A Dog Out of Nowhere Chapter 50

That rhetorical question from Xiao Yiming made Fang Chi’s heart suddenly sink. He instantly felt like the clothes on his body weren’t warm enough, the night wind whooshing straight in through his collar.

Within seconds his hands felt cold.

“You…” Fang Chi stuffed his hands into his pockets. “You mean your mom knows about… that thing?”

“Mm.” Xiao Yiming nodded.

Fang Chi couldn’t speak for a long time. There was a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. It took him quite a bit of effort to fish one out and put it in his mouth. He clicked the lighter seven or eight times before it finally lit.

“You’re someone who quit smoking, yet you can still pull out cigarettes anytime?” Xiao Yiming said.

“Psychological comfort,” Fang Chi said. He held the cigarette between his fingers but didn’t smoke it. After a while he asked again, “How did she find out?”

Xiao Yiming had always been fairly open about this matter, but not open enough to tell his family himself before the college entrance exam. So his mom could only have found out from somewhere else.

“Don’t want to talk about it,” Xiao Yiming frowned. “Anyway, she just knows.”

Fang Chi fell silent. Neither of them spoke again. They just stood there in the darkness.

The wind blew fiercely, and the temperature kept dropping through the night.

About a dozen meters away there was a patch of light from a streetlamp. It looked warm enough, but Fang Chi knew that even if they walked over there it would be the same.

He didn’t know how long they had stood there in silence. When Fang Chi raised his hand to take a drag of the cigarette, he realized it had already burned down.

He clicked his tongue and flicked the extinguished butt into the trash can beside him.

“Come to my place.” He glanced at Xiao Yiming.

Xiao Yiming had his head tilted, staring at something absent-mindedly. Hearing that, he shook his head. “I’ll find a hotel later.”

“Are you sick?” Fang Chi turned and walked back.

After walking a while, he heard footsteps behind him.

Fang Chi turned his head. “You don’t have any money on you, right?”

“Mm.” Xiao Yiming patted himself and smiled. “Penniless.”

“They won’t let you go home?” Fang Chi asked.

“They didn’t say that. Just told me to get lost,” Xiao Yiming rubbed his hands together. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Mm.” Fang Chi responded.

The two of them fell silent again, walking all the way back into the neighborhood without speaking.

When they got inside, Fang Chi checked the time, it was pretty late. He looked at Xiao Yiming. “Let’s squeeze together.”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa.” Xiao Yiming lay down on the couch wrapped in the coat. “Won’t be able to sleep more than a few hours anyway.”

“My bed’s pretty big,” Fang Chi said.

“Afraid you’d feel uncomfortable,” Xiao Yiming closed his eyes. “Besides, I’m not used to squeezing with people.”

Fang Chi didn’t say anything more. He went into the room, took a quilt from the cabinet, and gave it to Xiao Yiming. The heating in this lousy neighborhood had never been very strong, nothing like the one at his grandparents’ house where they burned it themselves.

Xiao Yiming covered himself with the quilt and fell asleep.

Fang Chi went back to the bedroom, closed the door, and lay down on the bed.

He wanted to send the little flowers he had photographed today to Sun Wenqu, but it was too late. He didn’t send them, and besides he wasn’t really in the mood.

Xiao Yiming hadn’t said the specific situation, and he didn’t want to ask. That clear, bright slap mark was already enough. Besides, it was nothing more than those same things.

The more you heard, the more hopeless it felt.

He turned off the light and stuffed Chief Huang, who was sleeping on his pillow, into the gap beside the pillow.

He closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and silently counted numbers in his mind.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, he seemed to hear Xiao Yiming’s suppressed crying from the living room. But when he listened again, it was gone.

Frowning, he grabbed the headphones beside him and put them over his ears.

When he got up in the morning, the moment Fang Chi opened the bedroom door he saw someone in the living room, standing by the window with his back to him.

Startled, he grabbed a trekking pole leaning by the door.

Only when the person turned around did he come back to his senses, it was the homeless Xiao Yiming.

“You scared me.” He put down the trekking pole.

“You’ve got amnesia or something?” Xiao Yiming said with a smile.

“I just didn’t react in time,” Fang Chi glanced at him. “You want to wash up? I’ll get you a toothbrush and towel.”

“I saw mouthwash, used that. Washed my face too, just splashed some water and done. No need to bother.” Xiao Yiming said.

“Mm.” Fang Chi went into the bathroom.

He found Xiao Yiming a coat that fit better, and the two of them went out.

Xiao Yiming’s phone seemed not to have rung all night. While eating breakfast he kept looking at it, and Fang Chi suddenly felt his mom was pretty ruthless.

But something like this… if it were someone in his own family…

Grandpa and Grandma would look for him, right?

Maybe they wouldn’t let him just run out like that?

No, who knows. Maybe it would be the same.

