The Long Night - Chapter 24

When Tang Shaocheng woke up, he was disoriented for a moment. The curtains were tightly drawn, and the room was dim. He had no idea what time it was.

His chest was buried in a messy clump of hair. Ever since they started sleeping in a big bed, every morning was a surprise. Yan Liao could end up anywhere.

Tang Shaocheng slowly and gently moved the fluffy head from his chest, but he still woke him up. Yan Liao opened his eyes blankly. Before his mind was even awake, his body moved instinctively, climbing back onto Tang Shaocheng and settling into his original spot. He yawned and asked, “What time is it?”

Tang Shaocheng lit up the screen on his phone. “Ten.”

“…I’m late.” He had actually completely missed his first class and was late for his second. Yan Liao sensed a faint light through his eyelids. He reached for his phone, ready to ask for a leave of absence.

Tang Shaocheng held his wrist. “It’s Saturday today.”

Yan Liao lay back down, let out a long sigh, and couldn’t fall back asleep.

He haphazardly picked up a shirt and put it on. He shuffled into the bathroom in his slippers. He stopped after two steps, pinched his inner thighs, and turned to look at Tang Shaocheng with clear eyes. “It leaked.”

“…”

It was going to be a long morning.

By the time they were done, it was almost noon. After lunch, Tang Shaocheng locked the study door. He couldn’t afford to be so self-indulgent. Yan Liao looked like he had left two claw marks on the door. The person inside remained calm and composed, unaffected.

A moment later, Yan Liao knocked again. “I cut some watermelon.”

“Eat it yourself.”

“I cut some watermelon, husband.”

…

He was finally let in, like a tiger released back into the wild. Tang Shaocheng was working on his laptop at the desk. Yan Liao sat next to him, feeding him watermelon. The more he looked at the screen, the sleepier he got. He scratched his head and went out to get his drawing board, with an apple stuffed in his pajama pocket.

Tang Shaocheng watched him skillfully set up his drawing board. He suddenly felt a strange tingling sensation on his scalp. It was as if they were reunited after a long time. Yan Liao said, “I won’t bother you.”

“It’s okay if you do.”

The sound of his typing softened, and he could hear the clearer rustling of the pencil on paper. He could feel the other’s presence. It felt as peaceful and secure as being on Noah’s Ark. In the past and in the present, the chaotic images were like the flickering snow and static on a television screen with no signal. No matter what timeline they were in, it was always just the two of them.

The long, infinitely gentle afternoon sunlight streamed into the room. Everything was the physical embodiment of happiness.

Yan Liao had gotten some gray streaks on his fingers. He hadn’t noticed that he had also smudged a gray patch on his chin, making him look like a dirty kitten. Tang Shaocheng took out a wet wipe and cleaned his face. “What are you drawing?”

“You.”

At noon, they reheated last night’s leftovers. They then went downstairs to the supermarket next to the complex and carried two full shopping bags back, refilling the fridge.

Yan Liao ate a hawthorn snow bar. The vibrant red food coloring on his lips made his skin look even fairer. He ate too fast and let out a puff of cold air, making his face scrunch up. He rubbed his cold lips against Tang Shaocheng’s neck, trying to be mischievous by making him shiver, too, on this hot summer day.

After he was done playing around, he clung to Tang Shaocheng, not wanting to leave. “I’m so tired.” He wrapped his legs around his waist, one by one inserting his fingers into Tang Shaocheng’s, and rubbing his head against his arm. “I don’t want to sleep alone.”

It was a very simple request for a nap. Tang Shaocheng patted his butt. “Should I buy you a teddy bear to hug?”

“…I’m not sleeping anymore.”

His mood changed faster than flipping a book page. He sat up from Tang Shaocheng’s lap, quickly and decisively moving to another chair with wheels, and pushed himself far away.

Tang Shaocheng closed his laptop and raised his hands in surrender. He spread his arms toward Yan Liao. “Come here, let me hug you.”

Yan Liao hadn’t even dropped his cold expression when his body instinctively moved into his arms.

He hadn’t been still for long. Yan Liao moved the laptop to the side, kicked off his slippers, and sat on the table. He nudged Tang Shaocheng’s knees with his feet and suddenly remembered, “Are you going home for the summer break? My mom asked if you wanted to come back with me.”

Tang Shaocheng remembered what he had agreed to last time. He reached out and squeezed Yan Liao’s calf. “Then let’s go back.”

This semester flew by. He had six final exams, which felt like a flashback to high school. After the last exam, he ran into Li Qiao-hai, who asked him to go out for dinner. Tang Shaocheng naturally said he was busy again. This time, he didn’t say “partner” and just laughed. “I’m going home to take care of my kid.”

“Did you change your career to a nanny, Lawyer Tang?” Li Qiao-hai joked.

Tang Shaocheng was still his usual humble self in front of his classmates. “I’m not a lawyer yet. I’m just helping out.”

He helped a professor record grades for two more days. He had high scores on his assignments and exams, but since he wasn’t often on campus, he didn’t have many opportunities to help his teachers for extra credit, so he had to make up for it now.

Yan Liao was the first to hand in his paper for every exam. In the hallway, he saw the only classmate he knew, a very easygoing guy.

