Chapter 2 - Spring Cleaning

By the time He Bing finished getting ready, Liao Yucheng had just polished off his beer in the living room. He Bing stuffed his wallet and keys into his pockets and was about to head out when he had a second thought. He grabbed a garbage bag and stuffed all the trash from the table into it. 

The two left together, and after He Bing threw out the garbage, he rubbed his hands together and asked, "What do you feel like eating for lunch? It's been so long since we've seen each other—this meal's on me, consider it a welcome dinner."

But Liao Yucheng said, "After barging into your place uninvited like this today, I feel terrible about it. How could I possibly let you treat me to a meal? This one's definitely on me."

"Actually..." He Bing always wanted to save face in front of him and was about to insist, but Liao Yucheng cut him off with a smile. "Come on, what do you want to eat?"

He Bing suddenly felt like he couldn't keep insisting. He scratched the back of his head. "How about dumplings then?"

They went to a dumpling restaurant nearby that He Bing frequented. After finishing their meal, He Bing saw it was already half past noon and said to Liao Yucheng, "You got up so early this morning. Now that we've eaten, you should head back and take a nap."

Liao Yucheng handed He Bing a napkin and nodded. "Sounds good."

"Aiyo." He Bing remembered something, his brow furrowing. "My place is such a mess, and there's only one bed. How are we going to sleep tonight?"

Liao Yucheng wiped his mouth, seemingly not minding at all. "Is your bed big enough? If it is, we can just share it. I don't mind at all. But if you're not comfortable sleeping sharing, I can sleep on the couch tonight—it's not that cold anyway."

Having Liao Yucheng sleep on the sofa was definitely out of the question—his mother would kill him if she found out. Besides, He Bing had always been pretty laid-back about personal space. Liao Yucheng's casual attitude actually made him feel better about it. "That's fine with me, but I'm kind of a restless sleeper. My girlfriend used to complain about it all the time."

Liao Yucheng crumpled up his used napkin and played with it. "Your girlfriend lives with you? Isn't that really inconvenient for you now that I'm here?"

"Nah." He Bing waved a hand dismissively. "She's my ex now. We broke up over a month ago. I thought my mom would've mentioned it to you."

Liao Yucheng just smiled at that. "I'm not really sleepy right now anyway. I'd rather go pick up some essentials first. I barely brought anything with me, and since we're already out, might as well."

That made perfect sense to He Bing. Since he'd failed to properly treat his guest to lunch, the least he could do was tag along shopping —even if he was just carrying bags. "Sure, let's do it."

They hit up a nearby supermarket and spent forever wandering the aisles, filling their cart with everything from toothbrushes, cups, soap, toilet paper to grapes, bananas, cabbage, pork to even a four-piece bedding set.

After hauling four massive shopping bags back to the apartment, they'd barely made it through the door when Liao Yucheng was already tidying up the coffee table and couch.

Usually He Bing couldn't care less about this kind of stuff. His living standards were pretty low—as long as he wasn't dying, he was good. Yeah, the place was a mess, but it wasn't like the world was ending. But now that his guest had started cleaning, what kind of host would he be if he just stood there doing nothing? So he had no choice but to join in the apartment cleanup operation.

After they finished with the living room, Liao Yucheng moved on to the bedroom. First thing he did was strip off all the old bedding and replace it with the new set they'd bought. While He Bing helped him wrestle with the fitted sheet, he couldn't help saying, "Man, with you doing all this, my place actually looks like a home for once."

Liao Yucheng snapped a pillowcase in the air before tossing it aside, laughing. "What, your ex never helped with housework?"

"Her? She was just as hopeless as me. We'd fight over whose turn it was to take out the trash," He Bing realized he was making himself sound bad again and throwing his ex under the bus, so he quickly added, "You're really something though—so neat and organized. I should really learn from you." 

As much as he hated admitting it, He Bing had to acknowledge that there was a gap between Liao Yucheng and himself. No wonder all those adults had always loved Liao Yucheng more when they were kids. Hell, even He Bing himself, underneath all that resentment, couldn't help feeling some admiration. 

Liao Yucheng chuckled softly. "Don't worry about it. As long as one of us has their act together, we'll be fine."

Before He Bing could figure out what that was supposed to mean, Liao Yucheng was already moving on. "Can you grab that corner of the sheet? I need to get this smooth."

"Oh, okay." He Bing did what he was asked.

After finally getting the bedroom sorted, Liao Yucheng turned to He Bing, "Why don't you handle the study? I'll take care of the bathroom." 

"Sounds good."

It wasn't until He Bing was actually in the study that something felt off. Liao Yucheng had only been here for what, half a day? So how come he was suddenly calling the shots? But He Bing didn't overthink it—probably just good teamwork, right?

In the bathroom, Liao Yucheng found two sets of toothbrushes and cups by the sink. He had no idea which ones were He Bing's, so he just swept everything into the trash and set up the new matching set they'd bought. Same design, different colors—they looked nice and coordinated lined up on the counter.

He then scrubbed down the floor and toilet, tossed out the old shampoo and soap along with some half-empty women's face wash, then polished the mirror until it sparkled. The whole bathroom looked brand new.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Liao Yucheng smiled with satisfaction.

Just then, He Bing poked his head out of the study. "I'm pretty much done in here. Need any help over there?"

"All good." Liao Yucheng emerged with an armload of discarded stuff. "I'm all done here too."

Next, Liao Yucheng loaded all of He Bing's dirty laundry into the washing machine. He Bing wandered over and looked around, looking around like he'd lost something. "What's up?" Liao Yucheng asked.

"Did the old sheets go in there too? I can't find seem to find them."

"They were pretty old, so I just tossed them out. Would've been such a pain to wash and dry," Liao Yucheng flashed him a smile. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Oh yeah, totally fine." He Bing genuinely didn't care—clean was clean, whether it was old or new. But he was starting to get this weird feeling that Liao Yucheng had somehow become the real master of this house.

They spent the whole afternoon on their cleaning spree, and the results were impressive. He Bing's little apartment had been transformed into something bright, organized, and actually livable. Even though He Bing was usually way too lazy for this kind of effort, seeing his place all spotless gave him a real sense of accomplishment. He flopped onto the couch with a satisfied sigh. If Liao Yucheng hadn't come today, who knows how long this place would have stayed a disaster.

Perhaps his mom had a point after all—when you're alone in a strange city, having a familiar face to look out for each other really wasn't too bad.