Only a single wall lamp was lit in the hotel room. Lin Yi sat on the edge of the bed, bare from the waist up.
A dark bruise stretched across his back from his shoulder blade to the side of his waist, deep purple tinged with blue and shocking to look at.
Zhou Ruo An stuffed an unopened ice pop into a woman’s long stocking, forming a narrow strip. He pressed it against the bruise, pulled both ends tight, and tied them together across Lin Yi’s chest.
Watching Lin Yi shiver, Zhou Ruo An curled his lips into a smile. “What do you want to hear me say? Thank you?”
“An IOU is worth more.” Lin Yi adjusted the stocking and said dully, “Taking that hit for you—one hundred thousand.”
Zhou Ruo An cursed under his breath, dragged over a chair, and sat astride it. He stretched out his hand beneath Lin Yi’s gaze. His fingers were clenched at first, then slowly opened. A piece of candy lay in his palm.
“I admit it. I was wrong before. Brother Lin, you’re a magnanimous man—don’t stoop to my level.”
It was just an ordinary fruit candy, the kind convenience stores sometimes gave out as change when they were short a few cents.
Lin Yi had once received a similar candy, also from Zhou Ruo An, after Zhou Ruo An had asked him for help.
He had kept that candy for an entire year, moving it from one pocket to another but never eating it.
In the end, Zhou Ruo An himself had eaten it. He sucked on half, then threw the remaining half beneath the smallest terrace of the Zhou family villa.
The pink piece of candy lay wrapped in dirty snow, without the slightest trace of beauty.
Now, another piece of candy was being held out to Lin Yi. He stared at it for a long while before finally pinching it between his fingers and examining it beneath the light.
“Zhou Ruo An.” It had been a long time since Lin Yi had called him by name. “You’re not someone who admits he’s wrong unless you think admitting it has value.”
The candy wrapper gleamed beneath the light, dazzling—just like Zhou Ruo An’s outward appearance, strikingly attractive.
But what lay wrapped inside might not be sweet, just like the soul beneath that beautiful exterior. Whether it belonged to a human being or something else was hard to say.
Lin Yi quickly dismissed the thought.
This candy definitely wasn’t sweet.
“You’ve simply realized I’m still useful to you—that I can help you accomplish some of your filthy little desires. And since you don’t want to spend money negotiating business with me, you’d rather lower your head and admit you were wrong. That way, no matter what you want me to do in the future, a single piece of candy will be enough to settle it.”
He weighed the candy once in his palm, then tossed it high into the air. Just like the lighter from earlier, it landed in the trash can.
“Zhou Ruo An, put away your little schemes. Between us now, if you have money, we talk business. If you don’t, get lost.”
With that, Lin Yi stood and got dressed. He pulled a loose knit sweater directly over the stocking, picked up his coat, and headed for the door. “I’m hungry. Going to eat.”
His hand had already closed around the doorknob when he turned back. “Right—the principal can stay unpaid, but the interest has to be settled. That’s the rule. Half a month counts as one term. I’ll come collect.”
“As for the first term, forget it.” His gaze fell on the bandage at Zhou Ruo An’s neck. “I bit hard enough. Consider it settled.”
Lin Yi clearly saw the anger flare in Zhou Ruo An’s eyes. After savoring it for a moment, he opened the door and left.
The hotel corridor was long and winding. He had only just reached the corner when a cool voice drifted after him.
Zhou Ruo An leaned against the doorframe, tossing a coin up and down in one hand. “The affection may be gone, but business remains. Let’s have dinner together tonight. My treat.”
＊
At a grimy roadside stall, two beer glasses clinked together.
Zhou Ruo An had been an abandoned child, born into hardship, yet he had always carried himself like a young master. When he ate, he barely paid attention, taking a bite here and there.
Whenever Lin Yi used to sit at the same table, Zhou Ruo An only had to move his lips or cast him a glance and Lin Yi would understand what he wanted. He wasn’t exactly attentive in serving him, but he always took care of everything just right.
Once, when Zhou Ruo An ate alone with Bai Ban, he behaved the same way. Bai Ban’s eyes bulged like bells, and words like “idiot” and “cripple” hovered on his lips for several minutes before he finally shut up.
Today, however, Zhou Ruo An behaved completely out of character. He took full responsibility for pouring drinks and serving food. The instant Lin Yi pulled out a cigarette, Zhou Ruo An’s flame was already waiting in front of him.
