Chapter 86
They had started their vacation rather late, so after only a few days at Grandma’s house, the strong festive feeling of the New Year was already everywhere.
Worried that Grandma and Grandpa would tire themselves out, Lin Huaixi took it upon himself to handle all the household chores. Early in the morning, he was already pasting up spring couplets, and he had even changed the curtains to a festive red.
Grandma sat on the sofa with a cup of tea in hand, watching Lin Huaixi and Qi Wang bustling about. Her eyes were full of loving affection, and even the wrinkles on her face seemed to be smiling.
“You two, don’t wear yourselves out. Come over and rest for a bit,” Grandma said, beckoning to them.
Lin Huaixi sat down beside her and, just like when he was little, hugged her arm and acted spoiled. “It’s fine, I’m not tired at all. Grandma, look, how did I do with the couplets?”
“Very well.”
“And do the curtains look nice?”
“They do.”
“Later, after I finish mopping the floor, I’ll go to the station to pick up Mom and Aunt Wen.”
Grandma patted the back of Lin Huaixi’s hand. “I knew our Xixi was the most capable.”
Lin Huaixi did not even pretend to be modest. He let out two smug little hmphs through his nose and accepted the praise.
Qi Wang came out of the kitchen carrying a fruit platter. After placing it between the two of them, he said, “I’ll head outside and see whether Grandpa needs any help.”
Grandma watched Qi Wang’s figure disappear through the doorway and sighed with feeling, “I really do have two hardworking and considerate grandsons.”
They had been neighbors from the start, and because Qi Wang’s family situation was rather special, Grandma had always felt extra heartache for him. She had poured an additional kind of affection into him, almost treating him like another grandson and watching over him as he grew up.
Lin Huaixi had never once been jealous. On the contrary, he had been happy that Qi Wang had one more person who loved him.
But now that the relationship between the two of them had changed, a problem had appeared.
Lin Huaixi had already discussed it with Qi Wang. They were worried the two elders might not be able to take it all at once, so they wanted to do things gradually and wait a while before slowly telling them that they were already together.
Lin Huaixi smiled, just about to answer, when Grandma suddenly turned her head and lowered her voice. “Now that you two are in university, are there people around you who like you?”
Lin Huaixi thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded vaguely. “Yes.”
“Whose admirer?”
Lin Huaixi diverted the trouble elsewhere. “Qi Wang’s.”
Grandma’s speech immediately sped up. “Quick, tell me what kind of person it is.”
Lin Huaixi vaguely tossed out a few descriptive words, and Grandma nodded in approval. “Sounds like a good child too.”
Then she paused and asked, “Do you have a photo?”
Lin Huaixi’s scalp went numb. He was just about to steer the topic away when he suddenly realized something. “Grandma, you just want gossip, don’t you!”
Grandma coughed unnaturally. “I’m only asking out of concern. I won’t interfere in your affairs. As long as it’s sincere love, no matter who you bring home, I’ll support it.”
Lin Huaixi’s eyes lit up. “Grandma, you said that yourself.”
“I did,” Grandma replied, bewildered by his reaction.
Lin Huaixi was itching to say more, but reason stopped him.
Today was New Year’s Eve. Better not set off such a bomb on such a festive day.
He glanced at the clock. “It’s almost time. Grandma, I’m going to the station to pick up Mom and the others first.”
Grandma nodded, still treating him like a child and unable to stop worrying. “Have Qi Wang go with you.”
Without turning back, Lin Huaixi simply waved a hand.
After arriving at the station, they quickly met up with his mother and Aunt Wen, and the group headed back together in warm, lively spirits.
Now that Lin Huaixi had grown up and gone off to study in another city, while his mother and Aunt Wen had to run all over the country for work, they had not had a proper reunion in a very long time. That made this New Year’s Eve feel especially precious.
His mother’s personality had not changed one bit, and even time had treated her kindly. There were almost no wrinkles on her face, and she still looked like the same young woman she used to be.
It felt as though they had returned to the old days once again. Only now, instead of a family of four, they had become a family of six, warmer than before.
