Gu Fei ate a bowl of noodles tastelessly. They were originally going to go to Wang Xu's house to eat meat buns, but now they couldn't go. Compared to the big meat buns, these instant noodles were exceptionally boring.

Especially when he looked up and saw Jiang Cheng sitting opposite him in a daze, the noodles became even more uninteresting.

Gu Fei was a little worried. Jiang Cheng's current state didn't seem like a calmness after getting over the shock, but more like he was still in a trance and hadn't woken up yet.

Tonight he didn't want Jiang Cheng to be alone, but now he didn't dare casually suggest Jiang Cheng stay over or go over to Jiang Cheng's place himself, afraid any word or point would set Jiang Cheng off.

After finishing the noodles, he washed the bowl and went back into the shop. Jiang Cheng was still sitting there motionless.  

He went over, cleared the table and pushed it aside, then stood next to Jiang Cheng.

"Is anyone in the small room at the steel factory tonight?" After quite a long time Jiang Cheng finally spoke.

"No." Gu Fei answered.

"Stay with me there overnight, okay?" Jiang Cheng said, "I don't want to spend the night in a familiar place."

"Okay." Gu Fei nodded.  

After standing for a while longer without Jiang Cheng moving, Gu Fei didn't rush him either. He went to sit behind the cash register counter, took out his phone and opened it up.

In just this short time, his friends circle had already exploded with chatter, saying someone had jumped off a building nearby. Some were asking around, some talked in vivid detail as if they had been downstairs catching the person.

Gu Fei exited his friends circle, thinking of playing a few rounds of games to distract himself, when Wang Xu sent a message over.

- I heard the person who jumped was from your neighborhood?

Gu Fei didn't reply.

Then Wang Xu sent another message over.

- Some people said it was Jiang Cheng's dad. Doesn't he live on the next street to you?

Gu Fei frowned. The speed at which gossip spreads amongst neighbors in this day and age thanks to various instant messaging tools is astonishing and frightening.

- If I hear anyone spreading rumors about this tomorrow, I'm coming for you.

- Hey, I didn't spread any rumors! I came to ask you first, I didn't even ask Jiang Cheng

- Anyway, if I hear anyone talking, I'm coming for you.

- F*ck! Alright alright, I'll go warn people now, okay?

Gu Fei ignored him and turned off his phone. He didn't feel like playing games anymore.

"What time is it?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"A little after 8, 8:26," Gu Fei glanced at him, "You..."

"Let's sit a while longer," Jiang Cheng said, "I don't know why, I just don't feel like moving right now. I want to blank out for a bit."

"Okay." Gu Fei responded and picked up his phone again, opening up his candy crush game.

He understood Jiang Cheng's state very well. Not wanting to move was not just the body not wanting to move, but the brain didn't want to move either. Just curling up, blanking out, making any small movement feel like it would pull you back to reality, and all those fears of facing the chaos and panic would come crashing over you like a tide along with your tiny movements.

He didn't know how many nights he had sat blankly like this after seeing his dad die in the river.

Even if Jiang Cheng sat on that little stool for a whole day and night, he wouldn't find it strange.

It was just that all of this, Jiang Cheng shouldn't have had to face, experience, or bear, yet he was somehow inexplicably sent back here.

Jiang Cheng wanted to leave. Even though he was born here and his parents were local specialties, he still didn't belong here. Sometimes Gu Fei feared Jiang Cheng would sink down.

Luckily the "arrogance" ingrained in Jiang Cheng's bones was always propping him up. No matter what environment he was in, he stood tall.

There was a small clock on the shop wall at Gu Fei's house. Every time it struck a new hour and the hour hand moved forward a space, it made a soft "ka" sound.

After the third chime, Jiang Cheng knew it was already 11pm.

He was very tired, extremely tired. He felt like he could fall asleep as soon as he closed his eyes, but when he really did close his eyes, even until they ached, he still couldn't fall asleep.

This state was torturous.

He didn't see the scene of Li Baoguo's final leap, but the sound of the impact, and that shoe flashing before his eyes, lingered like an inescapable dream, half real and half vague, swaying endlessly before him. In his grogginess he almost couldn't distinguish if it was dreamed or truly experienced.

