TSIBAMS Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Ye Xing didn’t really like going to other people’s homes, especially having to pretend to be a good student in front of parents, which made him very uncomfortable. Fortunately, there was no one at Qi Guang’s house.

Not only was there no one, but the house was so clean and tidy that it didn’t even look like anyone lived there.

Although Qi Guang insisted on treating his wound himself, seeing how clumsy he was with one hand, Ye Xing snatched the saline solution and iodine from him, “Let me do it.”

“Thanks,” Qi Guang said.

Only then did Ye Xing notice that there were old scars below his wound, four knife marks of moderate length on his forearm. They were not very noticeable from a distance and were already scabbed over.

But judging from the neatness of their alignment, they were definitely not accidental.

He didn’t like to pry into other people’s affairs, especially since the person in front of him wasn’t very familiar. He quietly cleaned the wound and bandaged it. The two of them didn’t say anything throughout the whole process.

After taking care of it, Qi Guang went into his room and got a set of clean clothes for Ye Xing, “Change into these.”

“Why?” Ye Xing looked at him.

“If you go out to eat with me like that, I’ll be embarrassed.” Qi Guang deliberately dragged out the last two words.

Ye Xing waved his hand, “I’m going back. Next time, your hand is like this.”

“Even if I’m really disabled, I still have to eat,” Qi Guang stuffed the clothes into Ye Xing’s hand. “Hurry up, daddy’s starving.”

Fine.

Ye Xing took the clothes and turned towards the direction of the bathroom.

Qi Guang thought he was going to use the toilet and reminded him, “Just leave the clothes on the sofa.”

“I’m just going to change!” Ye Xing said impatiently.

“You’re so fussy,” Qi Guang lay down on the sofa and waited for him, not seeing that Ye Xing was rolling his eyes at him behind his back.

Qi Guang’s clothes actually fit perfectly, as if they were his own.

In front of the mirror, Ye Xing looked at himself after changing.

The black T-shirt had a line of English written in the middle – ARE YOU STRESSED.

Below were two options, the first option was “YES”, and the second option was “NO”. There was a square box in front of each option to check.

The box in front of “YES” was completely blank.

The box in front of “NO” was messily scribbled over with red pen, even going outside the box, looking very agitated.

Moron.

Ye Xing laughed at himself in the mirror.

Originally, Qi Guang couldn’t decide what to treat Ye Xing to, but they had only just reached downstairs when Ye Xing was attracted by the roadside barbecue stand.

Qi Guang chose a table and signaled Ye Xing to sit there.

“Yo, Xiao Guang brought a classmate!” the barbecue stall owner greeted loudly, and smiled when he saw Ye Xing, “A new friend too!”

“Yeah, a new classmate.” Qi Guang put his injured arm under the table to avoid the owner asking about it, then said to Ye Xing, “You can take whatever you want to eat, and put it in the basket for the owner to grill.”

Ye Xing saw Qi Guang cautiously hiding his wound and didn’t ask any further questions.

“What do you want to eat? I’ll get it for you.”

“Whatever you like is fine, I’m not picky.”

Ye Xing quickly chose what to order and told the owner to make it less spicy, then took a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and returned to the table.

Qi Guang took the beer, “How thoughtful!”

Ye Xing snatched the beer back, “It’s not for you.”

“Hey! I’m treating you to dinner, and you won’t even get me a beer, what kind of person are you?” Qi Guang grumbled, “I’m the one treating, please don’t get that wrong!”

“You can’t drink,” Ye Xing looked at Qi Guang.

“Why can you drink and I can’t?” Qi Guang didn’t understand Ye Xing’s logic.

“Because—” Ye Xing pointed to Qi Guang’s arm hidden under the table, “You’re injured.”

Qi Guang looked like it wasn’t necessary, “The wound is very shallow!”

“What if?” Ye Xing found a bottle opener and opened the beer, “If your wound opens again, I don’t want to end up in other people’s social media posts with you.”

Qi Guang helplessly cursed, “Moron.”

After about ten minutes, the barbecue was ready. Qi Guang, regardless of his injured arm, went over to get it himself.

