Chapter 65

Fei Baolin said: "Cooking."

Xu Wei laughed out loud: "So domestic — come cook at my place sometime?"

Before the offensive remark finished, Fei Baolin cut him off.

"If you want to compliment me, you can say it over the phone." Fei Baolin pushed the Beer glass toward the center of the table. "I've still got things at home. If you've got nothing to say, I'm heading back."

He said it and actually made to get up and leave.

"Hey, Baolin... Baolin!" Xu Wei leaned over and grabbed Fei Baolin's arm, forcibly pulling him back. "Look at you, can't take a joke at all!"

He coaxed Fei Baolin back down with a pleasant expression, crossed his legs, picked up the glass Fei Baolin had drunk from and handed it to the person next to him who was keeping him company, signaling them to drink from it, while pretending to think in a meeting-like manner: "What did I call you here for..."

Fei Baolin didn't respond. Xu Wei would remember eventually while performing.

"Oh!" Xu Wei seemed to have a sudden revelation and laughed at Zou Qi beside him: "It's his mother!"

Those two ambiguous words made Zou Qi laugh too, but Meng Yu on the other side didn't react.

Fei Baolin finally looked up at Xu Wei, quiet, eyes flat, no smile at all.

He could hear the frivolity and disrespect in Xu Wei's words, and see the strong intent to humiliate him. If he actually got angry and embarrassed, that would be exactly what Xu Wei wanted.

Besides, he had his own purpose for coming here today. If Xu Wei actually knew anything about Lin Yuanyi's life, even a little, and told him, then this meaningless filth wouldn't matter.

If he really cared about face, he wouldn't have come here today at all.

Sure enough, Xu Wei used a casual tone, deliberately rambling on and off to the people around him: "Fei Qi's mother — oh, sorry, shouldn't I call her Auntie? Right, Baolin?"

Meeting Xu Wei's gaze, Fei Baolin leaned back against the sofa, interlaced his fingers, preparing himself to stay a while longer: "Call her like before."

Xu Wei's smile froze on his face.

Like before — before Lin Yuanyi and Fei's father divorced, Xu Wei, together with the current Fei Corporation chairman's wife — his aunt — would occasionally run into Lin Yuanyi returning home at the Fei Family Estate. They could only pretend to be migrant workers and family members there to seek business cooperation, and from that identity, watch Lin Yuanyi walk past from afar, bowing and scraping, calling her "Director Lin."

Fei Corporation was built by Lin Yuanyi and Fei's father from scratch. Lin Yuanyi didn't like being called Mrs. Fei or Madam Fei, so everyone in the entire Fei Family Estate only called her Director Lin.

Back then, Xu Wei and his aunt could only bow their heads very low, trying to minimize their presence in front of Lin Yuanyi, to avoid drawing her attention, lest she see them and get suspicious, or remember them.

Now, calling Lin Yuanyi "Director Lin" like before would undoubtedly remind Xu Wei of those days when he had to skulk around like a rat at the Fei Family Estate whenever he ran into Lin Yuanyi, never able to be seen in the light.

And everyone in this private room except Xu Wei and Fei Baolin didn't know how the Xu Family made their fortune, much less that past that the Xu Family had repeatedly obscured and distorted to outsiders.

Xu Wei gave a cold laugh, his alcohol-fueled excited voice cooling: "Let's just call her Auntie."

Fei Baolin smiled slightly: "Up to you."

At this point, he didn't expect Xu Wei to have any normal conscience or awareness. He didn't respect Lin Yuanyi in his heart, so what he called her verbally was meaningless.

After all the teasing, suddenly finding Fei Baolin wasn't so easy to get the better of verbally, Xu Wei lost interest, but wasn't willing to give up. So when he brought up Lin Yuanyi again, he deliberately didn't look at Fei Baolin, and his words carried more sarcasm and mockery.

He said to Zou Qi and Meng Yu: "Auntie, just like Baolin — dying to save face, stubborn as hell."

Meng Yu spoke up, holding his glass with a joking tone: "If he really loved face, he should've slapped you twice the moment he walked in."

Xu Wei and Zou Qi burst out laughing, clinked glasses with Meng Yu, then continued: "Back then Baolin begged our family to take his mom abroad for treatment. Auntie wasn't willing, so we had to use some tricks — knocked her out with anesthesia and flew her out on a private plane. Too bad Baolin insisted on studying and didn't dare follow."

"Well, he stayed behind in Rongzhou living the easy life, left her to us to take care of." Xu Wei said this like some helpless close friend of Fei Baolin's, scolding then sympathetically: "Who'd dare provoke Auntie's temper? The moment she opened her eyes she'd say she wanted to go back to China, grab whatever was nearby and hit people. We went through several rounds of caretakers. She didn't appreciate it — she couldn't stand anyone except her son."

