Under Clear Skies Chapter 104: Indomitable Spirit

Chapter 104:  Indomitable Spirit

Translated by KarateChopMonkey of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

 

Li Yuechi didn’t respond, just silently walked beside Tang Heng, lost in thought. The two left the bustling streets and walked along the sidewalk, passing Xiaotanshan, and arrived at the head of the Aodang Bridge.

Across the bridge was the main island of Macau, with its dazzling casino skyscrapers arranged in a magnificent and picturesque scene. Li Yuechi walked ahead, the sea breeze blowing his shirt like a sail.

The Aodang Bridge is one of the three bridges connecting the main island to Taipa, and it’s the only one that pedestrians can walk on. Tang Heng hesitated for a moment and asked Li Yuechi, “Shall we go up on the bridge and take a look?”

Li Yuechi said, “Let’s go.”

It was past nine in the evening, but there was still traffic on the bridge, and occasionally joggers passed by on the pedestrian walkway. Actually, this was Tang Heng’s first time walking on the bridge. Looking beyond the dark sea surface, he could see the further West Bay Bridge. Tang Heng thought to himself, even the bridges were different; Macau’s sea-crossing bridge was pure white, with smooth lines like a piece of elegant white ribbon. Whereas the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, in his memory, was always grayish-blue bricks, rumbling heavily when trains passed underneath, feeling like a scene from a period drama.

Tang Heng leaned closer to Li Yuechi and asked, “What are you thinking?”

Li Yuechi said, “I’m thinking about Macau.”

“Macau?”

“Are there beggars here?”

“There might be,” Tang Heng chuckled, “but I haven’t seen any.”

Li Yuechi’s voice sounded somewhat muffled, “This is my first time here… Macau is better than I imagined.”

“What’s good about it?”

“It’s clean, safe, prosperous… You probably know better than me, Tang Heng.”

“Perhaps,” Tang Heng said, looking at him sideways, “So what?”

“If we never saw each other again, would you have stayed here?”

“I don’t know.”

Li Yuechi seemed to sigh, but the wind was too loud for Tang Heng to be certain. Then he saw Li Yuechi smile at him, a smile tinged with guilt.

“I won’t say something like ‘let’s forget about it’ or ‘staying in Macau is better than going back with me,'” he turned to face Tang Heng, speaking earnestly, “I can only say… I will try my best to make sure you won’t regret it.”

Tang Heng was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled, “Even if you didn’t say that, I would still go with you.”

Li Yuechi said, “I’m serious.”

“You…”

“I still don’t have much money now, but in at most five years—no, three years, I’ll be much wealthier than I am now. When you go back, we’ll move to Guiyang first. I don’t have the money to buy a house now, but within three years, I’ll definitely buy one in Guiyang,” he paused for a moment, adding seriously, “Probably with a loan.”

Tang Heng hadn’t expected him to have planned so much in secret, and he was left speechless.

Li Yuechi continued, “As for my mom… A few days ago, I called her and told her I won’t get married in this lifetime. As for us, I want to tell her face-to-face. It might take some time… Is that okay?”

Tang Heng was still stunned, and he stuttered, “Okay.”

Li Yuechi nodded solemnly.

He was still the same, unchanged—just like six years ago when he sat in a cramped rental room eating a five-yuan bowl of fried noodles. Even faced with a five-yuan bowl of fried noodles, he had that same serious expression. He was never a person who lived lightly; he took everything seriously, perhaps because he knew everything came with a price.

Intermittent sounds of the ship’s whistle came from afar, with brilliant lights in the distance, a crescent moon hung silently in the sky, manipulating the tides without a sound.

Tang Heng leaned closer to him and whispered, “Do you remember what I said before?”

Li Yuechi asked, “Which one?”

“I love you and it’s free.”

Perhaps it was because they were getting older, or perhaps it was because of the bustling traffic behind them, those three words became somewhat difficult to say. Tang Heng was quiet for a few seconds and only said, “It’s free.”

Li Yuechi’s eyes flashed, and Tang Heng felt that his clear black and white eyes were brighter than all the dazzling lights behind him.

