Chapter 13
JIANG CHENG WOKE UP a little late that morning. By the time he opened his eyes, school was about to start.
The longest he’d ever skipped school was for two days—he also didn’t go home for three nights—but he was very rarely late. He wasn’t sure why, but whenever he decided to go to school, he was reluctant to be late.
The term was just starting, and he wasn’t planning on skipping just yet.
The second he saw what time it was, he shot out of bed and ran to the bathroom, grabbing the single-use toothbrush and toothpaste.
He didn’t usually use these things when he stayed at hotels. The toothbrushes were jumbo-sized and stiff as hell, and there were never any good toothpaste flavors… When he rinsed, Jiang Cheng discovered that his gums were bleeding, either from shakily brushing with his left hand or from the poor quality of the brush.
Looking into the mirror, he saw that his face was pallid from poor sleep and his eyes had faint dark circles under them. That, along with the toothpaste at the corners of his lips… “Ack—!”
He covered his chest with a gauze-wrapped hand and pointed ahead with the other as he wheezed painfully, “I’ve…been…poisoned! Agh!”
Jiang Cheng laughed to himself for a good long while until he remembered that he was running out of time. He quickly splashed some water on his face and gave it a quick wash.
When he checked out and left the building, he thought he could see the HomeInn across the road grinning at him. He had followed Gu Fei’s clear instructions yesterday and found the HomeInn. Even then, with nothing on him but five hundred yuan, a phone, and clothes that weren’t entirely his, he wasn’t able to make it inside. He had no ID on him and asked the staff if there was any way around it—they threatened to call the police. He was screwed. A shitty old neighborhood in a shitty little city, and it was this hard to get a room in a hotel?!
He was already wearing Gu Fei’s sweater, Gu Fei’s down jacket, and using Gu Fei’s charger after eating Gu Fei’s food and smoking his cigarette. He really couldn’t bring himself to go back and say to Gu Fei, “Hey, let me borrow your ID, too.”
Just as he was planning to spend the night at an internet cafe, he caught sight of a little inn across the street. He was saved.
Now he looked behind at the inn once again. Zhou Inn. He noted it down so he could revisit it one day when he was writing his memoirs.
He bought breakfast at a little shop downstairs from the inn, though he had no time to eat it. Jiang Cheng stuffed all the food in his pocket and sprinted like mad to Fourth High. The school wasn’t that far from here—only two stops away on the bus, and short ones at that; a distance you could cover on foot in the same amount of time it took for you to wait and get there on the crammed bus.
Granted, it wasn’t that close, either—running like this still took a lot out of him —but there were no taxis so early in the morning.
When he reached the school gate, Jiang Cheng heard the warning bell ring. The students slowly converging toward the main entrance didn’t react to it at all. Those who were eating continued to eat; those who were chatting kept on chatting. With the accompaniment of the warning bell in the background, they ambled into school at a leisurely pace.
Jiang Cheng slowed down, not wanting to be the only speed-walking nerd in the crowd. If he’d trudged in late like this at his old school, the teacher on duty would have come over to admonish him. Instead, the teacher standing at Fourth High’s front gate—perhaps too even-tempered, or just out of habit— called out in a kindly manner, “Hurry up! Speed those steps up! Anyone climbing the gate after we close it is getting demerits!”
Climb the gate?
Jiang Cheng turned back and glanced at the school gate. Despite everything, the gate of Fourth High was quite majestic. It was double-layered:
The first was a waist-high electric gate, and the second one within was large, metal, and double-doored, with spikes on top.
He suddenly remembered that Gu Fei had been late the day before. Did he climb in?
Tsk. At the thought of that row of spikes, he felt a phantom breeze blow past his crotch.
***
When he was going up the stairs, someone yelled out from behind, “Jiang Cheng!”
Turning, he saw Wang Xu with an enormous jianbing,(13) taking bites as he ran over.
“Damn, it really is you.” Wang Xu looked him up and down. “I thought it was Da-Fei for a second, but the hat was wrong… Why are you wearing his clothes? Those are his clothes, right?”
“Mm-hm.” Jiang Cheng continued to climb the stairs.
