VENDY was technically a gay bar, but it wasn’t some seedy dive. The only thing unseemly was its boss.
The bar had just opened today; the chairs weren’t even fully set out yet, and the bartender was still behind the counter prepping. Suddenly, a strange little guy burst in, dressed like a relic pulled from an old photograph, and asked the boss right off the bat: “Where’s the matchmaking?”
The moment he spoke, everyone in the bar knew that this kid had definitely walked into the wrong place. Just as the young bartender was about to point him in the right direction, Boss Vendy sashayed out from behind the counter, grabbed the kid by the arm, and pointed to the small blackboard menu behind the bar. He told him he had to order a drink before he could get any information.
Zhuo Yuhang, visiting a bar for the first time, obediently ordered the signature drink, and thus became entangled with the signature boss ever since.
By the time Ning Xiaobei walked into VENDY, there were already several patrons. It was a quiet bar, about three to five people sitting calmly, sipping drinks and chatting. No blaring music or dazzling lights, he could finally breathe a little easier.
Scanning around, he finally spotted someone in the corner booth who looked like the boss.
Sure enough, it was the young, barely over-twenty Zhuo Yuhang.
Still wearing his meticulously tailored three-piece suit, still in gold-rimmed glasses, but his face retained a hint of youthful naivete—straightforward and slightly goofy—the kind that older women and men liked to tease.
He looked embarrassed, sitting beside a man in a black shirt, who had his arm draped over Zhuo Yuhang’s shoulder, whispering something in his ear.
From Ning Xiaobei’s angle, he couldn’t see the man’s face, only the butterfly-shaped crystal earring on his right ear, flickering in the dim indoor light, as if it might take flight at any moment.
Zhuo Yuhang, on the other hand, kept his hands on his knees, lowering his head lower and lower, as if he wanted to sink straight into the cracks of the floor tiles.
“Zhuo Yuhang.”
Hearing his name called was like a drop of rain in a long drought. He slowly raised his head and saw a man he didn’t recognize, hesitation written all over his face.
“We’ve all been waiting for you across the street. How did you end up here? Tang Xin’s going to get mad.”
Ning Xiaobei didn’t want to linger any longer. He stepped forward, grabbed Zhuo Yuhang’s arm, and started leading him out.
At the sound of Tang Xin’s name, Zhuo Yuhang finally realized this man had come to rescue him and hurriedly stood up.
“Hey there, little brother. Just trying to slip away so easily?”
It felt like a cold snake had pressed against him; chilling to the touch. Looking closely, he saw it wasn’t a snake at all, but the black metal embroidery on the sleeves of the black shirt. The scales covered both sleeves like armor, and whenever they brushed against the skin under Ning Xiaobei’s short-sleeved shirt, the touch was icy.
In that instant, Ning Xiaobei felt like Fa Hai rushing from Jinshan Temple to rescue Xu Xian, and before him was a black snake with a black belly and red tongue, glaring at him.
And Xu Xian was desperately trying to run away.
“Sorry, boss. My friend here doesn’t know the rules. He’s not from our university district, he came from outside.”
Ning Xiaobei thought Zhuo Yuhang hadn’t paid for the drink, so he fished his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out two hundred-yuan notes, thinking that should cover it no matter what.
“The money’s already been paid.”
The boss tapped the back of his hand, letting out a soft laugh. “You say he doesn’t know the rules… but do you?”
Ning Xiaobei shoved the wallet back and finally looked properly at the boss.
Not a three-headed, six-armed monster, nor the over-the-top effeminate villain you see in movies or TV. The boss was young, around thirty, with cat-like eyes, lean but not effeminate, a seductive gleam in them, practically a masterpiece of charm.
Too bad, wrong number11= top; 0= bottom.
“What rules?”
“He ordered the drink, but didn’t take a single sip.”
Vendy pointed at the sunset-colored drink on the table.
“You drink it,” Ning Xiaobei told Zhuo Yuhang.
“I… I don’t drink alcohol,” Zhuo Yuhang hesitated.
“…You don’t drink and you come to a bar for a mixer? You planning to drink AD calcium milk instead?”
Having been long-time friends in the real world, Ning Xiaobei accidentally spoke a little too naturally, leaving Zhuo Yuhang a bit confused by his familiar tone.
