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<h6 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Note: </h6>\nHi, it’s beansprout! I missed you guys! I hope you haven’t forgotten about Tiandi :’) Since it’s been a while, I’d like to give a quick recap to situate you in the story again: in chapter 39, Sup (the Thai businessperson) and Du Jing fight in Sup’s hotel room, and Sup falls to their death. Du Jing and Zhou Luoyang flee the scene, and the mysterious Ukrainian woman helps them evade the Hong Kong police. But the Eye of Forseti is now broken, and eventually, the cops catch up to them at the harbor, and Zhou Luoyang gives himself up. As he sits in the police car, time suddenly rewinds. Chapter 40 starts off with them back in their hotel room, 24 hours in the past. Sup knocks on their hotel room, and they knock Sup out and hurry to the airport. At the airport, Sup somehow finds them and corners Zhou Luoyang in the bathroom. They claim that Du Jing killed Zhou Luoyang’s father. A scuffle breaks out between Sup, Zhou Luoyang, and Du Jing. Sup’s lipstick gun makes a reappearance, shots are fired, and Luoyang and Du Jing end up detained again. Time rewinds 24 hours. This time, Luoyang and Du Jing, along with Huang Ting, finally manage to escape from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City without too much trouble. We enter a flashback, which brings us to the start of chapter 41.\n
(Also, opal and I finally edited chapter 40. During this process, we made the decision to change our pronouns for Sup. More on that here.)\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nPast\n“Then…” Zhou Luoyang was at a loss now as well. “You reap what you sow. People are beginning to suspect me.”\n
“Let them think what they want.” Du Jing’s head remained buried in the pages of his book. “I don’t care.”\n
“But I care,” Zhou Luoyang responded helplessly. “I don’t care what they say about me, I just don’t want them to constantly speculate about you…Du Jing.”\n
Zhou Luoyang brought a chair over and straddled it, facing Du Jing. \n
Du Jing didn’t spare him a glance. He stared stubbornly at his book, yet he didn’t turn the page for a very long time.\n
“I don’t want to go on like this.” Du Jing suddenly lifted his head.\n
Zhou Luoyang was momentarily at a loss for words. Du Jing’s non-sequitur had caught him off guard.\n
“I’m sick of it,” Du Jing continued.\n
“Fine, who cares what they think…”\n
“I’m sick of you.”Du Jing’s mood could swing at the flip of a switch. Malice was etched into the lines of his face. He was still keeping himself under control, and his slight excitement caused his body to quiver. “You’re annoying! Zhou Luoyang!”\n
Zhou Luoyang immediately shut up. After a few seconds of silence, he asked, “Are you not feeling well right now, Du Jing?”\n
Du Jing sucked in a deep breath and did his best to wrangle his emotions under control and calm down. He reclined on his bed and stuffed his earbuds in. \n
“Should we take a walk?” Zhou Luoyang suggested. He knew Du Jing could hear.\n
“I want to drop out,” Du Jing said.\n
Zhou Luoyang was speechless.\n
He was manic now. Zhou Luoyang had sensed it coming a few days ago. This was his first time really witnessing a transition between Du Jing’s episodes, as well as his first time being on the receiving end of Du Jing’s aggression.\n
A couple days ago, Du Jing had been uncharacteristically talkative. But not at Zhou Luoyang. At that person.\n
That person’s name was Sun Xiangchen. He was a freshman, an underclassman.\n
As sophomore year began, the archery org faced the challenge of recruitment. The president racked his brains and decided to have their mascot, the godly marksman Du Jing, help out. He hoped that Du Jing’s show of skill could attract a couple underclassmen to the organization.\n
Du Jing didn’t want to, at first, but he had to relent to the president. So he agreed to demo three shots—only three shots and no ambidextrous shooting, despite the president’s pleas.\n
That day, Zhou Luoyang had just gotten out of class and headed over to the archery org to help out. As he got closer, he saw that they were surrounded by a packed crowd of potential new recruits, all watching Du Jing shoot. Everyone was hyped up, including Zhou Luoyang himself.\n
Dear lord, he thought, everyone’s going to know Du Jing’s name again!\n
It had been the greater part of a year since the last major crisis with Du Jing’s disorder. Over time, people had gradually forgotten about the incident. Du Jing was fully decked in gear on this particular day, and the club president had even borrowed a dazzling brocade uniform for him to wear. Du Jing’s hair was very short, and he wore a mask that hid his scar but left his tall, straight nose uncovered. The period costume he wore came with a sense of asceticism and self-discipline, and it made him look particularly statuesque and spirited. He released three arrows in such rapid succession that they looked like a joined string of pearls. Each hit the bullseye. \n
