“Nannan, I am at your school gate. Come out. I’m taking you out to eat.” Shen Qian’s voice was filled with a gentle, magnetic resonance. As soon as he hung up the phone, the only thing on Xuan Congnan’s mind was returning to school.
The room had no windows on any of its four sides, making it poorly ventilated, dark, and damp. The space was cramped and narrow, with a 1.2-meter-wide bed pressed tightly against the wall, taking up nearly two-thirds of the room. Sleeping an adult who stood 1.8 meters tall felt somewhat stifling.
There was only a single stool in the room, yet everything was kept very tidy. On the east, west, and north walls, two rows of solid wood storage shelves were nailed up, filled to the brim with paint boxes, paintbrushes, sketch paper, watercolor paper, and other art student supplies.
Xuan Congnan placed sketch paper and a few charcoal pencils into his schoolbag, picked up the flexible drawing board from the stool, rolled it into a cylindrical shape, and stuffed everything into the bag together.
Using a brass lock commonly used in the countryside decades ago, he locked the room—which could barely be called a storage closet. Xuan Congnan checked it twice; if someone insisted on using a sledgehammer to smash it open violently from the outside, there was nothing he could do.
There were no important items left inside. Xuan Congnan touched his collar, confirmed everything was in order, and prepared to leave.
“Xiaonan.” An exquisite woman, completely out of place in this ordinary house, crossed her arms and blocked his path.
She wore the trendiest high-fashion designer dress, adorned with a Swarovski necklace around her neck that made her look dazzling and wealthy, much like a high-society matron. “You haven’t had lunch yet, why are you in such a rush to leave? Your uncle will be back from his business social soon, let’s wait a bit for him.”
Xuan Congnan gripped his schoolbag straps tight; they were slightly faded from being washed many times. With a calm and indifferent expression on his face, he said, “If Uncle gets drunk, he will domestic-abuse you. I can’t stop him.”
Zhuoya Jun gave a cold laugh and said, “Are you unable to stop him, or are you just a coward who’s afraid of getting beaten, so you run away fast?”
Xuan Congnan replied, “When he hits you, I don’t feel happy, so why should I stop him?”
Zhuoya Jun’s expression changed: “You!”
Looking as though she could tear Xuan Congnan apart alive while grinding her teeth, she remembered something, reined in her temper, locked the living room door from the inside, and said, “Rest assured, he has serious business today and isn’t drinking. We’re having a guest over who specifically asked to see you, so stay for dinner before you leave.”
Xuan Congnan said, “I have things to do and need to go back to school.”
“Why are you going back? To play love games with that boyfriend of yours who looks like nothing more than a sales manager? What’s the use of dressing up like a human being all day? Hand-crafted high-end custom suits, cufflinks worth hundreds of thousands—you might fool others, but you can’t fool me. Either they’re rented or they’re high-end knockoffs; in reality, he’s just a poor beggar who probably owes a mountain of debts outside. Xiaonan, I’ve told you before: you look good, you’re highly educated, and your qualifications are one in a hundred. You should be matched with a wealthy person. Don’t you like men? What a coincidence, Director Zhang saw you last time and told your uncle that he really likes you and wants to marry you.” Zhuoya Jun heavily emphasized, “He isn’t taking you in as a little lover; he wants marriage. The bride price is one million! What on earth are you unsatisfied with?”
Xuan Congnan asked, “Are you talking about Uncle when you mention owing outside debts? He genuinely owes over two million outside; if he can’t pay it back soon, he’ll go to prison. I won’t go visit him in jail. Since Director Zhang is so wonderful, why don’t you go marry him? The one million bride price can go to you, and it can even help Uncle pay off one million in gambling debts.”
He answered every one of Zhuoya Jun’s questions calmly, logically, and reasonably, looking as earnest as if he were solving a math problem.
Yet for Zhuoya Jun, Xuan Congnan himself was that impossibly difficult math problem unsolvable, making her just want to tear up the test paper.
She fumed angrily, “My son is already 19 years old, that man wouldn’t look at me.”
Xuan Congnan stated, “You getting old isn’t my fault.”
“Shut your mouth!”
Xuan Congnan glanced at her, knowing he shouldn’t linger in a prolonged battle, and walked straight past her to push open the door.
