WBAI Chapter 45

It turned out Yu Feng wanted to check for the smell of smoke on him. Xie An’yu’s ears felt slightly warm as he said, “Just took one puff.”

Yu Feng asked him, “Where’d you get the cigarette?”

“Lu Yang’s.”

“Lu Yang? That idiot?”

Xie An’yu gave an affirmative hum.

Yu Feng frowned slightly, somewhat confused by the situation. “He gave it to you?”

“I took it myself.” Xie An’yu lowered his voice. “I was just curious what it tasted like.”

In his nineteen years of life, Xie An’yu had never been curious about the taste of cigarettes before. Truthfully, his mind had been in turmoil at the time because those final words Lu Yang said kept echoing in his ears.

“Don’t be curious about this stuff. Kids shouldn’t smoke.”

Though Yu Feng felt these words lacked credibility coming from him, he still added, “Best not to smoke when you’re older either.”

Yu Feng glanced at Xie An’yu and found Xie An’yu looking back at him. He continued, “I’m the bad example here. Don’t follow me.”

Yu Feng continued to bandage Xie An’yu’s hand, his head slightly lowered. From any angle, his facial features were strikingly defined. Xie An’yu gazed at Yu Feng’s face, feeling his thoughts grow increasingly disordered. Yu Feng’s gentle grip on his hand made his ring finger twitch slightly. He whispered, “Aren’t you going to check the rest of me?”

Yu Feng paused. Xie An’yu’s kind of ‘innocence’ would drive him crazy sooner or later. Right now, he couldn’t even bring himself to meet Xie An’yu’s eyes. Keeping his head down, Yu Feng said, “I trust you wouldn’t lie to me.”

Xie An’yu’s hand was swollen like this—if it had been a one-sided ambush, he must have hit Lu Yang pretty hard. Though violence was indeed the most fitting way to deal with someone like Lu Yang, Yu Feng still worried about potential repercussions.

After he finished bandaging Xie An’yu’s wound, Yu Feng asked, “Were there other people around when you beat him up?”

Xie An’yu shook his head. “Don’t worry. No witnesses, no evidence. Even if he reports it, it won’t do anything.”

Xie An’yu turned and opened his backpack, pulling out Lu Yang’s cigarette case and lighter. As he unzipped the bag, Yu Feng caught sight of a ceramic fruit knife inside.

Yu Feng’s expression changed. He stared at Xie An’yu. “Did you take a knife with you?”

“I didn’t use it. Just scared him with it.”

Yu Feng was a little shaken. He said in a low voice, “Don’t do something so dangerous alone again. What if something happened?”

“People like him only understand this kind of lesson.” Xie An’yu glanced at Yu Feng, frowning. “I didn’t want to bother with him, but he came after you.”

Since Lu Yang insisted on crossing Xie An’yu’s bottom line, then he shouldn’t blame Xie An’yu for resorting to extreme measures. If he didn’t beat Lu Yang up thoroughly, the anger in his chest would have nowhere to go—it would suffocate him.

Yu Feng silently studied Xie An’yu’s injured right hand.

“The cigarettes and lighter are Lu Yang’s?” Yu Feng asked.

“Mm. My fingerprints are on them, and I was afraid I couldn’t wipe them clean, so I brought them back with me.”

Yu Feng suddenly laughed. “So clever, even thought about fingerprints. But…” He paused. “Do you know fingerprints can also be lifted from clothes?”

Xie An’yu genuinely didn’t know that. He looked at Yu Feng in surprise.

“You should’ve just worn gloves for the whole operation,” Yu Feng joked.

“It’s easier to hit barehanded. I don’t have a feel for it with gloves on.”

Yu Feng chuckled. “So you have a lot of experience, huh?”

Xie An’yu’s brow furrowed. “Can they really lift fingerprints from clothes?”

“As long as you didn’t beat him to death, the police probably wouldn’t go to the trouble of specifically testing his clothes for fingerprints.”

Yu Feng was a bit curious about how Xie An’yu had managed to ambush Lu Yang without a scratch. After all, Lu Yang wasn’t small either—though not as tall as Xie An’yu, his build was far from frail.

“Can you tell me about how you ambushed him? I’m quite curious,” Yu Feng said.

Xie An’yu briefly described his earlier ‘heroic feat’.

“You just left him in the alley like that?” Yu Feng was a little surprised. “Lying there all night would be enough to finish him off.”

Sure enough, when someone usually mild-tempered finally snaps, it’s even more terrifying. Xie An’yu was like a young wolf when provoked, the kind that wouldn’t let go once it sank its teeth into the neck.

