After all the activity at noon, both of them were hungry by five thirty that afternoon and decided to order delivery. Shao Wu automatically picked up his phone, but before he could open the delivery app, Yang Shuyi held his own phone in front of him.
“Use mine,” he said.
Oh. He wanted to pay.
It was a curious feeling. Before, Shao Wu wouldn’t have thought twice about spending Yang Shuyi’s money. They’d known each other for so long, and Shao Wu had bought plenty of things for the Yang family over the holidays. But things were different now. They were lovers.
Spending your boyfriend’s money felt very different from spending an old friend’s.
Shao Wu obediently took Yang Shuyi’s phone. His heart felt as soft as a block of tofu fresh from the pot.
“What do you want to eat?” he asked.
“Anything. I’ll have whatever you’re having.” Yang Shuyi sat beside him, hesitated, and added rather awkwardly, “Something light would be better, though.”
“Huh?” Shao Wu had been planning to order barbecue.
“You…” Yang Shuyi’s eyes visibly traveled from Shao Wu’s face down to his lower abdomen. “You should still eat something light right now.”
Shao Wu: “…”
How had he forgotten about that?
Shao Wu suddenly felt embarrassed too. “Uh, right.” Actually, that place barely felt uncomfortable anymore. He wondered what medicine Yang Shuyi had applied…
In the end he ordered Cantonese food: pork-stomach chicken soup, blanched choy sum, and two servings of pork-and-fresh-shrimp wontons. He’d loved fresh shrimp wontons while living in Zhuhai, preferably with bamboo-pressed noodles cooked in the same bowl, but unfortunately this Cantonese restaurant didn’t serve noodles.
When it was time to pay, Shao Wu held the phone out to Yang Shuyi. “Enter your password.”
Yang Shuyi didn’t take it. He simply said, “380830.”
Shao Wu entered the six digits, and the payment went through.
Yang Shuyi continued, “The 38 is from 1938, the year Grandma was born. The 0830 is Longlong’s birthday, August thirtieth.”
“Oh…” Shao Wu thought, It’s our first day living together and I already know his payment password. Aren’t we moving a bit fast?
“The passcode to unlock my phone is—”
“Hey!” Shao Wu hurriedly interrupted. “…You don’t have to tell me that.”
“I don’t?”
“Did you always tell Zou Xin?” This wasn’t exactly the right moment to ask, but Shao Wu couldn’t help it. He regretted the question immediately. Zou Xin was in the past now; whatever had happened between Yang Shuyi and her was something he shouldn’t keep digging up.
Yang Shuyi shook his head. “I didn’t tell her, and she never asked. When I was with her… I didn’t understand anything. I mean, I didn’t know how relationships worked. I thought couples weren’t supposed to look at each other’s phones,” he explained earnestly. “Later I gradually heard other people talk about what they did in relationships. So I thought I should tell you my passcode. You have the right to look at my phone.”
His candor only made Shao Wu blush. “I mean, I trust you, so there’s no need to… check things like that.”
Yang Shuyi actually smiled. “But you should know it, right? Whether you look is up to you.”
“Mm… all right, then.”
“Four digits. 0326.”
“Oh…”
Yang Shuyi offered no explanation, and Shao Wu didn’t ask. They both knew it was the date they’d decided to be together, the day after they arrived in Yingxiu.
Shao Wu returned the phone. After some thought, he asked, “Then should I tell you my passwords too?”
“Whatever you like.”
“It’s ‘whatever you like’ when it comes to me?” Shao Wu teased. “Quite the double standard you’ve got there.”
“Because I trust you completely.” Yang Shuyi lowered his voice. “I know you won’t fall for anyone else.”
Shao Wu: “…”
Wasn’t that a little like taking advantage of someone and then acting all innocent?
Something occurred to Shao Wu. “Can I look at your phone now, then?”
“Sure.” Yang Shuyi handed it over again.
Shao Wu accepted it, unlocked it, opened WeChat, and went to Yang Shuyi’s Moments profile. At once he felt a huge wave of relief. Yang Shuyi rarely, rarely posted anything, and Shao Wu had already seen every one of his few posts.
During the entire seventy days Shao Wu had tried to wean himself off Yang Shuyi, Yang Shuyi hadn’t posted anything new either. So he hadn’t missed a single post.
“What’s wrong?”
Shao Wu gave the phone back with an easy smile. “Just checking whether you’d hidden your Moments from me.” There was no need to conceal things like this anymore.
“Of course not. Why would I hide them from you?”
“Because you were sick of me. I commented on your post when you took Longlong to start school, remember? Oh, never mind. Let’s not talk about that. As long as you didn’t hide me.”
“I didn’t reply that time,” Yang Shuyi said. “Back then I… really didn’t know how to.”
Yes, yes, exactly. Their relationship had been painfully awkward, and Shao Wu had already promised to give up on Yang Shuyi. Strictly speaking, it was Shao Wu who had overstepped. Yang Shuyi had been right not to respond.
