Chapter 68
Act IX: A Secret That Cannot Be Told (2)
----------
On the last weekend of August, Xiang Cai hurried out before school started.
Tan Yiming called him in advance and asked if he should help him move.
Xiang Cai said no, he had very little luggage.
However, Tan Yiming still cheekily drove the car next to Xiang Cai’s dormitory.
So, when Xiang Cai walked downstairs, with his two two-foot suitcases and a backpack, he saw Tan Yiming standing next to his silver-gray SUV, talking to the security uncle.
"I'll wait for a while ... and then leave."
"I'm here to pick up someone."
"No, no, no, I'm not a student's parent. I'm only thirty, I'm still young. Do I look like I have such a big child?"
Xiang Cai felt helplessly amused. He walked over to interrupt their conversation: “Security dage, he came to pick me up."
Xiang Cai only had his own manpower to move. He wore a Huawu shirt and his clothes were very thin. He had just moved down two large luggages from upstairs and his clothes were soaked with sweat.
The security uncle suddenly realized, looking at Tan Yiming: "Oh, you are a Didi!"
[T/N: Didi = rideshare like Uber or Lyft.]
Tan Yiming: "... No." He said, "Where does Didi need such a big car, I'm a Huolala."
[T/N: Huolala = cargo-moving company.]
Xiang Cai: "..."
Then, ‘Master Tan’ who was responsible for moving cargo, opened the trunk, and stuffed the two large suitcases from Xiang Cai into the car.
As soon as the door opened, the cold air from the air conditioner blew across his face. Xiang Cai was sweaty and greedily leaned into the rush of air from the outlet.
Tan Yiming raised the temperature a bit in fear of him catching a cold.
Tan Yiming looked at the two boxes and asked, "Where are your other luggages?"
"There is no other luggage." Xiang Cai pointed to the box on the left, “This box is winter clothes", and then pointed to the box on the right. “This box is summer clothes and some sundries. These bedding and heat are only the small ones. The electric kettle, I left for the dormitory."
In other words, the two 24 inch suitcases in front of them contained everything that Xiang Cai owned in the last 11 years.
It was not like moving at all - Tan Yiming's company had organized group building tours, and during a 7-day journey, female colleagues had brought more things than Xiang Cai.
When Xiang Cai saw that Tan Yiming was surprised, he explained: "Our dormitory only has a bed and table each, and the cabinets are narrow, they can only hold so many things. So, I don't buy anything except necessities."
His roommates could move game peripherals one by one, and could buy sets of sneakers and trendy clothes one after the other, because what they couldn’t fit in their dormitory could be taken home. But Xiang Cai had no home. He only had a bed, a table, and a cabinet in the dormitory. Every time he saw something he liked in the store, he thought of his limited living space and would eventually leave empty-handed.
"You don't have to worry about it anymore." Tan Yiming looked at him and said gently, "The guest bedroom is very spacious. No matter how many things you have, you can put it down."
After thinking about it, Tan Yiming added: "Even if it can’t fit in the guest room, the living room cabinet can be vacated for you."
Xiang Cai removed his eyes, and said nothing.
When the two got in the car, the car drove out of the dance academy and turned right onto the road.
The dance academy was next to the sports college, which had started early. The grounds were densely packed with army green camouflage uniforms. They were all freshmen who had come to undergo military training in advance.
The average height of sports college students was very great, and the talented basketball students were among the tallest. From a distance, the group of large men with an average height of 1.95 meters could be seen arranged in a square array, chanting while playing righteously.
Xiang Cai’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to them.
After breaking up, Xiang Cai and Cen Manchuan had deleted each other’s contact information. Although this relationship ended with regret, it left Xiang Cai with a ‘sequelae’. Every time he saw a basketball player on the street, he would stop and look a few more times. It was not like he was seeing them and always thinking of that person, but there would always be a shadow.
Tan Yiming naturally noticed the boy's gaze. His heart was sour for an instant, but he was in no place to be sour, and he became even more sour when he realized this.
Therefore, when the traffic light switched, Tan Yiming immediately stepped on the accelerator, rushing out and leaving their bodies lagging behind inside the car.
Xiang Cai: "... I remember that we should have turned left at that intersection just now."
"It doesn't matter." Tan Yiming calmly replied, "All the roads lead to my house."
...
Xiang Cai finally moved into his new home. He had very little luggage. After the two suitcases were unpacked, it only filled half of the closet.
Xiang Cai came into the bathroom with the toiletries and put the toothbrush, toothpaste, and skin care products on the shelf together.
In addition to skin care products, Tan Yiming noticed that Xiang Cai had several cosmetics.
