Chapter 1
With a gust of wind and a downpour, autumn arrived in Dingzhou very quickly, leaving no room for respite. After several consecutive rain showers, the temperature plummeted, dropping below ten degrees Celsius in the morning.
The wind swept up piles of withered yellow leaves from the road, then at a certain point, the leaves fell back down. In the pushing and shoving, the leaves drifted a few meters away, eventually gathering in the puddles by the roadside.
As dawn broke, the streets were quiet, save for the occasional passing car that sped away, crunching over fallen leaves.
The sound of a door opening suddenly broke the silence at the stairwell next to the shops in the distance. A young boy emerged, his small, fair face wrapped in a jacket that didn't look very warm, revealing only his tired but still bright eyes. He breathed on his hands to warm them, then rubbed them together, quickly stuffed them into his pocket, glanced at his phone, cursed under his breath, and quickened his pace.
A moment later, the person disappeared through the side gate of the old residential area.
Qiu scratched his messy hair, then picked up his collar and smelled it. Finding no strange smell, he took out his key and opened the door. Then, a strong, lingering smell of Chinese medicine wafted out.
Although he was already familiar with the smell, the sudden whiff of it while he was still half-asleep and in a daze made Qiu Momo hold his breath, his face scrunched up like a bun. But it only lasted a moment, and he quickly recovered.
When he came to his senses, he vaguely remembered his attempt to cover up his actions before entering the room, and couldn't help but laugh awkwardly.
The smell of Chinese medicine was so strong that Qiu Yang couldn't smell the cigarettes and alcohol on him at all.
After several days of rain, the already dark basement became even more damp. Qiu Momo didn't turn on the light, but moved around in the small space by feeling her way in the dark and relying on her memory, being very careful not to wake the person still sleeping in bed.
He finally managed to get to the bathroom and close the door before he could catch his breath. The bathroom was tiny, without even a sink, just an old toilet with a plastic storage rack to the left, holding toiletries.
On the wall opposite the storage shelf, there was a rusty faucet.
Qiu Momo brushed her teeth and washed her face with cold water, rubbed her frozen cheeks, and then opened the door to go out.
The lights in the room were already on. Qiu Yang was sitting on the bed getting dressed. When he saw Qiu Momo come out, he managed a weak smile.
"Up so early today?"
Qiu Momo, with her back to Qiu Yang, turned around and smiled at him when she heard the sound. Then, in the kitchen separated by a curtain, she quickly put the breakfast she had just bought from the mobile food cart outside onto the table.
"It's getting late, brother. Today is Monday, there's a flag-raising ceremony, and the homeroom teacher said we need to arrive early."
Qiu Yang had no suspicions. After getting dressed, he went into the bathroom and washed up. Qiu Momo had already finished breakfast and was stuffing a plastic bag of nearly expired bread into her schoolbag while changing into her school uniform. After changing, she threw her jacket onto the hanger.
Upon seeing this, Qiu Yang took the bread out of his schoolbag and then took out a few banknotes from the pocket of a garment hanging on a clothes rack and stuffed them into Qiu Momo's schoolbag.
"Don't always eat bread, it's not nutritious. You're still growing. The food in the school cafeteria is pretty good, you should go there too."
Qiu remained silent, but when Qiu Yang wasn't looking, she stuffed the bread back into her bag, then slung her backpack over her shoulder and prepared to leave.
"Remember to drink the medicine in the pot, don't forget. I'll boil the rest when I get back, brother, don't worry about it."
Qiu Yang was eating a steamed bun with pickled vegetables when he heard this. He smiled and nodded, "Okay, thank you, Momo. I got paid today, and I'll bring you a big pork knuckle tonight."
Qiu blushed and said, "I don't like eating braised pork knuckle anymore."
Qiu Yang's eyes held a gentle smile. He pictured Qiu Momo as a child, holding a bowl and gnawing on a large pork knuckle. Her bright black and white eyes were wide open, and her face was beaming with happiness.
