After picking up Yan Xi’s phone call, Xie Ning huddled under his covers, dizzy and with a headache, not understanding Yan Xi over the phone for a while.
He pulled an all-nighter to finish a draft, and the client had only responded in the morning. After confirming and finalizing the poster, he fell onto his bed and slept like the dead.
The phone rang for a long time. Xie Ning, through his headache, rubbed his head, and when he came to his senses, said, “What did you say? Can you say that again?”
And of course, Yan Xi repeated it. “You and Xu Qing broke up?”
“Oh,” Xie Ning replied, “We broke up.”
Yan Xi started to speak, then stopped.
Xie Ning glanced at the clock. It was 7pm—he’d slept the whole day away.
Yan Xi was silent for a bit. “How are you feeling?”
Xie Ning responded truthfully. “My head hurts a little. I didn't sleep very well.”
“My stomach is uncomfortable too.” He hadn’t eaten anything all day, so he was hungry.
Yan Xi sighed. “Don’t think about it, and stay at home. I’ll be over soon.”
What was there to think about? Xie Ning suddenly said, “Then bring me dinner when you come.”
Xie Ning lay on the bed for a little to regain his senses, then crawled out of bed to change his clothes, wash his face, and brush his teeth. On the table next to his computer, there were various drawings messily scattered around the desk. He finished cleaning and went to the kitchen to heat up a cup of milk for himself.
His phone screen lit up, and he saw that he had dozens of missed calls.
Three from Yan Xi, the rest were from Xu Qing.
Xie Ning took a sip of the hot milk, letting it warm his body, and without hesitation, blocked Xu Qing.
There were also a couple text messages from Xu Qing.
[I was wrong.]
[Let’s not break up, okay?]
……
No.
Xie Ning cleared out his message inbox and blocked Xu Qing on all other messaging platforms.
After this series of actions, the doorbell rang.
Yan Xi really did over as soon as possible, and brought a very light, white porridge.
The white porridge was so tasteless that Xie Ning said, “You couldn’t bring anything else, and had to bring such a bland one?”
Yan Xi glanced at his expression. “I was afraid you’d have no appetite.”
Xie Ning did have an appetite, a great one at that. He put the spoon down and went to the bedroom to grab a coat. “Forget it, let’s go out to eat.”
Yan Xi said, “I ate dinner already.”
“Then stay with me to eat another. Treat it like a midnight snack.”
On the way out, Yan Xi’s phone rang a couple times. He took it out, glanced at the caller ID, and declined the call.
“Who is it?” Xie Ning casually asked.
Yan Xi said, “A bitchass cunt.”
Xie Ning said, “Don’t think I didn’t see the caller ID.” He didn’t deliberately look at it, but he was all too familiar with the number, and could recognize the string of numbers at a glance. It was Xu Qing’s number.
Yan Xi smiled coldly. “Is he not a bitchass cunt?”
Xie Ning thought about it, and couldn’t refute that.
Yan Xi had always been biased against Xu Qing. Well, maybe it wasn’t a bias.
He saw Xu Qing as a playboy, carefree and a slacker, and not worthy of Xie Ning at all.
Everyone around Xie Ning, not just Yan Xi, thought so as well.
But the two had been together for four years, and countless people hadn't been able to separate them, until now…
Whenever Yan Xi thought about it, his chest would hurt with anger. “Xu Qing, this scumbag player, he’s eating from the bowl but keeps looking at the pot! It’s good that you guys broke up—there’s a bunch of people who have a crush on you, so there’s no need to hang onto that rotten tree!”
Xie Ning, following him, nodded. “Yes yes yes.”
Yan Xi glanced at him and sighed. “Your personality is just too docile. If it were me, I’d have kicked him farther than eighteen thousand kilometers.”
The personality of this good friend, in nicer words, is “Lets things go easily”, but in blunt words, is “Resigns himself to misfortune”.
Whatever you asked him, he would basically respond with “Whatever works”, “Anything goes”, “Okay”, and occasionally, “What does it have to do with me?”
Yan Xi remembers that in college, Xie Ning had many admirers. The prettiest girl of the Arts Department confessed to him, saying a bunch of heartfelt and sincere things, but in the end, Xie Ning responded with a line: “Thank you for liking me, and you can like who you want, but what does it matter to me?”
The girl was so angered that she cried on the spot.
Later on, an admirer of that prettiest girl who was troubled by this event found Xie Ning to try and reason with him. After he was done cursing, Xie Ning responded, “Does it have anything to do with you?”
