When the bedroom door opened, Gu Fei was about to light a cigarette. He had already darted back and forth at light speed between the bedroom door and the window at least seven times.
Every time he thought Jiang Cheng was about to come out, he would shift to the window, calmly pretending to light a cigarette. And when there was no sign of movement, he would move over to the bedroom door to listen, then go back to the window and pretend to light a cigarette again.
He really was intending to light one this time when Jiang Cheng finally stepped out. He was even holding the thermos with the chicken wings.
“Done?” Gu Fei set the cigarette and lighter down on a nearby table.
“Mm.” Jiang Cheng nodded. “I forgot to close the lid, so they might be a little cold now. Should we heat them up?”
“Here.” Gu Fei took the thermos. “I’ll just reheat them in the pot.”
Jiang Cheng followed him to the kitchen, leaning against the wall as he watched him work. Gu Fei washed a saucepan in the sink before dumping the chicken wings inside and setting it on the stove to heat. The entire time, Jiang Cheng stood behind him without a sound.
Gu Fei didn’t ask. The reason for Shen Yiqing’s call was obvious: Li Hui must have called her. Nobody would be in a good mood after a chat like that.
Suddenly, Jiang Cheng spoke. His voice was calm. “Starting from today…”
“Uh-huh?” Gu Fei turned to him. There was an air of solemnity about Jiang Cheng. He looked as though he had made some monumental decision.
“I will go to sleep one hour later every night.”
“Huh?” Gu Fei didn’t quite understand. “Sleep one hour later for what?”
“To study, of course,” Jiang Cheng said matter-of-factly.
“…Oh!” Gu Fei didn’t expect this to be his monumental decision. He didn’t know how to respond, so he said again, “Oh!”
“You should stay up later, too, so you can quiz me. Up till one a.m. should be enough.”
Gu Fei nodded. “All right.”
“Thanks for the hard work,” Jiang Cheng said as he clapped his shoulder, “Comrade Xiao-Gu.”
Gu Fei quickly reached out and felt Jiang Cheng’s forehead. No fever…
“What’s the matter, Xiao-Gu?” Jiang Cheng asked.
“…Nothing, Xiao-Jiang,” said Gu Fei. “The wings will be ready soon. Do you want some milk, too?”
“Okay.” Jiang Cheng nodded and walked out.
A moment later, Gu Fei heard Jiang Cheng’s uninhibited laughter coming from the bedroom. He hesitated, then turned the stove off and followed after him. Jiang Cheng was lying on the bed and shaking with laughter, unable to stop.
“You sure you’re okay, Xiao-Jiang?” Gu Fei bent down with one knee on the bed and stroked his face.
“I’m fine. It’s just, for some reason…” Jiang Cheng looked at him, still laughing. “I suddenly felt like laughing. I didn’t even manage to hold it in during the call just now.”
“Go ahead and laugh, then.” Gu Fei gently pinched his chin. “You can get back to studying when you’re done.”
“Mm.” Jiang Cheng nodded.
Jiang Cheng laughed for at least an entire minute before he abruptly stopped and sat up with a frown. Before Gu Fei could get a word out, he suddenly jumped off the bed and dashed out of the room without his slippers.
“What’s wrong?” Gu Fei shouted after him.
“Gotta barf!” Jiang Cheng ran into the bathroom.
By the time Gu Fei followed him into the bathroom, Jiang Cheng was doubled over with one hand against the wall, vomiting into the toilet bowl like there was no tomorrow. Gu Fei hurried back to the bedroom, retrieved Jiang Cheng’s cup, and waited beside him with a wet towel.
“Shit.” Jiang Cheng finally managed to pull himself together after several minutes of vomiting. “What the fuck is this reaction I’m having?”
“Dunno.” Gu Fei thought his voice sounded all right, so he handed the towel over. “If we were on a TV show, you’d probably have to clutch at your chest, black out, and cough out a mouthful of blood. But you’re too malnourished, so all you can do is puke up whatever you just ate.”
“Shut up.” Jiang Cheng cracked up, laughing at the toilet. He let out a long, drawn-out sigh.
“Cheng-ge,” Gu Fei said, looking at him. “I’m a little worried.”
“A little?” Jiang Cheng flushed the toilet and turned to him.
“I’m very worried,” Gu Fei immediately corrected himself.
“I’m fine, really.” Jiang Cheng leaned over the sink to splash some water on his face. “I’m just mad. I was furious, actually, but I didn’t bottle it up. I dredged out my channels and meridians all on my own. My qi is flowing perfectly now.”
“Did Li Hui call her and say that you took Li Baoguo’s money?” Gu Fei asked.