The weather had gotten quite hot. He had sweated during the tattoo session that afternoon, but now he felt his hands go cold, and his whole body went cold, breaking out in waves of goosebumps.

The only part still burning hot was his eyes, feeling as if they were on fire. He didn't have the urge to cry, although since coming here his tear ducts had become a little overactive. But he was very clear he wouldn't want to cry because of Li Baoguo's death.

He and Li Baoguo didn't have that kind of relationship. His eyes just burned. If it kept burning he'd probably get a headache. He had to keep pressing his eyes to feel better.

Finally he let out a sigh and stood up. When he turned to look at Gu Fei, Gu Fei had also already stood up and put his phone away into his pocket after turning off the screen.  

"Did you pass that level?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Passed it." Gu Fei said.

"Bullsh*t," Jiang Cheng said. "I didn't hear the passing sound effect, only the failure ones. You didn't finish that round."

Gu Fei laughed. "Good ears. I turned the volume down to one bar."

"Let me see." Jiang Cheng held out his hand. "Let me play for a bit."

Gu Fei took out his phone and handed it to him. That level really wasn't passed yet, but there was still hope with 7 moves left. He looked down at the screen. "Let's go, to the small room."

When Gu Fei opened the shop door, Jiang Cheng looked outside. The streetlights were on, all the shops on the street had closed their doors, the whole street was empty and quiet with no one around. The earlier clamor had been erased by the night.

In that moment he had a strange feeling. Something so awful, so shocking, that made several streets of people go crazy with screams, yet after just a few hours everything had vanished without a trace.

Everything had already become bits and pieces chewed on over dinner beneath each family's lights, and after several months or years, like how Gu Fei had killed his own dad, it would become a distorted local legend.

How bizarre yet terrifying.

Jiang Cheng stared at the game screen on the phone, closing off his peripheral vision, letting himself become like an egg yolk wrapped in its shell.

Gu Fei walked alongside him towards the steel factory, one hand gently pushing his back, steering him a little when there were obstacles, so he could follow the force and avoid the rocks, bricks, and bumps on the ground.

Not until Gu Fei opened the door to the small room at the steel factory and he sat down on the sofa, did Jiang Cheng finally relax, raising his eyes to look around the room. He gave the phone back to Gu Fei after passing two more levels.

"Awesome," Gu Fei said. "I should change my nickname to I've Got Backup."

"Go ahead." Jiang Cheng smiled.

The padding and fabric on the sofa had been changed to a fine linen material, cool and non-stick, very comfortable. He started feeling crazily drowsy again.

"Get up first," Gu Fei said, grabbing the sofa to pull it out into a bed. "If I try to drag it out with you on it, this sofa's going to fall apart."

Jiang Cheng stood up and walked sluggishly forward a couple steps, then sighed again. "Should've washed up first, brushed my teeth or something at least."

"There's stuff here," Gu Fei said after getting the sofa open. "Check the box in the bathroom. Li Yan probably left disposable toothbrushes, towels, stuff like that. Wipe yourself down at least, your leg can't get wet anyway."

Jiang Cheng went into the bathroom and looked around. There was nothing in the bathroom itself, but there was a plastic box in the corner with the contents pretty complete, although the disposable tooth and towel packets were all printed with various hotel names.

"Where'd he get all this hotel stuff?" Jiang Cheng asked as he walked out brushing his teeth.

"His mom works in hotels, they have tons of these things left over from before," Gu Fei said. "No one's picky."

Jiang Cheng smiled.

Chatting idly about meaningless things with Gu Fei like this was the only way he could talk right now to relieve his emotions without stirring up gloom.

The two of them washed up simply and got ready for bed, lying down on the sofa. After the lights were off, the room was left with only moonlight coming in the curtainless window, growing brighter as the night went on, oddly giving an unsettled feeling.

Jiang Cheng flipped over to face Gu Fei's profile.  

"Want a hug?" Gu Fei turned to ask.