“I untied the rope around his neck before leaving, and I didn’t bind his legs either,” Xie An’yu said, looking at Yu Feng. “People like him fear death the most. Even if he only had one breath left, he’d struggle to crawl away.”

That was also why Xie An’yu had used death to threaten Lu Yang. As the saying goes, those who desire nothing are invincible—people with no attachments fear death the least. In contrast, those like Lu Yang, full of ambition and greed, are often the most afraid of dying.

“If you ever plan something like this again—something that could threaten your life—let me know in advance, okay?”

Xie An’yu nodded obediently.

Yu Feng put away the first aid kit. “Just take a quick rinse when you shower today. Wrap your hand in a plastic bag and don’t let it get wet.”

After returning the first aid kit to the study, Yu Feng came back and asked Xie An’yu, “Do you want to visit your hometown?”

Xie An’yu was taken aback. “…What do you mean?”

“Zhou Yi and I are planning a trip soon. He wants to go to your hometown.”

“My hometown is on an island.”

“I know.”

“From my ID again?”

Yu Feng hummed in agreement.

“You didn’t really memorize everything on my ID just by looking at it once, did you?”

Yu Feng chuckled. “Pretty much.”

The name Shuangye Isle sounded nice, which made it memorable, and Yu Feng just happened to have a good memory.

Xie An’yu was silent for a moment before saying, “Brother, I don’t have a home on the island anymore.”

Yu Feng’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“The area where my house was has already been demolished.”

Yu Feng couldn’t quite understand. Demolition would have come with compensation, so why had Xie An’yu been living in such hardship before? He had originally thought Xie An’yu came to the city to work and repay debts, but now it seemed he had left for Beicheng because he no longer had a place to stay in his hometown.

“Did you get the compensation?” Yu Feng asked.

“My second uncle took it.”

Yu Feng’s frown deepened. “Did your uncle live with you? He took all of it?”

“He had his own place. I lived with my grandma,” Xie An’yu explained. “The houses for my family and my second uncle were built by my grandfather when he was young. There were no property deeds, so when the demolition happened, we couldn’t prove the house was mine, so my second uncle took the money.”

“He didn’t leave you anything?”

“Mm.”

“So that’s why you came to Beicheng?”

Xie An’yu nodded.

So when this kid came to Beicheng, he was not only penniless but had also lost his home back on the island.

Yu Feng was furious. He swore, “Is he an animal?”

“That’s just how he is. I’ve disliked him since childhood—always up to no good every single day.”

Xie An’yu asked Yu Feng, “Brother, are you guys really planning to go to Shuangye Isle?”

“We’ll go if you’re coming. If you don’t want to, we’ll pick another place. The question is whether you want to go out with us.”

“Then let’s go to Shuangye Isle. It’s very cool on the island during the summer, so it’s a great place to travel. I’d like to go back and see my friends too.”

“Alright. I’ll let Zhou Yi know later.”

***

By the time Xie An’yu finished showering and lay down, it was already one in the morning. Only then did he belatedly realize his wound was starting to ache.

He closed his eyes, and Yu Feng’s face appeared right before him in his mind. When he opened them again, Lu Yang’s words echoed in his ears.

Lu Yang had described his relationship with Yu Feng in such vulgar terms, yet those crude words had left him unsettled all night.

Rolling in the sheets…

How do two men even roll in the sheets?

Xie An’yu turned over and grabbed his phone from the bedside table. Curious, he searched the keywords on Baidu[mfn]百度 (Bǎidù): Baidu, Inc. (/ˈbaɪduː/ BY-doo; Chinese: 百度; pinyin: Bǎidù; lit. ‘hundred times’) is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China’s search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of other internet services such as Baidu App (Baidu’s flagship app for search and newsfeed), Baidu Baike (an online user created Wikipedia-like encyclopedia), iQIYI (a video streaming service), and Baidu Tieba (a keyword-based discussion forum similar to Reddit).
[/mfn]. Clicking on one webpage led him to another, surrounded by flashing pornographic[mfn]黃 (huáng): yellow (colour); (colloquial) pornographic; lewd; (colloquial) to fizzle out; to fall through; (Cantonese) to let the cat out of the bag (to let a secret be known).[/mfn] GIFs that assaulted his vision. But all the GIFs showed men and women doing it—nothing with two men.

After a quick glance, Xie An’yu silently closed the page. The bizarrely angled pornographic images were visually jarring, and he thought they might linger in his mind when he closed his eyes. Instead, Yu Feng’s face appeared in his mind again—along with Yu Feng’s hands.