That day, the school discussion board was chock full of pictures of Du Jing—from all 360 degrees, not a single angle missed. Videos of him had even made their way to sites outside of the school forum. By the next day, the archery president had successfully completed many years’ worth of recruitment. \n
Of course, many people had only joined to see Du Jing. But now that there were more people, the range got too noisy, and Du Jing and Zhou Luoyang didn’t really want to go anymore.\n
Three days after the archery demonstration, a male junior classmate added Zhou Luoyang on WeChat. At first Zhou Luoyang thought some girl had made the guy get his contact info for her, but soon enough, the guy, whose name was Sun Xiangchen, found him in person. \n
He and Zhou Luoyang were a little similar in style, clean and neat. In the beginning, they would sometimes run into each other at the dining hall during lunch, and Sun Xiangchen would carry his tray over and sit with the two of them. \n
“I’m Xiangchen,” Sun Xiangchen told Zhou Luoyang. “Did you see what I posted in my Moments?” \n
Sun Xiangchen came to them claiming to want to learn more about archery, so Zhou Luoyang patiently gave him advice. But Zhou Luoyang didn’t tell Du Jing about something so small, since Sun Xiangchen himself adamantly shied away from mentioning Du Jing. \n
The underclassman bought drinks for Du Jing and Zhou Luoyang, and Zhou Luoyang cheerfully accepted the offering, finding him quite sensible. From then on, whenever Zhou Luoyang was with Du Jing, they would always run into Sun Xiangchen. Sometimes, when he and Du Jing were shooting hoops, Sun Xiangchen would come to them carrying a ball and join in.\n
Zhou Luoyang quickly got to know the kid, but Du Jing maintained his distance. He hardly ever spoke to Sun Xiangchen; no matter what Sun Xiangchen said to him, he would only ever nod indifferently.\n
“Did you tell him to bring me lunch?” Du Jing asked Zhou Luoyang one day upon returning to their room.\n
“Ah,” said Zhou Luoyang, “yes, as I was turning in assignments at noon, he asked me why I hadn’t gone to the dining hall and then about what you ate, so I just asked him to do me a favor and bring some food up for you.”\n
Du Jing didn’t really like other people coming to their dorm, but since Sun Xiangchen had done them a favor, he let it go.\n
Zhou Luoyang wondered if perhaps Du Jing was feeling a bit ill at ease because someone had barged into his life, so he said, “I won’t ask him to do that again. You don’t have class in the morning, and I was worried you were hungry. Did he say something?”\n
“Not really, he just asked why our beds were placed together.”\n
Zhou Luoyang laughed. “He’s your fanboy. He asks me all day long if I’ve slept with you.”\n
“He also asked if he could borrow a book. I lent him one.”\n
Zhou Luoyang nodded. The next day, he spotted Du Jing texting someone back. He could tell from the profile picture that that someone was Sun Xiangchen.\n
“He finally added you,” Zhou Luoyang said teasingly. “I knew he was after you.”\n
Du Jing paused. “How?”\n
It was obvious. Though Sun Xiangchen approached Zhou Luoyang, he was always most invested in talking about Du Jing. He would ask why they hadn’t gone to archery, why they hadn’t come to play basketball, if they were going to the exhibition…\n
Whenever Zhou Luoyang and Du Jing attended lectures, Sun Xiangchen would get there ahead of time and save them seats.\n
“He really idolizes you,” Zhou Luoyang said. His thoughts had yet to veer in any strange direction. “He even wanted to move into our dorm room.”\n
“I don’t know him very well,” Du Jing said.\n
“Let me see what you guys talked about.” Zhou Luoyang took a look at Du Jing’s phone, which Du Jing handed to him. Sun Xiangchen had been consistently sharing interesting content with Du Jing, to little response. The only times when Du Jing couldn’t resist saying something was when Sun Xiangchen brought up basketball teams.\n
Sun Xiangchen and Du Jing liked the same team. The team Zhou Luoyang supported was their rival team. Du Jing and Zhou Luoyang could agree on everything—except when it came to soccer or basketball. When they talked about soccer or basketball, it often ended in arguments. As a result, they came to an unspoken agreement to never talk about their favorite teams.\n
But Sun Xiangchen’s entrance filled that void. The basketball player he liked just so happened to be Du Jing’s favorite too, which led to all sorts of silly bragging. Du Jing had been to an actual NBA game before, so he would sometimes toss in his two cents as well.\n
Zhou Luoyang scrolled through Du Jing’s chat history. This kid—he didn’t just look up to Du Jing, he practically idol worshipped him.\n
“He certainly doesn’t talk to me like this!” Zhou Luoyang was a bit shocked to see that a man could be this enthusiastic about another man. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Look how meek and polite he is. He could even be your fan at this rate.”\n
“Isn’t that how I talk to you? All grovel-y.”\n
