Chapter 24
On the screen was Xia Fengsheng’s face.
Mature, elegant, steady.
At first glance, he was the kind of person who made you look forward even more to what he would be like at thirty. By then, he would definitely be even more attractive than he was now.
And just as the audience was drawn in by that Eastern face, his limbs—like some great villain bent on destroying everything—began moving in the strangest way imaginable.
“……”
The audience on site was dumbfounded. For a second, the whole place fell silent.
The air around him suddenly became too hot to swallow.
Hiss—
Xia Fengsheng kept a straight face. His arms and legs did not stop moving. On the surface he remained calm and composed; inside, he wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the ground and burrow into it.
God knew how mortified he was right now.
Even though he was already abroad, Xia Fengsheng still wanted to go abroad.
To that place where no visa and no plane ticket were needed—heaven.
Everyone in the arena was giving him one hundred percent enthusiasm, cheering for his dancing. Some people were clutching their stomachs, laughing so hard they could not close their mouths. His dance had brought joy to people. They had seen too many people dance well, so someone like Xia Fengsheng, whose dancing was absurdly ridiculous, instantly stood out.
He left the deepest impression at the fastest possible speed.
While dancing, Xia Fengsheng spared a moment to look at Shi Ye’s expression.
He had imagined all sorts of reactions from him—shock, disbelief, blankness—or maybe Shi Ye would sit to one side pretending not to know him because he was too embarrassed.
But when Xia Fengsheng turned his head slightly, what he met was Shi Ye’s phone camera.
Xia Fengsheng: ?
At first, Shi Ye had not known Xia Fengsheng had appeared on the big screen.
He had been buying hot dogs and pizza from the snack vendor.
The vendor asked, “What kind of sauce would you like?”
Shi Ye said, “Recommend one. Which is the best?”
Right when he had chosen the sauce for the hot dog and was using his phone to pay, the cheers around him suddenly shot up several degrees louder than the earlier dance breaks, like someone had set off firecrackers inside their mouth.
The people in the front rows all turned back at once, their gazes focusing in their direction. On top of that, Xia Fengsheng had made a noticeable amount of movement when he stood up, so Shi Ye picked up on the shift beside him.
“Sorry, wait a second,” he said to the vendor.
He swiped away the payment page on his phone and opened the camera instead, aiming it at Xia Fengsheng, who was in the middle of his enthusiastic dance.
He put the subject dead center in the frame, quickly found the best angle and lighting, and set up the perfect composition on screen.
Then he watched Xia Fengsheng dance while filming him.
Excitement and burning delight lit up Shi Ye’s striking face.
“Wow!!!!”
Waving one arm with the beat of the music, he cheered loudly for Xia Fengsheng.
Inside the frame, Xia Fengsheng stood at the very center.
Outside the frame, Shi Ye smiled as he watched the person inside it.
Xia Fengsheng caught that smile, though he did not know what Shi Ye was smiling at.
Public humiliation was brief. Soon the music stopped, and Xia Fengsheng instantly cut off the dance, not continuing for even another second.
What a smooth, full-bodied social death.
With the music gone, he seemed to become a different person. He sat back down with effortless elegance, crossing one long leg over the other, showing not the slightest embarrassment over his dance. That cold, eerie gaze of his once again took on its usual indifference, the kind that kept people a thousand miles away.
As long as you were not embarrassed yourself, others would not find it awkward either.
Just when Xia Fengsheng thought it was all over, the camera still did not leave him.
That intense dance had not disordered a single strand of his hair, nor had it brought out even one drop of sweat.
He still looked perfectly put together, calm and steady. His features were distinctive, his upward-tilting eyes naturally deep, his nose bridge high, his brow ridge sharp, his whole person carrying a certain presence.
Some people guessed he was a lawyer, or that he worked in finance.
Facing the camera, Xia Fengsheng remained utterly unruffled.
Until the lens moved closer.
And closer.
When the giant screen held nothing but his face, those beautiful, arresting eyes lifted and glanced at it.
The more he looked at the camera, the more the camera focused on him.
As if he and the lens were in a contest to see who would break first.
Then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, the person on the big screen began turning red.
