There was an unspoken “love that dare not speak its name” between the two of them. Xu Guangji didn’t bring it up because he wasn’t sure how far their relationship had progressed. Chen Luzhou didn’t mention it because he thought he was just an ordinary friend of the opposite sex. If he were to take the initiative to greet her, people might think he was being too forward or had ulterior motives.
So, up until he finished his sperm test, neither of them had mentioned Xu Zhi once.
After reviewing his report, Xu Guangji couldn’t help but marvel inwardly at the vigor of youth – this young man’s physical condition was truly excellent.
He slapped the report on the desk, telling Chen Luzhou to come back for regular follow-ups, and that he could leave now.
Chen Luzhou let out a confused “Ah,” not quite understanding Xu Guangji’s meaning. “Why do I need regular follow-ups?”
Xu Guangji glanced at him. “Have you been abstinent for a long time?”
Chen Luzhou wore an expression that said, “You old man, how can you not understand what I’m saying?” He leaned back in his chair, clicked his tongue, and was about to say he was still…
“What are you clicking your tongue for? Is this how you speak to your elders?” Xu Guangji, proving that old ginger is indeed spicier, said expressionlessly, “When I say abstinence, I’m including self-stimulation.”
Chen Luzhou: “…”
Xu Guangji pointed at the report and explained slowly, “How should I put this? Your activity level is indeed very high, but your sperm deformity rate is also high. There are two possibilities: one is that you’ve been abstinent for too long, and the other is that there might be genetic factors in your family. That’s why I asked if you’ve been abstinent for a long time.”
No matter how well-mannered Chen Luzhou tried to appear, he couldn’t keep up the facade any longer. Still leaning back in his chair, he coughed, his gaze shifting awkwardly to the side. After a drawn-out “Ah,” he reluctantly mumbled, “…It has been a while.”
Xu Guangji asked, “More than seven days?”
“Yes, more than that.”
“Hmm, abstaining for over a week before taking the test can indeed cause this issue. For your next check-up, it’s best to maintain a period of three to five days. Too little isn’t good either, as the semen volume won’t be sufficient,” Xu Guangji pushed the medical record card and reported to him. “Alright, you can go now. Come back next month for a follow-up.”
Chen Luzhou: “…”
On his way back, Chen Luzhou’s mood was rather complex. He wasn’t sure if Xu Guangji had intended to intimidate him, but why would he do that? After all, he wasn’t Xu Zhi’s boyfriend, nor was he trying to steal his daughter. Most likely, this matter was quite serious.
He couldn’t help but overthink. His abandonment by his birth parents must have had some reason, right?
Was it due to genetic deformities?
Compared to other children in the orphanage, Chen Luzhou didn’t have many memories of being abandoned. As far as he could remember, he had always been in the orphanage, which meant he might have been sent there right after birth. He had no other apparent defects, so considering what Xu Zhi’s father had said, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
But what was the big deal? If he couldn’t have children, so be it. He was already very lucky compared to that other child.
That child was his friend from the orphanage, though Chen Luzhou could barely remember his face or name now. He vaguely recalled that the child would stand guard at the orphanage gate every day. When Chen Luzhou curiously asked what he was looking at, he said he was waiting for his father.
Chen Luzhou found it amusing and bluntly said, “Your father doesn’t want you anymore.”
But the child insisted, “No, Dad said he was just going to get me a cake and would be back soon.”
He clung to this belief for about five or six years before finally accepting the fact that his father had abandoned him. He became increasingly withdrawn, prone to anger and anxiety, and obsessed with loss. In the end, he never managed to escape the shadow of his father’s abandonment. Cake became a lifelong taboo for him; seeing or hearing anything related to it would trigger him to throw things in a frenzy. It was said that he later ended up in juvenile detention for accidentally injuring someone.
In some ways, a clean and decisive separation is more acceptable than a lingering lie. That’s why Chen Luzhou had always been straightforward. He could accept anything, no matter how absurd. After all, when he was young, the orphanage directors had told him he was a lotus root spirit, saying that Director Mom had dug him out of a lotus root, and he believed it. Every time lotus root was served at the table, he would feel devastated inside but still find it delicious, eating while crying.
“I’m sorry, *sob sob* it’s so tasty. Director Mom, can I have another bowl?”
He was probably three or four years old at the time.
As he grew older and learned where he came from, it became harder to comfort him. He occasionally wanted to find his parents. It was during this time when he craved parental love that Old Chen and Ms. Lian Hui came to take him away, giving him enough care and protection for Chen Luzhou to grow into who he is now.
That evening, he went to the gymnasium to play basketball with Zhu Yangqi. Qingyi City had been experiencing intermittent rain for the past couple of days, like the face of a child in May or June, shedding a few tears now and then, continuing on and off without stopping, alternating between sunny and cloudy.
