E ⋆ Chapter 16

The origins of things could be traced, more or less. Yang Zhongyin’s special attention to Yu Zhinian was no different.

When Yang Ke and Yu Zhinian lived in the same house, Yang Ke had several chances to glimpse the reason for this, or to notice more oddities about Yang Zhongyin, but at the time, Yang Ke never connected the pieces together. He only treated it as one of Yang Zhongyin’s more persistent abnormal behaviors, and so he missed every opportunity.

On the day Yu Zhinian had been at Yang Ke’s home for exactly one year, Yang Zhongyin held a small family dinner.

He invited a few close friends, as well as Li Lu, his most trusted secretary, to celebrate this strange anniversary together.

The dining room, which had been arranged by hired staff, was somewhat dimly lit. In the corner facing the floor-to-ceiling window directly across from Yang Ke, gifts that Yang Zhongyin had given to Yu Zhinian were piled up.

He opened a bottle of precious wine, raised his glass in a toast, and shared with his friends the changes Yu Zhinian had brought to the household since arriving, Yu Zhinian’s progress, his grades in each subject, teachers’ comments about him, and his own hopes for the future.

His friends all raised their glasses to bless Yu Zhinian.

Yu Zhinian wore a custom-tailored suit, his hair freshly cut. He expressed his gratitude to them awkwardly but earnestly, and then cut the anniversary cake.

He passed around slices of cake, and finally gave one to Yang Ke. Yang Ke looked up at him, and Yu Zhinian gave him a faint, not very obvious smile.

Yang Ke found the whole scene tedious. After eating a few bites, he wanted to find an excuse to go upstairs, but the moment he put down his chopsticks, Yu Zhinian, as if he had been watching him all along, immediately looked toward him and gave him a pleading look, hoping he wouldn’t leave.

He stayed after all, until the anniversary celebration was nearly over.

Fortunately, the day after the anniversary ended, Yang Zhongyin left for Europe.

The trip was expected to last fifteen to twenty days. He had originally wanted to take Yu Zhinian with him, but for some reason didn’t. Once he left, the atmosphere in the house immediately became more relaxed. Yu Zhinian also became much less restrained.

When Yang Ke went swimming, sometimes when Yu Zhinian didn’t have classes, he would come to the pool and sit quietly on a rest chair by the water to watch, though he never got in.

As far as Yang Ke knew, Yu Zhinian had already learned to swim. His form wasn’t bad, but it hadn’t achieved the muscle-building results he had been hoping for.

He had grown at least ten centimeters, and the height difference between him and Yang Ke had noticeably shortened. He had adapted to school life, and his language skills and grades had made rapid progress. He was no longer the malnourished, impoverished student who had first arrived at Yang Ke’s home.

He was very popular at school. When Yang Ke and he came home together, they had even encountered people handing Yu Zhinian love letters.

Yang Ke didn’t dislike Yu Zhinian either. He thought Yu Zhinian often acted foolishly, but it didn’t annoy him. Sometimes it even made him feel sympathetic.

A year had passed, and Yang Zhongyin’s desire to control Yu Zhinian hadn’t diminished one bit.

After school, Yu Zhinian was much less free than Yang Ke. He was either in supplementary lessons or accompanying Yang Zhongyin in his study for reading companionship, often not returning to his room until midnight.

The communication between the two was almost limited to the car, and some text messages sent out of boredom.

In winter, going to school, Yu Zhinian sometimes fell asleep in the car. Once, Yang Ke witnessed him wake up after sleeping for twenty minutes, wiping drool from the corner of his mouth.

On the fourth day after Yang Zhongyin left, it was the day Zhao Sibei came to pick up Yang Ke.

Shortly after getting into Zhao Sibei’s car and leaving, Yang Ke received a message from Yu Zhinian.

Yu Zhinian asked Yang Ke where they were going to play today. He said he didn’t have classes and was bored.

Yu Zhinian was someone who knew how to remain silent at the right times. Except for the first time, every time Yang Ke left on weekends, he never asked again.

He was good at selective curiosity, as if he had a built-in ruler for maintaining the right distance in communication with others. Because of this, even though he often bothered Yang Ke when bored, saying this and that, Yang Ke still found it hard to think of him as annoying.

Perhaps it was because of the pitiful appearance Yu Zhinian had been forced to put on during the anniversary celebration a few days before, or perhaps because there really was nothing to hide, Yang Ke replied to him: “Going skiing with my biological father.”

Yu Zhinian sent back “Wow” and “I’m so jealous,” and didn’t ask further, as if he knew the limits of his questions, just like he had never asked where Yang Ke’s parents were. Yang Ke thought this was also why he felt Yu Zhinian was different from other people.

“You don’t even like skiing,” Yang Ke replied, thinking of the time they went skiing up north in winter, when Yu Zhinian stood rooted to the spot with a look on his face that clearly said he had no desire to move.

Coincidentally, on this very day Zhao Sibei happened to notice Yang Ke chatting and asked who he was texting.

Yang Ke told him “Yu Zhinian,” “saying he’s bored and asking where I’m going.”

Zhao Sibei was quite concerned about Yu Zhinian, and would often ask Yang Ke how he was doing. Sometimes he would also ask Yang Ke to pay more attention to Yu Zhinian’s state.

Yang Ke suspected that Zhao Sibei harbored doubts about Yang Zhongyin’s motives in supporting Yu Zhinian, but from what Yang Ke could see, Yang Zhongyin showed no signs of that for now.

Zhao Sibei drove silently for a little while, then suddenly said: “Did your grandfather go on a business trip to Europe?”

