WC ⋆ Chapter 16

This was the first time they had returned to Qi Lin’s home during this loop.

The place was the same as always. By the calendar it had only been a few days, yet Jiang Yishen was already practically a regular here, switching into slippers with practiced ease and casually pouring himself a glass of water.

Qi Lin kept the cactus on the living room balcony, positioned in an oddly specific spot, a place that was neither here nor there, with a flower pot sitting there bolt upright, blocking the left half of the balcony.

Jiang Yishen moved to nudge the pot aside and was stopped by Qi Lin calling out from behind him: “Don’t touch it!”

His hand hadn’t even reached the pot. Startled by the sudden outburst, he flinched back. Jiang Yishen had no idea what was going on, and then he watched Qi Lin stride forward, bend down, and study the pot’s position for a moment. Only after confirming everything was correct did Qi Lin say: “This is a spot I picked very carefully. The light is perfect here. Not even one degree off will do.”

Jiang Yishen’s expression became deeply complicated. After a long pause he said: “I think my approach to raising plants is better. Rough care makes them grow faster. The way you’re doing it, aren’t you just making it more and more delicate?”

“You managed to kill a spider plant. Don’t talk to me about approaches to raising plants.” Qi Lin used a measuring cup to water their child with precise care. “Look, it’s grown flower buds.”

Jiang Yishen leaned in to look at the fuzzy little cactus and still found it hard to believe. A ball the size of a fist had actually grown flower buds, two of them at that, one above the other.

Flower buds were the hardest to nurture. Water, sunlight, and fertilizer were all indispensable. Without any one of them the buds would abort. The last time it had produced flower buds, the two of them had hovered over the wretched ball day and night, and in the end it had still gone dormant on them. Even repotting it hadn’t saved it.

Qi Lin finished watering and went off to take care of other things. Jiang Yishen crouched down beside the cactus and studied its spines.

“Long time no see,” he said. “You’ve gotten greener, haven’t you? Looks like you’ve gotten a bit bigger too.”

The cactus sat in silence, soaking up the sun.

Jiang Yishen let out a quiet sigh in his heart, feeling a little unsettled.

In his pocket, pressed close to his body, was the ring Qi Lin had given him. It fit his ring finger exactly, and every time he touched it, it burned him like fire.

He didn’t quite dare to take it out and look at it closely. Looking at it would make him start thinking without meaning to, thinking about what state of mind Qi Lin had been in when he went and bought that ring.

Their breakup hadn’t been a sudden cliff-drop. It had been a long, agonizing tug-of-war that both of them had known about all along. The purchase date was August 2nd. By then the friction between them had already been very obvious, their relationship teetering on the edge, both of them papering over the cracks.

And yet Qi Lin had still bought the ring for him at that time, but never found the moment to give it away, only to wait until Jiang Yishen was the one to bring up breaking up.

Jiang Yishen admitted he regretted it. The second half of the year hadn’t gone smoothly for him. During every sleepless night after the breakup he hadn’t regretted it. When he had a head full of worries and no one to confide in, he hadn’t regretted it. Even as he endured the waiting alone, he hadn’t regretted it.

But when he saw those two rings lying in the corner of the cabinet, regret swallowed him whole, choking his throat until it felt raw.

At that time, breaking up had been their foregone conclusion. In the final stretch, they had ground the relationship into its most unhealthy shape. Both of them were in pain, as if the honest and happy times had become something from a very distant past.

People grow. They hadn’t met each other at the right time. The Jiang Yishen of that autumn had been a reckless and fearless young man. Qi Lin did more and said less, and was stubborn. Their relationship had been riddled with holes, patching one wall only for another to spring a leak, seemingly beyond anyone’s ability to fix.

Even during the period when they were fighting the worst, Jiang Yishen had never felt his feelings fade. Even when he ultimately chose to break up, in his mind it was a concession to the established fact of incompatibility, not a matter of no longer caring.

Only he didn’t know how Qi Lin felt about it, and that made him deeply uncertain about the relationship, as if continuing to entangle themselves would only make things worse and more undignified. Not just the relationship becoming undignified either, but Jiang Yishen himself losing his dignity in Qi Lin’s eyes.

That assumption had been the root of his suffering after the breakup. It wasn’t until more than half a year later, when he saw the ring Qi Lin had hidden away in the depths of that cabinet, that he understood: if he hadn’t been the one to bring up breaking up, perhaps they truly never would have broken up at all. Qi Lin had wanted to keep entangling with him in that messy, undignified way, entangling until the rough edges were worn smooth and they became compatible.

He wanted to ask Qi Lin clearly why he hadn’t given him the ring. He didn’t need ceremony, didn’t need promises. What that ring represented at that point in time was something they both understood without saying it aloud. Having that symbol would have been enough.

But Jiang Yishen also knew this was just Qi Lin’s nature. It wasn’t misguided fate. It was a predetermined track, one link in the chain of “incompatibility,” all pointing toward the conclusion of a breakup, something that had been fundamentally difficult to correct from the very start.

Dwelling on the past any further was pointless. The loop was the connection fate had given them a second chance at, and Jiang Yishen’s instincts told him this time would be different.

For now, the loop also served another, more pressing purpose. Perhaps it could help them revisit the side routes they had missed.

Third single-day loop. The core task this time was to take Dad straight to the hospital for a follow-up checkup, and use that to draw Mom in as well.

