Between Us : Chapter 3: Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The bedroom air, roasted hot by the radiator, did not circulate well. So the person who refused to get out of bed had a patch of red on his face. He buried most of his face into the cool pillow on the other side, and his burning cheek finally felt a bit better.

The room was less than eight square meters, and the bed took up two thirds of it. Chen Qian had been a restless sleeper since he was little. The bed had to be big, and placed against the wall in the bedroom, to minimize the chance of rolling off in the middle of the night.

Taking advantage of the warmth indoors, Chen Qian had already kicked off the quilt. Only a twisted section remained hooked around his waist and hips. The exposed areas, from his shoulders and neck to the small of his back, from his upper thighs to his ankles, all showed several marks from being pinched and rubbed. He was prone to bruising and marking. There was no hope of these red traces caused by external force fading in just one night.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Qian was still unconsciously gripping his phone without letting go. His arm hung off the side of the bed. The pure silver bracelet he had not taken off in five years had lost most of its shine.

The thick dark blue curtains kept the bedroom dim. Chen Qian, in an environment perfectly suited for sleep, continued the messy dream that had been interrupted by the nuisance call. The amplified scratching sound of writing in the silence, the broomsticks scattered haphazardly at the back of the classroom, the clock on the blackboard that could actually move backwards, the science questions on the exam paper that he had never studied.

His desk mate nudged him with an elbow. “Let me see your answers.”

Chen Qian propped his face in his hand and twirled his pen. “I don’t know either.”

He glanced to the side again. Chen Qians pupils contracted. Wasn’t this person five or six years younger than him? How was he still sitting in the same exam room?

There was no time to think. The bell rang. The proctor ordered them to stop writing and hand in their papers.

Chen Qian had not finished the questions, so naturally the bell annoyed him. He wanted to move his pen and randomly fill in a formula to get some points. But then he realized the source of the ringing was right in his hand.

The rustling sound of flipping papers, the proctors repeated urging, and the students whispering all suddenly faded into the distance. Chen Qian opened his eyes and raised his hand, which had hung down for too long and was slightly numb, to answer the call.

It was Jiang Linsheng calling. “Are you awake? Can you get up?”

Chen Qian shifted to lie on his back while hugging the quilt, tucking a soft pillow against his waist. “I can get up. I just don’t want to.”

Jiang Linsheng laughed. “You still have to get up. Walk a few steps. I wasn’t rough last night.”

The room smelled of perfume that would not dissipate. The sound of glass items shattering on the floor last night echoed in his mind. Chen Qian turned his head to look under the bed. The broken glass had already been cleaned up. “You weren’t rough. You just knocked over my perfume.”

Jiang Linshengs tone carried a bit of helplessness. “Ill pay you back. Do you still want the light scent?”

Chen Qian deliberately misinterpreted. “Then pick a weekend to accompany me to a physical store. Ill choose myself.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Only the light sound of flipping pages remained. After a while, Jiang Linsheng answered. “I’m flying to Paris for a business trip in two weeks. Didn’t you still plan to visit the Orsay Museum? Why not come with me on this trip? We can happen to run into perfume shops along the way. We wont be limited to the few stores in Yunxia City. Killing two birds with one stone.”

Chen Qian caught the wording. “Didn’t you say you would accompany me? How did it become me accompanying you?”

Jiang Linsheng laughed. “Then do me the honor of accompanying me. Is that okay?”

Chen Qian agreed. “I also want to visit the Palais Galliera.”

“Sure, whatever you want. Ill have my assistant plan it.” Jiang Linsheng never bothered with this kind of thing himself. “Get up now and go to the living room for some fresh air. Don’t stay cooped up in the bedroom too long. I ordered takeout from Jinyun Pavilion for you. It will arrive in five minutes.”

“Then Ill lie down for five more minutes.” Chen Qian pushed his luck. His lips opened and closed, accidentally scraping against his lip piercing. He immediately felt pain. After hanging up, he pressed the magnetic wall lamp by the bedside.

The mirror was not within reach. Chen Qian could only turn on his phones front camera to check the wound. Before he could observe carefully, an incoming call popped up on the screen.

It was an unfamiliar local number. It rang twice without being blocked, so Chen Qian answered. The other side immediately launched into a clarification without pause. “Not selling insurance. Not a real estate agent. Also not…”

Sound coming through a receiver always distorts a bit. Chen Qian felt it sounded familiar but could not guess who was on the other end for a moment. Plus he had just woken up, his mind too foggy to muster the energy to figure it out. So he directly interrupted the other persons rambling. “Got it.”

