“You’ve got no shame,” said Li Yan.
“And you’ve got the most shame, all right?” Gu Fei gave him a shove. “Now get out.”
“Hey.” Li Yan resisted and stayed where he was. Turning, he lowered his voice. “The guy said you’re not friends?”
“Mhm.” Gu Fei pushed a little harder and Li Yan stumbled out. Gu Fei followed and closed the door behind them. “He’s the one who found Er-Miao yesterday.”
“That was him?” Li Yan was a little surprised. “Must be destiny.”
Gu Fei ignored him. He sat down behind the cash register and started playing a game on his phone.
Li Yan leaned over the counter. “He’s pretty handsome,” he said in a low voice.
Gu Fei gave him a look, and Li Yan turned away and didn’t say anything more. Gu Miao came over then and stuck out her hand in front of Gu Fei with her palm spread open, wiggling her fingers.
“Go ahead and eat. Look how much weight you’ve gained in these last couple of months; nobody’s gonna play with you anymore.” Gu Fei took out a ten-yuan bill and pressed it into her hand. “Your face is almost a perfect circle now.”
Gu Miao ignored him. She put the money in her pocket, patted it for good measure, then walked out with skateboard in hand.
“With a bald head like that, no kid is gonna play with her no matter what shape her face is,” Li Yan sighed.
“Nobody plays with her anyway, even when she’s not bald.” Gu Fei kept playing his game. “She’s never had any friends—who’s going to play with a mute?”
“Don’t say that,” Liu Fan said beside them. “It’s not like she really can’t talk. She just won’t talk. What’s the big deal?”
“What’s gonna happen if she goes on like this?” Li Yan sighed again. “School’s just one thing; if she doesn’t wanna go, then don’t go. But if she’s only willing to talk to Da-Fei, then—”
“There’s a high probability the world’s gonna end if you don’t keep worrying about it,” Gu Fei interrupted him. “You should really apply for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
“Fuck you.” Li Yan slapped the counter and pulled up a chair next to Liu Fan.
The store slipped into silence. Liu Fan and the others sitting by the radiator were slowly nodding off to sleep, a glazed look in their eyes. Their facial muscles were starting to droop from relaxation, which made for a rather disturbing scene: three customers in a row had lifted the curtains to come in, only to turn on their heels and leave at the mere sight of them.
“You guys.” Gu Fei rapped his knuckles on the counter. “Get going.”
“Go where?” Li Yan asked.
“I dunno, go wild,” said Gu Fei.
“I don’t feel like going outside, though.” Liu Fan stretched lazily. “Too damn cold and nowhere to go.”
“You’ve been scaring away customers who’ve already stepped through the door.” Gu Fei put a lit cigarette in his mouth.
“I promise, the next person to come in, we’ll hold them here for you.” Liu Fan laughed and clapped his hands together. “We won’t let a single one escape.”
“Hurry up and get out,” Gu Fei said. “Annoying little shits.”
“Go, go, go, go.” Liu Fan tutted and stood up to give the other stools a kick each. “Your Uncle Gu is throwing a fit again—another minute and he’ll come at us with a knife.”
None of the others wanted to move, but they stood up anyway. They put their jackets on and left reluctantly, cursing under their breath all the while.
Li Yan was the last one out the door, but at the last second, he turned around and said, “There’s another one in there. You’re not going to get rid of him?”
Gu Fei just looked back at him silently. Li Yan lifted the curtain and walked out without another word.
After finishing a cigarette, Gu Fei glanced at the clock. He estimated that about twenty minutes had passed. According to standard fainting procedure, the guy should’ve been awake in a fraction of that time.
He pushed open the door to the spare room and peered inside. Mr. Baller was still unconscious, lying there with his eyes closed in the exact same position as before.
“Hey.” Gu Fei walked over and gave him a push. “Don’t die at my place.”
Still, Mr. Baller didn’t move.
For a while, Gu Fei just stood there and stared at him.
Jiang Cheng’s face was a little dirty, but it didn’t take away from the attractiveness of his features. The very slightly downturned eyes gave him a haughty air. According to Gu Fei’s standards—which judged pretty much everybody he met as inadequate—the guy was handsome enough. It was just that their first meeting yesterday had left him unimpressed with the prickly air he had about him—only low-key prickly, but Gu Fei felt it just the same.
After a few minutes of staring, he lifted the covers, rummaged around in Mr. Baller’s pockets, and found his wallet. His ID was slotted among a number of what looked like membership cards.
Jiang Cheng.
He put the wallet back, leaned down, and shouted into Jiang Cheng’s ears, “Hey!”
“Mmm…” Mr. Baller finally stirred and grunted quietly, sounding thoroughly vexed.
Gu Fei gave the edge of the bed a kick and turned to leave.
Jiang Cheng was confused.
When he opened his eyes, it felt like he had amnesia: Who am I? Where is this?
The last thing he could remember was the not-very-clean ground rushing toward him, bringing with it some snow that had been trampled into sludge.
He’d passed out? That was a lifetime first for him.
He sat up and lifted the blanket covering him. When he saw the mud all over his clothes, he immediately grabbed the blanket to check and found a few clumps of mud on it as well. He gave it a few pats in a futile attempt to clean it off. Just as he was considering getting some water to see if he could get the dirt out, his brain suddenly decided to work again.
Who am I?
Jiang Cheng.
Where am I?
No idea.
It was a small but well-kept room, much cleaner than the one Li Baoguo had given him. He threw off the covers and went to open the door.
When he saw the three rows of store shelves outside, he finally realized that he was still in Gu Fei’s store.
Sitting in a recliner by the cash register, Gu Fei glanced up at him for a second, then turned his attention back to his phone. “You’re finally awake.”
“Yeah.” Jiang Cheng patted the dried mud on his clothes. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Gu Fei’s eyes were glued to his phone. “It might’ve been more trouble if I’d left you out there.”
“Ah.” Jiang Cheng turned and looked back at the small room. “The blanket…got dirty.”
“There’s a sink out back,” Gu Fei said. “You can wash it there.”
“What?” Jiang Cheng was stunned, and a little mad, but couldn’t find an appropriate way to express his emotions. After all, there was nothing logically wrong with Gu Fei’s words.