TSIBAMS Chapter 37

“I think you’re just using seeing me as an excuse to freeload!” Qi Guang threw a pillow at him.

The other person sitting on the sofa, Brother Xu, remained calm, playing on his phone as if the world had nothing to do with him.

Just then, Qi Guang’s phone rang.

He was a bit surprised to see Ye Xing’s name on the screen.

He couldn’t figure out this person’s temper. Their relationship was sometimes good and sometimes bad, and at the moment, it was hard to tell whether it was leaning towards the good or the bad.

“Hello,” he answered.

“Are you feeling better?” Ye Xing’s voice on the other end of the phone sounded as normal, not showing any particular concern in his tone, even when saying something caring.

“I’m fine,” Qi Guang said.

Fine enough to skip a morning of class?

Ye Xing resisted the urge to retort and asked, “Did you go home?”

As soon as he asked, Ye Xing couldn’t help but slap himself mentally. Why did he ask that?

At this moment, Bai Shu called out from the kitchen, “Food is ready!”

Qi Guang got up from the sofa, walking towards the kitchen while answering the phone, “Not yet.”

“Um…” Ye Xing hesitated, “Can you let Bai Shu take the call?”

Qi Guang didn’t show much expression on his face, nor did he ask why. He simply handed the phone to Bai Shu, “Ye Xing wants to talk to you, the classmate from the KTV yesterday.”

Bai Shu looked puzzled as he took the phone. Qi Guang didn’t intend to listen, so he took the cooked dishes to the living room and found the bowls and chopsticks, washing them clean before bringing them out.

“Do you want me to serve the food and bring it over to you?” Qi Guang, holding the clean bowls, looked at the person playing games on the sofa.

“Almost done!” Brother Xu was engrossed in the game, without spare time for even another word.

As expected, after serving the food, Brother Xu put down his phone and came to the table.

“You guys eat first, I’ll go over there for a bit,” Bai Shu said, coming out of the kitchen, putting his phone on the table and started taking off his apron.

“What’s so urgent?” Qi Guang asked.

Bai Shu hung the apron behind the door, “Your classmate seems to have left something important at the shop.”

“Go after you eat,” Brother Xu said.

“He probably doesn’t have much time at noon, he has classes in the afternoon,” Bai Shu took out the keys from his bag and placed them on the table, “I’ll be right back, so I won’t take the keys, just save me some food.”

“No big deal, there’s someone here who has been skipping class comfortably for half the day,” Brother Xu said dismissively, pressing him onto the chair, then turned to Qi Guang, “Are you still going to class this afternoon?”

Qi Guang was in a daze, not sure what he was thinking, and didn’t reply.

Bai Shu also looked at him, “Qi Guang, why don’t you come with me?”

He finally came back to his senses, waved his hand in refusal, “No, eating is more important.”

“Hey, you two have a bit of a superficial relationship,” Brother Xu smiled.

Qi Guang knew he was referring to Ye Xing and forced a helpless smile, “Brother Xu, first, we don’t have a relationship, and second, plastic doesn’t have a taste unless you set it on fire.”

Then, he pointed at the lighter on the table.

Bai Shu laughed too. He stood up and went to the door to change his shoes, “Stop arguing, I’ll go first. Brother Xu, I’ll take your car.”

After Bai Shu left, Qi Guang felt a little strange. This was Bai Shu’s home, Bai Shu had prepared the food but hadn’t eaten himself, leaving two outsiders here looking at each other. Well, it wasn’t exactly “looking at each other”. It seemed like only he was uncomfortable, while Brother Xu was eating heartily like he was at his own house, not seeming like an outsider at all.

“Do you come to his house often?” Qi Guang asked.

“Not often,” Brother Xu raised his head, “Although I’m the boss, I can’t just freeload at my employee’s house, can I?

Well, although you’re the boss, you only bring your employees home to exploit them.

Qi Guang smiled unconsciously at this thought.

Seeing his expression, Brother Xu quickly added, “He asked to come to my place too, just two grown men eating a meal together! Don’t fill your head with perverted thoughts!”

“What the hell,” Qi Guang’s eyes widened, “I didn’t think that much!”

“Is that so?” Brother Xu stared at him, “I don’t know if you’re acting or just plain annoying. Haven’t you ever been taught a lesson for being so annoying?”

He had, in fact, been taught a lesson before.

But that person insisted that he was an actor.

Damn it! It was so confusing!

Qi Guang admitted that he was annoying and was not ashamed but rather proud. He decided to keep it up, “If you two could just restrain yourselves a bit, I wouldn’t have to be here and add to the drama!”

“You little brat!” Brother Xu couldn’t help but laugh. He put down his chopsticks and looked at Qi Guang, “So, you and that Ye Xing classmate are keeping your distance?”

“Brother Xu??” Qi Guang couldn’t help but laugh as well, “Don’t joke around. You know that’s not the case.”

“Then you better stop speculating about Bai Shu and me too,” Brother Xu tapped him on the head.

Qi Guang laughed and quickly stopped, focusing on eating his food. Brother Xu was still staring at him, not touching his chopsticks. At first, Qi Guang tried to pretend he didn’t notice. After being stared at for a while, he felt uncomfortable, so he looked up, “Brother Xu?”

