Rite of passage.
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After the other three members went in, the three people in the younger group stood outside and didn't hear even a single scream from the inside. The atmosphere was awkwardly quiet outside the haunted house.
Ling Yi scratched his head doubtfully. "Why isn't it scaring them? They didn't enter the same haunted house as us ba."
He Ziyan, Lu Yuan, and Jiang Miao came out much faster than they had. The three of them jogged out, each person carrying two dolls in their hands, and they seemed to be panting a bit.
Pei Tingsong immediately tugged Ling Yi over to witness this. "Aren't they also panting? They were still scared a little bit, okay."
Lu Yuan swung his arms around a little. "No ah, we were just dancing around inside."
"You guys are cynically toxic ba?" Ling Yi asked with an incredulous expression.
"Tch." Pei Tingsong looked completely disdainful, brooding in his heart about how everyone had raised their hand before they had entered the haunted house. "Then when I had asked if anyone was scared of ghosts, how come everyone raised their hands?"
Having stood there the entire time without interrupting, Fang Juexia couldn't help letting out a laugh when he heard that. He then copied what Pei Tingsong had said before in the haunted house. "None of them had gone in before, so how could they have known if they were scared or not? Only after going in did they realize they weren't scared."
"Hahahahaha, yeah."
Ling Yi was actually feeling very proud of himself. "Only I am an honest child, having a very accurate understanding of myself. Ling Yi, Ling Yi, the inside and the outside all agree."
Pei Tingsong didn't continue to struggle with the issue of them raising their hands anymore, for all of his attention was being attracted by Fang Juexia as he stared at his expression of having to work very hard to hold back a smile.
This guy was actually starting to make jokes about him now?
He unceremoniously stretched out both of his hands to hold Fang Juexia's face and vigorously kneaded it. "Your mouth is growing strong now ah, Fang Juexia."
Normally, since Pei Tingsong often teased him while making moves at him, Fang Juexia should have become long used to it. However, he didn't know why, but when Pei Tingsong touched him now, Fang Juexia didn't feel right. His heart started beating very fast, and even his fingers felt numb.
"Let go of me." He pushed Pei Tingsong aside, looking as if he had received an electric shock, and retreated back several steps.
Fang Juexia's skin was too thin, and as soon as it was rubbed, it turned red and hot. Seeing him like this, Pei Tingsong was left stunned for a second. All of a sudden, he found that his senses also seemed to have developed the freedom to choose whether to let the sensation last or not; it turned out that not every feeling would disappear at the same time, just like how the smooth and soft feeling of his fingers rubbing against the other party's skin hadn't dispersed up to now.
For Fang Juexia, his senses instead remained still.
Shaking the hands that had already come down, Pei Tingsong coughed several times, took a bottle of water from a staff member's hand, and applied a bit of strength to unscrew the tight bottle cap, with his palms even growing red from the force he used. Yet, the sensation left from when he touched Fang Juexia's cheek still stubbornly refused to leave.
Thinking of this, he suddenly wanted to tease Fang Juexia by pranking him. Probably because he had lost so much face in the haunted house, he was eager to find something to make up for it. So Pei Tingsong walked over to him while carrying the water bottle, calling out his name. Fang Juexia raised his hand, the redness in his cheeks having halfway faded. "What's wrong?"
"I also don't know what's going on." Pei Tingsong's acting was quite real, his entire face showing doubt as he continued, "For the past two days, my tongue keeps hurting. Before, I thought it was because I had a cold and it was inflamed, but now, even though my cold is much better, the tip of my tongue somehow keeps hurting more and more."
Although Fang Juexia didn't have many expressions, he also wasn't really a person who could pretend, so as soon as he heard Pei Tingsong's words, his face changed a bit.
"Help me look, did the skin break? It even hurts when I drink water." Saying that, he put the water bottle down on the ground, opened his mouth, and slightly stretched out his tongue. Fang Juexia stared at the tip of his tongue, and there really was an obvious wound there. Pei Tingsong saw him reflexively shrinking away and raised a hand to pull him back. "You're so far away, and you can see ah, your eyes are just that good?"
Fang Juexia blinked quickly and licked his dry lips. "It looks like…it looks like there's a small wound, an ulcer. It'll probably take a few more days to get better."
"An ulcer?" Pei Tingsong purposefully emphasized these words, in order to aggravate a certain someone's guilt. He then frowned and complained, "What to do? It hurts a lot ah, I can't even eat any food. How could I have bitten my own tongue?"
