Chapter Text
It was Friday when Mu Qing saw Feng Xin in the vegetable section of the supermarket. He wished he could flee to another aisle so he wouldn't have to greet him, but a small (big) detail stopped his curious eyes on him.
Feng Xin was holding a child in his arms.
The attention must have been like arrows not subtle at all because it didn't take long for Feng Xin to turn around and find Mu Qing there.
“Your nephew,” Mu Qing assumed.
“My son,” Feng Xin corrected.
“Ah.”
And that was all. No greetings, no goodbyes. The direct question and the answer to the bone.
Mu Qing couldn't tell if he felt satisfied. He went on autopilot, put a lettuce in his basket and left. When he reached the dairy aisle, he stopped blankly in front of the strawberry yogurt.
Oh, he didn’t hear what he heard, did he? Feng Xin with a son?
It’s not like Mu Qing hasn’t heard some –a lot– gossips about his classmates at the college. Spilling the tea was one of his guilty pleasures, even though he pretended that everything that didn't concern him didn't interest him in the slightest. However, he never heard such a thing as Feng Xin having a son.
Mu Qing was a bit stunned by this discovery.
Did jerks need a license or something to raise a child?
Assuming the kid was another relative had seemed the most rational thing to do. But Feng Xin openly stated that this was not the case, this was his son.
Weren't Feng Xin and him the same age? Twenty two years. Twenty-two was still a very young age. The child in his arms didn’t look small to be considered a newborn.
Oh, oh! Didn't Feng Xin come from a prestigious family? Mu Qing was amazed for several seconds by the scandal that the son of the directors of the pharmaceutical company Nan YaoDian was a teenage father and also out of wedlock- oh, damn! Feng Xin wasn't married, was he?!
But I've never seen him using a ring…
And he would have continued in chi gua world if it was up to him, but seeing Feng Xin was always synonymous with: ew, no, avoid!
“Why are you mad at bàba?”
It was an involuntary reflex to hide behind the row of shelves as soon as he heard Feng Xin again. When he realized what he had done, he mentally hated himself, like he was a criminal hiding like this!
“Dummy bàba.”
“Hey, don't disrespect me, I don't treat you like that!” Feng Xin scolded, “māma said you couldn't eat Kinder Surprise Eggs because last time you tried to eat the plastic that came with the toy, is that true, A-Cuo? You did that, baby? You did?”
He must have done something to the kid, tickled him or shaken him in his arms, because Mu Qing heard a childish laughter like a messy bounce.
“Look, fruit yogurt, I'll let you choose, do you like this one? Or do you prefer the one with chocolate and nuts?”
Reluctantly, the boy chose a couple of yogurts and then Feng Xin continued speaking in that soft, fatherly tone that made Mu Qing's hair stand on end.
Once the deserted aisle was secured, Mu Qing decided that it was time to leave. When his brain became overloaded with information, he needed to process everything alone. Yet, he kept in mind that he couldn't avoid Feng Xin forever because they were classmates at college.
Mu Qing and Feng Xin were not best friends (or even friends), their first meeting began with a silly argument in a group set up by the teacher. Feng Xin was exasperated that Mu Qing didn't like anything about the group report data and Mu Qing was displeased that Feng Xin would settle for so little. The first impression did its thing. Feng Xin shouted and Mu Qing rolled his eyes. They never did a fucking group work together again and their friends understood that they shouldn't force them either. Oh, and that, it didn't help that they both belonged to the same social circle, although at least they could always ignore each other's existence and concentrate on separate conversations.
If Mu Qing thinks about it, other than now knowing that Feng Xin had a son, he didn't know anything else relevant about him, only that he spoke very loudly and was a rich brat. He shouldn't be too surprised, though, Mu Qing was also the reserved type.
Apart from enjoying listening to gossip, tangerine tea, his mother's cooking and being good at science, he didn’t go out to parties often and spent more hours studying, working part-time and only occasionally going out with friends.
Money had also been a big source of importance over the years, but not anymore since he got a part-time job and things started to fall into place. The college scholarship covered his tuition and monthly fees and his mother sent him things and maybe money every month from his hometown (against his will, Mu Qing would never want to be a nuisance to his mother).
