Under Clear Skies Chapter 27: Girlfriend

Chapter 27: Girlfriend

Translated by Fefe of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis

When he was less than ten meters away, Tang Heng gradually slowed down.
He was sure that person was Li Yuechi, but he suddenly didn’t know if he should rush over or not. Now was when he realized that Li Yuechi had not used his full power when they’d encountered A-Zhu that night—probably not even half of his power.
He’d never seen Li Yuechi be so aggressive before. Four men circled him, but they could only manage to be at a tie with him—they couldn’t get the upper hand at all. It was a fight to the death. He watched as Li Yuechi grabbed the neck of a tall, thin guy and slammed him down—Thud! It was the sound of a body crashing into the ground. Two more people tackled him at once, one twisting Li Yuechi’s neck, one sending a punch to his forehead—but Li Yuechi’s body turned, dodging it, and grappled the throat of the guy twisting his arm.
Of course, countless punches and kicks still landed on his body. He was like a steel plate welded together with the ground. He sometimes stumbled but never fell. Until a man tackled him from the back and he fell to his knees with a muffled grunt, his arms pinned behind his back.
“Son of a bitch, keep fighting, huh! Keep fighting!” The tall, thin guy kicked him. “I’ll fucking kill you today!”
He pulled something from his pack. It glinted with silver light in the night. This was when Tang Heng charged and, imitating Li Yuechi, used the crook of his elbow to grab someone’s neck and quickly drag him back—without the restrictions behind his back, Li Yuechi shot up and grabbed the tall, thin guy’s knife!
“This way!” Jiang Ya yelled. “Yes, yes, keep driving forward! You’ll see them soon!”
By then, a few passersby had stopped to watch with their phones up. It was unclear if they were filming videos or calling the cops. Tang Heng suffered two punches, heard the tall, thin guy curse in Wuhan dialect, and the four men retreated. They ran into the distance and disappeared without a trace.
“Ah, good, good, thanks for all your help,” Jiang Ya said cheerily to the passersby. “Thank you, thank you!”
Li Yuechi sat on the ground, not moving.
Tang Heng walked over and saw his face was covered in blood.
“Don’t be scared,” Li Yuechi murmured. “It’s a nosebleed.”
Jiang Ya came over too. “Hey! I’ll call the ambulance.”
“No need.” Li Yuechi hung his head as if he didn’t want them to see how pathetic he looked. “I’ll go to the Central Hospital. Thanks guys.”
“Hey, we’re all bros, but you…” Jiang Ya looked back at the shocked girl and asked Li Yuechi, “Are you alright by yourself?”
“Yeah,” Li Yuechi said.
“Okay, then we’ll—”
“Jiang Ya, you can go,” Tang Heng said. “I’ll go with him.”
“Yeah, yeah, Tang Heng, you go with him. Having someone around would be good.”
Li Yuechi didn’t answer, like it was tacit agreement.
The passersby scattered and Jiang Ya went into a cab with the girl in his arms. Tang Heng offered some napkins over. Li Yuechi messily grabbed a few to stuff into his nose. He was still sitting on the ground, his body covered in bloodstains and mud, his head hanging. Like a dirty ball of crumpled paper.

After a long while, Li Yuechi took out the blood-soaked napkins. “It stopped bleeding?” Tang Heng asked.
“Mn.” Li Yuechi’s voice was very, very soft. He probably didn’t have the strength. “Thanks.”
Tang Heng stood before him and extended a hand. “Can you get up?”
Li Yuechi gave a short laugh, grasped his hand, and stood up.
His blood got onto Tang Heng’s hand. It was sticky.
“Let’s go to the hospital,” Tang Heng said.
“Seriously no need.” Li Yuechi tugged his t-shirt. “Does your phone have battery?”
“Why?”
“I need to find something. Help me turn on the flashlight.”
Tang Heng knew that nobody could convince this guy to do something he wasn’t willing to do. All he could do was turn on his phone’s flashlight and ask Li Yuechi, “What are you looking for?”
“A bag.” Li Yuechi walked forward. “Follow me. It shouldn’t be hard to find.”
So, the two of them walked together, bent over and with their heads bowed, one providing light while one searched. Li Yuechi was extremely focused in his search. He’d step into the puddles without any hesitation. This part of town was populated by stores—the various signs reflected in the water, patch after patch, like a colorful yet hazy dreamscape. The incoming passersby along the way were all taken aback by how bloody Li Yuechi was and looked back.
They turned two corners and finally, at the entrance of some alley, Li Yuechi picked up a white plastic bag.
The bag had the words Wuhan Central Hospital printed in big font. Li Yuechi shook off the water and carefully pulled out an X-ray print. He held it up to the streetlamp and muttered under his breath, “Fuck.”
Tang Heng couldn’t remember ever hearing him curse, whether it was when the interviewees refused to open the door or when he got beaten to pulp.
It was the X-ray of a person’s bone, but he couldn’t tell which bone it was.
“…It’s damaged?”
“Mn.” But Li Yuechi still carefully wiped away the water on the surface and turned to face Tang Heng. “Don’t tell anyone what happened tonight, okay?” he asked seriously.
“Sure, but—why?”
“Fighting outside the campus,” Li Yuechi said. “I’ll get punished.”
“I’m not asking about that.”
“Then, what are you asking about?”
“Li Yuechi.”
“Fine.” He laughed again, sounding a little helpless. “Let’s find somewhere to sit and talk.”

