Hu Pan was originally supposed to be on duty today, but Chen Jian sent her off to rest.
After everyone finished eating the sweet glutinous rice balls, they all dispersed. Hu Pan went to sleep, while Sanbing and Chen Erhu made a round inspecting the place before turning in as well. Once all the necessary lights were switched off, Chen Jian was left sitting alone at the front desk on the entire first floor.
A dog bed was placed beneath the front desk counter, where Mushroom was currently curled up with her eyes closed. She wasn’t actually asleep, though—the moment Chen Jian made any slight movement, she would open her eyes and start whimpering.
Usually, nothing much happened at this hour. Chen Jian unfolded the reclining lounge chair nearby, scooped up Mushroom to place her on himself, and then lay down on the chair.
Mushroom trotted in a few circles on top of him before finally choosing to lie down on his stomach and closing her eyes.
Chen Jian closed his eyes as well.
However, falling asleep was out of the question—he probably wouldn’t be able to catch a wink of sleep the entire night.
For many things, if he could choose not to overthink them, he wouldn’t; if he could avoid them, he would avoid them. As long as it didn’t affect his life or his earning a living, everything could be ignored for the time being.
Yet starting from that embrace today, everything had changed.
He could no longer maintain that act of pretending nothing had happened.
From the moment he reached out his hands and held Shan Yu, the balance was shattered.
Chen Jian closed his eyes and knit his brows.
He felt frightened.
And thoroughly flustered.
In the past, whenever something happened, he would keep it pent up in his heart; over time, the edges would smooth down until it vanished. Later on, whenever something came up—whether shop affairs or his own—even if he wasn’t keen on pouring his heart out to anyone, he would at least hope Shan Yu was there.
And right now, with this matter… it was the exact opposite.
A tiny prick of pain came from his stomach.
He opened his eyes and found that Mushroom had initially been suckling at his clothes, but ended up biting a nip of skin on his stomach through the fabric.
“You’re not looking for milk, are you?” Chen Jian used a finger to pry Mushroom’s mouth open. Mushroom promptly nipped onto his finger instead, biting and suckling away. He let out a sigh. “Haven’t you already learned to eat dog food? Why are you still like this? Do you miss your mother?”
Mushroom didn’t make a sound.
Chen Jian didn’t speak again either, nor did he pull back the finger clamped in Mushroom’s mouth.
The night remained exceptionally quiet. The wind outside blew hard; in the silence, one could hear the sound of tree branches snapping and falling, as well as the faint, rustling scrapes of unknown objects being rolled down the small path outside by the wind.
Just listening to the commotion felt cold.
Chen Jian pulled over his jacket, which he had tossed aside earlier, and draped it over himself.
He had sat under the tree for a long time today, a flurry of thoughts swirling in his head, yet he couldn’t name a single one. A chaotic mess of thoughts was like tiny glutinous rice balls tumbling up and down in boiling water—they seemed to fill his whole vision, but the moment he tried to fix his eyes on a specific one to look closely, it was guaranteed to disappear.
Right now, things were much quieter. There was no need to consider whether to overthink anymore.
All the chaos boiled down to two words.
What to do.
Oh, three words.
What to do?
It wasn’t until Zhao Fangfang arrived for work early the next morning that Chen Jian realized he had actually fallen asleep last night, and quite soundly at that.
He only woke up when Zhao Fangfang was nearly done preparing breakfast; he hadn’t heard a thing from all the prior noise.
“Morning, Sister Zhao.” Chen Jian lifted his jacket. Unbeknownst to him when, Mushroom had been squeezed out from under the chair’s armrest while wrapped in his clothes, looking as if she were dangling from the chair.
When Chen Jian fished her out, she was so anxious that her four paws didn’t even touch the ground as she jogged all the way into the garden to pee.
“Bundle up today,” Zhao Fangfang said. “I was freezing when I came over this morning. I heard from the people at those guesthouses up the mountain that it snowed up top.”
“Is that so,” Chen Jian stood up, put on his jacket, and put away the chair. “If another heavy snowfall hits, we’ll get more tourists again.”
“Panpan said she had a bit of a headache yesterday, probably caught a chill,” Zhao Fangfang said. “You kids, you’re never willing to wear more clothes until it freezes you to the bone.”
