TCOR CH28

Chapter 28: He looked really upset.

‘…Little Ai!’

I suddenly realised what I was doing when I heard Peng Dai calling next to me. I had been staring at the potatoes in the bowl.

‘Little Ai, are you okay?’ Peng Dai asked, worried. ‘You look terrible, have you not recovered yet?’

Pei Huanchen, sitting opposite me, said, ‘He looks more like he hasn’t slept well,’ as he picked up a piece of duck blood from the pot in the middle.

This was the first day I went back to school after the Wang Xiangyang incident.Pei Huanchen, as usual, was my classmate, and he even came with me when Peng Dai came to find me for lunch.

Peng Dai must have heard about him, and she dared not disobey the powerful man, so she could only agree with a forced smile.

We went to a hotpot restaurant near the school.I, Peng Dai and Pei Huanchen sat at one table, and Pei Huanchen’s two bodyguards sat at the other.The two tables enjoyed their meals in the midst of the stares of the surrounding diners.

I told Peng Dai that I hadn’t slept well, so she shouldn’t worry. To show that I was full of energy, I picked up a big piece of beef from the pot and ate it.

Pei Huanchen saw this and immediately looked sad: ‘That meat was mine.’

‘What’s mine and yours? Meat that falls into the pot belongs to everyone, and anyone can eat it,’ Peng Dai said.’I’ll teach you: if you don’t want someone to take your meat away, don’t let it leave your chopsticks.The second it leaves, it doesn’t belong to you anymore.Understand?’

Pei Huanchen looks scary and unfriendly, but if you get to know him, you’ll see that he doesn’t know much about the world and he easily believes things. Peng Dai went from being cautious at first to being tricked easily in less than a meal.

‘So there is such a rule, I see,’ Pei Huanchen nodded in acceptance.

I felt a bit sick and quickly added two more slices of meat: ‘Here you go, you can have this.’

After we had eaten, the three of us left the hotpot restaurant. Two black bodyguards were with us. Outside the door, some customers wanted to come in but stopped when they saw us.

I immediately saw Guo Chao and Su Xin among them.The two of them came together, saw me, and their faces changed suddenly.They turned around and walked away together, getting faster and faster, almost running for their lives.

“Little Ai, do you know them?”Peng Dai also saw this somewhat funny scene and asked in a low voice.

‘My other two roommates.’I tilted my head and replied in the same low voice.

‘Oh, them…’ Peng Dai glanced at the young mixed-race man next to her, who was happily licking an ice cream cone given to him by the hotpot restaurant, and lowered her voice even more. ‘The school is saying that it was this young man next to you who beat up the scum for you. Is that true?’

Her speech was rapid, and it was clear that she had been holding it in for a long time.

‘Huanchen?’ I pretended to be surprised.’Look at him, he’s never even had hotpot before, and he’s afraid to kill a fish, so how could he do something like this?’

In fact, not only could he do it, he also felt that Wang Xiangyang and the others were just annoying little insects, and it didn’t matter if he squashed them.

Peng Dai was unsure, so went to see Pei Huanchen again, just in time to see him accidentally spill ice cream on himself.Before he could do anything, the two bodyguards quickly took out paper towels and wiped his mouth and clothes for him.

‘Indeed…’ Peng Dai was convinced, and she sighed, disappointed. ‘It’s true that boss novels are all lies.’

I didn’t have any classes in the afternoon, so after saying goodbye to the others, I walked directly to the nearest subway station, ready to go to Shen Wunian’s studio.He had originally set up a physical studio in Jiang City, about three or four kilometres near his apartment building, and he had messaged me this morning to tell me.

He also sent me the name of someone who could help, and told me to do my homework. He said that the next exhibition to prepare for would be the other person’s.

It was the afternoon of a weekday, and the subway wasn’t very crowded.There were only a few people scattered about the car.I found a seat near the door and finally had some time to search for this person named ‘Yu Xiaoshan’.