Zhou Luoyang wanted to throw the phone at something. “No way! That’s how I  talk to you! I’m always trying to cater to your whims!” \n
“You haven’t noticed? When you text me, I always text back immediately, just like this kid. When I text you, you always give me the cold shoulder.”\n
“Hey! That’s because I’m usually preoccupied, okay?” Zhou Luoyang laughed. “I can’t be constantly checking my phone when I’m in class.”\n
“No matter how busy I am, I’ll still drop everything to reply to you,” Du Jing said.\n
Du Jing put down his phone, not wanting to text Sun Xiangchen back. He turned on the computer and helped Zhou Luoyang with his programming. “I’m your lapdog. And I have to do your homework for you.”\n
“That’s right. That’s why you’ll never be able to afford a house, because lapdogs are stuck in the doghouse<sup>1</sup>,” Zhou Luoyang replied.\n
Zhou Luoyang hated programming class. He hadn’t even wanted to take the course, but because Du Jing chose it, he signed up alongside him. The classes bored him to death, and to make matters worse, the professor was an old lady whose lectures put him to sleep. Ultimately, he handed off his homework to Du Jing, making Du Jing do twice the work.\n
Sun Xiangchen was a sunny, spirited guy, and Zhou Luoyang could tell that he really, really, really adored Du Jing. When Zhou Luoyang compared all the things he did for Du Jing to all the things Sun Xiangchen did, he practically blushed with shame.\n
These things included but were not limited to: saving seats for him in class, getting him lunches, buying drinks for him when they played basketball, watching his clothes when they were at the archery range, reading the novels Du Jing liked, buying the same brand of clothes and shoes and book store as him, and trying out new restaurants on his own and then inviting Du Jing to go with him if the restaurants were good. He even asked a friend studying abroad to get a poster signed by a basketball star Du Jing liked. “To: Vincent,” it said. \n
But Du Jing didn’t accept most of these gestures, especially not that poster of Kobe.\n
Once, Sun Xiangchen had even wanted to give Du Jing a new phone.\n
Sun Xiangchen wasn’t some rich kid; he was born to an ordinary family. Zhou Luoyang found it tough seeing him act this way. Du Jing was wealthy and wasn’t very mindful about spending. His poet of a father had left him no small inheritance. After Du Jing bought that Ferrari and wrecked it, he still had a lot left over.\n
Buying a pair of basketball shoes was as easy for him as buying a bottle of water from a snack counter.\n
Zhou Luoyang wore size 43, and Du Jing wore size 44, so they couldn’t share shoes. In order to get ahold of two pairs of mismatched shoes<sup>2</sup>, Du Jing could easily drop twenty thousand on four pairs of basketball sneakers for them, all because Zhou Luoyang commented once that “it would be cool if we could swap shoes to get mismatched shoes.”\n
If Sun Xiangchen spent like Du Jing did, he was bound to end up dirt poor.\n
“A new phone?!” Zhou Luoyang exclaimed when he spotted the unopened box on Du Jing’s desk. He was stunned.\n
“He said he won it in a raffle,” Du Jing remarked mildly. “He already has one, so he said he’d give me this one. Return it to him tomorrow for me, and tell him to sell it.”\n
“Return it yourself.” Zhou Luoyang toweled off his wet hair. “It’s his gift to you.”\n
“I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. He has computer class.”\n
“I can’t believe something so amazing didn’t happen to me!” Zhou Luoyang lamented. “The disparity in treatment is too obvious! I’m getting jealous!” \n
“You want it? Then take it.”\n
“Nah, it was meant for you,” Zhou Luoyang said enviously.\n
By “jealous,” Zhou Luoyang meant that he was unhappy over Sun Xiangchen, who was a junior classmate to both of them, giving gifts to Du Jing and not him. But Du Jing looked up at Zhou Luoyang.\n
He put down his phone. Their conversation stopped there.\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator">\n“He’s too good to you,” Zhou Luoyang sighed.\n
“Yeah,” Du Jing agreed, bending over to shoot Sun Xiangchen a text. Thank you for the phone, but I can’t accept it.\n
All of a sudden, Zhou Luoyang felt unhappy. He hadn’t ever felt this way before, but sometimes one gets jealous even over same-sex friendships.\n
No one used to give a hoot about Du Jing, which allowed Zhou Luoyang to rightfully monopolize him. He knew he was Du Jing’s only friend and that Du Jing couldn’t leave him. Relying on their closeness, he ordered Du Jing around as he pleased.\n
Of course, Zhou Luoyang loved him and paid close attention to his condition at all times. Whenever he confirmed that Du Jing was well, he would proceed without reservation. Fixing their dorm’s water heater was Du Jing’s job. If he wanted cigarettes, he would send Du Jing to buy them. When he played video games, he got Du Jing to help him level up and climb the rankings. Every time he had a question about homework, he went to Du Jing. When his head hurt from reading, he would make Du Jing read his textbook for him and summarize the content.\n
