Ethan Zhou adjusted his sitting position in the car, flipped over the back of the sunshade, and looked around everywhere. The decoration in Adrian Du's car was very simple, without even a doll, and it didn't look like his own car. Maybe Brandon Yu drove it for him?
Brandon Yu is gay, so could he be attracted to Adrian Du to some extent? But based on his blind date type, that is, based on his own inference, this real estate boss should not like Adrian Du's type.
How did he find this job? Ethan Zhou couldn't imagine Adrian Du being someone's assistant. In his impression of him, Ethan Zhou always thought he might do another job. But what job? He couldn't say. Adrian Du was a person who couldn't be trapped. Ethan Zhou always felt that one day, he would leave the cage of steel and concrete and return to the world that belonged to him.
As for what this world is like, Ethan Zhou himself can't explain it clearly.
He still remembered that it took him a very long time to get to know Adrian Du. Perhaps it was because the medicine Adrian Du took aroused his interest, or perhaps it was because he felt that his roommate was very lonely, so he developed a sense of responsibility as a savior and hoped to get into his heart.
In the autumn five years ago, after the military training ended and Ethan Zhou returned to the dormitory, he was shirtless and suggested to Adrian Du whether they should do a thorough cleaning of the dormitory.
Adrian Du had no objection to Ethan Zhou's proposal. He simply nodded and stood up with his headphones on. Ethan Zhou said, "Go get a bucket of water."
Adrian Du went to get some water. Ethan Zhou was a little conflicted after returning to the dormitory. On the one hand, he wanted to make friends with Adrian Du and talk to him more, otherwise the dead atmosphere in the dormitory was a little wrong. On the other hand, reason kept telling him that everyone needed to respect each other and that forcing friends was not okay.
Adrian Du was tall, so he did whatever Ethan Zhou asked him to do, and he stood up and started to clean the fan. Taking advantage of this moment, Ethan Zhou took a look at the belongings Adrian Du brought to school - there were very few things, an e-book reader, a Mac notebook, and three pairs of basketball shoes, which were quite expensive.
"Can I help you hang up your clothes?" Ethan Zhou asked, looking up.
Adrian Du glanced at Ethan Zhou and nodded.
Ethan Zhou then opened Adrian Du's closet openly, and inside were two sets of casual clothes and a few messy sportswear.
"I have this one too." Ethan Zhou said, looking at one of the T-shirts.
Adrian Du heard it, nodded, and remained silent.
Ethan Zhou took out a Bluetooth speaker and said, "What are you listening to? Let's listen together?"
"Choose the one you usually listen to." Adrian Du finally said something.
"I want to listen to you." Ethan Zhou took the Bluetooth speaker and went over to match it with Adrian Du's computer. He was a little surprised when he heard the prelude.
"Stan." said Ethan Zhou.
"You like it too?" Adrian Du was also a little surprised.
"I like his chorus." Ethan Zhou said with a smile, feeling that perhaps he had opened up an opportunity for conversation.
After cleaning the fan, Adrian Du jumped down from the chair and said, "The first time I heard their songs was in my mom and stepfather's wedding car. It was very hot that day. I still remember that the wedding emcee was a very fat man. They were testing the sound at the wedding and played a vinyl record. I went over and asked who the song was, and he said 'Eminem'."
Ethan Zhou: ...
Ethan Zhou didn't expect that a singer could make Adrian Du suddenly say so much. He could only nod and couldn't answer anything.
Adrian Du looked at him from the reflection in the glass window and said, "The flowers were in full bloom that day, all red roses, but the weather was so hot that people were sweating. I was six years old that year, and my mother made me wear a suit. I hated it because the collar of the shirt was too tight and it almost strangled me to death..."
"Yes... yes." Ethan Zhou suddenly felt that he couldn't keep up with his thinking speed, and said, "It should be specially made."
"Yes." Adrian Du said, "After she fell out with my dad, she married a very rich Spaniard who was in the wine business in Madrid. That guy had two sons whose IQs were not very high. I think it was because the couple liked to smoke marijuana, and the children they gave birth to seemed a little mentally retarded. Although when they looked at me, they should also think that I was mentally retarded."
Ethan Zhou: ...