Xia Fengsheng’s scalp went numb. Why was it still filming him? The hands that had not appeared in frame had begun clawing helplessly.
The director did not care about his life or death at all.
A second ago he had still looked perfectly calm, and the next second he flushed red from sheer shame.
The whole arena erupted in laughter.
There was nothing more pleasing to look at than a beauty blushing.
The camera shifted very slightly, and on the giant screen Xia Fengsheng caught sight of Shi Ye’s profile, grinning at him with a mouthful of white teeth.
In that instant of dazedness, he turned his head to look.
Xia Fengsheng was pale-skinned, so once he flushed, he became a giant tomato from forehead to the neck exposed above his collar, the color spreading evenly all the way down.
He turned to look at Shi Ye, then lifted his eyes toward the giant screen overhead.
As if telling him:
You’re on the screen too.
Shi Ye looked up. Sure enough, his face had appeared in Xia Fengsheng’s shot.
The camera magnified both of their expressions. Even the smallest micro-expression could be caught.
Xia Fengsheng felt somewhat at a loss.
Even if he was no longer the awkward, inarticulate boy he had been in high school, at this moment he still did not know how to deal with it.
His experience had grown with age and education, but the world was vast, and there were still too many things he had never seen, never experienced.
It was the first time in his life he had drawn so much attention, and he did not know what to do with it.
Not to mention that he had just danced so embarrassingly—who knew how other people were looking at him now.
After stepping into society, he had gradually developed a sense of pride too. Every second the camera stayed on him was torture. His nails scratched faintly against the chair under him.
Why had Shi Ye been smiling at him just now? Was he laughing because the dance had been humiliating?
If that was the case, then his goal had been achieved.
“My boyfriend!”
An excited shout rang out beside his ear.
Xia Fengsheng’s pupils shrank.
On the giant screen, Shi Ye wore a bright, dazzling smile, not the slightest hint of avoidance or embarrassment on his face. Pointing at Xia Fengsheng, he shouted proudly and cheerfully:
“My boyfriend!”
“He is so good!”
“Give him a hand!!”
Even without a microphone or amplifier, his voice carried clearly through the whole stadium.
The moment Shi Ye’s words fell, applause burst out like fireworks exploding into the air, thunderous from all directions.
Beside them, Ding Qizhen bounced around like an overexcited monkey, cheering and shouting, rhythmically chanting Xia Fengsheng’s name.
“Wooooooooo!”
“Xia Fengsheng! Xia Fengsheng!”
The spectators in front of him gave him thumbs-up and praised him.
“Your dance is a surprise for us.”
A flash of bewilderment crossed Xia Fengsheng’s eyes. He had not expected people to cheer for his clumsy dancing.
The screen still showed his thoroughly reddened face, though from time to time it cut to shots of the audience clapping and cheering for him.
“Thanks everyone!”
“Our great artist is coming to a close.”
Shi Ye grabbed Xia Fengsheng’s hand and pulled him to his feet, then gestured for the cameraman to give the full shot back to him.
Xia Fengsheng looked at Shi Ye. Shi Ye winked one peach-blossom eye at him.
A long, beautiful hand traced an elegant arc through the air, like a swallow flying toward freedom and faraway places.
Under the gaze of the entire stadium, Xia Fengsheng gave a curtain call bow.
After he sat back down, people around him kept turning to talk to him. Without exception, they praised and encouraged him, saying he had made everyone happy.
A trace of astonishment was hidden in Xia Fengsheng’s eyes as he calmly responded to all the goodwill.
He just did not know why his crooked, wobbly dancing had made people happy.
“Holy shit, you’re incredible! Not a shred of stage fright, you just went right for it!” Ding Qizhen was utterly fired up. “Why didn’t you call me when the camera was on? We could’ve danced together.”
He waved both hands around, doing the dance moves they had learned earlier.
Back at the wetland park, it had not only been Xia Fengsheng dancing like dog shit.
Xia Fengsheng said, “I didn’t think that much.”
“Next time for sure,” Ding Qizhen said.
Shi Ye had already lowered the phone camera and switched back to the payment page to continue buying food from the vendor.
