God, I Hope I Never See Pei Yuan Again
It was already the beginning of September, but the intense summer heat had not yet faded from Beijing. Barely past seven in the morning, the sun climbed into the sky, its brilliant light spilling generously across the entire city.
Yet, inside Room 520 of the Futing Hotel, it remained pitch dark.
“Hiss…”
Xie Wangzhou woke up from a heavy hangover, his mind a complete chaos. Subconsciously, he wanted to massage his temples with his hand.
Instead, he unexpectedly touched something warm.
Following his line of sight, he looked over.
Lying in the adjacent duvet was a young man with cold and sharp facial features. His tightly closed eyes curved slightly downward, and his brows were furrowed in a slight frown, making him look thoroughly displeased.
Even if that face were turned to ashes, Xie Wangzhou would still recognize it anywhere.
“Pei Yuan?” How could it possibly be Pei Yuan?
Xie Wangzhou rubbed his forehead as memories rushed back like a rising tide.
He remembered coming here to attend An Zhinan’s wedding.
An Zhinan had been Xie Wangzhou’s secret crush. The two had grown up together, acting as close childhood sweethearts who seemed an absolute match.
And the single greatest regret of his life was introducing An Zhinan to Pei Yuan.
Pei Yuan was his high school arch-rival. Both had entered Beijing Fourth High School ranked first and second in the city, maintaining a fiercely competitive relationship ever since they first met at the start of the term.
Xie Wangzhou considered his life so far to have been relatively smooth sailing, yet he always managed to capsize in the tiny drainage ditch that was Pei Yuan.
Ever since they met An Zhinan, he and Pei Yuan had officially transitioned into romantic rivals.
For three years of high school and four years of university, the struggles between him and Pei Yuan had never stopped.
It wasn’t until An Zhinan graduated from university and got a girlfriend, and Pei Yuan left Haining City, that their rivalry finally quieted down.
After graduating from university, Xie Wangzhou and a close friend opened a law firm. Now, merely five years later, Xinda Law Firm had rapidly ascended to become a prominent emerging firm in Beijing.
At the same time, he had been in a few romantic relationships here and there. He didn’t have a fixed template for his partners’ personalities or appearances, and most of them were casual flings. His redeeming quality was that he was extremely generous with money in every relationship, earning him a reputation as a dashing and wealthy playboy in his social circle.
Yesterday, he had a romantic encounter at a bar, but since he never brought hookups back to his own place, and knowing An Zhinan was holding his wedding here, he had booked a room at this hotel.
It could also serve as a formal farewell to his hopeless period of unrequited love.
Only, why on earth was Pei Yuan the one appearing here?
Xie Wangzhou stared at Pei Yuan for half a minute and silently recited the Criminal Law.
“Murder is illegal. Murder is illegal.”
Only then did he manage to suppress the urge to strangle Pei Yuan right down to the bottom of his heart.
Yet, the more he stepped back to think about it, the angrier he became. The lingering soreness in his lower back kept reminding Xie Wangzhou of a horrifying fact: he seemed to have been the one on the receiving end!
Ever since he first tasted romantic affairs, he had never once occupied the lower position.
He could not tolerate this in the slightest.
Reaching out, Xie Wangzhou casually grabbed the pillow next to him and smashed it fiercely toward Pei Yuan.
Woken up by the sudden commotion, Pei Yuan had not even fully opened his eyes when he precisely caught Xie Wangzhou’s right wrist. In a voice thick with the irritability of being disturbed from sleep, he muttered, “Stop messing around.”
“Damn Pei-dog, open your dog eyes and look at who I am.”
It was then that Xie Wangzhou realized his own voice was hoarse beyond recognition.
Now restricted by Pei Yuan’s grip, he could no longer suppress his burning anger and reached out with his left hand to clamp down on Pei Yuan’s neck.
He was fully prepared to break the criminal law and strangle Pei Yuan to death.
Under this series of external forces, Pei Yuan finally woke up completely. Glaring at Xie Wangzhou, he cursed furiously, “Xie Wangzhou, are you out of your mind?”
“You’re the one out of your mind! Look at the scoundrel things you pulled last night.”
Reversing his grip, Xie Wangzhou broke free from Pei Yuan and struck him hard across the side of the face.
Stunned by the slap, Pei Yuan instinctively grabbed Xie Wangzhou’s left wrist with both hands, attempting to shove him aside. However, Xie Wangzhou refused to give him the chance, pressing down even harder with his left hand.
