Chapter 52: Be a Man

Early in the morning—in the physical sense of the word.

Zhai Da glanced at his watch. Five o’clock.

He tapped the wall lightly and heard Lu Wei say, "I'm already awake."

Zhai Da rubbed his eyes. "Brush your teeth and wash your face."

"Mm."

"Uhm... give me one minute before you come in. I need to use the restroom."

A man whose very first task upon waking up is not relieving himself is a rare breed indeed.

He had reached the age of having to get up at night.

After draining the pipes, Zhai Da opened the bathroom door again. Lu Wei was already standing right outside.

Just woken up, she was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. Her fair skin, pale with a cold undertone, matched the dim, breaking dawn light. In her right hand, she held her own plastic toothbrush cup.

Her left hand was holding out a brand-new toothbrush.

Zhai Da took it in bewilderment.

"The bristles on your toothbrush were all frayed... so I bought you a new one."

Zhai Da stared at it for a moment. It was of relatively good quality; even at the local sundry shop, it would cost seven or eight yuan.

He readily swapped to the new one, squeezed toothpaste onto it, and then casually reached out to take Lu Wei’s cup from her hand to apply toothpaste for her as well.

"From now on, just leave your toothbrush cup right here. There are still several months before university starts, so there's no point in carrying it back and forth."

Lu Wei nodded hesitatingly.

The two of them stood side by side in front of the mirror, quietly brushing their teeth.

Usually, because Yu Xiaoli was around, they both consciously avoided using the bathroom at the same time—even for such perfectly innocent activities as brushing teeth and washing hands. Today was the first time.

Stroke by stroke, they somehow inexplicably slipped into the exact same rhythm.

Around 5:30 AM, the two of them had finished washing up on tiptoe. They left a note that read, "Lu Wei and I have gone for a morning run," shouldered their schoolbags, and headed out the door.

The morning light was cold and bleak, with a hint of thin mist, and even the air carried a cool, damp chill.

Zhai Da rubbed his face with the mist, buying himself a momentary flash of wakefulness.

Then, leading Lu Wei, he headed in the exact opposite direction of the school.

Since they had already settled on the plan last night, execution had to begin without a moment's delay. Although there were still three days left before the application deadline, if any single step got stuck, they would have to wait another whole year.

At past five in the morning, the streets were virtually deserted. Instead, a few stray dogs were wandering about on their own, pausing to look at the two of them as they passed.

Until Zhai Da caught sight of a massive figure and likewise stopped in his tracks to look.

Seeing him halt, Lu Wei stopped behind him.

"A classmate?"

Zhai Da nodded. "Mm."

Fan Junwei.

That exaggerated physique was unmistakable; there were very few people in the entire Dongyang County who matched it, and besides, the other person was wearing a Maofang Middle School uniform.

Fan Junwei had his back to Zhai Da, holding a bamboo-twig broom and sweeping the pavement with rapid, practiced efficiency.

It seemed that the night market stalls had occupied this intersection the previous evening, leaving behind a scattering of bamboo skewers, paper cups, and packaging bags. On the hard asphalt road, there were also patchy, glistening stains of cooking oil.

Judging by the sheer volume of trash, the people here certainly didn't need to play the song "We Are All Living Hard."

Fan Junwei swept the trash into a pile, then carried a bucket of water and splashed it over the oil stains. The water contained a bit of detergent foam as he scrubbed the ground with the broom.

Earnest, silent, and skilled.

The broom kicked up dust and a fine spray of water, slightly dampening the cuffs of his school uniform trousers. His old, faded sneakers, whose original color was now indistinguishable, were covered in tiny spatulas of mud.

At the end of the road, a sanitation worker’s specialized tricycle approached, with several massive garbage bins rattling in the back.

The person pedaling was a tiny, frail old woman who appeared to be no taller than five feet. The tricycle was not motorized, so pedaling it was clearly an exhausting struggle.

The old woman stopped, pulled out an iron shovel resting horizontally in the cart bed, and shoveled the garbage Fan Junwei had gathered into the cart. Meanwhile, Fan Junwei called out, "Grandma, watch your back."

Then he lifted a sanitation garbage bin over a meter tall and placed it neatly by the roadside.

At that exact moment, his gaze met Zhai Da’s across the street.

Zhai Da’s expression was somewhat complicated. He finally understood where the strange smell on Fan Junwei came from... and why he never seemed to get enough sleep.

He had originally expected Fan Junwei to feel embarrassed, to fly into a rage out of humiliation, or to pretend not to recognize them.

