PL | Chapter 13

Even the Odd-Job Guy Has to Hold His Head High

When Gu Zhong first arrived at school to register, he felt that at a dump of a school like this, his college life would probably be very boring.

In reality, it had not been all that boring. Only now did he realize why he had not felt bored, because every day, he had gone to the Paolou.

There had been things to do, things to watch, someone to bicker with, and stories to listen to.

Sometimes, when he thought about it, it really was kind of amazing. Faced with Qi Yue teasing him every so often, he had gone from being annoyed and fighting back, to helplessness, to enjoying it… enjoying it?

Enjoying was not exactly the right word. Pleasant might be more accurate.

Anyway, ever since he had been hospitalized, Qi Yue had no longer been in front of him. There was no one left to randomly lose his mind and mock him, no one to suddenly tease him out of nowhere. Day after day had become so lifeless it felt like a breakup.

Thus is a masochist cultivated.

Qi Yue really had disappeared, but now Gu Zhong classified that disappearance as a “promise to the Cripple.” That day, he had promised the Cripple he would leave.

As for cutting off contact with him, that could likewise be classified as a “promise to Gu Zhong’s parents.” He had promised his dad and mom to stay away from him.

As for whether any of this also involved Qi Yue’s own decisions, Gu Zhong decided to ignore it. Even if it did, it had to be a choice made out of helplessness. After all, that miraculous fortune of five hundred yuan was probably the phone top-up Qi Yue had given him.

So he wanted to find Qi Yue.

At the very least, he had to ask him, who exactly are you dismissing with a five-hundred-yuan severance payment? Do you really take me for some odd-job guy? When it’s New Year, the red envelope you give an odd-job guy is more than five hundred, too!

This business with the five hundred yuan was not over. Even the odd-job guy had to fight for a little dignity.

…

If he could not bear to part with him, then he could not bear to part with him. Gu Zhong sighed and was deeply impressed by his own ability to forcibly come up with a pile of excuses for himself.

But although he had made up his mind to find Qi Yue, actually going out to look for him was not an easy matter.

He had very few ways to contact Qi Yue. The address had been the Paolou, and that was gone now. The phone number was that cell number, and it was already switched off. Even WeChat had been deleted.

He did know Qi Yue’s home address… but there was no way he could go bother Qi Yue’s family, and he was equally sure Qi Yue would not contact home, either.

So Gu Zhong drew circles and lines on a sheet of paper and wrote down the name Qi Maomao.

She was the only one he could think of now. If he could find that little girl, he should be able to get something useful out of her. After all, the person who had disappeared was her godfather.

Gu Zhong did not know which school Qi Maomao attended, so he could only rely on guesswork.

Qi Maomao had come to the shop both at noon and after school in the afternoon, and every time she came by bicycle. Judging by the dismissal times of the city’s middle schools, she generally arrived at the shop twenty minutes to half an hour after school let out.

Gu Zhong opened the map and checked. There were only three middle schools near the Paolou that fit the conditions.

As he sat in a little málàtàng shop, eating while staring at the school gate across from him, Gu Zhong felt very emotional. He had never imagined that one day he would be staking out a little girl outside a middle school gate.

He had always looked down on people like that before. Even though he himself now felt like some detective lurking in the shadows, in other people’s eyes, if they did not look too closely, he probably looked no different from the punks hanging around nearby, except he was overage…

Qi Maomao was pretty and tall. It was not hard to spot her in a crowd. After finishing two bowls of málàtàng, Gu Zhong was basically sure she was not at this school.

He got up and left, strolling his way back to the dorm.

He needed to lie down for a while. He was still in recovery, and sometimes if he stayed in one position too long, his bones would start aching with soreness.

He could stake out another school when afternoon classes started.

“Seeing Gu Zhong at noon feels weird now,” someone in the dorm said.

Forget the others in the dorm, even he himself was not used to it. For such a long time, he had spent almost every noon at the Paolou.

Now that this hour or so had suddenly been emptied out, it felt like someone had hollowed a hole inside his body. It was empty and adrift, and he had no idea what he could use to fill it.

“Anybody got something to eat?” Gu Zhong lay on the bed and rubbed his stomach. “I only had a bit of málàtàng just now. I’m half full but not really full. It’s uncomfortable…”

“Bread?”