The outdoor basketball court was muddy and impassable. Zhu Yangqi had reserved the gymnasium in advance, only to find that the aunties had moved even faster, neatly occupying half of the court, hopping left and right. The rhythmic and penetrating voice of Fenghuang Legend blared from the speakers, echoing throughout the empty gymnasium.
They played three-on-three half-court games with stakes. The losers would treat everyone to an 800-yuan-per-person Japanese BBQ at a newly opened restaurant in town. Zhu Yangqi and Jiang Cheng had a bet on who would pay if they lost. Chen Luzhou, Zhu Yangqi, and Feng Jin were on one team, while Jiang Cheng, his girlfriend, and a classmate from Zhu Yangqi’s art class named Da Jun were on the other team.
“Jiang Cheng, are you playing for real? Why don’t you swap your girlfriend with me? Let Chen Luzhou take her. Otherwise, how can we play?” Zhu Yangqi said, feeling sorry for them.
Jiang Cheng and his girlfriend each wore an earring, both tall and attractive. He scoffed, “My girlfriend is from the provincial team. She could take on all three of you easily.”
This fired up Zhu Yangqi, who wore an expression of unleashing the dogs. “Fine, Chen Luzhou, crush him. Beat him so badly he won’t be able to find his way home.”
Zhu Yangqi had never played before, but Chen Luzhou had faced Jiang Cheng and his team several times. The provincial team’s claim was an exaggeration, but her skills were indeed not bad. Zhu Yangqi was all talk and had no skill, so Chen Luzhou couldn’t be bothered to respond. “Even when beating a dog, you’d give it a stick. You yell a couple of times, and I’m supposed to fight tooth and nail for you?”
Zhu Yangqi, fearless, whispered in his ear, “If you’re not fighting for me, who are you fighting for? Xu Zhi? You’ve been in such a bad mood these past few days. She hasn’t contacted you for a while, has she?”
Chen Luzhou stood under the basketball hoop, looking at him while vengefully pressing the basketball hard against his chest, even twisting it a couple of times. “Stirring up trouble, huh? Alright, today it’s four against two.”
With four against two, Zhu Yangqi had almost no chance to fight back, being completely dominated. Chen Luzhou didn’t let him touch the ball at all.
Seeing that he was about to be stuck with the bill for the Japanese meal, Zhu Yangqi finally yielded to Chen Luzhou’s tyranny. During the halftime break, he gritted his teeth and whispered in his ear, “Play well, okay? If you play well, I’ll tell you where Xu Zhi is hanging out today.”
“…As if I care.”
The next second, as soon as the words left his mouth.
Bang! A three-pointer.
…
Jiang Cheng noticed the change in the situation and immediately called out to Chen Luzhou affectionately, “Grass, what happened to our four-against-two agreement?”
Perhaps there was some loving intent behind the insult, but Jiang Cheng had always called him by the single character “Grass.”
Things were getting interesting. Zhu Yangqi’s trigeminal nerve began to tingle with excitement as he reminded Feng Jin, rubbing his hands together, “Old Feng, pay attention, the real game has just begun!”
Feng Jin was probably the only one completely bewildered. “Huh? I thought it was almost over.”
Jiang Cheng couldn’t believe Chen Luzhou had switched sides so quickly. After grabbing a rebound, he still didn’t give up, provocatively dribbling the ball while trying to win back Chen Luzhou’s heart, “Grass, you can’t be such a fence-sitter.”
Chen Luzhou, having just sunk a three-pointer, stood beyond the three-point line with a shameless expression. He lazily twisted his wrist, seeming to resent his hand for its lack of integrity. Sighing, he said, “Recently, Zhu Yangqi got some… dirt on me. Give me some time. Once I get over this phase, I’ll team up with you to destroy him.”
**
Near the Qingyi City Gymnasium, a new night market street had recently opened. It was busiest every day from nine to ten o’clock, with the entire street brightly lit and stalls set up tightly next to each other, offering a dazzling array of goods that could make one’s head spin. They sold everything imaginable.
Chen Luzhou walked along the street, briefly scanning each stall. From food, clothing, housing, and transportation to toys for the elderly and children, wheelchairs, motorcycles, video games, various blind boxes and claw machines, ring toss games, shooting games, fortune-telling booths, matchmaking services, bank financial consulting, coffins, and burial clothes customization, etc. He roughly summarized that apart from human trafficking, one could do anything here. There was even an old man lying half-dead by the roadside in boxer shorts, letting people dry clean him.
Nearby, there was a sour and pretentious artistic scumbag trying to sweet-talk a young woman—
“Have you ever heard a saying?” he asked.
