AUS Chapter 22: Liu Jiang, I Want to Be Carefree

I’m sure some people thought I was going to press down on his newly pierced earlobe.

I almost thought so myself.

But I didn’t. I simply tucked back the strands of hair that had fallen with his movement, tilted his chin to the left with my hand, and leaned in to look at the sparkling rhinestone.

Liu Jiang squeezed his eyes shut. He probably also thought I was going to press on his earring.

I’m not that mean, am I? Well, I used to be.

I’ve never had piercings, but I imagine being pierced by a needle through a section of flesh like that can’t be painless, especially on the first day when the wound hasn’t even begun to heal.

My breath must have been hitting his face, because I caught a glimpse of his closed eyes moving, his eyelashes fluttering.

Actually, I’m not interested in looking at people’s wounds. I like beautiful things. The beauty of a rhinestone on an earlobe is only a tenth of what Liu Jiang can achieve in the future. What I’m after is this moment, this small, thief-like sense of joy, and his obedient demeanor.

Maybe I am still quite mean.

“Alright, I’ve seen enough.” I let go of him and took a step back.

Although I thought I wasn’t nervous, the sudden return of my heartbeat to my eardrums denied my self-perception. In an instant, the other sounds in the house also became louder: footsteps, conversations, the television news broadcast, the creaking of the wooden floor, and his breathing beside my ear.

I turned my head back; he was looking at me.

I asked, “What’s wrong?”

He raised a hand to touch the back of his ear, shook his head, and looked away. I saw his earlobe was red, even though I hadn’t touched it.

We moved from the dark corner of the second floor to the bright living room. Liu Sisi was leaning on the sofa, playing on her phone. Seeing us walk to the refrigerator one after the other, she couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you two acting like thieves?”

I took Liu Jiang’s usual role and chuckled, hugging a can of soda to myself and stuffing two more into Liu Jiang’s hands.

Then, like thieves, we returned to the second floor. On the way, I saw Liu Jiang use the cold soda can to ice his ear twice.

Back in the practice room, both he and I were incredibly well-behaved this time.

I lowered my head to read, never looking up again. Liu Jiang practiced the bass obediently, changing whatever Gu Tongyu told him to change. We both appeared docile and obedient.

Even Gu Tongyu started to wonder. He asked, “Did you two just go get sodas, or were you threatened by someone?”

Liu Jiang had returned to his usual self, just laughing, without answering his brother’s question.

I went home before it got completely dark. That day, Liu Jiang didn’t walk me to the alley entrance. He only walked me to the doorway and stopped, because I urged him to. I said he shouldn’t catch a chill with his new ear piercing and should go back and rest well. He laughed and called me a silly kid, but he stopped at the doorway.

I walked quite a bit further before I heard the door close behind me.

The mid-term exams were that Thursday. I didn’t do anything other than study for the remaining few days.

On Thursday, I went to the exam hall. Because of transferring schools, I missed the initial assessment exam at the beginning of the term, so I was assigned to the third-to-last exam room, ranked by grades. There, I encountered Liu Jiang, who got in based on his own merit.

The exam proctor recognized me and knew I was a good student innocently dragged in to make up the numbers. They specifically pulled my desk further away from the other students.

The first exam was Chinese. The group of struggling students was relatively calm. The second exam was Math, and the students in the exam room started getting restless. The sounds of erasers and pen caps being tossed rose and fell around me. They were presumably using metaphysical methods to determine the answers to each multiple-choice question.

The next day, the first exam was Science. With many multiple-choice questions, the tossing and catching sounds in the room became even louder. Several times, the erasers they accidentally threw flew out and rolled to my feet.

I took the opportunity to look up at Liu Jiang. He wasn’t relying on metaphysics to determine his fate. He was sound asleep.

I lowered my head again and began to strive for the reward my mother had promised.

The last exam was English. More than half the room was asleep. Only I persisted in writing until the very end. Later, the proctors were so idle that they took turns coming to watch me answer the questions.

At four o’clock in the evening, the exams ended.

The exam results were announced the following Monday. The homeroom teacher walked into the classroom, seemingly to summarize the mid-term exam results. The students in the class were slouching. I sat calmly; victory was already within my grasp.

When the homeroom teacher announced the name of the only person in the class who made it into the top ten in the grade, I saw Haozi, Liu Jiang, and Liang Yi in the front row all turn around to look at me. Their expressions were similar, the only difference being the shape of their mouths. Some mouths were round, and some looked like a fallen “8.” Realizing this difference, I almost burst out laughing.

Fortunately, under the homeroom teacher’s stern gaze, I managed to compose myself and listen to him continue.

“Yang Pingsheng’s results are very stable. No significant weaknesses. The only problem might be that points were deducted from his Chinese composition. Keep up the good work! Classmates, you should also take Yang Pingsheng as an example.”

