TSIBAMS Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Although Qi Guang lived alone, he had a lot of stuff. The decoration was old, giving a sense of time, and there was even an old-fashioned TV set in a glass cabinet. Ye Xing had only seen such vintage TVs in movies, so he was very curious and walked closer to take a look.

Qi Guang placed the grilled skewers on the coffee table in front of the sofa and went to the fridge to get a few cans of beer.

Ye Xing saw a film camera next to the old TV and said with a little surprise, “You use film?”

“Those were left by my grandpa,” Qi Guang said, putting the beer down. “It’s just a camera.”

Ye Xing originally wanted to play with it, but when he heard it was left by Qi Guang’s grandfather, he didn’t ask.

“Film has stopped production now; yours might become a relic in the future,” Ye Xing said, picking up a meat skewer and eating it.

Qi Guang smiled. “Come on, a relic? I don’t even know how to use that thing. But you seem to know a lot about it, are you a pro?”

“Not really, I have an SLR at home, I just play around with it sometimes,” Ye Xing said, his eyes not leaving the film camera. “But I’ve always thought the color rendering of film is better than SLR, and I’ve been thinking about getting a film camera to play with.”

Qi Guang opened a can of beer and handed it to him. Ye Xing took the beer and took a sip, sighing, “Your grandpa was really artistic!”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Qi Guang also took a sip of beer. “He collected a lot of things; he also has a gramophone. Do you want to see it?”

Ye Xing’s eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously while munching on the meat skewer.

Qi Guang walked into the study, which was his grandfather’s study before he passed away. It was filled with books, discs, and various tapes. The walls were covered with posters and pictures cut out of newspapers. Qi Guang had not changed anything, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to put it back to how it was.

Two minutes later, Qi Guang came out with the gramophone, also holding a record in his hand.

The gramophone itself wasn’t that big, but with a large golden horn on top, it looked very eye-catching.

To Ye Xing, who had grown up in the city, Qi Guang’s home was like a treasure trove.

Zhang Ailing said that the dramatization of life is unhealthy. People who grow up in the city always see the picture of the sea before seeing the sea; they read love novels before knowing love. Their experience of life is often in the second round.

For Ye Xing, everything in Qi Guang’s house seemed to have come out of the pictures or movies he had seen before. An image that was originally in his mind, “pop,” became a concrete thing.

Qi Guang was that magician.

He “pop pop pop” conjured an old-fashioned TV, a film camera, and a gramophone.

He even threw in a record, buy three get one free.

“Teresa Teng?” Ye Xing took the record. It was the first time he had seen such a large record, with a paper square case and Teresa Teng’s portrait on it.

“Yeah, I just grabbed a random record,” Qi Guang said, trying to figure out how to use the gramophone. “If you don’t like it, I’ll change it.”

“No, no, I haven’t listened to her much, let’s give it a try,” Ye Xing said, carefully placing the record on the sofa, afraid of getting grease from the skewers on it.

Qi Guang couldn’t help but laugh at how careful he was. He took out the vinyl record and placed it on the turntable of the gramophone.

Ye Xing was eating the skewers when he saw the vinyl record starting to spin, and the music slowly began to flow.

“Green grass, white mist, a beauty is by the water. Lush grass, hazy mist, a beauty lives by the water.”

Teresa Teng’s voice lingered in the small living room. Ye Xing, who didn’t think he was that drunk, felt a little dizzy and hummed along to the tune.

Qi Guang had been living here alone for over a year and had hardly ever had guests. Except for Shuai Xiaoyun occasionally coming over to cook for him, Ye Xing was his first real guest.

It was also the first time he had turned on the gramophone himself. He had always been reluctant to touch those things, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to put them back the way they were, afraid of being controlled by the sudden surge of anxiety.

But today, he suddenly wasn’t that afraid.

Haha, alcohol is a wonderful thing.

Qi Guang often listened to Teresa Teng’s songs when he was little, so he was familiar with the lyrics and tune. He sang along, “I wish to go against the current, to be by her side, but the rapids lie ahead, and the road is long and far.”

“You can actually sing pretty well,” Ye Xing said, turning to look at Qi Guang, his face flushed.

“Please remove the word ‘actually’,” Qi Guang said, looking at his unfocused gaze. “You’re drunk.”

“Damn it,” Ye Xing suddenly realized that he came to his house to sober up, and quickly put the beer back on the table, questioning, “When the hell did you give this to me?”

“I didn’t force you to drink it,” Qi Guang smiled. “You’ve already drunk it, what’s a few more sips?”

Qi Guang was inexplicably happy and started singing along to the song again, “I wish to go with the current, to search for her trace, but I see vaguely, that she stands in the water.”

