Bai Liu turned his face away from the approaching Spades. He could smell the strong scent of alcohol on Spades's breath.
Of course, maybe it wasn't Spades'. It might have been his.
Bai Liu had probably drunk more vodka tonight than he had in his entire life.
Although his thoughts and movements still seemed steady, his limbs felt weak from the alcohol. As soon as Spades opened his arms and walked toward him, Bai Liu instinctively stepped back, leaning his shoulders against the wall for support.
Spades lowered his gaze to look at Bai Liu, whose face was flushed. This time, he didn't ask why Bai Liu was red, because after drinking, Bai Liu's face stayed red all the time.
The sounds from the other side of the wall had become muffled.
Bai Liu slowly lifted his eyes to look at Spades. His breathing was warm and light, and in his eyes there was a faint haze of alcohol and intoxication.
That haze left his eyes slightly unfocused. It was clear he was looking at Spades' face, yet Spades had the strange feeling that Bai Liu was looking through him—at someone hidden behind him.
"…I can put it on for you," Bai Liu said softly. He seemed a little lazy, with a faint smile on his lips. "But do you know where to wear it?"
Spades paused and answered honestly, "Where?"
Bai Liu's smile deepened. He reached behind Spades and opened the drawer. Inside was a full box of Ares condoms, in sizes ranging from small to large. Bai Liu took them all out and spread them across the bed.
"???" Spades looked confused. "Should I wear all of them?"
Bai Liu tilted his head, resting his chin on his hand with a half-smile, his eyes full of undisguised mischief and nostalgia. "Have you ever played with balloons?"
Spades shook his head. "I've seen them, but I've never played with them."
"It was the same for me when I was a child." Bai Liu's smile softened. His gaze lingered on Spades' face before turning distant. "I grew up in an orphanage. The dean and the teachers didn't like children like me. During festivals, the other children each got two balloons. I didn't get any."
Spades' lips pressed into a straight line. "They should have given them to you."
"There's no such thing as 'should' in this world." Bai Liu lowered his eyes, his tone casual. "I wasn't upset about it. Balloons bought wholesale aren't worth much."
He paused.
"But the other child who didn't get one didn't think that way."
"He somehow found a bunch of balloons, colored them with markers from the craft room, and handed them to me in front of all the other children."
Bai Liu lowered his head with a faint smile. "I saw the rubber rings. He had taken them out of the trash, washed them, and tied them with a string to make them into balloons."
"He didn't know what they were originally used for. He just turned them into something children would think was beautiful and gave them to me."
Bai Liu's eyelashes trembled slightly. "Logically… I shouldn't have been happy about something like that."
"Those balloons weren't worth much. And they were dirty."
But Xie Ta had simply looked at him, holding up the balloons. There were small cuts on his hands from digging through the trash, and before Bai Liu even understood why, he had quickly taken them.
Then Xie Ta smiled at him.
At that moment, those cheap balloons—those dirty condoms—seemed to become pure and precious because of that smile.
It was a strange feeling. For the first time, Bai Liu realized that the value of something could be entirely subjective.
"For the first time, I felt that those ridiculous… things could be valuable," Bai Liu said softly. "Because he gave them to me."
"He made those condoms feel less disgusting."
Spades picked up a box and examined it carefully. "Are these the disgusting balloons?"
"In their original concept, they're balloons used for very dirty things." Bai Liu raised his head and reached out to brush Spades' hair away from his forehead. He looked into Spades' half-lidded, pure black eyes. "They're meant to accommodate the human desire for complete contact."
Spades frowned slightly. "If you want complete contact, why use something that separates you?"
"Because of distrust. Fear." Bai Liu lowered his gaze. "People can't trust that the person they're intimate with has no disease. They can't trust that they'll marry them, give their children a happy future, or love them forever. So they use this as insurance—to protect themselves."
"Most of the time, that's the correct way to use condoms. Because in this world, there really may not be anyone who will love you forever without hurting you."
"But people use that excuse to get close to each other, and then use this thing to keep distance. Sometimes they don't even use it to control or hurt the other person. To make them pregnant. Or for a better experience."
"From a universal perspective, using it is logical."
Bai Liu looked at Spades. "I found that logic ironic. So I told the person who gave me the balloons what they really were and what they were used for. At the time, I thought it was disgusting."
"Do you know what he told me?"
Spades stared at him calmly. "If I were a dangerous monster, and someone was willing to get close to me one day, this thing could protect him from me."
"I don't think it's disgusting. It's a protective prop."
Bai Liu was quiet for a long time. "Yes. That's what he told me, too."
"I can teach you how to use it," Bai Liu said quietly. "…Maybe I'm the only one who can teach you these things."
Just like Xie Ta hadn't known that the balloon he held up was something everyone else laughed at.
"No need." Spades interrupted abruptly.
His expression was blank. He suddenly gathered all the condoms and swept them back into the bedside drawer, then turned off the light. He turned, pushed Bai Liu gently under the blanket, and covered him. In a muffled voice, he said, "I don't want to use it anymore. I'm going to sleep."
Bai Liu stared at the ceiling. There was faint pounding and gasping from the neighboring room, but for some reason, he smiled.
"Why not?" he asked softly.
Spades was silent for a long time in the darkness before answering, "I'm not sure it can protect you from being hurt."