He was someone used to routine, getting up early and going to bed at a decent hour. When he decided to study in the city he knew what he was going for and Mu Qing had never been someone with weak character or will. If he had to study all night, then he would drink a liter of coffee and eat a kilo of apples; If he had to save money for something specific, then he would cut his eating budget or sleep in the college library to avoid spending money on transportation. Fortunately his shifts in the cafeteria could now cover the vast majority of his needs.
He was doing well, despite everything. He was well-organized and in good health.
That's why it was strange when he woke up that Thursday with a bad sensation in his stomach and a weight on his shoulders. A bad omen, his mother would say. At lunch break, he felt lacking energy and Xie Lian looked at him a little worried.
“Aren't you hungry?” he asked, looking at his almost full food tray.
Mu Qing wrinkled his nose and waved his hand, as if it was nothing.
Despite the conversation at the table, Shi QingXuan's boisterous laughter, and the general bustle of the cafeteria, Xie Lian continued to keep an eye on him. After a while, he took something out of his backpack and dragged it towards him.
“Here, you’ll feel better.”
It was a portable hot water bag.
Mu Qing tried not to smile, instead he frowned and silently picked up the item.
"Thank you."
It was because of things like this that Xie Lian was secretly his favorite. Quiet, sweet, kind.
A while later, before entering the next period, he called his mother. He stood on the side of the stairs, near the classroom assigned.
“I've been missing your call this week, I thought you would be studying and I didn't want to bother you, how are you?”, because sometimes Mu Qing just needed to hear his mother's voice to feel a little more lively..
“I'm fine, mom, I've been fine, I'm sorry I didn't call sooner,” he said, in the softest voice he could muster.
But his mother was a witch or something like that, because as soon as they exchanged a couple of lines, she immediately interrupted:
“You sound bad, you're getting sick.”
Mu Qing subconsciously shook his head, his brow furrowed.
"Not true. "
"It is! Mu Qing!”, his mother's stern tone made this son grow small, “I told you to go out warmly, ah, God, what will I do with you? Don't you see that-? Ah, you, child! I’m not there to make you hot soup!”
“I'll get better soon, it's nothing, I swear, now you better tell me how you are,” he asked.
“Worried, now! How will I be if my son is in another city, sick and without his mother to prepare white rice for him?”
“Rice cookers still exist,” he responded, rolling his eyes.
“A-Qing, don't overexert yourself, you know it's still cold in the mornings, promise me you'll take care of yourself, don't go out without covering your chest, and drink warm things, I taught you how to cook, didn't I?, eat healthy, oh, and don't walk in crowds, you can catch who knows what virus.”
Mu Qing nodded.
"Get it, get it."
“And don't worry about me, these months living with your aunts have made me feel much better, my eyes hardly hurt anymore, they don't let me do anything! I told them that I'm not disabled, but they don’t stop pampering me…”
Mu Qing giggled. Hearing that made him feel a thousand times better. His mother deserved to be pampered!
"Why are you complaining about it? The aunties are right, you just have to focus on getting better.”
But his mother complained again and apart she also asked him about whether he needed money. Mu Qing rolled his eyes and mother and son discussed a little, but Mu Qing ended up promising her that he didn't need money, that it was fine, that he would tell him right away if anything went wrong and he would ask for her help. Mom was a little calmer with that. Mu Qing also promised her that he would come see her for summer break.
Before he hung up, he also murmured:
“Yeah, I love you too.”
He didn't even have time to put away his phone when someone asked him:
"Your girlfriend?"
Mu Qing turned around and saw Feng Xin pinning a sheet of paper to the bulletin board in the hallway.
“My mother,” he corrected.
“Ah.”
Mh? déjà vu?
The phone in Mu Qing's hand vibrated again, pulling him back to reality. He felt a hole in his stomach when he saw the name on the identifier, and something inside him, a bad feeling he had been harboring since that morning, made him answer with a pessimistic anticipation.
“Yes? Hello?”