“Dude, I’m heading out. If the teacher asks, just say…”

The guy answered fluently, as if he were taking an oral exam. “If you’re late for class, say you were stuck in traffic. If you leave early, say you were in the restroom. If you don’t show up at all, say you were sick, and you’ll hand in a note next week.”

Yan Liao was on the verge of tears. He immediately saw him as a sworn brother. “You’re a real one.”

He left the exam room early. There weren’t many people in the hallway. Outside, he saw a few students with suitcases. They were all going home after their exams, and there were even some suitcases sitting outside the classrooms.

Some boys were playing basketball on the sports field, drenched in sweat under the hot sun. Yan Liao stood below the law school building and looked out from a distance. He suddenly remembered Lu Xiao—not that it was sudden. He had just seen a photo of the two of them on Ge Dong-lin’s social media a couple of days ago.

Yan Liao’s mind wandered for a bit, not really making sense of the connections. When he saw Tang Shaocheng come out, he quickly put all of it behind him.

They walked out of the school along the shady, tree-lined path. As they left the campus gate, Yan Liao looked back. It had been a year already. Time had passed so quickly.

As soon as summer break began, they prepared to go back home. They had tickets for the night train. They couldn’t get a sleeper seat, but being young, it wasn’t a big deal to sleep on a hard seat for a night.

The moonlight shone on the ground like glistening salt. The two of them sat on a bench in the waiting room. The armrest had an electronic screen showing the train number and the weather.

“My mom said that my aunt hasn’t been home in a long time recently.”

Yan Liao suddenly brought this up, his thumb rubbing Tang Shaocheng’s wrist.

“Mhm?” Tang Shaocheng thought for a moment before he realized that the “aunt who hasn’t been home” was his mother. He didn’t think much of it. “How do you know?”

Yan Liao moved his hand from Tang Shaocheng’s wrist to his fingers, as if he were squeezing a stress ball. “My aunt left her key and asked if I could water her flowers when I had time.” He hesitated, looked up at Tang Shaocheng. “Do you want to call her?” He then said slowly, “Your aunt must miss you, too.”

Tang Shaocheng sighed. “Mhm.” He didn’t sound very emotional.

The broadcast above them announced that the train was about to arrive and that passengers should get ready for boarding.

“Bend down a bit.” Yan Liao switched to a command. “Lean forward.”

Tang Shaocheng leaned down slightly. Yan Liao, just like how he was usually patted, quickly ruffled his hair.

“Don’t be sad.”

Tang Shao-cheng stood up, his dark eyes like pools of autumn water. He smiled. “Okay, I won’t be sad.”

The two of them pushed their suitcases and followed the crowd to the ticket gates. Tang Shaocheng lowered his eyes. The long escalator seemed to have no end.

The conflict between him and his mother began when he was a child and was taught to “be a good son, listen to your mom, it wasn’t easy for her to give birth to you.” So he couldn’t talk back, defy, or argue with her. When he grew up, that line changed to, “You’re mature now, so you should be more considerate of her. You can’t be willful like a child.” When had he ever been willful? And when he got even older, she would say things like, “You’re a man,” in a cautionary tone. The final point was always the same: “Your dad passed away. Your mom is very pitiful.”

No one ever thought he was pitiful. Everyone thought he was naturally born to be superior, to take control of his life with ease. It was a given that he would walk a completely correct path, never faltering or taking a wrong step.

Only Yan Liao told him, “Don’t be sad.”

It was past nine by the time they got home.

Tang Shaocheng unlocked the door. The house was so desolate that it could have been filled with spiderwebs. The dim light created a dark void. The light had been off for so long that the electricity was weak.

He opened his suitcase and started tidying up. He planned to stay until school started again, and the law firm had agreed to let him work remotely. It didn’t make a difference where he was.

Tang Shaocheng remembered that in his previous life, his mother also quit her job around this time to start her own business in medical aesthetics, and it was starting to take off. He stood in the living room, thought for a moment, and made a call.

After the call connected, mother and son exchanged a few pleasantries, asking about their recent lives. There were a few seconds of awkward silence between their sentences.

The other side was quiet. His mom might have had a drink. Her voice was like a misty fog, and her words were disconnected. “If it weren’t for you, I would have gone to find your dad long ago.”

Yes, that’s how she talked. “If it weren’t for you.” That opening line hadn’t changed in years.

Tang Shaocheng laughed coldly in his heart. He didn’t say anything else, thinking, just let it be. Just as he was about to hang up, he heard his mom say on the other side, “Yan Liao called me.”

His finger paused on the red “end call” button. They were both quiet for a moment. One or two car horns sounded outside, mixed with a long sigh.

Tang Shaocheng asked calmly, “Why?”

“I don’t want to get involved in your business anymore. If you can live well, it would be my way of answering to your father.”

It wasn’t “your business,” it was “your business.” Yan Liao wouldn’t have confessed on his own. Maybe it was a mother’s intuition that led her to guess the truth.

Tang Shaocheng’s expression froze. There was no hysterical, stormy rage like in his past life, no red-eyed questioning, no cursing or swearing. His mother said it calmly, even a little affectionately. “If you can live well.”

