TF01 20

After finishing their meal, Shi Yi said he wanted to take a nap. They had originally planned to leave after two in the afternoon.

But before he could even fall asleep, he got a call from Kou Jing.

Kou Jing told him that someone from Weisai would be coming in the afternoon and asked him and Ying Ming to wait a little longer before setting off.

As soon as the call ended, Ying Ming’s phone rang. “Did Kou Jing tell you too?”

“Yeah.”

“Perfect, then get some more sleep.”

It was not surprising that someone from Weisai was coming. Ying Ming lounged on the bed, lazily flipping through TV channels. The signal here was not great, so there were only a few channels available. By the time he reached the later ones, they were all landscape documentaries.

“What about you?”

“I’ll sleep in a bit too. Got up too early this morning.”

“Alright, I’ll come find you when I wake up.”

If not for the dust and barren land outside, the two of them really would look like they were on a trip together.

Their rooms all faced the sun, and at this hour, the glare was almost unbearable. Shi Yi held out for a while before finally getting up to draw the curtains. That was when he realized that, despite how simple the room was, it actually had a balcony.

He was not sure how sturdy it was. Leaning against the edge, he glanced outside, and met Ying Ming’s gaze.

Ying Ming had also turned to look when he heard the noise.

He was smoking again.

“Your addiction is pretty serious.”

Shi Yi brought up the topic for the second time, disapproving. “You always have a cigarette in hand no matter when I see you.”

Ying Ming glanced at the cigarette between his fingers and let out a helpless chuckle. “I didn’t use to smoke much. But after filming so often, smoking all day became a habit. Nothing I can do about it now.”

Most of the characters he played were smokers. Even if they were just teenagers, they still had to put on an act and light up a couple of cigarettes.

“Well, you do look like a delinquent,” Shi Yi teased, stepping outside as well. “Weren’t you saying you wanted to sleep?”

“It’s not like I can just flip a switch and fall asleep. The room is too bright, and it’s making me irritable.”

Ying Ming was not a good sleeper to begin with. He usually only went to bed when he absolutely had to. People said having frequent dreams meant something in medical terms. He had heard that before but never paid it any mind. After all, no one would run to the hospital just because they kept dreaming.

“If you can’t sleep, come play cards with me. We’ve got nothing else to do anyway.”

“You’re not sleeping anymore?”

“I was planning to, but seeing you woke me right up.”

Shi Yi’s tone was way too playful. Ying Ming raised an eyebrow at that. “Don’t fall for me. I’m not into your type.”

“Oh? Then what type are you into? Someone like Wang Yiqi?”

The moment that name was brought up, both of them instinctively paused.

Ying Ming gave Shi Yi a subtle look. He wanted to say something but held back in the end. He stubbed out his cigarette and strolled over to Shi Yi’s room. Despite being right next door, the layout was completely different. He had wanted to say this the first time he came in—how the hell did a rally race’s rest area still manage to have some VIP treatment bullshit? It was ridiculous.

Shi Yi was sitting cross-legged on the bed with a deck of cards already out.

“You sure packed everything for this rally. Even brought playing cards?”

Shi Yi shuffled twice and glanced at him. “The server brought them over earlier. Who carries this stuff around when they travel?” He was not some god of gambling.

“Fuck.” Ying Ming could not hold back a curse. Rationally, he could accept how this world worked, but emotionally, he just could not get over it.

He sat at the edge of the bed, watching as Shi Yi cut the deck a couple of times. “What are we playing?”

“Whatever. What games do you know?”

“I know everything you do, and I know everything you don’t.”

That was a pretty bold claim. Shi Yi raised an eyebrow. “Do you always talk like this?”

“When it comes to showing off, I’m nowhere near your level.”

Ying Ming chuckled, then took the deck from Shi Yi’s hands and performed an impressively flashy shuffle.

Shi Yi was caught off guard. “What the hell? Did your family run a casino or something?”

“I played a casino owner once.”

After a couple of rounds, Ying Ming finally had his fill and set the cards down on the bed. “How about I teach you a game from my hometown? Bet you’ve never played it before.”

“Your hometown? Where’s that?”

“South of Henan, north of Jiangbei.”

“That tells me nothing.”

Ying Ming dealt the cards for both of them, grinning at Shi Yi’s complaint with that usual “guess if you can” look. It made Shi Yi’s fingers itch.

He picked up his cards and waited patiently for Ying Ming to explain the so-called hometown card game rules.

Turned out it was a game Shi Yi had never even heard of.

It was actually pretty simple, but it did not seem very fun. Most people played cards to enjoy the thrill of winning. That was why games went by so fast, with rounds finishing in just minutes. Ying Ming’s game, on the other hand, was purely for killing time. Looking at the pile of cards, Shi Yi had no idea when they would even finish.

“Back when I was a kid, my grandma and I used to play together all the time.”

While drawing a card, Ying Ming casually grabbed a piece of dried sweet potato and held it between his teeth. “But aside from her, I’ve never played this game with anyone else.”

Shi Yi glanced at him. “I always thought you were from B City.”

