That night, just as Zhou Zishu had lain down and was drifting off to sleep, he heard the bedroom door creak open. A thread of cold wind rushed in, and the door was quickly closed once more by that person. At that moment, Zhou Zishu was instantly wide awake and lost all trace of drowsiness. Yet, for some unknown reason, he did not open his eyes, as though he was entirely indifferent.

Wen Kexing was hugging his blankets to himself, his smile scummy and lecherous as he stood by his bed and said, "My room is impossible to stay in, there's a puppet in the wall corner with its head covered in cobwebs. It looks like a little tyke, once I open my eyes while lying on the bed, I'm having a staring contest with it…"

Eyes closed, Zhou Zishu interrupted him, "You can turn him around."

Wen Kexing set down the blankets in his arms and said, "I have no interest in puppet butts. Move in a little, make some space for me."

Zhou Zishu didn't say anything else, and played dead.

Wen Kexing lectured, "A-Xu, a person must have compassion for others. You keep saying that you want to do good deeds and accumulate merits, but you’re unwilling to even share half of your bed with me after we’ve been through life-and-death situations together, intimate as we are[4]. Is that proper?”

Zhou Zishu opened his eyes and cast a sidelong glance at him. He said, “I didn't feel it was proper just now, but right now, I feel that it's very proper…"

Abruptly, he stopped talking--because Wen Kexing had decided to move faster than his brain could think[5], and got to work. Stuffing his arms under Zhou Zishu’s knees and shoulders, Wen Kexing lifted him, nudged him inwards by three inches, and then joyously planted his own butt down, lying down like a cuckoo that had taken over a magpie’s nest.

Once done, he even let out a sigh of deep satisfaction.

At the outset, the bed was not small, but once Wen Kexing had squeezed himself onto it, Zhou Zishu felt that even turning over was difficult. Imperceptibly, his whole body went rigid. Trying hard to pretend as if it was nothing, Zhou Zishu turned over and presented Wen Kexing with his back, and stuffed himself into the blankets as though he couldn’t wait to fall asleep. But he had opened his eyes in the instant he had flipped himself over, and now, he felt like he could not close them no matter what.