Xu Ze hadn’t seen Lu Heyang for a whole week.
From the time Lu Heyang had left his home last Saturday until today, Friday, they hadn’t met. Although they normally didn’t run into each other much at school anyway, since they weren’t in the same teaching building, Tuesday’s swimming class was the only opportunity Xu Ze had to see and talk to Lu Heyang.
But Lu Heyang hadn’t come.
There was no way Xu Ze would call or text Lu Heyang to ask about it. He simply wasn’t the kind of person who would do something like that, and he had no standing to do so.
Just like he wouldn’t dwell too deeply on why Lu Heyang had kissed him before leaving that day.
Maybe it had been a spur-of-the-moment impulse. Maybe Lu Heyang had simply found it interesting.
Xu Ze didn’t mind either way.
He had always had the mindset of someone who had already lost everything. He knew that every second he got to spend with Lu Heyang was something he had gained, so he didn’t ask for more, nor did he think too much about it.
After school, Xu Ze went to the club.
He arrived early. After putting down his schoolbag, he went to move some supplies.
The delivery truck was parked by the side entrance. Xu Ze went back and forth, carrying more than sixty cases of beer. He pushed the last four cases into the storeroom, carried them down one by one, stacked them neatly, then went to report the count to the warehouse manager and sign for them.
Jobs like this were paid in tips, all settled together at the end of the month. It wasn’t much money, but it was just enough to cover Xu Ze’s food expenses for the month.
Back in the changing room, Xu Ze took off his hat and gloves. He had worked up a sweat, so he went to the restroom to wash his face, then found a towel to wipe his neck.
When he took the face-paint kit out of the desk drawer, he heard a knock at the door.
Xu Ze thought he had misheard.
No one knocked here. People usually just pushed or kicked the door open.
The door wasn’t locked, but Xu Ze still walked over and pulled it open.
“Went to move things again?”
Before Xu Ze had even had time to react to Lu Heyang’s sudden appearance, Lu Heyang had already noticed the sweat on his neck.
“…Mm.”
Xu Ze stared at him without blinking.
It had only been a week since they’d last seen each other. Back when he was at school, there had been times when he wouldn’t run into Lu Heyang for an entire month, and he had never been as reluctant as he was now to take his eyes off Lu Heyang’s face.
Xu Ze realized that he was becoming greedier and greedier.
This was very wrong.
“Restocking the vending machines?”
“No. Moving beer.”
“How much?”
“Sixty-seven cases.”
Lu Heyang didn’t ask anything else.
He looked at Xu Ze for a while, then raised his hand and wiped away a remaining drop of water from the corner of Xu Ze’s eye.
“Go inside.”
Actually, Xu Ze felt that Lu Heyang seemed a little tired.
It was the kind of tiredness that came with irritation and listlessness, as though he had little interest in anything.
After entering the room, Lu Heyang saw the face-paint kit on the table and asked, “Are you about to go on?”
“Almost.”
“I’ll paint your face for you.”
Lu Heyang walked over and picked up the face-paint kit.
“Sit up here.”
He told him to sit up, so Xu Ze obediently sat on the table.
Lu Heyang slowly twisted open the lid, glanced up at Xu Ze, and said, “Take your clothes off.”
Xu Ze was still staring at his hands. Hearing that, he made a confused sound.
“Hm?”
Lu Heyang set the lid aside.
“If you take your clothes off after I finish painting your face, you’ll rub the paint onto your collar.”
Although Xu Ze normally took his clothes off before painting his face himself, taking them off in front of Lu Heyang was obviously different.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Heyang gave him a half-smile. “Haven’t you already sent me a nude photo?”
Xu Ze hadn’t expected him to bring that up. He immediately looked away and weakly defended himself.
“It really wasn’t a nude photo.”
“Mm. If you didn’t take everything off, it doesn’t count as a nude photo.”
Lu Heyang picked up a little face paint with his fingertip and looked at Xu Ze.