“What’s the plan then?”
The boss chuckled, eyes narrowed, staring straight at Ning Xiaobei.
Like a thousand-year-old snake demon, his gaze cut through flesh to the bone.
“Takeaway.”
Ning Xiaobei said calmly.
He casually pulled Zhuo Yuhang out from behind the boss.
Boss: ???
The bartender, unused to offering takeaway drinks, was a bit flustered. In the end, a waiter ran to a nearby milk tea shop, borrowed an empty cup, and poured their signature cocktail into it.
The Vendy cocktail in a proper glass was layered, shimmering, like molten gold at sunset with smoke drifting over willows.
In the plastic milk tea cup, it looked like the muddy waters of three rivers flowing into the Yellow Sea—messy, crude, and chaotic.
“Such a pity.”
Black Snake rubbed his waist, casting a coquettish, plaintive look at Fa Hai, reproaching him for not being gentle and tender enough.
“It’s the same once it’s in your stomach.”
Fa Hai acted righteous on the surface but was panicking internally.
For good reason: this Fa Hai was also a demon, though taking human form in front of Xu Xian.
“Hold onto it yourself.”
Ning Xiaobei simply asked the waiter for a plastic bag, dropped the drink in, tied it up, and hung it from Zhuo Yuhang’s right finger, like a vegetable vendor handing over the weighed produce to a housewife.
“Let’s go.”
He patted Zhuo Yuhang’s stunned shoulder, urging him to leave.
“Wait…”
Before Ning Xiaobei could push the door open, the boss stepped lightly behind him, snake-like, climbed onto his back, and tossed a black business card with silver edges into Ning Xiaobei’s shirt pocket.
“Next time you come, whether I’m here or not, this card gets you 20% off.”
He glanced at Zhuo Yuhang, who looked ready to fly out the door, and smiled, “You don’t even need the card for a discount.”
“No, no.”
Zhuo Yuhang couldn’t handle it. “My school isn’t here. I won’t have much chance to come.”
“I won’t come either, thanks for your kindness, boss.”
Ning Xiaobei reached to take the card out, but the boss’s fingers pressed it back against his hand.
Cold to the touch, faintly fragrant, eerie like a reptile.
“He won’t come… but you definitely will.”
The voice whispered close to Ning Xiaobei’s ear, cat-like eyes squinting as if seeing all truths of the world.
No, not cat eyes, but reptilian, vertical pupils piercing the dark, discerning everything.
You think you’re Fa Hai? In this worldly chaos, we’re all the same kind, so why act so?
Ning Xiaobei twitched his fingers, smiled awkwardly, and pushed the door open.
Outside, the street blazed with lights, a throng of people, red and green like a festive painting, and music floating in the air. It felt an almost otherworldly sensation. He felt like Tang Sanzang emerging from the Spider Cave, after countless trials, a survivor sighing in relief.
“Thanks for earlier.”
Zhuo Yuhang gave a grateful smile. Pulling a coffee-colored, 100% cotton twill handkerchief from his pocket, he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Seeing the plastic bag in his hand, he frowned, took a few purposeful steps to a trash bin, and without thinking, tossed it in.
Clang. Ning Xiaobei’s heart skipped a beat.
Afterward, he wiped the backs of his hands, neck, and every part that Vendy might have touched with his handkerchief, his face openly showing disgust.
Ning Xiaobei watched silently, feeling his own heart grow colder by the moment.
He thought: how could he have been so self-deluded back then?
Just because he bought him a drink, just because they worked a few extra shifts together?
He was glad he hadn’t let his feelings run away with him; otherwise, confessing would have made him that thrown-away Vendy cocktail, doomed to eternal rejection.
Falling for a straight guy only ever leaves bruises.
Keep your distance. At worst, be colleagues or friends.
Finally, Zhuo Yuhang hesitated a moment, then tossed his handkerchief into the trash as well, stepping back three paces, feeling relieved, as if discarding the sins clinging to him.
When Xu Xian really decides to be ruthless, even Xiao Qing’s Green Sword won’t sway him.
《The Legend of the White Snake》 never truly glorifies love. The story of Bai Niangzi (White Snake) Forever Trapped in Leifeng Pagoda is collected in
Stories to Caution the World, and the key lies in the words caution — it is a warning tale; the phrase forever sealed reflects the author’s intent.
