Chronicles of the Beginning of Love

Having a cold in summer was the most unbearable thing. One was clearly so hot that a thin layer of sweat appeared all over their body, yet they had to drink hot medicine and wear a mask.

Qiu Huaijun bought two pieces of bubble gum from the school’s small shop. After chewing for a while, he had to open his mouth to breathe; it really was suffocating.

He wasn’t going to go to evening self-study, since it’d just be switching a place to sleep. Qiu Huaijun walked out of the school door, rubbing the reddened tip of his nose. He hadn’t taken a few steps before someone suddenly heavily patted his shoulder. Qiu Huaijun frowned and looked over.

“Qiu Huaijun right, are you free?” The male student had a crew cut and wasn’t wearing a uniform. He looked like a skinny monkey; when he laughed, he looked slippery in a sophisticated way. That person angled his chin and tipped it up at the other side. “Let’s go over there to talk.”

Zhang Xiangming stood between them, giving him a provocative middle finger. In his mouth he held an unlit cigarette.

“Woah, how long have you been waiting for me? Specially came here to stop me?” Qiu Huaijun shook off the hand Crew-cut had on his shoulder, lifting his head up. If his chest wasn’t painfully swollen and his cold sucking the spirit out of him, Qiu Huaijun wouldn’t hesitate. “Tell Zhang Xiangming that I’m not free today. If he’s gonna fight, he needs to first make an appointment. There’s plenty of people that’re gonna fight with me, don’t cut in line.”

Qiu Huaijun took two more steps forward. Zhang Xiangming was finally willing to come forward himself, blocking his way.

Qiu Huaijun looked at his face and was unable to find the wounds from last time; it seemed like they’d healed.

“Ah, you can’t leave. It’s been so hard to wait for you. It rained yesterday, and you ran away fast the day before yesterday. It’s been so hard to catch a glimpse of you, why don’t we have a good talk?” Zhang Xiangming was short, so he had to condescendingly raise his head to look at Qiu Huaijun. He himself looked to be in an exceptionally bad mood, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “Unless you’re scared. If you’re scared, just apologize. Then it’s all good, right?”

He didn’t have any more grievances with Zhang Xiangming beyond a few words. Before, when his relationship with Zhang Xiangming was still alright, Zhang Xiangming pointed at his nose and made a joke: he only said, “Your mom wants to die, eh?” Qiu Huaijun could take a joke, and neither did he mind playing around, but he couldn’t endure this type of talk. He beat him black and blue. From then on, they became enemies.

“What’re you saying?” Qiu Huaijun lifted the strap of his bag. There were no books in his bag, only his phone and a charger. He glanced over him and walked towards that group of people. “What kinda sense is there in a grandfather apologizing to his grandson*? If we’re gonna fight, then we fight. I need to go home and eat.”

Behind him, Zhang Xiangming angrily cursed. Qiu Huaijun expressionlessly considered the places around him where people were gathered, planning out his escape route.

He wasn’t dumb; a single person fighting six was called an idiot. To bend and stretch, that was what was truly manly.

Qiu Huaijun followed a few people into the alleyway. Last time, it was also here that he’d beat up Zhang Xiangming.

Underfoot was damp, dark-colored moss. Discarded soda cans crunched as they were stepped on. Qiu Huaijun looked at the couple of people. “Us brothers ought to be a bit more fair. One at a time, a whole nest can’t be called men, right?”

“Who’s fuckin’ talking fair with you—” Before the words landed, Qiu Huaijun kicked over the nearby trash can. The large, stinking pile of trash swiftly toppled over, plastic bottles cracking and popping loudly. Those few people were stunned for a second, all getting out of the way.

Swearing “dumbass”, Qiu Huaijun immediately began to sprint. Just as he was about to escape to a place with lots of people, he suddenly slipped on a watermelon peel. The world spun before his eyes. He fell to the ground heavily, his tailbone spiking with pain.

Footsteps sounded heavily. His lapel was snatched up. Qiu Huaijun almost didn’t catch his breath as Zhang Xiangming gripped his lapel, gasping, “You fucking bastard Qiu Huaijun—”

Qiu Huaijun just began to clench his fist when he heard a voice from the mouth of the alleyway.

“What are you doing?”

Qiu Huaijun was shocked momentarily; so were the others. They looked over together.

He Qingchuan was still wearing the uniform he wore when giving his speech. He stood clean and tidy at the front of the alleyway; he hadn’t even taken his glasses off. Light refracted from the frame. He lowered his eyes to the dirtied Qiu Huaijun sitting on the ground, then, as if there was no one around, bent down halfway to look at him. “How did you become like this?”

“...” Qiu Huaijun hadn’t expected He Qingchuan to suddenly appear and was at a loss for words. He only stared into his eyes.

“He Qingchuan?” The hold Zhang Xiangming had on Qiu Huaijun’s shirt relaxed. He looked He Qingchuan up and down, then suddenly began to laugh. “If you’ve come to watch a show, then we’ll leave a seat for you. The top student of our school should have a proper place.”

The poor relationship between Qiu Huaijun and his twin geges was famous. Zhang Xiangming didn’t mind an extra person beating up Qiu Huaijun, and neither did he mind He Qingchuan watching Qiu Huaijun get humiliated from the side.

