“Chen Hong wants me to remind you to use up your remaining training sessions,” Zhang Yuwen told him.
“I don’t feel like it,” Huo Sichen said. “His training sessions are exhausting, and I’m lazy. I just want to have fun.”
Zhang Yuwen laughed, not expecting Huo Sichen to be so frank. “But you have a good physique.”
“I was born with it.” Huo Sichen raised an eyebrow. “I love to eat junk food.”
“I can tell.” Zhang Yuwen knew Huo Sichen bought a large cup of cola on his way to work every day and drank it at his desk. Carbonated drinks were strictly forbidden in Zhang Yuwen’s family because they led to calcium loss and weight gain.
The bus arrived at Elephant Gorge, one of the most famous peaks on the outskirts of Jiangdong City. At an elevation level of more than three thousand feet, it had cable cars to transport visitors up and down the mountain. The scenery was picturesque, with the Liujin River flowing through the gorge and the peaks extending north and south. A naturally formed ridge resembling an arched spine connected the south and north peaks, evoking the image of an elephant’s trunk spanning across the river—hence the name.
Elephant Gorge had cherry blossoms in full bloom in spring, provided a cool refuge from the sweltering heat in summer, and offered a display of maple foliage in autumn. It bustled with activity three seasons a year. Only this time of year—when the first snow of winter had yet to fall, and the view offered only monotonous dark green pine trees and no snowscape—was a rare tourist offseason.
“Brrr, so cold!” Chang Jinxing exclaimed exaggeratedly. He had slept for almost an hour on the bus, and the blast of cold wind that greeted him as he disembarked made him shiver even harder. Zheng Weize, meanwhile, seemed to be dazed by the frigid cold.
“Start moving and you’ll warm up,” Chen Hong told them.
“Let’s go!” said Zhang Yuwen.
The group started hiking up the mountain at a leisurely pace. Their plan was to climb the mountain on foot, then take the cable car down.
Zhang Yuwen walked alongside Huo Sichen. “So you don’t usually exercise?” he asked.
“I play two soccer games a month with my university classmates from Jiangbei Athletics Hall,” Huo Sichen said. Not only did Huo Sichen enjoy playing and watching soccer, he also liked soccer video games. He had to be straight; most gay men didn’t like intense, competitive contact sports like basketball and soccer. The ones who liked sports tended to prefer badminton or swimming.
“When are the matches?” Zhang Yuwen asked casually. “What position do you play?”
“Sometimes defender, sometimes goalkeeper,” Huo Sichen said, “depending on whether the goalkeeper pissed his wife off the night before.”
Zhang Yuwen laughed. He wanted to follow up and ask if Huo Sichen had a girlfriend or a wife, but that was a question that concerned his private life, so he prudently decided not to pursue the topic.
Huo Sichen had learned discretion from his time in the business world. Since Zhang Yuwen didn’t ask him about his life, he refrained from asking any personal questions in turn. When, on occasion, Zhang Yuwen did inadvertently ask Huo Sichen something personal, Huo Sichen took the opportunity to do the same.
Zhang Yuwen and Huo Sichen walked ahead of the others, chatting as they went. Zhang Yuwen couldn’t ignore Huo Sichen—he had invited him, after all—and besides, chatting with him was comfortable. Zhang Yuwen didn’t have to keep guessing what he was thinking.
“Let me carry your backpack,” Huo Sichen said to Zhang Yuwen when they reached a rest stop. The others, trailing behind them, were nowhere in sight.
“I’m not tired.”
“I know, but if I carry it for you, you won’t be able to refuse me when I ask for your snacks later.”
Zhang Yuwen burst out laughing and handed him the backpack. Huo Sichen lifted it effortlessly; it wasn’t all that heavy. They sat at the rest stop and waited for the others.
A group of female university students arrived, panting and sweating. They looked to be about eighteen or nineteen years old and probably from the same dorm. They took off their jackets and stood in front of the rest stop in their sweaters, fanning themselves.
“Where’s the restroom?” a girl asked her roommate.
Huo Sichen answered. “Follow this path down. There’s an entry sign at the rear entrance.”
The girls laughed, and even Zhang Yuwen, who was in the middle of drinking from his flask, almost spewed the water out. Flabbergasted but realizing he hadn’t made himself clear, Huo Sichen said, “I mean, there’s a signpost directing you to the restroom.”
The girl who had asked the question hurried, blushing, down the path. Zhang Yuwen teased Huo Sichen, who said nothing. When the girl returned, the group continued on their way, and Huo Sichen’s gaze followed one of them.
“She’s pretty,” Zhang Yuwen commented.
Huo Sichen came back to his senses. “She reminds me of my senior from university,” he said.
“Oh.” Zhang Yuwen nodded, his suspicions confirmed.
“Are you married?” Huo Sichen asked suddenly.
“Nope. I’m single. I broke up with my ex a year ago, and I haven’t dated since.”
“Why not?”
“Too poor,” Zhang Yuwen said simply. “Plus, I’m staying at a friend’s place. I can’t let the person I like live under someone else’s roof, can I?”
