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Li Lianhua was abruptly returned to full consciousness after being prodded in the ribs.
Opening his eyes, he saw Fang Duobing trying to rearrange his long limbs more comfortably in the cramped space and realized it had been one of his friend’s bony elbows that had so rudely awakened him.
For all his flailing, however, Fang Duobing was not yet quite so awake, and so Li Lianhua watched as he scrubbed his face with his hands and then froze, moving them down and plucking at the thin fabric of his undershirt.
“Where are my clothes,” Fang Duobing said.
Li Lianhua, already shaking his head, opened his mouth, ready to plead his innocence, when he realized that, in this matter, he was not innocent at all, and swiftly shut it. The change the realization had worked upon his expression had been fleeting, but it was enough, and Fang Duobing turned to him, as best he could.
“Where are my clothes,” Fang Duobing repeated, this time with some force.
“Ah,” Li Lianhua began, unsure how to explain the strange tale of what had happened to Fang Duobing’s shirt and jacket.
His attempts at explanation were lost, however, in the torrent of barking that erupted from Fang Duobing, amounting to a combination of scolding and exclamations about what he was supposed to wear now.
“No one can see you in here,” Li Lianhua pointed out, very reasonably, he thought. “What does it matter what you’re wearing?”
A dangerous gleam appeared in Fang Duobing’s eyes.
“Well,” he said, “If it doesn’t matter what I’m wearing, then it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing either.”
And with that, his hands were on the buttons of Li Lianhua’s oversized cardigan.
“I think you’d better give me this.”
Protesting, Li Lianhua batted at Fang Duobing’s hands and Fang Duobing batted back, each trying to get enough purchase to achieve their aim without ceasing to argue their respective cases of what clothing was due to whom.
In the front seat of the car, Zhan Yunfei, who until this time had paid scant attention to the sleepers in the back, fixed his eyes firmly on the road and drove on.