Volume 3: Glimmer
Chapter 1: Old Friend
He looked down at the crumpled ticket in his hand. He slowly unfolded the paper, and the dense wrinkles on the paper were smoothed out. The small, carbon-black characters became clear in his vision.
Destination: Qingchuan.
…
“I want a ticket back to the capital.”
“I’m sorry, sir. The tickets to the capital are sold out until noon tomorrow. There are no tickets for the evening.”
“Then… then are there any to Qingchuan?”
“There’s still a train to Qingchuan. It will board in half an hour.”
…
At three or four in the morning, the overpass in the distance was standing in the dark night. The neon lights were flickering like fireflies falling into a dense forest. Two or three cars were speeding past, and the orange-yellow headlights were driving away the thick and dark shadows around him. The passengers on the same train were looking down and were rushing past him.
The night was very humid. The winter in Qingchuan was like a cruel torture of being pricked by a needle and cut by a knife. It was seeping into the gaps of his thin clothes, and it was twisting in the cracks of his bones. He was so cold that he couldn’t stop shivering even when he hugged his arms.
He didn’t know why he had come to Qingchuan. But in this life, he had only been to a few places. Perhaps he should have just stayed at the station and waited until the next day to take the train back to the capital.
But he couldn’t stop. He didn’t want to stay in the same place for a single second. It was a torment that was more painful than death.
He had lifted the gauze, and the truth had met him in a corrupt and foul form. He was confused, helpless, and numb. He had gone back with apprehension to find the truth. He had thought that it would cruelly stab him with a steel knife in his half-dead life, and he would continue to live a life that was worse than death. But what was funny was that the first emotion to disappear was actually fear.
He was not so scared, nor was he so urgent. It was more like a silence before death.
The identification of truth and falsehood made him tired.
He had thought that he was covered in mud when she had pulled him up. But it was an illusion. It was she who had pushed him down.
He gently closed his eyes and exhaled the turbid air that had accumulated in his chest. He killed the bitter and gloomy haze in his eyes and then opened his eyes and walked into the dim yellow halo of the streetlight in the distance.
Unfortunately, before he could find a place to rest, it started to drizzle. The misplaced raindrops were falling thinly, and they were pricking his flesh like small needles, a numb pain.
Su Yu unconsciously turned his head. A conspicuous white incandescent light was on at the entrance of the alley on his left, like a lighthouse in the darkness. He slowly took a step in that direction, and then a second step. In the end, he ran and brushed past the rain and ran into the 24-hour convenience store on the side of the road.
He was standing at the door, and he had wiped his slightly wet and dark hair with his sleeve. His eyes were as dark as the deep sea, and his face was pale from the cold, and the tip of his nose was red.
A few red threads were hanging on the air outlet and were fluttering. They were blowing out warm air. His stiff hands and feet were slowly regaining their sensation. A hazy mist was in front of his retina. He was like a traveler who had found a camp in the winter wilderness and had been saved.
The little girl who was dozing in front of the cashier looked up and glanced at him. She slowly straightened up and took a moment to straighten her crooked collar. She looked at the young man in front of her with some curiosity.
His messy hair was covering his eyes, and his jaw was tensed into a crooked and powerful straight line. The contours of his face were soft and close to people. Hmm… a very strange guy.
“Hello, welcome.” She greeted him professionally.
“I…”
His gaze moved down, and his Adam’s apple rolled. His lower abdomen was growling physiologically.
The oden in front of the counter was bubbling with hot steam. The meat and vegetables had been stewed until soft and mushy, and the aroma was alluring, tempting his sense of smell.
“I’ll have some of this…”
“Oh, okay. Do you want some radish?”
“Yeah.”
“Kelp knots?”
“Yeah.”
“Fish balls?”
“I’ll have them all.”
…
The ingredients, with the hot and steaming soup, rolled into his stomach. He put down his bowl and let out a long sigh of relief. He collapsed on the table as if he had been saved, and a wave of sleepiness came over him.
“Thwack!”
Su Yu subconsciously propped up his arms, and the back of his hand hit something. He looked down and saw a pack of cigarettes. The seal was open, and it was as if someone had accidentally left it here.
He picked it up. The lid of the box was ajar, and inside were a full pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He looked up at the dark night outside the floor-to-ceiling window. A few scattered stars were twinkling and were hidden in the clouds, and not a single ray of light could be found. The night was long and endless.
He hesitated for a few seconds. He took out a cigarette as if possessed and lit it with a lighter. He held it between his two fingers and put it to his lips with some unfamiliarity. The swirling smoke made his eyes squint. He had only taken a small puff, and he immediately coughed violently. A lingering and decadent smell of smoke was in his mouth, like a poison.
His throat was dry and uncomfortable. There was no water by his hand. Su Yu glanced at the counter with some guilt. The little girl was sitting behind the cashier and was staring at him with a resentful look. She was staring at the cigarette with a spark at his fingertips. He curled his lips and carefully extinguished the cigarette butt.