Or someone might get so angry they fell ill, who could say.

Thinking of this, Fang Chi couldn’t help frowning. He couldn’t even finish the tofu pudding.

Xiao Yiming was fairly calm. He just went to school like that, bringing nothing. Fortunately they were already at the stage of exam review where all the books were piled on their desks, so backpacks didn’t matter much.

But when they went to eat lunch together, Xiao Yiming didn’t go. He said he wanted to catch up on sleep in the classroom.

Fang Chi had a strange feeling he couldn’t quite describe. At a time like this, with something like this happening to Xiao Yiming, he wanted to tell someone, wanted to talk to someone, but he didn’t know who to tell, who to talk to, or what exactly he should say, what he should talk about.

Sun Wenqu’s name was tapped open several times. He stared at it for a while before finally putting his phone away again.

After school in the afternoon he wandered around with Xiao Yiming as usual. Today Xiao Yiming probably hadn’t even decided where to go after finishing his roasted chestnuts.

“When are you going home?” Fang Chi asked him.

“Don’t know,” Xiao Yiming sighed. “My mom still hasn’t responded to me.”

“Then what will you do?” Fang Chi sighed too. “Come to my place again today?”

“No.” Xiao Yiming shook his head. “I’ll go to my aunt’s place. Got any money? Lend me some.”

“Your aunt?” Fang Chi took out his wallet. “What are you going to tell her?”

“I’ll just say I argued and got kicked out.” Xiao Yiming said.

“The college entrance exam is coming soon. That doesn’t sound reasonable,” Fang Chi took the few hundred yuan from his wallet and gave it to him. “Why don’t you go back and… apologize to your mom.”

“Apologize?” Xiao Yiming looked at him.

“At least say something softer,” Fang Chi lowered his head and bit into a chestnut. “Otherwise what can you do?”

“I argued pretty fiercely with my mom. Even if I turned soft like a puddle of mud it might be useless,” Xiao Yiming stopped at the bus stop and leaned against the advertisement board. “I blocked my own way.”

Fang Chi didn’t speak. Xiao Yiming was quite stubborn. If he said that, Fang Chi could more or less imagine how the mother and son had argued.

“I was too impulsive,” Xiao Yiming lowered his eyelids. “I always thought this thing wasn’t a big deal. If people know, then they know, it can’t be changed and it isn’t wrong. Is such a big reaction really necessary? Still too naive. Among parents, maybe out of ten thousand there might be a few who can accept it.”

Fang Chi listened quietly.

“If I had another chance I definitely wouldn’t confront her like that,” Xiao Yiming frowned. “Kneeling down and letting her beat me first to vent her anger would have been better.”

From Xiao Yiming’s tone Fang Chi could hear the helplessness and powerlessness.

“I’ll go to my aunt’s place first. The bus is here.” Xiao Yiming patted his shoulder.

“You…” Fang Chi looked at him.

“I’m fine,” Xiao Yiming said. “The exam is coming soon. No matter what, I’ll get through the college entrance exam first. You should do the same. Don’t dwell on my situation.”

After Xiao Yiming squeezed onto the bus, Fang Chi stood on the platform in a daze for quite a while.

He didn’t even know what he was thinking. In the end he put on his headphones and started running back along the road.

His running habits were very good, he was quite serious about it. The balance of his body, the swing of his arms, the stride of his legs, the landing point of his feet, he paid attention to every detail to do it properly.

Only running like that could be satisfying. Only then could he better experience the joy of running.

Only then could he better throw all the unpleasant things behind him.

In front of his eyes were only the constantly passing scenery and people, as well as the wind that was gradually no longer cold and his breathing.

Today Sun Wenqu had gone up the mountain with Grandpa and Xiaozi.

Every so often Grandpa would go up the mountain for a walk to get some exercise. As someone who had lived here his entire life, he liked to see the changes in the mountains, changes that might take years, decades, even longer, the kind outsiders couldn’t notice.

“Are you tired?” Grandpa asked him.

The path up the mountain that Grandpa chose was easy to walk, fairly gentle, and long ago it had been trampled wide by people going into the mountain.

“Not tired,” Sun Wenqu said. “I could still climb two more mountains.”

“You say that like you’ve already climbed one,” Grandpa laughed. “We haven’t even reached halfway up yet.”

“This path is easy to walk,” Sun Wenqu said with a smile. “Not tiring.”

“In the future when you run, come run on this path. Don’t go to that path where you twisted your ankle again,” Grandpa said.

“I haven’t gone there anymore. Don’t dare to,” Sun Wenqu said.

“Little Chi grew up in the mountains since he was little, running around everywhere. These paths and rocks, he walks them very smoothly,” Grandpa introduced as they walked. “See that rock over there?”

