YHTD 20

Chapter 20

Dear Family, Friends, and Dogs

Chapter Six: Dear Family, Friends, and Dogs

I like lively crowds; San Ye likes quiet. Later, we realized that when it was just the two of us, things got boring. Basically, we’d just plug into the same power bank and play games on our phones. So San Ye compromised—most of the time he’d take me to hang out with friends, conveniently showing off our affection to make our friends roll their eyes. As for family and the dog, yes, they were also part of the group that found us annoying.

1
Some of San Ye’s best friends are truly extraordinary—like unicorns among horses, or oddballs from Xiamen University.

Let’s start with classmate H. Just looking at his initials, you can tell how (…) he is!

H looks a lot like a Korean celebrity, and he has a cute personality. He’s always been my favorite of San Ye’s friends. Several times I refused San Ye’s invitation to Beijing and asked to go to Xiamen instead, largely because I wanted to see cute H.

H’s mom is Catholic, so from a young age he was required to attend mass, go to church, sing, and so on. Although H isn’t very devout, he still obeys.

One time, I went to Xiamen and it happened to coincide with H’s church activities, so we couldn’t eat together. After the service, he started spamming the group chat: “Let’s go get a late-night snack?” “Hey, let’s play Werewolf!” “Or go sing karaoke?”

It was already past ten at night. San Ye and I were in the hotel watching Where Are We Going, Dad?, so we ignored him completely.

H, seeing no response, angrily called San Ye.

San Ye: “What’s up?”
H: “What are you doing?”
San Ye: “I’m…”

Before San Ye could finish, H roared angrily: “Whether you’re playing games, watching movies, shopping, or…you know…you completely ignoring me breaks my heart!”

San Ye calmly lied: “I’m having dinner with Xiao Bu.”

H: “Ah?! Eating ( ⊙ o ⊙)! Okay, then enjoy your meal, all good, muah~”

I stood there, speechless at the whole conversation. Apparently, in foodie H’s eyes, anything postponed because of food is forgivable…

2
Another friend of San Ye’s is Y, San Ye’s roommate, who is incredibly naïve and cute.

In the summer, when San Ye and I strolled around campus, I often felt raindrops falling because it had been cloudy and drizzling those days. Whenever that happened, I’d ask San Ye: “Is it raining?”

San Ye would calmly look up and say yes. I never doubted him.

One time, San Ye, Y, and I were walking to the cafeteria. Under a cluster of lemon eucalyptus trees, I felt raindrops again.

I exclaimed: “It’s raining!”
San Ye calmly replied: “Mm.”

Y looked up at the sky and said confusedly to me: “No, it’s not.”

I was even more confused: “Y, didn’t you feel it? The raindrops are pretty heavy.”

Y said: “Really, no.”

Then suddenly, Y seemed to realize something. Pointing to a nearby patch of ground, he said to Xiao Bu: “Look over there—it’s dry, right? This patch is wet, isn’t it?”

I looked: “Oh, really? How come?”

Y asked in shock: “You don’t know about Xiamen University’s scenery? That’s not rain. That’s cicada pee from the trees.”

I was stunned: “( ⊙ o ⊙) Ah!”
San Ye laughed uncontrollably on the side.

A whole new world opened up for me. Remembering the “cicada pee” I had been caught in these past days, I felt completely grossed out.

After dinner, when we walked under the cicada-peeing trees again, I panicked and covered my head.

Me: “San Ye! San Ye! Pee! Pee!”
San Ye: “It’s fine.”
Me, crying: “It got into my mouth!”
San Ye: “Then don’t talk…”
I spat it out: “Ah! Ah! So disgusting!”

San Ye: “It’s fine. Cicada pee is clean. Cicadas only drink tree sap; it’s not dirty.”

I angrily argued: “You’re lying! Look at that huge yellow puddle on the ground! And it smells weird!”

Y, who had been quietly listening, suddenly chimed in: “Oh, maybe it’s too hot and the cicadas are ‘overheated.’”

Overheated… cicadas… overheated…

3
We used to have a dog named Laifu.

One winter break, on the first day I went home, during dinner, my dad put all the ham from a dish onto my plate, also picking the softest little cake for me. Just as I was marveling at fatherly love, he said: “Chew the cake and ham together and feed it to Laifu. Add more ham—he doesn’t like plain cake.”

I looked at the meat in my bowl, tears welling in my eyes, and fed the eager little dog according to my dad’s instructions. As I chewed, I realized it actually tasted pretty good… and accidentally swallowed it.

Laifu tilted his head in shock as he watched me swallow.

Half an hour later, I was trapped in my bedroom, too scared to leave. Our dog was outside barking furiously at me.

4
Laifu was a dog of unknown breed, probably not valuable. He had a black ring around his eyes like a panda, perfectly symmetrical, and looked a bit like the dog “Laifu” from a Hayao Miyazaki illustration, so we named him that.

Laifu was adopted by my sister from an animal shelter and grew up with my little nephew. When San Ye and I went to my sister’s house, we basically took on the daily tasks of walking him and picking up his poop. My sister was usually busy and only walked him once a day, but when we were there, San Ye would always take him along whenever he went downstairs, so Laifu grew especially fond of him.

Later, my sister temporarily rented another house due to moving, and the landlord didn’t allow pets, so Laifu was sent to live with us.

I watched him grow from a slender “teen” into a round ball. My family spoiled him to no end.

Dogs have good memories. Even after not seeing San Ye for a long time, Laifu never barked when San Ye came to our house. He would happily run into San Ye’s arms, making little noises to greet him: “Poop collector, you’re here again!”