“ Mu Qing, yes, Mu Qing, I’m happy you answered, I have to ask you something quickly, ” oh, no, “ my niece is arriving in town soon, I need you to vacate the apartment as soon as possible, lucky for me tomorrow is the end of the month! ”
Shit.
Oh, shit.
Shit, shit.
Mu Qing hated himself for being able to smell bad news, as if he had a sixth sense and a visionary stomach that shrank just before it arrived.
“Mrs Wang, I can’t just leave-” he furtively noticed Feng Xin beside him, not looking at him, but surely listening his call, so he chose to cross the corridor and turn to the window, “you can’t just kick me out out of nowhere, I have-”
“ What? I’m not kicking you out, I’m telling you in advance, boy! ” the lady complained, “If this woman was an inconsiderate person, I would tell you to leave today, ah, these young people, they aren't grateful at all! ”
The tension in his neck soon reappeared.
“My rental contract is not up yet,” Mu Qing pointed out.
“ Yeah, yeah, I will return all the money and the warranty month deposit, just leave the apartment for next week. ”
Next week!
“Mrs Wang, I can’t-”
“ Yeah, okey, leave it as soon as possible, oh, please leave everything clean, my niece is a very respectful and very clean girl .”
“What?”
“ Oh, empty the cellar too, I need it. You should leave the apartment as soon as possible, okay? And clean it well! I understand that boys your age are busy, but cleanliness should also be important, when you get married, don’t expect your wife to do everything- ”
Mu Qing was offended enough.
“Shut the hell up, you old woman, I got it!” What the fuck! What the actually fuck! Did she really think he was a pig in a pigsty?! “I’ll leave tomorrow and you better give me all my money back!”
He hung up the phone angrily and when he turned around, some gossiping eyes fell on him. Shi QinXuan, who had just arrived, heard his shouts and approached him as soon as he finished.
“Ok, ok, what are you looking at? Go into the classroom, get on with your own business!” she dissuaded the others, “Hey, Mu Qing, is everything okay?”
Mu Qing swept away all traces of animosity with a sigh and a frown. No, everything was fucking wrong. The little energy he had received from talking to his mother had just been taken away from him and even more so by his landlord… ex-landlord.
Once he entered the classroom he couldn't even pay attention to the class, he just felt extremely tired and told Shi QingXuan to take decent notes for him while he closed his eyes with the hot water bag against his cheek.
However, he couldn't rest well. His mind started to think about where to find a good, quick and affordable rental and then he remembered how much he had searched the city his first year before entering college. It took him almost a month to find a one-room apartment at a reasonable price, forty minutes from college and with decent walls so that the noise from the neighbors couldn't be heard.
Just now when his pocket was already relatively stable…
If he hadn’t felt so bad, then he would have been able to calculate the passage of time. When he heard the voice calling next to him, he cursed his luck.
“Mu Qing, class’s over, if you feel bad you should go back home.”
Shi QingXuan’s voice was careful like never before, but her words made Mu Qing feel heavy when he remembered that he had no home now and that as soon as he got “home” he had to start packing.
What a shitty day. He thought it was even shittier when Feng Xin intercepted him at the exit of the hall with an incredibly- increeedibly conflicted face, almost as if he had to tell Mu Qing that a family member had died.
“Mu Qing, uhm, well, I heard your conversation.”
“So what?” he asked cautiously.
Feng Xin frowned and looked like he was swallowing some bad comment, he pointed at the board beside the door. Shi QingXuan also peeked in to see what was there.
“I’m renting a room in my apartment.”
Mu Qing looked at him suspiciously, but slowly moved to look at the rental paper on the board. The pictures were of a nice and spacious room, Shi QingXuan even asked if this wasn’t the main room of the place, but Feng Xin said no.
“Just a secondary room,” he replied.
Well, this was downright impossible and Mu Qing knew it immediately. He twisted a sneer when he saw the nice and equally spacious zeros on the monthly yuan for rent.
Damn. This rich kid, was he making fun of him?
“Too expensive,” he said.
Feng Xin opened his eyes in surprise, he also opened his mouth, but closed it again. He glared and seemed to think for a bit as he looked at the floor. He immediately offered again:
“Don’t pay the warranty month.”