“She has a headache?” Chen Jian followed up with a question; he hadn’t noticed it at all yesterday.
“It started hurting yesterday afternoon. She even went to sleep for a bit; I covered the front desk for her for two hours,” Zhao Fangfang said.
“She didn’t tell me…” Chen Jian glanced toward the stairs.
“She’s fiercely independent, never says a word when something’s wrong,” Zhao Fangfang said. “Look at her family matters—she never talks about them. Only when we’re chatting casually do we hear a sentence or two, just like you.”
“I… am alright, I guess,” Chen Jian said.
“You’re also someone who keeps quiet when things happen,” Zhao Fangfang said. “Unlike me, I’m a chatterbox, can’t hold things in.”
Chen Jian smiled faintly.
Sanbing wasn’t working today, coming downstairs early in the morning.
“Going to pick up my bike?” he asked immediately upon spotting Chen Jian. “Shall we go?”
“…What’s the rush,” Chen Jian said. “We haven’t had breakfast yet.”
“We can eat when we get back,” Sanbing said. “My bike has been left alone in the village all night.”
Chen Jian was somewhat speechlessly amused. “When it’s parked at the shop, it has company, but left alone in the village, it gets lonely?”
“I’m afraid it’ll get stolen,” Sanbing said. “Did you see where Boss Shan parked my bike?”
“Right outside the courtyard gate of Xiao Dou’er’s house,” Chen Jian said.
“He didn’t even park it inside the courtyard,” Sanbing said.
If it really gets stolen, you can ask Boss Shan to buy you a new one…
“Let’s go.” Chen Jian didn’t argue further with Sanbing. Sanbing’s family financial situation was just average; this bike had been driven for several years and kept in great condition—Sanbing cherished it dearly.
“Put on thick clothes!” Zhao Fangfang called out again before the two stepped out the door.
“Thick ones!” Chen Jian called back.
His thick clothes were still kept at Xiao Dou’er’s house, so today was a good time to go over and grab a couple of heavy jackets.
The temperature must have dropped significantly last night; stepping outside today, the temperature felt noticeably lower than yesterday.
As soon as the motorcycle started moving, Chen Jian’s clothes ballooned into a sphere from the wind filling them up completely, freezing his empty stomach into a bout of spasms.
He pulled the zipper all the way to the top, but it didn’t help much.
“I’ll help you.” Sanbing hugged him firmly from behind, wrapping one arm around his waist and the other slightly higher across his chest, clamping his clothes tight against his body. It instantly felt much warmer.
Perhaps because word had gotten out that it snowed on the mountaintop last night, they even encountered two self-driving cars rushing up the mountain early in the morning while riding toward the village.
“Hope they freeze to death,” Sanbing said.
“Let’s freeze us to death first,” Chen Jian gritted his teeth and squeezed out a phrase through the gaps in his teeth to avoid swallowing wind.
Sanbing cackled in the back for quite a while—who knew what was so funny, looking like he’d been frozen silly.
However, when the bike pulled up to the entrance of Xiao Dou’er’s house, Sanbing’s joy vanished in an instant, replaced by fury.
“Holy fuck!” He jumped off the bike and began cursing aloud. “Who the fuck did this!”
Someone had poured what looked like pig feed or some nasty, messy gunk onto Sanbing’s motorcycle—a mix of liquid and sludge that emitted an unpleasant stench.
Not only was Sanbing’s bike covered, but the front gate and courtyard of Xiao Dou’er’s house were sprayed with it too, with a filthy bucket thrown onto the ground.
Chen Jian jumped off the bike and rushed into the courtyard.
Xiao Dou’er’s grandfather and grandmother were both in the courtyard, hosing down the ground with water, while Xiao Dou’er sat on the steps with her lips pouted out.
“Grandpa, what happened?” Chen Jian asked.
Grandpa let out a sigh and said nothing.
“What else could it be?” Grandma frowned. “Yesterday Grandpa went to watch people play cards and bumped into Big Megaphone again. They exchanged a few sharp words, and early this morning he came to throw a fit like this.”
Big Megaphone was Big snot’s grandfather. The elders of the two families had longstanding grudges; Xiao Dou’er’s grandfather usually avoided them whenever he saw them, unable to win an argument or a fight against them. Yesterday, he likely failed to dodge him.