Xu Ze scratched behind his ear. Then he grabbed the hem of his T-shirt with both hands, pulled it up, and took it off.
The sweat on his body hadn’t dried yet. When the air conditioning blew over him, the chill made him quietly hiss.
“Spread your legs a little.”
Lu Heyang nudged the inside of Xu Ze’s knee with the back of his hand.
Xu Ze parted his legs a little farther.
Lu Heyang stepped between his legs, raised his hand, and began spreading the face paint over his face.
His movements were light and slow. Xu Ze had the feeling that Lu Heyang was tracing and caressing him little by little.
Perhaps in Lu Heyang’s eyes, this was completely normal. He was simply applying face paint.
But Xu Ze’s heart was beating so fast that he felt it was about to be heard. The area from his ears down to the back of his neck tingled.
He sat there quietly, only his eyes and Adam’s apple moving from time to time, his gaze focused intently on Lu Heyang’s face.
Lu Heyang’s fingertip moved from Xu Ze’s forehead down to the tip of his nose, smearing the face paint across it.
Then he asked,
“Why aren’t you wearing the wristband I gave you?”
“……” Xu Ze didn’t know how to explain it. He could only say, “My old one still works.”
He came here to work and fight. How could he bear to wear the wristband Lu Heyang had given him? If the others noticed it, it would only cause trouble. After all, the wristband was very expensive—not something someone like him could afford to wear.
“But wearing this one is uncomfortable for you.” Lu Heyang looked into his eyes. “You don’t use the boxing gloves I gave you, you don’t wear the clothes I gave you, and now you don’t wear the wristband either.”
“Xu Ze, if you don’t like them, you can give them back to me.”
“No.” Xu Ze felt that Lu Heyang was angry. He said, “It’s not that I don’t like them.”
“They’re… very valuable,” Xu Ze said.
The things themselves were valuable, and they were also valuable to Xu Ze for what they meant.
He was the kind of person who would even secretly keep a tissue Lu Heyang casually gave him inside an iron box, stubbornly collecting every little thing between them so he could use them as memories later—even though those memories were insignificant, nothing more than unremarkable fragments of Lu Heyang’s life.
But it didn’t matter.
Xu Ze was used to living simply and had never asked for much. What he already had was enough for him to treasure for a very long time. He had already received far more than he could ever have imagined.
“I’m not upset. Don’t be nervous.” Lu Heyang put the face-paint kit aside. “If you feel it’s inconvenient to wear it here, then can you wear it when you’re at school?”
No matter how expensive a wristband was, wearing it all day at school would probably be uncomfortable. Lu Heyang didn’t know how Xu Ze had managed to keep wearing his old one.
“Okay.” Xu Ze nodded.
Leaving such an expensive wristband at home to gather dust, Xu Ze felt that even if Lu Heyang got angry about it, he would have every right to. It would count as wasting someone’s goodwill and resources.
His phone rang once.
Xu Ze sat up a little straighter and said, “I’m going on.”
“Okay. If you don’t have anything else to do afterward, go to the parking lot. I’ll drive you home.”
“Mm.”
Xu Ze took two tissues and handed them to Lu Heyang, then went to the cabinet to look for his boxing gloves.
Lu Heyang wiped his hands and suddenly asked, “Do you want a reward?”
After a moment of silence, Xu Ze turned around with the boxing gloves in his hands.
“What if I lose?”
“You can still get a reward if you lose. The two things aren’t mutually exclusive.” Lu Heyang smiled.
He always managed to make Xu Ze happy so easily.
Xu Ze didn’t know what to say. He pressed his lips together and nodded.
Lu Heyang threw the tissues into the trash can. Xu Ze followed his gaze toward the trash can, and then he heard Lu Heyang say, “You’re not allowed to pick them up.”
Xu Ze froze.
He realized that Lu Heyang really had seen the things inside the iron box last Saturday—the things that looked like trash.
