Chapter Twenty-Seven
The red embers from the firecrackers hadn't yet been blown away by the wind, and winter's chill pressed down low, like a cotton quilt soaked in ice water, covering the old town.
The clock has long since struck midnight, and the calendar has turned to the first day of the Lunar New Year, but for senior high school students, the meaning of the holiday has been torn to shreds by the countdown to the college entrance examination—only 157 days remain.
Tan Yuze didn't wake up late; it was 8:30. The sunlight filtering through the curtains was like a knife, slashing at the dark circles under his eyes from staying up all night. He reached for his phone on the pillow; the screen was lit—the red dot in the upper right corner of the "TIMI" icon was still there, like a silent mockery: after a five-game winning streak last night, he lost three straight games, and his rank plummeted.
Tan Yuze, having nothing to do, played games at home. When faced with his teammates' actions, Tan Yuze didn't hesitate for a moment: "Do you even know how to play? I wiped out the enemy team and you guys got wiped out as soon as I came back. What's going on? If you don't know how to play, go back and practice, bro."
After playing a few matches, Tan Yuze was so angry with his teammates that he almost got high blood pressure. He was really unhappy and had lost several stars in the matches, but he didn't care. He just felt that his teammates were idiots.
"Trash teammates," he muttered, kicking the blanket to the foot of the bed. In the living room, Lu Yi was frying the leftover dumplings from last night until they were golden brown, the oil sizzling as he sat on the sofa watching a rerun of a Spring Festival Gala skit, his laughter exaggeratedly jarring.
Tan Yuze's account ID is "Ze Wuguiqi". He is a provincial-level Luna player with 2,000 points in the peak competition, but he was matched with three AFK players and one player who was practicing a new hero in the ranked match.
In the first game, the fifth player instantly picked Luban No. 7 and gave away the first blood at the start; in the second game, the enemy Lanling King became a godlike in ten minutes, while their own Cai Wenji built pure magic power; the third game was even more outrageous, the jungler Han Xin was killed by jungle monsters while invading the blue buff at the start, and typed in the public chat: "Network is lagging".
"Screw you!" Tan Yuze slammed his phone down, the back cover hitting the metal frame of the bedside table with a crisp sound. Lu Yi pushed the door open and came in: "Slammed it again? You just replaced the screen last time it broke!"
He took a deep breath, picked up his phone. The screen wasn't cracked, but his heart felt heavy. A notification popped up on the game interface: "Reputation Score -4," like a slap in the face. He opened his friends list; Xu Li's avatar was grayed out—"Offline for 7 hours."
Tan Yuze suddenly realized that throughout the winter vacation, except for New Year's Eve (which was yesterday), Xu Li was always doing practice problems in the corner of the library by the window, her eyelashes casting dappled shadows in the sunlight; while he was wearing headphones, fighting in a game, and occasionally when he looked up, he could see her frowning as she solved a derivative problem.
As Tan Yuze shuffled past in his slippers, Lu Yi looked up and asked, "Kid, you've been playing games all night?"
"Hmm," he mumbled, and went into the bathroom. The sound of running water masked Lu Yi's voice—"After the exam, you can do whatever you want."
The boy in the mirror had a tense jawline and a mocking smile: "Exams over? Who's still playing King of Glory after the exams? It's long gone." Meanwhile, two kilometers away in an old residential area, Xu Li pulled the hood of his down jacket up to his nose, leaving only his eyes showing.
She sat at her desk, not with the textbook "Five-Year Study Guide" spread out in front of her, but with a copy of "Snow Country." The electric blanket was on its highest setting, a blanket covered her knees, and the heater beside her feet glowed with an orange-red light.
He grabbed a jacket and sent a message to Xu Li.
My phone vibrated—a message from Tan Yuze:
"Want to go out for dinner? I'll pick you up."
She stared at the screen, her fingertips hovering above the keyboard. Outside the window, the kid across the hall was playing with firecrackers, the explosions sounding exactly like the "defeat" notification sound from his game last night. She replied:
What do you want to eat?
[The usual place.]
Xu Li's "shell" is a one-bedroom apartment left by her grandmother. Her grandmother passed away last winter, but the radiator seems to remember her habits, getting so hot that you could fry an egg in it by the afternoon.
She nestled on the sofa and turned to the last page of "Snow Country"—"Passing through the long tunnel that leads to the county, one enters the snow country."