I thought to myself that academic performance wasn’t something that could be improved just by having a role model, but I still raised my head to accept the applause coming from all directions.

Amidst the applause, Liu Jiang also let out a few whoops, only settling down after the homeroom teacher glared at him several times.

As soon as the school bell rang that day, I dashed out of the classroom. Originally, a few of us had agreed to go to Liu Jiang’s house after school. They were pretending to help Liu Jiang practice, but their real intention was to freeload, eat, drink, and play together. When they asked me, I said you guys go ahead; I have something to do.

I had been planning this “something” for almost a month.

Usually, I take the subway after school, but that day I took a taxi. Although my parents gave me a generous allowance, I had also been saving money for this plan for a while. Today, I was in a hurry because everything hinged on this final fulfillment.

After my mother opened the door with her key, I respectfully presented my report card, which earned me a usual, seemingly satisfied expression from her.

She said, “Alright, that’s more like it. Here, take the money.”

I thanked my mother, took the money, and rushed to a shopping mall near the old town. I had checked beforehand; the brand I was looking for was only available at this shopping mall.

At six o’clock in the evening, an hour after school ended, I finally arrived at Liu Jiang’s house. Haozi was foraging for food in the living room and opened the door for me, the latecomer.

He asked, “Why are you in such a hurry?”

I hid the backpack containing my purchase and replied, “Not really, it’s just hot outside.”

Stubborn as I am.

Everyone was there today, similar to the first day I came. Haozi grabbed some snacks and returned to the practice room. I paused at the door and finally chose to wait in Liu Jiang’s room.

If there were only one or two people in the practice room, it would be fine, but with the whole band there, I, the so-called “consultant,” had no place to be.

I went to his room, closed the door, threw my backpack on his bed, and lay down.

The window in his room was open, and I could hear the bursts of music coming from next door. Luckily, his house was a detached building, otherwise, the neighbors would definitely complain.

Although people often say that the bass gets drowned out in live band performances, lying on his blanket, I could always clearly distinguish his part from the ensemble.

Wasn’t I tone-deaf? Maybe this is the power of cultural immersion.

I sat up and unzipped my backpack, revealing the side of the camera box.

I bought him the new Sony RX100. It had just been released and wasn’t too expensive yet. Considering that the price would double in less than ten years, I felt that buying it now was quite a good deal.

But now there was a problem: how could I get Liu Jiang to accept it?

Although the short-sleeved shirt Liu Jiang bought for me wasn’t cheap, the price of the camera was at least three times that of a shirt. The camera was indeed a bit expensive, but my choice wasn’t without reason. I wanted to make everything happen a little closer to reality. I wanted this Liu Jiang to be more like the Liu Jiang in reality.

Because of my slight deviation, the money Liu Jiang originally intended to use to buy a Fujifilm Instax went to me, becoming a shirt in my wardrobe, different from my usual style. As for the Instax, he might buy it later, or he might simply forget about it.

And the selfish me felt that this would lead to some changes, such as the disappearance of photos that belonged in his photo album.

A rock-and-roll selfie of him lying on the bed, a picture of my back as I sat on the windowsill, and the memories of the next ten pages.

The selfish me didn’t want this to happen, so I wanted to manually turn the world line back.

I chose a compact camera because it was more portable than an Instax. Before he got a new smartphone, this camera could accompany him to more places than an Instax. There was another reason: my adult perspective made me measure value with money. Spending more money gave me the feeling that I had put in more effort.

After all, I still remembered the goal of this level—to give him the possibility of liking you.

But would he accept it?

The first thing I did after leaving the mall was to throw away the receipt. I had already burned my bridges and wouldn’t give him the chance to ask me to return it. Everything else depended on my eloquence.

I grabbed a pillow from his bed, settled in, and began racking my brains for a way to make someone accept a gift.

Ten minutes later, I successfully fell asleep.

I woke up because of rustling sounds beside my head. The sounds weren’t loud, but they were annoying. The moment I opened my eyes, I reached out and grabbed the source of the sound.

Liu Jiang, at some point, had sat cross-legged beside me, holding the camera box I had just placed by my head in his hands. And his left wrist was being held by me.

I gradually came to my senses, quickly withdrawing my hand and propping myself up. Liu Jiang was still holding the box, looking at me.

Then he said, “Dude, you’re so carefree.”

Seeing my clear and confused just-woken-up eyes, he turned his head and sighed to himself, “So nice, getting into the top ten earns you a camera, so nice.”

I blinked at him again, finally understanding what had happened.

He thought the camera was a reward for me getting into the top ten in the mid-term exams. My hasty departure probably seemed to him like me rushing to claim my prize. Now, looking at me, successfully accomplished and asleep, he was envious.

Such a naive child.

But it was this naiveté that gave me inspiration.

While he was still gazing at the camera box in his hands with pure envy, I sat up straight beside him.

I said, “Yes, I’m very carefree.”

Now, I was going to do something even more carefree.