After coming home from the supermarket, the two began putting away the things they’d bought. Shao Wu’s rented apartment was in an old residential building for employees, built in the last century. It was a small two-bedroom place with a living room, and the bedrooms were small while the living room was spacious. So when he’d first moved in, Shao Wu had bought a single bed. Even the bedroom wardrobe was only big enough for one person.
And now they had a problem.
Were the two of them supposed to squeeze together on the single bed or squeeze together on the sofa? Shao Wu shook his head. He knew perfectly well two grown men couldn’t fit. One of them would have to sleep in the bed and the other on the couch. But he was unwilling to accept it. This was their first day living together. They’d already done everything else, and now they were supposed to sleep apart?
That didn’t seem right, did it?
Their towels, one blue and one yellow, already hung side by side. Their toothbrushes were in newly purchased rinsing cups, a matching couple’s set: Shao Wu’s was black and Yang Shuyi’s white, and the handles formed a heart when fitted together. Pretty cheesy, actually. Even their wardrobes now stood side by side. They’d bought a set of plastic drawer units at the supermarket to serve as Yang Shuyi’s temporary wardrobe, and set it next to Shao Wu’s.
Everything came in pairs, yet the people themselves would have to sleep separately? Shao Wu had already ordered a double bed on Taobao, deliberately choosing sturdy oak. Unfortunately, the seller had primly informed him that their village could only ship by ZTO Express. SF Express required a trip to the county seat, so he could forget about that.
That meant waiting several more days before they could sleep in a proper double bed.
Shao Wu wasn’t satisfied.
Yang Shuyi was tidying the study. He didn’t have much clothing; most of what filled his two wheeled suitcases was books and drawings. When Shao Wu went in, Yang Shuyi was putting books on the shelf. His Urban Street Design Guide stood beside Shao Wu’s IELTS Reading Bible, and the sight filled Shao Wu with a strange satisfaction.
“Finished tidying your side?” Yang Shuyi put down the book in his hand when he saw Shao Wu come in.
“Almost. Just… a little more to go.” Shao Wu squatted by the suitcase and looked at the books inside. “Can I have a look?”
“Look at whatever you like.”
Shao Wu picked up a book titled Triumph of the City. The name alone told him it had something to do with urban planning. He opened it at random and saw Yang Shuyi’s notes in the margins. After all these years, Yang Shuyi’s handwriting was still so crooked and uneven. Frankly, it was pretty ugly. Shao Wu remembered the homework notebook he’d secretly taken home in high school. The handwriting before him looked exactly the same as it had in that notebook. He couldn’t help smiling. How could the man have made absolutely no progress in all these years?
“What are you smiling about?” Yang Shuyi asked, puzzled.
“Nothing.” Shao Wu put on a solemn face. “Your handwriting has changed quite a lot.”
“…Has it?”
“Mm. It’s much better than it was in high school.”
“…”
Shao Wu lied through his teeth. “Very nice, very nice.”
Yang Shuyi asked in return, “You remember what my handwriting looked like in high school?”
“Of course not,” Shao Wu said. “I just remember hearing Sister Shan mention once that Yang Shuyi really needed to work on his handwriting…”
“Oh.”
Taking someone else’s homework notebook home without permission and hiding it wasn’t exactly an honorable thing to do. Shao Wu decided not to tell Yang Shuyi about that. It wasn’t that he was deliberately trying to deceive him. He instinctively wanted to say nice things to Yang Shuyi, to compliment him, to make him happy.
Shao Wu brought the cherries from the living room, ate some himself, and fed some to Yang Shuyi. After wandering around a little more, he returned to the bedroom and resumed staring helplessly at the single bed.
There was a solution, of course. They could skip the bed and the sofa altogether and make a bed on the floor together. His apartment was on the seventh floor, so the floor wasn’t damp. But then he felt bad for Yang Shuyi. The man had arrived after a long, tiring journey and had been busy all day. Was Shao Wu really going to make him sleep on the floor?
And wouldn’t that make him look a little too desperate for sex?
Now that they were together, Shao Wu thought he ought to show some restraint. To use the psychologists’ language, love needed a certain element of mystery…
“Shao Wu.”
Yang Shuyi was calling him.
“Huh?” Shao Wu sprang off the bed and hurried into the study.
Yang Shuyi was crouching on the floor with his back to him, his shoulder blades rising slightly beneath his shirt, making Shao Wu want to reach over and touch them. He was so busy looking at Yang Shuyi that he didn’t notice the bottom drawer of the bookcase was half open.
