Chapter 16 (1/2)

I had more confidence than I had ever had.

After knowing what was most important to me, I didn’t make any more wild speculations.

My face was puffy like a marshmallow so I couldn’t go to a hotel. After some consideration, I decided to go back but I could only hide out in the new den until my face could be shown around town.

Binbin kept cussing out the tall guy who hit me. “That motherf.u.c.ker. To think I washed his socks and made roast pork for him. Ungrateful son of a b.i.t.c.h. G.o.ddammit. If I ever get my hands on him again, I swear I’m gonna bust his b.a.l.l.s. f.u.c.k…”

He didn’t do it on purpose and he even apologized to me, which was thanks to you. But before that–

“Hey, how come you’ve never washed my socks or made roast pork for me?”

He glared at me and nudged the bruises on my stomach really hard.

“Ah! Help! Someone’s trying to kill his Romeo!”

The more I yelled the more he became worked up, and he even began to pinch my marshmallow face. I was grimacing and gasping from the pain.

My little devil, my troublemaker, I’m waving the white flag, okay?

“Hey, stop. Please. Hey, I’ve already lost my good looks.”

He held my cheeks between his fingers and demanded angrily, “Say that again? Who’s Romeo?”

“You. You are!”

Only then did he smile. He patted me a few times and snuck a few kisses. “Ge, you’re such a good boy.”

Hmmph! It’s never too late for revenge. Plus, you’re Romeo and I’m Romeo too. There’s no conflict there.

He really ended up cooking for me. The first bite of the sweet and sour ribs made my jaw drop. Yum! Even better than my mom’s! But then why hadn’t he done more at home? I recalled that gross bowl of instant noodles—ewwww.

“Me cooking for Ding Hongmei? Maybe in her dreams.” He sure knew what I was thinking.

Well, you could have cooked for yourself. Idiot.

The getaway only lasted two days before I had to open the shop for business and report my current status back to the mothers.h.i.+p. My cell phone had been getting so many calls the past two days while I had to pretend that I was in Shanghai waiting for merchandise. It was exhausting.

I asked him to watch the shop for me. He didn’t say much. I supposed he gave it the a-okay?

I topped twice that night.

He lied on top of me limply, mumbling, “I got some money saved up. I don’t need you to provide for me.”

I fondled the tender meat on his b.u.t.t while he was vulnerable. “I provide for you? You wis.h.!.+”

“But if I watch the shop for you, your family…” He licked my nipples and then squeezed them before looking at me. “Uncle and Aunty Shen…”

Uncle. Aunty.

He called my pa and ma, uncle and aunty.

He called his mom Ding Hongmei.

“Don’t you worry.” I won’t let anyone bully you. I prepared for the worst case scenario.

I rubbed his head so he would rest a.s.sured.

He didn’t make a sound for a while. “Ge, we can’t let them know about us.”

I know, I said to myself, let’s keep it a secret.

It was just that my old lady would start to see Binbin around all the time. She wouldn’t think about h.o.m.os.e.xuality but she never liked Binbin.

“Ge, how ‘bout I bring you home tomorrow?”

I looked at him. The room was actually really dark but I still saw his black, s.h.i.+ny eyes.

I held his hand.

Really tightly.

He and I went home together the next day.

I discovered that maybe I had not really known the ma who had raised me for twenty-seven years, until that day that is.

I wrote a whole script, said I got in a fight with the video merchant and even went to the police station and it was Shen Bin who saved me.

That was the first time that my mom actually met Shen Bin. She didn’t say much and was even polite.

Shen Bin called her aunty and he did it very sweetly.

And when my old man came back from his stroll, Shen Bin called him uncle and he did it very solemnly.

I’ve always been curious. He would sometimes be full of s.h.i.+t but other times he would be so nice and quiet that he seemed to be another person.

How much of him had I not seen? But I wasn’t in a hurry. I had all the time in the world.

After he left, my mom was surprised and asked me, “Was that Shen Bin?” But she spoke again before I could answer, “Doesn’t look like a murderer to me.”

I had planned for the worst case scenario.

I told my mom that I felt sorry for him, that he wasn’t a bad person, that he had gone through a lot, and that he was my friend, my little brother. I told her that he didn’t have any family and was alone in Shanghai so I asked him to come back and help me.

My ma, she went to do my laundry without saying anything, and then she helped me change my medication. I added that the person who had been changing it was Binbin.

Afterwards, before going to sleep, she said, “You’re old enough now and these friends are yours anyways. This Shen Bin guy doesn’t look like he’s up to no good. He was really good with his fists before, so no one would mess around in your shops if he’s around.”

“Plus, you’ve always been introverted. I’d never seen you bring a friend home. The society’s a complicated place. It’s not bad to make friends with people from different backgrounds, but I’m just worried that the honest old you would get pushed around by others. If Shen Bin wants to be with you, then that means he got some sense in him. If our son isn’t a good person then I don’t know who is.”

I knew very well that what she meant by ‘Shen Bin wants to be with you’ wasn’t in that sense, but I was still happy. I might not ever get their blessings but an ambiguous one like this wasn’t so bad either.

After, she went on to saying how it was sad for him to have a mother like Ding Hongmei. It turned out that Shen Bin’s real dad died on the battlefield in Vietnam.