Lu Yan had once again borrowed Wei-ge’s motorbike for a trip to the market to buy some groceries, after finishing a week’s worth of instant noodles in succession, if he continues on like this, his entire being might just transform into a bunch of instant noodles.¹
[1]: this sentence may be quite confusing, but here is the original: 再吃下去他人都快变成泡面了.
Today’s the weekend, and most of the residents are chilling at home. However, as much as Wei-ge indicated that it's ‘prohibited from explaining’ and how he had ‘totally no intentions of lending’ his motorbike for him to borrow for grocery shopping, Wei-ge still couldn’t stand Lu Yan’s persistent coaxing, so in the end, he threw his motorbike keys out from the third floor window.
“You’re forever my big bro, Wei-ge.”
“Scram immediately.” Wei-ge shouted from the window with his chicken coop hairdo.
Lu Yan only went grocery shopping once in a while. Although he doesn’t show up at the market often, he still had quite the reputation within this area —— gaining fame because of his bargaining skills.
After Lu Yan returned from grocery shopping at the market, looking into the distance, there was a suspicious vehicle parked at the demolished seventh district gate entrance, and once he got closer, he caught sight of a familiar wind tail on the model sports car and its logo.
This is the second time he has seen this incompatibly modeled car.
Lu Yan released the accelerator, waiting until the motor bike decelerated, and halted exactly beside the model car.
Stepping one foot on the ground, leaning his body forward and knocking on the car window, he hummed: “Arrived?”
The car window slowly lowered.
At his first glance, Lu Yan’s attention wasn’t directed towards a certain young master. Instead, it went to the small creature wiggling in the young master’s arms.
Then, he glanced up to Lu Yan with his huge watery eyes.
It was an infant.
It's an infant who's currently drinking milk.
The infant abruptly stopped once he had finished half a bottle as though he was inside a frozen frame.
Xiao Heng responded to Lu Yan’s greeting with an “En,” then he gently patted the infant on his back. After patting him for a while, the infant finally reacted, blinking and then milky scented burp drifting out from his mouth.
This scene felt rather weird.
Firstly, Xiao Heng didn’t seem to be the type of individual who had the patience to take care of kids. He generally felt like he’s the type who’d spank kids unreasonably.
Because of this adorable burp, Lu Yan really wanted to pinch his face badly — so he did. His finger was just about to touch the fat on the infant’s cheeks until Lu Yan once again asked: “Your kid?”
“……”
Xiao Heng lifted his gaze and looked at him: “Can you assume there’s a possibility?”
Lu Yan: “Hard to say.”
“No.” Although Xiao Heng didn’t want to provide any more explanation, yet he added: “My little brother.”
Lu Yan tried to hold himself back from pinching him a second time.
“He usually doesn’t like having physical contact with others.”
Not only will he avoid physical contact, but he would also not accept being fed just a mouthful of milk by the household maidens, not even if he was starving to death.
Xiao Heng was afraid that the infant would start bawling and stir up trouble, but unexpectedly, once he finished his sentence, the infant stretched out its little fatty paws and gripped one of Lu Yan’s fingers, making Lu Yan chuckle.
Lu Yan gently lifted the finger that was being held onto, lowering his voice to tease him, not caring whether or not the infant understood: “Little buddy, seeing as your exceptional physique seems to be fated with mine, big brother will teach you some martial arts moves.”
Xiao Heng frigidly spoke: “Just forget about guitar.”
“….” Lu Yan said, “This is a matter of the past.”
Xiao Heng cradled the infant as he got off the car, while Lu Yan parked the motorbike in the garage. It’s called a garage, but it’s actually just a small space hidden behind a ripped rag cloth material, reserved and picked by Wei-ge near the building.
It exuded a sense of poverty because of its plainness.
“What’s this,” Xiao Heng glanced at the rag twice, “A canopy?”
“Garage.”
Lu Yan pluck out the keys from the vehicle as he brought down the two bags hanging off the front of the motorbike and gave his introduction: “The wisdom of the hard working residents. It doesn’t have a problem withstanding a breezy storm, but it definitely can’t withstand a typhoon, so it’s better if I park the motor bike indoors.”
