Chapter Text
1.
Suo Wei stood in the center of his dinky little apartment, fists on his hips. He gave a satisfied nod. The apartment was hardly bigger than two parking spaces, but it was his and his alone, paid for by his own money, and it would be his home for the next four years of his university career.
A loft bed was pressed against one wall, a simple desk with three drawers below it. His laptop sat on the center of the desk, an ancient brick of a thing that overheated running MS Paint. The ladder leading up to the bed doubled as shelving space. At the foot of the bed was a wardrobe, complete with a rod for hanging his clothes and drawers for his underwear and socks. It was a neat piece of furniture, made of plywood and fibreboard painted white, and it was perfect for tiny spaces such as this. Suo Wei had designed and crafted it himself. He was rather proud of it.
There was a miniature kitchen on the adjacent wall. There were two stove burners, with a microwave and cabinet space above, and a mini fridge below. Beside it was a small sink and a drying rack. The countertop was old laminate and also doubled as a dining table. Two stools were tucked below the counter.
The bathroom was about the size of a closet. When Suo Wei sat down on the toilet, his knees bumped against the sink. But there was a mirror cabinet and he had his own shower, so he couldn’t complain. As for laundry, there were shared washing machines and dryers in the basement. Whether or not the machines were functional was another matter.
The jingling of his ringtone interrupted his examination. His phone vibrated across his desk. He scooped it up, swiping his thumb across his cheap TCL phone. As it had for the past four years, it lagged painfully before the call connected.
“Hey!” Gang Zi’s voice came through. “You done moving in?”
Suo Wei plopped onto his office chair. He spun himself around. “Yep, just finished.”
“Cool, cool, cool,” Gang Zi said. “So my brother said he would take me book shopping tomorrow and show me around campus. You wanna join?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Okay, great. Can you come over at 11 AM?”
“Sounds good. I’ll be there.”
“I’ll text you my address. Don’t be late! Chi Cheng hates it when people are late.”
2.
Suo Wei and Gang Zi had met when they were thirteen, on some fantasy MMO whose servers had since shut down. They had teamed up for a dungeon that was completely beyond their level—a reckless and doomed run that was designed to take a capable party thirty minutes, but somehow stretched into five chaotic hours. Those five hours were filled with screeching laughter, screams for help, and enough cursing to earn Suo Wei a twisted ear if his mother had been within hearing range.
Suo Wei had his ear twisted anyway, when he returned home from the Internet cafe around midnight. Despite his pleas for mercy—he had promised to be online tomorrow so they could do a raid together—his mother banned him from going to the cafe for the next month. With no way to contact Gang Zi, he mourned the loss of his new friend.
Except when he logged on one month later, Gang Zi had messaged him immediately: WHERE HAVE U BEEN??? I WAITED 30 DAYS x 24 HOURS FOR YOU!
The thing about MMOs was, unless you played daily, you would be left behind. As expected, by this point, Gang Zi had outleveled him. But rather than find other people to play with, Gang Zi had helped him complete quests and power-leveled him until they could run content together.
Later that night, when Suo Wei reluctantly said he had to be home for dinner, Gang Zi asked, “Do you have QQ or WeChat? Let’s exchange numbers!”
“I don’t have a cellphone.”
“Oh. But you have a home phone right? Give me your home phone number. I’ll call you!”
That was the beginning of their friendship. It drove his mother crazy, the hours he spent on the phone. They’d chat while doing homework, or while watching the same channel on TV, or while Suo Wei drew in his sketchbook. It got to the point where his mother kicked him out and told him to go to the Internet cafe because no important calls could come through while he was at home.
The summer they turned fifteen, they had their first in-person meeting. They agreed to meet at an Internet cafe halfway between their houses. Suo Wei had woken up at the asscrack of dawn, walked half an hour to the bus stop, and rode the bus for two and a half hours to Xuanhuan.
