In the Same Boat

When Qu Yiheng received Yao Zhan’s message, he was about to call Dou Yucong.

It was Sunday, so it was not a working day, and he hadn’t heard the other party say he was going to work overtime, and it was kind of a habit between them to tell each other even if they went out, but Dou Yucong wasn’t there when Qu Yiheng got up early this morning, which meant that the other party had probably gone out temporarily and didn’t have time to tell him.

It had been a day, and there was no news at all.

Although a man in his thirties wouldn’t be lost, Qu Yiheng always felt that he was the older brother, and even though his younger brother was only a year younger than him, he was still occasionally uneasy.

What’s more, Dou Yucong had recently fallen out of love, and even though he had only complained and cursed a few times when he was drunk, Qu Yiheng understood that once a six-year relationship becomes a joke, no one will feel better.

He was afraid that something would happen to Dou Yucong.

As soon as he picked up the phone, the message came in.

Yao Zhan said: ‘I’m about to finish class, shall we have dinner together tonight?’

It’s no secret that Qu Yiheng had been waiting for this message all day. Although he wasn’t on the edge of his seat, he did glance at his phone every now and then to confirm whether the other party had sent a message.

It had been a long time since he had felt this urgency in waiting for someone.

Qu Yiheng replied to him: ‘OK, where shall we meet?’

He was certain that his longing and anticipation for Yao Zhan was not due to feelings, but because of the physical relationship.

During this period of time, his creative inspiration had dried up to the extent that he was struggling to even put pen to paper. In the past, when it came to such times, he went to get his ears pierced and tattooed, and about this, he did not lie to Yao Zhan.

But recently, he had found another way to vent his frustration, which was making love to Yao Zhan.

He often felt his blood flowing backwards when the two of them were in close proximity to each other, and at the same time, inspiration would come out of nowhere.

It was a wonderful feeling, like his body had a switch that only Yao Zhan could turn on.

He fell in love with the feeling of making love with Yao Zhan.

After replying to Yao Zhan’s message, Qu Yiheng called Dou Yucong, but after calling him twice, he didn’t pick up, so he started to feel a little uneasy, thinking something was going to happen.

Yao Zhan told him when his class would end, so Qu Yiheng thought that since he had nothing to do now, he might as well get out early and wait for Yao Zhan to finish his class.

He carefully tidied himself up again and went out.

The place where Yao Zhan’s classes were held was the old campus of a university, which had now moved away, leaving only a few school buildings to be rented out to various training institutions.

After getting out of the car, Qu Yiheng went straight into the courtyard. No one stopped him or paid any attention to him. He walked inside along the plastic track which was in a state of disrepair. He found a big lush tree and stood in the shade.

He had the illusion that he was back in secondary school. At that time, he wouldn’t have waited outside for Yao Zhan to leave class, but on several occasions, when he was outside during PE, he just stood under the tree and watched Yao Zhan play basketball with the boys, and when the game was over and Yao Zhan came off the court, he knew where to go when they looked at each other.

It was a tacit understanding that belonged to them, and a secret that belonged to them alone.

Thinking about this, Qu Yiheng smiled. In fact, there were still moments worth remembering from those days, because Yao Zhan was there, so it wasn’t so boring.

After Yao Zhan received Qu Yiheng’s message, he started to lose interest in listening to the lecture. He looked out of the window every now and then, his mind distracted.

When he looked out with his chin propped up, he also remembered that when he was in high school, Qu Yiheng’s grades were not good and Shao Wei dragged him to give him extra lessons.

In fact, that was when Yao Zhan first noticed Qu Yiheng. Before that time, this boy, who didn’t talk much and had almost no presence, had never caught his attention.

He recalled the first time they spoke. Qu Yiheng seemed a little afraid of him, not even daring to look him straight in the eye.

At that time, he had no patience, and when he gave Qu Yiheng a lecture on a topic he didn’t understand, he would become impatient and angry, and would ask Shao Wei to give him a lecture, and then he would go to the side to smoke.

He didn’t think anything of it at the time, but later when he recalled Qu Yiheng again, he thought the boy’s voice was quite nice, but he just seemed too timid and shy.

Yao Zhan just looked out, reminiscing, and then saw a man in a shirt and jeans walk into the courtyard.

He knew it was Qu Yiheng.

Yao Zhan squinted his eyes and looked out, because the distance was really far, he could only see the general dress of the other party. Today, Qu Yiheng looked more youthful than when they met yesterday, probably because of the light-coloured clothes he was wearing.

Yao Zhan looked at his watch, there were still thirteen minutes left in the class.

____

Qu Yiheng was standing in the shade of a tree, and it was still hot when the wind occasionally blew by.

He began to miss that city, that place where, no matter how hot it was under the sun, once he stepped into the shade, it was immediately much cooler.

For some reason, he actually kind of wanted to go back.

During the waiting time, Qu Yiheng kept thinking about things, during which Yao Zhan sent messages from time to time saying that he had seen him.

Qu Yiheng then turned around and went from window to window looking for a classroom with people in it. He walked forward step by step and gradually heard the sound of someone lecturing.

On the right side of the building, he stood still and smiled at the people inside the classroom.

