Leaving the hair salon, Gu Zhuoyan and Zhuang Fanxin walked in the shade of the trees. It was an old road, and the trees were old too. All the shops along the road had been there for ten years or more.
Across the road was an old brick wall, and behind this wall was the former home of someone famous, free for public viewing. "You've been in Rongcheng for so many days, but you still haven't gone sightseeing," said Zhuang Fanxin.
Gu Zhuoyan made an opportunity for himself. "I'm not too familiar with the place. Will you be my guide?"
Zhuang Fanxin was cautious. Gu Zhuoyan hadn't wanted to come here in the first place. He probably had no interest in sightseeing, and was just being polite. "Never mind," he said considerately, "there isn't much to see in Rongcheng anyway."
Gu Zhuoyan didn't expect to be rejected. Being completely inexperienced when it came to feelings, he suddenly had no idea what to say. They passed a small accessories shop, filled with dazzling displays. Gu Baoyan cast them aside and ran in.
Gu Zhuoyan stood at the doorway. "Call me when you've picked what you wanted."
"Gege," said Gu Baoyan, "can I buy ten hair clips?"
"As long as you carry them yourself," replied Gu Zhuoyan. Asking for ten hair clips… did she have ten heads? He was starting to worry. If she was like this at seven and eight, how would they handle her when she grew older?
There was a convenience store next door, with two small tables by the entrance. Gu Zhuoyan and Zhuang Fanxin bought two bottles of soda to drink as they waited.
Zhuang Fanxin's phone kept ringing. He pulled it out; there were several messages from the boys' chat group. It was already afternoon, and while he didn't know whether the group of them had finished their homework, toiling since 9a.m., he could see that they had decided on the café's best desserts.
Zhuang Fanxin quietly took note of this. "Which ones aren't good?" he asked, as a preventative measure.
Qi Nan: "Traitors have no right to ask!"
Zhuang Fanxin: "So did you guys finish your homework?"
Qi Nan: "No need for a traitor to be so concerned!"
Zhuang Fanxin had twice declined to meet, so this response was deserved. It wasn't just his deskmate who no longer loved him. Everyone else began to abuse him roundly, and the class president even sent a thirty-second voice message.
He sipped on his soda and thought of how to make it up to them. Peeking at Gu Zhuoyan across the table, inspiration came to him.
"My brothers," wrote Zhuang Fanxin, "it was wrong of me not to participate wholeheartedly in our group activities. As recompense, I will tell you all a secret about our class."
The sports committee rep: "Has the class president been embezzling?"
The class president: "Fuck you, our class is so poor, the account is basically empty, okay?"
The group grew rowdy again, some even saying that the class president had had a second marriage. Zhuang Fanxin waited in silence for a while until everyone was about done, then sent a sunglasses emoji.
"Tell us, traitor," someone urged.
"We're getting a new transfer student next term!" Zhuang Fanxin revealed.
Right as he pressed "send", Zhuang Fanxin looked at Gu Zhuoyan again, with the excitement of someone in the know. Just then, Gu Baoyan called them over. He put his phone in his pocket and finished his soda.
Walking home, Gu Baoyan obediently carried her own plastic bag, then pulled out a silvery bracelet and handed it to Zhuang Fanxin as thanks for taking her to perm her hair. She pulled out an identical bracelet and handed it to Gu Zhuoyan, to thank him for paying for everything.
As they strolled back leisurely, a few metres away from their little street, Zhuang Fanxin saw three boys standing under the banyan tree at the street corner. The three boys were very conspicuous, as all of them were looking up, intently appreciating the aerial roots hanging down from the banyan tree.
They looked strangely familiar. Zhuang Fanxin had the feeling he'd seen them somewhere before.
Then Gu Zhuoyan noticed them too. He stopped and blurted out, "The fuck?"
One of the boys heard this and looked over, belatedly reacting with a shout: "Fuck! Bro!" The other two also looked over and screeched, "Yo! My bro!"
The three of them sprinted over, yelling so loudly that people could hear them across the road. It was almost enough to scare the cars away. When they reached them, the three boys opened their arms and swallowed Gu Zhuoyan in a bear hug, three pairs of arms piling on him tightly.
Zhuang Fanxin stepped aside. He remembered now: they were the three boys from the equestrian photo, Lian Yiming, Lu Wen, and Su Wang.
Gu Zhuoyan could barely breathe under their crushing hug. He wrenched himself free and said, "What are you guys doing here?!"
"To see you, of course!" said Lu Wen. "What, you think we're here to eat Chaoshan beef hotpot?"
Lian Yiming picked Gu Baoyan up, asking tenderly, "Did you miss me? Oh wow, you permed your hair?"
