Zhang Yuwen glanced at Huo Sichen’s phone. “Do you have something important going on?”
“Same old crap from the company,” Huo Sichen replied. Zhang Yuwen didn’t press him further, and they resumed playing cards.
This time, Zheng Weize gave up resisting. All his roommates had been through a round of truth, and he couldn’t just nope out of it. During the round, though, Huo Sichen left to answer another call, and Chen Hong immediately signaled to Zhang Yuwen. Zhang Yuwen played for Huo Sichen, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
“It’s finally Sichen’s turn,” Chen Hong whispered.
But several seconds later, they heard Huo Sichen’s furious voice from the room. “Can’t you just let me have a vacation? What’s so important that you have to say it now? You want me to go back now and sort it out with you?”
Everyone looked at Zhang Yuwen. “His business partner,” Zhang Yuwen explained. “Sounds like a married couple, right? But that’s how business partners’ arguments go.”
“As long as you’re sure there’s no problem,” said Chang Jinxing, who was worried about Zhang Yuwen being deceived.
“I went to his house every time we had a training session,” Chen Hong added. “He’s been living alone the whole time. I can confirm that much.”
“I work myself to the bone every day for you. Even on Christmas, I had to work overtime on the plane…” Huo Sichen’s words dispelled everyone’s doubts. Soon, his voice quieted a little, and in the end, he said, “I’m turning off my phone.”
Then he stormed out, took two breaths, and composed himself. Back to his usual expression, he asked, “Whose turn?”
Zhang Yuwen was impressed. This was a self-possessed man who had not brought his anger out into the common area.
“Your turn,” Chen Hong said, once he’d observed Huo Sichen’s expression and satisfied himself that he wasn’t about to start raging.
“I helped you lose,” Zhang Yuwen chimed in. While Huo Sichen was on the phone, Zhang Yuwen had lost all his cards. Everyone laughed, and Huo Sichen looked astonished.
“Spill it!” Yan Jun said. “We’re all ears.”
“Uh…”
“You have to come up with one, even if you have to make it up,” Chen Hong said. The guys doubled over with laughter.
Huo Sichen’s face turned beet red. “What if I perform something instead?”
“Nope,” Chang Jinxing said.
“Who cares about a performance?” said Zhang Yuwen. “Spill! You must have one!”
“I…I kind of want to try everything after hearing so much,” Huo Sichen said. Everyone else erupted into laughter again. “I’m serious.”
“That’s such a diplomatic answer,” Zhang Yuwen remarked.
He’d intended to let him off the hook, but Huo Sichen stammered, “I like little princes with black-rimmed glasses. I think… What’s that word? The bottom conquering the top? Like what Chen Hong mentioned about the knight. Right, a knight who protects others. Oh, no, I just thought of one. I think I like…entering men from the back.”
“That’s what we call being gay, dude.” Zhang Yuwen really didn’t know what to do with him.
“Anal intercourse just makes me excited. It’s very stimulating because—”
“Oh boy, you make it sound so clinical.” Not even Zheng Weize could bear to listen further.
“—It hurts a little? Maybe?”
“It does,” Zheng Weize said, “but it also feels good.”
“Seeing someone I like that way makes me excited. Like, very excited. I might be a bit of an S. I was shocked the first time I saw them doing it from the back in a porno, but it also opened my eyes. Oh, yeah, and there’s more.”
Chen Hong had thought about getting him to drink as a penalty, but at this point, they were all realizing that Huo Sichen might really have been straight before. What was common to gay men, like penetrating each other, was, to Huo Sichen, a perverse act. But once he learned about it, he subconsciously turned it into his kink.
Homosexuality itself was just a sexual preference.
“What else?” Zhang Yuwen grinned. “We’re listening.”
Huo Sichen looked at him. “I used to be impotent.”
“Huh?” Everyone looked flummoxed.
“What?” Zhang Yuwen had examined his goods earlier that day. He couldn’t believe his ears.
“There was a time I couldn’t get it up,” Huo Sichen insisted.
“You probably just jerk off too much,” Yan Jun said. “You’ll be fine after a break.”
“No, I rarely use my hands. It persisted for almost two years,” Huo Sichen said. Zhang Yuwen gave him a skeptical look. “But I’m fine now. I’ve completely recovered.”
He looked at Zhang Yuwen with a gaze that said, You know what I mean.
