Chapter 46

Jiang Xun and Ding Wentao could be considered a pair. They were thick-skinned and shameless, freeloading at someone else's house with no intention of leaving.

Ding Wentao snored every night under Chen Chao's bed, annoying Chen Chao so much that he'd kick him in the middle of the night. Ding Wentao would just roll over and continue sleeping, even mumbling, "Who kicked me?"

Chen Chao was someone who had high standards for sleep quality; he'd get grumpy if he didn't sleep well. Miao Jiayan came over in the morning with fried dough cakes. When he went upstairs, he saw the one on the bed lying with an arm over his eyes, and the one on the floor lying on his back, snoring loudly.

Who could possibly sleep with this snoring...

Miao Jiayan thought to himself as he tiptoed over and squatted down to nudge Ding Wentao. When one nudge didn't wake him, Miao Jiayan pushed a little harder.

Ding Wentao opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Miao Jiayan's long hair. His vision instantly went dark, and he yelped, "Oh my god!"

"Don't shout..." Miao Jiayan shushed him. "Roll over, and stop snoring."

It took Ding Wentao a long while to come to his senses. He glared at Miao Jiayan, "I was sleeping soundly, why'd you push me?"

Miao Jiayan glanced at Chen Chao on the bed and whispered to Ding Wentao, "Come with me tonight, sleep at my place."

"I'm not going," Ding Wentao mumbled as he rolled over. "You two are all lovey-dovey, what would I be doing there?"

Miao Jiayan had always been the most good-tempered person, you could almost never see him angry, but now he gave Ding Wentao's upward-facing arm a slightly forceful pat.

Ding Wentao opened his eyes to look at him, too sleepy to speak, and immediately closed them again.

Miao Jiayan glared at him silently for two seconds before standing up with a taut face and going downstairs.

Chen Guangda had returned to the city for two days. After dealing with company matters, he came back early.

As soon as he was back, he was in the courtyard shouting, "Son!"

Chen Chao was upstairs on the phone. Hearing the shout, he came down and stood at the doorway, pointing to his phone for his dad.

Chen Guangda nodded with an "Ah, ah," and also pointed to the mesh bag he had just dragged in.

Chen Chao raised an eyebrow, asking what it was.

Chen Guangda mouthed the word "lamb."

Few northern men dislike lamb. Chen Guangda had specially picked out two small, plump lambs from a friend who runs a pasture, had them butchered, and brought them back.

Chen Chao was one of those few northern men; he disliked the gamy taste of mutton.

Grandpa Chen pushed over Grandpa Miao's portable ground stove. A large iron pot was filled with lamb bone broth. There were about ten big boys in the house now, and besides Chen Chao, none of them disliked lamb.

Chen Guangda personally went to the kitchen to stir-fry lamb offal and sauté lamb with green peppers. He even built a simple stove with bricks and set up a wire mesh to grill large slices of lamb for the young men.

The aroma filled the entire courtyard. Chen Guangda, with a towel around his neck, was busy and sweating profusely. Xiao Kai was having a great time filming. He had almost enough footage, and the group had already booked their tickets for the day after tomorrow, but Xiao Kai truly hadn't had enough of this place.

"I want to live here, I don't want to leave." Xiao Kai sat on a small stool next to Chen Chao, waiting to eat. "Brother Chao, I want to be a freeloader at your house."

"Who's stopping you? It's not like you have anything to do back home anyway." Chen Chao was being tortured by the overwhelming gamy smell. "Stay if you want."

"Aren't you leaving?" Xiao Kai rested his chin on his arm and said sullenly, "If you leave, I'll be living here by myself?"

Chen Chao didn't say anything. He was indeed leaving.

Chen Chao's major destined him to be unable to stay in one place. He couldn't just stay home during breaks like others; he had to go out, travel, and see things. He couldn't rely solely on studying things on paper. The best things and broadest perspectives in his field were out there, and that's how Chen Chao had spent his holidays for the past few years.

Miao Jiayan had been helping in the kitchen at first, but when there was nothing left for him to do, he went back to his own home.

Chen Chao hadn't seen him for a while. He scanned the courtyard a couple of times but couldn't find him.

"Where's Miao Jiayan?" he asked Jiang Xun.

Jiang Xun laughed and said, "How would I know?"

The boys were all eating meat. Chen Chao ate two pieces and then stopped; it tasted too gamy and rich for him.

Chen Chao wandered around for a bit. Just as he was about to stroll out the door, Miao Jiayan came in carrying a large bowl, and the two nearly collided.

"Time to eat," Chen Chao frowned slightly, then asked, "Where did you go?"

"I went to make you some noodles," Miao Jiayan said, looking down to indicate the large bowl in his hands. "I was afraid you wouldn't be able to eat the lamb."

Chen Chao followed him back into the courtyard.

"They're having a private meal!" Ding Wentao had sharp eyes. He said to Jiang Xun, "Miao Jiayan made a special meal for Brother Chao!"

Jiang Xun stood up from his stool, walked over, and glanced at Chen Chao's bowl. "Yo," he exclaimed, "That looks like just the thing to cut through the richness."

Chen Chao went to grab a pair of chopsticks and started eating his cold noodles, showing no intention of sharing. Jiang Xun asked Miao Jiayan, "Why don't I get any?"

Miao Jiayan stammered, at a loss for words. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "Brother Chao doesn't eat lamb."

Jiang Xun deliberately said in a teasing, sarcastic tone, "Uh-huh, uh-huh."

Miao Jiayan stood to the side, watching Chen Chao eat his noodles.