Qi Guang’s voice was very nice, very magnetic, and singing in a female voice didn’t make him sound effeminate at all.

Ye Xing had always been envious of such a magnetic voice because his own voice was a bit gentle, which made him sound less intimidating when he cursed.

The song quickly reached its end. Ye Xing glanced at the song list on the record sleeve, and the first line read “By the Water.”

So nice to listen to.

Next up was “Don’t Pick the Wild Flowers by the Roadside.” The tune immediately made both of them laugh. This song was still popular on various screens, so it was impossible not to have heard it.

As soon as the intro ended, both of them started singing together, “Seeing you off to the village, I have some words to say. Although flowers are blooming everywhere, don’t pick the wild flowers by the roadside!”

“Hahahahaha!”

“Hahahahaha, you idiot!”

Qi Guang was laughing so hard that he was shaking, while Ye Xing was laughing so hard that he fell to the ground.

“Are you poisoned? You’re shouting so loud, you’re going to lift the roof!” Qi Guang said, laughing at him.

Ye Xing tried to get back to the sofa but found his arms were a bit weak. So he just sat on the floor, leaning against the sofa. After all, he used to sit on the carpet like this.

“Your voice is not small at all!” Ye Xing picked up the beer in front of him again and forced a toast with Qi Guang.

They drank it all in one go.

Enjoy the present while you have wine, it had been a long time since they had been this happy.

Ye Xing had already given up on thinking about how he would ride his bike later, and Qi Guang didn’t want to care about disturbing the neighbors.

He was always bothered, so what if he bothered them for once!?

It was rare for him to be happy.

“Remember my love, remember my heart, remember I’m always here waiting!” Qi Guang sang along with the gramophone while going to the fridge to get more beer.

The two of them sang and ate skewers like idiots who had drunk fake alcohol.

They didn’t know how much time had passed, and countless empty beer cans were scattered on the floor when the vinyl record finally reached its last song.

Of course, they also didn’t know how many trips they had taken to the toilet.

They both felt like they were floating, but because they had eaten so much, even their most unruly souls couldn’t float with their heavy bodies.

One of them was slumped on the sofa, and the other was slumped on the floor. One sang, and the other hummed.

Their voices were not as loud as they were at the beginning.

The gentle tune slowly poured out of the gramophone, filling the room. Ye Xing felt like he was suffocating. He had never felt this gentle and happy before.

It wasn’t that he had never drunk before, going to karaoke with friends was a common thing. Among a bunch of people he knew or didn’t know, he didn’t even have the desire to sing. Squeezed among a group of people, rolling dice and drinking, he only felt noisy.

Of course, he had never had any particular worries, so he would not inexplicably go drink alone. This was the first time he had drunk so quietly with someone, singing to his heart’s content.

Qi Guang often drank alone at home. He was a person who was more mature than his actual age. When he was unhappy, he would digest it himself and never bother others. But most of the time, he drank just to help him sleep.

Before, when he drank at home, he would use the sound system connected to his phone’s Bluetooth to listen to post-rock and other genres.

Post-rock seemed to be music made especially for drinking alone. It was instrumental rock music, occasionally with samples of vocals. Under the influence of alcohol, it was hallucinatory, as if he was trapped in a fog, not daring to move. His body became very light, and if he turned off the lights, he could fall asleep comfortably.

This was also the first time Qi Guang had drunk with someone in this atmosphere, and he didn’t expect the experience to be bad at all.

It was even unexpectedly good.

Ye Xing’s eyelids had started to give way. He listened to Qi Guang singing softly on the sofa, “In some month of some year, like a shattered face, it’s hard to say goodbye, let everything drift away.”

Qi Guang’s voice sounded particularly good at this moment, particularly gentle, and had a very effective hypnotic effect. Ye Xing no longer struggled with his eyelids and simply closed his eyes.

Qi Guang noticed that Ye Xing was no longer humming along and leaned over to look at the person on the floor.

He had actually fallen asleep.

Qi Guang was also a bit dizzy. While he was still somewhat conscious, he turned off the gramophone and dragged Ye Xing to the bed in the bedroom.

Then he lay down himself and quickly lost consciousness.

Ye Xing was woken up by thirst. He dreamt that he was riding a bicycle in the desert looking for water, but he couldn’t move no matter how hard he pedaled. He was so anxious that he wanted to cry, but even tears wouldn’t come out.

When he opened his eyes, he saw an unfamiliar room in the dim light.

Was he still dreaming??

How many layers of dreams were there!

His head also hurt so much, damn it!

Ye Xing rubbed his temples and suddenly felt his elbow hit something. He subconsciously turned his head to look…

Holy crap, there was a person!!

Ye Xing was so scared that he almost jumped up, and his sleepiness was instantly gone.

This was not a dream!

