Bai Huan had received his first bit of pocket money, so naturally, he was delighted. He went to the refrigerator, took out two cups of yogurt, and gave one to He Chu.
"The yogurt's on me," he said.
He Chu wasn't nearly as generous with money as he was. He nodded. "Thanks."
Bai Huan always took his time eating and drinking. By the time he had taken only two sips, He Chu had already finished his yogurt. He Chu called out to a passing waiter. "I'll have a pitcher of beer. Want some?"
"No." Bai Huan refused without hesitation. "My eldest brother doesn't allow me to drink."
He Chu had grown up like a weed. Compared to a father, He Youxiang was more like his son. A trace of confusion appeared on He Chu's indifferent face. "Why can't you drink? He controls you that much?"
"He says drinking damages your blood vessels, makes you prone to high blood pressure, and can cause your blood vessels to burst and kill you." As Bai Huan spoke, he looked around.
This was his first time eating at a street barbecue stall. Previously, he had neither the time nor the opportunity to try one. Everything here, from the food and drinks to the person sitting across from him, was something he would never have encountered before.
"Then I'll try some too." Bai Huan took the initiative to ask for a glass. He suddenly wanted to try it himself.
He Chu asked, "Your eldest brother won't let you drink, and you still dare?"
"What's the big deal? Drinking once in a while won't hurt. Besides, the emperor is far away, and he won't know anyway," Bai Huan said indifferently.
In his relationship with Bai Mingzhen, Bai Huan had never particularly regarded himself as someone under his brother's authority.
Their age difference was too great. By the time Bai Huan started school, Bai Mingzhen's academic workload had grown heavier. The latter was simply his elder brother, not the person who actually educated him.
The Bai family had a team of top-notch teachers. At most, Bai Mingzhen would give him reminders, and reminders weren't necessarily rules that had to be obeyed.
For example, Bai Mingzhen would remind him to put on thermal underwear as early as the beginning of autumn. If Bai Huan really hadn't worn any, Bai Mingzhen would pinch his arm, realize he wasn't wearing it, and at most repeat his reminder. It was nothing serious.
Bai Huan assumed this time would be the same.
Once he started enjoying his beer, he didn't even bother sharing a pitcher with He Chu. Two pitchers each!
It was Bai Huan's first time drinking, and he didn't know he should eat something beforehand. After two glasses, his head began to feel pleasantly fuzzy.
This was the most comfortable he had felt all month, both physically and mentally.
He Chu noticed the obvious change in the eyes of the person opposite him. Only then did he remember to remind Bai Huan to eat something first.
Bai Huan tried picking up a skewer of meat and taking a bite. The seasoning was so strong that he frowned as he chewed.
"What kind of meat is this?"
"Dunno. Rat meat, probably," He Chu said casually.
The owner happened to be passing behind them. He was clearly familiar with He Chu, and when he overheard this, he unceremoniously smacked the back of He Chu's head.
"Fuck's sake! Stop talking nonsense!"
He Chu looked up and saw that Bai Huan seemed on the verge of throwing up.
"I'm kidding. I work at this place. The meat's fresh pork and beef bought from the market every day."
Only then did Bai Huan swallow the mouthful of meat he had been struggling not to spit out. But whether it was good meat or bad meat, it didn't taste particularly good to him.
"You work here? How much do they pay you a day?" Bai Huan was quite interested in new things, provided they weren't being forced upon him, so he asked of his own accord.
He Chu put down his chopsticks. "I only come when I have time. If I work a whole day, I get a hundred and fifty yuan."
Bai Huan knew nothing of life's hardships.
"I thought it'd be at least five hundred."
And so, the young master received the first eye roll of his life.
"Go work a few days yourself, and you'll understand," He Chu said.
"I'm not working. Even if I have no money, I'm not getting a job." Bai Huan seemed to have made some indescribably firm resolution.
"Then where's your money supposed to come from?"
"My eldest brother has money."
He Chu gave a cold snort. "He's just your brother, not your mother. He's going to get married someday."
"Can't he find himself a good woman?" Bai Huan asked with considerable arrogance.
"That'd be a stupid woman."
