E ⋆ Chapter 17

After Thanksgiving ended last year, Yang Zhongyin didn’t come home much for several months.

Yang Ke was used to it. He guessed that Yang Zhongyin had probably gotten involved with someone new, and he hoped his grandfather wouldn’t bring them back to the house this time.

Yu Zhinian, on the other hand, was quite happy. Since Yang Zhongyin wasn’t asking him to accompany him as often, Yu Zhinian got a taste of freedom he’d been missing for a long time and developed quite a few hobbies.

In March, one of Yu Zhinian’s classmates invited him to go camping.

After getting permission from Yang Zhongyin, Yu Zhinian came to invite Yang Ke. It happened that Wei Chi had also asked Yang Ke, and since Yang Ke was free, he agreed.

The camping site was in a mountain near Ning City. It was newly built with complete facilities.

More than a dozen people went together. They left by car at two o’clock and arrived at the base around four. After checking in at the center and picking up their tents, they shouldered them and headed toward their assigned area.

Wei Chi walked beside Yang Ke, and the two of them chatted on and off. Yu Zhinian and the others walked behind them. Once they reached their spot, Yang Ke set down his tent, and Yu Zhinian came over: “Can you set it up?”

Yang Ke said he could. “Then I’ll help,” Yu Zhinian said. Yang Ke told him not to get in the way.

Before coming to camp, Yu Zhinian had pestered Yang Ke relentlessly, wanting to share a tent with him. Yang Ke had ultimately not refused.

Yang Ke had gone camping many times with his father and set up tents with practiced ease. After finishing his own, he even helped a few other classmates. Once the tents were all up, several of them made a fire and started grilling and cooking.

Yu Zhinian was good at preparing ingredients and cooking, and he took charge of dinner for the whole group. After dinner, they lit a bonfire, sat around it, and used the camp’s projection screen to watch a movie.

That night they watched Fight Club. Halfway through, a sudden wind picked up, the screen billowed, the bonfire crackled and popped, and sparks swayed in the night sky.

The dark mountains in the distance seemed to sway with the wind too.

Yang Ke and Yu Zhinian were in adjacent soft lounge chairs. Yang Ke was sitting up while Yu Zhinian was half-lying down, holding a box of Pocky sticks that a classmate had given him. Yang Ke heard something light fall onto the grass and turned to look. Yu Zhinian had fallen asleep, the pink box of Pocky sticks lying in the grass in the gap between their chairs.

The wind kept gusting from time to time. Based on experience, Yang Ke judged that Yu Zhinian would very likely catch a cold, so he went to the tent and got a small blanket, draping it over Yu Zhinian.

When the movie ended, Yu Zhinian woke up too, sitting up and rubbing his eyes while asking Yang Ke a rather clueless question: “Why did I fall asleep?”

“You fell asleep on your own. Why are you asking me?” Yang Ke countered.

Yu Zhinian looked down at the blanket on him, smiled warmly, and leaned over to thank Yang Ke.

They went to the public bathhouse together to wash up, said goodnight to each other, and crawled into their respective tents.

Yu Zhinian lay down in his sleeping bag and placed a softly glowing night light between the two of them, then turned on his side to look at Yang Ke. After being watched for a while, Yang Ke asked him: “What are you doing?”

“Yang Ke,” Yu Zhinian said, “I wish Grandpa would stay this busy forever.”

“How long can he keep being this busy?” he asked. “Will he be free again soon?”

“I don’t know,” Yang Ke replied. “Before you came, he didn’t come home much.”

Yu Zhinian seemed pleasantly surprised: “So maybe he won’t come home much from now on either?”

“You don’t want to see your sponsor that much?” Yang Ke glanced at him and asked.

Yu Zhinian quickly shook his head and said: “That’s not it.” His expression grew heavier. He thought for a moment and told Yang Ke: “I’m very grateful to Grandpa. It’s just that sometimes it feels a bit strange.”