He is a famous artist who makes installations (artworks that you can walk into and experience). He is 69 years old and is well-known both in China and abroad. His art is known for its new ideas, unusual materials, and for looking at important social issues. He is an important figure in contemporary installation art…

I read a few reviews of his exhibitions, and even I, who don’t understand installation art, have to admit that those huge, strange interactive installations really look very shocking and interesting.

Does anyone know how Yu Xiaoshan’s son died?

Suddenly, an unusual note caught my eye.

The cover of the notebook shows a photo of a young man. The photo is old, so it is a little blurry and faded, but you can still clearly see the man’s soft and stretched facial features.

He looks a lot like Yu Xiaoshan, but Yu Xiaoshan always has a stern face, the kind of respectable old artist you would expect from a stereotype. This person looks much more friendly.If Yu Xiaoshan is the rock with the chisel marks in landscape painting, then this person is the stream reflecting the shape of the rock.Although they look a bit like a rock, anyone can see that they are completely different people.

The blogger said that she had accidentally come across this photo on a foreign platform. She then discovered that it was Yu Luo, the son of Yu Xiaoshan, who had died more than ten years ago when he was under 30, which is considered a premature death.

He wasn’t particularly good-looking, but he had a great personality, which made many people comment on the post to say how sorry they were. Only four or five of the 200 comments answered the blogger’s question.

However, they were all ‘I heard’ and ‘it seems’ and some said he was sick, some said he was in a car accident, and some said he had depression and committed suicide.

I looked at some notes again, closed my eyes, and tried to remember all the information about Yu Xiaoshan.

I imagined all the different things I had heard, and these images all came together in my mind to create a series of scenes. But then, without warning, these images all turned into a scene from last night’s nightmare.

In the blurry vision, my body felt very relaxed and happy.Shen Wunian was leaning over me, his lips wet, his eyes without his glasses like the eyes of a beast that has finally broken free of its chains, showing obvious danger and excitement…

I opened my eyes, but it was too late. The image stayed in my mind.

“Try something of your own.”

The beast with Shen Wunian’s face opened my mouth and kissed me.

I couldn’t taste anything in my dream, everything felt numb, but I knew that my mouth felt sticky and uncomfortable.

My eyelids felt heavy and I closed them again.I moved my tongue, unwilling to swallow the strange liquid, and then the beast forced its way inside me.

I couldn’t resist or refuse.The creature seemed to be in a hunting game, only happy when its prey submitted to it and lay obediently under its fangs waiting to die.It was like the pink worms I remembered, spitting corrosive mucus into humans, melting their insides, and then waiting by the side until the painful wailing ended, so that they could feast on this nutrient-rich bloody delicacy.

It was so cruel.

But it’s just a dream, so I don’t feel any pain.

‘Okay, it’s my turn…’

I hear the arrogant, cold creature say something from far away before the darkness returns.Then my legs are pulled together and raised in an unreasonable position.

He pushes down on my knees to stop them bending, as if he wants to corrupt me in another way, from the outside, starting with the weakest little monster…

I should have felt fear and disgust, but the little monster, who had no brain, easily surrendered to the collisions, enjoyed itself and made me stupid.

I kept fighting and giving in, and finally woke up tired when I heard the alarm the next morning.

I lifted the covers and saw that my trousers were still intact, but the middle part was so wet that it was almost unbearable to look at.

I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t sit still.Even though the train hadn’t reached its destination yet, I got up and walked to the front door and waited there.

I secretly washed my trousers and then left the house, acting like a thief and not daring to wake Shen Wunian, who was engrossed in his book in the other bedroom.

“Zhong Ai, I’ve never done anything wrong in my life, so why did I have to deal with such a promiscuous, shameless little monster?”

I could accept having a promiscuous Bai Qixuan, because I thought he was unable to forget his old feelings and had a hard time giving up his bad habits.But Shen Wunian…

I felt shocked as I hurried towards the next carriage, my face going red.After walking for about five or six carriages, to the very front, I started to feel less ashamed and guilty.