Xiao Heng didn’t pay much attention the last time he came, as he’d just realized that Xiao Qishan had managed to fuck out a child that day and had sent the woman a check. As for the infant, they would send it abroad once a reliable adopter showed up.
It would be troublesome if rumors appeared about an illegitimate child, after all. Once the infant was sent abroad, this incident could then be conveniently ignored.
He and Xiao Qishan had a dispute over this.
After slipping away, he was completely irritated.
Lu Yan walked in front, returning the car keys along the way once he reached the third floor: “Wei-ge, I sent you a large-sized tomato, will you eat it or not?”
“Quit the nonsense,” Wei-ge stretched out a hand between the door gap, and then opened the door entirely, “Wait a moment, this bro seems quite familiar ah, isn’t he the one who you mistakenly caught last time.”
It still felt certainly embarrassing whenever that incident of mistakenly catching the wrong person was brought up yet again.
Lu Yan and Xiao Heng both wished to avoid this question.
Wei-ge stared at them and said: “This is the so-called ‘forming companionship through conflict,’ the fated reunion within Jianghu... Ai, this infant is pretty adorable.”
Wei-ge was both tall and well-built², and his year-round debt collection relied on his presence of dominance, not to mention that he had muscles from head to foot and his smile barely seemed genuine. As he was about to tease the infant, the infant started to wail.
[2]: original: 五大三粗. It’s an idiom in China that describes an individual that is both tall and well-built
“…..”
Today was an unfortunate timing, 601 was returning later than usual, as no one answered the door when they knocked.
“Perhaps she’ll return in a bit, why don’t you come in and sit here,” Lu Yan opened the door, then pointed at the infant being cradled in Xiao Heng’s arms, “It’s no good if you keep him crying like this.”
Xiao Heng, indeed, wasn’t well-adapted at coaxing children, all he could do, at most, was to keep patting him.
Once the usually obedient child began bawling, it could simply be compared to a demon descending to the mortal realm.
Stressing people out over the amount of wailing.
Lu Yan placed the dishes back to the kitchen, and then came to witness Xiao Heng telling off the infant with a chilly look: “Quit crying.”
“Don’t you even understand what ‘quit crying’ means?”
Lu Yan seriously couldn’t continue looking anymore: “Are you still complaining that his wailing isn’t loud enough yet?”
Xiao Heng impatiently spoke: “Then you handle it.”
Lu Yan discovered that once he was together with this young master, they will always somehow create some strange and wondrous chemical reactions. For example, they would start bickering after exchanging no more than two sentences.
“If I handle it, then I’ll handle it.”
Lu Yan said: “I’ll let you witness the way to properly appease a fragile infant’s injured soul.”
Despite his claims, Lu Yan has certainly never coaxed an infant before. Perhaps the cradle posture wasn’t right, as the infant’s wailing became extra furious.
He adjusted his posture. He’s still wailing.
Lu Yan certainly couldn’t think of any more methods at the moment, so he pretended to be a flexible and talented youth of the new era, directly confessing: “... I realize that your way of coaxing is still acceptable, actually.”
He receives Xiao Heng’s cold smirk as a response.
Xiao Heng propped up against the door while staring at him: “Aren’t you exceptional yourself.”
Who are you looking down on ah?
Can you not always use this tone to ridicule people?
Why don’t you consider whose territory you are currently standing upon?
Lu Yan patted the infant’s back, contemplating on how he should obtain back the dignity he lost.
A nice idea flashed within Lu Yan’s ocean of thoughts. He cleared his throat, deciding on trying to sing a nursery rhyme.
As a well-known lead vocalist of a band, although he has a rich repertoire, and if he were to calculate by each genre, he can do at least eight different languages. However, there certainly weren’t a lot of nursery rhymes, thus, after pondering for a while, he can only come up with one. He didn’t memorise all the lyrics, so he randomly chose one and began singing.
Lu Yan’s voice wasn’t the gentle type. It was highly recognizable, especially when singing in a low pitch, gradually lowering it and subduing it a bit.
