TSIBAMS Chapter 51

Chapter 51

The days grew hotter by the day. When Ye Xing woke up under the blazing sun, he realized his back was covered in sweat. He glanced at the time – eleven o’clock.

He wasn’t one for sleeping in, and this was probably the latest he had ever slept without setting an alarm. Of course, hangovers were an exception.

However, the muddled feeling in his head last night was similar to a hangover. He had a lot of chaotic dreams that he couldn’t quite remember the details of.

But the thought of going to Qi Guang’s place for a free meal later made him excited.

His anxiety vanished, and Ye Xing leaped out of bed, almost snapping his neck.

He took a shower, changed into clean clothes that still smelled of laundry detergent, and hummed a little tune as he left the house, his swagger drawing attention.

Putting aside his tendency to mooch meals at Zhou Tian’s shop, this was probably the first time he was specifically going to someone’s house as a guest. It was also the first time someone had invited him with a specific time and had personally offered to cook for him, which felt like a grand occasion.

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt a little nervous. He unlocked his phone and typed “What to do when visiting someone for the first time…” on Baidu. Before he could finish typing the keywords, it directly displayed “What to bring when visiting someone for the first time.”

Alright then.

He pressed the search button.

However, the results below were all “What to bring when visiting your boyfriend’s house for the first time” and “What to bring when visiting your girlfriend’s house for the first time.”

…

Speechless.

Although those two words popped into his head, he couldn’t help but smile.

As he approached Qi Guang’s building, he passed a fruit store. He felt like he had been saved and quickly put away his phone and rushed over. In the end, he picked a basket of cherries and strawberries and put them in a bag.

It was only when he was paying that he realized all the fruit he bought was bright red.

Very festive.

He must be going crazy!

Ye Xing scratched his head.

When he arrived at Qi Guang’s home, two dishes were already set on the dining table. Looking at the braised baby bok choy and mashed potatoes with meat sauce, Ye Xing remembered that he hadn’t even had breakfast and had rushed straight over. He suddenly felt hungry.

Entering the kitchen, he saw Qi Guang wearing an apron, busy at the stove. Ye Xing happily took a few photos secretly with his phone.

Well, not really secretly, because the last picture was Qi Guang brandishing a spatula at him.

“Hey! Watch the pot,” Ye Xing didn’t dodge but circled around to the stove, “What kind of dish is that with so much meat?”

“Sweet and sour ribs.” Qi Guang poured some cooking wine and vinegar into a small bowl.

Ye Xing clapped his hands, “A main dish!”

“You little trash…” Qi Guang poured some soy sauce into the small bowl, grabbed a handful of rock sugar, and then poured everything into the pot. He looked up at Ye Xing, “Help me get the kettle, it’s in the living room.”

Ye Xing obediently fetched the kettle and even added some hot water to the pot as instructed, just enough to cover the ribs.

“And then?” Ye Xing asked.

Qi Guang was washing chicken wings by the sink, “Just put the lid on it.”

“There are more dishes?” Ye Xing put the lid on and approached the sink, “It’s just the two of us… Holy crap, you didn’t invite anyone else, did you?”

“It’s only you!” Qi Guang frowned and looked at him, “But if I had invited someone else, why would you say ‘holy crap’?”

“Stop ‘crapping’ around, it’s not very elegant,” Ye Xing laughed, “I mean, if you were to invite two more people, the average cost per person would drop from a thousand to five hundred. I’d be at a loss.”

Qi Guang wiped his hands on his apron and pushed him towards the door, “Please get out, stop bothering me while I’m cooking.”

“Don’t!” Ye Xing stood at the kitchen door, poking his head in, “It’s embarrassing to freeload, let me at least lend a hand.”

Usually, he never voluntarily helped Fang Rong with cooking. Sometimes, he’d be very unwilling to even peel a clove of garlic. Yet, this kitchen seemed to have a fatal attraction.

“If you’re really that bored, help me hang the laundry!” Qi Guang sliced some ginger and wiped it across the pot before gently placing the chicken wings in one by one.

Receiving a new task, Ye Xing happily headed to the balcony.

The balcony was quite large. Besides drying clothes, it also had some small plants. Ye Xing didn’t like having plants at home because it looked messy, but Qi Guang’s home always seemed clean and empty like no one lived there. Adding some plants made it feel more alive.

He opened the washing machine. There weren’t many clothes inside, just two pairs of pants, two T-shirts, which he quickly hung up. Looking up at the underwear hanging above his head, he couldn’t help but sigh again.

Even the underwear was washed separately from the clothes. He really did have obsessive cleanliness.

After watching a kid on the opposite side watching cartoons for a while, Ye Xing collapsed onto the sofa and started playing with his phone. Although he really wanted to help in the kitchen, he was afraid of being rejected by Qi Guang, so he resisted the urge to get up. Soon he got bored with his phone and started wandering around the living room, looking at everything as if he were at home.

By the time Qi Guang called him to eat, he was excitedly looking at the photo frames on the cabinet.

“How were you so ugly when you were little?” Ye Xing turned around to look at him, then back at the photos.

Qi Guang was carrying a pot of chicken soup and didn’t have time to bother with him.

Seeing this, Ye Xing quickly went to help, laughing as he said, “But you’re really handsome now!”

“It’s a good thing you added that, or I would have just sent you away.” After placing the soup, Qi Guang turned to get the bowls and chopsticks.

“I’ll do it!” Ye Xing took the bowls and chopsticks from his hands and washed them in the sink, “You can relax.”

