When they got up the next morning, Song Xiuzhu no longer went out of his way to avoid Wen Rui. Instead, he kept stealing glances at him, sending subtle signals that he wanted to talk in private.
Wen Rui noticed but did nothing. He took out the two Parker pens Lu Congzhi had given him, examined their caps, and chose the one engraved I long to bring you honor. With it, he began drafting a share-transfer agreement in his notebook.
Song Xiuzhu walked over and glanced at the page as if by accident. Seeing that the share transfer was already underway only darkened his expression.
“Shall we get breakfast together later?” He had no choice but to make the invitation himself.
Without looking up, Wen Rui merely murmured, “Mm.”
With a swish, the curtains around Lu Congzhi’s bed were drawn open.
“Morning.” He greeted them lazily, went to the washroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, then came back and, without looking at anyone, casually stripped off his white undershirt and black shorts.
His long, supple body stretched in the morning light. His chest and abdominal muscles were sharply defined, with two deep lines angling toward his hips. His skin was cool, pale, and translucent, the rounded joints tinged pink. His underwear was made with the bare minimum of fabric and concealed very little…
Wen Rui had barely looked up when his pupils contracted. He did not avert his eyes too quickly. That would seem strange. A straight man would not react at all to seeing another man undress.
So he looked at Lu Congzhi with studied composure and asked, “Are you going to the university president’s office?”
“Mm. I arranged it with him yesterday.” Lu Congzhi stood beside his bed in a daze, apparently not fully awake. After a moment, he opened his wardrobe, took out a white shirt, and put it on.
When it came time to put on his trousers, he drifted off again, the long hem of his shirt hanging down. His legs were long and straight, with pink behind the knees and over the kneecaps. The shirt hem concealed the crucial area, but the overall effect was disastrous for Wen Rui.
Wen Rui’s gaze remained calm, as though he were utterly unaffected. Yet the hand holding his pen drew a deep, heavy line across his draft paper of its own accord.
Remembering that Song Xiuzhu was right beside him and might notice his lapse, Wen Rui set down his pen and closed the notebook.
“I’m going to buy breakfast. Want me to bring you something?” he asked Lu Congzhi as he rose.
Song Xiuzhu immediately said, “I’ll go with you.”
Lu Congzhi shook his head. “No need.”
Noticing how Song Xiuzhu clung to Wen Rui, with an urgency in his eyes that suggested he desperately wanted to be alone with him, Lu Congzhi suddenly felt wicked.
“Wen Rui, come here.” He beckoned.
A beautiful man wearing nothing but a pure-white shirt stood smiling in the pale-gold morning light, summoning him. It was a sight few people could withstand.
Wen Rui slipped his sweaty hands into his trouser pockets and walked over at an unhurried pace. “What is it?” he asked evenly.
Lu Congzhi pointed to several pairs of trousers piled together. “Which pair do you think I should wear?”
Wen Rui studied him. “You’ve decided on a white shirt?”
Lu Congzhi nodded. “Yes. You can’t go wrong with a white shirt, whatever the occasion.”
Wen Rui turned his attention back to the trousers in the wardrobe.
He first picked out the black dress trousers. “A white shirt with black dress trousers makes you look like an insurance salesman.”
Then he set aside the jeans. “Too casual.”
He ruled out the khaki chinos as well. “Not quite dignified enough.”
Finally, he lifted out a pair of dark-gray dress trousers. “Dark gray is softer than black, but more formal than khaki. With a white shirt, it’s crisp and neat, with a clear distinction between the upper and lower halves. It’s ideal for meeting senior university leaders while still retaining a student’s fresh appearance. These dark-gray trousers are just right.”
In fact, Lu Congzhi had already set his sights on that very pair. He took them, lightly shook out the fabric, and teased, “Our class monitor really does have good taste.”
Wen Rui could not help smiling. Seeing that the trousers were badly creased, he added, “I’ll iron them for you.”
Lu Congzhi raised an eyebrow. “With what? We don’t have a garment steamer in the dorm.”
Wen Rui found an empty glass food jar, filled it with boiling water, tightened the lid, and wrapped a towel around it. Holding the jar, he used its base to iron the dress trousers laid flat on the bed. After dabbing a little water onto the fabric, he quickly smoothed away the creases.
Lu Congzhi simply took off his shirt and said as naturally as could be, “Iron this for me too.”
His pale, long-limbed, lean and supple body drew nearer, his fine skin still carrying the fragrance of last night’s bath. Wen Rui’s Adam’s apple moved slightly. “Mm,” he answered faintly.
Lu Congzhi sat smoking on a stool nearby. Vigorous young men who had only just turned twenty were easily stirred up first thing in the morning.
Wen Rui glanced at him and felt his own blood quicken.
So his earlier foreboding had come true. Sharing a dorm room with Lu Congzhi was an extraordinarily difficult challenge.
The strange thing was that he did not feel like this when he looked at anyone else, whether Yu Binbin, Zhou Ming, or even Song Xiuzhu. The problem was Lu Congzhi. He smelled completely different from everyone else.
Wen Rui lowered his head and concentrated on ironing the shirt. The half of his body nearest Lu Congzhi grew inexplicably hot.
Lu Congzhi was not embarrassed either. He pulled over the towel covering his pillow and draped it across his waist and stomach.
If he could, Wen Rui wanted to grab the thin blanket from the bed as well and wrap Lu Congzhi in it from head to toe. To Wen Rui, who liked men, Lu Congzhi’s tousled hair, languid manner, and nearly naked body made him a veritable devil. And devils knew better than anyone how to tempt the human heart.
