In the Same Boat

When Qu Yiheng’s brother came knocking on the door, the person in the house was lying in the bed, dazed.

After so many years, Qu Yiheng had almost no friends. He didn’t make any nor was he good at it.

Hearing a knock at the door, he thought it was the landlord first.

A while ago, the old lady upstairs went out after filling the washing machine with water for laundry. As a result, there was a lot of water in the house. The landlord came to ask if the water had seeped downstairs.

He thought this was the case again.

He has been in a bit of a pickle these days, and there is something big he needs to decide.

The person outside the door was persistent, but the man inside the door stayed still.

Dou Yucong knocked on the door until his hands hurt, but didn’t see any moment inside. He knew his brother’s character too well. He wanted to stop shouting in the morning, but the person inside still didn’t respond. He lost his patience and cleared his throat and shouted at the closed door, “Qu Yiheng! Your own brother is here!”

When Qu Yiheng heard this, he hurriedly got out of bed.

When the door opened, Qu Yiheng frowned at Dou Yucong, who was fleeing a larger package in front of him, and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“First let me in.” Dou Yucong pushed the suitcase in his hand towards Qu Yiheng’s house.

Qu Yiheng turned sideways to let him in. Dou Yucong cursed and said while taking things in the house, “I’m really convinced, is there anything good about guys these days?”

Qu Yiheng looked at him, “You’ve brought us both in, I don’t know what you’re like, but I think I’m okay.”

Dou Yucong smiled at his brother, “That’s true.”

With three suitcases, two large school bags and a large travel bag, Qu Yiheng suspected that Dou Yucong was actually a ninja who could come out and help carry things when the time came. Otherwise how did he get all these boxes and parcels up here by himself?

“Brother, your house is so messy!”

When his parents passed away, Dou Yucong lived with Qu Yiheng for two years. Later, he fell in love and moved out. He was with this boyfriend for six years. As a result, just now when he came back from a business trip, he was surprised to find that there was a strange pair of men’s pants at home.

Dou Yucong usually looks like a coconut with a big heart, but in reality he has his own principles and boundaries, and he can’t tolerate this kind of grit in his eyes.

At home, he calmly listened to his partner’s explanation, then packed up his things and left without hesitation.

They rented the house, and they were paying half the rent until the end of the year. As he left, he was still thinking that it was lucky that their olan to buy a house together last year had not been finalized, otherwise no matter whose name was written on the property deed, the break-up would have caused a lot of trouble by now.

He came to his brother’s house decisively, and called on the way to find out that his brother was off the phone, so he must be home.

He knew this man.

Qu Yiheng heard him complain about the mess in his house so he said casually, “Then you should clean up.”

He helped Dou Yucong take all his luggage to another room and asked him, “Have you eaten yet?”

“What are you eating, I’m full of energy.” Dou Yucong really started to tidy up the house, found a garbage bag and put away all the fast food and takeaway boxes on the table, “Why don’t you ask me what happened?”

“You said it yourself, you were thrown out of the house.” Qu Yiheng siad, “Did you got caught cheating?”

“Are you my brother?” Dou Yucong complained, “How can you say that about your brother?”

“I’m not really your real brother.”

If there is anyone Qu Yuheng can talk to a little more and joke around a little, it is Dou Yucong.

Although they were not brothers, they had a good time after the family reorganization. A family of four was very harmonious. During that time Qu Yiheng was a lot more cheerful, but the good times did not last long.

Dou Yucong was so frustrated by his brother that he couldn’t say a word, and he hummed his head to clean up the garbage.

Qu Yiheng went into the house to put away his things and changed his bedsheets, and opened the windows of the room that had been uninhabited for a long time to ventilate.

“I’d rather be like you and find a nice girl and get married,” Qu Yichang says, but Dou Yucong can’t help but say that he’s like an open door in front of his brother’s face, and he can’t even look in, “Bastard men break my heart. ”

It’s not that Qu Yiheng is trying to hide it from him, but they hardly ever talk about it anymore, so he doesn’t feel like talking about it.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Qu Yiheng said, “you can’t go down that road.”

“Huh? Which one?” Dou Yucong flinched and found Qu Yiheng standing at the door of the room with a sullen look on his face.

Not only was Qu Yiheng’s face sullen, but his voice was also cold “Cheating on marriage.”

“Oh, I’m just saying, what can I do, that’s a scourge!” Dou Yucong waved his hand, “Forget it, you can’t even hear me when I’m joking with you.”

Any other joke is fine, but not this.

Qu Yiheng had loved people sincerely in the past, but in the end, the other party chose to live the so-called “normal life”, but to him, those people were no different from liars, harming others and harming themselves.

If there is one person in the world he hates the most, it is probably homosexuals who cheat on their marriage.

“What else do you have to eat?” Dou Yucong put the garbage he had collected at the doorstep and went to open the fridge.

There was instant noodles with roast pork, seafood-flavoured instant noodles, chicken stewed mushroom-flavoured instant noodles, and a can of Lao Gan Ma.

