Under Clear Skies Chapter 59: His Heart is Moving

Chapter 59: His Heart is Moving

Translated by Fefe of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

An Yun left after saying that. After the train, the alley was so quiet and there were puddles everywhere. Tang Heng was still thinking back to the TA matter, while Li Yuechi turned on the flashlight of his phone. “Let’s go,” he said.

He held his phone with one hand for the light and held Tang Heng’s hand with the other. The alley was dark enough, after all, and there were no passersby. The flashlight could only illuminate a small patch of space. It was still pitch black before them. To Tang Heng, it felt like they were about to enter an unknown world.

Just keep walking like this, keep walking, not knowing what was ahead of them.

“Did I do something wrong?” Li Yuechi suddenly asked.

“Huh?” Tang Heng uttered. “What?”

“About the TA.”

“Don’t think so…” Tang Heng thought about it. “My uncle only gave you the TA job because your name wasn’t included in the project, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe he did it to get rid of suspicion.” Tang Heng crossed over a puddle. “It wouldn’t look good if only you became a TA, so he included Tian Xiaoqin.”

“Tian Xiaoqin needs money too. She said that her family took out a loan for her to enter grad school.”

“Oh…”

“Maybe Teacher Tang just wanted to help us.”

He hadn’t heard his uncle mention this before, Tang Heng thought. But maybe it was just a small matter to his uncle.

“Stop thinking about it,” Tang Heng said. “I’ll go ask An Yun tomorrow.”

Li Yuechi was silent for a while. “Do I give you a lot of trouble?” he suddenly asked.

“Why?”       

“I’m dating my advisor’s nephew.”

“Oh—” Tang Heng said with faux seriousness. “Then it should be male uni student forced to have sex for favors, right?”

Li Yuechi laughed and Tang Heng could tell that he was in a pretty good mood.

After coming out of the crowded Long Love, they felt that there was a wintry tinge to the air. Perhaps it was because of the night rain—Wuhan had started getting cold. Tang Heng realized with a start that it was November tomorrow.

 

They exited the damp alley and reached the opening. Under the orange-yellow streetlamp, they quietly let go of each other’s hand.

“Did you eat dinner?” Tang Heng asked.

“Not yet,” Li Yuechi said. “Let’s get some fen.”

“I’ll go buy it.” With that, Tang Heng rushed into a small shop. He didn’t need to look at the menu and called out directly, “Two large bowls of beef fen, one with less peppers, and two cups of rice wine!”

“Have a seat first,” the owner replied slowly.

 

There were Xiang Yang Beef Fen restaurants everywhere in Wuhan, all with the same five-character names. It was like a chain but unrelated to each other. This one was the closest to Long Love. Sometimes, when Hushituo finished their performance and everyone was hungry, they’d come to eat the beef fen.

A large beef fen was ten-kuai per bowl, while rice wine cost 2.5-kuai per cup. Tang Heng placed a 50-kuai bill on the cash register and said, “Give me the change after we eat.”

The owner’s wife was watching TV. She turned around to collect the money and said with a laugh, “No hurry. Pay after you eat.”

“It’s okay,” Tang Heng said, shaking his head.

When he, Jiang Ya, and An Yun came to eat, they naturally paid after eating. They’d always be exhausted after performing and would slump lazily at the table when they were full. They’d push each other, all too lazy to get up and pay.

But it was different with Li Yuechi. Tang Heng couldn’t give him money directly, couldn’t even pay his phone bill. So he had to think of all sorts of ways, buying cigarettes, eating a bowl of fen, paying for these small things. He was worried that Li Yuechi would pay, so he gave the money to the owner’s wife beforehand.

He’d never cared about these things before—who paid, when to pay, how to pay to make it seem more natural… Tang Heng looked behind and saw that Li Yuechi had taken a seat already. He’d rolled up the sleeves of his white collared shirt, revealing his slender, tan arms. Their eyes met and Li Yuechi smiled at him.

The owner soon brought over the beef fen—a few thin slices of beef laid across the white noodle fen, a clump of spring onions on the side, and a soy egg. The soup was red oil, wafting a spicy aroma. Tang Heng wasn’t great at eating spicy food, so he asked the owner to put less peppers. Li Yuechi was his exact opposite. He opened the pepper jar on the table and scooped two spoons of ground pepper into his bowl.

