After school, the two of them went straight to the convenience store. Gu Fei walked into the back room and came out with a cardboard box, placing it on the counter.
“I…” Jiang Cheng started laughing as soon as he saw what it was. “You’re so…adorable.”
He never would’ve guessed that Gu Fei would give him a U-shaped massager for his neck and shoulders.
“Here, give it a try.” Gu Fei opened the box. “Apparently it’s really good—almost like somebody is really kneading your shoulders.”
Jiang Cheng glanced back into the courtyard. Gu Fei’s mom was standing out there and talking on the phone. It made him a little uneasy.
“Go in the room,” Gu Fei said, giving him a little shove. “I told my mom I bought this for you.”
“Doesn’t she think it’s strange?” Jiang Cheng said as he went to sit down in the back room. “You buying this for your deskmate?”
“What’s so strange about that?” Gu Fei asked. “Li Yan bought me a foot-soaking tub once, complete with infrared lights and massaging functions… It was much weirder than this thing.”
Jiang Cheng laughed out loud. “You guys all have such fascinating ideas.”
Gu Fei took the massager out, draped it around Jiang Cheng’s shoulders, and turned it on. The massager instantly started making thumping sounds, and Jiang Cheng felt something drumming against his shoulder.
“What do you think?” Gu Fei bent down and studied his face. “Does it work? Can it get the right spots?”
“Mm-hmm.” Jiang Cheng nodded. This thing was actually pretty powerful; it really felt like someone was drumming against his shoulder. “It feels good… Can it go a little lower?”
Gu Fei shifted the massager. “Here?”
“Ah…” Jiang Cheng closed his eyes. “Yes, yes, ahh… Fuck, it really does feel good.”
“Can you not make those sounds?” Gu Fei complained.
Jiang Cheng went still for a moment. He opened his eyes and looked at Gu Fei.
“Stop moaning,” said Gu Fei.
A few seconds of silence elapsed where Jiang Cheng simply stared at Gu Fei. Then, he abruptly closed his eyes and moaned, “Ahh… Nnngh… Hah…” It sounded so convincing that Jiang Cheng wondered if he’d gotten into it a little too quickly.
Gu Fei stood frozen for a good while before he managed to say, “Uh… Fuck…?”
Jiang Cheng opened his eyes and grinned. “What, right here?”
“You really are asking for it!” Gu Fei said in quiet resignation. He turned to glance outside, then lunged over and grabbed Jiang Cheng, planting a series of firm kisses on his lips.
Jiang Cheng was just about to reach for Gu Fei’s crotch when Gu Fei’s mom suddenly shouted from outside, “Hey, Da-Fei! I’m going out nooow, okaaay?”
Gu Fei had closed the door to the small room earlier, but Jiang Cheng was still so startled that he almost slapped his own face in his scramble to draw his hand back.
Gu Fei didn’t answer. Instead of opening the door to go out, he flung open the curtains on the window.
The window of the room faced the side alley. As soon as the curtains were drawn, Jiang Cheng spotted a motorcycle parked outside. It took only a moment for Gu Fei’s mom to jump onto its back seat, grab the rider’s waist, and take off on the bike.
Even though it was quick, Jiang Cheng was still able to make out that the motorcyclist’s head was shaved on both sides, with a long ponytail at the back.
Jiang Cheng was a little stunned. “That’s…your mom’s new boyfriend?”
“Yup.” Gu Fei put the curtains back down. “It’s only her good luck that she’s gone all these years without getting trafficked into the mountains. Though maybe that’s because she exceeds their age requirement.”
Jiang Cheng almost laughed at that quip, but it was too depressing. Looking at Gu Fei’s profile, he thought he could understand what Gu Fei was feeling right now. He might even understand some of the things that had been plaguing him all this time.
Jiang Cheng’s phone rang. It took a while before he finally fished it out and looked at it.
Wang Jiuri.
“Hello?” Jiang Cheng answered.
“Jiang Cheng!” Wang Xu’s excited voice came over the receiver. “What do you think of me?!”
This was a baffling question to get totally out of the blue. Jiang Cheng paused, then answered earnestly, “I don’t really think of you.”
“Shit, don’t be like that!” Wang Xu exclaimed, a little worked up. “I can play the guitar pretty well! If you don’t believe me, I can play something for you right now… Just hold on, I’ll go get my guitar…”
“No, no, there’s no need.” Jiang Cheng was only just now grasping what Wang Xu was talking about. He glanced in Gu Fei’s direction. “Join me, then, if you want.”
“You don’t need to be nice just because we’re friends. I can send you a clip later,” Wang Xu said seriously. “You can get a sense of my guitar skills first.”
“…Sure,” Jiang Cheng answered.
“Hey.” Wang Xu lowered his voice. “What song should we do?”
“I’ll talk to you about it at school tomorrow,” Jiang Cheng said. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“No problem, you can check out my playing first!” Wang Xu said. “Though I do have a suggestion. Let’s not do anything too popular, there’s not really any point. You’re amazing at piano, right? So just pick something no one’s heard of…”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Jiang Cheng said, then hung up.
For some reason, even though Gu Fei was the one who didn’t want to participate, he still didn’t want to discuss this with someone else in front of him After all, this was something he’d originally wanted to do with Gu Fei. Not only were they not doing it together, but now Wang Jiuri had been thrown in the mix instead. Just thinking about it was a little upsetting.
“You’re…doing the show with Wang Xu?” Gu Fei asked.
“Oh. Yeah. Didn’t you say that he also plays the guitar?”
“He does.” Gu Fei nodded. “Though you’ll probably have to write down the chords for him. He can only play from the tabs.”
“Okay,” said Jiang Cheng.
Gu Fei’s words bummed him out even more. If he played with Wang Xu, the guitar section could only be basic chords at most. But if it was Gu Fei… Just going by Gu Fei’s composition skills, he could probably—
Gu Fei’s composition.
Gu Fei’s composition?
Jiang Cheng felt his eyes light up. He almost expected a light bulb to appear out of thin air above his own head. He looked up at Gu Fei, a smile spreading across his face.
“Hm?” Gu Fei looked back at him.
“Let’s just have some frozen dumplings. I have to go back and do homework after,” Jiang Cheng said.
“Sure,” said Gu Fei as he got up and walked out of the room. “What filling do you want?”
“Fennel,” Jiang Cheng said.
Gu Fei paused. “Don’t have that.”
“Then…” Jiang Cheng pondered his second choice.
“I’ll go buy some,” Gu Fei said. “They have it over by the market. Wait here for me.”
Jiang Cheng was about to say No need to make a trip just for that, but Gu Fei was already out the door.
Tsk.
He got up and walked to the door to look outside. Gu Fei was already on his bicycle, riding to the market. Jiang Cheng stretched his arms over his head, then sat down behind the cash register.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
He had just sat down when Wang Xu’s message came in. It was a short video clip; the thumbnail was a shot of Wang Xu playing the guitar with a solemn expression on his face. Before Jiang Cheng could even open it, Wang Xu sent over a few other videos.
- some of these were recorded a while ago. take a listen
Jiang Cheng chuckled and opened the first one. To his surprise, Wang Xu wasn’t half bad. How would he measure up to Gu Fei, he wondered? But Wang Xu probably couldn’t compare. Gu Fei used to play in a band, after all, and he even wrote his own music… But he didn’t want to participate, so it was a moot point anyway…
Well. If you were just looking at average guys who only ever picked up a guitar to impress girls, Wang Xu’s skills could be considered the cream of the crop.
The videos included clips of Wang Xu singing with his own accompaniment, as well as guitar solos. His singing was nothing to rave about, but his playing was pretty good.