"Do you think I'm mentally retarded?" Adrian Du said.
Ethan Zhou: ...
Ethan Zhou laughed, and Adrian Du started talking to himself again, saying, "How is your English?"
"It's...it's okay." Ethan Zhou was a little at a loss.
"Can you speak Spanish?" Adrian Du asked.
Ethan Zhou replied: "No."
Adrian Du said: "Spanish is easy to learn, easier than French. During the time I lived in their family, I learned it very quickly, but I pretended not to know it. It was quite interesting to hear them talk about me at the dinner table."
Ethan Zhou finally found an opportunity to interject, and said, "So you decided to return to China to study?"
"Not entirely, but for another reason." Adrian Du thought for a moment and added, "I want to learn something science-related. They want me to be a lawyer, work in finance, or become a politician, which doesn't match my personality."
Ethan Zhou hummed and said, "You...isn't it time to wash the rag?"
Adrian Du used a rag to wipe many things, and it was already black. It was obvious that he never did housework. Hearing this, he thought about it and nodded. Ethan Zhou laughed, but Adrian Du did not laugh. He just looked at Ethan Zhou in the reflection in the glass.
"Can I borrow a book?" Adrian Du looked at Ethan Zhou's bookshelf.
"Of course." Ethan Zhou said cheerfully, "What do you want to see?"
He took out a copy of Duras's "The Lover" and handed it to him. Adrian Du took it and flipped through it casually.
"Let's go eat?" Ethan Zhou looked at the newly renovated dormitory with satisfaction and said, "Let's go out for a walk? Anyway, the holidays are coming soon, and I think we should buy a washing machine."
After the military training, the National Day holiday will follow. There will be a long period of time for them to slowly understand each other.
"Are you going home?" Ethan Zhou asked again.
Adrian Du said: "No, have you forgotten something?"
Ethan Zhou was startled at first, then he looked around the dormitory and said, "Is there anything? What's the matter?"
Adrian Du seemed to have returned to his previous cold expression. He opened the wardrobe, changed his clothes, and motioned for them to go.
Ethan Zhou said: "Did I forget something?"
"No." Adrian Du said, "Where to go? Let's go."
Suddenly Ethan Zhou realized that Adrian Du might have some mental problems, because he became silent after he asked "Did you forget something?"
It would not be right to say that he would return to his unapproachable look after opening the door, leaving the dormitory, and walking onto the street. After all, the instantaneous change happened in the dormitory, and they had not yet decided where to go.
But in short, Adrian Du began to be silent. He didn't say a word for the whole evening. Ethan Zhou tried to talk to him a few times and said during dinner: "Would you like to go out for a walk outside the school?"
Adrian Du just nodded numbly. Apart from that, he spent most of his time staring out the floor-to-ceiling window of the restaurant in a daze.
After leaving the campus, there is a botanical garden. After passing through the botanical garden, there is the huge West Lake. As the National Day approaches, the number of tourists has gradually increased.
Ethan Zhou said: "Is this your first time in Hangzhou?"
Adrian Du hummed.
Ethan Zhou said: "This is my first time here too, I..."
Ethan Zhou originally wanted to ask him where his hometown was, but he clearly felt that he didn't want to talk, so he simply stopped asking, and the two of them maintained a tacit understanding.
After the meal, Adrian Du took out his credit card to pay the bill and said "Let me do it".
Ethan Zhou was not short of money, but he had roughly understood Adrian Du's temper, so he did not compete with him for the order and simply replied: "Okay."
Adrian Du paid the bill, and Ethan Zhou started shopping again. The two of them walked one after the other, occasionally stopping in front of the window for a while, until Ethan Zhou entered the Apple store, Adrian Du suddenly said: "Do you want to buy?"
"Didn't I say I would buy you a new phone?" Ethan Zhou said, "Yours is no longer usable, right?"
At that moment he felt the depressed atmosphere around Adrian Du suddenly ease up.
"You still remember." Adrian Du said.
Ethan Zhou was a little surprised, even at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and said, "Of course, wouldn't it be very uncomfortable to not have a mobile phone? What do you think of this new one?"
