Chapter 8 8. Night Tour
Pingnan is located on the coast, with half of the city on the other side of the bridge by the sea, and the other half on this side, leaning against the mountain, with buildings built up layer by layer.
Kaiping Street is a street, but it's actually a flight of stairs. On either side are two- or three-story self-built houses, with the ground floors often used as shops. It's a remote area, so most of the shops here are small, selling hardware, groceries, and rice cakes and fried dough sticks.
Xie Kang and Zhuang Yongyuan climbed the stairs and stopped midway at the entrance to the Zhenbao Barber Shop. The building housing the Zhenbao Barber Shop was Zhuang Yongyuan's home, a two-story detached house. Most of the first floor was occupied by his father's barber shop, with two small rooms at the back serving as a kitchen and bathroom. Xie Kang had been upstairs many times. There were two bedrooms, a dining room with a dining table and TV next to the stairs, and a balcony with a red brick railing.
After Zhuang Yongyuan's father died, the barber shop closed. The faded sign was blown away in some typhoon, revealing a bare, rusty frame. The plastic shell of the flower wheel also had a big crack. The plastic clothes rack that used to dry towels was covered with a thick layer of dust and swayed in Pingnan's last hot night wind.
There were no streetlights, only large bulbs hanging from utility poles. Zhuang Yongyuan kicked a stone the size of a bucket of instant noodles out of the way of the barber shop. He bent down to pick up the key that had been pressed against it, opened a small door in the rolling shutter, and turned to ask Xie Kang, "Is it okay to follow me here? Do you want me to let you in to sleep?"
Xie Kang said, "I'll go with you to see Li Xiuyu tomorrow. My number hasn't changed. Call me before you go."
"Did I ask you if you wanted to go?"
Zhuang Yongyuan turned around to close the door, and Xie Kang quickly put his hand in the crack of the door to prevent it from closing completely.
"What exactly do you want to do?" Zhuang Yongyuan stood in the darkness, his eyes bright, staring at Xie Kang and asked.
"I want to ask clearly... Zhuang Yongyuan, why did you let me go up today?"
Zhuang Yongyuan said nonchalantly, "Because of you, there are so many posts online discussing lesbianism today, and it even became a trending topic. This is why."
Xie Kang was silent for a while and said, "You..."
"What's wrong with me? If you have something to say, just say it."
Xie Kang was still hesitant, because he wanted to make a shameless wish next: "Actually, I..."
Zhuang Yongyuan frowned: "What exactly do you want to say?"
Xie Kang took a deep breath, but his breathing became increasingly irregular. He thought, isn't adolescence the most disorienting time of all? Every day, he stood at the podium, looking down, and saw the dense, sensitive, and hesitant gazes of adolescents. But Xie Kang's own adolescence was straightforward and straightforward, and all the hesitation seemed to have only surfaced now, as he approached thirty.
"What if I want to go back?"
"Where to go?"
"Reply to Lily Heart." After Xie Kang said these three words, he didn't dare look at Zhuang Yongyuan again. He knew how unbearable this request was. He had given up on Lily Heart and Zhuang Yongyuan himself, but he had to make this request today when Lily Heart was at the peak of her popularity.
But the sarcasm that Xie Kang had expected did not appear. On the contrary, Zhuang Yongyuan looked at him with a puzzled expression and a confused look, which was actually a bit naive.
Xie Kang coughed a few times and was about to ask Zhuang Yongyuan to let him in when a sudden phone ring suddenly rang in the quiet old street at midnight.
Zhuang Yongyuan took a look at his phone and removed his finger, which had reflexively pressed the mute button. His expression became serious. Without explaining anything to Xie Kang, he slammed the door shut.
The old iron door was well made, and once it was closed, Xie Kang could no longer hear any sound from inside.
He put his ear to the door stealthily, but his face was covered in dust and he couldn't hear anything.
Xie Kang sighed, sat down on the steps at the door, took out his phone, and sent a message to Adian: "I've sent Zhuang Yongyuan home, don't worry."
Ah Dian called immediately, and as soon as Xie Kang answered, she asked him, "Are you and Zhuang Yongyuan together now?"
"No, he's at home alone."
Ah Dian said "Oh" in a playful tone. Xie Kang laughed and asked Ah Dian, "I'm sorry I didn't have fun with you. Where are you now?"
