Chapter 1: Grass Grows

Trial Project (only 5 chapters)

Translator: If many readers like it and have good rating on NU, I’ll continue. If not, I’ll move on to a different project and hopefully another translator can pick it up.

xxx

Yang Qiao left Beijing and returned to his hometown, Yunzhou, where he has been living for over three months now, gradually adjusting to his slow-paced and healthy new life.

This year’s spring has been particularly long, neither too cold nor too hot, with pleasant humidity—very comfortable.

The winds in Yunzhou have become much gentler compared to Yang Qiao’s past memories, and even the flowers seem to bloom more lavishly than he remembered. Occasionally, when he has nothing to do, he would go out for a walk or a bike ride, passing through streets that feel both familiar and unfamiliar, often feeling a small but rare happiness that’s hard to find quickly in a big city.

At the beginning of his return, it was only natural for him to live with his parents, spending a brief “honeymoon” period with them. However, as soon as the three-month mark arrived, and before his parents could show any signs of getting tired of him, Yang Qiao proactively suggested moving out.

Two years ago, his parents had taken a liking to a townhouse in a newly developed area of Yunzhou. Having already made his first significant fortune, Yang Qiao volunteered to cover the cost of the house and the renovation, intending to help his parents realize their dream of living in a villa in their middle age. However, after the renovations were completed, his parents, who had just entered their fifties, felt that the current development in the area didn’t suit their lifestyle needs—mainly because the supporting facilities weren’t lively enough, making life rather inconvenient. As a result, the new house was left unused.

Now, Yang Qiao moved there alone, giving his parents the space for their world of two while also gaining a more suitable environment for his home office. He agreed with his parents to return home two or three times a week, believing that adult children should accompany their parents but also maintain an appropriate amount of space and distance.

Yang Qiao declined his mother’s offer to help him organize his new home, so he could completely design this dual-purpose living and working space according to his own preferences.

It’s been almost a week since he moved in, and he has been so busy organizing his new home that he has hardly gone out.

Coincidentally, a friend invited him out for dinner and a chat, so he immediately put aside the seemingly endless task of tidying up. When his friend heard that he had moved to the new area, they thoughtfully chose a dinner spot near his new home.

Yang Qiao wasn’t yet familiar with the surroundings. Following the navigation on his phone, he walked out of the southern gate of the neighborhood, went straight, turned left, then left again, and yet another left… He began to suspect that the untrustworthy map was messing with him. He had clearly checked from home, and the destination was only a little over 200 meters away, so how had he already walked more than 3,000 steps and still not arrived?

As someone who has achieved significant success in the traditional sense as a self-media personality, one of Yang Qiao’s keys to success is having an exceptional, almost obsessive sense of time.

For example, whenever providing services to a valued client, no matter how challenging the situation or how tight the deadline, Yang Qiao and his team would always complete the scheduled content or deliver the business proposal before the deadline.

This habit is ingrained in his bones, and it applies to meeting friends as well.

The possibility of being late made Yang Qiao extremely anxious.

Fortunately, after circling the neighborhood a full 360 degrees, he successfully found the food court shown on the map before the appointed time.

“Yang Qiao! Over here!”

Yang Qiao let out a long sigh of relief and smiled brightly in the direction of the voice.

The young man standing at the entrance of the restaurant was exactly who had invited Yang Qiao out—Zou Ji, who was waving at him.

“The navigation wasn’t accurate; I almost got lost,” Yang Qiao said as he walked over, smiling. “Did you get here early?”

“I just arrived too,” Zhou Ji replied, holding a bottle of Tianzhilan in one hand. Since he planned to drink tonight, he didn’t drive himself over.

Tonight’s dinner was a gathering initiated by Zou Ji, who had invited Yang Qiao and another close friend they shared.

Yang Qiao looked around.

“Bo Ren hasn’t arrived yet, and he’s not hiding somewhere waiting to scare you,” Zou Ji, understanding his friend’s glance, said. “He mentioned he had something to do and would be half an hour late.”

Yang Qiao only responded with a simple “hmm.”

Zou Ji raised an eyebrow and, in a teasing tone, said, “Strange, you didn’t know he’d be late? He informed me but didn’t tell you first?”

Yang Qiao replied, “He really didn’t.”

Zou Ji exaggerated his surprise and asked, “No way, you two haven’t patched things up yet?”

Yang Qiao didn’t say anything, just showed a slightly troubled expression in cooperation.

He knew Zou Ji was going to make fun of them, and the more he played along, the less fun the joke would be.

