Chapter 28 Part 2

The model was a white-haired elderly man, dressed in a matching blue cleaning uniform. With his hands on the steering wheel, he revealed a happy and satisfied smile as he drove slowly.

Xiao Heng: “...”

Besides the steering wheel, this uniquely designed vehicle also had various control buttons. Putting aside the strangeness of the job, Xiao Heng asked, “Do you know how to drive one?”

Lu Yan, who never considered whether he knew how to do something before taking a job and just went for it, said, “Nope.”

Xiao Heng continued washing the dishes, rejecting the job with his actions.

Lu Yan tried to persuade him, “I think we can learn.”

Xiao Heng said, “I think we can’t.”

Xiao Heng added, “Are there any other options?”

“No.”

“...”

The two looked at each other for a long while.

“Forget it.” Lu Yan compromised, the main reason being that neither he nor Xiao Heng looked like they could drive a floor scrubber. No one would believe them even if they said they could. “I’ll keep looking.”

Lu Yan browsed the part-time job site for a while longer but didn't see anything suitable. His gaze shifted from the phone screen to Xiao Heng's hands. Xiao Heng rarely washed dishes and wasn't very quick at it.

But it was better than Lu Yan had imagined.

Watching Xiao Heng wash the dishes, Lu Yan was reminded of the way he typed on the keyboard at the internet cafe that day.

'These hands are still better suited for a keyboard...' Lu Yan thought for no reason.

After finishing the dishes, Xiao Heng turned off the tap.

Lu Yan, a cigarette hanging from his lips, said from the side, “Why don’t you use my computer for now?”

Xiao Heng: “What?”

Lu Yan: “The computer.”

Lu Yan lit the cigarette in his mouth. “Though mine is slow, crashes from time to time, and its key sensitivity could be better.”

Xiao Heng looked up at him.

After his long list of complaints, Lu Yan added, “Other than that, it’s barely usable.”

Still not much of a reaction.

Just as Lu Yan was about to say 'take it or leave it,' he heard Xiao Heng ask, “Do you charge for internet?”

“If you want to pay, that’s fine too,” Lu Yan said with a laugh.

Lu Yan couldn't figure out this young master's thoughts.

When he had picked this person up from the rainstorm that day, he had the illusion that this person only had a glamorous exterior, that his soul was empty.

But contrary to that, there was a struggling force within Xiao Heng.

Even though he himself might not have realized it.

Lu Yan's computer was indeed not very good; it took forever just to boot up.

“What’s the password?” Xiao Heng asked after turning it on.

“Eight eights.” Lu Yan grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom.

His phone password was also an 8, everything was an 8.

There was a pack of cigarettes right next to the computer. Xiao Heng pulled one out but didn't rush to light it. “Tsk, tacky.”

Lu Yan had just taken off his shirt. “Watch your attitude. Think about who the owner of this computer is.”

This piece of junk computer—you wouldn't know until you turned it on—wasn't just slow. One of the keys on the keyboard was broken, so if you wanted to type a certain letter, you had to use the on-screen keyboard from the computer's system. Xiao Heng didn't really know what to type into the code editor after sitting down.

In four years, internet technology had advanced rapidly. Although the fundamentals were still there, it was undeniable that he didn't know much about many of the new emerging technologies. Even some things he was once so familiar with that he could type them with his eyes closed had become blurry.

Xiao Heng first looked for a few tutorials he used to watch.

Everything around him slowly blurred. The figure of the young boy who had spent all his time in the computer lab watching tutorials four years ago became clearer in his mind. Xiao Heng lowered his head to light his cigarette. When he looked up again, he was in Lu Yan's less-than-twenty-square-meter rented room.

Xiao Heng stayed very late that day. Lu Yan lay on his side and wrote some music for a while—in this room, apart from the dining table, this was the only computer desk, placed by the bed, that was usable.

The desk wasn't big. As Lu Yan was writing, if Xiao Heng moved the mouse, their hands would touch, and they could start a fight.

“Get over there.”

“...Don't mess around.”

“Fuck, stop crowding me.”

Lu Yan wrote for a while. When his hair was almost dry, he stopped, got up, and leaned over to look at Xiao Heng's computer screen. “What's this, a tutorial?”

Xiao Heng stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

“Yeah.”

“Aren’t you a little programming genius?” Lu Yan said. “You still need to watch tutorials?”

Xiao Heng: “The times are changing.”

Before Lu Yan finally gave in to sleep, he could vaguely hear the sound of Xiao Heng typing.

The next day, when Lu Yan woke up, Xiao Heng was already gone.

He had no idea what time the young master had stayed up until last night.

Lu Yan thought about it as he pulled open the curtains and found that the sky had cleared up.

The sun was bright; it was a good day.

Lu Yan checked the time again, turned on his computer, planning to try and arrange the half-finished melody he wrote last night after breakfast. But as soon as he opened his music arrangement software, he saw a line of large, bold text pop up on the interface: Dog son, you're awesome.

Lu Yan: “...”

What the hell did this person do last night???