“Has anyone ever said you look a bit fierce when you’re not smiling?” Brother Xu asked.

“Yeah.”

“Why did you drink so much yesterday?”

Qi Guang frowned, “Are you having selective amnesia? Weren’t you there at the time?”

“Don’t get so worked up,” Brother Xu put a piece of meat in his bowl, “You’ve been acting strange ever since your dad came.”

Was that so?

Qi Guang knew that he was acting strange, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly was wrong.

It was like his heart was constantly feeling blocked, but he couldn’t pinpoint the source. He was just inexplicably upset.

He pulled out his cigarette case, tapped out two cigarettes, gave one to Brother Xu, and lit one for himself, “Maybe Qi Jingsheng ruined my mood.”

He didn’t want to use words like “dad” or “father”, so he simply used his full name. Although Brother Xu didn’t know Qi Jingsheng, he knew who he was referring to without thinking too much.

“Have you sorted things out with him?” Brother Xu took a drag of his cigarette.

“As far as I’m concerned, I have. I’m never going back anyway, so there’s nothing to sort out,” Qi Guang said casually. This wasn’t something he found difficult to decide, and besides, he hadn’t changed his mind about it.

He took a puff of his cigarette, exhaled slowly, and then flicked the ash into the ashtray. It was a bit inconsiderate to fill a non-smoker’s house with smoke, especially while eating their food. But at this moment, Qi Guang was also learning from Brother Xu – not treating himself as an outsider.

After they smoked in silence for a while, Brother Xu spoke again.

“But you’re still not okay,” Brother Xu said, “I understand you. You always handle things decisively and don’t fuss around. Now that you’ve sorted it out, what’s with your mood these past few days?”

“What’s wrong with my mood?” Qi Guang frowned.

“You’re distracted and restless,” Brother Xu searched for the right words, and then said with a flourish, “You look like a teenager who’s in a secret crush during early puberty.”

After searching the upstairs and downstairs of the bar in vain, Ye Xing looked a little anxious.

Bai Shu comforted him, “Don’t worry, think about where else you might have gone. If you dropped it at our shop, usually anyone who finds it will hand it to the staff.”

“I didn’t go anywhere else. I went straight home after leaving here,” Ye Xing frowned, anxiously touching his hand, “Thank you for taking the trouble to come and open the door for me. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

“It’s okay,” Bai Shu looked at the time, “The KTV should be opening soon.”

Ye Xing searched his memory and suddenly felt something under his palm. He looked at his hand in puzzlement, and it was a faint scar left by a graze.

That’s right, he fell last night!

It was very likely he had dropped it at that time!

He rushed out of 1984, looking down at the entrance, under the steps, under the streetlights, under the motorbikes, under the trees, even the crevices in the tiles were not spared.

Bai Shu followed him out, “What’s so important, is it very valuable?”

Ye Xing searched everywhere and couldn’t find it, so he sat down dejectedly on the curb, “It’s not valuable. It’s a string of Buddhist beads that my mom got for me. I’ve been wearing it since I was a child. Losing it feels like losing a piece of myself.”

It seemed like a very important thing.

It was something important that Bai Shu had never experienced.

He had never met his parents, or rather, he had no memory of meeting them. But he had heard bits and pieces of his family history from others. His mother had gone out to work in her teens, gotten pregnant, but didn’t dare have an abortion. After he was born, she left him with his grandparents. She basically abandoned him, remarried later, and never came back or acknowledged him.

It sounded unbelievable, but this sort of thing wasn’t new in Chen Town.

There was nothing new under the sun, and the more backward the place, the more stories there were. There were many left-behind or orphaned children in Chen Town. Compared to that, Qi Guang, who had been with his parents but experienced a major family change, it was hard to say whether he was fortunate or unfortunate.

But Bai Shu didn’t feel unfortunate because he had met Brother Xu.

The first time he met Brother Xu, Brother Xu was still a hoodlum and he was still in school. He was working at a grocery store on weekends when he encountered a robbery. Bai Shu was fair-skinned and not as tall as the robber, so he was almost scared to cry. Brother Xu happened to pass by and rushed in and beat the robber up without saying a word.

The robber was also a coward who picked on the weak. When he saw it was Brother Xu, he immediately surrendered, accepted the dressing down, and promised not to cause trouble again.

The first thing Brother Xu said to Bai Shu was, “You look a lot like one of my friends. If anyone bullies you, come find me, and I’ll teach them a lesson.”

Later, after Bai Shu graduated from junior high school, Brother Xu paid for him to finish high school. Then Bai Shu refused to leave to go to university. Instead, he stayed to help him manage the KTV. Bai Shu had never met the friend that Brother Xu said he resembled.

Until Qi Guang appeared. When he saw Qi Guang’s eyes, he understood.

“Brother Bai?” Ye Xing asked, not knowing that the person in front of him was zoning out, “Are you okay?”

“Huh?” He finally came back to his senses.

“Well, I saw there’s a camera at the entrance,” Ye Xing hesitated, “Can I check the surveillance footage? If it’s convenient…”

“Sure,” Bai Shu motioned him to follow him inside, “I’ll go find it for you.”