Sure enough, Zou Ji’s joke stopped there. He had been in good spirits lately, with everything going smoothly, so he placed his arm around Yang Qiao’s shoulder and led him into the restaurant’s private room.

“Mu Tou,” Zou Ji said, “you’re making a fortune, and every time we ask you out, you’re always on time. Bo Ren, just a mere electrician, never shows up on time for a meal.”

Back in his student days, Yang Qiao had been nicknamed “Mu Tou” by his friends. He had no objections to this nickname and even used it as his ID when registering on social media platforms. Later, when he started working in the self-media industry, it became his widely recognized alias.

The friend who was late, named Bo Ren, was an electrical engineer at the Yunzhou Power Supply Company under the State Grid. This month, he was on rotation at the substation maintenance division.

Yang Qiao said, “His job is really busy; cut him some slack.”

The two of them entered the private room Zou Ji had reserved, chatting over tea while waiting for the latecomer Bo Ren to arrive before ordering food.

Zou Ji rolled up his sleeves to make tea, revealing a wealth-bringing bracelet with a beeswax Pixiu on his wrist. He asked Yang Qiao, “Is your new place all set up? When are we coming over for a housewarming?”

Before Yang Qiao could answer, Zou Ji continued, “How about today? When Bo Ren gets here, you two can make up quickly, and this dinner can count as your housewarming party.”

Yang Qiao replied, “We didn’t fight; he was just looking for trouble and throwing a tantrum.”

Three months ago, just before the Lunar New Year, Yang Qiao returned from Beijing to celebrate. For the past few years, due to circumstances beyond his control, this was his first time returning to Yunzhou for the New Year since he graduated from university four years ago. He even expressed his intention to stay in Yunzhou more in the future to spend more time with his family.

He was the most successful young talent among his peers, and his decision to settle in Yunzhou was big news within the family, quickly spreading among relatives and their acquaintances.

There was a distant relative, a cousin many times removed, who was passionate about matchmaking for young men and women of marriageable age. She was known as the top matchmaker in Yunzhou, with a reputation for having successfully paired over a hundred couples.

Out of the goodness of her heart, this cousin unilaterally decided to help her cousin Yang Qiao with his love life. She advertised him in several Yunzhou matchmaking groups with the slogan “Handsome, wealthy, single since birth, and a top-quality 26-year-old excellent young man,” inviting all eligible girls in Yunzhou to come forward for a match.

This led to various farcical situations, turning the entire Lunar New Year into a chaotic mess—details of which need not be elaborated here.

As a result, after careful consideration, Yang Qiao posted an update on his social media that was not hidden from his relatives and elders in Yunzhou:

“I just wanted to let everyone know—I am the so-called ‘legendary gay man.'”

—Officially coming out.

His work revolves around the internet, and his social connections since university were mostly outside Yunzhou. His parents had accepted his orientation years ago, and his close friends were already aware of everything.

The people he truly cared about were treating him with a very normal attitude.

Moreover, with his career thriving and without any bad habits or reckless investments, the 26-year-old excellent gay man, Yang Qiao, had already accumulated enough capital to withstand life’s risks and outpace inflation. This gave him the utmost confidence to not care about outside opinions.

What this excellent gay man didn’t anticipate was that by coming out, he fended off the well-meaning matchmakers in Yunzhou but attracted another wave of enthusiastic individuals on his social media.

Just a couple of days after he posted his coming-out announcement and after the Lantern Festival, a former client representative reached out to Yang Qiao. They first congratulated him on his bravery in facing his true self, then eagerly offered to introduce him to a male relative. They insisted that when Yang Qiao had time to return to Beijing, he must meet this boy and see where things might go.

—Being gay doesn’t automatically grant immunity from being pressured to get married.

Yang Qiao didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so he planned to employ a strategy of delay. He had already decided to work from home in Yunzhou and, unless absolutely necessary, had no intention of returning to Beijing in the near future.

After more than a month of stalling, spring had arrived, and when the boy couldn’t wait for Yang Qiao to return to Beijing, he decided to take the initiative and visit during a weekend. The high-speed train from Beijing to Yunzhou took just over forty minutes, allowing him to both see the so-called “top-quality” Mu Tou and take a short trip to Yunzhou.

That day, Yang Qiao happened to be out with his friend Bo Ren, shopping for items to furnish his new home.

The two of them were lying side by side on a beanbag sofa, thinking it was quite nice, and discussing where it would best fit in Yang Qiao’s new house.

Noticing that Bo Ren also liked it, Yang Qiao suggested that they buy two sets, one to send to Bo Ren’s place.

