TSIBAMS Chapter 86

Chapter 87

For almost half a month, Brother Xu hadn’t been spending much time at 1984, but had instead moved his operations to the KTV upstairs. Luckily, Qi Guang didn’t have any classes, so he could come to the bar every day to help out. This meant that even if Brother Xu couldn’t completely withdraw, he was at least half-withdrawn.

On the surface, it seemed that Qi Guang was helping him share the workload, but everyone knew in their hearts that he was avoiding running into Bai Shu.

Today happened to be the Qixi Festival, so both upstairs and downstairs were very lively. Some friends came to the KTV for a party, and Brother Xu had a couple of drinks with them. He saw Qi Guang wandering around the doorway several times. He pulled a cigarette out of a pack from someone’s table, lit it, and walked out the door.

“You looking for me?” Brother Xu said, tilting his chin with the cigarette in his mouth.

“Today, we recruited a band of students from the vocational high school. They’re practicing downstairs. Wanna go take a look?” Qi Guang asked.

Brother Xu subconsciously lifted his leg to walk, then put it back down. “Forget it, if you think they’re okay, then they’re okay.”

“That doesn’t match your serious and meticulous attitude towards work!” Qi Guang raised an eyebrow. “Boss Xu.”

Brother Xu moved the cigarette away from his hand, and let out a light sigh with the smoke.

“Did Bai Shu see them?”

“He went with me to pick them,” Qi Guang said.

“Okay, I can’t be bothered to look,” Brother Xu turned to go back to the private room.

Qi Guang stood still, without tugging at him, and calmly asked, “When are you two going to stop this?”

“Who’s making a fuss?” Brother Xu turned around, a bit annoyed.

Qi Guang ignored his annoyance and continued, “Today is Qixi.”

“Yeah?” Brother Xu didn’t know what he was getting at.

“The bar’s activities were all organized by Bai Shu. Although he’s always been efficient, I can feel that he’s been a bit physically and mentally exhausted these past few days,” Qi Guang said.

Brother Xu’s face showed no expression. He took a puff of the cigarette, and exhaled.

He took another puff, and exhaled again.

Just as he was about to finish the cigarette, he finally spoke, “Help him out more. I trust you two to watch the bar.”

“Come downstairs tonight,” Qi Guang said.

“No,” Brother Xu refused without even thinking. “My friends are upstairs, I have to keep them company.”

“They don’t necessarily need you to keep them company,” Qi Guang said.

Seeing how aggressive he was, Brother Xu glared at him. “I don’t need to celebrate Qixi either.”

“So,” Qi Guang looked directly at him. “When are you two going to stop this?”

“Who the hell is making a fuss?” Brother Xu crushed the cigarette butt hard into the trash can next to him, as if he wanted to smash it to pieces.

“A cold war between the boss and the employee, do you think that’s reasonable? People will laugh at you,” Qi Guang said, crossing his arms.

“Yeah,” Brother Xu smirked, looking like he was having a facial paralysis, “It’s also rare for an employee to be fierce to their boss.”

“Bullshit!” Qi Guang yelled, then lowered his voice, “Is he being malicious when he’s fierce to you? Don’t pretend with me, you’re not ignoring him just because he was fierce to you!”

“What are you saying?” Brother Xu narrowed his eyes, his expression unclear whether it was the helplessness of being wronged or the surprise of being caught.

“I’m saying! If you’ve been ignoring him for a month just because he was fierce to you, I will…” Qi Guang looked around and then pointed at the private room door, “I will drink all the wine in this room! By myself!”

“I don’t believe it,” Li Ke said, shaking his head while his hands were on the steering wheel, “You said you were like fire and water back then, why would he shield you from the drinks?”

“Maybe out of his sense of justice?” Ye Xing turned off the air conditioner and opened a window a little.

He had originally only secretly skipped a couple of days of class to go home to spend the Qixi Festival with his boyfriend, but who knew that when he was packing his luggage, Li Ke saw him, and insisted on coming back with him to have fun. Although he was very unwilling to have another burden, he reluctantly agreed because he had a car.

After all, if he took the train and bus, he would probably fall asleep as soon as he got on the bed before he could even see his boyfriend.

But it was different if someone else was driving!

After driving for almost an afternoon, they finally passed the hottest time of the day. The sun was calmly admiring the open space without tall buildings in the distance. The evening wind was blowing freely through the car windows.

It was so damn good.

He would definitely take a road trip with Qi Guang if he had the chance.

Li Ke turned on the car stereo, and slowly started to talk with the whistling intro, “Maybe it was because he liked you back then! Anyway, if it were me, I would have been beaten up for no reason, and there’s no way I would protect him. No, I think that person is dead.”

“Actually…” Ye Xing smiled. “It seemed like I was the one who beat him, but he didn’t really lose…”

“What did you say?” Li Ke didn’t hear clearly, and turned the music down a little.

“It’s nothing,” Ye Xing changed the subject. “I don’t know if he liked me back then, but I just know that I thought he was particularly sexy that day, I guess my mind had already gone astray back then.”

“Tsk, here we go again,” Li Ke shook his head.

“You were the one who started it,” Ye Xing glanced at him.

At this moment, the gentle female voice of the navigation system announced that the current navigation was about to end.

“Where should we go first?” Li Ke took the phone from the holder, “The navigation says your bus station, and then what?”

“Let’s go to my house to put down my stuff first,” Ye Xing said, “I know the way, no need for navigation.”

“Okay,” After saying that, Li Ke turned his head and looked at him again, “He’s not already at home waiting for you, right? Wouldn’t it be awkward if we were both standing at the door?”

