Ying Ying: Yeah, when I came in this morning, I was a bit startled to find Ikkyu and Long Long missing, so I went upstairs to take a look.
Hai Hong: Where's he now?
Ying Ying: Sleeping, he came back last night, and it seemed the trip wore him out. Ah, I also told him that Liang Ze came looking for him several times.
Hai Hong: Oh? What was his reaction?
Ying Ying: He only said "Ah", and said nothing else.
Hai Hong: (Hooking a finger) Let's 8 (gossip) for  bit~
{Translator Input: 8 (ba) – is from the term 八卦 (bagua) – it means gossip}
Ying Ying: 8 about what?
Hai Hong: Don't you feel that Hang Hang and Liang Ze are…
Ying Ying: Unusual!
Hai Hong: Oh he he he he…look at the two of them, just like a quarreling couple…
Ying Ying: Right?
Hai Hong: Then what stage they are in now?
Ying Ying: Not that I want to jinx it, but I think they broke up.
Hai Hong: Um, I think so too, and it's possible that Hang Hang broke it off with Liang Ze.
Ying Ying: We 8 about them like that, isn't that too much?
Hai Hong: We're living in the gossip era!
Ying Ying: Right. Then can I 8 about something too…?
Hai Hong: (Scoots in closer) 8 about what?
Ying Ying: The man that often drops you off here these days…
Hai Hong: Change s.h.i.+fts!
Ying Ying: … I am so exhausted!
Liang Ze had a dream; in his dream both Hang Hang and him were stuck close together like glue. Strictly speaking, it was a wet dream. Liang Ze immediately opened his eyes, and stared up at the ceiling for a long time, but the hard wooden stick in his bottom still showed no sign of cooling off.
Liang Ze lifted up his thin comforter and saw his crotch poking out of his underpants; he immediately took off his underwear and stared at the high spirited little brother. After looking at it for a long time, he asked, "Why are you up so early?"
His little brother stared at him seriously, and suddenly shook twice, as if it was shaking its head saying I don't know.
A grown up man, a handsome grown up man, a handsome and manly grown up man that does not lack of any women, on an early morning of a new day thinking about another handsome manly grown up man to m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e… This fact can cause any handsome manly grownup man to completely collapse.
Liang Ze recalled that dream, or more like he was thinking back to the feeling he experienced. Hang Hang's hand, Hang Hang's mouth, Hang Hang's loving words, Hang Hang's body scent, Hang Hang's…
When a thick opal colored fluid spurted out from the tip, Liang Ze's depression also got up to its highest peak ever.
He took out a small towel to wipe his hand, and then walked naked into his bathroom, turned on the water and took a shower.
The water was very hot, and Liang Ze lowered down the temperature, the lowering heat giving Liang Ze a very comfortable feeling. It is the most comfortable to take a cold shower in the summer. The crickets kept on chirping nonstop, the more they chirped the more severe his headache became; he really did not know what made them chirp like that =.=
Recently, Liang Ze's violent period had slowly pa.s.sed. That day from half a month ago of him bawling his eyes out in the KTV (Karaoke Place) restroom, it seemed he had released all of his frustration and anger within that night. He had cried that night, cried until he was exhausted, mentally and physically crying out all of his exhaustion.
Xie Jin Yan did not say anything, and she had stopped deliberately trying to get close to him, only talking business with him when she needed to. Before hanging up the phone she would remind him to take a break from his writing to get some rest. Liang Ze thought that he must have scared Xie Jin Yan off, that one sentence of "That person is a man" had successfully discouraged the s.e.xy G.o.ddess. That was good, it was worth mentioning. Anyway, after the embarra.s.sing incident of that day, Liang Ze felt dispirited and tasteless towards everything, he had turned into what people call a "withered" summer fried eggplant, being compared to a frog under the sun, like genetically modified vegetables.
In short, Liang Ze had now turned into a person with no motivation and a fragile person that was unable to even lift a finger. He was just cleaning up the cage for Small Leaf's family and he broke the baby's hammock. In short, just one word: worthless.
Could not find Hang Hang, worthless
Could not find Hang Hang but missing him everyday, even more worthless.
Missing him every day, yet had to answer sister-in-law's question of when Hang Hang was coming back, worthless.
Gave sister-in-law the answer of when Hang Hang will return, and then had to help sister-in-law think of what to treat Hang Hang when he comes back, even more worthless.
