Chapter Text
It was really Li Jianheng’s fault.
“He’s gorgeous,” Li Jianheng said, waving his phone in Xiao Chiye’s face. “He goes by Lanzhou and he started showing up in the tattoos Supertopic on Weibo out of nowhere. He never posts selfies, but people who comment on his posts with their tattoos he did have him in them sometimes!”
Xiao Chiye barely glanced at Li Jianheng’s phone. The screenshots he’d saved with this Lanzhou in them were small and he didn’t see what the fuss was about. He shrugged, not especially interested.
“Oh, and THEN!” Li Jianheng started frantically scrolling through his photos. He tried to shove it in Xiao Chiye’s face again. “He almost broke all of Weibo when he Lived a tattoo and you could see his face in a mirror! Tell me he isn’t pretty!”
“Are his tattoos any good?” Xiao Chiye interrupted, shoving Li Jianheng’s phone away from him. That was far more important, in Xiao Chiye’s opinion. “Or is his face the only thing going for him?”
“Look for yourself!”
Xiao Chiye grabbed Li Jianheng’s phone, now opened to this Lanzhou’s official Weibo account. He tapped around, expanding the preview photos in posts. He didn’t know much about tattoos, but these were awfully pretty. They ranged from elegant script to watercolor tattoos to plants and animals. He was a little impressed.
“Not bad,” Xiao Chiye admitted.
Li Jianheng took his phone back, beaming smugly. “See?”
Xiao Chiye was reminded why he rarely admitted Li Jianheng was right.
“So are we actually going out or not?”
—
“Y’know what?” Li Jianheng hiccupped. He reached for his drink and knocked it over. Li Jianheng tried to wipe the spill with his sleeve but… He paused, staring at the glass that used to be full of liquor. Why was it empty? His eyebrows knitted in confusion.
‘Tch. What a lightweight!’ Xiao Chiye thought. His own glass suddenly slipped out of his hand and shattered on the floor. He flexed his fingers, which weren’t moving like how he wanted them to for some reason.
They were shooed unceremoniously out of the club.
“Anyway,” Li Jianheng said, after taking some time to heave in an alley, “I wanted to ask… do you think, that if I got Mu Ru’s name tattooed on me, she’d go out with me?”
“Fuck no,” Xiao Chiye replied. His head was spinning so fast it was starting to hurt. He struggled to unlock his phone. His fingers still weren’t quite working. “I told you, just tell her you’re rich. Isn’t she already some creepy guy’s sugar baby? Offer her a promotion or something.”
“That’s such a good idea,” sobbed Li Jianheng. He threw an arm around Xiao Chiye’s shoulders in a stunning display of agility given his current state. “How can I ever repay you?”
“Pay for the Didi ride home.”
It took the two of them working Li Jianheng’s phone together to open the app to actually call a car. They leaned against each other, standing on the curb to wait. Moments later, the car pulled up. Xiao Chiye marveled at how fast the driver had arrived. He started to drag Li Jianheng over. Then he nearly exploded when he saw some guy in white try to get in.
“Hey asshole!” Xiao Chiye grabbed the Didi hijacker and shoved him away. “That’s OUR car!”
The guy in white stumbled; his back slammed against the wall of the club. Served that asshole right. Xiao Chiye pushed Li Jianheng, dead asleep, into the backseat of the car. The driver turned to look at Xiao Chiye, trembling. “Mister Shen Zechuan?”
“Who the fuck is that?”
Something slammed into his knees. His already compromised balance failed. Xiao Chiye pitched forward, smashing his own forehead on the car door frame in shock; his legs buckled. With a loud swear, Xiao Chiye landed in a heap on the sidewalk. Li Jianheng didn’t budge.
“Me.”
Xiao Chiye looked up.
This was the first person besides his dad, brother, or master to ever land a hit on him. It was the guy in white. Xiao Chiye squinted. He almost looked familiar, but Xiao Chiye was pretty sure he’d remember a guy that beautiful. Maybe he was just still really drunk, but god, Xiao Chiye was pretty sure looking at that face could make him turn.