“I see it,” Sun Wenqu looked in the direction Grandpa pointed. Across the valley was a bare rock wall with no grass growing on it. “That’s not really called a rock…”

“Little Chi could climb up from there when he was in elementary school,” Grandpa said somewhat proudly. “Like a little monkey, wild as can be.”

“He said you always took him into the mountains to play,” Sun Wenqu looked at Grandpa. Grandpa’s smile was quite infectious, when he smiled, Sun Wenqu felt like smiling too.

“When he was little I was the one who took him into the mountains. When he got a bit older he started running in there by himself,” Grandpa said with feeling. “After the kid went to the city he never quite got used to it. He wants to come back, and once he comes back he can’t bear to leave.”

“I can understand,” Sun Wenqu said. “He grew up in a place like this. It’s too different from the city.”

“Yeah, but how can he not leave? He still has to go out,” Grandpa said. “Go to the city to study, to work. It’s still much better than the countryside.”

“He mainly just misses you two, you and Grandma.” Sun Wenqu reached out and teased Xiaozi walking beside them.

Grandpa laughed loudly, very happily, then after thinking about it said, “This kid, he hasn’t called again recently, right?”

“Mm, probably too busy reviewing.” Sun Wenqu took out his phone and looked. Since the last time Fang Chi called, it had already been more than half a month.

There had been a few messages, a photo of a little yellow flower, asking whether the flowers in the monkey pots had bloomed yet, two goodnights, and a few saying he had solved some pretty difficult problems and was showing off to him, even attaching photos of the problems.

But he hadn’t called again.

Looking only at those messages, it didn’t seem like there was any problem. A kid struggling through college entrance exam review, sending a few messages in spare moments to relax.

But thinking about it carefully, something still felt a little off.

Fang Chi and Liang Xiaotao walked out of the pet hospital together, carrying Chief Huang in the cat carrier, still half-dazed.

“When we get home, when it comes back to its senses will it scratch me?” Fang Chi asked, a little worried.

“Probably not,” Liang Xiaotao bent down to look into the carrier. “Maybe it won’t even realize it lost its balls? At most it’ll just ignore you.”

“That’s fine,” Fang Chi sighed. “It ignores me anyway.”

Liang Xiaotao laughed. “You’re quite self-aware as a poop-scooper.”

“Let me treat you to something to eat.” Fang Chi looked around.

“No need, hurry back,” Liang Xiaotao smiled. “I’ll head straight home. Or you can treat me to a late-night snack after evening self-study.”

“Okay.” Fang Chi nodded.

Just as he was about to say something else, his phone rang in his pocket.

Our motherland is a garden, the flowers in the garden are so bright and beautiful. Warm sunlight shines on us, every face blooming with smiles…

“Bye!” Liang Xiaotao waved at him and hopped into a taxi parked by the roadside.

Fang Chi waved back while taking out his phone. “Hello?”

“You’re outside?” Sun Wenqu’s voice came through the receiver.

“Mm.” Fang Chi carried the cat carrier into the supermarket beside him and stood at the entrance to block the wind.

“You still have evening study tonight, right?” Sun Wenqu said.

“Mm.” Listening to his voice, Fang Chi felt an indescribable feeling, warm, comfortable, like wanting to go over and rub against him a few times, but also tangled with fear. “Today… I brought Chief Huang out to get him neutered.”

“It’s already done?” Sun Wenqu laughed. “Does it know yet?”

“Probably not. It still looks kind of dizzy,” Fang Chi smiled. “You… busy today?”

“Not bad,” Sun Wenqu said. “Go home first. Call me when you get back. Grandpa said this morning you haven’t called in a long time, he probably misses you.”

“Mm.” Fang Chi suddenly felt guilty. “Our review right now… is pretty busy. After evening study I go back and just… sleep.”

“I told him you’re busy and tired lately.” Sun Wenqu said.

“Oh.” Fang Chi responded. “Then I’ll call you when I get back.”

Fang Chi hailed a car by the roadside. Holding the cat carrier, he stared out the window the whole way with a heavy feeling in his chest. When they reached downstairs he almost got out without paying the driver.

He didn’t know whether Sun Wenqu had heard anything, his nervousness and hesitation.

Probably not. Sun Wenqu’s tone had sounded quite normal.

Or maybe he did hear it? That guy had always been able to see right through him at a glance without showing anything…

Probably yes. Fang Chi rested his forehead against the back of the front seat and sighed softly. Not even mentioning anything else, just not calling for this long was already obvious enough.

Would Sun Wenqu be angry?

Or maybe he was angry but didn’t say it…

Then again, maybe something he cared so much about didn’t even register for Sun Wenqu.

Fang Chi went inside and carefully took Chief Huang out, placing it in its bed. It was a soft cat bed with a hole it could crawl into, though Chief Huang didn’t like going inside much. When it was in a good mood it would usually just sit upright on top of the bed, trying hard to squash the whole thing into a pancake.