A warning to humans, and to demons alike: humans and demons walk different paths; attachment is forbidden.
Even with a thousand years of cultivation, White Snake’s fate ends only in being eternally sealed beneath Leifeng Pagoda.
As for the rest of the mortals, swept away by the waters of Jinshan, clinging to the raging waves, buried in the bellies of fish—what crime did they commit? Nothing at all. It was only because the White Snake grew attached, Xu Xian was weak, and Fa Hai merciless, that ordinary people had to pay with their lives. Just like that cup of cocktail and that handkerchief.
Ning Xiaobei felt a chill creep deeper into his chest.
He and Zhuo Yuhang walked back to VANNY, where the corner radiated laughter and warmth.
Four girls bent forward and back, giggling under Fan Xia’s teasing, their smiles delicate and enchanting.
The laughter drifted past the counter, past the crowd, then whoosh; it hit the floor and twisted into snakes, insects, wall geckos, and scorpions, crawling up the pale green tropical-patterned floor tiles straight onto Ning Xiaobei’s instep. From his pant leg, they coiled up to his heart, the scorpion raising its red tail to strike him squarely in the chest.
Why was Fan Xia’s jacket draped over Zhou Yunjun’s shoulders?
He had been away only a few minutes, and they were already that close?
“You finally made it.”
It was Tang Xin who spotted them first, waving them over.
There were only two seats left on the boys’ side. Ning Xiaobei hesitated, letting Zhuo Yuhang take a seat first, while he settled at the outer edge.
“Hello, everyone.”
Zhuo Yuhang sat down gracefully, straightened his clothes, and the girls’ laughter bubbled up again. He adjusted his glasses and joined the conversation; compared to the awkwardness at VENDY, it was like night and day.
Even the most hopeless straight men often behave more naturally around women than they do around other men. Not that Zhuo Yuhang was hopeless, just… unusual.
Fan Xia stared in disbelief at Ning Xiaobei, eyebrows raised, his sharp black-and-white eyes glaring at him for letting such a massive obstacle sit between them.
Ning Xiaobei turned his head to talk to Tang Xin.
His eyes widened even more.
After all, they were all young. Talking, laughing, the atmosphere gradually heated up. Even Zhuo Yuhang, who claimed he couldn’t drink, had finished half a glass of beer.
“Let’s play a game.”
Seeing the right moment, Tang Xin pulled a deck of cards from her bag. “Truth or Dare.”
Her slender fingers flicked open the 54 cards, letting Zhou Yunjun cut twice for fairness, then spread them on the table, signaling for everyone to draw a card.
“Whoever draws the highest card can command the two people with the lowest cards to do something. Everyone lays their cards face-up, no swapping. And a fair warning—no shyness, no sulking, no attitude. If you’re playing, you play freely.”
The two girls giggled, delicately picking out their cards with slender fingers.
Zhou Yunjun’s eyes shone under the lights. She looked straight at Fan Xia across from her and drew a card.
Fan Xia, a bit annoyed, deliberately ignored Ning Xiaobei and roughly flicked a card into his hand.
The others picked their cards as well.
The first two rounds passed without incident. The girls were gentle, their questions kind. Even the dares were mild, for example, stepping outside to shout at an old herbal medicine ad posted on a utility pole: “Finally, my illness has a cure!”
By the third round, the previously overlooked young man finally got his chance.
He showed everyone his King card and proudly tapped the table with his finger.
This round, the two lowest cards happened to be Fan Xia and Ning Xiaobei.
“Among those here, is there anyone you like?”
The young man, still feeling bold, clarified, “I mean, someone you could pursue further, even potentially spend the rest of your life with.”
The four girls’ eyes lit up instantly. Tang Xin even wanted to give him a thumbs-up—’Brother, you’re doing it right! No registration fee for you next time.’
“Yes.”
Fan Xia almost answered reflexively, which made the girls even more excited.
Ning Xiaobei looked at Zhou Yunjun wrapped in her oversized jacket. She was so petite, the men’s clothes made her seem as if she were being held by Fan Xia.
Suddenly, Ning Xiaobei thought of Fan Xia’s two mothers.
