Only two days had passed. The way Yang Shuyi smiled had not changed at all, and yet everything was different. Shao Wu sat frozen in his chair, unable to move, as though electricity were running through him from head to toe, even though he had never actually been electrocuted. To put it melodramatically, he felt as if every cell in his body were trembling, each one turned into a tiny iron filing, while Yang Shuyi was the magnet drawing them all toward him.
“What’s wrong?” Yang Shuyi walked in and stopped in front of Shao Wu’s desk. “Did the exams fry your brain?”
Shao Wu shook his head, grabbed his document folder, and deliberately avoided Yang Shuyi’s eyes. “No… let’s go.”
He knew that from now on, he would never again be able to face Yang Shuyi with a completely clear conscience.
The two of them slowly walked out of the school gates. It had snowed in Yongchuan for two days, and the snow still had not melted. Darkness came early in winter; evening was already settling in, and the lanterns along the roadside had been lit. Red pinpricks of light stretched down both sides of the long street, making everything look wonderfully festive. Shao Wu murmured, “It’s almost New Year.”
“Yeah. It’s already the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month.”
There were only six days left until New Year’s Eve. Then came the first day of the New Year, when every household went visiting, followed by the second day, the third… It would not be until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, after eating yuanxiao and watching the fireworks, that the New Year would truly be over and school would begin again. Twenty-one days.
“Where are you going?” Because of the snow, Shao Wu had taken the bus to school that day. “Going home?”
“Mm. My dad and Auntie are going to Yingxiu for New Year this year.” Yang Shuyi gave a small smile, his expression faintly mocking. “They’re leaving tomorrow.”
“Huh? Yingxiu?”
“Auntie’s family is from Yingxiu. It’s… somewhere around Aba.” Yang Shuyi shrugged. “I don’t really know exactly where. They only registered their marriage this year, and my dad said they’re going there for New Year so he can meet her relatives.”
“Oh. So it’ll just be you and Grandpa and Grandma celebrating together?”
“Yeah.” Yang Shuyi casually pinched a little snow from the railing beside the river. It melted into water almost immediately against his fingertips. “My dad’s really fucking something, isn’t he? Grandma only just got out of the hospital, and he’s already rushing off to spend New Year at somebody else’s place instead of looking after his own mother.”
Shao Wu looked at Yang Shuyi’s reddened fingertips and had no idea what to say. Yang Shuyi really did have a bad relationship with his father, but that was still his father. Shao Wu could hardly join in and criticize him.
“So you don’t have to tutor Longlong anymore?”
“Nope. She can make a mess of her homework on her own.”
“…”
After hesitating for a moment, Shao Wu asked, “Then… do you still need me to tutor you?”
Yang Shuyi laughed, and this time it was a genuine laugh. He draped an arm over Shao Wu’s shoulders. “We’ll see.”
Shao Wu understood. Yang Shuyi probably had no intention of doing his homework.
They waited together at the bus stop. Shao Wu’s bus arrived first, but it was crowded, so he did not squeeze aboard. Of course, there was another selfish reason: he wanted to stay with Yang Shuyi a little longer. The stop was full of students who had just finished their exams, all laughing and joking noisily. Amid the commotion, Shao Wu asked quietly, “Do you know about those things with Wang Yujun?”
Yang Shuyi asked, “What things?”
“Like… that he owes a lot of money?”
“I don’t think it’s that much. From what I know, he usually borrows a few dozen yuan here and there from people he knows at the internet café. It probably doesn’t add up to much.”
Shao Wu stared at him in surprise. “He even has to borrow a few dozen yuan?”
“That I don’t know.”
Shao Wu rose onto his toes and spotted another Route 22 bus approaching in the distance. He immediately felt annoyed. Why did Route 22 have to come so quickly? There were still so many things he wanted to ask Yang Shuyi, so many things he wanted to say. But winter break was about to begin, and twenty-one days was a very long time.
Route 22 soon pulled into the stop, and a crowd surged toward the doors. Shao Wu took one step forward, then turned back to ask Yang Shuyi, “If you have time during winter break, want to go out somewhere?”
“I don’t know. I have to look after Grandpa and Grandma.”
“Then if you do go out, call me!”
“No problem.” Yang Shuyi pointed toward the bus. “Go on.”
Shao Wu had no choice but to hurry over and board. He squeezed into a spot by the window and, through the speckled glass, watched Yang Shuyi standing there in that same oversized black down jacket. Even after the bus started moving, Shao Wu kept looking. One hand gripped the rail, while the other was already raised to his chest. He was ready: if Yang Shuyi looked his way too, he would wave. But in those few brief seconds, Yang Shuyi’s figure grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared, and he never once looked toward Shao Wu.
The strength went out of Shao Wu’s raised hand. It dropped to his side and swayed gently with the motion of the bus.