This appeared to be an unpleasant blind date. From the moment they met, the man had proposed that after marriage, they should live with his mother, and she would need to take on all household chores and pay a monthly sum to support his mother. As they walked along, the two had numerous disagreements. The young woman felt this didn’t match her expectations for marriage, and her patience was wearing thin. She took a breath, seemingly just wanting to see how many more tricks he had up his sleeve. “Go on, tell me.”
The artistic young man had stopped at a nail art stall, which happened to have a few boxes of flower seeds on display. He casually picked up a packet and eloquently continued to instill his views on the young woman, “It’s like these flower seeds. Life is sometimes like this too. No one dictates that you must grow into a rose. Sunflowers have their pride, right? As long as we have the same goal, we can form a beautiful family.”
The young woman replied, “Well, that’s true, but—”
Chen Luzhou suddenly felt that it wasn’t without reason that their generation found it difficult to find girlfriends. Some men were indeed quite problematic, especially the one in front of him.
“But these are rose seeds,” a very unsympathetic voice, direct and sharp, rang out like a bucket of cold water being poured down. It was clean and clear, with a unique impatience and perfunctory air. “If it doesn’t grow into a rose, what else can it become? At least have some logic when you’re trying to paint a rosy picture for someone.”
“…”
Xu Zhi had also reached her limit of patience. This gentleman changed his blind date partner every day and wandered up and down this street. Every time he passed by, he would fiddle with her rose seeds and then use his illogical artistic theories to try and persuade women to give up their thoughts and ideals to serve him. He had just been trying to convince someone to quit their job and become his full-time housewife.
Xu Zhi had never been one to meddle in others’ affairs, mainly to avoid causing trouble for Old Xu. In the past, when Ms. Lin Qiudie was around, she had someone to cover for her. She was quite a chivalrous girl, always trying to break up even dog fights, ready to take a knife for others without hesitation. But she didn’t do that anymore. Mainly because Old Xu was too timid, shouldering all the blame himself. The sight of him, a severe social phobic, forcing a smile and trembling as he went to apologize to others was something she couldn’t bear to watch.
So she tried to make herself look like a peace dove, not getting angry with people or sticking her neck out.
To be honest, she could tolerate most persuasions, but she couldn’t stand someone trying to convince others to quit their jobs and stop earning money. That was utterly unacceptable.
Fortunately, it had been raining all day, so there weren’t many people browsing the night market, and not many girls wanted to get their nails done. Otherwise, they would all have been scared away by now. At the moment, Xu Zhi was just helping Cai Yingying apply some nail stickers for fun. She looked up and saw Chen Luzhou unexpectedly leaning against the opposite utility pole.
He was dressed all in black again today, his body lines still sharp and clean. Without his usual cap, his features looked particularly clear and handsome. He might have just finished playing basketball with Zhu Yangqi, as he had a black headband around his forehead, making his facial skin look cold and clean. His hair was messy and damp with sweat, sticking up here and there, and his forehead was covered in sweat, but he looked very alive. The veins on his crossed arms were prominently visible, making him look like a vibrant white poplar tree with clear veins.
There was always a subtle sense of sexual apathy about him. Because of that faint hint of pheromones and his composed demeanor, even the sister running the neighboring stall was looking at him. It seemed no one would have guessed he was just a high school graduate.
There were faint voices and some restless stirring nearby, like spring breeze caressing the treetops and cat calls. It felt as if blood was boiling and hearts were racing.
The moment Xu Zhi’s eyes met his, her heart skipped a beat, tightening slightly.
It had been a few days since they last saw each other.
The artistic brother, feeling he had lost face and seeing that Xu Zhi and Cai Yingying were just two young girls, changed his expression and revealed the tattoo on his arm. Cai Yingying seemed a bit intimidated by his flexing muscles, but her words remained tough. She immediately started acting, tilting her head back and stammering loudly, “Wh-what… do you want to hit us? We’re just two little girls.”
Xu Zhi was about to say, “Brother, your temper is too hot. Not artistic at all.”
But then she saw the figure across the street finally lazily push off from the utility pole and walk towards them.
Before the artistic man could say anything, Chen Luzhou took a few steps to stand behind him. “Excuse me, can you move aside?”
The artistic man turned to look at him. “What’s your business?”
“I’m here to do business with them.”
“This is a nail art stall, handsome,” the artistic man laughed.
“What, people aren’t allowed to have special hobbies?” Chen Luzhou didn’t even look at him. He appeared composed, but his eyes betrayed a sense of enduring humiliation. He said to her with a cold expression, “Just paint whatever. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk – I’m not picky.”
“Oh, except for the Hulk,” he added with principle.
Xu Zhi: “…”