E ⋆ Chapter 42

After several rounds of trouble, Yu Zhinian finally settled down in the most populous village in Xiping County.

The village was called Dang Village, not far and not close from Xiping County town. It was about half an hour's drive from the county seat, and it was the village with the best road conditions. He rented a small flat next to the village chief's house. Mei Qi got him a mountain bike and would come check on him from time to time, bringing him daily necessities.

Xiping had its own dialect system, which differed significantly from the Sanwen dialect. Yu Zhinian couldn't understand it completely, so he hired a local assistant named Xiao Chang. Xiao Chang was the cousin of Mei Qi's coworker. He used to work as a tour guide at a travel agency in Sanwen, but business wasn't good and his family had health issues, so he'd returned to Xiping and hadn't found work yet.

When Mei Qi's coworker heard someone was looking for an assistant good at communication, he immediately thought of Xiao Chang.

Xiao Chang was around twenty years old, had an easygoing personality, and was familiar with all the villagers around. He patiently taught Yu Zhinian the local dialect. He was young and didn't understand many customs clearly, but he was very enthusiastic and willing to help Yu Zhinian ask around.

With Xiao Chang's help, Yu Zhinian established good relationships with the surrounding villagers, and his notes progressed nicely.

Dang Village's cell signal came and went unpredictably. Most of the time, his phone couldn't receive messages, and there was no internet in the village. The only way Yu Zhinian could contact the outside world was once a week when Mei Qi picked him up to go to the county town, where he finally got three bars of signal, plus access to a computer in Mei Qi's unit's reading room.

Yang Ke didn't complain about any of this. However, on the one night each week that Yu Zhinian stayed at the county guesthouse, Yang Ke was always unwilling for Yu Zhinian to hang up. They were in different time zones. When Yu Zhinian needed to rest, Yang Ke was just starting work. Yu Zhinian had fallen asleep several times listening to the sound of Yang Ke in meetings.

During his half month in Xiping, Zhao Sibei contacted Yu Zhinian several times.

When he learned Yu Zhinian was writing an ethnographic study in Xiping, he sent Yu Zhinian a very long email containing practical little techniques that he and his colleagues had found useful when doing fieldwork in mountainous areas but hadn't formally recorded. He also specifically tracked down the professor who had once written an ethnographic study in Sanwen and asked him to help contact the government officials he'd worked with back then. He introduced Yu Zhinian to connections at the provincial archives to make it convenient for him to consult written documents later.

It was Yu Zhinian's first time writing an ethnographic study independently, and he was very grateful for all the help. The emails between them contained almost only work content, except for one time when Zhao Sibei asked Yu Zhinian whether Yang Ke was planning to come to Xiping at the end of July. He added this sentence at the end of the email in very small font.

Yu Zhinian confirmed it, and Zhao Sibei replied quickly: "The rainy season in the mountains can be somewhat dangerous. You both need to be careful when coming and going."

Yu Zhinian's ethnographic study focused mainly on local customs and traditions.

Xiping's rainy season was coming soon. Xiping people had a love-hate relationship with the rainy season, and they held a blessing ceremony every year before it arrived. This was the grandest ceremony of the year in Xiping. Half a month before, Xiping people had already begun preparing various ceremonial items and lighting incense made from mountain plants at their doorways.

As it happened, Yang Ke came to Xiping just a few days before the ceremony was about to begin. This was one of the most important days in Yu Zhinian's fieldwork.

Earlier, Yu Zhinian had said he wanted to go to Sanwen to meet Yang Ke, but now he couldn't even spare time to go into Xiping County town. He spent the day going into the mountains with the villagers to gather spices, so he had to ask Mei Qi to pick up Yang Ke for him and had Xiao Chang wait for them at home.

The spice gathering took much longer than he had estimated. It wasn't until the moon hung high in the sky that he returned to his doorstep with an aching back and sore waist.

Pushing open the door, he saw the courtyard lit by a light, with an electric fan in the corner swinging back and forth. Xiao Chang was sitting cross-legged on a cushion, and across from him sat two people.

Mei Qi, and Yang Ke.

"Zhinian," Mei Qi waved happily when he saw him. "You're finally back. That spice gathering took way too long."

"We were just talking about you," he said.

Under the moonlight, Yu Zhinian looked at Yang Ke from several meters away. Yang Ke was dressed much like the last time he came, nothing that would make anyone feel any distance between them. He didn't speak, just met Yu Zhinian's gaze. Yu Zhinian stood for a few seconds, then said quietly to Mei Qi: "What were you saying about me?"

"That you're popular," Xiao Chang said with a cheeky grin. "Today you went into the mountains with Miao Miao, right? She definitely followed you around the whole time again, didn't she?"

Yu Zhinian was taken aback and immediately explained: "Xiao Chang, don't talk nonsense."

Miao Miao was the village chief's youngest daughter, nineteen years old, a nursing school student home for summer break. Perhaps she did have some feelings for Yu Zhinian, but at most she liked to come chat with him. There was nothing more to it.

"Is it really nonsense?" Yang Ke asked casually from the side.

Yu Zhinian gave a soft hum and walked over to them.

A light bulb hung at the entrance to the flat, the largest light source in the courtyard. The air carried the smell of floral water mosquito repellent. Half of Yang Ke's face was lit by the light, half in shadow. He was handsome and clean in a way that seemed out of place in a mountain village courtyard at night, yet he sat in a relaxed posture, as if he were the master of this place too.