He calmed down and realized that the person sleeping next to him was Qi Guang.

The person in front of him was sleeping very peacefully, his chest rising and falling slowly. He could even hear his breathing.

Ye Xing quietly walked out of the room, first went to the bathroom to pee, then went to the kitchen to get some water and finished a big glass in one go.

At this moment, everything that had happened last night clearly surfaced in his mind. The two of them were stuffed like pigs, drunk like dogs, and they even drank and sang, and were just short of doing a samba together.

So stupid.

Ye Xing went to the living room, found his phone, and checked the time, 6:15 in the morning. There were dozens of unread messages and several missed calls, all from Zhou Tian.

Ye Xing sighed. If someone saw it, they would probably think that Zhou Tian was his boyfriend.

No! It was because Zhou Tian’s bike had been taken by him.

He would not reply for now; he hadn’t slept enough yet.

Ye Xing looked at the chaotic living room and fell into thought. So now, should he go back to Qi Guang’s room and continue sleeping? And then when they wake up later, they would experience the awkwardness together?

Ye Xing was a person who was very afraid of awkwardness. He had done countless bizarre things to avoid awkward situations.

He should just keep sleeping. When he woke up, it wasn’t certain who would be more embarrassed.

Ye Xing put his phone on silent, tiptoed back to the room, and gently lifted the quilt and got in. Qi Guang was sleeping soundly and didn’t notice at all that someone had left and come back.

But Ye Xing could not fall asleep no matter what. He was used to sleeping alone, and if there was another person next to him, even his dad, he would have insomnia. When relatives came to visit before, he had to share a bed with an adult, and he didn’t dare to move all night and hardly slept. Later, he would rather sleep on the sofa than sleep with others.

Luckily, the person next to him slept very well. If he dared to put his leg on him, Ye Xing estimated he would be able to hide under the bed.

Ye Xing lay there without moving, his eyes open, looking at the ceiling, watching the room slowly brighten, and even the birds started chirping.

He felt like he had been lying in this position for a century and was on the verge of a breakdown.

He didn’t know what time this guy would wake up. He wouldn’t sleep until noon, right?!

Ye Xing picked up his phone and looked at the time, it was already eight o’clock. No, only eight o’clock? What if this guy really slept until noon, what should he do…

Ye Xing held his phone in a daze until he saw Zhou Tian’s name suddenly appear on the screen. He gently got out of bed, walked to the living room, and pressed the answer button.

“Hello.”

“Damn, you finally answered the phone. I thought you had been kidnapped while buying groceries!” Zhou Tian was very emotional.

Ye Xing turned his voice down a little and answered softly, “Thank you for your concern, Dad hasn’t lost a single hair.”

“Where did you go? You didn’t answer the phone, and no one opened the door. I was almost going to call the police,” Zhou Tian said, relieved.

“Isn’t it because I took off with your bike?” Ye Xing said with a smile.

“Do you have a conscience, you jerk!” Zhou Tian roared on the other end of the phone. “I didn’t sleep well all night! Besides, is my bike even worth you running away? I’m afraid the fare wouldn’t even be enough.”

Ye Xing got goosebumps when he heard him say “I didn’t sleep well all night” and silently shuddered.

On the other end of the phone, Zhou Tian continued to display his talkative nature, “No, I’m saying, where did you go last night? Don’t change the topic! Did you spend the night at an internet cafe playing games? You don’t think you’re being nice by not bringing me along!?”

Ye Xing didn’t want to take the time to explain at this moment. He just shrugged, “Okay, I’ll definitely call you next time.”

“That’s more like it! Where are you now? I’m going to find you, my mom told me to deliver some goods, it’s too far, and I need to ride my bike.”

“Ah?” Ye Xing thought about it and answered, “I’m going back now, you wait for me.”

After hanging up the phone, Ye Xing looked at the living room that looked like a typhoon had passed through and sighed before he started to clean up.

He put all the bamboo skewers and beer cans into a trash bag, wiped the grease off the coffee table with tissue paper, and finally went to the bathroom to wash his hands several times with hand soap.

When he passed Qi Guang’s bedroom, he glanced inside. The person inside was still sleeping soundly, his two hands neatly placed under the blanket, only his head exposed. The morning sunlight shone on his face. Qi Guang was already good-looking, and the sunlight seemed to add a filter to him, making it difficult for anyone to look away.

Ye Xing turned to leave, hesitated for two seconds, then returned to the room, tucked the corner of the blanket he had kicked off, and gently closed the door behind him.

He also took the trash downstairs to throw away.

When he left, he saw Shuai Xiaoyun walking this way, she was obviously coming to find Qi Guang.

Ye Xing was glad that he had left in time and quickly and quietly rode his bike away.