Bai Huan was so innocent in such matters that it bordered on the ridiculous. He hadn't noticed anything. After releasing Bai Mingzhen, he asked, "Why did you become gay?"
Society's tolerance toward homosexuals was still relatively low. Or rather, society's tolerance toward anything outside the mainstream was relatively low. The mainstream was considered normal, while anything outside it was considered abnormal. When it rained, normal people had umbrellas to shelter them, while those deemed abnormal were left soaked to the skin.
Bai Huan felt sorry for Bai Mingzhen.
"I was born this way. It's not something I became later," Bai Mingzhen said.
"Born liking men? Then I was born liking women."
Bai Huan had never actually thought about this question. He paid no attention to matters between men and women and never gave them any thought. He was still in a neutral state, barely even conscious of the differences between the sexes.
So when he learned that his brother was gay, he didn't think deeply about it. Instead, his thoughts wandered in another direction.
He asked, "Is that why you aren't close to Mom and Dad anymore?"
Bai Mingzhen felt that Bai Huan was still young and wouldn't understand even if he explained. But whether he understood or not, if Bai Mingzhen refused to explain, the little brat would make a fuss.
Still, he didn't want Bai Huan to learn about the ugliness of the world too early.
So he said, "We never got along in the first place. It wasn't just because of my sexual orientation."
"Mom must have said some really harsh things to you, right? She's always had such a vicious tongue," Bai Huan asked again.
"I stopped caring about that a long time ago," Bai Mingzhen said.
Bai Huan fell into thought.
He couldn't remember every single thing that had happened during his childhood, but on several occasions when Bai Mingzhen argued with Bai Mushan and Cheng Yueqing, he had dragged Bai Xing along to eavesdrop.
Most of the arguments involved scolding Bai Mingzhen for being disobedient and troublesome. Later, they had called him abnormal and a little bastard.
Bai Huan had been precocious enough to understand that his brother must have done something out of the ordinary.
But looking at it now, he was merely gay.
Mom had made far too much of it.
"School starts in two weeks. Before that, I want to go away for a couple of days," Bai Huan suddenly announced, his thoughts jumping to an entirely different subject.
"Where do you want to go? Tell Qin Xian. He'll accompany you."
Bai Huan said he was going with a few friends. They weren't going anywhere special, just to a woodland villa belonging to one of their families, where they would eat, chat, and catch up with one another.
Bai Mingzhen's attitude changed.
He began questioning him carefully, running through the names of several boys in his mind before furrowing his brow.
"Those fair-weather friends of yours?"
"How are they fair-weather friends? We've competed together and shared both hardships and triumphs. We have a very close relationship."
Bai Huan was quite certain of that.
Bai Mingzhen glanced at him.
"They only endured the hardships with you because they wanted a share of your good fortune. If they'd cared about you during this time, they would have contacted you long ago. Inviting you out now? I'm afraid they just want to make a laughingstock of you."
Bai Huan lowered his head without saying anything.
Bai Mingzhen said, "And now you've gone quiet again."
"They all know I'm not a member of the Bai family anymore?"
This time, Bai Huan wasn't particularly heartbroken. He was more frightened than anything.
He had nearly forgotten that, besides losing his wealth, privileges, and status as a descendant of the Bai family, he had probably lost his reputation in his former social circle as well.
He cared deeply about both wealth and prestige.
He had never been a particularly practical person.
Now, one by one, the lice hidden beneath his magnificent robes were jumping out into the open.
How utterly humiliating.
Bai Mingzhen didn't answer.
Bai Huan knew the answer anyway.
"Then I have even more reason to go."
"If something happens, I won't help you," Bai Mingzhen warned.
He sounded somewhat cold, but in truth, he was angry.
Bai Huan's world was still a relatively beautiful place. He was merely passing through a slightly chilly spring rain.
He sprawled across the back seat with his limbs spread out.
"Hmph. What could possibly happen?"
Bai Mingzhen turned his head and looked at those large but perfectly proportioned black eyes.
They were so sincere.
So fearless.
He reached out and covered Bai Huan's eyes with his palm.
"Can't you behave yourself for once?"
Bai Huan struggled free.
He even opened the car door, extending one long, slender leg and nimbly carrying his entire body out of the car.
Standing outside, he slipped both hands loosely into the pockets of his jeans.
"They're my friends. It's only right that I go and say goodbye to them, okay? This is my own business. I don't need you interfering."
Bai Mingzhen remained motionless inside the car.
From where Bai Huan stood, he could see only the part of the man's body below the middle of his neck.
After a long while, Bai Mingzhen's arm moved.
Afraid he was about to be hit, Bai Huan instinctively took a step backward.
But unexpectedly, the man was merely reaching out to close the car door.
The door shut.
The car drove away.
Bai Huan hadn't expected that at all.
He hadn't even finished throwing his tantrum!
Unable to swallow his indignation, he crouched down, grabbed a few pebbles, and threw them at the car.
Unfortunately, he only managed to hit the exhaust fumes.
Later, Bai Huan sent Bai Mingzhen a full stop on WeChat.
The message went through.
Apparently, the other party hadn't blocked him yet.
He withdrew the full stop and typed a new message.
-Those are my personal relationships. I can handle them myself.
Bai Mingzhen replied:
-Got it.
Afterward, Bai Huan opened the small group chat he had shared with several friends for six or seven years.
He sent a good-evening meme.
Three minutes passed.
Four minutes.
Five minutes.
Nobody said a word.
Bai Huan knew Bai Mingzhen had been right again.