Zhang Yuwen promptly turned to the others. “Don’t look at me! I’ve never tested it!”
“Uh-huh.” The guys nodded sympathetically.
“Could be work stress,” Chang Jinxing said.
“Maybe.” Huo Sichen thought for a moment before turning on his phone. To Zhang Yuwen, he said, “Let me show you my last diagnostic report.”
“Why would I want to see your erectile dysfunction diagnostic report?” Zhang Yuwen was laughing so hard tears were running down his face.
Red-faced, Huo Sichen explained, “Just so you know that for two full years, I basically didn’t have…didn’t… You know. It felt so terrible.”
“So if you couldn’t get an erection,” Zheng Weize asked, “did you ejaculate in your wet dreams?”
“Yeah, but not very hard. I’d just inexplicably ejaculate in my sleep, and most of the time, I wouldn’t even realize it. It wasn’t wet dreams, either.”
“Maybe you just didn’t meet someone you liked,” Yan Jun said.
“Even so, you can still get hard watching porn, right?” Chen Hong mused aloud. “And then there’s also morning wood under normal circumstances.”
“Yeah,” Huo Sichen replied. “I just realized one day that I no longer had any reaction to girls’ naked bodies, and later on, the morning wood stopped too.”
“It must be psychological,” Zhang Yuwen said. “In any case, it’s all good as long as you’re fine now.”
“Maybe you were just too busy.” Yan Jun could empathize with a fellow corporate slave.
Huo Sichen spread his hands, indicating that he was done talking. “Whose turn now?”
“Me,” Zheng Weize said. “Might as well say it. I don’t want to be left out.” Everyone looked at him, grinning. “It’s nothing special, actually. I like being sworn at and slapped in bed.”
“Wow,” Chen Hong blurted. “You’re even more of an M than I am.”
Not embarrassed at all, Zheng Weize quirked a smile. “And I also like being choked.”
“Be careful with that, okay?” Zhang Yuwen said.
“I don’t have a partner now, anyway,” said Zheng Weize. “I think I’m a hardcore masochist. Being bullied and abused makes me excited.”
Chang Jinxing grinned at Zheng Weize, looking like he had something to say but apparently deciding against it. In this brief silence, Chen Hong glanced at his phone. “It’s time for the fireworks.”
“So what’s the tally? Who lost the most?” Yan Jun asked. “Look, it’s time for the dare.”
Flustered, Chang Jinxing tried to mix up the chips, but a sharp-eyed Chen Hong caught him by the wrist. “Hey! What are you doing? So you’re it, then.”
“Ha!” Zhang Yuwen counted the chips. The totals proved that Chang Jinxing was the one who’d lost the most, and surprisingly enough, Huo Sichen emerged as the top winner. The rule was that the winner would set a challenge for the loser. Huo Sichen hadn’t really played all that seriously, though; Zhang Yuwen was the one who’d won money for him.
Chang Jinxing made a pleading gesture to Huo Sichen, telling him not to be too hard on him. Huo Sichen thought about it and glanced at Zhang Yuwen, who said, “Don’t look at me. Our friendship is still going strong. Don’t make me come up with the dare.”
In the end, Huo Sichen said, “Choose one of us here and kiss him.”
Chang Jinxing heaved a sigh of relief, and Zhang Yuwen shot Huo Sichen a slightly reproachful look.
“How about kissing Sichen?” Chen Hong suggested, ready to stir the pot. Huo Sichen crossed his hands in a NO gesture, looking flustered.
“Oh!” Zheng Weize exclaimed. “The fireworks are starting! Look!”
The sounds of the fireworks going off—bang! bang!—echoed outside. Fireworks shot into the sky from the side of the mountain, lighting up the first night of the new year. The guys stepped out into the back garden of Crane Hall and gazed into the night sky from the deck.
Chang Jinxing whipped out his camera and took photos of them all. When he got to Zheng Weize, the younger boy was staring at the resplendent fireworks, spellbound. Chang Jinxing snapped his fingers at him. Zheng Weize turned to him with a melancholic smile, raising a brow as he mimed taking a photo with his fingers against his face. Chang Jinxing took the photo, then leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the lips.
In that instant, fireworks bloomed, illuminating the long night and bringing the landscape below to life in a dazzling riot of colors, like a massive wish slip with everyone’s New Year wishes on it, drifting in the wind toward that unreachable dreamscape far, far away.