BIAS Chapter 7: Three Years

Yan Xu turned around and went into the shop. He was about to take the massager upstairs when a customer entered at this moment. Hence, he pulled out a plastic bag over it, then carefully placed the massager on the table near the kitchen entrance, and hid it by placing a kettle in front of it.

At 9 p.m, his busy day finally came to an end.

Yan Xu rubbed his neck as he left the kitchen, intending to close the shop. He swept his eyes across the shop and his gaze finally landed on the neck massager on the table in the corner of the room. The corners of his straightened mouth couldn’t help but rise. He went over to the table and picked up the massager, and just when he had taken off the plastic bag, the door opened, causing a gust of cold wind to blow in the shop.

The shop was nice and toasty. When it got busy, Yan Xu didn’t find it cold, so he didn’t wear a coat; he only wore a light gray knitted sweater. This gust of cold wind blew directly on his back, causing him to shiver.

He had thought it was a customer, so he hurriedly put the massager back on the table. When he turned around, he froze—Fang Jincheng was slightly smiling as he stood at the door.

“Xiao Xu,” Fang Jincheng spoke first. He closed the door and walked up to Yan Xu. “Why are you wearing so little?”

“Cheng-ge—” Yan Xu called out hesitantly, staring fixedly at the man in front of him.

Fang Jincheng worked for a construction company whose main business was overseas contracting projects. Three years ago, the company won the bid for the Railway Relocation and Resettlement Village Project in L Country. He was dispatched to L Country to participate in the construction of this project and had been staying there for three years without returning to the country.

L Country was different from here; the living conditions were harsh. Compared to three years ago, Fang Jincheng had gotten slightly thinner and darker. However, this made him look even more attractive and younger.

“Don’t recognize me?” Fang Jincheng took another step forward and asked with amusement in his voice.

“Cheng-ge, what brings you here?” Yan Xu flusteredly retracted his gaze and looked at the floor. Last night, he had remained dissociative while at the dinner table, and it was only at this moment that he truly felt the reality of Fang Jincheng’s return.

“I came to give you something.” Fang Jincheng handed him an exquisite gift bag to Yan Xu. “You left in a rush last night; when I arrived downstairs, you were already long gone.”

Speaking of yesterday, Yan Xu felt a bit awkward.

When he hurriedly left last night, he actually did hear Fang Jincheng call out to him, but at that moment, he only wanted to leave that suffocating house. So, he pretended not to hear and rushed straight out.

“What did you give me?” Yan Xu guessed what Fang Jincheng gave him, but he still asked the question even though he knew the answer.

Fang Jincheng raised Yan Xu’s hand and hung the handle of the gift bag on his hand. “Your birthday present, open it and have a look.”

“Okay—” Yan Xu gripped the twisted gift bag rope. “Sit first.”

Fang Jincheng listened to him and sat at the table closest to the kitchen, but his gaze followed after Yan Xu.

Yan Xu took out two glass cups and put the chrysanthemum tea leaves in each one of them, then poured hot water. He turned around with two cups of tea, placing one in front of him. He could feel Fang Jincheng’s gentle gaze, but Yan Xu kept his eyes down to avoid it. It was only when the two sat face to face that he slowly raised his head.

Fang Jincheng didn’t say anything, he just smiled and reminded Yan Xu, “Won’t you open the present and take a look?”

Yan Xu took out the present from inside the bag—there were a total of three of them, all meticulously wrapped in the same floral paper. It was hard to tell what was inside them. He was a bit confused, so he asked, “Three presents?”

Fang Jincheng pointed at two of the presents and said, “These two were bought from last year and the year before last. I originally was going to have it sent to you, but then I thought it would be meaningless if I don’t give it to you in person, so I kept them and thought I would give them to you together with this year’s present.”

Yan Xu raised his eyes, looking at Fang Jincheng through the steam, and the corner of his lips curved down. He had no expression on his face, but there was a surge of emotions in his heart.

Fang Jincheng stared at Yan Xu with deep, affectionate eyes without blinking and said, “Actually, I should have taken a flight back to China with my colleagues three days later, but I wanted to celebrate your birthday, so I returned a few days earlier. The reason I kept it a secret from you was to give you a surprise. I originally planned to come to you after dinner yesterday, but I didn’t expect an unexpected situation…”

Yan Xu understood—this unexpected situation was referring to his sudden appearance at home. Even Fang Jincheng knew that it was unexpected for his mom to call him home on that particular day, yet he foolishly thought his mom wanted to celebrate his birthday.