Suo Wei had always had the sense that Gang Zi came from money. Gang Zi never had to bus thirty minutes to get to the local Internet cafe; he could hop on for a raid at any time. He talked about building custom PCs, with the latest graphics cards that cost more than what Suo Wei’s mom made in an entire month. But he hadn’t realized just how different their lives were until the moment Gang Zi rolled up to the cafe in a sleek, black Mercedes. A driver rushed around to get the door for him. Out stepped Gang Zi, wearing black Nike high tops, black jeans, and a white shirt emblazoned with BALENCIAGA across the chest.
The real deals, Suo Wei thought. Not knock offs like the Adidas shoes Suo Wei was wearing (the logo actually read Abidas, but Suo Wei had bought them anyway, thinking it wasn’t so obvious unless someone looked closely).
He wondered what Gang Zi thought of him, this lanky fifteen year old in worn jeans and shitty knock offs, a backpack with straps held together by threads slung over one shoulder. He need not have worried, because Gang Zi took one look at him, shouted “SUO WEI!” and barrelled him over in a hug.
Gang Zi was born into generational wealth. He wore designer clothes, travelled abroad twice a year, and needed only to snap his fingers for the help to fall over themselves to oblige his every whim. So he had every reason to be arrogant and insufferable. Instead, he was warm, friendly, and kind. Suo Wei thought that was pretty special.
3.
Suo Wei didn’t know much about Chi Cheng. By the time he and Gang Zi met, Chi Cheng had graduated from law school, moved out, and was working a first associate job at a law firm. Gang Zi had a particular way of talking about his older brother, both complaining and praising in one breath. This often happened around exam season and report cards, or holidays and birthdays when family members gathered.
“My parents keep comparing me to Chi Cheng, but that’s not fair because I literally think he was switched at birth with the child of some superior alien lifeform. There’s no way a human like me could compete,” Gang Zi said, after shockingly bad results on a mock exam in their second year of high school. “It’s always ‘Chi Cheng this, Chi Cheng that’, ‘Chi Cheng finished first in his grade, but you can’t even make top ten in your class’, ‘Why are you so dark-skinned even though you stay in your room and play video games all day? If only you looked more like Chi Cheng’. Well, Dad, whose fault do you think that is? Sorry for looking like you! I’d rather not be ugly and dumb, either!”
“I think you’re smart and cute,” Suo Wei said loyally.
“You literally called me a dumbass yesterday for thinking that red and orange mixed to make yellow.”
“Yeah, well, that was pretty dumb,” Suo Wei said, “but you don’t need to know about colours to study computer programming.”
Gang Zi sighed. Even over the phone, Suo Wei could picture his shoulders deflating. “We’re going to be seniors soon. I need to do better. I’m bringing shame to the family name.” There were a few seconds of quiet where Gang Zi wallowed in disappointment, and then, “Hey,” he said, voice perking up. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could go to the same university?”
It had been a spur of the moment suggestion, but both boys latched onto it. The hours they used to spend gaming were replaced with long study sessions that lasted late into the night. Painful hours of study felt more bearable when Gang Zi was there on the other line to share in the suffering.
Suo Wei reaped the fruits of his efforts when his acceptance letter came in the mail, in the spring of his senior year.
4.
Suo Wei sprinted for the bus, backpack bouncing up and down on his shoulders, arms waving for attention. The bus doors closed, and then, having a change of heart, opened again.
Suo Wei leapt on. “Thank you, sir,” he said, breathless, tapping his payment card against the scanner. The bus driver grunted at him in return.
He collapsed onto a free seat at the front, dropping his bag on the floor between his legs. He fanned himself with flapping hands. His shirt stuck to his back with sweat. The cover of the bus offered no reprieve—the air conditioner was either busted, or the bus driver hadn’t bothered to turn it on. It was just after ten, but this week was shaping up to be a hot and muggy one. Late August heat beat down overhead. When he looked out the bus windshield, the distant horizon shimmered.
Suo Wei’s apartment was located an hour’s bus ride away from Tsinghua University, just outside the city. The commute was on the longer side, but Suo Wei couldn’t afford anything closer. It would take forty-five minutes to get to Gang Zi’s apartment. Then, from Gang Zi’s apartment to THU was a twenty minute bus ride.