They were the only two customers in the small shop. The owner and his wife were watching TV together—a noisy song floated into the shop, but he couldn’t tell what song it was. If they took a few steps out the door, it was the bustling Luoyu Road.

Amidst the hot steam, Li Yuechi mixed in the ground pepper and started eating with big mouthfuls. He must be starving and ate quickly without saying anything. Tang Heng studied him discreetly, finding it intriguing how Li Yuechi didn’t seem crude even when he was wolfing down the fen, slurping it into his mouth. There were beads of sweat on the tip of his nose, specks of grease on the corners of his lips, and his pretty eyes were lowered as he stared intently at his food.

He scooped up the beef cleanly and even ate all the broken pieces of fen. All that remained of the bowl of Xiang Yang beef fen was the red soup, shiny and reflecting Tang Heng’s heart in it.

 

“I suddenly thought of something,” Tang Heng said easily. “When you were test-exempt for grad school, why’d you think of coming to the sociology department?”

“To meet you.”

“…”   

“Kidding.” Li Yuechi’s lips curled. “I listened to Teacher Tang’s lecture in my junior year. It was about poverty alleviation.”

“At your school?”

“Yeah, I thought it was interesting and read a few sociology books afterward.”

Tang Heng lifted a chopstick-full of fen. “Isn’t it boring?”

“It’s okay.”

“I thought you math majors wouldn’t be interested in liberal arts at all.”

“Most are like that, but…” He paused, a bit hesitant but also like he was shy. “I really like philosophy.”

“Really?” Tang Heng arched an eyebrow. “Our major involves a lot of philosophy too. There’s even a Sociological Theory Group in our department. Hey, did you study philosophy in undergrad?”

“I was part of the philosophy club.”

“Oh—” Tang Heng’s hand stiffened around his chopsticks and his expression stiffened too, but it was only for an instant. “Chinese or Western philosophy?”         

“Western philosophy.”

“My dad used to study that.”

“I’m not really studying it.” Li Yuechi stared at the rice wine in his hand and said a bit shyly, “Just a hobby.”

 

Finished with the fen, the two walked out of the small restaurant. It was already past 10:30 now and a slight breeze had started up. They had come to Luoyu Road, so they couldn’t hold hands anymore. Li Yuechi lit a cigarette and walked beside Tang Heng. There was probably some promotion at the McDonald’s by the subway station. There were some small yellow flags standing outside the door, but they were wet from rain and swayed back and forth in the wind, making them look sad. Tang Heng turned his head to study Li Yuechi. His white collared shirt didn’t actually fit him well. It wasn’t long enough, while the sleeves were too wide. The wind pulled his sleeves back, revealing the lines of his arms. Gray-white smoke floated back from his fingertips as well and scattered in an instant, dissipating into the night.

Tang Heng walked two steps away from him and couldn’t help but reach his arms out behind Li Yuechi, his palms facing the wind. It was like he could catch the smoke. Tang Heng didn’t know what he was thinking about in that moment.         

The night was as cool as water. Li Yuechi turned his head and asked with a low laugh, “Is this holding hands too?”

Tang Heng froze. Those lyrics sounded in his ears again. Wind lifts your black hair… It wasn’t the wind blowing, but rather smoke floating. The Sutra was correct; only his heart was moving.

So what if he had an ex-girlfriend, Tang Heng thought. If he was Wu Si, was Zhao Xuelan, or any other girl—he’d probably fall in love with Li Yuechi. He admitted it.

    

They arrived at the South Gate of Wuhan University and entered the campus, stopping before Shaw Building. Tang Heng actually wanted to accompany Li Yuechi all the way to his dorm. He lived in his own home, after all, and had no curfew. But it was too conspicuous for two guys to be walking together, so they usually parted ways at Shaw Building.

Tang Heng looked at him. “See you tomorrow,” he whispered.

“Mn.” Li Yuechi stuffed his hands into his pockets. “How much are the cigarettes?”

Shaking his head, Tang Heng said, “Gift for you.”

“It’s too expensive.”

“This is called dating.”

“Then, what can I give you?”  

His brows furrowed slightly, like he was seriously pondering this question.

Getting overtaken by impulse, Tang Heng said, “How about you don’t go back to your dorm tonight?”