Du Jing always went along with his whims. He listened better than any boyfriend. When he couldn’t sleep on occasion, he would even grind in video games for Zhou Luoyang.\n
Now that Sun Xiangchen entered the picture, Zhou Luoyang suddenly realized that he actually wasn’t all that good to Du Jing.\n
“Why are you so good to him?” Zhou Luoyang could help but ask Sun Xiangchen in class one day.\n
“Jing ge’s super cool and honest, and he’s read so many books. He’s my idol!” \n
“Yeah,” Zhou Luoyang agreed, but on the inside he knew he was jealous.\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nOne night, Zhou Luoyang took one glance at the phone on the table and said, “Du Jing.” \n
Du Jing turned around to look at him.\n
“Buy me a pack of cigarettes downstairs. I don’t feel like going out.”\n
“You finished that other pack I bought you?” Du Jing asked blankly.\n
“I don’t like that brand,” Zhou Luoyang said in defense of his unreasonable request. “It’s too pungent.”\n
Du Jing got up, grabbed the keys, and headed downstairs.\n
Zhou Luoyang felt a bit better after that. Ordering Du Jing around assuaged that tiny twinge of unhappiness. It even evoked a sense of secret delight in him. Making Sun Xiangchen’s idol buy him cigarettes felt good.\n
Du Jing returned with a full pack of cigarettes. “Did the last pack have duds?”\n
Honestly, Zhou Luoyang seldom smoked. He only ever smoked a cigarette or two before exams, and he never did it in their room. He knew Du Jing didn’t like the smell. But they’d spent a winter together, and it had been too cold to step out onto the balcony for every smoke. Du Jing insisted he stay in the room. He would turn on the air purifier and let him smoke whenever he wanted, and it stuck. \n
Du Jing picked up the leftover half-empty pack and pulled one cigarette out, bringing it up to his nose. He sniffed it dubiously. He looked like a dog.\n
“It’s not like you can tell by smelling it,” Zhou Luoyang said, giving Du Jing a kick. “Give it back. What are you smelling it for?”\n
“We should throw it away.”\n
“No, I still want…Give it back!”\n
“The new pack isn’t enough for you to smoke?!”\n
Du Jing tossed the half-empty pack in the trash can, but Zhou Luoyang suddenly found himself enraged. “Hand it over!”\n
Silence. As if sensing something, Du Jing picked it out of the trash and returned it to Zhou Luoyang, then quietly sat back down.\n
“How much was it?” Zhou Luoyang asked. “I’ll pay you back.”\n
“I don’t feel very well,” Du Jing suddenly declared. “I think I might be having an episode. Don’t talk to me.”\n
Zhou Luoyang immediately grew worried. He wanted to go over to him to check on him, but he also was afraid he’d said the wrong thing. That night, after buying those cigarettes, Du Jing didn’t say another word. By the time Zhou Luoyang awoke the next morning, Du Jing was already gone.\n
He grabbed the phone to return it to Sun Xiangchen, but he didn’t show up to class that morning. Zhou Luoyang had no idea where he’d gone.\n
He sat through half the class distracted, and skipped the rest of it. First, he went to Sun Xiangchen’s dorm room and left the phone on his desk, then gave Sun Xiangchen’s roommate a heads up. As he walked down the road that ran through the center of campus, he spotted a booth that was distributing student ID cards. It had a raffle going. There were six phones stacked on one end of the booth.\n
He texted Du Jing asking him how he was. Du Jing responded immediately. I’m driving. I’ll tell you later.\n
Shortly following that, Sun Xiangchen also sent him a message: I’m with Jing ge. I went to the doctor’s with him. Luoyang shixiong<sup>3</sup>, want to grab lunch with us later?\n
Oh, so was this planned? Zhou Luoyang didn’t feel great—Du Jing never brought him along to his appointments. Honestly, out of respect for Du Jing, Zhou Luoyang never asked.\n
But Zhou Luoyang quickly shoved these thoughts to the back of his mind.\n
After some introspection, he conceded that he had to treat Du Jing a bit better, or else Sun Xiangchen would “steal” him away.\n
He stood in front of the booth and thought for a minute. He decided to take a trip off campus.\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nFootnotes:\n
<ol>See footnote 2 in chapter 22. [Back]“Mismatched shoes,” lit. “mandarin duck shoes,” refers to a trend where people wear the same type of shoe on each foot except they’re stylishly different in some way, like in shoe color or shoelace color or something like that. (See bottom of page for pictures.) So like Du Jing was about to buy each of them two pairs of shoes so they can mismatch the colors lol. [Back]Honorific for a senior male classmate. [Back]</ol>\n<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><figcaption>Mandarin duck shoes</figcaption></figure>\n<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nTranslated by beansprout. Edited by opal.\n
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