Fei Baolin stared at his feet, knowing Xu Wei wasn't telling the truth.

He knew Lin Yuanyi's temper best. Stubborn, yes, but always proper in how she treated people — never the type to hit and scold others on a whim. Back then at the hospital in Rongzhou, there were times when Fei Baolin was busy with school and couldn't make it on time to see her. Even when Lin Yuanyi went to the bathroom alone, she'd keep thanking the nurses who helped her. How could she possibly be grabbing things and beating up expensive hired caretakers in a foreign country?

Besides, Lin Yuanyi's physical condition at that time wouldn't have allowed her to make a big fuss anyway.

He stayed silent, quietly listening to Xu Wei continue.

Whether true or false, if even one out of ten lies was true, hearing news about Lin Yuanyi meant Fei Baolin hadn't come for nothing.

"We kept trying to talk her down, told the old lady to save her energy. Being sick was hard enough, and with such a serious illness, if she really drove everyone away with her cursing and hitting, so far from home with her son not around, who'd take care of her?" Xu Wei shook his glass. "Guess Auntie figured it out herself eventually and stopped making trouble. But she missed her son."

He finally turned to look at Fei Baolin: "Cancer's all about mindset. Bad mindset, no treatment works. Baolin wasn't by Auntie's side, she kept worrying, so the illness never improved, just kept getting worse."

Meng Yu asked thoughtfully: "How old was Auntie then?"

"Forty-four, forty-five." Xu Wei answered.

Meng Yu laughed: "Then you call her an old lady? Your aunt is also in her mid-thirties this year."

"How's that the same? Who is my aunt?" Xu Wei glanced at Fei Baolin. "Calling Auntie an old lady — it's because she really was worn down by the cancer. So what if she was forty-something? Those last few months, her face and body had more spots than an eighty- or ninety-year-old granny. She was just skin and bones, couldn't even speak clearly."

Fei Baolin's lashes trembled. Something in his chest felt like it had been carved out with a knife.

Even knowing terminal patients often looked the same in their final stages, when it was his own mother, hearing it from someone else's mouth still hit differently from those few lines of text he'd read online years ago.

If he let Xu Wei keep rambling on without direction, two hours wouldn't get to the point.

Fei Baolin asked: "Did my mom mention me?"

"She did! She — did." Xu Wei repeated it, drawing out the words. "Never said she wanted you to visit her, just kept pulling us aside to ask how you were doing at home, whether you were eating well, whether you had enough money. Little things like that, how would we know? Just told her everything was fine, told her to focus on treatment."

If they'd cared, they could've easily sent word to Fei Baolin to find out about Lin Yuanyi's worries. But in this age of instant communication, those years — from when Fei Baolin knelt outside the company begging for help, to when they agreed to send Lin Yuanyi for treatment, all the way until Lin Yuanyi died — no one ever asked for Fei Baolin's contact information. They just sent an assistant once to ask for Lin Yuanyi's hospital bed number, then vanished without a trace.

Even the news that Lin Yuanyi had been transferred abroad — Fei Baolin only learned it from the medical staff when he went to the hospital after school on the weekend and found her bed empty.

As for the procedures in between, how the Xu Family and Fei Family handled them, Fei Baolin knew nothing.

Fei Baolin hadn't blamed anyone. After all, he and Lin Yuanyi had long had nothing to do with the Fei Family. Whether it was his biological father or the Xu Family, helping was a favor, not an obligation.

He asked again: "Did my mom say anything before she died?"

"I don't know about that." Xu Wei said. "After her last surgery she stayed in the ICU and never woke up. Died not long after. As for before—"

Xu Wei made an embarrassed expression: "You weren't there, you don't know. Those last few months before someone dies, the body and even the room stink. I really... really rarely went."

Fei Baolin's hands, which had been resting in front of him, finally clenched at this moment.

His always neatly trimmed nails dug hard into his palms. Listening to Xu Wei describe Lin Yuanyi in that tone and those words, he pressed his lips together, his heart pounding, his stomach churning, almost dry heaving.

Xu Wei kept on: "Baolin, try to understand, if you'd seen your mom like that, you would—"

"I wouldn't." Fei Baolin cut him off, maintaining the last shred of calm.

Xu Wei watched him holding onto his emotional defenses, the corner of his mouth lifting: "I haven't finished yet."

"No matter what, I wouldn't." Fei Baolin gave Xu Wei one last sideways glance, swung a leg out of the sofa and stood up. "I wouldn't be like you."

Seeing him about to leave, Meng Yu at the other end of the table released the boy in his arms, walked over and grabbed Fei Baolin's arm: "Wait."

Fei Baolin had no energy for another word. He just turned to look at him, signaling Meng Yu to say it quickly.

