Under Clear Skies Chapter 78: Even the Setting Sun at this Moment

Chapter 78: Even the Setting Sun at this Moment

Translated by Fefe of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Late April, Li Yuechi saw Tang Heng on TV. He was in Dawu County at the time and the TV in the hostel was pitifully small. The color was weird and the noise was staticky. It was a variety show on Beijing TV; Tang Heng and Jiang Ya were special guests that performed a song. Tang Heng wore a clean white T-shirt, baggy jeans, and black Converses that he’d bought with Li Yuechi in Creativity City. The static was too heavy and Li Yuechi couldn’t hear Tang Heng’s voice clearly, but he still watched the entire show—45 minutes.

Tang Heng only appeared for a few minutes to sing one song.

After the show, Li Yuechi called Tang Heng. The first call didn’t go through. After 14 minutes, he called again and Tang Heng picked up.

“I fell asleep…” Tang Heng drawled lazily. “How are things over there?”

“We’re going to count the supplies in the afternoon and go back to Wuhan tomorrow.”

“Oh, I’m going back day after tomorrow.”

“Didn’t you say tomorrow?”

“Added another event last-minute. We just found out this morning and I didn’t have time to tell you yet—so annoying.”

Li Yuechi couldn’t help but laugh. He could imagine Tang Heng’s annoyed expression. This young master never gave in to other people. Even in the Beijing entertainment agency, he still acted like he wasn’t afraid of anyone, even god—those were Jiang Ya’s words.

“What event?”

“A charity night.” Tang Heng sighed. “Lin Lang said she worked hard to get this chance, so we have to go.”   

“Go ahead,” Li Yuechi murmured. “It’s just two days.”

“Yeah, I told Lin Lang. I’ll stay in Wuhan longer this time.”

“How long?” Li Yuechi asked hurriedly.

“At least half a month.”

“Won’t it disrupt your work?”

“Disrupt what?” Tang Heng said off-handedly. “Z-listers like us need work in the first place for our work to be disrupted.”

They chatted a bit more about this and that. It was mostly Tang Heng talking and Li Yuechi listening—he said that the work of an artist is inhumane, it’s too tiring, but fortunately there was time in the afternoon to record music. He also said that there was no more news about the Zhouheiya competition. Apparently it didn’t have enough funding. Who knew how much money a dumb competition needed?

When someone knocked on his door, Li Yuechi was forced to interrupt Tang Heng, “We have to go. Talk tonight.”

Tang Heng gave a soft mn and then, “I’m going to the recording studio.”

 

It was Wang Lili who knocked. Li Yuechi and Tian Xiaoqin called her Wang-jie. “Here, drink it on the road.” Wang Lili handed him a bottle of yogurt. “Drink something sour so you don’t get carsick.”

They were going to a warehouse a few kilometers away. Last month, Saint Corps Medical Devices had donated a batch of medical equipment to Dawu County through Professor Tang. It had just arrived yesterday. According to Wang Lili, her boss and Professor Tang were uni classmates, so her boss gave Professor Tang full authority of the donation and only sent her to represent the company in the donation ceremony.

This afternoon, they would do an inventory check in the warehouse. Of course, Wang Lili said, this was only for the paperwork. She’d gotten the product list long ago. Even though it was the end of April and the passersby all wore short sleeves, Li Yuechi still shivered when he entered the warehouse. “It’s kind of cold,” Tian Xiaoqin whispered.

Cardboard boxes of varying sizes stood before them in organized stacks. “Wang-jie, how much money is all this worth?” Tian Xiaoqin asked.

“Probably around 300,000!” Wang Lili said casually.

Tian Xiaoqin gasped. “So valuable.”

“It’s nothing,” Wang Lili said with a laugh. “My boss said that it’s mostly to support Professor Tang’s program as a personal favor.”

As they talked, Li Yuechi walked forward and stood before four boxes put side by side. It said fiberoptic bronchoscope on the boxes.

