Sexually transmitted disease

When I arrived at Wuluo Coffee Shop, Du Le wasn't there yet. I wandered around and soon spotted Little Bun.

"What do you want to eat? My treat," Little Bun offered generously.

Little Bun's job was selling steamed buns.

"That's pretty fitting!" I said with a snort of laughter.

"What?" She looked bewildered again.

"Little Bun, selling buns."

"Huh?" She stared blankly for a while before finally catching on. Through gritted teeth, she asked, "Are you saying I'm fat?"

"No, no! Baby fat isn't fat. It's cute!" I said sincerely.

"At least you've got good taste!" Little Bun said smugly. "I get an hour's break at one thirty. Wait a bit for me and have lunch first. What would you like?"

"No rush. I've got another friend coming. He's from back home too, so let's wait for him. Make a few more friends, and next time you feel like crying, you won't have to come to me," I teased.

"Yeah, it'd be nice to make a few more friends. I work from morning till night every day, so I never have time to meet anyone."

She chatted with me as she took some ready-made buns out of the fridge and put them in the steamer.

Before long, Du Le called. "Bro, I'm here. Where are you?"

"I'm over by the bun stall. Come on over."

"I'm by the MRT station. How about... you come find me first instead?" Du Le said hesitantly.

He'd been in such a hurry last night, saying he needed to talk to me about something. I still had no idea what it was.

I let Little Bun know I was stepping away, then headed toward the MRT station.

Du Le spotted me from a distance and jogged over.

He furtively pulled me into a quiet corner and asked, "Bro, could you help Sun Qirui?"

"What's wrong with Sun Qirui?" I asked, puzzled.

"Shh!" Du Le seemed badly startled. He hunched his shoulders and glanced around, making sure no one was nearby before whispering breathily into my ear, "He might have a sexually transmitted disease..."

"What?" His breath tickled my ear.

"Shh, shh, shh!" Du Le stamped his feet anxiously. "Keep your voice down!"

"Can you speak properly?" I looked at him, a little speechless. "Even if you're whispering, you still need to let me hear you!"

Du Le craned his neck and looked around again, gesturing as he said quietly, "It's, you know... that... He says it hurts down there, and he's got bumps, and it itches."

"Huh?" This time, I understood him, and I knew why he was being so furtive.

"Why does he think it's... that kind of disease?" I asked discreetly.

The corner of Du Le's mouth twitched, his expression hard to describe. He stammered, "Well... he said he and that American woman..."

He gestured for ages without managing a complete sentence, but I more or less understood what he meant.

I paused, checked the time on my phone, and worked through a divination on my fingers. Then I let out a relieved breath. "It's nothing serious. Tell him to go get checked at the hospital."

After all, Sun Qirui hadn't come to me himself. With something like this, it was best to pretend I knew nothing and just have Du Le pass the message along.

"He's scared it's that kind of disease, so he doesn't dare go to the hospital," Du Le said hesitantly.

"It's just a false alarm this time. He'll be fine. Just tell him that."

"Really?"

"Whether it's true or not, that's all there is to it. He's got a girlfriend. He doesn't need the two of us to go to the hospital with him," I said. "Once you've told him, let's go have lunch."

Du Le was still worried, but all he could do was send Sun Qirui a message.

A moment later, he got a reply. "Sun Qirui says they'll go to the hospital this afternoon."

"Okay, let's go. I'll introduce you to a friend."

Little Bun wasn't due for her break yet. She picked out some Singapore-style dim sum for us to try: radish cake, custard buns, char siu buns, peanut buns, jade buns, shrimp dumplings, siu mai, and more.

Du Le and I had a hard time with the food. We weren't really used to those flavors, and they left us terribly thirsty.

We went to buy two bottles of water and brought Little Bun a cup of freshly squeezed sugarcane juice. Du Le hesitantly asked her, "Do you have any vegetable buns or meat buns?"

"Yes, we have vegetable buns and big pork buns," Little Bun said, getting us two of each.

We both took a bite. They were still sweet...