"Go away," Jiang Cheng said. "Too hot."

"Then like this." Gu Fei grabbed his hand. "Hurry up and sleep, there's school tomorrow."

"Goodnight." Jiang Cheng said.

"Goodnight." Gu Fei squeezed his palm.

Jiang Cheng closed his eyes. Gu Fei's fingers steadily pressed rhythmically in his palm, although Jiang Cheng thought it was a bit silly like soothing a child, it still felt reassuring.

Clearly Gu Fei fell asleep first, his fingers slowing until finally stopping as his breathing evened out. Jiang Cheng smiled and matched his breathing pace, soon falling asleep as well.

When he woke up in the morning, Gu Fei was already up. Jiang Cheng smelled the scent of beef noodles.

"Awake?" Gu Fei asked from behind him.

"Mm." Jiang Cheng turned his head and saw two takeout boxes of beef noodles placed on the small rickety table next to the sofa. He sat up and rubbed his face.

After sleeping through the night, there was no startled awakening, but the dreams had continued unbroken, so that upon waking now, he did not go through the process of recalling what happened yesterday, being shocked again, and readjusting.

Li Baoguo was dead. He had leapt from the rooftop in front of his three children and many onlooking neighbors, ending his perhaps meaningless life.

Scenes like this flashed through his dreams all night. Waking up now, the images became a bit clearer, that's all.

"No one's called me," Jiang Cheng picked up his phone to check. "For Li Baoguo's thing... don't I need to handle arrangements?"

"Li Hui will come find you when he needs money," Gu Fei said. "And when dividing up assets."

"Li Baoguo had assets?" Jiang Cheng scrolled idly on his phone.

"Don't know," Gu Fei handed him a toothbrush with squeezed toothpaste. "Should be a little something."

"If he really had thousands lying around, he wouldn't have been begging everywhere, right?" Jiang Cheng stuck the toothbrush in his mouth. "But I guess it doesn't matter. Whether he had one hundred thousand or one million, it's got nothing to do with me. I won't take a cent."

"Take a bit for funeral costs, don't worry about the rest." Gu Fei said.

"Mm." Jiang Cheng made a sound of agreement as he slowly brushed his teeth.

With his own dad dead, he should be taking days off, yet Jiang Cheng didn't know why he would need to take leave, or what he would do with the time off.

When he walked through the school gate, he happened to run into Old Xu standing at the entrance, probably on duty this week.

"Morning, Teacher Xu." Jiang Cheng greeted him.

"Jiang Cheng, ah...morning, morning..." Teacher Xu seemed about to say something, but in the end said nothing. "Go on in, study well."

"Morning, Teacher Xu." Gu Fei behind him also greeted.

"Good kids! Not late today!" Teacher Xu happily patted Gu Fei's shoulder. "Pay attention in class later, listen to the teacher!"

"Oh." Gu Fei responded.

As Jiang Cheng walked upstairs to class, he didn't know if he was being overly sensitive, but he could feel the gazes around him, though he didn't hear any discussion. Of course, with his usual state, no one would ask either. It was slightly uncomfortable, but this was good, letting the tension in his nerves relax a bit.

"Jiang Cheng," Wang Xu walked in and plopped down on the seat behind him. "Let's go to my place for meat buns at lunch? I had my mom save donkey meat ones."  

"Hm?" Jiang Cheng was startled.

"You gonna come or not?" Wang Xu asked. "You guys haven't been over to eat in a long time. Last week my mom was asking, thinking I'd offended my classmates again."

"Let's go," Jiang Cheng smiled. "Is there mutton soup too?"

"Of course, plenty of buns and mutton soup," Wang Xu said. "It's settled then, we'll go together at lunch."

"Mm." Jiang Cheng nodded, then looked at Gu Fei.

"Da Fei's definitely going too," Wang Xu stood up and walked back to his seat. "If you go, how could he not go?"

"F*ck," Gu Fei looked at Wang Xu's back and muttered. "I really wanted to say I'm not going."  

Jiang Cheng laughed and whispered happily to himself at his desk for a while. "Then don't go."

