WC ⋆ Chapter 68

He had lost count of how many times he had watched the Spring Festival Gala, and Jiang Yishen could even recall every camera movement in detail.

But this time he watched with particular attentiveness. Every moment of tonight felt immeasurably precious to him. The loop was gone, and from now on, time would pass and never return.

At eleven-thirty at night, he took the initiative to call out to Dad to go set off firecrackers in the Small Square.

The unexpected early meeting with Qi Lin’s family wasn’t without its benefits. At the very least, when they made a video call tonight, Qi Lin no longer communicated with him sneakily on mute, but propped his phone up on the table directly, the camera framing all three people in full.

Jiang Yishen hadn’t noticed this. He had tucked his phone into his breast pocket and was focused on lighting the firecrackers.

With his attention turned to life around him, he only now discovered many details he hadn’t noticed in the previous loops. For instance, a police car was parked about three steps away from him, its window rolled down, and inside he could see a few officers chatting.

The Small Square had taken on a strangely orderly chaos: some people were setting off firecrackers, some were being chased for setting off firecrackers, some were shouting at the ones being chased to set them off together. The cold wind swept through, fireworks exploded, and the new year arrived as promised.

The phrase “arrived as promised” was something Jiang Yishen found genuinely rare.

He thought back to the first loop, when he had originally planned to give Dad a big hug and then wish Qi Lin a happy new year. But across five loops, he had never found the right moment.

On the other end of the Small Square, a few young students had gathered, counting down loudly to midnight. The sky blazed with fireworks, bright as daylight, and when the final number fell, Jiang Yishen turned around and pulled Dad into a fierce embrace, thumping him hard on the back several times.

Jiang Changpeng was startled, and stood there stiffly without moving. Jiang Yishen didn’t mind his awkwardness at all. He pulled his phone from his pocket without even glancing at the screen, and said the first happy new year of the year to him.

All things renewed. A new life had begun.

On the first day of the new year, the boiling excitement of New Year’s Eve gradually settled. Walking down the street, shop shutters were all pulled down. The supermarket, by contrast, was packed with people, though it closed too early. The surging boiling water cooled down, the bubbles scattered into clusters, and the festivity retreated into the small homes of each household.

All three meals on the first day were leftovers from New Year’s Eve. Qi Lin had gotten a little tired of the taste, so Xing Yun mixed two dishes together and stir-fried them again, producing a brand-new dish to set on the table.

There were still several days left of the Spring Festival holiday, but neither parent had managed to grab a return ticket, so they had to head back a little early. Qi Lin’s place was a one-bedroom-one-living-room apartment, and three people living there was indeed cramped, so they decided to leave on the fifth day.

Father Qi was clearly reluctant to go back. Several times he hinted and nudged Qi Lin to leave with him, but Qi Lin only said that since the place was already rented, he ought to at least stay through February to make it worth it.

With no other option, Father Qi stood alone on the balcony sulking, occasionally sighing at the blooming cactus.

The cactus was in full bloom, its petals a vivid rose-red, the most vibrant color in the entire small apartment. It looked full of life, like it was tilting its head up to bask in the sun.

At some point Father Qi had also casually, as if in passing, asked when they could have a meal with Jiang Yishen, and received the answer that the other party was too shy and it might not happen.

Qi Lin found that his father’s attitude toward Jiang Yishen had always been difficult to read. When Qi Lin first came out, his father had completely disapproved of his sexual orientation. Neither of them had budged during the six months of the cold war, and even after Xing Yun came and learned he had a partner, Father Qi’s attitude had shown no sign of softening.

Yet on the day Jiang Yishen came over, Father Qi hadn’t been harsh at all. He had even been fairly calm, and had given him a gift on top of that.

Qi Lin didn’t dig into it further. After all, asking that kind of question didn’t necessarily mean you’d get an answer. His father was that kind of person: if he thought of something he didn’t want to say, and if you guessed right, he might even deny it.

Qi Lin guessed it was probably because of that phone call, or because his father had learned that it was Jiang Yishen who had encouraged him to make it. The twists and turns within, the self-reconciliation, only his father himself could know.

But no matter what, this new year had turned out unexpectedly complete. It was a completeness he had never dared to imagine last year.

