My Deskmate Chapter 19 (Part 2)
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 19.2
Wen Xiao stepped into the pavilion, folding his umbrella and leaning it against the side.
Chi Ye smirked. "What a coincidence, deskmate."
Wen Xiao opened the can of cola with one hand and took a sip. "Mm."
The can was cold. Taken straight from the fridge, a layer of water droplets had formed on the surface, leaving droplets on Wen Xiao’s hands.
Chi Ye was in a bad mood and didn’t feel like chatting. After giving a brief greeting, he turned back to continue skipping stones.
Yaya, no longer interested in her poem, slid over to Wen Xiao to talk. "Cola-gege, have you had lunch yet? The caregiver auntie has gone home, so we need to take care of Mommy. Later, my gege and I are going to the canteen for lunch."
Wen Xiao glanced at Chi Ye. He had definitely heard but didn’t stop Yaya from speaking.
"Is the food at the canteen good?"
Yaya stuck out her tongue. "It’s not good. The dishes don’t have any flavor. I like food with flavor."
Listening to their back-and-forth, for some inexplicable reason, Chi Ye’s mood, which had been in a downward spiral since signing the critical illness notice early that morning, lifted just a tiny bit.
After checking the time, Chi Ye stood up. His black ankle boots made a soft sound on the ground as he brushed the dust off his hands. He called to his sister, "Let’s go. Didn’t you say you were hungry? Let’s eat." Taking Yaya’s hand, he turned to Wen Xiao. "Have you eaten yet? Want to join us?"
Wen Xiao shook his head. "No appetite."
This state was pretty much the same as how Chi Ye was feeling right now.
"Mm, then I’ll see you on Monday."
Once they had left, Wen Xiao sat down in the spot Chi Ye had just vacated, staring off into space for a moment. When he snapped out of it, he picked up one of the stones Chi Ye had left behind and threw it into the lake.
On Sunday night, Wen Xiao fell asleep halfway through his homework. When he woke up, he faintly heard noises coming from the kitchen.
He got up and opened the bedroom door, walking toward the kitchen while rubbing his forehead. "Mom, it's so late, you don’t need to—"
Wen Xiao’s voice was a bit hoarse. He stood at the kitchen doorway and, upon seeing the figure by the stove, croaked, "Grandma."
The fire was on and the water in the pot was boiling, making a gurgling sound. White steam rose and finally condensed into water droplets on the surface of the cabinets..
They stood there, both unsure of how to break the silence.
In the end, Wen Xiao spoke first. "Grandma."
"Mm," his grandmother moved her lips and finally spoke, "You didn’t eat much for dinner. I was going to make you a bowl of noodles."
Wen Xiao looked at her slightly reddened eyes and softened his voice. "I’m not hungry. It’s so late. You should go to sleep. Didn’t you say you were feeling sleepy earlier?"
Turning away, he stared at the boiling water for a long while. Finally, his grandmother turned off the stove. "Alright, alright..." she mumbled, unable to say more.
Once the door to the master bedroom closed, Wen Xiao leaned against the kitchen doorframe, staring at the steam rising from the pot, lost in thought for a moment. He stepped forward, put the lid back on the pot, returned the noodles to the cabinet, and made sure the gas was off before turning off the lights.
He didn’t go back to the bedroom. Instead, Wen Xiao stood by the door, changing his shoes and grabbing his keys before heading out.
It had been raining for the past two days, and the temperature had dropped by two degrees. The damp air was sucked into his chest, as if a wad of wet cotton had been stuffed inside.
Wen Xiao wandered aimlessly along the sidewalk, unsure of where he could go.
Mingnan was vast and bustling, but he felt like he had no real connection to the city.
His mind uncontrollably drifted back to before the accident, to weekends when his parents weren’t working overtime. The four of them would stay at home. His father would pick up a pen and explain the theory of relativity to Wen Sheng in the simplest terms. His mother would bring out a plate of freshly washed fruit and tease his dad, saying he was forcing things too much, and that if Wen Sheng ended up hating physics, it would be his fault. His father would immediately counter, saying he had taught Wen Xiao the same way when he was young, but Wen Xiao never hated physics.
Those moments, which had once happened, now felt like the most unreachable dreams.
Wen Xiao took a deep breath and caught the scent of smoke and cumin-spiced chili. There were two barbecue stalls ahead, puffing out like chimneys. The folding tables and plastic stools were plentiful, but there weren’t many people around.
In that fleeting glance, he saw Chi Ye.
