Early in the morning of New Year’s Eve, Si Tu Zhang drove to Xiao Nanzhu’s apartment building. His purpose today was simple: as Xiao Nanzhu’s best and only friend, he wanted to bring some warmth to this lonely young man.

Previously, he had repeatedly invited Xiao Nanzhu to spend the New Year at his home, but Xiao Nanzhu kept making excuses. After many attempts, Si Tu Zhang was sensible enough to stop asking. However, he couldn’t bear the thought of Xiao Nanzhu spending the New Year alone, so early this morning, he came knocking with his mother’s homemade braised pig’s trotters, chestnut roast chicken, and steamed salted fish.

He figured Xiao Nanzhu, being alone and lazy, wouldn’t prepare any New Year dishes for himself. Bringing him some good food would help him survive the holiday. Although Xiao Nanzhu was a decent cook himself, he had loved Si Tu Zhang’s mother’s meat dishes since childhood, so Si Tu Zhang always remembered this. Recently, he had often heard that Xiao Nanzhu was drinking and eating with Li Mao, Cao Pangzi, and others, supposedly making quite a bit of money from them. But trusting his childhood friend’s character, he didn’t think Xiao Nanzhu would do anything inappropriate. After all, while Xiao Nanzhu might seem undisciplined, he had always lived by his own set of principles, and after years in the military, he had developed an even more restrained and upright character, though he kept it well-hidden. This made it impossible for Si Tu Zhang to believe that Xiao Nanzhu would get into any trouble with others. What he didn’t expect was that when he arrived at Xiao Nanzhu’s door and it opened, the first thing he saw wasn’t his friend’s sleepy face, but rather a strange aura about him that Si Tu Zhang couldn’t quite describe.

“Whoa, what happened to you? This, this looks like…”

Like you’ve been ravaged.

Standing at the door with wide eyes, holding the food container, Si Tu Zhang stammered as he looked at Xiao Nanzhu, unable to voice his true thoughts. From what he could see, the dejected-looking man was half-leaning against the doorframe, his thin lips slightly pressed together but unable to hide the red marks where they had been roughly bitten. This made the usually tough Xiao Nanzhu appear somewhat fragile, and with his bloodshot eyes and reddened eye corners, he unexpectedly looked rather pitiful—a strange description that Si Tu Zhang would never have imagined using for Xiao Nanzhu. Although Xiao Nanzhu had wrapped himself tightly in a down jacket, from Situ Zhang’s angle, he could still see the mottled bruises around his wrists and the edges of his neck…

This horrifying discovery left Si Tu Zhang momentarily speechless. But Xiao Nanzhu was an adult, and if he had some private life of that sort, it wasn’t Si Tu Zhang’s place to comment. From a friend’s perspective, he felt he should say something to advise him to take care of his body. So after an awkward cough, Si Tu Zhang looked up at Xiao Nanzhu with a troubled expression, then said earnestly:

“Look, Xiao Nanzhu, couldn’t you show a bit more restraint during the New Year? What kind of play leaves you looking like this? Even with your strong body, you can’t… sigh, I’m too embarrassed to say more, but look at yourself…”

“…”

Xiao Nanzhu’s mouth twitched stiffly at Si Tu Zhang’s words. In the past, he might have retorted, but this time, he truly had no defense. After all, last night’s situation still made him dizzy to think about—a grown man of over 1.80 meters being pinned down in the bathroom by another man, being kissed and groped. Apart from not being actually penetrated, he had been taken advantage of in nearly every other way. Though he was indeed gay and preferred men, the feeling of having his arm forcibly dislocated and being humiliated by some unknown ghostly entity with no chance to resist still made him nearly vomit with disgust.

Thinking this, Xiao Nanzhu touched his broken lip corner and irritably clicked his tongue. Si Tu Zhang, who had been chattering away, paused and immediately fell silent. Seeing this, Xiao Nanzhu knew he had misdirected his anger, so in a hoarse voice, he said he would visit Si Tu Zhang’s parents tomorrow for New Year greetings, then snatched the food container from Si Tu Zhang’s hands. Si Tu Zhang hadn’t expected to be invited in anyway, and figured Xiao Nanzhu’s unfriendliness was because the woman he’d found was still in his room. But after Si Tu Zhang waved goodbye and left, Xiao Nanzhu, carrying the food, returned to his apartment not to find comfort with some supposed woman, but instead walked to the living room with a gloomy face and looked at the old yellow calendar hanging on the wall with a complex expression.

His mind still recalled what had happened last night—the inexplicably changed Chuxi and that chaotic, absurd struggle. Chuxi’s lips were as cold as a reptile’s as they caressed his skin, and the hand gripping his neck was rough and completely unreasonable. At first, he was in a state of extreme bewilderment, and by the time he reacted a few seconds later, he had already lost the best opportunity to resist. Fortunately, Xiao Nanzhu was not a weak person without self-protection abilities. In the past, he had demonstrated in several classes during the second-stage anti-rape training at the new recruits’ camp. So at the moment when he was forced to kneel between Chuxi’s legs, the soaking wet Xiao Nanzhu seized the opportunity, using his still-bleeding arm to throw Chuxi out, then gritted his teeth, grabbed his long hair, pinned him to the ground, and gave him a hard slap across the face.