"Does he have to find a woman?" Bai Huan propped up his cheek, treating the beer glass he was swirling in his hand like a wineglass.
"My life has already been full of misfortune, and he's the only person I can rely on. If he brings home another woman to bully me, heh, that would mean he'd been planning to abandon me all along and was using marriage as a way to deal with me."
He Chu, who had practically grown up like an orphan, could hardly comprehend how Bai Huan took it for granted that other people should make sacrifices for him.
Without exaggeration or a shadow of doubt, the center of the universe was sitting right before his eyes.
He Chu silently drank his beer, while Bai Huan, now thoroughly enjoying himself, hummed a little Spanish tune.
Their table stood at the very edge of a sprawling arrangement of tables and chairs. Beside them grew a row of wildly flourishing holly bushes. There were plenty of mosquitoes on summer nights, so the owner had lit a coil of mosquito incense beside the holly.
The barbecue took a while to prepare, so their snacks arrived first: wontons, triangular buns, braised shrimp and river snails, and vermicelli with salted pork in a clay pot.
Steam billowed across the table, and gradually, mouthwatering aromas filled the air.
He Chu picked up a pair of disposable chopsticks and handed them to Bai Huan. Seeing him reach for the food without hesitation, he casually remarked, "If you can't eat this stuff, I'll treat you to something in the city."
Bai Huan thought to himself, You only earn a hundred and fifty yuan a day. If I wanted a proper meal, fifteen thousand yuan wouldn't even cover it. You really don't know your limits.
He tried the vermicelli first.
The moment it entered his mouth, he tasted the rich, delicious broth and the smooth, tender noodles.
He suppressed his astonishment without letting it show. He didn't want anyone to realize that his supposedly extensive experience of the world amounted to so little.
Clearing his throat, he tapped the table with his fingers.
"Put the clay pot in front of me. It's too far away. I can't reach it."
The clay-pot vermicelli was delicious. The triangular buns were delicious. The braised shrimp and river snails were delicious. The wontons were delicious. Even the barbecue that arrived later was delicious.
The two boys swept through the food on their little table like a whirlwind.
The owner gave He Chu the employee discount and quoted them 213 yuan, then rounded it down to an even 200.
He Chu usually kept a bicycle at the restaurant. When they left, he got on it.
Bai Huan was merely somewhat arrogant by nature. He wasn't genuinely someone who despised the poor and worshipped the rich.
He plopped himself onto the back of the bicycle without ceremony.
"I've got seven or eight bicycles. Stop riding this crappy thing. I'll give you one of mine."
He Chu pedaled onto the road.
The wind billowed his shirt, and the hem kept slapping Bai Huan in the face.
Bai Huan reached out and patted it down twice, but it kept flying up again. Finally, he wrapped his arms around He Chu's waist, pinning the fabric firmly in place.
Then he let out a drunken hiccup.
The bustle of Lanshuitang followed the rhythm of rising with the sun and resting at sunset.
At night, on the way home, the sound of the river was louder than human voices, and the ringing of a bicycle bell could drown out the occasional horn.
London plane trees and camphor trees stood in competing ranks along the streets. Their leaves intertwined with the streetlights, and clusters of glowing halos continually shifted and revolved across the two boys.
"Which school do you go to? Lanshuitang No. 1 High School?"
"My grades aren't good. I go to No. 6 High School."
Then it was He Chu's turn to ask, his voice mingling with the rushing wind.
"How rich is the Bai family? Do they have ten million?"
"I spend more than that in a year."
Bai Huan asked another question.
"What are the people like where we live?"
"Pretty nice."
He Chu asked, "The Bai family is rich, so you must really want to go back."
"Mm... I don't know."
Bai Huan's thoughts were complicated.
His father and mother in the Bai family had treated him very well, but they weren't particularly happy about him getting close to Bai Mingzhen.
Bai Mingzhen was undoubtedly accomplished, but he was disobedient, which greatly displeased Bai Mushan and Cheng Yueqing.
They believed Bai Mingzhen would lead both him and Bai Xing astray.
Bai Xing had been brought around to Cheng Yueqing's way of thinking early on. Unless absolutely necessary, he wouldn't even chat with Bai Mingzhen.
But Bai Huan was different.
