CH 5

Chapter 5: Zebra Zebra

While everyone began to play games at the table, Ruan Zhizhi began to regret that she hadn’t gone back to the inn to sleep earlier.

The game everyone was playing now was called “Ten Thirty”. She had already lost three times in a row, and would be fined to drink for each loss. Ruan Zhizhi was now looking at the liquid that was about to overflow from her glass. She felt that she would throw up if she looked at it again, let alone drinking the full glass of alcohol.

Chen Jiayan was obviously a party king. He was having fun at this moment, incessantly urging: “Zhizhi, hurry, hurry, you have to comply with the rules of the game, ah. Escaping a drink is definitely not allowed.”

Ruan Zhizhi was helpless. She closed her eyes and had no choice but to very gallantly pick up the glass. But in the next second it was suddenly lifted away by the man sitting across from her. He raised his head and drained the glass in one gulp.

From the beginning until this moment, Ruan Zhizhi had drank a lot. Now, her mind was in a complete mess. She couldn’t really distinguish between east, south, west, and north. She shook her head and gazed at the man opposite her for a long time before she realized that the person who finished her glass of beer was actually Shi Yan.

Everyone was looking at him in awe. Chen Jiayan was stunned for a moment, and then asked a little doubtfully, “Ah Yan, are you taking her place for the drinking punishment?”

“No.” Shi Yan put down the empty glass in his hand. “I was thirsty.”

Chen Jiayan: “……”

Yan Rui: “……”

He finished speaking, unconcerned with the unfathomable expressions of everyone present. He raised his line of sight to look at Ruan Zhizhi. His pitch-black eyes were still empty. There was nothing in them at all. But what he said in the next second made Ruan Zhizhi sober up in an instant.

“If you have to drink tonight, I’ll substitute.”

The lights in the bar flickered and blurred, flashing across his face. When they clearly extinguished, it was very beautiful.

It took Ruan Zhizhi nearly ten seconds to digest the meaning of his words. She obviously wanted to refuse, but when she considered that she might not even be able to go back if she was too drunk, the words on the verge of her lips stiffly turned into a “thank you”.

The other person raised his eyebrows and replied, “No need for thanks. So long as you remember that you owe me a favour.”

In truth, Ruan Zhizhi hated owing others the most in her life. However, she glanced at the ten or so bottles of beer on the table. After thinking it over carefully, she felt that this favour was indispensable.

When all was said and done, it was her own fault for having a poor drinking capacity.

Sure enough, Shi Yan didn’t go back on his word. The entire evening, whenever Ruan Zhizhi was supposed to drink, he readily drank it all. It was so refreshing that Chen Jiayan looked at him with a bit of inquiry in his eyes; so refreshing that Ruan Zhizhi could perceive Yan Rui’s full hostility towards them.

She must have forgotten to read the Chinese divination almanac before going out today. In short, the biggest loser of tonight’s various games was her. Ultimately, Shi Yan finished almost two thirds of the drinks on the table.

The case of beer Chen Jiayan bought was finally finished, and at last Ruan Zhizhi breathed a sigh of relief.

She raised her head and subtly glanced at Shi Yan. He was casually folding a useless paper napkin. He didn’t seem the least bit drunk. The guilt in Ruan Zhizhi’s heart eased a little bit.

Seemingly aware of her gaze, Shi Yan lifted his eyes to look at her. Ruan Zhizhi met his dark eyes and was suddenly at a loss.

She didn’t speak, and he didn’t speak either. After a while, Ruan Zhizhi took advantage of the fact that the others weren’t paying attention and softly whispered one sentence: “I’m sorry.”

The other person pursed his lips, and the deep light that came from the smile in his eyes died. He reached out and handed her the paper napkin rose he had just folded, followed by a quiet reply: “For you.”

Perhaps the alcohol had already invaded her brain. Ruan Zhizhi didn’t even give a symbolic refusal before accepting the small, delicate paper rose at once.

The temperature of his palms still remained on the rose, very faint, yet very distinct. Her cheeks were getting hotter and hotter, and Ruan Zhizhi could feel the effects of the alcohol rising gradually. She bowed her head and stared at the paper rose in her hands, seriously thinking for a long time. Just as she lifted her head and was about to ask him “Have we met somewhere before?”, she was robbed of the topic by the chattering girls at her side.