“Anything salty?” Gu Zhong asked.

“I’ve got instant noodles,” Boss said. “Want them?”

“Instant noodles taste awful,” Third said while playing on his phone.

“That just shows what you know.” Boss sat down beside him. “With instant noodles, what matters is how you make them. If you’ve got the conditions and add a few extra ingredients yourself, they can taste way better than ordinary noodles…”

Yeah. Exactly. Gu Zhong reached out and crooked a finger at Boss. Boss grabbed a pack of instant noodles and tossed it onto him.

He slowly got up, preparing to go soak them.

“Want me to help?” Third put down his phone. “Watching how you move, you ought to be in a wheelchair. You’re not fully recovered yet, right?”

“It’s not that bad.” Gu Zhong laughed. “I’m just still a little scared subconsciously. I keep feeling like if I move too much, my bones will break again.”

“I’ll pour the water for you.” Third still got up and picked up the thermos kettle. “This thing’s still got some weight to it.”

“Thanks,” Gu Zhong said.

“Those noodles still won’t taste good, and they’re not even spicy. Instant noodles are only barely edible if they’re spicy,” Third insisted on his opinion.

Gu Zhong stopped listening to the debate between him and Boss about instant noodles. Sitting by the table and staring at his lunchbox, he drifted into memories of instant noodles.

Instant noodles were actually very good, depending on how you made them. No, more importantly, it depended on who made them.

He did not know whether any real chef ever cooked instant noodles, but the instant noodles Qi Yue made were absolutely chef level. After all, he had once even dreamed of opening a noodle shop… a noodle shop?

Gu Zhong tapped his fingers lightly on the table. Could it be… could Qi Yue really have gone and opened some fantastically profitable noodle shop?

That thought springing up out of nowhere made Gu Zhong feel as if his breathing had suddenly turned smooth and hurried at the same time. Could it really be like that?

He made a quick decision. If Qi Maomao did not know where Qi Yue was, or if she refused to confess and he failed to pry the information out of her…

Then he would eat his way through every noodle shop in the city.

He had no classes that afternoon, so Gu Zhong had plenty of time. He stayed crouched there until there were no more students entering the school, and only then came out of the milk tea shop. He had made one cup of milk tea last nearly an hour. He had started wanting to kick himself out on the owner’s behalf.

But there were only three schools. If he still could not stake out Qi Maomao at the last school when afternoon dismissal came, then what? Do another round, widen the search, or just start eating noodles?

Gu Zhong wandered slowly down the street with no destination in mind. At this hour, he should have been at the Paolou, tidying up first, then glancing at the pitifully few customers, then glancing at Qi Yue, then glancing out the window.

Leisurely and at ease.

Actually, putting it that way, that kind of life was pretty boring too. Xiao Zhang used to complain about being bored all the time. So in the end, it still depended on who it was with. As long as Qi Yue was in the shop, Gu Zhong felt he could live that kind of life with real flavor forever.

What about Qi Yue?

Would Qi Yue be bored now? And where the hell was Qi Yue, anyway?

“Why do I need this for?” Qi Yue sat upstairs on the second floor, watching Chen Gui carry a big rock around while looking for a place to set it down.

“To elevate the taste a little,” Chen Gui said. “Aren’t you aiming for style?”

“This place is only this big to begin with,” Qi Yue said. “And now you’re adding something like that…”

“It doesn’t take up space,” Chen Gui said. “It’s way more compact than all those potted plants you’ve got.”

“Nobody takes care of them.” Qi Yue propped one leg up on the chair beside him.

“Didn’t you just hire people?” Chen Gui asked.

“Only two.” Qi Yue sighed. “As soon as the work increases, they start protesting. You think everybody’s like Gu Zhong?”

Chen Gui glanced at him and said nothing.

“Fine, just put it there,” Qi Yue said. “Didn’t you say you’re taking the kid to see a movie today? If you don’t leave now, you’ll be late.”

“Mhm.” Chen Gui put the stone down in place and clapped the dust from his hands. “If you need help with anything, just say the word.”

“I don’t,” Qi Yue answered very crisply.