The tenderness in Lin Huaixi’s heart was almost overflowing. He was unusually lively the entire evening, fluttering between the kitchen and the living room like a butterfly. Only after dinner did he finally calm down a little and sit on the sofa to rest.
His mother was sitting there, head down and hard at work on her phone. “Oh dear, why are there so many New Year blessing messages to send? Xixi, come help Mom think of a template.”
Lin Huaixi leaned over and racked his brains to come up with a set of blessing phrases, earning unanimous praise from both his mother and Aunt Wen.
“Oh right, do you two need to send New Year messages too?” his mother asked with a smile. “Young people should be more fashionable than us, shouldn’t they?”
The moment she finished speaking, Lin Huaixi’s phone gave a ding. Liu Zhengnian had sent him a New Year greeting, and one look told him it was clearly copied from a template.
Lin Huaixi arched a brow, half amused and half helpless. “Looks like there isn’t really any difference between fashionable and old-fashioned when it comes to this sort of thing.”
Qi Wang had also received a message, and with a smile he handed his phone to Lin Huaixi.
Lin Huaixi only glanced at it casually at first, looking puzzled. But when he saw his own name on it, his eyes immediately widened.
“He forgot to change the name when he sent it to you?!”
Qi Wang said mercilessly, “Maybe he just mass-sent them.”
“…” Careless Liu Zhengnian, but the one dying of embarrassment is me.
After teasing him enough, Qi Wang continued, “I’ll help you ask him.”
[Qi Wang: Xixi is right beside me. I already asked him for you.]
[Liu Zhengnian: Thanks.]
[Liu Zhengnian: Ahhhhhh I used the wrong name!]
[Qi Wang: You didn’t mass-send it, did you?]
[Liu Zhengnian: Of course not. I wrote the blessing texts for both of you myself. I just mixed up the names, that’s all.]
Lin Huaixi took one look and muttered softly, “He wrote it himself and it still sounds even more formulaic than a template.”
He then dutifully typed up a New Year greeting of his own and sent it to Liu Zhengnian, earning praise in return.
[Liu Zhengnian: thumbs-up.jpg]
[Liu Zhengnian: Yours is better than mine.]
Lin Huaixi smiled. “Why does Liu Zhengnian suddenly have the aura of an old cadre?”
“He’d be pretty suited to being a leader,” Qi Wang said with a smile.
Lin Huaixi imagined Liu Zhengnian in his mind, and his expression turned serious.
[Lin Huaixi: If one day you become rich and powerful, don’t forget me.]
[Liu Zhengnian: What does that mean?]
The two of them chatted a bit more. During that time, Lin Huaixi received a flood of greetings and replied to them one by one.
He had always been popular from childhood onward, and he was still in touch with many of his elementary school classmates. His phone kept vibrating nonstop.
His fingers were practically sparking from all the typing, but still, he never got the one message he most wanted.
The one from his best friend.
Lin Huaixi hesitated for a few seconds, then took his phone and stepped outside.
He had always felt guilty toward Sun Baiyi. He had wanted to contact him many times, but he could not give him the answer he wanted and would only end up hurting him again, so he had kept suppressing the impulse. Time had quietly slipped through his fingers, and by now, when he counted it up, they had already gone two whole months without contacting each other.
He knew he was being greedy, but he truly did not want to lose Sun Baiyi as a good friend.
Just as Lin Huaixi’s brows knitted together in conflict, it was as if Sun Baiyi had heard the voice in his heart. He called first.
Staring at the name on the caller display, Lin Huaixi’s pupils tightened, disbelief all over his face. Only after a few seconds did he answer the call.
Sun Baiyi spoke before he could. His voice was as lively as ever. “Xixi, Happy New Year!”
“Happy New Year!”
“I want to come pay you a New Year visit tomorrow morning. Then let’s go walk around the mall in the city center, okay? I heard a lot of interesting new shops just opened.”
Sun Baiyi was energetic and noisy, his volume a little too loud, but Lin Huaixi missed that feeling very much, and the stone that had been weighing on his heart disappeared at last. “Alright. See you tomorrow.”
After hesitating for a few seconds, Sun Baiyi said with great reluctance, “It’d be best not to bring Qi Wang… forget it, he’s your boyfriend now, and there’s no helping that, so bring him along too.”