Fang Juexia's eyes drifted away to the side, his guilty conscience clearly written on his face. "Drink more water and eat more fruits and vegetables. It'll get better very soon, it's not very serious."
"Really?" Pei Tingsong stared at him. He couldn't imagine how this person had hardened his heart to both bite and hit him. He was particularly curious about what Fang Juexia's expression and mood must have been like at that time. "Don't you have a small medicine box? Is there any medication to treat ulcers in it?"
"There is." Fang Juexia finally took the initiative to open his mouth, saying, "After we go back, I'll spray a little for you, and it should stop the pain."
Pei Tingsong laughed innocently. "Then thank you Ge, la."
Fang Juexia whispered 'no problem', then picked up the water bottle, which was on the ground, in a hurry, unscrewed it, and took a drink.
"That's my bottle."
He nearly spit it out, but he held back in time, and so his cheeks bulged.
"You drink ah, it's okay." Pei Tingsong felt that he had pretty much found the most interesting thing to do in the world, which was teasing Fang Juexia. Watching as he swallowed awkwardly, he went ahead and added another sentence.
"You still mind that with me ah."
After all the haunted house specials were recorded, the director announced the results, "The elder group here…"
He Ziyan and Lu Yuan objected in a united voice, "What elder group ah?!"
Jiang Miao smiled. "Only I am an elder, oh well."
The other two were still not satisfied. "Director, we're still fresh meat, okay?"
"Okay, okay, okay, you're not the elder group, not the elder group." The director immediately changed her words. "The senior citizens group took 18 minutes and 23 seconds, and even sang a song while inside."
Ling Yi laughed loudly. "Hahaha, the senior citizens group!"
"What's so funny? You lost, okay?" Pei Tingsong pressed down on Ling Yi's head, which, because of the laughter, was trembling, making his hair look like flowers fluttering chaotically. When he turned his head, he saw that Fang Juexia was also laughing with his head half-lowered, and so the corners of his mouth rose up.
Fang Juexia looked good when he laughed, but he just didn't laugh often.
"Then is it time to punish the younger group?"
"Yes ah, we're waiting for that."
The director group took out a lottery box, within which were many lots of rolled up paper. Pei Tingsong had a headache as soon as he saw this. "No way ba, we have to draw lots again? Can you guys come up with some new trick ah?"
A staff member, who didn't appear on camera, said from behind the screen, "How about we do a spinning wheel next time? Let Xiao Pei spin it around with a whir himself." The rest of the people all laughed. Pei Tingsong always had bad luck, and so this time, he simply didn't even reach his hand out. He just raised his chin to Ling Yi a few times. "You, go and draw."
"Why?" Ling Yi swung his two sleeves around, protesting, "If I draw something bad, won't you just throw the blame on me? I'm not going to do such a stupid thing."
In the end, Fang Juexia was the only one from the losing younger team who was willing to take this blame. He held the lottery box and shook it without saying anything, shaking it very seriously at that. This action of his made him look a little silly, and Pei Tingsong couldn't help but complain, "What are you doing? It's really like you're drawing lots."
Fang Juexia glanced at him, and his light brown pupils were very bright under the sun. With just a glance, he turned back, shook the box, and while wearing a completely calm expression, imitated Pei Tingsong's famous scene from within the haunted house— "Great atheists in history ah, bless me to draw a good lot ba."
All the people on scene laughed at that, and the director also fanned the flames. "Later, remember to add a subtitle. This sentence from now on will be called the 'Haunted House Paradox'."
"Hahahahahaha."
However, sadly, Fang Juexia, whose full attention was concentrated on poking fun at others, didn't expect that he would once again throw himself into a pit. As soon as he unfolded the paper he drew from the lottery, a smear of darkness appeared before his eyes.
He hadn't really been infected by Pei Tingsong's bad luck ba?
"Juexia, read out the contents of the punishment." The director reminded him.
Fang Juexia's voice became a little weak as he said, "Bungee jumping…"
He Ziyan let out a meaningful "wow" and said, "A warrior's game."
Lu Yuan was also excited. "Hurry up, I want to see your guys' leap of faith!"
"Juexia is very good at drawing ah. Bungee jumping is also a major attraction of the park, coming second only to the haunted house." The director said, "The total height of the bungee jumping here is only 25 meters. In fact, it's not very high."
25 meters still wasn't high…. Fang Juexia converted this specific figure into the image of the actual height in his heart, and as soon as he thought about it, his legs started to feel soft. He had been a bit afraid of heights since he was a child, and even though he didn't have a serious fear of heights, he still didn't even dare to touch high-altitude events. He hadn't expected that after hiding away from it thousands and tens of thousands of times, he wouldn't be able to hide from this disaster this time. And of course, it just had to be this doomed activity of bungee jumping.
