WC ⋆ Chapter 71

The half-month leading up to the provincial exam passed without incident. During that time, a post went viral on the school’s super-topic forum again — it was an apology statement posted by Yu Jiaming, which mentioned Jiang Yishen and Qi Lin, though it didn’t go into specifics.

The statement didn’t look like something Yu Jiaming himself would write. Maybe it was under pressure from the school, maybe it was a stopgap measure. Either way, once it went up, it drew a crowd of fellow students.

The apology read like a roll call of the khan’s troops[[1]], and among the names listed was even Cui Xiaoyuan, Captain Jie who ranked first in the major. The moment Jiang Yishen saw it, he had already guessed most of what had happened. The second wave of academic misconduct reports that followed likely came from classmates in the same major.

Yu Jiaming was the kind of person who couldn’t keep things hidden. He might have managed to be careful during the public announcement period, but there was no way he could stay airtight for a lifetime. Plenty of the telltale signs had probably leaked out after he successfully secured his postgraduate recommendation.

None of these minor matters affected Qi Lin’s life. Every day he kept to a fixed routine between two points, studying at the school library during the day, eating at the cafeteria with Jiang Yishen for all three meals, and squeezing together to head home in the evenings.

Last year he had kept up the same schedule for nearly half a year and lost over ten jin. This time, running through the same routine again, he had actually put a fair amount of it back on.

The provincial exam was in early March, a fine season when grass grew and orioles sang. Qi Lin’s exam venue was a middle school a bit far from home. After seeing him in, Jiang Yishen wandered around the nearby streets looking for somewhere to eat lunch, fretting at one moment that a small restaurant’s food hygiene might be questionable, and the next that a big restaurant would be too slow to serve. He ended up choosing McDonald’s, which couldn’t go wrong, and sat inside anxious for the entire morning.

He didn’t dare let Qi Lin see his anxiety, so he forced himself to look calm, maintaining an air of easy composure even as his heart rate grew unsteady.

A few friends assumed the provincial exam only lasted one morning, and around noon they all sent Jiang Yishen messages asking how things were going. Every message that came in made him flinch, and he had absolutely no idea how to reply.

If he said it went well, he worried saying it out loud would jinx it. If he said it was so-so, he worried it might actually turn out so-so. If he said mind your own business, it would seem cold.

In the end he told them all to get lost and ordered them not to ask Qi Lin how the exam went.

There weren’t many places to eat in that area, and McDonald’s quickly filled up with people. Jiang Yishen had staked out a corner seat in advance, sparing Qi Lin from having to drift around looking for a spot.

When Qi Lin found him, he even laughed a little and asked why he looked like a plucked little chick.

Jiang Yishen was already tense, and hearing that made him irritated, but he didn’t dare talk back, afraid that one wrong word might hit some nerve and put Qi Lin in a bad mood for the afternoon exam.

But Qi Lin was far more relaxed than he was. Qi Lin had always been that kind of person — when doing something, he focused only on doing it. His creed was that as long as you were working hard in the present, the future couldn’t turn out badly. That applied to relationships, and it applied to exams.

After ordering, Qi Lin came back with his receipt to wait, and struck up a conversation: “You’ve been waiting here the whole time? It ends after four in the afternoon, we can go eat together.”

Jiang Yishen said flatly, “Mm.”

“Xu Baili recommended a Russian restaurant a few days ago, looks like the portions are huge.” Qi Lin rested his chin in his hand and rummaged through his bag, pulling out several knowledge-point flyers he’d picked up at the school gate. “The weather’s nice today, just a bit windy.”

Jiang Yishen replied, “Mm.”

“Almost didn’t finish writing in time this morning, but the feel of it was pretty good,” Qi Lin said.

Jiang Yishen answered again, “Mm.”

After that last “mm” he picked up the receipt and went to collect the burger combo, set it on the table, and said in as few words as possible, “Eat.”

Qi Lin looked at him. “What are you upset about now?”

“I’m not upset.” Jiang Yishen shook his Coke, making the ice cubes clink inside. He claimed the Coke for himself and pushed the hot chocolate he’d ordered over to Qi Lin. “Drink this.”

Qi Lin was baffled. “Why?”

“It’s cold, risky.” Jiang Yishen, a man of few words, held back for a long moment before explaining, “I’m not upset. I’m scared of saying the wrong thing.”

Qi Lin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “It’s fine, go ahead and talk.”

“After the exam.” Jiang Yishen realized he was making a mountain out of a molehill, but also worried that acting this way might put pressure on Qi Lin. He tried to think of something to say as a joke, but his mind was completely blank, so he settled for playing dumb.

They ate at a rapid pace. He checked his watch every five minutes. Three other exam candidates came to share their table during that time, and Jiang Yishen couldn’t have told you what any of them looked like — his head was full of nothing but the countdown to the afternoon exam.

