Three days later, Yu Zhinian met with Liu Han, his interviewee as planned.
Liu Han was Yu Zhinian’s former roommate back when he rented in a village within the city. Liu Han was a helpful guy who loved reading in his free time and had helped Yu Zhinian quite a bit.
They met at an outdoor noodle shop next to Liu Han’s new construction site. Yu Zhinian treated Liu Han to a bowl of ramen, and they chatted while eating.
The midday sun was blazing, and Yu Zhinian didn’t have much of an appetite, so he only ordered a bottle of iced soda. They talked for over an hour until Liu Han got a call from the foreman, urging him to return to the site.
By then, Yu Zhinian had asked almost all his remaining questions, so he picked up the bill.
When Liu Han found out that Yu Zhinian would be leaving soon, he reluctantly shook his hand goodbye.
After saying their farewells, Yu Zhinian started walking towards the subway station. After walking a short distance, something about the surroundings felt familiar. He looked up and suddenly spotted a familiar building tower, realizing he was near his old high school.
The school used to be in the suburbs, but over the past few years, with Ning City’s development and expansion, it had gradually been surrounded by high-rises and had become the center of a district.
The tower he saw was part of the multimedia building, with the top floor used as a small theater for school performances. The drama club sometimes put on plays there.
Yu Zhinian had once gone to see a play with Yang Ke. The ticket was a gift from a junior who was acting as an innocent young girl in the performance.
In the afternoon he invited Yang Ke. Yang Ke, who was swimming at home, just finished a warm-up lap. Yu Zhinian knelt by the pool, catching a faint whiff of chlorine in the air.
The pool was blue, like the ocean or a sunny sky. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the swimming hall were dense green plants. Reflections off the water fragmented the white ceiling into shimmering waves, creating a surreal and humid warmth inside.
In the water, Yang Ke raised his face to look at Yu Zhinian, water dripping from his black hair and trailing along his jaw to his chin.
Yu Zhinian remembered asking him, “Tomorrow at 7:30, are you free to come watch this play with me?”
He held the ticket out to Yang Ke, trying to let him see it clearly. But somehow, the ticket slipped from his fingers and fell into the pool.
Yang Ke didn’t say anything, just retrieved the ticket from the water, glanced at it, and set it back on the pool’s edge.
The ticket was printed on white cardstock, and after being soaked, it lay limp and stuck to the marble edge of the pool.
A bit embarrassed, Yu Zhinian picked it up, noticing the patterns and words on the cardstock were slightly blurred.
“Will a wet ticket still get us in?” Yang Ke asked.
“I don’t know,” Yu Zhinian hesitated, “I think it should.”
Yang Ke told him, “Dry it out and try tomorrow,” agreeing to join him and then turned and dove back into the water.
The actual content of the play was a blur for Yu Zhinian. All he remembered was walking with Yang Ke into the dimly lit school theater as night fell.
The student checking tickets was distracted, scrolling on their phone, and didn’t question the ticket that had been soaked and dried. The theater had that faint smell of old wooden furniture.
Yang Ke sat quietly beside him, and they watched the entire play together.
In Yu Zhinian’s memories, many moments with Yang Ke were silent. Yang Ke didn’t talk much in private, and Yu Zhinian was always there in companionable silence.
After the play ended, Yu Zhinian received a text from the junior, asking him to come backstage to meet her.
Their driver was already parked at the north gate near the theater. Yang Ke didn’t leave first but accompanied him to the back, waiting outside the stage door.
When Yu Zhinian entered backstage, the junior wasn’t there. Instead, another girl he vaguely recognized was waiting. Nervously, she introduced herself and, stumbling over her words, admitted she’d liked Yu Zhinian for two years.
She asked if he had a girlfriend. Yu Zhinian remembered his answer clearly: “No, but I’m pursuing someone.”