Aware of Fang Juexia's renewed silence, Pei Tingsong bumped his shoulder against his. "Are you afraid ah?"
He had thought that Fang Juexia would struggle a bit, but he hadn't expected him to raise his head, and with a completely serious expression, nod twice. Unexpectedly, he was very honest.
Pei Tingsong was amused by his appearance and laughed. "Weren't you laughing at me quite happily just now? I thought you feared nothing in this life," he teased, but upon seeing that Fang Juexia looked very nervous now, he put on a comforting look. "It's okay, it's much faster than the haunted house. You just go up and then, with a whoosh, jump down, and it's over really fast. You see, even Ling Yi isn't afraid."
"What do you mean, even I'm not afraid?" Ling Yi stared at him, and then became abuzz with excitement. "My favorite thing is high-altitude projects."
God. Fang Juexia couldn't understand this spirit of pursuing excitement. However, if he was willing to bet, then he had to be willing to lose, and since they were also recording it for the ensemble show, it wouldn't be good if he deserted the field of battle. The big group moved from the haunted house attraction to the bungee jumping area. The number of tourists in the park had increased by now, and many people started to follow them and take pictures. In order to save time and to distract these followers, the production team split into two groups. The winning group of three people went to go shoot their part, and another group followed the three bungee jumpers.
They took the elevator to the top. As soon as the door opened, the strong wind made his coat puff up. Fang Juexia zipped himself up, experiencing the strong stimulation of being at a great height in just a glance. They were way too high up, so high that the whole amusement park's landscape was laid out before their eyes. The bungee jumping platform also just had to be built with completely tempered glass, and it had been cleaned very well, with not even a single thing obstructing one's view, and so every step was completely terrifying.
As soon as they came out of the elevator, Ling Yi excitedly went to go find and chat with the coach. Fang Juexia only dared to take small step after small step as he exited it.
Only after seeing these hesitant steps did Pei Tingsong realize how scared Fang Juexia was, so he carelessly grasped his shoulder and leaned against him.
Fang Juexia didn't push him away; standing at such a height, he didn't dare to move. What's more, Pei Tingsong's action was very effective. Having someone close to him in this high up place let Fang Juexia's heart feel a little calmer, since he now had the assurance that there was something he could at least lean on.
"You're really not afraid at all." He opened his mouth and said, while his eyes were still aimed down.
Pei Tingsong nodded. "With regards to bungee jumping, I've done 100 or 200 meter ones, so compared with that, this is all child's play. I've also done extreme skiing, rappelling, low altitude skydiving, and surfing. I can do all these extreme sports, and I like them very much," he said all this with great familiarity and with a smile. "By the way, I can also fly a plane, the kind you need a license for."
"Really powerful."
How could such a person be afraid of ghosts? Too strange. Fang Juexia's attention had been diverted a little, but when he looked at the empty space below his face, his heart still palpitated.
"Don't look down there." Pei Tingsong moved Fang Juexia's face to face himself. "You clearly know you're scared, but you still look."
Fang Juexia nervously swallowed. "Weren't you the same in the haunted house….clearly, you were scared, but you still continued with the task."
Pei Tingsong couldn't help laughing. Fang Juexia really had the face to say that, without even thinking who he had really done all that for.
He found that when people started getting along with each other, they could really change and influence each other. This guy in front of him hadn't learnt anything good from him, instead learning all this bad stuff; he had stolen his entire temper, and if they didn't mention anything else, he was at least becoming increasingly smooth at talking back at people.
A staff member came forward to help Pei Tingsong put on the protective gear, and it was only then that he released Fang Juexia's hand. "Then you just learn from me bei. Anyway, I know no matter how scared you are, you will still jump." Then he turned and asked the staff member to help him fix his belt and rope.
"You know again," Fang Juexia said this, but his tone was not rhetorical. It was very light and very calm, seemingly lighter than the wind on the high platform, but somehow it still floated into Pei Tingsong's ears.
Pei Tingsong, who was just one step away from leaping off, stood still on the edge, then suddenly turned back and laughed at him. "Yeah, I just know. Because you are Fang Juexia."
These words pierced through some unknown part of Fang Juexia's heart, making him feel both a bit sour and numb, while also making him a little happy. However, he didn't want to think too much about the meaning of that. He had noticed himself spending too much time and energy every day studying each word Pei Tingsong said to him. It was really strange, and it really wasn't in line with his straightforward logic for life.