Yao Zhan also saw him and raised his hand to greet him while the teacher turned to write on the blackboard.

The scene made Qu Yiheng, who was in his thirties, feel like he had really returned to his youthful days, and he looked at Yao Zhan and thought it was really good to have such a reunion.

After greeting Qu Yiheng, Yao Zhan picked up his mobile phone and sent him a message.

Yao Zhan: ‘You look like a college student today.’

Qu Yiheng was standing just outside the window and smiled shyly as he looked down at his phone.

He returns: ‘But I’m in my thirties.’

Yao Zhan: 'Looking young everywhere'

The phrase “young everywhere” had a flirtatious connotation, and Qu Yiheng felt his ears burning with heat.

The time before had passed very slowly, but since Qu Yiheng had arrived, Yao Zhan felt that these ten minutes were not difficult at all.

As soon as the teacher said class was over, he was the first one to stand up and pack his things to leave, but the good thing was, this training was not like the old classes, the teacher didn’t care so much about them.

Yao Zhan was the first to leave the classroom and walked quickly outside, and the faster he walked, the faster he went, he almost lost his footing and ran when he went out of the school building.

After Qu Yiheng saw them leave class, he changed from the window to the entrance of the building to wait for Yao Zhan, he stood at the bottom of the steps, watched the other party walk out quickly and said with a smile, “Tough class.”

Yao Zhan also smiled, “Those who don’t know would think I’ve been lectured all day.”

The two of them smiled at each other and walked towards the entrance with their shoulders pressed together.

“What do you want to eat tonight?” Yao Zhan asked.

“I…..” Qu Yiheng hadn’t finished his sentence when his phone rang, “Excuse me.”

He apologized and pulled out his phone to find that the caller was an unfamiliar landline number.

Qu Yiheng frowned, he didn’t like to call in the first place, let alone a number he didn’t know, and the last call from his ex-boyfriend had intensified his fear of unfamiliar numbers, so he simply pressed the reject button.

“Not answering?” Yao Zhan asked.

Qu Yiheng said, “Well, it should be a wrong number.”

This made Yao Zhan a little curious. The call had already come through and there were two reasons why people usually refused to answer, one was that they knew the number but didn’t want to answer, the other was that they really didn’t know the number and were too lazy to talk to anyone.

He didn’t know which kind Qu Yiheng was.

However, the caller seemed to be extraordinarily persistent, and just as soon as he refused to answer, he called again.

“Answer it,” Yao Zhan said, “it might be urgent.”

When he said that, Qu Yiheng could only press the answer button.

“Hello.”

Qu Yiheng looked over at Yao Zhan as he answered the phone, then heard the person on the other side of the phone ask, “Is this Qu Yiheng?”

“Ah, it’s me.”

“Do you know a man called Dou Yucong?”

____

When Qu Yiheng arrived at the police station, Dou Yucong was sitting there wiping his nosebleed, his face as ugly as could be.

“What’s going on?” As soon as he received the call from the police station, Qu Yiheng immediately rushed over here. The other party said that Dou Yucong had gotten into a fight with someone and that mediation had been completed, so he was told to come over and sign and pay the fine.

When Dou Yucong saw his brother coming, he instantly changed into a different person, looking at Qu Yiheng with resignation and said, “Brother, I got beaten up.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a man next to him spoke up, “Don’t be the first to complain, you were the one who started it.”

Qu Yiheng looked at the man and found that his face was also bruised.

He turned back to Dou Yucong and asked him, “Why did you fight?”

Dou Yucong, a thirty-year-old man, looked like a schoolboy who had been caught in a fight by his parents in front of his brother.

He said, “I wasn’t fighting with him.”

“It’s not good to fight with anyone.”

Dou Yucong looked up, “What about fighting the dog bastard?”

Qu Yiheng instantly understood what he meant, the so-called “Dog bastard” was his ex-boyfriend who had cheated on him.

“Let’s talk about it when we go back.” Qu Yiheng dropped these words and followed the young police officer to do the formalities.

It was only after he left that Dou Yucong noticed the man who had come in with him earlier.

Dou Yucong squinted at the other man, and after a few seconds, he said, “Yao Zhan?”

Yao Zhan was taken back and said, “Who are you?

“Nice to meet you.” Dou Yucong smiled and shook Yao Zhan’s hand, and introduced himself, “I’m Qu Yiheng’s brother, my name is Dou Yucong.”

Yao Zhan was a bit baffled. Just now, Qu Yiheng was in a hurry to get here, saying that something had happened to his brother. Yao Zhan saw that he was in a hurry and did not ask where his brother came from. Now, when he saw Dou Yucong, he felt more and more that there was something fishy about this brother.

If they are really from the same family, then these two brothers are very interesting. They look nothing alike, they don’t share the same surname, and the younger brother is so much taller than the older one.

“Yao Zhan.” Yao Zhan said, “Yiheng and I were middle school classmates.”

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“I know,” Dou Yucong smiled, sizing him up, “he told me about you.”

Yao Zhan didn’t expect it, or rather, he was a little surprised, “Really? What did he say about me?”

Dou Yu Cong smiled mysteriously and raised his eyebrows without saying anything.