It had been a long time since Yang Yi had taken the subway during mid-morning; the carriage was dotted with only a handful of people.
Sitting in the middle of a row of seats, Yang Yi began planning his entertainment for the day.
"Mao Lin, I'm on my way back. Thanks for everything today," Yang Yi first sent a text to Mao Lin.
"How's the phone working?" he then messaged Quan Quan.
"You awake yet? Wufang again tonight?" he sent another to Xiao Lin.
By the time the subway reached his stop, neither Quan Quan nor Xiao Lin had replied. Only Mao Lin's message came through:
"Faster than I expected. When do you start?"
"Next Monday. See you then."
"Copy that. Talk later." Mao Lin remained true to his clipped style.
"Sir, Tower 8, West District." Yang Yi hopped onto a beng-beng (auto-rickshaw). He was likely too exhausted to walk.
Back home, Yang Yi tossed his cash and phone onto the table and collapsed onto the bed. Having not worn a suit in ages, his shoulders felt stiff and aching from the restriction.
Yang Yi had very broad shoulders. Standing at 1.8 meters with a small face, his frame was surprisingly large. He'd had big hands and feet since childhood; back in school, he had measured his hand span—it was at least 20 centimeters. His shoe size consistently hovered between 44 and 45.
If only his vertical leap had been a bit better back in his basketball days, he probably could have palmed the ball for a one-handed dunk.
The interview had gone smoothly, and the salary from his previous company was about to hit his account—a true double blessing.
Yang Yi drifted off into a hazy sleep. In his dream, a massive chest of money appeared before him, and he was happily scooping it up with both hands.
Across the chest, another guy was also grabbing cash. Fearing he'd be too slow, Yang Yi picked up the pace. The two of them laughed at each other as they grabbed, yet the money in the chest seemed bottomless.
With a sudden surge of strength, his right hand gripped his thigh—right on the spot where he'd bruised it falling at the Wufang stairwell—and the pain jolted him awake.
He checked the time; it was already 6:00 PM. There were several unread texts from Xiao Lin:
"Just woke up. Brother Hei lost a bit last night, stayed up until dawn with him before heading back."
"We're on again today. Brother Hei invited some friends along; it's going to be lively tonight."
"Where are you? Reply when you see this. Just come over straight after work."
There was also a message from Quan Quan:
"The phone is acting up again. It's not working very well."
The last one was from a rare contact. Since Zhen Zhen had asked for his number last time, this was her first text to him:
"Yi, are you coming today? Someone's looking for you, hee-hee."
Yang Yi got up and put on his slippers, heading out to wash his face. A girl from another partitioned room happened to walk out at the same time. They occasionally chatted, and indoor encounters like this happened more than once.
To be precise, it wasn't exactly a coincidence; the girl did it on purpose.
Whenever Yang Yi opened his door, she would emerge. Sharing the same roof, it was inevitable for Yang Yi to have some impulsive fantasies, but these impulses were always quashed by rational thoughts.
His rational thought was usually: Too thin, skin and bones, and not pale enough.
"Uh, you want to go first?" Yang Yi pointed toward the bathroom.
"No, no, no, you go ahead." The girl didn't return to her room or fight for the bathroom; she just stood there watching him. She was wearing a floral slip dress as a nightgown, her figure silhouetted through the thin fabric.
Inside the bathroom, a pair of white lace panties was lying on the washing machine. Yang Yi felt a sudden rush of heat surge through him.
Stay calm, stay calm.
After washing up and returning to his room, he instinctively glanced at the girl's door. This time, it was tightly shut.
"See you tonight. I'll be a bit late," he replied to Xiao Lin.
The tricky part was Quan Quan's message. Yang Yi had a sinking feeling that the shopkeeper had scammed them.
"Is it still lagging? Let's find time to go back to that shop together." If Yang Yi had the money right now, he would have loved to buy her a brand-new phone on the spot to make amends.
Finally, he replied to Zhen Zhen.
"I'm coming. Who's looking for me?" His first thought was Brother Hei. After losing two hands and leaving abruptly yesterday, Xiao Lin might have felt awkward acting as a messenger, so it made sense to let a woman handle it.