Li Yuechi recognized this stuff. His dad had used it during the lung wash procedure. That had been nine years ago. At that time, his dad’s black lung hadn’t become so serious yet and they could afford the wash. It was expensive, but the doctor had told them to do it if possible. Later, his dad’s situation worsened and they couldn’t even do lung washing anymore.

Thinking back now, the doctor had quite a compassionate tone when he’d said do it if possible.     

Li Yuechi stared at the four boxes and spaced out. He wondered which hospital they would be sent to and which patients would use it. He wanted to take a picture of the boxes and send it to Tang Heng. He was using Tang Heng’s old phone now—Tang Heng had gotten a new one before going to Beijing and insisted on giving his old one to Li Yuechi. It wasn’t old at all, actually, and it took clear pictures. For some reason, he really wanted to tell Tang Heng, I saw my dad use this before. Li Yuechi felt like maybe he indeed missed home and indeed missed Tang Heng. He never felt this before, but Tang Heng wasn’t by his side now and he suddenly became emotional. He often missed him.

“Okay, that’s it,” Wang Lili’s voice came from the other end of the warehouse. “Xiao Li, let’s go back!”

Li Yuechi walked over. He saw that Wang Lili and Tian Xiaoqin had signed the inventory sheet, so he asked, “Do I have to sign too?”

Wang Lili waved her hand. “No need. Only one of you need to sign it!”

 

The next day, the donation ceremony was held in the Dawu People’s Hospital. Professor Tang couldn’t come because of work, but he recorded a video beforehand. The atmosphere was jovial and everyone enjoyed it.

That afternoon, Li Yuechi and Tian Xiaoqin returned to Wuhan. Professor Tang said they worked hard and generously gave them 500-kuai, telling them to go eat a nice meal. Tian Xiaoqin said timidly, Laoshi, we have our own money. No need for you to treat us. Professor Tang stuffed the cash into her hand and said bigheartedly, What are you being so polite with your teacher for?

In the end, they went to a Sichuan restaurant by their school. Xu Rong and a third-year shijie went as well. After dinner, Xu Rong said she was meeting up with her boyfriend and left on a taxi. Li Yuechi, Tian Xiaoqin and the shijie walked back to school together. The two girls chatted happily while Li Yuechi kept his head down to text Tang Heng. The boy was complaining about being tired again and his tone sounded like he was whining cutely.

When they were about to part, Li Yuechi heard the shijie say to Tian Xiaoqin, “How about you change your hairstyle? I think you’ll look better with short hair.”

Tian Xiaoqin seemed to be taken aback. “Ah, really?”

“There’s a Xuanxuan’s Styling near the East Gate. It’s really cheap.” Touching Tian Xiaoqin’s braid, the shijie said thoughtfully, “You can try it.”

Much, much later, Li Yuechi would feel pricks of fear whenever he thought of this moment.

 

Two days later, Tang Heng was back.

He’d stayed in Beijing for half a month this time and was visibly thinner. When Li Yuechi hugged him, his arms felt empty. Tang Heng leaned against Li Yuechi as if he was jelly and insisted, “It’s because you haven’t hugged me in a long time.”       

He’d dyed his hair black again. “Lin Lang said they’re promoting me as a pure uni student,” Tang Heng said helplessly. “She forced me to dye it black. Do I look dumb?”

“No, you look great.” Li Yuechi twirled a strand of Tang Heng’s long hair around his finger. Tang Heng’s hair was softer than before. He must’ve used some kind of treatment.

They were lying on the bed of the apartment. It had already become warm in Wuhan; Tang Heng turned on the AC and wrapped the blanket around himself. He held Li Yuechi’s hand with one hand and held his phone with the other.

“Ah, Dabo, I really can’t make it back tonight,” Tang Heng said, putting up an act. “I’m too busy! I have work tonight… Just, making music and stuff. You won’t get it even if I tell you… Yes, I’ll come eat tomorrow, bye!” He hung up and wriggled his brows at Li Yuechi. “What’re we eating tonight?”

