Shao Wu and Yang Shuyi each took a bread roll and ate as they walked.
It tasted much worse than Shao Wu had expected.
The pork floss was coarse, almost like chewing grass, and the bread itself was hard.
His jaw was beginning to ache.
This hasn’t expired, has it?
“If you really can’t eat it, forget it,” Yang Shuyi said. “It’s pretty bad.”
“It’s… okay.”
“No idea how long it’s been sitting there.”
Yang Shuyi took a gulp of water.
“Most of the people in that café are students. They usually buy crunchy instant noodles. Almost nobody buys bread.”
“Instant noodles for dinner?”
“Mm.”
Shao Wu hesitated.
“…Does that actually fill you up?”
They chatted idly as they walked back toward school.
It did not take long.
Nearly all the students had already left by then. Only the security booth remained lit.
Shao Wu wheeled his bicycle out and took his backpack from Yang Shuyi.
When he put it on, another stab of pain came from his back.
His expression did not change, but hidden by the darkness, his body gave a small shudder.
“You’re going back to the internet café?” Shao Wu asked.
“A different one.”
“Oh. Okay…”
Shao Wu desperately wanted to ask why Yang Shuyi would not go home.
But it was obvious that Yang Shuyi did not want to talk about it.
“Then I’m going home.”
Shao Wu swung a leg over his bicycle.
“You… bye.”
He had originally wanted to remind Yang Shuyi to look at his scratch paper.
Then he thought better of it.
Yang Shuyi was not even going home.
He was going to spend the entire night in some smoky, foul-smelling internet café.
When would he study scratch paper?
“Bye.”
Yang Shuyi waved.
When Shao Wu got home, his parents were still out at his father’s class reunion.
He locked his bedroom door, opened the wardrobe, and slowly took off his T-shirt in front of the full-length mirror mounted inside the door.
Just below his left shoulder blade was a tiny wound.
It really was no bigger than a dot.
But it was deep.
Blood had seeped from it and soaked through a small patch of fabric.
Shao Wu was surprised.
He had not expected it to bleed.
He had assumed he would have nothing worse than a bruise.
So the thing protruding from the wall really had probably been a nail.
Strangely, it had not hurt that much when Wang Yujun first slammed him against it.
Shao Wu reached awkwardly behind himself, dabbed the wound with red antiseptic, then covered it with an adhesive bandage.
Maybe his reflex arc had simply been too long.
It had not hurt badly at first.
Now it certainly did.
Even a slight movement of his shoulder, or lifting his left arm, made the wound sting as though it were splitting open.
But whenever the wound hurt, Shao Wu found himself remembering Yang Shuyi in the darkness, lifting Shao Wu’s backpack and carrying it in his hand.
After midnight, Shao Wu had finished his homework and washed the blood from his T-shirt.
His parents finally came home.
Shao Wu’s father was the deputy director of the Land Bureau.
His mother was a kindergarten principal.
They had been university classmates.
Shao Wu rarely heard his mother speak about her first marriage.
All he vaguely knew came from his maternal grandmother.
Years ago, one of his mother’s colleagues had introduced her to a man surnamed Wang.
The man was in business.
After they married, his temper became extremely violent.
His mother’s cheeks were flushed when she came in.
She rubbed Shao Wu’s head.
“Finished your homework?”
“Mm… Mom, are you drunk?”
“I’m not drunk. I only had the tiniest little bit…”
“All right, come on, go to sleep.”
Shao Wu’s father helped her into the bedroom and settled her down.
When he came back out, he smiled helplessly at Shao Wu.
“She really did only have a little. Your mother’s alcohol tolerance…”
He shook his head.
“All right, you should get to bed too.”
“Dad.”
Shao Wu glanced toward the bedroom.
Only after seeing that his mother’s eyes were already shut did he lower his voice.
“I ran into someone today.”
“Mm? Who?”
His father did not pay much attention at first, pouring himself some water as he spoke.
“Wang Yujun. You know… my brother.”
His father froze in the middle of the motion.
“You ran into him?!”
“Yeah. I went to the internet café to download songs for my MP3,” Shao Wu lied. “And I happened to meet him. He seemed really different. I don’t know…”
“What were you doing at an internet café after school instead of coming home?”
His father interrupted, frowning.
“Haven’t I told you? If you want songs downloaded, I can do it at work. Just tell me what you want…”
Then his expression tightened again.
“How did you run into Wang Yujun? What did he say?”
Shao Wu stared.
The words almost reached his lips.
At the last moment, he swallowed them.
He shook his head.
“Wang Yujun was drunk. He didn’t say anything.”