He threw the cigarette by his hand, and the annoyance and gloom at the corners of his eyes could not be relieved.
…
“Is this flower crooked?”
“I don’t think so…”, the boy who was holding the flower pot was so sleepy that he couldn’t open his eyes.
“Is it crooked or not?”, another person was chasing and asking.
The desolate and cold gray and white of the winter was spreading and was stagnant in the campus, and it was not willing to leave. A few boys were gathered together, and a pot of flowers and plants were neatly placed in front of the steps of the library, adding a few bright colors.
“I say, why are you so active, kid? You’re like you’ve been injected with chicken blood in this cold weather. Who are you doing this for?”
“Pfft, what do you mean, for whom? I’m doing this for the glory of our Youth Association. I’m proud of my labor.” The boy with glasses smoothed his glasses, and his golden curly hair was messy in the wind, and it was even more eye-catching than the flowers.
“It’s a lie at a glance. It’s clearly for Instructor An. The bird’s nest you got this summer vacation is so ugly that I can’t even look at it.”
The boy with glasses blushed in the cold and damp morning mist. He held his neck high and was about to explain. The corner of his eye suddenly caught a glimpse of a girl with a bun, who was holding a pot of bright red hibiscus and was walking over, parting the water mist. He coughed twice and closed his mouth.
The girl held the flower and put it in front of the steps. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, and she was very seriously arranging the distance between the flowers.
“Thank you for your hard work this morning, everyone. The teacher will treat everyone to breakfast later. Don’t be polite with the teacher.”
She smiled and waved her hand. Her fingers were slender and fair, and the ends of her hair were slightly curled. Her cheeks were covered with a fleshy and soft flesh, and they were a pale pink. Her dark and watery eyes were as clear as a mountain spring, and they were covered with a thin layer of a water mist, and they were dim, as if they were hiding an endless emotion.
The girl was not very tall. She had to stand on a few steps to be barely at the same level as a few male students. But her words were mature, like a ripe red apple. She had lost her former freshness, and she was bending the branches, and she was charming and sweet.
“It’s too much trouble for you, Teacher An. You always treat us to things. How about…”, the boy scratched his golden curly hair, and his face was even redder. “How about I treat you this time, Teacher An…”
“Haha, eating is a small matter.” An Zhi chuckled, and her eyebrows and eyes were curved. “But you, classmate, with such a conspicuous hair, you must be very popular at school, right? But I think I said last time that you should try not to dye your hair, especially such a conspicuous color.”
“Huh? You don’t like it, teacher?”, the boy lowered his head, a little dejected.
“Well…”, An Zhi tilted her head and looked at the boy up and down very seriously for a few moments. “I think girls still prefer boys with more substance. You, well… you’re too young.”
A few boys around him immediately laughed and teased him. The boy didn’t feel that he had lost face. He turned his head and went up to them and started to play around. The noisy sound had dispelled the deep and thick morning mist. Many students were holding books and were rushing to the library to get a seat. The morning run and aerobics teams were active in the square.
The figures in front of him were swaying, and it suddenly became lively.
An Zhi watched as the students walked away, and the smile in her eyes slowly faded. She sighed and lowered her head, preparing to leave.
Suddenly, a person appeared from the crowd. He was wearing a white shirt and black pants. She had inadvertently glanced at him, and her heartbeat was instantly out of sync, and her fingers were clenched.
“Su…”
Her red lips parted and then were bitten tightly.
She ran down the dozens of steps, and the rough feeling of the sand being crushed was transmitted from the soles of her shoes, and it was stimulating her particularly sensitive nerves at this moment. The obscure emotions were filling her misty eyes, and the sadness was spreading like a tide.
A wave of students who were holding books were coming towards her. They were like a nuisance, and they were blocking her, and they were driving her away. The cold air was poured into her mouth, and the illusion was dashed.
She looked up again, and the white mist had suddenly become thick. The thin and dejected figure was hidden in the overlapping water mist, like an illusion.
It had just rained in the middle of the night, and the air outside was damp again.
Her eyes were red, as if it were about to rain again.
…
Author’s Notes:
It might be a little jumpy. A straightforward narrative is too tedious. This is the most space-saving way. It’s okay if you have doubts. Just slowly watch the story in front of you. For example, why did Su Yu dare to come to Qingchuan? Why didn’t Qian Ge come to find him?… there will be explanations later to make you understand. Sometimes it’s because you’ve forgotten, so you think there’s a problem with the plot. But actually, it’s all been mentioned in the article.
Just like the previous single chapter, it’s not that I wrote it badly in the back, which is why you can only understand it with an explanation. It’s that many things may have been forgotten by you, which is why you can’t understand it. That’s why I specially opened a single chapter to explain. But it also has a lot to do with my tedious writing. I’m still guilty.
Translator Notes:
(😭)