That day Liang Ze was being "encouraged" by all the "worthless" thoughts, and he came up with an even more "worthless" decision; he walked straight to No. 10 Yan Dai Xie Street with a murderous aura. He had intended to barge into the store and to threaten Ying Ying with his plastic pistol forcing her to tell him where Hang Hang was. Fortunately, that day Ying Ying had gone out to purchase more supplies for the inventory, and had hung up a sign outside that said "Temporarily Closed." However, that "worthless" thought would not easily spare Liang Ze like that, so he wandered like a stray dog with two red eyes, his whole body convulsing, carrying a plastic pistol and walking around and around the ancient Yan Dai Xie Street of Beijing. He would come back to the store every five miles, and he kept on circling in that cycle. Later on, the owner of the seal engraving store, who has very poor eyesight, saw a young man who kept on walking back and forth so he went out and shouted, "young man, you want to engrave a seal?" Liang Ze walked up to the Uncle and stared grimly at him. The owner only saw Liang Ze's murderous eyes when he got closer to him, and suddenly felt a catastrophe bestow on him. Unexpectedly, Liang Ze said: "Engrave, just one word: Worthless!" The uncle wrote down the order with trembling hands, and Liang Ze sat down in the shop and said: Carve it, I'll wait.
Liang Ze brought back this seal, pressed it down on an inkpad, and then stamped it bang bang onto countless sheets of A4 paper, and the beautiful ancient script of "Worthless" covered many sheets of paper just like that. Liang Ze pasted all of these papers onto the crystal gla.s.s of his window, the room with minimal light now had immersed into a solemn darkness. The only gla.s.s window that did not share this cruel fate was the one in his bedroom, where a neon banner still hung with the sign: I love the Shop Owner. It was not that Liang Ze had not tried to take it down, but when he did, he felt extremely guilty so he put it back on, and this time the letters were even bigger than before.
Worthless.
Right, it was worthless. He loved the shop owner. But the shop owner was not here.
Would he have done this if he had known this would happen?
Right, what would he have done if he had known?
Who said just be friends? Who said they wanted to be friends again?
Weren't you very firm about your decision? Wasn't it that you could not accept Hang Hang?
Then why is it that with just one sentence from Xie Jin Yan of "Do you love that person?" you immediately became this worthless?
What should be done now?
Liang Ze walked out of the bathroom after he finished showering, and he crouched down onto the mahogany chair in the living room as he thought of a way to solve his problems.
d.a.m.n you, the deadline is approaching; d.a.m.n you, you should proceed to write your second long novel; d.a.m.n it, got stuck at first but now some ideas are flowing out.
Now, those were no longer Liang Ze's problems.
Liang Ze's only question was: What should I do?
What should I do, what should I do!
If China has secret agents (like the CIA), why can't they help find a missing person?
{Translator Input: he is at his wit's end, and that's a good sign of him realizing that he is officially in love with Hang Hang; yes I will give you a spoiler LOL}
***
Hang Hang slept all the way until 9 o'clock at night, and when he woke up, his whole body was covered in sweat. The air conditioner had stopped at the set time. He did not know how long he had been sleeping in that heat. This sleep was extremely uncomfortable, and his whole body ached all over.
Putting the alarm clock down on the bedside, Hang Hang rushed in to take a cold shower, and this had successfully uplifted his spirit.
He put on a new set of fresh clothes, played with Long Long and Ikkyu for a moment, and then walked down. Hai Hong was introducing some hamster supplies to a customer.Hamster ^^
"You're up?"
"Um." Hang Hang nodded.
"You brought Long Long and the others upstairs?"
"Uh." Hang Hang took a look around the shop. He came back at six in the morning, and the first thing Hang Hang did when he got home was to look for Long Long. Long Long was asleep, but woke up when he heard some movements, and great, the two brothers had been separated for a long time, so they were so happy to see each other that they wished to just crush each other in each other's embrace.
To get rid of Qi Ji was a struggling project of the century. When the environment condition got increasingly difficult every day, that man would cling onto him even tighter; he even planned to keep a dead grip on Hang Hang and would not let go. Hang Hang said this is part of your research; Qi Ji replied that I'm an office worker, not a researcher. Within this two-month trip, Hang Hang missed Long Long and was also worried about the shop. Above all, he missed Beijing. Each time he left Beijing, he felt emanc.i.p.ated and relaxed, but after leaving that place for such a long time, he came to miss it dearly. The city that he grew up in, the alley that he had been entrenched in for several years, that endearing authentic pork entrails scent, and the lush of old trees. Beijing. Beijing.
In the end, they resolved to flipping the coin! If it was heads, Hang Hang would stay; if it was tails, Hang Hang would return to Beijing. The coin! It flipped around on the ground and finally a brilliant bloomed flower slowly appeared. Hang Hang was able to return to Beijing.1 Yuan Coin
When he landed on the capital soil, Hang Hang exited the airport and the unique scent of Beijing filled up his nostrils. He suddenly felt all at ease.
