone far and couldn’t find his way back. When I got out of the car, I saw him playing cards with a bunch of fruit vendors.”
Now that their attention was on someone else, Ye Xing quickly seized the opportunity to ask, “Xu Ge, aren’t you hot?”
Qi Guang could see through his sneaky intentions, and took the beer that Ye Xing had just opened and poured it into his own glass. Then, he glanced at Xu Ge and sighed, “What a romantic and devoted man, no, wait, devoted to playing cards. So you won all this fruit?”
Xu Ge ignored them, got a can of coke from the fridge, opened the tab, and placed it in front of Ye Xing.
“I really can’t watch anymore,” he said, as if talking to himself.
The beef that had been put into the pot was cooked quickly. Bai Shu expertly used his chopsticks to turn the food around in the pot and put a pile of beef in Xu Ge’s bowl. Then, he turned his chopsticks towards Qi Guang, who declined.
“I’ll do it myself.” He learned how to turn his chopsticks like Bai Shu, and it took several turns to get a small amount. He was afraid that he would drop it, so he told Ye Xing to get a bowl, “Quick, quick, quick!”
Xu Ge was eating his meat in silence, his mind racing to find a subtle way to change the subject and turn the page.
Bai Shu didn’t give him the chance, and said slowly, “It’s fine if he’s good at playing, but it turns out he never wins. I had to pay for all this fruit after he lost.”
Qi Guang and Ye Xing looked at each other and communicated through mind waves.
-Did you hear that? Bai Shu paid for it.
-Yeah, Xu Ge’s finances have been handed over.
On the other side of the hot pot, an old married couple was bickering about household matters.
“I lost on purpose. It’s not easy for them to run a business on the side of the road in this hot weather. It’s the perfect opportunity for you two to eat more fruit to nourish your brains since you two graduated.” Xu Ge said.
“Fruits can’t nourish the brain,” Bai Shu retorted ruthlessly.
Qi Guang cupped his hands, “Xu Ge, you have vision.”
Xu Ge ignored him and continued to explain to Bai Shu, “I didn’t lie to you, and see, they are a very honest business. The fruit they sell is high quality for a low price. If we were in the city, these two kids would have to spend a lot more money to buy this much fruit.”
Bai Shu nodded and changed his sharp attitude, and smiled gently, “Okay, Xu Ge, I believe you lost on purpose.”
The battle had just ended when a phone rang.
“Hello,” Ye Xing answered the phone, “You want to come play with us? Tomorrow?”
Qi Guang mouthed, “It’s Li Ke.”
Xu Ge suddenly straightened up, putting on an official stance like a concubine returning to the palace, and said, “I’m going to say this first. The guest bedroom is reserved by us for the week.”
This was indeed an objective fact. The fact that Qi Guang had gone to S City instead of first going to 1984 after their college entrance exams was a shock to Xu Ge. The next day after waking up from a drunken stupor, he called Qi Guang and scolded him as a “ungrateful wretch” more than a dozen times. Later, after being invited by him to go to S City to have some fun with free food and accommodation, he happily accepted and bought new clothes for himself and Bai Shu online.
“You’re meeting an online friend?” Ye Xing frowned and glanced at Qi Guang. He grabbed his chopsticks and ate two mouthfuls of meat haphazardly, “You’re something else. You have an online friend so soon after finishing your college entrance exams.”
Qi Guang nodded to Xu Ge, “You can relax. When Ye Xing heard you were coming, he cleaned the house yesterday. The bedsheets are freshly washed, and the quilts were hung out to dry on the balcony all afternoon. Our own blankets have not been sunned, you can see just how important you are.”
Xu Ge gave a satisfied “Boss Xu” smile.
“Have you booked rooms? Near my place…” Ye Xing was holding his phone, “Okay, then come eat at my place when you get here.”
Xu Ge glanced at Bai Shu, who was wholeheartedly focused on putting food into the hotpot. Right now, he was fishing out the remaining crab sticks from the previous batch.
And Qi Guang had simply found a strainer to help him fish them out.
Xu Ge suddenly felt a bit embarrassed for paying too much attention to the phone call. He touched his nose and said casually, “This kid knows what he’s doing. He didn’t discuss it with you, he’s just informing you.”
Qi Guang gave a helpless look, “I just hope Shuai Xiaoyun doesn’t come to S City right now. My dining table is almost at its maximum capacity.”
Bai Shu and Xu Ge laughed to themselves on the side.
Just then, the doorbell suddenly rang, and everyone froze like startled rabbits. They stared at each other with wide eyes.
“More guests?” Xu Ge asked.
Qi Guang shook his head.
Then, the phone on the table vibrated. Qi Guang looked at the name and picked up the call with a complicated expression, “Hello, Sister Xiaoyun…”