The two exerted force in opposite directions, but ultimately Pei Yuan’s physical strength prevailed. Although Xie Wangzhou was shoved off to the side, Pei Yuan also lost his balance due to momentum and tumbled off the bed.
Pei Yuan’s head seemingly struck the bedside table with a loud thud, followed by the sound of him sharply sucking in breath.
Just as Pei Yuan tried to grope along the edge of the bed to pull himself up, Xie Wangzhou brought a pillow crashing down on him.
However, losing his balance, Xie Wangzhou tumbled down as well.
Pei Yuan immediately rolled over, causing Xie Wangzhou’s head to smack right against the bedside table instead.
“Go to hell, you beast.”
Ignoring his own bruised and reddened forehead, Xie Wangzhou immediately pounced back onto Pei Yuan, intending to land a punch.
Pei Yuan instinctively tilted his head, causing Xie Wangzhou’s fist to smash directly into the floor. Even though the bedroom was fitted with wall-to-wall carpeting, it still produced a loud impact, and Xie Wangzhou’s hand instantly turned red.
Consumed by rage, Xie Wangzhou followed up with a punch to the side of Pei Yuan’s face. This time, Pei Yuan didn’t dodge and took the blow squarely.
Wiping his split, bleeding lip, Pei Yuan put strength into his legs to hook and trap Xie Wangzhou’s lower limbs, while his hands remained active, gripping Xie Wangzhou’s wrists to halt his opponent’s next move.
They were positioned extremely close together, their exhaled breaths brushing against each other’s faces, normally a deeply intimate posture.
But for two people who were sworn rivals, this posture was utterly nauseating.
Perhaps because both of them felt like vomiting at the sight of the other’s face, they turned their heads away in unison.
Pei Yuan steadied his breathing and growled, “Surname Xie, you were the one who walked into the wrong room last night, and you were the one who threw the first punch.”
“Impossible! I remember swiping open the room myself. You’re the one who went to the wrong room. You couldn’t have Zhinan-ge, so you’re feeling bitter and intentionally seeking revenge!” Feeling his mobility restricted, Xie Wangzhou resorted to a verbal counter-offensive. “With a twisted psychology like yours, nothing you do is surprising.”
Pei Yuan sneered. “Me seeking revenge? What, is Zhinan-ge’s marriage partner you?”
Because the two were pressed so close together, their chests were practically plastered against one another, and the vibrations from each other’s speech made Xie Wangzhou extremely uncomfortable.
“Surname Pei, let go of me first.”
“I can let go, provided you don’t throw punches.”
“I swear on my dad’s health that I won’t throw punches.”
Half-doubting, Pei Yuan released his grip.
The very next second, Xie Wangzhou’s fist landed squarely on Pei Yuan’s face. “You know very well that my relationship with my dad is the worst.”
Unwilling to yield to Xie Wangzhou any further, Pei Yuan tangled with him again. After rolling around on the floor for a few turns, they accidentally knocked over a nearby stool.
Xie Wangzhou scrambled up, snatched the stool, and brought it down on Pei Yuan’s arm for the first strike, holding back most of his strength. But on the second swing, he lost his grip and hit the desk instead. Fortunately, he had restrained his force, so neither the table nor the chair was broken.
Taking advantage of the opening, the two managed to put some distance between themselves.
Pei Yuan sneered, “You really are despicable.”
Xie Wangzhou leaned against the desk, breathing heavily.
At that moment, the doorbell rang, and the receptionist’s gentle voice drifted in: “A guest complained that the two of you were being too loud. Is there some kind of conflict between you two? Do you need us to call the police to resolve this?”
Neither of them answered.
“Do you need me to call the police for you?” Receiving no response, the receptionist continued to inquire.
Pei Yuan said coldly, “Isn’t this your room? Why don’t you go open the door?”
“No way. Let the hotel call the police then, and hopefully they’ll lock you up too.” Xie Wangzhou glared fiercely at Pei Yuan.
Helpless, Pei Yuan picked up his clothes from the floor, quickly and simply tidied himself up, and pulled open the door to deal with the hotel staff.
Xie Wangzhou unscrewed a bottle of mineral water on the table, and just as he was about to take a drink, his peripheral vision caught sight of the room service directory beside it.
With his sharp eyes, Xie Wangzhou caught sight of the room number “520” printed on the booklet, and his drinking motion froze instantly.
This is 520?
What on earth was the room number I booked again?