"Do you usually have to put on makeup?"
"It depends." Xiang Cai replied, "If I am appearing onstage, there will be a professional makeup artist. But occasionally, there will be interviews where I need to have light makeup applied myself."
Makeup in boys was not as cumbersome as makeup in girls, and Xiang Cai was good at the basics, such as applying foundation and drawing eyebrows. Xiang Cai’s cosmetics were bought from the school's flea market. Every graduation season, there was a big sale. He had bought a bottle of foundation in his freshman year for a third of its original price and still hadn’t run out of it now.
Tan Yiming glanced at the production date on the bottle: "... This has been expired for two years."
Xiang Cai snatched the foundation from his hand and placed it on the shelf indifferently: "As long as I don't die, my cosmetics will never expire!"
Tan Yiming: "..."
After waiting for Xiang Cai to organize his belongings, Tan Yiming took him to the nearby supermarket to buy things.
Boys of his age would always buy a bunch of things when they went to the supermarket. Unlike them, Xiang Cai made and spent his own money, so he was careful. Even when buying a six-pack of instant noodles, he must carefully compare the prices.
Seeing Xiang Cai reach out to grab toilet paper and shampoo, Tan Yiming quickly stopped him: "What do you need these for? I have them at home, you can use it with me."
Xiang Cai said, "You are the landlord and I am the tenant. You have already given me such a discount on the rooming rate. It is not good for me to take advantage of that small amount of money."
Tan Yiming immediately said, "It is all included in the rent."
Putting the interests of the tenants at the highest level at all times. Mr. Tan was really the best landlord in the world.
When leaving the supermarket, they met two hawkers at the door.
One tricycle was pulling cheaply-processed porcelain, with plates, bowls, and mugs with fancy patterns.
On the other cart was a variety of potted plants, like well-fed spider plants, green sage, and cacti, planted in clean, white small plastic pots. They were nestled together and the green leaves hung down, watching lively.
Xiang Cai’s footsteps paused.
Whether it was a beautiful mug or a green plant that cultivated life, it was something he would have never bought in the past. His dorm space was too cramped, with not even a square centimeter to spare.
But now it was different. He had his own small house. After paying the rent, he could decorate it as he liked.
Tan Yiming had been paying attention to Xiang Cai’s every move. When he noticed Xiang Cai’s eyes falling onto the tricycle, he immediately asked: "Do you want to buy plants?"
"Well, I would like to decorate the room, may I?" Xiang Cai said, "But I heard that plants might attract small bugs, would you mind?"
Tan Yiming shrugged: "It doesn't matter, if there are any small bugs, I’ll treat it as an extra meal for my son.”
"……Your son?"
"Oh, I meant my lizard. He is called Dabao." Tan Yiming said, "In fact, he is my company's mascot."
Xiang Cai hadn’t seen Dabao yet, but he had searched up the blue tongue skink in advance and knew that it was an omnivorous lizard with a large body but gentle personality.
Although this lizard was large in size, it actually had no means of attack. The only way for it to intimidate opponents was to stick out its tongue. Its tongue was not long, but was blue, quite funny-looking.
When speaking of the lizard, Xiang Cai grew interested. "Not many people like to raise pets."
Tan Yiming: "It's a long story ... Our company rented a small courtyard house as an office location. My friend said that courtyard houses are not like casual houses, and they are very particular. In the past, geckoes were raised in courtyard houses, because they are called ‘shelter’. We thought raising a gecko would be too troublesome, it would be better to raise a lizard."
[T/N: gecko and shelter in Chinese are both ‘bihu’ but with different characters.]
Xiang Cai: "..." It really was a unique way of solving a problem.
Tan Yiming added, "I went to the pet shop and picked up two dragons, but the two had a fight. There was really no way, I could only give the other one away, only leaving Dabao."
Xiang Cai nodded: "The other one was Erbao?"
[T/N: Dabao means great treasure or big treasure, while erbao means second treasure.]
"No." Tan Yiming raised an eyebrow, "The other was YuMeiJing."
[T/N: Dabao and YuMeiJing are skin care / cosmetic companies.]
Xiang Cai: "..."
"What happened?"
"Mr. Tan, no one after 2000 will understand such a silly joke."
In the end, Xiang Cai bought two pots of the spider plants from the roadside stall, and bought a mug with a checkered pattern. This was a ‘non-essential’ expense, but Xiang Cai was happy.
As a result, when he took the spider plant home, he found that there was no place to hang the spider plant in his bedroom. He placed it on the ground, but was afraid of accidentally kicking it.
There was really no way, he could only put the two pots of green plants in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, adding a bit of greenery to the house.
...