After paying, he took cash out of his pocket and handed it to the vendor as a tip.
It was a large tip, enough to surprise the vendor.
Shi Ye separated most of it and stuffed it into the kid’s pocket.
“This part’s just for you. For the hardworking little guy.”
Tips given to snack boys would often be taken by the boss. The child looked no more than eleven or twelve. Split in two: the smaller portion to hand over, the larger portion to hide.
“Who wants pizza?” Shi Ye asked.
Ding Qizhen raised his hand. “Me!”
Xia Fengsheng, already tired of pizza from having eaten it too often lately, chose the hot dog instead.
While they were eating, Shi Ye looked through the video he had just recorded.
Xia Fengsheng could not bear to look directly at himself on camera. “Why were you filming me?”
Shi Ye blinked, as if not understanding why he would even ask that, and said matter-of-factly:
“That’s a moment from your life. Of course it should be recorded.”
A person’s life only burned brightly a few times.
Only by recording those moments could you realize you had truly tried to live.
Watching him fling his head around in the video, Shi Ye deliberately exaggerated a gasp to tease him.
“Whoa! Totally master-level dancing.”
Those peach-blossom eyes of his were infuriating and inviting all at once.
“Whoa, and your acting was absolutely best-actor level too!”
“If it weren’t for you, the whole stage show could never have happened.”
The camera preserving a moment—Shi Ye had done that for him before, too.
That had been during the New Year’s Day gala in their second year of high school. Every class had to put on one performance.
The gala ran for two days, and the morning of the second day was the performance slot for the entire second-year group.
Each student could invite one parent to come watch at school.
Because parents were attending, the performance planning had to include every student. Even just showing their face was enough—parents would be happy to see it.
Under the stage were countless phones recording the students’ performances, preserving the beautiful green years of youth.
Xia Fengsheng did not care.
No one from his family had come. Forget stage performances—even at ordinary parent-teacher meetings where parents had to attend, no one from his family ever came.
From childhood until adulthood, no one had ever recorded his growth or taken photos of him.
If there were any, it was probably only the hundred-day photo taken when he was a baby.
It was not until high school, when Xia Fengsheng worked part-time and bought himself a second-hand phone, that he first felt the desire to take pictures of himself.
He thought: His youth ought to leave something behind.
The classmates around him loved taking photos. They would sneak a couple on their phones whenever the teacher was not looking. Being around people his own age, he had the same thought.
But when he opened the camera, all he saw in the lens was his own pale, lifeless face, so unlike the lively, pleasing images of his classmates. Gradually, Xia Fengsheng lost the desire to take pictures.
He had always been running around for the sake of living.
No one wanted to record exhaustion.
The few scattered photos he had taken were deleted straight away, which even saved phone memory.
On the day of the gala performance, Xia Fengsheng stood in the corner with green tinsel wrapped around his head, playing the role of a tree.
There were nearly forty students in the class. It was impossible for every single one to have an important role, much less someone like him who rarely spoke in class and did not talk to others.
The teenage Xia Fengsheng did not yet have the composure he had now.
He was inferior, sensitive, extreme in thought, and gloomy in a way that made people uncomfortable.
At first, Xia Fengsheng had not wanted to perform at all. The class monitor had helped him secure the role of a tree.
He stood on stage for twenty minutes without moving once, until the whole thing ended.
After the performance ended, the students ran off the stage to find their parents.
Xia Fengsheng came down and did not know where to go.
“Hahahahahahaha, who wrapped that around your head?”
Suddenly laughter rang above him, and the tinsel on his head was removed. Shi Ye had appeared beside him at some point.
At that time, the two of them had already been dating for almost a year.
Shi Ye’s sudden appearance surprised him greatly, considering they had fought the day before and had not spoken all night.
Xia Fengsheng froze for a moment, his fingers digging into the flesh of his palm, those dark eyes shifting as he said coldly, “Why are you here?”
Shi Ye’s class was scheduled much later in the performance order. At this moment, he should have been preparing with his classmates.
“What do you mean, why am I here? How could I not come watch your performance?”
