Between Us : Chapter 2: Please Contact Me

The power bank did not have much charge left, so while he could finally use his phone, Xu Jue flagged down a bus and hopped on.

The bus moved slowly in the snow. Xu Jue sat in the back row by the window, comparing prices of nearby hotels on an app while drinking coffee. He did not particularly like coffee, but he was cold and thirsty, so he could not afford to be picky. Just like how he hated the filth inside those cheap street side motels, but with no better options, he had no choice but to accept them.

He had been away from home for less than half a day, and Xu Jue was already missing the soft big bed in his own room. But thinking about what he would face if he went back made his head hurt even more.

The bus arrived at his stop just as he finished his coffee. There was a trash can next to the stop sign. Before tossing his cup, Xu Jue casually glanced at the advertisement posted beside the stop sign.

It was a recently popular coffee brand, and each flavor had been given an artsy advertising slogan by the designer.

Xu Jue, almost as if possessed, pulled his hand back and looked at the coffee cup in his hand. Pretty good at imitating big brands. The cup sleeve also had a sentence printed on it: Tolerance and understanding are the gentlest letters.

The difference was that this kind of chicken soup for the soul, which randomly mashed together adjectives and gerunds, probably would not win much approval from consumers.

Xu Jue peeled off the cup sleeve, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash. Screw tolerance and understanding.

He checked into a single standard room at the motel. Xu Jue took off his wet and cold outer jacket, sat down next to the radiator, and plugged his phone into a fully charged power bank rented from the front desk.

The power bank that had not been returned was in sleep mode. Xu Jue plugged that one in too. While looking for the small charging port, he accidentally noticed writing on the side in permanent marker.

The writing had faded a bit, and the handwriting was not particularly nice. Xu Jue held it up close to his eyes and looked for a long time before he could make it out.

[If found, please contact me:]

Followed by a string of numbers. He could imagine how scatterbrained the owner must be.

Xu Jue dialed the number. It rang over a dozen times before hanging up automatically. He figured it was too late and the other person was not free to answer. He planned to call again when he had time tomorrow.

He had just gotten up to take a hot shower when his phone vibrated urgently against the nightstand. Xu Jue thought it was the person returning his call. He answered without looking at the caller ID, but the voice on the other end was his mothers.

“So youre finally willing to answer the phone? I thought you could stay stubborn longer.”

Xu Jue was stunned for a moment. He pulled the phone away and looked at the number. His mood took a sharp dive. “My phone died just now. It was turned off.”

Fu Han did not care whether his phone had battery or not. “Did you buy the thing? Hurry back before the buses stop running. Dont delay your brothers bedtime.”

“I said I wasnt buying it,” Xu Jue said. “If he wants it, he can buy it himself.”

Fu Han was angered by his attitude. “All I asked was for you to buy your brother an exercise book. What are you throwing a tantrum for? If he was throwing a fit about buying toys or game cards, you could lecture him. But he ran out of exercise books, and he has to turn it in to his teacher tomorrow. Whats wrong with you, as his older brother, buying him an exercise book?”

Xu Jue sat next to the radiator, feeling fire rising all over his body. “Buying an exercise book is nothing. But in this heavy snow, where am I supposed to find a stationery store?”

“The department store near your brothers school hasnt closed yet!”

“…I might as well go back to Dads place. Ding Xuezhous homework can get written or not. I dont care.”

Fu Han was immediately speechless. After a few seconds of silence, she asked. “You went back to his place?”

Xu Jue felt the warmth return, relaxing his body and leaning his back against the bed frame. This feeling of getting back at her was incredibly satisfying. “Yeah.”

“Youre getting more and more…” Fu Han could not find the right word, then switched to another way of putting it. “Xiao Jue, this will make your stepfather very embarrassed.”

“So to avoid making him embarrassed, you choose to make me embarrassed.” Xu Jue did not want to talk for too long. Ever since he got a younger brother, his mother had never taken his side even once. “Thats how it is. My phone is still charging. Im hanging up.”