On Friday night, Tan Yiming brought Dabao home.
The blue tongue skink was a very common pet lizard, native to Australia, with a large body and a gentle personality.
It needed a warm environment, so Tan Yiming only raised it free-range in the summer. In the autumn and winter, he put it in a terrarium where it could stay warm with a heat lamp.
At the end of August, the temperature was high, and the blue-tongued skink paced slowly in the living room, in an upright, imposing manner.
Xiang Cai stared at it in horror. He had to admit that even though he had made countless psychological preparations before, when he really saw the big lizard, he still uncontrollably flew onto the sofa.
Tan Yiming joked deliberately: "Didn’t you say you wanted to bathe him?"
Xiang Cai, thinking of the five hundred yuan rent, could only brazenly climb down from the sofa.
And at that moment, the blue tongued lizard moved — its mouth flashed like lightning, and actually caught the spider plant in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in one bite, dragging it hard!
Instantly, a corner of the spider plant was ripped off!
Xiang Cai: !!!
Tan Yiming: !!!
The two performed very differently. Xiang Cai immediately rushed over and lifted the spider plant to a high place; Tan Yiming was concerned about the lizard and began to search on Baidu: ‘will lizards be poisoned if they eat spider plants’.
Xiang Cai was so angry that his head was smoking, "How come your lizard is eating everything?"
Tan Yiming said righteously: "He is an omnivorous animal. He usually eats leaves and vegetables, it is normal for him to take a bite when he sees a plant that he hasn’t seen before."
Xiang Cai said, "Then feed it fruits and vegetables, don't let him harm my spider plant!"
"Fruits and vegetables can't be eaten too much. Our Dabao needs a reasonable diet with balanced nutrients."
Xiang Cai thought, ‘I come back from dancing every day, and I’m as tired as a dog. Instant noodles with extra intestines is considered luxury. Why is a lizard better off than me?’
"How reasonable? How balanced? How nutritious?"
As soon as Tan Ming heard him, he opened the cabinet, pulling out a box of cans with the pattern of vegetables and meat printed on it.
Xiang Cai thought it seemed strange: "... Isn't that canned dog food?"
"Yeah." Tan Yiming flicked the pull ring on the can. Dabao instantly crawled over from the balcony. "The blue tongued lizard eats dog food."
---------
The author has something to say: As soon as the two of them meet, they become childish ghosts.
----------
On the last weekend of August, Xiang Cai hurried out before school started.
Tan Yiming called him in advance and asked if he should help him move.
Xiang Cai said no, he had very little luggage.
However, Tan Yiming still cheekily drove the car next to Xiang Cai’s dormitory.
So, when Xiang Cai walked downstairs, with his two two-foot suitcases and a backpack, he saw Tan Yiming standing next to his silver-gray SUV, talking to the security uncle.
"I'll wait for a while ... and then leave."
"I'm here to pick up someone."
"No, no, no, I'm not a student's parent. I'm only thirty, I'm still young. Do I look like I have such a big child?"
Xiang Cai felt helplessly amused. He walked over to interrupt their conversation: “Security dage, he came to pick me up."
Xiang Cai only had his own manpower to move. He wore a Huawu shirt and his clothes were very thin. He had just moved down two large luggages from upstairs and his clothes were soaked with sweat.
The security uncle suddenly realized, looking at Tan Yiming: "Oh, you are a Didi!"
[T/N: Didi = rideshare like Uber or Lyft.]
Tan Yiming: "... No." He said, "Where does Didi need such a big car, I'm a Huolala."
[T/N: Huolala = cargo-moving company.]
Xiang Cai: "..."
Then, ‘Master Tan’ who was responsible for moving cargo, opened the trunk, and stuffed the two large suitcases from Xiang Cai into the car.
As soon as the door opened, the cold air from the air conditioner blew across his face. Xiang Cai was sweaty and greedily leaned into the rush of air from the outlet.
Tan Yiming raised the temperature a bit in fear of him catching a cold.
Tan Yiming looked at the two boxes and asked, "Where are your other luggages?"
"There is no other luggage." Xiang Cai pointed to the box on the left, “This box is winter clothes", and then pointed to the box on the right. “This box is summer clothes and some sundries. These bedding and heat are only the small ones. The electric kettle, I left for the dormitory."
In other words, the two 24 inch suitcases in front of them contained everything that Xiang Cai owned in the last 11 years.
It was not like moving at all - Tan Yiming's company had organized group building tours, and during a 7-day journey, female colleagues had brought more things than Xiang Cai.
When Xiang Cai saw that Tan Yiming was surprised, he explained: "Our dormitory only has a bed and table each, and the cabinets are narrow, they can only hold so many things. So, I don't buy anything except necessities."
