Yunlan: "This is nice, don't you think?"

Lisa: "(There are so many windows, there will be sun in every room.)"

Qiqi: "(True, is very beautiful.)"

Wei: "Isn't it too far away from work? We don't have a car."

Yunlan: "We could get one, or even better we could get two much cheaper bicycles and leave everyone behind when they'll be stuck in traffic."

Lisa: "(There are two large bedrooms and a huge living-room, it will be very comfortable.)"

Qiqi: "(How is kitchen?)"

The girls exchanged a look and disappeared in the kitchen. Wei's eyes followed them. "Where are they going?"

Yunlan: "In the kitchen. If it's as good as the rest, they'll sign immediately."

Wei laughed: "Can we afford it?"

Yunlan: "I couldn't if I was alone, but the four of us can, yes."

Wei: "Then I think we have found our new home."

~~~

That week they all gave notice that they were leaving their current apartments and signed for the new one.

The news spread quickly to Wei's hometown, but this time Mrs. Shen knew how to answer the curious questions of the various shopkeepers because Wei had told her first.

His father said that he was proud his son was making a good life for himself, and that he hoped 'the other couple' didn't cause him trouble. Wei assured him that they were all good friends.

His mother had a strange look in her eyes whenever Yunlan appeared in video call and always acted extremely politely to him, but she kept calling Qiqi 'daughter'.

Qiqi didn't call home. She wasn't ready, she said.

Yunlan sent a long formal paper letter to his parents asking for their blessings. They lived on the other side of China and there was no way they could have any interactions with Wei's parents, so he told them the truth about Wei.

He received an answer two months later, although the Chinese stamp was dated six weeks earlier. They gave him their blessings glad that he had found his own path.

They were quite relieved that he couldn't see their faces when they received his letter because they didn't know how to deal with it at first, but then they talked a lot about it.
They had always been worried about their reckless son, in the way all parents do, and they decided that they were most of all relieved that he was doing well and seemed to be happy.

Moving to the new apartment took longer than they thought. Wei and Yunlan put all their stuff in one bedroom, Qiqi and Lisa put theirs in the other one.

Since there was too much stuff, they decided that they could keep in the living-room the things that could be used by everyone, like books, movies, or Lisa's aerobics videos.

The bathroom became a wild assortment of makeup and shaving products. There were four different kinds of perfumes and four different kinds of shower gel (but this number quickly dropped to two).

They even had a white towel for Qiqi, a pink one for Lisa, a blue one for Yunlan and a green one for Wei.

They immediately bought four bicycles that would be used to go to work. They spent the first week finding the right place for all their stuff, then they started thinking about the rest.

Qiqi wanted more kitchen utensils, Yunlan wanted a tv but Wei won insisting they needed a big couch first.

In the next weeks they put their money together to fill their house with everything they needed.

First came the couch, with a small dresser on the side full of extra blankets, and a soft fluffy pillow with a big dog's head on the front.

Wei had been very specific about it when he entered the shop. He had insisted on buying it himself, and Yunlan had taught him how to say pillow in Italian. He already knew how to say dog and picture.

Then the kitchen couldn't be delayed anymore. Qiqi insisted that they could live a while longer without a tv but not without food.

Forgetting that he was talking to two chefs, Yunlan argued that they could cook already and that more stuff wasn't really necessary, and he was submitted to a long lesson on what one needed to make good elaborate dishes.

They bought a small cabinet and placed it near the door. On top of it they put a wooden plate where they would keep their keys, and inside it they would store all the bills. Everything would be equally divided into four, and they would all pay their part.

Finally Yunlan could choose a tv and he placed it right in front of the couch.
At that point they had been living there for two months already, but only now they felt like they had a real home.

"(You were right, a tv makes the place more homey,)" Lisa said, and Yunlan nodded like a wise old man.

She laughed and switched it on choosing a music channel.

~~~

That night Wei called Yezun after his parents had gone to bed.
They chatted a while, Wei holding the computer in his arms and walking slowly to show him every part of the new house. He walked back towards the big table between the living room and the kitchen and sat down.

Wei asked about their parents, about the work, about Yezun's friends, he even inquired about the townspeople.
Suddenly he noticed something and jumped up. "(Ehi! Don't touch that!)"

He disappeared from the screen. Yezun wanted to know the reason, but there was something more urgent. Now that he had Yunlan alone, he asked, "Can he hear me from where he is?"

"No way, he is fighting with Lisa over Chu's pillow. She likes it, but he wants no-one to take it."

Again Yezun left his curiosity for later, there was one thing that had precedence over anything else.

He kept his voice low to be on the safe side and asked, "Should I tell him that Feng came back to live here?"

Yunlan didn't need time to think. "Yes, be honest with him, always. He won't break down anymore. He changed."

"Are you sure? I heard that some things can't be cured completely."

"Maybe not but he's better now. Did he tell you that he accepted to see a psychologist?"

"He did?"

"Yeah. I insisted. I hope one day he'll be able to live for himself."

There was a sad note to his words.

"Hopefully he'll still want me." He added in a whisper.

Yezun didn't know what to say, he was sure Wei's feelings for Yunlan would never change but all words seemed inadequate now.

Yunlan wasn't the type of man to dwell on negativity though, so he shrugged. "For now, he does." He simply said.

Yunlan looked at Wei and turned the computer so Yezun could see him too.
Wei was standing with the pillow in his hands, his eyes unfocused, and even from the distance Yezun could see the old Wei.

"He still has that empty look," Yezun said sadly. "I hoped he was better, after what you said."

"That's a part of who he is, but he's learning to live with it. I know what's in his head now. He's either thinking of when he was with Chu or of when he left. In both cases, right now he's thinking that he was a worthless nobody weaker than a newborn baby. But he'll soon remember that it's the past and put the pillow back where it belongs."

"If you say so." Yezun didn't sound convinced, so Yunlan added, "Want to see something magical?"

Yunlan didn't wait for a reply, he silently walked towards Wei leaving the computer where it was so Yezun could see.

He stopped a meter away and said, "I love you."

The change would never cease to amaze him and fill his soul with warmth.

Wei turned to him immediately, holding the pillow to his heart. His lips open into a wide smile, his eyes shining bright, Wei looked into his eyes. He said, "Yes I know," then he laughed a sincere happy laugh.

"Come to say goodbye to your brother, come on."

Wei looked at the computer, he had forgotten about it, and quickly ran back to Yezun.
"Sorry brother, but Lisa keeps taking Chu's pillow!"

Yezun laughed. "I doubt she'll ruin it. So, how is living with someone who doesn't understand a word you say?"

"Well, we usually try to speak her language, and now that I hear it every day I'm getting better at it! But she scolds us when she catches us speaking Chinese."

Yunlan chuckled. "It's so funny when she starts huffing and puffing."

"You should stop doing it on purpose, it upsets Qiqi," Wei warned him.

"No it doesn't, she likes to calm her down with cuddles."

"That's true." They laughed all together, talked a few minutes more then said their goodbyes.