E ⋆ Chapter 2

Three days later, Yu Zhinian met with Liu Han, an interviewee he had arranged to see.

Liu Han had been Yu Zhinian’s roommate when he was renting in the urban village, a thoughtful person who enjoyed reading in his spare time and had helped Yu Zhinian with many things.

They met at an outdoor noodle shop near Liu Han’s new construction site. Yu Zhinian treated Liu Han to a bowl of pulled noodles, and the two chatted while eating.

The sun was intense that noon, and Yu Zhinian couldn’t eat much. He only ordered a bottle of ice soda. The two talked for more than an hour before Liu Han received a call from the foreman urging him back to the construction site.

Yu Zhinian had finished asking most of his follow-up questions, so he paid the bill.

When Liu Han learned that Yu Zhinian would be leaving soon, he shook hands with him somewhat reluctantly.

After saying goodbye, Yu Zhinian walked toward the subway station. He had walked a short distance when the surroundings felt vaguely familiar. He looked up and suddenly caught sight of a familiar building spire, startled to realize he had arrived near his high school.

The school’s location had originally been on the city outskirts, but in recent years, as Ning City developed and expanded, it had gradually been surrounded by tall buildings and become the district center.

The spire he saw belonged to the multimedia building, whose top floor served as a small theater for the school. The drama club sometimes performed plays there.

Yu Zhinian and Yang Ke had gone to see a play once. The tickets were given to them by a junior schoolmate who played a vivacious young girl in the performance.

The afternoon Yu Zhinian invited Yang Ke to go, Yang Ke was swimming at home, having just finished a warm-up lap. Yu Zhinian knelt on one knee at the edge of the pool, catching a faint smell of bleach in the air.

The pool was blue, like the ocean or a clear sky on a sunny day. The swimming facility’s floor-to-ceiling windows were flanked by lush green plants outside. The light reflecting off the water’s surface cut across the white ceiling in undulating halos, giving the interior a kind of ethereal, humid warmth.

Yang Ke was in the water, lifting his face to look at Yu Zhinian. His black hair dripped downward, the water flowing along his jawline to his chin.

Yu Zhinian remembered asking Yang Ke: “Tomorrow at seven-thirty, do you have time to go see this play with me?”

He held the ticket the junior schoolmate had given him out toward Yang Ke, wanting him to see it clearly. But somehow, the ticket slipped from his fingers and fell into the pool.

Yang Ke said nothing. He fished the ticket out of the water for him, glanced at it briefly, and placed it on the pool’s edge.

The ticket was printed in color on white cardstock. After being soaked, it lay limp and sticky against the marble tiles at the pool’s edge.

Yu Zhinian picked it up a bit awkwardly and found that the patterns and text on the cardstock had smudged somewhat.

“Can we still get in with a wet ticket?” Yang Ke asked him.

“I don’t know,” Yu Zhinian hesitated. “I think so.”

Yang Ke told him: “Dry it out and try tomorrow.” He agreed to Yu Zhinian’s invitation, then turned and sank back into the water.

Yu Zhinian had completely forgotten the specific content of that play. He only remembered walking with Yang Ke into the dim school theater under the night sky.

The student checking tickets was inattentively looking at his phone and didn’t question them about the wet and then dried ticket. The theater had the smell of old wooden furniture.

Yang Ke sat quietly beside him and watched the entire play with him.

In Yu Zhinian’s memory, many scenes of their time together were silent and soundless. Yang Ke was quiet by nature, and Yu Zhinian would always keep him company in that silence.

After the play ended, Yu Zhinian received a text from the junior schoolmate asking him to come backstage to see her.

The driver had already parked on time outside the north gate near the theater. Yang Ke didn’t leave first. He accompanied Yu Zhinian and waited outside the theater’s back door.

Yu Zhinian went backstage. The junior schoolmate wasn’t there. Instead, another girl who looked somewhat familiar was waiting inside. She introduced herself very nervously, stammering that she had liked Yu Zhinian for two years.

She asked Yu Zhinian if he had a girlfriend. Yu Zhinian remembered very clearly that he answered her: “No, but I’m pursuing someone.”

The girl froze for a moment, stood there dazed, and said “then I hope you catch up with them soon.” Yu Zhinian said thank you, and she seemed to lose control and started crying.