He passed the time watching the scenery flash past the window, taking mental snapshots of the architecture he found interesting. Suburban views of parks, greenery, and identical rows of condominiums turned into an urban cityscape of towering structures interspersed with traditional Buddhist temples. He pulled his sketchbook out of his bag and flipped to a blank page. Balancing his sketchbook on a crossed knee, he began to draw some thumbnails: high-rise buildings from various perspectives, iterations of temples with multiple eaves.
He was so absorbed in drawing that he nearly missed his stop. He yanked the cord to signal his stop request, but it was too late, and the bus driver continued onwards. He hopped off at the next stop, backtracking and making his way to Gang Zi’s apartment at a light jog. A glance at the time on his cellphone told him that he would arrive with five minutes to spare.
He ducked into the lobby of a luxury high-rise and was hit by a blast of cold air from the air conditioning. He pulled out his phone.
Me 10:55 AM
Hey, I’m in the lobby
Gang Zi 10:55 AM
Ok 1 min, we’ll be right there!
Suo Wei peered around. The windows were floor-to-ceiling, flooding the lobby with natural light that caused the onyx marble flooring and walls to glow. Rings of light hung from the double-height ceiling. The sofas looked like they had never been sat on, the cushions as firm as the day they were manufactured. Hell, even the marble flooring looked like it had never been stepped on before. When he looked down, he could see his face as though he were looking in a mirror.
He continued his survey, making eye contact with the security guard, who gave him a deliberate once-over. The man’s scrutiny paused on Suo Wei’s worn sneakers, and then swept back up to his face. He wore a look that asked, Are you in the right place?
Suo Wei cracked a smile at the man, faltering when the man took a purposeful step in his direction.
At that moment, the elevator dinged. The doors slid open, revealing Gang Zi’s beaming face. Relief washed over Suo Wei.
“Suo Wei!”
Suo Wei waved. “Morning!”
“Suo Wei, this is my brother, Chi Cheng,” Gang Zi introduced, gesturing between them. “Chi Cheng, this is my friend, Suo Wei.”
Suo Wei’s eyes met Chi Cheng’s, and all the air was sucked out of his lungs.
He wasn’t attracted to men, but even he could recognize a beautiful man when he saw one. Chi Cheng was dressed in full black. The first two buttons of his collared shirt were left undone to reveal the column of his throat. Pressed slacks made his legs seem a mile long. A belt cinched in his narrow waist, making his shoulders seem even broader. Even under the summer heat, he looked porcelain-cold and austere: features sharp enough to whet a knife against, not a single hair out of place, no sheen of sweat on his forehead. Meanwhile, Suo Wei was sweating through his threadbare t-shirt and basketball shorts.
Chi Cheng smiled at him, though it was really more a twitch of the lips. Not the smiling type, Suo Wei concluded. Chi Cheng held out his hand. “It’s good to finally meet you.”
Suo Wei wiped his sweaty palms on his shirt before grasping the proffered hand. “Good to meet you, too.” Chi Cheng’s hand all but swallowed his up in a firm grip. He maybe shook Chi Cheng’s hand for longer than was appropriate, but he couldn’t help it, dumbfounded that a human being could be this attractive. A superior alien lifeform, indeed. He finally understood Gang Zi’s sense of inferiority; he would hate to be Chi Cheng’s brother, too.
Chi Cheng withdrew his hand. “Gang Zi has told me a lot about you.”
“Really?” Suo Wei squeaked. His mind flashed back to every embarrassing story he ever told his friend. He cleared his throat and tried again, pitching his voice lower. “What did he say about me?” Did Gang Zi say that he wore cheap clothes? That he didn’t have a father? That his mom tended to fields and worked as a housekeeper to a rich family?
“Only the good stuff!” Gang Zi said.
“He said that you’re his best friend, and that you’re the best artist he knows. He’s excited to be going to the same university as you.”
Oh. Suo Wei put a hand on his chest and gave Gang Zi a gooey look, touched. “You’re my best friend, too.”
Gang Zi grinned at him.
“What faculty are you in?” Chi Cheng asked.
“Applied Science. I hope to study architecture.”
“You should see his technical drawings,” Gang Zi said. “They’re crazy.”