“Fuck,” Sanbing was fuming with rage. He picked up the bucket, turned around, and marched out. “That old bastard!”
Chen Jian said nothing, turning around to follow him out as well.
“Chen Jian! Chen Jian!” Grandma hurriedly chased after them. “Don’t go! Forget it! Hosing it down will do…”
“We can’t let it slide this time,” Chen Jian said.
Previously, Grandpa and Grandma had let things slide every time—even when Big Megaphone smashed a hole in their roof with a rock, they let it slide, and Chen Jian had to climb onto the roof to spend over two hours fixing it.
Today, it couldn’t be brushed off. They were walking all over them now.
Sanbing marched ahead carrying the bucket. Turning his head to see Chen Jian behind him, he froze. “You’re coming too?”
Sanbing probably assumed this was just a trouble-making outing in his capacity as a member of the Pigsty Gang; that Chen Jian, who had always kept a clear line between them, was following along came as a bit of a surprise to him.
“Bullying Xiao Dou’er’s family isn’t a one- or two-time thing,” Chen Jian said.
“Fuck it, let’s go!” Sanbing turned his head back and forged ahead.
Big Megaphone’s family structure was identical to Xiao Dou’er’s: an old couple raising a grandson. The difference was that the entire family was made up of nasty pieces of work.
Sanbing kicked open their courtyard gate with one foot, swung the bucket in his hand, and smashed it inward.
A loud, metallic crash echoed.
There were still sludge residues inside the bucket. Chen Jian was standing behind him; had he not dodged quickly, he would have been covered in it.
“Who’s that!” Big Megaphone roared, charging out from inside the house.
“Your great-grandfather!” Sanbing roared back, landing another kick on the bucket on the ground. The bucket was kicked right into Big Megaphone’s leg, knocking the last bits of residue all over Big Megaphone’s pants.
“What are you doing!” Big Megaphone continued roaring, pointing at Chen Jian after realizing what was happening. “Are you fucking looking for trouble?!”
Chen Jian didn’t speak. He took off his gloves and stuffed them into his trousers pocket.
“Your great-grandfather here is looking for trouble with you!” Sanbing shouted right at Big Megaphone’s face, instantly slipping back into the state he shared with Chen Erhu back when they loitered on the streets, his skills not rusty in the slightest.
Chen Jian raised his hand and flipped over several baskets stacked in Big Megaphone’s courtyard. Then he picked up a chair and slammed it onto the ground, snapping its legs. Holding the broken chair, Chen Jian went on a tearing rampage through the courtyard.
Sanbing began wreaking havoc in the courtyard as well—whatever was hanging on the walls or stacked on the ground, vegetables or beans, was all swept onto the dirt.
There wasn’t much of value anyway; when Sanbing tried to head toward the pigsty, Chen Jian even stopped him. Just the debris they had knocked onto the ground was enough for Big Megaphone’s family to spend ages cleaning up.
Although the level of actual destruction wasn’t severe, the chaotic scale of the scene was more than enough.
Big Megaphone had been a bully who feared the strong his whole life and usually refrained from provoking Chen Erhu’s gang. Faced with this sudden scene, he was completely dumbfounded.
He grabbed a hoe and chased after the two of them, swinging it around, but his limbs were stiff and slow. Sanbing and Chen Jian ducked and darted through the courtyard, and he failed to land a single hit.
Big Snot’s grandmother burst out the door clutching Big Snot, wailing loudly outside that someone was committing murder.
A few neighbors gathered around, but seeing the scene in the courtyard, no one stepped forward to intervene.
Only one elderly woman outside asked, “Big Megaphone, who are you killing?”
He’s killing us.
Chen Jian still didn’t say a word. Seeing that it was about enough, he landed a final kick on the bucket, patted Sanbing, and turned to walk out of the courtyard.
As Sanbing followed him out, he pointed at Big Megaphone. “If my bike turns out to be broken later, I’ll tear the roof right off your house!”
Big Megaphone didn’t dare chase after them, merely standing in the courtyard showering them with curses.
“Why did you stop me just now? I was gonna fucking tear down his pigsty!” Sanbing talked as he walked, still feeling slightly unsated.
“Know where to draw the line,” Chen Jian said.
“You’re the one who knows how to draw lines too well!” Sanbing said. “In all the time I’ve known you, only Chen Dahu managed to push you over the edge.”