Just then, a message came in from the person who made the introduction. Both of them felt the vibration of Yang Qiao’s phone in his pocket at the same time, and when Yang Qiao took it out to check, Bo Ren, sitting beside him, also saw the message.

The matchmaker texted on WeChat, saying that her nephew was about ten minutes away from arriving at Yunzhou High-Speed Railway Station. He was traveling alone, and since this was the first time the young boy had left Beijing on his own, she entrusted him to Yang Qiao.

After a brief moment of consideration, Yang Qiao decided to go to the station to pick him up. No matter what, he couldn’t just leave the boy stranded.

Because of this, Bo Ren and Yang Qiao had a fight. Bo Ren’s reasoning was that he had gone through great trouble to switch shifts with a colleague just to get the day off to accompany Yang Qiao, only for Yang Qiao to prioritize someone else over their friendship. He accused Yang Qiao of being heartless and stormed off, refusing to buy the sofa.

In the restaurant’s private room, after Yang Qiao finished recounting the entire story to Zou Ji, he concluded with an exasperated question: “Do you think he’s crazy?”

Zou Ji gave his opinion: “He must be jealous; there’s no other explanation. If he’s not jealous, I’ll chop off my head and let you roast my brains.”

Yang Qiao picked up a tea knife from the table, handed it to Zou Ji with the handle facing him, and said, “Go ahead, cut it off, so I can hurry up and send it to the kitchen to add to the menu.”

Zou Ji quickly laughed and pushed the tea knife aside, pouring tea for Yang Qiao as he said with schadenfreude, “If he’s already this upset just from you meeting the boy, he’ll definitely lose his mind if you actually start dating him. He’d go mad at any moment.”

“I believe that,” Yang Qiao didn’t deny the speculation, saying, “He’s been like this since he was three or four years old. If I played with other kids for five minutes without paying attention to him, he’d start crying, throwing a fit, and even threatening to hang himself with his shoelaces. He hasn’t changed as he’s grown up. Sometimes, if I contact you more often than him, he even gets jealous of you… A straight guy with so many little tricks—sometimes it really drives me crazy.”

Zou Ji didn’t believe for a second that Yang Qiao actually found the situation annoying, but he didn’t call him out on it. Instead, he said, “We should look at this with a forward-thinking perspective. For example, this time when you came back, I really feel like he’s treating you differently than before. Don’t you think so? Be brave—there’s nothing to lose, even if it doesn’t work out. Even if he doesn’t want to date, he still won’t be able to stay away from you. At worst, things will stay as they are now, and you’ll continue being friends.”

“I didn’t notice anything different,” Yang Qiao didn’t want to continue the topic, so he countered, “If you have time to egg me on to a suicide mission, why aren’t you going after your goddess? Shanghai isn’t that far.”

Despite being a self-proclaimed love guru when advising others, Zou Ji turned into a self-professed loser in his own love life. He quickly tried to brush off the subject, saying, “I… I’ve been busy expanding my business. I just took over two new streets, and I’m swamped with work. I don’t have the time or energy to chase after my goddess.”

Yang Qiao casually replied, “We just signed a few new talents, and I’ve been busy with account promotion. I’m so swamped that I don’t even have time to think about men.”

They silently drank their tea.

“For something as minor as account promotion,” Zou Ji said in confusion, “does Mu Tou really have to get involved personally?”

Yang Qiao replied, “I still need to keep an eye on things. Otherwise, the younger team members tend to get out of hand.”

Coming from a completely different industry, Zou Ji, a seasoned logistics professional with control over four streets in one district and eight community parcel stations, didn’t know much about the new media industry. He said, “At that New Year’s dinner, didn’t you say you wanted to quit and come back to Yunzhou to take it easy? I noticed you haven’t gone back to Beijing, so I thought you really meant to take it easy. You’ve already achieved financial freedom—don’t push yourself so hard, brother.”

Yang Qiao said, “It’s not that easy to just lie down, brother.”

At that moment, the door to the private room opened, and they paused their conversation.

Bo Ren, who had finally arrived, entered from outside. He was tall, with a healthy tan, and a fine layer of water droplets covered his short hair. There were also traces of wetness on the shoulders of his black jacket.

“Master Bo has arrived,” Zou Ji said with a smile. “Is it raining outside?”

“Yeah, I braved the wind and rain just to have this meal with you two,” Bo Ren replied.

Author’s Note:

This time, we’re telling the story of two childhood friends who finally become a couple. The narrative will be told in reverse order, starting from high school and continuing into their adult lives. It’s likely to be a medium to long-length story.