Zhuoya Jun panicked: “I’m only doing this for your, Xuanye, you’re finally back! Did you bring Director Zhang over?”
The living room door swung wide open, and Xuanye appeared at the entrance. His eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night after a heavy drinking session, and his face looked haggard.
Zhuoya Jun stretched her neck to look past him.
Xuanye said, “Nannan, have a meal at home. Consider it doing your uncle a favor.”
“Xuan Zhuoyao is 19 years old,” Xuan Congnan suggested sincerely, “he can help you.”
Xuanye stared at him unblinkingly, as though looking at a soon-to-be-successful business deal: “Director Zhang only wants you. A matter of marriage is decided by one’s parents…”
Xuan Congnan’s expression turned cold: “My parents passed away long ago.”
Xuanye retorted, “I’ve been raising you for the past ten years; your aunt and I are your mom and dad.”
Xuan Congnan stated firmly, “My mom and dad are in the graveyard.”
Sober Xuanye retained a shred of rationality, his eye corners twitching under suppressed agitation: “You…”
“Brother Xuan, why are you standing at the door instead of coming inside?” Director Zhang popped out from behind, holding a massive bouquet of roses that were bright red and dripping with dew, fresh and fragrant—though they were squeezed completely out of shape pressed against Director Zhang’s unmanly chest.
What a waste of such fine roses.
Xuan Congnan stepped back in disgust.
Shen Qian called again.
“Nannan, aren’t you at school? Come out and see me,” Shen Qian said softly.
Xuan Congnan walked over to the corner of the living room to take the call, closed his eyes, and said, “I came home to grab some things at noon, I’ll be right there.”
The school was close by, so Shen Qian said, “I’ll wait for you for half an hour.”
Xuan Congnan: “Mn.”
Director Zhang asked with concern, “Is that a classmate on the phone?”
Fearing that Xuan Congnan might say something unpleasing, Zhuoya Jun blurted out immediately, “Yes! It’s just a classmate of his.”
“My boyfriend,” Xuan Congnan interrupted her coldly, dropping a bombshell that startled everyone.
Director Zhang stared in stunned shock: “You have a boyfriend?” He abruptly whipped his head back to look at Xuanye. “You didn’t say he had a man. Didn’t you say he was a virgin?”
Xuan Congnan said, “We’ve been dating for a year.”
Director Zhang shrieked, “This fucking must’ve been broken in ages ago. Xuanye, do I look like someone who eats leftovers from other people?”
Xuanye’s expression changed drastically, and he roared at Xuan Congnan, “You little bastard, stop talking nonsense!”
Then he lowered his voice to tell Director Zhang, “Things are strict at home, where would he get any boyfriend? He’s just deliberately lying to you.”
Director Zhang cast a lecherous gaze up and down Xuan Congnan’s face, then his eyes drifted elsewhere.
He suddenly chuckled, “Heh heh, playing hard to get, huh? Xiaonan’s long hair is really pretty, it’s a perfect match for that face.”
A young man’s hair grew slowly. Xuan Congnan had kept his long hair for ten years without cutting it; it didn’t reach his waist yet, falling just past his back, pitch-black and glossy. At the moment, he had used a black hair tie to gather it loosely behind him, with two strands of wispy bangs falling across his forehead, adding an air of aloof coldness. Because of this gorgeous long hair, Zhuoya Jun had frequently attacked Xuan Congnan for being effeminate.
Ever since the day he was born, Xuan Congnan’s parents had let him grow his hair long, and he had never cut it. When he was 12, Zhuoya Jun had managed to cut it once.
“Uncle, Auntie says you owe two million in external debts and are a heavy burden, and that she’s had enough of the days of panic and anxiety when creditors come knocking at the door, so she wants you to go to prison instead,” Xuan Congnan said.
Xuanye glared fiercely at Zhuoya Jun and spat, “Bitch.”
Zhuoya Jun shrieked, “You actually believe his lies?!”
“Bald Director Zhang,” Xuan Congnan said in a flat, polite tone, speaking slowly, “Auntie says you’re completely unworthy of me, and she told me to endure it and marry you so the family could get a million in bride price, secure a new house for our cousin, and let Uncle avoid paying back your gambling debts—but I don’t want to endure it. You’re ugly.”