Gu Baoyan raised her shopping bag. "I even bought hair clips!" she said with glee.
Su Wang glanced over them. "What are those things, your brother let you wear those? Let's go shopping and buy you something nice." As soon as he finished speaking, he caught sight of the cheap bracelet on Gu Zhuoyan's wrist, and felt a pang in his heart. "Bro, what kind of life are you living?"
They chattered on incessantly. Zhuang Fanxin was quiet as he stood to the side, but since he was a living and breathing human being, he didn't escape their notice for long—soon three pairs of eyes had turned to him.
Lu Wen was the first to speak. "Hey, who's this?"
"This is Zhuang Fanxin, my grandpa's neighbour," said Gu Zhuoyan. He introduced the boys as well. "These are my childhood friends. You've seen their photos."
Zhuang Fanxin matched each to their name: Lu Wen was the slightly swarthy one, about Gu Zhuoyan's height—he was the lead singer in the band. Su Wang was very thin, with a pair of dimples adorning his face, and Lian Yiming was dressed more maturely, like a university student.
He smiled politely, but before he could greet them, Lu Wen leapt forward and threw an arm around his shoulder. "Xiao Zhuang?" he said, like an old friend. "You know what they say, better a neighbour nearby than a relative far away. You look like a decent guy, I'm sure you've been taking good care of Gu Zhuoyan."
Su Wang came over to Zhuang Fanxin and embraced him from the other side. "Hey neighbour," he said, "it's so hot out today, where did you guys go?"
Ambushed left and right, Zhuang Fanxin didn't quite dare to move, replying, "To the hair salon…"
Gu Zhuoyan pushed Lu Wen and Su Wang away. The boys were behaving like delinquents mugging someone in broad daylight. Half blocking Zhuang Fanxin, he asked a practical question: "Where are you staying tonight?"
"We booked a hotel room," said Su Wang. "Take your sister home and come with us."
They turned down the street in a row. Gu Zhuoyan sent Gu Baoyan home while the three boys waited at Zhuang Fanxin's front gate. Zhuang Fanxin opened it. Before he went in, he said, "I'm going now, you guys have fun."
Lian Yiming looked over Zhuang Fanxin from head to toe, pausing slightly when his eyes reached the pair of sneakers. "Why don't you come with us?"
Zhuang Fanxin felt the other taking measure of him. He wasn't shy of strangers; in fact he was fairly outgoing and friendly. But right now, standing at the gate, he felt somewhat ill at ease. "I'd rather not intrude," he said.
"Aw, come on," Lu Wen laughed, "why so polite?"
As he was brooding over how to deal with the situation, Gu Zhuoyan came over. Lian Yiming and Lu Wen stopped pestering him. As they left, Su Wang murmured indistinctly when he passed Zhuang Fanxin, "You're quite sweet."
Zhuang Fanxin stilled. What did that mean?
He locked the gate as he went in, and heard a long loud cry outside: an archetypal male jeer.
Why were they jeering? Why were Gu Zhuoyan's friends so weird?
The weird guys walked to the hotel and went to their suite, which was big enough for them to raise hell in. As soon as they closed the room door, Gu Zhuoyan, who was in the middle of changing into slippers, was suddenly suffocated by three engulfing hugs.
Being outside had restrained them from fully expressing themselves, so it was only now that they could finally let it all out. The three boys held Gu Zhuoyan, crying and screaming: We missed you so much! You've been gone for over twenty days! Everything we did was one man short!
Gu Zhuoyan broke free. "I didn't fucking die!"
They weren't really crying, anyhow. After their fervour had died down, Lu Wen turned away to order food, Su Wang went to take a shower, and Lian Yiming walked in a circle, squatted down and knocked on the floor, then went to the living room and wiped the corners with his fingertips. The old habit of his profession seemed to be expressing itself again.
Gu Zhuoyan plopped on the sofa. "You haven't even inherited your family hotel yet, and you're already a specialist?"
"You flatter me." Lian Yiming stood and leaned against the wardrobe, folding his arms. "How's the past month been?" he asked. "We thought you'd be gone for just a few days, but school's starting the day after tomorrow and you still haven't come back."
"What do you mean, come back?" said Gu Zhuoyan. "I've finished the transfer, I even have my new student ID."
"Fuck! No way!" Lu Wen howled. "Your dad's brutal!"
Lian Yiming put on a knowing air. "It's Auntie Xue that's brutal. Since he and Uncle Gu can't see eye to eye, it's bad for family harmony, so Auntie Xue decided to assign him to this extremely well-reforested area."
Gu Zhuoyan laughed at this, asking through laughter, "Did you guys sneak over?"