“What’s up?” Shao Wu asked.
“This…” Yang Shuyi said. “Come have a look.”
Shao Wu’s mind was still elsewhere. Should they sleep on the floor together tonight? He went over and squatted down. Several of Yang Shuyi’s books lay scattered on the floor. On top of them was a… Oh, he was doomed.
Wasn’t that Yang Shuyi’s homework notebook, the one he’d hidden for so many years?
Its cover had been opened. On the yellowed first page was an essay Yang Shuyi had written by hand in high school.
Dear Wu, How are you?
The handwriting in the notebook was exactly the same as the handwriting in the books. Not an ounce of improvement… No, that was not the point!
Yang Shuyi asked softly, “How did this end up here, with you?”
“You… where did you find that?” Shao Wu laughed weakly. “I didn’t even remember where I put it…”
“Really? In this drawer,” Yang Shuyi said calmly. “It was the only thing inside.”
Oh. He’d put it there specifically for safekeeping. Now he remembered.
What had he been feeling at the time? Probably despair. Yang Shuyi had gotten married, and Shao Wu had come alone from Yongchuan to Chongqing. The only thing he had with him that was connected to Yang Shuyi was this notebook. Why had he brought it? He couldn’t remember. Maybe it was just habit. A notebook was thin and light and hardly took up any space.
No. That wasn’t it.
He knew the real reason. During those seventy days, he’d tried to forget Yang Shuyi. Dianping reviews, WeChat Moments, Weibo, anything that might give him new updates about the man, he’d stopped looking at entirely. In doing so, he’d cut himself off from Yang Shuyi’s life.
But there had been moments when he couldn’t help himself. Several times he’d almost opened the Weibo app, only to close his phone in embarrassment and open this homework notebook instead. Everything in the notebook belonged to the past. It would absolutely never be updated. This wasn’t spying on Yang Shuyi’s current life. It was just a tiny bit of cheating, like a person quitting smoking who holds a cigarette to their nose for the smell without lighting it.
He’d been so overwhelmed by his sudden happiness that he’d forgotten to hide the notebook.
“It’s yours,” Shao Wu admitted, knowing he couldn’t conceal it now. “Back when I was the class representative, I secretly took it home.”
Yang Shuyi looked utterly baffled. “Why?”
Why? Had he never watched Blue Gate Crossing? When the heroine had a crush on the boy, she even kept the empty water bottle he’d drunk from. Shao Wu had only taken his homework notebook. That wasn’t going too far, was it?
Of course he didn’t dare say any of that aloud.
“Because you wrote ‘Dear Wu.’” Yet the truth spilled out of his mouth just like that. “It made me happy to look at it.”
Yang Shuyi stared at the notebook in disbelief. After several seconds he murmured, “Dear Wu.”
“Well.” Shao Wu snapped the cover shut and forced a light tone. “I was young and hopeless back then.”
Who was he kidding? So many years had passed, and he was still every bit as hopeless.
Yang Shuyi smiled. “You just told me my handwriting’s improved. Were you trying to make me feel good?”
“Good relationships need mutual encouragement.” Shao Wu winked at him, hoping that would put the whole thing behind them.
Sure enough, Yang Shuyi said nothing more and went back to arranging his books and drawings.
Shao Wu clutched the notebook and fled.
So much for maintaining a little mystery. His oldest secret was out. Would Yang Shuyi think he’d been a creep ever since high school?
He collapsed onto the bed again and buried his head in the quilt, feeling dejected. Forget it. They should sleep separately tonight. They’d only just gotten together. He shouldn’t scare Yang Shuyi off.
The phone on the bedside table chimed. Shao Wu felt around for it and narrowed his eyes in the darkness. Yang Shuyi had sent him a voice message. They were only separated by a wall. What couldn’t he say in person?
Shao Wu played it. Yang Shuyi was holding the phone too close to his mouth, so the air of his breath had been recorded with his voice. Shao Wu held the phone to his ear, and it felt as though Yang Shuyi were whispering right beside it.
Yang Shuyi said, “What name have you saved me under?”
Shao Wu: “Shuyi.”
Yang Shuyi replied at once, “I have you saved as ‘Shao Wu.’”
Shao Wu: “Oh…”
“Can I change what I have you saved as?” There was a smile in his voice.
“Uh, change it to what?”
This time the reply wasn’t a voice message, but a screenshot from WeChat.
It showed their chat window, with the other person’s name displayed at the top left.
Yang Shuyi had changed Shao Wu’s contact name to: Dear Wu
That night, they slept together on bedding spread across the floor.