Ch59 – Concealment
For several days, the college seemed unusually calm. It looks like Chen Yekai’s departure had not set off a huge storm, but Yu Hao could sense that Chen Yekai’s two classes were talking about it privately. For nearly a week, Yu Hao constantly felt that something was amiss, yet he couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was.
After they left Chichén Itzá, Zhou Sheng’s attitude suddenly became strange as well. When he saw Yu Hao, he always looked like he wanted to say something, and the frequency of his jokes also lessened. Sometimes, he would even get a little angry out of the blue, as if he was restraining himself from quarrelling with Yu Hao while they were together.
“Are you unhappy?”
“No.” Zhou Sheng’s usual answer was, “You want to play a game?”
“You’re really not angry?” Yu Hao observed Zhou Sheng’s expression.
“No, what are you talking about?!” Zhou Sheng said, “Why would you think that I’m angry? It’s not like I’m a powder keg!”
But Yu Hao saw that Zhou Sheng still maintained his amicable appearance when he was with other people. Previously, Zhou Sheng said that he would cook for him, and he really did cook for Yu Hao. He even wrote a menu for Yu Hao to order from on a piece of hard cardboard with a photo of a beautiful syrup landscape on it.
“Can I really order?” Yu Hao asked in disbelief.
“Order!” Zhou Sheng said, baffled, “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Happiness had overcome Yu Hao so suddenly that he was still in a state of extreme vertigo, “I was just casually mentioning it the other day……”
“Are you playing with me?!” Zhou Sheng threw the menu down.
Yu Hao quickly said, “This is great! I mean! Un, I’d like to start with braised pork with dried bamboo shoots……”
“Hm.” Zhou Sheng uttered indifferently.
Yu Hao, “Can I ask Gege to come eat with us?”
Recently, Fu Liqun has been sponging off their meals, and all this freeloading was making him a little embarrassed. The day before yesterday, Yu Hao saw Fu Liqun buy half a jin of rice to add to free soup. He really couldn’t bear watching any longer, so he gave him half of his food.
“No, tell him to eat shit.” Zhou Sheng said casually.
Yu Hao, “……”
But an hour later, Fu Liqun came back with groceries like a big dog who was bursting with joy; evidently, Zhou Sheng had transferred him some money through WeChat to get him to buy it from the supermarket.
“Young Master, you’re cooking right? You’re cooking, right??? It’s soooooo great that you’re cooking!!” Fu Liqun said, “Let me help! Wah! What’s this? There’s even a menu too? Can we order whatever we want? Fry up this whole page! Young Master! Is there more on the back?”
“You can only eat whatever Yu Hao orders!” Zhou Sheng said immediately, “You can’t order!”
Zhou Sheng’s menu had practically illuminated Fu Liqun’s entire life. Zhou Sheng made two dishes and one soup in their dormitory — Mapo tofu and braised pork with dried bamboo shoots, as well as a lotus root stewed pork rib soup. From then on, as long as Zhou Sheng didn’t have classes in the afternoon and evening, he would make something for Yu Hao to eat in their dormitory. One induction cooker and one electric rice cooker — in Zhou Sheng’s hands, all sorts of dishes could be whipped up with just these two appliances.
Fu Liqun’s face was covered in tears, “I finally don’t need to eat braised pork with brown sauce from the canteen anymore.”
“Zhou Sheng?” Yu Hao saw Zhou Sheng texting.
“Un.” Zhou Sheng said, “The two of you go ahead.” Then he took his phone and went to the balcony with a grave expression.
Zhou Sheng:【What’s the situation?】
Chen Yekai:【Look at this list, the action plan is written out on it. Can we really enter Shimu’s dream?】
Zhou Sheng:【Not sure, I’ll try my best.】
Chen Yekai:【Are you sure there won’t be any problems hiding this from Yu Hao?】
Zhou Sheng:【Didn’t we agree to do as I say?】
Chen Yekai:【Okay then, I was just a little worried.】
Zhou Sheng:【And you even created an action plan, aren’t you afraid that it’d get leaked out?】
Chen Yekai:【Only you and I know about it. The first half of it concerns searching for witnesses in reality, and I even sent Huang Ting a copy of that. Rest assured ba, nothing will happen. No matter how amazing Lin Xun is, he can’t possibly check our WeChat message records.】
Zhou Sheng:【Okay then, let’s follow this plan first.】
Chen Yekai:【Zhou Sheng, I want to ask you a question.】
Zhou Sheng:【If it’s about the dreams, I refuse to answer all questions.】
Chen Yekai:【No, it’s about Yu Hao.】
Zhou Sheng:【Then ask Yu Hao, why are you asking me?】
Chen Yekai:【Too embarrassed to ask , Are you guys dating?】
Chen Yekai:【Do you like him? Are you guys together?】
Chen Yekai:【】
Zhou Sheng:【Kaikai, is your brain alright?】
“What does dating mean?” Zhou Sheng returned to the dormitory and asked Yu Hao.