Shen Wunian’s studio was in a commercial park that had been converted from an old house. There were many different kinds of shops in the park, not only restaurants and cafes, but also some clothing stores and cake shops that looked very expensive.

The studio was on the second floor of one of the old houses, and there was a black metal staircase leading directly up to it.On a light brown bamboo board by the door, the six characters ‘Ashimaike Curation’ were laser-engraved, but were not very noticeable.

When I pushed the door open, the doorbell chimed.In the entrance hall, on the concrete wall opposite the door, there was a colourful photograph of me – my Rebirth.

I stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do.Xu Meiqing came out to greet me when she heard the bell. When she saw it was me, she nodded and told me to follow her inside.

The space was very large, divided into two floors, with a completely industrial feel and only black and white colours.Half of the first floor is taken up by four desks placed together, and the other half is a fully equipped tea and snack area.The second floor is a glass office with roller blinds drawn, making it impossible to see if anyone is inside.

‘This is Ni Shan, our graphic designer. Ni, this is Zhong Ai, Mr. Shen’s future assistant.’

Xu Meiqing leads me to the edge of the desk and introduces me to the only girl sitting there.

The girl had two low braids with cute purple bows at the end, a round face, no make-up, but her skin looked translucent and she looked well.

‘You can just call me Shanshan,’ she said, shaking my hand, and then pointing to the seat next to her, ‘This will be your workstation from now on.If you have any questions, just ask me.Mr. Shen and Sister Meiqing are always out and about, so I’m the only one here, and I’m so bored, but now I have a handsome guy to keep me company.’

I thanked her, put my backpack on the seat, glanced up at the floor above, and asked them, ‘Where is Mr. Shen…’

I almost called Shen Wunian by his first name, but luckily I stopped myself.After all, he is now my boss, and in front of my colleagues, it is better to follow their example.

Ni Shan said that Mr Shen had gone out for dinner with a friend, but had to leave suddenly. She thought he might still be in the park.

Xu Meiqing looked at her watch and frowned slightly. ‘I have an appointment with Mr Yu this afternoon. He hasn’t forgotten, has he?’

Ni Shan shrugged: ‘Then why don’t you give him a call?’

As they spoke, the doorbell rang again.

The three of us, including me, looked towards the door.In a moment, Shen Wunian, who was clutching his suit jacket in his hand like a rolled-up straw mat, came in from outside.

His collar was wide open, his buttons were nowhere to be seen, and his dark red tie had been torn between his waistcoat and shirt and hung loosely outside.On his face, the corner of his bloodied lip was slightly swollen, his hair was dishevelled, and one of the lenses of his glasses had cracked from the middle and was badly damaged.

‘Oh my God!’ Ni Shan said quietly, covering her mouth.

‘I’ll get the first aid kit.’Xu Meiqing was the quickest to respond, and she turned and quickly walked towards the pantry.

I hurriedly ran up to Shen Wunian and asked, “What happened? Did you fall or…?”

“I’m fine.”Shen Wunian wiped his split lip with his thumb, hissing in pain.

“Don’t touch it with your hands, it will get infected!”I opened his hand, tilted my head slightly, and cupped his face to carefully examine his wound.

Shen Wunian lowered his eyes, meekly allowing me to do whatever I wanted with them, and even cooperatively lowered his head.

‘I thought you said you were having dinner with a friend? How did you get hurt?’I frowned. ‘This wound doesn’t look like it was caused by a fall, but in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, he went out for a meal, so who would have hit him?’

‘Little Ai…’ His eyelashes trembled, as if I had hit a sore spot. He looked up gently, hesitated for a moment, and then continued, ‘Qi Xuan… seems to have a deep misunderstanding of me.’

There was a glimmer of light in his eyes, and he looked extremely upset.