For Each Other Chapter 1

It was raining outside when Zack Reynolds went out. He rented an umbrella at the hotel front desk for a deposit of 50 yuan, which was fully refunded before check-out.

Standing at the hotel gate, without opening his umbrella, he waited for a car to pick him up.

During the few minutes of waiting, the WeChat group on his phone was non-stop, and all the people who were talking were from the "Class 13 of No. 5 Middle School" group.

The most recent piece of news was that Shao Wei, the squad leader at that time, asked who else was going today, and Zack Reynolds replied: I'm on the way.

Shao Wei sent an "OK" expression and repeated that he would go directly to the cemetery.

The car arrived, Zack Reynolds sat in the back seat and said to the driver: "The cemetery."

On the way to the cemetery, Zack Reynolds looked at the distorted outside world through the glass and rain. He had not been back for almost fifteen years, and a lot had changed here.

He had thought before that maybe one day he would receive an invitation to a class reunion, even though he was quiet, had a low presence, and was averagely unpopular when he was in school.

But he never thought that his first "class reunion" would be in the cemetery. Actually, it's not a good idea to say this, because the purpose of their gathering here was not to have a party, but to attend the funeral of an old classmate.

Fifteen years after graduating from high school, Zack Reynolds is already thirty-two years old. In high school, he was one year younger than most of his classmates and was not very sociable, especially later on. As an art student, he only stayed in school part of the time to attend classes and focused more on art exams, and interacted even less with his classmates.

But he remembered Blake Mitchell very clearly, the man who died a few days ago.

Blake Mitchell was the sports commissioner of their class. He sat at the same table with Zack Reynolds for half a semester. He had good grades, was very popular, was tall and handsome, and was dating the beauty from the next class at the time.

He didn't know which university Blake Mitchell was admitted to, nor did he know what Blake Mitchell did after graduating from university. It could be said that after the college entrance examination, Zack Reynolds lost contact with all his old classmates, and it was an accident that he joined the WeChat group of this class.

At the end of last year, he was teaching painting in an art studio. His students were all seven or eight years old and had just started primary school. At the end of a class, someone suddenly called him. Zack Reynolds, who was packing up, turned around and felt that the person looked familiar.

After the two chatted, Zack Reynolds remembered that this person was his high school classmate who came to pick up his nephew.

Just because of this coincidence, Zack Reynolds added an old classmate on WeChat and was pulled into the class group that evening. The group was very lively every day, but he never said a word.

He came here to attend a discussion meeting yesterday. As soon as he got off the plane, he saw the squad leader in the group saying that Blake Mitchell was gone.

At that time, he didn't realize what "gone" meant. Later, when he saw the class monitor asking if anyone planned to come and see Blake Mitchell, he realized that the handsome sports committee member had passed away.

The squad leader said that Blake Mitchell died suddenly. The couple had just been married for a year and a half and had no children yet.

When seeing this, Zack Reynolds suddenly realized that they were all in their thirties, and most of his classmates had already entered another stage of life: getting married and having children.

But death came too early.

People in their thirties have no idea that they are so close to death. They often attend wedding banquets and full-month banquets rather than funeral banquets.

Sitting in the car, Zack Reynolds couldn't quite remember what Blake Mitchell looked like. He must have changed a lot in his thirties from his teens. His face was probably full of stories, but he couldn't see them.

Logically speaking, Zack Reynolds was unwilling to participate in any group activities, but he always felt that this time was different. Although he was not that close to Blake Mitchell, the death of a classmate always gave him a feeling that he should go to see him off, not to mention that he had already come to this city.

Maybe the dead didn't remember him, but he still came.

The cemetery on a rainy day is more melancholy than usual.

When Zack Reynolds got off the car, the rain was heavier than when he first went out. He held an umbrella, trying hard to prevent the rain from getting his clothes wet.

He walked towards the gate of the cemetery and saw several people standing there smoking.

He was a little nervous because he was not good at small talk.

When he was almost reaching the gate, someone suddenly called his name. It happened to be the classmate who had added him on WeChat before. What was his name?

Zack Reynolds walked over and glanced at the people in front of him somewhat stiffly.

He probably had some impression of them, but each of them was very different from before.

Of course he himself is different, no one stays the same for fifteen years.

Zack Reynolds recognized the class monitor Shao Wei. When he was in middle school, he had poor grades and always failed in math. Shao Wei was not only the class monitor, but also the math class representative. He could get close to full marks in seven out of ten exams. At that time, Shao Wei asked Yao Zhan to give Zack Reynolds extra lessons. The three of them were in an empty classroom on weekends. Shao Wei wrote and drew on paper and explained one formula after another to him. Yao Zhan sat at the table next to him, smoking and blowing smoke rings out of the window.

It was probably the summer of my second year in high school.

"Is Yao Zhan coming?" Zack Reynolds suddenly asked this question.

They haven't seen each other for fifteen years. In the past fifteen years, Zack Reynolds probably only thought of Yao Zhan three times, and this was the fourth time.