But now when Fang Chi put it inside, it cooperated quite well. Once stuffed in, it curled up and didn’t move.

Fang Chi washed his hands, changed clothes, then picked up the phone and hesitantly dialed Sun Wenqu’s number.

The ringtone had just sounded once when the call was picked up. Then Fang Chi heard Grandpa’s voice.

“Little Chi?”

“…Grandpa!” Fang Chi hadn’t expected Grandpa to answer directly and called out with a surprised smile. “You learned how to answer the phone?”

“Haven’t learned. Shuiqu helped swipe it open for me,” Grandpa chuckled. “You got that cat castrated today?”

“Yeah,” Fang Chi said with a smile. “Just got back. Have you eaten?”

“We have. Today’s dishes were especially high-class. Shuiqu will send you photos later,” Grandpa said happily. “They looked very high-class, even the duck your grandma burned turned pretty.”

“What did you eat?” Fang Chi couldn’t help touching his stomach.

“Just ordinary dishes. But recently Shuiqu made two plates, so we used them to hold the food. Very pretty.” Grandpa said.

“Oh.” Fang Chi smiled. When Sun Wenqu got stuck in his work he liked making other things. Fang Chi pinched the four-leaf clover at his collar. “Then I have to see.”

After chatting with Grandpa and Grandma for a while, Grandma heard he hadn’t eaten yet and urged him to hurry and eat.

“Got it,” Fang Chi said out of habit. “Then give the phone to Shuiqu.”

“Shuiqu ran off somewhere,” Grandma said. “He’s not in the house.”

“Oh, then hang up. You don’t need to move, I’ll hang up on my side.” Fang Chi hesitated a moment after speaking, then hung up.

Thinking Sun Wenqu might call back, he took the phone into the kitchen and cooked noodles.

But after the noodles were cooked and finished, Sun Wenqu still hadn’t called.

Fang Chi sighed, drank all the noodle soup without much taste, and took the bowl to wash.

Just as he finished cleaning up and was about to review for a while, his phone received a message.

He picked it up and looked. It was from Sun Wenqu.

Two photos. One was of two very beautiful white petal-shaped plates with faint veins. The other showed Grandma’s burned duck and some greens in the plates. The greens weren’t burned.

—Made them while looking for inspiration. Handsome, right?

Fang Chi smiled.

—Very handsome.

—Go review. Only a few months left. Make the most of it.

—Mm.

—Take a photo of Chief Huang without balls and let me see.

Fang Chi laughed and took his phone, crouching in front of the cat bed. After struggling for a while he managed to take two photos of Chief Huang. Chief Huang was still a bit dazed, didn’t move or swat at him, just half-opened its eyes and looked at him.

He sent the photos to Sun Wenqu.

—That’s how he looks. The doctor said it’ll take a few hours before he recovers.

—Abandoned by the world. Pet him for me. Go review.

—Mm.

Fang Chi put down the phone, sat at the desk, stared blankly for a while, then put on his headphones and lay over the desk to start doing problems.

When will this end?

He didn’t ask much about how Xiao Yiming’s situation was resolved. He only knew Xiao Yiming still hadn’t gone home and was staying at his aunt’s house, but his state at school, going to class, studying, reviewing, had already returned to normal.

Maybe this matter could never really be resolved.

Parents couldn’t accept it. The child couldn’t change.

A dead knot.

Not hurting parents, not confronting them with such things, the only method seemed to be never taking that step, whether actively or forced.

Fang Chi forced himself not to think about these things.

Unsolvable problems, leave them for now.

Sun Wenqu had said: no distractions.

That was pretty difficult. Fang Chi felt like every so often his mind would wander. Fortunately his review had now entered the “hey I know this line, this problem isn’t hard either, ah this line should be like this” pseudo-top-student state.

Although when the teacher explained the test papers he would realize there were still quite a few mistakes, at least when doing problems he could keep going smoothly. There was less time for random wandering thoughts.

By bedtime he would fall asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, basically not even having time to reminisce before passing out.

Only in the mornings, if he woke up early, he would think a little about Sun Wenqu, how his work was going, whether he was still running, whether he kept making plates to complete a set for Grandpa and Grandma, whether he stayed up all night.

After the alarm rang in the morning, Fang Chi opened his eyes, rolled around in bed a few times, got up, pulled open the curtains, and opened the window to air out the room.

The weather was starting to warm up now. Occasionally the air carried the damp earthy smell of soil. The new buds on the trees outside had shed their tender bright green and turned into a slightly deeper green.

The phone chimed once by the bedside.

Fang Chi went over and picked it up to look. It was from Sun Wenqu.

On the rooftop the monkey pots on his windowsill had been arranged in a circle. Among the green leaves were tiny white flowers, very small, like grains of rice.

“The flowers have bloomed,” Sun Wenqu said.

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