Zhao Buxi repeated like a broken record, “Cologne.”
Zhao Sheng nodded against his pillow.
“I went shopping at the mall with my boss on the way back today. I probably picked up the scent there.” Zhao Buxi sat up and conspicuously sniffed both raised arms, as though proving his innocence by protesting too much. “It smells the same as your professor’s?”
“Yeah,” Zhao Sheng said.
Between living in the faculty apartment and attending classes, Zhao Sheng knew Fang Peizhi’s scent very well. The moment his brother lay down, he recognized it.
The fragrance on Zhao Buxi was unmistakably Fang Peizhi’s cologne.
There was no mistaking it.
Zhao Buxi kept making excuses as though it were nothing. “I’ve never really noticed what he smells like. Is the scent too strong? If it bothers you, I’ll take another shower before coming back to bed.”
When Fang Peizhi sprayed him, he’d forgotten it was nearly bedtime. Now Zhao would be sleeping covered in fragrance, and he wasn’t sure whether it might disturb Little Tiger.
Little Tiger got up early to study every morning. He couldn’t afford a bad night’s sleep.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Zhao Sheng said.
Zhao Buxi said, “Okay, then let’s sleep. That cologne from the mall sure lasts a long time. I’ve been back for ages and can still smell it.”
After hearing his brother’s explanation, Zhao Sheng let go of his doubts and went to sleep.
His brother didn’t like lying, and had never deceived him. Every promise Zhao had made to him as a child had been kept.
Seeing nothing unusual in his brother’s face, Zhao Sheng pressed his lips together. He must have been overthinking it. Ever since hearing classmates discuss a news story about supervisors accepting gifts, he’d been nervous and jumpy for days.
As another graduate student, he felt the victims’ suffering could easily become his own, and his mind kept jumping to all sorts of possibilities.
Zhao Sheng stopped asking questions and closed his eyes. Only then did Zhao Buxi let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t expected Zhao Sheng to recognize Fang Peizhi’s scent with a single sniff.
Having lied to his younger brother, Zhao Buxi felt a little guilty.
He’d never liked lying and had always thought it was wrong. Even as a child he had been upright and honest. When he played games with the village kids, he might come up with plenty of naughty schemes, but he never cheated.
Since arriving in Beijing, though, he’d lost count of how many times he’d lied to Little Tiger.
He didn’t want Little Tiger to know he went to Fang Peizhi’s room every day for reading lessons. He’d often skipped school in the past to earn money, and some of that money had paid for Little Tiger’s tuition.
He was afraid Little Tiger would think that he’d dragged his older brother down, that Zhao hadn’t had the time or opportunity to learn to read and write because he’d been too busy working to feed him and send him to school.
But that wasn’t the whole truth. Earning money had certainly been one reason Zhao had left school, but he’d also genuinely disliked studying back then.
Not that many students loved going to school, carrying a bag into a classroom and sitting there for an entire day.
He didn’t regret any of the things he’d done in the past. Regret was rare for him.
His mother had once told him to think carefully before doing anything. Avoid choices he knew he’d regret. If something absolutely had to be done, if he couldn’t live without doing it, then he should do it without complaining afterward. Once he’d made a regrettable choice, he shouldn’t waste time regretting it.
It had sounded terribly convoluted at the time, but as life went on, he gradually came to understand her meaning.
It meant not making life harder for himself, or deliberately making himself unhappy.
Good or bad, once something had happened, he should face it head-on, rather than secretly reproaching himself and adding to his own misery.
Fang Peizhi’s cologne had remarkable staying power. After an entire night’s sleep, the bedding was still fragrant when Zhao woke in the morning.
It smelled even nicer than the Snowflake face cream his mother used to rub on him as a child.
Elio’s Notes: Snowflake cream (雪花膏) is an old-fashioned, often scented moisturizing face cream, not literally cream made from snow.
Zhao Buxi threw back the covers, the cologne’s base notes still clinging to him, and got up to brush his teeth. Zhao Sheng had just finished washing his face.
“Ge, let’s go to the cafeteria for breakfast later.”
Zhao Buxi’s voice was a little hoarse from just waking up. “Sure.”
Capital University’s cafeterias were wonderfully cheap, clean, and nutritious by Beijing standards. They wouldn’t even hire a serving lady with wrist tendonitis, lest her ladle hand shake.
While Zhao Buxi washed up, Zhao Sheng began changing clothes. The screen of his phone, lying on the bed, lit up with a notification.
It was from the dormitory building’s group chat.
The dorm supervisor wrote: “The dormitory building’s safety repairs are finished, and all the electrical wiring has been replaced. You can gradually move back into your original rooms starting this weekend. Room representatives should collect keys from the supervisor’s office on the first floor.”
