In the next two minutes, Tao Ling coughed his lungs out.
The feeling of water choking into the trachea was really uncomfortable, as if the entire nasal cavity was about to split open.
As Wen Qingying watched him coughing incessantly, he handed him a tissue and got up to pat his back. At the moment he approached, Tao Ling turned off the screen of his phone.
After he finally stopped coughing, Tao Ling waved his hand. “It’s fine, I’m okay. I just choked.”
Seeing him calm down, Wen Qingying sat back across from him. Just then, the noodles were also ready, allowing Tao Ling to bury his head and avoid the awkwardness from earlier.
Tao Ling was completely puzzled, his mind still lingering on the title of the post just now. He felt like there was something to critique, yet at the same time, there was nothing worth critiquing.
While eating the noodles, he raised his eyes.
Wen Qingying had his head lowered, still good-looking even from this angle, with his high nose, dense eyelashes, and a blemish-free forehead.
Tao Ling couldn’t figure out what was going on with this person. Even eating was done with the utmost seriousness, similar to his expression when wrapping flowers. It was as if the bowl in front of him also needed a bow tie.
After a brief two seconds, Tao Ling felt that his behavior was somewhat… off. So he casually shifted his gaze away, pretending not to notice.
After a belated lunch, Wen Qingying had to return to open shop. Tao Ling helped move a few pots of flowers, silently lamenting that lifting them twice a day was indeed physically demanding.
After washing his hands, Wen Qingying typed a message to him: “Sir, if you don’t want to be alone, you can stay here with me.”
Today, Tao Ling didn’t really want to be alone, but upon seeing this message, he changed his mind and responded, “I’m going home.”
Wen Qingying pursed his lips slightly, as if regretting the words he had just written, but ultimately smiled a little.
In the instant he turned around, Tao Ling regretted it, but the words were already spoken, or rather, they were already typed, and there was no reason to turn back. Besides, Wen Qingying was originally a stranger to him. They had only visited the cemetery together and shared a meal, nothing more. There was no reason for him to stay by his side at a time like this.
After returning home, Tao Ling still called out, “I’m back.”
Vacant silence.
Ever since he threw away the dead stems from the previous flowers, the vase still sat there on the bedroom’s balcony. Tao Ling held the bouquet of Chinese bellflowers and that one blue hydrangea as he changed his shoes and fetched the vase.
After removing the excess leaves and immersing the flower stems in water, he finally breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing small bubbles attached to the stems.
Even after taking medicine, he was still insomniac for a couple days, so when he suddenly felt sleepy, Tao Ling quickly took a shower and burrowed into bed.
After lying down for a moment, he opened his phone. The interface was still on the post from earlier. After clicking it open for a look, the entire building screamed the same thing: “He’s so handsome.”
There was someone agreeing in the comments, saying they’ll go buy flowers every day now.
Tao Ling: “…” After being stunned for a while, he let out a “tsk,” then threw his phone off to the side to sleep.
This time, he did fall asleep really quickly, but his head felt a little dizzy when he woke up. Tao Ling glanced outside in a daze. The sky was dim, it seemed like it was already night.
There was a strong wind outside. The windows weren’t closed, and it banged on the wall.
After closing his eyes in deliberation for a bit, he finally rubbed his temples and got out of bed. He wanted to pull open the curtains and close the window, but he forgot that the flowers were still on the window sill. Just as he reached out, the heavy curtain slammed into the vase.
Before he could react, there came a sudden crash of shattering glass, and a shard flew up, grazing his hand. Water had already started to flow to the floor.
After a moment’s pause, an entrenched sadness suddenly climbed up his spine. Within the murky night, Tao Ling abruptly bent over.
The wind blew fiercely, and for a moment, the urban landscape seemed to transform into a boundless wilderness, leaving behind only a solitary figure’s silhouette and the glass vase he had just broken.
On Monday, the religious studies conference would be held at the provincial university. Tao Ling’s paper was scheduled for the afternoon session, but in the morning, he had to critique an article, coincidentally from S University, authored by a doctoral student from his shixiong Kou Huai’s department.
After finishing up his tasks early in the morning, Tao Ling went downstairs to pick up Kou Huai, and they headed to the conference together. Fortunately, the location wasn’t far, just in the large conference room next to the religion department.