Xiao Chang yawned and said that since Yu Zhinian was back, he'd head home first. Mei Qi had work tomorrow and didn't stay long either, driving back to the county.

Yu Zhinian brought Yang Ke inside and saw that Yang Ke's luggage was already placed to one side.

He was covered in dust, so he went to shower first. When he came out, he saw Yang Ke reading the printed version of Professor Zhao's email on fieldwork techniques that was sitting on the table.

"My dad does have a lot of experience," Yang Ke turned a page and said to Yu Zhinian. "There's even a proper way to give gifts of tobacco and alcohol."

"These are all very practical," Yu Zhinian walked over and glanced at it with him, then asked, "Did you come alone?"

Yang Ke gave a hum and said, "My assistant is waiting in Xiping."

"How many days are you staying?" Yu Zhinian asked again.

"Three days," Yang Ke reached out and grabbed Yu Zhinian's wrist, pulling him closer. "Did I interfere with your work with Miao Miao?"

Yu Zhinian's face flushed. He said to Yang Ke: "Don't listen to them talking nonsense."

"Is it really nonsense?" Yang Ke pulled him until he had no choice but to kneel-sit on Yang Ke's lap. Yang Ke kissed his neck, making him ticklish, and asked again, "How did you introduce me? Yu Zhinian."

Yu Zhinian pressed down on Yang Ke's shoulders but didn't speak. Yang Ke said again: "Ordinary friends?"

"Good friends," Yu Zhinian corrected.

Yang Ke's face showed no expression and he didn't speak. Yu Zhinian couldn't tell if he was happy or unhappy. He thought for a moment and asked him: "Was the journey very tiring?"

A few months ago, Yu Zhinian hadn't imagined that one day, while writing an ethnographic study in the mountains, Yang Ke would come to see him.

He had long since deleted such an option from his vision of the future. What he had imagined most were scenarios like "running into Yang Ke with a partner at a restaurant in He City one day," or "encountering Yang Ke with a companion at a classmate's wedding," things like that.

He looked into Yang Ke's eyes, leaned forward, and tentatively touched Yang Ke's eyebrows and eyelashes with his hand.

Yang Ke said "it's fine" and caught Yu Zhinian's hand, pulling him into his embrace. Yu Zhinian's knees were sore from climbing the mountain and he was somewhat drowsy. He leaned against Yang Ke's shoulder, and just as he was drifting off to sleep, he suddenly heard Yang Ke say: "Before I came into the mountains, Li Lu called me. He said I might still have to appear in court."

Yu Zhinian took a few seconds to react before lifting his face to look at Yang Ke and asking: "Is it about the trust and will?"

"Yes."

"What about me?" Yu Zhinian asked.

Yang Ke said "you don't need to."

Yu Zhinian was somewhat worried and asked Yang Ke: "Will it affect your company?"

"No," Yang Ke said simply. "I'm just afraid you'll see it somewhere else and overthink it."

There was no air conditioning in the room, and they hadn't turned on the fan either. But the temperature in the mountains at night was low, so the room wasn't hot.

Outside the window were cicadas chirping and frogs croaking. The light bulb hanging from the ceiling made a faint hissing sound, and small insects flew in from outside and bumped against it.

This peaceful summer night made Yu Zhinian suddenly think of their high school years for no particular reason.

When Yang Zhongyin wasn't home, sometimes they would go play tennis on the court behind the connecting corridor in the evenings. Yang Ke played very well, while Yu Zhinian wasn't good at it. After not playing for long, he'd be tired and sit to the side, and Yang Ke would come over and laugh at him.

The posture certainly couldn't be as intimate as now, but Yu Zhinian had imagined it back then all the same.

In his imagination, the adult Yang Ke might be a bit colder than he was now, not this gentle, while Yu Zhinian himself would be more proactive. But compared to when he was a teenager, several years had passed and many things had happened, and Yu Zhinian had grown accustomed to not daring to be too proactive.

Yu Zhinian looked at Yang Ke, thought for a moment, and said: "I don't want the shares."

Yang Ke said "I know."

"Yang Ke," Yu Zhinian knew the matter was long past and shouldn't be brought up again, but for some reason he couldn't help asking, "why did you ask me to move in with you back then?"

Yang Ke's hand on his waist shifted slightly. After a while, he said: "I don't know."

His answer didn't surprise Yu Zhinian much. He continued: "I read your observation notebook and felt…"

"Pity?" Yu Zhinian finished for him.

"No," Yang Ke immediately denied it. After a moment, he said, "I thought you were very noisy back then."

"You were always showing up," Yang Ke said. "You came to finance department classes too, and you didn't even do well in them."

Yu Zhinian's face turned red.

"Every time he called, it was always about the will, on and on. I was annoyed too," Yang Ke said to Yu Zhinian. "I had no interest in it."

Yang Ke's voice always had little inflection, but his arms around Yu Zhinian didn't loosen. As if recalling a small stretch of time, he suddenly said: "Yu Zhinian."

"Sometimes, not often. I didn't really want to think about it."

"But sometimes back then I would think about you," he said.

"Maybe it was because you were too noisy," Yang Ke said again.

Yu Zhinian leaned his face against Yang Ke's shoulder without speaking.

"Asking you to move in with me," Yang Ke spoke very slowly, "was because the person involved was you after all, so even if it was going along with his wishes, it wasn't something I couldn't do."

"Did I make myself clear?" he asked Yu Zhinian, then added, "I know my personality is poor, unsuitable for dating or marriage," and "but if you say I don't like you, that's not true."