Mu Qing looked at him with a wrinkled nose.
“Even without that, it’s expensive,” he was just a student working part-time at a coffee shop.
“And with two hundred yuan less?” Feng Xin sighed.
But Mu Qing insisted without enthusiasm.
“I pay less at a hostel,” he said.
Shi QingXuan smiled and unprompted, offered a smaller sum as if this were an auction.
“Two thousand yuan might be a good price,” she commented.
Feng Xin was a little puzzled, but he didn’t say anything.
Mu Qing grimaced as he thought. Despite it being a rental offer and something supposedly serious, it was somewhat comical that the gazes were on him as if Mu Qing had the final word.
“No, I think it’s still a bit expensive.”
Feng Xin clenched his fists. It was as if someone pinched his nose and his face scrunched up in annoyance. His features were tense by a single, usual responsible person.
“And what the hell do you want? That I let you stay for free?” he asked.
Mu Qing didn’t bother to look at him, twisting a disdainful smile.
“And who said I’m asking you something? It seems to me that you are the one who wants me using your apartment so bad. How desperate are you for money? I thought a person like you wouldn’t skimp on the expenses of his black card.” Mu Qing pushed his luck.
Feng Xin glared at him angrily. That was why they weren’t friends. Because Mu Qing was a troublesome spark and Feng Xin was a short-fuse bomb.
“Are you going to take it or not? It’s the last fucking chance, Mu Qing,” he threatened.
The advertisement was missing two pieces of paper containing Feng Xin’s phone number, which meant that two people were already considering bidding for the starting price, only Feng Xin hadn’t received their calls yet. Surely the other interested parties would contact him soon.
Shi QingXuan opened her mouth again.
“Three hundred yuan less and Mu Qing would take care of the house chores.”
No, wait, what?
Mu Qing choked on his breath. What the hell?! He was about to tell Shi QingXuan that it was none of her business, but she squeezed his arm from behind and winked.
Feng Xin looked at them as if they were crazy and it seemed like this was the last straw
“What the fuck? you know what-? I just wanted to be nice, but forget it. I’m not going to help you with a damn thing,” he exclaimed.
“But wait!” Shi QingXuan insisted, looking worried. Mu Qing no longer knew if this deal was really for him or for her, if Shi QingXuan had really gone crazy and wanted to play around or if she could get something after all. “I heard from Xie Lian that you don’t know how to clean. You’re probably paying for an unnecessary cleaning service!”
Feng Xin blushed at the deduction. Mu Qing laughed a little, just a little.
Oh, Xie Lian, the deception, the betrayal.
“S-Shut up!”
That was when a lightbulb went off over Mu Qing’s head. Maybe this idea wasn’t so implausible. He intervened before Feng Xin could continue his rant.
“You’re probably paying a ridiculous amount for a stranger to come into your apartment, have you considered that they might rob you?
Mu Qing didn’t want to devalue the work of house cleaners, but his mother, who had once worked in the same field, had told him stories about how shameless some people could be and what they might do to earn more than their fair share.”
Feng Xin’s words died in his throat, as if that sentence had suddenly made an impact. No one else could know that the perfumes in his bathroom had mysteriously started to run out and the other day his son cried inconsolably because his talking doll of Po the Dragon Warrior was nowhere to be found.
Mu Qing realized he had hit a nerve and almost felt sorry.
“Was I right?” he asked suspociously.
Feng Xin’s face became a little less stern, realizing what he had been missing all this time.
“Fine,” he replied after a few tense seconds, looking defeated, “you can have the room.”
An affordable price, a full bed, and an upper-middle-class location. Damn, Shi QingXuan was good after all. Mu Qing felt like one less cloud over his head was lifting. Still, he asked Feng Xin with a bit of embarrassment:
“Can I move in today?”
Feng Xin looked at him in surprise.
“Today? Uhm, what time?”
“Seven thirty?”
Feng Xin thought of something and then shook his head again in resignation.
“Okay,” Feng Xin agreed.
