“It hurts!”
Liang Xubai’s method of carrying people was hardly gentle; he hadn’t bothered to mind Tan Ze’s long hair trailing behind, prompting Tan Ze to issue a very loud, dissatisfied protest with his eyes squeezed shut.
The voice suddenly exploded right next to Liang Xubai’s ear. Frowning slightly, he tilted his head away and quickened his pace to deposit the guy back into his bedroom. For reasons unknown, Tan Ze had locked his bedroom door before heading out, and after twisting the knob multiple times to no avail, Liang Xubai had no choice but to resign himself to hunting for the key.
He had a spare key, but when he jammed it into the keyhole, he found it wouldn’t turn. After double-checking, he realized Tan Ze must have changed the lock.
Utterly defeated, Liang Xubai squatted back down and patted down Tan Ze’s pockets for keys, coming up completely empty.
“Tan Ze,” Liang Xubai shook his shoulder. “Where did you put your bedroom key?”
Roused awake by the rough shaking, Tan Ze cracked his eyes open for a split second. The moment the light hit his eyes, he squeezed them shut as if in physical agony, jerked his head away to avoid looking at Liang Xubai’s face, and muttered, “I hate you.”
Liang Xubai laughed out of pure exasperation. He stood up, walked a semicircle around Tan Ze, and ultimately chose to compromise.
Deciding he had already shown enough basic human decency by not dumping him outside his bedroom door, Liang Xubai scooped him up again, carried him back to the living room sofa, and covered him with an air-conditioning blanket.
Most of Tan Ze’s face was buried in the blanket, his 1.8-meter frame curled up on the relatively narrow sofa.
Standing nearby to drink a glass of water, Liang Xubai looked down at Tan Ze’s face and was suddenly reminded of the other boy downstairs. Reaching out, he mirrored the gesture, using his fingertip to gently brush that stray lock of hair away from Tan Ze’s cheek.
He suddenly recalled the reply Tan Ze had sent him late last night:
Flossy Yanbei: [Ge, if you like it, I’ll wear it for you.]
Liang Xubai wanted to remind Tan Ze: This was what sucking up looked like.
A guy with a pretty face and a straight sexual orientation, trying to twist himself into pretzels to cater to someone else’s preferences and do things he hated just to score more opportunities.
That was what currying favor meant.
And the person Tan Ze had exhausted himself trying to suck up to was none other than him—Liang Xubai, the person Tan Ze despised.
A chuckle escaped Liang Xubai’s lips. He tapped his index finger lightly against Tan Ze’s smooth forehead. “You really are a born actor.”
At that moment, Tan Ze’s brows knitted uncomfortably, and his entire body curled inward even tighter. The blanket draped over him slowly tightened, gathering into fine, dense wrinkles.
With a hint of surprise, Liang Xubai squatted down and spotted a single tear escaping from the corner of Tan Ze’s eye.
Must have been having a nightmare.
Tan Ze had been startled awake by a dream where he was running endlessly—sprinting across the rooftop of a hospital tower without ever reaching the end. Just as his strength finally gave out, the solid ground beneath his feet suddenly collapsed, plunging him into total weightlessness.
And then he tumbled straight off the sofa.
“Ow!” Tan Ze’s head smacked right against the corner of the coffee table, the jolt sharp enough to send tears springing to his eyes.
Right after, he heard the sound of light, measured laughter.
Sharply alert, Tan Ze glared in the direction of the sound, only to realize he was staring at Zhai Xu, who had appeared out of nowhere. His expression instantly softened as he scrambled to put on a mask of casual composure.
Unaware of the transition, Zhai Xu smiled and stepped closer to help him up. “Hey, how much did you drink last night?”
“A couple bottles, departmental team-building. I got forced through several bottles.” Rubbing his head, Tan Ze ignored Zhai Xu’s outstretched hand and climbed up from the floor by himself.
Zhai Xu put his hands on his hips, completely unbothered. “People from your school are something else… You don’t even live in the dorms, yet they still let you get plastered like this. What would you have done if they’d just dumped you in some hotel room?”
Tan Ze: “It’s fine, getting dumped in a hotel room isn’t going to make me lose any flesh.”
“There are a lot of creeps out there these days!”
Not quite understanding why Zhai Xu was acting so overly familiar, Tan Ze gave a bewildered chuckle. “So what if there are?”
Watching Zhai Xu try to chat up a straight guy completely devoid of gaydar, Liang Xubai felt a heavy sense of exhaustion. As he walked past the two of them, he dropped flatly, “So what? Probably something like having your face stroked the entire time you’re unconscious.”
