There was still some leftover braised pork from last night in the kitchen, so Chaoge simply made a simple bowl of soy sauce noodles and cut the braised pork into small pieces and put it on top.
Just as he was done, Chaoge's cell phone rang.
He opened it and saw that it was a message from Fang Shi, a good friend of his and Han Lin.
Fang Shi: Xiaoge, are you free now?
Fang Shi: There’s a new person in 404, but unfortunately my family members don’t have time. Can you accompany me to pick him up?
404 is a safe house established by Fang Shi to house LGBTQ people who are temporarily homeless for various reasons.
Chaoge is a non-staff member of 404 and often helps Fang Shi to pick up new members.
Eat well: If you have time, do you want to go now?
Fang Shi: Yes, it’s troublesome.
Eat well: Are you at home or school? I will pick you up first.
Fang Shi: At school.
Fang Shi is a professor at the Medical University, and the hospital where Han Lin works is an affiliated hospital of the Medical University. It is close, so it is very convenient to pick him up in Chaoge.
Chaoge put away his phone, brought the noodles and stood at the door of the guest room, which was closed.
Chaoge struggled to free one hand to knock on the door.
Han Xiaojun opened the door and looked at Chaoge outside.
Han Xiaojun is young, but he is growing fast. He is about the same height as Chaoge. It won't be long before he is taller than Chaoge.
Chaoge handed the noodles to Han Xiaojun. Han Xiaojun didn't say anything, took the bowl and was about to close the door.
Chaoge quickly stopped him and lowered her head to type on her phone.
[I'm going out to pick up a friend and won't be home for lunch. Do you want to go with me?]
Han Xiaojun frowned: "No."
Chaoge typed again, then fished out a hundred yuan from her bag and handed it to Han Xiaojun: "Here's some money. Can you order takeout for lunch?"
Han Xiaojun was about to nod when a wave of malice surged in his heart: "My brother asked you to take care of me, just to let you eat takeout?"
Chaoge felt a little embarrassed by the question.
Han Xiaojun snorted coldly, and without further hesitation, he took the hundred yuan and said, "Alright, if you want to leave, just leave. Don't bother me anymore."
After saying that, he turned around and went back into the house, slamming the door shut.
Chaoge was slammed the door again. She no longer felt the numb feeling she had last time. Instead, she felt very calm.
He slowly went back to his room to change his clothes, wondering why he was so calm.
Is this the power of doing housework?
With this doubt, Chaoge drove to the Medical University to pick up Fang Shi.
"Good morning. Sorry to bother you again, Xiaoge." Fang Shi said after getting into the car. "I had planned to go pick him up with Fanfan, but the man arrived early, and Fanfan was still doing experiments."
Chaoge gestures: [It’s okay, where can I pick it up?]
Fang Shi said, "The old place."
The old place refers to the largest bus station in their city. They usually go there to pick up people from other places.
"The person coming this time is a little special." On the way, Fang Shi introduced Chaoge, "He is pregnant with a baby, and it's already 6 months old."
Pregnant woman?
Chaoge looked at Fang Shi in surprise, then turned his gaze back to the road.
Fang Shi said, "His situation is very complicated. He ran away from home. I can't go into details about what happened. Anyway, let's take good care of him."
Chaoge nodded and couldn't help but think more about it.
Just thinking about a pregnant woman who escaped from home can make you imagine many stories.
Chaoge was very worried. This was the first time 404 encountered a pregnant woman. Could they take good care of her?
"Oh, by the way, he is a FtM." Fang Shi said.
FtM? Chaoge was puzzled.
Fang Shi explained: "It's a transgender male. His body has female characteristics, but his heart is male."
Chaoge was shocked. Then why was he pregnant?
"That's why I say his story is a bit complicated," Fang Shi said. "That's the basic information."
Chaoge nodded to indicate that he understood, but he couldn't suppress the shock in his heart for a long time.
A pregnant transgender man, a pregnant woman who ran away from home... No, should he be called a pregnant man?
Chaoge thought in confusion.
There was no traffic jam on the road, and the two arrived at the bus station quickly.
Chaoge found an empty parking spot and went down with Fang Shi to pick someone up.
Fang Shi said that the man was hiding in the bathroom of the bus station.
After entering, Fang Shi called the other party and said to Chaoge, "He will be out soon. We will wait for him here."
Chaoge nodded.
The man came out very slowly. Chaoge had never seen him before, but when he came out of the bathroom, Chaoge recognized him at a glance.
She was very thin, and even though she was six months pregnant, her belly didn't show under her loose clothes. He covered himself tightly, wearing long sleeves and long pants even in the hot weather, a baseball cap on his head, a mask and sunglasses on his face. Apart from his hands, almost no part of his body was exposed.
Fang Shi obviously knew the man's attire and walked towards him. "Hello, I'm Fang Shi. Is this He Yanshan?"
The man nodded and replied in a low voice: "Hello."
His voice is very low and sounds neutral, so people would probably believe he is a girl or a boy.
Fang Shi knew it was not convenient to chat here: "Let's get in the car first."
He Yanshan nodded: "Okay, thank you."
The three returned to the parking lot.
On the road, He Yanshan walked behind Fang Shi, while Chaoge fell behind. He Yanshan looked at him warily. Fang Shi introduced him at the right time: "His name is Chaoge, and he is also one of ours. Chaoge can't speak, but he can hear sounds."
