Old Zhou seemed to be a regular at the lake as several other men greeted him when he came.
He sat down on a stone bench before he tapped the spot beside him, signaling Su Yang to sit down.
Su Yang sat down. He mimicked Old Zhou piecing the fishing rod together with the parts in the bag. After they were done with the fishing rod, Old Zhou took a small pail from his bag and poured some bait inside.
He loaded his rod with the bait before giving the pail to Su Yang, but he noticed that Su Yang had already cast the line into the water.
Old Zhou was speechless at first before he awkwardly chuckled. He put the pail of bait down and said, “I guess it works that way too. Fishing is all about the feeling after all.”
Su Yang chuckled along. Of course, he knew he needed bait to fish, but he was not interested in fishing and did not plan to fish, he just casually played along with Old Zhou.
Old Zhou was a lot more professional. First, he carefully looked at where the fishes usually gathered, and when he got the spot, he cast the line out and the baited hook accurately landed in his designated spot.
After that, he put his rod down and sat down on the stone bench.
He then asked Su Yang, “Oh right, Su Yang, I heard you are the president of Han Yi’s Shanghai Fan Club, am I right?”
‘What the...? You old b*stard, you called me all the way out here just to talk about Han Yi?’
Su Yang swore he had thought of a lot of reasons why Old Zhou wanted to talk to him, but he never once thought it would be about Han Yi!
‘I’m fine if some young fella idolizes Han Yi but you aren’t young anymore! And you idolize a young celebrity? Where is your dignity as a man?! And a lecturer?!’
Even though Su Yang roasted Old Zhou in his heart a million times, he did not show any expression on his face. He nodded and said, “Yeah, I am.”
Old Zhou smiled. “I’m wondering if I can join the fan club.”
Su Yang did not know what to say. He had to take a moment to arrange his words before he decided to remind Old Zhou, “Mr. Zhou, you are a university lecturer. Isn’t idolizing a young female celebrity a little...”
Old Zhou said in a grumpy tone, “What’s wrong with a university lecturer idolizing a young female celebrity? I might be in my 40s, but I still have the right to become a fan! Don’t underestimate people of my age. We all have a heart of youth!”
Su Yang sized Old Zhou up. He believed that Old Zhou’s mentality was really young. At least, the lecturer was even more fashionable than himself.
His head started to hurt. He rearranged his words again and said, “Then...is your wife okay with it?”
Old Zhou smiled which added a few more layers of wrinkles on his face. “My wife is very supportive of me.”
Su Yang was completely defeated.
As expected of a middle-aged man’s marriage, it was strange and bizarre. No one would probably know how many secrets a man had in his marriage other than the man himself.
Old Zhou was silent for a while after he noticed that Su Yang was a little reluctant. He sighed and said, “I know people my age can’t communicate well with people your age. There’s a gap between us. We don’t understand the things you like and you might view the things we like as old-fashioned.”
“That’s why people around my age wanted to become younger and learn what the younger generation likes. I know people around your age like apps like Tiktok[1], Onmyoji,[2] and whatnot, so I’ve started to use them as well.”
Old Zhou then took his phone out. He clumsily keyed his password in with one finger, and after he unlocked it, he showed it to Su Yang.
Su Yang glanced at it and saw a page full of games. Onmyoji, Mobile Legend[3], even RED[4].
‘But...What’s wrong with RED? It’s a girlish app! I don’t even have it, so why would you download it?’
Su Yang looked at Old Zhou with a slightly serious gaze. He started to think there might be a reason behind his unusual behavior.
“Mr. Zhou, did something happen?”
Old Zhou’s gaze looked heavy and he did not answer right away. He stared at the lake with a heavy gaze, and after a while, he said, “I have a daughter who’s slightly younger than you. She’s 15 and is attending middle school.
“I don’t know whether it’s her age or my work, but I realize we barely even talk at times. For a long while, I’m clueless about her life. I don’t know what she does or likes at all.
“My wife and I can only lecture her in her studies, but we don’t know how to talk to her and she’s growing tired of us day by day.
“I tried to understand how she’s been doing lately by talking to her, but she said as parents, we don’t know anything and she can’t find a common language. I learned that she usually goes on TikTok and RED, and she loves drama series like ‘Go Go Squid’ and ‘With You’.”
“Her ‘husband’ today might be Li Xian, but it will change to Jing Ran tomorrow or Xiao Zhan the day after tomorrow. We don’t even know who these people are. The names alone got us confused. We really wanted to follow her footsteps and understand her more, but we realized we couldn’t keep up.
“Fortunately, for the past few years, she’s been idolizing a female celebrity named Han Yi. Her room is filled with her pictures, so I wanted to become Han Yi’s fan and understand this female celebrity more. I just want to have a common topic that I can talk to my daughter about in the future.
“Of course, my wife and I have started using TikTok and scrolling through RED. I don’t know what RED is about, but TikTok is really interesting.”
Old Zhou opened his TikTok and showed it to Su Yang.
“Look, there are a lot of videos about the armies of our country, and there are even announcements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Everything is so positive here, so it’s actually good for people of your age to see more of this.”
‘Mr. Lecturer, I think you might have used TikTok wrongly. TikTok suggests videos to users based on the user’s preferences. Maybe your daughter’s TikTok is full of her ‘husbands’**. For example, my TikTok is full of pretty girls with fair, long legs and lousy jokes...’
Su Yang pointed at Old Zhou’s outfit. “Don’t tell me you wore these outfits because of your daughter.”
Old Zhou nodded and smiled. “I really have to say that young people’s sense of fashion really makes me feel younger.”
Su Yang looked at Old Zhou’s semi-bald head and kept quiet.
‘Okay...as long as you are happy.”
After listening to what Old Zhou said, Su Yang finally understood what caused Old Zhou to change all of a sudden.
‘A rebellious 15-year-old girl going through puberty and an understanding father who doesn’t know what to do. Sigh!’
Su Yang said, “No problem, Mr. Zhou. On behalf of Han Yi’s fan club, I welcome you to our group.”
Before he forgot, he added, “Oh right, I have Han Yi’s autographed Polaroid at my place. I’ll give it to you on Monday and you can give it to your daughter.”
Old Zhou was over the moon. “Really? Thank you so much!”
Su Yang smiled. “It’s nothing.”
A quick thought later, he said, “Mr. Zhou, I might also need your help on something.”
Old Zhou was still full of smiles when he replied, “What’s the matter?”
“I’ve created an app to search for part-time jobs and I’m promoting it among the students. If this gets bigger, I’m afraid that the other lecturers or even the dean will have something to say. I wonder if you can help me to deal with them if that happens.”
Old Zhou did not say yes. Instead, he asked, “What kind of app is that?”
Su Yang showed Old Zhou the app and explained everything to him. He even told Old Zhou he was finding companies for internships to put in the app.
Maybe because his ability, the [Verbal Canon], was in play, Old Zhou nodded and said yes after the explanation.
“Of course! If someone has anything to say about it, I’ll deal with them. I’ve been at the university for over 10 years, so I’m sure I’m in a position to talk.”
Su Yang smiled, “Thank you, Mr. Zhou.”
...
Meanwhile, in a little restaurant near Su Yang’s neighborhood, Old Sixth Liu was having lunch with his two slim and fat men.
The fat gangster swallowed a mouthful of a beer and said to Old Sixth Liu, “Brother Six, what if, I mean IF, a big I and F, that my friend might have been cuckolded? What should I do?”