Li Yuechi couldn’t help but touch the corners of Tang Heng’s upturned lips. “What do you wanna eat?”

“There’s a chain restaurant in Beijing called Xibei Noodle Village, northwestern food. I wonder if Wuhan…” Tang Heng stopped before he finished the sentence as if he thought of something. “Let’s go eat dapaidang.”

“Not northwestern food?”

“Wuhan doesn’t have it.”

“Let me check,” Li Yuechi said.

Tang Heng pressed down on his hand. “I wanna eat dapaidang!“

“Is that northwestern food expensive?”

Tang Heng looked conflicted. A moment later, he said, “Let me pay for food. I made money in Beijing and hadn’t given it to you yet.”

There was that feeling again, like someone had pressed down on his heart—sore and numb. Li Yuechi gazed at Tang Heng and murmured, “You planned on giving it to me?”

“Of course. It counts as our—mutual capital?” Tang Heng smiled like an innocent child. “I’d wanted to wait until I saved up 30,000.”

“Just hold onto it yourself.”

“I’ll spend it all if I hold onto it. You’re a math major. You be in charge of the money.”   

The sun set in the west and remaining bits of dusk squeezed through the tiny window, falling between his brows. Li Yuechi’s mind went blank for a moment. “Do you have fans now?” he asked.

“Yes,” Tang Heng said, laughing. “Our cafeteria auntie loves me.”

“Oh—”

“No way, you’re even jealous of an auntie?”   

Yes, Li Yuechi thought inside. Don’t you know how great you are? In the future, many, many people will like you—men, women, young, old. You’ll definitely have many, many fans. They might be like the fans in tabloids and chase after your car, pick you up at the airport, stay in the hotel you stay in.

And I’ll just be jealous. I’m jealous of anyone, anything that can be close to you—Jiang Ya, Lin Lang, the variety show host, the audience listening to your song, and even the setting sun at this moment.

 

The May Labor Holiday came quickly. Tang Heng’s thesis defense was getting closer and closer. He’d finished writing his thesis long ago and didn’t have much to revise, but he still stayed in the library every day. After Li Yuechi got out of class, they would go eat in the cafeteria together. Li Yuechi heard Lin Lang call Tang Heng twice, probably urging him to return to Beijing, but he brushed her off, saying, Lin-jie, I haven’t finished writing my thesis. I might not even be able to graduate.

May fifth—Li Yuechi would never forget that date—he finished Professor Tang’s social survey methodology class and was about to text Tang Heng when he suddenly heard his name. “Li Yuechi, Tian Xiaoqin, please stay behind.”

They followed Professor Tang to his office. Along the way, students greeted Professor Tang and he replied with a smile, but his expression changed drastically once in the office.

“Sit.” Professor Tang sat in his leather office chair with his brows knitted and hands clasped. He looked very anxious.

This went on for a few minutes. Li Yuechi’s phone vibrated in his pocket and he knew it must be Tang Heng’s text. “Laoshi,” he couldn’t help but speak up. “What… what’s wrong?”

Professor Tang looked up and said with a grave expression, “I’m very willing to trust my students, but… when you went to Dawu in April, you two counted the donated equipment together with that Ms. Wang, correct?”

“Yes,” Li Yuechi said.

“The numbers aren’t matching up now.” Professor Tang pushed up his glasses. “It’s the hospital that discovered the numbers aren’t right. Some of the equipment are in sets, so the amount should be the same. The hospital called to ask me, I asked  Saint Corps’s boss—my classmate—and he said everything was donated in sets.”

“Then, how come they’re not in sets at the hospital?” Li Yuechi couldn’t process it immediately.

“That’s what I wanted to ask you two,” Professor Tang said, voice low. “How did you count the equipment at the time?”