Chapter 19 19. Dear, do you miss me?
As before, Zhuang Yongyuan liked to hide a spare key behind the window.
Xie Kang found the key, dusted off the dust on his hands, and opened the door of Zhenbao Barber Shop.
Zhuang Yongyuan was just downstairs, standing on the folding staircase. The setting sun was dim, and he was changing the light bulb, holding a small flashlight between his teeth like a cigarette. He heard the door open and turned to see Xie Kang. Without hesitation, he handed the old light bulb to Xie Kang, took away the flashlight, and instructed Xie Kang to bring him the new one.
"Is it still usable?" Xie Kang looked up at Zhuang Yongyuan and asked him.
"Let's try changing it first." Zhuang Yongyuan held the light tube to the clip and said, "Teacher Xie, you've walked into someone else's house without saying hello twice in a row. Isn't that really uncivilized?"
Xie Kang pointed to three large bags at his feet, which contained things like toothbrushes and toilet paper.
He said, "I guess you still live here, so I bought you some daily necessities."
Zhuang Yongyuan installed the light bulb, pointed to the switch on the wall, and said, "Turn it on for me."
Xie Kang pressed the switch with a "click", but the newly replaced light bulb did not respond.
Undeterred, Zhuang Yongyuan asked Xie Kang to turn the light on and off several times, but it still wouldn't come on. As the sky darkened, he cursed, "What a rotten house!" and descended the stairs.
Xie Kang took the opportunity to say, "No one has lived here for a long time. Maybe the wiring is broken. I'll find you an electrician to take a look. He's someone I know and he's reliable."
Zhuang Yongyuan ignored him, pulled over a plastic chair, and sat down to smoke. Xie Kang asked him again, "Are you sleeping upstairs? I'll carry your things up."
Zhuang Yongyuan still didn't say anything. Xie Kang picked up the bag and stepped onto the creaking stairs.
He had no hands to turn on the flashlight and climbed the stairs in fear, afraid that he would miss a step and fall.
A beam of light shone from behind him, and Zhuang Yongyuan's voice sounded behind him at the same time.
"Be careful, don't fall to your death or turn my house into a haunted house."
Xie Kang smiled silently, climbed the last few steps, stood on the second floor and looked around.
The place hadn't changed much since he last came here. Even the fallen ceiling fan was still lying on the ground, weighed down by a glaring red plastic rope.
Dust covered everything: the dining table, the sofa, the TV. Xie Kang pushed open the door to Zhuang Yongyuan's bedroom. The bed was bare, and one door of the double-door wardrobe was open; the other door was broken and had been removed and placed against the wall.
There was actually another piece of clothing hanging in the closet. Xie Kang walked closer out of curiosity and pulled up the sleeves of the clothing to take a look. It was a gray hooded jacket with the Adidas logo on the chest.
He felt that the clothes looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen them. He didn't have the impression that Zhuang Yongyuan wore such clothes.
Xie Kang put down his clothes, turned to Zhuang Yongyuan and said, "Why don't you stay at the hotel tonight? It's too late, and we may not be able to clean up here."
"Also, if the band is under financial pressure, I've saved some money over the years. Delivering food is too hard..."
Zhuang Yongyuan's eyes widened as he asked Xie Kang in disbelief, "Do you think I'm short of money?"
His nonchalant attitude was shattered by Xie Kang's words, and he turned aggressive: "Do you think being a teacher with a regular job is the best job in the world? Does it pay well? Do I need your help?"
Xie Kang scratched his face and said, "I just wanted to help. I don't know your situation."
"You're not from Lily Heart, so I wouldn't ask you for help if I really needed it." Zhuang Yongyuan said, pointing at the things Xie Kang brought and continued to scold him: "Also, there's no need for you to bring these things here to show off when a housekeeping team can handle it. Xie Kang, I've noticed that you've been in Pingnan for a long time, and you're no different from other Pingnan people."
His words hit Xie Kang's sore spot, and Xie Kang was speechless. The two of them remained silent until the ringing of the cell phone broke the silence.
Zhuang Yongyuan answered the phone: "Hello, you're here, right? Yes, the door is open, just come in, I'm upstairs."
The stairs creaked for a while, and several middle-aged men and women in orange vests came up, each equipped with professional tools, brushes and mops of various shapes, and fancy detergents.
"Yes, we need to clean this and that room. Don't worry about that closed room. Can you pay me more to do it faster? I need to stay here tonight. Okay, okay, thank you for your hard work."
A few minutes later, the orange vests were busy cleaning the dirt, fixing the plumbing, and packing up the trash. Someone, disliking Xie Kang's belongings as being in the way in the middle of the road, moved them to the wall.
Xie Kang then asked Zhuang Yongyuan, "You haven't eaten yet, right? Want to eat together?"
Zhuang Yongyuan calmed down and looked better, no longer as angry as before. He thought for a moment and said, "Let's go to Du Jiahao's restaurant."
"Okay." Xie Kang nodded, and the two of them walked to the side of the road and got in the car. The car was awkwardly quiet again, but when they got to the restaurant, it was crowded and noisy, and things got a little better.
Xie Kang scanned the QR code to order, carefully arranging the main course, snacks, vegetables, and desserts. Zhuang Yongyuan only ordered a bunch of beer.