Chen Jian let out a tsk and kept silent.
Whether he knew where to draw the line or not, he actually felt quite refreshed right now, as if he had found an opportunity to vent.
As for why he needed to vent, he couldn’t explain it himself either.
Regardless, he wouldn’t have acted like this in the past.
Returning to Xiao Dou’er’s house, Grandpa had already used a water hose to wash Sanbing’s bike clean, leaving the seat and the entire motorcycle looking sparkling fresh.
“This bike…” Grandma was wiping the seat with a rag.
“It’s fine, won’t break,” Sanbing took the rag and continued wiping. “Anyway, that old bastard won’t dare come over here again anytime soon. If anything comes up in the future, just speak up—we’ll beat him half to death!”
Sanbing spoke as if they had already beaten Big Megaphone’s entire family to a pulp, leaving Grandma stunned on the spot.
“Hey,” Chen Jian shot him a look. “It’s enough that you scared them over there; why are you scaring people over here now?”
“Didn’t hit anyone, don’t worry, Grandma,” Sanbing said.
Chen Jian helped sweep the dirty water out of the courtyard, then went inside to grab two heavy jackets.
His phone chimed with a message from Shan Yu.
Chen Jian glanced at the time; usually at this hour, Shan Yu wouldn’t even be out of bed yet.
[Fa Shan Ke Chen]: Where’d you go?
[Chen Yu Luo Yan]: Back home to grab heavy jackets.
[Fa Shan Ke Chen]: Any extra? Lend me one.
[Chen Yu Luo Yan]: ?
[Fa Shan Ke Chen]: Which word don’t you understand?
Chen Jian hesitated for a few seconds, then dialed the number directly.
“Does a matter like this really need a phone call to confirm?” Shan Yu’s voice carried a heavy nasal tone.
“You don’t have a heavy jacket?” Chen Jian asked.
“It was still autumn when I came here,” Shan Yu said.
“So you didn’t think to bring one when you went back this time?” Chen Jian truly found it hard to comprehend.
“Didn’t bring one. Call the police on me if you want,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian was amused into a laugh and let out a sigh. “Fine then, I’ll find one for you… Did you catch a cold?”
“No,” Shan Yu said. “Just woke up, my nose hasn’t woken up yet.”
Chen Jian packed the two heavy jackets he had originally intended to bring into a bag. Whether Shan Yu asked to borrow one or not, these were the only two he had—he didn’t have extra.
Still, he was better off than the boss—the boss only had one outer garment, officially termed a jacket.
After packing the clothes and giving Shan Yu’s gift to Xiao Dou’er, he made another trip into the kitchen.
“Thank you, Brother Chen Jian,” Xiao Dou’er followed behind him.
“You should thank Brother Boss—he bought this for you,” Chen Jian said.
“He’s not here,” Xiao Dou’er said.
“I’ll pass the message to him,” Chen Jian said.
“Okay,” Xiao Dou’er nodded, repeating herself once more. “Thank you, Brother Boss!”
When they returned to Dayin, Brother Boss was surprisingly sitting in the dining room, a bowl of noodles set before him.
Shan Yu rarely came down to eat, as Chen Jian usually brought his meals upstairs for him. Today was likely because he had been away on a business trip for a few days and wanted to come down to greet everyone. But still…
Chen Jian glanced at the breakfast selection—there were steamed buns, soybean milk, and fried dough sticks—yet Shan Yu had specifically made himself a bowl of noodles.
“Swirl it with chopsticks to eat,” Hu Pan offered him advice from the side. “Just like foreigners eating spaghetti.”
“How about grabbing a fork?” Sanbing brought over a few steamed buns.
Shan Yu raised his eyes to look at Chen Jian.
Chen Jian had originally intended to speak, but inexplicably felt a surge of panic upon meeting his gaze. A simple sentence came out stumbling like he’d tripped over his own feet: “Can’t… what’s it called? Can’t you eat buns instead?”
Shan Yu leaned back against the chair and laughed silently.
“He wants to practice,” Hu Pan said. “Makes sense too—his hand will take a while to recover. He can’t eat buns every day, so practicing with his left hand works.”
“How about…” Chen Jian hesitated, pulling out a set of utensils from his bag that he had prepared for Shan Yu, though he hadn’t originally intended to give them to him in front of so many people. “Use this then. It’s just been washed.”
