FWP Chapter 3

Chapter 3: 3 Disco Balls

Chapter 3: 3 Disco Balls

The days that followed did not rewind.

Wanderer seemed to see Zhou Zhao pull out a clock from behind him. His slender fingers casually fiddled with the space between the hour and minute hands, and time boarded a rocket accelerator.

By the time Wanderer thought of that day again, two months had passed, and he had walked out of the National College Entrance Examination hall.

A heavy snow began to fall over No. 16 High School. On closer inspection, it wasn’t snow.

Zhou Zhao stood downstairs with his bag, the scattered fragments of test papers falling on his head. Everything here felt unreal. He was a passenger who boarded midway, with no need to celebrate with everyone else. The car that carried him had already driven far away. He watched the car recede, unable to chase after it, unable to stop it.

He called Yu Zipei, who was celebrating the end of the National College Entrance Examination. She passed the phone to Zhou Zhao’s former classmates and friends.

Li Tinglin said, “Hurry back, tickets are booked, we’re leaving!”

Yu Zipei interjected, “We’re going to Europe first this time!”

Li Tinglin shouted, “No way! America first!”

Another friend squeezed between them, tears in his eyes, asking, “For the English cloze test, is number eight C or B?”

Zhou Zhao also heard Wanderer’s voice. He was standing on the second floor, talking to a younger girl.

The girl had borrowed Wanderer’s Error Correction Notebook. Wanderer was a little flustered, telling her that it was best to compile her own Error Correction Notebook. The girl blinked, hugging the Error Correction Notebook with both hands. It was just a narrow notebook, but she held it with both arms. The girl changed the subject, “Wanderer, do you have a girlfriend?”

Wanderer didn’t answer, but Zhou Zhao downstairs spoke up first. He felt lighthearted after the exam, raising his hands high and said, “No! I can vouch for that!”

The girl saw Wanderer’s face turn green, and directly grabbed the railing.

Downstairs, Zhou Zhao continued cheerfully, making a fist and encouraging the hesitant girl, “Not only does he not have a girlfriend, he hasn’t even been in a relationship! Go for it, little sister!”

A string snapped in Wanderer’s mind. He gripped the railing tightly, using all his strength to restrain the impulse to jump down. A voice in his heart comforted him, saying, “You finally made it through the National College Entrance Examination sprint, finished the second and third mock exams, you finally raised all the little puppies, as the saying goes, you reap what you sow, no pain no gain, don’t let a Zhou Zhao ruin your ten years of hard work.”

The artificial snow construction team was bustling with activity. The two people upstairs and downstairs fell into silence for a moment because Wanderer didn’t respond.

Zhou Zhao shielded his brow with his hand, avoiding the dazzling sunlight, trying to see Wanderer’s expression clearly.

It probably felt as long as a century. Wanderer released his grip on the railing and leaned over to look at Zhou Zhao.

“I named those puppies. When you go back to college, I’ll give you one.”

/

“That was the last thing Wanderer said to me in the summer of ’08.”

The sunlight evenly illuminated everything. Zhou Zhao sat outside the pet shop, smoking a slim cigarette, with a pet carrier at his feet.

Half an hour ago, the puppy named You Le Prince (Fun Prince) passed away. On the way to the hospital after work, Zhou Zhao had a bad feeling.

The nurse at the pet shop had received Zhou Zhao many times. She sat beside him at this moment, wanting to comfort You Le Prince (Fun Prince)’s father.

Unlike many parents left on Earth, You Le Prince (Fun Prince)’s father didn’t seem so broken down. After hearing the news, he just sat at the door for a while, smoked two cigarettes, and said something that was neither here nor there.

The nurse guessed that this You Dang was a woman, so she echoed, “Although it’s really hard to bear, it will pass, Mr. Zhou. If she were here, she would also advise you not to be sad for too long.”

Zhou Zhao corrected, “He, it’s ‘he’.”

He had been in a foreign country for too long, and often spaced out when he heard Chinese.

The nurse was surprised, but then understood. This Mr. Zhou was tall and handsome. The first time he came was three years ago. He was dressed in a suit and tie, with a wedding ring on his ring finger.

He was holding an old dog that had overeaten. It wasn’t a noble breed, just a simple, honest-looking dog, but its name was Prince.

The nurse didn’t know that there was a TV series called “Balala the Fairies” in the Eastern continent, and thought that Mr. Zhou loved this local dog so much that he gave it such a good name.

You Le Prince (Fun Prince) was old and had acquired heart disease. Mr. Zhou often rushed over in a hurry.

Fortunately, everyone was prepared for this day.

“I’m sorry, if he were here…”

Zhou Zhao pressed his forehead and waved his hand.

“‘If’ is a hypothesis. He wouldn’t care about the dog now. He doesn’t care about anything anymore.”

He stood up, staggered two steps, and suddenly saw the pet carrier on the ground. Inside the carrier was You Le Prince (Fun Prince), who would never wake up again. He put it in there, thinking he could wake it up as soon as he got to the hospital, but who knew there was no need to even take it out.

“Mr. Zhou, where are you going?”