A boy raised in love thought it would be a tremendous matter if no one important came to watch when he performed on stage. Every time Shi Ye performed dance, his parents and family had to be there. Even if something important came up, they had to take leave and come anyway.
His smiling eyes narrowed as he looked at Xia Fengsheng’s stubborn refusal to look at him. “What? You thought I wouldn’t come?”
Xia Fengsheng’s gaze dodged for a moment. He said nothing, only looked at him with bright black eyes, then lowered his head again.
Seeing how he said nothing but was still clearly happy that he had come, Shi Ye’s heart softened.
“How could I not come? If you were performing by jumping into a vat of hot oil, I’d still come.”
Shi Ye raised the camera in his hand.
A Sony with the best pixel quality.
“Look, I even recorded it for you.”
Twenty minutes and forty-five seconds.
From the moment Xia Fengsheng went onstage to the moment it ended, not one second was missed.
The footage was basically a personal fan-cam of Xia Fengsheng the whole time, with the occasional classmate performing passing through the frame.
While filming, Shi Ye never kept still for even a moment. His fingers would poke Xia Fengsheng’s head or arm from time to time.
Halfway through, there was even commentary.
“And now onstage we have the great performance artist Xia Fengsheng, who is carefully portraying a tree.”
“A healthy, upright tree.”
“Hahahahahahahaha.”
The teenage laughter made people’s ears itch.
Lowering his head, Shi Ye smiled and said to him, “You acted so well.”
After looking into his eyes, Xia Fengsheng looked away. “It was okay.”
“Can I get your autograph?”
“My greatest wish in this life is to receive Actor Xia’s autograph.”
That was the first time someone had taken photos and recorded his performance when he went onstage.
The roar of fireworks exploded, and the baseball game began. Xia Fengsheng was pulled out of his memories.
The Falcons entered, and the whole stadium exploded into deafening cheers, everyone raising their arms and shouting. It was easy to see how powerful this team really was.
The baseball game did not end until three in the afternoon.
When it was over, the three of them walked out carrying their own things. As they came outside, they saw quite a few street-media reporters interviewing fans on the plaza.
One reporter noticed them and strode over.
“Sorry to take a little of your time—would it be convenient for us to interview you?”
The three of them did not refuse.
Facing the camera, the reporter said, “This match was an exciting chase from beginning to end and incredibly thrilling. Now let’s interview some fans who have just come out of the stadium and ask how the viewing experience was.”
“Hi, everyone.”
Xia Fengsheng and the other two greeted the camera.
They were standing in order: Shi Ye, Xia Fengsheng, Ding Qizhen.
“What’s your name?”
“Shi Ye,” Shi Ye said into the microphone.
The reporter then moved the microphone to Xia Fengsheng’s mouth.
“Xia Fengsheng.”
The reporter asked, “What did the two of you think of this game?”
Shi Ye and Xia Fengsheng answered one after the other.
Right when Ding Qizhen was wondering why the reporter still had not asked for his name, the two of them had already finished sharing their impressions of the match.
The reporter handed the microphone to Ding Qizhen. “What do you think, Steve?”
Ding Qizhen: ……
Your name is Steve. Your whole family is Steve!
My name is Ding Qizhen!!!!
After a whole day of hot-blooded excitement, the three returned to the hotel with their throats so hoarse it felt like they had not had water in five or six days, as if a whole rift valley had cracked open inside their throats.
Back in the room, the door shut.
Xia Fengsheng stood with his back to the door panel.
There was something he had wanted to do for a long time, but had never had the chance.
The room went quiet for a few seconds.
Then Xia Fengsheng rasped out:
“Baojuan.”
He closed his eyes.
Yes.
That was the exact flavor.
Knock knock knock—
The door shook.
Xia Fengsheng opened it and met Ding Qizhen’s eyes outside.
Not knowing why he had come, Xia Fengsheng asked, “Something up?”
Ding Qizhen snapped his fingers. “Exactly.”
He acted mysteriously, turning back to check whether Shi Ye was anywhere within sight. After confirming he was not, he said in a conspiratorial tone, “Could I come in and talk?”