“I wanted to answer you six years ago—” Li Yuechi said, “I feel the same way.”

He slightly lowered his head and met Tang Heng’s lips.

The sea breeze rustled, like in a dream.

The two went to the supermarket to buy some food and then returned to school. It was already past eleven on the return journey, and apart from the two of them and the driver, there was only one male student sitting in the front row of the bus. Tang Heng opened the window slightly, letting the cool night breeze in. He took out his phone and dialed Director Xu’s number.

Even though it was a day off, work should not be discussed.

“I’ll resign this week,” Tang Heng told Director Xu, “I just wanted to inform you in advance so that the formalities can be completed sooner.”

“But it’s not that urgent! Why are you in such a hurry?” Director Xu’s tone changed, then he sighed, “Did you know that Sun Jihao is also resigning? Xiao Tang, actually… you can stay if you want…”

Tang Heng laughed, “Do you still dare to keep me?”

“Originally, I wouldn’t dare, but after some thought, compared to the trouble you stirred up in Wuhan, you’ve been merciful to us, huh!”

“Thank you for your kindness,” Tang Heng lazily grabbed Li Yuechi’s hand, “My friend has also come to Macau, surnamed Li. You’ve met him. His tourist visa is only for seven days, so I need to process the formalities quickly.”

Director Xu grumbled, “Goodness… You guys, one by one, are you all leaving me hanging? Everyone’s gone, how am I supposed to schedule classes next semester…”

Tang Heng hung up the phone, turned his head, and saw Li Yuechi closing his eyes, a faint smile playing on his lips. The night breeze lifted his hair, revealing a clean forehead. He rarely, rarely had such a relaxed and contented look, wearing a white shirt, he looked just like a college student returning from a leisurely outing.

As the bus approached the stop, the carriage became quieter, and Tang Heng suddenly heard a very soft singing beside him.

He leaned closer and heard Li Yuechi humming a song.

He was humming “Summer Night Breeze.”

On Monday, Tang Heng had a conversation with the relevant departments of the school and drafted a report on the incident in Guizhou. On Tuesday afternoon, Tang Heng met Sun Jihao and Lu Yue.

He didn’t expect these two to be able to sit together calmly. Sun Jihao was still the same, his cheeks even rounder than before.

“You did quite well, junior brother,” Sun Jihao said with a smile, “I heard you caused quite a stir at Wuhan University. The former dean has been removed.”

Tang Heng didn’t respond to him, just asked lightly, “Have you resigned?”

“What else could I do?” Sun Jihao shrugged, “Now everyone in Macau knows I’m gay.”

“… “

“There’s nothing much for us to talk about,” Sun Jihao stood up and said to Lu Yue, “I’m going to pick up Coco from school. You guys chat.”

He left just like that. Tang Heng thought he would scold him or even fight with him.

After all, it was Tang Heng who exposed Sun Jihao’s secret.

“He doesn’t care anymore,” Lu Yue explained softly, “His parents found out about those things, caused a big fuss, and they’ve cut ties with him now. As for the school, we’ve completed the resignation procedures too.”

Tang Heng was surprised, “You’ve resigned too?”

Lu Yue smiled, “I’ve had enough of this circle. Actually, when I married him, I knew he didn’t like women… He said he just wanted a family, and I wanted that too, so we stayed together.”

Tang Heng couldn’t believe it, “So, have you divorced now?”

“No,” Lu Yue said, “Coco is still young. We’ll talk about divorce later.”

Tang Heng was speechless. He didn’t know what Sun Jihao and Lu Yue’s relationship was—could they be friends since they couldn’t be husband and wife, or were they family? Then why did they have a child?

But relationships between people in this world were varied, and he didn’t want to inquire further.

Tang Heng chatted with Lu Yue for a while longer and learned that their family of three planned to move to Shenzhen. One of Sun Jihao’s classmates had a company in Shenzhen and had long invited Sun Jihao to join.

As he still needed to go to the personnel department to handle the resignation procedures, Tang Heng said goodbye to Lu Yue not long after. This time, he didn’t call her “senior sister,” but said, “Well, I’m leaving, Lu Yue.”