“I’m done.” Dou Yucong went into the bathroom, washed his hands and said, “Come on, let’s go downstairs and buy groceries.”

“You go,” Qu Yiheng said, ready to go back lying down and thinking about life, “I’ve got things to do.”

“What’s the matter with you? You’re like a corpse at home, don’t say a word, let’s go out and get some air.” Dou Yucong dragged him outside, “By the way, is your phone still on? I suspect you bought it just to show off your wealth.”

“I don’t have anything to show off, I’m just too lazy to turn it on.” He said, “No one’s looking for me anyway.”

“That’s a very chilling thing to say, brother!”

After being forced by Dou Yucong, Qu Yiheng finally left the house.

The two of them, one 6’7″ and the other 6’8″, stood together and Dou Yucong looked like Qu Yiheng’s brother.

Dou Yucong lives a delicate life. As long as he goes out, even if just buys a dish, he has to clean up smoothly. Even though today is the day he broke up, the day he was betrayed by his bastard boyfriend, the day he left his love nest after six years, he is still dressed handsomely, not like a man in his thirties, but like a chic young guy in his early twenties.

On the other hand, Qu Yiheng, who was just lying on a bed and was picked up straight away, could not look any better. A simple T-shirt, a pair of light grey knee-length casual shorts, and a pair of slippers on his feet, he really looked like an old man out for a walk.

Dou Yucong said, “Why don’t you get your hair cut when it’s long? Do all you artists have to wear pigtails?”

“I’m too lazy to go.” Qu Yiheng added, “I’m not an artist either.”

Dou Yucong laughed and raised a hand to his brother’s shoulder, “In my heart, my brother is the most talented artist, sooner or later he will be famous!”

Every time Dou Yucong says this, Qu Yiheng feels a little bit bad.

He didn’t expect his name to go down in history, but at least he had to make a difference.

He was known for his excellence at the Art Academy, and during his four years there, or rather until two or three years after he left the Academy of Arts, the name Qu Yiheng was often mentioned.

But that was many years ago. Qu Yiheng suspects that his creative career has been going downhill ever since he left the school, and that his creative career was just like his love life, a new waterloo every day.

Now he doesn’t want that anymore, he just wants to make sure that his life is at least of good quality, that he doesn’t eat one meal after another, and that he doesn’t lose his next one.

The two of them went to the supermarket and bought a lot of things, but Dou Yucong was richer than his brother, so he took him to the supermarket and put everything he saw in the trolley, asking him like a child, “Do you want chocolate? Do you want chips? Have you ever had this wine? Let’s buy two bottles.”

Qu Yiheng followed behind him and said, “You should buy less.”

“That won’t work,” Dou Yucong said, “We haven’t seen each other for a long time. I missed you. Let’s have a drink tonight, or else you’ll say I went outside and drank too much and got drunk with someone else, rather than with you.”

Qu Yiheng frowned and slapped him on the back, “Nonsense all day long.”

Dou Yucong laughed and apologised repeatedly.

The two brothers returned home with a pile of stuff and Dou Yucong volunteered to cook for them, so Qu Yiheng didn’t bother to be polite.

“Why don’t you turn on your mobile phone, in case someone really wants to see you?”

Qu Yiheng knew that no one was looking for him, as it was not the deadline for the publisher and the editor would not call him for help.

It’s funny, but when it comes to the time of emergency, all the publishers love to call him. It seems that they all know he is short of money and will not refuse.

As Dou Yucong got busy in the kitchen, Qu Yiheng went to the bathroom to wash his face and then went back to his bedroom.

His mobile phone had been lying on the bedside table for three days and he had not turned it on for three days.

After a moment’s hesitation, he took it and laid it down on the bed, grabbed a panda doll that Dou Yucong had given him last time he was here and held it in his arms, pressing the switch on button.

Before, Dou Yucong had said that he had bought the phone to show off his wealth, but in fact he had been using this broken phone for five years considerably and the boot speed is much slower.

The phone was turned on, but it took a while for various software to start.

He opened WeChat to see what the “Fifth Secondary School Class 13” had been talking about lately.

But after opening WeChat, he didn’t bother to read the group messages because he received a friend request.

In the ‘Last 3 days’ section, Yao Zhan’s name appeared.

For a moment, Qu Yiheng’s heart felt like it was being squeezed by a hand, and his whole body tensed up.

Looking at the name, he unconsciously recalled the hidden corners of his youth and the “youthful farewell ceremony” they had at the hotel at noon that day.

“Hey there’s no sugar at home!’ Dou Yucong suddenly poked his head in and saw his brother putting down his phone in panic, wondering, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Qu Yiheng got up, “I’ll go buy it.”

“Ah, then go ahead, I can’t have roast pork without sugar.” Dou Yucong told him, “just go downstairs to the convenience store, and buy it. Hurry up, I’m in a hurry to cook here!”

Lao Gan Ma

‘Lao Gan ma’ or ‘Old Godmother’ is a popular brand of chili sauces made in china. There’s saying in china that “Wherever there are chinese people, there’s is Lao Gan Ma”