Boys of Ice and Fire

The Forgotten Test

A few days later, Ethan got Bob out of the hospital. Priscilla was still grumbling about how much had been spent on the operation, but Ethan and Bob had already got used to it. Smiling in the sunshine, they were happy that life could return to normal.

Spring Festival was just around the corner. As usual, Bob would always picture promising futures for the family at the dinner table, giving toasts with his beers and saying formal new year blessings. Ethan guessed Bod had done this too much with his clients in those construction projects.

But Ethan was never the type of guy who enjoyed festivals. He didn’t have a boyfriend, living life all alone. So watching other people finding a reason to have fun in pairs in those holidays and festivals hadn’t been such a good experience for Ethan. But this year he had something to look forward to: his would-be new leader, Shaun.

Ethan couldn't help picturing Shaun having jovial new year dinners with his family. By the looks of it, Shaun must have been a poor student growing up in Anhui Province in Southern China. Now that Shaun had become a leader in a large online education company, he must have made some money and would go back home to reunite with his family with some gifts from big cities, probably with a girlfriend. Alas, how I hope he is gay, but he just doesn’t look like one.

This being said, Ethan actually didn't care if the guy he liked was gay or straight. It's really not about what kind of person he loved; it's about whether he loved. With homosexual men, he would just have a normal date. With straight men, he would readily keep them company as a friend. That alone would satisfy him a lot. And judging from past experience, Ethan would fall in love mostly with straight guys, who exuded more charm than homosexual ones.

Ethan was not the only one interested in straight guys, though. He had a friend from the Internet named Chuck, to whom he could talk about this at ease. Chuck had been a promiscuous gay man who worked as an associate professor in a medical institute and had had plenty of s*x, in all imaginable ways, with college students, inside or outside of his school.

Since Ethan met Shaun, he had been sending messages to Chuck, lavishing his romantic, or perverted, thoughts about Shaun on him. Chuck was eager to respond, though. After seeing those college life images shown to Chuck by Ethan, Chuck also kind of “fell in love” with Shaun, equally impressed by Shaun’s willpower to rise from the status of a poor student, to being a group leader in a large enterprise.

Besides, the sort of straight masculinity ensnared Chuck as it did Ethan. Since then, they’ve become close buddies on this, with Ethan sharing his progress with Shaun all the time and Chuck making comments vividly and with interest.

The centerpiece of the Spring Festival was the Spring Festival Gala on Lunar New Year's Eve. Billions watched the show as a cross-year ritual. And surpringly enough, Monkey Education was one of the companies sponsoring this year's Spring Festival Gala. Many of Ethan's friends, including Chuck, sent messages to talk about this. They joked that Ethan would make a lot of money from his new company.

The Spring Festival Holiday went by in a fleet. The day, Feb. 18th, on which Ethan would go to Monkey Education for registration had come. He took all the required documents, put them into his newly bought backpack, and got onto the subway, where all passengers were required to wear masks because it was only 2021 and the Covid-19 virus was still lurking around or something.

Ethan had to take the subway because Monkey Education was 30 miles away. Being a poor man from a poor family, he was forced to move to the suburban areas of Beijing in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and his family business got into a mess, so that they could no longer afford the rent downtown. However, he always believed he could get back on top with his privileged education and unyielding hard work. He even fantasized that one day he could make enough money and be a stronger supporter of Shaun, in all ways imaginable.

90 minutes later, Ethan had traveled from the 5th Ring of South Beijing to the 4th Ring of Northeastern Beijing, where the global headquarters of Monkey Education was located. With the address Gigi sent him via the phone, Ethan arrived at the entrance of the Monkey Education Tower and stood in awe for a few minutes. It felt like the bustling center of the whole universe, compared to the shabby suburban neighborhood Ethan lived in.

Following the decently dressed young men and woman walking into the Tower, Ethan got his body temperature checked by the cute young doorman holding a thermometer in his hand, and then walked through a couple of glass doors to arrive at a large counter in the lobby of the tower.

“Excuse me,” said Ethan. “I’m here to sign up as a new worker.”

Ethan stuck to a man who looked the most amicable, who replied in a cold tone.

“Please show the result of your nucleus acid test, done within 3 days.”

Ethan was confused. He checked the list of things he needed to bring to the company, but it didn’t mention the test.

“I had a test about a month ago,” Ethan wanted to try his luck. “Will that do?“

“Contact your HR manager” was the reply.

Ethan got a sinking feeling in his stomach. He recalled that during the phone call his offer was given, Gigi actually mentioned a nucleus acid test done within three days of the registration date, but she didn’t put it down on paper, so Ethan didn’t take it so seriously. Moreover, Ethan was too excited about passing the interview to take into account all the details of the phone call.

He walked away from the counter, where many other new workers were busy with their registration procedure, and made a phone call to Gigi, hoping somehow Shaun could put in a word and bend the rules.

“Hi Gigi.” Ethan asked eagerly as soon as the line was through.

“Yeah, what’s up Ethan?”

“I’m sorry Gigi.” said Ethan, pretending to sound normal. But he was devastated by the fact that he might have to postpone the date to meet Shaun. “I forgot the 3-day nucleus test. Can I still start working today?”

“I thought I was clear enough...” Gigi sounded a bit vexed.

“I’m sorry, but...” said Ethan apologetically.

“Just wait a minute,” said Gigi. “I’ll ask someone about how to deal with this.”

“Alright,” said Ethan, ending the call to wait for an answer, his hopes flying high and low as time ticked by.

Five minutes later, Gigi called back.

“I’m sorry, Ethan,” said Gigi. “You have to have the test before you can work in the Tower.”

Ethan was stunned for a minute there. He had been used to bending the rules when it comes to procedures. Isn't it always the case in China? Where there is no principle that cannot be broken, as long as it suits human needs!?

But there was nothing he could do about it. So Ethan gave up the possibility of rule-bending and started immediately to search on the phone for the clinics where he could be tested as soon as possible, hoping he could get the result before the morning of next day, no matter how much money it would cost. He couldn't wait any longer to meet Shaun.