“I am,” Ying Ming nodded. “But my grandparents still live back in my hometown. When I was in school, I used to visit during summer break all the time.”

The countryside felt completely different from the city. As a kid, he never thought much about it, but looking back now, he found himself feeling nostalgic.

Across from him, Shi Yi watched the focused look on Ying Ming’s face as he studied his cards. Without thinking, he smiled a little. “My whole family lives together, so I barely had anywhere to go.”

In fact, most of his elders had passed away early.

He had never met his grandmother. There were barely any relatives on his mother’s side. Later, his grandfather moved to B City to live with them, so during the holidays, they just celebrated in the city.

At most, his father’s old comrades and colleagues would gather for a meal, and that was their New Year.

“For me, New Year was just adults playing mahjong and kids playing poker. When we got hungry, we ordered takeout. No one really cared.”

Shi Yi sighed a little after saying that. “It was boring as hell.”

“Other families might not have had it any better. People are just bored in different ways.” Ying Ming glanced at him, played a card, and urged him to continue.

Shi Yi threw out a random card without much thought, then a question popped into his mind. “Are you an only child?”

“Yeah, just me.”

Most people in their generation were. He had been on his own for as long as he could remember.

Shi Yi had expected that answer, but he still found it a little disappointing. Leisurely playing his cards, he said, “I used to really want a brother.”

“An older one or a younger one?”

“A younger one, I guess…”

Shi Yi chuckled. “I could look out for him, walk to and from school together. It would have been nice.”

Ying Ming rarely saw him like this and could not help but glance at him a couple more times. “So you have a little brother complex?”

“Bullshit! I do not even have a brother, how could I?”

That said, maybe that was why he had always looked after Wang Le so much. They had grown up together, and without realizing it, Shi Yi had come to see him as family. He had always had Wang Le’s back, just like an older brother would.

On a whim, he looked at Ying Ming and said, “How about we become sworn brothers?”

Ying Ming froze mid-movement and looked up.

His expression made it seem like Shi Yi had lost his mind.

After a while, Ying Ming slowly squeezed out a response. “Even if we did become sworn brothers, you would still be my younger brother…”

Being the older one was not something you could just decide on a whim.

This was something he and Shi Yi had no control over. It was simply how things were.

His words were a heavy blow to Shi Yi, who had finally taken the initiative to show goodwill for once. He froze for a moment before gritting his teeth. “Damn it!”

Why did he keep forgetting that Ying Ming was older than him?

Seeing Shi Yi so deflated put Ying Ming in a great mood. He laughed out loud, completely inconsiderate of the situation. Only when Shi Yi shot him an annoyed glare did he reluctantly hold back. “Who knows? Maybe if you actually had a younger brother, you would not want one anymore.”

“That could be true.” Shi Yi shrugged. “But since I don’t have one, even the possibility is out of reach.”

People always wanted what they could not have. That was just human nature.

They kept chatting as they played, and whatever discomfort had been lingering since dinner had mostly faded after a few rounds.

The game itself was honestly kind of dull. By the third round, Shi Yi could not take it anymore. He waved a hand and said, “Nope, I’m too tired. I need to sleep.”

He casually set his cards down and flopped backward. “Do whatever you want.”

Ying Ming watched him lie down and immediately doze off, raising an eyebrow in mild exasperation. In the end, he simply gathered the cards and tossed them onto the nightstand.

Leaning back on the couch, he felt like smoking again.

This place was empty and desolate, the silence even more pronounced.

In the city, it was almost impossible to find an afternoon as quiet as this, where there was not a single sound to be heard.

Sunlight streamed in from behind, still carrying a bit of heat. Ying Ming was too lazy to move, letting himself sit there idly. His gaze swept over the sleeping Shi Yi, lingered for a while, then drifted elsewhere.

After wandering like this for some time, he gradually started feeling drowsy as well.

He shifted lower into the couch, curling up against it. His legs stretched out over the edge, while his head rested against the inner cushion of the armrest.

The position was not exactly comfortable. In fact, it was a little awkward.

But Ying Ming closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep. There was no noise in his ears, no drinking, no pills.

---

When he was woken up later, he was a little disoriented.

He looked at Shi Yi in a daze and let out a soft hum.

“Why are you sleeping on the couch? Isn’t there a bed?”

It was not a double room, but the bed was big enough. Shi Yi had been lying on it comfortably, and there was still plenty of space left.

Seeing Ying Ming’s curled-up posture made Shi Yi feel secondhand discomfort.

His arms were crossed over his chest, like he was posing for some kind of artistic photo.

Ying Ming pinched the bridge of his nose, his head heavy with sleep as he sat up. “I was only planning to close my eyes for a bit. Didn’t expect to fall asleep.”

“Get ready. Kou Jing and the others are here.”

Shi Yi lit the cigarette in his hand and took a slow drag. Looking at Ying Ming, he said, “No matter what they talk to you about, just push it all onto me.”

Ying Ming was still trying to shake off the sluggishness from an unexpected afternoon nap.

He glanced at Shi Yi but did not say anything.