Tucked between the pages of the book was a high-speed rail ticket, D2025, the third day of the Lunar New Year, from Beijing West to Harbin West.
My grandmother's last trip before she passed away was supposed to be to see snow, but she ended up being hospitalized due to pneumonia. The ticket stub is yellowed at the edges, like an unfulfilled promise.
The phone vibrated again:
[Tan Yuze: Really not coming? My treat.]
She recalled last summer vacation when they sat in their "old spot"—the restaurant near the school gate. Tan Yuze picked all the ginger shreds from the sweet and sour pork and put them into her bowl, saying, "Eating ginger will prevent you from catching a cold, so you won't cough again in winter."
That day, he reached the highest rank in the game and smiled as if he had found five million dollars.
Xu Li closed the book and replied: [Ten minutes.]
Xu Li changed her clothes and put on makeup; she looked beautiful.
The old place has changed its signboard from "Home-style Dishes" to "That Year We Met". The owner is still the same chubby uncle, but he has less hair and his apron is printed with the words "Get Rich Quick".
Tan Yuze sat in a booth by the window, with a pot of barley tea on the table, the steam condensing into white mist in the cold air.
When Xu Li pushed open the door, she brought in a blast of cold air. Her black down jacket made her face look even paler, and the tip of her nose was red from the cold.
Tan Yuze waved, his voice lighter than he had expected.
Xu Li sat down and wrapped her scarf around the back of the chair: "I thought you would be late."
Do I look like that kind of person?
“Yes.” She looked down at the menu. “Last time we made a reservation at the library, you overslept and made me wait forty minutes.”
Tan Yuze choked, then changed the subject: "Sweet and sour pork? Or Three Treasures of the Earth?"
I want to eat vegetarian food today.
"The pickled cabbage and glass noodles, plus a serving of rice," he shouted to the owner. "Uncle, less spicy!"
Before the food arrived, the two fell into a brief silence. At the next table, a group of middle school students were loudly discussing the newly released skin, and Tan Yuze's fingers unconsciously traced Luna's combo trajectory on the table.
"Still playing?" Xu Li suddenly asked.
"Hmm." He paused, "but my touch wasn't good today."
"Because of teammates?"
“No, it’s because…” he frowned, seemingly unable to find the right words, “It feels like repeating the same day over and over again. Winning is meaningless, and losing is even more frustrating.”
Xu Li poked at the goji berries in her teacup with her chopsticks: "Me too. I do practice problems every day, but the more I do, the more panicked I get, as if I'm not absorbing anything into my brain."
The dishes arrived. The sweet and sour pork was golden and crispy, and the pickled cabbage and glass noodles were bubbling away. Tan Yuze picked up a piece of meat, then put it back in her bowl: "Try it, it's sweet."
Xu Li took a bite, the sugar coating melting on her tongue, the salty aroma of the pickled cabbage balancing the greasiness. She squinted her eyes: "Delicious."
"Right? The boss got a new chef, but the recipe hasn't changed." Tan Yuze finally smiled, fine lines appearing at the corners of his eyes. "By the way, have the results of your essay competition come out yet?"
"Second place in the province." She pursed her lips. "Didn't make it to the national competition."
"That's already very strong."
“Not strong.” She put down her chopsticks. “My mom said that a second-place provincial award is useless for independent enrollment; you still have to compete in the national college entrance examination.”
Tan Yuze didn't reply. He remembered that parent-teacher conference, when his homeroom teacher patted him on the shoulder: "You're smart, but you're not willing to put in the hard work. Look at Xu Li..." At that time, he was staring out the window, where a sparrow was hopping in the snow, leaving a trail of footprints, like Luna's moonlight mark in a game.
After dinner, it started snowing. It wasn't the heavy, fluffy snow of the north, but rather fine, scattered ice crystals that rustled as they landed on the down jackets. Tan Yuze suggested a walk to digest, and Xu Li didn't refuse.
They walked along the moat, which was frozen over. Several children were skating on ice sleds, their laughter ripped apart by the wind. Tan Yuze suddenly said, "Actually, I dreamed about Luna last night."
"What?"
“Really. She stood in front of the crystal and said to me, ‘Stop playing and go do your math.’”
Xu Li laughed out loud: "Then how will you answer?"
I said, "You help me win one game first."
