"Whew, I'll give him that—Brother Yan could really drink."
Xiang Nan stood by the roadside beneath a tree, throwing up as he spoke with feeling.
Lu Tao had a cigarette dangling from his lips. He unscrewed a bottle of water and handed it over. "He used to run with the jianghu crowd. Back in the day, he'd be the type to eat meat from big bowls and drink liquor from big bowls. How could fresh college graduates like us compare? Good thing we left early. Otherwise, we'd all have been drunk flat tonight."
"Brother Yan didn't force us to drink. I remember it clearly—more than half the toasts were proposed by you, Lu Tao. I thought you wanted to compete with Brother Yan, so I followed along and toasted him too." Mila smiled foolishly from the side.
Xiang Nan took a mouthful of water, rinsed his mouth, and spat it out before saying weakly, "Case solved. It was you two. Give me a cigarette."
As Lu Tao passed out cigarettes, he said, "I was just having such a good chat with Brother Yan. How should I put it? He just seemed especially carefree, especially easygoing. Listen to those stories Pighead told about his past, then look at Brother Yan—would you believe he was the one who did all that? And he had such a nice way of talking. I felt like he really understood me. Didn't you guys feel that too?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just thought the way he talked was interesting, and he seemed like such a nice person," Mila agreed.
"Same for me, more or less. Otherwise, why would I have drunk so much? I'm telling you, I didn't sneak even one less drink this time. I didn't feel bad at the time—it was just such a