Wen Qingying said that he will go to Shengnuxiang the next day to restock. Tao Ling originally wanted to go with him, but he needed to go to work on Monday, so he just asked what to do next time if that kind of thing happened again.
Wen Qingying remained silent.
At eleven, they walked to Tao Ling’s community together. Before they parted ways, Tao Ling typed, “Give me your phone number.”
Wen Qingying took his phone and entered his number.
Tao Ling immediately gave him a call. They both saved each other’s numbers, then added each other on WeChat. Tao Ling felt a little more at peace.
Finally, he smiled and patted Wen Qingying’s shoulder, signaling for him to also hurry home. Wen Qingying understood his meaning, but didn’t move for a while.
Tao Ling was about to ask if there was anything else, but Wen Qingying already had his head lowered as he typed a sentence on his phone and showed it to Tao Ling. “Sir, can I hug you?”
His gaze was too clear, like a youth who was restrainedly asking his senior for love and attention. Even though Tao Ling’s heart was trembling at this sentence, he couldn’t think of anything else.
The two of them put their phones in their pockets at the same time, as if they were going to complete some kind of ritual next, and had to clean up the venue and tidy themselves up in advance.
After a while, they smiled at each other, and Tao Ling leaned over and hugged Wen Qingying tightly.
One stood on the steps, and the other stood on the ground. It was clearly just a coincidence, but it made it easier for Tao Ling to hold Wen Qingying’s shoulders, like a protector.
Under the bougainvillea1
on the walls of the community, in a corner where light and shadow intertwined, Wen Qingying’s forehead leaned against Tao Ling’s shoulder. After hugging for a long time, he opened his mouth, tried back and forth several times, then finally soundlessly said something.
Then they separated, and Wen Qingying walked home in the moonlight.
Tao Ling stood at the intersection and watched his back disappear, then went home with overflowing thoughts.
The security door separated worlds. Tao Ling leaned against the door and calmed down for a long time. Finally, he said what he didn’t dare to say just now, words that he didn’t dare to say even though he knew that Wen Qingying couldn’t hear him—
“I like you.”
Before falling asleep, he received a message from Wen Qingying. “Good night, sir. Actually, I’m not sad.”
Tao Ling smiled, drank a sip of water, swallowed the sleeping pills, and replied, ”Good night, sweet dreams. I felt really bad, so I wanted you to hug me.”
Wen Qingying: “I wish that you can dream of what you want to dream.”
After reading the message and turning off his phone, Tao Ling turned sideways and, holding the pajamas that Wen Qingying had worn the day before, gradually fell into a rare dream.
As Tao Ling closed his eyes, Wen Qingying sat in the living room without turning on the lights, clicked on Yun Xin’s avatar, and wrote a sentence. “Yun Xin, just what are you trying to do?”
Yun Xin replied very quickly: “Wen Qingying, what do you mean?”
Wen Qingying: “Exactly what I said.”
Yun Xin: “Let me tell you, Wen Qingying, you’re just a thankless wretch. Don’t pretend to be obedient, don’t pretend to be harmless in front of my sis and my dad, and don’t think I don’t know what you’re planning!”
Wen Qingying couldn’t bother to exchange more words with her. He gritted his teeth, then replied, “Yun Xin jiejie, this is the last time I’m calling you jie. If you destroy something I care about again, I really won’t back off. And, you’ve been immersed in your own imagination for far too long, maybe you’ve developed a bit of paranoia. I suggest you go see a psychiatrist.”
Yun Xin exploded immediately. “Wen Qingying, you bastard, explain it clearly! What do you mean? Why are you throwing dirty water at me?”
Wen Qingying exhaled and deleted her contact.
After a while, Bai Guan’s message popped up: “If you don’t explain clearly, I’ll never let you off the hook!”
Wen Qingying wrote, “Bai Guan ge, if you don’t get your phone back, I will delete your number. I’m tired and don’t want to play games with you at all.”
This time, the message came two minutes later. “I’m sorry, Qingying. I don’t know what happened today, but it really has nothing to do with your sister. She stayed at home all day long.”
Wen Qingying: “I’m going to sleep. Bai Guan ge, sleep early.”
Bai Guan: “Good night.”
After taking a shower and doing vocal cord rehabilitation and pronunciation exercises, Wen Qingying sat at the head of the bed and looked at his phone.
He reread Tao Ling’s WeChat messages several times and even memorized his WeChat ID, even though it was just a string of random letters. Then he opened the chat and read the two sentences for a long time, then finally changed the chat background picture.