Mu Qing nodded in agreement with their deal. He asked Feng Xin for the paper to save the location of the building and then he and company quickly said goodbye before leaving.
Shi QingXuan and Mu Qing went to a shop outside the college to celebrate the quick resolution of Mu Qing’s rental problem with ice cream
“You’re so lucky, Ge had a hard time finding a rental this semester, and you got it in just one afternoon!” Shi QingXuan said as she walked him to the bus stop, “and Feng Xin’s must be big, it’s so nice to have parents who support their children, how I wish!”
It was then that Mu Qing remembered. He felt rigid upon hearing that last part. Parents who support their children. Parents and children...
“Dammit…”
Feng Xin had a son. If he had a son, then shouldn't he live with him and also with his wife or girlfriend or whatever?
He realized, too late, that perhaps it was a mistake to decide to live with Feng Xin so hastily.
When Mu Qing arrived at the foot of a modern building with a well-kept garden and a quiet location, he felt as if Feng Xin could sense his nervousness, and his gaze became slightly shy.
Living together at college with Feng Xin had been bearable because they could ignore each other, but Mu Qing now realized that cohabiting would mean seeing and interacting with each other every day.
“I’ll help with that,” Feng Xin muttered, picking up one of Mu Qing’s suitcases
In the reception of the building Feng Xin explained to the concierge that Mu Qing would be living in the C24. The man wrote something in a book beside him and handed the new tenant a form to fill out with his basic information and phone number in case of an emergency.
“Was it hard to find the address?” Feng Xin asked, trying to start a conversation.
“No, it wasn’t,” but Mu Qing killed it too soon.
He felt a little anxious, he didn’t know what he would find in Feng Xin’s apartment and not being prepared made him feel insecure. He hadn’t even had the chance to ask who lived there. Everything had happened so quickly that he hadn’t had the opportunity to get more details beyond what was written on the paper. Plus, they didn’t even chat! The last message Feng Xin had sent Mu Qing was a sticker from six months ago— a vomiting dog with the caption "fuck you".
The apartment was on the third floor at the end of the hallway. Mu Qing mentally approved of the hallway’s simplicity, noting how clean and fresh it was. It was much better than his old building, which always smelled of dampness and rust, despite his efforts with multiple cleaning products.
A small metal plate indicated: C24.
The silence between them was becoming utterly awkward, but Mu Qing pretended not to notice. Feng Xin, on the other hand, fidgeted with the keys and cast furtive glances at him.
He waited for Feng Xin to open the door. Feng Xin gestured for him to enter first.
“You can use these,” he said, pointing to a pair of slippers at the entrance.
Mu Qing nodded as he gulped imperceptibly and his eyes quickly scanned his surroundings like an alert bunny. It was only then that he realized this wasn’t just a simple floor—it was a two-in-one! He was already finding it strange that there weren’t two doors at the end of the hallway as it is usual. And what left him even more stunned was that he would pay so little for all of this space.
Feng Xin was terrible at making advertisements! Where were his parents to teach him this? Mu Qing was so nervous that he thought of giving everyone a lecture about how easy it was to fall for a scam and the strategies to avoid it. Feng Xin had literally copied and pasted a couple of photos of a room and wrote a few simple words, never specifying the type of apartment or who lived there.
It was not strange that Feng Xin was robbed, this apartment had several rooms from which valuable items could be taken with no one noticing it.
Feng Xin reached to turn on the lights, and Mu Qing almost told him not to, fearing it would make the space feel even bigger.
Upon entering, the kitchen was immediately visible on the right, featuring a sleek American-style counter. From there, one could see the spacious living room, which had a comfortable L-shaped sofa, two moss-green armchairs with soft cushions, and a light-wood coffee table. On the wall, a large flat-screen television was mounted, with a rack underneath holding books and framed photographs.
However, Mu Qing’s attention was drawn to two things for different reasons. First, he was captivated by the large window wall at the back of the living room, which overlooked the trees on the avenue and extended partway down the corridor where the other rooms were located. Second, his stomach churned when he noticed the colorful toys scattered around the carpet and in various corners— trucks, shovels, Legos, and stuffed animals.