With great difficulty, Ruan Zhizhi finally summoned a little courage and promptly announced that she was exhausted. After all, it was embarrassing to pose the question she had. Perhaps Shi Yan would think that she was trying to strike up a conversation with him. Furthermore, she felt that the possibility that they had met each other before was practically zero, therefore…it was better not to ask such stupid questions.

Even if his eyes truly seemed familiar.

Gloomy, cold, and a little tired. Always grasping the situation thoroughly, always watching from the sidelines.

“Shi Yan, just now I saw a tattoo on your left arm. Does it have a special meaning?”

“Are tattoos very popular abroad? It looks so cool, I want to get one too.”

“Does it hurt to get a tattoo? Or do you ask for an anaesthetic?”

……

All sorts of voices came and went in her ears. Ruan Zhizhi’s head became more and more dizzy. After thinking about it, she decided to go to the washroom to rinse her face and clear her mind.

Just after coming out of the washroom, she happened to come across Chen Jiayan who was on the phone in the corridor.

When Ruan Zhizhi saw him, she couldn’t help but stop at a distance.

He really looked like Li Sichen, especially when he smiled.

“Zhizhi, what a coincidence.” Chen Jiayan hung up the phone and walked towards her immediately. He asked with great concern, “Tonight you didn’t drink much, so you shouldn’t be drunk, right?”

I’m not drunk you big-headed demon.

Although Ruan Zhizhi’s inner heart had various complaints surging forth like a gathering storm, she smiled very politely on the surface and replied, “I’m fine, I really didn’t drink much.”

Chen Jiayan peered at her carefully for a moment. After verifying that she was in a clear-headed state, he proceeded to chat while grinning: “Anyway, it’s quite abnormal that the uncivilized Ah Yan would help you block those drinks. He usually keeps a cool eye on these kinds of affairs. The last time we went to a nightclub, one of the girls from work threw up and he didn’t even bat an eyelid.”

The two walked back while chatting. Ruan Zhizhi tucked the hair that fell away from her ears and replied without particularly caring: “Maybe he wanted to drink tonight, and he’s never lost a game, so he thought of drinking on my behalf.”

“You think too much, Ah Yan isn’t that kind of person.” Chen Jiayan waved his hand. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly gazed at her and asked in a half-joking, half-serious tone, “Tell me, does he like you?”

Ruan Zhizhi was stunned: “…What a joke.”

Her heart was palpitating inexplicably.

Fortunately, the two of them reached the table at this time, finally putting an end to the somewhat embarrassing subject.

For some unknown reason, Ruan Zhizhi couldn’t help looking for Shi Yan’s figure at first glance. She searched for a long time, only to find that he was actually sitting on a chair onstage, to the left side of the bar.

He was holding a guitar in his arms.

Shi Yan lowered his head. His long eyelashes drooped down, forming small shadows on his eyelids. His fingers caressed the strings of the guitar as he liked, and his expression was calm, like a boundless sea so deep that one could not see the bottom.

Ruan Zhizhi didn’t know anything about the guitar. She only thought that his playing was very pleasant to hear. The melody was moderate and light, with a slow and profound sense of loneliness.

“Zebra, zebra, you’ll return to your own home, but I’ll waste away my frigid years. Not a single door in your city is open for me; I will return to the roads in the end…”

“Zebra, zebra, do you still remember me? I am the fool who can only sing. Zebra, zebra, go on to sleep now. I will leave the North with my guitar on my back.”1

Ruan Zhizhi had heard this song before, it was a ballad called “Zebra Zebra”.

Standing next to her, Chen Jiayan was actually quiet for once. After a long period of silence, he sighed. “Ah Yan, I don’t know what’s going on in his mind all day.”

Zebras could not sleep when they were alone at night.

He must have been singing to someone.

Ruan Zhizhi tilted her head. For the first time, she felt that this man who was always hard to pin down seemed to have the aura of fireworks.

At least, he was also someone with seven emotions and six desires. Perhaps he had even been hurt before.

Thinking so, she couldn’t help but raise her head to catch a glimpse of the stage again. She happened to meet that man’s gaze.

The expression in his eyes was darker than shrouded fog, drifting away from the debauchery outside. Always worn out, always dejected, always…enchanting.

Ruan Zhizhi’s fingers inadvertently touched the paper rose in the pocket of her down jacket. Suddenly, inexplicably, she trembled.