"How could that be possible," Gu Fei sighed. "If you go, then I'm buy-one-get-one-free bundled."

"Then..." Jiang Cheng glanced at him. "What if I said I'm going with He Zhou to play ball?"

"That's different." Gu Fei said.

How was that different? Jiang Cheng didn't really understand, but he wasn't in the mood to ask in detail.

Gu Fei reached out and placed a candy on his desk.

"Just one?" Jiang Cheng looked at him.

"Only one left, saved from my own mouth," Gu Fei checked his pockets. "The winter coat pockets were bigger, could hold like 10 pieces. I forgot to restock yesterday."

"What if Er Miao comes asking you for candy later?" Jiang Cheng asked.  

"I'll just buy her a 50 cent lollipop from the school store," Gu Fei said.

"So easy to satisfy." Jiang Cheng smiled and unwrapped the candy, putting it in his mouth.

"She just likes having something sweet and hard in her mouth, doesn't care if it tastes good or not," Gu Fei took out his phone and opened up his game, "Fuck, did Li Yan get someone to play for him?"

"Who would hire someone to play a dumb mobile game for them," Jiang Cheng said.

"How did he get ahead of me again? Wasn't I only one level away from catching up to him yesterday?" Gu Fei was very unsatisfied. "Help me catch back up at lunch?"

"Call me brother," Jiang Cheng said.  

"Brother Cheng," Gu Fei said softly, "Help me catch back up, please."

"Sure," Jiang Cheng smiled and nodded.

Although he kept feeling he shouldn't be that affected, he and Li Baoguo didn't have much of a relationship, and no matter how you looked at it, Li Baoguo's death shouldn't make him too upset.

But the facts proved, as Jiang Cheng lay with his head down on the desk with eyes closed, the facts proved it wasn't completely so. Li Baoguo had chosen an ending that would leave permanent shadows on anyone, and a shock like this really couldn't be brushed off with a "we weren't close so I don't care".

Jiang Cheng wasn't sad or in pain, but he was in low spirits all morning. Even when Old Lu was yelling loud enough to shake plaster off the classroom ceiling, making the whole class roar with laughter, he didn't even open his eyes.

This state was frightening, being unmotivated about everything.

What he feared most was falling into this mood rut, because once out of control, it would spiral downward irreversibly, and after a long time it would be very difficult to pull himself back up.

It was Old Lu's class again the last period, and he used the whole class time amidst Old Lu's yelling to collect himself and constantly psych himself up.

When the last bell rang, he was no longer lying on the desk, sitting up straight against his chair back taking deep breaths, slowly breathing out.

It was no big deal. From the day he arrived here, one by one those people and things that annoyed him were resolved. It was no big deal. Human potential was unknowable. As long as you start dealing with things, it's no big deal.

He kept taking deep breaths, inhaling and ready to breathe out, when Wang Xu came over and slapped the desk. "Let's go, let's go!"

Jiang Cheng almost burst out from his eyes with anger, coughing for a long time: "Fuck."

When he walked out of the school gate, Jiang Cheng felt that his mood had improved quite a bit on the surface. When his phone rang, although his heart tightened for a moment, he was still able to calmly take it out and answer this call from an unfamiliar number.

The phone number was one he had never saved before, but he could guess that this call was from Li Hui. When he picked up, he almost wanted to say thank you for not calling me during class.

"Jiang Cheng," Li Hui's voice was a little hoarse, but still very aggressive, as if Jiang Cheng owed him money, at least 10,000 yuan with this tone. "You're quite free and easy. Dad's dead and you didn't even come back once? Didn't even come to take a look?"

"Get to the point," Jiang Cheng's voice also turned cold.

"Oh! The point is it! Get straight to the point is it! Anyway, you don't have much to do with this family, don't need to know anything else, right!" Li Hui said in quick succession.

"If you don't say it, I'm hanging up," Jiang Cheng didn't respond to him.

"Don't be arrogant with me!" Li Hui flared up, "Do you think that because I didn't fight back last time you and I fought, I was afraid of you? Do you believe that I will send someone to fix you today?"

