You Already Have a Girlfriend?

"No problem."

After the two agreed, Gao Qiang bent down and began tidying up the bed he had just made.

Gao Qiang had a jumble of belongings: a somewhat worn army-green duffel bag, a few old clothes, two pairs of sneakers with no recognizable brand, and a pair of old, worn cloth shoes.

Gao Qiang began sorting his luggage with his back to Tang Yi, the worn cloth shoes lying near Tang Yi's feet.

Tang Yi watched Gao Qiang pull out one piece of clothing after another. He said nothing, merely nudging the old cloth shoes a little farther away from himself.

As Gao Qiang sorted his things, the two of them chatted.

Gao Qiang was quite friendly. He asked Tang Yi, "Where are you from, bro?"

"Changzhou." Tang Yi didn't seem to care much for chatting and answered flatly.

"Changzhou? Hey, isn't Wang Yan from our class from Changzhou too?"

Although they hadn't formally met their classmates yet, they already had a class group chat and had talked to one another.

"She's from Liyang, and I'm from Wujin. It's different," Tang Yi said.

"What's different about it? Aren't you both from Changzhou!?" Gao Qiang grinned, seeing nothing wrong with what he'd said.

Tang Yi didn't reply. He only thanked Gao Qiang after he finished tidying the top bunk.

Then he climbed up to the top bunk on his own. Rather than hurry to unpack, he took out his phone and tapped out quite a few words.

The tapping sound unique to Apple phones was especially clear in the quiet dorm.

He chatted with someone on his phone for about ten minutes or so. During that time, the three below also talked a little.

For instance, Gao Qiang asked who had brought the snacks on the table.

Zhou Yuwen said his mother had prepared them.

"She said they were for you guys. Help yourselves if you want any," Zhou Yuwen said.

"Now that's great! I actually was getting a little hungry! Hehe, thanks, bro!" Gao Qiang answered, then went ahead and tore open a package.

Zhou Yuwen simply smiled and acknowledged him.

After Tang Yi finished chatting, he began sorting his things. As he opened his suitcase, he muttered to himself that he didn't know what his mom had packed for him.

Hearing Tang Yi speak, Gao Qiang cheerfully came over to join the conversation.

He saw Tang Yi take out all his shirts and pants and hang them in the wardrobe.

Tang Yi said his aunt had brought him one of the shirts when she went to Japan.

"She said it cost over three thousand back then. Now you couldn't even sell it for a thousand."

Gao Qiang had already walked over to Tang Yi, grinning, but when he heard that, his smile became somewhat strained, and he couldn't quite get the joke on the tip of his tongue out.

"And there's this Evisu."

Tang Yi found a pair of dark blue, wide-leg jeans. They had an extremely flamboyant design, with a large M on the backside.

"What on earth did my mom pack for me? Nobody wears pants like these anymore!"

"I bought these back in my second year of high school. What is all this?"

Tang Yi hung up his clothes, picking through them and complaining that nobody wore them anymore. He'd have to find time to buy a few new outfits.

"What's the point of packing these clothes? She might as well have just given me the money!"

Tang Yi laid his suitcase flat on the floor and put his clothes away. Gao Qiang noticed a small box in the suitcase and asked curiously, "Hey? What's this?"

Tang Yi looked at it and picked it up. "Why did she pack this too?"

He opened it to reveal a finely crafted quartz watch.

Tang Yi told Gao Qiang the brand was Tissot, and it cost three thousand yuan!

"That expensive!" Gao Qiang said in surprise.

"How is that expensive? A good mechanical watch costs tens of thousands. Mine doesn't even make the cut. I got laughed at when I wore it out in high school!"

"I'm just a little brother in front of my friends."

As Tang Yi spoke, he slipped the watch onto his wrist and began making his bed.

As he climbed around on the top bunk making his bed, he also took the initiative to chat with the three roommates below.

He complained a little about the dorm's condition, repeating what he had just told his friend on the phone.

What a dump.

And this was supposed to be a provincial capital.

It wasn't even as good as his grandma's place in the countryside.

"There must be a lot of mosquitoes here."

Zhou Yuwen said that was normal, and there might even be rats.

"Fuck, don't scare me!" Tang Yi jumped at that.

Lu Cancan couldn't help chuckling nearby. Gao Qiang also grinned and said, "A grown man like you is afraid of rats!?"

"If there really are rats, I'll bring my foot down and stomp their guts out!" Gao Qiang said.

Tang Yi laughed too. From their earlier conversation, he knew Gao Qiang was from Northeast China, so he said, "You're so straightforward, Brother Qiang!"

"You bet!"

After spending a little over half an hour, Tang Yi finally finished tidying his bed and climbed down.

Gao Qiang offered Tang Yi a cigarette.

Tang Yi glanced at it and saw it was a Daqianmen. He waved it away and said, "I'm not used to smoking those."

"Have one of mine."

Tang Yi took a finely packaged pack of Xuanhemen from his pocket and pulled out two or three cigarettes to offer around.

"Xuanhemen? Good stuff!" Gao Qiang's eyes lit up when he saw them, and he hurriedly took one.

The corner of Tang Yi's mouth twitched upward. "How are these good cigarettes? Do you know what my high school classmates smoked?"

"They all smoked He Tianxia, the kind that costs over a hundred."

"I don't even count as a little brother in front of them."

"Here, have a smoke."

After offering one to Gao Qiang, he tried to offer cigarettes to Zhou Yuwen and Lu Cancan too.

Zhou Yuwen said, "I don't smoke."

"I don't smoke either."

"Good students, huh?"

As Tang Yi spoke, he lit a cigarette.

On that September afternoon, the sunlight had shed the heat of midsummer and grown thin and clear.

Outside the window, dawn redwoods grew in dense layers.

Their pale green leaves had quietly taken on a touch of light yellow around the edges.

The cicadas seemed to have grown quieter.

The sound of conversation rustled through the dorm. There was clearly noise, yet it seemed so quiet.

Through their conversation, the four got to know one another somewhat.

Tang Yi said he liked listening to folk songs when he slept and wondered if anyone minded.

The other three boys naturally said they didn't mind.

Tang Yi said that was great. If he didn't listen to music, he couldn't fall asleep.

"What kind of quirk is that?" Gao Qiang asked curiously.

Tang Yi said he couldn't help it; he'd gotten used to it.

As they were talking, Tang Yi's phone rang.

Tang Yi answered. "Hello? You're here? Okay, I'll come down right away."

After hanging up, Tang Yi said, "My girlfriend's here to see me. I'm going downstairs for a bit."

"What!? You actually have a girlfriend!?" Gao Qiang exclaimed in surprise.

Tang Yi forced down the corners of his mouth and said, seemingly nonchalantly, "Isn't that perfectly normal?"