“Did something happen?” Wang Xu glanced at his hand. “Oh fuck, what happened to your hand? Was it Monkey? Were you hiding out at Da-Fei’s place?”
“No, and no,” Jiang Cheng replied.
“You don’t have to keep it from me.” Wang Xu patted his shoulder in a loyal, brotherly way. “This whole mess is my fault. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility. Be honest—”
“Don’t,” Jiang Cheng said, turning to face him, “pat my shoulder.”
Wang Xu’s hand hovered in the air.
“Or my back,” Jiang Cheng said.
“Fuck.” Wang Xu stuck his hand back in his pocket, a bit peeved as he leaped a few steps ahead of Jiang Cheng. “What a princess.”
Gu Fei didn’t show up for the morning self-study period. Jiang Cheng didn’t know whether he was going to be late again today or skip school entirely.
Jiang Cheng kept low at his desk, staying out of sight behind Zhou Jing as he slowly ate his breakfast. Half a dozen people around him were eating, too. He sighed as he ate. He was only on his second day here—had he already assimilated, just like that?
His breakfast was pretty simple: pan-fried dumplings and soy milk. He’d carefully selected the dumplings for their napa cabbage filling—he didn’t want them to smell too strongly when he ate them in class. Then he looked at the people around him, who were feasting on pungent garlic chive-stuffed buns and garlic chive-stuffed pancakes… And the smell wasn’t the end of it: Someone was outright slurping up a bowl of beef noodles!
The first period was English. Lao-Lu came in bellowing as usual, and even confiscated half a bun that the slowest eater hadn’t managed to finish over self-study period and break.
“Hey,” Zhou Jing said, cocking his head. “Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng glanced at him soundlessly.
“Jiang Cheng?” Zhou Jing called out again. “Jiang Cheng.”
“Just say whatever you have to say.” Jiang Cheng suddenly understood why Gu Fei couldn’t be bothered to respond to Zhou Jing. Every time this guy wanted to say something, he insisted on calling your name until you replied.
“Are you wearing Da-Fei’s clothes today?” Zhou Jing asked.
Jiang Cheng frowned. He looked at the puffer draped over the back of his chair. It must have been the one Gu Fei wore most often. Wang Xu had recognized it at a single glance, and Zhou Jing could just fucking tell it was Gu Fei’s… Half the class probably knew he was wearing Gu Fei’s jacket to class.
He looked down at the sweater he had on and prayed it wasn’t one Gu Fei wore often.
“The sweater is Gu Fei’s too, right?” Zhou Jing asked. “You stayed at Gu Fei’s place yesterday?”
Fuck!
Jiang Cheng ignored him and lay on his desk, trying to sleep.
“Hey, Jiang Cheng.” At least Zhou Jing had stopped bumping the desk now. “Why isn’t Da-Fei here today?”
“If you don’t shut up, I’ll smack you,” Jiang Cheng said with his eyes closed. Zhou Jing sighed and didn’t bother him anymore.
The classroom was warm and well-heated, but it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to take the sweater off. After all, he wasn’t wearing anything else under it, and he could hardly go topless in class.
Gu Fei seemed low-key. He never said more than a few words at school and didn’t appear to be close to anyone. He even made a point to go to a separate bathroom…but everyone seemed to remember the clothes he wore.
Fucking bizarre.
Second period was Chinese. After class, Lao-Xu walked over to his seat, looked him up and down, and said, “Hey, step outside with me for a second, Jiang Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng rose. He hesitated for a moment before reluctantly pulling on Gu Fei’s puffer jacket and following Lao-Xu out of the classroom onto the walkway outside.
“What’s up, Xu-zong?”
“Why isn’t Gu Fei in class today?” Lao-Xu asked.
“How should I know?” Jiang Cheng didn’t know what to say.
“You don’t?” Lao-Xu eyed him suspiciously; he clearly didn’t believe him for a second. “You really don’t know? Or do you not want to tell me?”
“I barely know him, why would I cover for him?” Jiang Cheng said, rather impatiently.
