Ferocious Dog of Old

Chi Ku had a bad temper, but it was hard for him to get mad. He wouldn’t get angry over the usual small things, but once something provoked him, it would be hard to calm him down. 

Tao Huainan very much listened to him, so Chi Ku had gotten truly mad at him only a few times.

It was clear that he was truly angered this time. He didn’t hold onto Tao Huainan’s hand the entire way home, Tao Huainan tightly clutching at his clothes. The short sleeves of summer didn’t have any cuffs, and so Tao Huainan couldn’t catch hold of Chi Ku’s hand and could only tug at his clothes.

“Don’t be mad.” Tao Huainan himself wasn’t happy either, but he was more scared of Chi Ku being angry. He said it once every few moments.

Chi Ku ignored him. Every time he was pissed off, it would be like when he’d first arrived—he would ignore everything Tao Huainan said. Maybe his personality was just like that, disliking communication. 

“I called out to you.” Tao Huainan was frowning, sweat rolling down his face. He didn’t care enough to wipe it away, still explaining, “I told you when I stopped.”

At that time, they’d coincidentally passed a bunch of people singing, and Chi Ku hadn’t heard a single thing. But Chi Ku couldn’t be blamed for getting angry; Chi Ku had grown up with him, and after five years, he understood what Tao Huainan was like all too well.

When Tao Huainan had stopped and refused to keep going, it’d actually been out of spite. He’d deliberately wanted to stop running. If it had been one of his usual tricks, Chi Ku wouldn’t have gotten angry—the problem this time was that Chi Ku hadn’t heard him. 

–

Tao Huainan clutched onto Chi Ku’s shirt the whole way back. Once the door was opened, Chi Ku threw the keys onto the shoe closet near the entrance and went to shower, pulling off his clothes as he went.

Tao Huainan changed his shoes by himself. He too was covered with sweat. When he was out of his clothes, he opened the door to the bathroom, squeezing his way into the shower.

The two of them frequently showered together, Tao Huainan having loved doing everything with Chi Ku since he was child. Chi Ku usually let him scrub himself down first, but he didn’t give way this time. Tao Huainan had only entered a short while before Chi Ku left, fully clean.

Tao Huainan pressed his lips together and applied shower gel onto his body. He was in a terrible mood.

–

This little misunderstanding between them had yet to disappear even after a few days had passed.

Later, even Tao Xiaodong could tell there was something wrong between these two brothers—why was neither of them talking to each other? He asked what happened, and both of them refused to say a single word.

“Yo, is this an actual fight?” Tao Xiaodong was originally going to leave as soon as he finished packing up, but he turned around and came back after seeing the two of them act like that. He pulled a chair over and flipped it, sitting and leaning on its back. “Tell me what happened?”

“Don’t want to.” Tao Huainan shook his head, not in a great mood.

“Looks like you’re angry?” It had been a long time since Tao Xiaodong had helped the two of them make up. Seeing Tao Huainan like that, he even thought Tao Huainan had started it. 

“Not me.” Tao Huainan was fiddling with a Rubik’s Cube. He wasn’t able to play with it, only blindly spinning around the layers. After saying one thing, he thought for a bit and then said another thing. “If I was the one angry, we’d have made up by now.”

“Ah, it’s xiao-ge who’s angry then.” Tao Xiaodong smiled. “You pissed him off again?”

“I don’t know.” Tao Huainan had coaxed Chi Ku for a good several days already. He’d even coaxed him this morning after waking up, telling him not to be mad. And yet that demon hadn’t softened. “I don’t know if I’m too good at pissing others off or if he thinks everything’s wrong with me.” 　　

“Such a feeling of injustice.” Tao Xiaodong stood back up. He changed back into his house slippers and walked to the entrance of Chi Ku’s room. The good student was seriously studying, the utter lack of expression on his face showing his unhappiness. 

“Xiao-ge, don’t ignore us, we’ll feel wronged and end up crying soon,” Tao Xiaodong said, teasing Tao Huainan. He then said to Chi Ku, “Calm down.” 