It seemed like ever since he was an undergraduate, all academic conferences he had observed or participated in followed the same pattern, lacking any novelty or creativity.
Nonetheless, he managed to critique the paper he had read, took a break, and then Kou Huai insisted on dragging Tao Ling to talk to a professor from A University. However, the professor himself was engrossed in conversation with acquaintances and couldn’t break away. After waiting for a while, the conference resumed, and Tao Ling smiled, quickly walking back to his seat.
Kou Huai, frustrated, tapped Tao Ling’s paper a few times, but Tao Ling just smiled and brushed it off.
Before the surroundings had completely quieted down, someone suddenly called out, “Teacher Tao.”
Tao Ling turned and saw a short-haired girl, probably a student from their university, who came to sit in on the session.
The girl’s pair of big, watery eyes were fixed on him, and her appearance seemed somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen her before, so he only nodded slightly.
In the afternoon, Tao Ling presented his paper in a plain and ordinary manner, then waited for others to give their plain and ordinary critiques. There weren’t any ripples in Tao Ling’s heart, he only felt like he had completed a task.
During the free discussion period, he slipped out of the conference room. He was standing on the balcony and feeling the wind when someone approached from the end of the hallway. At first, Tao Ling didn’t pay attention, but then the figure stopped beside him.
“Teacher Tao, I just listened to Your paper, it was especially good. Would it be okay if I asked you a question?” It was the girl from earlier.
Tao Ling turned his head: “Go ahead.”
The student pondered for a moment and then said, “I’ve been reading Mr. Zhan Shichuang’s books lately, he mentioned that Taoism can continuously become a new trend in Chinese traditional culture. I wanted to ask, how do you interpret this sentence, teacher?”
Tao Ling was slightly surprised: “Are you a graduate student from the religion department? I haven’t seen you before.”
Upon hearing his question, the girl suddenly seemed a bit shy and whispered, “That’s not it, teacher. I’m Yun Nan, from Kunming, Yunnan Province. I’m a senior, but I’ve already decided to pursue my master’s degree here, in literature and art.”
“Oh.” Tao Ling replied, suddenly recalling the events during the graduate school admissions process. Finally, he realized why she looked familiar.
Yun Nan smiled. “Students in my major probably won’t ask stupid questions like I am, right?”
Tao Ling pushed up his glasses: “A question is just a question. As long as you don’t understand, it’s good enough that you asked. There’s no such thing as a stupid question.”
Yun Nan nodded quickly.
Tao Ling thought for a moment. “When you ask how I interpret this sentence, are you talking about Daoist Arts, Numerology, and Literature and Arts? In his book, the author has provided an explanation. Taoism has the characteristic of inclusiveness. Its system of deities is complex, continuously absorbing traditional Chinese beliefs from its origins. This ensures it has a solid foundation and conditions for dissemination among the people. Put simply, people can find satisfaction in it because they can always find a suitable way of belief within it.”
Pausing for a bit, he continued. “Of course, this is a more generalized view. From my personal understanding, we can further explore this question, and use experiences from foreign religions to explain. Scholars interpret religions as needing to provide insights into life. Moreover, if we delve deeper, the purpose of religion’s existence isn’t about God or deities, it’s about people’s lives.”
Yun Nan looked earnest. Blinking as Tao Ling finished speaking. When Tao Ling glanced at her again, her expression somehow reminded him of Wen Qingying.
Ever since returning home on Saturday, he hadn’t seen Wen Qingying even once.
“And then, teacher?” Yun Nan saw that Tao Ling remained silent for a moment, and cautiously asked.
The author has something to say:
【Note】The purpose of religion is humanity: This is a generalized statement in the field of religious studies, so there isn’t a specific source. Those interested can start by reading foundational works in religious studies.
The earlier point about the inclusive nature of Taoism, as Tao Ling mentioned, comes from Mr. Zhan Shichuang’s book “Daoist Arts, Numerology, and Literature and Art.” The summarizing statement is my own synthesis.
The translator also has something to say:
I translated this right after writing 2 essays for my philosophy midterm, so you can imagine how “fun” that philosophy portion was. And no, I’m not a philosophy major, so I bs’ed my way through both this and my midterm.
Anyways, I’ve already made an announcement in the KnoxT discord, but for those who aren’t in the server: I’m currently dying with midterms so sorry about delayed updates, and thanks for understanding ^^