The girl froze, stood there for a moment, then said, “Well, I hope you succeed soon.” Yu Zhinian thanked her, and then, as if unable to control it, she started crying.
Yu Zhinian was good at handling these kinds of situations and didn’t find it difficult at all.
He politely waited until she’d stopped crying, then walked out with her.
She hurried away, running towards the stairs. Yang Ke was standing by a pillar, arms crossed, waiting for him.
“Sorry,” Yu Zhinian said to Yang Ke. “Took a while.”
Yang Ke smiled at him and, unusually, teased him, “Seems like you attract attention wherever you go.”
“No way,” Yu Zhinian denied vaguely, making up an excuse offhandedly, “I was filling out a survey for the drama club in there.”
“Really?” Yang Ke, just slightly taller than him, looked down at him at the stairwell entrance, his shadow falling over Yu Zhinian. He looked at him with dark eyes and casually said, “Go get me one too, and fill it out.”
But at that moment, Yang Ke’s grandfather called, urging Yu Zhinian to come home, asking if the play was over and if he’d gotten in the car.
So the conversation didn’t continue.
Back then, Yu Zhinian always believed that Yang Ke treated him differently from others, that their interactions held a certain familiarity. Knowing more of each other’s secrets, he thought their bond was closer than that of ordinary friends.
But now, he wasn’t so sure. Maybe he’d misinterpreted most of it.
Yang Ke was a difficult and unpredictable person—moody and changeable. Sometimes, after a whole night of analysis, Yu Zhinian still couldn’t figure out his motives or thought process.
Under the scorching sun, Yu Zhinian felt dazed. Walking into the subway station, the cool shade cleared his head a bit.
Scanning his pass to enter, Yu Zhinian received a text from the airline, showing that his flight from Ning City to He City had been booked for May 5.
Before he could think it through, Lawyer Li, Yang Ke’s grandfather’s estate trustee, called.
Just then, the subway pulled in, roaring as it came to a stop.
Nan Qiao Station was a major hub, bustling with passengers. Yu Zhinian squeezed in with the crowd, grabbed a metal pole, and answered Lawyer Li’s call.
Lawyer Li was talking on the other end, but Yu Zhinian could barely hear him. After asking multiple times, he finally understood that Lawyer Li had booked the ticket for him.
“Smith informed us… you’re coming back soon,” Lawyer Li’s voice sounded broken. “Regarding Chairman Yang’s… will trust, we… should meet soon, …so I got you a ticket.
“If you truly… intend to decline the trust… there are many documents to sign.”
“Also… some of the trust’s terms… might not be clear to you… I’ll explain them properly. Take these days… to reconsider seriously whether you’ll make… a decision.”
“Zhinian… personally, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Yu Zhinian agreed.
After hanging up, he suddenly thought about texting Yang Ke but wasn’t sure what to say.
Maybe he’d just tell him the return date was set, that he’d rented a place for moving things out from Yang Ke’s place, then casually ask how he was doing, acting like nothing happened, bright and easygoing.
He’d made sacrifices; he deserved a bit of a reward.
From Nan Qiao Station to Ning University Station was eight stops, and during the twenty-five-minute ride, Yu Zhinian mentally went over all the possible conversation openers, only to suppress the urge to reach out, reminding himself that Yang Ke probably didn’t want to hear from him at all.
A passive disinterest, a cold display of dislike. Yu Zhinian had grown up.
The subway doors opened as they arrived at the station.
Ending his pointless daydream, Yu Zhinian held onto his phone, shouldered his bag, and stepped off the train. The edge of the phone dug into his fingertip, causing slight discomfort, but he didn’t ease his grip.
Up the escalator, down again, and out of the station, he habitually picked up his phone, maybe for the ten thousandth time, checking the screen.
A small, almost hopeless hope bubbled up like tiny bubbles rising from the bottom of a water bottle.
But as soon as he realized he still hadn’t received any message from Yang Ke, the bubble at the surface popped.