He sat there until he was too sleepy to bear, then reluctantly fell down, covered himself with the quilt hastily, and hoped that the dawn would soon come.
As the cold wind blew, time, as light as a feather, also quickly went by.
Another week passed. On Saturday night at home, Tao Ling finally received a reply to the paper he submitted to the journal during early autumn. However, it was just a rejection notice.
After studying for a doctorate for so many years, he was used to receiving rejection notices. After reading the email, he calmly sent a message to Kou Huai: “First kill achievement.”
Kou Huai sent out a long string of laughter, then said, “They’re so efficient, it only took two months for the kill. Keep up the persistence. The conference in Beijing this time will publish a journal, but only that it’s useless. The good articles are still kept for submission.”
The two of them exchanged some words, and Tao Ling clicked on Wen Qingying’s avatar.
Wen Qingying almost never posted on WeChat Moments, and there wasn’t even a background picture. There was only a lonely picture in it, which was the same green chrysanthemums as his avatar.
But Tao Ling was used to clicking in and taking a look when he had nothing to do.
After a moment of hesitation, Tao Ling sent a message. “The paper I submitted more than two months ago was rejected.”
Wen Qingying: “Ah? Even sir’s papers can be rejected?”
Tao Ling smiled: “Who hasn’t had their paper rejected?”
“That makes sense.” Wen Qingying replied.
His tone felt very light. Even though it was just like when they communicated face-to-face, because of the distance of the internet, it seemed like he could really hear him talking.
Before receiving the new email, Tao Ling was browsing the forums. He still remembered the sentence he saw a few days ago of Wen Qingying saying he had a lover.
But the topic of single or not was too abrupt to bring up no matter how he asked. Tao Ling didn’t know how to be more natural. The key was that he couldn’t tell Wen Qingying that he had always been paying attention to him.
After thinking about it, he had to give up. After chatting casually for a bit more, Tao Ling suddenly remembered that today was Saturday and asked, “Is the store closed today? Did you go anywhere?”
Wen Qingying: “Did sir come by the flower store?
Tao Ling: “No, I just passed by last week and found that you didn’t seem to be open on Saturdays. I forgot to ask you.”
Wen Qingying, “Yeah, I give myself a day off on Saturdays and don’t open the store.”
Tao Ling: “Where do you go during breaks?”
The message came after a while. Wen Qingying said, “Just strolling around and also going to the cemetery. Just like how I went with sir before.”
Tao Ling thought about it, then said, “Let’s go to the cemetery together next Saturday?”
Wen Qingyting responded quickly. “Okay, sir.”
Tao Ling: “See you on Monday.”
Wen Qingying: “See you on Monday.”
After talking to Tao Ling, Wen Qingying was about to go take a shower when a call came in. It was from an unfamiliar number.
He hung up habitually, and a text message came immediately from the other end: “Wen Qingying, don’t lie, I know you can hear me, pick up the phone!”
Wen Qingying took a deep breath, and before he could act, another message came. “What happened last week wasn’t me! I can’t do such a thing in the middle of the city! Even if I wanted to smash your store, I won’t have others smash it!”
After seeing this, Wen Qingying blocked the number and immediately sent a message to Bai Guan. “Bai Guan ge, I won’t be using this number anymore starting tomorrow. Tell her not to harass others. I will keep my promise and not take Yun Nan with me. Please understand, Bai Guan ge, please stop disturbing my life again and again.”
Bai Guan replied after a long time. “I’m sorry, Qingying. She hasn’t been in a good mood lately.”
Wen Qingying originally wanted to end it there, but finally added, “And please don’t come to the flower shop again. Otherwise, who knows what I’ll say to Nannan2Yun Nan’s nickname.”
Bai Guan: “Okay, apologies.”
After class on Friday night, Tao Ling and Wen Qingying walked back to the flower store together as usual.
Now that they’re used to communicating face-to-face on WeChat, they don’t have to push their phones around anymore. It was more convenient, but Tao Ling felt somewhat regretful.
Just what was it that he was regretting, he himself doesn’t want to think too deeply about it either.
They sat in the shop, each eating an apple, when Wen Qingying suddenly asked, “Sir, during class earlier, I saw on your slides that each Taoist scripture school tries to establish its own orthodoxy. What exactly does this orthodoxy refer to?”
This question was odd. Tao Ling didn’t expect him to ask this but still answered seriously, “In simple terms, it means having legitimate authority.”
