In the Same Boat

When Qu Yiheng went downstairs, he held the mobile phone tightly in his hand, as if he was afraid of accidentally dropping it, or of someone stealing it.

He walked quickly to the door of the building and breathed a sigh of relief as he breathed in the air outside, but in reality, he didn’t know what he was so nervous about.

He opened WeChat and glanced at the friend request again. It had been two or three days ago, did he seem too rude to not pass it all the time?

Despite this thought, he didn’t add him as a friend right away, but tucked his phone away and went to the convenience store in front of his neighborhood to buy sugar.

On the way back, Qu Yiheng was still thinking about the incident, why did Yao Zhan suddenly add him as a friend?

The two of them hadn’t had any contact for fifteen years, and the meeting that day was an accident, and sleeping together was something that wasn’t originally planned.

Qu Yiheng didn’t think Yao Zhan was interested in him, and he consciously didn’t care about Yao Zhan. After all, Yao Zhan dressed up and left without asking if he wanted to leave any contact information. They didn’t mention it, but their relationship was obvious – a casual encounter of fuck buddies.

What is this called? – One night stand.

They are thousands of kilometres apart, and even a long-term sexual relationship of a friend with benefits is not a good idea.

Qu Yiheng couldn’t think of a reason for Yao Zhan to add himself as a friend, and he was confused until he went to bed at night, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, before he finally clicked Add Friend on an impulse.

He stared at the dialog box for almost an hour, after which he put his phone under the pillow. Throughout the night, he slept restlessly, waking up almost once an hour or so. When he woke up, he took his phone to check the time, and also to see if anyone had sent him WeChat.

Of course there was none.

There was no movement from Yao Zhan’s side.

The thing about WeChat, it was not that Yao Zhan deliberately hung on to Qu Yiheng, but that he really hasn’t seen it.

That day, he was on night shift, and in the evening there were some children with food poisoning. Their entire department was so busy that they even called back the doctors who were on the day shift.

The situation of those children was not very good, and their parents were making a fuss outside, causing everyone to be anxious and it didn’t stop until almost dawn.

Yao Zhan had a meal in the unit’s canteen, he went back to change his clothes and prepared to leave work.

It was only now that he touched his pockets and realised that his mobile phone was missing. He searched around the office and finally found it under a pile of cases.

He took his phone, keys and wallet and went out the door, thinking in mind that he had to hurry back and get some sleep.

Yao Zhan usually doesn’t take his phone with him when he’s busy, and only checks his records when he gets to his car after work.

This past night, there were no incoming calls, no text messages and no bill payment notifications. As for WeChat……He saw that Qu Yiheng had passed his friend request more than ten hours ago.

He recalled that he had sent his friend request at Yao Kan’s the day before yesterday, and it took three days before the other party added him.

Yao Zhan was not a cautious person, but he felt that perhaps he had overstepped the mark a little. When the two of them finished that day, he forgot to ask for contact information, but did Qu Yiheng really forget it? Or did he not intend to ask for it at all?

He remembered what Shao Wei had told him and was a bit confused by Qu Yiheng.

But man, who can understand who?

He couldn’t even remember why he suddenly wanted to add Qu Yiheng as his friend that day, he was so over the impulse that he didn’t know what to say now.

But since he had taken the initiative to add it, he should have said something first.

He worded it for a long time and sent a message: I just got off work.

“Someone sent you a WeChat!” Dou Yucong bjt into his chopsticks and glanced at the phone on the table, “It’s Yao Zhan ah.”

Qu Yiheng rushed out of the washroom and went back in with his phone.

“Huh, what important person?” Dou Yucong lowered his head and continued eating.

Qu Yiheng was looking at the mirror in the washroom to cut his hair, he didn’t want to go to the barber shop because the barber shop people talked too much.

Halfway through the haircut, Dou Yucong said that Yao Zhan had sent a message, and he put down the scissors and rushed out.

Now he was standing in front of the sink with his messy hair cut, looking down at the words “I just got off work” sent by Yao Zhan, not knowing what to reply.

“Are you still eating? It’ll get cold later.”

Dou Yucong was outside urging Qu Yiheng, but he was more excited to see what kind of haircut his brother could get than to have him come out for dinner.

However, it was a good thing that Qu Yiheng had a good-looking face, so it is estimated that any bad haircut would hold up.

When he heard Dou Yucong’s voice, Qu Yiheng came back to his senses. He thought about it and didn’t ask the other party what he did and how he got off work at this time, so he replied directly: ‘Good work.’

After he finished sending it, he put down his phone, quickly finished the rest of the cut, rinsed it with water, wiped his hair and went out for dinner.

“It’s not that bad,” Dou Yucong said, “At least it doesn’t look like a dog gnawed on it.”

Qu Yiheng ignored him and sat down to eat.

“Who’s that Yao Zhan? Your girlfriend?” Dou Yucong asked gossinpingly, “You’re finally getting the hang of it, huh?”

“No, my classmate.” Qu Yiheng looked up at him, “Does this name look like a woman?”