Meng Yu licked his lips: "That day at the internet cafe, the boy with you — is he your classmate?"

Fei Baolin frowned slightly, didn't answer directly: "What about it?"

Meng Yu smiled: "Got his contact info?"

Before Fei Baolin could speak, he added: "It's fine if you won't give it, I can get it through someone else. Just thought it'd be easier to ask you—"

Before he finished, Meng Yu saw a blur before his eyes — a solid fist carrying all the emotion piled up from before landed on his face.

Then Meng Yu got kicked. The sounds of Xu Wei and Zou Qi running over to break it up reached his ears, but by then Fei Baolin had already gotten several hits in.

Until those two came over and pulled Fei Baolin off, Fei Baolin shook off Xu Wei and Zou Qi, opened the door and strode out.

Meng Yu tried to chase him, but Xu Wei stopped him.

Xu Wei's voice grew fainter in Fei Baolin's ears as the private room door closed: "Forget it, forget it, he's got that nasty temper, just like his mother..."

—

Fei Baolin's face was colder than the weather when he went downstairs.

Yuntop's spiral staircase was wide and long. Each step he took, the sensor lights beneath his feet flickered on and off. Fei Baolin looked down at the ground, feeling the stairs between the two floors were impossibly annoying, never seeming to end.

The two rows of greeters at the door bowed in unison as he stepped out. Fei Baolin swept past like a gust of wind. The cold air that hit him blew the hair off his forehead. After a few steps, his feet suddenly stopped.

Fei Baolin turned, looking at a figure by the wall beside the door.

He said softly: "Xiao Fu."

Wen Fu had been leaning against the wall, head down, hands in his pockets, his scarf covering most of his face.

His lashes were lowered. If not for his standing posture, one would think he was asleep.

Hearing Fei Baolin's voice, Wen Fu raised his head, blinked toward Fei Baolin's position, as if trying to tell if that was the person he'd been waiting for.

Then Fei Baolin waved him over, and Wen Fu rushed from the corner and crashed into Fei Baolin's arms.

It was snowing lightly. Wen Fu had run over quickly, snowflakes scattered in his hair, and by the time he stopped in front of Fei Baolin, the ends of his hair were damp.

The clouds temporarily cleared from Fei Baolin's brow. Smiling, he brushed the unmelted snowflakes from Wen Fu's hair, then touched Wen Fu's eyebrows: "How did you follow me here?"

Earlier when Xu Wei called home, both of them had heard "Yuntop" in the kitchen, so it wasn't strange that Wen Fu knew Fei Baolin was here. But it was late now, no buses, and on New Year's Eve taxis were hard to get. He didn't know how Wen Fu had gotten here or how long he'd been waiting.

Wen Fu lifted his face out of the scarf, then pressed the scarf down with his chin: "We finished eating. You didn't come back."

Fei Baolin said: "You could've just waited at home."

Wen Fu said: "Didn't want to wait."

"Waiting here is still waiting."

"Here is closer to you."

Fei Baolin's fingertips in Wen Fu's hair moved slightly. He gazed at Wen Fu's reddened nose from the cold, then reached out again to touch Wen Fu's ice-cold eyes and forehead from the wind.

"Bo-ge," Wen Fu tilted his head to look at him, "what are you thinking about?"

Fei Baolin pulled Wen Fu's scarf up, then cupped Wen Fu's ears with his warm palms, and said softly: "I'm thinking... someone is unscrupulously trying to provoke and anger you. You understand what he's thinking, know he won't stop until he gets what he wants, so you go along with it. But what is his goal...?"

Xu Wei loved leisure and pleasure above all. He wouldn't come to this small city of Rongzhou for no reason, nor would he repeatedly use Lin Yuanyi as an excuse to approach Fei Baolin just to harass him — Xu Wei was idle, but not that idle. From the moment he appeared in Rongzhou and encountered Fei Baolin, everything had been deliberate.

Fei Baolin couldn't figure out what about himself today was worth Xu Wei probing and trying to take.

Wen Fu didn't understand Fei Baolin's words, just watched him with rolling eyes.

Fei Baolin took Wen Fu's hand and retraced his steps back to the second floor of Yuntop.

But he didn't go to the private room — he went to the restroom.

He led Wen Fu into the last stall of the men's restroom. The stall was cramped, and the two of them, half forced and half willing, embraced each other, waiting quietly.

Fei Baolin lowered his head and made a hushing gesture. Wen Fu said nothing, leaned his head naturally onto Fei Baolin's shoulder, and closed his eyes to fake sleep.

The kitten didn't understand.

But the kitten slept.

Fei Baolin habitually raised his hand from behind Wen Fu and placed it on the back of Wen Fu's head, lightly tapping Wen Fu's head with four fingers as he usually did when putting him to sleep.

After a while, Xu Wei came in talking on the phone.