One-way Passage

g Luchuan wasn’t his child?

“Those wooden figurines of yours?” Xia Wennan suddenly remembered.

Ming Luchuan was speaking calmly.
He’d undoubtedly learnt everything a long time ago, and the waves of turmoil he’d been through ought to have subsided by now—yet he hugged Xia Wennan as tightly as before, and said, “Ming Qian probably left them for me.”

“He carved them himself?”

Ming Luchuan slowly said, “There’s a movie featuring Lu Wenxing where he plays a woodcarver.” Having said that, Ming Luchuan lowered his head and suddenly asked, “Do you want to see?”

“Ah?” Xia Wennan didn’t understand what he was getting at.

Ming Luchuan turned on the projector in his room and searched the online player for an old movie titled Woodcarver, in which Lu Wenxing had starred in.

Sitting on the bed, Xia Wennan gazed at Ming Luchuan’s face, lit up by the screen.
His face was serene, as if the Lu Wenxing on the screen was a total stranger to him.

Once the movie began, Ming Luchuan returned and laid on the bed, gathering Xia Wennan into his arms, their bodies intertwined as they watched the movie together.

It gave Xia Wennan a wonderful feeling, and he inexplicably enjoyed this kind of ambience.

With the remote in his hands, Ming Luchuan slid the progress bar to the end of the movie.

Xia Wennan was baffled.
“We’re not going to watch?”

Eyes fixed at the screen, Ming Luchuan’s fingers didn’t pause for a second.
“What’s there to see?” he said.

His genuine disdain of Lu Wenxing was palpable.

Ming Luchuan skipped right to the end of the movie, where the credits began to appear, and at the bottom of the cast list, there were seven or eight names who played the role of a student, one of which was Ming Qian.

Ming Luchuan then adeptly returned to the thirty-seventh minute of the movie.
The shot showed Lu Wenxing sitted on a stool, engrossed in carving, while around him, seven to eight students stood around and watched.
Because the scene was wholly centred on Lu Wenxing’s face, there was only a single sweeping shot of the students’ faces.

Had Xia Wennan been unprepared, he never would’ve noticed a student standing to the back of the group who looked extremely similar to Ming Qin.
That student should be none other than Ming Qian.

Afterwards, Ming Luchuan pressed pause on that shot and asked Xia Wennan, “Got it?”

“Yeah.” Xia Wennan felt as if too many things had transpired in one night, as if it were a never-ending, bizarre dream.
“He looks a lot like Ming Qin.”

Ming Luchuan laughed.
He didn’t linger on the brief shot and turned off the projector soon after.

As the lights had been switched off earlier for the movie’s sake, the room was plunged into darkness.
Xia Wennan, with half of his face pressed to Ming Luchuan’s chest, said, “Lu Wenxing seems totally clueless.
He thinks that you’re Ming Qin’s kid.”

Ming Luchuan’s face was obscured by the darkness, but his tone was indifferent as he said, “Isn’t that a good thing?”

Xia Wennan couldn’t fathom it.
“He’s never suspected a thing?”

“People tend to choose what they want to see and hear.
Besides, I’m not the least bit interested in whether Lu Wenxing knows or not.”

“You really don’t need your dad?” Xia Wennan suddenly thought of himself and the fact that all those in his family had long since passed.
If there ever were a day where someone told him that his dad was actually still alive, he didn’t know how ecstatic he would be.

Yet, Ming Luchuan said, “I don’t need him.”

Xia Wennan said, “Will my seeking him out today cause you any trouble?”

“It won’t.” He leaned into Xia Wennan and pressed his lips to Xia Wennan’s forehead, whispering, “I’m really happy.”

“Ah? What’s gotten into you?”

Ming Luchuan didn’t speak, his lips merely leaving Xia Wennan’s forehead and gently grazing the corner of his mouth.

In a flash, Xia Wennan felt embarrassed.
He changed the subject and asked, “So—why didn’t you tell me? It’s something so big! If you’d told me sooner, I wouldn’t have lost face!”

“You don’t even remember me, what would I tell you?” After he said that, Ming Luchuan gathered close and chuckled.
“Besides, when have you ever been afraid to lose face?”