Director Zhang stared in wide-eyed shock: “You’re calling me, you actually called me…”
Xuan Congnan continued, “You’re ugly.”
The roses dropped to the floor. Director Zhang threw the flowers away, clutched his head, and cried out, “You’re still insulting me…”
Xuan Congnan stated, “You’re bald.”
Director Zhang pouted in furious anger, tears welling up in his eyes from rage.
He shouted harshly, “Xuanye, you really do have a fine wife! How could she teach an innocent child to say such things?!”
“It has nothing to do with me! When have I ever taught him these things?!” Zhuoya Jun geared up for a fight. “You’re doing this on purpose, right? You want to start a fight today, is that it?! Xuanye! We can fight, but if you ruin the dress and necklace I’m wearing, you can go return them yourself!”
Having offended everyone who could possibly be offended, the household was locked in mutual verbal abuse, turning into a chaotic, noisy mess.
Avoiding them, Xuan Congnan openly walked away from the scene of right and wrong.
Instead of walking for half an hour back to school as usual, he called a cab ten yuan.
When getting out, he applied a 1.2-yuan red packet coupon, paying 8.8 yuan.
On weekends, there weren’t many students at school; everyone was holed up in their dorms binge-watching shows, playing video games, or going out shopping.
Parked diagonally across from the school gate was a black car. Its logo featured two intersecting Ms wrapped inside a spherical triangle, looking very ordinary and inconspicuous. Xuan Congnan spotted it at a glance.
Sunlight was sliced into dappled fragments by the leaves. Shen Qian was in the back seat, a black shirt perfectly hugging his physique. With his left leg crossed over his right, holding an iPad in his hands, he lowered his head as if reading documents for work.
A shadow gradually approached the car, and with keen alertness, he raised his gaze and turned his head to look out the window.
The first thing he saw was the fluttering long hair that seemed to gleam in the sunlight, slightly disheveled from running. Seeing long hair on a male student was both strange and unique.
The car window was only rolled down halfway. Xuan Congnan leaned forward slightly with both hands propped on his knees, peering into the car. The car window blocked the lower half of his face, hiding it in shadow, so Shen Qian could only clearly see the upper half of his face.
The moment their gazes met, those eyes curved upward slightly.
“Brother Qian,” Xuan Congnan called out.
“Ahhhhhhh, it’s really him, it’s a real person, ahhhhh Gu…! Gu…!” In the quiet back seat of the car, a flurry of chaotic, crowded shouting suddenly rang out. Xuan Congnan looked inquiringly at the iPad on Shen Qian’s lap; he hadn’t caught the name being shouted clearly.
An airport background flashed across the screen.
A man wearing a duckbill cap and a face mask was surrounded by a large crowd of men and women, walking forward with difficulty under the guidance of two staff members ahead.
The three-dimensional black mask fit his facial contours perfectly. Having wielded paintbrushes for many years and drawn thousands of portraits, Xuan Congnan could tell just from the exposed thick eyebrows and the bridge of the nose that beneath that mask was undoubtedly a face with superior facial features and perfect proportions across the three sections of the face.
The sound from the iPad vanished. Shen Qian turned off the screen and said, “Why did you run so fast?”
He opened the car door, stepped out, and used a tissue to gently wipe away the thin layer of sweat from Xuan Congnan’s temple.
With a height difference of ten centimeters, Xuan Congnan had to tilt his head up slightly just to meet Shen Qian’s eyes.
As Shen Qian’s fingers brushed against the skin of his cheek, Xuan Congnan lowered his eyelashes, carefully took the tissue, and said, “I’ll do it myself.”
After wiping away the sweat from running, he lifted his gaze again with a light smile and said, “I was afraid you’d wait too long, so I…”
“Nannan,” Shen Qian interrupted him, his tone and voice sounding so gentle that not a single trace of discourtesy could be heard.
Xuan Congnan replied, “Mn?”
Looking right into his eyes, Shen Qian reached out and tucked the long hair straying by his temple behind his ear, saying, “Don’t smile.”
The curved arc of Xuan Congnan’s eyes slowly flattened, returning to his usual detached and aloof composure.
Shen Qian seemed to be looking through him at someone else.