He also took a bottle of beer for himself.

Ye Xing, seeing this, helplessly shook his head.

“Barbecue without cold beer has no soul!” Qi Guang said.

“Whatever you say is right.” Ye Xing was too lazy to argue with him again, took a skewer of meat, smelled it, and happily took a bite.

The two of them ate their barbecue in silence. Perhaps they were too hungry, or perhaps they weren’t very familiar with each other, so they could only keep eating.

Until there were six empty beer bottles under the table, the two of them began to have the desire to chat.

“Oh right, I forgot my school uniform at your place, remind me to get it later,” Ye Xing started the conversation.

“Your school uniform is covered in my blood,” Qi Guang took a sip of beer, “I’ll wash it for you.”

“Wow, who knew, you can even do laundry!” Ye Xing said with disbelief.

“Your brother can do many things.” Qi Guang chuckled.

“Pah!” Ye Xing picked up a meat skewer and looked at him, “Who’s the brother is still up for debate!”

Qi Guang said, “There shouldn’t be anyone older than me in the whole grade, I repeated a year.”

“Oh?” Ye Xing put down the skewer, ready to hear the story, “Tell me about it?”

“It’s a long story,” Qi Guang said.

“Well, the night is long.” Ye Xing wiped his mouth, indicating that he was all ears.

Perhaps it was the alcohol, Qi Guang spoke more than he had before drinking.

“I was born here and grew up with my grandparents. I was only taken to my parents at the age of ten.” Qi Guang’s face was slightly red, but he knew he wasn’t drunk, and continued, “I was very withdrawn in the big city the first year. I wasn’t used to anything, including my parents. You know? Before that, my parents would only come to see me once a year. I don’t even remember what they look like exactly.”

Ye Xing touched his nose, not knowing how to respond.

But Qi Guang didn’t leave Ye Xing with too much awkward time and continued, “The first year, I didn’t have any friends. I couldn’t speak the dialect and was isolated by my classmates. Because my grades were bad, the teachers didn’t care about me either. When I got home, my parents were busy with work and hardly took care of me. Later, I skipped school every day to go to internet cafes to play games and hung out with other bad students.”

Ye Xing listened quietly to him. At this moment, Qi Guang took out a pack of cigarettes from his bag, took one out, then threw the pack of cigarettes in the middle of the table, looked up at Ye Xing, and motioned for him to take one himself.

Ye Xing waved his hand, “I don’t smoke.”

“Oh, a good student.” Qi Guang teased, and after fumbling around in his pocket for a long time, borrowed a lighter from the next table.

“If you saw my grades, you’d know whether I’m a good student or not,” Ye Xing was very dissatisfied with Qi Guang calling him a “good student”, “I just don’t like smoking, I can’t stand the smell.”

To make himself seem not like a good student, Ye Xing finished his beer in one gulp.

“Besides, smoking affects kissing,” Ye Xing added triumphantly, “Quick, thank Brother Ye for enlightening you.”

Qi Guang “pffft” laughed, “Little Ye is pretty knowledgeable, looks like you’ve experienced quite a lot.”

Experienced my ass.

Ye Xing not only had no fantasies about girls, he even avoided enthusiastic girls like the plague.

“You’re the one with the wide experience, skipping school at such a young age, living so carefree,” Ye Xing retorted, seizing the opportunity.

Qi Guang only then remembered that he hadn’t finished his story and continued, “Yes, carefree. A year later, my mom transferred me to another school, so I repeated a year. But luckily, I had had enough of playing around at that time, and I suddenly had an epiphany and wanted to study hard. Maybe I’m just naturally gifted, but I quickly became the top student in the teachers’ eyes, not only number one in the whole school every year, but I also left the second place far behind.”

The atmosphere became warmer, maybe because of the alcohol, or maybe because neither of them was on guard.

Ye Xing smiled and provoked, “Come on, if you’re so good, come to our school.”

“Even if I’m so good, no one cares,” Qi Guang opened another bottle of beer.

Ye Xing felt that there was a slight abnormality in his words. Actually, he had felt it strange earlier at Qi Guang’s house, but he wasn’t the type of person who liked to pry into other people’s private lives, so he generally wouldn’t ask.