“Oh. I see.” Lao-Xu sighed. “I noticed you’re wearing his clothes. I figured you were with him yesterday and you’d know why he isn’t at school today.”
“…Oh.” That was all Jiang Cheng could say. Another word and he thought blood would spray out of his mouth from the internal injury he’d sustained.
“Say, Jiang Cheng.” Lao-Xu studied his face. “You’ve known Gu Fei for two days. What do you think of him?”
Jiang Cheng stared at Lao-Xu. If he didn’t know that he was in school, that the man standing before him was his homeroom teacher, and that Gu Fei was merely his deskmate, he really would have thought he was talking to a matchmaker.
“One day,” Jiang Cheng corrected. “Or half a day, to be more precise.”
“Right, he didn’t come back yesterday afternoon.” Lao-Xu furrowed his brows. “So, what do you think—” Jiang Cheng cut him off. “I don’t think anything. Xu-zong, I have no opinion of the guy.”
“Gu Fei, well… He’s quite intelligent, not like the rest of these underperforming students.” Lao-Xu stubbornly pushed forward. “If we can shift his mentality, he should be able to raise his grades.”
“Me?” Jiang Cheng pointed at himself. He almost added, Are you still asleep, sir?
“No, no, me.” Lao-Xu laughed as he gestured at himself. “That’s for the homeroom teacher to do, of course.”
Jiang Cheng said nothing. He could tell that Lao-Xu was a good man, but his job seemed like a tough one considering how little authority he had over the students. Even someone like Zhou Jing probably wouldn’t buy into his spiel, never mind Gu Fei.
“I was just thinking, since you have excellent grades… Could you pair up with him as a study buddy?”
“What?” Jiang Cheng stared at Lao-Xu in astonishment.
A study buddy?
He’d only seen that sort of thing in middle school. It always ended up amounting to nothing, or developing into some kind of forbidden puppy-love.
He didn’t expect to run into this sort of thing in high school. Right now, Lao-Xu’s mawkish optimism was almost meme-worthy—the kind of meme an old man might unironically use.
“Not exactly a buddy,” Lao-Xu explained, “just someone to help him out sometimes. Get him to listen in class, explain problems he can’t solve…” Jiang Cheng stared at him. He didn’t know what gave Lao-Xu the illusion that Gu Fei would be willing to accept anyone’s supervision.
“I once asked Yi Jing to tutor him when she had the time,” Lao-Xu went on. “Yi Jing’s the class president and she’s very responsible, but she’s a girl. So in some ways, it’s not the best arrangement. That’s why I’m hoping you’ll…look out for your classmate, as long as it doesn’t affect your grades.”
Lao-Xu’s expression was sincere, and his tone diplomatic. It made Jiang Cheng unsure how he should respond. Ever since he was a kid, he’d taken to persuasion better than coercion, sincerity over pretension. But still, he couldn’t bring himself to agree to this naïve request.
“Xu-zong, sir,” he said, equally sincere, “I think you need to understand who I am before you consider whether I should be the one doing this. Grades don’t define a person. I didn’t even bring my books to class today—didn’t you notice?”
The bell rang, and that was the end of the conversation.
Gu Fei didn’t come to school all morning. None of the teachers asked after him in any of the classes. It was like they didn’t care who did or didn’t attend.
The moment morning classes ended, Jiang Cheng was the first out the classroom. He had nothing to pack, so he threw on Gu Fei’s jacket and dashed out of school at the speed of light, faster than anyone sprinting to the cafeteria for food.
He was pretty lucky today. The moment he stepped out the school gate, he spotted a taxi dropping off passengers. Jiang Cheng didn’t even wait for the car to empty out entirely before climbing into the front seat.
“Apart from the shopping mall in the center of town,” Jiang Cheng asked the driver, “where else can you go to buy clothes?”
The driver thought for a moment. “The shopping mall.”
“Where?” Jiang Cheng asked.
“The center of town,” the driver answered.
“…I see.” Jiang Cheng leaned back and shut his eyes. “Let’s go there, then.”
It was a pretty backwater mall. Jiang Cheng had come here to window-shop with Pan Zhi the day they had barbecue, and nothing caught their eyes. But he didn’t have the time to be picky right now—he just needed clothes.