“They’re okay,” Suo Wei mumbled, a little shy about subjecting his work to Chi Cheng’s appraisal. Chi Cheng struck him as the kind of guy who wasn’t easily impressed and would simply raise a brow in response to the pieces Suo Wei felt the most proud of.
“I’d like to see. Show me later,” Chi Cheng said. He pulled his car keys out of his pocket, swinging it around a finger. “Should we get going?”
They headed down to the underground parkade. It was of absolutely no surprise to see the lot filled with row after row of luxury car brands.
Gang Zi nudged him in the direction of Chi Cheng’s car. “You can sit in the front,” he said graciously.
“Oh, uh, okay. Thanks.”
Chi Cheng drove them to Tsinghua University in a car called a ‘Maserati’. It was imported from Italy apparently, and accelerated from zero to eighty kilometers per hour so quickly that Suo Wei was thrown back against his seat. His hands shot out to steady himself, left hand clutching the center console, right hand gripping the armrest.
Chi Cheng turned his head a fraction of an inch, sending him a sidelong glance. An amused smirk lifted one corner of his lips. “You okay?”
“Yeah, wow. That was fast.” And embarrassing, Suo Wei thought, withdrawing his hands and placing them firmly on his lap. The guy probably thought he had never been in a car before, or something. Suo Wei had been in a car before, just not this kind. In his hometown, half the people drove scrappy and rusted old cars that had been passed down like family heirlooms from grandfather to father, and then finally to son. The other half—to which Suo Wei belonged—rode scrappy and rusted old bicycles.
Chi Cheng pulled into a parking spot in front of the university bookstore. He went to pay for parking at the meter, and Suo Wei nearly fainted when he peered over the man’s shoulder and saw the price per hour. Are you fucking serious? 150 yuan? he thought, incredulous. And you have to park the car yourself? Parking fees like that should come with valet service. If this was any indication of how expensive university was going to be, he didn’t know how he was going to afford everything.
“Hm,” Chi Cheng intoned. “Let’s do two hours to be safe.”
Personally, Suo Wei would rather come back out and add more money if needed, but they existed in different worlds, he supposed.
Chi Cheng led them into the bookstore, Suo Wei and Gang Zi trailing after him like a pair of ducklings. The store was crammed full of people getting ready for the new school year. Suo Wei spotted someone carrying a twin-sized mattress through the cramped aisles, smacking people along the way. People looked either bright and excited, or dead inside. No in between.
“Alright,” Chi Cheng said. “What’s on your list?”
“Hmm…” Gang Zi checked his phone. “Nothing for comp sci, but I need textbooks for math, stats, literature, and geography.”
The bookstore was a maze of books, school supplies, and university apparel. A hoodie with the letters THU embroidered on the front caught Suo Wei’s attention. That could be nice, he thought. He’d like to wear his school letters with pride, and being accepted into one of China’s best universities was definitely something he was proud of. Then he looked at the price tag, and decided the hoodie was a want, not a need. He hurried to catch up with Gang Zi and Chi Cheng, weaving through the sprawl of shelves and displays.
While Gang Zi searched for his statistics text, Suo Wei took in outrageous prices of the books. The first time his eyes landed on a price tag, he did a double take, thinking perhaps he had misread. Someone had printed an extra zero there, he was sure. And then his stomach sank. He was taking a full course load of five classes this semester, each with required reading. Next semester, he was planning to take another five courses. No doubt there would be required textbooks for those classes, too. All the money he saved up by working over the summer would barely cover the cost of textbooks for the first year. And he was supposed to do this every year for his four years of university?
The course description said the texts were mandatory, but were they really? Maybe he would be fine without them? He wanted to do better than ‘fine’, though. He wanted to do well in school and make his mom proud. He was her only child, the first in his family to finish high school, let alone go to university. Despite his protests, his mother had dipped into her meagre savings to help him with his first semester. He didn’t want to let her down. He wanted to prove that he was worth the investment.
“How about you, Suo Wei?” Chi Cheng asked. “What books do you need?”
Suo Wei flushed. He didn’t know how to say that he couldn’t afford these things. If it were just him and Gang Zi, he would be able to admit it, but for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to say it in front of Chi Cheng. “Uh,” he started, when he realized that Chi Cheng was still looking at him, awaiting an answer.