A chill crept into his heart.
"Well, aren't they something," he muttered.
Then, in the silence, his eyes quietly reddened.
The Volkswagen that had supposedly left long ago only slowly came to a stop after the boy had wiped his eyes and walked into Taohua Lane.
Bai Mingzhen said indifferently, "You can speak."
"Those aren't good kids. Why..."
Bai Mingzhen gazed out the window.
"It's not that he doesn't know. It's just that none of the terrible things they've done have ever been directed at him, so he doesn't care. If you bring it up, he'll only defend them more fiercely and treat you like an enemy."
"I'm afraid he'll suffer at their hands if he goes. Why not have Qin Xian accompany him?"
Bai Mingzhen was probably so accustomed to speaking incessantly in court as a lawyer that, in private, he was comparatively quiet and reserved, even cold.
In reality, he was simply listening attentively before considering his response.
In public, his gentle manner, which never compromised his sharpness, consistently earned the praise of his colleagues.
There wasn't a single flaw to be found in him.
But that also meant his emotions had no outlet.
Everyone needed to find an outlet of their own.
The car door had been open for too long earlier.
The oppressive heat of the summer night still lingered inside, refusing to dissipate.
Alongside it floated the faint, slightly astringent scent of mint.
The fragrance drifted aimlessly through the car.
Eventually, it slipped beneath the man's clothes, climbed along his spine, and curled around to his chest.
Cruelly, heedless of the consequences, it tore open a crack.
Yet even then, it didn't enter his body.
Instead, it swayed away once more.
But it was already too late for the crack to close.
The countless tributaries, large and small, that had lain sealed and silent inside Bai Mingzhen for so many years began to surge with waves.
Wildly, desperately, they competed to squeeze through the opening, swallowing the lingering mint fragrance inside the car bit by bit.
Not enough.
Not enough.
Nowhere near enough...
Like a glutton newly released from his cage, he couldn't stop, even knowing full well that continuing would mean his own destruction.
Bai Mingzhen had never imagined, under any circumstances, that his outlet would be found in Bai Huan.
He shifted his slightly stiff body.
His glasses slipped from his knees and fell to the floor.
He glanced at them but made no move to pick them up.
Instead, he raised a hand and pressed his forehead, doing his utmost to suppress the obscene fantasies that had already cast aside every trace of ethics and morality.
That was Bai Huan.
His younger brother.
He remained silent for a long time.
The driver didn't dare speak carelessly either.
Although Bai Mingzhen would listen until he had finished speaking, he might still dismiss him afterward for his lack of propriety.
"Tell Qin Xian to stay at the juice shop and look after things. He doesn't need to go."
Bai Mingzhen finally gave the driver his answer.
"I'll go myself."
He Chu hadn't left immediately.
He had ridden into the lane, braked in a corner, and crouched there waiting until Bai Huan came inside.
Then he took Bai Huan on the back of his bicycle again, riding toward their homes deep within the fishbone-like network of alleys.
"Lend me a set of your clothes. Or just give me one. I'll trade you mine," Bai Huan suddenly said from behind him.
"My clothes are all really cheap. You could just buy new ones," He Chu replied.
Bai Huan said, "Yours are all faded from washing. That's exactly what I want."
"..."
Downstairs, in the courtyard, Xiao He was running around happily, all four paws filthy black.
Beside two rows of clotheslines along one side of the courtyard, Wang Caiyi stood holding a leash, chatting with several women around her age.
Not far away was the chess table beneath the old parasol tree.
The chessboard rested atop a dry well that had long since run out of water, and a group of older men were gathered around it playing chess.
"That biological son of yours is already so grown up, and now you're bringing him home to raise? If you ask me, the one you had before was better. Sure, this one's good-looking, but he's already this old. How's he supposed to recognize you two as his parents? Be careful you don't end up raising an enemy."
The woman in the floral dress, who had just finished hanging out her laundry, held an empty basin still dripping with water.
She was kindly advising Wang Caiyi to exchange the two children back again.
The woman with the frizzy hair, who had previously called He Youxiang an idiot, chimed in.
"He's good-looking, all right, but he's not as clever as Chen Chen. He spends all day fooling around with He Youxiang inside and outside the alley. I bet he doesn't help you with any housework at all, does he?"
There was another woman, somewhat younger, with small eyes and very fair skin.
She was knitting despite the summer heat, and a layer of sweat covered her nose.
After listening for quite a while, she finally frowned and spoke.
"You've already brought him home. What's the point of switching them again? You two keep saying Taimi's no good, but that's not how I see it. A few days ago, Little He came down with a terrible fever. He looked like he was about to get even more muddleheaded, and wasn't it Taimi who took him to the hospital?
"Those little rascals in this alley all look down on Little He and keep to themselves. But Taimi doesn't mind that he's a fool. Someone who doesn't despise a fool for being foolish can't be all that bad."
The women hadn't noticed that Bai Huan had returned.
Bai Huan paid them no attention either.
He followed He Chu straight upstairs to his room to pick out some clothes.
He Chu gave him a black short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of jeans that had just been washed the previous day.
Bai Huan held them up and examined them.
"Why is everything dark-colored?"
"Doesn't show dirt. Even if you can't wash it clean, nobody can tell," He Chu said.
"Get me a pair of your shoes too."
This time, He Chu didn't comply.
"I only have two pairs. If I give you one, what am I supposed to wear?"
"I'll give you two pairs."
Bai Huan spoke with all the extravagance of someone who had very little money but still knew how to throw it around.