He chose a store that claimed to have cutthroat, fly-off-the-shelves-and-jump-out-the-building discounts, with prices so low that not buying something would be like letting the owner die for nothing. Jiang Cheng tried on a sweater and puffer jacket, thought they were fine, and asked the staff to cut the tags when he paid.
As he walked out of the shopping mall carrying Gu Fei’s clothes, he breathed a sigh of relief. The new clothes were average-looking, but their strength was in their decent quality, warmth, and reasonable price. It definitely wasn’t a price you’d cut your throat over, though—worth jumping out a first-floor window at the most.
Jiang Cheng made do with some random food in the mall, but he didn’t know where to go next. Maybe he could go straight back to school and find a dry cleaner nearby to clean Gu Fei’s clothes.
He didn’t bother with a taxi this time. His mom had left him a tidy sum in his account, but looking at Li Baoguo’s situation, he was going to need to make that money last all the way until college… He looked around and saw a bus stop up front. Just as he was walking over, his phone rang: It was Li Baoguo.
Rather grudgingly, he picked up. “Hello?”
“Chengcheng!” Li Baoguo’s ear-splitting voice called down the line.
“You’re done with class, aren’t you?!”
“Mm-hm.” Jiang Cheng carried on walking to the bus stop.
“Where’d you sleep last night?” Li Baoguo asked. “You pitched such a fit that the neighbors must’ve thought I did something to you!”
Jiang Cheng didn’t answer. He stood at the bus route sign, checking if any of the buses stopped at his school.
“Calmed down yet?” Li Baoguo asked. “Come home and eat! I wrapped some dumplings, they’re waiting for you to come back!”
“I…” Jiang Cheng didn’t want to go back, but he couldn’t bring himself to say that now. It was a long time before he replied. “I’m at the shopping mall.”
“That’s not too far. Just take Route 19 home,” Li Baoguo said immediately. “The bus stop is right outside the mall’s east entrance!”
When Jiang Cheng got back to Li Baoguo’s street, clothes in hand, he noticed there was a dry cleaner not too far away. It didn’t look very trustworthy, but there were a lot of clothes in the window. After a moment’s pause, he brought Gu Fei’s clothes in for a wash, and paid extra to pick them up the same night.
He reached the ground floor of Li Baoguo’s apartment and paused. In front of the stairs was a cycle rickshaw dragging a cart full of glass panels. Li Baoguo was standing next to it, unloading several sheets of glass from the cart and carrying them back with some effort.
That was probably to replace the window he broke yesterday. Jiang Cheng sighed and ran over. “Here, I’ll take them.”
“Oh, you’re back!” Li Baoguo boomed. “Leave them, I’ll do it. You don’t wanna break them, they’re expensive!”
Jiang Cheng glanced over them. It really wouldn’t be easy to hand them over. Instead, he took Li Baoguo’s key from his hand and opened the apartment door.
“Read my mind!” Li Baoguo lifted his head and spoke in a half-yell to nobody in particular, “See, now, this is my son! We’re on the same wavelength!”
“Why didn’t you get a handyman to install them for you?” Jiang Cheng looked into his room. There was still broken glass on the floor; he grabbed a broom from the kitchen. “It—” “A handyman?” Li Baoguo glowered. “How much would that cost?! I already had to buy these glass panes on credit, you know!”
“On credit?” Jiang Cheng stiffened, broom in hand.
“From that glass store on the backstreet. The owner plays mahjong with me all the time, so I asked him for them,” Li Baoguo said. “I’ll pay in a few days when my luck’s better.”
Jiang Cheng’s lips parted but nothing came out. Li Baoguo didn’t even have enough money to buy a few panes of glass? He had to gamble for the payment?
“The backstreet?” Jiang Cheng bent and swept up the glass on the floor.
“I’ll go over later and pay them.”
“What a good son!” Li Baoguo put the glass panes on the table and dusted his hands off. “You care about your old man! Your old family must’ve given you a nice bit of money, huh?”