This is the only time in a month that Qiu Yang can have such a big meal, and he doesn't want to disappoint Qiu Momo, even though he says he doesn't like it.
After he finished eating breakfast, cleaned up the dishes, folded the quilt, and changed into his outdoor clothes, he saw Qiu Momo's clothes hanging casually on the hanger, with the collar tucked inside. Qiu Yang's obsessive-compulsive disorder kicked in again.
The clothes were hung high, so Qiu Yang had to stand on tiptoe and get very close to the clothes with his nose. With just a slight inhale, he could smell the cigarette and alcohol lingering on the clothes.
Qiu Yang's already unhealthy complexion turned even paler. His gaze fell on a spot in the void for a long time before he finally reached out and covered his face.
Qiu Momo entered the school but didn't go straight to the classroom. Instead, he went to the school store. It was still early before school started, and the campus was quiet. Qiu Momo put down his schoolbag and took out a stack of test papers. He had neatly folded the papers by category after finishing them. Now, all he had to do was wait for someone to come over, pay him, and hand over the test papers.
A test paper costs five yuan; this is the simplest way to make money, and he can earn nearly a hundred yuan in a weekend.
Adding to the money he earns from his part-time job at the KTV after Qiu Yang falls asleep each day, it won't be long before he can move Qiu Yang out of the basement. The basement environment is poor and not conducive to Qiu Yang's recovery. He doesn't usually pay much attention to it, and if he hadn't reminded Qiu Yang, he probably wouldn't even bother to take his medicine, let alone go for his monthly check-ups. Sometimes, he even thinks he should be the older brother, since Qiu Yang, although eight years older than him, is quite immature.
Even though I've told him more than once that he doesn't like braised pork knuckle, he still makes sure to take a long detour to buy that old-established braised food every month when he gets his salary.
Qiu Yang was just a handyman at a small noodle shop, earning very little each month. He needed to take medicine, cover the daily expenses of two people, and pay for his tuition. If they didn't save money, they wouldn't be able to afford major surgery in the future.
Thinking of the crumpled few dozen yuan Qiu Yang had stuffed into her hand this morning, Qiu Momo felt a pang of bitterness in her heart. Qiu Yang had never been to school and thought that you could eat in the cafeteria as long as you had money. He had no idea that the school now had something called a meal card, and you had to load money onto the meal card to eat.
He didn't even have a meal card.
Furthermore, Qiu Yang is wrong. The cafeteria food is not good at all. In fact, none of the students who eat lunch in the cafeteria like it. I don't know where Qiu Yang heard the wrong information that the cafeteria food is good.
He might as well eat bread; that would save him the time of queuing for food, and he could do a few more problems.
As soon as the school bell rang, Qiu Momo didn't hesitate for a moment, packed his bag, and stepped out of the classroom. He was a sophomore in high school and didn't need to attend evening self-study sessions. Sometime later, a biting autumn rain began to fall again. Qiu Momo looked up, his delicate face filled with impatience. He had rushed out that morning without an umbrella, but thankfully the rain wasn't heavy. Wrapped in his school uniform, he plunged into the downpour.
The basement that Qiu Momo called home wasn't far from the school; it only required walking through a few deep alleys. By now, it was completely dark, and the dim streetlights were barely visible. Qiu Momo glanced at the deserted alleys, gritted her teeth, and walked in.
He was actually terrified of walking through alleys alone; in his memory, all the bad things happened in alleys. Because of his effeminate appearance, he was often bullied as a child, cornered in alleys, surrounded by people who would call him a "little bastard" and a "sissy." When he was a little older, he would walk home late at night and be mistaken for a woman by a drunk man passing by, who would then pin him against a wall and sexually assault him.
Although none of these people succeeded, they left Qiu Momo with a psychological trauma that he would never forget, so much so that he had to be highly vigilant every time he passed through the alley.
Qiu Momo hated his face; the appearance that girls envied became the source of all his suffering in his childhood.
But what he hated most was another place.