Maybe it has nothing to do with him at all; it might just be his neurotransmitters being stimulated by the high altitude.
The staff member put a GoPro helmet on Pei Tingsong's head and started the camera. Fang Juexia didn't really dare to watch the scene of the moment he jumped down. He thought it would be frightening, and could only hold the pole and half turn around, as he listened to Ling Yi and other staff members count down in unison.
His heart pounded heavily for those last three moments, and then he heard Ling Yi's cheers.
His shoulders gradually relaxed, and Fang Juexia took a deep breath, then gave a long exhale, but his tension was undiminished. Soon it was Ling Yi's turn. He rushed over and hugged Fang Juexia tightly. Only then did he stand on the edge of the platform and say, "Juexia, watch me! I'm going to jump!"
Fang Juexia's face turned a bit pale, but he still turned around, and attempted to smile at Ling Yi. "Good luck."
Ling Yi happily blew him a kiss, and then he loudly started the countdown, "Three! Two! One!" At the moment he leaped, he was still shouting, "The younger group is the most handsome, long live Kaleido and Dominoes—"
Now, only he was left on the high, tall platform. Fang Juexia could hardly feel the existence of his legs at this point. He wanted to crouch down, but the floor was also transparent. He felt numb all over, and his palms were soaked in cold sweat.
"Is Juexia OK? Would you like to give it a try?" The staff member took his arm and consoled him, "It's not necessary to punish him la. Anyway, two people have already jumped."
Another staff member also nodded and said, "Yes ah, if he's really scared of heights, he's probably really uncomfortable."
In fact, to be honest, since they had already come all the way up here, Fang Juexia really wanted to give it a go. He had always thought that if he tried bungee jumping, his threshold for tolerating heights could be raised a little bit.
"I can try," he finally said, taking off his hat and handing it to the staff member. Then he called out to the coach. "Troubling you to please help me put on my armor, thank you."
"The little handsome Ge has a lot of courage ma." The coach was a cheerful middle-aged man, and he reassured Fang Juexia, "Don't worry, our safety measures are very much in place. You just take a deep breath, close your eyes, fall back, and it'll be over. It's very simple."
However, Fang Juexia didn't hear a single word of this as he concentrated on dragging himself little by little over to the edge of the jumping platform, and his legs felt so soft that he could hardly stand, only being able to pull on the coach's arm. Forget about even looking down, his eyes were tightly shut, and he didn't dare to open them.
The coach pulled the belt and patted Fang Juexia on the shoulder twice after confirming that it was safe. "Good luck, little handsome Ge. One jump gives you great popularity, and two jumps give you a great fortune."
Once would be enough, it would be over soon.
He even imagined the sensation of weightlessness in his mind in advance, just to prepare himself to be able to endure it better later.
He wasn't afraid, he wasn't afraid at all.
Don't be scared, don't be scared, don't be scared…
"Prepare yourself ah, I'm going to start the countdown. Three—"
The countdown was suddenly interrupted. "Eh? Why have you come back?"
Come back? What coming back?
He heard the coach laugh, and then also pat his arm as he said, "You see, what I said is right ba, someone really wanted to come back to jump a second time."
The strong wind had disturbed Fang Juexia's soft hair, making him look like a miserable small animal. He hesitated, frowning, and slowly opened his eyes. In his shaking field of vision appeared Pei Tingsong, who walked on the transparent glass floor step by step, with the spring sunshine making his smile seem lazy.
"You're really about to jump ah." He looked at Fang Juexia, who was already dressed to go, and his eyes were full of smiles.
Fang Juexia, who had been long rendered unable of speech, only nodded his head slightly, making himself appear even more pitiful. He didn't know what Pei Tingsong wanted to do by coming up here; did he want to witness his first bungee jumping experience? Or did it count as being more of an experience if he stood here and watched this joke? He thought a lot in his head, and his pupils swayed with his thoughts.
The more Pei Tingsong looked, the cuter he thought Fang Juexia was. He also saw him quietly holding the coach's arm and unconsciously raised his eyebrows.
"He's afraid of heights." Pei Tingsong walked over to the coach and said to the staff, "I'll join him, and we'll do a two-person jump."
This sentence came suddenly, and no one could have imagined it. Fang Juexia also looked at him, without saying a word. Pei Tingsong directly reached out and pulled him back, joking, "What are you looking at me for, are you moved ah? If you're moved, cry a bit for me to see."