Xu Jue thought Chen Qian had recognized him. “That’s good. Are you free to meet today? I need to return your power bank.”

Chen Qian was stunned for a moment. He propped himself up, reached for the bag at the foot of the bed, and rummaged through it. Then he collapsed back down onto the bed, his sore waist giving out. “Oh, its you. Another day. Its snowing heavily outside. I don’t want to go out.”

Hearing this, Xu Jue reached his hand outside the railing. “No its not. The sky cleared up long ago. Perfect weather for going out.”

Through the bedroom door, Chen Qian heard someone ringing the bell outside. He figured the five minutes were up. “Hold on a moment. I’m getting my takeout.”

“Doesn’t want to go out” and “getting takeout” were practically a matched set. Xu Jue stopped pressuring him and changed his approach. “Where do you live? If its close, I can deliver it to you. Ill be free after school at noon.”

Chen Qian sent away the out of breath delivery guy, pinched the long takeout receipt, and scanned the seven or eight dishes Jiang Linsheng had ordered for him as if money was no object. “Can you come right after school?”

Xu Jue made a sound of agreement. “If class doesn’t run over, I can get out at eleven thirty.”

Chen Qian looked at the wall clock. He would not have to wait long. “Then sorry for the trouble.”

The address Chen Qian gave was not far from the school. By bike, it was even a few minutes closer than the motel where Xu Jue was staying. Xu Jue had checked the map. After delivering the power bank, he could still fill his stomach at a nearby noodle shop.

Xu Jue passed through that area on his way to the art studio every day, but he never stayed long. The seafood market nearby reeked too strongly of fish, and the aquatic product transport kept the road surface damp and dirty year round. It made people want to avoid it.

Xu Jue rode a shared bike around for quite a while before finding Changnian Road mentioned in the text message. It was two hundred meters past the seafood market. The buildings there were all quite old. The walls had been painted over layer after layer, but they could not hide the overall aged atmosphere pervading the neighborhood.

The snow had not completely melted. Xu Jue was not riding fast. When the front wheel of the bike crushed a dry branch, he barely gripped the handlebars and braked to a stop.

Right then, the navigation on his phone announced the end of the route. Xu Jue parked the bike by the roadside, his backpack slung over one shoulder, and looked around for Alley Six.

There was an alley right in front of him. A narrow strip squeezed between two buildings. On the left side of the alley entrance was a breakfast shop. Above the shop door it said “Aunt Qius Bakery.” On the right was a flower shop. The glass door was open. The plastic buckets outside did not have many fresh flowers. The shopkeeper was wrapped in a blanket, sitting in a wicker chair, slacking off and dozing.

The aluminum plate street sign at the alley entrance had its numbers covered by dried white paint that had dripped down. He could not tell if it was Alley Eight or Alley Six. So Xu Jue changed direction and asked the busy shopkeeper at the breakfast shop. “Auntie, is this Alley Six going in here?”

The shopkeeper was wrapping wontons without looking up. “It is Alley Six! First time here, right? Be careful on the stairs. The lightbulb on the third floor is broken. Watch your step!”

“Okay.” Xu Jue looked down at the remaining pastries in the display case. His stomach, which had only had a few soup dumplings all morning, quietly growled. “What kind of pastry is this? Still selling?”

“Yes! Only a few left. Ill wrap them all up for you. Ill give you a discount.” The shopkeeper took off her gloves, wiped her hands, pushed open the cabinet door, and deftly placed the pastries into a pastry box. “My wife cakes are the biggest and tastiest on the whole street. Eat them and you’re guaranteed to find a pretty wife.”

Xu Jue was not considering this issue for the time being. “Then what should I eat to improve my academic ability? My homework efficiency is too low.”

The shopkeeper pulled out a plastic bag and put the pastry box inside. “I cant help you with that. But there’s a young guy in our Alley Six who speaks English really well. His studies probably aren’t bad either. You can ask him for advice.”

Talking about English made Xu Jue sleepy. He took the bag, paid, and walked into the alley stepping on snow.

The alley was deep, but there was actually only one staircase going up. The remaining space had been opened up into recessed garages. Cars could not squeeze through the alley entrance, so the garages parked non motorized vehicles and motorcycles. Large areas were stacked with discarded furniture. Against the wall there was actually a pool table that was about eighty percent new.