They couldn’t go into a restaurant in their state, so Tang Heng entered a small supermarket to buy alcohol wipes and two bottles of iced cola. When he was paying, he suddenly saw Li Yuechi standing outside the door. He was slightly hunched over and seemed to be spacing out. He abruptly thought of that night. Li Yuechi had hunched over like this when his back had been wounded by the beer bottle. Did he get hurt often?
The owner slowly bagged everything and handed him the change.
“Li Yuechi,” Tang Heng called out. “Come here.”
Li Yuechi didn’t move. He pointed at his t-shirt as if saying, I can’t, looking like this.
“Come here,” Tang Heng called again.
So Li Yuechi lifted the curtain and came in. The owner’s eyes widened and his expression grew cautious. Tang Heng ignored him and asked Li Yuechi, “Are you hungry?”
“Not really.”
Which meant that he was hungry.
Tang Heng walked to the snack shelf. Other than stuff like chips and dried fruit, there were only two pieces of bread with meat floss left. “Do you want bread?” he asked.
Li Yuechi nodded. Under the supermarket’s incandescent light, Tang Heng realized that his face was deathly pale.
In the end, he bought the two pieces of bread, a bag of beef jerky, and a pack of cigarettes. Tang Heng didn’t smoke and he thought Li Yuechi didn’t smoke either—he probably wasn’t willing to spend money on cigarettes.
But then Li Yuechi pulled out a five-kuai bill from his pocket and a copper 50-cent coin. “Give me a Huangguoshu.”
The two walked out and Li Yuechi lit the cigarette. He lowered his head slightly when smoking, his eyelashes lowered too as he inhaled slowly, exhaled slowly. It was a focused expression. Tang Heng thought of the blade that glinted silver in the night sky. He still felt fear.
They walked to the edge of the Yangtze River, walked down the embankment and sat onto the damp steps. If they took a few more steps, it would be the black river water. Li Yuechi seemed exhausted. He propped his elbows on his knees, left hand supporting his chin, right hand holding the cigarette. The orange tip flickered slowly as he breathed.
“It was… very dangerous,” Tang Heng said hesitantly. “They had a knife.”
“I know, but they wouldn’t dare to actually kill me.”
“Why not?”
“They’re here for money. Who’ll repay them if I’m dead?”
“Money? You borrowed money?”
“Mn.” Li Yuechi was silent for a moment. “Loan sharks.”
“But why…”
“Medical treatment. You saw it, that X-ray.”
“Medical treatment for who?”
Li Yuechi stopped talking. After a long while, he extinguished the cigarette in his hand and murmured, “My girlfriend.”

A freighter cruised slowly in the black river, the long horn sounding like a cry. It was too slow. The freighter in the deep night was so slow, and even the river slowed down. It was like everything had slowed down. One second after another, it was like a century had passed. The moist river water and the dry tobacco wafted in the air. There seemed to also be a metallic smell from Li Yuechi—it was the smell of the dried blood.
Tang Heng turned to look at Li Yuechi, but he couldn’t see his face clearly. He lit another cigarette, the orange tip blurred into a haze with the lights from the distant Yangtze River Bridge. At that moment, Li Yuechi seemed to be so far from Tang Heng, far like the bridge.
“You have a girlfriend,” Tang Heng said. “Never heard you mention her before.”
“She’s always in the hospital. There’s no point mentioning it.”
“What’s the disease?”
“Cancer.” Li Yuechi’s voice was almost covered up by the horn. “It already spread.”
Li Yuechi couldn’t say anything. He had too many questions to ask, like how could someone get cancer at such a young age, how did Li Yuechi find a girlfriend with cancer, how long have they been dating? But he couldn’t ask these questions. It turned out that Li Yuechi was working like crazy for her medical treatment. He was willing to borrow from a loan shark, he was willing to get beaten up, just to save her. He must really love her.
Li Yuechi finished the second cigarette and pulled out the bread from the plastic bag. He wolfed it down. He finished the iced cola quickly too. He must not have eaten dinner, Tang Heng thought.
He finished eating and smiled at Tang Heng. “Thanks for today.”
“You’re going back now?”
“Huh?”
“Back to the hospital to accompany your girlfriend.”
“No… Her family is with her.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t tell anyone about today, okay?”
“I already agreed.”
“Thank you.”
“How much money did you borrow?”
“…Why?”
“How much?”
“Eighty-thousand.”
“I thought it’d be 800,000.” Tang Heng gazed at the pitch-black river, not knowing what he was thinking about. “I’ll give you money. Pay off those loan sharks.”