Instead, without a moment's hesitation, Fan Junwei immediately waved with a smile.

"Up so early? Morning run?"

Zhai Da waved back with a smile.

"Heading to the internet café."

Fan Junwei: ...

He felt a twinge of curiosity about Lu Wei standing behind Zhai Da, but since he wasn't the gossipy type, he didn't ask further.

The old woman also looked over, and Zhai Da gave a slight nod. "Good morning, Grandma."

It was a distant greeting to an elder, and Lu Wei dutifully followed his example.

Then the two of them made a left turn at the intersection.

For some reason, Fan Junwei out here on the street felt somehow... more concrete, more vivid than the Fan Junwei at school.

He was no longer just that "classmate" who dozed off slumped over his desk all day, exuding a strange odor.

Instead, he was a real... man.

"Xiaowei, who are those folks?" the old woman asked in a heavy rural accent.

Watching the backs of the two departing figures, Fan Junwei replied in the same local dialect, "School friends."

The old woman didn't look pleased; instead, she seemed rather distressed. "I keep telling you not to come help out! If your classmates see you, they'll make fun of you!"

Fan Junwei shook his head. "Zhai Da... shouldn't."

As for why, he couldn't quite put it into words.

With that, Fan Junwei went back to moving the garbage bins. These thick, black bins felt effortless in his sturdy embrace.

Looking at her grandson's robust physique, the old woman's wrinkled face broke into a full smile.

"My boy Xiaowei is just so strong! Look at those shoulders!"

Fan Junwei laughed as well. "Of course! I don't eat my meals for nothing! Grandma, just stand over there and rest. I'll definitely have this all finished for you before six!"

The old woman didn't idle either. With sweep after sweep of her broom, she cleared away the city's grime, muttering to herself,

"Your granddad was five-foot-seven, your dad was five-foot-eleven, and Xiaowei is six-foot-three..."

"Your granddad never went to school, your dad finished middle school, and Xiaowei made it to high school! He's an intellectual!"

"Our family isn't big, but life keeps getting better... getting better and better..."

***

Zhai Da led Lu Wei for about another block before stopping in front of the door of the "Sabak Internet Café."

It wasn't hard to guess what game the owner had been playing back in the day from the name alone. This was also the closest internet café to Zhai Da’s home in Dongyang County.

Before his rebirth, Zhai Da was a regular here. Not quite addicted, perhaps, but he came at least three times a week. At first, it was to play Counter-Strike, and later, to chat up girls (online dating) by switching to Audition, though his hand-coordination was too poor to master it, and he lacked the money and energy for the customization system.

Eventually, he was cast out by his online "family."

It wasn't a rebellious cyber-punk clique; it was called something like "￡Hell-Evil Soul-Shatter彡." Right up until he was kicked out, Zhai Da still couldn't pronounce his own family name in full.

Counting his past life, it had been roughly eight years since he last set foot in a place like an internet café.

He turned to look at Lu Wei; she probably hadn't set foot in one in her entire eighteen years...

"It might smell a bit unpleasant inside."

Lu Wei nodded, instinctively holding her breath—which was rather endearing.

As soon as they stepped inside, the bizarre concoction of odors left over from an all-night gaming session rushed straight to the brain: foot odor, stale sweat, decades-old cigarette smoke, and takeout barbecue.

He now had a pretty good idea who the primary customers of those night market stalls at the corner had been last night.

Lu Wei’s nostrils twitched slightly, but she made no further complaint. It smelled terrible, but it was bearable.

The net-admin was a young man in his early twenties whom Zhai Da vaguely remembered being nicknamed "Brother Hai." He looked only a few years older than them, though in reality, he had dropped out after middle school and had been working for nearly a decade.

Wearing glasses, he looked quite scholarly, but Zhai Da actually knew he was quite street-smart, fought fiercely, possessed great physical strength, and seemed to work out regularly.

As far as Brother Hai was concerned, Zhai Da had only been away for half a month, so he greeted him warmly. "Dazi, it's been a while! Rare guest!"

Seeing the girl behind Zhai Da, Brother Hai looked slightly surprised, though he didn't pry.

Suddenly, he felt a sense of growing old... Zhai Da had been coming here to surf the web since primary school, back when he was only fifteen or sixteen himself.

And now he was all grown up too... Not bad at all, landing such a pretty girlfriend.

Coming in to surf the web at six in the morning... Where they had just spent the night went without saying. It certainly couldn't have been home, could it?