Lin Huaixi paused, unsure how to respond.
As if Sun Baiyi could guess what he was thinking, he spoke in an easy, carefree tone. “It’s fine. I can pick things up and let them go. Besides, sooner or later I’ll get to wait for you two to break up. When that happens, Xixi, you have to consider me first, okay?”
Lin Huaixi: “…”
At some point Qi Wang had walked over, and he had heard Sun Baiyi’s words too. Leaning close to Lin Huaixi’s ear, he said, “Impossible. We won’t break up.”
“You—!” Instantly, the way the two of them got along returned to how it had always been. Sun Baiyi flared up on the spot. “Tch, fine, then I’ll just outlive you, alright? Once you die before me, what right will you have to control who Xixi gets together with?”
Qi Wang replied expressionlessly, “Impossible. I’ll live longer than you.”
Sun Baiyi shouted, “Your heart is smaller than the eye of a needle, and your personality sucks. Heaven wouldn’t be that unfair as to let you live longer than me!”
Without even blinking, Qi Wang shot back words that nearly drove Sun Baiyi to death. “A scourge lives for a thousand years.”
Sun Baiyi: “…”
He exploded completely, and the amount of “death” in his outburst was shocking.
Lin Huaixi stood to one side with a blank expression. The familiar style of their quarrels made his feelings complicated, yet it also made him want to laugh.
This was great. It had gone back to how it used to be.
He smoothly resumed his role as peacemaker. “It’s New Year’s Eve, so stop saying such unlucky things. Sun Baiyi, have you eaten dumplings yet?”
Sun Baiyi never noticed Lin Huaixi’s painfully stiff attempt at changing the subject. He immediately ignored Qi Wang and began chatting warmly with Lin Huaixi. The two of them talked for a full half hour before finally hanging up.
When Lin Huaixi turned around, the smile had not yet faded from his lips, but the first thing he saw was Qi Wang, standing there with his arms folded, leaning against the wall, his gaze dark.
“…” Oh no. Don’t tell me he’s jealous again.
Lin Huaixi’s heart trembled. He immediately went over, hooked his arm around Qi Wang’s, and began coaxing him.
“That’s just how Sun Baiyi is—like a child. If I didn’t talk to him a bit longer, he would have kept pestering you again.”
Qi Wang did not speak, only lowered his eyes to look at him.
Lin Huaixi knew every one of Qi Wang’s expressions far too well. His tongue turned dry, and his Adam’s apple bobbed.
Since he obviously could not escape this, he decided to strike first.
After glancing around and making sure no one was nearby, he rose onto his toes and gave Qi Wang a quick kiss on his own initiative.
“We have to get up at six tomorrow morning, and there’ll be no chance of going back to sleep, so tonight you absolutely mustn’t…”
Seeing Lin Huaixi’s nervous, half-swallowed look, Qi Wang felt his heart itch even if he had no such thought to begin with. On purpose, he teased him. “Absolutely mustn’t what?”
Lin Huaixi’s ears turned red. He let out two little hmphs through his nose, then, catching Qi Wang off guard, pinched his cheek hard.
These days, how had Qi Wang’s shamelessness gotten thicker and thicker? He could say anything and do anything!
Qi Wang looked as though the pinch had stunned him silly. He stared at Lin Huaixi blankly and even forgot to blink.
Lin Huaixi had only been fooled by Qi Wang at first because he had not correctly understood reality yet. But after a few days, he had seen right through him.
With his arms crossed, he narrowed his eyes at Qi Wang and gave him a smile that was all skin and no warmth. “Don’t try that with me. My bed’s already been set up in my room. If you’re not careful, I’ll stay at Grandma’s house this whole time and move back into the dorm once school starts again.”
Qi Wang: “… I won’t do it again. I promise.”
At last Lin Huaixi had the upper hand. He lifted his chin, laughing triumphantly in silence, but after looking at him for a few moments, Qi Wang suddenly reached out and ruffled the top of his hair twice.
Lin Huaixi froze on the spot, as though someone had pressed pause on him. “What are you doing?”
