Between Us : Chapter 28: This Side Too

Being sized up with kind light gray eyes by the foreign friend, Xu Jue felt like he was split cleanly in two from the crown of his head to his toenails. One half was embarrassed, the other half was delighted. He straightened his collar and got back into character. “I ought to hand you a Chinese proficiency certificate.”

The painter waved his brush and continued painting, quite proud of himself. “What a shame, I already got one.”

He finished with a smiling apology, speaking long Chinese sentences without dragging his feet. “Pretending not to understand Chinese was to create a private environment where only the two of you could understand each other. Based on the real energy between you, I could better paint a relationship that wasn’t fake.”

Foreign friends sure had deep and unfathomable thoughts. Xu Jue filtered it simply in his brain and got it. Basically, he was secretly observing whether the two of them were enemies pretending to be friends, or pulling the brotherhood act to cover up something more. He also wanted to know what the guy had figured out. “Then what do you think my relationship with him is?”

The painter shook his head. “Cannot say, cannot say.”

Xu Jue was about to rub creases into his pant leg, even dropping the polite address. “Don’t go making wild guesses!”

The outside of his leg went numb. Chen Qian bumped him with his knee. “Wild guesses still need someone to provide the material. Who’s to blame?”

It was one thing to be itching inside but not daring to say it. It was another to be called out on it with no warning. Xu Jue found himself a way down. “I have my bottom line too.”

Chen Qian thought to himself, what bottom line? That girl with the prettiest eyes?

The paper trembled lightly. The painter showed them the finished work. A quick sketch focused mainly on lines, with a very distinct personal style. In the large swaths of black and white, only the eyeballs were colored.

In the painting, Xu Jue was in profile. Chen Qian pointed at his eyes and glared at him. “Why are you looking at me so lovingly?”

Xu Jue copied his tone. “I was looking at the ice cream. You ate so slowly, who’s to blame?”

Chen Qian had solid evidence, pointing at himself in the painting. “I’m holding a camera. Where’s the ice cream?”

Xu Jue got addicted to being a copycat, imitating the painter’s word choice. “What a shame, he painted me first. By the time he painted you, you had already finished eating.”

Chen Qian didn’t bother arguing with an energetic high schooler. He rolled up the paper and went to wander elsewhere.

From sunlight everywhere to the last glow of sunset, the two of them whiled away the whole fine afternoon in the town. There was a small art gallery at the west exit, and Chen Qian lingered inside the longest.

Bathed in the romantic and elegant glow of sunset merging red, pink, and gold, the art gallery’s rich aesthetic atmosphere made people involuntarily slow their pace, giving their eyes ample time to appreciate.

The first floor was a painting exhibition, the second floor a photography exhibition. Throughout the entire viewing, Chen Qian never touched his camera again, unwilling to let the slightest deviation in angle, light, or color tone profane the most original appearance of the works.

On the second floor, Xu Jue gradually fell a stretch behind Chen Qian. He lagged seven or eight meters back, leaning against the window frame, spreading his sketchpad to let the sunset glow fill the paper.

Against the background color gifted by nature, Xu Jue sketched out Chen Qian with his head tilted up, fully absorbed in appreciating the photography works. But the photography works that were beyond tarnishing in Chen Qian’s eyes, Xu Jue left completely blank, leaving only empty hollow frames.

After building his dream of Tsinghua, he refreshed his life plan list once again. He was going to design an art gallery for Chen Qian. From now on, Chen Qian’s photography works wouldn’t only be published in unknown magazines. They would be carefully framed and mounted, for everyone to stop and look up at.

By the time they left the town, it was already dark. Chen Qian had made a reservation days earlier at a time-honored local restaurant. Ignoring the line of guests waiting at the door, he was led by a server to his reserved booth.

While waiting for the food, Chen Qian propped his chin in his hand, falling into his old habit of hooking Xu Jue’s calf with his toe. “Painter, let me see your work.”

Xu Jue’s calf went soft and tingly. In retaliation, he clamped both legs around Chen Qian’s foot to immobilize it. “You show me yours first.”

Chen Qian tried a few times but couldn’t pull his mischievous foot free, so he let Xu Jue punish him. “My camera battery died.”

The food arrived just then. Xu Jue said, “Then I’ll show you mine later too. There are still some details not finished.”

Midway through the meal, Chen Qian couldn’t taste the food anymore. He looked up from the hot dishes. “Aren’t you tired?”

Xu Jue’s legs kept up their strength, but at the table he remained perfectly calm, scooping a spoonful of kung pao tofu for Chen Qian. “The people who waited in line outside for half a day aren’t complaining about being tired. I’ve got a seat and food, what do I have to be tired about.”

Chen Qian licked his lips, his tongue sweeping over his lip piercing. “My ankle is sore.”

Xu Jue set down his chopsticks, shifted slightly, and cupped Chen Qian’s right ankle with his left hand.

His right hand moved decisively to remove Chen Qian’s shoe, placing the other’s foot on his own thigh to air it out. While continuing to eat, he gently massaged the ankle with a tender touch, asking with concern. “Does this feel a bit better?”

Originally he had been complaining about Xu Jue punishing him for teasing, but now being pressed and rubbed like this, Chen Qian’s legs and feet that had walked the whole day relaxed inch by inch under Xu Jue’s palms and fingers, as if the nearly thirty thousand steps displayed on WeChat Sports had received an award.

The feast on the table finally tasted good to him. Chen Qian buried his head in eating, also picking out deboned fish meat for Xu Jue. Then he secretly kicked off his other shoe and placed that foot on Xu Jue’s thigh too. “Good little brother, this side too.”

One meal, the two of them dawdled and nibbled for two whole hours. If this had been an all-you-can-eat hot pot restaurant, they would have been charged extra by now. Yet when both walked out the restaurant doors, they were still not quite satisfied.

