WHF Ch 28 – “Does it hurt?”

Thirty seconds after Yu Tianbai’s hands touched Xiu Ma’s back, Xiu Ma regretted it. Firstly, he shouldn’t have doubted this guy’s massage skills. He definitely had the foundation, though Xiu Ma couldn’t tell if it was professionally learned or self-taught. His grip was strong, his pressure precise, and combined with the essential oil, each touch felt like his meridians were being pulled. It wasn’t unpleasant—but that led to his second regret: he kind of wanted to cry out.

“Why are your ears getting redder and redder?” Yu Tianbai asked, lowering his head, his hand pressure not easing at all. “Does it hurt?”

It wasn’t just his ears; Yu Tianbai couldn’t see his face. Xiu Ma turned his head slightly to free his mouth, gathered his strength for a full five seconds, and stubbornly replied, “Continue.”

This was a satisfactory answer for Yu Tianbai. It meant his technique hadn’t declined, and that this kid was almost at his limit.

“You should take a break.” But he didn’t want Xiu Ma to actually break.

Yu Tianbai moved his hands from Xiu Ma’s back and neck to his shoulders. The muscles here weren’t as stiff and wouldn’t make someone as restless, but with the added essential oil, he had to admit, the young master’s muscles felt good.

After being rubbed back and forth for a dozen times, Xiu Ma realized his wretched boss was playing around.

“Having fun?” He was so speechless from being kneaded.

Yu Tianbai didn’t answer immediately, instead patting him up, down, left, and right like he was picking out pork loin at a butcher shop, finally giving his evaluation:

“Quite commendable.”

He sounded rather satisfied.

“Two years ago when I saw you, you were skinny as a rail. What happened these past two years?”

Yu Tianbai chatted casually like a seasoned masseur who’d worked in the shop for ten years. Following his question, Xiu Ma curled his lip and crossed his legs, starting to enjoy himself.

“I took time off from school, then figured some things out. I don’t need to practice martial arts anymore, so I bulked up a bit.”

His hands moved downwards, and Yu Tianbai pressed on his waist. He could feel the other tense up again.

“Sounds like the things you figured out were pretty important.” Yu Tianbai chuckled and pressed a few more times on the spot where Xiu Ma tensed up at the slightest touch.

Indeed they were. Xiu Ma exhaled and rested his head on his arm.

“What about you?” he asked Yu Tianbai.

“Me?” Yu Tianbai didn’t understand what he wanted to ask. “I can’t figure anything out.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.” With his back to Yu Tianbai, Xiu Ma could only see a pale silhouette. “I’m talking about where you learned all these strange skills. They seem completely unrelated.”

Yu Tianbai fell silent for a moment, and Xiu Ma also remained quiet. The atmosphere became a bit heavy; he seemed to have touched on a topic Yu Tianbai didn’t want to discuss.

“Actually, I also—”

Actually, I didn’t mean it that way. This was the most comforting thing Xiu Ma could think of, but before he could play the role of the considerate person, his back suddenly felt a chill, making him almost jump up.

“Ah,” Yu Tianbai stood beside him, holding the half-empty bottle of essential oil. “I seem to have accidentally poured too much.”

“You fucking—” His back was cold to the point of burning. Xiu Ma cursed and tried to get up.

“You better not move.” Yu Tianbai pressed his head down. “This stuff will drip down, and if it gets all over your ass, you’ll really have to go out naked.”

Xiu Ma hesitated for a moment, then lay back down.

There was a rustling sound behind his ear. Yu Tianbai pulled off the towel covering Xiu Ma and silently wiped him, then said:

“The reason I’ve done everything is because I don’t know what I should be doing.”

After wiping off the excess oil, Yu Tianbai slowly wiped his fingers, staring at the gaps between his fingertips. Before he turned thirty, his hands looked different every year. When he was a student, they held pens, iron pipes, and batons, his fingertips chafing until they peeled. Later, when he joined the army, they held guns for so long that calluses formed on his knuckles. After he returned to Beijing, they were black, white, gloved, ungloved, injured, and whole. He’d experienced it all.

Now they were probably the cleanest they’d ever been, though being shirtless in the unheated room, his fingernails were a bit purple from the cold.

“Two types of people are the happiest: those who know what they want to do, and those who have absolutely no idea. ” He spread the towel flat. “Right now is the happiest time for me.”

Noble and righteous, like a hermit in the mundane world.

The person underneath him pondered for a moment.

“Did you just put the towel you used to wipe the oil off your hands back on me?”

The true answer was a profiteering businessman in the mundane world. Yu Tianbai cleared his throat and pulled a fresh towel from the rack behind him.

“This kind of life is pretty good,” Xiu Ma turned his face forward, resting his chin on his arm. “I bet you were really comfortable when you were like me.”

“No, that was my most pathetic time.” Yu Tianbai leaned close to Xiu Ma’s back, resting his elbow in the hollow of his lower back. “Straighten up a bit.”

Xiu Ma silently straightened his upper body. He could feel Yu Tianbai’s breath brush against his back for a moment, very light, but it tickled.

“I got into fights in high school, injured people, didn’t get into university, didn’t want to go to a junior college. My parents wanted me to study for another year and at least get into an undergraduate program, but I ran away.”