“Mm. I took the money that was supposed to save Li Baoguo’s life, and that’s why he jumped off the roof and killed himself,” Jiang Cheng said in between rinsing his mouth. “Gu Fei, do you know where Li Hui lives?”
“You wanna go looking for him?” Gu Fei blinked.
“Yep,” Jiang Cheng said. “I need to clear away all of my obstacles.”
“What obstacles?” Gu Fei asked.
“Obstacles that affect my mental state while studying.” Jiang Cheng gave him a look, as though it should’ve been obvious.
“…Oh!” Once again, Gu Fei didn’t know what to say to that, so he nodded vehemently.
Gu Fei couldn’t shake the feeling that Jiang Cheng’s apparent calm belied some still-shaky emotions. Even though his miraculous memory allowed him to get every single question right when Gu Fei quizzed him, there was something off about him. For example, that he asked Gu Fei to take him to Li Hui’s house at one thirty in the morning, apparently to scope out the spot.
“Didn’t you say it wasn’t far? That it’s still in the steelworks neighborhood?” Jiang Cheng said.
“Yup,” Gu Fei answered. He pulled out one of Jiang Cheng’s coats from the closet and handed it to him. “Put this on, it’s getting cold.”
“You too.”
“All right.” Gu Fei took out another jacket, and the two of them headed out.
The night breeze was already strong enough to pierce through two layers of clothing by this point. As soon as they stepped out the door, both of them reflexively pulled their coats tighter around themselves.
There were no pedestrians or cars on the road at this hour. They walked along by the light of the blinking streetlamps, the stark surroundings making it feel like they were walking in some alternate dimension.
Li Hui’s building was right up ahead, among the cluster of low-rise buildings at the very edge of the steelworks neighborhood.
“Up there.” Gu Fei stopped and pointed. “The one with the number seven.”
“Mmm.” Jiang Cheng also stopped to look.
The wind was a little stronger now. Gu Fei shuffled closer to Jiang Cheng, pressing their arms together.
“I honestly just wanted to come take a look,” Jiang Cheng said quietly. “I wasn’t planning to pick a fight with Li Hui. I’m not here to threaten him or yell at him or beat him up—he’s not worth it. I just wanted to come have a look as a way of clearing the obstacle in my head.”
“Yeah,” Gu Fei answered.
“Someone like that,” Jiang Cheng continued. “That’s all he’ll ever be. I won’t let myself be affected by these people again. From now on, I refuse to be distracted.”
“Mm.” Gu Fei rubbed Jiang Cheng’s lower back with his hand.
“After all, I’m the guy who’s going to treat you to eight hundred yuan’s worth of vermicelli with two hundred yuan’s worth of extra meat,” Jiang Cheng added. “I have to stay focused.”
Gu Fei smiled. “You can do it.”
He was just about to ask Jiang Cheng if he wanted to take a walk somewhere else to clear his mind when a torrent of shouts erupted from Building Seven. They heard a man’s curses and a woman’s screams, and the noise activated all the corridor lights in the two adjacent buildings.
Jiang Cheng blinked, about to take a couple of steps forward to check it out, but Gu Fei, armed with his sharp nose for sensing bullshit in the steelworks neighborhood, pulled him into the shadows on the side of the road.
They’d only just steadied themselves when they saw a figure come charging out of Building Seven. It was a mass of pale flesh—a man, stark naked from head to toe, charging out, screaming and crying, sheathed only by the wind.
“Li Hui,” Gu Fei said.
Jiang Cheng knitted his brows and didn’t speak.
There were a few other people behind him, all clothed. The pursuers carried weapons in their hands, mostly sticks and clubs, but Jiang Cheng also noticed the shimmering glint of metal—possibly a rod or even a knife.
Li Hui, on the other hand, had nothing on his entire body other than the parts he was born with. He managed to run for a few steps before he was pushed to the ground by the group of fully dressed people behind him.
Then he disappeared from sight.
“I called the police! I already called the police!” a woman shrieked as she burst from the stairwell, wearing only a tank top and underwear. But the ones who had Li Hui surrounded seemed not to have heard her. One of them swung his hand down hard.
“Let’s go.” Jiang Cheng turned away. These people were beating him like they wanted him dead. “Let’s take a walk.”
“Mm.”
They turned down another road and walked for a long time, until they could no longer hear the noise behind them. Jiang Cheng threw his head back, took in a deep breath, and sang quietly, “I want to shatter the unknown and walk through time…”
“Didn’t you say you only knew one line?” Gu Fei asked with a smile.
“I lied.” Jiang Cheng quirked his brow. “I want you on my left shoulder…”
Gu Fei darted from his right side to his left. Jiang Cheng glanced at him, then continued with a laugh, “And a smile…”
Gu Fei quickly switched back to his right side, harmonizing with him: “A smile on my right.”