“Suo Wei is in the same math, literature, and geography class as me.” Gang Zi picked up a second copy of a calculus textbook, then proceeded to the language and literature section.
Suo Wei opened his mouth, and then closed it again, resigning himself to buying the books. He would purchase books for the first semester, and then take a look at his budget for the second semester.
In addition to textbooks, Gang Zi bought binders and notebooks embossed with the Tsinghua University crest, as well as the hoodie that Suo Wei had eyed. When Chi Cheng asked if he needed any supplies, Suo Wei shook his head. He had already done his shopping for stationery and notebooks at a ten-yuan shop.
They lined up to pay. The line was long, snaking back and forth and ending halfway through the store. Suo Wei clutched his books to his chest, occasionally stealing peeks at Chi Cheng. He couldn’t stop himself. Something about the man was magnetising. Attractive and well-dressed. Rich. Smart as hell. It wasn’t everyday you met someone who hit all the numbers in the Mega Millions Lottery of Life.
Chi Cheng was frowning at something on his phone, his brows drawn into a vee of concentration. His thumbs flew across his phone. A muscle clenched in his jaw. Then, he sighed and tucked his phone away. He looked up and saw Suo Wei looking at him. He smiled, faint and close-lipped, and it felt to Suo Wei like the temperature had gone up ten degrees in the bookstore.
“Everything alright?” Chi Cheng asked.
“Yep! Erm…” Suo Wei ventured, “is everything alright with you? You seem kind of annoyed.”
“Just work. I’m supposed to be off for the week, but there’s no vacation from emails. Not even a coffee break.”
“Gang Zi said you’re a lawyer?”
“That’s right.”
“What kind of lawyer?”
“Corporate.”
“Wow. That sounds cool.”
Chi Cheng let out a small huff of amusement. “It sounds cooler than it actually is. I mostly read and send emails. Then I do some left-clicking. I do some right-clicking, too. I do a lot of that, actually. Then I attend a bunch of bullshit meetings.”
“You also make fun of litigators all day, and then when there is an issue on file, you ask litigators for advice,” Gang Zi said. He looked at Suo Wei and explained, “Our cousin is a litigator. She and Chi Cheng fight all the time. He wins maybe two times out of ten.”
“Ah.” Suo Wei nodded. He didn’t even know what a litigator was.
“I actually win closer to three out of ten arguments. But perhaps you could refrain from embarrassing me in front of your friend,” Chi Cheng drawled.
“His rate is like, 6000 yuan per hour, though, so I guess you could say he’s doing pretty well for himself,” Gang Zi said. “There, I complimented you. Are you happy?”
“Jesus,” Suo Wei said.
“Oh, that cashier is free,” Gang Zi said, gesturing with his chin. “You wanna go ahead?”
Suo Wei shook his head. “You first.” Yes, he was procrastinating paying for his books. Unfortunately, the next cashier freed up almost immediately. Suo Wei set his five textbooks on the counter and fished out his wallet. Like everything else he owned, it was also worn. The stitches were frayed and poking out. The cheap, synthetic leather had cracks. It was held together at the center by duct tape.
“That’ll be 2570 yuan. How would you like to pay?”
Suo Wei had never spent that much money in his life all at once (though that would change once he paid his tuition fees for the semester). University was full of new experiences, he supposed. “Uh, credit, please.” He fumbled for his credit card. The plastic card remained stubbornly lodged within its slot, as though unwilling to hand over its funds. “Shoot, sorry, it’s a little stuck—”
And that was when someone reached past him, swiped a credit card, and punched their PIN number into the machine. Suo Wei’s head whipped around, coming face to face with Chi Cheng. He stared, eyes rounded, mouth dropping open in shock. The only syllable he could manage was, “Wha—”
The corners of Chi Cheng’s lips lifted, then cracked to reveal a sliver of straight, perfect teeth. “Consider it a graduation gift.”
Dumbly, Suo Wei said, “But I haven’t graduated yet.”
Chi Cheng laughed. “A high school graduation gift, I mean.”
5.
And that was how it started between them.