Under Clear Skies Chapter 99: Hope

Chapter 99: Hope

Translated by KarateChopMonkey of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

 

Due to the review process, the news about Tian Xiaoqin was released two days later.

It was the last day of April. Tang Heng and Li Yuechi got up early, each having a bowl of hot dry noodles and a cup of rice wine. They finished their breakfast leisurely before entering the adjacent bookstore. The morning newspaper was prominently displayed next to the cash register.

However, Tang Heng and Li Yuechi waited for a full fifteen minutes, only to see the boss take a newspaper to use as a table mat. Apart from that, there was no one else buying newspapers.

“Hello,” Tang Heng couldn’t help but approach, “how’s the sale of the ‘Hanyang Morning News’?”

“Huh?” The boss pushed his reading glasses as if Tang Heng had asked a very strange question. “What do you think? Who reads newspapers these days?”

“…” Tang Heng thought, then why are you still selling newspapers here?

“People read news on their phones now,” the boss turned his phone screen towards Tang Heng. “Look, this is the app they’ve made.”

So the “Hanyang Morning News” had an app.

The front page headline of the day: “The Death of Han University’s Female Graduate Student in 2012”

Even though Tang Heng had seen the newspaper layout yesterday, the moment he caught sight of the headline, he still felt a chill. He stayed silent for two seconds before saying to the boss, “I’ll take a newspaper.”

“Five yuan. Alipay or WeChat?”

“Cash.”

“Oh.” The boss glanced at Tang Heng, his scrutiny more apparent, as if saying how come there are still young people reading newspapers and carrying cash these days?

Tang Heng handed the newspaper to Li Yuechi, and they both walked out of the bookstore, standing on the roadside. In fact, the reason Tang Heng used cash was that he had already turned off his phone. He knew that after today, Tian Xiaoqin’s matter would surely cause a stir, so he simply waited to turn on his phone until after the scheduled Weibo post was sent out.

“Use mine,” Li Yuechi took out his phone and handed it to Tang Heng.

The app store on his phone couldn’t find the “Hanyang Morning News” app at all, so Tang Heng had to switch to the browser and download it from the official website. Whether it was because Li Yuechi’s phone was too slow, or the app was too rudimentary, or for some other reason, the app crashed the moment Tang Heng clicked on that headline.

Tang Heng paused, suddenly feeling a foreboding. “Could it have been blocked?”

Li Yuechi shook his head. “It shouldn’t be that fast.”

“Then how…”

“Don’t overthink it, let’s talk about it later.”

“Plus, look at this page, it looks like a knockoff app, how many users could it have?” Tang Heng clicked on the app again. Fortunately, this time he successfully opened the article.

Tang Heng breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Yuechi took his phone back from him and whispered, “What do you want to do when we go back?”

“Take Xiaohui for a walk. Yesterday he said that he wanted to see Han University.”

“Okay.”

They had already set up the scheduled Weibo post. At eleven o’clock in the morning, that Weibo post would be sent out on time, and then the official Weibo account of the “Hanyang Morning News” would repost their Weibo post, and then… who knows what would happen next.

Like sailing a ship into the most dangerous area full of hidden reefs, they didn’t know what awaited them ahead.

Because they didn’t know, they could only leave it to fate—having done all they could.

Back at the hotel, Tang Heng carefully folded the newspaper and put it in a folder. By this time, Jiang Ya and Tian Xiaohui had also woken up. After a moment, the four of them set off together, taking the subway to Guangbutun.

The weather was still very sunny. They entered Han University through the north gate, greeted by a fresh scent of plants. Although the campus area wasn’t large, the vegetation was lush and neatly trimmed. Li Yuechi whispered to them that there were peach blossoms in spring, osmanthus in autumn, and plum blossoms in winter at Han University. As for this early summer moment, it was naturally lush and green.

Tian Xiaohui whispered, “I want to see the library.”

“We don’t have campus cards, so we can’t go in,” Li Yuechi led them up the steps. “We can only stand outside and look.”

“Okay… I remember my sister said when she just started college that the school library was especially good.”

“Your sister is a top student,” Jiang Ya chuckled, “she must have gone to the library every day.”

“Yeah, she also said that the cafeteria next to the library was delicious.”

Li Yuechi nodded. “Let’s go eat lunch there.”

The Han University library wasn’t far from the north gate. A few minutes later, they arrived at the library entrance. It was just past ten in the morning, coinciding with the end of the first morning class, and many students were coming out of the nearby teaching building and heading straight to the library.

There were many female students at Han University, and it was a season of gentle breeze and warm sun. As the girls passed by them, the hem of their skirts swayed slightly, like ripples on a lake stirred by the wind.

