Zhou Yan wanted to buy a change of clothes, but they didn't come across any shops. There were only a few small restaurants and phone repair shops in the even more desolate neighborhood surrounding the correctional facility.
“How about you wear mine?” Lou Mingxu suggested. “I’ll just stay outside. No need for me to go in and embarrass myself. You can show me the interview notes afterward.”
Zhou Yan sighed. “Looks like that’s our only option.”
They found a nearby public restroom and changed clothes. When Zhou Yan looked at himself in the mirror, he let out a long sigh.
“Why do I feel like I stole an adult’s clothes? The sleeves are ridiculously loose.”
Due to his frequent exercise, Lou Mingxu was both taller and far wider than Zhou Yan. As a result, his clothing was two sizes too large. The extra material around his waist was lessened when Zhou Yan tucked the shirt into his suit pants, but the sleeves were still too long, so he rolled them up on both sides.
“What did you say? I couldn’t hear you…”
Lou Mingxu stepped out of the restroom.
Zhou Yan turned around—and immediately burst out laughing, crouching down on the spot.
The short-sleeved T-shirt was stretched across Lou Mingxu’s upper body like plastic wrap. With all the muscle he’d built across his chest, the fabric had formed two little bumps over his pecs.
“Is it really that funny?”
Lou Mingxu tugged at the dirty part of the shirt and repeatedly scrubbed it with a damp tissue.
“I’ll wait here. Just go in and come back.”
“Not going in after all? Didn’t you say you wanted to have a look around?”
Zhou Yan’s tone was unbearably smug.
“Just go already. Don’t you want to get off work?”
The stains wouldn’t come out with tissues. Seeing that no one was around, Lou Mingxu took off the shirt, squeezed some hand soap onto the dirty spots, rubbed them clean, then held the shirt beneath the hand dryer.
Cotton wasn’t exactly easy to dry, so when Zhou Yan came back, there were still a few damp marks on the fabric. At least the stains were gone, and it was perfectly wearable.
“You’re back already? Done with the interview?”
“Of course.”
Zhou Yan looked him up and down.
“So you were too embarrassed to go into the detention center with me, but standing around in public with your shirt off doesn’t embarrass you?”
“Want to swap back?”
Zhou Yan rejected the idea without hesitation.
“No.”
Lou Mingxu suspected he was doing it on purpose, just so he could watch Lou Mingxu parade down the street in clothes that didn’t fit.
“Want me to let you drive on the way back?”
As Zhou Yan said it, the faintest hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
That only confirmed Lou Mingxu’s suspicion that he was up to no good.
He climbed straight onto the back seat.
As luck would have it, they hit red light after red light all the way back.
Every time Zhou Yan braked, Lou Mingxu felt as though he were a monkey at the zoo with an entire crowd gathered around to watch him. He lowered his head and buried his face against Zhou Yan’s back, engaging in the most blatant possible act of self-delusion.
“Your breath is really hot. Could you move a little farther away?”
Zhou Yan straightened his back.
Lou Mingxu scooted forward, keeping his head pressed against him.
“You’re wearing my clothes and still making me pay a hundred yuan for the dry cleaning. You’re getting all the benefits. What’s wrong with letting me lean on you?”
Zhou Yan laughed inside his helmet.
Lou Mingxu couldn’t see it, but with their bodies pressed so closely together, he didn’t need to. Zhou Yan’s laughter vibrated through him, clear as if there were no barrier between them at all.
They got back to the law firm after four.
Several packages were piled up outside the door, all everyday necessities Lou Mingxu had ordered online over the past few days. He couldn’t be bothered to open them and check everything, so he stacked them off to one side and asked Zhou Yan about the details of the case.
Zhou Yan copied the interview transcript onto the computer and sent Lou Mingxu a copy.
Then, in his usual concise manner, he summarized it.
“Jiang Sheng denies that it was forced sexual assault. He says Song Yue was the one who initiated it and wanted to give him oral sex.”
Lou Mingxu blinked.
“Seriously?”
According to Jiang Sheng’s statement, he and Song Yue had actually met five years ago—not in college, as Qiao Yushan had believed.
Back in high school, Jiang Sheng hadn’t dared tell anyone about his sexuality. Eventually his sister discovered it by accident when she happened to see him walking hand in hand with Song Yue.
So Jiang Sheng lied and told her they had only just met.
Song Yue’s family was in business, bringing in two or three million yuan a year. He was single and came from a comfortable background. He used to give Jiang Sheng around ten thousand yuan a month for spending money.
After Jiang Sheng started university, Song Yue took him out of his family home and they began living together.
Over the next few years, they had their share of arguments, but they always made up quickly.
Then, around July or August of last year, Song Yue gradually became colder toward Jiang Sheng. In September, they had a huge fight, broke up, and Jiang Sheng moved out.
After the breakup, Jiang Sheng still couldn’t let go. He repeatedly begged Song Yue to get back together, but Song Yue refused.
Eventually Jiang Sheng settled for being friends.
They would occasionally go out for a meal, but there was no longer any physical intimacy between them.
Jiang Sheng was deeply unhappy with the arrangement.
On the night of April 14, Jiang Sheng got drunk and went to Song Yue’s house again.
