“The prince and the princess lived happily ever after, but before long, a third party appeared. Who was this third party? First, let’s listen to a song: My home is on the Loess Plateau, the strong wind blows over the hills, whether it’s Li Yuchun or Zeng Yike, they’re all my bro, my bro… That’s right, this third party is the sworn brother of Chun Ge and Zeng Ge, and his name is Logan. Logan is extremely evil—he tore the princess’s dress as soon as he appeared, so the prince had to duel him…”

At 9:30 p.m., I was sitting on the toilet rapping.

At this time every night, if my son hasn’t fallen asleep yet, I have to tell him a bedtime story. Even if we’re in different places, I’ll call him to tell a story. Sometimes my son asks me to sing, and I’ll sing for him too.

Over time, I’ve basically told all the fairy tales I know, so I have no choice but to make up new stories, adding sequels to those fairy tales. The one I just told was “Snow White: The Prince’s Battle with Logan.” My son has quite a taste for these—now he doesn’t like the original stories anymore, only the sequels I make up.

Guessing he’d fallen asleep, I hung up the phone and walked out, only to see a young woman.

She was in her twenties, probably a college student, coming out of the women’s restroom across from me. She seemed to be holding back laughter, giving me a special kind of look. I understood what she meant—just now, thinking no one was around, I’d told the story and sang a bit too loudly, and she must have heard it.

I didn’t take it to heart. Over a decade ago, I’d done even more outrageous things—like belting out five songs to a girl on the other end of the line in a busy public phone booth. I’ve never figured out where I got the courage that day.

When I got back to the table, Ben and Tyler were still drinking, urging me to join them, but I flatly refused.

“If you don’t drink or smoke, are you planning to become an immortal?” Ben mocked me with a veiled jab.

“Don’t mind him, this guy’s a born leader type.” Tyler also made a roundabout comment.

I could understand Tyler’s feelings—this is another story.

As the only civil servant among us, when Tyler first started working, he kept his elders’ advice in mind: do everything you can to curry favor with your superiors. Once, at a company dinner, Tyler saw his chance and eagerly went to toast the boss.

The boss wasn’t having it and said, “Take a lap first.”

Tyler did as told, toasting everyone at the table one by one.

Then the boss said, “Good things come in pairs, take another lap.”

No choice, Tyler did another round, and by then he was already feeling dizzy.

After two rounds, the boss spoke again: “You’re a good lad, take one more lap.”

With tears in his eyes, Tyler did a third lap.

Finally, the boss was moved by his sincerity and said, “Come on, you drink it all, I’ll just sip.”

With that, he picked up his glass and just licked it.

Later, one day Tyler asked me out for drinks. I took a sip from my glass, and the usually good-tempered Tyler exploded on the spot, eyes red, ready to go at me. What I learned from this is: never find a boss to torment yourself. After that, I’ve spent most of my time freelancing.

“Is your kid asleep?” Roger asked me, his mood now stable.

“Asleep.” I didn’t plan to talk parenting with him today, so I asked, “Aren’t you going home to be with your son?”

Roger was nonchalant: “His grandparents are with him, it’s fine.”

Before he finished, his phone rang. As soon as he answered, Roger was no longer nonchalant—his face changed rapidly. A minute later, he apologized to us: “The kid got really scared during the day, keeps having nightmares and crying badly. I have to go check on him. You guys hang out, I’ll come back after Duoduo falls asleep.”

With that, he rushed off.

None of us thought anything of it—we’re all used to it.

This is another problem we face at our age.

No matter how carefree you are outside, if your kid is wailing, you have to go home.

Soon, the gathering broke up, and there was no scene of everyone getting drunk.

It wasn’t an unhappy ending—everyone just felt it was enough.

This is yet another problem we face at our age.

In the past, whenever we met up, it was always the routine: drinking, singing, chasing women. Later, we all felt it was too repetitive and boring, and some of us had families, making it inconvenient to join in. Then, as our bodies started having issues, we gradually stopped doing those things.

In the past two years, we’ve gone high-end—our group chats are all about health and wellness.

At 10:30 p.m., Warren took us to a nice place. Taking advantage of Roger’s absence, we finally had time to express our surging emotions. Everyone was amazed at his brave coming out tonight. We shared our years of suspicions about Roger’s tendencies, and finally concluded that Roger really does have that kind of interest.