He sat on the edge of the sofa peeling an orange. Xing Yun was in the kitchen defrosting the refrigerator, and every now and then came the crisp sound of ice chunks dropping, accompanied by Xing Yun’s muttering about how he didn’t take care of his home properly.

Qi Lin responded occasionally. His fingers, after peeling the orange, had some orange-yellow staining that wouldn’t quite wipe off. He rubbed at them with a tissue for a while, and when he picked up his phone he found a friend request in WeChat.

There was no name in the note. Without even looking at it, he chose to decline.

But three minutes later, the person came back, the verification message reading: I’m Yu Jiaming.

This name had truly been buried in the loop. Only now did Qi Lin remember that Yu Jiaming was currently in deep trouble. On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, his several trending posts were still fermenting in full force.

For everyone else, this had only happened two days ago, and the trouble was still crashing down wave after wave.

Qi Lin tapped to accept the request.

Before he could even think of an opening line, Yu Jiaming had already sent over a long, sprawling block of text that took up more than half the screen. At first glance it looked like a heartfelt confession, and Qi Lin was so startled he held his phone a little further away.

Looking more carefully, this turned out to be a thoroughly formal letter of apology, expressing regret for what he had said to Xing Yun in the cafeteria.

Qi Lin skimmed through it, then immediately took a screenshot and sent it to Jiang Yishen to enjoy. He didn’t feel much emotionally about it. At most he found it funny. Repenting when death was at the door, with the Grim Reaper’s scythe already hacking at his underwear[[1]], what good was covering his crotch now.

Jiang Yishen, however, did not share his composure. He read it and flew into a rage, sending five sixty-second voice messages in a row again.

Qi Lin tapped to convert them to text. The converted text crashed onto the screen again, filling the whole thing. He held his phone a little further away once more. The text was full of curses and mockery, and it was easy to imagine the furious, fire-in-the-chest mood with which Jiang Yishen had sent all of it.

Qi Lin’s original intention hadn’t been to make him angry. He hadn’t expected Jiang Yishen to get this worked up. He quickly put Yu Jiaming out of his mind and focused on finding a way to comfort him.

He typed: Don’t be angry, it’s nothing.

Then he picked out a cute emoji and sent it over. The image showed a small creature holding a rose.

Jiang Yishen sent another curse, then followed it with a line of text: What on earth is this thing?

Qi Lin replied: A dog.

Jiang Yishen sent a question mark.

Yu Jiaming had been left on read for about ten minutes and seemed to be running out of patience. He sent another greeting, which promptly earned a red exclamation mark[[2]].

The ice chunks fell and were scooped together into the sink. Qi Lin went over to take a look and was shooed away by Xing Yun for being in the way.

Father Qi had gone to the supermarket to buy food, and came back just in time to fill the freshly cleaned refrigerator. Qi Lin looked left and right, unable to find anywhere he could be of help, so he went back to the sofa and scrolled through the school’s super-topic[[3]].

No new trending posts had appeared on the super-topic. There were only some old posts being bumped back up, including the one exposing a junior student for pretending to be a rich second-generation and keeping fish. Quite a few people were checking in to watch.

Yu Jiaming’s approach of coming to apologize this time was clearly premeditated, probably a PR strategy he had come up with to manage public opinion. Qi Lin read through the apology carefully and found quite a few verbal traps. On the surface it was an apology, but in reality it was accusing him of not telling his family the truth and saying he would be found out sooner or later.

However, the traps were laid very cleverly. The text before and after was all very sincere-sounding self-reflection, and if Qi Lin hadn’t been the person involved and known that Yu Jiaming was not innocent, it would have been easy to be fooled.

He felt a little regret that he had deleted the contact too early. He should have cursed him out a few more times first.

Qi Lin shared his regret with Jiang Yishen. Jiang Yishen sent another voice message: “Don’t try to reason with someone whose head isn’t working right. He’ll never admit he did anything wrong, he’ll only hate you more and more. And the more you say, the more mistakes you make. What if he takes something out of context and posts it somewhere? That would be disgusting. Deleting him was the right call.”

That was very sensible. Qi Lin asked: What if I hadn’t deleted him yet?

Jiang Yishen said: “Then curse him out!”

Qi Lin was amused. The regret from a moment ago dissipated quite a bit.

The “typing” indicator in the chat box flickered on and off, and finally a voice call request popped up.