After Chen Gui left, Qi Yue sat on the second floor for a while longer. Only when he heard customers talking downstairs did he slowly go down.

The new server was taking an order for guests, and she was obviously very unskilled at the job. A customer asked whether the toppings included onion, and she could not even answer that. The moment Qi Yue came down, she immediately looked at him.

“There’s onion. You can switch it for something else,” Qi Yue said.

The server listened to him with a blank face, then turned back to the customer without saying anything, apparently assuming the customer had already heard Qi Yue’s answer clearly.

It was only after the customer asked again that she repeated Qi Yue’s words. “Yes, there is. You can switch it for something else.”

Qi Yue felt that he ought to hang that “family heirloom” sign back out and start recruiting again.

At the moment there were two servers in the shop, one male and one female, and Qi Yue found neither of them pleasing to the eye.

Maybe his mood was off. Or maybe he kept comparing them to Gu Zhong… honestly, when Gu Zhong had first started working, he had not been all that capable either. He had not known how to do anything. But he had been smart and quick, and whatever he was told to learn or practice, he would do it seriously. And he had been cute, too…

Actually, there was no need to come up with other reasons. If he thought about it, the one truly solid reason those two servers rubbed him the wrong way was that they were not Gu Zhong.

Thinking of Gu Zhong, he could not help sighing.

He had no idea how Gu Zhong was doing now. He had definitely already been discharged from the hospital, and his injuries should still be healing. But none of that was the main point. The main point was Gu Zhong’s state of mind.

He had not wanted to turn things into some cheesy TV drama, but that day, Gu Zhong’s injuries and Gu Zhong’s parents’ attitude had left him with no other choice.

Although every time he thought about it now, he still felt pretty depressed.

Still, anything he had promised, he would do. Even if he knew that by the time Lao Si got out, he probably would not have the power to stir up trouble anymore, once Qi Yue had promised Lao Si, he would still keep that promise.

He just did not quite dare think too much about Gu Zhong.

Before passing out, Gu Zhong had still been asking about his injuries. Then after waking up, Qi Yue was simply gone. A person with Gu Zhong’s temperament probably could not put up with that kind of suffocating feeling.

Gu Zhong would look for him. But as for how he would look, and how long he would keep looking before stopping, Qi Yue did not really dare think about it.

When he had asked Gu Zhong whether he would be reluctant to part with him, the bigger reason had actually been that he himself would be reluctant to part with that straightforward, clean-hearted boy.

That table of customers finished ordering, and Qi Yue went into the kitchen.

He had never been this conscientious before. When he was in a bad mood, he would not make the staple dishes. Or sometimes he simply could not be bothered, and even if the customers left, he did not care.

But now it was different.

In the past, he had just drifted through one day at a time, and as for what that day was like, he did not care. He did not care how long the Paolou could stay open, how business was, or whether he made money or lost money.

He had just remained there. Maybe because of something that had once been said, maybe because there were too many memories there, maybe because he had already grown used to it. Or maybe he simply had no reason to change anything.

But now everything had changed. Whether it looked forced or really was forced did not matter. What mattered was that he was now facing a life completely different from before.

He had to start walking forward, leave all the memories behind, leave that isolated parallel space cut off from the world, and return to the human world… like finally seeing transparent air and brilliant sunlight after days of fog.

If he ignored the fact that Gu Zhong was no longer by his side, then the present was actually pretty beautiful.

Gu Zhong checked the time on his phone. School had been out for twenty minutes already, and there were not many students still coming out. He still had not seen any sign of Qi Maomao.

This was the last school. Had his judgment really been wrong? Or was he just blind?

“I don’t know where he is,” a voice came from behind him. “I can’t reach him either.”

Gu Zhong froze, then whipped around. He saw Qi Maomao standing behind him, wearing a thoroughly gloomy expression, and he was so startled he blurted out, “When did you come out?”

“Just now.” Qi Maomao shook her schoolbag. “I seriously didn’t think you’d be here.” So he really had been blind.

“You… knew I was here looking for Qi Yue?” Gu Zhong felt a little awkward.

“Otherwise what, are you here looking for me? You’re not interested in me or anything,” Qi Maomao said with a sigh. “But I really can’t reach him. He told me a long time ago not to go to the shop anymore.”