Chaoge clearly noticed that after Fang Shi introduced him, He Yanshan's tense back relaxed a little, and he even turned around and nodded to him.
Chaoge waved at him with a smile.
After getting on the bus, Fang Shi began to introduce 404 and its surroundings in a gentle voice, just as he did every time he met a new non-local person, in the hope of putting the newcomer at ease.
When He Yanshan got in the car, he did not relax his vigilance and took off his hat, mask and sunglasses, but he listened to Fang Shi carefully and responded from time to time.
Half an hour later, they arrived at safe house 404.
The safe house is a villa that Fang Shi bought not far from the Medical University. He made some minor modifications inside and it can accommodate many people.
There are currently four permanent residents there, namely Fang Shi and his boyfriend Yang Yufan, Yang Yufan's sister, and Aunt Li who has been helping out in Room 404.
Originally, Yang Yufan’s grandfather lived in Room 404, but he passed away years ago, leaving only the four of them.
In addition, there is someone living in 404 recently.
She was a girl who had just arrived at Room 404 two months ago. She was kicked out by her family for coming out. Chaoge and Fang Shi went to pick her up at that time. Later, they went out to play together. She was very lively and cute.
The three of them slipped into the house.
Aunt Li was mopping the floor in the room. When she heard the noise, she came over and asked, "Are you back?"
Fang Shi looked up and smiled at her, introducing her, "Aunt Li, this is He Yanshan."
"Welcome, welcome. Come, put on these shoes." Aunt Li took out a pair of soft sandals from the shoe cabinet.
He Yanshan looked at her through his sunglasses: "Thank you."
"Don't be so polite. We're family now." Aunt Li's eyes slid over He Yanshan's belly. "There's still soup simmering in the kitchen. I'll go in and take a look."
What happened afterwards had little to do with Chaoge. He couldn't speak and could only stand by as a smiling human-shaped ornament.
After they had lunch together at noon, Chaoge drove home.
He was worried about Han Xiaojun and wondered if he had had a good lunch.
When I got home, I found that Han Xiaojun not only had a meal, but also enjoyed it very much.
The other party directly ordered takeout from Haidilao and took it home.
Chaoge smelled the odor as soon as she entered the house. She looked at the living room with some surprise. It was clean and tidy before she left the house. Now it became a mess. The coffee table was filled with various ingredients, and there were bags of snacks on the ground. The pot in the middle was still bubbling.
Han Xiaojun was sitting crookedly on Han Lin's lazy sofa, holding a game controller in one hand and drinking Coke in the other.
He heard the sound, turned his head to look at Chaoge, hummed softly, and went back to eating his own food.
Chaoge was a little shocked.
Still a little greedy.
To be honest, he likes eating hot pot very much.
Chaoge walked over and sat down next to Han Xiaojun.
Han Xiaojun glanced at him and said nothing. He was playing Contra.
Han Lin likes to play Contra, and only plays Contra. The only controller games at home are various series of Contra.
Chaoge looked at Han Xiaojun's skilled appearance and thought that they were indeed brothers, they looked so similar when playing games.
We haven't had much contact, so why do they look so similar?
Chaoge hugged her knees and watched him play games.
Han Xiaojun didn't chase him away. He just held a small Cantonese sausage in his mouth and pressed the button, pretending that there was no one around him.
For a moment, the two people unexpectedly reached harmony.
"Hello." Han Xiaojun suddenly said, "How is your English?"
Chaoge was stunned for a moment and turned to look at him.
Han Xiaojun frowned and asked again: "How is your English?"
Chaoge gave him a thumbs up.
Han Xiaojun asked: "Is this a good idea?"
Chaoge nodded.
"Then help me with my English homework." Han Xiaojun said without any psychological burden.
Chaoge shook his head, took out his phone and typed: [I can teach you.]
"Do I need you to teach me? I'm just too lazy to write it myself." Han Xiaojun said stubbornly, "Just tell me whether you can help me or not."
Chaoge typed: [I can't help you do this, this is wrong.]
Han Xiaojun snorted coldly: "Pedantic."
Chaoge typed: [English is very simple, let's try it, I'll help you with your homework^_^]
Han Xiaojun thought, here we go again, this crappy emoticon is so ugly.
"Who asked you to help me with my homework?" Han Xiaojun said, "I'm not a child. I don't need you to monitor me."
[This isn't surveillance. I just want to spend more time with you. You're going back to school tomorrow, and Han Lin said he'll take you home after dinner.] Chaoge typed.
The only words left in Han Xiaojun's eyes were "send you back".
He doesn't want to go back.
Deep down, Chaoge didn't want Han Xiaojun to leave, but Han Lin had already given him an ultimatum this morning, asking him to send Han Xiaojun home.
The room was very quiet for a while, except for the gurgling sound of the hot pot.
Chaoge looked at Han Xiaojun cautiously.
He didn't know why, but after he came back, Han Xiaojun's hostility towards him didn't seem as strong as before. At least, he wasn't as lazy as before and didn't even bother to talk to him.
If... if they could spend a little more time together, would Han Xiaojun's relationship with him and Han Lin be better?
Chaoge thought for a while and decided to execute first and report later.
"Let's go do our homework." Chaoge typed and handed it to Han Xiaojun.
Han Xiaojun frowned. His mind was now filled with the thought of being sent home, so how could he have the mood to do his homework?
But Chaoge put the phone away and typed a few more words.
Han Xiaojun took a closer look and saw the words written on it: [My car ran out of gas after I finished my homework.]
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