Both his biological and stepmother figures were similarly tiny women. Standing beside Fan Jian, they seemed delicate as silkwood vines.
According to Freud’s theory, men often carry some degree of Oedipal complex from childhood, not to the point of actually wanting to kill their father or marry their mother, but the girls they like often carry traces of their mother’s image.
Miss Zhou was exactly like that.
Besides, he had just rescued her; the hero and beauty, perfectly matched, it felt only natural.
“And you?”
The young man tilted his chin toward Ning Xiaobei.
Ning Xiaobei clenched his cards, hesitating to answer immediately.
The girls exchanged glances. Tang Xin nervously bit her red lips. Fan Xia, completely flustered, crossed his legs and absentmindedly fidgeted with the cup on the table, his eyes constantly flicking toward Ning Xiaobei, frustrated by the presence between them.
The drinks in the cups were finished, leaving only a few stubborn ice cubes tinged with brown, clinking against each other like tiny bells on his heart.
“I’ll choose dare.”
Ning Xiaobei slapped his card onto the table.
The girls collectively sighed, and Fan Xia frowned.
“Ah… fine, then dare it is.”
Technically, this was already a strategic retreat. The young man hadn’t asked whether Ning Xiaobei wanted truth or dare beforehand, so having broken the implicit rule, Ning Xiaobei was free to slip out slyly.
“Then kiss the other guy with the lowest card.”
Earlier, Fan Xia had stolen the spotlight all evening, and the young man had already resolved to put him in his place. Since Ning Xiaobei had chosen dare, both of them would end up embarrassed together.
Surprisingly, the one who reacted most sharply was Zhou Yuhang.
It was as if the unpleasant memory from earlier had instantly resurfaced. He tugged at his collar and muttered softly, “Gross.”
Ning Xiaobei heard it clearly.
A pang of anger rose in his chest. He knew it was misdirected; this Zhou Yuhang wasn’t that Zhou Yuhang. He hadn’t done anything to deserve this misunderstanding; his actions were simply the natural reactions of a straight man dealing with a gay friend, a perfectly normal response.
Otherwise, why would his dad and Uncle Zhao have kept this from him all these years?
And yet he was still furious.
Furious for that reaction and for the jacket Zhou Yunjun is wearing.
With a sharp swish, he stood up, walked straight to Fan Xia, and without giving him a chance to react, cupped his face and kissed him; boldly, without hesitation.
“Kiss” doesn’t quite capture it; it wasn’t a gentle touch.
Lips collided with lips, teeth with teeth, clanging and sparking like a meteor striking the earth; fierce and precise.
For a moment, the crowd around them erupted with cheers, whistles, and applause; like waves crashing around the two standing in the eye of the storm.
Ning Xiaobei opened his eyes to see Fan Xia’s eyes nearly popping out of his head, struck dumb as if by lightning.
And just like that, the pressure in his chest evaporated.
He let go, returned to his seat, and finished the last sip of his drink.
“What was that like? Tell me, what did it feel like?”
Tang Xin’s face was bright with excitement, and the other girls weren’t far behind.
Unlike the guys, girls were generally more curious and forgiving about these things.
Fan Xia touched his lips, still dazed.
Xiaobei kissed him, Ning Xiaobei kissed him!
It was the best birthday present of his life. The absolute best.
“A little… gross”
Ning Xiaobei said, lifting his chin deliberately.
That was it.
He told himself.
Fan Xia’s heart is broken.
I’m not White Snake, so don’t be Xu Xian. I’m not Zhu Yingtai, and you’re no Liang Shanbo2The Butterfly Lovers: A Chinese tragic romance about Zhu Yingtai, a young woman who disguises herself as a man to study, and Liang Shanbo, her classmate, whose love blossoms tragically because of societal constraints, ending with their transformation into butterflies.
No need for the Eighteen Farewells. No need for the Broken Bridge reunion. I draw my Qingfeng sword and cut away the tangled threads of trouble.
“Clang…”
The glass hit the floor, scattering shards and ice across the ground.
Fan Xia ground his teeth, his face darkening.
Heaven and hell; everything changed in an instant.
………………
Author’s Note:
Fan Xia: This is the best birthday gift ever—yeah, right!
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