“When?” Gu Zhong asked.

“During New Year.” Qi Maomao pursed her lips in grievance. “Then one day he suddenly told me I’d grown up, and from now on I just needed to keep growing up properly on my own. After that, I couldn’t contact him anymore.”

“You didn’t chase after him and ask why?” Gu Zhong looked at her. “That’s not your style.”

“We agreed on it before,” Qi Maomao said. “Once he thought I’d grown up, he would leave.”

“He’s that chuuni, and he still has the nerve to call me ‘idiot’?” Gu Zhong said, a little speechless. “And you could even go along with him and play chuuni together?”

“Being chuuni and being dumb are two different things, okay, Chuan-ge,” Qi Maomao said. “Mainly, my mom wouldn’t let me see him either. Every time I went over to play, I never let my mom know.”

“So that’s how it is.” Gu Zhong sighed softly.

“You’re looking for him?” Qi Maomao looked at him.

“Yeah.” Gu Zhong nodded.

“He actually stopped contacting even you.” Qi Maomao kept staring at him. “Did you get hurt? There wasn’t a scar over your eyebrow before, was there? Did something happen to you two?”

Gu Zhong had not expected Qi Maomao to know absolutely nothing. From the look of it, she probably did not even know the Paolou was gone. He hurriedly waved his hands. “No, no.”

Qi Maomao still stared at him without even blinking.

“Do you have time?” Gu Zhong hesitated, then said, “I’ll treat you to dinner.”

Qi Maomao took him to a small restaurant near the school. It did not look big, but it was quite refined.

“The mini hotpot here is really good.” After sitting down, Qi Maomao braced a hand at her waist. “I always said I’d invite Qi Yue over to eat it, but he was too lazy to move. He said it was too far.”

“It’s only a bit over ten minutes by car, isn’t it?” Gu Zhong said.

“The key point is, he’s way too lazy,” Qi Maomao said. “After my dad died, I never once saw him walk out of that shop. He even did his morning exercise inside.”

The image of Qi Yue doing broadcast exercises on the balcony flashed before Gu Zhong’s eyes, and he could not help laughing.

“I’m serious. He can just casually brace himself against a table or the floor, or lift a chair or something, and that counts as exercise.” Qi Maomao seemed a little dissatisfied with his laughter. “The truly skilled ones don’t care about formalities, okay?”

“I’m not laughing at that, really,” Gu Zhong said. He truly had not known that was how Qi Yue worked out. He had even wondered before how someone whose exercise intensity only seemed to consist of a few sets of broadcast calisthenics could still deal with the Cripple so neatly.

“Fine.” Qi Maomao ordered the mini hotpot, snapped the menu shut, and said, “Tell me what happened.”

“He didn’t tell you anything at all?” Gu Zhong asked.

“No,” Qi Maomao said. “But I can pretty much guess some of it. They all treat me like a child, but a child who’s grown up the way I have is very sensitive to these things.”

Not only sensitive, the calmness Qi Maomao displayed also surprised Gu Zhong a little.

He tried to explain it as lightly as possible, skipping over the part about both he and Qi Yue getting hurt and being hospitalized.

“I knew it.” Qi Maomao made a disbelieving snort. “The moment he told me not to go to the shop anymore, I knew somebody must have come looking for him. Honestly, I wanted him to leave. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t see me anymore.”

“Hm?” Gu Zhong looked at her.

“If he doesn’t go, the trouble will never stop. He knows it himself. It’s like he’s already gotten so lazy he doesn’t want to move, so unless trouble forces him until he has no choice, he won’t leave. Now that he has left, it’s good.”

Qi Maomao spoke very briskly, but there was still some disappointment in her eyes. “I’ve always treated him like a second dad. I don’t want him to end up like my dad.”

“He won’t. This should be the last trouble,” Gu Zhong said. “And he already left. Left cleanly, too, switched off his phone and blocked me.”

“Then how are you planning to find him?” Qi Maomao asked. “He’s such an old fox. If he really wants to hide, he probably won’t leave you any clues.”

Gu Zhong felt like the old fox was waiting for him to find him.