"What are you doing back here?" Fang Juexia's voice carried his usual cold tone as soon as he opened his mouth, but his hand had already transferred from the coach's arm to Pei Tingsong's wrist, and he held him tightly, as if subconsciously, he was looking for a more familiar and comfortable sense of security.
"It was really refreshing jumping down, and I want to do it again." The coach helped them put on the two-person protective gear. Pei Tingsong raised his hand and neatened Fang Juexia's hair, which had been disturbed by the wind. His tone was much softer as he said, "By the way, I'll help you get through this heavenly tribulation."
"Heavenly tribulation." Fang Juexia repeated these two words in a low voice. He was surprised; this child who had grown up abroad somehow had learned all these strange and eccentric things. However, these words were also quite appropriate right now; this really seemed to be a rather big disaster in his twenty plus years of life, and the danger level put it in the top three.
With this in mind, he glanced at Pei Tingsong again.
This guy's danger level was high, too. He was really too panicked at the moment, so much so that he was picking any path he could find to escape, which led him to solving one danger by relying on another.
The staff member was about to place the helmets on them when they discovered that the last GoPro was broken and couldn't record any footage. "Should we wait a bit? Wait for them to bring up the previous one."
"Juexia after great effort made all his mental preparations, and who knows if he'll dare to go if we wait. How about we just don't record his perspective?" Another staff member contacted someone at the bottom of the attraction with a walkie talkie, telling them that they would only take the perspective of the jump from the top, and they discussed to just to take the perspective of Pei Tingsong jumping down, while someone else recorded from the bottom for Fang Juexia.
The coach fixed the rope and confirmed it again. "Okay, we're ready. Two little handsome Ge, you can double jump now. Shall I give you a countdown?"
Pei Tingsong shook his head, said thank you, and then pulled on Fang Juexia's arm to get him to move forward bit by bit. The wind on the platform became stronger and stronger, wheeling around in midair. The cold air held them tight, and the clear blue sky almost seemed as if it were within reach. Amidst the roaring wind, Fang Juexia heard Pei Tingsong's voice. He told him to close his eyes, so he really closed his eyes.
He had never done anything too crazy in his life. Even when pursuing his dream, he made sure to follow his own rules and procedures that he controlled, thus making steady progress step by step. Stability gave him a sense of security. Being derailed, revelry, and loss of control—these were all the sorts of dangerous factors Fang Juexia had tried to avoid for his 20 plus years of life.
"I'll tell you a story ba."
"A story?" Fang Juexia listened to his voice and raised his head.
"En." Pei Tingsong stood on the platform, turned his back onto the high altitude he was about to fall into, faced Fang Juexia who had closed his eyes, stretched out his arm, and pulled him into his arms. "Did you know? It's said that bungee jumping originated in Vanuatu, a country in the South Pacific archipelago. People there believe that only those who have undergone the high altitude test count as adults. So, hundreds of years ago, the men of their tribe would tie their legs with vines, then jump from a wooden tower more than 30 meters high, and stop with a shh no more than 10 centimeters above the ground."
"And then?" Fang Juexia, who still had his eyes closed, asked.
"And then…" Pei Tingsong lowered his head to confirm that he had already stepped onto the edge, and half of his foot was hanging in midair. He continued, "The villagers would hold a big bonfire party for him to celebrate his determination and courage. They viewed this high fall as a great rite of passage."
At the end of this story, he put his arms around Fang Juexia and fell back. Without the tension created by the countdown, everything came too quickly, and utterly without warning. Fang Juexia's heart almost came to a sudden halt; he was hugged and then fell into a storm, a complete vortex of weightlessness.
So it turned out—a real fall was like this. Every crevice of his body was penetrated by the galloping wind, and his soul smashed into the empty sky. Fear, hesitation, and timidity were all swept away by the wind, and from instinct, that one-way hug turned into a tight mutual hug. Both of their body temperatures were hot, and their heartbeats also collided together, striking directly into each other's chests. These senses were all telling Fang Juexia that he was not alone.
He fell while being hugged, completely safe and free.
"Would you like to open your eyes?"
The roaring wind was like a howling alarm, but it couldn't stop his voice. Fang Juexia tried to open his eyes. The inverted view that came into his vision was too intriguing—he saw the whole world spinning up into the sky, and also saw Pei Tingsong close at hand. Their gazes met in the wild wind, and Pei Tingsong's eyes were laughing, his dark pupils reflecting the open sky, and his own face as well. It was just like in the story; they fell through and hung in the air with courage and determination.
When the alarm finally stopped, Pei Tingsong drew closer to Fang Juexia's ear—
"You're an adult now, Gege."