"This protective prop looks fragile."
Bai Liu's voice remained calm. "Didn't you already hurt me? Now you don't want to anymore?"
"At that time, my instincts told me I needed to separate you from that heart," Spades said quietly, as if he regretted something.
"And now?" Bai Liu asked.
"Now my instincts tell me I shouldn't hurt you anymore."
Bai Liu turned slightly and looked at him from the side. In a similar tone, he asked, "Why? There's no reason, right?"
"There is." Spades replied. "We got married. We took an oath."
In a strangely solemn tone, he mimicked the vows the soldiers had imitated from a priest during their wedding:
"—From now on and forever, in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer, in health and in sickness, in happiness and in sorrow, I will love you and cherish you forever."
Bai Liu couldn't help laughing softly, though he quickly cooled Spades' enthusiasm. "This is just a game. You don't need to take it so seriously."
"There are only games in my life," Spades said, confused. "Why can't I take them seriously?"
Bai Liu fell silent. He turned his back to Spades. "Good night."
Spades lay flat beside him and let out a quiet sigh before closing his eyes.
After Bai Liu's breathing became completely even, Spades gently opened the bedside drawer. He lowered his head and looked at the condoms for a long moment before taking out a box.
Heavy gasping came from the next room.
"So this thing is a balloon," Spades murmured in realization. "No wonder you have to use your mouth…"
He nodded thoughtfully. "So that's why Guy and Alex were blowing up balloons until they ran out of breath."
Then he frowned again, puzzled.
"Why would two people blow up balloons together on their wedding night?"
Behind him, Bai Liu had already fallen deeply asleep, and no one was there to answer Spades' endless questions.
The next morning, when Bai Liu slowly woke up, he drew his gun within a second and pointed it at the unfamiliar white spherical objects filling the room.
For a moment, he thought he had been moved to another room overnight. The entire space was filled with balloons—large and small.
After confirming that this was indeed the room he had slept in, Bai Liu put away his gun, got dressed, and expressionlessly tore down a balloon as large as a washbasin that had been taped to the wall.
He examined the opening of the balloon—a pale yellow rubber ring.
Bai Liu paused for two seconds.
While buttoning his shirt, he walked to the bedside table and opened the drawer—then paused again.
At least six unopened boxes of condoms that had been there the night before were now gone, leaving only a few empty packages scattered inside.
Bai Liu slowly adjusted his breathing. He methodically cleaned up all the balloons in the room, threw them into the trash, then turned and walked out.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Alex and Guy standing outside, craning their necks to peek in. They both gasped when they saw him.
Guy spoke bluntly, staring at Bai Liu in horror. "You're still alive! I thought Spades had… killed you!"
Bai Liu was silent for a moment, then looked at Guy with a questioning expression.
Guy's gaze couldn't help drifting toward Bai Liu's waist. "Spades came out last night and asked for condoms."
"He asked for twelve boxes," Alex added slowly, his expression particularly strange. "All the sizes we had."
"But we'd already put six boxes in your room beforehand," Guy continued. "That adds up to nearly two hundred…"
Bai Liu: "…"
Unable to restrain himself, Guy leaned forward and peeked into the room. "What exactly did you two do last night? Did you really use that many in one night?"
Alex seemed to think of Tang Erda. He looked at Bai Liu with increasing discomfort and added pointedly, "And in all sizes…"
Bai Liu ignored the implication entirely and asked calmly, "Where is Spades?"
Alex's expression grew even more complicated. "We ran into him this morning. He said it wasn't enough and went into town to buy more condoms…"
"We figured you wouldn't be getting up anytime soon," Guy teased, winking. "Spades looked like he was in a hurry. Feels like he'll be back soon to continue using them with you."
Bai Liu: "…"
Guy wasn't entirely wrong. After Bai Liu loaded his gun with a smile and said he was going to look for Spades, Spades came running back on his own.
Bai Liu was startled when he saw him.
The man's face was smeared with paint. He was holding a bundle of huge balloons covered in chaotic, abstract colors, and his hair was streaked with tangled lines of bright pigment.
Spades walked up to Bai Liu, breathing heavily.
Bai Liu noticed a red mark around the man's mouth. It was obvious he had worked very hard blowing up balloons all night.
Spades lifted seven or eight oversized balloons, some distorted and stained with paint. Amid the riot of color, his black eyes shone brightly.
"I couldn't find any markers," he explained seriously, "so I borrowed some paint instead."
Bai Liu immediately realized what he was doing.
Spades was trying to imitate Xie Ta—drawing on balloons and giving them to him.
He wasn't good at it at all. The result was a collection of even more disastrous artistic failures.
But Spades clearly didn't think so.
He straightened his back and declared, "I blew them up all night. These are the best ones."
"Here," he said, placing the balloons into Bai Liu's hands. "The balloons they didn't give you. You should have them."
Spades was still slightly out of breath, but his tone was solemn. "Those two definitely didn't blow up as many balloons as I did last night. Our wedding beat theirs."
"I asked around. Of all the couples who got married here recently, we're the only ones who used the most condoms in one night. So we must have had the best wedding."
Bai Liu looked up at the paint-smeared, disheveled Spades.
At last, he accepted the balloons. Then he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around him. "Yes," Bai Liu said softly.
"We tied the knot beautifully."