Yu Feng’s fingers were long, his nails neatly trimmed. They had lightly rested on Xie An’yu’s hand, fingertips tracing from the gaps between his fingers to the webbing of his thumb and forefinger…

Xie An’yu gradually lost consciousness, slipping into a hazy dream. There were no scenes or people, just a pair of beautiful hands. Those hands slowly spread their fingers and slid between his, gripping tightly.

Xie An’yu could vaguely see a small, red burn mark on the ring finger of that hand. His breathing became more and more rapid and heavy, and he felt as if he was about to suffocate.

Xie An’yu’s eyes shot open, staring blankly at the ceiling.

It was already light outside, with a soft glow peeking through the curtains.

He was drenched in sweat and felt sticky all over. He lay there for a moment to recover, then he lifted the covers and glanced down.

Unsurprisingly, his pants were wet.

The last time this physiological reaction had happened was during puberty, his first time. He couldn’t believe it—he’d had a wet dream.

Xie An’yu got up and changed his pants. He cracked the door open slightly, peeking out to confirm no one was around before slipping out. Clutching the bundled-up underwear and pants in his hand, he hurried to the bathroom—only to run straight into Yu Feng.

Yu Feng was shaving with a traditional manual razor, completely silent.

This was the master bathroom, closer to the living room. There was another smaller bathroom near Yu Feng’s bedroom, mainly for toilet use. Yu Feng usually washed up here unless both of them needed to shower at the same time.

Yu Feng turned his head and glanced back, and when their eyes met, Xie An’yu felt as if the top of his head had been blown off on the spot.

---

The author has something to say:

《Youthful and Energetic》

Yu Wenjia: I’m familiar with this feeling.

Yu Wenjia is a character from my old works. I just realized Jiajia shares the same surname as Brother Yu—I didn’t even notice that when naming them.

——

03.07 00:32 / The reason I said Jiajia is familiar with this feeling is because he was also startled by the razor-wielding giegie in the bathroom. Turns out you’re all little goldfish, huh? So many of you who read my old stories don’t remember this either (=ω= )

The old works that the author mentioned hasn’t been translated. Here’s the title 《渐入佳境》. It was marked as having publishing contract with Hong Kong and Macao though. Same as the author other works, Classmate’s Engagement (this one has 4 publishing contract).

[dropdown title=”List of Idiom in Chapter 45″]
以暴制暴 (yǐ bào zhì bào): to replace one tyranny with another; to use violence to curb violence; fight violence with violence; counter violence with violence; use force to suppress force; meet force with force; using violence to counter or replace another violent act. From Records of the Grand Historian: 武王已平殷亂，天下宗周，而伯夷、叔齊恥之，義不食周粟，隱於首陽山，采薇而食之。及餓且死，作歌，其辭曰：「登彼西山兮，采其薇矣。以暴易暴兮，不知其非矣！」, King Wu had pacified the chaos of Yin, and the Zhou dynasty became the center of the realm. However, Boyi and Shuqi felt ashamed of this, believing it was unjust to eat the grain of Zhou. Therefore, they hid themselves in Mount Shouyang, gathering vetch to sustain themselves. When they were starving and about to die, they composed a song, the lyrics of which were: “Ascending that western mountain, I gathered the vetch. Replacing tyranny with tyranny, They did not realize their error!”.

大費周章 (dà fèi zhōu zhāng): to spend a lot of time and effort to handle a complicated matter; to go to a lot of trouble to handle a difficult matter; to take great pains; make or have much ado; something that is complicated and will encounter great trouble and many obstacles in its implementation.

三言兩語 (sān yán liǎng yǔ): in a few words (idiom); expressed succinctly; just a few words; concise language; in one or two words.

無欲則剛 (wú yù zé gāng): one can be austere if he has no selfish desires; without worldly desires, one can be upright and unyielding. From the Analects, Gongye Chang: 子曰：「吾未見剛者。」或對曰：「申棖。」子曰：「棖也慾，焉得剛？」, The Master said, “I have not seen a firm and unbending man.” Some one replied, “There is Shen Cheng.” “Cheng,” said the Master, “is under the influence of his passions; how can he be pronounced firm and unbending?”

一天到晚 (yī tiān dào wǎn): from morning till night; all day long; the whole day; from dawn to dusk.

不堪入耳 (bù kān rù ěr): intolerable to the ear (e.g. of coarse language); disgusting; revolting; (language) offensive to the ear.

隱隱約約 (yǐn yǐn yuē yuē): vague; dim; faint; distant; barely audible; indistinctly; vague, unclear, or vague; looming or absent.
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