He didn't find that place strange when he was a child, but when he started school, the school arranged a physiology class for them, and he could no longer calmly deal with the extra organ that was different from that of ordinary boys.
He was a monster, a monster with two sets of sexual organs. Unlike other boys, his organs made it impossible for him to stand openly in public anymore. So he gradually reduced his interactions with his peers, fearing that his shameful secret might be accidentally discovered.
Gradually, he became more and more withdrawn. He had no friends, and he didn't talk much at school. Besides studying, he spent his time writing test papers for others to earn money.
He once overheard his classmates talking about him in private, and their comments about him were: withdrawn, weirdo, poor, has a woman's face, and is very arrogant...
And so on and so forth. He didn't have time to explain; this was simply how he was. If he didn't protect himself this way, he couldn't imagine the vicious things people around him would say to him the day his secret was discovered.
But good things also happened in the alley. Qiu Yang met him in the alley. Qiu Yang was an orphan. When he was fourteen, he found Qiu Momo unconscious in the alley. After Qiu Momo woke up, he had a fever and lost all his previous memories, so Qiu Yang had no choice but to keep him by his side.
For eleven years, the two relied on each other for survival, living under bridges and sleeping on the streets. In recent years, Qiu Yang has earned some money, so they have moved to their current basement.
It wasn't entirely underground, though; half a window was visible above ground. The lights were on inside, probably because business was slow at the noodle shop due to the rain, and Qiu Yang had left work early. So, Qiu silently quickened his pace.
After crossing the street and turning into the side door, his home was in the semi-basement of the first unit, Building A. From afar, he could smell the strong aroma of Chinese medicine. It seemed Qiu Yang hadn't listened to him and was brewing the medicine himself. Actually, it was a very simple task, anyone could do it, but Qiu Yang didn't seem to care at all. Several times the pot had boiled dry without him noticing, wasting a whole dose of medicine. So, he never let Qiu Yang brew the medicine himself again.
He rushed home, not noticing a black luxury car parked on the side of the road that seemed out of place in this old neighborhood. The person in the car frowned the moment he saw him, then silently turned his gaze to a thick stack of documents next to the seat.
"Brother, why are you brewing medicine yourself again? Didn't you say you'd give it to me?" Qiu Momo entered the room, quickly put down her schoolbag, took the fan from Qiu Yang's hand, bent down, opened the clay pot, and took a look.
Thankfully, the water hasn't boiled yet.
He breathed a sigh of relief, moved out a stool, took out his schoolbag, and sat down. "I'll take care of this. You go inside first, brother." He then took out today's test paper and began to do his homework under the light from inside the room.
"MoMo, go inside and do your homework. It's so dark here, you'll hurt your eyes." Qiu Yang was worried and tried to snatch the fan from Qiu MoMo's left hand. But Qiu MoMo dodged to the side, looked up at Qiu Yang, and said, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Go cook, I'm starving."
Seeing his insistence, Qiu Yang sighed helplessly, then affectionately patted Qiu Momo's hair and said, "Alright, then I'll go cook. I got paid today, and I bought you lots of food to nourish you. Our Momo is still growing; how can she grow tall without nutrition..."
Hearing him mention height, Qiu Momo became somewhat annoyed and quickly stopped Qiu Yang from saying anything more, glaring at him.
"We agreed not to talk about height, how could you forget!"
"Okay, okay, it's my fault. I'll make you a meal to make up for it."
Perhaps because he had two sets of organs, Qiu Momo's puberty development was extremely slow. While everyone else had grown taller, he was still struggling at around 1.7 meters tall, even Qiu Yang was 1.78 meters tall. While others grew taller, grew beards, and even got acne during puberty, he had nothing, except for the occasional bloodstains on his underwear.
He knew that it was called menstruation, something girls experience every month. But he wasn't a girl, yet he still had this experience. It didn't come often, and the flow wasn't heavy. His stomach didn't hurt like a girl's, but those few days when it did come made him feel what it meant to be in agony.
It's not physical, but psychological.
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