Laughter drifted away, and snowflakes fell on eyelashes and melted into water. Xu Li reached out and caught a snowflake, watching it turn into a water droplet: "Before my grandmother passed away, she said she wanted to see me in my graduation gown."
Tan Yuze turned his head to look at her. The snowlight reflected on her face, as if gilding her features with a silver edge. "You'll see," he said.
What if I fail the exam?
"Then let's repeat a year, and I'll be with you next year."
Xu Li stopped and stared at him: "Tan Yuze, when you're serious, it's not like you at all."
"Then what do I resemble?"
“Like…” she thought for a moment, “like Han Xin successfully raiding the enemy base, and then typing ‘That’s it?’ in the public chat.”
Tan Yuze laughed loudly, startling the sparrows on the branches. He suddenly reached out and brushed the snow off her hair: "Xu Li, let's go to Harbin after the college entrance exam."
"To go see the snow?"
"Okay. Grandma didn't take you, but I will." The snow was falling heavily. They stood at the bridgehead, their breaths mingling like a special effect from a game's recall animation. Xu Li nodded: "Okay."
It was already dark when they returned to the apartment complex. Tan Yuze walked Xu Li to the entrance of her building. She turned around, then looked back again: "Tomorrow..."
“I’m going to skip traveling tomorrow,” he answered quickly. “You shouldn’t do any more practice problems either. Let’s go to the library, and I’ll borrow ‘Snow Country’ from you.”
"The library is closed."
"Then let's go to Xinhua Bookstore and sit on the floor to read."
"Okay." She waved. "Good night."
"good evening."
Tan Yuze went upstairs, where a new couplet was pasted on his door: "With tireless writing, one can traverse the mountain of books; with success in the imperial examinations, the sea of learning is boundless." The horizontal inscription read: "Victory in the College Entrance Examination is Certain."
He stared at it for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed, took out his phone, and uninstalled Honor of Kings. When the progress bar reached 100%, the system prompted: "Confirm?"
He clicked "Yes".
Meanwhile, Xu Li sat at her desk, put "Snow Country" back on the top shelf, pulled out an A4 sheet of paper, and wrote:
[156 days to go]
Below was a drawing of two crookedly drawn rabbits, one wearing headphones and the other holding a book. She picked up her phone and texted Tan Yuze: "See you tomorrow."
He replied quickly. "See you tomorrow."
The screen went out, and the snow outside the window stopped. Moonlight pierced through the clouds, shining on the frozen surface of the Huangpu River, like Luna's mark, like an unfinished promise, like the youth of all high school seniors compressed into specimens.
At 6:05 a.m. on the third day of the Lunar New Year, the sky was like diluted ink, with only a thin line of bluish-white appearing in the east.
Tan Yuze was woken up by his alarm clock, and his first reaction was to reach for his phone—the screen was clean, and the "TIMI" icon had disappeared. He was stunned for two seconds before he remembered that he had really uninstalled the game last night.
In the kitchen, the dumplings that were made before leaving last night were neatly stacked in a food storage container, looking like rows of chubby little white guys. Lu Yi was watching the morning news in the living room when he heard Lu Yi get up and was so surprised that he dropped the remote control.
"Did the sun rise in the west? Aren't you going to sleep until ten o'clock today?"
"I'm going for a run," Tan Yuze mumbled, putting on his down jacket and rushing out. Xu Li was already waiting at the entrance of the residential complex.
She was wearing a cream-colored scarf, her nose was red from the cold, and she was carrying two cups of soy milk, with steam rising from the rims.
"Good morning." She handed him one of the cups. "I added five spoonfuls of sugar to activate your brain." Tan Yuze took the cup, his fingertips touching her cold knuckles, and he reflexively flinched. "Why aren't you wearing gloves?"
"I forgot to bring it."
"Here, take mine."
"No, what will you do to cover my ears if your hands get stiff?" The two jogged slowly along the Huangpu River. The ice reflected the morning light, like a broken mirror, and occasionally an old man fishing in the morning would break a hole in the ice, splashing up tiny water droplets.
Reaching the second bridge, Xu Li suddenly stopped, panting with her hands on her knees: "Tan Yuze, I had a dream last night."
"What dream?"
"I dreamt of the bells of the Sofia Cathedral. At exactly twelve o'clock, all the pigeons took flight."
“Then let’s book tickets for 12 o’clock,” Tan Yuze said breathlessly. “We’ll go listen to the bell on our first day in Harbin.”
"Um."
.
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