In his heart, no one could surpass Bai Mingzhen's magnificent image, nor could anyone shake it.
Before leaving the Bai family, he hadn't known that the world outside could be so free.
He could talk to Bai Mingzhen whenever he wanted.
Yet Bai Mingzhen alone wasn't enough to make him decisively abandon his desire to return to all the privileges he could enjoy only as a member of the Bai family.
At the same time, he couldn't bear the thought of returning to that cage where he was allowed to contact his brother only once a month.
That was why he didn't know.
"Someone like you will probably end up liking Lanshuitang," He Chu said.
"Why?"
What a peculiar idea. How could a phoenix ever come to love a pit of fire?
"Because everyone here is full of themselves."
"...Look who's talking."
For the final five hundred meters, the road was wide and straight, without a pedestrian or vehicle in sight.
He Chu rose from his seat and pedaled standing up.
They flew.
The wind surged around them.
Bai Huan shouted, "Go, go, go!"
The happiest day of his life.
As they approached the entrance to the lane, He Chu slowed down.
Squinting, he spotted a Volkswagen parked ahead.
He had seen it in the same spot several times before and knew it belonged to the Bai family.
"Hey, Bai Huan. That car up ahead is probably here for you."
"Hm?"
Bai Huan leaned sideways to take a look.
One glance was enough.
Bai Mingzhen's car!
"Quick! Quick, quick! Let's go around another way!" Bai Huan cried in panic.
"Too late," He Chu replied calmly.
When the bicycle brakes caught, the tires sent several small stones skittering across the road, scraping against the pavement.
Bai Huan turned his head and stared expressionlessly at the sedan's rear passenger window.
"Even so, there's no need to deliver a lamb straight into a tiger's mouth, is there?"
He Chu promised to practice his escape speed and braking accuracy more diligently in the future.
Then he turned around and left, abandoning Bai Huan to face the storm alone.
The car window slowly rolled down.
An idea suddenly struck Bai Huan, and he crouched.
But who would have thought?
The window stopped halfway down, and instead, the car door opened.
To avoid being struck by it, Bai Huan immediately shuffled backward in tiny steps.
When he raised his head again, his eyes met Bai Mingzhen's inside the car.
His gaze was gentle, but full of scrutiny.
Before Bai Huan could spout some nonsense like, "Eldest Brother, wait a moment, let me treat you to some chewing gum," Bai Mingzhen frowned.
"Have you been drinking?"
"He Chu drank. I didn't. I even advised him not to."
Bai Huan stood outside the car, looking perfectly obedient as he answered, but his mouth didn't stop moving.
"I told him alcohol causes tremendous damage to blood vessels. I even said you were the one who taught me that. But he wouldn't listen and insisted on doing things his own way. Sigh, I don't know him very well, so there was really nothing I could do. Otherwise, I might have saved an innocent life."
"He rode a bicycle after drinking?" Bai Mingzhen asked.
"He rode the bicycle. I was riding on the bicycle."
"I thought you went out to eat with He Youxiang. When did you get to know He Chu?" Bai Mingzhen asked again.
"Well, He Youxiang eats at different people's homes, doesn't he? After seeing him a few times, I naturally got to know He Chu too. He Youxiang had a fever before, and I took him to the town hospital for an injection. That's why He Chu treated me to dinner."
"How did He Youxiang get a fever?"
"He's a fool. Fools get fevers easily."
"Was the alcohol good?" Bai Mingzhen abruptly changed the subject.
"Good."
The boy hadn't reacted in time.
Checkmate.
Bai Huan had no intention of running away, nor did he intend to give up and act recklessly.
Under Bai Mingzhen's seemingly calm but actually displeased gaze, he climbed into the car with the bearing of a mature adult.
He shut the door.
Bang.
"Bai Mingzhen, we need to talk."
Don't keep your legs together; spread them apart.
Don't lay your hands flat on your knees; interlace your fingers and rest them casually over your stomach.
Lean your back naturally against the seat and relax the back of your neck.
Then turn to look at the other person with an expression of helpless resignation.
He spoke earnestly.
"I'm already an adult. Having a little drink to relax is perfectly reasonable."
Bai Mingzhen had just finished two meetings that evening.