Wen Qingying: “Is legitimate authority very important?”
Tao Ling: “Actually, if you look at the changes in Chinese dynasties, you’ll see. Simply put, if there’s no legitimate authority, it’s called rebellion.”
Wen Qingying didn’t type anything, just nodded.
Tao Ling wanted to ask him if he was in a bad mood but thought it might be meddlesome. He casually opened his work email and saw an unread message from two days ago.
For some reason, his phone hadn’t notified him.
The sender was the journal that previously rejected his manuscript. Tao Ling felt a bit helpless and muttered to himself, “Why send two rejection notices?”
When he opened it, it said the opposite. The editor asked Tao Ling if the previous paper had been transferred to other journals. If not, he could make the first revision.
The attachment was the returned manuscript with comments of preliminary review.
Tao Ling was somewhat surprised, and asked Kou Huai. Kou Huai said, “That’s a good thing!”
“Got it,” Tao Ling agreed and replied to the publisher.
After sending the email, he looked up at Wen Qingying, who was also looking at him. After a bit, Wen Qingying lowered his head and sent him a WeChat message. “Sir, did anything good happen?”
Tao Ling smiled: “Good things always happen when I’m with you. The publication that rejected the paper told me that it has been reviewed.”
Wen Qingying smiled happily and replied, “That’s great!”
Although he couldn’t see the strangeness that was on his face just now, Tao Ling couldn’t help asking, “Are you in a bad mood today?”
Wen Qingying: “Maybe I slept too late last night, and sir’s lecture today had a lot of content, so I was thinking.”
Tao Ling: “Then we can go to the cemetery a little later tomorrow.”
Wen Qingying nodded, showing his little tiger teeth.
The next day, it was almost noon when the two arrived at the cemetery. Wen Qingying brought two bouquets of flowers as usual, this time white carnations.
They first went to Tao Jun’s tomb, and when they were walking towards Wen Qingying’s mother’s grave, Tao Ling faintly heard something.
He turned to look at Wen Qingying, who caught his gaze and looked back inquiringly. Tao Ling shook his head.
They passed through the cypress bushes one after another when Wen Qingying suddenly stopped. Tao Ling released the hand that held on to a tree, and without paying attention to what was in front of him, bumped into his back.
Tao Ling took a step to the side, and when he looked up, he was stunned.
In front of them stood two people, and another who kneeled in front of the tombstone. The one who kneeled exclaimed in surprise, “Ge, Teacher Tao?”
Tao Ling turned his head to look at Wen Qingying. Perhaps because Yun Nan was there, his face wasn’t cold. He even politely nodded at Bai Guan, then looked towards Yun Nan and smiled.
Yun Xin, who stood besides them, frowned.
Yun Nan got up, skipped over to Wen Qingying’s side, and hugged him happily.
The brother and sister gestured a few times, and then Wen Qingying walked to the grave and placed down the flowers.
Yun Nan took the opportunity to turn around and ask Tao Ling, “Teacher Tao, are you accompanying my ge?”
Tao Ling: “I’m here to see my ge.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Yun Nan was a bit embarrassed.
Tao Ling raised the corners of his mouth.
In the next few minutes, none of them said anything.
Tao Ling felt a bit awkward and wanted to leave first, but Yun Xin suddenly said, “This… Nannan’s teacher, I have something to say to my didi, can you please step aside for a moment?”
Then she turned to Yun Nan: “Take your teacher on a stroll nearby and ask for advice on problems.”
Yun Nan gestured to Tao Ling. Tao Ling nodded, and was about to leave with her when Wen Qingying also got up. Seeing this, he stepped forward and grabbed Tao Ling’s arm.
Tao Ling pursed his lips lightly, patted the back of Wen Qingying’s hand, and pointed to the main road outside.
Wen Qingying remained unmoved, and the hand holding his arm didn’t loosen at all.
Yun Xin looked at him impatiently, and Bai Guan had no expression. Only Yun Nan seemed a little nervous. She looked at Tao Ling in surprise, then at Wen Qingying, and gestured to Wen Qingying.
Wen Qingying shook his head and still pulled Tao Ling.
Tao Ling was helpless and said, “This, Wen Qingying’s jiejie, you can just say what you want to say. You guys use hand gestures anyways, I don’t understand it.”
After he said this, Yun Xin and Bai Guan looked at each other. In a flash, Tao Ling understood that they did have something to say to each other, and it wasn’t to avoid him, but to avoid Yun Nan.
This family sure was strange.