His roommates could move game peripherals one by one, and could buy sets of sneakers and trendy clothes one after the other, because what they couldn’t fit in their dormitory could be taken home. But Xiang Cai had no home. He only had a bed, a table, and a cabinet in the dormitory. Every time he saw something he liked in the store, he thought of his limited living space and would eventually leave empty-handed.
"You don't have to worry about it anymore." Tan Yiming looked at him and said gently, "The guest bedroom is very spacious. No matter how many things you have, you can put it down."
After thinking about it, Tan Yiming added: "Even if it can’t fit in the guest room, the living room cabinet can be vacated for you."
Xiang Cai removed his eyes, and said nothing.
When the two got in the car, the car drove out of the dance academy and turned right onto the road.
The dance academy was next to the sports college, which had started early. The grounds were densely packed with army green camouflage uniforms. They were all freshmen who had come to undergo military training in advance.
The average height of sports college students was very great, and the talented basketball students were among the tallest. From a distance, the group of large men with an average height of 1.95 meters could be seen arranged in a square array, chanting while playing righteously.
Xiang Cai’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to them.
After breaking up, Xiang Cai and Cen Manchuan had deleted each other’s contact information. Although this relationship ended with regret, it left Xiang Cai with a ‘sequelae’. Every time he saw a basketball player on the street, he would stop and look a few more times. It was not like he was seeing them and always thinking of that person, but there would always be a shadow.
Tan Yiming naturally noticed the boy's gaze. His heart was sour for an instant, but he was in no place to be sour, and he became even more sour when he realized this.
Therefore, when the traffic light switched, Tan Yiming immediately stepped on the accelerator, rushing out and leaving their bodies lagging behind inside the car.
Xiang Cai: "... I remember that we should have turned left at that intersection just now."
"It doesn't matter." Tan Yiming calmly replied, "All the roads lead to my house."
...
Xiang Cai finally moved into his new home. He had very little luggage. After the two suitcases were unpacked, it only filled half of the closet.
Xiang Cai came into the bathroom with the toiletries and put the toothbrush, toothpaste, and skin care products on the shelf together.
In addition to skin care products, Tan Yiming noticed that Xiang Cai had several cosmetics.
"Do you usually have to put on makeup?"
"It depends." Xiang Cai replied, "If I am appearing onstage, there will be a professional makeup artist. But occasionally, there will be interviews where I need to have light makeup applied myself."
Makeup in boys was not as cumbersome as makeup in girls, and Xiang Cai was good at the basics, such as applying foundation and drawing eyebrows. Xiang Cai’s cosmetics were bought from the school's flea market. Every graduation season, there was a big sale. He had bought a bottle of foundation in his freshman year for a third of its original price and still hadn’t run out of it now.
Tan Yiming glanced at the production date on the bottle: "... This has been expired for two years."
Xiang Cai snatched the foundation from his hand and placed it on the shelf indifferently: "As long as I don't die, my cosmetics will never expire!"
Tan Yiming: "..."
After waiting for Xiang Cai to organize his belongings, Tan Yiming took him to the nearby supermarket to buy things.
Boys of his age would always buy a bunch of things when they went to the supermarket. Unlike them, Xiang Cai made and spent his own money, so he was careful. Even when buying a six-pack of instant noodles, he must carefully compare the prices.
Seeing Xiang Cai reach out to grab toilet paper and shampoo, Tan Yiming quickly stopped him: "What do you need these for? I have them at home, you can use it with me."
Xiang Cai said, "You are the landlord and I am the tenant. You have already given me such a discount on the rooming rate. It is not good for me to take advantage of that small amount of money."
Tan Yiming immediately said, "It is all included in the rent."
Putting the interests of the tenants at the highest level at all times. Mr. Tan was really the best landlord in the world.
When leaving the supermarket, they met two hawkers at the door.
One tricycle was pulling cheaply-processed porcelain, with plates, bowls, and mugs with fancy patterns.
On the other cart was a variety of potted plants, like well-fed spider plants, green sage, and cacti, planted in clean, white small plastic pots. They were nestled together and the green leaves hung down, watching lively.
Xiang Cai’s footsteps paused.
Whether it was a beautiful mug or a green plant that cultivated life, it was something he would have never bought in the past. His dorm space was too cramped, with not even a square centimeter to spare.
But now it was different. He had his own small house. After paying the rent, he could decorate it as he liked.
Tan Yiming had been paying attention to Xiang Cai’s every move. When he noticed Xiang Cai’s eyes falling onto the tricycle, he immediately asked: "Do you want to buy plants?"