Just now Lin Huaixi had looked like a little fox full of self-satisfaction. Two locks of hair had been sticking up from his head like tiny ears, except one was crooked, so Qi Wang had adjusted it for him.
“Nothing,” Qi Wang said, glancing out the window before pausing. “There’s a place I want to go. Will you come with me?”
…
Grandma and Grandpa had wanted to stay up for the New Year too, but their bodies could not take it, so they had already gone back to bed. His mother had wanted to keep the party going, but this was her only holiday, and her body had long been overworked, so she had gone to rest even earlier than Grandma. Grandma had been terribly worried and kept muttering about making soup to nourish them.
As midnight approached, the only people in the house still awake were Lin Huaixi and Qi Wang. Very quietly, they put on thick coats and slipped outside without waking anyone.
Every household had its lights on, all of them warm and merry as they rang in the New Year. And yet the street itself was completely empty, with only the pale moonlight falling over it, though there was not a trace of loneliness.
Hand in hand, Lin Huaixi and Qi Wang passed through one alley after another until they finally reached their secret base.
The little park was deserted. Pointing at the white tower shrouded in darkness, Lin Huaixi said with a smile, “I remember when we were little, you loved sitting at that window most, looking at the scenery and drawing. Every time I wanted to go find you, you wouldn’t let me, saying it wasn’t safe. But when you sat there, that was safe?”
Qi Wang could sense that Lin Huaixi was out to settle old scores, and immediately raised a hand in surrender. “I was ignorant when I was little. I won’t do that again.”
His punch landed on cotton, and Lin Huaixi merely hmph’d twice before letting him off lightly.
As they had grown up, this park had become more and more remote and desolate. Hardly anyone ever wanted to come here anymore, but to Lin Huaixi, it held countless warm memories, and every corner felt tender.
He breathed in the cool night air, then turned and asked, “Why did you bring me here?”
Qi Wang smiled. “Do you remember when Auntie once brought us here to bury a time capsule?”
Lin Huaixi froze, falling straight into the cracks of time as though he had gone back to that day so many years ago. Every scene was vivid and lifelike, so close that he could almost reach out and touch it.
Turning toward the leafless tree, he spoke like he was catching up with an old friend. After standing there quietly for a full minute, he went around to the back. “I remember we buried it right here.”
Qi Wang nodded. He had already brought tools with him. The two of them, as if they had returned to childhood, dug away laboriously until a glint of metal appeared inside the earth.
Lin Huaixi exclaimed excitedly, “Found it!”
With a smile, Qi Wang brushed away the dirt and took out the metal box.
Then a sudden idea struck Lin Huaixi. “How about we read each other’s wishes first, and only after that exchange them?”
Qi Wang always let him have his way, so he nodded immediately.
Eagerly, Lin Huaixi pulled out the time capsule Qi Wang had written and unfolded the slip of paper inside.
The little Qi Wang from back then was unbearably cute. His handwriting was still crooked and clumsy, yet he had not used a single pinyin character:
I hope Xixi will be happy every day and stay with me forever.
Lin Huaixi had thought the wish would be something about future ideals, some grand vision of life ahead. He had never expected that from childhood onward, Qi Wang’s vision of the future had already included him.
A heartstring was plucked. Lin Huaixi’s nose turned sore. His body reacted before his mind did—he flung his arms around Qi Wang’s neck and hung onto him.
Startled by the sudden movement, Qi Wang instantly wrapped an arm around his waist, afraid he might fall. “What’s wrong?”
Lin Huaixi rubbed his face into Qi Wang’s neck. “Nothing. Is it almost the New Year?”
Holding him with one arm, Qi Wang lifted the other to check his watch. “Seven seconds left.”
Some faraway countdown seemed to drift from the horizon. There were childish voices, the spirited confidence of youth, the calm warmth of middle age, and the quiet acceptance of the elderly—all of them blending together into the warmest sound in the world.
The next second, a brilliant firework exploded in the sky, lighting up both of their eyes with scattered starlight.
Lin Huaixi gazed at Qi Wang with a smile and said softly, “Happy New Year. May all your wishes come true.”
I will always be happy, and I will always stay by your side.
[THE END]