This was a scenario he had never considered. In his previous life, the conflict between him and his mother began when she found out about them. It was a catastrophic blow, as if a train that had been running smoothly on its tracks suddenly veered off course and plunged into the deep sea. She was sitting in the driver’s cab, falling with it, and she believed with conviction that Tang Shao-cheng had ruined his life and hers, too.

“Yan Liao told me he knew I wasn’t home and was very worried about me.” His mother paused and gave a light laugh. “I have never heard you say that to me in my entire life.”

Tang Shaocheng gripped his phone. Before he could even think of what to say, there was only a long, empty dial tone.

The sound of car horns from the traffic outside, the faint, dim yellow light, the tiny specks of dust dancing in the light beam, and the contours of the furniture that had been covered with a white dust cloth for a long time. All of these disappeared from his senses.

He looked up and, completely off guard, saw a bright, full moon outside the window.

Eighteen years old, a time of innocence and sincerity, with a clumsy tongue and no defenses. He only knew how to use the most simple and honest methods.

In his previous life, they got together in their twenties. They were already financially independent, two individuals who had left their families and were free. As for “cutting off ties,” it didn’t sound as devastating as it did in their teenage years. At that time, they knew to maintain a sense of adult decorum, respecting, understanding, and accepting each other without overly interfering in each other’s family issues. They just shared the consequences.

It was hard to say which path was best, but the things he was experiencing now were taking a different turn.

The next morning, Tang Shaocheng had just gotten up when he heard a knock on the door. When he opened it, he saw Yan Liao wearing a T-shirt and shorts, leaning against the door frame. He invited him out like a gentleman escorting a princess. “May I ask if you are free today?”

After saying that, he couldn’t help but let out a whistle and became a rascal again.

Tang Shaocheng’s lips curved into a smile. “I am. What do you want to do?”

“Then will you come to my house for a meal?” Yan Liao asked, looking up at him with great restraint. The restraint only lasted for a second, then he couldn’t help but say in a fast-paced voice, “And you can sleep with me tonight.”

“Okay.”

Tang Shaocheng ruffled his hair.

They went downstairs and entered a warm, bright living room. They heard a familiar and kind voice, “Xiao Tang is here.”

Whether it was in his previous life or this one, this family always gave him a sense of acceptance and warmth. It was here that he could feel family and love.

Tang Shaocheng was always grateful to Yan Liao’s parents. Above all, he was most grateful that they had brought Yan Liao into the world.

Yan Liao was smiling all morning, the kind of smile that comes from hiding a secret but being too happy to stop.

He was too excited to sit still. He sat in the living room for a bit, then ran to the kitchen and got two fried meatballs. His dad chased after him, yelling, “You little rascal, stealing food again!” But when he saw that Yan Liao was giving them to Tang Shaocheng, his expression immediately changed. “You two are still growing. Eat more.”

His parents were busy welcoming Tang Shaocheng. They acted like he was their own child, even saying something insincere like “You’ve grown taller.”

Yan Liao’s mom was a little distant toward Yan Liao today. He didn’t know if it was just his imagination.

The dinner table was set with a rich spread of five dishes and one soup. Yan Liao sat next to his mom, facing Tang Shaocheng at the round table. He was still not sitting properly, and he couldn’t help but smile even with rice in his mouth. He looked a little drunk and wanted to talk to everyone.

The TV was playing a variety show from the summer lineup, with exaggerated sound effects playing from time to time. The meal was very lively, but there was an indescribable weirdness about it. The turning point happened when Yan Liao’s dad casually asked, “How are things at school? Are you getting used to university life?”

Yan Liao bit his chopsticks and smiled again. “It’s been a year. What’s there to get used to? It is what it is. I just want to graduate early…”

BANG. His mom suddenly slammed her chopsticks down. “How dare you say something like that?”

It was as if the lights had been suddenly turned off. The atmosphere became tense. A moment of silence. No one spoke. The air was filled with an invisible, taut steel wire.

Tang Shaocheng also became nervous. He instinctively thought they had found out about him and Yan Liao, but his aunt and uncle’s attitude toward him tonight was kind and friendly, without a hint of hostility, which made him think it couldn’t be that.

“What’s wrong?”

Yan Liao frowned, confused. His eyes met Tang Shaocheng’s, and his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

His mom took a deep breath. She hadn’t meant to bring it up. Yan Liao had just gotten back last night, and she didn’t want to talk about it, but her anger erupted like a volcano. “Your advisor told me everything!”

Yan Liao’s expression instantly went from tense to bewildered. His mind went blank. “What does she have to do with anything?”

“Your department only has one exchange student slot. Your professor talked for so long to recommend you, and what did you do?” His mom slammed the table. “You said you wouldn’t go! You actually said you wouldn’t go!”

A second of complete silence.

“…I’m perfectly fine here. Where would I even go? Can you stop forcing me?”

Yan Liao put down his bowl. He suddenly felt that the restaurant lights were so blinding that his eyes started to sting. He clenched his fingers on his knees, looked away, and suddenly didn’t dare to make eye contact with the other person at the table again.