When the students had been evacuated for safety reasons, they’d all handed their keys to the dorm supervisor to keep anyone from sneaking back into the unsafe building.
A few days earlier, Zhao Sheng had learned the repairs would be finished in a week. He’d meant to tell his brother, but then his assignment had been sent back and he’d spent several busy days revising it with his classmates in the same research group. The whole thing had slipped his mind.
Only this new message reminded him.
Oh no.
Zhao Sheng slapped his forehead and went to the bathroom to find his brother. “Ge, the repairs on my dorm are finished. I don’t think we can keep staying at Professor Fang’s place.”
Zhao Buxi was brushing his teeth. He counted back and realized he’d been in Beijing for more than half a month, most of it spent in Fang’s faculty apartment. Now that Little Tiger’s dorm was ready, his brother would move back, and Zhao naturally ought to move out too.
He had no reason to keep staying at someone else’s place.
Zhao Buxi spat out the toothpaste, rinsed his mouth, and said, “Okay. I’ll find somewhere when I have time.”
“Ge…” Zhao Sheng hesitated.
Zhao Buxi looked up. “Hm?”
Zhao Sheng scratched his head sheepishly. “I’m moving back this weekend. I was so busy I forgot to tell you earlier.”
Zhao Buxi’s eyes widened. “So soon?” He hadn’t even found a place to live.
Zhao Sheng nodded with a shy smile. “Yeah.”
“Don’t you ‘yeah’ me, brat.” Zhao Buxi hooked an arm around his brother’s neck and rubbed his head vigorously. “You remembered with only three days left? Why couldn’t you have told your ge the day you found out?”
Zhao Buxi wasn’t using much force. Zhao Sheng laughed and squirmed like a puppy in his arms. “Sorry, Ge! I did mean to tell you earlier, but I was busy and forgot. I only remembered when I saw that message.”
Without the message, he might genuinely have waited until moving day to tell his brother.
Zhao Buxi remembered Lu Fengtong mentioning that the company had employee housing for staff from outside Beijing. It cost nine hundred yuan a month, and residents had to have household registration outside the city.
Life wasn’t easy for young people who came to Beijing to find work.
Lu Fengtong’s girlfriend worked at an arts education company offering a similar benefit, so he’d copied the idea for his own employees.
Most of the company’s staff were around twenty, like Lu and Zhao. People their age understood the difficulties their peers faced.
Trying to rent a place in Beijing for nine hundred yuan was unthinkable. Even a single room cost more, and a bed in a shared setup could run to a thousand.
Nine hundred yuan for employee housing was a bargain, practically like getting ten eggs for a yuan.
And Zhao had an out-of-town household registration. He could ask at work today whether there was any space left in the employee dormitory.
After their playful wrestling, Zhao Buxi washed up, changed, and went to the university cafeteria with Zhao Sheng.
There were plenty of cafeterias at Capital University, but the brothers usually cooked for themselves. This was their first time coming out for breakfast.
It was also Zhao Sheng’s first university cafeteria breakfast. Not long after he’d enrolled, the dormitory incident happened. He’d been busy at the start of term, so he usually bought bread the night before. It was convenient to carry and spared him a trip to the cafeteria in the morning.
After his brother arrived, they could cook in Professor Fang’s apartment, so he and Zhao Buxi took turns making something simple for breakfast.
Although he was already a student at the university, Zhao Sheng still opened Xiaohongshu to find out which cafeteria served the best food.
Zhao Sheng didn’t spend much time browsing social media. His classmates had recommended the app, saying you could find an answer to almost anything there.
Zhao Sheng searched while standing by the roadside. Zhao Buxi leaned down beside him to look at the screen.
“Zhao Sheng!”
Someone called from a distance. Zhao Sheng and Zhao Buxi looked up instinctively.
The newcomer: “…”
Standing by the road, the brothers were dazzlingly handsome. Beside one strikingly good-looking face was another, handsome in an even more flamboyant way.
The morning sunlight was warm and bright, with trees the green of an oil painting in the background. The two looked over together. To see such a sight first thing in the morning was the kind of happiness that made life feel complete.
The newcomer was a female classmate who’d told Zhao Sheng about supervisors bullying students a few days earlier. Together with another male classmate from that day, she and Zhao Sheng formed a trio and were among the closest friends in the same research group.
Zhao Sheng raised a hand to greet her. “Gu Xiaonan.”
Gu Xiaonan came over. “Morning!” She gave Zhao Sheng a meaningful look. “And this is…?”
“This is my older brother,” Zhao Sheng introduced.
Then he turned to Zhao Buxi. “Ge, this is my classmate, Gu Xiaonan.”
Gu Xiaonan beamed. “Your older brother! Hello, hello!”
Zhao Buxi smiled back. “Hello, Student Gu! Hello!”
