Under Clear Skies Chapter 79: At the Brink

Chapter 79: At the Brink

Translated by Fefe of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

 

When Li Yuechi walked out of the office, his phone was still vibrating.

He pulled his phone out, still in a daze. He saw five unanswered calls from Tang Heng and two texts, one asking him he was out of class and another asking where he was. Why was there nobody in the classroom?

Li Yuechi replied simply: Busy, wait a sec.

A late spring breeze blew in from the window. The warmth brushed past Li Yuechi’s ice-cold fingertips. It was only May, but Professor Tang’s office was blasting the air-conditioning already.

 

“Yuechi, I… I didn’t count wrong.” Tian Xiaoqin’s voice trembled and her expression was muddled. “You saw those boxes, they were all neat and square. How could it be wrong? Or did we miss a row?”

Li Yuechi was silent for a moment before asking, “Did you count it with Wang-jie or did you two split it?”

“We did it together!” Tian Xiaoqin almost broke down. “How could we be wrong? There weren’t that many boxes and there were two of us! Even if I counted wrong, she couldn’t have counted wrong! How is that possible? It costs 300,000 and now, we’re missing 100,000…”

“If you missed a row,” Li Yuechi supplied, “we’d have more items than on the inventory list, instead of less.”

“Then, did we count something twice? The two of us… No, no way. We stood at the side and counted the boxes, then we walked over after counting one row. There’s no way we could’ve repeated something.”

“Xiaoqin,” Li Yuechi said softly, gazing toward Professor Tang’s office at the end of the hall. “Do you remember what Teacher Tang just said?”

“…What?”       

“He said, But you two don’t need to be too nervous. Saint Corps is looking into Wang Lili’s responsibility.“

“He means… maybe it was Wang Lili who messed up?”

“Do you think it’s possible?”

“But we counted it together at the time. How…”

“Let’s just wait.” Li Yuechi felt like there was something amiss that he couldn’t put a finger on. “Maybe it’s the hospital and Saint Corps that messed up. Don’t stress out about it.”

But how could they not be stressed? Professor Tang said that they were missing equipment worth 100,000 RMB. Tian Xiaoqin’s face was sheet-white and even her lips were colorless. Li Yuechi comforted her a bit more before she finally walked away, still unsettled.

 

It was past one p.m. by the time Li Yuechi hurried over to the cafeteria. Most of the students had finished eating already and the tables were in a mess. He spotted Tang Heng immediately, sitting on a chair on the left-most side of the cafeteria. The cleaning lady was wiping the table beside him. Tang Heng’s back was to him, but his head was hanging. Li Yuechi knew he was probably upset.

“Tang Heng.”

The boy turned and stood up. Instead of anger, there was only anxious worry on his face.

He knows, Li Yuechi thought.

“Let’s go eat outside.” Tang Heng walked toward him, a bit cautiously. “There isn’t much food yet.”

“Sure,” Li Yuechi said softly.

 

They walked out of the West Gate and onto the bustling food street. Wuhan’s streets were constantly under construction. The sidewalk was upturned, leaving only a narrow path for pedestrians. Tang Heng walked in front of Li Yuechi; Li Yuechi saw the spring breeze lift his black hair, the bright afternoon sun falling upon his white t-shirt. The image was so dreamy.

For some reason, Li Yuechi suddenly really, really wanted to hold his hand. But there were too many people on the street.

They walked into a simple Korean restaurant and chose a spot in the corner.

“I heard my uncle talk about that thing…” Tang Heng whispered. “Don’t worry. They’ll definitely get to the bottom of it.”

Li Yuechi nodded and was silent for a moment. “I don’t know how equipment could be missing.”

“Maybe the local hospital thinks we’re easy to bully and want to demand more from us?”

“Maybe.”

“Or Saint Corps messed up when providing the hospital with the equipment count…” Tang Heng was thoughtful. “They were wrong from the start.”

The server brought over their food. It was indeed simple—the plate was half-filled with rice, half with pieces of chicken, and a small clump of lettuce strips. Perhaps because they were late, the food was cold. Li Yuechi chewed half-heartedly. Those scenes kept replaying in his mind and he thought regretfully, if only he hadn’t spaced out when they counted.

He thought back to how Professor Tang had said this matter could be both big or small. Actually, he didn’t understand how big he meant by big, or how small he meant by small.

“Those things cost 100,000?” Tang Heng suddenly asked.

“Yeah…” Li Yuechi snapped out of his thoughts. “One hundred thousand.”

“Worst case scenario, we pay them back. Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t have that much money.”           

“But I do.”

His tone was too matter-of-fact that Li Yuechi’s reply was stuck in his throat. Tang Heng continued, “I know you don’t like it, so you can just view it as borrowing from me. You can repay me after you start working.”

“…Teacher Tang might think that me and Tian Xiaoqin are responsible for this.”

“So what if you are? Everyone will mess up at some point.” Tang Heng smiled. “It’s okay, seriously.”

Li Yuechi didn’t know what to say, because Tang Heng’s eyes were too innocent, like blinding white snow. To him, this didn’t seem to be a complicated matter. A dozen thousand kuai was nothing—to him, of course it was nothing.

