Chapter 1

Xie Yuchen and I were at the rock climbing gym because my back hadn’t been doing very well recently. Maybe it was because of all the shop inventory and accounting I had to do. He massaged it for me when he came to Hangzhou this time, and I found that his technique was very good. He said that if it was a chronic problem, then rock climbing two hours a day might help it.

He stood very tall and straight, and was in really good condition. I envied him a lot. I figured I was more like the general public, an ordinary person among ordinary people who would grow old. My body would wear out, my spine would curve forward, and my hair would definitely encounter some problems one day. But Xie Yuchen always seemed to be a little younger than his actual age.

Even though it was my first time climbing indoors, I still had the basics down. But Xie Yuchen chose to climb the most difficult route, so a crowd quickly gathered to watch. I was alone in the corner, pitifully climbing up and down more than thirty times before my spine finally relaxed.

When I came down and sat down to drink some water, he was still working his way up the most difficult route. When he got to the counterclockwise-angled rock—the place where the rock protruded—he hung in the air with one arm and answered the phone.

If I answered the phone like that, my arm would detach from my body and still be hanging on the rock, blood spraying wildly from the arteries as the rest of my body fell to the ground. But he could still concentrate on the phone call without a problem. After the call ended, he let go, slid down the safety rope to the ground, unlocked the safety buckle with one hand, and waved to me.

I threw an energy drink to him and he took a sip before leading me outside, “It’s going to rain heavily soon and there will be a traffic jam. Let’s head to the restaurant early.”

Every time our Beijing buddies came to Hangzhou, or we went to Beijing, there would be a dinner party. Li Cu said that it was a symbol of our old age. Every time he said this, I regretted that I didn’t kill the hostage back then.

Sure enough, it was raining heavily by the time we got on the road. When we finally reached the restaurant, I knocked on the door of the private room and went in. Just as I sat down, Bai Haotian, Liu Sang, and the others arrived. Li Cu, Su Wan, and Yang Hao were smoking downstairs when Ah Tou showed up. Fatty booked a KTV by phone (1). Wang Meng was driving Little Brother and Black Glasses, but they were stuck in traffic. Kan Jian was still far away, so I did a video call with him so that he could say hello to everyone.

While we were sitting on the sofa and chatting with each other, Fatty suddenly said, “Little Brother’s fan is here, Wu Xie’s fan is here, and Master Hua’s fan is here.”

Ah Tou lit a cigarette, “I’m not his fan.”

“I didn’t say you were. You just assumed that I was talking about you,” Fatty said. “Look at you, why are you blushing? Who are you showing those big tatted arms to? You can’t smoke here.”

Ah Tou looked at Fatty and exhaled a smoke ring, “My sister opened this shop.”

Fatty immediately lit a cigarette after hearing this, but Bai Haotian said, “Little Master Three has bad lungs. You should pay attention to secondhand smoke. Look, those three kids have all gone down to smoke. Can’t you learn from the younger generation? Little Master Three, let’s go outside. You shouldn’t stay here. When Little Brother comes, he’ll put all your cigarettes in your nostrils.”

Fatty hooked his arm around my shoulders, “Don’t talk about your Little Master Three like he’s pregnant.” He gave me a look, “Did you secretly smoke one yesterday?”

Yesterday, I stayed up all night working on the accounts, so I did actually smoke one. Bai Haotian gave me a furious look, but I just glanced at her and said, “Be closer to the idol’s work, but stay away from the idol’s life.”

At this time, Liu Sang suddenly said, “I found a strange phenomenon. Why doesn’t Master Black have a fan? If he does, we’ll have enough people to play mahjong (2).”

“He does. It’s Su Wan,” I said.

Liu Sang shook his head. “Su Wan’s an apprentice. Fans are like us.” He and Bai Haotian looked at each other, but Bai Haotian ignored him.

I touched my chin. Black Glasses had always been a loner and I had never seen him with any followers.

But he didn’t give off a sense of loneliness. If anything, it was like he was loneliness itself. But he was also happy and content at the same time.

“He does,” Xiao Hua suddenly said. He took Ah Tou’s cigarette, put it out, and then reached out to Fatty. Fatty had no choice but to hand over his own cigarette. “He has a fan. If you stop smoking now, I’ll tell you his scandal.”

“Is it a male fan or a female fan?” Fatty asked.

“It’s obviously a female fan,” Xiao Hua said. “Do you really think he’d have a male fan?”

Fatty nodded, and at the same time, Ah Tou took out her pack of cigarettes and put them on the table. “Go ahead.”

Xiao Hua looked at his watch. “We have to finish quickly. When he gets here, he won’t let me talk about it. This all started with Wu Xie and that incident with listening to thunder. When it comes to this matter, there’s still a small tragedy.”

<Part I: Chapter 225><Table of Contents><Chapter 2>

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TN Notes:

(1) KVT is karaoke. China has KTV clubs, which have private rooms that you can book with your friends or colleagues for a few hours of fun. There’s a tablet for picking songs, loud speakers, comfortable sofas, and mood lighting.

(2) Mahjong is always played with four players seated around a table.

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If you all haven’t gotten there, Ah Tou is the protagonist of the side story “A Thousand Faces“, which Yvette is currently translating. Not sure if you saw the note in my other post today, but Black Glasses’ adventure is “Part III” in the Chinese version and the two chapters I did today involving Jin Wantang going to see Wu Xie are “Part II”. Since Jin Wantang’s story is currently 58 chapters and getting updated almost daily, and Black Glasses’ story is like 20 chapters and completed, I’m switching them (Tiffany said it also flows better this way). Henceforth, Black Glasses’ story is Part II and Jin Wantang’s story will be Part III. I spent the evening scrambling to copy everything over so we should be good to go once I’m done with Black Glasses’ 20 chapters. If you all want to wait a few days for me to work the organizational kinks out before you bother reading, I totally understand lol (and sorry if it caused confusion)