The night market was decorated with continuous bright lights, providing a good opportunity for visitors to stroll around late. It wasn’t far from the hotel. Chen Qian’s feet weren’t sore anymore, so he planned to make up those thirty thousand steps. Xu Jue had no objection. Art students often needed to go out sketching from life, so this distance was nothing.

Full and satisfied, neither of them had any interest in snack stalls or milk tea shops, so they skipped the food places and wandered elsewhere.

“I haven’t strolled around with someone like this in a long time.” Walking in an unfamiliar city, not having to worry about what to wear at night to attract customers, not having to put on a pleasing face to cater to the boss. The bustle of the night market replaced the filth of the nightclub. The neon of the main street drowned out the double vision from the alcohol. Chen Qian only felt a comfort soaking through his whole body.

As it turned out, Xu Jue didn’t get the mood. “With a dog?”

Seeing Chen Qian’s expression turn sour, he hurried to defend himself. “I really thought you used to stroll with a dog. That thing… the black Shiba from your profile pic.”

“That too,” Chen Qian took his hand out of his pocket to gesture. “It was about this big, raised by my former neighbor’s grandma. I would help walk it during holidays. It loved going to the park to lick other dogs’ tail bases. That silly energy is a bit like you.”

Xu Jue stopped walking, somewhat losing his mood to stroll. “I feel like you’re insulting me.”

“No,” Chen Qian turned back and tugged his arm. A guy who was one meter eighty nine, moved by his single tug. “I mean cute. You’re both cute. The kind where I could spend a whole day with you and never get bored.”

Passing by a self-service claw machine shop, he acted like he was coaxing a child, scanning ten game tokens, wanting to grab a Shiba for Xu Jue to make up for his slip of the tongue.

When nine tokens went down with no result, Chen Qian let go of the joystick. He felt like he was the one who needed coaxing.

“Let me.” Xu Jue grabbed his hand, scooping up the last token.

The claw swayed and shifted horizontally. Xu Jue stared at the trajectory, muttering under his breath.

When the claw swung down, he let go of the joystick and left it to fate. Chen Qian asked, “Are you casting a spell?”

“Calculating acceleration.” Xu Jue tapped the glass cabinet with a bent finger. “It’s up. Did it drop? No drop.”

And it was two plushies tangled together by their hanging strings, moving steadily above the drop hole and landing safely.

“Ten bucks for two, not a loss.” Xu Jue bent down to retrieve his spoils of war, keeping the yellow Shiba for himself and stuffing the black Shiba into Chen Qian’s arms. “One is enough for me.”

His arms filled with soft plushies, that sense of satisfaction puffed up and swelled straight to his throat. Chen Qian felt that everything he had longed for and never experienced in five years, he had gotten his fill of today.

It had been him tugging Xu Jue when they came in. Now it was Xu Jue’s turn to tug the dumbstruck him standing in place, seamlessly picking up the previous topic. “What do you mean by no one has strolled with you in a long time? That guy, can I mention him?”

Chen Qian rubbed the black Shiba’s ears. “Better not.”

“I insist on mentioning him,” Xu Jue said. “The one you can’t mention is the white moonlight you can’t let go of. The more you mention him, the more he becomes just some random guy on the street. Didn’t that Jiang guy stroll with you?”

“He did, but I worried he was busy with work, so I usually let him go when it was time.” Chen Qian recalled his five years of relationship experience. It seemed he had lived it all in that worried manner. In the time it took him to get his lip pierced, Jiang Linsheng had answered two phone calls. Going out to watch a movie, three quarters of the time Jiang Linsheng had his head down looking at emails.

Xu Jue listened like he was hearing a joke. “What do you mean ‘let him go,’ like you were threatening him or something. Shouldn’t that be something he does willingly? So busy he might as well marry his work, yet he still had time to fool around with other people… damn it, I’m not mentioning him anymore.”

Chen Qian smiled, the black Shiba’s ears almost rubbed raw by him. “Didn’t you say to mention him more?”

“The moment I mention him I get pissed off.” Xu Jue spoke a whole pile of angry words about the guy, but when he turned his face, he was stunned into silence.

Although Chen Qian was smiling, the smile didn’t reach his eyes. Those normally seductive eyes now carried the shattered lights of the whole city, like scattered and drifting fragile emotions.

“I,” Xu Jue carefully edged closer, bending slightly, lifting his eyelids a bit. “Do you see me right now and get super pissed off?”

“Not that bad,” Chen Qian slapped the yellow Shiba’s face in Xu Jue’s hand. “Let’s head back.”

After a whole day of strolling, both of them were pretty tired. Back at the hotel, Chen Qian first plugged in his camera to charge. Leaning against the edge of the bed, he didn’t want to move, wanting to sit and rest a bit.

Xu Jue was about to duck into the bathroom with his clothes when he passed the table and saw his sketchpad. He stole a glance at Chen Qian buried in fiddling with his camera, quickly opened the sketchpad, and used a scanning app to snap a photo.

The sound of running water started. Chen Qian glanced at the bathroom door. Today, the first photo he had taken had just transferred to his phone. He did a quick color adjustment, planning to send one to the other person to cheer them up.

Scrolling down the WeChat interface, Chen Qian habitually looked for that white-background-black-text profile pic. He couldn’t find it, suspecting Xu Jue had deleted him.

He scrolled back to the top. At that moment, a message popped up. An unfamiliar profile pic with a red dot next to it. Next to the unfamiliar profile pic hung Xu Jue’s name.

He tapped it. The image hadn’t finished loading yet, but Chen Qian stared at Xu Jue’s new profile pic in a daze.

Fine, he had grabbed a pair of dogs as a set. But why did this profile pic look so much like a couple’s match with his?