Ming Rao returned to school the day before the semester started, cutting it as close as possible.
Physical fitness testing was scheduled for the very first day of the new term. After enduring a grueling two-thousand-meter run, Ming Rao felt dizzy and lightheaded, his lungs burning cold as he coughed uncontrollably. He nearly collapsed right by the basketball hoop on the track.
Just then, a low voice sounded from above him: “Don’t sit down right after a run.”
Yan Yuchuan leaned his elbow against the basketball post, tilting his head to look down at him.
Ming Rao struggled to his feet, brushed off the dust, and felt at a loss for what to do. An involuntary thought crossed his mind: was Yan Yuchuan watching him run just now?
The words Yan Yuchuan had spoken to him that day in the walk-up apartment building still echoed in his ears. Now that Lu Feiyang’s matter had been resolved, Ming Rao’s guilt should have come to an end as well. He didn’t want to have any more connection with this person, which was why he hadn’t come to school during that entire period even for the start of the semester, he’d only returned at the last possible moment.
“Do you have class tonight?”
Ming Rao shook his head and gave Yan Yuchuan a once-over.
He looked in decent shape the dark circles under his eyes were heavier than last time, but his beard was cleanly shaven, and he’d regained that effortless, in-control demeanor from before.
Which made him even more insufferable!
Yan Yuchuan said, “What do you want to eat?”
Ming Rao blinked. “Why?”
Yan Yuchuan spread his hands. “I’m treating you to a meal.”
“Why?”
“To thank you.”
Ming Rao froze. Yan Yuchuan continued, “You helped me out a lot with the Lu Feiyang situation. Thank you. Actually, I wanted to thank you earlier, but I never ran into you at school, and I didn’t know how to get in touch with you.”
Ming Rao rubbed his nose. “Oh, I went home. I only came back yesterday.”
Yan Yuchuan remembered that day when, emboldened by alcohol, he’d said some rather harsh things to Ming Rao. He didn’t think what he’d said was wrong, but one thing was separate from another he was still grateful to Ming Rao for handling Lu Feiyang on his behalf, and even more grateful for his timely warning that had pulled him back from the brink before he could make an irreversible mistake.
As for what he wanted to eat, Ming Rao had far too many options. But he was afraid that if he casually named something, it might exceed what Yan Yuchuan could afford. In the end, he said, “Then treat me to that flatbread.”
“The preserved vegetable flatbread?”
Ming Rao nodded.
But when they got to the shop, they found out that the preserved vegetable flatbread was only sold during breakfast hours at noon and in the evening, they only sold boxed meals.
“Is there anything else you’d like?” Yan Yuchuan asked.
Ming Rao thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Not for now.”
Yan Yuchuan said, “Your phone?”
“What about it?”
“Let me see that restaurant-review app of yours. I start work at eight. I still have some time.”
Ming Rao obediently pulled out his phone, then casually asked, “You’re still working at the bar?”
Yan Yuchuan nodded. “Switched to a different place.”
Ming Rao made an “oh” sound, absentmindedly scrolling through his screen. He pursed his lips. “Don’t let your girlfriend go with you anymore. The bars around here are all pretty sketchy even if it weren’t Lu Feiyang, someone else would try to mess with her.”
Yan Yuchuan’s expression faltered slightly, as if he hadn’t processed the words. “You mean Lin Zhimiao?”
Ming Rao nodded.
“I haven’t been bringing her along,” Yan Yuchuan said, pausing for a moment before adding, “And when did I ever say she was my girlfriend?”
“Huh? You two broke up?”
Yan Yuchuan looked at him, the gaze resembling someone examining a student who’d slipped through the cracks of elementary Chinese class.
Ming Rao slowly pieced it together: so what Yan Yuchuan meant was that Lin Zhimiao had never been his girlfriend from the start?
The moment this realization hit, an inexplicable joy rose in Ming Rao’s chest like a long-standing knot had suddenly come undone, making his heart feel lighter by several pounds.
“Found something yet?” Yan Yuchuan urged.
Ming Rao was so elated that he’d completely lost interest in browsing restaurants. “I’m not really in the mood for anything.”
Yan Yuchuan glanced at his watch. “Then next time. I need to get to work it’s a bit far from here.”
Ming Rao asked, “Where is it?”
Yan Yuchuan said it was on Yuehua Road, a place Ming Rao had never heard of.
“I’ll come with you,” Ming Rao said.
Yan Yuchuan thought for a moment. “That’s not out of the question, but they only have frozen fries there.”
“That’s fine.”
“Besides, I’ll be working I won’t have time to keep you company.”
Ming Rao pouted. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll just play on my phone.”
Yan Yuchuan didn’t understand why Ming Rao wanted to tag along. Could sitting alone in a bar really be that fun? But since he wanted to come, Yan Yuchuan had no objections, so he let Ming Rao hop on the back of his motorcycle.