Chi Ye wasn’t alone. At the same table sat a middle-aged man in a mustard-colored jacket, the one who had been getting Chi Ye drunk. The man seemed to have had too much to drink, his foot resting on a plastic stool as he gestured wildly, saying something. Afterward, he patted his chest like a chimpanzee.
Chi Ye held a glass in his hand, half-filled with alcohol, his eyes fixed on the man’s antics.
Wen Xiao couldn’t make out his expression, but he instinctively felt that Chi Ye was probably smiling, even though there didn’t seem to be any good emotion behind his eyes.
It weirded him out. Mingnan wasn’t a small place, but for two consecutive days, he kept running into the same person in different spots.
Chi Ye watched the man slap his chest and drunkenly say, "Don’t worry, from now on, if your uncle has a meal, you’ll get your share! Young people like you, who are so sensible, are hard to come by! You’re sure to have a bright future. When you make it big, don’t forget about your uncle."
"Uncle Feng, you’re joking."
Feng Wanli sat down, boldly grabbed the bottle, and poured more into his cup. His face was flushed, his eyes slightly glazed, and his tongue thick and slurred. "You know, every time I see you, I think of your mother. When your mom was young, hic, she was truly beautiful! You have no idea how many people liked her, chasing her around, sending gifts, writing love letters. But your mom was proud, didn’t care about any of them. In the end, she settled for your dad, that short-lived man."
Chi Ye’s expression didn’t change, but his fingers tightened around the glass.
Feng Wanli took another drink. "I heard your mom was in the hospital. A while ago, I was talking to my buddy about it. You know, even though your mom is older now, she’s still got charm. If she hadn’t been with that man, if she had been with me — she’d be living the life! No, wait! Ha! If your mom weren’t sick, I wouldn’t mind. I'd divorce my wife right now and marry her. I’d get to taste the flavor of your mother. It’s just that I missed my chance by ten, twenty years, but hey, that’s the price of unfulfilled dreams, right?"
With a sharp crack, a green beer bottle shattered against the edge of the table. The jagged glass edges caught the light, gleaming like the blade of a knife.
Chi Ye didn’t know when his smile had faded, but the sharpest piece of the broken bottle was now pressed against Feng Wanli’s hand. He spoke slowly, his voice calm, “So, from what I’m hearing, you want to be my stepdad?”
The sting on the back of his hand jolted Feng Wanli out of his drunken haze. He froze, feeling the glass slice through his skin. It didn't bleed, but the fear shot through him faster than the pain. He swallowed nervously. "Y-you misheard it!"
"Misheard?" Chi Ye applied a bit of pressure. The sharp glass pierced the skin, and a bead of blood welled up.
Feng Wanli, always cowardly, had spent his younger years shrinking away from conflict. Now, in his middle age, he had a bit of shallow capital to throw around. He’d been brash because he knew Chi Ye needed something from him, but now, he was trembling with fear, his legs shaking uncontrollably.
The community was well aware of how Chi Ye had once beaten someone so severely that their bones were broken, leaving them hospitalized for months. They also knew of his habit of skipping school to wander aimlessly. He regretted it. He shouldn’t have mistaken a wolf for a dog.
"Not misheard, not misheard!" Feng Wanli saw the blood bead trickle onto the table. With Chi Ye showing no intention of letting go, he was terrified that if he slipped up and said another word wrong, that glass would puncture his hand through and through.
Sweat broke out on his back. "Chi — Grandpa! How could I dare to call you my dad? You’re my grandpa! You’re my ancestor! I won’t talk nonsense again, please let go!"
"Your grandpa? I don’t want a grandson like you." Chi Ye threw the broken beer bottle on the table, his eyes sharp as blades. "Keep that mouth clean from now on, understood?"
"Understood... understood!" Feng Wanli, now certain that Chi Ye wasn’t holding anything, seemed to gain some drunken courage. His previously submissive expression suddenly shifted as he grabbed the bottle from the table and lunged at Chi Ye. "Understood, my ass! You bastard dare to—"
With a bang, all his curses turned into a cry of pain. A stack of plastic chairs was kicked into Feng Wanli’s back, slamming him hard, just as Chi Ye threw the broken bottle from his hand and punched him to the ground.
When he looked up and saw Wen Xiao suddenly appear, Chi Ye wasn’t particularly surprised.
It was just that, Wen Xiao always seemed to witness him at his worst.
He lifted his chin and smirked. "A hero rushing to help at the sight of injustice?"
Wen Xiao stood firm, his lean frame straight and tall, hands tucked into his pockets. He corrected him, "It’s a hero saving a beauty in distress."