Under Clear Skies Chapter 77: Spring Light Like Water

Chapter 77: Spring Light Like Water

Translated by Fefe of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

At 11:15 of the first day of the Chinese New Year, the plane landed in Tianhe Airport and Tang Heng immediately dialed Li Yuechi’s number—as if this could help them meet sooner. They called each other as Tang Heng went from Tianhe Airport to Jiedaokou, until he walked into the university campus. Li Yuechi told Tang Heng to pay attention to the road and Tang Heng said okay. He stopped talking, but he didn’t hang up either. Li Yuechi listened attentively to the sound of his breathing as he walked.

Halfway there, Tang Heng suddenly asked, “Do you have enough minutes left?”

Li Yuechi pictured Tang Heng’s worried expression and laughed. “Definitely enough. Don’t worry.”

“How much money do you have left?”

“Twenty-seven-kuai and 30 cents.”

“So precise…”

Of course, Li Yuechi thought. I’m scared of missing your calls, so I check the amount every day. In 14 days, he got 14 texts from China Mobile.

When Tang Heng was almost to Li Yuechi’s dorm, Li Yuechi heard him start running. His breathing became heavy, as did his footsteps, accompanied by the rumbling of his suitcase wheels.

Li Yuechi stood up from his chair too. “Slow down,” he said nervously. “Don’t trip.”

“I can’t fucking wait any longer!” Tang Heng exclaimed.

Li Yuechi brushed his hair with a hand and rushed out without even closing the door. There had been a slight drizzle last night and the ground was still damp now. He ran out of the dorm building, turned a corner, and saw Tang Heng in the distance. Tang Heng was wearing that familiar blue coat and his ponytail swayed behind him. Li Yuechi ran over and yelled, “Tang Heng!”

He enveloped Tang Heng into a hug. Only now did he realize he wasn’t wearing a jacket. He only had a thin sweater on and it was freezing.

On the first day of the New Year, the campus was silent. Even the cleaners were gone, so they bravely hugged for a while. Fourteen days. Two full weeks. Li Yuechi felt like they had been apart for a long, long time.

Li Yuechi studied Tang Heng’s face. He would often go to the salon to fix his brows for his performances. His brows were slender and straight, making them seem sharp. But probably because he hadn’t performed in a while, Tang Heng’s brows were messier and darker than before. He looked more like a child.

“Did you miss me?” Tang Heng asked. Actually, he rarely asked such blunt questions.

“Yes,” Li Yuechi said.

“Me too.” Tang Heng panted for breath. When he offered Li Yuechi the handle of his suitcase, he grabbed his hand. “Li Yuechi, let’s not do this again, okay?”

You’re the one who said you want us to calm down and ghosted me for 14 days. How come you get to say everything? Li Yuechi met Tang Heng’s eyes and felt a soft soreness in his chest, like someone had just punched his heart.

“Mn, not again,” Li Yuechi murmured. “We won’t fight again.”

They went back to the dorm to get his jacket and key. Then they headed straight to their apartment in Donghua Village. Tang Heng complained that he was hungry, saying that he’d skipped breakfast to make his early flight and the food on the plane was disgusting. But it was the first of the New Year and all the shops along the way were closed.

In the end, Li Yuechi had no choice but to cook the last pack of ramen in the apartment. Tang Heng also dug two pieces of sausages out of his suitcase. He sat cross-legged on the chair, one hand holding the bowl, one hand shoving the noodles into his mouth with chopsticks. Li Yuechi couldn’t figure out how someone who enjoyed ramen so much would think that plane food was disgusting—although Li Yuechi had never eaten plane food before.

“You want some?” There were only a few noodle strands left in the bowl. As if he finally thought of something, Tang Heng said embarrassedly, “I was too hungry.”

“It’s okay. I had breakfast.”

“You really don’t want any?”

Li Yuechi took the bowl and drank some of the soup. His body warmed up a lot.

Tang Heng went to wash the dishes and Li Yuechi turned on hot water in the bathroom. By the time Tang Heng finished the dishes, the bathroom was full of steam. It was very warm. While taking off his clothes, Tang Heng asked, “Together?”

Li Yuechi stared at his pale waist. “You just got off the plane. Aren’t you tired?”