The old door code no longer worked, and no one answered when he rang the bell. But he noticed that a downstairs window was open, so he climbed straight inside.
When Jiang Sheng saw Song Yue, he couldn’t stop himself from throwing his arms around him and crying, begging him to get back together.
As they embraced, Jiang Sheng became aroused. He took Song Yue’s hand and tried to have him help him, the way they used to.
According to Jiang Sheng’s account, Song Yue never resisted. In fact, he seemed to cooperate.
But Jiang Sheng had been extremely drunk, and his thoughts were hazy. He had forgotten much of what they had said to each other. He only remembered that it happened on the sofa.
Song Yue bit his leg hard enough to draw blood, and Jiang Sheng slapped him several times.
After helping Jiang Sheng finish, Song Yue kicked him out.
When Jiang Sheng woke up again, the police were waiting for him.
Lou Mingxu finished reading the transcript and clicked his tongue repeatedly.
“You’d never guess this guy used to be someone’s kept little boyfriend.”
“I really should’ve gone inside to see what he looks like.”
“He’s pretty good-looking,” Zhou Yan said.
Lou Mingxu was surprised that Zhou Yan had actually engaged with the topic.
“Okay, then. Out of ten, what would you give him?”
“Why do you love rating people so much?”
Lou Mingxu shot back sarcastically, “I wonder who gave me a rating first.”
Zhou Yan had no answer for that.
After a brief pause, he said, “Nine. His face looks completely natural, and he’s in pretty good shape.”
“Holy shit!”
Lou Mingxu looked as if he’d just bitten into a lemon, the sourness going all the way down to his stomach.
He refused to accept it.
“Then rate me again. Purely on looks. No personal grudges, and don’t factor in all the money I owe you.”
Zhou Yan propped his chin on one hand and thought about it for a long time.
Still, he didn’t give an answer.
Lou Mingxu urged him to take the question seriously and give his honest opinion.
Just then, a deliveryman in uniform knocked on the door.
“Which one of you is Mr. Zhou?”
Zhou Yan immediately raised a hand.
“Over here.”
The deliveryman set the food down on Zhou Yan’s desk and hurried away.
Just as Zhou Yan was about to open it, Lou Mingxu reached over and pressed down on the enormous insulated delivery bag.
“Answer my question first. What score do I get?”
“Ten out of ten, obviously. You’re definitely better-looking than him…”
Zhou Yan said it in a tone so indulgent it was almost affectionate.
But to Lou Mingxu, it sounded like nothing more than a perfunctory answer, as though Zhou Yan was simply hungry and wanted to get on with his food.
Zhou Yan opened the insulated bag.
Inside was a five-inch birthday cake.
Deep and pale shades of green frosting transformed it into a miniature forest, beautiful enough to immediately capture Lou Mingxu’s attention.
Even the transparent cake box couldn’t contain the sweet scent of the frosting.
Lou Mingxu muttered, “Why did you buy this? Whose birthday is it?”
Zhou Yan looked at him with bright, slightly moist eyes.
He said nothing.
Instead, a small, tender smile appeared at the corners of his lips.
Lou Mingxu was struck by a sudden electric jolt.
He whipped around and looked at the calendar on the wall.
Today was April 19.
His birthday.
His own birthday.
Zhou Yan knew his birthday.
And he had bought him a cake.
The sheer magnitude of the surprise left Lou Mingxu stunned.
He stared at the delicate cake, unable to look away, and the tiny bit of unhappiness he’d felt over the rating vanished without a trace.
It had been so long since he’d celebrated his birthday that he’d stopped treating the day as anything special himself.
“How did you know it was my birthday?”
Lou Mingxu asked even though he already knew the answer.
In that instant, he had realized that Zhou Yan remembered him. That he had recognized him.
But he still wanted to hear it from Zhou Yan himself.
“It wasn’t hard to remember.”
As he spoke, Zhou Yan reached into a drawer and took out a birthday present he had prepared in advance.
“Open it. You just moved into a new place. You should need this.”
Lou Mingxu stared at the clearly well-prepared gift in disbelief.
His smile spread wider and wider, until there was something almost boyishly innocent and wholehearted about it.
At that moment, he had to admit that when he’d taken Tang Yingzi’s words—It’s normal that he forgot—at face value, it had really just been the self-comfort of someone who wanted something he couldn’t have.
Back then, he had repeated a year of high school, gotten into law school, studied himself half to death, passed the bar exam, and sent his very first résumé to Lanjin.
Every step had been in pursuit of Zhou Yan.
Of course he had wanted to see Zhou Yan light up at the sight of him. He had wanted Zhou Yan to embrace him, to squeeze his shoulder the way he had all those years ago, to tell him he’d done well.
He wanted Zhou Yan to genuinely recognize him, encourage him, and accept him as the student who had taken so many wrong turns before finally finding his way here.
It was strange.
When he first arrived, he had been carrying a stomachful of disappointment and resentment.
Yet all Zhou Yan had to do was offer him the tiniest taste of sweetness, and Lou Mingxu felt as though his entire heart had been bathed in sunlight and rain.
Like a plant that had nearly withered away had come alive again.
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