The draft was icy cold. Xu Jue did not linger long. Carrying his things, he turned onto the stairs.

No wonder the shopkeeper reminded him to watch his step. The ventilation windows dug into the stairwell were extremely small. The surroundings were terrifyingly dim. The lightbulbs at each floor landing barely served any purpose. Halfway up he even stepped on a crushed soda can.

Near the third floor, Xu Jue ran into a delivery guy carrying a large cardboard box. The guy was leaning against the handrail resting, muttering “504” under his breath.

“504?” Xu Jue stopped in his tracks. Wasn’t that where he was going? “Perfect. Let me help you carry it up.”

The delivery guy still had some professional ethics. “What’s the last four digits of your phone number?”

Xu Jue recited a string of numbers, took the box, and hefted it on his arm. Pretty heavy.

The delivery guy stretched his shoulder joints as he went downstairs, grumbling under his breath. “Fifth floor and they still make people deliver up there…”

Despite the freezing weather, Xu Jue had come all this way and was now carrying a heavy load up to the fifth floor. His back was still sticky with a thin layer of sweat.

He freed a hand and knocked on the door. He was still wondering how someone who rode in a Mulsanne could live in a place like this, when footsteps sounded from inside. “Who’s there?”

Xu Jue answered. “Delivery.”

The door opened. Chen Qians hand, ready to receive the delivery, paused midair. He stared at the cardboard box in Xu Jues arms in surprise. “You also work part time delivering packages?”

His mind was a bit messy. Xu Jue was dazzled by the excessively fair chest visible through the gap in Chen Qians robe. After coming back to his senses, he averted his gaze. “Yeah, and I also deliver takeout part time.” As if to prove the truth of his words, he lifted the bag in his left hand. “Wife cake. Want some?”

Chen Qian recognized the logo on the plastic bag. “Bought it downstairs?”

“Yeah. Bought it so they could close up shop early.”

“Then it needs to be heated up to get soft.” Standing in the hallway for too long, he felt the cold. Chen Qian reached out and took the delivery box from Xu Jues arms. “Come in first.”

Xu Jue had only asked out of politeness. He had not expected the other person to actually covet his pastries. He had to postpone his noodle shop plan and followed Chen Qian inside.

The room was much warmer than outside. After putting down the bag, Xu Jue took off his school uniform jacket. Chen Qian set down the delivery box and turned to look at him. “Why are you still carrying your backpack? Put it down. Sit anywhere.”

The place looked like it was lived in by only one person. It was quite small. The wraparound sofa that could be sat on was also piled with clutter. No matter how casually Xu Jue sat, he could only occupy one corner of the sofa. His long legs and long arms could not stretch out. He was more constrained than when he sat by the roadside last night.

There was also a lot of stuff on the coffee table. Various magazines were stacked up. On top was a laptop. Beside it were several takeout bags. Just now Chen Qian had recognized Aunt Qius Bakery bag. This time it was Xu Jues turn to recognize Jinyun Pavilions delivery bag. Even the takeout bags from a star rated hotel had to be designed with flair. Meat dishes used butter yellow. Vegetable dishes used bean green. Desserts used taro purple. Here all three colors were present.

Chen Qian casually tidied up the coffee table to clear a space. He picked up the pastry box and headed toward the kitchen. “Have you eaten?”

“Not yet. Not in a hurry.” Xu Jue thought to himself, how could someone who ordered food from Jinyun Pavilion still be hung up on his street side wife cakes.

The host had gone into the kitchen. Xu Jue, a first time guest, relaxed much more. He pushed aside the down jacket pressing against him, wanting to make room for his backpack. But underneath the down jacket was a piece of black fabric.

He thought it was something like a hair tie. He casually picked it up to move it aside. Only when the fabric unfolded in his hand did he shockingly discover it was a strappy thong.

That tiny bit of fabric hooked on his fingertips was soft and slippery. In an instant, Xu Jues mind went into overdrive. He hurriedly glanced toward the bedroom direction out of the corner of his eye, then averted his gaze. He was afraid a completely naked woman would walk out the next second.

Whether to leave or stay became a dilemma. Xu Jue stood up then sat back down. The backpack on the sofa edge thudded to the floor.

“Good thing you haven’t eaten yet,” a figure emerged from the kitchen. “…What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Xu Jue crumpled that underwear into a ball and clenched it in his palm. In his haste, he only had time to pick up his backpack and pretend to rummage through it. His hand went in and came back out. “Right, your power bank.”