"Nag, nag, nag. It's just three thousand yuan; it's not like I'm going to run away," Yang Yi grumbled, his stomach growling with hunger.
He flipped open his laptop; the fan noise was getting louder. When he first said he wanted a laptop, his parents had boosted his 5,000-yuan budget to 10,000 without a second thought. That top-of-the-line machine had given him four years of prestige at school.
At the bottom of the offer email, it mentioned a required pre-employment medical check-up at a designated hospital. The employee had to pay upfront and submit the receipt for reimbursement after joining.
"140 yuan for the check-up." Yang Yi read the last line. Not bad, the wallet can handle that.
Check-up tomorrow (Saturday), get the report Sunday, start the job Monday. A perfectly seamless plan.
"We have 'fish' today. Get here early," Xiao Lin replied.
"What fish?"
"A friend of Brother Hei's. A 'weakling' just like you."
Whenever someone played poorly and acted as a "wealth distributor," Xiao Lin would call them that. Yang Yi once asked why it was a "fish" and not a chicken, duck, or goose. Xiao Lin's answer was:
"Fish have no memory. They forget everything the moment they turn around."
So, in Xiao Lin's book, besides being a "weakling," Yang Yi had another nickname: "Wooden Fish."
"A girl is looking for you. Tell you when you get here," Zhen Zhen messaged back.
A girl? It couldn't be Quan Quan, could it? Yang Yi envisioned a scene where Quan Quan raised the phone and smashed it over his head...
Probably not. Quan Quan wasn't the violent type. But who else could it be? Yang Yi was certain he hadn't met any other girls since graduation besides her. Unless... it was his first love from university?
On the way to Wufang, he spent the whole trip guessing. Before he knew it, he was downstairs.
A group was playing Legends of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguosha) in the main hall. Mazi had tried to recruit them before, but they were either uninterested in Texas Hold'em or just weren't close to him.
They never made it into the "inner room" player circle and only came to Wufang on weekends for board games.
"Yang Yi! Come play Sanguosha, we're short one person," someone called out.
"Maybe later, you guys go ahead," Yang Yi shouted from a distance, his pace toward the inner room never faltering.
He pushed the door open. Sure enough, Brother Hei was there, along with Xiao Lin, Gold Tooth, Zhen Zhen, Mazi, and two new faces.
Everyone had chips in front of them; the game seemed to have just started.
"Brother Long and Xiao Liu aren't coming today?" Yang Yi asked.
"Brother Long thinks the stakes are too small, says it's boring, he's not humoring us anymore," Mazi chirped in with a grin. "Xiao Liu is outside playing Sanguosha. Didn't you see him?"
Yang Yi hadn't even glanced at the outer table; his heart was entirely on today's game.
Among the new faces was a girl sitting next to Zhen Zhen. She was dressed all in pink, with a full face of makeup. Her slender, fair fingers sported pinkish-green nail polish, making Yang Yi realize for the first time that red and green could actually look good together.
Quan Quan, at the end of the day, was still in that cute, innocent campus style. Even when she wore makeup, she couldn't hide that "girl-next-door" vibe.
The woman before him was a true "Cold Ice Queen" (Yu Jie). Judging by her proportions, she had to be at least 175cm tall. She had deep double eyelids and exaggeratedly large eyes; even with the heavy makeup, her colored contacts and long lashes suggested she'd be stunning even without them.
But the real showstopper was her long, raven-black hair. it draped over her chest and flowed naturally below the table. Under the ceiling lights, Yang Yi felt he was looking at the two brightest highlights in the room. If he had to paint a still life right now, he'd use every bit of white pigment on those two spots.
With such a top-tier beauty sitting there, Yang Yi admired the others' ability to stay so calm. Especially Xiao Lin—he was more focused than usual, dealing, counting chips, dealing, counting chips, like a machine.
Probably because Zhen Zhen was there; the kid wasn't nearly this well-behaved in private.
"Yi, come sit here." Zhen Zhen beckoned him to sit beside her, shifting her weight to move the chair over and leaving a space between her and the new girl. The intense weight made the chair creak loudly.
"There! I've brought him for you! I'm out of the way now!" Zhen Zhen hollered toward the girl.
Wait, she was the one looking for me?