Zhou Zhao picked up the carrier with both hands, peering through the cracks in the door. The You Le Prince (Fun Prince) inside had his eyes closed and his ears drooped. He remembered the year it was born, when he and Wanderer hid in the public toilet of the department store, and he used his hand to scrape the milk off the puppy’s mouth. The touch was soft, and its moist nose slightly radiated heat.

“Going home,” Zhou Zhao said, “Have to send him off.”

/

Li Tinglin opened the door, and the first look at the person outside the door was a look of disgust on his face. He held the door tightly and said coldly, “What are you doing here?”

“Is Zhou Zhao here? I want…” Wanderer poked his head and wanted to peek inside the door. Li Tinglin pushed him, “Don’t even think about it. Who do you think you are? Coming and going as you please, get out!”

Li Tinglin was extremely strong, and Wanderer stumbled. He could have stood still, but the door frame that could have helped him stand was next to Li Tinglin, so he had no choice but to fall to the ground.

Li Tinglin looked down at him, annoyed by Wanderer’s stammering, pretending to be pitiful appearance, “Seriously? You started acting before even seeing the main character, you want to rip me off?”

Wanderer didn’t speak, he lowered his head, his overly long hair tied into a small braid behind his head, Li Tinglin only saw his shoulders move slightly. He was also a little helpless. At this time, a family of five from the neighbors went out. The hostess was holding car keys and shopping bags, and two little boys were screaming and chasing each other in the one-elevator-per-two-house floor. They all saw Wanderer.

Until the elevator closed, the hostess’s eyes were still on Wanderer.

Li Tinglin walked back into the door, he supported the door frame, and pitied, “You should go quickly, you’re all grown up, don’t come to Zhou Zhao anymore in the future, can you let him live in peace?”

No.

Wanderer supported himself on the floor to stand up. The elevator hall outside Zhou Zhao’s house was paved with cool floor tiles, which was particularly refreshing in summer. He wanted to find Zhou Zhao and talk to him for a while.

Just now, Li Tinglin appeared from behind the door, and Wanderer’s heart skipped a beat. Zhou Zhao was still with him after all.

“So annoying, these people are so annoying.” He muttered to himself dryly. He had to find a time when Zhou Zhao was acting alone.

He had only met Li Tinglin three times. The first time was when college started, and Zhou Zhao asked him to go to karaoke.

Wanderer had just finished the military training performance and hurriedly washed his head with cold water from the tap. He simply wiped his body, put on a casual clothes and went out.

At this time, the Olympics had ended not long ago, and the publicity posters on the streets and alleys had not been torn off, and fragments of words about this grand event could still be heard everywhere. Wanderer stood at the intersection of the subway car, using the cold wind underground to blow his hair.

He was not yet familiar with the roads in Beijing, only knowing how to get from his school to Zhou Zhao’s school. After the National College Entrance Examination ended, Zhou Zhao went home. Wanderer used the money given by his grandmother, Zeng Haitang, to buy a mobile phone, pressing the keys with one finger at a time to edit a message to Zhou Zhao. From then on, Zhou Zhao spoke to him in text messages. Generally, Zhou Zhao said three sentences, and Wanderer replied with one.

He told himself that he could no longer like Zhou Zhao. Zhou Zhao had a girlfriend and was different from him.

Wanderer had always been able to restrain himself. When he was a child and his teeth were changing, Zeng Haitang didn’t let him lick his gums, and he didn’t even touch them.

Saying goodbye to Zhou Zhao, Wanderer ushered in his second teething period. He jumped up the steps in a few steps, jumping from the dark underground into the great light ahead.

Li Tinglin appeared after that great light, with metal accessories all over his body, black nail polish, leaning on Zhou Zhao as if he had no bones. He held a cigarette in his left hand and a microphone in his right hand, singing rock music that Wanderer found noisy. Wanderer saw admiration on Zhou Zhao’s face for the first time. He admired Li Tinglin very much.

Seeing Wanderer, Zhou Zhao left Li Tinglin and beckoned him to sit on the sofa. There were other people in the private room, all invited by Zhou Zhao. According to them, today was the second anniversary of Li Tinglin’s coming out. Zhou Zhao tore a wine list and asked Wanderer to choose what to drink. He patted Wanderer’s kneecap and said loudly in his ear, “It’s been a long time since New Year’s Eve! Have some wine, I say!”

Wanderer was a little stunned, “Why should I have some!”

A high note soared in the private room, and the disco ball rotated desperately, twisting the light of a blue spotlight into scales the size of a flake. Zhou Zhao sat under the blue light, his eyeballs containing two scorching spots of light, and he said loudly, “Celebrating that there is another gay man in the world!”

Li Tinglin heard it, and the whole private room heard it. Zhou Zhao’s slogan was a drop of water, rolling into a boiling pot of demons dancing wildly. Wanderer was surrounded by the roaring shouts and screams that were raised all around him. He thought tiredly, how could someone set an anniversary for coming out, even though they were both gay.

Jealousy, Wanderer was jealous of Li Tinglin. He wanted to occupy Li Tinglin’s life and have Zhou Zhao sing and dance for him.