“I don’t know,” Gu Zhong said. “If you don’t know either, then I probably have only one method left… he can’t possibly go work a normal job. He’ll probably open another shop.”

“A coffee shop?” Qi Maomao looked thoughtfully out the window.

“That, I really can’t say for sure at all,” Gu Zhong said.

“If he opened a shop…” Qi Maomao thought for a long time before finally turning back around. “A very, very long time ago, maybe a year before my dad died, they wanted to open a shop. They ran around every day, and there was one place he liked especially. He even took me there once. But in the end, it still never happened.”

Even though after the food was served, the two of them barely spoke anymore, Gu Zhong still had no idea what that mini hotpot had actually tasted like.

His head was full of the map of that riverside commercial district.

He had only been there twice. It was far from both his home and his school. In all the years he had lived, if it had not been for the fact that there was a pretty impressive shopping district there, and his mom had forcibly dragged him there to carry things, he might never have gone there in his life.

So the map in his head was very limited. It only contained the few streets he had walked with his mom. He had no clue what the other places looked like, not even where the restaurants were concentrated.

But that did not matter. He had plenty of time.

“If you find him,” Qi Maomao said after finishing the last bite of food and wiping her mouth with a napkin, “then you don’t have to tell me. I’ve always listened to him. I’m going to keep being a good chuuni kid.”

“Okay.” Gu Zhong nodded.

“Thanks for treating me to dinner,” Qi Maomao added.

“Can I ask you something?” Gu Zhong raised a hand and called the server over to settle the bill.

“What is it?” Qi Maomao looked at him.

“Is your name really Qi Maomao?” Gu Zhong asked.

“Yep.” Qi Maomao laughed. “You didn’t seriously think that was a nickname all along, did you?”

“I really did think it was a nickname.” Gu Zhong laughed too.

“My dad named me that.” Qi Maomao sounded a little proud. “My dad had a lot of personality. He said cats don’t share names.”

“That’s true.” Gu Zhong nodded.

After the weather turned warm, the sunlight also became very pleasant. When it shone on you, it made you feel almost dizzy with comfort.

After the splint came off his leg, Qi Yue had kept feeling vaguely out of sorts. There was always a faint soreness there. Every afternoon, going to sit on a bench by the river and soak up the sun made him feel much better.

Maybe because he was getting… old?

You middle-aged people.

Qi Yue narrowed his eyes and smiled. That young man was really too much. Calling a man only just past thirty “middle-aged, middle-aged” all day long.

He wondered whether, before he really did become middle-aged, he would ever see Gu Zhong again.

He stretched lazily and sighed.

His phone was ringing in his pocket. He took it out sluggishly and glanced at it. It was the shop’s number, probably calling him back to work.

From spacing out in the shop every day to now being busy through two rushes every day, he genuinely was still not used to it. Especially since if he stood too long, his leg still turned sore.

Please don’t let this turn into old-man knee. Amitabha.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Qi-ge, customers are here. Come back quick,” said the male server from the shop over the phone.

“Okay.” Qi Yue answered, then stretched hugely once more before slowly getting to his feet.

Business on this side was not bad. There was heavy foot traffic, and beside them there was also an upscale residential district and two university campuses. Even on weekdays, there were more people than there had been when the Paolou had been on vacation before. The only problem was the rent, which was so expensive that Qi Yue felt the money he earned every month was just enough to pay the rent.

The moment he walked in and saw the server standing behind the register with a miserable face, he felt depressed just thinking that after paying the rent, he still had to pay wages to a server with such a dead look on his face.

The pay was quite a bit higher than what Gu Zhong and the others had earned, yet the guy did not do any extra work, was not the least bit sharp, and was always walking around without a smile.

“Come on, let me help you vent a little,” Qi Yue said in a low voice, bracing one arm on the register.

“Huh?” The server froze. That drooping face finally showed some expression, the sort of expression that was utterly bewildered. “Vent what?”

“Didn’t somebody beat you up?” Qi Yue looked at him.

“No?” the server said in surprise. “I’ve been in the shop the whole time. Nobody beat me up.”

“No?” Qi Yue looked equally surprised. “I thought in another ten seconds you were going to cry.”

The server stared at him, still looking blank.