He was not the sort to fall for every attractive person he saw. But human nature was human nature, instinct was instinct, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Lu Congzhi was completely oblivious to Wen Rui’s complicated emotions. With a cigarette between his lips and his eyes half narrowed, he watched Wen Rui iron the clothes attentively. At last, he blew a thin stream of smoke toward the side of his face and joked, “Class monitor, you’re so domestic. If you were a woman, I’d definitely chase you.”
Wen Rui had been holding himself together all morning, but his endurance finally gave way. He pretended not to hear, though his ears slowly turned red.
“Why are you suddenly shy? Class monitor, are you that thin-skinned?” Lu Congzhi took out his cigarette and burst into laughter, the muscles of his abdomen tightening and becoming even more pronounced.
He had no idea what a sight like this meant to a gay man.
Wen Rui was generally well-mannered, but everyone had their breaking point. An exceedingly vulgar word circled in his mind and made him burn with desire.
He finished ironing the shirt and trousers in a few quick movements and handed them back to Lu Congzhi. He wanted to hurry him along, but his words came out gentle. “Try them on.”
Lu Congzhi stubbed out his cigarette, slowly put on the shirt, and fastened his shirt stays around his thighs.
Wen Rui turned his head away, not daring to watch.
Lu Congzhi began putting on his socks, then secured two thin black bands around his rounded calves. These were to keep the tops of his socks from slipping down.
Wen Rui glanced sideways, then rubbed his brow in anguish.
Lu Congzhi seemed to enjoy strapping all sorts of peculiar things onto his body so that nothing about his clothing would ever look untidy. In his suit and leather shoes, he was immaculate, neat, and exceptionally tasteful. But who could have imagined that, once those splendid clothes came off, the man beneath them would stir up such a whirlpool of erotic fantasies?
Wen Rui hurried into the washroom and poured the hot water out of the jar into the sink. As the steam rose to meet him, his cheeks finally began to redden, little by little.
It really was almost unbearable, yet he could not say a word.
Outside, Lu Congzhi finished dressing and called out lazily, “Class monitor, I’m leaving. I’ll treat you to lunch when I come back. Wait for me.”
Why was he treating him to lunch? Wen Rui did not ask. He merely managed a restrained, “All right.”
He lowered his head and washed his face. The cold water quickly restored his outward composure.
Song Xiuzhu leaned against the washroom doorway and watched him quietly. “Does Lu Congzhi’s appearance suit your tastes?” he asked.
No. But so-called standards could always be shattered by something exceptional.
Wen Rui did not want to answer. He calmly dried the water from his face and asked, “What did you want to talk to me about?”
Song Xiuzhu immediately remembered his real purpose. Barely suppressing his sense of crisis, he tipped his head toward the outside. “Let’s talk by the lake.”
The morning breeze rippled the lake. A thin mist rose as warm and cold air mingled, spreading into white fog. Autumn had arrived, and a few withered yellow leaves swirled among the overlapping ripples.
Staring at those fallen leaves, Song Xiuzhu said, “Could you keep Lu Congzhi from buying into the company?”
Wen Rui had not expected that to be the subject. He had thought that Song Xiuzhu had seen him lose his composure several times around Lu Congzhi and that today’s discussion would be about whether people of the same sex repelled or attracted each other.
He considered matters of the heart an obstacle that urgently needed to be resolved. But to Song Xiuzhu, it seemed the most important thing was protecting his own interests from anything Lu Congzhi might do to them.
He really was an ambitious man who put personal gain above everything else.
Wen Rui’s eyes darkened. He slowly replied, “If you want to convince me, you’ll need a reason that stands up to scrutiny.”
Song Xiuzhu thought for a moment, sighed softly, and began to explain. “Haven’t you noticed? The way Lu Congzhi looks at me is always frightening. Back at the welfare institute, he followed me like a shadow, finding fault with everything I did. Whatever I said, he opposed. Whatever I did, he sabotaged.”
“The night I came to Bei City for university, Director Mom found me alone and repeatedly warned me to stay away from Lu Congzhi. She said his mental state had become distorted and that he was dangerous. When I asked why, she shook her head, looking deeply troubled, and refused to tell me. I thought she must have discovered something she couldn’t bring herself to say.”
“I didn’t believe Director Mom at first. But remember? He wasn’t originally assigned to our dorm. About a week later, he switched beds with Liu Chang and moved in.”
“I thought that was strange, so I found Liu Chang privately and asked why. Guess what he told me? Lu Congzhi had given him the full 1,500 yuan of his hardship allowance to buy himself a place in our dorm! What exactly is he trying to do? Why won’t he leave me alone? I feel as if he’s a venomous snake lurking beside me, ready to bite at any moment.”
Song Xiuzhu looked at Wen Rui with a pale face and a trembling voice. “If you let him become a shareholder, what am I supposed to do? I don’t want to work beside someone who might hurt me at any time. I struggled all the way to my third year, thinking that in another two years I could finally be free of him. Now you’re bringing him into our team. I’ve had enough of living in fear. I don’t want to spend every moment watching for someone’s schemes. Please think of me, and of the company’s stability and unity. Won’t you reconsider? Don’t transfer the shares.”
Song Xiuzhu grasped Wen Rui’s wrist, just for a moment, then quickly let go.
Wen Rui looked into his anxious eyes and said seriously, “I think you’ve misunderstood Lu Congzhi. He isn’t that sort of dark, twisted person. Instead of suspecting him here, why don’t you have an honest conversation with him?”
Song Xiuzhu: …
How could a person’s feelings change so quickly? If Lu Congzhi wasn’t the bad one, did that make him the bad one?