When it came to Chi Ku, Tao Xiaodong’s words were useful; no matter how angry he was, he wouldn’t display his temper at ge. With a straight face, he answered with a ‘mn’. 

“That guy in our family goes into a fluster as soon as he’s ignored,” Tao Xiaodong said, grinning. “He’s definitely turned docile now.” 

Chi Ku didn’t say anything else. His temper had clearly yet to subside, yet there was no way he could ignore Tao Xiaodong—so he only said another ‘mn’. 

Tao Xiaodong threw a look at Tao Huainan, telling him to hurry and come over; he saw those empty large eyes as soon as he turned his head around and so could only say, “Come here, little annoying brat. Coax xiao-ge.” 

Tao Xiaodong didn’t have much time to stay with them. It was almost time for his client’s appointment, so he left after seeing the two of them close to making up. 

–

Tao Huainan groped his way over and stood next to Chi Ku. He didn’t speak.

Chi Ku continued with his work. Tao Huainan didn’t know if he was working on homework questions or something else—he only knew Chi Ku never stopped writing. After a little while, Tao Huainan reached out and took away his pen.

With his hand now empty, Chi Ku didn’t grab another pen. He went to read a book with his empty hands.　

“…please don’t ignore me.” Tao Huainan poked Chi Ku’s arm with the end of that pen. “You always stay angry for too long.”

Since Chi Ku had just promised Tao Xiaodong, he couldn’t really keep ignoring Tao Huainan, so he said, voice cold: “Don’t wander around outside next time.”

“I wasn’t blindly walking around, I’m really familiar with that place. You’ve taken me there so many times.” Tao Huainan still felt what he’d done wasn’t worth Chi Ku getting so angry. He refuted for himself, “If it was a place I’d never been to before, I wouldn’t separate from you.”

Chi Ku’s temper rose again as soon as he started talking, but he couldn’t be bothered talking about it with Tao Huainan again. Tao Huainan had a formidable mouth: it could speak so much and speak so well. If Chi Ku really did argue with him, he wouldn’t be able to win.

“I’m really hurt about you yelling at me too.” Tao Huainan was still feeling sorry for himself and poked Chi Ku’s arm again, the force behind it not too light. “And you didn’t care about me either. If my hand really slipped off, would you really have left me on the streets and come home by yourself?” 

Right now, Chi Ku was unwilling to respond to him. Tao Huainan thought he wasn’t so angry anymore, and he became even more enthusiastic: “You’re scariest when you’re angry.”

–

Tao Huainan chattered there by himself for half a day. That was what he was best at: first coax someone using pleasant words, and then once those pleasant words were finished, he’d talk about how utterly wronged he was, no longer caring that much about the other person.

Chi Ku’s temper was later completely gone after all of Tao Huainan’s babbling. He asked, “Are you thirsty?”

Tao Huainan said, a little.

“Then drink some water if you’re thirsty, stop jabbering.”

“I want watermelon.” Tao Huainan threw the pen onto the table and then caught Chi Ku’s hand. He’d already said everything that should be said; the only thing left was to meekly butter him up. “Let’s eat some watermelon. You should take a rest, don’t study anymore.”

“I don’t want any. You can eat yourself.”

Tao Huainan swung his hand. “I can’t cut it open myself. Didn’t you not allow me to touch knives?” 

“I didn’t allow you to do many things.” Chi Ku’s face was still cold, but he still stood up.

They ate watermelon by scooping into it—Tao Huainan said all of that just to act docile and obedient. Chi Ku took out and gave to him half a watermelon from the fridge, stuffing a spoon into his hand. The blind boy scooped up a piece from the very middle section and offered it in Chi Ku’s direction.

“Don’t want it.” Chi Ku dodged away to the side.

“It’s falling, it’s falling,” Tao Huainan hurriedly said. “If it falls on me, then I’ll have to clean up. Hurry, hurry.”

Chi Ku bit the piece away. Smiling, Tao Huainan leaned over and asked: “Is it sweet?”