“Are you in a bad mood?” After a few days, when Yu Hao returned to their dormitory, he saw Zhou Sheng’s bored face again. He had his earphones on and listened to music while braising some chicken wings.
“What?” Zhou Sheng took off his earphones impatiently and scrutinised Yu Hao with a baffled expression, “No! Why are you always asking questions like these?!”
Yu Hao hastily waved his hands, but actually, he had the persistent impression that the atmosphere around Zhou Sheng has been very off recently. Did he think that it was too troublesome to cook for him everyday? But a week passed within a blink of an eye, Zhou Sheng’s promise has been fulfilled, and now he just didn’t know when the next time he gets to eat something that delicious would ever come.
But after the week ended, Zhou Sheng asked Yu Hao again, “What do you want to eat tomorrow?”
Yu Hao answered, “It’s already been a week, you won’t be cooking anymore ba?”
Zhou Sheng said, “I’ll cook for you whenever I’m free. I don’t have classes tomorrow evening either.”
Yu Hao was thoroughly stunned. Zhou Sheng scrutinised Yu Hao and frowned, “What?”
Yu Hao said, “Never mind ba.”
Zhou Sheng said in disbelief, “Yo! I’m cooking for you, and yet you don’t want to eat my cooking anymore?”
Yu Hao cried out bitterly, “I don’t want to cause trouble for you.”
Zhou Sheng, “It’s really not troublesome! Yu Hao what’s up with you lately? Why have you been so strange?”
Yu Hao thought the one who’s being strange is you!
Fu Liqun quickly said, “No! Young Master, continue cooking please!”
Zhou Sheng ignored Fu Liqun and said to Yu Hao, “Oh, Yu Hao are you sick of my cooking now? Eat in the canteen for a few days for a change then.”
Yu Hao quickly said, “No, I just really don’t want to trouble you. It’s a lot of effort to cook everyday.”
But Zhou Sheng ignored him. He got up and changed into a T-shirt, Yu Hao said, “You already wore that yesterday, there are dry ones on the balcony……”
“Never mind, I’ll wash it myself later.”
“Where are you going?”
“Going out for a run!”
Zhou Sheng shut the door and left.
Yu Hao looked at Fu Liqun and was a little embarrassed for a moment.
Fu Liqun, “???”
Night fell, and Zhou Sheng still hadn’t returned. Fu Liqun turned on his laptop and asked Yu Hao to join him in watching a variety show together. Yu Hao watched half of it before saying, “Gege, why do I feel like Zhou Sheng’s been acting a little strange recently?”
“Ah?” Fu Liqun was uncomprehending. He lowered the volume and said, “He’s been acting strange? I don’t think so though?”
Yu Hao, “Oh……yeah?”
Fu Liqun, “I think you’re the stranger one in comparison.”
Yu Hao, “How am I strange?!”
Fu Liqun thought about it for a bit, “Did the two of you quarrel over something?”
Yu Hao said, “We didn’t quarrel.”
Fu Liqun said, “He’s still the same in class……but now that you mentioned it, something does seem a little off between you two. Oh yeah, why hasn’t Zhou Sheng been taking the initiative to talk to you recently?”
Yu Hao said, “Right?”
Fu Liqun looked at Yu Hao suspiciously. Yu Hao said, “I don’t know why, but I feel like he’s always angry with me about something.”
“Go ask him bei.” Fu Liqun said.
“I’ve asked him.” Yu Hao said, “He said he’s not.”
Fu Liqun suddenly started laughing, and Yu Hao asked with a bewildered expression, “Why’re you laughing?”
Fu Liqun waved his hand, “Just watch the video!”
Yu Hao said, “Ai I’m not in the mood.”
Yu Hao has always been sensitive to Zhou Sheng’s various actions and behaviour. He was always on the more perceptive side, and he could even discern if a normal friend’s gaze seemed peculiar, let alone Zhou Sheng’s.
And ever since Zhou Sheng’s last self-reflection, the students in their cohort didn’t make jokes about them anymore. Zhou Sheng’s words that day had a hidden implication underneath, as if he wasn’t reciting a self-reflection but making a threat instead—— “if you dare talk about Yu Hao again, be wary of getting beaten up”, —— with that one battle where he had become a God overnight, coupled with his serious attitude, no one dared to talk about Yu Hao behind his back anymore.