Truth be told, Ming Rao didn’t understand what he was doing either. He just felt bursting with energy like he could run another two thousand meters and going home like this would be too anticlimactic. He sat on the back seat, letting Yan Yuchuan carry him to a neighborhood he’d never been to before.
Using his employee discount, Yan Yuchuan ordered him a plate of fries that were utterly unremarkable in flavor. Ming Rao found a quiet corner and sat alone, scrolling through Little Sweet Potato, until Yan Yuchuan had changed out of his work clothes and clocked off.
He’d assumed Yan Yuchuan would head home after that, but instead he said he had to go to his next job this time at a bathhouse.
Ming Rao checked the time. It was almost midnight. “How long will you be working until?”
“Six in the morning.”
Ming Rao was stunned. Wasn’t he working on projects at the innovation camp during the day? And working overnight shifts? When did he even sleep?
Yan Yuchuan had intended to hail a cab for him to go back, but Ming Rao refused to leave. He followed him all the way to the bathhouse.
Yan Yuchuan worked the front desk there, registering guests and pointing them in the right direction, while Ming Rao sat on the sofa in the lobby. Gradually, his energy began to wane, and by the time Yan Yuchuan got off work and woke him up, he had lost count of how many times he had dozed off.
The good news was that if they headed back now, they could just make it in time for the breakfast special the preserved mustard greens flatbread.
Along the way, Ming Rao leaned against Yan Yuchuan’s back, nearly falling asleep several times. When they reached the shop, there wasn’t a single person around, and the big pot of congee for breakfast hadn’t even been cooked yet.
Yan Yuchuan bought the freshly baked flatbread and brought Ming Rao back home, where he cooked him some oatmeal.
The living room still only had a low tea table, but this time there were two wooden stools added, so they could finally sit down and eat properly.
“Do you have to work every day?” Ming Rao asked between bites of flatbread.
“Yeah.”
“Two jobs?”
“Three. There’s one during the day too.”
“When is it?”
Yan Yuchuan glanced at his watch. “Two hours from now.”
“…”
Ming Rao lowered his head and fell silent.
“Don’t just eat the flatbread. Your stomach isn’t good eat something that’s easy on it.” With that, Yan Yuchuan ladled out a bowl of oatmeal and pushed it in front of him.
Ming Rao dutifully took a sip. To be honest, it wasn’t good no sugar, bland and tasteless.
He was once again shocked. Yan Yuchuan was this poor, and his cooking was this bad, how on earth did he get all that muscle? Did he eat raw meat or something?
But perhaps because he was hungry and tired, as he drank it, he somehow tasted a hint of sweetness in the oatmeal out of nowhere, and he groggily thought: this seemed to be the most peaceful and harmonious time they’d spent together since they first met.
As if they were real friends.
On a whim, Ming Rao suddenly spoke up out of nowhere: “Actually, actually, what I wanted to say is since you don’t have a girlfriend, how about, how about ”
He was so sleepy it was as if he hadn’t slept in lifetimes, and when he got drowsy, his mouth tended to run loose, moving faster than his brain. He got halfway through the short sentence but didn’t know how to continue, only feeling his consciousness growing heavier and heavier.
Ming Rao was so tired his eyelids were fighting each other, so naturally he couldn’t see that Yan Yuchuan, sitting across from him, had a face growing darker by the second, shoulders stiff as a board, and a spoon clenched so tightly in his hand that it was trembling.
When he spoke, his voice was several degrees colder than usual, almost grinding through his teeth: “You really do want to keep me.”
The earth-shattering words shattered the drowsiness in Ming Rao’s mind. He frowned in confusion: “Huh?”
Keep… him?
Did he want to keep Yan Yuchuan?
Ming Rao knew plenty of friends who had people by their side since high school. Those people had no formal commitments they weren’t dating partners but they’d regularly send them money and gifts, and occasionally bring them along to social events.
He remembered Lu Feiyang had two or three such people around him, mostly female students from less well-off families. They were very obedient and submissive to Lu Feiyang, never contacting him on their own initiative, but they’d come at the drop of a text.
Wait,
Speaking of Lu Feiyang.
That day when he went to find Lu Feiyang and urged him to reconcile with Yan Yuchuan, Lu Feiyang saw him constantly defending Yan Yuchuan and asked, “You care about him so much don’t tell me you’ve taken him under your wing?”
At the time, Ming Rao thought Lu Feiyang meant Yan Yuchuan had become his underling, like how Xiang Zhan was to Lu Feiyang.
Now that he thought about it, could Lu Feiyang have thought he wanted to keep Yan Yuchuan?!
No wonder he’d smiled so strangely and kept praising him for being “capable,” then readily backed out of the project and promised never to cause Yan Yuchuan trouble again.
And Ming Rao had only just now figured it out. He was caught between laughter and tears.
But that was in the past, and there was no point dwelling on it now.
The issue at hand was that Yan Yuchuan was asking him whether he wanted to keep him.
Ming Rao was almost twenty now. Friends his age already had people flocking around them, but he’d never seemed to have that particular awakening.