“Nah.”

“Alright.” Li Yuechi undid the button of his jeans. “Remember your words.”       

 

They didn’t stop until three in the afternoon, like they wanted to make up for everything they’d lost in the 14 days. In the end, Tang Heng’s voice was hoarse, his eyes were red, and he complained with a hurt expression, “I only fucking ate one bowl of ramen…”

“And two sausages,” Li Yuechi added.

“You’re horrible.”

“I really missed you.”   

Tang Heng stopped speaking. Li Yuechi tiredly propped his arm on Tang Heng’s back, his chin rubbing against his sweaty shoulder. It was a sunny afternoon and the sounds of children playing streamed up every now and then, along with the popping of firecrackers.

Tang Heng rested for a long time. Suddenly, he kicked Li Yuechi’s calf with his toes. “You got frostbite?”

“A little.” The joints of his toes were red and swollen.    

Tang Heng sat up. “What did you do?” He’d grown serious.

“It’s too cold.”

“You didn’t turn the heat on in your dorm?”

“Yeah.”

“What about blankets? Are they not thick enough?”

“They’re okay. It was just cold for a few days.”

“Didn’t the school pass out winter blankets earlier?”

Li Yuechi sat up too and hooked an arm over Tang Heng’s shoulder, pulling him into a hug again. “My sister just gave birth. I sent the blankets over to her.”

Tang Heng shot him a glance with an angry face. Li Yuechi couldn’t help but ruffle his hair. “It’s a bit cold to sleep by myself,” he said, smiling.

“Why didn’t you go home?”

“Too far away and it was hard to get tickets.” And he could save money.

“You could—”

“Hmm?”
“Nothing.” Tang Heng paused and whispered, “Don’t your parents miss you?”

They probably did. How could they not? But his dad was hospitalized right now and would spend the holiday in the hospital too. His mom said in a call that medical fees were super expensive now. The money he saved from the train ticket was enough for them to eat a bunch of nice food.

“I’ll go back this summer.” Li Yuechi awkwardly changed the topic, “Oh, what did you tell your mom?”

“About what?”

“Coming back on the first day of the New Year.”

“I came back to record music.”

“An Yun isn’t in Wuhan, right? I saw her a few days ago. She said she’s going to Japan for vacation.”

“It’s okay.” Tang Heng buried his face in the blankets and said half-jokingly, “I don’t care about her. I’m going solo.”

“You’re debuting in Chicago?” Li Yuechi played along with his joke.

“Debuting in Beijing. My mom doesn’t want me to go abroad anyway.”

His tone was so natural, but Li Yuechi suddenly felt uneasy. “Did that Lin-jie contact you after that night?” he asked.

Tang Heng let out a muffled laugh. “You still remember her?”

“She still wants to sign you?”

“Hasn’t changed.” Tang Heng flipped over and continued mindlessly, “Her company is pretty famous. Have you heard of Moonfall Cliff? That band is from her company.”

Moonfall Cliff. Li Yuechi remembered that Tang Heng had sang this song before, probably on some autumn night.

“Tang Heng, you’re going to study abroad, right?”

“I’m still thinking about it.”

Li Yuechi froze for a few seconds before finally uttering, “Oh—”

“Don’t you have anything to say?” Tang Heng squeezed his fingertips and called with a laugh, “Xuezhang.”

Even though I’m your boyfriend—am I good enough? Li Yuechi thought, a bit dejectedly. You’re such an amazing and talented person, good at your studies, good with music. Everything you do is at a level that I can never reach. I can’t study abroad with you, I can’t be in a band with you, so what right do I have to tell you what to do?

“UChicago is a very good school,” Li Yuechi said thoughtfully.

“Lin Lang’s company isn’t bad either.”

“Between studying and singing, which one do you like more?”

“I like you more.”

“…”

“Let’s sleep.” Tang Heng still sounded like he was joking. “I’m so tired.”

 

All the bad luck and misfortunes seemed to have been left in the previous year. In Li Yuechi’s memory, the spring of 2012 was more beautiful than most—even though springs in Wuhan were extremely short.

