The Long Night - Chapter 13

After the college entrance exam, Yan Liao spent a few days playing games non-stop and then dragged Tang Shaocheng to his house to play games for half a month.

The two of them sat on the carpet in front of the chaotic LCD screen. It was the first time Tang Shaocheng had ever touched one of these. Yan Liao was surprised and felt sorry for him when he saw how clumsy he was with the controller, not even being able to move the character properly. He immediately felt a great sense of responsibility to make up for this person’s boring childhood.

He tirelessly taught Tang Shaocheng for a few days, going from scoffing, “I’ve never seen such clumsy movement,” to being dumbfounded and asking, “Are you cheating?” Unconsciously, he had cultivated a powerful opponent for himself.

But Yan Liao was not convinced about the “next wave pushing the one before it” thing—he was determined to reclaim everything that belonged to him.

When they played his favorite racing game, it was as if he could use his body to remotely control the steering wheel on the screen. After one round, he would be bouncing around like a cicada trapped in a glass bottle. Sometimes, when he was trying to overtake on a curve, he would squeeze himself against Tang Shaocheng to increase the frictional resistance, choosing the most primitive method of weight suppression over a battle of strategy and skill.

What a great physics student.

He would even go so far as to sit directly on the other person’s lap, not only preventing him from playing but also blocking his view. If he still couldn’t win the game, he would very competitively let go of the controller and cover Tang Shaocheng’s eyes, pull at his fingers, or bite his arm… Later, when he realized that this behavior was impolite, he changed to pulling out the game console’s power cord or running to the living room to flip the main circuit breaker.

After losing for several days in a row, Yan Liao learned from his pain and solemnly and despairingly announced that he would never play games again. When his parents heard this, they thanked Tang Shaocheng profusely, almost wanting to send him a banner that said “miraculous hands, turn decay into magic,” thanking him for saving their son’s life from video game addiction.

It was drizzling outside the window.

The pattering sound was like a rhythmic organ.

The rain that the college entrance exam had owed them was now being returned with interest these past few days. The weather forecast was switching freely between “light rain,” “moderate rain,” “heavy rain,” and “heavy to torrential rain,” as if the remote control were broken. Every day there were red and orange alerts. Even when the sky was clear, there was a sharp feel to the air. Just when the citizens were watching to see what new tricks the weather would play, the weather alert showed “typhoon.”

A few days ago, no matter how bad the weather was, they had to go to school and work. But after the typhoon hit, public transportation was suspended. Even though they still had to work and take classes from home, it was a happy thing to have a holiday, except for the group of people who had just finished the college entrance exam and were already on holiday.

The weathervane on the roof was spinning rapidly, and white plastic bags were flying in the air. On the first day of the typhoon, Yan Liao still felt a strange excitement about the extreme weather, but after being cooped up at home for a few days, he became listless like a plant that lacked sunlight.

He wasn’t even interested in watching anime anymore. He sat in front of the window with his head drooping, looking dejected, like a puppy who refused to wag its tail because it couldn’t go out and play. His only remaining pleasure each day was to go to Tang Shaocheng’s house or to call him and nag him into coming downstairs.

It was wet and cold outside the window, but the room was warm. Tang Shaocheng put down the controller. The child who had begged him to beat the game no matter what was curled up on the carpet, and at some point, he had fallen asleep to the rhythmic sound of the rain.

After the game’s sound effects were turned off, the room became as quiet as melted butter. Yan Liao’s head was resting on his two folded arms. His breathing was long and even. His body was curled up like a small shrimp. His soft hair covered his eyes and was slightly wavy. The lines from his nose to his jaw were clean and sharp. From time to time, he would purse his lips in his sleep.

Tang Shaocheng looked at him for a long time. He took a pillow from the head of the bed, wanting to save the arm that Yan Liao was using as a pillow. But as soon as he touched the child’s hair, he unconsciously rubbed his head, rolled over halfway, and very comfortably rested his head on Tang Shaocheng’s lap. His arm was next to his face, and his fingertips touched the other person’s body temperature through the thin fabric.

The muted screen only had colorful images flashing. Tang Shaocheng pressed the power button, and the room immediately became dimmer.

The weak light from the desk lamp shone on Yan Liao’s profile. His face, innocent in sleep, made people’s hearts soften. The orange halo spread out in circles on his fair skin like water ripples. Tang Shaocheng leaned against the bedside cabinet and sat on the carpet. His long fingers stroked the halo and then touched the child’s hair.

The plan to save Yan Liao’s arm was a success. It’s just that the pillow was replaced by his leg. Outside the window, it was a continuous drizzle. The only sound in the quiet bedroom was the child’s gentle breathing.

