“What’s the use of covering yourself up so tightly…” As he said this, Huo Ranyin suddenly realized he had misspoken. He quickly tried to amend his statement, “For all you know, Classmate Zhou wasn’t thinking much of it, but seeing you cover up like that made him curious.”
“I can’t ask the past him if he was curious, but I want to know if the present you is curious. Want to take a guess at what’s on the tape?”
“No guessing,” Huo Ranyin refused flatly.
“Don’t be so cold,” Ji Xun coaxed him. “The night is long, and I can’t sleep. Isn’t this the perfect time to play a little game to pass the boring time?”
A very low chuckle came through the phone, as if Huo Ranyin found what he said amusing.
“You just said you needed to prepare for tomorrow’s book signing.”
“I’ve finished preparing,” Ji Xun replied swiftly. “I can recite the opening speech from memory. The rest will depend on my performance on the spot. So for the rest of tonight, my time is all yours.”
He paused for a breath after saying this, then asked Huo Ranyin in return:
“What about the rest of your time?”
“…You’re a bit different tonight,” Huo Ranyin said after a slight pause.
“Hmm, am I being more affectionate?” Ji Xun chatted leisurely. “A day apart feels like three autumns. Rounding up, we’ve been apart for a fall and a half, so it’s normal to be a bit more affectionate.”
Was that really it?
Let’s just pretend it was.
Huo Ranyin didn’t dislike the current feeling. It was just the right amount, neither overly affectionate nor overly distant, like warming a cup of red wine on a snowy winter day, with the leisure to add orange, apple, and spices, slowly concocting the most pleasant taste.
“Come on,” Ji Xun steered the topic back to the beginning. “Let’s guess again what was actually recorded on that tape.”
“You already said it’s not for kids, what else could it be?” Huo Ranyin retorted.
“Not for kids can go in two directions,” Ji Xun laughed. “On one hand, it could be blood and violence, and on the other hand…”
His voice trailed off, a faint breath traveling through the receiver to Huo Ranyin’s ear.
“Which one do you think it is?”
“…” The call had been so relaxed and comfortable before that Huo Ranyin had let his guard down and walked right into Ji Xun’s trap. With Huo Ranyin’s intelligence, he really couldn’t say the contents of the tape were “blood and violence,” but to say it was the other thing…
Some things that could be said and done face-to-face, things that had been said and done, suddenly took on a new freshness over the phone, making one feel… involuntarily shy.
Huo Ranyin didn’t answer for a long time. Ji Xun thoughtfully provided the answer:
“Things we’ve done?”
“…”
Huo Ranyin still didn’t answer, but the other person’s breathing was constant in his ear. No matter what he said, Huo Ranyin didn’t put the phone aside.
Ji Xun’s chin rested on the pillow, the soft pillow nearly burying half his face.
He couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are you laughing at?” Huo Ranyin finally spoke. “You used to be such an innocent young man, but now you’ve completely changed.”
“From your tone, it sounds like you prefer the old me, huh?”
“Hmph,” Huo Ranyin grunted noncommittally.
“It’s easy to change back,” Ji Xun said. “How about this: you pant for me a little, and I’ll cover my face with my jacket and change back to my old self in a second. How about that?”
“…”
There was a short silence on the other end of the line. Then, the call was disconnected, but a video call invitation from WeChat immediately came through.
Ji Xun accepted it.
Huo Ranyin’s face appeared on the phone screen.
He had already changed into pajamas and looked like he had just showered. Only his semi-dry hair held some water droplets, which threatened to fall with his movements.
The man facing the camera was extremely calm and composed, showing none of the slight shyness he had revealed on the phone.
“You cover up first, then we’ll talk.”
Ji Xun eyed Huo Ranyin for a couple of seconds, then slowly pulled up the blanket. The hotel’s air conditioning was on high, and he hadn’t been under the covers. Now the blanket slid up from his ankles, past his waist and abdomen, his back… Ji Xun stopped just before it covered his neck and head. He wore the blanket like an ill-fitting overcoat, leaving enough empty space for a whole person beside him.
“I saved you a spot. Coming over?” Ji Xun said.
Only then did Huo Ranyin realize that wasn’t just an empty space, it was his spot. He almost agreed.
But Ji Xun didn’t wait for his answer and laughed again, “Alright, you have work. You probably can’t make it.”
So the blanket went over his head, and Ji Xun rolled himself up, turning into a chubby white caterpillar.
After he was all rolled up, as if feeling empty without his wife beside him at night, he first let out a hollow sigh, then said excitedly to the camera, “I did it. Your turn.”
On the other end of the video, Huo Ranyin admired him intently for three seconds, then revealed a cunning smile:
“WeChat isn’t secure. Let’s first talk about what happened next in Qin City back then.”
However, the police captain was well-versed in the “stick and carrot” approach and added, “As for the other things, we’ll wait until you get back…”
Leaving a deeply suggestive trail, Huo Ranyin swiped his finger, ending the video call.
Then, the phone rang again.