 

After eating, they separated in the campus. Tang Heng had to go see his thesis advisor, while Li Yuechi returned to his room. The two agreed to eat dinner together and go back to their apartment. Before leaving, Tang Heng quickly held Li Yuechi’s hand. “Stop thinking about it. It’s not a big deal.”

Li Yuechi nodded and said, “Don’t worry about me.”

He got back to his dorm and saw that his three roommates were all there. They were also first-year grad students of the sociology department, but they were from different majors.

“Yuechi… are you alright?” one asked.

Li Yuechi froze. “You all know about it?”

“I heard from my shijie… Hey, actually…” The guy stood up and closed the door tightly. Then he started analyzing seriously, “This isn’t entirely you and Tian Xiaoqin’s fault. How do I put it? You two were representing your team and you’re only first-years. If it’s really your fault, you still won’t bear the brunt…”

“It’s your entire team’s problem,” another roommate piped up. “Teacher Tang is a big leader. He has the biggest responsibility, actually. Don’t be scared.”   

“Plus, you guys didn’t steal anything. At most, you just didn’t do your work well and you won’t be part of the project anymore,” the third roommate said. “What else would they do to you?”

Li Yuechi sat in his chair and sighed soundlessly. Faced with his roommates, he was able to say what he couldn’t say earlier. “What would I do if they make us pay? They’re missing equipment worth 100,000.”

“That’s impossible! My shijie said today that the school would never have students pay. Don’t worry.”

“Plus, Teacher Tang wouldn’t have you guys pay. You know, Teacher Tang is rich. I heard he has stock in a bunch of major companies!”   

“And Tian Xiaoqin… Tian Xiaoqin definitely won’t need to pay, right?”

Li Yuechi looked up. “Why?”

“What do you mean why? No need to pretend with us.” A roommate nudged Li Yuechi and said mysteriously, “Teacher Tang cares for Tian Xiaoqin so much.”

Li Yuechi felt like someone punched his chest. “What are you all talking about.”

The three roommates exchanged glances. One of them continued, “Do you really not know? Well… I’m not making this up. Your classmate said this themselves that Teacher Tang and Tian Xiaoqin might… You know, that sort of thing? Look, Tian Xiaoqin got to TA in her first year and she was already working on projects last semester. She also got into a fucking top-class team like the Dawu poverty alleviation project. Why? Think about it.”

“I got into the Dawu project too,” Li Yuechi said in disbelief. “I was a TA too… But I quit by myself.”

“Bro, you’re just the cover-up!” His roommate sighed. “Use your brain and think. Which of Teacher Tang’s students get this treatment, other than you two? An Yun is An-laoshi’s daughter but even she doesn’t have this treatment. Teacher Tang and An-laoshi are such good friends. How come An Yun doesn’t get nice stuff like this?”

“Because An Yun is doing a project with An-laoshi…”

“An-laoshi doesn’t have any projects. He’s busy working for the Yangtze River Scholar! I’m telling you, it’s hard to get An Yun to be the cover-up. That’s why he chose you.”

“…”

Li Yuechi shot to his feet. “Who said this stuff?”

“Shit, don’t ask that. Otherwise, I’d be a tattletale.” His roommate shrugged. “All of Teacher Tang’s students know that he and Tian Xiaoqin are both willing…”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re busy dating all fucking day,” another roommate said. “You obviously don’t have time to listen to gossip.”

“Yep, so you don’t have to worry about money. They won’t make you two pay—at most, you’ll have to write a report.”

As the guy spoke, he turned on his computer and muttered, “Let me find a template for you. I had to write a report last time I lost the data…” The two other roommates returned to their seats, one continuing to read, while the other propped up his leg casually and started swiping through his phone.

Only Li Yuechi remained standing in the room like an awkward yet silent pole.

 

He suddenly thought of a movie that he watched in the open theater during undergrad—The Truman Show. It was basically about the main character who was living an ordinary life in a small city, until one day, he found out that he was actually living in a huge reality TV show.

In this moment, Li Yuechi had such a sincere and chilling feeling of confusion. He couldn’t help but wonder if he really was in the same world as his roommates? Was the world he saw the same as the world of his classmates? Could it be that he was living in a huge reality TV show too? No, fiction was fiction, reality was reality. But then, why were they saying things that he was unable to understand?!

How could Tian Xiaoqin be willing to be with Teacher Tang? She was trying her best to avoid Teacher Tang! Unless Tian Xiaoqin lied to him? Unless Tian Xiaoqin was pretending to be scared? But why would she do that? And how did Li Yuechi become the cover-up? Didn’t Teacher Tang had him join the team because he thought Li Yuechi was a good student? Teacher Tang had praised him so many times—it was rare to have a top mathematics student.

These thoughts made him physically ill. He walked out of the dorm stiffly like a wooden puppet. Only a short while had passed, but the sky had darkened. It was going to rain soon.        

Li Yuechi pulled out his phone. He wanted to call Tang Heng, he wanted to hear his voice, wanted to see him, right now, immediately. For the first time, he desperately felt like he needed Tang Heng—not only loving him, not only missing him, but needing him. His world was at the brink of collapse and Tang Heng was like his anchor, the only certain point in this vast 3D coordinate system.

He turned his phone on and saw Tang Heng’s text from a few minutes ago.

Crap, my mom suddenly came home. We can’t meet up tonight 🙁