“Hang that sign outside,” Qi Yue said. “Just cover up the phone number with a piece of paper.”

“Oh.” The server fished out the family heirloom from under the register and took a look at it. “I still have to find paper to stick on it? What a pain. Wouldn’t it be easier just to scribble it out with a pen?”

“No.” Qi Yue took out fifty yuan and placed it on the table. “Go to the stationery store across the street and buy some, tape it over with adhesive tape, and don’t cover the words beside it.”

“Oh.” The server took the money and walked out wearing a face that plainly said, This boss might have something wrong with him.

Qi Yue turned and went into the kitchen.

Sure enough, none of them could compare to Gu Zhong. With what he had just said, even if Gu Zhong had not snapped back at him, he would never have been in a state where he did not even understand what had been said.

Two tables of customers, four bowls of noodles total.

They were quick to make. The main thing was the sauce. It was a secret recipe he had already known how to make before, and after improving it, it had become the house noodle.

He had not even named the noodles things like Such-and-Such Noodles. He had killed off quite a few brain cells coming up with names for each type of noodle so that until the food was in your mouth, you would not even know it was the name of a noodle dish.

The style was extremely high-end.

After making the four bowls of noodles, the server who had gone to buy paper and a roll of tape still had not come back. Qi Yue had no choice but to carry the bowls out himself, then sit down by the register.

Hire people, hire people. Replace people, replace people. It could not wait a second longer.

For the moment no customers were coming in, so he habitually looked outside. The frontage here was small now. The first floor had no windows, only a single door. The second floor did have two windows, but from there all you could see were the tall advertising signs sticking up from the neighboring shops.

If he wanted to look at the street, he could only sit beside the door.

Still, it was not bad. There were far more people coming and going here than by the Paolou. Some days, he could watch several little dramas in a single day.

Today was quite peaceful. There were only pedestrians carrying shopping bags and passersby riding bicycles. And he himself probably looked exactly like a little noodle-shop owner hoping someone would come in to eat.

That was true. His mindset now was different from before. Back when the shop had first opened and there had not been much business, every time he saw somebody, he had wanted to drag them in and stuff a bowl of noodles into them.

Now he was much better. A passerby was just a passerby, and he would not…

A yellow shared bike shot across the street outside in a blur.

Qi Yue did not even have time to be stunned. He leaped straight up and crossed to the doorway in two steps. He looked once in the direction the bike had gone and immediately saw that familiar back.

Gu Zhong had actually shown up here? It had been a long time since Qi Yue had been this shocked. He had always felt that an old man like him who had already weathered all sorts of storms would never again experience this kind of emotion.

But right now he was very shocked. More than shocked, he even felt anxious.

From the moment Gu Zhong appeared to the moment he disappeared, his face had been turned toward the right the whole time. Although Qi Yue had been completely unprepared and had not had any time at all to think about whether he should let Gu Zhong see him, he still genuinely could not understand what there was to look at in the shops across the street.

Gu Zhong vanished in a flash on the bike, and Qi Yue stood in the doorway for a long while without coming back to himself.

When he finally did, he saw his unreliable server walking toward him with a roll of tape in hand, the expression on his face extremely awkward.

He probably thought that dazed expression on Qi Yue’s face meant he had been waiting for him.

“Did you go buy it at factory price?” Qi Yue asked.

“Huh?” The server’s response could only be called eternally unchanging.

“Didn’t they give you an ex-factory price when you bought it straight from the factory?” Qi Yue said.

“What factory? I just bought it from the stationery store over there,” the server said.

“Get it done and hang it up. Remember not to cover the words on the side.” Qi Yue felt he could not continue this conversation, so he turned and went back inside, then headed upstairs.

Because there was no street view from the second floor, Qi Yue normally spent very little time there.

But today he went upstairs and sat blankly at a table in the corner.

How long had it been? He had never really dared count the days. He only knew it had been a long time, a very, very long time.

And yet after all that time, he had still managed to recognize Gu Zhong from a single fleeting glance at a passing figure. It was so unexpected that even he himself could hardly believe it.

Was that really Gu Zhong? At this hour, did Gu Zhong not have class? Even if he did not, would he really run all the way out here?

What had he come here for?

