An Zi Yan nudged Mai Ding. “You can go now.”
Mai Ding recovered a little and nodded woodenly. “Mm.”
He entered the building and took the elevator to the third floor, where he discovered that the company was not very large. Several people hurried back and forth in front of him, none willing to give him more than a glance. Mai Ding stood awkwardly clutching his résumé, unsure whom to ask. After a while, he finally approached a woman who looked relatively approachable. “H-hello. I’m Mai Ding. I’m here for an interview today.” The woman lifted her eyes and looked him over from head to toe. Mai Ding’s stomach tightened with nerves. She turned and asked a coworker behind her, “Are we hiring?”
“No idea. Haven’t heard anything.”
Their exchange made Mai Ding even more awkward. Everyone looked as though it had nothing to do with them. He had become an unwanted intruder interrupting other people’s work. None of the warm, friendly coworkers or united atmosphere he had seen on television existed here. The entire office felt lifeless, everyone mechanically going about their own business.
“I’ll ask the manager for you.” The woman’s words rescued Mai Ding, who had no idea what to do. She took his résumé into an office and came back out not long afterward. Raising her voice, she called to a man in his thirties sitting in the farthest corner. “Gao Guo, the manager says you should show the new guy around.”
The man muttered reluctantly, “Why does it have to be me?”
Mai Ding somehow skipped several steps and inexplicably joined the company just like that. He later learned from their conversation that one employee was on maternity leave and they were too busy to manage, so they had no choice but to hire an intern temporarily as a substitute. Mai Ding stood there like a bewildered new student beside a teacher, staring stiffly at Gao Guo as he worked with his head down. “Excuse me, is there anything I can help with?” Without even looking up, Gao Guo grabbed a stack of documents beside him. His voice was slightly impatient. “Go sort those by date over there. And get me a cup of coffee while you’re at it.”
“Okay.”
As the newcomer, Mai Ding naturally became the easiest person for everyone to order around and push work onto. They dumped errands like fetching coffee and ordering lunch on him. Of course, his performance was far from ideal. Because Mai Ding wanted so badly to do everything well, he only became more nervous. He spilled several cups of coffee and failed to do what Gao Guo had assigned him properly. Feeling discouraged, he imagined An Zi Yan probably sitting leisurely in the classroom right now with his legs propped on Mai Ding’s chair, and he could not help feeling envious. But Mai Ding immediately shook his head. He could not let that guy look down on him. If he did not do well, what would he use to lecture An Zi Yan in the future? Was all this hard work really just for that?
During the lunch break, everyone else went out to eat. After Mai Ding finally finished organizing the documents and placed them neatly on Gao Guo’s desk, he took out his phone and called An Zi Yan.
“You didn’t even call to ask whether I got the job?”
“What’s there to get or not get at a small company like that? They’re short-handed anyway, which makes it perfect for you to build experience without too much pressure,” An Zi Yan said lazily over the phone.
“You talk like you know everything.” The words had barely left Mai Ding’s mouth when he realized something was wrong. He had never told An Zi Yan the company’s address, yet that morning An Zi Yan had driven him straight to the right place. Mai Ding had been too nervous to notice at the time.
“What have you been doing behind my back again?” Mai Ding demanded.
“I just had someone look into it. Unfortunately, it’s a legitimate company. I was hoping it would be a human-trafficking ring so they could take you away and finally set me free.”
“You have so much free time. Why don’t you spend it studying properly?!” Mai Ding did his best to make himself sound annoyed. Luckily, they were on the phone, so An Zi Yan could not see his expression.
“Studying properly sounds stupid.”
“Tsk, tsk. Listen to yourself. Even though I’m temporarily gone, as the family member of the study representative, you should set a good example in my place. Does everyone miss the excellent learning atmosphere I used to create in class?”
“They’ve already forgotten who you are.”
“Is my presence really that weak?!” Mai Ding asked, wounded.
“Mm. Probably only I remember you.” There he went again, casually launching another surprise attack. Before Mai Ding could think of a response, An Zi Yan asked, “Have you eaten?”
“Not yet.”
“You’ve gotten so stupid you need me to tell you to eat?”
The call ended. Mai Ding wrinkled his nose at the phone, then practically bounced out of the office. Maybe he would never get used to any of An Zi Yan’s ways of expressing affection. It was like anxiously feeling his way through the dark, never knowing when or where a warm light would suddenly appear. But as more and more of those moments accumulated, he had learned to smile in the darkness, because now he knew one thing with certainty: that man would never abandon him.