It wasn’t that Mu Qing hated children, but he had never spent much time with one and wasn’t sure how to handle continuous cohabitation with a child.
Feng Xin left the keys on the shoe rack at the entrance and motioned for him to follow. There were six doors in the corridor; Feng Xin opened the second one on the left.
“This is your room,” he said, setting his suitcase aside.
Mu Qing almost purred as he entered. It was more space than he was used to and it already had a closet, a bed, a desk, and a window that looked out onto the building’s courtyard. Could it be any better? He would have been very hesitant before, but not anymore. He didn’t hesitate and plopped down onto the high, soft mattress, bouncing on it a few times. Yes, he totally approved this shit. He forgot about the other tenants and decided he would take his sweet, sweet time before even considering having to move again.
Feng Xin looked at him with a small smile, but Mu Qing didn't notice. He only remembered Feng Xin's existence again when he spoke to him.
“Can we talk about some things regarding living together?” Feng Xin began.
Mu Qing came back to earth and for the first time felt confident enough to nod and finally ask:
“You live with your son?”, it was like the question finally exploded from his brain and out of his mouth.
It was the first time they talked about it after what happened a few weeks ago when they met at the supermarket.
Feng Xin entered the room and sat down on the desk chair.
Yeah, that’s what I wanted to discuss. My son lives with his mother half the week and with me the other half. Sometimes the days can vary if we have urgent matters or if he prefers to stay somewhere else, but it’s usually like this. I hope you don’t mind,” Feng Xin’s voice was calm, but he seemed to deflate at the end.
Mu Qing, on the other hand, felt another tension release from his shoulders.
“You and his mother aren’t together?” he asked this time.
Mu Qing didn’t mince words as he spoke. Feng Xin frowned slightly, but immediately shook his head.
“No, not as a couple, we’re just co-parenting.”
Mu Qing raised his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn’t expected Feng Xin to be so mature. In fact, he hadn’t even imagined him having a girlfriend or having a child, but well, people can pretend something and be the opposite.
“Does that actually work?”
If he was being rude, Feng Xin just glared at him, but still replied.
“Yes, she and I get along well, she is also studying, she lives very close to here with her parents so we share the guardianship of Feng Mao to make it easier for both of us.”
“I get it,” Mu Qing nodded.
Just wait a minute. Did Mu Qing hear right?
“Feng Mao? Mao? Mao from Mao?” he asked with a smile twisting on his lips. Ah, the sweet teasing that life handed him on a gold plate.
He noticed Feng Xin shifting uncomfortably, probably embarrassed before frowning deeper.
“L-leave it at that! When he was born, he resembled a grumpy cat, so that’s why we named him that.”
Cat. Really a cat? Mu Qing’s curiosity was increasingly satisfied with the valuable information. He tried hard not to laugh, his face turning gloomy with a dark delight.
“You seem quite pleased, idiot,” Feng Xin spat.
Of course, Mu Qing was!
His new landlord yelled at him to stop teasing, his face flushed and grumpy. Mu Qing only stopped when Feng Xin threatened to kick him out with all his suitcases.
“Anyway,” Feng Xin cleared his throat, “he will be here a few days a week, I wouldn’t say he’s a restless kid, but he’s shy around strangers and annoying if he doesn’t like someone, just ignore him if he snubs you, I’ll scold him, do you want to see the other spaces in the house?” he asked quickly to change the subject.
Mu Qing bit his lip to stop himself from laughing again and nodded. With this topic cleared up, the desire to explore the other rooms came back to him.
With more relaxation, Feng Xin showed him that wing of the corridor. The door at the end was Feng Xin's room, next to it was his son's room, there was another smaller room with empty suitcases, a broken printer and other boxes with things that even Feng Xin couldn't remember what they were. The only door on the right was the bathroom and Feng Xin told him that he could keep it because his son's room and his had private bathrooms.
There was also a small walk-in closet, but it kept cleaning supplies, brooms, mops, vacuum cleaners, and toilet paper packages. The door they had passed by on entering the house was the laundry room.