Qi Yue pushed the window open and lit a cigarette. If that really had been Gu Zhong, then his recovery was going pretty well. He could ride a bike, and ride it that fast. If he had come all the way from school, that was quite a distance. Had he really recovered enough to go around pushing himself that much?

After finishing one cigarette, Qi Yue still did not go downstairs. He went on sitting there on the second floor.

The commercial district was not small. Even just skimming through the streets one by one, it would take a good while. Luckily, he had asked someone at the beginning and headed straight for the few streets where all kinds of food places were concentrated.

On the way over, he had seen a flat map of the district. Places to eat were all clustered around seven or eight crisscrossing streets nearby, and some shop names were marked on it too.

A person like Qi Yue, if he really was here, probably would not spend money on something like that. So even if it was marked, there was no way to tell which place would be his.

Gu Zhong planned out the route and then began searching street by street on his bike.

He would go down each street twice, looking only at one side each time, so it would be harder to miss anything.

First, noodle shops. If there were none, he would think about other kinds of shops. And if there were still none… then in the end, he would just go into every single shop and ask.

If after all that he still found nothing, then there really were no clues.

Then let it be. They were both men. Since he had already used every method he had, then he could simply and cleanly let it go.

If Qi Yue had really opened a noodle shop here, then that ought to count as heaven taking care of him, because there actually were not that many noodle shops here. He had already gone down three streets, and there was only one noodle shop on each street.

Usually, Gu Zhong was pretty thin-skinned, but today his skin was especially thick. The moment he entered a shop, he would grab a server and ask, “Is your boss here? I’m looking for the boss.”

At two of the places, the boss was there. Gu Zhong took one look, saw it was not Qi Yue, muttered an apology for mistaking them, and ran. At another place, the boss was not there, so Gu Zhong chased after the server and repeatedly confirmed that the boss’s surname was not Qi and that the boss was not a man. Only then did he come back out.

He had covered half of this street now and had not seen a noodle shop. So he turned back and started checking the other half.

He had not been looking for even thirty seconds before he spotted one.

This shop was excellent. Unlike other people’s noodle shops, which all took some fancy special name so that if you did not look carefully you might not even realize it was a noodle shop, this place had a black sign with white lettering and only a single character on it.

Noodles.

How great was that. It even made a matched pair with Qi Yue’s Cannon.

Gu Zhong squeezed the brake and stopped the bike at the roadside. When he got off, he paused and raised his head to stare at the sign a few more times. He had no idea why, but there was an indescribable excitement in his heart. That sign somehow gave him the feeling of the Paolou.

Maybe heaven really could not bear to make a person whose ribs were still injured and not fully healed keep running around any longer…

Gu Zhong took two steps toward the shop door, and then, when he saw the little paper sign hanging on the glass door, he could not help clutching at his ribs.

In that instant, his heart went wild like he had been struck by electricity, almost enough to shove his ribs apart and break them all over again.

The family heirloom. Even if that sign were burned to ashes, he would still recognize it.

That lousy cardboard hiring sign he had casually written by hand, which Qi Yue had used for nearly half a year, had not been found at the Paolou. Yet here it was.

When he pushed the door open and entered, his eyes were practically swimming with excitement.

There were three girls eating noodles in the shop. Maybe because he was too worked up, Gu Zhong felt as if he could even smell the fragrance of the noodles in the air, the same special seasoning from the instant noodles Qi Yue used to make for him.

Probably because before coming in he had stared at that hiring cardboard sign for so long, the server behind the register asked him, “Are you here for the job?”

In the instant he nodded, Gu Zhong changed his mind. He looked at the price list on the wall behind them.

What a black-hearted boss. The cheapest crappy bowl of noodles was twenty-eight!

“No.” His brain was probably spinning too fast, and he felt a little dizzy, so he had to brace himself against the register. “Do you… have instant noodles?”

“Instant noodles?” The server froze.

“Yes. Made using instant noodles.” Gu Zhong spoke while the girls currently eating noodles all turned to look at him curiously. Then he added, “Go ask the boss if he can make it.”

“No,” the server said. “We don’t have instant noodles.”

“Go ask.”

“No need to ask. We really don’t have instant noodles,” the server insisted just as stubbornly.

