11 Chapter 11
"The cleanup is done, everyone go home. Here, Baili, here are the remaining fireworks. Everyone has a share."
Without rejecting the teacher's kindness, Bailibian took the small bunch of fairy wands, said goodbye to the classmates who stayed behind to help with the cleaning, and walked towards home alone.
Ever since that conversation with Moriogai, he had truly settled into a life of peace and tranquility. In the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed. To celebrate the successful conclusion of the semester and welcome the coming New Year, Bailibian's school held a small fireworks display after the final exams.
Although he accepted the small bunch of fairy wands, Bailibian did not intend to take it home. At the last turn before his home, he turned around and walked towards the river - if he lit these fireworks in his own yard, it would inevitably leave black marks on the floor.
Standing on the riverbank, Bailibian lit a fairy wand as a participation reward distributed free of charge to all students in the school. It burned quickly, but today happened to be a night without stars, so even though it was short, the light it emitted was particularly dazzling.
After lighting two of them in a row, Bailibian lost interest. He lit up all the remaining five fairy wands, which burst out with unprecedented light, even illuminating the river in front of Bailibian - this allowed Bailibian to see a "floating corpse".
Ah, it's Dazai.
The signature bandages allowed Baili Bian to successfully identify the other party. With less than two weeks until the New Year, while the river hadn't frozen over, the temperature was definitely not as warm as in summer or autumn. However, Baili Bian had no intention of catching any fish. In such cold weather, catching a wild fish that would struggle back and forth was clearly not as comfortable as curling up on the sofa at home.
In fact, he and Dazai Osamu hadn't seen each other for more than half a year. Although Bailibian could occasionally see Dazai's figure floating in the river after returning his salary card, they had not had any communication.
However, just as the fireworks faded, Dazai Osamu flipped over, creating a huge splash that soaked Bailibian's shoes. "Ah,...it's Bailibian! Are you...fishing?" Dazai Osamu squinted his eyes, looking at Bailibian on the shore, and then flipped over again, successfully reaching shore.
Bailibian looked at the fairy wand still in his hand, genuinely worried about Dazai's eyesight. He still didn't want to deal with the wet bastard, but his condition today was clearly unusual. "Have you been drinking?" Dazai's hazy eyes and the faint scent of alcohol in the air helped Bailibian to make a conclusion.
He remembered that Dazai Osamu was the same age as him, only seventeen years old.
Baili frowned, but Dazai Osamu didn't care. "What should a good student like Baili-kun do? Call my parents for me?" He said nonchalantly, "If I take the initiative to plead, can I get leniency?"
Dazai Osamu was in a good mood today. He'd met two interesting people during the Dragon Head War: Oda Sakunosuke and Sakaguchi Ango. Although everyone was busy with work, they'd had a rare chance to chat and drink together. Even better, there were no annoying phone calls throughout the whole process, and he even managed to enter the water smoothly afterwards.
Forget it, Baili looked at his wet shoes. They were already wet anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt to take the mischievous kitten back.
"Dazai, stand up. I'll take you to rest." Bailibian stood on the river bank and said to Dazai Osamu who was lying on the shore.
Dazai Osamu did not respond and did not move.
Don't let him pass out. Bailibian tentatively stepped down. If possible, he didn't want to carry Dazai back.
Just as Bailibian resigned himself to his fate and reached Dazai's side, the other suddenly stood up and said, "Baili is going to do good deeds again." Dazai looked calmly at Bailibian, who was about to extend his hand, but his eyes seemed filled with sadness. The next second, like a willful child, he said, "I only want canned crab meat, no fish."
"There's no fish. Since you're awake, just go by yourself." How could there be a cat in this world that doesn't like to eat fish? Bailibian looked back from time to time to make sure that Dazai Osamu was indeed following him. A cat soaked in water was already difficult enough to take care of, and if it got into the trash can at this time... then he really needed to get a new one.