If it were only this easy, then things would have been fine. Later on, when Xie Ning and Xu Qing were dating, and Yan Xi mentioned Xu Qing’s womanizing behavior, Xie Ning would also always have an attitude of “What’s it to me?”
When he thought of this, Yan Xi was troubled.
Xie Ning didn’t think he was docile himself; he just didn’t really care.
In this cold winter, when it was freezing outside, if it wasn’t for his lack of stock at home, Xie Ning wouldn’t have wanted to go out.
Who knew that it would even snow after they finished eating?
Christmas is on Friday, and many of the shops on either side of the street already had Christmas lights and decorations up.
Xie Ning thought of the draft he just finished; it was a Christmas poster for a mobile game. He wasn’t the original artist they'd decided on, but the company wasn’t satisfied with the poster that the outsourced artist had produced. They floundered for a bit before finding Xie Ning, and offered him double the price for this urgent draft.
In the painting, the silver-ornamented Christmas tree and Santa Claus, with the playful game characters, were just like how the streets will be in a few days.
It was rare for him to not have urgent work, so Xie Ning didn’t want to return so early, instead wanting to wander around some more. Yan Xi picked up a call that ended up being from his company, so he had to rush back.
Xie Ning is different from him; Yan Xi’s family is well-off, but his individual capability is also strong. After graduating, he started his own business and opened a game company, which could be considered a small achievement.
The streets were too cold, so Xie Ning walked into a shop instead. He regretted not wearing a couple more layers when coming out.
After wandering a couple of rounds, he finally stopped in front of a claw machine.
There was already someone in front of the claw machine, his slender hands cupping the joystick. Xie Ning noticed that his sleeve cuffs and watch were not something normal people could afford.
He didn’t know how many coins the person had already put in, but he didn’t get it a single time. Angry, he kicked the claw machine once, complaining, “What is this?”
Xie Ning couldn’t help letting out a laugh.
Hearing the laughter, he turned and glanced at Xie Ning. “What are you laughing at?”
Xie Ning couldn’t clearly see what he looked like, mainly because half his face was covered with a warm-looking scarf.
Xie Ning was a little envious.
Seeing that Xie Ning didn’t say anything, the man backed up to give him some room. “You try, then.”
Xie Ning shook his head. “I don’t have any coins.”
The man said impatiently, “I do.”
Xie Ning was still hesitating, but the man pulled Xie Ning to the front of the claw machine. “If you can’t get it, I’ll eat the loss. If you grab a plushie, then it’s yours. That’s okay, right?”
Xie Ning wasn’t very interested in the plushie itself, but he liked the process of grabbing plushies, so he obediently placed his hands on the joystick.
He didn’t get it the first time, and the man gave a retaliatory smile.
He got it the second time; the claw rose into the air, shook a little, and the plushie fell down.
“What kind of broken machine is this?” The man was even more upset than Xie Ning.
The third time, there were no more accidents, and the plushie was caught safely. It was a rabbit.
“I guess you do have some skills.” The man bent over, took the rabbit out, and rubbed it a couple times, handing it to Xie Ning. “It looks pretty similar to you.”
Xie Ning looked at the rabbit, but didn’t see the resemblance.
“There are still some coins left.” The man continued, “You can use it to catch them all.”
Xie Ning had gotten a feel for this game, and grabbed three more plushies. He picked one randomly and handed it to the man. “I’ll give this to you.”
The man’s eyes showed some disdain, but he still took it. “What's this? A shark?”
“It’s a blue whale,” Xie Ning replied.
“I still have a lot of coins that I haven’t used. Do you still want to grab them?”
“No,” Xie Ning shook his head. “Even if I get more, I can’t take them back. I have to get back soon.”
The man made an “Oh” sound, and said, “Next time you go out, wear some more clothes.”
Xie Ning was puzzled. “Ah?”
He smiled mercilessly. “You’re so cold that your face is red.”
Xie Ning “......”
“Your ear tips, too,” he said, “Like a rabbit.”
Xie Ning suddenly had nothing to say.
……
When Zhuang Yan returned with a blue whale plushie, Qi Rui suspected that he was hallucinating because of the cold.
This market is one of Qi Rui’s family businesses. He came to conduct an inspection on behalf of the chairman, and brought along his good friend that had just returned from overseas.
Halfway through the inspection, Zhuang Yan disappeared somewhere.
“What’s this?” Qi Rui was surprised. “I haven’t seen you in years, and your aesthetic's changed to this?”
Zhuang Yan frowned. “You think it’s ugly too, right?” After a pause, he said, “Someone gave it to me.”
Qi Rui said, “You’ve already wrapped your face like this, and can still attract bees and butterflies. That’s an ability.”
