E ⋆ Chapter 49

After finishing the planned preparations for the trip, Yu Zhinian copied the things Yang Ke had sent him onto a USB drive, put it in his computer bag, and then got into Mei Qi's car for the ride back to Dang Village.

It drizzled the whole way up the mountain, and the forest was lush and deeply green. The mountain road that had been blocked by the landslide before had been cleared into a small path, paved with gravel.

Mei Qi drove carefully. They set out in the afternoon and didn't arrive in Dang Village until nightfall.

Yu Zhinian's phone lost signal again as he walked into his small flat.

The rain had stopped in Dang Village, but the ground was still wet. The mountain night was slightly cool, and the cicadas chirped without end.

Yu Zhinian really liked it here. Even after being away for just a few days, he missed it terribly. He felt that no matter how restless and anxious his heart was, once he arrived here, it would be soothed, becoming sharp and calm.

Yu Zhinian showered in the crude outdoor bathroom. A light bulb hung in the bathroom, casting light on his body. The water from the shower pipe fell on his skin, where there were marks left by Yang Ke.

Yu Zhinian lowered his head and looked at the bruises still visible on his chest and lower abdomen, remembering what had happened in the shower room of his second-floor bedroom. Yang Ke's body heat, the requests he made, Yang Ke's kisses and movements, and his praise, saying things that Yu Zhinian couldn't imagine how Yang Ke could bring himself to say.

Yu Zhinian looked away, rinsed for a while, and with one hand clutching the ring hanging around his neck, for the first time he hesitantly imitated Yang Ke, clumsily touching himself.

His back pressed against the cold, slippery ceramic tiles in the bathroom, the water pipe lying at his feet.

Clear water pooled on the cement floor of the bathroom, flowing toward the drainage opening that led outside.

After a while, Yu Zhinian's knees went weak. He picked up the water pipe, rinsed his body again, and returned to his room.

He had many things to do and didn't go to sleep right away. First, he organized the things he would need for tomorrow morning's early departure to the neighboring Jing Village.

It started to drizzle outside. His flat had poor soundproofing, with a grove of trees on the north side, and he could clearly hear the pitter-patter of rain falling on the leaves. A well-known oracle from several nearby villages had passed away in Jing Village, and the ritual ceremony would begin tomorrow evening and last two days. Yu Zhinian and Xiao Chang would walk the mountain path there and stay in Jing Village for three nights.

He organized his clothes and daily necessities, wrapping his notebooks carefully in waterproof paper.

For this trip, he didn't plan to bring his laptop. So before sleeping, he opened his documents and looked at the first part of the ethnographic study he had written. This ethnography was still far from completion, stuck at the note-organizing stage. He created a new page and typed "Acknowledgments," but didn't write anything below it.

Dang Village had no signal whatsoever. Yu Zhinian's longing had no outlet for relief. He hadn't yet adjusted to this meeting and parting that had happened so quickly, and his entire mind was occupied by Yang Ke. So in the end, he opened the wedding proposals that had been saved on the USB drive.

Yang Ke had sent four in total. The proposals contained a large number of images: three outdoor weddings and one indoor.

They were all done beautifully, but Yu Zhinian didn't like overly extravagant affairs. Looking them over, he felt that one of them, the simplest outdoor wedding among them, best matched his aesthetic. Though ideally, some unnecessary decorations could still be removed.

The guest list Yang Ke had drafted wasn't as long as Yu Zhinian had imagined. Some were people Yu Zhinian knew, some were names he had heard before, and there were also several elders, including Zhao Sibei.

Yu Zhinian thought for a moment and also wrote down a few names in a passable imitation of the same manner.

Early the next morning, Yu Zhinian set out for Jing Village.

This trip to observe the ritual ceremony turned out to be much more exhausting than Yu Zhinian had expected.

They walked the mountain paths back and forth, spending over ten hours. Yu Zhinian got caught in several rainstorms, and during the ceremony, because he was too absorbed and stood too close, he inhaled too much smoke. His voice became very hoarse, and by the time he returned to Dang Village, he had fallen ill.

He lay in bed for over a week, running a fever every night and coughing constantly. He drank medicine that the village elders had prepared for him, but nothing helped. He was so feverish and weak that he couldn't even lift his arms.

When Mei Qi learned he was sick, he became very anxious. He first drove back to Xiping to get him anti-inflammatory and fever-reducing medicine, but the effect was minimal. So he drove him back to Xiping and had him admitted to the hospital.