Gu Zhong said nothing. He turned and walked out, then went straight into the little convenience store next door and grabbed two packs of spicy instant noodles.

When he went back into the shop again, the server was still standing there. Seeing the instant noodles in his hand, his eyes went wide. “Sir, what exactly are you trying to do?”

“Now you do have them.” Gu Zhong set the noodles down in front of him. “Go ask your boss whether your service can be a little more humane. I just want to eat instant noodles.”

The server glanced at him, then took the noodles upstairs.

Gu Zhong sat down. He had spent quite a long time riding around that afternoon, and now he felt a dull soreness all over his body.

Qi Yue really did keep all his old habits. Even after opening a new place, there was still a second floor. He wondered whether there was a third floor too. Was Qi Yue still living in the shop the same way he used to?

He had not been sitting long when the server came back downstairs. Gu Zhong stared at him and saw that no one was behind him.

A sudden wave of panic hit him.

From the moment he had seen this shop until now, for not one second had he ever thought about… what if Qi Yue refused to see him?

After all, when Qi Yue cut off contact, he had done it very cleanly. That five hundred yuan of phone credit really did not prove anything. Most of it was just Gu Zhong’s own wishful thinking.

As the server walked toward him, Gu Zhong could feel even his fingers starting to tremble faintly.

“The boss went to make it for you,” the server said.

“Thanks,” Gu Zhong said, leaning his whole body back against the chair.

“I want some too. Can he make it for me?” one of the girls asked with a grin.

The server pointed at Gu Zhong. “Boss said he’ll only make it for him.”

All the girls turned to look at him curiously again.

Gu Zhong had originally wanted to smile at them, but at the moment he did not even have the strength to twitch the corners of his mouth. He just sat there blankly, his head buzzing.

He had not seen Qi Yue come downstairs, but the kitchen was on the first floor and fully open. You could see the whole thing at a glance, and there was nobody inside.

After the server poured him a glass of water, he opened the fridge, took out a few food containers, and went back upstairs. When he came down again, he stood behind the register and kept staring at him.

What are you staring at? Gu Zhong felt uncomfortable from being watched.

Never seen a handsome guy before? Or never expected your boss to give special treatment to a man? Jealous?

Gu Zhong had no idea what kind of nonsense was running through his head. His thoughts were a complete mess. So much so that when Qi Yue came downstairs carrying a steaming bowl of noodles, Gu Zhong did not react at first.

Qi Yue still looked exactly the way he did in Gu Zhong’s memory. Of course, with so little time having passed, unless he had gotten plastic surgery, there was no way he would look like anyone else.

But something still felt a little different.

Had he gotten thinner? Or more worn-out? Or…

What was wrong with his leg?

Qi Yue had only taken two steps with the bowl before stopping, but Gu Zhong still immediately noticed his leg…

“Your leg’s lame?” Gu Zhong was so startled that even his voice changed pitch, and he failed to control the volume.

Everyone in the shop, staff and customers alike, got startled by him and all turned to stare.

Qi Yue did not speak. The corners of his mouth merely lifted a little.

For the moment, Gu Zhong could not manage a second sentence either, so he could only glare back at him. But that smile of Qi Yue’s, he knew it too well. Every time Qi Yue was teasing him, he wore exactly that smile.

“Come upstairs.” Qi Yue tipped his head slightly, then turned and headed back up with the bowl.

Then what the hell did you bring the noodles downstairs for?

Gu Zhong got up and, under the gaze of everyone present, forcefully pretended to be calm as he quickly followed Qi Yue upstairs.

“You actually managed to find this place,” Qi Yue said after setting the bowl down and turning to look at him.

“Your leg’s really fine?” Gu Zhong lowered his voice.

“Has it been so long since I messed with you that you can’t react anymore?” Qi Yue smiled.

“Who the hell would think you’d joke around with something like that?” Gu Zhong could not help but let out a low shout.

“How are you?” Qi Yue asked.

“I’m fine.” Gu Zhong looked at him. “What about you?”

“I’ve missed you a lot.” Qi Yue opened his arms. “Come here.”

Gu Zhong stood there in a daze for quite a while, then slowly walked over and hugged Qi Yue..