He even felt that he wanted Qi Lin to pass more than Qi Lin himself did. This exam meant more to him than just “an exam” — it was stacked with all kinds of invisible hopes.

Qi Lin, on the other hand, had a very good mindset. He had always been that kind of person. When he did something, he focused only on doing it. His belief was that as long as you were putting in effort right now, the future couldn’t turn out badly. That was true for relationships, and true for exams.

The trees at the exam school had all bloomed, clusters of pale red flowers lined up along the top of the wall, but the poplars along the street had only just begun to bud, and still looked bare at a glance.

The plants inside school grounds always came to life earlier and more vividly than anywhere else. Jiang Yishen watched Qi Lin walk into the greenery and blossoms, his figure disappearing among the countless others heading the same way. A few minutes later only the people who had come to see the examinees off remained outside the gate, and from inside the school came the sound of a bell, ringing clear and bright.

Jiang Yishen finally let himself relax. He strolled slowly along the outside of the school, his state of mind calmer than it had ever been. He thought back over the past few months, an experience like an adventure fairy tale, and felt only that the dust had settled, the curtain had drawn closed, and the story was about to end.

Ending on a bright spring day when the willows turned green and the flowers bloomed[[2]] — that seemed like a kind of good omen too.

He waited a few more hours at McDonald’s. The exam ended at four-thirty, and Qi Lin was among the first batch of examinees to come out. Jiang Yishen stood at the very front of the crowd and gave him a very solid hug, solid enough that Qi Lin coughed twice.

He didn’t ask how the exam went, but Qi Lin didn’t hold back either, and told him about the questions he’d encountered. Jiang Yishen couldn’t follow any of it, but from the look of things it seemed like Qi Lin had done well, so he was happy right along with him.

Many cars were parked near the school dropping off and picking up examinees. They walked to the subway station, looking for the Russian restaurant that was rumored to have portions big enough to stuff an ox to death.

The subway station was in the direction of the sun. The sunlight was still a little dazzling. Qi Lin raised a hand to shade his eyes and heard Jiang Yishen say, “The sky is really beautiful today.”

A blue canopy of sky, dotted with drifting clouds — where the clouds were thin, the blue showed through pale and soft; where they were thick, the white was clear and bright. The vast expanse of sky stretched on and on, and looking at it lifted the spirits.

“Do you think… how did the loop come about, in the end?” Jiang Yishen asked quietly.

It sounded like a question he had turned over in his mind countless times. Qi Lin tilted his head to look at him and smiled. “After all this time, you’re still thinking about that?”

The wind lifted his hair across his forehead. Jiang Yishen blinked, his voice carrying a note of wonder. “It just feels so amazing. So special.”

He was like a child determined to get to the bottom of why seven dwarves appeared in the forest, absolutely set on finding some definitive answer.

Qi Lin didn’t want to dampen the mood, so he said, “Maybe the heavens wanted us to get back together.”

“Is that so?” Jiang Yishen tilted his head back to look at the sky.

“Or maybe it was someone else. They thought it was too much of a shame for us to break up, so they all made a wish together and created a loop.”

They stopped at the side of the street and both looked up together. That sky was so high that staring at it for too long made you a little dizzy.

Jiang Yishen said, “This sky looks like a sheet of drawing paper.”

Qi Lin narrowed his eyes, looking toward the sun. The sunlight spilled out and spread across the earth. “Maybe so.”

“Do you think they find us very silly?” Jiang Yishen’s neck was starting to ache.

Qi Lin thought about it seriously for a moment and reached a conclusion. “Anyone who has made it this far has probably gotten used to it.”

The wind rose again, making their scarves sway. The street beside them was full of unceasing traffic; buses pulled up to stops and pulled away again as usual; at the intersection, students stood in line waiting for taxis. The world was running in its orderly way, all things flourishing and full of life.

“If we talk, can they hear us?” Jiang Yishen said.

Qi Lin tucked his scarf back in, his voice muffled. “They can, probably.”

“Then I’ll keep my voice down.” Jiang Yishen lowered his head and leaned close to Qi Lin’s ear, saying something.

It seemed to be a suggestion, or some whimsical idea. Qi Lin listened, smiled, and nodded. “Okay.”

So Jiang Yishen cleared his throat, looked up, and said, “Hello.”

Those two words fell, and nothing more followed. Qi Lin asked, “Done?”

“Done.” Jiang Yishen took his hand and walked toward the invisible end of the horizon. The sunlight lay across them, warm and golden.

“Alright, a very simple and easy-to-understand greeting.”

“So what does this count as, a grand finale?”

The two figures walked further and further away, like a pair of cartoon figures side by side on the cover of a picture-book fairy tale.

“Mm… a bonus scene, I’d say.”

— End of Main Story —