E ⋆ Chapter 3

Ten years ago, on one of those sweltering summer afternoons, the sky was overcast and clouds hung heavy.

The indoor pool was brightly lit. Yang Ke was practicing backstroke, swimming back and forth across the regulation-sized pool several times while the coach timed him.

Just as he was approaching his personal best record, the door to the swimming facility opened.

Yang Ke’s fingertips touched the pool wall as he lifted his upper body out of the water, and he caught sight of Secretary Xu pulling the glass door all the way open. His grandfather stepped into the facility, accompanied by a thin, slight boy.

Grandfather stopped a few meters from the pool’s edge and said: “Yang Ke, come meet someone. This is Yu Zhinian, one of my special-needs scholarship recipients.

“Zhinian is the same age as you. He came to Ning City for a study-tour program, and I gave a talk for the program this morning. Zhinian and I hit it off right away. I heard that the program accidentally left Zhinian off the accommodation list and booked one fewer room. The hotel is fully booked and couldn’t add another reservation, so having the young student sleep on a cot would be a bit unfair to him. I brought him home instead.”

“Zhinian,” Grandfather turned to look at Yu Zhinian, his face breaking into a warm smile, and he spoke in a tone that struck Yang Ke as excessively affectionate, “this is my grandson I mentioned to you just now, Yang Ke. He is in the same year as you.”

Yu Zhinian said “hello” to Yang Ke with a touch of awkwardness.

This was the scene of Yang Ke and Yu Zhinian’s first meeting.

What clothes Yu Zhinian wore that day, what hairstyle he had, Yang Ke had forgotten entirely. At the time, he had thought it was merely another one of Grandfather’s peculiar behaviors, and it never occurred to him that this impoverished student coming to Ning City for a study tour would end up staying in his home for so many years.

Now, ten years had passed, and the grandfather who brought Yu Zhinian home was dead.

The old house in Ning City sat empty, with only a few workers left inside to maintain the vast grounds.

Yang Ke had not chosen to directly inherit the business his grandfather left him. Instead, he had partnered with friends to establish a private equity fund, which had developed reasonably well.

Up until last November, he had been living together with Yu Zhinian in a house in the Luoser district, leading a busy but not entirely monotonous life.

Attorney Li Lu called Yang Ke just before one in the morning.

Yang Ke was still working. He put the call on speaker, and Li Lu’s slightly fatigued voice sounded in the study: “I’ve booked the flight. I’ll have my assistant pick him up when the time comes.”

“Mm.” Yang Ke responded while looking over the financial report his secretary had sent him.

“That’s all you have to say, just ‘mm’?” Li Lu complained with some dissatisfaction. “My contacting you like this technically violates some of the trust’s provisions.”

Yang Ke turned another page and lifted his eyes from the report, glancing at his phone screen. “Thank you, Attorney Li,” he said.

Li Lu had been Yang Ke’s grandfather Yang Zhongyun’s most trusted chief counsel during his lifetime, and he was also the trustee of the will trust related to Yu Zhinian, temporarily managing one-third of Yang Zhongyun’s company shares.

“I’m not fishing for credit. I don’t need your thanks,” Li Lu said, unsatisfied, his tone turning to complaint. “Yang Ke, if I hadn’t watched you grow up, and if I didn’t want to let down your grandfather’s expectations for the two of you back then, I shouldn’t be doing these things for you, and I shouldn’t have this much contact with you.”

Yang Ke resumed reading the report and noticed that the company’s financial condition was not as healthy as he had imagined. He made some notes.

Meanwhile, Li Lu continued talking: “You’re not even trying to be discreet about it. If I had known earlier that you were going to turn around and buy a house right next to the school, I never would have told you that Lin Kai had received word that Zhinian was looking to rent. Yang Ke, what you’re doing is very dangerous.”

After finishing the last page of the report, Yang Ke closed the file and opened another one.