“As I said, this is my car.” The guy, Shen something, stepped over Xiao Chiye and reached an arm into the car. He threw Li Jianheng out with a flick of his wrist. One handed. Then sneered at Xiao Chiye. Fucking sneered. It was rude.
It was offensive.
It was gorgeous.
Xiao Chiye gaped at Shen slipping into the car and leaving, completely stunned.
And, he noticed with some horror, a little hard.
A sudden and loud gasp next to him finally shook him out of the trance. Li Jianheng was awake again. “Is the car here?”
Yes, it actually was this time. The driver pulled up to the curb and said their names and everything. The two managed to stumble into the car. Once buckled in, Xiao Chiye felt himself losing consciousness fast. Until Li Jianheng said, “We should get matching friendship tattoos.”
Somewhere deep in Xiao Chiye’s subconscious, he remembered how bad most of Li Jianheng’s drunken ideas were. Now? Half asleep and still pretty drunk?
“Let’s do it.”
—
The next day’s hangover was one for the record books.
It was a good thing he and Li Jianheng had moved out of their respective parents’ houses. Because that meant that their parents couldn’t see them in this hungover state. It was bad. Xiao Chiye didn’t even feel halfway human until dinnertime. They ordered plain noodle soup from their favorite takeout, sitting on the floor against the wall and grimacing with every sip they forced down.
“Last night was fun though, right?” Li Jianheng said as soon as he could go longer than an hour without throwing up.
“Hell yeah.”
Except for the part where Xiao Chiye might have had a bisexual panic after getting knocked on his ass by that twink in white. Luckily Li Jianheng wasn’t awake to witness that mess.
“So, what should we get for our tattoos? Lanzhou works out of Qudu.”
Xiao Chiye choked on a mouthful of noodles. “You were serious about that?”
“Not matching ones,” Li Jianheng said, waving a hand dismissively. Small comforts. “I was just thinking it would be so cool to go get Lanzhou tattoos.”
Xiao Chiye shrugged. He wasn’t particularly into tattoos but he didn’t hate the idea. “Sure, why not.”
And that was how the next day, when they were fully sober and recovered, Li Jianheng and Xiao Chiye were headed for Lanzhou’s shop. Li Jianheng parked his stupidly expensive car and, as he was opening the door, a thought occurred to Xiao Chiye.
“Do you need an appointment for these kinds of things?”
“Huh?”
The bell over the door jingled. The waiting room was basic, with a hallway that presumably led to the tattoo machines. Two different cadences of muffled buzzing drifted to the waiting room. It reeked of cigarette smoke.
“Do you have an appointment?” asked a bored-looking guy sitting at a desk in the shop’s waiting room. His baseball cap was pulled low over his face, cigarette clenched between his lips. He was playing with his phone on one hand and didn’t bother looking up at them. His sleeves were rolled up, showing a tattoo of two traditional wine cups clinking on his exposed forearm. Stylized smoke and spilled wine curled around them. “Lanzhou doesn’t do walk ins.”
Li Jianheng looked like a kicked puppy. “Can I make an appointment?”
“The waiting list is a year long.”
Li Jianheng deflated further. He peeked up, looking pathetic. Xiao Chiye broke into a cold sweat, knowing the secondhand embarrassment that was about to arise in him. Because Li Jianheng always did this.
“My family has money.”
“No.”
“A lot of money.”
“Lanzhou’s apprentice has a shorter waiting list if you want.”
“Seriously, how much will it take?”
Xiao Chiye was about a second away from dying. And he was not a man who got easily embarrassed. He reached out and gripped Li Jianheng’s shoulder firmly, ignoring the squeak of pain Li Jianheng let out.
“Time to go now,” he said loudly, drowning out whatever bullshit Li Jianheng was trying to say.
“There are really no exceptions?” Li Jianheng asked as he was being marched toward the shop door.
“I’ll make an exception for that one. The other one can book with Qiao Tianya or nobody.”
The voice was smooth and confident, with a dash of cuntiness to it. Xiao Chiye turned around slowly, a sinking feeling in his chest because that voice sounded a little… familiar.
Oh. Shit.