“Teacher Li, look at the blue sky and white clouds more often to clear your head,” Ye Xing tapped his head with his index finger in disgust, and turned back. “I think you’ve lifted your skull and poured all the yellow paint from the studio in there.”

“Okay,” Li Ke smiled. “Thanks for the reminder.”

“And he should be at the bar, not at home, let alone my house,” Ye Xing said.

“You didn’t tell him you were coming back?” Li Ke asked.

“No,” Ye Xing stared at the road ahead. “Turn left here.”

“Oh, a surprise? Let me tell you, these little surprises between couples can easily turn into scares. It’s not like I’m scaring you, I’ve been through this before, so I never look at my partner’s phone when I’m in a relationship, nor do I monitor them, and I definitely don’t create surprises that turn into three-person scares… Anyway, my current view on relationships is, if we’re both happy, we’re together, if he falls in love with someone else, then we’ll break up amicably…” Li Ke had been talking like an experienced love guru for a long time, only to realize that the other person had no intention of paying attention to him. “Oh, did I get carried away?”

“You got too carried away, you’re almost in the Atlantic Ocean. Just drive properly, don’t drive into the sea.” Ye Xing strained his eyes and held back the urge to roll them.

“You’re kidding me! There’s no sea here!” Li Ke looked left and right.

“Idiot.” Ye Xing shook his head and turned the music up louder.

Although he said that he was going home to put down his things first, Ye Xing changed his destination directly to 1984 with the excuse that “there’s nothing to put down anyway.”

Li Ke knew that he was anxious to see his boyfriend, so he didn’t object.

By the time they arrived at the bar’s entrance, it was already completely dark. It was the busiest time of the bar, so busy that the streets that didn’t have marked parking spaces were filled with cars. Of course, most of them were still electric bikes and bicycles, as well as tricycles lined up for several store fronts waiting to pick up customers.

Although Ye Xing kept emphasizing that there were no traffic police to give out tickets here, Li Ke still carefully circled around several times and found what looked like a temporary parking lot nearby and parked the car there.

He didn’t know if it was because of the festival or because he hadn’t come back for too long, but Ye Xing felt that there were unusually many people at 1984 today. If he wasn’t tall, he wouldn’t have been able to see who was singing. After seeing clearly, he realized that he really hadn’t been here for too long. “I’ve never seen this band before, they must be new.”

“They sing okay, just a bit green,” Li Ke said with a serious review.

“Logically speaking, Sister Xiaoyun should be performing today, probably later,” Ye Xing cut a path through the crowd, heading towards the bar.

He was still a little nervous before entering, wondering how he would explain his appearance here when he saw Qi Guang. But now, what made him even more nervous was that he couldn’t find the little rascal anywhere after looking around.

Instead, he caught Shuai Xiaoyun at the bar counter, who was handing a drink menu to the bartender.

“Sister Xiaoyun,” Ye Xing sat on the high stool next to her, “Are you performing today?”

“Oh, long time no see,” Shuai Xiaoyun looked surprised to see him, “These new guys are warming up the crowd, I’ll be up later.”

“Sister Xiaoyun is doing well, now she’s an elder,” Ye Xing laughed.

“Stop teasing me,” Shuai Xiaoyun also smiled, took a few drinks and ice-filled glasses out of the freezer, and while checking the order, she said, “Qi Guang went upstairs, do you want to go find him?”

“That’s rare, why did he run upstairs? Can you two handle it here?” Ye Xing said.

“We can’t handle it, that’s why you came, right?” Shuai Xiaoyun raised her chin and looked behind him, “You even brought someone!”

Ye Xing quickly moved his body out of the way. “Oh right, this is my roommate, Li Ke.”

Shuai Xiaoyun nodded while putting the drinks into a tray.

Then he turned to introduce Li Ke, “This is…”

“I know, Qi Guang’s school beauty sister,” Li Ke winked.

At this moment, someone patted Ye Xing’s shoulder from behind. By the time he turned around, the person had already walked in front of him.

“I thought I saw wrong, it really is you,” Bai Shu’s voice sounded a little excited. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming back? Qi Guang is still upstairs and hasn’t come down yet.”

Ye Xing looked at the person in front of him. No wonder he didn’t see him after looking around. Not only was he wearing all black, but he also looked a lot thinner. He wasn’t tall to begin with, and he was even harder to spot in the crowd.

Thinking about what Qi Guang had told him, Bai Shu and Brother Xu must not have made up yet, otherwise, he always saw them together.

Ye Xing didn’t want to overly concern himself with his affairs, so he smiled. “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

“You didn’t tell him?” Bai Shu asked.

“If I told him, I wouldn’t be able to come back. He definitely wouldn’t let me skip class to come back, so I could only act first and report later,” Ye Xing said.

“Yeah, that’s his style,” Bai Shu nodded, seeing Shuai Xiaoyun about to leave, he quickly placed the wine handed over by the bartender on the tray in her hand, then smiled at her, “Table 3, just one, thanks!”

“Okay,” Shuai Xiaoyun supported the wine on the tray and stood up to leave.

Ye Xing then remembered that he had brought a burden with him, so he moved his body again to introduce him, “Oh yeah, this is…”

Before he could finish, Li Ke spoke with a serious smile on his face, “Hello, I’m Li Ke, Ye Xing’s roommate.”

It wasn’t to intentionally emphasize that his smile was serious, but rather, he was so used to his unserious smile that this one felt a little awkward, looking even stranger than when he was being unserious.

Bai Shu was as attentive as usual, taking out two cans of cola from the freezer, pouring them into glasses and handing them to him. “Hello, I’m Bai Shu.”