No one could withstand his coaxing. Chi Ku’s anger fully dissipated, and he glanced at Tao Huainan and said, sweet.

“Then let’s eat it together.” Tao Huainan scooped up and fed over another piece.

He didn’t guess the direction correctly this time, the spoon about thirty centimetres away from Chi Ku’s mouth. Chi Ku needed to look for the spoon himself. It would take a lot of effort to eat Tao Huainan’s watermelon, and so Chi Ku said: “Eat it yourself.”

Tao Huainan ate a scoop himself. He was ridiculously happy—cold watermelon in summer was just so sweet.

–

Since running had made them angry, Chi Ku didn’t mention running at all the next few days. If he wanted to run, he would run by himself and not bring Tao Huainan along.

Tao Huainan went up to his brother’s room and said something quietly, amusing his brother for a good while.

The next day, after dinner, Tao Huainan peeked out from the entrance of the house and softly called out: “Xiao-ge?”

Chi Ku raised his head. “Ah?”

“Do you want to run?” Tao Huainan beckoned to him. “Let’s go?”

Chi Ku lowered his eyelids. “No.”

“Come on.” Tao Huainan pulled out the hand he’d hidden behind the door. He was carrying a cord in his hand. “You don’t have to worry about losing me this time!”

And then, he hooked one end of the cord on his own wrist. It was slightly too large, so he circled it around again, holding out the fluorescent cord for Chi Ku to see.

Chi Ku’s eyebrows flickered up, and then after flickering, they pulled together. 

–

The blind boy had gotten a dog leash.

The dog leash fastened over his wrist, and it was quite pretty on his skin.

“Take it off,” Chi Ku told him, frowning.

“But it’s so convenient. And it just happens to match us.” Tao Huainan was bubbling over. “This way, there can be some distance between us and we still won’t lose each other.” 

“That’s a dog leash. Don’t you know that?” Chi Ku’s voice started to turn fierce again.

Tao Huainan completely didn’t care. “I know~. A dog leash is a dog leash. As long as it’s useful.” 

Chi Ku had nothing to say, silently going to strip it off his wrist. Tao Huainan laughed as he dodged. “Aren’t I your dog to begin with? Did you forget? Woof woof? Did you forget that too?” 

Tao Huainan had greatly wanted that damned leash, specifically asking his brother to buy it. Even his brother hadn’t thought anything about it—he’d just considered the entire thing as something amusing and had actually bought it.

In the end, Chi Ku still took it off and left it at home.

Tao Huainan actually thought it was a pity, wondering if Chi Ku had forgotten about them being each other’s little dog.

Chi Ku took him to a small park, and the entire way there, he thought there was something wrong with Tao Huainan’s brain. He couldn’t understand ge either; he didn’t know what those two brothers were thinking.

Using something meant to walk dogs to walk a blind person? Were blind people not humans anymore?

–

Originally, Tao Huainan had planned on keeping the leash and using it on a regular basis. Holding hands meant their hands would always sweat during hot days, and they needed to constantly switch hands. An adjustable leash was perfect.

He truly didn’t mind, and kept thinking it was quite suitable—since the two of them were meant to be each other’s little dogs. 

But sadly he couldn’t use it; Chi Ku didn’t agree.

–

The day they needed to report to their junior high, Chi Ku held his hand and brought him to school.

In foreign places, blind people needed to be careful when they walked. Every step forward needed to be tentative, cautious. Even though Chi Ku walked with him very slowly, he was still very eye-catching on campus—people could see he was different from normal people at first glance.

Tao Huainan didn’t know other people were looking at him, having once again pulled on that cold and indifferent face. He was quietly talking to Chi Ku.

“So many people.” Tao Huainan could hear the noisy crowds of people around them.

Chi Ku let out a ‘mn’.

“Is there anyone staring at me?” Tao Huainan asked.

“No,” Chi Ku said with no expression on his face. He pulled Tao Huainan into their classroom building.

“You’re definitely lying to me,” Tao Huainan lightly chuckled. “I already heard someone say ‘blind person’.”