Lin Yi looked at him, lowered his head to light the cigarette, and let the first puff of smoke disperse before saying, “Betting I’ll go soft on you?”
Zhou Ruo An put away the lighter, placed a freshly grilled oyster on Lin Yi’s plate, and admitted it with a smile. “You’re not a heartless person.”
He suddenly grabbed Lin Yi’s sweater, rose to his feet, slipped a hand down through the collar, tore a hole in the long stocking, and pulled out an ice pop.
“Back then, whenever you got hurt and needed something cold on it, winter was easy enough—we could just find ice outside. But there was nothing we could do in summer, so I came up with this.”
Zhou Ruo An tore open the wrapper. The ice pop had already melted into a milky liquid, which he poured into an empty cup.
“Even after they melted, we couldn’t bear to throw them away. We’d tear open the wrapper and take turns drinking—you take a mouthful, then me—like we were fucking sharing nectar from the gods.”
He lifted the cup and took a sip, then stretched out his arm and offered it to Lin Yi. “For the sake of everything we went through together, forgive me one more time.”
Lin Yi tapped his cigarette twice against the corner of the table before finally taking the cup. He didn’t drink from it, merely setting it aside. “Zhou Ruo An, I do want something from you. We can’t go back to how things were.”
As he spoke, Lin Yi slowly lifted his eyes. His gaze was deep and lingering, carrying something obscure that Zhou Ruo An couldn’t understand.
Bang!
Fireworks exploded outside, breaking apart their locked gazes. Zhou Ruo An glanced through the narrow window and saw the central square packed with people, all of them looking up at the brilliant sky.
He lit up his phone screen and checked the date. “Christmas. A holiday for foreign devils.”
Unable to coax Lin Yi back, Zhou Ruo An simply gave up. So he wants something from me? He gave a soft scoff. Isn’t it just money? Something inside him felt cold, as though the chill seeping through the window had found its way into the cracks of his heart. Zhou Ruo An thought he was being fucking melodramatic. When he had decided to part ways with Lin Yi, he had considered it a wise decision made after judging the situation clearly. But now that he was the one being abandoned, his chest had somehow turned sour. Damn it, it didn’t feel good at all.
Their conversation died. At the table tucked away in the corner, only the hotpot continued to bubble.
People in the restaurant began heading outside one after another to watch the fireworks. Zhou Ruo An asked casually, “Want to watch? I’ll go with you one more time.”
Lin Yi was a rough man. He was ruthless when he fought and foul-mouthed enough to curse someone’s ancestors, yet for some reason, he liked watching fireworks.
In the past, Zhou Ruo An had accompanied him every year. Back when they didn’t have a car, they would ride an old bicycle up the mountain during New Year. When it became too cold, they could only stop halfway up. There was no viewing platform, so they watched the magnificent fireworks over the city through layer upon layer of bare, withered branches.
They really were dazzling. They really were beautiful. But they disappeared far too quickly.
Zhou Ruo An had never cared for that kind of splendor—something beautiful that could never be held in his hands. Every time, he would hug himself against the cold and curse, “Lin Yi, if I come watch this shit with you again next year, I’m your son.”
Lin Yi would only laugh and wrap his own scarf around Zhou Ruo An’s neck. Zhou Ruo An would keep cursing, yet the following year, he would still pedal that bicycle up the mountain with Lin Yi, the wheels practically throwing sparks from how fast they spun.
“Want to watch? I’ll go with you one more time.”
The words were like draining a farewell cup, signaling the end.
Lin Yi crushed out his cigarette, grabbed the coat hanging from the back of his chair, kicked the restaurant door open with the toe of his shoe, and stepped outside.
They didn’t join the crowd. Instead, they stood beneath a tree at the edge of the square. The willow branches were bare, swaying in the wind. One brushed through Zhou Ruo An’s hair before drifting over to tease Lin Yi’s cheek.
Lin Yi pushed the branch aside and looked up at the fireworks. “Don’t you want to know what I want from you?”
Once that sourness in Zhou Ruo An’s chest had passed, he found himself no longer particularly interested in the answer.
“I don’t really want to know. But if you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”
Lin Yi lowered his eyes slightly. In the cold wind, he bent down until his lips were beside Zhou Ruo An’s ear, his hoarse voice sinking straight into him. “I want something from you.”
A willow branch brushed across something soft, and then Lin Yi’s lips followed, pressing down…