“Ge, are you the same like me?” Qin Youyou turned around to look at Wei Dong, using his arm as a pillow.

“Mm,” Wei Dong was lying down with his eyes closed.

“Does your family know?”

Wei Dong was quiet for a while. “They know.”

“And they were fine with it?”

Wei Dong laughed and looked over at Qin Youyou. “With so many questions, is this a household registration check?”

Qin Youyou was a bit embarrassed and smiled, which brought out the two dimples on his cheeks. “My family… My mom and dad knew back then and didn’t have a problem. They told me not to worry, saying that to like boys is normal. There are a lot of people in the world who are attracted to the same sex and it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

“Your parents were very open-minded,” Wei Dong said.

“Mm.” Qin Youyou’s expression was a bit distracted and it was unknown what he was thinking about. The corners of his mouth quirked up a bit and the light in his eyes momentarily darkened. “Before, life was pretty good. If only I wasn’t gay, then those things… My family wouldn’t have become what it is.”

Wei Dong didn’t know what to say. He sighed softly and closed his eyes. He pulled over Qin Youyou’s hand on to his stomach and gently patted it.

“Where’s your family?” Qin Youyou asked.

“I was nineteen when I was kicked out from home and told not to go back.”

Qin Youyou stared at him before wrapping his arms around Wei Dong’s waist and rubbed his face against him a few times, not saying a word.

The two of them held tightly on to each other, crowded on the tiny frame bed. The electric fan in the corner blew their hair gently.

Never before had Wei Dong felt this way—this indescribable comforting warmth. He’d lived in this apartment for many years and he’d never thought of it as ‘home’. It was just a place he stayed at for a time, like every place before.

This rental apartment, in this block of flats, in the familiar chaotic district that stretched all around—none of it had ever given him a sense of belonging, nor a reluctance to leave.

But at this very moment, Wei Dong felt the arm tightly wrapped around him, with the warm breath on his shoulder through his T-shirt, it seems as if something had softened in this simple little apartment, like something had softened inside of him. The atmosphere was filled with a deep gentleness.

Maybe because he was still sick, or maybe because of the psychological distress, Qin Youyou was quiet for a while. Then his breathing slowly evened out. Wei Dong turned to look at his face—the kid was already asleep.

Regarding what Qin Youyou had said about his past, Wei Dong didn’t believe everything. Two people meeting like duckweed in water—meeting in that kind of situation, it’s actually difficult to say what kind of person the other was. But subconsciously he did believe more of the story than what he didn’t.

Qin Youyou had had a happy and blessed family before—from his innocence that sometimes came through, you could tell he had been very well loved and protected by his parents. If these past events were true, then the world had truly been too cruel to him.

A good child at an age where he should have no worries, a soaring youth with a promising future on campus, but he was suddenly dragged down into a pit of misfortune. Falling into that remote and gloomy park, pushed up against filthy public toilet cubicles…

Wei Dong frowned. He pulled up the blanket and lightly covered up the boy.

…

Qin Youyou woke up in the evening. Every time he woke up, he looked confused, as if he didn’t know where he was. When Wei Dong walked in by the door he got a startle.

“You’re awake?”

“Ge,” Qin Youyou rubbed his eyes and then lifted the blanket off himself to get up, his foot blindly searching for the slippers in a daze.

Wei Dong carried the food he brought back to the coffee table and then came over to put the slippers on his feet. “Go wash up and then come eat.”

Qin Youyou was startled by the movement. The back of the hand that was rubbing his eyes stopped and he stared blankly at him.

“What’s wrong?” Wei Dong asked.

Qin Youyou stood up straight and held him tightly around the waist.

Wei Dong looked at him and then reached out to stroke the top of his head. Qin Youyou held on tightly and rubbed his face against Wei Dong and then went to the bathroom.

Wei Dong stared at the wet patches that were left on his chest and laughed. “Did you just use my body to wipe your snotty nose?”

Qin Youyou poked his head out, his face flushed with embarrassment. “I’ll wash it…”

Wei Dong walked in to wash his hands. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying,” Qin Youyou smiled. “I was just so emotional, I couldn’t help it.”

“Emotional? I didn’t even ask you to buy groceries and cook for me.”

Qin Youyou turned to look at him. “I really can cook. Today I slept too much—next time I’ll take the opportunity to cook you a nice meal.”

Wei Dong laughed. “Okay then.” He wiped his hands and walked past Qin Youyou on his way out.

“Ge,” Qin Youyou called out to him.

Wei Dong looked back. “Mm?”

“How can there be such a good person as you?”

“Me?” Wei Dong smiled but was taken aback.

Qin Youyou looked at him. “In these past two years, you are the best person I have met.”

“I…” Wei Dong suddenly had no idea how to respond to this and he hesitated.

“You’re the best to me.” Qin Youyou said.

Wei Dong was silent. All he did, by pure chance, was bring this kid home, give him food, give him medicine and he’s become the best person?

So then, in all these two years, what type of people has he met, and what kind of situations…

Life, or rather to say, existence, is very difficult. To receive such scant kindness in the rain of knives, frost and double edged-swords seemed to be a treasure precious enough to move him to tears.

This kid’s expression was not one of sorrow. He wasn’t feeling wronged by the circumstances, he was only expressing wholehearted sincerity.

And there was a hint of eagerness in that tone.

All because he met Wei Dong, a person who was good to him.

A person who, in a transaction of flesh that was despised by other people, patiently dilated him because he was worried about hurting him. A person who was willing to take him in when he was at the end of his rope and had to swallow his pride to beg for assistance. A person who noticed his injuries and immediately bought him medicine, who cared for him through his fever, who helped him put on slippers without even thinking about it.

Only that tiny bit was enough to fill Qin Youyou’s heart.

Just like he said: happy.

He said because he met Wei Dong, he was happy, and felt incredibly lucky.

Wei Dong patted his arm. “Come on, go eat.”

This time, Wei Dong had bought four extra boxes of rice, and two extra dishes—Qin Youyou felt relief and boldly tucked in.

Wei Dong didn’t realise that this scrawny Qin Youyou had such a huge appetite. He smiled but wondered if he’d eaten enough the previous times. Qin Youyou had said it wasn’t that bad and he was used to it—he’d eat more when he could, and saved what he couldn’t. Not eating enough wasn’t a big deal.

Wei Dong asked him what he normally ate. He said steamed buns, stuffed buns, pickled vegetables, all kinds of sauces, sometimes cheap noodles or box meals. In short, food that cost the least amount of money but was enough to fill his stomach.

“Is this enough to fill you up?” Wei Dong asked.

Qin Youyou smiled weakly. “Every month when it was time to pay my mom’s fee, we wouldn’t have enough. Those days my family had no money left over. I didn’t have any qualifications and I had a criminal record, so no proper place would hire me. I could only take temporary jobs here and there. At most I had four or fives jobs in one day, but if I wasn’t frugal, I would often not have enough…”

“So that’s why you went to the park on South Road?”

The hand that was holding Qin Youyou’s chopsticks trembled slightly. Without lifting his head he picked up a few grains of rice with the tip of the chopsticks and brought it to his mouth. After chewing for a bit he stilled.

Wei Dong reached out and lifted Qin Youyou’s chin with his fingertips—his eyes were red.

The youth inhaled quietly and two dimples appeared. “Actually, it’s when I don’t have enough money that I go… I am not ashamed of it and nobody there knows me anyway. I don’t regret it… My mother’s situation seems to be under control and maybe she can be discharged in the future, then I can take her home… I don’t regret it one bit.”