Lu Yue smiled, “Did I forget to thank you?”

“What for?”

“For what you did in Wuhan.”

“No,” Tang Heng turned away from her, “I should thank you.”

On Wednesday and Thursday, Tang Heng went to various departments of the school. The efficiency of handling affairs in Macau was indeed low, but fortunately, the procedures weren’t too cumbersome. However, Tang Heng was still exhausted, and at the same time, Li Yuechi was busy packing their luggage at home.

There weren’t too many pieces of furniture or miscellaneous items at home, but the only headache was the full bookshelf. Li Yuechi was afraid of being in a hurry and making mistakes while moving, so he labeled each book with a number, a total of 146 books, carefully packed them into boxes one by one, padded them with foam, and sealed them securely.

On Friday afternoon, it was Tang Heng’s last class in Macau.

In fact, the college had already found another teacher to take over this class, but the exam papers had been prepared by Tang Heng in advance. So, nearing the end of the semester, it was still Tang Heng who needed to highlight the key points for the students.

Naturally, the students had heard a lot of gossip, and those who had and hadn’t chosen this course all came. Their eyes were shining as they stared eagerly at Tang Heng, their faces saying, “Teacher, spill the tea.”

However, Tang Heng just flipped through the lecture notes and systematically told them which parts needed more revision. At first, some students were distracted, but later they all focused, pen in hand, listening attentively to the lecture. Although Teacher Tang had been away for more than two months, his tough style hadn’t changed much. As he flipped through the pages, he marked every one as important. When he finished, the students exclaimed, “Teacher, why don’t you just tell us which pages aren’t important…”

There were still five minutes left before the end of class, just enough time. Tang Heng closed the lecture notes and turned off the PowerPoint.

He took a deep breath, stood up straight, and said to the students below, “This semester, due to various reasons, classes were delayed. I apologize to everyone here. I am in the process of resigning, and I won’t be in Macau anymore.”

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the whole room, and then it immediately became very quiet.

All the students held their breath, focusing intently.

“Let me digress a bit and talk about my understanding of sociology. From a practical perspective, sociology, like other liberal arts majors, is not highly regarded. When you go home for the New Year and your relatives ask what you’re studying, if you say you’re studying sociology, they might jokingly say that you’ll understand it after a few years of work experience, what is there to learn about society?”

Tang Heng smiled and continued, “A long time ago, someone told me that he studied sociology to help his hometown escape poverty. He was an idealistic person. But I’m not. When I was filling out my university application, I felt that all majors were the same. My first choice was finance, but I didn’t have the grades, so I was transferred to sociology. I didn’t think it was too boring, so I’ve been studying it until now. I believe that many of you here are like me.”

“Classmates,” Tang Heng paused, and said very seriously, “Until this year, I suddenly realized the charm of sociology. It is different from scientific research. The goal of scientific research is to pursue objective truth, and that truth is constant, like the law of universal gravitation. But the object of sociology is society, which is constantly changing. The operation of society does not have eternal truth. The ideology you believe in today may be refuted and useless ten years later; the rules that still apply today may become worthless after an unexpected event. So, in a sense, conducting sociological research is a very difficult thing. However, more importantly, unlike the one-sided pursuit of scientific research, sociologists can use their research results to change their research objects, that is, to change this society.”

“So sociology is in such a delicate situation: we study this rapidly changing society while also striving to make our own achievements a part of this ‘change’. This is bound to be a long, difficult game, but this is also the value and joy of sociology. I know that only a small number of you will embark on the path of research, but, in any case, no matter what you do in the future, and what I do, we will definitely encounter various frustrations, because people and this society, people and themselves, are always in a game.”

“I used to be a fragile person, and I paid the price for it. So I hope you can be stronger… Speaking of my friend, his story is too long, and time is limited. I’ll just say the most critical part. In him, he embodies the qualities needed for sociological research. With this last opportunity, I want to share it with you all.”

Tang Heng turned around and wrote four elegant characters on the blackboard—

Indomitable Spirit.

Love is indomitable.