Yu Zhinian was skilled at handling such situations and didn’t think there was anything difficult about it at the time.

He politely waited until the girl stopped crying before going out with her.

She walked very quickly, running toward the stairs. Yang Ke stood beside a pillar with his arms crossed, waiting for him.

“Sorry,” Yu Zhinian said to Yang Ke, “it took a while.”

Yang Ke smiled at him and, for once, made a rare joke at his expense, asking Yu Zhinian: “Do you attract admirers everywhere you go?”

“Not really,” Yu Zhinian denied vaguely, making something up on the spot. “I was filling out a survey for the drama club inside.”

“Is that so?” Yang Ke was half a head taller than Yu Zhinian. At the stairway entrance, his shadow fell over Yu Zhinian. He looked at Yu Zhinian, his eyes very dark, and said in a relaxed tone, “Get another one and fill it out for me too.”

But the next moment, Yang Ke’s grandfather called, urging Yu Zhinian to come home and asking if the play had ended and whether he had gotten in the car.

The conversation ended there.

At that time, Yu Zhinian had always believed that Yang Ke treated him differently from others, that their interactions held more familiarity. They knew more of each other’s secrets, so their relationship was closer than that of ordinary friends.

But now he wasn’t so sure. Perhaps most of it had been a misreading.

Yang Ke was someone difficult to understand and difficult to please, moody and unpredictable. His motivations, his logic, sometimes Yu Zhinian would analyze them all night and still not figure them out.

Under the blazing sun, Yu Zhinian felt drowsy from the heat. Walking into the subway station, the cool shade covered him, and his head cleared a bit.

After scanning his code to enter the subway, while waiting for the train, Yu Zhinian received a text from an airline ticketing service showing that a flight from Ning City to He City had been issued, scheduled for May fifth.

He didn’t have time to think about it before Lawyer Li, the estate agent handling Yang Ke’s grandfather’s inheritance, called.

At that moment, the subway train pulled in with a loud noise.

Nanqiao Station was a major hub with many passengers getting on and off. Yu Zhinian squeezed onto the train with the crowd, moved to the side, grabbed the metal pole, and answered Li Lu’s call.

Li Lu spoke on the other end, but Yu Zhinian couldn’t hear very clearly. He asked several times before understanding that Li Lu was saying he had bought the ticket for Yu Zhinian.

“Smith told… you were coming back soon,” the lawyer’s voice came through choppy and fragmented. “About Chairman Yang’s… the matter of the inheritance trust, we… should meet up as soon as possible… I bought you a ticket.

“If you really… want to give up this trust… there are many documents to sign.

“Also… this trust has some clauses you… don’t fully understand… I’ll explain them to you properly. These few days… you should also seriously reconsider… whether you really want to… make a decision.

“Zhinian… to be honest, I personally don’t recommend it.”

Yu Zhinian agreed.

After hanging up, Yu Zhinian suddenly wanted to send Yang Ke a message, but he didn’t know what he could say.

He could tell him that his return date was set, that he had also rented a place where he could store the things he was moving out from Yang Ke’s house, and then ask about Yang Ke’s recent situation. In short, act as if nothing had happened, and chat in a magnanimous and breezy manner.

He had made a sacrifice, so he should have the right to receive a reward.

From Nanqiao Station to Ning University Station was eight stops, twenty-five minutes. In that time, Yu Zhinian indulged himself by going through every possible opening line for a conversation, then finally suppressed the urge to reach out, warning himself that Yang Ke simply didn’t want to receive any message from him.

Because passivity meant disinterest, and coldness meant dislike. Yu Zhinian had grown up.

The train doors opened. The subway had arrived.

Yu Zhinian ended his fantasy, gripped his phone tightly, shouldered his bag, and walked out of the station. The edge of the phone pressed against his fingertips, slightly uncomfortable, but he didn’t loosen his grip.

Up the escalator, down the escalator. After exiting the station, he habitually picked up his phone again, perhaps for the ten-thousandth time, checking the screen.

A hope without expectation, like tiny bubbles, drifted upward from the bottom of a water bottle.

When Yu Zhinian still hadn’t received any message from Yang Ke, the bubble that had floated to the surface popped.

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