But now it was different. They were drinking and chatting, and there was no purpose to their conversation. Everything was just for the sake of chatting, “Do you live alone?”

Or rather, when sober, politeness would make people stop. But no one was not curious. Humans are products of curiosity. If the other person was willing to talk, he would listen. If the other person was unwilling to talk, he wouldn’t go around prying.

At this moment, the other person was willing to talk.

But Ye Xing didn’t expect that Qi Guang’s answer would leave him feeling uneasy. Qi Guang said, “Yeah, I’m the only one left in my family.”

Qi Guang’s answer was as if he was simply saying what he had for lunch.

But Ye Xing couldn’t remain calm. The tipsy feeling was swept away, and the wind blowing on his face made him even more sober.

Qi Guang looked at Ye Xing’s flustered expression and added to help him out, “Don’t think you know some earth-shattering secret. Many teachers and classmates know. There are no secrets in this small town.”

“Oh.” Ye Xing lowered his head and took a sip of his beer.

Ye Xing was quickly running things over in his head while he was drinking, all the way back to when they met for the second time. At that time, Qi Guang was working as a waiter at a restaurant. He might have also taken other jobs. His life must not have been easy.

Ye Xing decided to secretly pay the bill later.

At this time, the owner came over, and said, very apologetically, “Sorry, but we have to close up shop.”

Qi Guang raised his head, “Why so early today?”

It was a Saturday night, usually the busiest time for business.

The owner explained: “Hey! My wife just called and said she wasn’t feeling well. She’s pregnant, so I have to rush back, don’t want anything to happen!”

“Then you should hurry back and take care of your wife.” Qi Guang glanced at the leftover skewers on the table, “Can you pack up the rest? How much is it in total?”

The owner packed up the skewers and counted the beer bottles on the ground, “Ninety-two, let’s just say ninety.”

“Thanks boss!” Qi Guang said, taking out his phone.

Ye Xing’s mind hadn’t stopped spinning. He subconsciously quickly blocked him.

Qi Guang turned his head, looking at Ye Xing with a puzzled expression.

Ye Xing looked back at him, and his mind suddenly stopped working.

What the hell am I doing??

Ye Xing felt worried about his IQ and EQ for the first time – if he had secretly paid the bill, it would have been fine, but now that he was so obviously trying to take over the payment, it was too awkward. And he was clearly the one who had asked Qi Guang to treat him to dinner…

How to explain?

You don’t have much money either, so I’ll pay.

Then he would have the lowest EQ compared to even Zhou Tian.

Ye Xing reached into his pocket for his phone while thinking of an explanation, when he suddenly felt something that felt like paper money.

Wasn’t this the medical fee that the little shrimp had given him? At this moment, Ye Xing was so excited that he almost wanted to kneel down to the little shrimp.

He took out the money and raised his eyebrows at Qi Guang, “Someone’s treating!”

Qi Guang looked at the money, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, “Isn’t this…”

Yes, it was your medical fee.

Ye Xing opened the bills one by one and gave a fifty and two twenties to the owner. There were still some loose coins left, totaling about five yuan. He had originally planned to put them back in his pocket, but after thinking about it, he reached out and gave them to Qi Guang.

“What for?” Qi Guang didn’t take it.

Ye Xing said, “Take it for a hooker, you’re welcome.”

Then he stuffed the money into Qi Guang’s pocket.

“With this little bit of money for a hooker, I’m afraid you wouldn’t even get to touch their hand.” Qi Guang got up, picked up the packed barbecue, “Want to come to my place?”

Ye Xing was a bit hesitant, it was already late, and after eating the barbecue, the supermarkets would probably be closed.

Qi Guang said, “I can’t finish it all by myself, plus, riding your bike now would be drunk driving. If something happened, I couldn’t take responsibility.”

“Fine,” Ye Xing did feel like he couldn’t ride his bike well right now. It would be better to stay for a while and leave after sobering up. Most importantly, he had just been busy listening to stories, and he still hadn’t eaten his fill.