Zhou Sheng hurried down the dormitory building, looked at his phone, then began replying to Chen Yekai’s messages.
Chen Yekai:【It was indeed too dangerous the previous time.】
Zhou Sheng:【In any case, we’ll just go in once and bring her back from her subconscious and into her dream world; Don’t be concerned about whether there’s a sun or not. As long as she regains consciousness, a lot of problems can be easily resolved. Are you sure that she has evidence that can deal a fatal blow to Lin Xun?】
Chen Yekai:【I think so. Our last conversation progressed while focusing on that, but since Lin Xun heard us, he might try to destroy the evidence. Let’s hope everything goes smoothly ba. As for Yu Hao, I’d like to confirm it once again.】
Zhou Sheng:【It’s just like what I’ve said before, cut the crap, Kaikai.】
Chen Yekai:【Does he have someone he likes?】
Zhou Sheng:【I don’t know, I’m going for a run.】
Chen Yekai:【Come out for a drink when you’re free ba.】
Zhou Sheng:【Mm. 】
Zhou Sheng, with both his hands on the track, raised his head and looked at the hazy skyline.
The track field was built midway up the mountain. It was surrounded by mountains behind, and a vast and boundless cityscape sprawled out before it. Zhou Sheng didn’t start running. Instead, he got up, stood up straight, then crouched down again.
At this moment, he suddenly had a feeling that he might be about to lose Yu Hao.
That one instant in the dream had surfaced countless times in his memory: the moment Yu Hao spread his wings and rushed forward to embrace him, Zhou Sheng watching as a sharp snake tail whistle across his vision while he was still frozen with shock.
That embrace sent his pulse racing like it had never had before, but it lasted just a moment before it was completely replaced by fury and abject pain.
“You really scared me to death that day.” Zhou Sheng only knew how to repeat this over and over again. When he entered Yu Hao’s dream a few days ago and was teaching him how to parkour on the city wall under the Great Wall, Zhou Sheng caught Yu Hao, who had fallen down, and after getting him to stand up properly, couldn’t help but repeat that sentence again.
“You’ve already said that several times.” Yu Hao said, “Are you a repeater ? I’ll definitely be more careful from now on, definitely!”
“You even know how to talk back to me now?” Zhou Sheng looked at Yu Hao as if he didn’t know who he was anymore.
Yu Hao laughed, how could he be careful? At the time, that was the only thing he could have done.
In the dormitory room.
“Dating?” Fu Liqun said.
Yu Hao briefly considered it, “Oh, that does seem like it, he might be dating. Oh yeah! He has been sending someone WeChat messages recently!”
Every day, as long as they were awake, they would spend most of their time together aside from periods when they didn’t share the same class. Yu Hao realised that Zhou Sheng’s WeChat chatting frequency has been pretty high recently, and he often frowned while looking at his phone.
“But that doesn’t seem right either?” Yu Hao said, “He hasn’t been cooking congee over his phone recently. Don’t couples usually like to call each other?”
Yu Hao remembered that in Zhou Sheng’s life, there was someone who did fit some minute and secretive particulars, such as the person Zhou Sheng called while smiling when the three of them spent the New Year together.
Was that his safe haven?
“Ah? I’m talking about the two of you! Aren’t you guys dating?” Fu Liqun had a strange expression on his face.
Yu Hao, “Of course not!”
Fu Liqun said, “How could that be!! Then the menu? And all the ordering? I thought the two of you have already gotten a room and slept together by now!”
“We really aren’t!” Yu Hao hastily clarified before he suddenly realised a serious problem: in Fu Liqun’s eyes, the two of them really did seem like a couple. Looking back on this whole semester, from their dormitory mate, Fu Liqun’s perspective, Zhou Sheng initially got into a fight for Yu Hao‘s sake, then shouted out a confession in the middle of the night below the dormitory, and after that happened, they even went out to get a room together……
Yu Hao said, “He doesn’t like guys.”
Fu Liqun, “Oh? Then you……”
Yu Hao, “……”
Yu Hao decided that he might as well be frank, “Yes, I like him.”
Yu Hao thought that since both Fu Liqun and Zhou Sheng are smarter than him, it wouldn’t matter much even if he told him. In any case, a lot of people have already discussed this in private before.
Fu Liqun said, “If you like him then go confess ah, isn’t that pretty good?”
“He knows.” Yu Hao said, “If he was willing, he would have accepted me a long time ago. Okay, let’s not talk about the past anymore.”
But Fu Liqun’s next sentence was, “Oh? He doesn’t like you?”