He handed a set of pink bear-themed learning chopsticks for kids over to Shan Yu.
“Where did this come from?” Shan Yu looked at him in shock.
“…Xiao Dou’er’s,” Chen Jian said.
Shan Yu took the chopsticks, inspected them, and uttered a sigh of admiration. “You are truly… impressive.”
“Hey, this is great! How come we didn’t think of it!” Hu Pan laughed so hard her bowl almost flipped onto the table.
“No need to practice anymore either,” Sanbing said while eating and chuckling.
It had to be said that these chopsticks were quite practical. Although Shan Yu ate slowly, he managed to smoothly finish the bowl of noodles.
“I brought the clothes over,” Chen Jian said. “Give them a try in a bit.”
“Mm,” Shan Yu acknowledged.
“You didn’t catch a cold?” Chen Jian heard his voice sounding fairly normal now, but still felt slightly concerned. “You slept on the sofa yesterday.”
“Mm,” Shan Yu looked at him. “Someone remembered to turn off the light when leaving, but didn’t know to tell me to go sleep in the bedroom.”
“…Didn’t you have trouble falling asleep?” Chen Jian felt a bit embarrassed, scratching his hair. “It wasn’t easy for you to fall asleep.”
Shan Yu kept looking at him, breaking into a smile after a moment. “Fuck, I actually can’t refute that.”
Chen Jian wanted to say something more, but a guest walked up to the front desk saying she wanted to make a complaint. He hurriedly stood up and walked over, turning back after a couple of steps to point at his bag. “The clothes are over there.”
“Go handle it,” Shan Yu jerked his chin up.
The guest was a woman in her thirties, dissatisfied that two bottles of water hadn’t been delivered to her room last night.
“I’ve stayed here for three days, and I need two bottles of water every night. You only have a handful of guests here altogether—can’t you proactively fulfill a small request like this?” the guest said. “Do I really have to call every time?”
“It was an oversight on our part. Someone will bring the water up to you shortly, along with a small snack,” Chen Jian didn’t argue with her. “Thank you very much for supporting our work.”
The guest grumbled a few more sentences before turning around and heading upstairs.
“I almost got into a fight with her,” Hu Pan pursed her lips.
“There’s no need. Bring her some of those snacks you guys don’t like eating, then head back to the dorm to rest.” Chen Jian was currently in a pretty good mood. He glanced back toward the dining area, finding that the boss had indeed slipped away, carrying his bag along with the two jackets inside it.
“Why should I rest?” Hu Pan asked.
“Don’t you have a headache?” Chen Jian glanced at her. “Go rest. I’ll stay here and hold down the fort.”
Perhaps because it had snowed up on the mountain, room reservation calls picked up noticeably this morning. Toward noon, a succession of walk-in tourists driving in from the city arrived as well.
After finishing checking these guests in, Chen Jian stretched his back, hesitating over whether to go upstairs and check if the jacket fit Shan Yu…
Chen Erhu, who was standing by the entrance, turned his head and remarked, “A nice car just arrived.”
Chen Jian looked outside. He couldn’t quite tell what kind of nice car it was, but caught sight of the license plate at a glance.
The license plate was from Shan Yu’s hometown.
In truth, non-local cars weren’t common around here, especially since the ski season hadn’t arrived yet—most visitors were local self-drivers from the city.
Seeing that license plate, Chen Jian wondered if he was being overly sensitive, as he immediately thought of the affairs Shan Yu had gone home to handle and the injury on his hand.
He didn’t know how Shan Yu’s affairs had ultimately been handled, or what the outcome was…
He walked over to the doorway.
A man wearing sunglasses stepped down from the driver’s seat. He looked up at the guesthouse sign, then retracted his gaze to look at Chen Jian.
“Welcome to Dayin,” Chen Erhu said. “Do you have a reservation?”
“No rush,” the man said, walking back out toward the courtyard gate. “It’s not settled where I’m staying yet. Are there a few more guesthouses further inside?”
Chen Erhu froze, looking back at Chen Jian.
If you’re not staying here, why park at our place?
Isn’t this looking for trouble?
“Then please pay the parking fee,” Chen Jian said.
“What’s that now?” The man stopped in his tracks, turning his head to stare at him.
“Ten yuan,” Chen Jian said.