Being pushed and swayed back and forth, Xiu Ma chuckled vaguely: “You seem pretty smart.”

Yu Tianbai also laughed: “That’s why I say I was pathetic.”

Perhaps because of the position, Yu Tianbai’s voice sounded a bit low and a bit jarring to the ears. Similarly, there was a strange feeling fluttering in Xiu Ma’s stomach, not exactly pleasant, but definitely not unpleasant either.

The room seemed to have subtly warmed up. Yu Tianbai moved behind him, his knuckles tracing the line of his spine. Yu Tianbai asked:

“Do you know why I left Beijing?”

Perhaps infected by Yu Tianbai’s flippancy, the first thing that popped out of Xiu Ma’s mouth was: “To pursue the climax of life?”

He was caught off guard and amused by the young master, but the amusement didn’t last long. He lowered his head and pulled down the towel on Xiu Ma, his thumb pressing against the side of his waist.

“I lied to myself that I came here to enjoy life. I convinced myself that the Northeast had more stories to tell. Looking back, it was just saving face. I just ran away.”

Xiu Ma held his breath, not only because of what Yu Tianbai was saying, but also because of where he was touching. But at this moment, Boss Yu was particularly serious, not caring about his subtle tension.

“Why are you always so tense? Are you afraid of me?”

Alright, he noticed after all. Of course, Xiu Ma wouldn’t admit it.

“Go on.”

He repositioned himself and lay down properly, and Yu Tianbai’s hand returned to his back.

“After I left the army and came back, living was even more meaningless. Every business failed, every family member I didn’t want to see. My parents are fine, but I feel like I owe my younger brother the most, but I have nothing to repay him with.”

Yu Tianbai’s hands left his body. He stopped playing the role of his massage therapist, his hands resting on either side of Xiu Ma’s shoulders, his voice sounding above him.

“Sometimes I really think you’re a lot like my younger brother.”

From Xiu Ma’s perspective, this sentence exploded above his head.

This moment felt incredibly strange. Lying in the dry, slightly heated massage room, listening to the boss, who always spoke sarcastically, tell stories about himself, and not just any stories, but the ones that hit the rawest nerves. This made Xiu Ma feel a reluctant empathy, yes, empathy.

And another thing, Xiu Ma was someone who liked to compete with others and hated being compared. He seemed to have heard Yu Tianbai mention having a younger brother once or twice. He didn’t care who this guy’s younger brother was, nor where he was, but once there was a comparison, his competitiveness would kick in. And what was more, it wasn’t just his competitiveness that was roaring at this moment, but also jealousy. The two complemented each other, the heat traveling down from his face to his chest, then to his lower abdomen, and now it was still going down.

It was still going down!

“Wait, stop, wait a minute, wait for me, just wait a second.”

Hearing the young master call for a stop, Yu Tianbai was quite surprised.

“It’s almost over, can’t stand the pain now?”

Xiu Ma didn’t answer him. He propped himself up and turned around, not facing Yu Tianbai directly. After a few deep breaths, he started clearing his throat again.

But Yu Tianbai didn’t rush him, casually pulling over a chair and sitting down.

He actually knew why Xiu Ma had suddenly called a stop, and he also knew that for people of this age, it took a while for the blood to go back down.

“No rush, I’ll ask you another question.” He said, “Are you still mad at me?”

“How dare I be angry!” Xiu Ma retorted. “If I get any angrier, you’re probably afraid I’ll just pinch you to death.”

Xiu Ma was looking at the ceiling, Yu Tianbai was looking at him, and the two just stayed silent in their respective directions for a while, the second hand on the wall ticking through three circles.

The person sitting in the chair suddenly spoke:

“The scar on your hand, your mom did that, right?”

Back to the book, back to the topic, back to the very beginning, but this time Yu Tianbai actually guessed correctly.

“Yes.”

Xiu Ma answered him frankly.

“I knew you didn’t do it yourself.” There was a smile in Yu Tianbai’s voice.

“You initially asked me why I wanted to commit suicide.” But Xiu Ma clearly remembered his question.

“I regretted it as soon as I asked,” Yu Tianbai replied. “You’re not the type to give up on life. You’re full of the will to live.”

It didn’t sound like a compliment, but it wasn’t exactly an insult either. Xiu Ma was surprised by his current calmness, which he didn’t have three hours ago, but now he did.

Probably because Yu Tianbai’s apology was sincere enough.

While the two were lost in their thoughts, the sound of talking and running came from the corridor outside the wooden door. Yu Tianbai was the first to lift his head. A fight? It wasn’t unusual for conflicts to arise in a massage parlor. He got up and opened the door a crack, looked around for a moment, then turned to Xiu Ma and said, “Time to go.”

“Can we wait a little longer?” Xiu Ma asked; he hadn’t recovered yet.

“I’d like to wait for you too, but the police can’t.” Yu Tianbai quickly closed the door, went back to the chair, and threw another towel to Xiu Ma.

Police?

Yu Tianbai looked back at him again and answered: “Vice squad’s here, they’re squatting in the hallway.”

Damn, it really had become a shady establishment.