“Who stroked my face?” At the sound of this, Tan Ze looked over.
Liang Xubai was already seated at the dining table, where two freshly toasted slices of bread sat on a plate. Holding a spoon, he spread fruit jam across them and said with total indifference, “The guy who brought you back yesterday. From the External Relations Department, a year junior to you.”
The moment Tan Ze heard the first sentence, he knew it was Xia Xuan. He let out an indifferent “oh” and gave zero reaction.
Liang Xubai’s hand spreading the jam paused for a fraction of a second.
Zhai Xu continued nagging away: “See, I told you it’s dangerous! This time he just touched your face, next time who knows what he’ll be touching!”
Xia Xuan was his friend, whereas Zhai Xu had no close ties with him—they were practically strangers. To put it bluntly, Zhai Xu was a close friend of someone he despised.
Hearing him pick apart Xia Xuan like that made Tan Ze’s expression darken slightly. Unpleased, he retorted, “Xia Xuan is my friend. Don’t talk about him like that, and don’t misinterpret his actions for no reason.”
Leaving those words hanging, Tan Ze headed into the bathroom to wash up, leaving a somewhat stunned Zhai Xu standing right where he was.
Liang Xubai stared at Tan Ze’s retreating back, taking a slow, measured bite of his toast. Once he swallowed, he muttered unprompted, “Got burned?”
“He’s… actually pretty fierce,” Zhai Xu muttered, sitting down across from Liang Xubai. “I didn’t even say anything bad, it’s just the truth.”
“He doesn’t get it,” Liang Xubai said calmly. “Someone could probably kiss him right on the face, and he’d still think they were just messing around.”
“Seriously dense enough to rival a brick.”
Surveying Liang Xubai’s expression, Zhai Xu blinked. “You’re acting kind of weird. Why bring up the face-touching thing out of nowhere?”
“Your whole tone sounded shady too. So what if he’s dense?”
Zhai Xu and Liang Xubai had grown up inseparable; he could sniff out the slightest hint of abnormality from a mile away. He’d thought it was weird right from the start, but he’d been too busy chiming in to interrogate him.
Liang Xubai didn’t feel like anything was wrong with him. Meeting Zhai Xu’s gaze without an ounce of evasion, he asked straightforwardly, “What are you trying to say?”
“Nothing much. Just feels like you don’t hate him quite as much as you used to,” Zhai Xu blurted out.
Looking away to watch Tan Ze emerge from the bathroom, Liang Xubai answered in an even tone, “You felt wrong.”
A grinning Zhai Xu scoffed, “Keep playing dumb.”
Liang Xubai remained silent for a long moment, watching as Tan Ze fished a key out from above his bedroom doorframe, jammed it into the keyhole, and quickly darted inside.
Only after confirming Tan Ze was safely in his room did Liang Xubai reply, “Tan Ze is a pretty interesting guy.”
“If we’re really being honest, the one who’s putting on an act is probably him.” Liang Xubai let out a silent chuckle.
Zhai Xu was completely lost, failing to grasp what Liang Xubai was hinting at. He had no idea that his good buddy here had opened a burner account to drop gifts and become the top donor for someone, nor did he know what Liang Xubai was actually plotting.
He could only assume Liang Xubai was up to something mischievous, probably laced with a healthy dose of sadistic humor.
Otherwise, why else would Liang Xubai be wearing that expression?
……
Having skipped his stream yesterday, Tan Ze decided to start his broadcast a bit earlier that day.
To his surprise, Black Dog—who was normally impossible to pin down—took the initiative to message him, asking with uncanny precision if he was planning to stream early that day, almost like a tapeworm inside his stomach.
Black Dog: [Streaming early today?]
Tan Ze: [Wow, how’d you know, Ge? I didn’t stream yesterday, so I figured I’d make up for the lost hours by starting an hour early today.]
Tan Ze: [How come you’re online so early? Are you coming to watch the stream today?]
Black Dog: [No.]
Tan Ze: [Why… ><]
Mid-way through typing, Tan Ze still couldn’t bring himself to send “What did Flossy Yanbei do wrong?” Just looking at the draft in the chat box made his skin crawl with goosebumps. He rarely chatted with people using messaging apps, let alone used emojis; keeping up with fans after a normal stream already drained every last ounce of energy he had.
Now asking him to act cute and coquettish over text to a guy—he genuinely lacked the vocabulary.
Black Dog’s message popped up again.
Black Dog: [Picking out a dress for you tonight.]
Black Dog: [Will you wear it?]
Crap.
