It was in that instant that Jiang Cheng briefly set aside the matter of getting rid of Wang Xu. He was shaken by Wang Xu’s spirit—the spirit of a poor bachelor who felt the need to come out to the river in the middle of the night on Valentine’s Day so he could stand in the freezing air and torture himself. What kind of mental illness was that?
“You’re by yourself?” Gu Fei was probably just as shocked as Jiang Cheng. “Or are you waiting for someone?”
“I thought I was waiting for someone,” Wang Xu said, his voice full of sorrow. “But it turns out I’m spending it by myself.”
Jiang Cheng was quiet. He’d only just noticed that on the snow-covered ground by Wang Xu’s feet, there were fireworks meticulously arranged into the shape of two hearts.
Everything made sense now. Wang Xu had painstakingly prepared a romantic setting to profess his undying love, but the leading lady Yi Jing never showed up.
“…Oh.” Even the emotionally intelligent Gu Fei couldn’t find anything to say about this.
They plunged into silence. It was so quiet Jiang Cheng could hear the sound of snow falling on the ground around them.
“What’s…” Wang Xu stood wordlessly for a while, bracing himself against the wind, before suddenly looking up at them and staring. “What’s the deal with you two…? Oh, fuck. Don’t tell me you’re… Don’t tell me…”
Going by most TV dramas, the two of them should have been pulling out guns from their pockets at the same time and emptying the chambers into Wang Xu’s head before watching him slowly collapse backward onto the fireworks on the ground.
“It’s Valentine’s Day.” Jiang Cheng looked back at him. At this hour, in a place like this, facing someone who couldn’t be killed off, he had nothing else to hide. “You got a problem with that?”
Wang Xu was even more flustered than the two of them were. He opened his mouth, then closed it, but no sound came out.
“You, me, and him,” Gu Fei said gruffly. “If a fourth person finds out about this, I’ll kill you myself.”
It might have just been the old north wind blowing past at that moment, but Wang Xu shuddered cooperatively. “Oh, I won’t tell, I didn’t… I don’t think, um, one guy with another, uh, I don’t…um, have a problem. No problem with that.”
“Sounds good.” Gu Fei nodded. “You can go home now.”
“Why…why do I have to go home?” Wang Xu asked.
“Because we’re going to set off fireworks here.” Gu Fei glanced at him, then turned and walked back a couple of steps, bringing over the bag they’d dropped during their tumble.
“Mother…fucker…” Wang Xu leaned in and took a look. “I really gotta fucking hand it to you two.”
Neither Gu Fei nor Jiang Cheng spoke as they looked back at him together. Wang Xu fell silent, his brows knitting tightly together as he stared at the fireworks in the bag.
The moon wasn’t especially bright, and there were no streetlamps near the river. But they were close enough that Jiang Cheng still saw the glint of moisture in Wang Xu’s eyes.
“Wang Xu?” He was a little taken aback.
“Fuck me!” Wang Xu suddenly shouted, his voice filled with hurt. “Fuck me! Even two guys are able to fucking get together! Why is it so fucking hard for me to just be with someone?!”
“You…” Gu Fei reared back a little from his outburst. “Yi Jing’s not coming? Did she say anything?”
“Just that she doesn’t have time. She can’t come because she has to study,” Wang Xu said, sounding congested.
“That’s normal for an overachiever like her, though. Of course she’s going to be busy studying right now. We have just over a hundred days left before the exam,” said Gu Fei.
“What about overachievers?” Wang Xu shot back, unconvinced. “Isn’t Jiang Cheng one too? And several levels above her, too. Jiang Cheng doesn’t even move an inch when he’s studying, like he’s frozen or something. But isn’t Jiang Cheng in a relationship?! And with another dude, too!”
“Shout it out,” Gu Fei remarked, looking at him. “Go ahead, shout a little louder. Or should I find you a megaphone so you can go yell it out on the streets?”
Wang Xu bit his lip, squatted down, and went completely still.
They were once again stuck in a stalemate. Jiang Cheng and Gu Fei couldn’t very well leave right away, but they really couldn’t bear to arrange another set of fireworks on the ground right next to Wang Xu’s, in case it set him off. So the three of them stood frozen in the bitter wind, staring into the cold together.
“Were you guys going to arrange it into a heart?” Wang Xu finally spoke up after a long time.
“No,” Gu Fei said. “We just came to set some off. We weren’t gonna arrange them.”
“Oh. Maybe…” Wang Xu rubbed his nose and pointed at the fireworks he had arranged on the ground. “You can have these. Consider it a blessing from me.”
“Ah.” Jiang Cheng blinked.
“I’ve been here since eleven thirty.” Still crouching, Wang Xu scooted over to the fireworks. “I bought some fuse and strung them all together. You only have to light it once to set the whole bunch of them off. Crackly-crack.”
“Oh,” said Gu Fei.
“Let’s tie the ones you brought to it.” Wang Xu wiped his eyes. “The more, the merrier.”
Gu Fei gave Jiang Cheng a glance. Jiang Cheng nodded.
String them up, then. He couldn’t relate to Wang Xu’s feelings, but in the face of this sudden burst of tears, he was even more helpless than the time after the basketball game.