Like a glass of sparkling wine, both passionate and warm.
But such a voice was currently singing: “…Joyful little leaping green frog, li-li-li-ribbiting.”³
[3]: Original version of the nursery Rhyme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsISmLxClog
“A happy little green frog.”
“Little green frog.”
“Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.”⁴
[4]: a noise made by the frog
Xiao Heng: “…..”
The child cried out twice, sobbing while also hiccupping as Lu Yan sang, “Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit,” and then, the wailing gradually came to a halt.
“See.” Lu Yan lifted his eyebrow at Xiao Heng once he finished singing, “This song, review it when you get back.”
Lu Yan had no need to be a class stand-in anymore, so he reverted back to his original style. The eyebrow piercing he wore today was a small, metallic textured ring, and his brow tail lifted a bit upwards whenever he arched his brows.
Very imposing.
Of course, it would’ve been way cooler if he wasn’t singing ‘ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.’
Last time, Xiao Heng didn’t enter, however, this time around, he had unintentionally showed up inside the building. He observed this room, not leaving a trace. Although the room had little space, this still counted as being properly organized. Though his guitar display was awful, there were no more than three guitars in this room alone. One of them was Lu Yan’s WeChat profile photo.
His gaze darted over to the pile of CD records in the cabinet.
Especially in this confined space, there wasn’t an apparent separation between the bedroom and the living room. He spotted a pair of jeans that Lu Yan had thrown onto the bed, and there was a poster pasted on the wall across the bed —— Vent band.
On the stage, the long-haired lead singer was gripping on the mic, stepping on the music speakers, displaying an oppressive posture.
[5]: Original: 麦. This Chinese character originally means wheat, but the pronunciation is similar to mic in English. So, I am guessing that’s what the author is trying to say…
The entire surroundings were shrouded in the shadows.
A near-calamitous red glow illuminated from his body.
“You?”
“Ah,” Lu Yan followed his gaze and looked in that direction, “Right, last year, at that time.”
“Two members of the band left just like that?”
“You have any objections?”
“Nothing.”
“Hey,” Lu Yan realized that the infant wasn’t sobbing just now, once his eyelids closed, they didn’t blink open anymore. There were still tears hanging off the eyelashes. “He fell asleep?”
Xiao Heng was about to say “Let me handle him,” when the sound of high heels treading on the ground echoed from the outside, as well as the crisp clinking of keys.
The lady from 601 still adorned her usual attire, a short skirt and thick makeup, reeking of alcohol.
Perhaps she had drunk too much, as she had failed several attempts to insert the key into the keyhole. In the end, she kicked the door with her foot, squatting down slowly, finding a pack of cigarettes in her handbag, and with her back propped up against the door she took a drag from the cigarette to sober up.
Then, she heard a chilling tone beside her ear saying: “Your kid, still want it or not?”
The lady’s hand trembled while lighting up her cigarette, burning her fingertips.
Xiao Heng cannot discern what exactly were the thoughts that this lady had in mind. He couldn’t even figure out this lady’s exact name even after multiple inquiries. She’s acknowledged as Xiao Lian in one nightclub, but in another club, she’s known as Nan Nan.
He had to search through a few areas in order to find the exact address.
The infant was brought back to the household as soon as it was given birth, apart from accepting the check Xiao Qishan provided for her, unlike others who went on making trouble endlessly, she was abnormally quiet.
Lu Yan cradled the infant while standing in front of the entrance, not wanting to get entangled in another family’s business, however, he couldn’t decide whether to enter or just leave. He noticed that the lady’s gaze was currently on the child.
Lu Yan thought, if this child is his little brother.
Then this lady must be his…
That’s not right, their ages don’t match up.
“Kid?”
The lady retracted her gaze, slowly standing up again, and she said: “I don’t have a kid.”
“You two must have found the wrong person.”
The lady’s tone was frigid. She lit up her cigarette, narrowing her eyes while smoking, the pair of eyes applied with thick eyeshadow is now concealed within the dense smoke.
Translated by: Piggybank
Edited by: Yukki/Muku