Ji Xun looked at the three words “Huo Ranyin” flashing on his phone screen, tutted twice, answered the call again, and began to talk about what happened next.
__
After the major embarrassment at the small restaurant in front of the school at noon, Ji Xun spent the whole afternoon convincing himself to swallow the feeling of awkwardness like a big duck egg.
Although it was difficult, he finally let out a long sigh of relief after swallowing it, and even thought with some relief:
In any case, I was wearing headphones, so Classmate Zhou didn’t hear anything inappropriate.
But it turned out he had sighed in relief too soon. That very evening, Classmate Zhou heard the inappropriate content broadcasted on a loudspeaker.
It was just getting dark. The afternoon classes at Qin University Affiliated High School had just ended. Ji Xun had brought Zhou Zhaonan along, rushing to Zhonghe Road to continue observing Zhen Huan’s parents. From their behavior in the morning, it seemed they were determined to cause trouble, so they would definitely stay until 6-7 PM, when everyone got off work and foot traffic was at its peak.
Ji Xun was mentally prepared for these two to cause a scene.
But he didn’t expect them to make such a big scene. They had brought public address equipment and were broadcasting the contents of the tape he had listened to at noon:
Xu Shijin’s parents’ bedroom activities!
It was the same spot, the same two people, but now they held a black portable speaker. The speaker’s large horn was aimed at Building C, and from it blared a woman’s incessant moans and a man’s continuous teasing, interspersed with the couple’s conversations about their daughter and complaints about their neighbors… all broadcasted with crystal clarity and deafening volume.
Because of the sensational sounds, the surrounding crowd had grown exponentially compared to the morning. As far as the eye could see, it was three layers deep inside and three layers deep outside, completely packed.
“…”
Ji Xun saw that Zhou Zhaonan’s already expressionless face became even more expressionless. Only his unreadable eyes cast a strange glance at him.
Those eyes seemed to say: So this is what you were listening to in public at noon…
His brain shut down on the spot.
Wait, I clearly took the tape. I listened to it. It’s still deep in my pocket. How did it suddenly end up in this couple’s hands and get broadcasted… Damn it!
He thought and thought, and his nearly-tangled nerves finally straightened out, his IQ returning to normal levels.
His tape was still in his coat pocket. The one this couple had must be a second copy.
Listening closely, one could actually notice subtle differences in the ambient sound of the broadcasted tape compared to the one he had listened to. Thinking about it, the eavesdropper likely first recorded the bedroom scene with a recording device, then transcribed it onto tapes at different times, resulting in the same content having different background noise…
That’s right, the person who dropped the tape didn’t just drop one. When he went to Zhen Huan’s parents’ house, the kitchen window was open. The mysterious person who dropped the tapes threw two in at once—one slipped under the door, and one thrown through the window. He had taken the one from under the door, but the one thrown through the window was obscured by a cabinet, so he hadn’t seen it. But Zhen Huan’s parents, who had returned home in the meantime, found it, listened to it, and brought it here…
“Someone’s coming down!” A sudden commotion came from the crowd.
Ji Xun was tall and had long legs. He looked into the distance and saw the elevator in Building C open. A man and a woman with ashen faces rushed out, heading straight for the loudspeaker. Without a doubt, they were Xu Shijin’s parents.
He grabbed Zhou Zhaonan’s wrist and pushed and squeezed his way from the periphery of the crowd to the innermost circle. He got there just in time to see the next development:
Zhen Huan’s parents, who were sitting on the ground, saw their enemies and their eyes turned red with hatred, opening their mouths to speak.
But Xu Shijin’s parents were already so angry they were seeing red, their emotions even more intense than the other couple’s. These two white-collar professionals—the man who would hold a door for a lady when entering a building, the woman who would give up her seat on the bus to the elderly and children even while unsteadily standing in high heels—now threw all decorum to the wind. They lunged forward and started fighting with Zhen Huan’s parents.
“What now?” Zhou Zhaonan spoke, a rare occurrence. He seemed worried that Ji Xun would rush in and said directly, “They’re all worked up right now. If you rush in, you’ll just get hit by both sides and won’t change anything.”
“I don’t plan on rushing in…”
Zhou Zhaonan looked at Ji Xun with a not-so-trusting gaze.
“Really, I don’t,” Ji Xun had to emphasize again. “Your situation and their situation are different.”
While they were talking, some troublemakers in the crowd were cheering them on:
“Hit him… kick, kick him down there! Gouge, gouge his eyes out! Ugh, what’s the use of making a fist, you intellectual! Intellectuals don’t know how to fight!”
“Slap him, pull her hair… Yes, yes, when women fight, whoever has longer hair is unlucky, and whoever has sharp nails has the advantage!”
But most people were just watching the spectacle quietly. Some who had arrived late asked:
“How did they start fighting? I hope nothing serious happens. Should we call the police? Has anyone called the police?”
Then someone replied:
“They’ve been called, they’ve been called. The police have already been dispatched.”
