October was neither cold nor hot. Night slowly descended and pressed itself over the water. An Zi Yan leaned against a rock while Mai Ding lay in his arms. Neither of them spoke again. Their faces were turned in different directions. An Zi Yan looked at the little house, while Mai Ding looked at the starless sky.
At that moment, he needed no words. The sound of An Zi Yan’s heartbeat keeping him company was enough. More than enough.
They had to go back the next day, but Mai Ding’s clothes were still wet. He had completely forgotten to hang them up the night before. He opened the wardrobe and found it utterly empty. “There isn’t even one piece of clothing?”
“No,” An Zi Yan said, wearing perfectly dry clothes.
“Then how am I supposed to go back?”
“Who knows.”
“Stop answering me with ‘Who knows’!! I’ll just have to wrap myself in a bedsheet first.”
“No. Everything in this house belongs to Grandpa. Taking it away would be theft.”
“That applies to me too?”
“How special do you think you are?”
Mai Ding stamped his feet in frustration. He could not simply stay, or he would be late for work the next day. “I’m only borrowing it. I’ll return it right away.”
“No.”
“Then I can’t go home!”
“Why can’t you?” A trace of wickedness appeared in An Zi Yan’s expression. Mai Ding backed away. “Y-you want me to go home naked? Impossible. Don’t even think about it!” Ten minutes after making that declaration, a completely naked Mai Ding was huddled in the back seat with his arms wrapped around himself. He could clearly hear An Zi Yan laughing in the front. Mai Ding pounded the seat. “What are you laughing at? What’s so funny? Watch the road!” His face burned bright red as he anxiously imagined being stopped by traffic police or spotted by someone outside.
He felt completely exposed and kept tightening his arms around himself, feeling like the male lead in an adult video. By coincidence, when the car stopped at a red light, Li Ming happened to pull up beside them on an electric scooter. He greeted An Zi Yan enthusiastically. “What are you doing here? Where’s Mai Ding? Isn’t he with you?” The instant Mai Ding saw Li Ming wearing a jacket, it was like seeing salvation itself. He was about to speak when An Zi Yan turned up the music, raised the window, and drove away at the green light, leaving a thoroughly confused Li Ming behind.
“Why wouldn’t you let me talk to Li Ming? He had a jacket. He could’ve lent it to me.” An Zi Yan said nothing.
“You just want to see me embarrass myself!”
“Why would I let someone else see you naked?”
No matter how indecent Mai Ding looked at the moment, and no matter how much he blamed An Zi Yan for everything that had happened to him, he still could not stop himself from feeling happy at those words. The person he loved wanted him all to himself. To Mai Ding, that was worth being happy about under any circumstances. Then An Zi Yan’s next sentence chilled that happiness instantly.
“Though part of it really is because I wanted to see you embarrass yourself.”
“An Zi Yan!”
They finally reached the building without any disasters, and Mai Ding felt as though he had lost ten years off his life. He pushed An Zi Yan’s shoulder. “Hurry up. Go upstairs and get me some clothes. Quickly. I’ll wait down here.” The words were almost exactly the same as when they had left, but his condition and state of mind could not have been more different. An Zi Yan opened the car door, went to the trunk, pulled out a change of clothes he had prepared for overtime a few days earlier, and tossed them inside. Then he actually said, “I can’t be bothered going upstairs. Remember to wash those for me.”
Mai Ding was so angry his fingers trembled and his eyes went bloodshot. Now he felt as though he had lost twenty years off his life. “An Zi Yan, you bastard! You deserve a thousand cuts! I’m going to turn bad! I’m going to kill you!!!!”
“You’re so noisy. Lock the car.” He tossed the car keys inside too and went upstairs.
A man could be killed, but not humiliated! Mai Ding absolutely could not let this go. He was going to carry out his grand plan.
When the holiday ended and he returned to the office, Mai Ding greeted everyone. Guo Ping said with ill intent, “Only two days apart and you’re already glowing. Something good happen?” Some good things had happened, but far more bad ones. Who was glowing? Bunch of blind people.
“You definitely went out and played with women again.”
“I didn’t. I’ve explained it so many times. Why won’t you believe me?”
“Fine, fine. You didn’t. We’ll pretend we don’t know anything, okay?”
“You still don’t believe me. Shifu, tell everyone what kind of person I usually am. You should know that the whole thing about me playing with women was malicious slander.” Mai Ding thought Guo Ping had spent the most time with him and surely understood him by now. To his surprise, Guo Ping fell silent.
“I really don’t mess around with women. Believe me already.” Mai Ding spoke earnestly and sincerely. The others began to wonder whether perhaps he really was telling the truth. He honestly did not look much like a playboy who toyed with women. Just then, Mai Ding heard a familiar voice behind him and spun around. Bai Xiao Si and An Zi Yan walked in together, immediately drawing the entire office’s attention. This was the first time An Zi Yan had ever brought a woman in, and everyone was already speculating about their relationship.
To avoid giving anything away, Mai Ding had no choice but to pretend he did not know Bai Xiao Si. She knew about the company rule forbidding relationships within the same department, so surely she would pretend not to know him too. Bai Xiao Si stopped as she passed him and stared at Mai Ding with a deathly pale face. “You?”
What was she trying to pull now?! Mai Ding did not dare speak. Bai Xiao Si dramatically covered her mouth and staggered back a step as though she could not believe what she was seeing. “Why are you here?” An Zi Yan turned his head and looked at Bai Xiao Si. “You know him?”
Why don’t the two of you just become actors?! Mai Ding screamed inwardly. Bai Xiao Si glared at him resentfully. “Know him? More than that. I never thought he’d be here. What a small world…” She wiped at the corner of an eye that had no tears, then covered her whole face. Her acting was every bit as exaggerated as when she had once pretended to be Mai Ding’s girlfriend in front of his mother. Mai Ding was left completely speechless. Bai Xiao Si finally managed to control her emotions enough to continue. “He didn’t just toy with me. He even went after my best friend and got her pregnant. And that’s not all. He actually had the nerve to ask me and my best friend to have a threesome with him… I… I don’t want to remember that painful past. I don’t want to see him again!!” With that, she deliberately linked her arm intimately through An Zi Yan’s and walked into the office with him, shutting the door behind them.
From beginning to end, Mai Ding never managed to get a single word in. This was a dream. A nightmare. April Fool’s Day. Haha, it wasn’t real. Hahaha. Mai Ding had gone insane.
The phone in his bag vibrated twice. It was a message from Bai Xiao Si.
[Mai-Mai, don’t blame me. You sold me out last time. This is what you get.]
Those who hurt others only end up hurting themselves. Whether Mai Ding understood that lesson was another matter.