Ethan Zhou was using a new phone, while Adrian Du's phone was a year old. He stood in front of the table and asked Adrian Du to hold the phone. He swiped his finger across the screen and said, "You have big hands. The max version will fit in one hand. Would you like to consider this?"
Adrian Du's fingers are long and slender, with distinct knuckles, and are quite beautiful.
Adrian Du nodded and paid for it with his credit card without hesitation.
"I want to apply for a new card," Adrian Du said again, "Is there a number that can be applied for without an ID card?"
Ethan Zhou smiled and said, "Are you a spy who returned from overseas?"
As Adrian Du walked out of the Apple store, he became more talkative, saying, "I don't want my stepfather to know my phone number. It's too annoying."
Ethan Zhou thought for a moment and said, "I'll use my ID card to get you a new number."
So that night, Adrian Du used Ethan Zhou's ID card to get a phone number that no one knew, and saved the first person's contact information in the phone book: Ethan Zhou.
But after returning to the dormitory, Adrian Du sat at the desk, facing his mobile phone, lost in thought, his brows slightly furrowed, as if he was troubled by something.
"What's wrong?" Ethan Zhou said.
"I want to register a new Apple ID," Adrian Du said, "but I have to download a VPN software before I can register a new email address."
"You can use mine first." Ethan Zhou said, and wrote his Apple ID on a small piece of paper and handed it to Adrian Du.
Then, Adrian Du applied for a new WeChat account for communication.
Ethan Zhou didn't know what this action meant at that time. It was only after a long time, when he recalled the past, that he felt that night should represent a new life for Adrian Du.
In the parking lot, Adrian Du opened the car door and got in. Ethan Zhou was covered with a sports jacket and curled up in the passenger seat, looking at him sideways. The corner of Adrian Du's mouth was still slightly red and swollen from his punch.
Adrian Du handed one of the cups of coffee to Ethan Zhou.
"You'd better explain it to me clearly." Ethan Zhou said coldly.
Adrian Du loosened his shirt collar and said, "It's too tight. I can't breathe."
As he said this, he took out the medicine box, poured out a few white and red pills, put them into his mouth without even looking at them, and washed them down with coffee.
"How long did you sleep last night?" Ethan Zhou said.
"Not asleep." Adrian Du replied.
"Then why are you still drinking coffee?!" Ethan Zhou said, "You're killing yourself!"
Adrian Du said: "Just one sip."
Ethan Zhou asked: "Is this Brandon Yu's company?"
Adrian Du typed a line of words on his mobile phone for Ethan Zhou to see: [There is surveillance in the car].
Ethan Zhou had no choice but to stop asking and said, "Let's find a place to sleep for a while. Has your insomnia improved over the years?"
"No," Adrian Du said, "it's worse than before."
Ethan Zhou: "I take more medicine than before."
Adrian Du glanced at his phone and knew that Ethan Zhou didn't look at his device. As long as he was not around, Ethan Zhou never flipped through it. Just like before, when he wanted to look through it, he would only look through it in front of him.
Adrian Du is also very open and has nothing to hide - at least that's the case when it comes to his relationship with Ethan Zhou.
"Didn't your family leave you any cash?" Adrian Du asked.
"No." Ethan Zhou replied, "I owe a lot of debts. Grandfather left his will to me, and the debts were inherited along with it. The valuables were divided up by my aunt and uncle long before he died. Now there are only some rags left in the warehouse."
Adrian Du then asked, "Where's your father? Doesn't he care?"
"Dead." Ethan Zhou replied, "At the end of the year before last, there was a car accident on the way to Haneda Airport. Liam Le was paralyzed because of this car accident."
"I'm sorry," Adrian Du said, "I wanted to say that you have changed a lot."
"It doesn't matter. After encountering so many things, there will always be changes." Ethan Zhou said easily, "No matter what happens, life must go on, people come and go, nothing in the world stays, and all things flow continuously."
Adrian Du: "Heraclitus."
The car stopped in front of Gulou Street. This area was the old town of Wan City. It was extremely difficult for the Audi to turn around outside the narrow alley of bungalows, just like a shark swimming into a large area of tangled seaweed. People on the roadside kept ringing the bells of old-fashioned bicycles, looking in from the car windows, curious about Adrian Du and the scar on Adrian Du's face.