The doctor ran blood tests on Yu Zhinian and said it was a bacterial infection that had developed into pneumonia. He needed to be hospitalized. The regular beds in the hospital were full, so he paid extra for a private room. After the IV drip, his fever went down. Since he had a room to himself, he rested fairly well and his energy recovered somewhat, though he still coughed badly. It was as if his brain was starved of oxygen and he couldn't think clearly, with headaches and chest pain. He decided to wait until his voice didn't sound so weak before calling Yang Ke.

Unexpectedly, at noon the next day, he received a message from Professor Zhao: "Zhinian, we've arrived in Sanwen as planned and are now preparing to head to Xiping, and then to Dang Village. I'm not sure if you'll receive this message, but I'm sending it to let you know anyway."

Yu Zhinian only then remembered that Professor Zhao had told him the date he would arrive in Xiping. He lay there for a while, then steeled himself and called Professor Zhao, telling him about his situation over the past few days.

After more than an hour, Professor Zhao and his colleague Professor Xu knocked on the door and entered Yu Zhinian's hospital room.

When Zhao Sibei saw Yu Zhinian lying in the hospital bed coughing, his expression became very worried: "Zhinian, you've gotten so thin."

He set down the fruit he was carrying on the low cabinet in the room, and together with Professor Xu went to get some stools and sat down by Yu Zhinian's bed. He said to Yu Zhinian: "When doing fieldwork, you still need to prioritize your health."

Before Yu Zhinian could say anything, a nurse came in and took his temperature.

After she left, Zhao Sibei asked him again: "Did you tell Yang Ke?"

"No," Yu Zhinian said.

"He called me this morning asking, saying you haven't come to Xiping in a long time, and asked me to ask you if you've chosen a proposal yet…" Zhao Sibei's expression wavered. Professor Xu suddenly asked from the side: "Zhinian and Yang Ke have such a good relationship?"

Yu Zhinian instinctively glanced at Zhao Sibei. Zhao Sibei paused slightly, also looked at Yu Zhinian, and then turned to Professor Xu and said quietly: "Zhinian is Yang Ke's partner."

Professor Xu was taken aback for a moment, then quickly recovered. After a few seconds, he complained to Zhao Sibei: "Lao Zhao, you could have mentioned it earlier."

"Didn't find the right moment," Zhao Sibei explained, somewhat embarrassed.

"I remember Yang Ke when he was little, coming camping with us. He even carried my two chubby sons into the RV," Professor Xu recalled. "He had a very gentle temperament, a perfect match with Zhinian."

Zhao Sibei laughed: "Even though he's my own son, I wouldn't exactly call Yang Ke gentle."

Then he looked toward Yu Zhinian again and said: "You're not planning to tell him? Do you still need to stay in the hospital a few more days?"

"I don't know when to tell him," Yu Zhinian said, somewhat hesitant. "I do need to stay another three days."

Just then, Professor Zhao's phone suddenly rang.

He took it out to look, and glanced at Yu Zhinian again, saying: "It's Yang Ke calling."

He asked Yu Zhinian: "Can I answer?"

Yu Zhinian felt awkward. He looked at Professor Zhao, who sighed and said "okay," then answered the phone.

"What's up?" Professor Zhao asked casually. Yang Ke said something on the other end that Yu Zhinian couldn't make out.

Yu Zhinian hadn't heard Yang Ke's voice in a long time. Even though he couldn't make out what Yang Ke was saying, just catching those faint traces of his voice made his heart clench tight.

"I just arrived in Xiping," Professor Zhao said. "I sent a message but didn't get a reply."

"In a bit. I'm having a meal in Xiping right now."

"What are you doing here?" Professor Zhao was startled and asked Yang Ke. "What business trip? You didn't mention it this morning?"

"I'm not worked up," Professor Zhao's tone became more measured. "For your business trip, work should come first. Don't run around everywhere. When I see Zhinian, I'll ask him."

Yu Zhinian listened with extreme tension. Suddenly his throat itched, and he tried to hold it back at first, but eventually he couldn't help it and bent over coughing.

Professor Zhao looked at him, stood up, and handed him water while trying to mute the phone, but it was already too late. He was close to Yu Zhinian, and Yu Zhinian finally heard a complete sentence from Yang Ke clearly. Yang Ke said: "Dad, aren't you in Xiping? Why is Yu Zhinian coughing?"

Zhao Sibei had probably never told a real lie in his entire life and was simply not good at it. He just stared at the phone in a daze.

Yang Ke waited for a very short moment, then hung up. A few seconds later, Yu Zhinian's phone rang.