Yan Yuchuan’s voice sounded again: “Answer me.”
Maybe what Yan Yuchuan said was exactly what Ming Rao didn’t even know he needed…
So, Ming Rao nodded in a daze.
In that instant, the aura around Yan Yuchuan turned icy cold, his pupils gleaming with a frigid light.
He stood up, his posture ramrod straight, like an unassailable city wall refusing anyone’s approach. The peaceful atmosphere between them from moments ago vanished without a trace.
“I should have known you wouldn’t help me out of the goodness of your heart,” Yan Yuchuan laughed bitterly, his voice laced with shards of ice, sharp enough to draw blood. “Is trampling on my dignity really that entertaining? You, Lu Feiyang you two never tire of it.”
Ming Rao hadn’t expected Yan Yuchuan to react so fiercely, and he hated even more that he was being compared to Lu Feiyang. He’d held back that time in the apartment building, but this time he couldn’t help retorting, “What do you mean by that? I admit I get along great with Lu Feiyang, but I’ve treated you better than him, haven’t I? I’ve genuinely tried to help you, right?”
Yan Yuchuan sneered coldly. “You’re even more disgusting than Lu Feiyang.”
Ming Rao felt all the blood in his body rush to his head. In that instant, anger, grievance, humiliation, and a sour, aching pain wove together into an airtight net that wrapped around him, leaving him breathless.
His eyes turned bloodshot, and he shouted hysterically, “It’s just a sugar daddy arrangement, is it really that disgusting to you?!”
He didn’t understand he truly didn’t. It wasn’t like he was some toothless old geezer in his seventies or eighties. Everyone who met him would compliment him on his looks. He was fair-skinned, clean-cut, young and attractive, and several years younger than Yan Yuchuan to boot. He wanted to ask if he was the one sponsoring Yan Yuchuan, who exactly was getting the better deal here?!
Yan Yuchuan advanced toward him step by step. His gaze was as fierce and biting as a gale, sending chills down one’s spine. He radiated an undeniable presence, like an invisible mountain pressing down on Ming Rao, making it impossible to breathe.
Too close. Ming Rao could almost feel every syllable striking against his eardrums.
“Do you think I’m the kind of goods who’d sell my dignity for money? You think everyone’s staring at the pocket change in your wallets? You throw your weight around on your family’s dime and take pleasure in trampling others’ self-respect tell me, what part of you doesn’t make me sick?”
Caught off guard by the torrent of abuse, Ming Rao was so furious he nearly had a stomach flare-up on the spot. When he lowered his head, what came into view was the bowl of oatmeal Yan Yuchuan had served him. It hadn’t tasted good, but it had warmed his stomach and his heart through and through unlike now, when he felt colder than if he’d fallen into an ice pit.
He really should have taken a few more sips. Damn it.
Ming Rao was so aggrieved he almost cried, but he forced the tears back. The more miserable he felt, the higher he held his head.
What was so great about Yan Yuchuan anyway? Working three jobs a day, eating generic instant oatmeal for breakfast, so broke he could barely keep the pot boiling and he had the nerve to act like he looked down on money?
If he didn’t win this guy over today, his name wasn’t Ming!
Ming Rao’s older brother, Ming Feng, was a master negotiator. Back in high school, before Ming Rao participated in the school’s Model UN activities, Ming Feng had given him some special pointers.
He racked his brain, recalling what Ming Feng had told him. He treated Yan Yuchuan as a potential partner in a game of pretense, and spoke slowly, without emotion.
“I understand how you feel, but you need to think carefully about what situation you’re facing right now.”
Then, use an unexpected remark to break through the other party’s psychological defenses
“Jiang Ge should have already talked to you, right?”
Yan Yuchuan’s pupils contracted slightly. Good. That was exactly the effect he wanted. Now, put yourself in the other’s shoes and analyze the situation for him
“He’s a very good partner. Your memory-editing project is a key initiative now, and with Lu Feiyang out of the picture, your prospects are looking excellent.”
Next, advance step by step, leading the other party into the trap you’ve set
“The only thing you’re missing now is, of course, official membership in the Innovation Camp.”
Yan Yuchuan’s expression clearly shifted. Now was the time extend that long-planned olive branch
“And that’s what I can give you. I can get you officially registered in the Innovation Camp, from project initiation all the way through to incubation, with smooth sailing the entire way. No one will suppress you or make things difficult for you anymore.”
Then, considerately dispel the other’s concerns
“You know this yourself, right? The Innovation Camp’s entry requirements are set so harshly that it’s frankly unreasonable. It’s bound to keep truly talented people out. Sometimes, bending the rules a little is perfectly justifiable.”
Finally, appear to leave the choice to the other party while actually holding all the cards
“No success comes without a price. Whether that price is worth paying is entirely up to you to decide. But I hope your decision is at least made after thorough consideration, not a hasty rejection out of stubborn convention that leaves you with regrets.”
Speech complete. Ming Rao turned around, tossed out a “Think it over,” and walked away without looking back.