"Go in and take a shower yourself. The clothes are here." Bai Li quickly stopped Dazai from climbing onto the sofa and pushed him into the shower room on the first floor, and took out a set of pajamas that he had never worn.
Dazai Osamu looked at the clothes, which hadn't even been unpacked yet, and then he looked around the shower room. He protested, "Why a shower?! I feel dizzy, I want a bath."
But his protest was ineffective. Baili Bian mercilessly pushed the man into the shower. He had no desire to pull a corpse out of his bathtub half an hour later. "I'll give you half an hour. If you can't get out in half an hour, I'll wash you myself."
This unsympathetic declaration was clearly quite effective for Dazai Osamu. Half an hour later, Bailibian successfully obtained a clean Dazai. Taking off his oversized suit and mature tie, and discarding the densely wrapped bandages, Dazai Osamu looked no different from an ordinary person in his everyday light yellow pajamas.
Bai Li, who had taken a shower during this time, had just finished drying his hair. He gave the hair dryer to Dazai Osamu and went into the kitchen to prepare supper.
Since I had already taken a bath, I couldn't bring myself to any more trouble. I took out a can of crab meat from the cupboard and added it to the porridge. A crab porridge was ready.
When Bailibian brought two bowls of crab porridge out of the kitchen, he saw Dazai, who had just finished blow-drying his hair, curled up on the sofa, his hands tightly wrapped around his knees—that shouldn't be the case, he had the heater on. But considering that Dazai was often underwater and had a high level of work pressure, it was possible that he might have a cold, so Bailibian sympathetically handed him a blanket.
Perhaps it was really the maturity that time brought. Dazai Osamu, who was about to grow a year older, not only did not refuse the warm blanket, but also did not complain about the simplicity of the meal. The two of them finished the crab meat porridge (lazy version) in silence.
Just as Bailibian had cleared the dishes and was about to go upstairs to rest, he suddenly remembered the question he hadn't asked yet, "Dazai, are you drinking alone?"
Dazai Osamu, still sitting on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, stared blankly at the new pattern. Hearing Bailibian's question, he said smugly, "How could that be? I'm not like Baili, who always does everything alone. Of course I have someone to accompany me."
"One or two? Could they be your subordinates?" Although Bailibian also felt that this was impossible, he really couldn't imagine Dazai Osamu's subordinates drinking with him.
"I wouldn't drink with such a boring guy. It's the super interesting Odasaku and Ango." Perhaps due to his weird competitive spirit, Dazai Osamu even told the whole story of his meeting with the two.
The case was solved. Looking at the smug Dazai Osamu, Bailibian had already formed a deep impression of the two strangers - they were the same type of office workers as the Port Mafia, who liked to take minors drinking.
Baili Bian kindly reminded Dazai Osamu about the harmful effects of underage drinking on his health, then pointed to the guest bedroom on the first floor and said, "There are bandages in the bedroom, and the quilt is in the cupboard. Go to bed early." Then he went back to his own bedroom.
Lying in bed, Bailibian couldn't fall asleep. Dazai Osamu was right; he was always alone. The habits left in him by City A had made him accustomed to not caring about other people's affairs, making it difficult for him to develop close relationships with those around him. And with his parents and family not around, he felt... lonely.
But is there any solution?
Would changing his old habits and forgetting the mantras he once used to save his life really bring any benefits? Would becoming true friends with the people he knew around him make him less lonely?
Bailibian didn't know the answer, but he knew that having a deeper connection meant a more effective handle, just like "an alcoholic father and a sickly mother", which would always make the genius who should have stood in the center of the crowd become "a broken man".
Think about it for a while, think about it for a while. Late-night emo finally ended with heavy eyelids. The moment his eyes closed, Bailibian came to terms with himself. Why must he insist on finding an answer now? He was still so young, and it was right for him to be confused.
【Author’s words】
Low EQ: If you can’t think of anything, just give up.
High emotional intelligence: I am so young, it is normal to be confused.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
