Xie Zhuxing rarely says anything sweet, this is as sweet as he could get.
Knowing that he was in the middle of filming, Wang Chao didn’t bother him again. He took even more photos within the house and posted them on his friend’s circle, captioning “Look! My new home!” before leaving satisfied.
With nothing else to do, he gave Liang Xi a call.
Liang Xi had just finished filming for a show and is on break. He shouldn’t be busy recently.
He asked, “Ge, where are you right now?”
Liang Xi gave him a lukewarm reply, as though he didn’t want to be bothered, “At home.”
He didn’t care whether the other man wanted to talk to him and continued, “I’m not that far from your place, can I come over for lunch?”
Liang Xi refused, “Don’t, I’m busy. I won’t open the door even if you’re right outside.”
Wang Chao was suspicious, “What are you doing? It’s noon.”
Liang Xi had even thicker skin than he did and replied, “Doing. Doing my partner, to be specific.”
He gave up on going to Liang Xi’s place. He’s a bit envious – he can’t do his partner anytime soon.
He misses Xie Zhuxing, who had left for Nanjing only yesterday.
He chose a random place for lunch and went home for a nap. When he was up, the night has begun to creep in, the early autumn dusk beginning to stain his curtains.
He suddenly feels a bit lonely.
Before this relationship, loneliness was distant to him. He hung around outside every day, and even when he didn’t have many actual friends, his days were full of activities, vibrant and energetic.
Loneliness falls when he needs someone and that person isn’t there.
An idea suddenly came to his mind.
Strings of melody began to collide and intersect with fervor within his mind.
Music is the best medium for expressing love and hate. Oftentimes, it’s even more expressive than words.
There isn’t a piano in his own place. He hopped off the bed, grabbed his car keys, and headed straight toward the company’s music studio.
Playing and writing, refining and adjusting, he stayed in the music studio until past eleven o’clock. He only returned home after beginning to feel fatigued.
The minute he exited the studio he was terrified. The company was empty at midnight, its hallways creepily silent. Even the usual white lights began to seem eerie.
He is not religious or spiritual but loves horror movies. Even though he knows that movies aren’t real, he gets terrified real easily.
He sprinted to the elevator in one breath. He didn’t dare to turn around even after he pressed the down button. Instead, he stared straight at the elevator door, a chill traveling straight up his spine, as though some monster was breathing into his ears. He understood that this was all an illusion but his heart was still beating rapidly out of terror.
Wait! What the heck! It’s midnight, why is the elevator coming down?
…What creature is using the elevator?
The elevator “ding” -ed as it arrived, and the door slowly opened.
There were two people inside. One of them is a recording artist that he recognized – about thirty years old – and the other one was…well not so great of a person.
The ex-keyboard player and current folk singer.
“Leo? Why are you still at the company?” The recording artist asked.
Wang Chao didn’t want to speak to the keyboard player so he only looked at the recording artist when he replied, “I practiced for a bit, what were you up to?”
The recording artist said, “We were recording for a new song upstairs and it just wrapped up now. Hey, aren’t you two classmates?”
The keyboard player smiled and said, “Yeah, we knew each other from college. Xiao Chao, hurry up and come in.”
Wang Chao didn’t want to be with him, but staying there by himself to wait for the elevator again is a bit terrifying, so he ended up going in.
The elevator moved again.
Wang Chao stood in the front, facing the elevator, obviously not wanting to speak to anyone.
The recording artist had recorded songs for ID before. He knows that Leo Wang has connections within the company and that he has a bad temper. Even though he wants to start a conversation he’s afraid of misspeaking, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.
The keyboard player asked, “Xiao Chao, what did you practice?”
Wang Chao gave a curt answer, “Piano. Can you not call me that? It’s gross.”
The keyboard player smiled and said to the recording artist, “He just has a bad temper. Don’t mind his words, once you get close to him you will realize that he’s actually a nice person.”
Wang Chao thought impatiently, I’m not close to you at all.
When the elevator arrived downstairs, he exited the elevator and without turning around, said “I’ll leave first. See you.”
The recording artist replied, “See you.”
Yet the keyboard player asked, “Why are you in such a hurry? Let’s have some latenight snacks together.”
Wang Chao turned around and looked at him with suspicion.
His smile seemed rather genuine. “It’s on me. Consider this my thanks to you,” He said.
He was able to release that folk single in August because Wang Chao had requested an exec of the company and told the latter that this was his college classmate and could sing decently.
Wang Chao had helped him because of that song in ID’s second album.
Wang Chao didn’t want to bring this thing up in front of the recording artist. He only replied, “There’s nothing to thank me for. I’m not going. I’m in a hurry to go home.”
The keyboard player asked, “Go home for what? Didn’t Tomas leave for Nanjing?”
Wang Chao looked at him as though he was looking at an idiot, “…Why are you so gossipy?”
The keyboard player said, “You will be alone when you go back anyways, why not go have a drink or two with me?”
Wang Chao couldn’t help but retort, “Being alone is more fun than being with you.”
The keyboard player didn’t react to his words. He only said, “It won’t just be me. He will come with us.”
The recording artist was confused but went along with his words, “Yeah, let’s grab something together. We don’t run into each other often, and we don’t normally have any opportunity to eat together.”
Wang Chao began to find him annoying too. “Do I have to eat with someone whenever I run into them? Then how many times would I have to eat in a day? By this logic I would have become a pig from how much I’d eat.”
Wang Chao took advantage of the silence and left instantly.
The recording artist whispered, “Don’t go then, what’s with his temper?”
The keyboard player said, “Don’t take it to heart. He’s just got a potty mouth, but he doesn’t actually mean what he says.”
Wang Chao had driven his car when he went out. He didn’t actually want to go home because he’d be alone anyways. Xiao Xie won’t be there until tomorrow afternoon.
And he’s actually quite hungry and wants some late-night snacks.
He drove around for a while and went to Gui Street. It’s mid-October now, almost past the season of spicy crawfish. There won’t be any left once this window of opportunity closes.
He wore a baseball cap and didn’t have any makeup. Therefore, he wasn’t easy to spot amongst the public.
At this time of the year, nights have begun to be a little chilly. There aren’t many people who came out to have late-night snacks.
The entire plate of spicy crawfish arrived on his table. He took a picture of the crawfish and posted it in his friends’ circle. He wanted to show it off but then thought there wasn’t much to show off, so after thinking for a while, he captioned the photo: “Hahahahahahaha.”
A minute later, Xie Zhuxing liked his post.
He called Xie Zhuxing and asked, “Are you done with work?”
Xie Zhuxing replied, “I’m on a break right now.”
And then he asked, “Did you go to Gui Street by yourself again?”
Wang Chao grinned as he replied, “I sure did! Without you here no one would want to hang out with me anyways.”
Xie Zhuxing said, “Don’t drink too much, calling a chauffer this late at night is not safe either.”
Xie Zhuxing said, “I got to go now.”
Wang Chao wanted to talk to him for a little longer but judging by his voice, Xie Zhuxing does seem busy. He then said, “Alright, I will go eat my crawfish now.”
Eating late-night snacks by yourself is really boring. He ate a couple and then played mobile games for a while, wasting several pairs of disposable gloves in the process.
Just as he sludged through half the plate, someone sat down next to him.
He looked up and was startled instantly. He unconsciously squeezed the crawfish too tight that the juice within it squired outward onto his chin.
The keyboard player drew a tissue and handed it to him.
Wang Chao, “…Are you crazy? Did you stalk me?”
Sorry guys! I just moved across the country and the logistics of furnishing my apartment has been crazy.