The beer came up first. Xie Kang looked at the pile of beer and just opened his mouth to say something, but was glared back by Zhuang Yongyuan.
"Don't mess with me again." Zhuang Yongyuan warned him, skillfully opened the bottle, tilted his head back, and drank.
Xie Kang couldn't stop him, so he simply took a bottle of wine and drank it himself. He drank even faster than Zhuang Yongyuan. Zhuang Yongyuan looked at him in surprise and asked, "Are you not going to drive later?"
Xie Kang said drunkenly, "It's about calling a designated driver."
Zhuang Yongyuan then sped up his drinking, and the two of them opened the bottles and drank as if they were competing. People at the nearby tables noticed them and looked at them sideways.
By the time the food arrived, most of the beer had already been drunk. Zhuang Yongyuan poked his finger at the bottle to count how much each of them had drunk.
When he couldn't sleep late at night, Xie Kang would drink high-proof foreign liquor without adding water. If he wasn't in a hurry, he would add ice cubes. When he felt he was going to die if he didn't drink, he would just hold the bottle and drink. His alcohol tolerance was slowly improved, and this little beer was nothing to him.
But watching Zhuang Yongyuan's fingertips tapping back and forth, he felt a sudden dizziness, thinking of the thin calluses that always covered the fingertips of Zhuang Yongyuan's left hand. That callus had so many times slowly and teasingly moved across many parts of his body. When they held hands, the calluses left by playing the piano would always rub against the back of his hand.
When they kissed in the cemetery before, Zhuang Yongyuan's fingertips pressed on the back of his neck, and Xie Kang got goose bumps when he thought about it.
Zhuang Yongyuan raised his misty eyes, looked at Xie Kang with some pride, and said, "Four more bottles! I have four more bottles than you. I win."
"You win." Xie Kang smiled. Perhaps it was the alcohol that emboldened him, as he raised his head and looked at Zhuang Yongyuan without disguising his feelings.
It had been a while since they met again, but Xie Kang had never had the chance to take a good look at him.
Zhuang Yongyuan was still the same as before, each eyelash perfectly positioned. Xie Kang wondered why he hadn't spotted him on the first day of high school, or even earlier, on some street in Pingnan, which would have given him another layer of childhood friendship.
But Zhuang Yongyuan looked unhappy. Although he smiled, his lips curled up high, his eyes and eyebrows were not smiling. He was famous, so famous that he could completely disdain his own money. Why was he unhappy?
Zhuang Yongyuan was also looking at him, and they seemed to be starting a second competition, to see who could see more hidden things on the other's face.
It was hard to tell who was the winner in this match. As they competed, they started eating again.
There were salt and pepper mantis shrimps, and Xie Kang peeled them for Zhuang Yongyuan. Zhuang Yongyuan didn't hesitate and ate them very quickly.
When the meal was almost over, Zhuang Yongyuan got up first and staggered to pay the bill. Xie Kang followed closely behind him and heard the waiter say to Zhuang Yongyuan, "Hello, our boss just came over to tell us that your table won't be charged."
Zhuang Yongyuan laughed and said, "Where's your boss? Why doesn't he come out and say hello?"
The waiter was a young, good-looking boy. He was a little confused and said, "Well, he seems to be out..."
Zhuang Yongyuan didn't bother him anymore. As he was about to leave, he glanced back at Xie Kang, suddenly picked up a pen, wrote a number on the guestbook at the front desk, pushed it to the waiter, winked, and said, "This is my WeChat."
Without waiting for the waiter's reply, Zhuang Yongyuan walked out of the restaurant. He walked over to Xie Kang's car and lay there motionless, as if asleep. Xie Kang was much more sober than him. He called a designated driver and clearly gave Zhuang Yongyuan's address.
The Volkswagen stopped again at the intersection of Kaiping Street. Xie Kang helped Zhuang Yongyuan, who could barely walk, climb the stairs. It took a long time to get home.
The people from the housekeeping company had left. The barber shop was filled with the lemon scent of air freshener, and the two large mirrors were polished to a shine.
The lights were repaired, but too much lighting in an old house is not a good thing, as all the scars of disrepair were exposed.
The bed on the second floor had been replaced with a new one. The mattress and quilt looked soft and comfortable to sleep in. Xie Kang put Zhuang Yongyuan, who was almost asleep, on the bed. As he turned to leave, Zhuang Yongyuan opened his eyes and asked Xie Kang in a slurred voice, "Are you leaving?"
Xie Kang nodded and said, "Anything else?"
Zhuang Yongyuan slowly began to take off his clothes, first his coat, then his shirt, and even his vest.
He impatiently threw his clothes everywhere, and asked Xie Kang as he did so: "Aren't you going to stay? Let's hurry up."
"What are you doing quickly?" Xie Kang swallowed and asked him back.
Zhuang Yongyuan propped up his head, leaning against the pillow, sneered, and said, "Why are you pretending to be stupid? Isn't this the reason you come to me every day to show your affection?"
"This popular band's lead singer is your ex-boyfriend who you dumped. Are you so happy just thinking about it? You must have boasted to your colleagues several times about me crying and begging you not to leave, right?"
"And those friends you had before, oh, but now that you've fallen into this state, will they still play with you? Haha."
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