Jiang Cheng turned and glanced at him without a word. When Li Baoguo went to the kitchen to get the dumplings, Jiang Cheng grabbed his jacket from where he’d tossed it on the bed last night and took the wallet from its pocket.
When he opened it for a look, he was dumbstruck.
The cash was probably untouched, but the card was in a different place.
He checked the number to make sure it was the original card before putting the wallet back in his pocket. He sat on the edge of the bed, feeling drained.
***
Gu Fei had just pulled out his pack of cigarettes to take one when he realized he’d finished the entire pack. Frowning, he crumpled the box and tossed it to the ground to join the cigarette butts that surrounded his foot.
It was quiet today. Lao-Xu had called a few times that morning. So had his mom and Li Yan, but he didn’t pick up a single call. Eventually, he turned his phone off.
The world was quiet now. Alone, he could fully appreciate the terror rising from the deepest pit of his heart.
The sky had already begun to darken, and the northern wind was blowing harder and harder. It permeated his hat, his earmuffs, and his mask, scraping at his face relentlessly as Gu Fei turned and walked down the path between the two rows of gravestones. Bringing a small broom over, he swept up the cigarette butts, then stared at the photo on the gravestone. He’d spent the whole day here, but this was the first time he’d looked at it. In the dim light, the man in the photo looked even more like a stranger. And yet, he still retained a trace of the aura that had so frightened him.
“I’m leaving now,” he said.
As he turned to leave, he felt like someone was behind him. When he turned to look, all he saw was a silent gravestone.
Gu Fei walked on, his footsteps a little heavy. He sucked in a breath and sped up.
The moment he put down the broom, his ears were filled with the sound of roaring water.
He stopped breathing as his surroundings abruptly darkened. It wasn’t the sound of flowing water, or normal movement through it. This…was the sound of someone struggling for his life beneath the surface—an immense, desperate, agonizing noise. Waves rose, crested, and splashed; then broke into ripples one by one. Through the chaotic splashing, a pair of eyes fixed on his.
“Why didn’t you save me?! Are you asking for a beating?!”
In his terror, Gu Fei gave a vicious kick to the nearby trash can. The sound of it clattering to the ground dragged him back to reality. He tugged his collar up and lowered his head, striding quickly along the empty road toward the main entrance of the cemetery.
Those weren’t the last words he’d heard his father say, but on the day he died, they became the words that echoed over and over in the nightmares he couldn’t wake from.
His dad hadn’t managed to say anything before he died. He couldn’t. All he could do was struggle for his life.
Gu Fei didn’t know why he dreamt of those words. He never imagined they would follow him through the years, growing into a fear he couldn’t bring himself to face. It always felt so real—the feeling of standing by the lake, his whole body drenched—so real that he was compelled to reach out and grab his own clothes every time, to reassure himself repeatedly that he was dry.
The area near the cemetery was actually somewhat lively; the road just beyond the entrance was a thoroughfare. Gu Fei entered a nearby supermarket almost at a jog.
After surrounding himself with artificial light, he finally began to feel some warmth, and the stiffness of his body gradually subsided. He bought two packs of cigarettes, a bottle of water, and a bowl of oden; he only went back outside once he’d finished it in the sitting area.
Standing at a corner sheltered from the wind, Gu Fei lit a cigarette. But he only took one puff before putting it out—he was too nauseous. The top of his throat felt coated in sand.
On the bus, he downed an entire bottle of water and finally felt a little better. Only then did he turn his phone on. There was a whole heap of missed calls, mainly from Lao-Xu. Everyone else had nothing important to say and stopped calling when they realized his phone was switched off. The only one persistent enough to keep calling was Lao-Xu—he was like an earnest, stubborn suitor.
Done with checking the missed calls, he looked at his texts. There was only one, from Jiang Cheng.
- Bringing your clothes over at 8 At the sight of Jiang Cheng’s display picture, he thought of the meme he’d made for Jiang Cheng the night before. He leaned against the bus window.
Without warning, he burst into a long fit of laughter.
[13] A crepe-like breakfast wrap featuring a layer of eggs, a crispy dough fritter, and meat.