Fluffy WangXian Oneshots Book Two

Pieces Of Me

Lan SiZhui frowns, pausing outside the library as he takes out the photo from his inside pocket. It's a freezing day and the wind is icy as the first flakes of snow land on his nose.

The photo is crinkled in places as if someone had gripped it too hard at some point in the past.

Lan SiZhui stares at the young man in the frame, half hugging his A-Die. There's something so familiar about him, and yet it's like a name on the tip of his tongue and he can't for the life of him think why. But there is so much to consider in just this one photo, a Polaroid taken by someone else. Maybe a friend of theirs?

It's the way SiZhui's dad is almost hugging him back, his right hand but a moment away from pulling the stranger even closer. And even weirder than that is the way his dad is looking at him, his bright golden eyes so intense, so full of love while the other man looks up at him with a matching adoration, his smile so wonderfully alive as to light up a room with his passion for living. They make a striking pair, both of them incredibly beautiful. They're nearly of the same height. Lan SiZhui's A-Die is well over six feet, and so that makes the laughing one at least that much or close to it.

SiZhui's A-Die looks the same as he does now, the same style of chic, quiet elegance reflected by his oatmeal coloured cable knit jumper, cream trousers and a white silk shirt, its collars peeking out over the rim of the woollen over garment. His hair is as long as the other man's, but while his silky locks are tied and braided neatly with a white ribbon, the lively man's hair is a wild and messy ponytail, bound with a vibrant red ribbon, its ends loose and flying in the breeze.

The other familiar but unknown man is wearing black leather trousers, so tight that they look painted onto his body. Ripped at the knees and a few slashes on his thighs, he's also wearing a matching leather jacket with more silver chunky zips than seems sensible. His red t-shirt has a crow in a circle on it.

But they look happy together.

That small, seemingly inconsequential fact is what bothers SiZhui the most.

They have albums full of pictures in their house. An entire bookcase devoted to volumes of photos, arranged and categorised by content, organised and stacked by year.

But it's as if this one photo, and the others, just a handful like it, make up a wall of before and after to divide what SiZhui's dad was like before he met the mysterious man, and after, when he found SiZhui and became his father.

It's not as if Lan WangJi isn't happy, far from it. Some of the photos even make him look like he's smiling, and if that's not a sign of happiness, then SiZhui doesn't know what is. But again, there's something missing. Lan SiZhui's father looks as if he's a split second from turning around, like he's waiting for someone to slide into the space under his arm like he belongs there. It's as if it was never supposed to be just Lan SiZhui and his dad in all the family pictures, not counting Bofu and Yeye. There's always someone missing.

SiZhui has ‘borrowed’, not stolen, the picture in his hand. It is imperative that the picture is returned later tonight when his father is asleep and won't suspect a thing because that's the whole point of this afternoon.

This picture is part of a collection of six such photos, all personal moments, all depicting his dad and this other man, and all of them liable to start an episode of the Big Sad.

The Big Sad happens every year, exactly on the twenty-first of November, without fail. Today is the twentieth of November, and by doing this tiny teeny act of rebellion, SiZhui is hoping for a reprieve from Emotions. He wants to research this guy and see if he can find him. That's the first step.

See, in the picture, both his dad and Mysterious Stranger look the same age. If that's true, give or take a few months, then he should feature in the same yearbook as his dad. SiZhui plans to enlist the help of his friends so they can check out archived photos of people who attended the same college, at the same time as the two in the photo. Or again, the other man could even have been enrolled a year in advance or later, it's difficult to say at this stage.