“He said nothing?”
His father pressed him.
“Was he alone?”
“…Yes.”
“That’s good.”
His father exhaled.
“Don’t go to internet cafés anymore, all right? Those places are chaotic. Just last month, one of my colleagues said there was a fight at an internet café over in Fengjie. Two people were killed.”
He sighed.
“And Wang Yujun… that boy has done too many foolish things. Don’t get involved in his business.”
“Okay.”
Shao Wu obediently nodded.
“Then I’m going to bed.”
“Maybe we really should get a computer for the house,” his father muttered to himself, still holding his glass of water.
Shao Wu returned to his room, shut the door, and turned off the main light.
Only the orange glow of his eye-protection desk lamp remained.
Because of the wound on his back, he had to lie facedown on the bed.
That was strange.
His father’s reaction had been far too strange.
His parents had always taken a democratic approach to raising him.
And because Shao Wu had always done well in school and rarely caused trouble, they trusted him even more.
Most things he asked for were open to discussion.
For example, during his third year of middle school, everyone suddenly started enrolling in cram schools.
His father asked whether he wanted to go too.
Shao Wu said he did not think he needed one.
His father waved a hand.
“Then don’t. Stay home and catch up on sleep.”
It had been the same with downloading songs at internet cafés.
His father knew Shao Wu did it and had never actually forbidden him.
The most he had ever said was,
“I can download them for you at work, you know.”
So it was because of Wang Yujun.
It had to be.
The heavy black necklace and sky-high spiked hair surfaced again in Shao Wu’s mind.
He had no idea exactly what Wang Yujun had done that was supposedly so foolish that it made his father this nervous.
And he had even less idea what his father was afraid of.
The moment he thought of Wang Yujun, however, his thoughts uncontrollably veered toward Yang Shuyi instead.
Was Yang Shuyi gaming right now?
Fantasy Westward Journey?
Would he sleep for a while after getting tired?
Would he just put his head down on the desk in the internet café?
Shao Wu buried his face in his pillow.
The cassia seeds packed inside made a soft rustling sound.
His mother said cassia seeds were good for the eyes and liver and helped people sleep.
Yet that night, unusually, Shao Wu suffered from insomnia.
Elio’s Notes: Cassia-seed pillows were and remain a familiar household wellness product in China. Traditional Chinese medicine associates cassia seeds with “clearing the liver” and benefiting the eyes, which explains Shao Wu’s mother’s comment.
He lay facedown, thinking about Yang Shuyi over and over.
Sometimes he saw Yang Shuyi’s profile as he concentrated on his game.
Sometimes it was his smile in the darkness.
Shao Wu had no idea what time it was when he finally began drifting into half-sleep.
Even then, his thoughts were still circling the same question.
Why do I keep thinking about Yang Shuyi?
Was it only because Yang Shuyi was difficult to approach?
Was it only because the fact that he ate thirty-fen steamed buns seemed a little pitiful?
The next morning, Shao Wu entered the classroom with dark circles beneath both eyes.
Yang Shuyi had arrived even earlier than he had, as usual.
But surprisingly, he was not asleep.
Shao Wu could not stop himself from walking over.
There, spread across Yang Shuyi’s desk, was Shao Wu’s scratch paper.
“You actually looked at it?”
Shao Wu sounded genuinely surprised.
“Didn’t I promise you I would?”
“…Mm. Then I’ll explain it during the long break.”
Yang Shuyi seemed fairly energetic.
Only after coming closer did Shao Wu notice the blue-black stubble on his chin.
“Yang Shuyi, I want to ask you something…”
In the end, Shao Wu could not hold it back.
“What?”
The two of them went out onto the balcony and closed the door behind them.
The newly risen morning sun shone over them while the breeze rustled past.
“How much do you know about Wang Yujun?”
Shao Wu spoke hesitantly.
“I haven’t seen him in years. I heard he was working in Chengdu before… so why was he at that internet café?”
“Wang Yujun…”
Yang Shuyi fell silent.
For once, genuine hesitation appeared on his face.
Shao Wu was becoming anxious when Yang Shuyi finally spoke.
“He’s gay.”
He paused.
“I mean, he doesn’t like women. Everybody who goes to that internet café knows about him.”
Then Yang Shuyi added,
“It’s pretty disgusting.”
Shao Wu went rigid.
The words he’s gay came down on him like the blade of a cleaver.
He took the blow before he even had time to understand why it hurt.
The question escaped him immediately.
“You think gay people are disgusting too?”
Yang Shuyi looked at him.
His expression was faintly puzzled.
“…Mm.”