Tang Shaocheng saw a storybook on the bedside table. He picked it up and flipped through a couple of pages. It was an illustrated book in a fairy tale style, with pictures of ceramic bunnies in beautiful clothes. The narration read, “Open your heart, and someone will come. Someone will come to pick you up. But first, you must open your heart.”

The feeling on the day the results came out was a little calmer than he had imagined.

The two of them were in Yan Liao’s room, sitting on the thick white carpet. The weather outside was still a little gloomy. The lead-gray clouds were floating in the pale sky, looking heavy, as if they were being dragged along.

Yan Liao was so anxious he would stand up and pace around for a few minutes. He would refresh the page with the results every two minutes. It felt like he was staring at the sea from a close distance and felt like he was suffocating.

“Do you think I might have forgotten to fill in my answer sheet?” He sat on the round cushion. Even the cushion felt like a lifesaver floating in the sea. “I can’t remember if I filled in the answer sheet or not.”

“Don’t overthink it,” Tang Shaocheng said helplessly, pouring him a glass of water. “Relax.”

The sound of his throat moving as he drank the water was also like he was drowning.

As soon as the results were released, the internet became a mess. It took a long time for the results page to load. Yan Liao almost cried out when he saw his score, and when he saw Tang Shaocheng’s score, he completely let out a cry.

He felt so happy it was as if he were walking on clouds.

This pure happiness lasted for a few days. It wasn’t until it was time to apply for universities that Yan Liao felt a little nervous again. He paced around Tang Shaocheng’s room nervously, hesitating for a long time before cautiously speaking.

“So we can go to the same university now, right?”

His voice was still a little doubtful. This person’s terrifyingly high score meant he could go to any school he wanted. Yan Liao was always worried that he would change his mind. “…Can I see your university application after you fill it out?”

Tang Shaocheng chuckled. “Okay. Log in to the system and check it yourself.”

Yan Liao didn’t hesitate this time and had great execution. He immediately picked up the laptop from the desk and put it on his lap. “What’s the password?”

Tang Shaocheng said a few letters and numbers. The last four were 1209, which sounded familiar. Yan Liao’s fingertips paused on the keyboard. His ears felt a little hot, wondering if it was a coincidence. He looked up, then down, then at the ceiling, and then at the trees outside the window. He deliberately spoke in a casual tone. “…Hey, my birthday seems to be in here. How strange.”

“It is your birthday.”

Yan Liao was secretly pleased that he had found a clue, but now he was startled by the other person’s lighthearted honesty.

His eyes widened like two bright searchlights. “Why are you using my birthday as a password?! Why don’t you use your own?” After he said it, before Tang Shaocheng could answer, he decided to strike first. He said resolutely, “Do you have any ulterior motives for me?!”

By the end of his sentence, his voice had gotten softer and softer. His eyelashes drooped, and his eyes looked to the side. His earlobes were so red it looked like they were bleeding.

Tang Shaocheng glanced at him sideways and said slowly, “Since you already know, it saves me the trouble of confessing.”

…

In an instant, all the blood in his body seemed to rush to his head.

Yan Liao stared blankly with his mouth open. His expression was like “the person seems to still be here, but they’ve actually already left for a while.” His eyelashes trembled, and he truly looked like he had been scared silly.

Tang Shaocheng looked at the child’s flustered appearance, and the smile in his eyes deepened. He didn’t continue to bully him and explained concisely, “I was afraid my mom would log in and change the university application.”

So he didn’t use his own birthday.

But he also didn’t use any other numbers.

Yan Liao’s expression was a little confused for a moment. In the end, he couldn’t tell if he was angry or disappointed. His heart also seemed to fall helplessly. He indignantly threw the pillow at Tang Shaocheng and said in a depressed voice, “Don’t make such boring jokes. It’s so annoying.” After being annoyed for a while, he furrowed his eyebrows and asked in a low voice, “What if Auntie doesn’t want you to apply to this school?”

“I’ll handle it,” Tang Shaocheng said in a gentle tone. “Don’t worry.”

I won’t leave you.—he quietly added this sentence in his heart.

Yan Liao wanted to say more but didn’t in the end. It was always difficult to interfere with other people’s family matters. Tang Shaocheng didn’t seem like a rebellious teenager. He seemed to have a great sense of control over everything.

It had always been this way.

But what happened afterward didn’t make Yan Liao feel much more at ease.

In the next few days, he could hear earth-shattering noises from a floor below. It sounded like something was smashing on the floor with a crisp sound.

Yan Liao clenched his fists and ran upstairs to knock on the door hard. His lips were pursed. The moment he saw the other person, his eyes were wet like rain clouds. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

Tang Shaocheng stood at the door. There was a gruesome wound on his forehead that was still seeping blood. He didn’t care. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and squeezed Yan Liao’s shoulder firmly. “Go home first. Be good.”