Mai Ding’s unfamiliarity with the work on his first day earned him plenty of sarcastic remarks from Gao Guo. Gao Guo was a serious, somewhat old-fashioned man who hated trouble. The manager had made him responsible for Mai Ding, which left him resentful, so everything Mai Ding did seemed wrong to him. On top of that, Mai Ding knew nothing, and Gao Guo had no patience to teach him. As for the other coworkers, they neither disliked Mai Ding nor could they be said to like him. After all, it was difficult for one person to feel instantly close to another.
Only when it was time to get off work did Mai Ding’s stomach, clenched tight all day, finally relax a little. His mind was still muddled by everything that had happened, and it all felt somewhat unreal. It seemed like only a short while ago he had still been a student sitting in a classroom. He was not used to this abrupt change in his life. For a moment, he felt that he had become a real adult. Mai Ding swung his bag in one hand as he planned to walk home. At least he had been smart enough to apply only to companies that were not too far away.
The walk home took a little over twenty minutes. As Mai Ding headed upstairs, he heard footsteps in the stairwell. Looking down, he saw An Zi Yan coming home from class. Mai Ding could not help letting out two sly chuckles, then hid around the corner to scare him. Even after all this time, he still had not given up on finding ways to prank An Zi Yan and avenge all the humiliation he had suffered in the past, especially that April Fools’ Day! The moment An Zi Yan reached that floor, however, he saw a pair of feet sticking out from around the corner above.
Mai Ding was feeling rather pleased with himself. People were easiest to scare when completely unprepared. In a moment, if An Zi Yan turned pale, covered his mouth, and screamed, what a rare sight that would be. Then An Zi Yan’s voice drifted up from below. “Tonight won’t work. Mai Ding will be home soon. Come over tomorrow after he leaves. You didn’t leave anything on the bed this morning, did you?” It sounded as though he was talking to someone on the phone. Mai Ding had often heard stories from experienced people who came home early to surprise their boyfriends only to discover the shocking secret of an affair. He had never imagined it would happen to him. Who was the other person? A man or a woman? How long had they been together? This time it was Mai Ding’s turn to cover his mouth and turn pale. Unable to stop himself, he rushed around the corner, his face full of grief. “This isn’t true. How could you…” His voice stopped. It really was not true. An Zi Yan was not on the phone at all. He held nothing but a book, and he showed no surprise whatsoever at Mai Ding suddenly rushing out.
Mai Ding understood. Pointing at An Zi Yan, he shouted, “How childish can you be?! You think I’d fall for that? Cheap trick!” Who exactly had just fallen for it with a face full of tragedy? A moment later, he muttered under his breath, “Lost again. Damn it.”
“What exactly are you trying to compete with me over?”
The two walked upstairs side by side. Naturally, Mai Ding did not have the courage to admit it, so he could only say, “Nothing. I knew you wouldn’t cheat on me.”
“If I cheated on you, how could you possibly find out?” An Zi Yan asked contemptuously.
“You really cheated on me?”
“Mm.”
“Don’t admit it so casually!” Mai Ding bounded up two steps at once. Behind him, An Zi Yan asked, “You don’t believe me?”
“I don’t.”
“Why?”
Mai Ding turned around with his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes half narrowed. “Because you never admit to anything you actually do. Just like you never admit that you’re good to me.”
“Who said I’ve ever been good to you?” The words came from An Zi Yan automatically.
“See?” Mai Ding said, preparing to jump onto him. Just as he was about to spring, An Zi Yan pressed a hand to his shoulder and stopped the move before it began. “Don’t even think about it.”
“You actually saw through me.”
“How was work?”
“Not too good, not too bad.”
“You’re the same.” Mai Ding did not understand what An Zi Yan meant, and just as he was about to ask, An Zi Yan continued, “You never complain about the things that are actually bothering you.” Mai Ding was always complaining about trivial things like An Zi Yan sleeping late or throwing his belongings around, but whenever something was genuinely troubling him, like the fact that work had actually gone terribly and everyone ordered him around, he never wanted to complain about it to An Zi Yan. He did not want An Zi Yan to worry about him.
To Mai Ding, An Zi Yan was like the sea changing temperature with the seasons. All he had to do was leap into him, and everything would be washed clean.
Maybe time was not so terrible after all. It made them more and more familiar with one another, like the feel of skin, like the emotion in someone’s eyes, like the words in one’s mouth. More and more familiar, more and more…