“Qiu Huaijun.” He Qingchuan didn’t look at Zhang Xiangming, as if he hadn’t heard Zhang Xiangming’s voice. He kept his gaze locked on Qiu Huaijun’s, his tone serene. “Do you want me to save you?”

It was loud outside, but it’d quieted down here in an instant. Zhang Xiangming became aware that something wasn’t right. To the side, he gave Crew-cut a meaningful glance. Crew-cut nodded and walked smilingly over to He Qingchuan. “Top student, you should leave soon. It’ll get bloody in a moment. Don’t piss yourself from fear, quickly go home to your mom for dinner.”

Qiu Huaijun paused for a moment, then suddenly freed himself from Zhang Xiangming’s grasp. He looked into He Qingchuan’s eyes and tipped up a smile. Said:

“Okay. Then save me, gege.”

There weren’t many memories related to He Qingchuan. Qiu Huaijun refused to produce good feelings towards the people of the He family. But at this moment, sitting foolishly on the ground, Qiu Huaijun recalled quite a lot.

There was a very large swimming pool in the backyard of the He villa. It’d been only half a year since Qiu Huaijun came to the He family, and his personality was reclusive. He’d ashamedly begun to miss his mother, and felt terribly upset. It wasn’t realistic to climb a tree in the middle of the night, so he sat by the side of the pool.

Yet at that time, He Qingchuan was there too; but they sat very far apart, each minding their own business. How far apart were they— fifty centimeters? Or seventy centimeters? No one spoke, each pretending the other was a transparent person.

The wind was so strong it numbed the body. He Qingchuan suddenly stood up, glancing down at him from above. He said, “If you want to cry, cry.”

“Who wants to cry!” Qiu Huaijun exploded instantly, glaring at him, his eyes red. But He Qingchuan knew he wasn’t a rabbit. “Don’t say random stuff! Weirdo!”

He Qingchuan ignored him, turning and leaving.

Qiu Huaijun felt awfully wronged; after he left, he really did cry, hysterically sobbing. He didn’t understand why he had to come here. He threw rocks into the swimming pool, then cried until he fell asleep.

But when he woke up the next day, he was in the bedroom. It was probably because he’d woken up again in the middle of the night and walked back to the bedroom; Qiu Huaijun didn’t remember anymore.

His memories of He Qingchuan were this deficient.

The light of the sunset outside slowly faded. Qiu Huaijun watched dumbly as He Qingchuan bent down and picked up an abandoned iron pipe, then grabbed Zhang Xiangming’s collar and dragged him to the side of the city center. Immediately after, he slammed it forward at that person’s shoulder without hesitation. In response, the iron pipe split open. He Qingchuan’s expression still didn’t change, as if, in his eyes, the blood that flowed out was only the fire-burnt clouds he saw every day, unworthy of mentioning.

He didn’t beat people up in the alleyway; this was smart.

Those couple of people didn’t dare to make a scene in a place with a lot of people. The onlookers around them also limited their movements, so they could only stare at each other, lifting up their hands helplessly.

Qiu Huaijun propped himself up and slowly walked over, rubbing at his throbbing tailbone. He Qingchuan beat ruthlessly; on the first strike, Zhang Xiangming had been struck dumb, completely unable to react. About five minutes passed before Zhang Xiangming was released. He Qingchuan said, “Go to the hospital as soon as possible for stitches.”

Qiu Huaijun let out an audible laugh, but then restrained it.

The people around them dispersed. Zhang Xiangming, who was so beat up he was unable to stand, was helped away by the other few people; he spat a few harsh words just before he left. It was probably because he didn’t understand why two people that were clearly at odds stood on the same line.

“You’ve got to write a self-criticism now. You’ve really done it this time, a top student’s record has black spots now,” said Qiu Huaijun, brushing off the dirt on his body.

He Qingchuan didn’t intend to respond to his glib words. He gave him an indifferent glance, ever the upright, handsome appearance. One was completely unable to tell that he’d just beat someone half to death.

He just turned around when a force closed around his wrist. Qiu Huaijun grabbed his hand and said softly, “Ge, don’t leave yet.”

“What is it?” He Qingchuan said.

He pulled He Qingchuan into the alleyway, not beside the garbage heap, but rather deeper in.

The alley was dim and dark; other than birdsong there was no other sound. The trash that had just been kicked over was in the distance, not close enough to pollute the air. The discarded soda cans rolled; the moss, like always, was underfoot. Qiu Huaijun’s throat bobbed as he lifted the hem of his shirt.

The binder fell onto the ground. Nipples became erect from the cold, white milk coming out from dark red nipples, slowly sliding towards the stomach.

After being bound for a day, his skin was slightly red, like strawberries that were not yet ready; unripe and yet alluring.

A car sped by. At the beginning of night, the headlights of the car lit up half the alleyway in light and shadow, then vanished.

“Save me here too.” Qiu Huaijun looked at He Qingchuan’s eyes in the dusk-darkness, his face flaming hot. He bit his teeth, his blood pumping rapidly as he said hoarsely, “Gege.”

*In Chinese internet (more like modern) culture there's a funny thing where people refer to themselves as daddy (爸爸) or grandfather (爷爷) to jokingly place themselves in a higher position, like 我赢了你就叫爸爸 "If I win, call me daddy".

Author's note

He Wang: giving a speech'ing