“That’s not true, I just can’t think of anyone else you’d contact besides your girlfriend.” Dou Yucong laughed at him, “You’ve been living in seclusion all day, why are you suddenly in touch with your classmates?”

“Coincidence.” Qu Yiheng didn’t want to talk to him about it anymore, so he looked down and ate.

Dou Yucong could see that he didn’t want to talk about it, so he didn’t ask. He poured him another cup of soy milk and said with a sigh, “I don’t want to go to work.”

“Then don’t go.”

“Tsk, I really can’t talk to you.” Dou Yucong stood up and stretched out, “I haven’t drunk the wine I bought yet, and I haven’t vented my painful feelings about my lost love. It’s finally Friday, you can drink with me tonight, I need to talk about my inner misery.”

“Drive safely and don’t forget your wallet, keys and mobile phone. I’ll sleep if you come back too late tonight.”

“……Okay, father.”

Qu Yiheng glared at him, “Don’t make a scene.”

After Dou Yucong left, Que Yiheng sat by himself at the table to eat, and suddenly remembered that he had left his phone in the bathroom and hadn’t brought it out.

He put down his cup and went to get his phone, finding that Yao Zhan had sent another message.

Five minutes ago, Yao Zhan asked him when he would go there.

In the past that city meant his secondary school days to him, and most of what he could think of was the time he spent fretting over exams. But of course, there were only a few times when he remembered the things he had done with Yao Zhan, but they were just starry embellishments to his past, he never cared much about them. The first image that popped into his head whenever he thought of that city was that day in the hotel bed, and the sound of Yao Zhan’s breathing close to his ear.

He put the phone aside and didn’t reply to Yao Zhan until he had finished eating, saying: I don’t know.

The rest of the day was a bit special for Qu Yiheng. As he usually went into the house after breakfast to draw. Sometimes drawing draft, a picture didn’t make much money but at least enough for a few meals. Sometimes he just practiced his brushwork and drew whatever came to mind.

Recently, he has been thinking about something. He doesn’t know if it will be important enough to affect his life, but it is important.

But today he didn’t have time to think about that, because he had been chatting with Yao Zhan on WeChat intermittently for a day.

Qu Yiheng is not a person who talks a lot. He is not willing to talk let alone type. He thinks that sending messages by mobile phone is too troublesome and tiring, if something is really wrong just call and make things clear in two sentences, if nothing is wrong then don’t chat.

But he made an exception, because Yao Zhan made an exception.

The two of them were not exchanging frequent text messages, one every hour or so, which did not delay their business, but in fact, because of this, Qu Yiheng did almost nothing all day, and Yao Zhan’s sleep was in tatters.

The day went on without much substance, a few words, all distant and polite, but just inexplicably chatting away, both finding themselves quite bored but having to admit that they were enjoying themselves.

At six o’clock in the morning, Dou Yucong returned, carrying two more cans of beer in his hands.

“You’re in a good mood today?” As soon as he came in, he saw Qu Yiheng sitting on the sofa with his mobile phone, the corners if his mouth slightly raised.

Qu Yiheng glanced at him, put down his phone and went to get the beer.

“Buying this much again?”

“Yeah, how else would you get drunk?” Dou Yucong entered the house, and before he could put his backpack down, the doorbell rang.

He ran to the door again in his slippers, picked up the takeaway, closed the door and came back in.

“Barbecue.” He asked Qu Yiheng to lay out a placement on the coffee table in the living room and put the barbecue on it. And the two brothers sat in the living room, eating the barbecue and drinking wine.

Qu Yiheng was a good drinker, as Dou Yucong had always known, but the two of them rarely drank together, and there was no point in drinking with someone who couldn’t get drunk.

But today, Dou Yucong’s aim was not to get Qu Yiheng drunk, but to get himself drunk.

From the beginning he didn’t eat much, he just drank. Took a big sip, and drank in a hurry. The beer flowed down the corners of his mouth and down his neck onto his clothes.

“Drink slowly.” Qu Yiheng said, “Your clothes are dirty.”

“I don’t need them if they are dirty.” Dou Yuchong said, “I brought these clothes with that bastard.”

Qu Yiheng admired Dou Yucong very much. He doesn’t know what to say about this guy, a man who could hold back for days after knowing that his boyfriend of six years was cheating on him so as not to affect his work status, and only decided to vent the next day when he was sure that he didn’t have to go to work.

Is this the devil?

Qu Yiheng frowned at him and asked, “Tell me what’s going on.”

He didn’t like to meddle in other people’s business, but to him, Dou Yucong wasn’t considered someone else. And even though the two were not related by blood, they truly considered each other as their last family.

Dou Yucong drank so much that the front of his shirt was wet, and he squeezed the easy open can and said, “Brother, I feel particularly fucked, why won’t he even lie to me for a bit?”

Dou Yucong said, “I came home from a business trip that day and was quite happy that the house was clean, but I found a pair of black panties under the pillow that I had never seen before. At first I thought it was his, brought to have fun with me, and that night I wore it, you know? It was fucking disgusting, I still want to throw up when i think about it.”