“I only asked if Beijing was hot.” But he still felt aggrieved. He’d only asked whether it was hot! Couldn’t Yang Shuyi have replied, “Very hot”? Did he really need to avoid Shao Wu as though he were something poisonous? Shao Wu didn’t want to dredge up the past, but his mouth refused to listen to his better judgment.
He didn’t want to start their very first day together with a pointless tantrum that turned into an argument.
“Xiao Shao,” Yang Shuyi said seriously, “I was wrong.”
“You weren’t wrong.”
“…”
“That’s not what I mean.” Shao Wu rubbed his forehead. “I… I mean it. You weren’t wrong. It’s just… everything that happened before is over…”
“Impossible.”
“I’ll try! I can’t just forget that many years because I say so. I’ll try not to bring it up, all right?”
“I mean, it can’t simply be ‘over.’” Yang Shuyi took Shao Wu’s hand and said calmly, “I’ll make it up to you, bit by bit. I know I can’t give you back the time we’ve lost, but everything else I can make up for, I’ll make up to you. All right?”
For a moment Shao Wu couldn’t speak. At last he lowered his gaze and whispered, “That’s an awful lot.”
“Then you’ll have to tell me.”
“I used to check your Moments every day. Every single day. But you never posted anything new. I didn’t know whether you’d blocked me or what. Every time I opened it, there were just those same few posts.”
Yang Shuyi was silent for several seconds. “Do you want to see new ones?”
“Huh?” Shao Wu shook his head. “It was because I wasn’t beside you before. I wanted to see what you were doing through your Moments… There’s no need now.”
“Mm.” Yang Shuyi seemed about to say something more, but a knock interrupted him. The food delivery had arrived.
Shao Wu got up to open the door, accepted the food, and looked back. “That was quick. I’m starving! Come on, let’s eat.”
They sat down, opened the utensils, and began dinner. The Cantonese restaurant was only so-so. Shao Wu spooned up a wonton. “Hey, the shrimp here isn’t as fresh as the stuff I had in Guangdong.”
And just like that, the subject of WeChat Moments was dropped.
After dinner it was still raining, a fine persistent drizzle. “Want to go to the supermarket?” Shao Wu asked. With an extra person living here all of a sudden, they would need a few more everyday things.
“Sure,” Yang Shuyi said. “Let’s go.”
“Wait a minute. I’ll wash my face.”
Shao Wu washed his face and went to change. Naturally he couldn’t go out in short sleeves. Yang Shuyi sat on the living room sofa looking at his phone while he waited.
Once Shao Wu had changed and slipped his phone into his jacket, they left for the supermarket. There was a fairly large one not far from his apartment.
At the supermarket Shao Wu had even less time to check his phone. Every so often he asked Yang Shuyi whether they needed this or could buy that. Yang Shuyi offered few opinions, simply pushing the cart beside him. Whenever Shao Wu picked something up and put it in, Yang Shuyi arranged it neatly. It was the evening rush, and since everyone had eaten and it was raining outside, plenty of people had come to browse the supermarket. The place was noisy. Shao Wu couldn’t hear his phone ring several times.
Only after they finished choosing things and joined the checkout queue did he take out his phone. He intended to pay this time. He couldn’t let Yang Shuyi pay for absolutely everything.
Then he saw several WeChat messages Zhu Jingjing had sent half an hour earlier:
What the hell is going on with you two???
Are you TOGETHER?? Isn’t he in Chengdu??
SHAO WU!!! STOP PLAYING DEAD!!!!
Has someone hacked Yang Shuyi’s account?
Shao Wu froze. Had Zhu Jingjing seen them together? No, that couldn’t be right. She was in Yongchuan.
Shao Wu: ?
Zhu Jingjing replied instantly: LOOK AT HIS MOMENTS!!!
Shao Wu’s heart gave a violent thump. His first reaction was to look at Yang Shuyi. But Yang Shuyi stood holding the shopping-cart handle, looking straight ahead, his expression perfectly normal.
Shao Wu opened Moments. The first post was a selfie by Chen Yimang.
The second was an advertisement for an overseas-study agency from his boss.
He scrolled down. The third post—
It was text only, without a picture.
Yang Shuyi had posted it forty minutes ago:
“Going to the supermarket with Xiao Shao.”
There were already several comments and likes underneath.
Zhou Lei: Hey, you two hanging out? Want to play mahjong? I’m in Chongqing right now!
Zhu Jingjing: ???????
Longlong: [smirk][smirk][smirk][smirk][smirk]
Ding Li: Whoa, quitting your job really is great, huh!
Shao Wu looked up and met Yang Shuyi’s eyes. There were people all around. Yang Shuyi said nothing, only gave him a gentle smile.
Almost without realizing what he was doing, Shao Wu commented under the post: Keep it up.
That evening, Yang Shuyi replied: Okay, Xiao Shao.