Tattoo刺青

Chapter 6

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On Friday night, Fang Qimiao sent a location to Xiao Ke’s phone. It was the position of Zhou Zui’s studio. Xiao Ke glanced at it and found that it wasn’t far from his place.

Fang Qimiao sent him a voice recording: “Tomorrow I’ll drive over. Just come downstairs after I call you.” 

Xiao Ke replied to him: Okay.

Fang Qimiao’s tone was still annoying: “Soon you guys will be meeting for the second time. Are you nervous, Lord Xiao?”

Xiao Ke: Nervous my ass.

Fang Qimiao sent him two provocative emojis. Xiao Ke ignored him. Honestly, he really wasn’t that nervous. After all, he had only seen the man one time. But if you were to say he was completely calm, that wasn’t true either.　 

Because that person truly matched Xiao Ke’s aesthetic perfectly. In his mind, he more or less kept wanting to see him a couple more times.

The next day, they headed out after eating lunch. Xiao Ke wore a pair of washed denim jeans and a simple black sweatshirt. It made him look young, vibrant, and more like a student. Fang Qimiao said he was pretending to be pure, purposefully acting young.　

Xiao Ke side-eyed him. A corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk. “I’m not pretending. I really am young.”

Fang Qimiao guffawed for a long time. He said, “Un, Teacher Xiao is still a flower at thirty. So young you can pinch water out of him.” 
*Young people’s skin is dewy.

When they got to the shop, there was only a little girl. She also looked to be around twenty and was in the middle of drawing something onto her nails. She saw them and greeted, “Good afternoon.”

“Hi, little beauty.” Times like these, Fang Qimiao was very enthusiastic. “We’re not at the wrong place, right? Is this a tattoo parlor or a nail salon?”

The little girl laughed and pointed at a small door to the side. “Tattoo parlor. But you have to go over there to get your tattoo. I’m just in charge of looking after the shop. If you want to get a manicure, though, I could do one for you. Free.”

“Who are you talking to?” A boy walked out of the small door. He was bald and wore a baseball cap. There was a pen dangling out of his mouth. 

“Two gege’s,” The little girl turned around and spoke to him. “Two handsome men.”

“Hello,” the bald boy greeted them.

Fang Qimiao said, “Hi, little handsome man. We spoke on WeChat before.”

“Oh, the one who wanted a dog head, right?” The bald man pulled out the pen dangling from his mouth and glanced at Fang Qimiao. “Which one of you wants it?” 

“Me.” Fang Qimiao raised his hand. “This one.”

“Un, come in and wait a bit.” He tilted his head at Fang Qimiao and Xiao Ke, then told the little girl, “Make two cups of coffee.” After, he walked back in first.

The little girl said to the two of them, “You guys go in, then. You’ll probably have to wait a bit before anyone’s free. Is coffee okay?”

Xiao Ke nodded. “Yes. Sorry about the trouble.” 

Through the door was a bright room. It was very large, and two floor-to-ceiling windows provided an abundance of sunlight. A group of couches were placed in the middle, across from an entire wall of shelves. There were some books on them, but they were mostly used for displaying model figures and other knick-knacks. Underneath was a long table, on top of which rested two computers. The gaming equipment looked pretty professional. There were three other doors connected to the room. Aside from this, there were chairs, racks, and all sorts of tools used for tattooing scattered around.