FQ chapter 51

From Xuehu Village, it’s an hour’s drive on the highway. After passing through a town and driving along a winding mountain road for over an hour, you’ll reach Fan Qing’s home.

Mountains surround all sides. The slopes are layered with corn and pomegranates. The steeper areas are forested. Only the village area is flat. Fan Qing’s two-story house was built ten years ago—not large, but kept spotless by his grandmother.

For the first two days back, his grandmother dragged him around to visit relatives, carrying milk and bread—seven aunts, eight great-aunts—house by house. Then they visited his parents’ grave. His college admission notice had been placed on the shrine in the main hall since he returned, and they even killed a rooster for good luck.

Once that whole process ended, he finally had a couple days to himself.

After dinner, Fan Qing washed the car, took a shower, changed clothes, and brought out a small stool to sit under the grape arbor in the courtyard.

About a third of the grapes had ripened. Since they’d grown too thick, his uncle had built the arbor last year. Night had fallen. The cool breeze made it perfect for sitting outside.

Aside from Fan Qing, the family’s yellow-and-white cat also lounged under the arbor.

The kitten lay belly-up, half-asleep. Fan Qing petted it twice. The cat, probably annoyed, rolled over a couple times but couldn’t be bothered to move.

Fan Qing thought it resembled someone he knew, always too lazy to get up. He took a picture and sent it to Luan Ye.

A moment later, Luan Ye replied: [The family cat?]

Fan Qing: [Yeah, my grandma’s.]

Luan Ye: [Pretty cute. What’s its name?]

Fan Qing: [Cat.]

Luan Ye sent a question mark, followed by a voice message. Fan Qing played it and heard the amusement he couldn’t hide.

“Your cat is literally called Cat?”

Fan Qing laughed and replied: [My grandma doesn’t like giving names to pets. The cat is just ‘Cat.’ The dog is ‘Dog.’]

Fan Qing: [When it goes wandering outside and she wants it home for dinner, she just shouts at the door. It understands.]

Luan Ye: [She shouts ‘Cat’?]

Fan Qing: [Yep.]

Luan Ye imagined the scene and laughed for a while before replying: [Saves effort, I guess.]

Fan Qing asked: [Still editing the photos?]

Luan Ye: [I sent them to Li Hongkuo yesterday. Now I’m working on the video.]

Lighting a cigarette, Luan Ye tossed the lighter onto the coffee table. Staring at the computer too long had strained his eyes. He closed them and gently pressed his eyelids. The phone buzzed again. He glanced at it.

Fan Qing: [You didn’t go out all day today, did you?]

Luan Ye laughed before replying: [Nailed it.]

Qiao Feibai’s parents had arrived yesterday and were staying downstairs. Polite and scholarly—clearly intellectual types. They’d all had dinner together the first night. Today, there’d been people coming and going downstairs. Seemed like Qiao Feibai’s mom was helping him clean and do laundry. Luan Ye overheard her scolding him for not keeping tidy, while Qiao Feibai whined back.

Luan Ye hadn’t gone downstairs.

Partly because he didn’t know how to act around such adults, and partly because it reminded him of Luan Ping.

When his mental state was better, he had visited her twice.

At 7:30 AM, she would drive out of her complex, stop for a minute to grab breakfast, and then head to the factory.

Luan Ye watched from a distance, never saying hi.

He was afraid she’d ask how he’d been, about that relationship he’d refused to give up on, or about the scars on his wrists.

But now, Fan Qing’s words from that night kept echoing in his mind.

Buy the ticket, go home, knock, call out a greeting… it really did sound simple.

Fan Qing messaged again, snapping him out of his thoughts: [Have you eaten?]

He was so thorough that Luan Ye just called him.

The phone barely rang once before it was picked up. After connecting, Luan Ye said, “Yeah, Granny Mu brought it up for me.”

Fan Qing didn’t expect the call and sounded cheerful: “Did she ask why you didn’t come down?”

“Nope. She’s so sweet to me,” Luan Ye said. “Even added an egg to my noodles.”

“You should go out for a bit,” Fan Qing laughed. “If not in the morning, then sneak out at night when there’s fewer people…”

“Scouting the area, huh?” Luan Ye joked.

“…No,” Fan Qing chuckled. “But you should walk around a bit. You’ve been working, eating, and sleeping all in that room.”

“Four-in-one,” Luan Ye added. “Gotta squeeze in time to think about you too.”

Fan Qing went quiet. After a long pause, Luan Ye finally heard him speak.

“Oh.” His voice was slightly tight. “How much time do you spend thinking about me?”

“All the time I’m not doing the other three things,” Luan Ye said with a grin. “Satisfied?”

He couldn’t see Fan Qing’s face, but judging by the silence, he figured he was blushing.

Probably expressionless on the outside, but with ears red and earlobes burning…

“I feel the same,” Fan Qing suddenly said.

“I also… miss you quite a bit.”

His voice was soft, mingling with the night breeze—it sounded gentle. Luan Ye leaned back on the chair, gazing upward, and suddenly didn’t feel as annoyed.

“If you miss me that much, want to video call?” Luan Ye asked.

A few seconds later, Fan Qing initiated the video call.

The network in the mountains wasn’t great, and since it was nighttime, even though there was a light on under the eaves, the video was still a little blurry.

But Fan Qing still looked quite good on camera.

They looked at each other for a few seconds before Fan Qing asked, “Don’t you think this is a bit silly?”

Luan Ye raised an eyebrow.

“Can’t really do anything through the screen,” Fan Qing said. “Just staring at each other like this…”

“You’re awkward,” Luan Ye laughed.

“A little,” Fan Qing chuckled too. “Every time I face the camera, I don’t really know what to do.”

There were a lot of things one could do on video.