Seeing that Zhao Buxi looked roughly their age, Gu Xiaonan said, “You don’t have to call me Student Gu. Just use my name.”
“Okay. I’m Zhao Erniu. Call me whatever comes naturally,” Zhao Buxi replied in kind.
Even a handsome man’s name was extraordinary. “Whoa, Brother Erniu, what a memorable name!” Gu Xiaonan exclaimed.
Zhao Buxi was delighted. “Right? You remember it immediately.”
“Of course!” Gu Xiaonan nodded.
There was absolutely no chance of forgetting it. The name practically rolled off the tongue.
Gu Xiaonan and Zhao Buxi were both outgoing people who said whatever was on their minds.
Seeing the brothers by the roadside, Gu Xiaonan asked, “I’m going to get breakfast. Have you eaten? Want to go together?”
Zhao Sheng asked, “Do you know which cafeteria has the best food?”
Gu Xiaonan patted her chest. “I’m a professional eater!”
The three headed for the cafeteria together. Gu Xiaonan lagged a couple of steps behind and nudged Zhao Sheng’s shoulder. “Zhao Sheng, why didn’t you tell me your brother was this handsome?”
“You’d never met my brother before,” Zhao Sheng said.
“Well, now I have! He’s hot as hell. Does our big brother have a girlfriend?” Gu Xiaonan asked.
Zhao Sheng replied, “My brother likes grown women.”
“Who are you insulting? Am I not a grown woman?” Gu Xiaonan protested.
Zhao Sheng laughed. “That’s not what I mean. My brother’s seven years older than me.”
So what if he was seven years older? Gu Xiaonan didn’t understand what the problem was. “Older guys for the win!”
Zhao Sheng: “…”
She made Zhao Sheng laugh. He explained plainly, “I mean my brother doesn’t like anyone who’s too much younger than he is.”
He treated people around Zhao Sheng’s age as kids or younger siblings.
“Ohhh, that’s what you meant.” Gu Xiaonan finally understood.
Gu Xiaonan looked at Zhao Buxi walking ahead and was surprised. Zhao Sheng had said his brother was seven years older than them. “You’d never guess your brother is twenty-eight. I thought he was your age.”
Gu Xiaonan and Zhao Sheng chatted all the way to the cafeteria. Seeing that his younger brother got on so well with his classmates made Zhao Buxi happy.
After breakfast, Zhao Buxi parted ways with Zhao Sheng and the others and took the subway to work. When he saw Lu Fengtong, he asked whether the employee dormitory still had any vacancies.
“The employee dormitory?” Lu picked up the office landline. “I think so, but I’m not sure. I’ll ask someone to check.” As Lu Fengtong dialed the internal number, he asked Zhao Buxi, “Why are you thinking about moving into the employee housing?”
“My current place won’t be available much longer,” Zhao Buxi said. “I want to find somewhere else to live.”
The company housed four employees in each apartment. The building was in an older residential complex. The estate was rather run-down, but the apartments themselves had been renovated.
The commute to the office was about an hour by subway, with no need to change lines.
In Beijing, an hour was considered a short commute.
Lu Fengtong sent Zhao Buxi pictures of the available rooms. “Have a look. These are the vacant spots. Which one would you like?”
When he heard four people shared each apartment, Zhao Buxi had imagined a room full of bunk beds, like a school dormitory. The actual conditions were better than he’d expected.
Each apartment had two bedrooms and a living room, with two people sharing each bedroom.
Although the entire place was only fifty square meters, it had everything necessary for daily life, including laundry and cooking facilities.
Four people paying nine hundred yuan each came to thirty-six hundred yuan. Renting a single bedroom in a Chaoyang District apartment could cost four thousand. Nine hundred for this arrangement was genuinely an employee benefit.
Water and electricity were included too.
And with the company’s housing subsidy on top of that, employees spent almost nothing on accommodation.
The rooms did have bunk beds.
Back when Zhao lived at the repair shop, he’d slept in a bunk bed too, with Uncle Li snoring like thunder from the lower bunk every night.
Zhao Buxi was thoroughly satisfied. This was far better than the repair shop accommodations. After he chose a bed, Lu Fengtong brought over the profit-sharing contract.
“The agreement for our partner project should be signed the day after tomorrow. This is the profit share I promised you. Take it home and read through it today. If you want to change or add anything, let me know. Otherwise, sign it tomorrow and bring it back.”
Lu Fengtong hadn’t forgotten Zhao Buxi’s contribution. Without him, the project wouldn’t have come together, and Lu had no intention of withholding a cent of what he’d promised.
Although Zhao Buxi had begun learning characters, he still knew relatively few. The dense writing on the contract looked like an incomprehensible ancient text to him.
He’d photograph it when he got home and ask Doubao to read it aloud for him.
There wasn’t much urgent work at the company today. Zhao Buxi’s only assignment was to accompany Lu Fengtong to the hospital to visit Liang Shujia.