School was starting the day after tomorrow. Lu Wen said he was going to stay over at Su Wang's place, Su Wang said that he was staying over with Lian Yiming, and Lian Yiming said he was staying over with Lu Wen; then the three got together and flew to Rongcheng, with a return flight booked for tomorrow afternoon, a plan smoother than a Mobius strip.
Su Wang finished his shower at this point. The three of them regrouped and exchanged looks. Then, as a body, they pressed Gu Zhuoyan down on the sofa, one on his left, one on his right, and one on his head.
"Give me a shoulder rub while you're at it," said Gu Zhuoyan lazily.
"Fuck. Sure thing, Mr Gu." Lu Wen really did begin massaging his shoulders, with force. "You've been here for a month, why didn't you fight it? Do you really want to stay here?"
"And how am I meant to fight it, pray tell?" said Gu Zhuoyan.
"Didn't I say to drown yourself at sea?" Lian Yiming reminded him. "Why didn't you go? It's a pretty straightforward journey from here."
"Oh, piss off," said Gu Zhuoyan. "I can't exactly break ties with my dad, especially since I'm still spending his money. At any rate, the argument isn't about transferring schools or where I'm staying. It's about my sexual orientation."
"It's a pretty difficult situation," said Su Wang.
Since the hope of his returning home was remote, this topic was put aside for now. Lu Wen intensified his shoulder rub as he changed the topic, his tone gentling. "So, that lil' neighbour of yours, Zhuang… you guys seem pretty close?"
"We're going to be classmates when school starts," said Gu Zhuoyan.
"What kind of mad luck is that?!" Lian Yiming tsk-ed. "When you asked me to help you buy and ship over that brand new model of sneakers, I was wondering who you were buying them for, since they were a few sizes smaller. So it was him."
"And you went to the hair salon with him today. Even my dad doesn't go with my mum when she gets her hair done," Su Wang added.
The three of them spoke in strange riddles, trying to piece together a bit of gossip. Gu Zhuoyan played along: he didn't deny anything they said, instead nodding with some pleasure.
"Fuck, you're really into him?" said Lu Wen, taken aback.
Lian Yiming was slightly apprehensive. "I only knew that you came out really casually. I didn't think you'd find someone that fast as well. You wouldn't be eloping and flying abroad for a runaway marriage any day now, would you?"
"Well then," said Su Wang carefully, "you're not lightning quick at that as well, are you?"
Gu Zhuoyan marvelled at how idiotic the three of them were. Words weren't enough; action had to be taken. He easily broke free from their restraints before yanking Lian Yiming onto the sofa, followed by the other two, beating them up from one end of the sofa to the other.
He wasn't the fencing captain of their school for show; after a while of not training, now was a good time to exercise his muscles a little. In the end, the three boys were wailing piteously as they rolled down onto the carpet.
Gu Zhuoyan stopped and went to take a dark beer from the fridge. He sat on the sofa, looking down on them condescendingly as he drank. Though Su Wang was thin, he was the first to rise. "Explain yourself, then!" he insisted.
Gu Zhuoyan began with the most important one. "I've tried, and no, I last longer than that."
And then he moved on to the next topic. He said nothing about how he and Zhuang Fanxin had grown close, how Zhuang Fanxin helped him, and what stage of their relationship they were in.
"I want to chase him," he said directly.
The three held their breath at the same time, and relaxed at the same time. Nobody knew how heavily laden their hearts had been: when their best mate had abruptly come out as gay, they were understanding and supportive on the surface, but each secretly suspected Gu Zhuoyan of being interested in himself.
"I'll support you!" declared Lian Yiming.
"Me too!" said Lu Wen. "Even if we're only here for a day…"
"We'll go home and support you from afar!" said Su Wang.
Gu Zhuoyan snorted. Counting on these three was like giving up on love.
But then, he wasn't thinking about love. Wooing Zhuang Fanxin was for the sake of aggravating his parents. He didn't reveal this, firstly because he didn't trust their stupid mouths and secondly because he was afraid of humiliating himself if he failed.
When his invitation for Zhuang Fanxin to act as tour guide for him was cruelly rejected, his self-confidence took quite a hit.
Gu Zhuoyan pulled out his phone and suddenly thought that he should try again. He sent a text: "My friends want to check out Rongcheng, will you have time to join us tomorrow?"
To persuade him, he added a tearful pleading emoji that he'd seen girls use before.
Zhuang Fanxin replied very quickly: "Okay."
Gu Zhuoyan stared at the word, unaware of the silly grin on his face.
—
1. Adding a Xiao (小) to the beginning of a name is a slightly informal thing that you don't usually do with strangers.