Chapter 6: Dreams

What followed was a dream.

Lu Xun's eyes are so dark that when you look at him up close, they reflect only his silhouette.

Ye Yao exhaled slowly, his long eyelashes fluttering slightly as he closed his eyes.

*

Ye Yao was in a trance when he came back, the complete opposite of Lu Xun Ye, who was beside him, in high spirits.

"How does it feel to have your first scrub?" Lu Xun put his arm around Ye Yao's shoulder, "Still okay with the northern bathhouse?"

Ye Yao pursed his lips and didn't say anything.

Lu Xun didn't care if Ye Yao didn't answer, he was now hugging Ye Yao, his heart was full of satisfaction.

"When are we going next time?" Lu Xun asked.

Ye Yao is silent for a moment, shaking his head.

He'd probably never want to go to the bathhouse with Lu Xun again until he asked about what happened today.

"Lu Xun, do you realize what you're doing?" Ye Yao asked.

"What's wrong?" Lu Xun had an open face, he looked at Ye Yao's expression and gave a bad smile, changing his arm from wrapping around Ye Yao's shoulder to holding Ye Yao's hand, "What's wrong with that, we're the best of friends."

*

Late at night, Ye Yao lies alone in bed, deep in thought.

...... What is all this straight theory.

He'd heard the expression when he was a straight man, only to scoff at it at the time.

What other people did he couldn't care less, and he wouldn't do that with his friends anyway.

Now he's gone from straight to crooked, so he's accepted the matter by beating his own face in, but what about Lu Xun?

Lu Xun A super homophobic big straight guy can accept two guys doing that together because they're so straight or because ...... homophobic deep closet?

He had been friends with Lu Xun for several years, but because of his different thinking, he couldn't understand what was behind all of Lu Xun's actions.

Ye Yao thought for a while, huddled under the covers and turned on his cell phone, asking for help from the almighty Baidu.

Someone actually asked the same question that Ye Yao was wondering: [My favorite homophobic straight friend helped me ...... I'm sure everyone understands when I say implicitly! I'm so happy, is it possible that he's not that straight?

There were quite a few replies below :

[Hello, if he knows you are curved, then he is seducing you. If he thinks you are straight, then it's just normal friend behavior, please don't think too much about it.]

I'll punch you and him in the face for being homophobic and gay.

[It's hard to say, there is homophobia that is the possibility of deep closet, there is also too straight so do not think about that aspect of the possibility, how about you further test test? For example, ask him to go to a gay bar and see how he reacts.

[...... straight? Is there some misunderstanding of the word on my part????]

Ye Yao contemplates.

Taking Lu Xun to a gay bar was out of the question, he didn't want to go there himself, and he didn't want to take Lu Xun to a place like that, it was too weird.

But other, softer ways of trying things out might be worth a try. For example, asking Lu Xun to go see a recently released movie that has a veiled subplot about a pair of male friends who like each other, only in the end the two don't get together and regretfully miss each other.

With such an obscure plot, I wonder how Lu Xun would take it.

Ye Yao knows that Lu Xun is averse to men with a male sexual orientation, but in all the time we've known each other, he hasn't seen Lu Xun's reaction when confronted with a same-sex couple.

The reason is very simple, since we have known each other, Lu Xun has been in contact with boys who like the same sex, either they like Lu Xun or they like him, these people have never got Lu Xun's good face. And other same-sex couples won't come to Lu Xun's side either.

We'll go to the movies with Lu Xun tomorrow.

If Lu Xun is deep in the closet, could he not ......

Ye Yao pursed his lips, turned off his cell phone screen, and pulled the covers off his head - then saw a face hanging directly above him in the midst of the dimness.

Ye Yao didn't raise an eyebrow and reached out to push that face a little farther away.

"Waiting here to scare me?" Ye Yao asked.

Lu Xun held Ye Yao's hand: "It's not to scare you, it's not that you said you wanted to be alone tonight, so I thoughtfully didn't make a sound."

That's right, Ye Yao is sleeping alone in a bed tonight because he told Lu Xun that today was too exciting and he wanted to be alone.

It s just that Lu Xun s bed ...... is right next to him, and the direction he sleeps in is still head to head with him, so even if Ye Yao sleeps alone, the distance between him and Lu Xun won t be more than a stretch of the hand.

Tomorrow is the weekend, and Xiao Pang and Wen Ke are going to an Internet cafe to hack all night, and they don't have any qualms about talking and disturbing other people.

Lu Xun withdrew his teasing tone: "Don't look at your cell phone in the dark, it's bad for your eyes, I'll turn on the light if you want to play with your cell phone."

Ye Yao's hand was held very warmly, and he softly replied back, "Don't look at it, just now I just suddenly wanted to search for some information."

Presumably satisfied, Lu Xun puts his hands on Ye Yao's thin eyelids and gives Ye Yao an eye massage while starting to curse.

"You don't think about it, what if you can't see people's faces when you're a hundred years old, and recognize other old men as me, and bring them home, and I go and fight with other old men? Being that old, I'm afraid it would be a bad influence."

"......" Ye Yao was speechless, "It's not Alzheimer's, how can I recognize the wrong face, at most I will recognize your son as you."

Lu Xun's hand movements paused, then changed to pinching Ye Yao's cheek flesh, and his tone, which had just been good, began to turn cold again: "Good thinking, you don't have this chance."

Lu Xun stopped and got up: "I see you are starting to talk nonsense a day without sleeping with me, fine, you don't have to be Jing Jing, I'll change my name to Jing Jing, we'll still sleep together tonight."

Ye Yao's objections are not valid and he is forced to share a single bed with Lu Xun.

Ye Yao fell into a familiar embrace again, and it was business as usual, as if this bed was meant to sleep two.