Before the college entrance exam, Tang Shaocheng had contacted the admissions office of C University and negotiated the terms. After the results came out, he received a call. The other party promised that as long as he enrolled, his tuition would be waived, and he would also receive an additional scholarship every year. He had a premonition that he would have another argument with his mother, so he left a way out for himself.

As expected, when he told her which university he had applied to, his mother was so angry she almost flipped the table over. She pointed at him with a pale face and questioned him in a sharp voice, “Are you trying to get revenge on me? You’re just like your father. You both want to get revenge on me!”

“Am I not good to you? Am I not good enough for you? Why can’t you be a little more promising? Why can’t you let other people see—”

It was as if there were a huge chasm between the two of them. Tang Shaocheng stood opposite her with a lukewarm expression. Even though he looked cold and heartless, his heart was filled with sadness and helplessness.

He had originally wanted to talk to her one more time before he left home, at least so that their relationship wouldn’t end up like in his previous life, never speaking to each other again. But this time, it seemed that not only had nothing changed, but the ending had even been sped up.

The contradictions in his mother were hard to put into words. She was a woman who was decisive and resolute at work and was praised as an independent woman who had clear personal boundaries. But in reality, the thing she cared about most in everything she did was what others thought of her. In her expectation of others’ approval, she became a seemingly excellent winner.

Her own life seemed to have been unknowingly devoured. She was covered in shallow and deep marks of being transformed, but because they came from different people, she couldn’t find the culprit.

The only people who were truly punished were herself and her most intimate person.

So, in the end, no one compromised.

In July, after they had applied for universities, they just had to wait for the acceptance letters. In addition to a banner being hung at the school entrance to announce Tang Shaocheng’s top score in the city, the glorious deeds of Yan Liao improving his score by 100 points in three months were also posted on the display board outside the field for the next class to look at.

The two of them also took advantage of the long summer vacation to learn how to drive. Under the scorching sun, Yan Liao was very enthusiastic about learning to drive—it would have been even better if he hadn’t hit the instructor.

After one vacation, neither of them got a driver’s license.

After the video game incident, Tang Shaocheng had learned how to take care of the child’s self-esteem, so their learning content was always in sync. Except when Yan Liao was driving recklessly with the steering wheel, forcing the instructor to climb a tree.

In September, they took a high-speed train to a neighboring city, a three-hour journey. The two of them had two large suitcases and a lightweight backpack, and they also had a few packages on the way.

Yan Liao was very excited about leaving home for the first time. He had a smile that he couldn’t hide on his face. As soon as he got on the train, he was chattering like a sparrow. But after talking for less than ten minutes, Tang Shao-cheng couldn’t hold on to his drowsiness anymore.

Until the moment he was about to leave, his mother had been screaming, “You go back and retake the exam!” She had tormented him until midnight before finally letting him go—or rather, giving up. Tang Shaocheng was extremely tired. He leaned his head against the seat and fell asleep quickly.

Yan Liao leaned closer, so close that he could see the slight tremor of the other person’s eyelashes, the faint dark circles under his eyes, and the soft fuzz on his face.

He really wanted to touch Tang Shaocheng’s face, but he was also very considerate and didn’t want to wake up this person who looked so tired. He gently pulled down the sunshade.

Outside the window was the familiar city that was constantly moving backward. The two of them were leaving their hometown together. He had a refreshing mint candy in his mouth, and he felt a subtle feeling of “from now on, we will rely on each other” as the scenery receded.

It wasn’t a feeling of melancholy. In fact, it was the opposite, a feeling of longing.

Yan Liao secretly reached out his fingertips and carefully touched the raised blue veins on the back of Tang Shaocheng’s hand and then poked his palm.

After about half an hour, the train passed through a plain. Outside the window was an endless expanse of lush green, dotted with sheep that looked like white clouds.

Tang Shaocheng slowly furrowed his eyebrows in his sleep.

The picture was as chaotic as an old projector. In his dream, he was in a hospital. The red light on the operating room door turned green.

He walked in. The walls and bedsheets were a cold white. He felt like he stepped into a wet puddle. He lowered his head and saw a shocking amount of bright red blood on the floor tiles. A mechanical, emotionless voice came from somewhere, “The family can come to claim the body.”

He walked to the hospital bed and stared at the familiar outline of the body under the white sheet. His hands trembled as he reached out to lift it—

At the moment he woke up, the train rumbled. The car shook violently, the lights flickered, and the next second, it entered a dark, narrow tunnel.

“Tang Shaocheng?”

The voice in the darkness hit his heart as if it had traveled through decades. The pain was excruciating. Tang Shaocheng suddenly opened his eyes. He couldn’t see anything. He instinctively raised his arms and hugged Yan Liao, pulling him tightly into his embrace.

All he could see was pitch black. Yan Liao’s face was buried in his strong chest, and he could clearly hear the deafening drumbeat of his heart.