Actually, it was not that long, it had only been two months, but he really missed this city a lot.
He went to Uncle Li's shop to be his first customer of the day, and ordered a bowl of pork entrails as he felt all enlightened. He exhaustedly carried his luggages home, picked up Long Long, Â and headed to his big bed to sleep, so comfortable!
"Hang Hang?" After Hai Hong sent the customer off, she pushed Hang Hang a few times. She had been calling him numerous times but he seemed to be in a daze.
"Ah?"
"What are you daydreaming about?"
"Oh. Nothing really. He He."
"Did Ying Ying tell you that Liang Ze came to look for you several times?" Hai Hong decided to take this opportunity to seek out some gossip news.
"She did. Get ready to close, it's 10 o'clock."
"Ok. Ah about that…you didn't tell him that you were going on a trip?"
"Do we need to restock the inventory?" Hang Hang did not want to talk about Liang Ze. These past few days on the trip, he had tried really hard to adjust his emotions. Being lovelorn is just a temporary feeling, life is still continuing on. So far no one has figured out how to be in love without getting hurt from it. Honestly speaking, it is inevitable for people to get hurt, but it is something that can be fixed by themselves.
Hai Hong did not dare to question further, "It's still full, Ying Ying replenished the inventory last week."
"Ok. Ah, you don't need to clean up, I'll do it, today you can go home early."
"Ok…"
As Hai Hong packed up her stuff to leave, she looked at Hang Hang; she was certain now that he was heartbroken.
Hang Hang took a long time cleaning up in the shop, feeling all at ease. It feels good to be home: Playing with the pets left here for foster care, sweeping the floor, and rearranging the supplies. Really comfortable!
After cleaning up, he locked up the store and then went upstairs. Then he played with Long Long for some time. Only now, Hang Hang could taste the loneliness that he had tried to ignore for the last two months.
He came to look for me many times?
This question always came and left in Hang Hang's mind.
Looking for him so what? Become friends again?
Wake up, don't be stubborn.
It was some time past 12 o'clock, but Hang Hang was still walking around in his room. He had slept so much during the day that now he did not feel sleepy at all. He put in a random disc into the DVD player, yet he did not know what he wanted to watch. Liang Ze is better than him in this part. He can just watch all types of films with relish.
Just even a small thought of Liang Ze made Hang Hang feel depressed.
In the end, he was so irritated that he turned on his laptop. Let's surf the internet!
Right when he logged on and entered the chat room, he received a private message from his friends list.
The other said: HI~
Hang Hang said: Ha ha.
The other said: Why are you still online at this hour?
Hang Hang said: I have some free time.
The other said: Oh, me too~
Hang Hang said: You too?
The other said: You sure have a poor memory!
Hang Hang said: I really can't remember.
The other said: One day a married couple, one hundred years of grace~
Hang Hang said: I've done it with you?
The other said: Nonsense!
Hang Hang said: You see, my memory is so bad, give me some more hints.
The other said: Want to meet outside?
Hang Hang said: Alright, you can catch up on things and I can find a new interest.
The other said: Ha ha, you're really funny.
Hang Hang said: No need to praise me.
The two of them talked about some stuff here and there for more than an hour, and then they decided to meet at the Lotus market.
Hang Hang admitted that he came here with an intention. Thinking about it, he almost got turned into an abstemious monk. How many months had it been since he last got some? If he wanted to completely forget about that Idiot, he needed to start resuming his old life. Simple as that.
When Hang Hang saw that face, he still did not have any recollection of it. It was just a 419 (One Night Stand), why did he need to remember the other face? But that boy only needed to take a glance and recognized Hang Hang right away.
As a result, this meeting was actually between someone reminiscing the past and the other looking for a new interest.
They were chatting in the pub for more than an hour, then they both went straight to the topic. Booked a room, undressed, and both lied down on the bed.
The boy gave Hang Hang an affectionate gaze, and Hang Hang also replied with the same affectionate look. Even though they had gotten to this point, Hang Hang still could not remember what he had with this boy.
Then so what?
Hang Hang really did not care, after tonight, he and this boy would become two complete strangers that do not know each other.
Having s.e.x once, just once.
This boy's body was very soft, and very comfortable, when Hang Hang pushed into him, he could feel this is more like himself, this was what he is, just playing around.
Just that, the face of the boy under him became even more blurry; instead, Liang Ze's face slowly came out.
Hang Hang concluded that this was the sequelae of being lovelorn.
Moaning, whimpering, sweet words…
Liang Ze could never give him these.
When he made love with Liang Ze, it seemed that there was nothing but pain.