“Xiao Jue!” Fu Han shouted from the other end of the line.

Xu Jue did not make a sound.

“Xiao Jue,” Fu Han said. “How long are you planning to stay at your dads place?”

“I dont know.”

“I dont care how long you stay,” Fu Han said word by word. “You have to keep going to school. You cant miss a single class at the art studio. Just because no one is watching you doesnt mean you can do whatever you want.”

Even the burning hot phone body was transmitting bias.

Xu Jue hung up.

His mother was not actually wrong.

Going out in this weather to buy Ding Xuezhou an exercise book was really not a big deal. If only a few days ago Ding Xuezhou had not scribbled all over his sketchbook with watercolor markers, and his mother had not blamed him for not putting his sketchbook away properly.

There were many details he had already forgotten, but now they all floated back to the surface one by one.

He had spent an entire afternoon assembling a limited edition model. Ding Xuezhou secretly took it to school to play with. His mom said just let your brother play with it for a day. Then Ding Xuezhou came back from school and said the homeroom teacher had confiscated it.

A mechanical keyboard he had bought less than two days ago had all its keys pried off by Ding Xuezhou sneaking into his room. His mom said isnt the keyboard built into your laptop hot enough? Why did you have to buy another one to take up space?

Going back to the most recent events, last week Ding Xuezhou failed his monthly math exam. His mom said its fine, Xiao Zhou tried his best. Work harder next time. But when Xu Jue used to score in the eighties, his mom and dad would fight until the sky turned dark.

From the past to today, none of these things were really connected. Xu Jue just felt that his mothers unequal love was strangling him so hard he could not breathe. The older he grew, the deeper this suffocating feeling ran through him.

Once he had warmed up in the room, Xu Jue got up and took a hot shower. When he came back, he called his dad.

After his parents divorced, he could count on one hand the number of times he called his dad. Because every time he did, his mom would interrogate him for ages about what they talked about. Did he ask Dad for money? Did he blab to Dad about their current living situation? Had Dad found a new partner?

If he had not known that his dad always worked overtime rushing design drafts, Xu Jue would not have disturbed him so late. Xu Jifeng answered quickly and sounded quite alert. “Hello? Still awake?”

“Drawing?” Xu Jue asked.

The background noise was loud over there. “Waiting to board. Flying to Italy for two months.”

“Two months?” Xu Jue confirmed.

“Conservative estimate. The return date isnt set yet.” Xu Jifeng was most concerned about whether he had enough money. “I wired five thousand to your card before leaving. Check tomorrow if it went through. If its not enough, tell me. Your mom is stingy. Dont ask her for money.”

While he was calculating how long five thousand could cover a motel stay, a burst of noise came from the other end of the line. Airport announcements, suitcase wheels rolling over the floor, people with different accents hurrying him along. A moment later, Xu Jifengs voice cut back in. “What did you say?”

“Never mind, nothing.” Xu Jue flopped backward onto the bed. “Im going to sleep. Have a safe flight.”

Maybe it was the wind outside making him drowsy, but that cup of coffee did not affect Xu Jues sleep. The next day he even woke up late. He only managed to slip through the retractable gate while the school security guard was slurping rice noodles.

Morning reading had already started over ten minutes ago. Xu Jue hid at the back door, watching until his homeroom teacher finished patrolling the classroom and walked out the front door before stepping inside. He tossed his backpack onto the desk closest to the back door.

The noise was not small. His deskmates hunched back instantly straightened. His hand shot into his desk drawer and tucked away the half eaten bun, pretending to stare at the textbook and lip sync.

“Keep eating. Youre such a coward.” Xu Jue slapped Qiu Yuanfeis back and pulled out his chair to sit down.

“Damn, I thought the White Lady was coming back.” Qiu Yuanfei let out a breath of relief, pulled out his bun, and continued eating. “Why are you late again? Any later and the excuse I made up for you wouldnt hold up.”