"I'm at the bar, and you two are just not reliable with your love brains!"
"Don't talk nonsense, we've broken up." Xie Kang's face turned red.
Suddenly, a vague, unfamiliar male voice came from the other end of the line, seemingly asking if Ah-Dian was the band's drummer and asking for her autograph. Earlier, during dinner, fans who recognized Zhuang Yongyuan and Ah-Dian approached for a photo. Playing in a band is indeed more recognized now than it was in middle school.
"If there's nothing else, I'll hang up first?" Xie Kang said.
"Wait!" Adian screamed. Xie Kang had no choice but to wait for Adian to finish signing autographs and taking photos with others on the other end of the phone before continuing the call with him.
"What's wrong? You don't want to talk to me about copyright, do you?"
"Don't worry about that. Talk to Zhuang Yongyuan yourself. I just want to tell you not to be angry with Zhuang Yongyuan."
She paused, took a sip of her wine, and continued, "Although we're doing well now, Zhuang Yongyuan is under a lot of pressure. We're not signed to an agency, and we haven't found a suitable manager yet. We have to take care of everything ourselves, big or small. Besides performing and writing songs, Zhuang Yongyuan puts all his energy into messy socializing. You know how important connections are in this industry, and he doesn't like that kind of personality."
"Zhuang Yongyuan has been carrying Lily Heart's burden for the past few years. He wouldn't let us help. He was very harsh and aggressive in his words today, but that's just the way he is. After you left, his temper got even worse, and he refuses to talk about anything that's on his mind."
"And didn't I just tell you during dinner that we're working on our second album, and it's not going very smoothly. A lot of the songs he wrote have been scrapped."
"Is it not going well? What's the problem?"
Ah Dian gave a wry smile and said, "It would be nice if he were willing to talk."
"Oh..." Xie Kang clenched his phone and said, "I'm not angry. I'm very grateful that you're not angry with me."
"Hey, don't always feel sorry for us. It's normal for everyone to have different life plans after graduation. Being a full-time member of a group is inherently risky. I've never been mad at you."
Ah Dian smiled and said, "But I can't guarantee that Zhuang Yongyuan isn't angry. Your relationship is quite complicated."
Xie Kang's face flushed. He looked up at the second-floor window of Zhuang Yongyuan's house. Behind it was darkness, with a faint glow from a cell phone. Xie Kang thought that since no one had lived in this house for so long, the light bulb inside was probably broken.
As if afraid of being overheard, he lowered his voice and asked Ah Dian, "Was it Zhuang Yongyuan who decided to perform in Pingnan this time?"
Ah Dian laughed. "I don't want to answer. I don't want to offend either you or Zhuang Yongyuan."
Xie Kang also laughed and asked, "What about dinner tonight? Why is he willing to join us?"
"Didn't you send him back? Why don't you ask him yourself?"
"I……"
Ah Dian interrupted Xie Kang: "Let's talk about it later. Someone keeps calling me. He keeps calling after he hangs up. I'll answer his call first."
"I'm not kidding, I've called five or six times already, and I don't know what's so urgent."
As soon as Xie Kang finished speaking, Ah Dian hung up in a hurry. He put his phone back in his pocket and remembered to walk a few steps up the stairs to a hardware store. He wanted to buy some lightbulbs there and bring them up to Zhuang Yongyuan to replace them. Although Zhuang Yongyuan was probably only staying in his hometown for one night, it would still be inconvenient to be without electricity.
But the hardware store's dusty wooden door was shut. Xie Kang peered in from the entrance, unable to tell whether it was closed or simply because it was too late. The hardware store owner was an elderly man who had accompanied Zhuang Yongyuan several times. Old houses always had minor ailments: one day the toilet was clogged, the next the door hinges cracked. To save money, Zhuang Yongyuan fixed them himself. Later, the same thing happened at the rental house in Shanghai. Fortunately, Zhuang Yongyuan was already familiar with the place.
Since there were no light bulbs available here, Xie Kang had to use his phone's navigation to search for nearby 24-hour convenience stores. The nearest one was one kilometer away.
He walked slowly along Kaiping Street. This was his first time here in six years. Revisiting an old place, many past scenes, many past conversations, scattered along the stairs.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