“Having rich friends is enviable, but it can also make you insecure,” Huo Sichen observed.
Zhang Yuwen smiled. “You’re right. But the rich don’t mind at all. Ultimately, it’s all in our own heads.”
“Everyone has pride,” said Huo Sichen.
At last, the others caught up to them. Chen Hong and Yan Jun appeared normal. Yan Jun wore an outdoor jacket that was zipped up to his neck. He wasn’t sweating much and looked to be in good spirits. Chen Hong had taken off his own jacket and tied it around his waist, exposing his T-shirt that revealed the muscular lines of his shoulders and back. Predictably, Zheng Weize was by far the most tired of the lot. He held Chang Jinxing’s hand and kept stopping and looking up every three steps.
“How much further?” Zheng Weize asked.
“Almost there!” Zhang Yuwen said, perking up. “Twenty more minutes!”
“Lemme rest for a while,” Zheng Weize pleaded, seeing that Zhang Yuwen and Huo Sichen were ready to continue with their hike. “We just got here!”
“You guys go on ahead!” Chang Jinxing said. “We’ll catch up soon.”
“It’s okay. I was thinking about taking a break too,” Yan Jun said.
Zhang Yuwen felt sheepish; they had walked too fast and left his roommates behind. He adjusted his plans and walked with them.
Hiking was like the journey of life. While everyone set off together, some might speed up without realizing it, while others gradually fell behind until they dropped out of sight entirely. They met new people along the way, walked a distance together, and parted ways again soon after.
But this path was really, really long. They’d chosen the north peak, which rarely had many visitors. The plank road was not only narrow and precipitous, but also steep. By eleven in the morning, even Zhang Yuwen was feeling tired and had to stop for the occasional break.
Chang Jinxing had his DSLR hung around his neck. Carrying both his backpack and Zheng Weize’s, he stood high up on the horizontal steps to take photos of everyone—and especially to document his roommates at their most wretched moments.
“Enough already,” said Yan Jun.
Chang Jinxing laughed. He’d shown himself to be boyfriend material today, carrying the bags and even taking care of Zheng Weize, who could barely move.
Zheng Weize repeated the question he had asked the most today: “How much further?”
“Almost there,” Zhang Yuwen said. “Twenty more minutes.”
Zheng Weize realized he’d been had. “That’s what you said an hour ago!”
“It’s really twenty more minutes this time,” Zhang Yuwen said, serious as anything. People could rarely tell when he was lying with a straight face. All he had to do was look them directly in the eye with an innocent expression; it was impossible not to believe him.
“What if we don’t get there in twenty minutes?” Zheng Weize asked.
“Then the ball’s in your court,” Zhang Yuwen said with a smile.
“You’ll do anything I ask?”
“Sure, go wild. But you can’t dawdle on purpose.”
“Fine. Let’s go.” Not that Zheng Weize had anything to lose. This was a zero-cost deal.
Zhang Yuwen knew Zheng Weize wouldn’t make any unreasonable demands. In fact, he remembered the day he went hiking with his ex. They’d had the exact same conversation, right down to the punctuation. His ex, like Zheng Weize, had also been too exhausted to move, and Zhang Yuwen had coaxed him all the way up. Did all bottoms think the same? Even the flirtatious atmosphere was familiar.
They were indeed only twenty minutes from the lunch break rest stop. Zhang Yuwen was sure he would win this time, but after his ex made the same bet, he’d whined and dawdled for the rest of the journey, dragging it out to twenty-two minutes. Zhang Yuwen was forced to admit defeat.
Then his ex made his demand: I wanna top you once.
A bet was a bet, so Zhang Yuwen accepted. Anyway, pleasure in the bedroom was all about spicing things up, and to Zhang Yuwen, who still loved him very much at that time, it was no big deal to let his partner top him occasionally. As long as they were in love, he could go with anything. Of course, when they finally reached the summit, the hotel was cold and damp, and his ex was half dead from exhaustion. Zhang Yuwen promised him he could take a rain check, but they broke up not long thereafter, and his ex never did get to top him.
This left Zhang Yuwen with the sense that he owed it to someone to bottom at least once. Now, hiking with his roommates, Zhang Yuwen found that he missed his ex a lot. He never thought his ex had let him down, and anyway, it didn’t matter who let down whom; they were together for four years, and he still had feelings for him.
If only he were here. If his ex had been here, Zhang Yuwen thought, he’d act like Chang Jinxing. Zhang Yuwen would carry both their backpacks as they dawdled behind the rest of the group, listening to his ex gripe.
Indeed, having backpacks to carry and someone to boss you around was its own kind of happiness.
Huo Sichen’s voice dragged him back into reality. “Zhang Yuwen, you’re going to lose. How do you feel about that?”
Zhang Yuwen was speechless. They’d arrived at the waterfall to find a sign on the trail leading up the mountain:
Road ahead under maintenance.
Please take a detour.
Approx. 35 min walk to the lunch break rest stop.