Fan Qing was wearing a tank top and shorts—he looked like he’d already showered. The corners of Luan Ye’s mouth lifted slightly, and he was just about to tease him—

“Want me to show you the cat?” Fan Qing suddenly said.

Caught off guard, Luan Ye replied, “Huh?”

Fan Qing flipped the camera, pointing it at a small kitten lying on the concrete floor, bringing it closer. “She’s asleep. Snoring. Can you hear it?”

Luan Ye froze for a moment, then leaned in closer to listen to the kitten’s snores.

After a few seconds, he nodded. “I can.”

The kitten was completely unaware, deep asleep. Fan Qing recorded it for a bit, then moved the camera to show the grape trellis behind him.

“My grandma planted these grapes. I don’t know what variety they are—small, but pretty sweet. I’ll bring some back for you.”

Luan Ye looked at the bunches of grapes silhouetted in the blurry night, and softly replied, “Okay.”

“Behind the grape trellis is where we live.” Fan Qing began walking upstairs with the phone in hand.

“My room’s on the second floor. No bathroom—gotta go downstairs to shower… but the room’s pretty big.”

Fan Qing opened the door and turned on the light. The sudden brightness made Luan Ye squint for a second before he could see clearly. The room was simply furnished, but very clean.

“You’ve lived here since you were a kid?” Luan Ye asked.

“Yeah, since primary school.”

Fan Qing rotated the phone to show him his bed, closet, bookshelf, desk, and window.

“Usually I do homework here. If I close the window and wear headphones, it’s really quiet. If not, across from the window is the neighbor’s chicken coop…”

Fan Qing paused. “They start crowing at 5:30 every morning. More punctual than my alarm.”

Luan Ye laughed so hard he almost slid off his chair.

“It’s pretty quiet at night,” Fan Qing smiled and flopped onto the bed, turning the camera back toward himself.

“Just the sound of crickets.”

Luan Ye listened quietly for a while. He could vaguely hear the faint chirping, one after another.

Suddenly, he felt a little sleepy too. He mimicked Fan Qing and lay down, placing the phone to the side.

“Back then, we used to go out and catch crickets and grasshoppers at this time,” Fan Qing continued.

“We’d take an old shirt, tie off the sleeves, and use it to catch grasshoppers. At night, they mostly rest on corn leaves. You just reach out and you can grab one. Then you tear off the wings and toss them into the shirt. In one night, you could catch half a sleeve full. We’d bring them back and deep-fry them. That doesn’t happen anymore…”

His voice grew softer and softer, until he heard Luan Ye’s breathing on the other end become steady and even.

Fan Qing listened for a long while, then confirmed he was asleep and finally hung up the call.

…..

The photos had no real issues, but the video had taken Luan Ye several days to complete. After finishing it, he sent it to Xu Song for feedback.

Xu Song replied with two thumbs up.

Xu Song: [I think it’s great. You’re really suited for photography.]

Luan Ye, after checking everything, sent the file to Li Hongkuo, then circled back to reply to Xu Song: [Don’t butter me up.]

Xu Song: [I’m being serious.]

Xu Song: [But why have you been filming all this countryside stuff lately? Next time I see you, will it be on some rural development program?]

Luan Ye: [Get lost.]

He laughed for a good while before replying: [I’m leaving in a bit.]

Xu Song: [What about your boyfriend?]

Luan Ye: [He’s going to school in Nanjing.]

Xu Song saw the name of the university and sent two more thumbs up: [Nice. A real academic type.]

Xu Song: [You’re not leaving next week, right? Xiao Zhao and I are traveling through Yunnan—pre-wedding trip. We’ll stop by to see you.]

Luan Ye replied: [I’ll be here.]

Xu Song: [Perfect. It’s been too long. I kind of miss you. We’ll visit for a few days and finally meet this boyfriend of yours. Xiao Zhao and I have been curious for days—what kind of person could make our great photographer settle down in the countryside?]

Luan Ye laughed for a long time before replying: [Be gentle when you look. Don’t scare the kid.]

Xu Song: [Don’t worry. If he were that timid, he wouldn’t have pursued you.]

True.

Fan Qing’s confessions back then had been pretty outrageous.

The two of them chatted about everything and nothing before ending the conversation. Luan Ye tossed the phone on the desk, then sat cross-legged under the window, closing his eyes and relaxing.

The weather was nice that day, so Luan Ye opened all the windows to let the breeze in. It was quiet downstairs. Qiao Feibai had probably taken his parents to visit the snow-capped mountains.

The wind and sunlight fell on him together—it felt really pleasant, like he’d been washed clean from the inside out.

When Xu Song arrived, Fan Qing had also returned, and they went hiking in the mountains together. It was a chance to meet and get to know each other.

Back when he first met Xu Song, the guy didn’t know Meng Zhao, was half a commitment-phobe, and floated through the entertainment industry untouched. Now they were going on a pre-wedding trip.

When Luan Ye first came to Xuehu Village, he hadn’t known Fan Qing. Now he was introducing him to friends.

Suddenly, it hit him—time was really passing.

Luan Ye smiled faintly and exhaled deeply.

The phone on his desk vibrated twice. He took a step back, picked it up, and glanced at the screen—it was a new email notification.

He opened it out of habit. At the top, it said:

Sender: Bai Mingcheng.

The sunlight on his body turned ice cold. A chill shot from his heart through his whole body, freezing every drop of blood in his veins.

It took an unknown amount of time before Luan Ye opened the email.

It was very short, just a few lines:

[Since I couldn’t reach you any other way, I had to use Xiao Cheng’s email.

September is Xiao Cheng’s death anniversary.

Mother hasn’t been well and can’t visit the grave.

We’re asking if you can return to the U.S. to pay respects.

Please reply as soon as possible.

—Bai Mingchuan]