At his law firm, no one dared to look around distractedly or speak glibly in front of him.
But his younger brother possessed every vice: cunning, slippery, lazy, and gluttonous.
Bai Mingzhen couldn't conceal the irritation he had never once displayed in the workplace.
He rubbed his temple.
"I told you that you weren't allowed to drink."
Bai Huan's forced composure was easily shattered.
He insisted that he hadn't drunk much and that it had all been beer.
Then he said, "You smoke too. Why can't I drink?"
Bai Mingzhen replied, "I don't date, I don't shop, and I don't spend my time at clubs. Bai Huan, I need some way to relax."
"I don't date either."
"Is it that you don't date, or that you think too highly of yourself to date anyone?" Bai Mingzhen said. "If there were ten girls in your current social circle who met your standards, you'd date all ten of them. Bai Huan, am I right?"
Bai Huan had never been particularly good at finding fault with himself.
His answer was simple.
"Old-fashioned."
Bai Mingzhen remained silent for a long while.
When he finally spoke again, he said, "Your pocket money will be delayed for another two months before I resume giving it to you as usual."
Having no money was unacceptable.
Bai Huan asked why, only to realize as soon as the question left his mouth that he already knew the answer.
He hurriedly pulled out his phone, randomly searched for an emo video, and enlarged the text on the image for Bai Mingzhen to see.
—For East Asian children, their family of origin is an endless, damp plum-rain season that never stops.
At first, Bai Mingzhen looked helpless.
Then he put on his glasses.
He carefully examined the phone in Bai Huan's hand before taking it from him.
"The phone I bought you. You haven't been using it?"
"Sold it."
As Bai Huan answered, he felt as though the sky above his head was gradually collapsing.
But then he thought, Even if the sky falls, my brother will be there to hold it up.
"Why did you sell it?" Bai Mingzhen asked thoughtfully.
"I didn't have any money."
This should have been a trivial matter.
A phone worth ten thousand yuan. If the child sold it, they could simply buy another one.
Unfortunately, Bai Huan had previously blurted out that he intended to sell it.
That made it difficult for Bai Mingzhen not to become vigilant, lest Bai Huan get himself into serious trouble out of desperation for money in the future.
Bai Mingzhen removed his glasses again.
He stretched his arm behind the seat and took out a disciplinary ruler shaped like a dog's paw.
The ruler was made of red sandalwood, its surface gleaming with a purplish-black sheen beneath the car's interior light.
"Hold out your hand," he said quietly.
The instant the boy saw the ruler, his hair stood on end.
He knew fear.
As a child, Bai Huan had been extremely disobedient.
This didn't mean he was expected to behave like a puppet on strings.
Rather, he had displayed a level of curiosity about the world far beyond what was normal, and that curiosity frequently put both himself and others in danger.
Climbing trees, jumping into water, playing with fire, and secretly starting the lawn mower had all been commonplace during his early childhood.
One incident remained particularly vivid in Bai Mingzhen's memory.
When Bai Huan was in his second year of middle school, his academic ranking temporarily slipped behind someone else's.
In reality, it had happened only that once.
But because of it, he conceived the idea of making that person disappear from the world.
He told no one.
Instead, he secretly plotted how to kill the person and silence them forever.
By the time Bai Mingzhen noticed something was wrong, Bai Huan had already thoroughly investigated the movements and daily routes of that classmate and the classmate's parents over a certain period.
Even now, Bai Mingzhen could vividly recall the unprecedented terror that welled up inside him when he discovered a utility knife, rope, and other such items in Bai Huan's schoolbag.
That time, Bai Mingzhen punished Bai Huan severely.
He taught him the difference between what a person could and could not do, and between what others might be permitted to do and what he himself must never do.
Bai Huan was intelligent and understood as soon as things were explained to him.
Of course, part of the reason was that Bai Mingzhen, in his anger, had repeatedly threatened, "I'll never look after you again."
Afterward, Bai Mingzhen also had a fierce argument with Bai Mushan and Cheng Yueqing.
The Bai family residence was enormous, yet everyone in it knew they were arguing.
Anyone with a functioning brain understood that every action a young person took was inseparable from their parents' genes and family upbringing.