“What excuse did you come up with this time?” Xu Jue found his English book and stood it up on the desk. “Said I was cleaning the public area and didnt get back? Or that another teacher called me in for a talk?”

“I said you had diarrhea.” Qiu Yuanfei finished the bun and pulled out a piece of millet cake. “She cant exactly march into the mens restroom in a flowery dress to catch you, right?”

“I didnt even eat breakfast. Where would diarrhea come from?” Xu Jue pulled out a blank homework sheet from his bag and spread it open. Along with it, he spread his hand in front of Qiu Yuanfeis eyes. “Got anything else to eat? Share one with me.”

“I still have a few soup dumplings. Eat them after class. The smell is strong.” Qiu Yuanfei flipped through the exercise book Xu Jue had placed beside him. “Why didnt you do any homework?”

“Its not as bad as you make it sound. I did memorize the vocabulary.” Xu Jue reached over the standing English book and tapped the red bow on the ponytail of the person in front of him with his pen. “Dorami, lend me your biology worksheet to copy.”

Wei Xiaoduo, whose reading was interrupted, turned back and glared at him. Pretty intimidating. But she still placed all her homework, including the biology worksheet, on the corner of his desk.

Qiu Yuanfei was not having it. “Wei Xiaoduo, are you doing this on purpose? How come when I ask you for homework, you ignore me?”

Wei Xiaoduo cast a sidelong glance from the corner of her eye. “Who told you to pull my braid?”

“Xu Jue messes with your precious bow and youre not mad?”

“…” Wei Xiaoduo turned her head back, ending the bickering with a flick of her ponytail.

Xu Jue finished off the biology worksheet in record time, switched to another exercise book, and continued. The girls problem solving steps were so detailed they were a bit excessive. He had to extract the essence.

Qiu Yuanfei would do anything during morning reading except actually read. He flipped a page of his textbook and leaned toward Xu Jue again. “This much. Can you finish writing it all in time?”

“Probably not.” Xu Jue was honest about it.

“You have to finish,” Qiu Yuanfei said. “Were on the edge of a cliff right now. The White Lady is itching to make an example out of someone. Dont walk right into the gun barrel.”

“How about I sign you up for a rap competition, Feifei.” Xu Jue closed his exercise book and patted Wei Xiaoduos chair. “Dorami, you got the last question wrong. Fix it.” He casually picked up another exercise book and opened it. “What do you mean edge of a cliff?”

“What do you think? When has the White Lady not made an example out of someone right after exams when grades come out?” Qiu Yuanfei stretched his neck to look down the hallway, on guard against the homeroom teacher coming. “I heard our class almost ranked last in the grade on this sectional exam. At the afternoon class meeting, lets sit up straight and clean out our ears.”

An opened exercise book dropped a folded A4 sheet. Xu Jue quickly pressed it down. When he unfolded it, his back instantly could not stay straight anymore.

“Might as well press the gun barrel right against my forehead.” Xu Jue pinched the parent teacher conference notice he had forgotten to fill out and return. “Didnt the White Lady say this parent teacher conference must have full attendance?”

The morning jog was changed to free activity period because the snow had not melted yet. Xu Jue took the chance to run to a stairwell with no security cameras and dialed the number he had saved in his phone last night.

The call went through on the second try. Xu Jue quickly got to the point. “Hello, Im the one who borrowed your power bank last night. Is it convenient to set a time to meet? Ill return the item to you.”

In complete contrast to the noise from the school building, the phone was completely silent. Just as Xu Jue could not wait and was about to ask a second time, a drawn out, lazy tone crawled into his ear. “Mmm…”

“Hello? You awake?” Xu Jue rubbed his face, stiff from the wind. “Do you recognize my voice? Im…”

“Dont recognize. Dont know.” Chen Qian rolled over in bed, completely muddled, his eyes barely able to open. He responded purely on wandering instinct. “Not buying insurance. Not buying a house. Not upgrading my plan.”

“Goodbye.” Like hitting the snooze button on his alarm clock as usual, Chen Qian hung up with his eyes closed.