The living room and kitchen, Mu Qing had already seen them. What he did notice this time was the parallel side, where there was a beautiful four-legged table forgotten in a corner and in the adjoining space, small wicker chairs that faced two sliding glass doors and a terrace with a view of the building's courtyard.
Feng Xin asked if he smoked and Mu Qing said he didn’t. Then for the first time he saw Feng Xin smile since they arrived.
“Great,” was what he said with relief.
Next was a tour of the building, the courtyard downstairs, the coffee room next to the reception, the gym, and the swimming pool closed for the cold season.
Mu Qing purred with satisfaction the whole way. He liked it, he liked everything. He envied Feng Xin a little for his lifestyle, but that feeling faded as soon as he remembered that he would be staying here too.
“Is there anything else I should know?” he asked upon returning to the apartment.
He followed Feng Xin and imitated him by sitting on the stools at the kitchen counter, facing each other.
“The house chores…”
“Leave it to me,” Mu Qing said immediatly.
But Feng Xin didn’t seem too happy about it.
“It’s okay if you don’t do everything,” he replied with a small wrinkle between his brows.
Mu Qing rolled his eyes.
“I don’t think you know that you put different batches of white clothes, dark clothes, and other colors into the washing machine or that you know how to wash the dishes in the correct order, pots first, chopsticks second…”
Feng Xin looked puzzled.
“T-that has a set order?” he asked.
No, it usually didn’t, but this confirmed to Mu Qing that Feng Xin was really not used to doing chores.
“Of course,” he said seriously.
If Feng Xin kept looking bewildered at not knowing the supposed order in which dishes are washed, Mu Qing would eventually develop a secret liking for teasing him and embarrassing him.
“Uhm,” Feng Xin settled back in his place, “I can cook, I can do that.”
Mu Qing hesitated a bit, but Feng Xin was much more confident in that statement than he was with household chores.
“Fine, you cook, I’ll clean,” he accepted, a bit skeptically.
He hoped Feng Xin wasn’t a liar and wouldn’t blow up the kitchen. He couldn’t risk having to move again within a month. Nevertheless, he set aside his prejudices when, that night, after arranging his things in his new bedroom, he found that Feng Xin could cook quite well!
“Aren’t you eating at the table over there?” Mu Qing asked when he saw Feng Xin serving dinner on the small coffee table in the living room instead of the nice tall dining set in the opposite corner.
Feng Xin looked at the table with disdain.
“Too annoying,” was all he replied.
Mu Qing didn’t think much of it. Anyway, that coffee table was quite spacious and he found that it was actually really comfortable when they sat on the cushioned seats around it.
Mu Qing saw a proud smile on Feng Xin's face as he finished his bowl. He thought perhaps Feng Xin had tried hard to dispel the last trace of distrust he saw on Mu Qing’s face when he assured him he could cook.
Despite the initial uneasy feeling, Mu Qing quickly began to feel comfortable in that place. It was weird because even having spent so much time in his previous apartment, he had always felt out of place and in a foreign bubble if it wasn't his own house, in his hometown, with his mother. It was even stranger because his new roommate was Feng Xin, someone from his social circle whom he didn’t get along with well, someone he couldn’t even work with without ending up in arguments, and someone he would normally ignore if he saw him around campus or on the street. But this time it was different, without people around this unique situation had forced them to talk to each other and it hadn't been as unpleasant as Mu Qing expected it to be.
Mu Qing didn’t think Feng Xin was particularly a bad guy, just irritating. But that day, after Feng Xin offered him a place to stay and smiled happily as Mu Qing enjoyed his homemade food, Mu Qing didn’t find him as insufferable as usual.
Moreover, as Mu Qing was heading to his room to get ready for bed, Feng Xin said ‘good night’ in a warm and soft voice, similar to the tone Mu Qing had heard him use with his son at the supermarket.
Mu Qing was speechless for a few seconds, staring at Feng Xin. He replied back a bit stunned.
“Oh, yes, see you later.”
Mu Qing thought about it for a long time before getting into bed. The relaxed Feng Xin who seemed to enjoy home life. It was so unexpected.