“Thanks. Just put it next to the computer.” Chen Qian walked very lightly. When he reached Xu Jue, he set down a cup of plain water and started fiddling with the takeout. “I ordered too much takeout and cant finish it. Perfect timing that you’re here. Help me eat some. You can go back to school after?”

Xu Jue was still feeling guilty. “No need. I was planning to eat at that noodle shop nearby.”

“At this hour you wont get a seat. The spots are all taken by office workers from the building next door.” Chen Qian pushed an empty bowl in front of him.

Xu Jue pressed down on his backpack, caught between a rock and a hard place. His peripheral vision swept across the bedroom doorway again. “Just the two of us?”

“No one else here. So eat more.” Chen Qian broke apart a pair of chopsticks for him. He looked down at the blue crab legs in front of him and frowned. “Do you like eating crab?”

Xu Jue hid his bag behind himself. “I’m not a picky eater.”

“Then this is your job to finish.” Chen Qian immediately moved the entire box of blue crab in front of Xu Jue. “I’m allergic to seafood. I cant eat it.”

Xu Jue asked casually. “If you’re allergic, why did you order it?”

Chen Qian paused. “Ordered by mistake.”

Xu Jue did not ask further. He put down his chopsticks and was about to crack a crab leg when he remembered what he had just touched. “Let me wash my hands first.”

“Wash in the kitchen. While you’re at it, turn off the electric griddle. The wife cakes don’t need to be heated too long.”

When he stood up, Xu Jue knocked over the lid of a takeout box by the coffee table. He bent down to pick it up. The back of his hand accidentally brushed against the hem of Chen Qians robe.

Beneath the hem was a pair of very white and slender ankles. Behind the left ankle bone hid a very faint small mole. He could not tell if it had been scratched or bitten by a mosquito, but that small mole was tinged with red.

Chen Qian had a strange light fragrance that went straight into Xu Jues nasal cavity. While washing his hands in the kitchen, Xu Jue realized that his left hand, which had clutched that thong, was also carrying the same fragrance.

After turning off the electric griddle and going out, Chen Qian was tearing salt baked chicken into small pieces and mixing it with rice. He could not eat more than a few mouthfuls before putting down his chopsticks. He grabbed a fork and turned his attention to dessert.

“No wonder you needed help. You eat so little of the main food.” Xu Jue said.

Chen Qian also ate sweets slowly. He scooped a small piece of mousse to his lips, then rolled it away with the tip of his tongue. Finally he wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin.

“My mouth hurts. No appetite.” Chen Qian said.

Xu Jue had already noticed that the area below Chen Qians lips was more swollen and red than last night. It looked exactly like a smudged lipstick mark. “My friend said, people with good constitutions recover from piercings in three days. People with poor constitutions need about a month to heal.”

“Where did your friend get pierced?”

“Ears.”

“Lip piercings are harder to heal than ear piercings. Im going to have trouble eating well for two months.” Chen Qian swallowed the last bite of cake, put down his fork, and ended this bland lunch.

Xu Jue had just started eating. Chen Qian found something to do for himself. He pulled out scissors from a drawer and started cutting at the delivery box beside the coffee table. The box was sealed tightly. He struggled for a long time before slicing through the packing tape. Xu Jue asked. “What is in there? Its so heavy. Even tipping the delivery guy wasn’t enough to get him to bring it up.”

“You’re the one who brought it up,” Chen Qian laughed. He set down the scissors and pushed a box of pine nut plum meat toward Xu Jue. “Here’s your tip.”

Xu Jue had been hungry all morning, so naturally he accepted everything without refusal. But having eaten someone’s food, he could not talk back. So he stopped teasing the other person. “Actually I was just running an errand for that delivery guy. I wasn’t unwilling.”

Chen Qian was not polite at all. “If you’re willing, when you leave, help me take out the trash on your way?”

“You really know how to exploit labor.”

“What is this? I can be even worse.” Chen Qian continued opening the delivery. He cut open the cardboard box, lifted off the foam board, and moved the well protected multiple wood components onto the floor one by one.

Xu Jue judged the material from the grain. “Is this teak?”

“Your eyes are really good.” Chen Qian was crouching there holding an instruction manual, his left hand flipping through the components of various sizes. “I had someone custom make a coat rack. I don’t know if the wood is genuine.”