Yang Ke said yes, and Zhao Sibei then suddenly suggested: “Yang Ke, how about we pick Yu Zhinian up and have dinner together?”

For some reason, Yang Ke didn’t resist his father’s suggestion that day.

He thought for a moment and called Yu Zhinian: “My dad is asking if you want to come along?”

Yu Zhinian agreed immediately. He sounded very happy. Then he paused and said: “Is it okay if I tell the housekeeper I’m going with you guys?”

The next second, he said: “Actually, never mind. I’ll just say I’m going to a classmate gathering. I’ll come out on my own. Meet me at the road sign.”

Zhao Sibei turned the car around and headed back.

The sky had already darkened. They waited by the road sign, at some distance from the villa’s main gate, for nearly twenty minutes before Yu Zhinian came jogging to the car in a short-sleeved shirt and pants, pulled open the door, and got in.

The weather was hot, and Yu Zhinian had a light sheen of sweat on him, breathing slightly hard.

Zhao Sibei turned around and greeted Yu Zhinian.

Yu Zhinian, unusually shy, said softly: “Uncle, hello. I’m Yu Zhinian.”

The way he spoke was very well-behaved, his expression more lively than when talking with Yang Zhongyin. He leaned forward slightly, looking at Zhao Sibei, then at Yang Ke.

“Why were you so slow,” Yang Ke asked him.

“The driver insisted on driving me, saying it was hot,” Yu Zhinian told Yang Ke slowly. “I argued for a while, saying my classmate was coming to pick me up, and that I’d been cooped up at home all day and wanted to walk around a bit. That’s when he finally didn’t follow me out.”

“Can’t you just tell the truth about going out to eat?” Zhao Sibei suddenly asked.

Yu Zhinian hesitated slightly and said simply: “It doesn’t feel quite right.”

“Your grandfather sometimes…” Yu Zhinian said. “I don’t know whether he would be unwilling or not, so I said it was a gathering instead.”

Yang Ke understood what he meant.

Yang Zhongyin’s standards for permitting Yu Zhinian to go out were completely arbitrary.

Once, Yu Zhinian wanted to go on an overnight mountain trip with classmates, and Yang Zhongyin, who wasn’t away on business at the time, agreed. Other times, it was just a club activity, coming home a little late, and Yang Zhongyin’s face would darken.

Zhao Sibei had spent some brief time with Yang Zhongyin and probably understood something of this. He didn’t ask further and drove on.

Yu Zhinian sat for a while, then leaned forward quite animatedly, looked at Yang Ke, then at Yang Ke’s father, and said: “Uncle, you and Yang Ke look so alike.”

Yang Ke glanced at him. Yu Zhinian said again: “Isn’t Yang Ke a bit taller?”

“You talk too much,” Yang Ke said to him.

Yu Zhinian made an exaggerated, put-on pout and settled back into his seat. A few seconds later, he couldn’t help but ask Yang Ke again: “Where are we going to eat?”

“To the newly opened indoor ski resort,” Zhao Sibei told him, and then asked, “Zhinian, do you know how to ski?”

“A little,” Yu Zhinian said.

Yang Ke added for him: “He can barely manage the gentlest slopes.”

Yu Zhinian said “yes” without any embarrassment.

Zhao Sibei then said: “You could learn a bit more.”

Yu Zhinian hummed in agreement. Zhao Sibei praised him, saying “Zhinian, you’re more lively than I imagined,” and asked, “Where are you from?”

“Sanwen,” Yu Zhinian answered. “Very far away, in the south of West Province. A lot of people don’t know about it.”

“I’ve been to Sanwen City,” Zhao Sibei said. “A few years ago, one of my colleagues did fieldwork there, and I went to visit him once.”

Yu Zhinian’s expression showed curiosity.

Zhao Sibei briefly introduced his field of study and his daily work to Yu Zhinian. Yu Zhinian was very interested.

In the restaurant at the ski resort, he kept asking Zhao Sibei questions.

The restaurant was bustling with noise. Several children who had come to ski were chasing and playing around in the aisles. It was like two completely different worlds compared to the almost deathly quiet villa.

You had to raise your voice for the other person to hear clearly.

Most of the time, Yang Ke just watched Yu Zhinian and his father talking.

Yu Zhinian couldn’t stay out overnight. Around eight o’clock, he received a call from the driver asking if he should come pick him up.

Zhao Sibei and Yang Ke together sent Yu Zhinian back to the road sign, and only left after watching him turn the corner into the gate.

As soon as the car started moving, Yang Ke received a message from Yu Zhinian. Yu Zhinian said “Your dad is really nice.”

This was Yu Zhinian and Zhao Sibei’s first meeting, and also the first time Yang Ke had shared his father with a friend.

Things had gone smoothly up to this point, if not for what came later, when Yang Zhongyin returned from Europe and gave Yu Zhinian a black card for private ski lessons at the resort.

Years later, when Yang Ke rarely looked back on the past, he would think of how he and Yu Zhinian had first gotten along.

Yu Zhinian had participated in many aspects of Yang Ke’s private life.

Yang Ke was unwilling to even mention this to himself, but they had indeed been genuinely close.

During those years in Ning City, he often witnessed Yu Zhinian hitting dead ends with Yang Zhongyin, Yu Zhinian’s helplessness and distress. Yu Zhinian gradually entered the territory that Yang Ke had not opened to others. It was like a rebellion shared by two people during adolescence, brought on by Yang Zhongyin, which led to an exchange of secrets.

—