Qi Guang smiled, took off his apron, wiped his hands, and went into the bedroom.

After the meal was served, Ye Xing looked at the four dishes and a soup on the table. Although it wasn’t of a thousand-yuan-per-person quality, for someone who hadn’t been treated to a proper breakfast, lunch, or dinner in two months, this free meal felt rather grand. He took a picture with his phone.

Sweet and sour ribs, salt-fried chicken wings, braised baby bok choy, mashed potatoes with meat sauce, and chicken soup with mushrooms.

All dishes he didn’t know how to make.

Of course, all he knew how to make were instant noodles in various flavors.

At this moment, Qi Guang came out from the bedroom. Ye Xing noticed that Qi Guang was dressed very casually today, different from how he looked at 1984 last time. Last time he looked more casual and relaxed, but today, he looked as if he had just woken up and finished his morning routine. The grey loose-fitting pants made of modal fabric looked soft and comfortable, and he was wearing a grey and white striped short-sleeved casual shirt. His casual style was also evident in the fact that the shirt had very few buttons, with the first one opened to ten centimeters below his collarbone…

He just couldn’t dress properly.

Ye Xing looked down on himself. He had already seen his upper body before, but now he was even more afraid to look at it while he was wearing clothes?

Pathetic.

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

Qi Guang, seeing his gaze wandering, waved a small, simply packaged box in front of him.

Ye Xing then noticed that he was holding something that looked unidentifiable.

“I just wrapped it with a cardboard box and some newspaper,” Qi Guang said. “It’s not too bad, it doesn’t look too ugly.”

Not too ugly, it was very ugly. But it was still amazing that he could find newspaper these days. Ye Xing’s family hadn’t subscribed to any paper newspapers in the past decade.

“What is this?” Ye Xing asked.

“You’ll know when you open it.” Qi Guang put the box in front of Ye Xing on the table.

“Me?” Ye Xing was puzzled, but as soon as he unwrapped the newspaper and box, his eyes widened. “Holy crap!”

A very unique and somewhat old film camera was quietly lying on the table. The black shell had some hard-to-clean dust in the openings, but the leather strap was new.

Ye Xing was in shock and joy, speechless for a long time.

“Happy birthday, this is a belated gift,” Qi Guang said.

“You can even give belated gifts…” Ye Xing picked up the camera and looked at it from all sides, excitedly stammering, “Holy crap…”

“Do you like it?” Qi Guang looked at him.

“I love it! I really love it!” Ye Xing nodded vigorously, “Where did you get this?”

“I bought it in a secondhand market,” Qi Guang smiled, looking at how excited he was, “I saw how much you liked my grandpa’s film camera last time, so I bought one of the same brand for you. But I’m not too familiar with these things. It’s secondhand, so I hope it works?”

“It does! I love it so much,” Ye Xing said with a contented face, stroking the camera, “Qi Guang, are you a magician?”

“I’m glad you like it. Oh, and I also got you two rolls of film.” Qi Guang pulled out two small, green cylindrical items from his pocket.

Ye Xing took the film and looked at it, then put it into his pocket, saying solemnly, “Qi Guang, thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for?” Qi Guang wasn’t used to him being like this, and looking at how serious he was, he laughed again, “Didn’t you say I owe you and I’ll have to repay you slowly?”

Ye Xing put the camera back in the box and repackaged it, even carefully folding back the ripped newspaper, before carefully placing it to the side.

“I do need to repay you slowly,” Ye Xing looked at him slyly, “But this is a birthday gift, it’s not part of the repayment, so I have to thank you separately.”

“Damn…” Qi Guang was both amused and annoyed, “Then tell me how am I supposed to repay you slowly?”

“Qi Guang, do you have any plans for the future?” Ye Xing said, handing him the chopsticks, “I mean after graduation… Your grades are so good, you must have thought about which university you want to go to.”

Qi Guang took the chopsticks, “Yeah, I do.”

Ye Xing thought he would continue, but he stopped abruptly. He picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork ribs for Ye Xing, then picked one for himself and put it in his mouth.

He finished his meal without saying anything more.

“I knew it,” Ye Xing started eating as well, “You won’t stay here forever.”

“What about you?” Qi Guang asked.

“I suddenly had one last night.”

“What?”

“I suddenly had a goal to work hard for! I want to get into a good university too!” Ye Xing looked at him, then lowered his head and chuckled, “You probably want to laugh. You’ve seen our class’s report card, right? If you want to laugh, just laugh. My grades are a joke.”

“It’s not a joke, and I didn’t want to laugh. If you don’t understand anything in the future, just ask me,” Qi Guang said, “Which university do you want to go to? What’s your score goal? I can help you plan. We’ll focus on areas where you can improve. There’s still a year before the college entrance exam, a lot can be done in a year.”

Ye Xing raised his head and met his sincere and serious gaze, suddenly feeling a bit flustered.

“You look so serious and unlike yourself when you act like that.”

“Your Brother Qi is always serious,” Qi Guang put a chicken wing into Ye Xing’s open mouth, “Learn from me, you little trash.”

“Okay, I’ll learn from you, Brother Qi!” Ye Xing took the chicken wing with his hand, smiling, but suddenly feeling a bit melancholy, “But, I have to leave next week.”

“Rea…” The word “really” was about to come out, but Qi Guang was interrupted by the second half of his sentence. Qi Guang looked at him, asking in confusion, “Where are you going?”