There were only three people in the suite. If he was acting this secretive, then whatever it was, he clearly meant to hide it from Shi Ye.
Xia Fengsheng tilted his head and let him in.
The moment the door shut, Ding Qizhen got straight to the point. “Tomorrow let’s go out and buy a birthday gift for Shi Ye.”
Shi Ye’s birthday was just around the corner. For the last several days, the three of them had been together the whole time, so there had been no chance to go out without him and buy anything.
“Shi Ye has something to do tomorrow and will be out,” Ding Qizhen said. “We’ll use the opportunity to go buy it.”
He added, “And you’re going back to China in a few days too, right? You can pick up some souvenirs while we’re at it.”
When you traveled, of course you had to buy a few souvenirs to take back. Otherwise the trip was wasted.
Xia Fengsheng nodded. “Sure.”
The next day—
Shi Ye went out early in the morning because of work.
The moment the door clicked shut behind him, Xia Fengsheng and Ding Qizhen appeared in the living room, fully dressed and ready.
The main mission today was buying a birthday present. The secondary mission was buying souvenirs.
The two of them mapped out the route for the day in simple terms, then headed out together.
A birthday gift for Shi Ye could not avoid luxury goods.
That would have to be bought last, since carrying a luxury shopping bag around on the street was not safe.
So first the two of them went to a souvenir shop.
There were all kinds of souvenirs laid out in dazzling rows—tiny oil paintings, fridge magnets, brooches, and so on. Every tourist destination in the world basically sold these same things.
The two of them lowered their heads and started picking things out.
Ding Qizhen noticed something and waved. “Xia Fengsheng, over here!”
Xia Fengsheng walked over. Ding Qizhen was standing in front of a sunlit glass display case, in the part of the shop with the best light and freshest air.
On the shelf sat rows of palm-sized potted plants.
Ding Qizhen took down a little cactus. “Take a few back with us. Aren’t they cute?”
Xia Fengsheng swept a glance over the tiny pots. “They’re all seeds and soil. Customs would definitely confiscate them.”
Ding Qizhen said, “Would sneaking them through not work either?”
He had never brought these before, but they were so tiny—it should be fine, right?
Xia Fengsheng said, “Even if you stuffed them up your ass, customs would still dig them out.”
Crude, but not wrong.
Just maybe a little too crude.
“Really?”
A delighted cry rang out from beside them.
Xia Fengsheng and Ding Qizhen turned to look, only to see a muscular man with a full beard staring at them shyly.
Excitedly, he started stuffing all kinds of small potted plants into his shopping basket.
The burning bottom was overjoyed.
Xia Fengsheng: ……
Ding Qizhen: ……
After leaving the souvenir shop, the two of them wandered for another whole afternoon, yet Xia Fengsheng still had not bought much of anything.
Ding Qizhen asked, “Why haven’t you bought much?”
Was he really planning to go back empty-handed?
Xia Fengsheng said, “It’s all too ordinary.”
“It might look ordinary, but buying it abroad and bringing it back home makes it different,” Ding Qizhen said.
Different how?
Xia Fengsheng said, “Because they all say made in China on the back.”
Ding Qizhen’s pupils shook. Slowly, he flipped over the Statue of Liberty fridge magnet he had just bought.
Made in China.
Ding Qizhen: ……
All strength and all means instantly left him.
“Then what do you want to buy?”
Xia Fengsheng said, “Obviously something genuinely local, something with true local character, something you can’t buy back home.”
Ding Qizhen thought about it.
Like that American-version Snickers that was sweet enough to choke someone to death?
Since the two of them needed to buy different things, they split up to shop and agreed to meet again at seven o’clock at a set street corner.
Ding Qizhen came out of the luxury store with a shopping bag in hand. Inside was a backpack he had bought for Shi Ye.
Shi Ye’s outfits always involved things like that. That guy would definitely love this present.
Outside, the sky had already gone dark. Streetlights came on one by one, and soon pure white snow began drifting down through the night sky. It was cold and quiet.
Ding Qizhen arrived at the agreed meeting point before seven and waited for Xia Fengsheng.
While he was looking down at his phone, something cold, hard, and metallic pressed against his neck.