He was still trying to distinguish which piece was the base, which was the support rod, and which were the hooks. The instruction manual was crumpled in his grip. Xu Jue did not know why, but he suddenly felt the other person was a bit pitiful.

Maybe because this pile of teak stood out starkly against all the cheap furniture in the room. Or maybe because of the confusion and earnestness in Chen Qians eyes.

Xu Jue polished off the food in his bowl in a few bites, stood up, and snatched the instruction manual from Chen Qians hand. “Ill do it.”

Having grown up handling all kinds of models, these large pieces of wood were child’s play in Xu Jues eyes. He rolled up his sleeves, divided the components into three groups, and assembled them. Chen Qian only needed to hand him wrenches and screwdrivers from behind.

Xu Jue had his back to Chen Qian. Each time the other person handed him something, it seemed to carry along that light fragrance. It smelled like oak, or like the small potted plant Xu Jue kept on his windowsill. But that thong remained the most fitting concrete image.

“Is there enough room in here to put it?” Xu Jue asked.

Chen Qian saw he was almost done assembling, so he handed him a glass of water. “Put it at the entrance. As soon as you come in, you can hang your coat or suit jacket on it. Convenient.”

Xu Jue screwed in the last hook and rapped the support rod of the coat rack with his knuckles. “The wood is genuine. It should be hard to find on the domestic market.”

“I pulled some strings and found a master carpenter. I just wanted to custom make the best one.” Chen Qian walked into the kitchen. “I took up a lot of your time. Can you make it back to school in twenty minutes? Does it matter if you’re late for afternoon class?”

Xu Jue hurriedly looked at his watch. Chen Qian was exactly right. There were only twenty minutes left until class started. The first period in the afternoon was the homeroom teachers class.

“I’m leaving.” Xu Jue pulled down his sleeves, picked up his jacket and backpack, and was about to leave cleanly. His empty right hand lifted the coat rack and moved it to the position by the entrance where it would be most convenient to hang clothes.

His hand had just touched the doorknob when Xu Jue thought of something. He turned back and asked the person coming out of the kitchen. “How do you know my class schedule?”

Chen Qian looked up at him, then lowered his head again and closed the food storage container. “Aren’t all schools about the same?”

“Not all of them. Xian Middle School gets out fifteen minutes earlier than others.” Xu Jue looked at the lunch box Chen Qian had stuffed into his hand. Inside the transparent box, the six wife cakes he bought were neatly arranged. “What’s wrong? You’re not eating them?”

“Cant eat them right now.” Chen Qian hooked the door handle and pushed the door open. “Thanks for making the special trip today.”

“Its nothing. I also mooched a meal off you.” The door suddenly opened, and the cold draft from the hallway leaked in. Xu Jue put on his jacket. Seeing Chen Qian pull his collar tight against the cold, he stepped outside and used his tall body to block the draft. “Pack up the trash and give it to me. Ill carry it down for you.”

The table was littered with takeout boxes. Packing tape was scattered across the floor. But Chen Qian leaned against the doorframe without moving. The smile pulled up by his sore mouth had an almost imperceptible arc, as if he was teasing. “You have fifteen minutes left.”

Xu Jues expression tightened. His backpack hung over one shoulder as he turned and ran.

After seeing off Xu Jue, Chen Qian closed the door. He stood alone in the entranceway for a long time. He reached out and touched the brand new coat rack. Up close, he could still smell the elegant teak fragrance.

After dealing with the takeout boxes and delivery packaging, Chen Qian started tidying up the clothes scattered all over the sofa. They were the ones Jiang Linsheng had stripped off him one by one last night in a moment of passion. On the other end of the sofa armrest, Jiang Linshengs forgotten tie was still draped.

Chen Qian shook out the down jacket, about to hang it on the coat rack so it would not look so bare. But then he thought about it, retreated back to the sofa, put down the down jacket, and instead picked up that black striped tie and hung it up.

He scooped up a few pieces of underwear and threw them into the washing machine. Chen Qian pressed the start button. Leaning against the balcony railing, he composed a text to Jiang Linsheng. He wanted to jokingly ask if the other person had secretly pocketed his underwear, since he could not find them.

Just as he was about to press send, Chen Qians hand suddenly stopped. He lifted his eyelids and looked toward the spot on the sofa where Xu Jue had sat.

After a long while, he lowered his head again and deleted all the text he had typed.