“It’s not like that…” Zhuang Yan was embarrassed to say that the ugly blue whale had cost him 100 coins. “An interesting person gave it to me.”
Qi Rui was curious. “Who was it? A guy or girl? What’d they look like?”
Zhuang Yan: “A guy, he looked…”
Zhuang Yan recalled for a moment. “Pretty good, I guess.”
Qi Rui: “There’s actually a day when you don’t have a harsh tongue?”
Qi Rui was familiar with Zhuang Yan’s conduct. He has high standards and is picky; he's currently in with the entertainment industry. There isn’t a beauty he hasn’t seen.
It was rare for Zhuang Yan to not be annoyed at Qi Rui.
He was still thinking of the person he just met. With a slender body, good fashion sense, an exquisite and pretty face, if you placed him in the entertainment industry, he’d make others blush by just standing there.
The most important thing was, he was just to his taste.
Zhuang Yan had been picky his whole life, and had gotten used to it. When he looked at people, there was always something off that didn't please his eyes, so his heart had never been moved by either men or women.
When others asked him what type he liked, he couldn’t answer. But today, after seeing that person, Zhuang Yan suddenly knew that he likes this type.
Especially when he was red from the cold, cute and enticing. Two words inexplicably appeared in Zhuang Yan’s heart.
I want him.
But he couldn't say this to Qi Rui, so it was enough to just think it to himself. It was too frivolous if he says it out loud, like he’s cursing someone behind their back.
“Oh, right,” Zhuang Yan said, “I have a suggestion for this market of yours.”
Qi Rui became more spirited, ready to listen to his expert advice. “What suggestion?”
Zhuang Yan: “There aren’t enough claw machines.”
Qi Rui: “???”
Zhuang Yan: “You can add a couple more.”
……
Xie Ning had received a lot of “How are you”’s in the past couple days, and they all came to ask if he and Xu Qing had actually broken up.
Some were concerned for him, and some were only here for gossip. At first, he could manage, but he got annoyed later on.
“Yes, we broke up. Actually broke up. I’m certain, I’m not joking, we won’t get back together.” Xie Ning said immediately when he picked up the phone to restrict questions.
Yan Xi was dumbfounded. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, it’s you.” Xie Ning sighed in relief. “It’s nothing. A former class president called me just now, and I accidentally hung up. I thought it was him again.”
Yan Xi replied, “Right, okay. I got some news from a university classmate.”
Xie Ning: “What is it?”
Yan Xi said, “Zhuang Yan is back in China.”
Xie Ning paused for a moment. “Who’s Zhuang Yan?”
Yan Xi was silent for a few seconds.
“That one. The guy Xu Qing pursued for several years, Zhuang Yan.”
Xie Ning rubbed his forehead, and only remembered Zhuang Yan after a while. “Oh, I remember now. Xu Qing’s unattainable white moonlight.”
Yan Xi’s voice came from the other end of the call. “Didn’t those foxy and bitchy friends of his gossip that Xu Qing only dated you because you were a replacement for Zhuang Yan? Hah, they don’t do anything proper all day, and only know how to talk nonsense.”
Xie Ning said, “It isn’t all nonsense.”
Yan Xi: “Ah?”
Yan Xi, angrily, “That bitchass cunt! He dares to use you as a substitute?”
As they were talking, the former class president’s call came in again.
Xie Ning: “I’m getting a call, let’s talk later.”
Yan Xi was still angrily cursing.
After Xie Ning finished the call with the former class president, he thought of what Yan Xi had just said.
Xu Qing’s white moonlight had returned to China.
Oh, but what does it have to do with him?
--------------------------------
Author’s Note: This story has finally started; it’s a sweet cookie, and shouldn’t be too long.
Translator's Notes:
this scumbag player - 渣男 seems to be translated as scumbag most of the time, but player fits better here.
he’s eating from the bowl but keeps looking at the pot - basically means that he's greedy even though he has enough
eighteen thousand kilometers - a saying that just means...very far! let me know if you'd like to know the origins or other meanings~
stock - things in general, and in this case, probably meals, since they're going to eat
I'll eat the loss - he says "if you can't catch it, it's mine" (literal translation), but he basically means he'll eat the loss so xie ning has nothing to worry about
attract bees and butterflies - attract...yes. what you're thinking about, probably LOL
I want him - 欠操 is the original, so it's two words; also, this can be read as "needs a f*cking". i'm so sorry if you're under 18...
white moonlight - "white moonlight" is a term for someone who's out of your reach, but always in your heart. it's a little long to translate, so i'll probably refer to it as just "white moonlight" from now on, unless i can think of another accurate term for it!