Looking at the birthday presents in front of him, Yan Xu laughed deprecatingly at himself, and the ripples in his heart just now also calmed down.

Fang Jincheng also realized that he spoke wrong and quickly changed the subject, “How about you open the presents?”

Yan Xu nodded, opening them one by one.

The present from the year before last was a beautiful carved wooden statue, the present from last year was a fine jade pendant, and today’s gift was a men’s watch. He could tell that each gift was carefully picked out.

“Do you like them?” Fang Jincheng warmly asked, “I’m not good at choosing presents.”

“I like them.” Yan Xu lightly frowned, feeling a bit awkward. “But they’re too expensive, I can’t accept them. Also, I didn’t prepare three gifts for you.”

Fang Jincheng’s birthday was in June and it had long since passed, but Yan Xu was aware that he would return this year, so he prepared a present. However, Fang Jincheng was abroad in the past two years, thus, he couldn’t give him any presents. The two of them just wished each other happy birthday over the phone. Fang Jincheng also never mentioned that he bought him presents, so he didn’t prepare anything. This contrast made him feel guilty, especially since the other’s presents were indeed quite expensive. He wasn’t sure about the price of the jade pendant and wooden statue, but the watch alone was already very expensive.

“It’s fine as long as you like them.” Fang Jincheng took out the watch from the velvet box and held Yan Xu’s warm wrist. “The wood statue and jade pendant are L Country’s specialties. They were very cheap to buy locally. I bought this watch from the duty-free shop; it’s not as expensive as you think.”

After he finished speaking, he also finished putting the watch on Yan Xu’s wrist.

Fang Jincheng released the hand holding Yan Xu, looked at it carefully, and said, “It suits you very well. The watch doesn’t suit me, if you didn’t accept it, it would just be gathering dust in the drawer.”

The tranquil lake in Yan Xu’s heart once again made ripples, and he no longer refused. He pretended to pick up the cup casually; he reached out his numb and hot fingertips, took a sip of the hot tea, and said, “I only prepared a present for you this year. Wait a moment, I’ll go upstairs to get it.”

“No rush,” Fang Jincheng answered. “I’ll come back in the next few days to get it. It’ll give me an excuse to come here again.”

Yan Xu was slightly stunned. His ears turned red, and he gently nodded.

It was already pretty late. Fang Jincheng finished half his cup of tea and said that he should go now.

Yan got up to send him off, but accidentally bumped into the massager on the table behind him. When it was about to fall to the floor, fortunately, he was quick to catch it.

Fang Jincheng looked at it, then asked in concern, “Is there a problem with your neck?”

“No, it just aches when I work long hours.”

“Running around all by yourself; must be really exhausting.” Fang Jincheng hesitated to say something, but didn’t continue, changing the topic, “When it comes to massagers, you shouldn’t go for well-known brands. These off-brands can easily cause problems. Don’t use this one—I’ll bring you a better one in a couple of days…”

“I think it’s fine.” Yan Xu interrupted Fang Jincheng. After the words fell, he began to reflect on himself for his overly sharp tone; Fang Jincheng said that for his own good. “This…” He looked down and explained, “This is a birthday present from a friend.”

“I-is that so?” Fang Jincheng’s expression slightly changed. “Is that friend Zhang Wenjie or Wang Dong? But aren’t they both in other provinces?”

“No, a new friend.”

“How come I never heard you mention it?” Fang Jincheng realized his own tone carried a hint of irritation. “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Yan Xu didn’t really mind, calmly saying, “Just a friend I recently met.”

It was within reason for Fang Jincheng to ask this, because he only had two close friends; one was Zhang Wenjie, his high school classmate, and the other was Wang Dong, whom he met when he was an apprentice at a restaurant. Fang Jincheng knew both of them and had met before. When they talked on the phone, he would occasionally mention them. He also told Fang Jincheng that, due to various reasons, they both settled in other provinces last year.

The surrounding atmosphere became stagnant for a moment. Fang Jincheng didn’t probe any further. He lightly coughed and said, “Then I’ll head back now.”

“Okay, be careful on your way home.”