"Here he is," Shao Wei said, "He's inside."

Zack Reynolds stretched his neck to look inside, and Shao Wei asked him: "Want some?"

Zack Reynolds glanced at the cigarette the other party handed over and said, "No, thank you."

This was not the first time Zack Reynolds attended a funeral. Thirteen years ago he attended his grandfather's funeral, ten years ago he attended his father's funeral, and five years ago he attended his mother and stepfather's funeral.

At the funeral five years ago, his stepfather's younger brother, who was one year younger than him, put his arm around his shoulders and said, "Come on, brother, we are both orphans now."

At that time, he was 27 and his brother was 26. The word "orphan" was not appropriate, but it was true that both of them had no parents.

For the next two years, the two unrelated brothers lived together until his younger brother fell in love and moved in with his boyfriend.

At that time, his brother even laughed and said, "Did you not realize that I was gay? If you knew, you wouldn't have let me stay with you for so long, right?"

Zack Reynolds said: "What does it matter?"

His brother shrugged again: "You straight men can't stand it, right?"

Zack Reynolds didn't say anything at that time, but of course that doesn't mean he is straight.

If he was a straight man, how could he have hidden in an empty gymnasium with Yao Zhan and masturbated each other in high school? How could he have hidden in a corner of the table tennis room and knelt down to let Yao Zhan bite him?

But at that time they probably didn't think too much about it. They were just young and had strong desires, so they did all these things without thinking.

Thinking back on it now, I actually find it a bit funny.

"Most people should have arrived. Let's go in." Shao Wei walked in front, and the five of them walked into the cemetery together.

Zack Reynolds walked in the rain, listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the umbrella, and saw Yao Zhan from afar.

Zack Reynolds recognized Yao Zhan at first sight.

He remembered that Yao Zhan was half a year older than him, and his birthday seemed to be in the summer, which meant that Yao Zhan should be thirty-three years old.

Just now Shao Wei was joking, saying that once people turn 30, they tend to look like middle-aged men with beer bellies and high hairlines. The days when they could whistle at pretty girls while walking down the street would never come back.

It is true that that era will never come back, but when Zack Reynolds saw Yao Zhan, he found that the man did not have the "middle-aged feeling" that the others had.

Yao Zhan was wearing a black shirt and black trousers. He was very fair and tall, and stood out in the crowd.

The man was chatting with a girl next to him. The girl's eyes were red, and he just frowned slightly.

Shao Wei led them over, and Zack Reynolds shifted his gaze to the tombstone in front of him.

So this is what Blake Mitchell looks like now.

He looked at the man in the photo, with an angular face, thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a shaved head. The man was smiling at everyone.

Zack Reynolds suddenly felt regretful. He was in his early thirties, too young to even say goodbye to this world. He suddenly thought that maybe he should write a suicide note after returning. Death is such a serious and solemn thing, so it is better to prepare in advance.

There were about a dozen people present, all wearing dark clothes and holding dark umbrellas. Just like before, they listened to the class monitor's arrangements and stood in front of their old classmate's grave to mourn.

The white chrysanthemums were arranged one by one, and someone really cried.

Zack Reynolds heard the sobbing sound coming from his ear, turned around and saw that it was the girl who had just chatted with Yao Zhan. He remembered that the girl was not from their class, but was the class beauty who was in love with Blake Mitchell in high school.

He didn't know the name of this class beauty, but he knew that she was crying for her first love.

Zack Reynolds stood there thinking, maybe this was the first time they met after their breakup, or maybe not, but no one would have thought that their next meeting would be in such an occasion.

He shifted his gaze and met another pair of eyes.

Yao Zhan looked at him, and when they looked at each other, Yao Zhan nodded at him.

Zack Reynolds's heart suddenly started beating faster and he quickly turned around. He sighed and began to think about his epitaph again.

The mourning was over and everyone walked out together.

Zack Reynolds deliberately fell behind, but he still couldn't force himself to chat and laugh skillfully with so many people who were once his friends but were now complete strangers.

In order to make himself look less out of place, he took out his cell phone and pretended to be replying to messages, so that people would think he was walking so slowly because he was replying to the messages.

"I didn't expect you to come."

A voice suddenly appeared, Zack Reynolds's hands shook, and the phone almost fell to the ground.

He raised his umbrella and looked up, and found Yao Zhan walking beside him.

"Ah..." He didn't know what to say for a moment and nodded confusedly.

"Last week, Blake Mitchell asked me out for a drink and told me that he was planning to change jobs."

Zack Reynolds frowned and said "hmm" softly.

"You're still so unwilling to talk."

Zack Reynolds turned his head to look at Yao Zhan, who was half a head taller than him, so he needed to raise his chin when looking at him.

He explained: "No..."

"Would you like to go for a drink?" Yao Zhan said, "It's been more than ten years since we last met, right?"

Zack Reynolds looked at him and replied, "Fifteen years."