While Xie Wangzhou was still processing this, Pei Yuan turned his head from the doorway and shouted, “Xie Wangzhou, we’re friends! We just had a small disagreement a moment ago. There’s no need to call the police, right?”
“Huh?” Subconsciously feeling a prick of guilt, Xie Wangzhou could only echo, “Right, no need to call the police.”
“Alright, then if the two of you need anything, feel free to call us.” The receptionist politely bid farewell and helped pull the door closed.
“Um… do you want to take a shower first?” Seeing that Pei Yuan was about to come over to argue with him further, Xie Wangzhou hurriedly raised his voice to cut him off. “Or just wash your face at least; your face is practically ruined.”
Startled by Xie Wangzhou’s sudden outburst, Pei Yuan flinched. “What did you just yell?”
He himself was a clean freak, and the combination of last night’s and this morning’s brawls had left him covered in sweat.
Touching the sticky, uncomfortable sweat at the back of his neck, Pei Yuan pivoted on his heel and strode into the bathroom.
Hearing the sound of the shower running, Xie Wangzhou let out a long sigh of relief.
He picked up the service directory; the number 520 stared boldly right back at him from the very top page.
Just then, his phone rang with a call from Lu Wensheng, his firm’s business partner.
“Wangzhou, where did you go last night? Someone waited for you all evening and even called my phone looking for you.”
Exerting force with his hand, Xie Wangzhou crumpled the service directory into a ball and asked through gritted teeth, “Lu Wensheng, what room number did I book yesterday?”
There was a moment of silence on Lu Wensheng’s end, as if he were flipping through chat logs. “Two-fifty. You even complained to me that the room number was unlucky.”
Xie Wangzhou felt the veins on his forehead throbbing. “What a lousy hotel, picking such an unlucky room number. I’m going to sue this place when I get back.”
“You went to the wrong room? Which room did you end up in?” Lu Wensheng was smart; he accurately extracted the key point from Xie Wangzhou’s unconvincing angry words.
“Room 520.”
“520? Such a familiar room number… Who booked that one again?”
Lu Wensheng was still flipping through chat records on his end. “Oh, right, Old Pei booked it.” Lu Wensheng was their college roommate and had witnessed the four years of fierce rivalry between him and Pei Yuan.
An Zhinan was their upperclassman, and all of them were old acquaintances.
It was quite the entanglement of fate. Perhaps heaven felt it was a great pity that he and Pei Yuan had fought all the way through the end of senior high school without ever deciding who was boss number one and who was number two.
Consequently, the two of them ended up attending the same university, majoring in the same subject, and even sharing a dorm room.
In college, the two of them rolled up their sleeves and competed like crazy, taking turns holding the top two spots in their department while splitting all the major and minor awards right down the middle.
It wasn’t until after graduation, when Pei Yuan left for Haining City to pursue his career, that the two of them temporarily called a truce.
“Did you two patch things up?” Lu Wensheng asked cautiously.
“Patch things up? That assumes we used to be friends in the first place.” Xie Wangzhou raised his head to look at his reflection in the mirror.
The corners of the person’s eyes in the mirror were flushed red. He tugged his collar down slightly, revealing dark purple bruises and mottled hickey marks, all of which served as unmistakable reminders of the intense passion from the previous night.
What a beast, that Pei-dog. Xie Wangzhou cursed Pei Yuan from head to toe in his heart.
“Then you guys didn’t start a fistfight, did you? You two could never decide a winner back in college. So who won and who lost this time?”
Xie Wangzhou’s head throbbed even harder, but being someone who cared deeply about his face and pride, he could only grit his teeth and give a brief, tight response to Lu Wensheng: “I beat him up, so naturally I won.”
Fearing that Lu Wensheng would ask too many follow-up questions, Xie Wangzhou hung up the phone immediately after dropping that line.
The sound of water from the bathroom was still ongoing. Staring at the bathroom door for half a minute, Xie Wangzhou, upholding the principle that a scholar can be killed but not humiliated, left two hundred yuan on the table alongside a hastily scrawled note written in wild, claw-like handwriting.
He stuck the note onto the desk, balled up the rest of the paper money, and tossed it into the trash can.
Leaving the hotel, he took a left turn toward a park where a wishing well stood.
He had been making wishes there since he was a child, and it always felt remarkably effective.
Fumbling around, Xie Wangzhou fished out the very last coin he had on him and prayed silently: “God, I hope I never see Pei Yuan again.”