The blood flowing through Bai Huan's veins belonged to Chen Yuanyuan and Wang Caiyi.
Naturally, Bai Mingzhen placed responsibility for Bai Huan's extreme behavior squarely on Bai Mushan and Cheng Yueqing.
This time, Bai Mingzhen struck Bai Huan's hand only once with the ruler.
It didn't hurt much, but the humiliation nearly made Bai Huan curl up like a thoroughly cooked shrimp.
Rubbing his palm, he protested that he was grown up now and couldn't be hit anymore, or he would hold a grudge.
But Bai Mingzhen suddenly demanded that he swear never to sell his body in the future.
Bai Huan had long since forgotten what he'd said before.
Furious that Bai Mingzhen was digging up old grievances, he threw a tantrum inside the car.
"Could they even afford to buy me?"
Bai Mingzhen watched the flailing, indignant Bai Huan without being moved.
When Bai Huan was thirteen, a gay man whose intentions had nothing to do with business had approached Bai Mushan under the pretext of discussing a business deal.
Fortunately, Bai Mushan and Cheng Yueqing had been quite clearheaded about such matters.
They had protected Bai Huan without him ever knowing anything about it.
Now he had grown up.
He had become exceptionally beautiful, possessing a body he himself paid no attention to, yet one that held an extraordinary attraction for both men and women.
His steps were light, his bearing noble.
Even while doing exactly as he pleased, he could display impeccable manners.
It was simply that he was far too arrogant, looking down on everyone and everything.
Even his outstanding academic results stemmed from his belief that only first place was worthy of him.
If there were ever an honor in the world ranked higher than first place, he would immediately turn his nose up at first place itself.
"What would you do if someone like me offered you a price?"
Seeing the boy freeze, Bai Mingzhen sighed.
"This world isn't in the palm of your hand. You're the one in the palm of the world's hand. Don't be so arrogant."
Bai Huan's pupils contracted and dilated, then contracted and dilated again.
He opened his mouth.
It took him a long time to finally ask, "Then... how much would you offer?"
"..."
Bai Mingzhen seemed exhausted.
He couldn't even be bothered to lose his temper.
He adopted the same adult posture Bai Huan had imitated earlier, only with far greater ease and composure.
Then he said softly, "Taimi, I'm gay."
Bai Huan blinked and listened.
"One of the reasons I spent most of my time away from home was my sexual orientation. They couldn't accept it. I was fifteen at the time, and you were in kindergarten. Later, I felt terribly sorry toward you, because coming out about my sexual orientation meant I couldn't be there while you were growing up."
"But everyone has to pay a price for the choices they make. I only hope you can learn something from my experience. Don't wait until you've lost something or missed your chance to realize how much you regret it."
Bai Huan didn't know how to react.
He made a few vague sounds of acknowledgment.
Then he heard Bai Mingzhen say, "Your brother is gay. If you find that disgusting, I can try to stay out of your sight from now on."
"No! It's not disgusting! I don't find you disgusting!"
Bai Huan didn't care about that at all.
He asked quietly, "What you just said... do you mean you really regret not being there while I was growing up?"
Bai Mingzhen was gay.
His sexual orientation had never troubled him, yet he had always carried the regret of not being there to watch Bai Huan grow up.
To Bai Huan, nothing could have been more satisfying.
If Bai Mingzhen wasn't lying, then Bai Huan could now be certain that he was the person who loved him most in the entire world.
He loved him more than either set of parents ever had.
Previously, Bai Huan had felt as though his heart were a piece of duckweed floating on the water, rootless and drifting wherever the current carried it.
But now things were different.
Bai Mingzhen had firmly lifted his heart and held it steady.
He could drift wherever he pleased.
Bai Mingzhen would be his roots.
Tears filled Bai Huan's eyes.
He threw himself forward and wrapped his arms around Bai Mingzhen.
"Ge, I love you."
It was the first time in nearly ten years that Bai Huan had addressed Bai Mingzhen simply as his brother.
Not Eldest Brother.
Just Brother.
And Bai Mingzhen, in turn, gave the most direct and most obscene reaction imaginable, whether as an elder brother or as a man.
He got hard.