Startled, Tan Ze tossed his phone onto the bed. What he had said the other day was true—he could wear a dress, but the boundaries of what was acceptable had to be controlled by him. If Black Dog picked one out and turned out to be a total creep, what then?
Was he supposed to just swallow his pride and bear it?
He hesitated for a long time before biting his bullet and replying.
Tan Ze: [I can’t wear anything too revealing. The streaming platform doesn’t allow it, and I won’t either. Streamers always wear our own clothes anyway. This counts as a custom request, Ge.]
Black Dog: [Little liar.]
The moment those two words appeared, no matter how many messages Tan Ze sent afterward, Black Dog left him on read.
For the first time, Tan Ze understood what it meant to be impossible to placate. In a final, exhausted compromise, he sent over the address of a nearby courier station, telling Black Dog to ship it there if he had already bought something.
Then, with a heavy heart, he logged on to start his stream.
Over the next few days, Tan Ze was completely swamped with sponsorship logistics for the campus top-ten singing competition. He scoured the campus for potential sponsors every single day, cycling through vendors selling everything from bottled water and instant noodles to ham sausages.
After twisting through various obstacles, he finally locked down a common beverage brand to sponsor the event. Once the sponsorship was settled, all Tan Ze had to do was handle feedback and communication issues throughout the event to ensure everything ran smoothly.
By the day of the event, Tan Ze stood on his feet from 7:00 PM straight through to 9:30 PM, watching the showcase finally draw to a close before he could finally let out a breath he’d been holding. Waving off invitations to go out for group meals, all he wanted was to crawl back and lie down.
Walking beneath the shade of the trees, Tan Ze diligently replied to messages from the event organizers, neatly wrapping up the remaining loose ends, when a sudden phone call rang out so loudly he nearly dropped his phone.
“Hello,” Tan Ze pressed answer.
“Is this Mr. Meat? We have a delivery for you. It’s a door-to-door courier service, could you give us your exact apartment number so we can bring it up to your building later?”
Mr. Meat?
It took Tan Ze a long, blank moment before it belatedly clicked that this must be about the dress Black Dog mentioned buying him the other day.
Tan Ze: “Building 7, 15th Floor, Bay View Apartments. Just leave it downstairs, the access gate prevents couriers from coming inside.”
“I’ll be home in a minute anyway, you can just wait for me at the front gate.”
The delivery guy hesitated. “…I mean, we can do that, but this is a bulky item. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to carry it up by yourself.”
Silenced for a second, Tan Ze said, “Just wait for me downstairs.”
When Tan Ze rode his shared bike back, he happened to catch the delivery driver pulling up in a transport van. Waving to flag him down, the delivery guy slammed on the brakes, pulling off a tight three-wheeler drift right in front of Tan Ze.
“Are you Mr. Meat?” The guy hopped nimbly out of the vehicle.
Tan Ze: “…Yes.”
“Sorry about that! Even though the address says parcel pickup station, we always do home delivery since basically everyone who uses our station lives in this complex—if we don’t deliver to the door, we get hit with complaints.”
Figuring this guy used a fake name just to keep his address private, the driver offered an awkward laugh, not daring to bet on whether the “no delivery needed” request was genuine or not.
Tan Ze gave a small smile. “Lots of wealthy people live around here. There’s always someone with too much time on their hands who loves filing complaints.”
“You really know how to joke, haha. Here’s your package, please sign for it!” Ripping away the clutter stacked on top, the driver hauled a massive cardboard box out of the vehicle.
Staring blankly at the oversized box for a moment, Tan Ze obediently took the pen and scribbled down the characters for Flossy Yanbei.
With a slightly twisted expression, Tan Ze asked, “Do me a favor and help me carry this into the elevator.”
“You got it! Just give me a second to park this cart under the security camera.”
Tan Ze accompanied the driver to haul the package into the elevator, rode up to the 15th floor, and gave the box a hefty shove so it thumped satisfyingly against his door.
As Tan Ze punched in his passcode to unlock the door and raised his foot to kick the box inside, Liang Xubai suddenly materialized in the entryway like a ghost.
“Unpack it before you bring it in. Don’t drag cardboard boxes inside.”
With a light sheen of sweat still glistening on his forehead, Tan Ze glanced at Liang Xubai. The guy even thoughtfully offered a utility knife.
Taking it automatically, Tan Ze lingered without making a cut, then glared irritably up at the lingering Liang Xubai, opening his mouth to chase him off: “What are you standing here for?”
Liang Xubai arched a brow at him, a trace of imperceptible amusement lingering in his eyes, before turning and walking away with his arms crossed.