Tang Heng felt a bit trance-like. If time went back seven or eight years, Tian Xiaoqin would be carrying a canvas bag like them, shuttling between the teaching building and the library.

Due to the intense sunlight, the scene before his eyes seemed somewhat unreal—perhaps Tian Xiaoqin was indeed among them at this moment?

“Hey,” Jiang Ya nudged Tang Heng, “what are you thinking?”

Tang Heng snapped out of it. “What’s up?”

“Let’s go, Xiaohui wants to see the teaching building.”

“Oh… sure.”

They could enter the teaching building. They climbed to the third floor and strolled around the corridor. At this time, the second class had just begun, and the voices of teachers lecturing blended together. Sometimes it was about Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren, sometimes about differential equations. As they walked further, Tang Heng heard an elderly female voice discussing Zygmunt Bauman’s “Modernity and the Holocaust.”

Li Yuechi stopped and looked towards the end of the corridor. “I’ve attended this teacher’s class before.”

“During your undergraduate years?”

“Yeah, she was teaching the history of Western sociology. I attended one of her classes as an auditor, and she remembered me,” Li Yuechi chuckled. “Because I was the first one from the math department to audit her class. After that, she would call on me to answer questions in every class…”

Tang Heng hesitated for a few seconds, then asked Li Yuechi, “Should we go say hi to her later?”

Li Yuechi replied calmly, “No need, let’s go.”

Although Normal University wasn’t as large as Han University, it still took some time to walk around the entire campus, especially since the school was located on a hill with many ups and downs.

When they finally sat down in the cafeteria and Jiang Ya took Tian Xiaohui to buy food, Tang Heng whispered to Li Yuechi, “What time is it?”

Li Yuechi pointed to the digital clock on the wall.

The red numbers displayed: 11:25

It had been this long already—Tang Heng’s heartbeat suddenly sped up.

“The online reactions wouldn’t be this fast,” Li Yuechi said calmly, “Let’s finish eating and then check.”

Tang Heng said, “I can’t eat.”

“…Then turn on your phone.”

“Okay.”

Although Tang Heng’s tone was relatively calm, his fingers trembled as he pressed the power button. He had estimated in his mind that the official Weibo account of the “Hanyang Morning News” had 1.03 million followers, and according to the editor, half of them were bought… So even if only half of those 500,000 followers saw that Weibo post… Would 10,000 have seen it in just half an hour?

He thought the repost count probably wouldn’t exceed 1,000.

As his phone powered on, one message after another popped up. Tang Heng didn’t bother to check them, he went straight to Weibo. The account he registered was named “Tang Heng, Department of Sociology, Hanyang University,” presenting as much information as possible.

In the article provided to the “Hanyang Morning News,” they used the pseudonym Tian Wei for Tian Xiaoqin, while all other individuals were mentioned by their real names. They knew that the more real information they provided, the more convincing the facts would be.

This might be a last-ditch effort.

Tang Heng gripped his phone tightly and blinked hard.

He thought he was seeing things.

But—there was only one Weibo post on this account since eleven o’clock, he was sure he wasn’t mistaken.

17,000 reposts, 12,000 comments, 20,000 likes.

Tang Heng said in confusion, “Is this an illusion?”

“…No,” Li Yuechi was calmer than him, reaching out to open the repost section of that Weibo post.

The cafeteria buzzed with noise.

But Tang Heng couldn’t hear anything.

It seemed like only his vision remained.

He saw some names, some familiar, some almost forgotten by him—

@the demon, the female group’s manager Lin Lang: The original post is from my friend, also a talented singer. I hope the truth will come out soon.

@Wuhan Glitter Records – Lao Bu: I met these kids when I had a bar in Hongshan in 2011, later they all lost contact, didn’t expect something like this to happen.

@Ah Hao is the top 1 in Central China: The original post is from my bro.

@fu berlin, Zhang Baiyuan: May the truth come out.

…

Tang Heng rubbed his face, not knowing what to say. In the end, he could only say hoarsely, “They have so many Weibo followers…”

Li Yuechi said, “Yeah.”

He looked up at Tang Heng, then grabbed Tang Heng’s hand.

Jiang Ya approached with a bowl of fish noodles, “Hey, could you two pay attention to your surroundings? Xiaohui will be here soon!”

Li Yuechi smiled and said, “One good news, one bad news, which one do you want to hear?”

Jiang Ya nervously replied, “The bad one.”

“This fish noodle is terrible.”

“…Then what’s the good one?”

“The good news is,” Tang Heng raised his phone, “our hope is bigger than we imagined.”