“And staying up late at night is really tiring,” Yu Zhinian said with a troubled look. “I sleep a lot.”

Yang Ke looked at him for a moment and told him something honest: “He used to bring people home.”

“But they were women,” Yang Ke recalled. “A few celebrities, quite a bit younger than him. They’d arrive with lots of luggage, and in the end he’d send them all away.

“The longest stayed half a year, the shortest a month. If you search entertainment news from years or more than a decade ago, you might still find something.”

“…” Yu Zhinian’s expression looked startled, which Yang Ke found amusing.

After processing for a few seconds, Yu Zhinian stammered: “Really? I only looked at his biography page.”

The tent was deep blue, and the night light was orange-yellow, its soft light falling on Yu Zhinian’s eyelashes and cheeks.

“A lot of it has probably already been deleted,” Yang Ke added.

Yu Zhinian let out a soft “oh.” He asked Yang Ke: “Did you grow up living there?”

Yang Ke said “yes.”

He wasn’t entirely sure why, but that night he told Yu Zhinian about himself.

In the cramped tent, he told Yu Zhinian: “I was born there.

“My mother died very early.

“He told me my mother died of postpartum depression because my father forced her to have me. My father had failed as both a husband and a father and had no right to raise me, so he fought for custody of me.”

Thinking of the sanctimonious manner Yang Zhongyin had worn when telling him this story, Yang Ke paused.

Yu Zhinian watched Yang Ke quietly, as if simply listening. This attitude made Yang Ke feel that confiding was safe and natural, so he continued: “Even if my mother really did have depression, it was probably because of him.”

Yu Zhinian suddenly pulled his hand out of his sleeping bag and, reaching across Yang Ke’s sleeping bag, pressed gently on Yang Ke’s shoulder, saying: “At least you still have your dad.”

“Your uncle is a good person,” he said.

Yang Ke made a sound of agreement, feeling Yu Zhinian’s hand shift against his shoulder, like someone petting a small animal. Yang Ke felt the comforting gesture was unnecessary, but he didn’t push the hand away either.

“But you’re going to inherit his company eventually, right?” Yu Zhinian asked.

Yang Ke said “no,” and Yu Zhinian said: “I see.”

“I want to move out eventually,” Yang Ke said, sharing his plans. “Once I go to university.”

Yu Zhinian didn’t respond.

After a while, Yu Zhinian said: “You really don’t like it there.”

“But if Grandpa doesn’t let me leave,” Yu Zhinian said, “I can only stay there. I have to repay him.

“If it weren’t for him, I’d still be in Sanwen, with no idea whether I’d even have a chance to go to school, and I wouldn’t have met you either.”

At that point, the hand Yu Zhinian had placed on Yang Ke’s shoulder suddenly withdrew.

Yang Ke looked at him. He wasn’t sure if Yu Zhinian was warm or what, but his face had turned slightly red, almost as if he were embarrassed.

“Yang Ke,” Yu Zhinian said very softly, “if you move out, would you still be willing to see me?”

Yang Ke thought he was thinking too far ahead and in too much detail, and the question he asked was also rather odd, but he still said: “Sure.”

Yu Zhinian smiled a little shyly. He asked Yang Ke: “Will you live very far away?”

Yang Ke said “I don’t know,” and then Yu Zhinian said: “I hope you’ll be a bit closer.”

“You’re overthinking it,” Yang Ke said, deflating him.

Yu Zhinian could only say: “Okay.”

That night, Yang Ke relived his childhood in his dreams.

Dark, smooth, gleaming floors; rigid nannies and tutors; young women coming and going, wanting to become the mistress of the house and his grandmother; Yang Zhongyin’s back.

Only the monthly weekends spent with his father seemed to have any color.

Yang Ke was tired of that house, tired of the confinement, tired of Yang Zhongyin’s unpredictable moods. But Yu Zhinian’s arrival made him feel a little better. At least when Yang Zhongyin wasn’t there, the place didn’t seem quite so terrible.

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