The results of the investigation into the Liang family had come out. Liang Shujia’s father had been tricked into planting the illegal flowers in his garden.
To explain how it began, you had to go back to the consequences of Liang Shujia’s own actions.
Since the end of last year, Liang Shujia had used dirty business tactics against a string of rival companies, just as he’d done to Lu Fengtong, snatching their potential collaborations. If he found something he could use against a rival, he exploited it; if not, he spread slander.
His aggressive attempts to monopolize the market had earned him plenty of enemies.
Because he had so many underhanded strategies of his own, Liang Shujia was careful never to leave evidence for competitors to use against him. But if you spent enough time by the river, you were bound to get your shoes wet. His comeuppance had finally arrived.
Unable to get to him directly, his rivals went after his father.
As Liang Shujia’s business expanded and his fortune grew, his aging father became increasingly reluctant to die.
There was still so much money he hadn’t spent. How could he bear to die? Even sleeping seemed like time wasted that he could have spent enjoying his wealth. The old man searched everywhere for folk remedies that promised longer life, terrified he might one day lose his chance to enjoy the world.
The person who set him up was a business rival of Liang Shujia’s. The rival hired a charlatan to convince the old man that the prohibited flowers were miraculous plants: if he grew them at home, the healthier and longer they bloomed, the longer he himself would live.
Older people often liked to believe in such mysterious claims.
He took the seeds home and planted them. He truly felt that the better the flowers bloomed, the stronger his old bones became.
But how could those flowers possibly make him healthier? Like buying bogus medicine advertised as a supplement, he had simply paid money for a comforting suggestion.
On the night the scandal broke, Liang Shujia had become so furious that he developed acute appendicitis and was hospitalized.
His father was detained at the police station, and his son was in the hospital having his appendix removed.
When Zhao Buxi and Lu Fengtong arrived at his hospital room, Liang Shujia was recovering in bed.
Lu Fengtong stood in the doorway and greeted him warmly. “Brother Liang.”
Liang Shujia wanted to tear both men apart the moment he saw them. He pointed at them. “You two have some nerve coming here!”
“Brother Liang, you’re in the hospital. Of course we had to come see how you’re doing,” Lu Fengtong said.
Zhao Buxi placed the get-well gift for Liang Shujia on the low cabinet beside the bed and asked casually, “How’s your recovery going?”
Liang Shujia had been fuming, but the sight of Zhao Buxi’s face and figure made his eyes start wandering after him again, almost against his will.
He was dressed beautifully for another day at work.
“I offered you a job. You’re really not coming?” Liang Shujia asked, still unwilling to give up.
Lu Fengtong exploded, hands on his hips. “Who tries to poach someone right in front of his boss? I’m still here!”
Liang Shujia ignored him completely.
Zhao Buxi gave him two words. “Not coming.”
Lu Fengtong looked at him, moved and reassured. Solid. Dependable.
“Give it up,” Lu said. “Little Zhao and I are brothers.”
Liang Shujia sneered. “A blockhead like you thinks you’re buddies with him?”
Lu Fengtong knew Liang Shujia was an expert at getting under people’s skin. He stopped arguing and wandered over to the window to get some air.
Zhao Buxi walked around the hospital room, looking here and there. Then he turned and asked, “This room must be expensive, right?”
Liang Shujia’s eyes lit up. “Of course. It costs plenty per night.”
Zhao Buxi clicked his tongue. The man really was rich.
A private room, too. Quite spacious.
“So? Want to change jobs?” Knowing the offer alone wasn’t working, Liang Shujia tried playing the sympathy card to make himself look better. “You may think I use any means necessary in business, but I’ve been driven to it. Everyone only cares how high I fly, never how tired I am. I have no choice but to find ways of flying higher.”
Zhao Buxi gazed at him silently.
Liang Shujia: Hm? Is it working?
Zhao Buxi asked, “Do that many people really care about you?”
Liang Shujia: “…”
Ha. Ha. Both of you, get the hell out.
And so Lu Fengtong and Zhao Buxi were thrown out.
“Why did he throw us out?” Lu Fengtong asked.
Zhao Buxi rubbed his nose. “Maybe he doesn’t like hearing me tell the truth.”
Not long after the two men left, a nurse hurriedly shouted, “Help! The patient’s wound has split open!”
Inside the hospital room:
Liang Shujia lay on the bed, grimacing in pain from his reopened wound. Beside his hand rested the get-well gift Zhao Buxi had brought.
A book.
Zhao Buxi had thought that being in the hospital would put anyone in a miserable mood, and a book might help him pass the time. Liang Shujia was a rotten person, but he had treated them to two very good meals.
On the book’s white cover, several large characters stood out in bold black print:
The Complete Book of Corny Jokes.