Adrian Du no longer cares about other people's eyes. When others see the scars on his face, he lets them see them openly. Only the cold expression on his handsome face is arrogant.
Ethan Zhou took out the key, opened a dilapidated wooden door, and pushed it open with a creaky sound.
This is a small bungalow that my grandfather owned during his lifetime. It is said to be left by his ancestors. It is located at No. 73 Gulou Xie Street. No one has lived in it forty years ago. Ten years ago, it was used to store miscellaneous items that were discarded or could not be repaired in an antique shop.
The bungalow was about 60 square meters, with an electric light hanging on the roof. Ethan Zhou closed the door and pulled the cord. Under the dim light, there were cabinets and boxes everywhere. The shelves against the wall were piled with a lot of old books and papers, and a few scrolls of paintings that were damaged by insects. There was a spring bed in the corner, with an air-conditioning quilt on the bed, and a dusty thangka hanging on the wall.
Adrian Du walked to the back door, which was sealed with cement and the windows were nailed with wooden boards. The autumn light came in from the gaps, and the dust that was raised was like a beam of light shining in from the cracks in the time of an ancient civilization.
"These are all I have," Ethan Zhou said, standing in the middle of the house, thinking for a moment, "I can't estimate the value."
"Estimate?" Adrian Du walked to an old-fashioned table and opened the drawer. Inside were several watch faces without straps, and a copy of Reference News from twenty years ago.
Ethan Zhou: "I estimated it myself. I've been dealing with antiques since I was a child, so I know the value. The only thing that's valuable is this house, which is worth about 5 or 6 million. But we have to wait for compensation for demolition, and the possibility of demolition is very low..."
Gulou Xiejie is an ancient building protection area, behind which is a large lake. The lakeside has been transformed into a commercial street, full of milk tea shops, specialty shops, and cultural and creative shops, just like the ancient town culture that can be found all over the country. But if you walk three or four hundred meters in, you will find an alley of dilapidated houses that no one cares about. They cannot be rented out, and the government dare not demolish them.
"...Besides, it involves the property of our ancestors," Ethan Zhou said, "I don't want to sell it either."
Adrian Du took out a watch face and looked at it in the sunlight coming in through the window.
This watch is very peculiar. It has no hour, minute or second hands. Instead, it has three square metal pieces on the round dial, each staggered 30 degrees and stacked together, forming a thin twelve-sided shape. The inner circle is the twelve-hour scale of a day, and the middle circle is the number of days corresponding to a lunar phase cycle.
The outermost part is the time ring scale of the perpetual calendar.
Adrian Du picked up the watch face and looked at it for a while, obviously attracted by its complex mechanical feel.
"How do you tell the time?" Adrian Du asked.
"There is a teardrop-shaped sapphire on one corner of the square," Ethan Zhou said. "You have to look at it in the sun to see it. The direction the sapphire points to is the time scale. It's Swiss craftsmanship. I tried to fix it, but it didn't work."
Adrian Du said: "This is the first time I've seen a watch like this. It's very beautiful."
Ethan Zhou said: "It has no name, no batch, it should be a limited edition, it is a product from many years ago, if you like it, take it. Or change it? I have a Daytona, do you want it?"
Ethan Zhou opened the small safe in the corner, which contained two watches. He threw one to Adrian Du and asked him to try it.
Adrian Du tried putting it on his wrist, shook his head, and gave it back to Ethan Zhou.
"Can you repair a safe?" Adrian Du asked suddenly while sitting on the edge of the bed and trying to adjust the strange watch in his hand.
Ethan Zhou: "?"
Ethan Zhou didn't understand, and after a moment he said, "I need a design drawing."
Adrian Du glanced at the safe in Ethan Zhou's home, which looked a bit like the one in Brandon Yu's office, and pointed at it. Ethan Zhou stood up and started looking through the things, and Adrian Du said, "Old Kubney, made in 1973."
Ethan Zhou's safe is also a Kubney turntable type, but it is from a different batch and the design has also been changed.
"Is it from 1973?" Ethan Zhou said, "Maybe it's okay to see the real thing. What are you going to do?"
