Xu Ye wasn’t particularly invested in the reunion. He already knew that after tonight, he’d lose touch with most of these people anyway.

Qin Zhiwei, on the other hand, was a completely different story.

The guy slept until noon, and the very first thing he did when he got up was head straight to the bathroom to wash his hair.

Boys that age took their hair very seriously.

The more style-conscious ones would happily cut back on food money just to get to the salon on weekends — sit in the chair, get a wash, and walk out with a blowout that added a good two inches of height courtesy of whatever Tony the hairstylist decided to do with the top. [TL: “Tony” (托尼老师) is a running joke in Chinese internet culture — a generic nickname for male hairdressers, implying they’ll give you whatever trendy style they feel like regardless of what you asked for.]

The results were technically a step down from the full scene-kid look, but to present-day Xu Ye they still looked pretty wild.

Zhiwei blow-dried his hair in front of the mirror for a solid ten minutes, then snuck into his dad’s room and borrowed some pomade, working it through strand by strand, adjusting his fringe with his fingers. Another ten minutes of that. Then came the finishing spray — one final layer of hold before he declared the look complete.

Black T-shirt. Slim-cut tapered pants. White sneakers he’d bought just before the gaokao. Qin Zhiwei was extremely satisfied with himself.

He called Xu Ye, wolfed down some food, and hopped on his electric scooter.

A knock at the door.

Xu Ye opened it and was immediately hit with a wall of hair gel fumes.

“Are you serious right now — how much of that stuff did you put on?”

“How do I look though? Pretty sharp today, right?”

“Sharp I don’t know, but you’ve definitely got a certain… energy.” [TL: Xu Ye calls him a 精神小伙 (jīngshén xiǎo huǒ) — a phrase that became popular slang around 2016 for a very specific type of try-hard young guy. Zhiwei doesn’t get the reference yet since it hasn’t caught on.]

Zhiwei took it as a compliment.

“Didn’t you say yesterday you weren’t coming?”

“Boss gave me the day off.”

“They dock your pay for that?”

“Nope.” Xu Ye dropped onto the couch. “She actually sent me a red packet last night.” [TL: A red packet (红包) in this context refers to a digital cash transfer via WeChat — a common way to send small payments or bonuses in China.]

“For what? It was your first day.”

“I’m just that good.”

Zhiwei flopped down next to him, assuming it was a joke. He leaned over and squinted at Xu Ye’s phone screen. “What are you looking at?”

“Practice questions.”

“…You’re doing practice questions? We just finished the gaokao.”

“Driver’s test theory. Module one.”

“You’re going for your license?”

“Might as well get it done now. Once university starts I’ll probably be busy, so better to handle it early.”

That was the moment Qin Zhiwei first noticed something was actually different about Xu Ye.

In their circle — the students floating somewhere in the middle academically — university was supposed to be the reward. Their homeroom teacher had drilled “high school is tough, university is easy” into them for three years straight. So what did Xu Ye mean by busy?

“Xu Ye, did something happen to you?”

“No.”

“Did Gu Mengyao reject you?”

“Why do you keep bringing her up? I’ve told you a hundred times — she and I are done.”

“Sure.”

Zhiwei didn’t buy a word of it.

The reunion was set for five o’clock, meeting at the school gate.

A five-minute walk north of the school was a whole street of open-air food stalls — every kind of street food you could want, and the smell hit you from half a block away.

Zhiwei started pestering Xu Ye to leave at three. Xu Ye ignored him completely. It was scorching out — getting there early just meant standing in the sun. Better to stay home and get through a few more practice questions. Zhiwei had no real leverage; they’d been classmates since primary school, their families had known each other for years, and they always went everywhere together. He just had to wait.

At four forty-five, Xu Ye finally changed his shoes.

“You’re not changing your outfit?”

“Why would I? It’s not a blind date.”

“How are you just — why do you somehow look better than me in that?”

Xu Ye grinned. “We’re just not operating on the same level in that department.”

“Xu Ye, I will end you.”

They headed to the school gate side by side. From a distance, Zhiwei spotted a cluster of familiar faces gathered under two large trees along the road.

The one pacing around with his phone pressed to his ear, talking at full volume, was their class rep, Li Nan.

Xu Ye had never had much patience for him.

Three years of being class rep and the guy had let it go completely to his head — treating every teacher’s offhand remark like a royal decree, walking around with his chin permanently pointed at the sky. A small title and a big ego.

Everyone had traded in their school uniforms now that the gaokao was over. The guys had mostly just done things with their hair, but the girls had gone all out — crop tops, mini skirts, a few who’d even dyed theirs.

Honestly, Xu Ye couldn’t put names to half the faces anymore. But he’d always been low-key in class, so standing there quietly without saying much didn’t raise any eyebrows.

“Hey, it’s already five — should we head to dinner?”

Li Nan half-turned. “Xu Ye, Gu Mengyao, Liu Qian, and Duan Qingjun haven’t shown up yet — you know where they are?”

“No idea.”

Li Nan was about to call when his phone rang first.

“Hello? — Oh, you three are running late? No worries, we’ll go ahead and eat, just meet us at the KTV after.”

The moment the name Gu Mengyao came up alongside Duan Qingjun, more than a few people in the group instinctively glanced over at Xu Ye.

Everyone knew Xu Ye had a thing for Gu Mengyao.

And a fair number of them also knew Duan Qingjun had a thing for Gu Mengyao.

So hearing those two names in the same sentence, in the same place — people wanted to see the reaction.

They didn’t get one. Xu Ye’s face was completely still. Calmer than anyone had expected.

The whole group descended on a nearby restaurant. The food hadn’t even hit the table before Li Nan and a handful of the louder guys cracked open beers, performing their manliness for the girls — none of them had really drunk much before, but you wouldn’t know it from the way they were acting. By the time the last dishes came out, several of them were already struggling to walk straight.

Xu Ye mostly just ate. Barely spoke. The occasional sip of beer. Of the dozen-plus people at the table, he was probably the quietest one there by a mile.

By around six, the private room was a mess. Li Nan herded everyone onward to the next venue.

KTV.

Business was still booming in 2014. Nobody could have predicted that a decade later the whole industry would be in freefall — that young people would ditch it for escape rooms and murder mystery nights, leaving the karaoke parlors to retirees looking for somewhere to hold their afternoon sing-alongs.

Xu Ye picked a corner seat and stayed there. The staff dropped off a complimentary fruit platter and some beers. A few of the girls immediately rushed the song queue — it filled up fast with Xu Song, Wang Sulong, Xu Liang, a couple of Jay Chou and JJ Lin tracks scattered in. [TL: Jay Chou (周杰伦) and JJ Lin (林俊杰) are two of the most iconic Mandopop artists of their generation, still enormously popular today.]

The reunion was split evenly — fifty yuan per person. Xu Ye figured he’d already gotten his money’s worth at dinner, so he had no interest in singing. He sat in his corner and played on his phone, but the battery was draining fast and portable chargers weren’t a thing yet. Once it got low, he had nothing left to do but reach over and quietly work through the beers nobody else was touching.

“You gonna sing anything?” Qin Zhiwei came over to check on him.

Xu Ye shook his head. “I’ll sit here a bit longer, then head out.”

“It’s still early though.”

“Too loud.”

“Bro, you sound like someone’s dad right now.”

Xu Ye was about to respond when a classmate burst through the door, breathless.

“Heads up — Lin Jie got into it with someone outside.”

The room went quiet instantly.

Li Nan stood up and led the charge out. Xu Ye had zero interest in being involved, but Qin Zhiwei grabbed his arm and dragged him along anyway.

(End of Chapter)