"Well, I would like to decorate the room, may I?" Xiang Cai said, "But I heard that plants might attract small bugs, would you mind?"
Tan Yiming shrugged: "It doesn't matter, if there are any small bugs, I’ll treat it as an extra meal for my son.”
"……Your son?"
"Oh, I meant my lizard. He is called Dabao." Tan Yiming said, "In fact, he is my company's mascot."
Xiang Cai hadn’t seen Dabao yet, but he had searched up the blue tongue skink in advance and knew that it was an omnivorous lizard with a large body but gentle personality.
Although this lizard was large in size, it actually had no means of attack. The only way for it to intimidate opponents was to stick out its tongue. Its tongue was not long, but was blue, quite funny-looking.
When speaking of the lizard, Xiang Cai grew interested. "Not many people like to raise pets."
Tan Yiming: "It's a long story ... Our company rented a small courtyard house as an office location. My friend said that courtyard houses are not like casual houses, and they are very particular. In the past, geckoes were raised in courtyard houses, because they are called ‘shelter’. We thought raising a gecko would be too troublesome, it would be better to raise a lizard."
[T/N: gecko and shelter in Chinese are both ‘bihu’ but with different characters.]
Xiang Cai: "..." It really was a unique way of solving a problem.
Tan Yiming added, "I went to the pet shop and picked up two dragons, but the two had a fight. There was really no way, I could only give the other one away, only leaving Dabao."
Xiang Cai nodded: "The other one was Erbao?"
[T/N: Dabao means great treasure or big treasure, while erbao means second treasure.]
"No." Tan Yiming raised an eyebrow, "The other was YuMeiJing."
[T/N: Dabao and YuMeiJing are skin care / cosmetic companies.]
Xiang Cai: "..."
"What happened?"
"Mr. Tan, no one after 2000 will understand such a silly joke."
In the end, Xiang Cai bought two pots of the spider plants from the roadside stall, and bought a mug with a checkered pattern. This was a ‘non-essential’ expense, but Xiang Cai was happy.
As a result, when he took the spider plant home, he found that there was no place to hang the spider plant in his bedroom. He placed it on the ground, but was afraid of accidentally kicking it.
There was really no way, he could only put the two pots of green plants in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, adding a bit of greenery to the house.
...
On Friday night, Tan Yiming brought Dabao home.
The blue tongue skink was a very common pet lizard, native to Australia, with a large body and a gentle personality.
It needed a warm environment, so Tan Yiming only raised it free-range in the summer. In the autumn and winter, he put it in a terrarium where it could stay warm with a heat lamp.
At the end of August, the temperature was high, and the blue-tongued skink paced slowly in the living room, in an upright, imposing manner.
Xiang Cai stared at it in horror. He had to admit that even though he had made countless psychological preparations before, when he really saw the big lizard, he still uncontrollably flew onto the sofa.
Tan Yiming joked deliberately: "Didn’t you say you wanted to bathe him?"
Xiang Cai, thinking of the five hundred yuan rent, could only brazenly climb down from the sofa.
And at that moment, the blue tongued lizard moved — its mouth flashed like lightning, and actually caught the spider plant in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in one bite, dragging it hard!
Instantly, a corner of the spider plant was ripped off!
Xiang Cai: !!!
Tan Yiming: !!!
The two performed very differently. Xiang Cai immediately rushed over and lifted the spider plant to a high place; Tan Yiming was concerned about the lizard and began to search on Baidu: ‘will lizards be poisoned if they eat spider plants’.
Xiang Cai was so angry that his head was smoking, "How come your lizard is eating everything?"
Tan Yiming said righteously: "He is an omnivorous animal. He usually eats leaves and vegetables, it is normal for him to take a bite when he sees a plant that he hasn’t seen before."
Xiang Cai said, "Then feed it fruits and vegetables, don't let him harm my spider plant!"
"Fruits and vegetables can't be eaten too much. Our Dabao needs a reasonable diet with balanced nutrients."
Xiang Cai thought, ‘I come back from dancing every day, and I’m as tired as a dog. Instant noodles with extra intestines is considered luxury. Why is a lizard better off than me?’
"How reasonable? How balanced? How nutritious?"
As soon as Tan Ming heard him, he opened the cabinet, pulling out a box of cans with the pattern of vegetables and meat printed on it.
Xiang Cai thought it seemed strange: "... Isn't that canned dog food?"
"Yeah." Tan Yiming flicked the pull ring on the can. Dabao instantly crawled over from the balcony. "The blue tongued lizard eats dog food."
---------
The author has something to say: As soon as the two of them meet, they become childish ghosts.
***
Hehe ( ´ ◡ ` )♡♡
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