Yu Hao didn’t know if he should cry or laugh. He got up as he prepared to go look for Zhou Sheng, “He doesn’t.”
Fu Liqun, “I think he likes you, it’s just that he hasn’t worked out his own feelings yet. You should be a bit more proactive ah, aren’t you always persuading me to take the initiative to reconcile with your sis-in-law?”
Yu Hao said, “Straight men can’t be bent, no matter how much he likes me, it’ll be in the capacity of a friend at most.”
Fu Liqun said, “That’s not necessarily true, who said that? Some can be bent, some can’t. It depends from case to case ba? Also, I’ve always thought Zhou Sheng has always been a little……un?”
As he spoke, Fu Liqun threw Yu Hao a ‘you know’ gaze.
Yu Hao laughed bitterly. Fu Liqun continued, “Whether homosexuality is congenital or acquired hasn’t been decided yet. Everyone has studied psychology: if you give an example of how heterosexuals can’t turn into homosexuals, I can also cite examples of heterosexuals who at some point did become homosexuals. Besides, aren’t there bisexuals within the LGBT spectrum too?”
Yu Hao was changing his T-shirt, and when he heard these words, the fog in front of him suddenly seemed to clear significantly.
The electric fan buzzed overhead, and a low pressure surged through the stuffy dormitory. The rain hasn’t fallen yet, there wasn’t a single whisper of wind, and the vegetation was quietly waiting for the advent of a storm.
Yu Hao went to the field to look for Zhou Sheng. He recalled that they had hardly seen each other in their dreams recently. He vaguely recalled that last week, Zhou Sheng came into his dream. The two of them did parkour below the Great Wall, and he had wanted to run upwards along the city walls. But he didn’t know why there were some dreams he could remember very clearly, while there were others that he would almost completely forget about after waking.
Just like the night on New Year’s Eve, when he was watching the fireworks with Zhou Sheng in the capital — he could hardly remember what Zhou Sheng had said to him in the dream. It was the same when they were below the Great Wall — it seemed as if Zhou Sheng had deliberately erased the memories pertaining to some dreams.
As Yu Hao passed the college’s path, he suddenly thought about Chen Yekai and lowered his head to send him a message.
【Chen Laoshi, may I ask you a question?】
Chen Yekai answered within a few seconds:【What is it?】
Yu Hao raised his head and looked at the track field. Zhou Sheng had just finished running; his whole body was drenched with sweat, and he was lying in the middle of the field as he gazed up at the sky.
“Let’s go for dinner?” Yu Hao asked Zhou Sheng.
A handsome smile spread across Zhou Sheng’s face. He had his earphones on, and Yu Hao couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Yu Hao shouted, “Zhou Sheng!”
Zhou Sheng didn’t answer him and just lay gasping for breath — clearly, he had just finished running. Yu Hao went forward and was about to take his earphones off when Zhou Sheng closed his eyes and said, “I’m here! Why’re you being so noisy?” As he spoke, he raised his hand and made a gun gesture, and motioned a “bang” at Yu Hao before he opened his hand up.
Yu Hao pulled him up, and the two of them went to the canteen. Zhou Sheng was playing on his phone and acted as if nothing had happened. He glanced at Yu Hao’s phone and saw Chen Yekai’s WeChat picture, then asked, “What did Kaikai say?”
“No news.” Yu Hao said. He decided not to talk to Chen Yekai about other matters for now, so that it wouldn’t be seen by Zhou Sheng.
That night, Yu Hao laid on his bed and couldn’t help but browse through all kinds of posts about straight men turning bent. There were a lot of men on the internet who shared about the moment when they developed feelings for the same sex, but most of them only developed feelings for a specific person during a certain phase in their lives. Once the two of them separated in the end, they returned to their usual lives and still loved their girlfriends, got married, started a family, and had children.
Fu Liqun’s words seemed to have shaken a certain resolve in his heart, and made him consider another possibility. Chen Yekai gave him a call at this moment, Yu Hao quickly hung up and sent him a message on WeChat:【Let’s talk here.】
Yu Hao looked at Zhou Sheng — Zhou Sheng was currently lying down with his earphones on as he sent WeChat messages. His phone screen was coincidentally facing Yu Hao, and Yu Hao saw that his screen remained on his chat box with Chen Yekai. Chen Yekai had sent him ten voice messages that were about 1-minute long in a row, while Zhou Sheng was replying to his messages through text.
What are they talking about? Why won’t they talk about it in the group chat? Yu Hao found it a bit weird. He, Zhou Sheng, and Chen Yekai had a three-person group chat. From what he saw, it seems that Zhou Sheng has been in contact with Chen Yekai recently and was discussing something with him.
—c