But there was no time to feel embarrassed or ashamed now, because he was about to go on.
Xu Ze lowered his head and said, “I won’t pick them up,” before hurriedly running out of the changing room.
The moment he walked out through the fighters’ tunnel, Xu Ze was almost deafened by the screaming.
He instinctively turned his head toward the giant screen overhead. When he saw the number displayed beneath No. 17, his eyes widened in astonishment, and he froze.
864,900 yuan.
The name of the customer with the highest bet was “G,” with a bet of 500,000 yuan.
Once the amount exceeded 800,000 yuan, Xu Ze would be entitled to a share.
That meant he could earn at least 70,000 yuan from this match.
The spotlight fell on Xu Ze. The audience’s cheers crashed over him like waves, one after another, threatening to drown him.
Xu Ze turned around in a daze, his gaze sweeping across hundreds of unfamiliar faces before finally finding his bearings. He looked toward the seats where Lu Heyang and the others usually sat.
But he only saw He Wei and Gu Yunchi.
Lu Heyang wasn’t in the audience.
The referee blew the whistle.
Xu Ze snapped back to reality, put in his mouthguard and boxing gloves, and walked toward the octagonal cage.
When the match ended, Xu Ze didn’t stay on the platform for even half a second. He immediately ran backstage.
But there were only a few fighters in the changing room.
Lu Heyang wasn’t there.
The fighters wore various expressions as they sized Xu Ze up.
A 500,000-yuan bet made it difficult for them not to suspect that Xu Ze had colluded with an outsider to rig the match, taking advantage of it to earn a share and prize money.
Xu Ze went straight to the restroom to wash his face. Afterward, he quickly packed his schoolbag and headed for the door.
“The boss is definitely going to look for you. Think about how you’re going to explain yourself,” one of the fighters reminded him.
Xu Ze’s footsteps paused for a moment, but he said nothing and continued walking.
Once he left the building, Xu Ze immediately saw Lu Heyang sitting in a car not far away, looking at his phone.
The light from the screen illuminated his expressionless face, making him look unusually cold and distant.
Hearing footsteps, Lu Heyang looked up and smiled at Xu Ze.
“That was fast.”
“The money…” Xu Ze walked over to the car and looked down at Lu Heyang. “Did you place the bet?”
“No.” Lu Heyang was still smiling. He didn’t ask whether Xu Ze had won or lost. He simply said, “Yunchi did.”
Xu Ze was about to say something else when He Wei’s voice came from behind.
“Wow, Xu Ze, you’re already out.”
He jumped over and slapped Xu Ze on the shoulder.
“That ended way too fast. I didn’t even get to enjoy watching it.”
Pushed along by He Wei, Xu Ze got into the car distractedly.
Lu Heyang drove. Gu Yunchi sat in the passenger seat, while Xu Ze and He Wei sat in the back.
“You’re still spacing out because of that 500,000?” Seeing Xu Ze lost in thought, He Wei snapped his fingers in front of his face. “You won, didn’t you? Why do you still look like you’re under so much pressure?”
“No.” Xu Ze shook his head.
“It’s fine. Five hundred thousand is just the price of one meal for Young Master Gu.” He Wei comforted him. “Besides, you won today.”
Gu Yunchi glanced at Lu Heyang but didn’t comment.
“But the odds were really too low, only 0.4. Still, considering how well you fought, those odds make sense.”
He Wei changed the subject quickly, leaning forward to bother Lu Heyang.
“Why didn’t you answer me when I messaged you? I heard that on this trip abroad, you even went to meet your future wife’s family—that Omega’s family?”
The car ran over a rock and jolted violently.
That jolt seemed to knock Xu Ze’s heart right out of his chest.
His hand stiffened against the seat to keep his balance, but a tremendous feeling of weightlessness suddenly surged through his body. Even his breathing stopped.
Lu Heyang: Sometimes I really do feel like killing that guy He Wei.