The loop’s starting point was a late-night taxi. They woke up in the car for the third time, and following the experience from the previous loop, gave Blues Home as the address, heading there first to rescue poor Fan Zi.

Events unfolded exactly as they had the time before. The only fork in the road appeared inside Blues Home.

This time Jiang Yishen wanted to leave Qi Lin in the elevator and go knock on the door to bring Fan Zi out himself. The stated reason was that Fan Zi’s private room was extremely close to the elevator, practically door to door, so there was no need for both of them to go. The deeper reason went without saying. Jiang Yishen didn’t like the look of that leather jacket guy.

His request was rejected by Qi Lin.

Jiang Yishen argued his case: “You can’t stand him either. Every glance you spare him is one too many.”

“Isn’t it kind of weird to leave me standing in the elevator?” Qi Lin thought he was being completely unreasonable. “If you don’t want me to get to know him, just say so. Why dress it up in high-sounding reasons?”

“Fine, I just don’t want you to get to know him. I’m telling you straight. Can you not come with me?”

Qi Lin frowned. “You’re angry. So why did you tell me yesterday that you weren’t? The flower bed Fan Zi crashed into wasn’t as stubborn as your mouth. In the end you still have to carry the weight alone.”

This whole “carry the weight alone” business just wouldn’t go away. Jiang Yishen got a headache. “If I’d said I was angry, you’d have said I was interfering with your social life, wouldn’t you? We’ve already broken up.”

“Not saying you’re angry means it’s not interfering with my social life? I…”

He didn’t finish the sentence. The door across the hall suddenly opened.

Warm light spilled out from inside. Both of them fell silent at once and looked over warily.

The leather jacket guy with center-parted hair leaned against the doorframe, his posture and manner no different from the last time. He lifted his eyelids and swept a glance over the two of them, his gaze lingering on Qi Lin for a few seconds before he said: “Not sure who you were talking about, but you’re here to pick up Lu Fan, right?”

We were talking about you, Jiang Yishen thought to himself.

Qi Lin didn’t make a sound either. Neither of them answered, and for a moment the situation felt slightly awkward.

“Say something!” Qi Lin, at the end of his patience, gave Jiang Yishen a nudge. “You won’t let me talk to him, and you won’t talk yourself. So what, we just stare at each other?”

Jiang Yishen had been cursing inwardly, and at those words he paused the cursing, exchanged a few polite words with the leather jacket guy, and walked into the room as he had before, taking Fan Zi off the hands of the others.

The leather jacket guy had one hand tucked in his pocket. He turned his face to watch Jiang Yishen’s retreating back, thinking something over, then suddenly turned to ask Qi Lin: “Do you two know me?”

“Hm?” Qi Lin was taken aback. “No.”

“Oh, I thought you were just talking about me. Sorry.” The leather jacket guy smiled at him.

Qi Lin had no interest in continuing the conversation with him. The intent behind the leather jacket guy’s attempt at small talk was far too obvious, and his aggressive forwardness made Qi Lin uncomfortable. Fortunately Jiang Yishen came out quickly, supporting the unsteady Fan Zi, blocking the leather jacket guy’s probing gaze.

Just as they turned to leave, the leather jacket guy suddenly called after them: “Would it be convenient to exchange contact info?”

This was a scene that hadn’t happened in the previous loop. Perhaps the exchange at the door had changed the way things played out. The leather jacket guy from last time had only been feeling them out on the surface. This time, knowing the two men’s sexual orientation, he naturally made his approach more direct.

Before Qi Lin could respond, Jiang Yishen said impatiently: “He doesn’t like guys who wear leather jackets.”

All three other people in the hallway turned to look at him.

The leather jacket guy understood. He let out a low laugh, his tone carrying a hint of teasing: “Oh.”

He stood there at his leisure, arms folded, watching the group press the elevator’s down button, and in the waiting interval found time to ask: “What about you?”

“What, me? I don’t like guys who wear leather jackets either.” Jiang Yishen didn’t even turn his head.

It was Qi Lin who couldn’t watch anymore and quietly reminded him: “He’s asking for your contact info.”

Jiang Yishen’s temper was at the top of his head right now, and he lashed out indiscriminately: “What does he want my contact info for? Are you blind? Can’t you see we’re on the same team?”

The elevator doors opened right on cue. Qi Lin heard the leather jacket guy actually burst out laughing at that.

The hand resting on his shoulder was shaking too. Fan Zi was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, trying to hold back the sound. It seemed Jiang Yishen was the only one here who was furious.

Fan Zi’s laughter made Jiang Yishen more and more irritated. The three of them stood by the roadside waiting for a car. Fan Zi could barely stay upright, practically wanting to collapse on the ground laughing. Qi Lin finally understood how he had managed to crash an entire car into a flower bed.

A taxi appeared at the far end of the road, flashing its hazard lights at them. Jiang Yishen and Qi Lin bent down to haul Fan Zi up off the ground, and heard him laugh himself breathless as he said: “I don’t know what team you’re on, but you two probably aren’t on the same team, and he plays in a very big league. Don’t mess with him.”

Jiang Yishen was caught completely off guard by this information and couldn’t quite process it: “What do you mean, plays in a very big league?”

“He has… forget it, never mind.” Fan Zi’s steps were loose and scattered. “But he has a real eye for you two. He can read fortunes, you know. People who catch his eye aren’t many.”