Qi Lin glanced at the two people busy in the kitchen, walked to the bedroom, and picked up. He heard Jiang Yishen rattle off something like a rap: “I just checked with Fan Zi. He and He Jian both got disciplinary action, but He Jian’s was more serious. He was probably pushed out as the fall guy. Apparently the amount of money involved was too large, and at first they were going to report it to the police, but then He Jian said there was no need, and Yu Jiaming said they had to, and they argued again, and in the end they still didn’t report it. I guess the school doesn’t want to blow it up too big either.”

Roughly in line with what he had anticipated. Qi Lin asked: “And then?”

“Everyone in the external liaison department who was involved got a demerit. He Jian is on probation at school. Yu Jiaming is also on probation for now. I heard through An Yufeng’s connections that they’ll hold another meeting after the new year to discuss it further. He’ll probably be expelled. Either way, there has to be an accounting for this. It’s been classified as the personal conduct of a student.” Jiang Yishen said.

“But An Yufeng also has some unofficial news. Apparently on the surface they’re calling it student conduct, but in reality the staff member who helped them falsify things has also been temporarily suspended, to be dealt with after the new year. They couldn’t find out exactly who it was. What they did say was that a lot of people suddenly reported Yu Jiaming all at once, involving the graduate school recommendation process, saying he used improper means to compete, buying paper authorship credits and so on, involving academic misconduct. But the recommendation process was so long ago, and the public announcement period had passed without incident. This time the report went directly to the graduate school, and it was also posted online. Mainly because it was posted online, they had no choice but to deal with it. Yu Jiaming then publicly exposed that staff member, making it extremely embarrassing for everyone.”

This was an unexpected bonus. Qi Lin’s original expectation had been that ruining this person’s reputation would be enough. After all, matters involving money had complicated relationships behind them, and a few ordinary students like them would have difficulty fighting it. Most likely it would have fizzled out.

Qi Lin hadn’t expected things to develop this far. He quickly asked: “What about An Yufeng? They won’t get dragged into this, will they.”

“Yu Jiaming and He Jian still think to this day that it was the other one who did it. The rights and interests department filed the report jointly with several other departments at the time, so it can’t be traced back to any specific person.”

That was indeed the most reasonable assumption. After all, no one would think that the exposure had come about because of a fantastical time reversal, all of it a concrete case of one thing paying back another.

Qi Lin felt reassured. But there was still one thing he couldn’t quite understand: “In just these ten-odd minutes, how did you get all of this?”

“I was anxious! I called An Yufeng and Fan Zi nine hundred times!” Jiang Yishen shouted so loudly it could probably be heard in the kitchen. “I thought he was going to go online and curse you out. It scared me half to death. An Yufeng said he probably sent apologies to everyone, including her Minister, trying to play the emotional card.”

Qi Lin took a deep breath. This round of reporting could also count as sweeping away the darkness and rooting out evil[[4]]. The “revenge” hadn’t given him much satisfaction. The rush was only for an instant. He just felt a kind of inexpressible melancholy he couldn’t name, not knowing who it was for. Maybe it was for the Yu Jiaming of childhood, maybe for the He Jian of childhood, maybe for himself. But in the end it was a swift cut through the knot, cutting until dust returned to dust and earth returned to earth, and everything was over.

Jiang Yishen heard him sigh and asked: “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Qi Lin breathed out against the window, doodled a few strokes on the fogged glass, and said, “Once school starts I’ll go hang around the library. I’ll come pick you up after class, okay? Help dispel the rumor about you being kept.”

—

[[1]] The original uses a vivid colloquial image: “死神的钩子都砍到内裤了” (the Grim Reaper’s hook has already hacked down to his underwear), meaning danger or consequences have reached an extremely close and unavoidable point.

[[2]] In WeChat, a red exclamation mark (红色感叹号) appears next to a message when it fails to send, typically because the recipient has blocked the sender.

[[3]] 超话 (chāohuà): a “super-topic” or community forum on the Chinese social platform Weibo, where users can post and discuss content related to a specific subject, person, or group.

[[4]] 扫黑除恶 (sǎo hēi chú è): a phrase referring to a major Chinese government campaign to “sweep away the black” (organized crime) and “eliminate evil” (criminal activities). Used here ironically to describe their exposure of Yu Jiaming.