Xiaolei - Chapter 2

The studio had a lot of students and even more bicycles, all parked in a jumble. I hurriedly wheeled mine out and rode to the gate.

Chen Wei and the girl were nowhere in sight.

I waited a little longer. By the time almost everyone had left, realization finally struck:

Those two shameless lovebirds had ditched me and run off!

I pedaled furiously after them along Guangming Road, our usual route home.

I chased through several intersections without seeing Chen Wei.

He had probably taken another road with the girl, but I had no idea which one.

I cursed him for forgetting his friend the moment he saw a pretty face.

Then again, however much he valued girls over friends, we were close enough that he should not have lied to me.

On second thought, perhaps he had never lied before only because the temptation had never been strong enough.

I prayed that my eyes had merely played a trick on me earlier.

That happened on a Friday night.

Neither Chen Wei nor the girl came to the studio the next day.

Uneasy, I invented an excuse and called him. His father answered and said Chen Wei had gone out on an errand.

After hanging up, I reassured myself that he might have taken the girl out for the weekend. The boy really did have moves.

On Monday, I returned to school for regular academic classes. Chen Wei was absent again.

I called once more. His father answered again and only said Chen Wei was sick and would return to school in a couple of days.

Uncle Chen’s voice was calm, but I could not shake the feeling that it was not that simple.

Chen Wei did not attend class all week.

The next Monday, Uncle Chen came alone.

He asked me where Chen Wei sat, then packed up all the study materials on his desk and took them away. He kept his head down the entire time, saying nothing, his complexion poor.

I helped him pack and walked him downstairs.

Outside the school gate, I asked, “Uncle, is Chen Wei coming back?”

He did not answer and walked away with his head lowered.

After a few steps, he turned around. He hesitated, then finally summoned the courage to speak.

“Jinjiao, Xiaowei has always considered you his best friend. If you have time, please go see him.”

When I saw Chen Wei again, I almost did not recognize him.

His face was deathly pale, dark circles ringed his eyes, and his hair was greasy. He lay under a quilt in his own bed, breathing faintly, almost wasted beyond recognition.

The table beside him was littered with medicine, and a strange odor hung in the room.

After Uncle Chen brought me in, he leaned close to Chen Wei’s ear. “Jinjiao is here to see you.”

Then he went out and closed the door, leaving the two of us alone.

Half asleep, Chen Wei slowly opened his eyes and studied me for a moment. His narrowed eyes suddenly flew wide.

There was terror in them, unease—and a trace of resentment.

I had never seen him like this. It frightened me.

He gave a cold laugh. “Everyone at home thinks I’ve gone insane.”

My heart lurched. What I had feared had happened after all.

Chen Wei drew both hands from beneath the quilt, and I froze.

They were covered in wounds and bound tightly together with rope.

“Now you’re the only person who can prove I’m not crazy.”

I knew Chen Wei too well to think he was insane. I immediately stepped forward to examine his wounds.

He recoiled, refusing to let me touch him, and fixed me with bloodshot eyes. “What did you see that night?”

“I…”

I had no idea how to explain it to him.

“Didn’t you see something then?” he pressed.

“See what?” For now, I could only play dumb.

“Hmph…”

Chen Wei sneered, then fired off a string of incidents.

“Last month, when we went to the used-book stall for comics, you picked up a copy of The Legend of the Son of Heaven, opened it, yelped, and threw it away.

“Then there was that time on the bus. You had just sat down when you grabbed your ass and sprang right back up.

“And during military training, the instructor hadn’t given an order, but you suddenly started marching by yourself.”

When he finished, I could not find a reply.

I really had bumped into things on those occasions.

I was accustomed to many of the gentlemen, but there were always a few inventive ones who made trouble in inventive ways and caught me unprepared.

During military training, for instance, who could have expected a gentleman dressed like an instructor to start barking commands at us in broad daylight? I had not seen the hole in the back of his head.

I thought I had bluffed my way through those incidents. I had not realized Chen Wei had noticed them all.

He said nothing, merely stared at me coldly. Resentment mingled with disappointment in his eyes.

That look hurt.

But I truly could not speak of these things. I should not even have been thinking about them now.

Chen Wei suddenly laughed. “My dad is sending me to Anding Hospital. He’s already arranged a bed.”

Anding Hospital was our local psychiatric hospital.

Chen Wei’s favorite joke had always been, “Did you just escape from Anding Hospital?”

He had never imagined that one day he would be sent there himself.

Neither of us spoke. We simply sat in silence.

Those were some of the hardest minutes of my life.

Ever since the evil longevity-borrowing incident when I was ten, my spiritual lifespan had been damaged. Ordinary people felt uncomfortable whenever they came into contact with me.

Sensitive people could sense the air of death around me. I was also slow-witted and foolish, so I had no friends. Even though my grades were decent, my teachers barely acknowledged me.

Chen Wei was different. It was as if he had taken a liking to me. On our first day of school, he approached me and struck up a conversation. He was always asking me to hang out, and somehow we became best friends. He was the only friend I had in high school.

What he did not know was that whenever we spent time together, the gentlemen surrounded us.