The three of them crouched on the ground and strung up the fireworks they’d brought to the other fuse. It was Valentine’s Day, after all, and this was certainly a unique way to spend it.
After that was done, Gu Fei stood up and clapped his hands together. “So, Jiuri, thank you.”
“No need to be so formal with me.” Wang Xu sniffed. “Let’s light it!”
“Wait.” Gu Fei looked at him in surprise. “You’re staying?”
“I…have to go?” Wang Xu was shocked. “You guys don’t want an emcee, or a witness? A host or something?”
“We just came to set off fireworks together,” Gu Fei reiterated, his face a rapidly shifting kaleidoscope of expressions. “Not to get married.”
“Oh.” Wang Xu looked at the two of them. “Then I’ll just watch.”
“What Gu Fei meant was that he’s afraid you’ll get upset,” Jiang Cheng chimed in.
“I won’t,” Wang Xu sighed, with profound sincerity. “I’m already numb.”
“Then…watch, I guess.” Gu Fei rubbed his hands together and pulled out a lighter, probably too cold to continue arguing with Wang Xu. Jiang Cheng went to stand beside Gu Fei, watching as he bent down and lit the fuse.
After the initial spark, the first beam of blue light shot out of one of the cylinders, followed by a second one. Gu Fei reached over and grabbed Jiang Cheng’s hand. Jiang Cheng squeezed back.
They’d gotten fireworks in different colors. Wang Xu’s were all gold, while the ones they’d brought were multicolored. The combination was dazzling. Jiang Cheng squinted his eyes against the smoke that had drifted over as he watched the brilliant light show in front of them.
“May you two live happily ever after,” Wang Xu said abruptly, sobbing.
“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng said.
This Valentine’s Day was special indeed. Even if they celebrated it again the next year, properly, he was sure it wouldn’t leave as deep of an impression as this one did. Who could’ve foreseen a crying emcee and such a sincere blessing?
After the fireworks ended, Gu Fei and Jiang Cheng got ready to leave, but Emcee Wang Xu remained in his spot, head down and somber.
“You’re not going home?” Gu Fei asked him.
“I…am.” Wang Xu sighed, then overtook them to walk ahead.
“How did you get here?” said Gu Fei.
“I rode my bike,” Wang Xu said. “But it’s parked a little farther away. I walked all the way here looking for a good spot.”
“Want a ride to your bike?” Jiang Cheng offered.
“No, I want some quiet time alone. You guys go ahead… Oh, and I won’t say anything about you two—you can trust me. I’m a man of my word.”
Sitting in the little dumpling, they watched Wang Xu disappear into the drifting snow before Gu Fei started the car. “How’s that for Valentine’s Day?”
“Awesome.” Jiang Cheng smiled.
“I can’t believe Wang Xu came here to set off fireworks too.” Gu Fei looked back at Jiang Cheng. “Don’t tell me you gave him the idea. I heard him asking you the other day about suitable gifts for Valentine’s Day.”
“How can you expect me to possibly have any ideas with my brain like this?” Jiang Cheng said. “I told him to get her a fountain pen.”
Gu Fei sighed. “Looks like Wang Xu’s going to be sad for a good while. At least his exam results will probably be the same regardless of his emotional state.”
“I never knew Wang Xu was so serious about her.” Jiang Cheng leaned against his seat and patted his dirtied pants. “But Yi Jing…probably isn’t interested, huh?”
“Yeah. Yi Jing’s family gets by pretty well,” Gu Fei said. “She’s definitely not going to stay in this place, but Wang Xu will probably take over running his family’s meat pie shop…”
Jiang Cheng was quiet as he looked at the back of Gu Fei’s head.
“What I mean is…” Gu Fei seemed to realize what he’d said. Turning around again, he looked at Jiang Cheng and continued, “They’re not like us.”
“How?” Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue extra loudly, then scoffed just as loud.
“Well, for one thing,” Gu Fei said. “You like me, and I like you.”
“What sweet words.” Jiang Cheng laughed. “I really haven’t been dwelling on it anymore. I just think… Gu Fei?”
“Hm?” Gu Fei answered.
“Keep your eyes forward, please,” Jiang Cheng said. “We might have survived the fall earlier, but this is a motor vehicle.”
“Oh.” Gu Fei chuckled as he turned to face the front.
“Gu Fei…” Jiang Cheng leaned his head back, speaking slowly. “I just think there’s nothing to keep dwelling over, really. All we can do is continue. To keep going forward, and then farther still. Some things you can’t plan for ahead of time, so I won’t worry about them. There’ll always be a way.”
“Yeah.” Gu Fei nodded.
“There will always be a way,” Jiang Cheng repeated, then closed his eyes. “Even if there really is no other way forward, even if we have to give up, it’ll have to be after we tried every possible thing… No. No, no, no, no, no. Nope, nope, nope. That won’t happen. There will always be a way.”
“Yeah.” Laughing, Gu Fei reached his hand back and stroked Jiang Cheng’s face.
Jiang Cheng grabbed Gu Fei’s hand and gently bit the pad of his ring finger.