“What will you do if the other shareholders of the company find out?” Li Lu pressed on. “Just because Lin Kai would tell me, does that mean he wouldn’t tell anyone else?”

“I won’t do it again,” Yang Ke apologized to him. “I’m sorry.”

“…” Li Lu apparently hadn’t expected him to apologize so readily. He paused before saying, “Forget it.”

“But from what I can tell of Zhinian’s attitude, it seems like he still wants to back out,” Li Lu’s pace slowed, and his question carried a note of confusion. “What’s going on between you two? Did you have a fight?”

“No,” Yang Ke denied. “We didn’t fight.”

Li Lu was quiet for a moment, then said: “I won’t ask any more. On your grandfather’s behalf, I hope the two of you will be alright.”

After hanging up, the room fell silent.

Yang Ke focused on finishing the report, then prepared to rest. He stood up and walked over to the bookshelf, intending to pick out a book to read before sleep.

This study had formerly been Yu Zhinian’s. The entire wall opposite the desk was lined with bookshelves, with three rows occupied by Yu Zhinian’s books. The top two rows held books on sociology and anthropology, and the bottom row was filled with novels Yu Zhinian had bought haphazardly.

Yang Ke browsed for a few minutes but couldn’t find a novel that interested him. In the end, he randomly grabbed a somewhat worn professional book from the first row.

Yang Ke had lived in this house in the center of the Luoser district for over six years.

Yu Zhinian had moved in two years ago, because according to this state’s laws, same-sex partners needed to cohabit for two full years before they could apply to register their marriage.

The day before Yu Zhinian moved in, He City had just received a heavy snowfall.

Smith had contacted the moving company and had Yu Zhinian’s belongings packed and transported here in the early morning.

Yu Zhinian himself only brought his backpack, wearing a coat with snowflakes clinging to his shoes. He had a gray scarf wrapped around his neck. He smiled at Yang Ke and said, “Good morning, Yang Ke.”

Yang Ke didn’t say anything, so Yu Zhinian said: “Why aren’t you talking to me again?”

“Not saying a single word, like you really don’t want me moving in.”

Yu Zhinian was smiling brightly. Yang Ke told him: “No. Come in.”

Sometimes Yang Ke thought Yu Zhinian was the person with the thickest skin he had ever met. No matter how coldly he looked at him or ignored him, it was hard to drive him away. Sometimes he wondered whether Yu Zhinian’s behavior like this might also be because he had suffered too much poverty in childhood, making him desperately hungry for money.

Sometimes he thought Yu Zhinian was pitiful.

Sometimes he thought Yu Zhinian was despicable.

Yu Zhinian left He City in late autumn.

Yang Ke was away on a business trip at the time. They had originally planned to register their marriage that afternoon when he returned home. Smith had already made a reservation at the marriage registration office for Yang Ke and had also contacted Li Lu to prepare for the trust and share transfer.

When he returned home, Yang Ke found that Yu Zhinian was not there.

Smith called Yu Zhinian to ask about his whereabouts. Yu Zhinian didn’t answer the phone. The butler called the police.

While waiting for the police to arrive, the butler went ahead to the surveillance room to pull up the footage, and Yang Ke received the last text message Yu Zhinian had sent him.

“I’ve thought about it for a long time. Let’s forget about getting married. I’m going back to the country with the professor to work on a project. Goodbye. I wish you happiness.”

Yang Ke had only watched the surveillance video once.

Yu Zhinian was wearing a gray athletic jacket, long pants, and sneakers. He dragged his thirty-inch silver suitcase out of the house and kept walking forward, making his way to the iron gate in the sunlight without any trouble.

The taxi driver he had arranged to meet was waiting for him, and helped him load the suitcase into the trunk.

Yu Zhinian got into the car, closed the door, and after he left, he never came back.

Author Notes:

Dear readers, Ning City is a domestic city where Yang Ke and Yu Zhinian attended high school. He City is abroad, where they went to university and later settled down.