That slap turned Chuxi’s face sideways, his moist black hair hanging on both sides of his pale, thin face. Those originally confused, narrow eyes began to regain clarity—since human lust was not a particularly powerful entity, it immediately revealed its true form after such a heavy blow from Xiao Nanzhu. When this black evil spirit appeared in the bathroom air with a disgusting, androgynous panting sound, Chuxi first trembled all over and then quickly awakened. Xiao Nanzhu, finally understanding why he had been treated this way, was startled, then watched as Chuxi, with a gloomy expression, reached out and crushed the filthy thing that was continuously moaning and calling seductively.

“This is the filthy thoughts left by the workers at that construction site. I’m sorry, I’m always like this…”

He closed his eyes tiredly before finishing his sentence. Because he had forcibly expelled the evil spirit from his body, Chuxi’s face had an abnormal paleness, and combined with the handprint from Xiao Nanzhu’s earlier slap, the red and white intermingled, creating a pitiful yet somewhat seductive effect. Even though he was the one who had manhandled Xiao Nanzhu earlier, the situation now made it seem as if Xiao Nanzhu was the one bullying him. Now he lay flat on the ground with pursed lips, while Xiao Nanzhu, straddling him, was breathing raggedly. For a moment, they awkwardly stared at each other, their bare hands intertwined, yet there was no atmosphere between them. Chuxi’s body was cold as ice, while Xiao Nanzhu was burning hot from his earlier provocations and violence. This strange contrast inevitably led to some distraction, and just as Xiao Nanzhu’s mind went blank, wondering what the hell was going on, he suddenly heard a series of woofs from the bathroom door.

The Nian beast was repeatedly hitting the door from outside, its barking so panicked that it was clearly worried something had happened to Chuxi inside. Cursing under his breath, Xiao Nanzhu released the motionless Chuxi and stood up, supporting himself on the sink. When he finally steadied himself and saw his ravaged appearance in the mirror, he couldn’t suppress his anger and cursed aloud.

Chuxi saw all of Xiao Nanzhu’s frustration but couldn’t get the words out. He wasn’t good with words and had never bowed his head to anyone, so even though he felt somewhat guilty toward Xiao Nanzhu, he couldn’t say a single word. Perhaps because he had just regained consciousness, his entire being emanated a sense of confusion and weakness. This innocent look made Xiao Nanzhu even angrier, and he just threw him into the bathroom and limped out himself. But when he woke up from an exhausted sleep, both Chuxi and his precious Nian beast were nowhere to be seen.

With anger rising in his heart, Xiao Nanzhu, dragging his half-crippled body that had been tortured by Chuxi and the evil spirit, turned on the gas stove, thinking he might as well burn the unfortunate yellow calendar. But when he tried to simply tear out the page for the thirtieth day of the year, he found that the page was blank—clearly, Chuxi and the Nian beast had not returned to the calendar. And since Xiao Nanzhu had slept so heavily from exhaustion, he had no idea where those two unfortunate creatures had gone after he fell asleep.

“I’m really having a run of bad luck.”

With a cigarette clenched irritably between his lips, Xiao Nanzhu had nothing more to say about this series of inexplicable events. He suddenly began to admire his grandmother who had worked in this profession for decades, because this kind of life-shortening job was truly not something an ordinary person could endure. Fortunately, thinking of the hundred thousand yuan he had just received, Xiao Nanzhu felt slightly better and couldn’t be bothered to dwell on the many problems of yesterday, the day before, or earlier. After all, where Chuxi went had nothing to do with him, and after today, unless necessary, they wouldn’t see each other until next year. The job of a calendar master seemed indeed quite suitable for him so far; compared to working as a security guard, a doorman, or many other jobs he simply couldn’t do, this was passable.

Thinking this way, the typically easy-going Xiao Nanzhu decided to put last night’s events behind him. Today was New Year’s Eve, and all of China was celebrating the New Year; there was no reason for him to torment himself over such a small matter. So when he had the chance, he tidied up his home, reattached the Spring Festival couplets and “Fu” characters that hadn’t been fully pasted, remarking while doing so that the twenty-ninth day was better because everything was more convenient. But as the night arrived, accompanied by the sound of fireworks from downstairs, he first heated up the food Si Tu Zhang had brought, then prepared to turn on the TV to watch the increasingly boring yet enduring CCTV Spring Festival Gala, when he suddenly discovered Chuxi, restored to his eye-catching red attire, sitting on the living room sofa, and the Nian beast staring greedily at his dinner.

“Well, well, you actually remember to come back to work?”

Speaking with deliberate sarcasm, Xiao Nanzhu glanced expressionlessly at Chuxi, who had disappeared for a day. Chuxi showed no intention of explaining, just sitting there with his hands tucked into his sleeves, his thoughts unknown. Xiao Nanzhu felt inexplicably angry, thinking that if this had been one of the soldiers he had trained, he would have given him two kicks and told him to get lost. But before he could get angry, Chuxi suddenly looked up, furrowed his brow, and slowly said to Xiao Nanzhu:

“Calendar Master, I… want to tell you something.”

“Huh?”