Jiang Xun said, "I don't care, I want a bowl too."

Before Miao Jiayan could say that there was really only one packet of noodles left, Chen Chao spoke up first, "It's a hot day, don't bother him."

"Aren't you being a bit shameless," Jiang Xun was exasperated, asking Chen Chao, "What about you bothering him? Why don't you say anything about that?"

Chen Chao ignored him, lowering his head to pick out the shredded cucumber from his noodle bowl. He said to Miao Jiayan, "Go eat."

Miao Jiayan went to get himself a bowl of rice and sat down to eat. Chen Chao contentedly finished the entire bowl of cold noodles. Jiang Xun said, "Look at that shameless face of yours."

Chen Chao didn't respond and went to wash the bowl himself.

Chen Chao was leaving, Xiao Kai and the others were all about to leave too. Jiang Xun and Miao Jiayan also had a new job lined up. Once everyone else was gone, the two of them would leave as well.

Ding Wentao would be left here all by himself again. He usually spent every holiday like this, just getting by, but after all this excitement, returning to the quiet felt particularly hard to accept.

"When you're all gone, I'll go back to school too." Under the small night light in the courtyard, Ding Wentao said gloomily, "If you guys leave me here by myself, I won't be able to stand it."

"Won't you be by yourself at school too?" Jiang Xun said without a shred of sympathy. "Either way, you'll have no one with you."

"There are people studying for the grad school entrance exams at school. At least I'll see people," Ding Wentao said, lying flat on the table.

"Your school has people studying for grad school exams too?" Jiang Xun asked.

Ding Wentao nodded. "Of course. Every school has people studying for grad school exams. The worse the school, the more people want to change their situation."

"Get a girlfriend," Jiang Xun suggested.

Ding Wentao seemed uninterested. "It's no fun. You always have to coax them after a fight. After dating a few, it gets really boring. I'm tired of all the arguing."

Chen Chao had been peeling and eating edamame on the side. Jiang Xun suddenly turned the topic to him, asking, "What about Chao? Got a girlfriend?"

Caught off guard by the question, Chen Chao looked up and said, "No."

"Why not?" Jiang Xun looked at Chen Chao and said, "My man Chao should be pretty sought after."

"That's for sure. People were giving him love letters back in middle school, and they all went through me," Ding Wentao said.

Chen Chao went back to peeling edamame and said, "No time."

When boys start gossiping, it's endless. Ding Wentao asked, "Brother Chao, what's your type?"

Chen Chao said, "Don't know."

Nearby, Miao Jiayan was lying on the table, scrolling through his Moments feed on his phone, his finger swiping upwards again and again.

He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, his fair arms resting against the stone table. He had a mosquito bite on his elbow. A message popped up on his phone, and Miao Jiayan tapped it open. Chen Chao noticed that he propped his arm up slightly, blocking his line of sight.

Chen Chao silently turned to the side, slightly turning his back to him, so that Miao Jiayan wouldn't feel insecure.

"Brother Xun, Sister Fangfang is looking for you," Miao Jiayan said.

Jiang Xun said, "Ah," and took out his phone to look.

Miao Jiayan locked his screen and lay his head back down. He noticed that Chen Chao's posture was different from before, so he rested his cheek on his arm and looked at Chen Chao.

Chen Chao felt his gaze and asked, "Finished chatting?"

"Yup," Miao Jiayan replied. "She needed Brother Xun for something."

Even Ding Wentao was showing his reluctance to part, but you couldn't see it in Miao Jiayan.

He didn't say any extra words to Chen Chao, calmly accepting the departure. Perhaps it was because they hadn't seen each other for a long time to begin with. If Uncle Chen hadn't asked him to stay this time, he would have probably already left.

They each had their own lives, and they were completely different.

Chen Chao had booked a flight to Guizhou for the day after tomorrow. Miao Jiayan told him, "Brother Chao, don't wear short sleeves. It should be really hot there now, you'll get sunburned if you're in the sun all the time."

"Yeah, I have a sun-protection jacket," Chen Chao replied. "Besides, I'm going to the mountains, it won't be that hot."

"That's good." Miao Jiayan pressed a corner of his phone with his finger, spinning it in circles on the stone table.

After a moment, Miao Jiayan asked again, "Is someone with... is someone going with you?"

"Yes," Chen Chao said. "Quite a few people from the design institute are there."

Miao Jiayan had nothing else to say. He just lay there, looking at Chen Chao with a smile, his eyes curving into crescents.

Another brief summer encounter was coming to an end. It seemed that ever since Chen Chao left after middle school graduation, the changes in each of them were significant every time they met.

For a moment, no one knew what they would become by the next time they met.

Miao Jiayan's soft hair draped down his back, the ends slightly curved. A few small strands stuck out at the tips.

Chen Chao, for reasons unknown, reached out, pinched the most unruly strand, rubbed the ends between his fingers, and tucked it under the rest of his hair.

Miao Jiayan felt him touch his hair, glanced back, then turned back around and continued to lie there.

If everything had gone as planned, they would have each returned to where they were supposed to be. Chen Chao would go to Guizhou, Ding Wentao would go back to school, Jiang Xun would return to the city first, and a couple of days later, Miao Jiayan would go with him to find Sister Fangfang.

They would silently drift apart in time, only to rediscover their rapport at their next meeting.

It seemed to have become a cycle between them, always repeating this pattern.

However, whether it was fate or human intervention, contrary to the established plans, Chen Chao was unable to leave.

A comical accident kept him there, and he wouldn't be able to leave for some time.