Ethan Zhou looked at Adrian Du suspiciously, his heart full of doubts.
Adrian Du shook his head and said, "Nothing."
Ethan Zhou said: "I seem to remember that there is still a manual for it."
Decades ago, Russian safes were very popular, and the manual also included instructions on how to reset the password if you forgot it, but it was quite complicated. Ethan Zhou found a yellowed manual, which was from different batches, but the principles should be similar.
"What exactly do you want to do?" Ethan Zhou asked doubtfully.
"I'm a little tired." Adrian Du said suddenly.
"Sleep for a while." Ethan Zhou asked Adrian Du to go to the spring bed. Adrian Du did not take off his shoes and moved a little inside to make an empty space. Ethan Zhou also lay down on the bed with him and began to flip through the manual.
Adrian Du was still looking at the watch in his hand and said, "What time is it?"
"Ten o'clock." Ethan Zhou flipped through the manual and glanced at Adrian Du. "Don't bother with it. It's completely broken and can't be repaired. Just keep it as a souvenir."
Adrian Du adjusted the dial and it made a slight sound, but got stuck when he tried to set the date. After turning it a few times, he found that the watch was a bit stiff and he didn't dare to turn it too hard for fear of breaking it.
The date on the dial stopped at yesterday: September 7th.
It was also the day they met again after being separated for nearly three years.
There was a slight mechanical sound, and Adrian Du didn't know what he had accidentally moved, and the watch that had stopped working for many years started moving again.
"It's fixed," Adrian Du showed it to Ethan Zhou, "How do you want to reward me?"
Ethan Zhou: ...
"You just pulled out the spring needle and inserted it back again, repeating it several times!" Ethan Zhou said with a smile.
Ethan Zhou glanced at Adrian Du and saw that he was still playing with the watch like a child, so he took it from him and said, "Stop playing and take a nap."
"Call me in two hours," Adrian Du said, "let's go have lunch together."
Adrian Du then turned slightly to the side, closed his eyes, and showed a tired expression.
Ethan Zhou covered the two of them with a quilt and continued to read the instruction manual of the safe. The instruction manual was in Russian, which made him dizzy, so he threw the book under the bed and fell asleep.
11:45:
Adrian Du suddenly opened his eyes, took out his vibrating cell phone from his trouser pocket, answered the call, and put it to his ear.
"Brother Adrian Du," a young man's voice said, "where are you?"
Adrian Du stood up gently, his face showing the anxiety of just waking up, and whispered: "Speak."
"Brandon Yu is dead." The voice on the other end was lowered.
"He jumped off a building at the construction site in the middle of the night last night! Didn't you watch the news? It broke half an hour ago!"
Adrian Du's face changed instantly, he took his suit jacket and pushed the door open to go out.
At this time, Ethan Zhou was still sleeping soundly.
Adrian Du went around the alley and changed his Bluetooth headset. The young man was still talking in the headset: "Where were you at that time last night? Do you have an alibi?"
Adrian Du did not answer. He only heard the man in the headset say quickly: "The police are looking for him everywhere. All his assistants will be taken away to assist in the investigation. Find a place to hide for a while, don't be..."
Adrian Du came to the end of the alley not far from the car and saw two criminal police officers taking pictures of his license plate. He stopped and turned back the way he came.
11:55:
When Adrian Du was about to walk into the commercial street, three criminal police officers came up to him, one in front and two behind.
"Comrade, please come with us." The leading man showed his work ID.
Adrian Du raised his hand slightly, holding his coat. The criminal police took off his headphones for him, searched his body briefly, did not handcuff him, and took him to the police car.
11:58:
Inside the warehouse, beside the sleeping Ethan Zhou's pillow, the watch that Adrian Du had moved had a blue teardrop pointing to the Roman numeral "twelve".
11:59:59...
Twelve o'clock sharp.
The three square metal disks went through a twelve-hour cycle and returned to their original positions. The hour hand, minute hand, and second hand overlapped and made a very low sound, like the sound of water flowing continuously when a spring was unwound.
The hands stopped at twelve noon.
Ethan Zhou’s cell phone alarm rang. Notes: 6pm, partner dinner, Brandon Yu.
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