"I'm just asking what you want from me. If you don't say it, I'll hang up. If you want to say it again in the future, I won't listen either," Jiang Cheng was still cold, "I'm waiting for you to send someone to fix me up. If you can't fix me, I'll fix you."

"Fuck! You f*cking..." Li Hui probably didn't know what to say for a moment. What followed was all curses, enough to make an 800-word composition.

After Jiang Cheng listened and learned for a while, he was about to hang up when Li Hui's voice became softer and a woman's voice came through: "Jiang Cheng ah? I'm your sister-in-law. Don't listen to your brother talking nonsense. He's in a bad mood."

Sister-in-law? Jiang Cheng had completely no impression of this sister-in-law, so he just responded with an "en".

"It's like this. Your dad passed away and we're all very sad. As for you... we can understand too. But now there are a bunch of things to deal with and places that need money too. If you don't do anything at all... that doesn't seem right either, does it?" the sister-in-law said.

"Sister-in-law," Jiang Cheng looked at Gu Fei walking in front pulling Wang Xu, and slowed down his steps, "Let me make this clear first. I'm a student. I have no job or income. Normally, no family would ask a high schooler for money when they need it, right? That doesn't make sense either."

"Ah, this... can't be said like that..." Hearing this, the sister-in-law sounded a little embarrassed but also a little anxious.

"This is how I'll say it," Jiang Cheng interrupted her, "I can give money, 3,000 yuan. I had wanted to give it to Li Baoguo but didn't get to it in time. It can now be used for his funeral arrangements. But you have to write me a receipt, writing clearly how much you received and what it was used for. I won't ask about that. But this is only once. No more beyond this."

"3,000 yuan..." The sister-in-law hesitated, probably feeling it was too little.

"Whether Li Baoguo had assets, how much, has nothing to do with me. I also won't ask about it," Jiang Cheng said, "But I'll make this clear. No one come bother me again. If I flare up, you might not be able to handle it. Call me when you've prepared the receipt and come to my school."

Jiang Cheng finished speaking and didn't wait for a response from the other side before hanging up.

The moment he put his phone back in his pocket, he let out a long breath.

In front, Gu Fei was also still on the phone saying something. Seeing Jiang Cheng finish his call, he pointed at Wang Xu and walked over to Jiang Cheng.  

"No way," Wang Xu was very unhappy standing in place, "If you two have something to discuss, can you finish first before saying it? I'm the one treating you to a meal but I keep getting left to the side. What kind of world is this!"

"En?" Jiang Cheng looked at Gu Fei.

"I have to ask him first. I can't guarantee he'll agree... Lip modeling jobs are usually for girls right? Having a guy put on lipstick to take photos... I know it's for contrast but he doesn't look like Li Yan with feminine features. He's just... Okay okay I'll ask first." Gu Fei hung up the phone and looked at him.

"What lip modeling thing?" Jiang Cheng asked.  

"That is, showing some lip care products and lipsticks and stuff," Gu Fei said in a small voice, "Ding Zhuxin's friend saw your photos and felt your lips are... beautiful."

"Wtf?" Jiang Cheng was stunned, staring at Gu Fei's lips.

He hadn't paid much attention to what his own lips looked like. Usually when appreciating his handsome and dashing looks in the mirror, it was an overall view... But he had always felt Gu Fei's lips were very sexy. Whenever he saw them he wanted to kiss or lick them, if not bite them...

Maybe it was because he had just showed Li Hui his fierceness, but his mood was a bit erratic now. Staring at Gu Fei's lips, he couldn't even hear what else he was saying. His mind was filled with stuff that could get him arrested.

Officer! It's this guy! It's me!

"I want to go big for my birthday," Jiang Cheng said.  

"Their point is visual impact, but if you're unwilling..." Gu Fei didn't finish speaking, stunned for a moment. "What?"

"Nothing," Jiang Cheng said. "Lip modeling? I can even do fart modeling if you take the photos."

"What?" Gu Fei was stunned again.

"Oh, not fart modeling, butt modeling," Jiang Cheng said.