A fight between ordinary people doesn’t last long. After just three to five minutes, both sets of parents were bruised and battered, their faces a colorful mess. The women had lost clumps of hair, the men had swollen eyes. Zhen Huan’s parents looked like they did manual labor and should have been stronger. Ji Xun had originally thought Xu Shijin’s white-collar parents would be at a disadvantage, but having lost all face, the refined couple was spurred on by a desperate courage. No matter how bloodied or injured they got, they clung to Zhen Huan’s parents and wouldn’t let go.
As the fight dragged on, Zhen Huan’s parents started to get scared. Once fear set in, their hands went weak.
Xu Shijin’s parents seized the opportunity. The wife, having lost all face anyway, acted like a shrew and bit fiercely into Zhen Huan’s mother’s hand between the thumb and forefinger, as if wanting to tear off a piece of flesh. Xu Shijin’s father pinned Zhen Huan’s father down, randomly grabbed the plastic bag they had brought, covered Zhen Huan’s father’s head with it, and pulled it tight, looking like he was trying to suffocate him.
Zhen Huan’s father struggled at first, but after a moment, he suddenly let out an “Aiya!” clutched his chest, and with the plastic bag still over his head, flopped to the ground!
He went down very quickly.
Xu Shijin’s father, now without an opponent, reacted even faster. He immediately let go, rushed to the loudspeaker, and turned it off. Only after the mortifying, private sounds disappeared did the couple let out a sudden, tense sigh of relief. They abruptly went limp.
Their minds relaxed, their faces blank, probably still trying to figure out what to do next… when a scream rang out. Zhen Huan’s mother shrieked, threw herself on her husband, and frantically tore the plastic bag off his face.
“Old Zhen? Old Zhen, what’s wrong with you? Is it your heart? Is it acting up?” She clutched the plastic bag and turned to glare viciously at Xu Shijin’s parents. “You’ve done it now. You beat my husband until his heart condition acted up. This won’t be settled so easily this time!”
“What… what do you mean we beat him until his condition acted up!” Xu Shijin’s parents came to their senses, dazed again, and couldn’t help but take two steps back, as if to distance themselves from the situation. “Who knew he had a heart condition? This has nothing to do with us!”
The surrounding crowd, seeing someone collapse, also grew anxious. Many took out their phones, asking, “Is it serious? Should we call an ambulance? Does he have any medication with him? Everyone stop arguing and give him his medicine first!”
Ji Xun, who had been watching from the beginning, had been waiting for this moment. He squeezed Zhou Zhaonan’s hand, giving him a signal.
He hadn’t noticed when he was just holding it, but when he gave it a deliberate squeeze, Ji Xun realized Zhou Zhaonan’s wrist was quite thin. It felt like the bone was sticking out, as if he lacked nutrition during his growth period.
Ji Xun felt it a couple of times and, in the tone of an experienced elder, whispered to the kid, “You should eat more meat usually to get the nutrients your body needs to develop.”
Then he let go of his hand. As Zhen Huan’s mother stood up to confront Xu Shijin’s parents, he shouted loudly, “I know first aid!” and rushed to Zhen Huan’s father.
He had seen it clearly just now. The way Zhen Huan’s father had collapsed didn’t look like the signs of a sudden heart attack. Now, standing over him and glancing down, he saw the man’s eyeballs rolling around busily under his eyelids and was immediately 100% certain…
This couple, first they sat quietly, then they broadcasted private matters, and now they were faking a collapse to play the victim. Their routine was one act after another. They didn’t even need a stage; they just had to stand in a crowd, and their every move, word, and expression was a performance. It was a waste of their talent to stay in Qin City. They should have taken on Broadway, competed for a little golden man, and they might have been world-famous long ago.
This internal monologue seemed long but happened in a flash. Ji Xun fell upon Zhen Huan’s father, glanced at the man, and began to perform CPR on him in a very convincing manner.
The moment Zhen Huan’s mother saw Ji Xun’s actions, she forgot about Xu Shijin’s parents. With a fierce expression, she turned to grab Ji Xun.
Zhou Zhaonan, in perfect sync with Ji Xun, stood directly in front of Zhen Huan’s mother, blocking her and preventing her from interfering with Ji Xun.
With a bruised face, he emotionlessly gave her a taste of her own medicine, “Don’t come any closer. If you come any closer, when the police get here, I’ll tell them all the injuries on my face are from you.”
Zhen Huan’s mother’s face turned red with anger, “Who hit you! I didn’t even touch you with a fingernail.”
Zhou Zhaonan was unperturbed, “He said, she said. Let’s see who the police believe.”
“Auntie, don’t worry, my skills are very good. Just give me some time, I guarantee he’ll live, ha…”
While they confronted each other behind him, Ji Xun’s actions were not slow. While talking, under the guise of performing CPR, he tickled the man on the ground.
The next second, in full view of everyone, Zhen Huan’s father thrashed on the ground like a fish, bounced up heavily, and shouted:
“Ha!”
“See,” Ji Xun spread his hands and smiled, “he’s alive.”