After classes started again, Tian Xiaoqin told Li Yuechi that Professor Tang apologized sincerely for his previous actions. He said that he had had relationship problems with his wife, while he misunderstood Tian Xiaoqin’s attitude. This was why he had lost control and offended her.

“What’s my attitude toward him?” Tian Xiaoqin asked Li Yuechi in confusion. “What is there to misunderstand?”

Li Yuechi shook his head. He couldn’t figure it out either, but he still reminded Tian Xiaoqin, “Don’t stay in a room alone with Teacher Tang anymore.”

“I know.” Tian Xiaoqin sighed. She still sounded worried but not as helpless as before. “I just want to hurry up and graduate.”

“Me too,” Li Yuechi said.

“I already planned it out. In my third year, I’m going to try to become a civil servant in Changsha and bring my parents over to live with me.” Tian Xiaoqin paused as if she was picturing that in her head. “What about you?”

“I want to go to Beijing.”   

“Ah? Isn’t that far from your home?”

“Salaries are higher in Beijing.”

“That’s true…”

Tang Heng seemed to have decided on becoming an artist, even though he said he’d paid UChicago to keep his spot. In March, he also received offers from Washington University and University of South California. USC even gave him a scholarship. Tang Heng visited Beijing twice, only for two to three days each time. When he returned to Wuhan, he would complain irritably, How come Beijing keeps having sandstorms?

But it was evident that he liked Linglai Ethereal. He said that the recording studio was awesome. More importantly, the company was willing to sign Jiang Ya too. The high-speed rail between Wuhan and Beijing wasn’t in operation yet, so Tang Heng had to take the plane each time. Li Yuechi secretly checked the regular train from Wuhan to Beijing—the fastest one was 11 hours, much faster than him going home. He started imagining how he’d work in Beijing after graduation. He heard that civil servants in Beijing had really low salaries, so he wouldn’t consider that at all. It might be a good choice to enter a private company. He knew that there were many foreign companies in Beijing.

When Tang Heng wasn’t here, he would call his family. His dad had been hospitalized after the holiday, but he recovered a lot after being discharged. He even wanted to do temporary work in the city, but Li Yuechi told him a firm no. His mom was in good health, other than occasional waist pain. As for his little brother, he was the same as before. When Li Yuechi talked to his parents, his brother would keep calling ge, ge on the side, but when the phone was handed to him, he couldn’t say anything.

Li Yuechi transferred some money home. It was what he’d earned from working at a restaurant before the New Year. Business had been great, so they’d hired part-time staff at a high wage and he’d earned 3000-kuai. His mom had asked him, “Do you have enough money after sending it all to us?”

“I have money,” Li Yuechi said. “Don’t worry.”

“You’re a man living outside. Don’t be a penny-pincher…”

“Mom, I want to work in Beijing after graduating,” Li Yuechi couldn’t help but tell them his plan. “They have high salaries there. After I get rich, we can send my brother to a special school.”   

“Him? What can he learn?”

“There are classes just for people like him.”   

“Sure.” His mom laughed. “Then we’ll wait for you to get rich.”

Li Yuechi felt a bit guilty but also happy. He was only in the 2nd semester of grad school and he was already thinking of two years later, like he would be graduating next month. He decided that he would go to Beijing right after graduation to find Tang Heng. He’d work and make money, and the world was big enough for them to be together.

 

Cherry blossoms bloomed in the campus, red and pink intermixing. The school would always be filled with tourists at this time. During peak hours, the crowds were big enough that they had to brush past each other’s shoulders. The students rarely joined the crowds—they lived on campus, so they could view the flowers at any time. But this year, Tang Heng and Li Yuechi squeezed into the crowd and flower-gazed once. There were too many people, which allowed them to secretly hold hands. Tang Heng had just returned from Beijing and he drawled, “Come visit Beijing for a few days with me this autumn.”

“Why autumn?”

“So we can see the red leaves. Beijing is the most comfortable in the autumn too… I don’t want to live in the company’s dorm. I want to rent an apartment, so you can live there too.”

“Sure,” Li Yuechi said earnestly. “I haven’t been to Beijing before.”

 

Tang Heng smiled, his eyes curving. The spring light was soft as water and in that dazed moment, Li Yuechi felt that they had been in love for many years.