His whole body jerked, and a dark premonition engulfed him.
Turning his eyes to look, he saw that what was pressed to his neck was a heavy metal baseball bat.
“Hey. Let’s go chat in the back.”
A wicked snicker came with it, like a building collapsing.
A robbery.
*
“There’s really nothing left! I already gave you everything!”
Ding Qizhen was kicked to the ground, his face swollen, his hands and feet trembling.
The robber was a burly man almost one meter ninety tall, with reddish-brown hair and a beard.
He carried an intense hatred of the rich toward someone like Ding Qizhen.
He grabbed Ding Qizhen and started slapping him wildly across the face.
Ding Qizhen staggered back under the blows. The scene in front of him blurred, both ears ringing, blood running from his nose.
He had already handed over everything he could.
The robber had a weapon. It would have been idiotic to fight back head-on. He could only think of how to protect himself.
Street robberies at night were common in America, but this was the first time he had run into one himself. He was a little out of his mind and had no idea how to get away.
The sheer terror made his legs go weak.
The robber looked at his expensive belt. “Take off your belt too. And your phone.”
With trembling hands, Ding Qizhen unfastened the belt and handed it over. When it came time to hand over his phone, he wanted to call the police and also message Xia Fengsheng, telling him not to come this way.
But the fact that he was fiddling with the phone clearly enraged the robber.
He lifted his leg and drove a kick into Ding Qizhen’s stomach.
Ding Qizhen collapsed to the ground, tears and snot streaming all over his face, the tears pouring from the corners of his eyes uncontrollably.
If the robber hit him again now, he would absolutely die.
“What were you doing just now, huh?”
The robber bent to grab him.
Right then, a figure appeared at the mouth of the alley.
“Hey. What are you doing?”
Arriving exactly at seven on the dot.
Xia Fengsheng had come.
Ding Qizhen closed his eyes in despair.
Not only was he finished, now Xia Fengsheng had gotten dragged in too.
The robber, seeing Xia Fengsheng at the alley entrance, broke into a grin.
Originally he had only been able to rob one person. Now a second had delivered himself straight to the door.
What a rare good day this was.
Seeing Ding Qizhen on the ground with blood running from his nose, Xia Fengsheng frowned faintly, then lifted those cold eyes:
“You hit him?”
The robber rested the bat on his shoulder. “I hit him. So what?”
Looking at how calm Xia Fengsheng was in the face of danger, Ding Qizhen swallowed.
He remembered that Xia Fengsheng had been very good at fighting in high school.
Maybe—just maybe—they still had a sliver of hope!
Three minutes later, Xia Fengsheng hit the ground beside Ding Qizhen with a thud.
Ding Qizhen: ……
Ding Qizhen: AAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Xia Fengsheng rubbed the bones that had been hurt in the fall. Too many years of sitting in classrooms had left him a little sub-healthy.
Pointing the baseball bat at the two of them, the robber said, “Raise your hands. Kneel.”
The two had no choice but to obey.
Then the robber noticed how stuffed Xia Fengsheng’s pants pocket looked.
“What’s in your pocket? Take it out.”
Xia Fengsheng said, “It’s just local specialty goods I bought. You don’t need to rob that too, do you?”
He had absolutely no intention of handing it over.
Ding Qizhen kept throwing him looks, telling him to hurry up and give it over, otherwise he was going to get beaten in a minute.
The robber barked loudly, “Hand it over, or I’ll smash your head in right now.”
Fine.
Xia Fengsheng stood up.
The robber said, “What are you doing?”
Xia Fengsheng pointed at his pants. “The angle of the pocket is limited. I can’t get it out while kneeling.”
The robber figured there was probably nothing he could pull anyway, so he let him stand and take it out.
The very next second, Xia Fengsheng pulled the local specialty out of his pocket.
Gripped it.
Loaded it.
Aimed it.
“Now throw away the baseball bat, or I’ll blow your head open.”
From the ground, Ding Qizhen stretched out his neck in shock to see.
Ding Qizhen: jaw-dropped dog-stare.jpg
Brother—seeds can’t be taken back through customs, but this thing can?
